#i just don’t want them to ruin max’s character and her (and chloe’s!) story

[arcadiii]

oh no— i’m falling back into my LIS era—

[rachelamberprice]

i’m an amberprice before all, but chloe is one of my favorite characters of all time and i think the way they wrote the pricefield break up (and really the fact it exists at all, narratively) is ooc. chloe’s arc in lis1 shows she becomes very attached and fiercely loyal to her loved ones. to a degree most people just wouldn’t go. it would take military grade equipment to remove her from william, rachel, max and even joyce. the reason why she even offers to sacrifice herself also hinges upon that loyalty, hence how she brings up not wanting her mom to die. but she also knows the trauma max has gone through (that’s like life ruining trauma) to try and save her and she loves her for that in ways you couldn’t put into words

i agree with michel on this one

but even he conceded that it shouldn’t have happened, narratively

but anyway, to tack onto this, something about deck nine that really frustrates me is the way they sort of break life is strange down into these marketable “components”. you can see this both in the ads for the game and the game’s writing itself. they’re like “look, it’s a small town and a murder mystery! that’s what you want, right? look, some independent music! that’s the same thing, right?” and even their love interests feel phoned in/shallow that way. life is strange 1 (and even before the storm, which is theirs) didn’t have these marketable love interests that were commodified more or less. they just had organic characters that were organic to the story — max, chloe, rachel. none of them were there to be love interests specifically. they were there to tell the story that the creators had a lot of artistic passion/inspiration to tell. the indie music wasn’t chosen just to be novel and hipster, it was carefully chosen to tell the player even more things about the scene or its characters. “To All Of You” was commentary on how poorly female characters are written in american media and how they aren’t allowed their own complex emotions and portrayals because they’re dainty archetypes usually. the entire game flies in the face of that issue by showing us a cast of women who are more than just their traumas and the abuse they suffer to the men in the game. they’re allowed to be imperfect, angry, multi-faceted

then you have “Santa Monica Dream” which set the tone for what chloe had lost in her relationship with rachel. i mean, there’s so many examples

there was sooo much passion that went into crafting that game and none of it was like “oh, we’re checking boxes to please the publisher and market the game”. to be fair, the game was made first and then shopped to publishers. but even with LiS2, it had the same love and genuine care instead of just… marketable pieces forced in

and i don’t fault the devs for being forced to do some of this under square’s thumb and complying to do everything they can to keep the IP because they want to have jobs. how can i fault people just trying to feed their family and live? and even when corporate/capitalist shit has been ruining the lives of devs in the industry forever now, they’ve always asked us to keep buying and supporting games anyway because they don’t want to lose their livelihoods. they would suffer, not the higher ups at square. but the issue is complex. because at some point the product isn’t being made with a desire to make art anymore, and it’s also not being made with over 60% of the audience in mind… and a lot of us are poor or struggling too and don’t have the money to waste. so then we don’t support the game, fine. but it’s like… no one is winning here? the devs aren’t winning because they’re closer to losing the IP because fans are let down (and arguably kind of lied to in marketing), square is making less money as pre orders are canceled, fans are just getting these games without love/passion that are made under extreme stress because the workers are in awful conditions. no one is winning here. something has to give and if that means it’s voting with our wallets then…? i guess that’s what it comes to, right?

the game industry is less about art now and more about appeasing these rich people that are making demands and that sucks for everyone involved. it’s predatory on the devs and the fans. and this is without talking about the nazi the studio had employed. not even sure if he’s been let go yet. not that that’s the fault of the other people who are having to suffer working alongside him (and HR is usually corrupt in games anyway) but it’s still something to really consider when supporting a studio?

but anyway, my main point with this post was just to analyze the way deck nine’s LiS games have now turned into this “hit the check boxes, give them the murder mystery, manufactured love interest, music, etc” and to me that’s making the games worse than anything else. even the pricefield debacle aside

because at least before the storm felt like a story being told to tell the story and not like a “hey here’s a murder mystery with love interest 1 and 2”, which started happening with true colors

maybe this is like a melodramatic take though, idk. i mean, i love before the storm so it’s clear to me there’s people in D9 (or there were) that do care about the original story/world of LiS1 and want to make art. even if there are also some losers in the mix (the nazi… 😭) maybe there are some really redeemable things in double exposure that make it worth playing and also just worth more than the sum of its bad marketing and flaws. i didn’t like true colors much because it felt hollow a lot of the time (and rushed?) but yeah

[itsanotheridiot]

Alrightly as someone who owns LiS, BTS, LiS 2, and TC. I also had given the benefit of the doubt to DeckNine but after seeing multiple clips and leaked information about development from a confirmed ex employee of DN I am officially not buying double exposure.

For anyone in the unknown or don’t want to read my long rant. TLDR: Life is Strange felt victims to Corporation greed ruining game franchise and character alienation

Also side note I do have to be vague about specific of the leaked content due to post with it getting taken down. Also DO NOT HARASS THE VOICE ACTORS OR DEVELOPERS BLAME DECKNINE, SQUARE ENIX, NARRATIVE TEAM AND EXECUTIVES

First thing first the narrative team did not give a fuck about the game from the starts and didn’t do any research and never attempted to understand the characters or their stories so yup just bringing max back for one big old cashgrab and due to their egos of a executive producer and the lack of media analysis and literacy from the narrative team they decided to cut Chloe from the story all together but should we be surprised this is coming from the DN the company that had a controversy about one of their developers trying to sneak into racist symbols into the game and DN who fought against their team from having Alex be the first confirmed bi lead in LiS (saying this cause it’s obvious the male love interest Warren, Elliot ,and Finn was there to appeal to audience but their interest with the lead isn’t as flesh out as the women love interest Chloe, Rachel, and Cassidy)

Anyways How did they write Chloe out you may ask? They had Chloe tell max “she can’t move on so I has to go” and broke them up like that is the most OOC shit ever Chloe the girl who journal entries from 5 years in the form unsend letters to Max. Chloe who canonically in the comic waits 2 years for max to come back to her.

There is a reason they are called partners in time their relationship is crucial to the story and their characters arcs they are linked to take away one of them fundamentally breaks the story because the relationship is at the center of it all

Now I am aware some argue the sacrificing Bae is the moral choice but canonical max by the time of episode 5 wants the town to burn and everyone in it she doesn’t care anymore max is more fucked up then people allow her to be cause she is quiet but while we would sacrificed the bae. Max would never. And trust me this is from someone who also sacrificed Bae but I still understand how important Chloe is to Max’s character

These are a few canon max journals entries these ain’t even all the evidence max has dialogue expressing disgust and hatred for Acadia Bay.

While yes LiS handles heavy topics and tells stories about children with supernatural powers that’s what it is a story and what makes a good story is characters relationship that’s what we connect with not the that’s what makes these heavy topics more personal or easier to handle

LiS wouldn’t be what it is without Chloe and Max’s relationship

LiS 2 wouldn’t be a good story without the wolf brother relationship

BTS expanded the amberprice relationship to make the reveal in the original game hit harder

TC was a interesting case because Alex didn’t have any connects but throughout the story she builds some

LiS is about outcasts craving and finding connect in extreme situations chaos was happening but love still prevailed (romantic, platonic, familial) 

Now away from all the shipping stuff for the moment. The writing in DE from the footage I seen is something like the way they try to make the game seem mature is by making sexual jokes targeted at max but it feels like they are trying to be adult like it feels like jojo siwa’s rebrand the being super sexual because that’s adult like no that’s not (also I’m aware people who experience sexual violence could become hyper sexual due to the trauma but from what I seen in the leaked footage this ain’t it) The pacing is also wonky from what I seen stuff that needed time to set in didn’t get that or they breeze by quickly.

Like comparing DeckNine’s LiS games (BTS and TC) to DONTNOD (LiS and LiS2). BTS to me kinda feel like a fanfic they had a whole game to build off of and expanded on the complexities of the Amberprice relationship which I did really enjoy while having Rachel father be a DA was definitely a writing choice it was vague enough where we can ignore it and it didn’t break the base of LiS too much just made little plot holes Now TC I do think TC is a decent game but is also the blandest out of the LiS games there was a lot of missing potential I feel like they could have done but it does work enough and gave us some nice lore like explaining why Steph and Mike wasn’t in the original game they were out of town or wasn’t at the school. Nice little story moments without stepping on the original too much.

Making a sequel with a beloved character like was a super risky choice one they could have achieved if they had actually cared about the stories and characters. I genuinely thought DeckNine was just hiding Chloe and we was going to get the memorable detective duo again and we could have had a very interesting story about a traumatized max regretting her decision all those years ago and exploring different timelines to revalue if she made the right choice that could have been a good way to expand of how the OG story effect the characters while still respecting both ends but also respecting who the characters are at their core

My last point is also how disrespectful the oversexualized and axing of pricefield is. I would like to remind you that LiS came out in 2015 this was around the time female gaming and female characters in video games were started to be taken seriously JMax and Luc even revealed how at the time Square Enix who gave the game a chance with a female lead that looked like a normal teenage

Also because this game came out in 2015 It was a massive achievement for the LGBT+ community a video game with explicit queer content at the center of the story won 3 categories at the game awards. At the global game awards it won 2 categories and came in second for globe game of the year. life is strange won 6 awards at the golden joystick. That was massive process in 2015 especially since LiS came out January 30, 2015. Gay marriage wasn’t even legal then gay content was barely anywhere this was a important game to people at the time and still is. It’s hard to imagine that now considering how much progress and content we have now.

Double exposure had so much potential I feel like there was so many interesting ideas the fandom has only to learn the game never stood a chance from the start because of a bunch of greedy egocentric executives that would rather destroy the hearts of their story than make a good game

I guess the only bright side is that alternate universe exist in life is strange in a different universe we didn’t get this shit cash grab game we actually got a game that how real love and care put into it the characters weren’t alienated and the heart wasn’t torn out in alternate universe pricefield is thriving after everything romantic or not

[dalekofchaos]

My problem with the direction of the LIS comics

I’ve seen the new Arcadia Bay in the comics and I’m conflicted. For context, here are comic spoilers. Even before this, I really had a damn problem with the comics. For erasing Max’s agency, to making her a coward for not dealing with the consequences of her choice to going to a different reality instead of saving our version of Rachel. SO yeah, already not a fan but this seriously pissed me off.

So you could rebuild Arcadia Bay in the comics, but you can’t have Kate or Warren live?

I’m already pissed the child abuser and stalker lived, but Kate still died. But Now the message is, who cares that your favorite characters are dead, we got a rebuilt town! 

Max and Chloe revisiting Arcadia Bay after it’s being rebuilt really comes off as tone deaf. Sure, Max’s friends and Chloe’s mom are all dead, but here’s a new Arcadia Bay!

I wish there were more consequences rather than just everything being built back up again. I do really love the diner being renamed after Joyce but imo the ending felt too happy.

What happened to Sean Prescott? Is the prick in jail or not? I know he’s supposedly using his funds to rebuild the town(I hope it leads to the Prescott Foundation going bankrupt)

I don't wanna deprive Max and Chloe of a happy ending but I don't want all those sacrifices to made, literal lives and friends of Max and Chloe to have a small Impact on Max and Chloe.

Also, Arcadia Bay being rebuilt doesn’t make sense given the context of LIS2. 

Even when we go to David’s trailer in episode 5, Sean comments “no amount of money could replace what he lost” meaning either the rebuilt Arcadia Bay is not rebuilt or the new town cannot replace what he lost. I’m going with the former since it really doesn’t make any sense.

And they just replace Arcadia Bay. They don’t seem to acknowledge or care about the friends or family who died. They didn't bother to visit the graves of their friends and even Chloe's own mother. It comes across as though they didn't care. Having them visit the graves of their friends and leaving flowers and a few parting words would have been good rather than the fact that Max and Chloe seemingly don't care much about anything but each other. Also if Max spent so much time mastering her power, she couldn't have figured out a way to save Chloe and the town. It's sad especially since Kate and Warren arguably were the best side characters and decent friends to Max. Like if Max had the ability to master her powers, she would’ve made it so she could save the town and Chloe. But she didn’t. It’s almost as if this whole thing was not taken into consideration by the writer. How can you think rebuilding the town, while all the characters that are beloved by the fanbase are dead is a good thing?

I don’t know, it’s just me but I actually feel like there should be consequences for our choice in the game. Seeing the ruins of the town in LIS 2 and Steph and Mikey’s trauma in Wavelengths was a really good touch, but it doesn’t seem like Max and Chloe have any consequences or feel any sense of remorse.

It’s like Square Enix saw the reaction to some fans in the fandom for being upset that we actually got to see the consequences to our choices in Wavelengths and decided to retcon it “don’t worry, you don’t have to feel bad about anything, here’s a happy ending”

Like...completely tone deaf. Having them go back to the town to have it be good and rebuilt comes off as so tone deaf.

And I’ve always felt like the comics were completely one sided and ignored the other ending altogether. 

It’s like despite DONTNOD saying both endings are canon, Square Enix are trying to make Save Chloe the canon ending. I really feel like you could’ve told a story about both endings.

One that tells us what happens if you saved Chloe and the other that shows us with what happened if you saved Arcadia Bay.

TLDR version:I feel like what would’ve happened had we got a separate branch of comics that shows us the other ending, it would be Max dealing through her grief and learning not to live in the past and learn to live without Chloe. Max dealing with Chloe’s loss, her grief, but ultimately showing Max living her life and moving on. Show that Max still misses Chloe, but show her living her life. And just show Max living her best life with Warren, Kate, Brooke, Dana, Daniel, Stella and Alyssa. Even show montage of a friendship with Victoria. We just needed to see that despite losing Chloe, Max is okay. Just because Chloe’s gone, doesn’t mean you can't be happy or look back fondly on your time with that person.

Long version:We should’ve gotten to see Max learning to cope with the loss of Chloe. Max would see The Blue Butterfly which would represent Chloe just like Chloe saw the Raven that represented William. Max would dream of Chloe. Chloe throughout these dreams would try to convince Max she has to let go of her guilt and move on with her life but know that she will always be in Max’s heart and that Max has to live for her. This would be the story of Max trying to move on, going through grief, Warren, Kate and the rest of Max’s friends helping Max through this sad period of her life. Warren would be a positive presence for Max, always there for her and a good influence during her grieving period. They’d watch movies together in their dorm rooms and just hangout. Warren’s presence soothes Max’s broken heart and this is why Max slowly falls in love with him. With Kate, Kate is Max’s angel. Like Warren, Kate lifts Max up after the loss of Chloe. Kate would take Max to her church and Kate would allow Alice to love Max up and tea dates just to brighten Max’s days up. Max and Victoria would make peace and Victoria would help her through her grief, which would result in Max and Victoria finally becoming friends. Victoria, Taylor and Courtney would take Max out for shopping, dress Max up and Victoria would help reignite Max’s love for photography and would not let Jefferson ruin her passion. Max and Victoria together would take some killer shots. Victoria would tell Max “when you are a famous photographer, you can put your pictures in my gallery” and it was a deal, Max would focus on becoming a photographer and Victoria would become heir to the Chase Space. Max and Victoria embrace in a hug. Max would confront Nathan in a mental institution. Upon being visited by Max, Nathan would break down in tears and tell her he did not mean to kill Chloe, hurt Kate or hurt Rachel. He didn’t want to hurt anyone and profusely apologize, but he knows he has to live with what he’s done and Max takes it upon herself to forgive Nathan and hug him. This results in a monthly visit where Max and Victoria would visit Nathan, think of this like the fanfic The Sense Of Me for Max and Nathan’s friendship. We could also get a dream of Chloe telling Max that she loves Joyce and that she forgives her and misses her and Max would tell Joyce this and Joyce would break down in tears. As enough time to process the grief and begin healing, Max and Warren go Ape and Max thanks Warren for being there for her during her mourning and Max tells her how much she appreciates Warren and confesses that she loves him and kisses Warren. Time passes and Max would graduate from Blackwell with a promising career in photography on the horizon. It could close on Max, Warren, Kate, Victoria, Joyce and David at the Lighthouse. Chloe’s spirit looking on her family and Max proudly, and Chloe’s spirit finally moves on.

But I don’t think something like that would happen. For two reasons. Reason 1. Max and Chloe sells and is more marketable. They only see profit for only one of the endings, sad but true. Reason 2. I feel like fans would reject this hypothetical comics that shows what would happen in the other ending. The fans have an irrational hatred for Warren and any confirmation of Max being Bisexual and not having a girlfriend would be met with torches and pitchforks.  I also feel like there are people in the fandom who don’t think Max would not be able to live without Chloe or won't be truly happy without Chloe and it comes off as Max depending on Chloe for happiness and it's not healthy. 

And unfortunately, SQE/D9 and DONTNOD will backpedal and bend over constantly in order to appease the Max and Chloe fans. 

And honestly, I don’t think it’s good business sense to pander to one half of your audience, while alienating those who chose to save Arcadia Bay, especially since Save Arcadia Bay has the higher percentage in both of the endings. 

I’m just kind of tired of alienating one half of the fandom in order to appease the other. We have two endings and both endings deserve a story that tells us what happened

[terrible-fanfiction-of-course]

All thanks to you

Lila sits in her room rewriting the latest chapter of her novel, A novel she started when she transferred to (school name). As she finished, she mused on the best part that had yet to come. You see, Lila is a writer who loves being inspired by life. She doesn’t mind trying to create her inspiration, also known as manipulating people. Lila moves so often that it been a hobby for some time now, Lila had long given up on actually forming real bonds with people. It never works out and she usually would have to move soon after. 

Lila daydreams about the first days of this school initially she wanted to try and write a romance novel about two people from different worlds type of thing when that got ruined fast. Hence, she assumed her inspiration would become someone having to deal with having a wrong first impression and coping with bullying, so she avoided school for a while, and strangely when she came back, no one else knew she was a liar. And her lies were not smart. It would have been too easy to figure her out, yet these people believed every word she said, barring that Marinette character. Marinette was prefect; she created such a beautiful chance at her favorite genre of writing. Tragedy. She loves tragedy, she loves the aspect of seeing a story play out, and with only a few decisions seeing something that could be a happily ever after turn so terrible. Lila realizes that this makes her a terrible person she just doesn’t care, at least she will come out and say it. when she wants to. but for now she wants to think about Marinette 

Marinette was the prefect protagonists or I guess victim, I so easily turned all her friends against shifts the aspect and comfort she took from those people and even poisoned her own thoughts about them. To the point, she chose a healthier life and has moved on mostly, cutting all of those too stupid and greedy to see through the thin veneer of my lies before it was too late. And while she didn’t leave without a few emotional scars, she will be all the better in the end. Marinette, my wonderful protagonist, had her ending. But the tragedy aspect of the story is no longer just hers. An epilogue is in order for those left.

The players who made this whole drama come to life deserve to know what there just deserts are. As Lila finishes typing up Marinette’s new ending, she stands up and gets to gathering items she has been buying and saving for months. Being a part-time model did help with this, but she doesn’t think she would want to continue with this. Modeling was tedious, and so was Adrien. So dull that she is almost glad that her romance novel failed so fast, she has a feeling that she would have had to scrap it anyway. Anyhow she got to finishing warping all her gifts for her wonderful classmates. Monday would be an exciting class. She had already convinced her naive teacher to be out of the classroom for her show. She can’t for the life of her recall what lie she used for this but it’s unimportant as she finished her preparations and snuggles up to bed and falls asleep. Monday comes around as Lila gets up early and makes her way to school with giant bags of presents. She made it to class first; she places all the gifts on each desk. She then makes her hidden cameras were well hidden and video set up.  She sits on the teacher’s desk and waits, and as her classmates come inside, she tells them that she has a surprise but not to open the present till the end. As everyone gets to their sits and looks so excited and happy and really why shouldn’t they be? They don’t know what about to happen to the perception of reality. The only desk with no gift was Chloe a very surprising character indeed, she made for a beautiful and unexpected redemption arch, she sits in her seat and simply glares at me. I smile sheepishly and once everyone is settled. I start my spiel. “Hello everyone, today I wanted to thank you so much for all that you have done. If it weren’t for you all, none of this would have been possible. I’m going to play this video and I just need you all to watch to the end thank you as Lila leaves the room and goes to an empty classroom to watch from the cameras she had set up earlier in the morning. The video starts with Rose, “Rose I wanted to thank you. You saw me as a friend and trusted me so fast, you were so able to gather all the girls like no other and because of you, Marinette understood that none of her ‘friends’ really cared about her anymore” Lila makes sure to air quotes, in the video, the word friends of course. She had seen true and real pure friendship and this class didn’t cut it. Rose and really the whole class seem to turn from happy and thankful to shock as she continued to speak, and Adrien looked the sickest of them all. But seemingly too shocked to stop her speech. “Of and Juleka I also have to thank you for being so willing I believe everything I said and making sure Marinette couldn’t get comfort from your big brother of yours it really helped the isolation aspect that you completely turned everyone outside of school against her but really I guess I can give credit to everyone for that” Lila blow a big kiss to room and flips her hair back. This unforcedly seems to break them from there stupor and Rose stood and said “I-I didn’t do that! I just wanted Marinette to go back to being a good friend why would you say such things?!” and Juleka says more quietly “Marinette did so many terrible things I didn’t want my brother getting involved in the wrong crowd” she seems to tremble like the weight of saying her words are too much. Lila having seen this coming had set up the video to say “now calm down, I have a reason for saying all this, and I promise everything will be clear in the end, while everything may seem bad to you now I promise by the end you’ll have new clarity about everything.” this rather surprisingly seems to calm them down. Though I have the sneaking thought that the present in front of them was an excellent positive investment to say silent for just a while longer.

 I start going through everyone involved with making Marinette miserable, some of the highlight being Kim looking somewhat ashamed when he and Alix pushed Marinette down the stair multiple times and Max and Sabrina made sure to get the taps erased every time. Their expression was of a child being scolded for something they didn’t think was wrong. Which made sense they still thought of Marinette as a bully a terrine person. They didn’t seem to understand why I brought all this up. And why I was adding you chose and did this with no instruction from anymore else to the statements. The build-up was killing Lila and looked like it was killing Adrien as well. Oh, to see him squirmed was such fun.  From her classroom, she laughed and kept recording there reactions. So much fun really. But before we get to the fun of causing a spineless boy to squirm their video goes over Alya’s involvement of her so-called ‘my best friend’ “Alya oh Alya you were always there for me, guarding me and making sure Marinette stayed in her place. Calling her a jealous bitched and completely disregarding anything she tried to tell you while also still trying to take advance of free babysitting and free clothes and pasties usually on the same day you make her cry.” Alya’s face was red she stands up to start yelling she had a betrayed expression on her face. “Girl what are you saying? I was defending you from a bully!” The class nodded in agreement. And Chloe starts to laugh “Really are you all this ridiculously stupid??? She is literally telling you how you fucked up and you still can’t take responsibility” Chloe said expression of sadness and slight disgust as she stares at them. While Lila didn’t like the interruptions to her spicy video she let it slide as it gave pause time for people to scream for a good ten seconds. “we still have one more person because I can finish my little speech.” past Lila said with a wink. She then speaks to Adrien I wanted to thank you most! If you had gas-lighted Marinette into staying silent and then totally abandoning her when supporting her would have been a widdle bit hard, without your totally knowing and willing approve and support now of this would be possible.” Before the class could argue more she added “Most all of you took my side because you thought you could get something from me, you wanted to use me the same way, Marinette was going to let herself be used by you. You deemed me a more valuable asset when you found you couldn’t have both and then diluted yourselves into thinking you are the justified ones. But your wrong, because I was lying to you all about everything I said to you were totally lies.” The class seems to freeze then exploded and start yelling and freaking out, I stare at them to recall all their beautiful betrayed reactions. As they started calling me the bad guy, all I say is please open your gift and read the letters first” video Lila was explaining what the letter was because the gifts were just that useful nice gifts for the most part. Rewards for being such good suckers and throwing away their ‘good friend’ The letter was super well-documented evidence of the harassment and bullying they had all done to Marinette while Lila was in the class. It showed how they chose to do what they did. It finally seemed to sink in for them that hey had fucked up and the expressions on their faces would be so helpful to finish off her novel as the all tried to call Marinette only to discover that she was gone they have no way to get in contact with her. Truly only then had some of there actions seem to matter at all to them. They have finally expressed the loss that Lila was craving for them to feel.

[chronicallylatetotheparty]

The "Marinette is in charge of a class trip and has to suffer at her classmates whims, finally snapping and getting her cruel, well-deserved revenge on everyone" plotline can die now. I see it and I just want to yeet Saltinette out of the story so she can stop warping the world around her and everyone else can get a nice field trip arranged by the teachers and the school, as is canon, and Saltinette doesn't get to abuse her authority to make people suffer.

@flightfoot So! . . . My brain took this as a challenge apparently.

-------------------

"Alright class! Settle down." Mme. Bustier clapped her hands to get everyone's attention. "Now, the school field trip to, uh, the beach?"

"Yeah, mine says beach too." Alya held up the script and nodded for the teacher to continue.

"Right! Remember to-"

"AHHHHH!"

"Juleka, that's not in the script." Mme. Bustier waved her copy for emphasis.

"Sorry, Mme. Bustier!" Rose supplied while comforting her girlfriend. "It's just- AHHHHHH!"

"That is it! What!? What is with the screaming!?" Chloe demanded.

Rose pulled one of her hands that covered her face and pointed at the script that had fallen open. "S-S-Saltinette's in the script!"

Pandemonium erupted as the class protested.

"Quick Markov! Run away before she reprogrammes you again!" Max yelled, holding the window open for his friend.

"Ugh! Why her?" Chloe pulled out her phone to post about how unfair it all was online. "She's even more intolerable than Dupain-Cheng! Always saying we're friends and telling me to agree with everything she says and-" she shuddered, "expecting me to be nice!"

Alya was shaking her head and making an ex with her arms. "Uh-uh, no way. This is not in my contract!" . . . Seeing Nino wavering in his seat Alya brought the trashcan over.

Nino emptied his breakfast into it as his girlfriend rubbed circles on his back. He lifted his head just long enough to say: "God, I hate her." And then buried his face back down.

Adrien stared off into space, eyes blank as his inner voices argued.

The one that looked suspiciously like a supervillain was grinning. "Aren't you tired of being nice? Don't you just want to Murder?"

The Chat Noir-ish one tapped his chin before pointing at the supervillain. "You know? He's got a point."

"Guys, guys!" Glasses Adrien protested, wrapping an arm around their shoulders. "We've been through this. Of course we're going to murder!"

"-Adrien? Dude!"

Adrien snapped out of his thoughts as he realized that the bane of their existence had entered the classroom. He turned toward Nino. "So we all agree that it's only murder if it's a person, right? Anthropomorphic embodiments of selfishness and revenge fantasies don't count?"

Saltinette draped herself dramatically onto Mme. Bustier's desk. "Oh! See how cruel and mean spirited my former crush is!"

Adrien rolled his eyes. "Get over yourself."

"Is this- Wait, hang on." Saltinette leaned her head back and held up an eyedropper. "Ah, there. That's better. Is this any way to treat your class representative?" Saltinette wailed with tears in her eyes.

"After I slaved away at fixing that old junkyard bus and raised enough money to pay the driver, 'cause he only accepts payment in quarters, by having a sale at the bakery and coordinated everyone's schedule so we could all go together!?"

Mme. Bustier flipped through the script. "It doesn't say that."

"Oh! How Lila has shone your true colors!"

Alix turned her head from left to right. "Dude, she's not even here!"

"Even Alix has turned her back on me!" Saltinette continued, holding the back of her hand to her forehead. "An unforgivable crime unless she gets on her knees and begs me for forgiveness and helps me ruin everyone else's lives and then maybe, possibly, eventually I will deign to give her the Bunny M-"

"Marinette SMASH!!!"

In the blink of an eye Saltinette went sailing through the window and disappeared into the sky with a twinkle of light.

Marinette brought her smoking fist, which she had just used to uppercut Saltinette out of the story, to her lips and blew on it.

"Sorry, I'm late!" Marinette stumbled before righting herself with a grin. "I needed a running start."

The classroom erupted into cheers.

Adrien smiled proudly at her. "Go out with me, My Lady?"

"Absldbsbdj! Adrien! That, um, isn't in the script!" Marinette protested despite having sent the "main character" into the stratosphere, cheeks tinting.

"Sure it is!" Adrien smugly flourished his copy of the script to the page they were on. He'd attached a sticky note to it that said, 'Adrien asks out his future wife'.

"Eeeeeeeee-" Marinette's face became even redder as her grin widened.

"Nice going, sunshine," Alya teased. "You broke her!"

"What a paws-itively un-fur-tunate occurrence."

Marinette blinked as a terrible realization dawned. "Oh, no."

Adrien grinned as he pulled her into his side. "Oh, yes!"

Mme. Bustier smiled at the new couple while throwing whole pages of the script into her new shredder. Right then. Taking out her red pen she began to make corrections for what remained.

-----------------

"Ha! Ready to give up, handsome?" Marinette sent the volleyball back over the net.

"You wish, beautiful!" Adrien slid on the sand and managed to keep the ball in play.

"Heads up, babe!" Nino called as he shot it back to the other side.

"For me? You shouldn't have!" Alya jumped for the ball and sent it spinning onto the sand, to the groans of the boys.

"Aw, look at them!" Rose cooed from her spot next to Juleka. The bright pink towel and umbrella clashing with Juleka's black beach hat and swimsuit. "They're adorable even on opposite teams!"

"I know. Horrible isn't it?"

Rose giggled. Juleka sometimes liked to pretend romance was icky 'for the aesthetic'. Personally, Rose thought the matching necklaces her girlfriend had bought them were plenty romantic. But who was she to ruin Juleka's fun?

Her attention wandered to the water where Max and Markov were enabling helping Kim with something.

"You sure you're up for this little guy?" Kim asked.

"I appreciate your concern but I assure you my waterproofing will keep me quite safe!" Markov replied.

Max nodded, adjusting his prescription goggles. "Markov will time your swim and measure how well you've improved."

"Then what're we waiting for?" Kim plunged underwater with a splash. Markov following after him.

Ivan gave a warning glare in their general direction before turning back to Mylene. Who was floating happily in a tube float.

Sabrina gazed wistfully from where she held Chloe's tanning mirror. Chloe herself could be heard snoring.

"Psst! Sabrina!"

Looking around, she spotted Alix behind some large rocks. Blinking, Sabrina pointed at herself.

Alix rolled her eyes. "You see any other Sabrinas around here? C'mon!"

Sabrina stood, paused, opened up the Queen Bee themed umbrella so Chloe wouldn't sunburn and hurried to catch up.

Nathaniel chuckled from his perch on the rocks as he continued sketching.

"Okay, I have a plan." Adrien announced.

"Is it an actual plan or is it one of your regular plans?" Nino asked.

Adrien summoned as much indignation as he could- "Rude," -and turned back to the game without telling Nino the plan.

"Wait, bro, c'mon!"

"Too late!"

The volleyball flew back and forth as both teams went all out. Marinette saw her chance, reached for it and-

"Hey, Marinette."

Adrien's hair glistened in the sunlight, eyes smoldering as he gazed into her soul. His soft lips curling into a playful smirk and-

Marinette felt sand burst all over her hair as she fell.

Instantly she was back on her feet. "Cheater! I call cheating!"

Rose laughed good-naturedly, knowing that Adrien had just invited a reckoning onto himself. "Poor Nino."

Kim burst to the surface. "Ahhhhhh! What is it? Get it off!"

"Please hold still so I may assist you!" Markov zoomed around Kim, trying to use his arm to pull some brown thing off of him.

"Kim, it's just seaweed!" Max yelled.

The corners of Juleka's lips twitched. "Tragic." She clicked her pen and wrote something down in her notebook.

Rose smiled and offered a lick of their icecream.

Ivan narrowed his eyes at the commotion but just snorted and went back to making sure Mylene didn't drift off.

Sabrina straightened from where she leaned over a tide pool. "What was that?"

"Just Kim being dumb again," Alix replied dismissively. "Ooh! There's a good one!"

"Making Marinette angry is a terrible plan!" Nino panted.

Adrien just grinned. "How can she be angry when her boyfriend looks like this?" He struck a dynamic pose.

Marinette missed her swing. Again. Glaring at her smug cat of a boyfriend she rose to her feet. "That's it." Marinette pulled out her pigtails, letting her hair fall. "The gloves are off."

Adrien stared openmouthed as the next volley sailed centimeters past his face. A gleam entered his eye. "Game of cat and mouse?"

"We'll see whose the cat this time!"

"Uh, we're still here y'know," Alya reminded them.

Blushing sheepishly all four resumed their game.

Taking a sip of her non-alcoholic cocktail Mme. Bustier put the finishing touches on the script. That done she tossed it aside and smiled at her students enjoying themselves. All was as it should be.

[itsthegameilike]

Best Books of 2020

Hi all! As always, I read some banger books this year and I like to do my best to get like everyone in the world to read them, because they’re deserving and being an author is hard. So, without further ado, here are the books that made my year! There Will Come a Darkness/As the Shadow Rises--Katy Rose Pool A pretty standard fantasy YA fare, but a step above in character and entertainment. There’s a world-ending prophecy, of course, and a collection of kids trying to save the day, but the world building is excellent and the plot develops from the characters and their relationships, not the other way around. I have characters I would die for and the second book in the series didn’t fall into the typical mid series lag. 8/10. The Lost Future of Pepperharrow--Natasha Pulley This was a follow up to The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, which is another of my personal favorites, and this did not disappoint. I, in fact, like it better than the first. Set in Japan in the late 1800s, it is part ghost story and mystery, as Thaniel’s--the main character--love interest goes missing, his past having caught up to him. Thaniel is so relatable and his devotion and relationship with Mori could carry me through like forty more books exactly like this. I don’t want to give it away, but it’s one of the most satisfying historical fiction queer relationships I’ve ever read. 10/10.

The Vanished Birds--Simon Jimenez A space odyssey story that hits closer to home for me than most do, as I’m not typically a science fiction fan. There are aspects of time and space travel, leaving the main character outside of normal space and time, meaning most of her friends have aged and died past her. Eventually, she meets a boy, lost and alone, and grudgingly takes him in. They form a bond, but he has a secret and it ends up wrecking her ship, her crew, etc. but she does her best to keep him safe anyway. The plot is incredible, lots of twists and turns--the good kind--and I’m more than a slut for found family stories, so here we are. 9/10.

Upstream--Mary Oliver This is an essay collection by Mary Oliver and like everything by her, it changed my life just a little. Before this year, I wasn’t reading her every day and now I am. She offers much needed perspective and the tools for self healing and this short essay collection is such a simple way to get started. I loved it to pieces, just as I love her. 10/10.

The Autobiography of Red--Anne Carson I read a fuckton of Anne Carson this year. I encountered her on this site and decided to read as much as I could and I have no regrets. This was my favorite by her, but they’re all so so so good. This is a modern retelling of a Greek myth starring Herakles and Geryon, centered on their relationship and Geryon’s journey to discovering his own power. There are times when it is incredibly harrowing, but I stopped like every two pages just to process her way with words. This is the most English major offering of the year, as it works heavily in metaphor and allegory--and is also poetry--but it is worth it. 10/10. P.S. If you’re looking for more Anne Carson, I also highly recommend The Beauty of the Husband.

This is How You Lose the Time War--Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone God, I loved this book. Maybe the surprise of the year for me. The writing is absolutely gorgeous and the tropes are some of my favorites. Two women on opposite sides of a war who fall in love with each other through hidden messages and a happy-ish ending. Though it is more vignettes than an actual plot--that being said, the ending comes through--it still affected me intensely. 9/10.

The House in the Cerulean Sea--T.J. Klune Read this book, please. Please, please, please. It is the comfort you need, I promise. It’s about a weary man, stuck in the hell cycle of capitalism, who is sent on a job to an old, rickety house owned by a man who takes care of magical creatures/children than no one else will take care of. They fall in love and the mc finds a family and begins to enjoy his life. The relationship is so healing and cute and I spent half my time screaming and the other half crying. 10/10.

Gideon the Ninth/Harrow the Ninth--Tamsyn Muir I do not even know where to begin talking about these. They’re weird, hilarious, morbid, and absolutely wonderful. I would die for both mc’s, who are definitely halfway through an incredible enemies-friends-lovers plot, and this book surprised me with plot twists more than once. There are necromancers and bones and sacrifices and threesomes with God and queer characters up the wazoo and old, dangerous ruins and space and ugh. I reread these almost the second I finished--both of them--and I know I’ll need to reread before the last book comes out. 10/10.

Tell the Wolves I’m Home--Carol Rifka Brunt I gave this to every member of my family to read, almost directly after I sobbed for like forty-five minutes at the end. It’s from the POV of a young girl whose uncle dies of AIDS and can’t find comfort in her own family, because they didn’t like him nearly as much as she did. She becomes friends with the boyfriend he left behind and they heal each other through their friendship. It wrecked me and put me back together. 10/10.

These Violent Delights--Chloe Gong This book is a retelling of Romeo & Juliet in Shanghai...loosely. But it’s such a good read. Shanghai is so visceral it’s practically it’s own character and the threat of the monster lose in the city is genuinely terrifying. Juliette and Roma were together at one point, then broke up after a betrayal, and when they come back together to save the city, it creates such an interesting character dynamic that never lost my interest. Lots and lots of props too to the relationship between the Benvolio & Mercutio counterparts. I cannot wait for the continuation of that in the next book. Just...so good. 9/10.

Honorable Mentions: A Deadly Education-Naomi Novak, The Only Good Indians-Stephen Graham Jones, The Memory of Babel-Christelle Dabos (only here because it’s the 3rd book in a series, it’s a 10/10), Black Leopard Red Wolf-Marlon James, The Eye of the Heron-Ursula K Le Guin, and Fifty Words for Rain-Asha Lemmie

[tangent101]

More thoughts on writing LiS

So. One trick someone has stated is that to work through a scene, write a summary. Thus when trying to work through a scene leading up to the “awkward dinner” but you have problems coming up with the wording, it’s said to block off a section. For instance:

[insert thing on what Max's parents do for work. Thoughts - seeing Arcadia Bay was a fishing town, Ryan probably was a boat mechanic. Wild thought - what if Vanessa has a degree in Library Science? Check to see what their salary would be. Retail is another option.]

The problem is? Story flow. All this does is tell me what happens there. But there is no ebb and flow to the story. My next line was going to be this from Chloe:

"Yeah, that's nice, but can't you interrogate her while she's eating? Look at her, she's famished! She's not eaten all day!"

But it doesn’t work. Why did Chloe say that? What led up to this? How does it work? At least with dialogue, sometimes you need those elements leading up to it. Otherwise you have a shoehorned conversation that is jarring and fails to let things pick up from there. 

So let’s look at what led into this with Max trying to diffuse an argument between Chloe and Joyce:

"Nice save, kid. You're still smart. So Chloe said you're attending Blackwell now?" She sighed and tsked at me. "I had high hopes for Chloe at Blackwell, but she had to... well, I'm sure she's told you."

Fucking... my eyes narrowed and I tried to lessen the venom in my voice as I responded. "Yeah, I did. I don't keep secrets from Max. And you know? She didn't get in my face about it, or try to shame me about it."

"Um. What are you making, Joyce? It smells divine!" Max interjected.

Joyce turned back toward Max, seemingly grateful for the distraction. "I made a batch of cioppino. David will be off work soon and I thought it would be nice for us all to sit down for dinner and get reacquainted. It's a shame your parents didn't stick around, it would have been nice to connect with them again."

Max shrugged apologetically. "They wanted to try and get home before it gets too late. They have work in the morning."

Chloe is already in an adversarial mood, and it’s related to Joyce acting disapproving toward her daughter - especially as Max is back, and Max is everything Joyce thinks she wants in a daughter. Quiet, obedient, unlikely to get into trouble. Chloe is most definitely not that. 

So how do we merge the two? Well, first we know that Chloe knows Max hasn’t eaten all day. She even jokes to Max (just before her argument with her mom starts) that Max is just there for her mom’s cooking (Chloe having invited Max to dinner and hearing Max’s stomach gurgle). And rather than letting Max and her grab food (before Step-Douche shows up to inevitably ruin things) Joyce is making small talk.

The next step is ensuring this remains in Joyce’s voice. It’s easy to put words into a character’s mouth, but if you’re not careful it can be difficult to differentiate them. And it’s not just a few key catchwords. Sure, Chloe uses “hella” all the time but near the end of LiS we even have Max starting to use “hella” once or twice. It’s more the context and knowing how a character talks.

For instance, Max is frequently more passive and ambivalent in her dialogue prior to Rewinds. You can think of the Rewind as Max going “okay, this is what I should have said” and rewording things (and to be honest, LiS would have been better done if we had frequent instances of Max choosing entirely different lines of dialogue because she thought things out, Rewound, and spoke that new phrase - and even moments of her goofing up and needing to Rewind to fix it!). Chloe is more confrontational in her comments and dialogue. She is more action-oriented and active. And Joyce? Joyce is more “maternal” in some ways but also tends to talk down to Max and Chloe. She’s the adult and they’re kids. She even coaches her own need to explain her actions as such. Take this moment:

Joyce: I was hoping you could be a good influence in her life now...

Max: I will be. Promise. I know things were hard for you and Chloe. I feel bad I didn't call. Now my folks are in Seattle and I'm all alone at Blackwell. It's my karma.

Joyce: You did the right thing. You moved forward with your life. I did, after William passed on. Chloe...Chloe chose to stay angry... Anyway, I hope we see more of you. Chloe needs an old friend again.

She’s telling Max what to do. But more, she’s explaining away her own actions. She married David so quickly after William’s death because she was moving on and it was for the best. So Max not calling? Was doing the right thing. It doesn’t matter that it hurt Chloe - that both of them hurt Chloe. They were right and Chloe is wrong and her anger is wrong.

Looking at that, it’s clear seeing what the conversation could turn out as, and also why Chloe starts getting angry because this is how Joyce talks to Chloe all the time. Her own anger and frustration is ignored because Chloe is the child and Joyce is the adult and the adult is always right.

“I’m glad to hear they’ve gotten back on their feet. I know you didn’t want to move away, but you needed to move forward with your life. I did, after William passed on. Chloe...” she stared at me sadly, “Chloe chose to stay angry.”

Yeah, talk about me like I’m not here. No, don’t say anything. We don’t need to fight before we get noms... I clenched my jaw and somehow forced myself to remain silent. 

“So, what are they doing for work? Did your mom finish her degree to become a librarian?”

Okay fuck this bullshit...  "Yeah, that's nice, but can't you interrogate her while she's eating? Look at her, she's famished! She's not eaten all day!"

And now we can see how this flows. 

Blocking off text can work, mind you. But it’s best if used for concise points rather than to put off entire parts of progress. You can also use a specific series of characters to point it out. For instance: 

“So, what are they doing for work? Did your mom finish her degree to [>What degree does Vanessa go into?<]”

Thus when you do a Search for incomplete sections, just search for the [> string of characters, and know that <] closes out that thought sequence. That way, the dialogue continues to flow and you don’t pause to research specific points... but also don’t just postpone a certain bit of dialogue that could end up impacting what other elements are mentioned.

[honeyons]

my thoughts on Life is Strange: Before the Storm (review-ish)

DISCLAIMER: I will NOT talk about shipping or anything about that! I really don’t care about shipping in Life is Strange and I KNOW people here have strong opinions! you can ship what you want! I don’t care and I won’t talk about that now. as for me: I have played Life is Strange and Life is Strange: Before the Storm and I played EVERY route because I wanted to see the outcome.

PLEASE don’t make this post into some shipping war shit. look at this as some sort of a review (it’s not really but you get my point).

okay, forgive me for the mess but I try to structure this post.

Location: Like always in every LiS game I got struck with the beautiful scenery and music. It just feels like pure peace just sitting there and enjoy the moment. Even tho many NPC’s talk about how shitty Arcadia Bay is, the aestetic and scenery makes you want to live there. also new places were introduced like the park or the mill.

Story: The Story itself was... okay. I know it’s harder to come up with a good and emotional story without the impact of superpowers (like the butterfly effect in LiS 1). the whole plot with Sera felt a bit weird to me actually. was not really my cup of tea. Also what bugged me and threw more questions: why would Rachel be okay with cheating on Chloe (if they were lovers) with Frank but she’s mad at her dad for cheating? sounds a bit fishy and I think that’s more about the inconsistensies that came up. while I love and adore what Deck Nine did, a little bit more detail research to that wouldn’t have hurt (I’M NOT accusing them of not doing enough research but it just seems like it)

also didn’t like that they introduced a bad guy (Damon Merrick) and killed him off immidiatly. I get that there need to be a concistensy to LiS 1... but there are other options to handle this. He was THAT baddie mcbad, a very powerful criminal and he was killed off camera. that’s a bit lazy.

All in all it was a bit weird that the whole plot was stuffed in only 3 episodes which made everything feel rushed.

Music: I actually liked the music more than in LiS 1. It got me into Daughter a lot and I enjoy her music very much.

Characters:

Chloe - I  have to say, I liked Chloe much much more in BtS than in LiS. She grew a lot to me. We explore her trauma from losing her dad and it is really really emotional. Also I liked the aspect that her journal are letters to Max. we also explore how she felt about Max, many mixed feelings in being angry and missing her. a nice detail is how her clothing style is kinda changing from skater style to punk rock, so we still get to have both clothing styles until we have full punk rock Chloe in LiS 1. My favorite scene (and one of the most emotional ones imo) is the junkyard smash scene. her emotional outburst and wanting to destroy stuff really hit hard. (a bit off topic but imo I agree to the fan theory even more that Chloe suffers from BPD and depression. )

Rachel - so I gotta say, this game is not really for people who liked the mystery around Rachel in LiS 1. I always liked Rachel and especially in LiS 1 that there is this mysterious person you only hear rumors about and see some pictures. My problem is that Deck Nine tried to make Rachel live up to these rumors a bit too much, there was a bit potential lost. because all in all, these are rumors, they can be wrong, they can be exaggurated. I really liked how Rachel encouraged Chloe to be part of the play. And I can imagine she did a lot of things like that. Showing Chloe things out of her (Chloe’s) comfort zone that are good and enjoyable, that things like the play are actually fun and don’t suck. I enjoyed Rachel a lot she is a fun character and even shows that a “perfect” person has their own struggles. And no. I don’t think she has element powers. the wind was more to underline her pain, the fire was more symbolic for her anger. for example the candles at the tables, the flames grew and we see Rachel being quiet yet tense. the flames were symbolic for her anger that boiled up.

relationship between Rachel and Chloe - like I mentioned in the “Story” section, it all felt very rushed (no matter if you choose friendship or love). But still it was shown how much they care for each other. Even tho I’d love to see more happen what we saw in the ending sequences. Because those little shorts were more to what we knew about Rachel in LiS 1 and I wanted to explore more of this. What bugged me a bit was that we as Chloe weren’t really doubting anything even a bit. yes the junkyard scene was the only time Chloe called her out and they got into a fight. what I rather wished for is for example something like this:

the scene were Rachel drugged Victorias tea.

C: Rachel! I.. I know that you want to be in the play..and you deserve it, really! but that was insane... you could get in seriuos trouble... have you forgotten what happened this morning?

R: I thought Chloe Price doesn’t care about getting in trouble?

C: I don’t. I get in trouble all the time but I care about YOU. I don’t want you to get in more shit.

R: I... I’m sorry. you are right, that was a bit extreme. I promise not to do such thing anymore.

(JUST AN EXAMPLE. I DON’T KNOW IF I GOT WAY OUT OF CHARACTER BUT YOU GET MY POINT)

All in all I enjoyed their relationship and the deep care for each other it’s more hurtful because we as player know what’s going to happen and the very last sequence in the dark room is very very heavy. BUT I get why a lot of people thought of Rachel to be manipulative. I myself had my doubts too sometimes (even tho I love Rachel). I think Deck Nine did a bit of a messy writing in her character (like I said above with living up to her rumors) mixed with Chloe being totally okay with EVERYTHING Rachel does paints that kind of a picture. maybe I could be wrong too since there is the whole Frank stuff still open and we never got an explaination why Rachel hooked up with him. I didn’t really get the feeling in LiS1 that she’s manipulative..more.. desperate I guess? so that’s a bit messy on that part.

Nathan - I liked him better in BtS than LiS1. The scene where his father is mad at him before the play was heavy (for everyone who know how bad abusive parents are, this hits hard) and we actually see Nathans concernes and being afraid. I really enjoyed him in the tempest play (when you encourage Samantha to talk to him). it shows a different side of him. also he wasn’t constantly flexing with his familys power. so yeah, I liked him better in BtS.

Eliot - oof. I get what point Deck Nine wanted to come across but they pushed that too much from the start. If they wanted the scene in the Ambers office more of a shock value they should’ve written him better. yes he is definitely a creepo but there was potential wasted to make a good shock moment in the end. For example, they could make postitve interactions between Chloe and him so we don’t suspect him imidiatly as creeper. because every interaction (even the “nice” ones) were hostile. what I’m trying to say is that Deck Nine had a good chance to build up a good shock moment for the player but it was ruined from the start.

okay I don’t want to get in each and every character.

Bonus Episode Farewell: tears. just tears. the only thing I have to say is... from a logical standpoint I don’t get why Max HAD TO leave on the exact day of the funeral. I mean... yeah she had to go anyway but her family could’ve delayed that for a few days to be there for the Price family. HOWEVER from a stroy telling point this gets you more tears in your eyes (to leave on the funeral) and goddammit this made me cry every time.

all in all I really really love BtS and it was so nice to visit Arcadia Bay again, seeing familiar and new faces. I love it even with it’s flaws.

[neon-writing-pot]

ML Fantasy / Maribat Fantasy AU

Alright some quickie headcanons for a fic i plan to write and need to get these down while I still have them 

Character Headcannons

Ok so first off, the miraculous don’t exist and is going to be replaced with magic but tikki, plagg etc. exist as humans 

So Paris is its own separate little kingdom that is rather secluded and is one of many that does not allow magic within it’s lands, but this only happened after the first few magical attacks by an unknown sorcerer

This sorcerer who was dubbed hawkmoth after his magic that seemed to use moths as a carrier, with a moth landing on the person his manipulation magic would take hold of (note i will work on a better way of describing it but this is the best i’ve got)

Now moving onto the characters, 

Tom is a baker living and running his family bakery in the heart of Paris, while Sabine worked as a travelling blacksmith before meeting Tom

Mari was born with magic rather than learning it from a spellbook as most others did which was rather difficult for her family since random items appearing with their child would at least be a little concerning

While her family had never used magic and definitely weren’t accustomed to it they did their best to help her learn and control her abilities. It surprisingly easy to find information from anyone coming to their bakery, from druids to a man that knew more than expected gave them tips and advice to help their daughter

So all in all Mari’s life went on well until the hawkmoth incident which just made her life 100x more stressful

Now onto Adrien, Adrien comes from a long line of nobility and is training / is currently a knight. Gabriel, of course, isolates him from others aside from training and slowly forms him into his personal ideals along with teaching him magic

 Now Adrien is all in for the knight stuff, he can find love, adventure outside of his ‘cramped’ room, have glory but he absolutely did not like the isolation. Yet in a strange  way understood, he needed to be isolated to properly understand magic, still hated it though

One particular day he is fed up and desperate so after training quickly escaped to the town with another knight, Nino a knight he had barely spoken to due to his slightly immature nature that seemed to rile his father but at that point riling was exactly what he wanted

So the knights (the boys grab Max from the physicians quarters so he can take some time off studying) heads out and meet up with a group of nobles and their maidservants in the village and proceed to explore and have an all round decent time

Mari is out running errands for her parents and runs into the group, befriends Alya and knocks into Adrien

Mari is interested in him and becomes his friend BUT does not gain a crush mainly due to lack of interest and him being a noble shut in

Mari meets Ivan again the next day and helps him out with the attempt at courting, it fails and Gabe uses it to his advantage and stoneheart happens

Now since there are no miraculous this happens differently, now Mari senses to magic straight up and realises who it was and goes “yikes, kinda my fault imma go handle this” takes a set of dark red and black armour that her mother had been repairing and goes to town trying to help

Adrien sees this VERY differently Adrien after getting an earful spots this strange magical creature attacking the kingdom and sees this as an opportunity to prove he has full control of his magic and will prove to his father that he no longer needs to study something he barely understands, so being slightly underprepared grabs a set of leather training armour and a helm and off he goes

So Mari is handling things surprisingly well, a little one sided but she was handling it that is until someone else jumps in at first she's fine with it ��Alright cool help, this is decent and he’s a skilled fighter” later on things go down hill when he brings out the magic and straight up panics when he just randomly uses destruction magic with no clue of his limits “Ok tf is he doing, wait- NO FUC- STOP THAT” 

It’s handled and Marinette is annoyed tells him off and when asked for a name stumbles and just goes with Ladybug before running off

After the point that Chloe is Akumatised magic is officially punishable by death

So things continues like that until things amp up and in an act of desperation gives a simplistic spell of illusion to Alya then retrieves it after they’re done, same happening with the others until Chloe where she is desperate to have control begs to keep the spell only for her father to find out leaving Chloe banned from leaving the castle and the hunt for anyone with Magic

So after years of dealing with Hawkmoth his last akuma is faced and he just stops, he had found a strong enough to heal his wife he admits this to the heros both Adrien and Mari don’t have the heart to kill him just after he got his wife back

meanwhile, Adrien had gotten fed up with constantly being turned down and desperate so he demands they meet after the incident. 

While Mari had figured it out quickly that Adrien was Cat Noir, Adrien did not, so as they meet he demands that they reveal themselves stating that once they truly know who they are she would love him 

Mari declines knowing that it could easily be used as blackmail and Adrien is pissed and in an act of desperation lunges for her and rips of her helmet

He is happily surprised to find the girl he had spent happy afternoons with was his lady and someone of his standard, takes off his own helmet and professes his love

Mari declines again

Enraged, he begins to threaten her, “You don’t have a choice, you’re meant to be mine my lady, I can easily tell the king who you are, explain how you gave magic to his own daughter and corrupted his own subject, besides who would believe the word of a baker’s daughter over that of a knight.” Mari’s not having it and flees taking her armour with her

So Adrien follows through, if he can’t have her no one can, and goes straight to his father’s ward a girl who was great with words and better with lies but was best is that she had the city around her finger

So together they slowly find every piece of evidence they could of Marinette having magic and used it to talk to everyone of her friends, reminding them of the food that came from nowhere, the free armour that they had never seen before and slowly they had a mob ready to convince the king

Quickly they all go to the king and Marinette is arrested, Chloe, Luka, Juleka and Nino doing what they could to try and get her out with little success

Gabriel catches wind to late to do anything but knowing she spared his life does the same in return, giving her a teleportation spell and informing Marinette, Luka and Juleka of a plan

As Marinette is tied up and accused she slowly recites the spell only taking long enough to narrowly escape being burned and into Juleka’s traveling home where they all quickly escaped. 

Now the story can go in two different directions,

Marinette flees to the kingdom of Gotham to work under an old family friend Tikki, the kingdom's physician where she ends up working under the royal family, mainly the heir to the throne Damian while still attempting to hide her magic and in hiding from the neighbouring kingdom

OR Marinette slowly builds her own kingdom within the ruins of another, protecting creatures and people of magic that have fled from other kingdoms while coming in conflict with Paris and meets the princes of gotham while they are on patrol of the borders relationships slowly building no matter how much they dislike it (or could be any other ship still working on it.

[elbracco]

LiS2 Fanfiction recommendation list

Someone in the awesome Wolf’s Den discord channel was feeling down after having completed the game, and I compiled a list of all the fanfictions I enjoyed when I had to deal with my own post-ending heartbreak. I thought I could share it here as well, in hope that it might help someone else who feels equally lost after his journey with the Diaz brothers!

Please feel free to add your own recommendations to the list. I’m always on the lookout for awesome new stories to read!

When There’s Nowhere Else to Run (https://archiveofourown.org/works/22271233/chapters/53185021), by Autumnyte, in progress. If Parting Ways destroyed you, this is the perfect fanfiction to start healing. It begins right after Daniel yeets himself from the car and follows Sean as he tries to build a life for himself in Puerto Lobos. I told Autumnyte that this story feels like a blanket: it’s warm and comfortable. No matter what issues Sean has to deal with, there is a pervasive undertone of tomorrow will be better that I think really captures the spirit of the game. He is done running, and he can now start to look to the future with hope. 26,000 words for now.

The Bravest Wolf in the World (https://archiveofourown.org/works/21939367/chapters/52361311) by RoodAwakening, in progress. This story is set post-Redemption: Sean finds out he can use his sketches to time-travel, much like Max did with her photos, and tries to save Esteban. The first chapters feel a bit rushed and some events a little shoehorned in, but press on and you’ll find that by Part 2 this story truly takes off and becomes something wonderful. I love this Sean, love the people in his life, love his interactions with all the characters. I eagerly await every update and then complain because I want more. 70,000 words (!) for now.

life is strange 2 poems (https://archiveofourown.org/works/21165044/chapters/50375780) by  Spotsuns. I honestly don’t know why the author calls them “poems”, but... these stories have all the _oooff_ness of the game. They’re all really, really good, but for me #6 (Redemption) is special. It’s the story I always wanted to read after I finished the game and couldn’t find anywhere. It’s the Redemption equivalent to Autumnyte’s story. Be warned, though: the stories in here hurt. In the good way, but they hurt nonetheless. 10,000 words.

I Took Both Roads, series by Owlmug. AU where Esteban isn’t shot. Sean/Finn (with some Sean/Cassidy in the first story). It’s a coming of age story, and I really loved how the author mirrored some situations that are found in the game by giving them a new twist. I won’t lie, these stories hurt, because they made me think about what could have been. The characters are spot on, and the interactions of the Diaz family are golden. Bonus points for having Sean behave like a teenage brat at times, because the boy deserved to have temper tantrums and getting angry with Esteban over stupid stuff. There are also a lot of beautiful images across the series, a lot of lines that feel raw and powerful, and a lot of healing. At times it’s like having a heart-to-heart with the author.

Sometimes I felt that the sex scenes were too long, and some of them I found unnecessary, but that’s just my personal taste. I really liked all the four stories, but the last one is my favourite for sure because it follows Esteban’s point of view and it’s perfect.

1.      A Way to Reappear (https://archiveofourown.org/works/19096837), 18,000 words. Sean’s POV

2.      A Piece of the Puzzle (https://archiveofourown.org/works/19386670), 26,000 words. Sean’s POV

3.      A Little left Behind (https://archiveofourown.org/works/19852561), 24,000 words. Finn’s POV

4.      (I’ve Been Going Through) a Change (https://archiveofourown.org/works/20562086), 28,000 words. Esteban’s POV.

If I Lie Here (https://archiveofourown.org/works/18822988/chapters/44666065), by owlmug. Diverges from canon after episode 3. Sean and Finn try to track Daniel down. Sean/Finn, 46,500 words. I can repeat here most of what I wrote for the earlier series: wonderful characterization, beautiful imagery, touching themes, characters that find themselves along the way.

A Night With Misty Mice (https://archiveofourown.org/works/16028489?view_full_work=true) by That_one_internet_lover (@). It follows Sean and Lyla’s concert night that is mentioned in his phone chat in ep.1. It’s the first fanfiction I read after my endgame heartbreak: it gave me all the happy Sean I wanted, and even a bit more. The dynamic between him and Lyla is exactly what I pictured from their interactions in the game, put into words by someone who knows what they’re doing. 10,000 words.

i just don’t know how i’m doing (i’m so curious about you) (https://archiveofourown.org/works/19437487) by Larrymurphycansteponme. Another High School AU, another wonderful coming of age story for Sean. I wish I could make it justice without repeating everything I said about owlmug’s series: spot-on characterization, a beautiful narrative about growing up and finding one’s way, wonderful imagery. It’s the story of what Sean deserved to have. 28,000 words.

Torchbearers (https://archiveofourown.org/works/16155425) by Riona. Ep.1’s Sean and Daniel run into Max and Chloe among the ruins of Arcadia Bay. I can definitely see this story being a moment of quiet in the game. 2,600 words.

Double exposure (https://archiveofourown.org/works/21420469/chapters/51036061) by Riona. It draws inspiration from Your Name: Max and Sean begin swapping bodies at random. If the premise doesn’t turn you away, it’s a beautiful bittersweet story about two people trying to help each other while their own worlds are falling apart. 11,000 words.

Riona has written a lot of stories like this: they start from an unexpected premise and they draw a little vignette. They are all different from each other, all unexpected, but I loved them all. Check out her AO3 profile!

Can you give me a hint (https://archiveofourown.org/works/22576570/chapters/53950855) by Idnis. Teenage Daniel/Chris. If you like “mutual pining” and “dumb idiots in love”, this story will make your day. It’s just... fluffy and sweet and innocent, a tiny bit of teenage drama that Daniel and Chris deserve after everything they’ve been through. On the other hand, if you don’t like a story that’s all about teenage love, you should probably skip this one. 22,500 words.

Then there are the stories I’ve been recommended but I haven’t managed to read yet:

Sombra’s Spirit Realm: Road to Redemption (Post-R) https://archiveofourown.org/works/22156513/chapters/52890742

Zeldanerdster’s The one you feed (Post-LW) https://archiveofourown.org/works/22533553/chapters/53845591

Dreamprism’s Lone Superwolf (post-LW) https://archiveofourown.org/works/21846625/chapters/52137067

P.S.: if you are looking for a comfy place to discuss the game without being swallowed by the pointless LiS1 vs LiS2 toxicity, the Wolf’s Den is the place for you! I joined it not even a month ago and it already feels like home: https://discord.gg/BkdqDhG

Come howl with us!

[arlakos]

Why Lila could have been one of  the best characters in Miraculous

Yeah what I'm about to write will be controversial to everyone who hates Lila Rossi - That is to say, anyone. But I’ve been working on it for a while, so at least have a small read of it first.

If you’re one of those people that will send me angry comments about why I'm wrong and why I should leave this website, then you should probably skip over this.

Lila Rossi Is one of those characters that are really hated by the Miraculous Fandom at large. After appearing in one episode in season 1, she was generally ignored until season 2 when they realized she existed in the finale, then quickly became the official most hated character after booting Chloe off the pedestal (who was already shaky on it due to the Queen Bee Trilogy making her a hero and the season 2 finale). People have written blog posts about why they hate her, writing threads on Reddit about why they hate Lila and have written so many fix-it fics on ao3 to ‘fix’ the horror that was Chameleon (which doesn't actually fix any part of the story whatsoever and instead unceremoniously gun her down along with the class in some of the fics). The fandom hates her. You hate her. Period.

So why am I writing a post on why I think Lila could have been one of the best characters ever written and is generally opposing the entire fandoms viewpoint?

It’s simple really. I’m not

Just like everyone else here I hate the canon version of Lila Rossi. I hate how in season 3 she just lies so blatantly and stupidly as well, not because she is a liar per se, but because of the fact that when she is present the characters in the story become so moronic to make the story work. I hate the fact that she is evil for literally no reason other than just because, much like how I hated Chloe in season 1. I hated the fact that they were building her up all season and with such bad writing only for her to be tossed aside just so that Astruc could make sure that Chloe was unredeemable in the finale! I hate it and I hated her. I wanted her gone.

But regardless, I still think she had the potential to become one of the best-written characters in the show. ‘Could have’ being the keyword in this regard.

So I'm asking you all to take a trip back in time to before the nightmare that was season 3 and the boring monotony that was season 2 for the most part. Let's go back to the last episode of the season (officially): Volpina

When Volpina actually came out, I actually liked the episode. It was the first time that a character that was introduced that wasn’t a goody-two-shoes like the others (Chloe not counting of course) and seemed to have her own goals and motives. Yeah she was still a liar back then and yeah characters in the show were written as idiots for it to work, but it seemed at the time it more that she was a new girl trying to impress the class, sure in an underhanded way, but still, something that felt normal in a school life. To me, it felt like just a regular cartoon involving a school life, and I was fine with that.

Marinette as well was a blast in the first half, but not because she was being heroic, but because of how obvious it was that she was jealous as hell of Lila being with Adrien. Yeah, Ass-truc says on his twitter its because Marinette hates Liars and she's totally being heroic by ‘heroically’ stalking Adrien and Lila’s Library session, but considering she herself Lies in order to maintain her secret identity, Ass-truc is spitting some bs right there.

Also, that scene where Ladybug ousts Lila as a Liar was in no way heroic at all and could have easily been done in a more quiet and not-as-embarrassing manner. In fact, if you ignore Ass-trucs ridiculous claims that Marinette ONLY went after Lila because she hates Liars, then you have a story about a girl being jealous of another girl for going after the same boy, and then using an underhanded trick (being an freaking superhero!) to essentially prevent the rival from getting close to the boy, all the while justifying it under some ridiculous claim that it was because “she was evil!”. Marinette was an actual prick in this episode and in no way heroic in the first half. She was despicable, and I loved every bit of it.

And that bit where Lila pretty much says ‘fuck you’ to Ladybug was perfect. Yeah, after being made a fool in public than being given an apology for the BS Ladybug caused, even I would act in that way. It didn’t matter that Lila was Lying, she acted like a real person and I loved it.

Yeah, the episode overall wasn’t perfect. The superhero bits were rushed like hell and should have been a two-parter, and the bits about Lila lying were a bit too outlandish for me to take seriously, but I loved the episode overall.

So why did I basically do a recap of an episode?

Because of the contrast in comparison to season 3.

Season 1 Lila was a new girl who Lied just to impress the class and impress a cute supermodel boy, while Lila in season 3 lies for the sake of being manipulative and getting in the way of people’s lives.

But enough about Canon Lila, let's talk about what she could have been... 

Assuming Lila would remain through the entirety of season 2, her entire character, instead of simply being focused in writing as just ‘a liar who lies’ as Ass-truc has so ‘generously’ written her she could have instead been written as a foil for Marinette, but also someone who is a darker mirror of her as well. Because to be fair, it would be a much more interesting story compared to the season 3 we have now, and when you think about it they have a lot of similarities when you take all the bias out:

-Marinette and Lila regularly have lied to people for the sake of their goals

-Both Marinette and Lila at their worst have been somewhat creepy. Marinette had a planner to constantly follow Adrien around and sniffed him thinking he was a statue. Lila has also been rather intrusive on Adrien's personal space. Yeah it isn't a 1:1 comparison but the point still stands

-Both have carried unusually petty grudges against people. Marinette hates Lila because she lies (even though the latter had no impact on her as a whole and didn't do anything to her) while Lila hates Marinette because the former called her out once. Both have gone out of their way to get rid of the other simply because both are so petty. Marinette even more so if you believe she goes after Lila because of Adrien.

-Both have had superpowers (at one point or another)

-Both have a dislike for Chloe (Kinda simple I know)

Now that I have shown how similar the two are, lets set up the story for the two.

For Lila, to give her some depth, could have a reason given for her lying beyond the plain and boring idea of being popular. For example: 

‘Being the daughter of a mom constantly moving countries for the sake of her job, Lila never stays too long at a school for her to become familiar with people and make new friends. As she observes people, she feels most of them are fake, only putting on masks of kindness, and that no one in the world truly cares about others, least of all her. So to make herself feel better, she creates stories about herself to amaze her classmates. She learns their likes and dislikes and appeals to their desires to that people will like her. To Lila, it doesn't matter, because its all that she knows, and if it makes them happy, who cares if she is lying. And once she goes, she disappears. And no one will remember her...’

It doesn't make her immediately sympathetic, but it doesn’t make her a one-dimensional villain like in canon. To put it simply, in this new canon Lila lies not out of pure villainy, but because it's for her own sake, for her to make friends and feel wanted. Lila in this version is rather nice provided you don't snoop around her secrets and try to out her, she just acts normal. I do imagine her having a hidden personality behind that mask of kindness, but nothing actually rude or villainous behind it.

Also for this revised version, I don’t actually think she would love Adrien (at least at first). I would imagine her trying to woo him simply because it would make her fit in more with everyone else

 To Lila, protecting her secret is most important to her, so of course, she would get defensive and protective of it when she encounters...

Marinette, also known as the hero Ladybug

I know that a lot of people on this website find Marinette so precious, but I legitimately cannot stand her. In canon, she has stalked a boy, making a planner to track him down at all times and has abused her powers to interfere with his love life, regardless of what he thinks. She constantly does things without caring for others such as ruining Max’s attempts to get into a gaming tournament just so she can spend time with Adrien, and rather than having to face the consequences of her actions, she fixes the stuff as a hero, apologizes and is immediately rewarded for her piss poor actions. Not to mention the Malediktator episodes where she insults Chloe in the first half, only to have her be nice to Chloe just so she can have backup for the Akuma fight. I hate it.

So how would I fix it? By making Marinette almost as bad as she is. Not so much by being a villain, but by having Marinette be as hypocritical as Lila when it comes to her behavior.

For example, in the Volpina episode, have Marinette be jealous of Lila for being close to Adrien, and then when Lila does the thing regarding the fake Miraculous, Marinette would transform into Ladybug and use her secret identity to humiliate Lila in front of Adrien and keep her away from him. Only for Master Fu and Tikki to IMMEDIATELY CALL HER OUT ON IT!

And this is what the relationship between the two would focus on: Lila and Marinette’s pointless battle for dominance, and as a bonus have a story focus on Marinette’s hypocrisy and her coming to terms with it and overcoming it. Have a moment where Marinette calls her a liar, only for Lila to call her out on it, saying she lies to get away from her friends for whatever reasons shes got (ofc Lila doesn't know Mari is Ladybug). These example moments could be used to develop Marinette as an actual person, without having to pretend she is this innocent person who does nothing wrong and everything right (as Ass-truc so smugly claims). It doesn't mean she can’t hate Liars, but it would make her as human as anyone else in the show.

To make it clear, this wouldn’t make Lila the innocent one in this story. In order to balance the story, Lila would resort to some of her own underhand tactics to either scare Marinette away or force her to back off, such as threatening the friendship between Alya and Marinette or sabotaging peoples trust in Mari.

Basically it would make the rivalry between the two to come off as pointless, which makes sense given their characters at the time and would help with the conclusion of the arc.

If you wanted to add even more drama to it, have Adrien attempt to help Lila to become a better person and not be a compulsive Liar. That way Lila actually realizes that people can actually be kind (instead of being fake like she imagines everyone) and ends up falling in love (for real) with the lovable dork being so kind to her, making the story into an actual love triangle and making the conflict with Marinette and Lila even tenser.

So the question is: how would you end this tale?

With Marinette now being shown to be somewhat hypocritical in her actions and in many ways similar to Lila, the fight between her and Lila is showed to be pointless, there are two ways the tale could end:

-If we wanted to have a tale where both characters are redeemed, the story could be that Marinette and Lila both realize the error of their ways and bury the hatchet after their conflict affects not only themselves but the people around them, including Adrien. For the sake of others and themselves, they stop and eventually forgive each other for their actions.

-Alternatively, if you wanted to have Lila be a villain, the story could be written to involve both of them escalating their actions, but only at the point of no return does Marinette realize what she has become. She renounces her bad actions and promises to be a better person, not only for herself but for the people around her, such as Tikki, her family, and friends. Lila in contrast, cannot turn back due to being alone, and everything falls around her. She ruins herself and ends up moving to a new school.

That would be a good way to end the conflict. Not only would it give Marinette some good character development, but it also helps turn Lila from a generic villain into a moral adversary for the former that challenges Marinette to learn what it means to actually be a nice person and not just nice when preferred.

It is through this type of writing that Lila could have been a better character than the canonical version that we have gotten, whether as a villain or as a complex neutral character. 

The Lila Rossi that was given to us in the actual show was nothing short of a disappointment in season 3, and the character was barely utilized to her full potential back in season 1. But I still think that through a bit of good writing, she could have become a character that people would love to hate or hate to love through writing that both develops the show and its main cast. It pains me to see a show with so much potential being squandered for the sake of generic mustache-twirling villainy and one-dimensional character, but at least I can try to show what a show with better writing could possibly do.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk. Feel free to take a bag of salt on the way out.

[enixamyram]

So, yeah, this is purely because I was inspired (/am basically copying bobvids) but some of these comments genuinely bothered me. Naturally I’m not gonna go for every point in the video, especially as there are quite a few I do agree with but I just wanted to get through the ones that REALLY got on my nerves.

So Things I Disagreed With:

1:21 - I mean, it’s a cliche but I still like Max’s picture. Which essentially goes with the cliche that we can all be heroes. You can hate it personally but it’s not actually a bad submission by any means.

1:30, 11:25, 13:09, 25:04, 27:54, 41:25 - Foreshadowing ISN’T a bad thing! Even if you think it was obvious, I know plenty of people who didn’t get half this stuff until they replayed the game. You’re not better and the games not worse because you saw it first play through. (Also, can people who repeat sins get double the amount of sins? Because it’s really annoying.)

12:37 - I don’t like the lesbian romance in this game, but they clearly didn’t shy away from it or wait until the last episode to make it canon. I mean not only does Chloe repeatedly talk about Amber like a woman clearly in love, but Max and Chloe have their first kiss in Episode 3 for god’s sake.

28:00 - You don’t have to REALLY hate Chloe or be a homophobe to not kiss Chloe here. You could just in general not like her very much or prefer Max with someone else (like, anyone else). It’s really toxic to constantly act like if you don’t love a LGBT ship then the only reason must be that you’re completely homophobic or otherwise hate one of the characters. Also it feels like the guy doing this video is only thinking of horny teenage boys who will do anything to witness two women kissing because jerking off to lesbian is the American Boys dream apparently (major eye rolling right now).

28:08 - Sin on the guys making this video because they point out people are wrong when they call the kiss “fan service” or a “friendship kiss” when they themselves tried to claim LIS avoided canon lesbians until the last episode. Pick a side, dude. Did they avoid canon lesbians until the end or are people dismissing their Episode 3 kiss wrong because it was obvious a romantic gesture early on?

29:02 - The sin should be that you even have the option to side with David. It makes no sense story wise and would be completely out of character for Max.

31:03 - I hate people that complain about “convenience” in games and films. I mean, I joke about them myself with friend, but some people get seriously annoyed and it’s like... I’m sorry, did you want a whole episode where nothing happens just so Max could discover this power in a less convenient way and time?

34:49 - I mean, I don’t think this moment was irrelevant... It was another form of foreshadowing that Max was going to have to make the same choice at the end only then it would be permanent. Which is kind of hilarious since these people complain so much about how the rest of the foreshadowing is so obvious it ruins the game for them. Yet misses this as a “irrelevant” moment.

41:46 - The games showed throughout it that Max’s powers are tied with her physical body and that’s why she has nose bleeds, headaches and faints if she uses it too much. So why is it then so unbelievable that anaesthesia affects Max’s powers along with her body? (Wouldn’t a real sin be how fast it comes into affect? I’m not an expect, but one tiny prick and Max was already falling over XD).

44:07 - 1) I’ve said before but I thought it was pretty obvious that Chloe was meant to die at that exact moment in the bathroom. And that’s why the storm still comes even after she dies later on. Because she was meant to die before all those other moments. 2) Chloe isn’t alive in this moment because Max ripping her photo changes nothing other than Max’s photo was ripped when Jefferson found them. It’s really not that complicated.

45:14 - Why is it a sin that Max can drive? Yes, she get’s the bus and Chloe drives, but that just means Max doesn’t have a car. There are plenty of people who can drive but at the same time, can’t afford to drive around everywhere.

47:53 - Again, you acknowledge this is repeating from the Alternative Reality. But you call it rehashing instead of foreshadowing so you can needlessly sin it.

Thanks to Bobvids, I have a lot less patients for some of these sin videos. I don’t mind them for the most part (like I said, I agree and laugh at a lot of the other sins they point out) but they get annoying when they keep repeating sins (like every little bit of foreshadowing) and other times it just feels like they missed/ignored a point of scene just for the sake of being funny and adding more sins. And maybe some people like that, but for me, not so much.

[nyx-the-dragon]

A Miraculous Rant

Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Chat Noir is a show about two teenagers who can transform into superheroes, fall in love with each other, save the city of Paris, and all without knowing who their partner is behind the mask. Sounds great right? It is, but there's a giant problem with it.  The problem, to me, is simple. It’s the writing. Before you get your pitchforks and torches, hear me out. In this essay I will explain and point out where I believe the flaws are.

Season 1: Oh boy, where to start? Well, how about there is no driving plotline in practically all of season 1. Sure, we need to hash out the world and concepts first, but that shouldn’t take 24 or so episodes! The first three episodes aired are “The Bubbler”, “Mr. Pigeon”, and “Stormy Weather”, in that order here in the U.S. and they tell us plenty of information.

The plot of all three episodes, and almost all of the rest of them are the same. There are two plots in each episode, Plot A, a problem arises or it’s the story of how someone becomes an Akuma. Plot B is the Akuma fight with our Superheroes. After Plot B ends, Plot A is usually resolved, and whatever happens is never spoken of again. Rinse and repeat. The only episodes that stray from this formula are “Evillustrator” and “Origins”. In “Evillustrator” we get practically nothing about Nathaniel and the focus of Plot A is Chloe and Sabrina.

And for “Origins”, while we never really spoke about what happened, we didn’t forget everything.

Ladybug tells us in “Antibug” that Chat and her are partners, even though they don’t really show it. Ladybug claims she needs Chat, but fighting wise, Ladybug always manages to take down the villain when Chat gets controlled by the villian/taken out of the fight. Plus, Ladybug is the only one who can purify the akuma and repair the damage. Chat just seems to be there for moral support and to use Cataclysm when Ladybug needs it.

Season 1 Plot Points: I remember three, count them, THREE plot points that moved the story along. Nothing important happens until “Princess Fragrance”, where the audience sees Master Fu for the first time, and then the old man disappears from the spotlight until “Volpina”, where Marinette meets him again, and we all find out he is the Guardian. Then “Origins” is finally released and we see that he gave out the Miraculous to our protagonists, and gave them no training. Seriously who thought that was a good idea?

Season 2: We finally inch along in the story more, as new characters, potiens, kwamis and miraculous, and new holders are introduced. Hawkmoth’s identity is revealed/confirmed, and both heroes and villain are thrown off the identity trial.

Power shifts to Ladybug as she knows who the guardian is first, gets to pick new holders, and gets to learn about the zodiac miraculous. Chat Noir gets left in the dark, and slowly starts turning into the sidekick some people view him as. He finally meets the guardian, but Marinette seems to spend the most time with him, so the scale is still tipped in her favor.

    Season 2 Character Developments:

It turns out that season 2 is our character development season, with a bit of worldbuilding involved. We learn more about their classmates, including Alya, who we should’ve learned more about sooner, and get introduced to new characters, one of which keeps making cameos. It’s good to focus on other things aside from just Ladybug, Chat Noir, Marinette, and Adrien. It helps make the world three-dimensional and broadens the edge of the Miraculous world.

    Season 2 Plot Points: 

I’ll be honest, I don’t remember there being any important to the overarching story plot points in season 2, other than the 2 parter season finale, Lila, and maybe the temporary holders.

The finale 2 parter is the closest they get to catching Hawkmoth, but he escapes with the aid of the Peacock miraculous holder. They practically go back to square 1 except the fights will get harder. Also, we finally see what happened to Lila Rossi.

    Season 3:

Oh boy, the most recent season. And the cringe and second hand embarrassment I experienced here, oh the writing staff in some of those episodes had it out for Marinette.

“Animaestro”: She crawls around on the floor, wastes food, and teams up with Chloe of all people to ruin Kagami’s outfit! Marinette should have been doing the job she signed up for, not embarrassing her parents’ business by doing those ridiculous things. And then she gets rewarded by being given Astuc’s ticket and gets to sit next to Adrien.

“Weredad”: I get she panicked, but did she have to say she was in love with Chat Noir? What happened to not wanting to lie to a friend? You live there for Pete's sakes, it’s not unusual for you to be on your balcony!

“Party Crasher”: Marinette abandons her friends to try and party with the boys, eventually using a disguise to get in. Marinette you’re no better then the boys!

“Stormy Weather 2”: Was just lazy, enough said.

“Feast”: It’s sweet that Fu wanted to protect them, but he ran like a coward and was willing to abandon Paris to Hawkmoth’s cruelty.

“Reflekdoll”: Alya! Marinette clearly doesn’t want Adrien there, but you just ignore her and pull him along anyway! What if he wanted to spend that extra hour with Nino and you made him feel like he had to help Marinette out? And I‘m not forgetting the fact you ignored Juleka’s panic attack and wish to be a model, and didn’t apologize! Also, they should’ve let Mister Bug figure out how to use the lucky charm. That would’ve been a great way to show that the two are equal, not that Marinette is great at wielding the Ladybug and Cat miraculous.

“Ikari Gozen”: Marinette, you tried to leave Kagami when you saw she was your partner in the friendship game, badmouthed her Alya, and tried to make you lose on purpose, all because you were jealous of Kagami being close to Adrien, who also doesn’t have many close friends. And Kagami, Longg literally said he was going to tell you the plan, but you just decide to transform without listening to him.

“Desperada”: Marinette picking Adrien to be Jagged’s guitarist was dumb, did you even know if the boy could play? Marinette, you can’t focus around Adrien, why did you give him a miraculous!? And Adrien, why did you accept it, you’re Chat Noir!?

“Ladybug”: Are you kidding me Chat!? Ladybug has never shown interest in you before, why on earth would you think that’s normal!? Also, Marinette getting expelled like that? Did anyone on staff do their research about expelling someone?! I’m pretty sure that’s not how you do that!

“Battle of the Miraculous”: Chloe, how stupid are you?

I also have some complaints about “Chameleon”, like, what were Marinette’s friends and classmates thinking?! A napkin can’t gorge out an eye Max! And for goodness’s sake, wouldn’t Jagged Stone’s pet being rescued off a runway be on international news?! Their brain cells were gone that episode.

    Season 3 Plot Points:

Master Fu’s memory is erased, leaving the two kids on their own. This will drive them closer together or farther apart as Ladybug will have more responsibility and need to keep more secrets as Guardian. Hawkmoth and Mayura have the translated Grimoire and they have fixed the broach.

    Season 3 Character Developments: 

The characters we really focus on the most beside Adrien and Marinette are the love rivals. That’s right, Luka and Kagami. Adrien appears to have started dating Kagami and Marinette is hanging out with Luka more, so more knowledge about them is needed. Other characters star in some episodes too, such as Max and Markov in Startrain. Turns out his mother drives trains and wants to be an astronaut. Also Markov is baby.

It turns out Juleka wants to be a model, did this happen because she can be in pictures now, and she enjoys it a lot? Where did this even come from? Regardless, it’s nice to see Juleka coming out of her shell a bit. Also the cheek kiss from Rose was cute and I don’t care that Relfekta called Rose her bestie, that Hawkmoth talking. Also Juleka is the second person, Lila’s the first, to be akumatized three times as the same Akuma.

Speaking of Lila, she shows up in the first episode, and it turns out everyone is still wrapped around her finger over her ridiculous lies. Sure, their class is accomplished, but really? Fans of Jagged Stone know he has a crocodile, right? Or that paper napkins can’t gorge someone’s eye out, especially glasses-wearing Max? She threatens Marinette in the bathroom, declares them to be at war, then does nothing to turn people against Marinette until “Ladybug”. Sure, she violated Adrien’s space and privacy, and got Nathalie and Gorilla in trouble, but that was never specifically against Marinette. We learn she doesn’t want to take the easy way out, instead she lays out this giant trap that would’ve come crashing down if Damocles had actually done his job by listening to both sides, calling Lila’s mother, watching the security footage, basic stuff right? It shows that Lila can be kinda clever, but her kingdom is a stack of cards waiting to crash down at the right push.

We get Master Fu's backstory, like how he lost the Peacock and Butterfly miraculous, plus the Grimoire. Also, he gets a lady friend, who we never really bring up again except at the end of the season.

And Choe. Chloe, Chloe, Chloe. We in the fandom had high hopes for her. From her not believing what Lila’s ‘selling’ to her becoming a better person. That all crashed and burned in the episodes “Miraculer”, “and “Battle of the Miraculous”. Turns out Chloe doesn’t even remember Lila, despite being upset that ‘Jagged wrote a song about Lila and not her’ in “Volpina”. Having Audrey around does not help Chloe’s case, as she tries imitating her in order for her mother to love her, which is really messed up.

The fandom:

Pitchforks down people! This is not, I repeat, not an insult to the fandom. I enjoy reading fanfics, including salt and fix-it fics. I just find it sad that the fandom has better writing than the actual show. It's kinda depressing that people who write for fun are writing better than the people doing it for a job. For example, when Chloe gets the redemption arc the show was building towards. Astruc said in a tweet that Chloe turned out to be not redeemable, which some people have translated as they couldn’t figure out how to redeem her so they didn’t.

    Plot:

Astruc and staff need to actually make strides towards the end goal. The way they write the show now, there seems to be no goal that they are actually working towards. The episodes that will move the story along are few and far between, and as of now, they aren’t any closer to their goal as compared to the beginning.

    Contradictions:

There are contradictions in the episodes, for example in “Queen Wasp”, it’s stated that only cataclysm can break a miraculous. But then Alix’s watch turns out to be a  miraculous, and suddenly a contradiction is revealed. The Ladybug and Cat miraculous are supposed to be the most powerful of all, right? Well, some of the other miraculous have stronger powers then those of the Cat and Ladybug. The Rabbit can travel through time and the Monkey disrupts others’ power, rendering them useless. Why have the Ladybug and Cat miraculous, the ones the bad guy is desperately trying to steal, out in the open when you could use the other miraculous just as well? You could just use Venom on the Akuma and easily get their akumatized item. Boom, battle over in seconds. Sure, you would still need the Ladybug to purify the akuma and erase any possible damage, but at least the Cat miraculous could be safe in the Miracle Box. It’s like they have no idea what was going to happen in future episodes, and when they make a contradiction, Astruc will just brush it off as a mistake, and the show will just carry on as if nothing happened.

Conclusion: 

Miraculous Ladybug is a great show, but the writing is subpar. There are episodes that are really great, and there are episodes that are bad, and make me want to stop watching from second-hand embarrassment. In all honesty, I’m still here for the fanfiction.

[faithcael]

but sake of this the author destroyed original Max and Chloe, Pricefield and bae>bay. The fans paid money for it, but they were just tricked. Max and Chloe were just bait, but in fact this is another queer baiting and the story is not about Max and Chloe and how the author tried to bring back to life Rachel that would please her fans. The character who died a long time ago ruined the future of Max and Chloe. The author is just a heartless beast, I fucking hate her.

Well I just don’t consider this comic as canon (neither BTS), since it’s not made by the original creators and those creators themselves doesn’t support these things (not a secret anymore that Square Enix forced them, since they sold their license right to them they couldn’t say anything about it. If SE wants to make a movie where Max and Jefferson marry each others and Chloe is straight, they could.) But I don’t really blame the author, it’s too well known that SE force onto their creators what they wants and what they think would sell the most (here Rachel being alive, Amberprice, Pricefield, Amberpricefield, and in BTS making again a lesbian romance when in the first game it’s said pretty explicitely that it was a one sided love) it’s just some market researches. Well just wait and see, maybe they’ll make a sequel where Max try to fight to find again her real Chloe and that this AU isn’t hers. I’m espacially angry against all the fan service, the “bury you lesbian” trope, again, and the rythm of the comic which is pretty poor handed in my opinion. 

[zutaralesbian]

Top 10 ships of all time for Valentine's Day?

So.....this is a super hard question lol. And while I'm pretty confident that these are my top 10, I'm not so sure that this would be the right order. (Except Zutara. Zutara is without a doubt #1. It's been that way since I was about 12.)

1. Zuko & Katara (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

Ahhh the greatest ship that never was. (And you know, that's mostly okay because I fortunately have a ton of good fic and art to survive on). There's always a lot of talk about "twin flames" on this site when it comes to ships. And tbh, that's pretty much how I see Zuko and Katara. They're soooooo similar in a lot of ways. Their passion and strive to never give up being some of the key ones. And the differences they do have sort of help balance each other out. There's so much trust and mutual respect in their relationship by the end of the series. I will forever love that Katara is the one Zuko who asks to go with him to confront Azula during the finale and how it was an automatic thing for him. I will forever mourn the lost potential but you know, fic writers handle them much better than Bryke would have anyway.

2. Max & Anne (Black Sails)

There are things that frustrate me about the handling of this ship (mainly the fact that we didn't get a scene between them in the finale and that they hopped into bed so soon after Max was raped) but I still overall love their arc and love story. Neither of their story lines would be complete or the same without the other. Anne falling in love with Max was what started her journey of discovering her own identity. Max's relationship with Anne (and with Eleanor) are two key things that helped shape her entire story line on the show. And their love story was truly so tender. I move these 17th century lesbians.

3. Max & Chloe (Life is Strange)

The ultimate childhood best friends to lovers trope. And the very definition of soul mates. I love how connected these two are to each other. They're separated for at least six years after Max moves away but it doesn't take them long at all to re-connect. (And develope feelings for each other that aren't entirely platonic). They bring out the best in one another and would do anything for each other. They are the kind of romance that I wish I could have in real life. (The relationship between the individual characters only ofc. I don't want any of the sad aspects of their relationship :/)

4. Peeta & Katniss (The Hunger Games)

I love the way this ship plays with gender roles unabashedly. Peeta as the more gentle person and Katniss as the hardened physical fighter. But even more than that, I love how neither Peeta or Katniss ever look down on the other for being the way they are. They accept each other for who they are, and love each other for those reasons. Neither of them have the best self-esteems but they think the world of the other. They are also each other's safety nets. As bittersweet as the ending of THG was, at least they have each other.

5. Ian & Mickey (Shameless US)

The most depressing thing about this ship is that it may or may not still get to be on this list once S10 airs :/ They're an example of a good ship on a bad show. But for now, they are. Despite how much anger I've experienced for shipping them lol. One of the things I love most about this ship are their more playful moments. Ian has a connection and chemistry with Mickey that he just hasn't had with any of his other boyfriends. They can fuck around and play with each other outside of romance. They have playful banter and during the few times when the show isn't treating them like shit, they seem to have genuine fun with each other. I hope to god that they aren't ruined further.

6. Barney & Robin (How I Met Your Mother)

:( Once upon a time I literally had these two listed as one of my endgame ships. That's how sure I was that they would end up together. (And fml can you blame me? The entire last season literally built up to their wedding.) But, jokes on me. I'll be forever bitter. They had such a fun dynamic. Robin was able to let loose around Barney and have fun. Barney accepted Robin as the independent woman that she was and didn't feel slighted over her not "needing him" the way Ted did. They should have been endgame. Full stop. The HIMYM writers are so dumb.

7. Eve & Villanelle (Killing Eve)

By far the most toxic ship on this list lol. But I love them. Even with only one season under their belt so far, they're already so interesting. The power plays and mutual obsession. The way they're growing to understand and know each other in a way no one else does. I CANNOT wait for season 2 and to see how their relationship further developes. They have a lot of potential to get further up on this list.

8. Ron & Hermione (Harry Potter)

Although there were a few patches here and there that were annoying *cough* Half Blood Prince *cough* I love the buildup and development of these two. They went from two kids who overall didn't like each other at all (or at least, Ron didn't like Hermione) to best friends to eventually falling in love in such a natural and believable way. I loved following their story throughout the seven books. And it was so rewarding when they finally kissed and got endgame.

9. Buffy & Faith (Buffy: The Vampire Slayer)

I FIRMLY believe that if Faith had been a guy, these two would have been canon in some shape or form. We deserved to see canon bi! Buffy on-screen, and this relationship would have been a great way of doing it. They had so much chemistry and would have made a perfect enemies-to-friends-to-lovers trope. I love the canon friendship they develope but a romance obviously would have put the whipped cream on top of the sundae.

10. Max & Eleanor (Black Sails)

The most tragic and angsty ship on this list. (Which is saying something). I honestly didn't expect myself to come to love them so much considering they break up super early in the series, but I just love both characters so much. And I love how even after they break up romantically, their relationship is never forgotten. They play a huge part in shaping the other's story line. (And imo, Eleanor at least never fully got over Max). Their dynamic of lovers-to-enemies-to-friends was also really interesting and not like anything I've seen before. It's a ship built on a ton of "what ifs" :(

Thanks for the question ❤❤❤❤