#every story drops another piece of foreshadowing

[rosemaze-reveries]

“witch’s night” at belphegor museum...?

is it too copium to assume that’s the same museum rebecca is displayed in

🧐 something something crimebrands are manifestations of memories, and most of those paintings depict cbs in-game... this feels awfully similar to nacha’s dream exhibition: capturing something intangible (dreams, memories, happiness) to frame as a work of art?

[cipheramnesia]

One funny piece of media criticism floating around Tumblr dot hellsite dot com is talking about making movies that are just fun, The Mummy with Brendan Frasier being a premiere example. Generally the way it goes is, "they don't have to be good, just fun." Thing is, making a fun movie like The Mummy is a lot of work. Exciting adventure stories don't just happen by accident, and part of the immense skill of such movies is making it all look easy.

I'm sometimes taken off guard by a movie that's better than expected - usually because they seem low budget and the summary sounds boring. Sometimes it's because it looks like another boring and cliche action movie. Plenty of those exist too, it's not like thousands of creators are falling ass backwards into brilliant filmmaking, Venom is an outlier. But it's really common to experience the surprise of audiences about some kind of big dumb action movie, and I think that's because so many action movies are big and dumb, few people understand that good action movies are smart.

You know what's good about the Mummy? Why it's good? Because it's a movie that knows every genre cliche the audience is waiting for, and chooses its moments to break those cliches with great care for maximum impact. It's good because it's direction knows how to build up great tension with the plot, through foreshadowing, through audience awareness, through genre standards. And the release is beautifully controlled. The "wrong side of the river" line is funny under any circumstances but it drops as a capstone on a very intense escape scene which makes it KILL, every time. When John Hannah's character turns out to be, against all the pre-loaded genre expectations and foreshadowing, actually a generally honest stand up guy, it's so much fun! Not by accident though. It's on purpose. It's a big dumb action movie but it's a big dumb action movie made by people who are very very good at making big dumb action movies.

That's really the thing of it all. There's now a hundred MCU movies that just turned The Mummy into a formula, they've carved out all the one liners and twists and turns mechanically, but they're not big dumb movies, because they're not allowed to be made with the kind of adoration of the genre that you get in smaller films, films that aren't locked into a three year product rollout plan. But you can still get big exciting movies if you look around for em. They didn't go away, they just got pushed out to the edge.

But I gotta beg again - take the time to recognize that when those movies that seem made without a thought or a care somehow manage to hit with you, give you a great big grin and a sense of excitement, remember that's not an accident or luck, someone probably plotted that out and made it fun on purpose, with care.

[s-soulwriter]

Hello , here are some really basic writing tips.

Intriguing Openings: Start with a bang! Drop your readers into the middle of action or create a mystery that begs to be solved. Make them curious from the first sentence.

Character Backstories: Dive deep into your characters' pasts. Share their quirks, secrets, and defining moments. Readers love discovering what makes characters tick.

Sensory Descriptions: Paint a vivid picture using all five senses. Describe the smell of freshly baked cookies, the feel of a soft summer breeze, or the taste of a sour lemon.

Plot Twists: Keep your readers on their toes with unexpected plot twists. Surprise them by turning a seemingly predictable story into something extraordinary.

Cliffhangers: Leave your audience hanging at the end of a chapter or post. A well-placed cliffhanger will have them eagerly awaiting the next installment.

Metaphors and Similes: Add color to your writing with creative comparisons. For example, "Her smile was as bright as a thousand suns," adds a vivid and poetic touch.

Character Relationships: Explore complex dynamics between characters. Highlight their conflicts, alliances, and the evolution of their relationships throughout the story.

Symbolism: Incorporate symbols or motifs that carry deeper meaning. They can enhance the overall theme and give readers something to ponder.

Narrative Voice: Experiment with different narrative voices, such as first-person, third-person limited, or even second-person, to find the one that suits your story best.

Foreshadowing Mysteries: Drop subtle hints and clues early in the story that will become crucial later on. Readers love piecing together mysteries.

Unreliable Narrators: Consider using an unreliable narrator to keep readers guessing. They might misinterpret events or hide critical information.

Flashbacks as Puzzle Pieces: Use flashbacks strategically to reveal key aspects of the story or characters. Make them fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.

Dialect and Dialogue: Give characters distinct voices through their speech patterns and accents. Engaging dialogue can showcase personality and culture.

Emotional Rollercoasters: Take readers on an emotional journey. Make them laugh, cry, and experience every emotion alongside your characters.

Settings with Personality: Make the setting almost like another character. Show how it impacts the characters and the story's mood.

Evoke Empathy: Share characters' vulnerabilities, fears, and desires. Readers relate to flawed, authentic characters with whom they can empathize. Let them fail.

Experiment with Structure: Play with non-linear timelines, multiple perspectives, or fragmented narratives. Challenge traditional storytelling conventions.

Clever Wordplay: Incorporate puns, wordplay, or clever language usage to add humor and depth to your writing.

Cinematic Scenes: Write scenes that readers can visualize as if they were watching a movie. Use dynamic action and vivid descriptions.

Leave Room for Imagination: Don't spell everything out. Allow readers to use their imaginations to fill in some blanks.

Remember that storytelling is an art, and there's no one-size-fits-all approach. You can use these techniques to improve your unique style and the story you want to tell. Most importantly, have fun writing.

And remember to drink enough water!

If you want to have more of this , than click below and follow me.

[watchnrant]

Agatha All AlongEpisode 3: Easter Egg Breakdown

Amulets

Every Witch Has One (Not Just Agatha)

A key detail from this episode is the revelation that every witch in the coven has their own amulet, not just Agatha. As the witches traverse the Witches’ Road, which transforms into a sandy walkway leading to a beach house, their attire shifts to match the setting, yet their amulets remain. This small but significant touch teases the potential deeper importance of amulets for MCU witches and possibly hints at their connection to power and identity within witchcraft.

Big Little Lies Reference

An Homage to HBO's Big Little Lies

Mrs. Hart’s (Debra Jo Rupp) remark about the beach house feeling like it’s straight out of "Huge Tiny Lies" is a clever nod to Big Little Lies. This HBO show, which revolves around secrets and a murder investigation in a wealthy seaside town, is reflected in the trial-like proceedings in this episode. From the luxurious coastal setting to the suspense-filled plot, this homage adds another layer to Agatha All Along, showcasing Marvel’s playful engagement with pop culture.

Mephisto Confirmed?

Agent of Mephisto

The episode drops a significant hint about Mephisto’s potential existence in the MCU. When Jennifer Hale speaks to Teen, she warns him about Agatha, citing dark rumors about her trading her son, Nicholas Scratch, for the Darkhold. According to these whispers, Nicholas became an agent of Mephisto, confirming that the demon lord may already be operating behind the scenes. This moment sets the stage for larger MCU implications, tying in with long-standing fan theories about Mephisto's involvement in mystical storylines.

Trading Her Son for the Darkhold

"She Wouldn’t Recognize Her Own Son"

In a chilling revelation, Jennifer suggests that Agatha wouldn't recognize her son if he appeared before her. This is a subtle clue that Teen might actually be Nicholas Scratch, Agatha’s long-lost son, rather than the presumed reincarnation of Wanda’s son Billy (aka Wiccan). The mystery surrounding Teen’s identity deepens, making this a key narrative thread for future episodes.

Alice Wu’s Tattoo

Cursed Women & Protection

Alice Wu-Gulliver (Ali Ahn) reveals the story behind her tattoo, which was given to her at age 13 to ward off a family curse.

Teen also shares that something significant happened to him when he was 13. Given that Teen is now 16 and WandaVision occurred three years ago, this suggests a connection to Wanda Maximoff, further fueling the theory that Teen may be Billy Kaplan.

This conversation is filled with subtle clues that connect characters through shared trauma and mysterious pasts.

Mrs. Hart’s Hallucination

"Please…Wanda, Let Him Breathe!"

Mrs. Hart's hallucination brings back a haunting moment from WandaVision. Near the end of the episode, she is shown begging Wanda to "let him breathe," seemingly reliving the traumatic death of her husband, which may have been caused by the limitations of Wanda's Hex. In WandaVision, many residents were trapped in loops or frozen, and this new revelation implies that Mrs. Hart’s husband was among the unintended victims of Wanda’s control. It’s a tragic callback to the consequences of Wanda’s grief and power.

Lilia’s Premonition

"Try to Save Agatha"

Lilia’s sudden outburst, "Try to save Agatha," feels like an eerie premonition. This brief but impactful moment hints that Agatha may soon face grave danger, and saving her could become a central objective for the other witches. It’s a well-placed piece of foreshadowing that could hint at Agatha’s future role in the MCU.

Coven's Hallucinations

Facing Past Traumas

Each witch in Agatha’s coven faces a nightmarish hallucination tied to their deepest traumas.

Alice relives her mother's grief over her grandmother’s death, feeling a terrifying sense of inherited doom.

Jennifer’s hallucination shows her facing a man—possibly a doctor or priest—who calls her an "inconvenient woman" and tries to drown her.

Lilia’s vision is especially haunting, as she encounters a demon-looking nun after following a mysterious teenage girl.

These hallucinations provide insight into the coven members' pasts and suggest that their traumas are far from resolved.

Agatha’s Hallucination

Did She Trade Her Son for the Darkhold?

Agatha's hallucination is particularly disturbing. She approaches a baby’s bassinet, only to find the Darkhold in place of the infant. This vision supports Jennifer's earlier claim that Agatha traded her son for the Book of the Damned, but Agatha’s horrified reaction suggests that there is much more to this story. The moment reveals Agatha’s internal conflict and deep-seated regrets, adding depth to her character’s motivations.

Hansel and Gretel Reference

Lilia’s Friend and the Oven

Lilia's brief mention of her friend who went into an oven is a dark reference to the classic Hansel and Gretel tale. In the context of witches and burning, this could symbolize the fate of witches who face persecution or punishment, tying into the show's overall themes of betrayal and survival.

[mikhailwrites]

MWIII Campaign thoughts&opinion

⚠️SPOILERS AHEAD (OBVIOUSLY)⚠️

Alright, here we go. Modern Warfare III. Disclaimer: I've been part-timing as videogame journalist (not in EN, obviously) for the past 10 years so this might read a bit like a review which this is not.

It's been a year since we watched the 141 sit in the bar in Chicago and look at the photo of one Vladimir Makarov. And the day of reckoning is finally here, at least for those of us with eaely access to the campaign.

The game opens, surprisingly, from the Konni perspective. As one of Konni soldiers, you infiltrate the prison to free your boss. First look at Makarov is menacing and leaves an impression.

Speaking of Makarov, however, I can't but feel like the writers had dropped the ball. It's obvious they were trying to go for the unhinged psychopath vibe but honestly, so many Makarov's lines borders on ridiculous, oftentimes crossing the line entirely. At times, I felt like I'm watching an old 007 villain and I don't mean it in the good way.

Most glaring example was in the Flashpoint mission. As Price and Soap capture Makarov after bombing the stadium in Verdansk, the terrorist then taunts and mocks them, revealing to know their names and threatening them with a revenge. The dialogue is, frankly, on a bad side and Makarov in that scene sounded to me more like a spoiled, rich teenager than much feared leader of a private army with ambition to start another World War.

It also contrasted wildly with the continuation of the scene where we see Soap almost lose it, tackling Makarov and pressing a gun to his head while Price tries to dissuade him from killing the criminal on the spot. That bit was well executed and I really liked it.

What I also liked was the Passenger mission and the very unique perspective we got as players, feeling the helplessness of the victim as it's forced to play role of a terrorist, solely based on their ethnicity. The "You're not a terrorist, but you look like one," line felt very powerful, especially in the context of current affairs.

The whole campaign felt very rushed and, in my opinion, the total commitment to the "race against the clock" hurt the narration a lot. There is not a moment of respite and every piece of the puzzle is delivered in a manner so hurried, I sometimes had trouble following it.

Especially in the Danger Close mission as we, similarly to MWII, operate Shadow Company gunship to provide air support, and out of nowhere, we get a shout that there's a helo nearby and Makarov's in it.

We then proceed to shoot the helicopter down and Makarov is seemingly KIA. Well, he's obviously not but the whole scene is delivered in such a luckluster manner that I was wondering if I perhaps missed some cutscene or debrief (I didn't) and was asking myself if the developers are even serious.

The overall pacing is off, especially compared to MWII and this leads to the lack of impact and emotional response.

Which brings us to the more sensitive part of this post. Being a Ghost/Soap shipper, I was happy to see the two interact and to pick up the rapport established in the previous game. Like many others, I, too, would appreciate more time with them, but I would appreciate more missions and longer campaign rather than cut other characters' screen time.

When they are on the screen, banter is usually quick to follow. Soap and Ghost interact easily with each other, hinting at a natural progress of their relationship. The Milena interrogation is especially great in this regard.

And then there's that ending. Honestly, I knew someone would die. I think it was pretty much given. Still, I had my bets on Ghost, thinking that Soap was way too fresh and had his whole career ahead of him to be sacrificed. Well, I was wrong.

In the confines of the story, it makes sense it's him. There is major foreshadowing happening in the Verdansk mission and when Soap ends up going with Price at the end, well, it was clear. Soap almost killed Makarov years prior, Price stopped him, and now Makarov comes and kills Soap right in front of Price. The choices and consequences. It makes sense.

But.

But it serves no purpose. It's literally the last mission, so what could've served as the major catalyst for the big finale - rest of 141 coming for Makarov for some good old revenge - just ends up rather sour. Especially since Johnny, during his last struggle, as he saves Price's life, doesn't even manage to kill Makarov, only injuring him, albeit badly.

It gets worse when you realise that during both games, Soap didn't get any justice at all. In MWII, he seemingly kills Graves, taking a revenge for the betrayal and the Alone mission. Only for Graves to casually reappear later, stating he wasn't in the tank that the game clearly stated he was in.

And now he loses his life without taking Makarov with him. It's... beyond sad for the character to get treated this badly by the narration.

The team's response to his death is a bit mild as well. It starts well, with Ghost scrambling to him as soon as he spots him, feeling for vitals even though it has to be clear to him that he's gone, that felt gutwrenching. But after that? It's... lacking some stronger emotional response. They say their farewells to Johnny, a single sentence each (and, my god, did they truly think the "he was the best of us" clichè would work on any level whatsoever?), scattering his ashes, and that, too, as great as the animation was, just... felt a bit hollow and artificial.

There are ways to kill a beloved character to make it feel truly heartbreaking and meaningful. The scriptwriters here should've taken notes from Destiny 2's Forsaken DLC for example. They could've used Soap's death in a myriad of ways, including making player to choose between, say, saving Soap and letting Makarov escape. Or between saving Soap and defusing the bomb. Or just about dozen other narrative choices that would make Soap's death more meaningful and would have much bigger impact on the player.

As it is, I cannot help but say my own farewell words: Johnny died, but what for?

[queenofbaws]

hi queenie i find myself humbly at your doorstep again (if there was a bowing emoji i would put it here) so question! do you outline your stories? and if so, how? another writer i admire was nice enough to lay out a "tutorial" of sorts but i have so much trouble with the small stuff. like i have so many Big Moments planned and tiny tiny moments planned but the medium moments? do you have any idea on how to plan the medium moments???? i'm going crazy! 😩

(as always, your answer is appreciated and cherished)

why hellooooooo quill!!! what a treat to find you on my doorstep! please know it is i who is bowing and scraping - it's always a delight to be visited by THE hawke/varric queen! ;)c

extremely long story short: i do outline my stories! i live in constant awe of people who can write by the seat of their pants. alas, like the humble ant, i am always digging out pathways to follow later...usually the pathways are intricate. maze-like. bottomless. 😫 hehehe but i know E X A C T L Y what you mean, finding ways to connect everything can be...so much, especially when all you really want to do is get to those big, juicy moments, AHHH!

i'll throw my general process under the cut, and i hope it'll help in some way/shape/form!!! 💖

OH FUCK, I THINK I HAVE A FIC IDEA an outlining process by theicyqueen

hehehe okay, so as always, this is my general process, and what works for me might not work for others, so by all means take EVERY LAST THING I SAY with a boulder-sized grain of salt ;P

for the most part, my outlining process for oneshots and multichaps is roughly the same: (1) i get a central idea i want to expand on, (2) i write that fucker down in as much detail as possible, (3) i sit squinting at it like that kate beaton comic with edgar allan poe for a week or two waiting for a divine vision to hit, (4) profit. in all seriousness, though, this is typically my order of operations:

get the main idea down: this could be an overarching idea for a story (e.g., hawke and varric attend a fancy party and a murder mystery occurs) OR a big, juicy influential scene (e.g., incensed at hubert being an asshole, varric hurls a pillow at him and uncovers a secret door hidden in the wall!)

think about where you want to go from there: do you want this to be a oneshot? a multichap? how much MORE do you want to add to that main idea, essentially, or how far do you think you can stretch it?

get the biggest scenes down first: you know the ones. the ones you REALLY want to get to. write them down NOW. just trust me on this. WRITE THEM DOWN RIGHT NOW I STG!!!

if there are little scenes in your head, get those down too: don't worry about getting them down IN ORDER, just get them down! you think you'll remember them later: you will not. i love you. you will not remember them later. you're so smart. you will not. remember. them later. this is the writer's curse.

put those scenes into some sort of skeleton: here's where you start thinking about the order you want scenes in. where do you want those big, juicy things? where will your smaller moments fit in between them? what KEY POINTS need to occur before juicy scene b so it makes sense to the reader? what KEY POINTS will have to come AFTER juicy scene b to make sense? if you don't quite know where to put something yet, keep it separated, either in a separate doc, or just off to the side; don't touch it again until you have an idea of where it should go chronologically

look at what you have so far: sometimes, if you're lucky, the way to connect these pieces together will become apparent once you see what you already have laid out in one place. life is beautiful when this happens, but it doesn't always, so don't beat yourself up if you just CAN'T figure out how to get from point a to point h - let it sit. let it simmer. let it STEW. maybe eat some stew. it can't hurt.

consider the evil bits >:)c : what this means FOR ME is usually foreshadowing. is there some big twist you want to drop breadcrumbs for throughout the rest of the story? think about what that might look like! if you decide, for example, that you want to reveal a character was evil the whole time by the end of the story, think about what little nugget of foreshadowing you could insert sneakily into the beginning - a lot of the time tiny, almost insignificant details like this can help trigger bigger scenes in your head, "connecty" scenes, if you will. other examples of "evil bits," might be winks to canon material, easter eggs referring to other works of yours (or a friend's!), wordbuilding info that doesn't fit anywhere else, or not-so-subtle inclusions of your own headcanons that you have no earthly reason to include other than to make yourself smile (for example, in the project i'm working on right now, i'm making it a point to have travis hackett smell a girl's hair against her will! this is not a necessary detail by any means, but god help me my characterization of that freak will be known 🙃). it sounds fake, but seriously, sometimes the tiniest details can help you connect things later. the human brain is inscrutable.

determine whether you NEED to fill every gap: if you can't think of a way connect two scenes no matter how hard you try, it's ENTIRELY possible that they just don't need to be connected. at all. the reader doesn't always need to see characters move from one classroom to another, and we don't always need to see their skincare routine before they go to bed. those might be important scenes to include for what you're writing, don't get me wrong, but if they're not??? just...just skip 'em. DON'T connect the scene before and the scene after. if you're writing a oneshot, ask yourself: could i put a line break in here and just keep going? and if you're writing a multichap, the question is similar: can i just end the chapter here and pick up with the next one? sometimes you just don't NEED a medium-sized scene at all. just skip it!!!!!

talk to a friend who has no idea what any of this means: i'm. i'm so serious. if you're writing fandom stuff, please ask a friend with little to no knowledge of that fandom if you can talk at them about your story for a minute. if you're writing something original, please ask literally any friend at all if you can talk at them about your story for a minute. you will be. shocked. the words that come out of your mouth once you start doing this. shocked. sometimes there's stuff up in your brain you didn't even know was up there. i can't recommend it highly enough asldkjflakdjf

when in doubt, consider a humble "blanket paragraph:" i feel like...i feel like a lot of us...who got into creative writing...and who took creative writing classes...came to hate the simple blanket statement. but we shouldn't. we should love it. sometimes you don't need a scene at all - sometimes all you need is, "and then they ate dinner and watched some movies before bed." that's it. that can be your link. it can. i promise. i promise.

i really, truly hope that helps you in some way! or, if nothing else, kickstarts something in your own way of planning 💜

what a hobby we chose, huh? what a hobby. :P

[lincolndjarin]

Best Kept Secret : What If...?

a series of alternate/unused bks story lines!!

contains spoilers for all of bks!!

alternate torture @ the end

i grappled with this a lot. i very strongly believe that the worst thing you can do with your characters in a high stakes situation is coddle them. if i've learned anything from dnd it's that you cannot be afraid to hurt you characters.

yet for the first time in my life i've become so attached that i just couldn't do it.

the tongue in a box scene was something that caused me a lot of turmoil. in the original cut it was elaine's tongue, but i talked to my friend catie about it and we agreed that cutting off a lesbians tongue is fucked up. then i considered actually cutting off din's tongue, i thought that that would make for something really interesting with the big reveal if he couldn't talk to her but it just seemed too brutal? i couldn't really wrap my head around it so i eventually just made it someone elses tongue.

my replacement for that was din's leg, that was something that sort of came on at the last second, i gave him the limp as foreshadowing and then said fuck it, lets take the whole thing.

dress maker

the scene in chapter 4 where din walks in on her in the bath was originally a much longer sequence where a modiste visited the castle and there was a lot of stuff around making new dresses for her and din was going to walk in while she was getting changed.

eventually i scrapped the entire concept and gave elaine the seamstress trait instead.

multiple parties & balls (masquerade)

i briefly mentioned this in the q&a but in the original bks outline there were a lot more parties and big scenes like that. i realized pretty quickly that balls and parties are a visual medium. the reason why i like those scenes so much in other things is because they're so visually appealing which is harder to do when writing. there was going to be a readers birthday ball, a few other parties or wedding for kodos siblings etc but it always felt like filler.

the masquerade was my dream sequence that just never really fir naturally fit with the story so i eventually had to let it go.

no breakup/rules storyline

there was no break up in the original bks story board. instead, everything after chapter 7 was gonna be based around breaking each and every rule.

each chapter following would have been dedicated to breaking a few of the rules up until the last one that would have been; no falling in love, stop when i say to stop, and no kissing would have all been one big climax chapter. it would have been very little women in the 'we have got to have it out jo' sort of sense where she begs him to stop talking but he just keeps confessing.

eventually i realized that a rule or two break every chapter wasn't very sustainable. it was a fun idea and it might work in a different setting but bks at its core is supposed to be an overly dramatic period piece and there just wasn't enough conflict with that so instead i went with the breakup.

alternative ending

i had a similar ending for quite some time and one day i was listening to music and thinking about bks and realized that she loved naboo. originally they fled after kodo was killed. they built a cabin somewhere far away etc. etc.

but the character seemed to make more sense as someone who would want to do right by the people she had grown to love within the kingdom so i decided to make it a sort of thing where she disassembled the monarchy.

(there was also an ending where she faked her own death, framed kodo, and he was ripped apart by the citizens of naboo)

and of course i briefly considered genuinely killing din and having her raise the baby on her own. but the idea made me so truly upset that i just couldnt do it.

hoth story line

not much to say here other that there was going to be a thing where she went back to hoth to visit her family accompanied by the mandalorian. another thing that was fun as a concept but ended up feeling like filler so i dropped it.

elaine plot twist

another case of me really loving elaine and being conflicted about her character.

originally elaine was going to tell kodo about their relationship. it was going to be a situation where kodo suspected something and threatened lysa forcing elaine to take action but eventually i decided to use my backup which was leo since there had been foreshadowing for that anyway

neutral kodo

for quite a while i planned for kodo to be just a bad husband and not a villain. but i needed more conflict and i needed a driving force and he was easy to mold into that.

there was an alternate storyline where he fell in love with the reader and “killed” din out of jealousy

[totallynotokguys]

Lego Monkie Kid Rewatch: Season 3

Episode 1

I love rewatching media that rewards you for it. This show is good at dropping subtle hints about future plot points that you will only catch once you know the plot point. For example, the Samadhi Fire!

When Monkey King (or Tang, the enthusiastic geek that he is) is first explaining it to everyone, the show gives you an image to kind of keep your brain on track with his words.

Immediately two things pop out for those who have seen past this season: red and green fire. Obviously this represents Red Son and Mei, past and current wielder of the Samadhi Fire.

It is such a cool little detail to have that most people (like me) would just think was there to be pretty but later on realise, "Oh hey, foreshadowing!"

BUT WAIT! I'm not done!

Next image we see of the Samadhi fire has the red and green... but also something else.

Is that... blue?

Is this another hidden detail of foreshadowing? Is there going to be a third holder of the Samadhi Fire who represents the blue? Or am I just hyper focusing on every minute detail because the show's attention to detail in its story telling has made me paranoid.

Who knows?

All we know so far from season 5 is Red Son is experimenting with the Samadhi Fire and they both apparently still have a piece in their soul soooooooo- we'll see.

[mamawasatesttube]

🌿🍦🦋 🦴

🌿 ⇢ give some advice on writer's block and low creativity

diagnose the cause. is it burnout or just block?

if it's burnout: take a total break stop trying to write and go read a book. do something to help you find inspiration without trying to squeeze out every last drop you have left. let it build back up

if it's block: force the words out anyway. just write one sentence a day. i often find that when i'm struggling with block, trying to add just like 50 words at a time (a very low goal!) makes me feel more like adding another 50. and maybe another 50 after that.

🍦 ⇢ name three good things about a character you hate

oh MAN. okay. lets see.

lex luthor can genuinely be a really interesting and fun villain. he IS pretty iconic as such, and i do think his xenophobia and genocidal intentions make for really good conflict in superfam stories. (through gritted teeth) thats three statements right

🦋 ⇢ share something that has been on your heart and mind lately 

this afternoon ive been bothering britta about car questions for the purposes of tim fic and in the process of this discussion we got onto the topic of "looking up songs about cars for potential fic titles" and i discovered this song, which ive decided is my personal tim/ari breakup anthem bc its so fucking funny. yes i know the car wasnt the real reason they broke up. however its so FUNNY. look at these lyrics.

You sure know how to hurt a girl Fewer hugs and no more kisses Just water for your carburetor And bearings for your pistons Rev her engine for your pleasure Caress and fondle her steering wheel But when you moan and hug her gear shift Stop! Think how it makes me feel

🦴 ⇢ is there a piece of media that inspires your writing? 

lord of the rings my beloved. the silm my beloved. tolkien's writing was definitely formative for me (you can tell by how rambly i get slkdjf). i also really love the way brandon sanderson does worldbuilding, and i've enjoyed what of stina leicht's writing i've read as well!!! i'm a big fan of asimov's plot twists and foreshadowing, plus the way martha wells does unreliable narration. i think these are all my current fav authors.

Writers' Truth & Dare Ask Game!

[phyllistines]

Ted Lasso s1e3 Analysis

I recently rewatched the third episode of Ted Lasso’s first season, and I noticed a ton of stuff. I’m gonna preface this by saying I know that trent wasn’t written to come back, and it was in fact James Lance that inspired Jason to add Trent in more, but there are a lot of things that tie back to tedependent, things that show it was here from the beginning, and Jason could have easily decided to just build off of that. Ok, now into this weirdly complicated analysis about nothing at all.

The first season of the show, specifically the first three eps, is dedicated to introducing what’s important to ted. Of course every first season of every show ever is for introducing characters, but there is a clear effort in the first three episodes to showcase what will motivate ted and what will be important to him.

first ep: beard,(his friendship with him) and his job

second ep: rebecca, family, the team

third ep: team functioning properly, friendships, trent

immediately trent is established as something important to the show and to ted. the first big (one on one) interaction between them is literally a date. besides that, it’s the first time we see trent (sort of) drop his guard. the reason for this is the spicy food, it catches trent off guard, and distracts him enough to not only stop talking about journalism, but actively struggle to talk about work. it’s a forced type of opening up, and it’s barely anything at all, but it is still there. it’s almost foreshadowing, the way trent is forced to drop his journalist facade when around ted can point to how he later fully drops it on purpose. there are some other themes that loosely tie back to season three as well, specifically the next episode (ep 9 as of writing this). The main conflict between roy and ted in s1e3 is about ted refusing to stop jamie from picking on nate. the fighting is the main story w roy and ted in the episode, and it eventually leads to ted and trent bonding. trent even chimes in to a convo between roy and ted to add some clarification. the next episode could really lead to some classic tedtrent action, seeing as the main conflict is sure to be colin and isaac fighting, and trent is arguably more involved with them than he ever was with roy’s storyline. Another interesting little theme i noticed was the fact that ted connects with people through food. (very basic but bare with me) He brings rebecca biscuits everyday to get to know her better, (he calls trent a cookie at one point too) he gets sam food when he’s homesick, he and beard have a weekly sandwich swap tradition, and his friendship with keeley begins to develop when he innocently feeds her a sandwich. Almost every meaningful relationship in the show surrounds food, with Ted having the most out of anyone. (other food relationships include Sam naming his restaurant after Ola and cooking with him, nate meeting his gf at his favorite restaurant, and then ted’s whole experience at the american restaurant aka “home”) we also see the entire team connect over a big meal three times in separate seasons. trent is present for one of these, establishing him as a person worth connecting to, even if he’s not officially part of the team yet. The final little piece from s1e3 is something that trent says in his lil voiceover at the end of the episode. “His coaching style is subtle. It never hits you over the head. Slowly growing until you can no longer ignore its presence.” Sound familiar? It’s incredibly similar to his lil speech/rant he gives to Ted at the end of “The Strings that Bind Us”: “By slowly but surely building a club-wide culture of trust and support through thousands of imperceptible moments, all leading to their inevitable conclusion.” Trent’s presence in this show has been prevalent and it’s all been leading up to this final season.

[cq-studios]

We talked about Ven’s dream, but are there any other moments in the series that stand out to you as potential KHUX references?

Okay, so, this is gonna all be from memory — with the occasional reference to the novels (I have bookmarks lol) so take the things I say with a grain of salt…

Also it’s kind of long so, under the cut we go!

The first one that comes to mind is something exclusive to the novels but when Ven and Vanitas re-fuse in the BBS an unspecified voice says this:

Which feels very Darkness coded. The “I’m home” part especially, since it’s most likely that it was removed from him at the same time as Vani (this specifically is also why I still believe Vani and Darkness are separate entities, even if they might share a body).

It doesn’t really make sense why they’d refer to themselves in the third person like this, especially since we do have another plausible explanation.

On a different note

You cannot convince me that it was not intentional that the Dream Eater Theme is one of the only tracks in the franchise to have vocalizations (the only others I can think of would be ML Dearly Beloved and One Winged Angel? Could be forgetting some tho).

Like what kind of twisted foreshadowing is that?

And the fact that it’s so ‘childish’ too. Obviously the Dandelions weren’t that young (like not under 10 I mean) but it still drives me crazy. Just AHH.

I’m not very confident this one is intentional (I have no idea when KHUX started being planned. I doubt it was all the way back pre-2008, but who knows?) but in Days (only the game, not the cutscene movie) both Marluxia and Larxene consider recruiting Roxas in their coup.

I believe Marluxia is the first one to bring it up and I can only imagine that was because of his connection to Ven. Not really much else to say here lol

Last but certainly, nearly, tangentially on topic is the Keyblade War story Yen Sid tells Sora and Riku before their Mark of Mastery Exam.

And like, yeah, no kidding CQ, but hear me out, I think it’s how it connects to Union X that makes it interesting.

So my idea is that the story actually mixes the Keyblade War MoM presumably fought in (the one ‘when he was a boy’ he tells Luxu about) with the one that he made the Foretellers cause (the one in Chi).

Green and Bold are the former

Pink and Italics are the latter

Blue, Bold, and Italics are ones that could plausibly be both

“Long ago, in the age of fairy tales the world was filled with light — a gift, many believed, from an unseen power known as ‘Kingdom Hearts’. You see, Kingdom Hearts was protected by its counterpart, the ‘X-Blade,’ so that none could ever lay hands on its mysteries.

But in time, the world was overrun by legions who wanted the light all for themselves, and the first shadows were cast upon the land. These warriors crafted ‘Keyblades’ in the image of the original X-Blade and waged a great war over Kingdom Hearts. We call this the Keyblade War.

But though the war extinguished all light from the world, the darkness could not reach the brightness inside every child's heart.

With that light, the world was remade as we know it today, with countless smaller worlds shining like stars in the sky.

As for the real X-Blade, it did not survive the battle. The two elements that created it, one of darkness and one of light, shattered into twenty pieces — seven of light, thirteen of darkness.

And as for the source of all light — the one true Kingdom Hearts — it was swallowed by the darkness, never to be seen again. As long as it remains there, even the brightest world will have its dark corners. After all, light begets darkness, and darkness is drawn to light.

For this reason, some decided to use the Keyblade — a weapon designed to conquer the light — to defend the light instead. These were the first heroes of the Keyblade.” - Narration by Yen Sid, Dream Drop Distance Novel, Page 165

So I’m gonna go over each coloured line one by one just to clarify what I think they’re referring to.

Anything said about the X-Blade is automatically about MoM’s ‘childhood’ Keyblade War to me (Green) as we do not see it or hear any reference to it at any point in the X Saga. Not even when MoM is talking to the Foretellers. Hell, I’m not even sure it’s ever mentioned in Dark Road.

The mythos could just be made up. But the X-blade is real and does summon Kingdom Hearts (a real or a fake one is yet to be decided). But also if this was a MoM Keyblade War thing, and he never told anyone about it, how would the rest of Keyblade society know? Maybe at some unseen point during MoM and Xehanort’s meeting he was told. I’m not sure. It’s a little rocky but I’m using what we have to go off of

And I am pretty sure that the X-Blade would be a thing MoM was exposed to considering it’s status as the thing all Keyblades are based on.

For a comment on the first few blue lines. I personally believe this is true for both wars, but that the wording leans a bit more into the Chi war.

The pink lines afterwards are obviously referring to the Dandelions and restoration of worlds

The next blue line…

So, we have no heccin’ clue which Kingdom Hearts is real. Like, is it yellow? Is it blue? Is it the god damn door from KH1? (It’s not the door from KH1. The door from KH1 is the Kingdom Hearts of Worlds and not the one we’re talking about lol) Not even some people working on the games are entirely sure according to one interview lol

And because of that I cannot tell you during which war the true Kingdom Hearts disappeared.

Most people, including myself initially, would assume it was in the war we see in Chi, and, honestly, I don’t think they’re in the wrong for thinking that. I think that’s what we’re supposed to think. But Yen Sid says that “the one true Kingdom Hearts” was “never to be seen again” and all instances of Kingdom Hearts appearing (both colours I mean) have shown up on at least 2 occasions.

In Fragmentary Passage (I think???) there’s a cutscene of Luxu watching the (Chi) war and the Kingdom Hearts shown there is blue. The same blue as in BBS. In KH3 its yellow the same colour as the confirmed fake Kingdom Hearts shown in Days.

If either of those Kingdom Hearts were real then they both would’ve very much shown up again by the time Yen Sid is speaking to them.

The last pink line is most likely referring to MoM taking on the Foretellers as his apprentices and them forming the Unions.

See I spent all that time explaining my thoughts about that Keyblade War legended and now I look at them so unconfidently… but it took so long to write it all out I’m gonna keep it in anyways lol

Anywho, that’s all folks.

Feel free to either add on to my points or tear them to shreds, if you’d like. I love a discussion. And prefer to be corrected if I get something wrong.

[blushinggray]

Omfg I’m??? Going nuts???? Anyway Fourth Wing spoilers ahead in case you’re reading/planning on reading it

First of all… BRENNAN???????? Are you one piece sabo in another life???? (Like i mean come on, the big brother who disappeared only to turn up again as a revolutionary officer?) Omg there are just so many questions going through my head rn. Like how long has he supposedly been dead again? At least six years or smth by now??? And he’s been here working on the revolution the entire time???

Also how long/often has he been in contact with xaden and co.??? Has he known that xaden has been training his little sister??? I originally found it hard to believe that xaden had such a strong impression/liking to violet at the beginning when he was supposed to hate her for the death of his father. But he’s known this whole time that her brother was alive and that she had the potential to be a great asset to them, then that would make a lot more sense of how quickly he grew to like her

The storytelling is just!!!! So intentional and well thought out!!! I can see every hint being dropped and i can’t stop for a single second from taking mental notes bc i just might need that later to confirm the foreshadowing!!! Like i saw a few things coming, even smth like Brennan coming back/being alive, but the story was told and paced so well that i didn’t expect it at all when it finally came!!!!! But the lightning being hinted all the way back during their first kiss?? This i gotta go back and reread at some point.

But this writing is like a whole ass tapestry, with how yarros (the author) weaved everything together with so much detail, and pacing, and building. I really need to take a few steps back to look at the whole thing and then dissect every part of it just so i can really appreciate it. I was really rereading so many pages in the moment just to let them settle in a little more. My brain really needed to take its time to appreciate every detail and let it settle in. Which is kinda why I’m writing out this whole ramble of a post rn lmao (I was originally kinda just using it to share a couple thoughts without spoiling anyone/creating a whole thread on twitter but now that I’m here i just gotta get this all out)

Anyway, let it be known that i have, once again, fallen for the himbo side character — ridoc will now be my chosen bf of the series, until i meet someone new/more interesting. I mean, look at this golden-hearted doofus

Also? He is dtf? Do i have to line up somewhere? Bc i will

(Lol pls disregard the fact that these are all different light/dark themes. I read across different devices and have different bg lighting themes for each of them)

Though i can’t lie… i really did love Liam too 😭😭😭 he could be so sweet and funny in those moments that he let himself be young

He didn’t deserve the end he got 😔 but he will be in my heart always. Perhaps in some sort of happy au where i can give him all my love and build him shelves for his wood carving hobby/collection 😭

Speaking of scenarios though, i have been drawn to listening to NIKI quite a bit while reading this and i have a few dedicated songs to xaden/violet from her (an underdog woman with something to tell the world; quite fitting for violet, no?)

And i also imagining a scenario of [character] (ridoc? Possibly Brennan depending on how brotherly he ends up feeling to me) and maybe rider!reader or even civilian!reader where the riders come in to save them and they’re all kind of just gathered after an attack, sheltering together and reader is comforting some younger kids or teens or smth and sings them a song to just calm them down, and it ends up calming down a few of the riders too. Just reminding them to take a breath and take the time to feel comforted, even in all the chaos

(I love you Phil Collins, but this version is just a little more chill)

Lots of thoughts… lots and lots of them. It was literally 600 pages of thought provoking stuff. Also, i am really curious about how dragons fuck/get intimate now??? But it is more than i have the bandwidth to write out at 11pm after a full day’s work and another few hours of a night class. But I finished the book and i just had to put some of my thoughts out there while i still had them simmering in my mind (and before I started iron flame). Book 2 Ridoc, and brennan, here i come!!!!

[goblins-riddles-or-frocks]

Nesta in her book was really smarter than Feyre. Maybe Sjm's writing improved.

I have heard wildly different things about that book! Ultimately I am done with ACOTAR and will not be reading lol. But despite hating basically every moment of that series and ToG, I really liked her Crescent City books! I think she’s genuinely improved a lot and managed to pull off many of the ideas she’d attempted one way or another before.

The characters are solid, there are clear themes, and the mystery is really good? There is pacing? There are red herrings that make sense? The twists (multiple!) are foreshadowed and pieced together slowly instead of being dumped on the reader all at once??

I think she loses steam a little by the end (I still haven’t managed to make it all the way through the third book dhfgf) but for SJM the difference is truly night and day. And generally I think first books have always been her strength and she’s floundered trying to continue her series. So the quality drop by book three is still much, much better than the nosedives happening in ToG and ACOTAR, so it’s still noticeable improvement in terms of knowing how to continue a story well.

[quoteablebooks]

Genre: Fiction, Adult, Fantasy, Romance

Rating: 4 out of 5

Content Warning: Death, Violence, Blood, Sexual content, Body horror, Torture, War, Sexism, Suicide

Summary:

Pull three people out of prison--a disgraced paladin, a convicted forger, and a heartless assassin. Give them weapons, carnivorous tattoos, and each other. Point them at the enemy.

What could possibly go wrong?

In the sequel to CLOCKWORK BOYS, Slate, Brenner, Caliban and Learned Edmund have arrived in Anuket City, the source of the mysterious Clockwork Boys. But the secrets they're keeping could well destroy them, before the city even gets the chance...

*Opinions*

I was really excited to get to The Wonder Engine after I finished Clockwork Boys, especially since the ending felt extremely abrupt. Upon reading the Author’s Note I found that T. Kingfisher wrote the two books as a single volume, but it was far too long to be published, so it was split into two. Still, it makes it a little more difficult to rate and review this book because while it feels like one long story, it is supposed to be two books that stand on their own. 

As I mentioned, this book picked up immediately after the end of Clockwork Boys, with the group in Anuket City attempting to find a way to stop the Clockwork Boys before their magical tattoos eat them or they are killed by individuals in the city. While the group is more cohesive, tensions run high when they work toward stopping unstoppable creatures that no one knows how they are mad or how they work. The tension gets even worse when Caliban and Slate continue to dance around one another and Brenner does not take kindly to that. T. Kingfisher does a great job of weaving in the main storyline with all the other plot threads that she dropped along the way. Nothing was super surprising because as soon as the answer was revealed you saw all the foreshadowing that had been laid out beforehand. 

There are absolutely brutal parts of this novel, there is an assassin of the group after all, but none of it seemed to be done for shock value. Even the final enemy that they encountered was extremely disturbing, but in a way that made sense given it’s connection to the Clockwork Boys. The action sequences were thrillings and every character continued to have their strengths and weaknesses to make the group work. Kingfisher also finally answers what Slate did to make her leave the city in the first place and the final pieces of what Caliban suffered and did in service to The Dreaming God. It is hard to talk about anything else without giving spoilers, but this is a well constructed story. 

Anuket City did not see like a fully realized city, but the areas that the group went to in them felt alive and visceral. The Grey Church was probably my favorite location that the group goes to, even with the Crow Cages, but the arcanists quarter and gnoll Quarter were teeming and living things, but Anuket City was just words. Kingfisher did do a good job of setting up a society in a large city, with the gnoles being vial but ignored, and moving through narrow spaces. The titular Wonder Engine was spectacular, if slightly horrifying, and an image that will stay with me after reading the novel. 

I love the way that T. Kingfisher writes her characters. To start with, they are all 30 and over, aside from Learned Edmund who is 19, and they act like it. That is not to say that their relationships aren’t messy, but that they realize this and have physical limitations that seem to be forgotten in a lot of other fantasy novels. The banter and interaction between the entire group was also truly entertaining and something that Kingfisher does extremely well. You love to hate Brenner and something truly love him, want to smack Caliban for being so nobel, to want to shake Slate for not trusting what is in front of her, and Learned Edmund is just so terribly naive. Each one of them is a full character with pasts, desires, skills, and weaknesses. Something I have found in the three books I have read from Kingfisher, all fantasy, is that she really writes character and humor is a way that I adore. 

The romance between Slate and Caliban is the most frustrating will they won’t they slow burn, and I absolutely adored it. The thing is that Kingfisher write miscommunication in a way that is completely relatable, aka one of the characters stick their foot in their mouth and the other character responds appropriately. I also appreciate that Slate acted appropriately after the destruction of fight around the Wonder Engine, but there was still a realistic happy for now for these two characters. Not my favorite Kingfisher romance, but one of my favorite romances overall. 

T. Kingfisher is slowly working her way up as my favorite authors and how she writes characters and dialogue makes me happy as a reader. This is a 4 star book for a lot of small issues that add up to knocking off a star rating, but still a very enjoyable reading experience. I highly recommend this duology. 

[cvm-jpfilm]

Ōshima – Cruel Story of Youth

Wow! This was a movie. I truly cannot process what gave way for this script, but it is wild. In an ironic way, the nonsensical nature of the characters and their actions made for perhaps the most enjoyable movie to watch thus far. But that's if you don't take it too seriously; in my opinion, when I really tried following the movie, I just got mad. I think there is some serious commentary packed into this movie, and for me, it is almost ruined by the stupidity of these characters. Every character is selfish, almost all of the guys are rapist, and the cruelty is comically exaggerated. On another note, this movie marks our first experience with color film and a 16:9 aspect ratio. For a 1960s film, the cinematography and film quality hold up quite well compared to today's movies. I was especially surprised not only with how vibrant the colors were but also with how much more each shot could contain.

I think the Cruel Story of Youth is a commentary on the relationship between the U.S. and Japan in the postwar period. It's the focus of a small scene and offhandedly mentioned a couple of times, but I think the backdrop of the student protests are integral to the film's message. Historically, I think the film depicts the postwar student protests in Japan against the US-Japan Security Treaty. The original treaty permitted the presence of U.S. military bases in Japan along with a mutual protection clause if any of the two nations were to be attacked in Japan. The protest in the film is most likely the student protest against the revision to the treaty, which although it contained many benefits to Japan and restrictions to the U.S., did guarantee that U.S. bases would stay for at least 10 more years. With clear tensions around this time, I think the movie depicts the relationship of Makoto and Kiyoshi to that of Japan and the U.S., respectively. I wonder if the political message pushed any indecisive youths to move against the treaty. In my eyes, I see that unbalanced relationship of Kiyoshi (U.S.) and Makoto (Japan), where the U.S. can just place military power in Japan unilaterally, as unfair.

Additionally in this film, sex is power, influence, and connection. Parties hold influence over each other through forcing and withholding sex, knowing who's having sex, and extorting sex. A good example of this is in the scene where Kiyoshi catches Yoko and his friend together. Fueled by his jealousy over how everything about his friend's relationship seems to be benefitting him, he strikes that weak point. This is where one of my favorite shots in the movie is:

After making backhanded compliments to his friend, he realizes the power he holds over him while wiping a glass. Foreshadowing what is to come, Kiyoshi drops the glass and it shatters, symbolizing how he will destroy his friendship by leveraging that power. What's more, Kiyoshi immediately discards of the pieces without a second thought, demonstrating his disregard for the consequences of what he is about to do. And surely enough, he goes on to do just that by first pressuring his friend to do what he wants at the threat of his affair going public, and then telling Yoko about the affair to revel in seeing his friend's relationship crumble.

I also think the depictions of rape to be in line with this example. Constantly throughout the movie, characters force themselves upon each other to exert their dominance. Kiyoshi with Makoto, Kiyoshi's mistress on Kiyoshi, and almost every guy in the movie on Makoto. In this film, sex is something that is taken from someone, where the strongest take from the weak, a simple display of power.

[besidesitstoowarm]

"Journey's End" thoughts

doctor you suck shit

okay again i'm gonna blow through the plot stuff bc i don't care it's not the part that matters. the doctor avoids regeneration by channeling the energy into his hand. mickey and jackie are here now! martha goes to germany and the daleks are speaking german lmfao. the daleks have an instrument called the crucible and taught the doctor by dropped the tardis into an incinerator...

bitch you THOUGHT!!! the hand is calling out to donna and she touches it and gets slammed w regen energy and then the hand grows into naked david tennant. tentoo has arrived! a dalek shoots jack but he's fine. we learn tentoo has one heart bc he's half human! his singular heartbeat "rippled back" which is what donna was hearing that drew her to the hand and he says "we were always heading for this" HAVE I NOT BEEN SAYING?? THIS WAS ALWAYS GOING TO HAPPEN SHE'S BEEN DEAD SINCE THE BEGINNING

martha tries to use the world-exploding key and gets teleported to the dalek ship and they explain they made a "reality bomb" using the aligned planets as a scope. like the planets aligning in hercules to release the titans. davros gets on his bullshit "you take ordinary people and you turn them into weapons" he's not wrong actually. the doctor does very much do that. "always running and never looking back because you dare not, out of shame" again got it in one

donna's powers activate bc she got turned part time lord by the regen energy! regenergy. sure. she's the doctordonna and ten remembers the ood foretold such. always listen to the ood. so now there's three doctors! jack says "i can't tell you what i'm thinking right now" bc he's narsty. dalek caan has betrayed the daleks by letting all this shit happen "i saw what we did, creator, and i said no more". tentoo explodes every dalek. i'm fine with that who cares

k9 is here! everyone teams up to drag the earth back home to its proper place. the tardis is functioning appropriately bc it finally has enough drivers and it's sweet to see everyone get along. rose, jackie, and tentoo get dropped off in their parallel universe bc she needs to babysit him?? "he's me, when we first met" so she gets a project man. i'm glad rose gets her very own tenth doctor to fuck but this is kind of a copout ending for her sorry. that said "how was that sentence going to end" "does it need saying?" and then tentoo DOES finish it and kisskiss. good for her genuinely

everyone else goes back home and donna starts glitching out bc a time lord brain can't live in a human body and it's going to kill her. he takes all her memories, wipes her brain, as she's crying and begging him not to. it's hard to watch, it's very violating, and it's a bullshit copout for her too. i know rtd has said he does not like the way the episode ended but honestly couldn't untangle the knot in a satisfying way and i do get that, there were a LOT of pieces in play. still bullshit to me tho

he drops her at home and warns wilf and sylvia that they can't ever tell her the truth or it'll kill her. he gets wet in the rain pathetically and the episode is over. as i said last time, this story makes no fucking sense but the fanservice really does work for me and everyone is so charming, all the pieces falling into place from the season-long foreshadowing, it really is a great story. not my fave finale, i'm too much of a sucker for s3, but i think it was probably the best possible way to get all these characters involved in a way that felt natural for them and useful for the story

up next i'll do a series retrospective! i'll probably let the specials sit as their own mini-series and do another after the regeneration. farewell for now to donna noble