#in terms of overarching plot at least

[paleode-ology]

alrighty after today's tmagp ep i'm starting to think that it might be time for me to learn what happened in s5 of tma,,,,, I never listened to it and idk if I want to, i might just read the transcripts (faster) or summaries on the wiki (MUCH faster) but with all the name-dropping it's starting to seem like there's probably some relevant information that i'm missing out on atm

[sailorsoons]

SUMMARY: The Syndicates of Hyperion are at war. The Kim and Yong families have forged a fragile alliance against the long-reigning Choi Syndicate. But in a world ruled by shifting loyalties, ruthless ambition, and calculated betrayal, power changes hands as quickly as lives are lost. These are the stories of those caught in the deadly web of the Syndicate, where survival is never guaranteed. And victory comes at a price.

COLLECTION DETAILS: This collection contains individual fics with each member of SVT paired with a different reader that occur in the same universe/AU and timeline. Each story is a standalone, but three of them do have a connected/overarching plot. You do not need to read all of them to understand what's going on, and all of the fics can be read as standalone one shots.

RAITING: 18+ Minors are strictly prohibited from engaging in and reading this content. It contains explicit content and any minors discovered reading or engaging with this work will be blocked immediately.

COLLECTION WARNINGS: Criminal behavior, morally gray characters, murder, depictions of violence and murder, general violence associated with mafia/criminal activity, recreational drug sale and use, depictions and mentions of death, recreational drinking and drug use - each individual fic will be heavily tagged and warned appropriately.

MOODBOARDS: Soonyoung ▸ Hansol ▸ Chan ▸ Seungkwan ▸ Minghao ▸ Jeonghan ▸ Jihoon ▸ Mingyu / Wonwoo ▸ Seokmin ▸ Junhui ▸ Joshua ▸ Seungcheol

PLAYLISTS: Soonyoung ▸ Hansol ▸ Chan ▸ Seungkwan ▸ Minghao ▸ Jeonghan ▸ Jihoon ▸ Mingyu / Wonwoo ▸ Seokmin ▸ Junhui ▸ Joshua ▸ Seungcheol

NAVIGATE: MAIN M. LIST | ASK

HYPERION CITY POLICE DATABASE SERVER #192220 CHOI SYNDICATE FILES

A C C E S S P E N D I N G . . . G R A N T E D

DOWNLOADING BABY.exe . . . READ FILE

FILE NOTES: Soonyoung has been in your life for as long as you can remember. You haven’t spoken since your wedding to someone who isn’t him, but when you uncover your husband’s plans to turn against your family, you don’t know who else to call. 

DOWNLOADING VENGEANCE.exe . . . READ FILE

FILE NOTES: You always knew you were different from a young age. The only person who has ever been able to understand you is Vernon. When things take a turn for the Choi Syndicate, your long-term relationship is put to the test.

DOWNLOADING CHERRY SOURS.exe . . . READ FILE

FILE NOTES: Nothing in your life ever comes easy. Not family, not money, and certainly not jobs to pay the endless stack of bills. The only thing easy is the smiles you give Chan when he comes into your convenience store at the same time every Saturday to buy his cherry sours. And then one day you run into him where you're not supposed to, and everything changes.

DOWNLOADING STREET DEMON.exe . . . FILE UNAVAILABLE

FILE NOTES: You've been street racing since you could reach the pedal of a car - it's the only thing you've ever been good at. When a rival decides they're tired of losing to you, Seungkwan steps in to show he's more than just a street racer.

DOWNLOADING TIL DEATH.exe ... FILE UNAVAILABLE

FILE NOTES: As the heir to one of the most powerful businesses under the Choi Syndicate, you’ve always known your marriage would be arranged, not chosen. So when your family announces your engagement to Minghao, it comes as no shock. Minghao, however, is full of surprises, each one of them more deadly than the last.

DOWNLOADING OMEERTA.exe . . . FILE UNAVAILABLE

FILE NOTES: Omertà (n) /ˌōmerˈtä,ōˈmərdə/ - code of silence, honor, and conduct that emphasizes remaining silent when questioned by authorities or outsiders. After your brother's death, you break omertà and betray your family in the worst way possible to become Yoon Jeonghan's knife in the dark.

DOWNLOADING CORROSIVE.exe . . . FILE UNAVAILABLE

FILE NOTES: Trying to unravel the Syndicates that run the city isn't what Seokmin ever dreamed he'd be doing. Turns out he's good at it. At least until he meets you and everything he knows about the city's criminal empires is turned on its head.

DOWNLOADING KEROSINE.exe . . . FILE UNAVAILABLE

FILE NOTES: Jihoon knew growing up he would be expected to practice law like his mother, protecting the assets and the associates of the Choi Syndicate. He's had no problem doing that so far - until he gets you as a client.

DOWNLOADING BELONG.exe . . . FILE UNAVAILABLE

FILE NOTES: Most people don’t understand your relationship with Mingyu and Wonwoo. They don't need to. What they do need to understand is that the three of you belong to one another, and you'd do anything to keep it that way.

DOWNLOADING GIN & TONIC.exe . . . FILE UNAVAILABLE

FILE NOTES: There is little benefit to working the underground fighting ring that belongs to the Choi Syndicate besides good pay. Another one? Getting to watch Junhui in the cage most nights and serving him his gin and tonic after he wins.

DOWNLOADING DEAD TO ME.exe . . . FILE UNAVAILABLE

FILE NOTES: You and Joshua ended things on a terrible note and you haven't seen him since, doing your best to avoid him - that is until he comes to your untimely and most annoying rescue.

DOWNLOADING MENAGERIE.exe . . . FILE UNAVAILABLE

FILE NOTES: Choi Seungcheol has been struggling since he stepped into his father's role leading the family syndicate. Nothing has been easy, fighting a war against both known and unknown enemies. You're easy though, making all of his troubles float away. And then those troubles come knocking on your door.

[saveahorserideaneddie]

(popping back for 0.2 seconds to give my thoughts on the episode- this is a long post so buckle up lmao but i promise it’s not crashing out or raging i tried to be as calm and collected as i could)

I’m going to confess something:

If a main character had to die on the show… Bobby would have been my choice.

Now before you run to my replies to get upset and accuse me of hating Bobby- let me clarify that that doesn’t mean I WANTED him to actually die…

But

If it needed to be done (it didn’t but walk with me) I understand the choice to have it be Bobby. I won’t spend too much time going into why I feel that way or what my intricate thoughts and feelings are on why he would be my choice, but instead I am going to spend time explaining why I am angry about his death.

To put it simply: It reads as cheap shock value.

It feels like Tim wanted an excuse to shake things up, and he dove off the deep end to do so without stopping and really thinking about what it would mean to the show and to the fans. Like I said, I think MCD’s are completely unnecessary in this universe and trying to throw one in now (regardless of who) only risks losing audience members who A) feel connected to that character and lose interest now that they are gone, and B) lose the assurance and comfort knowing that at the end of the day, these characters will get through what happens. That was the charm of this show, that no matter how much they go through, they will always come out on top in the end. That is no longer a reality here, and it’s a decision that- unless somehow reversed within the next two episodes (which is very unlikely)- will only negatively impact a show that was consistently climbing in terms of ratings and numbers, and didn’t need a shakeup to maintain interest.

It all feels unnecessary and out of nowhere- a sentiment that could provide a unique and interesting opportunity to explore those feelings within the show.

That, unfortunately, is not the case with ep 16. From start to finish, there was an emotional pall over the entire episode, but that feeling of grief was left underutilized within the context of the episode, all because Tim Minear felt the need to once again dedicate an entire episode to a side plot that didn’t even provide any real substance to the overarching story. We see Athena and Chimney both struggling to cope with their grief, but the rest of the main cast merely feel like background actors in their own lives.

For Hen and Buck it feels like they’re both just having a crappy day (at the most) and nothing more. Eddie (who was blatantly ignored by the show since the beginning of this arc) is once again cast to the side, his grief and emotion being boiled down to a handful of throwaway lines that don’t even begin to signal what the relationship between him and Bobby had been for years. Ravi- who for once had finally started being treated like a member of a team he had been with for years- is now back to being an afterthought; his grief and emotions barely making an appearance beyond the end of ep 15.

The potential to showcase the 118 grieving as a whole was completely bypassed by the direction Minear decided to take the episode. We could have explored Eddie’s complex feelings for not having been there, and the guilt he feels for that. We could have explored Hen losing the only captain who ever really believed in her when everyone else had no expectations of her success (especially with Gerrard being back). We could have expanded on Buck’s seeming stoicism and how he might be repressing and bottling up his emotions (something that wasn’t even really hinted at). We could have seen Ravi feeling isolated as the person who had known Bobby the least amount of time out of the whole team.

All of this could have been done as a subplot to Athena going through the process of grieving and moving on- something that would have made the ending all the more poignant, and would have been a fitting end both for Bobby as a character, and for the three episode arc that focused on the 118 as a family.

But instead, we got a flashback to a call we’ve never heard mentioned before, but supposedly had some major impact on Bobby meaning Athena spent the entire episode just ignoring her grief (in a way that didn’t even bother to explore the complexities of the denial stage of grief- it legitimately was as if this were just another case until the end). And on top of that, we have been taken all the way back to where we began the season:

Bobby’s gone, Gerrard’s back, Eddie’s storyline is at a standstill- (buck and tommy are potentially rekindling their relationship?)

We are quite literally back to where the season started, so I beg the question- What was the point of it all. Aside from a few minor outliers, there has been almost zero character development in the main cast so far, and we only have two episodes left to actually do something that would make this season not feel like a colossal waste of time.

And when you pair that with the fact that next episode seemingly is once again pushing Eddie to the side (like eps 14-16) and creating another random non-issue plot for Hen (like ep 13), I wonder if we will actually be anywhere different by the end of the season, or if they are simply going to just cram another random shock value twist in out of nowhere.

All that said, we can only wait and see what happens, but for now we are stuck with an episode that not only confirmed that Tim Minear is tone deaf to his audience, but also did not give Bobby/Peter’s farewell to the past 8 years the respect and reverence it deserves, and to me that is almost worse than Bobby actually being dead.

And with that, I am returning to my mental health hiatus- I will most likely be back by the start of the summer hiatus depending on how things are going for me irl (rehearsals are in full swing, im in the middle of a job search, and i am about to start flight attendant training ive been BUSY 🙃🫠), but i just wanted to give my thoughts on this ep 💕💕

love you all, please drink some water, eat something, and take care of yourselves- this all sucks but at the end of the day it’s just a show and isn’t worth making yourself sick over <3

[your-unfriendlyghost]

Some more Dally Mark & Tex au thoughts

just so y’all know I think of the dally mark and tex au as a sitcom, w/like a few vague overarching plots (like Bryon and Mark re-connecting, Dally learning to not hate being an older brother, Mason learning he’s allowed to be a kid, etc) but mainly just hijinks. Here’s a few more thoughts:

-Season one would focus on Dally and Mark learning to co-exist- Mark would be fifteen/sixteen-ish and Dally would be nineteen. They’d clash a lot in the first few episodes. Dally’s arc would be about learning to be more patient with Mark, and Mark’s arc would be about how he has to be a little more law-abiding or at least Dally-abiding if he wants to survive. -There’d be a season 1 episode where Mark implies that Dally’s gone soft, and so Dally gets a bit insecure and hides it by amping up his crimes until Mark genuinely gets stressed and has to stop him as like a role-reversal thing 😭

-There would also be an episode where Mark tries to fit in with the Curtis gang but just can't, and it’s both angsty and comedic. Like he tries to help at the DX with Pony and Stevepop, but just fucks things up, stuff like that.

-Season two would introduce Tex and Mason, and thus the fic Hail Mary begins. Just yk Mark’s also there lol.

-Cole Collins would be a reoccurring antagonist, because he thinks Dally is a terrible influence

-There’d be an episode where Dally and Mark have to leave to do something, and so they leave Tex and Mace at the Curtis’s place with Darry, Soda, and Ponyboy (if he’s not in college yet? Idk)

-There’d also be an episode where Dally and Tim Shepard compete over who has the better kid siblings- it’d be all overly-serious and Mason’s the only one who thinks it’s stupid

-There would be a running gag of Mark trying to mildly inconvenience Bryon- like leaving nails in his driveway or driving up and down his street really loudly at night or hiring Curly Shepard to steal his homework and whatever. And once Tex is added to the mix Mark just uses Tex as more ammo for bugging Bryon.

-By the end of season 3 Mark and Bryon are back on speaking terms but very hesitantly

-Season four would revolve around Pop McCormick coming back and hating Dally (it’s mutual) and Tex (now fourteen years old, it’s been three-ish years) realizing that Dally’s his brother not his cousin and Pop isn’t his dad and Tex is having a real crisis

-So the events of the book “Tex” sorta happen, and Dally, Mason, Mark, and Johnny all try to kill Lem

-The eventual finale would be Mason going off to college finally and everything working out okay

There’s so much that would happen in between all this stuff, obviously, but yk, this is what I have rn lol. Definitely gimme your thoughts/ ideas on it ‘cos I love this AU, man

[hiding-under-the-willow]

we haven’t seen much about beef … what is he up to?

Honestly. Beef is just kind of vibing! Which he probably deserves after everything else I've put him through in my other writing lol

I've got at least one chapter planned dealing with i guess his like. Legacy as an artist? Early on in the fic. I'll probably do one diving more into his like. Social/Familial life later on. But his backstory isn't as dramatic as some of the others so it's not something that needs to be really dwelled on or effect the overarching story super often. So really he just gets to be a fun member of the cast. I have a few silly ensemble plots I want him to be prominent in :]

In terms of like. Personality/characterization. I think he's kind of socially awkward and aloof, used to being in situations where people are very judgemental and clique-y. Just. Guy who acts like he doesn't care but absolutely cares so much, and when it shows, it /shows/. Probably a little bit of a people pleaser deep down, kind of sensitive to rejection or critique. Type of guy who when you look at one of his paintings he's like arms crossed avoiding eye contact "I don't even care if you like it, it's not for you." Glancing at you out of the corner of his eye to see how you react "..." "you do like it though right?" And then is surprised if you do actually like it. Very "There's no world in which you get me to do that." "..." "but I mean. If you really think we should..." if he's talking to the right person. Big appreciator of nature, total animal lover, fond of cows in particular, painted them a lot. Uh. Probably hangs around Wels, Keralis, and X mostly. Also Cleo. Cleo is another character who spends a lot of time just vibing in the au and I feel like they'd have fun standing in the corner being catty together during some of the sillier plots

[algebralien-tlod-au]

Welcome to the Algebralien The Land of Decay (TLoD) AU blog.

Introduction Post

This blog is intended for 16+ users, as the comic delves into themes of violence, blood, death, body horror, and dark themes.

What's this AU about?

Well, I (corv) have been wanting to write my own apocalypse themed osc comic for a while, but I didn't exactly know how I wanted it to be formatted in terms of story and content, so I made this AU as a form of testing the waters.

Basically, this is if the algebraliens were written to be in the TLoD setting, this will not relate to TLoD's or BFDI's canon in any way. I just wanted to write these characters in an apocalyptic setting.

The overarching story can be summarized in a basic sentence: algebraliens survive in a harsh post apocalyptic land. I don't want to give too much of the story away. :]

Characters (and how they're written)

Again, I don't want to give too much of the story and plot away, but the story does at least involve One (Deceiver), Two (Charmer), Three (Brute), Four (Wildcard), Six (Claws), and Seven (Weasel); they are banded together in a clan.

I plan to delve into adding more in-depth characterization of each character here, not just leaving them with their simple character traits, while still keeping the basics of their character.

For example, for Two (Charmer), they are written to still have the snark and edge that they had in earlier TPOT episodes as I really liked that character aspect of them (plus they don't get bullied out of their snark by 20+ contestants because TPOT never took place in this AU).

Chapters

There are 3 planned out chapters, as I don't want this to be a long series or anything, just basically as a demo for what I really want to write with my own characters.

Each chapter gets darker than the last.

Other Notes + Extras

In the comic, the characters are rarely if ever called by their numeric name (for a reason) and go by their clan names (the names in parentheses next to their names). If you refer to the characters from this comic, you can call them either Four (Wildcard), Wildcard, Four TLoD AU, or Wildcard TLoD AU (or whichever one works for you, I don't mind).

Their clan names have reasonings behind them.

There will be more than just the listed characters.

When will new pages be released? Idk man this is just a side story I want to write. It'll be out when it'll be out.

Once the comic finishes, I'll open the ask box on this account where you can either ask questions or request a doodle from this AU. Other than that, nothing else will be posted here.

Thank you so much for checking this all out and being patient for the eventual release of new pages!

[rozemynelovebot]

Connection between duchy cape colors and the gods

Something I noticed about some of the most major-character duchies in AOAB is how I think you could argue that their cape colors correlate to the Supreme Gods and the Eternal Five respectively. The duchies that I consider to be the most frequently mentioned/closely involved in the story are Ehrenfest, Dunkelfelger, Alexandria (both on its own and also in holding the position of former Ahrensbach), Klassenberg, Drewanchel, and the Sovereignty. I think that the general outlook of these duchies or their major characters can be pretty easily tied to the god/goddess that their respective cape color correlates to, which I’ll explain further below-

—

The Sovereignty: Black

The divine color of the God of Darkness. Just as the God of Darkness is King of the Gods, the Zent rules the Sovereignty. The AOAB Wiki also has some potential etymology for Rozemyne’s name for the God of Darkness, Schicksantracht, to be translated as “unity/harmony,” which could tie in to how the Sovereignty, or at the very least the royal family that rules it, is meant to unify the duchies and bring harmony to Yurgenschmidt. Anastasius, member of the royal family and currently prince-consort to the Zent, also often likens his wife to the Goddess of Light, meaning that he by default falls into the role of the God of Darkness, and their romance is often compared to that of the Supreme Gods.

Drewanchel: Green

The divine color of Flutrane. Duchy of scholars, could tie into the “change” association with Flutrane as such an intelligent duchy continually seeks out new and changing research and ideas. Individual character mention in Adolphine, who boldly seeks to and accomplishes in changing her own marriage circumstances for the better.

Dunkelfelger: Blue

The divine color of Leidenschaft. Deeply in line with Dunkelfelger values and general temperament, a duchy of hot headed and battle-obsessed nobles who even receive more divine protections from Leidenschaft and his subordinates than any other. Pretty much any major Dunkelfelger character mentioned could be tied in here aside from Hannelore.

Ehrenfest: Ochre (Dark Yellow/Gold)

There are two angles to view the associations in Ehrenfest, tying it to the Goddess of Light’s divine color of Gold, and tying it to Schutzaria’s divine color of Yellow.

One of the main associations with the Goddess of Light is motherhood, and Ehrenfest has strong ties to both positive and negative examples of motherhood. The overarching plot of Veronica, Georgine, Sylvester, and Ferdinand is focused around the core conflict of an abusive mother and her victims. Veronica haunts the entire narrative of AOAB despite never really being physically present in any non-flashback scenes, and her misuse of her position of “mother” is what shaped many of the main characters and various plots throughout the series. Additionally, as AOAB is a very story very heavily focused on familial themes, Rozemyne also has close relationships with multiple mother-figures as she grows up both as a commoner and as a noble. Effa’s unconditional love for Myne is a large part of what shapes her into who she is, and Elvira’s love and motherly support once Rozemyne is baptized into noble society is essential to her, both socially and emotionally. The main printing industry in Ehrenfest is largely advanced thanks to Elvira’s “motherly love” for Rozemyne as well, meaning that even Ehrenfest’s economic, technological, and social advancements are founded on a mother’s affections for her daughter.

In terms of associations with Schutzaria in line with Ocher being considered a Dark Yellow, I looked for associations between Ehrenfest and Schutzaria’s association with protection. Ehrenfest’s archducal family is seemingly much closer than other duchies’ archducal families. Spearheaded by Rozemyne, who is forever hellbent on protecting what she holds dear, Ehrenfest can be considered a duchy that values protecting its own perhaps on a higher level than other duchies. For example, when Ferdinand is engaged into Ahrensbach, despite his own relatively weak political position, Sylvester tries his best to stand up to the Zent to protect him and is devastated when he is ultimately unable to. While other duchies seem to think that nobles, especially female nobles, marrying out of one’s home duchy for political power is a given, Ehrenfest tries to protect Rozemyne by keeping her in their own duchy through her initial engagement to Wilfred. They do originally intend to marry Charlotte into another duchy, but in what seems to be an unusual fashion asked of him by Rozemyne, Sylvester still tries to protect Charlotte by trying to give her as much freedom of choice in her partner as possible. Rozemyne protects Wilfried from the consequences of his trip to the Ivory Tower, and Charlotte from her kidnappers. Sylvester protects Myne when Bidewald attacks her. The first spells Rozemyne casts or is taught are all protective in nature as well. Overall, Ehrenfest’s nobles seem especially inclined to protect those close to or associated with them, just as Schutzaria is a goddess known for her shield and strong protective power.

Klassenberg: Red

The divine color of Geduldh. Color associated with warmth, compassion, and femininity. In P5V1, Rozemyne remarks that perhaps all Klassenberg women are kind and gentle like Eglantine, Hortensia, and Primevere, implying that at least the women of the duchy are in line with the divine association.

—

The only one missing from the Supreme Gods or the Eternal Five is Ewigeliebe, with his divine color of White. The closest I could think of for a duchy with story relevance and a white cape was perhaps Jossbrenner with their cream capes, as there is no duchy represented by the color pure white, but as Jossbrenner was only brought up a few fleeting times (and regardless is not what I would describe as one of the “major character” duchies to begin with), I couldn’t think of any particular ties to Ewigeliebe.

Perhaps it could be theorized that, like how the shrines in the Royal Academy have one singular consolidated shrine for both Geduldh and Ewigeliebe, Klassenberg’s men could relate to Ewigeliebe in the same way that its women relate to Geduldh. I don’t have any concrete evidence for this though, so it’s just a silly idea to make up for Ewigeliebe not having a corresponding duchy of his own…

—

Aside from the Supreme Gods and the Eternal Five, Alexandria could be tied to Mestionora (obviously), arguably the most important of the subordinate gods or goddesses in AOAB, so I’m including it as well-

Alexandria: Dark Blue

Ties to Mestionora’s hair color, though her divine color could possibly yellow instead due to her position as a Wind subordinate. Specific character reference is obviously Rozemyne, Aub and divine avatar of Mestionora, who constantly and gluttonously desires new written knowledge, as well as secondarily Ferdinand who continually seeks out greater knowledge through his research.

[diminuel]

Hi Steffi, I know you're on hiatus from the Supernatural fandom, but I wanted to ask if you liked season 14 when you watched it? I'm almost at the end of my first watch and I don't think I'm feeling it much. Appart from not liking Nick (might be my least favorite character) nor his storyline, I can't point out to what is missing exactly. It feels aimless somewhat. You can answer me in private (if you want to answer) : )

Hello hello!

I actually got stuck at the end of Season 14 in my SPN rewatch because I struggled so much with it. To be honest, when I first read your ask I couldn't even properly remember what the overarching point of the season was, I'm that mentally divorced from it.

But it's the whole AU world, AU Michael and his plans, the odious Nick plot stealing precious screen time that could have been used otherwise, Dean and his box, Jack dying and losing his powers and ultimately losing control and the irritatingly inconsistent way it was handled...

I think individual episode of this season were good, but as with most of Supernatural I feel the issue is that they occasional build good ideas in the first half and then just let them drop in the second half for half-cooked things instead.

Nick for example wouldn't have been necessary at all in my opinion and his presence as well as characterization actually rather muddles points that the show could have made a lot better without him - or at least without turning him into just a psychotic, irredeemable guy that has us wonder why Mary was throwing such a fit over Jack killing him (after he's killed people, hurt people close to them AND was being weirdly successful at trying to bring LUCIFER back to life.) If he had just been a desperate guy, poisoned in some way by angelic presence in him, or being actually just a revived body without a soul, acting on vessel instinct, that might have raised more interesting moral implications to Jack's actions (but then again, this is the callously murdering innocent people show and the Winchesters only care about it when it's plot relevant.)

As to Michael... I'm not sure I like Michael!Dean too much and his mid season villain plan to turn monsters, who just destroy to eat, into an army (dude, go to purgatory, you'd enjoy Leviathan) enhanced by Grace just went nowhere. It had no consequences at all! Sure, Michael trapped in Dean's brain gave delicious Dean angst but that doesn't change that it's also a little bit underwhelming.

It only gets juicy again when shit hits the fan and we have Destiel divorce. But it's also not a great time for Sam because of his passivity. Sure, he was depressed over losing his army, he's reverted right back to following Dean's lead on everything (might be wrong here, not a Sam expert). And then that guides us over into what I think the main emotional conflict of the first half of S15 is.

I'm sorry if this is very rambling and not very nuanced because I haven't seen Supernatural in a while and I have a lot of rage in me about certain elements that I haven't worked through in fanfic yet X'DD (But a fangirl can write 100k of fic trying to come to terms with the season 6 divorce, think she's fine and then still nearly die every time she watches it all fall apart. So... no hope for me. Also, still always on Cas' side in the divorce even if he did everything wrong. Which he didn't of course. :P)

[jynxedshapeshifter]

The really interesting thing about TGAA to me and how people treat it as a result is that it's quite historically accurate. Like obviously there are aspects of it that are played with in terms of historical accuracy (Sholmes and Iris's tech for example), but for the most part it feels pretty accurate to the turn of the 20th century in terms of how society was.

The reason this even occurred to me is because I'm playing The Adventure of the Clouded Kokoro, and when Ryunosuke mentions the domestic dispute between Joan and John, Patricia says "I can't even imagine being so horrid to the one you love." And that, there, had me like "domestic abuse like what Joan inflicted on John was probably normalized at this point in history" and I think the lack of much response regarding that specifically from anyone except Pat and I believe Ryunosuke shows that pretty well (and even then I think Pat comes off as a bit of a hypocrite for even saying "I can't imagine being so horrid to the one you love" but I digress).

Like The Great Ace Attorney very much uses multiple historically accurate attitudes — not just racism — to tell its story. It utilizes classism (to the point the overarching plot hinges on it), it utilizes the fact that in Victorian England domestic abuse was viewed as socially acceptable (in fact, based on a little research, I'd say how it's portrayed is incredibly accurate to Victorian attitudes irl), even Sholmes's attitude towards Ms. Garrideb (which, to be completely clear, is based on her behavior and not her weight, at least not consciously, but let's pretend he was consciously referring to her weight for a minute) is emblematic of the time period in which The Great Ace Attorney takes place.

The Great Ace Attorney is a story told about a Japanese man studying in Victorian England, and it's historically accurate about it. That's not to say you can't be uncomfortable in regards to certain parts of TGAA, but I also think understanding the historical context behind the game and how that drives the story is incredibly important. The racism, classism, domestic abuse, what can easily be taken as fatphobia/fat shaming (but I genuinely don't think is meant to be read that way); they're all perfectly in line with The Great Ace Attorney taking place in Victorian England. Those were normal in Victorian society and not looked down on like they are now. Looking at The Great Ace Attorney through that lens explains a lot about how the game is written, actually.

It turns a lot of the dialogue into a "This happened during this time period in England, but that doesn't mean the game's writers endorse it" and the game even critiques it, via dialogue from Susato and Ryunosuke (and occasionally other characters). I think we are very much meant to like characters like Sholmes and van Zieks, but we're also forced to acknowledge that they live in Victorian England and what isn't acceptable now is acceptable to them, because they live in Victorian England and for the story Capcom wanted to tell, it would've been dishonest to ignore what English society was like back then.

Really interesting to experience culture shock related to time period vicariously through a video game, I think.

[lastoneout]

Okay, honest question, who is Yotsuba?

OH HO HO ANON I AM ALL TOO HAPPY TO EXPLAIN :3

Yotsuba is a character from the greatest manga ever made, Yotsuba&!(or Yotsuba to! it translates weird, most fans just call it Yotsuba) which is a comedy slice-of-life manga about Yotsuba Koiwai, a five year old girl, and her very strange yet wholesome family and friends!

It's from the same mangaka who gave us Azumanga Daioh, though while that manga is told in a four-panel comic style and doesn't really have much of an overarching plot, Youtsuba is done in a traditional manga style and despite also being very episodic there is a bit of a throughline surrounding Youtsuba getting settled into the neighborhood she just moved to, growing up, and eventually, in the later chapters, getting ready to go to school for the first time. Also, there are storylines that take place over multiple chapters as well! Despite the fact that the manga has been releasing since 2003, the chapters are pretty sporadic and the comic has only really covered about one year of the character's lives, but it never really feels slow or aimless. It feels almost...timeless? I guess. It's really nice.

Anyway, the manga is legit one of the most wholesome, funny, heartwarming things I have ever read. Kiyohiko Azuma is a fucking MASTER of comedy(you may have seen screencaps from a Sailor Moon fan comic he made going around on tumblr in which Jupiter accidentally sends Venus shooting across a pool that made me laugh so hard I cried) and he balances it well with lots of slow moments with GORGEOUS artwork where you can really take in the scenery and all of it is seeped in a wonderful nostalgia for childhood that legit makes me super emotional.

I don't think the manga has ever really taken off in terms of popularity, at least not to the degree that it deserves imo, which is likely in part due to the creator being firm about it never getting an anime adaptation and the sporadic release schedule, but it's far from unknown. There's been an official(I think??) score released and plenty of figurines and merch. It's also birthed a lot of memes, and it def has the same issue as One Piece where if you read it and love it you will turn into a walking billboard and try to drag your friends and family in with you. It's just THAT good!

You may have seen art of or people cosplaying Danbo, a "robot" made of old cardboard boxes that Yotsuba adores (Totally a real robot btw, def doesn't have a middle schooler shoved inside there, that would be silly wdym /s)

And this pose from the back of one of the manga volumes featuring Yotsuba, her father, and their extremely tall friend Jumbo has been redrawn with other characters like 500000 billion times

And you've also probably seen this going around tumblr before (that's Fūka she's my favorite cringe fail daughter I would literally die for her).

Also, I would be doing a disservice if I didn't mention Yanda, who is a friend of Yotsuba's dad and also Yotsuba's nemesis. He's a loser who constantly gets dunked on by a toddler it's fucking hilarious.

But yeah it really is just like, a manga that feels like a hug, or a warm blanket or something, it's so comforting and funny and fantastic, I find myself re-reading it any time life gets to be too hard just bcs it's that good at distracting me and reminding me that live is worth living.

And also given that it's literally my favorite manga, I saved up a bunch of screencaps to use as reaction images after a read one time, and thus now it's my own little joke that if you send me anon hate I'm just gonna send you back a picture of this cutie

Bcs come on how can you be angry when you're looking at this???

Anyway here's some screencaps of the main supporting cast bcs I love all of them so much <3

YOU WILL READ YOTSUBA I AM NO LONGER ASKING

[loopy777]

Heya Loopy!

So, since I'm fresh off of reading For Better and For Worse (OMG, how do you manage it everytime?! I'm sucker for when Zuko gets to hear Mai's grievances and insecurities except she wouldn't actually come out and tell him and your plots always serve the characters so well—!)

Anyways! I find characterisation in your fics more in line with the show than the comics so I have to ask: if you were to write avatar comics, what direction would you have taken with Mai and Zuko. You talked about Mai and Tom-Tom on the server so I know about that, so other than that.

Well, something I do like from the early comics is the immediate focus on the matter of the colonies. (That is also the only thing I liked about it.) And rather than going with the idea of having the gAang implement some dumb policy on a whim that goes on for a whole year before blowing up on them, especially when nothing in the main plot needs a year-long gap except for Zuko apparently not having been able to sleep for 365 consecutive nights and so having the decision-making capabilities of a mushroom, I'd rather have them immediately get started on the issue of what to do with the colonies use it as a long-term plotline.

And with Zuko busy trying to pacify a nation that yesterday was running from Azula worshiping at Ozai's feet (and he's getting enough sleep to remember what the word "delegate" means), he appoints someone as his representative and negotiator who is well-educated, cool under pressure, absolutely loyal, and dangerous enough to not need protection in case of riots. Which is good, because somehow this political plotline is going to involve a lot of magic kung fu fights.

So yeah, that's my concept. On the discord, we've noted that Mai never really got a chance to do a Redemption storyline for her part in the Fire Nation's imperialist agenda, so I like the idea of having the daughter of the guy who conquered Omashu helping to transfer the colonies out of Fire Nation control. Depending on the needs of each individual story (I like self-contained one-shots that slowly progress an overarching plot), we can shuffle her back and forth between the Fire Nation and the colonies, so she can see plenty of Zuko and interact with him for the Maiko fans, but then not be present when we don't want her around to keep him smart. I also like the idea of having Sokka being her counterpart from the Water Tribe for the colonies issue, so this gives me a chance to build a friendship between them, as well as Suki when she's available to guard her boyfriend.

Assuming LoK is still setting the agenda with the colonies becoming a 'United Republic' which is really just a single city and the resource-rich land around it, owned and operated as a shared colony by the four nations. I've always liked to shade this in my fanfics as a failure by the gAang, that they couldn't find a solution which would do right by the people of the colonies. So, unfortunately, this is going to partially be Mai's failure at the culmination of the big colonies plot. (It's Sokka's fault, too, so it's okay.) But I think we can cast it as the completion of her redemption arc, that when she fails to get the colonies proper self-governance, she actually sheds tears and rants to Zuko. And he points out that while she might feel terrible about it, she can at least be sure she did her absolute best.

And when she asks how he can be so sure, he says, "Well, because I know you. And I can see, right now, in your tears, how much you care."

And if we really want to get sappy and Avatar Studios isn't nixing anything that smells of character progression, he can add, "And that's why I want you -- need you -- at my side as my Fire Lady."

So I think the fans would probably like that.

[yukirayu]

You've mentioned disliking bad translations no matter whetter official or fan-made, and gave the example of Mink in the DMMD fanpatch. Can you elaborate? Did he get the Madarame treatment?

Yes, that's true. And it doesn't even have to be bad in terms of adding too many cuss words or country-specific slang or changing POV or anything else. All in all, the DMMD fan patch did follow the original narration viewpoint (since it's always been in first person) both in the first game and in the sequel. And yes, there are some slang and cursing in those too (like referring to Clear's pockets as Mary Poppins) but it's still kept to a manageable level that while I noticed it, it never truly bothered me.

Though back when Tumblr was still big, as I got into DMMD, it came to my attention as I checked tags and posts of other DMMD fans that the fanmade patch - which I am grateful to one way or another for getting me into the VN - really and I mean really had it out for Mink.

One thing is definitely certain, Mink's route in the first game is definitely not the easiest to swallow (like Madarame's) and his ending in the fandisc sequel does address the why behind that. Whether fans like or dislike him at the end of that is for them to decide.

But the fan patch team loathed Mink enough that they considered leaving him out of the translations entirely. When they eventually decided to include him, they basically had him talk very rudely (when he is to the point and forthright, but there's a difference between that and him spewing harsh and condescending insults), alter the narration (which again, is from Aoba's POV) to make the whole story sound like a classic case of Stockholm Syndrome (which let me stress, is nothing of the sort and is already its own can of worms) - both of which they ramped up to eleven in the sequel, where the two are meant to clear the air between them and find closure about what happened and then truly get together afterwards - all so that the fans can view him with the same disdain that they have of him.

It all boils down to "I see the plot/characters this way, and I will let that view affect how I word the text so that I can influence the readers/players to think similarly of it". Which what the fan patch team did with Mink, and in a way, also what the localization did with Slow Damage, since now Towa gets characterized as what others have called an "edgy gooner" when that's missing the point of his story entirely (which is also part of the overarching plot). While that could still have happened even with a good translation that was released from the beginning, since fandoms like to reduce characters to a meme/joke, for better or worse.

Back to Mink, there are a few other posts here on Tumblr (I doubt it is all of them) that point out how his route was tampered with on purpose, and I'll just share those links here for your reference: Link 1 | Link 2 | Link 3. Someone even attempted to retranslate Mink's route in the first game (alas, it never got completed, but it does manage to cover at least half of his route).

Needless to say, it got bad enough that many have suggested reading the alternate fan translation of the sequel (which was made before the fan patch came out) instead, since it isn't prejudiced against Mink. Now I do wish to make it clear here that the point about what happened with Mink's route isn't about having the characters like/dislike Mink, but about the importance of not letting one's bias affect the text, something that can be ignored in both fanmade and official translations.

Ah, I almost forgot, but yeah. In a way, Madarame got a similar treatment. Madarame talks bluntly and casually as well, but the Japanese text doesn't have him cuss every sentence or every other sentence. And whatever crudeness is in the text in other routes, it definitely is a lot more magnified in Madarame's route. And all even that aside, there's also one context that was notably changed in the very opening his route.

Like in that last sentence. From the original, you'd think that he's denying that he's acting for the sake of revenge and dismisses that as pathetic. Though the patched version implies that he does seem intent on revenge (even if he doesn't say it to Towa or denies it to Toono's face when Toono asks if that's what he's been doing) and that it isn't pathetic to do. Of course, this is just one example. And it doesn't change that even with a professional translation, Madarame's route is still also the bleakest and the one that's most tough-as-nails, but context always matters.

If anything, a good way of showing how the patch and the localization differ would be to record both versions from beginning to end and play them side by side.

[cerastes]

You know, I was just thinking, there's this game I like, I've talked about this one both on and off stream, it's Luminous Arc 2. It's one of those Way of the Samurai 4 games that are garbage games that did some things REALLY well but are still very much not good games overall, but that I LOVE. You know how much I love Way of the Samurai 4. I also love Luminous Arc 2, it's not a good game, it's a game that merits 0 playthroughs, and yet I gave it 2 full playthroughs.

With WotS4, I can explain to you what parts of it are genius hidden in an ocean of shit, but I can't with Luminous Arc 2, I've not done the mental homework on that one, so I did this weekend, and...

Luminous Arc 2 executes the Nanoha-style Magical Girl formula very very well.

Now, you may have heard that Nanoha is a mecha show but instead of mecha, there's magical girls. And that assessment is absolutely 100% correct. Luminous Arc 2 somehow distills the purely Magical Girl elements from Nanoha's mecha-magical girl execution and pulls them off REALLY well.

Allow me to elaborate.

Nanoha nails down the Good Fight Scene. Not just in fight choreography, but also, in essence of what a good fight scene aims to accomplish for an overarching narrative as an element in the bigger scheme that you can't just skip. Think about Code Geass for a moment: Is Code Geass a mecha show? It sure has mecha, but it's not a mecha show. You could replace the mecha in Code Geass with tanks and helicopters and nothing would change. In fact, at least one adaption of Code Geass does exactly this. Code Geass is a great show but it's not mecha in its themes and execution. Code Geass is a not mecha show with mecha. Nanoha is a mecha show without mecha. You can't remove the fights from Nanoha without it not being Nanoha anymore, and in each fight, we learn more about the characters, the characters learn more about each other, and even if any given fight does not move the plot forward, it does move the character arcs forward, on top of being fun to watch.

And Nanoha accomplishes this by making the same characters fight each other a bunch. Symphogear also does this. Each fight between the same characters feels different each time, because they are growing in terms of motivations and themes.

Luminous Arc 2 does the same with each of its big arcs. In the optional sidequests, you often just fight some mooks and a stronger, sometimes recolored version of a generic monster. The main story stages of the game, though? You are always fighting someone important or a consequence of someone's important's actions. Initially, you fight an ice witch named Fatima and her cat familiar and companion Josie a bunch. As the plot advances, your rogue's gallery keeps expanding, from the bandit Karen and her gang, who initially seem to be disconnected to the overall plot and is more of a Team Rocket deal, to actual lore powerhouses like Master Matthias and others who I shall omit for brevity. Luminous Arc 2 has three big arcs, and each of these have an evolving cast of reoccurring bosses that you fight for plot reasons, and you get to know each other a lot more with each fight, shedding light on their motivations, and them shedding light, in turn, on the motivations of your own side, which are actually not immediately discernible to you in their entirety.

And this is all really good! You get used to their signature moves, their animations, the way they usually structure their units, a bunch of really cool little things.

And maybe this game is sounding good to you, but make no mistake, it's a pretty fucking mediocre SRPG that you can play with your brain turned off. No cohesion, very little unit identity, incredibly self-indulgent first and everything else a distant second, it's NOT a good game... But what it did good, it really knocked it out of the park.

In terms of getting to know your enemy, their motivations, and how they in turn get to know and let you know more about you... Luminous Arc 2 does it better than most. Which is hilarious because this game sucks in every other department. It's not a good game. I did two full playthroughs and I would do a third.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Do you think Miraculous could exist as a purely episodic show for more than a season or two (and be a good episodic show for more than a season or two?)

Because you often say "canon has a good idea with X, but it doesn't fit in an episodic show and thus fails", or "this fanon fix-it idea would work well, but not in an episodic show".

It's almost ironic. Arguably, Miraculous was at it's best when it was an episodic show — but many people (me included) were drawn by the overarching plot hinted at in seasons 1 and 2.

Yet in the end, the episodic format and the long-term plot collide with each other and create so many problems.

You have talked extensively on the ways Miraculous could be a good serialised story. But could it really be a good episodic show that lasts long enough?

Miraculous has a lot of problems, but the mismatch between the format and the plot is one of the biggest ones and there's no easy fix for it. You could take some of the show's basic ideas and make a functional episodic formula show with almost no serialized elements, but it would be missing a lot of the things that people associate with Miraculous' as the show's core conflicts are simply not suited to an episodic monster-of-the-week show that goes on forever and maintains a clear status quo where nothing ever really changes.

Episodic shows are based around the endgame being a minor thing or even nonexistent. When you look at shows like Kim Possible and The Powerpuff Girls, you'll find that there was no final boss. Nothing the audience was eagerly waiting to see happen, knowing that it would end the show or - at the very least - completely change the status quo. Instead, these shows had massive casts of villains and there was a sense that the heroes could keep on taking down bad guys forever without much changing in their daily lives.

Miraculous doesn't have that feeling of forever. Once the butterfly is recovered, the show is over. No other threat has been established. There's also the issue that the butterfly isn't a low-stakes conflict that you can drag out for seasons on end without the audience caring all that much. It's been played way too serious for that. There's an established precedent that the heroes can lose. It happens in basically every final and even a few random episodes like Chat Blanc. Between that and the fact that fights are often played as relatively serious or even incredibly serious, akumas don't feel like minor threats. The risk of the wish happening if the heroes lose is also pretty freaking serious.

All of this means that Paris is in real danger so long as the butterfly is in play. That's a terrible choice for an episodic show where the villain is never allowed to be defeated because serious threats beg for a serious response. Miraculous doesn't even let the heroes make progress on finding/stopping the villain! The closest thing we ever got to that was Adrien finding the grimoire which fizzled to nothing. Outside of that, the heroes just fight the day's akuma and hope that the bad guy will randomly appear so they can take him out because that's the best you can do in a show where serialized elements aren't allowed. Episodic content trends to be heavily reactive. Plans generally require serialization.

There are similar issues with Adrien's father being the big bad, Lila being a master manipulator, and Adrien being a sentimonster. All of these conflicts need proper development. They do not work in a purely episodic show where every episode must stand fully alone. If these are the plots that you want to go with, then you have to have some level of serialization even if you tone them down.

For example, let's take the Gabriel issue. You can make the conflict feel less serious by having Adrien generally dislike his father and by having Gabriel show little-to-no interest in Adrien, but even then, the audience will expect a reveal because your-father-is-secretly-the-villain is the kind of plot element that begs for a timely and intense resolution. You can't drag it out forever if your goal is a happy audience. The only way to make Gabriel a neverending villain suited to an episodic show is to remove the secret identity element so that there's nothing to reveal.

The secret identities are a problem that goes well beyond Gabriel and Adrien. Most episodic hero shows either don't have secret identities or they don't treat the secret identities as a big deal. Secret identities are are, at most, a source of minor comedy and nothing more because serious conflicts lead audiences to expect serious resolutions.

As another example, when Chat Noir's flirting was a running gag that Ladybug could reasonably brush off as him being silly, it was fine. As soon as canon let him confess, the love square had a ticking clock above their heads because you don't do a confession scene unless you're going to change the status quo. They got that when it came to Marinette's crush, but not Adrien's because I guess Adrien's feelings don't matter. That doesn't change the fact that letting him confess made a lot of people way less tolerant of his flirting as it now had this nasty edge of "she said no, dude. Move on."

Long story short, if you want to take Miraculous and make it something that could go on forever, then Gabriel can't secretly be the big bad. You want a low-stakes big bad whose identity doesn't matter or a revealed Gabriel who is impossible to catch for some ridiculous reason or who is caught and somehow escapes every time. You'll also probably want to have the monster of the week be something other than real people to remove the constant reminder that people are actually being hurt by the villain. The final change is to never let the love square confess on any side or even completely remove the romance element since it's never going to progress anyway. Do that and it works. It's a lot less intriguing, but a lot more functional.

While this doesn't perfectly fit the ask, I will note that you can keep Miraculous episodic and make it work if you're allowed to change how committed it is to that "episodic" label. You can find a nice middle ground and do something more like Teen Titans where the show had a mix of serious serialized episodes and fun episodic episodes. There's also the option to do something like @zoe-oneesama's Scarlet Lady which is episodic and formulaic, but takes the classic route for semi-serious episodic properties where subtle serialized elements are allowed to have ongoing, but slow background development that's treated like a b-plot.

The Teen Titans route is less popular because it means that there are a bunch of episodes that aren't satisfying when watched alone, limiting their replayability. It's much more common to take the Scarlet Lady route where every episode has a satisfying resolution to a conflict with the bonus option to subtly hint at progress in some greater plot. That route lets both the casual watchers and the fans enjoy the show, which is probably the ideal state for a show like Miraculous*.

The advantage of the Teen Titans route is that you can really dig into the emotional impact of whatever is going on because the serialized episodes don't need to match the standard formula. For example, if Miraculous did this, then it could have had an episode dedicated to Marinette learning the truth of Adrien's family story without including an akuma fight. That episode could then lead into the final in a way where it's clear that Marinette knows everything going in and even wins because of what she learned. You can't do that if every episode needs to feel like it has a satisfying conclusion to some conflict which is a requirement of episodic shows that never break the episodic feel. It's not a flaw, it's just the nature of episodic content. You have to plan you plots around the limits of your format.

Both of these episodic-wirh-serial-elements routes will mean that you have to have clear and logical arcs, though, so my points from above don't go away. You have to let canon's plots develop, play out, and resolve over multiple episodes that have to be watched in a specific order OR you have to rework those plots into things that don't beg for a coherent arc. There is no way to make canon's plots function as-is without serialized elements because none of canon's main conflicts are suited to being introduced and resolved in a 20-minute runtime that also includes a superhero fight, which is canon's big problem.

So long as canon has the rule that every episode must stand fully alone, canon will not be able to tell good, multi-episode stories. It's like expecting a horror story to have the happy feeling of a light-hearted romance. The format just doesn't support the type of story you're looking for.

*Quick reminder: Miraculous is made for cable TV and not streaming, which is a big part of why they're so insistent that every episode stands alone. They want networks to be able to play random episodes to fill time slots without needing to care which episode they pick or how many episodes they play in a given day. This is yet another reason why the Teen Titans route would be a harder sell. Serialization is much easier to sell on streaming platforms than it is in cable because cable can't guarantee that a viewer has seen all the episodes. The fact that it's a kids show also complicates the sell. I think Miraculous has enough episodes that they could sacrifice a few to really make the big plots pop, but it is simpler to say that all the serialized elements need to be minor things that aren't required knowledge to enjoy any given episode.

[halliescomut]

The Boy Next World Official Trailer

Official trailer is out. I'm very excited to see where things go. It's clear some changes were made from the novel, which is exciting, because that gives an opportunity to kind of experience it with new eyes.

Official release is January 5th on MMY's YouTube as well as uncut on iQiYi.

I'm going to talk about novel to series changes that seem to be happening, so HEAVY spoilers below.

I'm going to assume if you're here, you at least watched the trailer all the way through, and I'm VERY intrigued at the choice of twist. I've seen comparisons to Two World and Vice Versa, but I didn't finish Vice Versa, so I can't speak for that in particular. To be honest, my first thought was A Christmas Carol, which is probably a little bit because of the time of year. Either way if we're doing a switch into the parallel worlds or alternate futures actually being real, I like that change SO MUCH.

The twist in the novel was so wildly problematic, to a degree where it certainly wouldn't get a pass in this day and age. And TBNW is one of Mame's older novels, so updating it for what fan/societal expectations are today is a really smart move on her part. I do wonder if she'll be updating the novel once the series is done, since she is changing a major plot point.

I'm going to talk about some other points in the novel, but I don't want to kind of repeat myself with explanations, so go check out this post where I kind of run through the things I hope to see in the series: link

To start, we see from the cast list that Ozone (or Zone) is present, being played by "Vino" Chavid Pevec. I was concerned that this character might get cut from the story, as with "colder" characters, I think having a sibling helps to give a human side to them, especially as a love interest is just getting to know them. We don't see much in the way of the side story that revolves around Cir and Zone's family, which while not a massive part of the novel, does speak to some of his motivations there, but with the changes being made, maybe it's not necessary. IDK. In the end, I can't really determine if it's a good move or not until we series the series and what was actually included.

I did make a point though that if they chose to include Cir's history and abuse at the hands of his mother I would hope they go for discussion only, versus casting a young actor to portray it, so if they've kind of removed that story, I don't think I'll be disappointed.

Wim and Jin are clearly present and we see confirmation that they will be the second couple for the series. I'm not sure how much of their characters will stay the same as the novel, as Phu and his friend group are a bit eccentric and silly, and I kinda hope we don't lose that. Going off the costuming for Jin it doesn't seem like it, so I'm hopeful.

The one of the bigger overarching points in the story is Phu actually dealing with his grief over his father passing, and we don't see much in the trailer for me to know if that's included in the series, but some of the story points in the novel really added depth to Phu's character, so I do think it would be a shame to minimize it or cut it altogether. One thing it does look like they've kept, which I'm very certain will break my heart, is Phu falling for Cir, and coming to terms with the fact that he's 'stolen' alternate world Phu's love and pushing for Cir to try and get back. In the novel, we see Phu as quite silly and a bit full of bravado, but he's also quite soft. His understanding of how much he's come to love Cir in such as short time and then considering how much more alternate world Phu would have loved him, considering they had years together is so beautiful and so sad, and handled with what I'll admit is a surprising level of subtlety that we don't often see from Mame. It's an all-around very complex situation with a lot of complex emotions, and I think it gives an opportunity for Noeul specifically to really show some range in the role.

I will say though, watching the trailer, I'm struck by the beauty of some of the shots. Like truly beautiful, so I definitely want to mention the director Mame is working with here, Thanpisit Jiradechakul. I know a lot of ppl assume that Mame directs all of her shows, and while she is heavily involved, I would say works as a co-director, she's only solo-directed Wedding Plan, and I'll be honest, you can tell the difference. I did try and look to see what other projects Thanpisit has worked on, and it looks like this is his first series. He's got commercials and some other smaller projects on his vimeo, but nothing of this scale. He is the credited editor and director for the Love in the Air music video though, so he has history with Mame, Boss, and Noeul.

Also, since I feel like it must be mentioned, yes of course the chemistry between Boss and Noeul is chemistry-ing... no one is surprised.

[twilightofthesandwiches]

In regards to Silias Mann, I'm not comprehensively versed in tf2 lore. But in this comic, zephaniah tells Elizabeth to care for his son, which she asks "don't you mean sons?". He clarifies only one brother will be the champion and the other one basically forgotten in a grave outside. So if he considers himself an only son, that tracks with the Mann family's fratricide tradition. Silas might be his brother, who lost.

I mean, I've heard a few variants of the "Silas Mann is Zepheniah's brother who he 'disposed' of already and therefore refuses to acknowledge his existence' theory but they don't click right with me for two reasons:

Silas' only canonical not-Horsemann appearance is at the rightmost portion in the Mann Family Photograph

A photograph which is apparently a Real Physical Canonical Object as of "The Days Have Worn Away"

(We know/assume this is Silas because that rightmost part of the picture was first revealed during the Scream Fortress Horsemann update, when you press on Silas' name on the gravestone)

This picture depicts Silas as a living aged man (or Mann, as the case may be) during Zepheniah's twilight years (with the Administrator already in his service and the twins already adults). So Silas having been killed before the First Administrator Flashback Scene really doesn't make any sense as, like, a basic timeline thing.

(And if we're to assume that this is a ghostly apparition rather than a confirmation Silas was still alive during the mid 1800's... why would he appear so old? If he was Zepheniah's brother that he killed before even meeting the Administrator, he should be a young man?)

2. But more importantly....Sure, Zepheniah will only acknowledge the Mann who will dispose of his brother as his true son but... he does also acknowledge the existence of the 'unworthy' siblings his father and grandfather got rid of on their way to the top. They are not totally forgotten, at least as achievements of the 'True Heirs'

Zepheniah clearly sees the concept of killing your own sibling to farther yourself in life as an inherently noble one, something to brag about and remember. After all, that's why he says it's 'sad' that he was an only son. He wishes he had a sibling to kill as a way to prove himself.

So the idea that he did have a brother and that he had already 'disposed' of him by the time of this scene, and instead of bragging about it in legally non-incriminating terms he decided to outright wipe all traces of this event from living memory.... Well, to me that just feels flat-out Out of Character with the way Zepheniah is characterized in "The Days Have Worn Away"

And, well, something being OOC is a lot more damning to a theory than just lore/timeline inconsistencies in a story whose whole point is "The Lore and Overarching Plot were ultimately meaningless, what truly matters are the characters"

I thought about it for a bit, I think the only explanation that makes sense to me right now is that Silas Mann was not Zepheniah's brother, but instead a distant cousin. The surviving son or grandson of the one of the siblings of Ebenezer or Ezekiel (or maybe even related from someone farther up the family tree?). Since he's more distantly related, he had much less claim over the Mann fortune and Zepheniah might have not been initially aware of him and/or acknowledged him as a threat.... well, at least at first.

(Since he did get buried in the Traditional 'Loser' Mann style according to the Halloween Update and he is the Horseless Headless Horsemann I assume he did not die of natural causes and Zepheniah was probably to blame. It just happened later.)