#but for now… no one else could’ve done this role imo | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

cancerian-woman · 1 year ago

Note

oooh so i feel like i can guess the answer, BUT how would you rank all of bonnie’s ships *solely* from what we got in canon vs how would you rank them based on fanon/general potential!

Oooh okay, I’ll start with canon ones then go to fanon.

Beremy: It was cute, puppy love at first but in the end Bonnie was doing all the work & his unassigned but assigned babysitter. 3/10

Bonenzo: in theory he did make Bonnie happy she deserved that. Enzo is very much “one size fits all” type of character if yk. They did get together under Stockholm Syndrome purposes and it was just done lazily? I think they would’ve been more well perceived if they started building them up in s5 or something. Killing him last minute to “trigger” Bonnie’s psychic powers or magic again was just another way to aid in her suffering. 5/10

Bamon: chemistry is great. Damon abandoning Bonnie after she needed him after bonding in the prison world’s was a good moment for Bonnie’s feelings to be shown. Knowing she has issues with abandonment. But, Bamon falls into the same category as Delena. Woman is complicit to all of Damon’s bs and a lot of that happened with Bamon. The writers said ok Elena is gone Bonnie can now agree or side with him the most. There’s Anti-Bamons, then there’s people who genuinely like Bamon and then people who ship Bamon just to free Elena of that burden of Damon lol. I do think they work best if Elena isn’t around. 7.5/10

Stefonnie: you can’t pry Stefan’s protectiveness and kindness to Bonnie in 1-2 out of my hands. He actually tried to make friends with Baroline unlike Damon. Stefan’s history with Bennett’s was another good push there too. And it’s sooo underrated that Stefan was the first vampire Bonnie ever trusted. Plus she had a lil crush on him before Elena got him. I do think they could’ve been something really good in those later seasons. Both tend to play a “hero” role to someone else. Stefan promised he would’ve fixed what he did to Bonnie and idk we needed to see that. It would’ve been nice if we could’ve gotten Damon/Stefan discussing that Bonnie’s forgiveness isn’t so easy to earn. 8/10

Bonora: good chemistry but extremely underrated. They remind me a bit of the wlw Bonkai. Would’ve been a perfect time to introduce bi!Bonnie. I liked that Bonnie encouraged Nora to do something outside of Mary. We never really got those “Bonnie’s beautiful!” By other characters but the way Nora said it continously and wanted to engage with Bonnie. It was so good. Long term and fanon-wise I think they both could’ve learned to grow out of those toxic ties to people with each other. We didn’t get Bonnie with other witches a lot and it was nice to see her with one. 8/10

Bonkai: Chris was Kat’s best on-screen partner imo. Kai brings out a darker side to Bonnie that she tries ignore often. While I think Bonnie brings out emotions Kai hasn’t felt in ages. He’s so fascinated with her in an obsessive but good for tvdu type of way. She’s the only way he sees. Bonnie isn’t a pushover either with Kai. She fights him back, she calls him out and tbh she’s even goofier with him. He pushed her more into her agency than Damon ever did. Bonkai would’ve been great for seasons 6-8. Idk if i would “redeem” him per se bc redemptions aren’t real in tvd but being good to Bonnie and Bonnie only is enough for me. Canon-fanon-9/10.

Bonlena & Baroline: I’ll just do these together. Bonlena had the stronger chemisty 1-2 era of them perfect. You can feel how close they are and need each other. Despite the negative tones with Petrova & Bennett lines repeating you can say they could be drawn to each other naturally. But, Elena does end up ignoring Bonnie so…7/10. Baroline is all about fun but they do support each other and can be protective. Caroline does try to get Bonnie out of doing magic all the time. 7/10

Bonlijah: interesting because Elijah like Stefan and Damon have harmed or betrayed Bonnie. Elijah’s done it twice. We don’t get a lot of them. Bonnie would’ve made him work for her forgiveness. Elijah likes acting on his own needs first but needs to be forced to see his wrongings in a situation and Bonnie certainly wouldn’t let up and make him focus on their errors before continuing. He did have to thing positively of her to face his brother alone. 7/10

Klonnie: based on canon I’d say season 3-4 are would be their best moments. Klaus does like witches. Bonnie had more onscreen time with Tyler!Klaus than his actual body. But Tyler!Klaus did sort of hint he admired she defied the spirits. There’s the power dynamics that comes into play here. Bonnie isn’t afraid of Klaus no matter how much power he wants to enforce over her. I can see them fanon wise strategizing together and Bonnie agreeing to help him if it means her friends are good. Canon wise though if nothing comes between them from 2-4 then they’d have to remeet afterwards. Same applies for all the Mikaelson’s. 9/10

Kennett: they could’ve bonded over magic and they do have more scenes than most BennettxMikaelson ships. Kol called out Bonnie’s death too. He saw potential in her and wanted to work with her….that being said they caused that lady to go crazy on Twitter over a 10 second scene LMAO so despite how i feel about that 10 10 10 across the board. Fanon wise i do think other fandoms taking over Kennett has deterred my liking for them. Dollar general Kennett has nothing on them. But Bonnie unlike Davina would want to see Kol for who he is. No rose tinted glasses.

Monnie/Tonnie: we don’t have a lot of Tonnie but they’re always watching each other / protective gazes when they are allowed to share a scene. This is a ship I can see working through college or when they both left Mystic Falls. For the both of them that isn’t their home longterm. 8/10. Now, onto Matt absolutely not. 5/10. Not just because Matt’s useless, but he doesn’t like the supernatural world for himself. He’s accepting of his friends and for others but it’s not something he’s really into. Bonnie already had to deal with this from Rudy. No need in dating a human or anything longterm who doesn’t like that side of her.

Honorable mention: Batherine could’ve played a frenemies with benefits role. Idk if it was the intention to “fix” Elena’s relationships but placing Katherine in these random moments but it was interesting when it did happen.

This was long and it took me a minute but i hope i answered it the way you thought of!! Thank you for the ask!

#occulthours #however i dont want to hear yall argue abt ships so this is not getting tagged 💀#dria responds

21 notes · View notes

destinyc1020 · 5 months ago

Note

This reddit comment (a link under the article you posted that goes to a conversation if Timmy is a movie star).

He is right not just about him but the industry nowadays.

ControlPrinciple•hace 4 m

The next Leo? Where’s the trajectory alignment that is parallel to Leo? I don’t see it. You can say he’s a movie star without being hyperbolic. There will never be a movie star in the caliber of the ones that rose to prominence in the 80s, 90s and early 00s because IPs/franchises are the draw and the actor that gets the job can be the “star” to move it along. DiCaprio could’ve made “Beautiful Boy” a box office hit at Timothee’s age. There’s a reason his face and star power doesn’t drive people to theaters when he’s just in a regular movie. And that’s okay, because it’s a new business model today. But these comparisons are ludicrous.

That’s great, but how does that disprove my point? I never said he wasn’t a movie star, but context is important. He is still heavily IP dependent. While not movie stars, Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell just took a romcom to $200 million WW. Why can’t Timothee do that in a non-franchise or non-existing IP film, if he’s on the kind of movie star people are setting him up to be? It takes more than just leading movies that were going to make money anyway. He remains untested. You can call certain films “indie” and “small” as if they weren’t supposed to make money, but when you look up the facts, they were still disappointments and financially crippling to studios, regardless of how good they are. Movie stars make marquee hits. That means your name and face can make a movie a hit. Is Zoe Saldana a movie star because of all her Marvel and Avatar success? Outside of those IPs, can she open an original film to profit? You’re confusing talent with the ability to put buts in seats because you’re the main attraction. Dune also has, you know, Emmy and Oscar winning actors attached to it. Are we going to pretend that without Timothee Chalamet, Dune was doomed? Don’t Look Up needed Timothee more than anyone else? I just… don’t think we’re on the same page here. I’m talking about the bankability of a movie star (which has become a very short list), you’re talking about him being a movie star in general, which I agree with. It’s not hard to be a movie star, it’s hard to be a box office movie star and stand on your own two feet.

This guy (or gal) makes some very good points Anon! I do agree... The Hollywood model has certainly changed somewhat. I don't think we can keep on comparing rising actors of today to the model of Hollywood from 30 years ago. Those days are kind of GONE imo lol. Not only that, but society and technology has changed drastically.

I do think there's a difference btwn a "movie star" and a "box office king movie star". Timmy is a movie star in the aspect that he's led some pretty big films, he's pretty well-known, and has a huge fanbase. But would I call him a "box office king" on the same level as Cruise?? More than likely NOT. But why on earth are people expecting Timmy to be on the same level as someone who is in his 60s and has far more films under his belt anyway? 🤔

Anyway, I also think it's the TYPE of film an actor does that makes them a "box office king". Timmy has pretty much done a lot more "smaller" indie films in his career. He's just now breaking into more IP-led films that have more of a box office effect.

I don't know if it's really fair to compare Timmy to Glen Powell. For example, I HIGHLY doubt that Bones and All would have done huge numbers at the box office even if they had cast Glen in the role lol. It's not really one that would appeal to the masses.

But if you had put Timmy in the lead role of a film like "Anyone But You", I kind of think that the film would have still made a lot of money just simply because people LOVE rom-coms just in general. Timmy might have a young face, so his "appeal" might not cross over to some older women (except for CC maybe lol.. 🤭), but even Leo with his "Baby Face" had grown women swooning over him in "Titanic" at age 23 lol, sooooo....it could have happened for Timmy as well! 😅

I think people need to look at the genre of film as well tbh. Jmho 🤷🏾‍♀️

My only question is...If "Twisters" does well at the box office, are people going to accredit that to Glen Powell's "movie star" status? Or just the fact that it's from a very popular IP and reboot of a film franchise? 🤔

3 notes · View notes

alphinias · 2 years ago

Note

If you accept a different argument for Chenford ;) - I actually don't agree with you and your anons about Chenford. Sure Tim almost dying in the last episode was anticlimatic and it had big potential but the scene that followed where they went into a flirty banter with smirking was top notch and showed their chemistry and their good old banter really well. I also think they used that scene to show Aaron's mind and character. He seems to be the one who's clearly onto them, whether he thinks they're together or just have feelings for each other. They've established similar reactions from Tamara and Angela and i think they'll play important role in the upcoming episodes when they'll either come out with the truth or be exposed by someone else.

I also think not all love declarations in fiction need to be big and dramatic. I think fans often want stuff that come across as too dramatic or fanfiction-y. And in Chenford's case they have years of friendship going on. They don't need to dramatically explode, telling each other they're in love. They already know they the other one has feelings based on ep1 and2 when they were about to have sex and then acknowledged it, followed by all the angst in s5. They're actually really good at communicating. Even when Tim doesn't want to show his vulnerability, Lucy always gets it out of him. He doesn't share his stuff with anyone but her. They know each other inside out. So I don't think they needed a more dramatic first kiss. That whole last scene was the sweetest ever - they were both just really content and secure with each other. Could they have done with more angst in the previous episodes? Sure. But i think that's because it's an ensemble cast and there's not enough time (i wish there was less Nolan scenes lol). Right now, let them have a few episodes of pure bliss. Drama will hit them soon enough. And it may not just be work related - there's also Chris, her past relationship with Nolan, Isobel could come back, Lucy could go UC for a longer period and it'd mess with Tim's head due to his history... Also, people want slow burn but this is season 5 already. There's nothing worse than waiting for this long for a ship with the best chemistry to finally happen only for it to be canceled/actors leaving with hardly any happily together time :)

Sure- and honestly I’m happy that the people like you who love it are satisfied and happy with the result of the slow burn they’ve been waiting on. I mean that. I like to see people happy with their ships. And I realize I seem to be in the minority with being underwhelmed with Chendord’s canon. That’s fine. I’m happy for the fandom that I am.

Most of this stuff we just have different opinions on and that’s not gonna change. I have mine so I’m not gonna yammer on for too long about what I think and all the things I think could’ve been better because I already have. I think the scenes needed to have more weight, and you don’t. We just don’t agree. But imo (okay I guess I am gonna yammer a bit) BECAUSE we waited so long for the slow burn, we deserved something more substantial and not just “cute”. They could’ve gotten together at the exact same time and it could’ve been ten times more satisfying, easily. It’s CHENFORD. They deserve a memorable canon scene/turning point and not to get together basically like any old ship on the show.

I respect your views but the only thing I’m gonna totally call BS on is the ensemble cast not having enough time thing. That’s just an excuse and they DID have enough time, had they used it in a different way. Plenty of my favorite ships do not involve the main character and had huge emotional arcs to getting together, like Stydia. It’s the writers’ job to utilize all their characters and scenes in efficient ways.

And just to make it clear, I do think the chenford scenes are cute. Their chemistry is excellent so of course they’re cute. It just feels unsatisfying to me in the lack of impact and fulfilling storyline. You see it as not needing to be fanfic-y, and I see it as it’s a television show and the whole point is to be entertained. These emotional moments between your biggest ship should be a little more magical than real life, and it doesn’t have to be fanficy and stupid to reach that.

#nace had the simplest confession in the world but it was BEAUTIFUL #it doesn’t need to be crazy but it does need to be something #chenford #ask

28 notes · View notes

onlinesuccubus · 3 years ago

Text

¡¡KLITZ SITTING ON YOUR LAP!!

anyone else really want a nice, shy, lanky, quiet, pathetic harvard nerd boy to come sit on their lap or is it just me???

no gender mentioned but the term “role reversal” is mentioned once or twice

also this is formatted half like a fanfic and half like headcannons

sfw & nsfw

SFW~

•he almost had a stroke initiating a kiss after you asked him out and that kiss took him weeks of eli and matt hyping him up.

•there’s no way he would ever sit on your lap purposefully.

•especially since he felt he was too tall to be babied like that which is absolute nonsense imo

•once eli jokingly sat in your lap and klitz almost punched him out of jealousy

•ever since then he’d dream about him sitting on your plush thighs with your arms wrapped around him

•you made yourself comfortable on his bed one day, your back against his wall and your head leaned back as you looked at your beautiful boyfriend hunched over a stack of papers.

• “klitzy, why would you invite me over if you’re just gonna do homework all day”

•you weren’t typically clingy or needy but today was just one of those days that you woke up extra appreciative of your boyfriend and wanted to appreciate him up close.

•”it’s only been an hour, plus i’m almost done..just need one more paragraph and i’m all yours..”

•when he finally stood up from finishing up his work his back and neck made an awful sequence of clicking noises as he stretched.

•he grimaced at the unpleasant stinging of a pinched nerve in between his shoulder blades.

•you stuck out your arms for him to get into and he painfully crawled up his bed to you.

•before he could get to lay in your arms you pat your thighs

•his eyebrows furrowed under his bangs

• “come onnn sit down, you know you want to” your eyebrows wiggled in a jokingly flirty way.

•he reluctantly sat down on your lap, waiting for you to push him off for his weight or the odd role reversal dynamic happening

• “why am I sitting on your lap?”

•”you’ll see, now scoot closer to me and sit up tall”

•his ears felt like they were on fire when his chest was against yours and he was now towering over you again.

•did he save a planet in his previous life??

•you looked up at him and stared in his eyes adoringly, your hands reached for his wrists and pushed them behind his back gently.

•“relax and breathe in”

•”wait, what- why-”

CRACK

•you pushed back on his arms with hard pressure and you cracked his entire back.

•he let out a loud high pitched moan at this sudden relief that you could’ve sworn you’ve heard on an adult video eli showed you

•his pale face turned bright red and he quickly hid his face in the crook of your neck

•“let’s never speak of this please”

•your hand reach up to his back and you rubbed circles in hopes he would face you again

• “you’re gonna have to look at me to make me promise you that, pretty boy”

•this touch starved boy refused to let you go the rest of the night

NSFW~

•oh boy, after he gets a taste of sitting on your lap he refuses to sit anywhere else when you’re both alone

•something about the way you pull him down to kiss him when he’s sat on you

•and when your cold hands start roaming and slide under his shirt and on his feminine-like waist

•ooh and he loves when you squeeze his thighs when you get riled up from his tongue teasing yours

•seriously how many planets did he save in his previous life because he’s in heaven

•he pops a boner when he eats a good slice of pizza so this- yeah he’s creaming his pants when you two get intimate like this

•this time however you try something a little different~~

• “why do I have to sit in front of a mirror like this, do you have some weird fetish with seeing me insecure?”

•you simply asked him to sit on your lap facing away from him in front of the mirror pantsless, this wasn’t anything crazy you were asking right??

• “trust me, you’re gonna enjoy this, also I don’t have a fetish for you insecure I have a fetish for you being humiliated by me”

•he gulped at your hands spreading his legs for him

•you were always extra handsy when he sat on your lap

•actually you’re always handsy

•but now you’re able to run your hands softly in his inner thighs, over the hot skin on his flat tummy under his shirt that you couldn’t convince him to take off in front of the mirror

•your cold fingertips ghosted over his perked nipples in hopes that you’d get some sort of reaction from him

•and that you did

•his dick visibly twitched in his boxers at your light touch and he let out a soft gasp

•you both looked at each other in the mirror with a shocked expression

•”fuck..do that again…please?”

•this time your index fingers flick up and down rapidly against the perked buds

•he throws his head back against your shoulder and every once in a while he bucks his hips in the air for some relief

•your hand reaches up to the back of his head and you push his head forward so he looks straight ahead in the mirror

•his hair is messy from thrashing around, his foggy glasses barely balancing on the tip of his nose, and his eyes were hooded, begging for relief.

• “keep your eyes open on the mirror, if you look away or close your eyes i’ll stop, deal?”

•he wants to argue but the pain between his legs is stronger than his insecurities right now so he agrees.

•when you finally give in and start jerking him off he feels euphoric

•his tip leaks another pearl of precum when your other hand starts toying with his nipple simultaneously with the fast pace you have on his dick.

• the poor touch starved boy is overstimulated with all this sudden affection

•one hand flicking his nipple, the other toying with his leaky tip, and you wrapped around him like a python around its prey

•it’s even more erotic and humiliating that you’re making him watch himself in his current euphoric state, whispering dirty words in his ear about how slutty he looks and how if any of his friends walked in he’d look so pathetic

•he could have taken his glasses off if he didn’t want to see but something in him wanted to see everything going on, wanted to see you slutting him out

•he doesn’t last long and he’s soon curling his toes and letting out a long drawn out moan as ribbons of cum shoot on his shirt

•once he recovers and his glasses clear up again he sits up and you pull his head back to attach your lips to his in a long kiss

#paul dano #klitz x reader #the girl next door #klitz the girl next door #klitz x gn! reader #klitz x male reader #klitz x female reader #sub!klitz #edward nashton #dom!reader #klitz headcanon #klitz imagine

930 notes · View notes

justagirlsearchingforamuse · 3 years ago

Text

Hot Take: Joyce was a terrible mother and imo did more damage to Chloe than David or anyone else did, because she was actively there in her life and didn’t help at all or neglected her emotional needs and genuinely wasn’t a parent for her. I don’t hate Joyce, I hate the way she actively neglected Chloe’s emotional needs and how she actively led Chloe destroy herself, she actively could see her daughter suffering and reaching out for some kind of attention. Chloe’s bad and reckless behavior especially in BTS can be seen, she ultimately doesn’t care about classes, she doesn’t care that she may lose her scholarship, she doesn’t care about much besides those few things that makes her happy which is usually what Joyce hates or has a distaste for. But even then, I know that because Joyce works a lot she can’t give Chloe a lot of attention but I mean in the first year or few few months of her grief and imo she distanced herself from her daughter. But I also understand she probably didn’t know how to raise Chloe as William mostly raised her which I’ll also bring up William at some point as he also played a role in Chloe’s upbringing and whatnot. But imo most good parents would try to help their children deal with the grieving process, possibly go to therapy (though I know it’s expensive and whatnot), teaching Chloe how to deal with grief in healthy ways and that loss is painful yes and you can spend all the time you need trying to get over that loss. The pain you feel just showed how much they mattered to you, the pain you experience show how deeply you cared, and one thing I love about Chloe is how deeply she cares about people. Sure, she has selfish tendencies from time to time and I don’t like some of her reckless behavior but I don’t hate her and I know she’s a deeply hurt person who is only a result of the lack of any good parental figures in her life, that with each loss she experiences, she loses herself, she lost the joy, the nostalgia, and pure innocence of her childhood the moment William left her life. William mattered so much to her of course as any father would but he was the main parental figure in her life and he wasn’t a strict or mean parent, sure he could’ve been stricter and imo he should’ve had different discussions with Chloe about her grief especially when Bongo died. But William, he wanted her life to be full of joy and he didn’t want imo to steal away her ... joy, innocence, and he didn’t want her to change because of the pain she experienced. But he also imo didn’t teach her enough about consequences for example, he would never seemingly punish her, he always was sort of lenient on Chloe. Yes you shouldn’t be too hard on your kid but when kids don’t learn things such as your actions have consequences and that to everything you may want in life there is a price to pay. I don’t think William is a bad father but there was more he could’ve done, taught her, and he was the best father he could be to Chloe and he was an amazing man, fun to be around, and that man ultimately didn’t deserve death but death doesn’t care if you don’t deserve it or not sadly. I know Joyce is mostly trying to keep a roof over her family’s head and it probably took up a lot of her time, I understand that and as a result Chloe suffered. Another thing I wanna say is that in a way, Joyce put her own emotions, feelings, and desperation above what her daughter may need which is a mom who is supportive, a mom willing to teach her, a mom who could guide her through a such difficult time. Chloe in my new view of the game has been in a way neglected or abandoned in some aspect of her life, Joyce neglected and abandoned the emotional needs of her daughter and thought someone else could help. David. Now when David entered the picture, her negligence imo was a lot more apparent, from how she brushes off David smacking her daughter (possibly multiple times), how she always takes David’s side on things, she undermines her daughter’s feelings and her thoughts on things. The fact there was no discussion or much talk about David entering her life really angers me. Because I will admit that in a way I and many others have undermined her feelings. Chloe’s emotional needs which by her parents were always seemingly neglected and abused. Joyce instead of taking her daughter to therapy (honestly school should be able to pay for those things but no surprise if they don’t) and just trying to be more aware and sensitive to her daughter’s feelings would be nice. Chloe imo exactly hit the nail on the hammer. “Sometimes when we’re really lonely we let the wrong people into our homes.” Joyce in my eyes did exactly that, she was lonely, desperate, needed money, and support in some way which isn’t bad in itself but she never consulted or considered Chloe’s feelings on this. Like as much as I like Joyce and believe she’s trying her best, she is just as bad as David with the negligence and most good parents would’ve gotten David outta there especially after smacking her and emotionally abusing her. “You’ve gotten a long enough break from a father figure” he says, its fucked he says that and it’s even more fucked that Joyce more or likely would agree with him or let him say that Chloe. Sometimes the person who turns a blind eye to abuse can be worse than the abuser because they actively can help or try to but don’t bother or can’t see that the person needs help. Like fuck, the fact you can say that to Joyce and she excuses it by saying that she pushes him and it’s an excuse for him smacking her which he never apologizes for. Also, the fact that she lets David just take over, a man who will never be her dad and someone who needs therapy too and isn’t evil but does a lot of shitty things that can’t be excused. Chloe isn’t entirely blameless though but a lot of her behavior comes from her genuinely shitty guardians and the amount of abuse she endures. Joyce could’ve tried to fix their relationship and pay for therapy for Chloe, possibly try to understand her instead of seeing her reckless behavior as something that needs to be fixed instead of an obvious cry for attention and cry for someone to care. Joyce actively neglected her daughter and it shows through Chloe and her shitty behavior that comes out sometimes as well as her reckless behavior and feeling as though she’s been abandoned and neglected almost all of her life. I apologize that I haven’t really seen that Chloe’s abuse or seen that her behavior is more so a result of her upbringing though I still hold her accountable for her bad behavior, she’s an incredibly hurt girl who’s been mostly abused her whole life. Though it never excuses her stealing, her selfish behavior, her reckless behavior, her ableist behavior (which yeah she doesn’t mean to do but it’s still ableist regardless), it if anything helps me understand more where she’s coming from. A lot of Chloe’s shitty, reckless, and genuinely questionable behavior imo comes from Joyce, William, David, and all of her guardians who have failed to take into accountability her feelings, her self-destructive behavior, how they have failed to help her deal with the loss of her father. Joyce needed to do better. Don’t hate the woman but hate that she lets David walk all over her and abuses her daughter because she’s so desperate to keep things afloat. David helps with the house, he helps keep them all alive and not on the street, which I can understand and empathize with but it still doesn’t excuse her negligence towards her child. It doesn’t excuse her allowing a grown ass man who isn’t her dad boss her around, emotionally and verbally abuse her, and let him smack her around. Chloe deserved better guardians otherwise she wouldn’t be a quarter of how bad she is and dealing with all these mental problems.

#joyce price #life is strange chloe #chloe price #chloe price analysis #lis joyce #lis chloe #william price #anti david madsen #david madsen

46 notes · View notes

masterthespianduchovny · 4 years ago

Text

The Poor Development of the Marauder's Era

I've recently been listening to Binge Mode and, even now, I honestly believe the Marauder's era is some of Rowling’s worst writing of the series. When I say Marauder's Era, I'm simply referring to characters and events pre Harry.

The Marauder's era isn't poorly developed because I didn't like what happened. It's poorly developed because of how Rowling handled the characters, the events she put them in, and the reaction to said events.

As a kid, I respected Lily and thought she could do no wrong. As an adult, I find her decisions questionable. For transparency purposes, I read these books in real time and was a similar age as the characters. So, I don't want to hear anything about me being "unfair." Of all of the Mauraders era kids back then, I was the most generous to Lily. It's only when I reflected more about her role in the series that I realized how lackluster she is as a character and as a friend.

Rowling relies on Lily being seen as the moral compass to signify who and what is right or wrong during this era. The problem with this is that Rowling undermines Lily in the process. Minus being flat out called Mudblood by Snape, she has no proof that Snape has done anything her friends accused him of doing, but she unequivocally views it as the truth. Despite Lily listening to Snape, it's not really in good faith because she already has her mind made up about Snape's guilt.

Now, this is important to note because since Lily hasn't seen any of Snape's alleged bad behavior for herself, why would she definitively accuse him of these things? Lily claims she was in denial about this when she ended their friendship, but it's quite obvious she does believe Snape is guilty.

What makes Lily's beliefs and choosing to side with others over Snape is that none of the Marauders have ever mentioned ONE instant of Snape doing or saying some fucked up shit. As a reminder: THEY HATED HIM. They never mentioned anything about him bullying others, calling muggles mud blood, or any other troubling behavior. It was merely because he existed. They couldn't even tie him to being a Death Eater.

Also, let's consider the fact that kids like Snape have rumors made up about them all of the time. ALL OF THE TIME. Not even Snape's own bullies could attest to Snape doing the things Lily's friends claimed Snape did, yet Lily believed their words?

And, maybe I'm being nitpicky, but the fact that Lily says "my friends" in reference to defending Snape has always rubbed me the wrong way. Snape IS her friend too. Her best friend, in fact. Why wouldn't she have said, "my OTHER friends." My Gryffindor mates or whatever? IMO, that implies that Snape is just some weirdo she talks to and not the person she's known the longest.

HOW ROWLING COULD'VE FIXED THIS:

Have Lily overhear Snape calling one of his peers Mudblood. Have the Marauders be incensed that Snape called someone a mud blood. Have them call out Lily when she tries to intervene on them confronting (confronting NOT bullying) Snape. Hell, even have Snape fucking bully someone.

Because as far as canon goes, Snape was a bystander as death eater wannabes bullied people and presumably did nothing about it. We don't see any of his alleged wrongdoings and the people who hate him can't even recall that this happened.

There shouldn't be an ambiguity or readers relying on the word and opinion of Lily to guide their opinion.

Some may say, "she's only a kid." To this I say, "You're right." Lily was a teen and teens don't always know how to handle complex situations, I will give her the benefit of the doubt. However, this means we shouldn't hold her as the moral standard.

Lily essentially says that the difference between the Marauder's bullying people and the death eater wannabes doing it is dark magic. I'm sorry, but that's weak sauce. Dark magic is such a vague and broad thing depending on what you're talking about, so nah...Also, is there something not dark about James choking Snape with soap? I mean, that could've traumatized Snape to the extent of him being triggered by soap. Isn't that dark?

HOW ROWLING COULD'VE FIXED THAT.

Jut have Lily acknowledge that behaviors by the Marauders and death eater wannabes are both bad, but for different reasons. Problem solved. She can even emphasize that she takes so much issue with Dark Magic due to why it's being used and what it ties into.

We hear how great Lily is and that everyone loves her, yet Harry meets literally NOT ONE FRIEND of Lily's. He meets James' friends and a former teacher of hers. We don't see Lily hanging out with anyone else. We hear examples of Lily feeling sad for people, but no references to her actually helping people or supporting others somehow.

HOW ROWLING COULD'VE FIXED THAT.

Maybe instead of Lily talking about the bad thing Avery and Mulciber did, she could've intervened, even if it was too late, and "saved" Mary. Hell, we could've had Lily hex James rather than just threatening it. I'm sorry, after literally reading the many ways the Golden Trio are there for each other even before big shit started to happen, Lily threatening to hex someone who is actively bullying her friend doesn't cut it.

And give her her own friends for Harry to meet.

Lily is said to be smart and empathic, but how she deals with Snape and his issues don't exactly support this.

HOW ROWLING COULD'VE FIXED IT.

Have Lily genuinely listen to Snape's grievances about the night he was saved. Don't have her be so dismissive about the Lupin thing. Maybe have Snape set up by the Marauders and the big reveal is a flop.

I know Rowling wanted to tackle people having shady pasts and how they can change, but 1. Either she needed to commit to it being a rivalry or 2. She needed to appropriately deal with the bullshit the Marauder's did. Snape is justifiably angry and distrusting of the Marauders due to one almost killing him as a joke and the other publicly humiliating him. This doesn't even account for YEARS of bullying, which remus admitted happened.

We cannot say that bullying is wrong, and then excuse the bullies because they were on the right side of a war.

HOW ROWLING COULD'VE FIXED THIS.

She should've had Remus flat out acknowledge they were wrong for what they did and that there was no excusing it. Then, have Sirius and Remus privately talk about this where Sirius admits it too. OR, despite loving them and his dad, Harry realizes how flawed they were and that their reasoning is simply to protect their dad not necessarily because James grew up. OR Rowling could've not written James and Sirius behaving as psychopaths AS WELL AS show instances of Snape starting shit with them.

SHOW US Snape deliberately starting shit with the Marauders and James trying to apologize. Show us James' growth outside of that. Don't tell us that James is secretly hexing Snape behind Lily's back because it has her looking like a dumb ass.

Also, all of this James stuff is important because Lily ending up with James is such a bad fucking look. IMO, it makes her disgust at his behavior seem performative. It says that she didn't really care about him bullying others, but rather, the perception of her being with someone who bullied others. And, no, having Lily smile as Snape was actively being bullied, and then poverty shaming him isn't a good look.

"BUT, BUT SNAPE CALLED HER A RACIST SLUR!!!"

It doesn't matter how much you want to give your friend the benefit of the doubt, if you believe he's calling others racist slurs, you need to confront it. And, if you believe it to be true, you need to end it. You don't wait until he calls you the slur to say, "hey, maybe he really is this racist person people claim he is."

HOW ROWLING COULD'VE FIXED THIS.

After James saved Snape's life, this is where he could've matured and his big head lessened. He still hexes others, but leaves Snape alone because he realized that they went to far with him even before Sirius' "prank." Instead of James being the antagonizer, it should've been Sirius. Once again, James breaks this up and he and Sirius gets into a small argument. Snape is let down as Lily runs up and Snape says his mud blood remark.

Snape then tries to hex Sirius and James steps in once Snape refuses to stop. It gets out of hand and Snape accidentally harms Lily.

I won't lie, I'm a HUGE Snape fan. However, because of how Rowling handled this era, there are many ambiguous things, situations that don't make any sense, not enough development of characters, etc which undermines the story she tried to tell.

Yes, I do love the series, except I don't like any of the Marauders or Lily. I don't hate Lily, but she grates. Remus really was a coward and irresponsible as hell. Sirius was childish as fuck and, no, him being in prison doesn't excuse or justify all of his behavior. James saved his peer's life, and then publicly humiliated and sexually assaulted him. He didn't stop bullying, he just stopped how he did it.

This doesn't mean I believe that Snape was faultless, but I believe this era was so poorly told that by default, I believe and sympathize with Snape.

Although I believe Rowling wanted readers to do this, I don't think she planned for some readers such as myself to hold the positions we do. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Snape as is, but I do believe Rowling didn't intend for me to hold the views I do about Lily and the Marauders.

I don't understand her laziness during this era, especially since it's so key in Snape, Lily, and James' stories.

Lastly, she could've developed James and Lily better.

I know she only has so much time, space, pages blah blah blah. However, the best writers find a way to make it work with what they have.

#harry potter #Harry Potter series #Severus snape #lily potter #James potter #remus lupin

147 notes · View notes

c0rrupt3dsp1r1t · 2 years ago

Text

So- my thoughts on the episode. Spoilers!!!

Dan's exit could've been interesting and it wasn't really, but it was a very normal human thing to do and Dan has been played straight as a very normal human guy, so makes sense.

I'm happy they recruited Ace and Tegan to UNIT rather than continuing Ace's charity story. They already seemed to do everything they could with it in Big Finish and the ACE book and it doesn't fit on-screen Ace well at all. She could've given the company over to someone else or be using it to fund UNIT when the government doesn't want to, but being in the field rather than behind a desk is... mmm. So much better. (I'll have to edit my longfic draft a bit, I was waiting for the episode to come out to add her section, but not too drastically)

I didn't expect them to confirm Tegan/Nyssa one way or the other. Farewell, Sarah Jane is nice, but the Doctor Who Lockdown stories that weren't for the book have been almost completely ignored thus far and I doubt that'll change. For instance, Big Finish gave present Ace a K-9, (in her weakest story imo) but it explicitly wasn't Sarah Jane's.

They also don't outright deny/confirm other expanded media either. "Three decades for me" could mean a number of things, including new meetings with the Doctor getting lost in Ace's short-term memory thanks to Brax and she just didn't age much until she was put back in her own time after Gallifrey.

There is a very particular itch for the Master for me that only Sacha Dhawan has scratched and Rasputin and taking the Doctor's body presumably for the extra (now possibly infinite) lives, something he's always wanted to do but never quite succeeded in doing- letting him actually do it, all felt very fresh.

The past faces manifesting in their mind during a time of terrible danger thing hasn't been done on TV I don't think, and it was done in the perfect surreal way.

The hologram 5 and 7 were adorable. Five comforting Tegan about Adric and Seven making up with Ace and acknowledging she's grown up and he's proud of her on-screen. (Chibnall you actually remembered that he's basically her dad when so many writers have forgotten that especially with the few modern-day Ace stories.)

I felt very teased with the possibility of a Thasmin kiss. They didn't have to, but that left something balled up in my chest. The ice creams were quite literally sweet though.

All of the bad guys are just fodder for the Master, that's kinda meh. His plan being trigger every volcano on Earth to cause a doomsday rather than just hyperbeaming it with his death star planet is a very Classic Master plan though.

Kate didn't do much and that makes me sad. Still no Osgood=homophobic. I don't make the rules. At least she's not dead, even though Chibnall could do so justifiably, since the (Jenna Redgrave) Kate is his character.

The plot is messy but there is a through line and it comes to a decent conclusion after that huge rollercoaster.

Companion support group is an official thing now I thought that would only ever exist in fanfic and comedy skits.

The end... I'm sorry. I just didn't like it. I never liked 10, he's my least favourite Doctor. I'd have preferred if they did half the regeneration here, fade to white, credits roll, the other half in the next special, because while I love David Tennant in other roles (especially Crowley) I cannot stand his Doctor, think he’s overstayed his welcome and wish I could ignore it.

Overall I think it's a good story and it has all the love for classic who that I wish the 50th had but didn't. Better written than DotD? I don't think so, but I like it better. (For one I actually like most of the characters involved, not only 3 of them) It definitely feels like a comfort episode, very self-indulgent, very camp and fun, fanfic-y but in a good way- but also this thing is a straight-up whole action movie, not an ordinary special.

Also you can still 100% tell that after series 10 Chibnall binge-read the VNAs, has the same vibes as the books, including one I was reading last night. To be fair Transit is all about space trains but that's just a coincidence I totally forgot there'd be a space train in the episode .

#dw spoilers #power of the doctor #doctor who #doctor who centenary special #long post #my thoughts #spoilers #doctor who spoilers

4 notes · View notes

out-of-this-dimension · 3 years ago

Text

Hypothetically Rewriting Assault’s Story + Some General Assault Opinions

There’s a game my husband and I like to play when we watch a movie, play a game, or read a book that has a story that we don’t really enjoy or we enjoy certain parts of but not others. We look at things we’d keep and things we’d change and we build a story from there-- sort of like an AU but we don’t really go into the writing part, we just stick to theorizing and mapping a general story.

I decided to play that game with Star Fox. Not because I think Star Fox has a bad story but because sometimes I think the stories could have been handled better. Note: for the rewrite game, I only really look at story, even for video games, I don’t really look at gameplay mechanics, but I do understand those have a lot to do with story potential so I do take it in as a factor... I just don’t bother to “rewrite” the mechanics, if that makes any sense at all. Some of my list today will include boss encounters but I wouldn’t necessarily say those are mechanic-related... more like “event-related”.

I’ve mused a bit in the past about rewriting Adventures and Command and I do have plans to do a mock up of an Adventures remake eventually. However, today I was thinking about how I would go about handling an Assault re-write in particular. Much like Command and Adventures, I don’t have any beef with the core story but I do think there’s a few things that could’ve been better about Assault’s storyline-- like they had good ideas rolling but they didn’t quite refine them.

Under the cut because SUPER long.

My basic feelings on Assault are pretty positive. I think the game is generally just fun and I like that it feels like the natural progression from SF64. I liked getting to see planets we haven’t seen since the N64 era in better graphics and I liked seeing Star Wolf return. I also just thought the aparoids were neat enemies.

Generally speaking, though, when it comes to Assault, I think it suffers from the thing it tries to push the most-- the story. I think a lot of people get caught up in thinking the story is better than it is because it’s the first game since SF64 that really follows the same Star Fox vibe without retelling the Lylat Wars. Don’t get me wrong, the overall plot is great but the execution and pacing are... wonky. Certain characterizations also take a hit in some regards but no one really talks about that when Command exists. That’s something we’ll talk about later on with this post.

That being said, Assault really does have a lot good going for it. An absolute banger of a soundtrack, some great dialogue, a neat story synopsis, the introduction of cool characters like Panther and Beltino (who existed but was always off-screen), and just good levels.

So, here’s what I would add, I suppose, if I were to somehow have the ability to rewrite Assault. Originally I had this in paragraph form, but I’ve made it into more of a list under topic segments with main points bolded for your viewing pleasure. Some of these points might be considered nitpicky and while I do understand that yes, this is a game about space animals, I do hold the developers in high enough regard to make a game with a continuity that makes sense.

The Story Changes

- Reduce Pigma’s storyline in Assault. This is the biggest one for me because a bulk of the plotline feels like a giant chase to just get at Pigma and it feels like it derails from the actual plot with the aparoids. ��We only go to Sargasso because of Pigma. We only go to Fichina and then back to Meteo again, because of Pigma. That’s 3 levels in a 10 level game devoted to just tracking down Pigma and chasing him. While it makes the build up to fighting Pigma kind of nice, I personally feel like the plot could be reduced to 2 levels. If Assault overall was a longer game, I could see them making it 3 levels. Overall, though, in its current state, I feel like the side plot overstays its welcome and the aparoids promptly get shoved to the side in favor of “Oh no, we gotta get to Pigma!” And I get the main motive here is to show how the aparoids affect people and because of the build up, it does a good job at showing how utterly terrifying the aparoids are. But it’s still too long given the length of Assault’s story. The only alternative to this is make Assault longer, which... honestly, it should be.

- Revise the scene with Tricky. I’m obviously not well-versed in dinosaur biology but I’m pretty sure dinos didn’t grow that fast from what studying I HAVE done. And why is he suddenly king now? Did his parents die? He seems not affected by this at all? Like it’s a funny scene with him, Fox, and Krystal, but it’s odd if you really look at it. Give us, as players, more context because I’m still not even sure what happened to make Tricky suddenly the leader and... big. As a note, you’re gonna hear me gripe a lot about the Sauria level in this post.

- The Star Wolf + Peppy sacrifice is a low effort way to raise tension/stakes and then cop out. Oldest trick in the book, imo, is to act like you’re going to kill off important characters only for them to be alive miraculously. And let’s face it, as an audience we all know they aren’t going to kill those characters because it’s Nintendo and those characters are too beloved. I would’ve forgiven them for only doing this with Peppy or Star Wolf, but when you tack them both together and throw in the fact they make it seem like you’re going to have to kill General Pepper too... yeah, it’s just a bit much of the same trope over and over again. I wanted to put a note in here about how I’m fine with the Great Fox being “sacrificed” but overall, it needed to return to the series because of it’s icon status, but I think that’s more of a gripe at Command instead of Assault.

- Keep Pigma alive. This will conflict with a point I have later on about the game consistently having characters cheat death for easy drama points but with Pigma, I would’ve kept him fully alive... but maybe with some physical damage from the aparoids. I understand he’s semi-alive in Command and tbh I don’t know where I stand on that. Why keep Pigma alive, you might ask? I feel like his character has a lot more potential than being “just the greedy guy”. Like he’s got good potential future villain material for future games and... if I’m honest? I just don’t see Nintendo wanting to keep Pigma dead so why even bother killing him off? They couldn’t even commit to him being dead in Command anyways so it seems very moot.

- Bring Bill and Katt back. Assault is acts a bit like a big reunion of all of our SF64 favorites but our two favorite side characters are suspiciously missing. Wouldn’t Bill be out on the front lines fighting against Andrew in the beginning? Or maybe back in Katina? And wouldn’t Katt inevitably show up in the midst of the invasion, maybe to pointedly check in on Falco?

- Bring Andrew back for the final fight. I think Andrew being defeated early into the game is fine overall but I think bringing him back in for a reunion final fight against the aparoids would serve to really solidify that it’s really everyone vs the invading aparoid force. It would show that not only is Star Wolf willing to put aside their differences but so is basically everyone in the Lylat System in the name of survival. Imagine the Venomians and Cornerians working together against an aparoid fleet, giving Star Fox and Star Wolf time to attack the queen? I just think it’d be neat and it’d open up the potential for some fun banter mid-mission. I do understand that quite a few people consider Andrew canonically dead after Assault but personally, I feel that his defeat left his fate questionable (I’m a staunch believer that unless there’s a body, they’re probably alive, especially for Nintendo games because, again, they never like to kill people off) so him returning in Command never really bothered me.

- In general, reconsider some of the character portrayals. Unfortunately, when a series has a different studio for each game, character portrayals will inevitably have inconsistencies. While I give Namco a lot of credit for putting in oodles and oodles of detail into the game (particularly the levels), I think they failed in their portrayal of Fox, at the least, and Wolf is a considerable offender as well. While it’s obvious that Fox in Adventures was effectively modeled off of Sabre even in terms of personality, Rareware was at least able to justify Fox’s newfound jaded attitude with the passing of many years and a distinct lack of steady income, resulting in the team being in disarray. Assault’s Fox is a stark contrast to his cynical interpretation with seemingly no explanation other than maybe “Oh, I have more money and a gf, maybe I should behave myself”. As if the sudden change in personality wasn’t random, Fox also just seems very blah, like a blank slate stereotypical shooter game protagonist dude with little to no emotion. Wolf is less obvious but gets slated into a mentor-like role midway through the game and ends up in a respectful rivalry with Fox... which there’s nothing inherently wrong with that except for it happening abruptly (and, I mean, Peppy is right there). But I take less issue with this and more of an issue with the fact that there’s an entire level establishing that Wolf now runs a crime den with effectively what seems to be an army and no one bats an eye at this. He doesn’t even call on them to help with the aparoids. Did they all die when the aparoids attacked Meteo? Are they safe somewhere else? Where do they go? How was Sargasso able to operate without the CDF being on their doorstep with warrants for arrests?

- Don’t kill all the dinosaurs. A bit of a dramatic statement but the ending screen that showed all the damage to Sauria really bothered me. While I understand that the dinosaurs had less of a chance against the aparoids than a more technology-focused society like Corneria, I was a bit disappointed that the decision was made to just state that a lot of tribes had been wiped out. I know this could easily be retconned in a future game and I feel like it should be. “But why, Amalia? Why are you disappointed by that?” 1) It’s a little too grimdark for my tastes. 2) The fact it all happened off-screen felt very hand-wavy. And 3) It brings into question the entire point of Adventures. Why did we bother to save this planet if it was going to be reduced to rubble and ash 1 year later? Where were the Krazoa in all of this? Why did they not make an appearance at all to try to stop the invasion with their alleged powers? It just raises too many weird questions and I feel like Namco didn’t think it through too much. Which I mean, sure. Family, kiddo game. I’m not asking for bigbrain plot and lore but I’m squinting at this bit because it does feel very contrary to the lore from the previous game.

- Make the aparoids more relevant. As nice as it is to have a random bad guy from another galaxy, I feel like there was more that could be done with the aparoids in terms of their origins. Tiny things, mind you, not huge revelations. Off the top of my head, they could have been tied into Krystal’s backstory to help alleviate some of the complaints that she was too random to be added to the series’ main cast. Alternatively, they could have been a product of Andross or even a weapon prototype from Corneria that fled the lab (I actually thought the game was leaning in that direction for a bit then just Nothing Happened). I get that the vagueness of their origins leaves room for people to speculate and speculation is nice but... when you leave too many things unknown, it starts to feel less like giving fans room to interpret and more like just doing random things for the sake of it. I think a lore tidbit here or there would work wonders for the aparoids instead of leaving them as just borg/zerg clones.

Level-Based Changes

- Add either Aparoid RedEye or Aparoid General Scales as a boss to Sauria. Given that this level mysteriously lacks a boss, which is just weird compared to the other levels, I think that they had the opportunity to add something cool to go along with the cinematic feel they were going for with Assault. Assault’s cutscenes do play in a movie-like fashion and it’s clear they’re trying to make the game as epic as possible. It’s a shame they had so much fodder for a great boss here but they failed to go through with it. Alternatively: Add a Krazoa-Aparoid fusion. Why? Because Star Fox is about cool epic sci-fi and that would be cool epic sci-fi incarnate.

- Add a boss to the Aparoid Homeworld Level, aka the penultimate level. Another one I felt was personally weird that there was no “final defense system” to challenge the team. Would be cool to do an aerial battle over the aparoid planet with some giant flying aparoid.

- Be kinder to Sauria. The level had some good homages but overall was incredibly small and incredibly short. It felt like a bone tossed to Adventures fans but was not entirely true to the setting built by Rareware. I’m... not even sure where the Sauria level is supposed to take place? I presume it’s Walled City but it doesn’t really have the same color scheme or aesthetic? Also where is my revised Adventures music? Why do all the other levels get it but Sauria doesn’t?

- Put some of those funky items from the multiplayer into the main campaign. I don’t know why some of these things, items especially, were omitted unless it was purely due to time constraints. I remember having missile launchers and jetpacks in the multiplayer and was a bit sad that they were not in the main campaign. Retuning the levels and adding those in would be a nice breath of fresh air for the more tedious on-foot missions.

- More levels. Self-explanatory. Still sad we didn’t get the Zoness or Titania levels in the single-player mode.

I think all of the above changes would improve the game, though I recognize all of this is being said 16 years later after lots of time to contemplate Assault’s weaker points. I’m not entirely certain how long Star Fox Assault took to develop but given that there’s obviously quite a bit scrapped from the game (an entire arcade mode was scrapped as well), I’m going to assume that the studio felt pressured to shove the game out the door and into the hands of customers. It’s a shame, really, because I think a little bit longer in the oven would have done a lot of good. Still, the product we got was good in its own right and a game that many people look back on fondly. I haven’t gotten to replay it in years but I hope to quite soon.

You might wonder why I bothered typing this all out and I guess my point was this-- Assault was great but it wasn’t perfect, and while a lot of other games fall under a crushing amount of scrutiny, Assault seems to dodge it. And don’t get me wrong-- I adore Assault. But given that not many takes exist out there about rewriting it, I decided to give it a shot. For variety’s sake.

I do want to a mock up of a revised Assault story, which I think I will get to work on after completing this while all my ideas are still fresh in mind. So stay tuned for that sometime in the near future. I will also be doing my Adventures mock up at some point but probably not for a little bit as I do wanna focus some of my free time on actual fic-writing.

Anyways, if you stuck around this long, thank you for reading! Have any changes you’d like to see to Assault if you could time machine your way back to the early 2000s? Feel free to post in the comments, I’d love to read your ideas!

#star fox assault #starfox assault #super long #queue'd

32 notes · View notes

rosemary-is-in-pesterquest · 4 years ago

Note

literally I was watching someone's playthrough of pesterquest as it was being released, and I almost finished it, but then I got spoiled for the fact that Ult Dirk shows up, and it totally knocked me off the wagon. like I've had it in my head that eventually I'll go watch Dirk's content, but it's been so long since I watched everything else... by this point it'd be kinda disjointed to even do that.

also, I was weirdly irritated by MSPAR in pesterquest? I found them so charming in hiveswap, because they were characterized as kind of a bumbling, overeager and well intentioned traveler that just wanted to help. but in pesterquest they get all know-it-all ish... it's reeeeeeally off putting. like I could forgive them being confused or disheartened, but they went a step too far and got all cynical and been-there-done-that, and gave a lot of advice that just wasn't good? as if they were some sort of expert or something. it makes pesterquest kind of irritating because you play as an irritating audience surrogate character who does shit that you don't actually want to do.

like, okay, Eridan's route, right? at the end, the advice MSPAR gave was basically "stop being an asshole" which is like... warranted and fair? but first of all, this Eridan needs different advice than homestuck's Eridan! and second, would a real asshole actually take advice like that? it's so... basic.

Eridan is a character that I'm not super attached to, but I get peeved when people get him wrong. in homestuck, the thing that Eridan needs, is to realize that if he wants something from another person, he has to try not to be a leech about it. everything is all about his perspective all the time. when he wants something, he'll ask, but if he doesn't get it, he'll whine and beg, and if people get mad at him for doing that, he gets all self deprecating and bemoans how hopeless his situation is, and how much everyone hates him. like he'll literally annoy one person into getting fed up with him, just so he can go cry to another person about his problems, and ask them for advice that he probably won't even take, because getting attention was the point, and this is technically what he wanted anyway. and the more people catch on and get frustrated, the more fuel he has for his "everybody hates me" pity party.

and the interesting thing about Eridan is that all of this probably comes from a real worry that nobody could like him, even if he tried. I mean, most of his friends are lower on the hemospectrum, and have a systemic reason to hold some sort of resentment towards him. so like, he probably likes Feferi because the two make an appropriate match class-wise... but he also probably likes her because she's his only friend that is more privileged than he is, so she can't hold his status against him.

also, pesterquest leans into that old fanon thing where Eridan is indiscriminately desperate and will date anyone. like... no! originally, Eridan specifically wanted to fill all of his quadrants! he wanted a matesprit (Feferi), a kismesis (Vriska), an auspistice (Kanaya), and a moirail (possibly Karkat). and not only that, but he wanted these specific people to fill these specific roles for him unconditionally and without conflict, in spite of their actual feelings. Feferi doesn't want to date him... she doesn't even really want to be his moirail because she's doing all the emotional labor and it's exhausting. and Kanaya had a red crush on Vriska at the time... the last thing she wants is to be auspistice-zoned! meanwhile, Vriska is becoming less and less interested in Eridan anyway because she's got her own unhealthy fascinations with certain people. so like, Kanaya wouldn't even be acting as a proper auspistice anyway... she wouldn't be helping to calm a volatile rivalry, she'd be trying to force a lackluster relationship to continue. that's like, the opposite of how it's supposed to be!

literally the only one of these that might've worked is Karkat as his moirail, because Karkat is amazing at giving advice, and dealing with difficult people's bullshit without getting sucked into too much drama. but like... that's probably the one relationship out of all of these that started from genuine charisma between two people, rather than Eridan deciding who he wanted to pursue based on a checklist of socially advantageous qualities. at least with that, it's implied that Karkat also likes talking to Eridan... like, both of them are getting something out of this. in all other cases, Eridan isn't even in it for the romance. he's in it to gain validation by living up to a societal standard.

it's only after our 12 trolls end up on the meteor after their SGRUB session that Eridan starts getting all weird about dating people other than the specific four he was already interested in. and that's specifically because there are now only 12 trolls left that exist. these people are the only ones left, so if he can't get a relationship to work with any of them, that's that. so basically, when pesterquest characterizes him this way, even though he still lives on a fully populated Alternia... why is he acting like that?

Eridan needs to learn how to actually put something into a relationship that he wants to get something out of. and to do that, he needs to believe that he has value beyond his status, and that it's possible for people to be motivated by more than class politics and spite. he treats people exploitatively because he expects them to try and exploit him just as badly... it's not just about fixing bad behavior. it's about him learning to put in work, and give another person reasons to like him, without feeling like a sucker for conceding any ground. the more defensive he gets, the worse he is.

and pesterquest messed up Jake's route too! what is it about hope players that stumps people like this?? I get that Jake is tricky, but jeez... I won't get into it as much, but Jake is always masking what he really feels, and the way his route handles him makes him seem like he's acting equally neutrally friendly to each of the other alpha kids. but then it implies that his true feelings are that he considers all three of his friends' romantic interest in him to be equally serious, and equally unwanted. that is... blatantly untrue. he knows Roxy might find him attractive but won't make a genuine move on account of Jane. she literally drunkenly told him so. and Roxy also drunkenly told Jake that Jane likes him. meanwhile, he also pretty much knows that Dirk had a crush on him when they were kids, but back then he kind of shut it down, or at least sent mixed signals, because he wasn't confident about having a crush on a boy. now Dirk himself is not confident that Jake actually likes him, and is trying to back off because he feels like his younger self was overly aggressive, but the AR is still as brazen as Dirk used to be when pursuing Jake, so it kind of undermines that attempt. still, Jake feels like he might've already come off poorly to Dirk. he does like him though... and he knows that Jane has a crush on him, and doesn't want to be the one who disappoints her, so he weasels his way out of addressing it. that is the deal with the alpha kids. not Jake just kind of bemoaning the fact that all of his friends are in love with him and he's not down for anything. so once again, we see a pesterquest route written on the basis of mistaken assumptions.

sorry for going on and on and on... I just find all of this so frustrating. half the characters are only the fan interpretations of themselves, and MSPAR sucks, and the meta is confusing, and... I wish it was good but it's not.

I love you for this ask anon, I never played friendsim but I did see a lot of people who tuned into all the friendsims express annoyance over the way Reader was portrayed in pesterquest. I can't even remember what happened in the Jake route bc I'm tired but it definitely could've been better.

Imo, best alpha kid routes go from: Roxy, Jane, Jake, and Dirk (half his route wasn't even dedicated to him lol rip)

#long post /

44 notes · View notes

murphystartedthefire · 4 years ago

Photo

Okay it’s been some time, I’ve had some days,

MEMORI FINALE DISCOURSE ANONS LET’S GO

My feelings are mixed! They really are. My overwhelming finale reaction was “huh, I guess that wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been” followed by a long, numb, aching feeling in my chest, followed by peace, followed by “they can still grow babies on Bardo though, can’t they?” (that’s a side conversation)

So I’m not telling ANYONE else how to feel, because I’m still sorting my own feelings out. I certainly appreciate that this is a hard ending to swallow for Murphy fans who don’t like Memori. Remember, even for you it’s not as bad as it could’ve been since he’s alive and happy and with everyone else at the end!! But the way he got there basically by accident and was otherwise 100% gonna choose death over living without Emori as the final culmination of his story... not everybody’s gonna find that super romantic and beautiful, especially if you’ve felt for seasons that Murphy’s Epic Love For Emori is not your favorite thing about his character, or you actively think their relationship is unhealthy, toxic, etc.

(I promise I’m only gonna yell SHE’S MADE THAT CHOICE TO SACRIFICE HERSELF AND DIE WITH HIM TOO once. I’ll just say it once. I needed to get it out of my system, it’s my tumblr. I know it’s not the same because they survived all those situations. Then again they also, incredibly, survived this one.)

As someone who does love Murphy’s Epic Love For Emori? And expected it to play a big role in the end of the show, but never imagined it happening like this? Yeah, it got me. It made me cry. It’s making me cry now.

Murphy and Emori are THE love story of “The 100″ for me, the way normal(?) shippers felt about Bellarke or Clexa. Without them I wouldn’t have made this sideblog or ever engaged with this fandom. Without them I would have stopped watching the show pretty early in season 6, if not earlier. I’m not going to act like this conclusion to their arc wasn’t *extremely validating* and emotional for me.

If I have something to criticize about this ending (pre-transcendence epilogue), it’s really a problem that was built up long before the finale and especially in this season. I wish they weren’t so isolated. I wish Emori wasn’t basically the only thing Murphy valued or made his life worth living, ‘cause that was never fair to either of them. I wish their love had made them stronger and more connected to others, instead of constantly just anchored to each other, dead or alive.

“The 100″ might’ve been better overall -- certainly more watchable for me -- if they were part of it and not on a whole other show sometimes. On the other hand, my lizard brain only wants to see them together, so being the center of each other’s world to the very end, to the point where they’re SHARING ONE UNCONSCIOUS BODY, only makes me ship them harder. It’s a double-edged sword.

The whole mind drive thing... you don’t have to think it was the right choice or the healthy choice, even. You just have to get that it was Murphy’s choice, and completely on brand for him. He never wanted to just ‘survive’ if it meant losing her. It was an insane gesture that he committed to with every fibre of his being.

Look, once the mind drive was in Murphy’s head -- once Emori was dead, honestly -- there was no “good” way for it to end. I felt that viscerally as I was watching the episode. (Yes, yes, pre-epilogue, I was proven wrong by magic and aliens.) Murphy could stay in there and die with her, or Emori could push him out and convince him to let her go. He’d still get to say his last goodbyes with her, but she could more firmly insist he needs to move on -- I briefly wondered if that’s how the scene would end.

But I wouldn't BELIEVE Murphy moving on and letting go. I've said in like 20 different posts that the ending I wanted LEAST was for Emori to be killed and shatter Murphy’s soul and force him to be alone. (Not least because holy hell I didn’t want to watch a WOC violently fridged for his survival and character growth.) The second-worst ending to me would be him dying and her surviving.

It wouldn’t work without another full season (at least!) of Murphy coming to terms with Emori's death and finding SOME way to cope and be happy again, which of course in the real world I’d think was possible. In the world of fiction, we didn’t have time for that, and to rush him to the Acceptance stage of grief would be completely unearned.

Seeing Emori all bloody and contorted and glassy-eyed on that table while Murphy falls apart was... so, so fucking awful in a way that’s going to haunt me for a long time. I made a gif set with ONE shot of her in it, and it was somehow the LEAST upsetting one and still like the worst thing I’ve ever put on my blog. It didn’t need to be as ugly and graphic as it was. It did not need to linger on her body that way. But I think *why* they made it like that, besides sadism and shock value, is so even the audience felt his need to undo it and not have that be our last memory of her either.

So yeah... on a gut level, on a story level, it was so satisfying IMO. The goddamn tear of relief and fulfillment falling down his face when he’s holding her again, and he never has to let her go for the rest of his short life. The way that every other Memori scene has led to this. I’ll love you forever, even if we die today. To the anon who asked if you’re a bad person for liking it? You’re a human person responding in the intended way to a love story!!

I like a whole lot of tropes in fictional romances that aren't great or admirable in reality. Is this particular form of attempted “suicide” -- where doing it LITERALLY allowed him to reach her in the mindspace and see the light in her eyes again and spend their last hours/days together in a happy place -- likely to spawn any copycat behavior or ideation? I doubt it, certainly not as much as other triggery crap they’ve done on this show. I'm willing to not worry too hard about whether Memori are Setting a Good Example for how people should react to a loved one's death, and instead be like "Hell yeah those two deserved to go out like Romeo & Juliet, and then be brought back to life just as a bonus anyway.”

It's not REALISM and should not be TREATED as realism, but it was a perfect end to an iconic TV romance where they never could live without each other. That’s where I stand on it right now.

#john murphy #emori #dailymemori #memori #the 100 #the 100 finale #the 100 s7 #meta

44 notes · View notes

yakocchi · 4 years ago

Photo

(I’m the only one who knows Akihiko in this way...)

first i was like ...well i have 100+ tickets saved from that reading promotion so i was like might as well do the sebas route bc i’ve done everyone else’s but now i feel compelled to try rly hard on the election 😔 but the kiss avatars aren’t as cute as the hug ones from last year imo

i did one run on the first day in a hurry to get them all spent before the story fever was done (before i realized all the story fevers will be x3 whoops) so looking back through that rush... this route is not so bad esp. versus the others on the second half (dazai and count)

further rambling behind the cut bc woops i realized i started typing a whole lot omg tried to keep the spoilers (for sebas’ route) as pretty vague but in terms of spoilers for dazai, count, etc. it’s all over

sorry if you don’t like reading run-on sentence hell, but that’s how my stream of consciousness works orz

but i couldn’t help feel like this route was kind of trying its best in getting the reader interested in faust. isn’t as bad as it was in dazai’s route where i feel like some ppl end up just sitting there going “i’d much rather be with charles wtf” lul to me it was like they’re trying to invest some interest in him but are delicate in trying to make him not seem too irrational in his motivations and antagonistic or else they get into a Will situation in which nobody likes him... and then when the route finally comes out ppl are too mad to change their mind lol.

i just feel kinda bothered with the second half routes bc at times they feel like parts of them only serve to introduce the new characters. which is fine, but like... it takes time away from the actual love interest and it’s like “beh this didn’t happen with a good bit of the other characters” u know. i actually think sebas’ route is the best in finding that balance. i mean with the count it’s justifiable that vlad consumes a lot of “space” bc he is a convenient vehicle (a childhood friend) to further understanding why the count is the way he is. charles essentially appears out of nowhere and takes a pretty active role as a rival, which is new for a ikevam route... but as mentioned before has the unfortunate effect of readers perhaps siding with charles instead of dazai. whoops

well thinking about it there’s probably people who read the count’s route and went “well i think vlad might have an actual case here” in terms of the terrible future he foresaw or w/e .......but the writers probably caught on to that and that’s why they threw in the part where he throws the mc through the door where she could’ve died a terrible death. WELL people still choose to stan. somehow. I MEAN with charles he essentially tried to “axe” dazai by trying to “help” him so mc will be all alone for charles to love or w/e but at least that wasn’t violence. honestly i thought charles was going to go apeshit given how the route took a good chunk having charles toil about his past as a killer (as he was an executioner) and how he’s worried that mc will judge and dislike him if she ever finds out about that

ok well with faust and sebas, faust takes up more of a “devil in plain sight” role where you know he’s gonna do something sketchy as shit and either sebas and mc will fall for it. and it’s sebas who really falls for it first but it was for loooooove man. it was very dramatic (given how sebas has that dumb cliched backstory but i like that dumb cliche) but i mean the man’s gotta have a plot somewhere

i’m surprised that vlad doesn’t actually have a proactive role in this route, granted that his route is the very next one in the schedule. i guess writers knew people would be interested in him regardless so they essentially left him out. which is good, more time for faust.

but what really put surprised me is that they threw in another leo and count gay dads moment like the older routes have where the two of them are used to keep the plot moving so the main charas can go ichaicha try to take care of shit in the bg. i thought this one for this route was esp...... a choice. it makes me realize that their bond is something that’s really beyond a simple friendship? probably bc they’re both old purebloods, but even with that... the very few times the readers get to see the friendship between vlad and the count imo it’s always... strange. like i can’t really tell that they’re that close of friends? like yea clearly they were close somehow given that they built the magicke door together but still, it always gave me the “crazy friend but you stick with him bc he’s known you forever” vibe.

like that scene (in the sebas route) where the count finally comes back and leo is the first and only one to greet him at that time... it was very heartwarming in that “old bros” way. you can tell that they really have each other’s back, like that time in the count’s route where the count embarks on vlad’s castle and leo is like “(i’m not going to stop you but) if you don’t come back by dawn... i’m going to go get you. because i, too, cannot die” whew powerful. it’s a nice contrast from when the count was very down after an event in the past and vlad doesn’t really comfort him and actually is more like “you’re weak because of things like this” (not the actual quote but it’s the same gist) lol. like i know why he didn’t support him emotionally because at that point the count was totally not down for vlad’s plans but yeesh

another vague thing from the route... i like how while the count is unavailable, leo more or less takes the helm as the caretaker of the mansion residents. like it’s only a minor part in the grand scheme of things in the route but it’s clear that leo does have great compassion in his heart. in the dazai route too, he’s like the only chara that tries to set dazai straight (albeit for a single scene).

ok thats all i really wanted to say before this becomes some dumb leo woaw we love him essay thanks for reading this garbage lol

#spoilers #ikemen vampire #ikevam #sebastian

39 notes · View notes

whumpster-fire · 4 years ago

Text