#i'm not a writer in any way

[iwilldeletethisblogprobably]

more trans remus au! trans remus would not even think about gender until he went to hogwarts,

Since he grew up sheltered with his parents who didn't force gender norms onto him he was overwhelmed with the very gender devided hogwarts and grew incredibly uncomfortable with it.

in year 2 he realized he much preferred the boys uniform when he and sirius swiched uniforms for fun, and sirius loved to annoy the shit out of reg with wearing a skirt, so they kept switching clothes until it one day hit remus he might be more than just a tomboy. he had been reading about the remus and romulus story in a mythology book and asked his friends to only refer to him as remus from now on, for fun at first because of the joke (wolf, wolf) but then it became habit for everyone to call him that, and remus even prefered it over his legal name.

in year 4 when puberty really started to hit he had gotten increaingly anxious over his body, already being hyper sensetive to losing control over himself due to his lycanthropy. he started binding and cut his hair, talking in a lower voice since the other marauders voices had already gone deep. he felt a rush of excitement and happiness everytime some of the younger students who thought he was a cis boy called him by he/him pronouns. he often talked about feeling like a boy with his friends and after some time they also started refering to remus by he/him pronouns.

it wasn't until a year after graduating hogwarts that he first heard of the term trans, but he instantly knew. when he told the other marauders about it they were all very suportive and it was obvious to everyone that remus was a man. remus legally changed his name to remus because why change it now after years of using it. he tried to get in contact with a muggle gender clinic (because he hadn't heard about gender clinics existing in the wizard world) but was constantly denied, for years.

not until long after the first war did he get a date for his first meeting with a clinic. but after doing some examinations the doctor explained he couldn't prescribe him hormones for medical/health reasons. remus put a lot of work into passing, he kept dying his peach fuzz, painting a moustache with cheap mascara, doing voice training. he some mostly passed while taking odd jobs, but he occasionally got misgendered but was too embarassed and shy to correct them. but when someone was purposfully transphobic he hexed them when no one was looking. he also worked as a barista because i say so.

when coming back to hogwarts as a teacher in defense agains the dark arts he was happily surprised how his former teachers and now colleagues respected and supported him, never once misgendering him.

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

i vote that next year instead of reading Dracula we do a Jeeves & Wooster Book Club. those two never got the rabid tumblr shipping fandom they deserved (disqualified for the sheer technicality of being published a century too soon). we must correct this injustice

[nonbinarychaoticstupid]

SEND ME PROOF OF DONATION AND I'LL WRITE YOU A FIC!!

below is a list of palestinian bloggers i've received asks from. i will continue to update this as i receive more asks. send me proof of a donation to one or more gofundme campaign and i'll write you a fic!

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO RESTRICT DONATIONS TO ACCOUNTS ON THIS LIST.

minimum donation: £5/$5/€5. the larger the donation, the longer the fic. i will accept proof of donations from up to a day before dming me. unless you specify otherwise, completed fics will be posted to ao3 and linked here. you can contact me here or at nonbinarychaoticstupid2 on discord. message me with both proof of your donation and a prompt.

@musababed/ @musababd. vetted here. gofundme here. £3.3k/£8k.

@save-ahmed-family1. yet to be vetted, but people in the notes of this post believe his campaign to be legitimate. gofundme here. €300/€20k.

@mahmoud-1995. vetted here. gofundme here. $8.5k/$50k.

@girlquee/ @saveyouseffamily vetted here. gofundme here. €4k/€20k.

@save-hijazi-family2/ @savemohammedfamily/ @save-family. vetted here. gofundme here. €13k/€20k.

@wafaaresh. vetted here. gofundme here. €23k/€100k.

@nourabd1992. vetted here. gofundme here. $6k/$45k.

@ehabayyad23. yet to be vetted, but people in the notes of this post believe this campaign to be legitimate. gofundme here. €600/€50k.

@karamrafeek. vetted here. gofundme here. €12k/€20k.

@ahmed4palestine. vetted here. gofundme here. $15k/$20k.

@abdalhadiaburas. yet to be vetted, but people in the notes of this post believe his campaign to be legitimate. gofundme here. $1k/$65k.

@amlanqar. vetted here. gofundme here. €6k/€50k.

@monashamali. vetted here. gofundme here. £12.5k/£30k.

@mohammadyaser1980/ @mohammadayyad. vetted here. gofundme here. €14k.€35k.

@as-maa-56/ @asmaamajed2. vetted here. gofundme here. $2k/$50k.

@helpfamily. vetted here. gofundme here. $4k/$50k.

@yazanfamily. vetted here. gofundme here. €8.5k/€50k.

@ghaziyounes1967. vetted here. gofundme here. $2.8k/$50k.

@shymaafamily. vetted here. gofundme here. $10k/$50k.

@alhabil. vetted here. gofundme here. €23k/€50k.

@azaxa. vetted here. gofundme here. €31.5k/€45k.

@abuadamfamily. vetted here. gofundme here. €54.9k/€58k.

@4-zien-yousef. vetted here. gofundme here. €12.9k/€23k.

@lenakhamiss. vetted here. gofundme here. €3k/€100k.

@mohammednasers-blog. yet to be vetted, but people in the notes of this post believe this campaign to be legitimate. gofundme here. €1k/€38k.

@yousefjehad3. vetted here. gofundme here. $2.9k/$15k.

@savepalestineinfamily19. vouched for here. gofundme here. €5k/€50k.

@noor678. vetted here. gofundme here. $3k/$25k.

@ezzaldeens-blog. yet to be vetted, but seems likely to be legitimate. gofundme here. €123/€20k.

@anqar. vetted here. gofundme here. €16k/€20k.

@safemaryamsfamilysblog. yet to be vetted, but seems likely to be legitimate. gofundme here. €810/€20k.

@yasminalbalawiigaza. vetted here. gofundme here. €37k/€50k.

@osama-family. yet to be vetted, but seems likely to be legitimate. gofundme here. £731/£50k.

@bshaeromars-blog. vetted here. gofundme here. $14k/$40k.

@ahmad-syam-blog. vetted here. gofundme here. $1k/$40k.

@amnyaburas. yet to be vetted, but seems likely to be legitimate. gofundme here. $5/68k.

@screechingphilosopherengineer/ @family1234567. yet to be vetted, but seems likely to be legitimate. gofundme here. €388/10k.

@fahedshehab051. vetted here. gofundme here. €42k.€50k.

@aseelo680. vetted here. gofundme here. $13k/$50k.

@mahmoud-sharif. vetted here. gofundme here. $7k/$60k.

@shadowyavenuetaco. yet to be vetted, but seems likely to be legitimate. gofundme here. £1.5k/£50k.

@motaz223. vetted here. gofundme here. 31k/250k.

@a-ss-123. yet to be vetted, but seems likely to be legitimate. gofundme here. £180/£55k.

@ayaalanqarsblog. vetted here. gofundme here. €9k/€15k.

@mahmodje. vetted here. gofundme here. $200/$25k.

@odayalanqar-2002. vetted here. gofundme here. €2.5k/€50k.

@abdulsalamalanqar. yet to be vetted, but seems likely to be legitimate. gofundme here. €55/€50k.

@mahmoud91hilles. yet to be vetted, but seems likely to be legitimate. gofundme here. €112/€50k.

@hashemsh92. vetted here. gofundme here. €6k/€45k.

last updated: august 26.

my writing terms of service, including fandoms i am familiar with and my blacklist/whitelist. examples of my writing. i am also taking part in @femslashaction and planning to participate in @rwbygotcha4gaza if you'd like to donate there!

[tea-cat-arts]

I simply think this fandom doesn't give Wei Wuxian enough credit for the various ways in which he saved Lan Wangji

[a2zillustration]

I've been waiting for an excuse to tell you why Croissant is called Croissant for SO LONG

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[[ All Croissant Adventures (chronological, desktop) ]]

[[ All Croissant Adventures (app) ]]

[canonkiller]

do you consider your self made?

[lemonhemlock]

I did not get into Game of thrones when it first started airing. In fact, I waited until it was long past it's heyday (around s6 or 7) to check it out because the marketing and the conversation surrounding it misled me into thinking it was nothing more than "grimdark" bullshit. As one famous YouTuber sarcastically called it "hot fantasy that fucks." So, I avoided Martin's work for literal years due to the impression that I got from online reactors and show-only casuals who did as you and a few others have described as his work being fundamentally misinterpreted.

Fortunately, I overcame my hang-ups, purchased the books (even the supplementary material) and fell down an entire rabbit hole of ASOIAF which led me to recognizing that this world he spent decades creating is far more complex than what had been portrayed onscreen. Regardless of the possibility of the books remaining unfinished (which I am fine with, personally), what George has created is a genuine work of art that I imagine took a tremendous amount of time and energy. So, for so many people online to behave like children and throw tantrums because they feel entitled to him (ew) instead of ushering forth more reasonable conversations and legitimate debates about the nature of his situation frankly makes me look at this fandom with a heavy dose of skepticism.

It is truly baffling to hear even professional critics and see articles describing George as being "ungrateful" or "unprofessional" when it has been well-documented just how often authors get locked out of the adaptation process and left to the wayside as consultants. Look at what happened to Rick Riordan and Christopher Paolini! George R.R. Martin is not the only author to have qualms with how a multimillion dollar studio has mishandled his creative work, and to act like he should remain silent just because he's amassed a certain degree of wealth is quite frankly, ridiculous. He shouldn't have to settle down, be grateful, and stay quiet because the greedy corporate executives and their media drones will get offended by actual criticism that could alter the perception of the adaption being revealed as mediocre for having departed from the source material.

TLDR: authors should be allowed to speak up about their art being sacrificed for commercialization.

Thank you so much for this message, anon! This needs to be talked about more, because I don't think a lot of commentators truly understand the vulgar, late-capitalistic sheen that seems to set in and slowly poison any ASOIAF adaptation. It honestly baffles me how quick some members of this fandom are to rush to the defense of, what is essentially (let's not be kidding ourselves here), a cashgrab by a giant corporation to the detriment of the actual artist and the actual creative foundation behind it.

Why else would "MAX" (if that is even their name) make another (or several other) ASOIAF adaptations? Not to stay true to any philosophical aesthetic vision, as it has become more than apparent with Season 2, but to increase shareholder profits by appealing to the lowest common denominator. Even the basic premise has been shifted in order to address popular trends and satisfy the mindless consumer that doesn't want to engage with anything deeper than their favourite tropes, prettily packaged:

from a story about a doomed ouroborous family superimposed on the pitfalls of feudalism, with villainy and heroism to be found on both sides, it has been simplified and reduced to a narrative that exalts white feminism and disqualifies anyone who opposes its girlboss protagonist. This is Sheryl Sandberg's version of Fire and Blood.

Truly, I think Sara Hess did (unintentionally) outline it the best: "civilians don't matter in Game of Thrones". They don't matter in Game of Thrones, but they matter in A Song of Ice and Fire. The entire heart of the series is contained in Septon Maribald's speech. The writers "kind of", must have forgotten, though.

[nachosncheezies]

In defense of late-canon x files (including the revivals)

I was thinking about this poll after I commented on it, and I kinda want to be brave and say more.

Short answer to the poll's question before I go any further: If you're a new fan and a sensitive sort who thinks you'll struggle with your blorbos Really Going Through It and you really need a happy ending, I suggest you stop at the end of season 8. Do not pass go, do not look at spoilers. Disregard this post entirely, close the internet, and go look at something that makes you happy. (Also fuck every part of society that characterizes sensitivity as inherently weak and bad and some kind of personal failing, you are valid.)

That said, "quality" as a concept is entirely subjective, and the question of whether or not there's a decline in quality for any story is wholly subjective, too. In the case of x files? I'm not convinced there is a decline. I am going to be upfront that I haven't yet watched past season 8, though I am almost completely spoiled on events after that - and the reason I haven't watched yet is not because of how I know events are going to unfold, but simply because I don't want it to end!!! Ohh, the tension between "I CAN'T WAIT!!!" and "Nooo don't be over D:"

When I first came to txf fandom on tumblr and gradually became spoiled about what happens in late canon though, I was often left uncomfortable and tbh kinda queasy about it. As I said in my comment on the poll, the hate for especially the revival and IWTB, or to a lesser extent even seasons 8 & 9, is very well documented. But! There are other takes to be found here on tumblr if you figure out where to look, and my feelings have changed!

The thing is, I have yet to find myself in any fandom where there isn't a vocal subset of fans who dislike the story after a certain point. I am not joking when I say that no one hates the things they love as passionately as sci-fi and fantasy fans. In my experience, it often hinges on the extent to which a viewer has strong notions on where they would like the characters to end up. In particular with series where shipping is a dominant component for the bulk of a fandom, I have almost universally found that there comes some turning point in the story where "let them be happy you cowards" is the dominant view, and things that compromise the attainment of a degree of romantic stability and/or domesticity are, to many fans, annoying at best and despicable at worst. But! As one tagset on the linked poll said:

and I think for any fandom, that last tag especially is so so so important. (I think that's harder for people watching a weekly series live, bc you have so much time to analyze and speculate and dream before the next breadcrumb drops, but I digress.)

So why am I saying this and how do I apply it to x files? Well, I eventually found that there are also a subset of fans who find redeeming things right up to the very end and actually quite like the whole thing! The things that I had seen people rage and ventpost so much about honestly never quite sounded to me as "out of character" or "untrue to the story" etc as those same ventposts made them sound. And I've discovered I'm not the only one who felt that way. Do I love that the spooky squad had to go through all of those things? No, those poor guys D: Life is hard and they have been through so much trauma. But do those events and their choices make sense to me in light of everything that came before? Yes! And I honestly can't wait to see them fight to overcome those things, breaking, healing, always learning, always growing, always getting better.

So if you're wondering "where does it go wrong"... well, I'm a completionist, as many people who've answered that post are, but also my personal opinion is that I don't think it does go wrong. If you're new and interested in exploring why I've gone from "vaguely queasy" to "excited" about the whole thing, or want to maybe balance out the impressions you're getting about the later seasons before deciding whether or not you want to see the whole thing, I'll put a few blog names in the comments.

Final admission: even once I started feeling a little more confident in the possibility that "actually ok maybe I'm not crazy, maybe this all kind of is in character and does make sense", there was one big plot point that I was NOT looking forward to and I thought I would never be comfortable about. In hindsight, I think my discomfort came from the negative responses being SO seemingly universal that I hadn't stopped to let myself truly consider other possible interpretations on that point. (I mean my initial instinct when I first read about it was, why are we mad about this?? CSM is literally the most unreliable narrator in history???? it's obviously fake news?????? this must be either a fever dream someone's having or it's a misdirection ploy against whatever shadowy forces might still be lurking?????????????? but for whatever reason I guess I had halfway written that off.) Happily, just last month there's a new post-s11 novel out, and although reviews for the book as a whole are mixed, it seems to have laid the groundwork for resolving that plot issue in a way I think most fans would be broadly happy with. If you're interested in being spoiled about that and seeing how, I recommend searching #perihelion on @agent-troi who liveblogged reading it with receipts, scroll back chronological-style to the first post on the subject and see how it unfolded. (And never forget that Dana Katherine Scully is the queen of denial as a coping mechanism lol)

Everyone's mileage will vary. Each person can feel however they want! But for anyone new, I wanted you to know that the very many ventposts you might be seeing are not all there is to this show or its fandom. Some of us love it despite - or even because of - all the things that went "wrong". I think we just don't talk about it as much.

[meirimerens]

the pathologic Kin is largely fictionalized with a created language that takes from multiple sources to be its own, a cosmogony & spirituality that does not correlate to the faiths (mostly Tengrist & Buddhist) practiced by the peoples it takes inspirations from, has customs, mores and roles invented for the purposes of the game, and even just a style of dress that does not resemble any of these peoples', but it is fascinating looking into specifically to me the sigils and see where they come from... watch this:

P2 Layers glyphs take from the mongolian script:

while the in-game words for Blood, Bones and Nerves are mongolian directly, it is interesting to note that their glyphs do not have a phonetic affiliation to the words (ex. the "Yas" layer of Bones having for glyph the equivalent of the letter F, the "Medrel" layer of Nerves having a glyph the equivalent of the letter È,...)

the leatherworks on the Kayura models', with their uses of angles and extending lines, remind me of the Phags Pa Script (used for Tibetan, Mongolian, Chineses, Uyghur language, and others)

some of the sigils also look either in part or fully inspired by Phags Pa script letters...

some look closer to the mongolian or vagindra (buryat) script

looking at the Herb Brides & their concept art, we can see bodypainting that looks like vertical buryat or mongolian script (oh hi (crossed out: Mark) Phags Pa script):

shaped and reshaped...

[sampegger]

do you guys think the writers would have taken it more seriously if it had been alastair around relentlessly tormenting dean in late seasons as opposed to lucifer with sam

[thelaurenshippen]

genuinely think it's good and healthy to follow at least one person in each of your fandoms who reblogs good gifsets but has just...absolutely dogshit takes on the show, or who ships that ship you despise. keeps things fresh. keeps things grounded. you gotta stay humble

[good-wine-and-cheese]

I so incredibly do not understand 'x reader' content at all on a fundamental level

[seaweedstarshine]

Late to the game as I’ve kinda been kinda non-here for a minute but I scrolled through the Dot and Bubble tag, and thought I wanted to write this post into existence.

There's this part in Doctor Who Unleashed where RTD says this:

“What we can’t tell is how many people will have worked that out before the ending. Because they’ve seen white person after white person after white person, and television these days is very diverse. I wonder, will you be ten minutes into it, will you be fifteen, will you be twenty, before you start to think, everyone in this community is white. And if you don’t think that — why didn’t you? So, that’s gonna be interesting. I hope it’s one of those pieces of television you see, and always remember.”

And I'm like. Yeah. But the reason this works even as well as it does is largely thanks to the work of the previous showrunner with the previous creative team, which was notably the first era to have any writers of color (amongst other firsts in terms of inclusivity in directors, composer, actors). While Chibnall fumbled whenever he tried to write about race himself, he did have the self-awareness to have Black and South Asian writers writing the episodes where race is the focus (and a female writer for the episode where sexism is a focus; my point is, he seemed to know his shortcomings).

I wonder what the current creative team looks like? (not really, but I wasn't 100% sure for all of them)

To quote RTD:

“...before you start to think, everyone in this community is white.”

This is pretty non-self-aware, right? It's pretty “It is said, and I understand this, there was a history of racism with the original Toymaker, the Celestial Toymaker, who had ‘celestial,’ and I did not know this, but ‘celestial’ can mean of Chinese origin, but in a derogatory way,” right? (from The Giggle Unleashed) It's pretty “and I had problems with that, and a lot of us on the production team had problems with that: associating disability with evil,” right? (from Destination Skaro Unleashed)

—none of which are issues that should be overlooked, but think how much exponentially better they might’ve been addressed if he’d consulted with Chinese writers and wheelchair-using writers before going straight to giving the Toymaker weird fake accents and making Davros walk?

How many Black or non-white people do we think saw the Dot and Bubble script before it landed in Ncuti’s hands?

And this just keeps happening.

And like, from some of the shocked responses I've seen from white viewers to the ending of Dot and Bubble, maybe the episode's unsubtlety was needed? From the way RTD talks about it in Unleashed, the episode was written with a white audience in mind, Baby's First Microaggressions (where of course the microaggressions come from people who are pretty self-admittedly white supremacists). Ricky September, a more seemingly normal depiction of someone in the racist bubble of Finetime, seemed like an interesting element, up until the way he died.

The ending worked for me, because I do think the Doctor's reaction is true to how the Doctor would react. I just keep thinking of how much better the core themes could've been handled by someone with actual lived experience on the subject matter.

[jq37]

Descendants: The Rise of Red is kind of a bizarre movie to talk about critically because, imo, it almost doesn't make sense to talk about it in the usual terms of good vs bad or enjoyable vs not enjoyable when the way more obvious tension is finished vs unfinished.

Because, more than any other movie I've ever seen, it does *not* read as a full movie. And I don't mean in a "this movie has a cliffhanger" kind of way. The Empire Strikes Back and Across the Spiderverse fit that description. They end on big dramatic cliffhangers that point to a resolution in the third installment.

But Rise of Red just sets all this stuff up and then...ends without concluding anything. It doesn't feel like the first movie in a trilogy (or duology). It feels like the first act of a two-act musical. It very specifically reminds me of the end of the first act of Into the Woods where all the main characters sing the song Ever After about how they all fixed their problems with magic and nothing bad will ever happen to them again and then the narrator ominously says "To be continued" before the curtain drops. But in Into the Woods you know there's a second act and this movie wasn't sold as the first act of a bigger story. Like sure, it has the, "You didn't think this was the end" tag at the end like all the other movies, but those movies were complete, self-contained stories even though they had sequels. This was NOT a full story. It's half of one story.

Like, if we're supposed to take this as a full story, there are so many bizarre choices:

Why did they make sure to mention that Cinderella and Charming fell in love at the ball at the top if it wasn't meant to set up Back to the Future style, "Oh no, I accidentally got my mom banned from the ball so she's not gonna fall in love with Dad and I won't be born" shenanigans?

Why did Maddox very pointedly have that bit about "you could lose your mom completely" if that was never going to come into play? Red never did anything to endanger Bridget or endanger her own birth so it doesn't make sense as a warning in that way.

Why was there all this focus on this Carrie on prom night moment for Bridget if we LITERALLY NEVER SAW CASTLECOMING? Why dance around this moment and talk about it all cloak and dagger with no specificity if they weren't building up to some big reveal that it wasn't as straightforward as it seemed? And like, they leaned in HARD with making Bridget the nicest, sweetest, cotton candy princess as a teen so I need WAY more than, "She got pranked by known bullies she's been enduring with a smile very handily up to this point" to buy that she went from that to "murderous dictator". And even if she did become murderous, I find it insanely hard to believe that she'd include her best and only friend on the list of people she wants to suffer unless there was a betrayal. I find it INSANE that there wasn't a falling out scene at any point in this movie with how thickly they were laying on the admiration and camaraderie.

(Note: And adult Cinderella def has guilty vibes re: the Queen at orientation. Which I know I'm not imagining because it's literally spelled out in the Jr Novelization!)

Before the time travel element of the movie started, I thought they were going for something like they go to the past and realize that Bridget was bullied not by the VKs but by the spoiled royals, and Ella ends up joining in the bullying once she gets with Charming, betraying Bridget and justifying her whole "Love Ain't It" philosophy. Or Ella ditching her at the last minute to be with Charming meaning she has to deal with the monster prank alone and it was the being alone rather than the prank itself that hurt her (though that is NOT a good enough reason to go all off with their heads on your subjects). The fact that, as far as we know right now, it literally was just a relatively mild and reversible prank that caused all of this is just, such flat storytelling, you know?

But! All of this makes way more sense if this is meant to be the first act of a single contained story. And I don't wanna be all "Pepe Silvia, secret good 4th episode of Sherlock" about this but I did see this picture:

Which seems to indicate that this was written as a Part One. Which, if so, idk why they wouldn't advertise it that way but whatever. The point is, if that's the case then it means that we're potentially in bad pacing territory rather than straight up bad storytelling territory. Because this isn't a bad place to be halfway through your story:

The heroes, warned that time travel is dangerous, have gone back in time to change the heart of a brutal tyrant before she can stage a coup. They seemingly succeed in their mission and when they come home, everything is great! But then, the side effects of time travel start to catch up with them. Chloe realizes that, in breaking the vase, she prevented her mother from going to the ball and falling in love with her dad (who was conspicuously absent from the final scene btw) which means she's starting to be forgotten and erased from the timeline. And Red realizes that though this new version of her mom is as sweet and kind as the teen she once met, she's a complete stranger to her (fulfilling the Hatter's warning that she could lose her mom completely). So they have to go back in time once more to make sure the Ella and Charming fall in love again, perhaps at the cost of whatever bad thing that happened to Bridget happening again and bringing back the original version of her future self. But, now with more context of how her mom became that way, Red can now talk to her mother and persuade her to give people another chance.

Boom, that gives us time to go back and hit everything we haven't yet hit. We can pay off the time travel tropes that were set up but not explored. We can go to Castlecoming which feels so obviously set up to be the centerpiece of this story (like, come on, Back to the Future literally does the school dance thing. This is Time Travel Storytelling 101). We can actually get info about what the prank was and why it affected Bridget so completely.

(Note: This is a side thing but it really strikes me as so crazy that Bridget would so SUCH a big 180 here. Like, I know the Queen of Hearts is a silly, goofy, campy villain, but she straight up murders people and there's no way to get around that if we're taking her out of the surreal story she comes from and putting her in a (comparatively) grounded story. If I wasn't doing a betrayal plot, I would make the twist that the spell that turned Bridget into a "monster" didn't just have a physical effect, it had a mental effect and it magically twisted her personality to be the way it is now. So they broke the physical half of the curse, but neglected the other half and it's been festering the whole time, turning her as evil as she was sweet. Because like, a simple physical transformation isn't that big of a deal to have such heavy security--Bridget made cupcakes with a transformative effect and that was totally fine. I'm not saying that that's what's gonna be the case. I just think it would be an explanation that makes sense for why she changed so crazy much that makes more sense than a simple prank or even a betrayal. Her mom wasn't even evil! How did she go from zero to murder without even an evil mom to push her onto the path? But I'm super digressing right now.)

(Note #2: OK, one last thing. The trap on the book presumably would have hit the VK's and trapped them in Merlin's office regardless of what Chloe and Red did, right? That's like, net zero influence on the timeline. I genuinely can't tell if that's a straight up plot hole or set up to be like, "Oh no. Actually when she said that she was turned into a monster in front of everyone it was meant in a less literal way." Like she was just made to look bad and that was the real thing that pushed her over the edge. Like idk. It really feels like the only thing they really did that would change the timeline was get Ella banned from the dance and presumably out of the way where she couldn't hurt Bridget. OK NOW I'm done.)

Anyway, my point is that this is not how I would have structured my movie and I think this was a super weird way to go into the second era of Descendants movies, but they can still tell a complete story if that's their plan. I'm genuinely really curious to see if this pans out to be a fairly competently told story that just happens to be split over two movies or a complete fumbling of the narrative bag because it could really be either at this point and it's fascinating to me.

[rollforjackass]

i could KILL him for this. motherfucker's every interaction with children has him being, if not nice, then at minimum kind and forgiving and genuinely invested in their wellbeing.

he asks crying kids what's the matter, he's afraid to hold a baby because he's worried he'll drop it, he goes after people who are mean to kids without a second thought. his whole mentorship with timothy hunter is him trying to do right by that kid no matter how he feels about it at the time. man would be the most loving dad in the world but because of his own awful goddamn father and the ways he thinks he takes after thomas, he doesn't think that's true. i hate.

[womp-womp-waa]

When Centipede-sama first saw the group of teens in the car it knew that they were probably tired. As much as it loves it's home. Centipede-sama isn't stupid, it knows it's a hard place to get use to. And it's home wasn't made for humans. So it knew what it had to do.

Play a game with them, of course!

Sure, they may be teenagers. But who doesn't love a game? Also they could use something to remind them of their world. So Centipede-sama decided to play one of it's favourite games. Tag! Oh, they were going to have so much fun. As soon as it started chasing the group in the car they immediately sped up. Perfect they know how the game works already, saves it explaining the rules to them. As they spun around a rock, Centipede-sama heard something break. And then they saw a boy fall out of the car.

What?

Nobody was meant to get hurt while playing this game. It's just a game. Nobody gets injured while playing tag. Did that boy really get hurt? O-Or maybe they just were really good at playing tag! Yes, of course. They knew that it would follow the group so the boy jumped out of the car and rolled away. That boy was clever. He must have played alot of tag when they were younger.

It was just about to finally reach the car. It was a tiring chase, but a fun one. Centipede-sama could only hope that they were having just as much fun as it was.

Just before it could tag the car a fellow Centipede came out and smashed into it. W-Why would someone do that to it? Turning around to face the attacker, it saw a familiar face of a centipede. It was him, Kyle. The bully. Kyle had been bothering Centipede-sama ever since it was young. They used to be friends, but eventually Kyle moved on and Centipede-sama stayed in place. It stayed at the old park where they use to go together.

No matter how much he battered and bruised it. The attacks never stopped hurting. Every single time it felt like it was being betrayed all over again. The feeling always brought them back to the memory of the first attack.

Centipede-sama learnt the lesson long ago that it wasn't strong enough to fight back against him. So, like always, it ran away. Like a coward. Running away from it's problems like always.

The next day Centipede-sama knew they had to find the group to apologise for cutting their game short and making sure that the young boy who jumped out of the car was okay. It heard from Tree-kun that the boy (Tyler?) Fell on top of him. And then was taken away from Tree-kun. It remembered how distraught Tree-kun was and it could only imagine how broken Tyler was feeling.

After a bit of searching it finally found the group in the school. So, Centipede-sama poked it's head through the windows to try and spot the gang. Finally, it saw the group and they stared back at it. It waved excitedly at them, but they started running away. Oh! They must still think they were playing tag. It quickly broke into the building and started chasing after them. It had to make sure they were okay. Especially Tyler, who it could see being carried by one of the taller boys. Poor kid. So heart broken that he couldn't even stand.

It was about to call out to the group, but then something small and sharp pierced it's skin. It cried out in pain as more bullets joined in on the assault. "S-Stop it!" It tried to call out voice weak and fragile. "P-Please, just l-leave me alone." It pleaded weakly. It was no use though as eventually it's vision started to fade and the sharp bullets became a dull ache in it's mind.

There was no way it wouldn't die. It would probably be for the best anyway. It's not like it ever did anything useful.

Slowly, it started to regain consciousness. Something was laying by it's side. Gradually, it found the will to turn it's head and see the presence beside it. Fighting through the pain, it was shocked it find Kyle laying next to it. "K-Kyle..?" It's voice was hoarse and scratchy. Suddenly, Kyle's head snapped towards it as he huffed. "Took you long enough." His harsh voice cut through the tranquility of the forest. "You need to be more careful. One day you're gonna get seriously hurt." Centipede-sama wanted to ask more questions. But he was being shockingly nice to it and it didn't want to ruin it.

So the questions remain unspoken and unanswered... For now