#i hate it when writers do this it feels like a fourth wall break. like the writers are reaching through the screen and telling you ‘no stop

[coffeegnomee]

Writing this because I don’t see anyone analyzing the Kab lore and I’m genuinely intrigued as to how people are viewing it.

It’s just such an interesting and all over the place story atm. I have a huge amount of faith that she will make an amazing story by the end of the season. I’m willing to let her cook. She has to get practice in this somehow.

But also she’s just so all over the place. And not really embracing the depth of mcrp, but that's a different story.

This started from having a hard time drawing the line between lore and not lore because I refuse to just say “Kab in the box was lore and everything else is not” even though I’m pretty sure that is like exactly how she views it. 

Because the moment Red killed her she went to chat and said something like “chat it only took me three weeks to get lore on the server!” Like girl it’s been lore. All of it is lore. 

And then the box arc was just like, enter the box angry at Red because he’s forcing you to hide, go through your friends and realize you care about them, go through the rest of the team and remember you f-ing hate all of them, including the friends at the start. Leave the box angry at Red, using pacifism as a cover to get close to Woogie to destroy Red. 

Like am I crazy to say that she didn’t change in the slightest because of the box and you could take that whole arc away and nothing would be different? 

But what IS interesting about that is how she never got over Red killing her. Never. I think she hoped that the box would soothe her out of that hate and come to a different conclusion, but by the end the (almost too real) rage about him killing her, especially after she made him that armor, pervades to this day. 

Now THAT’S lifesteal, holding the hurt until it has a real resolution, not trying to get yourself over it quicker. As Red said last season “we make our best content when we actually hate each other” (not a direct quote, Zam said it) and as uncomfortable as that is to blend real hate into the ability to tell a story, there is real truth to that, that unless you, You the Writer, actually Care about the stakes of the story, you’re not going to write a good story. And nothing makes you care more than actually caring.

But Kab puts up these walls around herself to delineate character vs streamer. She is, to her credit, quite good at being in character, to the point where when she drops the character it is so jarring to be told none of it is real, this is just lore. It’s wildly jarring. And makes it quite difficult to find her character to be endearing? At least for me. Because she consistently does little things to break the fourth wall like clearly having left the box to get materials. Girl PLEASE why did you not just include getting materials and being paranoid about being caught as a PART of that story?? Sigh. 

So she, in her mind, has a very clear distinction for what is her character. And a distinction for what she herself is willing to do. And that separation makes basically everything she says “in character” a lie; like she can say what she wants, be dramatic and make a cool tragic character, but that will not have a real meaning on who she is as a character on Lifesteal as a whole.

And what I find fascinating is that despite that, she is a mirror to whoever is in front of her. She absolutely becomes whatever the person in front of her is. 

She comes out of the box saying she will use pacifism to get to Woogie. But then Flame blows up spawn and she feels bad, so she talks to Zam and within 5 seconds you can tell she’s fully dedicated to that task. She fully embraces being pacifist. Because Zam is pacifist. 

But then Zam leaves to practice MCCR and next thing you know she’s talking to Wemmbu and within 5 seconds he convinces her to kill Planet publicly and with everyone online, breaking her away from pacifism. 

This also despite the fact that Wemmbu is Shit at instigating people like Zam and Pangi. He tried SO HARD to get them to kill him or change their views. But one devil on the shoulder to Flame got him to blow up spawn and one second with Kab got her to cave and kill Planet (TWICE! And get Mid’s heart!). SOOOO interesting how his approach works so wildly differently on new members vs old. 

So she mirrors whoever is around her. What a fascinating character trait out of the master manipulator. Is it manipulation? Or does she really fully and truly emotionally believe what she says in those moments? Does she come back with manipulation ideas after to fit whatever impulse she had in the moment? 

And then there’s the Mapicc castle. I 100% believe she was the one to blow it up. Maybe I’m just projecting. Maybe it was wemmbu during the window he had his pc and when he didn’t. Maybe it was someone else.

But she just declared herself evil. It’s only natural to try and instigate chaos and get the members blaming each other for things that you did. 

But she was SO GOOD during that conversation. Brainstorming and giving ideas for who else it could be, pinning the wemmbu heads on Mid but also pulling back and saying it couldn’t be her for the explosions, trying to work out the timeline. Like in so many ways she sounded like Spoke making up a story and being Unhelpful(TM). And she went out of her way to drive to her office just to have this conversation.

But also she seemed so helpful, so genuinely trying to brainstorm and pick apart this juicy puzzle in front of her. And therefore just curious, not manipulative. 

GAH I just can’t decide! She’s either completely brilliant or completely incompetent and succeeding by accident!

And it’s even more interesting given the thought that she came into Lifesteal riding the high of MoneySMP and how she pulled off a betrayal arc super well. But that was Kab vs rando content creators in the mcyt space. 

Now she’s Kab vs the very people who defined betrayal in mcyt. Everyone on lifesteal shares her ability to lie and manipulate. The thing that once made her unique is the very fabric of the server she is on. She thinks she’s got a leg up on everyone, but she’s merely on the same playing field. And that’s so dang interesting. Because she still doesn’t consider herself to merely be on the same playing field. She still thinks she’s better at this than anyone else. 

She said during the stream where Mane destroyed the Mice base (7/23/24) that she likes playing cocky characters because it makes the fall all the greater. But she just IS that cocky at times. Every time she’s jumped she’s giggly and cocky about being slick and avoiding being killed again because she sits on the respawn screen. 

So she’s cocky and willing to cause chaos, but she’s not the progenitor of chaos. She is not a worldender. She only causes chaos when someone nudges her towards it, not out of an internal desire to be chaotic and an understanding of the need for chaos on lifesteal.

And perhaps it’s because deep down, she cares about the people on the server. Not in the way Zam cares where he feels awful about everything he does that is evil and repents and has remorse over his actions. 

But she is affected by her caring. One of the most interesting moment of Kab lore was when she saw the photo of Mane standing in the blown up Mice base. 

KAB: “wow […] I knew he would blow it up, but like seeing the image is still like, fuck”

CLOWN: “really?” 

KAB: “THIS HASN’T HAPPENED TO ME BEFORE” 

CLOWN: “hasn't it happened to you like twice?” 

KAB: “he didn’t blow it up last time [...] I think, I think I have to leave. I think I should leave. I’m putting like hannah and red and leo at risk right now” 

It’s an involuntary reaction, something that is intrinsic to her core. She immediately went to: I should stop being on this team so I can save Hannah and Leo. I don’t want to see them get hurt. 

And this is before she knew Woogie was wanting to leave the Mice because he thought she was a threat!

This was before Red killed her! 

She came to this conclusion that she was dangerous to her friends outside of them agreeing with it. 

And she never brought this back up when she was in the box. She to this day thinks she did nothing intrinsically wrong (ie dangerous to others) by antagonizing Mane. At least as a character she refuses to accept this. But for a second there Kab Kaboodle came through and knew that to be an intrinsic fact. And then she didn’t expand on it. Missed opportunity tbh. 

And then I’ll end with an analysis of the Mane conversation after he blew up the base. Because it’s so interesting to see Kab banter in lore (though I suppose from her pov it wasn’t lore yet because this was before Red killed her) and see her say Way Too Much. She says she’s a master manipulator but girl you leak freaking everything. 

So, she says what she said above, then a few minutes later gets in vc with Mane.

MANE: “you didn’t think I had the guts.. To blow up the base of [unintelligible]” 

KAB: “[talking over him] you didn’t blow up the other one”

This whole conversation Kab interrupts Mane so much. She has to say things, to prove herself. Even when staying silent would give her so much more information.

MANE: “I’m gonna be honest, I was just looking for a reason” 

Every pvper on lifesteal ONLY acts evil when they have a reason. It’s so consistent. It’s never “just because”.

Kab says she put posters up of him bc she thought it was funny. 

 MANE: “yeeaa I find it funny too um. You said you're not scared which, I- I find pretty amusing” 

KAB: “ok!” 

MANE: “because you're obviously pretty scared” 

KAB: “you’re not scary. Dude. like your strength of the sword doesn’t fucking scare me dude. When you actually get smart and shit then then come talk to me” 

Super cocky. Super dismissive. Just looking for a power dynamic to make her regain control over the situation. That’s not manipulation that’s just a power grab.

MANE: “Ok. I’ll talk to you when I get smart I guess but I mean, I dunno, according to these dogs here you've been at, at the deepest level of the cave for for a while, almost like you’re hiding. [pause, Kab freezes and pulls up coords] am I right about that? That seems pretty scared to me. I dunno. But um” 

Mane absolutely cooks in this conversation but Kab just refuses to be affected by his lines and instead mocks him for being stereotypically tough guy. And yet she got scared there. She brought up her coords. 

KAB: “[scoff] alright buddy” 

MANE: “I dunno the way that you’re like, you're like interacting and the way that you’re like going about this is not the way that I would go about it personally”

KAB: “well, we’re very different people” 

MANE: “I mean. Okay. how do I rephrase this. The way that you’re going about this is not the way any other person has gone about this before” 

KAB: “thank you!” 

MANE: “it’s not a complement.” 

KAB: “I think it’s a complement. I appreciate that” 

MANE: “I’m calling you stupid.” 

KAB: “I try to be original” 

MANE: “you’re being stupid” 

KAB: “maybe in your eyes yea” 

MANE: “cause you’re gonna make a new base, I mean, you haven't even stopped to question how I found this one, which is quite interesting.” 

He’s calling her stupid for not asking more questions. Especially after she just called HIM the stupid one. He’s clearly smarter than he looks

KAB: “oh I know how you found it” 

MANE: “how did I find it” 

KAB: “my team already told me, I’m not telling you” 

Instead of fishing for more information, playing dumb, Kab instead goes for posturing that she is far smarter than him. She could’ve used this to make him think she’s stupid or to actually learn how he found the base so she can be safer in the future (later she tells chat the she has no idea how he found the base). And interesting move out of someone who wants to manipulate people. Usually you would want to play dumb, not play cocky.

MANE: “[scoff] you don’t know how I found that base” 

KAB: “okay! You can believe that” 

MANE: “yea, because if you did, there’s no secret to keep from me. Like the way I found the base myself”

KAB: “[interrupting] girl you know I don’t use that base right?” 

MANE: “okay. That’s your teammate’s base” 

KAB: “that’s fair. That is my teammate’s base. I more feel bad for them rather than me.” 

MANE: “yea. Yea. I feel bad for them too. It would suck to like, like, if I had a teammate, you know, especially considering like the fact that you, you- overall you’re team’s isn’t like the most skilled um if I was always suffering the consequences of my teammate’s actions who obviously doesn’t care about what they say” 

He’s using the info Woogie gave him to make her feel bad/see if she does feel bad AND SHE DOESN’T HIDE A SINGLE THING!

KAB: “girl if you’re trying to guilt me it’s not gonna work” 

MANE: “I’m not trying to guilt you, I I’m just saying like, if I was your teammate I- I would feel horrible, you know? You’re like” [.... devolves as mane is like if you want to loose teammates you can, and kab goes don’t mansplain to me (again, being cocky. refusing to be scared)] 

MANE: “even if you’re not scared, you’re putting your teammates in jeopardy, which you clearly already know, which is very interesting, very interesting trait for someone who cares about her team. So. I just wanted talk to you and get your consensus on the situation” 

He was fully going to stop the conversation there. But she just missed the cue and started to willingly gave him more information because her adhd ass thought that was a question not a statement /pos

KAB: “yea.. I’m I’m not overly fussed. It’s inconvenient. and that’s about it. It’s inconvenient” 

MANE: “for who?” 

KAB: “me” 

She’s revealing that her motivations on lifesteal revolve around herself. She cares more about herself than teammates in the long run. Like I said earlier, she intrinsically does care about people, but on lifesteal in particular she will first care about herself. 

MANE: “oooooh. See but you just said you care about your teammates and [unintelligible]”

KAB: “I do, but let’s be real two of them don’t log on very often and Leo’s been doing his own thing anyway. So” 

MANE: “oh. I guess you’re team’s already disbanded so” Mane brings back up how he just wanted to see what she thought about it. Again she just keeps talking.

KAB: “I think you’re being predictable and I think that’s helpful” 

MANE: “aw yea bro, glad I could help out”

[…more chatting] 

MANE: “If hiding doesn’t mean that you’re scared, I don’t know what hiding means” 

KAB: “I mean not everything has to have and emotional reaction” 

MANE: “I mean it’s not really an emotional reaction: if you’re hiding you’re scared of something” 

KAB: “scared is an emotion” 

MANE: “nah, fear is an emotion” DAMN SON. he really can just drop the dramatic bars bro. 

KAB: “fear is an emotion. I say being fearful and being scared is the same thing.” 

MANE: “if you weren’t fearful you wouldn’t be hiding” 

KAB: “that's not necessarily true” 

MANE: “how” 

KAB:” okay-” 

MANE: “hold on hold on hold on. [wanting direct clarification] Before we get into that, you’re saying that you’re not scared.” 

KAB: “no. [laughing at him]” 

MANE:” You’re not scared at all”

KAB: “no. I’m not scared at all” 

MANE: “Okay. as long as we get that out of the way” 

KAB: “I’m just not an idiot. But I’m not scared at all, no.” 

MANE: “okay. Ooooh, so you’re saying like the smart thing to do is hide” 

(/genuinely realizing this in real time. He did not understand this until this very moment)

KAB: “I mean, yea. Let’s be realistic. You are much better at pvp than I am and you have more hearts than me [ect] I’m doing it because it’s the right thing to keep my survival. HOLY SHIT I JUST REALIZED A PARALLEL. You’re a lion and I’m a rabbit” [derailed, mane says he got what he wanted, thinks she got something out of it too] 

KAB: “can I ask you one thing quickly?” 

This, I think, is the only thing Kab actually cared to ask this whole conversation. She was not being purposeful in anything else, just responding to what Mane was saying and saying things. But she wasn’t really listening to what was happening, she was too focused on looking tough and explaining herself. Until this moment.

MANE: “mmmhm?” 

KAB: “why did you go after my base and try and kill me? Was it the posters? Is that why?” 

MANE: “well, the posters were just a good reason” 

KAB: “you just want to do it?” 

MANE: “I’m gonna be honest. It’s just fun” 

KAB: “oooh. So I did categorize you correctly. Ok cool!” 

MANE: “[sad] ooh. okay.“ 

Leaves call KAB: “yea Mane is just as predictable as I thought he was”

Clown comes back in vc KAB: “[explaining the convo] he just wants to. He just thinks it’s fun. He’s just a crazy villain. I told you!” 

But like, I don’t think it’s that. I think we learned that you can get Mane to hunt someone very very easily, just give him a small excuse and he’ll gladly do it. Which is useful if you want a villain or want someone to hunt you. So in that way he is super predictable. But he isn’t “a crazy villain” the posters were just an excuse, an excuse he had been looking for. Because he wants an excuse. That is very different than pure “it was for the fun”. 

The fact that she comes to the conclusion that he’s just a crazy villain after that conversation is crazy. I feel like she just was looking for confirmation for a hypothesis she had rather than really looking for research to see who Mane is. 

Which is a huge flaw for someone who wants to figure out why people are the way they are so you can manipulate them. 

I feel like Mane, if he is smart, learned far far more information about her than she did from him.

The tension for the Kab lore here lies in how this will all blow up in her face. I think she will cling to things and copium her way into believing she won no matter what. But she will have been absolutely destroyed. 

And I keep getting hit with her being incompetent because she like, wildly, and I mean WILDLY, makes wrong assumptions about the older Lifestealer’s motivations.

Which is crazy to me because she WAS a viewer! She, in theory, (but probably not in practice because no cc has enough time to watch another smp with as much attention to detail and analysis that we do) should have a really solid understanding of the crew, and she self reports that she does but she’s been wrong so many times. 

Like not only does she get Mane completely wrong here, but when Spoke logged on one night and said he was betraying the empire because of jepex she flat out believed him??? And like brought it up again later like it was true. 

She thinks Zam has a huge plan of becoming evil. She had this whole moment in the box where she mansplained to chat that we are being fooled by him. We were being gaslit by him into thinking he isn’t planning on being evil at the end. And it was just so painful to watch because she’s just so wrong. 

Because Zam has never ever thought of his lore like that. He’s reactionary to the extreme, believing he will take the current lore to the end of the season regardless of how early it is in the season. He becomes evil by the end more often than he doesn’t, but it’s not premeditated. And she should know that. 

And she assumed that Red wouldn’t kill her. Like, no, I didn’t see it coming either, but it was a very Reddoons move. To take it personal when someone causes him anxiety. There were other small assumptions she made on older life stealer motivations that I can’t remember now. 

But to clear it out, what motivates Kab Kaboodle?? She hates not being believed. That’s what I took from all this. This is her trigger, the thing that will motivate her forward. 

Because she does lie and manipulate. And that relies upon being believed. So when someone believes something that isn’t true about her (like Red’s assumptions that she was leaking info to Clown) it hurts a hell of a lot more. 

But because she lies, nobody will ever believe her when she desperately tries to get them to believe the truth.

So yea. What do you guys think about Kab and her lore? 

[dapper-lil-arts]

The creator's of mlp really did say they didn't hate any of the characters and then proceeded to do Rainbow Dash dirty every chance they got

honestly the saddest thing is that I feel like its somehow on accident, somehow on ignorance. Every character has the perfect pieces to make them iconic, but some fall short due to writing choices like rainbow, rly. Example: Celestia is meant to be a godlike figure, a perfect mentor, a kind and nurturing soul that is also the most powerful being in Equestria. ...But in the actual text? She's kind of worthless! Whenever theres a problem she throws twilight at it, and if she tries fighting someone she LOSES! She lost a 1 v 1 with chrysalis, she lost to fucking COZY GLOW, A CHILD. And those are all writing choices! At no point did they try to keep her integrity, justify her positioning through Twilight's trials. By the time later on they joke about the princesses doing nothing, its hard to find it truly funny bc its just objectively true xP but it didnt need to be! Another example, this one bugs me even more: Pinkie Pie is meant to be the element of laughter (not joy I guess) but the more that the series goes on, the more that every joke that involves her is just "She wont shut up and she's annoying everyone and doesnt notice" They could have played her off as a compassionate figure that always wants to cheer people up, but rather she winds up as a fourth-wall-breaking fire alarm that keeps beeping, and it really didn't need to be this way! Like, if she's meant to make people laugh, where's the genuine jokes? Wheres the gags and sentiments that aren't just poorly placed? damn its an odd case, cause I do love pinkie on concept but the text does her dirtyyyy

The blue character is literally looking at the screen pleading for Pinkie to shut her mouth, that's an active decision of the writers and animators to make her aparently insufferable to others. Damn, its odd And yeah, when Rainbow Dash winds up being a self centered asshat, it feels a bit flanderized, like some of these too. Don't get me wrong, I still love em, but sheesh

[powerpuffobsession]

First time writing an essay about Helluva Boss. Episode 2.10, Ghostfuckers

So, episode 2.10...

I have a lot to say about it considering all the previous episodes. First of all, I'm glad that the senior man managed to punch Millie through a wall. She deserved that for all the innocent humans she, Blitzo and her husband murdered in episode 1.3 (I remind you that this is a cartoon about imps who are serial murders, and DHORKS are not the villains but rather just looking for revenge, uguuu U_U)

I'm just disappointed that Blitzo didn't get punched (because he's a traumatized uwu baby in this one and that would break him in half, I guess)

Now, let's get to it, to the bad and a bit of good

Animators and voice actors are still killing it, they are the ones single-handedly saving this show (had it not looked so pretty compared to Family guy or RiIck and Morty, I'd never even given it the light of day with its writing, because my eyes would just bleed and I'd close the tab. I'm a sucker for beautiful animesque designs, what can I say)

The fighting scenes are much more fluid now, my head doesn't hurt from watching them too

But the writing... The best way to describe this is "Uncanny Valley"

Because Brandon Rogers basically made fanfic inside fanfic. The whole show is already full of loopholes, strange turnarounds and retcons, etc. And Ghostfuckers looks like a stand-off fantasy that first goes on about some fanon version of Millie Brandon would like to see if he was the one who came up with the idea of Helluva boss... And then it switches abruptly to canon Millie, because we have to remember that this is still an episode of Vivziepop's show

This is what we get when Vivziepop is too grossed out by having to develop her female character and dumps it wholly on another writer (for the second time in a row already)

The switch between that cold-blooded and unfriendly Millie and the current awkward happy-go-lucky Millie is just too unnatural. I don't see any hints in the previous episodes about her being such a stock "cool gurl" in the past. It feels like yet another idea that was mashed into the show out of nowhere with no planning (like Stolas and Blitzo meeting as kids or Stolas being a helpless soy-bean victim)

I hate how the show tries to go in the direction of posing Blitzo as a local savior-wannabe who supposedly made the lives of Moxxie and Millie better.

No, he didn't....

I have eyes and ears. I saw how he humiliated Moxxie and made fun of him, he made threats to him and Millie, stalked them outside of work and he still refuses to stop doing that, he DOESN'T EVEN PAY THEM, INSTEAD WASTING ALL THE MONEY ON RANDOM STUFF AND SHAMELESSLY TELLS THEM ABOUT IT DIRECTLY (especially in episode 2.10, do you know what it means not to be paid for a MONTH when you are depending on yourself and not living off your parents money, like Millie and Moxxie?)

In real life, Blitzo would have been told to go fuck himself and all his workers would have left him a long time ago. But in vivziepop's verse Blitzo is apparently the only employer in Wrath ring, I dunno...

I feel like Millie comforted and thanked Blitzo out of pity just so he would stop whining. I remember how she didn't show up to help him escape from the humans in the last short (Moxxie wasn't captured that time unlike in 1.6 episode, so she was unbothered). I tell you, the gurl is hiding her true disdain for Blitzo, since he's her boss. I know two-faced when I see one (and I don't blame her at all)

However, with what condition Blitzo is in in this episode, I have quite a few nasty words to say about Stolas

This is the second or third or maybe even fourth time we've heard how Blitzo ruins the lives of everyone in hell (literally, he gets a whole ass party dedicated to how bad he is, thrown by almost half of hell - writing overkill much?), how he should change, etc... My question is, when will the same be said to Stolas?

Stolas performed the same disgusting scheme a lot of toxic partners have always been using: he tamed Blitzo, he made Blitzo feel like he (Stolas) is important and irreplaceable, Stolas pretended to be kind to Blitzo (when in reality all he wanted from the imp was sex, otherwise he would have requested something else in exchange for the book, it was not that hard to do you know)... And then Stolas got all offended completely out of the blue (just because Blitzo hesitated before accepting his gift, seriously?) and ditched Blitzo while sincerely partaking in an insulting song dedicated to Blitzo at the "Fuck you Blitzo party)...

That bird bitch knows exactly what he's doing. He knew Blitzo would get used to the idea that Stolas only wants sex and doubt Stolas' attempt at selflessness (with the Asmodeus' crystal). Stolas can't be so clueless if he's 30-something years old, I can't stand how Vivziepop infantilizes her characters right at the times when they should realize their wrongdoings and self-improve

If Stolas is not going to understand the damage he did to Blitzo and apologize to him, AND if they are going to still be the end game after all... That'd be a pure romanticization of Stockholm syndrome

You can't have Blitzo as this scapegoat who is somewhat held responsible for his actions (he is at least feeling guilty sometimes and trying to do.... something??? to fix things) and then show someone who's emotionally abusing him as this innocent suffering being. I hate black-and-white writing where the author is playing favourites when it comes to conflicts between characters

Now the small things:

Moxxie wears a bra apparently. Transmale Moxxie headcanon confirmed? (I know his horns are black and white, but he could have dyed them)

I find it funny how the characters keep conversing smugly while fighting and jumping all over the place. Can you stop for one minute and breathe? You're all gonna end up with pink eye one day I swear

The fight scenes are still a repetitive mass of random noise and movement. And that's why in my opinion they last for longer than they should. Helluva Boss is trying to be Samurai Jack with its suspense and various styles/pacing of action, but fails

I loved the scene where Blitzo was tortured by the hallucinations of his past. Helluva boss does a decent job at creepy stuff for a stupid comedy-drama cartoon. The scene where a fantom of his mother shows up and burns in his arms is especially cinematically strong. Blitzo really got stabbed where it hurt the most

Blitzo is more vulnerable than Millie in this episode in general. His past is screwed up big time for a lot of reasons, so he's got a lot of trauma buttons one can push to easily drive Blitzo into a helpless snotty-teary state. Millie, in contrast, is living her best life in hellish terms - she's got loving parents, strong body and personality, no guilt on her shoulders, literally nothing to be ashamed or guilty of. The villain tries to tell her that she's miserable, and she's just laughing in his face because she KNOWS it's not so. That's why Millie keeps protecting Blitzo in 2.10 episode. It's an interesting chemistry and I'm glad it got explored

Though I still don't get how Millie meeting her husband is Blitzo's merit. Not like he actively helped them get together, to of the goodness of his heart too, I sincerely doubt it, given how egoistical, abusive and immature Blitzo is

I hate how Blitzo keeps talking about sex only at some times. It's like a psychosis or something. "Adult cartoon should feature sex talk, because that's how it happens in real life, grow up". In real life anyone would get dirty looks if they spoke in "sex fuck FUCK SEX FUCKING FUCK I want to get it up my ass I WANT SEX" only at the most inappropriate times, so piss off, it's cringe. I get it how Vivziepop and her crew find the mere word "sex" funny, as well as swear words (someone did not grow out of their middle school phase), but can we have other jokes please? The "read the chains" one was kinda funny as well as the high five scene from the 1.3 episode. I want more comedy stuff like that, though it takes effort to come up with that

Speaking of which, I hated the part where a disfigured person who can't even blink is made fun of. Especially how Blitzo and Millie demonstratively express disgust upon seeing her. Unhealthy people are not a joke!

The villain was bland. He's basically just a tool to make Millie and Blitzo get character development. No charisma, no memorable lines or scenes (his transformation to his true form was sort of spicy but lacked something still), no clear motivation. He didn't pass the sexy tumblrman test, I have no memories of him

No s*icidal Millie in this episode. I'm glad about that because that conflict just doesn't suit her (I also think that her reflections about feeling unimportant in 2.5 episode were bullshit, she has no reason for that). If anything it would have been logical to give Moxxie the s*icidal tendencies and the problem of feeling unimportant - he's weak, sensitive, gets mocked and bullied a lot, has a troublesome and dark past with an abusive father.... It'll be a missed potential if until the very end his suffering is going to be taken as just a joke instead of being explored as a serious issue (though we all know vivziepop is going to leave it as that)

Thankfully Luna didn't murder Moxxie at his most neurotic and vulnerable state and didn't ignore his attempt at burning himself with all the papers (I get you, man... Paperwork sucks majorly sometimes). She even gave him an ice cream! When Millie asked Luna to watch over Moxxie, I actually was worried she and Blitzo would return to see Moxxie dismembered and pissed at all over or something. Because this is the same Luna who abused Blitzo (someone who literally allows her to live carefree at his expense), and bullies Moxxie on a daily basis... Blitzo didn't even die when making her do the unnecessary work of burning the owl taxidermy. Is she on antidepressants or something in this episode?

I rate this episode as 7/10

[thelittlecoughsomewhere]

So I'm now gonna give you my thoughts. I will try my best to keep it chronologically but we'll see how that's gonna go

so first of all I have my blorbos back and that's FANTASTIC and nothing can take away from that. So even though I have criticisms I want you to know that I loved this episode and these specials will be very dear to me, no matter what happens

I'm not gonna lie, the fourth wall break did not work for me. was goofy

THE NEW INTRO OMG love love love love it

the tone of the episode was a little bit too comedic for me and not sincere enough. The acting of both Tennant and Tate was also a bit too overacted sometimes, almost as if the director had children in mind as target audience. The pacing was too fast, the episode didn't allow the emotional beats too linger.

I loved getting to know Shaun and Rose and hope we will see more of them in the next specials (But I think they won't be in the second special)

Love Shirley, hope we will see more of her. (maybe UNIT spin off) Ruth Madeley is a great actress. (I know her from RTD's Years and Years)

I loved seeing Sylvia again, I absolutely love the redeemed her. She was so fiercely protective of Donna. (good on her for punching the Doctor) And she is a great grandma to Rose, even though she is learning. I love that Rose has a supportive family.

The plot with the meep was fun (Unfortunately I got spoilered and knew that the Meep was a villain in the original comic). The practical and special effects were on FIRE.

The dramatic "Why does it have to be this scene?" + the return of the DoctorDonna + Donna seemingly dying in the Doctor's arms = Good stuff and obviously everything I waited for during this episode. But I am disappointed that Donna didn't confront him with the fact that he went aginst her expressed wishes when he wiped her memories in Journey's end. (maybe this topic will get discussed more seriously in Special 2 but I try to not get my hopes up). I get it, there was no time for a long conversation in the scene where literally all of London was at stake, yet Russel did take the time to let her be angry about the lottery ticket, but he portrays her anger in a comedic way

speaking of the lottery ticket: I think this is the only point of the special I am truly miffed at. I loved the fact that Donna gave the money away because of course she would. And when she said that she knew that people out there where in pain and need and would need it more than her and giving it away felt like the sort of thing "he" would do I took 2 things away from it :

2. I know I'm probably the only one but I thought she meant her dad when she said "him". The lottery ticket is symbolically a present from him and in my personal headcanon Sylvia and Wilf told her some kind of story that tied the lottery ticket to her dad to honour him.

1. the experiences with the Doctor did have a lasting impact and changed her. And this character development from season 4 was not totally eradicated. The Donna we know from season 4 would give away the money of course she would.

But no, DoctorDonna is mad at him because she gave away the money to be like "the Doctor", her subconscious memory loop made her do it. This takes away from Donna's character and from her autonomy. Also it makes the scene too comedic which gives me whiplash when the scene turns tragic

I don't like the fact that the timelord consciousness in Donna was activated by a sequence of words. (Can't explain why, I just didn't enjoy that)

The metacrisis is solved because the metacrisis energy is shared by both Donna and Rose. Neat, I like that. (The idea of solving the metacrisis by having the time lord consciousness be passed on to Donna's child is almost a staple in fix-it-fics, so I guess as a fanfiction reader and writer I feel vindicated). In an earlier post of mine I wrote about the fact that I hated the idea that Donna influenced Rose's name, but I'm fine with the name now because she chose it herself. Having Rose's trans identity be influenced by her time lord heritage surely is a bold choice by Russel. I think he will make a lot of bigots angry but I have also already read posts from some trans people who didn't like this story beat. I personally liked it when I watched it, it felt like everything was fitting into place. But I want to let the story linger for a few days maybe I will change my mind. I will say I like that Russel takes risks with his writing choices.

The scene that made me roll my eyes was when Rose and Donna said "There's a way to get rid of it. Something a male-presnting Timelord will never understand: Just let it go". Come on, this was cringe. This line actually sounded like something Moffat wrote for River Song. The reason this line annoys me isn't even because it presents female-presenting people superior/different to male-presenting people. It annoys me because it's lazy writing. Russel clearly didn't spend a lot of time thinking about the metacrisis problem and working out the mechanisms behind it. I have read dozens of fanfiction that solved the metacrisis in a much more complex and thus more satisfying way

The new Tardis interior is stunning. It's big and spacious with a lot of ramps. IT IS TOTALLY WHEELCHAIR-ACCESSIBLE. It's so clean and sterile and all-white, though which makes it feel less homely. Love the fact that the panels can change colour, hope they do that often.

[ingravinoveritas]

Hey, it’s me again.. I took a little time off to elaborate all of this, I went through various stages of disappointment, sadness and anger, but now I’m feeling better (even though it left a bitter taste in my mouth).

I did read all of the comments and reblogs to your posts, they made me cry (in a good way!) and I started to feel less alone indeed, a heartfelt thanks goes to them, definitely ❤️ this is what a fandom should be, whether it is Good Omens’ fandom or Neil Gaiman’s fandom (well I hardly see myself becoming part of his fandom now, even though I like some of his works, i.e. The Sandman).

The fact that he’s a writer is the reason why I weighed his words so much, otherwise I would have thought “okay maybe it was a poor choice of words and didn’t mean that”.. He knows exactly what he did instead, he used his skill with words against someone who barely speaks his language. This was unfair and unnecessary on so many levels imo.

About my ask, in my mind this was a point of view that maybe could’ve been useful for him to consider. I asked that in his interest, I mean, at the end of the day it’s his series, not mine. He didn’t even try to understand, instead. The point he’s missing with Staged is that Staged is not any series, it’s a series where the main characters (the two couples, but there’s also Ty in the third season) are supposed to be the actors’ real personalities and relationships (“supposed to”: I know they’re still fictional), so seeing all of them together in a scene of any series (not only Good Omens) would feel like breaking the fourth wall to me. I know it’s not something that everybody would experience, but definitely some people would. The nepotism thing is kind of connected to this, but mostly I’m really concerned about David Tennant being accused of that (the first “joke” was already there at Basingstoke). I mean, if Georgia had accepted the role and Olive had passed the audition, there would have been four members of his family involved (I know Peter Davison is an accomplished actor, but he’s also part of the Tennants family portrait, especially talking about Doctor Who), they’re just two for now, but the fact that Neil said that in a hypothetical season three, he would like to offer Georgia and Anna a part… The risk was there again. Maybe he thought that it would please the fans who always idolise them no matter what; this part of fans is really loud, but that doesn’t mean that they’re the actual majority. Also, this doesn’t mean that I hate them either, I would never do something like this out of hate, I’m not so miserable.

In summary, I just wanted him to read and consider that, I wasn’t really interested in an answer, tbh. It’s not like I was expecting something like “yeah, this is nepotism on my part! Thanks for asking xx” (though… That would’ve been a funnier response). As I said previously, this might have been an impulsive decision, and even a naïve one.

(1/2)

Hello, Anon. I'm back from my work trip and finally not entirely exhausted, so now I can answer your Ask and all of the other Anons still waiting in my inbox.

I'm glad to hear from you again, and that you are feeling better. I very much relate to what you said about having a tendency to blame yourself for everything, because I do the exact same thing. But there is a difference between blame and responsibility, and while you are responsible for choosing to ask Neil that question, you are not to blame for how he chose to respond to it.

You mentioned not being sure what to do now, and thinking about sending him Crowley's line about asking questions (which is also something that I thought of when this whole thing happened). My personal suggestion would be not to message him at all, as there really isn't anything else that can be said and I think it would probably just give you more anxiety worrying about if/how he'd respond again.

The thing to keep in mind is that Neil is who he is. Being a writer does not automatically make someone better or smarter than anyone else--Ernest Hemingway was an abuser and a drunk; Hunter S. Thompson was, well..."LSD-soaked madman" is putting it generously; F. Scott Fitzgerald's relationship with Zelda made Kanye and Kim K. look Amish, and the list goes on--but what I think has happened with Neil is that there is such a hype around who fans perceive him to be...the "image" of Neil Gaiman as opposed to the actual human Neil Gaiman. What we have now had a glimpse of is the actual human, and that for as calm and cool as Neil always seems to come across, there are clearly things that can still ruffle his metaphorical feathers.

I don't know if you've visited Neil's blog again, by the way, but just a few days ago, he responded to this Ask which I and everyone else who read it would most definitely categorize as "creepy"...and yet he answered it and did not call that person out the way he did with you. What that tells me is that what happened with you was not because of anything you did, but because Neil read it the way he did. And there could be so many other factors at play as well--the fact that he is in the middle of a divorce, the effects of the Writers' Strike and what that will potentially mean for GO 2--that ultimately contributed to his mindset while answering.

The other thing I will say is that I've already seen part of your concerns come to life, as following the release of the GO 2 opening credits, some fans were insisting that the order of David and Michael's names in the sequence and David's name supposedly appearing first (as opposed to Michael's in the S1 credits) was a reference to Staged:

In actuality, both David and Michael's names appear at the same time (but Michael's is less visible due to being in the sky). Neil even seemed to confirm this when someone recently asked about it. Not only that, he did not mention anything about Staged at all, which in all likelihood means it was probably not a specific reference. But seeing fans rush to this conclusion seemingly validates what we've been saying all along, and when I saw it, I immediately felt annoyed. For me, Good Omens and Staged are two very different things, as well as entirely separate things, and I categorically do not like the feeling of looking at anything related to GO and thinking of Staged. Only my opinion, of course, but there it is.

Finally, regarding the nepotism situation, one thing I've also noticed is people saying that this is somehow brand new, or that no one cared before GO 2. As I've mentioned previously, I became a fan of Michael's and "got into" him before I did David, so I will fully admit to being less knowledgeable around the nepotism issues there (Ty in ATWI80D, Georgia getting a part in DW because of Peter, then producing YM&H). But I can say with absolute certainty that concerns of nepotism with Anna were being voiced years ago, as far back as the first season of Staged and then right through to her being in Last Train to Christmas in 2021. So this is not remotely anything new, nor related only to GO, but to every role AL has had (Staged, LTTC, and Sandman), all of which she has gotten because of Michael.

I would also encourage people to read this post from last year on @invisibleicewands' blog for some very insightful tea about nepotism. One commenter is a former actor and shared some extremely interesting information in the notes in particular, of which I'd like to share a few:

I'm very willing to bet that all of the above--especially the part about casting directors and casting practices--are things Neil already knows, and are at least part of what caused his disproportionate response to your question. Because if this is something well-known and common to the industry, you are very likely not at all the first person who has brought this up to him, as well as the fact that four members of the same family (David, Ty, Peter, Georgia) nearly ended up in the same season of one show (GO season 2).

Could Neil have had enough and just snapped? Sure. We all have our limits, our quota of what we can handle at any given time, in any given day. And he would have absolutely been well within his rights to ignore your question entirely. That he read it as being "not in good faith" tells me this is a subject that's come up before, and has led to him being on the defensive. Which, again...also understandable. But the fact that Neil--who is a writer, who has spent an untold amount of his life writing about all sorts of things in painstakingly detail-- couldn't parse a fan asking a genuine question or distinguish it from an attack is not okay, and neither was his choice to respond so condescendingly and set you up as a target for the larger fandom.

But you already know all this, Anon, so let me stop before I repeat myself too much. I am just glad that you decided to write to me again, and that you took such comfort from both my words and the folks who commented on my post. I am sorry that the whole thing has left such a bitter taste in your mouth (though understandably so), but with all the wonderful new things we've gotten in the last few days (opening credits, the new poster), that thankfully gives us happy things to focus on instead.

Sending you lots of love again and the hope that you will continue to feel better and not let this take away your excitement for GO 2 entirely. Thanks for writing in! x

[i-have-one-braincell]

You mentioned not liking some parts of the show (usm), could you elaborate?

Oh boy where do I start😭😭

A few obvious complaints would be the fourth wall and overuse humour. The humour just felt very forced and shoved on my face and the fourth wall wasn’t helpful, if anything, I found him to be pretty annoying but not as annoying as Marvel’s Spider-Man, I couldn’t go past the first two episodes of msm unlike usm😅😅. The fourth wall did work well in the Deadpool episode since Deadpool is the KINGG of fourth walls break unlike Spider-Man, it basically felt as if Peter was another version of Deadpool with the constant fourth walls.

At least it changed in the last seasons but the show at that point kinda sucked for me.

Another complaint would be the characters. I love the team, I really do, but they just were kinda bland for me. They were assholes to Peter and never saw them interact with each other if it wasn’t Spider-Man/ SHIELD related. I wouldn’t mind if the show started with them disrespecting Peter and then visually appreciating his leadership and learning about his reasoning why he does what he does up to the first 2 seasons, in the show they just act like coworkers or kids forced to partner up for a school project. It unforgivable on my part that they wouldn’t appear again in the 3rd and last seasons since I actually grew to care for them in the 2nd season.

SHIELD was also an issue for me. I HATEDDD how Fury just spied and followed a 16 yr old boy just to recruit him and taking over his school life, the only normal part of him being Peter Parker without the need for Spider-Man. As well as the amount of cameras in his house which honestly was pretty disgusting😭 like why do they need a camera in the bathroom and the bedrooms????? I understand the intention but c’mon, the bathroom and bedroom???

A small ick of mine would be the lack of THE Johnny Storm and Fantastic 4 in the show. We had THE Thing, aka Ben Grimm, and freaking HERBIE, A FREAKING ROBOT FROM THE GROUP AND YET THEY DONT GIVE US JOHNNY STORM😭😭😭

I would KILLL for Johnny and Spider-Man to appear together and have an episode together to see them interact. Spider-Man would’ve geeked out with Reed Richards, he would have a pure sisterly relationship with Sue Storm. I was just soo disappointed😭😭

And to top it off, the main MAIN complaint of the show would be Spider-Man himself and how the writers handles him.

Aside from his fourth wall breaks and humour being annoying to me, his voice was slightly annoying😅. I would blame it on the direction of the writing since Drake Bell voicing Peter Parker in The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes was very well done, he was given a proper script in that show but in usm, he just…was eh. I gotten used to his voice in the show but it’s not my favorite, I usually prefer Josh Keaton from Spectacular Spider-Man or Yuri from the PS4/5 Spider-Man games voices when I write Peter in my fics.

I very much hate how a ton of Peter’s struggles were stripped away. Such as balancing school and Spider-Man, his grades dropping, his relationship with Aunt May, finding a job to support him and his aunt, how his relationship affects not just Harry but to MJ as well.

In the show, nearly everything was solved for him. He doesn’t stress about school and his grades cuz SHIELD is now taking care of that issue for him. He doesn’t worry about a strained relationship with his aunt since Aunt May is already working alll day and can sneak out easily without her knowing so no stress about curfews. Apparently money isn’t an issue in his life despite living in a 2-story house in Queens, New York that expects the yearly income to live there being over $44k(got that from GOOGLE 💀). Peter not interacting that much with Mary Jane is odd since apparently they knew each other for years, much longer than Harry, and yet Peter interacts and prioritizes Harry more than MJ throughout the seasons.

It honestly just feels as if the Peter Parker life is slowly being stripped away by his Spider-Man alter ego. There’s more Spider-Man struggles than Peter Parker struggles and it gets even worse in the last season with the SHIELD Academy since its JUST Spider-Man in the season. He eats, sleeps, and most likely showers and poops with the costume on💀.

The entire point of Spider-Man is maturity. He’s a kid forced to grow up into an adult after Uncle Ben died with Aunt May being the only one in his life to protect and support. The show just took away that struggle from Peter and it was just extremely disappointing to not explore Peter’s life. They focused more on having Spider-Man being a cool character than focusing on how cool Peter is as a person aside from being Spider-Man.

This show has a soft spot in my heart. I grew up with the show and introduced me to characters like Iron Fist and White Tiger but the premise wasn’t well handled.

[socrat1cjunkiewannabe]

soo- we’re writers round here! we decided as a first post for our tumblr to showcase a sneak peak of some oneshot we’ve started up for our book over on ao3! (follow us at jimbomazza_taxi) and it’s for our “The 1975 oneshots” collection!

—

[How Can I Relate To You? — The 1975]

There was a shy kid, someone who hated to be in the main spotlight. Well, he didn’t hate being in some form of glory. It was the fact of being seen, the fact he could show more of his fuck ups if he were to do wrong, which feared this young guy. His name was Adam. His friends, Ross, George and Matty, they call him Hann.

But, he didn’t speak when he was first met with Matty. Matthew Healy the chatterbox, and Adam Hann the somewhat mute. Yeah, again it sounds like some weird universe, or fourth wall break to get these two in conversation. Well, it did take a few coaxes, and a few softer let downs for Adam’s frail mind to finally compute with Matty. Jokingly, Matty wrote a note passing it to Hann.

“How can I relate to someone who doesn’t speak?”

Hann receiving this crumpled piece of paper with the partly illegible jokey comment seems to frown a bit looking down at what Matty had put down, and would remain in silence for a bit longer, just contemplating what to write back. That’s where this block seemed to show, massively.

Matty was just crouched down opposite by this point, maybe on his phone. It was like he wasn’t aware the teachers would catch him, but Hann did have a somewhat cheeky jab in his note back to him, pushing it over with a nudge.

“We’re not all like you Matty, you just have a chatterbox for a mouth.. plus- the teachers will see your phone mate.”

Matty reads this, and places his phone down momentarily, although it was still open on some possible interface of an app, or maybe even his notes as he was known for scribing thoughts down on his phone. “Hann, you’re acting like my dad..” he’d chuckles, but was grinning with the joy at the joke pulled. “But yeah, I guess I’m a bit more extroverted. Probably ‘cos of me not really giving a damn what people see me for. Although, it’s usually class asshole.”

Hann just looks over, and although he didn’t really have a verbal answer for Matty, he did bear a warm smile, showing his teeth. He did feel that although him and Matty showed different in the personality front, that they may bond over the humouring side of things.. and that did open a door up.

“Hann, I do just want ya to know.. you can talk to me. You can talk to my mates too, Ross and George. Trust me, we’re not gonna be like dicks.” Matty seems to softly laugh, watching as green eyes had met to hazel, almost in a loving manner.

“To be fair, I’d like some friends with similar taste, since I’m just obsessed with guitars and seeing you love that too, it seems right.” Adam held the note in hand, lightly fidgeting with it but trying to explain back, and when Matty slowly started raising to his feet from the crouch on the floor, Hann’s gaze cast up again to Matty like martyr.

“C’mon, you’ll not regret it. It’ll be massive for you.” He adds, and that’s when the other was beginning to ascend to his feet as well and give a light smile, despite not being a vocal chirp. Again, a man of little words Hann.

Soon enough, let’s say what Matty noted was truth. By this time, they had just fired up a band, a dream that was shared by Matty’s friends Ross and George, and now by the new notice of Hann. The boys had been friends now for about two maybe three years, and safe to say what the now frontman of their dream career had voiced, sure enough had become true, and that always never failed to blow Hann’s mind every time it had struck him.

Performing at small places at first, Satan’s Hollow in Adam’s home of Manchester, then stretching out to Winslow in Cheshire for Ross’ birthplace.. London and then even eventually across the pond to Brussels where George resided before. The progression, always was important. And this time, during one of Adam’s moments of reminiscing, Ross came over.

“Hey Hann, you alright over there? Having a little daydream this morning?” His voice suffices with a little laughter, as he’d place a hand onto their guitarist’s shoulder, smiling. “You seem like you’re in a thinking state for sure.”

—

(that’s our progress so far! we also have two others already up to read, “In The Shade” and “It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You)” if you’re interested!)

— also! we are planning to be writing more with the boys and their mates more often in works, but that’ll be in the future hopefully, so if you lot are fanatics im sure you’ll appreciate this :]

[professional-idea-haver]

So I've been working on my debut book Salvation for going on five years now, right? I spent that fourth year taking a break from it due to my cross-continental move and have spent this fifth year struggling to get back into working on it. Like, every time I try to work on it I hit this brick wall, and its always some issue or hang up that's keeping me from wanting to put in the energy to go through a sixth draft's worth of re-writes. The real vexing part of it though? I haven't had this issue working on other stories, stories that are just short drabbles. Stories that are either self-contained, or are fanfiction works that I can just dive into because I'm writing them for myself and folks who're already familiar with the source material. Thinking about the differences between an original work and a fic work, I'm noting the following observations: -Writing is lonely work The biggest obstacle to setting aside time to write is knowing that I have an obligation coming up, or people to take care of, or just wanting to have social time rather than sit by myself time. In that sense, I need to either use writing as "I want to be on my own" time, or use it to fill the gaps when other people aren't available to socialize.

It's a little bit of a problem, especially when I'm craving to collab with someone else, whether its streaming, story writing, or whatever. But, maybe, if I can embrace the isolation as a way to make some space for myself, I can find a way to work more consistently. -Establishing a setting can be incredibly taxing. I'm not the type of writer who gets super exciting about world building. If anything, this is the part that's felt like drudgiest busy work to do. Other people enjoy it, it's not for me. There's some amount of world building I need to do for any given story to help its context, its setting, but I think I need to avoid going into more detail than is necessary so I can keep my "camera" focused on what I enjoy most. -I need themes and characters to get invested It was easy to write Evening's Dreamer because I already had an idea of what the story was going to be about when I sat down. In fact, I was so excited to bang this out that I put my other writing projects on hold to work on it. It helped that I was writing an FFXIV fic and that the general structure was there, but I knew what its heart was going to be, which made all the difference for figuring out what to include, what to build to, and what setup was necessary. Prayers started as a difficult project because I kept bouncing between different ideas, but once I settled on one unifying theme, it made building the architecture so much clearer. I might know my story needs four legs, but if I can't decide between making a chair or a table, I keep waffling and try to mash the two together in a way that doesn't work. In both of these stories, I started with either a theme or a character and was able to use one to inform the other. In Dreamer, I had a theme that helped me figure out what my character was like. In Prayers, I had a character that I couldn't make feel right until I figured out the theme of her story. -I'm still trying to internalize "Just make the thing!" attitude Going back to work on Salvation after working on these short stories has definitely been for the better, but remembering how much pressure I'm putting on this book to succeed did not help. Redrafting is hard. I hate it. It's the worst thing about trying to get a story right, and having more story to fix makes it worse for executive function. The best I can do is to remind myself to finish the project and hope it's good enough for editing after I go back and clean it up. I hate how often I have to remind myself of this.

[hotdyke-hardstyle]

I finally have time to think properly about part 1's ending~ since it's been a while since it was released i'm not spoiler tagging but it is under a cut.

I have to say i'm not really mad at kiana living, it's a happy ending and I actually felt very relieved, especially knowing that everyone could still contact and visit her so although it was an emotional parting because the main trio have only really just gotten back together, there was still the reassurance of knowing she's reachable on the moon while she gets to work. it's actually pretty funny.

i've seen/heard from a couple different people that kiana living undermines the sacrifices of other characters and while I understand that, I don't really agree. everyone's sacrifices still held a purpose at the time and I don't think kiana needed to die for them to be considered worthwhile. I don't think any of the characters would prefer it either lol.

I also don't think it's a lazy ending or that it was done because of time constraints for star rail's release given that honkai was released in the midst of ggz's story and I also didn't notice a decline in honkai's story for genshin's release despite both of these happening before mihoyo became as big as they are now. I genuinely believe that the writers and devs stand behind this as the true ending and it's okay if you don't like it for what it is.

then there's ai-chan and the fourth wall break during kevin's fight. I don't really like ai-chan, I feel like she doesn't add anything that was missing from the story and so her being present at the end was unnecessary, but I have seen people who like her and what she represents. in the moment, the fourth wall break made me emotional and I didn't hate it at all. I do think it's a bit silly and we could've done without but I still like it. maybe it could've been improved by just removing the names of other players and having it just be the will of humanity against finality or something. I don't think it's a game-ruining moment though.

I do think that kiana living made the ending a little less impactful considering that I think we all believed she was destined to sacrifice herself as per her parents' and ancestral history and, although I don't mind being wrong, kiana dying would have been a huge moment and I definitely believe it was built up a bit so I guess there was a little something missing at the end. I am not joking when I say this could have easily been fixed by having mei and kiana kiss in the cinematic or in the in-game cg. it would have been the resolution to a long desired built up moment in the same way that kiana's death would have been, and it would've just made it all that much sweeter.

I also think it's possible that kiana could die even later on in the story after she's finished her job on the moon - the text mentioned that kiana sucking the honkai energy out of the world would cause mei and bronya's herrscher cores to fade over time and we definitely see that in apho, so I think there's the chance that eventually kiana herself will also fade away, so maybe mihoyo is just going for a slow burn death.

anyway overall I liked the ending and I like that kiana is alive and I like that I loved playing the ending. I could've just done with a kiss.

[theredqueenandthebloodwyrm]

I didn't like She-Hulk, but I wanted to

Obviously this is just my opinion so you're free to disagree and all that.

When I went into watching She-Hulk it was sometime after hearing about how bad it is "worst show ever" "she sucks" but I had chalked up most of it to bandwagon hate / sexism / the anti-woke crowd (which to be fair does and has review bombed stuff before). So I went into this thinking "alright, I'm not getting on any hate bandwagons, I want to give this show a fair take, I'm sure it's not that bad / not bad / let's judge it based off its contents". It just felt like wasted potential when I finished watching it.

(read more because this post is getting long)

Needless to say, I was disappointed...so much disappoint. Like did they want to fail? tf happened in the writer's room? Look, I'm not a lawyer nor do I study law nor do I have any idea of how it works so I'm not gonna criticize the lawyer stuff, just the characters + plot stuff.

The fact that the dude she went on a few dates with and sleep with, who then later ghosted her, turned out to belong to some evil villain hate group? It was stupid, I didn't like it, I feel like it would have worked better if he was just a regular guy who ghosted her (and it still tells a lesson about Jen Walters and what she has to deal with as a woman dating). It felt cheap and cliché that he was some baddie rather than some regular douche? I dunno, maybe someone else can provide a different take or explain it some to me. But that's just a personal nitpicky thing, not like "worst thing ever" yknow.

Daredevil was...something. His introduction during the Leap Frog episode was...fine? not entirely out of character but some of lines didn't fit his voice? and look I like happy Matt Murdock too, and I don't want just some dreary sad Daredevil, like he can be happy. It just felt that the writers didn't necessarily have a handle on his voice? Also that weird walk of shame was unnecessary and weirdly demeaning lmao now that I'm thinking about it.

I didn't mind Jen besting the Hulk, I thought it was funny and had that classic sibling rivalry vibes (well, cousin vibes in this case but you know). Her having a better handle on her rage due to sexism she experienced as a woman was dope and made sense to me.

The fourth wall breaking was...a...choice. It was a choice that was fine at first though there reached a point where there was too much wall breaking, especially in the episodes leading up to the Finale. Like, it had funny 4th wall moments but then the next episode it would start to be a bit too much 4th wall breaking at once? not sure if that makes sense.

The finale made me want to hit my head against a wall because just why? It's this weird mess of 4th wall breaking that doesn't work?

Also the episode starts at afternoon/night and then it skips to morning when Jen rewrites the story? The writers' room / Kevin Fiege Bot was like the best example of what not to do? does it count as lampshading? If it counts as lampshading then it's what not to do when lampshading. Like She-Hulk isn't Gwenpool or Deadpool, she shouldn't be breaking reality and rewriting her own story like that.

Also I didn't like the mustard ketchup suit Daredevil had? I get that it was an OG Comics reference but the colors clashed? and not in a good way. taste is subjective and all that, and red + yellow can look good but meh.

Look, there's fun moments and characters beat. It's not the worst thing ever but I just can't get behind the ending, it sours the whole thing a bit for me.

It had fun moments like with the rogue magician summoning demons, Leap Frog, and whatnot. Like I'd throw She-Hulk scenes on a funny marvel comp video, but it felt flat in terms of character building?

[thebigshotman]

(Before continuing on to the movie review this week of “Annie Hall”, I feel I need to state this. Yes, this is a Woody Allen film. Yes, he is, without a doubt, a scumbag of a human being. However, I throughly enjoyed the movie. This is because separating the art from the artist is a very real thing people can do, no matter how influenced by the artist’s life the art was. I and everyone else in my class did the same thing.

As my professor said before the screening: “This is a film class, not an ethics class; take your scorn elsewhere”. So please do not come to me with anon hate about the fact that I enjoyed this movie. It will be immediately deleted as if you never sent it. (I know most of the regulars around here know not to do that, and know what kind of person I really am, but you never know who might see this 😬)

Anyway! With that disclaimer out of the way, the review is under the cut for those interested! Thank you all for being respectful and chill 😊)

Another week, another movie in film class! Last week’s “Godfather” didn’t give me much to talk about, but good golly did this one! This week we watched “Annie Hall” by Woody Allen, and it was a romantic comedy. Romantic comedies are something I usually don’t watch very often, with the sole exception of “Pretty Woman” and a couple of others. But this one had a lot of tricks up its sleeve to keep me interested!

The movie is about the relationship between Alvy Singer-Allen-and the titular Annie Hall-Diane Keaton-as it rises, falls, rises again, and eventually breaks up amicably. Alvy’s other relationships are also explored briefly to hammer in the point that he seems to be unlucky in love no matter what. We see this relationship out of order, with their awkward first meeting only coming about a third a ways in. We also break the fourth wall pretty frequently, with fantasy sequences woven in here and there by all characters and frequent asides to the camera by Alvy. In the end, they meet each other one last time for dinner, and the whole thing ends surprisingly poignantly with a metaphor involving love and eggs. Trust me, it was way better than it sounded 😂

The screenplay definitely deserved to win an Oscar, as it’s very tightly written and very funny, if odd and cringe worthy occasionally. What didn’t win an Oscar but was amazing, though, was the cinematography, done by the same dude that did “Godfather” funnily enough. It really captured what it must be like to fall in and out of love against the backdrop of a big city. The fantasy sequences and asides, very unusual for a romcom, also make it stand out from a crowd and keep you guessing what strange-but-realism-driven thing would happen next. The movie line scene with a cameo by Marshall McLuan (you can look it up if you want) was a highlight!

I’d say it’s a combination of what “Scenes from a Marriage” and “Ferris Buller’s Day Off” must be like…but I’ve never seen either lol

Keaton deserved the Oscar for playing Annie, bringing just enough of her real self into the role to make her realistic but enhancing everything when needed to make her the prototype “manic pixie dream girl” she is. Some of my classmates thought Alvy was annoying, what with his constant griping and distinctive voice, and I can definitely see why, but…I saw parts of myself in both of them. My positive qualities in Annie’s free-spiritness and definitely my negative ones in Alvy’s anxieties and overthinking. So I can’t bring myself to hate either, or their performances. They truly captured the “nervous romance” of the tagline!

So, yeah! Overall I really liked this movie! It did a lot of things I didn’t expect a romantic comedy too, and in a good way, too. The burden of how horribly its writer/director/lead actor forked up over the years weights heavy on it, make no mistake, but I think despite that it’s aged decently. If you can find it for free somewhere I recommend watching it! Just, y’know, do what I did. As for me, I will be watching it again as soon as I can find that aforementioned free source lol

Next week is “Network”, the origin of the famous “mad as hell” rant! Definitely a very big change from a romcom, but as someone going to school for media and a news reporter myself I can’t wait to see how it is! I’ll be sure to let you all know. In the meantime, hopefully I’ll be on in a few hours to get to threads.

La dee da la dee da…seriously I loved Annie. See you all soon!

My mission if there’s ever a 70s day at college is to dress like her in this gif 😁

[galactic-pirates]

Ok Episode Two time of the Timeless movie.

Just realised I probably should have said I’m not a Wyatt fan, and I like Flynn and Lucy upfront. Oh well.

I don’t think I’m ever not going to be stuck on all the paradoxes. Episode One is just… no sense, logic is not found. I get that time travel is like that but I think it made sense in season one.

Right rambles!

Ok so they were in a helicopter crash. We didn’t get to see any of that. They basically have very few wounds. We get told that Wyatt is a hero who saved them, because of course (rolling my eyes).

Rufus is shipping team Lyatt? I am cringing so hard at the almost fourth wall break. And likening Lucy and Wyatt to all those famous couples? Blech.

And choosing Lucy over Jessica? Not a second choice? But he didn’t. I mean that is literally not what happened. Jessica came back and Wyatt immediately chose her.

Whomever the writer is for this, was shipping Lucy and Wyatt so hard and determined to make it work. I guess we should be kinda flattered that they had to write Flynn out so quickly or it would never have happened? I guess I sort of did that in my fic. But I at least gave Wyatt a happy ending with Jessica. Writing Flynn out as just getting to see his dead family one last time… I mean couldn’t they have had him do something more practical to save them? It’s like he just gave up and I hate that. Like why would he do that?

Anyway again Wyatt making it all about him. My fault. You said you’d never forgive me. /sigh.

Rufus seems a bit more… like the whole “I can’t wait to sleep with future you” and “have a thing for older women” - he was always pop culture joking but this feels like something else.

I sort of like that they are saving this random Korean lady but at the same time… it just feels, not very tight on the plot.

St Christopher - patron saint of travellers ha! I just got that. Very clever with Agent Christopher.

Emma stealing the Mona Lisa was funny and I did like Cahill’s reference to “it’s a family thing” which does callback to what Emma said about bloodlines etc. So that was a plus mark in the plot column.

Labour takes ages and women often walk about so why not just keep walking?

This just feels like such a diversion.

And Lucy is screaming for Wyatt like the damsel she never was /sigh. And Wyatt’s being the big damn hero with a soft side delivering the baby in the warzone. Could they be anymore obvious? It’s like ramming it down my throat

What’s with the frostbite talk and none of them wearing hats? Apart from Rufus. Clearly the only smart one.

I did like earlier that Jia expressed some hesitation about the 3 years they lived apart and the different memories. But they really did not have time to unpack that. And so it felt like they didn’t deal with it all. Just kiss and call it good. I wish Jia had told Rufus her concerns and they agreed to work it out. That would have felt more real.

Nice that Lucy mentioned Flynn.

Blech. Lucy’s “my life was over when I thought you were dead”. This just feels so forced. Like Wyatt hasn’t had a personality transplant. I can see their extreme circumstance leading to attraction but he is just not the guy to fall in love with. A fling, not a relationship.

Ok Jia pointing out the Agent Christopher patron saint of travellers was a bit on the nose. I knew the mothership was coming and I did smile at Agent Christopher’s “I wanted to time travel at least once”.

I also do like not forgetting about Amy. It was right for Lucy to not trust Emma. I also applaud Lucy’s morals but Amy is a bit different because the time travel itself scrubbed her from existence. It’s not like she died and they are trying to rewrite history.

But are they really leaving the lifeboat in North Korea? Wait… so did they jump home, to then jump back to move to the lifeboat? Also Rufus is flying the mothership but Jia could have flown the lifeboat. She purely wasn’t to give Lucy and Wyatt that moment.

Everyone is important to someone - and so they rewrite history for random person but no Amy? And screw Flynn I guess.

Rufus no need to be rude about the knitting. Seriously he doesn’t feel quite like himself. Like came back rude.

Why did they keep the lifeboat and destroy the mothership? Why not keep the stronger ship?

So Lucy and Wyatt had kids and it’s 2023 so they just have got busy real fast for them to be that old. Twins?

Oh no. Oh no they absolutely did not. They called them Flynn and Amy?!?!? Oh hell no. That is wrong on so many levels. I’m not even touching that.

I do like the future imagined for Rufus and Jia. Genius inventors and doing science fairs with kids. Yeah that works.

And I do not understand. They are going back to give Flynn the journal which kickstarts it all. So now they care about paradoxes? Also how are there no side effects now? Ah ok there is the headache at least. But if Lucy and Wyatt have kids then why the hell did BOTH of them go? Surely they should ensure that at least one of them doesn’t have an exploded head.

Praising Flynn - good. Calling him a hero, I like it. That part can stay. But honestly Flynn deserved so much better. Setting him on that journey and even stealing the hope that he ever gets his family back. He obviously thought maybe he could change it anyway but ugh!

And I super hate that Lucy was all “we have to do this or all this will disappear”. Like ok you have your happy perfect life with tenure, and kids, and you need Flynn to suffer and die in order to keep it. Like how is that fair? Lucy is usually so moral and this is horrible.

Soooo yeah.

Considering they had to try and wrap-up everything in two episodes it could have been a lot worse. At least they were clear about what they wanted. I disagree with the Lucy and Wyatt show but they “went big or go home” with pushing it and I can respect that.

I hate that it doesn’t make sense. All the paradoxes will fry my brain. Like the future Lucy and Wyatt? How does that even work but they still had to go back to give the journal to Flynn? Like why are some things the same and others not. It hurts my brain!

I hate what they did to Flynn. He got some respect but no justice.

The hint at future invention of time travel was… something. I guess saying that wiping out the time travel altogether wouldn’t stop it from being a thing. Although I thought the point was Rittenhouse and yet they seem forgotten? Like they got Emma, they got the Mothership but that wasn’t all of Rittenhouse was it? Did they even return the Mona Lisa?

I’m so glad I wrote my own version. That can be my canon. This… sure was something.

[lixiesfreckless]

okay…it’s been like, a month? and I finally found the words to say regarding this series at [checks watch] 12:56 in the morning. do I have to be up in six hours to drive two hours to watch the World Cup Finale with the dads side of my family? yes, yes I do. but somehow, this is more important than any sleep I may or may not get tonight.

this series is a fucking masterpiece.

I feel like the best way to preface this is to mention that I started reading it in the middle of the day at some point last month, took a break to do something with my family, played jackbox games with my friends, and at 2 in the morning when we finished, CAME BACK to the series despite needing to wake up early the next morning. I was still up on part 3 at 3:30 in the morning. and then the next day, I called one of my best friends and had her start and finish it over a video call, where I also finished it. and the whole time we were sending each other screenshots of killer lines and screaming into the void over subtle facial expressions. and it takes one hell of a story to make me feel so inclined to share it with someone else and sit on a video call, completely silent while we devour it. it was just that good. I’m completely baffled by the characterization, the plot line, the SETTING, the premise, EVERYTHING, and I was so blown away that I swear, I try to avoid using curse words, but holy fucking shit how do you come up with a story THIS good.

I would like to take this time to highlight some of my favorite moments, and although I’m not directly quoting them because I’d need to find them, not only am I lazy, but I would actually just really like to reread this story and write down the quotes that had me screaming into my pillow later sooooo

SPOILERS AHEAD

Changbin’s initial character is so unreadable that it is in fact, as intriguing as the main character describes him to be

I have always loved the way my favorite writers wrote changbin, including myself. it feels kind of weird to reference shrek in a tumblr fic review about stray kids, but I feel like the line “ogres have layers” really fits here. he’s such a layered person in real life that it’s kind of hard to capture his essence in writing, which is why I feel like he kind of falls short in a lot of fics I read but HERE? not only did you capture him so accurately, you made him your own by being kind of standoffish and kind of a prick at the beginning of the story, and I LOVED it. the thought of making him and the main character so up in arms with each other, without really giving context as to why only makes their backstory all the more intriguing when you see them fall for each other. it makes you wonder how it all went wrong. why do they hate each other now? what the hell happened in Paris(no really I kept asking my best friend this as I was reading through it)(also I can’t remember if it was Paris or Italy)? and it just hits even harder when you start to see his softer side, like how he tells Felix to ask if the main character got home okay. THAT REALLY GOT TO ME. it was one of those “gotcha” moments when you smugly look at the imaginary camera, breaking the fourth wall, and whisper “I knew they still cared” like COME ONNNNNN. that was so good. of course his character arc is amazing but I just had to rant about him at the beginning of the story.

Felix is unreasonably amazing and had me wondering for a hot minute whether he was the main male lead or Changbin because I kept switching lanes

it was almost criminal that Felix didn’t get a potential love interest until the END of the story. his character in this entire fic was just so likeable. this is probably the best “best friend” portrayal I’ve ever seen in a stray kids fanfic, hell, maybe in any fanfic I’ve ever read. he is just so genuinely sweet, and funny, and hardworking, and he deserves so much that I was half wishing that the main character would hook up with him JUST because I wanted to see him happy for a moment in time even if I knew it would only hurt the plot. I JUST REALLY LOVE FELIX OKAY AND I WANNA SEE HIM HAPPY [sobs in a corner]. that being said, his absolute best line in the whole fic, is when he catches Bin and the main character arguing outside of Minho’s party. when he threatens them by telling them to “sort their shit out” or he’ll never speak to either of them again??? I read that part, put my ipad down, and had to just PONDER how such a short scene of a longfic left such an impact on me. because those are actually high stakes! Felix is the main characters best friend who has done NOTHING wrong essentially, and has only put his resentment for his brother aside because he was making her happy! and things were finally starting to go well, and then they both couldn’t pull their heads out of their asses and needed to set things straight and WHO ELSE in the story could have made a threat that was genuinely so chilling, that it might make them actually get their act together? none other than Felix, the mvp, the goat, the W character, just gosh he’s a real gem and I’m so glad you portrayed him this well. standing ovation for him ALONE.

Jisung is just such a good supporting character gosh how did you do this

to be honest, I loved all of the characters in this fic, and I could write essays about each of them, but it’s currently 1:23 in the morning so I’ll keep this one brief. the one scene that really sticks out to me with him in it is around the time that the main character gets invited to Minho’s party, and she asks jisung if Minho acts differently around her compared to other members of the kitchen. and there’s just this very subtle scene where she’s like “is he flirting with me?” and jisung just goes “do you want what I’d think or what’s really happening” and when you pick the latter, his smile fades a little and he just says “he’s definitely flirting with you.” HOW. HOW DOES THIS SCENE SO EASILY CONVEY SO MANY DEEPER PROBLEMS CONCERNING THE COMPLICATED RELATIONSHIP JISUNG HAS WITH ALL OF THE MORE “PROMINENT CHARACTERS??? on one hand, he SAW the main character and Bin’s complicated love arc and wants them to be happy not only for their sake, but for the cohesion of the kitchen. and on the other, he’s OBVIOUSLY grown close to Minho, thanks to the short scene where it’s mentioned that Minho has cooked him lunch before. and he would definitely want to see Minho happy. and Minho is obviously a good guy that is kind of just being led on by the main character which kind of sucks but it’s sort of justified by her and Changbin being such cowards when it comes to defining the relationship and UGH THIS FIC IS SO GOOD I HAVE PRACTICALLY NO ISSUES WITH IT

okay I’m kidding. the ONLY gripe I have with this fic that I would love to see a short film adaptation for, is that Hyunjin appears so close to the ending that he’s not essential to the plot, and that if you removed him, it wouldn’t do much😭 and it almost looks like he was only added so every member would make a cameo, WHICH IS TOTALLY REASONABLE BECAUSE THATS ABSOLUTELY SOMETHING I WOULD DO AND HAVE DONE BEFORE AND NOT ALL CHARACTERS OR CAMEOS HAVE TO BE ANYTHING SPECIAL AT ALL, and to be honest…I’m only sad because he’s my ult bias. like I KNEW he’d eventually show up in this fic, and when the painter was mentioned I KNEW it would be him, and his scene at the end is ADORABLE AND YOU MADE HIM LOOK SO CUTE, but the HWANGER in me made me wish he was a bit more relevant to the overall story.

and yeah. that’s literally the only thing wrong with the story, and it’s not even REALLY wrong, it’s just me being Hyunjin’s slut fr. and me nitpicking because this story is so goddamn good, there’s no way that the only flaw I can find isn’t really even a flaw at all HOW DID YOU WRITE THIS

and oh my gosh, don’t even get me started on their first kiss scene or the scene where they were playing cards or the pool scene or the bj scene in the kitchen or the maple(?) tree or the fireplace scene or the way the story was constructed where their love story and love reconnection story are being presented to us at the same time and is both heart wrenching and heartwarming to read in this format or how it was really cute how Jeongin was actually the main characters first time and it kind of makes a comeback but not really but it was really sweet the more that I thought about it or how we were canonically related to Seungmin or how Minho is actually such a sweet character and it’s almost kind of sad how the main character was preoccupied with Bin because he really did deserve a lot or how Chan is LITERALLY OPENING HIS OWN RESTAURANT IN THE END, WHAT IN THE RATATOUILLE IS THIS or how this is kind of my new favorite tumblr fic, and I hope you could tell that from how long of a review this was.

it’s a masterpiece. I haven’t even touched your other series because of how afraid I am of how they could affect me and the way that I structure my own stories. this feels like a “she was insane for this” but it’s literally just you writing something so amazing that if I wrote it??? it would literally be my legacy. my magnum opus. my peak. and for you I can’t even say if that’s true or not because I read falling rain and it wrecked me for DAYS on end. I should probably make a lengthy review on that fic because good golly gee whiz that one just attacked my very SOUL, and that was just a oneshot. you’re literally amazing at your craft and my gosh it’s 1:52 I’m gonna shut up

expect another review after I revisit this fic during Christmas break, but until then, thank you thank you THANK YOU for blessing us with this piece of fiction, and I have so much more to say about it, but until then

stay gold,

-bubbles

be my mistake

be my mistake — series masterlist  [ playlist ] [ back to general masterlist ] status: complete

this series (and this blog) are 18+ !! minors, please do not interact!!

• changbin x female reader, other stray kids members are featured, changbin and felix are brothers, felix is the mc’s best friend.

• non idol au, multiple timelines (past and present), slow burn, past relationship, best friend’s brother trope, exes to lovers, mcs hold grudges. a lot of guilt and a lot of fluff. 

• word count: 60k (60,215) 

• content: angst (a lot of it). strong language. drinking. trauma. mutual pining. smut (lots of building). fluff. mentions of depression, financial trouble, family issues. contains a scene of harassment (part two). each chapter will have its own warnings.

You’re delighted - you’ve finally found yourself a new job at a local restaurant. It’s everything you need, but when you meet the rest of the staff, you find out the head chef is your ex, Seo Changbin. What was supposed to be easy becomes very, very complicated. As you are both confronted with a forced reunion, you remember meeting him. Getting to know him. Falling in love with him. Him, your best friend’s brother. You’ve spent the past years convincing yourself you’ve moved on - but you haven’t, and neither has he.

• taglist: @tanyas97 ; @ughbehavior ; @softandfluffy ; @changbinluvr ; @bitchoftomorrow​ ; @babybabydoll ; @hyuneater​  ; @ipegchangbin​ ; @valreadsfics​ ; @i-say-choco-you-say-ice-cream​

• author’s note: Hi!! Welcome to this story. I’m glad you are here. Don’t hesitate to send me a message or to ask any questions. I hope you will like what I write. Take care of yourself! 

• part one: you, and a sunrise • part two: you, and a drive home • part three: you, and a whisper • part four: you, and blueberry pancakes • part five: you, and going back • part six: you, and the maple tree • part seven: you, and me

I’m hoping to publish some drabbles if it interests you. Thank you so much for reading ♡

[sneakyboymerlin]

The way that season 5 butchered everyone else’s characterization in order to make Arthur look better by comparison so that they wouldn’t have to put in the work of developing his character into an actually better person… at the expense of everyone and everything else in the show… nothing but hate for season 5 in my house

[mishasminions]

Here’s why the Supernatural Series Finale Sucked

(AND IT REALLY ISN’T JUST BECAUSE CAS/MISHA WASN’T IN IT)

First of all, I’d like to state, that this perspective is coming from someone who has watched, invested in, and dissected this show for 15 years. I’ve tried to rationalize and justify every single decision each of the main characters made throughout the years, and I’ve always tried to make sense of each of their story arcs from a “bigger picture” standpoint as each season progressed.

Anyway, before I can properly explain why the finale sucked, let me quickly take you through 15 seasons by segregating them into 3 eras, because you can’t really comprehend what Supernatural is about and what it’s become without going through how it tried to expand its universe.

SEASONS 1-5: THE KRIPKE ERA

Now, we all know that Kripke was always set in wrapping up Sam and Dean’s story in 5 seasons, and he did just that.

So, in this era, Supernatural is about two brothers who set out on a journey to fulfill “the family business”. They hunt mythical monsters that terrorize the world, while battling the monsters within themselves. Their ultimate “big bad” is an apocalypse.

Towards the end of this era, we find out that Sam and Dean are actually a parallel to Biblical characters who are brothers turned rivals. And that Sam and Dean’s destiny is to go up against each other.

However, as a dynamic, they have always been about making their own choices, choosing free will, and having a brotherly bond that can power through against any obstacle at any given day.

So, this era is neatly wrapped up with its finale. The characters grow, and get justified endings.

Dean, a man who thinks of himself as two things: 1. Sam’s older brother and protector; and 2. Daddy’s blunt little instrument.

He’s spent his whole life believing that that was his only purpose, and he knew that the only ending he’ll get would either be a bloody death fulfilling his duty to the family business; or laying his life on the line to save his brother.

Dean gets the ending he thought was never possible for him, something he thought he could never deserve. After years of living and dying for his family, he gets a shot at having an apple pie life--to settle down with a nice girl, raise a kid in a house with a white picket fence. With Sam gone, Dean’s responsibility now is to himself.

Sam, on the other hand, never wanted any part of it, because he wasn’t groomed the way Dean was, and because thanks to Dean, Sam wasn’t traumatized or forced into growing up too quickly the way Dean was.

So Sam aspires for a normal life, and works the cases with Dean so he can maybe get some semblance of it, when everything they set out to kill are laid to rest.

Ultimately, Sam performs a selfless act for his brother, who has given up everything for him, and for their cause--to save the world.

The journey is this: Dean sacrifices everything to save Sam, and Sam sacrifices himself so Dean could live.

Apart from being Dean’s “savior” and guardian angel, Castiel’s role in this era is to serve as a mirror to Dean’s journey. Castiel goes from being heaven’s foot soldier, following “God’s orders”; to an angel who learns to choose and feel for the first time in his existence.

After they realize that they’re both daddy’s blunt instruments, Dean starts choosing his own path for himself, and convinces Castiel to join him. Castiel stops following heaven, and starts following Dean.

In the end, with his newfound understanding of the world thanks to Dean, Castiel goes back to heaven to reform it.

We’ve resolved the biblical arc, and the character journeys.

SEASONS 6-10: THE SPIN-OFF ERA

So this is where the show realizes how vast its universe can be, so it tries to expand it by tapping into uncharted lands and experimenting with it.

They take on heaven, reform hell, explore purgatory, have the angels fall, turn Dean into a demon, and kill Death.

Dean and Sam recognize their codependency, and try to rise above it.

They go back and forth between which brother will risk it all for the greater good every other season.

Dean and Cas strengthen their relationship by recognizing the impact they have on each other’s lives.

Cas structures his life and decisions around Dean (Seasons 6-7), and Dean learns to trust and fight for Cas (Seasons 8-9).

Sam and Cas bond (mostly over Dean) because of their shared rationales in decision-making.

Dean, Sam, and even Cas also forge relationships with the people they work with. The concept of “found family” is introduced here.

This era was heavy on the plot while establishing, reinforcing, and solidifying relationships and dynamics.

At this point, it wasn’t just about the brothers anymore.

If Supernatural had ended in Season 10, the logical finale would’ve been Team Free Will, along with the family that they’ve found, going up against the latest big bad (Death or whoever). Maybe they lose them along the way, maybe they all make it out alive, or maybe they go down swinging, but at least the show recognizes and supports the message they keep saying, “Family don’t end with blood”

SEASONS 11-15: THE REWRITE ERA

This is where the show runs out of ideas and decides to invalidate the seasons that came before it.

From bringing Mary back (basically rendering their whole journey pointless because they’ve literally started hunting because of her death), to changing the stipulations in being Michael and Lucifer’s vessels (another character struggle rendered useless), to God himself breaking the fourth wall by saying that the Winchesters get away with everything because “they’re the main characters in his story and everything they’ve been through was just part of a badly written narrative”.

But what we’re getting from this era is that Sam and Dean, along with Cas (who has also deviated from the story) ARE trying to escape a badly written narrative.

That’s the “big bad” in this era. The writer.

At this point, the characters have picked up so many strays (including those from alternate universes), and have settled into their roles in their “found family”. Dean, Sam, and Cas all become surrogate dads and uncles.

They’ve also graduated from the whole “we’re on different sides” and “going behind each other’s backs” drama. And they just want the whole family together.

They’ve all resigned themselves to the cause, but they’re also tired. Dean allows himself to contemplate about wanting more out of life or at least getting a vacation. Sam, on the other hand, realizes his capabilities as an effective leader. Castiel learns to love another being that isn’t Dean (spoiler: it’s Jack).

However, they also realize that they’ve just been puppets on a string all this time.

So what they want now, is to write their own story, and make their own choices knowing that God/the writer isn’t the one fueling their narrative.

So here’s why the finale sucks:

Andrew Dabb, the current showrunner, said that there would be two finales.

15x19 - The finale to wrap up Season 15, and 15x20 - The finale to wrap up the series by “resolving the characters’ journey”

In 15x19 the boys find a way to de-power God/the writer. For the first time in their whole lives, they are free from the story. Their lives are completely theirs now. They can make their own decisions. There are no more “big bads” to fight

And here’s what happens in 15x20:

Immediately after being freed from their story arc, Dean and Sam go back to hunting the monster of the week.

Dean eats pie, gets nailed (literally), makes a 10-minute speech to Sam because he knows he’s dying, then he goes to heaven.

Dean is greeted by Bobby, his surrogate Dad who he hasn’t seen (fully alive) since Season 7. Bobby’s expository dialogue comprises of him explaining that he got out of heaven’s jail, that John and Mary are next door, and that Jack and Cas fixed the dynamics of heaven off-screen.

The first thing Dean decides to do is go for a long drive in his Impala (as if he hasn’t done enough of that already).

Meanwhile, Sam decides to stop hunting after Dean dies, he gets the apple pie life he hadn’t wanted since Season 8 (while Dean was in Purgatory), and names his kid “Dean” for effect. He grows old and dies.

Dean drove around in heaven for so long that Sam catches up to him.

They hug. The end.

Great, right?

After 15 years of struggling to battle their own respective destinies, going up against big bads and even bigger bads, then finally being able to take charge of their own stories, Dean and Sam regress to hunting the monster of the week, and get killed off by a nail and old age. Okay.

Sam gets to retire and have a family, sure, but they still focus on him and the kid he named after his dead brother. Still just “Sam and Dean” through and through. Nothing to do with found family. Just lineage. Just blood. And it ends there.

See, the problem here is that this ending would’ve been passable in The Kripke Era. But we’re 10 years down the road since, and while Sam and Dean are the original main characters, the show isn’t just about them and their codependent relationship anymore.

So you see, even if you take out the whole “Castiel deserves to be in the finale because he’s also a main character with an unfinished story arc” argument, the finale still does no justice to the series it tried to “wrap up”.

But anyway, now I’ll make the case for the problem with Castiel not being in the finale:

In 15x18, we get a 5-minute rushed confession from Castiel to Dean. The context of which are as follows:

1. Earlier in the episode, Dean had wounded Death with her scythe. We later find out that this wound is fatal.

2. Their friends start to “blip out” in a Thanos-like snap, and Dean thinks that Death is causing it, so Dean seeks her out, and Cas goes with him.

3. Dean and Cas anger Death, apparently for no reason because she didn’t even do the thing they thought she did. She chases them to try to kill them

4. Dean and Cas lock themselves in a room. Dean starts a pity party.

5. As Dean goes through hating himself out loud, Cas decides to inform Dean of the deal he made with The Empty. He then proceeds to explain the stipulation of the deal (that he would get taken once he experiences a moment of true happiness), then discusses his newfound happiness philosophy. Dean is getting whiplash.

6. Cas goes on to imply that the one thing that he wanted that he knew he couldn’t have is Dean Winchester reciprocating his romantic feelings for him. (Don’t even try to fight me on this because Cas already has Dean’s platonic love, and he knows that Dean thinks of him as a brother, so if he really meant this in a “familial” way, then why would he think that he couldn’t have the thing that would make him happy?) So Cas’ realization is that telling Dean about his feelings is enough to make him happy.

7. Cas tells Dean all the reasons why he loves him (thereby combating Dean’s self-deprecation tirade), and all the reasons why he’s worthy of his love. Meanwhile, Dean is still winded from the fact that Cas is about to sacrifice himself for him again.

8. Dean never gets to process anything, because Cas is shoving him out of the way, as he and Death (who busts through the door) get taken by The Empty.

After this episode, Dean never speaks of it. Misha Collins supposes that Dean doesn’t reciprocate. Jensen Ackles says that Dean didn’t really get to process it because it was too much, too fast, and that Dean, still dense as ever, thinks that Cas, a celestial being, doesn’t interpret human feelings the same way.

So what was the point of this confession?

Politics and sensitivities of a 2005 network television aside, what does this do for the story?

Cas proclaims his romantic feelings to Dean, but Dean never acknowledges it, doesn’t even give it a passing thought afterwards. So Cas’ big declaration goes unheard.

Cas cashes in on his Empty deal to kill Death (who was dying anyway), in order to save Dean who dies two episodes after.

Dean makes no effort to save Cas (despite being really broken up about his previous deaths, or even spending a whole year in Purgatory looking for him), even after they’ve beaten God, not even asking Jack (who has all the power in the universe) to bring him back (when Jack has already done it before, with less mojo).

Dean moves on to fight the monster of the week. Somewhere off-screen, Jack rescues Cas from The Empty, but Cas uncharacteristically doesn’t even bother to go to Dean? (Every single time he comes back, Dean’s always the first person he goes to)

And Cas, who apparently helped craft and reform the new heaven, isn’t the one who welcomes Dean and explains the new dynamics of it?

Sure, Jan.

Supernatural, you’ve created a finale that only your casual viewers and people who dipped out after Season 5 can appreciate.

Just goes to show how much you actually valued the people who actually invested in your story and characters, and consistently helped keep your show on the air.

[RT this on Twitter]

[fixyourwritinghabits]

Hi i was wondering if you had any tips on how to write and finish projects faster? I feel like other writers are out there slamming out work at light speed, and i’m over here taking a month to write and edit like 5k

I honestly wish I did. All my usual tips and tricks - change locations, do an in-person writing meet-up, switch out your writing tools - are... hard to do in a pandemic. My attention span is shot and I'm seriously considering looking into a lockbox for my phone so I stop picking it up every five minutes. I don't know how anyone gets anything done anymore.

And I gotta tell you, 5k a month is fricking fantastic. If you are writing and editing words you like and are satisfied with, you are doing great. I know a lot of really talented people who are simply too burned out to write anything right now. You are doing good.

BUT if you truly want advise from someone who is in the category of "idk how i'm functioning rn, much less writing", I do have this:

First, sit down and look at your goals. What do you want to accomplish this year? A book? A bundle of short stories? Really take the time to think about it - you may be stretching yourself too thin, or you may not be working with all the tools in your box. Do you need to focus on one project over all the others? Do you need to cut back on your editing to get more drafting done?

Second, when are you writing? Where? How many times do you stop and check your phone while doing it? Stop that, I mean it. Could you be more productive if you got up earlier? (Believe me, I hate this suggestion as much as you do, but it can work!) Can you schedule time when the only thing you do is writing? Take some time to change up your schedule over the next month, and see how that helps.

Third, PUT DOWN YOUR PHONE. I MEAN IT. STOP TOUCHING IT. Anyway, uh, distractions are a huge factor in how much you can get done, and while it might not be safe to go to the library or a cafe right now, you may still benefit from some noise-canceling headphones and finding a new place to write at to break some of those habits. Find those lofi music streams that help you focus.

Fourth, chunk your goals. Do you want to write a novel? Let's break down the steps to get there. How many chapters do you have planned? How many pages are in a typical chapter? How many pages do you manage to write a day? Can you set a daily page or word count to see what it takes to reach it? If writing daily isn't for you, what's a good weekly goal? Can you track your progress throughout the week to see what works and what didn't?

And lastly, I can't tell you how many of those lightning fast writers I've seen burn out and burn out bad. Anyone who's juggling a full time job, kids and a mortgage, attending school, a podcast about having kids and/or murder, AND shelling out their novel at 20k a week is going to hit a wall very soon and very hard. Burning the candle from both ends isn't going to make you successful, it's going to leave you with no candle left to burn. Look into increasing your productivity, but don't jump off the deep end, and don't let the seeming success of others push you too far too fast. You've got to find your own way of doing things.