#i think there’s very little chance they end up endgame so this can only help us lol

[seddair]

.

[ir-abelas-vhenan]

Fermented Fruit Juice

I saw a post a while ago talking about how Varric ended up "winning" against Solas, and really liked it. I've been revisiting a lot of Inquisition dialogue lately and found perhaps my favorite conversation between the two when it comes to highlighting their ideological differences. It also foreshadows why Varric "wins" at the end of Veilguard (within the confines of the endgame choices we're given) even in death.

The crux of it: Varric lives in a world in which his very existence is an act of resistance, while Solas sees resistance as a trial that must be endured to get desired results.

As always, once I get started I'm sure this will be very long, but I love that we got the chance to see a very rare instance in which Solas concedes a point to one of his companions.

Solas: Once, in the Fade, I saw the memory of a man who lived alone on an island. Most of his tribe had fallen to beasts or disease. His wife had died in childbirth. He was the only one left. He could have struck out on his own to find a new land, new people. But he stayed. He spent every day catching fish in a little boat, every night drinking fermented fruit juice and watching the stars.

Varric: I can think of worse lives.

Solas: How can you be happy surrendering, knowing it will all end with you? How can you not fight?

Varric: I suppose it depends on the quality of the fermented fruit juice.

As always with Inquisition dialogue, I am obsessed. But this moment does such a great job of laying out the fundamental building blocks of each character.

Solas comes right out of the gate and lets us know who he is. He is united with the man living in the ruin of all that his life used to be.

Solas, too, is living alone in a world where all he once knew has been taken from him. Before his sleep he had a master to serve, and then a rebellion to lead. He fought, he was relentless; his people were suffering but they were whole. There were opportunities to find comfort, familiarity, or even just a new normal amongst new lands and people, but he rejected them (I think perhaps this is best shown through the murder of Felassan/the plot of the Masked Empire). Now, he lives as much as he possibly can in the fade and waits for his opportunity to restore the world he believes he ruined in his quest to save it (imprisoning the Evanuris through the creation of the veil).

Varric, conversely, has been tearing his way through this (to Solas) new world his entire life. I also think it's worth noting that his attitude is probably an absolute smack in the face to Solas, who knows what the dwarves once were and is responsible for the loss of their dreams and the ruination of the titans. But Varric doesn't need to know what was lost in order to know what an uphill battle he faces in Thedas as a dwarf. And fuck, he's from Kirkwall, he knows exactly how much worse life can get than a quiet existence with food, drink, and the stars for company.

But because these two have such a cool dynamic of agree-to-disagree/mutual admiration for each other, Varric thinks the story over and renews the discussion.

Varric: What's with you and the doom stuff? Are you always this cheery or is the hole in the sky getting to you?

Solas: I've no idea what you mean.

Varric: All the "fallen empire" crap you go on about. What's so great about empires anyway?

Varric: So we lost the Deep Roads, and Orzammar's too proud to ask for help. So what? We're not Orzammar and we're not our empire.

Varric: There are tens of thousands of us living up here in the sunlight now, and it's not that bad.

Varric: Life goes on. It's just different than it used to be.

Solas: And you have no concept of what that difference cost you.

Varric: I know what it didn't cost me. I'm still here, even after all those thaigs fell.

God I love what the dialogue in these games used to be. There's so much I could talk about, but I think what I want to focus on is the idea of empire being so smoothly fitted in to the discussion.

Varric, knowing Solas isn't fully satisfied with his answer, ruminates and comes back swinging. This is also where I'll add that part of the reason I think Varric throws Solas so badly is because he's what Felassan could have been with more time to form his arguments. When Solas made the choice to take Felassan's game piece off the board, our favorite slow arrow was just coming to terms with the idea that there is beauty in taking what an imperfect world offers you and making the best of it. Varric is comfortable in this viewpoint, and Solas can't just kill him on a mission or at Skyhold. He has no choice but to hear the argument he fights to ensure he doesn't have to hear.

And damn, what an argument. Without meaning to, Varric cuts to the quick of what has been haunting Solas. You cannot snap your fingers and re-establish Empire as it once was. Orzammar has cordoned itself off from the rest of the world, does not ask for help, and clings to an ever-crumbling old order. Even if you tried, too much has changed. Dwarves are not what they once were, and more and more have returned to the surface. Life goes on. It's just different than it used to be. And Solas has never been able to confront that possibility.

True to form, he pushes back. But why not give it a try? Why take what you've been given when you could wrest what you've been denied from the hand that holds it? How can you do nothing?

Solas: You truly are content to sit in the sun, never wondering what you could’ve been, never fighting back?

Varric: Ha, you’ve got it all wrong, Chuckles. This is fighting back.

Solas: How does passively accepting your fate constitute a fight?

Varric: In that story of yours—the fisherman watching the stars, dying alone—you thought he gave up right?

Solas: Yes.

Varric: But he went on living. He lost everyone, but he still got up every morning. He made a life, even if it was alone.

Varric: That’s the world. Everything you build, it tears down. Everything you’ve got, it takes—and it’s gone forever. The only choices you get are to lie down and die or keep going. He kept going. That’s as close to beating the world as anyone gets.

Solas: Well said. Perhaps I was mistaken

And then Varric hits him with it: a life alone is still a life. There is nothing that time will not take from us. What Solas fails to understand (and we can blame this on his pride, on his crusade he cannot lay down until he is free of his duty to Mythal, or his straight-up sentimentality) is that if Elvhenan hadn't fallen through the actions of the Evanuris and those he took to stop them, it would have been something else. Life is a wailing gnashing unrelenting song that will never be satisfied and can never cease dragging all that falls before it into its maw in the hopes that finally something will be enough. When it tears something down, your only choices are to "lie down and die or keep going." And again, as a Kirkwall survivor, Varric knows this. An occupying force remove your political leader? Quell the violence and try again. The chantry explodes? Save the city's mages from their bloodthirsty jailer and make sure there's a tomorrow where you can fight to fix it.

We know this doesn't dissuade Solas, the burden he's placed upon himself it too great, the ways that war has shaped him have scarred deep. Part of the tragedy of Solas is how he's been walking the dinan'shiral so long that he is incapable of turning around. Every step he takes has sent sharp rocks cutting into his feet, and it would kill him to turn around and see just how little of a distance he's covered. He cannot let go of resistance as a concentrated action, as fighting until there's nothing left but ruination.

But it is no small feat on Varric's part to get the Dread Wolf himself to concede a point. And a step further than that, Solas respects his friend, and respects the life he's built amongst the scraps of what once was. I don't doubt for a minute that Varric was a key part of why Solas was able to start seeing the world around him as a little more real.

And then of course we get Veilguard.

It is here that Solas dooms himself.

"You came a long way and made a valiant effort, Varric, but this story does not end with my downfall."

But it does. Because even if Varric, like Felassan, is taken off the table, Rook endures. And what is Rook in this game if not the very continuation of Varric's fighting spirit: an absolutely untested newbie who through miracle after miracle (regardless of the issues I may take with that) is the very portrait of "But he went on living" ?

Varric may not get to be the one to talk Solas down at the very end of the game after Mythal waves her hand and unleashes her second-in-command, but by delaying long enough to stop the ritual, by refusing to give up on his friend that stares at the stars every night with nothing but his fermented fruit juice for company, he ensured someone would be around who could.

In one of the less kind endings that person is Rook, dragging themselves into the fade with Solas out of sheer spite or sending him there against his will. In the kinder endings, it is the Inquisitor, letting their friend/heart know that at last, merely surviving another day is enough. And I like to think that it is within those kinder endings that Solas thinks of Varric each time he works to soothe the titan's dreams and make life just a little better for the tens of thousands living in the sunlight. Perhaps, in this world where he is finally free, he appreciates the gravity of ensuring others have a chance to keep living in a world that is hell-bent on taking. Maybe he even finds a cup of that fermented fruit juice in the fade, sits with his feet dangling over an endless abyss, and drinks to his friend's honor.

I'll leave y'all with a final bit of dialogue I love.

RIP Varric Tethras, an absolute fucking baddie who forced Fen'harel himself to part with just a smidge of his pride and recognize someone that reminded him of what he once was--wiser than most--and in the subtext of this conversation, wiser than a pining spirit of wisdom himself.

Solas: Do you ever miss life beneath the earth? The call of the Stone?

Varric: Nah. Whatever the Stone - capital S - is, it was gone by the time my parents had me.

Solas: But… do you miss it?

Varric: How could I miss what I never had?

Varric: But say I did have that sense, that connection to the Stone. What would it cost me?

Varric: Would I lose my friends up here? Would I stop telling stories?

Varric: I like who I am. If I want to hear songs, I'll go to a tavern.

Solas: You are wiser than most.

[msunitedstatesjames]

Ranking Veilguard Companion Questlines:

This ranking is truly based off how much I enjoyed the questlines overall, not how much I like each character. I liked all the companions and overall liked their quests, but some really stood out to me more than others.

7. Neve

Neve was one of my favorite companions in terms of personality, and depending on the choices you make she can have a really interesting role in the endgame. However, her quests felt kind of bland and one note to me. Evil blood mages are kind of old hat in the DA games at this point, and Aelia just didn't really stand out from the crowd as a villain. There were some pretty gruesome moments in the final quest where Aelia is puppeting people, but overall I just didn't find these quests to be super memorable.

6. Harding

This one should probably be higher up the list just for its lore implications, but for some reason I just didn't feel all that engaged with her storyline. I guess I wanted a little more. Harding implies that she's struggling with her powers, but we're never really shown much of that, other than the fact that she has confusing dreams now. She talks about her anger in regards to the Titan revelation, but again, I think we needed more. She only really seems angry for brief moments here and there, which makes it a little hard to believe when her final choice is pretty much whether or not to hold onto her anger. She does talk about how she's kind of a people pleaser and likes to seem cheerful as a result, but if that's the case they still coild have done more with that.

5. Bellara

Going into this, I had to remind myself about some of the details of Bellara's storyline, because other than the situation with her brother I didn't immediately remember her plot. The problem I have with her story is that sometimes it feels like there are two separate issues at play, the Archive and her brother. They do end up being connected, but it feels kind of loose. Dealing with the feelings of betrayal and grief in regards to her brother did add an important emotional resonance to her story, so that helped rank her above some others. The choice you make in the end feels very meaningful in terms of the world, but we don't have the chance to see it play out in any meaningful way within the game. I would have liked to see a noticeable shift of some kind, at least in Veiljumper territory, based on Bellara's choice, but all we got is one moment in the finale where the game has to tell us we're seeing the results of her decision.

4. Lucanis

Lucanis's storyline had some pretty cool scenes. The Ossuary. Going into his own mind. Confronting Zara. But considering everything he has going on, at times his storyline seemed like it needed more fleshing out. This dude is a non-mage possessed by a demon. Is that ever really explained other than by the fact that Zara was just a freaky, evil experimenter? We've had so many characters in DA with absolutely nightmarish experiences with possession, and honestly everyone is just pretty cool with Lucanis and Spite just being a chill partnership, maybe because he's not a mage. I know there are comments about how people probably aren't actually cool with it, Lucanis says as much about the Crows in the end, but we don't really get to see that. It might have been interesting for there to be more tangible tension between Lucanis and those around him based on his demonic possession.

3. Taash

I really struggled with where to place Taash's questline, as some aspects felt quite weak and others felt deeply meaningful. In the end, I surprised myself by ranking them so high. When I immediately look back on their questlines, there doesn't seem to be a lot there. Taash hunts around for some dragons, has dinner with their mom, and finally in the end fights the Dragon King. Taash's story is perhaps less related to the overall plot of Veilguard than any other character but Emmrich, which didn't necessarily help. And though I find Taash's quest for identity to be an important one, it doesn't lend itself to the same kind of excitement as some of the others. Still, emotionally this series of quests ends up doing a lot of heavy lifting. Specifically, I found Taash's relationship with Shathann to lend a lot to their story. Even if you can't relate to Taash's struggles with gender or identity, almost everyone can relate to the struggle between a parent and a child. I was never quite sure what to think of Shathann. And I think that's very real. When I look at the parents of my friends and loved ones I often see the duality of everything they've done out of love for their children and everything they've done that has harmed them. At times I found Shathann to be caring and protective, at other times to be borderline abusive and too desiring of control over Taash's life. And though this situtaion might be extreme compared to many people's experiences with their parents, there's an almost innate toxicity to all parent child relationships at one point or another, as a child tries to grow in one direction that might not be what the parent wants or hopes. And I think these quests walk that thin line we all tread at one point or another in our lives, where you have someone that you love even when you feel that they don't deserve your love or deserve you, but you still can't help but care about them anyway. But in the end Taash does love their mother, and when Shathann dies Taash's rage feels very real, as does their entire relationship dynamic throughout the game.

2. Davrin

Davrin's story benefits from being perhaps more closely tied in to the world and the story of Veilguard than any other. The Grey Wardens and the Blight have always been central to DA, and only Origins has made them more central than Veilguard did. But Davrin and Assan really did steal my heart. At first, I didn't find Davrin to be especially exciting. He seemed like just another stoic warrior type. But the more time you spent with he and Assan and the other Wardens, the more you came to love him. The Gloom Howler storyline, along with the return of the griffons, was fascinating and the stakes felt extremely high. The stakes felt so high in fact that I often wondered how Davrin remained so calm as Rook paraded around the Necropolis Gardens or Arlathan while the Gloom Howler was off somewhere doing who knew what to the world's only family of griffons. The choice you made about the griffons was honestly the hardest in the game for me. Many of the other choices felt obvious from a typical heroic video game character sense of morality, where the game designers seem to want you to pick the happy, cheerful, forgiving route over any other. But the griffon choice had no obvious answer to a question I didn't even expect to be asked, and I stared at the screen for a while before I made it. My one problem with this is that it felt bizarre for Rook to even be making such a choice. And the other good thing about this quest is that at least you get to visit with the griffons a few times after the choice to get a little taste of how your choice is panning out. The interesting thing will be to see if this choice plays into any future DA stories and games.

1.Emmrich

All right, I can't even pretend to be unbiased here. If you scroll through my blog you will see countless Emmrich posts. This dude was my unexpected romance choice and my unexpected favorite companion in the game. He has interesting commentary in most situations, his voice acting is delightful, and he stands out as a fresh and unique character among many wonderful DA companions over the years. But this is supposed to be about his questline, not just how much I adore him. I've written extensively about my love for these quests elsewhere on my blog, but I'll restate the basics here. His questline had one major thing going for it from the very beginning, that being that we've heard much about the Mourn Watch and the Necropolis, but have never had the chance to experience any of it. I was immediately intrigued to learn more about them. I very much expect a certain dark and spooky vibe from Necromancers, but in many ways the Necromancers in this questline defy expectations. Yeah, they're still kind of weirdos who love everything to do with the dead, but Emmrich is a kind, compassionate weirdo and Hezenkoss is, despite being the villain, kind of just a dorky chick. And yet, somehow this makes her the best villain in the game. She's evil. She tortures souls. She wants to embody a giant skeleton and rule over Nevarra City as a giant, immortal skeleton queen. She wants to commit murders because her peers are too dull, too stupid, or have committed plagirism. She has weird little gestures she does as she discusses her evil plan. She uses overdramatic, stereotypical villain language like calling everyone "fools" and complaining about Emmrich's "sanctimonius bleating." She completely believes that Emmrich is the main character in this story, he must be because she believes herself to be the main villain. She's just as much of a nerd as Emmrich and equally as skilled, and in fact reflects quite poignantly the atrocities Emmrich could have committed if he wasn't so deeply compassionate. She's an extremely memorable villain compared to others in the companion quests (and even the main quest), and she's all the better because she helps define Emmrich that much more clearly, which is exactly the job of a good companion quest and a good villain. She's so good that she's even brought back to bicker with Emmrich from beyond death for the rest of the game. All that, and I haven't even touched on Emmrich's big choice. The lich choice is so effective because it forces Emmrich to confront his very clearly stated worst fear, death, which is doubly interesting considering his occupation. It's also such a good choice because it presents you with an immediate and tangible effect, unlike many other quests. Either you save Manfred and Emmrich remains mortal, or you lose Manfred and Emmrich transforms into an immortal skeleton. Either way, you're bound to notice and feel the difference. Even without a major main quest connection, this storyline was just so well done.

[beefgnawpolis]

I finally finished Metaphor last night and... hoo

First, some non-spoily advice:

for the love of God keep multiple backup saves. One right at the beginning of the Endgame Days, one just before you go do anything major like the dragons, one just before you go to the Skybound Avatar, and one when you get to the final dungeon, at the very least. These are IN ADDITION TO your normal save. Don't do what I did and have to redo the last whole 2ish weeks of the game because you fucked up and went into the For Real Final Boss Battle way underleveled and didn't spend enough time grinding in the final dungeon. Which brings me to:

YOU CAN REST IN THE FINAL DUNGEON WITHOUT TIME PASSING. USE THAT. USE IT. GRIND LIKE A MOTHERFUCKER. If there are still red enemies in the second area, you're going to have a rough time in the final battle. If there are still red enemies in the first area you're going to be fucked.

TAKE OUT ALL THE OPTIONAL BOSSES IN THE FINAL DUNGEON. You will get cool weapons + make your life easier in the last phase of the final battle.

If the Fishy Boy humans in the second area are blue, you should probably start thinking about taking on the final boss. But if you really want to grind Archetypes or make money to max out your stash of healing items, that Fishy Boy generator in the second area is a great place to do it. Only one of the crystals actually spawns Fishy Boys. The other two can be safely taken out.

You get some dope ass weapons for unlocking all the Archetypes for a character but you get anything for mastering all of them (except a trophy for the Protagonist, and maybe there's one for mastering everyone but ain't nobody got time for that)

Some Archetypes, the Trickster in particular, can inflict new and exciting weaknesses on enemies that don't have any (i.e. the final boss and those rare Big Teeth). USE THAT.

Okay, now for the spoilers.

So the first time I tried the final boss battle, I was about lv. 70. I did okay in the first phase, struggled hard in the second phase, and managed to hold it together long enough to get the third phase down to about half HP and then it all went to shit. (oh right, this does not count the fight against More, which also didn't help!)

I had a save from right before the final boss and a save from like two weeks before and that was it. I had to redo SO MUCH SHIT and it was nobody's fault but my own. Welp. Not doing that again. Hence the multiple save files for the second attempt.

I took out all three dragons in the days leading up to our second Skybound Avatar trip (which I made a few days early), got to Elegy of Souls, got steamrolled twice (one of which was a horrifying one-hit party KO) and decided "well fuck this actually" and may go back and do it in a NG+. I was, however, delighted to get the very skill that fucker used on me for having the nerve to put fire-repelling shoes on Strohl for unlocking all the Royal Archetypes and I absolutely used that ability to make at least two final boss forms cry on the second attempt :)

So I was, uh. Definitely OP the second time I went to kick Louis's ass. That second phase with the three faces gave me no end of grief the first time around. This time it lasted 3 turns and did not get a chance to snack on anyone. The final final phase... got to attack twice. And Hulkenberg's autorepel thing kicked in both times and cut his turn super short. It was almost sad. Almost.

Yes, I got a little teary-eyed at the ending. And of course King Little Shit ditches the palace to hang out with people in town. Bless him.

HEISMAY YOU LITTLE SHIT.

Anyway. I loved this fucking game. A++++++ story and gameplay. The soundtrack fucks. I still want to take Atlus out to the parking lot for a whole lot of things they did so they know they ain't slick (the Royal Magic scroll was exactly what I thought it was, yep).

[boasamishipper]

tagged by @film-in-my-soul and @icemankazansky - thanks guys!! ❤️❤️❤️

Everyone deserves to toot their own horn and be proud of their work! So, this tag game is fairly simple.

Promote 5 works that you're really proud of and share a little about why you're so proud of them! Then tag as many people as you like. You can reblog this post and add on to it (why not create a giant reclist to throw around?) or steal this header (and border if you like) and make your own post.

tagging @bornforastorm @lookforanewangle @apartmentsmoke @maverickcalf @saltyfilmmajor @hacash @academicgangster @onekisstotakewithme and anyone else who sees this and wants to do it

Make A Wrong One Right

Top Gun, Iceman Kazansky/Maverick Mitchell, Goose Bradshaw & Maverick Mitchell

Maverick makes a wish and wakes up thirty years in the past. He reacts accordingly.

I've written a lot of Top Gun fics (sixty-three, to be precise, which is insane all on its own) but this fic is far and away the one I'm most proud of. Not only did I get to throw in all my favorite things (angst with a happy ending!! time travel!! magical realism!! back to the future references!!), I got the chance to explore in a more subtle way just how much Mav loves Ice, and tackle fun existential questions like, Would you change the past if it meant you might lose the future you love? And I feel like I balanced all of the above and stuck the landing really well! (Honestly, the whole story was worth writing just for the bit in chapter three where Mav calls Ice 'baby' without thinking and Ice bluescreens so hard he drops what he's holding.)

there's a raging fire in my heart tonight

Top Gun&MCU, Iceman Kazansky/Maverick Mitchell, Carol Danvers/Maria Rambeau, Carol Danvers & Iceman Kazansky, Iceman Kazansky & Tony Stark, MCU/Coherent Storytelling

“Carol, you can’t bring a civilian into this—” “Civilian?” The temperature in the room seems to drop twenty degrees as Ice steps forward, flinty-eyed and deadly serious. “I’m a captain. And I earned my rank, which is more than I can say for you, Rogers. Thanos killed my husband. You want to stop me from helping you out, you’re going to have to shoot me.” Silence stretches out, long and fraught with tension. Then Stark laughs out loud, and everyone turns to look at him. “What?” he says. “I like this guy.”

This was the first Top Gun fic I ever published, and the first Top Gun fic I wrote on my own. (At the time, I was working on baby, baby, i'd get down on my knees for you with the fantastic @academicgangster, without whom I never would have gotten into Top Gun or on the Tom Cruise train at all.) Naturally my first foray into this fandom ended up being this chaotic, complicated beast of a fic, where I wrote my faves Iceman Kazansky and Tony Stark and Carol Danvers side by side, fixed all my issues with Avengers: Endgame, and gave everyone the happy ending they deserved (especially after all the additional angst I put them through). I had a blast writing this fic and rambling about all the details with Cain (without her support this fic would never have left our tumblr DMs). There were a lot of plot points to juggle, and I managed to juggle them all. So though I've definitely grown as a writer in the (oh god) five years since, I still look back on this fic very fondly, and very proudly. And who knows, maybe someday I'll go back to this series and write more of Ice accidentally acquiring a son in Tony Stark and a granddaughter in Morgan. (Famous last words, I know.)

Judge Leon AU

Night Court (1984) / Night Court (2023), Dan Fielding/Harry Stone, Dan Fielding & Leon, Olivia Moore/Donna "Gurgs" Gurganous, Neil Valluri/Gabby

When his court-assigned public defender quits on his first night as an arraignment judge at Manhattan Criminal Court, Leon decides to reach out to his old foster father, Harry Stone, for advice. He finds Harry's widower, Dan Fielding, instead.

shot:

chaser:

I could not tell you for the life of me why the hands down angstiest fics I've ever written ended up being for an 80s sitcom whose plotlines include a ventriloquist's dummy committing suicide and my blorbo getting so horny he had to fuck a firehose about it, but here we are!! Over sixty-four thousand words later!!

In all seriousness, though, I'm extremely proud of this series. I have a lot of issues with New Night Court (I have a post in my drafts about that), namely that it lacks the edge and darkness that made the original so good, and this series gave me the opportunity to restore that edge and really make us feel Harry's loss, as well as the loss of almost all the other main cast members. I get to be goofy (a man holds the gang hostage on the advice of members of his favorite subreddit) and I get to be angsty (delve deeply into Dan's low self-worth and depression and grief post-Harry's death) and in all the spaces between, I get to write about how much Harry and Dan loved each other (and develop Leon and Dan's growing bond), and I do it all very, very well. (Certainly better than the NNC writers. Let me into the writers' room, guys!! Help me help you!!)

Austin Alone

9-1-1 Lone Star, Billy Tyson/Owen Strand

After the reopening of the 126, Billy and Owen give being friends with benefits a try. Inconvenient feelings ensue. / Season 3 AU, Owen-centric.

I co-wrote this fic with the lovely @lilalbatross while season 3 was still airing, and not only were we so in tune with the characters and the show that our fic accidentally predicted the future (exploration of Owen's abandonment issues! Owen getting trapped in a collapsed building!), but this fic set my standards so high that now the show can no longer reach it. (To be fair, this is largely because Lone Star decided to become the Tarlos and Wyatt Show above all else, but that's a rant for another day.) I'm proud as hell of this fic for a lot of reasons - I got Billy and Owen's voices down pat, put them in mortal peril that was realistic to the show, and wrote some banger lines of dialogue and prose that made me take honest to god victory laps around my house. The entirety of (the very long) chapter 6 might be some of my best work of all time.

For A Minute There I Lost Myself

Ted Lasso, Nathan Shelley & Original Male Character(s), Nathan Shelley & Ted Lasso, Nathan Shelley & Rupert Mannion

Nathan Shelley and the road to redemption.

[sigh] Really it's such a shame that Ted Lasso never got a season three and so we never got to see Nate grow and thrive at West Ham and bond with his players and stand up to Rupert and become more confident in himself and his ability as a coach and apologize to Ted and just in general have a redemption arc that was not centered on some random one-dimensional mean waitress or his ability to play the violin. But at least we have this fic!

I wrote FAMTILM for Yuletide in 2021. I'd never written Nate's POV before - all my Ted Lasso fics up to this point were about Sam and Dani - so I'm proud of myself for being able to capture the nuances of Nate's voice and write the slow growth of Nate's self-esteem and realization that he was in the wrong and his affection for his players (particularly Višnjić and Roubeni, who are in my top ten favorite OCs I've ever created). I'm also very proud of myself for taking what could have been a 30k word story and telling it just as well in under 8k, and writing a full Natedemption arc in less than a month that turned out to be ten times better than what Sudeikis and co accomplished in twelve bloated episodes.

[thatgirl4815]

I don't understand the need for a SandRay endgame tho, don't you think Sand deserves better than this? deserves better than to be the second choice, the one Ray goes after when Mew doesn't want him? I just can't seem to fathom wanting that for Sand and I would like someone to explain to me why would you want that haha

Ray doesn't care about him enough, when Mew was with Top, Ray stated that as long as Mew was happy, he was happy, he didn't try to break them up, with Sand tho, with Sand it seems Ray doesn't care about his happiness, about letting him move on, with Sand he is selfish and controlling and I don't think that is love.

I don't mean this to be rude (I am really sorry if my wording came across that way!) but I really wanna understand why anyone would want that for Sand haha

Hey Anon! Not rude at all--a very valid question. Ultimately: yes, I do think Sand deserves better, and that has been part of the reason why my Sand Protector heart and SandRay shipper heart have been at odds. But I'm going to use this space to rant a little, if that's alright.

If Sand and Ray was to be endgame the way their relationship is now, I would not be satisfied. Because you're right, Ray is selfish--tossing Sand around and using him when he needs him. In a lot of ways, I think Ray's relationship with Sand will be a catalyst for showing him just how selfish of a person he is.

Ray has problems. Ray is an alcoholic and a drug addict who seems to struggle with depression and self-worth issues. He's also very lonely. And I think Ray sees an out to a lot of those problems through Mew; he's constructed this fantastical aura around him. Maybe it's because Ray wants something easy: he thinks that if he can be with Mew, he doesn't have to feel unworthy of love. He's convinced himself of this so strongly that even someone like Sand, who he does care for, can't compare to the fantasy he's built up in his head.

Sand doesn't deserve to give Ray any more chances, because Ray is messing with his heart. At the same time, I think Sand struggles to blame Ray completely for this because he knows that they haven't technically committed to each other. For the moment, I think Sand blames himself more than anything. When Ray starts getting possessive is when things are really going to go downhill in the toxicity department. But amidst all of this, I am hopeful that Ray will see everything he is doing to Sand for what it is. When the euphoria of RayMew wears off, there could be clarity.

And it isn't just that Sand takes care of Ray either. It's that Sand takes care of Ray even when he doesn't have to. I've been thinking a lot about the fact that Mew came when Ray called two years ago, but Ray has never once called Sand for help, but Sand has helped anyways.

So really, when I say I want SandRay endgame, I mean that I want a SandRay endgame where Ray apologizes and, more than that, shows Sand that he was wrong. I would not blame Sand for walking away at all, but I like the thought of Ray realizing that he was caught up in a dream that was never going to be a reality. I think being with Mew will show Ray that he's been an asshole to Sand in ways that he might not have intended, even if he needs to take responsibility for them.

Does that make sense? Hopefully I'm not the only one who feels this way. Unrelated to the story, but I'm an FK stan to the ends of the earth, so I suspect that is also informing my opinion, haha.

[mserm]

Kinda obsessed with this idea of post-Endgame Steve as one of Charles and Erik's handlers during First Class. He's not Moira, and definitly not CIA, but maybe some other agency? Possibly SHIELD related? He's been investigating Shaw in case he had any connection to Red Skull and somehow ends up being a part of the group that reaches out to Charles.

At first, I couldn't find anything interesting narratively with this because Charles would know immediately he's Captain America, right? Except now I'm convinced Charles would think Steve is INSANE. It's not the Captain America thing, though in context Charles doubts that. It's the fact that when Charles reads his mind, he finds out that Steve thinks he's from the future. And that he's fought aliens. And that he thinks he's friends with the God of Thunder. And oh wait, he's been to space. And worked with a fucking talking raccoon.

This man must be crazy and somehow he has the power of the government behind him.

Steve, on the other hand, is going by an alias and has only shared his past with a few choice people, often omitting the more unbelievable details. He's tried to be open with Peggy, but once he made a joke while they were in a park about not taking the time to learn Groot when he had a chance and she regarded him with such skepticism that he's kept most of the rest to himself.

He's beyond excited to get to work with the mutants, and despite the fact that he's pretty sure there weren't mutants in his own timeline (he would know!) he believes in them with all his heart. He feels especially kindred to Charles with all his rhetoric about using his gifts to help humanity. He adores Hank and his big brain. He's compelled by Erik's single-minded determination. He throws himself into the mission to find Shaw with his own special brand of stoic enthusiasm by researching mutation and running theories past Charles and Erik whenever he sees him.

Charles, at first, ignores these theories but slowly comes to the conclusion that this man is at least somewhat intelligent. He could be useful. And then Steve's the reason no one gets hurt when Shaw attacks the CIA compound, so Charles is willing to accept this guy might actually be Captain America incognito.

(But everything else must not be true. He's still crazy. Maybe all that experimentation fried his brain.)

Charles shares his thoughts with Erik, who cares less about the insanity angle and more about the fact that this man looks like he can actually protect people. He's glad there's at least one other person who can hold his own in hand-to-hand fighting. So what if Steve thinks he's close with the king of Wakanda? At least he's useful.

After the attack, Steve supports moving the team to Westchester. He doesn't trust the CIA and well, he's partial to the idea of a rich guy giving a bunch of misfits a home. He's also a little startled to discover that the very real possibility of nuclear war sparks something in him. Not excitement, definitely not that. But something closer to clarity. It's been almost twenty years since he's faced an annihilation-level threat. He, unfortunately, feels at home under end-of-the-world pressure.

So he helps train the young mutants and discusses tactics and feels closer to people than he has since he and Peggy started to drift apart. Then he sees fault lines in the conversations and arguments about the future of mutant-kind and is overtaken by a fear that it will tear the nascent group in two. Because what Steve knows is this: someday those differences won't matter. Someday you'll have the option of staring down an annihilation-level threat and being told that you weren't there when someone needed you and if you could choose again you'd choose the former.

But Steve doesn't try to interfere. He's not naive; he knows that he can only imagine what it's like to be a mutant.

But it's hard not to project.

It isn't that he regrets his decision to go back in time. He'd do it again. He saved Bucky and ripped Hydra out of SHIELD and he's so close to finding out how Red Skull ended up in space guarding the soul stone. But it isn't until he begins to teach Raven the finer points of combat that he truly feels not alone.

He's with them when they go to Cuba. He sits next to Moira and wonders if he should have brought the shield. He hasn't used it since he came back to the past. For all intents and purposes, Captain America is supposed to be dead; yet, Steve's blood thrums through his veins like he's standing on the ruins of the Avengers Compound next to Tony and Thor.

(Charles has long since learned to ignore Steve's strange internal monologue. This man should have been a storyteller instead of a soldier.)

Steve doesn't fix it, in the end. He falters just when he could be of use because when Erik holds those missiles in his power and turns them around on the ships he thinks of Tony turning a missile around and at flying it into the sky. He wonders how he could be so wrong about someone. It's at this moment Moira picks up the gun. Steve's fast, but he's not faster than a bullet.

It still shatters Charles's spine.

They save the world, yes, but Steve will only be able to watch as Erik's sent into solitary confinement. He can't prove Erik didn't kill Kennedy. And, of course, he'll try to reach out to Charles as the school closes and he shrinks into himself, but Charles can't stand to look at Steve and only finds him marginally more tolerable when he can't hear Steve's impossible thoughts.

It isn't until Logan arrives that Charles realizes that Steve might actually be the person he thinks he is. However, Steve's halfway across the world for some unimportant reason during the events of Days of Future's Past. He's not on the plane when Charles tells Erik that he wasn't there when Charles needed him. He's not there when Erik--again--chooses his principles over Charles.

And that's fine. You can't rewrite the future in Steve's brand of time travel. You live with your choices. You try to be there when people need you and you live with the consequences when you cannot.

[sapphire-weapon]

a few days ago you mentioned that you headcanon that remake Leon lost his virginity to Claire.

Do you think this is something he would regret or would he still have some lingering feelings there?

Like, I love Ashley but I also really love Claire too and since you mentioned this I've been kinda torn lol!

So basically, care to elaborate?

So, in OG canon, RE2 ends with Leon being all amped up to go after Umbrella. This apparently ends up with him and Claire in an argument about the next steps to take, and he all but shoves her to go in the opposite direction of him and Sherry so that she can find Chris -- and then Leon and Sherry get picked up by the CIA just a few hours later.

Like, that whole thing happens really fucking fast in OG. Leon has not had a chance to sleep in the time between driving into Raccoon City and being kidnapped into CIA custody.

And yet, somehow, despite this, Claire is able to keep in contact with Leon to the point of being able to email him during the events of Code Veronica??? Like, it makes absolutely no fucking sense at all, and Capcom never bothered to try to explain it specifically because it's complete plot convenience nonsense lmao

So I feel like this is one of the changes that Remake is making -- because RE2make did not end with the same tone as OG RE2. RE2make ends with Leon looking at Claire and Sherry as his immediate priority, and if any Umbrella shit pops up, they'll deal with it then.

Leon's wording during the intro of RE4make is suspect, too -- that he was "later asked" by the CIA to join up. That makes me think that this didn't happen right away -- that there was at least a handful of days, or even maybe a full week, in between him escaping Raccoon City and the CIA getting a hold of him. And this is sort of backed up by the lingering nerve damage in his left shoulder in RE4make -- he probably carried that open gunshot wound around for a bit longer in Remake than he did in OG canon.

(side note: I know that the photo of Leon that Krauser has been very uhhhh attached to, let's say, looks like Leon was literally just taken off the streets like he was in OG canon, but like. Capcom wasn't going to make a whole new, cleaned up version of his RE2make character model just for Krauser's jerk off fantasies LMAO it was just easier to put in his endgame RE2make model there)

So this meant that there was a not-insignificant amount of time in Remake canon where Leon, Claire, and Sherry were basically playing house, so to speak, while Leon and Claire tried to figure out what to do next.

I imagine this is when it happened.

You've got these two college-aged kids trapped in a domestic situation together after escaping from an actual literal waking nightmare together. They're hurting not just physically, but emotionally. They've been isolated from the rest of the world and have only each other to trust and confide in and try to figure out a way of coping with any of it and moving forward.

Yeah, that's going to boil over at some point very quickly. Any number of things could have been the trigger point for it.

It could have been Claire helping Leon keep his wound clean and feeling like she's actually helping in a way that matters while he's a little overwhelmed by someone taking care of him.

Or it could have been a melancholic moment where they're both lost and directionless and feeling helpless, and they both end up looking for some comfort in each other, because that's all they have.

Or it could have been a tense moment when one or both of them can't make sense of why they're still alive -- or if they're still alive, and they just need to feel something to remind themselves they're still human.

Or it could have been a quiet moment in the middle of the night, where neither one of them says anything at all, and neither one of them is quite sure just how Claire ended up on Leon's lap while he kisses her as though he's afraid she'll disappear if he stops.

It doesn't really matter what it was. No matter what happened, it happened.

And I don't think that Leon would have told her up front that only the first two fingers on his right hand know what the inside of a vagina feels like. She probably suspected it when she noticed how nervous he was, and she definitely figured it out after the third time he went too far and accidentally pulled out of her completely mid-thrust instead of just pulling back -- but I don't think that this was information that he volunteered.

But Claire was probably the awakening of Leon's praise kink, because I'm sure that once she did figure it out, she literally took him by the hands and walked him through it. And after a few comments along the lines of "You're a fast learner" and "That's it, you've got it" and "Keep going, just like that" and "You're doing so fucking good" -- Leon learned something about himself that he did not know previously.

I don't think he regrets it, and I don't think that he ever will.

Well, I mean, I'm sure he regrets it a little whenever she decides to hold it over his head later in life, because she's Claire Redfield and there's absolutely zero chance that she's going to let him forget that she was the one who taught him how to please a woman.

And he probably regretted it a little bit the first time that he ever had to look Chris in the face.

And then also one other time way later down the line when it hit him that he was now much closer to Chris than he was to Claire, and that weird "oh my god I fucked your sister, and now I'm also kind of attracted to you oh god no why is my life like this" realization came over him.

But. You know.

I don't think he regrets it in a serious way. It was an important moment in both of their lives -- it meant something; it wasn't like he slept with her just for the sake of losing his virginity. It helped both of them get through the worst parts of the darkest time either of them had had to face or endure. Going through Raccoon City itself was the easy part -- fighting was simple, and it kept both of them focused. But it was the aftermath, when the enormity of all that had happened settled down on them -- that was the true nightmare of it all. And they got through it together.

Do I think either of them caught feelings because of it? No, I don't -- so, there was no heartbreak attached to this at any point, either. But it was still emotional and poignant and it mattered, and I think both of them are really glad they did it.

[agonycrossbow]

Remake Claire took Remake Leon's virginity headcanon

So, in OG canon, RE2 ends with Leon being all amped up to go after Umbrella. This apparently ends up with him and Claire in an argument about the next steps to take, and he all but shoves her to go in the opposite direction of him and Sherry so that she can find Chris -- and then Leon and Sherry get picked up by the CIA just a few hours later.

Like, that whole thing happens really fucking fast in OG. Leon has not had a chance to sleep in the time between driving into Raccoon City and being kidnapped into CIA custody.

And yet, somehow, despite this, Claire is able to keep in contact with Leon to the point of being able to email him during the events of Code Veronica??? Like, it makes absolutely no fucking sense at all, and Capcom never bothered to try to explain it specifically because it's complete plot convenience nonsense lmao

So I feel like this is one of the changes that Remake is making -- because RE2make did not end with the same tone as OG RE2. RE2make ends with Leon looking at Claire and Sherry as his immediate priority, and if any Umbrella shit pops up, they'll deal with it then.

Leon's wording during the intro of RE4make is suspect, too -- that he was "later asked" by the CIA to join up. That makes me think that this didn't happen right away -- that there was at least a handful of days, or even maybe a full week, in between him escaping Raccoon City and the CIA getting a hold of him. And this is sort of backed up by the lingering nerve damage in his left shoulder in RE4make -- he probably carried that open gunshot wound around for a bit longer in Remake than he did in OG canon.

(side note: I know that the photo of Leon that Krauser has been very uhhhh attached to, let's say, looks like Leon was literally just taken off the streets like he was in OG canon, but like. Capcom wasn't going to make a whole new, cleaned up version of his RE2make character model just for Krauser's jerk off fantasies LMAO it was just easier to put in his endgame RE2make model there)

So this meant that there was a not-insignificant amount of time in Remake canon where Leon, Claire, and Sherry were basically playing house, so to speak, while Leon and Claire tried to figure out what to do next.

I imagine this is when it happened.

You've got these two college-aged kids trapped in a domestic situation together after escaping from an actual literal waking nightmare together. They're hurting not just physically, but emotionally. They've been isolated from the rest of the world and have only each other to trust and confide in and try to figure out a way of coping with any of it and moving forward.

Yeah, that's going to boil over at some point very quickly. Any number of things could have been the trigger point for it.

It could have been Claire helping Leon keep his wound clean and feeling like she's actually helping in a way that matters while he's a little overwhelmed by someone taking care of him.

Or it could have been a melancholic moment where they're both lost and directionless and feeling helpless, and they both end up looking for some comfort in each other, because that's all they have.

Or it could have been a tense moment when one or both of them can't make sense of why they're still alive -- or if they're still alive, and they just need to feel something to remind themselves they're still human.

Or it could have been a quiet moment in the middle of the night, where neither one of them says anything at all, and neither one of them is quite sure just how Claire ended up on Leon's lap while he kisses her as though he's afraid she'll disappear if he stops.

It doesn't really matter what it was. No matter what happened, it happened.

And I don't think that Leon would have told her up front that only the first two fingers on his right hand know what the inside of a vagina feels like. She probably suspected it when she noticed how nervous he was, and she definitely figured it out after the third time he went too far and accidentally pulled out of her completely mid-thrust instead of just pulling back -- but I don't think that this was information that he volunteered.

But Claire was probably the awakening of Leon's praise kink, because I'm sure that once she did figure it out, she literally took him by the hands and walked him through it. And after a few comments along the lines of "You're a fast learner" and "That's it, you've got it" and "Keep going, just like that" and "You're doing so fucking good" -- Leon learned something about himself that he did not know previously.

I don't think he regrets it, and I don't think that he ever will.

Well, I mean, I'm sure he regrets it a little whenever she decides to hold it over his head later in life, because she's Claire Redfield and there's absolutely zero chance that she's going to let him forget that she was the one who taught him how to please a woman.

And he probably regretted it a little bit the first time that he ever had to look Chris in the face.

And then also one other time way later down the line when it hit him that he was now much closer to Chris than he was to Claire, and that weird "oh my god I fucked your sister, and now I'm also kind of attracted to you oh god no why is my life like this" realization came over him.

But. You know.

I don't think he regrets it in a serious way. It was an important moment in both of their lives -- it meant something; it wasn't like he slept with her just for the sake of losing his virginity. It helped both of them get through the worst parts of the darkest time either of them had had to face or endure. Going through Raccoon City itself was the easy part -- fighting was simple, and it kept both of them focused. But it was the aftermath, when the enormity of all that had happened settled down on them -- that was the true nightmare of it all. And they got through it together.

Do I think either of them caught feelings because of it? No, I don't -- so, there was no heartbreak attached to this at any point, either. But it was still emotional and poignant and it mattered, and I think both of them are really glad they did it.

[stillthewc]

Komi Theory - Kometani has a crush on Manbagi

Hello internet, welcome to Komi Theory! The only post on Tumblr that attempts to ship two characters that likely won't even end up together in the narrative!

While Wakai/Manbagi seems like endgame at this point, Chapter 414's left enough openness with the pairing that anything can happen to it. And, despite not doing much right now, I'm convinced Oda has Kometani in his back pocket for their upcoming arc.

Anyways, this post's gonna be pretty long, so I'll cut it for length. Otherwise, let me explain my reasoning!

At a glance, Kometani getting a crush on someone like Manbagi seems far-fetched. He's the type of person to snark at everyone around him, and even admits in Chapter 286 that he prefers "a reliable girl", pointing to Isagi as the girl he likes most.

However, exactly two chapters later, there seems to be a wrench thrown into his response. As a recap, this is the one where Manbagi and Kometani ended up partnering with one another on the trip to America. And, while most of it's spent explaining why she screwed up the rigged partnering, the framing between the two's... strange.

Additionally, this marks the second time we see the iconic Kometani Smile™️, something that's instigated by hearing Manbagi's ridiculous way of getting cold feet. Considering the first time it was shown was during a smiling competition, and even their group's usual hang-out sessions didn't get so much of a grin out of him, this seems pretty big imo.

It should be noted that he knew about Manbagi's feelings for a while, so that makes me wonder a couple of things. Is this reaction to her something he developed specifically during this moment? Has he liked her for a while but refused to say anything? Keep in mind that Chapter 286 had Naruse disingenuously claim he liked Komi more than Ase, so it's entirely possible Kometani did the same thing.

But obviously, he serves more as Manbagi's wingman after he reveals how much he knows, going on to help clear the church Manbagi planned to confess in during Chapter 293. However, the Valentines arc seems to hint at something, particularly due to one little easter egg.

As a bit of set-up, Naruse proposes to walk with the boys after school's over, with Tadano rejecting for school council duties. Notably, Kometani declines as well, which is treated as a small aside.

Long story short, Rumiko blows her chances of being with Tadano due to her big-heartedness, with the entire class coming in to comfort her over it. And hidden away from the audience, we can see a certain someone attending.

This seems to be a very deliberate choice since, despite being a huge wingman for Rumiko up to this point, the narrative never once focuses on him consoling her.

This arc also has a more ambiguous piece of evidence to this theory: someone rejects going to Manbagi for karaoke with the class. And, while the message lacks the asterisks at the start of the sentence, the stoic manner of speaking matches Kometani perfectly.

This is a super small detail that Oda didn't need to add, making me think the reason for this rejection will be established later down the road.

Skipping a bit later, when Wakai's arc starts out proper, you'd assume Kometani isn't central to it at all due to the obvious pairing Oda's trying to do. However, Chapter 345 has both him and Katai end up befriending him, which goes on to be a small side friendship in the following chapters.

While normally I'd say this is just a small subplot to give the boys from the Komi-Tadano harem, Naruse's absence makes me think there's significance to it just being these two.

Katai's inclusion is pretty obvious, since he's mistaken for Manbagi's boyfriend and shows off his character growth. Kometani, meanwhile... noticed him pass out. He doesn't even use his fourth-wall-breaking-shenaniganry to deduce Wakai can't talk to girls.

And, sure, there's enough credence to the idea that he's being set up to be a matchmaker again, but I don't think Oda forgot about Chapter 288. Specifically, because this moment from 413 exists:

Sure, this is just a subtle little gag and everything, but he's clearly oggling her chest, c'mon. He's at least attracted to her physically.

This chapter's also the one directly before Manbagi shooting down Wakai's confession for the time being, meaning that Oda knew exactly what he was doing.

With all of this together, I'm being painted the idea that Kometani has some level of interest in Manbagi, but is keeping it subtle enough that it doesn't get in the way of her and Wakai. However, with Wakai and him becoming friends, this aspect will finally come to the forefront in some shape or form.

As for why this is being played so subtly, I personally think Kometani realizes he likes her, but is trying to avoid his feelings due to "the narrator not interfering with the story" or something, resorting to matchmaking her with people instead.

But regardless, we'll see if anything happens with this in canon! For now, that's just a theory. A Komi Theory! Thanks for reading!

[doktorpeace]

The Great All Generation Nuzlocks Roundup - Part 2

A continuation of Part 1, this encompasses the remaining games.

BLACK 2 - I love you Unova I love you so much you're so fucking good. I know B/W1 like the back of my hand, they're like home to me. So I went with B/W2 for additional challenge and just because of the broader encounter variety. Little did I suspect, that fate would have something in store for me.

This game had by far the most tumultuous early game, and it is in fact the game I wiped most in! I wiped three times before the second badge, and two of those were at Cheren! However, soldiering on, we eventually broke through the early game and clean through to the opposite side of a run. For most of this run a core contributor was a Magneton which I gave Eviolite to. As expected, a Steel/Electric type with 1.5x defensive stats is incredible for in game purposes, however, I blundered them away late in the run. Despite being consistent and undeniably helpful, I wasn't all that torn up by the loss. It actually freed up my team to have less type weakness overlap! This is definitely one of the stronger teams overall we got, with Whimsicott in particular truly surprising me with the sheer number of enemies it could just sit on and whittle down at little to no risk. A true champion.

But most importantly of all, our friend returned to us! A 10% chance of encounter, in only one location, Chargestone Cave. I didn't even know Nosepass could appear there! I was ecstatic and broke naming convention for the return of our true friend, Cao Cao the Probopass. This run, which had overcome the trials of the early game, now held the Mandate of Heaven and was destined for success. But getting through wasn't enough. Our true quest was now getting Cao Cao through to the end.

Unlike in Platinum, he had a +Sp. Attack nature this time and with Power Gem could dish out some serious damage! A very slow Volt Switch also allowed him to safely pivot us into our other team members to keep momentum up and enable a lot of powerful plays. Mienshao was a remarkable lategame encounter who truly did a lot to trivialize the late and endgame and paired well for a Volt/Turn core with Cao Cao. A very powerful team indeed, though Ampharos was mostly just There and saw no use in any major battle. She simply was late game, just-in-case backup filler after we lost Magneton on the Plasma Frigate.

In the end, not only did we succeed in getting our new friend through to the end of the game. He even dealt the finishing blow to Champion Iris. Fate blessed us with a second chance and we did not squander it!

In his well earned retirement, we've managed to move him all the way up to Paldea, thanks to his return in Kitakami. Any Region, Any Adventure, True Friends Always Stick Together!!

I love Unova and now I have another great memory thanks to it. Truly the GOAT region.

This game had a nickname theme - Food Biproducts, and Cao Cao

Total Wipes - 3 (Wild Magnemite Gym Leader Cheren Gym Leader Cheren)

Y - I hadn't played through Y except the once at launch, so I was honestly rather excited to give it another try. I did, however, challenge myself to not use any of the gift pokemon given to the player since you can make a whole team of them and I had a great time for it.

Gameplay wise, I quite like Kalos. It has great aesthetics and introduced pretty much nothing but great new designs. Unfortunately, however, it contains Writing and Characters and that part is basically all bad. I do think there's a seed of an interesting story with Lysandre and Team Flare but like, damn, they totally beefed it on this one, lmao.

Oh well, at least I had fun! And I don't have much else to say.

Aerodactyl and Snorlax were our absolute GOATs this run, plowing through most of the game. We actually blundered away Oats on the literal last trainer in Victory Road by not playing around a crit and I REALLY didn't want to grind up another Pokemon, so I simply carried his fainted body through the Elite Four and Diantha, largely on the back of Garchomp. This run really did endear me more to Garchomp, whom I've never used before and never been the biggest fan of. Even with a -Attack nature in the Fairy Region she simply annihilated everything I set her upon. Great pokemon, makes any team dramatically better for having it, lol.

Overall Kalos was exactly as mediocre as I remembered. But a mediocre Pokemon game is still quite fun minute to minute, so it's not all bad and it really let me look forward to the next region, which does away with TMs and is generally excellent.

Garchomp Sweep.

Total Wipes - 1 Gym Leader Viola

SUN - I recently played through Ultra Sun for the first time and jeez that game is quite the letdown compared to the vanilla version. Almost every change made worsens the experience in some way, and in many cases outright erases core character's arcs. It's not totally without merit, but picking vanilla Sun was an easy choice.

Alola is just plain fun. I had a great time but also don't have much to say! This run overall went pretty smoothly with the only critical loss being our Decidueye at Aether Paradise super late in the game! As a result, Exeggutor was a super late filler who ended up doing almost nothing.

Almost every member of this team impressed me though. I genuinely did not know Toucannon was so good! An incredible moveset and genuinely great stats for the early and mid game let him do a ton of work! Undeniably falls off late, but that's okay. Eviolite Charjabug is also shockingly great as a pivot and defensive stopgap for most of the game. It was almost better unevolved than fully evolved, lol. The real star of this team in the late game was Carracosta, what a beast. Shell Smash setups with sturdy and wide lens for high base power, perfectly accurate STAB just CRUSHED the elite four, champion, and final Hau fights.

Alola was fun, easy breezy, and a nice step up from Y, though I think it's the game that took by far the longest to clear. It does have a lot of cutscenes, but I like the charcaters and story so that's fine.

Total Wipes - 0

SHIELD - I'm a Galar appreciator. This region has issues but the core gameplay experience is not one of them. In fact, I think Galar has one of the strongest campaigns in the series for purposes like this, it's very Arcade-like. Brisk pacing, a well balanced difficulty curve, a shockingly tough final boss, and just a great and fun mechanic in dynamaxing. This game is a lot of fun to play through and I was pretty happy to get to return to it. I love cooking curry and playing with my funny guys in camp but I had to be careful not to do that so it wouldn't give me mechanical benefits, lol.

On the story side it's thin boned and that's fine, imo. After several generations of more serious or involved stories it's a nice palette cleanser for the franchise and further it helps serve the core experience of this game being 'you start the game and are in the wild area with access to 100+ species within 30-45 minutes'. There is truly no region better for, simply, playing through with a new set of 6 guys you've never used before. Even with that thin plot I still think Hop is the best rival in the franchise's history. He has a strong, easily identifiable character arc and uses the most different species of any trainer in the entire series besides N, who's whole thing is he uses completely different teams every time.

Hop struggles with inferiority to Leon and then to you and in the mid game dramatically changes his team around several times just to try and beat you! He even boxes his starter for one of them and NO other rival does that! In the postgame he realizes he's not necessarily in the top 1% of battling trainers, but pursues a career as a researcher which is great! I really like Hop, he's ace. I just wish his final team weren't so shit though. He uses so many different, cool, species and his final team has both Dubwool and Snorlax on it, for some reason? It's weird.

Anyway, I love playing through this region and this team rocked. I blundered away several encounters, including losing Badnik the Golisopod, at level 50, to Raihan because I didn't pay attention to the fact that his Duraludon has Rock Type coverage. Mantine was a very late filler pick, however, he actually accomplished a good bit and was a great teammate for what little time we had him.

This team has the biggest gap in level between its top runner and 6th man, and that's largely because I saved every rare candy in the game to ensure Cinderace specifically was equal to Leon's Charizard before that fight. It's such a strong mon I wanted to maximize what it could do. This region does have extremely few encounters outside of the Wild Area so it had two modifications to normal encounter rules - 1) In areas with no Wild Encounters (the two Mines) the first pokemon I run into is my encounter. One was a Drillbur and the other was Badnik, both of which I lost :(

2) I'm allowed to have one encounter from the Wild Area each time the game directs me there, for a total of three. Once right at the start, once after clearing Kabu's Gym, and once after clearing Raihan's gym. For these, I still took Random Encounters from shaking grass, but I did allow myself the nicety of choosing which region I wanted them from.

Overall, the former had a moderately large impact on the run since Golisopod was a great encounter but the latter didn't end up mattering really at all.

The true star of this run was our Route 1 encounter, Greedent. He is Him. Payback is the first TM in the game, immediately giving him a 100BP Dark move to hit ghosts with. Body Slam for STAB, Cheek Pouch gives RIDICULOUS survival with sitrus berries (58% extra HP in every battle! Equal to basically 150 extra health in the mid and late game!) all game long, stockpile for defensive boosts, rest to net heal even while continuously attacked. He swept the ghost gym, he swept the fairy gym. He swept half of Leon's team, including Haxorus and Dragapult. HE IS HIM!!! Greedent is so fucking strong and is my friend, I love you Greedent.

This game is the first time since Crystal where our starter made it all the way through.

Total Wipes - 0

VIOLET -

RAAAAAAUUGGGHH THIS GAME RUNS LIKE DOGSHIT LMAO!!!! IT'S BEEN LIKE 6 MONTHS AND IT STILL RUNS AWFUL!!!!!!!

However, I do like Violet for what it is. It lacks so may QoL features and just generally basic niceties and polish and yet it's so much more than the sum of it's parts. I guess that's what happens when you get the author of Cowboy Bebop to help write your game's story. Like, imaging getting that guy and then rushing the game out after a ONE YEAR development cycle. Geez.

Paldea itself is a fairly forgettable region that is full to bursting with incredible Pokemon designs and characters. It's the small things that are memorable rather than the region itself and I truly wish to see a 'complete' version of this game someday. Hopefully, the game being rightfully lambasted and made a mockery for releasing blatantly unfinished and buggy as fuck will light a fire under The Pokemon Company's ass and force them into actually giving GameFreak time to produce their damn games! You know GF themselves want to put out better than this!

Still, it has its strengths. Again, the scenario design and gameplay are quite fun and they're what I would consider the only 'truly' nonlinear Pokemon games. Gens 1 and 2 have 'Fake Nonlinearity' since doing things in a nonlinear fashion is basically a waste of time and effort. Those games were still made with specific paths in mind, but Paldea wasn't (mostly). While the gyms, titans, and team star encounters each have set levels, you're still free to do them out of order and you actually get the breadth of the region to explore and run around basically immediately. If you master some basic movement tech you can get practically anywhere without any of Koraidon/Miraidon's upgrades, too! The one true downside to this is only Gym Badges increase Pokemon obey levels when it really should be any badges that do.

For encounters in this game I only got encounters via Tera Raid Dens (Besides the Starter and Poco Path, which can't have Raid Dens) since those are truly random! This region also has BY FAR the fewest possible encounters with this method, at only thirty-ish, which makes every last one count! Thankfully, with easy access to vitamins, EXP candies, and nature changing mints, maximizing your few encounters is easy and fun.

Getting a Steel Tera Type Applin as our very first random encounter set the stage for the whole run. Eviolite Dipplin was an unbreakable monster. Dragon/Grass coverage with Recover and Reflect made a mockery even of super effective hits and crits. This whole team is slow and bulky (besides Cetitan) but Dipplin was the slowest and bulkiest of all by a mile. All six members worked in great harmony and were able to overcome all challenges without any real risk or nail biter moments. They were just plain consistent and strong. Lumineon is a firmly Mediocre Pokemon, but thanks to aforementioned mints and vitamins, we were able to max out his HP and Physical Defense. With Leftovers, Aqua Ring, and the debuffing moves Chilling Water and Icy Wind, he could turn any physical threat into setup fodder for Skeledirge (Torch Song), Muk (Minimize), Dudunsparce (Coil), or Cetitan (Snowscape + Slush Rush). This team's playstyle was often slow and methodical but could explode into vicious sweeps very easily.

Cetitan in particular truly just bowled over the endgame. The Elite 4, Champion, Final Nemona and Final Boss all got swept mostly or entirely by Cetitan after a single turn of setup with Snowscape. Slush Rush with Ice/Ground STAB on Ice Spinner and Earthquake just annihilated everything. What a monster, I love my huge whale friend. This team was basically perfect and nothing could challenge their stability and strength. A truly excellent note to end on.

This team reached it's 'final' state earliest of all, solidifying after just the fifth gym, whose level cap is 36 while Muk's evolution is 37.

This game is the only one where I completed all endgame content, and still lost no major team members.

Total Wipes - 1 (Team Star Leader Atticus)

I love Pokemon. It's a fun and fantastic series. It's got its ups and downs and right now it's definitely far from what it could, or should, be. But it's just such an impossible to fuck up gameplay loop it's just FUN to raise and bond with new guys!

If you've read this far, thank you! I hope you enjoyed a glimpse into my experiences, and I'm willing to field questions!

My kingdom for Gen 10 to get a six year dev cycle.

[powertaco]

Alright. So what would you do if CRWBY (RT) contacted you and asked you to help incorporate Whiterose into canon? Would you do it? If so, how, and if not, I’d still want to know how.

I'm sure most of us would like to. I don't know if I'd be the best person for the job, or what not, but I think at this point you'd have to play for the long game and aim for like last volume.

I think the general groundwork for a relationship, especially with V6 is there but needs built on. Ruby and Weiss have pink petals only when together and the color pink used as petals is used by Ren's new semblance when he detects love.

There's tons of symbolism and pictures/promo material of WR being very important with each other. I don't see Weiss with a shield in the promo material nor do I see her thirsting over Jaune in the spin off stuff or Ruby looking at Oscar or any symbols that represent him. Manga anthologies, the movie crossover, IQD are all supremely WR coded.

They need to talk and be partners again. They need to have conversations and set things right between them. Weiss needs to come clean about why she was taking Ruby for granted, and Ruby needs to apologize for not talking to her about things, and they need to have a real partnership going forward.

V10 (they said 12/13 was their planned end point at one time so we'll go based on that) would be about this in the background with the war against Salem likely taking center stage as well as the fallout of Atlas.

I'd like to see more Ruby still falling into bad habits (unlearning them IS hard) but her team, and Weiss in particular helping her plan and taking the work off her shoulders and helping to divide it up. Even if they don't want WR endgame this is something that needs to happen because they're supposed to be best friends.

Blake and Yang as much as people might hate it need to take a slight step back. I'm happy for them but they're too wrapped up in each other to the point that they're the others world to the detriment of everyone else.

More interactions with other partners. Yang and Weiss and Blake and Ruby need to interact a bit more.

Blake and Yang can talk to the others and in time start drop hints about things but mostly as teases for now.

Once Salem finds out Cinder lied to her...a lot I would expect her to have a less than pleasant time and probably not be doing much outside of not dying. We might get the start of a 'we found the summer maiden' plot here.

V11 I would focus on the relic of destruction. I'd probably have this be the volume Tyrian dies likely as the villain of the volume in a battle for the relic. Seeing as they wanted 9/10 to start turning around you need to give the team some wins. So either they win and get the relic or they kill tyrian but still lose the relic. Depending on how they run with Theodore he could live or die securing the relic.

Based on how little of a chance Team RWBY seem to have against someone like Cinder they need to upgrade their semblances or one of them is probably gonna have to end up a maiden at some point. If they go that route then Raven actually dying to give her powers to Yang is possible but we need more from and about Raven before I'll buy that she'd do something like that. Unless of course she somehow gets ambushed and is dying then she might think of Yang. If this does happen i imagine we'll get more of that flashback from earlier.

Good chance for Ruby and Blake to comfort her if that does happen because well if Yang does end up with them then I mean it's clear what happened and her mom is dead. I imagine Qrow wouldn't take it well either but he has Robyn so she'll prob be helping him a bit.

WR would start incorporating little touches like they used to. Shoulder grabs, little quick hand squeezes and hugs that go on just a second too long and more playful banter in and out of battle.

They should still be serious when it calls for it but not have an issue just hanging out in the limited downtime they do have. Others should notice they seem to be happier now and have WR not understand what they mean.

V12 would likely be the start of Ozpin/Ozma opening up with some more deep lore and hopefully someone calls him on the whole 'jinn only said you can't kill her' angle. Probably not.

From here it really depends on how they plan to resolve Salem. Is it gonna be a hail mary we're united and have the relics fix it gods thing or not.

If it's not then I'd like to see them ape the gods and use that to 'kill' salem for good. Ie Ruby's eyes represent the light and Weiss and her grimm summons the dark. Working together and in concert to kill her just like the gods combo powers cursed her. If you want it to be a more team thing then Yang and Blake can represent light and dark too. Jaune can amp up their auras to an extreme level for this to work. Whether this kills him or his ultimate fate is irrelevant.

Ruby would be a bit more mature after Ever After and talking with her friends and Weiss would start taking notice because as Kara said 'Weiss like maturity'

If you wanted a twist for after this then have the gods show up and be pissed that rwby undid their work. 'who are you to undo what we gods have done etc?

From here they can drop the knowledge bombs that they're no better than runaway kids who left and what not.

The gods can then either bring back salem again proving that they're massive hypocrites since they told salem earlier she didn't understand the value of life and death and cause the gods to want to wipe out humanity and faunus.

At this point I'd expect the blacksmith/tree to basically be like 'no you're done' and drag them back.

If they don't bring salem back they could be like 'well humanity has come together so you know what good enough stay that way or else.

Then you'd have a few after it's all over episodes.

Now that the war is over they're focused on rebuilding. Weiss is busy helping Whitley and Willow and Winter (if she's alive) rebuild the SDC.

Ruby appears and asks her to take a break for dinner. Weiss is going to refuse until Willow tells her they'll manage and shoos her out the door.

Weiss asks where they're going to meet Blake/Yang, and Ruby says 'oh i was kinda thinking...it could just be us two.' Weiss could say something with a small blush and be like 'I'd like that' and it could cut to the other couples then credits.

Admittedly part of me would find it hilarious if Weiss gets fed up with waiting and just grabs Ruby and smooches her mid final battle.

Or the safer route just have a scene set after the war 5/10 years and casually let it be dropped they married in that time to avoid having to do anything.

Personally if I was doing RWBY from the start I'd make the WF bigger antagonist along with Jacques and probably cut out the whole brother gods/salem deal. Maybe even magic and maidens. I think that could be a lot of fun and as attractive as mommy salami is I don't care much for her in the story. Great VA though who really nails the voice I'd imagine for Salem.

I'd probably also keep them in school for another year and have more inter-team friendships. Like Blake , Velvet, Ruby, and Ren having a book club, or Ren and Weiss bonding over having super high energy partners.

Yang and Pyrrha work out buddies. Ruby and Jaune playing games with Nora probably joining it.

That sort of thing.

Of course if I was writing RWBY I'd find a way to have Maria hold WR hands so you know.

I hope I understood the question and if not I apologize.

[ryttu3k]

A selection of moments from my last session/s of Tavias' run. All spoilery for endgame. Image-heavy, used all 30 image slots.

"When I said I wanted to get more in touch with my draconic ancestry, this was not what I had in mind."

This is an interesting example because Tavias was in this situation. Two days ago. And his exact response was, "Actually, I would rather die than become a monster under a more powerful being's thrall."

Not capped: *gross sobbing over Dear Ansur*

Not capped: Just for the record, the line that officially pushed Astarion from approval 99 to approval 100 was:

Halsin: "Perhaps you'd care for a little extra company..."

Tavias: "The more the merrier!"

Astarion: *approves*

(I hc he's quietly nursing a raging crush on Halsin and the V relationship absolutely has the potential to turn into a full triangle, and not just because I'm hopeless for Halstarion.)

I really wish you could talk to Astarion about this later. I'm very glad you can talk to Halsin, but this should be addressed too! I'm glad he feels confident and safe enough to push his own boundaries, I just really wish we could like... check in on him and make sure he's doing okay. See also: helping Halsin recognise that what happened to him was trauma.

Seven years too late (he was seventeen years old, Ulder), but finally some parental approval!

<3

Not capped: the forehead touch after the kiss with Halsin is. Goddamn adorable ;_;

Genuinely motivational tbh

This is what we call an, "Ah fuck" moment.

Okay so. Orin basically saved the world.

Like obviously the Brain breaking free from the influence of the crown is a bad thing. But consider the alternative - a Brain who willingly follows the Dark Urge. A Brain who doesn't rebel, that rebellion leading to its ultimate downfall. A Brain who does follow the Dark Urge is a Brain in a world where Bhaal wins.

But Orin was jealous. Orin wanted her father's love. Orin attacks her sibling, and that sibling wakes up and goes, actually, you know what? I don't think I do want to be Bhaal's puppet for the rest of my existence, and the world is saved.

Dude there are plenty of other options that don't involve that. What is wrong with you.

Not capped: Beorn Wunterbrood being like, "Balduran's grace be with you" and Tavias just going, "......yeahhhhh haha about that, there's a non-zero chance we're gonna have to kill Balduran. Just. Just so you know."

You got it, boss. #ResistDurgeIsChosenOfJergalTruther

Not capped: "I always dreamed of walking these halls, you know. My dreams never included a giant brain or smoldering ruins, but I'll take what I can get~" I <3 him what a goddamn dork.

Not capped: you know this is the part where I'd have to be like. Yeah you guys go ahead. Yeah I'm gonna sit this one out. Why? Well, do I look like I can climb the giant squishy completely vertical tube while it actively tries to fly? No no if someone can teleport me up I can fight but otherwise I may have to sit this one out.

For the first time... quiet at last.

Oh this shit hurts ;_;

He chose against apotheosis this time <3 I can only surmise that what happened in Tae's run was that saying, no, fuck Mystra, you don't owe her anything, made him decide to act against her? This is still... not necessarily a great ending for Gale, because it still requires capitulating to the desires of his abuser, even if it does mean being free of the Orb (and not becoming Cringegod(tm). It's the best possible ending for him, yes, but I wish there was an option for him to acknowledge that what Mystra did to him was awful and he didn't deserve to be treated like that, and be able to reject the Crown.

Not capped: still! goddamn! hate! how Astarion running from the sun is almost played for laughs! I got Gale's line in this one and hearing how dismissive and flippant it is compared to what'll be the new line, where he sounds genuinely horrified and worried and openly states they'll need to be a good friend to him and offer him comfort, is... god. Dramatic difference. "Welp, that's the last we'll see of him!" that original line is so wrong ;_;

Glad she was able to make the decision herself. Forcing her just feels wrong.

I like this <3 Halsin still carries out his dream, but the relationship doesn't end, it's just. Long-distance, haha.

It's interesting how this plays out if you do Halsin poly, because it has the scene of Halsin waking up next to the PC, they talk about where things go, they walk off hand in hand... then it has the scene of Astarion waking up next to the PC, they talk about... etc XD I'd love if they included a poly option with all three of them, so you can get just the Halsin one, or just the Astarion one, or one where you talk to both at the same time. IIRC the only relationships where you can do Halsin poly is with Astarion or Shadowheart, so that's only two extra scenes they'd have to work out! It just feels a bit awkward as it is, with both scenes playing one after the other?

Anyway. The Astarion scene <3 This is the bit where I got all misty-eyed because. The reflection of, "What do you want?" "You. I want... you", and the beautiful Durge-specific line of being able to choose family... ;_;

They absolutely get together while in Avernus <3

Final decisions: Orpheus requests a merciful death, which Tavias provides. Lae'zel chooses to go to war. Gale returns the crown to Mystra. Wyll offers to accompany Karlach to Avernus, and she chooses to accept. Halsin goes to start a new community for those in need, with his relationship with Tavias continuing. Tavias and Astarion stay together and look for a way for Astarion to walk in the sun again.

There will be a separate post just for the epilogue, once I sort the, uh, 723 screencaps I took for it!

[comvi]

Had to have a lantern in the gif... or it would look like i silent stepped nothing.. This is a black lizard, also as "Molerat" or a mole lizard. They a bite delay of 12. lowist ammount other then reds. they Will not stop biting you. They have a 5/10 chance for the bite to kill...and the place they are in has nothing to grab... so your dead either way. They can be tamed They are an endgame enemy, appearing before your DOOM. which i wont tell you of. They appear in other places but. They are in an undeground area. No light. at all. if you couldent tell, they cannot be seen at all in the dark unlike a white lizard They cant see at all. no eyes But they will find you

No matter what in they're area, there is 5 of them in cramped tunnels. they all can hear you, and all will find you. They will force you to hesitate and relocate even if your walking Them whiskers, they're also feelers. so dont touch em. You know where to find them. And they know where to look.

Friend wise, they need 3-4 feedings to be tamed. They want more outta ya cause they live with no food and they are like. really happy about eating. They cannot be taken most places as they live mainly undeground but can climb poles When tamed they will follow you around from your scent and sound of your walking. They're heads light up when they hear sound. They use this to warn you of danger. They are REALLLY.REALLLLYYYYY touchy and nuzzle-ly They love the contact cause they never really feel it (they fight other black lis btw)

In rest they will climb on you to check if your there constantly They try they're best without eyes. They live before death with no food. They are hugging you in a good way but. Its more of a..

Grim embrace. They hope you make the right choice down here. But they know your too far in to go back... (well you can but. to late.)

YESS YESS!!! AGAIN I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THE DETAIL PUT INTO RAINWORLD!!!! A lot of animals that live underground/in places with little to no sunlight will not have eyes, because they have no use for them!!! Just like these guys!!! and i have almost no doubt they were based off of star-nosed moles, which also use their star-like snout in extremely similar ways!!!

From the darkness of the areas they seem to live/reside in, it seems like unless theres a straight path to wherever you want to go, it would be INCREDIBLY hard to get through it all. i think if i played i would get lost SOO SO many times. Also, im assuming they constantly know your location for one reason or another (very good hearing mainly?), so its would DEFINITELY be terrifying to be going through one of those (small) tunnels only to notice one of their faces blocking the path (atleast, on the first playthrough im guessing! usually you get used to these kinds of things by the 2nd/3rd playthrough)

These guys might actually be one of my favourites in their colouring, normally im not too much of a fan for characters/species that are completely black/grey, but i LOVE how its actually leaning more on purple & magenta, once you see them outside of their naturally dark atmosphere.

i accept that they need higher-than-average feedings to tame they deserve it, they should have even more dare i say. they seem like theyre in constant hungry. Im thinking wherever they come from doesnt get much creatures going through to eat, so i dont think it would be a silly thing to say these guys are probably STARVING.

Despite that, i find it so sweet yet, actually really sad, almost melancholic how they act around you once tamed. they could eat you, they very well could, but they dont. theyre hungry, theyre starving, but they would rather cuddle up warmly beside you, and help you to the best of their ability in this darkness. Making sure you are safe & hoping you do the right thing (whatever that thing ends up being… i feel you’re implying we/the slugcat we play as have a choice at the end, i just have no clue what!!!!!)

actually sorry when i was reading this i started tearing up these guys make me feel really sad. i love them but they make me Feel

[share-the-damn-bed]

I am 100% sure that they are gonna split the season and I am 100% sure that the last Jancy scene we'll get in volume 1 will be the blowup fight about college.

Hey, look, it's my most realistic season 5 nightmare haunting my ask box!

But seriously, Anon, there is a very real possibility this is exactly what will happen and it is partly why I'm so wary of a mid season break because I feel like the writers will use it to temporarily break up Jancy which will lead to a very stressful time between volumes.

However, I do still have hope. And I want offer a glimpse of that hope to break up the little bit of ask-related doom spiraling on my page recently.

At this point, I truly believe (after close analysis of all the ST4 scenes) that there is no chance for a St*ncy endgame. I really don't think Nancy's heart is in it authentically and I believe that the point of the entire plot line was to have Steve "crawl backwards" a bit, regress in his character development (since he was fully redeemed and they didn't know what to do with him) and give him a chance to mature past this once again in season 5 and win over the hearts of the audience in a way that parallels season 2. Fans love when Steve is a pathetic character they can root for (post-nancy dumping him, literally all of season 3). It's kinda like a reset for him.

I also believe that season 5 will end happily for all the main characters and I trust the writers to do right with all of them. Even Jonathan. I will argue that Jonathan actually did have a great arc set up in season 4 that was not focused on enough and was cut too early in the season until I'm blue in the face. They would be dumb not to explore it more in season 5 because his character needs it. I'm not saying that this guarantees a Jancy endgame but I do think it means the conflict with Jancy will be resolved in a way that satisfies both characters' overarching arcs. Even if they do temporarily break up between volumes. And I personally think that the best way to do that is by having Jancy end up together. Especially because...

The overarching theme of this show is the power of love. This has been shown repeatedly, especially in season 4. I believe this concept will be what our heroes will use to defeat Vecna in the end (especially with his anti-human/humans suck philosophy). Therefore, it only makes sense that love will be what will resolve this conflict between Jonathan and Nancy and that their love will help them overcome every obstacle.

For those, like me, who may agree with everything I stated above but are still wary because they no longer trust the writers, I want to point out one thing I've reflected on which may help...

I really hated the way they handled the Billy storyline in season 3 (sorry Billy fans). I didn't like how they made him an obvious human antagonist who was abusive towards Max in season 2 and then suddenly changed their relationship in season 3 where Max was worried about him and the show seemed to completely forget about all the horrible things he did in season 2. I thought his redemption attempt was cheap and I didn't bat an eye when he died. I was more concerned for Max but I was still confused why she was so upset. The show didn't do a decent job explaining any of this during that season.

I wrote this whole thing off as bad writing (which to be fair, in season 3 it mostly was) and I was very, very worried when I saw the trailer for season 4 for the first time (with Max reading a letter at Billy's grave) and learned that an episode was going to be called "Dear Billy".

HOWEVER, I thought season 4 did an amazing job, an actual incredible job, presenting Max's grief surrounding her step-brother and her mourning the relationship they would never have.

I'm not saying this makes season 3's writing choices suddenly good but it does give more context for why Max acted the way she did in season 3 AND the situation from season 3 gave the writers the foundation for the best storyline in season 4.

In summary, even though some choices did not make sense or seem good in season 4, I am going to trust the writers to tie things up in a satisfying way (just like they did with Max's relationship with Billy) in season 5. I want to wait to see the whole, complete story before I continue to judge them too harshly.

[jerzwriter]

Thomas coming back in K/C’s life… would it had impacted her future with Ethan/Tobias? Depending of the time it happened: i.e. If he comes back after Miami? While Ethan is in the Amazon? During reset? And, after Tobias stole her patient? During the attack? Once T/C were just friends?. Or not at all?

Hey Nonny, Thank you for the ask!

This is a great question because I don't feel Tomas was "the one" in either universe - obviously. But he was "a one." She loved him, he loved her, and if not for timing, they could have been endgame.... and they would have been happy and had a good life.

I think we can have many loves in one lifetime, and while I believe in soulmates, I don't think many people meet their romantic soulmate (or any soulmate at all, sometimes). Most people end up with and marry "a love," and they go on to be fairly happy... but they never get to know what a soulmate is. Life is more about timing than anything else, so let's discuss the timelines you brought up.

In both HCs:

In my HC, Tomas and Kaycee/Casey stayed very good friends, and he never fell out of love with her. He knew a cross-country relationship wouldn't work, and at that point, he had to stay in LA, she was in Boston, but he hoped to convince her to take another shot when her residency was over. But it was too late by then.

Ethan/Kaycee:

I think once Kaycee and Ethan connected, it would have been hard for her to settle for anything else. She knew they were meant to be, and that's what carried her through the challenging start. After Miami, she briefly tried to throw herself into dating, only to find out that she couldn't do it. She decided to take a step back. It would either work out with Ethan in time, or she'd need to move on (like away from Boston after residency) to really make it work with someone else.

The only way I believe she and Tomas could have ended up back together is if Ethan had SUCCESSFULLY fought the "reset." If he really appeared like he was not going to be with her, she would have forced herself to move on - and who better to do it with than your first love, who is still one of your best friends, and who will always have a little piece of your heart? Yeah, they could have worked that way. BUT... Ethan was kissing her within 30 min of seeing her after his return from the Amazon. He was touching her hand under the table and letter her nuzzle her head on him at dinner the next night. Yeah, Kaycee knew he never left. They were just biding time.

Tobias/Casey:

I 150% believe Tobias & Casey are soulmates. I don't think he would have ever settled down with anyone if he hadn't met her. Whereas Casey would have gotten married and built a life with someone, even if she had never met Tobias. But, she would have married "a love" and not "her soulmate."

Tomas would have had a chance after she and Tobias split before the attack. She really felt this connection to Tobias. Even after they split - and with good reason - she couldn't stop thinking of him, and she was so mad at herself for it. That said, she had no intention of getting back with him.

I often wonder if there would have been a path back for them if not for the chemical attack, and I don't know that there would have been. That doesn't mean they weren't meant to be together; we can meet our soulmate and fuck it up. But after the attack, I think Tobias & Case were destined to be.

He respected her boundaries of friendship only and was there for her however she needed him to be. Although she was surrounded by people who loved her and were helping her, she reached out for him. She felt safe when she was with him, even when she was still so fragile. He knew he was in love with her, and he knew he could be giving all this to her for her to heal and move on, but he did it anyway - because that's what love does. In the end, it worked out for him. But after the attack, they turned a corner, and no one was getting in there.

Thanks so much for the ask, Nonny!