#i'm probably not gonna read S2.. but yeah interesting.

[ecto-hazard]

I just rewatched ii s1 (fucked up right?)

im just gonna make a post compiling some barebones concepts that im curious about. cause with the latest reveal, im wondering how much previous stuff might become relevant.

Obviously this was made years ago by a bunch of kids so its possible that most of the details can be disregarded as random bullshit. It does seem like they put a lot of work in creating retcons though so I have reason to believe theyre building off their previous work on purpose but i could be wrong and thats fair. im gonna post about it anyway tho

ii16 spoilers discussed under the cut

Who Mephone created (or rather, didn't create)

Mephone supposedly made every contestant for the show, but there's a couple vague characters.

Fan: weirdly enough he's in a gray area cause he appears as a background character before s2, but he also glitched out in that one episode, so its unlikely he wasnt created by Mephone. But yknow.

Apple: Apple is a fan character who was submitted to the show, and this is addressed in canon. It's possible that mephone made her and the other fan contestants based on whatever the submitters asked?

Bow: she randomly shows up after an ad read. Mephone doesnt seem to even want her to join, but he receives a call from Adam to insist she join. Mephone seems quite resistant to the idea (which would be weird if he made her?) Most interestingly, she's the only one in this list that Mephone couldn't recover.

Dough MIGHT be one mephone didnt create, but it seems pretty likely that Mephone would create him as he was specifically requested by adam to get bow back. Dough does seem like something he'd throw together really quickly to cover his ass

The reason any of this could be relevant is that if they arent created by Mephone, they probably cant be deleted by Cobs.

Adam

Stuff about Adam (the character not the guy) has been kinda quiet lately? He was supposedly the producer of ii, and pays mephone apparently? He clearly has a role to play since he showed up in one of Mephone's memories and seems to be a creation by cobs. So observing his actions in s1 might be valuable, especially since cobs would be able to manipulate the show through him.

Some notable actions of his:

Insisting on Bow being in the show. This is doubly interesting if Bow isn't one of Mephone's creations. She could be an industry plant of some kind?

Telling Mephone to keep 4S out of the season finale. This is supposedly to keep the finale from going crazy. If Mephone had been successful, he wouldve been killed by Mephone 5. Its possible this was on purpose so 4 could be destroyed and replaced

Investing in another season. at the end of s2, despite things going wrong, he tells Mephone they're going to do another season. He sweetens the deal by offering a raise and agreeing to get Mephone an assistant (Toilet). Cobs clearly got invested in this show, so it makes sense he'd encourage more of it from the shadows.

Mephone 4S

Yeah talking about 4S isn't anything new, the fandom's obsessed with him. I am too.

The implications of Mephone4 being in 4S's body never really got explored in s2. I guess they were similar enough that it didn't really matter. But he clearly still has some relevance in the modern series. One of Mephone's memories shows him getting developed as a replacement for 4, and he actually appears in Invitational, Sorta? Clearly Mephone's bothered by the sacrifice he made.

At the very least, the show's reminding us that he existed, so maybe he still does exist? I don't think he's going to necessarily make a comeback or anything but I dunno. It seems like he might be able to talk to Mephone in his head so maybe there's something to that.

Evil Paper

Im just gonna be upfront that I don't have a dissociative disorder and its not my place to talk about how it works or what is good or bad representation so I'm not gonna get super deep into talking about this. I'm just curious if the team has any plans for addressing Evil Paper. They seemed to make an effort into writing Yin Yang more thoughtfully (whether or not they actually succeeded, again, not my say). I could see them giving Paper similar treatment. If they did I doubt it'd be very plot relevant though.

Is the Taco we got the Taco we were supposed to have?

I've actually seen this conversation circulate a little bit already. This sort of debate could apply to any character really, but Taco is perhaps the most interesting example because she's so involved in the latest episodes AND because Brian actually addressed a tweet about this.

Taco behaves like a goofy idiot for the majority of s1, only revealing at the end that she was faking it so she would make it to the end. She specifically says she was "built to win" (the quote Brian addresses), and shows a much more competent side when she actually competes. In fact if it weren't for Bow's interference, Taco would have won the challenge (another case of Bow being weird).

This all seems to imply that Taco may have been intended to win the series by Mephone. Cobs points out to Suitcase and Knife that Mephone had "high hopes" for them, so it's not unreasonable to say that maybe certain characters were liked over others. Mephone never seems to give special treatment openly, but that doesn't mean that when he made certain contestants he didn't at the very least expect them to do well.

What is highly unlikely though is that Taco was created to be a twist villain. This results in Mephone's death after all (though the activity of Bow and Mephone 5 also could be to blame). Especially since he had pressure from Adam to keep things running smoothly, it just wouldn't make sense that Mephone would specifically create someone to toss a wrench in things. Most likely Taco developed like this on her own accord.

But that also raises the question, if she wasn't meant to be a villain, what was she supposed to be? How much of the taco we have now is the Taco that Mephone created? We don't actually see how he reacts to her "reveal" because he's in the middle of running away from 5. But everyone else clearly never saw it coming. OJ specifically comments that this doesn't seem like "the Taco he's been competing with all this time," and while that's written in reference to her reveal, it also could mean she WASNT the Taco he'd been competing with. We do get a hint or two of her true self in previous episodes, but its possible she wasn't ever supposed to be like that.

I think its possible Mephone4 created her as a goofy goober joke character initially, and over time, she changed. She developed into a more tactful and villainous character with her exposure to the contest.

A few things in the most recent episodes might allude to this. One thing being how in ii15 she discusses how she became aware of how much the contest is changing everyone, herself included. Secondly, in ii16 she tells Pickle that at the time she didn't consider how her actions were going to hurt him. This is a really shitty apology and no excuse for it, but it ALSO could mean that at the time, Taco really didn't think about it. In S1, she claims that she was just using him, but we don't know how aware of herself she was back then. Its possible that there was a past version of Taco who wasn't deadset on winning no matter the cost, and being in the game changed her.

Anyway these have been my slopthoughts. It's like 9 pm and ive been writing this for like an hour. Maybe most of this wont get addressed at all in the series, but I figured i might as well compile it down since I just finished s1

[got-into-worm-by-mistake]

Interlude 15.x Live Reactions

(This is going to be a very - no, insanely - long post)

As I noted, after this I'll be trying (ha!) to read faster, and on my phone more so I can just get this done.

This is gonna be an interesting read. Purportedly, after all, this is where we're supposed to get the idea that Amy raped Vicky. Though supposedly Wildbow had to do a line by line analysis to make that point on reddit (which I have not read) and I feel like if you have to do that for something like rape, you've kind of failed your task as a writer, at least in terms of conveying what you meant.

I wish, even more than usual, I could be coming into this fully blind but I'm not. I know the 'official' interpretation of this scene is rape, and that the text of the sequel makes it canonical that Amy raped Vicky here, but I also know large numbers of people never got that take, and Wildbow somehow spent years not noticing massive swaths of his readership didn't realize rape had happened... supposedly.

We'll see if I come away convinced that rape is the best reading that can be constructed from this scene, though from what I gather, it's more that a rape reading in this scene feels wildly out of place with all of Amy's other stuff.

It's certainly hard to reconcile the Amy we just saw in Arc 14 with Raping Vicky, though 14.10 makes it not impossible.

Of course, since I'm not coming in blind - I'm aware of the official version, and I've seen some people make the arguments in support of that reading and I've seen a bunch of arguments against that reading, etc - it's not like that all won't be hanging over all of this.

And the thing is, on a certain level, it doesn't actually matter. In the context of the universe itself, it certainly matters, but from the perspective of all these characters not actually existing in the real world, it doesn't really much matter to me.

On the level of Amy's actions: What she does do to Vicky that everyone agreed on (changing her brain, then mind controlling her in 14.6 and 14.10, not immediately removing the 'love me' change from Vicky's brain, wretching her - intentionally or accidentally or a mix or w/e - and not fixing her brain at any point there, and so on) is a gross and horrifying betrayal and a deep, deep violation of Vicky's mental and bodily autonomy. Making actual, real rape a thing that happened here as well is just icing on a cake, really, in a lot of ways, in the context of Worm. (Ward can and will be safely ignored for the rest of this post - in just a moment anyway)

For another, while it appears a lot of readers and fans did turn on Amy - her popularity in the fandom and in fics and stuff purportedly took a bit of a nosedive after the rape was made clear in Ward and in Wildbow's various WoG, though apparently there were still people who read Ward and missed that rape was made clear (Maybe use the word? Apparently Wildbow doesn't even use that word in Ward), it wouldn't actually change much for me.

(Now ignoring Ward)

See, some of my favorite fictional characters have comitted rape.

Damon Salvatore? Mass murderer and... though the narrative doesn't really linger on it, he rapes Caroline Forbes in early Season 1, and his girlfriend that he gets at the end of S2 (I think) and is dating in early S3 is a relationship so full of Compulsion (mind control ability vampires have in TVD verse) that it's moved well past dubcon, I'd say. And there's probably other shit like that in the man's past. Again, the narrative doesn't linger, but it's fucking rape. Still love Damon, amazing character, my trash son, but yeah, committed rape. Absolute monster, by any reasonable standard.

Regina Mills - again, mass murderer, tyrant, and... at the very least, she raped the Huntsman for possibly up to 38 years. (Again, it's never clearly stated, but she ripped out his heart - which in OUAT verse is a thing dark magic allows that lets the holder of the hard dictate commands to the person and also just kill them if they crush it - and then commanded her guards to bring him to her chambers. Ten years later, she casts the dark curse, and the Huntsman's cursed persona is having sex with her about once a week, at least, for the next 28 years, though given the nature of the curse, only Regina and later her son Henry are aware of the passage of time.) Regina is my favorite OUAT character, has an amazing redemption arc, and is unquestionably a hero to the point where she's crowned the 'Good Queen' in the series finale by Snow White (i.e. the girl she became evil while chasing revenge on). The narrative doesn't really linger on it, I'm not even sure the writers quite realized that it was rape, but I never believed it anything else. Still love her, because she and the Huntsman are both entirely fictional. Not real people.

On BtVS, Faith attempts to rape Xander, and basically does rape Riley while in Buffy's body (Riley is Buffy's boyfriend and thinks it's Buffy he's having sex with. Also she also effectively rapes Buffy by having sex with Riley while in control of her body). I still love her, one of my favorite characters. Again, the narrative doesn't really linger on this (the show in general has a bad habit of not lingering on female-on-male sexual violence or sexual harrassment).

Also on BtVS, Willow wipes her girlfriend's (Tara) memory so she forgets a pretty serious argument they were having, and then they have sex the next day, which Tara would probably not have had if she was still angry with Willow. While the show never calls it rape, I and large parts of the fandom consider it as such. (Tara never calls it rape either, though she is incredibly furious with Willow when she finds out, and they break up - and then get back together 12 episodes later, buuut :shrug) Still big fan of Willow, Tara/Willow is still the biggest ship for willow and one of the largest ships in the fandom.

Now, it's true that in all four cases, the writers either didn't realize it was rape, or didn't care and never really address it, but the key point is that I am perfectly capable of being a huge fan of Amy and wanting to see her redeemed/get better/etc (which I am and do) and accepting that she committed rape. So it's not like I'm going to just insistently refuse to see rape

Now, apparently part of the argument against the 'rape happened' reading is also how 15.x fits into the rest of the work, both before, and after, with regards to the fact that (apparently) Amy doesn't really talk about Vicky with any sort of sexual element, just a worshipful adoration, etc, (and the fact that rape never comes up and so forth) which I won't know until I get that far. But again, it is worth noting that large numbers of people didn't get rape as the intended reading, which again, seems like a pretty big detail to fail to convey to the reader. It's worth nothing that the comments for 15.x on the actual worm website mention 'mindrape' and that it felt 'rapey' but not 'rape' full on.

Now, with a much larger preface than intended, let's actually read this godforesaken Interlude.

Actually, having done the live reaction below, I'm gonna put it all below a readmore

Some of that was fatigue, some of it was hunger, some was thirst.  She had no idea how much time had passed.  She might have been able to guess from her period, but her body had decided such would be a waste of precious resources.  It hadn’t come, and she had no idea how many weeks or months it had been.

You only keep a Kidnap victim for weeks or months if you think there's a chance of a ransom. The fact that Carol's parents refused to just fucking pay the goddamn ransom for that long says a lot about how shit they were. Carol absolutely sucks as a mother, but she did have a pretty shitty starting point (though, somehow, somehow, Sarah managed to be at least halfway decent, so Carol could have come out better, but now I'm trying to compare traumas here and that's pretty sucky, but remember this is a Carol Dallon Hate Blog)

“Amy has always insisted she couldn’t heal brain injuries.” Alan winced.  “I see.  The worst sort of luck.” Carol smiled, but it wasn’t a happy expression.  “So imagine my surprise when, after weeks of taking care of my husband, wiping food from his face, giving him baths, supporting him as he walked from the bedroom to the bathroom, Amy decides she’ll heal him after all.”

Love how she just glosses over the part where Bonesaw actively did even more, possibly eventually fatal, damage to Mark's brain. Even when she does Mention Bonesaw invading the house below, she doesn't mention that part.

I feel like Mark would be able to mention that, so I'm sure Carol is just conviently ignoring the part where Amy was faced with 'Mark fucking dies if I don't break my rule'

“Oh, I imagine she was.  Victoria went looking for her after she ran away, returned home empty-handed.  I think she was even more upset than I was, with Amy taking so long to heal Mark.  She was almost inarticulate, she was so angry.”

So that would suggest that at least at first Vicky doesn't tell Carol what Amy did to her. Which would fit with Vicky saying she hadn't told anyone back in the early parts of Arc 14 (don't remember which chapter she said it) but the context could have just meant 'didn't tell the Protectorate/PRT' Though, it does still leave the open question: Amy was running around the city for fucking DAYS, a week possibly? between Interlude 11h and when she shows up in Arc 14.2 or 14.3. Did Carol even look for her? Why isn't she looking fucking now? She's your daughter, right, and Slaughterhouse Nine is looking for her too?

Is Sarah looking? Mark? Crystal?

Even if you don't love her or care about her, you shouldn't want S9 to have ahold of her, so maybe look for her rather than FUCKING FILE PAPERWORK?!

Carol fidgeted.  “Oh, that wasn’t even the worst of it.  Victoria’s been flirting with the notion of joining the Wards, and she went out to fight the Nine just a few days ago.  Apparently she was critically injured.  She was carried off for medical care and nobody’s seen her since.”

Ah, so this is now happening post-S9 leaving the city (though there's still no mention of Carol looking for her) and she's... not even looking for Vicky?

Like, okay, big city, might not be able to find her, but I feel like if I had a kid that I purportedly loved (as Carol does supposedly at least love Vicky, in her own horrible abusive sort of way) and said kid was missing and I had superpowers making it safe to go looking, I would be looking, damn the goddamn paperwork.

This woman just can't actively not suck.

Also, of all the people to be talking about this to, why the fuck is it Alan Barnes. Just a weird character to use for this. Is it supposed to be a juxtaposition - Carol was a neglectful bitch and Alan a too supportive parent and both ended up screwing their kids up?

“Or dead,” Carol said.  She blinked a few times in rapid succession, fighting the need to cry.  “I don’t know.  I was patrolling, searching, and I felt my composure start to slip.  I feel like shit for doing it, but I came here, I thought maybe if I took fifteen minutes or half an hour to center myself, I could be ready to start searching again.”

Okay, so there's that, so she was looking and just (understandably) needed a moment, but again - did you look for Amy at all earlier? Did fucking anyone? Somehow no member of New Wave actually showed up anywhere during Arcs 12 or 13 or 14, apart from Amy and Vicky.

He’d tried to attack them?  Carol couldn’t understand it.  He was the one who’d taken care of them.  When he’d appeared, she’d been happy.  And now it felt like that had been ruined, spoiled. She felt betrayed and she couldn’t understand why.

Stockholm Syndrome is a hell of a drug. But trigger trauma isn't much of an excuse, Carol, really fucking isn't.

“We didn’t know where you were.  But let’s not fight again.  The important thing is that Tattletale pointed us in the right direction.  We think we know where your daughters are.” Daughters?  Plural? Carol couldn’t put a name to the feeling that had just sucker-punched her.

Right, because with what little you know about the situation, you shouldn't actually have much reason to be that worried.

Technically, you're right this time, which I really kind of hate on the 'Carol Sucks' level of my personality, but you have no valid basis, because your paranoia was not actually well-founded.

The Brockton Bay Brigade closed in on the man who stood by his leather armchair, wearing a black silk bathrobe.  He held his ground. “If you’ll allow me to finish my wine-” he started, bending down to reach for the wine glass that sat beside the armchair.

Marquis really is the textbook fucking definition of classy, isn't he? :rofl:

 It meant she didn’t fall on her rear end, and she could pick a more appropriate posture as she snapped back into her human shape.

I mean, falling on your ass in a fight is just bad from a tactical standpoint, but also, I mean, you can't go losing style points, right?

The needles retracted.  Marquis rolled his shoulders, as if loosening his muscles.  “Broke your foot?  How clumsy.”

If nothing else, he's fun.

Well, only in a sense.  They still hadn’t touched him, and two of their members were out of commission.  Three, if she counted Fleur being occupied with a wounded Lightstar in her arms.

And so let's use his child against him! Great move!

Let's invade someone's home without checking to see if there's any innocents around! GREAT PLAN!

Was he distracted?

Maybe ask yourself why.

Though, I will say - Marquis didn't have to play Coy. He quite literally could have just said 'my daughter's in that closet'. They might not have believed him, but it wouldn't have been hard to show them.

I'm not saying I don't get why he didn't, but technically Marquis didn't make the most optimal choice here.

But that... happens.

“Careful now,” Marquis chided her.  “Don’t want to get decapitated now, do we?”

*giggle*

Instead, she turned and charged for the closet, creating a sword out of the crackling energy her power provided, slashing through the plates of bone that had surrounded it, then drawing the blade back to thrust through the wooden door-

I dunno. I know it's Amy - we all know it's Amy, at this point, even people reading Blind - and we're inclined to dislike Carol anyway at this point, again, even people reading Blind, I assume - but this just seems incredibly foolish.

Like, I guess maybe leaping straight to 'there's a kid there' might be a bitch much, and Carol in particular probably would have a hard time imagining Marquis as caring about another person because she's projected her issues with her kidnapper onto him for... reasons, but I mean, he could have a wife (or husband, I suppose) or girlfriend or all manner of things in there you may not want to hurt, and like... I dunno, I'd at least fucking open the closet before swinging in there? Maybe?

Fic idea - Marquis is a little too slow, but instead of killing her (I have read one fic where that happened. Marquis, understandably, kills Carol right after) he like, maims Amelia or something, cuts off her arm, or gives her a major scar or something.

That could be a really interesting story. Especially if Marquis still gets beaten, or Carol gets away and has to look at her daughter after having done that.

(I may hate Carol, but I can't imagine she'd be blithe about having maimed an innocent child, even Marquis kid, in the middle of a fight.)

*ads the fic idea to the list, which won't stop growing*

She stared down at him.  That long hair, it was such a minor thing, but there was something else about him that stirred that distant, dark memory of the lightless room and the failed attempt at ransom.  Her skin crawled, and she felt anger boiling in her gut.

This is so insane and then you take that projection and add a second layer onto Amy and like what the ABSOLUTE FUCK is wrong with you sick little woman?

“What were you so intent on protecting?” Manpower asked.  “This where you stash your illegitimate gains?”

Because Marquis didn't just say he didn't really care if they destroyed his expensive home a few minutes ago. Jesus Christ Manpower really is a dumb brute, isn't he?

“Her mother’s gone, I’m afraid.  The big C.  Amelia and I were introduced shortly after that.  About a year ago, now that I think on it.  I must admit, I’ve enjoyed our time together more than I’ve enjoyed all my crimes combined.  Quite surprising.”

Is that actually a thing anyone does? Or ever did? Is that a Canadian thing? Or a new england slang? 90s Lingo? I feel like no one has ever called Cancer 'The Big C' before.

That feels like something a writer - not necessarily Wildbow - invented and people just ran with even though it wasn't actually a thing people did.

If Marquis had realized how fucking terribly Carol would have raised Amy, I have to imagine he'd have settled for foster care instead. :rofl:

The idea disturbed her.

Why? Maybe get some fucking therapy for that, bitch? Seriously.

WHY THE FUCK DOES THIS DISTURB YOU?!

Maybe ask yourself that question?! But then, I suppose if you were capable of a single iota of self-examination, you would not have been such a shit mother and indeed, shit human.

That cultured act, the civility that was real.  Marquis was fair, he played by the rules.  His rules, but he stuck to them without fail.  It didn’t match her vision of what a criminal should be.  It was jarring, creating a kind of dissonance. That dissonance was redoubled as she looked at the forlorn little girl.  Layers upon layers, distilled in one expression.  Criminal, civilized man, child.

Right, and how dare something not line up with your view of the world? How DARE?! Surely the problem is with the thing, and not you?! SURELY!

“Then you take care of her,” Brandish replied, even as she mentally prayed her sister would refuse.  There was something about the idea of being around Marquis’ child, that uncanny resemblance, having those memories stirred even once in a while, even if it was just at family reunions… it made her feel uneasy.

*shakes head* jesus christ.

I wonder what Amy Pelham's relationship with Aunt Carol would have been like. A lot of 'why doesn't Aunt Carol like me?' I imagine. Which might have led to Sarah berating Carol into getting help sooner, because I can't imagine Sarah wouldn't have loved her daughter Amy as much as Eric and Crystal.

Though who knows. May just be grass is greener.

“You should.  Amelia’s Vicky’s age, I think they would be close.”

*nervous, awkward, darkly ironic laughter*

“I’m sorry to bring it up,” Brandish said. “But it’s relevant.  I decided I could have Vicky because I’d know her from day one.  She’d grow inside me, I’d nurture her from childhood… she’d be safe.”

And you did a bang up job with her! Two thumbs up! /s

“That child deserves better than I can offer.  I know I don’t have it in me to form any kind of bond with another child if there’s no blood relation.” Especially if she’s Marquis’. “She needs you.  You’re her only option.  I can’t, and Fleur and Lightstar aren’t old enough or in the right place in their lives for kids, and if she goes anywhere else, it’ll be disastrous.”

I can't believe I'm saying this, but: Sarah, Sarah, look at me.

Listen to Carol. For once in her life, she's actually right about something.

Look at me Sarah. Listen to your sister.

You could grow to love and trust that little girl, too.”

Truth is, she probably could have, but it would have required Carol getting over herself, and that, as it turns out, was borderline impossible.

I don't believe it would have been completely impossible - people always have a choice - and that's why, at the end of the day, I will never let sympathy for Carol rise beyond the barest of minimums, because she had a responsibility to be better, to get better, not just for Amy, but for Vicky, and she didn't, and so again, This Is A Carol Dallon Hate Blog.

Was the girl in shock?  Carol couldn’t muster any sympathy.  Amy was stopping her from getting to Victoria.  Victoria, who she’d almost believed was dead.

See, this is just...

I mean, I'm glad Carol didn't kill Amy here, but Carol has not even an iota of concern for Amy, and yet, once she sees the state of Victoria and supposedly finds out that Amy raped Victoria, she suddenly has enough sympathy for Amy to not kill her?

I -

Seriously. Absolute bizzaro world shit here, Wildbow.

“So I thought I’d put her in a trance, and make it so she’d forget everything that happened.  Everything that I did, and the things that the Slaughterhouse Nine said, and everything that I said to try to make them go away.  Empty promises and-“

Okay, so like, you can Amy's lying here, but all we have to go on is what she says, you know? If Wildbow wanted us to get the takeway that Amy's lying here, he kind of needs to make that more clear.

Like, far from done, and I am kind of biased against WB at this point, to say the least, but it's just really fucking hard for me to see this girl acting like this if she just raped her sister.

I mean, really, man, if that really was your intent, you did a REALLY bad job of conveying it, and when you fail as a writer you don't fucking take that out on the readers.

(Right, sorry, I said I was ignoring Ward. Back to doing that)

She could never be my daughter because she’d never stopped being his.

She doesn't even remember him, you crazy psycho!

Amy kept talking, her voice strangely monotone after her earlier emotion, as if she were a recording.  Maybe she was, after a fashion, all of the excuses and arguments she’d planned spilling from her mouth.  “I wanted her to be happy.  I could adjust.  Tweak, expand, change things to serve more than one purpose.  I had the extra material from the cocoon.  When I was done, I started undoing everything, all the mental and physical changes.  I got so tired, and so scared, so lonely, so I thought we’d take another break, before I was completely finished.  I changed more things.  More stuff I had to fix.  And days passed.  I-“

I'm having trouble seeing it. I really am.

I get that we're supposed to see 'break' as like... Amy raping her or something but -

But that -

no.

 It might even have been something objectively beautiful, had it not been warped by desperation and loneliness and panic.

Everything about this scene just paints Amy as pathetic and pitiable. She really is a sopping wet poor little meow meow here.

I'm not saying a rapist can't also be pitiable - someone can be victim and victimizer, of course they can - but if you want the pitiable character to be seen as a rapist, or, you know, hated, for what they did -

Especially when it's from fucking Carol's POV, and Wildbow just got done explaining how little regard Carol actually has for Amy, how she has no sympathy for the girl and everything.

If there's any POV that should not be painting Amy as pitiable, but as the rapist we're supposed to believe she is, it's Carol's right?

Then I’d go and spend the rest of my life healing people.  Sacrifice my life.  I don’t know.  As payment.”

Wildbow makes the most woobifiable character in the world, and then gets self-righteous when people woobify her.

News at 11.

And with everything laid bare, there was not a single resemblance to Marquis.  There was no faint reminder of Brandish’s time in the dark cell, nor of her captor.  If anything, Amy looked how Sarah had, as they’d stumbled from the house where they’d been kept, lost, helpless and scared. She looked like Carol had, all those years ago. The weapon dissipated, and Brandish’s arms dropped limp to her sides.

All this does is make Carol look narcissistic in the weirdest and worst way. She can only give a shit about someone who reminds her of... her?

But I mean, the whole reason she supposedly loved Vicky is because Vicky came from her, so she should have that take priority over...

I'm sorry. I'm just not seeing it. I'm not -

And Carol's actions here, even with the 'she looked like carol had' just...

No. This is weird. This is confusing. This is nonsensical. And I'm sure as shit not getting a 'Amy Raped Vicky' takeaway here.

Even allowing for Jack's comment about 'indulging' in 14.10. When Amy didn't agree or anything, and Jack would have no way to know what Amy did or didn't do when he wrote that letter we see in 14.11.

Like, if I squint and force myself to twist my brain into nots I can... pretend I can see it... but even then...

I mean, maybe Amy's lying, and characters lie and misrepresent and so on, true, but unless the text gives us a good reason to believe they are, which it hasn't yet...

I mean, it's the official version, the official narrative, that it's Rape. That's the WoG. And like...

Even if I didn't have my, admittedly largely unfounded, suspicions that Wildbow is just flat out lying about his original intent or meaning, I do believe that WoG should be an enhancement to and addition to the text, not a direct contradiction.

It really does seem like WB ended up falling into the trap of figuring he could just let his WoG paper over mistakes in his writing rather than getting it right the first time?

Carol stared as Amy shuffled forward.  The cuffs weren’t necessary, really.  A formality.  Amy wasn’t about to run.

I mean, this is another thing I don't get. Amy haters harp on Amy 'running away from responsibility/consequences' but I mean... quietly going to the Birdcage, an unaccountable black box of a prison where (IIRC from what I've heard) 2/3s of the prisoners ended up dying by the time of the breakout is sort of the opposite of running away?

I mean, Amy should have fixed Vicky before going, this is true, but it seems clear she wasn't sure she could, and would Carol and Sarah have even let her?

As if she could convey everything she wanted to say in a single gesture, she folded her daughter into the tightest of hugs.

I -

I mean, I suppose stranger things have happened, but of all the times to actually suddenly start giving a shit about Amy, it's here and now?

Yeah, I can't reconcile this with Wildbow's official narrative of things.

“Victoria is gone.  There’s nothing of her left but that mockery. 

Yeah, okay, back to Carol just sucking 100%. That's more familiar ground.

The day I cease seeing her as his daughter and see how she could be mine, he takes her back, she thought.

Well, no one to blame but yourself, Carol.

Yeah, my official verdict is: if this is supposed to be the scene that convinces the reader Amy raped Victoria, then...

Yeah, I'm not seeing it. I'm not seeing anything that makes that implied even with a tortured reading. Even with the most hostile reading, I don't -

I don't see it. I really don't. I'm trying to have as open a mind as possible, I tried to look for it -

This isn't me questioning a victim in the 'was it really rape' way or whatever, I'm questioning whether the writing of a scene conveys the idea that one character committed the physical/sexual act of rape on another, and this scene does not. Maybe there's another scene later on (In Worm) that will convince me, but...

This one sure doesn't.

[vole-mon-amour]

Ain't nothing complicated about having longer hair, Phil, come on. If we're getting s4, I'm gonna miss s3 hair SO. much. My fav haircut is s2 so far, but that longer hair in s3... Ahhh.

I'm not really sure how common this thing is in general, but my friend heard the same thing from another successful actor as well. It's really interesting to me since I've been writing for as long as I can remember myself. It's a hobby, sure, but I've never taken acting classes and was never interested in that. To see the opposite point of view is, again, interesting.

And the football matches is just... cute, if you will, considering Phil is still into that.

!!! I'm still so fascinated with that scene (and I think I'll always will). It's nice to see the insights.

Keep those answer coming, Phil, honestly. I gotta say, the questions are doing it for me. They knew what they were doing.

This makes me smile so much. They've got such a great cast there.

I think most of us knew this already because you can SEE it in Jamie and in Phil's acting as Jamie. However, actually reading this is... yeah. I'm rooting for ot3 & you can't stop me.

They're going to break my heart, and I feel it. It's really hard to start coming up with the terms that s3 is probably the last one. Finishing on s4 would feel right for me. I just... yeah, it hurts to think this might be the end. They do feel like a family. A sense of home if you will.

Sniffing and crying like an idiot. I'm not looking forward to ep12 if they're gonna announce that the show is cancelled. I obviously want to watch it, but I'm not ready for this to end. I'm glad it's not straightforward, it does feel really fitting for Jamie (not to mention there's also Roy and Keeley in the picture, so maybe we'll get a bit of that). Still, I am not ready. I love this show so much, it's the ultimate comfort that helped me after losing my parents in 2021.

S4 as the finale one please.

x

[half-truths-and-hyperbole-louk]

Louk's Bad Batch rewatch part 12 !!!

buckle up batchers we're in for it 😬

The Bad Batch 1x08

CROSSHAIR BACK FINALLY !!! I missed you grumpy toothpick man 💕

idk why but Rampart gives me the vibe that he can't swim and I just wanna gently shove him off a platform on kamino and just see what happens

Wrecker teaching Omega about bombs 🥺 then he just goes 'lmao now you try' 💀

"OBVIOUSLY NOT THAT ONE" brooo 🤣

his laughhhh I love you Wrecker

"I failed my first disarming test too" ~ Wrecker bby... is that how he got his scars? 🥲

Omega: "Wrecker says he's got it under control" Tech: "that's not comforting" PLS- 💀

ECHO HOW DID YOU GET UP THERE ??

oop well his chip has been removed but I'll keep counting I guess, just for funsies, Wrecker hits his head count: 9?

mom and dad are arguing again

Hunter 🤔 face

wait why did I never notice that they all still have their lil bandages on 🥺

Tech: "the power's back on" Wrecker: "yeah we can see that" lmao me yesterday @anonymous-galager 😅

"Come here beautiful" ~ Wrecker kissing bombs

mom and dad are arguing again

Omega is Tech's little helper 💕 it's giving handing your dad tools and holding the torch as a kid

idk why but I like that you can see Tech's chin under his helmet when he looks up

I wanna sit in a glowy kamino chair

Tech: "Crosshair won't be able to detect us, I'm blocking their scanners" Hunter: "that won't stop him" Crosshair: 'we won't be able to detect them they're blocking our scanners' 💀

REGS 💕

Tech and Echo scheming in plain sight hehe

Omega trying to be Crosshairs voice of reason too 😭

Crosshair steps forward the slightest bit and Hunter steps fully in front of her asjfoapaldue

"aim for the kid" CROSSHAIR NO 😡 *squirts with water bottle*

I find it interesting that when Crosshair says that, Hunter pushes Omega behind him, but he also turns around, almost as if he's not expecting Crosshair to shoot Omega first, he turns back to look at the regs first before moving again to face Crosshair

and still none of them fire...

Hunter picking Omega up again and diving on her 🥲

lol I love that Wreckers first instinct to being shot at with fire is to throw an explosive at the dude

Tech helping Omega into the engine chamber 🥺

Omega: "I've never been inside an ion engine before" Wrecker: "it'd be weirder if you had" 💀

Wrecker shoving Tech BRO

I think it's interesting that when Crosshair shoots at them, he only shoots AT them. we all know he doesn't miss and he is nowhere close to actually getting Tech or Hunter with that shot 👀 just thinking out loud

"try again Hunter" he is just taunting them

Wrecker: "what about plan 7?" Echo: "plan 7 has nothing to do with this situation whatsoever!" he is so done 💀💀

absolutely adore the shot of all their hands grabbing explosives 💕

Hunter bent down to give Omega a boost up and Tech caught her and held her up !!! = Hunter just threw Omega to Tech 😂

Hunter covers Omega with his body again 😭

Crosshair's scream when he realised what was happening I- 🙃🔫

Wrecker catches Echo 🥺

Hunter bodily catches Omega 😭 "I've got you" ~ Hunter 😭😭😭😭

HUNTER WAS HOLDING ONTO HER THE WHOLE TIME THEY WERE FALLING

Crosshair immediately collapsing 😫😭

rip CT-8508 ily

oh look it's my favourite blue bounty hunter toothpick cowboy twink

lmao Cad Bane calling Hunter "son"

Omega reading Hunters hand signals 🥺

"That's unfortunate ... for you" ~ Cad Bane (s2 Tawni Ames 👀)

I can feel the hatred in Hunters eyes through his visor ooooo he mad

I can't deal with Omega's scared scream sobs 😫

Todo you're fine hush

"Little lady" hehehe

CROSSHAIR BROKE HIS LEG AND HIS ARM AND BURNED HIS FACE (and probably his lungs) I hate it here 😭

are we gonna talk about the Hunter POV groggy wake up visor cam scene??? *sigh* no, next time

Wrecker grabbing Omega's bow 🥲

Wrecker getting defensive immediately thinking Crosshair took Omega 😭

NO TBB OUTRO MUSIC

welp I am getting increasingly more stressed for s3 creeping up on us and me running out of time for my rewatch lol

I'm gonna do a few episodes a day now so these posts might start getting boring if they're not already lmao

thanks for joining friendsss 💕💕💕

[quietbooklion]

Do y'all remember Rei? Because I don't.

OK, in all seriousness though, Rei is a character that didn't really leave a good impression on me when he and Keita and Jun were introduced as the new love interests for Irresistible Mistakes. When I say that he didn't leave a good impression, that doesn't mean I thought his story was bad. However, I didn't think it was good either. It was boring. And if you were to ask me what's worse, a character you think is boring or a character you hate, I would say a character that's boring. Because with a character I hate, there's emotion behind it, there are strong reasons why I didn't like that character. A boring character is worse because there was nothing remotely interesting about them that failed to garner any kind of emotion from me. And Rei was that character.

I actually forgot he existed up until a few days ago when I was writing my post on why Shunichiro's stories were frustrating me. I went back and looked at the characters and then I saw Rei and I was like, "Oh yeah. He exists." Which I know sounds bad but really, out of the trio, he was the least memorable for me.

I'm gonna be honest with you all. I did not like any of the new trio. I didn't like Keita and I hated Jun. Sorry to all the Jun fans, I didn't like how his story was written and I could honestly create a post talking about that. Keita's story also didn't really leave a good impression and I couldn't get attached to him as a character. Then there's Rei and I think it's fair to say that he's the outlier of the trio because there really wasn't anything memorable about him. I know he has fans and to those who like him, that's good. But if you were to ask me what his story was about, I couldn't really give you any kind of answer. With Keita and Jun, even though I didn't like them, I still remember bits and pieces of their story and how it ended. But for Rei? Nothing.

Then there's the issue I saw a lot of people had with Rei during his season 2 story arc and hoo boy. I won't spoil anything if you're interested in playing his routes but if you don't mind, then look at the reviews. After not enjoying his season 1 story, I wasn't all that interested in his S2 story but when I saw it was met with mixed to negative reviews from the EN app, I was quite shocked. I'm not going to make any kind of review seeing as I haven't played it, but after reading some reviews, I can honestly say that I probably wouldn't have liked it. Keep in mind, all of this is coming from the EN version of Love 365, I don't really know how his story is viewed in the JP app. That being said, I think it's safe to say that he wasn't really popular in either region.

To add insult to injury, Rei has the shortest storyline (unless they do the same to Dr. Maki) as he already got his Our Irresistible Future story ending. Bro didn't even make it past season 3. Now that we have Minoru and Aki recently joining the title, I think Rei kind of faded into the background. Which sucks because I'm sure there probably was enough resources to maybe write a season 4 storyline and end it there, but I guess he got shafted real hard in favor of the others.

[claudiablogger]

im excited for s3, mostly about Louis role tbh but I have to admit I’m dreading armandstat, so many so-called Loustat fans are creaming themselves about them, is gonna be a nightmare, bc all of them hated loumand for two years, and let’s not talk about Sam& Assad in contrast of how those same people treated Jacob&Assad, disgusting. anyways s3 is gonna be a ride and also the new little white boy Paul revere aka Nicki lmao a nightmare

yeah unsure if i'm watching if we don't get louis in every ep.....people's princess for real and the star of the show always. to me. r.j. did say Choices in s2 were made w the intention of having louis on screen as much and as significant as possible so i do have faith. and omg i have no idea how armand will be featured tbh i haven't read any of the books except interview and i don't even want to know truly armandstat doesn't intrigue me.....the louis-off is over her hot girl vampire summer has begun there's nothing they could add to their dynamic imo the most interesting aspects have already been explored. especially in pain ep3. it's frustrating and insanely antiblack how ppl want to focus on anything but louis and it's only going to get worse w the lestat season but i'm staying in the mutuals and louisgirls bubble for the most part. besides there's no lestat without louis what are they going to do? pretend there's some other love of his life he's writing 2 albums about? I'll confess I'm excited for the lestatgabrielle aspect of s3 + the gothics and hopefully the show stays horror bc from the excerpts of their relationship that i've seen there's so much to explore wrt gender and incestuous enmeshment and how a parent seeing their child as an extension of themselves is taken to the extreme w lestat and gabrielle. as for nicki.....truthfully i don't think this show needs more white ppl lmao. but nicki does establish that lestat has a type and everything is about louis if you squint. or loustat. i look forward to w/e they do w armandnicki though if anything bc didn't louis insinuate that he knew (is he going to lick my boots or chop my hands off) like was it another instrument of violence armand always threatened to play....probably ! as a loumandgirl i wonder if it'll unearth any aspects of their relationship like of course it won't be from new angles per se but the nicki/louis parallels are crazy crazy.....im curious im tuned in armand is one of my favorite villains of all time. abjectly terrifying :)

[cringelordofchaos]

Day 9 ofFreakblr month 2024 !!!!

Btw sorry for not doing anything for yesterday's prompt - firstly, i have no clue who's my least favorite. i love them all. like genuinely i dont hate a single character in this franchise. i dont tend to hate fictional characters if im gonna be honest, maybe its cause i lack critical thinking skills so i fail to acknowledge bad writing and such? idk. but yeah. Also, I was actually busy yesterday, and had no internet connection, and also my phone and laptop had zero battery and the power suddenly ran out (and my laptop doesnt work unless its plugged in lmaoo), so yeah just couldnt participate sorryyy

What I like/Dislike about the Jomies/Dromies

Hm! Ok! I haven't really thought about this subject before so I'm saying all of this unprepared

Well, let's start with what I like- they seem... realistic. genuine. authentic? like, idk, a real friend group. I know its such a weird thiing to point out. but although their personalities r obviously exaggarated cuz its a piece of fiction and theyre more notable / interesting that way, i swear theyre like picture perfect copies of my middle school bullies? though that doesnt make me dislike them i just find them silly. as some have said before they do have genuine chemistry as a friend group. Obviously not healthy since jakes been lying about who he is out of fear they (primarily drew) would tease him for it, and drews possesiveness issues, and ALSO HENRIAM nottelling drew about Zoey cheating on him when they knew (cuz sheblackmailed them), but it stillfeels realistic andits fun to see them on screen. theyre the type of friends who insult and tease each other all the time but its cuz they love each other. i LOVE that henry n liam literally just read each others minds all the time. i like how they bully the music club - there i said it. literally the show wouldnt exist otherwise. or it would but itd be painfully boring. i like how, despite them being more antagonitic forces, we still see how they interact and talk outside of how they hurt ppl. like theyre actual teenagers w their own interests and personalities and struggles not just bullies in a high school music (well.. they r but not JUST that? in my personal opinion). also, if were counting zoey, maria n lia? as the jomies (but DEFINITELY not as of S2), then yeah i love them too, though maria needs more screen time and character if rosy wants me to care abt her more (sorry maria i just. idk anything abt u besides the fact that u hang out w zoey)

Something I dislike - maybeeeeee the lack of individual friendships represented? like yeah we know about drake and henriam, but otherwise pairings like driam, jiam, jenry, drenry are kinda unexplored. Drew feels like jst a third wheel with henriam? which makes sense tbh, ik what its like lmao. and yeah there r hints of stuff individual relaptionships between them, like that jake and henry potentially watch anime together every saturday at henries (though thats up to debate). Though again i dont REALLY dislike this, it does feel realistic ig but ig it wouldve been cool to shed a bit more spotlight on individual relationships besides henriam n drake before Drew essentially dumped Jake(meaning he probably wont interact w henry or liam anynmore). also i want more of Henry n Liam, beyond them simply being comic relief (and there have been hints of it before, itjust needs to be put on front)

@31days-of-freakblr

[cookinguptales]

I will say that I've been lying down quite a bit the past few days just because uh. Strong dislocation risk.

So, to please tumblr, I've started listening to Malevolent. Podcasts are an okay way to stay sane when you can't move much, lmao.

Thoughts so far under a cut, because to my knowledge, only two of you care about this lmao.

So far... I'll admit my feelings are mixed. I'm a couple episodes into the second season, I think, and... well, I still don't care much for cosmic horror or creature features. I'll admit it's just kind of a style of horror that I find a little boring. Every time they start describing the new monster or Lovecraftian cult or cosmic horror, I'll admit that my eyes glaze over a bit.

So uh. With the caveat that the actual plot is not doing that much for me at all, I'm not like... okay, if I were on my own I probably would've tuned out by now. lmao. But I'm not, so I'm pulling steadily through. I don't hate it or anything. That said, it does struggle from some of the same pitfalls as other indie horror podcasts, and I do think it's worsened a bit by the creator trying to do everything himself here.

I especially wish that he had not decided to do every voice himself, because as someone with hearing difficulties, it makes it really hellish to figure out what's going on sometimes. lmao. I usually rely on really distinct voices to tell people apart in podcasts, and I mean. That's not a thing here. Moreover, because he often tries to disguise his voice with accents or digital effects... well, that does not always make the voicework easy to understand. I've had to rely kind of heavily on the transcripts, so thank god they're there.

While I think he does have writing strengths and weaknesses (it's... not always easy to keep track of what's going on) I am interested to see where the characters go. I'm not... quite sure I follow the logic for why John gained selfhood while Arthur was in a coma, but I'm willing to just go with it. I do kind of wish that we were working with a somewhat expanded timeline, though... I think at times it's like "HE'S GROWN ACCUSTOMED TO HIS FACE..." and I'm like "sir, it's been like 48 hours." But. You know. Again, I'll just go with it.

I am intrigued by the idea of writing a pairing inhabiting the same body (and......... it would not be the first time, if I'm being entirely honest) and I think that's kind of what's got me holding on lmao. I do also like the concept of a creature struggling against his old self in a very literal way. That sort of bid for earned humanity is always interesting to me, though I'll admit I haven't listened to enough of s2 to have thoughts on how it's playing out.

So every time I'm like "oh... okay... they're being chased by a monster again..." I just tell myself "yes, but you might get to write something very weird and fucked up" and that does help.

To be clear, I'm not saying the style of horror here is necessarily a bad thing. It gives old radio serial vibes sometimes, like they're gonna have to fight the eldritch ghost pirates with Little Orphan Annie or something, and I'm sure some people enjoy that very much. It's just a style of horror that I tend to bounce off of even in other types of media. (Like I am still firmly of the opinion that The Descent was scarier before the monsters showed up.) I suppose I just feel more strongly affected by horror that's more like... just kind of unsettling and uncanny and spooky. The monster-y action stuff does less for me personally. Like.. I'm not worried about Shub-Niggurath showing up in my apartment, frankly. I'm just like "yeah but that's not real."

Spooky, uncanny, very personal horror that is just disquietingly close enough to a reality that can't quite be explained is more my style, I think. I'm realizing that as I listen to this podcast.

Other things I've thought to myself while listening to this podcast:

SHUB-NIGGURATH IS A GIRL. It was even in that book they read out loud in the first episode. But John and Arthur keep calling her "he" and I'm like "that's sexist, women can be unfathomable eldritch beasts TOO. god forbid women do ANYTHING."

me, halfway through the second episode of s2: sir are you going to make us wander through the entirety of dante's inferno or just the seventh circle? because that was a very long book?? we've already done the violet/blood-red lake, self-harm woods, the burning plain, and the cliff, and I'm a little worried about that allusion to ice at the bottom! I don't want to go all the way down, lmao.

the first time they mentioned the king in yellow I immediately imagined the man in the yellow hat and I am so sorry but I still keep thinking of him. and also occasionally this man. it kind of... makes him less scary...

it's truly embarrassing how much it drove me crazy until I remembered that song at the beginning of episode 10 was "stardust" lmao. which... I suppose is probably some kind of cosmic horror pun...

I know that I was supposed to be really horrified when John took control over Arthur's hand but literally all I thought was "oh, I'm sure the fandom has made good use of that."

like I was in marvel comics fandom for years before the movies came out, I am well acquainted with monsterfucking fic.

look I'm not here to criticize you, john, but your other half seems to be running a really inefficient cult here.

how did you guys not notice the wraith following you for like six episodes. that one really seemed to come out of nowhere. like... did she hitchhike with them?? go in the caves with them?? swim behind the boat?? or was she just like psychically watching them and then teleported???? I am literally so confused about the wraith thing. I get that they wanted Arthur's kindness towards a "monster" to save him later, I get the themes and motifs here, and I get that they needed a deus ex machina, but I'm so confused about the actual mechanics of that save. it didn't help that I thought that "free her" meant like... free her spirit so she wouldn't be a wraith anymore and she could move on or something. so I had a very confusing moment like "wait, that thing is still alive??" lmao

so... anyway, yeah, I'm just kinda. hangin' on. haha. I'm here for the monsterfucking more than I am for the monster fighting, being honest with you. the monster mash more than the monster bash, if you will. but I am willing to be patient with the parts of the podcast that don't do as much for me to get more character work. hopeful on that point.

[flameunquenched]

a'ight. let's talk about the netflix adaptation of avatar: the last airbender.

SPOILERS PRESENT THROUGHOUT UNDER THE CUT.

this covers eps 1-4 bc i need a break for food and stuff lmfao.

so i like probably many others went in braced with the expectation of it being...well, like a certain movie that we all like to pretend does not exist. i had seen some things, which i discussed on another post, that worried me greatly. i would consider myself an atla superfan; it was a huge part of my childhood and i can remember sitting on the floor of the living room watching sozin's comet with my brother as the finale aired for that first time. so while i was excited for the idea of a live action version, having been badly burned by the movie, i was wary.

i am pleasantly surprised to say that, other than some flaws that i will discuss, it actually was...good?

i was very concerned about the removal of sozin's comet, given how integral it is to the story. sure, you do have actors who will be aging, as it is gonna take at least probably 6 years for the whole story to wrap up. this is, of course, assuming that netflix does not yeet it after s2 as they so love to do. seeing that it was present in episode 1 was...a little confusing considering what i had read. but i'm glad that it was there.

seeing sozin himself was awesome tbh. i think that he is a really interesting character and i honestly would be thrilled to have an entire series dedicated to him and roku, with their friendship and the trials they suffered together as firelord and avatar respectively. that was always one of my favorite episodes in s3 because of the deep introspection we got and the history of those two characters. but uh yeah when he just casually burned that earthbender to death, yeah. that was kinda the first sign that this was not going to be an adaptation geared towards children.

which i guess does make sense, doesn't it? after all, those of us like myself who grew up with avatar are no longer children but instead grown adults with children of our own in some case. it's an adaptation: it has to adapt to the times.

seeing the actual genocide of the air nomads was...a lot. that is one thing i will say that the live action had over the cartoon; it is hard to show death in a cartoon intended for children which means that, in a way, it is harder to fully realize the gravity of the situation. by showing it, by showing the deaths of men, women, and children, you as the viewer get the chance to better understand what was actually lost. i think it was easier to see them not just as characters but as people.

i'll admit that the cursing threw me for a loop, lol. it was just strange to casually hear "ass" being used in the realm of atla. but, again, this comes back to the need for accepting the aging audience.

i know there had been some discussion of aging katara to 16 and de-aging sokka to 14. if that was done, there was no sign of it. i had also had concerns about the removal of sokka's sexism but, honestly, i genuinely feel like the story was made much stronger for the lack of it. i liked the replacement of his 'dad left me in charge, i'm the leader, this is all my responsibility' sooo much more because it made more sense, especially when the revelations from the episode called spirited away came to light. it worked. and it worked in a way that lent gravity to the situation rather than the rather comedic ties that the original sexism offered.

i think in terms of sheer characterization, sokka was probably the strongest overall. i feel like his actor really got the character. katara had a problem of, at times, feeling too flat, as well as lacking some of the passion that i felt the cartoon allowed her to have.

aang's actor did really well, i will say. my friend thought that he did not quite convey the joyfulness that cartoon aang had but, having had a few hours to think about that, i think that might have been purposefully done. the adaptation was, again, not aimed at young kids. it makes sense that aang should feel, especially based on his discussions with the other avatars and other central characters, more serious and concerned about the general state of the world. a century is a long time to be away and i liked the way they showed the struggle he had with the fact that his entire people were gone. he really was the last airbender and the adaptation made me feel that. sure, it came at the cost of some of that youthful joyfulness, but i think it was a fair trade overall.

i loved gran gran doing the initial intro lines with kyoshi doing the actual intro. gran gran doing it made it feel like a story, a legend, that had been told for decades.

something else i enjoyed was the way that the adaptation handled integrating in other plotlines. getting to see ozai and azula, as well as mai and ty lee, in the fire nation capital city was really interesting. to me, it was a reminder that even when other characters are focused on other things, there are always things happening. the fake out of azula being a spy for her father for rebellions was fantastic and i think a key to the beginning of her characterization as a whole. i will admit i had some concerns about azula but her actress was incredible. absolutely incredible.

sokka's chemistry with suki was SIZZLING. like that entire bit was just so good. them fighting together and training together was just. urgh. it was so good.

now a character i will say i strongly prefer in the cartoon over the live action was zhao. i felt like his actor was...just trying too hard. maybe it's because jason isaacs just has a villainous voice but the cartoon always felt scarier to me. zhao in the live action felt...cartoonish and silly. almost like his actor was not taking it seriously, if that makes sense? that was disappointing to me. zhao was meant to be the first real antagonist of the series, a villain we could really hate and root for his downfall. instead, he just sort felt cartoonish and cheezy to me. i'm not sure if that was a direction choice or just the actor failing to understand the character but that was one of my chief complaints overall.

on the opposite end, iroh was so good. let's all be real here for a moment: there was no way, no way in hell, that a live action iroh was gonna be better than the cartoon. it was not gonna happen. iroh in the original was peak character and they were never gonna recreate him. but they didn't need to! they didn't need to because the live action iroh was just so good. he brought the same sort of laid back, calm serenity that the original iroh did without feeling like a carbon copy - or worse, a caricature - of him. i loved absolutely everything about iroh.

i wanna talk about the funeral scene in e4 but i also don't wanna talk about the funeral scene in e4 because it made me BAWL LIKE AN ACTUAL BABY Y'ALL I WENT FROM PERFECTLY FINE TO TEARS STREAMING DOWN MY FACE SOBBING BROKENLY IN .2 SECONDS. as soon as i recognized the music that was it i was done, i was gone, almost had to pause to get myself back under control. it was bad.

i really liked how they did jet. it was a little strange for that to all be taking place in omashu but i understand the necessity of pulling everything down to fewer locations.

speaking of, to address something i spoke of at some length in another post, one of my key concerns upon learning that there was not going to be the 'running around to different locations' plots was that team avatar and by extension, us the audience, would miss out on seeing the effects of a century long war. i am very happy to say that those concerns were not valid. i actually think the live action did a better job of communicating those effects in a way that was truly shocking. think about bumi, for example. a character who in the show is, really, a sort of comedy break became instead a character who felt real, felt serious, and felt like he was bruised all over by the war that he has been fighting. i was on the fence a lot about that plot change, where bumi was sort of dark and gritty, but the more i have thought about it, the more i realize that it makes sense. a hundred years is a long time to battle an enemy that, frankly, is better equipped than you. is it any wonder that he was so angry at aang, even if that anger was misplaced? i don't really think so.

i am going to stop here, get some food, shower, and discuss the last 4 episodes a little later bc this is already unbelievably long lmao.

please feel free to let me know what you thought of it!!

[m0ther-of-p3arl]

soooo i'm thinking of writing an au

just gonna throw that out there so yall won't be surprised if i randomly throw a fic or seven in your faces <3

FOR REFERENCE: this is gonna be a long post of me talking about shit i wanna write, it's mostly for my future self to look back and so i have all my thoughts in one place (i'm unorganized ok) and im publishing it so it's easier to find, but this is really mostly for my personal benefit in the future but if you all find it interesting yay thats great :)

anyhow

if i /do/ write an au, and that's a big if as my irl friends know about this acc and the teasing i could endure would be /endless/, it would be:

empires s1, with maybe some traffic characters thrown in- i don't feel like wc meshes very well with empires (else i would add it), unless the witchcraft witches were like at gem's academy or s2 shubble's witch school (OOOH that's an idea in and of itself lol

probably flower husbands based, or maybe mean gills, as they're slowly clawing up my mcyt ship tierlist... i'll have to think a bit on that one, but scott will most likely be the main character, cuz he was my very very first exposure to the wonderful world of empires and mcyt in general (found him through lauren, watched ep 1 of empires s2 and was hooked)

only very loosely based on canon events, i'd more be wanting to play around with the characters. therefore, out of the 3 ideas i have (more on that in a bit) i'd be more inclined to pick the more modern-day ones- though there would be fantasy elements of course like babe its empires

i have 3 main ideas that i feel like i could use- i'll put em in a poll if yall wanna vote, more info on each of them underneath

so yeah the first two are awfully similar- the main difference being that in the first option, the characters would be teachers, and in the second, students. imma go through all these a lil more in-depth, as i have ideas for all of them and i wanna see which one you all would rather read and i shall weigh that in on which one i'll (possibly) (ALLEGEDLY) write

teachers: scott is a teacher/the headmaster (i'll decide which later) at empires university (PLACEHOLDER NAME i swear i will come up with a better one) (probably) and jimmy is a new teacher who's just come onto the scene. he continually messes things up and scott is fed up with him and so they have a CHAT but obviously scott is traumatized by something in his past probably xornoth related or relating to one of the death games (life series) and jimmy is just CUTE but scott doesn't realize it and scott goes on being dumb about it and there is ANGST and such

students: basically the same general plot, but scott lives with horrible parents and jimmy becomes a reprieve and they become like best friends but they both have a secret crush on eachother (like in trust au omdsfksjdlkf go read it right now stop reading this rambling post and go read trust au SO GOOD SLDKFJ its by @/thetomorrowshow) and eventually scott is living at jimmy's house full time (jimmy has a cod tank in his room bc ofc) and then stuff happens heehhehehe no spoilers but again: ANGST

the main deal with these is there's ANGST (but also fluff because the two go hand in hand)

war: this is the main different one sooo it's set in the original empires world, but the cod empire and rivendell have been at war for decades and scott and jimmy hate each other but THEN they like meet one day and neither realizes who the other is until too late because they've never seen each other in real life and it's blasphemy and they like each other and all that yadayadayada ANGST

ummmmm anyway that's my fucking long rambling post done good graciousness this is the longest post i've ever done- anyway let me know (or don't, again, for my personal benefit) which one you would rather read and if any of them sound engaging at all- personally, i'm leaning towards students or war over teachers, i was full-in students but now i have so many great ideas for the war one- god i'm so messed up

that will be all

farewell

[hummingbirdsaltimolockia]

another breeze by review of 2023 in books/movies/tv and one play

Books:

the beatryce prophecy - 3/5 v beautiful read. kate dicamillo has my heart

the summer of the swans - 3/5 really liked the dialogue in this, and I like the idea of like. a book in real time

ender’s game - 4/5 a very chewy read. more unsettling than I anticipated

the seven dials mystery - 3/5 a little disappointing in the climax

frankenstein - 5/5 so much better and so different from what I'd been led to believe by popular media. I'm a frankenstein snob now

the phantom of the opera - 5/5 also very different from popular understanding, and much more interesting. I'd really love there to be a faithful mini series adaption

the turn of the screw - 2/5 v longwinded and wordy, and a bit of a let down in the fright department

maus - 5/5 harrowing

lang fairy books (green, grey, crimson) - 3/5 enjoyable but got a bit repetitive after a while. I listened to these from many different readers, so that added to the experience

marlene - 4/5 really liked how frank she was, not only with herself but others too

a dark night’s work - 2/5 too much description, not enough dialogue, and took too long to get to the Event. kinda a drag tbh

the flying girl - 5/5 completely loved this. worth it just for chapter nine

the cruel painter - 3/5 unsettling and unintentionally hilarious

the water dancer - 4/5 beautifully written and v interesting story but kind of odd pacing

the thief - 4/5 already did a whole liveblog on this series so yeah. really enjoyed the myth story telling in this

the queen of attolia - 5/5 wild from start to finish. gen is insane. "I can steal the magus" gen that's just kidnapping sit down

the king of attolia - 5/5 probably my favorite of the series. really liked seeing an outside perspective to the consequences of qoa

tea with the black dragon - 2/5 v disappointing. the guy didn't even turn into a dragon at the end

the fall of the house of usher - 3/5 v atmospheric and unsettling

the sittin’ up - 3/5 lots of fun characters

a conspiracy of kings - 4/5 the pov changes was a interesting choice

true grit - 5/5 v engaging read even though I knew the story already

thick as thieves - 4/5 a little slow, and I would've been angrier longer at the end if I were costis

the house on mango street - 5/5 unexpected gut punch

return of the thief - 5/5 such a satisfying ending,

my sister lives on the mantelpiece - 4/5 borrowed from libby on a whim, and it turned out to be incredibly sad, and I did tear up at least four times

the thanksgiving play - 3/5 only listened to the audio adaption so it wasn't the true experience but. wild

old souls - 3/5 really went to a different place than I was expected. liked the art style but kinda a chewy read too

Film/tv

the last of us (s1) - 5/5 went into this knowing almost nothing about it and really enjoyed experiencing it

the mandalorian (s3) - 3/5 been so long since I watched it I kinda don't remember what happened but at least they got mandalore back. yay

mad max fury road - 5/5 knew it was good, didn't know it was gonna be that good. easily one of my top movies now

shrek 2, 3, and 4 - 4/5 overall, the all made me laugh

kung fu panda 3 - 5/5 the most beautiful one I think?

the sixth sense - 5/5 knew the twist going in but still incredibly well made movie

the others - 4/5 really enjoyed the double twist. gave me chills

the phantom of the opera - 3/5 really weird editing

black adam - 3/5 had a very different vibe from other superhero movies

instant family - 3/5

oh my ghost - 3/5 the only time I've cared about characters having sex

exclusive fairy tale - 3/5 could've used a murder ngl

gifted - 4/5 much deeper than I expected

the quiet girl - 4/5 really got to me in the last ten seconds

high seas (s1-3) - 3/5 liked the sister relationship, esp in s1, but s2 was too dramatic, and s3 was completely unnecessary

shutter island - 3/5 also knew the twist going in but it got worse. v interesting visuals and atmosphere

tom jones - 3/5 I would've made tom wait a year

mission impossible: rouge nation - 3/5 kind of a slow burner ending

mission impossible: fallout - 3/5 they were a little Too smart in this, but really enjoyed the final act

mission impossible: dead reckoning part i - 5/5 actually really enjoyed all of it

beef - 3/5 absolutely wild show. really well acted tho

the bourne legacy - 2/5 unnecessary and kinda weird

jason bourne - 2/5 jason bourne should not be using an smartphone. also had to step away after they ****** *****

man on fire - 3/5

only murders in the building (s3) - 4/5 really enjoyed everyone in this season

once upon a time (s3-s5ish) - 3/5 everyone is so Dramatic and Serious about everything but it's actually very silly

titanic - 5/5 actually a really good movie?? who knew

fair play - 2/5 watched this to see something bad happen and you know what. it did

practical magic - 3/5 darker than I expected. gave me tonal whiplash

one royal holiday - 2/5 enjoyed watching aaron tveit doing an ?? accent

sweeny todd - 3/5 helena bonham carter. carried this tbh. also they didn't have to do johanna like that

the christmas bow - 4/5 genuinely enjoyed this?? would actually watch again

home alone - 3/5 wild.

my happy marriage - 4/5 surprisingly really enjoyed this. I liked how understated the romance was

last holiday - 3/5 a really sweet movie actually

it’s time for him to come home for christmas - 3/5 actually really sad in some parts. and there was actually chemistry between the leads so it bearable to watch

the boy and the heron - 4/5 really bizarre but in cool fantastically way that I could really get into. somehow more beautiful than other ghibli movies. will need to watch again

the little mermaid (2023) - 4/5 liked this more than I thought I would. but disney really thought that we (me) wouldn't notice that they used two different horses interchangeably in the same scene??

polite society - 4/5 amazing leading lady. super enjoyable watch, no notes

attack on titan finale - 3/5 thank GOD this is finally over. zeke's death was really unsatisfying to me tbh but at least he died. and I wish armin had gone harder on eren on his bullshit bc good lord was he stupid. it sucks that the end is the weakest part of the story but at least it's over and levi was there. amazing animation tho

across the spiderverse - 5/5 actually amazing?? does anyone know this??

[burningfudge]

Yay! Okay, so I was reading the Spider-Punk comics recently, and I found out that in the comics, Hobie knows both Kamala Khan and Riri Williams, and they’re his band mates. And I know you most likely won’t incorporate into the story (nor do you have to of course), but I just find the idea of Hobie meeting Kamala and Riri (from 727) and being baffled about how different they are to his home’s versions of them (more likely Kamala, cause she’s just a sweet bundle of sunshine).

It’ll also be interesting to see the characters from Earth 727 react to the fact that the designation of “Earth 616” is wrong, and is actually Earth-199999.

I also bet their gonna question Miguel and the Society about where they were when all these other Multiversal threats appeared (and were thankfully defeated), like Wanda and Infinity Ultron (but mostly Infinity Ultron).

I feel like Miguel is also going to object to them trying to change their “canon” events. But then, why would the Watcher bring all of them there, y’know? Unless it was to show the other spiders (and Miguel especially) that the whole “canon” defense is a bunch of crap, and was just his way of dealing with his grief (they’re gonna have a field day with his backstory I tell ya). Not to mention to bring them all together to show them how big of a threat Kang and his variants are, and to help each other stop these smaller threats in their way, like Thanos, Arthur Harrow, Gorr, fucking Tiamet emerging from the planets core and destroying Earth (the society is gonna lose their minds learning about the realms outside the Spiderverse and all of this wild stuff).

I also talked previously about the theory that glitching is caused by technology rather than just being in a different dimension, while using magic, a thing that’s been around since the beginning and is more natural (rather than tech which is “created” in a sense) prevents glitching. And since it’s gonna be a bit until we get Beyond the Spiderverse and that whole explanation, it could be a good explanation in regards to why the MCU characters don’t glitch when they went to other universes (Strange and America in MoM, Multiverse Guardians when fighting Infinity Ultron, No Way Home). Another idea I had was that maybe what’s causing the deterioration of the Spiderverse is the tech itself, because it’s not natural. And by jumping from universe to universe using the watches and the colliders, it’s breaking the integrity of the spaces between dimensions that prevent incursions from happening (if that makes sense).

This is already getting to be a bit long, so I’ll just end it with this (but expect more from me in the future lol): Sam and Bucky are going to hate meeting even more Peter Parker variants 😂 they already have to deal with one

first of all, i'm so sorry for replying to this so late

omg kamala, riri, and hobie are in a band together? that's so cute!

oh yeah, i have a ton of ideas for spiderverse it'll just take some time for me to get to them

i've heard about the magic vs tech glitching theory before and i think it makes sense. however, loki s2 trailer has loki time slipping which looks suspiciously similar to glitching. it probably doesn't have any connection to each other though but it's fun to theorize

[mushroomwriter]

(pt1) The hermanos really live in my head rent free askfhfkd and once again, I must thank you for being so sweet and inviting! I hope you enjoy the rambles ahead 》 Hi, hermanos anon back again! I'm finally done with my exams, thank you once again for all your kind wishes <3 I've even had a little holiday and travelling (which stresses me out) and I was rotating your answer in my head all the while... Yesss, that scene with Sergio & Martin is so painful. The emotions on both their faces are so raw and real and uff, I really love how you can see the way both of them have been hurting and grieving despite the *years* it's been since Andrés died. They truly loved him so much and I am never gonna be over it 🤧 And yes that scene on the ship where he's giving them instructions gets me too, especially this one moment where when they reach international waters everyone is cheering and going wild and Sergio smiles for like half a second before the smile just drops from his face and he looks in the distance... and you can just tell he's thinking of his brother who's not there to celebrate with him :'(

(pt2) This gets long so if you can feel free to put even my asks from here on under a cut (or maybe answer them separately? idk I hope i'm not annoying you or your followers with the wall of text and again I am SO sorry for how long this got 😭)

Now about the hermanos' childhood, I must say you've really done some magic with your words because for the past 2 years, I have clung stubbornly to my half brothers headcanon. I cannot emphasize enough how much I never vibed with the full brothers scenario. BUT. After reading your thoughts, something in me slowly softened to the idea (which I repeat I thought was impossible) and then I was reading this novel at the same time, with 2 brothers in it, and one of them is more "evil" than the other, meaner, likes to play tricks and the other is more good and kind and idealistic. Anyway, there was this one passage in the book where the mean brother lies down in his bed at night praying, begging God to "don't let me be mean" and wanting to be nicer and loved by his brother. and my brain replaced that with the hermanos growing up, and my heart squeezed in my chest and thats the moment I finally converted to the full brothers headcanon. Thank you for opening my eyes to the possibilities. Of course, the half brothers headcanon will always be first and special to me, but OMG the FEELS with the hermanos growing up together as little kids!!! I'm just taking their backstory as Shrodinger's Headcanons, since Pina clearly isn't interested in giving us anwers lmao. After this tangent, let me reply to your actual thoughts asdfjsk

Ah, I can see why s3 gave you that impression. Maybe I watched that interview before s3 becz my mind was always clear that they shared a father, so Andrés mentioning him makes sense but he also always had this kind of distance/coldness when talking abt him, even saying "He was *your father*" to Sergio in s2 by the fireplace (which makes sense if the said father abandoned him), while Sergio was the one who always sounded more fond and grieving. And when he mentioned "Mama's illness" I thought it's only Andrés' mother cause neither of them ever seemed very concerned that Sergio could have inherited the illness too? But it's interesting how preconceived notions affect the way we interpret a scene, you and me both had such different conclusions LOL. I understand, it was just the opposite direction for me, I didn't want to 'embrace' the full brothers headcanon 😅

(pt3) Yeah they even never clarified what he was sick with for HALF HIS CHILDHOOD/YOUTH!, let alone how he got better. But I'm so with you, the idea of Andrés taking Sergio to Russia and saving his life has my whole heart. Yes, you can work in the Andrés raising Sergio bit, especially because i think with their father dying and their mother's illness, they were probably orphaned at a young age either way and obviously the responsibility for Sergio would've fallen to Andrés very young, and like you mentioned even when their mom was alive he still might've been expected to look after his hermanito while they were busy trying to manage expenses. Oh, idk if you've heard of another hermanos headcanon that was popular at the time, basically that Andrés started stealing/got into a life of crime to pay Sergio's medical bills, but again, I love the idea that he used every means- legal or not to save Sergio. (Andrés' past intrigues me very much, I wish the spinoff had actually given us some answers 🥲)

OH, I loved your analysis of both scenarios and Andrés' reasons to resent their mom/Sergio. It makes all the sense, and it's heartbreaking. I also agree that it's very interesting he doesn't resent or bear any grudge against Sergio, when he easily could have. Once again, the fact that despite his unforgiving harsh personality in general, Sergio is the exception and he can see that Sergio really was just a helpless child and doesn't hold anything against him, melts my heart. AND YASSS, that's exactly one of the reasons I love the half bro hc so much. It's a Choice, and what a selfless one. Raising the son of the father(or mother) who abandoned you. I don't think many ppl would or could do that. And the fact Sergio was a sickly child too, but Andrés still took him in and didn't treat him like a burden but a beloved brother <3 I also just fell in love with the idea that Sergio thinks he's all alone in the world and then Andrés appears on the scene. Learning to trust each other. Andrés also thinking no one could love him (abandonment issues) and then he's suddenly the parental figure for a kiddo who looks to him and depends on him and loves him unconditionally, the way a child does.

(pt4) YEP, regardless of scenarios I also love the idea that it was Andrés who saved Sergio's life (and ofc, Sergio would think he can do anything. don't get me started on how Sergio would've felt when Andrés told him of the myopathy. Definitely some of his denial comes from the fact he thinks Andrés can defeat the illness, no matter if there's a cure or not) Gosh yes, Andrés would've been so proud and extra protective, we see that in the Bella ciao scene. I really think he didn't mind if he died as long as Sergio got away and gets to live a long and happy life ;___;

I would never stop screaming either if we got a new hermanos scene!!! Keep the hope alive 🤞 Hehe, I'm glad you appreciated the #hermanos angst! Oh that's great!!! As always, I am very excited for any hermanos content and I would love any gifset you make. What a coincidence lol, Richard Siken really was writing about them XD Awww, I love how you put it, that scene really does overflow with familiarity. Thinking of Toledo makes me emotional too, I'm glad I got to ramble about it with you, you made me smile too :') And if I ever get around to writing it, I'll let you know!

Omg, you're too kind, I'm relieved you don't regret the invitation yet haha. And you're happy to see my silly little rambles?? 🥺❤ So so glad our talks give you a serotonin boost too, and I hope you've been doing well. Take care, and please take your time replying to this essay 😭

PS I've read 100 years of Solitude too just last year! Feel free to tell me what you think of the book so far, I'm thinking of doing a reread <3

First of all, I'm sorry it took me SO LONG. Real life has been so busy lately, and I wanted to give you a proper reply, not a hasty one... especially considering I SO ENJOYED your rambles!!

I'm glad you managed to have a little holiday (which I hope wasn't just stressful) after your exams! If you're studying for some other exams now, well, I wish you good luck!

That scene with Martín and Sergio is definitely in the top painful scenes... Andrés is still such an open wound for both of them! Oh man, yeah, I do remember that moment of Sergio just... grieving despite the cheers and relief and it breaks my heart :(

So under a cut is it! Don't worry! I can't talk for my followers but I'm not annoyed for sure :D

What can I say... I'm happily impressed to know I softened you a little to the full-brothers scenario 💕💕 Also because I was maybe a little worried I rambled a bit too much about that scenario, so I'm glad you did like it! And please, associating that quote to the hermanos fcking killed me :( YES I think Shrodinger's Headcanons is the best way to go for their childhood! Like, as I said I went "naturally" for the full-brothers headcanon but there are aspects of the half-brothers headcanon that really melt my heart, so I want to keep them both! lol, Pina decided to give us NOTHING and so now we decided to take double the answers!

Yeah, it makes so much sense... it's truly interesting to see how the same scenes can be interpreted in different ways and how one preconceived notion can, as you said, make us end up with totally different conclusion...

I KNOW! I absolutely expected they'd let us know something more about Sergio's childhood illness, but nothing lol! I don't know if I had heard of the "Andrés got into stealing for Sergio" headcanon, like I definitely had that thought but I can't remember if it was because of fandom influence or not... either way, I'm so ON BOARD with it! (I guess the spinoff at least leaves us very free to headcanon at our hearts' content...)

I'm happy you loved my thoughts about Andrés and the reasons he'd have to resent Sergio, it's something I love to chew on! And YEAH EXACTLY, I mean, especially considering Andrés' whole character, 'selfless' is not exactly the first word that comes to mind to describe him, so thinking of him deciding to take care of this sick child he didn't even know, son of the parent who abandoned him, when Andrés himself was probably still pretty young... ahhhh! And little Sergio thinking he doesn't matter to anyone anymore, he's nothing but a burden now, but then Andrés appears and takes him in... I'm melting. And now you're making me crazy with the thought of Andrés, whose experience in terms of relationships is really not great, who considers himself really hard to love, getting this kid who loves him unconditionally and trusts him and looks up to him... woah. He was probably flabbergasted. "what's this??? UNCONDITIONAL LOVE??"

The idea of Andrés saving Sergio's life also ties nicely with Sergio's reaction when he learned about Andrés' illness, he was there like "let's forget about the robbery and let's go abroad in search of a cure" he wanted to do exactly what his brother had done for him!! And yeah, I think even after Andrés crushed that idea a part of him never stopped holding a bit of hope! As for Andrés, he would absolutely consider "I die but Sergio lives happily" a great scenario and I want to scream!

I'll keep hoping for new hermanos scenes 🤞 Thank you! That gifset is still a work in progress, I got a bit stumped because the scenes I picked are all so dark and my attempts to colour them have been pretty disastrous lmao but I'll try again! Also just so you know, I keep thinking about "you wouldn't be there to catch me" in relation to the hermanos' relationship and I CRY. (Thanks about the fic!)

I'm SO HAPPY to see your silly little rambles you have no idea 🥺❤ Also when I got these messages specifically I wasn't feeling great, like, physically (I had a bit of a migraine), therefore I was pretty unhappy, but your words really lifted my mood! And again, I'm so so sorry it took me so long to reply this time, I really hope you'll see this answer anyway...

PS. Oh, nice! 100 years of solitude is one of the things I had to put on hold lately, but I really want to get back to it because YES I was really enjoying it! I'm also lowkey obsessed with the opening lines, it's really the kind of beginning that makes you want to read the whole book immediately to find out how's that Aureliano ended up there! (We also had to translate that first part for class and later analyse the official Italian translations and I enjoyed it so much...) What about you? Did you end up doing that reread?

[kmze]

You are absolutely right,Kris.That was clearly her claim to 5 seconds of relevance moment.I don't know if she did anything after tvd and I never kept track of that verse or any discourse related to it after the show ended.But if that tweet was able to reach me along with some of her recent commentaries of possible "relationships", then she knew exactly what she was doing.Maybe drumming up support for a possible reboot?Yeah I heard that one too recently( 'perks' of having a tvd obsessed teen niece,you see).

I was reading your s1 review earlier and quite enjoyed it.Do continue if time permits you.I haven't had the time or interest to rewatch TVD again.This was the first show I was emotionally invested in and by the end of it,JP made sure I would never wanna go back to it.

I do miss Stefan-Caroline a lot though.I miss Stefan "Where do I belong" Salvatore,who had me intrigued the first time I met him in September, 2009 even though my friend made me watch the pilot for Ian.I miss my baby girl,Caroline "I try so hard" Forbes".The treatment of Caroline Forbes in that season was beyond horrible although I would say s7 was on that same level.Ironically, that was not a KW season but ran by that demon.

I do quite agree with your analysis as to why Plec didn't go back to SE even though she had the perfect opportunity to.The Human Stefan storyline almost had me convinced they were going in that direction which was probably why I had a hard time sitting through the last few episodes.TVD had become so emotionally draining.Caroline-Stefan scenes were like a bright light in a sea of Awfulness that show was.

Hey Anon, I believe she's done a few things since the tvd 'verse ended but I do know that unlike TO and TVD Legacies did not get an official final season. Their series finale was supposed to work as both a season and series since the CW had been sold and JP knew it was possible the show could get cancelled. So I think that's why she's trying to get something done now. I absolutely believe her tweet was to engagement bait for either for herself or whoever is interested in the TVD 'verse continuing again to see how much interest is still there. Although I have no idea what could be in the works, I know at a con in December the question was about a movie but I'm not sure enough of the original main cast would be willing to return to make that happen. I mean majority of the characters are dead or human and I know a few actors have said they wouldn't be interested in returning (Kat, Ian and Paul) so I'm not sure what kind of movie she could make lol. Candice would probably come back (and since I'm a sucker that's all I would need) and maybe Nina (mostly I don't think she's a hard no) but I'm not sure that's enough for anyone to agree to finance this. Of course Teen Wolf got their awful movie financed so I could be completely off base.

The rewatch has been enjoyable so far (it's easier when you know the ending lol) and honestly S2 has been so much more engaging and interesting to me than S1 so I should have the first half of that season done this week. When I get to S7 is gonna be such a buzzkill from S6 I am so not looking forward to that slough especially the first half. I will always dislike Dries for what she did to Steroline that season UGH makes me mad just thinking about it.

Ha! The show became so emotionally draining that season worrying about what would happen. I hate the human Stefan storyline (I especially hate the STUPID CURE and how the rules change for how it works every time it's mentioned!) though I did enjoy how much he hated being human because the fandom always believed he wanted that but really HE HATED not having vampire powers. He only wanted to be human because of his addiction to blood, and don't even get me started on how him being a "reformed ripper" in S6 got completely dropped in S8. I do agree in a way about some of that awfulness and it's the same for me, while I did enjoy a majority of the seasons overall in the series the bright spot was 1000% Steroline, to me they're the best thing the show ever did. Now that I'm up to S2 in my rewatch it just reminded me of how good their slow burn was.

[housewarningparty]

Happy Birthday, have a good one, I'm sure I'll leave nice comments on Body Language once I finish Buffy to read it but I'm not there yet.

Also while I'm here, irregular Buffy update, if I had a nickel every time Buffy had to fight a robot I'd have two nickels which isn't many but its weird its happened twice, (I'm gonna assume now it's gonna happen again). Definitely a very different show than Series 1 and a lot more consistent, really enjoying, about midway through series 2, so Angel just lost his soul so its all to be popping off now I'm sure. Also never knew Kendra existed I guess it makes sense given I never really questioned where Faith came from if there's only one girl in all the world with the Slayer power so I'm guessing its not going to go well for her later. It being more consistent almost makes it harder to have interesting thoughts its just y'know good. The Master fallout in the opener was great, Giles backstory episode was great, Kendra's two parter, those are probably my peaks right now for series 2. Ted also had a lot of good stuff for being a somewhat out of left field "and he was actually a robot" episode. I don't particularly care for Cordy/Xander it must be said.

Also song recs I dunno I'm looking at my liked songs on Spotify "Sail" by Riit, "Freeze Melt Boil" by Quantum Tangle, "Weight of My Pride" by Pay Money to the Pain

yeah s2 is really where they find their groove! more hits than misses. once you DO get a little bit of Faith in s3 I actually DO have a oneshot that touches back on the Ted stuff, if you're interested.

SONGS okay

gotta admit this is like my least favorite style of cover (TOO SLOW) so i didn't love that. BUT. i checked out a couple other songs by riit and DID like them. so i'll definitely keep exploring.

really liked this one. definite groove. love the way the percussion is like sparse but very grounding, layered vocals were really cool, great buildup. extremely extremely cool.

oh fuck yeah this is a bit closer to what i usually listen to. kinda reminds me of like rise against meets fightstar. sick riffz. FAST drums, which i love. super catchy chorus also, damn.

thanks, bud! always good to hear from you!

[tilkikedi-blog]

I'm very glad I brought up interesting points, I was worried I was becoming a pest. I'm so glad that you are willing to discuss these ideas with me, because they have been on my mind.

Tangent #1

I should probably go back through season 3, as I don't remember seeing Rapheal as an antagonist. (To be completely fair, I might just be miss-remembering, and now having Rapheal as a sprited character it is influencing my opnion.) But I feel like I always interpreted Rapheal as similar to Lucifer in being strict and aggressive. So when his more "antagonistic" actions were presented I didn't read it as antagonism, but rather "oh, he's like Walmart Lucifer."

I can definatly see what you are talking about in the season 3 epilougue though. There's a lot of unsaid tension in the scene. But I think that brings us to another issue the writers tend to have with "writing as they go." Where they might genuinely intend for the game to go one direction by the end of one season, but it gets slightly changed once the next season has begun. (Also the little rehtocns and inconsistencies scattered about the game)

Tangent #2

I did not hear about Thirteen's reception to Japon, I've only followed the American reaction. Which, there were some people who were NOT happy. But now I'm curious as to how the Japaneese fandom responded.

I would love for Thirteen to get more dynamics with the rest of the characters. Rapheal and Mestipho have the benefit of having previous relationships with the rest of the cast before they were introduced. But at the time Thirteen only had Solomon as a dynamic. But I am definatly looking forward to her gaining more dynamics, like they introduced with Barbatos.

I definatly agree that they seem to be doing a tsundere approach with Mephisto, especially considering the interactions between him and Thirteen. The little Stan vs Anti-Stan thing is kinda funny to me.

Honestly, just RIP to Raphela this season, I hope next season does him better. But were gonna have to wait and see. I honestly don't think the next season can fix this plot twist, but they might add something that will make it better? (Probably not)

Yeah, I wouldn't have been able to guess this plottwist. The "hints" given don't feel like hints. I'm wondering if maybe there were possibly more "hints" that were lost in translation (im thinking something like formality. I dont know how formal Micheal and Rapheal speak compared to each other, but maybe if one was more formal that could have hinted). But even then it really feels out of nowhere.

Can't believe Micheal is a theatre kid.

Tangent #3

I agree with your purpose of the HL/unlockables. And I also agree that filler should be kept to a minimum (keep that shit in the events).

In my personal opinion, the unlockables(A,B,C) are easier to unlock, and therefore more "vaulable" information can be placed there. Things like world building, or important character moments. 65-A is a pretty good example of what I would expect in unlockables. It gives the audience more information about Simeon, and also serves a good character moment for Lucifer.

For Hard Lessons, I would want the focus to be on the characters not in the main plot. A brief look at what some of the other characters are doing/how they are feeling about the main plot. (Mephisto and Thirteen bar scene would be a good example).

I would have to think a lot more about which information is so "valuable" that it must be presented in normal lessons. But I am going to say any plottwist should probably be in the main story.

(S2 is also my least favorite, however my issues are more with how little the character arcs do.)

Most importanly: The Micheal Rant(TM)

First, The "Nice" Micheal rant:

Micheal isn't evil. He's just sad (like all the other angels) that his brothers left him.

I presume that the nameless voice from season 2 and 3 is Micheal, and he shows regret about loosing the brothers. I think he cares about the brothers, and it even shows a little bit in Nightbringer.

We get in season 3, from Luke, that Micheal is just sad and misses the brothers. He is in permanent sad Boi mode.

He states in season 2 he would make different choices if he could redo things. He's just a sad little (pathetic) boy.

I think a lot of people attribute any bad action from the Celestial Relam to Micheal, when it's more likely coming from Him (Father).

Did Micheal or Father humanize Simeon? I would vote Father based on Simeon's reaction to the Boogeyman in season 3. (Plus with Micheal's precious statements in Season 2, which he says he would redo actions)

Did Micheal or Father start the Celestial War? Who knows. But are you going to tell me that this sad little man, who is just a clingy little boy, started a war with his brothers? That feels counter-productive.

I do not feel like Micheal is that bad of a guy. He is a person, he makes perosn mistakes. But he doesn't seem evil the way a lot of the fandom seems to talk about him. I see a lot of posts that paint Micheal as someone who made the brother's lives horrible. And I just don't buy that.

And now for the "mean" rant:

Everyone needs to stop projecting their Religious Tramua onto Micheal. I feel fuckin gaslight by this fandom sometimes, cause every scene with Micheal is just "sad little baby," and then I look at the fandom and it's just a sea of "evil evil icky man."

I've read too many theories and characters analysis and fanfictions where Michela is Evil. I can read between the lines, I know it religious trmaua I can sense it. It doesn't need to be here, it needs to be in a therapy office, not the character analysis. Please take it out of the character analysis.

The amount of fanfiction I have read that is supposedly "cannon compliant" and yet Micheal is over here abusing Luke. I dont think Micheal is abusing Luke, he's too busy being sad (that's a season 3 plotline).

Like, yeah the brothers probably didn't like Micheal in the Celestial Relam, but more in a way that you don't like your boss. Not in a culty way.

Like this fandom paints his ass as despicable, not even like morally grey. And I'm just sitting here like "are we playing the same game, where the fuck did you get THAT from??"

No but fr fuck that Hard lesson, Raphael stans keep losing I guess 👎👎👎