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digitaldavis · 1 year ago

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Rough thoughts on the movie in no particular order now that I have a moment:

Going in with the heavy hitters 'cause I can't stop thinking about it but Lui's claims that he is the first person to ever partner with a Digimon are unsubstantiated and lack hard evidence - also, unless it was explained in Kizuna and Tri, I'm pretty sure Digimon Adventure contradicts this?? (I'll check into this when I have more time, don't @ me).

The implication that Ukkomon made all of the Digimon hostile towards one another so that the Digi-Destined would fight to defend themselves and therefore Lui is nonsense and even if there is nothing to directly contradict it in Adventure and 02, I'm gonna hard pass on that canon because it lends itself too much to the idea that all Digimon would just be wholesome and good if not for Ukkomon making them fight and that feels like it excuses the things that Devimon, Piedmon, MaloMyotismon, and the other villain Digimon did or removes their free will?

Also, have I mentioned what Lui said didn't make sense???? Lui might be closer to Tai's age so it's feasible he could have become digi-destined around the same time as Tai but DUDE, Owikawa and Cody's dad discovered the Digital World and Digimon when they were kids????? AND THAT WAS AGES BEFORE LUI WAS BORN. It just doesn't make sense unless this is some alternate universe where that didn't happen or Lui is a time traveler or something (which is possible they did time travel...)

Speaking of, I'm so interested in the implication that Lui went back in time and talked to his mom about his younger self and she seemed to snap out of it for a second, like, if that was a permanent change do you think he created another alternate reality in that instance?

Moving on though, Davis. DAVIS. Seeing him in the film cured my depression. His reaction to Lui's mom was so so so Davis and I felt so strongly about it and then Ken's immediate "we can't we could ruin our own future" response is exactly how I've always imagined a time-travel AU would go between them.

ALSO: DAVIS AND KEN. The flirting. Ken just straight up grabbing both of Davis hands. (He's so COMFORTABLE WITH HIMSELF NOW) Ken throwing himself off Paildramon after Davis. I'm LIVING. The little high five they did to congratulate themselves. Ken's remark that summoning Paildramon was a little much seconds after I was like "wow that's so gay and unnecessary". Both of them were just so on point in this film. Davis was upbeat and optimistic and just believes the best in people/digimon so hard and when his tendency to charge in got in the way Ken was there to mellow him out so he didn't do anything rash.

Yolei did feel kind of off for some reason in the film but that might have been because I was so excited for the film that I couldn't pay attention to everything that was happening. I was only able to see it once and I missed so many things I know it. I can't wait for it to be released physically so I can own it and just rewatch it a dozen times.

Speaking of Yolei, though, I cannot believe the film framed her like Uhura trying to come between Kirk and Spock (which is comically absurd btw). In nearly ever scene possible it's Davis, Yolei but slightly offset and then Ken beside Davis. Like the animators are desperate to push the Kenyako narrative, like, clearly they know about the Daiken feelings being very strong with fans but they were trying to visually remind us painfully hard that, hey, actually the pairing is Kenyako. But buddy did that feel forced and it's probably why Yolei felt off to me.

J U S T I C E F O R C O D Y. That's all.

THEY COULD HAVE LET ROBBIE DAYMOND DO A TERRIBLE TEXAN ACCENT!!! THEY SHOULD HAVE AT LEAST TRIED!!!!

Kari actually didn't have very many major lines in the film I felt like but I loved the little scenes of her at the beginning, actually, though, she was kind of just there next to T.K. the entire time because the film also framed them together so hard it's SO WEIRD THEY AREN'T CANON.

T.K. though. God he was just so T.K. in this film. The trauma of losing Patamon in Adventure and then whatever happened in Tri like. It was just the most T.K. thing to do and say when they were talking about what they had to do. But also, I loved whenever the cops showed up and Davis goes "WHAT, HOW DID THEY FIND US?" and T.K. was like "ARE YOU KIDDING!???? YOU AND YOUR BOYFRIEND SUMMONED A GIANT FLYING MONSTER!!!!"

Honestly, this movie was everything I ever wanted really. About three minutes before we went into the movie I was talking about ghost game with my friend and how I wished it hadn't been for kids because it had such great and frankly horrifying concepts and everything was just sunshine and rainbows for children and nothing bad ever really happened which was disappointing.

And then I watched The Beginning. This movie felt so much like coming home from the start because I felt like I knew these character's so well (I lost count of how many times I sat in the theater and said a thing, only to have one of the character's also say the thing a second later), and everything was so bright and nice and then it became an eldritch horror show.

Let me tell you, when I watched the trailer for the first time I said to my friend "dude what was with that trailer??? The music????? Why is it so sinister???" and, despite that, I still did not see the horror coming and neither did anyone else in the theater. Everyone and I do mean everyone went very still and quiet and tense the second the first hint of bad began. We were all so unprepared and it was very upsetting.

As I was leaving the theater, I heard a woman fighting with her husband over having brought their very little daughter to see the movie. The mom clearly thought it was a fun kids movie because it was animated and whoever is in charge of American films absolutely thinks all animated movies are for kids so it wasn't rated which is how the film industry always handles anime films.

They seem completely incapable of understanding that animation doesn't equal child friendly. Watching it, though, it's never been more clear that a Digimon movie was for older audiences than watching The Beginning. Like, this film was not for kids. This film was for us. The setting. The themes. The fact that 79% of the entire movie is exposition/dialogue...

When the little girl's dad asked her if she liked the film as it ended, he sounded strained and his wife was complaining that the film was going to give her nightmares and while his daughter said yes, she liked the film it was in a way that you could tell that no, she didn't really because she had no idea what was going on - it was bright and colorful and there were cute characters sometimes so that was probably fine but she couldn't have been older than six so it was probably very boring for her.

That is one of my few complaints about the film, actually. It was nearly all talking and exposition. I wish there had been more action. I wish it had been a little more light hearted and goofy at times. The eldritch horror/really messed up part of the movie felt like it went on forever but that might have just been my lack of prepardness for it. I was just so shocked even while my brain was like "yes, this is what we always wanted I AM LIVING" - also because I imagined that kind of awful, dark underbelly of the world of Digimon existing for the character's I already know and love.

Nothing is going to stop me from headcanoning that Davis reaction to Lui's mom being The Worst was so immediate and visceral because he's dealing with his own trauma from his mom's refusal to accept that he's trans, okay?

I didn't care a great deal for Lui and Ukkomon obviously disturbed me to no end - I know it wasn't Ukkomon's fault, they didn't know better but also it's fair to say that I was scarred for life about Lui's parents and the baseball bat scene and I would probably like Lui a lot more if his story weren't all conjecture and exposition. Also he was so negative (understandably) and was such a downer the entire film, honestly, thank god Davis and his endless queer energy was there to breakthrough to Lui and help him see the light of queerness friendship.

Anyway, did I mention Lui's claim that he's the first ever human to partner with a digimon doesn't make sense to me? I've thought about it a little more and, fine, maybe it's possible that Lui could be the first person to partner with a Digimon but the idea that everyone else became Digi-Destined because of him and Ukkomon still doesn't sit right. Oikawa didn't get a digimon until he was an adult and died and so even though he knew about Digi-World he technically didn't become Digi-Destined and the Digital World could have existed for ages before anyone partnered with a Digimon. Those things aren't mutually exclusive, I have to remind myself, but it just doesn't feel right to me and their claims being baseless seems more legit.

Okay, I'm done, that's it for my rough thoughts on the movie, I think. They probably won't get any clearer. I'm gonna use the film to further my Trans!Davis/Daiken headcanons for sure though.

One last thing though and it's that my friend said he hated Lui because Lui took away from the 02 kids and I had to remind him that Willis exists in Hurricane Touchdown and the majority of that film is Willis and Davis talking/fighting and the other kids just existing. It's not some wild new Digimon format to have a new Digi-Destined to center the plot around.

And speaking of the plot, a final thought is on the bit where their Digivices weren't relevant anymore. That isn't off-brand either actually. I don't like that they disappeared because I have an emotional attachment to them but I understand that the narrative was not needing to prove their bonds with their Digimon and therefore anyone can have strong bonds of real friendship with or without a Digivice aka being Digi-Destined - it also makes sense with the whole "we didn't need the tags and crests to Digivolve our Digimon because our real strength comes from within" narrative that the OG Digimon Adventure established. The Digivices and tags/crests were just tools to remind them of their bonds with one another.

Anyway, that's it. I'm shutting up. This post got so long I'm sorry but also if anyone wants to share their thoughts on the movie or my bad takes but in a fun way that's cool feel free. I'm always here to talk about Digimon and how this is gonna influence all my future headcanons things but seriously don't @ me out of malice. K THX

#Digimon 02 The Beginning #The Beginning #Digimon Adventure 02 #Spoilers #Davis Motomiya #Ken Ichijouji #Daiken #Yolei Inoue #Cody Hida #Yukio Oikawa #Lui Ohwada #Ukkomon #Digimon Adventure #T.K. Takaishi #Kari Kamiya

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madara-fate · 1 year ago

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Hey Mads been a while since we've interacted lmao hope all is well, so you know I love SasuSaku and Naruhina too however it can be annoying seeing the supposed beef or whatever they wanna call it especially seeing as neither ship contradicts or is in competition with the other, I've noticed many fans act as if Sakura cares that Naruto is with Hinata or is threatened by her which is funny seeing as Sakura for one never had feelings for Naruto in the first place as she was the one who played matchmaker and got Hinata and Naruto to open up to one another or root for them doesn't make sense that anyone would think they are in competition in anyway now don't get me wrong The Last has it's flaws but the ending wasn't suprising or unexpected but people are still fighting about it after about 9 going on 10 years if I'm not mistaken. Then there's weird thing where fans act like Team 7 can't have relationships and bonds outside of one another that is just as meaningful and deep like I love team 7 they're family clearly including Kakashi but clearly for each of them their respective families come first at this point like people act like Naruto and Sasuke or Sakura wouldn't prioritize their respective families first it just seems like they mischaracterize the characters or poorly understood their so called favorite characters.

Sorry for ranting but what is your opinion?

So you know I love SasuSaku and Naruhina too however it can be annoying seeing the supposed beef or whatever they wanna call it especially seeing as neither ship contradicts or is in competition with the other

I'm pretty sure the majority of that petty animosity between the two fandoms is derived from the equally petty Sakura vs Hinata nonsense. It seeped into the ships, and unfortunately, many fans of one who had no problems with the other, eventually grew to dislike the other ship simply because of the behaviour of their fans. I always try to tell people that the behaviour of the fans has nothing to do with the ship itself, but some people just can't separate the two.

I've noticed many fans act as if Sakura cares that Naruto is with Hinata or is threatened by her which is funny seeing as Sakura for one never had feelings for Naruto in the first place as she was the one who played matchmaker and got Hinata and Naruto to open up to one another or root for them doesn't make sense that anyone would think they are in competition in anyway

Yep, Sakura was literally the biggest NH shipper in the series. These people are just making shit up, plain and simple.

Then there's weird thing where fans act like Team 7 can't have relationships and bonds outside of one another that is just as meaningful and deep like I love team 7 they're family clearly including Kakashi but clearly for each of them their respective families come first at this point like people act like Naruto and Sasuke or Sakura wouldn't prioritize their respective families first it just seems like they mischaracterize the characters or poorly understood their so called favorite characters.

True and true. The amount of times I've seen SNS extremists claim how in a life and death situation, Naruto and Sasuke would choose to save each other over the lives of their own wives and children, is fucking insane. I don't know who they think Naruto and Sasuke are.

#Sakura Haruno #Hinata Hyuga #sasusaku #naruhina #Sasuke Uchiha #Naruto Uzumaki

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masterqwertster · 1 year ago

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H/c spells- Modify Memory with the soulblooms au? (Characters up to you, but I would love Orym, Ashton, and/or Milo to be in it :) )

Prompt The thing about the Soul Bloom AU is that it's supposed to be canon compliant for anything not directly impacted by the blooms being present. And Modify Memory hasn't been (explicitly) used in this campaign (yet). So instead of the actual spell, I've gone with the second mind dive on Ashton, where they were kind of trying to figure out if his memories had been magically messed with. (Which, honestly I feel like there's a chance his memories after setting off the trap but before falling got blanked. Like a brief conversation/deal made before someone shoves them out the window off the balcony)

27 Modify Memory

You attempt to reshape another creature’s memories. One creature that you can see must make a Wisdom saving throw. If you are fighting the creature, it has advantage on the saving throw. On a failed save, the target becomes charmed by you for the duration. The charmed target is incapacitated and unaware of its surroundings, though it can still hear you. If it takes any damage or is targeted by another spell, this spell ends, and none of the target’s memories are modified.

While this charm lasts, you can affect the target’s memory of an event that it experienced within the last 24 hours and that lasted no more than 10 minutes. You can permanently eliminate all memory of the event, allow the target to recall the event with perfect clarity and exacting detail, change its memory of the details of the event, or create a memory of some other event.

You must speak to the target to describe how its memories are affected, and it must be able to understand your language for the modified memories to take root. Its mind fills in any gaps in the details of your description. If the spell ends before you have finished describing the modified memories, the creature’s memory isn’t altered. Otherwise, the modified memories take hold when the spell ends.

A modified memory doesn’t necessarily affect how a creature behaves, particularly if the memory contradicts the creature’s natural inclinations, alignment, or beliefs. An illogical modified memory, such as implanting a memory of how much the creature enjoyed dousing itself in acid, is dismissed, perhaps as a bad dream. The DM might deem a modified memory too nonsensical to affect a creature in a significant manner.

A Remove Curse or Greater Restoration spell cast on the target restores the creature’s true memory.

At Higher Levels: If you cast this spell using a spell slot of 6th level or higher, you can alter the target’s memories of an event that took place up to 7 days ago (6th level), 30 days ago (7th level), 1 year ago (8th level), or any time in the creature’s past (9th level).

Orym is rather glad in this moment that nosebleeds don't cause soul blooms. Otherwise whatever Imogen and Fresh Cut Grass are doing in Ashton's head would be giving them all a nose full of thistles, which sounds deeply unpleasant.

Hopefully they won't have a knuckleduster of thistles to deal with when Imogen and FCG are done this time. But that really depends on what the duo digs up and how Ashton feels about it, Orym supposes. At least if it does come to that, Ashton's target before was a wall, not friends. And they seem to be consistent in things like that.

In time (and after the weirdness of the people-like specks in the glass), Imogen, FCG, and Ashton awaken from the trance of the mind dive.

All three are shaken.

Imogen's hands tremble as she cradles Ashton's face to speak with them. The genasi heaves unsteady breaths. Letters jitters in place just the slightest bit.

The sorceress and aeormaton weave a story of the profound strangeness they encountered within Ashton's mind. To have a universe in his head sounds entirely inhumanoid to Orym. Another point in which Orym is Just A Guy while his friends are... simply more.

But even Just A Guy can help. Especially when it comes to his soulmates.

Orym has always found that a nice scent helps one breathe more calmly, and Ashton's breath is still hitching every now and then. Normally, he would turn to lavender as a simple soothing scent, but given that's what blooms upon his soulmates for him, Orym has a sneaking suspicion that none of the other members of Bells Hells finds it particularly soothing. So he turns to another fragrant plant: mint. A quick squeeze of the leaves between his fingers releases the bright scent before Orym tucks the sprig into Ashton's lappel.

"Oh, that's sharp," they mumble, not quite in complaint.

"Just breathe," Orym gently instructs them, taking in the crisp smell for himself.

And they do.

They all breathe and find their way forward.

#MQ&A #MQfic #MQ AU machine #soul bloom au #critical role #ashton greymoore #orym of the air ashari #spell hurt/comfort prompt

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a-mag-a-day · 2 years ago

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Hi @barkingcrows sent a long ask and because it's an unsustainable format, I'm posting their ask under the cut

Thank you for sharing your thoughts!

HELLO AND WELCOME TO MY FAVOURITE EPISODE! i love you mag85. its not even really the pre- or post- statement that i love (though when jon amends his opening, you can HEAR the 😒 in his voice and its lovely) but its the statement itself. i simply love it So Much. theres something about it that stuck out to me and i dont quite know what

(cont. under cut)

i adore the tone the statement is given in. the statementgiver sounds almost hysterical in a falsely composed manner. think : the narrator of The Tell-Tale Heart. they sound like theyre moments away from begging you to believe them and begging you to tell them you understand. like theyre trying their damnedest to make themself understand just as much as theyre trying to make you understand…… a bit like helen in her first statement, even. but far more gone than her. helen is still holding onto logic as her lifeline, refusing to let go of logic and reason for the sake of staying sane. 85’s statement giver went mad long ago, and doesn’t care about why or how it doesn’t make sense—they just know it doesn’t make sense and there’s nothing more to it. they’re looking back at it all with a “i can’t fucjsking believe this happened to /me/” lens, sort of. i think so, at least

the contradictions are a fun thing. they make the statement stand out and grab your attention back even if youre doing something else while you listen. in order to wrap your head around it, you have to pay attention. It starts out simple, eases you into the senselessness. after all, if it threw you in headfirst then you wouldnt know what to make of the statement. it would make no sense because youre looking at it through the wrong lens, defaulting to applying rules to it that simply dont apply. “Because nonsense is what it is. It is playfully impossible. He cannot be not there. But he is. He was. And so am I. I did not meet him on the staircase as well.” it takes a second for you to make it make sense, but then just trading out every “i did not meet him” for “i did meet him (its just that he was the man that wasnt there)” and suddenly it makes the senselessness make a lot more sense, and puts you into the correct mindset for this episode.

but it only stays simple for a short bit, quickly upping the absurdity more and more until its depicting batshit stuff that you cant even understand by backwards logicing out of it. but by now youve accepted that this statement giver’s story is not one that is meant to make sense, and you can listen to the impossibilities without it breaking your immersion at all. In fact, it enhances it. a fun example of that is: “My father said nothing, as I had taken him up the stairs an hour before, and he now lay dead in his chair, his heart unsuited for the expedition. [...] Eventually, after almost an hour descending the spiral, he keeled over in his seat and lay lifeless. My mother got abruptly to her feet, and told my father that they were leaving. My father got to his feet, and silently followed her out.” its senseless! its plenty comprehensible, but it just doesnt make sense! are the stairs metaphorical or literal? did the dad die in a dream and wake back up? if he died on the stairs, how did he get to the chair? did he die and his corpse got up and walked out? the listener doesnt know! jon sure as hell doesnt know! and i really doubt that even the statement giver knows! its not like theyre there, anyways. no use in figuring out the hows and whats and whys of events when theyre hardly a who or what themself.

i feel like it sort of raises the question of if there was ever a man not there in the first place that the statement giver fell victim to, but that’s the point, isn’t it? there was no one there. “The stairs were real. He wasn’t there, but the stairs were.” note the word choice. ‘real.’ not ‘the stairs were there,’ but that they were real. is it possible to do something like this to yourself? the man who was not there became real as time progressed, yes, but any delusion can become real to someone if they believe it sincerely enough. mix the Literally Supernatural spiral into that and you have one hell of a trip. is it possible to lose yourself in a poem so much that you lose your own self? have you ever considered this statement being largely metaphorical? turned literal only by the spiral finding a new plaything? they say that he did not offer them to join him on the stairs. so is that to say the man who was not there did not offer simply because he was not there, or that the statement giver’s spiral (heh) was self-inflicted? “He didn’t come back until I made… a horrid mistake. I called to him. I stood on the landing and shouted at him to go away. I asked him if he was there. I demanded he show himself. All utterly impossible, of course. I was shouting at nobody but myself, and so it was into my own mind that my curses and pleas burrowed and nested.”

personally, i think it makes for a more interesting statement if it’s litera; there is, in fact; a man who was not there tormenting the statement giver. but for it to be metaphorical would make for a much more interesting question

“I walked and I walked. And then I didn’t walk, and that got me moving much faster.” i just like this line

“He had sworn at me as he tried to climb them to the top, telling me I was no son of his, and I was trying to agree with him, but if I could have done so, then he would have been wrong.” THIS line. if there’s one thing i want you to take away from this rambling essay of a loveletter to mag85 then it’s this line. i want everyone to look at it and just. think about it i guess??? it’s my favourite sentence in this episode. something about it is so interesting and i really don’t know how to put it into words. “I was trying to agree with him, but if I could have done so, then he would have been wrong.” GOD i love that ?!!!??!?? its so good

i love the twist on the poem at the end too. changing it to “i was a man who wasn’t there”

i don’t think enough people talk about just the statement for this episode, so i’ll leave off my thoughts on the post-statement banter. not to mention that this post is already far longer than it should be HAHA. i love georgie and season three is very eventful, but this statement by itself should be highlighted more often when it has such an interesting premise <333

finally, while i’m here: i would absolutely recommend listening to The Man Who Sold The World by David Bowie after listening to this episode. or whatever cover you prefer of the song—i personally enjoy Nirvana’s most. The Man Who Sold The World, just as mag85, was at least in part inspired by the poem Antigonish. (and the timeline would allow for mag85 to potentially be partially inspired by both the poem AND the song, but i don’t believe that is confirmed or denied anywhere.)

it’s a great song and i never have a reason to talk about how this episode was actually the thing that introduced me to the song

thank you for bearing with me as i rambled about the episode i can never find a good reason to ramble about!

#a mag a day #tma #the magnus archives #episode asks #mod ashes #tma spoilers #Mag 85 #Barkingcrows #Please #if your ask runs long #post your thoughts as your own #have a readmore function and tag us!#We don't want to clog up people's feed more than necessary <3

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the1975attheirverybest · 2 years ago

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the rebranding thing seems a kinda logical though as i think due to the newfound popularity etc there has been this like blending of him and the character almost? like i struggle to know when hes being serious vs joking especially when he does something racist like on the podcast and especially because he was talking in atpoaim about how art shouldn't hurt people and you should preserve your relationships it seems logical that he would want to be more sincere? especially when the bfiafl was about sincerity which was lost a little with the stage performance because to me atleast i was double guessing if he was being serious or joking when he would make jokes about trans people in sport and it definitely felt like he had undermined a lot of what he has said previously yknow? like if im being a bit vague and cryptic tell me but like obviously i dont think hes a truely awful person but it feels like he is dancing on the line sometimes - 🐸

No, I think, you’re 100% right. Though, with Matty, there are always contradictions and a million sides to each thing, hahaha. I mean, it’s part of what makes him who he is, and I love him for it, but it does feel overwhelming at times.

This is how I’ve always understood things (and please someone correct me if I’m wrong! I actually like discussing this stuff, especially with other fans):

The stage persona seems to be primarily about criticizing and/or testing liberal/ leftist values. And it includes EVERYTHING that he does onstage. From the eating of raw meat, doing push ups shortlist, consuming tons of media in an exaggerated format of having several TV screens at once (some of which played political coverage, some had commercials trying to sell you stuff, etc.), to the couch scene where he touches himself, the drinking excessively, the speech he would do about how he doesn’t know what it means to be a man in leftist culture anymore. And how it’s troubling but understandable that men tend to run to right wing nonsense because at least, over there, they have a set of very defined ideals for what masculinity should be.

BFIAFL is, itself, a deconstruction of masculinity in many ways. So it would make sense that the band wanted to explore these leftist values further in the show/concert. With all that in mind, I interpreted the whole “the thing about trans women in sports,” or “I had this Indian taxi driver today” or whatever where the band cuts him off with the song before he says something horrific, as him saying two very important things to us as an audience.

1. Even though the show SEEMS very loose and weird because he’s essentially just doing whatever he wants. It’s really not. It’s very constructed. There are people in charge. It’s very thought out, and if things went wrong, we would be able to tell.

2. All of his performance is about critiquing liberal values, but he himself doesn’t know what the answer is and finds himself still trapped within leftist ideology. The second that he “threatens to cross the line” like saying that shit about the cab driver or trans women in sports, the boundary is re-asserted with the art (in the form of his band mates cutting him off making him stop his contemplation and get back to being the musician).

Does any of this make any sense or do I sound completely crazy, hahaha???

I think the podcast thing is a separate conversation. I’m down to have it, but I know that most of us are sick of it at this point.

The thing is, though, Matty has said that “if you’re always sincere all the time, you get ever diminishing returns.” Like people stop believing it after a while and it gets boring and less interesting. So, it’s weird to me that he would lean into the sincerity fully? Idk friends. HES AN ENIGMA.

#🐸anon

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aggressive-positivity-network · 3 years ago

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do any of the mercs play board games?

Mercopoly (Board Game

Headcanons)

Scout:

You think he has enough of an attention span to play something that doesn’t involve sweating out his energy drinks?

Hell no!

He gets very bored very quickly, especially with something complex like chess.

He’ll play cards sometimes, but only Crazy Eights and Go Fish - that’s all he knows how to play.

However, there is one true board game he plays occasionally: Candy Land.

It’s one of the few board games that you don’t really have to read the rules for, and there isn’t any writing on the cards.

However, he only asks to play it when he’s not feeling very well.

Medic even has a page in his medical journal for the mercs that says, and I quote:

“The Scout has an extremely short attention span, and if an activity isn’t active or immersive, he will not stay long. If at any point he chooses a sedentary activity, a check-up is in order.”

As sad as it is, a request to play Candyland is a good way to know if Scout needs a little extra reassurance or support.

By the end of the game, Scout usually feels more himself, whether he wins or not.

Engie is especially good with Scout when he’s this way, being the one of the most emotionally sensitive of the group. But he also knows Scout would never admit straight-away how he was feeling, so he usually has a more fun way of getting answers.

“You feelin’ more like a King Candy or a Lord Licorice?”

“...Fudge Monster.”

“That bad, huh?”

“Yeah...”

Spy:

If you ask him, he will most likely go off on a tangent about chess, and how it’s a game of strategy, deception, and crushing your enemy with your wit.

He scoffs at any other game, and constantly makes fun of several of his more intelligent peers for finding interest in them.

“You are mercenaries. Blood-thirsty killers of men. And you are playing ‘Hungry, Hungry Hippos’ like a hoarde of kindergartners?”

But one thing he cannot resist is Sorry.

He considers it above normal board games because it has strategy - or at least that what he says.

He actually just likes it because it’s a game of revenge, which is like a drug to him.

He’s gotten so good at it that if he asks you to play Sorry with him, it’s almost guaranteed that he’s mad at you and just wants to let off some steam by giving you a horrendous loss. However, occasionally, he’s the one who loses.

Spy isn’t a poor sport, exactly - he’s too cultured for that - but sometimes his pride outweighs his manners and he convinces himself that the other player cheated through made up signs of deception.

He simply “allows” them to win because he “doesn’t want to make a fuss.”

But god help the unfortunate soul who decides to rub their win in his face.

Sniper had won five games in a row, and it was clear Spy was getting hot under the collar.

Sniper ended their games with a mischievous, “You’ll get ‘em next time, tiger.” and a small pat on his shoulder.

Spy immediately saw red, grabbed Sniper’s hand, and before the aussie knew it, he was against a concrete wall with a butterfly knife to his throat.

“I could kill you right now. Your final cry for Medic will be drowned in blood, and I would leave you here to die a painful, dramatic death. You’ll be replaced with a rusted trash can of a bot until they could grow another clone of you. Every memory will be gone. The team will be shrouded in grief, not because of losing you, but losing what the clone can never have. And I shall bide my time, ask the clone to play the same game, and kill them when they win. Another clone, another kill. And again. And again. And again. You think the Manns give a damn as long as their work is getting done? You will never be able to form a single thought before I spill your blood - caught in an eternal prisoner’s dilemma where you always lose.”

After gathering his bearings, Sniper finally spoke.

“Is this about your takeout?”

Spy scoffed.

“Do you really think - !”

“Tonight, my treat if you don’t kill me.”

Spy squinted.

“Egg rolls?”

“And an extra order of crab rangoon.”

“Your treat?”

“Yep.”

“How do I know you won’t poison me?”

“Chemical test before and after the food arrives.”

“How do I know Medic isn’t in on it?”

“Miss Pauling as a witness and Scout as an overseer. Pauling’s main objective is to keep us alive, and Scout can’t do bloody anything subtle, even if he wanted to. You can also play back the cameras in the lab, if the mood really struck ya.”

Spy held Sniper against the wall for a minute or two while he thought it all over, then let Sniper fall to the ground.

“I don’t need your sympathy, bushman. But you had better keep your end of the deal. I am the only backstabber around here.”

Demo:

Can’t even stay awake long enough to play most board games.

On the rare chance that he’s sober, he, Engie, and Medic like to play Monopoly.

Here’s the thing: you should never ask a drunkard, an engineer, and a sadist genius to play Monopoly together. It will not end well.

They have been playing the same game for years, with new rules in place and physical extensions to the board in order to try and end the game. Every other Friday, they take the weekend to try and finish it.

However, it all ends up fruitless.

Demo is usually the one keeping the peace, since he is the least competitive out of the three. That isn’t to say he isn’t clawing for the win as much as the other two, but he is definitely the least invested. He’s mostly staying out of principle.

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned, ‘s ta ne’er give up, e’en when the goin’s gettin’ tough. Roll the dice, doc.”

Despite his confidence, he’s not even sure what he would do if he or anyone else won. It would seem more like a relief than a celebration.

Medic:

He’s the one who started the Eternal Monopoly game, which has led to some theories that the game itself came straight from hell, and is one of the many punishments used on sinners. The box does smell a bit of brimstone…

He seems to enjoy the chaos that each round brings and the challenge of coming up with new rules to the game. To any outsider, his commentary and directions are complete nonsense.

“According to zhe ‘Calvinball Rule,’ as stated by Engineer, and the ‘Double Kill,’ as stated by myself, since the current time ends vis a three and ve all received at least two kills zhis veek, ve need to double every other roll and whomever loses zhe resulting game of ‘Bim Bum’ vill have to go to zhe Purple Jail.”

The rules and mechanics are like an unholy amalgamation of Monpoly, Sorry, chess, D&D, Bluff, and poker.

However, when Medic isn’t stapling pages of rules together, he likes to play a nice, relaxing game of checkers with Heavy.

Both of them are excellent checker players, but neither of them care who wins.

In fact, they usually talk over the game, taking the other player’s pieces as one of them shares a story from that day’s battle.

They’ve even played while Heavy was in surgery - leading to many unfortunate times when Medic had to fish a piece out of Heavy’s intestines.

One would think that a genius doctor would also have a passion for chess, but he expresses his disdain for it almost every time the checker board is brought out.

“Ach, people think chess is such an intelligent sport. Let me tell you, liebling, it is terribly overrated. If zhe devil can play chess, anyvun can. He might as vell just give souls avay, vis those shaky claws of his.”

Engineer:

Being the engineer, he is usually the one to add to the Eternal Monopoly.

Pieces, board extensions, cards, trivia - it gives him a nice break from all the weaponry.

He’s usually the one who remembers all the mechanics and rules, and serves as the judge if rules contradict each other.

“Alright, now let’s see here…we’ve got the Infinity Loop over here, but now you’ve got the Time Travel card…how many years? Infinite? Ho boy…looks like I’m gonna have to add a Hilbert’s Hotel square somewhere. Hold on…”

Despite his affinity for Eternal Monopoly, Engineer will play almost any board game. He learns new rules and figures quickly, and enjoys the challenges that brings.

However, if he’s particularly burnt out, he likes to take a break by playing Jenga. He and Spy have a friendly rivalry, since Engie can tell which blocks are supporting and Spy has quick fingers.

Spy, oddly, is a lot more amiable losing in Jenga - he knows Engie won’t think less of him - but Engineer hates when the bricks fall over. Not because it means he lost, but because, to him, it’s a failure on his part…even if it was someone else that knocked it over.

He’s made several blueprints for the perfect Jenga game, but has concluded that no human hand could put it into practice.

During one particularly bad day, Engie bumped the table, causing the whole column to come crashing down. Spy had already recovered from the noise, but Engie was still standing there, stone-faced.

His eyes were covered by his goggles, but it was clear he was crying.

Several of his machines had broken on the job, and to him, this was just another egregious mistake.

Spy carefully put the blocks back in the container, and Engie came to his senses.

“I’m real sorry, Spy. Maybe another time…?”

Spy only nodded. He was thinking.

The next time they played, Spy brought out a different container.

Instead of wood, the bricks seemed to be made of a sturdy foam.

“They fall a bit more…quietly,” Spy explained. He dropped one, and it only made a small bouncing sound. “Pyro uses these, but they allowed me to borrow it.”

Engie was a bit skeptical at first, since it was a new material, but he got the hang of it rather quickly. He was almost ecstatic the first time it fell - the blocks barely made any sound at all!

After a few games, Spy had to leave for an assignment. Engie put a hand on their arm.

“Thank ya, Spy. Maybe you ain’t the cold-blooded backstabber I thought you were.”

Spy chuckled, but said little else. He didn’t want to admit that noise sensitivity plagued him as well.

Pyro:

Pyro loves board games, and has quite the collection in their room.

Each plastic piece is at least a little melted, and all the boxes have two or three scorch marks.

Hungry Hungry Hippos, Candyland, and Uno are among her favorites.

He is an absolute beast at Uno, though.

They take each game very seriously, especially when they can convince the whole team to play.

As you can imagine, it’s pure chaos - it even led to a rule in the Merc Guidebook: “When playing Uno with three or more players with the inclusion of a Pyro, at least one Mann Co. representative and/or a mediating Medic must be present.”

Pyro has been known the hide cards, bribe players, or even try to set flame to competition. Playing Uno is almost like a mission, with weapon preparation and Spy posing as other players.

The mercs even have a betting stand that Sniper runs. All parties have lost a lot of money that way.

It’s pretty much the only time outside of battle that the team remembers how cruel and malicious Pyro can be.

Sniper:

Conventional board games aren’t exactly his forté, but he does enjoy a bit of cards every once in a while - Solitaire being his favorite.

He even has a pack of cards in his Sniper Square for that exact purpose. It allows him the pass the time without having to look away from his targets too often.

On occasion, he could be pressed to play poker, but only if the stakes weren’t monetary (i.e candy pieces, crackers, duties, etc.).

His favorite part of every match is shuffling the cards. Pretty much every merc could shuffle cards, but Sniper could make them almost float with how quick his fingers and wrists moved. He always began the game with a new trick he learned, which delighted his fellow players (usually Spy, Engineer, Medic, and Demo).

You could always tell if he had a busy day because he would avoid tricks with too much movement, which would be murder on his sore fingers and hands.

Pyro is currently learning card tricks from Sniper, and show off what they learn at the beginning of every Uno game.

Heavy:

He isn’t a huge fan of the bright, plastic-y board games that Pyro has, although he will play them if asked.

It’s mostly because of how complicated the rules are and the fact there are almost never a Russian translation for the directions.

He always prefers checkers, cards, or mancala, which he almost exclusively plays with Medic because he’s the only one who speaks fluent Russian.

Heavy can play a mean game of mancala, though, and it’s the only game he can beat Medic at.

Soldier:

The only games he will play are Battleship and Uno - but only after Miss Pauling convinced him it was “American enough” because the game had red, white, and blue cards.

He prefers the electronic Battleship because of the sound effects and voices. However, if it’s out of batteries, he’ll make his own sound effects.

Miss Pauling is the best at pretending to be a commander, so she’s usually the one playing with him - but, sometimes, Demo gets in on the action, too.

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mikami · 3 years ago

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Do you have thoughts about other adaptations of DN? Whatever form they take.

I've probably talked about all of them at some point, but let's just go through my general opinions on all of them in one place here! (For reference, a list of all DN media is here.)

Anime: It's... decent? Over the years I have developed a lot of beef with the anime for contributing to a lot of fandom views that are just plain contradicted in the manga, which is the overall longer and more detailed work. But let's be real, it's an alright adaptation. It'd be disingenuous of me to call it Bad. The manga is definitely Better but the anime isn't Bad. Soundtrack and voice acting really elevate this one also.

Relight OVAs: I'm counting this as a separate adaptation because they're both retellings of the plot that aren't canon to the anime - and actually they are two different retellings of the plot that aren't even canon to each other. They're also totally nonsensical, but we got some really pretty animation out of them, so... sure, I guess.

Live Action Movies: They're boring as all hell. This is not a very analytical opinion, I just cannot bring myself to have any feeling about them other than 'watching them absolutely puts me to sleep'. There's a few scenes there that stuck with me but not enough to justify the experience.

Light up the New World: I'm counting this as an adaptation because it is basically a remix of the original plot into its most absurd extremes and... it kicks ass. I love LNW. It's the wildest and most unpredictably weird ride ever and I can watch it again and again and lose it about how completely unhinged it is every time. Though it is by all accounts the worst adaptation, it is also my absolute favourite.

TV Drama: It's fun. It is clearly trying to put its own spin on the story instead of being a straight adaptation and I think that is for the best. I find it amusing and easy to watch - the finale still makes me kind of mad, but I am overall fond of it. It includes Mikami, literally what else could I possibly ask for?

Musical: I like musicals, so this one automatically gained some of my favor. I like most of the songs and the show as a whole, though I would have wanted more dancing out of it. The plot changes are... eh. Misa is a totally different character who's values are completely reversed from the source material. That works for the musical itself, it's just weird when viewing in comparison to her canon self. But I don't really expect a two hour stage performance to revolutionize this text-heavy convoluted plot, so I still think it's good.

German Audio Drama: Listening to the final disk of this is the closest I will ever get to experiencing what it's like to ascend into a new layer of existence.

#answers #THE GERMAN AUDIO DRAMA IS BAD #BUT LIKE IN SUCH A WEIRD WAY THAT ITS JUST HILARIOUS #you cant even take it seriously enough to get mad at it #except for very very few points

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omegasmileyface · 2 years ago

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What’s :3 architecture like?

OK SO theyre unified more by ideals than physical similarities, which means theyre pretty diverse in lots of aspect, which shows up in their architecture. at its core, its just "ghost architecture":

floating shit (if you try to make areas in the nonsensical infinite realms apply to physics, the realms will fight back)

shared spaces (if you want to be alone youll live outside of a gathering or live in your lair. non-lair spaces are almost never private)

(as an extension of that last one i want to point out that many ghosts who live in cities will spend like half of their time OUTSIDE of it and just kinda wandering about bc like. its the infinite afterlife. they dont need to sleep. they do whatever they want. this is Certainly true among the youthful and creative and curious :3 people)

few doors - this is kinda mortifiedverse lore, but doors are pretty much restricted to lair entrances - and solid walls - theres very little weather. windows are empty, columns are frequent, etc.

death themes. there's more of it among the Glom Psu than the others but i think its so fucking funny how in canon everybody has skulls and bones and bats and shit all over everything so im keeping it

stuff that super does not go together. depending on how devoted a certain ghost is to a theme it could be from a typical suburban tudor house with a single pool of lava to an absolutely nonsensical collage of various home-and-non-home architecture

each :3 cultural group has trends that are common among them and of course they mix into the blend of the area but ill separate them here for the sake of background

uwu:

glassy windows. i know it contradicts what i swaid earlier but they have both empty and glassy windows. think about it. thats free sunlight. for laying in. this city DOES have sunlight btw even though they dont have a sun

tall structures with platforms on the inside and outside. like yknow those cat athletic structures. the planks on the walls that kind of thing. catwalks! those. i would kill for that.

treeeeees. with bark.

lairs often have their doors hidden away in hard-to-access crooks

complex tunnel-like system closer to the ground

big public hearths with short, wide brick walls around them. also for laying on.

shallow pools

glom psu:

bright colors!!! the ghost zone in general is known for bright colors but these guys have RAINBOWS. and BLACK AND PINK. and PATTERNS. outside every fucking building

a lot of like...... big victorian houses except with walls that are more open

a few ppl have "intradimensional" lairs that manifest as like normal houses with normal, barely non-euclidean doors.

wings are very common, on buildings and stuff

skate parks :) they have roads designed for skating in addition to floating, with soft curves and rails and shit

suburban-looking parks with brightly-colored, spiky playgrounds and elaborate gazebos

actually yeah just keep putting spikes on things. they dont particularly hurt though its fine. theyre like. gummy.

cafes! these guys love eating but mostly sweets.

i guess cafes isnt architecture huh. well. its mostly just floating, column-heavy, more open victorian houses. just in general these guys love that

eebydeeby:

the architecture itself is pretty varied , with neighborhoods mostly sticking to general aesthetics. look up any -core tag on tumblr and theres a place with architecture like that. you know every 2013 "what if everybody on tumblr lived/worked/went to school together" fandom/aesthetic separation? yeah. thats real when you die

more closed off areas (both lairs and non-lairs). tumblrinas value their privacy. that being said it frequently results in big houses shared between 5-6 individuals. these shared-house groups have a term for themselves loaned from Uwu: öwôw ówuv

curving, vertically-varied walking paths. tumblrinas dont float all that much

There Is A Tumblr University.

every block or so youll find a message board with paper and pens and pins and stuff available where people """""post""""" messages and respond to others and such. tumblrinas have a potent historical tradition of recorded, written, public gradual conversation

extremely varied building purposes. there are libraries. there are restaurants. there are movie theaters. there are karaoke houses. there are sex dungeons. (ghosts have sex if they want to.) there are buildings purely for thinking. theres a building where someone puts a single doodle of a cat in the center of the floor once a day. theres everything.

the lack of consistency in architecture shows how varied and active the eebydeeby are. they thrive on differing perspectives

#i should make an :3 tag but idk how much tumblr likes symbols so uhhhh.#uwughosts #roxys worldbuilding #dp worldbuilding

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rachelbethhines · 3 years ago

Text

Tangled Salt Marathon - “Rapunzel Knows Best!” ( A first half of S3 Recap)

So I decided to place the recap after Be Very Afraid for several reasons. For starters it’s where the season three hiatus took place. It’s also framed like a cliffhanger episode the same as The Great Tree and Queen for a Day; so while Cassandra’s Revenge is technically the midseason finale, Be Very Afraid functionally servers this narrative purpose better. Finally I want to keep the Cassandra heavy stuff contained in it’s own recap later same as I did for Varian’s arc in season one.

Also keep in mind, everything I discussed in previous recaps still apply here. Nothings changed and you could argue that the issues I bring up now could have also apply to past seasons; they just happen to be at their worst here.

Here are the past recaps

To Filler or Not to Filler

Hey, What Ever Happened to That Varitas, Guy?

What Is the Point?

‘Whatta Twist’

And here are the episodes that’s covered in this recap

Rapunzel’s Return Part 1

Rapunzel’s Return Part 2

Return of the King

Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf

The Lost Treasure of Herz Der Sonne

No Time Like the Past

Beginnings

The King and Queen of Hearts

Day of the Animals

Be Very Afraid

Poorly Defined Conflicts

I’m not just talking about Cassandra’s lack of goals here either, though that is a part of it. I mean in several episodes the central conflict isn’t laid out clearly enough before being resolved. We flip from one set up to the next without ever resolving the first; like in Rapunzel’s Return when Cass and Varian fight for screen time or whenever Rapunzel is suppose to learn one lesson only for someone else to learn a completely different lesson in every other episode. And to this day I don’t know what Rapunzel and Feldspar’s subplot in Lost Treasure was suppose to be about.

There’s also of course the ill-defined overall conflict; which at this point has become convoluted and nonsensical to the extreme, and will only grow more aggravatingly stupid as the season progresses. The main villains lack clear goals, their motivations don’t align with previously stated facts, and the actual interesting conflict involving the threat of the rocks and their destruction of people’s lives and homes is just shoved under the rug and forgotten about.

There is no story without conflict. Having the conflict be all over the place is not only confusing but makes it harder for the audience to invest in what’s going on.

Failed Narrative Promises

Tying in with the above statement regarding conflicts, we have failed narrative promises. Rapunzel is repeatedly told to that she needs to learn something in several episodes only for her not to learn it at all. She either learns some unrelated ‘lesson’ that wasn’t established, (like in Rapunzel’s Return with her pervious goal about ‘opening up to others’ being switched out for a generic ‘responsibility’ lesson that at the last minute, where she doesn’t even do anything responsible,) or she winds up ‘teaching’ the opposite lesson to a different character thereby rewarding her for her bad behavior.

And that’s just within the induvial episodes themselves; there’s also broken narrative promises through out the overall story arc; like...

no justice/redemption for Lady Caine,

no acknowledgment that the Saporians are the victims of colonization

no conclusion regarding Corona’s murky past

no satisfying ending to Varian’s plot that sees everyone in involve grow

a poor copout of an explanation for Cassandra’s face/heel turn

The Dark Prince reveal going nowhere

The Brotherhood being put on a bus

King Frederic, or any royal, not being held accountable for their past actions

Lance’s new found responsibilities just being thrown away for the tenth time

The Disciples plot being being dropped

next to nothing in season two winds up being relevant

And Rapunzel, the protagonist of a coming of age story, fails to learn anything at all

I could probably go on but you get the gist. Tangled is incredibly frustrating show to watch because doesn’t deliver what it promises. You’re not being clever by ‘subverting audiences expectations’ unless you can justify your narrative decisions with previous set up. Tangled is too lazy to build proper set ups so it’s ‘twists’ leave you wanting to punch things rather then impressing you.

Character Assassinations

Every single character in Tangled the Series gets thrown under a bus, driven off a cliff, and then allowed to drown in the ocean of their completely unaware self-congratulatory smugness.

Rapunzel is turned into a bully

Cassandra is given the idiot ball to hold permanently

The King and Queen are lobotomized

Quinin gets replaced by a robot

The rest of the Brotherhood are pale shadows of what they could have been

Edmund is transformed from tragic complex figure into a dumb jerkoff who abuses his kid for a laugh

Zhan Tiri, once an ancient demon warlock, is reduced to a floating impotent ghost girl

The Saporians become poor hipster parodies

Cap is put on a bus

Any villain who isn’t Cass is gets ignored

Lance is infantilized to the point of absurdity

Eugene becomes a doormat

and poor Varian is forced to become a complacent victim to his abusers as oppose to being allowed to keeping his dignity

I think the only person who escapes this mass murder of characterization is freaking Calliope, and she’s hasn’t even appeared yet! (Well okay her and Trevor, maybe)

This all ties back into the poorly defined conflict and failed narrative promises. Rather than let the characters drive the story, they’ve become puppets to the plot, and plot is really stupid and forced, and circles back in on itself and is full of contradictions.

Manipulating the Audience’s Empathy to Do the Work for the Writers

The reason why the creators believe they can get away with such poor characterization and lazy writing is because they expect the audience to do all the heavy lifting for them.

Cass isn’t given an on screen reason for what she does because they’re hoping her fans will just automatically excuse her because they like her/relate to her and not, you know, get mad at the writers for dumbing her down. And after all who doesn’t love the creator’s pet? Meanies! That’s who!

No one calls out Rapunzel’s bullshit on screen, because if everyone likes her, then you, viewing audience, should too. Because if you have any sort of independent critical thinking abilities and a sense of right and wrong then clearly you’re ‘just a hater’.

Everyone should just shut up and be satisfied that Varian is even on screen now and be grateful for the scraps that they get cause he’s not the real point of the show and according to Chris ‘Varian fans aren’t real fans’. Even though they make up most of his viewing audience.

I could go on, but it’s just variations of the above. The writing in this series is very fond of gaslighting the audience and trying to trick them into justifying the absolute worst behaviors while desperately hoping they doesn’t noticed the continued downgrading and dismissal of characters they do like or once liked.

And the sad thing is, it’s worked. There are people to this day that still try to justify this show’s shitty morals and bend over backwards to excuse the likes of Rapunzel, Frederic, Cassandra, and Edmund. Worst, there are loud sections of the fandom, (usually on twitter) who think bullying is okay and follow in Chris and his characters footsteps. Most of them young impressionable girls who are now ripe for TREFS to indoctrinate because they use the same bullying tactics and excuses for authoritarianism.

Media does effect reality, but not in the way purists and antis would have you believe. No one is going to become a violent manic from playing a video game nor a sex offender because they read a smut fic. But they very much will conform to toxic beliefs if it’s repeated enough at them by authorities they ‘trust’; like say the world wide leading company known for family entertainment and children’s media, and the ‘friends’ they find within the fandom for said company...

I’m not saying you can’t enjoy Tangled the series or that you’re some how wrong for liking it’s characters, nor do you have to engage with every or any criticism thrown it’s way. But yes you need to think about the media you consume on some level and valid criticism is very much important to the fandom experience for precisely the above reasons.

Conclusion

This isn’t even the tip of the iceberg of what’s wrong with this show, but it is most of its biggest problems laid bare. Anything that haven’t covered here or in the past recaps will be explored in the final recap. Cause this is it folks; the last leg of the journey for this retrospective. When come back, hopefully next week, we’ll tackle Pascal’s Dragon.

#tangled #anti-tangled #tangled the series #rapunzel's tangled adventure #tts #rta

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5ro4 · 3 years ago

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Dark makes no sense [Spoilers of the whole show]

I thought Netflix’s Dark season 3 was disappointing, boring and made no sense. From its first few chapters I was wishing for it to end already, but it kept going, simultaneously being a convoluted exposition dump while actually explaining nothing, then pulling an ending out of nowhere long after I had stopped caring.

It’s kinda hard to find proper criticism for the series last season; most people just praise how it’s the best possible ending and everything makes perfect sense, so I decided to write my thoughts and criticism.

I’ll clarify that I enjoyed seasons 1 and 2 a lot. They are convoluted in a good and interesting way, where everything seems to fit nicely together, to have been properly planned all along, and it carries the promise that the deeper mysteries that remain will be explained later on.

But then season 3 happens. I still think overall it’s a good show, interesting and worth watching, but season 3 is disappointing and the show as a whole is certainly no “perfectly written masterpiece”.

Massive spoilers from now on.

Even if it made logical sense, season 3 is bad.

Most of the charm of the first 2 seasons is watching how every action fits in a single linear timeline and how every cause had an unexpected consequence that makes the timeline more and more complex while maintaining perfect coherence. It’s hard to follow, but it’s doable.

Then season 3 ruins the charm by making everything so convoluted it’s impossible to follow and unsatisfactory to even try.

Complexity is enjoyable up to the point where anything can happen. Why would you still care then? How could you? A mystery is intriguing because it needs to be explained by the rules of the world; the rules you know and are able to follow. If the explanation could be “a witch did it”, then none of the mysteries would be intriguing.

So we have a character that dies, and it’s intriguing because we know he’s alive in the future, so how can this be possible? Well, there’s actually 2 parallel worlds, so he’s alive in the other world. It’s a surprising twist, but the rules have been broken; now almost every mystery can be explained by the existence of a parallel world.

But then a character dies in both worlds! How can that be? Well, in the second world there’s actually two intertwined timelines, so they died in one of them but no the other.

How are you supposed to care about anything that happens from this point onward? No mystery is that mysterious when the possibility of a convoluted explanation involving multiple worlds and timelines is always there. And why even bother trying to make sense of it when they could pull out a fourth timeline or a third parallel world at any moment (and they actually do)?

Character’s motivations are impossible to follow because everyone is lying and being double-crossed by alternate reality characters all the time.

Half of the characters you are following now aren’t even the original characters but their versions from another world or another timeline inside that second world, so it’s really difficult to keep caring about any of them.

I’m not even going to attempt to criticize any of the fine details or possible loose ends because when characters can jump between timelines and realities at any time and all of them are either lying or being lied to, I’m pretty sure that by watching the show 3 times and reading the wiki you could find some plausible explanation for any small inconsistency, but at this level of complexity who even cares.

However, I think there are major, big picture flaws that somehow seem to have gone over most people’s head.

1.- The end is the beginning, therefore every action is an explanation for itself.

Most of the plot and almost the entirety of season 3 could be summed up as: A ton of people do nonsensical things because they know their future selves did those things, so they must repeat them because time is linear (except in the end it isn’t).

The bootstrap paradox is the cheap way this show has to explain any mystery and any character motivation: It happened the first time, so it must happen the second one too. Since this is a loop with no beginning, there is no need for any action to have had a logical explanation at one point.

It becomes useless to try to understand why any of the main mysterious characters do anything or what their plan is, because it can always be explained (and often does) as just “this is what happened the first time, so it must happen the second one too”.

There’s a point where one character is compelled to kill himself just because a character from the future saw him kill himself, so he must kill himself now so the future is consistent, even though there was never an actual reason for him to kill himself.

This is cheap and lazy because you can have any character doing any mysterious thing and no explanation is needed. Why do Noah and Helge drop dead kids at specific times and locations? Because they are just repeating what their future selves did, and since the loop has no beginning, no original reason exists.

2.- Adam, Eve and Claudia’s plans and motivations make no sense.

Adam and Eve’s motivations, and to some extent Claudia’s, are extremely unclear. They are the ones who explain to everyone else how time and parallel worlds work, except they are always lying and opposing their younger selves, and they are actually wrong about how all of it works.

This makes it hard to actually know what their actual motivations are, since the show doesn’t clearly show when and how they arrived at their current understanding of the world. It’s somewhat clear what they are trying to do, but not why they are trying to do so or what makes them so confident about their knowledge.

The show presents Adam and Eva as opposing forces trying to control time, while Claudia helps one or the other at different times for different reasons, yet most of the time all of them are actually doing exactly the same thing: Trying to make everything happen as it happened the last time.

So the story goes something like this: Following Adam’s instructions, Young Jonas tries to change the past by preventing himself from being born. Claudia stops him, tells him he must fight against Adam and therefore he can’t stop existing, so he must let history repeat itself. Jonas works alongside Claudia and somehow eventually ends up becoming Adam, whose plan, according to the Dark Wiki (dark-netflix.fandom.com) is to keep the cycle going.

This makes no sense, but that last part is actually wrong, at least to some extent, which shows that even the people writing the wiki don’t really know Adam’s motivations.

By the end of the show, it’s clear what is the ultimate thing each of them are trying to accomplish: Adam wants to destroy both worlds, Eve wants to keep the cycle going to avoid Adam destroying the worlds, and Claudia wants to save her daughter in at least one world. None of them seems to actually care about the apocalypse, although that was supposed to be the main conflict to avoid.

But how did Adam and Eve reach those conclusions? That’s never properly explained and their whole development seems nonsensical and contradictory: They try to change the past as their younger selves, they grow old trying and realize it’s impossible, so they turn around and try to prevent their younger selves from changing it.

At every chance they had to actually change the past someone appeared to stop them or convinced them not to do it, yet they somehow end up with the belief that time cannot be changed, while simultaneously doing their best effort to ensure time is not changed.

This is a total contradiction. Either you think time can be changed and try to do so, or you think time can’t be changed and do nothing about people trying, since you don’t need to prevent anyone from doing what you believe to be impossible.

Adam’s plan is to kill Martha and her baby, since her son is who ultimately will put the whole cycle in motion. If he is successful, he will create a paradox where the cycle was never put in motion therefore none of them exist, and thus they will cease to exist*. To do so, he needs to make pregnant-Martha go through a time travel portal because quantum shenanigans say that’s the only way to remove her baby from existence.

* “A paradox happens therefore we suddenly stop existing” makes no logical sense, but since it’s a common trope, let’s ignore it for now.

Eva knows of Adam’s plan and disagrees. For some not properly explained reason, she would rather have and infinite loop of people repeating their same miserable lives rather than ending the loop and making them disappear, thinking this is equal to them never existing, although they clearly existed. There might also be motherly instincts mixed in; the love for the son she is never shown having a conversation with before turning him into a murder machine to prevent him from not existing.

Eva’s plan is pretty stupid and evil, while Adam’s plan is contradictory, since he is preventing people from changing the past or creating a paradox in order for him to create a particular paradox as a last resource after failing to change the past.

Meanwhile Claudia is trying to repeat the timeline with the intention of actually changing everything at some point, but I don’t care to try and guess what her plan actually was all along.

3.- There’s no way Claudia could get her final revelation.

The characters are supposedly repeating the same cycle over and over, so nothing should actually change, but let’s say it can somehow because they explain something about moving grains of sand.

Concluding that a third world must exist because “there’s always a third dimension” is already a wild logical jump, but even so, how could she ever conclude that the third world was an original one that got destroyed and divided into two parallel realities, and that the reason was the clockmaker failed to make a time machine? It is completely impossible for her to conclude such things.

4.- The creation of the two worlds makes no sense.

So, there was an original world. A clockmaster tries to make a time machine, but instead destroys his world creating… two parallel worlds with 3 timelines that are interconnected in an extremely convoluted loop without beginning? And neither of those worlds actually spawns from the moment he activates the time machine, since he is intercepted years before that by those world’s time travelers?

This is a total cop-out that’s not a better explanation than “magic”. A dude made a machine that destroyed the world and spawned 3 seasons of a completely arbitrary but conveniently interconnected mystery thriller.

5.- Time rules are inconsistent

There’s a scene in which time is proven to be so deterministic that Jonas is literally immortal. He can't be killed because that’s not the place and time where he’s supposed to die in. This is both dumb and inconsistent.

The concept makes sense to a certain extent: If the character is alive in the future, it means he didn’t die in the past. However, that only works as long as the character is not trying to kill himself to prove a point. It only works somewhat elegantly in the show because Jonas accepts it as truth and doesn’t try to push it further, but what if he didn’t? What if he kept trying to kill himself just because he knows he can’t? Would knives break and guns keep getting jammed? It’s dumb because it implies time is a sentient being that will go out of its way to prevent things that aren’t supposed to happen from happening.

Also, it’s inconsistent because it’s latter confirmed that the past can in fact be changed.

6.- Conflicting beliefs are held at the same time.

Eva devotes her life to ensure everything happens as it should happen while simultaneously being 100% sure things will happen in the present as they happened in the future and there’s no way to avoid that. She is dumbfounded when Adam doesn’t kill her the moment he was supposed to kill her.

I’m pretty sure Adam and Claudia hold these same contradicting beliefs at one point or another, simultaneously believing the past can’t change while making their best effort to ensure it doesn’t change.

7.- Time stopped for a brief moment.

Claudia literally says that time stopped for a brief moment when the clockmaster activated his time machine or something.

Think about that. She’s telling you that time stopped during a small period of time. She's using time to mesure the lack of time.

Also, how could she ever know if time was stopped and for how long (hah), and how does it make any sense that her plan is to do something while time is stopped.

8.- Deep meaningful answers for the gullible.

This is not a plot hole, just a criticism to the writing and the development of the plot: Almost every time a character makes a crucial question to the character that holds the answer, they either don’t respond because of the bootstrap paradox (“my future self didn’t explain it to you so now that I’m in the same situation I won’t explain it either to avoid changing the past”) or they quote a philosopher or something in an attempt to seem deep while giving a non-answer that’s completely unrelated to the current conversation.

This is an actual conversation from the show:

- Why are you storing barrels full of nuclear waste inside an underground cave? - What we know is a drop, what we don't know is an ocean.

OK! No more questions then!

9.- Blind trust in the wrong person.

This is also a relatively minor nitpick I just want to get off my chest.

Characters, particularly Jonas and Martha, blindly trust anyone who appears before them and tell them they have been lied to, even after discovering that the last three people who supposedly revealed the truth to them was actually lying too.

This could still be believable given the circumstances until we get to the point when they would rather trust a total stranger over their future selves. Why would you trust anyone over your future self? Even if they are lying, you will become them in the future; their plan will be your plan, no matter how hard is it to understand now. Yet Jonas doesn’t require any proof from Claudia before trusting her completely over Adam.

10.- Why are Jonas and Martha needed to stop the cycle?

This is never actually explained beyond some vague idea of them being at the center of everything. Claudia could have traveled to the original world herself. Jonas could have done it too without taking Martha with him.

How do they even tune the machine to take them to a world that no longer exists?

11.- The whole time tunnel with Jonas and Martha?

???

12.- The resolution is a paradox, and thus impossible.

In order to stop time travel from ever existing they need to travel in time and prevent time travel from being created, thus making their existence a paradox, which makes them slowly disappear in a cloud of gold dust.

I know this was done for the visual spectacle, but still.

So much struggle against determinism, so many exposition dumps, so much care to make every piece fit perfectly in the timeline, just for the final resolution to be a blatant paradox. Pretty, but not really fitting.

Even though multiple universes with multiple timelines are shown to exist, somehow the rules of time only allow for a single timeline to exist in the end, even if that timeline contains an impossible paradox.

#dark #netflix

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anakinisvaderisanakin · 4 years ago

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Destiny (RotJ AU oneshot)

“Thank the Force, you’re safe!”

Leia didn’t know whether to laugh or cry as she flung herself into Luke’s open arms, his face concealed by the darkness as the soft full moon rose like a halo behind his head. She breathed out a sigh, holding him close as she let the tension that had been bearing down on her go. The gnawing ball of anxiety at the pit of belly faded, as relief flooded her senses.

“We won,” she added in a rushed tone, barely able to believe her own words as she realized the freedom they had fought for was now within their grasp.

“We did,” said Luke, soft spoken as he returned his sister’s embrace; his prosthetic hand coming up to gently envelope the back of her thin neck. “But there is more that needs to be done.”

Leia shook her head, knowing he was right but refusing to let the long road still ahead of them spoil this moment of euphoria in the wake of their victory. With eyes closed, she smiled softly.

“Let’s not think of the future. The Death Star is destroyed. The Emperor is destroyed.”

Luke didn’t need to tell her, for her to know he had fulfilled the task of ridding the Galaxy of its dictator. She could feel the responsibility of the act weighing heavy on his conscience.

“He is,” her brother said either way, but Leia was surprised to find the words didn’t bring her the calm she had expected.

Instead, Luke’s tone seemed flat, solemn. It seemed uncanny, unnatural for him. Leia decided to dismiss it as nonsense. Instead, she focused on Luke’s arms around her, and the tender kiss he placed against her forehead. She had always known they belonged together, that there was a connection between them.

It had taken some time for her to realize what exactly the bond was, but as soon as she realized she had fallen in love with Han, she knew Luke was the brother she’d always been missing. The brother she’d sometimes see in her dreams, a twin she’d never known. She had assumed her possible lost brother had died in the womb, that the ghost was a figment of her imagination. Now, she knew better.

Still, another question was begging to be answered. She felt the hatred and disgust well up inside her, before she even uttered the name on her mind. She sensed Luke’s reluctance to discuss it, knowing he heard her inquiry before she said it. Its taste bitter on her tongue.

“Is… where is Vader?”

“Our fath--”

“Your father,” Leia interrupted sharply, and she swore she could have heard Luke snort in annoyance if it weren’t so out of character for him to be intemperate. “Your father, my sire.”

“Father has changed. When we first spoke, I was afraid of his words. I was afraid of his intentions, of what he might do to me - and to you. But I’m not afraid anymore,” Luke said after a moment, but this time Leia didn’t imagine the cutting edge to his voice. “He asked me to relay a message. To you.”

“I want no part of his last wishes.”

“I know.”

Leia hated the tension that had formed between them, tainting the air and making it almost oppressive. She had no intentions of forgiving the man who had fathered her, who had stood dumbly by as her home planet and her adoptive - her real - parents were murdered. Her people turned to dust in the blink of an eye. Vader was nothing to her, and much as she knew Luke had been entertaining the idea of forming a bond with Vader as a parent, she had no such notions.

Biting her lip, Leia clung to Luke. For a moment, she feared he would back away. She feared he may be upset, despite the fact that she had never seen Luke be anything but calm and serene since he first became a Jedi Knight. She stroked his back, the rough fabric of his robes a familiar presence. Hiding her face against Luke’s chest, she shut any thoughts of Vader out but she was still hyper aware that Luke hadn’t confirmed whether the Dark Lord was dead or alive.

In the distance, she could hear the chattering of ewoks mingling with Chewbacca’s cheerful yowls, and if she strained her ears she could make out Han’s gruff tone as he conversed with Lando over a glass of whatever the Ewok equivalent to liquor was called. They would be alright.

But when Luke spoke again, interrupting the pleasant background noises of celebration, the mournful aura he was emanating could not be ignored.

“That’s why I must be the one to do his bidding.”

“What are you talking about?” Leia said, tilting her head slightly upwards to attempt to catch his eyes.

Before she had the chance, the hand at the back of her neck guided her confounded face away as he pressed her tightly to her chest.

“I didn’t understand before, but now I do. The Emperor was seduced by the darkness inside of himself, not by the Force itself. The Force is neither light nor dark, you cannot know it if you do not walk the line between the contradictions.”

“I don’t understand.”

Leia wasn’t lying, Luke’s words made little sense but she couldn’t keep the tension from pouring back into her weary bones ever so slightly. Something was amiss, but she allowed Luke to squeeze her as she returned the embrace with the same fervour. It seemed desperate, as if Luke was stalling something inevitable, something momentous. Perhaps, she already knew where he was going. Perhaps they were both buying themselves more time.

“Father knows. About you,” Luke finally breathed, the admission of guilt filling Leia’s heart with dread and fear. “I tried, but I couldn’t keep it from him.”

“You let him live.”

It wasn’t a question, and when Luke offered no reply, Leia knew it to be true. She dug her fingers into his back, but forced herself not to lash out. She wanted Vader dead, she wanted to see him suffer as a punishment for all the atrocities he had committed. As she struggled with the battle between her love for her brother and her disdain for her biological father, she could sense Luke’s sorrow growing in magnitude. It became palpable, until it overpowered even her vivacious, volatile emotional turmoil.

“You are too good, Luke,” she finally murmured, relenting for now despite the simmering disappointment and anger beneath the surface.

“Yes. I have been. And I remain to be, but it can be remedied.”

Leia flinched as the durasteel fingertips of her brother’s cybernetic hand dug into the side of her neck - a neck she became ever so aware of, reminded of its frailty. She reached out with that unknown, premonitory, invisible hand to search his feelings. She sensed no malice, only grief. She simply couldn’t grasp what he was mourning, or who, if Vader was still alive.

“There is so much more that I don’t yet understand, but I can learn. But so can you,” he continued, and shivers of unease ran down Leia’s spine at the spiteful way in which he brought her into the equation - so unlike the Luke she knew.

“I don’t want to learn about the Force,” she said, in an effort to reassure herself as much as Luke.

“No. Not now. But you will, eventually. It can’t be helped. Your potential will draw you towards it, as it did me. You can fight it, or embrace it as I have. It won’t matter, it takes you either way. You have no choice.”

“I don’t believe that,” Leia scoffed, the sinking feeling in her belly foreboding.

“It doesn’t matter what you believe, nor does it matter what I believe. It’s the truth.”

The conviction of those words was irrefutable, and for a second Leia feared Luke could actually foresee the future and was speaking with an unearned wisdom regarding what was to pass. She found herself dreading the fact that there may be a predestined path for her.

“You sense it too, don’t you? You have felt its call, you have felt it beckoning to you. The Force.”

Leia wavered, about to reply when she remembered something she had overheard in the past. Luke communicating with an unseen figure, its voice eerily similar to the late Obi-Wan’s - its warning prodding at her subconscious until she had no choice but to reiterate it aloud.

“The Force doesn’t beckon. The Dark Side does.”

“But it has called you, hasn’t it?”

Luke didn’t falter, and Leia didn’t deny him. Her silence was all the compliance he needed, and she felt another chaste kiss pressed to the top of her head. Again, the durasteel prickle of his cold, harsh fingers buried themselves a little farther into the tender flesh of her nape.

“Then it has already been decided. Father was right. You are too much like him.”

Leia jerked back, trying to rear away as hurt, rage and disgust rushed to the surface in a flurry. Instead, she found herself trapped by Luke’s powerful hold. Heart sinking, she realized the dread she had been feeling wasn’t merely caused by Vader’s survival. She opened her mouth to speak, but no sounds came forth. She tried to yank her arms free, but the unseen hands keeping her firmly put were too strong. She wanted to scream, wanted to kick, and writhe, and punch, and claw her way out. Instead, she stood paralyzed as Luke’s fingers grew painfully tight around the back of her nape; tips pressing against her hammering pulse point.

“There can be only two; one master and one apprentice. You have an inherent rage. You would make the perfect Sith, but if you become Father’s apprentice…” Luke trailed off, and the meaning behind the unspoken intent was enough to suck the air out of Leia’s lungs.

Swallowing had, she found it difficult to breathe; and the vice closing around her neck was getting ever tighter. She could feel the sharp sting as unforgiving durasteel pierced her skin, and the rush of warmth that could only be blood spilling down the front of her dress. As her mind grew foggy, Leia realizing the welcoming darkness was likely of Luke’s doing to ease her into the eternal sleep, she picked up on his voice close to her ear. Despite the haze as life faded, her brother’s words were crisp and clear and haunting.

“This is the only way. It is my destiny,” he said, with an evident choked tremor to the delivery. “I’m sorry.”

Head tipping backwards, the last thing Leia noted was the irony in the lone tear that slid down Luke’s pale cheek juxtaposed with the predatory, greedy glow of his now bloodshot golden eyes.

***

Because there aren’t enough Dark!Luke AUs out there, so have my take on an alternate ending to RotJ where Luke falls and Vader lives. Enjoy!

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bemused-writer · 4 years ago

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VNC Chapter 48 Analysis

The numbering system of the chapters continues to grow more confusing as it continues to be off by one (Web sites called the last one 48 on links but 47 on the chapter page), but we're just going to continue to call this chapter 48 instead of chapter 49 and hope for the best. Also, this chapter has been remarkably difficult to find for purchase. Why would YenPress hide it from me like this? D8

Anyway, none of that is the actual meta, so let's move on to that. As a general warning, the chapter itself dealt with some difficult subject matter, namely torture, so bear in mind that will be discussed in the meta.

We left off with Misha being left in Vanitas's care and this chapter begins with Vanitas taking that charge seriously, which was both surprising and completely predictable. As Noé once pointed out, Vanitas is made up of contradictions. We see that Vanitas is at least a little bit invested in Misha right away when he asks, "...You're sure it's okay if they cut it?"

He's referring to Misha's hair. Now, this is interesting for a few reasons. The first is that it demonstrates Vanitas wants to make sure Misha is as comfortable as he can be given the circumstances, but I also find it interesting because Vanitas himself has long hair. Only, he has kind of weird, chopped long hair.

Now, he has the same hairstyle in the flashbacks that he does in the present. At first I thought this was strange. How could he maintain such an elaborate hairstyle when he was imprisoned with Moreau? Did Mochizuki simply not want to come up with another hairstyle? But no, I don't think this is what happened. I think those scientists did try to cut Vanitas's hair when he was first brought to Moreau, he resisted, and the whole attempt resulted in his current 'do.

The fact that his hair is the same in the present means he's purposefully keeping it this way. Add this to the fact that he dresses like Vanitas of the Blue Moon, and I think Vanitas is manifesting all his traumas on his own person, possibly so he won't forget and so he won't give up on his revenge.

Moving on from that, it's unclear how long Vanitas had been with Moreau when Misha came along, but I think it's fair to say at least a few months? Maybe longer? Long enough that he knows how to behave around Moreau and can fill Misha in on how things are.

Vanitas explains to Misha he doesn't get to keep his old name, he's a number now. It's harsh, but it's another way of trying to prepare Misha for how awful things are going to be. An impossible task to be sure, but what else can he do?

We cut immediately to Misha being experimented on and tortured. He's in pain and also confused. He says, "Wasn't all the pain supposed to be over?" Roland's description of a happier place must seem like a massive lie right about now, but he had no way of knowing Misha would never get a chance at that fate.

The experiments themselves seem nonsensical. We see he's being injected with something in his arm, but we also see him strapped to a gurney with a metal object about his eyes. It looks like what they're doing is feeding the liquid from the vials through tubes into his eyes. I... don't see how this would be more effective than the previous syringes to be completely honest. My best guess is that since a vampire's power is centered in their eyes and Moreau is obsessed with vampires, he figured injecting this liquid directly into a human's eyes would have stronger results. Misha is also forced to drink something. Perhaps water, perhaps something else. Impossible to say.

The pain of it all reminds Misha of his mother beating him, which really just goes to show what a lousy mother she was. :/ He calls out for Vanitas to help him and we can see that Vanitas is bothered by what's happening. But what I did not expect was for Vanitas to turn around and offer to take Misha's place.

This is hands down the most selfless act we've ever seen from Vanitas. Willingly putting himself in danger? With the full knowledge he'll be tortured? That's incredible self-sacrifice. The only reason he did this is because he cares about Misha; he doesn't want to see someone suffer.

And yet, while I didn't expect this turn, it actually fits in perfectly from what we already know about Vanitas, even if he's gone to a lot of lengths to keep it obscured. Let's take a look at some previous panels:

This is one of our earliest examples. Vanitas was furious when Noé put himself in harm's way to protect him. He doesn't want others suffering because of him. But it's not just that.

That first scene is where Vanitas promises Jeanne he'll kill her if she ever loses control and hurts Luca. In other words, if she's no longer "Jeanne" he's taking responsibility for her failure to protect Luca. The next scene he promises to save Chloé, but what he actually says is that he'll accept all of Jeanne's ugly emotions for her.

In other words, Vanitas doesn't like it when other people suffer, especially if they're protecting him, but he readily takes on that very role himself. He goes out of his way to shield people even if he doesn't want them doing the same, and he readily accepts all the harsh, painful realities for someone so that they don't have to deal with it. In other words, what he's doing for Jeanne is similar to what he did for Misha, just on an emotional rather than physical level. But we also know he failed to keep some kind of promise to Misha and he remembered this when he promised to kill Jeanne. Perhaps he meant to keep Misha as "Misha," but he wasn't able to do so and he wasn't able to kill that which took his place.

All of this puts a slightly different spin on the Vanitas/Jeanne relationship. While there's definitely a selfish, immoral element there, this has also become Vanitas's attempt at doing something good, no matter how questionably he's going about it. Except, it was easier for him to do so when she didn't like him because not only does he not want people to risk themselves for him, he also doesn't want them to see him as worthy of doing so. Basically, as Roland said, he hates himself a lot more than we realized.

Now, what I want to know is whether Vanitas ever had siblings. Vanitas saw Misha suffering, but it was when he called out "Brother!" that he finally stepped in. Did it remind him of a sibling he actually had or was it just that he felt the weight of another person's life in the balance and he couldn't bear to do nothing?

This is the only cute scene of the chapter and we see that once again Vanitas doesn't push Misha away. He could have been angry with him for putting him in that predicament (not a rational feeling, but not one that would have been surprising given the circumstances), but instead he says nothing and let's him do as he wishes. This is also when No. 70 is brought up. I think the only thing we can safely say about No. 70 at this point is that he was a test subject involved in some other experiment (as Vanitas says) and that he is probably around Vanitas's age judging by what little we can make out of him.

Personally, I don't think this is a character we already know or, if it is, not well. Could be one of the chasseurs, but which one? This person was supposedly mute, but there haven't been any characters like that. So, a mystery for now. I am definitely curious, though. Vanitas and Misha were being turned into kin of the blue moon. Was No. 70 being turned into a proper vampire? That is Moreau's dream after all. But, for now, we simply don't have enough information to say anything at all.

And speaking of Moreau, he said he acquired the Books of Vanitas through "a certain channel." What does that mean? It sounds like it's probably a person, a contact, and one he's known for a while. Honestly, this one section raises so many questions. How would Vanitas lose her own books? It just seems absurd.

Anyway, Moreau goes on to explain the books are "analytical engines," which basically means they're machines, powered by a unique kind of astermite. Vanitas once told Noé he could manipulate the chasseurs' machines in the catacombs because they were also powered by astermite.

I think all of this is incredibly important. Just what is the world formula? Because whatever it is, it can be manipulated just the same way as astermite can, apparently. And who is connected to the world formula? Vampires. What can be tampered with by the books? Vampires' names. Where am I going with this? I'm not entirely sure. 8D But I've been thinking about this for a while. Astermite is some panacea stone that has removed pollution and done wonderful things. But that just sounds too good to be true. I really think there's something nefarious about astermite, and I think it's connected to vampires--and possibly the chasseurs--somehow.

I wrote a short fic once where astermite was made out of vampires' names. In other words, vampire souls. I'm still waiting to see what this stuff is actually made out of, but I just can't shake that theory, baseless though it is.

Still, only the blue moon's kin can open the Book of Vanitas and it uses a "different kind of astermite." Blue moon vampires are also different from red moon vampires. I wonder if the books have just a little bit of Vanitas of the Blue Moon's own essence. Hmmm...

Also, it turns out that Vanitas of the Blue Moon, and presumably all blue moon vampires, have blue blood. This means if you're a blue moon vampire, there really isn't a thing you can do to hide it, is there? 8D Your eyes are super blue, your blood is super blue. They probably smell differently, too. And it turns out Vanitas and Misha were injected with her blood to make them honorary kin.

Again, so many questions here. We're definitely dealing more with alchemy than straightforward science at this point, so I have to wonder: How changed are Vanitas and Misha's DNA? Do they even qualify as human? I mean, evidently their blood isn't blue, but Noé and Jeanne both agree that Vanitas smells good. How much of that is because of him as a person and how much is because of the blue moon blood running through his veins?

It seems most humans can't handle Vanitas of the Blue Moon's blood because they went mad instantly. But not these two.

Vanitas is understandably furious at what's been done to him. Having said that, this is also around the time period he hated vampires completely. I wonder how much of that anger is because he's been experimented on against his will and how much of it is because he was injected with a vampire's blood specifically.

Whichever it is, there's a certain level of irony that he's then saved by Vanitas herself. She comes in, blows up some stuff, and gets her books back.

Let's think about this for a moment. Somehow, Moreau not only had her books, he also had her blood. She does not look like a prisoner though, does she?

No, if anything, she definitely looks like the person in control of the room somehow, so I really have to wonder how they got these things from her. She evidently came to pick up her books, but that's not it.

I could be reading too much into it, but that, to me, doesn't sound like someone who's there to stop an evil experiment or save people. Or at least, that's not the only reason she's there. "That should be enough of a rampage to do the trick." What is she trying to accomplish? She already has the books!

Well, I suppose future chapters will give us an idea.

Misha convinces her to take them with her. Vanitas is shocked that the offer is extended to him as well. He was definitely prepared to simply stay, but then he thought of the chasseurs, the pain they inflicted on him, and I think he decided he'd rather take his chances with the vampire. He may hate vampires at this point, but humans haven't proven themselves to him either.

What I find interesting though is how similar this scene is to when Noé said "Not yet" in the catacombs.

They each offered him hope when he least expected it and showed him a path he never would have tried himself. It's also interesting that they also share some basic visual similarities. They both have darker skin and silver hair and they're vampires. Both of these scenarios happened in the catacombs as well. At a minimum, we can say they each led him to an important change in his life. Also, Vanitas of the Blue Moon had a definite "Noé" vibe in this one panel:

There's a certain awkwardness here that makes me think of him. The obvious difference being that Noé wouldn't let suffering children be an afterthought. Maybe this is more of a Teacher resemblance. Hard to say...

And so, Vanitas joined Vanitas of the Blue Moon! What a chapter. Dr. Moreau continues to be the worst, doesn't he? He's definitely lacking depth compared to the other villains wandering about. XD Very curious when Vanitas gets to kill him. And also whether Moreau's research will be successful. I think the series is going to get a lot darker if it is.

One thing I noticed is that Misha never lost his arm during these experiments, so that definitely happened later. My personal guess is that he's using the book a lot more than Vanitas and is being rewritten at a faster rate. If so, being rewritten could mean... disappearing from reality? Guess we'll find out. Ahh, I really want the next chapter... I'm looking forward to it!

#vanitas no carte #vnc meta #vnc spoilers #Bemused's post

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twoidiotwriters1 · 4 years ago

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Written In The Stars CXXX (Harry Potter xF!Oc)

Words: 4,022

Series’ Masterlist

Previous Chapter // Next Chapter

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Damage Control.

Harry didn't ask how on earth was she capable of doing what she'd done the previous night, but she would often catch him staring.

He was used to the harmless version of her, for years she'd threatened others and claimed to be ready to hurt anyone who would dare touch her friends, but he always knew those threats were empty, Mel couldn't hurt a fly, not before, at least.

"Dumbledore will be back before long," said Ernie Macmillan. "They couldn't keep him away in our second year and they won't be able to this time. The Fat Friar told me that Umbridge tried to get back into his office last night after they'd searched the castle and grounds for him. Couldn't get past the gargoyle. The Head's office has sealed itself against her. Apparently, she had a right little tantrum..."

"Oh, I expect she really fancied herself sitting up there in the Head's office," said Hermione as they started to climb up the entrance stairs. "Lording it over all the other teachers, the stupid puffed-up, power-crazy old —"

"Now, do you really want to finish that sentence, Granger?" Malfoy walked up to them followed by Crabbe and Goyle. "Afraid I'm going to have to dock a few points from Gryffindor and Hufflepuff..."

"It's only teachers that can dock points from Houses, Malfoy," Ernie made a face.

"Yeah, we're prefects too, remember?" Ron raised a brow.

"I know prefects can't dock points, Weasel King. But members of the Inquisitorial Squad —"

"The what?" said Hermione.

"The Inquisitorial Squad, Granger," Malfoy showed them a tiny silver badge that was proudly pinned under his Prefect one. "A select group of students who are supportive of the Ministry of Magic, hand-picked by Professor Umbridge. Anyway, members of the Inquisitorial Squad do have the power to dock points... So, Granger, I'll have five from you for being rude about our new headmistress... Macmillan, five for contradicting me... Five because I don't like you, Potter... Weasley, your shirt's untucked, so I'll have another five for that... Dumbledore, five because your presence is enough to lower the school's quality — Oh yeah, I forgot, you're a Mudblood, Granger, so ten for that..."

"Don't!" Hermione stopped Ron from attacking Malfoy.

"Wise move, Granger. New Head, new times... Be good now, Potty... Weasel King..."

"You know, Malfoy, if you keep calling Ron your king you might as well bow and lick his shoes," Mel scowled.

"Why don't you shut your mouth for once, Nutty? Or I'll tell Flint to break your other wrist as well. Did I mention he's the Head of the Inquisitorial Squad? That's right," Malfoy smirked. "You're done for, Dumbledore..."

He walked away, laughing along with Crabbe and Goyle.

"He was bluffing," said Ernie. "He can't be allowed to dock points... that would be ridiculous... It would completely undermine the prefect system..."

"They can," Mel made a face, "Flint took points from me the other day, though I can't say I didn't deserve it..."

"But he's your friend!" Ernie exclaimed.

"Yeah, but he has to pretend he's not," Mel sighed.

"Noticed, have you?" said Fred, walking down the staircase with his brother.

"Malfoy just docked us all about fifty points," said Harry, trembling with anger.

"Yeah, Montague tried to do us during break," said George.

"What do you mean, 'tried'?" Ron asked.

"He never managed to get all the words out," said Fred, "due to the fact that we forced him headfirst into that Vanishing Cabinet on the first floor."

"But you'll get into terrible trouble!" Hermione gasped.

"Not until Montague reappears, and that could take weeks, I dunno where we sent him," said Fred. "Anyway... we've decided we don't care about getting into trouble anymore."

"Have you ever?"

"'Course we have," said George. "Never been expelled, have we?"

"We've always known where to draw the line," said Fred.

"We might have put a toe across it occasionally," said George.

"But we've always stopped short of causing real mayhem."

"But now?" said Ron.

"Well, now —"

"— what with Dumbledore gone —"

"— we reckon a bit of mayhem —"

"— is exactly what our dear new Head deserves," said Fred.

"I'm in," said Mel, but Fred shook his head.

"I'm sorry lady, but it's better if you stay out of it this time."

"What?" She frowned. "No! My uncle's gone, I don't have to keep a low profile now."

"Yes, you do. Our friends still need you here, and you could put Erick on a tough spot, we ran into him a few minutes ago and he told us he's the Head of Umbridge's group, apparently breaking your wrist gave him extra points with the toad. He's doing his best to keep most of the squad from doing really nasty things, but he can't ignore you now."

"You mustn't do it either!" Hermione insisted. "You really mustn't! She'd love a reason to expel you!"

"You don't get it, Hermione, do you?"

"We don't care about staying anymore. We'd walk out right now if we weren't determined to do our bit for Lady Dumbledore and her uncle first. So anyway," Fred checked his watch, "phase one is about to begin. I'd get in the Great Hall for lunch if I were you, that way the teachers will see you can't have had anything to do with it."

"Anything to do with what?" said Hermione anxiously.

"You'll see," said George. "Run along, now."

Fred pulled her apart from the group for a second, his eyes scanning her face.

"Really Mel, you should lay low for a while," He told her. "At least until your wrist heals properly."

"Why are you so worried all of a sudden?"

"Don't you remember what Sirius said? You have a target on your back, I can't let you do it, out there you're in more danger than in here with that old cow."

Mel hated to admit it, but he was right. She couldn't risk it.

"I don't want you to get expelled, though," She sulked.

"I know," Fred smiled. "But you don't need me around anymore, do you?"

"Don't say that!" Mel exclaimed, knowing what he meant.

"We'll talk about it later. Now go."

The twins left quickly, Ernie did so as well, leaving the three of them alone.

"I think we should get out of here, you know," said Hermione. "Just in case..."

"Yeah, all right," said Ron.

"Have you seen Erick?" Harry asked her.

"Not really," Mel said worryingly. "He must be under a lot of pressure, I know it sounds weird, but I'm glad he broke my wrist, thanks to that Umbridge trusts him. He'll try his best to keep things under control, but Malfoy is an animal, he'll find a way..."

"I'm not so happy about him breaking your wrist," Harry frowned. "But having him on our side is helpful..."

"I want to talk to Daphne and the others, see if anyone suspects them..."

"If you talk to them they will, it's better to keep your distance..."

Harry stopped and looked to her left, Mel let out a surprised yelp when she noticed Filch was standing right beside them.

"The headmistress would like to see you, Potter," The man said. "And you too, Dumbledore."

"I didn't do it," said Harry stupidly.

Mel nudged his side, scowling at him.

"Guilty conscience, eh?" Filch chuckled darkly. "Follow me..."

They threw one last worried look over their shoulders to Hermione and Ron before following Filch.

"Things are changing around here..." Filch commented happily once they got to the first floor.

"We've noticed," said Harry.

"Yerse... I've been telling Dumbledore for years and years he's too soft with you all. You filthy little beasts would never have dropped Stinkpellets if you'd known I had it in my power to whip you raw, would you, now? Nobody would have thought of throwing Fanged Frisbees down the corridors if I could've strung you up by the ankles in my office, would they? But when Educational Decree Twenty-nine comes in, Potter, I'll be allowed to do them things... And she's asked the Minister to sign an order for the expulsion of Peeves... Oh, things are going to be very different around here with her in charge..."

Mel had a few things to say about it, but Fred's worry had done its job and she found her voice losing all conviction before she'd even started to speak.

"Here we are," Filch said as they reached Umbridge's office. He opened the door a bit. "The Potter boy to see you, ma'am. I got the Dumbledore girl as well."

"Thank you, Argus," She heard the woman say. "Tell Miss Dumbledore to please wait outside while I talk to Potter."

"Not at all, ma'am, not at all," said Filch, pulling Mel back as he closed the door. "You stay here."

It didn't take long before Harry finally walked out of the office, Mel did a quick examination and noticed he was perfectly fine, just a bit grumpy. Harry looked at her and opened his mouth to speak, but Umbridge talked over him.

"Miss Dumbledore, please come in."

Harry tried to warn her silently, but Mel didn't understand what he was trying to say. She walked in and closed the door behind her. She froze at the sight of Erick, standing right behind Umbridge's desk. She felt torn between relief and worry, he was there and he would be able to hear everything, but at the same time, he couldn't help her.

"Sit down, sit down! What would you like to drink?"

"Hmm?" Mel said, sitting clumsily.

"Pumpkin juice? Tea? Coffee?"

"I— er... coffee," The girl replied.

"Very well," She turned her back to her and prepared the drink.

Erick stared down at the bandages around her wrist without saying anything, brows furrowed.

"There you are," Umbridge placed the cup in front of her, smiling. "Drink up!"

Mel looked at the cup for a couple of seconds, then at the woman.

"Why am I here?"

"I wanted to have a word with you," Umbridge smiled. "Drink up, dear!"

"I prefer my coffee cold, thank you," Mel replied shortly. "What do you want to talk about?"

"Silly little things that you might want to tell me, now that your dear uncle is no longer in charge," Umbridge laughed in that childish way of hers. "It must be hard, being the only heir, and with all those rumours around you! It's okay, girl, you don't have to keep enduring nonsense, you can do as you please."

What Mel wanted to do was to throw the coffee at her face, but she was intrigued by her attitude, so she remained silent. Umbridge touched her cup with her wand and pushed it forward.

"There, your coffee's cold now."

Mel reached to hold the cup. The drink was obviously tampered with, but she didn't know what else to do, not until she looked at Erick. He lifted three fingers without Umbridge noticing, then he put one down. She then lowered the cup.

"You know, you won't last long as Headmistress," She said casually.

Umbridge laughed. "I don't think you have the power to decide that, dear."

Erick put down a second finger. Mel grabbed a hold of her wand with her free hand.

"Well, no... but I'm not sure you've got what it takes to control the students."

Erick put down the third finger. Almost immediately he sneezed and stumbled back, crashing against a few of Umbridge's decorative plates. As the lot fell down and smashed into pieces, Umbridge looked back at the mess, startled by it. Mel vanished the contents of her cup and hid her wand up her sleeve. Erick also waved his wand around, fixing the plates in an instant.

"Sorry, Professor," He said.

"That's quite all right, boy," Umbridge replied, though she looked annoyed. "I should clean the shelf more often... the dust tends to gather around quickly..."

"Okay then, let's finish this up," Mel tilted the cup and pretended to drink its whole content in one long sip. She licked her lips and put it down. "What do you want from me?"

Umbridge's eyes shone with hunger. "Where is your uncle?"

Mel straightened in her chair, she figured it wouldn't hurt to have a bit of fun.

"Which uncle? I have two, you know. One of them isn't really my uncle but feels like it, I love him dearly. I guess he's looking for a job—"

"I meant Dumbledore," Umbridge said. "Where is he?"

"Oh," Mel blinked. "Out."

"Where?"

"Dunno."

Umbridge blinked, staring at the empty cup.

"I'm sure you must know, hasn't he been teaching you his nasty little secrets for years? Haven't you been planning to attack the Ministry since you started school?"

"Oh yeah, every Wednesday we sit in his office with tea and biscuits, talking about how much we hate Fudge and his stupid hat," Mel snorted.

"Watch your words, child," Umbridge's voice trembled. "Very well, you don't know where he is then, I guess he was wise enough not to trust kids... but you certainly know where Black is hiding, don't you?"

"Under his mother's skirts!" Mel replied brightly. Erick had to turn his snort into a second sneeze.

Sirius would often refer to the Black mansion in the very same way, and Mel thought it funny to use his reference at the moment.

"I caught Sirius in the Gryffindor fire in October, Miss Dumbledore! And he was talking to you and Mr Potter!"

"The only thing you caught that day was cinder."

"Enough of your foolishness, girl!" Umbridge spat. "You will tell me the truth now!"

"The truth?" Mel shrugged. "Alright... I struggle to tell Fred and George apart, especially if they have their backs turned to me. I dislike the taste of treacle tarts but they're Harry's favourite so I don't have the heart to tell him his taste sucks, and I'm actually scared of owls so I always try to find a way to make someone else attach my letters — What else..? Oh! Every time I see your face it makes me think of Neville's pet —"

"ENOUGH!" The woman stood up. "Mr Flint, please leave us alone.

"Erick's eyes widened. "Professor?"

"Make sure no one comes to interrupt, dear."

"But—"

"Do as I say!"

Erick hesitated, then he walked out of the room avoiding any kind of eye contact with her.

"You insolent child," Umbridge said quietly. "You've been under Dumbledore's protection for too long, it's given you a false sense of confidence. That's over. You respond to me."

"You think so?" Mel leaned further on the table. "Would you like to try and see if I listen?"

Umbridge smiled.

"I know the Dumbledores well enough to know they value their well-being too little. However, I also know that the only way to get through you it's through those you care about. Tell me, how long will it take to break you once I start punishing your friends for your impertinence? I believe some of the members in my Inquisitorial squad are quite eager to start..."

"You wouldn't," She said shortly.

Umbridge giggled, leaning closer.

"I will break every single thing you care about until you decide to speak."

BOOM!

An explosion rose from the first floor, cutting short their discussion.

"What was — ?"

The explosion spread around, the floor trembled. Umbridge walked up to the door and pushed aside Erick and Harry, who'd been waiting outside.

"What's happening?" Mel asked.

They followed the noise, and soon found the source of it. The twins had ignited a bunch of colourful and magical firecrackers.

Filch and Umbridge were standing, apparently transfixed with horror, halfway down the stairs. As Harry watched, one of the larger Catherine wheels seemed to decide that what it needed was more room to maneuver; it whirled toward Umbridge and Filch with a sinister wheeeeeeeeee.

Both adults yelled with fright and ducked and it soared straight out of the window behind them and off across the grounds. Meanwhile, several of the dragons and a large purple bat that was smoking ominously took advantage of the open door at the end of the corridor to escape toward the second floor.

"Hurry, Filch, hurry!" shrieked Umbridge. "They'll be all over the school unless we do something — Stupefy!"

A jet of red light shot out of the end of her wand and hit one of the rockets. Instead of freezing in midair, it exploded with such force that it blasted a hole in a painting of a soppy-looking witch in the middle of a meadow — she ran for it just in time, reappearing seconds later squashed into the painting next door, where a couple of wizards playing cards stood up hastily to make room for her.

"Don't Stun them, Filch!" shouted Umbridge angrily, for all the world as though it had been his suggestion.

"Right you are, Headmistress!" wheezed Filch, who was a Squib and could no more have Stunned the fireworks than swallowed them. He dashed to a nearby cupboard, pulled out a broom, and began swatting at the fireworks in midair; within seconds the head of the broom was ablaze.

"C'mon," Harry laughed, "We should go before they decide to punish us for this."

Erick and Mel followed, they walked into a fake tapestry and there they found Fred and George.

"Impressive," Harry said brightly. "Very impressive... You'll put Dr Filibuster out of business, no problem..."

"Cheers," George laughed. "Oh, I hope she tries Vanishing them next... They multiply by ten every time you try..."

"Shouldn't you be trying to help Umbridge?" Fred asked Erick with a smirk.

"I suppose," Erick let out a long, dramatic sigh. "Let's see..."

He peered through the tapestry and yelled 'Evanesco!' and soon enough the firecrackers multiplied.

"I'm sorry, Professor! I'll go get help!"

He came back and laughed along with the group of Gryffindors.

"Thank you for helping me back in the office," Mel said, gently nudging his arm.

Erick made a face. "It's the least I could do after breaking your wrist... I can't do much..."

"You can," Harry replied. "Sabotage Umbridge from the inside. Daphne and the rest of the Slytherins still have her trust..."

"I can't believe they turned out to be more decent than a Ravenclaw girl," Fred shook his head in disappointment.

"We're not monsters, you know?" Erick raised a brow. "We just happen to have the common sense you Gryffindors lack."

"Yeah, yeah," Mel rolled her eyes, standing on her tiptoes to surround the boy's shoulders with her arm. "Gryffindor dumb, Slytherin smart— You still have to admit you've had more fun with us than all those years stuck with the snakes..."

"You didn't hear it from me, though," Erick smirked.

"Dear, dear," said Professor McGonagall sardonically, as one of the dragons soared around her classroom, emitting loud bangs and exhaling flame. "Miss Brown, would you mind running along to the headmistress and informing her that we have an escaped firework in our classroom?"

Umbridge's threats now felt empty as Mel watched her running around, trying to get rid of the firecrackers and failing miserably. The teachers were having a lovely time pretending to not know how to get rid of them. You could feel the solidarity around the school, and it was all directed against Umbridge and her Inquisitorial squad.

Fred and George were treated as war heroes that night. Even students from other houses were there, celebrating their doings.

"They were wonderful fireworks," Hermione admitted.

"Thanks," said George, surprised and pleased about her reaction. "Weasleys' Wildfire Whiz-Bangs. Only thing is, we used our whole stock, we're going to have to start again from scratch now..."

"It was worth it, though," said Fred, who was writing down the new orders from his classmates. "If you want to add your name to the waiting list, Hermione, it's five Galleons for your Basic Blaze box and twenty for the Deflagration Deluxe..."

"I will admit," Mel sniggered, "I find you really attractive this evening, Fred."

The twin laughed, and to her surprise, a blush crept up his neck. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek, a few students whistled and Mel laughed, walking away and following Hermione back to their table.

"Oh, why don't we have a night off?" said Hermione, looking at the way Ron and Harry were pouting at their bags. "After all, the Easter holidays start on Friday, we'll have plenty of time then..."

"Are you feeling all right?" Ron smiled a bit in amusement.

"Now you mention it, d'you know... I think I'm feeling a bit... rebellious."

"Talking about rebellious," Mel started. "Umbridge threatened me — She'll try to convince me to speak by punishing you, so I'd appreciate it if you do your mischief carefully. I'd like to keep my mouth shut for a while."

"That's new," Ron snorted.

"Shut it," Mel grinned, throwing him a cushion.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Harry asked. "I heard the way she was yelling at you..."

"I've had worse," She shrugged. "I mean, little can beat that one time Quirrel broke my skull, or when Lockhart called me dumb... or when an actual death eater kidnapped me — If Umbridge wants to scare me, she'll have to try harder."

"I've been looking everywhere for you!" Mel exclaimed in the middle of a busy hallway. "We need to talk..."

"Are we breaking up?" Fred asked.

Several students turned their heads in their direction, sudden interest adorning their faces. Mel scowled at them and dragged him away from the crowd.

"You should learn to be quiet..."

"Never been good at it," He smirked. "I like the attention too much if you haven't noticed..."

"We can talk about that another day..."

"Right," He nodded, adopting a serious expression. "We're here to get a divorce."

"How do you know I'm breaking things up?" Mel scoffed. "What if I'm trying to ask you on a real date?"

"Lady, I've seen the way you look at me — like I'm a pup you can't bring yourself to give away. It's flattering, I didn't know I had that power," He grinned stupidly. "But you're right, it's about time we end things."

"I wish I didn't have to," Mel pouted. "I'm having fun!"

"But we don't like each other like that," Fred reminded her.

Mel lowered her gaze before quietly replying, "No, we don't."

"And you don't hate Harry now."

"I never did," Mel sighed.

"And I saw him arguing with Cho last night," Fred raised a brow. "So maybe you'll get a second chance after all."

"No," Mel disapproved. "You know is not like that anymore, the whole point of this was to help me get over Harry."

"Yeah," Fred tilted his head, staring at her with a funny little smile. "Sorry, that's true. It's strange... I always thought it'd be you and Harry, now... I have no idea."

The news about her breakup spread around the school in less than an hour. Everyone approached with words of comfort as if she had gone through the death of a loved one, she was starting to regret her decision when Harry sat next to her with such a grim look she knew she wouldn't be able to accept his condolences without spilling the truth.

"Listen," She stated bluntly. "Yes, it's really sad that Fred and I broke up, but—"

"What?" Harry looked at her in disbelief. "You broke up?"

"...You didn't know?"

"When did that happen?" He questioned in confusion.

"A few hours ago," She said, pushing aside the subject. "What were you going to tell me?"

Harry looked around the hall and pointed towards the empty classroom near them. She got up from the bench and followed him inside.

"What's the matter?"

"Snape banned me from his office."

"What! Why?" She exclaimed. "He has to teach you!"

"That's not the point," He said, "I saw a memory — He made me promised I wouldn't say but... I need to talk about it with you."

"Why?"

"I saw my father..." Harry paused before adding. "Emily as well."

Next Chapter —>

Taglist.

@dee123ksha @vampiregirl1797 @siriuslysirius1107 @stardusthigh @mikariell95 @vernon-dursley @thesuitelifeofafangirl @tomshollandz @kylosleftbuttcheek @reverse-hxlland @bloodorangemoonlight @omiwashere @t-rexs-world @just-here-to-escape-from-reality @21bruhs @i-am-scared-and-useless-bisexual @dielgonacoffee

#twoidiots writing #hp fanfic #Harry Potter #harry potter fanfiction #harry potter xoc #WITT fic

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andromeda612 · 4 years ago

Text

The writer vs the liar

So, remember the prompt from a few days ago? You can chek it here

Well, I made a draft for what would be the whole fic, I'm gonna start it soon and will post it in Ao3, I would make a post when is ready and with every update, if you are interested make me know, so I can tag you.

I apologize for any mistake, english is not my first language, I hope you like it!

After Mari is expelled Nathaniel and Alix are worried and confused, because there is no way Marinette did those things (Alix defended Marinette in Reverser and I like to think that Nathaniel learned his lesson, so they are less likely to believe that Marinette would do anything of what Lila said) but all the mess is confusing. They talk but can't get a good answer. They decide to relax a little in the art club, they can't.

Marc noticing their mood ask what's wrong. So they tell him, and Marc is fast to point out all the wrong things with the whole situation. The "evidence" is circumstancial, superficial and easily planted, Damocles should have called Lila's parents too, no just Marinette's, Lila should had at least some bruises but there is no one, the protocole says that they needed to make an investigation, Mari has the right to prove her innocence, but Damocles just expelled her then and there. So yeah, the school messed up, because that failure in protocole and lack of professionalism can be addressed as neglect.

Thinking a little more they come to the conclusion that Marinette had been framed, but by who and why? If you think about it the only suspect is Lila, after all she was in the middle of the fire, but why would she did that? Marc asks for more background about this girl, because he only knows her because he had seen her sometimes in school and because Rose mentioned her once or twice, Nathaniel nor Alix have ever talked about her, Marinette either (and that interview on the Ladyblog is not that famous, so he missed it)

Alix explains the drama between those two, the seats thing (Marc tells them that it was wrong to move Mari to the back without asking her, maybe Nathaniel never had problem with being alone but he is not Marinette, they admit it was thoughtless from them and make a note to apologize later) and Marinette claming that Lila is a liar.

That catches Marc's atention, he knows Marinette, for him she is like a sister in everything but blood, after all she was the first person who was nice to him in school and despite not knowing in the time being that he has social anxiety she always was patient and kind with him until he was comfortable enough talking to her. Misunderstanding aside, she was the one who introduced him to Nathaniel and the rest of her friends from the art club, and they introduced him with the rest of their friends. Now he has two best friends (Mari and Alix) is dating his other bff (Nathaniel) has other good friends and is working in what he loves with his partner, all thanks to Marinette, so is no wonder that the two of them grew closer.

He knows that Mari hates liars, so if she thinks that this girl is a liar she must has a very good reason. Then Alix says that it just her being jealous because of Adrien. And yes, that may be true, Marinette tends to get jealous of any rival for the boy's affection, and can do crazy and, honestly, pretty bad stuff for him but again, he knows her and knows that at the end Marinette always admits her wrongdoings, apologizes and does better. He also knows that jealousy for itself is not a strong motive for dislike someone that much, because Chloe? is a brat, Kagami? He knows that Marinette actually helped Adrien in a date with her and now both girls are very good friends despite her knowing that Adrien actually is interested in Kagami, so if this Lila is really that good of a person then why Marinette seems to dislike her and think that is a liar? She has to has a reason.

When he says this Alix and Nathaniel have the decency of look ashamed, Marc is right, they (Alix and the girls the most) should have asked for her reasons instead of brush it off as simply jealousy, Marinette is better than that.

With his point clear, Marc asks for more details, maybe they can discover why Marinette thinks Lila is a liar. Again is Alix who talks (Nathaniel never had been one of Lila's admirers and he pays not much attention to the drama) and tells every story Lila told them (I'm not including the napkin incident because either Nathaniel nor Alix were there, Nathaniel was alone in another table and Alix wasn't in the cafeteria at all) and once she is done Marc is fast to point every single hole, contradiction and nonsense in Lila's claims.

Being a writer and a very active reader makes this kind of thing easy for him, it also helps that some of Lila's claims can be debunked with a little knowledge (arthritis doesn't work like that for example) and him has plenty of that, he likes to read about different topics, not just stories and comics, also is the fact that he makes lots of researching for his stories (the comic is not the only thing he writes for) even if they are about fantasy he likes them to be coherent and solid, so if he is going to use some topic he research to support his writing, so yeah he knows a little of many things. He also points out all the times Lila manipulated them so they did things for her, and how.

Now they know the truth, Lila IS a liar and a manipulative one.

HOLY SHIT MARINETTE WAS RIGHT! First they feel bad, they should have listened to her! They are also ashamed because now that they think about it most of the lies are dumb! They are idiots!

Marc is fast to comfort them, after all some of her lies are believable at least from their point of view, their class is not a normal one they have some famous people like Adrien a famous model, Chloe the mayor's daughter, Nathaniel is the ilustrator of one of the most popular comics in Paris, Marinette is Jagged Stone's favorite designer and has been prized by Gabriel Agreste and Audrey Bourgois, Max is a genius with his own AI, there is Kitty Section and the list goes. So, one more student with conections and awesome claims is not that difficult to believe. Also, they are being manipulated, Lila use pity to make herself look vulnerable and fragil, so they would not question her or her claims, she also takes advantage of their kindness. Being fooled and manipulated is not a crime, they are victims too.

That make them feel better, but now they are pissed, because THEY ARE BEING FOOLED, MANIPULATED AND TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF! AND MARINETTE IS EXPELLED AND ALL IS THAT WITCH FAULT!

Marc is pissed too, being the patient and quiet person he is there are just a few things that makes him trully angry, but messing with his loved ones is the top of that list, and that little bitch is messing with all of his friends and his boyfriend! She is not just liying, manipulating and using them, she also gives them false hope with all the false promises she made, they are gonna be hurt once she fails in fulfil them. And MARINETTE IS EXPELLED so yeah, that brat crossed many lines.

For now they decide to talk to Marinette, Alix and Nathaniel need to apologize, and to make her know that the three of them know the truth and are by her side.

Later they discover that Marinette's expulsion is revoked, aparently all was a huge misunderstanding and Lila herself clarified the mess. Yeah, something is off here and they are not going to let their guard down, but at least Mari's name is clean.

The next day they are in the bakery with Marinette's favorite ice cream and two draws made by Alix and Nath, a -forgive-us-for-not-listened-you-and-for-being-bad-friends- gift. Marinette is relieved and actually cries of joy for having her friends by her side and free from Lila's claws, and of course she forgive them, after all they admitted their errors and apologized, also despite the evidence against her they gave her the benefit of the doubt, and for that she is grateful.

They talk and Marinette tells them how she found out the truth the same she told Alya and Nino (Marc tells her that it was not ok to follow Adrien and Lila but unlike them he still listened to her side of the story) she also point out that she ACTUALLY KNOWS Jagged Stone.

But hey! That doesn't mean that Adrien also knows the truth?

Yeah, she also tells them that Adrien is aware of Lila's true nature and also talks about the 'high road' advice. "HE TOLD YOU WHAT?"

But before any of them could get angry with Adrien she explains that he really thought her lies were harmless, also he believed that expose her would be bad because he called her out in a friendly way and still she was akumatized, but now that she was expelled he recognized that his advice was a bad one and that her lies can hurt people, he already apologized to her, and explained that he made a deal with Lila, he will be her friend and she will be a model and in return she will bring Mari back to school. He also admited that the best is to expose her, becasue netiher of them actually believe that Lila is going to let Marinette alone.

That makes them calm down, and forgive Adrien, he apologized to Marinette too and admited his error, also they think that a deal with the devil is punishment enough, and if they think about it, probably the poor boy didn't knew better, but he does now, so it's ok.

Then they learn about the threat in the bathroom and her almost akumatization. And they are even more pissed HOW DARE SHE? They apologize again for making her believe that she couldn't trust them with that. She says is ok, that she didn't take her too seriously, and she has faith in them, and so far they proved her right. Though, Marc wish that she could have talked to him at least, maybe they would have prevented all of this, but it doesn't matter.

Well, now they have one thing clear: they need to take that bitch down. But how? Lila could lie her way out, or twist the situation in her favor, they are trying to come up with a plan, but Marc is quiet, his mind working and then he has an idea.

With a calm and cool tone he says them "Just help me with some research, I'll take care of the rest" and replacing his usual sweet and shy demeanor there is a smirk and a cold determination and confidence in his face that surprise them (Nath actually finds it kind of hot)

They don't know what is he thinking, but they have seen him angry before (and thank god they have never been the cause of it, because Marc is a cinnamon roll but is very scary when is angry) and they know what his wrath is capable of. Whatever his plan is, they know is gonna work and dammit if it doesn't. They almost feel bad for Lila. Almost.

The next days they spend time together doing the investigation (they have some fun time and an awesome sleepover too), and finally they get solid proof to expose Lila, thanks to Marinette they get a video interview with Jagged Stone where the singer claims that he never had met Lila, and thanks to Marc's general knowledge in health and some help from Nathaniel's parents who both are doctors, they also get proof to debunk Lila's claims of illnes or other disabilities (specially the lying disease bullshit) and since Marc is a good researcher they manage to find some interesting stuff, like Mrs. Rossi contact information, is all in the embassy page.

With the investigation done, all what they need to do is wait for the perfect moment to expose the liar, and the oportunity comes two weeks later in the form of a picnic that Bustier's class organize just to hang out together, naturally Marc is invited and helps to organize said picnic, almost all of the class consider him a friend and one of them despite him being in Mendeleiev's class. Mari, Alix and Nathaniel still don't know what is his plan exactly, but they trust him. Adrien is aware of his plan but he doesn't know what exactly is either.

So here they are, in the park, in a cute blanket, with some delicious food and with great company (that doesn't include certain people, aka Chloe and the liar) and of course Lila is charming their friends with other of her lies, it takes all of their willpower to not roll their eyes. And then, listening carefully Marc takes the perfect moment to interrumpt the tale, social anxiety or not, that witch is hurting his beloved ones and he is not going to tolerate it, so even if he never has talked to her, fuck his shyness, that girl is gonna face the consequences for her actions. (It also helps that he is already friends with the rest of his boyfriend's class)

So, to everyone suprise he interrumpts Lila in middle sentence to point out the holes in what she is saying.

Alix, Nathaniel, Marinette and Adrien froze in panic, what is he thinking?! A direct confrontation was a bad idea, wasn't it? Marc locked eyes with the four of them and give a look thay says 'I get this' so they let him be, but now they are really uneasy.

What they didn't know is that the last days until now Marc has been doing more than just research, he was studying his enemy. Marc is a good listener, and being someone who likes to go unnoticed he became a very good observant too, he can notice little details and patterns, also he is a sensible and sympathetic boy so is easy for him to put himself in other's shoes, that combined makes him very good at reading and analysing people. He also made extra research in psychology and behaivor. So now, he knows how Lila works, he knows what to expect and how to answer. It also helps that he is very good with words, not just the ones he writes for his stories, but the ones he says and also he is very good with other's people words, he knows how to use them. That is his plan, he is going to use all his skills and knowledge to trap Lila, she thinks that she is smart and can control the situation, but Marc is going to prove that she can and will lose in her own game. Her lies are gonna be her downfall.

Lila of course tries to make an excuse or another lie to save face, but Marc refutes her again and again, and the rest of the class? Some are confused and others seems thoughtful shit! She is losing control! She tries but this black haired boy seems to be smart, he gets her cornered until the point that she can't lie her way out, and her classmates are starting to look suspicious. She tries to change tactics, the tears worked against Marinette, they will work now. She hides her face in her hands and starts to sob.

"I just was trying to share some of my wonderful experiencies with my friends, so I could give them some advice to help them in the future. Why are you being so mean? I haven't done anything to you! " That make people like Rose or Mylene to softened and go to comfort her, and between her hands she can see Alya ready to confront the boy, but Marc is ready for this kind of tactic, is his turn to make a move.

"I'm sorry but, How does this make me mean? I just pointed some facts because honestly, I'm a bit confused. At first I thought that you just made a little mistake, but then you just said another nonsense! Why would YOU do that?"

And then she is losing the little control she manage to regain. Because no matter how much they want to comfort her, Marc has a point and what he said so far actually makes sense, at least more sense than what she said. The others start to look torn between comfort or question her.

"Well... how would you know that what I said is wrong? Where is your proof?" Lila crosses her arms and look to other side, just to hide the smirk in her face, that would be enough and that annoying nobody will learn to not get in her way.

But, much to her surprise Marc actually has a good answer to that.

"Uh... comon sense? I mean, If I'm being a little honest if you think about it, some of the things you said have no... logic. Also I like to read a lot and about different things, including what you were saying so I know for a fact that some of the things you said are wrong. And my proof? Well a quick search in google is enough to prove me right"

Lila pales, she was not expecting that answer, and to her utter horror she can see some of her classmates typing in their phones, probably fact checking for once, she need to fix this now! She looks around trying to find some sympathy or something that would help, but she only see her classmates reading something in their phones and some of them are starting to frown, then she looks to Marinette and has an idea, this would break her little deal with Adrien but is ok, she wasn't planning to leave the brat alone anyway and her model career is in his father's hands, and she already has him tied around her finger.

So, before anyone could say something she sobs more louder and points a finger to Marinette.

"This is because of Marinette, isn't it? She put you into this! I-" but she couldn't finish because Marc interrumpts her, he also is ready for Lila trying to blame Marinette and he is not having it!

"And what does she has to do with this? Is not her fault that you have your facts wrong" and now the others are starting to narrow their eyes towards her, Damn it! Well she made the baker a threat, is time to fulfil it.

Lila makes the best she can to look pityful and scared. "Well... I didn't want to say this because I thought that nobody would believe me but... Marinette threatened me in the bathroom the day I came back from Achu!" She cries to everybody's shock.

"WHAT?!" Everybody screamed that. Marinette and her we-know-the-truth squad are frozen and can't believed it, THE NERVE OF THIS GIRL!

The rest to their friends are equally stunned, because they just can't believe what Lila said.

Lila using the shock continues with her sob story.

"She cornered me in the bathroom and told me that she would turn all of you against me! And all because she is jealous! And now she is using this boy to make you think that I'm a liar, just like she said!" Lila hug herself in an attempt to look small and is crying full force now.

Marc has to use all his willpower to not scream and call her a hypocrite, but he has a perfect answer for that too.

"Marinette would NEVER do that!" And to Lila's surprise and Marinette's glee is not Marc who says that, is Alya.

"Marinette is the sweetest girl, and she is not a bully!" That was Rose, who walked away from Lila like she burned her. And the rest of the class make their agreement known.

Lila really did NOT expect THAT reaction! They are supose to be comforting her and screaming to Marinette, not defending her! It's ok she can fix it.

"See? Is this why I didn't want to say anything! You don't believe me!"

Marc takes the word again "We know Marinette, we know she has flaws but she is one of the best people we know" again everybody agrees with that.

Lila is getting desperate, this is not what is supose to happen! And where is an akuma when you need it?! But Lila refuses to lose!

"Look I know you all thougth that you knew her and that she was your friend, but the truth is that Marinette is not what she seems to be, she is a manipulative liar and is just using you!"

Again, is not Marc who talks, this time is Kim

"No, you look Lila, I have known Marinette since diapers, and I know she has flaws but she is NOT a bad person"

"Yeah, and using us? She is the one who goes out of her way just to help us! She is a caring friend! Heck! We actually had to convince her that it's ok to pay to her everytime we comission something from her!" That was Nino

"And still, she gives us discounts everytime she can, but jus for the record, we have no problem in paying the whole price, Marinette, your job is awesome and you deserve to be fairly rewarded" that was Ivan, and Marinette gives him a very grateful smile, the rest of her friends agree with him and she smiles to them too.

"But-but" Lila is in trouble, she tries to think fast, but then Max just dig her hole deeper.

"Also, what Marc just said about your story is also true, all the wrong facts and holes, I asked Markov to fact check and the evidence supports Marc, the only conclusion is that you were lying to us!"

Nonononononono NO!

"And since you told us this lie like you did with any other of your stories I wondered What else was a lie? I also asked Markov to confirm every thing that you had said to us, and nearly the 86.65% was a lie"

Marc smiles, the game is going exactly according to his plan, even some of his moves were made by others, he is happy that Marinette has friends with such a faith in her, ready to stand up for her just like she does for them. But he knows that the game is still on, Lila still has some pieces, but Marc already steal her big ones, she just has some pawns to defend her King and Marc has his army intact.

Well fuck, she is doomed, the rest of the class looks ready to attack her... and then she remember her last card, it's a wild card, her lies will not work the same way anymore but she could save face, she will, eventually, come up with something to regain her control.

Well it seems that there is a limit, so I make a part 2

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