#good storyline good symbolism good dialogue

[inkstainedhandswithrings]

TBB S3 Ep 5 Thoughts!!

Love Omega’s new outfit

Batcher hanging out with Cross then, I see

Cross is like the dad who continuesly goes “NO PET” and then when you do get a pet they’re suddenly besties

“ITS ECHO” “perfect”

Ah, the duality of man

Love how there’s no end to this dynamic

“What? No hug for me?” “That depends how good your intel is.”

LOVE Echo matching Cross’s causal sass

These two are gonna push against each other a lot huh?

Yanno, given all the promo material, I was kinda expecting Rex to be with Echo when he arrived (hoping phi, the word is hoping.) (she’s delulu.)

“Especially without Tech” 😭😭😭😭

No surprise reactions from Cross through. Means he already knows.

But also, Cross coming in with the solve <3

Is Hunter,,,, JEALOUS??? of the fact that Omega is spending so much time with Cross? Like that SIDEYE when they walked past each other on the platform

Like, God forbid Omega spent time with the member of the squad who everybody is always suspicious of and spends the most time alone

BUT ALSO!!!

“Don’t hold it against him. His only worried about you.” CROSS YOU BIG ‘OL SOFTY!!!

“I’m older than you are, little brother.”

THE CHUCKLE

AND WRECKER GIVING BACK CROSS’S ARMOUR AAAAAAAHHHH

oooohhh the girls are fighting

“Hey, kill each other later.” SIR THE WAY I CACKLED BYE ✋🏻

“He started it.” Sir, are you 5?

MAYDAY’S HELMET

Echo not wanting Omega to see the straight up Bitch fight between Hunter and Cross

TELL HIM CROSSHAIR!!!!!

Jesus Christ, fucking finally

I wrote a post at some point about Cross becoming the mirror held up to Hunter in which he can view his own shortcomings because of his adamant refusal to change AND ITS HAPPENING

“I risked everything to send you that message and you ignored it.” THIS

Hunter’s mistrust in Cross played a big part in Omega getting captured, but also ofc Cross thinks the message was fully ignored, because no one came to save him either

Also Cross just not hiding anymore that he’s always cared for Omega too I LOVE

Love how quick they put that plan together

Batch is Batching :) (almost) (Tech, my love, come back)

“We’ll try to dig through.” “You’ll try?” “Glad you heard me properly.” I AM WHEEZING

Cross patting Batcher

BIG ‘OL SOFTY

Say did Hunter abandon the bandana for a god damn leather strap

wtf

Cross and Hunter walking back to base side by side, when the last time Cross was walking back to this base was with Mayday dying in his arms🥺

Wrecker hugging them both

AAAAAHHH

“See? They always work it out. And I don’t even see any blood this time.”

EXCUSE ME??

i am worried.

Blood??

Was typical??

Jesus Christ

Don’t know how much I appreciate Hunter getting on a high horse and giving Cross advice

Bird flying away from Cross After always being with him on that base, like the shadows of his past leaving his life, now that this period of his life is over (also sun setting, signifying the day is over)

Good symbolism yes

Okokok good episode! Tbh I thought “The Return” would be Echo’s permanent return to the Batch, but narratively that wouldn’t’ve made sense for him anyway. And I am LOVING the fact that it is actually Crosshair’s return to the turning point in his life, followed by his full return to the batch. Like yeah, last ep they re-met, but he hadn’t fully arrived until the end of this episode and GAAAAHHH I love it!

Also the dialogue is just totally A1 chefs kiss mwah this season (or maybe I just appreciate sarcasm)

Loved this one!! Would love to tag Saturn and Steph because I wanna see their thoughts of Echo being back but idk if they’ve seen the ep already and I don’t wanna spoil them so,,, idk guys if you see this hmu lol

[sonkitty]

Acting Supreme Archangel Crowley

Alright, yes, I do think Crowley is the Acting Supreme Archangel during S2. I've generally hinted as such in past posts and with this small GIF set: There is always a Supreme Archangel....

I have long speculated Crowley's longer sideburns mark rank in the bookshop and that character behavior implies he is at least in charge up until he delegates responsibility over to Aziraphale when Crowley leaves to escort Maggie and Nina out in episode 6.

Even though I generally say and believe his red streak is a result of a possible Big Miracle involving the matchbox and the Book of Life, it can also be another mark of this rank in the present day storyline.

Many times, I have referenced the particular shot to Crowley when Gabriel proclaims himself the only First-Order Archangel in the Universe (with a capital "U" in the subtitles).

I have finally convinced myself through more dialogue factors that yes, Crowley is in that position. He was a First-Order Archangel at some point, and circumstances being what they are in S2, he becomes the Acting Supreme Archangel.

Here is how it theoretically goes...

After Crowley has encountered Gabriel for the first time in the story, he and Aziraphale go to a private room. Crowley himself states to Aziraphale, "Angel, this is the Supreme Archangel of all Heaven, your former boss, who tried very hard to cast you into hellfire and destroy you. He is not our friend."

So, at this point in the story, Gabriel still holds that title or Crowley at least thinks he does. The trial we see later will show that Michael intended to have Gabriel removed from office with the Metatron deciding on a memory wipe. Gabriel himself had other ideas and managed to escape.

We are told Heaven does not have a Supreme Archangel by Uriel later in S2E1. But then, no, wait, Michael declares with confidence that there is always a Supreme Archangel.

While these two disagree on matters, the Good Omens story in general is mindful of word usage and gives words power. As such, the power in the story itself decides that the Acting Supreme Archangel is Crowley on Earth. Michael and Uriel might have forced it to happen just with their own words between each other without realizing that's what they were doing. And if it takes more than their words, we do have an extensive touching sequence involving a matchbox after Crowley has touched the heavens with his own red lightning. The matchbox itself is declared as an earthly object, giving the name of the story's hidden Earthly Objects game.

How can we tell Crowley is the Acting Supreme Archangel now?

Beelzebub tells Crowley the Archangel Gabriel has vanished. Notably, Beelzebub does not say the Supreme Archangel Gabriel has vanished.

Hence forth, Gabriel might be referred to as Jim, James, Gabriel, an assistant, an assistant bookseller, an angel, or an archangel but references to him as the Supreme Archangel are in the past or, in the case of Aziraphale relaying his conversation with the Metatron in S2E6, a rank that Gabriel himself no longer holds because it hadn't worked out.

Crowley himself addresses Gabriel as Archangel Gabriel and not Supreme Archangel Gabriel in S2E5.

...

A metaphorical torch is passed from Gabriel to Crowley during the miracle to hide Gabriel, symbolized by the Overhead Light shaped like a flame held by an angel. I've remarked on this Overhead Light a few times.

Here it is by Gabriel:

Then here it is ensured to be at least partly shown during the miracle itself:

It is shown more fully when Crowley himself goes up to touch the fabric of reality, or whatever that is up there. Crowley's Overhead Lights tend to go above and to the left of his left ear (or involve some reflection manipulation). His ear ends up going over this special torch instead.

During this scene, Crowley's sideburns are at their longest length for the episode. His red hair is charged up with more red from recalling the lightning power. As red as his hair is, his more saturated red streak is visible.

...

Shax and Crowley drop us a few hints about Crowley being a former archangel but not necessarily being the current Acting Supreme Archangel.

Shax says a miracle happened "last night" in S2E2, referencing SE2E1. She says it was a miracle that only the mightiest of archangels could have performed. When Crowley asks, "How'd you know I didn't do it?" she doesn't deny his ability or show any suspicion that he did.

In S2E3, Crowley teases her as he says, "Maybe you'll spot on archangel." The camera work shifts focus to Gabriel, but given how many other clues are given about Crowley, this one ends up looking like another possible clue.

She later calls Crowley an "arch traitor" instead of just a traitor, as Beelzebub does.

...

Another clue that Crowley is the Acting Supreme Archangel is his general visit to Heaven.

Crowley disguises himself as an angel, but his disguise includes sunglasses that actually make his snake eyes more obvious. He chooses a gray that matches what other archangels use. That's him "acting" out the role as the Acting Supreme Archangel. His red streak is maintained and visible with his disguise as well.

Michael and Uriel leave him unchallenged when he passes by them, whether they recognize him or not. He shows Muriel he can access clearance beyond what Muriel can do with the reasoning he hasn't always been a demon, and they (presumably Heaven in general) never change their passwords. When Saraqael eventually confronts both Crowley and Muriel, Muriel is not punished, and Saraqael even goes so far as to say, "Show him the trial."

When the alarms go off, Saraqael answers Crowley's question about what just happened and follows his orders on the three of them getting back to Earth.

Then Michael and Uriel even go with the group in the elevator.

We don't see how that transpired, just that it did. I think it's plausible they couldn't actually leave or take the elevator without Crowley. Admittedly, that could be related to Crowley tricking the threshold on his way in, instead of the rank matter.

Now, aside from perhaps Saraqael, the angels aren't shown to consciously know that Crowley's rank is Acting Supreme Archangel. They mainly just act like it by letting him do what he wants, lead them to the bookshop, and generally take charge of the situation after they and other demons have arrived in the bookshop.

I do think it's significant that the story does guide the clue based on the words "First-Order Archangel" instead of "Supreme Archangel", for that one particular shot over to Crowley during Gabriel's dialogue.

I've long remarked that I think it's important that Crowley wanted to be first when using the Heaven elevator. I finally have an answer for why I think that is though I'm not really satisfied with the answer I've come up with. I might go over said answer in another post at another time.

There is another metaphorical torch passed from Crowley to Aziraphale at the end of episode 6 due to the flames with the coffee on the coffee shop where Crowley has positioned himself with his car. The flames are to Crowley's visual right. The lady with the black hat assists with this pass given that she is the "dash of nutmeg" in this scene.

The right side is often associated with angels, and Aziraphale receives a special right-side Overhead Light for his Ground Zero cut.

...

That's it for this particular post. There is a little something more I hope to post soon and wanted to make this post as a reference point.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

literary & character tropes (pt. 4)

Tropes - themes, motifs, plot devices, plot points, and storylines that have become familiar genre conventions

All writers manipulate language to create certain effects. At the level of individual phrases and sentences, the skillful use of tropes is key to creating writing that’s fresh, memorable, and persuasive.

Merlin Sickness: Characters with Merlin Sickness live or age backwards in time. What happens to their memory is highly variable.

Uncoffee: A fictional drink that acts like coffee.

Vigilante Man: A person who isn't a cop decides to pursue and fight criminals, which often involves using illegal methods to do so.

Waif Prophet: A character often, but not exclusively, female who is physically or mentally ill or weak, or at least small in stature (e.g., a child), who possesses knowledge or insight she should not have. Her insight is often ascribed directly to a "debilitation". She tries to keep her differences to herself, as a consequence of (or in fear of) Cassandra Truth (i.e., when a character tries to warn others of some danger, or tell them something incredibly important, but is dismissed out of hand for no good reason due to laziness, prejudice, stubbornness, etc. The reason could also be supernatural, such as the listeners being hypnotized, bewitched, or fooled in some magical manner.), but they can not help but manifest at the worst possible time, until the climax, at which time they are exactly what are needed.

Wandering Wizard: A traveler with magic powers.

When Is Purple: In some works, the lines separating time and space and color and various other abstract concepts sometimes get blurred. This can be done for many reasons, ranging from Faux Symbolism to actual symbolism and from portraying a character as deep and wise to portraying him as weird or outright psychotic.

Woolseyism: A translation alters the work's dialogue so it works better in the new language.

Word Salad Philosophy: A philosophy that is so bizarre, rambling, and insane that no one in their right mind can understand it.

You Keep Using That Word: A character uses a word constantly, but it is apparent that they don't know what the word actually means.

You Say Tomato: More than one accepted way to pronounce a term.

If these writing notes helped with your poem/story, please tag me. Or leave a link in the replies. I'd love to read them!

More: Literary & Character Tropes

[floatingshark]

Arcane talk round 2:

Hi okay so I'm back, this time with a little more to talk about because I just finished arcane, finally.

This is mainly going to be on my thoughts on the ending, maybe even season 2 in general because why not?

Again, this is just my thoughts, very heavily my opinions but anyone is welcome to add onto it, to refute my statements in case I misinterpret or forget something crucial, as long as it stays civilized and above all an adult conversation.

This is going to be long.

Okay so to start us off, how were my thoughts on the entire season in general?

I mentioned on my last rant post that I had a gripe with season 2 especially because it felt like the oppression plot that was well established in season 1 was mostly put aside or just forgotten in general.

I think that it's still mostly true. Absolutely in season 2 it's not forgotten, its still there but its mainly a background plot because this season seemed to focus heavily on the characters and their arcs as individuals.

However, even if it felt like the oppression storyline was there, whether in the background or sprinkled in throughout the overall story, it felt glossed over.

Let me explain.

I'm not saying that it was fully forgotten, or else the whole revolution with Jinx as the symbol would have been erased if the storyline was just pushed aside as a whole. I was under the impression that the show was going to go on for maybe another season, or more, and then it was cancelled.

I looked it up, to see if it was cancelled or perhaps there's a new season on its way but I found that season 3 wouldn't be coming because according to the co-creator, Christian Linke, they had always planned Arcane to be the beginning of more stories that were to come, which meant that the show really ended at just 2 seasons.

But the way that season 2 was written felt like it shouldn't have ended in two seasons, or at least shouldn't have been fit in a mere 9 episodes considering that for me, the oppression storyline was resolved... how again exactly?

It makes sense that Piltover and Zaun would band together to win over the Noxians, don't get me wrong, because at the end of the day they're still one nation that needs any and all resources and all the help they can have, which both don't have on their own if it's against Ambessa and her soldiers.

It just felt like at the end they just seemed to forget, no dialogue or scene to show that Piltover apologized, or have done something for Zaun to forgive the hundreds of years of oppression their people have gone through.

I don't know if the writers had to fit the entire thing in strictly 9 episodes or if that was exactly how the ending was supposed to be.

Don't get me wrong, I like the ending because finally the people of Zaun aren't treated the way they were before the war, but where is the accountability? Where are the people that should be taking responsibility for everything that Zaunites have had to deal with?

Although, we do get that dialogue of Caitlyn talking about how they are doomed to revisit the error of their ways (or something along those lines), its not the kind of accountability I was looking for. What kind of errors is she referring to? It can refer to everyone in Piltover and Zaun. It feels too vague to be proper accountability for the things Piltover has done.

You can say that it should go both ways, but it shouldn't be. This might seem biased but Zaun was doing what they had to do to gain the freedom they rightfully deserve, what does Piltover want that made them do all those things to Zaun? One good reason.

I'll be ending this rant here, feel free to correct me or state your own opinion but like I said, keep it a civil and adult conversation because at the end of the day this is just a fictional story.

[deliciouskeys]

So I liked what we have of season 4 a lot?! I don't know if I set my expectations really low, maybe didn't expect to get that fandom feeling back, but I think I can say with certainty that I've enjoyed e1-3 of s4 more than e1-3 of s3, and mayyyyyybe even more than e1-3 of s2. Some of the storylines don't interest me, but that was true of prior seasons too.

Things I am loving so far...

(under cut because there may be teensy weensy spoiler references)

Sister Sage! Yes, she says the lines that are in the trailer, but they are so misleading about the type of character she is. I LOVE her so far.

Homelander's frustration with being adored no matter what he does and his ennui about being surrounded with sycophants (which tbf, he engineered). I am SO glad they're walking that back to some degree. Related to point 1 above, I am delighted by the way he goes about solving this problem.

Every single scene with Ryan is so fucking good?? Like, Cameron Crovetti is the ideal Ryan of my mind's eye when I write fic. I feel SO bad for him. But I am loving the divorced plot and them jockeying to be his dad. Some of it reads like fucking fic, in a good way too. Like I can't believe the conversation between HL and Ryan after he comes back from Butcher's place actually happened on TV and not in my head.

I am actually SO SO happy they decided to outsource Billy Butcher's shitty tendencies to his Tyler Durden. I did not expect him to fucking apologize to Ryan for the S3 debacle. Even ~I~ felt apologized to for that "necessary for the plot but makes zero sense outburst".

I am loling every time Noir speaks. I don't know why, but I'm finding it hilarious.

I think they're actually doing a good job with A-Train's storyline, or a better job than I expected to justify how he becomes their new double agent.

I'm enjoying Chace Crawford's work in season 4. I like that he's sincere about the comic relief role.

Hughie is so charismatic, and for the first time in 4 seasons I think he elicited tears in me (in the scene right before his mom shows up when he's listening to his dad's messages).

I like Ashley's dialogue more this season than season 3. Part of that may have to do with me enjoying her character when she's angry rather than scared shitless or "trying to imitate HL"

I welcome the larger Victoria Neumann presence, and can't wait to see more about her past.

I enjoyed BIlly Butcher using a crowbar in a fight

I enjoyed seeing Antony Starr playing a mommy and a daddy and a.... secret third thing in the mirror.

What I'm meh about...

I hate to say this but the Boys' storylines are mostly dragging and feel disconnected. I'm already tired of Frenchie and Kimiko refusing to talk to each other and attempting to drink/drug their problems away. The mystery about why Frenchie is distraught was mostly solved right away, and Kimiko's mystery is still some derivative of her backstory in S2. It just doesn't feel connected.

Mother's Milk is fine, but I do think his character took a turn toward the unreasonable in season 3, and it has sort of continued. It's not clear to me why he's kicking Butcher out of the team multiple times, especially when Butcher saves them, and clearly has nothing better to do with his time. It feels especially cruel to kick him out when he tells him about the terminal illness.

Annie's storyline is.... fine, I guess. Maybe it will develop into something more interesting, but it feels like the writers don't exactly know what to do with her now that she's out of the Seven. I don't know why Firecracker had to have a personal vendetta against Starlight beyond being a symbol of 'wokeness'. I guess I'll wait to see if Annie's meangirl past becomes relevant as the season goes on.

Firecracker is okay. I'm amused that Homelander seems bored and annoyed by her, so I take it it's fine if we feel the same way too. It's certainly an interesting addition to the Seven to have someone so underpowered.

Hughie's mom frustrates me so much I wanted HL to come and laser her instead of Hughie after that chase. Her explanation made it worse for me, not better. I await to be proven wrong, but so far I think Hughie is being a really kind person to her. "Your father didn't want me to talk to you". But you were allegedly talking to him for years? And you son is in his 20s, I think you could have contacted without his daddy's say-so. UGH.

I don't really care about this so much, because I don't like character deaths, but it is pretty funny when Vicky doesn't kill Hughie or Butcher, and when Homelander is nerfed beyond all belief and is unable to laser Hughie in a closed space. I'll chalk it up to him losing a step or fifty with the enlargement of his prostate.

[mangora]

Was thinking about this at work but as much as I love the twist at the end of No One Eggspects the Spanish Inquisition and actually enjoy the whole episode, I also think it’s kinda…misplaced?? If that makes sense? Like I think Alejandro switching out the idols was clever, I genuinely didn’t expect it, and I thought the dialogue during the confrontation and the other cast reactions were pretty solid; but the thing with Aleheather for me is that they’re perfectly matched. Having Alejandro pull one over on Heather like that just felt unsatisfying, because it wasn’t like in WT when Alejandro and Heather would both win some interactions and lose others until Heather eventually won because she leaned into her more heroic side and/or Alejandro was defeated as both a symbol of antagonism and as a climax in his characterization wherein his pride and manipulative tactics finally resulted in his own downfall— Heather spent her time bickering with Jo or trying to prove Alejandro was lying, he spent it mostly being snarky with her, and then she got booted because he just…did something kinda clever that he would’ve done to anyone else who also posed a threat. It wasn’t a constant power struggle like it was in WT, it was Heather losing because in the AS narrative specifically, Alejandro simply was smarter than her; it felt empty, especially when held up to her victory in WT— which, side note, why is Heather exactly the same personality-wise as she was in the beginning of WT instead of growing since the end of it?? It would’ve been a lot more interesting for Alejandro to see Heather leaning into her heroic side more while still being on the villain team for her past, and maybe struggle with connecting with her because of that, or start picking up those characteristics when interacting with Mal, or become angrier and more distant and villainous in a cry for attention or an attempt to feel in control still despite being more pathetic than ever. And conversely I think Heather seeing who Alejandro’s become after her win/loss (depending on the ending) and feeling guilty or angry, and maybe struggling to relate to the other villains as much while still being hated by the heroes as well, would be really cool to see; it would also maybe add some flair to her rivalry with Jo, who maybe has a similar internal struggle or even has gotten worse since ROTI. There were so many other options that would’ve upped the heroes vs villains/good vs evil motifs and elevated their characters and tied up their storylines for the final season they appeared in, maybe showing the depths of what competitive reality TV has done to them and made them crave. But instead it was just kinda nothing. I feel like the twist would’ve worked better if it was reversed so Heather got Alejandro out while he desperately tried to stay in a game that was hurting him, or if Alejandro got someone like Jo or Lightning out instead— maybe because he sees himself in them and feels guilty or scared, but justifies this to himself because they’re “threats” (even though, to him, they certainly aren’t) because he’s afraid to admit that he’s still soft somewhere deep down— which he uncovers by working with Heather or working against Mal or etc. Idk something like that, maybe I’m talking out of my ass here because I haven’t seen WT or AS in a while but I feel like, while the twist itself was good, having Alejandro get Heather out specifically (especially considering how poorly the writers portrayed Heather that season within the context of her arc in WT) felt cheap and almost cynical.

[wyked-ao3]

Hellooooooooooo my dear ,

I'd like to know what are the inspirations for TPKODR.

I know that is a big project and something that you had in mind for several years.

What was for you the first idea, input, the origin of it?

If there is one, or multiple ones

Thank you!!

so I suppose I'll go more in depth this time...

The pirate's cursed god series (TPCG) started at least to me as a fantasy world which is why the fae might be just a little more developed lore wise than the pirates...at times.

TPKODR was the missing link of how to start it all—so I was not tossing people into the deep end of the lore.

My fascination with mythology and pirates is probably what inspired most of it that didn't come to me in nightmares and or odd dreams caused by fevers...

The spirit fae and the gods were the first to be created in a way...then came alo g the earth and fire fae...air and water were the last to be made really culturally wise.

What exactly was the first idea...of the series well it's been scrapped as it didn't work so well with everything else going on and that was the tree people being a more active participant of the story. Yeah I couldn't figure out how to blend the lore and that smoothly without throwing a it's magic with no explanation so it was the first part to be erased as I wrote the first book.. eventually y'all will get to meet a few but they don't like to wander to far from the places they live.

Braith, Jade, Adoh, Solace and Kieran (some were recently named) were my first OC's to come to me a bit over seven years ago...but some of the lore was created well before that lol.

the shadow realm was the next part crafted along with the swords.. and then the crafting of my own twist on the Davy Jones lore.

A lot of the lore was crafted when I was in a mythology phase (I haven't left that one btw) but sometimes it will have symbolism that has to do with trees or fae or herbology....

I hope that answered your ask and here is a bonus answer

What inspired me to write my original story versus just letting the story remain in my head to be tweaked to death when I was bored or trying to go to sleep.....well that would be the friends I made while writing fanfiction... You @gioiaalbanoart as well as @lillybaaaka and @the-golden-comet along with several others who will be acknowledged in the dedication... Y'all inspired me to give it a try— especially when y'all were actually interested in the few plot points I mentioned ....y'all were kind and supportive even when it was some subpar fanfiction that I was writing and each of you have taught me something different that has helped pave the way. 🫂

So In a way the fanfiction writing led to this ... It taught me a lot even if I'm still pretty far from good especially with run on and fragmented sentences and I still probably overuse dialogue tags (I have acknowledged that's a weak point for me)

But we each have our own journey and process to writing and I think all author's are learning something new as the go.

A special thanks to my beta readers for pointing out things I was blind too mainly due to knowing everything that happens or what I meant by a line...🫂

Honestly I never really intended to write it out...but alas here we are and to save people some sanity I broke it up into the main storyline being 4 books versus it being one book about 2000pages long 0_o (my brain hurts at the thought of editing that)

Tagging the tag list Incase they were curious

@thatuselesshuman @gioiaalbanoart @lychhiker-writes @thecomfywriter @evilwriter37

@saebasanart @the-golden-comet @mauannacreates @kind-lion @alinacapellabooks

@kuebiko-writing @kaeru483 @theink-stainedfolk @unstableunicornsofasgard @mysticstarlightduck

@demon-sneeze @fromthenortheast @smellyrottentrees @honeybewrites @the-letterbox-archives

@illarian-rambling @paeliae-occasionally @leahpardo-pa-potato

[catgirl-valeria]

“Ohhh Hope’s overpowered, she’s such a mary sue, how could she beat a god and doom” okay i’m gonna break this down as simply as i can

hope fortnite is not a mary sue you guys are just mean

in this essay i will defend my bbg because i get her better than yall. my credentials are that i love literary analysis and i think im at least half decent at it, and Ive been paying attention to Hope’s story since chapter 5 season 1.

Okay so. First things first, I don’t believe that being a ‘mary sue’ is a bad thing inherently. Anakin Skywalker is the fucking most powerful guy in the entire star wars universe for no reason other than his blood said he is and he is one of the most beloved characters in that franchise. his son luke destroyed a bazillion dollar monument to the military industrial complex on his first flight in an X-Wing. neither of these characters get shit from anyone (hm i wonder what one thing these two have in common that hope doesn’t. hmm)

Secondly. Hope has a character. She has motivations. From the moment we as an audience are introduced to her, we are told that she is anti-authority (she is described as a rebel in almost every bit of content associated with her during season one, and she directly fights against the literal symbol of authority in The Society.) This is the same drive that causes her to fight against Zeus, as what is more authoritarian than a literal God-King. She also cares greatly about freedom and choice. Go back and listen to her dialogue during the Mysterio quest-line, it is the angriest we ever hear her. She is deeply, deeply offended that this fucking guy has brainwashed half the island, that he would strip people of their liberties.

I think people forget. How Zeus and Doom were defeated. Hope didn’t just waltz up there, punch em once, and boom. Done. No, the Loopers beat Zeus and Doom. It was an island-wide effort, spurred on by Hope. She is a leader, that is her role in the story. (also; the Greek God’s powers in fortnite are very ill-defined, considering the Society fought against Zeus directly and lived seemingly unharmed. So.)

People also say Hope has no flaws. And that’s just. Wrong. Granted, her most apparent flaw isn’t clear until Season 4, but it’s Impostor Syndrome. There’s a big difference between being a rebel leader, and being the Prophesied Hero of Fate, granted powers by Pandora and the fucking Oracle of Delphi, and that really gets to her! That’s her arc across the entire season is dealing with this feeling of not being Good Enough to be the hero the island needs. But in the end, she’s able to do what she does best and be a light bright enough to rally the entire island together to fight and defeat Doom.

I get not liking characters, but honestly. a lotta the hate for Hope comes off as just kinda baseless to me. I don’t want to pull the misogyny card against individuals and i’m not going to but i do believe that she would have been received far better if she was a man. Maybe im just a little bit too invested in this storyline but. eh.

[yersina]

a linguist plays chants of sennaar (pt 5)

[pt 1] [pt 2] [pt 3] [pt 4]

the home stretch!!

disclaimer: can't promise that i'll have any insights that a layperson wouldn't have, this is kinda just me thinking through the grammar of the language out loud haha.

this post covers the fifth and last language in chants of sennaar and will contain spoilers for both the language and the endgame! it also assumes you know what the symbols mean already.

i.... to be completely honest with you, i did not enjoy this language 😂 i think the experience of deciphering it got lost in favor of the storyline, which isn't necessarily a bad thing for everyone, but hey, i am the one going through each of these languages like a linguistic bloodhound here lol. because of that, i'm not as familiar with these words as i am with the other languages.

before we get into anything else, and also because i imagine that this will be a shorter post because the game itself tells you what patterns to look for, i do want to say that this language strikes me as being incredibly artificial. which is a good thing! it emulates the digital apocalypse vibe that exile gives. but a language that leans so heavily into being constructed and recombined and modulated so easily really gives me the impression that it was created and not organically developed. the only other irl example that comes to mind at the moment is korean hangeul, which was purposefully created by king sejong and is an alphabet, not a logography. like, this is a language that i would make for fun in high school (which is to say, it gives a kind of overly grammatically strict, awkwardly too regular vibe?).

it's kind of funny that this language is where i'm starting to get reminded of conlangs, especially when, well, everything in this game is a conlang. but if we take each of the radicals in this language as affixes/morphemes when they're being combined into one character, then this actually reminds me of a specific conlang (ithkuil, i think?) where you can convey incredibly complex ideas through very few words.

the language of the anchorites isn't quite this complex, but hopefully the comparison gets my point across?

i’m curious if only certain elements can be combined with each other or if there’s a certain order to them, but it’s hard to tell when there’s such limited evidence in the game. interestingly, i believe the anchorites’ language is the only one in this game that makes a distinction between “die” and “death/dead” by combining the noun with the verb “go”. not sure why the developers suddenly made that decision haha.

this language, like most in the game, is an SVO language, which we can see below:

but i think also they (the developers) were trying to convey more complex sentence structures than their language was designed to communicate??? so then you end up w smth like below:

which, if you translated literally, would actually be “you man i wait”. again, super interesting bc i think an actual, more accurate anchorite sentence should be “i wait you man”. they have a more complex sentence here bc of the predicate (“you’re the one”) and the dative (“for”), but really the sense that they’re trying to go for is “i was awaiting the one [who is you]”. i guess it’s possible that different grammatical cases are treated differently in this language, or that, like english, word order is occasionally variable (even tho that option seems iffy bc we haven’t really seen evidence of it before), but tbh i suspect that really it’s that the developers wrote the dialogue and then brute forced it into the anchorite language haha. no shade! (and also impossible to confirm either way lol) just kinda amusing and also it makes sense when it’s p obvious their focus shifted from the language to the story.

this trend continues throughout all of the anchorite dialogue (imo) and makes it kinda slow and awkward to read if you don’t have all of the characters translated. in my opinion, the way that the language functions in the last part of this game makes it pretty clear that the developers meant for you to rely on the given translations during this potion of the game, especially when the translation mechanic is mostly through the matching terminals in exile, rather than speaking with people.

annoyingly, the anchorites’ language is also the only one in the game that doesn’t have words for the other people/cultures in the game (demonyms), which also doesn’t give much to work off of in terms of cultural context, relationships, etc.

again, i’ve decided not to get into an in-depth orthographic analysis of this particular language bc the game itself introduces you to them. one that i noticed that wasn’t specifically addressed in-game is the similarity between “open” and “key”, which is something that i actually also noted before in the devotees’ language. i’m sure there are others, but i’m also sure you can find them yourself!

all in all, a strange ending to this game. if you’ve made it this far in all of my posts—thanks for hanging around! hope you were able to learn smth new :)

[nabi-unveiled]

15 Day BL Challenge: The Tropes Edition

In this speed run, I'm hitting the remaining "tropes" related prompts today.

For those interested in the challenge: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

Day 24: What Storyline/trope do you enjoy and wish to see more of?

It's not really a trope since it happens so rarely, but give me all of the awkward, clumsy, and just BAD first times between people who genuinely want it to be good for each other. Sometimes the sex IS bad and sometimes it IS awkward, but that's not always a bad thing.

Day 33 - It’s toxic and I know it. Favourite toxic trope? (we don’t judge here)

Um. Glad we don't judge, because I greatly enjoy MANY toxic tropes. Would these be terrible in real life? Absolutely. But if it's a messy or wattpad-style drama, I'm probably watching it.

Favorite of the toxics? Stalking/persistence seemed to be a bit too based on recency bias (THK/Boy Next World). So I'll go with "You owe me, and I only accept payment in sexual favors." Again - would be 100% against in real life. But in a drama, it's pretty much a guarantee for a spicy time.

Day 34 - What trope/plot point do you fast forward through the most?

I'm assuming the "no judgment" rule is still in play. I most often fast forward through date montages. I'm fine if there's meaningful dialogue, hidden meanings or a fun twist (like the menace interrupting Kant/Bison in THK). But the just fluffy, look at us "we're so happy in love" montages, I'm probably playing it on 2X or 10 second skips.

Day 35 - Sure it’s romantic but it’s also so much more. What’s your favourite genre of BL?

I'm not hard to please when it comes to genre. What I DO enjoy is a show that makes me think. So is "tickles your brain" considered a genre? I'm going to say so.

I want a show that makes me contemplate how everything is connected.

I want a show that makes me do deep dive research. I now know way too much about street children in Taiwan (and other countries).

I want a show where I'm not 100% sure how everything is going to play out or how the conflict can be resolved.

I want a show where I see parallels, colors, and symbols in abundance. ( Side note: Can episode 5 of When It Rains drop now? Please? I NEED IT. )

Most of the ones I included are angsty, but fluffy shows can do this too. ThamePo is a good example of that, because it also has layers of symbolism. In short, I want a show that both entertains me AND makes me think. Those are the ones that linger in my memories.

[phoenixcatch7]

Thinking about possible totk dlc again... Listen, we all know we want it XD.

Thing is, I've read the interviews, and I think Nintendo is right. There's just no more mechanics they can add to the game without completely breaking it. Totk is maxxed out on mechanics and options and playability. There really is nothing more they can add ability wise without bogging the whole thing down and causing a million problems, both for themselves and players.

But that's not all there is in a game, is there?

There's master mode, for one. Gold enemies are missing from totk entirely, never mind all the craziness of regenerating enemies, new mob camps just floating around, the gleeok they'd probably put on the great sky island. People loved master mode in botw, there's no reason not to at least drop that button back in.

But... People do have a few complaints. There's stuff they're missing, stuff that leaves loose ends, stuff that wasn't explained well enough. It all mostly boils down to one thing.

Story.

We could have an answer to where the divine beasts and all the sheikah tech went. We could find a giant scrapyard at the bottom of a new/old chasm because hyrule tossed everything in that could be pried up. There could be like five remaining active guardians, just so we can mess them up like we did in botw. There's voids where water is on the surface, there's plenty of space! It'd solve both the 'where tf did they go' and the 'man I wish we still had guardians' issue in one fell swoop.

We could get casual dialogue that all the divine beasts were driven out to sea and sunk! I don't know! Some sort of closure! We could talk about generational trauma responses! The instinctive fear of sheikah tech if there is one! Link is certainly canonically traumatised, did you see him with the first sky tower??

We could get wolfie back! Update his teleportation code so he can keep up with our stupid endeavours and not get caught in crossfire! Make him immune to zonai tech, idk.

We could get a resolution to kass and Penn! That whole storyline ended so sadly, and the lack of kass is straight up disturbing. We could rescue him from the depths where he fell in or smth idk!! Just because you're a bird does NOT mean you can fly a kilometer + straight up in pitch black through a narrow cylinder with lethally toxic sides. Now he's got enough material for life! (and probably trauma. The only food down there is stuff the yiga brought, which - well, it's not like they'd worry about thieves down there.

That stupid chef from lookout landing who ran off to the castle. That's TOTALLY a quest come on :(. Let him come home.

More lookout landing expansion, if you're desperate for stuff that isn't 90% dialogue! Please let me install bigger towers and a bathing area and more shops or SOMETHING. Little outlet stalls from every capital! Let me rebuild the first home in castle town! I! D! K!

More newspaper news! We could randomise it like the spider man ps4 news feed, that was hilarious. Absolute hogwash rumours and stupid feuds between neighbours and the results of pumpkin growing competitions! Mix it up, traysi had bonkers stuff, it was so good. What does life look like from inside the world?

Hylia gossip? We know she doesn't keep strictly to her 'find shrine rewards for increased gains, link' thing. Let her ask link for random stuff for 'power buffs' and give him, like, a random buff that lasts precisely 24 minutes.

Maybe even a 'now we opened the plateau again, people want to investigate' side plot. No one wanted to see :(. I didn't like that the only people up there were yiga :((. Send some new research team dude to wax lyrical and beg link for photos of different areas or symbols.

Gloom hands should be able to attack link in the depths. This would solve nothing and in fact make things much worse, but it happened to me twice and it was so much worse than on the surface lol.

Maybe some idiot managed to make it to a Sky island with balloons but now they can't get down, whoops lol. Some of them really aren't that high up and there's a lot of very determined people XD.

Someone's been captured by the yiga and link has to do a full infiltration and smuggle them the keys to their cell. Come on, the yiga base is underutilised!!

The gerudo stable was being shut down because of the sandstorm turning away travellers. After we solve that, maybe we could help reopen it? It made me so sad...

Link vs the flower lady. She wants a sample of every single flower in hyrule to get it all nice for her majesty! She remembers his crimes...

Link and the new sages could have a silly bonding quest each! Let him test his mettle against them in a spar! I don't know!

The ability to pet dogs and horses! An idle sitting animation that makes link sit down properly to enjoy the view!

Heck, a master cycle equivalent....

There's just a almost infinite amount of options available for real, actual content, it doesn't just have to be new mechanics and new dungeons. Yes, it gets the adrenaline going, but neither the fans nor Nintendo want nor need more of that.

We know the story is more lacking in botw/totk than previous zelda games, an understandable and acceptable sacrifice when you're working with such a huge and complex open world as this, but this is the perfect opportunity to fix that, Nintendo, don't you see? Give that incredibly elaborate coding a break and give the writers something else to chew on.

Tag what quest line or question you want answered in the comments or tags!

[insanityoftheinanitmatekind]

My theory on YinYang having DID

Yin Yang is known for essentially being two people trapped in one body. Yin, who is considered the “good side”, and Yang, who is regarded as the “bad side”. I would like to start this by clarifying that I don’t believe Yin and Yang are “good and bad” because at the end of the day, what many people forget is that things aren’t black and white. Even in the Chinese symbol, there is white in black and black in white. So while analyzing Yin and Yang, it is important to remember that both of these characters are more complex than simply, “White is good and Black is bad” Now onto the actual analysis. 

The season starts off with Yin Yang being introduced through a challenge where contestants must push each other off of a giant piece of ice that they are all standing on. Right away we are introduced to Yin and Yang’s dynamic. They are seen fighting with each other and eventually push each other off the iceberg. So what does this have to do with DID? Well, a lot of times, when two alters that are co-fronting together don’t agree with each other, it can become similar to a game of tug-a-war for control of the body. Which is almost exactly what we see happen with Yin Yang. Most of their season two appearances are them fighting with each other. This is an example of a system that doesn’t really know how to work together. That can lead to fights that we actually see throughout almost all of season two until he is eventually eliminated. 

Season three is when things get a little more interesting. Yin Yang gets a bigger part in the show this season. During this season, we get a little more info on Yin and Yang. One thing I noticed almost immediately is that Yin and Yang talk about their “mind bedrooms”, which sounds like a metaphor for headspace if I’ve ever heard one. Another big thing I noticed is that over time, with the help of their friend Candle, Yin and Yang start to argue less and even learn to cooperate with each other. At one point, Yin and Yang become comfortable enough to give control over to each other completely. While no, systems can’t normally choose when they switch or who they switch with, unfortunately, we do have to remember this is still fiction so not everything will be accurate. Anyways, back to my point. Over the course of season 3, Yin and Yang become a more functional system, which we all applaud him for. 

So, looking at all of the evidence, Yin and Yang are most likely a system. During season 2, they weren’t the best at working together, but after some work on themselves and a little therapy, they learned to work with one another and understand each other better. A lot of their dialogue and even some of their storylines are very similar to our experiences as a system, which is where we got the idea in the first place. Another thing that helped us with this theory was our friend who pointed it out. 

[amysgiantbees]

I find it very frustrating that Wyll and Karlach leave no matter what if you side with the goblins. Which feels particularly fucked up that the non-white and non-white coded origin characters are the only two who get this content cut off from them. Gale is the other morally upstanding character and although he's a bit more morally grey than the two of them he's certainly not okay with genocide by any means and yet he still stays.

I get it they are the two most morally upstanding characters and are very emotionally tied to the teiflings but they are then totally exempt from the story and loose a lot of content and depth. They both already have the least amount of content out of the origins characters from Karlach's late addition and Wyll's re-writes and cutting them out of the evil storyline just adds to this. It's especially frustrating with Karlach because she's so easy to miss as well as having less content. According to the DEV's this is on purpose bizarrely too "I would've missed Karlach if I hadn't been reading guides...

AS: That's common, I think.

SV: But it's also on purpose, because the replay value is much stronger if you've discovered things..." from https://www.ign.com/articles/baldurs-gate-3-final-interview-game-of-the-year-2023-characters-endings

I feel also that they could very easily stay for the evil route in multiple ways without sacrificing their characters.

For Karlach she could have a speech at the goblin party post slaughter about how she thought she was free but this is just like Avernus. There's really nowhere where she can relax, nowhere where she can do good. No one that she can form a connection to that won't betray her. But if that's how it's got to be fine she's put up with it for ten years she can do it a little more to be rid of the tadpole.

Wyll could stay if he kills Karlach. This causes him to go through a Shadowheart like change. I think choosing to save or kill Karlach is his biggest and most dramatic moment (partially because he's annoyingly passive so much of the rest of the story but still) like choosing to save or kill the Nightsong is Shadowheart's. And thus should bring about a similar change in him like how Shadowheart shuts herself off if you kill Dame Ayelin.

There's dialogue that I assume is from early access because otherwise it makes no fucking sense like "I fear your lust for power could get the better of you. You are a hero not a politician." that you can say to Wyll. But with this route we'd actually bring out this side to him. At present his reaction to finding out he did an honest to god murder with Karlach is pretty lack luster (I blame the writing as they reuse so much of his saving Karlach lines instead of giving him a properly new scene). Instead of being upset I say he goes through a change and tries to justify himself instead. Like "I had to do it, you don't know what Mizora would have done to me" "I can still be a hero" "it was a one time loop hole who else are we going to find who is heartless". Something like that. We play up the dichotomy between the Blade and Wyll too. Now he only refers to himself as The Blade. He's less willing to hear feedback. He's more defensive. He isn't so much a person but a symbol.

However, he still wants to do good and should still definitely be upset at the goblin party. At the party he should say something like "These people trusted me! Trusted us! I was to be their hero! This isn't over. But I can't have the people seeing me as any more of a monster. So I'll stay with you since you hold the only thing stopping me from growing tentacles." He's still concerned with heroics but it's more selfish now.

When he made the pact with Mizora he gave up his home, only family, friends, previous career plans, everything! This is him desperately trying not to have to loose anything else. He would argue now that at the very least he should be able to keep his reputation, be allowed to keep his secret (which would add to how powerful it is that he grows horns in the other path). He's scared and so young and so the "good" ending would be keeping his pact with Mizora and dooming himself to an eternity of torture. Doing the scary thing anyway and becoming a lemur, a monster. I do consider breaking the pact to be the "good" ending at present but maybe it's just the "good" ending for the other version of him on that path. Because the other version of him is unendingly selfless and so should prioritize himself.

The other option is Karlach and Wyll both live. Get very angry at you for killing the teiflings. Say they'll stay because they're not strong enough to kill themselves and can't risk transforming without the Prism and inflicting that on people instead. So they say they'll stay but are secretly planning to kill you if you don't change. They pull a Minthara . Much like after revealing to Minthara that you can stop the Absolute's voice she'll try and kill you if you destroy last light inn Wyll and Karlach try and kill you. It would at least give them a bit more time with the party and maybe even stay entirely if you change.

[transmutationisms]

Very interested to hear your thoughts on Yellowjackets in light of your cannibalism post

i honestly feel like i was like, themes-baited into watching yellowjackets. i did make it through the first season because i was led to believe there would be certain payoffs and they just never arrived lol.

like, obviously the present-day storyline with taissa is implicitly built off the idea that cannibalism is a threat to her political career specifically because it's coded as an uncivilised act, and her being black (and gay) plays in here. basically her career is threatened by the implication that she's feral, her appetite is out of control, etc. but the show never does anything with this, never interrogates this discourse, and seems (in season 1 at least) to actually be operating fully within this white/colonial paradigm insofar as taissa killing the dog and eating dirt are meant to signal her instability and 'wildness.' (as a side-note, dirt-eating specifically was historically configured as a 'slave disease' in the atlantic world, and the writers seem wholly unaware of this or at least unwilling to engage with it; you can read more about it in rana hogarth's 2017 book "medicalizing blackness".)

i can understand conceptually why people care about shauna/jackie but i simply don't lol. based on where the first season left them i assume shauna is about to eat jackie or something. they are not an interesting pair to me, cannibalism-wise, largely because i think they basically function as a shock-value use of cannibalism as a symbol. like, it really comes across as "holy shit, look at these respectable white girls who are engaging in acts of uncivilised savagery." i find this a problem for the entire show actually, and it is certainly true to its "lord of the flies" inspiration in that sense. but whereas william golding was explicitly engaging with ideas of what it means to be 'civilised' and inverting ballantyne's "the coral island" by portraying the boys themselves as the source of evil, yellowjackets seems largely unaware of such intellectual and cultural context, and seems to want to interrogate cannibalism as an expression of Girlhood without admitting that this invocation of cannibalism is very much a discourse of whiteness and how racialisation works.

besides all that, i simply did not think it was a very good tv show dfgdgfdgf as in, the dialogue is limp, the pacing is whack, the cult/evangelism shit is annoying and unnecessary, and the different storylines are poorly integrated. there are economic reasons tv tends to be bad and i would be willing to overlook mechanical problems if the show was About Something, but it's really not, imo, because it gets stuck on a voyeuristic interest in Girls Debasing Themselves and doesn't even go anywhere with that theme.

[sibillascribbles08]

Okay ramble that will probably not get anywhere but I will put it here anyway because I saw yet another post about people struggling to get any writing done. And someone in the comments made a good point. You write/draw so much more as a kid because you're less practiced and ergo less worried about the imperfections that may arise from just gunning it.

And this is true! And this is why I want to tell you if you are struggling to write much, learn to write like a kid again.

You know how with a lot of art you see processes and it always starts with really shitty thumbnails that have silly faces or just blobs of color? Then you have an actual sketch (during which the artist likely moves a lot of shit around on a digital canvas) and then possibly the inking phase or just painting which is more blobs that slowly get sharper and sharper the more the images is rendered.

Yeah uh, do that with writing. Going under the cut because long

Writing as a process is something that is unique to an individual, just like there's 800 ways to slap paint on a canvas. If you look at guide books for writing and none of it is sticking it's not cause you're a failure that technique is just not gelling for you.

And as such I can only speak from MY experience with it but like, here's how I generally stay on top of projects

A) Sketch phase! It's outline time baby! "Ughh but outlines suck" listen I know school made the outline phase of an essay the worst fucking thing ever but hear me out on this. Sure some people CAN write by the seat of their pants but in terms of long projects this does not work out for me. I'm inevitably gonna hit a point where idk where to go from there and it's so hard to map all that out in long form

Listen, outlines are not there to be formal. They're not even there to be fancy. This is time to get down the bare bones and if you have to make it only a paragraph long and then extend that paragraph into multiple then DO it.

Like hell, NONE of my outlines are formatted the same! Some are a paragraph per chapter. Others are just endless bullet points that I split up later. I'm sure in one book due to all the plotlines I'm just going to have a storyline for each character laid out in columns so I can draw lines between them. Whatever works.

And again, do not have to be formal, like here is a legit line in one of my outlines

As for the ruined building… Hypno will cover the damages……….. Right? : )

Go crazy.

B) Now that you have your baselines start working on the actual story. Do you like writing shit out of order? Do it, because with an outline you still have your baselines to reference for any important details you don't wanna forget "Remember [character] is supposed to get a scar in chapter five!" Or write shit in order, and every time you hit a lull consult those baselines to say "oh yeah that's where this chapter was going"

And hey, keep writing it like a kid if that's what it takes to get this crap down. Hit a fight scene you don't wanna write? Slap down some brackets. [Insert a fight scene here where [character] gets his head smashed in so he ends up with this concussion later like a dumbass]. Boom, done, worry about it later.

Worried the dialogue isn't flowing well? Slap open another document or grab some paper and write it out in a play format to keep it moving. Add in all the beats, expressions, and details after.

Not sure if this detail you're putting in is historically accurate? Leave an easy to search symbol in the doc so you can go back to it to research later.

Write the sappy shit. Write with poor grammar (but still like, comprehensible you know what I mean). Slip in adverbs to swap out with strong verbs later. Use a run on sentence.

"But it's gonna sound bad" Who cares who tf cares that's what editing is for ! You go back and refine that shit and clean up sentences and add in all the extra research and pull out the repetitive words.

You gotta quit treating writing like you're supposed to just swing your brush on the canvas and suddenly you have some beautiful scenery. There's layers. There's blobs that turn into refined shapes. There's blending and shading. There's fine lines and thick lines. And sometimes there's mistakes that you have to wait until it dries to go back over it again.

It is a process! Let yourself have FUN with the process.

Okay rant over.

[cienie-isengardu]

What do you think about Mortal Kombat's demonization of Enenra, figuratively and literally?

A surprising author’s choice for sure, especially considering that the only(?) confirmed Enenra we know about is alternative-timeline (MK9-X-11) Tomas and he became a problem for our heroes after being killed and resurrected as revenant. That Mortal Kombat ignores the Enenra’s japanese origin as a spirit of smoke that, as far as I managed to read anyway (x)(x), does not hurt people is not shocking, because this game series is all about epic battle of good vs evil and gore, thus the cultural-mythology materials inspiring authors can - and are - only loosely adapted for storyline’s needs. However, changing Enenra from “demon”[1] status to the worst kind in Liu Kang’s timeline is pretty much uncalled for.

Mortal Kombat 9 in Smoke’s ending states

"Shao Kahn's violent death shook the very core of Smoke's being and dislodged his earliest memories. Tomas Vrbada was only a boy when he was abducted by an obscure cult and sacrificed to a demon. Burned alive, he returned to the mortal realm as an enenra, a creature of smoke and vapor. His captors were helpless against his shapeless form as he lashed out with rage, killing them all. His murder avenged, he returned to his human form, remembering nothing of his former life. Now aware of his true identity, Smoke understands he is no mere assassin. His destiny has been revealed."

Even within this data, there is enough space to make theory that Enanra, though called a demon, itself is not evil and its nature was tainted by the dark magic ritual AND boy’s suffering and rage. For one, the Japanese mythology suggests that Enanra can be seen only by those of pure heart, so sacrificing the young boy fits that idea, as children often symbolize purity. Thus the cult needed Tomas (the pure-hearted sacrifice) to summon Enenra but their trap didn’t work and turned against them. What is also important, this is only one known accident in which Enenra lashed out in uncontrollable violence. Tomas - devoid of childhood memories - hoped "that through the Lin Kuei he will discover his past--and the origin of his power", which suggests Enenra did not cause him any great problems for years. The demon gave Tomas its powers, but there is no mention of an evil voice in his head urging him to kill or any other potential sign there was something twisted inside him.

Enenra the Revenant, like all other resurrected champions by Quan Chi, is twisted by sorcerer’s vile magic and doesn’t necessarily have anything in common with the demon’s nature.

And then, we have MK1 intro dialogue

Smoke: There are many kinds of demons? Ashrah: The worst are the Enenra. 

and of course, this statement may be just Ashrah’s biased opinion - though what the poor Enanra did to her to earn such a bad reputation is beyond me. Or why Liu Kang would even bother to make Enenra the worst kind of demon, when there are plenty of worse things to worry about? On one hand, maybe this is another bad result of Liu Kang’s good-intended inference in time material? On another, and I’m saying it mostly to make fun of this issue, Liu Kang has some bias against japanese culture, as he for sure fucked Hanzo’s life and now he is out there to mess with Enenra (and original/alternative Tomas, the demon carrier). 

What I can say more? Justice for Enenra! Justice for Tomas!

[1] Just a side note, as for example in Slavic folklore a lot of supernatural beings are called demons yet not all of them are bound to hurt and kill living people. Personally, I don't pay attention to the name itself, but rather what a given demon represents and so far the MK9’s  Enenra is ambivalent at worst. Killing your oppressors is hardly the most evil thing within Mortal Kombat lore. There is plenty more fucked up bastards that deserve the title of the worst demon ever.