#because they end up serving the purpose of the moment rather than the whole

[elkian]

A couple of years ago, I remember wandering around the house while my dad was watching some cop show (actually might have been a psychologist protag but for the purposes: cop show). And I didn't know the series and didn't see the whole episode, but I caught myself predicting twists as they happened.

And just from watching some 40-ish minutes while doing other stuff, I came to realize that the episode didn't make any damn sense, because the motivations of the characters had been dropped in order to facilitate the next twist. The ultimate villain had little to no motivation for what they did while the first implicated person did. And yes, it's possible to write a twisty-turny episode with an unexpected villain... but it takes more effort than that. The entire episode was shock value with commercial breaks.

Anyways I think it was something of an important lesson on making sure motivational throughlines exist in writing. It's okay for people to be able to predict the outcome if the story is written coherently! And it's also okay for it to be unpredictable as long as that's done in a way that actually works! That makes for great rewatch/read/play value, where you can see the foreshadowing! But this episode would be absolutely incomprehensible on rewatch because there's no reason for the villain to be the villain except the need to shock the audience. Maybe that could work in a comedy, but not in something that took itself so seriously.

[deadpresidents]

On the cliffs of Normandy, in a small holding area, the President of the United States was looking out at the English Channel. It was only six weeks ago, on the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, and President Biden had just finished his remarks at the American cemetery atop Omaha Beach. Guests had been congratulating him on the speech, but he didn't want to talk about himself. The moment was not about him; it was about the men who had fought and died there. "Today feels so large," he told me. "This may sound strange -- and I don't mean it to -- but when I was out there, I felt the honor of it, the sanctity of it. To speak for the American people, to speak over those graves, it's a profound thing." He turned from the view over the beaches and gestured back toward the war dead. "You want to do right by them, by the country."

Mr. Biden has spent a lifetime trying to do right by the nation, and he did so in the most epic of ways when he chose to end his campaign for re-election. His decision is one of the most remarkable acts of leadership in our history, an act of self-sacrifice that places him in the company of George Washington who also stepped away from the presidency. To put something ahead of one's immediate desires -- to give, rather than to try to take -- is perhaps the most difficult thing for any human being to do. And Mr. Biden has done just that.

To be clear: Mr. Biden is my friend, and it has been a privilege to help him when I can. Not because I am a Democrat -- I belong to neither party and have voted for both Democrats and Republicans -- but because I believe him to be a defender of the Constitution and a public servant of honor and of grace at a time when extreme forces threaten the nation. I do not agree with everything he has done or wanted to do in terms of policy. But I know him to be a good man, a patriot and a president who has met challenges all too similar to those Abraham Lincoln faced. Here is the story I believe history will tell of Joe Biden. With American democracy in an hour of maximum danger in Donald Trump's presidency, Mr. Biden stepped in the breach. He staved off an authoritarian threat at home, rallied the world against autocrats abroad, laid the foundations for decades of prosperity, managed the end of a once-in-a-century pandemic, successfully legislated on vital issues of climate and infrastructure and has conducted a presidency worthy of the greatest of his predecessors. History and fate brought him to the pinnacle in a late season in his life, and in the end, he respected fate -- and he respected the American people.

It is, of course, an incredibly difficult moment. Highs and lows, victories and defeats, joy and pain: It has been ever thus for Mr. Biden. In the distant autumn of 1972, he experienced the most exhilarating of hours -- election to the United States Senate at the age of 29. He was no scion; he earned it. The darkness fell: His wife and daughter were killed in an automobile accident that seriously injured his two sons, Beau and Hunter. But he endured, found purpose in the pain, became deeper, wiser, more empathetic. Through the decades, two presidential campaigns imploded, and in 2015 his son Beau, a lawyer and wonderfully promising young political figure, died of brain cancer after serving in Iraq.

Such tragedy would have broken many lesser men. Mr. Biden, however, never gave up, never gave in, never surrendered the hope that a fallen, frail and fallible world could be made better, stronger and more whole if people could summon just enough goodness and enough courage to build rather than tear down. Character, as the Greeks first taught us, is destiny, and Mr. Biden's character is both a mirror and a maker of his nation's. Like Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, he is optimistic, resilient and kind, a steward of American greatness, a love of the great game of politics and, at heart, a hopeless romantic about the country that has given him so much.

Nothing bears out this point as well as his decision to let history happen in the 2024 election. Not matter how much people say that this was inevitable after the debate in Atlanta last month, there was nothing foreordained about an American President ending his political career for the sake of his country and his party. By surrendering the possibility of enduring in the seat of ultimate power, Mr. Biden has taught us a landmark lesson in patriotism, humility and wisdom.

Now the question comes to the rest of us. What will we the people do? We face the most significant of choices. Mr. Roosevelt framed the war whose dead Mr. Biden commemorated at Normandy in June as a battle between democracy and dictatorship. It is not too much to say that we, too, have what Mr. Roosevelt called a "rendezvous with destiny" at home and abroad. Mr. Biden has put country above self, the Constitution above personal ambition, the future of democracy above temporal gain. It is up to us to follow his lead.

-- "Joe Biden, My Friend and an American Hero" by Jon Meacham, New York Times, July 22, 2024.

[leo-fie]

I'm currently beginning my surely lifelong obsession with Terry Pratchett novels, two novels in, halfway through a third. All bangers.

So here's an observation that's probably not new to anyone:

Pratchett is a damn good writer very in conversation with tropes of the genres and his audience. He's ironic without being irony-poisoned.

Example: Monsterous Regiment. Amazing book, enjoyed every second of it. No fat on this one. The story and especially the characters move so fast that I often had to go back an read a page again to follow the train of thought. Pratchett doesn't spend a lot of time explaining how Character A came to Conclusion B, but he leaves enough bits of information that he can lead the reader to the conclusion exactly the moment he wants to. He has to have an extremely good grasp of how people read novels to pull this off. It worked on me and I'm not that attuned to his style yet.

I noticed that Pratchett uses a lot of ironic humour, but it feels different than the irony-poisoning that so plagued the 2000s and 2010s. Nowadays mainstream media has come back around to sincerity a bit, which is great, but Pratchett does both. How? For him, the irony is the starting point.

Monsterous Regiment has a girl disguising herself as a boy to join the military. She does this literally the moment we meet her. No preamble. The usual shenanigans one expects from this type of story are handled soon and serve additional purposes, like introducing the motive of the socks and the mystery of who gave them to Polly. Or the recurring bit about shaving that also does characterisation for Jackrum and Blouse. Etc. The actual plot is about the war. And where a lesser story might have have the climax be the reveal of the protagonist's actual sex, Pratchett does a bunch of interesting things in his climax, including the reveal, but he also ties it in with a dozen other plot threads into an amazing, complicated, messy scene of people talking.

And then again, because he knows where the audience is at, the last two reveals (Paul’s whereabouts and Maladikta) are handled rather quickly, but still appropriately. And for good measure, here’s a bit about Jackrum, in case you were thinking of reading the ending even a little bit less closely.

But Pratchett has been doing this since the beginning. Guards! Guards! Starts with a meeting of a secret society, and quite a lot of fun is made of the silly code phrases and dramatics, which are half the point of a secret society, and about the type of guy who would join. But it’s the beginning of the book, literally the set up. The irony is the starting point.

But it’s not like the ironic bits and the actual story are separated. Rather they work in tandem. In Monsterous Regiment there is so much gender going on, and it is very funny, and it explains the inherently performative nature of gender rather succinctly, but it’s also the cause of the war the brutality of which is present the whole time. It’s socks all the way down.

Also: Pratchett manages to say so much with so little words. The brutality of war stated with nothing but a bunch of guys on the road and a count of their limbs. Holy shit!

Yeah, I get why Pratchett is held in such high esteem. And I’m only reading translations.

[aangarchy]

Netflix atla live action review ep 4-6

So, they completely ruined Bumi. Spoiler warning.

The more episodes pass by the more confused i get with the choices that were made. I wrote down commentary for the episodes and the thing that i wrote down the most was "why does this happen?". The writing is incredibly confusing and messy, feels too rushed in some spaces and too slow in others. There's just... so much going on and so little at the same time. They brought in elements that in the OG don't get introduced until later in s1, s2, the comics, or even the legend of Korra. The reason these things get introduced so early here is not clear at all, because they don't serve any purpose other than to be an obstacle to Aang, Sokka and Katara on their way to the North.

Mai and Ty Lee are.. there. They get introduced earlier but they don't serve any purpose at the moment other than stand around, watch Azula train, ask questions so that Azula can give us the answers the viewer needs. My guess is they only got introduced for the audience who watched the OG to go "oh we know them!". We get the secret tunnel story earlier too, but it has absolutely nothing to do with love. Somehow "love is brightest in the dark" now correlates to the badgermoles being able to sense a human's emotion. It's a waste of a storyline, doesn't teach us anything about love, gives us Omashu lore which is useless bc neither Sokka nor Katara actually use love to escape the tunnels. Also Oma and Shu are lesbians now, but you only know that bc they changed Shu's pronouns. Wow, so progressive! We have lesbians in the story now! Boy do i feel represented as a sapphic!

We get Koh early on as well, but his entire gig got changed. Now suddenly he doesn't steal faces but he "feeds", and hunts using the fog of lost souls (which is tlok lore mind you) as a tool to trap humans. We introduce the mother of faces (comic book lore!), or rather pendant of her that Koh owns. There's no reason for her to exist in this story though other than to be an easter egg to everyone who read the search (Not even the majority of the fandom!) and to offer a solution to this problem we've created, which is Koh capturing our friends in order to eat them and us not being able to convince him into letting them go. There's no feeling of dread in the Koh scenes at all because the whole problem of not showing emotion is just not a thing now. No suspense, no fear, just a weird cgi clown face worm. The worm doesn't even menacingly circle around Aang to invoke a feeling of being surrounded, it just sits there. I also just don't understand why Koh is here already bc now who is going to give us information about Tui and La?

This decision also creates a problem that Hei Bai's story just isn't about Hei Bai anymore. We get fed a few lines from a talking fox about how the forest spirit got hurt, but there's really no solution? Aang buries a pinecone in front of the statue and tells him not to give up hope but he didn't even really need to do that, because Hei Bai wasn't the one kidnapping villagers! It was Koh. Why did we appease Hei Bai if Koh was the real villain? Hei Bai/Koh's story leads us to Roku, but Roku is completely useless. All he does is undermine Kyoshi's advice to Aang, tell Aang about the mother of faces pendant so he can appease Koh, and then we leave. I knew in advance Roku wasn't going to warn Aang about the comet here bc Albert Kim already told us working with a deadline like that with child actors is just impossible. But with Roku suddenly not being Aang's main Avatar guide he just gets nothing to do. There's no suspense in this part of the story either, bc the time limit of the winter solstice isn't a thing here at all. Aang also ends up flying over Fire Nation borders without issue, and gets led right into the sanctuary without the puzzle of figuring out how to open the door, and without the problem of Zhao's soldiers waiting for him when he comes out. It creates this issue of there not being any excitement, at least for me. I genuinely am getting a bit bored with the show, which was never an issue with the OG for me. There's a reason all of this extra material didn't get introduced until later on. There's too many characters and they all get too little time to really do anything useful, they're not fleshed out, the stories aren't thought through and it ends up getting very confusing and boring. I'm genuinely curious for the perspective of people who have never watched the OG cartoon, bc i wonder if they're even able to follow along without prior knowledge of this universe.

Bumi is just... not Bumi. They completely changed his character to be this bitter old senile man that resents Aang for abandoning the world. This doesn't make any sense because in this version of the story Bumi shouldn't know that Aang is the Avatar at all, because Aang was told right before he disappeared! So why does Bumi immediately know that Aang is the Avatar, and why does Aang immediately recognize him? Also the original point of Bumi's tests is to get Aang to approach fights and puzzles from a different angle, so he can learn versatility as the Avatar. But here the tests are just happening because Bumi is mad at Aang for leaving and wants to get back at him for being gone so long. He says some lines about Aang having to learn to make hard choices and you can't rely on your friends, but Aang ends up proving him wrong in the end! What is even the point of Bumi's part in the story now, except for him just being another obstacle on the way to the North Pole?

There's a lot of instances where I feel like the bond between characters gets completely lost. We barely spend any time with the side characters like the mechanist, Teo, Jet and the freedom fighters, and the people in the spirit village. It makes some scenes feel very out of place. These storylines all happen at once, and they don't get their individual moments to shine. We have no room to feel betrayed by Jet or Sai, because we barely got to know them to begin with. Jet and Sai only spend time with One member of the gaang each, but when their betrayals come to light the rest of the group acts devastated, as if it was their dear friend. Sokka also gets really mad about the Jet thing, but he only met Jet once when he smuggled them into Omashu, and Jet didn't even tell Sokka his name. He said it afterwards when Katara met him again. It makes absolutely no sense why Sokka is yelling at Katara for trusting Jet only bc she finds him attractive, when Sokka wasn't even there during all of that!

The sense of family between the gaang that we get from the original also just doesn't happen here. Especially because these characters so far have spent more time apart than together. Aang constantly gets separated from Sokka and Katara, leaving no room for them to bond. We get Katara and Sokka bonding, but they shouldn't need those types of scenes because they're already siblings (which isn't very clear in the show either btw!). I ended up forgetting that Sokka and Katara were trapped by Koh, bc we spend so much time away from them (a whole episode, which is now an hour!).

I have little to no criticism for the Blue Spirit story. Want to guess why that is? Bc they left it pretty much untouched. We even get a little bit of an extra scene, with Zuko and Aang talking while Zuko recovers after getting hurt during the escape. I liked this choice, especially bc it highlights how conflicted Zuko is.

This is where we get Zuko's backstory. I have one question here: why did they make Ozai more sensible and less ruthless? Was that a Daniel Dae Kim decision? Bc it feels like a Daniel Dae Kim thing to do. They're very on the nose with the way Ozai is abusing Zuko and Azula, but then they turn around and make this man visit Zuko after he burned him and praise Zuko about finding the Avatar. I understand that they did this to show how Ozai uses Zuko's accomplishments in order to push Azula, but even if it were to do that: the original Ozai would NEVER. The problem here as well is that they don't let the viewers draw any conclusions themselves anymore. They're holding the viewer's hand through the whole thing, leaving no room for nuance or doubt.

I just finished episode 7 and 8 and I have Things To Say. None of which are good. Writing it down is challenging so it might take a day or two.

[mesothulass]

dont even get me started on madi. she's all in on this war business because it'll give her people a home and free the slaves on nassau and its just so interesting how unexpected her every action is??? for me at least, i keep expecting her to go the emotions route like everyone else does and each time she's like here's what i'm actually going to do. and it's always something entirely reasonable for her to do in that situation. anyway i wrote like half an essay on this so here's a read more lmao

like with the crewmate that fought with one of her men, when silver gives her the knife, me :handshake: silver, she's absolutely killing that man. and instead she chooses to free her man and give him an excuse to keep the peace.

or with the urca gold situation, even though that's what the whole conflict has been about this entire time, she makes the decision based on the end goal of peace on the island that the best course of action is to give up the gold entirely

like it's so interesting to me that most if not all the characters on this show are pretty self serving, if that makes sense. like flint's doing all this because of thomas and miranda, but the pirates of nassau are a tool to work around rather than an actual motivation. or for billy, who becomes the driving force behind the long john silver legend, but who allows himself to get distracted constantly by the threat of flint even to the detriment of his cause. or eleanor, whose primary motivation seems to be protecting what she has at all costs and freeing herself from the constraints of being a woman in a man's world. or max, who wants the comfort and safety and respect that comes from the power that the white people around her have and is repeatedly denied that (even in places where eleanor had succeeded before her).

so it's really cool in comparison to that to see someone who (at least by s04e05) says she's doing this for her people and then follows thru on that at every opportunity

and that's not to say that she's like logical all the time or doesn't feel any emotions, i think her empathy is also a big part of her motivations. like it's one thing to be raised to protect something and another to fully believe in that purpose, y'know?? she was genuinely upset about her man getting attacked, she's genuinely upset about the slaves getting tortured, she's genuinely upset about hurting silver, so on and so forth

it's just that the thing that keeps surprising me i think is that her kindness is borne from her knowing that she needs to do what's right for her people as opposed to her doing what she can to further a cause. yes, let's remove england from nassau, let's free the slaves, let's give up this gold, but none of it is shortsighted. she's not looking to survive this moment or prove a point, like silver or eleanor or billy or whoever else. her end goal is to save as many of her people as possible and give them a safe home to live and thrive in

[cactusjuiceisquenchy]

I really like that blue lock is a series that doesn’t allow it’s players to get comfortable in a supporting role. With a sport like this, we naturally come across quite a few duos, and they tend to be composed of a dominant striker and a support position passer who believes wholeheartedly in the other’s goal making ability. spoilers ahead

We see this with reo and Nagi, and Kaiser and ness and recently with isagi and hiori.

And to a certain extent, it works. These strikers need someone who can keep up with them and bring their goals into fruition. This is one way the striker can get stronger. We even see Julian from France actively working to create this partner for himself in the latest match.

But blue lock is making a point to show that the type of ego that is focused on another is not the best path forward for either player. This is first shown in nagi and reo. They have to break up to become stronger. I watched some videos and read some stuff online and the consensus seemed to be that reo gave in a bit too easily. It would have been better if he continued on his path without nagi. And the awesome bait and switch is that the narrative AGREES. The signs are all pointing to a breakup part 2. I think having them working together again served two purposes. It reaffirmed their relationship and shared goal. And it proved that they aren’t ready to work together again yet. Reo’s ego CANNOT be nagi or they will not make it to the world stage. This is really smart because it sets up their shared goal to be playing together again in the future to win the World Cup. They cannot evolve if they are codependent.

The same goes for Kaiser and ness. Each was using the other as a crutch. For Kaiser, ness allowed him to defend his throne and for ness, Kaiser became his whole reason for playing. We’ve seen this story before. In Order to grow and evolve, the duo has to split and Kaiser leaves ness to continue chasing his evolution. I think he knew on some level he was also holding ness back. Im hoping we get to see ness evolve during this match or the future in a world without Kaiser.

Finally— hiori. Now this one is actually special because unlike the others, hiori’s ego isn’t actually isagi, rather it is to develop the worlds greatest striker. Isagi just so happens to fit the bill at the moment. The play style and position is close to reo and ness but the intrinsic motivation is a bit more self centered than theirs. I think this is probably more aligned with the narrative’s ideal version for this role. It’s also very similar to Charles who has a selfish play style despite being a primary passer(idk the right term for this position sorry). That said, we have to wait and see if it ends up working out for him.

Long story short, if you want to pass, be someone who chooses where to pass, not who to pass to.

If you want to strike, be able to do it with your own power, not reliant on someone giving you the ball.

That way once the ultimate chemical reaction occurs, it becomes truly spectacular.

Thank you for coming to my TedTalk.

[alcrox]

Did Yu Ziyuan intend to cut off Wei Wuxian's arm?

I have seen this brought up a few times.

There are generally two arguments: yes, she totally intended to do that and only changed her mind when she was told that Lotus Pier would be converted into a "Wen Supervisory Office" AND no, she was just buying time by beating up Wei Wuxian and appeasing Wang Lingjiao.

I think it's a bit of both?

She didn't (and wouldn't) hesitate to beat up Wei Wuxian. This is the first scene we see her physically abuse Wei Wuxian (before this we only hear her verbally abuse... well, everyone) but it is made very clear that Wei Wuxian is quite used to this sort of treatment. Cutting off an arm, however, is very different. It would maim WWX for life. It isn't something that, even WWX with his strong golden core, would be able to just heal from easily. He would have to find a whole new way to get around his disability.

It's not as if YZY would hesitate to cut off WWX's arm from a place of concern or affection. Hell no. She is extremely sharp and intelligent, though. She has seen WWX grow up, she has seen his talents first-hand. She knows just how much of an asset WWX is to the Yunmeng Jiang. And she knew that this day was coming. The day when the Qishan Wen came to her doorstep and tried to take over Lotus Pier. She might blame WWX for it (because she too, like Wen Chao, just needs an excuse to blame WWX, though hers comes from a place of being blinded by hatred rather than planning a seize) but she is well aware that one way or another, this was happening. That much was clear in episode 11 when she is spitting mad that Jiang Cheng has to go to the Wen Indoctrination Camp. She knows what the Wens are doing and she is not surprised when the final showdown finally happens.

So, it's a bit of both. She was buying time, but she was also, maybe, hoping that punishing WWX in front of WLJ would be enough. When WLJ mentions cutting off WWX'S right arm, however, she visibly hesitates. (Or rather, considers.) She knows what cutting off WWX's arm means; it means to rid her Clan of a powerful asset. WWX may still be able to fight with his left arm (as he has clearly made up his mind to do so) but right after his arm is cut off, he would be of no use in a fight. And YZY already knows from that point onwards, there are only two options. One, she and JC and WWX and the Jiang army fight off the Wens and risk losing their lives, including the heir Jiang Cheng. Two, the option which she ends up choosing, she fights to death, defending her home from the Wens while JC escapes with WWX. In both options, WWX's survival and skills are crucial. She knows JC's best chance of making it through all of this is keeping WWX alive and indebted. She cannot cut off his arm yet. Not when WWX, in her eyes, hasn't paid off his debt yet. Not when she knows, despite her hatred, that WWX can be counted on for his courage and loyalty and incredible skills to keep JC safe.

She orders the doors to be shut, which is absolutely meant to be interpreted as acquiescence to cut off WWX's arm. She is clever. She buys them as much time as possible, possibly also gives WWX a while to recover from being whipped so brutally by Zidian. And it also serves the purpose of keeping the Wens inside so that they can't go and alert Wen Chao and bring an even bigger army back to Lotus Pier. She knows shit's about to hit the fan so she doesn't reveal what she plans to do until the last possible moment when does.

And then WLJ utters "Wen Supervisory Office" and YZY knows it's time. That the gig is up.

If the order was to whip WWX with Zidian for a while longer, YZY may have complied. She knows exactly how strong WWX is and how much he can withstand without, like, dying or something. But the price WLJ asked for was too high (and probably calculated on WLJ's part as well; she too must know what a skilled fighter WWX is and how to sever the Yunmeng Jiang from one of its most powerful weapons. She saw WWX in action, after all, in the Xuanwu cave). So YZY stopped complying and began strategizing. How to save her home. How to keep the Clan alive. How to preserve her assets.

She didn't keep WWX alive and safe (well, safe is questionable, she did beat the shit out of him) out of goodwill. She kept him alive and safe out of necessity.

Side note, this shot:

This shot helped reinforce my theory. YZY despises WWX, that much is not a secret. Everyone knows it. Everyone in this very scene knows it. Yet when the Wens, headed by WLJ, first arrive at Lotus Pier, this shot makes a pretty firm statement of they are united against a common enemy. YZY is many things, but she is not stupid. She knows what the real problem here is. And she is standing with her entire Jiang army, including WWX, against said problem.

I despise YZY as a mother but damn if she isn't an interesting character.

[applepixls]

my heart goes out to episode 3 secret life grian because I'm kind of living it right now (watch out peeps, low-key a vent incoming!)

in a stream after the big win scar says he's not sure if he could do it again, the whole being alone and having no friends thing and i kind of know what he means. as a real person its hard not having friends because you have no emotional support or people to connect with etc etc etc. in game it was hard not having friends cause he couldn't lean on anyone for resources and always had to leave home and manufacture interactions for content rather than being able to multitask and go caving with a friend (like the "i left my diamonds right here!" bit in last life with grian and mumbo. its just a mundane task but the interaction has become iconic)

but we're talking about grian now. just- the state of this man. i related a little bit too much to him in this episode. he made the diagonal staircase creature the episode before and said it looked like his brain; mush. but then in episode 3 ended up getting the task to follow his old buddy from the previous season around and just having joel go "ok lol lame. this is awkward. we're not really best friends, he's just following me around" (disclaimer: i know its just for the bit and they're good friends irl) and then to have joels new best bud (aka lizzie his irl wife-) go "HAH! you got no fri-endsss~!" (this lives rent free in my head lol) and tease him the following is a compilation of moments i related to having recently drifted from a close friend of several years :) - watching joel bond with the mounders from afar and having him just go "one second grian, we're bonding" when just one season ago they would bond and say who was boogeyman or not at the beginning of episodes - finally thinking he's got a friend because of his task, joel saying he'll "let [him] know" when he takes damage and how much and "oh, you don't want me to hang out with you?" "no but you can go hang out at the top of the helter skelter alone if you want". thinking he had a friend to turn out he didn't. (its then still socially okay and funny that he refused to leave joel alone because its all a bit for the episode) - "he's my pet" "i think we're friends. i think we're best friends" the thinking we're best friends not being mutual - "one moment, grian" as grian's trying to talk to him and joels just doing his task. its the being put off as a second priority over other friends (made me weirdly frustrated despite knowing its all made up silly improv-d conflict between grown adults who are actually friends) - "heard something about a group of friends, maybe I'm now a part of it?" its socially kind of weird to do this irl but the. knowing a bunch of people you know are a like Friend Group and wondering why you're not included - "not even this enderman wants to be my friend! im gonna cry" not that relevant just felt silly and relatable - "am i just here to clarify rules; you guys don't want to be friends?" serving a functional purpose to a group, no ones actually finding you just for you and to chat and be friends (I've gotten messages from friends just needing me to settle arguments between other friends) - (after chanting fail at mumbo) "its just me, this is why i don't have friends" the finding yourself cringe at every turn and thinking wow this is why no one likes me. yknow as im typing this im thinking "wow this is why i have no friends, isn't it? im on tumblr using it as a diary rather than making friends and speaking to them about my issues or finding a therapist to work through my insecurities." - throughout the episode just hating everything he created and wanting to destroy it - the stairs and even later the egg (not relevant to having friends. well kind of but not really. but loneliness can make you act crazy its just the art block and frustration and disappointment in yourself and your failure to have a vision and properly bring it into fruition) - "i definitely won't back down on this, I'm committing fully to the egg" i have a bad habit of running away from friendships when i get scared of any slew of things or just don't like them anymore, hence why i no longer have friends :) - the fact each time he finds something, anything, to pull him away from his whole being alone thing and distract him for any amount of time he goes and dives full in but the conversation always comes back to how he has no friends. - feeling like you'll never be capable of creating and committing to long lasting healthy relationships like everyone else seems to be, settling for short term slightly toxic (joel literally didn't want to be his friend) ones just to have someone to be around. smth smth, "we accept the love we think we deserve."

i'd originally rewatched scar's secret life and thought it would make me sad cause he spent the whole time being alone but scar never made much of a big deal of being lonely and just made comments like "that's not right. how did the guy with no friends win?" feeling like he didn't deserve the win which echoes pearl in double life saying "this wasn't supposed to happen. i wasn't supposed to have friends" like she was scared of making bonds after being rejected by both martyn and scott at the beginning and like she was actually crazy and surely deserved them both leaving and didn't deserve friends but that pattern is an entirely other thing to dig into

when i first watched secret life as it was coming out (October to December 2023) i thought i was on good terms with this friend or was at least deluded and distracted enough to think that. i haven't rewatched grian's perspective since realizing our friendship was all falling apart at the beginning of this year (mostly in march) and then running away from some other friends and becoming a weird little egg on my own. its funny how grians made up improv'd loneliness can echo real loneliness, isn't it?

im very happy he got adopted by cleo and etho the next episode.

[evanox]

If you joined the fandom some time after Anisa's rewrite like I did, and you've yet to come across (formerly) Nix Hydra's official youtube channel, I cannot recommend enough that you go and watch the playthrough of Anisa's first two chapters. GOD they're just SO delightful; especially if you're interested in Astraea's worldbuilding (or at least a taste of it).

The little details such as the occasional line pointing to Mournfall folk making their living through fishing, or how it's common for mischievous kids to go to the abandoned temple to mess around with magic, or how there are wards implemented by the city during the war 5 years ago to detect and prevent magical disturbances---all of that contributes to breathing so much life into our setting, rather than it just serving the simple purpose of being A Place Where Things Happen.

Not only that, but Anisa's personality shines SO much brighter in this older version. She already surprised me in the old prologue when she pounced at Sage for a hug in the tavern. I know she gives him the cold shoulder in our current version because of the whole betrayal thing, but angst aside, I still couldn't imagine our stiff and uptight Anisa offering either of her friends physical affection (she's just so exasperated with them all the time that it's hard to believe they were friends at any point), so that moment in the older prologue was very endearing to me.

(Also the banter between the three Starsworn is chef's kiss in the older version.)

Anisa pointing out how MC deserves the right to choose a mentor since they had no choice in their predicament is consistent across both prologues, but in the first (old) chapter Anisa chides Felix for not being considerate of the Mournfall townspeople who already suffered enough during the war, and it really drives in the point of how thoughtful and empathetic Anisa is. It also contributes to my point about how the little details in this version breathe life into Astraea---the impact of the war on its citizens is acknowledged; it's not just an event that drives the plot/drives the protagonists' angst.

On top of that, Anisa is very passionate about her job, a total workaholic, and a very curious cat; so much so that she was willing to go investigate the city wards despite being on vacation. For as straightlaced as she may be, she's not above a little mischief, grinning at you when you point out she's going against the orders of her Captain. All of these traits immediately endeared her to me, and they're kind of lost/diminished in the rewrite when her primary motivation for her workaholic tendencies becomes "I need to prove I'm good and pure to distance myself from my evil father's shadow."

Also, Saaros is introduced halfway through chapter 2 so it gives Anisa the chance to breathe and establish herself as a character before she has to share the spotlight w/ a masc-presenting character who'll steal most of the fandom's attention, as is every fictif female LI's curse. Additionally, the elf's introduction is more impactful than that in the rewritten chapter. In the latter, they're first seen complaining about lotions (which establishes that Saaros is someone really picky about their beauty routine), whereas in the old chapter, Saaros is taunting a vendor peddling "spiritual-cleansing" potions (the Astraean equivalent of essential oils only this one's effects are even more dubious). They spill the bottle of potion onto the ground and turn their nose up at Anisa when she asserts her position as a knight, deliver a speech about how Porrimans pretend like they play by the rules while letting charlatans run loose, and then march off. This establishes that Saaros is not someone you can easily fool, and Saaros does not think highly of Porrima or its authority and is not afraid to state their opinion about either. That hints at just how difficult Anisa's spy mission will be, and only at the end of the chapter do we find out this bold elf is Anisa's spy target, assigned to her by Archmage Escell himself.

Now, I'm not saying that Anisa being rewritten to be the LOS daughter is necessarily bad, but God what would I give just to see Dev's vision for Anisa before Lulu came along because it seems SO interesting. Perhaps not as intense as having the main villain as your dad (tbh they kinda ruined it by revealing it from like... the first or second chapter, but that's neither here nor there), but given that Sage and Felix's routes are already packed with angst and secrecy, Anisa's would come as a fresh breath of air---while you have to play therapist for the two male LIs to help them unpack all that baggage, you get to be on equal footing with Anisa and play detectives/spies with her.

It's got the same vibe as what the Arcana team was going for with Portia, only this one's done SO much better. I could never quite put my finger on why I just wasn't feeling Portia's route, but I guess that might have to do with how disconnected she is from everything established by the other routes. Asra, Julian, and Nadia are former friends who plotted together to take down the self-absorbed and useless Count Lucio, and Muriel is Asra's friend whose life was entirely jeopardized by Lucio's tribe first and then Lucio himself second. Portia is Julian's sister who arrived in Vesuvia not too long ago and she's not really friends with any of these characters (besides maybe the romance she gets with Nadia in Julian's route), nor is she really affected by Lucio so the route gives her an entirely different villain to defeat. In a way, it has become its own story without space to grow as a story should because of the chapter limit. The other routes get away with the chapter limitation because they all complement each other--telling the same story from different perspectives.

That's not really the cause for Anisa because she is at the heart of the conflict as one of the three last surviving Starsworn, suffered in the war as they did and is very empathetic towards the people affected by it. Her lower social status makes it harder for her to climb up the ranks until Escell himself offers to sponsor her if she'll spy on Saaros for him. So, even without the LOS relationship, Anisa is very well-entangled in the plot to make her route relevant and engaging.

It's a shame there are only 2 chapters out and you can only see the choices that the person recording chose, but also it seems like this was recorded at a time when the chapter wasn't even completed because honey what is THIS

[zahri-melitor]

Is Zdarksy’s Batman run actually bad, or is it just messy?

I actually like Zdarsky's current Batman run and don't think 'bad' or 'messy' are actually the right words to characterise it at all.

There's a tendency when a writer gets handed one of the Big Name Titles (Batman, Detective Comics, Superman, Action Comics, Tom King's currently attempting it over in Wonder Woman) to want to produce a Genre Defining, Intellectual Run on the the title. I don't entirely blame it on Jeph Loeb and Hush, but it's undoubtedly become a lot more common since Hush sold approximately one squillion copies and has never been out of print since 2003.

Writers want to make their mark on the title and so they get caught up in interrogating Bruce's psyche rather than focusing on writing entertaining stories based in Gotham characters.

(This is also why I suggest if you want a fun Scott Snyder Batman run you read Gates of Gotham or All Star Batman rather than his Batman run, because he's trying less hard to write his Great Batman Graphic Novels and more focused on telling a good story).

At the moment we have both Chip Zdarsky and Ram V focused on writing Great Defining Batman Runs, rather than what is more common to happen, which is one of the writers on Tec or Batman is trying this and the other is focused on writing entertaining Gotham stories. Ram V's is, from all accounts, probably the one of the two that is going to end up entering The Canon.

However I certainly see more people talking about Zdarsky's run, probably because it's the more accessible of the two to pick up casually for for a run.

What ALSO doesn't help is that Ram V. is currently writing a Barbatos-based run and Zdarsky is writing a Zur-En-Arrh-based run (extremely generalised), as they're two overlapping Basic Batman Plots about forces controlling Bruce.

Why I think people are currently complaining about Zdarsky's run:-

It's based around an interrogation of Zur-En-Arrh Batman. ZEA is probably one of the least liked 'Bruce has crossed the line and is trying to be All Batman, All the Time' plots around here, because it revolves around a concept essentially invented by Grant Morrison, and people on tumblr don't like Grant Morrison's Batman.

Zdarsky is writing about Joker. People on tumblr don't like Joker and think he's overused.

Zdarsky's run has leaned quite heavily into multiversal concepts so far, but what he's looking at is different depictions of Batman The Character across different media adaptions, particularly older adaptions, and what they have to say about the central truth of Batman The Character. He's picking blokey and reddit-popular sort of titles to reference, not tumblr-popular ones.

The primary character in the run is Bruce. The secondary character in the run is Tim. Every other Bat character who passes through the run is brought in to serve a purpose to the narrative, using an aspect of their personality, and if you're a fan of another character, the fact that they're appearing as a side character or an obstacle in the story can be annoying, as the story isn't focused on the thing you cherish most about your blorbo.

I think everyone is busy blaming every aspect of the plot of Gotham War they don't like on Zdarsky, despite the fact it was written by a trio: I don't see Tini Howard or Matthew Rosenberg catching nearly as much flack for Gotham War, even as aspects of the event were pretty clearly steered by them (The Selina parts of the plot were obviously Howard. The Jason parts of the plot including the conditioning look pretty clearly to be a Rosenberg requested part of the story, given he had been consistently writing most of the published Jason content for the last 3 years).

Really, I think at its base it's that Zdarsky is digging into an aspect of the Batman mythos that tumblr doesn't particularly like, and that Zdarsky's main focus in terms of characters are Bruce and Tim. It's fashionable to complain that Tim's getting love and support by a writer for a whole lot of fanon rather than canon related reasons, PLUS Zdarsky is using the wider Gotham cast sparingly and only when he specifically wants them to work within the narrative he's telling.

Plus, it's pretty clear to my eye that Zdarsky's favourite Batman eras are about 1995-2009, and that's shaping some of his choices of characterisation using long term aspects of characters. He's a Brubaker-Rucka and a Morrison-Nicieza fan, people. He likes O'Neil era events and Batfamily writing from Gotham Knights and Bruce Wayne: Murderer/Fugitive.

[nalyra-dreaming]

Hi there!

All I can say is that I have more questions/thoughts than I thought I would have at the end of S02E08 and I really wanted to come to you to help me figure them out. I hope you don't mind.

I really don't think I understand anymore why this second interview is happening. Do you think that Louis, because he keeps happily hallucinating Lestat, and has served a 77 year old life sentence out of spite for Lestat's perceived actions in Paris, has realised that something about his memories isn't right, so he turns to the foolish young reporter, who has surely proven his journalistic acumen in the past 50 years, to be the person to help with that? I know that you said you don't think that the 'Lestat in the Magnus tower' moment is true, and so are you assuming that the whole book explanation still holds true- Lestat came to Paris for blood, denied, starved and manipulated, he sells them out (and we end up with Lestat saving Louis on stage) and Armand heads off with a Louis who is functional enough (thanks to his fiery revenge) to be an okay travel partner? I guess Lestat's many 'breakout" moments during the trial and the swaying etc. heavily suggest that he wasn't himself and was under some influence. So, if this is true, how the hell hasn't Armand nipped the idea of a new interview in the bud with this much to lose? I don't care how much Arun likes to please or how amazing he thinks he is against a mediocre star, if it were me, I wouldn't let anyone, especially an investigative journalist and someone who shares his own addling near a memory-addled Louis for anything!! And I realise that he outed himself in season 1 so he could openly run interference after Daniel starts causing breakthroughs but why is this happening at all?????

It seems clear that Louis and Lestat have come to an understanding over their shared trauma and pain of a lost daughter and at least some of Louis' self-loathing over being a vampire. It also looks like they parted and are back in their respective corners of the world. Louis purposely burned Daniel's laptop. That and his jibe about the Talamasca publishing the book suggest he DIDN'T want to have it published. Do you think that since it's happened, Louis has decided to 1) go ahead and be suicidal as originally suggested in Season 1 by Armand, 2) is tired of the non-stop vampire radio threats and has taken the bull by the horns, 3) just provided us with a way to bring in 'Akasha' (please enunciate that the same way Lestat/ Sam did in the episode) where Lestat has heard Louis' radio broadcast, will decide to save Louis with the tour (preferably NOT in 50 years after practicing) and thus wakes up The Great Mother?

Kind of a semi-related thought to point one. Isn't it possible that Louis really DID ask for Armand to take away his 1973 memories because he was mentally breaking out of his self-imposed prison/rebound marriage and he couldn't handle it?

Did Louis just sell out his human security team? Is he bitter over Rashid?

Does Louis realise he has a millennial brother vampire now?

Do you think any of the Paris story of episode 8 is true? It seems logical enough that Armand could've been given a choice by the coven, and realising that he was ONLY Louis' default whatever-you-want-to-call it, decided to pick the coven, regretted it and decided to hedge his bets with Louis once the happy coincidence of Lestat's save had come to pass.

Why the hell didn't Louis wait an extra half hour for Daniel to pack up so they could both catch the same flight back to the U.S. Who leaves the homewrecker with the wrecked after the wrecking?!!!!

Do you feel like this was way too quick for the finale? It was clear that ep 7 and 8 should've been combined although I suspect that they wanted the results of the trial to marinate a little. Still, it seemed rather speedy. I felt like I could literally see them jumping from point A to point B to point C etc on storyboards and it was weird, especially for all the heavy lifting this episode had to do.

Do you think that Devil's minion is pre or post Dubai?

All the awards for Sam Reid's delivery of "Did you hurt yourself?" That line just about killed all the strength I had left in me.

Lastly, isn't it amazing just how little Armand has understood in the years since SF? All that 'you forgave me already for this', let's let bygones be bygones etc as he chases after Louis. No Armand, it's mind gift usage for you, or bust!

I am sure there are more but I think this has been more than enough. Thank you so much!!!!!!

Hey :)))

Okay *cracks knuckles* :))

1) You know I actually agree with you there that it’s very muddied waters there. I THINK it’s actually a lot to do with whatever the Talamasca subplot hints at (I have my suspicions re Marius and Raglan and the body thief) and the Talamasca… finally got (a bit of) what they wanted. I think… Armand let it happen bc he wanted to see Daniel again and bc he thought he could steer it. And Louis… Louis wanted it to happen bc things did not add up anymore. But he kept “being edited“, and therefore took a step back into the wholesome romance every time he discovered something.

So… probably all three. And the Talamasca really wanted that book out, obviously. But… why… 😈

2) I think that NOLA meeting, as beautiful as it was, will turn out to be the contested NOLA meeting. As such Lestat‘s book/whatever will be an answer to Louis‘ book. I think Lestat’s rockstar career will indeed both shield Louis and wake Akasha, but probably with twists. I do not think Louis is suicidal. I think he has accepted, to a big part at least.

3) Said it before, it’s absolutely possible Louis asked for the memory erasure at some point. OR Armand interpreted a similar request like that.

4) Louis does not care for humans anymore. That has been clear since 2x01. “Their problem.“

5) I don’t think that is Lestat‘s fledgling. I think that term is only meant to hint at the age. I don’t see Lestat actually making a fledgling in that state. He may have made a lot of fledglings, but always from love, and that was not that.

6) A derivation of that, likely, yes. Decisions are made from kneaded feelings.

7) At that point Daniel was still mortal. Louis would travel by oversized trunk. He probably thought that impractical. And he thought Armand would still obey. AND his thoughts were already with Lestat I think.

8) Mhhhhh. It was already 10 minutes longer. That said I bet they coukd have given us 2h. It didn’t feel that rushed to me, since they stayed closer to the book I did see some things coming, but I would have loved even more, obviously:))

9) BOTH :)

10) God yes. That is when I cried. 😭

11) Armand does need to learn a lot still. But… he will. Daniel will challenge him to learn and Armand will erise to the occasion. … But it’s not an easy journey.

I hope my answers make sense?! I hope you enjoyed the finale, nonny, I definitely did 🤗

[ghcstao3]

part 1

Things get worse before they get better.

Soap’s nightmares get worse. More violent. By the time they’re at their peak of his torture, he doesn’t think he’s managed to sleep a proper wink of sleep in well over a week.

His bullet wound ends up mildly infected, which isn’t much of a surprise. It still sucks, though, and when he lets slip mention of his injury to his mother over the phone, he ends up hanging up on her mid-tangent because he already feels bad enough as is.

There’s no missions. Nothing significant to do. Soap feels purposeless for a while, and the shrink he’s forced to visit hardly does anything—he’s reduced to something of a tired, vacant shell, trying to work past that mission but he just can’t. He’s exhausted.

Soap stops calling his family some time during that period. Gaz does his best to support him, lift his spirits. Price offers the help he can between his own work.

And Ghost… is Ghost. At first, that’s all he is. He keeps to pleasantries as if he and Soap hadn’t shared some moment out in Las Almas. As if he hadn’t saved Soap’s life in Chicago, and plenty other occasions.

As if he hadn’t stuck beside the sergeant as soon as they’d been reunited after that one last job, almost like he was afraid if he left Soap out of his sights, something bad might happen.

Which it does. Because back on base Ghost disappears, and Soap is left alone, hollowed out and changed.

But when Ghost notices that Soap is different, isn’t Johnny, he returns. And something shifts.

They work into a proper friendship. Soap regains a sense of purpose if only to spend more time with Ghost, like he could never get enough. Smaller missions are assigned again, and that bond grows stronger. Grows into something more.

They work into something of a tentative relationship. Soap’s nightmares lessen, the comfort of a solid presence pressed against him in bed more grounding than thought possible. Soap starts calling his family again, talks to them about finding his person. For once, their disliking of the military serves him well—if only for them to not question the rules about fraternization that Soap has definitely, definitely broken.

His family doesn’t approve of Ghost, for a while, but not because he’s a man—rather, because he’s military. They don’t like that he’s given another reason for Soap to remain in the line of fire. They don’t like that he encourages Soap to reach his potential in the career they all loathe. The first time they meet Ghost they try to be friendly, but everyone is prickly at best. It takes time for them to warm up to the lieutenant, which isn’t made any easier by Ghost’s own demeanour.

It’s fine, though. Ghost understands. And Soap’s family, in the end, can’t help but be thankful for him—because Ghost is the reason Soap is able to piece together any parts of his former self that had chipped away. Ghost is the reason Soap is whole again.

They’ll never be happy with his decision to join the military, it’s just a fact of Soap’s life. But he’s done more than enough good to accept it.

And Ghost makes sure to tell him just as much.

[xbomboi]

thoughts about Epic Winter, & reconciling its place in Ever After High’s story as a whole

i wanna talk about epic winter because it—arguably more than any other aspect of the franchise—is definitely ever after high’s ‘ugly duckling’ piece of media, so to speak.

now obviously, a lot of it has to do with being the final big installment in eah’s main story, its premise being a side quest that sidelines the main protagonists in favor of new characters who are comparably far less compelling as the show’s actual leads, leaving the audience without any actual closure to the story which they were following.

in isolation, epic winter isn’t that terrible (though i think most would agree its better parts are the ones centered around already-established characters as opposed to the new ones), but in context it leaves a sour taste.

i entirely understand why anyone rewriting the series would either heavily rework it, only keep more important story beats such as daring’s arc & faybelle’s side plot, or completely remove the outing altogether.

in my case, however, deleting epic winter isn’t an option; my intentions are to continue where ever after high left off, and organically finish what they started. that means epic winter stays in tact, sanity be damned.

with that writing handicap, i can’t edit any pre-existing media in the ever after high animated lineup, which has forced me to brainstorm ways to recontextualize the purpose for epic winter’s place in the story and make the time spent on its story retroactively feel, at the very least, a little more worth it.

and the solution i found comes from viewing all that is introduced in the special through chehkov's gun.

(if you're unfamiliar, chehkov's gun is a narrative rule that everything introduced in a story must be done so with a purpose to serve. i.e. if you give a character a gun, they must shoot it.)

what's done is done; if we have to go on this detour following crystal winter and the top of the world, so be it. but let's pocket it like a tool that can be used later.

so here's my idea: bring crystal and the winter kingdom back into the story later down the line when the events of the story have reached a far more grandiose scale.

basically, i think the best way to use crystal would be when the story reaches a point of confronting and opposing the ruling powers in the fairytale world. having become the new snow queen, naturally, she'd be included in a gathering of the rulers of the kingdoms in the fairytale world.

i want there to be a moment in the story where the ruling powers gather together, and we see familiar faces return (including ones that we'd be introduced to after epic winter but prior to this), such as snow white, king charming, the queen of hearts, and of course, crystal.

with her outlook that would most reasonably be more aligned with the students at ever after high, she could end up being one of-if not the sole person-those present to voice opposition to whatever unfavorable verdict the rest of the rulers have made, as it would serve as direct conflict for the protagonists. she'd find herself outnumbered and ultimately her voice holding little to no power to sway the decision (especially being disregarded for her rather young age). afterwards we'd see her reflect on her frustrations with her colleagues and their rule of the system, thinking about it in terms of what kind of ruler she wants to be, before seeing her find determination towards something, though we aren’t yet shown what she actually decides to do.

the next time we'd see her would then come a little later, the conflict reaching the most dire circumstances. all hope is lost for our heroes; raven, apple, and co. would be down on their luck against odds they're unable to overcome. and that's when crystal would show up to offer her support, providing the numbers of her kingdom as allies to help better the odds. (she wouldn't be the only ally to show up, as this would be a 'getting help from all the friends we made along the way' ordeal. she would simply be one of said friends.)

crystal's help would ultimately play a part in winning the conflict. and because the audience would be familiar with crystal and the winter kingdom to a decent extent way prior to that point, the inclusion of it in the present fight at hand wouldn't feel like an ass-pull or a deus ex machina of sorts; it would make sense and feel earned for the most part.

and i think that's honestly the best thing to be made of epic winter's main adventure. we can't change it or fix it as it is, but we can create a payoff for it all later down the line. think of it like begrudgingly doing chores that lack any enjoyment factor, only to find that afterwards, you're glad you did.

so, yeah, that's my idea for how to give epic winter a genuine purpose. but i'm just spitballing.

[musamora]

𝖆𝖓 𝖆𝖓𝖆𝖑𝖞𝖘𝖎𝖘 𝖔𝖋 𝖋𝖞𝖔𝖉𝖔𝖗'𝖘 𝖉𝖊𝖆𝖙𝖍 ⋆⭒˚｡⋆

author's note. i apologize for the post being made much later that i intended. i won't delve into the details, but these past weeks have been either busy, stress-inducing, or both. it's been difficult over on my side of the screen, but with the time on my hands, i wanted to finish these thoughts, so here it is!

There are many details of Fyodor Dostoevsky's supposed "death" to theorize about in a canonical way, with plenty of creators using that approach to speculate. However, that is not the main point of my discussion. Rather, I wanted to explain my thoughts as a writer and the importance and relevance Fyodor's "death" could have on the plot and series as a whole.

There will be a series of questions throughout this post, so be prepared to think!

Here is my first question: does Fyodor's death seem anticlimactic, sudden, or out of place?

If your answer is "yes," you're not alone! It might be hard to put your finger on the why. Weird, isn't it—that a moment that had seemed so built-up to seems so strange. If this is the moment that is meant to serve as Fyodor's final scene, the end of his character arc, why does it not feel right? 

Those questions are where a writer's lens can come in handy.

And there's a fairly simple answer—it's not supposed to feel right. Because this isn't an end, though, there are different paths the narrative can go down (but I'll speak to that in a moment). 

As an audience, we have been left with more questions than answers and more loose threads than ever before. What is Fyodor's ability? What is Fyodor's background? What is Fyodor himself? And the reason these questions are so important is because Asagiri has indirectly shown us their importance. We observe characters speculate these questions time and time again, only to come up inconclusive. It causes us to speculate. And neither the characters nor ourselves, as the audience, has come to any answers. 

This series is not known for leaving loose threads at the conclusion of a character's arc. When a major character officially dies or has retired from the spotlight on the screen, it has always followed a conclusion to the questions that surrounded them. And if a major character dies, it always serves a greater purpose. But because Fyodor has not been concluded properly as a character, his "death" feels wonky.

This leads to a split decision to make—whether to conclude him following his "death" or to conclude him while he is alive. I'll address the latter first.

There are multiple ways to approach an official Fyodor death, whether that is to reveal the answers to his identity through characters like Sigma and the next antagonists or something entirely different. But that does lead me to my next question. If he is dead, what is the point of revealing the answers to these questions? What would be the point of revealing an ability if it had no effect on the narrative further down the line? The answer is there wouldn't be one. It would be pointless, like slapping duct tape on a crack. In many ways, it would seem like a rush job, a last-ditch effort to conclude a character that has no point in the plot going forward.

So, in some way, Fyodor will have an effect on the rest of the plot, even if he isn't alive to see it.

But I'm a bit biased, and personally, I don't find that to be the most dramatic, nor the most satisfying conclusion to his character. So let's discuss the path if Fyodor is alive—not how, but why would he be?

To clarify one point, on the surface, Fyodor's death makes sense. It is the peak of the Meursault battle between him an Dazai, with perfection versus spontaneity, and trust versus suspicion. It makes sense for this to be the mental conclusion to the philosophical arguments these two have been having over the course of several chapters and episodes. But Fyodor isn't simply tied to Dazai's character—in proper character, he is tied to many other plot points and people. So he isn't done just yet.

The question here is why would Fyodor be killed off in the first place, only to be brought back later? Why not have him escape, but still evidently be alive?

And I have a question of my own: wouldn't an audience grow tired of having the same villain for many consecutive volumes and seasons? The answer is almost always yes, even if the villain is a fantastic character. 

The answer to the former question, the question of why, could be quite simple—intrigue. If he's alive, for the sake of the story, he still needs to be offscreen. To kill him is to allow him to become a background player once more, looming over the world while we stare into every thread of the plot, wondering if he's alive and if he's involved. It's almost like the scenario of Schrödinger's cat, you don't know whether he is truly dead or not, and until Asagiri opens that box, we may never know. But we keep guessing. We keep speculating. And the story remains within our minds. 

There are only two situations where a major character has died or has faked their death—when they have served their purpose and completed their character arc (Oda), or when their death was faked in order to lead the plot in a new direction (Kunikida, Dazai). 

The former has not been done with Fyodor yet—he hasn't been concluded properly. 

We don't know too much about some of the characters that have officially died, like Oda. But with those characters, we were indirectly introduced to questions when they were introduced, and those questions were often directly or indirectly answered at their conclusion. That isn't to say that it isn't fun to learn about smaller questions and speculate about their backgrounds, but we are firm in who they are, even if we don't know where they came from.

That is not the case with Fyodor. We don't know who he is, and we barely know where he came from. He is such a fascinating, but hard character to write personally because those are foundational to his character. He is hard to grasp. And there is so much emphasis surrounding both who he is and where he came from, that we are left with only a fraction of a character. As an audience, we can theorize, but he still remains an enigma.

And an enigma is only one more reason to keep watching and reading, is it not?

I hope everyone who read this far enjoyed my little ramble, and that it was cohesive and easy to understand! I'm interested to see if any of my other fellow writers have any thoughts on this. Have a wonderful day! ٩(^ᗜ^ )و ´-

taglist: @atsquie

[greypetrel]

Later Than You Think ( 🎶 )

Last prompt asked by @shivunin! Thank you dear, it's been fun!

I played both on what the prompt list said about the card and the more traditional interpretation. I hope you'll like it (and that I nailed Garrus' voice decently. They're buddies.)

(re: pronouns. In the first scene Max is 8. Doesn't know what non-binary means, gender is still a foreign concept. The family uses she/her, Max is fine with it. As long as they don't call her Maxine everything's good. They'll realize they'd rather they/them for themselves later on in life.)

Tis the prompt List

[ Female Shepard x Liara T’Soni (not the centre stage) | MAJOR SPOILER FOR ME3 | 4832 words ]

The World Upright: completion, achievement, fulfilment, sense of belonging, wholeness, harmony Reversed: lack of closure, lack of achievement, feeling incomplete, emptiness

2163, Mindoir

The sky was blue, from a lighter shade to a deep velvety blue, full of stars.

Crickets sang around her, and the cloth of the hammock was rough under her legs and arms, but she didn’t care. Laughters came from the veranda where her family was still dining, and she was granted some moments of peace to look up at the stars.

Grandma had books about constellations on Earth, and she had told her about them, and about their stories. Orion the giant, fighting against the Bull guarding the Princesses. Queen Cassiopeia and King Cepheus, who tied their daughter Andromeda to the rock, and the hero Perseus who came to save her from Cetus the whale. But when she first had dragged mom outside and told her to show her the real stars, she had been disappointed to see that up above, the sky was different than in the book. There was no Bears showing you the North. No Swan and no Eagle up against the galaxy.

Mom had kneeled and hugged her shoulders, and told her to invent her own stories. Mindoir needed constellations too, and its own stories to read in the stars. The next day, she found a notebook and pencils for that purpose. Grandma had huffed and shaken her head, called it just a way to fill her head with silly stories, and served her another slice of cake for breakfast nonetheless.

The notebook had filled up during the summer, and she was very busy with it: she had decided that the big triangle was a squid, running from a shark. That cross was a seagull, and a cormorant right beside it. There was dad’s boat, of course, and the record player, grandma’s farinata and mom’s smile, and Dolly Parton because grandpa insisted. All the important things.

But there was one shape she saw and couldn’t quite place. Nothing came to mind, and she stared at the stars first and at the map she had drawn, in blue, on a double page.

“Max! Come here!”

Mom called her, and she huffed through her nose. She didn’t want to go, but mom asked…

“Come on, Mimi, there’s cake!”

She hummed, fought between wanting to stay there and find a name and a purpose for that constellation, and wanting a slice of cake. Grandma baked a pie with the figs of the tree in the corner and they were her favourites Well, Mrs Nourdine's fig cake was the nicest in the whole village.

In the end, the cake won: she closed the pencil inside the notebook and rolled down the hammock, falling heavily on the grass and the dirt, still warm after the long summer day.

“Maxine, how many times I have to tell you-”

Grandma complained, seeing her coming back in the light with hair ruffled and dirt on her clothes. She didn’t care and jumped back on her place, between mom and grandma.

“I don’t like that name. I’m Max.” She protested, leaving the notebook on the table beside mom, and fixing the pillow better under her butt.

“Again, Mimi? It’s a pretty name. Very elegant. If you had to be named with an American one, Maxine is a very gracious name.” Grandma huffed, cutting her a slice and depositing the plate in front of her.

“It’s the name of a fine singer! Maxine Sullivan. She was a jazz one, but a great timber. Have I made you listen to her, Cupcake?”

“Yes, grandpa.”

“So what’s the problem? A rock singer would have been better, but-”

“Please, Stephen, if it was up to you, she would have been named Jolene.”

“What about it, Matilde? That’s a great song! Dolly Parton-”

Grandma and grandpa started to bicker, as per their usual. They always did, and by now nobody paid much notice to it, not even Max. Who didn’t know what to think about the chance of being named Jolene. It was probably even worse than Maxine, she considered, cutting a piece of cake with the side of her fork and raising it to her mouth. Maxine was a dog name, but at least she liked Max. Jolene shortened was Jo or Lene? She didn’t like either.

“How’s the project going, Mimi?” Her mother asked her, a hand coming to caress her hair.

“Mh.” She hummed, chewing well the morsel and swallowing before answering. “I miss one shape, but I can’t think of anything.”

She left the fork on the plastic tablecloth, rubbed her sticky finger on her trousers -grandma scolded her- and opened the notebook, shuffling the pages until she reached the map, and tapped thrice on the one without a name. A big, elongated pentagon, narrow and wide.

“This one. It’s a pentagon, but it’s too short to be a star. This star is too low for it to be a boat: if it was the prow all the water would flow right in.”

Mom nodded to her explanations, listening attentively as Max went on explaining her theories. Mom always listened to her with the utmost attention, and when she, dad and grandpa got back from the sea in the evening, she was always the first Max sought, to tell her how the day went, what she and grandma did at home, what did she learnt at school when it wasn’t the holidays.

Dad leaned in, peeking on the notebook too and smiling. He circled Mom’s shoulder with an arm, twining his pale fingers with her brown ones.

“Can I see, too?”

Max nodded, and Mom moved the notebook  in front of her, shifting the dish away so they all could see. They both started considering it, very seriously, as Max ate what was left of her cake quickly, to move her chair in position and lean against mom’s side, hugging her waist with a sigh.

“I think it’s a spaceship.”

Dad said, and his hand let go of mom’s to come down and ruffle Max’s hair more. The same warm chestnut he had. What her late grandmother had had, she was told -grandpa’s wife died way back on Earth. Max looked up, unsure.

“A spaceship?”

“Sure. Look at it, that’s the tail, where the motors are…” He traced the back line of the pentagon with his pointer finger. “And this is the prow, with the cockpit.”

Mom started explaining how spaceship worked and were made, from the inside. Where the motors where, the fuel was stored, the hangar, the cockpit and the crew cabins. How they took flight, and why they could stay up in the air even within the atmosphere. Her eyes were shining, and dad added details, here and there, explaining to her that they flew much like the boat sailed on the sea: you need to take care of currents and space and calculate veerings and slow stops. Soon enough, even grandma and grandpa stopped discussing whether Mina or Dolly Parton was the better singer, and started to listen to his son and her daughter talking about space travels.

Max was fascinated: dad was always happy when he talked about driving things, and running the boat fast, and mama’s hands were magical, they could repair almost everything, not only the fishnets. But she never heard them speak so happily over something, switching quickly between English and Italian as one forgot a word in one or the other language – it happened often, and there was either grandma complaining they used English words when speaking Italian, or grandpa for the opposite situation. Her heart beat fast, and soon enough she could imagine herself up there, driving a spaceship and going to visit all the stars she had named and woven stories about.

Dad chuckled, when he was done and went back to look at her.

“Close that mouth, flies are gonna enter it.”

Max didn’t close her mouth, but spoke instead.

“Can we go on a spaceship?” She asked.

No one answered her, and Max didn’t know why. Everyone looked sad, smiles faltering a little.

“Please?” She added, unsure why.

“We will, Mimi. We need to show you Livorno and where you come from, after all.” It was grandma, in the end, to answer.

She moved and squeezed Max’s shoulder, and when the child turned to look at her dear face, brown skin wrinkled in a smile.

“You’re gonna love it. I’m going to bring you in all the places I told you about. We’ll eat cinque e cinque and drink spuma in piazza Mascagni by the sea. Our sea.”

Grandma always said that the sea there wasn’t theirs. That their sea was the Mediterranean, for all her family and all her ancestors – even the ones that travelled all the way to Italy, long ago- were raised by the Mediterranean, be it Tyrrhenian or Alboran.

“All, save for Stephen, but he was thankfully brought to better counsels…”

They all chuckled at it, and Max was grateful to that sea that she has never seen. Even if she quite liked the sea she grew up with, there in Mindoir. The fishes were colourful and tasty to eat, and they sold well putting food on their tables in more ways than one. The water was cold but it kept her afloat, the waves were nice to play in. She didn’t really understand why it was different, but from how much grandma loved it, she loved it too.

“Then can we visit all the stars?”

“Tell you what, Mimi.” Dad said, booping her cheek enough to make her turn. “If you study hard enough, you can build your own spaceship and visit them all yourself.”

“Ettore-”

“No. No, why not? If she wants to travel the stars, she should be able to. There are scolarships.”

Max looked left and right, mouth open, without knowing what to do and what to think. Grandpa was saying that he shouldn’t put ideas in her head, for some reason, but dad wouldn’t budge. Grandma looked pensively at the cake.

With a whole lot of new ideas in her head, Max turned towards mom.

“Can I, mamma?” She asked, shily. “Do you think I can learn to build a spaceship?”

Mom’s eyebrows contracted a little, but she smiled brightly, nodding surely at her. She cupped her face and kissed both her cheeks and her nose.

“Of course you can. It’s gonna require a lot of hard work and all your best effort, because it’s very difficult to build a spaceship.” She told her, so surely that Max believed her. “But if that’s what you want, I’m sure you will make it, Mimi. I believe in you.”

Max smiled brightly and jumped to hug mom’s neck, breathing her in. She smelt like motor oil, and like a sea that maybe wasn’t exactly theirs, but it was home enough.

She looked up at the stars, quilting a velvety dark blue sky, and thought.

Soon.

---

2190, Charon Relay

“It’s going to fail, I tell you.”

“Oh, come on, man, we’ve been working on this piece of junk since two years! It will work.”

“Sure, and we got here before the Quarians did.”

“Heard they’ve been working on the other side.”

“Still without many communications and computers a century old…”

“Can you two leave me a moment of peace, plese?”

Gunnarsson and Patel stopped their bickering to turn towards the third member of their team. Who had stopped welding, as they were supposed to do, to turn to look at them both. Their face was covered, the glass reflecting the lights illuminating the outer hull, and the front lights on the suit of the other two. After two years of working together, tho, both Gunnarsson and Patel knew perfectly well wich expression hid behind that helmet.

“Sorry, Nourdine.” Patel told them, and was as per usual greeted with a mumble, a nod of head and an upturned thumb.

All three returned to work, welders running and hammers beating, in the deep, eerie silence of space.

It was a long recurring topic between them: Gunnarsson found the silence, when working on the outer hull, creepy and unsettling. Nourdine was a good person and a great worker, and if in the first months they were quite demanding and bossy, they were reliable to have around, honest and generous. They didn’t speak much, tho. Not that it was any strange: after the war against the Reapers, everyone there bore their scars, and personal informations were never shared with joy. Everyone had lost someone, and so the fact that Nourdine didn’t want to speak about how did they arrived there, working to repair the mass relay, nor how exactly did they lost a leg, was nothing strange. They grew together as a team, and relied on each other.

“I think we got it done, guys.” Nourdine declared, slouching back until the safety line tensed and they were lying back, suspended in space, and kicked the hull thrice with their prothesis. “It should hold for the test.”

“Christ, Nourdine, can you just hold yourself to the fucking hull?” Gunnarsson grumbled.

“Boia, dè.” They groaned in what they had told them was Italian but never explained what it meant exactly, pointing both hands on their hips. It didn’t help Gunnarsson. “It’s safe, I did it a thousand times. The line will hold, and I have a magnetic boot and magnets in my prothesis. Chill, man, nothing will happen.”

“You’ll tell me so when you’ll be floating away in space and we’ll have to save you.”

“Please, you two, can we-”

“I already did that and survived. Twice, I think. Try to invent a better horrible death, at least.”

“Can you two stop talking about death, for the zillionth tim-” Patel sighed, fully understanding why Nourdine wanted silence. But he interrupted himself, mind focusing on one tiny detail. A teeny, tiny thing. “Wait, what?”

“Twice? How does it mean? You floated in space twice? And you still-”

“You’re such babies.” Nourdine groaned, but kicked their back and pushed themselves so they were against the hull. “Done and dusted, I’m here. Now let’s get back before the test start, come on.”

It was always like this, with them. Gunnarsson and Patel could complain all they wanted: they never managed to erase that bossy vein out of Nourdine. When they grew tired and restless, they jumped back to orders. They never said what they were doing during the war, but both of their teammates suspected they were a chief engineer somewhere. Maybe down on Earth: it would have explained the missing leg and the orders.

Most irritatingly, tho, when Nourdine ordered them, they were most often right.

So the three of them unlocked the lines to the fixed posts and back on the travelling one, starting their way back to the hangar door and, hopefully, peacefully assisting to the first running test of the Mass Relay.

After two long years working at full regime to get it back in working order, none of them three wanted really to lose time and miss the show. So, they followed Nourdine, walking with her limping gait but a sure foot around the hull, and humming one of her horrible old songs.

They didn’t make it in time.

The relay started to vibrate, and the communicator buzzed alive in their helmets.

“Gunnarson, Nourdine, Patel. Central Engineering Unit here. Do you copy?”

“Copy that. We’re halfway to the door.” Nourdine answered first, as per their usual.

“You’re late, Nourdine.”

“Did you want the work done quickly or done well, Kovalenko?”

“Oh damn- I haven’t time to argue with you again, Nourdine. You’re late. Stay there until a new order. Copy all three: no one will move until the test will be done.”

“What??” Gunnarsson squeaked.

“Maremma maiala, Gunnarrson, get your shit together, we’ll be fine.”

“We’re going to die burned by the relay!”

“We are not. We’re far enough, we’re safe.”

“Can you three listen? The test will begin in-”

“I knew I should have stayed in Bergen! But no I had to take this job to keep working as an engineer did I? And now I’m dying a horrible death!”

“Oh goodness gracious, I almost miss Javik.”

“Kovalenko, I’m Patel and I copy. I’m tying Gunnarsson with a further security line myself. Gunnarsson, let me go.”

“I always loved you!”

“Aaaw-”

“Bozhe moj- STAY THERE. Test starting in 10… 9…”

An alarm flashed, and the station buzzed beneath their feet. Gunnarsson was still screaming in the comm, but Nourdine jerked up, her “Whoa!” dulled by screams of fright. The relay buzzed and vibrated, and blue light flashed.

And dulled right away.

Gunnarsson stopped screaming, and for a moment, everything was perfectly still.

“It’s over?” Gunnarsson squeaked, hopefully.

“Come on, come on-” Nourdine whispered, on the contrary, their heart in their words such as the other two had never heard.

Such as they turned towards them, surprised. Patel was about to ask something, ignoring the untold rule of never asked much about past, when everything started again.

Another buzz, a loud hummm, and a flash of blue light as the mass relay activated, jolting alive as in the good old times. The hull around them vibrated -it wasn’t good- but all three instinctively held their breath, looking from their vantage position at the blue energy buzzing alive.

One heartbeat, two-

- at the third, a flash of silver produced a louder boom and a shock wave that had the three engineers holding closer to their protections, huddling against the metal. Gunnarsson gasped aloud in the comm, and as soon as it was calmer-

“Is that…?”

“Oh my god, it is! Nourdine, do you- Nourdine?”

Patel turned, as the third member of their team did something they never did.

Nourdine left them alone and ran.

“They’re crazy, I always told you.” Gunnarsson said, staring agape as Kovalenko screamed in the comm for them to stay the fuck still and don’t move Nourdine I’m serious.

Nourdine didn’t stop, and kept running like their life depended on it, one hand on the lifeline.

“Well, It’s comprehensible. it’s the Normandy, after all-”

---

“Joker, how is it?”

“Well, it could be worse.”

“Precisely.”

“We made it through. The navigation system is in shambles, the ship is veering to the left if I don’t hold the route, I can’t see with the system we have if it’s guidance or the engines-”

“Tali?”

“Both thing, I fear. The pressure was too high, our right engine is not so good. I told you it needed some reinforcements still. But it’s still in line. It’ll hold.”

“Excellent. Can you bring us to Earth like this?”

“Please.” A scoff from Joker. “I survived the Omega 4, this is amateur’s work.”

“Even without-”

Silence fell. Three years later, and Tali on her own hadn’t been able to restore EDI to her former functions or personality. They had a computer and a diagnostic systems all in good order, but intelligence? No. Without communications and access to the Quarian fleet, Tali hadn’t been able to do much of anything, on her own. Particularly because all resources had been focused on repairing the broken relay.

“You know, Commander?” Joker chimed, trying to ignore how the Turian was surely glaring at him for the title, all the way from the back. “We’re lucky we have you, the ship would surely use some calibration, now.”

The cockpit all laughed, in spite of everything.

Garrus laughed too, from the place that had been Shepard’s, fingers relaxing a little on the rail.

“I told you would have missed it.” He replied, turning to his right. “Traynor, how’s the station? Can we leave?”

“Uh.”

Silence, as Traynor tapped furiously on her terminal, a deep frown on her brow.

“Traynor?”

“It’s… They’re not answering.”

“How come? Is the system broken?”

“Not on our part, Command- Lieutenant.”

“Call them.”

“I’m trying, they’re not picking up.”

“Well, insist. We haven’t saved the galaxy to be put on hold.”

“I’m trying! Not my fault if they don’t pick up!” A pause. “Or is it? What if- urgh, let me check and try again-”

“Five minutes. Joker, try to fix the guidance, Tali, on with that engine.”

“Roger.”

“Copy that.”

Garrus hopped down the platform and turned left, as everyone got back to work. She was there where he left her, right before taking command for the jump. Looking out of a porthole without a word.

“You’re all right?” He asked her, patting her shoulder. He knew she wasn’t. She hadn’t been since a while.

“Yes.”

“Do you want a shore leave, for Italy?”

“I…” Her voice cracked, but Liara kept staring out of the window, frowning. She didn’t cry, and took a deep breath instead, shaking her head. “I’m not coming back on the Normandy, on Earth.”

“Mh.”

“You’re not surprised?”

“No. I thought you would leave us. Thessia, Ilium…?”

She took a moment to answer, just observing the stars running along.

“Mindoir.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. I owe it to them.” At least she sounded less desperate than whenever anyone had tried to touch the topic with her in the last years. “I should bring their records back.”

“Not to Livorno?”

“I don’t know. I thought half of them there, and some on Mindoir. But maybe it’ll be better to keep them all together?”

Garrus looked at her. Three years ago she would not have even wanted to mention the possibility of a funeral. They hadn’t said goodbye, held a ceremony, done nothing to remember Shepard, even if it was a big missing on the ship, for everyone. Joker had tried to put their playlist up, saying it was too silent and he couldn’t drive without Creedence Clearwater Revival anymore. But Liara had burst crying, and there had been no more old earth music from there on. No funeral, no mourners: Shepard existed, and they still existed in absence. Always remembered, never mourned, never mentioned.

“A couple on Tuchanka, I think.” Garrus added, with a sigh. It was no mistery Max had loved that place and felt at home, as run down as it had been. Fought hard to cure the genophage and gave a piece of their mind to whomever tried to told them they shouldn’t have. “And I think they’d want you to keep the one they gifted you.”

“Mh. I think Grunt would like having one to remember them by.”

“Oh, for sure. He may be all though, but I remember how he couldn’t fall asleep without that one whose singer screamed.”

“Graveworm, yes.” Liara chuckled. “They told me he would.”

“I wished I could come with you.”

The Asari turned, a sad smile on her face. “You can ask a shore leave. We can go to Livorno together. I’m sure they’ll make some levo dishes if we ask around. It’s an harbour city, after all. We can reunite all the crew, now that the relay works.”

“And eat chickpea cake in piazza Mascagni for Shepard?”

“Something like that. Listening to Maxine Sullivan as we eat.”

Garrus sighed. “That would be nice.”

“It’s settled then.”

“Let me get the ship safely there, first…”

“Go on.” She stopped and looked at him. “Commander.”

Somehow, in her voice it irritated him much less. He just grumbled a little, for show, and returned to his place, putting everyone back in order. Holding command on the Normandy, after the battle, had not been so unpleasant. As much as he kept saying it was just on borrowed time, just until Shepard got back… Garrus knew he should settle. If Liara was talking about saying goodbye, he should have too. He led the Normandy in the last three years, all he had to do was enrolling formally in the Alliance for everything to set in stone and become official. Trying to think that he was not, in fact, keeping the seat warm for another person -that other person lied six feet underground, he could as well admit it- he walked back up on the platform and took a deep breath. Everyone was looking up at him, as they all -him included- had looked up at Shepard.

“Traynor, do we have a go?”

“We do, Commander. From Captain Mbaye of the Charon Relay: if we don’t need to dock for repairment, we’re good to go. I’ll send the report on the status of the ship as we travel.”

“Good.” It wasn’t good. “Good. Fine. So. Joker, route to Earth.”

“Aye aye, Commander.”

The crew cheered, and everyone got to their places, working to get the ship ready for the last distance they had to fill. Unlike the way there, when Garrus had little idea on how to run a ship -but Shepard left command to him, specifically- and relied on everyone knowing what to do better than him, this time he could advise the others, correct here and realize Nguyen didn’t hear in the general noise, and he should repeat the order.

They were ready to accelerate, when Traynor stopped him.

“Commander, wait.” She tapped quickly on her terminal. “It’s… It’s Sergeant Kovalenko, from the Central Engineering Unit on the Charon relay. Urgent call.”

“Take it. Stop, you all.”

The crew stopped, the ship stood still, and when the comm dialed in the call, there was a loud commotion shouting from the speakers. People spoke loudly, there was Kovalenko’s voice booming above the others.

“Take them out! Now! Out of the room!”

More shouting, someone yelled in pain in the background, someone else groaned.

“Sergeant, do you copy?” Garrus called, puzzled by all that.

“I don’t care if they have just one leg or none!” Kovalenko shouted, and it was clear they weren’t talking with them. “They can say the’re the fucking Queen of the Rachni, I want them out of my office and in to a cell for insubordination!”

“What’s going on, Traynor?” Garrus asked, aloud to be heard above the chaos.

“I have no idea, Commander.”

“Did they call?”

“Yes but…” She tapped on the keyboard. “The call was an automatic one? Weird… Unless someone hacked the system, but-”

“Kovalenko.” Garrus shouted, not needing to hear more. “Kovalenko, here’s Commander Vakarian, of the Normandy. We demand to know what’s going on, do you need assistance?”

“What the- I am sorry, Commander, everything is under control. We have a-”

“I’m an octogenarian krogan with a terrible taste in music and my playlist makes thresher maws cry!”

Everyone on the Normandy stopped, frozen in place by a new voice in the comm. One they all knew well. After years, but they knew.

In shock and puzzlement, this time from another reason entirely, Garrus didn’t react to the subsequent loud noises. Fight noises, a groan, a “Ouch! Figlio di un-”

“Good job, Zhao! Manacles!” Boomed Kovalenko again. “Nourdine, I swear I’ll have you-”

“Shepard!?”

It was Liara the first to wake up from the daze, shouting the name and running back until she was standing on the commanding platform, right next to a Garrus whom she almost pushed away. If she heard it too, it wasn’t an hallucination. It broke the spell on the cockpit of the Normandy, and everywhere there was buzzing of voices.

“What?” Kovalenko answered. “What Shepard, no, this is just one of my engineers. I don’t know what-”

“Sergeant Kovalenko, we’re docking on the relay.” Garrus insisted. “Traynor, call Captain Mbaye.”

That was Shepard’s voice, and there was only one playlist that was able to make a thresher maw cry, only one person whom Garrus specifically had called an octogenarian krogan. And considering that EDI and all other AIs they met were out of order since three years… It was worth a check.

“Negative, Commander, we’re-” The Captain answered on the comm, too, when Traynor dialed him in.

“It’s not a request, Captain. I still outrank you, it’s an order. Tell me where we can dock.”

Mbaye hesitated a moment. “Kovalenko, what’s going on?”

“I don’t know, Captain. One of my engineers, Petty Officer Second Class Nourdine, disobeyed direct orders, they demanded us to call the Normandy, and hacked the system when we told them no. I don’t know what-”

“We have reasons to believe that it’s Commander Shepard, Captain Mbaye.”

Silence fell in the comm.

“How- What- That Commander Shepard?”

“Nourdine was their mother’s surname, Captain.” Liara added. “They’re an aerospatial engineer, more than able to hack a communication system.”

“And an octogenarian krogan with a terrible taste in music.” Garrus added, just to remark. “We recognized the voice when they yelled in the comm.”

More silence followed, both officers frozen in computating the new information.

“Dock 1.” Finally Mbaye confirmed. “I’m sending you the coordinates.”

“Thank you, Captain.”

The Normandy buzzed with renewed excitement. Liara was crying, both hands over her face. Garrus passed an arm around her shoulders and held her tight.

“Ah, and Captain?”

“Yes?” A sigh.

“It’s Officer Vakarian, now.”

“You’d better!” The same known voice yelled from afar, but there was a smile in those syllables

Garrus had never been so happy to be downgraded.

[loveswickedpitch]

see you in hell you stupid fruits: a rambling reflection on revue starlight relive

revue starlight relive has reached end of service, so i guess i might as well share my thoughts? if you just want the tl;dr, my opinion can be summed up as "good fucking riddance", but you know. might as well talk about it a bit more.

first off, things i liked about relive. i liked most of the new characters it introduced, even if they were pretty flat early on. it was clear that they weren't sure what to do with some of them, but they did expand on them and give them more depth over time. some of the events were cute. the battle system was fun. arcana arcadia had some cool stuff, even if i had already stopped actually playing the game by that point (more on that later). and, uh... that's kind of it, i guess.

none of this stuff was ever really able to overcome the game's flaws. the new characters were fun, but it was pretty clear that they didn't always know how to juggle them, and some characters would go months with no new events or cards (i recall Misora often being neglected). events often had cute moments and occasionally an interesting character tidbit, but a lot of the time they just felt like pointless fluff.

while the basic battle system was compelling, the game never did much with it. PvE stuff was mostly just bland grinding and PvP was a mess full of ridiculous power creep where if you wanted to keep up you had to either get super lucky with your pulls or spend hundreds of dollars. Leveling up and unlocking skills for characters was tedious. in fact, most of the gameplay was an exercise in tedium - eventually, i realized i was going to all this effort to raise characters and do dailies and shit for basically no reason! why bother grinding characters so i can beat event bosses over and over to get the many different types of materials when the only thing to do with them is make your characters better so that you can get more materials??? if you just wanted to experience the cutscenes, you didn't need to engage with the actual gameplay much at all, so why bother? that's not even mentioning the complete lack of variety in basic enemies and bosses that got reused over and over.

arcana arcadia was really cool, but i don't think the story was well-served by the format, and also it took years for them to get to it - the first story arc was pretty much nothing and the second mostly felt like a course correction rather than a compelling narrative arc on its own (especially the first half, imo - the Rinmeikan and Frontier stories were probably the best).

but even if all of this was fine, and the game had compelling gameplay and writing, it would still be bad, because it's just a slot machine with anime girls on it! the entire purpose of the game, the whole reason it exists in the first place, is to grab as much money as possible from vulnerable people. and i kind of debated on whether i would talk about this, but i was one of those people. i spent thousands of dollars on this game because it turns out, surprise, i have a gambling addiction! so it was very frustrating for the bulk of writing for this franchise was locked behind an app i could not safely use.

i think that's basically it. it was a bad game stapled to a slot machine that showed you yuri if you won and i'm glad it's dead.

at least junna and nana kissed.