#even if from what i see his arc couldve been better. i have not read past arc 6 i am getting residual info

[salpho]

TO CONTINUE

Something I noticed is a lot of people who hated BATIM love BATDR and a lot of people fond of BATIM dislike BATDR. To me, this seems like a mechanics vs story issue. The actual game mechanics and aesthetic of BATDR disguise the lackluster characters and plot holes. However, BATIM still suffers those same issues.

This is a vague question, but what are your thoughts on BATIM vs BATDR story wise? Is either of them truly better? Or are they just flawed in different ways?

Sorry, this is long, but so are BATIM and BATDR :')

I think you hit the nail on the head in the sense that yes- BATDR has better gameplay and mechanics than BATIM, but BATIM by far has a much more compelling story that was able to capture and keep attention over the course of five chapter releases. And yes, BATIM is not without its flaws, for example it's mainly a walking simulator in terms of actual gameplay- the only thing saving it being the unique ability to suck the player in through the rich, stylistic environments.

In terms of story, here's my take for both of them-

BATIM is more solid overall, there are more connected plot points and there's a thread there to be followed from start to finish. It does suffer from some WTF plothole moments, the biggest one being Alice's 180 degree turn with suddenly using Boris as a killing machine rather than...what I can only assume was a plan to use his ink/body as some kind of reparative agent for the hole in her face (like thicc ink premium idk), or...some kind of spell...? It's honestly not very clear HOW she was going to use him, but bottom line she decided to entirely change her plan off-screen, which could have been remedied with something like a cutscene's worth of explanation, and more of a buildup to Brute Boris. The "reveal" in the haunted house didn't hold that much weight (at least to me,) just because we didn't even get a cookie crumb of a hint that Alice was going to mutilate him and use him as a drone instead of just axe him.

There are other nonsense details like Allison's ominous "I'm no Angel" line, which didn't make sense when Tom was the one to want to leave Henry. It was never explained WHY the Ink Demon walks around with a limp when he can shapeshift into a bigger and faster Beast version of himself (and apparently he was ALSO the hand in the ink river??? I guess???) And can we talk about how the cult Joey started was just never brought up again? Wally talks about how workers were encouraged (or mandated, idk) to put offerings in the break room to "appease the gods." What gods? Was Joey worshiping Bendy like a god? NONE OF THIS IS EXPLAINED EVER and honestly I think Micheal D. and Meatstick just Forgot that Joey was a cult leader in favor of Sammy's cult storyline.

But despite all of the plot holes, we still get a tale of a deteriorating studio, humans being used as literal skeletons for lifelike versions of cartoon characters, themes of life, death, cults, art, and more. Honestly, going deep into the plot of Bendy would take its own post to really do it justice.

I guess the main plot is this: Ex-co-founder of Joey Drew Studios, Henry, is trying to get the fuck home to his wife, learning along the way that through the power of a mysterious ink machine, his ex-business partner decided to coerce and persuade people to Literally Die so he could have the necessary materials to create living versions of his cartoons, thus making "his" characters (and more importantly, Bendy,) a reality. Once Henry does escape, he learns that Joey has sent him through this same hell before, still filled with hatred and spite, just in time for Joey to assumedly "reset" him and send him on a different version of the same journey, as we can guess from the storyboards on display in Joey's apartment. THAT on its own is an intriguing and layered tale, and that's not even including the other details, voices, and faces we run into in BATIM, AND the new info we learn in BATDR.

Now, BATDR...is something I've come to view as a mixed bag.

Story-wise, it weirdly wants to have its cake and eat it to. Henry's story is elaborated on, and part of Audrey's origins are also brought to light. This is helpful information concerning the plot of BATIM...but then we get assblasted with a ton of new characters and lore for a completely new Cycle under the reign of a completely new Random Old Man. I know he's Nathan's son, and he was mentioned in both Illusion and Fade to Black...but those were de-canonized, so it almost doesn't help context-wise...???? So...????

In a lot of ways, BATDR almost acts like it wants to be an AU branching from BATIM rather than a direct sequel, which it was marketed/confirmed as.

I think my biggest problem with BATDR is that some of the main characters are bafflingly like. Mishandled.

I'm gonna have the mildest take on earth and say I didn't like the new Ink Demon. Old design was better and more uncanny by far, the new design looks like Generic Satan or something straight out of Baldur's Gate. He was given a deep, guttural growling voice because....tumblr sexyman I guess. Even if they needed him to talk, it could've been something more breathy and raspy, true to the heavy breathing of the original Ink Demon. Also, his alternate form was made very childlike, and I'm just weirded out by the fact that you have this oddly "sexified" version of the Ink Demon on the flipside of Bendy the Child. I don't think any ill intent was meant by this, but it's more confusing than anything thematically. I'm also not sure why Bendy's abuse was brought up and then never touched on....? Like wasn't this guy locked up and called a monster his whole life? Are we going to...say something especially considering the moral of this story......?

Memory Joey is completely fine, but I just can't shake the feeling that the narrative is trying to paint IRL Joey as "UWU fixed now" when that's not the case. The most sympathy I can extend to IRL Joey is that he was a gay man who desired to have a family at a time when that was not only frowned upon but dangerous, not just socially speaking but in terms of his physical safety. But beyond that, this was a dude who locked people in a building to keep them working, coerced and possibly forced the deaths of many people to get what he wanted (the ink machine was a scientific advancement that could've had AMAZING implications for society but he Did Not Give a Shit about that), and was abusive towards Henry. If we trust the Bendy books, he also gaslit and killed his teenage staff. This motherfucker isn't a patron saint of anything, and even if Memory Joey can learn from IRL Joey's mistakes, IRL Joey was still a shitbag who just happened to raise a daughter.

Which leads me to Audrey. Some of Audrey's tale is explained- she was raised by Joey, forgot Joey was her father, and came to work at Archgate as an animator. Got to know Wilson, who works as a janitor at Archgate, and then he drags her into ink hell because....idk, she's his version of "A Perfect Boris" I guess. Fair enough. However, it's NEVER EXPLAINED how Audrey doesn't remember her father, or WHERE she went to live after his passing, or WHO she lived with. Remember, Joey was as old as a cave painting, so he clearly passed when she was very young. While you could argue she doesn't remember his name because she was little, SURELY she remembers his face or voice, or the fact that she HAD A FATHER??? Like, was there some huge trauma there? (Other than the fact that Joey was her dad?) It makes little sense to me that she would forget so easily. If I had to make a guess (and granted I'm no Mark Twain), I'd wager that Allison probably found Joey dead. Remember that Nathan hadn't talked to Joey in years, and Allison was the one who went out of her way in the first place to visit. At this point, Allison's gonna find a little girl running around by herself, and assumedly her and Thomas would've taken her in. If that's not the case, someone else found Joey dead, at which point Audrey would've possibly lived with Nathan and Tessa, considering how much Nathan cared about Joey. Either party has ties to Archgate. But all of that is just speculation, not confirmed, and even if any of that were true, Audrey makes no mention of it. And I'm sorry, Audrey's backstory makes me want to cry, because it's just NOT THERE and she has the personality of a depressed bucket.

Alice was alright...but she was kind of stupid? Which is like....the antithesis of everything cool about her? Instead of using traps and luring the main character from a distance, she knocks out Audrey (via unspecified drink), plays Diet Jigsaw with Audrey, and then gets pushed off a balcony. She was also a lot more...idk, suave and sultry in speech mannerisms in BATDR, which isn't bad, but her unhinged and clever nature seemed a bit watered down.

I don't really have notes on the rest of the main cast. Sammy was brought back to die immediately, which honestly was fine considering his death track record. We get some mentions of BATIM characters. Wilson and Betty were fine, and even some of the lore explaining how the timelines work made sense.

HOWEVER,

I've already said it a hundred times, but the old cast was shoved to the side for a bunch of new characters we had no time to connect with. A new butcher gang member was added when we still have Miss Twisted as a potential female-role filler (keep in mind the Projectionist is based on Camera Man and Brute Boris was based on The Brute.) The whole "Amok" thing was a REALLY roundabout way to get the Lost Ones to stop attacking Audrey.

Wilson's motivations are mostly consistent and I'd argue somewhat compelling, but I don't understand why he didn't do more to protect Audrey if he was going to need her for the endgame for Shipahoy Dudley? Like what's all this about letting her run around and get killed? Was he just aware that she'd revive?

The main message of BATDR was fine, but it didn't work super well for Audrey's character. She'd already forgotten Joey was her father, and was living in blissful ignorance of that fact until Memory Joey decided to infodump on her right away. Sure, the "just because you were born of darkness doesn't mean you have to be darkness" thing applies to her AFTER she learns Joey was her father, but...Audrey was never threatening to Become Evil, so it almost didn't need to be said and was kind of a flat message...? I would argue Memory Joey would benefit more from that message- as he's a literal copy of a Very Bad Dude. My guy was projecting this whole time.

I do think BATDR was worse story-wise, but I'm not going to sit here and pretend it didn't have certain disadvantages from the start. The Kindlybeast debacle happened, BADTR was trying to continue a story from an existing property, and there was a severe lack of Adrienne Kress. Okay, maybe the last one was a bit much, but still. That doesn't mean I hate BATDR overall, I can appreciate a lot of things about it, but strictly in the story department, it needs soooooo much work and makes me want to jump off a Minecraft cliff.

[freakinator]

funny thing about how i view the conflict in todays stream is that i view flame and wemmbu in very separate ways despite them doing essentially the same thing

in flames case:

i view his betrayal as ultimately a tragedy, their history all thrown aside due to a combination of wounded pride and genuine upset

if yall didnt see his chat for this stream it was actually really, really bad, like his chat is genuinely so fucking annoying oh my god and is a really good demonstration of why i think streamers should be mean to their chatters sometimes to so i actually wasnt at all surprised that he was so upset but i thought hed log off instead of acting out like this

he wanted respect but literally ruined the months long work of one of the few ppl that were willing to trust him over something that couldve been resolved if he just waited until september, but at the same time i can kinda understand why he was being so impulsive considering again his chat is Really bad, but at the end of the day that really shouldnt have been something you took out on one of your few allies like???? bruh even mocked zams storytelling as if he didnt do thee same shit as well 😭

honestly one of the reasons i was sad about his betrayal is cause it kinda sounded to me like he was genuinely about to cry at first??? maybe im just making shit up tho and he def stopped sounding like he was gonna cry after blowing up the spacewaffles tower lol

in wemmbus case:

i feel no pity for this man, he wanted conflict wherever he can get it and he got it! i think hes a lot like zam in that he just wants some attention and most importantly something to do but whatever happens to him next is his own fault lmao, i respect his honesty tho like hey he sucks but he knows what hes about at least lol

the fact that he still kept trying to get a commission from zam (or at least guilttripping him about it for lack of a better word) like bro i know you wanted to do a capitalism morality dilemma arc with zam but read the room my guy 😭

maybe hes at least a little mad that zam kept turning him away despite the fact he accepted a commission from mapicc of all ppl but like. bro. theres a reason zam called him a nightmare customer lmao

that being said you can tell hes not used to going this overboard considering he offered to help repair the tree when zam got upset lmao

idk i just thought his evilness was kinda funny, still hope he gets his shit kicked in spectacularly tho!

its funny, despite being acting like the shitty no reading comprehension version of abyss he gives me the exact same feeling of schadenfreude i did for minute back in s5 and i believe part of it is his mockery of lore and weird complicated dismissal of moral conflict particularly regarding zam

by weird complicated dismissal of moral conflict i mean both he and minute both tried to convince zam to see ''their side'' and ''reason'' but coming at it from an angle that completely misunderstands zam and when zam points it out they dismiss it and act like it means nothing because of their ''objective'' view of reality, spoiler alert! its not objective at all and they refuse to understand things from zams perspective cause they think hes just being unreasonable or something

idk overall i think their motivations for doing things are just kinda... shit lol

like ik theres some pretty obvious parallels that can be made with s5 here but the difference between the og players and flamebu aside from the lack of style and drama is that the og players waited several months before they started acting out the way they did and when they did start acting out tgey always made sure evryone who wanted to get involved Actually got involved rather than doing it while everyone was away plus their opps werent their own allies (except maybe pangi depending on how you look at it)

[bookbitchx]

Hello again 😊 I knew i was gonna love chatting with u hehe

These are things that makes me wish anyone else would've written ACOTAR tbh. Her lack of planning and her retconning of characters so that she remains politically correct in current political climates is gross. It's been a pattern I've noticed, but it makes sense considering shes a zionist, but anyway 🥱

I do enjoy the world that she made and I think its an interesting concept to view a centuries old clusterfuck like the IC through a 20 yearold lense. But I wish it had a morsel of taste. Each of the books in this series left me wanting more, especially rereading as an adult.

So to compensate for the parts of the books I hate I just pretend its not upsetting me by psychoanalyzing the characters 😂 Rhys is one that I have a love/hate relationship with for that reason. He is genuinely one of the worst love interests ive seen be this popular in a long time and he has made the worst choices i have ever seen written and then defended by the author.

Feyre however, I would argue is his perfect partner for how awful he is after SF and CC3. But I wish a better author had written this book so we could've seen a decent redemption or a proper Rhysand villain arc. I think this series would've been so much more interesting crossover wise if it had been with tog and had been a mock feysand villain arc. Maeve has daemati powers, so making her an ancestor of Rhysand's through the HL bloodline would've made sense. Hybern could've been a mock villain to lure the reader into a false sense of security and think maybe the NC ARE good guys?

Nesta and Elain join Aelin's circle to take them down after they attempted to seize the dread trove for themselves under Amren's advice, (they dont like her having it clearly). And the emotional climax of the series is Feyre leaving him and joining her sisters, which leads Rhys to pull a tamlin by in turn going to koshei. Could even get Bryce quinlan in to fullfill a life debt to Nesta by using the horn and Feyre's fire powers to give Aelin her magic back somehow, and nesta never has her magic taken back by the cauldron?????? The cauldron had Amren in it and it should've been written that she had to sacrifice her true Daglan immortality to be with Varian. Boom full fucking circle.

But nope, we have Miss Maas.

thanks janet for ruining what couldve been my favorite thing >:^(

but a part of me hopes the Elucien book will include Tamlin's side of the story and Elain confronts Feysand for their *waves arms* everything. And taking Nesta and the Valkyries with them, they deserve better. it wont happen tho, so I'll read fanfic instead.

-🤠

Heyy again!

I get where you're coming from. I liked book 1, the way Feyre (and us, in a way) was discovering the SC and a little bit of Prythian as a whole, and I liked Feyre, who was this badass huntress, who had her own opinions, doing what needs to be done, etc... I mean, she went UTM knowing full well she wasn't coming out alive, but she still did it bc it was right, and she wanted to save her man.

Where THAT Feyre went, I'll never know.

As you said, It's an interesting concept seeing everything through a 20 year old's eyes, or it would've been for me if she hadn't started taking everything they said as truth.

Even though I haven't read any CC books yet, my friend spoiled CC3 that Nesta didn't actually lose her powers? That it was more of a bargain with the Couldron, but yeah, it would've been interesting to see crossovers between the series. I think Aelin, Manon, and maybe Lysandra would absolutely despise Rhysand. I would a 100% read a fic with what you described.

As for the Elucien book, like I hope she does good by Lucien because he, out of all the characters, deserves it.

I'm not holding my breath on Elain ever confronting Feysand bc as Rhysand once said, 'Elain is Elain', but a girl can hope.

Also, if Nesta and the valkyries ever become one of Rhysand's legions, I'm pulling a one woman riot before burning the book.

On another note, feel free to DM if you want to continue the conversation or if you're more comfortable this way, I don't mind that either.

🫰🏼

[ffsg0jo]

I ABSOLUTELY AGREE WITH EVERYTHING HERE!

I remember getting to the last chapter and being extremely cringed up by the behavior of everybody, especially of jean and reiner, because they were two of my favorite characters and I felt like they went through so much growth just to be used as comic relief, as if the original creator wanted to ease up the tragedy of the whole finale with those skits, which I... do get could have happened still but ugh... I think that there should have been a better way.

also ahead after this spoilers of the ending of aot!

I stg the whole skit with reiner I was like 'is this the same traumatized man who's constantly trying to quit it?' because like I get that maybe it's to show that it's an 'happy' ending but it doesn't erase simply everything they have gone through. especially I feel like this way of portraying him just deleted any chance of healing.

also for ever annoyed about jean ending with mikasa, not just because of him but also because it ruined the relationship that they had been having which I felt like was very much based on a lot of respect. like I don't think that the mikasa that we saw through the story would have married jean and kept on being stuck on even, like it made 0 sense for me for them to end up together. like I don't get why they couldn't keep the two of them as single.

AND PLS THE HISTORIA ENDING WITH A MAN? when it's implied the whole pregnancy and being used against her own will? I... was like... ma'am... pls blink two times if you are in danger.

I low key remember getting to the final chapter and being all happy because my faves survived but after a bit I was like 'is... is that all we got?'. there were, indeed, so many fan theories which had a WHOLE lot more potential ugh.

(also I agree, levi was the sole one whose ending I enjoyed because it felt fitting; it was a good way to portray the effects of everything he had gone through with having still an happy tone to it, which I think should have been a treatment all the other characters deserved)

alright sorry for the ted talk, I'll see myself out!

have a lovely day!

yes !! i feel like he wanted to create a lighthearted ending but he ended up sacrificing the character development of certain characters and it was just sad to see. they regressed entirely imo. i reread the the last couple of chapters/arc and ik there's a timeskip but they'd been through war and lost so many of their friends and family. wdym they came out unscathed. i agree with what you said it couldve been done in a better way where you can see the progression and healing more.

reiner will forever hurt my heart though like when i saw him sniffing the letter i wanted to bawl. he completely changed, he was a literal shell of a person and i wanted to see his healing more. he was suicidal and had ptsd and it takes time to recover and heal from that, and even then some people never do!

YESSS THANK YOUUU !!! mikasa and jean were very much good friends and had a lot of trust and mutual respect for each other. the only way i can see them getting married is if it's a marriage of convenience for tax benefits or something. i truly don't think mikasa wouldve done that to jean knowing he was a place holder for eren.

i actually wouldnt have minded pieck and jean if i'm being honest. i feel like they would've vibed together and would've gotten along if it wasnt for the whole titan shenanigans.

I WAS SO DISAPPOINTED WHEN HISTORIA ACTUALLY HAD A CHILD WITH A MANN BECAUSE AS YOU SAID EVERYTHING POINTED TO HER BEING FORCED TO CONCIEVE A CHILD. LIKE WITH EREN VISITING HER, THAT WHOLE DISCUSSION, I TRULY THOUGHT HISTORIA GOT PREGNANT AS A PLOT POINT. her being pregnant was just so inconsequential, a useless detail at the end. and all those panels with her and eren ended up being somewhat useless. i read fan theories with better direction, i remember the whole eren is the father thing and wholeheartedly believed that was going to happen, even though i did NOT want it to.

yesss, levi was the only thing done well about the ending and i firmly stand by that. it's exactly as you said i was so happy they all survived and then i thought about it more and thought ...... that was a bit shit.

he is releasing chapter 140 though soo hopefully that clears some things up??? or helps fixes things?? idekkk

[thebigqueer]

Genuine thoughts on the pjo tv series?

i had a lot more thoughts when i first finished the show so this isnt as comprehensive as it could be but these are all the most important things i can remember. but im glad you asked cuz im alwasy ready to answer this question

i didnt hate it. i think i might have had too high expectations but ill be watching s2.

i will say that i think they def stuck to the books more, which i liked, but they made some changes i def didnt like.

my biggest issue was probably with the way that the kids - especially percy - just knew everything going on, because it took a lot away from the childlike wonder that the books had when the trio went on their first quest. i think the fact that percy didn't know a lot in the books was also essential to kid readers, who most likely dont know anything about greek mythology. obviously i think the fact that show percy knows a lot is good because it highlights his intelligence & could be explained by the fact that his mother told him all the stories, but at the same time i think percy served as a really important way to teach kids about the greek myths, so it kind of sucks that he immediately knows whats going on at some points, especially when we have no idea as to how he even learned about it. for example, at some points it made sense that percy knew what was going on, like when they realized quick that Auntie Em's Gnome Emporium was where medusa lived. but when we came to crusty's place, they just totally skipped everything about how percy came to find out about who crusty even was. taking out that context totally messed things up, because if i wasnt a reader i literally would not have understood how we even got there and how percy knew who this guy was. i understand it was to save time, but i think it couldve been handled better.

on the note of medusa, LOVED THAT EPISODE. i thought it had to be one of the best episodes of the season because it really displayed how no one is ever 1 dimensional, and i loved the way they drew to sally and medusa's similariteis because it really made percy consider what "good" and "bad" really meant - which is to say, theres never a clear line. and i loved that annabeth was so reserved because it really served to how wholly she beleives in her mother and the gods because it sets up her character arc so well. the entire episode was just so good. ALSO THE ACTRESS FOR MEDUSA WAS WAYYYYY TOO GOOD. too good.

the lotus casino episode was probably my least-liked because of the way they executed it. in the books that part was so fun and colorful because it was just the kids being kids - of course they were going to waste time having fun. but in the show they were so caught up in the mission that it kind of sucked not being able to see them just having fun like kids do. thats what i mean when i feel like the show just took so much away from that whimsy that kids have. i dont remember where i read it, but someone once replied to one of my posts with something about how they were kids just by physical appearance but not in character (or not completely) and i agree with that. i mean, sure, they had their scenes where they argued over trivial things like candy and chips and splashed percy with water because they seriously thought it would help, but i just so wish we coudlve seen them having fun being kids at the lotus casino.

im also not saying that they act like adults. they def dont act like adults (which is good) but theyre just not as childish as they were in the books, which is why im kind of disappointed. to sum it up, what im trying to say is that i think the show was just so focused on the plot points that they forgot to add in the children's characteristic qualities at points, because the storyline was just so plot-focused that i feel like even the points that the kids were supposed to be silly and funny just didnt hit the way they wouldve in the books.

this is more minor but i wish the scene where annabeth tries to reason with hephaestus when percy's stuck in the chair was somehow longer, or just ended with more vagueness. i loved the way leah took charge of that scene and i thought it was a really good execution, but i didnt understand how it only took hephaestus 5 minute of being scolded by a 12 year old to suddenly change his mind about power. i guess that could say something about annabeth's persuasiveness, but in reality it was just the showrunners trying to finish up scenes lol. i think what im trying to say is that the scene just felt sped up when it couldve been slower, or maybe the scene couldve ended with a little more of a lingering question that would make viewers wonder about the implications of this scene.

LOVED THE SALLY AND POSEIDON SCENE. PROBS ONE OF MY FAVS.

i didnt like the way hades was portrayed. im not saying the king of the underworld cant be funny but i felt like the way they changed hades will not do good to the rest of the show, especially if we get into season 3 or when we learn about hades' kids, beacuse i dont think itll line up with the way hades treats his kids later on in the series. like i cant imagine we get to season 5 and this is the hades storming into the battle in manhattan. sure, hes funny, but it does not line up with his character in the books at all. i dont mind minor changes to the books, but when youre completely changing an entire character - one whos important to the series as a whole - whats the point in calling it a book-accurate show 😭

i loveddd the lsat episode i loved the dream sequence and i loved that they went back to montauk i thought it added so much to the show.

this is minor but also not - WHY DIDNT ANYONE BOW WHEN PERCY GOT CLAIMED. THAT WAS SUCH A POWERFUL SCENE IN THE BOOK AND IT REALLY SET PERCY APART WHICH WOUDLVE DONE WONDERS FOR THE WAY PERCY ACTS IN TEH FIRST TWO EPS because hes like 'im so different and everyone keeps telling me im special but it all feels so condescending and no ones explaining anything to me.' FOREVER MAD THAT I COULDNT SEE THAT SHIT WITH MY OWN EYES. WHATS EVEN THE POINT OF ANYTHING ANYMORE

sally was portrayed interestingly. i know everyone has a lot of different opinions about how she was portrayed, as well as how gabe and the way the abuse in their family was potrayed and i agree and disagree with a lot of the points ive seen on the internet. firstly i did like that sally was portrayed with a lot more strength and stubbornness than the movie did, but at the same time there were points where i felt like she acted so un-sally like. ex. i like the way she was so serious & nervous & anxious with percy at the pool because that made sense; but i didnt think the scene where she was ordering percy to open the door was something i was expecting. and i understand that the entire situation was so difficult for both her and percy so it makes sense that she was easily frustrated with percy not listening to her, but i feel like at the very least she wouldve tried another line or two of reasoning with percy before ordering him to open the door, because in the books she seems a little more patient with him. idk this was a super specific moment lol i think what im trying to say is she doesnt feel like the same sally that i remember in the books, and thats def not a bad thing at all but at the same time i feel like the way they potrayed sally in terms of her mannerisms just isnt who she is. she is adamant and indepednent and blah blah but its the little things in her portrayal that dont feel the same.

on the topic of gabe's abuse - i know abuse can be more than just physical and we def saw aspects of the more financial and emotional abuse in the show. but i didnt like how gabe was portrayed because yeah he seems like a shitty guy but thats all he had; theres no context as to why hes even in their life or even how he got in there. i think the best way to describe it is the way i saw someone else describe it: he's gabe, just not smelly gabe from the books. so its essentially teh same thing as the sally bullet - i feel like they got rid of some of the important characteristics of gabe so his presence in teh story doesnt feel the same. i think this could be said about most of the characters in the show.

thats about all i can remember. theyre just my thoughts, and theyre not the most clean thoughts so sorry if its confusing. its been a minute since ive watched the show so im sure theres other thoughts and im sure my opinions could change if i watch again. but yeah thanks for asking anon!!

[suffarustuffaru]

Heinkel Astrea himself >:D

YALL REALLY WENT FOR ME WITH THIS ONE.... OKAY. LETS GO.

Sexuality Headcanon: i think it could be one of several possibilities. he could be straight... he could be on the aroace spectrum... he could be bi and not even know... but we do know what he is for certain..... hes louannasexual................................................

A ship I have with said character: heinkel/louanna PLS THEYRE MARRIED OKAY......... louanna really looked at the astrea family Baggage and still went "im still gonna marry this man <3".... and like the way heinkel speaks about louanna T^TT "reinhard is me and louannas treasure..." "dont take away louannas way home"... LIKE FUCK MAN..... heinkel may be a piece of shit now but he took like those marriage vows of like in sickness and in health SERIOUSLY. its been like twenty years and hes been searching for a cure for louanna all this time. it drives me BONKERS...

A BROTP I have with said character: ......................im pretty sure you know what im gonna say LMAO. YEAH. YEAH. ROWAN AND HEINKEL?? ROWAN IS THE BEST POSSIBLE BROTP THAT COULDVE EVER HAPPENED FOR HEINKEL. deadbeat alcoholic dads of extremely powerful teenage sons club??? theyre literally insane. i love how they first meet because its the most pathetic thing ever. like rowan just seeing heinkel half-dead in some ditch and just deciding to help this random ass guy??? rowan dragging heinkel away like when you grab a cat by its scruff??? heinkel going "this guy is smiling at me but its not mocking... i dont know what the fuck it means" because heinkel doesnt know what fucking FRIENDLINESS is anymore...... theyre insane. im excited for the development thats gonna come out of them meeting. they foil so much T^T

A NOTP I have with said character: anyone other than louanna :((((((((((((((( pls..... pls dont separate them shes already in a coma :((((((((((((((((((((((((( ......except ill make an exception for rowan and heinkel because. they have 95 mental illnesses and theyre ALWAYS making it everyone elses problem... theyd be so horrible together and i can only see it happening if theyre drunk and the world is literally gonna end. they are Terrible. but they Would be entertaining...

A random headcanon: heinkel gets sober in all the timelines where wilhelm is erased <33 because its like. wilihelm gets erased, heinkel and reinhards relationship is better, so its like.... things are a little better for heinkel now. obviously his whole complex feelings on reinhard are either lessened or erased entirely, but i also feel like heinkel got at least Some of his insecurities because of how wilhelm probably was as a dad. and bc wilhelms gone - WELP nice going heinkel half of your insecurities are gone!! so, well, maybe heinkel wants to be fully sober and present for reinhard now. he wants to be in reinhards life as his dad...

General Opinion over said character:

if i met him irl i would immediately pull a pridebaru and poison heinkel's drink. HOWEVER, i am also screaming and crying over heinkel's heartbreaking tragic corruption arc where he goes from a very earnest and hardworking person whos trying his best with all the shitty cards handed to him. and then he turns into *GESTURES TO PRESENT DAY HEINKEL*

i need him to get his shit together and have the most GRUELING, PAINFUL, NAIL BITING redemption arc of all time. he's just so fucking pathetic 24/7 it's like... like im sitting here and reading every scene hes in and im going, god hes like one of those sad dirty exhausted stray dogs you see backed into a corner and theyre just like growling and snapping at everything that comes close. like we vaguely know that its Possible for him to get his shit together at least a little bit (see: pride if), and we Know that heinkel used to be a very affectionate person to louanna and reinhard, and the fact that tappei said he'd make heinkel the mc if subaru didnt exist indicates that heinkels Probably gonna have some insane development, especially given the debut of the rowan-heinkel dynamic... i cant wait for it T^TT i just like how hes Terrible... but hes also clearly very human. what a well-written character. i hope he goes for anime onlys kneecaps in season three.

[frankiebirds]

started binging criminal minds, i was gutted when elle left & now watching the next couple of s2 episodes i really felt her absence. especially in 'the last word' when a women has to pretend to be dead so they can catch one of the serial killers (they so needed to have a frank convo about making elle relieve her trauma + this couldve been a great intro to that). i read your post, i agree it did make sense why elle left considering her background as a sexual offence specialist & what she says to reid but i found the writing lacking. her exit felt rushed + not final bc she only really shared scenes with hotch. also she also seems the type to not wanna give up the bau bc that would mean the fisher king wins + is a determined person so it would've been better to see her slow realisation she cant do the job she desperately wanted in s1. also the fact her relationships with the rest of the team + their reactions weren't fully explored is annoying since she was quite friendly with everyone particularly close to morgan, reid even gideon. especially since gideon inadvertently caused her get shot as he didnt want to follow the rules then said elle would understand?? so a confrontation w gideon similar to the one w hotchner wouldve been nice. i miss morgan's fun bantery friendship with elle in the later eps when she wasn't there to partner up with him (idk they seemed to be a go to partnership to me) & the elle/morgan/reid trio is sorely missed. ive largely enjoyed everything so far (just finished 2x09) but i wish they'd more deeply explore the characters' history. like the inclusion of reids mom was interesting & really liked how garcia respected reids privacy to keep her illness a secret. it was a missed opportunity i felt not to see elle & morgan not bonding over losing their cop dads or hotch and gideon talking about fatherhood when hotch is missing out on his babys key milestones (ik there was that bit in s1 when hotch tells gideon to get in touch w his son but more of those moments wouldve been nice). whilst i feel the team all like each other and there's some interesting/fun friendships (reid&gideon , garcia&morgan etc) id be nice to have some downtime scenes showcasing them as a makeshift found family (sorry i love that trope & c'mon they spend more time with each other than with their acc families). anyway sorry for the long rant this show is eating at my brain lord my brain mass will be equivalent to a pea by the time i finish this show. <3

thats fair and i get what you mean! there are definitely moments when i felt elle's absence and there are definitely things about her leaving that i would change if i had the power—i absolutely agree that the reactions from the rest of the team to her leaving and the actions leading up to it were sorely lacking, and a slower realisation that she cant do the job anymore would have been very cool to see, although i think the latter was less due to writing problems and more to the fact that elle left the show because lola glaudini chose to leave (ie they couldn't write a fully fleshed out leaving arc for elle because it was driven by out-of-show events and therefore not planned/they had limited time to execute it). the lack of reaction from the team is a writing problem though, so again i very much agree with that!

i hope you enjoy the rest of the show and get some of your wishes, and if you dont, you can find some good fics to fulfill them <3

[vazelbeak]

Thoughts on our episode oops:

This ones a lot stronger than i was expecting which is good!

- The beginning of the episode isnt quite my normal favorite beginning to an episode but it works for telling us fizz and ozzie are a couple and their actual dynamic which id say we needed screen time given to because its kind of an act (even though i liked the prior established idea fizz and Ozzies relationship might be that they find love gross despite being in a relationship bc its more about whats agreed upon to constitute it)

- Again i think itd really sell a theme to the episode if Ozzie didnt want to go with Fizz to get milk out of concern theyd be mistaken as a couple causing a part of the reason fizz gets into this mess

- i think Striker shouldve been kidnapped by Crimson who running out of men and money would rather kidnap and force an assassin to work for him or be killed than risk cutting his numbers down further after what Millie did. Especially bc arguably prior episodes have implied Striker is better at one on one fights and is easily overpowered when out numbered.

- Im not super on board with Striker pulling Fizz and Blitzo off the street so easily when if Fizz and Ozzie were a poorly kept secret whys it in the paper as proven and not a "shits hit the fan" moment? And hows he weaker than Bee when he's very clearly muscular? Maybe if Stiker was trying to grab Fizz's dogs especially the albino one recognizing them as Ozzies and therefore something hed pay a pretty penny for. Only to by chance pull up Blitzo and Fizz whos mistaken as Ozzies dog walker.

-okay so in backstory the fire is green. But then shouldnt he be bothered by said green fire in Loolooland and why didn't we see it in his trip?

-tbh shouldn't he possibly bc scared of horses too bc of this?

-"but you have no idea what i lost in that fire" blitzo says this like it was the start of his villain arc but personally? It just feel really insensitive to Fizz and unaware of the fact his pettiness to push someone caused this

-its really too bad barbie was scrapped from the scene bc if Blitzo walked off because he heard her scream and basically went to find hed only to catch as the tent burned down it would better justify him walking away from fizz than "trying to get help" which doesnt. Read as such.

-honestly too the fact blitz is implied to have killed people makes me think it wouldve worked better if perhaps fizz ans his mom were outliers but largely the issue was he put every one out of a job. Jobs that likely dont have very transferable skills. As they may have had the money to keep the circus going but never enough to replace everything lost in a moment like that. (Also a throw back to how hell doesnt have insurance)

-fizzs song is pretty good! With the music though i semi wish Look At This couldve been a song where Fizz is actually trying to fool Crim and his group into thinking Ozzie and Stolas have shown up especially because Fizz may not know much about fighting but he absolutely might know how to set a scene and inprovise. Maybe a bit akin to Make A Lot of Noise from the Toy Story musical.

-again wish Ozzies now offered to go with Fizz any time he leaves the house and Fizz (who went from saying he doesnt know how to fight to throwing a punch) says he can handle himself but hed love for them to go out together as a couple. Ozzie saying he doesnt need to leave the house and he'll have body guard everywhere with him reads too infatilizing and assuming Fizz as incompetent for my taste

- Salem did the concept art for this episode and the fact viv didnt credit them is really disappointing. If i can i would like to ask ppl be aware of that and maybe check those out bc they have every right to be proud of the work they did

[vaugarde]

heathertail went from being called a bitch and evil for hating lionblaze after he tried to kill her irl in po3 to just being breezepelts emotional support wife to the fandom. girl im so sorry

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

I love your idea about EP 2. It sounds more better than the actual EP. Honestly Im disappointed of how Leona wasnt given his villain moment like Scar does. But I was even more disappointed that they made him more of a iredeemable person until EP 6. They couldve shown his more soft side like they did in his Bday.

[Referring to this post!]

Oh, thank you! ^^ I’m happy to hear that you like my rewriting of chapter 2!

Wow, I’m talking about Leona a lot lately 🦁 This is going to get lengthy, so look below the cut for my thoughts on Leona’s development chapters 3-5!

I definitely think that Leona’s Overblot seemed less... impactful (?) since Yuu and co. never got to directly interact with him much that chapter. It’s certainly weird to think about when they frequently ran into Riddle the last chapter. (It was also kind of sad that when we did get to see Leona interact with Yuu and co., he was just bullying them in Magift which seems petty in comparison to like... say, Azul, who although we didn’t interact with a lot, still got his important moments like protecting his contracts).

However! I don’t think that chapters 3, 4, and 5 left Leona “irredeemable”. Twisted Wonderland really plays with the concept of morality, what’s right and what’s wrong. To that end, many of the characters depicted are very morally grey. Yes, they do bad things, but they come from less than ideal circumstances and don’t know how to deal with their emotional turmoil and trauma. Each chapter’s ending isn’t a happily ever after—there’s loose ends, broken relationships, confused boys trying to get it back together. We see some of them try to work on themselves (Riddle and his temper, for example), others are still a slow work in progress (Kalim and Jamil mending their relationship), and as far as I can recall, Vil is the only one who apologizes for OBing because he already has a sense of maturity. For someone as stubborn as Leona, he seems very resistant to change, so I’m not surprised if he still comes across as no different than his initial introduction in chapter 2.

Rather than “irredeemable”, I think it would be more fair to say Leona is “stagnant”. And personally? I think the stagnation fits for his character! He’s lived his whole life with the mindset that others loathe him and that he will never succeed. He’s someone that is always fixated on the past, so of course improving himself (which takes time and effort) is difficult for him.

Another point I’d like to make is that while sure, it would be nice to see Leona’s softer side in the main story, it wouldn’t make much sense. Leona is never shown to be canonically close to Yuu and co. the same way that Grim, Ace, and Deuce are, and he has no reason to be nice to them. He helps them out in chapter 3, yeah, but he had a self-serving motivation behind it. Chapter 4 he wasn’t really around because he wasn’t relevant to the Scarabia arc, and chapter 5, we see him focusing on putting together the VDC venue. What reason does Leona have to be nice in these instances? I don’t think there really is one. (He is only “soft” to be polite to the birthday interviewer.)

I think if you read closely, you can see hints at Leona changing. He’s still pretty selfish in 3, but ultimately he DID choose to help Yuu and co. (just with his own motivation). In chapter 4, Leona is willingly returning home to the Afterglow Savanna for the holidays. In 5, Leona’s actively working WITH his team members on a project rather than leading them/sitting around and bossing them around like in the original chapter 2. He may not be perfect, but I feel like Leona is definitely taking those baby steps.

We should also consider that just because the game doesn’t show us Leona explicitly learning or being more kind, it doesn’t mean he hasn’t been doing so off-screen. A character can develop without us seeing it just as much as they can develop when we do see it. It wouldn’t make sense for the story to cut away from Yuu and co. to show Leona being “nicer” to Savanaclaw or other students either, as that would disrupt the focus on Octavinelle, Scarabia, and Pomefiore in their respective chapters.

The closest thing we get to “checking in” on characters post-OB is their cameos in other chapters where they’re just going about their normal school lives (like the booths in chapter 5 or the kidnappings of chapter 6). These are the moments you have to look at to see changes in behavior, subtle or not. Not every boy will announce that they’re going to confront a problematic figure in their life (like Riddle did in chapter 4, and I would argue that’s because Yuu is “closest” with Heartslabyul).

Leona never overstays his welcome, and he doesn’t have it in him to put on airs and be sweet to others. He’s still his arrogant and lazy self in chapters 3-5.

We don’t really get to see if he has changed significantly or not in these chapters because it is not that relevant to the stories being told. However, it does become relevant in chapter 6 because well, someone needs to explain what/who STYX is and establish what will happen while the Dorm Leaders have been kidnapped (aka hand power to Vice Dorm Leaders). It serves a clear purpose in the plot and it shows us that Leona has qualities of a good leader. He knows when he should surrender, and to leave his “people” in good hands while he is absent.

Again, I don’t think it’s Leona being irredeemable in chapters 3-5, but rather slow to change and still being unwilling to fully open up and trust others. There’s also the possibility of off screen development that we, the player, never see. I think he’s getting there, though (given all the subtle indicators)! Chapter 6 was a small glimpse into Leona’s full potential~

[chubearr]

jwcc s4 review (finally)

》spoilers ahead

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okay so like ima try to be the most chill and unbiased with this review— i read some others that brought up good points that i didnt see at first, so now thats what ima try to do!

-the biggest fan complaint, kenlynn/cool kids/brookji:

alot of fans are super pissed abt this, and at first it didnt make sense but now i can kindaaa? understand it. my general take is that s1 & s2 the kids were just vibin and surviving, getting to know each other and etc. i think kenji started to have a crush on brook esp in s3, since they were paired up/talked a lot (when brook fought with darius, when sammy got posioned, when darius split up with the group to get ben when leaving the island and brook was worried) so they were kinda getting closer and comfotrable with each other already. and like kenji even confirmed in s4, he realized his feelings for brook when she got taken away, hence his fight with darius (i imagine he was super confused n frustrated abt it.. poor boy). and personally at the end of s3 when kenji got mad, i did find that overprotectiveness weird and was kinda thinking it was bc he liked her! so overall the crush reveal was not a surprise, but i was more surprise that it actually happened! as for brooklyn i think her feelings for kenji were never really developed until they got closer in s4; kenji being a doof and possibly his trueself? and realizing how alike they were made her start to like him a bit? and then he semi-admitted he liked her so she got super confused as well (maybe bc she didnt know if it was platonic or romantic). then yasmina basically opened her eyes, and i think after that brooklyn was thinkin a lot, and spending even more time with kenji she realized she liked him as well...

i admit they couldve done better to show brooklyns development into liking kenji in previous seasons, bc tbh i see both darius and brooklyn being equally super chill with everyone (tho im biased for benrius!).

i think bc the season went by super fast unlike previous seasons, it made kenlynn develop fast as well so it didn't look that well written. tbh even i myself was supperrr shocked that they actually made it bf-gf official! i even wouldve been fine with just confirmed crushes this season, but the ship is probably gonna go through it next season (esp considering the plot twist in the end of the last episode... someone protect kenji pls)

but overall, ship it or not, i still dont think fans should be too angry and crazy at kenlynn shippers or the writers etc. like no one knows where this is gonna go, so we'll just have to wait and see. shouldn't we just enjoy it while it lasts? i think kenji and brooklyn need some type of break from the chaos, and if they wanna be together thats fine by me. same for the other kids! i hope if theyre getting romance arcs that itd be similar screentime as kenlynn and maybe even better developed (i still think yasammy is gonna be the finale ship idk..)

one thing i do wish now is that their charas this season werent too much revolved around each other, but ig thats how it goes! at least we learned more abt them both anyway (theyre both lonely and sheltered kids... also, BROOKLYNN HAS DADS!) and yes im ignoring we still dont have a brooklynn last name reveal smh...

as for the age thing.. idk im not bothered tbh. its like what, a 2 year difference? so thats fine by me, i can see it realistically (if it were any bigger i would def understand the isssue). i dont think the writers are intending anything sus for that or anything— as long as these kids are all kids and just vibin im fine with that. kids have crushes, no biggie.

overall not a surprise to me or a bother! next.

-sammy:

i feel like her character is always the same throughout the seasons so i always found her boring and wanted the crew to work on her. this season was alright! its good they didnt let her issue with her fam die down (tbh i almost forgot thats why she came to the camp), her anger moment, although a lil reckless, made sense esp since we already know her fam obvi means the world to her. i liked her realization with the spinoceratops¿ (angel n rebel) was bc of her and her development from pity to saving them was good! still wish they couldve showed more yasammy, but slow and steady wins the race ig! the deal with mantahcorp (idk if thats how u spell it oops) got even bigger now bc of kenjis dad and im scared for her bestie relationship with kenji 😭 im scared for that whole drama in general but with sammy and her fam as a victim... send help to my kids pls!

-yasmina:

a lot of people send she was so out of character this season (mainly with the kenlynn thing) but tbh? i think this version of her is her real self. even tho she was more colder in previous seasons, we're not new to yasmina being a super supportive friend otherwise. and like she said, sammy is the one who brought out those feelings! i really liked this mischeavous side of her, and ben friendzoning her was the funniest thing!

im superrr pleased with the whole PTSD thing. like most kids shows dont take that trauma seriously and just shove it aside. but not jwcc, and thats prob why im so attached to the show is bc they arent afraid to commit (a kids show where people actually die?? coming after my own heart i see...)!!

i know we prob shouldve had more experiences from the other camp fam, but maybe its good they made this a mainly yasmina thing bc we're so used to seeing her be strong for the team. weak yaz make me weak myself... let her sleep pls.

-ben:

bens whole finding out his identity arc was pretty much perfect. im glad they brought up how panicked he was bc he knew isla nublar so well but now he knew nothing and felt like he was reverting back to scared-ben... but we all know that ben is just ben now! i hope he can get more actual moments with the others bc hes been so independent all these seasons (aromantic king maybe..?)!! a lot of fans like him but tbh /dont kill me/ so far he was always my least fav kid out of the crew.. but i did like him more with his whole s3 thing with darius! so maybe just having him spend time with the others and being himself is the key!! (also more benrius moments pls.. theyre such the mom n dad of the group idc what yall say!!) and his ptsd with the pterodactyl or whatev things? it hurted but im happy he was able to fight back this time!!

-darius:

i didnt get fans complaint with his arc this season at first but after reading some reviews, now i do a bit! now in weirded out as to why darius has like 0 trauma.. maybe its bc he loves dinos so much that overall it doesnt bother him? esp bc dinos are what connects him to his dad the most and etc... and i saw people talk abt him being super leader-y this season but i didnt see much of a difference? he was always the one everyone looked to for answers so i wasnt surprised that he made his own decisions again— everyone still trusts him and knew what he chose was the right thing to do. but they didnt tell him abt their ptsd so obviously darius wouldnt know abt it bc all of their bonds are so strong that i think darius trusted them to tell him anything (but since they didnt he was obv blinded to their true feelings??). and surprisingly a lot of fans seemed to think he was out of character or smth when choosing the phone over the dinos? but i think it was good development bc it showed that even tho he loves dinos to death, he would still do anything for his friends (esp bc they told him they had ptsd). im glad in how he handled it!

one thing i agree on with others is that he definitely deserved some more screentime. mainly with the other kids, and less solo screentime, like the other seasons!... yes i admit, kenlynn and kenji did overshadow him a lot, but at least i believe its to build up the plot twist in the end for kenji and onto the next season (maybe theyre giving each kid arcs? and s1 was mainly darius's? idk tbh!)

i loved how darius handled kash— who i hate and pls let big eatie eat him already...

darius is just so smart and damn im jealous! that kid can think fast and improvise like breathing, no surprise he's the leader (and brooklyn being second in command to the group was very interesting).

》others:

-mae was a fine character! i like how quirky she is, and finally not an evil or dead adult 😭 but it was funny how even so she still got injured and was out of commission the whole time... can someone just save my kids and not die, pls theyre too traumatized!! (ps where are the camp counselors who i 100% forgot their names— are the gonna come back or naw...)

-i agree with others, kash is a weak villain. but tbh i feel like he was that annoying and ridiculous to just blind us with the ep11 plot twist aka the REAL villain¿ (i keep mentioning this but ill talk abt it soon i swear). the robots were boring i do admit as well, maybe it wouldve been better if they were like.. dino robots? to help with the island but also be disguised with the other dinos? idk tbh!

-darius's brother who i forget his name... im rootin for him obv! maybe he'll get the camp counselors to help him out and they'll slowburn their way to help the kids? i hope we get more of the mainland stuff bc like.. is no one worried that 6 kids are still missing from the island??! like maybe they do think theyre dead after all (which angsty thats so rude im cryin) but is there like really nothing they can do? get chris pratt on the case already!!!

-and lastly? i think? EP 11/SEASON ENDING. how dare you. how dare you!!! like ive seen other peoole say that they guessed it, but i legit had 0 clue bc i literally never think abt the adult characters period.. BUT HOW DARE YOU ANYWAY!! so ya.. kenjis dad— i can't even say it. I WAS NOT SEEING THAT. like even rewatching that episode i still gasp like ive never seen it bc its so unreal to me... its so good. it pretty much made up whatever complaints i had before! first "appearance" i literally was like who tf is 'daniel' (bc the subs) and i thought it wouldve been a character they already introduced previously! but ig technically they have (even tho i didnt know his connection to kenji until he literally said dad..).

im super hyped for the next season esp bc of this.. LIKE KENJI IS GONNA GO THROUGH IT! who he'll have to choose, the dino and camp fam or his actual dad... and again sammys reaction? i am not ready. like maybe theyll handle it easy and let mrkon have a change of heart bc of his son, but i also really want them to spice it up and make him a serious villain? (ik whats wrong with me) but like consider the contrast itll be compared to darius's dad... like darius and kenji can have a real test of their bond bc of this... and yes i also feel like this will test kenlynn, bc just kenjis dad being here just changes the whole game in general. like will kenji be reverted back to his selfish n spoiled ways and it'll cause a rift between him and brook/campfam?? theres too many questions and possibilities... WHAT IS GONNA HAPPEN?? im so worried..

and i know kenji is a fan favorite, so i wish people were freaking out more over this than ships...

SOMEONE PLS FREAK OUT WITH ME!!

- overall i rate this season 9/10 (originally 10/10 so not much difference but i did put more thought into it...?)

if you guys follow my crackheadness in other posts i probably seem insane but i hope this review levels it out a bit? i hope i got everything..

》 pls feel free to discuss with me in replies! i really do wanna connect with some jwcc fans even tho im alao scared bc all i see are angry fans 😭 we'll see! ima try to be more stable and less angry now this review is out.. if you managed to get through it all, thx! and sorry for typos or if it doesnt make sense, it sounds better in my head i swear..

[shoezuki]

Tommy's prison/revival arc isnt well written actually

Anyways ive been wanting to talk on it a while for a bit here but havent had the Time or like. The thought to. But im gonna go off now.

First off im gonna say im ASSUMING this stream and plot of tommy being in the prison with dream is written entirely by tommy and dream. Wilbur May be involved in the latest stream but im not sure.

Bringing tommy back to life after only three days of him being dead did practically nothing to progress plot, the characters, or audience's understanding. In fact i feel that it damaged Other characters' potential and plot and already established plotlines.

The 'development' aspect

A really, really easy way to see if anything has changed or developed through an arc or plotline is to straightup just compare the 'beginning' to the 'end' in terms of the barebones situation. So;

Beginning: tommy is trapped in an isolated prison cell with dream, his own abuser who has hurt him in the past, for an unknown amount of time. He's terrified of dream and being stuck there with him.

End: tommy is trapped in an isolated prison cell with dream after being killed then revived by him, his own abuser whos hurt him in the past, for an unknown amount of time. Hes terrified of dream and being stuck there with him.

Okay. This is simplified obvious. But the point stands. ALTHOUGH the troupe of 'going back to the beginning' is common in the heroes journey its. It doesnt work here. Has tommy learned anything? Has he changed as a character? Is the severity of their situation any different? Have we, as the audience, learned anything new?

Im going to expand on that last point because i think it has the strongest potential argument. Technically for progression in literature and development of plot/characters, things can Change without them being Aware as characters. It can change just by the audience's perception changing or being challenge.

Slight example: i've been reading a webcomic called Your Throne. Its a fantasy/political drama about a noble lady who entered a competition with another noble lady to become the empress. The main lady lost despite her being a better fit, and the comic starts with the main lady trying to assassinate the empress. Its assumed and stated by the main lady that she 'ruined her life' and so thats all the readers know. However, later in the novel we see flashbacks to the competition itself and find that the two ladies were extremely close friends, neither wanting anything bad for the other, but it was the emperor himself who manipulated both of them for his own agenda. Those flashbacks gave us an entirely different idea of who the real antagonist is and completely changed the two main ladies' relationship. THAT is how the audience's understanding of the plot and novel can be used to change the entire story. We dont get such here though

Some things that were brought to light during tommy being dead/revived:

Dream is capable of reviving people infinitely

This was already implicated and assumed. The book dream has being a means of reviving people has been around Technically since schlatt's death. This just 'confirmed' what was known

Time works differently/feels longer in the afterlife

This doesnt really impact much beyond emotions and implications. If we had more insight into what the 'afterlife' is like beyond nothingness perhaps so. But really it just makes it so wilbur being dead for what feels like 9 years and tommy having been dead for 2 months appeal to emotions.

Wilbur is evil

This one fuckin sucks i cant lie HSKSHSISSGEGDV. Like i was gon go on bout it and i will but it jus sucks. We have nothing to go on besides tommy's word, no examlles of what Horrible things wilbur said could make tommy assume this, etcetc. Ill most likely make a seperate post on how this feels like we're just going to get 'wilbur is a horrible villain' type with him. But still. I feel wilbur Not Being Good isnt a new development.

Dream is going to revive wilbur

This doesnt feel new either, part because phil had wanted to revive wilbur before (ill get to that more later) and that tommy had kept dream alive/initially imprisoned him with the idea of him reviving wilbur.

Dream believes wilbur will break him out of prison

Okau this makes no sense to me actually. I cwnt understand How exactly wilbur would be able to do this? Or why dream believes he even Could? Mans been dead for like 9 years and all we Know of the afterlife is that its black... nothingness. How would 9 years of that make wilbur capable of busting the prison open?

So. Yeah. All in all this plotline hasnt done anything new, developed things, or altered people's perceptions. We just ended up back at square one. Back to tommy being traumatized, dream being 'evil' and horrible and doing villain monologues, and them being stuck together.

Other characters and plotlines

Im pretty damn sure tommy's revival fucked up a LOT of other characters' plotlines and potential development. Honestly i feel this has a lot to do with the writers not communicating with other ccs well enough. But Ill talk about specific characters from least to most fucked over in my opinion:

Sam

He's the best off. He hqd been there during tommy's death, had been close to tommy, had majorly blamed himself and his own mistakes for tommy's death. His grief and self hatred was actually really heartbreaking and well done. The attached character of Sam Nook being unaware of tommy's death and simply waiting for tommy to return was a really good parallel to sam's own grief and anger. like it really snapped sam the guy who cares for tommy and wants to do Right by him back together with him as the Warden of the prison. Mixed personal life with 'just business'.

I feel it wouldve been nice to have him like. Have more time to grieve properly and come to terms eith tommy's death and his own involvement/influence over the events. Him finding tommy alive again Could be a means of him like. Facing his own grief head on if done well.

Ranboo

Mostly in the context of him and sam's argument do i feel it got screwed over. The weight of them yelling at each other and trying to find who to blame and the implications that Maybe ranboo was the one who caused the security breach that closed down the prison on tommy just.... doesnt hit so hard anymore. Because how can there be blame and arguments and a 'who done it' mystery when tommy popped up all fine again?

Puffy

I dony know much of her involvement or how she found out tommy died (besides metagaming shhhhh) but i saw her monologuing of how they 'failed' tommy and like. Her whole 'he was so young we the Adults failed him' spiel is like........... inconsequential? Now??? Like no dont worry he died but hes alright now.

Philza

BET YOU DIDNY EXPECT TO SEE THIS FUCKER!!!!!! But actually though i want to talk bout how this ties into phil. A LOT. for Zalbr ❤. But also because i see ppl tying phil to tommy's death n like nah shutup u doin it wrong. Ill go off more in a Wilbur Post. But essentially: i dont like that dream is now going to revive wilbur. I feel they arent going to tie philza into this Despite phil having originally been trying to revive his son and studying on it and Attempting and Failing. But now suddenly dream can just. Say some magic words and Poof wilbur lives? So we're just going to Kill philza's revival attempts plotline and leave that hanging? This made his efforts seem pointless and Wack like oh why didnt you just Say The Magic Words phil????

Niki

I feel really bad for niki. She hasnt been able to do a lore stream during tommy's 'death' (she tweeted she wanted to but her computer wasnt working) and considering her entire character.... that shit is important. We seen it with Jack Manifold how tommy's death impacted Him considering he literally wanted tommy dead. And since niki is in a similar boat to jack of trying to kill tommy and it being her Only goal...... thats extremely important.

BUT. i feel there wasnt any communication. Did she or anyone even know tommy would be revived? Did no one consider they could At Least let her do a single stream on it? Like jack manifold????

We couldve gotten a Really good niki lore stream. I genuinely was so excited for it and i dont regularly watch her. But we seen it with jack manifold which is why i dont feel he got screwed because mans genuinely did So Good he could pop off with anything n i think it works in His favour. But now........ for niki. Canonically she never even knew tommy was Dead. So its like nothing even happened for her. Is she just supposed to continue on trying to kill tommy with no progression?

What i think would work

This is more me being like 'hey @ the dsmp writers let me in' type speculation sbosegussgs. But i was thinkin on a Really easy way to 'fix' this without rewriting lore and the streams.

Dream should kill tommy again now that he's been revived and Leave Him Dead.

More development for the characters who are affected by his death Especially niki. More time for grief and self reflection and development

A chance for the audience to figure out what the 'afterlife' really is.

Dream is supposed to be smart and a master manipulator or something right? Why doesnt he use being able to revive tommy as a bargaining chip with sam for his own freedom?

The audience would now Know dream's intentions with tommy better, that this death isnt 'final', but we could still see other characters' grief and reactions and coping without it feeling cheap. Ive seen some 'but people dont know tommy is alive so hes still dead in their mind' but that sucks imo.

We'd know more on dream's ability to revive people and that he can just Do It on a whim (which i think sucks but hey im trying) but no one else would know this canonically

Okay. Im done. If you read this. Thankyou. I love you. Hmu.

[kareofbears]

finished my task early and realized that as a byproduct of our capitalist society, im unfortunately happier when i do tasks. here are my rankings of persona 5 awakenings spanning from vanilla to strikers. and i watched all of them again just so i wasn’t biased. i will also be attaching the splash pages they have of the group during awakening scenes because theyre fucking awesome 

excluded: 

morgana - no awakening, very sad

akechi - just a reveal, but an awesome reveal 

10. okumura haru  

it feels like a lie to even say she got an awakening, because they didnt even let her rip off her mask. they gave her a half awakening like it was on clearance. sad stuff, couldve been amazing, instead felt underwhelming since there was no lethargic high point where you feel her anger. i liked the gun reveal though 

9. sakura futaba 

same deal as haru, no mask ripping part :( that part of awakenings are very important to me, since its like, the whole deal with awakening your persona. its supposed to hurt, cause it hurts to throw away your facade and be who you really are!! also it just felt long and drawn out, making the tension feel...untensed. pliable, if you will. ranks higher than haru cause it still made me cry--futaba truly has one of the toughest and heart-wrenching motivations to persona awakenings, truly. 

8. niijima Makoto 

no splash page for her which makes me sad. love how gritty her mask + scream were afterwards, you can really feel the impact of it. also, editing was great during this scene. ranks low (high?) on the list though because it was pretty unremarkable overall--thats because makoto’s awakening/arc is pretty detached from who she is. its not very personal, since the conflict isn’t specifically about her you know? 

7. Kitagawa Yusuke 

a fan favorite and im sorry i couldnt rank it in a better spot. loved the camera work, loved the dialogue and his speech afterwards. it really is poetry infused with pissed-off and ready for revenge. if only the mask removal scene was grittier!! i like seeing them in pain!! it shouldnt be easy to take off the mask!!

6. takamaki ann

beautiful spectacular awakening that always makes me cry, but docked many points off because of how sexual it is. why are they focusing on her torso when shes crying. enough with the jiggle physics. stop that!!

her rage and swearing is so on point, and i am in love with how she mows down her shadow self in one go. so cool. love ann.

5. Hasegawa Zenkichi 

another fan favorite and its also one of mine as well. yall im just so emotional that an adult actually got a persona awakening. like, an adult who wants change just as desperately as the young people do? that means so much to me. dialogue is great, shadows are great. his mask ripping scene was so fucking intense that he snapped his mask in half like thats so rad 

4. yoshizawa sumire 

yeah yeah whatever i love her awakening ok. its big cheating that she got two on camera awakenings, but the first one sucked so its fine. the second one is just so great and i love how quiet the music is . where some awakenings feel very disjointed and impersonal, hers was arguably the most personal out of all of them. like she saw her sister?? and that was what made her awaken for real this time?? fantastic. also her mask removal scene was so intense and i loved that nothing happened at first because it makes you think that something is still wrong. hated the first awakening though--why the magical girl sequence?? what the fuck 

3. Sophia 

hehe her awakening is so fucking good. from the line read to the dialogue. this was the only awakening (besides jokers but ill get to that) that truly caught me off guard. i didnt expect that, even though it was the only logical conclusion to her character arc. brillaint. and i cant stress this enough--the line reads. the line reads. are so good.  thank you VA from puyo puyo tetris lmfao 

2. Kurusu Akira 

no splash page for him either but i will forgive it since hes the first. this one fucked me over because one: the animation was amazing, two, he awakened for ryuji, and three, his mask removal scene is the best of them all. you can feel every centimeter of his mask forcibly peeling away from his skin and i love it. also, this one scared the fuck out of me because when i bought p5, i didnt know what a fucking persona was. i thought this was like, a high school adventure. so yeah, this had a big impact on me

1. sakamoto Ryuji 

look man. this boy is just so angry. so fucking angry, and so intense about his feelings, and so desperate to help, and all of that accumulates to being the best awakening. where akira has the best mask ripping scene, he has the best scream after he rips his mask--you could feel that shit in your throat, in your lungs, the vibrations in your head. not to mention, he was the only one who was allowed to look fucking insane--rolling on the carpet and shit, sweating his heart out. i love how gritty it is. 

Those are my opnions thanks for coming to my ted talk 

[stanharu]

beastars episode 24 thoughts!

this post got kinda long i have Many Thoughts on this one

Overall I had fun watching this ep but I could really tell it was rushed and there was so much that got cut, which makes me super sad. our fears about the finale having pacing issues due to all the added scenes & rearranging were confirmed & it rly sucks, but i'll elaborate more on that in a bit.

this week's ep covered the end of chapter 92, chapters 93-97, and included small bits of chapters 98 & 99.

so the ep starts with the ED and the latter part of the tunnel scene with ibuki and louis. i liked the visual effect they used to show that they were in the dark. louis' voice acting was also On Point. for the most part i think this scene was done pretty well but I can tell it's being rushed also. I really wish we got more buildup and narration instead of just jumping straight to ibuki telling louis to shoot him. the way it is in the anime feels less impactful imo.

also im sad we didnt get to see this in the anime

before i move on, i wanna talk a bit about louis and his relationship w/ the shishigumi and ibuki. i feel like in the anime quite a few of the lil moments that really endear you to the shishigumi and also ibuki were either cut or kinda glossed over, which is strange to me considering how much effort and care went into the ED. it's very emotional and good but i feel like maybe anime onlies are missing out only seeing the anime and the MV. but idk.

legosi and riz's fight was quite rushed as well. there's so much narration and dialogue missing from it and that really rubs me the wrong way. It wasn't all bad but compared to the manga I just don't think it's as good. I will say tho that I really liked the sequence w legosi and the moths. I thought it looked really nice and was pretty well done.

also i liked how the backgrounds had some anti-yahya graffiti, its a nice touch imo

it says "high quality horse meat"

I was happy to see legosi do the "tell me more" pose but I'm honestly disappointed that the anime took out the whole exposition about why legosi did it. like i feel like without that it's just legosi being weird when he has a reason for it!!! This is just one example of the anime taking out crucial narration during the fight.

I also think it's kinda weird how they changed how louis shows up at the fight. im not sure how i feel about riz just charging at him like that, but i liked how legosi kicked him before they ran lol.

i dont have much to say about pina's small scene but I did wanna say that during my first watch thru of the ep i was too distracted trying to read the graffiti behind him that i didn't notice him getting his phone out of the dumpster and calling the cops lmao

it says "devour yahya"

and now... here we are... the predation scene.

overall i thought it was pretty well done but, like the rest of the ep, i could tell it was also being kinda rushed. some important beats werent given enough time to really sink in, and there's a few bits of narration taken out of this part as well that i find disappointing :^(

tho i did like how the anime called back to this scene in s1 when legosi mentions utilizing his strength.

also this part where louis is remembering ibuki had me like😭

I also really liked seeing louis cry. I was crying too sjdflskjdflsjkdf. i thought that scene was really good, its prolly my favorite part of the ep tbh. getting to hear the whole predation scene voiced made me kind of a mess lol. i really liked louis' expressions throughout this whole ep too. studio orange used their whole louis expression budget on these last 2 eps lmao.

seeing legosi instantly get all beefed up was great too. he looked a little ridiculous but i kinda loved it lol. he's so huge and poofy. i love him.

big pomeranian

anyway, im also sad they took out louis' line about being reduced to a flashback character lol. instead he tells legosi "be a hero" again which... im not sure about that change. i liked the part with riz thinking back about tem tho. tho imo the way riz realizes he's in the wrong feels pretty sudden. again adding to how rushed the whole ep feels.

before i move on again i just wanna say legosi looks so cute. even all puffed up and covered in blood. how does he do that

baby boy baby. i wanna ruffle his cheek floofs.

i think one of the things im most disappointed about from this whole ep was how the fight got wrapped up. i really like how the cops show up and totally shift the tone in the manga jslkdfjskljdf. im also really sad we didnt get this interaction

tthe anime really took out most of the sillier moments from the finale, which makes me pretty sad to think about. i know the anime and manga have different tones but pls let the boys be silly sometimes!!

the next part where legosi and louis finally establish their friendship was really cute tho ❤️ even tho it was pretty different i enjoyed it a lot.

BABIESSSS 🥺😭❤️❤️

the wrap-up for this arc and this episode gave me whiplash sdjlfkjsdf. it literally speedruns thru legosi's predation conviction, being released, louis & haru's graduation, and legosi deciding he's going to drop out of school. that is SO MUCH AT ONCE. also i was holding out hope that legosi would have his new years call with haru after the fight instead but that didnt happen!! so it just got cut!!! kinda mad about that tbh. legosi and haru having a lil scene at the very end made up for it a lil bit but that's still one of haru's few moments in this arc that's just not included.

we didnt even get the part wher legosi learns he can't marry haru bc of his conviction.

ive been really hoping for a season 3 announcement once this season ended. with all the background allusions to yahya, the added plot point of someone stealing elephant tusks, and sebun and melon's lil cameos in this season, it seemed to me that studio orange was kinda teasing a 3rd season. but now, with the dismissive way the anime ended, and paru's note from earlier today, im less sure about the possibility of a 3rd season. i'd still like to see the rest of the series animated, but i guess we'll just have to wait and see if more anime is announced in the future.

if we do get another season in the future i just hope that we swing back around and actually address the things that got completely glossed over in the last couple minutes of this episode instead of charging forward w/o touching them again.

i really think the finale for this arc should've been two episodes at least. not including the tunnel scene. i think then things wouldn't have felt so rushed. people have been saying this season really would have benefitted from at least 1 extra episode and i cant help but agree. some have even suggested a whole 24 episodes just for this arc, but i think that this arc couldve been done properly with 12 or 13 episodes if there was some better prioritizing on what to include and what to cut.

like i dont mind not getting the parts about legosi's family if they can be addressed somehow in a future season (or if theres no more future anime seasons thats a plot thread that doesnt have to be worried about). i could have lived w/o seeing sheila & peach's chapter animated if it meant more time for the focus of this arc. and was the kangaroo red herring really necessary?

adaptation wise, i dont think this season was as good as the first. i still think it did fairly well, but i know that it could have been much better. ive been excited to watch this season with my friends once the dub releases, but now im wondering if i should just tell them to read the manga instead. sighs idk. perhaps it comes thru better as a bingewatch, or perhaps im being a bit too harsh. idk. at some point ill do a rewatch and see how i feel about the season as a whole, but that wont be for a while.

if you've read this far, thanks for reading my ramblings!! it's been fun to make these posts every week and im gonna miss getting new episodes every week.

[skeetlehand]

ghost!tommy au masterpost #2

ghost tommy au masterpost part one

I made another one. w hhh

au summary: tommy loses his final canon life during the explosion right after the pogtopia vs. manberg war

Nobody really knew where he’d gone either - Tommy had allegedly gone “missing” after the festival. In L’manberg, everyone figured that while it was odd, since tommy would usually be running down the Prime path shouting, or just being generally loud and annoying... he was just... missing. Nobody had seen him all week, but everyone had thought they were the singular individual who hadn’t seen him lately. Eventually when one of them asked where he’d been, everyone came to the consensus that they weren’t the only ones who hadn’t seen him. At first, they thought he was just grieving, since he spent the most time with wilbur. But then ghostbur shows up, which, while was a pretty sad/happy moment, it raised some sort of unease.... 

.... and then, ghost tommy shows up.

I put more details under the cut!!! enjoy pain yall

feel free to send asks about... well, anything! if you found something interesting here, share it! if you’ve got a completely unrelated idea, share it! i like to read your asks. I promise i’ll answer... eventually... (the five asks in my inbox @ me: 👀)

courtesy of @gheysnakelady and their great ideas 👀❤️(you have so many good ones!!!)

current table of contents:

ghost tommy’s appearance

relationships with the rest of the sbi

ghost tommy’s memories

other ghost tommy stuff (misc i guess)

a) presence 

b) connections 

c) blue/yellow 

d) body found

”””pranks”””

dreamon hunters...? (become basically bootleg ghostbusters. but just only one of them.)

TBC: to be touched upon in the next masterpost/page set

relationships with the rest of the smp

a) SAM SAM SAM BIG BROTHER SAM AAA; b) the cabinet + lmanberg... hhh tubbo n big q,,, fundy and niki,,, dream,, the badlands... i need ideAS

reactions to the reveal (at some point... big oof)

.... a revival? phil no -

1. Ghost!Tommy’s Appearance

(should... should I be calling him ghostinnit now? yall use that term a whole lot...)

before he meets anyone (excluding ghostbur and maybe philza. some others might’ve seen him lingering around certain places, faintly), he looked simultaneously exactly as he did before he died, overlaid by his prior deaths (an sword/axe(?) to the back when trying to escape dream during eret’s betrayal, an arrow wound that goes in deep, and currently, visible blast marks and the wither effect). He hadn’t figured out what he looked like yet, other than the noticeable vision problems, but when he did, he did his best to change his form (it’s my current theory that ghosts look like what they want to look like - ie. ghostbur’s nice yellow sweater being a choice on his end). It’s an effort, to look “okay”, and when he goes off the rails, there are hints to what he looks like. 

it’s mostly because... Tommy remembers his death vicariously.  All of them. This is not a good thing.

when he does meet people, his form is slightly transparent, but he looks almost normal. there’s that new hairstyle, which really isn’t a stylistic choice on my end ;’] ... there is a lot of sooty(?) grey patches on his sleeves, and a large black mark smack dab in the middle his shirt. The wither markings on his hands aren’t clear, but that they are there is visible. He hates the wither effects the most - no matter what he does, how hard he concentrates, they. don’t. go. away.

He’s got hair over his eye, like wilbur. Gets uncomfortable when it’s joked about, because that’s a part of his face that’s.... yknow.... and he can’t hide it otherwise

Since ghost!tommy is more emotionally gripped than ghostbur is, unable to let go of the past and all the memories + emotions from it (while ghostbur lets go of it Very Easily), his form shifts a lot. Not only to his “death form” (all of his canon deaths on one ‘current’ form), but to that of the different arcs - dirty long sleeves for pogtopia (it’s cold in the ravines, and he don’t got a coat), ripped revolutionary outfit (eret’s betrayal and the arrow both happened here)... and during his more mellower moments, a green bandana that goes around the neck. He’s constantly changing in clarity, too. It’s hard to focus on him at times.

2. Relationships with the SBI found family gang: pain

did you really think we could have nice things in this au? if so... ouch

Phil

tommy did see him sort of as a dad/some sort of older figure to come to for help. but phil has a history of not exactly being a Dad. sure, he basically adopted techno, and wilbur definitely saw him as a dad, but for tommy, it’s an unspoken relationship that they should be like that, that phil should have his back, that tommy can ask phil for help. yet, they don’t. Phil showed up way too late in the game to make an effort on all of the impacts the wars and pogtopia and wilbur have created, and maybe tommy resents him a little, for leaving him and his brothers alone on the server. maybe tommy saw wilbur die by philza’s hands, moments before he did the same point is, tommy was never a “difficult child” persay, he made all of his complaints loud and clear. philza didn’t expect to do any “underneath the underneath” with him... and didn’t feel like tommy needed the attention all that much, since he could basically occupy himself. 

Think of it like this, at least in my au, that phil was never meant to be a dad. He just chose to be some sort of strong figure in the boys’ lives (found family!!!!) - but he was a survivor first and foremost, and sometimes it shows. His habits rubbed off on his boys, and that shows too - him avoiding talking about Big Things with ghost tommy is reminiscent of how ghostbur dances around questions, and being pressured into doing things is reminiscent of techno.

Tommy, on the other hand, felt as if phil always favored techno, and if not techno, then wilbur, over him. it’s okay though! he doesn’t need phil, he’s a Big Man™! Look at him... dealing with... a war... exile... funky brother problems... more war... okay maybe if phil showed up sooner things would’ve been better but he didn’t so tommy had to be the bigger man! that’s... that’s okay...? hmm. okay maybe he’s mad at phil a little bit,,,,

techno

ahh, complicated relationships *rubs hands*. 

tommy was proud of his brother, at first, the way only little brothers can be, bragging about their cooler bigger bro - that, and tommy lowkey thought there’d be someone to help him with wilbur’s decline. haha NOPE. techno don’t do emotional. thanks,,,,,

on the other hand, all ghost tommy can remember is techno being the unspoken favorite, the favorite child, the favorite brother, teasing and feelings of inadequacy (techno wasn’t a bad brother, though... just... better). And then…he remembers techno showing up well into wilbur’s long decline, techno’s silence when he could’ve used someone to speak up for him, techno’s passiveness towards the paranoia, techno’s stoicism when all tommy wanted was someone to be strong, someone else to be the better man. instead, the job was left to him. why was it always left to him? he wasn’t supposed to do all of this, right?

Techno doesn’t feel all too bad about it, before tommy’s death is discovered. He thinks that the impact of the statement was made through humiliation and violence enough (tommy being pinned down, the hero speech, the ruined victory, etc). What did tommy expect, using the Blade like that? honestly, techno’s a little offended, that tommy thought he could use his brother that easily, like some weapon made of more skill than any of them know what to do with. Techno had made his opinions very clear on government, and then they go on to appoint another one? (even though, it was sort of clear that the goal was to “go back” to the old lmanberg, government and all) so tommy kinda had it coming. besides, he’d respawn and they’d go back to normal.

but then wilbur dies, permanently, and techno has to watch his brother come undone into something else barely reminiscent of what he was momnents ago... ghostbur barely even resembles the wilbur techno used to remember. death matters, on this server, which is two blows in themselves that techno will have to deal with. and then... tommy doesn’t respawn.

techno was sure he’d seen tommy around lmanberg. albeit, like, kinda quiet, but maybe the kid was going through rough times since wilbur died. it wasn’t like techno was going to talk to him about it or anything, since his presence probably wouldn’t be welcomed anyway. tommy was kind of immature, in that regard - he’d be really annoying and yell, like he always did when something didn’t go his way. that, and he wasn’t exactly welcome in lmanberg anymore...

besides, if tommy had a problem, he’d make it clear himself, right?

wilbur/ghostbur

There’s a lot tommy isn’t willing to talk, about wilbur. What could he even say? more than half of the things he did, challenges he stepped up to, were to make Wilbur proud (as he remembered him). He hated losing, because he liked winning more, sure, but also because he wanted to make wilbur proud of him. See: the bow duel, giving up his disc for freedom.

but pogtopia wilbur, well... things only got worse. sometimes, things looked a little better, but over time, tommy learned to expect what came after. even with techno there, tommy was always left to be the “bigger man” - in the aftermath of the festival, the pit, the final pet war - no matter how much he lost, it was always him having to move forward from that point. nobody really helped. it was just tommy and wilbur, and the sound of silence in the ravine.

tommy saw the final explosion of lmanberg as both the ultimate betrayal (the worst thing wilbur could’ve done, couldn’t he have waited, phil was here, surely phil couldve done what tommy spent months trying to do, what techno wouldn’t do, why couldn’t wilbur have this?) but at the same time, he... figured wilbur would pull sometime like this. at this point, the victory might’ve lightened his spirits a whole lot, but he spent months with wilbur alone and in the course of the preparatory week, wilbur didn’t miraculously get better. tommy wishes he did, and he can wish all he wants, but deep down, he knows that he didn’t. the others might’ve not noticed, since they weren’t there for that long.

as for ghostbur, it’s... awkward. 

With ghostbur, he’s stuck between wanting to reach out to his big brother and stay away due to alivebur’s memory living in constant loop in his head. Sad as it is to say, he was sort of… relieved, when ghostbur revealed the extent of his memory loss. after that point..  if ghostbur remembers all the happy bits of their time on the server, surely he could help fill in the gaps? 

Ghostbur was kind of the first person he saw when he resurfaced, and ghostbur then couldn’t really understand the gravity of the situation, nor who tommy was because of how he acted and looked before. tommy didn’t approach him either, mostly out of fear and anticipation. (he couldn’t imagine this of all things, being stuck with wilbur for all of his undying days, hadn’t he had enough?) 

At first, it’s awkward. He doesn’t know what to say, or when to say things, and he’s a lot quieter than in life, so it’s noticeable. He meets Ghostbur, who greets him with joy, until he realizes that Tommy is dead. Memories of the manberg v pogtopia war arise, and he flees. He does not come back, because looking at Tommy hurts. tommy doesn’t get it, really... but.....

and every moment after that, the way ghostbur looks at him, with the guilt in his eyes, the way that he looks away, unable to bear looking anymore… well, tommy is starting to think ghostbur remembers a lot more than what he’s willing to let on (he’s afraid he is). If wilbur doesn’t like him, that’s not… that’s nothing new, anyway. it’s probably one of the few things that didn’t change.

3. Ghost Tommy’s Memories

Going by the HC that they’re caused by how you feel when you die. ie. Wilbur dies happy because he is relieved by Phil stabbing him. That he can rest, while Tommy gets the opposite. Wanting to live but having it so cruelly taken by a loved one that you trusted, only feeling pain and betrayal and the feelings when they had while dying is the reason why they only hold certain memories.

Basically: like Wilbur, only remembers memories associated with a type of feeling. However, unlike Wilbur, Tommy only remembers the bad things.

Ghostbur suggested to phil, who in turn, suggested to tommy that he recorded his memories in a book, like he did! thus, tommy’s “What I remember” book: which is full of stuff he just wants to remember

Dream Good Times (this is just a lie, haha... but refers to the time (read: blank space) before the first disk war)

jokes! (when you make fun of someone, even in good jest, it’s possible they won’t take it that way themselves.)

My home (because it’s been griefed and destroyed so many times at this point)

The disks (not what they sound like though, just that they were apparently important, that he fought for them. he can’t remember what they sound like)

My pets (pet wars. can’t remember whose pet was whose. he remembers mars, though. he talked to mars a lot, on days that pogtopia was quiet... empty...)

the duel

Winning the war (trading the disks for freedom)

L’manberg (manberg)

… Tubbo (? ...dying at the festival.)

Techno & Wilbur  (and phil, and what they did to him, and what they didn’t do.)

pogtopia hanging out with friends (there was nothing good about pogtopia, so he crossed it off and wrote the most blandest happy thing he could replace it with. he wishes pogtopia was just that)

the pit

winning the war (the victory, the explosion his death. if you ask why he wrote it twice, he just.. hesitates. “we won, right?” you might nod along, assuming his memory was just being faulty, that all he could remember were the two victories, that like wilbur, nothing beyond the election/exile registered... but you could also note that neither of those “victories” really felt like winning, in the end. consider the cost...)

i have a secret second list for his “actual memories”. i call it “the list of grievances”. i am so clever haha

4. other ghost tommy stuff

since ghostbur had to go and add some stuff to ghost Lore™, i guess ghost tommy now melts in the rain and snow. not that he really... cares...

other things! these are ideas, idk...

1. presence

maybe whenever he gets near someone, the temperature drops and people feel overwhelmingly negative emotions (ie. sadness, pain, anger, guilt, etc). the intensity of the sadness effect depends on the person or if the person is near - the more that person had done, the more they felt.

Wilbur just feels like melancholy. nobody really notices, since it’s .... well.

2. connections to things?

maybe he’ll be found at certain locations, like his house/jukebox, the election podium, pogtopia, etc, etc... just, ghosting...

4. maybe he’s not actually dead

3. have some blue .... or yellow

either:

a) ghostbur gives tommy some blue to hand out, trying to be nicer to him anyway, like “give people this, it makes people happier if you give them something to drain the sadness”!! but when tommy tries to hand it out, it’s already fully blue. If asked if it was supposed to be transparent, or why it’s already blue, or etc, he responds with “no it's always been blue for me!” because when he’s given it, it turns blue instantly. maybe he seems little sad it doesn’t work on him, but it must be because he’s a ghost, right?

or

b) maybe he makes yellow that gives people happiness (it turns transparent as it’s used), but when he holds it it stays yellow.... because really all it does is draw up previous feelings of contentment, but... can't feel happy if you've never felt it before :’]

4. his body discovery

his body can be found where it was last... left. since he didn’t respawn.

They find him while cleaning up the rest of the rubble. and it's evident how he died, because there are wither marks, explosion burns, and... a final injury that must’ve been the killing blow, since there’s no way he would’ve survived that. it's evident he suffered, but not from the killing blow. his face has that... expression. he looks as miserable as his ghost does, at times (contrary to wilbur's exact opposite). maybe techno is there. they're not sure if tommy just got caught in the crossfire. they think he did, because he was buried under all of this. who would have ... intentionally done this to him...? while he was trapped?

maybe techno approaches to see what everyone looks so wicked out by. and he sees his brother or more like, what was left of his brother. oof.

5. Pranks: completely out of chronological order i guess... BUT I WANTED TO INCLUDE IT AAA

tommy isn’t... peaceful. he’s not at peace. he’s surrounded by the people who he can remember taunting him, hurting him, betraying him, all he can remember feeling is anger, grief and resentment - how long do you think he’ll play nice for? even though he wants things to go back to normal, either he feels like he’s much too dead for anything to ever be the same, and/or everyone ... moved on pretty quick, huh.

tommy begins to prank the server, like he used to. but there’s a pattern to it, and it quickly devolves from seemingly light-hearted to borderline malicious and definitely inconveniencing/annoying.

ghost tommy filling dream's current base/go-to-residency (since this man canonically homeless) with clay... and then, later, other blocks, like tnt, obsidian... 

he sets up multiple jukeboxes when dream goes to sleep and have them all play cat/melohi at different intervals at once, kind of like. "you wanted this so bad, now eat it”.

misplace sapnap's current pets (if he has any). fill sapnap's house with horses, cows all named "h" names, and eventually turn it into an elaborate aquarium filled with tropical fish.

George’s house gets scrambled: like the blocks all get swapped and stuff, or replaced with lime wool/clay. maybe fill his house with alarm clocks or something? idk

He's hesitant about techno... so one of his earlier steps is: collaborate with sam with the horse maze (who sees it as a bonding activity! fun for the whole family!), but in the books, on the last page of all the books, he writes notes like "you know what you did" and stuff idk, i gotta come up with 8 of those. at the end, skeppy brings back the books and the hornse and techno's like haha i didn't write those books! and skeppy says, that makes sense! why would your write this... (he assumes the first few are threats, but then they reference techno in diff ways, so he gets confused), and then techno's like: wait what

maybe he probably releases all the horses n cows and other things techno’s got. or relocates them (cause he still cares about animals, he doesn't want to hurt them... he's not sapnap after all)

at first it's funny, normal. then it's annoying. and then it becomes worrying. it elevates in destructive tendencies, and also escalates in amount so people start going "tommy this is so annoying"-> exactly the reaction he wants, so he continues -> "this isn't funny anymore, tommy!" well, it never was supposed to be :)

....and they realize suddenly that none of it was meant to be a "prank" or a joke, tommy genuinely was trying to make their lives as hard as they did him.

ALSO EDIT: i bring you: dreamon hunters! part two! tubbo n fundy fight over what to do with ghost tommy, as tubbo doesn't think there's anything wrong with tommy (it’s his best friend, of course nothing’s wrong!), while fundy thinks he's a malicious poltergeist (with all the pranks.... that’s... that’s not tommy. tommy isn’t that spiteful... is he? )

[zhuhongs]

Upon rereading tgcf, one of the biggest complaints I have is how lackluster all the extra chapters were. literally none of them were good and all contained rlly gross and harmful sentiments (like the amnesia one which.. yea.. or all the things implying xl should get pregnant for hc thus equating gay relationships with hetero ones and playing into the wife thing and just GOD I HATE MXTX) 

There were a lot of little plot points i wish that had been further elaborated on more in the extras as opposed to hualian being ... like that. I had enough. Like mdzs had actaully good extras (minus the incense burners) that were nice side stories that elaborated more on the characters. Like the hook one with the juniors was so cute and i loved seeing them grow more. Or the lotus pod extras omg.. im such a lotus pod extra stan. those were so cute and gave us a lot of good insight into just how lovestruck lwj was during the times when he didn’t see wwx. mxtx should've stuck to those sorta extras in tgcf but NOOO. SO I have a list of so many other more interesting things those chapters couldve been spent on like:

A resolution on He Xuan’s revenge and his character arc. Bc its implied He Xuan is still hanging out and watching over sqx and that taking revenge didn’t fully satisfy him bc ok.. yea shi wudu is dead but he xuans family will never come back. Now what does he have to live for?? i wish we couldve seen a look into his life during the entire ordeal. like a chapter from his perspective while he was posing as Ming Yi  and maybe a look at a conversation btw he xuan and the real ming yi or a chapter after SQX was banished to see what he’s doing now. Also what did he xuan owe hua cheng money for anyways?? Like ik not every little thing has to be explained but I Want to Know. PLEASE more goth boyfriend content now I just wanna see him :,((

a better resolution of yin yu and quan yizhens storyline. im still mad abt how that plot point was split btw books 3 and 5  when it was rlly out of place and  there were other more pressing plot matters and it just rlly deserved more time. Also i thought yin yu died!?!?!? but apparently one of the extras says he’s alive and man... i;m not reading any more of the extras to see that, give me a full yin yu and quan yizhen chapter.. fuck.

a day in the life of the guoshi fangxin or general hua PLEASE especially like one where hua cheng was SO CLOSE to meeting xie lian but had no clue that xie lian was there at the time but the two did smth that inadvertantly helped the other and they still were connected even though they hadnt met omg pls that’d be so nice. like imagine Hua cheng catching a glimpse of the guoshi in public in yong’an while he’s trying to follow some lead that points to xie lian or maybe following a lead to capture qi rong bc he said he knew qi rong was a part of the yong’an stuff and originally thought the guoshi was one of qi rongs pawns. like can you IMAGINE him getting so close. but at the last second he did smth small that impacted xie lian. like they bumped into eachother on the street or smth. god i’d go crazy

OR vice versa.. like a day in the life of the young ghost king hua cheng. Like again, one of my biggest issues was that hua cheng just knew everything and its never really explained how he got all of that info. like yes he’s been alive very long and has eyes and ppl working for him everywhere but like... how did he build that network?? I’d love to see a chapter of young ghost king hua cheng travelling around trying to learn as much as he can abt the world and how it can help bring him to xie lian. and the two maybe are in the same kingdom for a bit and they don’t meet exactly but hua cheng stops some fight or something and helps xie lian indirectly or maybe xie lian is performing on the street in some costume and hua cheng doesn’t recognize him and smiles and gives him a coin or smth. idk i’m just dying for any sorta extra chapter or fic like that. i’m honestly so tempted to write my own but i cant write

also!! we’ve seen how xie lian picks up people down on their luck near him and show them kindness (like banyue, lang ying, xiao ying, he tried to with san lang but we know how that ended lmao) so i’d love to see another little vignette of him doing that on his travels and how every person he meets teaches him smth about life and being a good person and idk, i just think it’d be rlly sweet. i love this facet of his character and feel like we didn’t see enough of it towards the end.

ALSO hua cheng only seems to respect one heavenly official besides xie lian and thats yushi huang.. i assume thats mostly bc she was the only one to help xie lian and let him use the rain master hat to bring water to yong’an. I was thinking maybe when he was a new supreme he had run into trouble and maybe was picked up by the rain master and helped him heal and in return he promised to help protect her village from harm in the future. Like i know a heavenly official wouldn’t cooperate with a ghost like that but yushi huang is different and doesn’t really care about the heavens so i think she would protect him if he could do something to benefit her village. ik this is kinda far fetched but when he first became a supreme I’m sure a bunch of ppl probably tried to mess with him and didn’t rlly believe him to be undefeatable bc he hadn’t proved himself yet also i doubt all his power came overnight. he had to learn how to use it once he escaped the kiln. and some group probably thought they could weaken him somehow. I’m thinking maybe a rlly well formed group of ghosts actually caught him off guard once and he had to retreat and was picked up by the rain master and stayed with her and learned from her a bit. i think it’d be a cool concept also i just rlly want more yushi huang content and i’m on their friendship agenda bc he rlly did seem to actually respect her when she first appeared and i think it’d be cool if the two had some history together.

Also idrc if this was addressed I couldve missed it But!! Did xie lian ever tell Hua cheng that the reason he got the curse shackles and was banished again in the first place wasnt bc jun wu wanted to punish him, but because he requested it. And specifically requested it bc he felt guilty abt letting wu ming take the human face disease and disperse for his sake. So he took the shackles and descended to atone for that?? Bc I dont recall hua cheng learning that bc his soul was already dispersed at that point so it didnt follow him and xie lian didnt say anything so uhhh... someone should tell hua cheng that. Like I dont think xie lian rlly said how much hua cheng meant to him and didnt show him he was loved in grand ways. Like xie lian did always care for bc in other ways but I think if hua cheng learned abt this on screen it wouldve been such a great moment and I'm rlly surprised mxtx didnt address this iirc!?!? Like imagine jun wu telling Hua cheng this in the kiln bc xie lian wouldnt say it himself. Imagine how cool that would be.

Also a small thing adding into the whole young ghost king Hua cheng stuff. Its implied and p much stated that hua cheng isnt his real name. That he likely doesnt have a real name bc his parents died? (It's not clear. I'm still mad at mxtx for not making his childhood clearer). So I'd like to see when and why hua cheng chose that name for himself. The new tgcf ending song kinda hints at its meaning with the lyrics "for you I'd fill a city of flowers" as xie lian is the flower wielding martial god so it's probably inspired by that. Also xie lian saved hua cheng from leaping off the city walls but I'd love to hear him say it bc the implication of his name didnt dawn on me for quite a bit and I dont know if everyone made the connection. Again I sure as hell didnt. So itd be cool to see a chapter that takes place in his past after just ascending as a supreme

Overall I rlly think tgcf had a lot more potential to be even better and a lot of that comes down to fleshing out the side characters and letting hualian have more of a storyline independent of one another. like i know the appeal and message of tgcf is that through love, people can overcome anything, but fuck man. i just wanna see what these two (mostly hua cheng) where like in the absence of each others presence. Part of what I really liked abt mdzs is that we got to see that longing develop btw wangxian when the two weren’t together and how they thought about each other and did things in thei others spirit bc they knew the other wouldve done the same thing. but whatever, mxtx was too consumed by her own unhealthy idea of what devotion and true love looks like but still. i rlly think the extras couldve helped the story be better rather than be fujoshi fuel that i try to bleach from my mind -_-