#but so many fans lump the show with book canon

[decadentbutterflies]

I'm genuinely starting to feel insane after being some time on the internet for asoiaf stuff.

Sometimes a fanon interpretation shared by so many people will gaslight you into thinking YOU're not smart enough to understand it when, in reality, no, the collective of a fandom can indeed just be misinterpreting a character beyond parody. It's not you, it's them

[sugaredrhubarb]

Reading with Ru: Aug/Sept Fic Recs

I know I'm certainly in need of some positivity and escapism lately, so I'm gonna try to do semi-regular fic and book recs! Starting with a retroactive what I've been reading from the past couple of months with this account! (I might go back in time and make an all-time rec list later)

COD

starting with cod because i know most of you go here

Sergeant Squeaks by @charliemwrites - (series of one-shots ghost x reader and price x reader separately) both one of my favourite reader characters and my favourite canon setting depictions of Ghost and Price. their own weird brands of showing love are wonderful; the tension leading to getting together is fantastic, and the sex is super enjoyable.

Ghost Stories by @kneelingshadowsalome - (ghost x medic!reader) I'm repeating myself, but I love Salome's writing. This is where I was first introduced to it, and I think it's really special. Ghost POV as he struggles with developing and then accepting love. felt so real and grounded. angsty and then fluffy, and you can't help but adore the reader as well.

saltwater by @ceilidho - (ghost x reader) It's pretty unlikely any of you don't know Ceil, but on the off chance you haven't given this one a read yet, it really is a must. I lump praise on her pretty regularly, but I don't know anyone who is able to portray their character's emotions as intimately as Ceil. her ghost feels really grounded in all his complexity. there is a common theme in these recs of really enjoyable reader characters, and this is not an exception; the reader feels like a full but still ambiguous character who is vulnerable and strong and really great.

don't leave me locked in your heart by @ohbo-ohno - (ghoap x reader dark!) we all know bo, we all love bo. I always love the way she depicts ghost and soap's dynamic changing and evolving to include the reader. the descent into dark territory in this is really really fun. It's also just hot and well-written! if you haven't read it before, go read it, and then go read all of bo's drabbles and asks on here. genuinely one of my favourite dark but still fun writers. I think she balances it really well.

body electric by @yeyinde and Afterburn by @sprout-fics - (141 + Los Vaqueros x reader) a classic. I've returned to these so many times. sometimes you just want to read dirty, filthy, well done, smut and then warm cozy aftercare. not to wax poetic about pure sex (except that's exactly what one should do), but I think it can be really hard to write group sex like this and still have such insightful and individual glimpses into each character and dynamic, and Lev does it wonderfully. and then it's also hard to find good aftercare fic, and Sprout's feels like literal aftercare for both the reader character and the reader.

other fandoms

tried to curate to themes i think overlap in some of the cod works! and I think most of these can be read fandom blind.

i revisited @winterrose527's fic in August, and even though she already knows how much I love her work, I won't skip a chance to repeat it. Anna writes for asoiaf and is pretty much the queen of Robb Stark/Myrcella Baratheon, but I would say the modern AUs (my favs) can be read almost completely fandom blind. Any contemporary romance enjoyer would love her work. I'm really partial to her kid/single-parent fics. I think it's so hard to get right, and I always adore reading her kid characters and how she approaches love stories when kids are involved. anna's works are always brimming with love and incredible platonic, familiar, parent-child, and romantic relationships (if kid fic isn't your thing she also has a ton of other great fics). personal favs: We Could Be a Little Something, And There They Are, All the Same

Lawless by @goldcranes - (arthur morgan x ofc) age difference, cowboy love story, essentially a romance novel. if goldcranes has no fans, I'm dead. I encourage you to explore her work; very few people write as strongly across multiple fandoms as she does, and each of her works feels like a really strong love story with special characters.

The Odyssey by @sunlightmurdock - (bradley bradshaw x reader) 1980's roman literature prof x virgin student - no need to know top gun. katie's work is another entry in the 'feels like it stands really strongly separately from the source material' category. she has multiple ongoing AU's that I really love, but this one is a favourite. i think she does complex characters really well - their actions always feel intentional, and as flawed as they are, I always love them.

Wouldn't it be Nice by allyoops - (m/f captive A/B/O) if you aren't reading original works smut on ao3 you are missing out and allyoops is a great place to start for noncon, dubcon, age gap, taboo etc. enjoyers. they have a ton of works; usually one shots with lots of really delicious dynamics and different settings and tropes.

An Intoxicating Presence by FormerlyIR - (mob a/b/o haladriel) MOB. A/B/O. HALADRIEL. picks up with Halbrand in prison thanks to undercover FBI agent (and his mate!) Galadriel. does that sound crazy and awesome? well it is. mix it with Gal's internal struggle, the added complication of omegaverse, and overall great writing. really fun and really damn good.

civitas terrena by banalityofweevil - (darklina) angel Alina on an exploration of love in immortality with fallen angel Aleks. honestly, it's just a must-read for enjoyers of writing. incredibly creative with divine (literally and figuratively) imagery. i think one of my comments was on the precision of lulu's diction and I really stand by that.

tinsel into gold by ribbonedhare - (darklina) ddlg and cnc friends, this changed me. it is so warm and soft and my god, is it good. just scrumptious.

Be My Babydoll by KittyDruthers - (darklina) ddlg dollification need I say more

check the reading with ru tag for more!

[lil-oreo-crumbles]

Hey, got any thoughts about Seth?

Oh, do I ever!!

Seth is an incredibly fascinating, dominant, and looming presence in the Magic Book of Spells with the potential to be one of the most intriguing characters in the entirely of SVTFOE… that was tragically underutilized, slapped in the face, and is who I believe to be the source of the biggest missed potential in the entirety of canon.

But I do not trust the writers at all to have handled him in the show proper.

The Septarians are notoriously treated like absolute dirt. Any and all of the Septarians we meet have either been humiliated, turned into a joke, villainized beyond any humanity, and overall treated awfully. They’re portrayed as this unfeeling, violent, monster species with no (biological? cultural?) ability to forgive or forget the countless atrocities the Mewmans committed against innocent people. GEEZ, It’s not like the Septarians have enhanced longevity and experience time differently than almost EVERY OTHER SPECIES ON MEWNI with most of them FIRST HAND experiencing the atrocities other species of monsters and ESPECIALLY Mewmans see as “bygone eras of the past!!”

And even with the book alone, Seth is also lumped into this stereotype, and may be one of the worst offenders. Globgor can’t stand him and has intense bias against him (I know he talked about “Septarians” but my god we all know he means Seth to some degree. Seth is very clearly a prominent figure if not the leader of the Septarians and he’s pictured/alluded to twice in Eclipsa’s chapter), bitch Crescenta smeared his name into the DIRT in a rigged election campaign and destroyed his reputation, and Comet refused to take him seriously whatsoever (but then again it’s Comet so what are we really expecting??). He was even on the Magic High Commission’s radar, labeled as an “extremist” (which just about anything is labeled “extreme” in the MHC’s eyes so they’re not reliable narrators). He’s spat upon and repeatedly villainized. He gets no breaks or even a glimpse of humanity and everyone in the fandom after the book came out was hyping him up as this huge villain.

So, yeah, I don’t think the show would have bothered to give him any humanity or depth if he was introduced in the show proper and would have made egregiously worse the show’s already bad problem of making monsters, the historically marginalized and colonized group of people, the bad guys. (Seriously, Meteora wasn’t a “real” threat until she was revealed to be half monster. That makes me frustrated.)

I love Seth. I think he would’ve had amazing potential if put in the right hands. There’s so much to do with him and I’m mostly glad he’s been left alone so fans can interpret him in any way they want.

Now… what are my opinions and headcanons about him? What’s the story I’ve concocted?

Thankfully Seth is a character I can talk about without worrying about AU spoilers… mostly (thank god).

In my mind, Seth is someone who actually didn’t see the Great Monster Massacre first hand, hatching about 200 years afterwards (due to my timeline and how I’ve designed Septarian aging). But that doesn’t mean whatsoever that he hasn’t seen the atrocities of Mewmans. In fact, he’s been put in several situations where— while not Moe levels of genocide— he has seen the cruelest and most inhumane levels of Mewman aggression against monsters. He’s a victim of it first hand and spent 80+ years through torture after being ripped away from his homeland before finally uprising against it with his sister (oh yeah he has a sister in my AU)

He is someone who wholeheartedly earned the respect and adoration of his people. He was a leader that they wanted, not because of blood or any ties to the throne he had. (He’s by blood the Prince of Septarsis, but by the time he came back to Septarsis not many people remembered him since he had changed so much). He completely changed the governmental system and put Septarsis into its golden age.

Now this is what may get me in trouble, but stick with me… I don’t think the reputation he’s acquired is completely unfounded. YES the Mewmans and MHC are incredibly biased and we can’t take what they say at face value, but some stereotypes have some truth to them. It’s way overexaggerated, but Seth is someone who I see as extremely trigger happy in his youth.

While a great leader and delegate, he can be incredibly rash and actively seeks violence against Mewmankind. Never Solaria or Moe levels of genocide… but if Mewmans happened to disappear one day he’d be over the moon. This makes him a fun foil for Toffee’s mother in my AU, Mylanie, who’s someone who strives to end the conflict and seek lasting peace.

In the early days he was active in battle and loved fighting against his adversaries. In fact, I find the idea of Seth being the one to kill Solaria— specifically beheading her with his own hands— fascinating and I LOVE IT. He’s not afraid to get messy when protecting monsters or his homeland, and the stories about his violence is NOT unfounded. If anyone is perpetuating ideas about Septarian stereotypes, it’s our buddy Seth.

But here’s the important distinction, he is not going out of his way hurting innocent people. He’s not this bloodthirsty monster who’s trying to commit genocide, he’s not Solaria, he’s just someone who sees violence as the answer and thinks peace is a waste of time.

It wasn’t until the election that his priorities changed and he actually calmed down.

The smear campaign was a huge blow. It really got him to think and consider how his actions were affecting monsters as a whole but especially his own people. He knows how much influence he has over how his people are perceived… and that’s when he pulled back. He was still active, don’t get me wrong, and got along diplomatically with the few surviving monster civilizations, but he took a lot less of a role than he used to. He started thinking critically and cleverly instead of resorting to violence first and foremost. Peace with Mewmans was still firmly off the table though and is still that way to this day.

When Comet sent the invitation, he genuinely planned to ignore it. He had no intention of going to the banquet— as last time he played along with Mewman rules he got screwed— but did allow Toffee to be a representative after Toffee offered to go in his place.

Under one condition: No harm was to come to the Queen

And we see how that went…

I’d gladly go into his relationship/dynamic with Toffee but this post is long enough :). Maybe in another post!!

His “death” was a stunt to fully get him out of any Mewman drama, and he was especially glad he perpetuated that lie because of how pissed he was at Toffee after Comet’s death. He’s alive and well and still in charge of Septarsis, he’s just out of the public eye because everyone thinks he’s dead (except close allies).

Overall I see him as someone who was essentially what his reputation said he was until he got a huge ego blow and actually matured enough to stop being so trigger happy. He was always a great leader over Septarsis and did whatever it took to protect his people, but he had some growing up to do as well.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. My AU goes into him a lot deeper and really fleshes him out. He’s a four dimensional character with layers and depth to him. While he seems like a Mewman hating “radical” on the surface, he’s humanized and he has layers and reasonings for his beliefs and actions.

I just love Seth. A lot. He’s so silly. He’s so fascinating and I love that everyone has a different perspective of him.

Also he is Rasticore’s dad you can’t change my mind !!

Dude I could literally make a whole other post on him I love this character so much—

Anyways here’s Seth and his little sister Zarina I love them to bits <3

[thebadtimewolf]

Hello! I hope you don’t mind this message but I immediately jumped into the rose tag after the episode. When you say Rose died 6 times to sutekh what do you mean?

I’m not familiar with extended canon much sorry if this is a silly question :)

shorter answer: hi! it's not a silly question at all! rtd chose screengrabs of eps where rose tyler was directly in the crossfire of sutekh gift of death so she couldn't react or run. it was a choice he made! a choice! to show that beach! Again! and then put the line of 2005! Out of 15's mouth! Rose was dead before she can even start something something haunting the narrative something something blue drapes something something im sure tentoo had fun experiencing his first human death!

shortest answer but really a reminder for everyone including you: tumblr doesn't go by tags when you search (in this case) rose tyler. it goes by who types out the words "rose" and "tyler" in a post and lumps it in there with the rose tyler tag even if said post or reblogged post isn't even tagged at all. THEY USED TO! IT USED TO NOT BE CLUTTERED! BUT NOW THEY DONT! SO NOW WE GET RANDOM BOOBY BOT SPAM LINKS! I HATE IT THANKS. but also if you also see this in the tag, my point about this is made

short answer: get familiar with extended canon because rtd pulling all these bitches out for tv so u can be prepared and have further context and further horror (but fun! fun horror!) on the why is it so devastating, why the dr is so horrified but knows the villain, why it's exciting to see these things for that do know extended canon both televised, comic, book, audio, etc etc etc it's fun. it's like a rabbit hole that actually warms you while latching onto you. like the beetle backpack. but fun! plenty of fans of the show outside your bubble can show you where to look, to read, to listen, to watch, but only if you actually want to learn more about it yourself. rtd is coming in with the televised/written mindset that you already know eu and prev seasons and prev marketing strategies and prev characters referenced. that's why everything 15 brings up is short and brief about it.

long answer because brain go brrrrrrr

the shots shown of where the tardis lands in the Memory Tardis monitors shows shots from s1 s2 and s4 of eps that rose tyler was in where she was standing in front of the ship before she gets a chance to reaction ie the shots of the TARDIS before dematerialising from said location

the beach shot, pete's world - specifically the shot before tentoo and rose can look at each other in s4 journey's end

2005 was the year 9 frequented the most in regards to earth but they do two shots of rose tyler's eps (one is a cctv shot of born again/christmas invasion tardis standing after he gets carried off), (another shows the bad wolf space station) to really highlight how devastating sutekh plan actually is by showing that no matter what reality one can escape to, if the doctor or rather the tardis piloted by the doctor lands there, sutekh spreads the gift of death or as im starting to call it, the imotep tsunami

which make sutekh, if anything very through, to kill rose tyler way too many times and it looks less like 'oh rose is such a threat' and more like a dog attacking someone that harmed someone the dog cared about.

a tad over kill methinks but, it highlights the relatable devastation that the doctor has to connect to the audience that no one and nobody that isn't the current onscreen companion, not even rose marion tyler herself, is immune to sutekh over reaching hand of death.

even mel bush got hit in the end because she was a former companion.

but it's all saved at the end.

It's just that rose tyler and tentoo (tentoo's proper first time dying like human because of an invasion awwww bless! his first death as a human!!! I'm sure he was geeked out!) now have additional trauma of dying and not being able to do anything about it because the tardis screengrab they use is moments after them JUST RECIEVING the tardis seed, with him taking off.

at least in a way sutekh was probably the reason why 10 and 14 are mayfly regenerations. they didn't last as long but they made an impact.

funnily enough, this is probably the only proper harkness death where he stayed dead since abbadon. so i know when he came back AND SAW GWEN ALSO BRUSH DUST OFF HERSELF he probably cried tears of joy because it's the first time he got to die alongside the human race with a friend

so yeah fun story to tell mia when she's younger AND BBY TONY TYLER OH GOD LULUBELLE AAA sorry but I hope this somehow answers this. I'm still reeling that gallifrey essentially got dusted SO MANY TIMES that dhawan!master being sad about wiping out the species (who is death's champion) is essentially just went sad about the lie being fed to him and that he gambled with the toymaker FOR NOTHING sorry sorry anyway. christmas special might be a doozy. it just feels that way.

[monstersinthecosmos]

idk why this post was resurrected in the night but now that it's been some time and calmed down a little, that IWTV zine was nothing but fuckin red flags guys lol.

First thing you need to do if you see a zine you wanna join and/or buy, is check out the mods. Absolutely step one is if they do not have their mods listed, run. Do not walk. But once you identify the mods:

Have they modded zines before? (if yes, how did it go?) (if no, try to ask some very basic questions about their plans, their mod roles, what they plan to do with finances, etc. Some people might have real life work experience and can handle it, or have done their research, even if they've never done a zine yet.)

Do they regularly demonize fans in the fandom bc of what they like? (ie: instead of posts like "this is why that thing in canon was gross" they write things like "fans of this thing in canon are gross". I know this sounds petty and like it's about silly fandom politics but there is a history of doxxing in situations like this, and these types of people in fandom are always 1 or 2 salty posts away from suggesting that the people they don't like belong on a list. Tread carefully, stay safe.) ((This is also because mods need to be people wranglers, too. You're managing a project that might involve 40-50 people. You are HR, you are the babysitter, you are the mediator. If the mod is posting "fans of this character are GROSS" etc on their blog every other week, how is fan of that character supposed to DM them for zine stuff? Zine mods need to be mature and able to navigate different types of people who are not like themselves.))

Have they even PARTICIPATED in the fandom before? Or are they conveniently popping up to make money off of you? If you can't find posts about them demonizing people, that's a good step, but if they haven't posted in your fandom AT ALL like, who are you? Why are you here?

I think there's a lot of really valid discourse and conversation out there right now about the current landscape of zines and the high production small businesses they've turned into, vs the original DIY anarchist meaning. I think it's valid to say that "zines" today should be referred to as "art books" or "anthologies" when they're professionally printed. I also understand that we don't have word to use so they're all being lumped together right now.

It doesn't mean that these high end art books or anthologies are not fun to make, or fun to have. I have several! I head modded one myself! But if you're showing up out of nowhere, not even a fan of the thing, not someone who feels warm & fuzzy about having a physical copy of your fav fanworks, I gotta ask if you're just here for money and clout.

These books cost money, they just do. You can always make an old school zine or do digital only for no overhead. But if you DO want a shiny book to have on your shelf forever, it costs money. And I'm personally extremely wary of folks coming into fandoms with capitalistic interests. A community project that we do for the love of fandom and love for our fellow creators and love of fanworks is different from some unaffiliated stranger popping in and asking for your time & money.

Even smaller projects bring in thousands of dollars. As a contributor you're giving them hours of your own labor, and as a customer you could be spending upwards of $100. This is not a small thing.

And like, the problem here too is that zines aren't necessarily profitable for the mods, compared to the hours they put in. So I'd be really fucking careful trusting people like this, because it's happened TOO MANY TIMES that a mod disappears with thousands of dollars and never even intended to order any of the product.

It's just sketchy as fuck.

And with VC in particular there is a long and fraught history of why we didn't monetize fanworks, and I think barreling out of the gate the way they did was irresponsible as fuck, especially with so many rookie mistakes. And when asked extremely softball questions about their policies and how they planned to screen people (ie, are you going to waste everyone's time 6 months later when you decide they're the icky wrong kind of fan), they shut down and couldn't answer.

Be careful! Ask questions! Be harsh if you need to. Do not trust flaky creeps!!!!

I don't have time to get into this right now and I'm happy to expand on it later when I have a minute to sit down, but: Do not give your money to zines runs by antis.

Do not participate in zines run by antis.

Do not trust people who have never participated in your fandom until they show up trying to make money off of you.

ZINE DRAMA is not ~fandom drama~. Zines are independent small businesses. Any time money is exchanged, you risk sharing your legal name. Any time physical media is purchased to be mailed, you share your home address.

Do not trust antis with your personal information. It is not safe.

I really try not to engage in drama and bullshit on here because I think it's irresponsible and wastes everyones time, but when this type of money and personal safety is involved I think it's absolutely crucial to be aware of it. This is not drama, it's very basic safety.

Especially in this fucking fandom, with its history. There is a reason we have not had zines, and they would know that if they actually spent time here before trying to monetize your work. I say this due to their handling of it and also in case fandom folks around here don't have zine experience and don't know what red flags to look for, since we haven't had any. There is a mature and responsible way to navigate this new territory and this is absolutely not it.

[ariminiria]

When will bootlickers understand that alot people have no problem with diversity in RoP. The actual problem is the fact that Amazon disrespected Tolkien's legacy and tried to change alot of character's backstories and personalities. Not to mention making a cash grab out of it.

Fair warning, this is going to be a bit long simply because I have a lot to say on this.

I don't know how many people I've blocked over them calling everyone who hates RoP a racist. It's ridiculous. I don't know how this started.

But Hollywood has tricked people into defending the worst possible media in the world, tooth and nail, fighting for it like their life depends on it... simply dependent on if it has POC or women even mildly featured.

Instead of making good media, they tokenize minorities like a shield against all criticism. And I'm sad to see it actually working on so many people.

The thing specifically about RoP, is that there is some valid criticisms regarding the specific way the casting was handled, but Amazon has the easy out of calling everyone a racist in order to ignore the nuance. If they lump the genuine criticism in with the people who are just mad that there are POC, then that's how I get ignorant asshats in my notes calling me a white supremacist and telling me how I support Harvey Weinsten (tf?) all because I said that the show is bad.

Further breakdown under the cut, criticism of how Amazon the racist megacorp handled diversity in RoP.

I'm not an expert in Tolkien by any means. I'd say I know a bit more than most casual fans, only because I obsessively research the lore for my fanfiction, but I'm no Tolkien scholar.

That being said... I know that Tolkien already has built in diversity to his world. So right off the bat, it's inherently problematic to racebend characters and claim that you're "adding diversity" as if there never was any. You're flat out ignoring nonwhite nations, which... seems pretty racist to me.

The main issue of the specific way that diversity was handled for RoP is just another indicator that nobody involved in this manure pile has ever actually picked up a Tolkien book because...

There are tan/brown-skinned Hobbits mentioned. There are two proto-Hobbits as the main characters in RoP. Why weren't one or both of them POC? It would be canonical.

Or did they think that making the two filthy, hungry, idiot, moron buffoon characters POC would be too offensive? Though they had no problem making them stereotypically Irish... really makes ya think.

The showrunners are crowing about adding diversity that Tolkien supposedly "never did", yet they ignore the people groups and lore of entire POC nations he created in favor of poorly created OCs, and "representation" in the form of sloppy seconds by taking an originally white character, casting a POC actor/actress, and calling it representation. Maybe it's just me, but I think POC deserve original characters... and ones that are better written than the ones in RoP.

Not to mention that there is less known about these other nations, so less lore to screw up. Of course, making a series about the tragic story of how the Haradrim, the badass people group who tamed freaking Oliphants, eventually fell under the will of Sauron would mean they didn't get to use the names of characters that Everybody Knows. They'd actually have to be creative 🤪

Another huge thing is the specific implementation of "diversity" in RoP: It isn't diversity. It's tokenism.

The way the now-POC characters and OCs are treated is very odd. For some reason, the xenophobia/interspecies tension between Men and Elves is apparently all directed at the singular black elf?

And that's another thing.

One. Singular. Character.

Of each race.

Realistically, unless it's a coastal trade town or a large international city, the region will homogenize in about 3 or so generations. So either these characters are colonizers/the result of colonization in-lore, or... the more likely explanation... they're being used as mascots by Amazon. Because let's say that the "adding diversity that never was" argument actually made sense, despite the fact that we've established Tolkien already has diversity written into his wolrdbuilding...

Is it really adding diversity if it isn't reflected in the whole culture?

Why aren't a portion of the elves caucasian, then some are black, some are east asian, some south asian, some indigenous? Maybe the diversity is even based on the subcategories of elves, like the Silvan vs Sindar divide. Why not commit fully, use some creativity, and implement it in a way that is both interesting and complements the worldbuilding?

Because Amazon doesn't care about diversity beyond tokenism. As long as they check off their boxes ("make sure we get one dwarf, one elf, and one of the race of Men, the ladies can be royalty!"), they don't care about exploring what that would actually look like in the lore and worldbuilding.

And just a final note, but the Tolkien fandom has battled racists claiming that "orcs are black people" for so long. Only for Amazon to essentially canonize it (as much as this manure pile can be called "canon") because they couldn't be assed to know the barest bones of the lore.

(Or even watch the PJ movies apparently, because the Orcs coming from dark magic-twisted elves is explained by Saruman in Two Towers.)

I understand that some of this is extremely specific lore based stuff, but I suppose I'm used to adapted works of Tolkien having actual passion behind them, enough to care about the small details like the patterns on armor or the specific fabric of costumes. Even the notoriously awful Hobbit trilogy had more passion behind it than dollar signs.

The diversity itself is by no means problematic, and thats not what I or (most, I would hope) other critics are saying. But the ignorant implementation utilized in RoP winds up actually being offensive, and it's because everyone making this Product™️ went into it not with the mentality of passionately expanding what Tolkien had already created, but instead arrogantly thinking that they were surely making something better than the original.

[jadelotusflower]

It’s Cold in that Fridge: The Case of Nakari Kelen

Since The Case of Mara Jade has been doing the rounds again, I’ve finally gone back to this post that has been sitting in my drafts for literally years. So let’s honour this absolute badass who deserved better:

Once upon a time, the Star Wars universe was but six films (and a tv series) in the story of the Skywalker family. But beyond George Lucas’ story was an absolute boatload of books, comics, games, and other materials that made up the Expanded Universe. When Disney purchased Lucasfilm and the rights to the Star Wars saga, everything in this universe was decanonised and deemed “Legends” - some aspects of this universe were retained or re-purposed, others sit in Disney’s figurative vault and will likely never see the light of day (and seeing how the ST turned out, maybe that’s for the best).

But this transition between Legends canon and Disney canon was not so simple, because the nature of publishing meant that there were novels approved during the time of Legends canon that would be released in the time of Disney canon. In particular, there had been the planned trilogy “Empire and Rebellion”, set between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, with each novel from the perspective of one of The Big Three.  

Razor’s Edge (Leia) and Honor Among Thieves (Han) were released prior to the Great Canon Split of 2014.  But while the Luke-centric novel had been planned, it was not due to be released until well after the Split. So Heir to the Jedi (so called as an homage to the Legends progenitor Heir to the Empire) became one of the first books of the Disney canon.

What does this background have to do with Nakari Kelen?  Perhaps nothing, but I do wonder how the writing process was affected by the shift from Legends to Disney - was the novel a relic of the old EU with any reference the LFL storygroup didn’t like excised during editing, or was it a trendsetter for the new EU, a Sign of Things to Come?  

The most salient point being, of course, that Nakari Kelen - like so many love interests before her - was not allowed to go along her merry way at the conclusion of the novel, but was shoved into the fridge.

If there was one constant of the Legends EU, it was that Luke Skywalker’s love interests couldn’t catch a break. Mara Jade naturally lasted the longest relationship-wise, with almost twenty years of marriage to Luke before some bright spark decided she had to go (as per the aforementioned case study). But before Mara there was Jem, Shira Brie, and Gaeriel Captison (who came close to escaping the curse), and in the Legacy of the Force series they brought back sole survivors Akanah and Callista, only to kill them off for good too (and rather brutally, if I may add).

So perhaps when Kevin Hearne began writing HttJ within the confines of the Legends continuity, he was merely sticking to the status quo, or perhaps once subsumed by Disney they needed to make sure Luke's slate was clean (so to speak).  And I can’t put all the blame on Hearne since I don’t know whether it was his idea, or LFL mandated - but regardless it was a poor decision.

The root cause of fridging, imo, is limited imagination.  How best to cause your male protagonist pain if not kill off someone they love, or at least have strong feelings for? The answer is of course, easily. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The Luke Skywalker of HttJ is fresh from his victory in ANH, a lieutenant in the Rebellion: young, not dumb, and full of...

Nakari Kalen is an absolute Queen a civilian volunteer and crack-shot sniper who loans her ship Desert Jewel to the Alliance. Luke is immediately attracted to her, they bond over a mutual love of fast ships and leaving behind desert home planets, and engage in the inexpert flirting of two nineteen year olds while also risking their lives several times over.

I want to make it clear: I actually really like this book. It's a breezy read, almost serialised as The Early Adventures of Luke Skywalker, and is ofttimes genuinely funny. And credit where it’s due to Hearne, many of of the supporting roles in the novel are female. Other than Nakari, there's Soonta, the Rodian who gives Luke her uncle’s lightsaber, Sakhet the Kupohan spy, and the Givin cryptographer/math genius Drusil Bephorin. In a genre where male characters are often the default for these kind of roles, it was nice to see, but makes the regressive fridging of Nakari even more egregious.

Luke and Nakari make a good team fighting brain-sucking monsters and Imperials, but more importantly they have fun together - she encourages him to work on his Force skills, and he successfully moves objects with his mind for the first time (leading to Nakari adorably dub him "a little noddle scooter"). It's a very sweet, if brief, relationship, and a respite from the danger of the mission. They spend the night together (leaving the reader to decide exactly what happened behind closed doors), and share a kiss before splitting up to try and escape bounty hunters. No prizes for guessing what happens to Nakari immediately after she received the Skywalker Kiss of Death.

I assume there were two motivating factors for why Hearne and/or LFL couldn't let Nakari live:

1. If she survived, fans would wonder why she doesn't appear in ESB/subsequent material.

I recall this bandied about on forums back at the time of the book's release, and to that I say - so what? Fans are always going to wonder, and try to paper over the gaps in canon, to make up their own headcanons to explain any any perceived inconsistencies. It's certainly no reason to kill someone off.

It is in fact possible for two young people to have a romance that just fizzles, or doesn’t work out for whatever reason - it should not require great maneuvering or explanation. If Nakari doesn’t show up in the next book in the timeline, what about it? The reader is smart enough to assume she and Luke broke up, decided to just remain friends, whatever. But it seems that the only way for a female character to exit stage left is for her to die, which is bullshit.

And actually, there's no reason why she couldn't have shown up again. ESB and RoTJ cover a month and a few days, respectively, of Luke's life - just because there was no mention of Nakari doesn't mean she didn't exist at that time, whether or not she and Luke were an item. She could have made an appearance in a subsequent novel, or Rebels, or the comics - she could have become a recurring character, showing up when the Rebellion needed her, or - heaven forbid - even have her own comic/book/show! Her existence in Star Wars canon didn't need to begin and end with Luke Skywalker, merely to service his plotline and backstory and abandoning the richness of her own.

No, the only reason Nakari had to die was to facilitate this:

It was a blow to the gut, realizing what that sudden absence meant. I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, but I had felt Nakari's life snuffed out through the Force, and into that void where she had shone anger rushed in - anger, and a cold sense of raw power and invincibility...I took a step to join in the hunt but stopped, breathing heavily, unaccountably sweating even though I felt so cold inside and the power of the Force roiled within me... I shook with emotion and power, and none of it felt the way the Force had before...I saw what kind of space it was , a black hole that would always be hungry no matter how much I fed it. I might never feel warm again if I didn't get myself under control.

Luke feels the dark side and is tempted by the boost of power it offers him, but immediately identifies it as dangerous and unnatural. I can understand why Hearne wanted to include this - it is a book of firsts after all: Luke's first solo mission, his first time using telekenisis, and ending with story with his first experience of the dark side makes sense. But it wasn't necessary, which leads to:

2. How to push Luke to touch the dark side without killing someone he has romantic feelings for?

Also, obviously, shite of the bull (or nerf, if you prefer). Even if this brush with the dark side was absolutely necessary for the novel's climax, there's any number of ways it could be achieved. At this point, Luke is fresh from losing important people in his life - Owen and Beru, Ben, and Biggs - lumping another death on top of that a narrative trick for Luke to react not only to losing Nakari, but the others as well. But it's cheap, the first card in the deck, and why not show a bit of imagination? Luke is young and inexperienced enough at this point that any number of things could be the catalyst - the whole book he's struggling with his growing powers, why not try and reach too far in the firefight with the bounty hunters, his anger and frustration with himself in not doing enough trigger the dark side temptation? It would work thematically and doesn't involve a fridging that ultimately has very little payoff.

Because Nakari is killed less than ten pages from the end of the book - afterwards Luke grieves, but ultimately chooses to honour her memory and be grateful for what he learned with her, recommitting to becoming a Jedi. It's all very surface level, and once again a female character's death facilitates a male character's development. Was it so imperative that Luke lost someone he cared about as part of this story? Sure, this was a time of galactic civil war, and it's far from unrealistic that these stories have a high body count, but who to make collateral damage remains an authorial choice, and in this case Nakari Kelen was (a) a female character of color, (b) a love interest of the protagonist - not just of this book, but the entire Original Trilogy.

I don't know to what extent (if any) race had to play in the decision. I'm sure there was a segment of the fandom absolutely livid that Luke Skywalker kissed (and maybe had sex with) a black woman. Was her death LFL hedging its bets, or demonstrative of the general lack of attention/respect they show their characters of colour?

In any case this was a chance to stand out from the old EU and it's fridge full of Luke's dead girlfriends, but instead they chose to introduce and kill off Nakari for the sole purpose of Luke's manpain and character development, and that's gross.

And then there's this:

A grisly yet reliable fact about custom bounty hunter ships is that you can always count on them to have body bags stashed somewhere for the easy transport of their kills. They often have built-in refrigerated storage, too.

NAKARI IS KILLED AND LITERALLY STORED IN THE FUCKING FRIDGE I COULDN'T BELIEVE WHAT I WAS READING.

I really hope this was unintentional on Hearne's part, because yikes. He was halfway there, this book was full of interesting female characters who had agency - Drusil in particular was a delight with her super math and inability to understand human interaction. Nakari was full of life and fun - capable but relatable, showing a different side of the Rebellion and those that suffered under the Empire's rule. Fridging her in her first appearance is considerably more vile, because it reduces her to a footnote of Luke's story, a plot device to Help Him Grow, rather than a springboard to tell more of her own story.

Because Nakari was a compelling character ripe for spinoff potential. I would absolutely have read or watched her continued adventures, juggling missions for her father's Biolabs company and trying to aid the Rebellion, shooting her slug rifle and cracking wise, maybe even finding a way to amplify her mother's song Vader's Many Prosthetic Parts to really stick it to the Empire, or try and free the political prisoners on Kessel.

The old EU was made great by allies and enemies of Our Heroes showing up again to help or hinder them, and/or branching out into their own material. We fell in love with them, and followed their stories even as they diverged from the main saga, eager to read more about their lives.

Nakari Kelen never got that chance. In many ways, she exemplified what Disney Star Wars was to become: an exercise in wasted potential.

[videogamelover99]

how would you have liked row to end?

Right. So spoilers for Rule of Wolves, obviously.

Let me preface this by saying that I absolutely adore the Darkling’s arc in the story. The first part of the novel has him be on the backseat for most of the time, with Zoya, Nikolai, and the rest of our lovable gang figuring out how to stop the country from exploding. When Leigh does introduce him to the rest of the story, he makes a deal with Nikolai and Zoya, seemingly for sentimental reasons, only to fuck off once he gets his powers back, proving he can never be trusted and that he always has another agenda going. Something we’re already very familiar with in TGT. 

Then we get is POV.

Leigh had two options when she decided to write from the Darkling’s point of view. His character had always thrived from the mystery of his true motives, whether what Alina sees as sympathetic human traits are even there at all, or whether it’s all manipulation. Bardugo could have either 1) tried to immitate the same mystery with his POV. We see his perspective, but it doesn’t actually give us that much information about what he his, what his real throughts are. Or 2) she could peel back the curtain. And she went with option 2.  

He doesn’t know what he’s doing. He kept the thorn hoping it would work, and it did, but we know that he’s hardly the infallible mastermind everyone else percieves him to be. Yuri (lets appreciate for a moment how fucking hillarious it is that the guy is still there) asks the Darkling why he wanted to see Alina. Because I needed my power back, was his first reply. Then: Because she makes me feel human. 

And that’s the point of the Darkling’s character. It was always this and. It was always Alina’s power, and her as a person that drew him. It was always saving the grisha and being remembered by them. With the “monk’s” POV, we get a Darkling that’s surprisingly honest and self-aware and grounded, someone who feels a lot, and hates it. He does what he can to further his goals, but he isn’t an emotionless lump of rock, he’s very, very much human. It shows from the ruthful anger he feels about seeing his Morozova’s church, to the discomfort in seeing a bunch of fantatics follow him so blindly. He gets annoyed at the shitty food and the ignorant people, and cynical about the state of the country. I think the reason why so many Darkling fans dislike his POV is because he was always a mystery before now, so people could project whatever version of the character they wished onto him. And when canon Darkling did not match that, people got annoyed. (Luckly, he fits with my interpretation of his character like a glove, so, I loved every second of it).

Throughout his weird un-redemption arc, we see him start to question what his legacy would mean and what he’s really fighting for. It culminates to him seeing the destruction Otkazat’sya weapons can bring and saving Nikolai. Then being like “bye bitch you’re on your own now I’ve fulfilled my heoric quota for the day”. Where the story falls flat is that space between him manipulating the court into accepting Zoya as their queen and Chapter 48, with the Thornwood. There is a huge logical leap from a man who is willing to let his enemy have the throne, knowing he could manipulate the situation if need-be, to a man who is willing to give all that up to save Ravka and spend an eternity in agony. Like, the entire exchange seems so out of character for him. Why not just find some other immortal to stuff into the tree? Why put his sainthood above his own life and wellbeing? There is an unwritten chapter in his POV between the scene with Zoya being called queen and Chapter 48 that could have connected those dots and made his decision make sense, but it’s just not there. Or maybe it was cut out. Where is the forbidden chapter, Leigh, I want it.

Anyway, I dislike the whole Thornwood ending in general. It’s clear that this is a sort of “well he has to pay for his crimes somehow so lets invent the most torturous way possible”, in vein of all those other redemption arcs that have been realized through suffering. Except, that’s so overdone. And so cheesy. And just. Not at all what his character needed, which is something grounding. 

In part I, Zoya remarks that the Darkling could never get his powers back and could spend the rest of his mortal life living like every other man. Which, uh, sets him off. Because that is what he’s afraid of. Being someone inconsequential. If Leigh wanted him to pay for his crimes, she didn’t have to go all dramatic torture tree, she could have made it so the only way to close the gap is for him to lose his powers. And boom! He would have had to make a decision between keeping something so essential to himself, and saving Ravka. And he would have chosen Ravka, because at the end of the day, he saw that eternity surrounded by nothing but dead grey sand is no eternity at all. He would have made the real meaningful sacrifice. He would have been the same as Alina - powerless.

This ending could have also set up the interesting dynamic that was between him, Nikolai, and Zoya in the rest of the novel. He pops up when he wants to, manipulates situations in his favor, then fucks off until he wants them to find him again. He could have been a chaotic agent that could have either desided to help them in some way, guide them, or further his own agenda, how brief it would have been in his mortal life. And that’s how I wished it would have ended!

That being said, the whole tree thing could have just been Bardugo setting up the new SOC book XD. And if he’s in it, and if he doesn’t just die immediately when they pull him out of that tree, we might see more of the Darkling’ arc after all. Hell, maybe the whole death thing is a metaphor, and I was right, and he’ll die of old age a few decades from then cause he’d lose his powers. Here’s hoping. 

[alastanor]

To start, I would like to thank @cis-het-angel-kinnie for bringing this video to my attention, even if it was to praise the video rather than to point out it's flawed arguments against Charlie for main character.

If you have not seen the video yet, I recommend giving it a watch prior to reading this or you may be confused.

Click to read more...

What Is A Protagonist?

I am not bringing up this question because I think the source used was incorrect. However, the statement that "protagonists ask questions and antagonists make arguments" is an oversimplification of both roles. And I am going to explain why.

The trope of protagonist vs antagonist is an age old theme which has been used countless times throughout storytelling's history in books, plays, films, and story-driven video games. As such, the definition of both roles has continued to flourish and evolve over time. It is no longer good vs evil.

While @diregentleman used books written by, I assume, published writers for his argument, I am going to use Creative Writing and Literary Experts from a Masterclass article.

In the article, a protagonist is described as this:

"In storytelling, a protagonist is the main character or principal character or group of characters in a story."

More than one character is capable of being an antagonist in this story. Given that demons are meant to be redeemed, fitting the theme of the story, it is fair to surmise that all (or the majority of) the demons surrounding Charlie are protagonists in some form.

The article goes on to state that the protagonist's goals reflect the overall story goals and the plot moves forward based on their decisions.

This being said, Charlie's overall goal reflects the premise of the story, that being that Hazbin Hotel is a story about redemption. This is a goal that Angel Dust does not have.

In DireGentleman's video, he claims Angel Dust joined the Happy Hotel with the intention of being redeemed, albeit skeptical whether it could actually be done. This is actually inaccurate, and we see this in both the pilot and the comic.

Angel does display skepticism straight from the gate, but when they explain their reason for approaching him (that no one else has agreed), he makes this face:

Does that really look like someone who believes redemption may be possible? But for further establishment of just how little Angel believes redemption is possible, Angel also laughs them off and calls their goal "lame."

The only reason Angel agrees to Charlie and Vaggie's proposition is because it is a rent free place to stay. He admits as much just a bit further into the comic. By the end, Angel says "Redemption, it's silly. Huh, Nuggs."

The tone we are led to believe he uses is one of contemplation and relief. Relief due likely to the fact that there is some light at the end of the tunnel to the shit situation he was in.

This is just comic evidence, of course. If we go to the pilot, when Angel is engaging in the turf war with Cherri Bomb, he explains that he is using Charlie and Vaggie for free rent. Further exemplified when he later asks if participating in the turf war meant he didn't have a free room anymore. But also in his conversation with Cherri, he also admits that he is still taking some drugs behind Charlie and Vaggie's back. Something that we see immediately toward the opening of the pilot when Angel buys a bag of Angel Dust.

Character Dynamic

I cannot emphasize this enough, the Hunicast is NOT a good exemplifier for character dynamics. Every single "character interaction" is based on fanon, not canon, and they are prompted by the fans themselves. Only Viv really knows exactly how Angel and Alastor would canonically interact. It is no better a source for character dynamic than the wiki is for accurate information. IE, some things may hold true, but the majority of it is not and it is better just to wait until it is confirmed canon.

Moving on...

There is a lot of focus on Valentino as a main antagonist, based entirely too much on the hope that Angel will be the main protagonist. And this is really just disingenuous when you consider there are two other implied Overlords, as well as several other sources of strife within the world of Hazbin Hotel.

An Antagonist is someone working against the protagonist to prevent them from achieving their goal. Alastor would not meet this criteria, as he is a self-professed observer and conflict creator. But he is not a main antagonist. Someone working against the goal of redemption could be anyone from the Overlords (which, far as we know, would include Valentino), Lucifer, or even Heaven itself.

Where antagonists come into play, quoting Masterlist once again, I think these two types of antagonists were overlooked:

A conflict-creator. An antagonist doesn’t have to be a “bad guy.” Sometimes, they’re just a character whose goals are in direct conflict with the protagonist’s, like Mr. Darcy in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice or Javert working to arrest Valjean in Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables.

The protagonist themselves. The main source of conflict in a story can be from within the protagonist themselves—their shortcomings or insecurities are keeping them from reaching their goal. A prime example of this is Holden Caulfield in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. While Holden comes into conflict with many characters in the novel, the ever-present antagonizing conflict comes from his own obsessions and insecurities.

Now, why did I bring up these two types? Well! I'm glad you asked! You see, where conflict-creator comes into play would line up more with Alastor. He isn't really the bad guy, but he does create some friction where his goals meet with Charlie's. He is a professed observer, but it is strongly believed that there is something else, another goal, that he has omitted.

As for the Protagonist themselves, this lines up pretty strongly where Charlie is concerned. You could argue that it does for Angel too, but Angel's goal, as mentioned before, is not Redemption. That goal is Charlie's, and hers alone. Yet it is her naivety, inexperience, and insecurities surrounding her failures as a princess that are holding her back from achieving her goal. Going by this, not only do we have multiple protagonists, but we also have multiple antagonists.

"So far, no one else's past is wrought with tension like Angel Dust's."

Even if this wasn't a sweeping, dismissive statement made with limited information, it would still be incorrect. Why? Because each and every character in Hazbin Hotel is going to have their own story to tell. Stories that will each be as relatable and wrought with tension, the only reason we know Angel so extensively is because Viv put the most work into him. She has admitted that Alastor and Angel were characters she wrote based on past dealings and experiences she had. Let those implications sink in a bit.

Now, to further this, people don't need to empathize with a character to like them. They can sympathize as well, even if they personally cannot relate to the emotions the character is feeling.

And where Angel is concerned, he is not addicted to drugs. Angel has used drugs to escape the pain of his trauma. His response in the pilot to having his drugs stolen from him is not one of a typical addict. Which leads us to believe the drugs are simply a coping mechanism more than they are an addiction.

Real Audience for Hazbin is 12 to 16

I would really fucking hope you are joking. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess that this was said by someone who isn't a parent. While yes, kids will be sneaky and watch or play things they're not supposed to, a show with drug use/abuse, rape, sex, physical/mental/emotional abuse, and suicide is as much for them as Rick and Morty.

Further, it is not just these themes that make the show for adults. It is the format of the storytelling. Yes, you can complain about what you consider issues with the pilot. But at the end of the day, it did it's job. It established the story premise, introduced important characters (Fat Nuggets does not fall in that category, calm down), gave a basic understanding of their relationships to each other, and get the audience interested in continuing the series. Considering the views for the pilot and the resulting disproportionate growth of the fandom, I would say it did that in spades.

Hazbin Hotel is not Steven Universe. I cannot say this enough times, and the reason I cannot is because I cannot tell you how many times I have come into contact with the underage side of the fandom griping about lack of lore, griping about lack of production information, and overall being exceedingly impatient. At the risk of sounding like an old miser, the underage side of the fandom has never had to wait for additions to a series. Like waiting for Homestuck updates, or the new release of a Harry Potter novel. They have had a steady schedule of content, along with shows that give exposition dumps "in the first 3 minutes."

So don't look at Hazbin Hotel through the lens of kids' show fandoms. It has so much more to offer than that.

Alastor vs Valentino

No, this is not about whether Alastor could beat up Valentino. In the video, DireGentleman pulled a huge pet peeve of mine and lumped Valentino and Alastor together, labeling them both "monsters." Which is opening a huge can of worms for me. So, I will give a brief summary of why that is wrong, and provide a link to one of my other posts for deeper diving.

So, there is a reason why Valentino is more hated than Alastor is. Lumping them together is a mistake.

Valentino is a pimp that abuses and manipulates his victims through intimidation and (implied through) some kind of addiction to the red smoke (whether that is real or symbolism is yet unknown). He takes who and what he wants, be damned the consequences or who gets hurt. He is incredibly self-serving, with no consideration for anyone else. He uses people like pawns, and when those pawns refuse to do what he wants, what does he do? He forces them to do it anyway.

By comparison, while Alastor may use his people like pawns, he also has more consideration for them and doesn't abuse them (far as we can tell). The evidence to support this is the attitude of those serving under Valentino vs those under Alastor. Niffty and Husk both seem to not have a problem with Alastor, and where Husk is concerned it seems that his attitude toward Alastor is their typical banter. But definitely nothing that displays abuse. In fact, when Husker is hesitant or even refusing to do as Alastor asks, Alastor doesn't force Husker. He offers payment in the form of something Husker genuinely likes.

Now, while some might argue this is also manipulating through addiction, one could look at it this way. However, Alastor didn't make Husker an alcoholic. That was Husker's vice to begin with, Alastor simply has no intention of fixing it. After all, Alastor has said he doesn't think anything can change a sinner.

For further explanation and delving into Alastor, click here.

Parents don't 'get' Charlie = Disney Princess

Once again, we fall upon the slippery slope of disinformed statements. While the joke was made that the princess of hell expresses herself best through song, parent issues do not equate to being something that is relatable primarily or only to kids and teens. It's kind of offensive that there is a sort or implication in this statement that adults don't have issues like insecurities surrounding their own failures, or parent issues like what Charlie has or worse. And once again, we fall into the empathize vs sympathize realm and I once again will say that the audience does not need to empathize with the protagonist to make them a good protagonist.

Charlie is a failed princess, her people don't respect her and didn't even prior to her hotel announcement. Yes, she is sheltered and naive. Likely due to how little she was able or allowed to interact with sinners. After all, her ex-boyfriend was from another hellborn family. One that, from what we can surmise, interacts rather frequently with the Magne family.

And it is because of this naivety and inexperience that her method to redeem sinners will not work.

In the video, DireGentleman states that we can pretty much assume that Charlie's redemption methods will work. But her methods, as we see in her song, is to inject demons with meds and take away/burn their vices. She is seeking immediate resolutions to problems that require therapy and a long process that should be making sinners want to change. All Charlie is currently accomplishing is earning the ire and scrutiny of her people. This is why I previously mentioned that Charlie is both protagonist and antagonist, as she is getting in her own way to accomplishing the goal of redemption. And this is where we find that Charlie meets the "starts out being wrong" requirement mentioned in the video as well as "admiring a character for trying."

Charlie is also in a perfect position to be the tour guide for us, the audience, as we observe the metamorphosis of every demon who needs to be redeemed. She is, once again, surrounded by those who need to be redeemed which means we will witness every character arc. This includes Angel, who does not need to be the central focus for us to witness his story.

Finally...

It was stated, or at least implied, that Hazbin Hotel's pilot is no longer relevant. This is a statement that pretty much leaves me puzzled. The only way it would be irrelevant is if Hazbin went in a completely different direction, and we have no reason to believe it will. Vivziepop is still creative director for Hazbin Hotel, and A24 is notorious for giving creators their creative freedom. What A24 is doing is animating, making VA regulations, and ensuring there is an air tight lid kept on the project. Especially given it's popularity in such a short amount of time.

Contrary to what DireGentleman said, Hazbin Hotel will definitely live up to it's hype. Being picked up by A24 will not compromise the show simply because it's not in the same realm of indie production that Helluva Boss is. And it's a bit unfair to Vivziepop to imply as much.

In Conclusion...

Please do a bit more digging in regards to not only the show, but everything surrounding it. Don't lump fanon and canon together and expect them to be equal sources, and please do not claim an obviously adult-audience show is more fit for children and teens.

And lastly, please do more digging to better understand media and storytelling. Reading books is great, but what you were using as the foundation for your arguments were far too simplified and vague,, given the complexity of the protagonist and antagonist roles. Overall, the video just came across as one huge helping of Angel Dust bias with a side of strong dislike for Charlie.

[bsd-fan]

Biggest comment in the story

@altairgavin

Hi, you don´t know me and I swear that I just tried to make a simple comment in ao3 like a normal person but I ended up writing 5192 words and I couldn´t post all of this in the platform so...yeah. 

Okay, so I don´t really know if you will read this comment or if you will continue this series (I really hope you do because this series is basically my religion) but regardless of all that, I just read the whole thing and I realized that I needed to write a comment to make you know how utterly and madly in love I am with what you created. I want to say that this really started just as a comment but at some point I honestly lost all focus and I just started to fangirl so hard that I´m embarrassed of myself, I started throwing my opinions, headcanons, and impressions of the characters and this ended up being a mess, so you can just skip this seven pages and read the last paragraph hahaha, I really hope this is not as annoying as I think it is.

So first of all I want to apologize because I know this whole comment will be a mess, English is not my first language and I love this fanfic so much that I can´t even put together two sentences so I just really hope this whole babbling make sense. The first time I realized what this was about I screamed, soukoku is my otp and I can´t begin to explain how much I love them and how special they are for me, and to be able to read them in one of the universes I adore the most? It was like a dream come true but at the same time I was kind of scared cause I´m not really a fan of most of the crossovers that have been written here, however as soon as I started with this I knew I have found gold.  

Your writing is absolutely divine, it stirred memories of an eleven year old me reading harry potter and wishing I was there, it felt like going home but better because I don´t just care for the characters, I LOVE every single one of them. There are so many things to be impressed with this works, so many things I want to say, so many praises I want to give but the thing that really left me breathless were the characters, how you write them? Is an art, they feel complex, they feel real, they feel human. I laugh with the characters, I cry with them, I got angry with them and screamed at them and I can´t praise you enough for that. Actually I want to stop in this part, I already loved this characters with all my soul so I´m always subjective when I read fanfiction, I always care for the characters regardless of how they are written just because they are dazai and chuuya but what you have done here?  is impressive and wonderful and amazing because this is one of the very very few works in which I don´t care just for Asagiri characters, I care for YOUR characters, I love the characters that YOU have created. Don’t misunderstand me, all of your characters are canon compliant, the way you manage to respect the characterizations is probably one of the bigger reasons I´m so deeply in love with this works, you have written my favorite dazai of all the dazais I´ve ever read and the one I consider more in character but what I admire the most? What truly leaves me speechless?  is how you make this characters canon compliant and still manage to make them grow and develop. If canon chuuya and dazai were transported to Hogwarts at that age, this is exactly they way I think they would act like. I want to tell you how much I admire you cause I know that neither chuuya nor dazai are easy characters to write, both of them are extremely complex specially if you are writing about them in an au, and I´m completely amazed of how you did it. They are tridimensional characters, they feel so so human and it´s so easy to love them. Every single thing in this au is so clever and amazingly done, it´s pretty obvious how much effort you put in this because everything is so well thought. I think one of the most intelligent decisions was to have this story narrated by Chuuya because he really is the perfect protagonist (better that harry in my opinion), he is so lovable and relatable and just a wonderful character to read. I love how he feels so real, he is intelligent and he has seen things that no kid should´ve seen, he is resilient, but he still is vulnerable, he is struggling with humanity, and with no having memories and then out of nowhere he is in this world full of magic in which he finds incredible people and he finds a home with them. I love how he is brave, and loyal to death, honest and he cares so damn much but at the same time I love how deeply flawed he is, chuuya is still chuuya, he is bad tempered and impulsive, he´s not really good with feelings and he gets scared and sometimes he doesn´t know how to communicate but he is there and he is trying, one of the reasons that it´s so easy to get into the story it´s because we have the best protagonist we could ask for. Now I want to make a (huge) parenthesis to talk about how absolutely insane is your writing, you are literally what every author refers to when they talk about “show not tell” one of my favorite scenes not just from fanfiction but from all the books I´ve ever read it’s the scene after Dazai is petrified. I think about that scene constantly and I still think it´s a masterpiece. Chuuya relationship with dazai is so damn incredible (I´m going to talk about this later) but it´s also difficult, I´m gonna make a little character study of chuuya because your character is so good that I really want to fangirl about him, of course this is just my perspective and I could be wrong but okay, chuuya is twelve, he has never been so close with someone and from my perspective I don’t think he has sorted out his feeling for dazai yet.  I think he knows that he cares for him so much more than he should, I think he knows that dazai is special to him in a way that no one is, he knows that his trust for dazai is on a whole different level, and he is clearly PINING (Even though I don´t think he has realized). From our point of view is so obvious that he loves him but for him? It isn´t that obvious. He can´t even explain his relationship with him, he knows that dazai is the closest person to him but he still feels reluctant to call him a friend (I think it´s because a part of him knows that what he feels for dazai is bigger than that, that his feelings for him are completely different from his feelings for kunikida, tachihara or tanizaki but I´m just theorizing) and I think it´s also because dazai is a lot sometimes, he is annoying and cunning and whiny and difficult so the normal response would be to be annoyed for him, right? And he is but at the same time he still likes him, so I feel like chuuya doesn´t know what to do with all those feelings and dazai doesn´t make it easy and he doesn´t know what dazai feels for him, so he tries to act like he doesn´t care that much, like he isn´t really affected even though he clearly is. This makes this whole thing better because:

a)       Is completely in character with chuuya

b)      Is perfectly in character for EVERY 12yo (really I acted just like this when I was his age)

c)       Makes this so much more entertaining and funny to read.

The best thing is that chuuya doesn´t act this way for the others, he actually wants to trick himself into thinking that he doesn´t care, in conclusion, nakahara chuuya in an unreliable narrator and I LIVE for that. So that scene after Dazai is petrified is amazing in every sense of the word because he knows that he won´t sleep, he knows that he is feeling too much and for us the readers is pretty clear that he is a mess, but he still tries to act like he doesn´t feel like falling into pieces. That conversation with kouyou is the best thing in the world. I LOVE that he can´t admit that he is feeling sad or scared, even in his mind he can´t admit it so he copes with anger because he can manage that. He says that he is pissed,  the best thing is that we are in his mind and even then chuuya tries to act like he is fine but the narration makes pretty damn clear that he is not fooling anyone. Kouyou knows that chuuya is fighting tears, and we know it too because the narration says it in a really subtle way.

“He took a deep breath and swallowed down the irritating lump in his throat” “He chewed his lip and breathed through his nose, trying to settle his racing heart” Is mentioned but chuuya doesn´t really stop to think about it because he is too busy acting like he is just angry. This whole thing makes the character more real, more interesting and a whole lot more complex because we can see the layers in him.

Here we have an actual paragraph of chuuya lying to himself: “Chuuya squeezes his eyes shut for a moment to repel the dry stinging threatening to give way tears, which was stupid because he wasn´t sad or afraid” and how he gets angry when he got called out “Chuuya wiped at his eyes, furious at them for betraying something he didn´t want to admit he was feeling”

And then we have Queen Kouyou who KNOWS.

“It´s not as if you´re completely honest with your emotions either, lad” Honestly I love how she knows how much they care for each other, how she clearly sees the mutual pining and how they are struggling with their emotions because they are kids, because neither of them have had feelings like this before and they are so emotional constipated it hurts but even with that she doesn’t say anything to chuuya, she knows that Chuuya has to figure that in his own, she knows that he still isn´t ready to aknowledge or face his feelings so she is just there to guide him and listen to him and honestly? SHE IS THE REAL QUEEN and I can´t begin to explain how much I love her.

I made all that gigantic mess to say that I love the way you narrate things, how even with out making it obvious we know what the characters are feeling and honestly? That´s fucking good writing. The way you make me feel everything the characters are feeling is a gift and I know that a lot of writers would kill to have that ability. This scene will forever be special for me, you really made something incredible there. And it´s not the only scene, the scene in the third book in which he tries to convince himself that he is not worried for dazai but he still looks for him when the dementors appear, because dazai is his safe place and also because if he feels danger his first instinct is to be with dazai so he can protect him too, or I really love how he immediately realized that dazai is not as clingy as always and that he is maintaining his physical distance and even when he never says it IT´S SO DAMN CLEAR HOW MUCH THAT IS BUGGING HIM. He is so annoyed but he can´t say it so he just acts like he isn´t. And that moment in the second book in which he screamed at dazai that he wanted him to stay lives in my mind rent free but I´m going to talk about this scene later.

I don´t really want to talk about Dazai because this clearly isn´t a comment anymore and its more of an essay with lots of fangirling and believe me, I can make a WHOLE character study from your Dazai because he is bloody brilliant and the best one I´ve read so far, I´m going to summarize this as much as I can. HE IS AMAZING. I think Dazai is the most difficult character to write because he is a contradictory character. I love lots of fanfiction but at the end most of the time I feel like Dazai´s personality is completely different from the canon and I get it, to write such a difficult character must be a nightmare. Most of the fanfics I´ve read basically portray him as this cold, lethal mafia boss that is completely whipped by chuuya to the point were he kind of resembles to every single male lead in every generic YA novel or go to the opposite with dazai being a massive and cruel asshole to the point that I just want to shot him or this  goofy character and I think the difficult part is that he can be all those things but it isn´t everything he is. And you found the perfect balance, and from my perspective he is just perfect, he is so complex and full of layers. He feels bad and kind of hollow and just like chuuya he is struggling with his humanity (Exactly like in canon), people call him “the demon kid” I don´t think that he really thinks of himself as just a kid, he is constantly bored but when he finds something that catch his interest he can´t let go, he doesn´t care for a lot of people but when he does he would kill and die for that people. He is brilliant and funny, and so charismatic that even when you want to slap him you can´t help but love him (again, just like canon Dazai) he is also dramatic and whiny but he still is cunning, and a liar and manipulative and he can be really cruel when he wants to be, he is even worse dealing with emotions than chuuya and I can´t even begin to address how much I adore him, he is so in character that every time I read him I want to cry of joy.

“He is definitely the type to freeze up and self destruct when he gets scared. Thinks too much and gets paranoid too” THAT WHOLE STATEMENT IS DAZAI, RIGHT THERE, YOU JUST DESCRIBED HIM SO WELL THAT I LEGIT SCREAMED THE FIRST TIME I READ IT. When he recollected the slugs and gave them to chuuya in Christmas and at the end of the first book? Also completely in character, how he always is there teasing chuuya and being ridiculous clingy but the moment he feels vulnerable he panics and try to put as much distance as possible, how he is so protective because people always leave him, how he is really possessive of chuuya and try to keep all his attention centered in himself it´s actually canon. 15 yo dazai did exactly that. I love that even if he is possessive with chuuya it´s pretty clear that he doesn´t see him as an object, he loves chuuya (even though I´M PRETTY SURE he hasn´t realized, honestly at this point I can physically feel his pining and even with that he is even more emotional stupid than chuuya so I think its gonna be a loooooong time before he realizes about his own feelings) chuuya is his partner and he worries for him so much that he doesn´t know what to do with himself, he gets scared by his own feelings and ends up acting like an ass. your dazai is the best thing I´ve ever read in my whole life. I love your chuuya, but damn, I would die for your dazai. And once again I want to scream about  how impressive it is that even when the story is being told by chuuya, we still get a good idea of what´s happening with dazai and what he is feeling, he is evolving and he also keeps getting better as a character and again its amazing cause he isn´t the one narrating, but he is still so damn well done? I also LOVE the delicacy in how you are talking about his mental health. So, this is really personal but I have been diagnosed with anxiety and depression and I really can relate with your dazai, I love the way you write about it, dazai in this au is young he is still not the depressed and actively suicidal person of canon, I don´t know if in this au he is going to get to that point but the 13 yo dazai who actively looks for dangerous situations without care for his life is an incredible way to showing that dazai is not precisely healthy. I love his coping mechanisms, how first he acts all happy with fake smiles and try to change topic, when that doesn´t work he becomes an ass to try to push people away and when that also fails he ends up avoiding the person. Your dazai is so fucking real and I love him with all my soul.

All the characters in this series are amazing, I have already talked a little bit about Kouyou but she is incredible, the best teacher in the world and my queen, the friendship between yosano, ranpo, louisa and Poe is everything I needed in life. Yosano and Ranpo betting on chuuya´s relationship with dazai is one of the things I love the most in this whole au because they know too but they are jerks who just are there betting when skk is going to realize and I´M LIVING FOR THAT.  The chaotic energy of ranpo is so entertaining to read. Tachihara is so well done, how much he admires and cares for chuuya, how he is really jealous of dazai and how he doesn´t know how to act about it,  odasaku is flawless and I really like ango, tanizaki and kunikida.  I love your Akutagawa and atsushi with every part of my self.

Now that I talked about how your writing is evocative, addictive and just wonderful and how I would die for your characters I want to talk about the relationships because OMG I LOVE EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM! Let´s start with the one between dazai and chuuya. Their relationship is so heartwarming and my heart swells with so much love every time I think about them. I love how their relationship feels so natural from the very beginning, it just feels right. My favorite thing about it it´s that even though it´s natural is not easy. Their relationship is complicated just like them. They are perfectly imperfect. They are exactly what soukoku stands for, they are partners, they push the other to be better, they challenge each other, they put the other out of their comfort zone, truly “only a diamond can polish a diamond” they are opposites in almost every way and that´s how it is supposed to be, it´s because of that that they are able to compliment the other so well but that also means that in many many ways their relationship is also a mess. They clash a lot, they don´t always understand each other. One of my favorite things is how chuuya feels kind of insecure around odasaku because odasaku is always calm and collected, he just understands dazai and it seems like he does it easily while he struggles all the time. I love chuuya exactly because of that, chuuya is not the kind of person who just understands and that´s okay and in many ways I think  that´s exactly what Dazai needs. Chuuya won´t just understand, he will tell him when he is acting like an idiot, he will tell him when is time to fucking stop, he will be there and call him out when dazai is too afraid to face things. One of my favorite things is that how they get mad, that they don´t always like each other but they still love each other. How even when it´s difficult they want to be together, how at the end of the day after the fights and bickering they know that the other is gonna be there, that they are not alone and what is most beautiful than that? They are kids that grew up in the most horrible situations. Chuuya was alone, without memories, without family, he didn´t have anything, on the other side there was dazai who grew up with a slimy and horrible person who constantly tries to manipulate him and use him at his convenience, he never had a homemade food, he was empty and hollow and they were so lonely and then this kids find each other. I love how messy their relationship is. Is difficult to figure your feelings when you are a teenager and for them? It´s a lot harder, they never had anyone who taught them what it was to be loved, they grew up in a horrible world, they are terribly emotional constipated, they can´t fucking communicate to save their lives (Also a very canon thing), they have unhealthy coping mechanisms and apart from all of that they are also opposites in almost every way of course they are going to clash, of course they get mad, of course they don´t know how to fix things, this is a first for both of them but they are trying. I love how even if chuuya hasn´t realize the depth of his feelings for dazai, he still is very conscious that he choose dazai, that he could´ve trust yosano, kunikida, tachihara or someone else with his story but he trusted dazai, he choose to trust dazai, he choose to be his partner and dazai did the same for him. They are in this together even when sometimes they drive each other crazy.

The scene after Louisa is petrified is one of my favorites because I think it perfectly portrays their relationship. That was the first scene in which chuuya truly was angry with dazai and it wasn´t about dazai being an ass or doing things purposely to get chuuya mad, actually he didn´t do anything wrong and he is confused because this time he really doesn´t know where he went wrong. I love that chuuya also knew that dazai didn´t do anything bad but he still was angry because he couldn´t help it. They faced a situation and they act differently, dazai was being rational and doing what he thought was the best, chuuya knows that but he was scared and he needed dazai by his side in that moment, he didn´t want rationality. In that fight neither of them did anything wrong, they just had different reactions and that´s something that happens, I love how we know for sure that chuuya loves dazai but sometimes he still needs time away from him so he walked with louisa and ranted about dazai with her and I think it´s the same for dazai, of course chuuya is definitely not as difficult as him to be with but he also needs his time alone (we know that from what he says about he walking at night because he can´t sleep) or with ango or odasaku. I love how even if neither of them know what they are feeling or doing, they are so into each other and oh my god they are pining so hard.  They are still kids, there isn´t any real physical attraction yet, they aren´t in the point of “being in love” in the traditional more adult way but they already love each other so much and it really hits me how we know that just from the narrative, specially in chuuya´s case. He won´t say it but he is hyper aware of Dazai, he always notices when dazai is smiling and the he starts smiling too, he knows when dazai is giving a fake smile, and when he is tense or sad or angry. He tries his best to learn more of dazai and it´s pretty obvious that he treasures the little things he has learned about him even if it´s something as simple as his favorite color. I love how they look for each other touch even when neither of them have a lot experience with physical contact. I totally imagine them like one of those couples that are touching each other all the time in the future and you know the worst part? I don´t think anyone will be surprised. Dazai is already all over chuuya most of the time (except in this book and I also want to know why) they have holden each other hands and wrists, they lean into the other, they have cuddled to sleep, they have hugged and held each other and that always makes me feel all giddy inside. AND THE TRUST, the inhuman trust that characterize soukoku is right there and it has me sobbing.

So again, this is just my point of view and I can be totally wrong, but from my perspective is so funny to see them pining without them knowing that they are. I read “Chuuya Nakahara and the Time that Doesn't Exist” and Dazai was pining so hard from the very first moment (I mean, I don´t blame him. Chuuya truly is the most beautiful person on earth). Once I read your comment about how chuuya is pining for dazai but at that point of the story was just a tree while dazai´s pining was an entire forest and I CAN TOTALLY SEE THAT, but at the same time I headcanon that even if Dazai is the one pining harder, he is also the most oblivious about his own feelings? But I don´t know maybe he is already completely aware of his feelings for chuuya and I´m just making a mess of things hahaha. I love that chuuya kind of knows but at the same time he doesn´t, his denial is so strong that he can´t even think of that but at the same time we know that at least deep, deep, deeeeep down he kind of knows and we have the funniest most relatable reactions everytime someone even suggest that they feel more than friendship and he is just there choking with things, blushing and desperately trying to change the topic. I swear those scenes are my favorite ones, I´m always there laughing my ass off and wishing I was with yosano and ranpo to bet about skk love life.

“-He´s just…my partner

The tanizaki sibling´s eyebrows shot upward

-Let´s go find a compartiment, Atsushi” Chuuya grumbled, face warming up”

“-You can still love people even if they annoy you from time to time.

The second year´s face heated up alarmingly fast as he almost breaks the glass of orange juice with his grip- I don´t—why would you think I—what the hell is all that supposed to mean?

-That you care about him?

-That is not what you said”

“-What would you call yourselves then? Confidants? Lovers?

Chuuya choked”

JUST LOOK AT HIM, HE IS A MESS, OMG I LOVE HIM SO MUCH, MY SWEET STUPID CHILD IN DENIAL.

Soukoku relationship in this au is everything I needed in life to be happy, thank you for creating it.

And the relationship between chuuya and kouyou? *Chef kiss* is so damn good, I love how they deeply care for each other, and how she is always there to help him when he needs her, I love how she even stands for dazai in his own way and how she is literally the best adult in existence. I love how she is always teaching chuuya things and wants the better for him, so she is kind of strict but at the same time she is spoiling him. I love chuuya relationship with Arthur and paul, they have this parental kind of relationship, they obviously care and like chuuya a lot and Arthur is there acting like the overprotective father for chuuya (sometimes acting like a judgemental asshole) and how chuuya thinks of their house as the closest thing to a home have me in tears. I love dazai´s relationship with odasaku and ranpo and how much they care for him, I love that oda is always there to listen to him not matter what. I love chuuya and tanizaki´s friendship, I adore shin soukoku relationship even though we haven´t seen much of them but it´s already amazing. We see bitter, angsty Akutagawa following dazai like is his light vs the sweet precious atsushi and how they bicker and god I´M EMO FOR THEM, I LOVE THEM. Let´s talk about ranpo, yosano, louisa and Edgar friendship again because their chaotic energy is everything I asked for, they love each other and are there being brilliant and funny and I WOULD DIE FOR THEM.

I also want to make a point of how much I love your dialogues, because I FUCKING LOVE THEM WITH ALL MY SOUL. I want to fangirl about more scenes, I want to talk about the unicorn and their fist hug, I want to talk about chuuya first birthday, I want to talk about the Christmas with Rimbaud and Verlaine, and about the scenes in the infirmary in the third book, I want to talk about my theories about the plot and about chuuya and corruption but at this point this thing is scary and I already look like a crazy person so I will stop here.

This started as a comment, this clearly isn´t a comment anymore and it turned into an essay with character studies and relationship studies and probably me overanalyzing things, I hope this whole thing isn´t as crazy as I think it is. But if you want to take something from this whole thing is that you are an amazing writer, that you are creative and have a wonderful, startling style, that you make characters and relationships so incredible that there´s a person who is willing to write seven pages about them, because they are inspiring and breathtaking, that there are scenes that will live with me forever. This fanfic is everything I would ask for, I would love to see you continue the series, there are still lots of things I want to see, a lot of characters I want to meet but if this is the last one you are willing to write (even though I really hope it´s not the case) I just want to thank you for creating something as amazing as this. Thank you for sharing this amazing content with us and if you decide to continue the series then I will be right there, screaming like crazy and fangirling really hard.

[ikkleosu]

What do you think now in terms of Caryl actually happening? Seems to be looking a WHOLE lot better now!!

I have several asks basically asking the same thing so forgive for just lumping it all together in this answer. Also forgive me, for I am about to ramble.

Let me say that i am so so so certain Caryl is happening.

Now unlike some folks (with music box in their name) I FREELY admit that despite the fact I am ALWAYS RIGHT, sometimes I have been totally wrong.

I was totally sure Caryl was happening in season 5, and I was totally sure it was happening in the run up so season 8. Obviously I was wrong on both counts.

The rest of the time I was mostly speculating how it could happen if they were to do it at that point.

Now I have always (well since season 5) believe Caryl would happen eventually. Even when I stopped watching in s8/9 I still believed it would happen eventually. But by then I thought Carzekiel was a real, genuine ship, and Caryl would only happen as a last ditch attempt to save ratings - 3 show runners down the line!

And then the spoilers for 8x16 came out and my ears pricked up. Carol was leaving Zeke, and Daryl was implicated in the divorce! (LOL) Suddenly things got really interesting, but I still wasn't sure Caryl was on the cards in the immediate future.

Once the movie was announced I was fairly settled that Caryl would only happen in the movie, as a ratings grabber (because as much as I love Andrew Licoln, he isn't enough to sell a movie. Walking Dead fans who have walked away would expect a TWD movie to have Rick and Michonne and Daryl and Carol. They just would).

Now up until about a month or so ago I STILL believed that (and part of me does still think actual canon might only happen on the big screen). But what has changed in the last few weeks is that I am certain THIS SEASON is setting up Caryl - either to fully go canon in this season, or to NEARLY go canon, then go canon in the movie.

(By nearly go canon, I mean Daryl and Carol's feelings for each other are made explicit. There are on screen conversations about their feelings. Their reasons for not being together will be detailed, and they will have shippus interuptus a la the Consumed bed moment that stops them from taking the last step)

My mind being changed has happened bit by bit, and a large part of it has been thanks to Norman "threesome with Beth and Carol" Reedus! I KNOW?!

Suddenly his answers on Caryl were mature and interesting. Talking about the complicated nature of their relationship and waxing about aspects of Caryl. Like, who is he?

My assumption was Norman suddenly didn't just get media training. He could answer differently because he knew differently. He had something different to say because something different was happening.

And platonic relationships are rarely "complicated".

A huge part is the quotes I put in my "join the dots" post. The fact that Angela said this season would deal with Daryl's love life, and said she has asked Norman his opinion on how it would go. Then Norman said they have had talks, then explicitly said he has had talks with Angel's and some things he suggested went into ep 1, then he confirmed it was things in the Caryl scenes.

To me, that is definitive proof that the relationship he and AK were talking about was Caryl.

And let me divert and explain here why I got it wrong in the past...

It took me like 6 years to realise that Scott Gimple puts stuff into the show that seems significant but isn't AT ALL. He plants scenes and symbolism and Easter Eggs that amount to fuck all. They are pointless, meaningless stuff he puts in for his seeming own amusement. If he's asked about it, he will say yes I will say that will come up again BUT IT NEVER WILL!

From the jasper stone to Daryl's therapy book to Daryl's sudden deep relationship with every red shirt going - all of it was meaningless drivel. Hey remember the dead bodies with signs on them? Remember the weird deserted camps? Remember the Cherokee walkers? Remember the clocks and flowers and tomatoes and beer bottles and the colour green? MEANINGLESS!

I spent so many hours dissecting and analysing, connecting stories that seemed to fit brilliantly together. And I tend to think I was giving it more thought than Gimple was.

I thought Caryl would happen because things like the water jug flirtation and Consumed and the Dwight parallels and the Cherokee rose on the wall and... you get the point. But none of them meant anything other than Gimple thinking he was clever and throwing carylers random bones to keep us going. Which, to his credit, worked largely.

But I believe Angela Kang. Angela "I wrote Still, the worst written episode ever" Kang is not like that. Doesnt work like, and knows exactly what she's doing.

I dont say that lightly. It is only looking back at s9 with hindsight do I see what she was doing.

She had Carol repeatedly reject Ezekiel's proposal; she had Daryl have a conversation with Aaron about what a good father Daryl would be; she had Carol and Daryl show their connection and Carol show she wanted space from Ezekiel in a scene she wrote notes on saying Daryl was jealous of Zeke; she had Carol change her mind about Zeke only after she saw Daryl lose and go punch happy, whilst Zeke is a caring father to Henry. She made sure Carol never said "I love you" to Zeke on screen. She showed that while Daryl goes into the wild, Carol always knows where he us and lies to her husband to go visit him. She showed that Carol felt that Zeke had enough influence on Henry, and now she wanted Daryl to be the male influence on his life, in an episode filled with romance tropes and a morning after scene that was clearly meant to emulate a morning after scene. And then AK played her first hand - when Henry dies, it is Daryl who Carol seeks. And Zeke sees Daryl as a direct and present danger to his marriage and threatens him off. And then Carol leaves Zeke, and goes back to ASZ with Daryl.

I mean, holy crap! She set it all up so subtly that so many people didn't see it coming. And I still believe there are other parts of s9 that are set up to come into play this season.

And then with each spoiler I began to get more faith. Ep 1 was so much better than I expected, with Daryl taking Carol on a date, making a bracelet (something else I was wrong on. I totally thought that was wishful thinking), and not only being comfortable with the idea of running away together, but when he realised he couldn't do that, telling Carol HE NEEDS HER!

Again this is new ground, Daryl hasn't talked like that.

And then, after all that came the dream spoiler. I loved it, it seemed big, but the people leaking it played it down to ridiculous levels.

They made it seem like it was a throwaway scene, a Gimple-esque nod to the shippers. But as I have said, what actually happened was HUGE. This scene is the entire point of the Carol taking speed pills story (in this ep). It is telling us WHY she is afraid to sleep.

And it confirmed every single thing. The dialogue in the extended version confirms it is a good dream. The ring takes away ANY ambiguity (unless you are a desperate ABCer who has decided to pretend it's Ezekiel's ring, when it visibly, clearly isn't) that Daryl is just a roommate. And the fact the dream is 80/20 Daryl to Henry, shows this dream issue is NOT just about her missing Henry. If it was , the dream could have just featured Henry, or Henry and Zeke. It didn't. It heavily featured Daryl as Carol's dream husband, then followed it up by a scene showing us how utterly she loves and needs him.

I always believed in eventual canon. After Ghosts, I believe canon is on the cards very soon. And that we just saw on screen confirmation that Carol is IN LOVE with Daryl.

Put a fork in me I'm done.

[bloodraven55]

i will be there to take all your fears away (i'll turn your life to gold)

So I wrote this based on a prompt from someone on Discord (thank you very much @darnskippytootin 😄) and I figured I’d share it here too. Anyway, I hope y’all enjoy 😊

And if you’d rather read it on Ao3 then you can find it there as well.

Blake can’t even imagine what giving birth must feel like—how difficult it must be, how painful—but it certainly doesn’t sound like it’s a pleasant experience. Yang’s grip on her hand tightens suddenly and Blake winces, not just in discomfort but in sympathy too. She would have been more than willing to change places, but she understands why Yang wanted to be the one to do this.

I’m not her, Blake. I could never just— just walk out the way she did. You know that, right?

Yang, you’re already so much stronger than she could ever be. You don’t have to prove it. I see it every day, and I have never for one second believed that you could do what she did.

I know. Trust me, I know. But I want to do it. For me.

The idea of what comes afterward makes it more than worth letting Yang almost crush her fingers, though, and at least the strong grip on her hand helps to remind her that this is real. This moment has been coming for nine months, yet it still feels surreal to her. Even when Yang told her it was happening, part of her could hardly believe it.

Blake can tell that Yang’s nervous. They’ve known each other so long that it’s become second-nature for Blake to be able to read how Yang’s feeling at this point—though most of the time she hardly needs to since Yang doesn’t tend to be subtle with her emotions—and all evening she’s been recognising the telltale signs that Yang’s stressing over something.

Where Yang normally never missed a beat in a conversation, tonight she was distracted, staying uncharacteristically quiet like she was lost in her own head. And when she sat down with her scroll in the living room, only to get up and switch seats a minute of anxious fidgeting later, Blake knew without a doubt that something was wrong. She sighs, stepping forward into the room from where she’s been watching from the doorway.

“Yang?”

Her partner looked up at her instantly, seeming almost startled. “Yeah?”

“Is everything alright? It’s just that all night you’ve seemed a little… off, like you’re not quite here.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry.” A slightly guilty expression crossed Yang’s features for a moment, but then a radiant smile lit up her face. “I’ve just been trying to figure out how to tell you.”

“Tell me what?” Blake took an instinctive step closer, now less worried but far more curious.

“I— I took a test a few days ago, and I didn’t want to get your hopes up until I was absolutely sure, but today I took another one and—”

“You mean…?” She knows exactly what Yang’s talking about—they’ve both been hoping for it for months now—but she still needs to hear the words.

“Yeah. Yeah, I do.” Yang looks almost awed, as if it’s only truly hitting her now what she’s saying. “Blake, we’re going to have a child.”

She’s frozen in place for what feels like forever, trying to process that something which seemed like such a distant possibility is suddenly going to be a tangible reality. Her heart feels too big for her chest, and she’s struck by an overwhelming wave of love for the woman she’s chosen to build her life with.

When she finally manages to move, she crosses the remaining distance between them to pull Yang up and into her arms. Yang returns the embrace without any hesitation, pressing a kiss to the top of her head and holding her close. If she notices Blake’s tears she doesn’t  say anything, their hearts synchronised enough for her to know that they’re tears of joy.

When it’s all over, and Blake can breathe again because she can finally stop panicking over the countless things that could have gone wrong but didn’t, and because her hand is no longer in danger of being crushed, she manages to hold it together until the baby—her baby, their baby—is placed in her arms.

In an instant it doesn’t matter that Yang nearly burnt the hospital down just an hour ago because her Semblance and the stress of labour turned out to be a very bad combination. It doesn’t matter that she’s definitely going to lose so many hours of much-needed sleep because of this new addition to their lives. It doesn’t matter that Weiss is going to insist on visiting ten times more often so she can pretend not to squeal over how adorable their child is.

Because this is her son.

When she was younger she had never dared to imagine that she would ever be a part of bringing life into the world. She’d believed that one day she might take a life—convinced it would be necessary to serve the greater good—but she had never dreamed that she would ever have the chance to help create one.

Everything that had happened—leaving her parents behind, the cold and lonely years in the White Fang, the torture that Adam inflicted on her, finding a new home at Beacon, a new family in Team RWBY, losing it all and then finding it again, facing down her demon and coming out alive, saving the world—all of it had paved the path for her to arrive where she is now.

Blake looks down at the bundle she’s cradling close to her chest and she sees everything good that exists within her, within Yang—within them—in this one tiny perfect person.

She knows it’s ridiculous, but she can already imagine the books she’s going to read him, the video games Yang’s going to play with him, the stories of their most impressive missions that Ruby’s going to tell him, the sweets that Weiss is going to give him even when she knows he isn’t meant to have them.

She doesn’t realise that she’s crying until Yang asks if she’s okay, and she has to swallow the lump in her throat before she can speak.

“I am so much more than okay, Yang. I— I just love you so much. I love him so much. More than I ever thought I could love anybody.”

Remembering the last time she said almost the exact same words, alone even with Sun and her family around her, hoping that her friends would hate her for leaving them, is enough for the tears to come again. She carefully passes their gorgeous son to Yang, a little ashamed that she didn’t give her a chance to hold him sooner, and then she buries her face in her hands, letting the sobs wrack her body as the cacophony of emotions comes spilling out.

She still isn’t always sure if she deserves to have this—a home where she feels safe, friends who will never turn their back on her, a family with the woman she loves, a beautiful baby boy who she can’t wait to raise—but she’s getting better at believing that she’s worthy of it, and she’s too weak to give any of it up regardless.

She wipes away the tears and watches as Yang giggles when a small fist curls around her finger, admiring the pure adoration on Yang’s face. Part of her wishes she could tell her younger self that this is where she’ll end up—that there will be a time when everything good isn’t poisoned or tainted or taken away—but she knows that everything had to happen as it did for her to have this chance, and she wouldn’t change any of it.

Just in case anyone’s interested, the original prompt was:

“So I've always imagined the scenario where Blake and Yang manage to conceive a child biologically thanks to some neat new technology, and Yang decides to be the one to carry as a sort of way to prove Raven wrong, in a way. Like reassuring herself that she's not like her dead-beat mom. So Yang goes into labor and with her semblance it's a miracle that the entire hospital doesn't burn down, but finally their first child is born, and Blake gets to hold her first, and she just... starts sobbing. She can't help it. She just looks down at her an Yang's child and sees all of their best features in this one small and perfect little being, and she thinks about everything that has lead her there: growing up in the White Fang, abandoning her parents, living through Adam's abuse, joining Beacon Academy, finding a new home in team RWBY, losing her new home, learning to come to term with her own trauma, helping Ilia, reuniting with her team, defeating Adam, finally confessing to Yang and saving the world from Salem's reign... all so she could stand here at this moment and get the opportunity to raise a new life with the woman of her dreams, her soulmate, and life-long partner”

To be honest, just reading that prompt made me cry, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to write it 😅

I’m not usually at all a fan of the whole “getting married and having kids as a couple’s happy ending” trope because obviously it is perfectly possible to be totally happy without either of those things. For example, I’m not sure if I want kids myself yet, and I very much doubt I’ll ever have a traditional wedding.

But I do think that after all of the chaos in their lives Blake and Yang would want a little bit of peace once they’ve finished saving the world, and I can absolutely see them having a family in the future. Plus the idea of a Bumblebaby/Beeby is just really cute, I’m not going to lie. So I am 100% down for them going full domestic after the show's over.

I was stuck on a title for ages but those lines from Gold seemed to fit even though it is of course a beautiful sister song from Yang to Ruby in canon. It just felt like it would work for a parent to a child too, though, so I went with it.

So yeah, that was where this came from, and I hope it was good ❤️

[ginnyzero]

Motivations to Write

In my last discussion post, Ideas, Squeaky Toys of Doom, I touched upon a few motivations of why people write. And I guess, it’s the next natural thing to talk about, once one has an idea, there has to be some sort of will to go forward with it, other than tossing it in the bin as useless. As in all things, from going to the grocery to store, to committing a crime, one must have a reason! And if you want to sound sinister (or overly legal) we call it motive!

Before I start meandering, the dictionary describes motive as an inner drive or impulse that causes one to act. A motive is an incentive. It’s the stimulus that gets us out of our chairs (or into them) and doing something. They are the reasons that provide us with the stress to change our ways. (Yes, I said stress. There is positive stress and negative stress, just like there is positive criticism and negative criticism.) Motivations affect us and can be as varied from “I need to eat” to “I have a dream.” Eating is something solid, dreams, are the exact opposite, ephemeral. And having both is important. (I’ll just leave this here.) Motivations are what take you from where you are now, to the future of where you want to be if you want it.

And motivations, these reasons, are as varied and broad and different as the people that come up with them. These are a few I know it. Whether or not the writers you know fall under them may or may not be the case. Just like there is no bad idea, there is no wrong motivation to write. At least, I’m not holding any judgements. And all of these can be combined and used to fuel each other.

Basic Motivations: Money, Fame (Power), Love

Firstly. Let’s get these three fundamental motivations out of the way.

Money, everyone wants to write a book and get rich just like JK Rowling. They want their own house, a swimming pool and a private jet. (Hey, don’t we all want to be rich. No judgement.) Or, you’ve got the other writers, who want to make enough money just to pay their bills and live comfortably. Money is a big motivating factor. The world seems to go around on money and it’s hard to do anything without it. We’ve all got to eat. We need roofs over our heads and as a society we’ve become very dependent on this thing called electricity.

Fame, and I lump fame with power. Writers, just like everyone else, want to be known. They want to be recognized. They want to leave behind a great body of work that people can come back to over and over again. This is a way to become immortal. Fame also brings other perks. Fame can bring television or movie deals. Fame has public appearances and interviews. Fame has people coming to you instead of you going to them. Fame gives you influence and power. Influence and power can change things. Some people like the idea of it.

And love, there are writers that actually just enjoy writing and want to do what they do. They love to come up with ideas, string together plots, hack through scenes and what characters grow and change. I feel, and this is just my feelings and opinions, that all people should love what they do in one way shape or form. And if writing is what makes someone happy and that’s what they like to do above all others, then that love can be a great motivation.

Now, there are five other motivations that I have thought of/remembered and there are probably many more, but these are ones that I see talked about by other writers.

Motivation: “I like this.”

These are the writers who just plain like a concept. I don’t think Louis L’amour and Zane Grey would have wrote so many westerns if they didn’t plain just like them. (Err, that was unintentional, and I’m leaving it. Homophones!) These are writers who will take their idea and just pound it into the ground until you have to wonder if they ever had another idea in their head. Brian Jacques wrote 21 Redwall novels before his death. Mercedes Lackey has written 30 tales in Valdemar (and as far as I know is still writing in that universe.) Jim Butcher is on his 16th Dresden File (of a proposed 28, I think.) And Anne McCaffery’s son has taken up where Anne left off in Pern. And that, ladies and gentlemen is just in science fiction/fantasy. To write that much material for one universe or genre alone takes dedication. Formula writers (by which I mean the structure of their story is the same for every single book/trilogy they write,) genre writers and romance writers can fall under this motivation.

But then there is the opposite.

Motivation: “I don’t like this. I want to see this instead.”

This motivation is often reactionary. This is the cry of disgust from every reader who has thrown a book across the room, got up and went to their computer and sat down and tried to write it better. There are also things that some writers just don’t want to see or write in their novels, so they don’t.

This writing can often be derivative. But you say, what writing isn’t? That’s a real good question. But this motivation uses a lot of things in the public domain such as Jane Austen, Sherlock Holmes, fairy tales and legends. Historical Alternate universe can also fall under this, such as ‘His Majesty’s Dragon,’ by Naomi Novak. In fact, I feel almost anything considered ‘historical’ can be considered this. A ‘I don’t want to see the battles of the war of the roses, I want to know about the love lives of the nobles instead!’

I also find that this motivation can also be used as sort of a research tool. For instance, when a writer likes things from two or three different (but similar potentially or even not) novels, but doesn’t like how any of those novels actually used their ideas. So, the writer takes the ideas they like, combine them into one thing and wah lah, they have their own universe to play in.

“I don’t like this, I want to see this instead,” is a huge motivation in fan works. A huge amount of fan work is either exploring romantic pairings that wouldn’t happen in canon, expounding upon things that weren’t seen in canon or even changing the setting completely and seeing what the characters will do. Continuations, prequels and the children of the main cast are all very common stories that happen in fandom. Given how huge fanfiction.net, mediaminer.org and AO3 are, plus the stuff on journaling sites, private sites (including forums) and tumblr and so on. This is a huge stimulus for people of all ages to write.

Motivation: “I have a story I want to tell.”

The ultimate, “I have something I want to talk about.” By golly, these people have something to say and they’re going to say it, whether you like it or not. They may have a message to get out there.

There is the personal side of this. These are the autobiographies, biographies and ‘based on a true story,’ writers. They’re using their story to spread a message or theme that they think everyone should hear. Which isn’t a bad thing, everyone who writes has a message whether or not they know it. These writers are just more aware of it than others.

Then there is the not as personal aspect of this motivation. These are writers that have a story in their head that they want to tell. And they’ve looked on the shelves and it’s not there, or it’s there in similar form but not how precisely they would do it. They see a void in the market place that they want to fill. Or sometimes, they just have a story in their head trying to get out and they need to get it out so they can move onto something else! There is usually a heavy dose of ‘I like this,’ involved in this type of writing.

Motivation: “I want to help others.”

Ah, the selfless motivation to write or the pretentious one depending on how you look at it.

This can go hand in hand with “I have a story to tell.” These writers hope that by telling their story that they can inspire, help or warn others. Stories about overcoming adversity. Stories about reaching out to others. Stories that show the bad side of life. Or conversely, the stories that show the good side of life. These writers want whoever reads their story to take away something from it, something that will hopefully make the reader a better person.

I have to say that a lot of Christian fictional literature falls under this heading. I’ve read quite a bit of it and not a lot of it has stayed with me, because there isn’t a lot of Christian fictional stories (or at least not when I was reading them) that focused upon walking the life of a Christian. They were usually much more focused upon converting the reader and if you’re a Christian already it feels like they are preaching to the already converted (aka the choir.) Or they were trying to show what a good Christian marriage was with varying degrees of success. Pick one.

And lastly,

Motivation: “I want to feel better.”

This motivation is where writing hits the pure emotional level. This type of writing is cathartic. It releases the feelings inside the writer and gives them a voice. A lot of emotional writing comes from a place of anger and despair. How the writer chooses to translate that anger and despair in their writing is up to them. There are those who will through the guise of writing graphically describe incidents that happened to them so that they can use the characters as a method of coping. They take back their power and control in their writing and use the fictional world as a cipher of the real world to change things. There is also the opposite, those who take that anger or despair and write silly happy things as a way of making themselves feel happier. It’s a way to make themselves laugh while in the undercurrents of the writing they are also often dealing with the deeper issues in their life. In emotional writing, an audience isn’t necessary and may or may not be helpful.

Emotional writing can go along with “I have a story I want to tell,” and “I want to help others.”

Now on the other hand, some people write dark, angry, disturbing stuff because they like writing dark angry disturbing things. And other people write funny silly things, because they like writing funny silly things and they don’t need to feel better. (So, I don’t recommend you call out anyone on the motivations for their writing if you feel it’s coming from an emotional place, because it may not be and you shouldn’t assume anything.)

A lot of these motivations for writing are the same as the motivations for publishing. There is a huge difference between writing something and publishing that something. Just because a writer creates a story, doesn’t mean that they will want to or are going to put it out there in a public manner. That’s their choice and no one should try to take it away from them.

Motivations are tricky things. They can change over time or be joined by other incentives. If you desire to write, there is no wrong reason to do so! They’re your reasons and no one has the right to call them bad ones. It might be because of one of the reasons I posted here or because of others. Whatever the reason is, we writers have to feed those Squeaky Toys of Doom and keep on plugging away.

[mysterious-prophetess]

Opinion Piece: Where Adaptation Original Content can fall flat or be seen as something creative

This is a personal opinion Essay. That means what follows will be all from my perspective and reflective of my tastes. Don’t like it? Fine. Because it’s just an opinion from one person.

So, now for the essay:

Adaptation Extension: Where it’s failed and where it’s succeeded and why.

There’s no avoiding it sometimes whenever a hot new intellectual property takes the world by storm and there is a clamoring to get it adapted into another form ASAP. Only there’s one problem: they don’t have enough material from the source to go for as long as they need it, which leaves those adapting it with one choice: time to make up their own stories. This used to happen a lot with manga-into-anime adaptations hastily commissioned after a manga sudden boomed into popularity with, usually, awful results. It’s happened with western materials from time to time as well. In this instance I will be comparing two cases where there was a very solid base but the speed of publishing and the speed of adaptation varied. One is the Fullmetal Alchemist series from 2003, and the other is the current HBO smash hit Game of Thrones. Both are adaptations of a source material that was still in progress when they started and both ended before their sources ever wrapped but and both changed and omitted things as they were forced to grow without the guidance of the source. Yet one of these will definitely be more fondly remembered by its fans than the other in the long run and that all comes down to the execution of the alterations to the adaptation and consistency of the characters within both.

Fullmetal Alchemist the manga ran in Square Enix’s Monthly Shōnen Gangan from around 2001-2010. This slow long run was partly due to it being a monthly manga, and therefore didn’t update as frequently as the weekly stories. It was popular enough that an anime was commissioned very shortly into its run. This anime, called Fullmetal Alchemist 2003 by those who are fans of the series, was very faithful at first. It was whenever they wanted to drag out the first act by a lot that they began to add filler and then would go back to the main story. Yet they diverged with a pivotal moment: the death of Maes Hughes. From then on out, the stories had the same characters in the same country but they could have not been in more different stories. The manga had a deeply analytical and dark political intrigue story with themes around power, knowledge, and humanity. The anime instead went almost faustian with its take on the world of Amestris and leaned into more supernatural elements and brought in the idea of other worlds and questions of what is means to be human, but not too deep into that. The plot with Dante and Hoenheim of Light is very faustian to my eyes, full of strange magic, regrets over a loved one dying because of their hubris, and the desire to have more power. Yet despite it being vastly different from the manga, whose ending was more coherent than the anime, that first anime is still looked at fondly. Yes, it deviated a lot and yes, it went down many strange rabbit holes before it was all through, but they kept the characters at the core of it all consistent. The Elric Brothers were still the Elric Brothers, their values were still the same and they still acted like themselves no matter what. It was also wildly creative with its new material in a way that was actually enjoyable as well to those who like harder science fiction stories.

Then there’s HBO’s Game of Thrones. This is a case where they had a lot of source material but they burned through it faster than GRR Martin was able to write the sixth book and came to the point with the end of season five where they now had to make their own way forwards without Martin’s expert storytelling guiding them. Season 6, as far as that was concerned, was actually somewhat competent. It had a lot of Season 5’s threads to draw from and help guide their hands but there were still several missteps that they made in the eyes of the fans in how that was all handled. Seasons 7 and 8 are by far where their lack of skill is most evident. Characters who were known as smart are suddenly losing several IQ points and making blunders in such ways that is seems out of character for them to be caught up so easily. Some of it is the fact that humans are fallible but the moves they had them make were not only questionable but at times, highly controversial. While FMA 2003 kept the tone and characters similar to its source, HBO’s GoT seems to now favor flash to substance. Spectacle to careful plotting. Nowhere is this more evident than with Episode 3 of Season 8. “The Battle of Winterfell.” Firstly, the battle plans themselves were asinine. That is NOT how you mount a castle defense. You lace the ground with traps and pits and shit and keep the troops WITHIN your walls and have your best archers manning the walls and several vats of flammable shit ready to go to dump down and make an undead inferno. Civilians in the crypts still but maybe with a few more armed people.

Elite soldiers are to act as the vanguard and those less experienced at fighting in the rear guard. More people should have been on Bran. Jon should have had Rhaegal PARKED on the walls next to the God’s Wood and Dany should have been in the air if they needed someone in the skies lighting stuff up. Also, actual targeting of the white walkers. Jon knew canonically that a walker’s death would spell the death of any wights it reanimated. Instead we get a barely visible (at times) spectacle that keeps your so tense you can’t notice how terrible this battle strategy is until later. Then there’s the twist they decided to put in as of their writing of season seven: Arya gets to kill the Night King. I’m not actually against this idea. It was just executed so poorly that it takes away any impact it might have had and because of her lack of role in later episodes, it just gave Arya a premature high-point to her character arc that cannot be matched by the rest of her arc (should one call it that) for season 8. Bran for all his prophesizing, is just a lump. He’s not even trying to do anything beyond those ravens his sends up once. The books are building up to a prophecy. The show mentioned it but in the end the show runners decided to shove it for a “gotcha” moment and make all the threads from the books they’d actually maintained through the prior seasons just fall loose and flat. They did their own thing and in this case they robbed characters of moments they maybe needed or should have had as character development. They also cut a lot out of the books as they burned through them, which meant characters were cut. In one instance they cut a somewhat important character and that is now biting them in their asses as they’ve seemingly grafted his plot lines onto two other characters: Jon Snow and Danaerys Targaryen.  It’s making both act somewhat out of character at times—Danaerys more than Jon—and making things just feel out of sync with the previous characterizations.

And that’s where FMA 2003 succeeds as having people still liking it despite its far meanderings away from the canon of the manga and people are disgusted with how far off course Game of Thrones is from A Song of Ice and Fire: Consistency of characterization with the intentioned situations, and an understanding of the world they are playing in. The show runners and writers for the HBO show seem to lack these things without a book telling them explicitly. The writers had an unenviable task of attempting to live up to GRR’s skill level and fell woefully short. By no means is all of Game of Thrones’s book free run awful: Season 6 is remarkably close to competent and parts of season 7 are alright, it’s whenever we get to the final season their strain and stretching can be seen on full display and compared to the tightly plotted first five seasons, it’s glaringly obvious they were not up the task of imitating Martin. He gave them a broad outline and the writers were unable to flesh it out as complexly as he will. It does mean a few things will happen as a result. One, people will now read Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring just to see how badly fracked the show-runners made GoT and two, it’ll lead to a redo since it is a very popular franchise.

[thesimsstufftodownload]

I'm not from the UK, and here in Brazil quite a lot of people don't know what she's said, or understand the problem. When I last visited my dad, we went walking through a bookstore, and he laughed and pointed happily at a Hogwarts uniform, saying it was a lot better than the ones I used to sow. When I told him that I'd stick to mine because it meant no money to Rowling, he seemed very confused, and a little hurt. I had to briefly explain why, and clarify that I still love the fan-made content, before things went back to normal.

The reason he was so hurt? My dad wrote three fantasy novels for me after seeing how sad I was with the end of Harry Potter. He created a whole universe with similar rules but different details, a cast of characters, even an accidentally homoerotic relationship between the main character and her rival. He spent years writing it, and handing me a chapter at a time. It never got published, but the series is still in his computer, and we have all the memories and inner jokes. And, for him, it's his version of semi-fanfiction, intrinsically connected to HP.

My mom understands why Rowling is such a problem, and shares my policy of never supporting her financially, despite being herself a fan of the books. Last year, she bought me for Christmas a Harry Potter wallet. After the reason for my look of disappointment became very obvious, she showed me the website she'd gotten it from, and that it was designed by an independent trans artist, completely unrelated from the official series. She thought it was a fun way to get nice merch while showing JK a symbolic middle finger, all this while supporting local artists.

OP talked about their handmade hufflepuff scarf, and I get it: my knitted ravenclaw one is also very dear. I love so many fanfics that are true works of art, and others that are just fun. If I want to read the books, Leo inter Serpens is there as one of the many retellings that were someone's amazing creative work, and actually way better than the original. Looking for art? Well, the fanartists are greater than any illustrator could ask for, and the fact that headcanons influence the community more than official works bumps the quality even further up.

So, so many of us are here because of those books, that ignoring the world is quite impossible; ignoring canon, however, is incredibly simple. Fan spaces shouldn't be lumped in together if the way they interact with the content is different. And people shouldn't be threatened for still being unable to divorce themselves even from canon: everyone deals with stuff differently.

Chronic pain spoonie advice: we kinda learn not to compare our physical pain with that of other people; just because I'm used to intense pain, doesn't mean I can judge a person for having lower pain tolerance. What to me is a discomfort, for them is serious, and should be treated as such. This "you're here crying while people ____" narrative is useless and harmful. The same goes for coping mechanisms and safe spaces. If you managed to separate all of HP from your personal safe spaces, great. A lot of people haven't, however, and, as long as their views don't match Rowling's, they shouldn't be demeaned for it. Let people cope: existing is hard enough.

Let's keep the critiques visible and continue to remind why she's trash. Let's make sure her money is as compromised as we can. Let's ignore her books and movies, or get them from torrents. But let's respect the nuance in people's attitudes.

I may get absolutly blasted for this but i wish people on this app understood that the whole Harry Potter and JK rowling situation is alot more complicated than "ditch the series and she"ll disapear". Even if everyone in the UK stopped supporting the franchise completely it wouldnt do alot, its huge in china and japan and the rest of the world aka many places that are unaware of her awful views. So rather than blaming individuals for her continued fame i wish we would share small fanartists and stores (especially queer artists) that sell HP merch. You cant stop her being famous but you can give your money to someone else whilst still enjoying that world. Especially when many fans enjoy fan written content and not the canon books (looking at you marauders fans 💕)

[meliecho]

Hearts and Heroes: One Shot - chpt. 9: Mark’s Past

A kind warning: This chapter contains a topic that may trigger some people. It’s not bloody, graphic, or gory, but it is psychological. Please keep this in mind when reading. Thank you.

A kind disclaimer: None of this is based in reality. Nothing like this happened 5 years ago. This is a fan created backstory. This is not canon, and not created by the devs of Hearts and Heroes. It is isolated to this story alone, and should not be considered canon in any way, shape, or form.  ...But headcanons are perfectly acceptable.

I have this ability to disassociate myself from the Id so I can put 100% of my ability into the art, even if it tears me apart to do it. Later, when I reconnect, I think, “WTF was I thinking?” I love Mark, so writing this was hard, but it's the story. Creators know the story will beat them with a nail-studded nerf bat until it’s told. We apologize to our characters all the time. I'm sorry, Character Mark. I’m really sorry.

---

Thank you. Please grab some tissues on the way in. I apologize in advance.

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Summary: While Mark watches over Sun, and the team recovers in the infirmary, Tiny Box Tim relates to Blue the story of a poignant moment in Mark’s past within the dream world, and we learn about Tim.

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“Hey, Tim?” Blue caught the little box's attention.

Tim wobbled over and jumped up onto her bed. No matter how many times he had to leap to reach higher places, it looked to take little-to-no effort. “Yeah?”

The main reason she wanted a little bit of distance between herself and the team came out in her next question, “What did he mean when he said he wouldn't lose her, too? I've never heard Mark go off like that. What happened to him?”

Tim quieted his voice. “He won't like me telling you, but in light of recent events, and with you being his team leader, I think he'll forgive me.”

Blue listened closely, letting the little box Somni speak. “I have time. Hit me.”

“You know Mark was chosen just like you were, right? Well, he also started out as clueless as everyone else. At first, he was the only person here. The main hub wasn't more than a single room with a row of folding chairs and a small raised platform for the stage. He didn't know what the heart on his sleeve meant, and for the first few nights he avoided the portal, unsure and afraid of where it would lead. So, he explored the area and got a bearing on this place he dreamed about every night. He started to believe there was a reason he kept coming back here, why he knew he was dreaming but wouldn't wake up, and why it felt real. His only clue was the portal, which remained open as if patiently waiting for him to decide.

“Finally, he just stared it down, flipped it off, and jumped. He created the menu on his first mission to organize everything he found, because that kind of logging system made sense to him as a gamer. That first mission terrified him so much he woke up screaming. Eventually, he fell back to sleep and finished the dream. He rescued the mission target on his own, and they worked together from then on. Ben’s file and his appeared in the menu. Mark designated one room to hold all of the information gathered in these other dreams.”

“Google's library.”

“Yup. Except Google wasn't around yet, so the team leaders had to input everything themselves, or designate a team member to do it. Anyway, he soon realized the hub was a constant in the dream world; like an island in the eye of an ever-shifting storm –a safe room. Terrorlings couldn't get in on their own.”

Thanks to her experience with Mark's nightmare, Blue knew the wraiths could hitch rides in people. They just couldn't leave them while inside the hub.

“It didn't take long for others to start finding their way here, and pretty soon, he had his own team - Ben, Marly, Nathan, Anna, and himself. He was quickly voted in as the leader, even though most of his decisions were more 'Screw it. Let's try it and find out' rather than highly thought out calculated plans. No one really knew what they were doing. Everyone was flying by the seat of their pants, but as the missions added up, so did their experience. The five of them became best friends here the same way they had best friends in your world. Everything was going fine. They believed that they were truly making a difference, even if they couldn't remember it or each other when they woke up.”

He stared across the aisle at his friend's hunched back. Mark was exhausted, drained, and damaged from the battle, but he wouldn't let himself fall. “It happened six months into his role as team leader—about 5 years ago. Ben didn't show up. We got our mission briefing and went into a dream centered around a game called MYST.”

“Never heard of it.”

“It's an old school PC game consisting of puzzles and clues. You have to find books and pages to free a pair of brothers trapped in the books and blaming each other for their father's death, or something. Don't quote me on that. It's been a while.”

“Sounds cool. So, then what happened?”

“Their mission target was Ben.”

She frowned. “Oh.”

Tim continued. “They had to solve some of the puzzles before finally reaching him at the rocket ship up on the platform. But when they got there, the sky turned black, and the stairway to the ground crumbled, leaving them trapped with a horde of Terrorlings. The dream suddenly exploded into pixels around us like we were sucked into a black hole. It left us in this hollow void with the Terrorlings. The dream had disappeared and this was all that was left.”

“Like what was slowly happening because of the black squares in Sun's dream?”

He nodded. “That's when everyone realized the Terrorlings got to him a long time ago—long before he'd even met the four of us. He hid his own battle so well, no one even knew. His heartlight faded just like Sun's.”

Blue listened, completely absorbed in the tale.

“They tried everything to convince their friend that they were there to save him. They cried, they hugged him, they shouted at how much their team mate meant to them. They did everything they could to push that message beyond the Terrorlings' hold, but it failed. He was unresponsive.

“The team fought off waves of enemies, killing dozens of them. It was only when the Terrorlings suddenly backed away from our teammate to focus on us that we knew something was seriously wrong.

“There were too many for us to handle. They restrained the whole team. Mark was shoved to the ground and pinned down. He watched his friend collapse to his back like a rag doll. Ben turned to look at him and said something Mark would never forget; 'I'm sorry. I should have told you, but I couldn't. I made a mistake that I can't take back. Please forgive me.'

“It hit him just then the gravity of what he was facing. He'd reached out in desperation to his friend who was only a few feet away and kept demanding that he fight this. As team leader, he ordered him to stay. His cries mixed with the other three, all begging their friend to hold on, and that they were going to go home. He used the last of his energy on a healing spell to try to fix his teammate.”

Tim's gaze lowered to his clenched hands at the memory of the distorted scene from Mark's point of view. “Mark wasn't strong enough. He was forced to watch Ben’s heartlight go out with no way to save him. Everyone was kicked out of the dream back to consciousness. He woke up crying without knowing why.”

Blue felt a crushing sadness form a prickly ball in her chest. The image of Mark screaming for his friend was powerful enough to form a lump in her throat. Hot tears stung her brown eyes. “So Ben...died?” she whispered.

Tim nodded forlornly. “By his own hand in the waking world. We're not sure how, but he was alive long enough to reach us, almost like he planned it. The dream mission was his way of saying good-bye through one of his favorite childhood games. There really was no saving him from the start no matter what we did,” Tim exhaled. “Mark blamed himself. He still does.”

Dark's admonishment during Mark's nightmare suddenly held more depth than it already did, 'You know you can't really help people. You can't save anyone.'

She looked over at Mark watching over Sun. “That's so sad. No wonder he fought so hard to save her.” She wiped wetness away from her eyes in sympathy for her friend. She couldn't imagine losing any of her team. Just the thought of it terrified her. They were her family here in her other life, rescuing people from the Terrorlings together. She swallowed the lump to regain her voice. “What happened after that?”

“The team broke up. They got together on a few missions a couple of months after that, but it was never the same. Mark lost all faith in himself to lead a team. How could he take on that mantle if he couldn't even save one of his own? So he handed over leadership to Marly and decided to dedicate the majority of his time helping newbies and any of the teams that needed an extra hand. 

“Marly left for 2 years. The pain of losing Ben, and seeing Mark and Nate as constant reminders of the past were too much for her. She came back late 2015. Nate never left. Anna moved to a different hub completely and we haven’t seen her since. 

“Mark made a promise to himself to never be that helpless again. That's why he created the Markihorn after the shop opened—so he could be quickly summoned to a dream to briefly help in a battle, then return here.”

“Did he know any of them in the waking world?” Part of her didn't want an answer.

“Mark pieced everything together over the years. At that time, no, he didn't know them outside of the dream world.”

A soft breath of relief escaped her. “Did he ever meet them?”

“He met the other three a year later at a convention. They were all in the same line of work, but he didn't have everything put together yet, so the connection he felt didn't make sense. They were all connected to each other because of their bond of friendship here. That link that forms from spirit to spirit is actually pretty strong between team members, some more-so than others, and carries over into your world. They got along, and formed new friendships. As time passed, he realized they didn't remember their lost teammate or the dream world while awake, but he did. He was the only one. He decided not to tell them about it while conscious. At least in the waking world, he wanted them to lead happy lives without this knowledge.”

“That sounds like something Mark would do. Damn, I had no idea,” she hushed. “It's terrible. He has to carry that around.” She glanced to Tiny Box Tim, who hopped down to the floor. “Hey, you said 'we,' 'us,' and 'I' a few times in weird places. Were you on the team?”

“Sort of. I was still part of him at that time.”

Blue didn't fully understand the formation of Somnis, but she knew Purple did. She'd have to read up on it, or ask for the Cliff Notes from her best friend. “You mean you were in his head? Like Dark?”

“Yup, but nothing like that big Jerk. Mark lived his life and I was fine with that. I remember the moment I realized some of my thoughts weren't mine and became what I am, but that didn't matter. I was happy where I was being a little character he tapped into to smile.”

“So, you wouldn't have left?”

“It wasn't a priority. I was fine. But the pain from his heart was so overwhelming after that mission, that I debated if it was a good idea to become my own self or not. I even managed to reach him in a deep dream once, but when I asked if I should become myself, all he did was grab me and say, 'We're saving the pancakes, Tim! It's a musical this time. The zombies are onto us. Get in the tub! You drive, I'll shoot!' I asked again, and he yelled 'Yes! Help me, Tim! Get us out of this parking garage! Keep driving!'”

Blue couldn't stop a snerk. “Dreams are weird.”

“Yeah. A lot of his dreams took place in a parking garage.”

“Again: weird.”

“But even in that, he was fighting to stay out of the darkness. He was suffering. Even the happy memories that I recalled to help him were met with a half-hearted smirk. He didn't know what was wrong. I tried to tell him he'd be ok, but every time, the other thoughts that contributed to Dark's formation were louder than me even though I was yelling. He kept thinking my voice was his. He wasn't wrong, of course, but at the same time, he didn't know I'd become self aware a while ago. He wasn't listening to me. So, I had to make a decision; stay and try to deal with this from within and risk being suppressed, or do something here and actually help him. It was the easiest decision I ever made. I pushed beyond my limits and became corporeal a few days later. He needed me.”

Tim also had to explain the concept of Somni, since he was the first one. Mark was super confused, thought he'd gone bonkers, and was a little frightened when a tiny talking wooden box suddenly said 'Hi, Mark!' from outside his own thoughts.

Tim offered her a small side smirk, letting her know everything was ok. “Don't worry about Mark, Blue. He's stronger than people think. You know that. He's one of the strongest people I know. Even though the past hurts, he found a way to heal and use it to help others. He's doing fine. He has his friends in the waking world, and he has you and your team, now. For him to accept joining another team after all this time is a huge step. I'm proud of him for that.”

She bit her lip, sniffling, and gave Tim a promise of her own. “We'll, he's not getting out of this team, now, so he has no fear of losing any of us. We'll always have each others backs no matter what.”

Tim's smile exuded genuine relief and happiness. “I trust you on that, and I'm holding you to it. Get some rest, Blue. You don't want to feel the repercussions of this particular mission when you wake up.”

“Yeah, no kidding. It's a good thing it's the weekend.” Blue watched him bobble over to help the dark haired girl in the gray flannel shirt. She laid back to stare at a lazily rotating ceiling fan and folded her hands over her chest. “We're not going anywhere, Mark. Not from you and not from Sun, Red, Peach, Purple, or Jade. And if you even think we are, I'll kick your butt here, and in the waking world. That's a promise.”

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

TBC

Prologue: A Light in the Darkness

Chapter 1: Weekend Warriors

Chapter 2: Something’s Suspishy

Chapter 3: Chasing the Sun

Chapter 4: The Nightmare’s Truth

Chapter 5: Light and Shadow

Chapter 6: Lifeline - part 1

Chapter 7: Lifeline - part 2

Chapter 8: Phantom Power

Chapter 9: Mark’s Past

Chapter 10: A Second Chance

Chapter 11: Learning to Breathe

Epilogue: Ad Infinitum