#if there are no plot consequences then why did we introduce that. what was the point

[kisskissgotohell]

it might need a reread once the full official tl comes out but i gotta say. based on one read, guardian (novel-only) did not feel like it actually went anywhere. it's like the novel equivalent of those posts where you learn something and the next reblog immediately refutes it. neutral experience.

[clericsandpaladins]

I find Season Four to be quite interesting in that the Duffers have confirmed that originally it was meant to be the last season, but they had to split it for the sake of pacing. Season Four is less of it's own season and more of the set-up for Season Five and that tells us a lot about the plots in Season Four.

I've seen a lot of people argue about the purpose of the California and Russia plotlines considering that they are so disconnected from what we could call the main plot, which is Vecna. But the Duffers are NOT bad writers. They had an extra six months to work on and revisit their scripts. Everything in Season Four was very intentional, which is why I choose to give the California and Russia plotlines the benefit of the doubt. Do they seem pretty pointless? Yeah, right now they do. But when you think about it, we are only seeing half of the story here. Season Four and Five were meant to be ONE season.  Hopper's prison break is only half of the story, we don't yet know the true purpose for reviving him and spending so much time getting him out. We needed to get Hopper away so that El could spend this season continuing her ongoing arc of self-discovery and independence. What we don't know is why we need Hopper back and that's the question I think will be answered in Season Five. You don't kill and revive characters for no reason because it takes away the stakes in your story. By doing that, you're making your audience less invested in the safety of these characters because they KNOW there are no consequences. So then why did the Duffers spend a quarter of Season Four getting Hopper back, despite it's irrelevance to the plot until the very end where they help to defeat Vecna? That's the question that Season Five will answer. The California group go on a big road trip trying to find El. Seemingly the only purpose for this is to be able to find El so she can get to the pizza freezer and help Max, making the rest of the stuff they do pretty irrelevant. Right? Wrong. Because, once again, this is set-up. We are only seeing half of the story the Duffers wanted to tell. So then what is actually happening in this plotline? Certainly nothing much with Jonathan. But what we do spend most of this plotline doing is showing the development of Mike and Will's relationship. They start off awkward, they argue, they have heart-to-hearts. The majority of this plotline is dedicated to showing us how Will and Mike interact and behave around each other. You know how it all ends? With a chekhov's gun in the form of Will's painting and his veiled love confession. If the Duffers are indeed good writers, then they have to address this is Season Five, once again showing us we are only seeing half of the story.  Because of the chekhov's gun, we know that Will's feelings for Mike have to be addressed in Season Five. If they aren't, then what was the point of the painting in the first place? We didn't need it for Mike to confess his love to El. El dying should've been enough for Mike, but it wasn't. Will reminding Mike of what happened in the van is what lead to his love confession. The painting has a purpose, it just hasn't been addressed yet. Similarly, if this emotional arc with Mike and Will ends with no change in their relationship, then what was the point? There was no need for Will to be in love with Mike to show his queerness. They could've introduced a new love interest for Will like they did with Dustin and Robin. But they didn't. Will's inevitable confession to Mike needs to result in a change for the California plotline to have a purpose, otherwise the narrative wasted all that time building up to nothing. Not to mention the fact that Will is the key to tying up Mike's arc. Mike feels like he isn't needed by El and this is a major insecurity for him. He spends most of Season Four worrying about this and so in order for his ending to be satisfying, we need to resolve this insecurity and prove him wrong. Yet, Season Four ended with El realizing she had value as a person outside of her super powers and that she doesn't need another person to feel whole. She is her own superhero. But you know who does need Mike? Will. In conclusion, these plotlines aren't useless. They are set-up. EDIT: I wrote this at 2am lol. Wish I would've waited and edited the post a bit but alas 2am thoughts are never edited.

[utilitycaster]

Hi! I just wanted to add to what you said about Laudna that her motivation from the beginning of the campaign did not change at all, in that she was ok and totally moved on from her trauma, and was just helping Imogen find out about her powers. I don't recall that Delilah was much of a problem outside of talking in her head sometimes, so getting Delilah out wasn't a character motivation.

There were times were it looked like her character was going somewhere when Marisha talked about Laudna being mentally stunted and Delilah's influence being akin to an addiction, and thought maybe they can address some of that in the campaign, but we had a lot of "woe is me Delilah is making me do things" which is BAD if you address the addiction allegory (still taking into account that Marisha may have misspoken during 4sD about it)

They didn't even deal with Delilah properly, she is still there and can talk with Laudna, and I don't think by the end of the campaign Laudna is in any way more capable of ignoring her as she did the first time they defeated Delilah and she was just a faint wisp, she wasn't in any way actively influencing Laudna back then until Laudna tried to bargain with her for power (i may be paraphrasing or misremembering though it's been a bit)

Saying that Laudna's character feels very fic-y is surprisingly accurate, she feels like someone who would have been sold to One Direction

Sorry for the long ask

OK first off YELLING at the being sold to One Direction but yeah, that's the thing, she feels like this passive self insert who people give things to and like without her like, doing anything other than putting her messy brown hair in a bun on the top of her head.

I think with a lot of my frustrations with various characters, there is frustration on both sides, with Matt and the cast, and Matt bears a LOT of responsibility to be clear because I think in his focus on the core plot above all it shut down player attempts to the point that even stronger players with stronger concepts kind of gave up in the end. But for Laudna, here is the throughline.

Early on she floated the idea of getting rid of Delilah when Imogen was trying to get into the Starpoint Conservatory. This was good! It was introduced as a potential longterm goal of Laudna's! It's just...that never happened. The research was always very moon focused, and when it became clear this wasn't really an academically-inclined group the research took the form of Grim Verity lore dumps, which naturally didn't allow for side research. The gnarlrock fight famously went nowhere because she and Imogen apologized right away, but then, notably, Laudna didn't do anything to get back at Delilah nor did Delilah keep doing anything. Imogen's attempts to work with Delilah failed (this feels like part of the 'No Consequences' rule; Imogen binding herself to Delilah as well or having Delilah take on more of Laudna, something Laura as Imogen actually made steps to pursue, could have been something! I mean I'm team Jiana would have been more interesting, but this could have worked!) and so then the whole probably was kind of put on ice by the Vox Machina-helmed resurrection, and Delilah faded to a nonentity that Laudna didn't have to care about. So she didn't! Until she came back, and then she sort of cared for a bit but Delilah didn't make her do anything and then she came back to Jrusar and instead of leaning into her anger she kissed Imogen and forgot all about it until they went to Whitestone 12 episodes later (still no real consequences of Delilah coming back), she reiterated a connection to Delilah back there and had some scenes with her due to the shard but again, she wasn't really inconvenienced or changed, and then there was one last flare up with the sword and then Essek fixed everything.

Like, this would have been very easy to make compelling by having Delilah actually be a threat. Part of why I don't feel much about Laudna living out her life is that like, Delilah is just sealed away again (and fwiw we gotta at some point talk about how there was a whole setpiece about how Leaving Things Sealed Just Perpetuates A Cycle and then there's at least two sealed evils and one fully unsealed if mortal evil guy hanging out, like, thematic coherence whomst?) and throughout the story Delilah mostly just serves as an intrusive thought who broke something once and hit a couple of dudes. Chetney getting caught by the red moon and attacking people felt more real and he took more responsibility for it. If Delilah had constantly been trying to take over? that would have been interesting. If she hadn't but Laudna was furious that the woman who killed her was using her body and at all times was fighting against it? that would have been interesting. But it was just this vague blurry meh. Delilah is her warlock patron and the reason she's alive, but she can be diminished to basically nothing without any drawbacks, and Laudna sometimes hates her and sometimes wishes to wield her, but that all fizzles out every time. Again: if you wished one of these things were true and mourn the character Laudna could have been - either someone using Delilah's power at the cost of her own will, or someone fighting desperately to reclaim her own body and mind - then I'm right there with you. But as she was in the story? I wish One Direction had taken her away and we'd gotten someone better.

[palmettoshenanigans]

also ALSO-

I know the old "AFTG is badly written" jokes but hold the FUCK on for one goddamn second

I have been writing for almost 20 years. I got my college degree in English and the only reason my specialization wasn't creative writing is because I had bad time management skills and missed my chance to do my final creative writing workshop. I'm autistic and Storycrafting and Wordsmithing are my special interests. I understand writing pretty well.

AFTG opened my fucking eyes to a blind spot of the utter craftsmanship of writing sticky characters that infect you with brain worms, and here it is:

The Conflict of Material and Form

AKA the Character Creation version of Nature versus Nurture

"This isn't who I truly am. This is who I've had to become, what I've had to fashion myself into to survive. The original me is buried in there somewhere, if only you knew how to look. If only you knew to look beyond the mask."

Easily exemplified with our fave lil guys-

Neil Abram Josten:

Material: smartass with a smart mouth, attitude problem, cares about people deeply, sharp tongue to cut a bitch with, kinda feral, a lil unhinged, oblivious idiot

Form: quiet and hidden, liar liar pants of fire, run rabbit run, docile and tame, hyper-vigilant and hyper-observant

Andrew Joseph Minyard:

Material: caring, protective, strong sense of justice, gentle even, cares deeply, give me sugar or give me death, yearning

Form: cold, apathetic, ruthless and unforgiving, allow me to introduce you to my knife, regret? don't know her, i want nothing nothing nothing

Why am I using 'material and form' instead of 'nature and nurture'? Because I am a subscriber to "Characters are not meant to be real people; they are mirages of real people meant to encapsulate a function or idea that serves the story". But use whatever terms click with your noggin.

This isn't about 'want vs need'. This isn't about 'lie believed and truth learned'. This is about Presentation and Basic Action - how would this character react here? Which part are they reacting from?

With Material vs. Form, one isn't the 'true' version and the other the 'false' version of the character. They are both true and real in their own right. The Secret Sauce is that the Material and the Form fight 1v1! And regardless of which part wins, there will be consequences and rewards; so which rewards do we want and which consequences are we willing to suffer? And this fight happens beat by beat, scene by scene, plot point by plot point.

At one point in TFC Neil laments his inability to shut his fucking mouth because his Form of 'don't stand out dipshit' and his Material of 'initiate smartass.exe' are disagreeing with how to respond to his circumstances! It's that fucking meme "My healed and unhealed versions of myself deciding who is going to handle this situation" but as Storycraft!

Now, I don't think this is a new idea by any means. But sometimes to make the essence of an idea truly stick, it must be presented in multiple different ways until one triggers a "Eureka! By Jove! Aha!", and this was the way that truly made this concept stick for me. And why did it stick? Because AFTG is a labor of deep love and passion for Characters and all their complexity and inner machinations, and that depth of devotion had to manifest as some good ass writing somehow my homies in christ.

I have a collection of my favorite Storycrafting Wisdoms and one of them is effectively:

"Put Compelling Characters into a Compelling Situation and see what happens."

And Nora does Compelling Characters beautifully

[atlas7seo]

TDP season 7 spoilers***

Ok just it was good. It was good I enjoyed it. It seemed a lot more focused than previous seasons but like I'm also really annoyed. I know they wanted to have an arc 3 but it genuinely feels like they set up all these things and then they didn't resolve any of them. They spent so long in previous seasons lollygagging just to not follow through. Like Aaravos is dead but not really and Claudia is somewhere waiting for Aaravos. But like really? It feels like more of a cliffhanger than arc one and really unsatisfying. I mean like come on! I want an arc 3 and I know a bunch of people do too, but genuinely I don't think it will happen man. I wish the ending was a little more fulfilling.

Such as Callum's sacrifice, you cannot spend a good 10-20 minutes soley on the devastation that it is to just not follow through or leave some consequences! Like I know that if Aaravos comes back, he's vulnerable but like we might never see those sacrifices! And it feels cheap to build it up and just do nothing with it. They keep teasing us with Dark Magic Callum and I need them to follow through for once.

When they said people might die, I thought people we really connected to would die. Like Lujanne! But no! Only the Archdragons. (and Karim, but he's stupid) and like I love Zubeia as much as the next person but like COME ON. How did Lujanne not die!? It's like they introduced stakes but never actually pulled away from the kid friendly plot armor. WHY ARE WE GETTING HARROW BACK!? THEY'VE MOVED ON! Is it not cheap to bring back all of the main casts' parents? There are no consequences from season 1! I get bringing back Runaan, but Harrow too? Just let them grieve and move on! Let people stay dead! (I am glad that Viren is staying dead tho.... like it's about time)

Also Karim is as infuriating and boring as always. Like I'm so glad that if arc 3 comes we don't have to deal with his bs again. Like I saw the getting crushed twist a mile away but like fair enough.

I'm sure some people are annoyed about the ships but like it's fine. They had moments but honestly I was more invested in the Aaravos.

Ezran made me mad but in a good way. He frustrates me but I'm glad he got some character development for once. But like bruuhhhhhhh the Nova blade made me so mad. They're just squeezing Ezran into the plot at that point. Like oh shoot , Ezran should be at the final battle! Let's uhhhh give Zym super speed. Obviously it was cool but also unnecessary. Why introduce the Nova Blade if a dragon bite can kill him? It seems a little redundant.

I know this is a lot of complaints but I genuinely really enjoyed the season. The ending is what really got me worked up. It was fun and I think they've finally found the perfect middleground of weird filler ish stuff and actual plot. I do really hope there will be a 3rd arc.

[maddascanbe-blog]

*sighs* Well they were doing pretty good, they had to have a dud eventually. (For the record I love Ladybug in a Cowboy hat)

I don't dislike any of the individual parts of this story, but there are too many for one episode. Why does Juleka have a song in this episode, what does her song have to to do with Ms. Bustier? Did we need the B plot with Nathalie introduced in this episode?

Ivan's transformation sequence was probably the highlight, but the fight scene getting interrupted constantly with Juleka just DIDN'T MAKE SENSE!

If the episode focused on just Ivan (who needs his own episode, oh my gosh give the boy something!) and Raúl faced actual consequences for his attempted manipulation and abuse of his child, the episode would have worked so much better! Because then you get an actual parallel between Ivan and Raúl's relationship to Adrien and Gabriel's.

And I shit you not, right as it was clarified it was Ivan's dad, I said out loud, "Boy I can't wait to see how he gets off scott free for this!" Because conspiracy to commit a crime, is still a crime Marinette! Yes he should go back to jail! He was a danger to his son before the akuma! And He Still Is NOW!

[ofswordsandpens]

just finished episode 6…. truly don’t know how to feel about these changes. would love to know your thoughts bc i’m just kinda baffled by some changes tbh

Mixed feelings as always:

Percy's dream slapped. I loved Kronos's actor. It felt perfectly eery. No notes.

No percabeth late night convo on the truck. This doesn't surprise me given we sort of did that on the train already, but now there's just another iconic book moment that we'll get bits and pieces of, but never actually get to see in its entirety/original setting.

I did vibe with the glass prism tool for the iris message and it was pretty cool. The Percy + Annabeth argument was great but I'm gonna be honest, Luke being like "you're arguing like an old married couple" was laying it on a tad thick to me idk idk. I know I'll probably be in the minority there lol but I think it would have liked the line better if Percy and Annabeth got more embarrassed to his statement but they both reacted to it like :/ so it just felt heavy handed on the show runners part more than anything

Lotus Hotel vibes? Lackluster. Uninspired. It just didn't capture that outrageous paradise for kids feeling from the book because they turned it into Hermes' hangout so there's a whole bunch more adults than kids. Basically felt like if you took the movie's version and turned down the energy of it by a mile lmao. (Which is also ironic given RR's post about it today).

And of course the kids immediately know what's happening so like. No fun mystery. No Percy figuring it out. Just them being like "omg we need to be careful" and then immediately separating from Grover lmao.

Okay. LMM's Hermes.... it wasn't bad. Thankfully there was no singing. He was fine. It's more or less that turning the Lotus story line into a Hermes' storyline was like an "okay, I guess we're doing this" thing. I mean I guess we finally introduced something for the non-book reader's to pick up on that Luke might not have the best relationship with his dad (and consequently the gods). But like, nothing about this storyline is something that isn't introduced later on in the books. Nor was it better or more interesting than the original lotus storyline in the books.

Again, its the constant replacement of everything fun and silly and absurd in the book and turning it into a very serious moment, is just like, killing the energy. Seriousness is good. Silliness is also good. The book balanced it greatly. The show struggles here.

Glad we got a Pan mention tho!! Finally!

But um 4 pearls, so no dilemma about who to save. A part of me is relieved because the show's created like 3 other sacrifice convo scenarios so its gotten bit reductive, but Sally being a part of the equation is an entirely different dynamic and now that dilemma is theoretically gone. (unless he loses one of the pearls?)

And Percy's missed the deadline?? Right?? So like? I really don't know what we're doing anymore. In the book the deadline was pretty strict lol. Here I guess the deadline was like, a loose suggestion? Percy's walking into the middle of the god's battle field with master bolt in his hand? Idk.

Overall things in the show feel messy and way less cohesive. They seem to know that certain things from the book are important but not necessarily why, or they'll introduce events or plot points strangely late or way too early.

[drowning-moonlight]

I don't think the consequences of Ace's death have fully been realized in the story yet.

I can't stop thinking about the Wano flashbacks when Yamato is reading Oden's diary and we see that part where Roger says that he wants his son to be the one to find the One Piece. His son that's not even born yet.

This is so intriguing to me. What did they learn on Laugh Tale that made Roger think that he needed to have a biological child?? Why did he want his son specifically to be the one to find his treasure? Is this just a dad wanting great things for their kid or something more?

And I don't think it's a coincidence that he has this kid with a woman that also has the "D" initial. Rouge was the first female character in the series to have the D in her name (I know Vivi was introduced before Rouge and has the D too but we didn't know that about Vivi until recently). My point is, the fact that both of Ace's biological parents have the D initial has to mean something. I refuse to believe it's just a coincidence.

So what was the reason that Roger decided to have a kid? It's made very clear that he wanted his own kid to be the one to find the One Piece. That obviously can't happen now with Ace being dead so I wonder if there will be any repercussions to this? If Roger specifically had Ace with a woman who also had the D initial and he specifically wanted Ace to find the One Piece and thus be the next Pirate King, how will Ace being dead change whatever plans Roger had for the future??

I truly believe that Ace is absolutely not done haunting the narrative. I think he still has a role to play in the story despite being dead. I think his death itself will come back as some plot device that will impact the narrative going forward once we finally get to Laugh Tale and learn what the One Piece and the D initial really are.

[dearmyloveleys]

WHC2 Ep2 Rewatch: The Weakest Scene

…sigh… it’s the scene where Hyuntak fights Sieun.

This entire scene, right up til Baku enters is a large waste of screen time in the grand scheme of things.

They fight, but we learn nothing new about the characters — except Sieun’s trigger is Suho (nothing that we don’t expect) and Hyuntak’s trigger is Baku (nothing that we don’t expect).

Juntae does nothing and is instead🧍the whole time. He could have run away for help and happened to run into Baku, then brought him to the scene at the tunnel. This will not only build more of his character but also provide a nice link to why Baku suddenly shows up later.

Sieun fights exactly how we expect him to fight, and Hyuntak fights exactly we expect him to fight. Their fight leads to nothing and has zero consequences on the overall plot or the next arc. Their animosity ends in the first 10min of the next episode.

Hyuntak’s hurtful words and brash personality that triggers this fight literally doesn’t show up as strongly anymore after this. Would have loved for him to be more rabid and run his mouth. Would have been a great contrast in his cheeky personality when he’s with friends VS enemies. (He should definitely have chipped in when Sieun roasted Baku’s father.)

Hyuntak’s close up shots of his taekwondo fighting style is wasted on taking it out on Sieun. They should have written this scene with an antagonist (not Hyoman) to give his character a better shine, the way they did with Suho.

Hyoman is… still Hyoman. They shouldn’t have made him a comic relief character to the extent that they did. He should have been more of a threat to the main cast so that 1) we feel more tension for the earlier episodes 2) his change in heart later would have been more heartwarming. They should have stuck to him picking on Sieun way before Ep1 instead of a teacher breaking up the fight before it started (what?? I think they didn’t want to include the fight because of continuity issues which sucks). Sieun should have had a 1V1 with him prior (which Sieun wins, Hyoman retreats) and Juntae sees the fight, so his question to Sieun “how do I not be cowardly” has more weight. Sieun’s reputation in school would have weighed more and Hyuntak would have more reason to lash out the way he did—ok I’m digressing—

The three way fight between Sieun, Hyuntak and Baku completely has no dire consequences after Baku enters — so what’s the point of that 10 fight sequence?

I absolutely love Baku’s entrance. One of the best scenes in S2 imo and establishes his personality 🙏 But, it completely takes away any potential gravity of the three-way fight

And they wasted Sieun’s internal monologue on analysing Baku’s moves. I get wanting to inject humour, but we don’t even get a single monologue of Sieun doing that in his actual fights that have consequences later on.

My overall point is: The entire 15min fight sequence doesn’t have any significant impact on the following episodes other than introduce Baku to us. They wasted a fight scene on a trivial matter.

The fight between Suho and Sieun in S1E1 worked because 1) had high contrasting tension — it established very clearly that both boys had significantly contrasting desires at the point in time (Sieun just wanted to trash people VS Suho wanted to stop him). It also worked really well because we were all rooting for Sieun to trash Yeongbin and Sieun nearly did it (established before the fight) but we got cockblocked by Suho. Sieun was reasonably pissed and threw a chair. In S2E2 it was only a reactionary move for Sieun to fight Hyuntak aka not innately instigated.

2) The fight added a new layer to their personalities that was established before—Sieun doesn’t know/want to fight, but now, we see he has the penchant for it VS Suho knows how to fight, but now we see he has his own lines he doesn’t cross when it comes to violence. Of course the Sieun and Suho fight was edited really well too so there’s that.

[itsybitsyspecter]

I for one am extremely curious about the character shots in the opening.

Sam stands in front of her set on Britain's Got Magic. Makes sense, her show is a very important thing to her and is season relevant.

K flies their broom with their friends, a rainbow that turns orange at the end trailing after her. We now know this is a scene from episode two. Not entirely sure if there's a specific reason why that's their picture unless it's just about the orange/being with her friends?

Now Jammer's is really interesting. First we see him standing normally, making the gesture for the goat horns. Though his scar does look different than it does in the other drawings, this might just be artistic choice. But what is sort of weird is that he's the one holding Tabby. Was that just to introduce Tabby or is there a plot reason for it? Might make sense considering he's the one most Anti Tabby. But then K's hand (pretty sure it's them) slides across the screen, holding their phone and takes a photo of Jammer. And when the phone moves away, Jammer has disappeared. Except the picture on K's phone begins to move, the Jammer in the photo looks like he's falling. What does this mean? Has he been put inside the phone? Why? To hide him? To protect him?

And finally Evan, the one I am more curious about. He is fighting against Tad. Seeing it for the first time, just glancing at it you might think that it's just from when they fought him in the Christmas special. But Evan is clearly season2 Evan. His hair is short and he's wearing his new outfit. Along with that there are some more drastic changes that we have yet to see. His eyes are larger, darker, more threatening. Angrier? He has fangs which I don't think he did beforehand right? His clothes are covered in strange green splotches and mostly in his shirt but slightly on his jacket too are three designs that look like lightning bolts. Along with this the magic coming from is wand is green too, a more sickly looking green rather than the vibrant green on his clothes. This could mean a whole slew of different things. Tad could've done something to him. His magic could be changing from whatever is happening to the magic world. He could've leveled up his magic die. But what I think is most likely is that it's an after effect of what happened in episode three. When Victor resurrected his familiar, it came back different, invisible. I'm sure many of us are wondering if the same can be said for Evan. And I think that whatever is going on with him in the intro is just that. The consequences of coming back from the dead.

But that's just a theory.

[showtoonzfan]

Hey it’s been a bit! The Mammon episode finally came out, so here’s my review!

Pros:

- The sign language scene was cute. Kinda weird that a kid was seeing a show that was clearly for adults but I love me some representation so it gets a pass.

- Despite Blitz not really needing to be in this episode, I thank god he had little screen time and more time was dedicated to Fizz.

- The fish ladies (despite having wonky color palettes that made them EXTREMELY hard to look at) were cute.

Cons:

- Mammon is so flat and uninteresting but I don’t know what I expected from a creator who always hypes her characters up that always end up being one of the three go-to personalities she picks for her male characters. In Mammon’s case he’s just a loud mouth cursing bum so way to ruin another Deadly Sin and make them boring af, moving on.

- I don’t like how Mammon and Fizz’s relationship are similar of Val and Angel’s, Viv keeps recycling stories, characters and plot lines ect, it makes Angel’s story for Hazbin really predictable/underwhelming and not exciting to look forward too especially since we already have the “mafia bad daddy” aspect to him too that they pulled for Moxxie. I guess the idea of Mammon being a controlling ruler is fine on paper but not much is done with it, Fizz just quits in the end like it was easy with zero consequences so what was all that build up for.

- Fizz himself once again feels REALLY out of character, he’s just too soft compared to how he was introduced in season 1. He’s constantly nervous in this episode and insecure, as well as walking on eggshells, and even in Oops he wasn’t THIS sensitive. I’m all for characters struggling and being kicked down but it has to make sense and not feel forced, and once again it feels like Viv is trying way to hard to make the characters she once introduced as snarky assholes to uwu innocent babies. I refuse to believe Fizz was actually INTIMIDATED by this random geeky imp who insulted him, as well as the fish ladies whom he was weirdly nice and welcoming to. It’s also weird seeing how uncomfortable/nervous he was around his fans when I thought the whole point was that he LOVED praise and loved being famous, at least that was season 1 Fizz. Now he feels retconned. Seeing him say “I just need this gig” is weird too, the explanation to why he went through all of this makes no sense, Fizz still has Ozzie and is famous in the Lust ring, and I understand Mammon is his idle but to go through all that abuse for so long for something that could have been so easily avoided feels forced to fit the plot, but it also makes Fizz look dumb.

- There’s confusing lore stuff regarding Mammon and Ozzie, and it makes me realize that Viv should have picked ONE storyline aka ONE Seven Deadly sin to go with Fizz’s story because this is getting mixed up. Fizz acts like if he looses this completion, he looses everything, which confused the heck out of me because no he wouldn’t have? First of all, Ozzie is a fucking powerful sin, how would you loose him? Second, from what we know from season 1, Fizz is a jester who performs at Ozzie’s club. It was Ozzie who built the sex robots across the rings of hell, NOT Mammon, and in season 2 we see that Fizz is under Ozzie’s care and lives in his house. Yet for some weird reason Mammon also represents Fizz and uses him for profit, but it’s not really explained in a way that makes sense, like Love’s art had said in her Fizz redesign video, Fizz’s job is really confusing on what exactly he does. Having both Ozzie and Mammon represent him overcomplicates things and the show did a poor job at explaining how this goes.

- Once again Viv dumps trauma and struggle onto her characters without building it up first. When did Fizz ever give off the impression that he was being controlled or abused, or even that he was so insecure and constantly walked on eggshells to be perfect. In Oops he was happy to be in the spotlight and happy to get the attention, he bragged to Blitz about how successful he was. He seemed happy to perform for Mammon and talked of him highly, and now you’re pulling an Angel Dust situation where he’s expected to be perfect 24/7 and it gets to him emotionally, while also being someone who’s physically and mentally abused. Yet another season 2 episode that wasn’t planned, same as how Millie wanting to feel important wasn’t planned, same as how Stolas seeing Blitz as genuine love wasn’t planned. Different episode, same issues.

- I’m so done with the Hell lore bro, this place officially has no rules and demons can just do anything without consequences. There’s no class system, there’s no rankings, there’s no power dynamics, screw anything that Viv says. There was no fucking reason why Ozzie and Fizz’s relationship needed to be a secret. There was no reason showing Ozzie threatening his workers to not tell anyone about his love life if he was just going to admit it to EVERYONE THE NEXT EPISODE IN FRONT OF ANOTHER SIN ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME— what was the POINT. What is the point of Stolas and Blitz’s conflict. What is the point of Stella being classist. What is the point of these class systems and rules if you can just announce that you technically broke a hell rule and no one gives a fuck and you get off scott free. Mammon telling Ozzie “you’ll regret that” like a cartoon villain doesn’t do anything either. What is he ganna do? Tell Lucifer, the character that canonically won’t appear in HB because the sins won’t appear in HH? If Lucifer rules over the sinners, who the fuck is in charge for the rest of Hell. Where’s the authority? And Mammon is just ganna come back for another episode to give the gang trouble cause lord knows we don’t have enough fucking villains already.

- It feels weird that Ozzie would just sit back while someone whom he knows is a piece of shit is treating his loved one badly. I get he was concerned but you’d think one of the seven deadly sins would have more power and authority.

- I was expecting some big gross bug-like thing to appear when Mammon was transforming into his final form, only for it to the exact same design but with small extra eyes and a spider lower half that isn’t even visible in most shots….GOD VIV.

Watching this episode also made me remind myself that this is supposed to be Hell. Seeing Fizz feel better and stand up for himself was sweet but these soft lessons and morals don’t belong in a show like this, and it’s extra aggravating regarding Viv’s double standard, how she can just pick and choose which characters she wants to be evil and which characters are saints. Overall not anywhere near the worst episode of season 2, but I am officially done with Helluva Boss so-

[wot-notes]

Hi! So I’m wondering about the specifics of Moiraine’s memories being altered during her time with the Aelfinn/Eelfinn. I saw some ppl say she falsely remembered characters abusing her but I don’t remember reading this in the books. I get the why of it heppening (changing memories means more feeding) but I don’t remember what specifically was changed? Is there more in RJ’s notes about her memories being altered?

Hello, anon.

Yes, we have some information about Moiraine's time with the Finns from Robert Jordan's notes.

"Damodred, Moiraine: 13 (1),  ~700, reduced to 66/54, 250-260 …………… “She saw that a man she did not recognize (Moridin) came to see her in her captivity and said she was the wrong one, it must be the other.” “(The Eelfinn) have been rummaging through her experiences, making her relive them in the form of dreams that seem like real life, raping her mind in effect. They concentrated on things that engendered strong emotions, whether love or hate or fear of whatever, so long as it is strong. The point is to feed off the engendered emotion. When repetition dulls the emotion, they would alter the events to make the emotions strong again. They always made these changes in slow increments, just enough to strengthen the emotion again without wasting any. Example: Lan dumped in the pond, first just as it really happened, then he became rougher at it until (he) beat her first, and she was so shocked she could not channel; then he made love to her; then he raped her; the she killed him. Slow progressions through possibilities, however improbable they were in reality, just so long as they intensify the emotions. They could not introduce things outside of her memory – for example, somebody she has never seen – but anything in there already could be rearranged any way they wanted. Example: she could as a grown woman watch her mother (dead before she reached adulthood) plot and execute the murder of her father (who died in battle when she was a child) with a collection of people glimpsed during her travels. There have also been periods where she was brought back to consciousness. Awareness of what is happening also increases the emotional aspects. This is the same thing that was done to Lanfear, until she was “rescued” by Moridin/Ishamael. Moiraine doesn’t know what happened to Lanfear. When they passed through the doorframe ter’angreal, she only clung to consciousness long enough to know that they had both passed through, that the doorfame was burning. When she woke, she was floating in air, and they were explaining to her what was going to happen. To heighten her emotions. She believes she had relived a number of incidents for them before that. While floating she could not speak. One set of memories never had to be heightened or changed. Memories of Thom always produced as strong an emotion every time, just as they were. She thinks they are what have kept her sane. She is surprised that years have not passed. One consequence of what was done to her is the erosion of her ability to channel. With the bracelet angreal, she is stronger than she was before, as strong as Nynaeve, true “Forsaken class”. Without it, she has so little ability left, that if she had come to the Tower that way, the would have taught her enough to be safe and hustled her out before her feet had more than touched down. Without it, it is an effort for her to light a candle; she can pick up a book with effort, but the blow she could deliver would be lighter than her arm could give. She hopes that Lanfear is still somewhere there, undergoing the same fate, or at least that she underwent it long enough to suffer the consequences she herself has. She will recall that once she was brought back to consciousness to find a man there (Ishamael, though she doesn’t know it, already as Moridin), apparently young, tall, muscular, beautifully handsome. She was not the woman the wanted. He wasn’t interested in her at all, and he seemed irritated at having his time wasted, impatient. She was returned to the “sleep” in moments, but she recalls his appearance very clearly; he frightened her for some reason, and maybe because he was part of her memory, as was her fear of him, the snakes(?)/foxes(?) incorporated him into her dreams when they went to making things more complicated for her. The reinforcement, plus the things done in those particular dreams, have increased that fear to the point where she shivers thinking of him and her teeth might chatter if she saw him in the flesh."

This is from RJ’s notes Part 74 by Matt Hatch

Let the Light keep you safe.

LightOne

[lillyspeakz]

Can we get werewolfbur struggling to figure out how to hide himself away so he doesnt hurt someone?

I love myself some werewolfbur…..

Also I’m so sorry, this is basically all plot with very little dialogue-

tw// make-out, angst, hurt comfort, fluff, Wilbur and reader being funny (I think)

-

He knew how people saw his kind. Mean, aggressive, vicious. For centuries they’ve been hunted and killed for things that weren’t their fault, yet who they were made people question it all. They were pinned for blame on every murder that happened in town, being named the “killer dogs”. Wilbur grew up being cautious, things have dialed down a bit since he’s been a kid, yet you never knew who you were going to meet and who knew what.

But, when Wilbur met you, there was a slight moment when he forgot about everyone else, their thoughts about him and his family, and only focused on you. His eyes becoming wide and dilated as he took you in, admiring your smile as you sat next to him, introducing yourself with a bubbly atmosphere. He never understood how quick you befriended him, why you befriended him. He was shy, quiet, the weird kid if you will. Yet you, you took his hand and stood next to him in everything.

As you both continued to grow up, graduating together and getting a shared apartment, you and Wilbur started to get… closer. Closer then what friends should be, and you both knew that. Yet you didn’t complain, rather taking the situation slow and taking strides together.

Random cuddles on the couch, dinner dates, going to each others room when not being able to sleep, dancing in the kitchen. More and more things were happening to your relationship, as more and more things were happening to Wilbur.

He was developing quicker, he became stronger, his urges got easier to resist yet he couldn’t put it off for long. He was becoming something he always feared. With all the stress and confusion and anxiety mixed with love and passion and want….. he eventually snapped.

And not in a mean way or deadly way, but he hid. He didn’t know what to do, so he hid. Away from you, away from his family, away from everyone in the middle of the god forsaken woods where he thought he belong. No, where he knew he belonged. He was going to hurt you one day, or hurt the people around him and he would suffer the consequences and live with that guilt. And he couldn’t- he didn’t want to live with that ache.

You saw the change in Wilbur; his body muscles looked toner, his mood changed dramatically and he became more possessive over everything. Especially you. You knew he was a werewolf, you accidentally found out when you walked in on him naked in the shared bathroom, rubbing dirt off of his face the best he could. The conversation was awkward after, having seen him butt ass naked with dirt covering all of his body, and him not knowing how to explain this to you.

But you weren’t afraid of him like he thought you would be. You almost felt more… protected. Like if you needed help, Wilbur was the person to call. You took the new information and stored it, so for the next time he did transform, you were there to help draw him a warm bath and make him some tea.

But when he had quickly told you he was going out, he never came back. No text, no call, nothing. Just silence filling an empty house. Every time you texted him or called, nothing would go through. Like he damaged his phone.

It was only two days later that you got tired of waiting, rushing over to his parents house, knocking on the door as you played with your hands.

“Hi honey! What’s going on? Where’s Wil?” His mom asked as you rushed inside when she stood to the side. You quickly went to the kitchen and sat down at the dinner table, your leg bouncing in nervousness and stress as you figured out what to say.

Your thoughts were interrupted as a hand was placed on yours. Your eyes darted up and found a warm smile on her face, gentle eyes silently asking you to tell her what was happening.

“It’s Wilbur. I don’t- he’s been acting weird lately and he just left. He hasn’t been back in a couple days and I’m so worried. What if it’s too late and something happened? I know he’s been worried about hurting me when he’s fully grown into everything an-“

“Darling. It’s all ok. Take a deep breath real quick, good job. I’m not supposed to be telling you this because I promised him I would be quiet but, you deserve some answers.” She finished as she nudged her head towards the woods the house stood outside of. Looking at her with furrowed eyebrows, hesitant about going, she nodded at you with a smile. You got up and opened the back door as she watched you walk into the dark greenery, her head snapping behind her as she felt a hand on her shoulder.

“She’s a good one.” Wil’s father declares as his mother placed her own over his hand, interlocking them as she did.

“Yeah she is. I just hope he sees that.”

-

As you walked deeper into the woods, the sky becoming darker and the trees getting closer, you saw a flicker of light in the distance. You slowly walked over to the source, stepping over a small creek as you found the man himself.

He looked rough. Bags under his eyes as he threw rocks and sticks into the fire. His back was against a rock as a blanket wrapped around his body. There was a small cabin like house behind him, which you guessed that’s where he’s been cooped up.

As you walked closer, silently to not startle him, hiding behind a tree as you watch him in the moment, grateful for his mother and grateful he’s alive-

“Don’t try to hide love. You should know that I could smell you from a mile away.” He turned his head towards you, your head peaking out as you nervously smiled at him and stepped out. “I see mother dearest ruined my hiding spot-“

“Well I came here first so don’t blame her.” You quickly defended the women as he smiled at you, making you aware that he knew. “Stalking me much?”

“No.. more like you’re loud when you talk and your stomps against the leaves didn’t help.” Wilbur teased you as he smirked at your gapped mouth.

“Fuck you! I was quiet as can be mister ‘I have super hearing’” you jokes back as he laughed at your statement. It felt nice, to laugh with him again. To be in his space and see him ok, all worry draining from you as you sat next to you once he patted the space. “Why’d you leave? Wil- you left and didn’t come back! I thought you were-“

“Baby, you know why I left. I know you do.” Wilbur whispered towards you as he grabbed your hand in his. “I’m not happy your here right now either, you shouldn’t me near me-“

“Wilbur! I have told you this, you won’t hurt me. I know you won’t. And if you tried, it’s ok. We’ll work on it. That’s what I’m here for, don’t leave me out of this, ok? I signed up for this, now I do my part.” You told the man, tears filling his eyes as you exposed everything about him that made him scared of himself.

Hurting you was the last thing he wanted to do, and the stories he read didn’t help his thoughts. The tragic tales of his kind killing and hurting people, and he knew that was before they all learned how to control and be one with everyone, but he also knew there was a possibility that he could do something.

“I’m scared of myself. How can you be so sure that i won’t do anything when I don’t trust myself? I just- fuck.. why did this happen to me?!” Wilbur cried desperately as you brought him into your chest, holding him and cooing at him the best you could in his state.

“Wil listen. I trust you because you’re still the Wilbur I fell in love with. No matter what transformations you have, no matter what happens, you are still Wil. That shy kid in the back of the class that no one knew, until I had the greatest idea ever to sit next to and talk to. If that isn’t enough to trust yourself, i don’t know what is.” You’re words came out as a whisper, keeping the conversation between the two of you, making sure other creatures of the night weren’t eavesdropping.

Wilbur sat up from your hold, hands slipping to cup his face as you took him in. Brown eyes blown out in confusion yet love. His body slowly relaxing as you wiped away his tears. Your touch electric against his skin as he shifted closer to you. He didn’t know exactly what he was doing, but the next thing he knew his lips were on yours in a slow kiss. The kiss was full of love and far too much passion to let it go ignored. Gasps and groans were exchanged into each others mouths as your hands ran through his hair and his own exploring your body.

The kiss quickly heated up, you back now against the rock as Wilbur slotted himself in between your legs. You pulled away slightly, Wilbur’s lips chasing yours as you giggled at his whines, playing with his strands as you did.

“Come home.” It wasn’t an ask, it was a demand. A simple demand that Wilbur would soon follow, but for now-

“Always, but after this…”

taglist; @number1wilburfan @cloverlilly91 @horny-p0et @charlidog @lizziehatters-teacards @rottenr0ckets (lowkey just added random people- if you want to be added, dm or comment!)

[sobx9]

Ok, here’s another rant:

I think it’s such a waste that many OG characters were never developed fully, were reduced to few scenes or disappeared all together. Instead, the creators keep introducing new characters that fans simply don’t care about. And I understand that some actors might not wanted to return or had scheduling conflicts, but I don’t believe that was the issue with all of them.

Rose : she was such an interesting character. They didn’t go the “naive” younger stupid wife trope. She was just as cunning as her husband. So what’s her story now? How does she deal with the death of her husband? Why does she believe Sarah killed him? Is she manipulating Wheezie against her siblings? What measures is she taking to be able to keep all the inheritance to herself?

Wheezie: probably the biggest lost. She was a know it all privileged child who went from having a perfect rich family to her brother being a psycho, her dad getting killed and Sarah being blamed for his death. And she’s what? 16? That’s such a vulnerable age. How’s she doing with all that change? Does she really believe Sarah killed her father? Is she not dying to get to the bottom of all of it? Is she blindly trusting Rose?

Mike and Anna: They spend so much time fighting with their daughter about her future and now what? They just give up? She was still a minor when she returned from El Dorado. They were suddenly totally ok with her being out of the house? And even when she turned 18, they didn’t want a relationship with her anymore? Why is Mike suddenly defending JJ when in his eyes, JJ’s responsible for his daughter going rogue. Why is he helping them escape? Is he not worried about where is his daughter going on a stolen police boat?

Luke : He’s such a complicated character. But the flashbacks portrayed him as such a good guy, so what happened?

Barry: fan favourite. Why is he almost non existent?

Kelce: is there a point to him or is he just meant to be a Kook villain for the sake of it?

Topper: why hasn’t he changed at all? Is there no consequence to burning a house down? Or almost running the Pogues over? The actor kept saying we will see Topper develop more in season 4 but did we?

Shoupe : is such a repetitive character. He hates the Pogues, he doesn’t trust them even though they are always right at the end. Him being on their side would be a nice change. But no, he only let them go to Morocco because his career is tanking, not because he believes them.

Deputy Plumb : what happened to her? Did I miss something or did she just disappeared without an explanation?

And also let’s talk about all the characters that are only mentioned? All the mothers? Sarah’s, John B’s, JJ’s (you know the random girlfriend of Luke’s who took care of him when he was little for some reason) ? They would make for an interesting plot lines!!

No instead of this, we get random Pirates!! and yet another awful dad. And they wonder why people don’t watch the show for the plot.

[bibibbon]

One thing that makes me laugh about Hori's world building is the question are heroes allowed to kill, since Hori is a coward who can't decide, it disrupts the world building to an absurd degree. If Izuku had aimed to kill Tomura from the start, then Hori's narrative would have rewarded him. Izuku would still have OFA, possibly Ochako as his girlfriend and applauded as a great hero. The standard hero ending. But Izuku tries to save Tomura and fails miserably and is forgotten by his friends and the public. What is Hori trying to tell us? Kill then ask questions later? Based on the story Izuku should have taken Gran Torino's advice, he would be sad in the short term but he would have been happier and forgotten about the LOV.

Hi @agentterios 👋

MHA'S whole narrative messaging around the subject of "are heroes allowed to kill?" Is presented in an incredibly confusing and unsatisfactory manner.

Horikoshi doesn't directly address the question however, he does indirectly address it by introducing a variety of elements to his story surrounding the question itself.

You have things like:

The development of nomu intelligence. By the nomu's developing basic human intelligence this makes it so that the line between being human and a nomu so incredibly slim that if well developed this plot point could of been tied to heteamorphis discrimation with a side of people taking the route of one has to look human and another side pointing out that humans don't have a specific look in mha. There could also be more development with endings point of the only difference between nomu's and humans is that one is a puppet. This would make civilians question societies expectations for what a human is and would the heroes kill them next because they are comfortable with killing nomu's who are almost like them

Hawks and twice. I have talked about hawks and twice a numerous amount of times but my point still stands hawks could of saved twice instead of killing him. Yes, hawks did try in the beginning of the fight and his mission to semi try and save twice as his intention was to never kill him until dabi intervened and hawks lost it reverting to what the hpsc taught him and taking out the danger infront of him. Now, hawks should of had more introspection on this decision realising that he could of saved twice yet didn't and couldn't because he viewed himself not to be fast or capable enough to stop twice and chose to revert to instincts and the hpsc teachings of killing to dispose of the threat. Hawks could easily link his experiences and give advice to izuku about shigaraki. Hawks also needed more public consequences about killing twice because why the hell is the public more concerned about hawk's villain father then the fact that he killed a man? Was this to show where societies priorities are at? How messed up they are? And if it was why wasn't this brought back up?

Lady nagant. We needed more of lady nagant in general. The way she was used and created to be a killing machine. The way she only killed those who didn't fit the status quo even izuku's own reaction to her killing needs to be studied. The way izuku didn't have much of a reaction to her killing people but he had a huge reaction to finding out that she specifically killed the previous minister of the hpsc makes me think that hero society has a huge belief thay certain lives are much more important than others and that ranking is never fully explained but it seems like the outcasts of society like twice and the people lady nagant killed aren't important and wouldn't evoke a huge reaction to people because they don't care for them and hero society has infulenced that belief.

Izuku and shigaraki . This is the biggest element in the story and the most underdeveloped in my opinion. Why does izuku want to save shigaraki? Why does shigaraki only want destruction? Everyone encouraged izuku to kill shigaraki and believed that his death would be the only way to stop everything and in a way they were right. Shigaraki had to die for this to be over and it just seemed so badly done. Izuku gets labeled as a murder but also praised (barely) for his actions. Its so weird, how am I supposed to expect that society is going to rebuild itself to a better version when it ended in the most repetitive and toxic way by killing and upholding the status quo.

Endeavour and his aggressiveness. Enji has multiple records of flipping attempted murder whether that be him viewing vigilantes and villains as objects to be easily killed like nomu's or the fact that he cannocially has many reports of property damages.

Dabi's fate. My point stands that death would of been mercy for poor dabi. So are there cases when killing should happen or should all villains be forced to live even if it has to be through horrible circumstances like dabi's? At this point it seemed like toga's death was a better ending then dabi's.

In conclusion, mha's status quo was never really broken or rebuilt into a better version and the discussion surrounding the question should heroes kill? Was never properly answered or changed.

The series begins with the answer that Yes! Heroes can kill but they can only kill villains and rejects of society while keeping all of this away from the public eye. However, if it is in the public eye just dehumanise the victim, its not like hero society didn't continually threaten villains with all the graffiti in toga's House or the publics reaction to dabi.

(Ps I do think that izuku was handed the short stick and would of suffered either way. Even with the horrible execution the series make it clear that izuku chose a thorny, hard path but what's worse is that the path doesn't seem to be worth it or hasn't changed anything)

Also izuku's whole arc doesn't depend on him having a love interest and a quirk because he could be a hero without those things it's the execution that sucks

[kustas]

I'd love to hear your hashtag wha critical thoughts about recent developments if you feel like sharing them :)

I'll preface this with saying that for this answer I will not be making a distinction between my personal tastes and what is "objectively worst". The TLDR is I have felt like WHA's been dipping in quality since book 8 approximately.

One of WHA's strong points is its ongoing theme of accessibility, via its premise of how magic is purposefully restricted from people, and via its characters, mostly the kids, who showcase various life issues and allow the story to talk about how to solve them. Disability is an important one and was at the center of book 8, which is one of my favorites. You get to see Tartah and Coco work together for a goal (=making their friend a better mobility aid), and by doing so they brainstorm the why and then how which allows for complex notions to be carried out and explained to the reader. Cute story with touching implications that flows well. This quote in particular sums up so well what WHA is "about"

After this we transition rather brutally to the latest ongoing arc of the Silver Eve. This arc has been ongoing for years now, and three volumes, making it the longest so far, I'll come back to that, putting a star on it [*]. It delves further into aspects of accessibility the series had talked about before - access to magic, access to healthcare, and poverty. This is where this blog's namesake gets relevant. Custas is a kid who was already poor, who got badly wounded ending up disabled, and who because of that was stuck in a situation with no good endings: he can't make money in his state and needs money to get out of his state. On top of this gets added magic, and comes back the question at the center of WHA: Is it wrong to restrict the use of magic, and how?

After the arc is kickstarted by Custas getting his share of spilled beans of magical secrets revealed, enter immediatly strong players via ch.48's introduction of the Wise Ones and the king himself. The political aspect of how the world works was not mentioned before. Great chapter, interesting stuff all around, personally answered much of my questions. Immediatly after this chapter the focus in 49 fully switches to the Knights and their job, and the rest of the chapter is dedicated to a story of a sexual assault survivor and how she made it. It's a surprising topic to see pop up and it's handled with the respect it deserves. Chapter 50 goes back to Coco and her troubles. This concludes book 9 and...it makes for a Lot of stuff to deal with. Put a Second star on that. [**]

Addressing those stars before we move on:

[*] This arc is taking forever. WHA's arcs in earlier volumes only took a few chapters. This arc has taken three books thus far and I doubt we have reach its climax yet. I personally don't like it and it raises an issue the series did not have before: Will the payoff be worth it? Where it is worrying for the future of the series is that manga serialized regularly tend to up the stakes progressively until the end and it might...not work out.

[**] Too many things at once unresolved. This has already had consequences with the progressive vanishing of something WHA was once excellent at: sneakily introducing elements that get used a few arcs later in important ways. The manga has been, for a while now, accumulating unfinished plot threads via not answering the questions it opens and instead adding more and more characters. Jumping from a group of characters to another was not an issue beforehand because unlike this arc's, chapters took place at different times and/or in totally different places. The Silver Eve is both set in time AND place, making it hard to follow because all sideplot happen at once.

Book 10 continues to accumulate ongoing unresolved plots with: the royal family being shady, Agott's struggles irt. her mother, Dagda running around confused and tracked by the Knights, Custas and Ininia jumping Tartah and Coco, and Galga's accident + relationship.

Book 11 does the same adding Agott's crush on Coco, the actual festival, Jujy's inner troubles...Funnily enough, this page is a good summary of the ongoing mess.

Instead of solving all of this stuff we instead get stakes ramped up to 100 with the introduction of what I can only describe as a kaiju attack. As much as I love the horror and drama element, given what was already going on, this does NOT strike me as a good decision.

Now, we go back to the three latest chapters. These follow the same subplot: Custas' faction change and Coco's attempts to save him. This subplot has, to me, a whole lot of issues. Way earlier on in the story, even before Dagda's ambush, I had issues with how Custas was portrayed in relation to his anger, being drawn weirdly spooky for...a frustrated poor kid? Others have also pointed out it wasn't great to have one of your only dark skinned characters be a slum kid. Obviously given my handle on here, I am still a huge fan of the character. After chapter 45 (included), I already found it a bit tasteless to have so much horrors piled on him. WHA is a rather unsubtle series at time which I really, really dislike. Sure, makes it hard to miss the point, but when you're dealing with sensitive topics it can fall into touchy territory fast...

In the latest chapters, Coco appears to save Custas, the "how" part of her plan still being a mystery. Meanwhile, a timelooped and very confused Dagda looks for him, accompanied by Lulucy, who knows them both and is unaware of their ties with forbidden magic. She ends up telling him to abandon the faction he sided with by literally ripping off the brim of his hat with her magic. Meanwhile, Lulucy starts attacking him on sight. I have so, so so many issues with all of this.

Coco's story is about knowing the system in place sucks. Custas' story is about being screwed over by the same system. The story explicitly points those two out as mirrors: Custas is what would have happened to Coco without the right support. Coco's unique POV on the pointed hat witches shows us many prior times they are not the good guys. Hell, Custas himself talks about how the pointed hat's magical gatekeeping prevented him from living a better life.

To me, the point was supposed to be: the system in place doesn't work, which results in people in need not getting help. We loop back to the accessibility I started off mentioning. Yes, before the current system, bad things happened - but the current system is still allowing other bad things to happen now. So...why is Coco pushing Custas to join the pointed hats and abandon the faction he sided with? If a character who was upholding the status quo was doing so it would make sense (like Beldaruit) but Coco as a main character exists partially to point out why the pointed hats are not good. She demonstrates it to the reader via what happens to her AND knows it as a character. It comes off as inconsistent and frankly makes little sense.

Speaking of inconsistencies...why does Lulucy not recognize Custas, a child she's known for a while? Why does the young prince, introduced as a suspicious character on behalf of his family's unknown goals, become a helpful selfless little guy? Why are the Knights, originally introduced as an antagonistic faction because they are a milita enforcing the status quo, suddenly portrayed as fighting for good as a bunch of remarkable individuals?

Ah yes, the cops. I'm going to address something really fast about them. It makes me frankly uncomfortable the author chose their faction to evoke the two very sensitive topics of sexual assault and homophobia. I think the way those topics themselves were handled without greater context was surprisingly good, and it's touching in the first place to see an author who not only cares, but uses her series, destined partially for younger readers, to explain why she cares. However, Witch Hat is a very black and white series: the bad guys are bad and ugly and you should dislike them, the good guys are good and you should like them. There are some exceptions but who have been losing steam as of late. While originally introduced as a group of individuals who act in problematic ways for their day job, the Knights have slowly lost that bad guy flavor to become a fun band of colleagues/friends. They are law enforcers who enforce unjust laws, but it seems that the author's not on board with people hating them because this is the second time she gave a Knight a tragic backstory that makes them more sympathetic to the reader. First of: I do not see what's to redeem about them if the story's about changing an unjust system, so I don't get the necessity to make them nicer. Secondly: at least in my country (which has legal gay marriage and notably less sexist than Japan) law enforcement is renowned to not help sexual assault victims or gay people. The Knights Moralis are fantasy cops and cops, in real life, tend to abandon people who need their help regarding those two issues - if not worsen them, and count a majority of sexists/homophobes among their ranks. Making your unsubtly cop stand-in faction have both characters with those issues comes off as at least a poor decision if not bad taste.

(big words from the guys introduced in the story by arresting a bunch of children who were on a rescue mission for a misunderstanding they would not have cared about. Die idgaf)

Some more surface level things:

The art. The first books of WHA are noticeably more complex in their style featuring more reaslistic proportions for the characters. Latest arc has seen art lose some of the decorative "classic" flair in the linework and characters looking simpler and stylized to look way...Younger? In a way I do not like. Yes, it's expected for manga series to see their style evolve. I also want to make this clear: I consider the pace imposed on manga artists to be inhumane and if Shirahama had decided to draw her manga as stick figures to work less I'd be down for it.

The dialog. While WHA is very in your face (you may call it preachy) the dialog in the latest chapters especially Coco's feels off. A 12yo wouldn't give off speeches about the world in the heat of battle. When it's a calm scene between two characters discussing a deep thing, sure. When it's an epic public adult figure (see: Dean), sure. I'd prefer having the kids talk like kids.

Goddamn the story has become less nuanced and subtle over the time. Scenes like Qifrey getting confronted by Tartah post mindwiping his grandpa owned. The story's current "morally grey" moments just don't do it for me anymore. No, I don't want the witch politicians of the faction you established as a mistake beforehand to continue. I don't care if the fantasy cops are offended by a grieving husband pointing out they suck. I kinda wish he'd thrown hands actually

So...yeah, that's about it. While WHA's plot beats has always been impossible for me to predict, I don't know if I can trust where the story is going anymore. The fans eating it up confuse me and I might even get hate for posting this. Truth is, while some aspects have always been more or less present in the series since the start, I've felt like the really good bits that balanced it out have been going extinct. I don't know why and it's none of my business to. Some friends have pointed out we might be reaching a point where the author ran out of pre-written story and is now improvising. What's a bit concerning to me is I've also noticed she's way less active on social media, where she used to post regular bonus material for the series, this has stopped and I hope it's not because she lost her interest for the series or way worst, is overworked. Given the conditions for mangaka it wouldn't be impossible and like previously stated, I am of the opinion that no comic book series is worth putting their author's life, health and free time down. It's more important than me disliking the comic.

And regarding Custas - him joining the atelier to study with Qifrey would not be a good ending, no matter what the fandom says. It won't be cute found family. Custas has a family who's unique member wouldn't be able to follow him as a witch. That ending would separate a very traumatized child from the only adult he has in his life that gives him unconditional love and support. Custas needs to not be seen as a criminal so the rest of his life won't be over, and also a whole bunch of cash.

I'm not excited for the anime.