#but yeah unfortunately this has not actually helped me with writing on arc two

[deadmountaindaughter]

MMATTBP has taken over my writing brain so hard that i literally had a dream i was writing a chapter last night. so ofc i wake up and see if i can actually write anything while awake and of course i cannot.

[spacerockfloater]

Hi, I just wanted to say that I wholeheartedly agree with your recent post. It really bothers me how the fandom, especially those who are supposed to be green fans, are turning on Aemond. Don't get me wrong, I loathe the way they handled his character this season, but it's really interesting how for the last two years we had to listen Aegon stans complain about him being ruined by bad writing. Yet, they never turned on him. He was just the writers' victim, according to them (which isn't untrue). However, those same people (you saw it in the replies) are unwilling to extend the same courtesy to Aemond when he's being treated even worse by the writers for the whole f**king season, all that without having a decent amount of screentime or an actual POV (unlike Aegon who actually got a much better material this season). I guess these fans only "liked" Aemond while he was what Aegon thought of him, "a loyal hound he could set against his foes and who knows his place". Double standards much? Let's get this straight, I hate what they did with RR and Aemond burning Aegon is another dirty trick of the writers in order to divide the green fandom. Apparently, TG fans are unfortunately eating it all up. Nevertheless, it's not the reason the greens are in a bad situation because we saw that Aegon and Sunfyre wouldn't be of much help in battle anyway. Sunfyre could go against dragons like Vermax and Moondancer, but that's it. And Aegon is not a great warrior or a leader. Therefore, just like you said, Aemond can't fight alone so him asking Helaena to join with her big ass dragon isn't unreasonable. Yes, she isn't violent and doesn't want to burn anyone, but nether is Rhaena and I can bet she'll get the Nettles arc, ride the dragon and burn things.. So why does everyone treat Helaena as a little fragile house pet? Aemond is right, she can't defend herself and they would tear her apart. But no, he's also in the wrong here (showing him being violent towards Helaena is so OOC I won't even comment on it). And don't get me started on Alicent. She practically betrayed her faction twice, in ep 3 when she let Rhaenyra go. And she could have ended the war there and then, even before RR. Now she goes to Dragonstone to tell Rhaenyra she'll open the gates for her and this is framed as a good thing because her son is awful and she just wants to save her daughter? Yeah, no. However, Alicent is also defended, it's all on Aemond now, he is the evil villain ™. Aegon can be forgiven , Alicent can be forgiven, but Aemond can't? It's ridiculous. The worst thing is that I'm saying this as someone who has loved Alicent and all her children since s1.

THANK YOU SO FUCKING MUCH FOR THIS!

You’ve done it, you’ve said exactly what I have been thinking!

I wish I had something of substance to add to what you said, but I don’t. This needs to be a post of its own.

Aegon was treated horribly by the show. I am a huge fan of his. But now they’re doing the same thing to Aemond and he doesn’t deserve that shit.

Aemond is all that left of the Greens.

This show has butchered every single TG character.

[mdhwrites]

how do you feel about disability rep in the owl house? Anyway it could've been done better? Cause as someone who is neurodivergent (autism) I felt like Luz's arc had unfortunate implications ('shes literally neurodivergent and a Minor' type vibes and mixed in with the whole fantasy vs reality themes and it came off as telling neurodivergent people to reject reality or like we wouldn't be hindered in the slightest by our disabilities in xyz worlds- which feels gross) but I could be reading into this too much. I also don't like how Hunter lost his 'disability' yeah you can compare it to getting a pacemaker or a mobility aid with his problem not being fixed but made better but that 'pacemaker' came at the cost of his best friend and his whole possession situation felt gratuitous to me. I'm really interested in seeing how Hunter could've been done better if you have any ideas

So I am going to try to be as calm and kind on this subject as I can. I feel like I've let a lot of heat come into my blogs lately that I try not to because I've been in distress. I am actually, legally disabled after all. It is the vast majority of my income, not helped by how randomly my brain will just break and I will have no way to get it to work again. I'm on the brink of another who knows how long run of my brain no longer functioning and am clawing to try and keep it together so I can do SOMETHING besides just ramble in these blogs. So I can keep writing or streaming rather than vanish. So this topic is important to me to put it extremely mildly.

To talk about this with The Owl House we kind of have to talk about each angle it takes on this subject one at a time. Eda and Hunter are two sides of the coin for this representation after all. I know you bring up Luz and yes, nuerodivergence can be disabling but if we want to talk about disability, I don't think Luz is actually a part of the conversation. If she is, it's for the theoretical representation of depression in S3 when she is at her worst as a character. People like to claim trauma and depression for why it's okay that she's constantly lying, or why she tries to abandon an entire world despite admitting it's her fault it's in trouble. She is her absolute worse self in that time and... If that is the rep we get for mental illness, I'll wait another five years. I don't want someone who is entirely apathetic to others and makes excuses for their actions to be the one who represents me, not when I hear that shit from assholes on the news too much already.

We'll start positive and head down from there. Eda actually starts out great. With regular medication and self care, she is able to live a fairly normal life. I have admittedly criticized in the past that there is no cure for the curse, that Eda is a slowly ticking time bomb who only through death will not end up harming all of those around her eventually, but I actually want to rescind that. As a dramatization of the anxiety that especially mental disability brings about of that day when everything breaks, even if it never comes, it works. It's within the confines of the fantasy genre and isn't demonized but sympathized that she has to work so hard to hold this back. But she can and she stands strong despite it, stronger than most in her situation in a way that is inspirational.

Then we get our first slip up with her at the end of S1. In order to find reprieve, to come back from the edge... She shares her disability. Her peace of mind, her ability to be a human being, comes at the cost of another person. I say slip up though because one could argue it's dramatization of the communal help that many disabled people need. I worked as a Home Care Aid at one point for someone in a wheelchair. My own family helps me because I am a complete mess of a person. I do my best to be able to function entirely on my own but when you are literally incapable of being a functional human being... Yeah, help is good. Do I like how high of a cost it comes for Lilith? Not really, nor the fact that she becomes disabled in the same way because some people do think disability and mental illness is contagious but I'm willing to let it slide for the sake of dramatization.

Affearances genuinely course corrects to show the small ways in which Eda deals with her illness not just with medication but also understanding of it. Her need to stay calm, the ways she tries to center herself, all so the medication is more of a stabilizer and last resort. That is genuinely good.

Then... A point I'm torn on. In the episode itself, I do not mind the formation of Harpy Eda. The process of coming to not just deal with but accept your disability is big and hard and you can come out the other side feeling like a new person. One could even see the Harpy form like that and even the deals we make with our disability to let ourselves do more like in Eclipse Lake. I'll even retract old heat I gave this for implying your disability can be a superpower because it fits within the genres of fantasy. I will even admit part of this kindness comes from writing this myself and realizing that it's just more fun and exciting to let the disability have upsides to it rather than treat it as purely debilitating.

No, my bigger issue comes from the fact that it is the end of it as a disability. Eda is essentially cured besides some lip service and if they were going to go that route, they should have just said it. In the finale, she loses to the curse in a deeper way than we have EVER seen before... And then freed from it like it's just a snap of her fingers. Harpy Eda is literally just a super form, not her having to genuinely deal with the illness, especially as it just becomes the way she fights. I do approve of the idea of showing that you CAN get better from this stuff, some people do, but it makes me wish they'd just said that. Just admitted that her coming to accept it was the final step. Would that have been realistic? No but I've showcased how many times already how much this rep relies on dramatization? Give us the feel good ending of Eda having mastered it, explicitly, instead of just letting it be up in the air and used for cheap drama in the finale. That makes the whole thing feel almost exploitative because if I lose it like Eda lost it in the finale... I can't just turn that off. I get to be terrified and shaken and have that day firmly implanted into my mind for the rest of my life. For the show, it was shock value instead and I'm not okay with that.

Speaking of things I'm not okay with, let's talk about the other side of this coin: Hunter. Now remember that I was willing to give grace to some elements... Except now they're reinforced by a second character sometimes and that makes it a lot harder to shrug off. We'll get there when we get to Flapjack though.

No, where I actually want to start with for him isn't even that he has a disability, it's actually with Willow. She tries to make it out like being a late bloomer is the same as NEVER being able to do this. Like telling a paraplegic person you understand their pain because you had a cast once. I've had someone go "Yeah, it's hard for me to get out of bed too but I always manage it," while trying to motivate me to just power through anxiety that was LITERALLY CHOKING ME and I wanted to punch them in the face. And this is the start of your ROMANCE PLOT. The core thing that tells the audience that these two are going to get close and get together.

In one scene, it becomes SUPER clear that there is no one on this writing team that actually understands what the fuck it means to be disabled. The nice portion of the blog is over.

Okay, let's actually pull back. I will give Hunter this: In his early scenes, he genuinely comes across as someone who has adapted to his physical disability and the limitations of it. His staff is his aid device and he makes up for lack of magic with increased athleticism. He is by all means, the most dextrous person we see in the entire show and genuinely, the show never takes that away from him. It's also just really easy to forget because the show doesn't exactly give a lot of chances for it to shine, not while it's mostly shitting on him or having the trained soldier lose to others, if he even seems much more physically capable than those around him at all.

But hey, how about first that aid device! We do recognize Luz takes his crutch, right? Like his staff is what takes away his handicap versus the rest of the Isles. That helps him overcome the limitations of his physical disability and an entire episode has the main character steal it from him and blackmail him with it. He is mildly annoyed about this for the entire episode, almost like not having the way that helps him feel normal doesn't mean much to him. It'd be like if in Affearances, Eda didn't get mad at her mom for taking her elixir because her elixir is the equivalent to Hunter's staff. Gwyndolen is demonized for this action while we're supposed to be on Luz's side because Hunter is a bad man who will do bad things if allowed his staff back. That... That isn't okay to me.

Btw, this isn't even the only time this happens in the show. Belos asks Luz to call him Philip. She calls him Belos. The show is really all for just being entirely disrespectful to someone's identity and personhood so long as you are morally better than them. What the fuck?

For the rest of S2, there's a really, REALLY bad flaw with having Huntlow be his ship. EVERY single one of Willow's episodes to some extent features how being a late bloomer, having struggled/struggling with magic, makes her feel like an outcast. That despite the fact that really she just wasn't great at this skill, she gets a lot of dramatic weight to this. Hunter... Doesn't. His disability is almost entirely ignored to prioritize the fact that he's a Grimmwalker or his relationship with Belos. It is just not a part of his character despite the girl he is blushing at explicitly making it clear that this society ABSOLUTELY looks down on Hunter. That not having magic makes you be less than anyone else. Hell, we get more of this from EDA AND LILITH in the first episode of S2 than we ever get from Hunter. The prejudice they are treated with and their struggles to deal with it while Hunter is at best all subtext.

This admittedly starts getting into how this show fucking hates men and how they are almost all at some point a joke, villain or both in their time. So... Yeah, Hunter not being given respect for his disability while the women are is hardly surprising.

The big thing that shatters EVERYTHING is of course Flapjack's sacrifice. You remember how I had to kind of work around how to make Eda making someone else disabled okay? Well now we have a second time where a disabled character is 'cured' to some extent of their disability... By the suffering of someone close to them. This time with literal death.

One of the worst prejudices that disabled people, of any sort but especially mentally disabled/ill people, have to face is that we are burdens and menaces to society. That we are more prone to hurting people than regularly abled people. That there is a price to having us around that everyone would not have to pay otherwise. If there is one thing you CANNOT do with your disability allegory, it is to make the disability cost someone else their life, figuratively or literally, unless you REALLY plan to examine what the fuck that means. TOH does both, once with Flapjack and once with Lilith respectively.

In order to be 'normal', it literally costs Hunter the life of his best friend. In order to be saved from the extremes of her illness, Eda cripples her sister. What the fuck are you supposed to take away from that? And there is no way to square this with it just being a fantastical representation of something. It's not just making the consequences of disability more extreme or reflecting the shared burden that can sometimes be our existence and our need for support. Being cured should be joyous. Instead, it's melancholic, not for the grief of your existence inherently changing, Hunter is meant to purely celebrate that he now has magic, but because it came at extreme cost to other people.

In that one moment, paired with Lilith, I can't approve of TOH as disabled representation. There is no way for me to ever square it, just like how Luz using depression as an excuse to be the worst version of herself makes me not okay with her as nuerodivergent representation. Not when it doesn't explore this stuff and even tries to celebrate and say this is correct, since Luz is never criticized for her awful behavior during her angst arc and Hunter is made out to be better without his disability, no matter the cost.

I am fine if you don't want to show clean or nice representation of these things. Not all disabled people are nice. Not all nuerodivergent people are functional. There is a wide spectrum to our experiences but to take the worst elements of your representation and give them the most narrative weight is BAD. Even Eda suffers from this. Her taking care of herself is mostly in passing. Way more weight is given to Eda not being able to take care of herself. To how missing her medication by even an hour makes her a danger to everyone around her, or even susceptible to manipulation like when King uses her transforming 80% into the Owl Beast. Suddenly, the fact that she manages her condition like many disabled people do feels really overshadowed by the constant reminders, and literal showings, of the danger she poses to those she cares about most. The cost of allowing us to continue to participate in society, the damage we do to others, the harm that comes from a bad day from us, is so much harder to ignore when those are the elements that your work decides to focus on. It especially sucks because it hardly focuses on the pain and incapability of the condition, just the danger. It's all about what it will do to others and not the agony it inflicts on the person who has it.

TOH is bad with almost all of its themes and attempts to be progressive and this is no different. See you next tale.

======+++++======

I am going to assume that it's the same person who sent me essentially a variation of this ask like five times. If you are that worried about me responding, the Discord is where you will get a MUCH faster response, especially since I am kind of trying to pull back from TOH criticism. It has been genuinely kind of nice to talk about other things recently.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[fullmetal-scar-simping]

feasting on all the fantastic au/oc discussion that happens to share several commonalities with my own Scar As A Major Protagonist AU (that i swear im working on very slowly. i just have the curse of perfectionism and i keep going back and reworking things when i should be WRITING,) and its making me want to share my ideas too....

the general starting premise is that instead of getting abducted by bradley, greed manages to escape the raid on the devils nest with bido, and then via a series of dominos the two of them wind up teaming up with mei and then scar shortly thereafter

the entire idea kind of spun out of thinking about how scar would react to actually getting to know a human chimera. his pity for nina– similar to how he seems to view al– is such a goldmine for character exploration to me, because hes gotta be projecting right

like despite the obvious differences in their respective situations, from scars pov he might as well be just as inhuman as nina is, except HE isnt Allowed to die yet because he has a Duty to fulfill. which is both the last thread of self preservation hes grasping at and also a thing he hates himself for doing. its this big tangled up knot of religious guilt and survivors guilt and internalized ableism and the fact that he cant blame his brother for saving him so instead he makes a monster out of himself. and i think if he had the chance to come to terms with a chimera as still being human in all the ways that matter, and talking about those complicated body-humanity-autonomy feelings with someone who gets it on some level, maybe it could help him start to rebuild his sense of personhood

and. just generally. i think if he had more people to hang out with on the regular than Snitchy McLandlord, Self-Flagellant Genocide Collaborator, and One Literal Child. He might maybe perhaps have had better self esteem by the time the moral-superiority-in-incrementalism lecture hall power hour rolled around.

i too am killing kimblee early. scar unfortunately doesnt get to him, but he does get shot, impaled, and finally fall down a big hole and die, which i think is almost as good

scar DOES get to kill envy though. because roy "im mad you killed this one guy i liked. genocide what genocide" mustang doing it was just not as deep a plot point as people think it was. the fight with wrath was good, but i think itd be interesting to end his vengeance quest more somberly- not facing an equally-matched opponent, but putting down a pathetic, weak, spiteful thing that refuses to grow or change

uhhh what else. oh right. mei also takes the throne here, since ling never gets the stone (despite his continued efforts. his character arc is shaped like that of a pendulum. im making him worse) and i think with her at the helm, amestris would have way less leverage in any post-canon negotiations with ishval

Sure of course your super huge and powerful neighbor will help reestablish the cross-desert railroad and enrich your failing economy..... IF and ONLY IF you adhere to ALL the stipulations put forth by the ishvalan leadership council ^_^ the gun im holding? dont worry about it

im giving him so many cats when everythings said and done, however to his consternation hes doomed to wind up a beloved pillar of the community instead of just some guy who gets to hang out with cats. theres a renewed independence movement to organize & also a burgeoning faction of people who argue that because scar uses alchemy and hes cool, maybe god is cool with alchemy some of the time, like as long as youre responsible, to which scar is at the forefront of every debate desperately telling them I Am An Outlier Adn Should Not Have Been Counted

Hell yeah, more AU goodness! 🤩 Trust me, not only do I understand your pain in being caught in a perfectionism loop, but you'll get no judgment from me about taking your time with it too.

Super ecstatic that you decided to share what you've got cooking, so let's go:

Starting off with Greed and Bido is very on brand 😌 Glad he escapes getting liquified and drunken by his core self. I assume that some other members of the Devil's Nest crew survive as well? Or are they all slaughtered, same as in canon? If it's just the two of them left, then man, that's gonna hurt (and the angst~). Maybe we get a revelation that some survived later on?

I dig that Bido and Greed bump into Mei first. I wonder how fresh her arrival in Amestris must be before bumbling into an entire wayward homunculus and human-chimera. Meeting Scar after that would seem so normal in comparison lol

Oh- Oh! Omg wait, that's a fantastic angle to explore. That really taps into his self-hatred in such a unique way that I never thought about before! Alchemy is already a heresy for him that which he cannot separate from himself due to his brother's arm being the sacrifice that saved his life. Yet why wouldn't he see the sanctity of his own body as having been marred by this grave taboo to the point that he hardly sees it as truly human? If he can use this tainted gift to exact vengeance against everyone who tore Ishval to shreds, than even his unholy, "desecrated" body can be put to use. But the way this lashes out against both himself and others who don't want to die simply because someone/the state forcibly transmuted them with other living beings- damn, that's juicy

No seriously, this fuckin' rules! Using the chimera angle to really crack open the darkest pit inside of him, and how Scar's one vestige of purpose is what keeps him from succumbing to his self-flagellating dehumanization. I love that you're looking at this via survivor's guilt, the conundrums of his piety, and even the ableism imbedded in the assumptions on what constitutes a "worthy" body.

On the latter point: I'm curious to see if I understand the every facet of the ableism angle. Is it that chimerification can be seen as a disability brought on by alchemical experimentation (which I can definitely see) in contrast to Scar seeing it as an irrevocable perversion and assault on the human form, thus (in his mind) dooming the victim to be fully inhuman and in need of euthanization? Because again, I can see this as a loaded assumption on a "proper human body" vs a "destroyed, unworthy body", but I feel like I could be missing other potential readings here 🤔 It feels like it's that plus more. Hmmm

Yes, Bido (and maybe some other chimeras?) gets to help Scar navigate the messy bodily-autonomy-humanity Gordian Knot. Surely that has to unravel slowly (it's less Gordian than it may seem lol), since I imagine Scar's initial reaction to Bido must be a... heightened, perhaps pejorative one. To me I would imagine it to be quite dehumanizing (if not outright threatening) towards the poor lizard chimera man. :( Not that Greed would let anything happen to him, but then again Greed revealing himself to be a homunculus would also have to throw Scar for a loop too. We all know Greed can't shut his yap about being one, if he thinks he'll get a rise from someone who can even grasp what that is. Shame he maybe doesn't have Roa around to sledgehammer his entire cranium to smithereens. Unless? (Either that or I imagine that, given potential misgivings, Scar attempts to disintegrate Greed's head and gets the revelation of his homunculus nature right there and then.)

Wait, now I'm just recalling how cold Scar had been upon first meeting Mei when she was chilling with Yoki in canon. (I don't blame him, I'd also ask that bumbling mustachioed twat why the hell there's a random kid hiding out with them.) But now this tween shows up with a homunculus AND a chimera? Dude must have wanted to walk into the ocean lol

LMFAOOOOO STOPPP the way you described the canon party Scar had to travel with 😭😭😭 And the fucking "moral-superiority-in-incrementalism lecture hall power hour" PLEASE

Though tbh yeah, he needed some other folks to bounce off of who weren't former state actors, and, much as Mei is an absolute treasure, some adult company who also don't see him as a monster or a threat (to the extent Yoki and Marcoh do) would be very good for him. This is assuming that he and Bido are on solid terms sooner rather than later, but if Scar still struggles with being around chimeras for some time than maybe it would only be Greed who doesn't shrink in Scar's presence (besides the best kid ever, Mei, who never feared or distrusted him 😌).

Oh man, Mei might not realize that she's become travel buddies with a walking philosopher's stone. :0 Or does she immediately grasp that homunculi hold a stone within their bodies?

A standing ovation is needed for the death you're serving that pompous fascist Kimblee, and then an encore for good measure too. Stupendous, magnificent, and fully deserved. 10/10 The big hole at the end really cements his fate as comedic poetry, really. Scar may not get that personal catharsis, but he should get a front row seat to enjoy the carnage all the same. (Not suggesting that Scar has to be in the scene, just imagining him getting a theatre all to himself with the murder playing on loop while he snacks on some popcorn.)

Scar killing Envy is an intriguing change. Fully agreed that Mustang setting Envy ablaze wasn't that deep, and frankly a pretty lousy scene too. And yeah, Scar getting to fight and kill Wrath in canon was surprisingly good, but given Envy's hand in exploiting the tension of the occupied Ishvalans to jumpstart their genocide, it feels far more relevant to have Scar put them down than fucking Mustang. Envy's writhing pathetic self contrasted to Scar's typically quiet, self-contained demeanour- of course this is coming off of the canon again. However that fight or scene shakes out in your AU may or may not have Scar in that same emotional state.

Ling being denied the stone and what that does to his character isn't explored enough (bless these AUs). "im making him worse" ough that's enticing. Does Ling spiral? Does the worst in him begin to claw through the surface as he more desperately vies for whatever stone is in reach? His position as a moral paragon crumbling as he flails for the seat of power he desires, with his greed looking less and less admirable would be *chef's kiss*

Which makes me realize that the stone that propels Mei into the head of the Xingese empire wouldn't be Greed's stone, right? Perhaps it's Envy's?

But yesssss, Mei leveraging her new power to force Amestris to adhere to the Ishvalan council's demands! No need to worry about the gun, since it's symbolic of the sheer economic devastation that would sweep Amestris if they refuse Ishval whatsoever. :3c

The last bullet point-!!!

Scar gets to have his DOZENS of cats, and and he gets to be LOVED and RESPECTED, he's a- *sniffs* he's a PILLAR of his COMMUNITY- *breaks down into a sobbing fit*

But yes! The Ishvalan Independence Movement is underway and it needs him! He wouldn't let his people down at such an integral point in Ishval's history and future. And I'm goin nuts over the fact that some people are beginning to see alchemy with some renewed nuance, much to the chagrin of Scar, as he sits central to this shift in perspective. Despite what he's seen of Ishvalan alchemy and Xingese alkehestry (fuck Amestrian alchemy, no I don't care that all alchemic practices stem from Hohenheim and Xerxes stfu it's cultural drift goddammit) Scar still being adamant in the teachings he's followed all his life is very in-character. But I can see that slowly eroding and making way for some greater peace with his own brandishing of alchemy alongside his greater acceptance of his body and where his soul sits in Ishvala's eyes. 🥹 And all the cats. All the damn cats he could ever nurture and cuddle!

Ugh I love this AU too! I know you wanted to give me the Scar-centric details, but I'm big time curious about Greed and Bido's side of things. Where this journey takes them, what they have to contend with and what they lose and gain in the process, and what becomes of them. Does Greed get to live on even with the decimation of Father and the other homunculi? Do they rebuild the Devil's Nest? Can Bido live comfortably and openly as a chimera the way the four chimera-men do, or is he destined to continue living in society's underbelly due to not having been 'designed' (so to speak) to shift between a fully human morphology and his animal-infused morphology?

Many many apologies for the time it took to reply. U_U I loved going over the details you've layed out and I can't wait to one day read it 👀 The day this fic starts getting posted I'll be there!

[courtney-deserved-better]

I’m curious about your writing process. Like do make outlines from start to finish, or plan things out as you go. I love how your writing feels so well written and planned out, like everything you write has some sort of payoff. Anyways sorry for rambling😅, have a good day❤️❤️❤️❤️

ooo this is such a great question! my long fics generally tend to be pretty planned out. but ive been learning recently that having less of a plan and just jumping into a story is actually better for my motivation and for plot points happening organically. part of the reason i tend to write competition fics as opposed to other settings is that the structure of total drama allows me to do less planning and rely on what comes up spontaneously because i already have a framework im operating within. so i tend to plan out elimination orders and general arcs for characters.

i would say of my long fics, slippery slopes is the most planned out, amicus curiae is somewhere in the middle, and reprised and the courtney time travel au are the least planned out. i had very specific scenes i wanted to have happen each chapter of slippery slopes and i think part of why it's a strong fic is because a lot was planned out in advance (like, months and months in advance). but there were still moments that surprised me (alejandro and courtney's friendship was never meant to happen) and caused me to deviate from my plan for the better.

i started writing amicus curiae on a whim and i got 40k words in before i realized that the courtnemma relationship would work way better if they actually knew each other before the fic started (originally they met on the show). it was a really good discovery but unfortunately meant i had to rewrite ~20 chapters to fit that which was a pain in the ass but ultimately for the better. amicus curiae was a fic where i was really figuring things out as they went along (i changed who the winners would be 3 times) but i still had a clear idea of the personal journeys i wanted the characters to go through that weren't necessarily reliant on the competition/structure (ask me about this more once im able to talk without spoiling it!!)

the courtney time travel au is a serious experiment in that its very focused on interpersonal relationship and yet almost no eliminations are planned out in advance. everything is very spontaneous despite being a rewrite of the first season both for me and for courtney in the fic. which i think helps it not become too rote! but i also have no idea how things are going to go from point a (the basic straining chapters, which i just finished) to point b (the post finale chapters).

im writing reprised for fun as something low stakes and silly (because i love amicus curiae but its angsty enough that writing it can be emotionally exhausting sometimes) and i have the elimination order decided and very basic arcs/plot points for some of the characters but its open ended enough that i can have fun with it! and it probably wont end being one of my more narratively strong fics but that's okay <3

one of my more recent struggles with amicus curiae has been spending so much time developing the alenoah and courtnemma relationships that i find myself going aaaaa!! how am i gonna get these two together before the fic is over?? its really taught me to have a clear idea of when character dynamics shift, especially for romantic ones that are going to get together sometime throughout the fic. i love pining but i find pining for almost the whole fic and then only having the characters get together and be in a relationship for like two seconds at the end to be somewhat narratively unsatisfying.

so yeah i would say i try to plan out the character & character relationship arcs and i use the structure of competition fics for framework, but i don't plan out many details/specific scenes before i write them unless they pop into my head and then ill write the idea down and come back to it when its time to write the scene. i find that not planning out conversations/interactions can make dialogue much more organic when i write it on the spot and can lead to new discoveries about the characters.

as for payoff, i tend to go for the general rule of chekhov's gun: if there's a gun in the first act, it has to go off in the third act. basically, i try not to introduce any narrative threads if i don't intend to resolve them in some way later on in the fic. for example in slippery slopes, i introduced my version of alejandro's family issues with him alluding to his oldest brother carlos distancing himself from his family, and in the last chapter i have carlos showing up for alejandro and helping him get away from his family as well. pretty much as soon as i started writing alejandro thinking about carlos, i knew carlos would be there for him in the end.

planning things out can be super helpful and i certainly couldn't start writing a long fic without having any kind of plan, but ive found that having suuuper detailed outlines and knowing every little thing that's going to happen in advance is personally stifling for me as a writer and kills my motivation. so im learning to strike a healthy balance.

thank you so much for this ask! i love talking about writing!

[daz4i]

ok. a post to brainstorm doa chuuya bc i gave myself mild brainrot over it just by putting those words together

if any detail in this post inspires you to make art or write a fic please on god tag me if you post it or send it to me 👀👉👈

so. i have a few ideas and unfortunately i can’t quite get them to gel together into one, so i may as well list them all

the mentor fukuchi option

fukuchi got him out of the research facility around the time he was 14-15ish, and, well. mentored him - taught him to fight and basically put in his head all these ideas about unifying the world

i imagine chuuya would be loyal to him, but still somewhat suspicious, esp when he can’t remember his past. speaking of

the bait option

idk if bait is quite the right word? but, like. the way sigma is kept in the doa - he’s promised something he simply can’t say no to. and that thing is information about his past, kept by fyodor who gives him small bits after every mission he completes - just enough to keep him going, but not enough to make him feel fulfilled and want to leave

i’m not sure where this would fit with the timing in his life, but i assume he gets to be in the sheep here, but not with the mafia. do the events of 15 simply not happen? does he simply say no to mori’s offer? maybe fyodor meets him on that cliff before he gets to dazai. idk.

i lied when i said there are a few ideas btw i think i only have these two. anyway the real interesting part isn’t the how and why but rather what he’ll be like when interacting with the members and such. starting with the simplest and getting more complicated as i go

(also an important detail i can’t seem to find a place to fit, but i assume the doa will have the means to nullify arahabaki before it kills chuuya, given how fukuchi has ties not only with the government but also the un, and given how meursault has cells that nullify abilities, one can assume such technology exists and in which case there’s no reason for the doa not to get their hands on it. also as i typed this i remembered sigma has this nullifying gun iirc. so they probably just have more and this is how they get arahabaki down when they need to. or maybe it’s implemented in him somehow, like they can remotely activate smth that’s constantly on him coughchokercough and “turn off” arahabaki without getting near him)

bram

yeah no he doesn’t know about his existence. at least not at first? in the mentor fukuchi option i’m sure fukuchi will show him bram at some point, right before the time of the doa’s introduction in the main story. in this case, i feel like chuuya would honestly feel a sense of kinship with bram, both kind of used as a weapon of mass destruction, except unlike bram he can leave if he wants to (but... can he really? a bit harsh to think about, so he doesn’t like, go out of his way to interact with him)

sigma

“oh my god. another sane person. thank you”

like bram, def a lot of sense of kinship here, but more about the “i only remember the last few years of my life” thing. i feel like they could actually be friends even beyond that, tho. they’re really similar in a lot of ways and they could def bond over it, and i think having someone like chuuya around would make sigma feel better about the whole thing, which i think will make him even deadlier, more desperate to stay in this place he calls home. also, chuuya could back him up in the casino arc, and. um. yeah the hunting dogs will not survive that one

nikolai

nikolai finds out chuuya can technically fly and loses his shit. chuuya will become his new favorite person (but like, the way sigma is, not the way fyodor is). chuuya does not like that to say the least, but he does like to train with him sometimes bc nikolai can help him hone his reflexes

eventually nikolai would get tired of him tho imo? at least in the pre-canon part. chuuya would just be annoyed with his antics, no surprises, and it’ll get boring for nikolai. then he’ll find out abt the arahabaki thing and immediately chuuya is the most interesting person in the world again. he will definitely try to get him to use it constantly. he would love arahabaki sm.

during the actual story tho, after nikolai defects, i imagine he’ll want to free chuuya too. maybe he’ll steal his choker at some point, store it in his overcoat. “prove your free will by possibly be willing to die if you let arahabaki run loose” sort of thing, but actually it’s secretly “don’t be confined by what fyodor and fukuchi are doing to you. be your own person. never use arahabaki if you don’t want to”

fyodor

definitely the one holding the metaphorical leash over him, and chuuya knows it, and hates it. if we go by the “fyodor coming to recruit him at the end of 15′s events” route, he’ll hate how much the guy reminds him of dazai. also he thinks he’s creepy. still, he respects his plans, and does as he’s told for now, but he knows damn well not to trust fyodor. i imagine in said recruiting moment fyodor would probably kill some/all of the sheep to give him a sense of helplessness and like he has no other option but to go with him, so naturally chuuya would resent him for that

like p much everyone else, he has no idea what fyodor’s ability is, but he noticed pretty early that fyodor seems unkillable, so he doesn’t even try. something tells him that despite his own immense power, he won’t be able to kill fyodor, so he picks his battles carefully and never even tries (tho, maybe in the future. maybe i could offer more insight once we learn what fyodor’s ability is and what’s the deal with his supposed immortality)

fukuchi

father figure (derogatory)

i kinda of already got into it in the mentor fukuchi option, so as a tldr, chuuya respects him, is loyal to him, but is suspicious of him

however in the other option i feel like the knowledge of fukuchi being a part of a terrorist organization despite his position would kind of make him... bitter? also eternally curious if fukuchi was somehow involved/knew people who were involved in the arahabaki project somehow. he tries to keep his distance from him, just do what he’s told so he can get what he wants, without getting involved with things bigger than him

i imagine if anyone encourages him to use arahabaki a lot - for actual strategical reasons, not like nikolai who mostly thinks it’s cool - it’d be fukuchi (fyodor would not want to rely on smth this chaotic unless there’s no other choice, imo), which would also make chuuya resent him a bit.

also i wonder if fukuchi would ask him to infiltrate the hunting dogs with him in any of these options. could also be interesting, and also oddly fitting tbh.

anyway yeah that’s all i have for you now. would love to hear your own ideas, or takes on what i already wrote here, just be respectful!! and again if any of this inspires you in any way, please share, i would love to see 🥺

[scratchface]

5-minute thoughts on every ygo show?

Duel Monsters: The OG, which we must respect. Lots of incredibly interesting concepts packed into a fun series overflowing with style, but holy shit, it does not hold up without twelve shots of nostalgia blurring your vision. There's lots of great, iconic moments that will live on in people's hearts forever, but for every minute of Peak Television, there's thirty more of boring B plots and nonsensical plot writing. Battle City deserves to be remembered fondly, but it was consistently downhill from there.

Favorite character: the Spirit/Bakura. Always a delight to have on screen, elevated every scene he was in, even at the series' wonkiest.

GX: My original favorite! GX is a wild ride of highs, lows, and absurdity. The non-plot essential episodes here are a lot more fun than those of DM, and it made great use of the inherent absurdity of the setting (boarding school for learning a children's cardgame) to go completely bananas. It is a lot of fun to rewatch season two and three, which are packed with fun side characters, crazy antics, and of course, Judai's endless charisma. While far from perfect, every time I revisit it, I can't help but think the whole series is incredibly charming.

Favorite character: Judai. Special mention to O'Brien and Jim, though—they're my special little guys.

5Ds: The one I don't know too well, because I don't remember much of it and I've never managed to rewatch more than a few episodes at a time before dropping it. Everyone always praises it, but I just can't get into it. Zero appeal to me. Yusei seems cool, I guess.

Favorite character: Aki

Zexal: The best one. Like, objectively—yeah, I know, I refused to accept that at first too! I didn't want Zexal to be the best YGO either! But it is! It just is! I've rewatched it many times, thinking, "this time, with a more critical eye, I will realize its not that good!" but NO, it is that good—hell, I think it actually gets better every time you watch it! Which is crazy, 'cause so many of the first ~30 episodes are so so bad. But then it just gets better with every storyline! I could go on for hours about how much I love Zexal now; the setting, the cast, the plot. What seemed like a conflict between aliens actually turning out to be a war between heaven and hell was the sickest plot twist of all time.

Favorite character: Shark/Nasch, no contest. But shout out to everyone else too: Zexal has by far the best cast of any of the YGOs.

Arc-V: The disappointment. The opposite of Zexal. While Zexal starts with its weakest batch of episodes, Arc-V starts with its strongest, and its all downhill from there. So many duels in the first 50 episodes are just incredible, and there's so much intrigue, and every episode left you wondering. And then it just...struggles and flails its way to the end. Very little of ending is in anyway satisfying. If I think about it too much I get frustrated.

Favorite character: Sora! Sora does so much of the heavy lifting in keeping the plot of this series moving when everyone else seems determined to bring it to a screeching halt and nobody gives him enough credit for that.

Vrains: Ah, Vrains. If Arc-V started strong and ended by dragging its own corpse over the finish line, Vrains was struggling to keep its head above water from the start. Its an almost impressive blend of fantastic main characters with great depth (Yusaku, Ryoken, Ai) and the worst supporting cast you've ever seen. What characters weren't bad from conception get fumbled horribly at every opportunity. And yet, the conflict of the first season remains incredibly compelling. Yusaku and Ryoken's relationship remains one of the most fascinating I've seen in fiction. Unfortunately, its blatantly clear that the writers didn't have a plan. Big 'first draft' vibes. Could have been drastically improved if the writers had, you know, allowed the other Origins and Ignis to do things instead of giving Aoi three costume changes.

Favorite character: Yusaku. Love him.

[sun-undone]

Honestly, after I reflect over season two, I agree with your energy towards topper! It seems like the writers weren’t sure on which side they wanted him to take or could it be just an overflow of his character having false motives towards helping Sarah just because he really wanted her back. But would it be too cliché to just make him an antagonist because as humans, especially teenagers,  when you’re in love, regardless of how long it’s been since you’ve lost someone when you get that second chance would you not do anything in your power to get that person back? Would love your thoughts on that if you have any.

i think topper, as much as i despise him, is also an interesting one to discuss because yeah, i do understand him and his motives to an extent! at his core, he is a rich kid who is used to getting what he wants, but he also seems to have some very interesting but barely addressed masculinity issues, and also seems to have some intense mommy issues as well. all of that definitely lends itself to him having these obsessive thoughts and actions with sarah, and i definitely understand his perspective about getting cheated on by her and generally getting his already very strong feelings a bit messed with by her. and that’s a whole other conversation too about her side of it!

i get where you’re coming from about how making him a straight antagonist could read as cliche, and that’s why i actually would’ve preferred them starting a genuine, fully fledged redemption arc with him in season 2 that would’ve continued into season 3. if i’m being totally honest, i think the writers wanted to leave him in limbo so that they could always have him as a fallback drama option (which is exactly what ended up happening in both seasons 2 and 3), and i’ve gotta say, that’s just not great writing imo!!! the most i’ve enjoyed topper’s character EVER was in 3x05 when he was the comedic relief and the pogues begrudgingly worked with him. that was genuinely so fucking fun and the closest i’ve ever felt to the writers understanding topper, cause he was so clearly the butt of the joke the entire time.

so basically, if the writers just had to have topper be a semi-major player in all 3 seasons, then i think they should’ve done the start of a genuine redemption arc in s2, which bleeds into s3 and ends with topper just fading out from the show by the end of s3. like he somehow realizes the errors of his classist bullshit, stands up to his mom and kelce and rafe (cause yeah why is he still sort of hanging out with him after everything he knows he’s done to sarah????), has one last convo with sarah about how he was hurt by her but realizes that he was also being creepy, and then he’s just gone. off to college or whatever i don’t care

idk i hated topper pretty much right off the bat, so a redemption arc would’ve been a tough pill to swallow for sure, but i really do think it would’ve been much more compelling and less annoying than this half-antagonist thing where the narrative constantly makes me think that i’m wrong for saying that topper is not a good guy. would a writing team comprised of two men been able to pull off an arc of a guy recognizing his wrongdoings and breaking from the chains of toxic masculinity? probably not! so i think that’s also part of why we got this half-baked topper storyline that will now unfortunately lead into him being a full on villain in s4????? i guess??????? god i fucking hope not but ANYWAY thank you for asking this, i genuinely love having deep conversations about the stupid boat show ❤️❤️

[collidingxworlds]

4 and 9!

Asks for multimuse blogs || Accepting !

4. Is there a muse that not a lot of people roleplay with?

Yep, I dare to say that there's more than one xD Mostly Sam and Moriarty.

In Sam's case, it's my fault, because I made them before my hiatus and never given them proper time in the spotlight. I'm planning to change that very soon, once I've recovered some brain power.

As for Jim, I suppose that it's because he isn't an easy muse to interact with, also because of how specific his canon is. I need to work on giving him some verses, both general ones and maybe other fandom AUs, to make him more approachable!

9. why were you drawn to each one of your characters?

Oh boy xD Let's see how I can answer this one without writing a novel xD

Abigail: What got me interested in her first and foremost was the duality of the character. For a good part of her arc we don't know whether or not she had truly helped her Dad killing those girls and, if yes, to what extent. The series unfortunately doesn't analyse it too closely, but she tends to swing between two kinds of behaviours and identities: the traumatised victim who is trying to get her life back together after it has been shuttered and the manipulative accomplice who exploits the circumstances to get away with a clean slate. Useless to say, I like to portray her as the latter wearing the former's mask as an act. Another reason why I chose to pick her as a muse is because she has a lot of potential that however was never used. Gotta make up for that xD

Five: For him there's no big, complicated reason tbh xD He's just the type of character I enjoy, both when consuming medias and while writing. Practical, sarcastic, smart, witty, with poor manners because he couldn't care less about being polite (unless it benefits him). But also characterised by a tragic past, a lot of trauma, flaws that caused his downfall and a fierce attachment to something (in Five's case, his family). It's a lot of fun to explore the different sides of his person and find out where the lines blur!

Sam: They are my OC, so...I basically built them fitting the fictional family you, Chloé and I came up with. In a way, they have Abigail's same duality (victim vs perpetrator), but in this case the second side gets openly cultivated by their new family and I found interesting to explore the effects that such an environment can have on someone who has never truly been taught the difference between right and wrong. Sam grew up as an outcast, unwanted and unrecognised, and the very first time they find acceptance is under a woman who believes that killing men for their own advantage is her family's right. That's a fascinating combination xD Also, as a non-binary mun, I've been wanting to write a non-binary character for a while now!

Crowley: He is one of my oldest muses, one of the firsts I picked up when I started to RP on Tumblr. He used to have his own sideblog and all, before I decided to make this multimuse. I had a lot of fun writing him, also because he embodies the only kind of good guy I can and like to properly write. Someone with good intentions but also questionable methods and even more questionable morals. Also, even if in the book/series isn't shown much, I like to dig into the trauma of his Fall and all the consequences of it, how it has left him torn between what he wants to be and his demonic nature. So yeah, another traumatised gremlin xD

Will Graham: Speaking of trauma, here is another embodiment of it xD What got me fascinated with Will first and foremost is the way the series portrays his "pure empathy": how he can put himself into the killers' shoes, actually live through their fantasies, and how all this constant exposure to this twisted minds end up changing him. That's definitely another thing that drew me to Will. His character arc, evolution and how the potential darkness inside him emerges and takes shape. Obviously, all this happens through a lot of struggles and contrasts. Also, gotta love the sass xD

Will Byers: Together with Sam, he is my traumatised kid x'D He has been my fave character since season 1 (and he stayed vanished for most of the season, so that should tell you how much I liked him since the very start). What pushed me to pick him as a muse have been basically two things: the huge potential for the exploration of trauma / PTSD / sexual identity crisis and his connection with the Mind Flayer. There's just so much that could be done in both directions!

Moriarty: Ngl, I picked up Jim as a muse mostly as a challenge. I want to try my hand at a villain and he has always been one of my faves. Love me a psychopath who also has a ton of charisma and a sense of humour (I find him beyond funny xD). Moreover, ages ago I had come up with a whole backstory for him and this was my chance to do something with it!

Gabriel: Last but not least, he is literally one of the first two muses I had back when I started to RP on this hellsite. He is one of my fave characters from the show, has been even before we found out that he was Gabriel (and I refused to acknowledge the shit they did with him in season 13). He is a bit like Five, character wise, but with the twist of being an insanely powerful being. Plus, I loved adding bits and pieces from the Norse myths to his backstory / portrayal, and that was an additional reason because Norse mythology is my jam!

[m1ckeyb3rry]

LMAOOP YES IVE SEEN THE RWVENT YUKI POSTS too real omg ok but this era third selection and u20 yuki fr my fav he’s so gorgeous and Karasu is giving big asshole bully energy rn LMAOOO can’t wait for those little scenes of him in Shibuya or when he’s catching otoya from falling off the bench

STOP RHE POKEMON REPRESENTING THE FANDOM IN SHIP WARS GOODBYEEEE LMAOOO not them also being chronically online pulling out evidence of their ships that has me rolling

OOOHOHSOSHO OTOYA OR KARASU OEAU im so excited RAHHHGHH its ok they both make up for the lack of aikulations we’ll still feel the oaeu vibe

Bro that scene with otoya doing the weird finger gun things is FR promoting tf out of otoya I see so many people converting because of that scene (real honestly his face card is serving there) but IVE GOT EVERY KARASU PANEL BURNED IN MY BRAIN IK THE EXACT SCENE YOU MEAN also cannot wait for him to shove Isagi around LMAOOO a Mira classic wc HAHAH its ok you got this!!! Oaeu comeback soon after use that as your motivation LOL

Also im crying not you having meetings and doing hw on your horse LMAOOOO

- Karasu anon

HELPP i fear i have been going more than a little insane over yuki 😓 he’s just so so perfect and handsome and incredible and sweet SHFJSHSHHS agreed though third selection/u20/shibuya yuki >>>> he was okay in vs manshine as well but my man has been a ghost ever since 🙁 manifesting he gets a comeback in the next arc though!! since there will be hopefully be fewer characters to focus on that might mean characters like yuki and karasu can get their spotlight back

LMAOAAOO the pokémon are all chronically online post-aegislash 😭 i bet reuniclus is writing ESSAYS about how nagi is actually a really loving and kind guy (he’s a mira kin #nagidefenderforlife) like bro is def analyzing every single thing nagi does to explain how it actually shows his deep trauma and how he’s risen above it JFHFSHJS omg reuniclus 100% has a tumblr nagiy/n stan account where it’s just explaining why they are the top ship HAHAHA its posts are all insane too…like “y/n challenged nagi to a battle. this shows that they are deeply in love because they are sharing their passion for battling and coming together to bond. they also made eye contact two times, and their hands touched when nagi gave her money for beating him.” and then someone hydreigon comments “nagi doesn’t even like battling UNLIKE OTOYA so there’s no passion there basically he hates her and you’re problematic for shipping them” so reuniclus is forced to block

YESSSS I MISS MY SILLY BOYS even if i don’t do oaeu for them i’ll do smth for one of those two most likely (or maybe yuki) just because they’re my goofs 🥹 HELP no you’re so right otoyalations especially can def compete with aikulations…not quite on the same level but i def sense his pov being really fun to write (karasu is just him d1 pining like usual so it’ll be fun in a diff way)

HELPP NO LITERALLY THAT EXACT SCENE HAS EVERYONE GOING CRAZY honestly i was not expecting so many people to convert to otoyaism??? i expected more karasu fans at this point but they really did their best to make otoya silly and dumb asf whereas karasu is still giving mysterious villain energy lowkey so maybe that’s why 😭 BROOO THAT PANEL IS SO GOOD I LITERALLY MADE IT THE COVER OF BFB 🤩 i need to see it live sooooo bad 😍 and yeah another mira wc incoming unfortunately but hopefully i can finish it soon!!

PLSSSS online school got to me 😓 my teacher was just rambling abt nonsense i was like eh might as well exercise my horse while i’m at it 🥱 it fr gave me a six pack though because i had to control him almost entirely with my abs so that was nice ig (even though no one ever saw them before they vanished because we had to stay at home 😔💔)

[swapauanon]

My Opinions on RWBY: Volume 9: As A Whole

Okay so, let's start with this: Is RWBY Volume 9 the best Volume yet?

And the answer is, no. Volume 7 is still peak RWBY.

It is, however, a very close second.

Volume 9 has a lot going for it, from its writing, to its surreal animation, to the culmination of Ruby's arc, there are very few things wrong with it. LIke, if not for one character, this would be the best Volume yet.

Unfortunately, it has to follow-up on V8C14, the worst episode of the show ever made, and thus it ends up being held back by retreading ground we've ALREADY COVERED in the Mistral Arc thanks to Jaune's presence. Volume 8 had been building up Nora finding herself and carving out her own identity, but because Jaune fell into the Ever After instead of her, we instead get a sad old man feeling sorry for himself and refusing to take responsibility for his own choices.

The fact that nobody calls him out for his verbal abuse of Ruby still has me hoping someone will deck him.

His ship tease with Weiss was absolutely infuriating though. As mentioned before, one of the key facets of Weiss' character is that she is NOT attracted to him. A well-written Weiss would be NAUSEATED to discover her first fictional crush was Jaune all along!

At the very least, they toned the shiptease DOWN from what they had originally planned, so it's only a couple of moments instead of the focal point of Weiss' arc. The fact that they chose to de-age him has me worried that they're planning on making it endgame and realized how creepy the pairing was with Jaune looking his actual age, but I'm HOPING someone on the writing team comes to their senses and realizes how sleazy this entire thing is and cuts that romance arc ENTIRELY in future Volumes.

Volume 9 could have been great, but Jaune's presence means it has to settle for merely being good instead.

The Soundtrack, thankfully, is pretty stand-out, with Quiet being the only song I can't at least remember the FEEL of. It has its own unique style I struggle to put into words.

The antagonists are also all pretty good.

I like how the Ever After is portrayed as a threat to our heroes, up until Neo makes her first move in the episode set at the market, at which point we get a shift to how humans can be a threat to the Ever After. Admittedly, we only get two episodes of this before Ruby's clash with Neo, but it is a neat change of pace while it lasts.

I also appreciate the hints at Penny's revival. I still hold the opinion that it would be terrible writing to end her arc on the note it closed on in the Volume 8 finale, so all of the hints at Penny returning in the future feel well earned.

The new world-building also feels great, and we have a means to separate Ozpin and Oscar, as well as get around Salem's curse. We just need to find a way BACK into the Ever After.

The final battle at the Tree was great, and I loved Ruby's chats with the Blacksmith.

And also, there's the Bumbleby kiss. The framing of that part of the episode was great, and the fact that it was used to hint at Nuts & Dolts (via Ruby's own reaction to it) was also appreciated. It feels like the perfect level of grandiosity attached to the kiss that's been built up for so many years. The music was beautiful as well, and the animation did a good job of taking advantage of the Ever After's surreal animation.

As much as I hate Jaune's presence, his reveal as the Rusted Knight was a good moment.

Oh yeah, I brought up that the antagonists were pretty great, but then didn't explain my thoughts at them.

The Red Prince and the Peddler are great as villains of the week and setting up the Ever After's rules. The Herbalist works well as an example of how someone can unwittingly cause harm while trying to be helpful. Jaune's tenure as an antagonist was brief, and I feel like he got off FAR too lightly for the role he played in Ruby's breakdown and suicide attempt (as he actively and DELIBERATELY tore her down MORE just to make himself feel better), but I like how he served mostly as an example of how humans can hurt the Afterans, more an antagonist to the Paper Pleasers than he is to Team RWBY.

But then there are the Big Bad level threats: The Jabberwalker, Neo, and the Curious Cat.

Firstly, I love how each "new" Big Bad ends up taking out the previous one in order to establish themself as more threatening.

The Jabberwalker, in spite of being a MASSIVE threat to the Ever After, only menaces the heroes ONCE and is anticlimatically taken out by Neo's Semblance evolution in its next appearance. Team RWBY only learns its a Big Bad level threat AFTER Neo has disposed of it.

Neo's tenure as central antagonist is a good culmination of her storyline since her introduction, and I like that you don't have to read Roman Holiday to get the gist of her backstory from the paintings and the smoke. It's also nice to finally see her Semblance reach its full potential. Her Jabberwalker clones also allow for the Volume to have an analogue to the Grimm encounters of previous Volumes in a world without Grimm. Her being left feeling hollow after finally achieving her revenge also feels perfect, as she had based her entire identity on getting revenge. With that gone, she had nothing.

The Curious Cat works amazingly as the Big Bad, mostly in how they feign friendliness to Team RWBY. You can even see all the ways they manipulate and wear away at Ruby in the episodes prior to their reveal, when they begin openly antagonizing the heroes. Also, the way they possessed Neo was insanely creepy.

Speaking of, I like how they used Maya's default texture with Neo's eyes while she was getting possessed. That was a great way to take advantage of something built into the engine matching up so well with the Curious Cat's aesthetic.

And then there's the Volume 9 animatic.

First of all, I'm hoping Jax gets a redemption arc. Team RWBY are currently alligned with his abuser, Theodore.

Secondly, Neon/Nora shiptease? It's not a pairing I'd ever think up, but if my aroace Lie Ren interpretation ends up being canon...

Good to see Ozpin doing everything he can to buy Oscar time by helping him fight off the merge.

Salem's relocated from Evernight to Vale, which could imply she's using Beacon as her headquarters now.

I don't get why they'd cure Winter's paralysis. They have so few disabled heroes, so it feels WRONG to get rid of Winter's disability now that she's on the side of good. It'd be like if Yang's arm grew back, or they shoved Penny into a flesh body she never asked for. (Wait, they actually did that second thing.) Tune in next time when Fox's eyes are "fixed"! (Apollo DNI.)

As for the ending, I still stand by what I've said previously, Raven is not entitled to Yang's time or forgiveness, and the healthiest thing for Yang to do for herself would be to call Raven "Branwen" instead of "Mom". Raven is not her family.

But back on topic, in spite of Jaune's best efforts, this is a real step up from Volume 8!

Here's to Volume 10 being even better!

[ciaossu-imagines]

Of course and sure thing. Oh damn, that’s so horrible. I was actually kind of spoiled about the events as well, not in what happened exactly but that it did happen since at the time of the chapter’s release I was away on holiday with my mum’s side of the family and I usually don’t bother to block the tag since most spoilers are something I can scroll past and they’re usually not too big since I read it every week but yeah, I saw something referring to what happened in that chapter and gods that hurt so we both unfortunately had to deal with it being spoiled, though with you it’s obviously much worse. And yay. Looking forward to hearing all your thoughts on everything that happened if you want to share it all. Oh, there really aren’t many chapters of Persona 3. I see. I also hope you don’t have to stay late and I’m glad to hear that you have another day off tomorrow. I see. Can imagine that being quit annoying. You calling caffeine god is amazing. And wow. How long does it take you to get through a pot? If you don’t mind answering. I managed to write a few points about the things that stood out luckily so yay to that. Oh damn, he really does look like Lavi from D. Gray-Man. And I see. That’s nice to know. Sure thing. I finished the last season of Demon Slayer that’s out now so I’ll probably be getting to it soon. Yeah, which is really understandable since A:TLA is just such an amazing series in so many ways. Of course and glad to hear you adored Zuko and true to his redemption arc. And I can’t blame you for Sokka being your first initial favourite since I also really like him and like every time he tells one of his silly jokes, I laughed so he’s definitely someone fun to have around.

Yeah, the Demon Slayer manga is just 205 chapters long. And the fact that it’s so short and still tells such an amazing story is yet another reason as to why I love it so much. Yeah. Like the final arc consists of two mini-arcs, one of 47 chapters and the last one is 22 chapters long, so it would entirely be possible to split it up since the last arcs that they adapted were like 30 chapters long, but I actually do presume that they won’t since the first season of Demon Slayer put all of the mini arcs of the first main arc into the season. And I honestly don’t mind what they do since I’ll always be looking forward to whatever there is of it. So I presume we’ll probably just have a longish last season, but I’m up for anything, as long as it’s adapted well. Okay. Cool. And I did and I was just like constantly fangirling and at times I couldn’t tell whether it’s because I was enjoying the sound of his voice or because what his character, Genya, was doing because he’s just such a precious boy. Thank you for saying that. He actually has a small first appearance in the fifth episode of the first season and then he’s gone and doesn’t properly appear until The Swordsmith Village Arc.

Thank you. It’s wild since I usually don’t forget things entirely so it’s a whole new experience for me. But the fact that it happened so early does help it make sense. Yeah. Though later on, there is this arc in Fairy Tail called ‘Key of the Starry Heavens arc’ and it is entirely filler but it’s still really enjoyable to watch. Gods, that’s me with Lawless’s song. And I see. I’m not sure about the Beyblade that you watched, but the Metal Saga series does have the opening song translated like that as well. The fact that Iruma is very musical does sound very nice. Of course it’s adorable. And now I’m looking even more forward to seeing it but I’ll still wait until I’m done with everything else I have to do and watch.

Yeah, true. Like I think the movie does but from what I’ve heard / seen, the movie concentrates more on the characters themselves than the actual match which makes no sense because both are really important. And yeah, it definitely did. Like this match that was adapted is 34 chapters long and when the movie was first announced, people were talking about how it’d have to be a 5 hour long movie for all of that to be properly adapted. And the thing is, the saddest thing of all is that we’re not even sure we’ll be getting another season. There were two movies set to be released, so this one and another one that will come out who knows when, and the initial poster to advertise it was ‘Haikyū!! Final’ which just does not sound great so now me and other Haikyuu!! fans are hoping that the studio will use all the money they got from the ticket sales and other stuff to make a proper fifth season. Sure thing 💕 Hell yeah and Hinata has such an amazing moment at the beginning of the second season that people still referrer to to this day. I see. That makes sense. But yeah, none of the Haikyuu!! babies are one-note and that’s just another great thing about the series. And yes to all those things of you describing him.

Me too but it’s really difficult because she’s not very good at seeing the wrong in her ways. Like say if I were to tell her about it, she’d get so offended and she thinks she’s in the right for saying what she did. Yes, the fighting style really is. Like it is hinted at in the opening, but it’s nothing compared to seeing it in action and it’s just so cool 😭 And yes, be excited about him. I love the Shinazugawa brothers, what more can I say. Oooh. That sounds like such a  lovely flavour. And that makes perfect sense. I hope you and your friend had a wonderful time together. Oh and that does sound like a good idea since then it’s all nicely together.

C

I’m so sorry to hear you got spoiled on that as well! I can definitely get not blocking the tag – I just did it because I know that if I see a spoiler, I’m going to read it instead of scrolling past, just because I can’t resist that temptation, haha! It sucks though that you got spoiled like that on such a big reveal, because I can imagine how much impact it would have had for people who didn’t know it was coming! And you know, it’s funny, because I’m as caught up as my manga app had (up to Chapter 254), but I don’t really have a lot of thoughts on it. I feel like the story is an absolutely brilliant one, the author is an insanely gifted technical writer because his use of things like foreshadowing and visual storytelling is gorgeous. I feel like I have solid grasps on the characters enough to write them; I know quite a few people excited to have me write them, so I’m going to. Overall, I very much enjoy the story and am excited to see how the rest of the story plays out to it’s ending, which is very close obviously. The writer’s storytelling has been well-paced for the most part, there’s little unnecessary drag or tangents, I’m going to be surprised if the series is still going active in even December of this year. I figure by early fall, absolutely latest, it’s ending with it being weekly. However, I can’t say I’ve fallen in love with this one like I have some of the other fandoms. Comparing my love for say, Servamp, K Project, or KHR and my love for Jujutsu Kaisen – my love for Jujutsu Kaisen is the little, tiny plastic cup you get to take your medicine with and the love for those other series is the big bottle of medicine. Again, the creator is absolutely a gifted storyteller. I fully believe they’ve known a least a full half an arc to a full arc ahead of where the story was currently what was going to happen, and I have zero doubts whatsoever that they’ve had at least a couple ideas as to an ending since the beginning and have a full, clear view of how everything’s ending now. Their world is well-built and constructed, their power-sets well figured out. They’re a tight writer with great focus and there are parts of their writing and visual storytelling that I wish I was even 1/10th as good at as a writer. However, I always kind of feel like JJK is very much a case of the story driving the characters and not the characters driving the story. When it comes to the JJK characters, I very much do feel like they were all created because the creator needed a character to advance the story or to fill an essential role in the story and that when it came to creating them, their characters were built around what role they needed to play and what they needed to accomplish so they feel less to me like real, actual people like some characters from other media and more like…just characters. Don’t get me wrong here, because both types of storytelling and character creation are entirely valid and both can be exceptionally well-done. JJK is a prime example of story-driven media done exceptionally well, if not completely brilliantly (because let’s remember, at the bottom of story-driven media, we have things like Twilight, which is that type of storytelling done exceptionally poorly). But I feel like most people are drawn more to one type of story-telling process than the other and I’m just more overall compelled by character-driven storytelling so JJK is in that ‘technically brilliant, I really enjoy it, but can’t get obsessed with it like some others can’ field.

Anyway, now that I’ve probably infuriated or offended some of the JJK fans, onto the rest of the message, haha! There really aren’t that many chapters of any of the Persona manga that I’ve found, so I’m kind of hoping that they’re all just really sort manga and that I’m not reading incomplete ones! And thank you for the well-wishes for the day off. Unfortunately, I had impromptu plans sprung on me that day that ate up most of my day, which made me a little cranky, not going to lie. I’m doing all I can to keep with commission timelines though, even with Etsy and real life…might require some burning of the midnight oil, but I’m holding up and doing well 😊 Yeah, caffeine is the god I worship, haha, as someone who isn’t overly religious. I don’t usually go through a pot that quickly though. Most mornings, I make the standard 12-cup pot around 6:30 and keep it on warm until I finish it around noonish. That day though, gone in about three hours, give or take. It’s not even keeping me awake so much anymore, thanks to having such a high caffeine tolerance, it’s more to keep away the migraines and because I find coffee soothing and sometimes, all I need is a short break to make a cup of coffee, just move and have a moment away from the computer to get the next burst of inspiration for what to write next. I’m excited to read those then! And I’m glad I’m not the only one who saw the resemblance then, even if it’s been a dog’s age since I actually watched or read D. Gray-Man. I wonder if that series ever wrapped up…things for later Dee to look up, I think! Speaking of Demon Slayer though, I paused everything else I was watching because I got in the mood to watch that. So I’m done the first season and the Mugen Train movie. However, when I go to the next season, it’s a really short season that just looks like the movie? I need to figure out if Crunchyroll just screwed up and put the movie into episodes or if those Mugen Train episodes are actually episodes or not, so I need to Google that too. Just every time I sit down at the computer, I get to working on creating playlists and storyboards for all the commissions instead of googling that, haha. I’m really enjoying it so far, though I’m pissed at the movies ending, because I thought I finally found a character that would be my favourite and then it was like the anime decided to just be laugh and be like ‘ha, fuck you’ lmao. I’m excited to continue it, just need to clear that up first! And Avatar is just incredible. I hope everyone has at least given it a try, and if any of my readers haven’t, please go check it out. You won’t be disappointed you did, I promise 😊 Sokka was definitely my initial favourite because of the comic relief, though I remember really liking Toph after her introduction too!

It still amazes me that the author was able to tell a complete and full story of the magnitude that Demon Slayer seems to be setting it’s story up in that few of chapters. It must have been very well-paced and without any extras then! I wish I could find the manga to read, though I am very much enjoying the anime (and to answer before the question is asking, I am watching the dub because it makes it so much quicker to watch). Thank you for explaining that and it’s really neat that the final arc was divided like that! I wonder if they’ll do a season for the first mini-arc then and a final movie to end it all, because that might be interesting if they do. I really enjoyed the first movie, felt it moved along well and was mostly well done (my biggest complaint about Demon Slayer so far is that sometimes the CGI is super noticeable and visually jarring and fuck me, were those CGI train tentacles something else and entirely unpleasant visually in that movie). I haven’t got to see much more of Genya other than Selection, where obviously you weren’t seeing the best of him. In fact, he was pretty damn easy to hate in that episode but still interested me, so I’m looking forward to re-encountering him in The Swordsmith Village Arc.

No problem, of course 😊 And I feel like a lot of the Bleach filler arcs were very forgettable, so I wouldn’t worry any! I definitely haven’t seen that particular filler arc of Fairy Tail, or if I have, I forgot it entirely, but I will check it out when I do a Fairy Tail reread! Thanks for the heads up on that! You know, I hadn’t thought about that, but I’m pretty sure the Beyblade I watched had an English opening song too, come to think of it! It’s been a real long time since I watched it, though it’s in my rewatch list (along with Digimon Adventures and Yu-Gi-Oh!, like the child I am, haha!). Yay, I’m excited for when you eventually get around to it 😊 And that sounds like a movie that I would absolutely adore, since I do love me some character focus, but if that was the only adaption the match got and it was an important match, then it also should have been shown and focused on in its entirety as well, so I can get the frustration. And it definitely sounds like it was a very important match, to have stretched across that many chapters, so I am so sorry the movie was such a let down. It also sucks to hear there might not be another season! It doesn’t make sense for them to wrap everything up in just two movies! Especially since a movie can’t realistically cover more than 20 decent-length chapters without rushing! I’m excited to get to that Hinata moment then 😊 And yeah, I’m noticing that about the Haikyuu characters and am appreciating the characterization in it, especially compared to some other sports manga I’ve watched or read. I’m sorry to hear that. I know people like that and do know how hard they can be to deal with, so I wish you luck and peace! I am very excited, actually, to see all the Hashira’s fighting styles, now that I’ve met them and seen at least one of theirs (somewhat…the Hashira did really little fighting in comparison to the others but we won’t get into my feelings on that.) And thank you 😊 We had had a lovely time! I hope you’re doing amazing, my dear!

[clueblake74]

I watched the Miraculous Movie.

I’m not going to say I hated it. I watched it with my little sister, and there were some moments I loved. But they unfortunately didn’t outweigh the other things about it. Spoilers ahead. 

I feel like everything I have to say about the movie has been said before. The animation was pretty. The character interactions with Ladybug and Chat Noir were pretty awesome at times. *Ahem. THE WALL SLAM.* I also liked Marinette trying to reject the miraculous And the reason why they get the miraculouses makes a lot more sense to me. 

But then there were not so awesome moments like when Chat Noir pretended to be hurt to see if Ladybug liked him. Or the moment after the wall slam when Chat says “Don’t go 🥺.” Idk I couldn’t deal with that part. 

I couldn’t help but notice that they NERFED Luka in the movie. 

Okay, looking at them side by side, the movie Luka looks like a normal human boy. But where are the earrings? Where’s the flavor? 

Speaking of flavor. I am obsessed with Marinette’s dress. 

THE WINGS??!!! So cute. Made enduring all of the musical numbers almost worthwhile.

I know some people liked them, depending on which version they watched. I was tempted to watch the German version because I heard that was pretty decent. But I was watching with my sister and she doesn’t speak German so we stuck with the English dub. Which was... fine. No one sounded like their character except for Gabriel. But Keith Silverstein is in literally every anime and video game on the planet. So I can imagine he’s done some singing in character. 

Right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMhIwCLiBN8

Anyway. What was I talking about? 

Oh yeah. Gabriel. I loved Gabriel in this movie. I loved the long hair. His little character design was so cute. It made me really like Gabriel. And I want to repeat a point that my little sister made about him after the movie. 

She basically said “So the hero and main character of this movie is actually Gabriel?” And I think she was right in a way. Gabriel is the reason why any of this is happening in the first place. Gabriel is the reason why it ended. Gabriel is the one who gets all of this backstory and growth. 

I know they tried a “be true to yourself” arc for Marinette in the movie. But none of it feels earned or real. With Gabriel, you can feel he actually loves his family. In the movie at least he is going out of his way to protect Adrien. He immediately stops his destructive behavior as soon as he sees what it has done to his son. Which is a moment I think a lot of people were hoping for. 

But what about our main characters? What growth do they see? How do they change? Marinette grows out of her fearfulness. Cool. And Adrien, as per usual, doesn’t really get an arc. He is simply acted upon by is father and the plot. I think it’s fine that he accepted the miraculous no question. He’s silly like that. But he seems to have a total of two aspects to himself. Sadness about losing his mom and being in love with Ladybug. I know this might seem weird of me to say, but he feels like a woman written by a man. 

The reason why we don’t like women written as jaded people who eventually ‘get better’ through the power of love isn’t just because they’re women. It’s because it’s a terrible way to write a character. Any growth they have belongs to another character. Even when he realizes his father is the literal villain... there’s nothing about that? You couldn’t have scrapped one song to explore that? 

Maybe that’s why he wasn’t at the dance right away and Marinette finds him and they have a little chat about that? The plot of the movie felt very disjointed and unreal to me because of this. 

One last point I’d like to talk about is how it seems people are divided because they are a) excited and happy the movie is finally out, or b) disappointed because the movie doesn’t follow the show’s lore to a T. 

I frankly could care less about the movie following the lore. I liked the things they added, like their miraculouses glowing when they were calling for each other. If you’ve read my fanfiction, you know I’m fine with the lore being tossed up. But I don’t think the movie did that. In fact, it’s as if they expected you to already know what the backstory of the miraculous was, and hopefully not get too confused when they changed things or even just left stuff out. If they were going to change what the miraculouses did, I think it could have been explained better. 

That’s my two cents on the movie. That’s totally why I haven’t uploaded in *checks calendar*… almost four weeks. Whoops. 

Thanks for reading!

This post has been sponsored by VW. 

[concalewip]

Hello, everyone! I'm new to writeblr, and my name in Con. (Obvs not my real name) I'm going to be writing a book, called Concale, which is also the name of the main character. This book is centered around three homeless kids, Concale, Alito and Catario. There will be more details under the cut.

Concale is the person that the book is told by, and one very interesting fact about them is they do not speak at all in the book. It's not that they're mute, them talking is referenced at points in the book, and it's very obvious that they have inside jokes with their friends, but inside the book they do not talk.

Concale

CON-cale

Description

Concale is fairly plain looking, with blond hair, brown eyes and pale skin. They have a tendency to wear big hoodies and trousers.

Alito is the (at some point not yet) partner of Concale. They use a cane for most of the book due to a leg injury in chapter one, and they can and will break kneecaps with it.

Alito

a-LEET-o

Description

Alito has brown hair, blue eyes and pale skin. They have a tendency to wear long black capes, (think Sherlock from the BBC show) and jeans.

Catario is often considered the mum friend, and they often do help Alito and Concale with their problems, which will probably become an arc, them learning they don't have to always be on standby for the other two.

Catario

caurt-AR-rio

Description

Catario has dark, poofy hair, brown eyes and brown skin. They have a tendency to wear hoodies, and skirts.

The world it's set in.

The world, called Tarithor, is a lush world, rife with forests and jungles, with plenty of fauna. It has several small islands, and the mainland, which is where it's set. Everyone has their own "tribe" which is generally where you were born. The reason for these separate "tribes" is the powers the gods gift select few individuals. The actual book is set in the light tribe, although all three are from other tribes, Concale, the life tribe, Alito, the dark tribe, and Catario, the chance tribe. Unfortunately, none of them have powers, and get by on being small and quiet.

Conclusion

Concale is currently still on its first draft, and honestly I don't entirely know if I'll ever finish it. That's why I made this blog! I hope that you guys will give me inspiration, ideas and peer pressure me into actually writing the book. So... Yeah!

[classychassiss]

Fandom does this a lot, yeah, nearly anything I've been in will have people tweak characters into things they are not for the sake of angst. I've seen villains who were already plenty evil become egregious monsters who do things that are NEVER even hinted at and have that be accepted as fanon, and its very gross.

Which is why I feel like its really important just every now and then, bring it up and get people thinking about WHY they do the things they do. I'll be really upfront: I'm not comfortable with the one Black Man in the game, (who may be seen as ND as well) being made so villainous and just have that be the norm, and I think the fact that Robin is (not always but often) still seen in a good light, leaves a sour taste in my mouth. If it were just fics I might chalk it up to the indulgence fic writers engage in with a side eye. I can't really stop anyone, power to you I guess! Unfortunately even like, SDV youtubers have called Demetrius an 'evil robot' (which is realllllly iffy if you do in fact read him as ND) and rank him super low, where as characters like say, Pierre or Pam will get shit but almost like, fondly? Very comedic? Thats kind of what I mean, its the context and approach.

As for Pam: I love Pam and Penny, and Pam I understand why she's empathized with so I hope me singling them out isn't seen negatively. I'm more making a point of the flippancy of like, assumed dynamic versus something thats in your face: Penny has been caretaking her mother who is dealing with her issues and they fight, and they get better with time and love each other even if its hard. You actually can see a Pam or Pierre dealing with strife with their kids and in Pam's case, her anger whether outward or inward. Demetrius though? Even after that weird heart event with Maru, if you tell Maru the truth and you talk to Demetrius after the fact, he sheepishly apologizes to you. Honestly I kinda feel bad for the fact that a lot of scenes seem to be him flubbing a situation, he doesn't get the same arc as most even though he's the parent of two bachelors. I say that to say that like, I just think its weird that a person would then see him in game and be like 'yep thats the guy whos going to scream at Sebastian and ridicule him' like WHERE?

I do think the writing in the game could have approached the Mountain Family a little better, especially with Demetrius and Sebastian, and again, some of the events for Demetrius boil down to choices more for friendship points than like, development if that makes sense, and that doesn't help him even though said instances like the bed argument or the fruit argument feel pretty harmless and comedic, I can see how some people viewed it as like, purposeful. Rather confusingly, the game mostly includes Robin in Sebastian's heart events but Demetrius in Maru's, and that ALSO doesn't help in like the idea that they're supposed to be one unit. I wish I knew why that was the case, maybe some in-game dialogue from Demetrius about his step-son could have helped, but I can't really undo that. All I can do is make the case that even if he's not the best step-parent, it doesn't mean he deserves to be mischaracterized so badly for the sake of drama and I lament the commonality of it.

And yes! Thats exactly it, its a two way thing for sure: Sebastian absolutely isolates from his family and you gotta take that into consideration with how he views things. Like, from Sebastian's POV we get those feelings of feeling inadequate for sure, but then by the same token, when you talk to Maru, she talks about how she wishes she and Sebastian were closer, if you marry her she comments that if Sebastian wasn't a hermit she'd invite him over for dinner, and when you have kids with Sebastian later on if you marry him, he says this:

“I hope and [child] are nice to each other. Maru and I always fought as kids. If I think back on it, it was mostly my fault…”

And I personally took that to mean he was reflecting on himself , that yeah hes worried about favoritism from his own experience but also acknowledges he didn't always make it easy for Maru either. I don't think anyone would be quick to call Sebastian an asshole for having a strained relationship with his baby half sister though, because they can empathize with how complicated that can be, but they can still feel for Maru too. And Maru in turn, has a little of that obliviousness/dreaminess to her and her actions (like her dad to a degree!) but its never malicious and I don't think anyone would paint her as an asshole to Sebastian if she wasn't picking up how Sebastian was feeling when she's juggling her own stuff.

So like, in that same vein, Demetrius has his issues, but when Sebastian in game just straight up says Demetrius isn't his real father (when he has a half sister who isn't that much younger than him, implying Demetrius has been with the family for awhile and is otherwise happily married to his mom), where Sebastian often isolates from the whole family and not just his step-dad, and Demetrius has issues communicating with his family and hes got a book in his room about how to be a better step-dad, I think its kinda fair to assume it isn't that simple.

I'm not gonna lie: it kind of sucks that a lot of SDV Fics and even Mods have instances where Demetrius is straight up abusive to Sebastian and people have coded actual divorce mods for him and Robin when like, canonically he doesn't do those things? He's painted so aggressive and it sucks. Like yeah, the game touches on his favoritism with his biological daughter, there is no doubt thats an issue and Sebastian laments this a lot, but I don't see why that means he also has to be cruel to Sebby, or like Robin would still be with him and just Let Him abuse her son? His scenes suggest like, at worst that he's incredibly oblivious and bad at communication, at worst he's no more flawed than other adults in SDV.

Which sucks even MORE because there actually IS a character who is seen struggling to be nice to their child - a few actually!- but specifically Pam, with ACTUAL angry sprites and topics of being harsh to Penny in her heart event (you literally can call her out on it if you upgrade their house) and while sometimes people can be nasty to Pam about it, I don't see nearly the same vitriol so like. HMM.

It'd be nice to see Demetrius and Sebastian interact more friendly, even if its awkward. Like, Demetrius of all people would probably understand Sebastian's job in programming and computer science given that one of his own main recipes is a Farm Computer and Maru ALSO dabbles in robotics. I'm positive that if he has any issues, it's because he thinks he ought to be more logical and not coding games, but still, you can address one form of bad parenting without making up another to add onto it lmao

[millionyearhearts]

SPOILERS!!!!!!!

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

ok so i genuinely adored this season, most of it was so good and brilliant and i was in tears and i almost threw up like 3 times it definitely had a grip on me like nothing else and i'm glad i got to experience volume two. the writing, for the most part, was actually very good and i loved just how tense and beautiful and horrifically wrenching it was

with that being said...i *hate* what they did with will and mike and el. i fucking loathe it. it was the one downside to an otherwise awesome vol2 and unfortunately it ruined so much of the season for me i can't help but feel just...deep, coiling dismay whenever i think about it for too long

so:

-for mike's monologue, i think finn's performance was very good. he is an enchanting actor and his deliverance was so compelling. imo, love being the source of el's strength is so vital- a lot of people call it cheesy, but i personally think it is a brilliant choice, narratively, to satisfy her character arc. she was born with power. she was born with strength. she was born with resolve. however...she never knew real love, and we can see through the show that she grew stronger as she formed connections and attachments to other people. loving people- and having them love her all the same- gave her a reason to care. gave her a reason to fight. helped her understand her world better and establish her own identity, her own personhood, as these things were stripped away from her from the moment she first opened her eyes. to love and to be loved gave her the ability to exercise her own autonomy. after all, to love is to be human! and all her life, people treated her as though she wasn't human. they thought she was a machine, essentially. so having mike tell her he loves her and truly believes in her is actually a good idea, narratively speaking. she was at her lowest, but one of the most important people in her life reminded her that she was strong, and that she was loved, and all she had to do was fight this one more battle, and she would be loved no matter the outcome of said battle. he admitted to her unconditional love, and she needed that. she needed to remember that she was whole, and that her power comes from the love within her. not from hate or anger, like 001's.

BUT. BUT. there is a big, fat, rotund "but."

mike's inability to say he loved her should NOT have been an issue at all. that should not have been a plot point. he's proven time and time again that he loves her, and he's NEVER been unexpressive. he has never hesitated to tell his friends how he cares about them, he has never hesitated to yell and scream and try to fight the individuals who cause anyone he loves harm. mike has loved her from the start, right? he's loved her since he was 12 years old, and, yeah, he's a dumb teen boy in the 80s, but he's not *actually* stupid. he's brilliant, really, and has an acute sense of understanding of the people he loves and their emotions. it just...seems uncharacteristic for him to be unable to say "i love you" when he literally tried to beat up hopper 2 seasons prior for keeping the knowledge of the fact that she was alive away from him LMAO like, homeboy has never had chill, homeboy has always been warm and expressive and open. why did they muck it all up these last 2 seasons? where does this development come from? it'd be one thing if they'd touched on this at all, if, maybe, something happened in his family or he was having an identity crisis, but, FUCK, they need to show this stuff on-screen! his shift in character is so radical but so important to the plot and they just don't talk about it. "oh, well, this is just how he is now hehe, he can't even say i love u 😢😢" but like. why.

it feels underdeveloped and therefore made the build-up to this intense, overwhelming, emotional scene so much...less than all those things. his deliverance is wonderful, bc finn will always be an incredible actor, but the script...just doesn't work. the concept works, but...all they really needed to do was change the wording. not make it about HIM and his weird, undisclosed issue that doesn't make a lot of sense and betrays the dignity of his character. but make it about her. her, and how she's loved. how they all love her- not just him. bc it isn't just romance that saves her. it isn't romance, necessarily, that lends her strength.

"el, i need you to hear me on this, and i need you to understand. i love you. i love you, and i always have. and not a day goes by in which i don't think about you. you're one of my best friends, one of the most important people in my life. and it's not just me. will adores you- you're basically his sister, and he'd do anything for you. max is your best friend, and i know i was a jerk, but, damn, el, there's no one who makes her smile quite like you. johnathan here is scared outta his mind for you- you're his little sister and he needs you to be okay. lucas and dustin want to see you again more than anything. they want you to visit, they want you to call. of course they do. el, you're one of the most important people in all our lives. we *love* you. and we all believe in you! you can fly, you can move mountains, *we* truly believe that. and right now...we need you to keep fighting just a little more. i need you to. i know it's hard, and scary, and i don't even know if you can hear me, but...please...keep going, keep fighting, and no matter the outcome- if you win or lose, if you succeed or fail, you'll be loved regardless. you'll wake up and we'll be right here, because we love you, and all we've ever wanted is for you to be safe. just hold on a little longer. i love you. *we* love you. and nothing in this world will ever change that- powers or no powers, together or apart, you're apart of this party for life"

and that's cheesy as fuck, and obviously could use some edits, but...i feel like that'd be more in-character? to be able to say with ease that he loves her, but he isn't the only one: that she has multiple people who want her to be safe and who care for her and just believe in her!!

bc her strength can't come purely from romantic attachment. sure, that can be part of it, but...i feel like it's more satisfying for "love to be the saving factor" (fave trope, if you couldn't tell) to include more than one kind of love. because i would want el to remember her friends and her family ALONGSIDE her boyfriend, you know? that she's loved across the board, and she is stronger with it.

this leads to my next talking point, and why, while i did enjoy the concept of mike's monologue, i didn't enjoy the execution:

-will. so, will gives him the painting and basically admits that el (ahem, will) will always need mike, and that he is the heart of the party. that he keeps them together. that he's wonderful and perfect and all that heartbreaking, almost hopeless queer pining. that scene broke my heart. this poor boy expressed his deepest feelings, his most thorough fear, and mike just...obliviously nods along and smiles? now ofc that smile seemed a little bit...too tender...but that's not the point. no. he always knew when will was upset, he ALWAYS was able to pick up on when something is wrong. just a few days prior he knew will was in a bad mood at rink-o-mania despite paying like 0 attention to him 💀 that boy's empathy levels are actually rather high, and in one of the most...gut-wrenching, horrible scenes to endure (especially as a queer person), he just...loses that? for what, plot? as if mike wouldn't notice will sobbing into his hand? no. mike would. he would so fast, and he'd ask what was wrong, and he'd try to comfort will and find out what the problem was, because even if he didn't pick up on the fact that will was actually talking about himself and not el in his monologue, he would know that his best friend was hurting. and he wouldn't just let that slide.

and flash forward to the scene right before mike's monologue, will...*tells* him to be the heart of their party. to tell el what he feels. he pushes aside his own feelings, he suppresses it, and urges mike to confess his feelings, even though the comparison directly draws from a moment depicting a queer character's deepest and darkest turmoil...? like, it's almost as if the writers used will's homosexuality to try and push for "the het ship," and that's just...disgusting to me, honestly. yes, will is selfless. he is kind and brave and willing to endure the worst things for the people he loves. but for the writers to use his own monologue, his own confession, his own coming out scene, basically...and then using it to push mileven forward...like...yikes?? i kinda disliked that?? will's monologue was supposed to be...about him. even if he said el's name, it was meant to be about him. him and mike were supposed to have that moment, that understanding, that spark of mutuality and *sameness* and closeness without involving el, bc while el is one of my favorite characters...i'm tired of will's character and feelings being sidelined. he deserves to be acknowledged. he deserves to be seen. honestly, thank god for that scene with johnathan. as nice as it would've been to see an explicit, open coming out scene, where he tells johnathan that he's gay...i don't think it was the right time. i'm just glad johnathan saw him. truly saw him, and accepted him wholly, and loved him no matter what.

notice how i have a deep infatuation with unconditional love and the power it holds?? idk if you have yet lol

honestly, i'm just kinda sickened with what they did to will. sidelined him, made him the queer, hopeless, sad boy whose feelings were deemed less important than his het counterparts. i'm upset with what they did to mike. trashed his character, forgot who he is at his core, and made him seem so much worse and cruel than he actually is. i'm disenheartened by what they did to el. reinforced this idea that her savior is romantic love, disregarded the important roles other forms of love have made in her life, and neglected to acknowledge that love doesn't save her bc she's weak- it saves her because, in people caring about her, she was given autonomy. and in caring in return, she was able to understand both herself and others- and that she, for the first time, comprehends to her very core that she has people (including herself) to fight for. very sad.

AND IT WAS ONLY THESE FEW SCENES. THE REST OF VOL2 WAS SO GOOD AND WELL-PUT TOGETHER. IT WAS GENUINELY A MASTERPIECE (well idk about the johnathan/steve/nancy situation but that's a whole other can of worms) AND SO BEAUTIFUL AND ELICITED VERY VIBRANT EMOTIONS IN ME. I AM PLEASED- BUT WHY, OH WHY, DID THEY HAVE TO COMPLETELY S H A T T E R (not just ruin, but completely DECIMATE) THE HEART-TO-HEARTS?? SOME OF THE MOST IMPORTANT MOMENTS IN THE WHOLE SHOW!! THEY REVEAL TRUE MOTIVATIONS, THEY REVEAL TRUE THOUGHTS, THEY GIVE UPCOMING MATERIAL IN THE NEXT SEASON....

how could they just...vecna them like that??

the duffers lie just like papa. anywho i will be jumping out of a moving car