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moviemunchies · 5 months ago

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I debated seeing this in theaters, as I don’t always go for this sort of humor, and I could easily dig up the movie later from the library. I wanted to do something this past weekend, though, so a trip to the movies it was!

So! Deadpool 3!

After fixing time to his liking after the events of Deadpool 2, Wade wants to join the Avengers in their timeline. They don’t want him though, and after that rejection, he spirals and finds himself in a dead end job. Until! The TVA grabs him, and an official named Paradox explains that they want to move him to the MCU, as without their Anchor Being, Wolverine, the 20th Century Fox X-Men timeline is scheduled for deletion. Wade decides he wants to save his timeline, so he hops dimensions to find another Wolverine. This only gets him and Logan shunted off into the Void, where the TVA puts discarded people. Now the two of them need to work together to find a way home and save their worlds.

This is a pretty reference heavy story; not only is this the third Deadpool movie, it’s also a send-off, in many ways, to the X-Men universe that 20th Century Fox had built before the company was bought by Disney. It doesn’t quite make peace with the universes, or introduce the X-Men to the MCU, though; for whatever reason, Marvel Studios has been content to tease bringing in the X-Men for years without making any concrete moves towards actually doing so. It does have Deadpool interacting with the Marvel Universe, though, so it’s at least a step in that direction.

You know what? This feels a bit like what DC’s The Flash was trying to be. That movie was pitched and hyped up as a way to reset the status quo of the DC movie universe, and it ended up being completely meaningless in the shuffle of things. None of its events mean anything, as none of the elements of it or changes made in it will be carried over into the reboot that Warner Brothers is doing. This movie isn’t a huge game-changer, either, though I don’t know if it can be, given the nature of Deadpool as a character. And it is a movie that at least feels like it means something to one character, Deadpool himself.

I’m not entirely sure if the mechanics of it all fit, to be honest. Paradox at the TVA heavily implies he knows that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is A Thing, which never seems to be the case in the season of Loki that I saw. And apparently you can use a Doctor Strange-style portals to travel between timelines, which I don’t think fits–Strange learning to travel between different timelines is something he only just learns, with great difficulty in his second film. Continuity nuts may have trouble with this one, then.

Hopping back to the references, though–I don’t know how I feel about it, to be honest. Because I’m someone who has gotten tired of how the MCU, and other media projects, have substituted actual storytelling for intertextuality and fanservice. The MCU will show you bits and pieces hinting at other heroes and villains, who may or may not appear in future films, or they’ll put in characters that are shout-outs to other things. The Illuminati in Multiverse of Madness come to mind: yeah, sure, they’re cool characters, but they don’t do anything other than get killed by Wanda.

This film has several characters appear that are from past Marvel movie serieses that have been canceled, and yeah, it’s nice to see, at the same time… isn’t that the same thing I’ve been complaining about? To be fair, Deadpool is a character who is built on making meta jokes and references, so if there’s a Marvel movie it fits with, it’s a Deadpool movie. And these characters actually do something, unlike the Illuminati. Mostly, they matter to both the narrative and the characters in it. It’s not the annoying way of writing it to say, “Well, they’re from another universe, so no one actually cares what happens to them.”

And what I found interesting, and uplifting about the movie, was how it made this point: a lot of these movies mattered. Yeah, they weren’t perfect, but hard work went into them, and they had their fans who didn’t forget them. The credits have a reel of behind-the-scenes footage from several non-MCU Marvel movies, including Fan4stic, to show that they haven’t been completely forgotten. And I find it a nice gesture.

I am a bit troubled by how disconnected this movie feels from the last two? Domino, Rusty, and Cable aren’t in this movie, and Colossus, Vanessa, and Warhead are barely in it. That latter one makes sense, because Wade is trying to get back to them and save them, though the exclusion of the former means we probably won’t see them again in movies? It’s a shame, because they’re great characters, and I’d hate them to be sacrificed because of the MCU’s weird canon-shuffling. It makes this feel a bit disconnected, and you could watch this movie without having watched previous Deadpool films at all, which is weird.

There’s a lot of funny stuff here, though. Again, I don’t usually go for this sort of humor, but that doesn’t mean it’s not hilarious at times. The montage of Wade going through Wolverines was quite fun, and their interactions–especially as this Logan’s really worn out and tired of life–provide many of the best scenes in the film. And since they both have healing factors, if they get into a fight, they can really go at it, so you never wonder why they haven’t stabbed/shot each other yet. They have! It didn’t stick.

Fight scenes in this movie tend to be good! I liked them. They’re not the best action Hollywood has produced lately, but they’re serviceable, and the final battle was great fun. The filmmakers utilize a cool long shot in that battle to make it memorable.

Paradox is a fun villain, too? A bureaucrat that thinks he’s so much better than the system he’s in, and is willing to do what he wants to prove it, even if it means going behind the backs of his superiors. He’s still overshadowed by Emma Corrin’s Cassandra Nova, though, who is an absolute joy to watch. She is an unhinged villain, and Corrin is clearly having a ball playing her on screen.

Do you like Deadpool? You’ll probably like this movie, though if you’re a mega-fan I suspect you won’t like it as much as the previous films. If you’re a more casual fan, and if you’ve kept up with superhero movies for the past couple of decades, you’ll have a good time. If you’re a massive continuity nut, desperately hoping for the MCU to move forward in some way…I think this is probably not for you.

#Deadpool and Wolverine #MCU #Deadpool #Wolverine #Wade Wilson #Movie Munchies #reviews

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cakeleighh · 3 years ago

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I’m sorry, it’s an addiction, I can’t help but make pointless aus and put too much thought into them. So, behold; a dbd/warrior cats crossover that’s not actually like a dbd /warrior cats crossover.

Sorry for the crappy hand-writing, and any bad gramma / spelling mistakes. I was concentrating on getting the idea down before I passed out

Anyway, getting back on point. I like thinking about what their actual warrior names would be, but considering how many there are and how hard it can be to learn all these new words/combinations, I’ve decided to stick with their actual names. But it isn’t pointless, cuz the vast majority of these cats will come from backgrounds with two-legs instead of from a clan. So they stick to the names they were given.

As for all the designs, I only used my knowledge of cat breeds, and what I could remember from the WCUE editor to help me. I know some people are picky about this kind of stuff, so I’ll say it now, I didn’t look at any online cat OC’s to create these designs, so I’m genuinely sorry if it shows some resemblance to any you’ve created. I was looking at cat breeds, (Eg; Siamese for Ace, tortoiseshell for Nea, Bengal for Jill etc), as well as considering what the customisation in Warrior Cats Ultimate Edition allowed you to do. I was also considering the character’s normal features, like hair colour, clothing, personality. And hey, if anyone wants to nab one of the designs to use, feel free to. I’m probably not gonna do much with the au so it’ll go to waste anyway.

Another thing to note about the designs is that I wanted there to be a defining feature on the cats so it’s a lot easier to tell who is who. For example; Jake’s dark turquoise bandanna, Claudette’s cute vine flower thing, Quentin’s scars. I decided I wanted these because identifying animal versions of characters can be very hard at first, and so having an item that links back to their original character makes it a lot easier for everyone. Although, looking back on it I should’ve probably given Dwight a lil bow-tie, and Steve could’ve had a the sailor’s collar thingy. I’ll probably change it if I draw them again.

As for the story/lore, each got taken very similarly to how they did in the game, except they were cats this time, and so a few details are different. They’re on a semi-large hill surrounded by nothing but fog and mist. There’s barley enough food to sustain one cat in the hill, so they must venture into the fog continuously to either find food or find a way out. They quickly find that it’s not that easy, as many monsters seem to patrol the depths of the fog. Luckily, the monsters only seem to attack one at a time, and so most times they can escape with some food and only a few injuries.

Some cats know some monsters, for example, Quentin knows Freddy, Nancy & Steve know the demogorgan, etc. These cats tend to have a higher chance encountering the monster they know, which can be both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because the cats tend to know the strengths and weaknesses of the allocated monsters. Curse, because most likely than not the monsters hold a big part in some serious trauma with the allocated cats.

I haven’t decided the designs of the killers yet, I don’t even think I’ll stick to cats. Some will be, like Myers and maybe the hillbilly. But I want their designs to completely alienate them from the survivors. For example, the legion can be dogs / wolves. The wraith can be some kind of bird. The trapper can be a fox. And the doctor can be a huge human like normal because his design is already terrifying as it is and it’ll only get worse if I redesign it. Plus the thought of being a cat while being hunted by the doctor is probably scarier than being human and being hunted.

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liesoverthec · 3 years ago

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9-1-1 on FOX Relationship Analysis, season 1 graphics.

- all relationship analysis graphics -

Do not repost my graphics.

More graphics and a discussion/explanation of the data under the cut.

Hi y’all, welcome to the relationship analysis!

The relationship analysis data is a recording of every interaction on the show, who all is in involved in the interaction, and how often that specific combination of people interacted throughout the season. Most of the time, we have more than two characters on screen, so most interactions are between multiple people at once. An important thing to note is that even if the characters aren’t directly and actively contributing to the conversation (eg listening and contributing every once in a while but not doing the bulk of the emotional work), they still get an interaction counted b/c people are ALWAYS building relationships w/ one another, whether or not other people are around. And especially on a show like this, where people are constantly growing and learning (and being traumatized lol), seeing that happen in each other develops their connections and their understandings of one another.

This lends to the data making the most impact when it’s divided into two parts - when two characters are alone together, and when they’re together but other characters are there as well.

Data should be read like - “Bobby and Buck had 15 interactions alone together this season, but another 44 interactions where Hen or Chim or some combination of mains were also there.”

I actually keep detailed notes about where each and every one of these interactions come from, so please feel free to ask me when characters interacted, or just more details about the data collection if you’d like.

Bobby

Alt id: A segmented bar graph showing Bobby’s total interactions in s1 with the other mains. He spent the most time both alone with Buck and overall on the show.

My man Bobbyyyyyyyyyyyyy. The most interesting thing about Bobby is that his interactions are almost ENTIRELY restricted to the 118. No one else on the entire show is QUITE that isolated. It definitely makes sense given the context of the season - Bobby is extremely closed off, and is not inviting relationships beyond the ones he formed through his team being irresistible, until the end of the season, which is actually where ALL of his alone time with Athena comes from (one interaction in ep 9 and then 3 in ep 10). It also makes sense with his and Buck’s stories this season for Bobby to interact the most with Buck - between the sex addict plot, Buck’s first at-work death, and then the development of Buck’s relationship with Abby and him asking Bobby about it.

Also interesting - while Buck had more interactions this season, Bobby had more screen time. Which means that while Buck talked to a larger combination of people, Bobby spent more time than Buck did actually interacting with those people.

Also Bobby is one of only two mains to interact with every single main one on one.

Here’s a final look at how exactly Bobby’s interactions broke down -

Alt id: A bar graph showing Bobby’s most common interaction groups for s1 - he had the most interactions with Hen, Chim and Buck as a group (20 interactions over the season).

As you can see, his top 3 most common interaction groupings all include Buck, which is why Bobby spent more time w/ him than anyone else.

Athena

Alt id: A segmented bar graph showing Athena’s total interactions in s1 with the other mains. She spent the most time both alone with Buck and overall on the show.

There are two things about Athena’s data that I think are worth pointing out. Number one: Athena has the most varied interactions out of any of the mains on the show. This means that out of everyone, she has the most connections, and her personal life is the most developed of the core 6 (duh 😂 but love when the data proves it - esp when she interacts second most w/ Michael TOTAL, which I’m not sure I would have guessed just based on casual watching.) The other thing worth pointing out is that she almost has more interactions where she’s interacting w/ complete strangers than with the other characters of the show. The nature of her being a solo lieutenant isolates her quite a lot.

She has the same thing going as Bobby in regards to screen time however - she might have the second least amount of interactions for the season, but it just means she spends, on average, more time with the people she does interact with.

Here’s a final look at how her interactions broke down -

Alt id: A bar graph showing Athena’s most common interaction groups for s1 - she spent the most time with Hen alone (12 interactions).

In addition to her being so isolated b/c of work, she spends most of her time alone with other main characters when she’s with them - 4 of her 5 most common interaction pairings are with people alone.

Hen

Alt id: A segmented bar graph showing Hen’s total interactions in s1 with the other mains. She spent the most time alone with Athena, but had the most interactions with Buck overall.

Just as with Bobby, most of Hen’s interactions are with the other members of the 118. While Athena spends the most time with Hen, period, Hen spends the most time with Buck, although she is alone with Athena more than anyone else. The interesting thing to me is that I might not have guessed that she spent so much time with Buck, just based on casual viewing, so that was a really interesting reveal in the data! She also actually has the most “home life” outside of Athena and Abby, despite the fact that only ~10% of her interactions aren’t with the other first responders.

Hen is in the opposite boat from Bobby and Athena - she’s higher up on the interaction chart than she is on the screen time chart, which indicates that she spent less time in each interaction on average than other characters did in theirs.

Here’s a final look at how her interactions broke down -

Alt id: A bar graph showing Hen’s most common interaction groups for s1 - she spent the most time with Bobby, Chim and Buck (20 interactions).

As you can see, 3 of her top four interaction groupings include Buck, which is why her relationship with him was her top one for the season!

Chim

Alt id: A segmented bar graph showing Chim’s total interactions in s1 with the other mains. He spent the most time alone with Bobby, but had the most interactions with Hen overall.

Honestly the most I can say about this is yet again that Chim was stiffed in s1. The most interesting thing however, is that through Chim you can see the shift in focus to his and Hen’s friendship as the show goes on - in that most of his interactions come from the last five episodes after he comes back from the rebar, and they start to develop Hen and Chim as a paramedic duo who are a little more independent from the station as a whole. The reason Hen didn’t have most of her interactions with him is that she still had interactions while he was gone 😂

It’s also interesting to me that we literally only see him with Tatiana twice but she creates such a huge impact on him.

Here’s a final look at how his interactions broke down -

Alt id: A bar graph showing Chim’s most common interaction groups for s1 - he spent the most time with Bobby, Hen and Buck (20 interactions).

I’ll be curious to see if Chim’s “number of interactions alone w Buck” goes up once Maddie is introduced or not!

Abby

Alt id: A segmented bar graph showing Abby’s total interactions in s1 with the other mains. She spent the most time both alone with Buck and overall.

I’m going to be really honest with y’all - most of the reason I’m interested in Abby’s data is to see how it compares to Maddie’s. 😂 Abby is an interesting contradiction bc she is at once, got some very developed relationships, but she’s also incredibly isolated. For one, she spends more time talking to strangers than she does to any one main character, which is not true for ANY other main, even Athena who also has a solo job. But then at the same time, she has the second most developed “outside of work” life out of any of the mains.

The most interesting thing here though is that her relationship with Buck is the single most common interaction for the entire season. I know we all know this, but it’s crazy to think about when the second most common interaction is the 118 together, and their number of interactions is that high bc they WORK together, so it’s a mix of professional and personal interactions, whereas Buck and Abby’s relationship is purely personal.

Second most interesting thing would definitely be that even though she spends time with Buck both alone and with others around, she still spends more time talking to total strangers than him.

Here’s a final look at how her interactions broke down -

Alt id: A bar graph showing Abby’s most common interaction groups for s1 - she had the most interactions alone with Buck (22 interactions).

As you can see here, they just. Put so much more work into her relationship w/ Buck even than her relationship with her mom. Most likely bc both Abby and her mom were moving on at the end of ep 10 but it’s still interesting!

Buck

Alt id: A segmented bar graph showing Buck’s total interactions in s1 with the other mains. He spent the most time with Abby alone, but had the most interactions with Bobby overall.

Last but not least! The stark difference between the time he spends with Hen/Bobby and everyone else is so interesting to me, and it’s mostly b/c eps 4 and 5 (while Chim is gone) focus VERY heavily on Bobby, which drags Hen and Buck into more interactions since he’s so isolated from the world and they’re really his only connections.

Bobby and Buck are actually the only relationship where they both have the most interactions with each other (although Buck spends more time alone w/ Abby than he does with Bobby, whereas Bobby is still alone with Buck most). It’s a little hilarious to me though, that they work so hard on the Buck&Abby relationship and then Bobby still ends up being more present in his life, and it feels very indicative of where the series goes next.

Buck is in the same boat as Hen - he has the most interactions out of anyone, but not the most screen time, which means that he’s spending less time interacting with the other characters on average.

Here’s a final look at how his interactions broke down -

Alt id: A bar graph showing Buck’s most common interaction groups for s1 - he had the most interactions with Abby alone (22 interactions).

This breakdown shows a little better why Bobby beat out Abby for relationship development this season with Buck - top interactions 2-4 all include Bobby, which adds up over the season.

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Well, that’s all folks! (If you made it this far, I’m both very impressed and very thankful - I hope it was worth it!)

Please let me know if you have any questions about this, or really anything about the show in general! (Seriously I mean that 😄)

Lots of love, and I’m marginally started on s2 of this, although doing screen time for s5 will probably slow it down, so keep an eye out but not TOO closely! 😂)

🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝

#911 fox #911 relationship analysis graphics #9-1-1 #911 on fox #bobby nash #bobbynashedit #athena grant #athenagrantedit #hen wilson #henwilsonedit #chimney han #chimneyhanedit #abby clark #evan buckley #evanbucklyedit #daily911 #911verse

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impostoradult · 4 years ago

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Media Market Research (and why its undermining all the things you love)

Trying to understand what is dysfunctional about Hollywood is an epic task, and the answers are like the stars – arguably infinite. Hollywood is dysfunctional for literally more reasons than I could count.

But market research plays a fairly heavy role in its dysfunction (IMO) and the time has finally come for me to add my professional two cents about this issue. (This rant of mine has been building for a while, FYI. Hence why it is so...comprehensive. There is a tl;dr section towards the bottom, if you want the high level summary)

*** For the last 4+ years I’ve worked in the field of market research, almost exclusively with major media makers like Warner Bros., NBCU, AMC/BBCA, Viacom, FOX (before Disney acquired them), A+E, etc. (this past year I quit the job where I was doing this work for a variety of reasons, many of which will become clear as you keep reading, but I am still listed as a consultant on the company website): https://www.kresnickaresearch.com/who/ (Rachel)

And just for comparison, here is a Halloween selfie I took 4 years ago and posted on my blog, so you can see I am who I say I am.

I know a fair amount about how market research on major media franchises is conducted and how it influences production, and a lot of these choices can also be at least somewhat tied back to the massive flaws in the market research industry and its impact. *** First, at the highest level, you need to understand market research in general is not well-conducted much of the time. Even the people doing a reasonably good job at it are VERY limited in doing it well because of financial constraints (clients don’t want to spend more than they have to), time constraints (clients want everything done as fast as humanely possible) and just the inherent problems within the industry that are decades old and difficult to fix. For example, all market research ‘screens’ participants to make sure they qualify to participate (whether it is a mass survey, a focus group, a one-on-one interview, etc.). So, we screen people based on demographics like race, gender, age, household income, to get representative samples. But people are also screened based on their consumption habits. You don’t want to bring someone into a focus group about reality TV if they don’t watch reality TV. They aren’t going to have anything useful to say.

However, a lot of the people who participate in market research have made a ‘side-gig’ out of it and they know how to finesse the process. Basically, they’ve learned how to lie to get into studies that they aren’t a good match for because most market research is paid, and they want the money. So, a lot of TV and film market research is being done on people who don’t actually (or at least don’t regularly) watch those shows or movies or whatever but have learned how to lie well enough in these screening processes to make it through. And because of the aforementioned time and money issue, clients don’t want to spend the time or money to actually find GOOD participants. They just accept that as an inevitable part of the market research process and decide not to let it bother them too much. So, a fair number of the people representing YOU as a media consumer are people who may not be watching Supernatural (for example) at all or who watch a rerun occasionally on TNT but haven’t been watching consistently or with ANY amount of investment whatsoever. You can see why that creates very skewed data. But that’s just the tip of the skewed iceberg. *** Second, media market research is conducted in line with the norms of market research more broadly, and this is a huge problem because media is a very atypical product. How people engage with media is far more complex and in depth than how they engage with a pair of jeans, a car, or a coffee maker. There are only so many things that matter to people when it comes to liking or not liking a coffee maker, for example. Is it easy/intuitive to use? How much space does it take it on my counter? How expensive is it? Does it brew the coffee well? Maybe does it match my décor/kitchen aesthetic? Can I make my preferred brand of coffee in it? The things you as a consumer are going to care about when it comes to a coffee maker are limited, fairly easy to anticipate in advance, and also easy to interpret (usually). How people mentally and emotionally approach MEDIA? Whole other universe of thing. Infinitely more complex. And yet it is studied (more or less) as if it is also a coffee maker. This is one of the many reasons I decided to leave the media market research field despite my desire to have some ability to positively influence the process. As so often seems to be the case, I fought the law and the law won. I could never make the other people I worked with in the industry understand that the questions they were asking were not all that useful a lot of the time and they weren’t getting to the heart of the matter. They were just following industry standards because they didn’t know any better and none of them want to admit they don’t REALLY know what they’re doing. Which leads me to point 3. *** Most of the people doing this research don’t have any expertise in media or storytelling specifically. They are typically trained as social scientists in the fields of psychology, anthropology, sociology, or math/statistics. And many of them do not have any kind of specialization or education in media/storytelling beyond the English classes they took in high school and the one Media Studies course they took as an elective in college. Most of them have a very unsophisticated understanding of narrative structure, thematics, tropes, subtext, etc. They mainly think in terms of genres at the VERY broadest level. Also, not infrequently, they don’t watch or have much knowledge of the shows they are supposed to be doing research on, beyond what they’ve read on IMDb or Wikipedia or what is generally common knowledge. Unless they by chance happen to watch the shows themselves (which often they don’t) they often know very little about the shows they are crafting these questions about. Again, partly because they think it is like the coffee maker, and you don’t need to understand it in any depth to research it. (I know this must sound insane to you as avid media consumers, but that is the general attitude among those who do market research) There is such a lack of sophistication in how people in the business side of the industry understand media and storytelling. Most of them are either MBAs or social scientists and their training has not prepared them to examine fictional works with the kind of depth that people in the Humanities (who are specifically trained to study texts) have. Somehow, despite the fact that the Humanities is all about understanding texts, that is the one discipline they make almost no use of in the business side of Hollywood. And boy howdy does it show. *** Point 4 – average consumers CANNOT ARTICULATE WHY THEY LIKE THINGS. Particularly media things. I know this sounds condescending, but it is my honest observation. It is unbelievably hard to get people to have enough self-awareness to explain why they actually like things, especially things as mentally and emotionally complex as media. What typically happens when you ask people why they like a TV show or movie, for example? They will tell you what they most NOTICE about the TV show or movie, or what is distinctive to them about it (which may or may not have anything to do with what they actually LIKE about it). They will say things like “I like the genre”, “I think it’s funny”, “The car chases are exciting”, “I want to see the detective solve the puzzle.” Sometimes you can get them to talk about what they find relatable about it, if you push them a little. But often they leave it at either the level of literal identity (young black woman), basic personality traits (she’s a social butterfly and so am I) or situations they’ve personally experienced (I relate to this story of a man losing his father to cancer because I lost a close family member to cancer). But the vast, vast, vast majority of them can’t go to the deeper level of: a) Why X representation of a young black woman feels accurate/authentic/relatable and Y representation doesn’t b) Why it matters to me that X,Y,Z aspects of my personality, identity, experience get reflected in media whereas I don’t really care about seeing A,B,C aspects of my personality, identity, or experience reflected in media c) How and why they are relating to characters when they can’t see the literal connection between their identity/experience and the character’s identity/experience. (For example, many people have argued that women often relate to Dean Winchester because a lot of his struggles and past negative experiences are more stereotypical of women – being forced to raise a younger sibling on behalf of an actual parent, being seen and treated as beautiful/sexually desirable but vacuous/unintelligent, his body being treated as an instrument for a more powerful group to quite literally possess, etc. Part of the reason Supernatural has always been such a mystery/problem for the CW and Warner Bros is they could never crack the code at this level. Never.) Part of the reason they can’t crack these codes is average people CANNOT give you that kind of feedback in a survey or a focus group, or even an in-depth interview (much of the time). They just don’t have the self-awareness or the vocabulary to get it at that level. Let alone asking them to articulate why Game of Thrones is compelling to them in an era where wealth disparity is creating a ruling class that is fundamentally incompetent at maintaining a just/functional society, which is especially concerning at this particular moment, given the existential threat we face due to climate change. And the truth is, that IS part of what people – even average people – are responding to in Game of Thrones. But what they’ll tell you when you do market research on it is: they like the dragons, they like the violence, they relate to Tyrion Lannister being a smart mouth, maybe they’ll say they like the moral ambiguity of many of the conflicts (if they are more sophisticated than average). But the ‘Dean Winchester is heavily female coded despite his veneer of ultra-masculinity’ or the ‘Game of Thrones is a prescient metaphor for the current political dynamics and fissures of modern western society’ is the level you ACTUALLY need to get to. And most market research can’t get you that because the people ASKING the questions don’t know what to ask to get to this level, and most of the respondents couldn’t give you the answers even IF you were asking them the right questions (which usually you are not) And I’m not saying average people are dumb because they can’t do this. But it requires practice, it requires giving the matter a great deal of in-depth thought, and most people just don’t care enough about it to do that while taking a market research survey. (I know this is going to feel counter-intuitive to people on Tumblr. But you have to remember, you are NOT average media consumers. You are highly atypical media consumers who have far more self-awareness and a much more sophisticated engagement with media than the average person watching TV. If you didn’t, you probably wouldn’t be here talking about it in the first place) Point 4.1 – People also lie/misrepresent their own experiences to market researchers because they want to maintain certain self-narratives. You have no idea how many people would get disqualified from our surveys for saying they watched less than 5 hours of TV a week. And sure, that might actually be true for a few of them. But if you watch TV with any regularity at all (which most people in modern America do) you probably watch more than 5 hours a week. The problem is, people think it makes them sound lazy to say they watch 15-20 hours a week, even though that’s about 2-3 hours a day (which actually isn’t THAT high). People lie and misrepresent their behaviors, thoughts and feelings because it can be socially uncomfortable to admit you do what you actually do or feel how you actually feel, even in the context of an anonymous survey, let alone a focus group or a one-on-one interview. People want to make themselves look good to THEMSELVES and to the researchers asking them questions. But that makes the market research data on media (and lots of other things) very questionable. For example, one finding we saw more than once in the surveys I was involved in conducting was people would radically downplay how much the romance elements of a story mattered to them, even large portions of female respondents. When we would ask people in surveys what parts of the story they were most invested in, romances ALWAYS came out among the lowest ranked elements. And yet, any passing familiarity with fandom would tell you that finding is just WRONG. It’s wrong. People are just flat out lying about how much that matters to them because of the negative connotations we have around being invested in romance. And never mind the issue of erotic/sexual content. (I don’t mean sexual identity here, I mean sexy content). The only people who will occasionally cop to wanting the erotic fan service is young men (and even they are hesitant to do so in market research) and women frequently REFUSE to admit that stuff in market research, or they radically downplay how much it matters to them and in what ways. There is still so much stigma towards women expressing sexuality in that way. Not to mention, you have to fight tooth and nail to even include question about erotic/sexual content because oftentimes the clients don’t even want to go there at all, partly because it is awkward for everyone involved to sit around crafting market research questions to interrogate what makes people hot and bothered. That’s socially awkward for the researchers doing the research and the businesspeople who have to sit in rooms and listen to presentations about why more women find Spock sexier than Kirk. (Which was a real thing that happened with the original Star Trek, and the network couldn’t figure out why) Aside from people not have enough deeper level self-awareness to get at what they really like about media content, they also will lie or misrepresent certain things to you because they are trying to maintain certain self-narratives and are socially performing that version of themselves to researchers. *** Point 5 – Qualitative data is way more useful for understanding people’s relationships to media. However, quantitative data is way more valued and relied upon both due to larger market research industry standards and because quantitative data is just seen as harder/more factual than qualitative data. A lot of media market research involves gathering both qualitative and quantitative data and reporting jointly on both. (Sometimes you only do one or the other, depending on your objectives, but doing both is considered ‘standard’ and higher quality). However, quantitative data is heavily prioritized in reporting and when there is a conflict between what they see in qualitative versus quantitative data, the quant data is usually relied upon to be the more accurate of the two. This is understandable to an extent, because quantitative surveys usually involve responses from a couple thousand participants, whereas qualitative data involves typically a few dozen participants at most, depending on whether you did focus groups, individual interviews, or ‘diaries’/ethnography. The larger sample is considered more reliable and more reflective of ‘the audience’ as a whole. However, quantitative surveys usually have the flattest, least nuanced data, and they can only ever reflect what questions and choices people in the survey were given. In something like focus groups or individual interviews or ethnographies, you still structure what you ask people, but they can go “off script.” They can say things you never anticipated (as a researcher) and can explain themselves and their answers with more depth. In a survey, participants can only “say” what they survey lets them say based on the questions and question responses that are pre-baked for them. And as I’ve already explained, a lot of times these quantitative surveys are written by people with no expertise in media, fiction, or textual analysis, and so they often are asking very basic, not very useful questions. In sum, the data that is the most relied upon is the least informative, least nuanced data. It is also the MOST likely to reflect the responses of people who don’t actually qualify for the research but have become good at scamming the system to make extra money. With qualitative research, they are usually a little more careful screening people (poorly qualified participants still make it through, but not as often as with mass surveys, where I suspect a good 35% of participants, at least, probably do not actually qualify for the research and are just working the system).

Most commonly, when market research gets reported to business decision-makers, it highlights the quantitative data, and uses the qualitative data to simply ‘color in’ the quantitative data. Give it a face, so to speak. Qualitative data is usually supplemental to quant data and used more to make the reports ‘fun’ and ‘warm’ because graphs and charts and stats by themselves are boring to look at in a meeting. (I’m not making this up, I can’t tell you how many times I was told to make adjustments on how things were reported on because they didn’t want to bore people in the meeting). (Sub-point – it is also worth noting that you can’t report on anything that doesn’t fit easily on a power point slide and isn’t easily digestible to any random person who might pick it up and read it. The amount of times I was told to simplify points and dumb things down so it could be made ‘digestible’ for a business audience, I can’t even tell you. It was soul crushing and another reason I stopped doing this job full time. I had to make things VERY dumb for these business audiences, which often meant losing a lot of the point I was actually trying to make) Point 5.1 – Because of the way that representative sampling works, quantitative data can be very misleading, particularly in understanding audience/fandom sentiments about media. As I’m sure most of you know, sampling is typically designed to be representative of the population, broadly speaking. So, unless a media company is specifically out to understand LGBTQ consumers or Hispanic/Latinx consumers, it will typically sample using census data as a template and represent populations that way. Roughly 50/50 male/female. Roughly even numbers in different age brackets, roughly representative samplings of the racial make-up of the country, etc. (FYI, they do often include a non-binary option in the gender category these days, but it usually ends up being like 5 people out of 2000, which is not enough of a sample to get statistical significance for them as a distinct group) There is a good reason to do this, even when a show or movie has a disproportionately female audience, or young audience. Because they need enough sample in all of the “breaks” (gender, race, age, household income, etc.) to be able to make statistically sound statements about each subgroup. If you only have 35 African American people in your sample of 1000, you can’t make any statistically sound statements about that African American cohort. The sample is just too small. So, they force minimums/quotas in a lot of the samples, to ensure they can make statistically sound statements about all the subgroups they care about. They use ratings data to understand what their audience make up actually is. (Which also has major failings, but I’ll leave that alone for the minute) With market research, they are not usually looking to proportionately represent their audience, or their fandom; they are looking to have data they can break in the ways they want to break it and still have statistically significant subgroups represented. But that means that when you report on the data as a whole sample – which you often do – it can be very skewed towards groups who don’t make up as large a portion of the show’s actual audience, or even if they do, they don’t tend to be the most invested, loyal, active fans. Men get weighted equally to women, even when women make up 65% of the audience, and 80% of the active fandom. Granted, they DO break the data by gender, and race, and age, etc. and if there are major differences in how women versus men respond, or younger people versus older people, they want to know that...sometimes. But here’s where things get complex. So, if you are doing a sample of Supernatural viewers. And you do the standard (US census-based) sampling on a group of 2000 respondents (a pretty normal sample size in market research). ~1000 are going to be female. But with something they call “interlocking quotas” the female sample is going to be representative of the other groupings to a degree. So, the female sample will have roughly equal numbers of all the age brackets (13-17, 18-24, 25-34, etc.). And it will have roughly 10% non-heterosexual respondents, and so on. They do this to ensure that these breaks aren’t too conflated with each other. (For example, if your female sample is mostly younger and your male sample is mostly older, how do you know whether it is the gender or the age that is creating differences in their responses? You don’t. So, you have to make sure that all the individual breaks (gender, race, age) have a good mix of the other breaks within them, so groups aren’t getting conflated) But what that means is, Supernatural, whose core fandom is (at a conservative guess) 65% younger, queer, women, gets represented in a lot of statistical market research sampling as maybe 50-100 people, in a 2000-person survey. 50-100 people can barely move the needle on anything in a 2000-person survey. Furthermore, usually in the analysis of data like this, you don’t go beyond looking at 2 breaks simultaneously. So you may look at young female respondents as a group, or high income male respondents, or older white respondents, but you rarely do more than 2 breaks combined. And the reason for that is, by the time you get down to 3 breaks or more (young, Hispanic, women) you usually don’t have enough sample to make statistically significant claims. (It also just takes longer to do those analyses and as I explained in the beginning, they are always rushing this stuff). To do several breaks at a time you’d have to get MUCH larger samples, and that’s too expensive for them. And again, I want to stress, this type of sampling isn’t intended to sinisterly erase anyone. Kind of the opposite. It is intended to make sure most groups have enough representation in the data that you can make sound claims about them on the subgroup level. The problem is that it can create a very skewed sense of their overall audience sentiment when they take the data at ‘face value’ so to speak, and don’t weight segments based on viewership proportion, or fandom engagement, etc. Point 5.2 – Which leads me to my next point, which is that fandom activity that doesn’t have a dollar amount attached to it doesn’t make you a ‘valuable’ segment in their minds. One of the breaks they ALWAYS ask for in data like this is high income people, and people who spend a lot of MONEY on their media consumption. And they do prioritize those people’s responses and data quite a bit. And guess what – young women aren’t usually high-income earners, and although some of them are high spenders on media, high spending on media and media related merch skews toward higher income people just because they HAVE more disposable income. Older white men are usually the highest income earners (absolutely no surprise) and they are more likely in a lot of cases to report spending a lot on the media they care about. Having expendable income makes you more important in the eyes of people doing market research than if you’ve spent every day for the last 10 years blogging excessively about Supernatural. They don’t (really) care about how much you care. They care about how much money you can generate for them. And given that young audiences don’t watch TV live anymore, and they give all their (minimal) expendable income to Netflix and Hulu, you with your Supernatural blog and your 101 essays about Destiel is all but meaningless to many of them (from a business standpoint) Now, some of them kind of understand that online fandom matters to the degree that fandom spreads. Fandom creates fandom. But if the fandom you are helping to create is other young, queer women with minimal income who only watch Supernatural via Netflix, well, that’s of very limited value to them as well. I don’t want to suggest they don’t care about you at ALL. Nor do I want to suggest that the “they” we are talking about is even a cohesive “they.” Different people in the industry have different approaches to thinking about fandom, consumer engagement and strategy, market research and how it ought to be understood/used, and so on. They aren’t a monolith. BUT, they are, at the end of the day, a business trying to make money. And they are never going to place the value of your blogging ahead of the concrete income you can generate for them. (Also, highly related to my point about people lying, men are more likely to SAY they have higher incomes than they do, because it’s an ego thing for them. And women are more likely to downplay how much money they spend on ‘frivolous’ things like fandom because of the social judgement involved. Some of the money gender disparity you see in media market research is real, but some of it is being generated by the gender norms people are falsely enacting in market research– men being breadwinners, women wanting to avoid the stereotype of being frivolous with money) *** In sum/tl;dr: Point 1 – Market research in general is not well conducted because of a variety of constraints including time, money, and the historical norms of how the industry operates (e.g., there being a large subsection of almost professionalized respondents who know how to game the system for the financial incentives) Point 2 – Media is a highly atypical kind of product being studied more or less as if it were equivalent to a coffeemaker or a pair of jeans. Point 3 – Most of the people studying media consumption in the market research field have no expertise or background in media, film, narrative, storytelling, etc. They are primarily people who were trained as social scientists and statisticians, and they aren’t well equipped to research media properties and people’s deeper emotional attachment and meaning-making processes related to media properties. Point 4(etc.) – Average consumers typically don’t have enough self-awareness or the vocabulary to explain the deep, underlying reasons they like pieces of media. Furthermore, when participating in market research, people lie and misrepresent their thoughts, behaviors, and emotional responses for a variety of reasons including social awkwardness and preserving certain self-narratives like “I’m above caring about dumb, low-brow things like romance.” Point 5 (etc.) – Quantitative data is treated as way more meaningful, valuable, and ‘accurate’ than qualitative data, and this is a particular problem with media market research because of how varied and complex people’s reactions to media can be. Also, the nature of statistical sampling, and how it is done, can massively misrepresent audience sentiments toward media and fail to apprehend deeper fandom sentiments and dynamics. There is also a strong bias towards the responses of high income/high spending segments, which tend to be older and male and white. Side but important point – Research reports are written to be as entertaining and digestible as possible, which sounds nice in theory, but in practice it often means you lose much of the substance you are trying to communicate for the sake of not boring people or making them feel stupid/out of their depth. (Because god forbid you make some high-level corporate suit feel stupid) *** What can be done about this? Well, the most primary thing I would recommend is for you to participate in market research, particularly if you are American (there’s a lot of American bias in researching these properties, even when they have large international fanbases). However, some international market research is done and I recommend looking into local resources for participation, where ever you are. If you are American, there are now several market research apps you can download to your smart phone and participate in paid market research through (typically paid via PayPal). Things like dscout and Surveys On the Go. And I know there are more. You should also look into becoming panelists for focus groups, particularly if you live near a large metropolitan area (another bias in market research). Just Google it and you should be able to figure it out fairly easily. Again, it is PAID, and your perspective will carry a lot more weight when it is communicated via a focus group or a dscout project, versus when it is shouted on Twitter. However, that’s merely a Band-Aid on the bigger issue, which I consider to be the fact that businesspeople think the Humanities is garbage, even when they make their living off it. There is virtually no respect for the expertise of fictional textual analysis, or how it could help Hollywood make better content. And I don’t know what the fix is for that. I spent 4 years of my life trying to get these people to understand what the Humanities has to offer them, and I got shouted down and dismissed so many times I stopped banging my head against that wall. I gave up. They don’t listen, mostly because conceding to the value of deep-reading textual analysis as a way to make better content would threaten the whole system of how they do business. And I mean that literally. So many people’s jobs, from the market researchers to the corporate strategists to the marketing departments to the writers/creatives to the C-level executives, would have to radically shift both their thinking and their modes of business operation and the inertia of ‘that’s the way it’s always been done’ is JUST SO POWERFUL. I have no earthly idea how to stop that train, let alone shift it to an entirely different track. BTW, if you want the deeper level of analysis of why I can’t stop rewatching Moneyball now that it’s been added to Netflix, the above paragraph should give you a good hint

#market research #Hollywood #media studies

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ctommy · 3 years ago

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HELLO i am here to give you all arc 1 of my warrior cats dsmp au :-) idc if its cringe im having a good time

ALLEGIANCES:

Dream’s Clan

Leader: Dream- Long-haired solid white tom with green eyes and a scar across his nose

Deputy: Sapspark (Sapnap)- Red and brown tabby tom with amber eyes. Apprentice, Bumblepaw (Tubbo)- small bicolor tabby and white tom with amber eyes.

Medicine Cat: Spiralwish (KarlJacobs)- no description yet!

Warriors: Goodshadow (BadBoyHalo)- Big rusted black tom with long fur and yellow eyes. Antfrost- Siamese tom with blue eyes. Whitestrike (Punz)- Seal point tabby with icy blue eyes. George- Small british shorthair tabby tom with two different colored eyes (blue and brown).

Other members who don’t have names or descriptions yet: Callahan, Sam, Ponk

Rogues/Kittypets:

Soot, later Sootsong (WilburSoot)- Long-haired grey tabby tom with amber eyes. Tommy, later Tommypaw- Young orange tabby tom with bright blue eyes. Fundy, later Foxberry- Smaller-than-average red fox. Eret, later Quailpelt- Long-haired brown tabby with light amber eyes. Niki, later Kestrelpool- Small dilute tortoiseshell molly with white paws and green eyes. Jack- Short-haired white and gray tabby tom with hazel eyes.

Arc 1 Plot Summary

Takes place in the same universe as the Clans in the books :)

PRE-STORY

Dream was a mediator for the modern Clans (think like Tree from recent arcs). Eventually he got fed up with trying to make peace between the Clans so he gathered some cats and left for new territory. They don’t have an official name, so they’re just kinda referred to as Dream’s Clan or Dream’s group. Dream is recognized by StarClan but he declines being given 9 lives or the -star suffix because he wants to be equal with everyone in terms of lives. (DreamXD could be the lives that Dream declined manifested into its own being?!?!? OR the revival book is his leftover lives. I know that’s not how StarClan works but it’d be cool) Sapspark is his deputy, George was a kittypet who became good friends with them so followed when they left, he doesn’t usually act as a full warrior though. He naps a lot :) Goodshadow is Sapspark’s dad, and Bumblepaw is Sapspark’s apprentice and the only apprentice in the Clan.

ARC 1 (Early SootClan)

Soot is a streetcat living in Twolegplace- he knows all the local rogues and kittypets, and a young kittypet named Tommy especially looks up to him. A group of cats moves into the forest nearby, and Soot watches them from afar for a while, trying to gauge what they’re doing there. He speaks to them eventually and decides he wants a Clan as well. He recruits Tommy, then his adopted kit Fundy (who is a full on fox), and they march into the Clan’s new territory and start building a camp. He names himself Sootsong, and Tommy becomes Tommypaw. Fundy becomes Foxberry. Dream’s deputy, Sapspark, and Sapspark’s apprentice, Bumblepaw, find them and try to drive them out of the forest, but Sootsong has a way with words and holds his ground. Sapspark decides that the group isn’t a threat and doesn’t report them to Dream, at least for a while. When he does though, Dream is annoyed that Sapspark didn’t tell him sooner, but agrees that they aren’t a threat and just keeps an eye on them. Bumblepaw hangs around Sootsong’s group sometimes and answers their questions about Clan life, and once Sootsong finds out about the -star leader suffix he changes his name to Sootstar, much to the amusement of Bumblepaw.

Another local cat, Eret, joins, and gets the name Quailpelt. Bumblepaw decides to join them as well, since there’s no apprentices in Dream’s Clan and he wants friends :). Dream finds out about them taking it more seriously and immediately takes a patrol and demands that Sootstar and his “Clan” leave the territory. Sootstar stands firm again, waving Dream off and saying that there’s plenty of room in the forest for both groups. Dream disagrees and tells him they have half a moon to vacate the territory, or his Clan will remove them by force. Once Dream and his cats leave, Sootstar’s group begin training and building up defense in their camp. During the half-moon interim, Dream secretly recruits Quailpelt to sabotage Sootstar’s defense plan. He promises them a position of power in his own Clan in exchange for their assistance. Quailpelt does so, making a hidden passage into the camp.

On the day of the deadline, Bumblepaw and Tommypaw are out on an early hunting patrol when they are ambushed by Dream, Sapspark, Whitestrike, and George. Clearly outnumbered, they hold Bumblepaw hostage and tell Tommypaw to go get his leader. Tommypaw runs back to camp and fetches Sootstar and Foxberry, leaving Quailpelt to defend camp. A short battle ensues, and though Dream’s patrol is winning, they back off unexpectedly and retreat. Sootstar and his companions chase them a distance, believing the battle won. They head back to camp, where Quailpelt is still defending the entrance. Quailpelt congratulates the group and announces that they have been saving a surprise for them. Curious, the group heads into the empty camp. Dream’s patrol bursts from the hidden passage into camp and brings their full force on the group, easily winning the fight with an extra set of paws. Dream and Sootstar have a nasty fight, and at several points Tommypaw attempts to intervene but gets a nick in his ear. Dream holds Sootstar down with a paw on his neck and demands once again for the group to leave. Tommypaw, terrified that Dream is going to kill Sootstar, begs for Dream to listen to him.

Dream obliges, and Tommypaw says that the forest is huge and it’s possible for both groups to expand outward rather than fight over the same territory. Sootstar, unbeknownst to Tommypaw, intentionally set camp within Dream’s borders because he holds a grudge against the Clans and wanted to dismantle the new Clan through conflict. Sootstar doesn’t reveal this, but he does hiss at Tommypaw to be quiet. Tommypaw continues anyway, offering to scout out nearby territory for the groups so they can live in peace. Sootstar interjects, saying that he will not give up the camp they built. Dream is annoyed that they won’t just move to new territory, but Tommy, scrambling to appease both leaders, points out that the camp is in an unused part of Dream’s territory anyway and Dream’s group hadn’t even been around long enough to get familiar with it before Sootstar’s group moved in. Dream has a discussion with his Clanmates. Sapspark personally doesn’t want any actual harm to come to Bumblepaw, his old apprentice, and pushes Dream towards allowing the group to keep their camp and have both groups expand outwards.

They end up going with this solution. Dream says that he’s still going to keep a very close eye on Sootstar’s group, and tells them to watch their paws. The group leaves, and Quailpelt, unsure of where to go, hesitates for a moment before Sootstar hisses at them to leave and never come back. The rest of Sootstar’s group is hostile toward them as well, so they leave with Dream’s group.

In the aftermath, Sootstar reprimands Tommypaw for speaking out of turn, and assigns him the sole duty of cleaning/repairing the camp from the battle.

There’s a lull in conflict for a while while both Clans scout out and settle into their new territory :). Tommypaw officially becomes Sootstar’s apprentice, Dream’s Clan becomes DreamClan (maybe something else) and Sootstar’s Clan becomes SootClan. Bumblepaw continues to teach SootClan about how actual Clan life works and introduces them to StarClan. Sootstar doesn’t believe in StarClan so he doesn’t get 9 lives, and doesn’t appoint a deputy. Sootstar also recruits a few more local kittypets, a molly named Niki who earns the name Kestrelpool, and a tom named Jack. SootClan slowly becomes more and more like a real Clan, with Kestrelpool becoming their medicine cat.

Arc 2 coming sooooon perhaps maybe. its gonna be kinda tricky lol

Character description inspiration here!

#dsmp #dream smp #dsmp warriors au #warrior cats #warriors #txt #long post /

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nautiscarader · 3 years ago

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@billythesquid1 proposed: "White Kwismas" with Yugo and Amalia,

(Ao3), Yumalia, G

=================

- Oh, yeah!

Yugo's cheerful cry awoken the entire house and all of its guests, and a moment later, it became obvious what drove the young Eliatrope to such mood. When Alibert looked through the window, he thought his eyesight worsened, but after a moment, he realised what caused his illusionary-blindness.

Snow!

Soon, Yugo's cheers were joined by those of Elely, Flopin and Chibi, followed by slightly older guests, Ruel, Tristepin, and Eva, all looking outside at how Emelka has transformed overnight.

It took Yugo only a moment to put on warmer clothes and jump outside into a pile of fresh snow, making snow angles, together with his three younger friends that soon joined him, quickly getting reprimand about staying too long in the cold snow from their parents.

But it didn't take long for Eva and Tristepin to change their mind, together with their clothes, and before they knew it, they were constructing a huge snow-man in the front of Alibert's inn.

It wasn't until his dad prepared cups of hot cocoa that Yugo realised that someone has been missing, and it was the one person he would cherish the most sitting next to.

- Wait, where's Amalia?

At once, Evangelyne shot Yugo with uneasy, pitiful looks.

- Yugo, you do realise this isn't exactly Amalia's favourite season, right? - she answered quickly and watched as embarrassment dawns on him - I mean, the whole place is underneath snow... And she is a Sadida, being in sync with all the nature that's alive... I gave her my spare winter shoes, and I think she went into the forest...

At once, Yugo jumped from his seat, and in a blink of an eye disappeared into his blue portal, arriving a few hundred yards away. He didn't have to look long for her, kneeling on the bank of the river, paying attention to something on the ground.

- A-Ami! - Yugo landed and ran towards her - Look, I'm-I'm sorry that- - Ssh, Yugo - she interrupted him, never taking her eyes from something on the ground she was taking care of. - Look...

Yugo took a step closer and noticed that Amalia kept her hands around a single flower that pierced through the thick snowy layer and sprouted next to the frozen river.

- It's... it's beautiful. - They're called snowdrops. Looks like this one awoke early...

Amalia spoke softly, without taking eyes from the plant she took care of. It took Yugo another long moment of silence to gather his thoughts and courage to speak.

- Look, Ami, I-I haven't given this much thought, inviting you for Kwismas... Like, I didn't expect THIS much snow! - he waved his arms in frantic apologies - I... I just wanted to spend some time with you...

Amalia turned her face towards Yugo, showing that the endings of her green hair turned white.

- I know, Yugo. Thank you. I-I knew you didn't mean to offend me.

She turned sharply towards him.

- But if Eva didn't give me those furry boots and dress, we'd be talking differently!

Yugo shied away, trying to come up with a response to her faux aggravation.

- The whole snowy season, it's... making me feel lonely. I.. I can't find a place for myself, with the whole nature dead... - But it's not! - Yugo quickly countered - There's lots of animals and plants still alive in the forest.

Amalia raised her brow.

- Ami, I can see Wakfu. - he reminded her - There's like, a dozen of squirrels on every tree, and a family of foxes over there, and... I don't think that snowdrop is the only one.

Yugo pointed towards the other side of the river, where another small bud was piercing its way through the snow.

- Do you want to find more?

Amalia smile and nodded, grabbed his hand, and the two ventured deeper into the forest.

By the time Amalia and Yugo returned from the woods, the three-layer snowman (with face suspiciously similar to Ruel's) was finished, and the Percedal family were on their second cup of cocoa, admiring their joined work.

- Hey, Yugo's back! - Flopin noticed - And he brought auntie Amalia. - Why do they look so happy? - Elely raised her brow, much to her mother's amusement. - I see someone's in back in Kwismassy mood. - she spoke, gathering Amalia's attention. - Oh, well, I wouldn't want to miss the feast, that would be very un-princess-like...

She sent her friend a wink.

- Hey, Yugo, do you want to play snowballs? - Elely interrupted the two. - Amalia can be on your team. - I don't know if Auntie Amalia would like to deal with snow... - Flopin quickly nudged his sister. - Oh, don't worry. - a sly smile appeared on Amalia's face. - One has to remember that nature doesn't die during winter...

She lifted her leg, slipping her foot from the warm boot and pressed it into the thick snow underneath her. At once, three enormous snowdrops erupted from the ground.

- It merely... waits.

Flopin and Elely noticed too late the amount of snow that gathered on the plants' flowers, before Amalia commended their stems to bend back like catapults, sending several white bullets towards the entire Percedal family, officially opening the snowball season.

#yumalia #nautiscaraderfics #yugo #amalia #wakfu

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6480n · 4 years ago

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Looking for fellow creatives for a fantasy project!!

Hi all! I’m looking for other people who might be interested in collaborating on a hobby world-building project. !!Please help me find people by reblogging this post!!

[ID: Sketch of someone waving cheerfully at the viewer. end ID]

This world is designed to be the basis for a magic-based, multiplayer platformer fantasy game similar in ways to Maplestory and Fantasy Life, where the player character travels throughout various cool and magical realms. If you want to learn more about the world, please check out the information under the “read more” (I didn’t want the post to get too long).

Some stuff about me: I’m a Thai-American genetics student/researcher with heavy interests in evolutionary biology and Southeast Asian culture. I like to draw/design in my free time. I’m looking for people who are interested in contributing (to any degree), especially those who have an interest in biology, ecology, or sociology/anthropology. I would love to be able to work with other people from cultures that are underrepresented in the fantasy genre (though ofc not a requirement). No skills necessary!!! I'm able to handle all the art and visual design load on my own, I'm just looking for anyone imaginative!

I tend to be very realism-focused, so I’m hoping that input from others will help this world blossom into a more fantastical, wondrous setting. You don’t have to commit to anything--if you want, you can just hang around a bit and see if it interests you, or just provide input once in a while.

This is currently just a fun side-project that I work on in my spare time. I want to make it clear that even though I’m designing it with a videogame in mind, there really is no guarantee that it would ever get to that point, and I don’t want anyone to join with the hope that it would eventually pay off monetarily. I’ll make sure that anyone who contributes heavily will get a say in where the project eventually goes, if it turns out to last long.

Please contact me on Tumblr or Twitter to get involved! I plan on making a Discord server to keep all our collaboration in one place, invites given by PM.

[All images described in alt-text]

The premise of the world is that flora and fauna are not separate beings, but instead that all animals start their lives as plants, turn into animals, and then at death they create seeds which sprout into new plants. People also go through this life cycle--when they start out life they’re the huge, slow-growing plants that provide the structure for complex ecosystems (pine trees, kelp, huge cactuses), and then when they become people, their community cares for the ecosystem in question.

--MAIN GOALS-- - To build a work in the fantasy genre that rejects the overwhelmingly common eurocentric and often colonialist setting, as well as incredibly popular westernized systems of fantasy morality (light v. dark, demons v. angels, etc) - To portray fictional cultures in a way that highlights the incredible diversity of IRL cultures without stereotypes or homogeneity - To show the interconnectedness of everything, including showing different groups of humans as being connected with each other and showing humans as part of the environment; actively rejecting contemporary notions of “mastery over nature”

!!Everything below here is subject to change!!

Since I’m heavily interested in evolutionary bio, I built the biology of this world on the premise that life evolved much like it did on our world, starting from a single organism and blossoming out into different branches. Humans, or rather “people”, evolved multiple different times whenever a complex, dense ecosystem arose. Here are the groups of people I’ve come up with. The player chooses which species they want to start out as, and the dominant weapons or magic style of that culture determines the combat style they first learn to use. (Each group of people has multiple different subcultures, but there would be one “main” subculture that players start out in.)

Merfolk/seafolk:

Perhaps some of the earliest peoples, seafolk start their lives as kelp and inhabit the thick kelp forests that surround many coastlines. They have a love for exploration and discovery, but generally avoid encroaching on land. Their magic generally has to do with water, and the weapons they use are mechanical crossbows and heavy blunt weapons (blunt weapons integrated with controlling/redirecting the flow of water to lend force to blows). I haven’t figured out which real-world cultures to draw on for inspiration for seafolk societies, since nobody IRL lived underwater, of course. This is probably the most open-ended group of people. They’re visually based on fish and salamanders.

Frostfolk:

These people start their lives as conifers and thus inhabit the taiga and tundra. Their magic mostly has to do with ice, cold, or wind, and their main weapon of choice is spears. In this group of people, I want to have different societies: a nomadic hunting/fishing society, a nomadic pastoral society, and a more sedentary river/forest-based society. They’re based visually on dinosaurs, specifically theropods, with perhaps more bird-like features.

(No name yet):

Related to frostfolk but now geographically isolated from them, these people start their lives as cycads and live in the tropics, especially on chains of islands. Some subcultures would be highly seafaring, while some would be more sedentary and involved with metal-working and smithing. For the sedentary cultures, their magic would revolve around utilizing fire, and weaponry would be small blades made from obsidian. They are also based on theropods, but would have more vibrantly colored feathers like tropical birds.

Dustfolk:

Based on carnivorous mammals, mainly cats, foxes, and coyotes, these peoples start their lives as succulent plants like giant cacti. They inhabit the deserts and canyons of the world and live a largely nomadic life. Their magic has to do with wind/sandstorms, and their main combat styles are focused on hand-to-hand combat, utilizing claw or knuckle weaponry.

Plainsfolk/brushfolk(?):

These people start their lives as deciduous trees, generally as part of savannas, or sparse forests on mountainsides. They are based visually on ungulates, mainly deer/antelope, goats, and pigs/boars. I plan to have a semi-nomadic subculture in the dry savanna, a more sedentary agricultural society in the tropical savanna, and a mountainous society. Their weaponry would use a combination of sword and shield, and they would utilize light magic by way of reflective metal or glass.

(No name here either... they’re humans):

Finally, there would be a species of primate-based people that start their lives as broadleaf evergreen trees and inhabit the tropical jungles of the world. Many of their societies would be agricultural, with some fishing river-based cultures. Their magic would be related to monsoons and thunderstorms, especially lightning magic, and they would use long, thin blades for fighting.

---

In addition to the "main" cultures of the world, there would be many cultural centers where multiple peoples meet and trade food, goods, and technology. People will not be divided by nation borders or "species".

Currently, my idea is that combat is used to battle metaphorical representations of disease, malaise, generally bad and imbalanced things. I haven't developed this part of the storyline too much yet, I just know some thematic goals I might have.

In addition to combat (either physical or magical-based depending on the player's preference), players would be able to pursue a few different skills, like farming/breeding using a robust genetics system, tailoring/clothes-making, furniture/crafts-making, smithing, healing, cooking; as well as more "meta" hobbies like making maps and puzzles for other players to use.

Again, if you're interested in getting involved or have any questions, you can reach out to me here on Tumblr or on Twitter. If people do end up being interested, I'd like to make a small community on Discord to chat with! Edit: We do have a discord server now, you just have to ask to join!

#artists on tumblr #world building #fantasy #character building #speculative biology #brainstorming #game design #fantasy world #can't think of any other tags #ive never tried putting out a post like this before so i wonder how much of a long shot it is #spec bio #speculative evolution #ecology

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nileqt87 · 3 years ago

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Ramblings about Lucifer referencing Bones, “Close your eyes.” and shows influencing each other

That was never just a Bones reference being made and the season finale admitted it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv_1dJk5yEM

David Boreanaz played the ironically-named Angel on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: the Series. His character has *so many* parallels with Lucifer (far more than Booth outside of the law enforcement/crime procedural connection).

Angel's spinoff also has noir crime drama aspects mixed with the supernatural starring an immortal protagonist with a dark past and infamously villainous reputation fighting evil as a supernatural private detective in the City of Angels (a city known for its dark underbelly juxtaposed with fame and glamor, broken dreams and chasing eternal youth) and navigating human law (including the LAPD and evil lawyers) while not legally existing.

Angel also fell in love with a blonde human heroine (Buffy Summers) after lifetimes of self-destructive, not-so-heroic behaviors (getting his soul back did *not* make Angel a hero and human Liam was a lecherous drunk with unfulfilled ambitions and father issues) who inspired him to become a better man and make human connections.

AtS made heavy use of sprawling nighttime Downtown L.A. cityscape shots, which Lucifer also shared an abundance of.

During both of their first cases, they failed to save the troubled blonde girl they were trying to help (Tina and Delilah, respectively). They also have a connection inside the LAPD through a blonde cop who also takes their identity secrets pretty badly (Kate Lockley in Angel's case).

Note that Buffy not only screamed (twice, given it repeated during her memory loss in Halloween), but also came after Angel with a crossbow when she thought he'd attacked her mother (it was Darla), so Chloe taking the Devil face reveal (Monster Reveals are iconic old horror imagery) poorly to the point of considering poisoning is par for the course. However, it only took Buffy seven episodes instead of three seasons to get the identity reveal via seeing the horrific second face (arguably also an accident on Angel's part).

They are metaphorically or literally Hell's angels. They also had long stays in Hell or a hell dimension.

Lucifer and Angel are also both Prodigal Sons with long-held grudges against their long-absent fathers (patricide in Liam/Angel(us)'s case) and they're later faced with a situation where they have unexpected, thought-impossible offspring who show up as adults (neither got to raise their miracle child) wanting revenge. Yup, major Connor/Rory parallel there.

Angel is also in a constant struggle with the Powers that Be manipulating his fate and free will (like Lucifer, he's a champion of free will no matter the cost) and making him prophecy's bitch.

Bones famously got jokes about how Booth is Angel getting his Shanshu (made human), since the character is given constant Angel-isms like references to a dark past having killed people (Booth is also named after a historical murderer, in addition to having been a sniper), both being Catholics full of Catholic guilt (note that the Buffyverse is most accurately polytheistic, though Angel does face off against a take on the antichrist--Angel has constant biblical imagery/themes and not just because of vampire iconography), kicking down doors (just not off their entire frames--LOL), turning on a dime and threatening people up against walls, constant wink-wink references to the Buffyverse (familiar casting, references to the Hyperion Hotel, etc...), etc...

The Lucifer finale used the words "Close your eyes." right before Lucifer is sent to Hell. This is literally the BtVS season 2 finale where Buffy kisses Angel and sends him to hell for a century with a stab to the gut (see the season 5 finale, not to mention Lucifer giving up his life for Chloe's à la I Will Remember You).

Note that D.B. Woodside was on BtVS (playing Robin Wood, whose Slayer mother Nikki Wood was killed by Spike). Aimee Garcia was in both episodes of AtS (Birthday--she's older than she looks!) and Bones. See her also playing a cross-wearing religious girl on Supernatural who was slaughtered in a police precinct by Lilith. Kevin Alejandro was also in an episode of Bones.

Tricia Helfer was in an episode of Supernatural playing a ghost who reenacts the night of her death every year. BtVS also had an episode along those lines, but with Buffy and Angelus possessed (not to mention Phantom Dennis!). Lucifer having Dan as a ghost is yet another thing they all have in common (ditto referencing Ghost, Patrick Swayze and/or Unchained Melody--Vincent Schiavelli a.k.a. Ghost's subway ghost was Jenny's uncle Enyos, whom Angelus killed).

Lucifer name-checked Castiel and Supernatural referenced Lucifer using their Lucifer (crime-fighting angel in L.A. made it a double-reference whammy). Supernatural returned the favor again by having Castiel forced to sing in Enochian. Lucifer's reference to his singing voice was already a zing about Misha Collins having to put on that monotone gravel voice and Enochian being far from melodious.

Russell T Davies was quite heavily inspired by the Buffyverse when he revived Doctor Who and spun off Torchwood, so there are absolute tons of Buffy, Angel and Spike respectively in Rose Tyler, the 9th/10th Doctors, Captain Jack Harkness and Captain John Hart (right down to the actor). School Reunion is the episode where the Buffyverse inspiration is most on the nose, complete with Anthony Stewart Head saying "shooty dog thing" in a school setting and a Mayor/Angel-esque speech about the curse of immortality. The Time War gave the Doctor a huge genocide-level guilt complex. Note that the creator of DC comics' version of Lucifer, Neil Gaiman, has also written for Doctor Who and is also the co-creator of Good Omens (the show is brimming with Doctor Who Easter eggs thanks to David Tennant). A barely-recognizable Tom Ellis played Martha Jones' ex-fiancé Tom Milligan during the Year that Never Was, as well.

A lot of shows take inspiration from the Buffyverse and you've probably seen some of them. It isn't just the copycat vampire romance stories either.

Angel's forerunners in turn were a mix of guilt-stricken, rat-eating Louis de Pointe du Lac (his Jekyll/Hyde-esque alter-ego Angelus is closer to the pre-retcon, fully-evil Lestat de Lioncourt, who got woobified into an antihero rocker not unlike Spike--the entire Fanged Four mirror Anne Rice's character lineup), sword-wielding, immortality trope-influencers Connor/Duncan MacLeod of Highlander fighting for the Prize of humanity (akin to Pinocchio becoming a "real boy"--see also Barnabas Collins of Dark Shadows, though he was before vampires became antihero superheroes, not just sympathetic antivillains) and Nick Knight of Forever Knight (vampire detective).

Additionally, Tom Welling was famously the longest-serving Clark Kent of them all (Smallville) on the old WB (there's that DC comics connection, too), so it's not just a Fox shows thing (though Fox, not just Warner Brothers, did indeed own the Buffyverse). One of the least-known things about Clark is that he also has an immortality problem where he wouldn't age parallel to Lois (they wouldn't be able to have kids either) without a workaround. The Kryptonite line directed at Cain/Pierce by Lucifer was quite on the nose! Lucifer and Smallville sort of crossed over even further in Crisis on Infinite Earths, so Tom is canonically the face of both Clark and Cain in parallel universes of the DC multiverse.

Supernatural had quite recently had their own takes on Cain (played by Timothy Omundson, who also played God Johnson) and the Mark of Cain when Lucifer did it. Dan's killer Le Mec was, of course, Rob Benedict, who was God a.k.a. Chuck Shurley, the ultimate villain of Supernatural. Richard Speight, Jr., who was archangel Gabriel/Loki the Trickster, directed a lot of Lucifer's later episodes in addition to being a prolific Supernatural director.

Supernatural and Lucifer use the exact same font for their titles (Supernatural Knight).

The X-Files (which Supernatural referenced constantly) and Supernatural also had stories about nephilim (see the apocryphal Book of Enoch). Lucifer ultimately had two nephilim (forbidden interspecies offspring of angels and humans), even if not saying so as a known concept. Connor can also be compared to the vampire equivalent of being something like a dhampir, though he's not quite that (mostly-but-not-quite-human offspring of two vampires instead of a human/vampire hybrid--see Blade for an actual dhampir). Supernatural has also covered the even rarer cambion species (human/demon hybrid).

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warriorsbutnotreally · 4 years ago

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Tigerstar And Bluestar Switch Lives/Parents AU

This one is long and complicating

huge warning for Thistleclaw being abusive towards Bluefur in this AU as well as creepy/bloody nightmare imagery!

this is also a long one, but I stop after TPB to avoid to turning into its own giant story sfadkj

Tigerkit [who here is a dark blue-gray tabby with black stripes] and Snowkit are born to Moonflower and Stormtail. Stormtail is rarely around and Tigerkit grows resentful. Even more so when he hears Goosefeather calling him a curse.

Moonflower shushes her brother and scolds him for saying such a thing about her kits

Snowkit, trying to cheer her brother up, has the two running around and playing in the medicine cat den while Goosefeather is out

Snowkit swallows two poppy seeds after Tigerkit dares her. As in canon, they’re caught and Goosefeather assures Snowkit will be okay

Tigerkit blames himself but Moonflower comforts her son and assures him all will be well

Not too long after, Leopardkit and Patchkit become Leopardpaw and Patchpaw.

Moons later, Poppydawn and Speckletail’s kits are born Speckletail names her kits Lionkit and Goldenkit Poppydawn names Sweetkit and lets Snowkit and Tigerkit name the other two. Sweetkit gives Rosekit her name for her rosy tail, but Tigerkit’s first suggestion - Burrbutt - is rejected. He settles on naming the spiky tom-kit Burrkit.

Tigerkit has a bad dream brought on by the whispers he had heard from Goosefeather and wakes up late at night. He stumbles out of the den and bumps into Sunfall. Sunfall comforts the kit before sending him back into the nursery.

It isn’t long after when Tigerpaw and Snowpaw are made apprentices. Snowpaw is given Sparrowpelt and Tigerpaw is given to Thrushpelt. Thrushpelt is patient and kind with Tigerpaw, even when the apprentice is first throwing fits.

There are whispers of WindClan stealing prey

After a good hunting trip, Tigerpaw is taken to his first gathering. He begs until Snowpaw is allowed to join.

The two return, excited about their first gathering

Goosefeather receives the sign from the vole

The invasion of WindClan goes the same, including Moonflower’s death

Seeing Moonflower’s death, Tigerpaw is furious. He attacks the medicine cat, only to be dragged off by Thrushpelt. Tigerpaw screams and cries as he calls Hawkheart a murderer.

Back at camp, he screams at his father, Stormtail, calling him a coward and accusing him of never loving Moonflower

Swiftbreeze screams at Goosefeather and it takes Pinestar, Sunfall, and Thrushpelt to stop any more violence

Sunfall takes Tigerpaw to the side and the two talk

Tigerpaw asks if it’s his own fault that his mother died and Sunfall assures him that it isn’t anyone’s fault

Tigerpaw personally blames Hawkheart, but doesn’t say so

Moons later and he’s still struggling with the loss of his mother and this has turned into anger issues, with him lashing out at others and even getting into a physical fight with a WindClan apprentice while at a gathering Leaving him temporarily banned from gatherings, though the ban was close to lifting

By now the kits - Lionkit, Goldenkit, Burrkit, Rosekit, and Sweetkit - were apprentices - Lionpaw, Goldenpaw, Burrpaw, Rosepaw, and Sweetpaw Patchpaw and Leopardpaw were also now Leopardfoot and Patchpelt

Sunfall had teamped up with Thrushpelt at this point to keep an eye n Tigerpaw, who was growing more and more frustrated

After an argument with his sister, Snowpaw, Sunfall and Thrushpelt take him aside and talk with the apprentice

There is a lot of yelling on Tigerpaw’s end before he ends up breaking down, claiming it wasn’t fair that his mother died and that everyone could just move on with their lives like everything was okay

Thrushpelt, after this, takes Tigerpaw out on expeditions where he allows the apprentice to be alone with his feelings without the pressure of their Clanmates and helps him go through the process of grief

It’s quite rough for a while, but he does eventually begin to show improvement

At the gathering where Tigerpaw is allowed, he notices a strange RiverClan tom with a twisted jaw. He isn’t interested in speaking with him, but finds himself jealous when Goldenpaw decides that she’ll talk to the tom then Oakheart, Crookedpaw’s brother, is announced a warrior and Raggedpelt is announced as ShadowClan’s new deputy

He reluctantly joins the conversation and the three end up having a good night together, though once it ends, Tigerpaw is very aware that the RiverClan apprentice cannot be his friend

As he heads back to camp, he notices how Snowpaw and Burrpaw seem close and he wonders if his sister likes Burrpaw

During a battle training, Tigerpaw accidentally hurts Goldenpaw, the two having gotten carried away while fighting He apologizes endlessly and after she assures it’s okay, Thrushpelt points out that he seems to care for her

Tigerpaw is flustered and angry, but Thrushpelt assures he wasn’t teasing the apprentice, but was simply happy that he seemed to be making friends

At first he is hesitant to accept that it wasn’t him being picked on, but after he thinks on it, he knows Thrushpelt wouldn’t do that to him

When they all return to camp, there is a warning that RiverClan is trying to take sunning rocks

Tigerpaw is ready to jump into battle, but is stopped by Sunfall, who tells Tigerpaw that strong apprentices need to stay behind in case anything happens to the queens and their kits

He sees through the deputy, however, knowing that this is the bright-furred tom’s way of stopping the apprentice from having to deal with any more death or loss However, he still takes it seriously enough to sit outside the nursery

Goldenpaw joins him, though she wasn’t told to, just casually stating that she wanted to learn how to defend the Clan by the best apprentice she knew

Tigerpaw is flustered by this

When the Clan returns, Tigerpaw is quick to notice his sister had been hurt. He goes to comfort her, but is told to back off by Burrpaw, who shoots him a nasty look before guiding Snowpaw to the medicine cat den

One day, while out hunting, Tigerpaw meets a strange tom who he quickly realizes is a kittypet. Tigerpaw is about to fight this stranger when Pinestar stops him and escorts him back home. Tigerpaw is sus about Pinestar

Tigerpaw and his sister go out hunting and while he’s half-way through apologizing for his shitty behavior, the two are attacked by a fox

He manages to get Snowpaw to safety before turned and trying to fight the fox. He’s about to be torn to shreds when a patrol comes to save him curtesy of Snowpaw not wanting her brother to die

He goes to Goosefeather, who snaps at him, telling him that his blood-soaked paws will stain the forest

Tigerpaw is about to fight Goosefeather when Thrushpelt stops him and snaps at Goosefeather

The warrior then leads Tigerpaw out of camp, telling him that his destiny is in his own paws and nothing the old tom says will change that

The two return and Tigerpaw notices that Burrpaw is seemingly trying to tear a rift between him and his sister

Tigerpaw and Snowpaw become Tigerstrike and Snowflower

Sunfall allows the two warriors to oversleep, though neither of them are pleased when they wake up and the day is half over

He then sends the two to help Featherwhisker gather catmint

During this, Tigerstrike and Snowflower see Pinestar talking with the kittypet from before on the fence

The two scare off the stranger and Tigerstrike tells the leader to return to camp or Sunfall would be quick to hear about what he was doing

At the next gathering, Goldenpaw drags Tigerstrike back to socializing and the two encounter Crookedpaw - now Crookedjaw - again

He asks Tigerstrike to apologize to Snowflower for him, as he admits he was the reason she was hurt during the fight for sunning rocks. Tigerstrike isn’t pleased to hear this, but Goldenpaw being there is enough to prevent him from picking a fight

After being sent to the Moonstone, Tigerstrike has a nightmare where he is met face to face with a shadowy kit before he starts to feel his stomach begin to bleed. He opens his mouth to scream, but is cut off by him gurgling on his own blood. When he looks at the kit, it’s gone, and his blood begins to soak the forest

When he returns, he finds feathers in his nest and the faint scent of his friend, Goldenpaw, and her brother, Lionpaw. He finds a strange comfort as he lays down in the nest.

During a patrol, Tigerstrike finds that whatever vague general friendship he had with Burrpaw when the two were kits is now long gone as he notices that as he strays from wanting to fight, he is also earning the ire of the apprentice.

As he takes care of the border near sunning rocks, he notices some RiverClan warriors nearby who seem to be watching them. He is immediately on edge, but doesn’t tell his Clanmates.

When they return, they learn that Leopardfoot is kitting While they wait, Goldenpaw and Sweetpaw invite Tigerstrike to share a mouse, though all of them are having a hard time eating as there is concern into Leopardfoot’s wellbeing

A trio of daughters named Mistkit, Nightkit, and Bluekit [who is a blue-ish silver she-cat]

However, before anyone can congratulate her, Tigerstrike is the first to notice that the kits seemed to be struggling to survive. This is confirmed by Goosefeather, though he does not say this to Tigerstrike. He also seems to have an intense interest in one of the kits.

While out on a patrol, a dog attacks. Burrpaw and Tigerstrike team up to chase the dog off and Burrpaw seems to go back to being perfectly okay with Tigerstrike, confusing the warrior

He ends up becoming Burrclaw

The concern into Pinestar’s whereabouts, Sweetpaw’s death, and the passing of two of the three kits go the same as canon

The same goes for Pinestar leaving his Clan a moon or two after the birth of his kits, him giving a specific goodbye to Bluekit, who tries to follow her father, but is stopped by Leopardfoot

Sunfall becomes Sunstar and Tawnyspots is still made deputy

After this, Rosepaw is named Rosetail

Tigerstrike overhears Burrclaw talk about his goal of becoming leader and though he wants to get along with Burrclaw, he thinks of his nightmare at Moonstone and is filled with a strange dread

This becomes worse when Snowflower tells him that she’s expecting Burrclaw’s kits

A few moons later, Whitekit is born

A larger rift has grown between brother and sister and Tigerstrike is painfully aware that Burrclaw is at the center of it

Bluekit and Whitekit, meanwhile, seemingly are getting along

A half-moon later, Frostkit and Brindlekit are born to Robinwing

Goosefeather is distressed and confused now, asking Tigerstrike if he really intends to fight what he is

Tigerstrike counters that he’s not anything more than a loyal ThunderClan warrior

Goosefeather doesn’t seem to believe him, but Tigerstrike walks away before this can escalate.

While this is going on, Tigerstrike is even closer to both Lionpaw and Goldenpaw, the three forming a tight friendship. While Goldenpaw is away, Lionpaw informs Tigerstrike that his sister likes him. Tigerstrike seems surprised Lionpaw snorts at the surprise, saying that the tom should’ve noticed since he likes her back

Tigerstrike denies this and the two break into a play-wrestle

Snowflower and Tigerstrike go out and Tigerstrike admits that he thinks something’s up with Burrclaw Snowflower defends her mate and it ends in a fight and Snowflower’s death is all the same, with her dying on the Thunderpath and with Burrclaw blaming Tigerstrike

When Whitekit’s safety comes into question, Tigerstrike, for the first time, actively vocalizes that he doesn’t trust Burrclaw to the warrior’s own face

Burrclaw won’t forget that

Tigerstrike is numb and doesn’t no how to handle the loss of his sister and admits to Goldenpaw that it should’ve been him who was struck by the monster

Goldenpaw disagrees, but also says that it doesn’t mean she blame Snowflower for dying, either

The two sit in silence with each other

Later Goldenpaw becomes Goldenflower and Lionpaw becomes Lionheart

Swiftbreeze has her second litter - Redkit, Spottedkit, and Willowkit

Tigerstrike is unable to go to the gathering, knowing his sister’s death will be announced. Instead he spends the night in the nursery.

Goldenflower goes to check on him and joins him in laying with Whitekit She notes how he’d be a wonderful father, but Tigerstrike disagrees, stating his own dad was barely a dad

Goldenflower counters by saying that he would be a wonderful father because he knows better than to be what Stormtail was

Tigerstrike asks why she cares about him so much She admits that she looks up to him, because he’s seen so much bad but hasn’t let that make him bad

He admits that sometimes he feels like he’s not good

She nuzzles him and tells him that for those times, she’ll be good enough for the two of them

She ends up falling asleep and Tigerstrike watches her until he eventually doses off himself, the two curled protectively around his nephew

He has another nightmare, this time he is being choked by thistles, brambles, and burrs that all wrap tightly around his throat. He chokes out a cry, but no one hears him. He’s about to black out when he sees Whitekit, standing in the open. The plants are growing close to the oblivious kit Tigerstrike kicks and fights, clawing at the attacking underbrush until he gets to Whitekit.

He wakes up to Whitekit chewing on his tail and Goldenflower not in the nursery with him, but her scent lingering in the nest.

Burrclaw and Tigerstrike have a tense encounter before the two are sent off on patrol with each other Tigerstrike is tempted to agree with Burrclaw on trying to take on the kittypet, but when realizing the scent belongs to a kit, he thinks of Whitekit and is unable to bring himself to condone what Burrclaw wants to do

They return to camp and he sees Goldenflower playing with Whitekit. Thrushpelt comments privately to Tigerstrike on how Whitekit is already fond of her and how she and Tigerstrike are raising the kit right and how he noticed Burrclaw rarely visits

Tigerstrike tries to act tough before quietly admitting his fondness for Goldenflower

Bluekit becomes Bluepaw, Burrclaw’s apprentice, and Adderfang temporarily takes over as deputy when Tawnyspots falls ill

Goosefeather warns Tigerstrike not to allow himself or Burrclaw to become deputy

Tigerstrike is frustrated and tells Goosefeather to back off and shut up before going over to Thrushpelt and Goldenflower

Thrushpelt admits to having no interest in becoming deputy, but thinks that if Tigerstrike were to get an apprentice, he’d be a wonderful deputy Uncomfortable, Tigerstrike disagrees

After coming back from battle training one day, Tigerstrike notices a change in Bluepaw’s behavior and how the apprentice is withdrawing from everyone, including her own mother His concerns grow as Burrclaw flexes that he’s going to turn her into a fearsome warrior

When out on a patrol with Burrclaw and Bluepaw, they come across the kit who had been exploring the forest before Bluepaw is hesitant when Burrclaw tells her to attack, but when he whispers something in her ear, it’s enough to motivate her

Tigerstrike, however, manages to tear the apprentice off the kit before any major harm can happen and in return Burrclaw attacks Tigerstrike and ends up blinding him in one eye

The kit is terrified of the fighting and runs off Burrclaw demands Bluepaw chase him down Tigerstrike tries to tell her not to, but Burrclaw stops him Burrclaw makes a vague threat that is enough to get the apprentice to run after the kit and then turns to Tigerstrike and threatens to tear his throat out if he tells anyone who did this to him

Around the time that Tigerstrike is on his paws, another patrol finds them and are shocked to find Tigerstrike bleeding

Burrclaw tells them it was a rogue

The patrol is brought back, though Burrclaw seems to keep wanting to leave to get Bluepaw and is talking about her borderline obsessively while the two are in the medicine cat den

Bluepaw never returns to the camp and the Clan assumes she was killed

Time passes and Whitepaw is now Whitestorm Rosetail had mentored Whitestorm after Tigerstrike talked to Sunstar Tigerstrike is currently mentoring Frostpaw

Goldenflower is in the nursery, expecting her and Tigerstrike’s first litter Tigerstrike is excited but he keeps remembering the day Bluepaw vanished and the kit and it’s bothering him not knowing what happened

He often goes on solo hunting patrols trying to see if he could figure out what happened to them, but turns up nothing

After sunning rocks is taken back by ThunderClan, Tigerstrike tells Goldenflower that something is up with Burrclaw and that he thinks that the warrior was doing something to hurt the apprentice Goldenflower is confused and asks why and he tells her about the patrol, making sure she promises not to tell anyone so that it didn’t make its way back to Burrclaw

The two of them agree to work together to keep an eye on the tom, especially after Goldenflower pointed out that he didn’t mourn for even a moment when the Clan mourned Bluepaw’s disappearance

Things with Tawnyspots lack of recovery, the news on Crookedstar becoming leader, Brokenpaw’s fighting at the gathering all go as per canon A RiverClan apprentice is almost killed by Burrclaw when they were caught too close to the border, but Tigerstrike manages to stop him

Goldenflower and Tigerstrike’s first litter are born; two daughters named Petalkit and Featherkit Featherkit sadly passes away before she’s even a day old Petalkit, however, is healthy as can be

Not too long after, Runningkit and Mousekit are born to White-eye It is also revealed that Goosefeather has returned, Featherwhisker has Spottedpaw as an apprentice, and that there’s been some strange activity near the Southern border of ThunderClan

Tawnyspots’s health is only getting worse and it gets obvious that a new deputy needs chosen There’s whispers of it being Burrclaw During a border patrol where a new deputy is being talked about while the patrol is going on, Tigerstrike notices a ragged she-cat is watching them carefully Someting about her eyes looks familiar to him and in the moment he can’t recall why

A few days later, as Tigerstrike is playing with Petalkit, Sunstar makes the announcement that he’s ready to choose a new deputy, since Tawnyspots is choosing to retire He is about to say who when a yowl is heard in a nearby tree The cats look up and Tigerstrike realizes that it’s the she-cat from before, though it looks like she cleaned herself up

She says that her name changed for moons, but she was once Bluepaw Everyone is shocked that she’s alive Jumping down from the tree, she reveals that Burrclaw had manipulated her and abused her while she was his apprentice Burrclaw tries to brush it off, but Spottedpaw also comes forward, revealing he had done the same to her The Clan is stunned until Tigerstrike and Goldenflower step forward and Tigerstrike reveals what happened to his eye and that Burrclaw had tried to get Bluepaw to kill a kit

The Clan turns against Burrclaw and he is exiled from the Clan Bluepaw turns to go, but is stopped by Sunstar, who offers her a place back in ThunderClan She hesitates before asking if they’d really want her back Leopardfoot, who is in tears, says she’d love to have her daughter back Bluepaw agrees to return and is giving the name Blueheart Blueheart then brings a couple apprentice-aged cats with her after disappearing for a bit and it’s revealed that these are her kits, but she refuses to name a father - her daughter’s name is Coal and her son’s name is Dusk They become Darkpaw and Duskpaw

With all this having gone down, a deputy is still needed. Sunstar asks Tigerstrike if he’d want to be deputy, but he declines and turns his attention to Rosetail, stating that if any cat deserved to be deputy, it would be one with her heart in the right place

Rosetail is named deputy and eventually, after Sunstar’s passing, becomes Rosestar Thrushpelt is made her deputy

In The Prophecies Begin, Thrushpelt, the former deputy, has passed and Lionheart is the current deputy Petalkit is now Petalsnow, Darkpaw is now Darkwing, and Duskpaw is now Duskfur. Goldenflower is in the nursery with Swiftkit and Lynxkit - her and Tigerstrike’s second litter Sandpaw, Ravenpaw, Dustpaw, and Graypaw are the apprentices of Whitestorm, Blueheart, Redtail, and Petalsnow respectively

Rusty joins and is given the name Firepaw He is given to Tigerstrike, who he is a little intimidated by at first, but warms up to

Tigerstrike is a strict mentor, but isn’t cruel

When Lionheart is mysteriously killed on ThunderClan’s territory not long after his kits are born, there are whispers about it being Burrclaw When Firepaw asks who that is, Tigerstrike is honest with him, not wanting to hide any of the painful truth from the apprentice

Redtail is named the new deputy

Things become more uneasy when Tigerstrike and Firepaw see a ShadowClan patrol and there’s a tom Tigerstrike regconizes with them

He is quick to tell Rosestar that Burrclaw is part of ShadowClan

When she confronts Brokenstar about this, Brokenstar says no such cat by that name exists in ShadowClan Burrclaw introduces himself under the new name Nightstorm He is also revealed to be Brokenstar’s new deputy, which sends a wave of dispear through ThunderClan

Blueheart is outraged at the news

It is then revealed that she knows who exactly the father is and without saying who, the implication is that it’s Burrclaw/Nightstorm, which unsettles many cats, as that meant that Blueheart was made a queen at an increadably young age

Darkwing and Duskfur apparently already knew and are just as angry that the tom that sired them is deputy of ShadowClan - refusing to refer to him as their father

Darkwing asks her mother why they don’t just ask help from Scourge, which brings many questions with that, but Blueheart refuses to answer

ThunderClan chooses to fight ShadowClan and as a result, Brokenstar is killed, though it is realized by Firepaw that no ThunderClan warrior killed him This stays a secret between Firepaw and Tigerstrike as they notice Yellowfang is surprisingly calm over the fact her leader is gone, but they don’t blame her

They chase off Nightstorm and some other warriors, but it isn’t long before he’s back in ShadowClan - as Burrclaw and then Burrstar - and he had apparently convinced WindClan that ThunderClan is not to be trusted

No cat is sure how he got his nine lives, but there is fear there

Redtail is killed mercilessly by ShadowClan when they attack the camp and Tigerstrike is injured protecting Firepaw from what would have been a lethal blow

He is made deputy after Redtail’s funeral

He is uncomfortable with this and Firepaw asks why He reveals Goosefeather, the former medicine cat, only ever saw darkness in him Firepaw says he doesn’t see any and Tigerstrike laughs and says that’d make two cats - including Goldenflower

When Rosestar is killed, Tigerstrike is forced to become Tigerstar

Blueheart is his deputy and this time she talks to him privately about Scourge

There is a lot of hesitation, but he agrees

She brings Tigerstar to BloodClan and at first cats aren’t happy to see her, but when she says she has important news for Scourge, they agree to let her through

When they get there, she talks privately with the small tom, leaving Tigerstar alone to notice that one of the cats - Bone - seems content to have the molly back

Blueheart returns and says Scourge has agreed, but she seems uneasy

While returning to camp, she tells Tigerstar that Scourge has only gotten worse and how if need be, after Burrstar is gone, they need to prepared to see BloodClan as a possible threat

She is proved right when, a moon later, Burrstar is killed and Scourge decides he wants the forest to himself

Blueheart tries to confront and stop Scourge only to be killed at his claws

Firepaw, now Fireheart and the mentor of Cinderpaw, is made deputy

They take on Scourge and BloodClan Darkwing is killed in the battle and Duskfur is blinded - though he remains a warrior Petalsnow nearly dies but is saved by Dustpelt, who later becomes her mate

Some side notes

I image Tigerstar makes it until the start of what would be about the time of Omen Of The Stars Then Firestar would become leader

Cinderpaw is uninjured and becomes Cinderspark

Tigerstar and Goldenflower have one more litter - Brambleheart and Tawnyfur - way later [probably mid TNP]

Mothwing and Hawkfrost are never born BUT Burrstar likely has more kits out there than just Darkwing and Duskfur

Speaking of, design-wise Dark and Dusk are identical twins and look more like their mother - thankfully

#au #tigerstar #bluestar #firestar #scourge #thistleclaw #tw; abuse #tw; implied grooming #i got really invested into the idea of this AU #and #i would 100% love to hear other people's ideas

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michaelsheenpt · 4 years ago

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Prodigal Son star Michael Sheen on the 'absolute joy' Martin takes in the Claremont murder

The actor takes us inside the mind of a serial killer.

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Prodigal Son season 2, episode 4, "Take Your Father to Work Day."

The titular offspring on Prodigal Son had plenty of time to bond with his serial killer father on this week's episode of the Fox procedural.

When a murder took place right under Martin "The Surgeon" Whitly's (Michael Sheen) nose, his son, Malcolm (Tom Payne), and the NYPD crew were brought in to help solve the crime — and as you can imagine, Martin was just delighted at the prospect of quality time with his boy.

Of course, Ainsley (Halston Sage) wanted to tag along to see if there was a newsworthy story to uncover, but once she started remembering more about what happened the night of Endicott's (Dermot Mulroney) death, she turned to her father for answers about what was going on. To make the family reunion complete, Jessica (Bellamy Young) also found herself calling her murderous ex for some insight into their children's minds.

With all the drama taking place inside Claremont, the prison where Martin is incarcerated, the episode allowed for a lot more time spent with Sheen's bafflingly charming serial killer. We chatted with the actor about getting inside a murder's mind and what's to come for the Whitly family in the show's second season.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: In this episode, the team is in Martin's territory. Is this the most screen time you've had in this series so far?

MICHAEL SHEEN: It's a funny, the thing about the way we shoot the show, and particularly the way we shoot my stuff, we now shoot multiple episodes at the same time. I can sometimes find it quite difficult to remember what's in each episode. But this particular episode was a very, very different field for me. My experience of working on this show has been a kind of opening up as it's gone on. There were actors in the core cast that I hadn't even met, let alone worked with, when we got to the end of the first season. I didn't get to do a scene with Aurora [Perrineau] or Frank [Harts] or Keiko [Agena] until really late in the first season. I would just do scenes with whoever walked into my cell, unless it was a flashback, and then it'd still be with people within the family. So things have opened up more and more as it's gone along. So in this episode, the fact that the investigation comes into Claremont opened it up again, and of course for Martin that is just absolute joy.

Right, it's safe to say Martin is having a lovely time throughout most of this episode.

Yes, because they're all coming into his world and I meet Edrisa [Agena], and Gil [Lou Diamond Phillips] has to come in, and my kids come in! I'm working with my own son on a case in my prison. Martin's just in heaven. It was very enjoyable to do because I got to work with people I haven't worked with before and work with the same people in different ways. I got to play basketball, for instance.

Yeah, you got some outdoor time!

It's funny because Martin would love having outdoor time. Michael doesn't love it that much because it's quite cold. I quite enjoy being in my cell with my cardigan on.

One of the people Martin gets some quality time with in this episode is his daughter, Ainsley. How much do you think he's enjoying this newly discovered murderous streak in her? Or is he more interested in just spending time with her regardless of the reason?

I think it's a lot of things for him. There's a real delight in seeing this flower that has grown in the dark. Malcolm is the flower that has grown in the light, and that he has watered and fed as much as he possibly can to try and bring to bloom. She's this extraordinary flower that is actually grown in the dark, without him feeding it at all. There's a special delight to that. For all of Malcolm's experiences that are on the edge of murderous and psychotic and violent, he's never quite tipped into just pure murder, and Ainsley has, whether she's aware of it or not. That creates a special connection for Martin.

That's kind of terrifying.

Yes, it is terrifying. For Martin — and I always try to see it from Martin's point of view — it's both the opportunity to feel known in a different way because somebody else has experienced the thing that he experiences, and it's also an opportunity to feel connected and bonded to someone. It's the same way as a couple of episodes ago, where there was that scene where Malcolm talks to Martin about what it feels to walk around having got away with murder, and that the scary thing is that it didn't feel bad and all that. Martin can now talk about those things that have been such a part of his secret life with someone who's also experiencing aspects of that. That's even more so with Ainsley, because the part that Malcolm hasn't done is to actually feel the liberation of murder, and Ainsley potentially has.

Well, so as not to play favorites, Martin also had a couple of really intense scenes with Malcolm. How much do you think Martin resents Malcolm deep down for sending him to prison? Is that something we're going to get to explore more?

Yeah, I think so. The version of Martin that he allows people to see is such a tiny portion of him. It has an oversized place in the world because it's how he interacts with the world. Even before he was put in prison — when he was still actively pursuing his addiction to killing — the reason he was so good at it was because he was able to develop a persona that put people at ease, that made people like him and not suspect what he was doing. That is a construct he has created. What is actually going on for him is very different. We just don't see that very much because it works for him for people not to see it. But for someone who is so obsessed with control and needs control, there are moments where he loses it and we do see something else. We get a sense of what's really under there. I think there are currents within him that even he only vaguely understands. There are times when stuff comes out that he has decided to let come out, but there are times when stuff comes out that he hasn't decided to come out. In that moment in the cell with Malcolm, something comes out that he's not even aware of. I think he really does have the capacity to feel strong, positive emotions towards Malcolm, but I think he also has massively negative emotions towards Malcolm, because Malcolm is the one who ultimately — as far as he sees it, anyway — took away his control. There is huge oceans of rage in Martin.

It's so great when you're watching it because you can find yourself siding with him and believing he could be a good dad.

Yes, because it's in his interest for people to not think that he's a monster. It works great for the show because the more I hear and read people saying, "Oh, I can't believe I really like the serial killer," I'm like, "That's right. That's how it works." You use what will work for you. There were people who had crushes on Ted Bundy. Use what you've got. Martin uses that and it works very well for him, and it still does in prison.

Do you know a lot more about Martin's past than we've learned on the show so far? Have the writers filled in some of those years of serial killing for you?

We've had conversations about that, and we've got lots of different ideas of things that we could explore. It sort of depends on what the big picture is for the show and what is useful to go into and what's not. A lot of the time it's quite useful for people to not know his past. We know more about him than the audience does, and as to how much we reveal about that — who knows… We'll see.

We'll still be finding out about people he's killed come season 10. So Martin and Jessica also had a cute — but not really cute at all — co-parenting moment in this episode. Is there anything you can tease about what's to come between them this season?

In a way, that's the motor of the show, isn't it? That you've got a family where there's one member that everyone would really rather not have to deal with, but they have to. Jessica is never going to be free of Martin. At the same time, you also don't want to overplay that, so when the moments come between them they're able to have zing to them. I think that that scene between them says so much about the relationship, particularly from Martin's point of view, that he's able to lie so easily to her. He takes a real pleasure in knowing how much she's been duped by him and shocked by him and how much she doesn't know about him. Having spent years and years deceiving her, she now knows who he is and he's still able to deceive her. There's a very special enjoyment in that for him, which is very dark. There's also a real rivalry between them, a parental rivalry. When he has something that connects him to them that she doesn't have, whether that's a piece of information or a connection, both of those things delight him in different ways.

Eek, poor Jessica. Speaking of women in his life, Catherine Zeta-Jones is joining the show soon. Can you tell us anything about her character and how she'll affect Martin?

I think what will be enjoyable for an audience is not knowing what's going on at any given point. What I will say is that it puts Martin into new territory and therefore the audience will be in completely new territory, in terms of what they're seeing Martin doing and how he's reacting to things — and that's really exciting.

Prodigal Son airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Fox.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

SOURCE

#michael sheen #prodigal son #martin whitly #tom payne #lou diamond phillips #prodigal son s2 #bellamy young #malcom bright #catherine zeta jones

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missshezz · 4 years ago

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By now, we’ve all heard the news that the douchebags at Fox decided not to renew Prodigal Son and that they chose to announce it two episodes ahead of the finale to make the finale the finale. There’s a petition to save the show going around and fans have taken to Twitter to try and pull a miracle.

However, that isn’t going to stop me from criticizing what I feel are obvious flaws in the story. And since I love pissing people off, I am going for broke this time...

*spoilers from here on out for those who haven’t watched the episode*

... by calling out that Brightwell kiss as the most contrived, unnecessary and clear bit of fan service ever.

This will likely get me anon’d, flamed, and roasted on the Brightwell altars but it’s the truth. It was terrible. It expressly showcased exactly what Tom himself has said: that Malcolm isn’t in the right place for anything romantic. Someone who is so in love with someone they suck face at the worst moment and in the worst setting imaginable but then immediately goes back to their main thought?

Ain’t all that much in love.

You also cannot go from a scene last week where Dani essentially admits she’s not sure she sees Bright as a friend to her sucking face with him in a storage locker. It jumps the shark. It shatters the suspension of belief. Especially when you look back at the season as a whole and see how standoffish, sarcastic, and mistrustful she has been towards Malcolm.

Now, I know what some will say: it highlights Malcolm’s impetuousness. Harks back to his one-night stand with Eve. Some will also say it shows Dani has feelings for him.

Still terrible.

Totally a moment that could have been put somewhere else given the tenseness of the situation.

Folks, in short, there is no Brightwell. There’s not even a friendship at this point. They’re basically work friends. That’s it.

And I’m sorry but that doesn’t scream passion to me.

What this scene failed to do and should have done was have an open conversation that resolved some of the issues between them. Especially Dani admitting she blamed Bright and his family for Gil getting hurt and has avoided getting closer to him for that reason. Have we forgotten she essentially destroyed Gilica? I haven’t. That was a crucial moment in the show and it is a huge wedge still (along with, yanno, the terrible idea of Malcolm cutting up a man but I digress).

I know Brightwell folks are desperate for their ship to become canon. It shouldn’t be done at the expense of the story, characters, and the rest of the fandom. We got cheated of a great moment of character building just so you could get a kiss.

And that’s frustrating and annoying as all hell.

People are using Lucifer as their model for getting Prodigal Son saved. Well, here’s one big key difference between Lucifer and Prodigal Son: Deckerstar has been a solid slow burn from the start. Chloe and Lucifer went from combative partners to friends and then lovers. In-between they had conflicts, rad blocks, other relationships.

In short, the couple became real and tangible because they were written as real and tangible (insomuch as one can write a devilish angel). Their relationship grew as THEY grew.

This is simply fan fiction fodder.

Now, I am all for ship as you ship (long as you use tags for those who don’t ship because it is being polite).

When the ship sinks my ship, though?

Then we’re playing Battleship.

And I am a fiend at that game.

This was fan service designed to give the shippers what they wanted, nothing more, nothing less. Again, it came at the expense of the story, characters, and rest of the fandom who would have been fine with the heartfelt conversation the two had and allowed it to build into something more.

@ me, anon me, burn my name in effigy but I stand on my comments.

#prodigal son #malcolm bright #tom payne #dani powell #aurora perrineau #anti brightwell

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baronessblixen · 4 years ago

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Prompt: fluffy mulder and scully doing domestic chores (maybe set during the iwtb era). Love your fics 🥰

This ended up being set in season 7, after “Millennium”. Tagging @today-in-fic and @xffictober

Fictober Day 9

Mrs. Scully inviting Mulder over for Sunday dinner is not unheard of. Him showing up, however, is a rarity. On their way over to her house, Mulder glances at Scully, always stealthily, trying to find the right words to ask what he so desperately wants to know.

What are they? Are they boyfriend and girlfriend now?

But, as so often when it comes to matters of his heart, and their relationship, he keeps his mouth shut. The right words just never manifest. To Mrs. Scully, it doesn’t matter. He is Fox, Dana’s partner. As far as he can tell, her mother has no idea their relationship has changed. Or not changed, per se, but shifted. In many ways, he is glad he doesn’t have to explain himself or change his behavior. He wouldn’t even know where to begin.

“So, how’s work?” Mrs. Scully is making conversation. She’s smiling a lot, at him, too, and he is beginning to wonder if maybe Scully has let something slip after all. What would she have said? Mulder and I have kissed. Mulder and I have – no, she wouldn’t have told her mother that.

Or would she?

“Fox, you’re not eating.”

“Oh, I was… well, um.” He glances at Scully, hoping she’ll save him. After all, he’s been distracted because of her. His mind is a bucket full of unspoken sentiments, ready to tip over at any given moment. He shouldn’t have said yes to coming with. “It’s really good, Mrs. Scully. I’m savoring it.” He colors brightly and out of the corner of his eye, he sees Scully stuff a potato into her mouth to disguise her grin.

“You can call me Maggie, Fox. We’ve known each other long enough, haven’t we? Leave some room for dessert you two. I made pie.”

“I love pie,” Mulder says truthfully.

“Well then eat up so we can have some!”

After dinner, and after the spectacular pie, Mulder is not sure he can work the next day. His stomach full, his mind quiet, he is lounging on Mrs. Scully’s couch, watching his Scully. Her eyes are smaller than usual, exhaustion catching up with her, but her cheeks are rosy and there’s a soft smile playing around her lips. He realizes that this is what she looks like when she’s content, not a care in the world. And he’s lucky enough to be here, to witness it.

“I’m going to do the dishes, you two just-“

“No, Mom,” Scully interjects, getting up. “Mulder and I will do the dishes. You sit and relax for once.” The two women hug quickly and Mulder, like a dutiful puppy, follows Scully into the kitchen.

“Do you want to wash or dry?”

“Huh?”

“Teamwork, Mulder. Do you want to be in charge of washing or drying the dishes?”

“Which one do you hate more?”

“Washing,” she says and scrunches up her nose.

“Then I’ll wash.”

They stand close together, hip to hip, and work silently, effortlessly. “We’re good at this, huh?” Mulder says and can’t quite suppress his surprise.

“It’s not rocket science, Mulder,” Scully replies, but there’s humor in her voice. She bumps his hip with hers and gives him a huge grin. He wants more of this Scully, of Sunday dinner at her mom’s Scully. “Do I have something on my face? You’re staring at me.”

“You’re beautiful,” he says simply.

“Mulder,” Scully murmurs, taking a wet plate from him, their fingers brushing.

“Did you tell your mom about us?”

“No,” she says, sounding surprised. “I didn’t know- we haven’t discussed anything and…,” she trails off and puts the now dry plate on the kitchen counter.

“Should we discuss it?” He asks, watching her intently.

“Probably.”

“Scully, I hope you know that-“

“Are you two done yet?” They jump apart, and a plate almost slips through Mulder’s fingers. He catches it just in time, panting heavily. “Oh, I didn’t mean to startle you! You’ve just been gone a while. Take your time.” And then she does it: she winks at them before she walks out of the kitchen, leaving them in stunned silence.

“Did your mother just…”

“Wink at us? Yes.”

“I guess she’s put two and two together.”

“Mulder, we’ve barely put two and two together.”

“Well,” he says, moving closer to her again. “We have definitely put certain parts of us together.”

“Mulder?”

“Yeah?”

“Let’s just finish the dishes.”

“You don’t want to talk about us,” he says, trying to swallow his disappointment.

“I don’t want to talk about it in my mom’s kitchen.”

“She obviously knows.”

“That’s not the point.” But what is the point? he wonders. They continue working silently; wash, dry and repeat. When they’re down to the last plate, Mulder flicks some dishwater at her, just to tease her.

“What are you doing?” she asks, staring at her blouse. Boy is he happy that she decided to wear white today. He flicks some more water at her, grinning at the wet spot right by her breast, revealing the contours of her bra underneath.

“Mulder,” she says warningly.

“I’m not doing anything,” he says. “I’m just doing the dishes.” Before he knows what’s happening, Scully has scooped up a fair amount of water in her hands and splashes it at him. He gasps, too shocked to react. “You really shouldn’t have done that.” He reaches for an empty glass and starts filling it up with water.

“That’s not fair, Mulder,” Scully says, backing away slowly, never taking her eyes off him. That’s until she starts to slip on the floor.

“Fuck, Scully!” He reaches for her just in time but slips himself on the small puddle of dishwater on the ground. There’s a squeak, a scream and then he finds himself on his back, with Scully on top.

“Mulder, are you all right?” she asks him, her face close to his.

“I think- I think so. Are you?”

“I’m fine,” she assures him, stroking his cheek. “You broke my fall.” Mulder thinks that this is the perfect moment to kiss her again, to say what he needs to say without using any words.

“What are you two doing on the floor?” Or maybe it’s not the perfect moment at all. They both turn towards the door where Mrs. Scully is standing, hands on her hips, torn between amusement and anger.

“I slipped,” Scully says.

“I did, too.”

“As happy as I am that you’re finally a couple, this,” she gestures at them still laying on the floor, her daughter on top of him, “this is unacceptable. Please get up and join me in the living room.”

“Scully, why do I suddenly feel like a 16-year-old who is about to get yelled at and get a lecture about safe sex?”

She chuckles and moves off of him, reaching for his hand once she’s standing. “That might happen.”

“Hey? Whatever happens, I- I’m glad I came here today. Even if your mom saw us do… that.”

“I’m glad you’re here too.” She gets on tiptoes and pulls down his head, her hands playing with the hair on his neck. Their mouths meet in the middle, in a chaste, sweet kiss that holds promises for later.

“Worth it,” Mulder mumbles against her lips and Scully doesn’t disagree.

#fictober2020 #i though this was gonna be a short one #i was wrong #i hope it's fluffy and at least a bit fun #msr #xf fanfic #my writing #my fic #Anonymous

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sorio99 · 3 years ago

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Deltarune Chapter 2: Live Thoughts

So, since the new chapter of Deltarune came out, I've played it all the way through, so, here are my thoughts as I had them. Basically a live-blog, but, not live anymore, I wrote these in my notes app before.

NOTE: Obviously there are going to be ALL THE SPOILERS for Deltarune Chapter 2 in this, as well as Chapter 1. Reader discretion is advised.

Wow, okay, so I was wrong about it being immediately explained.

Various descriptions have changed, and I’m not sure if it’s because of the change to a new game, or the one to a new chapter.

I feel like Berdly is definitely a m’lady guy.

Okay, so, we’re not skipping class this time.

I really wish we could call Toriel and tell her we’re gonna be late again, but I couldn’t see an option for that. Maybe Kris told her on the ride to school.

Okay, so, Noelle is definitely adorable, and a huge lesbian.

Susie seems lovestruck too, kinda.

SHE HAD CHALK, AND SHE DIDN’T TELL ALPHYS BECAUSE SHE THOUGHT SHE AND SUSIE COULD GO GET IT TOGETHER OH MY GOD

Okay, honestly wasn’t expecting the closet to work again.

Fricking LOVE the new transition.

Okay, so, Ralsei knows about, the real world? How, why, and what?

Oh, that, makes, a little sense? But also, if we hadn’t brought the toys over to the closet then, would they all be, dead?

AND WHAT IS RALSEI IN THIS CONTEXT?!?!

Okay, but I love the new town.

Holy shit, save points have storage, AND a spare list? Hell yeah.

So, we’re all level 2 now. I guess they moved from EXP based (or, execution point based?) to Milestone.

Love the basement for bad guys, with K. Round standing guard.

Bitch said “Child abusers live in Hamster Cage”.

Wait, he uses the hamster wheel?

I don’t know if I believe the king about his “bluff” or not. I think not, but, I don’t know.

I can see the “Susie moves to Ralsei’s castle to escape her abusive home” fic already.

RALSEI GAVE KRIS A TRASHCAN, AND SAID IT WAS FOR THE MANUAL IF HE GIVES US ANOTHER ONE OH MY GOD IM SO SORRY MY SWEET FLUFFY BOY

And of course, the moss call-back.

Oh god, Susie just said “My own room, huh.” and my heart is ready to shatter.

This girl has one actual food item in her fridge, and it’s just salsa

Oh, scratch that, there’s ice, crumbs, and jawbreakers in there too?

Oh, okay, Ralsei did give her actual food.

Entering Lancer’s room gives the cartoon Splat sound effect from Chapter 1, and his bedroom is identical to Chapter 1.

Perfect.

And the sound effect, plays in reverse when leaving? Okay.

So, explore until we’re ready to leave, huh? Seems, suspicious.

Oh my god, I just realized, the LightCandy is literally the chalk Noelle gave Susie. What the fuck.

So, for giving the Top back his cake, we get regenerating SpinCake that heals everyone for 140. Nice.

Battle challenges, huh? This should be interesting.

So, we can get a ClubsSandwich, $100, or…Jigsaw Joe’s entire life savings. Okay.

Aw, Clover has separate heads in their dialogue box!

Just realized this “dojo” also has their bed. Odd.

Alright, let’s take these challenges!

Oh, so if we act with Kris, than spare with Ralsei or Susie…got it!

He has a mercy meter. There’s a mercy meter now. I love this.

Oh, of course his life savings is exactly one dollar.

I can already tell the Graze challenges are gonna be the biggest bitches.

Okay, so, being able to rematch bosses, with different gimmicks and attacks, but based on the same logic? Always amazing.

I love the little cut-ins from the other characters with certain lines, like Susie and Lancer revealing “for a price” means zero dollars.

“Cookie and Wife”?

The Blacksmith runs a bakery where he can fuse items…okay.

Imma get a Silver Card.

What the fuck, Mr. Society?

Okay, so, we’re “leaving” through the way we came in, so “surely” we’re going back “home” to the “real world” and our “family”. Sure.

LANCER was added to your key items.

Oh was he now?

And so was Rouxls, “even though no one wanted that.”

Oh, we, actually went back to the light world. Huh. Actually wasn’t expecting that.

Jack of Spades, and the Rules Card. Makes sense.

Still LV 1 here, thankfully. No murder yet.

Okay, thankfully I can call Toriel now.

…Undyne, what the fuck?

Also? This, car horn music, I guess? Is, um…interesting.

Oh, the, computer lab. Where Toby was in Chapter 1. Okay. Makes sense.

“Guess this means we can’t start our project.” I’d say the biggest obstacle is more that we have no clue what the hell this project is supposed to be.

Hmm, we could use the computer at my house, or we could have a fun Toby Fox adventure…

My house!

I knew Susie wouldn’t allow it, also, you always wanna jump in big pits? That’s, worrying.

Computer lab time!

So, computer themed, maybe?

Rouxls jumped out, apparently. According to Lancer.

Okay, this build up is creepy, where’s the fluffy boy?!

Who is SHE?!

Was

Was that Noelle’s chatter sound?

Asking for help?

OH MY GOD

ITS THE REINDEER LESBIAN

SHES BEEN TAKEN

NOOOO

And, I suppose, this must be, our queen.

Q5U4EX7YY2E9N. Sure. I’ll stick with Queen, yeah.

Oh, she’s a computer! That…that’s probably not, great?

Oh, those plugs are bad, brainwashers. Okay.

Okay, they’re both tired…but Ralsei isn’t here. Fuck.

Aiming at moving targets is hard.

2 Werewires spared, only 4 to go, I guess!

RALSEI IS BACK, YAY!

Fun Gang, back together, working to save Susie’s soon-to-be-girlfriend!

Rhythm game to start a new bumping song. Nice.

Might live blog less from here, since, you know, the game is starting proper.

God, I love Deltarune’s look and sound, it’s so clean? And expressive, and AAAGH, I just love it!

I love angry Ralsei.

First lose control laughing moment: Kris and Susie squishing Ralsei like a toothpaste tube, to play an arcade game.

Did, did I just play Punch-Out inside an Undertale?

Curing computer viruses with Syringes…sure.

Sweet is the rhythm guy! Nice to meet you, Sweet! You and Toby are great at this music thing.

Hey, Susie can act now! Awesome!

Ralsei too, because of bullying! Yay!

Now the whole gang’s dancing!

(This is where I took my first real break, to process stuff and relax, and also to sleep)

In between thought: it’s kinda interesting that, in Chapter 1, Susie basically had to be forced to care about Kris, Ralsei, and Susie, but as soon as Noelle is in the slightest bit of danger, she’s immediately like, “We have to save her or die trying”, huh?

“Reverse diss-tracks, where the vocalist puts themselves down and praises Queen…or noise music.” That’s some, interesting taste in music.

“All our songs are only 4 seconds long!” Damn, so you’re, like, Vine musicians?

So, the Knight is opening alternate fountains, that create dark worlds out of, more mundane places? Interesting…

So, someone new is leading the rebels. This, can’t go well.

Smorgasbord 2.

Oooh, a TP raising Item! Nice!

Oh, the guy who was already working for Queen is a Werewire now. Okay.

66 up arrows. Hmmm, I wonder if I can retry at some point…

Oh boy. Here’s the queens…wait what?

Oh my god.

Go kart time.

Noelle, you traitor! How could you!

Oh, okay. Berdly I believe more.

Also, “beloved”.

I love how Queen apparently didn’t even ask him.

“Light Nerds” Good one, Queen.

That’s one weird Check for Berdly.

Berdly, for God’s sakes, Noelle is a lesbian, you idiot.

You know, given this villain rant, I think I hate Berdly more than I do King. And I’ve dealt with both bullies AND abusive dads.

Oh god, Roller Coaster Tycoon murder (also Berdly is dead)

Garbage! Saved by it again.

Oh, this place looks glitchy.

Also, Susie, you’re not the king of the trash pile. You’re QUEEN of the trash pile.

Oh god, please don’t tell me she’s dying.

Okay, good, she just needed fluffy boy hug.

Fork in the path, advantageous to split up, huh? But there’s three of us, and, two paths probably.

Okay, I can either go with the Fluffy boy who might secretly be evil, or the mean girl who might get lesbian scenes…hmmm…

I’m flipping a coin.

Okay, Ralsei it is!

Oh, Susie is upset at me getting to pick.

Oh, they’re going together.

Oh, this can’t be good.

If I had a nickel for every indie game with a cat themed metropolis on my pc, I’d have two nickels. You can finish the meme.

I swear I just saw Noelle on the right. Something big in the streets, hmmmm…

Okay, definitely saw Noelle that time. Shame the Poppups, popped up.

…I get it, Toby, but I’m still mad.

Blocked 10 ads…okay, I still love this game.

God, I’m already missing my party members.

Okay, so I still have Lancer, but, I’m really hoping Noelle listens to reason, because Lancer is, not.

Oh god no, don’t fight me now Queen. And please don’t join me.

Alright, nobody likes Berdly. Figured.

God they’re so dumb.

“G-got any room for another truce?” Noelle, I would do a No Mercy run for you, of course I’m going to help you.

I can’t believe “No Triple Trucies” is even an option.

Yay! Noelle in party!

“LV1 Snowcaster. Might be able to use some cool moves.” She’s got Heal Prayer, a more powerful (but more expensive) Pacify, and a damaging Ice move for only 16% TP.

I love her.

I don’t know what a sugarplum is myself, actually.

Noelle, you have a one track mind, and I like it.

Lancer, she’s not a cream, and we’re not making her a bad guy.

Oh, and she’s scared of mice, I love it!

Ah, she’s never been in battle before, let’s see how this goes.

See? That wasn’t so bad, Noelle.

Oh, she’s a natural!

“Needles aren’t scary…” Tell that to anyone under 20, Noelle.

Also, “subtle” pro-Vax message?

Oh my god, I just love her animations.

So, the virus and the syringe are fighting…hm…

Okay, so, first, Noelle’s defend animation, also perfect.

Second, so Ambyu-lance’s bullets block and destroy Virovirokun’s…hmm…

Have I mentioned how much I love Noelle? This funky little Christmas Lesbian can do no wrong.

Oh my god, she can’t even confidently say we’re friends, and hearing Kris say it makes her happy, I love her so much.

Okay, so, Queen drinks Battery Acid. Makes sense for a computer.

Kris is so done with this shit, I can tell.

I am both scared of and loving Queen.

Oh Jesus Christ Berdly what the fuck is that.

That is not greatness that is…I don’t know. I’m pretty sure even tumblr isn’t horny for you, Berdly.

Christ, he’s gonna break Queen by being an idiot and then he’ll be the Chapter boss.

Her eyes say lying. Of course.

“I Did Not Know You Had… Nipples” that’s, a good point.

…Berdly, you disturb me.

Second lost control laughing moment: Noelle’s cardboard robot face, and Queen just saying “Wow Cool Face”

Lancer, what is the “illusory nipple technique”?

Oh, of course the music bots built the statue. Berdly would never do manual labor.

Oh, and, they built the next “big” thing…hmmmm…

Why are we, flavors of tea???

Okay, that should be all the werewires for now.

The, clothing store, sold me, a useless mannequin, for $300. Of course.

I am going to touch the cheese.

Maus!

Cheese maze, purposely ruined to spare more Mices.

Hmm, Berdly talks about Noelle’s crush. $20 says he actually thinks it’s him, or maybe Kris at a stretch.

Noelle is now immune to mice! Yay!

Oh, CD Bagel, Seedy Bagel, just got that.

Okay, sacrifice pacifist run to kill Berdly…I’m tempted.

Uh, Berdly, Noelle just one shot both your allies. I’m not alone, you are.

Jokes on you, buddy, I’ve been dodging A+ for years!

“(He hit me in the face with a tornado…)” Yes, Noelle, and I have papercuts on my eyelids. He do be an asshole.

Oh good, they both made Battery Acid Pies. Now we’re in a car together. Perfect. This is exactly how I wanted things to go.

Potassium

Who is this trash man?

Spamton, huh. Oh boy.

Oh god, this song has lyrics.

Oh joy, a mini boss on my own. Just what I wanted.

Oh, new game over screen! Nice.

Anyways, I hate this guy.

Okay, just one more deal, I think. I wonder what’s next.

I’m not giving you my credit card info, dude.

Oh damnit, 1% more.

Okay, I’m very scared now.

Oh, I lost $51. That’s, fair.

Okay, back in the car.

Oh my god, Queen loves Noelle too. Perfect.

Lancer took the mixtape! Nice!

Oh, he ate it…nice!

DECEMB…

Oh god she’s a little kid.

December.

I’m so sorry, Noelle. I really hope you’re going to be okay. We’ll figure out what to do.

Queen, why does everything you have explode?

Now the prize is on my head.

Susie and Ralsei! You’re back!

She can slightly heal me now…cool!

And she taught him Sarcasm. I love them all so much.

Uh, Susie! You can have it!

Okay, so, now Susie is both gay for Noelle, and suspicious of her. Amazing.

And Noelle is turned on by the threat of being killed. Have I mentioned I love these dorks?

The gang’s all here!

Uh, just got past fireworks, and, where’s Noelle?

Oh, okay. She was just watching Fireworks.

Oooo, catching mice minigame!

Oooo, more elaborate but simpler to control mice minigame!

Oooo, bucket hole!

Also, nice gay Noelle moment noted.

Oh no, please don’t take the perfect girl away from us!

Okay, so, I don’t like Berdly, but, Acid river? Bit much…

Oh, okay. He was never in danger. I hate both of you. GIVE US BACK NOELLE

GOD DAMNIT NOT THE CAGE AGAIN.

Oh, great, now we’re captured too. Except possibly Ralsei.

She only plays mobile games. Burn her.

For once Berdly is correct.

Queen, you are dumb.

Is that the super Mario world fade?

I don’t, next question.

No looking at my Search history!

Oh, hey, we can chat in here.

LANCER TIME!

YES I MISSED YOU YOU DOPE

Lancer, never say Pants hole again, and never say you were inside it either.

Lancer, do you still not know our name?!

So this is how they lampshade the tutorial-Toriel thing, huh?

Oh no, Lancer, please don’t die in here.

Um, are there rooms for all the kids at school?

Asriel…

Puzzle time!

Plot twist: Susie is not Susan.

Berdly is dumb.

Admittedly, I did brute force that second one a bit…

Okay, now Susie has outsmarted both me AND Berdly. This is sad.

Oh god, he’s gonna cry now.

Oh, my god, that’s what December meant. That’s why Berdly cares about Noelle. That’s why…oh god.

Oh wow, Susie’s a gamer. This is incredible Lore.

Oh wow, first Lancer’s face returns, now Berdly is Anime. I love this game.

Oh my god, Ralsei in a tux. I love him.

Alright, so, Lancer needs to go back to Castle Town, and we need to get the heck to Noelle. I hope Berdly’s plan actually works…

Aw, I wanted him to stay tuxedo…

Color Cafe, huh?

Oh god, Rouxls came here. I am terrified.

I love this hype manor song!

Toby Fox, why is there so much 3D Shenanigans in this 2D Top Down RPG???

Note: from here, I end up going to the secret of this chapter. Do not read if you don’t want to be spoiled on that plotline. Skip to where I say Pancake Batter.

Okay, I’m going back, and I’m gonna find this third blue check mark.

Okay, found it, now to get back to the guy…

Yay, fireworks, again!

East treasure’s hallway leading to Basement on 1F…

Oh dear.

So there’s a secret here after all…where is…

Found it!

Okay, how to open this lock, now…hm.

Well, one thing was in the field, so, maybe in the city?

Oh Jesus it’s Spamton.

$28, not a penny more.

KeyGen, huh…

If this is as hard as Jevil, I’m gonna be pissed.

Oh, great, just Kris going in. Again. Fantastic.

Oh what the fuck.

Oh Jesus Christ I hate this build up.

Oh, and I died on the elevator. That’s fun.

Okay, so I hate this elevator. A lot.

Okay! Took like six tries, but I made it past the elevator! Now, let’s see what’s waiting for me…

EmptyDisk…hmmmmmmmm…

Maybe take that back to Scamton or whoever?

…Ralsei, Susie, what are you two doing?

Okay, trash man, you better like this.

Oh Jesus Christ.

Okay, this is not what I expected to follow Jevil’s lead. But, let’s see what happens when I turn this disk in.

Oh, nothing happened. Sure it did. Just gonna walk away then…

Oh, wouldn’t you know it, something happened!

Okay, so big puppet robot man. This is terrifying.

THANK YOU SUSIE!

Roller coaster boss! Again! Oh good!

YELLOW SOUL!

Can’t write notes, gotta kill.

Spamton, oh my god. And it’s Neo’s outfit. How the fuck did I not realize before?

Im terrified, let’s GOOOOOO!

Holy shit is that the Undertale Game Over message??????

Many tries later

Okay, I think it’s actually Ralsei and Susie talking…

Quitting the game so they can get their healing items out of storage and buy some good ones extra later

Okay, third turn, and I’ve only been hit once! Granted, it did almost 50 damage to Susie, but, still, doing better this time!

Even more death later

Did he just, attack himself?

Is he surrendering?

I…I did it! I did it in one sitting! Minus quitting so I could grab healing items that did more than 40 HP!

Oh, he killed him by freeing him…….okay.

Dealmaker, huh? Let’s see what this bad boy is…

+4 defense, +5 magic (even on Kris?), and $+30%…”and…?”

Okay, Ralsei, you get that, Susie get’s Jevilstail, and I get many questions.

Alright, now back to the actual plot!

Oh…Kris has goosebumps, and Susie’s asking if they’re okay…no. I’m saying no.

I love these two so much. Now let’s save the adorable lesbian.

Pancake Batter. Alright, we’re good.

Sorry, Noelle, got distracted.

Mouse wheel!

Tasque manager helped!

Man, this room is big and empty, with an odd exit door and screens on the north wall. Hmmmm…

Toby!

Thank you annoying dog!

Okay, I still love this music. Just wanted to say that. Anyways, PROGRESS!

We’re tea covered now. Except Susie. She’s tea filled.

Oh god, I don’t trust Berdly with Susie.

God, Knight teased.

Duck ride with Fluffy Boy.

Okay, so, puzzle time, methonk.

High Five!

More duck ride!

Ralsei, do you wanna do the kissy?

Oh boy.

Oh jeez.

Oh damn.

Rouxls.

Ralsei, you read my mind.

Oh Jesus it’s the tank from the first game.

Okay, so, we, take houses? Okay.

I can’t believe some people thought this dork was Gaster.

Wow, I beat him in like 3 and a half turns because I blocked him in.

Another God Dammit because SOMEONE didn’t pay attention to what happened to Lancer.

His head is still blue…

Hey, Camera! Peace signs and hugs!

Mostly hugs.

Yay, more Susie and Noelle time!

Oh my god, my heart is breaking.

Okay, I love these adorable girls.

Oh boy, this is, weird.

“Point and hearts come out” or “Eat moss”. The choice of a generation.

Fair point, Susie.

She likes scary things, huh.

Kinky

Have I mentioned how much I love these two? Because I do.

Susie and Noelle are best girls ever, no objections.

Oh good, Berdly, don’t ruin this completely, okay?

I fucking knew it.

Noelle, you’re going to kill him, and that’s okay with me.

Susie, stop squishing him like toothpaste!

Oh boy, I get big “final boss” energy right now…

Werewerewire?!

Okay, so I just stole from Noelle’s room.

Okay, boss time.

Shit, I should’ve healed up.

Okay, so, I died, but, I can fix that!

So, this boss is calling back to how the town’s internet has gone out, a fact I didn’t even learn until watching other content last night when I should have been sleeping, because I forgot to talk to Alphys during the brief chance I had.

Also, now both she and Ralsei have made reference to the real world outside…hmmmm…

So I guess the plot is about Google search being evil…yeah that checks out.

Bitch, did you just funny runny way?

Hmm, I’d say 50/50 odds of him being a drama Queen vs. him trying to trick Susie into caring about him.

Yep, he’s trying to score a kiss. Berdly…get a job.

Alright, let’s save Noelle, and possibly the whole town.

The “Roaring” Knight?

Oh god, the determination…who is this Knight, what is going on, and how involved are we?

Wait wait wait wait wait wait WAIT

When she described the Knight making more darkness, she said they took their blade, and showed an image of a knife. Was…was this…

HOLY SHIT IS KRIS’S NIGHT SELF THE KNIGHT?!?!

Oh. It was a giant robot. Not a statue.

Susie’s dancing!

Oh yeah, he can fly.

Resistance! Yay!

Okay, so, we sentai up in this bitch.

I wonder how the hell this story would go if we didn’t go pacifist then? Because in Chapter 1, all that really changed was how the boss was defeated in the cutscene, and like a couple details later. This is, a lot more than that.

Okay, so, three rounds of HP, punch out for her turns, just keep attacking. Got it.

Two rounds down, one to go!

Yes, eat your own Baseball, bitch!

Oh, suicide attack. Well it was just a robot.

Oh. She still has us.

Oh fuck the robot is Noelle’s mom. Fuck.

Okay, so, Queen is dead.

Oh fuck, don’t take over the world with darkness all of you, please.

The Roaring?

Oh fuck, new legend lore.

Titans, Fountains, enveloping the land in devastation. Oh jeez.

Lost eternally in an endless night…that’s not paradise. That’s hell.

QUEEN IS ALIVE?!?! AND DIDN’T KNOW ANY OF THAT?!?!

Thank you, Susie!

Okay, that’s a good ending for a second chapter, it’s dark fountain time!

Susie, please don’t turn evil.

…

And, we’re in the computer lab!

Wait, Ms. Boom? Does, does Gerson have a daughter, or wife?

Lost control laughing #3: this

I love this game so much. Time to explore town again.

Okay, Alphys does crush on Undyne still, at least.

Oops, I just let all the prisoner dogs out.

Awww, Undyne likes Alphys too!

Napstablook, I love you.

Oh shit, Asgore used to be a pig?

Oh god, this Rudy storyline is gonna be depressing all the way through, huh?

Susie, can we steal the tower of the gods?

Hey, we can actually go back to Ralsei’s dark world?!

Okay, this is gonna be interesting.

Oh thank god, we can save in the epilogue now, cool.

Oh cool, King and Queen together.

Oh my god he calls her Queenie Beanie. I love this.

So, a card and a computer fucked to make Lancer, who is a card. Okay.

Okay, so Lancer DOES know Kris’s name! Just not Ralsei’s!

New battle challenges! Yes!

Might save “Ch. 2 All-stars” for another time, though…

Perfection is the mannequin reaction.

Oh my god there’s a dedicated room for listening to music I love this

Alright, time to skedaddle back to the real world.

Okay, so Alvin is Gerson’s son, and he’s depressed. Fun.

Oh, MK and Snowy are by the creepy bunker. That’s…fun.

Okay, so, Susie scared them off after they insulted Kris, because Kris said something about the bunker…hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…

Hey, Nice Cream Guy is one of the Ice-E’s employees! Nice!

Ah, PizzaPants. Never change.

Oh hey, it’s the little guy, who’s clone is a Gaster follower. And the bird guy’s still in the library, and the donut guy is still in his car…

Hey, Catty and Bratty are becoming friends again! Cool!

Omg, Sans’s store is open. Do I…go in?

Hell yes I do!

Okay, so, Grillby’s music still, but, different interior. Interesting…

Sans, a day and 2 years in this game are not equivalent. It’s a day and 3 years.

The trousle grows further away.

Oh jeez Susie’s been drinking the milk. Oh god.

Cool, Susie’s seeing Onion too!

Oh, never mind.

A song is coming from deep under the water…either Shyren is involved, or this is gonna take a turn.

See you, Su-

Oh! Hey mom! Meet Susie!

Pie for all!

Oh my god, Susie, my heart is breaking.

Okay, so Alphys and Toriel know about the chalk. That, kinda makes Susie thinking she’d get expelled for it, really depressing.

Okay, so, Toriel and Susie are gonna make Pie together, that’s cool. Still, pretty worried about, Kris.

Uh, I just ran the sink, and, uh…

WHAT THE FUCK

OKAY SO MY SOUL IS UNDER THE SINK, KRIS WHAT ARE YOU DOING WHY IS IT BLACK OUT THE WINDOW WHERE ARE YOU GOING

WHAT THE FUCK

…so we get a cute scene with Susie and Toriel, then Susie asks where Kris is and…they do this sometimes?

I’m very concerned.

Okay, Toriel is concerned too, enough to say “hell”. Even Susie is shocked.

Okay, so, they’re coming back, uh, okay, this isn’t good, right?

Stopped the faucet, opened the drawer, and…we’re back?!

Kris what the fuck are you doing

And why couldn’t we find Asgore in the town?

Okay, so, we’re all sleeping in the living room. I, guess tomorrow’s the weekend, probably? I don’t know?

Susie, doesn’t have caring parents, I guess?

Oh god, Susie wants them to come to our world, but, Lancer is a playing card, he can’t…I don’t know. I’ll say it’s “far-fetched”.

There’s a festival, apparently. This seems…suspicious.

I’d take Ralsei, so you could take Noelle.

She’s asleep.

That, might not be good, in this context.

Okay, so, we’re asleep too, I think?

Oh god, Toriel’s tires are slashed, that can not be good, in any way.

Okay, night time, Toriel and Susie are asleep…now what are you doing, Kris?

That, knife…

Okay, so, yep, they’re the Knight, and they just opened Darkness in their living room. This is, not, good. And, the tv’s on, and the door’s unlocked…

What the fuck is happening?

Ending credits song sounds, techno? Is this more of Don’t Forget? Or a remix? I hear the lyrics at least.

“To be continued in Chapter 3” OH IT BETTER BE, TOBY

So, yeah, that's Deltarune Chapter 2. In conclusion: this explains nothing, raises 120% more questions, and overall is still an incredible, wonderful game. I also like how each Chapter so far has been almost as long as a full play through of Undertale, and yet we're still somehow only 2 sevenths of the way through. Oh yeah, did I not mention? After completing it, it brought me to a chapter select with SEVEN DIFFERENT CHAPTERS, only two of which were available. So, you know. THAT'S FUN!

In actual conclusion, please play this game, it's free, it's amazing, and also buy the soundtrack on Bandcamp so Toby can make some kinda living.

#deltarune #deltarune spoilers #deltarune chapter 2 #deltarune chapter two #deltarune chapter two spoilers #deltarune liveblog #shut up sorio #I have so many more thoughts #just give them a while to coalesce into something coherent

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