#it just means all the foreshadowing will be non-existent or accidental

[bluebellhairpin]

i feel like i'd be able to finish this chess metaphor erwin fic series if i finish watching season 4.

[goblinbugthing]

PEN!!!!

oopsie didnt notice this, allergies want me dead

allow me to talk about my girls, the absolutes, since i dont do that enough even though i love them

(in reference to this post)

AUGH, my girls!!!!!! The four lovely little non-ladies that i accidentally made a magical girl group <3

There is so much wild lore behind these kiddos, but unfortunately, I can’t talk about all that shit because SO MANY SPOILERS FOR SOUL JOURNEY.

Ahem. Lemme actually talk about them now.

These four — Inifya, Mirror Inifya (Mira/Shini), Pura, and Nycto Tolaris — are a group of teenage Astrals with great powers that they rarely use outside of training. Instead of specifically following their destiny to become the next Four Heroes of Yore, they decide to create a band they call The Absolutes, because Void and Gala always refer to them as The Absolute Heroes. Gala is a massive history geek, and he knows quite a bit about the original Four Heroes of Yore, and the girls remind him of them quite a bit. Void themself says that they are the originals reborn, which they very well may be, seeing Pura’s absolutely insane abilities as a Void-Born Astral. (That means she was created in the Void, AKA Nebulis’ homeland/realm/test area, not that she was created by Void. Those are Galactics.)

They’re still much too young to begin their duties as Star Warriors, Ini, Mira, and Pura being 15 and Nycto being 13, and the first few are still in their training stages (Nycto is a fast learner — striking reflection of her… father? Of Elfilis. I guess they’d be the dad, since Gen carried her, or something like that. Genetics are fucking weird, especially when it comes to Astrals), so they haven’t been officially titled as Holy Knights yet, but they will be eventually.

Now it’s time to talk about them as separate characters!

First of, Ini. She's the future daughter of Kirby, and her name is kind of obviously based on the word infinity, and the concept of naming her ‘infinity’ comes from— actually, I can’t say that, that’s afterstory stuff. Just know her name has some deeper connections past being based on the word ‘infinity’.

Anyway, they’re the future Warrior of Soul. When they come of age and are officially knighted, they’ll be titled Absolute Infinity Hero, Soul Knight Inifya. Here’s an excerpt from their section of a little “history book” about the Four Heroes i wrote a while back:

(By the way, Lord Yk is Nebulis, aka the son-daughter-child of Galactica, who is THE God, but nobody in-multiverse really knows about Them and think Nebs is THE God. Which isn’t necessarily wrong, I guess)

As I said before, these girls have SO many K:SJ spoilers attached to them. That’s what makes them so fun to talk about though, I get to be mysterious and vague and tease things and put foreshadowing everywhere.

ANYWAY. The censored stuff is all regarding their Big Crazy Ability that I can’t mention bc they inherited it from Kirby, who uses it in the climax of the fic that I might not even finish. All you gotta know is it’s incredibly strong, and absolutely terrifying. Which makes it awesome. I wish I could talk about it, but it’s existence is a major plot point, so I can’t. Major L for me.

Next is Mira! She’s the future daughter of Shadow Kirby, and is younger than her main-universe counterpart by about 10 minutes, since Void helped with the creation of the two, building their bodies and Souls from scratch. Gotta love being a creator entity, being able to do shit like that.

She’s got the same name origins as Ini, and the same abilities as them, but she prefers using her Dream magic over her Soul magic, and she’s the future Warrior of Dreams. When they’re older and knighted, they’ll be titled Absolute Dreamscape Hero, Mare Knight Shini (or Mare Knight Mira). Here’s an excerpt from her section in the same “history book”:

(The Eterna Hero is Galacta’s predecessor, as in he was supposed to be a recreation of her. She was also capable of using this Big Crazy Ability that I can’t name bc spoilers. She’s shown off more in two oneshots I made titled MERCY, which is about her death, and Once So Great, which is from her mourning friend’s point of view 17 million years later. Read them if you like!)

The censored stuff here is also regarding the Big Crazy Ability. I’ve just now decided that I’m going to make a google doc with everything about K:SJ like I’m doing with my hollow knight AUs so I can get all this information out of me and have a reference for if I ever keep working on the fic.

Ok Pura time!!!!! She’s the future Warrior of Heart, and she was created by Nebulis from excess positive emotions, and since she doesn’t have any biological parents, she was taken in by Elfilis and Fiktra and raised as their eldest daughter. Because she’s a Void-born Heart Matter Astral, she is incredibly powerful and very likely the only one of her kind, so she has nobody to properly train her to use her abilities. The only two Heart Matter Astrals around who can train her are Galacta and Kirby, but they’re both Heart-Soul hybrids, Kirby’s busy being the only active Star Warrior in Gamble Galaxy, and Gala is nowhere near as powerful as her, so she’s kinda stuck when it comes to abilities only she has.

When she’s knighted she’ll get the title of Absolute Heartbeat Hero, Halo Knight Pura. Because of her Heart-matter origins, she’s a very kind and compassionate person, and it takes a lot to piss her off. If you manage to make her mad, you’ve dun fucked up and I suggest you run. Aside from those very incredibly rare moments, she’s the sweetest kid in the universe. A very forgive-and-forget type person, with almost no exceptions.

As usual here’s an excerpt from the fake history book:

Wow, nothing needed to be censored this time! Incredible!

I’m currently working on redesigning her, and the base design is almost done!! Yey :)

FINALLY. We have Nycto Tolaris, the youngest of the four. She’s the future biological daughter of Elfilis and Genesis Fiktra, and the future Warrior of Dark, and she’s the most well-trained out of all the girls. She already knows all known techniques of Dark Matter combat, and has begun doing her own stuff, combining her Dream magic with her Dark magic to create incredibly powerful and sometimes mind-breaking attacks. Trust me, you don’t want to get caught in one of her storms. You will die, or lose your mind in the best-case scenario. Her battle skills are insane.

Once she's grown and knighted, she'll gain the title Absolute Shadow Hero, Hollow Knight Nycto Tolaris. Yes, that is a hollow knight reference. Currently, with her quick learning and her already knowing what she’s doing, she’s the most combat efficient of the Absolutes, and also the most terrifying. Dark Matter and Dream Matter combined is fucking crazy when you know how to use the magic. Inducing night terrors, causing hallucinations, breaking your mind and essentially exploding your brain without even touching you — Dark-Dream Matter Astrals are incredibly powerful and are absolutely fucking horrifying to fight. I suggest avoiding negative confrontation with Nycto at all costs.

Something something history book excerpt:

Aaand that’s all of them! Damn this took a while to write. I’m gonna return to my hollow knight insanity now, and eat my ice cream. French vanilla good. Yummy

[tarysande]

Oh no, I've been thinking.

Okay, I can't stop thinking about something ending-related. I don't know this for certain, but based on previous statements and such, it feels like the writers were always aiming for a bittersweet ending. Like, no matter what else happened or how the story evolved, come hell (lol) or high water, that ending couldn't just be happy. For reasons. I guess.

Now, I don't mind a bittersweet ending ... if it makes sense for the ending to be bittersweet.

I critique stories for a living. I'm literally taking a break from the developmental edit of someone's novel to write this post. And the persistent thought that bugs me about the Rory setup is that it is so artificial. Time travel is a pain in the narrative ass. Time travel suddenly introduced in the sixth season of a show that has never touched on time travel? As an editor, I probably would've pointed out that time travel for the purpose of angst, especially time travel without rules that make sense ("I don't know anything about time travel! Except I do know you have to take the most painful path!"), seemingly introduced as a final ploy to make that bittersweet ending work ... well, to me, it breaks the narrative contract they established with the audience. Your audience is going to be confused. An editor's job is to alert the writer to any potential confusion so it can be fixed before the story goes to print, etc. Confused audiences get mad, annoyed, frustrated. They feel hurt. They put down the book and don't pick it up again. Usually, writers don't want that. But they're so close to their work that they need a completely outside perspective to say, "Hey, I'm not sure you realize this, but..."

I mean, I keep referring to Rory as "deus ex daughter" because in literary terms, she is a blatant deus ex machina. Rory is the god in the machine of the Bittersweet Ending.

Now, I loved a lot of S6. I did. My overall feeling about the season is not negative. But ... I can't stop thinking about why the things I didn't like REALLY didn't work for me.

I loved the emotional growth we saw in Lucifer and Chloe facilitated by the question of parenting and parental love. I did. And I would have loved to see a lot of those notes hit not with an angel kid out of nowhere ... but with the daughter already in the picture. Especially because it would have circumvented the icky idea that a child has to be one's flesh and blood to induce such feelings. I also understand that coronavirus and Scarlett's age and schedule made this difficult. But I just can't swallow that the only way to wrap up the story of this show--a show about found family, non-traditional family, friendship, connection, FREE WILL, love in all its many shapes and forms and colors ... was to introduce a brand new character via a device (time travel) that fails to make sense almost every time it's used, no matter the medium. (And then had only that brand new character be there when her mother died. Don't even get me started. Ugh.)

If time travel was always going to be on the table, couldn't we have found a more plausible way to use it with the characters we already knew, loved, and had spent four or five seasons with? A time-travelling older Trixie, say? If you're going to use the impossible device, just ... twist it another way to make it work.

Okay. Okay. So, leaving Trixie aside for now just like the show did, let's say we leave everything about the season the same, even Rory. Do you know what ending makes more narrative sense?

Future Rory sacrificing herself by NOT forcing Lucifer to make a cruel and impossible "choice" so the baby that might have been her grows up with a family that loves her. Chloe's already pregnant. That's not going to be undone. And this nonsense of a "closed time loop" falls apart if you side-eye it for even a few seconds. The Rory who came from the future never exists except in the memories of those she met when she came back from that future. Chloe and Lucifer lose that daughter even as they gain the new one whose existence is not a tool of unrelenting fate because wow this show has always been about free will what the heck happened there yikes. And a choice made under the duress Chloe and Lucifer were under, forced out of them, and forcing them to "choose" a life apart for *handwave* Reasons has nothing to do with free will. A "choice" made at gunpoint is not a real choice. Future Rory basically bullied them into ensuring she got to exist--something, quite frankly, neither her parents would have done.

Instead, how much more appropriately bittersweet is it if Chloe and Lucifer lose that child while gaining one who, because of that angry time-travelling version, will never suffer as she did.

Also as an editor: the groundwork for my version is already laid, by the way. It should have been Rory learning about the importance of free will over fate. The importance of personal sacrifice. The importance of not thinking your young self knows best ... because experience and therapy will help rid you of that self-centered world view. That's the contract the writers made with us with this show. And Chloe and Lucifer have already BEEN THERE AND DONE THAT. (See: the end of S4.)

Furthermore, this season finally HAD Chloe and Lucifer DEAL WITH the only thing that actually would have contributed to a narrative, characterization-based reason for Lucifer to disappear: His history of running and his putting Chloe on a pedestal. Once they really talked that out, his "disappearance" became a Rory-induced trauma of inexplicable fate that flies in the face of all the progress Lucifer made over six seasons. (I would rather have had more of that and less of mysterious disappearing oh no plot.)

And I'm sorry, the "Once you get to Hell you're going to work 24/7" excuse given for why Lucifer won't be around and why he can't make time for Chloe until she's DEAD(????!???) is ... it's lame. If AMENADIEL AS GOD can make time for his kid's birthday party, I refuse to believe Lucifer can't work out some Hell/Earth-work/life balance. Never mind that in the show about partnerships, the Bittersweet Ending just ... destroyed it. Chloe was planning on being God's consultant; she could have helped Lucifer solve Hell's Trauma Mysteries (it's what she did with Jimmy, setting up that yeah, Lucifer could do it alone like he accidentally did with Lee, but doing it with HIS TRUTHSEEKING PARTNER would be more effective). Just as Lucifer could have continued helping HER solve some of the problems within "that corrupt little organization" of hers.

tl;dr: I think the writers fixated so completely on their version of Bittersweet that they missed all the foreshadowing, groundwork, and clues that were right there, already built into the story, poised for a different kind of ending than the one they once imagined. That's why so many parts of it feel almost-but-not-quite right and why these aspects are so off-putting. That's why it's just not ... organic. It's something squeezed into a box it grew out of ages ago.

Ironically, certain elements of this season involved the writers insisting on the FATE they decided long ago instead of letting the story and the characters have the FREE WILL to choose a different, more fitting, more organic ending--one that had long-since evolved past that original flavor of Bittersweet.

[kaypeace21]

Just a weird thought/s4 crack theory...

I just had a thought... Like the mf is still in the upsidedown. umbral (shadow form) is just a d&d wizard spell which gives wizards the ability to shapeshift into a giant shadow. And I mentioned before how I think the mf is Will the wise (a wizard). With all the doppleganger imagery like the doubles of Billy or all the dopplegangers in the st s4 films.  I just had a weird thought...maybe Will isn’t captured by Brenner-but the mindflayer in his true form (Will the wise) is. In s1 , Brenner looks like he tried to go to the upsidedown to get Will- maybe after s3.... he manipulates mf to go into Will the wise form and captures/emotionally manipulates him?

In the st comic it shows a fire wielding twin under brenner's control who always feels cold, hallucinates living in a dark world , has nightmares of the the demogorgan (in d&d demogorgan means “deep father”). And they refuse to use their fire powers until someone at the psych facility (cough...pethurst) tries injecting a needle in their arm against their will (like what happened to the mf in Will's body in s2).Than they dissociate/escape and light a easter drawing on fire (with sunflower/bunny imagery-we also saw a bts s4 school calender with easter on it). She even has a fire sword-sort of similar to the s3 Will the wise drawing (where in 1 hand he has a sword and in another a fireball)...

 After this, fire powered twin, and her non-powered twin, along with their older brother get into a car and all of them escape. 

I mean technically I’m reaching but the twin without powers looks like they sort of have Will’s s4 bowl cut. XD

So yeah maybe that body double wasn’t el but Will the wise?? We did see a guy who looked suspiciously like Noah on the Penthurst set.

And yeah the double in the van looks like a girl and of course it could be el or another female number. But if they wanted to preserve that plot twist just having a gal as a distant body double with baggy clothes and a buzzcut would certainly throw us theorists off.

That would mean that whole- Billy (aka William) doppleganger scene in s3 was foreshadowing for s4?

Even Will’s birthday hints at the possibility- since his bday is associated with fire and the god (Mars- which is what Martin ,Brenner’s first name, means).

March 22nd is also associated with the shadow god-ketu .

 Although,I do think even if this is true. El and kali will also probably  be captured by Brenner at the end of s4. I feel like both gals will definitely teamup/ face Brenner at some point-like s2 hinted at. And there's multiple alternative penthurst theories i have- other than this one. I just decided to mention this will the wise theory, just in case...

Also, I mentioned how st mentions the xmen comics in every season. And 1 x-men hero reminded me of Will (Billy Kaplan) . His nickname is Billy ( real name William)- he’s gay, has lightning/ fire/ ice powers and the ability to warp reality. He also has tracking abilities ( although unlike his other powers ,required intense concentration-cough tracking Hopper in s2) . He’s called wiccan (like a wizard- Billy’s real email is literally “actualwizard666@supermail.com”). He accidentally opens a portal and releases an interdimensional monster called ‘mama’ (again demogorgan means ‘deep father’). Billy is possessed by the dem-iurge (which looks like the d&d version of the mindflayer) and Billy even spits up a slug the demiurge placed in him (like Will spitting up that slug the dem-ogorgan placed in him). And like the st comic, Billy meets his doppleganger at a hospital/facility which held mutants  (who Billy didn't know existed,  and who was k*dnapped for his powers) .

* Billy also had telekenesis (and in d&d mindflayers have telekenesis too... and the ability to steal powers from others -like s3 with el’s telekenesis perhaps?) And Billy had healing abilities- which are common for d&d clerics (like Will)

[poptropicontent]

Bro we should do a top ten best poptropica twist villains

and do we did ;)) @cacaocheri

top 10 best poptropica twist villians

day 2 of mutual insanity over poptropica feat her ETHERAL blue text commentary .

10: Jeeves

Forgot this dude even existed. Also his name is Jeeves. 0/10

we accidentally referred to do this dude as the governor for the duration of our rankings he was so irrelevant. only made the list bc we had a villian apologist moment over the captain from S.O.S.

9: Preston Wilhelm

His scheme was pretty clever....and he could've gotten away with it, too.....if it wasn't for us meddling kids.................

im biased bc nightwatch is one of my favourite islands but this dude was so wild like. literally owns a printing company and resorts to larceny like I respect that so hard but. how. what's the progression there.

8: The Construction Workers

The construction workers were so obviously going to be the villains, but they got bonus points because their twist came with a good message: deforestation is bad, kids!

literally do not remember these mfs at all but cherry brainwashed me into remembering that they were bad so uh tree good capitalism bad what she said thank you <\3

7: Henry Flatbottom

Magistrate sucks but his twist was pretty good. Sure, when you meet him he reeks of dirty rat bastard vibes, but I would have never predicted he did that.

afraid to say that he fooled me. I knew he was kinda sus but had NO idea the twist would play out the way it did like... impossible to see that coming.

6: Zeus

I love poptropica so much for diverging expectations and making zeus the villain. In almost all media, hades is normally the villain. We finally got some zeus slander.

poptropica DID that. honestly agree 100% w cherry hades slander is so overused in the media it's abt time someone pulled a complete quick one on us and made ooga booga cloud man the villian.

5: Ringmaster Raven

Raven was a pretty good twist....poptropica built it up so well with the newspapers and everything....by the time you realized he was the villain, it was too late....

raven bb I'm so sorry for putting you on the villian list hnngsgnhggsg.

4: Madamosille Moreau

I had moreau higher up BUT mads opened my third eye when she told me that moreau was like the only non historical person on the train, so that's a pretty big giveaway. Also we were gonna suspect her at one point or another because the whole point of the island was to look for a villain.

yeah!! moreau is probably my favourite villian on this list but it is possible to discover she's the villian before her reveal at the end. HOWEVER her reveal is done so cleverly and I will never get over the last dialogue exchange w gustave pls.

3: Director D

Director D quite literally played chess against himself, and we were all the pawns. It was kind of genius, not gonna lie. The only reason he isn't higher up was because there was literally a clue that said "don't trust director d"

that kinda gave it away but I mean. his character as a concept literally leaves no room to imagine that he could possibly be a twist villian because every island needs a 'good' character like him.

2: Black Widow

Black widow by far the sexiest twist villain. I trusted the inspector with my life. When we received the hint that we shouldn't trust someone close to us, I literally didn't even consider the inspector. I was blind with love for her design, and it was a fatal mistake <\3

could not of said it better i was too busy staring at sexy women's red lipstick to notice the whole red flags surrounding her.

1: Dr. Jupiter

The way poptropica reused a villain from another island was absolute genius.....never in a million years would kid me think they would bring back zeus..... and all the foreshadowing they did for him (like the thunderstorm at the beginning) was so fucking GOOD. if I were to play it now, him being zeus would be a lot more obvious (jupiter is literally the roman version of zeus) but like.....the NOSTALGIA bro....poptropica is all about the nostalgia.

this was the biggest villian that I DID NOT see coming whatsoever. not zeus, not even dr. jupiter being a straight up villian either like man. this was executed so well and??? everything just CAME together.

@cacaocheri thank you SO SO much for doing this with me!! your mind is galaxy moment and your commentary is so in depth and detailed in the best way possible <333 smooches

[emeraldspiral]

Imagine if they gave Rian $70 mill to reshoot and recut TROS.

First, reinsert the oracle scene and cut Kylo meeting Palps. Have Palp's fleet appear out of hyperspace as a "gift". Kylo knows most of his officers are Palpatine loyalists and Palps is a threat to his power, but Palps is operating out of a secret location, so he needs a Wayfinder to locate him so he can eliminate him and take his shit, but without anyone in the FO knowing. So, it’s KYLO not Hux, who leaks info to the Resistance. This means the scavenger hunt is no longer a waste of time because Rey could've just accepted a rideshare or stolen Kylo's WF at any point. Instead of smashing the WF, Kylo simply takes it. Rey fights him because she wants to go to Exegol alone and destroy Palpatine AND his stuff so Kylo can’t have it.

ADR some lines about Poe consorting with spice traders as an undercover op or moral compromise he had to make to get something the Resistance needed instead of attempting to make him a Han Solo knockoff who did shady things just to rebel.

Add some moments of Finn doubting his worth because he's not an ace pilot or a Jedi and then change the convo with Jannah to say her squad were inspired by his example so Finn can have an arc about learning his true value. Then, add a few more lines where Lando talks about the FO stealing his kids and Finn and Jannah talking about faint memories of their lives before they were kidnapped, before realizing they’re Landos twin children. That way we satisfy the SW fan quota for surprise parentage reveals and Lando and Jannah serve an actual purpose in the story as part of Finn’s fairy tale happy ending.

Have Rey cause Chewie's fake-out death by crashing the ship instead of using lightning, to foreshadow the reveal that she accidentally killed her parents the same way and repressed the memory until Ben forced her to confront it, rather than having the stupid fucking Palpatine reveal. Then, have Rey’s convo with Luke be about her fears of being a monster because she killed her parents, almost killed Chewie, and stabbed the man she loves.

Meanwhile, back on the Death Star, have Han actually be a ghost brought back by Leia, with the help of Luke and Anakin, whom she finally reached out to and reconciled with in order to save her son, rather than dying inexplicably and seemingly to help Rey kill her son when he wasn't the aggressor in their fight. This not only creates a believable reason why Leia died, but also gives her closure with Anakin she never got in the OT, allows for Ben to reconcile with his entire family, and facilitates non Force Sensitive ghosts appearing in the final shot for the ultimate happy ending to close out the Skywalker Saga.

Rey has been using her new lightsaber the whole time, as she was unable to repair Anakin’s. There is no Jedi Leia and no Jedi Leia saber and Luke got rid of his green saber when he went into exile. But it’s okay, because Ben heals the crystal in his saber instead of throwing it away.

Instead of revealing Hux is the spy, reveal that he's suddenly become Force sensitive when Kylo attempts to smack him around like usual when Hux backtalks him. Palpatine whispers from afar that he's given Hux some of his power so that he can overthrow Kylo and lures him over to Exegol with the promise of UNLIMITED POWER so he can return to life by possessing Hux. PalpHux duels Ben and Rey together in the final battle, but they can't strike him down without getting possessed themselves. All they can do is dodge and deflect attacks. Ben sacrifices himself by taking a hit meant for Rey which brings him close enough to Hux to impale him through the back, as well as himself, so Palpatine's spirit will die with him.

Rey then uses secret knowledge from the Jedi texts to revive Ben, so instead of a stupid Marvel movie ending that is the antithesis of what Star Wars stands for, Rey's final act of heroism is saving what she loves, not destroying what she hates.

Ben and Rey then go to the lakehouse on Naboo with R2 and 3P0, who now remembers it as the place where Anakin and Padme eloped and would've raised Luke and Leia if things had been different. Rey puts the two halves of Anakin’s saber, now reconstructed into two new sabers, in a keepsake box for her and Ben’s future children. Then, they go out on the veranda where Anakin and Padme had their first kiss and gaze into a binary sunrise. 

Behind them, Luke, Han, and Leia appear as ghosts, morphing from old to young. Then, Anakin and Padme appear behind their children, and Shmi behind them, with Cleig at her side, Owen and Beru next to Luke, and Bail and Breha next to Leia. All the Skywalkers smile upon the bright future ahead of Ben, Rey, and their future children now that Palpatine's gone for good.

And in the midst of all this, Rose Tico has her own mission with Connix.

Most of these added or changed scenes could be accomplished fairly cheaply with just a handful of shots of characters talking to each other on a green screen or a set that probably still exists or wouldn’t be difficult to recreate. Expensive or time-consuming stuff like the backflip scene or the lightsaber battles would be able to remain in tact, with just some ADR. Most of the time and money would just be for the new Rose Tico subplot and the redone final battle.

A smart director like Rian, who’s already completed one SW film ahead of schedule and under budget, could easily complete all the ADR, reshoots, and brand new scenes with $70 mill.

Give us the Rian cut DLF. It's the only way to salvage the franchise.

[bolddeducktionneverfails]

Launchpad’s Association With Della Duck: Ballads of Dangerous Chemistry

Part 1 | Part 2 || Part 3 | Part 4| Part 5 || Continued from Part 6

One of the many things I've noticed in DuckTales is that certain elements from earlier episodes tend to return in the later portion of the season. Sometimes as a running gag or an Easter egg, but other times, they end up revealing to be an important concept that's extremely relevant to the story. 

The Season 1 finale was a good example of this: The boys hijacking Donald's Houseboat in the pilot to go to Cape Suzette comes back as Donald wanting to move there when the boys no longer want anything to do with Scrooge. The bag of marbles Scrooge gave the boys when they first arrive to the mansion comes back as a way for Scrooge to reminisce about having them around. The silly cutout of Gyro from "Beware of The B.U.D.D.Y System!" is seen floating around in the underwater lab after the area was destroyed by the shadows. 

Sometimes it doesn't even take that long for the early elements to reappear; they can be contained within the episode itself by giving us hints in the very beginning of it and later come into play towards the ending. Scrooge was right from the start when he blamed Glomgold in "The 87 Cent Solution!" and the ending of the Darkwing Duck series finale basically foreshadowed the entirety of "The Duck Knight Returns!". If Della paid attention as she was attempting to fix the rocket on her own, she would have known about Gold Tech way ahead of time.

Two years ago at the D23 Expo, it was announced during the DuckTales panel  that Duckworth was already shown, but no one had found him yet. Many of us searched around for the butler dog and every character we guessed was rejected by the show-runners. It wasn't until "McMystery at McDuck McManor" that Duckworth was revealed to be the ram-headed spirit we've been seeing in the intro! The answer to the mystery was right there in front of our faces! But we didn't realize it because the appearance of the person we were looking for was altered.

Bᴇғᴏʀᴇ Dᴜᴄᴋᴡᴏʀᴛʜ’s ʀᴇᴠᴇᴀʟ, ʜᴇ ᴡᴀs ʜɪɴᴛᴇᴅ ᴀᴛ ᴀ ᴄᴏᴜᴘʟᴇ ᴛɪᴍᴇs ᴡʜᴇʀᴇ ʜɪs ʟɪᴋᴇɴᴇss ᴡᴀs ᴏʙsᴄᴜʀᴇᴅ: Tʜᴇ ɢʜᴏsᴛ ᴄʜᴀsɪɴɢ ᴛʜᴇ ᴋɪᴅs ɪɴ Mʀs. Bᴇᴀᴋʟᴇʏ’s sʜᴏʀᴛ , ᴛʜᴇ ᴘʜᴏᴛᴏɢʀᴀᴘʜ ᴏғ ᴀ ғʟᴏᴀᴛɪɴɢ ᴏʀʙ ᴏғ ʟɪɢʜᴛ ᴏɴ Wᴇʙʙʏ’s ʙᴏᴀʀᴅ

Sᴛʀᴀɴɢᴇʟʏ ᴇɴᴏᴜɢʜ, Lᴀᴜɴᴄʜᴘᴀᴅ ᴡᴀsɴ'ᴛ ᴘʀᴇsᴇɴᴛ ɪɴ "MᴄMᴀɴᴏʀ" ᴀᴛ ᴀʟʟ ᴅᴇsᴘɪᴛᴇ ʟɪᴠɪɴɢ ɪɴ ᴀ sᴇᴄᴛɪᴏɴ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴀɴsɪᴏɴ' s ɢᴀʀᴀɢᴇ...

This proves that we don't always have to look too far to figure things out, so, after thinking about amnesia, I had to take another look at "The Ballad of Duke Baloney!". It features a confirmed case of the condition and a good example of applying one similar character to another.

The episode begins with a flashback to the happenings of "The Shadow War!", a pretty significant event. Glomgold fails to prevent his shadow from flying off and ends up falling into the marina. He loses consciousness and is eventually found by two fishers, trapped in their fisher net. He can no longer remember the whole ordeal that caused him to take on his false Scottish persona and reverts back to who he used to be: Duke Baloney.

The name Duke Balony, derives from a completely different character named The Duke of Baloni. He comes from an old Carl Barks story that predates Glomgold's character and was the first to be titled "Second-Richest Duck in the World". The show-runners used this similarity as a part of giving an in-universe explanation to why Flintheart Glomgold went from South African like he was in the earlier Scrooge McDuck comics, to Scottish like he was in the original DuckTales series.

Four months later, after Flintheart is reported to have gone missing, Webby and Louie stop by Bait 'N' Such to find him as a completely different person: His demeanor is much kinder, he talks with a different accent, he sports a real beard and now wears a fisherman outfit.

Speaking of which, Duke and LP share a lot of similar colors. Even Young Duke wears teal and green; something that was mainly exclusive to both Launchpad and Della.

The kids aren't exactly sure what to think. Was this really Glomgold? Or were they mistaking a random stranger for him? Was he genuinely suffering from amnesia? Or was this another one of his crazy schemes? As they try to figure out his true intentions, they discover Duke has a suspicious, gold money clip in his possession. This causes Webby and Louie to start an investigation where they discover Duke Baloney's records are non-existent and Flintheart Glomgold's records do not extend past his arrival to Duckburg in the 80's.

Meanwhile, Duke's evil persona slowly starts to re-emerge after one of Scrooge's fishing boats roll into the dock. He can't remember Scrooge's name, he can't even remember his face when they meet, but he suddenly grows negative feelings towards the boat and he's not exactly sure why. He starts coming up with elaborate plans to outrank it and he ends up having a dream full of subliminal messages about his past.

As Duke starts to question who he really is, he notices that Webby and Louie are out at sea as a thunderstorm is approaching. He plans to go out and rescue them but a boat crane hits him on the head, causing him to fall into the marina much like he did before. It's in his second time of unconsciousness where he remembers why he started his Scottish persona in the first place: When Duke was a child, Scrooge failed at teaching him a sense of self reliance by only paying partially for his shoe shining services. Feeling cheated, he secretly stole Scrooge's money clip and vowed to do whatever it takes to out-best him at everything and steal his title of "Richest Duck in the World".

When Duke comes to at the surface, he reverts back to his evil ways. He displays this as he tricks Webby into giving him her hand only for him throw her out of the boat to make room for himself. The other fishers are very shocked to see their friend act like this.

Glomgold makes his way back to his office to reclaim his company from Zan Owlson and to challenge Scrooge with the fiscal year bet. Scrooge refuses until Glomgold taunts him with the money clip he had stolen from him. McDuck becomes surprised, and angry, that his greatest rival has a significant connection to his past.

So, if Launchpad has amnesia, what could Glomgold's situation be telling us about his?

Glomgold's amnesia was tied to a big event as well as LP's could be if he was involved with the cosmic storm.

Glomgold goes missing in the sea, an environment that is very similar to outer-space.

Following his disappearance, Glomgold ended up looking like a different person with a new profession. Launchpad is completely unrecognizable to Della in spite of many signs that they could have something to do with each other's backgrounds and there are also possible signs that he might not be a legitimate airplane pilot.

Glomgold had Scrooge's money clip on him. Maybe LP has some sort of mysterious item or something like a scar or a birthmark that could help prove that he's the father.

Information on both Duke and Glomgold is extremely limited. Launchpad's records probably don't go very far either. 

Duke's sudden hatred for Scrooge's boat reminds me of Launchpad's sudden attachment to Dewey. The triplet hasn't done much to or for Launchpad prior "Terror of The Terrafimians!”; he caused a trap to dump a pile of snakes onto Launchpad without apologizing. Dewey doesn't show any concern towards him until he comes back from his search in "Gander"...and yet, Launchpad established him as his best friend. He may not even be sure why he does. I've been theorizing for the longest time that Dewey could be reminding him of Della. 

In the Theme Song Takeover, Launchpad sings about being on the Houseboat with Dewey specifically without acknowledging that Scrooge, Donald, Huey and Louie are there too. He did a similar thing in “Jaw$!” when he simplified Huey and Louie as “Dewey’s Brothers”. Aside from giving us potential clues about Della, Issue 18 highlighted Launchpad’s friendship with Dewey as well. When he realizes the severity of the tsunami alert, he immediately grabs Dewey and wants to head to safety instead of thinking to grab both Dewey and Webby at the same time. The retail incentive cover for this issue features a bunch of Dewey photos with Launchpad facing them.

Duke has a dream full of symbolism revolving around his Scottish persona. Launchpad’s line in “The 87 Cent Solution!” when Scrooge causes Gizmoduck to accidentally shoot the Sunchaser with a torpedo, reminds me a bit of this. He said the situation reminded him of every nightmare he’s ever had....why is he having dreams of accidentally hitting Dewey with the plane? What does this mean? Is he afraid that there will be a day where he hurts someone he cares about? Has this already happened in the past?

Was the mishap reminiscent of what happened during the cosmic storm? Scrooge accidentally causes Gizmoduck to fire his torpedoes (lightning?), they hit the plane (spacecraft?), smoke fills the vehicle (radiation clouds?) and he comes close to hitting someone he cares about (Della?)

After seeing the boat, Glomgold's old ways start to creep back into his mind. I think after being exposed to Della's presence for the first time in years, Launchpad will start to act a bit like his older self and do things that Della will recognize.

Glomgold had to get knocked back into the sea to return to how he normally is. Will Launchpad have to have another stressful incident or head injury to help him remember who he was?

 There's a line from "The Impossible Summit of Mt. Neverrest!" where he says "NO! This is not the end of Launchpad McQuack! It WILL be by plane crash, or not at all!" Was that possibly hinting towards this?

Duke actually says a line a bit similar to this where he says “All I need to know, is that I came from the sea...and I’ll die buy it...”

 A thunderstorm was involved and a rescue was underway, just like how Della could have been trying to rescue the father while she was caught up in the cosmic storm.

Glomgold's beard gets zapped with lightning from the storm, burning it into nothing. Launchpad possibly implied that he himself survived a lightning strike of some sort.

This episode was about a villain turning back into a good guy after losing his memory. Did Launchpad use to be a bad person? Or someone who was generally good, but made a bad decision? Or just unknowingly caused a bunch of bad things to happen? If Launchpad was the reason behind Della taking the Spear, then it’s partially his fault for Della getting stuck on the moon, losing her leg, Donald and Scrooge's separation, the boys growing up financially unstable without a mother, the depletion of the Money Bin, almost making Scrooge go bankrupt, Scrooge's retirement and depression, the family splitting up for a second time, Donald being sent to jail and the upcoming invasion. Even if the incident was beyond his control, he'll still feel horrible about causing such a chain reaction.

Not really counting on this, but if amnesia caused Glomgold to revert back to his original accent, could breaking out of amnesia cause Launchpad to revert back to his? In the original DuckTales series, Launchpad had more of a Northeastern accent. There are certain points in the cadence of Della's voice that reminds me of how Launchpad speaks in the reboot; more notably when she slips into a lower register

"Iiiit's fiiiine, I'm sure the flavor will wear off soon…"

"I've activated my distress beacon, so you can pinpoint my location and COME GET ME."

"I bet the boys have hatched by now... I'm not even sure what they look like…"

"I was gone for a decade and everyone was just fine…"

Glomgold's change in voice was brought on by copying off of Scrooge. Perhaps Launchpad is emulating Della in that way as well.

There are a few other lines in this episode that reminded me of some lines Launchpad has said in the previous season:

When Duke shares his crazy plans to outdo Scrooge's boat by over-fishing, Mann makes a comment.

 "...But it's like you always say, 'sharing is caring'."

 Duke takes a moment to think about this.

"That does sound like me...or does it?"

This reminds me of the scene in "The Spear of Selene!" where Scrooge orders Launchpad to get the plane back in the air after crash landing on Ithaquack. Launchpad responds.

"Sorry, Mr. McDee, gotta figure out what this flashing red light means. I always say: Better to be safe than... whatever the opposite of safe is!" 

He then looks off to the side with uncertainty afterwards, like he's not exactly sure where this phrase came from, but he could have sworn he said it at some point.

"Yeah, I do say that.”

But then Scrooge fires back.

"WHEN HAVE YOU EVER SAID THAT?!"

Could this little break in character be implying that Launchpad was a safer person at some point in his life?

When Duke notices Webby and Louie out at sea when the storm is about to start, he begins to speak.

 “I'll save ya! Or my name isn't--” 

But then he gets hit with a crane and falls into the water. This reminds me of LP's quote in “The Secret(s) of Castle McDuck!” when he's trying to help Scrooge win his parents’ approval. In disguise, he says

“He's a real family man or my name isn't Launchpad Mc...Donald Duck.”

We all know he isn't Donald and he was close to saying Launchpad McQuack wasn't his real name.

This may not count, but When Duke reached out to Webby and said “Give me your hand!”, it reminded me of when LP said the same thing to Dewey in “B.U.D.D.Y” as well as Scrooge in "Last Crash" when he's going after Dewey outside of the plane. Duke pulls Webby into the water and the limo rides over a rock causing Dewey to come out of the self-driving car and fly out of LP's grip.

After developing my new theory about Della and Launchpad's connection, I later realized how the two episodes I’ve been zeroing in on the most, are next to each other in order of production. One dealt with the ideas of genetic mutation in a space-like environment, combined with the concept of going on a secret trip to meet up with a family member and a lover. Then right after that, there's the idea of someone having amnesia after a big event causes their long absence and then struggling to figure out who they really are when elements from their past start to seep back into their life. A connection between the two is looking very likely. Both stories were set in aquatic places and may have even occurred around the same time. I came across a theory that Huey, Dewey and Launchpad visited the Mid-Atlantic ridge while Webby and Louie went fishing, which would explain why they weren't present in the other's episode. __

If Launchpad was affected by the cosmic storm, what else could it have done to him aside from changing the way he looks?

I've put together a list of abilities he may have gained from this:

Immortality

In "The Most Dangerous Game...Night!" Louie tells Huey that he's convinced Launchpad is immortal due to the amount of plane crashes he's survived.  LP doesn't respond to this comment and later refuses to answer Huey about how he survived the Tower of Infinity when it collapsed.

I think there's enough weight to Louie's remark for it to be more than simply a one-off joke because there are multiple times where he's shown to be pretty resilient.  Launchpad can get sick or hurt, but he recovers incredibly well to injuries and has, as Fisher said when he was describing Duke,  "a freakishly high tolerance for pain".  

After the snakes from the Atlantean trap bit him, he brushes the situation off like it's not a big deal. He's hindered by the venom, but he's still conscious enough to climb down the bridge when it breaks (for the most part) and helps Webby to lie to her grandmother by posing as a Swedish person. When Glomgold announced that he's about to blow up the city, Launchpad’s facial swelling suddenly goes down and he’s well enough to quickly drive the sub to safety. Also, when Launchpad returns to the Sunchaser after looking for Ziyi, a bunch of arrows are pierced through his armor and he has an eye-patch over his eye. He’s winded by having to run to the to the plane in time and escape the danger he went though, but he isn’t wincing from his injuries. He isn’t really fazed by them at all.

Sᴛᴏʀ��ᴜʟᴇs sᴇᴇᴍs ᴛᴏ ʙᴇ ᴀ ᴘʟᴀᴄᴇʜᴏʟᴅᴇʀ ғᴏʀ Lᴀᴜɴᴄʜᴘᴀᴅ ᴡʜᴇɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ʜᴇ's ɴᴏᴛ ᴘᴀʀᴛɪᴄɪᴘᴀᴛɪɴɢ ɪɴ ᴄᴇʀᴛᴀɪɴ ᴇᴘɪsᴏᴅᴇs. Pᴇʀʜᴀᴘs ʜᴇ ʀᴇᴘʀᴇsᴇɴᴛs Lᴀᴜɴᴄʜᴘᴀᴅ's ɪᴍᴍᴏʀᴛᴀʟɪᴛʏ ɪɴ ᴀ ᴡᴀʏ.

Strength

“The Missing Links of Moorshire!” is a good example of Launchpad’s strength. Towards the end of the episode, he’s shown to lift Huey, Dewey, Louie, Webby and Scrooge with ease. Even earlier in the episode, he’s able to push a water-logged golf cart out of a lake, which on average is somewhere between 900 to 1100 lbs when it’s dry.

The cosmic storm may have increased his strength, but the workout equipment in his room would indicate that he needs to maintain it to a degree. Maybe it's a Hercules-type situation; even during his weaker points, he’s still pretty strong, but working out just makes him even more abnormally strong. 

Agility 

As seen in “Shadow War” and “Duck Knight”, LP is a very capable fighter. He has good reflexes, allowing him to dodge most attacks. Even though the venom from the snakes impaired him, he was still able to defend himself from Glomgold’s henchmen. In “Last Crash”, he ran on top of falling items to keep himself from falling out of the plane. And when he was fighting off the shadows on top of the plane, he never lost his balance.

Speed

I'm not really sure with this one, but in "Game Night" Launchpad was able to make it over to Louie and Huey after getting struck with the shrink ray. Perhaps this was ignored for convince, but running fast would explain how he was able to survive the collapse of the Jenga tower.

Aquatic Respiration

I think this is starting to become more apparent. After "Whatever Happened to Della Duck?!" aired, I started to wonder if Launchpad may have used Oxy-Chew when he went to visit Oceanika. But after "Friendship Hates Magic!"....I don't think this is the case. In the scene where he's drinking pea soup through a silly straw, one of the peas gets stuck and he struggles with it until his face starts to turn blue. He faints and all the air in his lungs exits his body before face-planting into his bowl. Then he makes a muffled inhaling noise without choking…

Lᴀᴜɴᴄʜᴘᴀᴅ sɪᴛs ɪɴ ғʀᴏɴᴛ ᴏғ ᴀ ᴘᴀɪɴᴛɪɴɢ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ sᴇᴀsɪᴅᴇ ᴀs ᴛʜɪs ɪs ʜᴀᴘᴘᴇɴɪɴɢ.

In “Neverrest”, Launchpad keeps his mouth open as he falls into the hot spring and doesn’t gasp for air when he bursts out of it. When he comes back to the lighthouse in "Depths", he simply resurfaces with no problem. He isn't panting for air until he has to climb up onto the platform, which can be a bit tiring after staying in the water for so long. So, uh...I guess Launchpad has gills somewhere on his beak...? Granted, if he did have Oxy-Chew at some point, he could have ended up swallowing it; I mean, that stuff is pretty powerful when you chew it alone, but I'm leaning on mutation with this one.

Electrical Powers

After getting caught in a cloud full of radiation and lightning, it would make a ton of sense for Launchpad to have some sort of connection to electricity. But what kind of connection exactly? Can he generate his own? Can he bend and levitate metal objects to his will? Does he serve as a special conductor?  It's really hard to tell since there aren't any on obviously examples, but perhaps there could be something with the latter option.

The ending to “The Spear of Selene!” was very baffling. During my first viewing, I thought Launchpad was scared to leave the plane for some reason, but he ends up disassembling the plane; preventing the family from leaving and bringing him out in the open. Then, during my latest viewing, I realized that the plane isn’t simply taken apart, it looks like it was ripped apart. The pieces are damaged...one of the engines are chipped and dented, one of the propeller blades are also chipped, the tail of the plane has a cracked wing, the control board is all dented with the yoke snapped off...was he really that obsessed with figuring out the problem that he couldn’t just use tools to separate the plane properly? This made me wonder if there could have been an explosion from inside of the Sunchaser. Could another lightning bolt have hit the plane and it was strong enough for Launchpad to react to it? The first time the plane was struck, he’s quickly able to engage a control to stop it from affecting the plane.

The plane parts don’t seem to have any burn marks on them and Launchpad’s clothes aren’t singed or anything, so perhaps there was a different kind of electrical mishap or something that resulted from another side effect of the cosmic storm.

Sixth Sense

Maybe this is purely for meta humor, but LP seems to have this underlying fourth wall-y awareness. At the end of “Moonshire”, the camera is gone, but he still faces the audience and addresses the lesson to be learned. He then undercuts himself as if he didn't want us to know how insightful he is.

In "Terror of The Terrafimians!", he questions if Huey, Webby and Lena were the only three missing from the group when Magica technically counts as a fourth person. 

Good Hearing

You would think that after constantly hearing the sound of breaking glass and denting metal on a daily basis, it would take a toll on Launchpad's hearing, but he seems to be a good listener. 

Even though we weren't able to see his reaction to Scrooge's story about the Spear of Selene, he must have heard it in spite of being all the way on the other side of the plane and being sorta barricaded by a bunch of stuff to help balance the weight. If the boys informed him about what happened, he would have taken their word for it when he was talking over the intercom in "Shadow War", not point out how they’re the ones who blame Scrooge.

After "Nothing Can Stop Della Duck!" aired, I've been trying to figure out how Launchpad knew that Della was in the houseboat. She wasn't being very loud and he said "Thought I'd come over to introduce myself," implying that he knew about her being in there and stalled afterwards. He could have seen her as she was walking to the other side of the pool to board the houseboat, but it would have to have been somewhere where she wouldn’t have been able to notice him. Maybe looking out the window from inside the house. If not, he could have heard her in the boat as he was passing by. She didn’t start talking until around the time he came over, so if this were the case, he would have already known whose voice it was coming out of the houseboat. If he knew about Della being in the mansion this whole time, why did it take him so long to talk to her?

Weight Manipulation?

Part of me sorta wonders if LP has the ability to make himself lighter when he needs to be; holding back so he won't hurt anyone. This would explain things like how Scrooge was able to save LP from falling out of the plane in “Last Crash” without dislocating his shoulder and how Webby was able to knock LP down in “Shadow War”. 

But then again, determination, anger and stubbornness act a bit like super powers to some of the characters. It gives them a boost of strength when the stakes are high and allows them to do things they wouldn’t normally be able to do or shouldn't be able to do based on their body type. Scrooge was able to throw everyone off of him in “87 Cent Solution”, and enjoys swimming around in one of the most heavy metals in existence. Huey dragged LP back to the log in “Only Child” even after he wasn’t able to lift any part of that log. He was also able to lift three kids along with his uncle in “Moorshire” and was strong enough to keep the demon dog at bay in “McManor”. Then there's both Drake and Jim who can go through a bunch of injuries and still get back up after them.

This guess, along with the others I've discussed in this list, might just be part of cartoon logic and isn't meant to be an indication of anything outside of humor or convenience.

The Ability to Be Manipulated?

As I was putting this list together, I suddenly thought: If there's a Greek connection to the cosmic storm, what if Zeus is able to manipulate LP similarly to how he was able to manipulate Storkules with the siren? If Launchpad does have good hearing, what if he heard the siren and that's what caused him to destroy the Sunchaser? Launchpad loves music and, as seen in "Sky Pirates", gets easily distracted by it. The plane was fine when Donald was trying to leave the lightning barrier, but then after the singing and fighting continued, it's in shambles.

Zeus used the siren because he knew it would affect Storkules directly. Scrooge, Huey and Louie were not affected by the singing after later taking their hands from over their ear...holes. Dewey, Webby and Selene couldn't be affected because the temple was way up high on the island. The Sunchaser, however, was located right around the corner. Since Zeus wasn't affected by the siren either, perhaps there's something in the lyrics that affects immortals who rank lower than himself.

__

Back in April, I observed the Spear manual scenes in “Whatever Happened” and noticed that “DT-87” and “DT-18” were mentioned. These are abbreviations for “DuckTales 1987”, the year the original series came out and “DuckTales 2018”, the year Season 2 premiered. The numbers  “7-15”, “7-16”, “7-18” and “207” were also featured. 

“207” as well as the other 7’s refer to “Whatever Happened”’s production code, so I figured 15, 16 and 18 were also referring to other Season 2 episodes that might relate to 7. So far, Episode 15, "The Dangerous Chemistry of Gandra Dee!"  and Episode 16, "The Duck Knight Returns!", have provided things that could be leading up to why Della took the Spear and how it could have to do with the father. Launchpad was present in both episodes, and both shared some similar themes. 

Episode 15 opens up with a thunderstorm storm. Gizmoduck is facing off against an evil scientist named Dr. Atmoz Fear, who's taking advantage of the storm by using one of his devices to manipulate the lightning. When he tries to zap Gizmoduck with it, it reminds me a bit of Gyro and his shrink ray in "Game Night".

Dʀ. Aᴛᴍᴏᴢ Fᴇᴀʀ sʜᴀʀᴇs sᴏᴍᴇ ᴄᴏʟᴏʀs ᴡɪᴛʜ Lᴀᴜɴᴄʜᴘᴀᴅ: Hᴇ ʜᴀs ʀᴇᴅ ʜᴀɪʀ, ᴀ ɢʀᴇᴇɴ sʜɪʀᴛ, ᴀ ʙʟᴀᴄᴋ ᴍᴀsᴋ ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇ ᴄᴏʟᴏʀs ᴏғ ʜɪs ғᴇᴀᴛʜᴇʀs ᴀɴᴅ ʟᴀʙ ᴄᴏᴀᴛ, sᴇᴇᴍ ᴛᴏ ʙᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ɪɴᴠᴇʀsᴇ ᴏғ LP's ғᴇᴀᴛʜᴇʀs ᴀɴᴅ ғᴜʀʀᴇᴅ ᴄᴏʟʟᴀʀ.

After the villain is defeated, Fenton meets Gandra, someone else who also works in the scientific fields. Unlike Fenton, who's more professional with his work, she's more on the rebellious side. A similar thing can be said about Della and Launchpad when it comes to aviation.

Fenton schedules a science date with Gandra, but he's very hesitant to call it such. If Della took the Spear because she was trying to save the father and failed, I can see her being very hesitant about getting back into a romantic relationship.

On their way to pick up Gandra in the limo, Launchpad conversates with Fenton by going down a list of special someone’s he’s previously dated. A couple of mentions in this list caught my attention; the first being how Launchpad claims to have dated a clone of himself. I think this is a meta thing we aren't supposed to take seriously. Because...why would this be suggested if a legitimate clone of yourself is basically your twin sibling, your child or somewhere in-between that...?  Maybe it’s just me, but he blinks rather oddly right after he says this. There's also a pause as he stops the limo and begins to furrow his brow. Either he’s thinking really hard about everyone he's dated or he's a bit confused to where these more weirder memories are coming from.

What makes it even harder to take this clone claim seriously is that this is the same character who thinks Fenton is an actual robot because of the Gizmo suit and who also confused someone for a yeti in “Neverrest”. The word "clone" does have a non-literal meaning, so if we consider this and break it down...LP previously dated another goofy pilot who tends to wear teal and green, has a positive outlook on life in spite of all the hardships they face, never gives up, loves adventure, loves family, and doesn't like the idea of being replaced...?

I’ve joked to myself in the past about Della sort of being a female version of Launchpad due to their colors and how they have a similar way about themselves. Della's character pre-dates Launchpad but she was never described as a fearless pilot until the "Family Ties" comic was released in 2014, twenty-seven years after DuckTales debuted. (This comic is where the reboot got its inspiration for Della's character and story arc.)

If LP really does have amnesia, he can’t remember Della as a person, so it would be easy for him to consider her as a copy of himself. Scrooge made it extremely difficult to get information about Della after she went missing so anything that Launchpad is emulating from her had to be based on knowledge prior to that point.

Another reason why this could be a sly reference to Della is because every time we get information about Launchpad’s love-life, we’re always given something that can be traced back to Della: Della isn’t a deadly ninja, but Ziyi’s situation in “Gander” involved her disappearing and possibly leaving her offspring behind. (I’m assuming Ziyi was being referred to due to the order of  the list and being the only previously mentioned lover with an Asian background. Perhaps she has some Japanese origins as well as Chinese.) Della isn’t a forbidden mermaid, but Oceanika’s situation in “Depths” involved her calling out to Launchpad in a sing-song manner, wearing similar colors to both Launchpad and Della, and ended with Launchpad returning with a golden spear and trio of color-coded sea creatures that come from eggs. One of Launchpad’s lines in “The Twelve Days of Christmas” involved his true love giving him “eleven planes a-flying”. Regardless of how strange that statement was, it still planted the idea that there are two Launchpads, which technically, may be true persona-wise.

Tʜɪs ᴍᴀʏ ɴᴏᴛ ᴄᴏᴜɴᴛ, ʙᴜᴛ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ Tʜᴇᴍᴇ Sᴏɴɢ Tᴀᴋᴇᴏᴠᴇʀ, ᴀғᴛᴇʀ Lᴀᴜɴᴄʜᴘᴀᴅ ʜɪᴛs ʜɪs ʜᴇᴀᴅ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ʟᴏɢᴏ ᴄʀᴀsʜ, ʜᴇ sᴇᴇs ᴀ ʟᴀʀɢᴇʀ ᴠᴇʀsɪᴏɴ ᴏғ ʜɪᴍsᴇʟғ ᴏᴜᴛsɪᴅᴇ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡɪɴᴅᴏᴡ. Nᴏᴛ ᴏɴʟʏ ᴄᴏᴜʟᴅ ᴛʜɪs ʙᴇ ʀᴇғᴇʀʀɪɴɢ ᴛᴏ Lᴀᴜɴᴄʜᴘᴀᴅ ʙᴇɪɴɢ ᴛᴡᴏ ᴘᴇᴏᴘʟᴇ, ʙᴜᴛ ʜᴏᴡ ᴛʜᴇ sᴛᴏʀᴍ ᴍᴀᴅᴇ ɢʀᴏᴡ ʙɪɢɢᴇʀ ᴛʜᴀɴ ʜᴇ ᴡᴀs ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘᴀsᴛ.

The second mention in Launchpad’s list of lovers that caught my attention was the talking cloud of energy. Similarly to the pause after talking about a clone, he gets cut off right after he says this. A cloud of energy is basically a cloud full of lightning and that reminds me a lot of the cosmic storm. Since the cloud had the ability to talk, could this claim be based on a memory of Della trying to contact him while he was in the cosmic storm?

Fenton and Gandra’s date takes place at night in Gyro’s underwater lab. The moon is mentioned and it’s likeness is sort of shown through the string of lights used to decorate the room. Outside of the lab’s window is a starfish that is colored with a shade very close to Fenton’s purple shirt. He sits on the side of the table where the creature is located. The scenery is reminding me of the sea-space connections the show has been making. The starfish not only reminds me of stars in general but how the blue starfish attached to Launchpad at the end of “Depths” was a similar color to Della’s teal scarf. I’ve noted in another post that the starfish could have to do with Della because it also shares traits with Dewey and he’s constantly being compared to her, but what makes Della even more like the starfish is her ability to adapt. She lost her leg, but she was able to make a new one. Starfish can regenerate their limbs when they lose them.

When Fenton shows Gandra his Fentonium project, he described the invention as "An innovative generator from a mild-mannered source." If Launchpad has any electrical powers, this makes me wonder if they'll eventually be put to scientific use.

It’s later revealed that Gandra is a spy working for Waddle. Her main objective for going on a date with Fenton was to get him to say his Gizmoduck passcode to activate the nanite serum she made for Mark Beaks. For Gandra, the nanites gave her the power to deliver electrical shocks. For Mark, the nanites enhanced his body by giving him a muscular physique, a more prominent chin and gruffer voice to go with it.

Tʜᴇ ᴄᴏɴᴄᴇᴘᴛs ᴏғ ᴇʟᴇᴄᴛʀɪᴄɪᴛʏ ᴀɴᴅ ᴇxᴛʀᴇᴍᴇ ᴘʜʏsɪᴄᴀʟ ᴛʀᴀɴsғᴏʀᴍᴀᴛɪᴏɴs sᴇᴇᴍ ᴛᴏ ʙᴇ ɪɴᴄʀᴇᴀsɪɴɢ. Tʜᴇ ᴍɪᴅ-sᴇᴀsᴏɴ ᴛʀᴀɪʟᴇʀ ғᴏʀ Sᴇᴀsᴏɴ 2 ғᴇᴀᴛᴜʀᴇs ᴀ ᴄʟɪᴘ ғʀᴏᴍ ᴀɴ ᴜᴘᴄᴏᴍɪɴɢ ᴇᴘɪsᴏᴅᴇ ᴡʜᴇʀᴇ Hᴜᴇʏ ᴛʀᴀɴsғᴏʀᴍs ɪɴᴛᴏ ᴀ Sᴜᴘᴇʀ Sᴀɪʏᴀɴ ɪɴsᴘɪʀᴇᴅ ᴠᴇʀsɪᴏɴ ᴏғ ʜɪᴍsᴇʟғ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴀ ʟɪɢʜᴛɴɪɴɢ ʙᴏʟᴛ ʜɪɢʜʟɪɢʜᴛ ɪɴ ʜɪs ʜᴀɪʀ. Lᴀᴜɴᴄʜᴘᴀᴅ ᴀɴᴅ Mᴀʀᴋ ᴀʀᴇ sʜᴏᴡɴ ʀɪɢʜᴛ ʙᴇғᴏʀᴇ ᴛʜɪs.

After the secret plan unfurls, Fenton turns into Gizmoduck. He responds to Mark's mutation:

“You've always been a monster, but now, you are a literal monster!” 

This reminds me a lot of the monster stuff in "Terror". I always feel weird when I try to make sense of that portion of the plot because I feel like I haven't figured it out yet, but something is definitely going on. Since that episode has aired, there have been multiple cases where a character is considered a physical or figurative monster and whether that makes them a good person or a bad person. And there's always an "M" alliteration tied to it:

Mole Monster and McQuack in “Terror of The Terrafirmians!”

"I can't believe my best friend is a mole monster..."

"Wait...am I a mole monster? But I'm a good guy! Then that means...mole monster can also be good guys."

Magica and Monster in “The Other Bin of Scrooge McDuck!”

"They'll turn on you; call you a monster!

“You’re the monster here!  And I know just the hunter to take you down...”

Monstro and M’Ma in "Who Is Gizmoduck?!"

"Eres un monstro, Diego!"

Monster and Mitzi in "The Depths of Cousin Fethry!"

"She's not a monster, she's a Mitzi!"

Moon Mite and Mother in "Whatever Happened to Della Duck?!"

“The mite isn't a monster, it's a mother!"

In an earlier post, I began to wonder if it would end up circling back to Launchpad since he's the one who started it. I thought maybe he'd feel like a monster in a figurative sense for accidentally abandoning his kids, but now it could also be something involving his genetic mutations. Maybe even a betrayal or theft of some sort since those concepts seem to be lingering in the background.

With all these M's going on and the high possibility of Launchpad's foreign names being used for Huey and Dewey, perhaps Launchpad's real name is Maxwell as in his Danish name, Max Motor. Joseph as in his Spanish name, Joe McQuack could also be another possibility. Since HDL went from more outlandish names to more plausible names, it's likely Launchpad's real name is something more standard.

Lᴀsᴛ ʏᴇᴀʀ, Dɪsɴᴇʏ ʀᴇʟᴇᴀsᴇᴅ ᴀ sᴇʀɪᴇs ᴏғ sʜᴏʀᴛs ᴄᴀʟʟᴇᴅ Wᴇʙʙʏ Rᴇᴀᴄᴛs, ᴡʜᴇʀᴇ sʜᴇ ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ ᴡᴀᴛᴄʜ ᴄʟɪᴘs ғʀᴏᴍ ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ Dɪsɴᴇʏ Cʜᴀɴɴᴇʟ ʀᴇʟᴀᴛᴇᴅ ᴍᴇᴅɪᴀ ᴀɴᴅ ᴅʀᴇᴡ ᴄᴏᴍᴘᴀʀɪsᴏɴs ᴛᴏ ᴛʜɪɴɢs ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴇᴠᴇɴᴛᴜᴀʟʟʏ ʜᴀᴘᴘᴇɴᴇᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇʀ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ sʜᴏᴡ. Dᴜʀɪɴɢ ʜᴇʀ ʀᴇᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ ᴛᴏ Bᴇx's sᴇᴄʀᴇᴛ ғʀᴏᴍ Aɴᴅɪ Mᴀᴄᴋ, sʜᴇ ᴄᴏᴍᴘᴀʀᴇᴅ ᴛʜᴇ ᴄʜᴀʀᴀᴄᴛᴇʀ ᴛᴏ Lᴀᴜɴᴄʜᴘᴀᴅ ᴀs sᴏᴍᴇᴏɴᴇ ᴡʜᴏ's "ᴍᴀᴅᴇ ᴛᴏᴏ ᴍᴀɴʏ ᴍɪsᴛᴀᴋᴇs". Tʜᴇɴ ᴛᴏᴡᴀʀᴅs ᴛʜᴇ ᴇɴᴅ, ɪᴛ's ʀᴇᴠᴇᴀʟᴇᴅ ᴛʜᴀᴛ Bᴇx ᴡᴀs ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ Aɴᴅɪ's ᴏʟᴅᴇʀ sɪsᴛᴇʀ; sʜᴇ's ʜᴇʀ ᴍᴏᴛʜᴇʀ. Tʜɪs ᴄᴀᴜsᴇs Wᴇʙʙʏ ᴛᴏ ᴡᴏɴᴅᴇʀ ᴡʜᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ғᴀᴛʜᴇʀ ɪs.

When Fenton and Gandra make amends and try to come up with a way to stop Mega Beaks from wreaking any more havoc, Fenton points out that in spite of Mark's body being altered, he's still the same weak, ego-fuel person underneath those alterations. A similar thing can be said for Duke; even after he forgot about his Scottish persona, he was still Flintheart Glomgold and this became evident as he began to revert back into him.

When Mega Beaks is able to catch the Fentonium-laced paddle ball Fenton throws at him, he's amazed.

"Wow, I never actually caught a ball before! Well, who's the loser now, coach DAD?!"

This is the second time someone's father was mentioned in the episode. Before the date, M'ma mentions Fenton's father when she gives her son his suit to wear. Perhaps Della has one of the father's belongings that she'll pass down to her sons too.

___

Episode 16 was about two different people sharing the same alternative persona: Jim Starling as the original Darkwing Duck and Drake Mallard as the new one. Jim is outraged that he’s being replaced on a new Darkwing production after years of trying to make a comeback. Being disappointed by the gritty direction of the reboot, Launchpad sees Drake in a negative light and agrees to help Jim sabotage the movie. It was supposed to be for the greater good, but when Launchpad tries to go with the plan and lock Drake in his own trailer, his heroism is questioned. Drake isn’t a bad person and it turns out that he’s a huge Darkwing fan much like Launchpad himself. Was crushing the dreams of playing his childhood hero the right thing to do? 

Once they find common ground, Launchpad devises a new plan where all three of them work together to help make a Darkwing Duck movie that new and old fans can enjoy. Unfortunately, Jim is too full of obsession and desperation to finally give the show a proper conclusion, that he becomes selfish. He ignores Drake when he tries to propose LP’s new idea to him and locks him away. He then refuses to follow the script and ends up destroying the movie set with his defiance. Drake soon breaks free and challenges Jim, leading Darkwing into fighting with himself. Launchpad tries to snap Jim out of it and remind him of the hero he’s supposed to be. While it does cause Jim to literally reflect on what he was becoming and helped him to save both Drake and Launchpad from the surging lightning tower before it exploded, it ultimately wasn’t enough. The one who was presumed to be bad turned out to be good, and the one who was presumed to be good, became bad, leaving Darkwing as both the hero and villain of his own story.

Ok, so, there’s a lot of identity struggle going on along with frustration over getting replaced after years of trying to get back into the spotlight. This seems like more supporting evidence that Launchpad will be faced with a situation where he’ll be confused about who he really is, but could this also be hinting that Della might go a little too far with her rivalry against Launchpad? 

A lot of DW episodes so far seem to contain LP’s fear of being fired...but he’s considered honorary family; it’s hard to imagine Launchpad getting kicked out to take a permanent leave to St. Canard in this continuity. Launchpad wasn’t working for Scrooge in the original Darkwing Duck series because it took place in an alternate universe. Even with DW’s world integrated into the reboot, it’s still DuckTales at it’s base. It wouldn’t feel right for Launchpad to suddenly get removed from the main cast. I think similarly to Drake, Della will find some common ground with LP before anything is able to get out of hand.

When Dewey expresses his ideas to make the Darkwing film better, he mentions aliens, Megavolt and lightning towers. When Jim threatens to zap Alistair Boorswan with Megavolt's lightning ray, Launchpad steps in between them; willing to get hit to protect the director. Drake displays a high tolerance for pain as he survives a box of explosives going off, getting a piano dropped on him and getting zapped several times. 

As Dʀᴀᴋᴇ ɢᴇᴛs ᴢᴀᴘᴘᴇᴅ, ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ's ᴀ ᴠɪsɪʙʟᴇ ᴄʀᴀᴄᴋ ɪɴ ʜɪs sᴋᴜʟʟ; ᴀ sɪɢɴ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ʜᴇ's sᴜsᴛᴀɪɴᴇᴅ ᴀ ʜᴇᴀᴅ ɪɴᴊᴜʀʏ.

...ᴡᴀɪᴛ ᴀ ᴍɪɴᴜᴛᴇ, ᴡʜʏ ᴅɪᴅ Dᴇᴡᴇʏ ᴏʀᴅᴇʀ ᴀᴄᴛᴜᴀʟ ᴡᴇᴀᴘᴏɴs ғᴏʀ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴏᴠɪᴇ?!

An artificial thunderstorm is created when Launchpad turns on the rain machine to stop the movie set from being on fire. When he delivers his speech about how heroic and important Darkwing Duck is as a character, he stands in front of one of the lightning towers. At the mention of the word "light", there's an upsurge of power as the camera pans from Launchpad to the top of the tower. The structure sends sparks everywhere, but Launchpad is completely unfazed by this and continues his speech. 

A tattered image of the moon and a starry sky hangs in the background as this is going on... could this scene be proving that Launchpad has some degree of electrical manipulation? Is it only evident when he's extremely passionate about something? If this was purely the result of the rain machine being activated, wouldn't it have taken a much shorter time for the lightning tower to react?

Tʜᴇ ʟɪɢʜᴛɪɴɢ ᴅᴜʀɪɴɢ Lᴀᴜɴᴄʜᴘᴀᴅ's sᴘᴇᴇᴄʜ ɪs ᴄʟᴏsᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ʟɪɢʜᴛɪɴɢ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴡᴇɴᴛ ᴏɴ ɪɴ "Tᴇʀʀᴏʀ"'s sᴜʙᴡᴀʏ ᴄʀᴀsʜ. Iɴᴛᴇʀᴇsᴛɪɴɢʟʏ ᴇɴᴏᴜɢʜ, ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ's ᴀ sᴘᴀʀᴋɪɴɢ ғɪxᴛᴜʀᴇ ᴏɴ Lᴀᴜɴᴄʜᴘᴀᴅ's sɪᴅᴇ ᴀғᴛᴇʀ ʜᴇ ᴇxɪsᴛs ᴛʜᴇ ᴄᴀʀ ᴀɴᴅ ᴡʜᴇɴ ʜᴇ ʟɪᴛᴇʀᴀʟʟʏ ʀᴇғʟᴇᴄᴛs ᴏɴ ᴡʜᴇᴛʜᴇʀ ʜᴇ's ᴀ ᴍᴏʟᴇ ᴍᴏɴsᴛᴇʀ ᴏʀ ɴᴏᴛ, ᴛᴡᴏ Lᴀᴜɴᴄʜᴘᴀᴅ's ᴀʀᴇ sʜᴏᴡɴ.

When Jim and Drake notice the lightning tower is growing unstable, they both run towards Launchpad to save him. In a hassle to be heroic again, Jim pushes both of his fans out of the way and suffers from the explosion. The rescuer is believed to be dead but he's alive and takes on a new persona: Negaduck. The event figuratively turns him into a monster. 

So, there's a rescue, an electrical based event, survival from that event, a re-branding of oneself and someone is considered a monster. If Launchpad truly is responsible for blowing up the tower, he's the one who "killed" Jim. Drake blames himself, kinda like how everyone blames Della for the Spear incident when it could have been due to her going after Launchpad.

Wʜᴇɴ Dʀᴀᴋᴇ ᴀɴᴅ LP ᴀʀᴇ ᴘʟᴀʏɪɴɢ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴛʜᴇ DWD ᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ ғɪɢᴜʀᴇs, Lᴀᴜɴᴄʜᴘᴀᴅ ᴘʟᴀʏs ᴀ ᴠɪʟʟᴀɪɴ ᴀɴᴅ ᴀᴄᴄɪᴅᴇɴᴛᴀʟʟʏ ᴋɴᴏᴄᴋs ᴏᴠᴇʀ ᴀ ᴄᴜᴘ ᴏғ ᴡᴀᴛᴇʀ, ᴡʜɪᴄʜ ᴇᴠᴇɴᴛᴜᴀʟʟʏ ʟᴇᴀᴅs ᴛᴏ Dʀᴀᴋᴇ ʜᴜʀᴛɪɴɢ ʜɪs ғᴏᴏᴛ.

This episode made me realize a loose pattern that seems to be going on with two similar character that rival each other. One pretty much stays consistent (Scrooge, Lena, Drake), while the other goes through a major change that emulates the other (Glomgold, Violet, Jim). There’s usually an event and or a disappearance tied to their change (Scrooge’s Africa visit, the Shadow War, the tower explosion). The changed character is seen negatively and could be considered a monster. And at some point, one of the rivaling characters realize that the other has a significant connection to their past (The money clip, the amulet, the table signing).

I think Della and Launchpad could be following this pattern too. As noted by Scrooge in “Nothing Can” and “Raiders of The Doomsday Vault!”, Della’s hasn’t really changed at her base. Thus, making Launchpad the one who has most likely gone through a major change. Launchpad was established as Della’s double when she considered him to be her replacement and views him negatively. We know for sure that one of them went missing during an event and there’s enough potential hinting to suggest that they have a significant connection in their past.

Tʜᴇ ʟᴀᴛᴛᴇʀ ᴘᴏʀᴛɪᴏɴ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘᴀᴛᴛᴇʀɴ ᴡᴀs ᴘʀᴇsᴇɴᴛ ɪɴ "Lᴀsᴛ Cʜʀsɪᴛᴍᴀs!" ᴡʜᴇʀᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴇɴᴅɪɢᴏ ᴡᴀs ʀᴇᴠᴇᴀʟᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ ʙᴇ ᴛʜᴇ Gʜᴏsᴛ ᴏғ Cʜʀɪsᴛᴍᴀs Pᴀsᴛ. Iɴ sᴘɪᴛᴇ ᴏғ ʜɪs ᴍᴏɴsᴛʀᴏᴜs ᴇxᴛᴇʀɪᴏʀ, ʜᴇ ᴡᴀs sᴛɪʟʟ ᴛʜᴇ sᴀᴍᴇ ᴘᴇʀsᴏɴ ᴏɴ ᴛʜᴇ ɪɴsɪᴅᴇ.

Another number featured in the Spear’s manual was “800”. I couldn't figure out what it could mean at the time, but it could stand for "Friendship Hates Magic!". WDTV press has it listed as Episode 8 in order of production.  This episode featured concepts of taking a dangerous risk to bringing someone back from the unknown, Launchpad bonding with a co-worker, possibly displaying one of his special abilities, hinting towards “Duck Knight” and the idea of someone who was thought of as being gone but they’ve actually been hanging around this whole time. When Lena is back to her solid form, Launchpad appears soon after the magical clouds of smoke begin to clear.

The number 17 is missing in the sequence that was highlighted in the manual. Perhaps there's something secretive about Episode 17. Or maybe the plot could be dealing with something or someone that’s missing. It could be when the family realizes Donald is missing or how his jail time is going on the Moon. It could also be something regarding the father; like Della opening up to the boys about him. I guess it could mean that this episode isn’t relevant to Episode 7, but that feels a bit less likely.

In my next post, I'm going to discuss how the arrangement of a scene can give us subtle hints about the future; starting with a closer look at Donald's family photo wall.

Are you up for even more reading? Continue here.

[bluephoenixdruidicprincess]

SPN 14x20, Moriah -- Review

It's with a heavy heart that I must come to terms with the fact that this will be our last season finale, next year will be the series finale. We're about to embark on our last SPN Hellatus. It hurts so much thinking about that. But as far as a season finale goes, what an episode this was! This might be my favorite SPN season finale (and yes, I say that even with Swan Song in mind). In a season that has been very underwhelming for me, this season finale was awesome. I remember some time ago, Misha had tweeted that this season finale would be epic and I originally hadn't put too much stalk into that comment because after all, as the saying goes, "PR is not showrunning". And I remember hearing similar things about the season 13 finale and talk about how surprising it would be and it turned out to be just a so-so kind of finale and I'd predicted basically everything that was going to happen in it. But this finale was amazing. Like, it's so hard to talk about it because I honestly don't know where to start. I'm so glad that I went overboard on blacklisting tags last night because shit went down in this episode that I would've HATED to have had spoiled. Typically, I don't mind if I'm spoiled but this episode had the kind of things going on where you just have a much better experience if you don't already know for certain what's happening. But I think I've rambled in this introduction long enough. Let's get to talking about SPN 14x20, Moriah.

As always, there will be spoilers so if you haven't seen the episode, perhaps skip this. Like I said, this is not an episode you want to have spoiled for you.

I love episodes with Chuck in them. They're some of my favorite episodes. The show gets really self-aware and super meta when he's around for obvious reasons. And I love that the writers aren't afraid to go all the way with it. The digs at other writers, the digs at their own writing, it's great. Especially, the dig at writing in general. Essentially, throughout this episode we have this theme running around that Chuck is a writer and he's trying to write this perfect story and everytime he fails, he tosses it in the recycling bin and begins anew. But we have our heroes pointing out that these aren't meaningless words Chuck is simply writing down, he's messing with people's lives, what gives him the right to do that? Words have the power to change us. And when you think about it, that's what all writers do (at least in fiction but this can also happen in non-fiction, too). They manipulate their characters into fulfilling a certain type of narrative as it makes sense for the story and with little regard to how that person will feel about it. So I enjoyed that bit of self-awareness and meta put into it. When analyzing this show, we're always talking about story structure and how "insert horrible thing" has to happen for the purposes of the narrative and we have our heroes confronting Chuck about this and saying, "screw story-telling, you're putting us through the ringer so you can have a rounded story? We're done with this shit." Possibly foreshadowing for Season 15? Perhaps a different approach and bending the rules of story-telling is in Season 15's future? I'd be interested in seeing that.

We also got some truth-telling in this episode but unfortunately, the truths that needed to be told didn't get told. But I didn't really expect it to happen anyway. Hopefully, it'll happen sometime in season 15. I guess the idea behind this particular plot is that lying is necessary in order to create a peaceful environment and while that may be true, I feel like what was going on in this episode was a bad example to make a judgement on if whether or not a fully functioning society can thrive on truth-telling. Out of the blue you just suddenly had people telling the truth when they're so accustomed to be lying and to be lied at. So if you're not used to telling the truth or hearing the truth, of course it's going to throw you for a loop. It's very possible a perfectly well-functioning society can exist based on not being able to lie but the society needs to be raised in it and that's clearly not what was happening here.

Also, thank you Chuck for being stern with Dean when he broke your guitar. My heart cried when Dean destroyed that guitar. I come from a family of musically inclined leanings. We revere musical instruments as if they were living in my family. As a child, if I accidentally dropped my harmonica or flute, or I accidentally tripped over my father's grand piano while I was practicing gymnastics, you bet I was apologizing to these instruments. This show will not be complete in my eyes if Dean does not apologize to that guitar. Music is the conduit to and from our souls and I never want to see Dean treat a musical instrument with such ill-respect again. I'm sure you all think I'm joking but I'm being 100% serious. I don't joke about music.

Also, good on Sam for calling out Dean for being a nerd. I'm so happy that Sam is at a point where he feels comfortable on calling Dean out on these things. Dean needs to be called out more. After all, how can he really progress if no one's ever honest with him? And keep in mind, that's not me saying I hate Dean or anything. I don't, even with these last few episodes in mind. I'm just remarking that he has a lot of character development and progression he needs to get through in season 15. So Positive Police, you can stow your torches and pitch forks.

Have no fear, everyone. Mary is still among us. There were so many shots in that cemetery of the statue of Mother Mary that it has to be representative of the idea that Mary Winchester is watching over them. Either that, or the real Mother Mary is watching over them. And if that's the case, that would be an interesting figure to meet in the next season but I doubt we'll meet her though. For the most part, SPN tries to stay away from the specifics in religion. When they use religion, it's usually in more vague terms. But anyway, the amount of times the camera caught this statue in a scene, it truly can't be a coincidence so I'm taking it as representation that Mary is still with our heroes and watching over them which is a nice sentiment and definitely something they need on their journey of healing. I like to think that Dean noticed the statue on a subconscious level and that was in a subliminal sense speaking to him in a way.

I really liked in this episode how Cas felt like he had enough autonomy to essentially go against Dean. He was actively trying to keep Dean from killing Jack and saving Jack and before they were interrupted, Cas was even contemplating running away with Jack. Jack means that much to him that he was willing to throw away his relationship with Dean and that's real nice because for so long in this show, everything Cas does is normally attached to trying to help Dean in some way but here, this was something he specifically wanted to do for himself. His love for Jack is not linked in any way to Dean and he was willing to go against Dean to protect that love. Cas, I'm so proud of you.

And Chuck, my man. I have a lot of thoughts on everything that happened in the final act of this episode (I mean, what a final act this was!) but I'll try and be as succinct as possible. Chuck had me a little confused in this final act. I did see the bad!Chuck part coming. It's something I've always suspected since season 11. But the thing is, I'm not entirely sold on if Chuck is really the villain that he was made out to be in this final act. My reasoning? Well, when you watch that scene where Dean is contemplating shooting Jack, it's very evident that Dean is struggling with it but when he decides not to, he drops his arm holding the gun and we cut to Chuck who gives this very brief half-smile, almost like he was holding his breath and exhaling in relief when he saw Dean put the gun down. Why would Chuck do that if his goal was to get Dean to kill Jack for his story? And then he completely flips when Dean throws down the gun. Again, why? Why didn't he do that when Dean dropped his arm? It was very apparent from the time Dean let his arm fall that he wasn't going to shoot Jack so why would Chuck give that smile, wait for Dean to drop the gun and then lose his shit? My thought is that he wanted Dean to not shoot Jack and everything else that came after was just dressing his story for the next act in the Winchester Gospels. Perhaps Chuck is organizing his own death. Perhaps his real aim in all of this is by them taking on The End, possibly even killing Chuck, he can finally prove to our heroes that they don't need him anymore. And what also got me is that he claims that it's now The End and I'm just asking myself, "why?" From the other worlds we've seen, it doesn't look like he did it to these other worlds. He just kind of left them in the dumpster to do whatever they want.

Or perhaps Chuck really is doing everything for the sake of the story he's trying to write and the polar opposite mannerism I described earlier was just a delayed response in Chuck not quite realizing at the time that Dean really wasn't going to do it. And if Chuck really is writing off this world as another failed draft, perhaps this is a lesson he's going to learn in season 15 where sometimes your rough drafts are the best stories ever written. I also receive a kind of perverse enjoyment in this idea of Chuck doing everything he's doing for the sake of the story and ironically to create this wonderful story he wants, he created characters that almost certainly would go against him. He created characters that view their connections to others more important than anything else so why is he so surprised that when it came to killing one of their own, they couldn't do it? When has TFW ever been successful in simply letting the other members go?

And the ending with all the souls being released? I loved that the first soul we saw was Constance from the Pilot. Basically saying, "This is The End" by having the case that started it all be the first one to pop back up. I also thought it was interesting that Constance is a Woman in White and we literally just had a movie come out about this particular lore. It's probably not connected but I thought it was interesting, regardless. And Bloody Mary showing up? AKA my favorite MotW episode from season 1? Sign me up for Bloody Mary Part 2. I can't wait to see that.

I noticed that there was also kind of a smile on Jack's corpse-face. A very maniacal kind of smile that reminded me of the Empty. So I'm interested in seeing what that's leading into. Also, Billie and the Empty. What's going on with them? I'm excited to find out.

And this season keeps on continuing its trend with unreliable narrators and it's lovely to see. If anything, I love that this season has really been honing in on the idea that because you may ally with someone, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're your friend or that they don't have their own goals and objectives.

Like I said before, I haven't exactly been this season's #1 fan. And that's not because I dont understand what this season has been trying to do with it's story-telling, I completely understand what it was trying to do. To me, it just had a tendency to miss its mark more often than not and it was doing a lot of things I personally didn't care about. While the season not being terrible but nor has it felt like it's anything really note-worthy, either. This is probably the season I'll re-watch the least. But despite the season's underwhelming nature, they really brought in a fantastic season finale. When I do re-watch this season, this episode is probably what I'll re-watch the most. Structurally, the episode dragged a little but content wise? It was amazing. I give this episode an A-.

Hopefully, my ramblings made some sense. I had so much to say but yet was having a really difficult time on figuring out how I wanted to articulate it. I can only hope I pulled it off. Tagging @metafest in case anyone there would like to weigh in.

And with the SPN season done, Shadowhunters soon to be done, I'm finally going to be able to catch up on my To Watch list that my lovely followers have been sending recommendations for. So definitely during this hellatus (our last one 😭) the bingeing will be in full effect for The Orville, The Magicians, Gravity Falls, AHS, etc. I haven't forgotten you all.

[jcmorrigan]

So I'm guessing from your teaser of TBTC, you've seen Wakfu Season 3. Thoughts?

Terrible. Absolutely terrible. 

If you enjoyed Wakfu S3 and you don’t want to see me just TEAR INTO IT, turn away now! Because this is a RANT INCOMING!

So first and foremost, the big problem is Oropo. They overshot when trying to conceptualize the new biggest threat that could hit the World of Twelve. A guy trying to slay and replace the gods because they left him behind? Good! Solid concept! But he’s also a dark clone of the hero who was accidentally created during the climax of the last arc but we never knew it? Ummm…that’s a bit of a stretch. Also, he’s been around since the beginning of time and influencing history for millennia AAAAAND IT JUST GOT STUPID.

Really, they would’ve been fine if Oropo were just some dude who we’d never met before who was mad at the gods. That’s sympathetic. This whole Eliotrope thing (IT’S THE SAME NAME AS ELIATROPE BUT WITH ONE VOWEL SWITCHED?) is too complicated and just too unbelievable. Also, yeah, let’s not foreshadow this at all and pack all the exposition about why Eliotropes exist into a five-minute flashback.

Not to mention that his messing with history means that most of the threats we’ve dealt with up until now are his fault. We will never not live in a timeline where Nox became Nox BECAUSE OROPO ARRANGED THAT. Which cheapens Nox’s original motivation of “a formerly good man who caused his own destruction, but then, due to the combination of that and an accident, was motivated to change time to undo his mistakes.” 

Same case with Ogrest. The OVAs set up a nice background for him about being sad because Otomaï abandoned him, and that was simple enough to understand and tugged at heartstrings. The extended lore of course has the incident about Dathura leaving him, which is again an understandable motivation. And all of this is Ogrest’s own story. It’s his own agency. This is a thing that happens to people. His father abandoned him, his lover betrayed him, and he became so sad, he flooded the world because he can’t control his tears. Oh, but what’s this now? Turns out Dathura didn’t leave him. Oropo just stole her away. Meaning Ogrest’s tragedy is now just a big pile of “Oropo did it again!” and honestly, at this point, we’re just trying to tack the mythos’ biggest tragedies onto the résumé of a subpar villain to make him seem scarier. 

Not to mention this is my personal preference, but the whole subplot about Oropo pretending to love Echo when he wanted Amalia all along was really not to my taste. You had the chance to do one of two of my favorite villain tropes: 1) Oropo/Echo as partners in crime who are evil but also in true love, or 2) Oropo as Amalia’s creepy stalker for a whole season, adding the yandere dimension to his villainy and upping his threat level on a personal standard. They did NEITHER. 

Also, the fact that Oropo tried to taunt Yugo with visions of Nox and Qilby telling him off for leaving them to terrible fates is 50% wrong. Would Qilby guilt Yugo over stranding him in the White Dimension, and would Yugo feel that guilt? ABSOLUTELY YES. But Nox? Nox left the battlefield to die quietly. He realized the weight of his sins. Nox would NOT guilt Yugo. And Yugo knows he did right by Nox. Oropo doesn’t understand Nox at all, despite being the guy WHO CREATED HIM.

Now, on to some complaints with the new gods in the tower.

We didn’t see the reasons for a lot of them actually WANTING to overthrow the gods. This is supposed to be a group that felt like life left them behind and so wants to take charge of it. The Osamodas girl who wanted to take care of her animals? YES. GOOD. GREAT. THAT’S WHAT THE REST OF THEM SHOULD’VE BEEN LIKE. But we never saw the motivations for most of them. We can assume Ush was just in it for a power grab, Dark Vlad was literally brainwashed, and…why did Black Bump, Toxine, the Sacrier, and Arpagone even want in on this plan? I love action shows that have good battle sequences, but I feel like in a LOT of these cases, the battles against the various new gods usurped us actually getting to KNOW them and SYMPATHIZE with their reasoning for doing this scheme.

I was afraid from day one that they were going to make extended canon stuff that wasn’t easily accessible part of the main series and expect us to just know about it, and Dark Vlad proved me right on that front. I KNOW Dark Vlad was explained in all the comics and spinoffs. But I still don’t have a clear idea of what he is because he wasn’t explained anywhere I saw.

Why even have a Sacrier if we weren’t going to meet her at all?

Black Bump is just a horrid waste of a character. Because we needed a villain with a panty fetish. Oh, wait, no, I guess it’s not a fetish. He just collects panties for completely non-sexual reasons. …WHAT?

Arpagone had ten million years of buildup and ten seconds of payoff. What EXACTLY was the resolution between her and Ruel? (Also, why is Ruel being depicted as a bad guy for avoiding a relationship that would’ve ruined his and Arpagone’s life financially and wound both of them up homeless? I know love is more important than money, but I’ve seen stuff in the real world, and I know you have to be able to balance your standard of living with your relationships. I have a good friend who got into a relationship for love and ended up financially TRASHED and stressed out for three years.) 

Then there’s…Amalia and Yugo’s relationship. Hoo boy. So I always thought it would end up with Yugo confessing his love to Amalia and her turning him down because he doesn’t age and is therefore too young for her. But…it’s the other way around? Why is 20-year-old Amalia still interested in eternally-14-year-old Yugo? I love Amalia and I REALLY don’t like the implications surrounding this. I’m just calling it a writing fumble and going on believing that Amalia isn’t a creep. But then it comes out that the real reason Yugo doesn’t want to be in a relationship is because he still thinks Amalia is self-absorbed, which…yes, is her fatal flaw, but isn’t something he ever picked on before that exact moment. She overhears this because of course she does…AND THEY NEVER GET THE CHANCE TO DISCUSS THAT PROBLEM. Which is frustrating as all get-out. I don’t know if they’re saving it for the next season or if they just intend to drop the issue. But, like, why have a communication problem between them if they were never going to solve it? Why leave that thread dangling?

Finally, NO. REMINGTON. SMISSE. We went to all the trouble of canonizing that he survived EVERY near-death experience he suffered in S2 and beyond and then that he is able to travel dimensions without explanation in the OVAs. And…he’s just…gone now? He doesn’t show up? THE AUDIENCE LOVES HIM. HE GOT HIS OWN SPINOFF COMIC BECAUSE OF HOW MUCH PEOPLE LOVE HIM. WHY WOULDN’T YOU. The last time we saw him was with Ush, and they brought USH back and that would have been the PERFECT way to bring Rémy in. But I dunno, maybe they killed him off permanently in his spinoff comic and they just expect us to know that because they refuse to recap the extended canon’s important points in the actual show. 

Anyway, S3 basically tried to pack too much into 13 episodes and failed to flesh out any of the concepts it brought up…many of which were garbage to begin with. I’m not sure whether or not I’m on board for S4. I am MORBIDLY curious to see what Ingloriam looks like and meet the gods of the twelve races. But we will NEVER NOT LIVE IN A TIMELINE WHERE OROPO CREATED NOX. 

[impossiblepackage]

So they repeatedly say that spirits are drawn to their bodies, right? As far as I'm aware, we only know where souls go, not where they come from or when they show up. There is also the implication that necromancy follows the soul and not the body, since necros can do necro shit in the river, but Pyrhha can't do necromancy. It's the soul itself that becomes a necromancer, and it retains that even if it takes up residence in the body of non-necromancer(see: Palamedes).

It is unclear when the soul is created and enters the body, or if it's created in the body rather than entering it. But I think it enters. Wherever they come from, the soul pops into existence and is drawn to its body. What happens if the body dies before the soul ever actual makes it there?

I propose that when somebody dies before their soul can get to their body, that soul bounces around the river looking for its body. If another embryo is made from the same parents, then that first soul jumps in as soon as it can, whenever that is. The person that results from this is a necromancer now, meaning that necromancers are people who died before they were born, and either stole a body from a different soul, or maybe ate it or something. Or maybe it's just kind of....in there with the soul that's actually supposed to be in there, which would match up with the circumstances of Harrowhark's birth and support why all those deaths make her a stronger necromancer.

We don't know how John ended up becoming a necromancer. We know how he ended up becoming God, but not how he became a necromancer. It happened while he was trying to figure out how to freeze people and bring them back, and was working with a lot of corpses. So I also think that he accidentally consumed or fused with the soul of one of those bodies somehow. This whole thing would mean that necromancers are basically all revenants or mini-lyctors. I'm not sure.

This also means that, hypothetically, you could mass produce necromancers at a combination IVF-abortion clinic.

Also, this whole train of thought ventures uncomfortably close to some weird pro-life stuff, but the core idea of necromancers coming from souls that marinated in the river for a bit does double duty of explaining where they come from and explaining why some necromancers are stronger than others. Stronger ones just marinated a little longer, or had whole process happen a couple times before they were born.

As an aside, has anybody ever snarkily called a necromancer an abortion or said something like "you should have been aborted" to one? If so, Muir's penchant for absolutely insanely specific foreshadowing would convince me of this whole deal

yeah I'm an "Ianthe cannibalized the would be 3rd tridentarii triplet in the womb to gain necromancy" truther but why stop there. the eggs you gave me all died. harrow is 200 dead children. the ongoing living death of the 7th house as power.

maybe every necromancer is a result of twins or triplets eaten or sacrifices made. maybe every necromancer comes from death. what did you do, Jod. what did you do

[not-poignant]

Thoughts on worldbuilding? What's your process? What's your standard for 'complete enough' to start writing the actual story? Any general advice?

*

Out of both curiosity and my own edification–How fleshed out do you have an idea before you start writing the story? Like, do you start when you have a whole cast, setting, and significant plot figured out, or do you plunge in when you have a feeling and figure it out on the way? @somethingcarefreealwayschanging​

*

I got two asks about this from two different people, so I’m combining them!

Firstly, worldbuilding is different for everyone. My process for worldbuilding is actually different for each story. Some stories I do hardly any work on before I get started (The Golden Age that Never Was), and some I do a lot of research on before I get started (Blackwood).

How fleshed out do you have an idea before you start writing the story? 

Not that fleshed out, honestly. I really don’t like super thorough worldbuilding? It actually puts me off writing and sometimes means I am closed off to better ideas as I go. It’s different for everyone, but for me, leaving a window open for improvisation etc. makes me a better writer, and often gives me loopholes if I accidentally write myself into a corner.

For example, when I started The Golden Age that Never Was, these are the characters I wasn’t aware of / didn’t exist in my mind: Flitmouse, Sharpwood, Eva, Anton. I didn’t know how I was going to end the story. I didn’t know about Grisaille, or exactly what had happened with the Light/Dark. I didn’t have a chapter plan. I didn’t have my major plot points, lol.

The Ice Plague, which is much more planned and book 1 has a chapter plan etc. I still didn’t know that Gille Dubh was going to be in the story until I wrote him in. I’ve already had to move some things around (introduce some things earlier etc.) because Mosk and Eran are moving faster than I thought they would. I have three books of worldbuilding there, mostly on fae and fae lore etc. for Fae Tales, but I still change things, or deviate away.

I mean sometimes my chapter plan is just: ‘Chapter 4 - they fight, bad outcome.’

Anyway, now some technical crap:

Pros/Cons for thorough worldbuilding:

(The examples I’d put here are sadly not yet published. Though I’d tentatively put The Court of Five Thrones under this category.)The Ice Plague: Book 1

Pro - You have a good sense of the world and often need to research less while writing the story. This can help with story flow and writer’s block. Pro - It may give you a security net / safety blanket while writing. Pro - It’s easier to hit your pacing and plot beats in a timely manner, because you can pre-plan for them to happen when they’re ‘supposed’ to. Pro - You can get a clear sense of your character development early, and always be heading towards major character and plot beats. Pro - You have a solid world set up for future stories set in that world.Pro - You can pick the very best parts of your worldbuilding for your story.

Con - If you adhere too strictly to your plan, you may get ‘stuck’ at a point that is just boring or was badly thought out, and this can prevent story flow and create writer’s block if you’re inflexible. Con - I know a lot of writers who get so stuck in worldbuilding, they never write. If you are someone who loves worldbuilding, but has been stuck in a world you want to write for years and have no words to show for it, it’s time to stop worldbuilding and start writing. Con - It’s easy to intimidate yourself out of writing the story. Con - It’s possible to bore yourself out of the story because you’ve planned so much, you’ve ‘experienced’ it and no longer want to write it. Con - You will take the longest to get to actual writing out of every category.Con - The majority of your research and notes - some 95% usually - will never make it into your story, and your readers will never get to appreciate how awesome the foundations are.

Skills you’ll need to learn:

1. How to get off your ass and actually write. If you’re spending years in world-development, and you want to be a writer and not a worldbuilder you have a huge fucking block.

2. How you want to store your information. Word? Scrivener? Google Docs? On Paper?

3. How to be flexible or maintain flexibility so that, when necessary, you can break from your thorough worldbuilding to make a better story.

4. How to bite the bullet and say ‘right, this is enough worldbuilding, it’s time to write.’ I recommend setting a deadline and sticking to it. You can still worldbuild after that, but only in concert with writing / producing content.

Pros/Cons for some-but-not-lots of worldbuilding:

Examples:

Into Shadows We Fall Deeper Into The Woods Inmates

Pro - Lots of room for improvisation, because let’s face it, your planning brain hasn’t lived the story yet, so doesn’t technically know what’s best for any given scene. Pro - Still have a security net while writing, though it’s thinner, with bigger holes in it, lol. Sometimes it won’t catch you. Pro - Room to ‘build the world as you write.’ This might be more convenient, especially when it comes to characterisation. Living the character through writing them often gives a better sense of what they need. Pro - Whatever you focused in on, will probably shine through as a strength. If you dialogue research, your dialogue will be strong. If you setting research, your setting will be strong. Pro - Best of both planning and non-planning worlds, meaning you get to start writing faster, and have more structure than the ‘by the seat of your pants’ writer.

Con - You will write yourself into cul de sacs. Because you haven’t pre-plotted everything, sometimes you will write yourself into corners. You may be good at improvising, but it still feels like shit to realise you might have generated a plot hole or a dead end. Con - The security net has big holes in it. Chances are while writing, you may end up researching something unexpected for two weeks. This can break writing flow. Con - You may need to invent significant plot and characters as you go. Con - Depending on what you’ve dropped, they will be your weaknesses. If you didn’t research character ‘voice and accent’, your dialogue may be weak. If you didn’t thoroughly pin down plot, your plot may be weak. Con - If you are still learning how to improvise, or don’t find a certain amount of ‘terror while writing’ fun as an experience, just not knowing what’s coming may give you writer’s block.

Skills you’ll need to learn.

1. How to be a good improvisor / actor when in a pinch.

2. How to ‘research as you go’ without breaking writing flow. Maybe you write what you need to, and add the worldbuilding back in. Maybe you pause writing and research until you feel confident again (me), or maybe you break up the days so some are ‘writing only’ days and some are ‘research only’ days. The ELEPHANT trick will help you.

3. You still need to know how to worldbuild, you’re just doing it differently. So all the skills of research and structuring and building - you can’t avoid those.

4. Where to see the holes in your structure, and consciously work on those not being weaknesses when you’re writing them.

Pros/Cons of never planning a damn thing, and just starting to write based on an idea:

Examples:

Stuck on the PuzzleThe Golden Age that Never Was The Wildness Within From the Darkness We Rise Game TheoryThe Wind that Cuts the Night

Pro - It’s a lot of fun, lol. Pro - Making it up as you go often means the story has a fresh feel, and your pacing is sometimes more organic, because you’re following the real-time pacing in your body/mind. Pro - You never need to look at a single research document for the most part, especially in the beginning, meaning that you never have to break your writing flow in this way. Pro - You never have to think ‘how will I work this thing into the story that I wanted to work into the story.’ Pro - You learn to trust yourself and your organic storytelling skills. It’s great for unlocking trust in yourself, and there are enough published stories written with this method that it doesn’t prevent you from publishing either. Pro - You can literally start right this second. There is no delay. Usually faster output of stories. Pro - If you’re used to pre-planning, this is actually a great way to get back in contact with who you are as a writer, and refresh your brain! Doing this every now and then let’s you learn how much you’ve grown!Pro - This method doesn’t mean ‘no worldbuilding’ - it just means doing it as you go! You’re still going to end up with documents about the rules and structure of your world and characters for longer stories.

Con - These stories get abandoned most frequently halfway through due to hitting cul de sacs or deadends. A lot of WIPs on AO3 started out like this. Con - Sometimes you just want to write one moment and you don’t have a story, as soon as you write that moment, you’re going to stop writing. That’s fine, but…yeah. Con - No safety net. I hope you don’t like feeling secure in what you’re writing.Con - If you have minimal trust in yourself or your skills, or minimal understanding of story structure in general, you may just end up with a super rambling mess that doesn’t have a plot / with thin characters. Con - Plot holes. Inconsistencies. ‘Oh wait I didn’t know that was so important I need to go back and add some foreshadowing / introduce that character earlier.’ Con - The editing process for publication might really suck. Con - Advanced process, may be impossible to do this well in long stories until you have more experience. (But you may not care about doing it well, you just may want to be writing. Consider: NaNoWriMo usually falls into this category).Con - This method doesn’t mean ‘no worldbuilding’ - so if you hate worldbuilding, I’m sorry, you’re still going to have to do it.

Skills you’ll need to learn:

1. How to tell a story without relying on pre-planning that story.

2. To do this well for long stories, this is an advanced mode and not recommended for beginners. You need writing practice!

3. How to trust yourself as a storyteller.

4. How to use your story as the worldbuilding process. (This means also, editing out infodumping that you were doing for yourself, but that readers don’t need to know).

5. Really great editing skills.

6. How to get yourself out of a corner, or how to do the writing equivalent of a three-point-turn when you hit a dead-end.

7. How to generate more ‘big moments’ once you’ve written your big moment, so that you actually get a story, instead of just writing a big moment, lol.

***

These are not static processes either. Something you start off with no planning you may suddenly take a break on and do a lot of really thorough worldbuilding (see: Game Theory). Something that you start off with ALL the planning you may realise like, idk, 70% of your planning is redundant when you actually start writing, and need to scrap it and improvise.

Tl;dr, I do lots of different kinds of worldbuilding, though I do ‘super thorough worldbuilding’ the least. It’s definitely possible to see which categories you prefer, and troubleshoot each one. :D

[sapphirescales]

worldbuilding series.    »   the triumvirate.    ( 1 / ? )

+ character arcs in fc.

@mutantism​    &    @homeopolitics    ! ( PLEASE DON’T REBLOG : for rp blog reference only. analyses under the cut. ) 

TRAGEDY:  LOSS DUE TO HUBRIS.

mainly achieved through foreshadowing, charles’ arc starts with him fairly privileged and well-off / well-adjusted compared to erik; he’s rich, he’s educated, he’s white, able-bodied, his mutation invisible and passing as heterosexual. by the end of the movie, both raven and erik have left him -- pushed away either very deliberately ( in the case of erik ) or accidentally through callousness over a longer period of time ( in the case of raven ). he constantly, due to his privilege which seems to override any sensitivity he could gain from being a telepath, hurts and upsets the people around him by speaking carelessly, which culminates in cuba, where his plea to erik resembles the nuremburg defense to a holocaust survivor, is the spark for the following actions.

01.   “a small slip-up is one thing; a big one does not bear thinking about.”  /  “they’re just following orders.” 02.   “you’re my oldest friend.”  raven: i’m your only friend.  “thanks for that.”  /  “go with him. it’s what you want.” 03.  “unfortunately, i do know you.”  /  “until recently, i never had to read your mind to know what you were thinking.” 04.  “peaceful cohabitation, if it ever existed, was short-lived.”  /  erik: we want the same thing.  “my friend, i’m sorry. we do not.” 05.  raven: would you date me?  “of course i would. any man would be lucky to have you; you’re stunning.”  /  “i thought you’d be in a good mood. hank tells me he’s found the answer to your ... cosmetic problem.” 06.  erik: that fear will turn to hatred.   “not if we stop a war. not if we can prevent shaw, not if we risk our lives doing so.”  /  “go ahead, charles. tell me i’m wrong.” 07.  “i can’t! i’m sorry, i can’t shoot anybody point blank, let alone my friend.”  erik: oh, come on! you know i can deflect it.  &  “as none of us mutated to endure extreme g-force or being riddled by bullets, i suggest we suit up.”  /  i am so sorry. 08.  erik: honestly, charles, i don’t know how you survived. living in such hardship.   raven: well, it was a hardship softened by me.  /  “go with him. it’s what you want.”  &  “i can’t feel my legs.”

FOCUS:  NEWFOUND DIRECTION.

in the beginning of the movie, erik is focused entirely on one thing -- finding schmidt. there’s a detachment from the concept of ‘self’; the reduction of himself into his mutation, his anger and the drive for vengeance. in the audience’s introduction to him -- the scene with the bank teller -- he isn’t named, only recognized when he uses his powers. when his name is asked for, there’s a lack of self when he responds, a non-commitment to any identifier that isn’t revolving around his vengeance on shaw. erik is very much a lone wolf, operating on his own, with a single agenda. there’s a shift over time, though -- as he finds out there are others like him, as he lives with them and interacts with them, he can’t help but care. the emotion driving his vengeance -- his love for his mother, his ability to love, deeply -- shifts him onto a new path.

01.  shaw: we have opened your gift with anger. anger and pain.  /  charles: there is so much more to you than you know. more than just pain and anger. 02.  na//zi: who are you?  “let’s just say, i’m frankenstein’s monster. and i’m looking for my creator.”  /  emma: erik, is it?  “i prefer mag//neto.” 03.  “i thought i was alone.”  /  “we’re brothers, you and i.” 04.  “what do you know about me?”  charles: everything.  “then you know to stay out of my head.” /  “you’ve known all along why i was here, but things have changed.” 05.   charles: i tell you, we can start something incredible, erik. we can help them.  “can we?”  /  “all of us together, protecting each other.” 06.  “i don’t need your help.”  /  “i want you by my side. all of us together, protecting each other.” 07.  “i need the situation, the anger.” /  charles: i believe that true focus lies between rage and serenity. 08.  “if you’re using half your concentration to look normal, then you’re only half paying attention to whatever else you’re doing.”  /  “the real enemy is out there! i feel their guns moving in the water, targeting us!” 

TRANSFORMATION:  DRASTIC SHIFT IN VALUES AND PERCEPTION.

she starts off, resentful that she has to hide herself, resentful that she looks so different and only wanting her appearance to be normalised. her self-esteem and self-perception is built off her feelings for charles, and his approval ( and normalisation ) of her person. his fear of discovery only makes her more resentful and ashamed of how she looks, only more keenly aware that she isn’t deemed normal or desirable by societal standards, and that her only option for companionship of any kind is charles. as she meets the first class, especially erik, this starts to change for her. not only does she begin to accept and normalise how she looks for herself but she starts to question both society and its’ values, for rejecting her based on her appearance, and charles, for being intolerant, eventually leading her to leave charles, completely.

01.  “but if you’re a freak, you better hide.”  /  “should we have to hide?” 02.  “mutant and proud -- or is that only for pretty mutations or invisible ones, like yours?”  /  “oh, and beast? mutant and proud.” 03.  “you’re not ... scared of me?”  /  “but i guess pets are always cuter when they’re little.” 04.  “would you date me?”  &  “well, it was a hardship softened by me.”  /  “you know, charles, i used to think it was gonna be you and me against the whole world.” 05.  you want society to accept you but you can’t even accept yourself.  /  “we shouldn’t be trying to fit into society. society should aspire to be like us.” 06.  “this serum doesn’t affect abilities, right? just appearance?”  /  “hank, don’t! you’re beautiful, hank. everything you are, you’re perfect.” 07.  “beautiful on the inside, huh?”  hank: and the outside.  /  “well, this isn’t really me though, is it, hank? i mean, you might as well be complimenting my shoes ... “ 08.  “you know i can’t control it sometimes, when i’m stressed or tired.”  /  charles: put some clothes on!  “that’s not what you said when you first saw me.”  &  “this is who you were meant to be. this is you. no more hiding.”

[davetheshady]

It Devours! liveblog

Ok, so I have a major issue already: the title of this book is CLEARLY It Devours! and yet not a single person involved has pronounced the exclamation point?? Show some enthusiasm and/or terror, people! Or some alveolar clicking if you’re using the IPA for non-pulmonic consonants!

Anyways here’s chapters 1-10:

I enjoy that all the towns in this flat desert name themselves after distinctly not-flat geographic features.

This is not illogical at all. Squirrels are the fucking worst. The only reason I am not filling my attic with scorpions right this minute is because it’s too cold and also, scorpions.

So, did Larry Leroy out on the edge of town steal a time machine (remember that?) so he could experience the history he loves personally? That's some dedication, right there. 

WEB duBois fought in WWI on a dragon?? That's fuckin’ sick. I hope he featured heavily in their version of Wonder Woman. I would also like to know whether this is Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice and Zombies or Elizabeth Bennett from Ankh Morpork's Pride and Extreme Prejudice, by Jane Gordon.

Seriously though there is something really upsetting about him dedicating his life to history and planning for that to be his legacy, only to have ALL of it fall into a giant hole. Is this the end for Larry Leroy out on the edge of town??

And then we meet Nilanjana, our intrepid heroine! Likes: science, tidiness. Dislikes: untidiness, thinking about the empty parts of her life, Indiana.

However, I was slightly distracted because Nils’ experiment SPILLS BACTERIA ALL OVER HER DESK

noooo

NOOOOO

YOU WERE WORKING ON PESTICIDES THAT SHIT SOUNDS VERY UNSAFE

YOUR DESK IS COVERED IN BACTERIA AND YOU ARE CLEANING IT UP WITH PAPER TOWELS WTF WHAT ARE YOUR HAZMAT CLEAN UP PROCEDURES I KNOW I MAKE FUN OF INDIANA BUT SURELY THEY ARE NOT THIS UNCIVILIZED NOTHING WILL EVER BE FINE AGAIN

AT LEAST GET SOME CLOROX WIPES

Anyway she stops creating biohazards and starts teaming up with Carlos to investigate the weird rumbling/Larry Leroy-eating pits in the desert. He’s been trying to do it, but City Council et al. keep warning him off.

New theory: Carlos is related to Captain Holt.

As someone who was raised by a devout Catholic scientist and who is both a practicing Catholic and science enthusiast herself, I REALLY hope this is the view of the character and not, like, the theme of the book. If I wanted to be hit over the head with soapboxy false dichotomies between science and religion, I'd just go beat myself with The Amber Spyglass until I passed out, no I haven't been bitter about this for the past seventeen years, why do you ask. 

City Council is afraid of Cecil being TOO ANNOYING, this is amazing. 

“Is this a Phantom Tollbooth crossover?”

Anyway, Nils heads off for some coffee (relatable) where she runs into Darryl. Sidenote: is it just me or is Darryl one of the bro-iest names possible? Seriously, it’s almost as bad as Chad.

1) I am honestly surprised Nilanjana does not use the metric system for her coffee fixin’s

2) “You can buy deveined nutmeg at most supermarkets, but in case you’re grinding it fresh at home, make sure to remove the thick vein running up the nutmeg spine after you kill and clean the animal.” -- Earl Harlan, “Homecoming”

I HAVE SOME CONCERNS

lol

Nils keeps openly writing things in her notebook with her pen. Are pens legal now?

time travelers and talking dogs in Night Vale huh

Anyway, off Nils goes to investigate Larry Leroy under the edge of town.

idk I just really like this paragraph

At some point Nils hears a sound like “hundreds of little legs” and while I doubt Larry Leroy was eaten by sapient pearwood luggage, you never know. She’s also joined by a surveillance helicopter (it doesn’t say what color, hmmph) and they read about the Joyous Congregation of the Smiling God.

Right on Helo.

The creepy brochure is written by the Wordsmith, dun dun DUN, so now Nils is heading off to the Joyous Congregation to investigate.

they don’t have separate bathrooms for This Too Too Sullied Flesh?? RUDE

The description of JoyCon’s stained glass windows were creepy and probably foreshadow nothing good, but honestly most religious iconography is friggin’ weird. In Christian art history alone, St. Lucy carries around some eyeballs on a plate and medieval illuminators LOVED showing pelicans cannibalizing each other. 

Nils runs into Darryl again, who shows her around and introduces her to his fellow JoyCon members. Gordo in particular is pretty creepy but all I can think of is the character from Lizzie Maguire.

I laughed

fuck!!

Meanwhile, both the moon landing and Stanley Kubrick were faked by NASA. Does this explain the ending of 2001: A Space Odyssey?? Probably not.

Nils eventually heads back to Larry Leroy’s under the edge of town. Darryl meets up with her there, trying in vain not to be weird, but since he’s accidentally stalking her it doesn’t work. They’re kind of cute though?? He gives her a sandwich!

I laughed again. Also Helo is back and offering commentary on whether or not Darryl is being creepy. Helo is rapidly becoming my favorite secondary character.

Back at the labs:

Def read this as “Roger Airliner Young”

Carlos IS an excellent scientist.

He tells Nils a little about his time in the desert otherworld (connected to the house that doesn’t exist and, somehow, the weird rumbling that devoured Larry Leroy)(friendly reminder that Carlos heard rumbling in the desert otherworld in, you know, “Rumbling”.)

Ok, so... while I’m really glad they’re expanding this plotline from Year 3, I’m kind of annoyed by the retconning? Not because I think it’s bad (I am intrigued!) but because hints of ANY of this would have been greatly appreciated, you know, during Year 3. Because at the time, all we got from Carlos (when we got anything at all, which was NOT OFTEN) was “yay desert otherworld science!! also I only love one person in Night Vale and that’s you Cecil so I’m totes cool being trapped away from everyone else!!” while Cecil sat in a dark room drinking by himself, which was, you know, SUPER DEPRESSING. 

You could definitely read between the lines that Carlos was over-compensating (I mean, he got banished from Night Vale IMMEDIATELY after saving the town, poor dude) and I liked that they addressed some of the problems with long-distance relationships, but imo it needed more concrete hints at what was going on with Carlos – not for Cecil, but for the audience. Since the rest of Cecil’s life was also a dumpster fire, what with his faith in Night Vale fading and his very will being suborned, there was really nothing to provide balance; the challenge of deducing Carlos’ emotional state separate from Cecil’s unreliable narration could have helped with that.

Anyway, Carlos has been attempting more covert science with Larry Leroy’s/the house that doesn’t exist, and Pamela Winchell shows up to yell at him. In case you were wondering, “purview” comes from the Latin pervideo, “to look over, survey”, which ultimately comes from the Proto-Indo-European *weyd-, “to know, see”.

I assume Pamela speaks for the authors here, lol. They keep confusing them with similes.

In conclusion: HOLY SHIT BIG RICO’S

[kaypeace21]

JUST bouncing alternative theories in my mind about what’s going on in ST

i think there's a few posibilites in no particular order of certainty

1) My og theory : Will  subconsciously externalized his DID system into his world (via his powers/ tra*ma): aka  he created the upsidedown & it’s inhabitants, the lab & subjects, and certain characters in the show  .Or (non DID) but Will’s tra*ma with dad/powers /imagination made him (subconsciously) create all the stuff i mentioned above-and they entered Will’s world. Similar to Sebastian’s dragon in ‘never ending story’. Alot of s4 films had a (kid) character create characters into existence via their  powers etc.

2) Hawkins is an internal world (in a DID system) and everyone is alters/npcs and we technically don't know the host- I’d say the host/core would have to be an alternative William from the future (played or not played by David). Some DID systems can have  0,  1, or multiple inner worlds (these are locations based on both negative/positive memories of the host/core/William-where alters and npcs reside). They can be similar to different dimensions  which usually don’t ... but can intersect. it’s possible as William reconciles with his tra*ma : the different innerworlds are intersecting as well 1) hawkins 2) lab 3) Russia 4) upsidedown etc

3) a fictional story written by one of the characters we know , about reconciling with their past tra*ma/childhood. A lot of st s4 movie inspos had a story within a story format: where a character in the movie , writes a book (with the same title as the movie they’re in). Will said the mindflayer-drawing is for a story he’s writing. Maybe an older Will is writing a fictionalized story of healing from his tra*ma (that we’re watching).  The episodes are called CHAPTERS! (And chapter 1′s title has Will’s full name-showing his importance). We even have in s1 Will being brought back to life in a LIBRARY!!!Also in the Will comic we have Will and mike reading books together (in the library)and using it as inspo for d&d stories. So some characters in the story -like his friends and family are people he knows from his childhood/life, etc. While other characters are more similar to fictionalized characters (like say the Russians). One s4 movie inspo was ‘welcome to marwen’: where an artist was attacked for being perceived as gay-and he creates an art project of a fantasy-war story based on his past to reconcile /face his tra*ma. And most of the fictional characters had real-world counterparts he knew- he also put a fictionalized version of himself in this story/art piece.

* Honestly after writing this- now I’m like... option 3 makes so much sense omg.

so maybe Will's fictional story does have an xmen-kid-Will who has powers that created certain supernatural manifestations of tra*ma in said fictional story (making it super meta) ?And that xmen-Will has to face his shadow / tra*ma and accept himself, for everything negative to be resolved in the story. similar to how in " the wizard of earthsea" ( reffed by suzie in s3) had the boy wizard Ged who unknowingly created/ accidentally released a shadow , do the same . And this whole story would reflect how writer-Will did so too, in the past.

I could also see the books (seasons) being written by both Mike and Will as a coauthor team- like how stephen king wrote the talisman series with another famous author (and duffers love sk, and that best selling series also gave me st vibes ). AND, as of now, the only 2 to write d&d stories that foreshadowed later events in the series - are Mike & Will. Plus , alot of movies on the s4 inspo list had a character write a novel for their love interest which was also about their own life too. In one s4 movie - 'fisher king' 1 character writes a fantasy book called "fisher king" based on his wife who people said he was "crazy for" . In that same film the guy who halucinates a fiction monster based on tra*ma (wrote a fantasy/romance book) and ends up dating a romance book editor- other say about the couple "stranger things have happened". And Mike at the end of s1 , wrote that story for Will: about them defeating the 7 headed monster (aka Will's demogorgan/father) by rolling a 14. Aka Mike and Will being 7s together, after Will rolled a 7 alone (and got attacked by the demogrogan/his father, and telling Mike about it). Also... I mean Mike (a star wars fan) in that last-s1- story straight up replaced princess Leia (a character straight nerds crushed on) for a king/ Will stand in. XD

[fountainpenguin]

Let's say Cosmo and Wanda are disguised as paint tubes and Timmy squeezes Cosmo to get some paint out for Art Class. What would you call the stuff coming out of Cosmo? Spit? Excrement? Or are such questions irrelevant now he's a paint tube? And if everything magical disappears when Cosmo and Wanda leave, will Cosmo's green paint disappear from Timmy's picture, leaving a blank space? Or will the magical green paint turn into normal green paint?

Lasting Magic

STUFF

Hmm. I’d see it as the way a dog sheds fur. As a dog, Cosmo would shed fur, and the fur would be left behind on furniture and clothes when he reverted back to his fairy state. When he changed into a paint tube, he changed into a paint tube with paint just like he changes into a dog with fur. It just feels natural. 

The paint Timmy squeezed out would basically be magical dead skin cells. And it leaves no more permanent effect on Cosmo than getting sharpened when he’s a pencil does. It’s temporarily uncomfortable, but he’ll be fine in a bit.

I don’t think I’ve said it directly (though it was implied at the end of “Rich Man”), but I don’t think ALL of a godkid’s wishes get undone when they part ways with their godparent(s). That would cost the fairy doing the revoking waaay too much energy. If a kid wished for a simple rubber ball, and has memories of playing with the ball with their fairy who was disguised as a dog, then when they part ways, memories would be arranged so the kid remembers playing ball with their dog. Thus, it would cause more problems to unwish the ball than it would be to just leave it where it is, since then the kid would be confused they don’t own a ball they remember playing with.

It’s major wishes that are taken away. Jorgen said in “Fairy Idol” that Timmy was about to lose “every single magical item he had ever come in contact with”. But I view it as, if there’s no non-magical equivalent of a toy, you lose the toy. Perhaps in that episode, the toys he owned were capable of shooting lasers. Thus, they had to go. But a basic rubber ball, he could keep.

To answer your question, unless Cosmo’s paint had distinctive magical qualities, the paint on Timmy’s picture would be left the way it was when other wishes were revoked. Jorgen has better things to do than go over every stroke of Timmy’s painting with nonmagical paint if he won’t even be able to tell the difference.

But yes, if the paint glittered dramatically or was “animated”, then Jorgen would need to replace it with regular paint. Things that are a normal part of a normal childhood get to stay, and things that are difficult to explain away have to go.

That’s when godparents leave a child’s life naturally. The procedure for when they quit is to take everything. Cosmo and Wanda were the first godparents to ever quit, so it’s a rare and serious event.

BABIES

This is also how I solved the problem of, “If Poof was wished up, will he die when Timmy’s wishes get unwished?” No, no he wouldn’t. Unwishing wishes is second nature for a genie. Norm, theoretically, could snap his fingers and wipe Timmy’s slate clean instantly, Poof included. Norm might not even realize he’d essentially killed a baby. Like setting fire to a bunch of envelopes without opening them, and accidentally burning a birthday card that contains money.

The unwishing process takes longer for Fairies. With the exception of the Fairy Council and the Fairy Elder, Fairies, even Jorgen, have to undo every wish one or a few at a time. I say Jorgen, though he’d only be involved if godparents were revealed, not if a kid aged, which seems to be Timmy’s canon way of losing them. That’s Amity Agency’s job then, not his.

Hmm. I think the natural way to separate a godkid and their godparents would be by having the godparents pack up whatever they’re taking with them. The kid might stick around while wishes are undone. Then, when everything is back to normal, they say good-bye and the final memories are wiped. That makes the transition easy, since everything is already back to normal.

The Fairy Council were pretty savage when they made their decision to revoke ALL of Timmy’s wishes. But, Fairies are utter sticklers for rules. And if Da Rules say making a secret wish to freeze time for fifty years is deserving of every one of that godkid’s wishes getting unwished, then, well… they’re not going to make liars out of themselves now.

But, Poof won’t get unwished when Timmy is separated from his godfamily naturally. I mean, if anything, he’d get sent to Unwish Island and his parents could go fetch him back from there. If Jorgen didn’t bother killing Imaginary Gary and Super Bike after physically running out of space to contain them, I can’t imagine him killing Poof. He loves the little guy. 

Basically, I think what the Fairy Council did in “Secret Wish” was rewrite reality and make it so none of Timmy’s wishes had ever been made in the first place. Thus, Unwish Island didn’t exist, and everything got shoved into the Hocus Poconos instead. Cosmo and Wanda forgot they ever had a baby, and the Fairy Council simply shrugged the deed off.

The other reason Poof wouldn’t be unwished is because he physically can’t be. Fairykind are fertilized partially physically and partially by magic. The physical act of creating the baby grounds said baby to reality. Yes, he was wished up, but when Cosmo and Wanda - ahem - brought him to life, he was no longer just a wish, see? Fairies are made of more than just magic. They’re physical too. Having the day you were conceived literally unwritten is one thing, and having someone simply wanting you to go away is another.

Of course, if you remember, the different colors of starpiece magic can be undone different ways. Blue falls apart when you stop being annoyed, green and red magic don’t make babies, pink leads to sickly children, purple acts just like yellow up until death when it undoes itself (ex: Anti-Fairies are formed of purple magic and die with their counterpart). You can’t unwish a child intentionally, because they’re physically grounded to reality. However, some magic just isn’t meant for fertilizing kids, and falls apart on its own.

Yellow magic is the only magic that sticks beyond the parents’ deaths. We’ve been over this multiple times in Origin. Cupid’s family line literally shoot every Fairy whom they catch in the act with artificial hormones that encourage magic to shift into yellow (i.e., the arrows make you feel like you’re in love). 

Not only does this prevent Fairies from having purple-born babies who will die when their parents do, but it’s physically dangerous for male Fairies to mate if they’re not “feeling yellow”. Like, if they get that aroused and aren’t sharing magic with their partner (i.e. yellow), they will literally asphyxiate and die. That’s always been a worldbuilding detail, in reference to the fact that male bees die after mating. Fairy culture promotes cheerfulness for a very good reason. And hey, the Eroses are doing really important stuff after all!

This is where we get our subplot in Origin about H.P. and Cupid’s mom realizing that because all his pixies were conceived asexually, the Eroses never knew he was expecting. He never got shot with an arrow that would confirm they were fertilized with yellow magic. By the time they found him, all his eggs had already been fertilized*, with no way to tell if they’re yellow or if they’re purple. 

It’s not like H.P. is the type to regularly be peppy and cheerful. His default state is purple. So, uh… yeah. Nothin’ to do there but wait ‘til the other pixies come into their reproductive age so the Eros family can ensure someone, at least, is capable of having yellow kids so the Pixie race can actually continue. Geez, that first generation, though… Whatcha gonna do, H.P.? Whatcha gonna do?

* The entire cell structure of H.P.’s gametes was physically altered by Wolbachia. It takes a year, but all pixie eggs “fertilize” once their host’s reproductive systems become active. In pixies that haven’t begun asexually reproducing, their eggs look identical to those of Fairies. The fact that “fertilization” of all eggs takes a year after the reproductive system activates is important, so try to remember. For the record, I’ve foreshadowed it.

Originally, a long long time ago back in June of 2016, the “Are all H.P.’s kids purple-borns or yellow-borns?” question was going to be this huge reveal in the finale of Devil’s Backbone, but considering the fact that post-Season 10 H.P. even does what he did to get us to Devil’s Backbone, I decided it was kind of important for us to watch him react to the news in the first place. This is fun too. Makes you squirm longer. Makes me squirm longer since I know what he does but not if it works. It’d be bad writing to reveal such a dramatic question and attempt to answer it in the same last chapter of a story, I think. 

Plus, I wasn’t sure I’d even make it to Devil’s Backbone back then. Still too early to know if I will, but if absolutely nothing else, I’ve already written a general overview of how the story will go. The link to that document is in that queued post with all the other unfinished fanfic documents so you guys can still read how my unfinished ‘fics would go in case I unexpectedly die.

Oh wow that wasn’t even relevant to the topic of this Ask I’m sorry why did I-

[webuiltthepyramids]

Walter and Paige

when I started shipping it if I did: in the pilot.  I didn’t get super invested in them until the last third of season one when I went back and marathoned the 18 episodes that had already aired to that point so I saw all of them right in a row (prior to that, I’d probably seen 10 of the 18 episodes but work had made me miss a few and I wasn’t into the show enough yet that missing an ep on occasion bothered me), but even the night the pilot aired when I was half watching and half studying, I knew that if I kept watching that show I’d fall hard for those two

my thoughts: just look at my blog haha

What makes me happy about them: I love how she’s literally the first person he’s ever loved, and it’s not because he was the playboy who wouldn’t get attached, it’s not because he was this cold villian turned good guy, it’s just despite having dated other people, it just never happened, and then he just got so crazy about her right away and that didn’t fade but morphed into something a lot stronger and deeper and that was so out of character for him but now she’s literally everything to him and he’s not even sure when that all happened but now he believes in love only because he knows that’s what he feels for her.  and I love how special both of their relationship is with ralph, and how there was heavy foreshadowing of the three of them becoming a family even at the start (last scene of pilot, telescope stuff in 1.02), and it’s just so beautiful and as much as I love walter/paige on their own, I know I ship it harder than I would otherwise because ralph is there. (and on a less specific note and more of a social note, they’re a mixed race couple and he most certainly has a form of autism as well as being ace-spec, so that’s great for representation).

What makes me sad about them: their communication breakdown, that started with paige not telling walter how him speed dating bothered her (as she told him that the idea of him hooking up with someone bothered her in 2.06) and escalated into the shit show that’s been their relationship in season three.

things done in fanfic that annoys me: I don’t like when fics imply walter has no self control around her, the constant animalistic stuff sounds super rapey even though they always have paige be 100% consenting.  also a huge amount of fics have him speaking another language when he’s turned on/getting really emotional and I’m sorry I just don’t get why that’s so appealing for some authors since we have never once had him accidentally slip into another language and being multi-lingual doesn’t work that way anyway.  also I’m not into fics where walter gets really verbally extravagent with her.  toby is a character that gets that way, it makes sense for toby’s character, walter does not do that.  if you want to use your sweeping metaphor, write a quintis fic.  I’m also not into bathroom humor and some fics just love fart jokes and for real write a two and a half men fic if you’re so obsessed with doing that.

things I look for in fanfic: progress without it being too fast. fluff that’s still them.  smut specifics that fit what we know of them/how we interpret them (as opposed to just wish fulfillment).  role reversals that upon hearing the premise might seem to not make sense but ends up being exactly right.  humor, but not at the expense of who the characters are. 

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: if paige didn’t exist, I’d be so fucking into walter/linda.  but there’s no one I would want her with if he didn’t exist, and because she does exist I don’t want him with linda either, so I guess the answer to this really is no one.

My happily ever after for them: I want them married, and honestly, I want it sooner rather than later (in before someone tells me they’re designed to be slow burn, thank you, I know, that doesn’t mean I have to like it) largely because ralph wants so badly for walter to be his step-dad and I hate the idea of him going years and years more always wanting it and always being afraid his mother might end up with someone else.  I wouldn’t be opposed to them having a kid of their own, but at the same time I love the theme of found family, blood-of-the-covenant is thicker than water-of-the-womb, that this show has (Cabe is Walter’s father, Walter and Sylvester are brothers instead of brothers-in-law, Walter is Ralph’s father, etc) and so I’d be contented just to know that Walter/Paige/Ralph are a legal family; I don’t need Walter and Paige to have a biological child.

who is the big spoon/little spoon:  On your average day, Paige is the little spoon.  Walter loves holding her and she loves being in his arms.  But if it’s been a rough case, if he’s stressed, she holds him, because she knows she’s safe to him, and she loves that someone who hates touch is so comforted by hers.

what is their favorite non-sexual activity: hanging out with ralph.  movies, experiments, going out to eat.  when it’s just them, they just really like talking, sometimes they go for walks together.  she also is pleasantly surprised at his eagerness to be domestic with her and finds that he’s a great partner for planning holidays.