#esp for the upcoming arcs

[heyhanibee]

今煉獄さんがいたよね

“Rengoku-san was just here, wasn’t he?”

[raelyn-dreams]

Rereading some Hiiro stories in preparation for VS Audience and I've never really noticed this before but I actually really adore how Yuumasu writes him? It feels super respectful characterization-wise by showing how his upbringing and intelligence aren't mutually exclusive, and the Hiiai relationship is very much a two-way street whenever I see them together in their stories, which is what I wish more writers would focus on!

Anyways all this to say please read Keito Lecture, Keito Lecture my beloved.

[baeshijima]

haha well guess who caught up with and finished season 5 of [inso’s law] and now has to wait until summer for season 6 and is super totally incredibly fine and ready for it and definitely didnt nearly throw up from crying so much from the last couple of chapters :D

[scarletiswailing347]

augh i have so many Thoughts about the stream today but i do Not have the words nor complete thought for it

[angelpuns]

Kid Leo Au: Reunion - Part 7!

Part 7 :)

CJ joined the hug <33 I don't really like how I drew Draxum for this part, esp after I have actually made a reference, but ehh what can you do :/ I spent soooo much time on the big emotional scene that when I went to draw the rest of this arc I was already a bit tired haha

I do plan on reskeching some upcoming parts though, so hopefully the slight drop in quality won't continue :P

NEXT TIME ON KID LEO AU....WILL SOMEONE EVENTUALLY EXPLAIN TO DRAXUM WTF IS GOING ON???

Kid Leo Au Masterpost | First | Next

[dangerous-drabbles]

i was planning for/trying to get iwf updated today, but i'm not sure it's gonna happen ): aiming for tomorrow though!

until then, here's some sneak peeks of the upcoming chapter! (all subject to change <3)

APOCALYPSE BRACKET ROUND 1 THIRD POLL

It was futile

By @dangerous-advantage

VS

Our future days

By @cryptidpandas

[israaverse]

This is probably a result of diminishing expectations but it's wild how Civil War was the last movie to give Bucky a decent look, because every appearance since then seems intent on making him uglier and hideouser— okay wait I just realized I'm kinda exaggerating his look on the Falcon show wasn't bad I'm just letting my hate for that shows writing & the it's exemplification of nearly all the ways Marvel used the Cap brand to push propaganda cloud my perception of the visuals..... but everything else! jail. (can you tell I just discovered what he looks like in the quote "degenerate villain" squad movie?)

NGL they did Steve bad but at least they killed him off. Seeing how they made a decent Cap2 with blatant cliffhanger-setup for a sequel continuing that storyline just to... not continue it & instead cast Bucky as The Bad Guy of the Group because of multiple directors+writers (explicitly admitted in interviews) hate for Bucky... is still wild. They practically dropped his entire character development arc after only hinting at it in an end credit scene. And it's a large part of why Steve's character circled the drain too before getting killed off because the core part of Steve's character arc was dependent on Bucky's story arc actually being continued instead of randomly dropped for multiple back to back crossover events.

Marvel managing to make one decent movie out of CapAm is more of a curse than anything. It'd have been better if expectations never got lifted off the ground and just kept the characters rah rah 🇺🇲 PatriotMonologueBotd all the way through like in the comics, which aren't very good.... at all. If you thought the propaganda is gonna be bad in the upcoming Cap4 movie, the DNC-style patriotism of the Captain America brand becomes is even worse in the comics, and it gets worse to stomach with IRL events making it seem more and more out of touch. Treating the USA flag (and its representatives) as a literary symbol of moral virtue gets more and more ridiculous with each new run of books (like, did you know that a recent run decided to flashback to WW2 just to include a revisionist-fake-history speech about how the Zlonlsts were a large force fighting against the Nazis, whereas IRL the opposite happened). How a single decent adaptation was managed to be pulled out of the source material is still kinda shocking. But now Marvel seems to have remembered that the CapAm brand is meant for their white writers to pull out atrocious political takes via superheroes. Back to tradition!

the fact that writers n directors hate him baffles me bc Winter Soldier is such a good setup but they just let him FLOAT AROUND? A SET PIECE? AN OBJECT OF THE PLOT????? like you MADE HIM THAT WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

im convinced that the US military propaganda contracts completely neutered his MCU character bc if u think about it for more than 5 seconds you start coming to Conclusions (didnt WS point out that the US govt hired a bunch of nazi scientists, framed him as JFK's assassin, etc etc etc.....) and they made the decision to just nuke him as a result. Oooh he was just a bad guyyy all alooong SHUT UPPPP hes morally grey even an antihero for a bit but hes not EVIL he is literally the poster boy of being manipulated into doing atrocities for the interests of a greater power and they just. dropped it. on its ass. esp with the stupid Sabra and Zionism bullshit its like ohhh i see we are gearing up for a media push for fascist nationalistic narratives for a draft or more wars and the presence of moral grayness isnt conducive to that so its just cut. got it.

like the Falcon show was........ so clearly cut to erase that moral grayness it made me ill. so ill i even sought out WS' presence in the comics and like you said its just not cutting it even slightly. they flattened him which SUCKS but also they made him UGLY WHICH IM WAY MADDER ABOUT. IF I CANT HAVE HIS MORAL COMPLEXITY WHY DID YOU UNSEXIFY HIMMM

IT DOESNT EVEN MAKE FINANCIAL SENSE BC I WAS ONLINE WHEN PEOPLE WERE FROTHING AT THE MOUTH OVER HIM SO WHYYYYYYYYY DO THEY HIT HIM WITH THE MOST ATROCIOUS WIGS TO EVER BE SEEN IN AN MCU MOVIE IM ILLLLLL

FIRING SQUAD, ELECTRIC CHAIR, THE GALLOWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MULTIBILLION DOLLAR MOVIE AND THEY ONLY GOT HIM SYNTHETIC IM SO SICK!!!!!!!!!!!!

LOOK AT WHAT THEY TOOK FROM US!!!!!!!!!! SNIPPED LIKE A GODDAMN BARBIE , THE AURA!!!! IM SO MAD

i remember being SO excited when civil war came out bc the kind of political thriller feeling of winter soldier was so enrapturing!!!!! it captured me in a way the other MCU films lacked, so to see him stagnate like he has is just mortifying. especially visually. if they wanted to commit to the whole "hair holds memories"/buzz cut to visually separate himself from what he's done then DO IT!!!! dont linger at the threshold then go back to cash in on his old look but done BADLY. i almost wish he got killed off in civil war or shortly after because hes so clearly become a Plot Device instead of a Character and its so disappointing.

sorry for the super long un-art related post but oh my god this gets me so wound up, Bucky/WS was my first brainrot from back in my forum days (had an RP partner who based their character off him).

[kattythingz]

I love Al in 03 but if I were Ed.... I would have had to body slam Al into another dimension for even considering that Ed created his memories artificially...

It put so much into perspective when you think about it though, I don't see enough people talking about how tormenting it must have been to be bonded to a suit of armor for years, and then the threat of the armor rejecting his soul at any point hanging over his head? Al must be so traumatized, and now I'm imagining how he would have grappled with having a real, living, breathing body after the end of the series. Ed and Al both went through some of the most terrible shit ever, but Al was just constantly detached from..everything. Ed's thing was that he was only human, but Al... I can't imagine that he felt human at all. He couldn't feel, breathe, sleep or smell. Years of not being able to do any of things that made him physically human, only clinging to memories of his past that were already rapidly fading as he grew older, and then being given back his original form but having to accept the huge sensory overload? I need the Al physical and mental therapy arc NOW! Wake up the writers and force them to create another series.

And this one is random but in the Clara/Psiren episode, Al's mommy issues were showing TERRIBLY.

I also have opinions on the homunculi wanting to become human but I haven't seen enough to create a huge paragraph yet so you can expect that one soon

Yeaaaaah Al's whole existential crisis makes a lot more sense and it's a lot more devastating in 03, cuz Al almost has "proof" thanks to how differently things went down in Fifth Lab. It makes his reaction to it in the hospital kinda understandable (tho still hurtful. Poor bby Ed, he's already traumatized Al come on ;;). ALSO YEAH, PSIREN'S EP REALLY SHOWCASES BOTH THEIR MOMMY ISSUES LMAO. Ed cuz he's in denial and refuses to compare anyone to his super special mommy, and Al cuz he's just desperate for any maternal love.

Oh dude I LOVE how complex the homunculi are in 03. Lust's upcoming arc is esp so good to me. It's the reason why I love her character despite fmab rendering her flat again. I just. I adore how 03 handles them all.

[mochiwrites]

Hihi Mochi you want people to continue sharing songbird insanity with you?

I love it so much, and I eagerly waiting in anticipation for the next chapter of good intentions because HOW ARE THEY GONNA GET OUT OF THERE ALIVE??? Grian coming in clutch mayhaps cause he's lived his whole life without magic. Just don't get hurt again Grian I don't think I can handle anymore guilt.

Cleo as Fae King is so beautiful <3333 I had been hoping it would be them and I screamed in excitement when I saw their name on the page.

Fwhip is a little genius spooky man sneaking in like that. I love the way you're written him this far.

Also Doc <33 the way he just covered for Grian and accepted that eh was undercover but went "👀 okay but you're explaining this to me later" dad vibes. I hope mans doesn't get hurt I don't think I could handle Mumbo's sadness if that Happens /dramatic

Also unrelated to good intentions itself but I love Tubbo and Scar's relationship in songbird's blood and I'm also feeling for Tubbo so hard after finding out that actually hey your dad isn't a human also the supernatural exists and ALSO not only is your dad not human he KILLS people and is THE Grim Reaper.

Also also will Tubbo ever meet Bdubs, the moss man living in his basement? :3

Also Mumbo, Grian and Scar <333 three lonely men in three different ways and they're all coming Together and even though they've got a lot of hurdles to go through they're finding their way to each other. Mumbo and Grian constantly holding hands also makes me so giddy /pos

hehehe yes. YESSSSS >:3c

I have so much lined up in this next chapter that’s MMMMMMMM very tasty. very !!!!!!!!! the idea of the characters not being able to use magic is SUCH a fun idea to me because now they have to be ✨creative�� about how they handle this. and it’s so exciting because we really are all sitting here like “crap how DO they get out of this???” I’m so excited

I love cleo as fae king for SO many different reasons. all of which I cannot say because spoilers </3 but 🥺 hehe I’m glad I could deliver on the excitement :D

WAHHHHH TY ;w; I don’t have too much experience with fwhip’s character outside of like. seeing him in sausage’s pov in empires. so I’m running with nothing but vibes and a dream LMAO. but ough his character in this upcoming chapter is <3333 he’s got some lines that I think everyone will be so normal about mhm mhm

I’m so glad the dad vibes for doc are coming through SKCKDKCKFK he’s honestly so fun to write emfkdkfk esp with him just accepting grian is under cover So easily like he did. I’m sure he’ll be fine though :>

TUBBO AND SCAR’S DYNAMIC MAKES ME CRY WAHHHHHHH. I have some stuff set up for them in this arc that I’m ;-; about. fr wanna hold tubbo so gently in my hands—his entire world got flipped upside down :( and things are only about to get crazier </3

he technically already has met bdubs :D prior to canon actually starting. but who knows…. Maybe we’ll see them interacting :3c

just in general the three of me make me so :(((( they’re all dealing with their own form of loneliness and wahhhhhh. somehow they all end up gravitating toward one another 🥺 things are. Going to get Tough for them in this arc but they’ll be stronger for it <3

[ravenkinnie]

thoughts on jinx largely using pink for her graffitis because the color reminds her of vi??

i like to think its true bcs it makes all those years of stewing resentment/longing/grieving before she sees vi again hits a little more harder. vi seeps into even the most trivial parts be it conscious or subconscious. even in her 'JINX' grafitti tag the first letter 'JI' is drawn in a shape similar with 'VI' the letter J is just tilted kind of, which is a blatant visual representation of how jinx's heart and soul yearns for her sister. its these little things that truly make me realize how obsessed jinx is with vi & idk to me the fandom doesnt talk enough ab it.

I mean I'll be real lads, jinx was using pink way before arcane and before her and vi were even sisters and I think they chose it because pink and blue go well together and now shes stuck with it forever ksjsjsj. I'm also glad s2 is coming out soon because the more people try to find VI in every poster the more I'm starting to feel like that encanto tweet that's like were running out of things to say about this movie jaisusj

don't get me wrong, I'm also prone to delusions, like riot renewed their K/DA trademark and I've been reading signs in the water and the sky for an upcoming EP/album so its not like I also don't live in delululand but my stance is we don't need to read the posters for signs of jinx's feelings towards vi when jinx already told us. like vi is one of the two protagonists we already know she's central to the story and we know that the vi jinx relationship is the centre of the show and the heart of it. and if you don't realise that then I think you will really love arcane because clearly you've never seen it before jajsjksks

but like, they are the centers of each others stories, vis entire arc in s1 is basically just defined by her sister and s2 will probably do little to change that at least in the first half. we know jinx defines herself outside of vi in some ways but she can't really cut her off, she says explicitly vi is a voice she heard over the years, and seven years on a bitch that slightly looks like vi is a trigger. silcos dead ass or not, that's not something you just move past, vi will always be the most important figure. esp since based on trailers we saw so far it seems that jinx in her current position is not living her best life, we've only seen her struggling and looking devastated so far and I assume vi will also not be thriving so I think it will only emphasise how they really are all each other has. and you can say vi has caitlyn now but first of all, caitlyn is insane amd also a bitch and now has personal and political beef with her sister. second of all, caitvi fandom simply is classist so you would think its not a problem but the class divide between them is a huge part of vis character in league and I assume they will keep thay in arcane looking at the direction they are going towards. they both will never have another person like each other, someone who knows where you come from

the reason the fandom doesnt care about it is not because its not true and factual to the show, its just how this fandom works. firstly, nobody cares about platonic relationships already. secondly, parts of the fandom that care about jinx don't necessarily care about vi and parts of the fandom that care about vi don't necessarily care about jinx so hilariously there doesn't seem to be a ton of overlap between the two parts of the fandom where you would have that relationship explored. and it's a very messy relationship that doesn't show either of them in the best light and fanon content is chronically allergic to complicated dynamics so at most you're getting like ship fics with background vi and jinx fluff or like few throwaway angst lines. and most meta on them just tries to argue that the other one is the problem kskskksksj

[minecraftrelatedrandomness]

my pirates death predictions tier list as of 4 dec 2023 lore (6 days until the end)

explanations under the cut

survival predictions

p!shelby survives purely on the basis of having skipped town offscreen. it would kinda be funny to me. if not that, she's a 50/50.

p!acho's chances are either dying in the kishi quest (for personal lore reasons) or in conjunction with p!scott (for familial lore reasons). with the current theory discussed on the powcreations discord (if both p!acho and p!apo survive the last lore stream, they end up on kishi island which they might have passed on their way to the ice wall), i personally doubt p!apo is gonna die.

i feel that to give p!apo a satisfactory ending, he's gonna have to have at least one more lore stream to tie up the loose ends. ESPECIALLY the alphie-related backstory and to have a satisfactory conclusion to the character arc. if p!acho dies in the kishi quest, p!apo is gonna survive.

i want p!el to have a happy resolution to her identity crisis. p!jojo is just there for vibes but at this point, "kill the cutie" could be in order for her.

either/or predictions

most of the 50/50 people aren't very active on the server and i jokingly call them cannon fodder bc of this; the rest are based purely on how much character lore they have (not much). p!water is there mainly because of the whole jeffery ordeal and i dunno if she's gonna live as a widow or join her hubby-that-could-have-been in the afterlife.

p!will and p!shep have upcoming lore tomorrow/day after (time zones are weird). p!shep is PROBABLY gonna survive it, given he's said on discord he'll livestream the finale, but i don't know if he'll make it PAST the finale.

p!graecie's chances of survival depend on the isles because her arc kinda ties into the nightingale faction leader thing. if the isles go down in the finale, she'll go down with them. if the isles make it out of the finale still standing, p!graecie MIGHT survive to grow as a leader in the in-universe future, but she might also die. if she dies, either p!acho or p!apo is gonna be left in charge, partially bc it would be funny but also partially for arc reasons.

p!owen skipped town back on nov 18 and i have no way of knowing if he's gonna live or die and i ain't gonna guesstimate that.

death predictions

with cc!scott dropping ominous lore hints in his most recent livestream (dec 3), P!SCOTT IS ALMOST DEFINITELY GOING TO DIE. probably to the cult, his parents (derog), or his own mental health issues, since those seem to be the biggest ongoing storylines for his character.

i've always envisioned p!michela to be on the chopping block ever since p!aimsey went missing due to entwined lore. but it's hard to say she's 99% gonna die when she has barely logged on in a long while, so yeah.

the only reason i put p!kuervo in 80% is because as a (fellow) totalitarian autocracy survivor, i want to hold out hope. but realistically speaking, with the stunt he pulled with the letter to the armada, he's more likely than not to end up executed. ESPECIALLY with the ending of his most recent livestream (dec 2). and also nov 18 ending.

i haven't watched p!kyle's most recent lore (nov 17) so this is based purely on vibes (legacy, what is a legacy) from what i know about that lore stream.

p!saus because evil sword lore. p!ros just has the "kill the cutie" vibes. also hunter (powcreations discord) predicts p!ros is gonna die in the process of trying to stop p!saus from turning full evil and i honestly think that tracks, esp since mufasa is out of the equation now (as of oct 30).

p!martyn is a weird case of "dying in the pirates universe and returning to the datastream". so he technically will die but also doesn't. i think it's the villain arc spurring me into this decision.

[whoslaurapalmer]

okay wait I have some omitb s4 ending thoughts, spoilers

-marshall's thing of 'am I a writer or am I a killer? maybe I have to be a killer to be a writer' was actually VERY tasty chewy but literally only existed for five minutes before he died. like, there could have (and SHOULD have) been sooooo much more build up to that, and I'm so disappointed!!!!!

-backtracking a moment, I loved seeing ron howard in episode 9 omg. ron howard miming slurping soup!!!!!!!!!!

- "don't TALK about the FISHING HOLE" as someone who still watches the occasional andy griffith rerun (as we all should) that was so fucking funny. holy fuck

-ANYWAY

-overwhelmingly omitb is a show that has a great, really fun and exciting buildup but the finales tend to fall a little flat, and with s1+2 I didn't mind, like that's not inherently bad -- it's a comedy murder mystery, it's allowed to be a little off and not completely clean in the plot!! it's okay!! (s2 is my top fav and I think the tightest and even I admit '14 sandwich' was a bizarre move.) and s3 was more Meh to me but still, fine, but s4......this ending was not doing it. and this season overall I really felt the holes in the writing style. Idk if it was the strike last summer? or if they are writing SO MUCH by the seat of their pants that it is starting to turn out much weaker than previous seasons. so many bad writing choices that make no sense in retrospect with the killer, things that were brought up purposely again and then never addressed so they're still unresolved, threads and implications (especially tied back to s3) that went NOWHERE, like i thought there was a real sense of, the writers trying to figure out their own story as they went along and not being able to do it successfully, I didn't feel like any of it was planned in the way like, jan's bassoon cleaner was in s1

-and even if that too was a 'figure it out as they went along' thing, that one still worked and felt more solid than whatever this season was doing!!!!!

-but I feel this way about the characters too -- s3 and s4 have still had gorgeous character moments but I feel like the writers have lost track of character arcs, ESPECIALLY oliver's

-I actually think it would have been more narratively satisfying for oliver to NOT marry, to recognize that he doesn't need to marry to be happy after his first "failed" marriage

-but I also think charles and oliver should get together at all times. so.

(-DONT ACT LIKE STEVE MARTIN AND MARTIN SHORT WOULD NOT WILLINGLY DO IT)

-THE FUCKING EMERGENCY CONTACT CONVO 😭😭

-I don't mind loretta, I like loretta's character, but I just don't dig her with oliver and I think their romance and keeping her on was a mistake, clearly evidenced by needing to write meryl off bc of I'm assuming upcoming scheduling conflicts and SENDING LORETTA TO NEW ZEALAND like..............what.......

-it was nice to have recognition of how much charles and mabel mean to oliver, but I feel like in s3+4 they've been so disjointed as a group and still haven't found that solid footing again. especially the way oliver treated mabel, in both seasons

(-was nice to see dickie and will at the wedding, though. that was sweet :) and winnie!!!!!)

-and mabel has such relatable moments esp re: being this floating adult trying to find her place but a lot of that. is going nowhere

-omitb is not an overwhelmingly dark show (even with having some super heavy moments this season) but charles being 100% ready to kill marshall???????????? incredible

-a big letdown in s3 for me was that charles threatening ben at the end of s2 was done so disappointingly when the reason finally was revealed in s3. that was just over loretta???? made no sense for charles to look THAT intense about it.

-they set up such an exciting idea and then!!!!!!!!!!! the execution!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-so I mean like the show has these really exciting dark charles moments (LET OLD STEVE MARTIN DO THE BEST DRAMATIC ACTING OF HIS LIFE GODDDDDDDDDDD!!) but almost killing marshall will likely never amount to anything.

-...............although.............

-jan being the one to shoot marshall and still insisting she and charles were endgame. food for thought......

-yeah but are the writers and I eating the same meal. you know?? we are eating at different genre restaurants.

-and again, it's a fun show that delights in being fun, and that's fine!!!

-this season was just. sigh.

-also I miss theo. love theo.

-BUT LESTER????????????????? BEING THE ONE TO DIE??????????? AFTER TALKING ABOUT HOW HE GOT MARRIED NEAR THAT FOUNTAIN???????????

-lester :(

-so I'm intrigued to see how this pans out esp w it being the presumed last season (bc steve martin has said the plan was always for five) but I'm also. will it be satisfying..............

-ALSO TEA LEONI???????????? gorgeous. very exciting to see her and definitely intrigued re: the mob thing.

-I thought a good s5 plan would be like, hints dropped in s4 that sazz had somehow uncovered a cold case (the one charles and oliver bring up at the end of s3 I think?) (would have made the notes in her apartment make more sense than WRITING A SCREENPLAY) (not awful but. sigh.) and whoever was responsible for that was the one who had poisoned winnie/sent the s1 notes/etc, like that would be a really well-rounded ending plot, I thought, but now idk

[hottakehoulihan]

Evolution

Characters behave recognizably canonically: Not really, but I had fun Not abandoned incomplete: Yes (Complete. Enough.) Engaging (Funny/cool/thoughtful/feels): Often enough. Do I recommend it: Not really, but I had fun

Premise: Zerg Queen Taylor; her trigger was augmented by Sarah Kerrigan against future need in another galaxy, but first Taylor's got to deal with stuff in Brockton Bay.

A recent post quipped (can't find it now) that the two most populated categories of wormfic are romance or curbstomp.

This one's more curbstomp. The author hadn't read Worm during most of the writing, and the hinted at future relevance of the Starcraft (and the teasered visit by S9, or the not-teasered Levi, or anything GM) never came to pass. The author finished reading Worm and decided to wrap the story up neatly and I guess someone could write the next arc/chapter if they wanted.

Taylor's growing capabilities have her with Crawler-level ability to become invulnerable, Esper powers, and the ability to boost the skills of her colleagues?

The author's newness to writing, incomplete familiarity with both Worm and--I suspect--Starcraft, and the fact that the fic feels like arc one of at least four? Means I can't recc it at all.

...but I did laugh out loud and kick my feet. If you're a fan of Starcraft or at least Sarah Kerrigan (I'm more the latter; esp. as she was in SC: Brood War) and if this sounds super interesting to you, you've probably already started reading

Spoilers down here because I don't think you'll read the story

I don't hate Starcraft 2, but I haven't finished it. ...and I kinda hate Blizzard nowadays (the character designs in Diablo 3 are unconscionable and the plot pissed me off and they seem to be leaning into everything 'problematic'. If their execs start openly using 'woke' as a pejorative I will be not at all surprised.)

But I do love the Sarah Kerrigan in my head, and I spent chunks of my childhood fantasizing about getting just one little larva and starting my own Zerg hatchery on some blasted unwanted land (there are places on the big island of Hawaii where land is like $3000 an acre because it's all just dried lava, and probably there are places in Death Valley or Chernobyl or something I could use)...

The story was fun in a few ways.

The author was team Wolfspider, and wrote Rachel to be almost instantly ready to lapdog for Taylor because Taylor was so strong and--with her empathic powers--good at understanding and making herself understood. Alec weirded Taylor out because of his sociopath emotions. Nazis were bad and got curbstomped. Lung got a little maternal fight-crush on Taylor after she fought him to a standstill, Danny triggered as a Starcraft:Terran tinker with reproducible tech, and oh yeah; being friends with Taylor means your powers get permanently boosted a little every day. And there's more.

The "wrapping things up because I'm done with this story" finale had Taylor get amnesty and pardons for all her friends and herself and also Canary.

If the story had continued,

the S9 would have showed up (TinkerGirl was chatting with Greg on PHO and also messaged Taylor about her upcoming visit...and was clearly Riley) but Taylor--not actually being shard-driven or having the Corona Matata in her head--would have no doubt won handily and taken big bites out of various S9 people and...well when she tastes capes she gets additional growth (the bite she took of Lung made a big initial difference.)

Gold Morning would have somehow been averted/accomplished. No idea what would have helped make that easier. Maybe Raynor and Kerrigan would have showed up and helped solve the problem? Or some Dark Templar Protoss?

And then Taylor and co would go visit Kerrigan's neck of the woods and solve whatever the major conflict is with the Starcraft 2 storyline I don't actually remember it was kind of boring me and I haven't looked at it in years.

But none of that happened.

But hey; it was a nice few hours of reading.

By my scoring, the story gets 1.5 or 2 stars out of four. ...but if it kept going I would keep reading it. I'm a slut like that.

[starry-bite]

this is wildly early and its relevance is further deferred by production halting for strikes (<3), but i've been thinking a lot lately about amber gray's guest star spot on the upcoming season of the gilded age, and i just.

i'm obviously so pumped to see her in this show's costumes, reunited with denée and patrick, and on high profile television in general, but i also have a little twist in my stomach about the deep segregation of storylines in this series and how clearly it lets me predict what her role will look like. esp because she wasn't announced with the first batch of guests. (my bet is she's going to be involved with the arc of retrieving peggy's son, maybe his adoptive mother?)

which like, obviously, these racial conventions are true of the period and make sense for the way they're presenting this story. duh. but still, the strong sense of the "black subplot" being always and only in relation to peggy and relegating black actors (like audra fucking mcdonald) to the relative background of this series just. hurts my heart.

i love the modern development work they've done so far with peggy's relationship with marian, and i'm hopeful we'll see the poc experience and world expand in the long game. i just hope it expands not only in width but depth, and we're not just repeating history, we're also learning from it.

[the-nysh]

honestly a really cool contrast to how the civillians reacted to Amai Mask's monster form after saving them would be how the people trapped under the building reacted to "monster" Garou after saving them, i'm looking forward to comparing it if we get that fight and moment in the manga :o

HMMM?!?! In Sweet Mask's upcoming adapted manga arc, you mean!? Yeah, we'll see - since Saitama was there giving Garou the credit in saving those civilians - in which they were at first alarmed by his appearance yet still genuinely thanked him anyway (to his error 404 shock at being seen, esp in that form, in a...positive way?!) :'3

But with Sweet Mask it'll be so different - cause he's used to having the public's appreciative gaze on him as a pop star....so what happens when the public sees (and turns on) his Real face as he suffers (sacrifices his whole established image/reputation) in saving them? As a seemingly hideous, dangerous monster struggling with bloodlust who Chooses to save as a hero anyway??? Yeah, that'll be a really interesting upcoming contrast/parallel to see.

[auradoniandreams]

What are your honest thoughts on Lonnie and her family in Descendants?

Personally, I've always liked Lonnie, but I have to admit that at this point in time I feel like I'm more attached to the fanon version of her (who has actual motivations and a backstory), than the canon version whose personality changes every 5 seconds. I feel like she had real potential as an AK who likes the VK's, and who's also not afraid to challenge Auradon's status quo, but something got lost along the way.

I don't really have any thoughts about her family, tho (outside of the og Mulan movie, anyway - but we're talking Descendants now). They're barely mentioned, and when they are, we're reminded that Disney doesn't know what to do with ethnic characters (*cough* Lil' Shang *cough*). I'm not Asian/Chinese myself, so I can't rly speak on the representation aspect (if you're Asian, and would like to, feel free to share your opinion in the replies/reblogs! I'd love to hear them), but it's obvious that Lonnie is not a Chinese name, and from what I understand, naming a kid after their parents is a big no-no in Chinese culture.

So...yeah. I have a lot of thoughts on her characterization tho, so if you wanna hear me ramble about her character arc, click on the read more link.

Before D1: The first time we see her, in the School of Secrets webseries that was released before D1 as promo, she's spying on the other AK's, trying to expose the shady things that happen behind closed doors, and to challenge the idea that the upcoming arrival of the VK's signals an imminent doom for Auradonian society. Granted, they never confirmed the fact that it was her behind the shorts, but she was voiced by the same actress that played her in the movies and if I remember correctly she also had the same bracelets.

Based on this appearance, she sounds like an incredibly interesting character, as the only other AK besides Ben and Doug who wants to give the VK's a chance. Additionally, she's standing up for what she believes in like her mother did, without turning into a carbon copy of Mulan.

D1: Her attitude towards the VK's is kind of confusing; one minute, she's asking the girls for a haircut and showing the c4 sympathy for their shitty childhoods, having little to no problem with them. The next, she's screaming and running along with Audrey and her princesses. Peer pressure? Personality shift? Fear of Mal's dark magic? Go figure.

D2: She sneaks out to the Isle of the Lost, helps the c4 fight Uma's crew, and she uses a loophole to enter the R.O.A.R. team as its first female captain. I loved seeing them develop her character more and give her a plotline, but I also kind of wished they hadn't turned her into a full carbon copy of her mother. I think this is when the writers also started getting confused abt her character, because in the first movie she was a lot more girly, and not necessarily athletic. Obviously she can be both at the same time but it felt like a sudden change.

Wicked World: Her personality (??) mostly stays the same, but for reasons that I can't figure out, she forgets she likes fencing, and is suddenly into...music??? She has a side gig as a DJ??? Uhh ok

School of Secrets: Lonnie's Warrior Sword: We're reverting back to her D2 characterization: she's athletic, headstrong, and anxious about her mother's legacy, or whether she can fulfill it. The plot also borrows a lot of elements from the og Mulan movie. It's an enjoyable read, but it's pretty much what you'd expect from a daughter of Mulan, and I wish they'd done more with her.

I liked her relationship with Jay, tho. Their dynamic (esp in the books ) is fun and they make a good team. That was a highlight for sure.

All in all, I like her, but she suffers from the same problem that every side character in this franchise does: inconsistency.