#his dialogue was about to completely do a 180

[trothplighted]

I was going through some of Rowling’s old interviews and came across one in 2004 where she spoke of Sirius:

“I am so proud of the fact that a character, whom I always liked very much, though he never appeared as much more than a brooding presence in the books, has gained a passionate fan-club.”

This wasn’t the only time she expressed surprise that Sirius became a fan favourite, and it’s honestly baffling to me??? He had an entire book named after and primarily revolving around him, and is canonically the closest thing to a parent that Harry, the protagonist of the series, ever had. Even if we disregard everything else we know about Sirius and his storyline, there’s no way in hell he wasn’t going to be popular. If I didn’t know better, I’d have said that a character like that was specifically designed for fan service (I mean...he's hot, has a flying motorbike, and is literally named after a star, lol). It’s bizarre that Rowling seems to have had no idea, and that she believed he was / intended him to be nothing more than a “brooding presence” in the series – which is at any rate an appalling and deeply unsympathetic way to describe his trauma and depression.

It made me think of how there's such a major disconnect between authorial intent and authorial execution when it comes to his character as well, especially in Order of the Phoenix. Characters like Molly or Hermione call him irresponsible/reckless/immature, claim he confused Harry and James, that he treated Harry like a friend rather than a godson, that he was biased against Snape, etc. Rowling’s interviews confirm that she intended to characterize Sirius in such a way and that Hermione and Molly are meant to be viewed as her mouthpieces. But Sirius’s actual behavior and relationship with Harry does not correspond with any of this and his actions + dialogue are for the most part very reasonable and sympathetic. (There’s also Kreacher’s storyline, which made me dislike Sirius a lot when I was younger, but upon my reread comes across as almost entirely nonsensical, contradictory, and seems specifically designed to paint Sirius in a bad light to the point where he’s compared to VOLDEMORT of all people by Hermione - who, in the process of criticizing Sirius, dehumanizes house elves entirely by claiming that none of them are capable of individual morality or have any ethical agency of their own. It's frustrating because she's 100% right that house elves should be freed but the way she infantalizes them is...pretty shitty and not the way to go about it. But I digress.)

Rowling seems to have done a complete 180 degree turn on how Sirius is presented by the narrative between Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix, and I can’t really understand why.

I get the sense that the creation of Sirius’s character in particular was, at the very least, partly accidental on Rowling’s part. She didn’t expect him to blow up the way he did, and I get the sense that she doesn’t seem to have been thrilled by how much the early HP fandom liked/valorized him. There was an interview where she was asked if she liked him, and she said that she did, only to immediately list down all his alleged flaws and emphasize that “I do not think he was wholly wonderful” (which character in the series is wholly wonderful, lol? Sirius came across as a great deal better than most to me). There have been so many other interviews where she’s done the same thing despite the fact that Sirius's faults or perceived faults had absolutely nothing to do with the questions at hand. It’s such a startling contrast how she talks about pretty much everyone else from his generation, all of whom she seems considerably warmer and more sympathetic towards in varying degrees.

As I haven’t been back in the fandom for very long, this is the first time I’ve come across her interviews - I’m not sure if I’m reading too much into them or not. I wondered if you agree/disagree, as you’ve been in the fandom for much longer and I love all your metas about the series. Thanks :)

You’ve hit upon my personal Rage Point for the entire series, anon.

I want to start by pointing something out about Sirius and Kreacher, which is that in GoF Sirius tells Ron and Harry (and Hermione, though he brings it up to compliment her observational skills) that Crouch Sr.’s mistreatment of Winky is an indicator of his character. (“If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.”) This is, somehow, the same man who one book later is egregiously dismissive of and abusive toward his family’s house-elf, to the point that this dismissal causes his death (oh, and Albus blames him for dying, too.) Despite Sirius expressing two wildly different viewpoints from book to book, we’re intended to take that as his true self, as the authentic expression of his beliefs and position.

I’ve spoken before more than once about other drastic character shifts that happened as a result of the Three Year Summer, both as a writing break and as a paradigm shift in the notoriety of and ubiquity of the series thanks to the movies being released starting in 2001. I was in elementary and middle school while the books were being published, and OotP was the first book I remember seeing large-scale advertisement for in my school outside of a book fair - there was a big larger-than-life poster teasing the book cover with a release date during the summer to get us all hyped up for it. I’d obviously heard of Harry Potter before that, but that was the moment when the books went from “famous book series” to “cultural phenomenon,” at least in my mind. And I think that we can trace this shift in opinion on Sirius Black back to the Three Year Summer, too.

In my opinion it’s obvious that Joanne really liked Sirius, when she first developed him. I don’t think she’s telling the truth when she says she doesn’t think he’s wholly wonderful - when she first came up with him she absolutely did. He’s got pride of place as a Cool Character in all the ways she loves to lavish attention on someone. He’s set up with a phenomenal entrance in PS chapter one and then he spends all of PoA in the spotlight. He has a dramatic reveal of his true allegiances and his innocence, and he’s Harry’s best and most supportive parental figure throughout GoF who consistently gives good advice and who risks his own life and liberty to make sure his godson is safe. He considers coming back to England and living in a cave and eating rats to be his duty as a godfather, and while Harry feels responsible for his circumstances he’s always really clear that he (1. doesn’t care about the risks to his health and safety (2. will gladly sacrifice comfort and stability if it means being able to protect this boy (3. will not let Harry feel guilty.

These aren’t the actions of a man who confuses Harry with James - throughout GoF he continues to insist that his decisions are his own, made as an adult trying to parent and support a kid who desperately needs a stable presence in his life. Harry’s used to taking the blame for the actions of adults (my heart is still rent asunder by his expectation that Lupin is going to gaslight him about denying him the chance to face the boggart in their first DADA lesson) and he’s also used to feeling like he has to manage the emotional state of a household (see: all the times he plans out what to say or not to say to the Dursleys to get them to do what he wants), and Sirius doesn’t let him sink into either of those pits. He also prevents Harry from bottling up his feelings or concealing his distress, and never lies or twists the truth. He’s being very deliberately written as someone who serves as a positive role model and positive mentor figure for Harry, and then suddenly come OotP he’s moody and immature and subject to a number of very strange smear campaigns from characters the author confirms are intended to reflect her real opinions.

So… what happened, over the course of the Three Year Summer, to make her change her mind? We can’t ever know for sure, obviously, because Joanne hasn’t ever bothered to lay out how her feelings on each member of her cast changed and evolved, and she’s unlikely to do so at any point in the future because now when people talk to her they mostly talk to her about transphobia. But I have a theory.

See, between 1998 and 2003, the HMS Wolfstar set sail. While most of the seminal meta came out after OotP (see “The Case for R/S” as probably the one I and others my age are most familiar with as an introduction to the ship) and most of the really famous fanfics started trickling out around that time (The Shoebox Project started in 2004), there were fanfics before that point, a growing fan community, and a number of pieces of fanart and fancomics (check out the list of doujinshi in the linked Fanlore article, some of those date back to 2001). Edit: here is an archived humorous/gently snarky list of Wolfstar fanfic tropes created in 2002 - while I can’t personally remember the names of fics from before 2004 or so I want to point to this as evidence that there was an established fan community, even using the “WolfStar” name, prior to the publication of OotP.

Normally, I wouldn’t think that fanfic from prior to 2010 or so had much of anything to do with the author’s opinions on their work, because norms and fan culture around fanfic were much more focused around keeping these stories private and away from the prying eyes of The Powers That Be/TPTB.

I say normally, because Joanne was aware of fanfiction, and aware of fanfiction remarkably early in her career as a public figure.

Younger fans are almost certainly not going to know this, but one of the first real fandom divides in HP had to do with fanfiction, and specifically the question of how to treat fanfiction written by and for adults that featured sex scenes or other mature content. Since the books were children’s books (though there was an adult fandom since the start, especially online - the Harry Potter For Grown-Ups/HP4GU mailing list and its descendant communities still loom large in fan history as some of the early pillars of today’s digital scene) a lot of people didn’t know what to do or how to treat fanfic. This was also compounded by fanfic being a lot more subject to legal action or takedown notices - Anne Rice, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, and Anne McCaffrey all became infamous either for pursuing individual authors and archives until they took down their stories or instituting guidelines about what kinds of transformative works were acceptable, or both in McCaffrey’s case.

Rowling, however, was different. Rowling said that noncommercial fanfic was completely fine, that she wasn’t going to pursue any kind of legal action against fanfic authors, and that as long as adult-oriented fanfic was appropriately warned for and not shown to or targeted to children, she didn’t care if it existed.

This laid the groundwork for the founding of Fanfiction.net, for fanfic communities on LiveJournal, and eventually for Archive of our Own and the Organization for Transformative Works. In an era where legal disclaimers were common on fanfics as a mostly-useless attempt to prevent being shut down by IP holders, Rowling threw the doors open and democratized her stories in a way she - I would argue - ultimately came to regret.

I can’t prove that her sudden slander of Sirius was a result of latent unexamined homophobia and a desire for revenge against the fandom for daring to claim one of her favorite characters as a gay man. I can’t prove that his backstory of being kicked out of his house (for unspoken Family Drama reasons centering around him being filthy and disgraceful) only to be shoved back into it, or Trustworthy Adults suddenly painting him as dangerous to children and inherently irresponsible and reckless, or all of his trauma being ignored and painted over, or every scrap of his heroism being erased, has to do with Joanne deciding that if we’ve made him gay he shouldn’t get to be a character anymore.

I can’t prove it.

But I do believe it. I believe it because when you ask yourself “is this queercoded character being subjected to authorial homophobia”, suddenly everything about Sirius’s arc in OotP makes complete and total sense in the worst way possible. This is also why I think Tonks and Remus were paired off, why Tonks suddenly becomes more gender-conforming, and why Bill Weasley transforms into Normal Settled-Down Hetero William. It feels like her desperate attempts to take her characters and shove them back into a box that she controls. I don’t think she was at that point consciously and virulently homophobic, but I think her clear and evident discomfort with fans interpreting these characters who she wanted to be straight comes through in her writing.

I also believe it because she does the same thing to Albus, after his death. Someone who’s been uncomplicatedly heroic and praised by all parties and even used as her mouthpiece to pass judgment on Sirius suddenly becomes morally suspect and untrustworthy and shady and secretive, with enemies lining up as soon as he’s dead to slander him - and again, just like with Sirius, we’re meant to accept this as the correct version of events. He even confirms all of this to Harry himself in the King’s Cross afterlife. The old Albus can’t come to the phone right now, he’s dead, and only his critics remain. Coincidentally, Albus is of course the only confirmed gay character in the entire story. Funny how that works out, isn’t it?

I’ve been angry at her for 20 years for killing Sirius, and angrier still at her straightwashing efforts. I wouldn’t believe her if she said she wasn’t doing that, at this point.

It’s not as if I expected her to be a perfect ally as a center-left moderate cishet white woman in the late 90s/early 2000s, and I do think that Dumbledore being gay was revolutionary in a way that most modern audiences seriously fail to appreciate, but I wish she wasn’t so damned insistent that no one else could be queer in any way at any point. She’s also really evidently uncomfortable about any displays of affection between confirmed same-sex pairings - she was absolutely neurotic about the amount of physical contact between Mads Mikkelsen and Jude Law during FB3, to the point that she fought with David Yates about it. And her behavior contributed to the intense homophobia I and others experienced in our formative early years in fandom - no-slash mailing lists and archives, the immediate classification of all queer fanfic as inherently more mature or more sexual simply by virtue of having queer people in it, Wizards For Bush, etc. As a result, boycott or no boycott, I hope that Wolfstar is canon in the new series, I hope Mundungus stays the crossdressing icon that they are, I hope Tonks is canonically nonbinary, and I hope Joanne loses sleep over it.

[mishy-mashy]

Midnight fic idea but one could write Morgen as extremely Catholic and reciting Bible verses in his everyday talk. Like that religious girl with the purple hair from Ghost Stories dub

Everything else is the same. Morgen just behaves like this, and people have to just sigh and go "This is his normal."

[directdogman]

Super stoked for the Roger DLC and WILL be playing it on release, but something that’s been bugging me ever since the first few teasers was Peter, his personality feels quite different to me and my Peter obsessed friend, is there a reason for his personality change or was it completely unintentional?

He feels a lot more hot headed now, not completely the same as but similar to Steven, which feels like a complete 180 for Peter, I always remember enjoying him more in DSaF 2 because he was the more relaxed Phoney who when he had geniunely serious moments, it was incredibly impactful and gut wrenching when Peter would yell at me. 😔

Also, will Steven ever be real in dialtown please sir I miss my wif-

The comparison just always bothered me slightly.

Different universes. I should note that while Peter IS chiller in DSaF 2, if the restaurant goes under, the main consequence is that the company will get mortally wounded and he might die. The other employees will (for the most part) be fine. Peter cares. He cares if you hurt employees, he cares if you fuck up but is also willing to look the other way a few times if the fuckup isn't bad enough (without letting it slide, because he still cares what you do at work too.) I'd say his attitude at work namely stems from that, rather than the other way around. Steven does NOT care. He is literally willing to throw you under the bus to save himself and his sole goal is keeping the place open specifically so he can save his own hide, and his hot-headedness comes from that.

In DT, Peter is at the end of his rope and has had to deal with a LOT up until this point, arguably even more than his DSaF counterpart in terms of his day to day job, as shocking as that may sound. There's also WAY more on the line this time. He isn't the one that's going to face the worst of what'll happen if things continue at their current trajectory (unlike Peter or Steven in their original games.) He explains this pretty early into the DLC, which may explain why he's testier than you remember him, namely what's on the line. He's trying his damndest to fix it but is failing. He's stuck between a rock and a hard place with Roger, recognizing his bad leadership is sinking the plant but caring too much about the guy to effectively deal with it until this point.

His guard is up because it has to be, but he does have a few nice moments where it's clear how much he cares and if you listen to Roger's dialogue carefully, you'll see just how much Peter has put up with that would've made any sane person walk away. He's also noticeably nicer to Gingi if you don't waste his time and seem to actually care about Roger, and he acts closer to how he does in the DSaF 2 screenshot you showed off, though perhaps with slightly less energy (since he is, like I said, at the end of his rope.) There's even a scene in the evil route where you can identify this and use it against him in a pretty sinister way.

To mention another thing that even Gingi sees as far back as his original scene in DT: He's a natural manager who's playing second-fiddle to someone who clearly doesn't know what he's doing.

I didn't just wanna do more of the same, so I played with the dynamics a lil. Peter is in a very different role here, one that he's not exactly suited to. He's out of his element. He's inundated with work and in this scene, is thinking about the lives of the employees who are going to be laid-off in a week or so time if things don't change FAST, and while this is happening, his boss is bantering with a weird cryptid on the street and talking about random garbage.

There are times in DSaF 2, like you said, where you do see him get like this. It's not as much that his character is different in my eyes, but that the context is. This is a version of Peter who is one bad day away from having to make a difficult decision. Literally. I'll gladly talk more about it when the DLC's out (namely I could compare + contrast certain decisions he makes!) For now, I don't wanna spoil anything that isn't explicitly stated in the first major scene he has.

[empyreanwizard]

about miquella's kidnapping, you know the charm only works if miq gets really close in your face (see heart stolen + freyja's account of being healed) and it doesn't do a 180° in your personality (the npcs in the shadow realm are there to show us how it affects them and we can see it didn't change their personality) what the charm does is: make you non-violent (see heart stolen) makes you forget bad things (see leda and ansbach remembering "cascading sheets of blood" after the charm is broken)

if anything, I'd say the charm would've made him more sane, take thioller for example he's completely obsessed with trina after the charm is broken, to the point where he tries to kill you after she talks to you

compare thioller's dialogue:

"i am her chosen, not you. only I can doze off in the sea of st. trina"

and

"only i am allowed to know. of your velvety sleep. its sweetly gentle embrace. so please, smile—for me, and only me." (st. trina's smile)

to mohg's dialogue:

"miquella is mine and mine alone"

both are possessive and obsessed. miquella's charm nullified thioller's obsession, and I have no reason to believe miquella can just pick and choose the side effects his charm will have.

my points on why miquella did not want to be kidnapped

1 - he wouldn't have cocooned himself for a long ass time like he did otherwise. and you know he was there for a long time because he's all skinny and covered in cocoon liquid stuff. and mohg wouldn't need to break open his cocoon like he did, he would just take it back to his palace

2 - miquella couldn't have known mohg even existed. he lived in the sewers his whole life, and miquella never went to the sewers. also, even if he did, he couldn't have charmed him there bc otherwise ansbach would never know to differentiate a non-charmed mohg from a charmed mohg .

3 - mohg is already a established kidnapper. from the "war surgeon gown":

"Bloodstained white gown of the war surgeons who were effectively mercy killers. Of the surgeons that were abducted by the Lord of Blood, none were able to tame the accursed blood. None but Varré, that is; though he was an exception."

4 - mohg had his own reasons to kidnap miquella. he wanted to build his blood dynasty and to become a lord, as ansbach says he was seeking lordship, and the consort of an empyrean is a lord by right (see dark moon ring description). miquella is the only empyrean available, as ranni is presumed dead and malenia already has a god inside of her (and he could never kidnap her), leaving only miquella who apparently doesn't have an outer god meddling inside of him, so perfect vessel for the formless mother

now, you're probably wondering "well if the mohg thing wasn't planned, who would be used as a vessel for his consort??" to answer that, miquella probably didn't know he needed a vessel in the first place, as the ">>>secret<<< rite scroll" is only found in the shadow realm, he couldn't have known about that thing while living in the lands between.

verdict: miquella was forced to switch plans after the kidnapping (can't complete anything he starts curse yadda yadda), mohg did not beat the allegations, and miquella got his revenge for being used (mohg was living/sleeping inside his corpse how do yall forget this???) by using mohg's corpse to house his promised consort's soul somehow (which is awful too, but that goes without saying)

remember, the story in the dlc is there to parallel his ascension to marika's ascension. in this case, the hornsent killed and tortured marika's people, and she responds by genociding and terrorizing the hornsent people. mohg used and abused miquella's corpse, and he responded by using mohg's corpse.

marika = miquella

hornsent = omen

I just think it's weird that so many people are running off with the assumption that miquella, who the dlc all but confirm has the body AND mentality of a child, was charming mohg out of malicious intent rather than self-defense. remember he was probably never trained to fight nor does he have the strength to do it, the charm is basically his self-defense mechanism.

I think the main issue is that if you disagree on even the littlest thing here, the whole narrative shifts, and that's why there's so many different interpretations and confused people.

this is all subjective and there's no reason to claim my interpretation is the correct one ofc but I do think I make a good argument.

[meanbossart]

I appreciate how you write Astarion so, SO much. I feel like way too many fic writers infantilize him to a point where I honestly start wondering if I'm the one who misinterpreted him so badly.

I'd love to know more about what you think of his character and his arc. Personally I saw him and immediately went "oh god this guy is gonna be the irritating tumblr sexyman of the year🙄" and it took me until Araj basically to warm up to him. What were your initial thoughts and did they change much while playing the game?

OH thank you so much!!! That's a shame if it's the case, and a little surprising to me, to be honest! While he's definitely written be an aloof jerk a lot of the time, I always found him to be surprisingly mature and introspective whenever he's not dishing out witty remarks. He comes off to me as the kind of person who learned to benefit from seeming dumber than he actually is, overall.

HAHA I had a VERY similar experience, not just towards Astarion but all the characters, really (I really disliked Shadowheart at the beginning, too). I had only seen pictures of him and pretty much expected a vapid character that was being carried to stardom because of a talented VA - and because people go nuts for anne rice style vampires lol.

While I was definitely enjoying his voice lines from the start (Again kudos to Neil) I definitely wasn't expecting much else. He piqued my interest after so devastatingly turning my character down at the tiefling party without me even having inquired, and that's when I, the gamer, was like "well, alright, I GOTTA fuck this guy now" (this is also where DU drow's personality began to come out as you can probably guess)

Obviously, if you have two neurons to rub together you can gather pretty quickly that he's not trying to woo you because you're so interesting and wonderful, so I started getting curious! With that dynamic being so different from what you usually expect of romances in these types of games, plus the charming way in which he is written, I started being won over.

I think what really did it was how gradually his attitude changed when responding to new, mostly trivial dialogue options and doing his greetings as you earned his trust, and ESPECIALLY with how he responds to your tav when you express any kind of fear or insecurity during his romance - which was with a lot of sincerity and confidence in his resolve to support you, and in you as a person, a complete 180 from his usual front - Which, again, makes me all the more surprised to hear that he's often painted with such an immature brush.

And obviously he has a DEEPLY ugly side to him (if you've read ANE, hopefully it's clear that I know this, and that I like to explore it just as much as anything else lmao) but it's very interesting to me how it seem to always come in the form of outbursts, rather than a constant evil-streak, usually followed by a glimpse of self-awareness. It feels very much in line with someone who's actually making a great deal of effort to manage their RAMPANT emotions and going through a lot of internal conflict in the process.

GAH. Yeah if you can't tell by this friggin' thesis I just wrote, I love the way they wrote this character a lot and I was definitely proven PROFOUNDLY wrong in my first impression of him - which, if that's not irony at it's finest I don't know what is.

And as an aside! I also very much appreciate that he's a "queer" coded character who's effeminate (in the Old Homo kind of way, but I digress) and flamboyant, but taken Dead Fucking Seriously. With as much progress as we've made in LGBT rep in media, I still often feel like gay men will only get that kind of treatment for as long as they "Aren't That Gay" (I know Astarion doesn't have a set sexuality - But lets not mince words: stereotypes exist, and he fits into most of them) and as a thin-wristed gay guy who's a little too found of linen shirts, I can honestly say that experiencing a character like that helped me with my own confidence.

[photos-or-inkblots]

i really do not mean to add another post to the daisy johnson deserves better / standwithquake tags considering almost every topic in these tags has been exhausted and honestly i don't think anyone really wants to dwell on said topics anymore despite their exceeding validity, but a thought came to me within the past week.

i forgot who (sorry) but someone mentioned once how season 6 became some sort of overcorrection for the writers for all the atrocities they had the team go through in S5 (i.e., revolving the story around fitzsimmons rather than coulson-daisy–emphasis on the latter–or jumping on the Doctor arc in S6 before anyone else on the team finds out a la 5x14). Mulling over events in S7, it seems as if some of the overcorrection reached it, too. i can't blame the writers, considering the renewal was about to end, but it didn't take away the fact that they tried. and it (sort of) backfired. (also i'm not sure about the fandom response since i joined the boat a few months before season 7 aired, but it's still worth pointing out)

exhibit a: Jiaying. in season 2, Cal had the opportunity to redeem himself, while Jiaying didn't, she was reduced into this one-dimensional antagonist, completely glossing over the fact that she had a point–you can't trust SHIELD with powereds, much less Inhumans. and people knew this. one can chalk up 2B SHIELD's choices to Gonzales, but, if you think about it, seasons 3-7 retroactively support this (apart from the ATCU mess, they failed to keep Hive out, ensuing 3B plus S4, which continues the exhaustive dialogue for their rights–they were living peacefully for centuries, mind you–and continuing the Index endangered some of them via the Watchdogs hacking in. also the Sokovia Accords. S5 literally depicts Inhumans sold as slaves by a Kree dynasty, which wouldn't have to be a thing if they remained secret from the rest of society; S6&7 still relies on inhuman powers being harvested–anyone remember alternate John Garrett?) and this has yet to factor in how Daisy and Yo-yo are treated by the value of their powers (Daisy especially; that girl has been through some Shit). so, Season 7 is their last hurrah, and what do they do? They give Jiaying the chance to redeem herself to Daisy and to the audience by introducing us to who she was before dying in '89, plus Kora to show how much she cares for her child, a full 180 on the Jiaying that tried to kill Daisy in S2.

but how would we meet this Jiaying?

enter exhibit b: Daisy's torture in S7. it's not exactly The Devil Complex, but it still happened (hammer on the nail is that it's the same operation Whitehall did on Jiaying). everyone in these tags has feelings for 5x14, which a vocal minority agreed with when it aired (and honestly, it does no one any favors. i get The Doctor reveal, really, I do, but the image of a white man subduing an asian-american to extract her physical value is not a good look. seriously). another general complaint that rose was that Daisy didn't have someone comforting her because everyone was standing on attention considering the stakes, so what do they do in Season 7? Enter Sousa. He's right there by Daisy in the immediate aftermath of her torture. Hit two birds with one stone to redeem the way they treated Daisy in two seasons. Great!

Not.

they wouldn't have needed course correction if there was nothing to correct in the first place. the fact still remains, Daisy got tortured the same way twice, as if one time wasn't enough. Afterlife entering a dialogue with SHIELD on proper ground would've been politically interesting for the plot. there was also Daisy's over-sexualization in S6 that ended with a sexism monologue in S7. closure between Fitz and Daisy would've been so much better than having the same shit done twice. and, at least Jiaying actually had to die in S2 because Cal was keeping his promise to protect their daughter, not like S7 where she died (way too easily tbh) just for shock value (and to have Kora on their side I think? but Fitzsimmons's calculations didn't consider Jiaying dying so. she really wasn't supposed to die).

ok i thought of this last week but i forgot then i remembered it today and i hope i mentioned everything lol it just Has To Be Said

[noxiatoxia]

What’s the worst cause of a bad translation in danganronpa? I just saw your posts about it and was wondering how it it was

I didn't answer this right away because I spent some time thinking on it.

If you want my honest opinion, I don't think there's necessarily one "worst" translation. To me, it's more of a series of small translation errors / willfully removing character quirks that add up overtime to the bigger picture.

However, there are some specific egregious examples. I highly suggest this article on DR1's translation, as it paints a clear picture for the rest of the series (which abide by similar translation errors/choices).

In said article, however, I think is the worst translation I can think of in Danganronpa off the top of my head.

This is pretty bad for several reasons. Firstly, the official TL completely flipped the meaning of Naegi's sentence. I've seen bad translations in Danganronpa, but to completely 180 the meaning of a sentence is pretty bad. Furthermore, I think a joke was lost here. Naegi claims he is not a "Stand User", which is a JoJo reference. This being changed to a generic "I'm not psychic" I think ruins the joke that Naegi, who claims to have no hobbies, is making a reference to a manga - something many consider reading to be a hobby.

Plus, considering this is your first introduction to the character, and this is your foundation for understanding them...yeah. Not good.

SDR2 has a similarly bad introduction for Hinata, though not quite as egregious.

Left is the official translation, right is my fan translation patch.

This is pretty bad considering this is the crux of Hinata's motivations as a character. He does not think the people who attend Hope's Peak are marvelous. He thinks Hope's Peak itself is amazing. That's the whole point of his story, after all. He idolizes Hope's Peak. Never in the game do we see him idolize the students themselves beyond a simple "Wow, you sure are skilled, I can see why you got in". In fact, he routinely is pretty judgemental of them.

There's other things here and there. Komaeda's love confession in his final free time event was botched, as well as Saionji and Koizumi's love confessions in Island Mode.

Mioda's talent was messed up, too. She is not the Ultimate Musician. She is the Ultimate K-On Club Member. This is a pretty Japanese thing, hence the change, but if it were me, I would have gone with "Ultimate Pop Rock Musician" because that's what K-On music basically is, in terms of English genres. This is why the screamo music joke falls flat in my opinion. Of course she likes/plays metal, she's the Ultimate Musician. Except it was supposed to be more shocking since you're told she makes upbeat pop rock music.

Danganronpa also has just...a lot of clunky-sounding dialogue. Maizono's freetime event about the crane is very painful to read, as it is littered with references to Japanese folk lore which is not handled well in English, making it sound very unnatural.

Plus, this line:

was changed. Usually, when given your multiple choice in freetime events, you're supposed to guess what the other character is referring to. Notably, that isn't the case here. You're simply supposed to guess which of these birds are the biggest.

In the Japanese version, Maizono says, "It appears often in Japanese folklore. You know, that bird lives for a thousand years, a tortoise ten thousand years..."

To which Naegi thinks, "She must be talking about..."

Maizono is using a Japanese proverb (a crane lives for a thousand years, a tortoise ten thousand years), which strangely even the wiki seems to miss and mistakenly attributes it to her referencing Urashima Tarō. It's basically her saying "fill in the blanks, you know how this saying goes"...but since that saying is not known among English players, this part is poorly reworked.

Similarly, Twogami's final freetime event was written oddly.

I get what's trying to be achieved here, but it still sounds...not great. The point of the scene is that Togami from DR1 uses "omae" when referring to people, which is a very masculine/rude way to say "you". Twogami drops the act in this sentence and uses "kimi", which is a much softer ways to say "you". Hinata acknowledges this, but since there's only one "you" in English, they tried to word it as best as they could. Personally, I would have just reworded the scene entirely to make Twogami's sentence much softer in general, and then have Hinata comment, "It's weird hearing you speak so politely. The Togami I know is constantly looking down on others."

So, when it comes to the official Danganronpa translation, you're basically contending with 1) a lot of mistranslations, 2) removal of nuances in speech and 3) a lot of clunky, poorly naturalized dialogue. As the article I linked pointed out, even in Japanese, Danganronpa isn't some masterpiece of writing, but undoubtedly a lot is lost from these decisions.

Keep in mind these are just the ones off the top of my head I found worth pointing out in this post. There's probably way worse ones I didn't even think of, since I don't have either the English or Japanese text line for line memorized.

IMO, the best Danganronpa game in terms of text is Another Episode, 100% only because nearly every line in that game is read aloud. I find that trials in Danganronpa typically have marginally less clunky-sounding dialogue in English, and that I believe is entirely due to the fact they have people actually reading this stuff out loud. They can catch if it sounds weird out loud and then change it. So Another Episode, which is basically entirely voice acted, has the most natural-sounding dialogue in the whole series.

V3 I know very little about as I am not a fan of that game...but from what I've seen/heard, it's not much better despite coming out quite some time after SDR2. Gokuhara's speech patterns were entirely rewritten in English to sound like Tarzan...I guess to match his design? If I had to make him speak like any of the existing characters, I'd say he's more in line with Sonia's English translation. Just strange all around.

[piecesofchess]

So anyway. Finished ZigZag today. I get I've already blabbed a lot about my experience with Arc 2 so far but I'll be collecting all my thoughts below just to log things for myself. Thanks to everybody who added their thoughts to my previous posts about all the P101 Updates.

The obvious thing out of the way -- the new voice acting is meh is at best, but I understand the situation around that and know much can't be done atm. I lament Catbeard having no presence in the story because of it though, and I feel like if he *had* we could've gotten an interesting/funny response to that whole "starting the war" thing, lol. Loved seeing Contessa finally getting to be around more.

Sinbad is fine and I like him, he got better later on. The business in Marleybone had me hooked getting to hear of Napoleguin and seeing Meowiarty again (although I wish more could be elaborated + explored about him and his situation) , but my god. My GOD. That dungeon going after Wheeler is one of the worst fucking things I have ever been through in the game. They seriously need to fix the enemies respawning and having our character locked in-place for post dialogue in there. Bran a Raven lord sucked ass, there was no real point to that whole Thing. But it's cool to see our actions on starting the war are facing consequences and all that.

The business in Aquila I really liked - I found myself thoroughly enjoying Hawkules' presence in the story. I just wish Tartarus played better on a technical level, as the environment is beautiful and I liked seeing Death again, everything was straight up my alley but I ended up getting aggravated with the map, broken quest things, etc. I KNOW KI has been informed of these bugs and I wonder just how much longer they'll sit there like the rest of the things needing fixed have been for years.

Krokotopia was...undermining and aggravating. As I said before, the map needs a serious fix on not forcing enemies to respawn in cramped areas that you need to revisit -- and everything just looks copy/pasted from Wiz and thrown together to be considered a 'new area'. I Just KNOW Krok can be a gorgeous place with a wonderful skyway of its own in Pirate -- just look at Mooshu and Marleybone -- but Kingsisle INSISTSSSSS that none of that can be done, even though it's been proven it can. But whatever. I doubt they will do a graphics re-haul of ZigZag anytime soon, even though I think it's the one new area that kind of needs it.

I'm reaaaally conflicted on this whole story thing. The whiplash of our parents saying 'Go to El Dorado! Don't go to El Dorado!' with KI clearly backtracking to say that it was all a trick from a Wizard just feels...confusing and lazy. Oksana would be a fine idea for an enemy -- in the game she belongs to. It's not that I'm against exploring magic and wizards in P101's story, but to have that replace the enemies we ALREADY HAVE and turn a 180 due to KI's rushed Book 15 update is. So disappointing. If our business with the Armada was finally done with, which it ISN'T, then maybe I'd feel more open to moving on with a different Main Villain or something.

These new worlds and updates are filled with issues regarding the quest mechanics (some question marks not changing, wrong companion models being used, empty dialogue box, no names in some of the dialogue boxes, some quests not being shown as completed even though they are, seeing Go to . , instead of area names, etc), map access still isn't there even though it would be nice to have, and you can still walk through some doors and walls in some areas. It's ridiculous things like these that prove to me time and time again these are being pushed / rushed out for the sake of content and to show that they are 'updating' the game.

Kingsisle...we have already been waiting for years, on what was considered a disappointing, rushed dungeon to end Book 15. I'm pretty sure a majority of us would be FINE waiting for a polished, fixed update. I get they don't have the same budget and team they used to, so updates like these will inevitably be underwhelming compared to Arc 1, but they could at least fix the bugs and make these a bit more playable.

The next update at least looks promising, as it is likely the Queen Elite are going to be in there, possibly Diego and Roberto (the two who I REALLY wanna see from the Wizard game!) and we will finally properly see Queen again...I can only hope KI won't mess it up by rushing the technical aspect of it. Blind Mew said he learned from his mistakes with Oksana, but the damage is done and she's already in the game, so I'm hoping the writing either gets better by integrating the Armada *properly* into it again, or Oksana just gets...better. I don't know.

--I know all of my opinions on this are pretty late, and most of these have already been expressed by other players, but I just had never been enticed by the premise of these updates, and I only enjoyed certain parts of it once I did play them. I am glad to see the crew's writing getting better, as it felt somewhat superficial in the beginning, and to see their dynamic again feels...so good. I genuinely missed them, the companions are one of my favorite things about the game.

I just hope my other favorite part of this game, i.e. the Armada, gets proper time in the story again. I will feel incredibly cheated if we never learn what happened to Kane's mind and how Phule and Queen are progressing with the current state of the Armada. I'm excited to get to know the Queen!Elite and if they'll have any proper names. But I am still craving a new world with its own skyway, or to explore the parts of Valencia we still can't access, and to see another puppet show in the future.

One last thing -- all of this felt worthless without a level cap increase. Hours of progress just to be at the same maximum level once all was said and done. Pouring hours into this just for the story is fine and all, but with dragged-out battles and challenging dungeons that give little reward, it feels like we're still sitting in one place despite moving forward. I hope KI finally implements what we want so we can finally feel like we're getting somewhere.

[recycledraccoon]

I think my thoughts on the penultimate episode can be summoned up as disappointment over a potential we didn't get to see, and why that's ok. (This got long, 1.4k oops lol)

Am I a fan of The Rat Grinders? ABSOLUTELY. I think I started liking them even more when they were full-on confirmed villains. As fan's of the edited show, watching with a week between each episode to theorize and think, I loved seeing and theorizing over these 6 fucked up kids. We know Kipperlily prior to the second half of sophomore year, while she obviously still had her anger and jealousy over TBK's it wasn't ENTIRELY unjustified and completely out of control (although some aspects were utterly and absolutely unfounded and ridiculous). Jawbones file mentions her language being "I think Aguefort likes them more", "The school takes it easy on them", and "Half of them don't even go to classes." All of these are true things people in this world would notice. It's not until AFTER their Mountain of Chaos chaperoned trip, at the end of the year, that KLCK switches to "I hate them." The Bad Kids further briefly discuss if Jace would have asked Jawbone/looked for "students with rage disorders." I think specifically mention it being a disorder is important. Acknowledging its there, KLCK WAS trying to get help for an issue she had. They didn't talk to Jawbone about it, but did decide Jace must have given he went on that quest with TRG's. They further briefly talk about students getting randomly mad, and yes they specifically joked about Fabian shitting in class, but WE also remember the Soil club student getting so mad after having gotten that tainted soil. With the 30 Riz rolled, Jawbone's file ALSO specifically talks about Kipperlily loving her adventuring party. We know things weren't perfect, its obvious from when talking about their name change, but its still there and canon. Kipperlily loved her adventuring party. This is all just Kipperlily, mostly with our information from the first part of ep.16. It is not touching on the rest of the members, especially Ruben and his dreamscape we saw, or of his distinct 180 musical tastes POST Sophomore Year Spring Break. The implications of something happening to them during that time is pretty evident and acknowledged. So we're fans, watching a show, spending so much time thinking about not only our infamous protagonists, but also our villains. Many of us adults, getting older, thinking on the tragedy befalling kids and feeling empathy. So yeah. It's a disappointment over an unseen potential. Specifically tho? Its the potential we could have gotten on The Rat Grinder's thoughts and motivations that could have been revealed through dialogue. Dialogue that we got very little of in what could be considered a significant exchange of dialogue and not bits. I always have high narrative expectations from this show, due to its long standing history of SETTING those standards each and every season. This one episode just fell short emotionally while watching, comparatively.

AND THAT'S OK AND ABSOLUTELY NOT THE BAD KIDS/INTREPID HEROES FAULT

On the narrative side of things, The Bad Kids have had an incredibly stressful past 3 years. From day one, they have been involved in life or death stakes situations. It's always been do or die, and they've died, sometimes more than once. They've lost people and faced traumas that go often unaddressed. TBK's ENTIRE highschool experiences have been a revolving door of violence and unhinged situations. They've also always kinda been assholes, insular and more than a little mean especially to those pegged as enemies. We know them, know they have good hearts and intentions, and love and side with them constantly throughout because The Bad Kid's are our heroes. They are still teenage assholes sometimes, but that is something we love and forgive them for. The thing about this recent battle is that they are very used to the situation they are in by now. TBK's have to prioritize, move fast and hard, and get a job done so countless people don't die while something evil rises in their world. Emotions have been high for them all season, rage especially which is absolutely unsurprising on multiple fronts, and it's absolutely showing in what few dialogue exchanges we have. The Bad Kid's entered that gym for the singular purpose of stopping the situation, saving lives, and making sure something evil didn't arise to power in their fucked up world. Nothing new. They hid, already knowing where the final confrontation was going to be FORCED to happen in due to the nature of the ritual, and prepped. On point and smart of them. Then they entered the battlefield, very quickly getting to business. They know their skills, their friends and how to work together as a devastatingly effective team making heavy hits and masterfully controlling a battlefield despite the chaos. This is what The Bad Kid's Do. They got Ivy and Oisin out of combat as fast as possible, Oisin didn't even get a turn. They took out a high-damage long range attacker and the enemy wizard. They know how powerful and important Adaine is on the field, and they knew Oisin would have been the same. They crippled the enemy with the slow spell, effectively taking Mary Ann out of the running until it gets dispelled later on. Fig saw Ruben's high damage level 9 spell and dropped her ploy to get him out of combat as soon as she could. It was too dangerous to have him up, and while the hell bit was uncomfortable in the moment, it is absolutely on brand. This is what they have to do, if they want to stop Porter, who is our real main big-bad. Remove as many obstacles from the battle so more of them can focus on the fight that really matters.

This combat wasn't ever gonna go any other way, unless the dice gods decided otherwise.

This is what The Bad Kid's Do. In regards to the IH's, it is VERY important to acknowledge that while I've mentioned having high narrative expectations, this is still primarily an improve comedy show around a group of real people's DnD game. It's also a show they have a tight filming schedule for, with back to back days and long hours which we KNOW from the talk-backs leave them very tired. Like any tv show they also have a limit on how many episodes per season they can even produce. I think it was a real and genuine benefit to Sophomore year that they were doing it live, because it gave more time between sessions for the IH's to mull over information and whats been happening in-game. This is also a very well developed campaign world they haven't played in several years, which I certainly know would effect me in how I played. We still have one more episode, the Finale, and so much always happens there. I have incredible faith in Brennan as a DM and storyteller, for all that his players have a huge say in how any story he tells unfolds. There is a VERY real chance that what happens in the finale completely changes my mind on episode 19, and I will go back to rewatch with absolute glee because I know of the coming emotional catharsis in relation to The Rat Grinders. There is also a very real chance we don't get that in the way we want it, but that will be ok too. I will still love this season, rewatch it and laugh and have fun. The best part of having a fandom, is watching us take canon apart to fuel endless au's, fix-it's, character studies, ect. Taking crumbs and going wild with it is par the course, especially when something in a show has left us wanting in the moment of watching it. I think more than anything, I would be and am more upset from infighting and genuine anger directed to each other and especially towards our Intrepid Heroes. It is not wrong to be upset with an episode of a show, but it is to take those feelings out on others, be in in defense from Rat Grinder's fans or justification from Rat Grinder haters. So yes! I was disappointed with this particular episode emotionally. I still think it was funny, I think the combat was brilliant and fun to watch. I still love this show and this cast, and could never dream of being mad at them for how they played a game, and for the fun they were finding within the act of playing it as the well-known unhinged improv comedians we know and love.

I'm excited for next week, buuut I am absolutely consuming fan-content to help deal with my emotions, both the highs and lows.

[faust-terrorsofthenight]

Just caught up with Scarlet Hollow and woah... Chapter 4 was so intense!! I love how quickly things can just take a 180 and suddenly, you're stuck in a situation that's horrifying and completely out of your depth!

I was not expecting the ghost hunt to turn into a horror puppet show, with all the others being possessed (and the player acting as a lawyer at the end 😂). I was thinking, we're hunting a ghost with a party of several others, this likely won't be too bad!

And the whole story with Reese... I can't believe how quickly it went from befriending this guy and wanting to protect him from his mum, to... oh jesus wtf is happening??? 😂 that was wild

I started my playthrough a few months back too, so definitely want to replay chapters 1 & 2 for the new art. I did a quick replay when I advanced to chapter 3, so I saw some of the terrifying new art for the Ditchlings :D

I love the dialogue choices you get, these are great 😂

Oh, I felt so horrible for this poor guy... I'm hoping we can unravel some way of freeing him from... whatever is going on lol

Wayne jump-scare. I really still don't know what to think about this fella 😂 a very much unwanted, but occasionally helpful knight in ghostly armour. I'm not keen on how he's threatened Stella, but do I find it funny that you get the option to flirt with him too - what a dreamboat!

Super happy fun times with Reese, and Wayne just deciding to barge in too (●'◡'●)

And most importantly, the mayor is a dog 🐶

[trothplighted]

if I’m throwing my hat in the ring and giving my perspective on the Worst Memory, which I think I’m obligated to do as a blogger primarily focused on the adults of HP and especially on the four Marauders -

I don’t think the question raised by the text is “When is bullying inappropriate?”. I think Joanne probably thinks she’s raising that question, because Harry perceives this as something of a wakeup call around his own experiences with bullying, but I don’t think Harry’s perception of the core question here is an accurate one.

The core question is “which is better, letting an open fascist sympathizer run his mouth and say horrible things about the people at your school all the time constantly, or physically-harmlessly humiliating him and exposing him and by extension his philosophy as an object of ridicule?”

Snape, regardless of whether you think he successfully redeemed himself or not, was at this point an open sympathizer to fascist terrorists trying to topple the existing government with an explicit and loud goal of “enshrine racism in the laws of the land and murder everyone from an ethnic group we don’t like”. We talk a lot about “punching Nazis” and harassing Trumpistas and Elon Musk fanboys and vandalizing Tesla showrooms. This is in the same vein of direct action, without lasting violence.

Yes, James is engaging in ad hominem attacks against Snape and purposefully instigating. He’s maybe sixteen and he’s an impulsive teenager who has in fact been unfair and cruel to that specific kid before. He’s not ideologically pure and untouchable. But this specific moment is one that comes after years of Snape siding with the people who want most of the population of Hogwarts dead, and their families, and anyone helping them. The point of Snape’s redemption arc is that he was actually that bad as a teenager and a young adult, and he changed.

Okay, you hypothetically say, but Harry reacted badly! And to that I say yeah, because Harry hasn’t ever had to exist alongside that level of open sympathy for fascists! Harry hasn’t had to choose between keeping the peace at dinner and saying “stop saying racist shit or I’m leaving”. Harry hasn’t ever been in a situation where abject humiliation of someone calling for ethnic cleansing is the least violent and least harmful option. He doesn’t understand that Snape feeling bad is the intended consequence to Snape’s cumulative actions in favor of racism and fascism.

(He also doesn’t see any problem with Fred and George shoving someone into the Vanishing Cabinet despite not knowing where they’ll end up, and he never translates his moment of empathy for Snape into changing how he treats people like Draco; this moment exists solely so the readers will be sympathetic to Snape, and like all the other times she puts her thumb on the scale to push readers into feeling some kind of way about a character I have to push back because I don’t trust or accept her judgment. Her morals are badly flawed.)

The central conundrum with Snape, imho, is that Joanne decides mid-series to completely change his character and does a 180 on if he’s an antagonist and a genuinely bad person or if he isn’t. She then does the same thing with James, because James is Snape’s opponent in all the ways that matter. But you can’t discount the canonical facts in the first four books about the nature of James’s personality, just like you can’t discount the canonical facts about the truly inexcusable things Snape does in those same books. (He’s less loathsome in GoF, which makes sense as that was the first book written as the filming process was going on, and we know Joanne fell hard for Alan-Rickman-as-Snape and confirmed writing a lot of his dialogue with the knowledge he would say it; I think this indicates she maybe made some of the changes to his personality to give Rickman a meatier and better role, but I can’t prove it.)

You have to ask yourself as a reader if you think Snape’s redemption was successfully pulled off - if you think that he was effectively transitioned from a villain to something of an antihero, if you think Joanne created a compelling arc. That’s an extremely subjective question. It’s telling that you have essentially three perspectives, those being “yeah she really sold me on his capacity for change!”, “he never did anything wrong and everyone who ever opposed him is The Worst”, and “I really do not think a man who did all that shit successfully redeemed himself if all he did in the redemption process was what she depicted”. I don’t think she’s very good at writing redemption, and if she were better at it we wouldn’t be in this situation. It’s like her romances - she’s good at going “and then that happened” and leaves the rest to personal interpretation. Now, the fandom is great! Plenty of fics really flesh out what she gave us and make it into something convincing! But for me, what makes Snape compelling is this complete failure of execution. He’s an incredible character written by a woman who doesn’t understand why he’s compelling, because she likes him too much to let him be a real piece of shit, because her faves can do no narrative wrong and never really have to learn from their mistakes.

[therealjambery]

Author Game

List the first lines of your last 20* stories. See if there are any patterns. Choose your favorite opening line. Then tag 10 authors!

*however many you wanna if you don't have that many

Thanks for the tag @carcrash429 💜

I'm not doing 20 because that's a little more than half and delving deeper into the archive than I think is really safe 😅

1. It was just this: blank, black time and killing.

2. Bucky was still too far away when the thing they were chasing through an abandoned Hydra base did a complete 180 and vaporized in a cloud of gas right in Clint's face.

3. Clint shifted his weight, inhaling silently at the burn in his calves and thighs from crouching too long.

4. Decoherence showed up at my door six months after we had left what was left of Supercollider in the ruins of Dovecote.

5. Leviathan was working at his desk when I opened the door to his office after knocking softly, the coffee in my hand my flimsy excuse to see him.

6. After my private sanctuary had been invaded by the four thugs and Zoë Lang in quick succession, it had no longer felt so private, or so much a sanctuary.

7. "So, what's on the docket for today?"

8. Yusuf called Eames at 3pm on a Tuesday.

9. That night, after Niska, Mal didn’t come swinging down the ladder like he usually did, and Jayne lay frozen in his bunk, wondering just what the hell he should do now.

10. Tony jerked to a stop on the penthouse platform of the tower as his body tried to keep going but his feet, still in the boots of the Iron Man suit, were suddenly locked into place.

Not much of a pattern, I don't think, but this is also a mix of very different fandoms! Clearly I don't often start out with dialogue. I usually do like to set this scene a little first.

My favorite has to be #1. I'm so proud of that story and the first sentence is unchanged from the rough draft of the first chapter that spilled out of me in an incoherent rush one night. Second favorite might be #8. There's just something about the specificity (ha!) that tickles me.

I'm not tagging anyone but feel free to play if you see this 👀

[yangsharperavery]

I have SO MANY THOUGHTS on the sydcarmy of s2. Like our stocks have never been lower but they’ve also never been higher! I feel like this szn was really explicit and hashed out their relationship/twin flame vibes. Like even romantic potential aside, syd is the only one who is as much of a nerd about this stuff as carmy is. It’s giving soulmatism…..

absolutely. i know there’s a few sydcarmy shippers that are unhappy and i completely get where they’re coming from but to me, their moments solidified their slow burn, soul tie bond even more than anything in s1.

carmy being irresponsible and reckless with his focus and attention in favor of his time spent with his high school crush was the entire point of what led up to him getting stuck in the fridge and essentially missing the ENTIRE first night of his namesake restaurant.

that’s NO small thing.

the heavy handedness of that romance was sooo purposeful and an outright 180 in favor of a huge narrative/arc point for a character who is still deeply fragile, traumatized and riddled with grief.

i would have LOVED more collaborative scenes with the two of them (with the entire cast really) but that would have completely defeated the point that was driven home while he was locked in that freezer.

literally the consequences of his own actions marring him both personally and professionally.

i do wish sydney would have tore into him a bit more about being absent.

like you can have a gf after we fucking open this thing, be serious for a second.

but so much of the languaging of the dialogue they did have was sooooo perfect.

sydney actually feeling so doubtful and scared that she’d tell him “you could do this without me.��

like sis CLEARLY not because he’s running around like a lovestruck teenager and she quite literally did it WITHOUT him.

and him verbalizing that he not only couldn’t do it without her but he wouldn’t want to?!?!????????

i’m sorry what?

all he’s known and done and focused on was being good at this one particular thing for the majority of his life but he wouldn’t want it without HER?!?!?

i’m sorry that’s more of a love and soul declaration than him actually saying he loved some girl from gradeschool that JUST popped back into his life.

his gift to her????????

even the same ways they juxtaposed claire and sydney in the story were SO deliberate.

it was always sydney as a point of entry for the restaurant and his lack of focus and attention to detail.

her reactions? the thinly veiled, light jealousy.

the “who’s claire?” to sugar.

why even include ANY of that if not to drive home the point there is a SPECIFIC undercurrent between sydney and carmy?

and them dating or fucking or loving other people isn’t actually going to erase that.

i’m a sydney and carmy truther for life. this season only strengthened that fact.

[cienie-isengardu]

Mortal Kombat 1 goes out of its way to make Bi-Han as unlikable as possible. We are not meant to think that he had a point at all, and that he is 100% in the wrong, and that's not even going into his betrayal and murder by inaction. Not only that, he is also making a complete 180 from his previous timeline counterparts. Before, he was a traditionalist and technophobe. Now, he is going against tradition, and is embracing technology. Why do you think NRS made these decisions?

In all honest, I don’t have any reasonable idea why NRS would even want to mess up Bi-Han so badly in the first place, especially since

A) the Sub-Zero brotherhood is part of the lore since second game came out (1993) and literally three decades have passed since that day 

B) Mileena, Tanya, Reiko, Baraka, Syzoth, Rain and arguably Sindel get much better treatment despite their previously well established ties to the villainous side of the story while alive Bi-Han was, game-wise, barely explored by narrative

and above everything else, C) Bi-Han’s death is one of the most impactful deaths in MK lore, as it greatly influenced the history and character development of both Kuai Liang and Hanzo Hasashi while also introduced another emotional conflict between younger Sub-Zero and Noob Saibot - and for this to work, Bi-Han and Kuai Liang’s brotherhood needed to be something special in the first place. 

Assassin Bi-Han not necessarily needed to be a good man to be a good brother but there is enough tie-in material to get the point he was not inherently evil (if anything, the pathological upbringing he was forced in is to be blamed). I’m glad MK1!Sub-Zero wasn’t killed yet I still wonder how the hell NRS decided to not take advantage of brotherhood that is one of major foundations of the fan-favorite Kuai Liang’s character and instead twisted not only Bi-Han but also Kuai Liang & Hanzo Hasashi into the new take that is frankly, frustrating at best for a long-time fans of Sub-Zero brothers and Lin Kuei. All NRS needed to do was to give us literally a few minutes of  the Lin Kuei brothers’ close bond, then devastate us with Bi-Han’s death, then devastate Kuai Liang & Smoke’s life by bringing evil Noob Saibot and that would be a solid ground for upcoming games for years, instead of shattered brotherhood that so far lead to nowhere, as Bi-Han was sidelines right away after the supposed “plot twist” and all interesting points about Lin Kuei’s servitude comes mainly from intro dialogues because story mode seems afraid to acknowledge Sub-Zero’s frustration on the main. 

I suspect the studio's choice may be about balancing the events and family drama, as bitter brotherhood vs sweet sisterhood, but really, it feels so unfair and frustrating it was done at such Sub-Zero’s expense, especially as MK1!Bi-Han seems to me like a weird mix of Frost & Noob more than his original character even was. What is ironic, considering the fact that original Bi-Han was a Lin Kuei that wanted (and would do so, if he killed Shang Tsung) to retire from assassin life and the oldest Mortal Kombat comics presented him as pretty honorable man that even saved the Earthrealm at the cost of his own life. 

But sure, let’s fuck up the Lin Kuei, it is not like previous games let them have anything nice for too long anyway.

[nani-nonny]

Another short writing warmup that started as dialogue but I expanded it very slightly hehe :)

I call it “Attached” hehe

Prompt: (set in the rise future during the apocalypse) Leo converses with Donnie and Mikey after returning with a baby Casey Jr in his arms, discussing what to do with the infant that survived due to the Krang in its DNA (842 words)

“No, I just—I can’t leave him. He’s… I found him in Casey’s arms. She’s… this is her’s. I don’t know what to do,” Leo slides down the wall, landing roughly on his behind as he covers his head with his hands. He tries to control his hands, laying them flat against his head but they’re shaking, uncontrollably so.

“But Leo, it’s Krang. There’s Krang in it—,” Donnie argues, an uncertain expression on his face like he doesn’t want to believe his own words. He continues as his expression sours, “And the Krang in it is the only thing keeping it alive. As much as I love our friend Casey, we can’t keep this thing. It will only lead to our downfall.”

Mikey crouches at the baby’s bedside, a crate made with wooden scraps and blankets. He places his hand on the bent railing, staring at the sleeping infant wrapped in dirty cloth. “But he’s just a harmless little baby.”

“Krang baby,” Donnie corrects.

Leo sighs and clenches his shaking hands into tight fists. He rests his head back against the cold concrete, countering Donnie by saying, “He can’t do anything now.”

Donnie frowns, “What about years into the future? When he’s grown up? We don’t know how or when the Krang side of him will show up!”

Leo nods, that’s exactly what he thought. Donnie keeps bringing up his thoughts when he first saw the baby—first saw the flash of green behind the infant’s pupils. He already knows this, but he had hoped Donnie would have something else to say that he hadn’t thought of. He reluctantly admits, “We can’t risk it.”

It seems Donnie is hoping for the same thing as he turns to the mystic warrior crouching on the ground. His tone is near pleading, hoping that the master of mysticism would have an alternative option. “Mikey, can’t you do something about it? Can’t you kill off the Krang infection?”

But Mikey doesn’t give them the alternative answers they seek. He doesn’t even try to hide it in his expression as he frowns, shaking his head as he says, “This isn’t an infection, this is—it’s a part of him. Incinerating the part that makes him Krang will kill him with it. He’s half Krang.”

Leo winces, tired of hearing that part of the infant that he can’t get rid of—can’t save the child from. He pleads this time, desperately clinging onto an inkling of hope that there’s something. “Isn’t there anything we can do?”

Donnie turns away from everyone, looking down toward the crease where the concrete wall meets the ground. He shrugs, but only halfway, still uncomfortable with the topic at hand. He tries to hide his disgust as he replies, “Well, you already know my option.”

Mikey snaps in Donnie’s direction, a snarl of disgust stretched on his face as he speaks clearly enough for Donnie to hear, “We’re not killing him.”

Donnie tries to remain logical, refusing to look in the sleeping infant’s direction. “Why not? He may be a baby now, but it’s not like we can raise the krang out of him. He’s part of the Krang.”

Leo perks suddenly, his hope clinging to this new idea, “Then we’ll learn about him. Gather our intel about the Krang from raising this baby.”

Donnie raises his brow at Leo, crossing his arms over his chest as he asks, “Are you suggesting experimentation on an infant?”

The slider early scoffs at the sudden change in Donnie’s argument, a complete 180 from what the softshell was suggesting before. “So now you care that it’s a baby?”

Donnie raises a finger as he shakes his head, “Not where I’m going at.”

Mikey crouches down again, looking only at the infant as he pokes a finger close to touching the infant’s cheek. He coldly asks Donnie, “Then where are you going with this?”

Donnie remains silent for a few seconds, scrunching his eyebrows as he hesitates to say what’s on his mind. He stares at the ground, barely hugging himself before he finally speaks, “…What if you get attached? What if you start actually liking this baby? What will you do when this baby inevitably turns its back on us for the Krang? Will you be able to pull the plug then?”

“…”

Neither one of the brothers responds in turn. Mikey only stares at the infant, finally garnering the courage to poke the chunky little cheek. But Leo, he finally stops shaking. The slider swallows anxiously, breathes deeply to calm his nerves. Donnie doesn’t fail to speak his thoughts aloud again, voicing the inner turmoil he struggled with from the moment he picked up the infant from the rubble—cradled in his mother’s arms.

Donnie releases an exhausted sigh as he finally voices the one question that lingered in the back of each of their minds. He asks the question despite the bitter taste it leaves on his tongue, “Are you willing to sacrifice hundreds for this tiny baby on the small, small chance that there won’t be any consequences?”

[immeasurablesaladagere]

Hey fellow little bestie can I get little!kelly headcanons???

Yep yep! Here go :)

On the younger side while regressed, around 2-5 years old, sometimes a little older depending in the scenario. He’s been as old as 14 before, but that happened once and only Matt noticed.

Regresses voluntarily for the most part as a regaining-childhood of sorts, though he regressed involuntarily a lot after Shay’s death and that freaked him out.

Occasionally has a hard time telling if he’s slipping. Usually someone else points it out to him first and then he just goes “oh”.

Might have memory gaps when he’s big again if he was particularly small.

His personality does a complete 180 when he’s regressed. He’s pretty sleepy, calm, well-behaved, and quiet. 

*Playing with cars and mumbling the dialogue to himself*

“Hey buddy, what are you doing?”

*Stares awkwardly and goes back to playing in silence*

Has a blankie Shay got him that he never went anywhere without even before she died, but now he has full-blown meltdowns if it’s gone.

Seeks👏fatherly👏affection👏. Benny gave him so many daddy issues, and nothing makes him happier than being around Boden or Hermann while he’s little, even if they’re not actively looking after him. Just being there is enough.

Primary caregiver used to be Shay, and there aren’t words to describe how devastated he was when he regressed for the first time after she died and realized that Big Sis Shay wasn’t around anymore.

After Shay’s death a combination of Gabby, Casey, and occasionally others would act as babysitters, but he wasn’t happy about it. He suddenly became prone to tantrums and refused to listen for awhile, and then would usually end up crying at some point.

Pretty shy going out in public while regressed. He will go, but he’s basically glued to his caregiver’s side the whole time out of fear of being noticed.

Playmate and older brother Little!Matt. Kelly is usually the younger one between them and follows him around like a lost puppy, playing the games he plays, eating the snacks he does, etc.

That being said, on the off-chance that Kelly is feeling bigger than Matt he becomes a very hyper-protective and doting older brother. 

He and Matt have a very deep bond when they’re small and like to talk for each other when one is non-verbal.