#i'm enjoying the guys not taking nonsense from the audience too

[meneatyoghurt]

Everyone wants to be in every scene today!

[literaryvein-reblogs]

bunny x cat dynamic?

Like, adhd bunny and grumpy cat dynamic? I'm going to try writing a bit where the dynamic of the main characters are fleshed out. Any input on what people often enjoy about these for me to take into account?

To me it's so cute because she considers herself more as an annoying dog but for him, he considers her to be a cute, hyperactive bunny (that's kind of useless to (literal) death but let's put that aside, or not)

The ideal response to this would come from your readers. If you've already established your reader base, try asking them their preferences and expectations. Of course—still, write the story you want (and need) as a writer. And there it is, in your second paragraph. The idea is that if you write what you want, the people who also prefer this dynamic will find your work and stay for the rest of the story, and will more likely enjoy your other work as well (this is essentially what most successful authors advise new writers—write what you want, what you enjoy etc etc). But striking a balance between your readers' and your own preferences would be great too.

If you don't have a reader base yet, I'd suggest going through your favourite literature/films and finding ones that depict this particular character dynamic. Then you yourself, as a reader/viewer now, could answer what you find enjoyable about these pieces of media, and incorporate that in your writing.

Also, here are some tropes that I think have similarities with the dynamic you described. Same suggestion with finding books or films/TV shows you like that feature these tropes. But also research their readers'/audience's feedback to find out what they enjoyed about these character tropes, and this is what you can take into consideration for your story.

Grump and sunshine. One character is so grumpy all the time; the other character is so bubbly all the time. And somehow, through that power-of-love thing, they end up balancing each other out. The grump sometimes has sworn off love.

Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl. This is a potential pairing (platonic or otherwise) between a pragmatic guy and a girl who is very full of energy. One partner in the pair will be lively and optimistic while the other is savvy and more slothful, quiet, or otherwise less expressive. EXAMPLES:

In Corpse Bride, Emily and Victor. The former is a dead bride who is rather lively and spiritual for a corpse, while the latter is a live man who is shy and awkward almost to a fault.

This defines Anna and Kristoff's relationship in Frozen nicely. She is a spunky princess willing to do whatever it takes to bring her sister home, he is a grumpy, rough-around-the-edges ice harvester helping her along the way.

In Pixar's Up, the quiet and timid Carl befriended and eventually married the energetic Ellie.

Uptight Loves Wild. He's stuffy. She's untamed. It's true love. Mr. Stuffy is in a rut: Life is boring because he plays by the rules. Along comes this wild and crazy woman to show him how to live life to its fullest, and she just might learn a few things along the way, too. EXAMPLES:

Enchanted: Stuffy, cynical divorce lawyer Robert meets fairytale princess Giselle.

The Sound of Music: Maria isn't "wild", but she is a Blithe Spirit in the face of the extremely uptight, Captain von Trapp.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Quite thoroughly deconstructs this. A relationship like this doesn't always work and after the falling-in-love part, it causes more pain than joy; so much so that both parties opt to have their memories removed of each other. The Manic Pixie Dream Girl is also far more complicated: "I'm not a concept, I'm just a fucked-up girl looking for a peace of mind".

Opposites Attract. EXAMPLES:

The Princess and the Frog has Tiana and Naveen. She's a Workaholic, no-nonsense waitress and he's a fun-loving, lazy prince.

Tangled gives us the jaded, worldly-wise thief Flynn Rider and the spirited, innocent princess Rapunzel.

Treasure Planet has Captain Amelia and Dr. Doppler. She's a tough-as-nails Action Girl, he's a bookish scientist, not to mention they're basically an anthropomorphic cat and dog, respectively. The two grow closer throughout the movie, and by the end they even have several kids.

Sources: 1 2 ⚜ More: Writing Notes & References

[harpoonsandmusicals]

Ok so I just got around to listening to the very first episode of Dracula: The Danse Macabre, diving in with zero idea of what its about other than the title. and guys. 😍 im obsessed 😍😍 i'm so in

Gabriel Urbina is back at it again with the most vividly real scenes you've ever seen conveyed through only audio. I was completely engrossed in the world from minute one. The bit with the flies? The wolves distantly howling at every spooky part?

I'm also enjoying the characterization, from a noble and kindhearted but slightly stupid Jonathan Harker, to a very creepy ominous Dracula, to possibly the highlight: Mina's very pragmatic, dead-pan, snarky and yet no nonsense attitude (and her trusty typewriter)

This is going to be one of the most unique, out-there Dracula adaptions around and I am SO interested to see where it winds up heading

the rest of this is going to be super spoiler heavy SO GO LISTEN TO EP 1 RIGHT NOW PLEASSSSSE ITS SO GOOD ITS ONLY GOING TO BE FOUR PARTS AND DONT SPOIL YOURSELF

i trust that everyone who has not listened is gone. so.

THOSE PLOT TWISTS FOLKS????? WHAT EVEN.

the vampire-hunting organization thing came out of NOWHERE and had me genuinely giggling in delight. I also am intrigued by the idea of Dracula being the exception to a species of mindless beasts. Is it because he keeps eating the souls of smart people? I'm not sure about him apparently thinking smart people are genetic and that he's eaten all the ones around here, that feels very icky. I hope its an intentional character belief that they're planning on unpacking and examining.

About halfway through, I began to suspect that "Jonathan" might really be Vamp!Jonathan due to the very uncomfortable tension between him and Mina, especially after Mina's rant about Jonathan being noble and kind which seemed to very much be in the past tense. I was not expecting full on Dracula-just-using-Jonathan's-voice. Wow. It's so well done, too, because the transition into the voice is so smooth (I didn't even realize they had the same voice actor for a really long time), and its straight out of the original book so I knew to expect that bit from listening to Re:Dracula (it was just as creepy as Karim Kronfli's take), but the idea that he isn't just doing it to wig Jonathan out for a minute or two, that's just his voice now??? And then of course it reframes everything we've just seen between Mina and "Jonathan" this whole time. What a twist on the central conceit of the story, our assumed protagonist is just dead now. AND. I didn't read the "about" section for the podcast cause I wanted to go in blind, but even if I had, the line "dialogue between two of the novel's most iconic characters" CAUSE OBVIOUSLY THE AUDIENCE WOULD ASSUME MINA AND JONATHAN. BUT ITS DRACULA INSTEAD. WHICH ARGUABLE FITS "MOST ICONIC" BETTER. Aah I just can't get over it.

The whole scene with Mina and the priest was priceless. I think my favorite line might be "Aw, I'm here, you're here, the corpse is here, why don't we live a little?!" Iconic. And the perfect response to casual sexism. Second fav might be the bit where Jonathan talks about lock-picking being such a fine and delicate art...*cue loud smashing sfx* "Not having time for such things, I smashed the lock." Wonderful.

I'm so endless curious about what chain of events ensue to end with MINA and DRACULA in some random cabin(?) talking to each other and putting the report together instead of, you know, MURDERING EACH OTHER???? I can't wait for the next episode. I hope it will also have me giggling from sheer delight at the immense creativity the whole time

[ettadunham]

i hate to be the guy adding to the arcane ramblings when i'm also the guy saying 'just let me enjoy women's wrongs in peace' @ discourse, but god, i keep thinking about arcane's storytelling. there is this cheap trick that i've seen tv shows do in our modern fandom ecosystem, seemingly to try and cultivate a following, where they would gesture towards / imply things or let the audience fill out the blanks constantly. and obviously, that almost always leads to a let down, because no, they're not gonna follow through. they're not gonna write the story that you're writing in your own head, and they're probably just gonna give you something else to chase instead of fulfilling that potential you saw in it.

but what i like about arcane is that they're not just letting you fill out the blanks - they want you to find the connections and the details that complete the story that they're telling. it's not just vague gesturing where you can read anything into it, it's intentional and consistent. yes, it's super fast paced, but it's also efficient not just with its story but its character writing, and if you can meet it where it is, if you can follow its characters through their journeys, it can be immensely satisfying.

and listen, i'm also the guy saying that we should bring back 22-episode seasons. give me my bottle episodes, my beloved fillers, my special little bros, let them breathe gdi, but damn. this show is my exception that proves the rule, whatever the fuck that nonsense phrase means.

and okay, season 2 maybe was a bit overstuffed. a bit too punchy for its own fucking good. there actually were some points where i got a bit of a whiplash, but even there, it was mostly when i felt confused by whatever was happening (and that might also have meant that i missed something or didn't have a full on vibe with a character). like, i didn't really understand what the fuck was going on with viktor, and why jayce smashing him (nice) with a hammer made it so that he was suddenly evil aligned i guess. but you know what, they somehow still made it make sense retroactively by the end, so i'm not mad.

on a somewhat opposite end, i don't think i got a full grasp of the whole black rose plotline, and to this day, i'm still not sure if i'm supposed to think that mel's brother died because their mother failed to save him, or because she just straight up murdered him herself (i think it's the former, but i s2g, i was so sure at points that they were implying the latter). but that ultimately didn't really take away from the heart of that storyline which was mel and ambessa's characters and their relationship, and that really was all that mattered. god, that was so good.

and you know what? i don't even care that caitlyn seemingly switched up on a dime when she bumped into her ex. because i was so fucking locked in to that character and it just... made sense to me. and not just in a funny 'haha, lesbian' way, but in a real, i-know-this-bitch-in-my-gut-and-my-emotional-investment-is-paying-off way.

god, this show is so good. still would have loved a s3 though.

[changedname-originals]

Me sharing that essay i wrote combined with a few assignments i got at school recently really got me back into writing so im gonna share the script for a monologue i wrote recently. Please do keep in mind that it is the translated version and that i haven't practiced it yet, so some lines may end up changing a bit while i figure out what works, but it's pretty close to how its gonna end up. Also anything in these brackets () will be directions while anything in these brackets [] will be context.

Hello, hello, hello everyone! Please be welcome and prepare to enjoy my monologue tonight! Be ready to burst with laughter because what I am about to show you is the most hilarious role I have ever played on this stage! George is the dullest man in the world compared to this! [George was the character who i played in my last play and was probably the funniest role i have ever played] If you could please be patient for a moment, then I can do some quick final preparations. (go to the "backstage" and sit down with a sigh) Man, what even is this play, it is the shallowest entertainment there is, makes the audience laugh and that is all it does. Doesn't make them think, doesn't make me think. I am so done with this empty, soulless comedy, my potential is so much higher than this…. But the audience expects another comedy from me, and what if they don't like this? What if I open up my soul and they stomp all over it like this with demands for a comedy and questions of what this nonsense is. Maybe I should just keep it a comedy… No, no I can't handle another soulless thing like that, it has to be something personal this time…. I could start it with a light tone, so they get a little of what they expect, and then show my suffering… But even then I still have to write something and what do I tell the audience…. And even if I do, is that enough? Will that make me happy?…. Maybe I should do something new, be more open about who I am, maybe something with my hair or clothes, maybe even come out…. just something to be more myself. [i recently came out at school during a presentationin what i still think was a really powerfull message but sadly didn't script so can't share and i also recently painted my hair and am planning on making a whole new style change which should be finished well before the play] I can just start by cutting off a small part of this metaphorical mask and gauge what the reactions are and from there I'll see. (take a deep breath in and out and return to the stage) Hey. Thanks for the patience. But I hope you guys have some patience left, because unfortunately I can't perform my monologue tonight. Mr. [teacher's name], I hope you understand this and can give me an extension, because my potential is much higher than this mindless comedy. I hope you are not too disappointed, but if you can forgive this and come to my next play you will see how much deeper my plays can be. I hope you can enjoy the rest of the monologues performed tonight, but for mine you will have to come back another time. Good night.

This time i learned from my mistakes and just translated it using deepl and checked it through to see what parts needed changing instead of wasting hours on translating it manually. Also some parts just don't translate into english that well so i just did my best there. Also i got an english assignment a few days ago where i also wrote a story and it still needs editing, but once i'm done with that i will be posting it here too, so i hope you guys will stay tuned for that. Anyways i hope you guys enjoyed this and have a great rest of your day.

[romilly-jay]

[What is] the right amount of the right kind of pummelling people [in movies]?

***spoilers***

Tonight we watched Unlocked (2017), a spy thriller starring Noomi Rapace, Orlando Bloom, Toni Collette doing a fantastic Emily Blunt cut glass accent and sporting Excellent Short Hair, John Malkovich just this side of utterly menacing, and Trust Me Michael Douglas.

I'll try to get this first point out of the way quickly and efficiently - presumably I've already blathered about this on these very blog pages only my ST memory isn't marvellous and I can't quite recall.

I've learned that Me Loving A Thing - or liking it or finding it tolerable - is a very poor indicator for how popular That Thing is likely to be.

[It's not a neat negative correlation, either - it's not that I can *always* look at things I've enjoyed and know that this means that popular media take is to Hate Them. It... depends...

For a not-really-on-topic case in point, I share what I understand to be the very wide consensus view that The Empire Strikes Back was the best of the original Star Wars trilogy - and I think Rian Johnson's marmite-middle-movie was the best of the most recent trilogy, which I appreciate is a far more controversial take, though I'm not alone in holding it. And yes, I'm on that end of the opinion range that would be more likely to enjoy it... Might be losing the thread here a little.]

Back to the action movie in question. Didn't love love it, but definitely liked it considerably more than the critical 26% consensus on Rotten Tomatoes and, yes, quite a bit more than the audience rating.

I'd have given it - ack - 60 ish? Yeah, 60 ish.

I mean - look at that CAST...

For why?

NR is super watchable and IMO super credible (movie credible, not actually-capable-of-surviving-all-this-stuff credible) as the lead.

[That low score - not connected to being asked to watch a woman anchor this movie? One who Doesn't Sleep With Orlando Bloom?]

Speaking of... I'm projecting of course, but I got the impression OB was enjoying his Cheeky Burglar Chappie With A Secret role. On which note, I have a great deal of respect for movies that acknowledge the short cuts the audience is using to assign characters as Goodies, Baddies, Hotties, Untrustables, Victims, etc. And then plays around with those expectations with a nice blend of To Type and Against Type casting. Looking at youse, OB and JM.

Also speaking of... OB's character certainly learned that most basic of movie lore lessons - Do. Not. Kill. The. Dog.

Sort of a side-bar but I vm enjoyed seeing certain scenes playing out in parts of East London I was familiar with - and I also got a certain kick from the moments when I then found myself thinking WHERE's THAT and then it turns out that part of the movie was shot in Prague.

There was a moment near the start when I found myself worrying that the setting was going to be too Gritty and the violence Too Real.

Thankfully, not the case. From the moment NR rumbles what's going on and goes about digging her way out again, we were dealing with Spy Cartoonish Violence - where the look is superficially "realistic" but the beats are closer to graphic novel than graphic.

Personally, for me, the more cartoonish the better - and if it's Artfully Unrealistic in an overtly choreographed way - THAT's the dream.

Saw The Transporter for the first time the other day - and the fight sequence in the bus station is pretty much at my perfect level. Enjoy.

The kind of nonsense they get up to with Jason Statham's top in this scene is truly *chef's kiss* fight fantasy IMO - and thank you, thank you, from the bottom of my pedantic lil heart to whoever decided he was going to go back for the shirt once he'd erm - wiped the floor - with the rest of the Baddies? (watch the scene...)

PS I'm in what is perhaps the less popular opinion group [AGAIN!] where the thing I like re the top is the clever use of it as a resource NOT the way using it requires JS to remove it. Fair play, the guy has clearly worked extremely hard for that bod. His muscles have muscles. But do I need to see 'em? For me, no, not really. Entirely happy to trust that he's doing all the gym-work you'd anticipate.

[fervency-if]

You're such a kind soul😩Your words are healing my parent's issues(💀'cus it's both of them). Thank you for being so welcoming. Somehow, talking to you feels like I'm talking to a famous person😂I mean, in a sense you are famous, don't know how many readers you have but in my mind is a headcanon that you're known among the IF community.

Talking about our dear Elan, I saw that you updated the game🥰I'll play it as soon as I finish this message, I'm missing him rn😔I was romancing the Psysichian in my second playthrough, but as as soon Elan's deathbed scene comes up, I drop everything to save that man lol

Then I'll keep up supporting you guys💗I follow at least 12 IF blogs, I need to learn how to type faster if I plan on messaging all of you💀but the time I spend typing isn't nearly half the time ya'll spend writing those masterpieces🤌🏼

Is really nice, isn't it? Sometimes our names can tell a little something about us.

Oh! If you were in the Physician's shoes, what would do? Dying from plague really isn't a great way to go, but not everyone had the chance to say if they wanted the Nocturnal life for themselves since there's isn't much explanation before the bloodletting.

Kinda giggling now remembering Twilight because Edward spent 24/7 thinking about the dilemma of turning Bella, he felt as if he was condemning her soul to Hell😭

That's really impressive😮Writing is a skill that can be learnt and polished along the way, but I do think some people are naturally inclined to it. Is writing something you always liked to do?

I'm glad you're having fun with it, you're the author so you enjoying your story as much as your readers do is a must🥰

😔there you go again soothing my nerves in asking things, you feed your public way too good.

Oooh I see!I was quite surprised when Roswhen turned out to be a cannibal, I thought they would thirst for blood since I choose that option and was the one to bloodlett them. Kinda nonsense on my part since the Physician did the same with Aubrey and he turned to be a Cannibal lol

Hahah, a fun find indeed! Thank you for the bonus information, getting to know your characters and ideas has been quite fun 🫂

Oh! And I'd like to know, which one of your RO's would you romance? Since you like it so much making your audience thirst over the whole cast, let's turn the tables now🥸

Aah, right back at you, so are you! (Or bounce back, as our friend Elan would have said.) It's always nice getting asks from you! 🌸 (Aw...) Haha, ah, that is fun I must say! I am not one of the 'bigger names,' so to speak, but I definitely have more readers than I thought I would have, which, of course, is beautiful to me!

I'll put the rest of the reply below a cut, since it got long:

I hope you will enjoy spending some more time with Elan and the others - I bet he would be flattered to hear that people missed him! Oh, that's the 'trouble,' or how to put it, when a game has more than one love interest that one likes, isn't it! It doesn't always go as planned, haha! I certainly don't blame you!

That really is kind of you, to take the time to do that! 🫶 Hehe, aw!

You're right about that - sometimes little secrets, even, in a sense.

Oh, that's an interesting and tricky question, regarding what I would do if I were in the Physician's shoes... I would definitely want to be less secretive than her, that much I know; I would certainly try to be as upfront as I could from the start, and I would want people to be as well-informed as possible - not that it would be easy in certain situations, since many of her patients are delirious or actively dying without any time to think such a decision through. I would have too much of a bleeding heart to simply ignore the sick and go on with my day, even though the alternative isn't exactly ideal either...

Haha! I was unaware of that, I never read those books! Aah what a dilemma the vampires have...!

Aw, thank you! Yes, I have always been interested in writing; even before I learned how to read and write at age four, apparently I sat in my bed telling stories to my stuffed animals according to my parents, so it seems as if I have always wanted to get some stories out.

I feel very happy that I'm this motivated regarding my story - I think the fact that it's an interactive novel helps me combating writer's block since there are much alternative text and different ways to go; it's harder to find myself stuck when there is more to do, hehe.

You really are sweet! 🍀

I would say it made sense for you to be surprised about that even so, since it would have made a lot of sense for them to become a vampire, so I certainly wouldn't call it nonsense!

My pleasure - I'm glad you found it fun to read! 🫶

Ooh, let's see here! That's a tricky question in a sense, who I would romance, since I love all my character the same amount, but seeing this from an outside perspective, how I would have played the game if it wasn't mine and I didn't know what I know right now, thinking about the playstyle I would pick... I think I will have to say Aubrey, because I wouldn't be able to resist playing as an absolutely unhinged and ravenous character during my first playthrough, haha, just embracing each and every craving, and since Aubrey is and does just that, they would be quite compatible, my character and him... So chances are that his romance would come quite naturally to the sort of character I would amuse myself with!

[multitrackdrifting]

G-Witch EP 15 Thoughts & Review

warning: spoilers for UC timeline as part of my speculation about the end game of the story

Really good no-nonsense episode of G-Witch, naturally some people on socmed were like "idc abt this go back to characters I like", but the literal setting of this story wants you to be cognizant of the fact that it doesn't matter if you like one of the characters, their parents are usually tied up in corruption and sewing the seeds of discord across space.

The time for slice of life is over, the facade of chasing the title of "holder" is over, these are largely a distraction from the real suffering created by the status quo in this universe.

If the narrative beats are too bleak for you idk how to tell you that you're watching a franchise that stands on a legacy of writing about warfare and while the characters are important, the "what" of the world is absolutely essential to those characters - it is not about living a fulfilling school life and never was going to be that. It's more than likely they gave the audience doses of fulfilment specifically to take it away. I criticised how this early setting of the show was likely a facade and now that it is continually shown to be the case people are getting annoyed that G-Witch looks more like every other gundam despite knowing that things have fundamentally changed between seasons. Gundam writing no matter how bad does not dangle the illusion of peace for a super long time, so just let it go and enjoy what the series is as opposed to what you want it to be.

Guel Jeturk is, naturally, walking the path of the GOAT. He's trying to figure out who he is, and he is traumatized from killing his own father. For now, he wants to connect with what his father stood for, but naturally, that may mean reckoning with his corruption and role in the injustice created in the world. This is not new, so don't get too annoyed that he is doing that.

Seeing more death at the hands of spacians has probably coloured in the abstract world of Earthian suffering that Miorine doesn't even understand to the same level. His allegiance going forward is questionable, but I do not doubt we will see him creating instability in the power structure going forward - and don't worry - even if he "dies", he still can come back.

Factions are not hardline restrictions in Gundam, even Shaddiq could become a temporary ally despite everything he has done - McGillis certainly hopped around factions a lot in IBO. Even Char was technically the "good guy" after 79 for a while, but it's not to say that any one side of the conflict is correct, just that the injustices committed during warfare are intrinsic to it.

In Zeta Gundam we're seeing a side of char that has all the qualities of a protagonist, and it's part of his evolution of self - the comparison of Prospera to Char is funny because Char has such a specific evolution that every subsequent "char clone" holds his aesthetics but not his character arc. But the idea of a char clone is that they disrupt the world in a way meaningful to its context so she is one, I'm just saying that Char is poorly understood mostly because people haven't seen UC (and ZZ is impossible to watch on streaming through legal platforms for one reason or another).

Char is working through his ideals and sense of self in a way, going from "icognito fella bent on revenge on the Zabis" to "I'm not sure if I want to take the mantle up" and then of course, we reach end-game Char who wishes to remove Earth from the equation. If the object of desire & conflict is gone, surely this will fix things.

It's a lot more nuanced and comlpicated than that for sure, but Prospera will undergo a few changes, and I believe wholeheartedly there will be faction shifts, and her plan won't just sit in the abstract for a super long period of time.

The Earth-Space conflict in G-Witch is interesting because the Earth Federation is just cartoonishly oppressive in UC, but nothing about Earth is framed that way. It seems that Earth has some kind of puppet government, the benerit group has literal riot mechs made by the Jeturks stopping social instability on there & it honestly seems pretty clear that (for now) the Spacians are resented because Earth is like a colony in UC.

From this episode, it seems that Earth has a lot of pseudo-conflicts [war partioning] to keep them busy and unstable, unable to unite and rebel against the spacians and then there is the Spacians who are so brain dead that they're busy fighting for the title of holder and playing hte zero sum game inside Asticassia because their parents are more obsessed with climbing the ladder than engaging in unregulated profiteering and warfare.

Delling Rembran's big goal in my eyes is not absolute power, but the belief that a big enough deterrent and system of control can end suffering itself and Quiet Zero is that key. As a person who has walked the battlefield and seen the curse of gundams take his close friends and comrades, there needs to be a world without it.

Starting as an ideal, QZ is just an abstract ambition - but having seen UC Gundam my firm belief is that Quiet Zero converts people into Data. The rhetoric used to explain it to Mio in this episode entrenches that belief, "the restoration of human nature", "there was always some new enemy or rebellion".

Aerial itself is a different story, I think it's pretty obvious that Aerial at high permet scores is interacting with "permet" and "augmentations", this is akin to the NewType Destroyer in the Unicorn Gundam. That it can overwhelm and kill people is not that surprising since the Unicorn has way more overpowered abilities (e.g. Time Travel, Time Control, Control Funnels and much more).

Aerial at the moment seems to operate under the principle that none of the G-Witch Timeline (Ad Stella) doesn't have Electromagnetic shielding like other series.

Aerial has a stun wave, and the prev. episode showed how Sophie's death was accelerated by Aerial interacting with "the curse". The appearance that people take on with Permet scores is akin to a circuit, so I think this is all building up to some kind of technology based survival with Quiet Zero - if you have played a certain deep ocean game the concept might not be that foreign to you.

I'm thinking that right now the endgame is that QZ is some kind of device that envelops the entire universe in a data storm and uploads them to some kind of "ark".

The reason the "AI world" theory is so strong for me is that this current series has largely been about transcending the curse of gundams - what if that means binding oneself to a Gundam. Ericht is gone, that much is clear - but in the future, it seems that other people will also be gundams. It's not a new idea to the franchise either.

The reason it's about transcending the curse is because of the virtue held by Gundams and their ability to "enable living in space", and this begs the question, what is Aerial's role in this?

Aerial technology: Bind mankind to machines and transcend physical limits.

Quiet Zero Technology: Either a giant stun wave that completely disables GUND-ARM tech, or converting mankind itself into Data, the ability to live properly in space is probably difficult to achieve because of acts of terror & conflict - the only path forward is to leave behind ones physical body to become one with space.

If nothing else, it seems that physical bodies being left behind is going to be a recurring solution regardless of whether Aerial or QZ is the solution.

In UC Char says that people's souls are held down by gravity, but the hostile nature of space in Ad Stella suggests that we don't need to overcome the curse of space, but the curse of our bodies. That's how I interpret it anyway.

[demon-of-side-quest-hell]

I don't wanna say nothin' too mean but I always feel a bit mad when people are always like "Create for yourself! Don't make everything about what people want!" Because I agree but then I have to run into the issue that I just...fundamentally don't create for myself.

Creation is this loving act of taking my mind and GIVING it to others, it's not about making for fun or because something it interesting to me but because I want to share with you or others these ideas. Its why for a while I destroyed my art when I finished. I had shown it to my family or friends, and thus it's physical existence no longer mattered.

There's a large amount of art I only have photos for not because I "lost" the drawings, but because I actively chose to throw it away after I had successfully shown it to people. Because in my mind, my art isn't art unless others appreciate it.

And even after that, I don't create art for which only I could enjoy. I create art because I love seeing people love art, and I love being the creator of art that people love. It seems so antithetical to my entire fucking ethos of art to just create art that I alone like and then share it just kinda hoping someone who loves that kind of art runs into it.

And so it bums me out because I feel like somehow I'm just fucked up. You always hear about artists who create things for people and that's glorified only because they had created something which was amazing or it was just one piece in their library of works. "All Dead" is the greatest song by Queen in my opinion and it was partially written is reference to Brian May's deceased childhood cat but it's one of several dozen songs in their discography. "The Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings" were created for Tolkien's kids but because it went on to make billions of dollars.

I never hear about the artists who just love creating things for their small community of fans, I never hear of people admiring artists who change their output with the shifts in desires from of their audience.

I'm reminded of The Beginner's Guide, by Davy Wreden whenever I see those posts. I feel as if their goal is to encourage the Coda's out there, the real people who are genuinely put in stress because of people viewing their art. It's a message for the people who just like making prisons, and nothing more.

But why do we discourage which is made for an audience? Is it simply because most art "made for an audience" is cash grabbing nonsense? If so why should that dissuade from making art for that audience if you actually want to?

Goodness.

I just......

I just want to create stuff for people.

I don't want money or fame.

I just want people to look at stuff I create and have thoughts about it.

I want it to stick with them while they're eating lunch the day after

I want the things I create to get tiny fandoms where people make fun in-jokes about one-off moments and lines

I want someone to love an idea I had and incorporate it into their own work

I create for YOU, The hypothetical person reading this post. I love you! You make making art worth living when you keysmash a hundred dozen letters into a reply or you say "That's my guy!" In the tags of a reblog.

But I feel like a fraud of an artist everytime I see a post which blindly says just "create whatever you want, it doesn't matter what others say 😊"

[astralikacastle]

I enjoy watching stuff that I'd call trash in the sense that it's in the same orbits as the Progression Fantasy + Harem Building stuff described here, in part because sometimes I do want a little worldbuilding, to see what ideas these people have (and since I'm watching anime, I'm not stuck in chapter 1250+ of My Guy Is Getting More Powerful, I'm getting whatever first portion got enough interest to get a production, and may have had some minor additions/rewrites/whathaveyou to focus on the stuff that's Decent,)

and in part because the genres the usually pop up in also get writers who are actually really good, and you'll end up with stuff where you're actually experiencing a version of the genre that also understands storytelling proper, and if you're double-lucky, those stories get REALLY good animation and production.

I think the examples I'd give here for a comparison is A Playthrough of a Certain Dude's VRMMO Life and Shangri-La Frontier.

rambling nonsense under readmore.

They're both stories whose framing involve the Deep-Dive VR MMO concept, where it's basically another world and that fantasy fullbody VR stuff.

But Certain Dude's VRMMO is basically just following a lot of modern isekai and harem tropes, the narrative treating him as the Center Of Everything, and at least to my reading, kinda handing him most of these new powers on a silver platter; being roped along by the things he's getting *causing* him to get new things. Oh, he has the 'debuff' that makes fairies like him too much to get the new thing, well that means the fairy queen really wants to fight him, and he gets a scene of doing his combat stuff and now the fairy queen's in love with him. And the few times that the protag is given framing of it being his own personality, it's given kind of bogus framing that he's somehow an outlier. Oh sure, yeah, he's the only person who wants to go outside of the Meta, and somehow that meta means he's trying to be... A stealth archer. Nobody's ever wanted to play a stealth archer before. Somehow he's the only person picking these things, and that makes him an outlier, but he's So Smart and can use these "weak" tools to win. And now everyone sees the error of their ways, and wants to do that!

Shangri-La Frontier's protagonist has a specific vibe of nonsense, and while he also ends up being Given A Lot, it feels better written; the results he's getting come from his personality, his actions, and flowing through things. His skill comes from an interesting place, because we spend an Actual Amount Of Time on who this character is, and why his skill is both high and unexpected. And the weird things he's doing aren't Weirdly Unknown. Yeah, it's a thing that some folks will choose some of the oddball choices he's made, because when you have thousands and thousands of players you get subtrends like that. The ideas he's getting are supported by his backstory, his skillset, his personality. He's actually a character, and not an audience surrogate.

Also, extremely personal opinion level take, Shangri-La Frontier isn't a fucking coward that makes its beastkin-type characters humans with accessories.

Look at this man. Witness him for me. Good Character design. 100/5.

so back in the day i read HPMOR, right? like many people. and as it went on (& yudkowsky kept talking about his writing process on tumblr) it became more and more clear that this was fiction approached from an angle i had never really considered before. i had been vaguely aware of places like the spacebattles forum or the dark lord potter forum, where apparently people wrote stories that were mostly just a long-form way to debate “would the USS Enterprise win against a star trek star destroyer”, or whatever. yudkowsky kept saying wild things like “the point of this scene is to vicariously enjoy somebody solving a problem” or “all characters should always do smart things so the reader doesn’t get frustrated with them” or “i wanted to add a short arc where this character doesn’t instantly solve all his problems but i was worried it would alienate the reader”. (see also.) just like, expressing this conceptualization that the point of fiction was to… write a character stomping through a little fake world going from victory to victory so that the reader could enjoy the vicarious glow of having a hard problem presented to them and then immediately resolved. how smart you are for following the line of thought of the main character, who did this smart thing!!

so that was very weird, but it was mostly a singular kind of weirdness. another weird, out-of-touch artifact from the rationalists, like roko’s basilisk but harry potter fanfiction instead.

anyway a while back i stumbled across “Mother of Learning”, and i think my initial response to it was ‘this is less a story with a plot and more a series of obstacles that are presented to the main character to be sequentially overcome’. there was a furry webcomic years ago that was a calvin & hobbes knockoff – small child, stuffed animal companion who became alive when they were alone, whimsy, etc – only where calvin & hobbes left the premise unstated, this comic, roughly 30 strips in, had a whole plot explaining: okay so these are a special kind of magical creature that bonds with children. in this metaphor susie’s mr. bun is also a magical creature. eventually they start going on adventures together. my overall thought was like, oh i guess i was assuming this was a narrative framing device structured around the themes of the work, but actually this was all meant to be fully diagetic and fully explained as part of the work’s “worldbuilding”.

anyway mother of learning is like that but for groundhog day. the time loop isn’t an unexplained device used to inspect a character through a lens, it’s a dragon ball-style training chamber. there are “plot developments” as more information is revealed, but all of that takes a back seat to extensively and exhaustively describing every ability and technique that the main character learns and how they use them to be more powerful. mother of learning is 800,000 words long. the time loop is because they’re actually duplicates of the ‘real people’, in a pocket universe constructed inside of an eldrich monstrosity that was designed to be used every x years by some kind of fated hero to keep it sealed. the main character has to escape partly to make sure some evil cultists don’t unseal some stuff, but mostly so he doesn’t lose all his experience gains.

anyway so reading that brought me to royal road. (i’ve always found the name very funny since my main familiarity with the term is the phrase “there is no royal road to geometry - euclid”, aka there is no shortcut to learning something; you always have to put in the hard struggle of comprehension. it’s actually named after… something from a light novel or something? it used to be a fan forum for a specific work before branching out into a publishing platform.) anyway it’s a place to post stuff, like fanfiction.net or fictionpress or whatever. there is a strong genre constraint: they mostly want to hear about their protagonists getting endlessly more and more powerful, and sometimes collecting a harem of sexy women. it’s for that kind of fiction. reading a few stories there was very illuminating, in that finally i could place HPMOR in a genre: that of the ‘progression fantasy’, a profoundly self-indulgent and formulaic genre that’s mostly just an action story with a lot of the bits stripped away so they can describe how much more powerful the protagonist is getting. a subgenre of this is the ‘litrpg’, which are stories with a diagetic video-game-mechanics layer. people are checking their stats and getting experience from killing monsters and leveling up and all that. a lot of them read like text LPs of videogames that don’t exist. where the author is, of course, executing a min-maxed run.

(there’s a lot of overlap here between progression fantasies and like, xianxia stories? cultivation stories are generally all progression fantasies, and so there’s a lot of overlap thematically.)

anyway so that was kind of a grim awareness of a dark corner of the literary world. this stuff is popular. royal road is pretty aggressively farmed by publishers wanting to license stuff so they can make ebooks or w/e; there are author patreons there that make like, thousands of dollars a month for writing chapter 1394 of “my character with a cool spear levels up more”. i’ve read a bunch of progression fantasies but i wouldn’t say i really enjoyed any of them, partly because a lot of them are really bad at like… constructing a narrative with any kind of stakes. it’s all gonna be jettisoned away in favor of talking more about level ups. it is actually almost exactly the experience of grinding for levels in an RPG: it’s not really fun, but it can be engaging in the moment, and also you get to see a number go up, so that’s like a reward.

(i started writing one of my own as a writing exercise b/c i wanted to try some short-paced serial work that wasn’t porn, and it shot up to uh #40 top-rated on the entire site. it was in the top 10 for a few days. i have some complicated feelings about that.)

recently, i’ve been reading a lot of, uh, gay incest teenage mutant ninja turtles fanfiction. a lot of it is incredibly overwrought. 200k words of characters pining guiltily over each other! soap opera antics with miscommunications and secrets! genre cliches piled up in a big heap and remixed! and like, fanfic as a genre can be real formulaic too, right? a lot of people who read&write fanfic don’t read much else, and there’s absolutely a 'house style’ for most fanfic. but when i read fanfic i get the sense that the authors are, you know, aware of some literary conventions, of the various aspects that make up a story, and they’re struggling to convey concepts and themes. apparently i’m responsible for inspiring somebody to write what i think is the only sincere donkey/shrek porn fanfic in existence, and personally i think that porn fanfic has a million times the literary and artistic merit as chapter 1400 of randitly fucking ghosthound, because porn, overwrought incest soap opera dramas, is at least saying something about the nature of human desire, whereas most progression fantasy stuff is an utterly self-absorbed thesis on “writing somebody cool and powerful is escapism so i can feel cool & powerful”, stretched out to a million words.

like i guess 'i want to feel powerful’ is an expression of human desire but it’s a particularly flat one. i think a lot about that bit in dead zones of the imagination:

Violence’s capacity to allow arbitrary decisions, and thus to avoid the kind of debate, clarification, and renegotiation typical of more egalitarian social relations, is obviously what allows its victims to see procedures created on the basis of violence as stupid or unreasonable. One might say, those relying on the fear of force are not obliged to engage in a lot of interpretative labor, and thus, generally speaking, do not.

[…]

To be more precise: violence may well be the only form of human action by which it is possible to have relatively predictable effects on the actions of a person about whom you understand nothing. Pretty much any other way one might try to influence another’s actions, one at least has to have some idea who they think they are, who they think you are, what they might want out of the situation, and what their aversions and proclivities are. Hit them over the head hard enough and all of this becomes irrelevant.

a fantasy of having power is, i think, fundamentally a fantasy of never having to know anything you don’t want to, of never having to deal with the consequences of your actions. i feel it’s a particularly grim thing to enshrine into a millon-word epic.

anyway, hi, i’m back on tumblr, i guess. who can say if this will last. i’m still not happy about the porn ban! for reasons hopefully partially explained by the whole bit about porn above. also the increasing sidelining of custom layouts in favor of a uniform interface. sadly even with that it seems like tumblr is basically the only well-travelled social media site that’s not a total algorithmic nightmare, although the first thing i did when i remade this account was to go into the settings and turn off like a dozen algorithmic switches that were all defaulted to 'yes’.

i ended up moving cross-country during the peak of covid b/c my former housemate started having screaming panic attacks literally any time somebody stepped outside the house (literally literally, not emphatically literally). i would not recommend it. now i live somewhere where 'fire’ is a season, which is introducing new complications to my life. we’ll see how things go from here.

oh yeah, also my icon has more points now. i leveled up V:

[writer-ish]

The 3rd Annual Bloom Edenbrook Fundraising Gala

Pairing: Dr. Ethan Ramsey x f!MC (Dr. Brooke Spiers) Word Count: 2.9k Rating: Mostly T (innuendo, language, smooches)

Premise: Dr. Brooke Spiers and Dr. Ethan Ramsey get coerced into answering anonymous questions submitted by generous donors at this year's hospital fundraising gala. They have about as much fun with it as you'd expect.

This idea is all thanks to THIS ASK from the lovely @lem-20. The concept and all questions are hers! Thank you, darling Leah! ♥️

Author’s Note: My first time with a mixed-media type post(!!!) and the writing part has been done almost script-style, similar to the "Not Yet Wed" questions courtesy of @jamespotterthefirst, which you can find HERE. Hope you all enjoy. 🥰

Tickets

Bonus Raffle

SETTING - Diagnostics Office - 5:15 PM

TWO DOCTORS in formal attire sit across from one another. The male, DR. ETHAN RAMSEY, late-30s, devastatingly handsome, leans against a desk, arms crossed. The female, DR. BROOKE SPIERS, late-20s, charmingly attractive, sits on a larger table further away, legs swinging.

Ethan: I can't believe you talked me into this.

Brooke: [smirking] Why does this feel like deja vu?

Ethan: You know exactly why. You coerced me into the same sort of nonsense in your intern year for that magazine—whatever it was.

Brooke: Yeah, and remember how much publicity the hospital got that year? You're welcome.

Ethan: How can you be sure our "publicity" had to do with that article and not the fact that a first-year intern stole from a large pharamceutical company to administer an unapproved drug to—

Brooke: [hands up] Okay, okay, we get it. Regardless, you have to admit I was responsible for all the publicity. [grins]

Ethan: [can't help but grin back] Touche. [sighs deeply] Let's go home.

Brooke: Can't, babe. We're the main event.

Ethan: How did this even come about? Is there not some code of ethics against this sort of thing?

Brooke: [laughs] It's just staff and donors. All adults. We're showing that we're good sports and it's for a good cause.

Ethan: [grumbles] I don't know why people care so much about us.

Brooke: You don't? I mean, have you seen us?

Ethan: [dryly] And so humble, too.

Brooke: Lord knows you aren't with me for my humility.

Ethan: Indeed. [picks up a glass from the desk at his side, swirling the amber liquid] Well, I hope you're prepared.

Brooke: [amused] Prepared?

Ethan: You're used to me being reticent in situations like this and holding back? [downs the liquid in one shot] Not today.

Brooke: [wary] What does that mean?

DR. RAMSEY stands up, crossing the room towards DR. SPIERS until the latter is forced to open her legs to accommodate his presence. He braces a hand on either side of her, leaning forward until their lips are almost touching. Her face flushes. He notices, and a slow, lazy smile spreads.

Ethan: It means [kisses her slightly open mouth softly] I'm answering all their questions.

Brooke: [giggles nervously] All of them? But what if—

Ethan: [punctuating each word with a kiss] All. Of. Them.

He leans forward and captures her mouth in a deep, searing kiss. Her arms twine around his neck and she lets out a soft moan. Drawing her ankles around his legs she pulls him even closer and he places one hand on the desk as the other glides up her back. They stay like that, interlocked for a moment, before he pulls away.

Brooke: [eyes still closed] Hmph.

Ethan: Let's go get this over with.

Brooke: [slowly opens eyes and peers at him, disgruntled] What kinds of questions do you think people are submitting?

Ethan: Like you said, Dr. Spiers... [a slow smile spreads] Have you seen us?

DR. SPIERS laughs as she follows DR. RAMSEY out.

A.N. PLEASE do not look too closely at this very badly photoshopped pic 😂

SETTING - Bloom Edenbrook Hospital, Main Atrium - 6:25 PM

Our two doctors sit beside each other on a makeshift stage. A semi-recognizable third-year resident is the host for the evening. DR. RAMSEY dusts an imaginary piece of lint off his sleeve. DR. SPIERS has her hands in lap, knee shaking slightly. Noticing, Dr. Ramsey reaches over and rests his hand on her leg. She looks over with a small smile and places her hand over his.

Thank you to our very own Chief of Medicine, Dr. Ethan Ramsey, and his partner, head of the Diagnostics Team, Dr. Brooke Spiers, for being here with us today for a good cause. Dr. Ramsey and Dr. Spiers, are you prepared to answer some questions provided by our generous, anonymous donors?

Brooke: Sure, why not.

Ethan: [through gritted teeth] For a good cause.

Alright, excellent. I will be drawing these questions at random. Thank you to all who donated for the opportunity to submit a question.

Dr. Ramsey and Dr. Spiers, you will both be posed a question. If you choose to answer, you must both answer. If you choose not to, you must match the donation made by the donor, in lieu of a verbal response. Are you ready to begin?

Ethan: Mmm.

Brooke: [nervous laugh] I suppose.

Alright, here we go!

First question: If he/she could take one thing to a desert island what would it be?

Brooke: Me.

[Audience whoops and laughs]

Ethan: [can't hide his smirk, before clearing his throat] Brooke would take her phone. Heaven forbid she can't post about something on Pictagram.

Brooke: It's true. I'm sorry for being such a young millennial needy for external validation.

What are your nicknames for each other?

Brooke and Ethan: [look at each other. Brooke laughs.]

Ethan: Just say it.

Brooke: I mean, it's nothing too embarassing. I call him babe usually, or baby sometimes if I'm feeling extra nice. He calls me—[blushes and looks over at Ethan]

Ethan: [sighs] 'My love'. I call her 'my love'.

[Audience "awwww"s]

Who’s the better cook?

Brooke: Oh, Ethan. A hundred percent.

Ethan: It's true.

Brooke: I'm abysmal.

Ethan: Normally I would demur when it comes to Dr. Spiers' perceived faults, but in this case she's correct.

Brooke: Thanks, babe.

Ethan: You have many wonderful qualities that don't involve ovens, my love.

[A squeal from the audience that sounds suspiciously like Sienna]

Who has the last word in an argument?

[simultaneously] Brooke: Ethan Ethan: Brooke

[They look at each other]

Brooke: [laughs incredulously] Seriously?

Ethan: You think I don't hear you muttering to yourself after you walk away, almost every single time?

Brooke: Oh, so cursing your name and your very existence counts as the last word and not you shouting [affects deep voice] "And that's final!"? Duly noted.

Ethan: I don't sound like that or say that.

Brooke: Mm, sure.

Who is best at keeping secrets?

Brooke: Uh, neither of us?

Ethan: I had a secret once and it was hell keeping it.

Brooke: You've had a couple.

Ethan: True. I'm done with secrets.

Brooke: In lighter news, we kept [gestures between the two of them] this thing a secret for a bit. No?

Ethan: [opens his mouth to agree, when he's interrupted by a shout from the audience—]

Audience member that sounds suspiciously like Elijah: Nope! We all knew!

[Audience loudly murmurs in agreement]

Brooke: Never mind, then.

Who wears the trousers in the relationship?

Ethan: Neither of us subscribes to antiquated beliefs of superiority in a relationship. We're partners and teammates and work together accordingly. Sometimes she helps and guides me and sometimes I do the same for her. There is no one person who holds higher ground over the other and to imply otherwise would be foolish.

Brooke: [literal heart eyes at Ethan] What he said. [stage whisper] Except it's me.

[Audience laughs as Ethan rolls his eyes]

What is his/her worst habit?

Brooke: Workaholic, poor communication skills, yells first and asks questions later… I could go on.

Ethan: Charming. I have two words for you: messy packrat.

Brooke: Excuse me?

Ethan: If I had a nickel for every useless piece of garbage you kept "just in case" or for each article of clothing on the floor of my bedr—[clears throat] Just trust me.

Brooke: [smirks and whispers against Ethan's ear so only he can hear] Sorry, who is responsible for my clothes on the floor…?

Ethan: [says nothing but smirks as well]

[Audience murmurs in scandal]

What three words would you use to describe them?

Brooke: Hmm. Let me think.

Ethan: Passionate, caring, intelligent.

Brooke: [looks at him fondly] You came up with those fast.

Ethan: [matter-of-factly] I could give them ten more easily.

[Audience "awww"s]

Brooke: [to the audience] No, no, no don't be fooled, he doesn't mean only the flattering words, trust me.

Ethan: I believe it's your turn.

Brooke: Dedicated, compassionate, brilliant.

Ethan: [smiles softly at Brooke, who avoids his gaze. He reaches over and squeezes her hand.]

Brooke: [mutters] Yeah, yeah.

What celebrity do you/they think they most look like?

[Both Ethan and Brooke look at the announcer quizzically.]

Brooke: Celebrity? Uhh…

Ethan: I don't even know how I would begin to answer this question.

Brooke: Ryan Reynolds?

[Audience laughs and loudly disagrees]

Ethan: Who?

Brooke: [laughs and shakes her head] I don't know! I just named a random hot guy. You name a redhead actress. Jessica Chastain?

Ethan: [confused] Do you mean Jessica Rabbit?

Brooke: No I don't mean— [looks at him incredulously] Are you saying you think I look like Jessica Rabbit?

Ethan: No, I thought that's what you were saying and I was about to tell you how incorrect you were. Er, that is to say—

Brooke: I feel like you're digging yourself into a hole here.

Ethan: Agreed.

Who is the most vain?

Ethan: Both of us have more pressing concerns than our physical appearance.

Brooke: Ethan.

Ethan: [splutters]

Brooke: If you're going based off who spends more time on their hair in the bathroom? Ethan.

Ethan: [crosses his arms and glowers, but doesn't disagree]

What is his/her guilty pleasure?

Brooke: Ethan's is cooking shows, particularly Nigella.

Ethan: It's true. Brooke's is high calorie indulgences like—what's the freezer cake you made me buy the other day? With no identifiable or even passably edible ingredients?

Brooke: Ooh, Deep 'n Delicious. So good.

Ethan: [rolls eyes] Yes, because we all need our daily dose of hydrogenated oils and preservatives.

If they had a free pass, which celebrity would they choose to sleep with?

[Look at each other blankly]

Brooke: Uhh… Nigella?

Ethan: This Ryan Reynolds fellow?

Brooke: [laughs] I don't even like him!

Ethan: So who, then?

Brooke: [crosses her arms] I notice you didn't deny Nigella.

Ethan: This question is stupid. Next question.

Where and when did you go on your first date?

Brooke: Derry Roasters

Ethan: What? No. I took you to Sorellina—

Brooke: What, three years after we first met? No. Our first date was Derry Roasters when you caught me following you that time.

Ethan: Ah, so she finally admits it. I thought at the time I was… what was it, "paranoid"?

Brooke: [laughs only a touch guiltily] Did I say that?

Ethan: So you're treating the first time you trailed after me to the local coffee shop as our first date?

Brooke: Well, you paid.

Ethan: Yeah, after you "forgot" your wallet.

Brooke: What, you thought I pursued you for your good looks? No, sir. I like a man with deep pockets. Plus, you know how I know it was a first date?

Ethan: Please, enlighten me.

Brooke: You ordered for me and I didn't get annoyed and it was horrible, but I still drank the whole thing.

Ethan: The espresso Romano is not horr—

Brooke: Horrible. Coffee and lemon? [shudders] That's how I knew I was into you.

Ethan: [intrigued] Really? Way back then?

Brooke: [nods, blushing slightly, and rolls her eyes] Oh brother, don't act so shocked. You knew.

[Audience laughs and whoops]

Ethan: [shell-shocked face showing he absolutely did not know]

Where was your first kiss?

Brooke: [sheepishly] Miami.

[Audience murmurs in surprise]

Ethan: [sighs] Yes.

Brooke: Is that—are Harper and Naveen exchanging money?

Naveen: [from the audience] Dr. Emery should know better than to question my instincts!

Ethan: [loudly groans] Next question.

Who is the loudest in bed?

Brooke: [yelps and, remembering Ethan's earlier warning, throws her hand over his mouth]

Ethan: [from behind her hand] You probably could have made the answer less obvious.

Brooke: [blushes and groans]

[Audience roars its approval]

Which of your friends do you think he/she is most likely to have a crush on?

Brooke: Ohhh, this is awkward.

Ethan: My friends?

Brooke: Considering we can list your friends on one hand…and some of them intersect with mine. [bites lip] What do we do with this one?

Ethan: [to the host] What did the donor pay?

Sorry?

Ethan: To submit this question. How much?

Oh, uhh—[checks] $200.

Ethan: I'll write you a cheque for $200. Next question.

Brooke: [shakes her head laughing] All the questions, huh?

Ethan: At my discretion, yes.

Bryce: [from the audience] You know the answer was me for both of you, anyway!

Ethan: [scoffs] Fat chance, Lahela.

Brooke: [pointedly silent, staring straight ahead]

Ohh-kay. Next question. Who had feelings first?

Brooke: Ha, me. For sure.

Ethan: Are you sure?

Brooke: [looks at him incredulously] I just told you I liked you even after you bought me lemon coffee at Derry Roasters three years ago. [sits up to look at him more fully] No chance you liked me earlier than that. I mean, like-liked me.

Ethan: "Like-liked you"? Are we twelve?

Brooke: You know what I mean. You were such a grouch and I was just your annoying intern.

Ethan: [irritatedly] The annoying intern I kissed in Miami, what, a week later? Is that how obvious my lack of feelings for you were?

Brooke: [opens her mouth to respond and then closes it again]

Ethan: That's what I thought.

Who’s more dramatic?

Brooke: Ethan.

Ethan: I am absolutely not—

Brooke: See? Honestly, he's exhausting.

Ethan: [glowers]

Who has the weirdest orgasm face?

Brooke: Weirdest?

Ethan: Oh for the love of—

$5000 to not answer this one, doctors.

Brooke and Ethan: [jaws drop simultaneously]

Brooke: Someone paid five-thousand dollars—

Ethan: What kind of a pervert—? Fine, say it's me.

Brooke: It's really not.

Ethan: [quietly] Well, it's certainly not you.

Brooke: Yeah, but—

I believe we have our answer!

Ethan: We'll take it. Next!

What are you most likely to argue about?

Ethan: Brooke believes I could be more communicative about my feelings, especially when I have a problem.

Brooke: You do listen!

Ethan: Of course. We also argue about when she's going to move in with me.

[Audience gasps and murmurs in gleeful scandal]

Brooke: [jaw drops] Ethan!

Ethan: It's true. [turns to host] I believe it should have already happened. She believes she needs to maintain a tenuous hold on a bedroom she rarely occupies for a group of roommates who would be happy for her to move on.

Brooke: [fuming] Of all the high-handed—

Jackie, from the audience: He's right, girl, bigger and better awaits.

Brooke: [through gritted teeth, as Sienna, Ethan, and Aurora all nod and give her thumbs up] Maybe this is something we can talk about later—

Ethan: Whatever you say, my love.

Brooke: Oh, yeah, now with the "my love"s—

On that note! Here is our final question.

What’s the most romantic thing they’ve done for you?

Ethan: [looks at Brooke, who is still glowering] Most romantic?

Brooke: [glares]

Ethan: With Brooke, it's the little things. She'll notice when I'm having a bad day and bring me my favourite donut. Or a well-timed hand on my shoulder or knee when she can see I'm getting riled up.

Brooke: [glare softens a bit]

Ethan: She's thoughtful and kind and extremely empathetic. She knows what I need even before I know that I need it. It's not—candlelit dinners or what have you, but I've already prided myself on being a practical person and this intersection of—of practicality and care? That's what I find… [struggles to get the word out] romantic.

[Audience "awww"s]

Brooke: [screws up her mouth before leaning over to kiss Ethan on the cheek] Okay, that was sweet. [Thoughtfully] Most romantic thing Ethan has done for me? Well… [side-eyes him, before continuing] The HAZMAT suit sleepover last year was probably up there.

Ethan: [uncomfortable] I don't want that to be classified as—

Brooke: You were there for me at a time when I needed you most. If that's not romance, I don't know what is.

Ethan: [increasingly agitated] That's not romance, dammit, that's—that was a necessity. That was vital. I needed to be there. I needed to make sure you—that you—[cuts himself off, clenching his jaw]

Brooke: [eyes soft as she looks at him. Reaching out she rests her hand on top of his clenched fist until it unfurls slowly underneath hers and he releases his breath slowly] See? [softly] Romance.

Ethan: [sighs deeply, then links his fingers with hers and gruffly kisses the top of her hand] All this tells me is that I've neglected you on the "romance" side of things.

Brooke: [still smiling softly] No complaints. [looks out at the audience] Are we done here? [affects a deep voice] Are you not entertained?

Ethan: [fondly] And she says I'm the dramatic one.

I think we got what we needed, doctors. Thank you for helping out for a good cause. This raffle ticket session alone raised a total of $23,000 for Bloom Edenbook Hospital!

Ethan: [dumbfounded] That is insane.

Brooke: I promise we aren't that interesting.

The people beg to differ. Round of applause for Dr. Brooke Spiers and Dr. Ethan Ramsey for being such good sports. Until next time, doctors!

Ethan: [over thunderous applause] There absolutely won't be a next time.

Brooke: [laughs and stands up, smoothing out her dress]

Audience member that sounds suspiciously like Jackie: Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!

Rest of the audience chimes in: Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!

Brooke: [crosses her arms, smirking at Ethan]

Ethan: Oh for the love of— [acts like he's walking away, then loops an arm around her waist and pulls her close, tilting her back and kissing her thoroughly]

[Audience roars its approval]

Ethan: [pulls away slowly and sets her upright, chucking her chin with an affectionate and slightly devilish smirk. He starts to guide her away from the host and off the makeshift stage]

Brooke: [mutters, still a bit dazedly] Told you. Drama.

[Laughing, they walk off stage together.]

[13eyond13]

Well, that's the thing, he established a contrast between L and all the other characters, even though he said he could never have created the other characters either, and only said of L that he didn't feel real for him. That's why it never sat well for me, despite it being a good opinion at first glance.

And I agree. I read some similar things about both Near and Mello in the How to read while checking for that information. I'm not too surprised either about what you say about Platinum End, though I have not read it myself. I don't rely much on them either to form my opinion besides what's in the text, I agree it seems like the best choice all things considering. Like the Ryuzaki thing having to do with L and R sounding similar, I see that, but prefer to roll with Another Note here. It works wonderfully with it being Beyond Birthday's real name (I was this 👌 close to start rambling about identity again but goodness what a wonderful messy thing L has going on there). And still the washing machine bugged me, I couldn't help it. I thought for the longest time it was some kind of absurd joke headcanon popular in the DN fandom and I liked it a lot more as such xD

I don't like to dismiss completely File no. 15 though! I don't know if this is an unpopular opinion (pseudo ☕), but I love that L visits museums and likes art, and that he enjoys going to the park at times, and maybe I'm biased due to my background, but I adore and find so thought inspiring that he finished the demonstration in his first case with "Q.E.D."! The message is long again (with the new limitless asks it's easy to get carried away), but I wanted to add some positive things. I didn't mean to sound so bitter and negative in the other messages, sorry about that.

May I ask what are some of your own unpopular opinions? You don't have to reply, of course.

Oh, I didn't know the asks became limitless recently 😆 No worries, you didn't sound bitter! I tend to like being a bit critical or negative as a way of analyzing or attempting to discuss stuff honestly as well, and that's bound to happen in unpopular opinion sharing. I think it's valid to still be bothered by those things in the HTR13. I was just explaining how much I prioritize it or let it affect my feelings personally when it comes to my own interpretations of things.

Oh man, I haven't thought about my own unpopular opinions in a long time! But I think I made a list of them once in an ask I received way back in the day... I'll copy some here and then add some others, too.

I hope I don't offend anyone with these opinions, I'm not saying these are objectively true or anything but my own subjective takes, but

Some Unpopular Opinions:

-I think Misa is a worse person than Light and would rather hang out with him and be friends with him than with her. This is mostly because of how differently he acted upon losing his memories whereas she stayed almost exactly the same.

-I strongly prefer the manga to the anime because I think it's better written, more consistent, funnier, prettier, and more in-depth with all the characters and themes. I love stuff about the anime like the music, but I don't think the changes the anime made to L such as seemingly giving him regretful emotions before his death and little flashbacks to his past were automatically improvements on his manga self. I think he was far more original and complex as a character without that other stuff added in

-I LOVE LIGHT YAGAMI and can’t comprehend not loving him because he’s such a good character. Roasting him is always fun, but just straight up hating on him with no sense of humour about it is boring to me

-L is probably my all-time fave character but at the same time I think he can get a bit boring after a while if he isn’t fleshed out more in shippy fanfics and things. I love it when people give him a backstory and an interesting life in fics that go in-depth, because otherwise he can be left too much of a question mark

-Lawlight is both my favourite ship and also something I find a little overrated in the fandom at times. I think it's a really entertaining ship as an uncertain one full of tension and mind-games, but when it comes to actually putting them into a secure and loving relationship I end up getting easily bored by it

-sometimes I think Wammy's is overrated in the fandom compared to the other interesting characters and stuff in the series as well. I would love to see a little more exploration of the task force and SPK and mafia and such instead

-I think Higuchi was actually pretty nice to Misa on their date and the only thing that was awkward was that he lunged at her a little in the car when he got excited, lol

-I love Kiyomi and think it’s so silly to hate on her just because she killed Mello, he kidnapped her and made her strip at gunpoint first. I also think she gets blamed more harshly for things the guys also do sometimes, both by the characters in the story and by fans

-I don't believe Matsuda is as much of a pure cinnamon roll as some people seem to think, but he's more interesting with that darker side included in his characterization too

-I LOVE NEAR and think he’s so funny, and one of the most three-dimensional characters in the manga

-I think it was a good story choice that L died when he did and that he wasn't the final one in the warehouse showdown (though if I had only watched the anime that probably wouldn't be the case)

-I like that the story says that all the characters go to MU no matter what they do. I don't see it as just an edgy nihilistic thing which we should pretend isn't part of the story due to being too depressing to think about. In my opinion it's important to include it because it forces the audience to draw their own conclusions about the actions we see onscreen, and who we choose to sympathize with or condemn. If there was some sort of afterlife consequences based on the characters' morality it would easily become way too weirdly preachy or annoyingly nonsensical for me. And I respect how permanent the character deaths are because it would weaken the dramatic stakes and lessen the tension a lot if characters could arbitrarily come back from the dead

[doctorkatmd]

The Fowl Twins Review

So I read the fowl twins this week and I have 𝓼𝓸𝓶𝓮 𝓽𝓱𝓸𝓾𝓰𝓱𝓽𝓼.

I'll start off with saying, I enjoyed the book. It has Eoin's recognizable ticks anyone who's read his books can expect by now. It has the whole "Acknowledging tropes being used and winking at the camera" thing people mistakenly think that bloke that looks like Deadshot's panty stains invented and describing fantastical settings through the lenses of green glass that smells a bit 𝕨𝕖𝕚𝕣𝕕. He has that amazing ability writing interesting dialogue, something most scrip writers could at least attempt, but why would they when Transformers 45: the explosive leaky oil spill keeps their liquor cabinet stocked. However I think over the years his books have started relying on to much "wink wink nudge nudge see what I did there" sorta joke. You can only admire your cock so long before you start having funny thoughts of removing limbs and trying more advanced contortionism. It feels like Eoin Colfer is locked into a uphill battle with the narrative and character progression, and he dose not have the high ground. See the first Artemis Fowl book was a bit of a anomaly, as he expected it to be a one-off until people realized it was fun for your protagonist to be a bit of a smart arse gremlin with daddy issues, and the book sold like cum hotcakes at a lumberjack orgy. Artemis started out as the bad guy and through the 8 books he went from "really smart guy so far up his own colon he can see his belly button" to "really smart guy really far up his own colon but only just slightly and can leave for vacations". But that's just not in the fowl twins. Myles starts out Luke-warm "smart wise ass with heart of gold" and Becket is and stays a ray of blissful sun shine. They end the book in about the same where they start it, albeit dirtier and smelling a bit like that one time you went into a nursing home and got dreuled on. It's implied that Myles might try and do something the troll but not like 𝓼𝓾𝓹𝓮𝓻 𝓮𝓿𝓲𝓵 just a bit ｑｕｅｓｔｉｏｎａｂｌｅ. I also question the inclusion of a another LEP female spunky officer, Colfer works it into the story well enough plot-wise. But it still feels a but like he didn't want to resort to using holly short again so he made Lazuli, who feels like a "totally original character do not steal" from a fan fiction where Captain Kirk thinks she's totally "hot and smart and should take command of the ship immediately, even thought she's just a cadet." Though she serves as Chekhov's gun the whole time with her wibly wobly magic powers that she totally doesn't have we pinky swear it's supper rare and unlikely. But I can's see why she couldn't have been some fairy tourist or snot nosed 60 year old 𝘗𝘪𝘹𝘦𝘭 kid poking around the fowl estate through pure curiosity, getting her jimmies off to seaweed or whatever. I just don't see a need for another no nonsense, "what rule book" spunky policer officer. Finally, who is this series for? I enjoyed it don't get me wrong. But it still reads as the original series that was intended for children, and my friends look at me funny being in the kid's fiction part of the book store so long. The original audience is currently incurring student debt and eating their toothpaste just to feel something again. One might say "it's for a whole new generation" But see dear viewer/reader I don't think it works for that either, it references characters and events from the original books far too frequently, in fact often even mentioning the books by name in a "if you want to understand this joke your gonna have to be real good and save up your lunch money" sorta way. It's obvious he Eion Colfer wants to write adult books and he's fecken good at it when he does, Highfier was amazing and creative, and allowed him to flex the Irish super power of saying fuck in every conceivable context. All I'm saying is the fowl twins would've been perfect if, just for once, he could let a 13 year old drop a f-bomb one, or two, or three times...........well a lot more actually according to my middle school experience with prepubescent boys dropping swears they heard on violent television, only rivaled by

the swigs of the mysterious bottle the principle kept under her desk, without censoring it to d'arvit, which was funny the first 20 time but got old after eight books. I say all this because I care. I love this author and his unique and funny characters standing out in a crowd of angsty teen characters with bad communication skills a more liberal application of their lips than your mum. I just worry for where this series is gonna take us, and that it's gonna end up like those bleeding spin off shows that sounded good until you realize that one character that seemed rather cool is in fact a right twat nanny and can't carry a whole show.

[animentality]

Deadpool is the antithesis of Disney's marvel

It's the stress ball where all the people who want to swear and show titties and talk about cocks and asses but can't on other marvel productions go to relieve themselves all over the audience's face.

You can argue that civil war and all that junk is gritty and serious but it's gritty the way teen Titans was grittier.

It's gritty for like the children-teenager audience.

For adults it's a very tame action sci fi fantasy hero whatever thing.

You'll feel surface emotions but it's not evocative the way Deadpool is.

Deadpool beats a guy with a brick and blood splatters all over the sidewalk but they actually removed the blood splatter from the PG trailers that play before pg-13 movies.

It's just dirty where everything else marvel feels too clean.

I appreciate it, goddamnit, I really want more super anti hero movies that are just nasty.

I enjoyed iron Man, I enjoyed civil war, I enjoyed black panther, I enjoyed these movies, don't get me wrong, it's just that im manic depressive, prone to flash floods of emotion, highs and extreme lows, and high octane action isn't a fight scene with perfect fight choreography and two attractive men lightly bruising each other and giving each other a slight bloody lip and arguing about the ethics of saving people.

I just need Deadpool cutting someone's head off and shooting someone's brains out and making jokes about anal.

In a way it's a lot more human than anything else the marvel infinity universe has ever put out.

There are gay people, for one thing, Deadpool himself has anal sex with a woman, and by that I mean the pegging scene, which is not how men typically (are perceived to) have anal sex with women, and he's pansexual as shit, negasonic teenage warhead's actress is gay, shatterstar, aaaaaargh.

And remember when everyone shipped stucky so hard they jammed Sharon Carter into Civil War?

You can't tell me she was some integral character whose role was so strong and necessay that they couldn't have had black widow or some other random shield agent do it for her.

They got freaked out by the idea of a bisexual captain America and thought they mightve gone too far with Bucky being the perfect match for steve, being someone he's known for a long time from the same era as him AND someone who despite torture and brainwashing still recognized him after seventy whatever years.

I don't even ship stucky or care that much about captain America as a character. These observations are just from someone who's not completely blind.

Deadpool is like the other marvel or some shit.

It's more like Fox's x men, like the rough and tumble Logan, than Spider Man homecoming or Guardians of the Galaxy.

I can't stress this enough.

Infinity war will be whatever, it'll be a lot of fighting and some contrived "iron Man makes up with cap" drama.

I'm sure it'll be a good movie, but I'll forget about it in a few months just like civil war.

The most I can see them doing is some deep and meaningful scene where tony is like..."Heroes have to accept their limits!"

And captain America is like..."No. Anyone can be a hero, and if we let them take away our freedom, we are no better than Thanos" or some nonsense like that.

I'm not sure, I honestly think the whole "should super heroes be registered" thing is a contrived plot anyway.

Like.

whatever, Tony, whatever, Steve, if either of you were people of color, theyd call you a terrorist.

But because you're white guys, we get to have this discussion at all.

But you gotta wonder what other ending they could possibly have.

I mean we know they're not going to let Thanos destroy the planet.

The most they could do with infinity war is have some big character moment. Someone dies.

But would that shock anyone?

Everyone knows this is like the last one. All bets are off. You can kill anyone In the final installment.

You get to see everyone working together, I guess, but how well can they pull it off? It's going to be enormously bloated just trying to get everyone their screen time.

I wonder if it's going to be like x men films which try to have too many characters at once.

And then I think wow...nostalgia trip.

X men films used to be a thing but they drained so much of the grit from most of them that we don't even remember them.

Marvel.

Disney.

God.

Maybe it's just my mentally ill ass and inability to feel things, but where's some of that real human shit?

That shit that keeps you up at night?

That mud scraping shit licking dragging your knuckles through glass human condition type fecal matter that just burns as it goes down your gullet and leaves a burning trail?

I'm sure infinity war will be nice and quirky and action packed and full of character interactions EVERYONE NEEDED TO SEE.

But damn.

Maybe I'm suffering from avengers fatigue, but I really need more content reflective of these wild, wild times.

It's not 2012 anymore, marvel.

The curtains been lifted and the times are a changing.

[evergloffpress]

Bottle of Blog No.54

The Empire Strikes Back This Is Not or Rocking the Boat For Rock’s Sake

When Disney purchased Lucasfilm George Lucas was said to have presented his ideas for a sequel trilogy which we're promptly rejected. Perhaps the powers at Disney wanted to distance themselves from the creator of the Prequel trilogy and they're less than spectacular impact. Maybe the plots went against the ideas they had in mind. Whatever the reason could they of been any worse than what Rian Johnson presented us with Star Wars Episode 8: The Last Jedi?

Rian Johnson made a name for himself with his films Brick and Looper. Enough so that he caught Disney's attention to put him in charge of Episode 8. In 2019 after directing the Last Jedi Johnson released his latest movie entitled Knives out. A who-dun-it movie turned on it's head. It was a fresh and ingenious take on the traditional tropes of a murder mystery and it worked. Sometimes taking a long-standing paradigm and turning them inside out can work in a creative field where almost everything has been done a thousand times before. Though not always. Rocking the boat just to feel it rock does not consistently work. Case in point Star Wars : The Last Jedi.

I'm just going to go straight to all my issues with this movie. For they are legion. I won't be nitpicking either....O.K, one nitpick. The phrase ”punch it” is used too many times for my taste. Think it was used at least twice. It still got irksome.

My first gripe is why was Han Solo's death completely ignored? I understand the movie pretty much starts right after episode 7 ends and they were fairly occupied so a funeral might not of been on the agenda. Could of been in the novelization for all I know but I elected not to read it. But Han's passing should of at least been on their minds some considering who decided to off him. It should of been especially on Leia's. Speaking of Leia what the holy Hoth Hell has her brother Luke Skywalker been doing all this time in self-imposed exile aside from squeezing the udders of lactating sea monsters? Also, he’s supposed to be the last Jedi. Isn't he being a tad selfish to wallow in self-pity and let the galaxy fall into the First Order’s clutches? Goes against who we thought Luke was. Even of he does blame the Jedis for allowing to Sith and the Empire to rise to power why not use the tools you have at your disposal to do what you can against them? You don’t have to go around calling your self a Jedi Knight but if you want to just edit the ”sacred” texts so than any written bureaucracy that would keep you from doing the most good is expunged. He was the last Jedi who was going to stop him? Even Yoda who popped up later knew how restrictive they were. It made no sense.

Why wouldn't the resistance high command share their plans with Poe after Leia was blown out into space and did her magic dance back to the ship?

The remanmants of the Resistance were panicking so why not reassure everyone that there was a plan and share that plan? Instead, Poe and company cook up this silly scheme that made no sense which screwed up the original secret plan by looking for a slicer on the Canto Bight More on Canto Bight in a minute. So Finn and friends figure out that they are being tracked through hyperspace by a device they cant possibly know exists and deduce that said device has to be on the Supremacy which is Supreme Leader Snoke’s ship. Also why was the tracking device on Snoke’s ship? Why didn't General Hux have it on his ship? They then formulate a plan based on a hypothesis which is flimsy at best from their perspective. Yes they were right but they had little to nothing to go on. Which brings us to Canto Bight. The pointless side trip that caused more trouble than they were already in. It's like the director wanted to have a scene take place in a space casino but had no real reason to be in a space casino. Finn and Rose go to to Canto Bight and park on the beach which apparently is illegal. A naturally they get arrested and meet a sleazy hacker in the jail who could have broken out whenever he wanted to but waited till he had an audience to do it in front of. They then hop on giant rabbit horses and ride away to the outskirts of town to freedom and an awaiting ship.

Most fans speculating on Rey’s lineage thought she might have been related to Obi-Wan or the product of a nightstand by Luke or something. Instead Kylo simply states that she is a nobody. Came from nobodies and is no one special. Rather anti-climatic considering how adept she is at using the Force. Then there is how Supreme Leader Snoke was so easily done in. Sliced in tow. Though it did lead a sweet team up between Rey and Kylo versus Snoke’s royal guards. But who was Snoke? How did he come to be? He was presented as the big bad of the sequel trilogy and he is tossed aside just rattle the narrative’s cage. No pay off from his introduction what so ever.

Finally we have the battle of Crait. It's where the Resistance managed to escape to while being chased by the First Order. The needlessly secret plan made worse by Poe and pals poorly thought out plot to save the fleet made things significantly worse. The sleazy jacket Finn and Rose brought in betrayed them and showed General Huz the fugitives’ escape plan which resulted in forty demise of most of them. Poe really really messed up. Also why was Admiral Ackbar allowed to die like he was wearing a red short on Star Trek. He should of flown that cruiser at light speed through Snoke’s ship at light speed and not Laura Dern’s character. Ackbar should of gone out a hero not a long side a random tech officer on the bridge. So they get on the surface of Craite which was a rebel base years ago. At first glance it looks like the ice planet Hoth but it turns out to be a salt planet. That doesn't stop the bad guys from pulling out the New At- At walkers. Gorilla walkers seem to be more accurate. So all of a sudden it turns out to be a reverse Empire Strikes back. At- At attack near the end. Yoda appears to Luke after he did his less than enthusiastic training routine on Rey. Like ESB the main characters go their separate ways to achieve separate goals. A faux revelation with Rey and the whole gang getting together in the end after getting their behinds handed to them. The concept of the Death Star was used again only this time as a cannon on the field of battle. Why could it not just of been just a cannon? Why income the Death Star yet again? So with that in mind what does the Resistance send against said Death Star cannon? Poorly armed and maneuverable skippers that were already falling apart. Why not just chuck xorngogs at them. None the less Finn goes right at it in some idiotic suicide run. What did he think he was going to achieve? Rose then crashes her skipper into the side of Finn’s ship in an attempt to save his life. Again she crashed her speeding metallic vehicle into His soeeding metallic vehicle on the middle of a battlefield right in front of a super laser cannon in an attempt to save his life. Then the real froaning begins when Rose implies to Finn she had feelings for him. That's right talk about your feelings while you are injured in a warzone with thousands of guns pointed right at you. Makes all the sense in the world.

The crowning WTF ingredient in this fustercluck of a film is Luke’s cop-out appearance at the Battle of Craite. He Force projects himself on to the planet from his xave island hideaway. Says good bye to Leia and distracts Kylo Ren while what's left of the Resistance escapes out the back end of the Rebel base. The strain of Luke projecting himself from so far away was too much for him and he dies. Disappearing into the ether. Metalic arm and all. That makes no sense. What of made more sense if the metallic arm would of just clanked in to the ground. So with Han dead and now Luke dead we are thoroughly cheated out of having the original cast share the screen one more time.

So the director shook things about hoping to come up with something many fans would consider worthy of Star Wars. Alas, I feel he missed the mark in trying to come up with something different yet remain familiar. Which is clearly hard to do. It seems each creator wrote their cliffhangers without taking into consideration who would pick up the threads next. Disney should have spent a little more time creating a cohesive storyline than rushing in to recoup their investment. That way the next film does not waste time explaining what didn't make sense before. This franchise was a guaranteed cash cow so they could have bided their time and let the story ferment a little more.

So much of this movie was infuriating and nonsensical. I was questioning settings, dialogue, and motivations far too many times throughout the film to enjoy whatever parts I did like. Be all that as it may I really did like the porgs. See? It's not all hate and bile but it mostly is.

Oliver Evergloff March 21st,2020