#but sometimes the character conflict and drama of cheating is good also!!

[brw]

it's so hard being a sue storm head because yes when people talk about sue cheating on reed with namor it's always misogynistic it's always ableist it's always mean-spirited to every character involved it poorly portrays sue, reed and namor and puts them in unflattering lights just for a misogynistic push on their characters. and you do all this and you say all this and it's like damn. i can't advocate for sue storm/alicia masters adultery on main now after doing all that.

[youngparadisedonut]

(Sigh). So, this is a venting posting, I guess.

Thing is, I'm giving up on Lone Star.

Eh, I know that making a post about it makes me look like self-important or something, but sometimes screaming at the void can make things better – or at least writing about it can make the conflicted feelings make sense.

I started to watch Lone Star because of TK – he was flawed, but also vulnerable, empathetic and even If he was in pain he was never purposely mean to anyone and was so kind, and I admire him for that.

Then I met Grace, Judd, Marjan and Paul and I liked then too (even If in a lesser degree).

I loved to watch their journey. But then season 4 happened and took all my enjoyment. I hated it. The whole Carlos Being Married To Iris Plot was a bitter pill to swallow. It wasn't the fact that he was married to her. Frankly, it was coherent and it did make sense. It was the how it happened that made me frustrated.

It was Carlos making wife jokes at TK’s expense. It was how Iris treatment of TK was played for laughs. It was how it was clear that TK had to earn this stranger approval. It was how his comas and injuries were used against him. It was how his pain was overlooked and never taken seriously; TK scars were open and the script made it clear that the audience were supposed to find it funny. It was how Carlos put all the decisions in Iris hands and prioritized her. It was how TK was painted the wrong one just because he went to talk to her, and then had to save Carlos to redeem himself. It was how Carlos blamed TK. It was how Carlos never apologized. It was how TK never truly got closure from this storyline – neither the audience, If I can have my two cents.

It made me truly dislike Carlos character ever since – and, more importantly, made me lose my trust in the writers.

It left me in this weird place where part of me was rooting for TK and Carlos because I wanted to see them happy, and another part (the rational, logical one) was hoping for TK to break up with Carlos for good and move on because for me what Carlos did damaged their relationship beyond repair.

(But I still kept watching because of TK, Grace, Judd, Marjan and Paul)

(And now even Grace is gone)

To make things worse we had Tim Minear justifying Carlos not telling because they were only recently engaged and TK was the one who proposed. As if they needed to tie the knot for TK to deserve Carlos being honest with him. As if it wasn't Carlos responsibility to be honest with TK the moment they got serious and decided to live together. And that tells me everything I need to know about their way of thinking. That there weren't any apologies because for them Carlos did nothing wrong.

That to say, the events of season 4 left me with such a bad image of Carlos and the writers that I only expected the worse. Why, frankly, should I still trust them? That’s why the moment they got married after Gabriel’s death I feared for Carlos cheating on TK. So with the news of Carlos partner today I truly thought we would got a cheating arc. Do I still think we will get a cheating arc? Nope. As pointed out, we only have 12 episodes and with the Gabriel’s Murder Plotline and the Jonah Plotline I know we won’t have time for that. And, yeah, as also pointed out they would never make a spin-off with Carlos and the partner he cheated on TK with.

But, as I said, I don’t trust the writers, and for a moment I feared they wouldn't care about logic as long as they got the drama.

I still already know that I will absolutely hate Carlos new partner, his relationship with Carlos and everything related to this particular storyline.

Because even If I now know we wont get a cheating storyline, I still think we will have a Jealous/Insecure TK storyline related to Carlos and his partner. Which, nope. The idea of TK jealous and insecure, like a reversal role with Carlos in the Cooper episode, annoys me just as much as a cheating storyline. Even If TK isn’t jealous and insecure, just bothered because it seems like Carlos trusts his partner more than him, that’s not a journey that I will like to watch.

(I really hope the spin-off won't happen)

(And that they don’t left things unresolved only because of this spin-off)

So that’s why I finally gave up on Lone Star – I realized that I truly don't trust the writers anymore, especially with TK.

Basically this blog was just my five stages of grief.

[eviltiddyproductions]

Continued thoughts on Midnight Romance in Hagwon

because the re blogging got tired and confusing.

i know we need a little bit of conflict and we’re seeing how #passionate but i hope things don’t snowball for that student who had that one question with two answers. teachers sometimes are so stuck in their ways that any question on their checking or paper setting and they’ll be after you like a blood hound! trust me!

people in my country are so used to the idea that if you send your paper for rechecking you better be prepared for WAR, because they might give you the 2 marks you need but they’ll look for 10 marks to deduct 👎 they take it as a personal offense when it’s just human to make a mistake….

like our female lead going to bat for her student is real but babes these are treacherous waters…

help that teacher just dead ass looked at her like this when she explained the comprehension answer 😑

lmao why is the teacher so offended 😭 to be fair tuition teachers and teachers are always beefing (despite many doing both the jobs)

lmao now the spectacled loser is just getting angry 💀👎 apparently setting a paper is serious business but a student trying to get a vital point in an exam is cheating.

gag him queen! idgaf

now he’s seething because she said the question is old. before this he was trying to taunt her by saying that she was bad at her job for not being able to predict this question. drama!!!

what a fucking loser… grabbing her by the shoulder over a question paper. move queen, I’ll handle this

she’s still going when it genuinely looks like he’s going to hit her. honestly I want her to hit this mf with her bag.

her putting a pain relief patch :(

wi ja hoon looking good and not being a second lead, i won soooooo bad

wait has he liked her since he was 13…. (edit! I think she taught him when he was 19-20, i won 🙏 i had gotten confused by some 8th grade stuff that they were talking about)

knew as soon as she mumbled that he was going to show up 😂

she’s got his name saved as her pride and she glows like the sun, love her soooo bad

third wi ja hoon drama (for me) where he’s in love with someone older, love that. although the teacher and ex student thing is a new territory for me, idk how i feel about it just yet.

i hope the teacher who tried to practically hit seo hye jin (our female lead) doesn’t do anything drastic….

also went on MDL to check her name and why are people saying this show is hot garbage omg don’t do this to me. to be fair me and that site rarely agree so we move 🙏

her showing up to those restaurants where they can get closed door rooms is crazy after what he pulled 😭 only public places with people who lay hands on you !!! and with company

why does this apology feel like it’s coming with a MAJOR but

knew it lmao. the drums in the bgm are deeply unserious.

allll of this over a question. I know as a teacher, a private tutor showing up to your school telling you that you made a mistake can be annoying. you see this in South Asia as well, the teacher is right, students value the tuition classes more than the school but babes why are you talking about going to WAR 😭

he wants to go to war for teachers but this is just an ego battle. that apology was so fake.

cowboy shoot out music in the bgm and our lead just left. girl he’s weird af but i wish we sniffed something. we don’t know what he’s planning!

directors at these tuition places are greedy as hell. (my source?! crash course in romance 🤪)

lmao the conversation between the two characters taking the teacher test was actually so chill and respectful. I was waiting for the shoe to drop but it was amicable.

lmfaoooo not hye jin lurking around to see him complete the exam

the other language instructor shooting her shot, gotta take tips

mr. yoon for the tap on the wrong shoulder thing, aww

her with her big ass red umbrella is giving

he looks so adorable like a wet puppy 😭

lmaooo just realised even jun ho’s dad is a staple in the ahn pan seok universe. a dad in all 3! (recently saw him on atypical family)

my sister trying her best to ensure he keeps a good job when he’s already left it

him saying his love life isn’t any of her business made me bust out laughing bc he’s going to be a menace in hers isn’t he 💀

one thing I love about this creator is that everyone in his shows looks so real. the actors are gorgeous yes, breathtaking. but the way they dress, the way their hair is done, it’s all so natural.

standing under an umbrella under as rain pours down, faces like 3 inches away from each other, he’s asking her to address him as an instructor with the biggest smirk 😂😂😂

that was an abrupt finish lmao give me more

a subway sponsorship, can’t wait for them to eat a dry ass sandwich soon 😭

well this was fun ❤️ let’s do another

[thestobingirlie]

i do not care much about the ships really, but i cannot exactly ignore them either when they're affecting characters in the story... that's why i think jancy versus stancy thing is pretty pointless and is very reductive for both nancy steve and jonathan. and atp it would be better if they all just stayed single. because i feel like the duffers sacrifice good writing for drama purposes sometimes and in this case i do not think writing romance is their strong point. but i have always found that they were able to write max and lucas' relationship this good, they're not perfect, they sometimes conflict but ultimately have a genuine friendship and romantic relationship fit for teenagers.

it is kinda interesting how even though the plot is very clearly put before the characters, the duffers do focus on relationships… they’re just not good at writing them.

when it comes to the monster hunting trio, i’ve never really liked the love triangle. i didn’t like jonathan as nancy’s love interest, and i always thought it was dumb they had steve and nancy get back together, just so nancy could cheat on him and break his heart in s2. like, surely it would’ve been better if they’d just never gotten back together?

i think their relationships take up too much time when it comes to all of their arcs, and their characters could’ve developed more if so much time wasn’t wasted on a will they/won’t they (i also think jonathan’s character was destroyed by his relationship with nancy, but that’s a whole other post). all three of their developments hinge on being single, for at least a second. so my hope is that no matter who ends up together, they’ll be at least a minute where they can all be single and just think about themselves and what they want.

the only consistently well written romance is lumax, and the sooner we all accept that the better.

[mirkwood-princeling]

for the ask game 002 for klaine ? the fanfic questions if u dont want to do all of them hehe :D

thanks for the ask!

when i started shipping them: literally the first episode with blaine i was told that kurt was getting a boyfriend in s2 by my friends that already watched it so i was ready

my thoughts: uhh i really love them together and despite their problems (which some i still attribute to poor writing rather than realistic flaws and conflicts they would have) i think they’re soulmates. i’m not as personally invested in them anymore in the sense that i dont really seek out any content with them in it. i still rewatch the show sometimes but i dont interact with the fandom as much anymore

what makes me happy about them: how sweet and supportive they are with each other, how well their personalities go together, how they were always the One (even though ryan occasionally had other plans 🙄🙄)

what makes me sad about them: how much ridiculous drama they were forced into later in the show bc the glee writers think good tv means cheating and miscommunication in relationships

things done in fanfic that annoy me: when writers make blaine overly like darren, when they basically project their thirst for darren onto blaine and exacerbate his masculine qualities to make him seem super dominant and more mature than kurt. and then in the same vein when they yassify kurt beyond how he is in the show and make him super weak and submissive (especially in M rated fics like you’re telling me kurt’s a sub get out of here)

things i look for in fanfic: i haven’t read klaine fic in a while but i ADORE the fics where one of them is a single parent, i like AUs, i like second chance/rebuilding trust tropes

my wishlist: ngl idk what the hell this means so i’m leaving it blank

who i’d be comfortable with them ending up with if not each other: i dont mind kurt with elliott, i don’t really have anyone else for blaine lmao

my happily ever after for them: they get to settle down and have a family and cut off all the toxic friends from high school and get away from all the dramatic nonsense. i can also see them pursuing multiple careers throughout their life once they have kids and don’t want to do broadway anymore to spend time with family

ask me about a fandom/ship/character

[sniffanimal]

can't figure out how to word a post but I've been getting a lot of perspective on past mistakes and stupid drama squabbles and such by realizing we're all just products of our experiences and sometimes your experiences are that you're only 18. or only 25. or only 35. etc. you know? I'm not saying the older you get the less excusable mistakes are/less mistakes you make, not at all. I'm saying like when you make a mistake, or have conflict, or something, if you can step back and say "is this because I'm X years old?" it can give you perspective on the situation.

warned you I can't figure out how to word it and also my sleep meds are kicking in and so I'm not coherent but anyways I found myself sighing at some tiktok drama I was reading about bc the parties were both like, 22. and really I'm not much older than 22, but God I'm a lot less stupid than I was at 22, and I'll probably be even less stupid in 5 more years.

humans grow and change and that's the beauty in watching teens and young adults squabble over art styles on tiktok. ah to be young and have no bigger fish to fry than your social media call-out over something with no real world repercussions.

sidenote I'm so glad I didn't medically transition til I was like 24 and therefore hated my voice for nearly a quarter of a century because I never got into making video content about stuff I did. epic dysphoria win. instead I decided to get a job that keeps me off the Internet for 6 hours a day and touching grass with real people.

oh god I just realized my student (a paraplegic) probably hasn't touched grass in a long time, potentially ever. I should bring in a pot of wheatgrass for her. I give her sticks and leaves a lot but how have I neglected touching grass this whole time

a character on greys anatomy said she's 25 out loud on screen and I shriveled a little bit bc it's so weird being older than TV drama characters. I had just gotten over being older than high schoolers on TV but now I have to reckon with being older than people with medical degrees. there's a good chance the nice nurse at my doctor's office is younger than me, he looks younger than me. oh god the passage of time!

genuinely I can't wait to be 30. I think after 30 it'll be easier to understand I'm 30. "nearly 30" feels like cheating, I'm not even 27 (in like 6 weeks I will be). at 30 I think I'll feel the solidness of a number divisible by 10.

I am excited for 27 though, it's my golden birthday and my favorite number. and a nice cube. weird al likes the number 27

what was this post about again

[back-and-totheleft]

Oliver Stone Gets Personal

Chasing the Light, Oliver Stone's newly published memoir of his first 40 years, is a ride as wild as any of his movies. But the scariest part isn't the Vietnam War, where he enlisted after dropping out of Yale (inspiring his Oscar-winning Platoon); nor his stint in a Mexican jail (which influenced his Oscar-winning Midnight Express); nor his druggy, crazy days as wunderkind director of Salvador, JFK, and Born on the Fourth of July. It turns out, as the 73-year-old director and screenwriter tells AARP, that the biggest drama was his own family life.

YOUR TALENT SEEMS ROOTED IN YOUR PARENTS’ PERSONALITIES. YOUR DAD — A CONSERVATIVE, UNHAPPY WALL STREET MAN WITH UNPRODUCED PLAYS IN HIS DESK DRAWER — THOUGHT YOU WERE A RADICAL BUM AND WISHED YOU WERE LIKE YOUR COUSIN, THE MILLIONAIRE HARVARD ECONOMICS TEACHER. AND YOUR MOM? Oliver Stone: Looking back, I can see the patterns of my father's discipline merging with my mother's indulgence. My father — that's where the writing came from. And as a director, you gotta look at my mother, who's a partygoer, a party animal.

THEY BOTH TOOK YOU TO THE MOVIES A LOT, BUT IN A WAY SHE WAS MAKING A MOVIE IN YOUR HOUSE EVERY NIGHT. Yeah. Mom would be the director in me. I think I am the contradiction of those two. I'm double-minded, as Homer said of Odysseus.

YOUR PARENTS MIGHT AS WELL HAVE BEEN IN PARALLEL UNIVERSES. Totally. Many children of divorce will tell you the same thing: It creates this distrust in a child, especially an only child. What a shock that was. You think with your parents, everything's fine. And then you get a call at school, and it's all falling apart. And not only that, your house is gone, your home is gone — there is no family, basically. It's over. It's like death, like they've been wiped out in a car crash.

IT TURNED OUT THEY WERE BOTH CHEATING ON EACH OTHER, IN A WAY LIVING IN A FALSE REALITY. She married a fantasy, like Scarlett O'Hara. You can't live in a fantasy. She tried. She's a fascinating figure. I wish I had finished my movie about her. It's the biggest hole in my life. You know, I should have made a movie about my mother, but I never did. She said, “I wish you'd make a love story.” Well, some love story! It's more like a broken love story.

SOME SAY YOU DON'T WRITE GREAT WOMEN CHARACTERS, BUT IS THAT REALLY TRUE? I have strong women — I did a movie about a strong Vietnamese woman, Heaven and Earth [1993].

YOUR THIRD MOVIE ABOUT VIETNAM, AFTER PLATOON AND BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY. I loved it, it was beautiful, but it didn't score. Joan Allen was strong [as Pat Nixon] in my film Nixon. So is Juliette Lewis in Natural Born Killers and Cameron Diaz in Any Given Sunday. I mean, I love women, but I never did that one story that really connected with the American public.

YOU WERE BLOWN 20 FEET IN THE AIR BY AN ARTILLERY SHELL IN VIETNAM. DID JUNGLE WAR PREPARE YOU FOR HOLLYWOOD? I certainly learned resilience in the infantry. You know how to survive. Keep jungle instincts — that's very important to moviemaking.

LIKE VIETNAM, HOLLYWOOD IS AN OUT-OF-CONTROL WORLD, AND YOU HAVE TO SEIZE CONTROL OF IT OR DIE. That's correct. I'm very good at chaos. In my early days I was known as a chaos guy.

ALSO, YOUR AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL PLATOON IS ABOUT THE OLIVER STONE SOLDIER (CHARLIE SHEEN, 54) CAUGHT BETWEEN TWO FATHER-FIGURE SERGEANTS — KINDLY WILLEM DAFOE, WHO TURNS 65 JULY 22; AND BRUTAL TOM BERENGER, 71 — WHO WERE BASED ON YOUR ACTUAL SERGEANTS. WAS THAT CONFLICT INFLUENCED BY YOUR PARENTS’ CONFLICT? You can say my father [and] my mother were a clash, so I was looking, seeing clashes. And I got into trouble. I was always in trouble with authority figures, right? So obviously I had a problem! [Laughs]

WAS IT PAINFUL TO REVISIT YOUR PAST AND SHAPE IT INTO A BOOK? I enjoyed going back. You rediscover, you appreciate those moments that you missed. It was so fast when you live life, you're going like a train sometimes. Thank God I kept a diary. To understand these moments outside time and what they mean. I'm not looking to grind an ax or settle scores. I just wanted to write the truth.

ARE YOU RETIRED? I'm easing into it. I'm semiretired, so to speak. I'm not interested in any script. It's exhausting and the tension levels are very high, and you risk having a heart attack or a stroke or something. Trying to keep up with the latest fad doesn't give me a thrill.

BUT YOU'RE MAKING DOCUMENTARIES NOW, ABOUT PUTIN AND CASTRO. I am keeping my hand in. I've made eight or nine documentaries. I'm almost finished with JFK: Destiny Betrayed, a factual record of what the Assassination Records Review Board found in 1982 to 1996. Before I die, I want a record to come out of what they put out. And then the other one I'm doing, hopefully by the end of the year, is a documentary on clean energy — including nuclear energy — based on Joshua Goldstein's book A Bright Future.

DO YOU MISS MAKING FEATURE FILMS? Frankly, I'm enjoying the memory business. If you can scrape out a book, you can really bring light and consciousness to the planet. No greater satisfaction exists now than a paragraph well-written in honor of something you value — more and more the older you get.

-Tim Appelo, "'Chasing the Light:' Oliver Stone Goes Beyond His New Memoir," AARP, Jul 21 2020

[emletish-fish]

Different but the Same: Robby, Miguel and Mirror characterisation

So Robby and Miguel -

It’s actually possible to LOVE them both.

Because they are actually thematically super similar.

There has been a lot of fandom discussion about who is The Worst between Robby and Miguel, which I feel misses the point entirely. We shouldn’t be pitting Robby and Miguel against each other because they are mirror characters on parallel journeys. 

Baseline: Both are raised by single mothers and feel the absence of a father/father figure. Both are intelligent, level-headed with occasional bursts of impulsiveness. Both are deeply compassionate and will defend ‘the little guy’ and stick up for kids who are being bullied. Both do not engage in bullying themselves. Both skateboard. Both are great with computers. Both get jealous over their girlfriend/Dad figure. Both are the first students of their first karate dojos.  Both find power in Cobra Kai and peace in Miyagi-Do.   Both advocate for Johnny and Daniel to get along.

The list goes on.

Even some of their mistakes are similar.

Boy A is ‘dating’ Sam. He sees Sam with Boy B and mistakes an innocent scenario for Sam cheating on him. Boy A gets mad and tries to start shit with B boy - Sam intervenes. 

Which one am I referring to? Both! they have both done this!

Sam and Tory are going at it. It is am emotionally fraught situation. Boy A is first on the scene. Boy A seperates the girls, and tries to de-escalate the situation. Boy B is dating Tory and assumes she is being attacked by Boy A. Boy B attacks Boy A and escalates the conflict.

Who am I talking about  - Both! They have both done this!

Their “rivalry” is so dumb because they actually have no problem with each other personally. Their season 1 drama is a huge misunderstanding. In season 2... they do not start shit with each other in season 2. They are awkwardly polite and non-confrontational at the roller rink and at the party. Miguel introduces Robby to Tory. He does this without any animosity at all. Like Robby is a casual aquintance he is on good terms with.  At the Prom, before the girls start fighting, they just blink quietly at each other.

Honestly, if it wasn’t for AVTs or the girls, these two would never confront each other.

Because they are mirrors.

“Mirror characters are used for a similar purpose. They tend to share several qualities and are used to complement and highlight each other's traits. Common mirror characters embark on parallel plots, sometimes to achieve a single goal, which tests them and highlights their traits in different ways.”

From https://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/literary-devices/

But lets look at how their stories are reflected differently.

Because whilst they are very similar, they have also made drastically different choices,

Miguel was a total dick to Robby during the first AVT and he cheated. Robby has never cheated.

Robby, in cold blood, violated and dehumanised another person out of a misguided attempt to protect a friend.  Miguel has never calmly and with full clarity deliberately harmed another person.

We can see the difference support + grounding VS complete absence of any support or guidance has on their narrative paths.

Miguel fucked up in AVT - but he received proportional consequences and guidance after this screw up.  His girlfriend not only dumped him, but wouldn;t even speak to him and told him he was turning into a horrible person. His mother made it clear she didn’t like his mean side. His Sensei reamed him out, public punished him and made him go back to a white belt.

But Johnny also took the time to explain why to Miguel. Because he wanted Miguel to know the difference between Mercy and Honour.

Miguel has clearly learned this lesson - and he has interpreted it for himself. He has taken what worked from Johnny’s teachings and what worked from Daniel’s teachings and is trying to find his way in the world without karate violence.

Miguel was in a coma for more than two weeks and nearly died. Miguel was paralysed for months and had to relearn how to walk. Miguel had paid the highest price out of anyone for the karate drama.

What is his take away from this extremely harsh lesson - Karate is for defence only.

After the school fight - Miguel always tries to de-escalate any conflict. This makes so much sense. Miguel paid such a high price last time karate drama spiraled out of control.

When Robby comes to the dojo, Miguel stumbles in shock and stays out of their conversation until Robby starts talking aggressively to Sam. Then Miguel reminds him that Robby’s stint in juvie wasn’t Sam’s fault. (It wasn’t anyone’s fault, but Robby isn’t in the headspace to hear that).  Miguel says he will act to protect Sam, but makes no move towards Robby. It is Sam who intervenes when Robby throws the first punch.

At the house fight, Miguel tries to reason with Tory. He talks to her like she’s a person, and tries to reason with her and remind her that she has choices and she doesn’t have to do this.  Miguel is using a common tactic that is used when diffusing mob violence - calling people by their name and appealing to their inner humanity and making it clear that they are responsible for their actions and cannot hide behind the anonymous mob because they are SEEN as the person they are. Tory attacks anyway - but Miguel making that effort, when others write her off, is telling.

At the drive in, Miguel earnestly tries to diffuse the situation and reminds everyone of the no-figthing rule. Robby stomps all over this potential olive branch by mocking Miguel for the time that he put him in a coma.

(It is so interesting for me that Miguel in season 4 has fully taken on Robby’s season 2 role of peace-maker and I am fascinated to how Robby reacts to this reflection of his former self.)

At the AVT, when it is clear there is no chance of de-escalation and he feels completely disillusioned in Johnny (and feels like Johnny loves Robby more), Miguel does the ultimate Miyagi Move.  No Be There.  He dips out of the final fight completely, and washes his hands of the karate nonsense.  A trophy isn’t worth hurting his friend or damaging his spine. He doesn’t want to fight Robby. Miguel in season 4 doesn’t want to fight at all.

Robby on the other hand,  is full of fight... and in the end it makes him miserable.

Robby received absolutely no support after the school fight.

Robby faced a horrible and disproportional punishment. But his time in juvie certainly didn’t help Robby become a better version of himself. Robby didn’t learn anything that will help him heal and grow in juvie.

With only Kreese’s guidance, Robby learned to strike first, focus on his anger and the unfairness of his situation, and place the blame for all his problems on others.

 Robby after juvie no longer tries to see other people’s points of view, and isn’t interested in finding a compromise, or learning a better way.  The extreme unfairness of his situation causes him immense anger and he lashes out at people who do generally care about him.

He is isolated and vulnerable to a predator like Kreese.

 While Robby considers himself above falling for the brainwashing of CK,  and thinks he’s just using Kreese and Silver to get what he wants (What is that exactly? I have a feeling its the same thing it’s always been; to get back at Johnny and get his attention).  But a 17 year old drop out will never hold the power against a master manipulator and an insane billionaire. We watch Robby react as they wind him up and set him off. (How many times does Kreese play the Miguel card with Robby? It’s a lot, and it always works).

We watch Robby succumb to the worst of Cobra Kai teachings, in a way that mirrors Miguel in season 1.  Because no kid, no matter how good and kind they are in their heart, is completely immune to Cobra Kai; Not Miguel, and Not Robby. 

Because Kids often feel powerless and they want power - and CK promises to give them that.

(It also gives them a buttload of trauma, poor coping mechanisms, reduces their critical thinking skills and and indoctrinates them into a life ruining philosophy, but anyway...)

Robby’s aggression in Season 4 mirrors Miguel’s aggression at the AVT. He is so focused on his anger and jealousy and channelling those feelings. IT may make him a stronger fighter, but it’s hurting him inside.  Robby is emotionally aware enough to recognises its hurting him.

And if Robby is mirroring Miguel’s journey, I can only hope he will get the unconditional love, structure and support that Miguel was given after he screwed up at the AVT in season 5.

[hellomynameisbisexual]

Since the very conception of the motion picture, the LGBT community have been represented on-screen in some form. An early example is Algie the Miner (1912), a short silent film which follows the effeminate Algie (Billy Quirk), who enjoys kissing cowboys. In order to marry someone’s daughter, he heads west to prove that he’s a man. While this is quite an outdated stereotype of being gay, the portrayals have varied greatly over time. Only recently is LGBT representation becoming more positive and common. However, when it comes to portraying bisexuality on-screen, it still seems to be a difficult task.

Many narrative tropes have been birthed through filmmakers trying to show sexuality on-screen and most of them contribute directly to the overall erasure of bisexuality in cinema – usually with ambiguous portrayals, negative stereotyping and characters needing to pick a side. Not all instances are problematic, but their prevalence isn’t helping to combat the stigma that bisexual people face. There are three main tropes when it comes to depicting bisexuality, which is infidelity, picking a side, and the horrible husband. They’re usually found together in a common narrative that erases bisexuality, whether intentional or not.

Infidelity

There’s a long-standing stereotype that bisexual people are more likely to cheat on their partners and are incapable of commitment. This is a trope that is heavily carried in some of the most well-known depictions of bisexuality. Typically, a female protagonist is engaged or married to a man, but she meets a lesbian woman and they become involved sexually and romantically, leaving the protagonist torn between two lovers. This happens in Imagine Me & You (2005) when Rachel (Piper Perabo) falls in love with lesbian flower shop owner Luce (Lena Headey), who provided the flowers for her wedding to Hector (Matthew Goode). It’s a fairly average film that could’ve been amazing had it acknowledged Rachel’s bisexuality, but it’s still one of the better ones considering Perabo and Headey have amazing chemistry.

For some reason, bisexual characters are often in serious relationships when they’re suddenly sexually awakened. This happened to Rachel right after her wedding because she happened to meet the right woman. While this type of experience does happen in real life, it’s always the go-to narrative for films about women realizing they’re not one-hundred-percent straight. In these instances, the same-sex love affair acts as the conflict within the narrative – this can create good drama when done right, but it gets boring and bisexual characters deserve better than constantly being portrayed as cheaters. People are not more promiscuous or likely to cheat on their partners because of their sexuality, but these tropes are constantly telling people otherwise.

We deserve to see bisexual characters whose sexuality isn’t the main narrative focus or who at least explore their sexuality outside of a relationship. Appropriate Behaviour (2014) is a good example of this as Shirin (Desiree Akhavan, who is also the film’s writer and director) is a bisexual Persian American woman who is keeping her sexuality a secret from her judgemental family, while also attempting to rebuild her life after breaking up with her girlfriend. Seeing bisexuality portrayed on-screen is another place where people pick up more stigma or acceptance, and with bisexuality it, unfortunately, seems to be the former. This is why bisexual filmmakers like Akhavan are better suited to portraying the experiences of bisexual men and women than others.

Picking A Side

When the protagonist is in conflict with her sexuality, the people around her usually wonder if she’s a lesbian now – despite them being engaged or married to a man. This can be seen in Below Her Mouth (2010) where Jasmine (Natalie Krill) begins having an affair with Dallas (Erika Linder). When her husband finds out, he tells her “You’re a lesbian” but she tells him that she loves him and nothing has changed between them. It seems impossible to grasp that a person could be attracted to both men and women. Bisexuality is erased.

Some films insinuate that the protagonist isn’t necessarily bisexual or even a lesbian, it’s just that they’re attracted to this one woman only and no others – they’re an exception! This is the kind of impression you get from Below Her Mouth, but also from other films such as Imagine Me & You and Elena Undone (2010), which isn’t particularly helpful for lesbian representation either. In Imagine Me & You, Rachel tells Hector “You are my best friend. That was enough before, and it will be enough again.” This implies that Rachel was never truly attracted to him in a romantic sense, thus implying that she’s a lesbian. While this could be a case of compulsory heteronormativity, it seems problematic as it’s never discussed or explained. Avoiding discussions about sexuality – as most of these films do – are what contribute to this trope massively and result in misinterpretation and erasure.

Films as new as Netflix’s Alex Strangelove (2018) also feed into the idea that bisexuality is a stepping stone to picking a side. Alex (Daniel Doheny) prepares to lose his virginity to his girlfriend but finds his plans derailed when he’s attracted to another boy. He spends most of the film questioning his sexuality and at one point thinks he’s bisexual. The film does highlight biphobia which brings attention to this problem, so it’s disheartening at the end when Alex realizes he is gay and not bisexual after all. The set up for Alex Strangelove was perfect for a bisexual love story and, while it’s still positive LGBT representation, it’s a shame it didn’t stick with that. It’s even rarer to see bisexual men portrayed on-screen, so it would’ve been really rewarding.

It’s important to acknowledge that bisexuality is a comfortable place for some people to be while they’re trying to accept that they are gay – and there’s nothing wrong with that. However, there still seems to be some widespread discomfort when it comes to sexuality being fluid. For bisexual people, there isn’t any side to pick – they’re not torn between polar opposites, nor are they confused. They aren’t on the fence, they’re on both sides of the fence. Nevertheless, films continue to portray bisexuality as a personal conflict that needs resolving, and it does this by putting bisexual characters in a situation where they’re having affairs. This makes their sexuality the narrative conflict, which is wholly problematic in itself.

The Horrible Husband

The protagonist’s fiancé or husband is usually abusive or passive in the relationship, and thus portrayed as the antagonist. She is then drawn to a lesbian woman who treats her so much better and gives her the attention she deserves. Sometimes it’s as though these films are saying that lesbianism is the cure for a dissatisfying heterosexual relationship. This contributes to bisexual erasure by suggesting that bisexual women can only be happy with women and never with a man because they’re horrible or not good enough. It also perpetuates the idea of picking a side – almost telling bisexuals that they should just be lesbians instead.

This trope is found in films like Elena Undone, where Elena (Necar Zadegan) meets Peyton (Traci Dinwiddie) who is a famous lesbian writer. Elena’s husband Barry (Gary Weeks), however, is a homophobic pastor. Elena Undone is actually loosely based on director Nicole Conn’s real-life romance with Marina Rice Bader, but the film itself isn’t great. It’s also shown in The World Unseen (2007) as Miriam (Lisa Ray) quietly follows the customs of 1950s South Africa, alongside dealing with her abusive husband Omar (Parvin Dabas). Miriam becomes empowered to change her circumstances when she meets and falls in love with free-spirited cafe owner Amina (Sheetal Sheth).

A much better film that deals with this trope is Bound (1996). Lesbian ex-con Corky (Gina Gershon) arrives at an apartment building to start work as a painter and plumber. She soon finds herself being seduced by Violet (Jennifer Tilly) who lives next door with her boyfriend Caesar (Joe Pantoliano). Violet explains that they’ve been together for five years and he’s a money launderer for the mafia. She wants to escape and make a new life for herself, so she and Corky plan to steal $2 million of Mafia money and blame it on Caesar. The horrible husband trope actually works well in this film because the women plan to screw Caesar over and it doesn’t use Violet’s infidelity as the main narrative conflict – it’s a lot more original, which isn’t surprising as the first directorial feature film from the Wachowski Sisters. Bound would’ve been much less effective if Caesar was just a regular guy who Violet hated, but she has a better motive with the drama surrounding his violent mafia connections.

These three tropes are collectively the entire plot of Imagine Me & You, Elena Undone, The World Unseen, I Can’t Think Straight (2008), Kiss Me (2011) and more. It’s a shame that there isn’t always a huge focus on the actual relationship between the two women in these films. It’s more about them hiding their relationship and because they officially get together at the end, we never get to see much of what their life is like as a couple. They all feature very similar themes, meaning that when it comes to telling the stories of bisexual characters, the narrative is rarely diverse. Romantic comedies in general always follow the same beats which is fine, but these tropes for bisexual characters either erase their sexuality and/or display it as a problem.

These tropes can still work well (like with Bound) depending on certain aspects of the narrative. Infidelity works well in Carol (2015) due to the 1950s setting. Carol (Cate Blanchett), who is in the process of divorcing her horrible husband, and Therese (Rooney Mara) have to hide their relationship due to homosexuality not being accepted during this time. This adds an extra layer to the narrative, giving actual depth to why things are happening the way that they are. There’s also Disobedience (2017) where it works well due to the Orthodox Jewish culture. Ronit (Rachel Weisz), who is considered bisexual, returns to the community for her father’s funeral to find her childhood friend Esti (Rachel McAdams) married to a man. Esti describes herself as a lesbian woman in a relationship with a man, which is disheartening but works in the film’s world. Disobedience also plays through the infidelity trope very differently to other films, allowing it to be more effective.

The Erasure

In films with bisexual characters, it’s rare that the word “bisexual” actually comes up. It’s mostly ambiguous, implied or erased completely by the protagonist seemingly picking a side. It’s constantly reinforced by narrative tropes that are set up for dramatic entertainment, with no real intention of representing sexuality with genuine care. Erasure also happens due to words like “gay” being used as an umbrella term when referring back to certain films. Brokeback Mountain (2005) and Call Me By Your Name (2017), for example, are often referred to as gay films on social media due to the gay relationships portrayed, However, the characters are portrayed to be sexually fluid/bisexual due to the nature of their relationships with women. It also happens with films like Blue Is the Warmest Colour (2014) which is always painted as a lesbian love story when Adèle (Adèle Exarchopoulos) is clearly bisexual. It’s not necessarily bad to use gay and lesbian as umbrella terms, but it, unfortunately, does contribute to bisexual erasure. We should be bringing more attention to bisexuality on-screen and pointing it out specifically when we see it.

One of the biggest erasures is the portrayal of bisexual men. They appear much less frequently than bisexual women. The most recent example that comes to mind is Jake Gyllenhaal’s character in Velvet Buzzsaw (2019), but the word bisexual was never used and he was portrayed as being promiscuous, which fits into the negative stereotype (although the film is satire so perhaps it can be excused). Some better, or at least more interesting, depictions of bisexual men are still out there and can be found in films such as Velvet Goldmine (1998), Kaboom (2010), The Comedian (2012), The Lobster (2015) and Moonlight (2016).

If anything, bisexual characters are usually left out of the bury your gays/dead lesbian syndrome trope. It’s very common both in film and television for gay men and lesbian women to be killed off in some dramatic way, such as in Brokeback Mountain, The Fox (1967), Les Biches (1968), Lost and Delirious (2001) and A Single Man (2009). Bisexual women have been killed off quite a bit in television – like Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton) in The O.C. – but they’re relatively safe in film and hopefully, it’ll stay that way.

Acknowledging Bisexuality

It is disheartening that bisexual representation on-screen isn’t as good or as frequent as gay and lesbian representation. We’re also at a time where it could be massively improved, but now we face the barrier of “queer” as another umbrella term. It’s wholly unhelpful when not everyone identifies with it and when we want bisexual characters to say the word bisexual on-screen. We want to be acknowledged. Bisexual actress Stephanie Beatriz made sure her bisexual character in Brooklyn Nine-Nine got to say it earlier this year, because that word means something to certain people and the impact is great. Hopefully this will start to happen more in film going forward.

There are definitely films out there where the word bisexual is actually said, like in Appropriate Behaviour, Kiss Me, Velvet Goldmine and Margarita with a Straw (2014). It’s rare that we hear it so when we do it’s pretty exciting. In addition to these, other films that feature positive and/or complex portrayals of bisexual characters in general (and not the previously discussed tropes) are: Cabaret (1972), Chasing Amy (1997), Black Swan (2010), Atomic Blonde (2017) and Tully (2018).

There have been many positive and negative depictions of bisexuality, but the majority of them aren’t great or feed into the biphobia and the erasure of the identity. Filmmakers need to do better when it comes to portraying bisexual characters and their stories. It’s always helpful when bisexual people themselves get a voice, whether as writers, directors or actors. For some reason, although there are exceptions, most straight male and lesbian filmmakers have trouble portraying bisexuality both positively and accurately. They essentially give the message that bisexuality doesn’t exist or is an inner conflict that needs to be resolved. We must do better because one day someone will be watching a film where a character says “bisexual” and their life will suddenly fall into place.

[out-of-this-dimension]

Hypothetically Rewriting Assault’s Story + Some General Assault Opinions

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

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

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

Under the cut because SUPER long.

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

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

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

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

The Story Changes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Level-Based Changes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[visionaxry]

TOP 10 TV SHOWS I WATCHED IN 2020

1. Dear White People

This show goes on the top tier of my favorite shows ever. It’s been around since 2017 (after the eponymous movie of 2014) but only this year I finally got the chance to watch it. Truly one of the best written shows I’ve ever seen, with such compelling characters and story. While I love to watch series with hard hitting social topics, it’s usually very emotionally exhausting for me. However, DWP manages to balance the gravity of its plot with a bright outlook. Besides, I always love to see different characters’ perspectives so the format of DWP is extremely engaging.

2. Grand Army

Grand Army is not your typical teen drama. It’s very raw and real. Five protagonists pull you into the story, and whether you hate them or love them, they don’t let you go. All characters feel like actual people you could know in real life. The show talks about racism, terrorism, sexual assault, white feminism, poverty, homophobia, bullying and more. I also love the way the show uses phones and social media, which you rarely get to see in teen shows. It doesn’t feel glossy or over dramatic. It does get graphic and dark, but it makes you care about the fate of its characters. Here, we also get to see five different perspectives. That and the rawness reminded me of SKAM, although GA is way less cheerful. It could also be compared to Euphoria with it’s portrayal of real issues, but I feel like GA hits the spot much better (and has more diversity).

Finding out that the creator is racist, upon finishing the binge, left me shocked and quite conflicted. I hope they will change the showrunner for season 2 (if it gets renewed). 

3. The Great 

I’m not much of a period drama fan but this one’s no typical historical shows. It plays around historical figures, but you shouldn’t take that too seriously, just like the show itself. It’s a great (haha get it) fun to watch. The combination of comedy with the actual life or death peril creates a unique experience. Each episode the tables turn, you feel both, betrayed and enticed. Not to mention, Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult’s chemistry and performances are phenomenal. Overall, it feels like a strawberry blew up in your mouth (take it however you want).

4. Dickinson

Dickinson is similar to The Great in a sense of historical accuracy. And I’m grateful for it, because seeing the 19th century nobility twerking at a party was something that brought me an immense amount of joy. Of course, you get to see Emily Dickinson’s poetic and original inner world, which is handled quite creatively.

5. The Queen’s Gambit

This is just a very well written, portrayed and produced story. Even if you feel like it wouldn’t be your cup of tea (I mean a period piece about chess? Come on), chances are once you put the show, you won’t be able to stop. It’s a limited series with a star struck cast which pretty much reads like a prolonged film. It’s also pretty suitable to watch with your family, if usually you struggle to find a common interest.

6. Julie and the Phantoms

This show certainly exceeded everyone’s expectations. It may seem like a typical kids show, but it’s smart, deep and entertaining. The music is incredible and it’s impossible not to fall in love with characters. Also, here’s the proof that your show doesn’t need to have graphic scenes and oversexualized underaged characters to be good. 

7. Saved By the Bell: the reboot

So I didn’t watch the original show, but the reboot caught my attention mostly because of Josie Totah, and because the vibe of the show just felt like something I would like. And I was absolutely right. Perhaps it’s not everyone’s cup of tea (and what is?) but to me it’s hilarious. A sort of heart-warming witty little show with gen z humor and interesting diverse characters. Definitely my new comfort show. And Lexi’s my queen.  

8. Outer Banks

Released during self-isolation it became a way for the viewers to live vicariously through the risky outdoor adventures. Perhaps, that’s why it’s such a hit and a bit overrated. Don’t get me wrong, I really liked (why do you think it’s on this list). It’s not an outstanding show, might be cheesy and raise some questions (like how can they all be teenagers looking like that?) but it’s entertaining and engaging, and sometimes that’s all you need.

9. I am not okay with this

Let’s take a moment of silence for this amazing show being cancelled. Do you like Teotfw or Stranger Things, or better yet both? This show’s for you! It’s unique, dynamic, feels like you’re reading a comic book. Has a certain mystery to it and its own distinct voice. It also feels retro and nostalgic, even though it’s set in modern day.

10. Love, Victor [SPOILERS]

There’s a lot of things I wish I could change about the show to make it better: For starters, more representation. I mean you’re making a show, not exclusively, but primarily for the lgbtq+ community and you only have two main gay characters? What’s that about? There are so many possibilities to make other characters not straight. E.g. Mia and Lake could be couple goals, Pilar being bi, Andrew – definite bi energy. Secondly, the cheating trope is so exhausting and overdone in gay storylines. It doesn’t add drama, it just makes the couple and the characters hard to root for. Also, making the love interest so obvious was so underwhelming after everything we went through in Love, Simon. I was kind of hoping for a surprise love interest until the end.

Regardless of all that, no matter how far from teenage reality this show is, it was cute. And even though I rooted for the secondary characters way more than the main one, I’m still excited to see what they come up with for S2.

[backslashdelta]

As much as I like Klaine,I am always upset over Chandler episode... first of all,that Kurt gave that dude his number,and secondly,it makes me sad that he spended more time texting him than his own bf. Also,were the texts he was sending back to Chandler flirty as well,or it was just Chandler's side? I mean,Blaine claimed that HIS texts to Sebastian were family friendly while being upset, which made me think if Kurt's to Chandler weren't,but rn I am just confused. It also made me ship them a bit less and now I am just sad. I would like to sweep Chandler incident under the rug though,but I am not really able to defend Kurt here.

Yeah I mean, that's totally fair! That whole situation was definitely not a good look for Kurt. I love him, he's my favourite character, but he is far from flawless and this is just one example of a time where he fucked up. They were having issues, sure, but that's not an excuse. Kurt absolutely knew what he was doing when he gave Chandler his number and they started texting.

I've seen arguments about whether or not it constitutes cheating, and honestly I don't really want to get into that because I don't know the answer (and I don't think there is one right answer, anyway). But I think it's a moot point regardless because it still clearly hurt Blaine and crossed a boundary in their relationship.

Honestly, and this is based solely on personal opinion and my views of Kurt, I don't think he was being as flirty toward Chandler as Chandler was to him. Probably a little bit to encourage it, but I think he liked the attention and didn't so much care about Chandler himself aside from that he was the one giving the attention. Which... makes him sound like kind of an asshole I realize, but well, we're all assholes sometimes, aren't we? He was wrapped up in himself and maybe just didn't realize (or didn't want to admit, is more likely) the way he was acting wasn't appropriate – to Blaine or to Chandler. Again, not an excuse, but that's what I think was happening.

As far as the comparison to Blaine and Sebastian texting, I think it is a fair criticism to make of Blaine, BUT in this specific context it was Kurt trying to not take responsibility for his own actions and turn things around on Blaine, which is absolutely not cool. If Kurt had an issue with Blaine's behaviour then that should have been addressed, rather than Kurt deciding that "if Blaine can do it then I can do it." Or maybe Kurt didn't actually mind Blaine and Sebastian's friendship (though I find that unlikely), but even if that's the case then he shouldn't be throwing it back in Blaine's face as a defense the way he did. There are ways to have a mature discussion about issues that come up in a relationship, and this is not one of those ways.

The being said, they aren't mature. They're teenagers. And they're going to make mistakes and fuck up and hurt each other, and they do, on this occasion and on many others throughout the series. They aren't perfect and neither is their relationship. But they love each other, and they don't want to hurt each other, and they make up and forgive and move on.

I'm sorry that you're sad that it's made you ship them less. I think it's understandable, both that you're sad and that it's hurt your view of them as a ship. I think wanting to brush it under the rug is perfectly valid and there's nothing wrong with doing that, but I also don't think it's necessary to brush away every problematic thing any of the characters has done to be able to love a ship. One of the things I love so much about shipping (and I am a multi-shipper, so we all know how much I love shipping) is getting to see the dynamics between different characters, the ways they interact and especially the ways they sometimes clash. I love the drama and the conflict and watching them work through things and coming out stronger on the other side. And you're not wrong if you don't want that in your ships, there's no one correct way to ship characters together, but I do think it's a viewpoint that might help you if you really are having a hard time reconciling something like this with your view of their relationship.

Oh and also... it's okay if it just does make you ship them less. We are allowed to have opinions and preferences and you don't need to justify why you prefer ship X over ship Y to anyone. Klaine used to be my very favourite ship, and I still love them very much but they're no longer at the top of my list, and honestly that took me a bit of time to accept because for some reason I felt bad about it, but there's nothing to feel bad for. Different people like different things and dislike other different things, and that's okay.

TL;DR: Kurt is a flawed character and he fucked up. It's okay if you like Klaine less because of this, but it's also okay if you accept it as part of them and their flawed relationship and continue to love them just as much.

[sixteenthshen]

my rant on episodes 31/32

I feel so conflicted about them.

On the one hand, I wanted to watch the shared horse scene so much. On the other,  there were so many inconsistencies and WTF moments. I can't bring myself to touch those episodes again to make more gifs, which is such a pity because WKX falling down the cliff? SO PRETTY. 

Spoilers behind the cut. If you do follow the drama with Chinese fans, you’ll probably have heard the same things like a million times. To save yourself more angst/stress, skip my post. 

The upside is that the director took the fans complaints to heart. They were making edits until 2am last night. I heard it’s already live, but I’m still trying to prepare myself. There’re some things that can’t be fixed >< 

*hopes for the best on Tuesday* 

In episode 11, WKX wanted to tear the Scorpion assassins into ten thousand little itty bits because ZZS had some blood on his lip, which made me mentally scream so much from joy. In episode 31, he  LETS Duan Pengju, that evil dickface(TM) go, just like that? Where's the rage? Where's the anger? Do you see the colour of ZZS's face? Can you see what he's wearing? Do you know what dickface did? 

Although it's a very touching moment when WKX decides to acknowledge the shixiong/shidi relationship, it's super weird that the ghosts are behind. I mean, I suppose it can make sense if we focus on the fact that he's planning to "retire" from being the big bad CEO of Ghost Valley. But it seems careless to expose a weakness in case someone tries to take advantage of it since they have to kill you to get to be the new CEO. 

There's no follow up on the injuries sustained from being tortured by the evil dickface(TM). How could they make WKX seem so callous? Maybe a scene where ZZS asked Wu Xi to hide his injuries from WKX, but WKX's right outside. He overheard ZZS telling Wu Xi to hide it from him, so he pretends not to know. *cue angsty scene for WKX here* 

The only thing related to injuries was when Wu Xi said ZZS could be saved from his self-inflicted nailing. Okaaaay. What about the piercing of the scapula? (穿琵琶骨 (piercing pipa bones) - it's supposed to cripple your martial arts ability until you heal ok) 

WKX suddenly decides to go off and be a career man, which is perfectly fine. But he suddenly has Gu Xiang watch over ZZS like a hawk, not letting him drink. (Seriously, I forgot if this belongs in TYK or if this is yet another thing stolen from Sha Po Lang) Where is WKX showing any concern over ZZS's total loss of 2 out of 5 senses? I ASK YOU MS. SCRIPTWRITER. What have you done to WKX's character??? Poor WKX, poor ZZS. 

And did everyone laugh off the fact that ZZS can't taste, so why should he drink wine? Ok, I can make myself accept this if I remind myself that ZZS would not like people making a fuss and pitying him anyway... (but shouldn't someone, anyone care???) 

We get many hints that WKX has a sneaky scheme, but he doesn't tell Gu Xiang, his closest friend since childhood. He doesn't talk to his soulmate about this either. 

WKX and ZZS's dialogue just before he falls down the cliff... Seriously reminiscent of Silent Reading, when Fei Du makes the same self-flagellating confession & Luo Wenzhou stops him. 

ZZS draws his sword and stands beside WKX. What is going on?! How does he still have his martial arts ability? Did months pass since WKX saved him from evil dickface (TM)? Nothing makes any sense!  

ZCL's hidden weapon is what forces WKX over the cliff. If ZCL did not know about the sneaky scheme, then WTF is this kind of scriptwriting? ZCL's character turned from a good, young child to a prop-causing drama and angst. Even if he felt betrayed, was he not there to see how depleted WKX made himself trying to save Han Ying? Did he not see how WKX tried to keep his shifu safe? Or taught him how to fight? Did ZCL become stupid all of a sudden just to create angst? 

 It only makes sense if ZCL knew about the scheme because of all the info he was privy to, such as Zhao Jing as the villain behind it all (when he heard WKX and ZZS talking). How would he go from knowing that to thinking ZJ should be the new head of the alliance? As a matter of fact, how could Shen Shen?  

Ye Baiyi has to be in on it unless WKX suddenly gained so much martial arts ability in the short time since they last fought. I mean, it only makes sense that WKX got so much stronger because he got injured by YBY, then depleted his strength saving Han Ying. 

So ZCL, YBY, Scorpion King and his buddies, fellow ghosts, possibly Shen Shen... WKX only kept it from the two people closest to him? The two most likely to do something stupid when they find out? *flails at this logic* 

The scene where ZZS's nails magicked their way out of his body... It's so awkward!!! I mean, we're supposed to feel emotional, but the special effects are just awful. I tried not to skip through it, I failed. 

So now what? ZZS essentially sacrificed himself to help WKX complete his goal. He gave up on his chance to be saved to fulfil WKX's pursuit of revenge (and take revenge for WKX's death). And it's all because of a misunderstanding. 

Between ZZS's nails and the ZCL-issue, I'm drowning in dog blood. What happened to WKX and ZCL's characters/personalities???? 

Also episode 32 is VERY choppy, it seems like we’re jumping to scenes randomly, the flow isn’t there. 

I can only say that the "Priest" spirit is gone; it's not a bad drama by any means. I'm still watching & I'm still going to buy the new episodes on Tuesday. But the random angst and abusive scenes inserted without no reason nor much logic are very un-Priest-like. 

I feel a little cheated about the scriptwriter being a fan of Priest. Priest's novels always feature couples who communicate. The supporting characters can come off flat in a drama sometimes because they're so normal. They don't have ridiculous backstories that make them tragic villains, and they behave logically. 

The angst "created" in Priest's novels makes sense. Characters don't suddenly change their personalities so that we can watch something exciting. The "dog blood angst/drama" is the big failing of so many Asian dramas. *CRIES* 

Now, the GOOD & HAPPY STUFF. 

WKX SAVING A-XU. *heart eyes* 

NGL, no matter how short it was, I liked the horseback scene 

There was a cute moment between Qi Ye and Wu Xi, scriptwriter knows how to ship!! & knows how to make it clear who’s gong/shou lol. 

THE HAIRPIN SCENE. IT’S EVERYTHING.

Even though I’m 90% sure the no-alcohol thing is copied from Sha Po Lang... I have so much love for Gu Yun and ZZS that it made me happy. My drunkards <3 

Did I mention WKX looks extremely pretty when he falls down the cliff? How do you fall so prettily? Plz teach me. 

WKX also looks pretty fake-dead. ZZS looks pretty when he’s heartbroken

I ship xiangcao so hard even though I know what’s gonna happen. (Cao Weining & Gu Xiang) They’re too cute.

I love the Poisonous Bodhisattva, I thought the Tragicomic ghost would be my favourite because of how gorgeous she is, but she’s too tragic & not enough comic. Poisonous Bodhisattva is my new goddess.

[forwantofamohawk]

Breaking up Duncney and Gwent wasn’t and isn’t a bad thing. Turning Courtney and Trent into unlikable, derailed, bastardized shells of their former selves to make the breakup happen is a bad thing. The difference is subtle, but important, and I think it’s worth remembering.

I won’t deny that Gwen and Trent, or Duncan and Courtney in Island are cute, and that for many of us it was one of our first TV romances we latched onto. The chemistry between the characters was simple, but genuine and heartfelt, coming mostly from the dialog and atmosphere established in the show. I can see why a lot of people like these pairings and were upset when they broke up. 

But the truth is that these pairings weren’t destined to last forever, and that’s okay. They’re summer romances at their core, puppy love where the chemistry comes from surface level affection, not deeper understanding of each other as human beings and the emotional complexity that belies that. While I’m not saying these relationships could never work out in the end, it’s just incredibly unlikely. How many first time teen romances ever make it that far? How many actually last more than a few weeks or months? People at that young age get into relationships without knowing what they really want or what makes them happy, and the reality of being in a relationship is often different than their preconceived expectations.

Breakups happen. Sometimes they’re messy, sometimes two people just agree the other isn’t what they want and it’s fairly amicable. And everything on the spectrum in between. But they happen and it shouldn’t be treated as inherently a bad thing to happen in the writing. When two new seasons of Total Drama were announced I saw a lot of posts on many different media platforms about how Duncney and Gwent should get back together in the new seasons. As if them breaking up at all was a sin that needed to be atoned for. Disregarding that the new seasons are slated to have entirely new casts, and any pairings from the original three generations being seen at all is likely wishful thinking, I think this sort of attitude is fundamentally flawed, rooted in nostalgia and not any sense of what is good writing and character progression.

Now I know I have to address the issue of the breakups as they actually happened. As I said they were very poorly handled, with one half of the relationship ostracized or villainized to make it happen. But that isn’t necessary. Breakups don’t have to happen because the other person is an awful human being. Sometimes, like I said earlier, two people in a relationship decide this is not what they want, that it isn’t emotionally fulfilling to them or that it isn’t worth the sacrifices they have to make to stay in it. I’m not saying that the characters even have to realize this, that takes a sort of emotional maturity that’s exceedingly rare for teenagers, and even for adults in many cases. 

But it’s the writer’s responsibility to frame the breakup in such a way that we the audience can understand the imbalances, the incompatibility of desires, the emotional breaks that cause it to stop functioning. This is where Fresh TV and the Total Drama writers truly fall short. Even if the characters don’t realize why things aren’t working between them, the writers should. And in Total Drama’s case, the writers clearly didn’t. Every breakup or love triangle in Total Drama that I can think of off the top of my head doesn’t come from misunderstandings, or disagreements, or simple lack of chemistry. It comes from one character suddenly acting like a jerk and the other character deciding the other person is awful and they need to break up with them. It would be fine if the person was toxic before the relationship and it only became clear to their partner how deep their toxicity runs after they get together, but to have it come out of completely nowhere just to facilitate a breakup is arbitrary and poor character writing.  Almost everyone in the Love Triangle ends as a worse character because of it from a writing and moral standpoint. Rather than drama coming naturally out of conflicts of interest or clashes of personality, personality itself is bent and broken to the whims of drama. But bringing back Duncney or Gwent wouldn’t fix that, it wouldn’t right any wrongs, and in a way I think it would be insulting to the characters after all the heartbreak they went through just to end up back in the same old relationships they started this mess in. Their survival belongs in AUs and fanfics where the relationships were able to work out their differences, survive the trials and tribulations of a new romance and forge a long lasting, meaningful bond that can stand the rest of time. Not in new seasons, solely brought in to pander to fan cries for the return of a lost, idyllic season 1 nostalgic paradise. 

As a closing note, I also think that most of the original pairs from island breaking up lends a sort of value to the ones that survived. Lyler and Gidgette, no matter what you think of them, persisted, almost implausibly so, against the odds. That they passed tests other couples could not, I see as the ultimate validation of the love and chemistry there. A relationship is defined in hardship, whether it can withstand the bending and twisting of fights, of stress, of those moments of weakness and doubt that may cause one or both parties to go astray. Yes, Bridgette cheated, and people on here give her a lot of shit for it, but she was a young, hormonal teenager in her first committed relationship and she lapsed. That’s not evil, that’s not problematic, that’s her being a fallible human being like the rest of us. She realized what she did was wrong, realized that her impulses led her astray, and apologized for it profusely. And for it, I think the relationship came out stronger than ever. It’s honestly shocking that something like this came out of Fresh TV at all. 

Anyways this post has gone on far longer than it ever intended to but there is a lot to unpack in both how Total Drama handles it’s relationships, and how the fandom reacts to it. Maybe by shining a light on it we can understand it better, and do justice to these characters and their relationships going forward.

[mostlymobilegames]

Some thoughts on Brandon and his route (cut because it's a bit of writing)

!spoilers SBTR! (also negative and positive speech about Brandon)

Finished Brandon's route and I'm impressed, I didn't know I can have so many headaches in a row.

Ok but, while their dynamic is unstable and toxic for a huge part of the book, he does get better and it's a very, very entertaining love-hate relationship.

Brandon is, by far, the character with the best development, going from hating and not caring about most people to putting in all the effort to make things right, even after the crew gets dismantled. He just evolves so nicely while still keeping the best (??) parts of his personality.

I liked the bond between him and Michelle in S3 when they're just friends, they're the definition of platonic soulmates (I love how even Tony points it out, like it's that obvious). He's just there for the MC 24/7, he gets everyone there at her request, he exposes Tony, he finds Molly and brings her to the contest, he's just there for her and I adore how much he's grown and how he basically went from "revenge is the only thing I exist for" to "I'm traveling the world to gather these people and make my best friend happy after talking to her for like a few hours after 5 years of no contact".

But his romance path is... rough. Entertaining, but rough. There were moments when I just wanted to strangle him or got so frustrated and angry but sometimes I saw where he was coming from and there were heartwarming and painful (but in a good way) scenes between them (idk why their goodbye moment in S1's finale made me hurt so bad but it did???)

Is it worth going trough 2 seasons of uncertainty and pain for (about) 1 season of happiness? It's hard to say, considering that, although he plays a huge role in all 3 seasons (S1- he's pretty much the cause of all drama; S2- if he's not romanced he doesn't show up until the end, still, he literally saves the crew either way; S3- he does everything right while looking really good), there are other LIs pretty much in love with the MC and devoted to her from S1 (even though, by comparison, they don't really do much, sure).

I like him as a character and I admire his progress but also his scheming nature, I like how his priorities change but it's a little hard to get over the things he's done that also affected the "only one who managed to melt his cold heart", but on the other hand, he pretty much does everything that really matters in the following seasons for the MC, regardless if they're together or not, so...

I'm conflicted about the romance, I really like him as a character that I can hate on but also respect later, but their relationship doesn't start off in the healthiest way and it's pretty rocky overall, with the fact that, even though they apparently didn't really "break up" after the contest in S2, eventually Brandon was so neglectful that Michelle moved to Seattle to get away and move on (I say "break up" because, for most of the book, Brandon and Michelle aren't in an official, exclusive relationship and I think this romance is the only one that doesn't turn official until the beginning of S3, unlike the others that give the player the choice to change partners or be single before S2's ending).

On the other hand, maybe what ticks me off is this state of uncertainty that lasts for so long (2 whole seasons) because it just makes me feel like I could've gotten what I wanted easier and sooner (which is true, but Brandon as a character is definitely... a lot). I can, however, appreciate how there aren't consequences if the MC "cheats" while being hung up on "dating" Brandon, since that would've just made no sense, with Brandon officially dating that provider (yes, he was just using her but he still dated her, he also cheated on her with Michelle omg this is such a mess lmao), so I appreciate the lack of double standards.

Honestly, maybe I just need to stop looking at this from such a critical point of view and just enjoy the dumpster fire :)))))

I have some problems with S3 Brandon as well but he's way better and their relationship actually becomes a relationship so I guess I can get over them.

Anyway, in conclusion, I really enjoyed romancing him despite everything, he's an interesting character on his own, he's annoying and awful and I love him, no I don't

[thatblondeperson]

Thank you for writing good and healthy TimSteph, as I do find them to be too gosh darn cute, though your latest chapter probably contradicts that because Tim is angsty. It is a shame that a lot of people hate the ship and usually make one of the two super ooc to break them up, usually Steph unfortunately. But again thank you for writing TimSteph and I look forward to any future fics you do in the future, especially if they are TimSteph related.

I could argue for so long about how Stephanie isn't abusive, and how they're not a "toxic problematic couple" they're just teenagers with too much on their shoulders, trying to navigate their relationship with little prior experience. They both have "toxic" traits about them. Yes Steph starts out a bit too forward, and Tim is definitely cheating on Ari by kissing Steph. People also don't like to remember that Tim kissed Steph first without asking, because that would ruin their argument that Steph is sexually harassing Tim who is completely innocent. Or that Steph only wants s*x out of Tim and like, ok, show me the receipts. Where are they? Show me where in comics she has repeatedly tried to get him into bed with her or how that has been a central part of her character.

It baffles me now much time people spend rewriting a narrative to the extremes that prove their point. Someone could argue that I'm doing the same, but the difference is that I pull from the source and don't, you know, go completely batshit crazy with anger over a FICTIONAL CHARACTER. ACKKKKK. If I can do some good by writing them as just a very sweet, albeit misguided couple, then I'm doing my job.

I recognize that both of them are prone to bad behavior. They're both terrible at communication, they both have setbacks that would impact their relationship negatively. I added Tim's outburst in this chapter because in canon, Tim has made asshole comments super casually like he doesn't always seem to have a filter. He's also still rough around the edges and I think that makes him a got punchy. He's an idiot sometimes, they both are.

This idea that couples can't have any conflict is wild. Conflict of different kinds is an inevitable result of being human. It can be something simple such as disagreeing on what salad dressing to use at dinner, to larger conflicts that can sometimes cause fights. At the end of the day, the reason I think Tim and Steph have a healthy dynamic overall, is the trust and understanding that builds between them over time. There's a connection between that that's very much unbreakable, which is why you see them cone back to each other time and time again, whether it's for a relationship, or just for support.

And I'm not saying this to try to convince anyone that they should automatically get on board with this ship. People are free to like and dislike things as they wish, hell I'd probably be classified as an anti-shipper in most fandom spaces just because I'm a grump that dislikes most things. But holy shit. Hate TimSteph if you want, but leave it out of the tags and don't be an asshole about it.

I'm happy that you're enjoying the fic! I'm hoping that I'll get to continue it with sequel someday so I can show them growing stronger together, let them have the healthy "no drama" dynamic that I crave from them daily. Fingers crossed I don't procrastinate that too hard!! ❤💜