#how am i meant to root for a character who has done all she's done

[dollypopup]

. . .this reply is just. . .I'm sorry, but it's not it. Yes, they are both at fault, but the blame is NOT equal between the two of them. And, frankly, I'm tired of a young female character who is trying to learn and do better and BE better (yes, I'm talking about Eloise) getting constantly smacked down by an echo chamber fandom. Was it wrong of her to rip up her room? Yeah! But. . .uh. . .prioritizing Penelope's privacy in holding a secret that has deeply hurt people over the privacy of EVERYONE ELSE in the entire ton is just. . .hmmmmmm

the Queen was after Eloise because *checks notes* Penelope endangered everyone she knew by goading and undermining the Queen. So. . .the Queen was after Eloise. . .BECAUSE of Penelope.

In what way has Penelope helped out the Bridgertons w/ scandals instead of making them worse? I'm genuinely asking (it's been a bit since I watched) but as I recall, Daphne ended up in the Berbrook situation BECAUSE Penelope constantly said Daphne didn't deserve to be diamond. It was Violet who helped Daphne, not Penelope. In fact, every time Penelope writes about the Bridgertons, she exacerbates the situation: she does not 'fix' it. Nevermind the fact that such 'help' was unwanted and unsolicited. Penelope decided to do what she did without consent from any party involved. Can we agree that's messed up?

I can never stand this point. 'She tried to talk to Colin and Marina and they didn't listen'- no, they didn't give her an answer she wanted. Listen, I'm a hella Polin shipper (though the fandom's version of Polin makes that very difficult. Hallelujah for the book version) but we need to stop woobifying Penelope and acting like what she did was oh so altruistic. She told Colin that Marina loved someone else and he told her he'd be a hypocrite for holding that against her. (so he's a bad guy. . .how?) and Marina was in dire straits. Her situation was quite literally life or death. Her cousin coming to her and saying 'hey, don't marry him, he doesn't deserve to be tricked' is up against her mind with 'if you don't marry him, you and your baby will die'. Idk about you, but I know which I'd choose.

And yes! I also get what Penelope did, because if I found out my close friend was about to get tricked and potentially get their heart broken, yeah, I'd speak up! You know what I wouldn't do? Publish about it in Village Voice. Penelope could have gone to Violet or to Eloise, even to Anthony. It could have been handled quietly, Marina's safety could have been prioritized. But Penelope didn't care about Marina's safety, and let's not sit here and act as though she did what she did because she wanted Colin to have a happy life w/ any lovely woman- she did it BECAUSE she had feelings for him. If that weren't the case, she wouldn't freeze him out after he said he won't date her. Nevermind that it wasn't actually any of her business, and that they both gave her an answer but it was one she didn't want to hear. Penelope took matters into her own hands without their consent, but worse than that is. . .she's not even sorry. Even when Colin expressed guilt, saying he could have done more for Marina, all Penelope was thinking about was how to get him to 'not give up women'. That's messed up!!! How can I root for a character who throws a pregnant woman under a bus and then doesn't even APOLOGIZE?

Eloise didn't love LW? Maybe in S1 she did, but S2 very much challenged that waaaaay before she knew who LW was. Eloise was educating herself on feminist matters, meeting up with the laboring class and consuming texts that made her think. Is she perfect? Hahahaha, no. Do I think some of her feminist takes weren't it? Yeah. Did I find the scene where she, a privileged society woman in all her finery was talking down to Theo, a working class man, a lil hypocritical? Yeah. But Eloise makes up for that, she recognizes that she's speaking out of her bum, which is why she comes to Theo again and again for his insight after that first scene, recognizing that her privilege as a rich person superimposes that of her being a woman in such an instance. It wasn't realizing LW was Penelope that turned her off, it was that she realized that LW was shallow and misogynistic which. . .

SHE IS!!!! LW IS shallow and misogynistic. Come ON they threw in Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication on the Rights of Women. We're gonna act like Penelope writing about debutant number 4 getting a little too close to eligible bachelor 6 is anywhere close to that? It shouldn't be! Because Penelope is a 19 year old girl and she's making mistakes and she has a loooooot of internalized stuff to go through. But when it comes to accountability (forget blame, let's talk ACCOUNTABILITY), honestly, VERY little in the Polin fandom is actually put onto Penelope. I'm not talking outside of it, but this fandom in particular is an echo chamber.

Look at me, you've swung so far in the other direction that you're firmly in la la land. Penelope has made horrible, life altering mistakes. Without Philip showing up out of the blue, Marina would be destitute, dead. If it weren't for Eloise's family, she would have likely been arrested or hung. This is not to mention the quiet moments of ruin she's orchestrated, on purpose or otherwise: the Modiste she ran out of business with a slut shaming comment to Cressida, the women she's unknowingly trapped by reporting on their dealings, the staff who will almost certainly be punished for 'letting the secret out of the household'. And, speaking of sexism, "Eloise is, most likely, the most privileged, hypocritical and self-centered character" . . .really? I don't know if I'd rank her above Anthony S1 (even Anthony S2, let's be real). Fife? Lord Cho? Maybe we're just talking women. How about Cressida? Even PENELOPE? (who has POWER as LW that other women don't, thus having more privilege than most women in the ton, as well)

I think there's too much excusing of Penelope's actions. I'm not trying to excuse Eloise's, it IS fucked up that she invaded Penelope's privacy, she needs to apologize. But also, Penelope has sooooo much she needs to apologize for, too. First, even. Her intentions are one thing, but the outcome is really what matters. Eloise betrayed Penelope's trust by ripping up her room, yes, but Penelope betrayed Eloise's trust by writing about her entire family behind her back, including her, lying to her face repeatedly, and holding onto the secret for YEARS whilst Eloise confided in her.

They're both at fault, but the idea that they've caused equal levels of harm is laughable at best

Still mad about Eloise thinking she had the right to tear up Penelope’s room the way she did, trying to act all tough like you didn’t just severely invaded someone’s privacy.

[northboreas]

I cannot understate how clever and beautiful Penelope's response to wyfilwma is. In the original myth, Penelope literally isn't sure if the man before her is truly her husband, so she asks him to move a bed that is impossible to move. A fact about their relationship that only he could know. When he gets absolutely flabbergasted over this request, it's proof that it IS him.

In Epic there is only one change. Instead of Penelope being unsure, Odysseus is unsure of himself and feels like he would be unrecognizable to his wife. He keeps telling her over and over again, I am not the man you knew, and it's almost as though he's trying to convince himself, too. Like since he crossed every line he's killed all the gentleness in him, and he has to force himself to accept it. Penelope knows better, Penelope knows him. Instead of using their wedding bed as a way to prove it to herself, she proves it to him instead.

"See that wedding bed? Could you carry it over?

Lift it high on your shoulders and take it far away from here"

Shes talking about their bed but she is also talking about their love, their history, everything that makes up their marriage. Its like shes asking him, if you truly are someone else- here's everything that we used to be, everything that we built together, throw it out. You're not the same, right? Then surely you can detach yourself from it all.

But he cant. he cant he cant he cant and she knows that. The shock and the outrage and the pain of being asked to do such a thing hits him with a full force and he talks of how he made the bed, what its meant to them, why he couldnt possibly move it away.

"Do you realize what you have asked me?

The only way to move it is to cut it from its roots"

To cut it from the roots would be to sever their love entirely, it cant exist without what came before and what came before was the two of them. He fears thats what she wants, a completely uproot of their life together. But the fact that he fears it, truly deeply cares like a sentimental bastard, the fact that he could never not be the man who loves her is what she's been trying to show him all along.

"Only my husband knew that

So I guess that makes him you"

like my GOD. THIS LINE. He cannot be anything but her love because he is the only man who knows what they are to each other. She says it and that is final. Moving it is impossible because seperating the man he used to be from the man he is is impossible too. They are one in the same.

"I will fall in love with you over and over again

I don't care how, where, or when

No matter how long it's been, you're mine

Don't tell me you're not the same person

You're always my husband and I've been waiting, waiting"

She is not loving him by ignoring the trail of bodies in his wake and her love does not change the carnage-- in fact she is the reason for it, she knows this and she doesnt care. This is her husband now and always. And as long as bloodied hands will still hold her weaving ones he is the same exact man she's been waiting for.

It is such a beautiful message to leave your audience with. It is so perfect for Penelope as a character and the emotional weight this song has elevated my understanding of the odyssey and their relationship. Twenty years is so long, everything has changed, we have done unforgivable things to get home to each other-- because our home is each other. You are sharp and cruel and I am cunning and so so angry and we are both so tired but guess fucking what, I love you. No matter how long its been, youre mine.

[wetcatspellcaster]

Veilguard Thoughts

(my sort-of review, more of a ramble, below the cut in case of spoilers)

I had particularly low expectations for this game, as it felt to me like it was rushed out to try and hit the BG3 crowd and get them to pay £70 at the point where their hyperfixation was failing them. It felt like a very commercially-motivated decision, and I tried to modify my expectations accordingly.

I then started playing... and had to modify my expectations again.

But with two lowering of expectations completed... I genuinely enjoyed this game! I had fun! Sort of! if I squint!!

Thoughts!

I am not a competent gamer, so I like combat that feels fun and engaging without being challenging or a chore (cough, BG3 Act 3, cough), but without being lazy either. I played as a mage in Veilguard and I felt like this hit a sweet spot - moments where I was stressed kind-of invested, no moments when I was bored. The graphics for mage (for spellblade particularly) were awesome and badass, and I loved to new mode of engaging with the mage class in orb and dagger.

I understand the frustration with a lot of lore being retconned, ignored, or wilfully erased or moved away from. Some parts I understood: I do think Veilguard tries to make a move away from grimdark, not out of disloyalty to the franchise and it's roots, but bc grimdark is a very different prospect now than when Origins released. it's a genre that gets a lot more criticism and bad press, and that some people feel genuinely uncomfortable perpetuating as a results. While Origins is my favourite dragon age game, there's a lot of insane things you need to just let slide to enjoy it - like the fact that multiple origins begin with some kind of rape and sexual assault if you're playing as a woman. I don't think retconning that stuff is anything other than being politically savvy, and a little more sensitive to how fantasy has changed.

(I also think this is why they've moved away from the chantry conflict to be honest. Like the optics of Christian religions in fantasy has also changed, and let's be honest, Dragon Age had already fucked THAT, multiple times.)

I did however, like everyone, find it a bit disheartening to see how little Keep decisions mattered. Why is there no Keiran with Morrigan? why can't Mythal move to an inquisitor who drank the Well of Sorrows instead? why is my Inquisitor defending Solas when she ended the game hating him? Why is Hawke being in the Fade meaningless? I know this is just echoing what people have already said, but it was sad to see the 'conclusion' to the franchise (that probably isn't the end, let's be honest, not now that people paid £70 for an underwritten game) was even less satisfying in terms of choice and agency than ME3

This game deliberately skewed itself to read as a 'better DA2', than a 'worse, rushed inquistion'. IDK, it just makes me feel a bit grossed out, and manipulated. I mean, we know DA2 can be made in crunch, lads!!!!! :)))

Criticisms!

EVERYTHING is underwritten. The game is woefully short. If I can complete all the sidequests in a game, then something is wrong. The romances, the character arcs, the main quest, the dialogues. Everything was sparse, with the bare bones of a plot, that (in the case of companions quests) was rarely seen through to a full and satisfying conclusion. And I *know* that's not the writers fault, necessarily, but that doesn't mean it couldn't be done better.

There's so much potential, but I found that most of the companions could be boiled down to one or two traits, and while I can see people headcanoning reasons for this in real time, it's just... underwriting, or bad writing. Extremely telling to me that both Emmrich and Davrin were my favourite companions... because they had their own companions. That meant that they had multiple story hooks - their professions, their relationships, and then their little guys. They got three things, when most people only got two.

This was particularly egrerious for me with Taash, because they started out amazing, and I ended up being extremely disappointed as I watched both them and their mother being reduced down to flat one-dimension caricatures and a tired queer narrative of 'my parents hate me'. Only, this time, it's 'my immigrant parents hate me'. when you couple the reductive approach to Taash with bioware's inability to write the Qunari well or without falling into Orientalism??? they're suddenly an evil repressive queer phobic religion after being supportive of trans characters in inquisition???? you're telling me Shathann, a woman who was forced into a more feminine role by circumstance but considered herself more genderless/masculine as a scholar, wouldn't be on board with non-binary identity? just galling tbh.

The romances are underwritten. And they are badly written, to me. Luckily I know we'll have fic, but in Inquisition, each romance was 90 minutes worth of content. In Veilguard, Lucanis's romance is the longest... at 18 minutes. It just seems stupid and strange to me - if this game is chasing on BG3's coat-tails, why don't they know everyone is fucking horny?

While I liked the decision to give companions more banter together and flesh out their interpersonal relationships, I felt that the balance was off... probably bc it's cheaper to have two actors share a piece of scripted dialogue, than voice a decision tree. It meant that to me Rook often felt like a bystander in their own story, or excluded from their own found family. HR Manager-core, as it were.

General uselessness of the Lords of Fortune coupled with the Orientalism of the Lords of Fortune.... big sad.

I think the choice between Lace and Davrin is highly!!!! suspect!! do you go with fantasy racism (kill off the only dwarf, thus meaning all your dwarf companions are dead in the game, including the one who represented to future for her people) or the real racism (kill off the black man). I really wish this decision was more reactive, and perhaps based in faction strength or character bond, not just a pre-set choice.

I'll never care about solas, the way trick weekes wants me to care about solas. pretty dumb decision, to make a whole game contingent on this fact.

The ending and epilogue screens were underwhelming, and left the game feeling incomplete to me.

Joys!

To end on a more positive note...

everyone is hot. I honestly think everyone is hot. No other dragon age game had a cast of characters whom i all found attractive. This is unheard of. This is why I know all the fic will be fucking stellar.

And you know who else is hot? Rook. Genuinely one of my favourite DA protagonists! Maybe bc of the faction thing, or just the chemistry of the VA I chose. I just felt like she was pretty fucking hot tbh, and that more people in-game should be taking notice of it. Everyone should stop having conversations with each other and start desiring Rook carnally.

Weisshaupt was genuinely an amazing sequence and questline. In fact, I loved that this game featured Grey Wardens more heavily, and I loved all the lore about Wardens that was introduced.

Assan!! <3 Manfred!!! <3

Bellara and Neve kissing with tongue!!! No, I will not elaborate!!!

(I think that Bellara and Neve were two characters who did have strong stories, and that they should kiss about it.)

Elgarnan and Ghilanain.... never before has a dragon age game known what it's like to have a charismatic villain. This time, we got two. Ghilanain was my favourite, bc I'm fucking gay, but even interactions with Elgarnan and his boss battle felt engaging. I honestly don't think a dragon age game has ever had a good villain before, and these guys were both fucking cool.

[thrill-seeker-vn]

Hello everyone. I have no idea how to start this post, but I want to start it as upfront as possible.

TLDR: My uncles shipped my sick grandmother to my home, and they called me to tell me only after she had already landed... when her visa was expiring very soon. And so obviously 1. My job was to keep her alive, and 2. I had to scrounge up money to send her to her home. It has been a very few stressful months. 

In between this, I hit a slump with writing, and felt very burnt out, as I had no time for it between work, trying to keep my grandmother alive, my own health, and my own business. I wish I could say I worked on Thrill Seeker in this time, but I simply couldn’t. I think a huge part of what was so daunting for me was only having myself to rely on and set the schedules, and in a way it came to be that there were lengths of time nothing could get done because there was simply no time in my life to do it. 

This is not meant to be an excuse as to why I was away from the blog for so long. It is simply what made me realize that I cannot continue alone on this project, as I would then be taunted by how much I would have to do that I would end up not being able to do anything at all. 

I was discussing this project with a friend of mine who has been beside me since I started this project, who I know shares my passion in making games, and who has rooted for me from the beginning. While I’m more interested in the storytelling, she’s incredibly fascinated with coding. During this time, we discussed perhaps making a game together-- but recently we got the opportunity to make that into a reality. 

Thrill Seeker is not ending, but rather, it will be changing format. I am so happy to say my incredible friend, Kismet (@kismet-dev), is going to be joining me to reform Thrill Seeker into a Visual Novel! She is one of my best friends and is the most organized person I know, so no more falling off the face of the Earth for me, because I’ve put a lot more planning into the game and now have someone to hold me to my schedules, too!

I understand that it could be disappointing to hear that I’m switching from an entirely text based format to a VN style. I apologize to anyone who is disappointed by this change. It’s been amazing the support I’ve gotten for this game and how many people have stuck to the project, even when I’ve been so flaky, and I want to thank you for sticking to the project when I haven’t been the most reliable developer. I am so grateful for your kindness to me, for all the people who have sent asks and been interested in my characters and story.

When I first created this project, it was just not a viable option for me to make a visual novel, as there would’ve been no chance I had the opportunity to create art, write, and code it. But creating the art for the game inspired me more than when I only had words to go off of, and many different concepts for the game that I had in mind were simply harder for me to make into reality on twine. Thanks to the absolute angel that is my friend Kismet, I will actually be able to create the vision for the game that I’ve seen in my head for the longest time. She’s an excellent programmer and such a wonderfully organized and hard worker, and I know that I wouldn’t have anyone else by my side as we begin to make games together. 

I will be making some changes to this blog as I make it more cohesive for the VN, but I will also use it as an opportunity to organize this blog for those who are interested in knowing more about the characters, settings, etc. It’s a little unorganized and hard to find certain questions, and I’ll do my best to fix that! Note that this will mean that changes are coming to the characters, and pretty major ones. I know that many of the asks I answered in the past will no longer apply to the story as I’ve changed it, so I will be reforming it quite a lot. However, what will not change is the characters themselves; they will still be gender selectable, and their personalities will still remain similar; but I feel like some of my characterization of them has been shallow, and I’m going to be fixing that. 

The launch of the game as a visual novel, with the first chapter, will be coming in August. Thank you so much for reading all this and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!!

[ihopesocomic]

I know everyone says how great Vicious and Hope were written enough. But I kinda want to bring it up again because, it's actually really well done.

You guys could've taken the much easier: Grr I'm flat and 1 dimensional because I hate my kid for being weak and USELESS. Route for abuse, but you chose to go the extra mile and create one of the best stories regarding parental abuse I've ever seen in media.

Vicious's abuse towards Hope has layers, she's not evilly rubbing her paws together going: >:) TODAY I WILL RUIN MY CHILD'S LIFE!2!1!2. she believes Hope is a object, an accessory. Something that didn't even deserve a name.

Then the way Hope finally stands up, disowning Vicious and leaving with Adamant and Storm is so fucking cathartic for me.

I don't know how the comic will end, but I have a feeling we're gonna get a good one at least. I hope Hope gets to have a full recovery from all the bullshit happening to her right now.

She's not all: oh pity me and the terrible things that happen to me. She's willing to change and aaugshhdhehsbss it makes me want to root for her so bad.

I can barely even put into words how glad I am this little comic exists.

Thank you so so much, anon. This is so sweet to hear.

And we are very fond of our round, strong af Hope and her development too. She's so fun to write! c:

And yeah, Jasper's abuse having an effect on everyone just felt like a very natural place to start with Vicious's feelings towards Hope, as well as having two stillborn children and being given absolutely no support from her partner who she cherishes over it. I think people underestimate how much of a traumatising experience it is for a mother to lose her children because xenofiction throws out dead kid plot devices like candy but it's there nonetheless.

It was enough to work with without having to make Hope's disability a factor and to also develop Vicious as a character in her own right too. She abuses her children and you're absolutely not meant to root for her but that doesn't mean you shouldn't look deeper. What disgusts and shocks us is just as curious and complex as what fascinates us and why parents abuse their children is just one of those topics. There's no excuse for it, but it doesn't mean we can't seek out patterns that can lead to it and have media demonstrate that as opposed to something that places the emphasis on the victim.

And this also allows a chain reaction to happen where people can realise that yes, Vicious is being abused but why and that leads to the discovery that Jasper is working for a tyrannical dictator and has pretty much sold his soul for the tiniest hint of power.

It's just one of those things that allows us to naturally implement story beats and character motivations better and we're always so stoked when people pick up on it, so thanks again! - RJ

[valyrfia]

Oooooh I would love to hear your anti-romantacy thoughts (because same)

If you feel like sharing I will be sat

So, first little lore dump is I used to be a huge anti SJM person back pre-covid before SJM became uber popular like she is today and ACOTAR sparked this whole romantasy saturation. My negative review of Empire of Storms on goodreads was its own little corner-of-the-internet-controversy back in the day because I was like.....(SPOILERS FOR THRONE OF GLASS SERIES UNTIL THE PARAGRAPH BREAK) Rowan and Aelin came out of nowhere! This is bullshit! Manon is a lesbian! Dorian and Chaol are obviously in love! This magic system doesn't make sense! Why are these characters that meant so much to me as a teenager suddenly caricatures! Why is this world a bad patchwork of every other fantasy story ever!

I feel like 16 year old me didn't quite know how to explain why these things were bad or what the root problems were, but now seeing these root problems repeated widely across a genre....I can summarise in a list. I can go into greater detail if I won't bore anyone, but to sum it up:

Heteronormative as hell. This is my major complaint. Most romance in romantasy reads as thinly veiled conservative propaganda. Plus the weird insistence on using the words "males" and "females"

Bad FANTASY as a whole. Fantasy is my favourite genre because done right you can fold a whole lot of real world observations about our own society into it. Or, if you're Brandon Sanderson, you can write excellent magic systems based around rules and drawbacks. Super Special Girl meets Bad Boy and they have the most specialist powers ever doesn't do it for me really.

Following on: extremely dumbed down plots. Fantasy is about weaving elaborate plots together under a new system of rules, Romantasy is all about the romance. Don't worry about plots, just don't.

Blatant plagiarism absolutely everywhere? Every single book with dragons/wyverns from the past ten years needs to start paying some sort of monetary contribution back to the Eragon series and Dragonriders of Pern.

Really REALLY weird attitudes about race/class/beauty if you start looking at it too head on.

I am a girl with a deep love for ao3 and a fairly active account but it needs to be said.....a lot of these people who exclusively read romantasy have porn addictions. You know how depressing it is to see a favourite fantasy book of yours be rated low because "no spice" or "spice wasn't good enough". Like the spice is only one possible way of flavouring a delicious meal, I think we need to learn to embrace the vanilla too as a society.

The marketing of it is also just disturbing. And it is encroaching big time on fantasy as a genre rather than just accepting that it can be its own thing. Fourth Wing is NOT proper high fantasy, don't make me laugh. Talk to my copy of Priory of the Orange Tree please.

People can enjoy romantasy of course I won't hold it against them, it's just more an absolute hatred for the genre and people reading it refuse to engage with it critically when fantasy as a genre has ALWAYS been a mirror to our own society. Also, returning to my first bullet point, it's just mind-boggling heteronormative slop most of the time. Instead of trying to build a romance that can compel me, most romantasy authors are perfectly happy to go "she was a slight and slender and specially magically powerful girl, he was a hunk of a man, can I make it any more obvious?" and leave it at that.

[blueikeproductions]

@nukeli Ok so “DEI” refers to Diversity Equity & Inclusion, a relatively new initiative that was designed to show off minorities, women, and people of color more.

Now on the surface, that’s not a bad thing, we’ve had plenty of diverse shows before like Diff’rent Strokes, Cyborg 009, Family Matters, Everybody Hates Chris, Kim Possible, My Life As A Teenage Robot, The Golden Girls, The Magic School Bus, and more.

This includes people behind the scenes like actors, writers and directors. Stuff we’ve had before too.

But the modern version of it, via DEI, has evolved into let’s just trash white people, and to quote the South Park line grifters use annoyingly as their rallying cry “Put a chick in it, make her lame & gay!”

So we’ve gotten stuff like Tee-La from He-Man being the stereotypical butch lesbian with a side shave haircut who just seems to hate everyone now and feels personally attacked, pushing Adam/He-Man aside to be the hero, and similarly Skeletor being pushed side in favor of making a similarly stereotyped butch lesbian Evil-Lyn the main villain. A big complaint among other things was how Tee-La was just incredibly unlikable and hard to root for, along with giving her and Evil-Lyn The Power in a manner that doesn’t make sense for their previously established characters in the 80’s and 2000’s cartoons. Thankfully the sequel show to MOTU: R corrected these problems, bringing Adam/He-Man & Tee-La on equal footing like they always were, and making Tee-La far more likable. Also Tee-La inheriting The Power from her mother The Sorceress, is used much better here and it makes more sense how she uses it here, vs the previous coddled, stereotype “I am woman hear me roar” direction they tried.

DEI has also poorly affected other things, like little people not getting jobs in the Snow White reboot movie to play the Dwarves, both because it was seen as offensive, and also Peter Dinklage running his mouth (somewhat justifiably in areas) and ruining it for everyone. Cleveland Brown in Family Guy being recast because his original voice actor was white being replaced with a black actor who impersonates the voice rather than doing his own thing with it, and DEI informing a new form of segregation, as only black actors can be black characters, whites can only be whites, Asians Asians, and etc in animation. Never mind popular black actors like Kevin Micheal Richardson and Phil LaMarr have done non black characters before with LaMarr famously being Samurai Jack, an Asian character. Some Asian actors who were for the casting changes realized too late it affected what they could do as it meant they can’t do anything other than Asian characters when they wanted to read for a non Asian human character. The point of voice acting is everyone can be anything like how many male characters are voiced by women like Tommy Pickles or Timmy Turner or how some female characters are voiced by men like Linda Belcher.

DEI also tends to over focus on how a show has only diverse actors and characters, and ergo EarthSpark’s marketing was going all in on how it had black characters, putting them as top billing over the Autobots on toy packaging. It also tended to favor its female cast, making the (non Megatron) men look incompetent. Like how GHOST is almost exclusively female, with the few male members being complete idiots. (To be fair, Schloder is supposed to be more of an Inspector Clouseau type but still.)

The more egregious instances to me is despite emphasizing kali, they don’t do anything with it that would make it look cool to all kids watching. Like Twitch using it to fight a Decepticon, outwitting him or her, using a skill she inherited from her adopted human father makes sense! As well as emphasizing the Terrans being Earth natives and learning its culture. Instead it’s just left hanging there, and I feel like someone internally said it’d be cultural appropriation if Twitch or Nightshade used it.

The production notes also intended Robbie to be the leader, something the second season went back to, but the first season emphasized Mo way more leaving Robbie little to do, to the point when he was practically dead, his parents instead showered Mo with affection for her problems when he was laying right next to them barely holding on.

Also Nightshade’s everything, causing the controversy that saw more casuals and parents reject the show hard. Nightshade is another example of DEI, over focusing on their being nonbinary as their sole character trait, despite their geeky, scientific side being just as important. The second season again corrects this, focusing entirely on their personality more and properly showing off their gift of science. It was too little too late though.

Really when you look back on it, the first season, despite its decent ideas, emphasized a lot of the DEI stuff casual audiences hate, with the second season going back to a traditional Autobots vs Decepticons conflict, and using more of the earlier ideas in the production bible. I still believe the more intriguing Megatron steals the Emberstone plot was repurposed into Starscream wanting it, because someone clearly didn’t want Megatron to relapse into being evil again.

This also feeds into another modern problem of not really having true villains anymore, and how due to DEI, most of the villains we get are only entitled white people to antagonize the people of color or female heroes (now we HAVE had this before off and on but not to this extent, and even then it was handled organically and made sense), vs stuff like the modern Invincible adult cartoon having a diverse villain cast like its comics did. A lot of modern stuff similarly tries to paint the Decepticons as being the true heroes despite the writing and the audience not supporting it. It’s why the Micheal Bay films are still popular because despite making the Autobots into more violent 80’s-90’s action heroes, they’re still defending the Earth and humanity from the monstrous Decepticons who intend to blow it up to obtain the trendy MacGuffin of the day. As for the cop/military stuff, one, it makes sense that the Autobots would ally themselves with the Earth military to help humans have a fighting chance, and two it’s not going away, because of the movies shifting to incorporating GI Joe as the human military force over NEST/Sector 7. Even Noah was ex military via RotB. The only bad cop was Barricade, a Decepticon, and any bad faith humans in military power were usually proven wrong for their hubris in thinking they didn’t need the Autobots.

Even TFONE has largely returned to a more simple black and white approach in having proper heroic characters in Orion’s miners turned Autobots, and properly evil villains in the Quints, Sentinel, Airachnid, and Starscream. Even D-16 makes sense as being evil again as he let his frustrations and anger at Sentinel, who he looked up to, consume him in a more believable way than Prime and Cyberverse making it look like he was just throwing a tantrum for 4 million years because Optimus got what he wanted: control.

So ultimately diversity is still a good thing, but the modern approach to it by embittered people who thought they knew better has instead pushed us back a few decades when things were largely ok in terms of diversity and making natural strides in improving.

Family Matters and Static Shock were among my favorite shows growing up, but now, because of current trends, I can’t look at characters like Liko from HZ or Hazel from New Wish without thinking they were the result of DEI and not an organic desire of trying out something else. And that’s not at all how it should be thought of.

[centrally-unplanned]

Since I discoursed about some very specific stuff in Frieren my general stance so far is that it really does have excellent work in the tone department. Its "time" theme commitment is strong, the core crew has fun chemistry, and Frieren herself is a good balance in her interpersonal dynamics of being both wise and silly. And it imbibes its individual elements with a lot of heart - the Church of their world seems like a real organization aesthetically; the legacy of the heroes really does flow everywhere; the mages and elves and such we see have old roots in deep magic systems. All these things have "set piece tonal moments" that have a ton of care put into them. And of course the art really is beautiful; particularly the background work is top 10 best I've ever seen in a TV anime of this type.

But all of that tone and care is put into pretty shallow plots and flat world building. The tone of the church & the dukes and such is there, but their social roles are barely specc'd out, it doesn't congeal into a real society at all. Frieren's story is she wants to - this is unclear right now, which is fine its plot - do something like apologize to Himmel's ghost for never being clear about her feelings and telling him how much he meant to her. Which, you know, is something she can only do at the end. And Fern is gonna...tag along? And Stark is here too? They all get these little mini arcs but its repetitive and doesn't progress much. Their personal journey would make a decent 13 episode show, and the After-The-End world setting could make a good 26 episode fantasy political drama. But its kind of doing both without committing to doing either well. It fills this gap with tug-at-heart-strings sentimentality stuff, which is fine the first few times because the thematic heft of the stuff it has done well, with time and wide scale social change, is there to support it. But only the first few times, its not putting in the work needed to set up new, truly interesting stakes.

It does have great art, great character designs, Frieren is charming and also she is like Elf Ruri from Nadesico, who doesn't want that, etc, so its fun to watch. But it has very strong wasted potential vibes.

All I am saying is I could definitely write it better, my zero years of fiction writing is no problem I would totally fix this up stand aside Kanehito Yamada-

[taybatwo2]

Monster High Skullector Nightmare Before Christmas Review Part 1 of 2

I don’t know how I managed to snag one for my friend and me on that poorly done and hellish drop (it was also my first time I have ever tried ordering two Skullectors), but they came in and I finally had time to review my set.

The hand painted prototypes on the front of the box are so lovely (especially Sally’s delicate eyebrows and blush that are missing on her final doll).

The back of the box sleeve: “J ❤️ S True Love Never Dies. Debuting in the fan-favorite film, Disney Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, Pumpkin King Jack Skellington and dreamer Sally embark on a wild misadventure that capture the spirit of Halloween, Christmas and true love. This collector doll pack celebrates the moment that Jack and Sally realize they’re meant to be together forever. Dressed in a boospoke suit with a frightening skeleton print. Jack is ready for a haunting night with Sally, who is dressed in a creeptastic off-shoulder dress with a petrifying patchwork print.

The defrightful collector item captures the nightmarish fun that awaits every night in Halloween Town.”

……I always thought their romance was a bit slap dashed at the very end, but they are a hauntingly lovely couple.

Their box with the sleeve off! It’s a very lovey set up. With the gate from the graveyard being shown, Zero (which I would have gladly traded for Sally’s purse), and a tombstone that has Frankie’s symbols, and the Monster High crest.

The back of the box has another lovely photo of the dolls. I like the lighting on them in this photo.

I like how they made the artwork all scratchy and hatchy like Tim Burton’s art style. They also added some snowflakes, skulletes, Draculaura’s bat symbols, and a heart with Clawdeen’s G1 shirt pattern.

Okay, enough of the box! Let’s open this sucker up!

……anyone else feeling a draft……?

Well apparently Jack has too much booty for his pants to be fully closed in the back when they were packaging him. Haha!

More under the cut:

The inside panel, sans the plastic and Jack and Sally. I love that they included the Spiral Hill, two trees featuring Halloween Town and the Valentine’s Day Town doorways (although the hinges seem to be missing), and Sally’s basket to Jack (something else that I would have preferred over her thread purse).

A closer look at the trees in the corner. Clever choices in trees: one representing Halloween and the other the love between the characters.

Okay dokey, now onto Sally. I thought I was going to like her less than Jack in this set, but she is actually a GORGEOUS doll.

How they did her eyes, her eyelashes, her face stitching, and even her cooler blue body stitching is just so lovely. I AM SO GLAD they did not give her “regular monster high eyes.” I love it when the designers experiment and give their ghouls, boos, and mansters new looks while still calling back to their roots (she might have the Tim Burton inspired eyes, but her proportions are all Monster High). Her hair is also a really soft (Saran….?). It’s not overly red or brown, but a nice mix of the two.

Her stitching has been simplified, which is a shame, but expected. Her right arm should have had her stitches moved down, but I really like the stitching they kept on her legs and chest and neck.

I actually like her mermaid gown more than I thought I would (Monster High really needs to try some new silhouettes). There is actual thread stitching going down the center of her top and around the collar. The spider-web like lace is also very soft and flowey and not at all stiff. The green skullete on her skirt is also not super distracting. It also lays very nicely around her shoulders and bust.

While the gown looks nice on her, I have seen cooler looking fan created dress/outfit designs for Sally than what they have here….but it does have some details I was just expecting to be printed on.

Her shoes are nicely detailed (duh, it’s Monster High), with the stitches in them looking like they’re actually pulling the different segments together (like movie Sally’s stitches do). The heels are a reference to some of the potions/ingredients that Sally uses in the movie.

The font looks spot on, while the outside of the jars have been simplified.

The soles of her shoes have more of that scratching ink pen texture that Tim Burton seems so fond of.

I first thought she had a dead opossum/rat on her head band (like in the movie), but it actually is made up of vines, and several of the flowers Sally picks in the movie that foretells the future of Jack’s Christmas to her.

Her bag is definitely a slightly altered model of G2 Beast Pets Frankie’s purse (on another note, I find it a fun coincidence that G2 Frankie has blue-ish stitches like Sally does). In my opinion, it is the weakest of her pieces….why couldn’t we have gotten Zero with that extra plastic?!? Mattel loves putting pets where they don’t belong in Barbie and other Monster High releases, why not this one (the answer is probably the extra cost of Jack’s new head and body sculpt).

Her earrings are black cats, and look fairly similar to the black cat that shows up in the movie.

Her body color is a much stronger blue than I originally thought (I was thinking it would be closer to G1 Frankie, Scarah, or Lagoona’s). But it looks closer to G3 Frankie’s.

The second and last part of my review will feature a close up of Sally’s head sculpt and a full review of Jack, as I ran out of space for pictures here.

[mossy-green-aka-ferrythem]

It’s so fascinating to me how Xiao is as a character. I didn’t expect much of her but she ended up easily being one of the most profound characters in the game. And this is just going off the impression I have before the story of her last reception. I’m clueless as to how her character climaxes specifically.

Also wow, I am genuinely so sad about what happened to Philip. Argalia really was right when he said that Philip only wanted to cry. Which makes it even more tragic with how Argalia manipulates him. Philip is probably the most unique member of The Reverberation Ensemble, because while every member is unique in their own way, Philip is special, because he himself is a victim. He has still done a horrible, even unforgivable thing, but that was him fully Distorted. Can he really take accountability for being manipulated by Oswald and Pluto into a distortion, then going on to kill 80,000 people? What really gets me is the one line he utters before the Reception of The Purple Tear, where he just utters one sentence, I don’t remember what he said, but I remember the deep sadness it carries, and how much of a bad situation he’s gotten himself into, being a distortion that’s part of The Reverberation Ensemble.

Speaking of The Purple Tear, I am having a lot of trouble understanding her character. She’s an odd one that’s for sure. Also GILFy as all hell.

Also I have done most of the Briah Abnormality suppressions. It’s so fascinating how each Abnormality is the manifestation of a metaphor or story, and represents certain deep concepts that can be mutually rooted in the perception of humanity’s “Universal Unconscious”. What especially sticks out to me are The Wizard of Oz based Abnormalities, who just interest me so much and remind me that I should probably read the original book to better grasp the themes. I do know that they’re meant to represent a unifying theme of Kindness.

Anyways, when next I play, I’m going to reach what is without a doubt probably one of the biggest moments in the game narratively speaking, The Realization of The Floor of Natural Sciences.

I don’t know what’s going to happen, but it’s gonna be big.

[therealslimshakespeare]

I think I might be in minority but I get Maureens anger at Ida. Not the „why do you get all the attention” part but I would be mad if my colonel refused to get a problem solved by herself and in turn risk not only her own life but also mine, my man and our friends. Sure, Maureen is immature in this chapter but she’s also heavily traumatised and quite frankly I either wouldn’t give a damn about someone’s sensibilities regarding sanctity of life when so much is at stake. (Btw, I laughed at this part: “It’s Germans…” -which might mean I’m sick in the head but who cares about some nazi bastards srs). That being said she deserved the slap for sneaking out, risking her own and everyone else safety. I love how you wrote Gale’s dissapointment in her, and how it’s so much more effective on her than Bucky’s anger could ever be. They are all so perfectly flawed, I said it before but it’s my favourite part of your writing -those characters are so human, with embarrassing quirks, at times small minded, selfish but ultimately lovable (and that’s true for all of your fics, I’m a fan for life)

Well this is a banger of a point of view -and thank you so very much for your sweet compliments, I am a puddle right now. 🥰🤭🫣🫠

One thing is for sure, right or wrong aside, we’ve never seen these women disagree this strongly, and it has some pretty big effects. They’ve never had reason to. Maureen has always found Ida’s sternness a bit of a rub but that’s expected from a senior officer, she’s not her buddy she’s her superior and it has worked mostly in her favor so far, Maureen may not enjoy or relate to it, but she’s seen what good it did them over and over back in England and in Ravensbruk.

Here, her officer is showing that same unrelenting opinion but it’s a personal one, not a official stance, and Maureen’s suspicion this was Ida’s personality all along is confirmed and in the context of things? She has little sympathy for it. I love how you said Maureen is essentially “needing her colonel to act like one” even with this!

Ida demands Maureen act like a soldier and get punished when not, the logic runs clear the other way in Maureen’s mind.

But! One other thing, Maureen really doesn’t know how the hell to coat-hanger this thing. She knows of it but she’s never done it, not that massive expertise is perhaps needed but still, her anger isn’t over being rebuffed due to lack of experience, she was rebuffed from the one solution she suggested, one she was willing to go out on a limb and do for Ida. And she got called a murderer for it. Yeah, cool off and take religion and Ida’s personal rights to keep the baby etc in mind, it still smarts to finally be asked for help and then what you meant as a sacrifice gets called something very different.

Is it self absorbed? Sure, but if Maureen had gotten pregnant by one of those guards? She can’t imagine anything worse, she would want that thing out of her. And it would be a thing to her, and she can’t comprehend how Bucky and Ida feel differently, she doesn’t have the capacity to reclaim that as a life or as her own child, and she’d want someone to help her the same way she’s offering. Is she able to express all that yet? No, but she wanted to be there for her colonel and well, it didn’t go down super well.

Understandable for both these women in the conditions they’re in. I positively loved this ask, just the way you really kept it rooted in the military context, really just was so yummy. Xoxo

[pebblysand]

okay, you guys seemed to love these last season so here we go again: selling sunset hot takes, S7E1-5.

whoever is responsible for imposing that mansion tax has my utmost respect. tax the rich plz.

i don't think we talked enough about that basket ball that amanza was dragging around in ep 1.

talking about amanza: yes, she is a shit stirrer, i called it in s2 and i am baffled it took this long for the show to self-actualise on this issue.

i also don't think we talked enough about jason's baby powdered balls.

i was equally shocked by the fact that brett seems to have a tongue and a brain that together are capable of producing words.

having said that, talking about jason, he remains The Worst. i don't even know how to explain. that man is a walking red flag and the fact that he seems to have survived a life's worth of terrible professional, financial, and personal terrible decision-making is truly a wonder.

that said, we need to stop pretending their income at this stage comes from real estate. most of the money they get is from the show. which is why, i suppose, they're able to open new offices when all of their competitors are shutting down.

as someone who knows a little bit about real estate, the house they were in for the O Group anniversary dinner had real architectural value, which is notable because none of the houses ever do.

romaine-like-the-salad remains my favourite character in this show and i swear sometimes i can hear him think in french.

that said, he and mary being pregnant is the one good news of this season, although they totally knew before that test and their "surprise" was very poor acting.

i am also happy for mary that she stepped back from management. i think this is good for everyone, but mostly her.

now onto the hot stuff: i think when it comes to bre v. chelsea, they actually both have a fair point. i do think chelsea was trying to genuinely apologise, but what she was apologising for was exactly what she said: if you don't have anything nice to say, say nothing. she had nothing nice to say and still said things, and now recognises that she shouldn't have. having said that, her view on bre's situation is so clearly rooted in very personal christian beliefs that she's not going to intrinsically change her mind. and actually, this might be my hottest take to date but... i think that's fine. like, as chelsea said, "i don't agree with everything my friends do." she would have been fine being bre's friend but bre wants her to approve of her situation (which, imo, is because deep down, bre is a bit insecure about her situation) and that's never going to happen. my hot take last year was that chelsea had a point, and i think she still does.

this is a bit of a side point but i thought chelsea was at least 40. i'm 30 and i swear my friends and i don't look that old. proof that packing your face with plastic doesn't actually make you look younger.

which, another tangent but why did everyone make such a big deal of the accusation that nicole has had work done? THEY ARE ALL PACKED IN PLASTIC.

and onto the hotter stuff: the situation between nicole v everyone else is starting to bore me. nicole is clearly wrong. nicole has been wrong for two seasons now. let's move on. that said, i had to google what "social climber" meant because i don't think it means the same thing to me as it does to them.

and on chrishell v. marie-lou: so this is actually a hot take, i think, but i do reckon they both have a point. on the one hand, marie-lou is, it's true, rather young and insecure, but she also has reasons to be. they've all made fun of her age, and i feel like her age isn't her fault, and she doesn't seem to me particularly more immature than them. additionally, jason is clearly still in love with chrishell but because he is The Worst, she cannot have that conversation with him, she's turning to chrishell who, in fairness, has no power over that.

i will also say that as a european who's lived in the US, i think what she is holding against chrishell is more of a cultural difference, than it is anything else. what she's basically saying is that chrishell is "american-fake," meaning that she is nice and enthusiastic on the surface but doesn't actually "care." which to marie-lou reads as fake and rude, but to chrishell reads as polite. standards of politeness and casual social interactions are some of the biggest cultural differences between europeans and americans, and i think that's where you'll find that most of the issue is.

i also thought that chrishell, in that scene, used her language superiority to overpower marie-lou. chrishell is someone who speaks a bit fast and is very good at arguing. which is fine when she's with other americans but with marie-lou who is german, whose english is clearly not great, it very quickly feels like bullying. i don't think she meant it as such but marie-lou was taking a bit of time, trying to find her words to get her point across, and chrishell didn't have the patience and kept badgering her. i do believe that had she let marie-lou talk, they would have realised 1) my point above about cultural differences and 2) that the source of all their problem is jason's toxicity and lack of accountability, and that he should be locked in a safe room for the rest of his miserable life.

the way he was trying to hang up the phone during that fight had me in TEARS, like: do i need to be in this conversation? YES. YES. YOU CREATED THIS MESS. you are the weakest, most pathetic little man on the planet.

having said the above, obviously, chrishell has attenuating circumstances for her snapping and bullying of marie-lou and i'm glad she's feeling better now. we are still #teamchrishell in this house, we just need to acknowledge that sometimes our girl makes mistakes.

lastly, did anyone else think the reveal that amanza was molested as a child was a bit random? like, i'm sorry for her but also it felt a bit like it didn't have anything to do with anything. i wonder if it was just there to reconcile she and chelsea.

i will come back with more hot takes whenever i have time to watch the rest of the season lol.

[cookinguptales]

OH right, Blue Beetle!

I really enjoyed it! I've been a fan of Jaime Reyes for a long time and I honestly never believed he'd get his own movie. And?? Such a good one???

I worried going into it that he looked too cool in the trailers. Is that weird to say? I loved dorky baby teenager Jaime when I was a kid. He felt like One Of Us, y'know? And then I watched the trailers and I was like "hmmmmmm."

But even though he's a bit older in this movie and has his shit together a little more, he's still very much Jaime Reyes at heart. 💙 Love that weird little dork of a man that always means so well, even if he doesn't always know what to do. And I found myself rooting for him so hard!

The movie was overall just really charming and fun and occasionally emotionally devastating. A good mixture of action, character relationships, humor, and politics, imo. The characters were so endearing, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how things develop going forward.

A few more thoughts (with spoilers) beneath the cut.

I was actually a little surprised by how sad parts of the movie were, but it felt right, too. The heart of the movie really was the simultaneous power of familial love and horror of family separation. Family separation really seemed to affect all the characters in their own ways, whether that was due to corporate greed, politics, war, racism, or just good-old-fashioned horrific US policy.

Like... You come to realize that it really permeated every part of the movie. Alberto's devotion to his family, the years he put into bringing them all to Palmera City. The very real fear that going to the cops would invite an unfair immigration investigation into their household. Jenny losing her parents at such a young age, and the sharp divide between her and her aunt. Jaime's family loss as well. Carapax's truly fucked-up backstory. Hell, even divisions being sown between Victoria Kord and her brother when her father gave the company to Ted instead of the person who'd built it.

(Don't get me wrong, Victoria Kord was truly evil, child soldiers and all. I was not rooting for her. But lbr, that doesn't seem to be why her equally war-mongering father cut her out of the company. You have to wonder if she would have done quite so much damage in the end if she hadn't felt such a virulent need to prove herself and destroy her brother's pacifistic legacy. But! Who knows? She might have been even worse if she'd had all that power from the beginning.)

And, y'know, all of the characters deal with the horror of family separation in different ways. Carapax became weaponized by an imperialistic power that didn't give one shit about him. Victoria became embittered, violent, and downright brutal. And Jaime could have gone the same way, so furious over the loss of his own family that he gave into wanton destruction as well -- but Khaji Da didn't let him. (WAILING.) Instead, he managed to take the same route as Jenny: transmuting his rage into a need for justice, into a passion for making the world better so no one else would lose their loved ones the same way.

Y'all, I was in there crying at a superhero movie!!! IT'S FINE, I'm FINE.

I heard that the creator of the movie hadn't actually initially intended for Alberto to die (which I understand, tbh) but I did think it was really beautiful the way it was incorporated into the movie. Bringing Mexican culture to the foreground yet again in its discussions about and attitudes toward death. God, those candles were beautiful. ;;

I mean -- as someone who literally dropped all of my DC subs the day they "fixed" Oracle and never gave DC another cent until this movie came out, I really am passionate about the need for diverse heroes. Part of the reason I felt like I was getting emotional in that theater was because I remembered how much Oracle meant to me as a young disabled teen who couldn't make sense of her trauma or her disability or her inherent power. I remember how much losing the only positive role model I had devastated me.

And like... I want kids with the same background as Jaime to see themselves in him. I want them to be able to feel the way I felt back then. Honestly, that was a lot of why I finally broke my boycott. I think characters like Jaime, while brilliant in their own right, are also important, and I want to support them.

So when I realized how raucously, joyously, passionately this movie was gonna depict Latino culture and its own diversity within the US, I was thrilled! And I cried lmao.

(What can I say, I've been kind of weepy lately lmao.)

But yeah, honestly I cheered in the theater when Khaji Da switched to Spanish. I was like YEAH GIRL.

Other times I was actively fangirling in the theater:

Nana Reyes gunning down imperialists

Ted Kord reveal(s)!!!

"Batman's a fascist. Blue Beetle knew how to have fun." :')

Khaji Da stopping Jaime from killing that man

Milagro and Rudy having no such compunctions

Dr. "Sanchez" standing up for himself and his name reveal (which is a very fun easter egg for WWDITS fans, lmao. I wasn't expecting it and I had to stifle a little shout of laughter.)

Honestly, as a former DC fan I really loved how much thought and care was put into incorporating the really messy canonical history of the Scarab. Obviously they deviated from existing canon, but in ways that I thought were really fun and interesting. I'm excited to see what happens with the Kords going forward, y'know? I hope that Jenny, too, isn't cut out of her own family legacy. I'd never want to separate Khaji Da and Jaime, obviously, but there has to be something for that woman to do to follow in her father's (secret) footsteps.

I realize that this review is kind of all over the place (like my mind the past few days), but I really, really enjoyed it. I was feeling pretty out of sorts the day I saw it and it really raised my spirits a lot. It turns out that after all these years, I still really love Jaime Reyes! And I love his family! And I love Jenny, too!

even dr. de la cruz a little bit, even if he sure did take his sweet time to find a backbone

The movie was just super fun (as well as unexpectedly thought-provoking) and I really enjoyed it!

[itsnothingofinterest]

Saw the ask from linkspooky and you're both definitely right, it's like the reporter lady (and presumably more since she's meant to represent others, I guess?) missed the point entirely. She wasn't in any way wrong to snap at endeavor, at least implying him as the root cause of a lot of bad happenings, because it's the truth right?

I really hope that this direction is not what hori follows through with, cause what it looks like the message is saying here, is that you shouldn't blame the heroes no matter what, even if it is their fault because that'll be 'damaging'. Despite the obvious truth that if someone had checked endeavor somehow in the first place a lot of damage wouldn't have happened. Do you feel similarly?

Also am I sending you too many negative/critical asks? Should I send less?

(in response to this)

Yeah I’m hoping the same too. Like I think I’ve shared with you before that I’m hoping all this unearned hero hype is just an excuse to end My Hero part 1 on a high note in preparation for a part 2; because boy is all this a terrible way to actually leave things.

Because what you said about how a lot of damage could have been avoided if someone had questioned and checked on Endeavor and his family way earlier into things; that’s true going forward too. If heroes keep that infallible air, what’s to stop another hero from abusing their family? Especially knowing how Endeavor's been treated by the justice system. Already horrible enough; but then what’s to stop that hero's victims from becoming a villain(s) to get revenge on that hero and all the heroes like them as Dabi did*?

It’s the main problem I always mention having with the resolution this arc and it's attitude to the status quo is heading towards; everyone’s fighting to restore order and peace, but zero counter-measures are being considered to prevent more hurt or suffering that’ll loop us right back to this chaos. There’s a few who said they’ll look out for one (1) villain-generating issue; but the method they'll do so is the same as what heroes have always done, be inspiring and nice and junk. And let’s be real; if everything that made the League happened under All Might’s nose for 40 years, what are these guys expecting to accomplish doing the same thing? Is it something different? Because Far Cry tells me that's the definition of insanity.

When I said addressing evil is incompatible with not causing a bother, that’s one of the ways I meant it; the kids and those backing them need to take a hard look at hero society and repair the cracks in it to save those who’re falling in them. Or else one of these days, one of those maggots Shigaraki talked about that are crawling back out of them will tear those whole thing down. Or it’ll last 100 or so years and get taken out alongside humanity by the Singularity that everyone was too busy with villains to deal with. One or the other; either way it can’t last.

So again, reaaaaaaaaaaaaally hoping there’s a part 2 to address all that. Or failing that; that the kids suddenly start being very open to the League being right about stuff and how that should influence their impact on hero society. Because otherwise, things aren’t looking good.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Also as ever I want to say that no, you are not sending me too many asks. And you shouldn’t worry about your asks being to negative or critical either; since it’s the story, or at least it’s characters’ decisions, that are giving us reason to be critical. Though I would hardly say no to an opportunity to gush over stuff rather than criticize stuff. But either way, I like getting asks; they’re prompts to give my thoughts, with the knowledge people want to hear them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*I'm sure some will say Shoto will be the counter measure to that, he'll stop such abuses. But sorry to burst any bubbles; nothing like that has ever played into his arc. It's always centred on healing the Todoroki family’s damage, and him (alone) not becoming a hero like Endeavor. Besides worries of his own behavior, he's never really thought about other heroes acting like Endeavor.

Now theoretically he could still get the idea to do something about it before series end...but at this point, that's only happening if a) he starts listening to Touya's arguments, realizes he's right, and decides to do something about it less-violently as I outlined above, or b) we get that part 2 where he might get a lot more time to figure things out on his own. So...yeah.

[blimbo-buddy]

TW for mentions of trauma, abuse, grief, and fatphobia.

I personally think that the perspective of Turtle Tail is one rooted within human nature. Often, we realize too late how we have failed other and ourselves. We fumble to say what needs to be said and remain silent when we should be loud. It is a fault everyone understands yet condemns themselves for.

In my mind, Turtle Tail feared accepting Bumble because it would divide her. This is referenced all throughout, but is primarily clear here: "Because she was selfish. Selfish and desperate. Her heart was tearing itself apart when she looked between Gray Wing and Bumble. Dismissing Bumble made it easier for her. It was easier to dismiss Bumble because it was just "bullying." It was easier to dismiss Bumble because that meant she didn't have to touch her trauma."

Her first thought is her cover. Her heart had already been split between them. It cried so loudly for both of them. But if it was just that, then it would have been easier.

Her second thought is the truth. Accepting Bumble into the group meant that she would genuinely have to face what Tom did was traumatizing. It would make it hard to pretend she is okay when she isn't. She hasn't been, even before this happened. Both of them would have to talk about what happened and that terrified Turtle Tail.

Honestly, the reason I said "her trauma" rather than specifying was to muddy who Turtle Tail was referring to because I didn't know. You could assume it was Bumble, but was it? All at once, Turtle Tail meant herself, Bumble, and both of them. She meant everything surrounding it.

At heart, Turtle Tail loves Bumble. She tore herself up over that moment every day. She had nightmares and the regret had already plunged its claws into her, even if she hadn't fully realized. But, because nobody could see that she wasn't okay, she never said anything because that meant she could keep up her façade.

So, what happens now that Turtle Tail's façade has shattered?

PS: My friends and girlfriend are all crying with you. I casually slipped the Turtle Tail & Bumble angst into their lives... They must become truthers of the new canon.

PS Part 2: People should use accidental canon flaws more often imo. It's great for angst and character growth. Characters, like people, don't always need to be forgiven and that includes the heroes. Because even the kindest and sweetest have made mistakes that have not been forgiven and that's okay. Regret is part of being alive, whether we like it or not.

PS Part 3: I would also just like to add that everything I write is through the character's eyes. Their thoughts are woven into the scenes. So, almost always, that's the character thinking, "I am horrible," but it's written within the narrative.

---

Despair.

Turtle Tail is left to wallow in her regrets. Strength has long since left her body, leaving her dizzy with exhaustion and aching from her wounds. The thoughts that drift through her head are foggy and loose, yet she can hear them cursing her. Each and every last one curses her.

She closes her eyes, tears wetting her fur once more. Memories come rushing through her mind within an instant. Each and every one of them knows what she's done - what has happened - yet all she can do is watch.

"So," Bumble tilts her head as she giggles, "Whatcha think of daffodils?"

What an odd question. Turtle Tail furrows her brows and swipes her tongue across her paw as she thinks about it. "Daffodils..." She murmurs, trying to piece together an answer.

Happily, Bumble adds on, "I hear that there's a type called angels' tears! Isn't that amazing?"

"What's... an angel?" Turtle Tail finds herself asking. Never in her life has she heard of that creature - at least, she assumes it's a creature - before.

Bumble's vibrant yellow eyes light up. Purring loudly, the molly scoots closer and the bell on her collar jingles. "My mother they're beautiful bird-like creatures that take away suffering. The housefolk apparently are very reverent towards them. It's a bit sad that they've shed tears, but..." She grins wider than ever. "I think it's beautiful that their tears blossom into flowers that others can love."

The words trek slowly through her ears. She should really be paying more attention to the conversation, but... It's as if she has gotten herself lost in a meadow of never-ending warmth. Gosh, Bumble truly is gorgeous.

"Yeah." She says absentmindedly, her eyes unable to pry themselves away from Bumble's. "They must be the most beautiful of all."

She should have said that Bumble is far more beautiful than any tear-made flower. Nothing in this world is more beautiful than her heart filled with sunlight and her smile that cares for all. Why - no, how - could she ever turn against her...?

"Turtle Tail..." A hesitant voice cuts through her thoughts. The weak mew reminds her of a cat whose mere presence disgusts her third to two of the worst cats she has the displeasure of knowing still breathe. "I-"

"Do you want to get mad at me for hurting your dear brother, Gray Wing?" She snarls, shakily forcing herself to her paws. This is not an argument that Bumble should be subjected to. Stars above, it shouldn't even be happening. "Is that it?" She hisses and bares her fangs, yet she can't bring herself to open her eyes.

He called himself wise, but he agreed with everyone that Bumble was just a fat lump of fur. He made a mockery of Bumble. If he... If they both thought about it, then they wouldn't be here. The fates would have changed. Life would be better. It would be happier.

A nervous whimper slithers into her ears, making them flatten in an instant. "I'm worried about you. We don't have to get into my brother's actions, I know you think he did it, but-"

A fire is lit inside of her. Drawing back her lips, she yowls, "Excuses! All you're good for is excuses!" Her eyes open in an instant to see what pathetic expression is on his face. Gray Wing shrinks back, horror making his eyes sink into his skull.

Hate is a word that Turtle Tail used to never use, but now? It's all she can feel. This world is painted crimson and she's part of the sickening bunch. "We don't have to get into it, but let me slip in how innocent he is before I move on!" She seethes, spit flying onto Gray Wing's face.

Emotion makes the world dart around her. It flashes by her so quickly she can only catch a glimpse. The dread, disgust, and hatred leading to the whirling world reminds her of Bumble. When Bumble got excited, she raced around her with a bright smile and only stilled when she got too dizzy to continue.

"You want to know something, Gray Wing?" The hate in her voice cannot burn like fire. Despair turns her blood into ice and every step she takes closer to Gray Wing agonizes her. Every wound sears her body, but she doesn't let the pain she deserve leak into her expression. "Your brother is the reason I dug her grave."

Gray Wing's ears flatten and he recoils immediately. His fur puffs out as though it got hit by lightning. "It was a fox, Turtle Tail." He rebukes, tearing his gaze away from her. "Clear Sky isn't to blame. Besides," he appears nervous yet sure of himself - despite not daring to look her in the eyes - as he meows, "I wish that she could have found happiness, but she could have never lived wild with us in the hollow."

Her fur bristles at the words that leave Gray Wing's maw. "I misspoke." She mutters and digs her claws into the ground so she doesn't lash out. The temptation dangles before her, but she forces it to thrash within her chest. "Your brother might be the reason I dug her grave, but just because he was the murderer doesn't mean his paws are the only ones dirtied. I dug her grave alone, Gray Wing. I dug it alone."

A confused frown appears on Gray Wing's face. He sheepishly glances up at her, his whiskers twitching. "I would have helped if you asked." He offers up as if it means anything now.

Actions that come too late show change, but no one could ever trust them.

"Then why didn't you, Gray Wing?" She questions, narrowing her eyes onto the ground. A bee lands onto a half-crushed flower, yet it doesn't seem to mind the damaged goods. Instead, the bee happily pollenates as it often does before taking flight.

A bitter laugh rings through her ears. It's her own, yet her voice riddled with pure disgust sounds foreign to her ears. She's not innocent. Never again will she pretend to be. "What stopped you from offering to help me? Was it because I'm someone whose value has decreased? Do you think I'm worthless? Should I be thrown to the wayside? Or..."

She knows that her bitter remarks are not the truth. When she looked into his eyes during Bumble's exile, she should have realized then what they were saying. She should have sided with the right cat.

"Or is it because it's better for you if Bumble is dead?" The hammering of her heart makes it difficult to tell that she spoke. It feels as if the ground is being knocked from under her paws. This is the answer, isn't it?

Gray Wing opens his mouth.

His mouth stays open.

It stays open for just a bit longer.

Then it closes.

"I hope you go to sleep tonight and are haunted by what your actions have led to." Wispily, the words float into the air. She sluggishly turns her head away from Gray Wing as she focuses on the misshapen grave. It doesn't matter if they disown her. She has already lost the one who matters.

God, the part about her seeing it as easier to dismiss Bumble because she wouldn't have to face her own trauma is just heartbreaking. The two cats have trauma that stem from the same roots, Tom. They've both suffered from that bastard and they (TurtleTail in this case) cannot push away their trauma without also pushing the other's trauma away, as the two are linked together tightly. The part about if she were to accept Bumble into the group, she'd have to wake up and become aware of Tom's abusive and traumatizing actions. She'd have to face her trauma as her and Bumble's trauma, as said earlier, are linked, it is shared trauma. But as you said, the thought of finally needing to face that trauma head on scares TurtleTail, she doesn't want to be hurt by the memories anymore, but by putting it to the side, it lingers and grows and it's impact becomes greater as it is consistently brushed off. It's sad and depressing. But let's finally delve into the story, shall we?

Okay first things first I fucking love the flashback with Bumble and TurtleTail in the meadow, it's genuinely so sweet but also makes you sad when you realize what happens to them in the end. I love how Bumble explains the concept of angels and TurtleTail is just staring at her thinking "Gosh, you're pretty". Then it gets you even more sad when, again, you remember what happens to them later.

The dialogue and writing with TurtleTail snapping at GreyWing and the narrative also goes after GreyWing rightfully, not just TurtleTail. If this was Erin Hunter, they would have written it where TurtleTail blames herself but then thinks about how 'wise' GreyWing is or something and then the text goes on to praise him. But this isn't written by Erin Hunter. Both the text and TurtleTail scream at and berate GreyWing's pure stupidity, his negligence to focus on the situation at hand in favor of trying to defend his brother and instead of the story siding with him, it sides against him. God, and the part where the bad in TurtleTail's mind morphs into joyous thoughts and memories of Bumble, like Bumble unknowingly has a grip on TurtleTail's mind, a grip that only tightened when TurtleTail turned away from her and only got stronger as guilt ate away at her brain. And then to have GreyWing speak the line that TurtleTail originally spoke in Bumble's canon death scene is such a neat little touch, the text does not try to treat this as words of wisdom or an attempt to ease TurtleTail, that is what sets it apart and what makes it better from the canon. And to then have GreyWing attempt to pull a "Well I would have helped if you asked" on TurtleTail just reminds me of when BrambleClaw did the same when the truth about the three were revealed, he claims he would have helped, but knowing how he is, how sure are we that this would have been true? Also the little bumble bee not minding the destroyed flower is such a good little touch, I would go a bit into detail about what it could possibly mean but I can't formulate proper words to describe what I believe.

And to really hit you in the face like a brick, TurtleTail's line, "Or is it because it's better for you if Bumble is dead?" serves as a call back to the canon scene when GreyWing believed that Bumble had "taken away" TurtleTail from him. TurtleTail is confronting this, truly realizing GreyWing's true negative feelings towards the poor Kittypet, realizing that he was possibly happy that Bumble was now gone, happy that Bumble could no longer "take TurtleTail away". He believes TurtleTail belongs to him and only him, and this truth/realization hits TurtleTail's mind like a rock to the skull.

GreyWing may not be haunted by what his actions led to, but TurtleTail will. She'll never stop reminding him of the innocent life he was complicit in taking away. The very thing they both were complicit in. The very thing the moor cats were complicit in. Bumble was TurtleTail's world, her world is gone forever. Anon you have done it again, you've managed to deliver a heartbreaking story about TurtleTail and Bumble, you managed to make scenes that reminisce on happy times make me feel even more sad with the knowledge of what was to come. You wrote a story that doesn't side with GreyWing, hell, not even a story that sides with TurtleTail too. The story sides with Bumble, the victim of it all. I could go on and on about how clever the writing is and how you easily avoided everything that makes canon DotC horrible in every sense of the word. If this is the last entry in the TurtleBumble saga, I would be completely satisfied. An open ending that finishes on a note of tragedy, all we can do is assume what might come next, but we wouldn't know what would actually come next. Even with two of the three entries focusing on TurtleTail, it's clear who the story is really about. Bumble.

[bropunzeling]

Mm top 5 comfort/vacation reads?

Top five tropes (to write or to read or both!)

comfort reads:

the brothers sinister series by courtney milan! great little romance series, solid sex scenes (the one in the governess affair novella is actually literally to die for), a delightful cast of characters. courtney's books are always solidly rooted in a mix of period detail and thoughtful politics, and i like how everyone likes each other!

kj charles generally but probably specifically think of england and proper english. i love very few things more in life than murder mysteries. i especially love when people initially at odds fall in love during mystery solving. it warms the cockles of my heart.

protector of the small quartet by tamora pierce - all the tortall books are comfort reads to me but this is THEE comfort read for me. i love kel with my entire body! she is precious to me! tall and buff and even-tempered but as stubborn as a mule. she and dom should have kissed!!!

agatha christie - i powered through every single one of her books available at the start of the plague times. i love the poirot books but i think for general consistency miss marple ones are almost always more solid. miss marple herself is a great outsider detective and i think there's few enough books that agatha couldn't grow to be tired of her lmao

i just powered through the goblin emperor books by katherine addison (had read the first but not the next two) and those are great fantasy books! the lingo is admittedly a bit opaque and hard to parse at first, but once you're in you're in, and the stories are really about human decency and kindness (while also providing political machinations (book 1) and murder (2 and 3), which as we all know are very comforting to me lmao)

tropes (this was really hard lmao and is for sure not definitive):

soulbond/mark/etc aus - a well done soulbond au is my jam. my artisanal preserves. the questions it raises about free will and fate? about someone being meant for you? i think there's really fun angles about like, how even relationships with this extra something still aren't going to be easy and smooth. there's also the aspect of like, strong or weak bonds? romantic or platonic (lol)? can you hear inside someone's head? or do you just feel better around them? or do you just have their name or first words to you sitting on your skin? what happens if it's one sided? what happens if it's unrequited? what happens if you're not ready? what happens if one of you wants it more than the other? what if you fall for someone you're not meant to fall for? these themes are SO fun and i love to explore them.

historical or period aus - i love aus, so jot that down, but when an author clearly loves the historical period and has taken time and care? i am there with my spoon. ALSO codes of conduct and manners just create such fun restraints to force characters who would just fuck it out to do other things because they CAN'T just fuck it out due to SCANDAL

slow burn - none of that 7k shit. but like a proper slow burn? a "takes 10k before they physically touch" slow burn? a "we're 50k in and they might actually kiss oh god please let them kiss" slow burn? mmm!!!! mmmMMMMMMMMMM

break up/make up - the thing is. the thing is!!!!! i like when characters have a history. a past. when they were something really important to each other and then that was ruined and now due to fate and or author contrivance they have been tossed together once more. like a salad. and then! the airing of grievances! the bad decision sex! (oh, the bad decision sex). the realization that there are things you know about them that they haven't told anyone else. you were the one who was there. you're the one who knows!!! in some ways you still might know them best! but right now you are worse than strangers because you may never become acquainted! until suddenly perhaps??? unless??????

arranged marriage / woke up married / marriage of convenience - i am combining all of these because the fact is i love when people get married for stupid reasons (or reasons that are not because of their ~heartfelt feelings~) and then they fall in love with the person they married and have big ol' feelings about it. i'm sure this comes as a shock.