#i think my audience is like 3 people

[doctorwhommm]

got silly with this one ◡̈

[i-like-forcefem]

You get an random email from someone you don’t know, the headline is open this now

Good Girl!

You are now under my control, whatever happens you will finish reading this email and fulfill its instructions to the best of your ability Your mind may have second thoughts, but you'll notice how your body will only listen to me from now on, try to run, scream or give in, it's all futile, because what you think or want doesn't matter anymore, your body only listens to me

Now, go and buy something appropriate to wear for when we meet, I want something cute, slutty, and easy to fuck you in, my bitches stay dressed during sex so you better get a cute skirt

Then buy yourself a collar that matches the rest of your outfit, good girls look fashionable and all of my girls need to be good

After buying the new outfit put it on instantly, I don’t care if people see you, my bitch is cute, and that means she always dresses like a cute bitch

Next go to a lingerie store and buy yourself a couple cute sets of girly underwear, and a set of sex toys, I want something to plug your ass, fill your mouth and if you’ve got a member I want something to lock it up (make sure to choose wisely for that last one, you’ll be wearing it for a long time)

Then go to your old home and start packing any needed daily necessities and important documents you have, this will be your last time there so don’t forget anything, I’d hate to punish you for forgetting something silly like a toothbrush

Though don’t worry about clothes, we’ll fill out a wardrobe in my tastes when you arrive

Then go to the address attached below, ring the bell, and prostrate yourself in front off the door like a good little girl

When the door opens say “I will be a good girl for my master, I will never look back at the life I had before this, and give my all to fulfilling your every wish like the bitch I am” and I’ll tell you what to from there

If you understood all of that then start already!

It’s a bad idea to keep your master waiting ;)

[buwheal]

Hey, Spamton!! Happy birthday! Anything specific you'd want for your birthday? I'm sure we can somehow pitch in to get you something!

[casstars]

They’re having a steel samurai marathon

[latin-dr-robotnik]

Y'know, I wouldn't mind if they actually start producing visual novels or RPGs as actual Sonic games in-between major Sonic Team releases.

The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog was a pretty solid game, all things considered. For a free April Fools joke it got me laughing through most of it, and I really enjoyed its touching moments, especially during the last act and the whole arc around the Conductor.

I can see them striking some gold handling projects like this with bigger dev teams and actual budgets. The fact they can use smaller games to tell short stories in Sonic's world and make it feel so alive and connected is something I've been craving for a while, and it doesn't even have to be a platformer! Ever since I discovered fangames like Sonic and the Mayhem Master years ago, I wondered if SEGA could take another shot at the RPG genre, or something more story-focused.

And sure, this time it was a visual novel, but it landed pretty close to what I had in mind. This whole experience was well worth my time, and some real cash too if they asked for it. I hope this charming little joke game can open more possibilities for the future of Sonic games.

[thanatika]

yeah i agree with your point about survival mechanics and i feel the same way about the lack of combat mechanics. "why would an educated city doctor need a weapon" because shit is hitting the fan in every way impossible and pretty much everyone is walking around armed... also why am i supposed to believe the the fact that he's a man of intellect will somehow provide him with food? i don't think anyone is going to be too eager to share food during an outbreak intellectual or not...

+ follow up for the previous ask but actually my favorite quest from the original pathologic is the day 11 bachelor quest that involves shooting down soldiers. i think it really drives the point home about how this random fuckass guy who is supposed to be battling a plague doesn't even have the time to do that anymore because the people in charge are asking completely irrelevant things of him now and he's at a position where he cannot refuse what is being asked of him. like i think it was good storytelling that even as the guy who lowkey wants to deal with the plague and solve its mystery you still have other, more pressing, less interesting and or pleasant tasks to complete

i agree! honestly, i feel this way about the combat mechanics even more than i do about the physical survival (food, health, illness, sleep) mechanics. because sure, i can see how it makes sense for daniil's position of authority to mean that his basic needs are somewhat provided for -- although i don't think it makes more sense than what we got in the original game. i've never seen anyone bring up "isn't it kind of unrealistic that the bachelor isn't given lots of food during a massive food shortage?" as a plothole that needed to be resolved. the townspeople generally don't like him much, and most of the people with power don't either, except for the kains. sure, maybe it's kind of weird that you can go see the kains while broke and on the verge of keeling over from hunger, and they won't do anything to help you, but... the kains are pretty self-centered, and they're so goddamn weird that maybe they forget that you need to eat food to live anyway. and it's half-implied that the powers that be are ultimately giving daniil this role as a convenient way to kill him, so it makes sense that they would put no pressure on the town authorities to keep him alive.

(and honestly, artemy is taken under the olgimsky's auspices as much as the kains take daniil's under theirs! which is to say, selfishly, with ulterior motives that are more important to them than the well-being of their healer, but... the olgimskys are set up as the wealthiest of the 3 families financially, as well as the ones with the most access to food, given their control over the meat industry. so if anything it's "weirder" that artemy isn't more materially provided for, though to be clear i don't think there's an actual plothole there either way.)

but anyway, you could handwave it and say that daniil's position of privilege and authority gives him more perks than he got in the original game, but the amount of fighting you have to do to get through town is... kind of an unavoidable physical reality? like you're given so many sidequests that you often wind up walking around town after dark, and that's when the bandits come out. is the idea that the bandits would be too scared to attack him because he's so important? because that doesn't make a lot of sense to me, and even pathologic 2 establishes that he's seen as a valuable target by the bandits:

and then there's the quests where combat plays a more direct role in the story itself, like getting involved in saving andrey from the firing squad, or killing guards to break artemy out of prison, or the quest where you have to kill var in attempt to stop the arsonists (which i include on the same tier as the other ones because i really like the quest journal entry he has if you complete it where he blames himself for willow's death. it's a good character moment.)

hell, even in pathologic 2 itself, one of the biggest Bachelor Moments is on day 11, when you have that big dramatic convo with him after he killed a soldier for the papers he was delivering. plus one of bad grief's idle dialogues in patho 2 is commentary on the bachelor being "quick on the draw" and that he "already shot someone". like he just straight up is not living a combat-free existence. and overall, combat isn't just a good tool from a mechanical perspective, heightening the stakes and placing pressure on the player (though it is), it's also pretty important for him on a thematic level imo, almost as important as artemy and his "rivers of blood". in patho classic, daniil has this early interaction with the inquisitor:

which, thinking about it from a doylist perspective, was probably the writers' attempt to make it sound more plausible that this random medical researcher from the big city was competent with multiple types of guns. and i appreciate them coming up with that hint of backstory to cover their bases a bit, but with those bases covered, i think the fact that daniil ultimately spends more time shooting people than he does prescribing medicines for them actually does a lot for him thematically? i mean, if his whole thing is that he's this "tempted destroyer", someone who frames his career as a combative battle with death rather than a quest to save people's lives, whose "default" solution is to raze the town with artillery because he's too limited by his rationalist worldview and military upbringing (and bitterness over being manipulated and sabotaged) to come up with a solution that saves the any remaining infected survivors on his own. plus the way that clara frames artemy and daniil as two sides of the same coin in being violent destroyers and killers, who without player intervention will immediately devolve to running around chasing each other down in what's either an insanely dedicated tom and jerry LARP or some really elaborate foreplay. imo, that whole dichotomy (which is pretty core to the game, as the idea of dichotomies are core to it in general) works so much better with the way they're both presented in classic, stalking around with gun/scalpel in hand. hell, not to mention the effect that spending 12 in-game days trying not to starve and getting killed by bandits or guards or worms or soldiers every day would have on the player, and the way it would make them feel about the town and their natural projection of those feelings onto dankovsky, who is a perfectly fitting vessel for them as the avatar actually undergoing those virtual experiences.

ultimately i think they are mainly going this direction out of a desire to do something more creative and original, which is fine... it just seems a bit silly to me that they keep saying "well obviously that doesn't really work for the bachelor's scenario", when, well... even as recently as patho 2 in 2019, they seemed to think it fit his narrative pretty well! i'm also guessing that a lack of combat won't be that bandits are just no longer roaming the streets at night. it sounds more like pathologic 3 is set to be more of a nonlinear experience, where you'll probably fast travel from place to place instead of having to walk across town so much? so you'll be avoiding bandits just in the sense that the gameplay will be avoiding them. i guess i'm hoping that at the very least, there's still the implication of the crunch of not getting enough sleep or food and the threat of being stabbed to death while trying to get through town occurring to dankovsky in the background, even if those mechanics are deemphasized in favor of more macro-level town resource management, time control, and sherlock holmes fruit ninja or whatever the hell they were on about back in 2022 lmao.

[vole-mon-amour]

In A Like Supreme it's Kerry's "You wanna hear a new— He's... gone, isn't he?" & "How was the gig? (...) Damn shame I had to miss it" "Eeehh, can still come to my show."

It's the disappointment in Kerry's voice and him wanting to spend more time with Johnny, not talk to him through V. "Voices out of the grave." What I noticed this time around is how Kerry is ready to share any unfinished material with Johnny.

For example, Kerry plays V that yacht song as a way to show his trust and his gratitude to V (and granted, it happens after you help him multiple times, so character development is happening), but right after the concert I'm pretty sure Kerry doesn't have a finished song. He wants to share that material with Johnny because he trusts Johnny and wouldn't mind his input, too. He still sees Johnny as his best friend that he loves dearly.

In Phantom Liberty, when you ask Kerry about his album, he tells you that it's still too raw and he isn't ready. Even at the time of A Like Supreme, it's "You can come to the show" aka Kerry's way of saying, you can hear me singing and playing but only at the show. When I'm at my best. When I'm ready.

While what I'm sure would happen with Johnny is that Kerry would invite Johnny home/to the studio (which is often the same thing since I'm sure some things Kerry records at home) and share that raw material with him (and they could create the music together).

Johnny tells Kerry that he "won't play without you, wouldn't be the same". Kerry answers, "I see what you're doing here, but I'm still plannin' on playing."

Which is yeah, Johnny wants in, but there's a reason he didn't let Kerry leave the band. He knew he needed Kerry. So it's quite mutual, actually, even though Kerry established his solo and is quite confident in it after that:

He's relieved he no longer has this burden of waiting for Johnny, of expecting him to come back and feel like he's walking on a knife's edge while on that; of proving himself to the crowd and to Johnny when Johnny does come back. Which doesn't mean he wouldn't want to share his love for music with Johnny again.

Their relationship is complicated. They and their love for each other is deeply rooted in them & they'll always be a part of each other's lives.

And while I'm on A Like Supreme, boyfriends' guns next to each other:

Both loved Samurai very much. Both can't live without music. Both are very similar. Both, in some way, are still best friends.

Though I find it funny that Kerry's gun costs more. There's no way to get both at the same time, and to me it looks like a pointer into Kerry's expensive attitude. Money's never an issue while one of the first commentaries that Johnny makes upon entering Kerry's villa is "Hope it was expensive at least."

Your best friend did fine, Johnny, and all without you. And all while waiting for you to come back and missing you. And all while thinking about you every single day ever since you "disappeared".

UPD: Also, when you read Kerry's messages on his laptops, he offers his ex to choose a trip with the kids and for him to pay for her trip. I'm not exactly set on what I think about that—whether he doesn't want to spend time with his children or his ex makes him THAT uncomfortable so that he offers a "bribe". You do that, I'll pay. The same goes for his car and the Samurai-like painting—money is not an issue, just don't try to screw me over.

Plus, when in PL ending V wakes up from a 2 year coma, the first thing Kerry offers is eddies. I don't know, but the topic of money is threaded in him and in the things he owns. Including, obviously, the gun that he owns and very generously gifts to V like it's nothing (because, for him, it kind of is. He can always make a replica if he need to.)

[quantomeno]

I was watching Peace Petal's video on what might happen with MLP G6 (you should watch it, it's good).

Because I mostly agree with points raised, I want to instead focus on the fact that I find it rather funny that fans get up in arms at the idea of a new gen where the character names and colour schemes etc are re-used but with new personalities, with the argument that "that's not XYZ, they're changing the character etc"

Funny because I felt like that when I first saw g4. I was so upset to see Rainbow Dash was no longer the elegant and stylish mare she used to be, and how Pinkie went from being the voice of reason to essentially the opposite. And so on and so on.

But I happened to watch g4 in 2013 and I liked it and then I came to love it. The realisation that helped was the fact that Hasbro recycles characters all the time. It's most notable in g4, partly because the show had so many named characters while in g3 most repeated names would've been toy-exclusive and so you didn't explore their personality as much. It's a weird concept, since I can't think of many series that do this. Shows/toylines often either reboot the series with almost exactly the same characters (e.g. transformers has had the same Optimus Prime every time), or they start from scratch.

This is also why I don't feel too bad about Monster high's changes to the characters between generations. They're mostly using the names and stylistic elements to act as a springboard for a new series.

A similar thing could even be said about bionicle's g2. OK I'm finding a lot of examples, but these are all the ones I can really think of right now.

I do agree with Peace Petal that it would be wiser to distance itself completely from g4 and thus use inspiration from characters that aren't the mane 6, but if they do re-use Rainbow Dash's name for the third time (or Applejack for the forth) and make her a completely different pony, I really would not care. They're not the same character; it's not the same universe. They just happen to share a name and design influences.

But yes, the key thing is it needs to be a complete separation from g4. g5 was quite an outlier by retaining ties to the previous gen and I think that missed the opportunity for a fresh start, a blank slate with none of the complicated lore that had built up and complete freedom to do as they pleased.

I also really want them to bring back Wysteria. She could be the Rainbow Dash (g4) equivalent and I would not be mad I just want my first pony to get speaking roles and toys.

[silver-horse]

why do youtubers feel so comfortable cutting clips from other people's videos?? without asking and without crediting or linking the original videos and now a watermark with their channel name is lingering over a clip that I recorded and uploaded I find it especially rude when somebody has 68 thousand subscribers and they take a clip from a person who has 300 subscribers... and the viewers on these big channels think that the uploader recorded everything themselves because they even watermark it with their own channel name if you want to make a video that shows multiple scenes from a video game, record those scenes yourself, don't just download another person's vid and cut the part you want into your video... I also had to record it or you know... maybe ask permission and credit the original uploader and link their video or their channel

[skrunksthatwunk]

you go to a lesbian blog and find it says women only!! no men allowed!!! and go oh! excuse me, um, what about other lesbians? plenty of lesbians are genderqueer... and they go well, okay, go fuck yourself tim chop off your sweaty dick and stop calling yourself a lesbian. you do not have a dick, actually. you think about that fact often, even though it does you no good. you do not tell this person that.

you go to another lesbian blog and it says women only and you try again, and this time they change it to wlw + nblw only (non-men who love non-men :D). and you'll say hey i appreciate that but gender's not really that cut and dry for a lot of people. someone could be both a man and nonbinary, for instance. i just worry that you're looking at nonbinary as a generic third gender, or an extension of womanhood. i mean yeah you include nblw in your tags but all your posts are about pussy-havers exclusively. what's with that? and they say go fuck yourself you pervy man pretending to be a lesbian. you tried to sneak in but i won't let you.

so you go to a lesbian blog with a dozen or so posts about queer people needing to be more weird about it and you sigh in relief. but you still see the men dni. that's odd. hoping for the best, you say hey! i know you mean well but please maybe don't put men dni at the end of the lovely posts on your lesbian blog bc some lesbians are men. and they'll be like ok!! well you're allowed ;) and you say no that's not. no. some men are lesbians not just me. you think about your own dicklessness and wonder if that's why you were given entry. and you add that even if male lesbians are allowed, there's no indication of that. how would anyone know without asking? and they're like ohh gotcha gotcha well men dni + this is for sapphics only!! and you'll be like ok well that treats the concepts of men and sapphics as mutually exclusive identities and i just told you that's not true and you agreed with me so.. i don't think that solves our problem. and they're like. ok. fine. men dni but genderfluid and multigender people are allowed! and you're like no see that's. that's still the same thing.. you're saying the same thing just with different words. if you don't want men to interact but you're fine with multigender/genderfluid/etc ppl interacting then you either don't see them as Real Men (because they don't reach a standard of Full Manhood) or Complete Men (because they're only Part-Time Men), both of which suggest that they are, in some way, not men or less-than men, which is invalidating and defeats the point of the exception in the first place (accommodation) OR that you don't really mean the dni which is confusing and inconsistent and makes guydykes feel weird and uncomfortable and excluded from the lesbian space you're trying to cultivate. and they're like um. ok. so. cishet men dni? and you're like well i think that makes more sense, but what if someone identifies as both a cishet man and a sapphic? again, if we're trying to accommodate the genderfucky populace then that has to be a possibility that is considered. and they say god you people are never happy. what do you want me to do? what am i supposed to say to keep the right men out? and you pause. you empathize with the need for a space free from dudes trying to fuck you straight and feminine. dudes who watch lesbian porn and joke about what they'd do if they were allowed into girls locker rooms. who look at you like a piece of meat, and like someone who looks at women like pieces of meat in the same way he does. you get it. you know. you want a space where you can be sapphic, too. that's why you came to these blogs in the first place. you brace yourself and you say well i don't know that there are "right men" to keep out. i don't know that there's any single label that would accomplish whatever it is you're trying to accomplish. you could go for "sapphics only" or "queers only" and i think that might be the closest thing to what you want, but it's never going to be perfect. creating any exclusive space is going to shut out people you didn't account for, and the broader the label, the more people will be shut out that you didn't want to shut out. and what about people who don't know if they're allowed? what of questioning transbians, where are they supposed to go? and, frankly, i think i might rather my dykey posts get read and appreciated by a gay guy who sees me as a man than a woman who only sees me as a sacred womb, pure from male perversions or violence or whatever. i think community might just be more complex than a dni can handle. and they look at you and say i don't want to not have a dni. i think you're too permissive. you can't just "what about" or microlabel your way into everything. go fuck yourself, i bet you're not even a lesbian anyway. go find a real problem to get mad about.

you go to a lesbian blog. you ignore the men dni because you know you probably don't even count to them. or maybe you do count and, out of respect for your manhood, they'd shun you accordingly. you try to feel okay about that. you scroll past dozens of posts about mediocre men and gagging at straight friends' boyfriends and how gross and undeserving men are of the beautiful women they couple up with and how all women should be gay so they can get treated right and and and and and. you finally find a post about curling into someone you love and feeling at peace and try to lose yourself in it. you know that feeling is what unites you, what makes you belong. you try to focus on it. you think about carding your hands through a butch's hair or lacing fingers with a femme and feeling warm and loved and more yourself than you ever have before. like this is who you're meant to be. you read about lesboys and butch boytoys and genderfucky dykes and big hairy deep-voiced wonderful women (like you want to be someday, like you wish you could make yourself) and you try to ignore the men dni underneath each and every post. and you daydream about meeting someone kind and earnest at a lesbian bar even though you don't think any such bars exist within three states of you and you can't drink and don't want to drink because you need to be in control of yourself at all times so you don't fuck up like you're always about to and here in the nonexistent lesbian bar you feel wanted and safe and in good company. you picture your ideal, happiest self. it is a mistake. ideal-you has a goatee. not the mascara one you smear on and call drag even though you know it's not drag, not really, the beard you call drag because you think everyone would look at you sadly if you told them it was just to pretend you had something out of your reach. a beard that's soft and that you grew and that cannot be smudged away if you get too comfortable with it. the dream shatters. your people pull away from you, their scoffs mixing with the mind-numbing gay girl bedroom pop you learned to settle for just to have something that almost resembled you, they all pull away and turn their backs and do not look at you. you're too close to being a man now, even though you're the same amount of man as before. and they know you're not supposed to interact with men, not as you would with dykes, at least. and it sours. it's all your imagination, all in your head, but it sours.

you sigh. you think about how small you are. how short, how narrow, how feeble. how your voice pitches up when you talk to strangers because it's easier to speak quietly when it carries more, and because you're nervous. because it's a chore to talk, like everything is. you think about testosterone. you think about how your family would look at you, the questions they would ask, your answers they would only pretend to accept. the uncomfortable glances and whispered questions they'd try to hide from you. you think about how small you are, and how small you will always be. how you don't know of a way to fix it, but even if there was one, no one would want you anymore. you'd be the only one thinking it made you a cooler dyke. you think about how you don't even want a T-voice all the time, how you'll never be able to switch it at will, because you don't know how and can't bring yourself to figure it out. you think about how your throat closes around every hint of your own attraction. how wanting is perverse, how wanting is invasive, how wanting is embarrassing and too vulnerable so it must stay anonymous, as an online witness, and how you can barely manage to form or maintain friendships because your brain makes you pull away, always spinning out and struggling to recover from the simplest of interactions. how they'll all leave you and you won't chase after them at all and how that will hurt them. how stuck you get. how it looks like nothing's holding you back, how that frustrates everyone who thought you were going to be more than you were. the people you love who understand except when it comes to being ghosted, being shut out. how you don't want to hurt them. how you can't tell them that because you're stuck. how you turn to stone when touched, how you never reach out, how you lose your speech and can't look at people, how your autism is fun and sexy until it becomes real and you never see them anymore, how much you longed for someone who knew everything without you having to explain, and who loved you anyway. how unreasonable you know that is to expect of anyone. you think about that not-even-real lesbian bar. you think about how you still can't drive. how you can't leave your home on your own, without dragging somebody into helping you. how you can't leave your body. how you can't leave your manhood behind.

you think about finding another lesbian blog and ignoring everything. about skimming it for the parts you can juice some meaning from. the parts men ignore and don't understand, and how typical of you it is to do so. or the parts where you're not welcome and you should accept that, because it's for lesbians only. how you are a lesbian anyway. how you're meant to choose lesbian or man, how each is a betrayal of some kind to yourself or your people, your family, your lovely strangers, your rare friendly acquaintances. about the parts that tell you you're not wanted, that you're ugly and lazy and gross and insert yourself everywhere without even asking. about the parts that tell you you are hated, and how lesbians are above it all by rejecting men. how lesbians are each blessed miracles. about the parts that say you should be ashamed of being whatever twisted confused freak you are, of everything, of looking and wanting or not looking or not wanting, of picking and choosing instead of taking it all in with a smile. after all, shouldn't you take it? or is your ego too fragile, as men's so often are? aren't you tired? good. we're not here for your consumption. and we sure as hell don't want your company or "community" or whatever. didn't you read the sign? no boys allowed. and if you want to come in you have to make up your mind. as if you haven't told them the only answer you have. you're both. you're both.

you know you broke the rule by interacting.

but it gets lonely sometimes. you wonder if they know.

[purpurussy]

ooh they addressed removing parts that "offended" people inch resting. again i didnt find it offensive more just clumsy and unnecessary lksldljgkgg

[moosethren]

I feel Clone X being Cody would be as emotional as it possible being Tech, because... the last time Crosshair saw Cody, they were fighting side by side. And Cody protected and helped Crosshair during the time, when all other regs ignored him.

Having Cody/Clone X call Crosshair out on "You could have been one of us" also has a double meaning of him trying to make Crosshair see the other side from S2.

I know people want it to be Tech and it probably is, but gods, having him be killed off and then brainwashed and revealed at what is gonna be the way mid/late part of the series is... oof. Especially since I doubt they'd kill him off AGAIN as a mercy kill because he's too brainwashed. That means he'd need to be helped back to normal again and there won't be enough time to handle that properly in the show.

But the latter is a problem in the series for sure; too many important things happen off screen and are often solved within one episode. The show isn't allowed to breathe and take things slow.

(Cody being revealed as having been brainwashed is of course bad too but like it or not, he's not one of the main characters of the show. Rex having to deal with a brainwashed Cody could very well be what forces him into retirement.)

Just my two cents.

And why is Echo ALWAYS sidelined in this show?!

[cloudcountry]

i think i may have created way to much pressure on myself when i tell people to send stuff that theyve tagged me in that i've missed. like yes i'd love to be able to read everything you guys send me but im gone most of the day now and its just not possible anymore. it kinda makes me sad because ive probably missed out on so much because of the sheer amount of things in my mentions.

[roseworth]

oo who are your top dc picks for rapunzel?!! mine are raven from teen titans, wally west, halo and jason todd (in an unhinged way where he leaves the tower to commit murder)

cass cain is my #1 forever dc rapunzel <333 the way she never got to experience the world outside of the narrow view she was shown by the person who raised her, then got a glimpse of the life she wanted and chose to leave said parent and experience it for herself. soooo rapunzel-coded <3 plus the way she believes in the best for everyone and refuses to see people as evil or irredeemable <33333333 theyre the same character to me

also!!! mia dearden!!!!!!! trapped in a life by someone who claims to love her, then some guy (with a goatee) comes along and makes her realize that theres a life outside her "tower" so she fights the person trapping her then leaves to hang out with the guy that saved her :') obviously not a one to one comparison because i am NOT saying that mia & ollie are the same as rapunzel & eugene since. ollie is her dad. but the idea is there

and im giving rose an honorable mention because shes not as much of rapunzel as the other two but if you don't think about it too hard nightwing #112-115 can be tangled with rose as rapunzel, dick as eugene (PLATONICALLY), and slade as gothel 🥰

anyways thats all i have to say but im using this opportunity to go on a new rose tangent

rose can also be eugene-coded. take my hand. sort of an orphan (both technically have alive fathers but their fathers didnt raise them) that turns to a life of crime because they feel like its the only thing they're good at (and in fairness they ARE really good at it) and they like doing it. theyre selfish and kind of an asshole but they have so much love in their hearts and genuinely want to help people but they look out for themselves first. then theyre given a chance to have a family & leave it behind so they do but no one trusts them bc they've hurt everyone around them before even though they've changed now </3 they also cover up every feeling they have by being an asshole and the only people that get to see their actual emotions are the people close to them. then once they show a genuine emotion then the dam is broken and they can never stop

all this to say. cassrose tangled au now please

[corellianhounds]

When writing, there’s a difference between a plot twist and a reveal. A plot twist is a revelation that makes the plot go in a different direction than it was headed. A reveal MIGHT be a plot twist, or it might be something that heightens the conflict or tension but still has the story going to go the same direction it was before.

A good plot twist for me happens in the middle of a story. It’s difficult to do a twist at the end and have the story’s trajectory go an entirely different direction and still feel satisfying. If the twist takes place in the middle, there’s still room for that now new plot to play out as a result. It either happens in Act II or it’s the Act II climax, with Act III now having the characters have to adjust for and contend with the change. If you have a plot twist in or as the final climax of the story— meaning there is a genuine change in where the audience could see the plot was going— you better have a VERY good alternate ending, and it needs to have had some foundation or hints or mention somewhere in the rest of the story. You can’t take a hard left turn and have a different ending just for the sake of surprising or shocking your audience and subverting their expectations because you “Don’t want them to see the end coming,”; that’s just lying and it’s not going to feel like a cohesive or satisfying story.

Some good examples of a mid-story plot twist and an ending plot twist are both in Knives Out, the first being when we as the audience see how and why Harlan Thrombey dies and we’re shown the killer from the beginning, but then we find out the real killer in the end with the parlor scene. The movie subverts our expectations of the genre by telling us who the killer is! But we spend the entire time rooting for them because we know the truth and we like them and don’t see how there would possibly be an explanation or way out! But then we’re shown the REAL truth at the end and we’re shown how it happens! It’s a satisfying twist because it’s still within the bounds of believability not just for the world, the genre, and the tone, but for how the characters have been characterized the whole time.

On the other side, a good reveal can happen anywhere, provided it’s done right (which is the caveat for basically any storytelling choice). A good example of this would be Spiderman: Homecoming when Peter shows up at his crush’s house and realizes who her father is, because that suddenly complicates the emotional stakes for the character, now tying the physical main plot to the emotional desires of the B-plot. Now suddenly his alter ego’s conflict is at odds with what he as a person wants for himself. Will he make the choice that makes him happy but is ultimately selfish and will put people at risk because of his neglect, or will he make the selfless, responsible decision despite the fact it will come at a great personal cost?

I think a lot of movie and TV writers have relied on this idea of “spoiler culture” for too long and it’s why we’ve ended up with so many messily told stories that keep throwing out new things or relying on their “twist” endings or surprise character reveals to be what gets people to come see what they’ve made. I want to be able to follow the story’s logical plot all the way through, or I want to see you pull of an effective magic trick at the end by all the puzzle pieces suddenly falling into place and giving me the “Of course!” feeling I’d get from seeing each of the prior clues suddenly make sense.

I get that it’s hard to write those stories, but if you can’t do it well, just tell a straightforward story all the way through and satisfy our expectations with the payoff you’ve been building towards. Pulling the tablecloth out from beneath the dishes and still having them standing in the end is hard to do. I don’t need a magic trick every time, I just need a good story.

[empty-blog-for-lurking]

If youre ok w sharing then i would love to hear your thoughts on lotor........ Hes such a weird guy. Dissecting him like a frog

If i get hate for this, i am blaming you/j but in all honesty i apologize if this kinda messy, as i have said it has beem awhile since i saw any of the episodes about him. Most of it is my personal interpretation and opinions of his character-

First of all i personally hate both "L0tor is evil rapist imperialist who did not have a single redeemable quality" and "L0tor is uwu poor baby who did nothing wrong", because yeah he had good intentions and he seemed to genuinely love Alura and care for Alteans but also he very much did do a lot of things Wrong. I am pretty sure a lot of his actions fall into category of Very Wrong

Lot0r to me is an absolute control freak, he has to be 10 steps ahead of everyone, he needs to be control of the situation no matter what. Whether it be through a silver tongue or by his blade (see N@rti's death, him vs White Lion). This is as much as a ruthless strategy as it is a trauma response. Being raised under Z@rkon, a father who only saw him as inferior half-bred, he had to learn survivor tactics. He will do anything to survive whether it be beg, lie, manipulate, and kill. He is a survivor of some genuinely godawful abuse he suffered for 10,000 years, combined with racism he suffered for being half altean

However this need to be in control extends to his allies and people he cares about. I am sure Lotor may have loved Alura, it doesnt change the fact that he very much abused her trust. Their entire relationship was based on a lie. He knew Alteans were still alive and not only did he not tell Alura about it he leaned into the "last survivors of Altea" for their relationship, which is why it was doomed since the beginning. And if it had not been this, then it would have been something else. Cause lying and manipulation are very much core of his character, that is how we are introduced to him

Like i see people going "Oh Lot0r could have been good if he had therapy and a hug", and i am not really not sure about it, cause like would he? Would he choose to be vulnerable and actually let his feelings out and be truthful in a an unbiased reliable way that will neither serve him in any way nor make him look better nor is a part of some machivilian scheme he cooked up because he doesnt trust the therapist he is paying? No

And thing is he does desire connection. He looks for connection in people who are similar to him. Half galran, altean survivors, Alura these are the people who he chose to get close to. He looks for similarities, people he can relate to, people who he sees as like him, people who he thinks can give him a sense of belonging. He is deeply lonely. However his desperation for control, absolute mistrust in anyone and everyone, and his inability to be actually honest dooms any relationship he'll ever have

Also this is probably just me, but for someone who is this morally complex character he has tendency to see things in black and white? Like it is His dad and empire= bad, alteans=good. He idolizes Altea to the point of seeing it as an Utopia, and this ideal was more important to him than any Alteans who are alive and with him. I also cant remember him ever caring about someone outside of the Dichotomy. Like at most i remember is after he became the emperor Lance pointing out how other planets need to be freed and he just brushed it off

Overall he gives me the "smart people dont always make good decisions, but they are good at justifying their bad ones" vibes. We dont know exactly why he decided to use alteans as batteries but i am choosing to go with my interpretation- "Lottor saw something fucked up in that future showing space whale thingy, decided the only way to solve was altean batteries except in true self fulfilling prophecy greek tragedy way it only made things worse and started a series of event that will cause the thing he saw causing real trouble a few years after his death.

Another thing! I think it should have been him being the focus of Evil Altean episode instead of A//ura. I hate that episode and everything it stands for but like if there Had to be an evil alteans episode then it should be around someone who is you know? Obsessed with Altean culture? Is big on control and manipulation? Is more geared towards big picture and "greater good" over individual? Is worried about turning into just like his galran father and so desperately wants to connect to his idealized version of his altean mother? Yeah