#it shows that they had to rewrite his involvement in the plot a lot

[fangsandfeels]

It just occurred to me...

...that nothing was really stopping Cazador from Ascending aside from his lack of brain cells.

If the chamberlain guy was afraid that he'd become a replacement in the ritual to the point he tried to fake his suicide (and overdid it), it probably was technically possible.

The kidnapped victims weren't connected with their kidnappers through blood - none of the Cazador's spawns bit them. Cazador did. Cazador easily became a replacement for Astarion in the Ascension ritual - which meant there were no specific requirements for the sacrificial lamb aside from the runes on their skin.

So, technically, Cazador didn't need to catch Astarion to continue the ritual. He could have easily Turned any other person into a spawn, carved the runes, and proceeded with his plan. Only one piece of the contract was missing and it was rather easy to replace.

But he just had to be a little bitch about it. He just couldn't let it go even for a moment. He had to show who's The Boss. He had to Make a Point.

He spent tendays, months coping and seething over his bruised ego, refusing to proceed with the Ritual before Astarion came back -- and in his self-obsessed mind Astarion had no choice to come back because the opposite would be an insult to his Vampire Lord status.

The Ascension was literally at his fingertips. He could have Ascended, walked out into the sunlight, and used all that newly gained power to find Astarion himself.

But did he do that? Noo.

He chose to stomp off to his bitching corner and make an Astarion-shaped salt mine in his diary.

[aroaceleovaldez]

i'm so happy you brought back up the topic of rick's shitty writing of anyone even remotely non white / "white passing"

with that being said, do you think the shitty script he gave to annabeth in the show has to do with him just being deeply uninterested in adapting his story to include characters of color? bc it seems like once rick encounters a character that cannot be easily erased all ethnic or racial identity of to fit them into an usamerican specifically white ass narrative, he gets lost.

i just keep thinking how the only thing that "changed" about annabeth as presented in the show was her race but her plot relevance and her characterization got downgraded severely. meanwhile percy, whiter than before (wheres the mediterranean god look......................................), got half her functions. like i just look at rick in context and i wonder if he just gives so little fuck about characters of color he cant even write a decent character arc for an adaptation of a very established persona

thoughts? thank u!

I wouldn't be surprised if it's Rick (and the writer's room, since it actually seems Rick isn't all that heavily involved if much at all with the script itself based on some interviews) just has internal biases that he refuses to reflect on. It would be a consistent trend with the uptick in offensive writing in the books themselves (see: the troglodytes in general, all the Jewish kids in CHB being in Hermes cabin, etc etc). Rick seems to want to engage with these topics but refuses to actually assess how he's approaching it and his own biases while also overemphasizing his engagement with the topics. It's a kind of big talk/words vs actions type thing to me.

[this got a wee bit long so throwing it under a cut]

I was having a couple of conversations about this topic recently - one being group reading/discussion of WottG and how, allegedly, the slightly different characterizations in that book are inspired by the actors in the show. Annabeth is repeatedly and frequently described as motherly and maternal in the book, plus some other misc characterizations that make you tilt your head and go "Wait, what about Leah made you want to write Annabeth this way?" and concerns about it leaning into stereotypes. (It's also strange, because in the show Sally is MUCH more aggressive and less maternal, and this is painted like it's supposed to be a girlboss thing cause her being too soft and motherly was too weak or something? But now book Annabeth is now being described as all soft and maternal??? What. What is happening.)

Another conversation that i had with my therapist (cause we talk about pjo a lot lol) and later repeated and discussed more with other folks on discord more specifically regarding the show was a lot of discussion about the casting. Particularly casting choices and how the writing either is refusing to take casting into consideration to respectfully approach how things would be changed to avoid problems or are actively changing the script for characters in a way that is potentially if not downright offensive. Clarisse is the number one example i bring up because a lot of people say that the reason a plus sized actress wasn't cast for her was to avoid the "fat bully" trope. The thing is, there is ALSO a POC bully trope that is just as bad if not worse, so if they were actually taking offensive tropes into consideration one would expect them to avoid that too (especially since Percy was cast as a pasty white boy - which just makes it all look worse)? (Also other plus-sized characters like Dionysus and Gabe were also cast as skinny, same with Tyson. So it just seems like they don't want to cast plus-sized actors either.)

But also they're rewriting stuff that actively puts the casting decisions into worse tropes. Like hey, why is Percy (a white guy) the one who knows the "real" versions of all these myths and is expositioning them to Annabeth (a black girl), who in the books is supposed to know more than him? Why does he know better than her for some reason and have to guide her? Why is Percy teaching Annabeth about pop culture and how to be a kid? Not to mention stuff like the show constantly encouraging the viewer to doubt or distrust characters like Grover and Clarisse and Annabeth as red herrings as to who the traitor is. Plus there's no adjustments to stuff from the books like Annabeth initially being somewhat aggressive/antagonistic towards Percy, or Clarisse's aggression and bullying towards Percy to try and circumvent those being bad tropes in the contexts of the casting.

And there's an ongoing trend of characters who are antagonistic towards Percy in the books being divided into two groups: those who continue to be antagonistic towards Percy in the show, or those who are tweaked to suddenly become kinda silly-goofy and significantly less threatening. Gabe, Dionysus, Ares, and Hades are all examples of characters that should be antagonistic towards Percy but are softened SIGNIFICANTLY and played for laughs in the show. Echidna is played as a twist antagonist because she initially because she approaches the kids as very sweet and helpful. And they're all cast as white! Meanwhile other characters like Clarisse, Luke, Zeus, etc, are still antagonistic towards Percy (plus also like Annabeth initially and again, Grover being painted as a major red herring). Plus some new additions like Hermes, Mr. Lin Manuel Miranda himself, being wholly introduced into the plot when he's not supposed to appear until book 2, and all he does is sabotage the quest. Like, it's weird! That's a weird writing decision!!!! I get wanting to get that sweet sweet LMM cameo money, but, why is Hermes an antagonist here???????? he's not even supposed to be here yet!.

We also have stuff like Poseidon (who, like many of the god/major kid pairings so far seems to have been cast to match each other appearance-wise) saving the day for Percy and being this weirdly good dad, versus the books where we get the iconic "I am sorry you were born" line and Percy and Poseidon's tension is part of their arcs. Notably, Poseidon does this by ceding to Zeus, who is actively about to start a war. While Gabe is rewritten to be a total loser, Sally is MUCH more aggressive and her yelling and screaming at young Percy is supposed to be sympathetic for some reason? If Gabe were acting like Sally does in the show, he would actually be significantly more like his book counterpart! The show is making active decisions to paint these characters the way they do!

Admittedly, part of it may just be they got overzealous with their casting (not inherently a bad thing! diverse casting is good!) and then proceeded to not consider how that casting affects the way the characters are perceived. It also doesn't bode well for certain guesses we can make going further into the show - Thalia is very at odds with Percy initially. She's a very aggressive character. They fight a lot! Also Annabeth's description already implies that they're tweaking Thalia's character to be more "tough love" versus the books where she's significantly more of a bleeding heart when she first meets Annabeth. Like, I'm very happy about Thalia's casting, her actress seems amazing, but also I'm VERY concerned with how they're going to approach her character to make sure it doesn't end up wildly offensive. Athena is similar - we can guess based on casting decisions so far that they're going to try and cast Athena as similar in appearance to Annabeth/Leah. The show has already painted Athena has antagonistic and uncaring towards her daughter. If projected trends continue, these things are not gonna be great.

And the show does seem to rarely want to engage with these topics - like the scene with the cop in the train. You can tell what they wanted to address by having Annabeth be the one to confront him. The thing is they were too cowardly to actually have that conversation! They paint the kids as being unreasonable and getting unnecessarily upset when they aren't directly being accused of destroying a room, therein painting the cop as the one in the right in that situation. The implication seems to be a little bit they were going for "Oh, this is Annabeth's hubris getting them into trouble" but. that's such a bad way to do it! That's like the worst way you could have done it! (This is also a trend in books from HoO onwards, more or less - Rick tries to engage with certain topics, often using characters of specific demographics, and then proceeds to do a really bad job of it.)

There are also some aspects that are just like - in the books, Luke being a middle-class blond-haired blue-eyed pretty white boy is relevant! Because the fact that he has privilege from that particularly in how he's perceived is part of how he came to where he is and why he acts the way he does. Percy not having those same privileges, and having aspects like constantly inherently being labeled as a trouble-maker just based on his atypical (neurodivergent) behavior and coming from a lower socioeconomical background play heavily into his character!!! Percy being both a poor and disabled kid (and implied potentially POC) plays DIRECTLY into why he feels so strongly about standing up for other disenfranchised kids (in SoM, explicitly including other disabled kids and kids of color). It directly relates to his experiences and standing up for kids who are like him because he didn't have that, versus Luke whose perceptions and goals are very self-oriented. Now, in the show, we've essentially swapped Percy and Luke's appearances, and that paints a very different narrative. And that's important to acknowledge!

[crowleysgirl56]

Ok, so here are some of my rather long rambling thoughts. I’ll start off with some pros and cons and then provide some speculation:

My initial negative reaction:

- Compressing 5 hours worth of content into 90 minutes feels like things will be rushed and we won’t get a good story.

- HOW do you take a month to rewrite six 45 minute long scripts into a movie length feature and have it still be good?!

- the compression of the story means we will likely not get any more flashback sequences. Admittedly I actually thought we probably wouldn’t get more flashback scenes in season 3 anyway, but this definitely proves the case that we won’t. There won’t be time for it.

- who has re-written the script? Because here’s the thing about Pratchett adaptations. They’re fucking shit. No one (in my opinion) has been able to successfully transfer that man’s unique sense of humour and writing style onto screen. Every single Discworld adaptation has been on a scale of awful to kind of meh. EXCEPT for season 1 of Good Omens. As much as we hate him now. As vile as he has become in our hearts, the thing about NG is that he understood Terry’s unique style. He understood what worked and how to transfer that to the screen. And that breaks my heart on so many levels. Because he was all we had. And we certainly didn’t want him any more. But still, who THE FUCK has written the finale script now?

Now here are my positive thoughts on the situation:

- NEIL GAIMAN GOT HIS SORRY ASS FIRED! GOOD!

- Consequences. The industry has signalled consequences. Finally!

- We are getting a conclusion! It could very well have been cancelled and we would have been left with the final 15 forever. We get to see them again. That deserves a Wahoo!

- thinking back over season 2, which I enjoyed, I actually do have to say a lot of it was kind of unnecessary filler. The flashback sequences were great. But the actual core of the season’s arc involving Gabriel was just a bit boring. I’m forever grateful for it because we got to spend almost 6 hours watching Aziraphale give Crowley heart eyes and Crowley do beautiful acts of service proving his love back. But the meandering stuff with Nina and Maggie and trying to work out why Gabriel lost his memory wasn’t all that interesting. I was here for A&C.

- so I think MAYBE that means the compression of what had already been written for season 3 means it’ll cut out the plot bits that drag. Hopefully this means it’s faster paced and tighter and more focused on A&C.

Speculations:

Thinking back to the last time NG interacted with the fandom, he had confirmed the first three episodes were written and were with Amazon for approval, episode 4 was almost done, the last part of episode 6 had been written, and he had started plotting episode 5. We never got a confirmation if he ever finished them. So this maybe indicates that the finale is lifted exactly out of these scripts. My assumption is they’ve brought in a script doctor to edit what they’ve already got and wrap up plot points. In which case, on the one hand it gives us close to the story and idea of what Terry imagined. On the other, the far more negative connotation, it’s still NG’s work. The articles that have all come out so far merely states “Gaiman is not involved with the production and the finale is based on his work”. This could be Prime distancing themselves without actually confirming how he’s contributed. Which is still largely disappointing.

So, once again I feel very conflicted. A lot of the fandom have been very adamant about not wanting to support the show if Gaiman was involved, and in the end he wrote the show. Even if he had been removed as producer and showrunner and wasn’t allowed on set (thankfully it seems all three of things have happened), I know that wouldn’t have been enough for some fans because he would still have ultimately been responsible for the product that we eventually see. And I don’t know how to feel about that.

I’m happy he’s gone, I’m disappointed the show has been gutted, I’m glad we get a conclusion, I’m sad it won’t be exactly what we wanted.

I’m SO THANKFUL that the women get some semblance of justice, that there is a consequence for a perpetrator, that a big ass company is finally listening to fans and moving with the times and signally this kind of behaviour isn’t appropriate and that repercussions can and will be felt.

Finally, I’ll remind everyone that there are going to be a lot of different and conflicting feelings from the fandom. I would ask that everyone try to be nice to one another. If you have a differing opinion, maybe rather than debating it you just allow that person their feelings and move on. Do not go after someone if you feel like they’re not reacting the “right way” to the situation. Just be kind please. It’s what Terry would have wanted.

[coraniaid]

Actually, on reflection, I think I'm persuaded that the "poor Willow is a magical junkie now and it's not her fault :(" subplot in Season 6 is, contrary to what I've said before, actually the worst multi-episode subplot on Buffy.

Say what you like about the other two contenders for that honor: the non-mystery of "is Giles really the First Evil and why hasn't anyone thought to check yet?" or the banality of "shall we engage seriously with the fact Spike has a soul now and how that might change him as a person, or shall we just say that a mean ghost hypnotized him?". But neither of those plots involve a woman telling her significant other (and I am really not paraphrasing much at all here) "I don't like that you used magic to violate my mind and rob me of my ability to consent to our relationship, because it's not good for you".

Moreover:

While the two Season 7 subplots are both pretty bad and boring to watch and are certainly part of why I don't enjoy that season, I don't think removing or somehow rewriting either of them would automatically make the season much better. By contrast, the Willow subplot of Season 6 is the worst thing about that season -- one which I think otherwise had a lot of potential and is arguably the most ambitious season the show ever did -- and fixing it would improve the season as a whole a lot.

The Willow subplot also takes up a lot more of the show overall than the two Season 7 subplots do. Giles as the First is a complete waste of everyone's time, but it's also fully resolved in less than half a dozen episodes (we first get the fake out that Giles might be dead in Never Leave Me, the ninth episode of the season, and we see that he isn't in The Killer In Me, the thirteenth episode). The Spike hypnotic trigger lasts a lot longer, but it still over within about half a season. But the Willow subplot dominates most of Season 6 and also continues to have ramifications for WIllow's character development (or lack thereof) for the rest of the show.

It's easy, I think, to understand why the writers resorted to the two Season 7 plots. They needed some excuse for Buffy's friends to not trust Spike, but for various reasons are committed to the idea that having a soul means Spike himself is now inherently Good and Blameless and so the reasons not to trust him can't be related to anything he's ever chosen to do himself, it has to be something done to him against his will. And the writers obviously stopped caring about Giles as a character with any sort of inner life the very minute ASH asked to be partially written out of the show so he could move back to England. I honestly don't believe the writers were capable of writing good subplots for either Giles or Spike by this point, even if they'd tried. But the Willow subplot comes out of nowhere and completely derails what was going to be a really interesting story line about Willow that the show had been patiently building towards since at least Season 3 and arguably even longer.

More broadly, both the Season 7 plots are bad in part because they are attempts to make the First -- previously a forgettable monster of the week whose primary powers included 'making people who have done bad things feel suitably bad' and 'not being able to touch anything'; a plot device which Buffy herself already rightly dismissed as all talk all the way back in Season 3 ("I get it. You're evil. Do we have to chat about it all day?"). Of course they're not successful attempts: there's no way to make the First as menacing and important as the writers wish it was. Being annoyed at the way they fail almost seems like missing the point.

Most importantly, I can more cheerfully ignore the two Season 7 subplots because I don't really care about either Spike or Giles at this point of the show's run. But I like Willow, so it bothers me more that she's subjected to all this dreadfully bad writing and that her character never really quite recovers from it.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

(I wish I could ask this in a video with GamingMagic13’s editing style, but I don’t have the energy for that.)

People say that, after Antibug, Chloé’s redeeming qualities started to show through throughout Seasons 2 and 3 because Thomas Astruc didn’t contribute to those episodes of those seasons as if he wasn’t on the writing team for every episode for those two seasons, including the ones showing Chloé’s redeeming qualities.

It’s not “Thomas left so the other writers started to make a redemption for Chloé, but then he came back and threw it all away”, it’s leaning more towards “Thomas, along with other writers, wanted to waste our time with Chloé pity parties for two seasons and trick people into feeling bad for her, which worked on plenty of reactors, and then yank the rug out from under them just for the sake of pulling a rug out from viewers” whether it’s the truth or not.

Also, do you get the feeling that, if people weren’t harassing Thomas and his family over Chloé’s “abandoned redemption”, Chloé wouldn’t have been made into evil incarnate to spite people?

Considering that the hiatus between Seasons 3 and 4 started towards the end of 2019, had to continue throughout 2020 due to the COVID pandemic with only the New York special to keep us busy in September 2020, and then finally ended shortly after 2021 started, that would have been plenty of time to rework scripts, because we know he was also on the writing team for every episode of Seasons 4 and 5 alongside 2 and 3, to made Chloé more and more unlikeable while propping up the male adults to spite Chloé fans, like several episodes of Teen Titans GO! and even this show are guilty of.

Whether all of this is true or not, I think it all lines up too well for too many other outcomes.

The "Thomas Astruc was able to completely rewrite the plans for this character and no one stopped him" take has always been a little wild to me especially since Chloe never showed meaningful improvement in canon. In fact, now that we've seen her story play out in all it's disappointing and time-wasting glory, you can even argue that Despair Bear was straight up telling you what we were in for since it's the same plot, just on a smaller scale.

As far as I know, there is no evidence for this "Chloe was rewritten" conspiracy. At the very least, no one has sent any my way on the multiple occasions when I've asked for it. Astruc is a credited writer for pretty much every episode involved in the Queen Bee arc and, while head writers have a good deal of power, they often don't have supreme power over their shows. This is especially true when it comes to kids shows since those have a lot of restrictions on what they can do. While I cannot speak French, I've been told that this class involves one of the writers talking about the multiple darker version of Chat Blanc that were rejected, leading to Chat Blanc being a season three episode instead of a season two episode like they originally planned.

These shows are products that are being sold to buyers who do have the power to reject the product and the writers work for a company. In most cases, they can be stopped!

There's also the fact that this is Astruc's career that we're talking about. You're arguing that he purposely messed with his reputation and screwed up the writing in the show that he's most well-known for in order to get back at online randos instead of just blocking them and moving on with his life. That's an insanely hard sell for me. Unintentional bad writing is a much easier explanation especially since he has nothing to gain from people disliking the Chloé stuff. This wasn't situation where Astruc needed to tank the show to get out of writing it. If Astruc left the project, then Miraculous would go on without him. While he came up with the initial idea, Zag owns the property.

Unless someone has hard evidence that Chloé was changed to spite fans, I am never going to buy into this conspiracy theory. Her bad writing is too in line with the show's other issues. Remember, this is the show that gave us Derision, everything about Lila, and Gabriel getting an 'ascends into the light with a smile' ending while his son sat the fight out and remains in the dark. Is Chloé really meaningfully worse than any of that?

I'd say no and, if you agree, then why do you think that she's so special? I've previously called her a canary in the coal mine and that's going to be my read until someone gives me evidence of something else. She was your warning sign that the writing was never going to be very good. I don't think she foretold just how bad it would get - that's why I kept watching - but her story showed that these writers were only good at short-form content and sucked at long-form content. In fact, Chloé's story is arguably better than a lot of the long-form stuff that the show gave us in season four and five. At least Chloé's story logically flowed together even if it was massively disapointing!

I also don't consider Chloé's season four and five writing downgrade to be all that telling because, once again, it's not unique to her. The class gets a similar downgrade in quality, going from "we'll help Marinette with her confession plans when she asks, but this isn't a major thing to us" to "we live for Adrienette and will make our own plans for Marinette to confess and force them on her/try to force Adrienette to kiss." It makes the entire class feels more shallow than ever.

Gabriel also gets a downgrade with his writing going more over-the-top than ever. We have things like him locking Adrien in a cell and using Adrien's amoks for no obvious reason even though Gabriel is supposed to get an ending where he dies totally at peace and ascends into the light. Totally nonsense choices just like the choice to make Marinette's inability to speak to Adrien because she's anxious into a full-out trauma response.

These are just a few of the many, many, many writing downgrades.

If you truly believe the Chloé conspiracy, then I'd strongly encourage you to watch at least the first of the videos I'm about to link and see if you notice similarities. I have all of them set to the specific, relevant timestamps in case you don't want to watch a massive video to see what I'm talking about because they all talk about more than the conspiracies that arose in these fandoms when the writing got "bad" (especially the last one. The conspiracy gets a very brief mention. I really only included it because I wanted three examples and just went with ones big enough that someone else had done research on the topic because it's not an area of fandom that I've ever waded into).

I'm linking these videos because I wanted to give you more than me just saying "this kind of thing happens all the time when media gets bad." Watching just a few minutes of each of these should give you the context you need assuming the timestamps work:

As you can hopefully see, the Chloé stuff is nothing new. So many pieces of media do something disappointing and then fans create conspiracies for why it happened, refusing to accept what is most likely to be the unfortunate truth: the writers thought they told a good story or, at the very least, they did the best they could within the confines they were working with be those confines monetary, temporal, and/or the limits of their own skills. That doesn't make the bad writing okay, you're fully valid in being upset, but there's also no need to create a conspiracy theory around it. It's probably not that deep. This shit happens all the time, especially in larger fandoms.

This is why I often give the advice of, "don't trust your mental health to stories that you have no control over." Is not that fandom isn't fun, I've just seen this shit before and I always feel bad for those who get involved with it. I've luckily never gone down the conspiracy rabbit hole, but I have gotten really upset when other fans continued to like a show that was bad, actually, and got a good deal of catharsis when most of the fandom woke up after the final was terrible. That still wasn't a good experience for me, though. It was not a healthy mindset to be waiting with baited breath for total strangers to agree with me that this random show was bad. I'm much better of bashing it with those who agree that it's bad, moving on when I'm no longer having fun, and letting those who like it be wrong (that is both a joke and real advice. Don't waste your time trying to change people's minds on something as insignificant as Miraculous. Just let them be wrong.)

[rorja]

Hiiiii! We've been absent for a while (rja the only one keeping this blog alive) because we are working on a very long fanfic.  It's a rewritten jjk plot to fill all the plot holes (but also adding new stories..) from Gojo and Geto's high school to their adult days.  There will be two readers, and ofc to avoid confusion they will have names so.. yeah. They're the so hated ocs that we fanfic writers are afraid to put out.  This story has been in our drafts since november of the last year and after so many "let's keep going", "let's rewrite everything" and "okay enough I need a break" we thought it's been time that we need to be brave.  So we wanted to share with you the two ocs and a teaser of the first chapter will come out in a few days.  ⸻YURIKO IORI

First year along with Nanami, Haibara and Marja. She's from the Iori clan and is Utahime's cousin. Her mother had been involved in a scandal about binding vows with curses that brought the elders to condamn her to the death penalty. Yaga, and old friend, pleaded them to spare her daughter and to give her custody to him, promising to take care of her and assuring she would not take the same path as her mother. Yaga took care of her, to the point he sees her as his own daughter. 

Personality: 

After so many years of being criticized because of her mother, she's a natural introvert that hides a lot her feelings. She's an open book only to Yaga and her friend Marja… and later also Gojo: her aloof attitude firstly irritated him, then appealed him and then it will be the fake walls he knew so well she liked to put up to avoid confrontation and dealing with her problems by herself.  When teased, she has the ability to think of very mean clapbacks in few seconds and that is the main object of Geto and Gojo's fun towards her. But in reality, she is very kind and loving to her friends, often taking the role of the one taking care of others however only Shoko sees her as a little cat that hisses but instead wants cuddles (and wants to be spoiled).  She's very smart, being one of the best first year student along with Nanami, her only weakness being math. Like Utahime, she loves music and plays the guitar alone in her dorm room and can be always heard humming songs. 

Relationships:

Marja's best friend. Her friendship with Nanami was born thanks to their time spent studying together. Haibara admires her ability to be so organized and smart, often preaching she's born a natural leader which frustrates her because she never received compliments like that. (He's find her also scary when she's angry). 

Her relationship with Gojo at first is only based on bickering, due to his arrogant personality that teases her to get a reaction and attention that he wants so badly but doesn't understand why. After the star plasma vessel arc, they get even more awkward. Even if both of them focus more on mission to avoid the school ground and process what they had been through, Gojo will manifest his dislike and worry of her career by calling her weak or diminishing her achievements causing many fights and long period of silence between the two. Everything will change after Geto's betrayal, Gojo's pain will finally show his true colors that will make friends that spend the nights together talking and reflecting about everything to the point of finally admitting their feelings for each other. 

Fun facts: 

She's an october libra as she was born October 16th. Though she's not fond of astronomy, she likes to indulge Marja. 

Yuriko would often be caught by Yaga trying to help both Marja and Haibara cheating midst their exams, throwing at them paper balls with the correct answers (which are useless because she has a terrible chicken writing)

Marja is responsible for her most used nickname: Riko-chan. Then later used by the whole group as an inside joke to make fun of her.

She is the only one that knows how to manipulate (fully on the term!) Marja. 

Yuriko is a bit of a perfectionist; something that is very well-known among the group, making her get along well Nanami. Indeed, he was the first one she befriended at school and the two of them would be often spotted on campus studying together. ⸻MARJA SATOU

First year along with Haibara, Nanami and Yuriko. She comes from the Satou clan and is the only heir, though she's not that well accepted in the family because her father is a foreigner, making her only half japanese. Regardless, she does not get along with her father, often scared of him to a fault because of the insane pressure due to her unusual cused tcursed technique and his tight connection with an italian cult. Her past is the reason behind the binding vow limiting her own technique.

Personality:

Marja is a very energetic girl, but her energy is mainly focused on having fun with her friends or pulling Yaga's last strings of patience. The group first hang together because of her: indeed, it all started when Marja and Shoko got paired up in the morgue and they started to work together. On her part, Marja is an ambivert girl that at first glance could pass up for an introvert, but it's when she gains confidence that her real personality takes an unexpected turn and it gets revealed her playful, laid-back and lazy true persona. Naturally this side comes out mostly with Yuriko. She shares some personality traits with Haibara, which is the main reason they get along so well to be called by the others 'twins'. Marja is quick to adapt to every situation she's in, without as much as to blink. It comes natural to her. But underneath her carefree personality, she hides a more mature side which is not often on display, not even with her best friend Yuriko and that is something that finds its root in her troubling past. Marja doesn't seem to take her job as jujutsu sorcerer seriously, but her words often tend to contradicts what she really feels or thinks. Her complexity lies in the fact that her morals are not defined nor she has firm beliefs, which is something that she carries from her childhood and could end up clouding her judgment.

Relationships:

Yuriko's best friend. She loves hanging out with Haibara, often preaching they are platonic soulmates or twin siblings in another life. Marja also gets really along with Shoko, as the two of them would spend most of their time closed inside the morgue either to tend to their researches or learning bits of medicine with the same professor. The only person Marja doesn't get along with is Gojo Satoru, for their personalities would often clash and crash. Nonetheless, their bickering could be considered as that of a siblings relationship, as none of the two gets taken seriously by the group.

Her relationship with Geto begins one-sided, for Marja develops a crush on the boy the months that followed the school's start. Their relationship begin very subtly but steadily, and somewhere along the road Suguru starts to feel the same way about the girl. Back in high school, Geto is seen to care for and spoil the girl a lot, even in something small as sharing their meal. Even so, Marja tends to be a bit clueless to Suguru's own way of showing his affection, believing that the boy treats her the same way as the other members of the group. After the blood vessel incident, both of them start to drift apart but after Geto's defection things only seem to worsen: on the very night Suguru massacred a whole village, he ended up hurting Marja as well which is something he would feel guilty about his whole life. On the days that followed his betrayl, it becomes painfully aware to everyone how much Suguru loved Marja, as he kept some polaroids of her between his poetry books. They of course don't see each other for a long time, and even though they share the same feelings, they will never have the chance to confess to each other. 

Fun facts: 

she absolutely despises Gojo Satoru and when she noticed that Yuriko had crush for the very same guy, she almost killed herself. For this very reason Marja is responsible for most of Satoru's nicknames: from snowflake to mess of limbs. She gets very creative when it comes to badmouth the guy.

She was born on June 27th, making of her a cancer. She likes to indulge in western astronomy and likes to make it everyone's problem (mostly Yuriko, who is always the victim no.1 of Marja's interests!)

She uses a family's heirloom that controls the wind to fight, for her cursed technique is quite useless in combat.

Marja is known to have a weird interest for the human's brain, whether it is in dissecting bodies together with Shoko in the lab or having a small figure of a brain on her desk.

Yuriko is responsible for her most used nickname: Ricchan. Then later used by the whole group as an inside joke to make fun of her.

If you have any kind of questions, please ask us because we want to talk (yap!!) about this project so badly and a post isn't enough!

[42ap]

While writing My Justification , I ended up scrapping a lot of drafts. The section I cut the most was their story as young men because the content involved Ford gaslighting Stanley, which felt too extreme even for an Evil Twins AU. I felt it was just too dark, and I believe the readers would feel the same way.I ended up nervously deleting and rewriting it.

The gist of the deleted section: Ford blows up at Stanley after discovering that his interactions with a group of hippies led him to start becoming curious about homosexuality. This segment originally followed the beach conversation. The rough outline of the plot went like this: Stanley wanted to learn about love and tried to discuss it with Ford, who didn’t give him an answer. As Ford became increasingly busy with high school studies and the two began drifting apart, Stanley started hanging out with a group of artsy hippie types. This group happened to discuss the very things Stanley was curious about. Stanley then came back home and tried once more to talk to Ford about love.

This 2,000-3,000-word segment was cut because the story couldn’t move forward after this point. During the initial beach conversation, Ford had already subtly implied to Stanley that pursuing relationships with girls was pointless. When Stanley sought out other friends while Ford was preoccupied, Ford became unhappy. In the end, the resolution of their conversation was still just Ford telling Stanley that the outside world was dangerous/meaningless/bad, but it didn’t matter because as long as Stanley listened to Ford, everything would be fine.

At that point, the story shifted into Me and My NPD Brother. Their dynamic started to resemble the B Stanford/A Stanley relationships I’ve critiqued in the past (since that was the initial personality reference I used for the Evil Twins AU). By this point in the plot, Ford had fully succeeded in making Stanley believe everything he said. Stanley would willingly listen to Ford. After this, there wouldn’t be any arguments about their future. If Ford decided to go to college in California, Stanley would believe he just happened to also find a way to make money in California so they could stay together. If Ford moved to Gravity Falls, Stanley would believe he also needed to be in Gravity Falls. Ford could make Stanley addicted to the occasional glimpses of tenderness he showed amidst his mercurial behavior. There would be no conflicts; they would just continue like this—one training the other like a dog, and one obediently playing the part of the "good kid"—forever happy in their roles.

It’s an interesting dynamic, but it has absolutely nothing to do with the sixty-year-old versions of the characters I’m writing. So, I scrapped it all and went back to rewrite the beach conversation from the beginning.

[shihalyfie]

I've alluded to tri. having some very troubled production behind the scenes, and among everything that apparently went on back there, there seem to have been at least two major bottlenecks: 1) the fact that the director (who, based on his own statements about deliberately not consulting source material, most likely didn't even watch Adventure to begin with) kept asking everyone to make things more "mature" without being clear on what that actually meant, and 2) the fact they ran out of budget and had to rewrite the entire plot halfway into it. Even the most brilliant of creators probably wouldn't be able to work at their best under such conditions.

But conversely, this also means that there were some excellent people involved in production whose efforts probably haven't been as appreciated as they should be! So I want to take a moment to spotlight some people I want to give props to:

Ayana Yuniko and Nakanishi Yasuhiro: These two scriptwriters were childhood Digimon fans who were thrilled to be on the project, and their enthusiasm clearly shows in every interview they were in. Ayana even made keen observations like noticing that the Adventure kids aren't as super-tight as people tend to make them out to be (something I've pointed out myself, and something that generally only tends to crop up among fans who have studied the series closely), and Nakanishi stated that she would slip him detailed notes about the characters and their relationships.

Both of them stated they were trying to portray the Adventure characters in a character-accurate way but kept getting their scripts rejected for not being "mature" enough, leaving them unsure about what they were supposed to do. Their roles on the series were also limited; Ayana was on parts 1, 2, and 4 while Nakanishi was on part 4 only, and they were sharing the scriptwriter role with multiple others (even within a single movie). But if I were asked to pick who on the staff list I would want to see come back for another Digimon work, it would absolutely be these two.

Kakikara Yuuko: The one in charge of overall writing for the series. tri. had a total of five scriptwriters and could have up to four(!) on a given movie, so because of that, her statements on the series and its story direction have been a bit difficult to tell whether it was her idea personally or whether she was delivering the writing room's discussion result. But one of her final statements on the series basically amounted to "I'm grateful if you even came to watch it to the end at all," and she was quite humble about saying she felt things could have been done differently; considering it sounds like she had a hard time keeping everyone and everything in order, I can only imagine she went through a lot trying to make sure everything ended safely. Incidentally, her writing portfolio is also quite respectable (and even includes kids' shows).

Suzuki Takaaki: The person with the job of "setting researcher", i.e. the one with the job of looking into the lore. Sadly, it seems like most of his ideas didn't make it into the final series (possibly because of the budget loss-induced rewrite), but his one solo interview indicates that he put quite a bit of conscientious thought into how Digital World lore works, including the idea of an EMP weapon that would affect Digimon easily but not humans (an idea that doesn't pop up among fans as often as you'd think, and took up until last year to make it into actual Adventure material via Takeru's 02TB in-universe fanfic).

Sakabe Gou: The person in charge of the series BGM. We haven't heard a lot from him, but the little we have indicates that although he also had difficulty understanding what the director was asking for when he wanted "mature" music of some kind, he himself put some very thorough thought put into the composition. In particular, he went into detail regarding the music used at the beginning of part 4, which seems to be a fan-favorite track from what I've seen (it's also my favorite too!). Sakabe also has an extensive and respectable portfolio outside Digimon; in particular, he's very highly regarded in Kamen Rider circles, so if you have a friend who's a fan, it might be a good idea to ask them about it!

[imthepunchlord]

Possibly How It Should Have Been

Gosh, I've just thought about it sometimes, as I'm largely trying to turn my creative focus onto something more enjoyable than ML (hence less writing for ML fics), but sometimes I just can't help but focus on it. Cause it's a great concept and it's butchered and that bothers me so much.

And there's SO MUCH that could've been done to improve it. Some of which could be easy tweaks. Some of which needs massive overhauling. Some of it is just picking a lane, staying in that lane, and you follow the road to progress.

It's a great concept with a LOT of possibilities and ways it could've been done. I've actually thought about possible ML Rewrites a few times, I even reached out to a friend to try and help develop a Rewrite that we could've collabed on cause I was struggling to much to decide, and we both just got stuck cause there's so many options for characters and what could possibly be done as we could see so many pros for each option.

And of course, part of the pondering that came to my mind was seeing promising improvement with kwami swaps.

Like, Marinette and Adrien may have developed better if they had each other's miraculous. Plagg could've been the ideal foil to Marinette as he's the opposite of her in every way, addressing her overworking herself, prioritizing others over herself, and caring so much about her responsibilities that it just weighs and stresses her out. And with Adrien and Tikki, she could've helped him develop as an actual, step up in responsibility, learn to take on duty, to care about others over himself. She also would've helped him get the plot rolling, as Adrien is a stagnant character but Tikki is not. She's going to get him involved into the Agreste plot whether he wants it or not, and in turn, he's going to get Tikki to learn to be more attentive and considerate of her holders cause things can go south for Adrien very quickly if she pushes too much.

Gosh, another great kwami swap that could've been done that could've improved a lot was switching up who are the leads. I always wondered if Tikki and Plagg TRULY would've picked Marinette and Adrien, also if they were even the right picks now that we know that Fu doesn't know everything and is running on limited knowledge. As far as we know, they ARE the wrong picks for these two. And considering there was an ep of Tikki and Plagg picking their own users, I now wonder if Alya and Nino should've been our actual leads.

How Alya was initially as Scarabella screams to me that it would've better served in the Origins as a starting hero. Alya also has promising potential arcs as a starting hero, especially as being a superhero is her living her dream:

There's the struggle of balancing her civilian and hero life, she can learn that the civilian life is just as important.

She can learn that being a hero isn't all glory and isn't always easy.

She can learn the importance of secrecy, and what happens if she exposes herself to the public or to a friend (probably Marinette).

And a lot of the lessons Tikki is involved with would make more sense with Alya, who does get tunnel vision and isn't good at listening to others and isn't so considerate and can be very pushy with her own agenda. Alya naturally aims for the leadership position and Tikki wants her Ladybugs to be leaders, so Tikki can help guide Alya to improve as a leader. Lastly, Alya will challenge Tikki on her call outs, which could at certain points help established that Tikki isn't always right and is open to learn and adapt too. And Alya could busy herself looking into HM, making her theories and being nosy about his identity, which Tikki would readily be apart of and encourage. Which Alya should've done in the show than recklessly trying to expose the heroes identity to the public and help HM win. Which, if Adrien wasn't a hero, maybe that should have been his role instead, which Gabriel could encourage and Adrien is even more excited cause he thinks his father is taking an interest in what he does which can be some later Adrien angst for you.

With Nino and Plagg, the BIGGEST plus is that it would actually give Nino SOMETHING outside Alya and Adrien. It would've prompt him to get more focus, and based on what's seen, he's 2nd to Marinette in having the most friends, meaning he can be more engaging and present with what happens to his classmates. Plagg also could bring some needed chaos to his life. You can even expand upon what's seen in Horrificatr where Nino can be controlling, strict, and harsh so Plagg can work on that. Nino does have some similarities to Marinette where he does care a lot for his friends and is hardworking, so there's something there to make Plagg a bit of a foil to him. To expand on Nino's role as Alya embraces being the big hero and savior, could even do the fandom popular idea of him getting Guardian training.

With those two taken, this nicely opens up others getting the Five.

Marinette can work with either Bee or Fox. If you want to work off Chloe vs Marinette, it works best if Marinette has the Bee. Though I think Pollen's personality should be overhauled, but if not, at least there's a perk that yes man Pollen going to force Marinette to take initiative and decide things for herself instead of seeking advise from her kwami. And with Fox, that can work off Marinette being a meddler, schemer, being creative, and her more inclined to work from the shadows. There could also be a fun twist to explore with Marinette not liking liars and she has a miraculous tied to deception, plus her and Trixx could've been an interesting pair to see interact, especially if working off what's seen in Sapotis where Trixx is very observant and manipulative, but also a bit of a chaotic gambler (from what I've seen, later seasons seem to ruin Trixx as a character). And of course, Marinette having Fox could work off her vs Lila, you could even dabble in her vs Felix.

Arguably, Chloe MAY grow as Alya and Nino would NOT have been so tolerant of her unlike Marinette and Adrien, so Chloe could've gotten the Bee and actually be a good hero and character for it. But that can also come down to preference and how you want Chloe to go.

Adrien could've gotten the Turtle, which I think could've been one of the best miraculous he could've gotten as he naturally likes to be a protector, and this miraculous works off that while also giving him protection. Wayzz also could've maybe addressed Adrien readily sacrificing himself, help him learn to be more cautious instead of rushing in, or at least think and be smart about how you go forward. There's even a possibility of Adrien having Turtle full time, as Nino could share his suspicions with Fu about Gabriel, so Wayzz could be there as a spy to check things out, which would have Adrien eventually get involved in his own plot, but still allow things to be at a slower pace. And as Wayzz, ideally, seems to be serious and dedicated but also playful and open minded, I think he would be very engaging with Adrien, which in turn could mean that when Adrien needs a call out, he would listen to what Wayzz had to say more (as most of the time Adrien ignores what Plagg says).

As for the leads, both would have an equal neutral involvement in the plot that can explain why things don't resolve quickly (looking at you Adrien who won't even ask questions about the suspicious book your father has). Alya would be a hero and lead for glory and self-righteousness, Nino would be to genuinely help others. Neither would have a super close tie to Gabriel, allowing him to sit under their noses for a while.

Also, gosh, you even could've had a lot of fun with color coded rivals/foils/personal antagonists for Alya and Nino.

If you really wanted to do Alya vs Lila, let Lila actually have the Fox or maybe she bought the Fox in Volpina, and this has Alya and Lila having the miraculous the other is color coded for. She could work off being a hero initially for the wrong reasons, just like Alya who starts for the glory too, as well as integrity vs deception.

Something could also be done between Nino vs Felix, with Nino really color coded for Peacock while Felix is color coded for Cat. Could play off both being ambitious to a fault and being selfish and nosy, but Nino cares more for others vs Felix is more exclusive.

And if expanding to others...

Of course could do Marinette vs Chloe if Marinette has the Bee, Chloe could have the Mouse, which could be funny to see Chloe deal with herself. That might humble her.

As for Adrien... could do him and Max being foils, work off Max getting Horse while largely wearing green, and I think Adrien is most color coded for Horse. Could work off both being perfectionist and could delve into the shared interest of gaming, with Max trying to bring out the competitiveness in Adrien. Could be thinking vs action.

Either way, ML is frustrating cause it's a show with potential and great concepts and it's irritating that it got butchered so. And the most frustrating thing is that there is just so many options to how it could've been done better. And kwami swap wise, these are my top two picks that would've been better.

Thank you for coming to my TED talks.

[three--rings]

4 Minutes episode 8

Non-spoilery conclusion: this show was flawed but I did enjoy it and I want to see more from everyone involved, you know?

So we're in the reality where Tyme is a caring doctor?

And where he is a good boyfriend even when breaking up...

I'm sorry but doctor/patient to dating is super uncomfortable. Like I get this is the fuzzy version of events but IDK gives me the ick.

Akira! My favorite actor in the show!

Okay toxic yaoi threesome I guess.

Wait tell me they didn't go back to Tonkla house, right? Are you fuckers at home when there's a manhunt?

Well, yeah, okay that clusterfuck was always gonna end badly. And honestly? I fuck with that kind of tragic doomed love between flawed people.

Okay making merits for the guy who shot you? Did Great know about their relationship?

Ah yeah I figured the money exchange was a setup.

Okay, okay. So...ultimately, I think the show was a valiant attempt at doing something different and being a really twisty mystery, but it could have used a rewrite, and probably more episodes.

Like, I really think rushing through the resolution in this episode is a mistep because it skips over the actual resolution of Tyme and Great's relationship, the actual love confession and getting together. Like, that's the MONEY SHOT of the romance and we don't really get it. Like, sure we got to see their 4 minutes versions of their relationship, but they didn't, and we didn't get to see them reunite and work it out.

I get from a writing standpoint, that's a very hard thing to write, especially in a snappy manner, which is why the easy choice is to skip it, but you're denying the audience the emotional payoff. And also sorta denying the really messy version of their relationship they had by only presenting us with a sanitized honeymoon version at the end. Like what I really want is seeing that hard work of these two flawed and hurt people getting over it and accepting each other for REAL.

Yeah what I really want is the fanfic of this show I think.

Other big missteps are how confusing a lot of the out-of-order stuff was with the Tonkla plot, though I ultimately got that.

And most of all, the lack of real characterization of Great up until we get the real version of his story. He just felt flat and blank until then, and I get WHY and I don't know how to better resolve that while still getting the "oh shit it wasn't real" reveal. But like...IDK.

This show very much feels like an experiment that was worthy and had a lot of hard work put into it but didn't quite land.

I really think the actors all did great and the filming and everything was excellent, so I hope we continue to get good stuff from BOC. I also really like Bible and Jes individually and think they're both super talented, but I'm not entirely convinced by the chemistry... IDK.

[the-haunted-star]

My Humble Thoughts On Captain America: Brave New World:

(Minor Spoilers)

A solid, entertaining and action packed solo outing for Sam Wilson’s Captain America! I thoroughly enjoyed it! For whatever reason this film received a lot of bad press during its production cycle concerning various issues ranging from story rewrites, filming reshoots, to rumored poor test screenings. Even now after its release the critics have not been kind either. I’m not sure why there was so much ill will toward this movie or why a certain section of the fandom seems to want Marvel to fail but despite whatever difficulties the film may have gone through, I think much of the perceived issues were unwarranted and some of the harsh criticism unfair.

Is this a perfect film? No of course not but I’m not sure what people want from these movies anymore. They can’t all be “Infinity War” levels of stakes, action and epic scope. For me if these movies provide an interesting story simple or complex that keeps me engaged, has good character dynamics with emotional development mixed with the right amount of humor and thrilling superhero style action I usually walk out of the theater happy.

Brave New World may not have the best script and it can be a bit exposition heavy at times but I thought it had an interesting plot with a mix of elements including mystery, conspiracy, espionage

and even some “Manchurian Candidate” type machinations. I would compare the feel of this film to that of CA: The Winter Soldier. I’m not saying this is as good as that film was but its grounded-ness and serious tone definitely reminded me of CA:TWS which I very much liked and

appreciated. The cast involved were all on point and each brought their “A” games. Anthony Mackie and Harrison Ford especially deliver standout emotional performances. While in smaller roles Giancarlo Esposito and Tim Blake Nelson both shined in menacing fashion as the film’s villains.

The action meanwhile was very high caliber. The fights were fast, hard hitting and easy to follow. An aspect of the fights I’m glad they included is that they showed that Sam could and often did get injured reiterating the fact that Sam is a hero with no super powers or super soldier type serums. He’s human and can be hurt. The set pieces were equally as thrilling with the highlight coming of course when the Incredible (Red) Hulk finally emerges causing all sorts of brutal carnage and destruction. If you watched every piece of preview footage before seeing the film, I feel sorry that you probably had most of Red Hulk’s awesomeness spoiled for you beforehand.

If I had any complaints it would simply be with The Leader’s (Tim Blake Nelson’s character) physical appearance/design. Early reports, leaked promo art and even the Funko Pop figure depicted a much more comic accurate looking design with the elongated head and goatee beard. For whatever reason this was changed to a different look, with him now having more of a mutated exposed brain instead of the giant, elongated head. He still looked pretty cool however and perhaps the redesign did fit in a bit better with the film’s grounded aesthetic. (Edit: Upon browsing through some older comic book material, the redesign is actually a bit more evocative of how The Leader appeared in Peter David's early Hulk run specifically Incredible Hulk #342 where Leader's head was more bulbous and brain textured than the (up to that point) classic elongated forehead look. Whether the final movie design was intentionally referencing that alternative comic book appearance or not is anyone's guess, I just had completely forgotten about it.)

Lastly, the film’s other shortcoming would have to be its music score. Unfortunately nothing of it really stood out for me. It was more of an atmospheric, moody type score. No memorable themes that I can recall and I don’t think Sam got a theme of his own. If he did I just didn’t notice it. No reprise of the original Cap theme either (which would have fit well in a couple scenes) unless I missed it. To be fair I also thought CA:TWS score was kind of lackluster the first time I saw that movie too but I gained a better appreciation for it after repeat viewings. Perhaps I will with BNW’s as well hopefully. So all in all I was very happy with this movie! Once again, don’t let the negative press and critic’s reviews get you down. Go see it and just have a fun time at the movies! ⭐⭐⭐½

[egtotaldramatakes]

im so happy i found this blog my td obsession is going to take over again !!! i have an insane amount of headcanons however most of them are about mike and his system because they are my childhood and current comfort character (also a very personal character to me because my mental issues)(this is going to be a long rant)

so heres a ton of mike n co headcanons while i plot how to rewrite all stars and draw it:

- mal is actually really into psychology, and tries to learn about it a lot. this is wht he knows so much about the system and how he could take over in all stars so easily (though in my eyes half of all stars was not real and i am going to demolish the writers with a wrecking ball) alsobmal is actually quite smart, however it is not portrayed well. he is about the same level as alejandro in terms of understanding others socially, maybe as observant as izzy, however he does not like showing that. he also usually does dumb things brcause he craves chaos to make him feel like he has control over his life (can you tell im self inserting(joke))

- the whole system collectively sucks with school subjects involving remembering very specific, one time use things (social studies, language) and formula based subjects are easier. however their grades are not great. also, they are all smart, but show it in different ways. svetlana is coordinated, mike is emotionally understanding/comforting person, mal is emotionally observant, manitoba is good with nature and animals, i can go on but i am not good at actually describing things like these in words !!! ask me if u want more explanation ig

- due to the above (grades), home life is not easy, and mike went to total drama to escape from life where he lived, though it was not the greatest idea. he met zoey though!

- mal is not really evil. he can be mean/rude as a defense mechanism, and prefers to do chaotic things for fun, and like i mentioned above to have a sense if control. he is very reactive / hotheaded and will get angry/emotional easily. he likes to see others hurt because he was hurt so many times and probably believes nobody would try to care for him, which is a large reason he tries to take over in all stars, since scott exists. he is destructive, and likes to show proof that he can be powerful, where mike tries his best to hide very strong emotions, and act happy as much as possible.

- mal thinks everybody loves mike, and has liw self esteem because of tje fact that he isnt mike. ("im a bug eyed weirdo and everybody loves me!") but mike thinks nobody could possibly like him. vito and svetlana usually have very high self esteem however, svetlana due to being good with athletics and probably for having medals for sports, and vito for being abke to talk confidently to others, which makes others act nicer. chester and manitoba do not really care about how others view them.

- svetlana being active (and mal fighting in juvie) probably gave them an ungodly sleeper build (how mal was able to mess up alejandro's wrist in all stars)

- mal didnt really want to go to juvie, probably only going for a big fight where he really hurt someone out of defense, but after seeing how much of a big deal it was and how people actually paid attention, he disobeyed people a lot more to get a negative reaction, since to him, "at least it is a reaction" or something like that

- i need to stop writing angst because i feel like i got hit by a truck but !! anywasy mal initially doesnt trust zoey and tries to sabotage her bond with mike, however zoey does research on trauma / rffects of trauma and kinda figures out that if she does nice things for mal, he will not be as destructive. it is slow and difficult but they eventually manage to bond as well as form a friendship

- mike has rarely had good food and when zoey takes him out to a fancy resturaunt for the first time he cries bevause the food is so good (they used to live in a house where groceries were forgotten and would sometimes fend for themself, and when dinner was cooked it wouldnt alwsys be something they liked, due to the different food preferences between each alter)

- mike, svetlana, and vito are dog people, manitoba, chester and mal are cat people , zoey got both and takes allergy medicine for the dog (mike insisted she didnt have to get a dog and this only made her want onr more(she always wanted a dog but never got one because of her allergies(she never considered she could take medicine since nobody close to her owned a dog)))

- the cats name is patches, she is a calico with one eye who mal found on the street, he initially tried to ignore her but couldnt leave her outside.

- the dog has short fur, not sure ehat breed, maybe a chocolate lab. has a name like hershey or some chocolate brand

- they go insane the first time they have a birthday and cry when the cake is brought out and zoey cries because she had birthdays but at home and with only her family

- sleep terrors.

- mal tried to give himself piercings several times but it failed since mike would find it and remove it and it the piercing would close up

i want to write more about the othet alters but they have so little screen time in comparison :( i also havent watched roti / all stars in like 2 months and my memort is really bad so i dont remember alot to base hcs on, also i zone out alot when they are on screen

my head is going fuzzy again and my neck and head hurts so i am now 🧭 anon !!! perhaps one day i will reveal my blog heheheh..... i hope these hcs are okay / dont get me hate and i will be back!!! i think ive typed for 45 minutes god

.

[galvanizedfriend]

hiiii friend!!! how are you?? are your football dudes winning?? I get scared whenever they aren't 😭😭

So! I was watching a Klaus & Davina compilation, and when I opened the comment, I saw someone saying "grandpa & granddaughter duo" which, of course, instigated a whole family-tree-related discussion.

Now, I already know your general opinion about Marbekah & Kolvina, but have you ever thought about changing things in TW? I mean, I know Kol and Davina relationship is crucial for very few but very important plot points, but still... Have you ever thought of "fixing" the relationship of this family tree?

Also, almost off topic, but talking about TW! Are you going to address the fact that Bill and Care died in the same way? aka with their throat cut open and vampire blood in their sistem which literally drained them from their magic. Idk how much of Bill we will actually see, but it'd be nice to see a reference to this!

of course, this is pure curiosity and not judgment 😭😭 actually, it never is, but you know how tone deaf texts can be🥲🥲

Hope you have a good day, love u!!! xoxo

Hi, friend! My football dudes are currently ✨on vacations✨ which is a bliss! 😌 But sadly they do find ways to piss me off even before the season officially starts omfg. Liking sports is the worst thing ever, do not recommend.

I thought about doing lots and lots and lots of things. Like I've said before, TW isn't necessarily my dream version of The Originals or what that show would've turned out like had I been the mastermind behind it. It's just *a* version of The Originals, one that very deliberately follows the show's major plot points while trying to shape it into something I could have (personally) still become invested in. I wanted to add more depth to the characters, their storylines, their relationships, make sense out of their actions, give background to some of the stuff that seems to come out of nowhere and just basically write Caroline into the family and give Klaroline a happy ending, but preserving the storyline in a 'see? you could've still made this work' sort of way. Whether I accomplish any of that is subjective and not the point here, but it was my starting point. If I could go back, I might have done things differently, but I decided to stick to my original plan and that's where I'm at. The problem with Marbekah and Kolvina is that I simply do not care enough about them. "Fixing" those relationships, as in coming up with a different pair for Kol, if any, or never going down the Marcel/Rebekah line (which - ew) would mean having to wreck my brain trying to come up with completely new and improved additions to the story that would invariably alter a *lot* of things, essentially rewriting entire parts of The Originals that I do not care about. I'm not writing The Wolf to give Rebekah a happy ending or Marcel a better storyline. I love Marcel, don't get me wrong (I loved Rebekah too, but she's a barely there at all after S1), but he's not the reason I'm writing this. I do rewrite huge portions of the story, there's an entire new arc that doesn't exist on the show connecting it back to The Vampire Diaries, but it's all Klaroline-centered. Rewriting Kolvina or Marbekah would demand a huge amount of time and a level of commitment to these characters that I simply do not have. That's not to say that I don't do my best because I try to work with what I've got, I try to rationalize all of Marcel's actions, I give Kol more scenes with the family than he has with Davina, I care about the world building and that involves all of the side characters and what happens to them. But in order to actually change all of that, I'd have to give them way more screen time in order to develop the new lines and, simply putting it, I don't want to. lol I don't want to write 20k extra words of Marcel or Kol. I want to focus everything around Caroline and Klaus and add the rest of the cast into the mix whenever they become absolutely necessary or when they suit my purposes to push my Klaroline agenda. The one exception to that is Elijah. That's it.

Maybe a better, more engaged and committed writer would do a much finer job of fixing The Originals in its essence, but that's not what this fic is about. So I'm not a fan of Kol and Davina, but I also don't care enough about Kol to go out of my way to give him an entire new love interest in a side story that will have nothing to do with the main arc of the story the way I care about Elijah, for instance. As for Bill and Caroline, I'm not sure yet. I haven't actually written those parts. All I can say is he's dead and he's not coming back. He's not the same brand of bad father he was on TVD. I mean, he was awful, what kind of parent tortures their own child like that, but he's way worse in TW. He didn't just marry Stephen and move to another state, he walked out one day and never came back, essentially abandoning his family after tormenting Caroline for most of her childhood. So any parallels that could be drawn between them would be a bit more gruesome than just father and daughter being killed the same way. It would have to do with the fact that, in TW, Bill was killed because of what he was doing to his daughter, while Caroline died for her daughter. I'm sorry if this is all a bit disappointing, and please don't take it the wrong way, but I'm just being honest. 🙃 Hope you have a lovely weekend! ✨

[idkjustletmescroll]

Warning: if you liked the dragon prince as it is, go right ahead and scroll on by :) this is basically what I would have done differently/liked to see, even if I did really like the show overall

We're just going to get right into it. This pretty much only pertains to act 2. I liked act 1. Anyways!

1: Ezran stays in katolis in season four; sunfire elf plotline rewrite

It's no secret that most people dislike the sunfire elf sideplot, and, despite the fact that janai and amaya are both my fav characters and my fav ship, it doesn't fit in to act 2's overall story. I'd have liked for them to continue the human/elf plotline both through sunfire politics and katolis', as well; there's no way ezran's speech in the graveyard in season 4 just made it a non-issue. Tbh, I didn't feel like ezran contributed much to the gang's journey in season 4, and, considering that act 1 had it be such a major plot point that the kingdom needs its king, I'd have liked for him to stay in katolis and, along with the sunfire plot, develop a plotline about humans and elves not only needing to reconcile, but come together to defeat aaravos (elf magic + human creativity and resourcefulness).

Also, the show mentions janai's grandma, queen Aditi, ALL THE TIME, and then never really does anything with her character--or the orphan queen. Since lux aurea canonically has a massive and ultra-important library ("bookery"), time could've been devoted to research there, too. It would have been a way to work in plenty of exposition.

2: The Terry issue

My issue with Terry is that he's just not important. I don't care about this guy. I spent most of act 2 dreading when he was on screen because I just don't care. Sure, he's sweet, but...why is an elf involved with a dark mage? How does he even get involved with claudia? How does he justify all the terrible things they're doing? I think it would've been interesting to see an elf who not only doesn't mind dark magic but defends it, presenting more issues for the main cast (i.e. callum) to think about. In my opinion, he should have either died or abandoned claudia fully in either seasons 5 or 6. He would have been the last person who loved and supported her unconditionally leaving her, one way or the other, and therefore leaving her fully vulernable to aaravos' manipulations. I'm sorry, but most of what he did in season 7 was centered around getting the gang not to hurt claudia, and it was pissing me off. No, you don't have to agree, this is just an opinion.

3: Rayllum

Yes, I know, I know, it's just a kid's show. Yes, I know rayllum is an audience fav, and even if it's not mine, I understand why people like it so much. It's cute, it's fun. My issue with act 2 rayllum is that it feels like the show focuses a lot more on their relationship than on the individual characters. I'd like rayla to actually explain to callum why she left: she was paranoid, she wanted to make sure viren was gone for good. Could she have finished him off herself, if it came down to it, looking him dead in the eyes and using her swords? There's a question that keeps coming back to haunt her: is she able to end a life? Why couldn't she have let callum and ezran help her? She's failed at everything else (in her eyes). She can't go home, her own adopted fathers either banished her or tried to kill her. She couldn't fail at this, too. She had to do something. That's interesting.

And on callum's side, I think it would have been cool to see him connecting with the ocean arcanum...without the finnegrin plot, bc I didn't like it. He sees ezran growing up, and that's kind of scary, not always knowing what his little brother's thinking or feeling anymore. Callum's growing up, too, and, as much as he loves being high mage, he still wants to explore the world and learn new things outside of katolis; he's getting political marriage offers; his life is going to change soon, one way or the other, and that's scary, and he doesn't really have a parental figure to talk to, with Amaya being away. He can't always control or predict rayla, and he can't control or predict or prevent all of his losses, either. Since that's the ocean arcanum's whole deal, I think it would have been a neat way for him to get it.

There we go, plotlines for individual characters instead of the whole relationship, that still include and effect that relationship. Also, I would somewhat tweak callum's decision to help rayla in s7. First, he would also have his own conflicting feelings about runaan. He agrees runaan should be allowed to go to his home and husband, but insists that ezran will be easily convinced as soon as things settle down, "in a few weeks." Rayla goes through with the breakout anyways, callum's hurt but decides to go along with it, and--and this is very important--HE DOES NOT LIKE RUNAAN. He does not FORGIVE Runaan. Maybe they talk it out, but either way, runaan being the one to have killed harrow effects callum in some way. S7 made it more of an ezran thing. Callum also feels a lot more torn up about betraying ezran, maybe seeing some sibling pairs in the silvergrove that make him think back on his brother.

4: The key of aaravos

Just some resolution to the key, guys. It's been emphasized CONSTANTLY in the show since s1 episode 4. Idk what it would be, I just want it to be SOMETHING.

[macawritesupdates]

Writing Update 9/19/2024

Been a while since I did an update! Last week I was on jury duty and it MURDERED my writing time as I had to change up my day and it took longer to get home (mentally draining....)

Been back at work this week, but still has been draining, so less time to get things done, but trying to get back into the flow of things! Hopefully more updates to show soon!

REQUESTS

I will get back to those as soon as I clear up some other fics. Just got a lot of long fics (12 in total) and one-shots (like ...5 in total?) that I'm writing and want to finish!

READER INTERACTION FICS

Can't Help a Cuddle: It has 5k words in and that is just the spicy scene it is going to open up with lol It is going to end up being a long chapter as it introduces more plot and the like going forward! Hopefully will be updating soon!

Jealousy is Not a Good Friend: Also have it outlined and making good progress on writing it out so it should come out the same time or before Cuddle. Got some spice as always!

LONG FANFICS JJK

Broken in the Ways No One Sees: Going to speed run write out the last three chapters to the story as it one the poll for which one to finish first! I'll post chapters as I finish <3

When you Get Two Grandsons: Next chapter is coming and I'll be overhauling the tags to reflect the new developments! This story is remaining sweet and family feel wholesome!

Spouse Wanted: Experience not Necessary: the new chapter is NEARLY done and may be out tonight depending on how I finish up this last scene hehe! If not tonight, then going to be up tomorrow!

Lessons in Accidental Seduction: Eagerly writing out the next chapter! I'm excited for this one as it has nice character development and Sukuna really starting to work things out and he and Yuuji getting closer again <3

Malevolence of Love: Wanted to finish his fix before the 30th, but don't see that happening due to writing delays ; w ; BUT the next chapter is coming out and I know it is an anticipated one! Hoping it won't take long...

Who's a Good Boy: New chapter is in the works but not the priority fic at the moment!

The Yuuji Files: I am hoping a new update will happen SOON as I work through the scenes in this one. It is going to be a meaty chapter though as it has a lot of little plots going on in the B-plot area.

Careful What you Joke About: Also working on the next chapter now that the rewrites have been completed for the outline <3 I hope I haven't kept anyone waiting too long!

Mirrored Lives: Still need to rework and rewrite the outline and plot and get it to a point I'm more satisfied with.

LONG FICS MHA

What Sacrifices Heroes make that go Unsung: I WANT TO WRITE THE NEXT THREE CHAPTERS SO BAD AHHHH! I am going to push to make time to work on this one as ugh! I love it in my HEART so much and want to share ; w ;

A Rut Time of It: It is on the backburner as I get other fix worked out and finished up!

ONE-SHOTS IN PROGRESS

Pull Me Along if I Can’t Move Forward: Izuku/Bakugo sweet fic that is still in slow slow progress. Going to see if I can't finish it up soon!

Heatwaves and Curses Don't Mix: A pwp fic of Nobara/Yuuji/Sukuna with true-form Sukuna and his double dongs. Just pure smut for the heck of it that is slowly coming together

Playing House: Sukuita fic where Sukuna makes Yuuji play house like they did when kids but takes it too far. A pwp fic idea suggested when I was in the mood and is close to being done c:

Take Me to Prom?: Sukita one shot where Yuuji blackmails his cousin Sukuna to cross dress and take him to prom as his date. Shenanigans ensue

Once Upon a Blob: Sukuna, now Blobkuna, has a plan to get his body back and it involves the old fairy tale cliche of love's true kiss. Chaos ensures.

And That's When I knew It: A silly Uraraka/Kirishima one-shot where something horribly embarrassing happens and feelings are had (and spice XD)

FUTURE FANFICS IN PROGRESS

Culturally Inappropriate: Starting to outline the fic and name the characters who are going to be with Yuuji through the Possessed Anonymous group. Letting it build its own themes and feeling good about it so far!

This is the sequel to Historically Inaccurate and keeps moving with the themes and Sukuna and Yuuji building their relationship as vessel and and cursed spirit while also their personal healing. Gonna be good hopefully!

Law Meets Disorder: (Maybe changing to Law and Disorder for the title) Still mapping out my ideas but might get to finally finishing up the outline soon!

The Dragon Story: Still more an idea with more worldbuilding done than plot. Need to find a solid plot for it....

We Wretched Few: Heian Era court drama fanfic with an ABO flair to it that I've been poking around at :b

[voidlingduck]

Hazbin Hotel - Thoughts and Rewrite

Having seen the first four episodes of Hazbin Hotel, and having been casually following the Hellaverse since the pilot (I have watched the shows but not consumed any outside material) - I have had a lot of thoughts about the storytelling of Hazbin Hotel so far. In discussing my thoughts and feelings with @ekholocationn I ended up having some ideas on how I would handle the overall arc and plot of the show to make for a tighter narrative and address some of the flaws I found with the work.

This is very much a broad strokes kind of rewrite at this point, and trying to stay relatively true to what has been presented to us so far - it mostly involves shuffling things around and reorganising/refocusing the plot.

The main complaint with the plot of the show is that the Heaven plotline feels rushed and the cards are being played too soon, what feels like it should be a twist is laid bare in the first episode and furthermore it undermines the very purpose of the Hotel and Charlie's plan. Heaven as not merely an antagonistic, but an actively villainous force, feels like it's come too soon - and the way it's being explored isn't really satisfying. Camilla's reluctance to fight is difficult to justify, where Velvette, who is arguably framed as a villain, seems to be onto something and correct.

Speaking of Velvette however, her and the Vee's are what I feel are the shows strongest aspect at this point. These are villains that have incredibly strong personality and presence, and moreso, personal connections and investment to the cast at the hotel. Vox and Velvette's songs are some of my favourites, and Valentino is shown to be a serious threat to Angel and his potential for redemption.

This in mind, in my rewrite of the show, Season 1 of Hazbin Hotel would cast the Vee's as the primary antagonists to the hotel, and leave the angel's in heaven and their villainy as a mystery and twist reveal for later in the show.

Charlie has no reason to believe her plan won't work, in fact, she has a powerful Overlord as a benefactor - who while he seems to be a little disparaging, is still putting resources into her project. She is doing what she can to try and rehabilitate these sinners, however, the Vee's want to see this project fail and become active threats to the Hotel. Vox, because of his rivalry with Alastor, and Valentino because he wants to keep control of angel. The primary tension is the push and pull between Charlie as a force of redemption and light, and the Vee's as a representation of temptation, vice and hell's worst qualities trying to keep the sinners down. Charlie does not meet with Adam and the angels in Episode 1, rather, she is seen to be optomistic and hopeful, and Heaven is kept as this guarded mystery and protectors of order and goodness.

What about Velvette the other Overlords, and the angels though? I greatly enjoyed Respectless, and I don't want to snub Velvette, who is clearly a powerful villain in her own right. I don't want to completely erase the plot of the exterminated angel and Heaven's violence from the show. I would keep the scene of the Overlords meeting, and Velvette revealing the angel's severed head, however I would make a few tweaks. Firstly, this would be the first time we find out about the fact that an angel was killed - we are just as shocked as the other Overlords. Secondly, the Hazbin Hotel would be more of a point of discussion, and we would get a more overarching conflict between the Hotel and the Vees regarding what to do about the problem of Angel Extermination. Do we attempt to redeem sinners? Or do we just kill the Angels? I think for the purpose of this plot, the revelation that Heaven is moving up its extermination would coincide with the meeting of the Overlords, really being a trigger for it, and this episode would act as a midpoint - raising the stakes and introducing the broader conflict after a few episodes settling into the attempts fo the Hotel to redeem sinners and the Vee's attempts to intervene.

In this story rather than being the way the show opens, Charlie meeting with the angels would instead be a sort of climactic moment - and the revelation that Adam is a jerk and Heaven has no intention of letting sinners rise but instead wants to exterminate them would be a sort of Darkest Hour moment for Charlie. Her plan has failed, the Vee's are gaining more support... This way, there's been some build up, and the twist feels more like a twist - and it also feels like more of a gut-wrenching betrayal because both us and Charlie by this point would have investment in her plan and a hope that it might actually work.

I want to see how the show handles it's ending before I fully flesh out this rewrite, but for now this is the sort of broad strokes as to how I would approach structuring Hazbin Hotel if I were to rework it. I may or may not expand on these thoughts later when there is more material to work with! This post also does not touch on more nuanced topics such as the shows handling of sensitive issues and character arcs, it is more of a broad strokes analysis and retooling.

I thought it might be fun to share my thoughts and I hope people enjoy them! I would love to hear other peoples thoughts on this as well :)