#but the ideas were poorly executed and the characters were poorly handled

[waitineedaname]

I've been relistening to the homestuck soundtrack album by album while working lately and man. it's reminding me how much I genuinely loved about homestuck, and how that made the aspects of it that sucked so much more frustrating

[utilitycaster]

I read your posts regarding c3 and what could be done differently, and I’ve always thought the way they handled Bertrand Bell was weird. He’s only in three episodes, then dies — c3 was my first campaign, and I had no idea who he was before, nor sure why I should care . Emotionally he didn’t leave an impact on the other characters (although I love Fearne’s jazz monologue) or the audience who has seen him one time before. They use his name for their party name but then don’t bother to see his grave, or remember him at all.

His death also means that we are tied to the moon plot very early on with an emotional weight so it feels like the group have to follow that story thread early on, setting up the mystery too early which then becomes exhausting to the audience. I wonder if c3 would have been better off if they didn’t bother with him, or if Matt and Travis agreed to really wait a while before killing Bertrand off, when they actually want to escalate the plot (would have had accusations of ‘scripting’ but who cares if it’s better narratively.) I think if he died around when Molly died then it would have been stronger (maybe too close a copy of c2, but at least that worked?)

I think a planned player character death can still be shocking and dramatic to the other players who weren’t expecting it, but how c3 executed it feels like a nothing burger and a waste of time. I don’t really know what would have changed if we just had Chetney at the start.

I'm going to be totally honest: I disagree strongly and I think you are assigning blame to a completely wrong place. That doesn't mean that you can't feel this moment failed to land (though I think that too is a criticism more of the overall campaign) but the concept of having a character show up, be quickly killed, and be replaced by the actual character isn't a particularly new one, doesn't require you to have a pre-existing attachment to the initial character for it to be a fun concept. It also, in my opinion, did serve a good purpose and frankly Bertrand had, in his three episodes, a stronger and clearer arc than several party members who have had over a hundred episodes.

I may put this specific piece in a separate post because I believe it's a requirement for understanding the failings of Campaign 3 but: A lot of discussion positions Campaign 3 as the story of Bells Hells, who were ill served by the Moon Plot. This is, in my opinion, incorrect. Campaign 3 is the Moon Plot Campaign, in which Bells Hells are ill-suited characters pushed through said plot because they happened to be played by the cast members. And to that end, I think that actually, introducing the moon plot immediately was a good idea. The problem was that the execution of that mystery was very poorly done. Bertrand led the party to Eshteross, and was then not long thereafter killed by a group of people working to destabilize the Chandei Quorum on behalf of Armand Treshi, so that he could bring in the Paragon's Call as a means of reinstating order in Jrusar. This presumably would also help them because then they wouldn't have to use Jiana as a middlewoman for the shipments they were receiving via her in Jrusar, and would generally increase their power. Bells Hells found out this was happening and thwarted it, but Treshi escaped.

This is when the plot began to become a mess, and while there were plenty of further opportunities to right it, I think basing the entirety of the early campaign in Jrusar and Bassuras, and severely paring down what was done in Bassuras [probably a whole other post but I'd have had Treshi remain captured in Jrusar but give up the information, making Bassuras entirely a data gathering mission, thus freeing up a lot of time in Bassuras for personal errands and bonding time] would have fixed a lot of the issues.

Again, that doesn't mean the concept worked for you, but this isn't even rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic - it's complaining about the meal that was served on the titanic 4 days prior to them hitting the iceberg.

[bloody-teared-angel]

Omfg- if you don't like the show, DONT FUCKING TALK ABOUT IT! DONT WATCH IT! LEAVE FANS ALONE! LET PEOPLE ENJOY THE THINGS THEY LIKE! NOBODY IS FORCING YOU TO WATCH THE SHOW!

Leave fans alone? Anon, I'm straight up confused. Did I harass any of you? Am I telling ANYBODY to not watch it? Did I come onto any of your blogs and sent you hate or harassment into an ask box or message?

I don't remember doing any of that.

I'm not doing anything to you. I'm just voicing my opinion. No one is forcing you to read my posts or interact with them. If you don't like it, don't read it.

Also, if you have this strong urge to come to a shows defense into a person's ask box and defend it so strongly, then you're just proving my point.

And funny thing anon. I liked Hazbin Hotel pilot - which seem to be not canon now. I liked some episodes in Helluva Boss season 1.

But then the quality declined. Themes were executed poorly, topics were mishandled to the point it hurt. Characterisation of previously loved characters is jumbled and nonsensical. Villains are poorly written and nonthreatening.

What brings me comfort is writing. Writing my disappointment away for a show that I did enjoy at some point. So I started doing research, to stay as close to the source as possible while sprinkling in my own ideas.

That's how I found out about things that I know now. Because now that I look at any of the canonical figureheads in Hell and how they are handled in Miss Medrano's show, I can't ignore the issues any longer.

It's not only hurting the shows but also the reputation of canonical Rulers of Hell and Ars Goetia.

[jesncin]

Sorry to bring up MAWS again, lol; Whilst I have enjoyed it, there are absolutely flaws in the execution of certain characters and ideas. I really appreciate your take on Asian Lois Lane, and looking at Superman characters/lore through an immigrant lens. -- Anyway, I recognize you probably don't feel as comfortable or informed to speak about Jimmy's racebending (not that you have to, of course), but he's getting even less in that department. At least CW Supergirl did some things with -P/1of2

Hope you don't mind me combining your two asks here for a smoother read! I totally agree with all this. I can only speak for S1 of MAWS, but I've watched all of CW Supergirl (for J'onn and Ma'al cough) and even with how poorly Jimmy/James was handled as a Black love interest and side character, he was still a far superior and substantial character compared to MAWS!Jimmy. His Blackness informed his characterization and even when convos about racism were on-the-nose on CW Supergirl, at least they were earnestly being had- unlike MAWS where racism just doesn't exist (in fact the show goes out of its way to erase it).

I have talked about MAWS!Jimmy here and there- mostly calling out his character being generally sidelined, that terrible joke where Mallah and Brain were judging Jimmy for not understanding what oppression is, Jimmy being ghosted for a camping trip acting as the basis for his understanding of oppression, and Jimmy being the Reluctant Black Friend everyone vents to in the Thanksgiving episode. But generally I try not to talk over anyone since I'm not as informed- the only complaint I was able to bump into from Black viewers was that Jimmy's final design sometimes read more South Asian than Black to some people.

Personally my fav Black Jimmy design is from Battle of the Supersons,,,,

please his freckles and dapper fit!! He doesn't need the red hair to look good in green and this is proof to me,,,

But yeah- the usual Black critics I would check on who were thoroughly and rightfully critical of the handling of Supergirl's Jimmy were suddenly so uncritical of MAWS!Jimmy. It's like the minute a show is animated, some people decided to go easy on it because it's cute or whatever. I don't know what spell they're under to think that way- but I stand by my opinion that while CW Supergirl wasn't perfect, it looks like Shakespere in comparison to MAWS.

[chaifootsteps]

hey chai, long post incoming--i'm slowly chipping away at a draft of a vivzie drama masterpost i'll be phrasing as "why are people mad at vivziepop" for new-comers. i'll be including screenshots where i can and small summaries for things. that said, this is my rough list, have i missed anything that you can think of, or any specifics you think outta be mentioned?

VivziePop General Issues - Some from the Past that still happen in the Present

Inability to Handle Criticism / Confrontation

Transphobia

Misogynistic Tendencies

Issues with Improper Crediting / "Stealing" Ideas

Liking Tweets of Fans and Otherwise Who Agree with Her / Praise Her / Defend Her

Most of both her series’ “charm” is thanks to people other than her

Despite having two "LGBT+ friendly" series she primarily focuses on gay men and hasn't been the most LGBT+ friendly in other areas (acephobia, transphobia, lack of rep for queer women/wlw, thinks polyamory is just an excuse to cheat)

Conflicts between Vivzie putting forth an image of a struggling small-time creator who pulled herself up by the bootstraps and made it VS. circumstantial evidence that she is very well off financially and always has been; had her schooling paid for, spent a summer in Paris, takes expensive trips, makes expensive purchases, and lives in a million dollar house with multiple bedrooms and a pool

Testimonies of Ex-Employees and Friends

Erin Frost

KenDraws

Salem

VivziePop “Canon Events” of the Past and Present (20??-Present)

The Snake Tub & Creepy Fanart

Blaire White Fanart

Nazi Sausage Party Fan-Characters from blog “i-hate-jewce”

Starvader Drama

DollCreep / JayJay/Jiji Drama

Viv guilt-tripped a Patron for trying to get at least a partial refund for a financial emergency--many feel that while Viv was in the right for not wanting to refund the Patron, she handled it extremely poorly

Viv's 2018 "Apology"

Support of Angel Dust x Valentino as a “r*pe ships”

Her sister apologized on her behalf to someone she cyber bullied and her sister cited Viv as “having a problem” cyberbullying people. [Kedi's consequent reaching out to the sister having heard she was being a mediator for said person resulted in Viv saying Kedi was stalking her family.]

Viv kicking the original Hazbin Hotel pilot cast after saying she’d fight to keep them onboard [Michael has stated it was not a union issue and explained how he was even willing to shoulder the cost of having him on the show but was still let go.]

Viv saying redesigns are "disrespectful"

VivziePop Opinions of Other Artists

“I could destroy her” and everything else shitty she said about Kyra -- Kyra’s "Wolf in Sheep's Clothing" comic & tweets People Suspect Are About Vivzie

Calling Tracy Annoying

Ashley (Creator of Far-Fetched)

- Viv wasn’t happy with Hunicast’s popularity (mainly run by Ashley) and was mad people were mistaking Ashley for the creator of Hazbin Hotel despite Ashley always making sure to correct people. - Viv learned something personal about Ashley that she used to make fun of her behind her back. - Allegedly one of the reasons Viv kicked most the original VA cast of Hazbin Hotel were due to them associating with Ashley. - Allegedly didn’t like that Ashley was leaving to work on her own indie pilot (Far-Fetched)

Bullying KediKatzen for having a similar art style, accusing Kedi of stalking her and her family, cyberbullying Kedi

SpindleHorse Related (VivziePop’s Animation Studio)

Rushed, Disorganized, Unprofessional Productions

Favoritism by Viv

“Cliquey” Behavior from Executives

Tight Deadlines

Underpaying

Working on other projects / working multiple jobs was generally frowned upon and discouraged.

In at least two instances Viv actually went out of her way to try and keep people from being hired elsewhere. - In one she told Ashley that Erin was "mentally unstable" - In another she told Nico Colaleo (Ollie & Scoops) not to hire “her artists” aka people working on her project(s).

VivziePop Criticisms Specific to Her Writing

Being Known to Skip Development to “Get to the Good Stuff”

Revealing / Confirming Story and World Lore via Liking Tweets, Making Tweets, or Behind a Patreon Paywall, instead of writing them into the series itself

Adding New Ideas Just Because She Likes Them, with Little Regard for how they Affect the Story

Rushing Characters’ Development and/or Retconning Characters to fit New Plots / Ideas

Apparent Lack of Research, Or At Least Poor Execution, of Her Ideas, Resulting in “Wasted Potential”

Concern over Mis-Management of “Morally Gray” and “Abusive” Character / Relationship Dynamics

Concern over apparent increasing themes of Inc*st in Helluva Boss

VivziePop Criticisms Specific to Her Art / Character Design

Over-Detailed Character Designs

Confusing Character Designs

Character Designs with Too Many Colors

Art style / designs that are “not animation friendly” --As well as her personal quality of art deteriorating over time

Animation is jittery, moving too much, or moving too fast

What Happened with Lackadaisy

VivziePop allegedly wanted to be on the Lackadaisy production in the past, but didn’t get hired

VivziePop has called Lackadaisy Creator Tracy “annoying” for “being active” in an animation channel on Discord

VivziePop tweeted a screenshot of a $5,000 Pledge to Lackadaisy’s backer-kit [which would’ve given Spindlehorse an Associate Producer’s credit on the future Lackadaisy productions]

Lackadaisy Crew Member ZeBirdBrain passive-aggresively replied that “since Medrano couldn’t be bothered to share the donation link, here it is!” And that money amount didn’t matter, every little bit counts.

It was revealed by SH Animator Mel in reply to ZeBirdBrain that the donation came from multiple team-members at SH (VivziePop did not mention this in her donation tweet.)

ZeBirdBrain deleted her original tweet.

ZeBirdBrain was harassed by VivziePop fans to be fired

Fans found tweets in ZeBirdBrain’s likes that appeared to be transphobic

One of ZeBirdBrain’s friends, a trans man, spoke up in defense of Ze, that Ze had known them since before their transition in 2013 and had been nothing but supportive.

Lackadaisy Co-Creator Fable, a trans masc, chimed in that they were made aware of the tweets, they looked into the matter, and were satisfied with the explanations they were given and hoped that would be enough for everyone.

[Fighting continued between fans and Lackadaisy crew members but the general consensus from the Lackadaisy crew seemed to be that they knew Ze to be a supportive ally, the liked tweets were a debated subject even in trans circles w/trans folk on both sides of the argument, Ze uses/used her likes as bookmarks rather than using the bookmark feature, and the reason Ze wasn’t saying all this herself was out of fear the rabid fandom wouldn’t take her word for it and would instead slander her further.]

Later, Lackadaisy’s Backer-Kit campaign ended, at which point Backer-Kit begins processing all the payments.

VivziePop posts a screenshot that “Spindlehorse’s” donation was denied.

Tracy replied to Viv’s tweet professionally, saying they had explained to SH the reason for the denial in private.

Viv’s fanbase became increasingly volatile towards this, claiming Tracy was “unprofessional” and “just should’ve accepted the money” and everyone should “boycott Lackadaisy”

Tracy, on one of her servers, not only elaborated more on the Ze incident (repeating much of what had already been said), but also revealed they had actually reached out to Spindlehorse in private, well before the campaign ended, and requested that they withdraw their donation. Spindlehorse refused.

i think that's about it--and obv where screenshots are available they will be linked in the full post i eventually make.

This looks amazing to me, and also you're doing god's work; something like this was insanely needed.

[heyclickadee]

Fandom salt under the cut. Not really fandom salt. Maybe fandom paprika or fandom ground cloves:

I sometimes feel like the idea that death has no meaning in Star Wars has more to do with backlash to Zombie Palpatine in TRoS and fandom endlessly repeating the idea that no one dies than death actually being uncommon in Star Wars.

Because, yes, there have been some badly handled fake-out deaths and untimely resurrections in Star Wars. But there have been some very well handled fake-out deaths and resurrections, too, and the majority of characters who die do actually stay dead. The ones who don’t tend to fall into one of two categories: either they were originally supposed to die, but then later on someone realized that was a mistake because they just showed up and there’s more story to tell with them, no point wasting a sick ass character design (eg. Maul, Boba, potentially Fennec Shand); or we never actually saw them die on screen to begin with (eg. Ahsoka two times over).

(And then there’s the Palpatine thing which is its own category of one; I enjoy Zombie Palps, to tell you the truth, but that doesn’t mean I think it was a good choice.)

Does that mean they were all well done? Oh, goodness no. But it’s really something that has to be considered on a case-by-case basis. Do I think it was the right choice to bring Echo back? Absolutely. Would I argue the same thing for Fives if he were to come back? No, I probably wouldn’t.

And yes, main characters die a lot less often than side characters, true, but that’s because they’re main characters. They’re the vehicles through which the story is being told so, yes, they’re going to have a bit more plot armor than background characters. Unless it’s Game of Thrones, or something like it where you spend hundreds of pages getting to know a character only to have them die horribly to make a point about the world they live in, when you kill a main character, you really have to kill them. Not everything is or should be Game of Thrones. Otherwise a big chunk of the audience will always be wondering when that character is coming back.

Fake-out deaths can be misused and poorly done. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad trope by itself. A well executed fake-out can be a powerful tool. Theres a lot a writer or a team can do with it. And it doesn’t mean there aren’t consequences; it just means the consequences are different.

[its-no-biggie]

okay i just finished rewatching fma brotherhood and can we please talk about how fuckin 15 ed is. like lots of anime protagonists are 15 but ed is *so* 15.

like- he needs to disguise the car so he makes it into a 15 year olds idea of a really cool car, and its so cringe the adults force him to change it. he makes ling a sword and puts a little skull on the handle (for literally no reason except that he presumably thought it would be cool, even though they were in the middle of getting their asses kicked by envy) and then gets defensive when ling calls it lame. he gets riled up unbelievably easily over NOTHING. his fighting style is scrappy- hes experienced but not disciplined, and he'll use whatevers on hand to get the job done. he'll mess around in the middle of a fight, use unnecessarily flashy moves/weapons, and hes just generally a nuisance in combat. he gets really flustered when people insinuate that winry is his girlfriend, and then when he DOES confess to her 2 years later he uses a fucking alchemy metaphor because hes a NERD.

im saying all of this with affection by the way- hes a cringe 15 year old because 15 year olds are cringe! i feel like most of the time these high school age protagonists are basically just adult characters with more naive ideals, or theyre a bit more emotional, or they have "childish" interests. ESPECIALLY with these high stakes action-adventure stories, where the fate of the world is in their hands. but a kid can have the weight of the world on their shoulders and still handle their emotions poorly, act recklessly, goof off at inappropriate times, and generally think and act in a way that adults wouldnt. and still be mature and competent characters! i mean, ed is a GREAT protagonist. he has a full understanding of the stakes and he knows how and when to get serious. but he also does shit like breaking into a secret government laboratory, alone, in the middle of the night, with no plan, and nearly gets himself killed in the process. because hes a reckless kid! and if he HADNT done that, they never would have found out the enemys plan in time!

and its just so perfectly executed- instead of childish traits being sprinkled on top of adult problem solving and emotional regulation, him being 15 informs how he acts all the time! sometimes this is a good thing because he solves problems in a unique way, and sometimes it causes even MORE problems. its a fundamental aspect of his character that contributes to both his strong and weak points.

and my absolute favourite part is that hes still treated like a person worthy of his title and reputation- not only by the adult characters, but by the narrative itself. but he isnt treated like an adult either! the adults around him dont talk down to him, but they also dont have adult expectations of him. theres a whole bit about how the adults shouldnt stand by while the children are on the battlefield- insinuating that while the children are worthy of standing on the battlefield alongside them, they also feel some responsibility to lead them since theyre the adults. which is super reasonable! its probably the best take on adult mentor figures for child main characters ive ever seen.

and yeah theres an argument to be made that it was pretty fucked up of mustang to recruit ed to the military at 12 years old. but he was super upfront with him about what it would entail and didnt force him into it. so watching it as an adult, yeah, its fucked up. but the target audience is kids and thats how kids want to be treated! yeah its a lot of responsibility, but ed knew that going in AND he has a huge support network of trustworthy adults who are looking out for him. hes fine. and hes DEFINITELY better off than most high school age protagonists, who are just sort of thrust into high stakes, life-threatening situations with little guidance. the dynamic is less "you are The Chosen One who will singlehandedly save the world" and more "i mean you certainly have the skills and we really appreciate you working with us but what the fuck is a child doing in the military. who authorized this?? youre going to get yourself killed PLEASE be more careful!" and like. if youre gonna have a show about a 15 year old saving the world, then thats definitely the way to do it.

and what really seals the deal is how pissed ed gets when people treat him like a kid. thats the most 15 year old thing ever! he FEELS like hes being talked down to and disrespected just because hes not given the same expectations and responsibilities as the adults. watching it as a 20 year old im super impressed by the way the adults treat ed, but i can also understand why ed gets so frustrated. its the nature of being a teenager and thinking you can handle more than you can. which really just solidifies how fuckin 15 he is

btw im not saying ed is the only well written teenager in the show. hes just the clearest example- hes so LOUD about who he is and it makes it really easy to talk about his character traits. also hes like my favourite character ever and i just have to talk about him. so like al and the rest are also really convincing kids, and a lot of this stuff kind of applies to all of them! im just talking about ed because i want to lmfao

[kentuckyfriedmegumi]

i broke down someone’s complaints about the jjk series, calling it “disney kaisen,” and this is what i said

the reactions tell me i cooked

fuck it, i'll do it anyway

sukuna lost to the power of friendship

this is a gross underestimation of the fight and the points of his and yuuji's characters. sukuna lost because he felt that all you needed was to be powerful and selfish. which is in part true in how to thrive in the jujutsu world, but we see throughout the series that the point is to move away from that toxic cycle and there are other, better ways than just having the strongest powers and being the strongest character. the story isn't about strength, it's about love. so we see how that love and support (and also tactic and cunningness) prevails over sukuna's ideas that he doesn't need anything or anyone but himself and his raw power.

a main character that was pressumed dead and entered the fighr 5 chapters before its ending was used as a plot device (mind you same character couldn't beat the blond haired twink without assistance and lost to the oldest trick in the book by mahito)

she was presumed dead, but her death was never explicitly confirmed or denied. gege set that up for a reason. was it a plot device? sure, gege treats a lot of the female characters that way (see: hana), but that doesn't mean that it wasn't good or didn't make sense for the story. in fact, the set up was there, gege just fumbled in executing it correctly. arata's technique in halting her injuries from worsening was a plant, gege just forgot to keep it relevant. but that doesn't mean that her return was a cop out, it was just handled poorly.

as for nobara's strength as a chracter, once again, this series is not all about power and also her strength is not relevant to her return.

in the final chapters, characters that were pressumed dead apperantly lived even though they had fakeout deaths

i have some of my own reservations about this stuff and i do think that gege is really fumbling with these last chapters, but even then we still have had MAJOR character deaths, as well as serious injuries, and scars that the cast are suffering from. we just don't get to see the extent of them bc gege has decided to NOT focus on his characters or the post-battle aftermath so of course it doesn't read well. but still, they were just presumed dead, gege is just struggling with the execution of it all

and in our final chapters we get lored bombed with rushed hasty attempts of world building

yeah i actually agree with this one. no notes, i did not like this last chapter.

[newx-menfan]

NYX #7 Review

*Spoilers!*

The issue starts with Synch returning to NY….

Synch arrives at the warehouse the NYX’s are currently inhabiting (told you guys- the pages in the preview were going to be the first few pages of this book!) and is apparently PISSED that Prodigy has set up basically a mutant center (feels like a HUGE overreaction…but whatevs…)

Synch is bugging because David’s powers essentially don’t have weaknesses like Synch’s does (Synch retains memories of the people he “synced” with) and feels that David isn’t considering how he’s endangering everyone. (If Empath really ISN’T brainwashing them…. I’m going to be a bit pissed because frankly this plot point is stupid and came literally out of nowhere, with zero buildup!) 

Synch basically has the same feelings Scott did about freeing Xavier in “Raid on Graymalkin”- that optimists like Xavier and David are slanting it so only one kind of mutant revolution can come out of “mutants vs humans” dilemma.

Meanwhile Bilal has been radicalized (who saw THAT coming! 😜), has taken? stolen? a glider, and attacks Ms Marvel; not realizing that it’s his cousin. (Feel like Goblin or someone needs to get those things copyrighted…are gliders like “ghost guns” in the Marvel-verse??? 🤪)

The writers DECIDE this plot is the better one to focus on…because this is basically more or less, now a “stealth Ms. Marvel solo”…

While Ms Marvel is fighting her cousin, Synch accuses David of being an egotist (true!) and they beat the shit out of each other. (Ironically “Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell” came on my Spotify while reading this very moment 🤭)

AGAIN, the Hellion criticism comes up- Synch is undoubtedly one of THE MOST powerful mutants- I get there’s not a lot to “synch” to, but it makes zero sense for him to lose this easily to Prodigy.

Where I could UNDERSTAND the argument that Hellion’s ego compromised him… Synch isn’t Julian and doesn’t have his inflated levels of pride.

Dante cheers Prodigy on while he beats the shit out of Synch and Synch FINALLY syncs to Prodigy’s powers, while talking about his death…. (All of Laura’s ex’s have major trauma, I guess…)

Ms Marvel captures Bilal and he goes on this “purity” rant and that he will die for his cause (reeeaallllyyyy stretching the Islamic extremist stereotypes there, Marvel!😬)

Apparently Bilal was scanning Kamala to gather information for the truthseekers, but the data collected was incomplete.

Prodigy….somehow convinces Synch to see his way and stay…? (Really? That’s the climax?)

The issue ends with Kamala crying about her cousin (who never even APPEARED in previous Ms. Marvel issues or was mentioned 🙄)

Review:

This issue…wasn’t BAD. The problem WITH this book consistently IS that it has great ideas and great MOMENTS…but the overall EXECUTION is disappointing.

David and Everett BEING on opposite sides/viewpoints makes sense. Everett grew up in St. Louis, on the poorer economic scale- where David grew up in a middle class home in Chicago. Despite both being mutants and black- they have VERY different lived experiences, along with the similarity of experiencing trauma and death while with the X-Men.

Can I just say, that I really HATE how this era has written Synch 😒- no one can get his character right. Everett ISN’T an asshole. He literally WANTED to help impoverished communities in Gen X and was the “nice guy” of his team. This is just character assassination. 🙄

It’s not that I couldn’t believe Prodigy and Synch would have different ideologies- but this plot point feels so ham fisted and under developed.

It’s sad because I think this COULD have been an interesting examination into how Hellion and Prodigy, returning back to their fight in issue #4, are more similar than they will admit- both live and die by their ego and sense of morality.

The Bilal stuff is just pointless and poorly handled- I really DON’T understand why they dropped the quiet council/Hellion for…angry, extremist cousin? Who will ultimately be totally forgotten in the Ms Marvel books after NYX is cut? (Sorry but I don’t believe NYX will miss the chopping block at this point)

The ending was lackluster- there’s nothing in David’s speech that would convince Everett to GO WITH Prodigy’s way of advocacy… but a more believable ending would have required taking their time with the story and NOT doing the dumb Bilal plot point (same problem issue #4 had 🙄)

Again- I think the worst part about NYX is HOW MUCH I want to like it. It 100% had potential! But the final product is just always pretty unsatisfactory and surface level writing.

It’s not “X-Force” levels of snoozefest or even “X-Factor” levels of cringe… the SAD thing with NYX IS that it does HAVE its high points…only it’s followed by some really mediocre moments and endings.

What I will never truly understand is- WHY DOES Marvel CONSTANTLY DO THIS- they feature the NXM to help prop up whatever “character of the week” they’re promoting at the moment… and fans always feel unhappy because it’s NOT what they want….

Why not JUST do a straight NXM book, at this point??

They’re done this with Kid Omega…Eyeboy…Glob…Ms Marvel…X23…Baby Cable…ect

And NONE of it (except maybe Laura!) has ever been successful.

Just GIVE us a FUCKING team NXM book already!!

Theories:

I KNOW that I am going to HATE issue #8 guys…

The fact that it’s an event tie-in, guarantees that I am going to be 100% disappointed. (You are all going to have to hear my rant about why I hate comic book events! 😝)

Bilal is OBVIOUSLY going to try and murder Krakellion and somehow Kamala will hog the spotlight, while Laura is basically wallpaper 😒

Oh have the tables turned, I guess…

I guess on the bright side, considering how this issue went…they’ll at least be a couple diamonds in a pile of otherwise coal storytelling…😕

We will get one panel of Laura and Hellion, and the rest of the book will be Bilal drama 😜

[bigassheart]

Let's talk TUA Season 4. (and obviously, spoilers ahead)

I actually didn't hate the season as much as other fans. Yeah, it definitely could have been better, but it also had a lot of very enjoyable parts to it. Maybe I would feel differently if I had watched all 4 seasons closer together. The length of time the show was spread out over did make me feel slightly less invested in the characters, so I think I wasn't as upset as others by the not so happy ending. All-in-all, I didn't think the season was bad. It was just incredibly mediocre, which is admittedly disappointing for a show that started as strongly as TUA did.

So let's talk about it.

I'm going to start with the good.

I liked that we dove into the mystery of Ben's death in the final season. That was the inciting incident that broke most of the family apart in the beginning (save for five, who was of course already gone) and I like that we circled back around to it in the end.

The baby shark bit killed me every time they used it. Peak Umbrella Academy. Just solid.

I liked the opening premise for the season being that everyone was trying to adapt to a normal life and doing so very poorly.

Reggie's wife being the one behind the destruction of the new universe was a good twist. The fact that she was doing it as atonement for their actions on their home world felt earned and I like that Reggie actually accepted not just her death, but his own in the end.

Now, let's move onto the stuff that was kind of a mixed bag. These are things that actually could have been really good, but I don't think the execution was there.

The expanded powers was something I liked in theory, but I think the way they handled it was a bit confusing. This is one of the places I think the show would have benefited from a full 10 episode season. The new powers come in and they just... aren't explained at all. And you can kind of piece it together on your own that this is because of either consuming more of the marigold or getting their powers back in a different way, but the characters don't really react to this in any way other than initial confusion, followed by very quickly just understanding how to use their new powers. That story needed more time to cook.

In every season, Klaus goes off on his own for a little side-story, and it's one of my favorite parts of every season. BUT, the reason those stories work is because we get good character growth for Klaus and because he gets some information that helps further the plot. This side-story added nothing to the plot, which was really noticeable in such a short season. They did give him a little character growth, but it felt kind of shallow and forced. I think bringing Dave back in this moment (especially after Klaus got his dog tags back in this universe), learning a new power, or talking to god again, or even just being kidnapped by someone more relevant to the plot, would have justified this story and made it so much better than what we got.

I actually don't hate the idea of killing off all the main characters at the end of the story. I also think the noble sacrifice plot works really well for these characters and for this universe. What I didn't like was the universe re-set to before they existed. It just left me wondering what the point of the show was. We've been following around this family and by the end of the show, they don't exist and they never existed and no one knows about them. The point of their story was for the story not to exist. It's just unsatisfying. Even if they were the threat to the universe (which actually is consistent with every moment of the show since season 1) and destined to destroy the universe every single time they tried to save it, and even if they had to die or remove themselves from the universe in some other way, I think you can accomplish that in ways other than making them never exist that actually feel more meaningful.

And for the bad...

Elephant in the room - Five and Lila. The romance was just completely unnecessary. Added nothing to the plot. Didn't feel believable for those characters. Was not fun to watch because we spent the whole episode thinking about how shitty it was to do that to Diego. And also just couldn't get over the ick factor of seeing someone in their mid-30's kissing an 18 year old. It just felt like drama that was added for the sake of drama, but was never fully resolved and didn't need to be there in order to have Five and Lila's subway adventure be an impactful mini-plot. There were so many other interesting things they could have explored in that side-adventure, and instead they went with the most cliche plot devise possible and it was just not good.

I don't think they ever figured out what to do with Luther after season 2. He just became this silly guy who's always around, but doesn't seem to have much of a purpose. Occasionally they find ways to make him feel a little like season 1 Luther again, but I feel like his character growth just completely stopped 2 seasons ago, and it's a real shame. Don't get me wrong. I didn't love season 1 Luther, but it felt like there was at least a reason for him to be there. Luther got lost a bit in season 3, but I feel like they really could have brought back his purpose and his drive in the final season if they had given him just a little bit more attention.

As I mentioned earlier, I love the idea of the final season revolving around Ben's death. That being said, Jennifer just didn't work for me. I didn't understand why Ben specifically was drawn to Jennifer. It seems like any of the kids could have been drawn to her, but it was just Ben and no one else. Unless I completely missed it, there is absolutely no explanation for this. What's worse is that they could have actually fixed my mixed bag complaint #3 by fixing this issue. If the multiple timelines were created because of Ben's initial contact with Jennifer when they were kids, it explains why it's now just Ben who's drawn to her. It also explains why Sparrow Ben, who has never met Jennifer, is having visions of her and why he can't seem to stay away. (but also, why doesn't he recognize her when he was having these visions and drawing her constantly last season?) This also allows us to have an end point for the season re-set that leaves the family intact and allows them to succeed in their goal of saving the family. What if they did their re-set and everyone except Five is affected because of his wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey stuff, but now the season ends with him showing up and bringing the grown family back together to explain this wild timeline none of them now remember. I know that's still not an ending that would make everybody happy, but it would at least feel more meaningful than the one we got.

So those are my season 4 thoughts. I was so happy we were getting a final season and I really wished we could have ended it on a better note, but I'll still be happy for what we did get from Umbrella Academy - Some memorable characters, a family that loved each other despite all the chaos, a lot of laughs, a lot of great action, and excellent music.

It's been fun experiencing all of this with the fandom and I'm excited to see all the inevitable fanfics, trying to give season 4 a better go of it.

[the-owl-tree]

What about My Pride? The uh YouTube series, I think the writer was problematic somehow but that might be a thing to mention and also I’d like to see your thoughts

It's on the list! My shorter, more concise thoughts are that while I appreciate it as very much a labor of love with some talented artists and voice actors on the team, the actual story and writing is disappointing, tone deaf, and downright infuriating at times.

I guess rattling off my issues (spoilers included):

I found the central handling of disability and Nothing's character to be poorly thought out. Needing multiple abled bodied characters to get her moving, it feels like there was little research done in trying to depict a character like her.

I hate that her name stays as "Nothing" and that an abled bodied lion lectures her about accepting it. Terribly thought out scene. I'm a she should've changed her name to Everything truther.

The central gay lion romance that the series is based off is pretty poorly written with very few sprinkles of endearing and fun moments between them unfortunately. Hover is...mean? She's a terrible partner and I was genuinely upset that her not sticking up for her girlfriend all because she missed idk a lion recital (something Hover?? canonically should not give a shit about???) was scummy. it would be one thing if Hover was meant to be in the wrong...but she's not depicted as that?

The two spend so much time apart, you start to get kind of annoyed at how much gay lions were part of the marketing and then the gay lions! weren't there!!

Didn't care for it!!

I actually liked the world and premise. I enjoy unfair and cruel societies, I like the idea of someone working to change the system (though I very rarely see the execution of that I like, very rarely will stories depict the actual necessary actions for confronting a society like this: tearing it down entirely and building something better).

I hate Feather. Them pulling their punch and not killing him was lame.

Nothing's brother being the twist villain should have been set up better, it doesn't hit the same way it could have had the series planted the seeds earlier on. We have no reason to understand why he would act this way, he was doing just fine better? Why not set up tensions when we meet the group of young male lions?

I don't like that the only real importance Nothing holds isn't because of something about her in the present, but the importance of her able bodied past life. Her ending with her wanting to die is...bleak because I don't believe she has recognized her own worth.

Poor handling of abuse. I disagree with the notion that trying to give depth to abusers is in itself apologia, but the show is trying to like....idk how to say this properly but it wants to "both sides" Nothing's mother's treatment of her, ya know? I found it really icky.

Uh I think I could say more but you'd have to give me a specific topic to bite onto or I'll keep meandering lol but I didn't care for the show but I do feel for fans of the show who are stuck on a cliffhanger. I hope the creator releases the rest of the story plan at the very least.

[lilbugprincess]

I've been on a YA Horror kick lately, reading what I can, and I'm STILL pissy about the book I finished yesterday. It's got like, close to 4 stars on Goodreads and I DON'T KNOW WHY! The horror is non-existent for the first half of the book, it doesn't hint at the horror to COME, the multiple perspectives add nothing to the story, the characters feel annoying and one dimensional, the location IN THE TITLE OF THE BOOK isn't ACTUALLY the place where scary things happen??? They GO TO A DIFFERENT, SCARIER PLACE! The fictional horror movies that form a major part of the story are half-baked and REEK of "I came up with a bunch of fictional horror B-movies in detail and I have to mention all of them!" And the one movie that DOES matter is a fucking. Child's Play type ripoff with what sounds like, for all intents and purposes, an Elf on the Shelf.

When the horror does happen, there's no dread because more than half the cast loves horror and thinks this is part of it! When the killing starts each death plays out so... Stupidly? The spooky scary setting doesn't play into it at ALL and every character more or less goes "wow this is scary. Oh fuck, I'm legitimately scared! Something feels wrong! I'm gonna --" and then they die! Presumably! The scenes cut in such a way that they COULD be alive but I don't particularly care either way? And they're supposed to have the chance to escape, but there's no clear sense of how they could??

But listen, I can handle a mediocre story. I can put up with annoying characters and boring plots, because I expected... That at the END... I would get an ANSWER.

There are no answers. Who was the killer? Why did they kill these kids? Were they targeted or was it random? Was this supernatural or real life humans? Are the victims alive or dead? Why did one teen run away? Was any of this legitimate or was it always just for murder?

I just need SOMETHING. I need... "The police found drugs in the food we ate", that's something! "There were blood stains from where I stabbed that guy but DNA testing didn't turn up anything" that's something too! Or alternatively, "I swore I stabbed that guy but there was no blood"! Or "They found the chauffeurs but they said they were just hired and had no idea about this!" But there's no resolution, no answers that bring more questions, nothing.

Apparently, it's the first book in a duology and apparently the second book also does not say who the killer was. I feel straight up insulted, particularly after reading a bunch of other horror that ranged from genuinely terrifying and dread-inducing to pretty good with some okay scares! And then to end on something so disappointing? Ugh.

I should name names, so this was "Welcome to the Dark House" and if it's your favorite... You can do better. Sorry. This just... Isn't a well written book and while it has all the trappings of horror, it executes its ideas so poorly that it feels hollow.

Our main guy's worst nightmare is getting bitten by eels. He gets bitten by eels. He dies (maybe) (because he can't run properly) (because of the eel bites). Come the fuck on.

[ironwoodprotectionsquad]

Okay I 'm that one anon who prefaced that I wasn't attacking and I mention that because I didn't know how to re-identify myself

Anyway I agree without you on how poorly they handled Ironwood's downfall but what else you said continues to baffle me as a writer and as one whose trying to grow and trying to incorporate more characters how would you suggest going about topics of emotionally "throwing away ones humanity" if said character has prosthetics?

Like...and understand I'm trying to figure out how to word this. If you were to take...let's keep rolling with James. As he was before the absolutely asinine commentary on what him sacrificing his arm meant. If his prosthetics are just that and not meant to symbolize anything. Can you talk about him or any character or original creation under the idea of what they could be doing to themselves emotionally or mentally?

I'm really trying to find where to go cause it just seems that with disabled characters writing certain things for them is heavily limited as to what can be done because certain attempts at things could be labeled as ableism when that wasn't the intention either in an a stumble at the execution of an idea or because the audience (and I'm not saying this is Rooster Teeth cause holy shit is it not them) took something about what was being done and applied it to an aspect of the character that the creator wasn't even looking at.

On that note what they did in general with Penny and whatnot was odd but what would you do about a character that if they had the choice didn't want a disability? This is a more of an out of somewhere questions cause typing this I always think of the Spirit Fairer discourse where there was apparently a character who had a wheelchair and I guess at someone point didn't have it anymore and was happy about that. But people got so mad that the developers rewrote the story so the character remaind wheelchaired bound, but that just makes me ask is it wrong for a character to want to be able to not have a wheelchair? Like is it wrong to write a story where a character wants to be able to walk? Like how would you go about having a character having a disability and not wanting their disability anymore?

Honestly anon as I said before I just….wouldn’t. To put it another way, what does having someone throw away their humanity add to the story? Why do you feel like you need it? And why does it need to be the disabled person? All people have humanity because they’re human. Trying to have someone throw away their humanity is…dangerous territory because more often then not those stories tend to rely heavily on either disabilities or mental illness to “justify” that and for obvious reasons that is extremely ableist. And even without using either of those things it still can be interpreted by audiences to be the disability or mental illness’s fault and what made them lose their humanity. It’s…far too tricky a subject for me to think ever is worth it to be in a story.

If you’re asking how to make a disabled character evil that’s entirely different because evil people can still have their humanity because they’re human. They just happen to be an evil person who does bad things. Making Ironwood evil isn’t inherently a bad thing, but CR/WBY saying that losing his arm is a symbol of his lost humanity is. Then repeatedly having the villains be disabled is a problem. It’s important to ask “why does the disabled character have to be evil” when making them a villain because so often disabilities are used a short hand for villainous traits which is ableist and harmful and tells disabled audiences that their disabilities are seen as villainous.

It is generally the job of the author to really think about these things and the tropes that they are relying on for their story. As a society so many people view more metal = less human which just isn’t true and is actively harmful towards disabled people. Do you remember at all the Mars Rover Opportunity? How emotional people got when her last words came out “My battery is low and it's getting dark”. My friend from my discord group put it perfectly: Oppy is all metal but she’s human. She wasn’t born, she was created but she was alive. We loved her to humanity. People mourned when she passed. NASA played a love song for her. Her being metal didn’t matter, just as James being half metal shouldn’t matter, just as anyone having prosthetics shouldn’t matter. They are still humans with humanity, and I just don’t see any reason to write a story about someone willingly throwing away their humanity.

So Ironwood "wanting" to throw away his humanity and becoming more monstrous is ableist. Doing this to any disabled character is ableist because their disability will inherently be used as a shorthand for said monstrousness either by the author or audience.

Here are a few good videos that discuss the topic further and really discuss the issues with disabled villains:

Some great points the video discusses:

A lot of villains motivation is being "cured" of their disability which stems from this idea that disabled people are miserable and hate being disabled and can only be whole and happy if they are cured. Yes some people would like to have a curse for their disabilities, not everyone wants that and having most villains want that is a problem as it stems from the idea that being disabled is inherently tied to misery and suffering which just isn't true.

It also makes the point about how oftentimes disabilities are used as a visual shorthand for inhumanity in their villains and them merely being disabled and looking "other" is a clue to the audience that said person is evil and even inhuman in far too many cases. We repeatedly see this in RW/BY with Tyrians tail, Cinders Grimm arm, Salem, and James's new prosthetic. All are framed as evil and monstrous to show us how evil they are.

At the end of the day, I think it is crucial to talk to someone who has the disability you want to represent in your work about how you are portraying them. I cannot and do not speak for all disabled people in this discussion and can only really discuss my feelings/the feelings of those I have talked with. When writing disabled characters it is critical to include people with those disabilities in the discussion of how the characters story should go.

[mysticstarlightduck]

Character Voice Tag!

Thanks for the tag @willtheweaver (here)!!! I'll go with the main cast from Of Starlight and Beasts for this one (:

MY LINE WAS: Yeah, I deserved that.

YOUR LINE IS: I don't know what I was expecting but I'm disappointed in your decision either way - because what the heck was that?

Corah - "Well, one thing's for sure: that wasn't undeserved - I really should've seen it coming, that's on me."

Arammys - "Oh Gods, that went so wrong - I deserve what happened, that was a terrible idea, and I take full responsibility for it but still... that was such a bad plan, oh Gods."

Eidan - "I should've known that this would be the outcome but I was too hasty to notice. I deserve to face the consequences for my actions."

Nimwen - "Sorry, sorry, sorry! Oh, goodness, oh Gods that went so wrong so fast. If someone is to blame for what happened that person is me, but I still should've been more careful. I'm so sorry!"

Tomasa - "Yep, no use running from the inevitable. Time to face the outcome of my poorly planned decisions. Lay it all out for me, and don't be shy. I'm a tough cookie."

Masen - "Fuck. Yeah, I'm not sticking around to find out what that's gonna cause, sorry not sorry. So, no hard feelings whatsoever guys, but I've gotta bounce. See y'all around? (winks)"

Kyran - "Oh. That... isn't ideal. Okay. Okay, okay, I can handle this, I should've seen this coming after all. I hope I can handle this. So...here's what we're going to do: we're getting the fuck out of here, right now. Because I don't deserve whatever they've got in store for me. Does anyone have explosive powder? I think can improvise a plan."

Maryon - "That was well deserved, I will admit. I made a mistake and it caught to up to me. I guess it is only fair I face whatever comes next - running will only drag things out. It's best to just get it over with., like ripping out an old bandage"

Florynce - "(In a drawn out, wispy voice) Somethings gone wrong. (squeaks) Somethings not as it should be and it's not right and it's my fault. Should I stay and face my fate? Is it what would be proper? (gives a little vampiric squeak, clearly starting to panic) I don't know what to do anymore"

Rin - "Hells no I'm not facing the consequences of that. (pats the person next to him in the back) Sorry pal, this was nice while it lasted, but you know what they say - survival of the fittest, and all that. Oh and be a darling: do tell the guards I said hi, I'm sure you'll have lots to talk about if you still have your head after this. Don't be a stranger! (flies away)"

Elias - "Oh, sink me! (groans, exasperated) I told you this was a bad idea, but who the fuck listens to me in this fucking shithole, eh?! Where the hells is my cutlass?! I'm going to fix this mess - one you should've fixed yourselves but never fucking mind that - properly this time. That's what I get for listening to you bufoons. I deserve this one. Lesson damn well learned."

Leora - "This was the worst idea I've ever had and the execution of this plan made it even more atrocious. I admit my wrongdoing and sincerely apologize. These circumstances are to be expected after what I did - and what terrible leader would I be if I didn't admit my own mistakes. Tell me what I can do to fix this, and consider it done."

Bastien - "My actions were suboptimal and their consequences deplorable. I accept full reponsibility for whatever trouble my actions may have cause and am willing to atone for it fully, whatever your verdict should be it will have been deserved."

Scarlet - "Shit. Okay, yeah. That one is on me - I screwed up big time, I really did. That seriously didn't go the way I thought it would, I don't know why I'm still surprised."

Tagging (gently, no pressure):@littleladymab @cabbojage @lassiesandiego @little-peril-stories @oh-no-another-idea @thepeculiarbird @rickie-the-storyteller @crowandmoonwriting @steh-lar-uh-nuhs @gummybugg @forthesanityofstorytellers @doublegoblin @aalinaaaaaa @starlit-hopes-and-dreams @elshells @illarian-rambling @clairelsonao3 @conkers-thecosy @anyablackwood,and OPEN TAG

[mod-kyoko]

"Shatter Me" kirumi tojo angst fic

info: gn!reader, established relationship, tw: pstd, scars, mentions of execution, around 3,200 words

type: angst with hurt/comfort, oneshot, post-game AU

a/n: this is a completely indulgent kirumi angst I had cooking up, basically this is set after post-game where everything was a simulation and the damage done to the 'characters' is done to them irl title is a reference to this song which I personally think suits Kirumi well but who knows lmfao

⟡♡⟡♡⟡♡⟡♡⟡♡⟡♡⟡♡⟡♡⟡♡⟡♡⟡♡

it was all like a horrible nightmare, a nightmare you weren’t even sure you could ever wake from. all the death, the pain and the misery would never be something you could shake from. every single trial, each passing moment your life was on the line… yet each time someone dies, you just wished you took their place. you survived, at what cost? only to be told that your talent and memories were nothing more than a fabrication to appease an audience? you never really found out if those interview videos were real or not…  you saw yourself, clear as day; “if I were in Danganronpa…I would love to be an Ultimate !3$5&*+...I would kill in a way no one has ever seen!”

did you really say that? was that even you, looking up at the camera with wide, child-like eyes declaring you’d… kill? In some ways, you wished you were the first to go out… so you didn’t have to witness the death of your own lover.

kirumi tojo… the “Ultimate Maid” or so they wanted them to all believe. you instantly connected with her; her calm, composed and almost motherly demeanour sucked you in like a moth to a flame. even from the beginning it seemed like she felt it too, she treated you differently than the others. she kept her ‘devoted’ maid self but she checked on you more often, she always asked if you needed anything unprompted, and poured you more tea when you were finished with a cup. you spent many moments alone with her, she enjoyed your company and laughed at your stupid jokes. the first time you kissed her; it was in the spur of the moment, you weren’t thinking. she was just so beautiful, up close to you and asking you in a soft whisper if you wanted sugar with your tea. yet when your lips connected to hers, she was shocked of course but she didn’t pull herself away from you.

what things you would do just to go back to those days, where the worries of murder and despair weren’t constantly plaguing your mind. nights upon nights you sat in your room, staring up at the ceiling asking yourself why kirumi went to the extremes that she did. It was sickeningly twisted what the motive that was created for her was, the prime minister of japan… it sounded silly now you thought of it outloud, if you knew about the truth behind it all you would definitely have thought that it was some poorly written story by a teenage girl. However, you couldn’t even fathom that thought as you were screaming and crying at kirumi that she was a traitor and betrayed your trust. you regretted those words deeply… as those were the last words you ever said to her before she was executed. you barely watched it and the little moments you did watch were enough to make you heave up. the last memory you thought of kirumi was her lifeless body on the floor, splattered and unrecognisable.

…

you looked up. your eyes just met with pure sterile white walls. after the events of the killing game, the simulation… waking up with wires around your body, you never loved the colour white so much. you were currently sat in the recovery centre, where the various victims and… culprits were recovering from their in-game injuries. it made your skin crawl to think that the simulated deaths acted as if they existed in real life too; it broke your heart to think how everyone else was handling it. However, your mind was entirely focused on one person and one person alone.

how long have you been standing here? staring at the door that led to kirumi’s recovery room? an hour? more than that? it’s not the idea that you didn’t want to see her, you were jumping off the walls in happiness to find out that your partner was alive but not unscathed. you were afraid - afraid of what was on the other side of that door, what condition kirumi would be in. would she be happy to see you?

you swallowed a thick lump in your throat, a shaky hand grasping the doorknob and you already felt the bead of sweat going down your forehead. you knew that you couldn’t just back away from this. bad outcome or not, you were going to see her, you just wanted to see her again.

with a gentle click the door opened and you peered in. there she was, dressed in a patient gown and sat in a wheelchair by the window, her eyes vacant yet staring at the courtyard of the facility. your heart skipped a beat as you held your breath, seeing her alive like this… you had to hold yourself to make sure that you weren’t dreaming and the nightmare would come back all over again.

“kirumi…” you called for her and your voice reverberated off the walls despite the fact you spoke in a whisper. her eyes widened, turning herself as fast as her condition would allow her to. you just wanted to run over to her, hug her tight and swing her around in utter joy. however, stepping closer you really started to see how serious her condition may be. minus the fact she was in a wheelchair it looked like her entire body was wrapped in bandages, at least, based on what you could see outside of the gown. her warm green eyes stared at you like if you were a ghost, hell… to her, you probably were as much as a ghost she is to you she didn’t say anything which worried you, you slowly sat down on a chair that was near the window as well. you looked out the window awkwardly, trying to think on what to even say. you looked back at her to find she was still looking at you.

“uhm… how are you feeling?” that was the only words you could even think of to say, there were a thousand questions running through your mind but you wouldn’t want to overwhelm her. she took a deep breath, it sounded uneven like if she had trouble getting air. finally, she spoke. “I feel pain all over. my head… it hurts.” hearing her voice was a relief even though it had a shake to it. “yeah… I can imagine it does hurt…” your mind flashes to her execution; from the small parts you saw through the cracks in your fingers, she fell head first. the thought made you cringed. “you… understand what’s going on, right?” you asked her. you were told that the others had been given information when they woke up… which was two days ago if you weren’t mistaken.

she gently nods her head in a twitchy sort of motion. come to think of it, her head seemed to wobble slightly even when sitting still. jesus. “all of… that… was fake? a simulation..? our… memories were toyed with…” you saw her bandage-wrapped hands clench which caused you to grit your teeth. you hated this so much.

“y…yeah… we were… fictional characters created for some.. dumb show or… whatever…” you didn’t tell her that there was the possibility that you all signed up for it. you weren’t sure what was true or not. “we are real now, of course… I’m… here.” you reached a hand to gently place it over hers, she flinched and you looked at her with apologetic eyes. “my purpose… was… just an illusion then…” she muttered with her brows wrinkling. “I… I thought I did what was right… for… my people. those people didn’t even exist…”

you grimaced. she meant her ‘fake’ past, right? the people of Japan was what made her murder another, her selfless devotion. “am I a monster?” those very words made your eyes widened and you shook your head vigorously. “no… no, of course not...  if I was in your shoes I would’ve done the same thing.” you said rather seriously and she looked at you, searching for a lie of some kind. she sighed softly. “you do not seem the type to do such a thing at all… you don’t have to try and make me feel better about myself. I see the person I am now.” “but you’re not a monster, kirumi… and I’m not just saying it to make you feel better. you’re not the only one to have motives to kill… the ones after were… much worse than yours…”

you saw the way her eyes darted around in shock, realising that the killings had continued after her death. she looked away and covered her mouth with her hand. she looked like she was going to be sick. “however, I had… betrayed you..”

hearing your own words echo from her lips made a deep guilt sink into your stomach. to think that was the last thing you ever said to her before she met her demise… because you were so damn angry, angry at her and… angry at yourself, angry at the sick twisted minds that constructed  the killing game. 

“I’m sorry.” was all you could say. kirumi looked at you completely shocked. why were you apologising…? she was the one that had killed, betrayed you and threw away everything you created together. despite her feelings, she relaxed into her wheelchair and breathed out, like if she had been holding her breath for some time. “I… I am sorry too…” 

god you wanted to cry right then and there as she said that. she was not innocent at all but something within you just wanted to hold her in your arms and never let go, you never want to lose her ever again. “are you… considering to go through the treatment…?” you asked, hoping to change the topic a bit even if it was still morbid. she nods her head gently. “yes… they said I should partake in small exercises like catching a ball… and… relearning how to walk.” 

you bit your bottom lip at that news. it could be much worse… at least it sounded like she had a chance to get a normal life at some point. “but… until then I will need assistance in basic needs…” she said with disappointment in her voice. it made you ache… simulation or not you know she feels useless right now. “I’ll be there to help you.” you were quite blunt in your words - but you meant it. you would be there for kirumi every step of the way, everything she needed you will provide. she looked at you shocked as she thought you hated her for the acts she did… she nods her head, however. “...thank you, dear.”

…

it had been a full month ever since you reunited with kirumi again, you supported her and helped her through the process of readjusting to this life, like you were. you were there for her exercises and treatment, watching her try to walk again was a heartbreaking but determination increasing experience. she wouldn’t be able to take full steps without assistance for awhile, however for right now she could at least stand from her chair and move to another quickly. it was only just at the start of this month that kirumi was out of the recovery centre and now sharing a ground-floor apartment with you. it certainly made things feel more ‘normal’ and no doubt a lot more comfortable for kirumi as she didn’t need to stare at blinding white walls anymore. you admittedly did everything for your girlfriend as it just became second nature to you at this point; you could see how desperately she wanted to clean or even wipe down a surface to feel like she was doing something. she knows that she was never supposed to be the ‘Ultimate Maid’ yet the yearning to do something, anything was still there. 

as for right now, you were cleaning the bathroom and kirumi sat at the dining table with a book. reading was now one of her popular pastimes, she greatly appreciated that you bought her so many books to read… books that she enjoyed quite a lot. hearing you scrub the tiles in the bathroom made for some interesting background noise, although she found your presence anywhere in the apartment to be relaxing. she would’ve indulged it some more if she didn’t just gain the most head-splitting headache possible that nearly made her drop her book as she gripped her head. no matter what, it didn’t seem like these headaches were ever going to go away. she sighed softly, putting her book on the table as she wheels over to the kitchen counter and opens the medicine cabinet which she could reach for obvious reasons. she grabbed her painkillers and quickly downed them with a swig of water. she closed the cabinet and was about to go back to her book until her eyes spied the set of kitchen knives.

her jaw clenched, looking down at the floor. she just wanted to be like… like herself again, like in the killing game. she was useful in it. everyone needed her, wanted her. she could service everyone and be the perfect girl she wanted to be. she leaned up slightly and grabbed the biggest kitchen knife, wheeling to the fridge and grabbing out a tomato. she just wanted to prove herself… that she could do something. she went back to the dining table, swallowing a lump in her throat as she stared at the red fruit, knife in hand as she positioned it just like how she remembers.

slowly, she attempted to cut slices of tomato as if she was preparing a salad of some kind. the cuts were irregular in size and certainly not perfect at all. kirumi clenched her jaw, trying to focus harder, she had to.try harder. no matter how hard she gripped the knife her hand would shake, becoming increasingly the more frustrating that she couldn’t cut a fucking perfect slice-

she flinched as the knife’s blade grazed her finger, nicking it and making it bleed. she dropped the knife quickly, looking down at her finger as the blood oozed out. she sucked in a loud gasp which you heard clearly. “kirumi? you okay?-” you walked into the dining room and your jaw went slack. “kirumi!” you rushed to her side, looking down at the little injury on her hand then at face. she looked absolutely shellshocked. “what were you doing…?” you asked, eyes darting around at the scene. “I… I just wanted to… show I’m useful…” her voice was no more than a whisper as she brought her finger to her mouth to suck on the cut with her brows furrowed. you frowned, putting your hand on her back and rubbing it slowly. “you don’t have to prove anything, rumi… you’re still recovering and adjusting… please don’t force yourself to do things like this, it needs to be taken slowly…” you massaged the back of her neck with your thumb, feeling her relaxed in your touch she wobbled her head in a nod. It seems she understood you. you hated treating her like she was a vulnerable child… but at this stage that was what she was at the moment. 

“I’ve finished cleaning the bathroom… would you like a shower?” you gently asked her. she didn’t like taking showers or even baths, something about the water made her want to shake all over. she especially disliked getting water on her hands although she couldn’t really tell you why just yet.

she stiffens for a moment, thinking about it for far longer than she needed to. however, she nodded her head and moved herself into the bathroom as you watched with a worried face. you were seriously getting concerned for her… it was like every day was complete pain for her, although that wasn’t far from the truth at all… what you would do just to feel her pain instead.

following kirumi into the bathroom, you closed the door and flashed a friendly smile at your girlfriend. “arms up, please!” she lifted her arms at your request, they were twitching a little but it was fine. you carefully but briskly took off her top, following up with her skirt and then undergarments. “can you get into the seat yourself?” you asked her, gesturing to the little bench inside the shower. she pondered for a few moments but ultimately nodded her head and began to lift herself out of her chair. you looked at her in awe, seeing her gain her strength each day always warmed your heart. you clapped your hands and smiled. “amazing! you’re doing so well, dear... I think you’ll be able to take steps soon!” you giggled softly to keep the air light, rolling up your sleeves as you grab the showerhead and turning it on. “Hmm… you think so? thank you, dear…” kirumi smiled softly. even when she felt useless, or feeling low, you always knew how to make her feel supported. she promised to herself that she would be able to walk properly one day for you, so you could walk along the beach together or even be able to walk into your arms like you used to. you hummed gently as you brought the shower head directly over her, the warm water falling over her severely scarred body. her entire body flinched and she felt like she was getting attacked at the moment. when your fingers combed through her sandy-sage locks to run the water through properly she started to relax into your touch. she was so glad that you were here for her, that you were looking after her and giving everything she needed, even if it embarrassed her or made her feel… incomplete. despite everything she’s done, the pain and misery she felt in her heart knowing that what she worked for wasn’t real - she could forget all of that when you were here for her.

you put the shower to the side and squirted kirumi’s favourite shampoo onto your hands. it was lavender scented and it often helped her fall asleep with the smell of her own hair. you massaged it into her scalp and you could see the moment her entire body relaxed and that she was completely at your mercy. it made you smile so much to see her content and not worrying about everything… you pushed her bang out of the way of her eye and slicked her hair back. her eyes opened to look at yours and the slightest tint of red went over her face. you giggled softly at this, leaning down to press a soft kiss against her forehead. “beautiful…” you whispered to her which caused her to blush more. she? beautiful? how can you say that to her face, when you were right there being perfect? “I love you.” she said it so suddenly that it caught herself off guard however she didn’t back down and stared confidently at you. you smiled, heart melting at such a cute confession. tilting your head to the side, you uttered back. “I love you too…”

perhaps, things will be better.

⟡♡⟡♡⟡♡⟡♡⟡♡⟡♡⟡♡⟡♡⟡♡⟡♡⟡♡

-Mod Kirumi

[dapperinsanity]

Here’s some of my thoughts about the last two episodes of HH season 1. I will start with some more organized criticism and then I’ll share my complaints at the end of this post.

Overall:

These last 2 episodes were frustrating in general. I mean, was there some moments I liked? Yes but only a few. Otherwise the show becomes laughable, not because it’s funny, but rather the execution is bad that it had me laughing at serious moments. My first issue is that the pacing was too fast but it’s been like that the entire show so it was nothing new for me. I get they only had a certain amount of episodes and time but if you want to have a decent show, you should cut out some parts of the side stories instead of trying to shove the side stories into one episode. Since you’d be cutting out the side stories it also gives the artist a chance to continue the show through other types of media whether it be a comic, writing, or video. I know we’d all like to have the full story in 2 seasons but if you rush it, the show in general suffers and people won’t care about the story as much as they would if they had to wait for the artist to continue their project on their own if they can’t get more episodes. Besides, once the show is over you get total control over everything again and don’t have to worry about things you would like to portray in your story being cut out when collaborating with other artists on a show.

Also, side thought: If you’re going to go corporate/work with bigger companies, expect to work with others and except professional criticism. Just because she can’t handle criticism and likes things her way, she should’ve never gone “corporate”. Instead, she decided to use people who genuinely wanted to work on your passion project and were willing to do it for free, only to screw them over and use them to get into shitty companies just so you could meet celebrities and use them instead. Also, the more I learn about the facts behind the pilot and how everyone was basically let go, it’s blatantly obvious that she never intended to keep them in the first place. IMO, I think part of the reason behind firing everyone, was because she wanted to meet celebrities and use their status to get more traction. (Also, celebrities and broadway don’t guarantee automatic success just because you have them on the show)

Again, this is purely speculation and my opinion. I could be wrong so take it with a grain of salt. While spindlehorse was an indie project with people who were so gracious to work for free purely because of their passion, she took away the passion of the original project. Now it’s corporate slop. That’s not to say some workers from the collaborating companies don’t have the passion, sometimes they just do their job and work on things they enjoy more as an artist on the side. She doesn’t care about the hard work that was put both into the pilot and the show.

It’s “funny” to me that spindlehorse use to be an indie company (?) and had grown only for bigger corporate companies to take it over. She didn’t even write most of the pilot and relied more on other people that cared about her own project more than she does. Instead, she rushed through an entire season and will do the same thing in the next one. She’d rather tell (rather than show but sometimes telling works too) the audience everything about her characters and the plot but won’t take the time to full develop everything.

These are her OC’s and her ideas but she doesn’t care about the quality of her work. She rather use other people and quickly write down a poorly written show. All she cares about is that she’s rather have more views, make money off of merch, and appease the fans rather than doing her own thing because she wants to do it for herself. She cares about fame, praise, and popularity and the passion doesn’t shine through her own work. People enjoyed the pilot because of the passion of the crew and IMO, after learning more about the process behind the pilot, it feels like she didn’t do shit at all. She had the ideas and characters and plot points but everyone else managed to execute it in a way where it showed that the workers truly cared about the quality of their work. Again, this is my opinion and my first impression as I continue to learn more about everything. Now that’s out of my system, I’ll turn my focus purely to the show now.

The songs were a miss for me because a majority of them I didn’t care about and I’m a person who loves musicals and music in general. It’s not the music itself but rather the lyrics. Like most of the lyrics are just a character responding or talking to another character but instead of talking, it’s singing. The only songs I enjoyed were “Stayed Gone”, “Respectless”, “You Didn’t Know?” and “Out For Love.” I can handle cheesy songs but man, once I got the main point of the song, I skipped to the end. I wish the songs focused more about internal feelings or something that is meaningful to the character but instead the lyrics are just “meh”. I hope you understand the point I’m trying to make, I just can’t quite find the proper words to describe why I have issues with the songs.

Focusing on only episode 7, we meet Rosie. What did I like? I enjoyed Al and Rosie of course. I expected Charlie to be upset at Vaggie but I thought her talk with Rosie was cute. I could give less of a shit about Vaggie getting her wings back, probably because they spoiled it even though I knew I was correct about Vaggie being an exterminator before it was spoiled.

Here’s what I didn’t like. One major thing that bothered me was when Charlie made the complaint of Al being sadistic even though it was obvious Al was going to do whatever he wanted and had bad intentions. (At first) I understand why Charlie wanted to give Al a chance but it was too obvious that Al had some bad intentions. I’d rather be safe than sorry. Why risk having someone who is a genuine threat and enjoys the suffering of others? Also, Charlie making a deal with Al is still stupid even if he didn’t take her soul. I wish Charlie wasn’t written as naive because it was obvious he cared more about power over his potential “friends”. He even directly said in the pilot (and vaguely in the 1st episode of at some point in the show) that he wanted sinners to fail at redemption. I’ll go into detail about this later as I have a lot thoughts on Al after everything was revealed in these last episodes.

Another thing about episode 7 is the way Al treats Charlie and it feels like they’re going to go down the “Al is a father figure” route. Personally, I don’t see this as a good thing as we hardly see Charlie and Al interacting until this episode. If anything, Charlie and Al are just two friends/business partners. If they do go down that route, Al being a father figure is out of character imo.

As for the final episode, I couldn’t take the battle seriously. I wasn’t worried for anyone and the “comedic” moments didn’t help. I normally don’t mind cheesy writing but man, this was so cheesy and it’s the main reason why I couldn’t take it seriously. Don’t get me wrong, I love Sir Pent. as a character but his death was hilarious. Adam immediately shoots a giant ass laser to vaporize Sir Pent out of existence the minute he sees them. Then suddenly we’re supposed to be in shock and feel sad about his death. I wasn’t and I was more shocked about how comedic it was for me.

Also, Vaggie should have killed Lute. I get the whole point about mercy and all but do you think that’ll stop Lute from exterminating demons and being an active threat? No. The same goes for Adam and Charlie giving him mercy. I’m glad Nifty stabbed him. I could care less about who killed Adam but when Nifty stabbed him, but the attempt at a joke just kind of ruined all the vibes overall.

Then we get a glimpse of Sir Pent being redeemed and showing up in heaven at the end of the episode. Ok, well could the same thing happen during an extermination? Let me go back to the episode where Vaggie was kicked out of heaven for not killing a kid.I don’t know why a kid was in hell in the first place but Vaggie could’ve killed the child and still manage to be redeemed in heaven. (Unless the child is a hell born) Now it’s possible the angel spears just kill them but remember, Sir Pent was killed directly by Adam, an angel himself….with a laser. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was possible for someone to be redeemed even if they were stabbed by an angel spear.

Redemption is confusing. Firstly, the angels were killing them so why would anyone want to be redeemed to be in the same realm as the exterminators? Secondly, why do they have to “die”? Sir Pent sacrificed himself for his friends so is this the only way to get redeemed? From what we got, Sir Pent could’ve easily had been redeemed earlier in the show without needing to die. I know we don’t know how someone gets into heaven but it brings up a lot of questions for me. If the only way to get to heaven is for them to die then what does that mean for the exterminators? Because if it’s purely by dying, that means there might’ve been some demons that showed up in heaven during the extermination.

Also, another thought. In the episode where we meet Emily and Sera, I genuinely thought Sir Pent would’ve the first choice when Charlie wanted to show the angels about the progress of the hotel rehabilitating sinners. Then it was AngelDust, where we haven’t seen him truly improve. And somehow, Angel standing up to Val was somehow the “progress” of him improving?

I feel bad for Angeldust and am confused about his (nonexistent) redemption arc. How was standing up to Val progress in redemption? I understand that Val abusing AngelDust is the main factor of him being a drug addict. Yet no one helped him to find a way to get out of Val’s contract when none of the main characters found out that he was being abused? Or help him in general?

Also, Charlie is the princess of hell and supposedly, by rank, strong than Alastor and maybe just as strong as her Dad. She never uses that power to help Angeldust. But what’s the point of her being a princess and her status if she doesn’t do shit in the show? Remover her status and she’s just a wimpy naive hell born demon girl.

Sir Pent would’ve been a good example. I feel like showing Angel standing up to his abuser makes it feel like the show is lowkey blaming Angel for his situation. Deal or not, what Val is doing is not okay. If the progress was about Angel trying to watch over Nifty instead of letting her do what she wants, then how does that show progress as well? Like anyone would want to protect their friend from Val if they are aware that he is abusing Angel. I’m sure that most demons there would’ve tried to get nifty away because again, it’s Val. Angel knows what it’s like firsthand when dealing with Val and naturally, he’s gonna help Nifty. It’s just something that isn’t related to redemption ya know?

While I’m glad Nifty is safe, she indirectly caused more trouble for Angel just because he stood up for himself and for Nifty. Now Val is pissed and will take it out on Angel for sure. This isn’t about redemption, it’s about Angel suffering abuse so his friends aren’t harmed by him. And if that’s the progress where talking about here, that’s really fucked up to stand by and have Angel take all the punches while no one helps him. To me, progress for AngelDust involves Angel learning boundaries because he has a bad habit of sexual assaulting others (mainly Husk), trying to sober up, and develop some sense of awareness and consideration towards everyone in the hotel. As Vaggie pointed out, Angel did not give a shit about the hotel in the first place nor did he try to attempt to better himself. I understand Angel needed a safe space to live but if you’re going to accept help from Charlie and Vaggie, he should treat them better.

*sighs*

Here’s where the complaints begin. Let’s talk about Al now.

Look I knew he was weak from the start and all but you’re telling me he’s nothing without his mic? Even though he is an overlord? I mean, cmon I know I’m a major fan of Al and all but there’s was something so frustrating about the fact that all it took was one hit and breaking his mic/staff. He was useless.

But hey, I enjoyed watching Adam winning and bruising Al’s ego but the fight did not deliver any excitement when Al was losing. Usually, when it comes to the villain/antagonist being defeated, the audience is hyped up over a stressful battle between the hero and villain and want that satisfaction of the villain being defeated. With Al and Adam, I didn’t get that satisfaction. Also, I know Al is all talk but some of me expected the show to show off how powerful he actually is. Mainly because the public is terrified of him, including Husk who was supposedly an overlord. The other overlords are not scared of Al at all but I would assume when it comes to Husk, it’s a bit difficult to scare him when being threatened. Unless it’s Al, you can guarantee he will be put “in his place”. Now let’s focus back on the battle between him and Adam.

I thought Al would try to continue to fight so that he can maintain his appearance, attempt to control the situation, and try to cover up the fact that he was losing. But no, he just gets thrown into the concrete wall, his torso is slashed, and Adam easily breaks his mic/staff. Then Al runs away. Why would someone as powerful as an overlord run away so quickly? This is why I have issues with the fact that all it takes is breaking Al’s mic/staff he becomes powerless. I know Adam took his shield down but Al managed to create a huge ass shield to protect the hotel. In episode 5, Al turns huge and has black tendrils coming out of his back and eats all the sharks that were after Mimzy.

I assumed that Al’s powers weren’t entirely stuffed into his mic and that it was in his body. Like he was just inherently powerful to a point in the same way Charlie is powerful because she is the princess of hell. Alastor can make deals by shaking his hand with the victim. Alastor can change his appearance and height and has slenderman tendrils. This is the same dude he also made his way up to becoming an overlord.

My initial assumption was that Alastor was powerful, just not as powerful as Charlie or Lucifer. We know that Vaggie is an ex-exterminator but I think he can handle an exterminator personally. Plus it doesn’t help that the exterminators spears kill Angels so the exterminators aren’t that powerful when you take out their spears. We could’ve gotten a longer fight between him and Adam and I wouldn’t mind watching Al basically eat his own words and pride.I believe that Al is powerful, but if it’s Adam he’s against, I believe Adam would win. I’m sure Al could put up a good fight but eventually, Adam would win.

When it comes to Alastor’s deal and assuming that the Eve and Lilith theory is correct, that means there’s a chance that he made a deal with one of the ladies. Who? We don’t know but taking the theory into account, there’s a chance that his powers were given to him but why would they purely be in the mic? Unless, he already had his powers and that he just got stronger because of the deal. It could explain how Al managed to work his way up to becoming overlord.

Then I had another thought. Cause you’re telling me that ANYONE in hell could have stolen his mic (if they’re sneaky enough to fool Al) and break it and he would be just a regular old demon without powers? Or at least, become significantly weaker.

I don’t know. Al is written to be intimidating and then we have the story of him working his way up to overlord, and being feared by most demons. He takes on the status of an overlord and I assume overlord’s are powerful to a point? They focused so much on Al being intimidating, displayed his power, and you’re telling me it takes one hit from Adam to knock him down and destroying his mic causes him to be weak? How is this the same Al?

I was disappointed. My initial reaction can be summed up by this image.

Then we see Al freak out because he realized that he was risking his life to protect his friends when initially he didn’t care that much about them. There’s no subtle hints of him becoming more tolerant of everyone and here is where I’m a little confused. I always knew that Al could be written in 2 specific ways while managing to stay consistent as a character. Either he would become fond of Charlie and everyone else (which I predicted before episode 8 came out but really before the whole show aired.) and that he would at least, tone down the evilness slightly.

Then we have the second route. Al would continue to be his evil self and try to fulfill his motive (whatever that is) without caring about how it might affect other people/demons. The show establishes scenes where we see Al using other’s for his own benefit. Either he could continue manipulating Charlie and others for his own benefit or come to a point of realization that he’s gotten used to Charlie and the others in the hotel.

Speaking of Al becoming fond of his friends, either route the show takes I hope thy can manage to do it well. I don’t want Al turning into another soft boi like other character we’ve seen in HH and HB. I really did come into this show with an open mind when it came to Al but I fear that they may screw up his character as it’s slowly been happening.

Lastly, Al shows up the last second and Charlie, Vaggie, are happy to see him. The rest of them dont like him but they are still shown on screen. I’m thinking to myself, “the only people who would want Al back would be Charlie and Nifty. The rest would be happy if he was gone or dead.” So yeah. Sorry if these thoughts are disorganized I tried my best lol.