#honestly the best mother of the three main characters this arc

[canon-notcanon-warriorcats]

icewing being so patient with frostpaw too

and how she defends frostpaw

i love her so much

the way she ASKED frostpaw how she was doing

ugh

she's so sweet

she's one of my favorite warrior cats characters

i love her so much

i've loved her so much for so long, but i just love her more with this series

[tizeline]

Love your Tiz Sep AU!!! I don't know why but looking at your art Mikey kinda comes across as the leader of Draxum's turtle team. He has this chill attitude and strong belief in 'the cause' (in this optimistic sense that good will always triumph and they are the good guys so there is nothing to worry about). He lets his brothers play and gives them as much freedom as possible but has the final say when it comes to the decision-making (like when mother hen Raph wants to drag Donnie back with them it is Mikey who intervenes). He always feels in control in a fun and good way, gently nudging them in the 'right' direction (e.g. him reminding Leo that all humans are evil) and playing mediator between the team and Draxum... there are not many AUs that could pull off Mikey as a leader but here I somehow wouldn't mind :)

Honestly, you're kinda right

Raph is officially the leader. Okay well, Draxum is the leader leader and he named Raph his second in command, so Raph is in charge of his brothers. But Mikey is such a driving force because he's just so hyped on the idea of their goal! So while Raph still has final say on decisions amongst the three of them, Mikey has a tendency to take charge and push his brother's towards fulfilling their mission. Part of this definitely has to do with him being The Baby, and everyone in his family (including Draxum) have a hard time saying no to him. Another part is that... well... Draxum doesn't play favorites! He's just... a bit closer to Mikey than his other sons.

Mikey isn't the leader, but he doesn't need to be to hold power and influence in the team! >:) He's the heart, the moral compass! So of course they should listen to him, they can trust his judgement!

And to clarify on why Raph's idea about "forcefully rescuing" Donnie got rejected, it because he was literally the only one who thought it was a good idea, lol. Mikey is against it because he has Main Character Syndrome and thinks he's helping Donnie go through his Redemtion Arc. Leo's against it cuz he's salty that Donnie doesn't seem to care about them. And most importantly, Draxum (who has final final say) who thinks it'll just be easier to convince Donnie of their cause AFTER they've fulfilled it. He recognizes that, as a scientist, Donnie values results and provable facts, so the best way to get Donnie on their side is to just show him the inevitably successful results of their Not-Evil-Scheme.

[aroacecaduceus]

Calliope Clay is Moana if Moana had failed.

She’s the character of all time, honestly. At least, the character of all time who’s only in three episodes.

Bc her story is 100% Moana up until a certain point, y’know? Not saying that as a bad thing I think the story of Moana is a pretty decent and interesting hero’s journey. Imagine, you spend your entire life in one place and you’re not allowed to leave. Because everything around you is dangerous (savelirwood, shady creek run, the ocean) and your home is this one safe haven (the grove, the island) and the adults around you all know this, and they want to protect you from it.

But you want to go. You’ve got wanderlust. You appreciate your home, but you want to see what’s out there.

And then a sickness starts to seep into your home. Everything starts dying. Everything you care about (the people in your village, the temple to your goddess) is in jeopardy. And the only way to fix it is to leave. The deity (the ocean, the wild mother) has expressly told you so.

It’s a terrible situation, but it’s also somehow the best of both worlds. You leave home to save home. You’re committed to your home and family but also get to go out and see the world you’ve always wanted to see.

But then the stories split. Moana learns to sail, she saves her people, she faces adversity and wins. She then gets to travel the world all the time!

Meanwhile Calliope. She is facing a three step plan: residuum, forge, menagerie. And on the third step, she faces something she could not have, under any circumstances, defeated. She was set up for failure. That thing had legendary actions. She was one firbolg— at best level 8 or 9, but probably more like level 5 or 6.

Maybe the Wild Mother tried to warn her, when the bull showed up and petrified her mother and aunt. But a goddess that speaks to her followers in the turn of the wind? I’m assuming you have to be listening. And I don’t think Calliope would have been listening for anything but a green light.

She fails, and she’s stuck there for 10-8 years. And then her younger (now older) brother, who never wanted to leave the grove at all, who was the one chosen to stay, rescues you. And then! He tells you he’s not done exploring the world bc as it turns out it’s pretty cool! So you go home. And your younger (older) brother spends another year-ish out saving the world.

Like honestly what a tragic character. The story of Moana is pretty basic— classic hero’s journey. But I’ve never seen a Moana story arc where it ends in epic failure where the person didn’t die. You know, I’ve seen the skeletons that the hero has to pass on the way to fight the final boss, but we never really learn their story. But Calliope? She was the main character. She was the hero. And she failed. And her little brother— the side character— got her story. And she can’t even be envious of Caduceus because holy shit he’s traumatized now. But does that mean she has to pretend to be grateful??

Anyway could we have some sort of Calliope Clay content?? Could someone play Calliope Clay in campaign 4? Will never recover from the tragedy that she was only in three episodes.

[soo-won]

Akatsuki no Yona chapter 60 magazine vs volume

Hi everyone! I managed to get my hands on the clip out of the magazine version of chapter 60 from Hana to Yume issue 17/2012, and as we don't have much trace from the magazine versions of the chapters from then, i thought it would interesting to share my findings! First, the color page: the editor text says "What will become of Yona and the others? The suspens is agonizing, but?!" (baby trio time!!!!!!) Otherwise it advertizes volume 9 and how well it's been doing. It was the first ever volume to get a special edition and cover with a new drama CD and comments from the seiyuus! Something that I can't help but find a bit ironic is how they really highlight Takuhiro Sakurai as Tae-jun on the bottom right and ah yeah...this didn't age too well.

Behind the color page, it shows that Hana to Yume was (already back then) having a special Yona Crimson Festival campaign. This is when belated Kentaro Miura drew an illustration of the whole main cast that could be win in a lottery, with a reproduction of the special cover of volume 9, autographs of the seiyuus from the drama CD and Kusanagi, and a totebag with Ao that I had never seen before. Miura apparently said that he just ended up drawing the whole cast since it grew a lot (since the time he had only drawn Yona and Hak I assume).

Then to the chapter in itself. I know Kusanagi started really making changes between the magazines and tankoubon(volumes) in relatively recent years so I didn't expect to find any difference here honestly but I found a few! I also find it interesting to see her author's note, the summary of the plot and presentation of the characters etc all around.

So! Page 2 and the first page of the chapter. No change with the manga page from the volume we know of here, but I thought it would be interesting to share for what's below. I honestly am a bit too lazy to translate the whole synopsis as I don't think it says anything novel or specially interesting (I can still do it if someone insist), but I found the characters presentation sweet since it's different from the one we've been getting for every chapter for a while, and it's very cute too since it's specially for this flashback mini-arc.

Yona: Kouka Kingdom's Princess. She is an only child who lost her mother at a young age. She is preciously raised by her father and King Il.

Suwon: Yona's cousin of three years older. He has been gently watching over Yona like a little sister ever since he's little.

Hak: The successor of Mundok, General of the Wind Tribe. Later on, he'll become the servant and bodyguard of his childhood friend Yona.

Now on to page 4: Yona's hair and face were redrawn on the third panel! The movement lines next to her head were erased too. For the text and font, you can also see that the font of the first bubble was changed for the default one, and that they're formated it slightly differently in the last box. We don't often think about the original lettering in manga and how they can also change between raw and volume do we?

Page 7: It's not like this change matter much, but I was so surprised and happy to find out that this iconic page had been modified as well. The third panel that showcases how lively Kuuto is was completely replaced with people playing music. I think the volume version indeed conveys Kuuto's atmosphere much better (like why would Yona be so amazed at two men talking and drinking really), but it's interesting to find out that back then they struggled to find what to put there precisely. From a creative process pov this is so relatable lmao.

Other than these two pages before, I haven't noticed any other change, but I thought I would share Kusanagi's author comment!

"I'm so so happy. I can't believe Miura-sensei drew me an illustration of Yona(and of the whole main cast at that!). This boost me up even more to do my very best! Thank you so much (happiness)."

Nothing special on the last page, but if anyone wondered if there was some editor text here to tease the next chapter...well no there isn't nfjbfhjbg. I so wish I could get my hands on chapter 61 too...

I'm not sure if I'll be able to get my hands on much more of those but I also got chapter 24 with this one, and I noticed a couple of things I'd like to share as well so stay tuned for that :)

[originalwinnercheesecake]

Who from the ghosts pasts would it be fun to meet

We get some good episodes of ghosts (Metaphorical or literal) from the main 8's past coming back. We have met some... interesting characters, and there are some more it would still be cool to meet. So I thought I would make a list of the ghosts and who from their pasts it would be fun meet. Note I do not necessarily know how this person/ghost would come back, I just think it would be fun to see them.

Thorfinn: I do not want anybody else from Thor's past. The arc with Bjorn was sweet, and I do want it revisited in season four. But seriously Thor's old crew were jerks who left him behind. Thor hasn't once mentioned Bjorn's mother (Thor's wife???) and given that he has canonically had at least three serious relationships since becoming a ghost, it is pretty clear he has moved on from her. if hey had to they could maybe do an episode where Bjorn is able to bring his deceased wife back for a day, and introduce her to Thor. That would maybe be fun since it forces Thor to be pleasant to a danish person.... But I also think it is pretty fun that Bjorn is with Judy (50's Hetty) now, and she has expressed that she is not cool with poly life... Hopefully one day would not upset her enough to break up with Bjorn.

Sasappis: Okay anyone who we meet from Sass's life needs to be in a situation like him and Shiki, i.e. haunting some part of the Hutson sally for 500 and something years. Because otherwise 1.) It has been pointed out to me that Lenape Native Americans of their time did not speak English, so we would not be able to understand them. 2.) Dragging one of his people back from the afterlife to show them how completely settlers paved over their homes and wiped out their culture would be to cruel a thing to do.

Oh bonus because I thought of it after making my Season 4 wish list. If travel based ghost powers can be extended to other ghosts, then I would like Pete to take Sass to see Shiki again, and for afterwards Sass to return the favor by taking Pete inside of Jay's dreams and all three of them to shoot some hoops together.

Issac: I really really want to meet someone from when Issac was a living. He also curently has the most options of the ghosts. Beatrice, of course. We see in the season 2 Christmas special how great a person she was and how much she and Issac meant to each other, regardless of their less than ideal circumstances. Also given that in season 4 Issac will have to once again come to terms with a failed romantic relationship (Nigel), and a female friend whom he wronged/hurt (Patience). Well Beatrice is implied to view him with no ill will, so it could be really therapeutic for him to reconnect and further reconcile with her. If she told him she did not view Issac as a bad man, then that would help him not see himself as a bad man

In addition to Beatrice, I would also like to meet Issac's best friend Edmund. The unnamed brother Issac mentioned who had a wife and at least 5 sons, at least 2 of which died as children. We do not know if Issac was ever a father, but I imagine he was a really caring uncle. Hamilton! Please, please, can we get an episode where Hamilton's ghost shows up for a night and Issac is once again faced with his more successful rival. Bonus points if Hamilton does not know who Issac is, or have any recollection of ever meeting him.

Hetty: So far every time a new ghost has shown up for 1 episode it has been one Hetty knew. Which I guess is understandable since the house is her families, and a lot of the old junk in it belong to people she knew. But honestly episodes of them are hit or miss. The two episodes we got of Elias were one to many, and he does not need another episode. I know some fans really liked the episode with the maid; but I did not like her trying to blame Hetty for things that went down between her and Elias. It is clearly implied that she and her husband were Elias's employees and that they were hooking up before Elias and Hetty's marriage. Also it seems like the pair where hooking up many years, so why wasn't her son grown up?

For People from Hetty's life that we haven't met yet, but could meet in the future: I would really like to meet her sister, Margret. Show me what their relationship was like. How did Margret's life turn out? How did she react to Hetty's death? It also would be really cool to meet that stable boy that she and Issac both found hot. In that case though he has to be bisexual, or maybe just gay. I said in another post I wanted Thomas to have become a ghost after dying at a neighbors. But that I also wanted him to turn out to be as dumb and childlike as Lenny from "oMaM". Basically please only introduce Thomas if their is going to be a distinct difference between him and Elias. If he is just a gay version of his Hellish father, than there is no point.

Alberta: Well if Thomas is a ghost she deserves to get to rip into him for poisoning her. On that note please bring Earl back for one day so she can do the same to him. Forgetting the fact that he cheated on her with the guy that went on to murder her. It is cannon that Earl cheated on Alberta multiple times and she knew it. But he was her manager, and she could not break up with him without being dropped, so she felt she had to keep looking the other way and forgiving him. But that is not true now, and Alberta deserves a chance to tell him off like Hetty did to Elias in his debut episode. On a nicer note it would be sweet if they could resurrect Alberta's father. She could tell him about how people are still listening to her songs to this day, and he could maybe recite some recipes for Sam to write down, and Jay to start cooking for visitors. As far as Alberta's sister, well the only thing I have ever wondered about her was if Thomas ever did anything to hurt her too, since she was Earl's next girlfriend. If we see Alberta's x-times great niece again she had better be a successful web singer, taking a trip to where she first got the inspiration to follow in Alberta's foot steps.

Flower: I do want to see her brother Robby, and her ex Ira, who are still livings. If Robby has children/grand children they should come too. For ghosts she has other brothers who we do not knows current status, also if possible it would be cool to meet someone else whom she maybe knew during her time in the cult and the commune. It'd be weird to bring Michael back, since she is trying to move on from him with Thor. I have considered the ghost of the bear that killed her. The issues with a apex predator would be wild, but also I am not sure how you would wrap that up, and it would need to be wrapped up. Where do you go with a ghost bear guys?

Pete: Please no more people from Pete's past. Carol sucked. Jerry sucked. Pete's dad sucked. He is implied to have been an only child. I do not know why Laura and little Pete would ever want to again visit the place where both her parents/ his grandparents died. Lastly I found it cruel and disgusting that Sam and Jay brought over one of Pete's former scouts and made her recount watching a trusted adult die the way Pete did. All because Pete wasn't willing to suck it up and help Sam&Jay the way he told Flower to. No more people Pete used to know. He can visit Laura and Petey himself off screen.

Trevor: So it seems like everyone from Trevor's life is still alive. Okay He died young, and has only been dead for 20 years. We have met Arty and learned about their Friend group: except for Pinkus they all sucked. I want to to hold off on meeting Pinkus again though, because I largely suspect Trevor will be sucked off after that and I am not ready to lose him. In season 1 Trevor mentioned a Nicki Fisher, a friend with benefits he had then , who he kinda wanted to be in an actual exclusive relationship with (Like he wanted with Hetty). But, later in that same episode, we learned she had a baby with another guy she had been hooking up with at the same time, so he likely would not have gotten what he wanted with her. No need for us to meet Nicki. I have seen some people suggest that Jeremy could come back and work on the lightening at Woodstone/Jays restaurant. One person even suggested he could meet Bela. I have no objections to either of those. One final thing I was thinking is that maybe one of Trevor's parents got engaged again, and want to have their wedding at the B&B. Then we could explore Trevor going through his feelings on one of his parents finding love again, and trying to come to terms with it to support them at their wedding... Maybe we could even have Hetty offer to attend with him as friends. If it is Trevor's mom I want both her boys to walk her down the isle.

Crash, Nigel, Nancy, Stephanie: If a secondary ghost has someone from their past show up it will almost certainly end in them being sucked off. Crash is more a seasonal gag than a character, and while the show can certainly get by without him, it would be really cheep to tease a character getting sucked off again and for it to just be Crash. Especially after pulling the same stint with Ralph in the season 2 finale-season three. With Nigel I have admitted in other posts that he is my least favorite character. He is a cheater, a gas-lighter, and an asshole. But I also know he and Issac are endgame. This split between them is temporary: they need to grow as people, and will eventually (season 5 hopefully) get back together and (again hopefully) have a healthier, more equal, and caring relationship the next time around. That's what is being set up. So give Nigel the improvement he needs and do not touch him otherwise. For Nancy 1.) I would hate to lose her. She is the best secondary ghost on the show. 2.) before we get into people from her past we need to learn more about her relationships with the other basement ghosts.

Stephanie is different though. She was just a teenager when she died. The fact that she needs to sleep most of the year means she can rarely take part in house shenanigans. All the other ghosts are way older than her, and largely ignore her when she is awake. While most of the other ghosts are revealed to have had really depressing lives as livings and it could be argued ghost-hood is their second chance; Stephanie potentially had a fun life and has a lonely and really depressing afterlife. If her boyfriend from when she was alive, or maybe somehow her mom, came back and took her with them to the afterlife... well that sounds like one of the more heartwarming stories of the show

[turboacek-blog]

A small summoning change || Naruto

Written Aug 11 2024

So I have seen some of the recent Naruto filter tiktok trend

For those who haven’t seen it, it’s a filter where. You have to choose a character for 5 and later update to 8 categories to make the best character such as clan body chakra etc and on the updated 8 category one of the categories was summon

Two of the options for summon were Kiba and Shino to represent the dogs and insects even though they aren’t literal summons like toads, snakes, slugs, etc

Then I was thinking more about it and honestly, they should maybe be summons

Summon usage

Basically, in a lot of cases, summons are seen as a kind of way to give the summoner assistance in a battle or mission, etc

From Orochimaru and other snake users using the snakes as extensions of attacks

To Sasuke using his hawk for some aerial advantage

And so on

Our two main uses of ninjas using a nonhuman species to help are the Inuzuka clan's dogs and the Aburame clan's insects

Where the difference is Kiba doesn’t have to summon Akamaru and Shino’s insects live inside him

Kakashi’s hounds

Then I remembered Kakashi summon is ninja hounds and in a lot of aspects they do everything the Inuzuka clan dogs do with their sense of smell and assisting in combat

The main difference is the Inuzuka clan has more clan-hidden jutsu/techniques with their dogs such as Fang over and Fang and the transformations

Where Kakashi’s since they are summons can speak and have a grasp on weapons the Inuzuka dogs haven’t been seen having

So it led me to the idea that-

The Inuzuka clan and Aburame should just be dog and insect summoners

Kiba & Inuzuka clan

Basically, just make them the dog summoners and they summon their dogs to help battle just like they usually do

And make the dog summon contract a clan-exclusive thing hence a clan

The only main difference is that the dogs can now talk

This is more of a take it or leave it but maybe in their genetics they have some inept ability for summoning so that it might not cost as much chakra to summon for example

And/or to keep things like Akamaru always around Kiba make it so their summon has no time limit so Akamaru can be with Kiba 24/7 if he wants

This way you keep all the Inuzuka clan techniques but since they’re summons it wides the possibilities from weapon usage to like the Kiba vs Naruto fight where since Akamaru can talk it would make it harder to differentiate the two when transformed

As for Kakashi

You can maybe add some lore that Kakashi’s mother was an Inuzuka to not only explain his heightened sense of smell but as an honorary Inuzuka (kinda like Boruto and Himawari with the Hyuga clan) it granted him a dog summon contract

Or just change it either or to wolves and clarify there is a difference between dog and a wolf

In a way, an upgrade

Kiba being able to talk with Akamaru I think is a big communication upgrade that can prove that just having Akamaru as an extension of Kiba is more useful as it can be Akamaru instead of Pakkun in the Chunin Exam/Konoha Crush arc

I think whether just because of time or focus or etc but Kiba’s the big upgrade is the three-headed dog while cool because Cerberus is a bit weak compared to the others I think just seeing how well Kakashi used his dogs I think makes it more flexible for combination attacks and combos like holding down an opponent to just giving Akamaru a sword or something

This isn’t the upgrade that would move Kiba from one of the weakest Konoha 12 to one of the strongest but in the aspect of making him feel a bit more unique but also in the same world as the others

As for Shino and the Aburame clan

Similar to the Inuzuka clan make the insect contract clan exclusive maybe have a clan unique where they can make summons last longer or something

Maybe most insects can't talk and that's the balancing or normalizing as hearing a hundred flies can be annoying

The only thing is I think kinda like how with the toads and snakes there are tiers to them like there were tadpoles and little Gamakichi and big Gamabunta

I can see that with insects like he uses the small insects a lot but if he needs to he can summon a bigger insect like a dragonfly that can be his equivalent to a hawk flying him with a giant beetle or a like insect that can ram a wall, etc

I think this also allows Shino and the Aburame clan to summon differently as it’s not that Shino will summon just one little insect at a time he can summon hundreds to thousands of insects at a time

Insect upgrade

Shino’s parasitic insects are mainly for draining chakra

Torune’s were more akin to poisonous

But something I always felt they should/could do is to use insects similar to Gaara’s sand

Where it can be used as a shield or a way to grab and hold things, even punch, and so on

It’s not much different than when characters in other media can control things like sand or metal and use it in that way just this would be bugs

Plus being summons does lessen the death point as they would just go back when too much damage occurs

I think having a Gaara lite is a upgrade for nearly anybody especially Shino

And it allows of Shino wants to use Torune’s insects he could just maybe takes more chakra or time spent or something?

Variety

Such as a butterfly or a bee or cricket or etc

Making him a bit more creative in how he uses insects such as fire flies for a light source

And since it’s a summon allows for more fantastical insect sizes mentioned earlier with giant insects

As Shino can summon a giant praying mantis and have it fight like the Pokemon scyther or something

Or a worm and he can get intel underground.

Ideas are nearly endless

[raayllum]

In regards to your last post, they did do that with Soren (ik ik you weren't talking about him) but his character has depth and a more satisfying arc (relating back to the vulnerability is strength theme) so I'm cool with him

Here's the thing about Soren though, honestly. He's just jerky and loyal enough to his father (and the fact that Viren asks him to kill the princes rather than Claudia in the first place) that in S1 it's more of a tossup, even if I do remember being more worried about Claudia / her skewed worldview in S1 than I was about Soren.

TDP also has more complex explorations of morality (if not in some ways just exploring actual morality) than most shows aimed at kids/young teens do.

In She-Ra, the war is mostly a backdrop conflict used to explore relationship conflict, so when characters do defect from like, a conquering empire, it's because they've realized they aren't 1) treated well there by their 'friends' or 2) would rather be someone's friend than enemy. That's fine as a show focus, but it is more shallow in the morality department; thus, even though I have issues with how Catra's redemption arc was executed, I still always absolutely knew it was coming. To be clear, there's nothing with a predictable character arc (I love good setup and subsequent payoff and would take that over a 'subversives surprise' any day) but it did make her less interesting / harder to watch her be continually terrible to the people around her, even when they just risked everything to save her from death.

In The Owl House, every antagonist besides the main villain is either just misunderstood, misguided, redeemed, or all three (hi Hunter, Amity, The Collector, Lilith). There are a few others - Boscha, Kikimora, Odalia - but they're all regulated to small episode conflicts (each get like maybe 2 eps as an antagonist at most) and it's just... they all want power. Okay, cool.

What I'm trying to say through these examples is that's not a lot of moral depth in their character arcs, and to me, that makes a redemption arc less interesting to watch. However, Soren is a very morally driven character and he struggles with the morality of his choices and of his father's. His redemption arc ties in many other important relationships in his life and develops them (Claudia, Viren, Callum, Ezran) all in different ways. Ezran is his king and becomes his new purpose; Callum is a second chance and also kind of a little brother and also kind of an emotionally unavailable best friend who doesn't entirely trust you; Claudia is his sister turned enemy; Viren is, well... We're gonna get into how complicated that is even more, I'm sure.

I guess that's also what it comes down to me, the sacrifice / inconvenience element of the character doing the redeeming. Soren had, and has, something to lose by staying on the side of the good guys. He defects for his safety, yes, but he leaves behind his little sister and his previous idealization of his father on his own terms through a series of events and his own realizations. He shows up on the good guys' doorstep with "We're doomed." Even in S4, he's still losing things and at least somewhat on the losing side, with his entire family on the other side of the line. (Compare and contrast to Amity, whose entire family - all four of them - unanimously ditch her crappy mother or Catra, who defects after realizing she's effectively worthless to the new #1 villain replacing her, etc. They lose nothing, really, in the end.)

And again, I think Soren's arc works because well... it's the only one that TDP has had in this way. Rayla defects immediately, so her redemption arc works a bit differently. Claudia is still in the middle of her "what if I got worse haha jk... unless?" arc. So they all work as his primary arc foils in a very nice way. Now Viren is going through a bit of Soren's S2 arc, which we'll have to see how that goes, but full fledged died and resurrected and dragged through the mud by his daughter's determination to keep him alive sad old sack of an evil man isn't an arc you see often, now is it?

Soren realizes he's wrong without 1) a mentor figure or 2) heroes pointing it out to him and offering him second chances (save Ez sparing both him and Claudia in 3x02, which had an impact for sure but like - think of how much more reaching out, comparatively, even someone like Zuko got from protag team). Part of this is also because Soren starts off in an interesting place for a 'redeemed character' which is that he starts off on the 'right side' (protecting the king) so he has more of a restoration/maturation arc than an outright redemption arc, in some ways.

So Soren's arc is unique within his story, it's very well paced, there's a depth of morality, and it's tethered to theme so so well. It's *chef's kiss* and refreshing for someone who honestly doesn't truthfully love redemption arcs most of the time (at least not the classical kind) so it's just. Nice, y'know? It's really nice

[emilyrox]

ouat for the ask game?

OUAT!!!

Favorite Male: Killian Jones. There's no contest. Just Killian.

Favorite Female: Emma Swan. There's no contest. Just Emma.

Favorite Pairing: Ok I'm gonna list both my favorite main pairing and favorite side pairing.

Favorite Main Pairing: Captain Swan. You all knew this was gonna be my answer don't lie. Finally watched the Captain Swan wedding for real and it is the best thing ever. Also started season 7 officially and THEY'RE HAVING A BABY!

Favorite Side Pairing: Mr. Hyde x Mary Lydgate (I don't know what the ship name is someone plz help). Gonna be honest I don't exactly know why I think about them as much as I do. Maybe it's because Hyde is also a favorite, or because of their dynamic in general, or because I wish we saw more of them, but I just think about them a lot and what they meant to each other. I'm attached to a pairing that was together for ONE episode??? It's more likely than you think.

Least Favorite Character: uhhhhhhhhhhhh I got a few

Fiona "The Black Fairy". I did not like her. Yeah she's a villain so she's meant to be rooted against but other villains in the show are at least ENTERTAINING. Regina was an entertaining villain (and the og). Zelena was fucking hilarious (and still is as a hero I'm glad they kept that part of her). Cruella de Vil is a cruel dog murderer but I was always interested when she was on screen. But Fiona? She was just a bitch, and not an enjoyable one. I just wanted someone to finally end her. Was so satisfied when Rumple killed her for good.

Mother Superior/"The Blue Fairy". Just because I don't like Fiona and she and Blue were foils doesn't mean I like the Blue Fairy. I agree with the rest of the fandom that she was shady as fuck. She does some good things but also a lot of rude and shady ones. The way she treated Tinkerbell was awful, and her overall "I art holier than thou" attitude was just unpleasant. I could never really tell if she actually wanted to help the heroes or not, which would have been an interesting thing to think about during the show if not for her over-the-top self-righteousness.

Rumplestiltskin (Season 4, Season 5B-Season 6A. Season 7 TBD). He has had many opportunities to redeem himself and be a good person, which he claims he wants to be, but over and over again he kept clinging to "muh power." He is entertaining as a villain overall, and I do like Rumbelle, but not when he is being borderline abusive and possessive of her. I specified specific seasons where I don't like him because those are where he fucks up the most imo. 5A could have been his perfect redemption arc, and he was finally free of the Dark One Curse, but he willingly chose to take that power back. Which makes his actions more irritating in 5B. 6A Rumple was god awful. However, I am glad that by 6B he got his shit together (most of the time) and ultimately did the right thing. *I will say that I enjoy Rumple the most when he is in full-on Dad mode. Which is part of why I like him again in 6B. He genuinely cares about his sons, and I believe him when he says he would do anything for them.* Rumple in Season 7 has yet to be determined as I have not finished it yet.

Who's Most Like Me: Ok imma be completely honest I don't actually know. I feel like my answer, if i have one, would just be me projecting myself onto the character and not actually looking at canon.

Most Attractive: Killian is the obvious choice but ngl more than half of the entire cast slays. The costume department is a big reason why. I agree with the idea that most of the budget went towards the costumes and honestly that is 100% valid of them to do.

Three More Characters I Like: Here ya go:

Elsa. Fuck y'all the Frozen arc was great and Elsa was great and she cares about Anna and Kristoff and becomes besties with Emma and doesn't understand talking phones with Killian and she's great and I may or may not have shipped her with Liam (the first) at one point even though there is literally no way that could ever happen but consider this: it'd be cute.

Zelena (Season 5B and onward. Season 7 TBD). I mentioned how she was a very entertaining villain but ngl I think she's even more entertaining when she's on the heroes' side. She still has 100% of her sass, it's just now directed at people who deserve it. Like Fiona for example :D. I also love when she and Regina work together and help each other. I also believe, like Rumple, that she genuinely cares about her daughter, and seeing her go mom-mode is great. Overall, I think she became a much more likeable and enjoyable character after 5A, and especially by mid 6A. Zelena in Season 7 has yet to be determined as I have not finished it yet.

Lily Page. So from what I've seen online I'm not the only one that was hoping to see more of her after Season 4, right? I thought she was an interesting character, and I'm happy she finally reunited with her mom, Maleficent. Lily being her daughter was a plot twist I don't think anyone expected, but I really liked it! I would have honestly loved to see an episode where Lily and Emma, and maybe a few others, go searching for Lily's dad. They introduced that arc for Lily in the Season 4 finale, but then it didn't go anywhere. (Ok so I have been spoiled that it's revealed in Season 7 at the very end but I wish we got more than that ngl). I like Lily, I just wish we got to see more of her.

[theabominableblogger]

Highlights and Notes on Being Halfway Through "Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood"

Watching the dub, I'm still getting used to the English being delivered so that it matches the lip animation. I've been constantly criticized over watching dubbed anime instead of the sub (even in grad school by professors) but it's just easier for me to process and understand. I also don't usually watch anime but I decided to give this show a shot because I've been hearing good things about it

Crunchyroll only offers the first three episodes for free so I had to dig around to even find the whole show

The intros are LONG

Shout out to Bones for the fluid animation because it is STUNNING

That slow motion shot of Ed taking out one of Greed's chimeras? Amazing. Ling slow motion slicing Gluttony's head off? Amazing. Roy freaking carving his transmutation circle into the back of his hand so that he can use it whenever? Freaking metal.

With that in mind, some of the approaches for character designs for some reason don't work really well for me but that's just my opinion

The immense disappointment I had upon realizing that the white suited person in the third intro was not Greed but in fact freaking KIMBLEE

Episode 4. Oh God.

GREED. Easily one of the best characters in the show.

Riza Hawkeye is ride or die for Mustang and I could not be happier

TRAVIS WILLINGHAM. Just him.

Still freaking hilarious that Mustang freaking nukes Lust into oblivion and the voice actors married a few years after the episode aired

The name Barry the Butcher no joke sounds like a DnD NPC in hindsight

That shot?? Of Lan Fan looking back at Central promising to find a way to get to Ling?? Followed by the panning transition shot of Greed looking out on the roof??? Killed me dead.

Still think that Bradley's adopted son is the last homunculus we haven't seen yet- Pride

I honestly have no idea how old anyone is

Mother Nature saw Roy Mustang attempt to do anything outside and legit went "imma make this man's day worse" AND SHE DID

I did watch the blooper reel before watching the show so when the stew line came up, I immediately yelled "F- YEAHH!". Also did the Envy as Scooby Doo joke when that part came up too

Did the loudest Darth Vader "NOOOO" when Lust disguised herself as Havoc's date

Since watching Izuni's debut episode, I noticed afterward just how well written all of the main female characters are

No joke, I freaking ejected out of my chair when Ross was being interrogated because I put two and two together and just jumped around the room trying to calm down

Troy Baker's delivery of "You know, people normally reject me." That's it.

Alphonse's arc of trying to grapple his humanity is extremely compelling

Apparently an endgame ship I've learned of is Winry and Ed and honestly I think she could do so much better

Ling just collapses everywhere if he doesn't eat and honestly mood

So it's established that Father is NOT the Elric brothers' dad but he KNOWS of him and LOOKS almost exactly like him so.... my working theory is that Father and Hohnheim worked together previously for alchemical research and Father is actually some ambiguous being that took the appearance of Hohnheim like how Envy takes the form of a teenager

The amount of Eucharist jokes I made about Father drinking the essence of the philosopher stones...

As I pointed out to my sibling, the leader of the country is referred to as Fuhrer and just... hmm...

Armstrong doesn't even have a mouth, it's just his glorious 'stache doing all the work on his face

This show has no right half the time just completely ending episodes on cliffhangers

[nerdnag]

So here are my completely uninteresting thoughts about the Miraculous movie, which I watched yesterday. First few paragraphs are spoiler free.

Overall impression while watching was honestly positive. It was well-animated, the tension and atmosphere were good, the voice actors for the main characters did great, the music was pretty good, and the nostalgia gave me warm fuzzy feelings several times. However, the day after watching it, I realize I have a lot of issues with it that weren't obvious to me at first.

I didn't mind it being a musical. But like everyone else, I thought the difference between Marinette's speaking VA and singing VA was jarring. It was jarring enough that it didn't feel like it was actually Marinette singing; it felt more like she was lipsynching along to a soundtrack, and I found it hard to take in what she was trying to communicate in her songs because of that. Adrien didn't have this problem; his singing VA was similar enough that it worked. As for Gabriel, oh man, was it a TREAT to discover that Keith Silverstein did his own singing. I literally had goose bumps the whole song, not because it was a particularly interesting song, but because Keith just did it so well (and it was so great to have him seamlessly start singing)!!

They changed or removed a lot of things compared to the show; the main reason for this was probably that the movie was only 1:32 in runtime (which was way too short even to convey some of the basic points of the plot). Some of the changes were for the better, I think. But many of them were for the worse.

(Spoilers below, though if you've seen the show, it probably doesn't matter very much.)

Some good changes:

Gabriel's characterization and character arc were WAY improved, in that his motives are clearly established, he's shown as suffering emotionally during the entire movie (while very obviously caring a lot for Adrien), and he had a redemption at the end that made sense. Gabriel was probably my favorite character in this movie. I almost wish it had centered more around him, lol.

This is maybe not a change so much as a choice of focus, but a major part of why I stopped watching the show two seasons back or so was because the new kwamis, heroes and identity switches were getting incredibly annoying, confusing and boring. The movie had only three active kwamis and only two heroes, i.e. it went back to the good old days of the show, and I appreciated that a lot.

There are also way fewer characters who get any screen time (basically their entire school class is only shown in the periphery), which I personally think is a good thing, because I never really found most of them interesting in the first place.

After their first couple of times fighting bad guys, Ladybug and CN get into a habit of meeting with each other to train or just hang out even when there are no threats around. That kind of casual interaction was something I think many of us wished had been a part of the show (it definitely was a major part of many fanfics).

Adrien is clearly shown mourning his mother, and I think that his withdrawn manner and the fact that he always wears earbuds at the start of the movie makes a lot of sense.

Marinette and Adrien are chosen as guardians in a slightly different way, and I think I like Tikki's movie introduction more than the one in the show (however, see another point about this further below). Also, the idea behind the ladybug and cat miraculouses was well explained in my opinion.

I really liked the first meeting between Ladybug and CN. CN was characteristically cocky, and LB was very reasonably annoyed with him throughout it all (more so than in the show, as far as I recall). While there were a few moments during the fight itself that felt a bit cringe, their interactions were still pretty great. I also liked how CN went from seeing himself as the main superhero with LB being his sidekick, to acknowledging that it's probably the other way around and that they work best as a team. Also, his pet name for her is pretty cute (though I kind of miss the names he calls her in the show).

Some bad changes:

The fashion-related connection between Marinette, Adrien and Gabriel was completely removed. Adrien isn't a model it seems (at least it was never mentioned), and it was only briefly shown at the start of the movie that Gabriel is a fashion designer. Marinette still does fashion sketches, but the whole reason for why she is obsessed with Adrien at first as well as the fact that she looks up to his father a lot is completely non-existent. The connection just isn't mentioned at all.

Adrien and Marinette are barely shown interacting outside of their first meeting, their resolution, and a brief montage in-between. It doesn't really make sense why Marinette is even interested in Adrien (see also my previous point). It doesn't even make sense that she would like him just because she's lonely and not used to attention, because movie Adrien barely gives her any...

Marichat and Ladrien have ZERO interactions. It's a shame and a huge minus.

The way that Ladybug's and CN's powers work is a disappointment. We're told that they have the power of creation and destruction respectively, and this is shown in a few scenes (CN destroys some things, LB repairs some things), but gone are all the clever strategies from the show where LB had to figure out a creative way to solve their problems. The way her powers are portrayed in the movie, it seems like Tikki does everything for her. Her yo-yo seems to have a life of her own and pulls her along without her consent a lot of the time, and she never has to think for herself about how to solve a problem because her powers miraculously show her exactly what to do. We do get a few cool scenes where LB and CN execute moves in tandem though, but that's about the extent of it. Basically, LB isn't a strong, clever superhero; she's pretty much a doll puppeteered around by Tikki. (A bit of an exaggeration but that is how I felt.)

The reveal between Marinette and Adrien feels underwhelming, both because of how little we have seen of their friendship and interactions throughout the movie, and because the reveal itself is done in a rather anticlimactic way. Marinette has already known who he is for a while at that point (it's unclear exactly how long), and Adrien seems to realize who she is as soon as she calls his name. They barely speak during the reveal and it is difficult to know how they feel about it all outside of Marinette's shy expressions and Adrien's shocked eyes. The whole ~masquerade reveal~ felt like an attempt at fanservice that unfortunately fell flat.

Alya was a good character in this movie, but I think she should have received more screentime. I would much rather have seen more of her and Marinette than suffer through her bad scenes with Nino (more on that below).

Chloé was done dirty. It's like they added her in just because "she's supposed to be there" without taking the time to making her actually fit in with the other changes they had made. Not only did she seem to fluctuate between three or four different personalities throughout the movie, she also made very light of the concept of bullying in a COMPLETELY unnecessary and shockingly badly written line at the end of the movie. (This is literally a direct quote: "Marinette, I hope you have a lovely evening, because next year, bullying's back on.") Also, she bragged about being favored by Adrien, even though they had zero interactions in the movie? (I don't remember them having one, at least.)

Plagg was done REALLY dirty. Every single scene he was in was cringe and badly written. His entire personalty was boiled down to "he fart lol".

Lastly, Adrien was also done dirty. He's barely given a discernible personality outside of "I'm sad and miss my parents" and "I'm a cocky superhero who loves puns". The way he handles being told that Marinette has another love interest is immature and spiteful, his first meeting with Marinette ends with him leaving out of nowhere and thinking that she's weird, and we never get to see how kind, shy, clever, awkward and perceptive he can be. The contrast between him and his superhero persona is badly explained; someone who hasn't seen the show wouldn't know that he longs for adventure and the freedom to express himself, because his struggles as a homeschooled model with few sincere friends are completely absent from the movie. Basically, he's made into a rather one note character (well, I guess two note, really, with at best a wobbly connection between the two sides).

Other things that weren't changes per se, but that I have Opinions about:

I'm torn on how they remade Marinette's "awakening". Just like in the show, she refuses Tikki's powers at first, before eventually accepting them and having her growth arc. I think this is an important part of her larger character arc. However, considering how short the movie is, it's my opinion that they dedicate a disproportionate amount of time to this arc, where I feel that there were important plot and characterization details they could have used that time for instead. I understand that they probably did this because they wanted to focus a lot on Marinette's "hero's journey" in this movie, but it was almost like they dragged it all out.

Related to the previous point, there is quite a lot of "be yourself" and "trust your heart" and "overcome your fears" propaganda shoved down the viewer's throat throughout the movie. I watched the movie with my partner, and every time that Marinette started singing, I jokingly went, "do you think this song will be the next 'Let It Go'?" I mean, it's a good message to give kids I guess, but it was so much that I couldn't help but view it cynically.

Nino could have been removed as a character. No, actually, he should have been. He was extremely one note in a way that borders on being a racist depiction, his romance arc with Alya was flat and unnecessary, his "romantic advice" to Adrien was cliche and cringe, and he fulfils no purpose in the story whatsoever (possibly apart from being Adrien's only friend at first, but that's so brushed over that I don't think it would matter if it was removed).

I liked almost all of the interactions between Ladybug and CN. They were fun, cute and mostly felt natural. The few issues I have are mostly present in the show as well, so I have nothing to complain about regarding the movie itself.

As a contrast to the previous point however, there were, in my opinion, way too many one liners and far too few sincere interactions between characters. Some of the interactions were so weirdly cut short that they felt jarring or superficial. I saw a good example of this in another post from the early parts of the movie, where Marinette is sad because she feels lonely at school, her mother tells her to cheer up and be herself, at which Marinette suddenly does cheer up and goes "you're right!!" (I'm paraphrasing, but the meat of the issue is that the change in her mood is unnaturally sudden, and it feels like there's so much more that had to be said between the lines for that to happen).

The climax felt somewhat sudden and uncalled for, both in how it started and how it ended. Hawkmoth's powers (which hadn't been very well explained before this) suddenly became completely different and no longer focused around the power of his kwami. Suddenly he could create storms, and levitate, and use telekinesis??? And while I appreciated the reveal between him and Adrien, it was weird to have Marinette standing nearby without ever seeing her reaction to CN's identity reveal. Also, the ghost hug from Adrien's mother at the end felt a little too on the nose for me.

Final thoughts: If they had spent their budget on a longer movie rather than on licensing 15 seconds or so of Careless Whisper, and if they had cut all of the musical numbers in favor of including some more plot and characterization, I think the movie could have been really great. As it stands, I think the main issues with the movie all boil down to it being too short. Still, I'm glad I watched it, and I think fans of the series will still have a lot to appreciate about it. As for the people who have never seen the show, they might think it's an all right movie, but they're missing out on a lot of the things that make the show so great.

The teaser for a sequel at the end was... Weird, btw. I really don't see how they're going to keep people's interest up for another movie when CN and LB already have had their reveal and romantic arc, unless the supposed sequel focuses on other people (crossing my fingers for a Gabriel-centered movie, I guess).

[tottwritesfanfic]

Hope’s Fire State of Play - Chapter 37

This post is intended to be a quick (well, compared to re-reading the entire story, it’s actually still like 1200 words long) refresher for people who have already read Hope’s Fire up to and including chapter 37. As the last update was all the way back in 2018, and there are a lot of moving parts in this story, (as well as a lot of characters), I figured it might be helpful! Obviously, if you haven’t read all of the story up until this point, there are tremendous spoilers ahead, so please bear that in mind before clicking on the readmore.

So! Where is everyone, and what’s going on?

As of the end of Chapter 37 of Hope’s Fire, it is the early hours of Tuesday morning (it’s actually Tuesday 1st June 2004, although the full date isn’t especially relevant to the plot), and the story features: 12 Chosen Children, 12 Digimon Partners, 7/8 parents (who are actively involved for the time being), and about 20 different characters across the various areas of the story’s main setting. I tend to refer to this as the “Mirror World”, or MW for short, because the day/night cycle is the opposite of Earth’s. This also means that it is Tuesday afternoon in the MW. (Though that much is pretty arbirtrary and just helps to keep track of the story, it’s functionally just 12 hours offset and doesn’t much matter which way.)

The scale of Hope’s Fire makes it a little overwhelming to keep track of, honestly, which is why I tend to break the story down into “arcs” - not in terms of plot, but in terms of location.

At present, there are five main areas that the characters are spread across: Earth, the Digital World, and then three locations within the MW: “The City”, “The Forest City”, and “The Mountain Fastness”.

Of these five arcs, Earth and the Digital World (DW for short!) are pretty straightforward. Most of the kids and parents involved are using Taichi and Hikari’s apartment as their Earth-based hub, aside from poor Mr Ishida who is stuck at home all by himself, because Yamato and Sora disappeared from his apartment, and no one on Earth (or the DW) currently knows where they are, or what has happened to them.

In the Digital World, Daisuke and Iori are preparing to defend against signs of corruptions or distortions, because both the DW and the MW seem to have similar problems with creatures crossing between worlds and/or being corrupted as a result. This is a Bad Thing. Miyako is shortly to join them, because honestly, an army of two isn’t great, which means that Yamato and Takeru’s mother Natsuko is about to take over the role of liaison. She’s using Ken’s laptop, which runs chat software that connects to all the D-Terminals, and the phones of the older Chosen Children (CC) who don’t have D-Terminals.

One of the biggest challenges they face, therefore, is the fact that in the MW, the signal is spotty and often unreliable, and the CC are still learning its limitations. At times it has cut out for no obvious reason, leaving some of the CC dangerously under-informed. For example, there is signal in the Forest City, but not in the Mountain Fastness.

Speaking of the Fastness! This is where both Ken and Jou are, along with their partners. Jou accidentally dragged Ken and Wormmon into the MW via a Fear Gate, which came as something of a shock to everyone. Jou was injured in this incident, breaking both his foot and the frame of his glasses. This puts them in a doubly awkward position, as the Fastness seems to be rather disorganised and poorly resourced, and they are currently trying to persuade the local inhabitants to help them link up with the others. How they will manage this with Jou’s injury and the fact that the Fastness largely regards the world outside as impassable? That remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, in the Forest City, Taichi, Koushiro and Takeru are all recovering from various wounds and fatigue they suffered over the last few days. Taichi fared best, with just a few cuts and scrapes, but Koushiro and Takeru were both badly injured by a fall on Sunday, and these injuries were made worse by their lack of immediate access to proper medical treatment. Despite breaking his wrist, Koushiro is already impatient and trying to research as best he can with only one good hand and no laptop, while Takeru has basically only just woken up as he was already injured before the fall, which…he’s not having a good time, okay? He’s been better. They have all been reunited with their partners, which is a big source of relief for Koushiro…and also Hikari!

Hikari is in the Forest City too, but had a very different experience getting there, and is the only CC to have made a deliberate return journey to Earth in order to resupply, (bringing Alwyn, a resident of the Forest City, with her when she did so). After being separated from Tailmon when her partner was dragged back to Earth without her, Hikari made the unfortunate discovery that, unlike in the DW, their electronic devices are more than capable of running out of power in the MW.

Unaware that the other three were on their way to the Forest City, she was forced to put herself in harm’s way to get her devices working, and carry back a message to the others on Earth. Hikari returned to the Forest City with a large selection of batteries, and Tentomon in tow, and is currently trying to acclimate herself to the time difference between worlds. She is also happily reunited with Tailmon, who had previously returned to the MW with Taichi and the others.

Despite some of the aforementioned communication hiccoughs, for the most part, everyone mentioned so far is on the same page in terms of what they know about the others and their progress. This is definitely not the case when it comes to the final plot arc, centred in The City.

What is known is that Yamato was exploring the location, and vanished in the early hours of Sunday morning. Following his disappearance, Sora also vanished from his apartment in equally (if not more!) mysterious circumstances late on Sunday evening. Both have their partners with them, but (with one exception!) this is all that anyone else knows.

In fact, Yamato was apprehended by soldiers of The City on Sunday, who mistook him for an enemy spy, and interrogated him as a result. Following the trauma of this interrogation, Yamato was thrown back to Earth via a Fear Gate, at which point he accidentally dragged Sora and Piyomon over to the MW, as he was fearful for Gabumon’s safety. Sora was then also subjected to an interrogation by a mysterious and unpleasant person known as Lord Cahir, who afterwards erased Sora’s memories of this encounter.

As a direct result of this, not only do the others not know where Yamato and Sora (and their partners) are, but the two of them are also very much isolated and ignorant of what has been happening elsewhere. Additionally, having spent several days with little food or water in cold dungeons, neither they nor their partners are faring particularly well.

However! Having found herself amid a mysterious city herself, Mimi had been looking for them, convinced that she found herself in the city Yamato had described before his disappearance. After a few false starts and dangerous encounters which left her both shaken and wounded, Mimi managed to charm another band of soldiers roaming the surface, who agreed to guide her to meet Their Graces, rulers of The City, as she had an important message from the Forest City thanks to the others passing it along.

Whilst travelling to meet Their Graces, Mimi became aware that Yamato had been apprehend there a few days earlier, and made the obvious assumption that Sora must be with him. Furious that her friends were being mistreated, Mimi immediately disregarded her own injuries, stormed off to meet Their Graces, and demanded they be released.

Chapter 37 ends with Yamato, Gabumon, Sora, and Piyomon being summoned from the dungeons, for reasons neither they nor their captors understand…

[mdhwrites]

Considering you are a fanfic writer and having issues with Owl House, did you ever consider possibly making a rewrite fanfic of Owl House?

Okay so A: I have both the Crow House and Little Miss Rich Witch that could be seen as that. However... Both of those works were started and conceptualized as celebrations of what I liked about The Owl House with tweaks that made them able to be more to my style and interests. Despite Crow House being a swap AU, I didn't bring attention to how Boscha's strength is actually a problem for her. Actually hurts people. I just used what is Willow's defining trait in my opinion to amplify Boscha's aggression and make it a tragedy. For Rich Witch, I literally made less than three weeks I got into the fandom because I liked themes I was playing with but canon straight up got in the way or was a little too unclear for certain aspects to be explored fully in Power of Love despite just how large that story was and was going to be. One of those big aspects was Amity's friends so Azu's relationship with her friends, especially Igni who is the stand in for Boscha, is important to the story and so is her becoming a better friend and person in general.

B: Frankly I think a straight rewrite of TOH from me would look a lot like like The Power of Love, especially as it was written before S2 mostly so was playing with the potential of the characters before that potential was damaged irrevocably, but even more bloated so as to include things like the introduction of the world, extending Amity's arc out more, including Eda and King some more, etc. like that. Part of this is because, as I've talked in the past, you can't really change a lot about TOH without losing its core identity. Would you recognize something as TOH without Hexide? Without Eda and King and their plot (which is Rich Witch effectively with a main character swap)? It is way easier than you think it is to just make an entirely new story even with similar elements.

C: I... Just wouldn't want to. I HATE fix it fics and that's what most rewrites come down to. Making a different twist like a Swap AU, especially an extensive one, is different from a fix it fic but at this point I think a rewrite of TOH from me, at least in fanfiction form, would come as too angry. Include too many changes frankly so at best it would just be an original story that isn't written as well because I'm leaning on the elements that make fanfiction easier, or it's just my blogs but turned into a story that would very quickly turn into a giant circlejerk and I don't like doing that. The closest I've truly come to a fix it fic with TOH is that there's a chapter in Power of Love that I wrote right after Escaping Expulsion because I had to wash out the taste of canon Odalia with my Odalia. And even that kind of worked to show an Amischa moment, love between Amity and her mother and the stresses that becoming the new Emperor's Coven Head (something that never happens in the show and is a personal pet peeve of mine pretty severely), even with changes that led to Lilith also being the EC head again alongside Odalia, so it wasn't just bitter and angry even if those emotions fueled it at first.

D: It would never get finished. Not because of my normal mental health stuff but because I cannot write something I hate. A fix it story is always motivated by anger. That works for a one off or a single chapter. Honestly, it feels like some of the motivation for TOH where there's a very real feeling of "Wow, these writers just HATE the fantasy genre, don't they?" For how I write though, where I have to connect to my emotions genuinely, thus triggering my anxiety and depression half the time, anger can't last. Not for as long as a rewrite of TOH, a series that to be rewritten properly would take hundreds of thousands of words, probably over a million (guess how I long I think Rich Witch will be by the end of its run) and that is a long, LONG time to be angry. And it would bleed into the writing. The characters would be angrier. More easily upset. More volatile. It wouldn't be fun for ANYONE.

Hell, as a side note, I've explicitly said that it's not anger that fuels me to make all these blogs about TOH. It's that TOH is genuinely interesting to talk about and good for teaching. Yes, anger is what brought me here theoretically but I do try to be fair to the show because pure vitriol over and over again isn't useful for anyone, just pure praise isn't either.

E: Even if I did a strict rewrite, followed as much of the show as I possibly could... My writing style is just antithetical to the show. I talked about needing to tap genuinely into my emotions after all. That makes my writing INCREDIBLY sincere. I cannot half ass my writing much of the time. My worst chapters usually come from my brain going "Let's wrap this up because the characters actually wouldn't act like this or go the direction we originally planned so we'll need to figure something else out." This also leads to some of my best chapters I think but it's the exact opposite of TOH's meta commentary and shifting characters hard just to make a concept work. I could literally never write Wing it Like Witches because I WOULD NOT ever write that Amity, Luz, Eda and Lilith are ALL capable of being sports stars. That's too homogeneous and is actively against at least half of the character's cores that are involved.

It all effectively means that even if I tried to rewrite TOH, it would just come across as a distinctly different story. And if I'm gonna do that, I'd rather just throw off the shackles of the show entirely and write my own. Almost like I'm an original writer or something alongside my fanfic work.

===========

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead, If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

[archer3-13]

Thank you all for all the asks, I encourage people incidentally to ask away if they like. I might not always have a good response but I try to generally have a response.

anyways im gonna answer ya annons together though cause theres enough of you all on generally the same subject that its simpler this way.

its the perpetual curse of the player avatar character in the fe format really.

They're about as into it as humans are really: generally not seen as okay/a societal taboo but some people are just really into it/Blaise enough about it regardless.

as for the point of the dlc, my best guess would be its there for much the same reason cindered shadows is in three houses: someone in management demanded the game have a dlc campaign/they started working on dlc as part of the usual development cycles these days but didn't want to make something directly tied to the main campaign for whatever reason. So, welcome to alt fanfic filler arc land where the stakes simultaneously dont matter/matter way too fucking much and can be conveniently ignored in the main campaign/story with ease. With that said from a story angle I do like fell xenologue more then cindered shadows anyways, but then I have a soft spot for mirror dimensions in fiction. the fell xenologue isn't as good as it could be even by those standards though.

I needed to parse the whole thing a couple a times to take the wall of text all in, but dont worry about it. what your saying is generally sound and its always interesting to hear how different fandoms approach the same thing in different or similar ways.

I knew people liked tsubaki and selena but I didn't know that one was the ship considered most cannon of fe14 selenas ships. Which as ya point out does make how she gives birth to her mothers identitcal [visually anyways] clone kinda funny in that context.

Honestly I just think its an issue of how fandom has so much purity wank going on in it these days, not even anything specific to fe. Its not enough that the blorbo is your favorite, your blorbo has to be a MORALLY GOOD PERSON too regardless of if the original text outright states that they arent a good person or not. Hence the oddly puritanical standards everyone holds characters too these days, like we had suddenly warped right back into the 1950's in terms of how mercilessly hard your judging your neighbour for having an unkempt lawn for.

I haven't engaged with the dlc characters as much compared to the main cast, so this isn't gonna be a 100% definitive answer sorry.

madelines a hard classic general, gregorys your inverse sage res tank unit with meh spd, zelestia is high on spd but average across the board otherwise, and nels the myrmidon to rafals mercenary. What ya see with their base stats is what your gonna get for them as units really. if your asking whos gonna be your most helpful, id say zelestia so long as you do the dlc early enough as their levels dont scale from what i understand.

zelestias got some chonky speed, and shes otherwise a mage knight on a flying dragon in her unique class with soulblade her class unique skill presenting some interesting avenues of exploitation in taking the average of an enemies def/res in damage calculations for swords. Give her some investment and I imagine

given the game was supposed to be released a lot sonner then it was, its not entirely surprising that the dlc came out so quick. I wouldn't quite say its 'era' is over yet mind, that simply depends on what comes out next and when.

With all that said, considering how fast it all came out I wouldn't actually be surprised if they announced a second pack of dlc if the first pack and engage as a whole does well enough. its not a sure thing but not impossible either.

I kinda wanna get a hint as to whats gonna come next though. Which is one of my bigger frustrations with is and fe really, i wish they communicated what they're plannin with the fans more.

I dont even think its ideas they're lacking in, its just a seeming reluctance on the koei assisted titles to release the additional maps the 3ds dlc ones did. all of the games since awakening have had an additional dlc campaign of sorts for instance, but in both three houses and engage they dont bother to include any of the gold or exp or weapon dlc grinding maps the 3ds games had, or try their hands at anything equivalent to the robust selections of weird dlc maps the 3ds games often hand like the festival things. engage i feel does better in this regard through the additional dlc emblem trials and campaign over three houses sitting with a dlc campaign alone but still.

i dont think your wrong.

given the trend of the mirror elyos having characters with opposing traits or aspects to their main counterparts, you could certainly head cannon that xeno sombron actually does come from his world compared to main sombron. I dont think theres any specific confirmation either way.

[asharkapologist]

Anakin Skywalker Appreciation Week, Pt 3

(whoops. This is late.)

Day three: favorite relationship.

Anakin honestly has a lot of really interesting relationships with people around him. The prequels and The Clone Wars show how much women affect his life, which is something that’s always stuck out to me. TCW also does an excellent job showing Anakin’s relationship with people who will be a major part of the Empire. One of my favorite underrated moments of TCW is when Anakin and Tarkin were shown chatting during the Citadel escape arc about how the Jedi sometimes don’t go far enough in battle, and generally getting along quite well (TCW in general makes it quite clear that Tarkin was a sociopath long before he murdered billions of people on Alderaan in Episode IV, something I rather like. Tarkin didn’t need order from a tyrannical empire to turn him into a sociopath. He was a horrible person for a long time.)

But honestly, out of all of the interesting relationships Anakin has with various people in his life, I’m going to have to say that I'm going to talk about his relationship with Padmé. Maybe I’m just a sucker for tragic romances. And yes, I know their relationship is ultimately toxic. It literally ends with him trying to kill her. Let me explain what I mean before you call me stupid or accuse me of supporting toxic/abusive relationships.

So my feelings on Anidala are undoubtedly complicated. Like other people have said, they aren’t exactly a paragon of ideal relationships. There’s a bunch of reasons why they’re unhealthy, like Anakin’s somewhat creepy behavior in AotC (though he respects Padmé’s boundaries more than Han respect’s Leia’s in ESB, and that is a hill I will die on), her willingness to overlook many red flags throughout the prequels and TCW without really sitting down with him and talking with him (with the one exception of in the Clovis arc but I hate that arc so much for a multitude of reasons that go beyond Anakin and Padmé’s relationship and besides by the end of the arc they’ve hit the reset button and immediately get over their argument), and yeah, their relationship ends with him trying to murder her post-fall. Yeah, not very good. But I want to more talk about why I think their relationship is interesting, compelling, and tragic, and focus on her role with Anakin’s arc.

Anakin’s certainly a romantic, and Padmé is too, in different ways. I really like how Anakin ultimately falls to the Dark Side to try to save Padmé from death, because in a way, this is kind of like a lot of male action heroes that were in movies that were coming out around the prequels, like Spider-Man and Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible (I don’t remember his character’s name, and I’m definitely not going to bother to look it up). But it’s really more than that, a deconstruction, really of the “save the girl” mentality. TV Tropes puts it best:

Anakin's character is a massive deconstruction of [the ‘Always Save the Girl’ trope]. He adamantly refuses to give up on those he loves, even though the Jedi preach [non-attachment], and even when giving up is the healthiest thing to do. The loss of his mother is the first time he truly fails, which causes him to rage out and murder everyone within reach, and Obi-Wan only barely manages to convince him that they should prioritize capturing Dooku over going back to get Padmé. When he starts getting nightmares of his wife dying in childbirth, Palpatine exploits this by offering a way to save her, but only if he embraces the dark side. Even Anakin's final betrayal of the Jedi reflects this trope, both since he needs Palpatine to save Padmé (or so he thinks), and because he wants to save the kind old man who was always there for him.

(link to that page: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AlwaysSaveTheGirl)

In a lot of instances, the hero saves the girl and the world. But Anakin just ends up killing both. There’s something really fascinating about characters that would let the world (or galaxy in this case) burn in order to save someone they love. A lot of times, this is portrayed as admirable, and the hero often manages to save all of their friends and the world. Not here, though.

Anakin obviously had a bunch of psychological issues and trauma, but, as Obi-Wan says in the Revenge of the Sith novelization, Anakin’s relationship with Padmé was one of the few things that brought him joy, and even though Obi-Wan is widely regarded by a lot of people as the personification of the ideal Jedi, he was willing to mostly ignore Anakin and Padmé’s obvious relationship/Anakin breaking the Jedi Code, with the exception of a few comments here and there. And that’s what hurts. Because even though Anakin ends up destroying everything and everyone who might have cared about him, Padmé made him happy. And yeah, their on-screen relationship, especially in AotC is a bit, uh, rocky (although they do actually have chemistry in the AotC novelizations, although the author also keeps in some of Anakin’s awkwardness), but they are clearly happy together, they make each other happy. They’ll have genuinely cute moments, like the meadow scene in AotC (I like that scene okay!) and throughout TCW, and at the start of RotS, which just makes it more tragic knowing what’s coming, and seeing the blatant red flags in their relationship, and thinking “if things were different. If they just had really long talks. If Palpatine didn’t exist. If they didn’t have to hide their relationship (considering a relationship built on lies and deception struggles to be a healthy/ideal one).” I know that their relationship is far from ideal and was loaded with issues. But it’s just sad because they were obviously in love with each other very much (the whole ‘Anakin mind-tricked her into falling in love with him’ theory is the worst theory in Star Wars I’m sorry), but there were still issues and red flags and toxicity there that were made worse by Anakin having unresolved trauma, his upbringing by a very anti-romance organization, a war going on, Palpatine existing, and Padmé’s general unwillingness to really take caution due to those red flags. But I genuinely believe that if there wasn’t a war, if Anakin left the Jedi and/or if therapists or something existed, they would have had a healthy domestic life together.

But ultimately, all that rambling aside, Anakin is definitely an emotional romantic, something that I think is rather refreshing in male heroes. Somewhat off topic, but I had a rather sexist teacher one time say that in a marriage, women are emotional and men are rational. That is certainly not the case with Anakin and Padmé. She’s the one initially listing all the reasons why them getting together wouldn’t be a good idea, regardless of their feelings for each other, and in Revenge of the Sith, when she tells him that she’s pregnant, she’s the one who still expresses her worries and concerns about said pregnancy, while Anakin is more overjoyed than worried.

I mean, look at that face. Yeah, I definitely believe him when he says that this is the happiest moment of his life. It's telling when even prequel haters admit that the above scene is pretty good.

In another movie with a happy ending, this would all be very heartwarming. Anakin doesn’t care what happens to his social status and position in the Jedi Order as long as he can be together with his wife and child(ren.)

And you better believe I read Anidala fix-its/fanfics on Ao3.

[lady-griffin]

Young Justice Complaints

If you have been really enjoying the current arc, I wouldn’t read this. 

I really wanted to like Zatanna’s arc. I love Zatanna. I love magic in the DC universe. Klarion and the young girl looked interesting in the poster.

But this arc is just exemplifying a lot, if not all of YJ problems. And these problems aren’t new, they existed in season 1 and 2, but they were minor or at least not slapping you in the face.

The problems of this show have really come out in full force with this current season and of course the previous one.

And the problems are even more on display with this current arc. 

Don’t get me wrong, the first two arcs of S4 also had their weaknesses and showed YJ’s faults, for sure. I’m not denying that.

But they also had their strengths. They were able to keep me engage and I enjoyed a decent portion of what I was seeing. 

This current arc feelsl like it’s trying to show why it shouldn’t have been made.

Three episodes have passed and nothing has actually happened. At least nothing major.

That’s not exactly true, The Child came along at the start of the first epiosde and Klarion did die in the end of the last episode, but that is honestly it.  

I feel like I’m clearly missing something, because three episodes have happened. But yet, if I am missing something else,  it’s  not a good sign that I completely forgot it – considering I watched all three episodes just over two hours ago.

The first two episodes dragged on with no character development and then this last episode literally halted the story so I could get the character stories and development of three of its characters.

I just…

I’m so bored.

That’s the big problem, I’m bored.

I am more interested with the crazy adventures of that bus than all of Vandal’s backstory. 

Which I shouldn’t be. I thought Evolution in Season 3 was such a great, interesting story and episode.

But everything feels so stilted and slow. It lacks impact. Vandal’s story isn’t the only boring this about this arc, but the weird PowerPoint slideshow and voice over, certainly makes it the most boring thing so far. 

I thought that was bad with Artemis’s arc last time, but somehow it’s gotten worse.

My god is it boring. 

 I feel like it’s been longer than three episodes, but also how has it been three episodes? How have you wasted basically an hour in telling me this story?

Also, how is this Zatanna’s arc at all?

Other then the fact that she’s there and there was talk of Homo-magi,

It’s all about Savage and the Lords of Order and Chaos.

I want Zee. You know, the person who is suppose to be a key focus of this arc if not THE main focus. 

 I guess to end on some positives.

I like The Child.

I thought her introduction was done well enough. She’s not nearly as amazing as I feel like she could’ve (or should’ve) been, but I do like her over Klarion. She feels like an actual threat.

Even though Fate was wasting my time as well as Zee and her students’ time with those stupid trials. I did like how the trials were different and how they  looked, overall. 

Zee’s cute little thing of them being her best students and them pointing out they’re her only ones. I liked that.

I like Madame Xanadu and ‘favors don’t pay the rent’

I really like Gar’s story with depression. And Blue Devil’s struggle and attempt as being a ‘Den Mother.’ He clearly doesn’t know what he’s doing and he seemed aware of that. 

That was an actually interesting and engaging story. I want more of that. I’m feeling something for the characters and learning stuff about them, without painful exposition after exposition. 

I don’t know, maybe one of the people Jason Blood or The Phantom Stranger will get be Raven, but I honestly don’t know if I even still want that.

The crazy bus adventures was very funny and super interesting. Them taking a breath and then continuing screaming - that was great.

 I don’t know. I’m just so bored.

[animated-antagonist]

Qibli has a terrible arc

HEAR ME OUT.

Before you attack me for this, I genuinely don’t care if you like or hate him. I never loved him, but he wasn’t as bad as moon. Sometimes he’s funny, I like his interactions with winter, but I never really cared about him. But the way his mind was described in moon rising made me excited for his pov in book 10.

Then I read it and realized that he’s a boring, whiny, obsessive character who I was immediately sick of.

Darkness of dragons as a whole is a fucking mess from start to finish. And because I have nothing better to do right now, im going to explain why.

This is all my opinion, and it is based on story structure and character arc guidelines and stuff that I have learned recently. Feel free to disagree. Qibli is a decent character with his charm and humour, but he has the worst character arc out of all wof books. Yes that includes the hive queen and dragonslayer.

 Ok so first, what I like about qibli: like two things: his relationship with winter, and his sense of humour. I like his playful banter with the shiny ice dragon prince. It’s entertaining. And he does have the occasional joke that manages to somewhat amuse me.

 Literally everything else about him is awful. So let’s talk about that.

 Memorable characters are driven by three main things: desire, fear, and misbelief.

 Winter’s misbelief is that his life’s worth is determined by a ranking on a wall and what his tribe thinks of him. This also results in him believing that working with others and expressing love and trust are signs of weakness. He’s afraid of being a disappointment to his tribe because he’s experienced that feeling in his past already, and never wants to face it again. And yet … he does want more. He’s more open and caring than the rest of his family, and in the two backstory scenes we get, it’s clear he’s far more willing to bend the rules to be even a little more free.

 Peril’s misbelief is that she’s too dangerous to make her own decisions. Therefore, she’s instantly loyal to anyone who expresses a hint of interest or affection to her. This leads to her being easy to manipulate, and Scarlet does just that. She’s afraid of displeasing the people she’s loyal to, but she does want to be free. But her backstory and eight years of living by Scarlet’s orders and not having a single thought of her own has lead her to subconsciously believe that she constantly has to have someone make all her choices for her. She doesn’t go after Scarlet for her own benefit, it never crosses her mind once. She’s doing it because she knows it will make Clay happy, and not herself.

 Turtle always wanted to be a hero. That’s literally in the book blurb. But the Snapper incident in his backstory makes him doubt that he will ever be anything more than just another SeaWing prince. Thanks to his mother’s stories, he believes that in order to be a real hero, he has to do great, epic things like slaying whole armies by himself. He wants to be a hero, but his misbelief and fear of being noticed get in the way of his wants.

 And they all grow and overcome their fears and misbeliefs. Winter realizes that his friends would never hurt him the same way his family would. He realizes that it’s okay to love and be loved, to trust and be trusted. He goes back to his friends because he knows that, even if they can be annoying some times, it’s so much better than having his worth determined by a family and tribe that never approved of him and probably never will. Peril discovers that her misbelief is leading her to make the wrong decisions. Her growth is so strong that she can take off an animus touched object. She knows she’s right. She can make her own choices, and she’s done letting others use her as a toy. Turtle saves his sister, not by taking down an army, but by tossing her his enchanted stick to keep her hidden from Darkstalker. In doing that, he’s proven that he’s evolved and changed as a character. They all still have doubts at times, but that’s normal. These three characters have some of the best arcs I’ve ever seen.

 Now back to Qibli.

 His family told him he was worthless and couldn’t do anything as an ordinary dragon. This sparked the misbelief that he has to have power, or in this world animus magic, to have worth. He’s afraid of being worthless, and wants to feel valuable. That’s a great setup for a great character. Qibli could have, and should have, been one of the best wof characters of all time.

 But no he fucking sucks.

 I’m going to focus on him as a character here. The Vulture stuff is boring as hell and I don’t care to talk about it. The whole book is shit and I will never read it again, so let’s continue.

 Again, Qibli is set up to be an excellent character. When he goes to find Ostrich, he brings with him Anemone’s bracelets, which makes perfect sense. He doesn’t want to be powerless, so of course he’s going to bring that magic, that power, with him. More setup that goes no where, because when he uses them, he doesn’t even face consequences.

 Pausing here because I hate it so much.

 CONSEQUENCES ARE WHAT MAKE CHARACTERS GROW. If they face ZERO consequences for their actions, they won’t LEARN anything. Qibli using the bracelets works for his character, but I just cannot believe that Thorn would just let him walk away after burying the ENTIRE FUCKING KINGDOM in sand. I hate it so much. Qibli just getting a free pass and facing no consequences is so bad. He doesn’t even express that much remorse or guilt. That could work for a negative character arc (which I genuinely would have preferred from Qibli but I’ll get to that later) but for a positive arc? The magic and power he craves so deeply just got his entire kingdom buried. He should have so much more internal conflict now, because the thing he wants so badly just did more harm than good.

 Okay. Next part. This one isnt’ really related to his character arc, just more of him being a kinda jerk for a few seconds. Winter expresses great concern over travelling over Darkstalker’s teeth, and Qibli just teases him about it. Winter has known about Darkstalker’s malice his whole life, was brainwashed by him, and is truly terrified of him. If Qibli had teased him about anything else I wouldn’t have an issue, but Winter was scared for his life in this moment and Qibli just completely ignores it. Or maybe I’m wrong I haven’t touched the book in years because I hate it that much.

 Back to his ‘arc’.

 Wait no this is an issue I have with the book: the cliffhanger of book 9 was Turtle losing his animus magic and they just kinda fixed it in two seconds here. It’s very upsetting and kinda comical that they fixed it so effortlessly lmao.

 Back to Qibli.

 Uh nothing happens for a while. Just boring Moonbli WHICH, might I add, is the worst wof ship (excluding problematic ones ofc). They have zero chemistry and honestly I find Qibli a bit obsessive. He always thinks ‘what would Moon do’ or ‘will Moon love me if I do this?’ which yeah it ties into his ‘I want to be loved and have value’ motivation but it still feels a bit excessive and annoying at times. Pair that with his constant nagging about how ‘oh no if only I had that gosh darn scroll!’ or ‘how can moon ever choose meeee when she has winterrrr’. Moon described his mind to be fast and full of commotion, but we never see any of that in this book. It’s just constant whining and complaining.

 Then he goes another step further and blames Winter for getting angry at Moon for??? being friends with the dragon who just tried to murder his whole tribe???? Moon’s a fucking idiot for continuing to be friends with Darkstalker after everyone keeps telling her how bad he is. KINKAJOU, HER SUPPOSED BEST FRIEND, tells her all about what Darkstalker did to Turtle, and Moon’s just okay with it??? And then when Winter confronts her about still trusting Darkstalker after everything he’s done not just to the IceWings, but her friends as well, that Darkstalker brainwashed Winter and he’s not okay with it, Qibli calls him self-righteous for exploding with fury. What else do you expect?? This moment killed all three ships for me. It was an unnecessary event that’s only purpose was to give Tui a reason to make Moonbli canon instead of Winterwatcher.

 Onto the climax (which by the way is like the only semi decent part of this whole book). Qibli again uses his power to save the day. SERIOUSLY??? Ok fine it makes sense because this book has zero structure whatsoever. Qibli doesn’t have to make the impossible choice at the end of act one. He doesn’t face a goal shift at the midpoint. He doesn’t look a disaster right in the face. You cannot convince me that he’s changed at all over the course of this book.

 Because he doesn’t. He uses magic at the climax and boom everything is fixed. I like the concept of the empathy spell but it just doesn’t fit with this kind of character arc, unless it comes before the dark moment and fits into the supposed victory plot-point (thinking again now I think it sort of does but I’m too lazy to go change things so deal with it).

 And then oh no we get the temptation plot point! This is often my favourite plot point in stories that have it because we get to see the protagonist drop their misbelief and refuse the offer because they’ve changed! Reading this and thinking, oh wow he’s going to refuse it because he’s gone through a super dynamic character journey and arc!’ … then realizing no he’s not, because Tui forgot to include that and now makes Qibli refuse the offer for completely different reasons.

 See in a book with a good character arc, the character will refuse this offer because they’ve outgrown it. They no longer see value in it because they now have something greater to live for. I like this plot point much more than darkest moment if I’m being honest. So Darkstalker offers Qibli all he’s ever wanted: animus magic. Will Qibli accept, or decline? And why?

 He declines. But not for the right reasons.

 Qibli doesn’t refuse Darkstalker’s offer because he’s changed or grown. He doesn’t refuse it because he now sees no value in this because he’s seen happiness anywhere else. He refuses because he knows he can’t trust Darkstalker.

 … wow.

 i hate this book so much istg

 If Qibli had gone through a dynamic arc, he would have refused for better reasons.

 It’s just so disappointing. He has no reason to refuse that other than the fact that Darkstalker is untrustworthy. Holy shit.

 I take character arcs and story structure very seriously, and Qibli is just AWFUL when it comes to this.

 After three books that had such epic, emotional character arcs, DoD feels like a downgrade. And that’s why I think Qibli is a terrible character.

 But hey you know what COULD have worked?? Giving Qibli a NEGATIVE arc instead!

 I know he’s Darkstalker’s foil. That’s cool I don’t care. GIVE HIM A NEGATIVE ARC!! I would have LOVED IT SO MUCH MORE if Qibli accepted Darkstalker’s offer and arc 3 was all about all the other protagonists coming together to stop him and Darkstalker. That would have made a much better third arc. And you can bring in the other tribes if you want to I don’t care just find a way to make it work.

 It would have made so much more sense and fit the story so much more if Qibli accepted Darkstalker’s offer and became an evil animus alongside him. It also could have given Moonbli more time and chemistry! I still would have shipped Winterwatcher because well, Winter, but I probably wouldn’t hate Moonbli if this was the way the story went. Or maybe Qinter could be a thing. Imagine like a really emotional moment where Qibli is about to kill Winter and Winter just talks to him or something idk something romantic and sad. Would be great because there’s zero mlm rep in wof.

 Fuck it I’m gonna make an au about this.

 Yeeah that’s my rant over. I don’t hate Qibli as a character and I think he had so much potential but the way the story is written, I honestly thought he would have a negative arc instead. Wow I really want that au now I can’t stop thinking about it haha. But yeah Qibli is charismatic at times and a bit fun but his arc is terrible. Moon had a better arc than Qibli. MOON.

Sorry if this came off as aggressive at times I just wanted to voice my opinion. If you like him, that’s cool! I just don’t. He’s not one of my favourites although he could have been. Missed potential in my opinion. This is a very long rant so if you’re still reading this … thanks lol.

 Have a good day/night. Im gonna make that au now lmao.