#it would be so good narratively and character wise it would tie up so many loose ends

[sunsetsover]

they say the most effective liars weave the truth into their lies. lilly told bison and fadel that ruerat had both their parents killed because they wouldn't sell him their land. i believe that's 100% what happened, but it wasn't ruerat that wanted that land, but lilly. she killed those people, stole their land AND their children, and then turned those children into killers who took away other children's parents in turn. which is actually really really sick but i digress.

kant told bison that he had to make money stealing cars to 'give [his] brother a better life, like before [his] parents died'. i realise a stretch, but it's not impossible that kant's parents were well off. they died in a plane crash (allegedly), so theoretically they had enough to give their two kids a good life and education, while also having enough spare to travel together (or they were travelling for work, tho i feel like the odds of them both travelling at the same time for work aren't very high personally). maybe they had land too. maybe they had land lilly wanted. maybe they had land they weren't willing to give up.

and for the record, i don't know if i fully believe the plane crash thing. it's just so out there. not impossible, but very out there. i can see a world where a young and grieving kant is fed a lie about his parents dying in a plane crash on their way back from a trip and believing it bc he's young and he's grieving and what reason would he have to think anyone would want his parents dead? maybe he never sees their bodies. maybe, in the carnage of a plane crash, there's nothing to recover. maybe kant is so fucked up and scared and worried about babe that he doesn't even think to question it.

i can also see a world where kant DOES know what happened to his parents - and maybe even knows who did it too - but feeds babe a lie because the truth is so awful and his brother is so young and he can't do that to him. maybe he just never finds the right time to tell him the truth once he's old enough. maybe he doesn't want to, would rather protect his brother in this way too - let him believe it was just a terrible accident then have to carry the truth, which is that there is someone out there that is responsible for leaving them both orphans. i'm sure, if it was a situation like that, that kant would rather carry the weight of truth for the both of them than let babe shoulder it for a even a moment.

maybe he was even there. i mean there's the whole thing with kant being scared of the ocean which DEFINITELY has more to it than he let on to bison. maybe lilly had them killed right in front of him like she did with bison and fadel's parents - on a beach, by the water. maybe they really did never make it back from their trip. maybe she left kant to drown somewhere, left him floundering in the water to die with his parents - in his haste to get to them, realising what was happening? or was he forced out into the water against his will? i don't know. killing a child might be a shade too far, even for her, but i certainly don't think she would save him if she saw him drowning. he wouldn't even be worth taking with her to brainwash. he probably would've been too old to brainwash.

babe on the other hand?

idk. i'm literally working off of nothing but vibes. i just think it would be a great plot twist, and also would work really well as a catalyst getting bison (and by extension fadel) back onside. like bison clearly has a soft spot for kant being a good big brother. kant'll inevitably confess that the only reason he did the whole police informant thing was because of babe, bc he had to stay out of prison to look after him (plus the whole reason the police had him by the balls in the first place was bc of the car thieving, which was also for babe's sake). but then can you imagine bison finding out not only that lilly had killed his parents, but also kant and babe's? that literally the entire sequence of events that led to kant lying to bison was because of lilly? and, in a way, bc of people like him - people who killed for her, probably believing they were doing it for the greater good but all they were doing is leaving a trail of victims in their wake? that yeah bison is a victim, but so is kant? so is babe? babe, who kant has tried so hard to provide for and protect this whole time (as did bison!), but he never would have had to if it wasn't for lilly and the people that worked for her? people like bison? and though kant might have hurt bison and his family, doesn't that absolutely pale in comparison to the pain and tragedy his family had inflicted on kant first?

you know what would be crazy

if we found out lilly not only killed fadel and bison's parents, but that she killed kant and babe's parents too

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

When Zoe-oneesama was still mapping out her plans for Scarlet Lady, she made an observation that two of canon!Sabrina’s biggest issues with her own personality are that she operates on both Mean Girl Logic AND Sidekick/Assistant/Slave Logic, which I agree with. This is evident in how, like you said, there are just as many moments — especially earlier on in the show — where Sabrina is gleefully going along with what Chloe wants as there are where she’s shrinking away or scared. Zoe also pointed out how this is highlighted in Evillustrator when Sabrina is trying to switch to being Marinette’s best friend and immediately tries to ingratiate herself by suggesting that they tell the teacher on Chloe and that she does Marinette’s homework. How would you handle a redemption or even just character growth arc for Sabrina with these main flaws in mind?

Here’s the OG post for reference (just for the Sabrina parts, not necessarily the SL parts since a few things were altered for the actual comic): https://zoe-oneesama.tumblr.com/post/180211248479/i-only-have-one-question-about-scarlet

(Link to the post that spawned this ask and a clickable link for @zoe-oneesama's post, which I'll also schedule to reblog the same day as this one if you don't feel like clicking a link)

Zoe is wise and makes excellent points. I've really enjoyed her comic's take on Sabrina and fully agree that people-pleasing Marinette is a poor choice for the character to help Sabrina be a better person in most situations. Marinette is great at standing up to those that she doesn't like, but once she cares about a person, she can be a bit of a pushover, which is a deeply relatable struggle. It's much harder to stand up to people when you care about them and want them to like you.

Adrien would be an even worse person to redeem Sabrina since he's even more of a people-pleaser! Marinette will at least stand up to her enemies, Adrien struggles to stand up to anyone.

This makes it hard to redeem Sabrina in canon because these two are our main characters. We want the plot and most of the subplots to revolve around them or the people close to them. We don't want Sabrina eating up screentime and elevating her narrative status to that of main character or major supporting character unless it benefits the wider story because the show isn't about Sabrina. She's an extremely minor character with zero ties to the leads outside of her role as Marinette's bully. No matter how much you like her, it makes no sense to give her serious narrative weight based on her established role in the narrative.

This means that Sabrina's path to the good side needs to either be very quick or somehow involve our leads and/or their core friend group without making them feel out of character. You could also somehow tie it to the villains and use it to develop them, but I really don't see that working for a redemption.

In spite of all of these issues, there are still a few ways that you might be able to make this work. Here's my pitch list. Note that the first three ideas could probably be mixed and matched into variants of each other where, for example, idea one's setup lead to idea two's plotline. I'm just keeping them separate to keep things simple and avoid repetition.

Idea 1: Remove Chloe and see what happens

Have season three end with Chloe leaving Paris because everyone blames her for Miracle Queen and Andre wants to protect his daughter. Without Chloe to be her leader, Sabrina is left adrift, so she looks for a new leader. She's already clung to Marinette once, so have that happen again, but with Alya more involved. Marinette will feel bad for Sabrina and Alya will be there to call Sabrina out on her bad behavior because you need a character who is willing to do that for this to work. Someone who won't try to sugar coat things like Marinette might if she's feeling sorry for Sabrina.

This path only works if you stick with the show's gender segregation issue where the girls and the guys don't interact much as it doesn't fit a setup where Sabrina is the fifth member of Alya, Nino, Marinette, and Adrien's little group. I don't even think it would work well in the larger group of girl friends. This plot line needs to really focus in on Sabrina and you simply can't do that with a large cast. The end result will probably be Sabrina becoming a pretty major character, pushing the guys even further into the background, so I don't really like this one, but it would work since canon is already giving Marinette and Alya way more importance than Adrien and Nino.

Idea 2: Self-Reflection After the Breakup

Have Chloe dump Sabrina. This could happen in several ways such as Lila not wanting Sabrina around as a witness or Sabrina failing Chloe in some way, leading Chloe to decide that she's better off alone. The cause really doesn't matter. What matters is the fallout.

This separation will play very differently from the one in the first idea. The separation is no longer forced on them, but an active choice made by Chloe, leading Sabrina to go into a full breakdown as she tries to understand what she did wrong. She may even try and fail to fix things. Chloe's continued presence will also make people wary of Sabrina, leading her to really have to face the bed her choices made.

Eventually Sabrina will reach a stage of self reflection where she wants to be better on her own. She will approach the rest of the class from the perspective of wanting help on her self-improvement journey, then someone who isn't a main character - and who hasn't suffered much from Sabrina's actions - will "adopt" Sabrina as their pet project. Sabrina's redemption will now no longer be a real plot line, instead it will be something we see hints of in the background. I liked the idea of this being Alix, that's a good fit. She would be very good at drawing lines in the sand. You could even make this a rabbit thing where Alix knows who Sabrina could be if she really works at improving and so Alix wants to help make that future happen.

Idea 3: Expand on Season Five's Speed-run Redemption

Stick with season five's plot of Sabrina switching sides because Chloe has gone too far, but instead of it being a one-episode thing, make it more drawn out. Make her and Marinette actually work together over multiple episodes and let Sabrina see what it's like to work with someone who cares about others. Someone who has lines that they won't cross. Marinette having a task to focus on will make her much less likely to baby Sabrina and give her Ladybug side a chance to really shine, which works since that's the side that inspires people to be better.

Idea 4: Paying it forward

Redeem Chloe, elevating her narrative role to someone who can have their own subplot, then have Chloe redeem Sabrina. Let their complex, but close friendship become a healthy and even closer friendship. This would let Chloe show how much she's changed and is probably the only path where I could buy Sabrina getting a miraculous as I just don't think that it makes sense for one of her main victims (Marinette) to give her magic powers. Just like Adrien should have picked Chloe, Chloe should pick Sabrina. "I know she's done wrong, but so did I and you still let me be on the team. Plus there's no one on this planet who is more loyal than Sabrina. This miraculous should be hers. She won't let us down."

You can also get real crazy and have Chloe pick Sabrina pre identity reveal so that Sabrina's redemption comes with a level of removal from the bullying baggage, making forgiveness much easier post-reveal. Identity shenanigans don't need to be limited to humor. They can be dramatic, too!

Personal confession time, that last one is my favorite. I just really love the power of love and friendship. I also really love the idea of the secret identities being used for more complex identity shenanigans such as easier redemptions. It's a lot easier to believe that someone has changed when you've become friends with their alter ego and seen the change first hand without the weight of the past hanging over you to bias your judgement. Option two is also pretty solid. Keeps Sabrina in her canon role while allowing her fans to see her grow into a good guy. Very best of both worlds.

I'll also note that the issue from my original post remains true: if you want to redeem Sabrina, then you need to stick to the version from the first three seasons. As soon as you add things like Derision to the mix, it becomes nonsensical to make her friends with her victims. She's simply gone too far with no complicating element to make her victims want a relationship with her.

For all Gabriel's awful actions, it makes sense that Adrien might want his father in his life, so you can potential make that redemption work if you handle it with extreme care, but Sabrina is just a random mean girl. There's no greater connection that would make the heroes want a relationship in spite of all that she's done. The only way to change that is to make Chloe a hero too because Sabrina is Chloe's best friend, so it makes sense that Chloe would want to keep Sabrina around (or at least these two were best friends in the first three seasons. I don't know what they were after that. It seriously felt like season four started with the introduction of Chloe's eviler twin).

[bobbydagen24]

Personally I Really don't like Flapjacks death the more I think about it story wise.

Brooklyn nine nine meme aside 😂😂 part of me does feel it was a touch unnecessary and I have Read a Bunch of people's points Regarding the point of Flapjacks death

but IDK its not like Flapjack's death was actually necessary to Hunter breaking free of Belos since he already did that due to him being hurt

sure the self sacrifice is sweet and all but it does kinda just feel like angst for the sake of it for Hunter's character

when the episode seemingly did tie up his arc in a good way at first showing him moving on from Belos and be happy throughout the episode

only to have his old abuser show up and still try to control him and use him one last time

only for Hunter to actually stand up to him and break their tie for good which he didn't actually do when he left the coven before

so this would have been a great episode to end Hunter's Arc like so many claim it did

if they then didn't have Flap's death leaving a sour spot and seemingly setting up more story for Hunter only to not really do much with it

sure he was upset for a few scenes but I'm sorry I don't feel that alone justifies this writing decision especially when it just ruins what could have been a good ending to Hunter Breaking free from his abusive parent.

by just kinda not letting the story between them die there and instead having the relationship end on Belos Delivering a crushing cruel blow on his victim and then the show never really paying it off

since this is Hunter and Belos's last interaction so instead of their relationship ending on an empowering nice note for Hunter it ends on a cruel one.

this is why I was disappointed with the lack of a final interaction between them in the finale prior to Belos's death, to be clear I don't think Hunter should have killed him or even witnessed his death

but I do feel not having a final interaction between them Just makes Flapjacks death more cruel tbh

as that is the canonical ending to Hunter's Relationship with his abuser and its a sour one tbh.

So it does just end up feeling like Hunter angst just for the sake of it.

IDK I just don't really like Flapjacks death the more I've thought about it over time I've seen a ton of people talking about its narrative purpose and whatnot so I understand people's reasons for believing it was the Right story choice

and Hell I ain't necessarily saying it objectively wasn't

( I ain't a professional writer what do I know? 😅😅 )

But I do just wanna say after thinking about it a while I do Dislike it writing wise no beef with anyone who does like it tho.

[utilitycaster]

i really enjoy your opinions on different builds! build-wise, do you have a favorite character for each campaign? (simply build-wise, so i suppose the question would be better phrased as "favorite build per campaign")

Hi anon!

Campaign 1 is hard simply because between the cast learning the system and there not being a huge number of options, most of the builds were pretty simple. Percy, Pike, and Keyleth don't really have many build choices at all - they're all good builds, and the players played them well, but it's pretty much as simple as "this is my class and subclass ok done" because Pike and Keyleth are both prepared casters. Grog taking fighter levels is solid but fairly straightforward. Vax gets points for narrative integration but it was so item-dependent and base assassin rogue is so weak. I am torn between Vex and Scanlan and I think I'm calling a tie, which I also am going to do for C3:

Vex makes the most out of a limited base subclass, and the observant feat is an excellent touch. The choices she made for terrain and enemies were well-integrated into her story, as was her choice to multiclass into rogue (assassin rogue as a multiclass for a dex-based combat class is a different story than for base class). Her spell list was solid to the point that she was a strong secondary healer, unusual for a ranger.

Scanlan had a good spread of feats (warcaster and tough) but what puts him here is that he was often the only full caster in a position to cast on the field, since Keyleth was frequently wildshaped and Pike absent. This is incredibly hard for a bard, and his spell list was an extremely good one that had to straddle healing and arcane utility all at once, and he did an admirable job.

Campaign 2 is Fjord; this has been discussed extensively, feel free to check my archives.

Campaign 3 is tough but I'm going for a tie between our Crownkeeper members, Fearne and Orym:

Fearne's level of rogue, while it initially made me take a sidelong glance, is why she rolled that 30 on persuasion this episode, and also is a very true choice to her character. A lot of the rest is, to be honest, the fact that her subclass is one of the best out there, but I've found her spell choices to generally be very well done, she's adapted to the divine damager role (honorable mention to Laura for doing this adeptly with Jester in C2 once Cad showed up), and I have to applaud taking ASIs instead of feats when appropriate. Her stat configuration also makes perfect sense for the character.

Orym as a fighter is strong out the gate but his choices of battlemaster moves make perfect sense for the role he played and are very useful in a party with two glass cannons but also two damage reduction tanks; it's good to have a dodge tank in the mix. His feats are focused on rounding out his skills and his optimized perception is truly ridiculous.

[emproleon]

HI IZZY 🗣️ i present to you a random free pass to tell me five things you love about dio's goofy ass 🎟️ but also no pressure 🧡

OOOH HI KAT THANK YOU FOR THE FREE PASS💖 this is gonna be long LMAO and im actually gonna keep this in line with canon as opposed to my psychotic daydreams (yall get that in discord)

Honestly, i love how funny he is?? like he is definitely overly memed on, and it's gotten old, but a lot of those moments just on their own are so funny to me SJKDHVS like the whole "how many breads have you eaten" line is so ????? why did u say that king..... and honestly i dont think he gets enough credit for the whole Muda shtick like hes the first (i think?) character to start the whole catchphrase thing back in part 1, pre stands, and it's again. not complaining, but what went through ur mind in making that decision, bud. plus the weird little homunculi he just made for funsies in part 1?? a real comedian 10/10

His fashion!! i genuinely LOVE his fits and all the little details in them so much, including the ones he wears in one off illustrations. the leathery, feathery, one is his best looks EVER and i honestly kinda wish it wouldve been in part 3. wouldve been very Lestat. ALSO this includes the Moorish shoes!!! i think they tie in his themes and design SO WELL and im tired of people clowning on them

His impact on the story! Dio Brando really, truly is That Guy™️ i love that he continuously haunts the narrative (at least in parts 1-6) and even with Diego, who is a different character, but still undeniably Dio. just as a reader/watcher getting through the ENTIRE old universe and finally feeling like dio and his mess is done forever just for Diego to show up in part 7 is just really funny to me, esp with how similar Diego is to Dio as opposed to Johnny and Jonathan or really a lot of the other counterparts. You can't get rid of him.

I thank Araki every day for that character sheet he released last year bc Dio intending to have a soft voice is SO GOOD to me. like i love both anime performances a ton and they're iconic and fit the whole over the top theme of it all, but big, scary, villains with smooth, level, soft voices is my kryptonite 😩 ive thought of it before, but if i had to pick like. an actual more "realistic" voice claim for him it would be Harry Lloyd👀 loved him in game of thrones, and his character voice wise in that def has RANGE like ii think dio would have, but he also does audiobooks and they're SO lovely to listen to💖

The way Araki ties him to the Arts, as pretentious as that sounds💀 i think depicting him as someone who appreciates art, literature, and philosophy makes him SO FUN to play with from a fan/creator perspective. i feel like it's a great way to toy around with other bits of symbolism and really expand on him in art and fics.

throwing in a sixth, but i like his dumb face unfortunately!!! Sorry i know this is a shock to all!!! but esp his character model in asbr/over heaven.........so handsome😔 THAT is pookie right there

in conclusion hes alright ig🙄🤚

[catenary-chad]

It sounds ridiculous to apply “representation matters” to trains but the more I learn about present-day rail politics, yeah it totally does and that’s why I’m absurdly defensive of Electra. And for once, my source is actually a lot more UK-oriented! It’s a running thread on Railnatter that a lot of people just don’t know the reasons behind the issues in modern rail, what jobs there are available, the actual benefits of electrification (freight is something that battery/hydrogen is NOT a feasible solution for for power density reasons), and that electrification and rail infrastructure is a really “unsexy”, still genuinely nerdy topic.

It’s something that there’s not really a lot of entry level, beginner-friendly media on, you just go straight to transit youtubers yelling at you or niche books that are often a bit too technical for the layperson. Part of why I’ve always been really critical of Rusty is that kids media is absolutely SWAMPED with steam engines. Unless you live somewhere with them, you’re just not that likely to encounter and get emotionally attached to electric trains at an early age. Which is most of the US, Canada, and Australia, even a good hunk of the UK. You crank out yet another steam underdog story and you’ll probably get more people interested in preservation that lose interest after the 60s, check out of their modern politics, and see electric trains as magical boxes. Even as an antagonist with a lot of inaccurately and unfairly negative traits, Electra was what made me dig into electrification history and uncover this huge rabbit hole and weird counternarrative that’s just been ignored. It’s mystifying and kind of aggravating that almost nobody else seems to have gone that far into the character’s real life background vs eating the “rich, unreliable, futuristic and unattainable” thing hook line and sinker and cranking out stuff that’s just… tragically and offensively off base to the reality of electrification. It’s so frustrating because this one of the only major electric train characters in Anglophone mass media! Hell, the layperson probably has a better idea of lesbians are like and people are still massively critical of Girlball for falling into offensive stereotypes. It sounds dismissive to compare actual objects to people but… rail electrification IS an important political issue in many countries that flies under the radar and can do way more good than most people realize. It’s basically the most efficient form og transportation there is but it’s passed off as mundane and even weak! So many pollution-related deaths can be spared per year with them vs cars and even combustion-powered trains. But it’s something you only really see in statistics that’s not very visible.

Roger Rabbit having a streetcar plot made a lot of people aware of their rise and fall. People tend to dig into hydrogen as a power source to learn more about Hydra and end up actually pretty critical of it. I wish Pixar’s Metro had happened because it would have filled that huge gap and seemed to have some interesting concepts going on.

While a lot of my opinions are sacrilegious, I think a lot of the attempts at social messaging in the show have a lot of potential if reinvented to be more relevant and accurate. Because that’s usually more interesting! Imagine the impact a show about the actual setbacks and problems of electrification in the US and UK would be. A lot of them parallel the perils of defunding social programs and tie in so much better to a narrative about racism or classism than romanticizing something that was the conservative establishment of tech in the early 20th century and legitimately outclassed by technology that actually was held back development-wise by WWII.

[aragornsrockcollection]

I have read and enjoyed reading many fics with the plot “Elrond tracks down and refuses to leave Maglor behind when he sails to Valinor.”

I would happily read a dozen more, I am but a simple fan of angsty reunions and unexpected forgiveness that sets characters on a path of schmoopy healing through the power of love and family.

You know what I’ve never seen but would read the shit out of?

Galadriel tracks down Maglor and refuses to sail without him.

Why on earth would she do that? Who knows that’s why I’m interested!

She’s still full of pride and refuses to let one of her cousin’s out-stubborn her record-stay in Endor. If she’s going home, she’s gonna have been the last rebel Noldo on middle earth damnit. Of course this would be couched in language like “Our time on these shores is over, and even penance must have an end.” And sound very wise.

He’s still her cousin and she loves him despite everything. She thinks he’s suffered enough, maybe even regrets she did not interfere to stop his suffering earlier.

She love’s her son-in-law Elrond, and in light of losing her granddaughter to the choice of Luthien, and having been separated from her daughter all these years by the sea, she can’t stand to see a another perminent parting when she can prevent it. Maybe she was even friends with her aunt Nerdanel long ago and has been thinking about how Maglor may deserve what he has sentenced himself to, but those who love him don’t deserve to suffer with him.

She is finally forgiven and permitted to return to Valinor, but she’s still Galadriel, and if the Valar thought her return was going to be simple and predictable they forgot who they were dealing with. How better to stir the pot than bring the last Feanorian home?

She intended to just say goodbye and good riddance, and tie up a final loose end. But damnit, he’s so pathetic, she can’t build up the vitriol.

She feels like, having finally been forgiven, she should forgive in turn, having grown as a person. Boring, I know.

She never actually believed he was living like a hermit on the beach. Her cousin Makalaure? Sure, he was far from the worst of them, but he was as proud as any of his brothers, and perhaps the most fond of material comforts of them all, save maybe Caranthir. But he always was great at twisting a narrative to do what he wanted, and the penitent sinner wandering singing to the wind is just the sort of yarn he’d spin to cast himself in a sympathetic and romantic light before he disappeared to start over. Wait. He’s really here and half mad- half faded? That is the stupidest thing she’s ever heard, she refuses to let him stay like this.

Celebrian once told her offhand she wished she could have met the men that raised her husband and this is something she can give to her, after all the world has taken.

She doesn’t get to see Feanor’s face at finding out she gave three of her hairs to a dwarf, and telling Maglor is as close as she’s going to get to that satisfaction.

Without Maglor around, Finrod is considered the greatest bard of the Noldor, and she’s still pissed at him for dying in such a stupid way. So Maglor will be coming to Valinor to put him in his place whether he wants to or not.

She made a bet with Aredhel on the ice over which of the Feanorians would survive the longest, and she knows rumor and songs are not going to suffice for proof that she won.

Frodo asked her if it was true Maglor still wandered the shores, and if he would ever be permitted to come to Valinor to heal. And she refused to look like someone who keeps grudges for longer than his race has even existed in front of him.

He owes her money.

[bugsbenefit]

thoughts on the time skip and how it could tie in perfectly with Mike getting targeted early on

with Mike being such a central character to Will’s And El’s character it really seems like he has one of the biggest targets on his back narrative wise during the next season. especially since Mike was the only character to directly and verbally confirm that he will help Will kill Vecna he now isn’t just one of many threats Vecna could possibly face but also directly standing between him and Will, who’s Vecna’s most reoccurring target (this turn of Mike siding himself with Will isn’t even just told to us in the cabin scene but also later reinforced with the ending shot of Mike being the only one to stand directly by Will’s side)

i do really like the possibility of Mike getting targeted or temporarily taken out at the beginning of the season, but then ended up wondering how that would actually play out in the greater narrative. could they really skip forward a year while leaving this open ended for the characters? and well, there are definitely some interesting ways this could tie in with the story currently being set up:

the impending time jump is one of the things that’s been bothering me the most ever since s4 aired. (in one interview the Duffers estimated it after e2, this may have changed in the writing process but seems to be the best guess we can go off of right now) it’s always hard to incorporate time skips During a season without it feeling rushed. you essentially have to re-meet the characters halfway through. because it doesn’t matter if you tell the audience “none of them changed”, relationships will progress, especially if you jump 1+ year(s) forward. and i’ve really been racking my brain about how season 5 could actually pull off a time jump without essentially having to “start over” since that usually kills the drive and action for a bit which is a bad pace for a final season.

and so, usually, the only really good excuse to abandon your characters for an extended period of time while avoiding having two “beginnings” is to ensure that the characters have no chance to drastically evolve off screen. and in my experience there’s only really one way to show that the characters start back up where we left them. and it’s by breaking up the group.

friendships and relationships are halted that way, the audience knows they’re not missing any critical development. often character arcs are also halted this way in ensemble heavy stories since moving characters away from the group often removes the driving factor of character conflict and development.

IT is a very good example of this. (disclaimer: talking about the book, i haven’t seen any of the movies) the book jumps back and forth between the adults and their kid selves (shown in flashbacks) interestingly, the adult and kid characters are still very familiar despite the characters having lived almost 30 years off page. this is because their character arcs only start majorly moving again when their group reunites since they’re all tied to each other. the book is imo one of the best examples of “they all go their separate ways and find back together” since you really never feel like you missed out on something during the time skip

but while splitting up is usually the best approach to time skips, splitting up the ST cast seems very extreme, because how would this feasibly happen? they’re all back in Hawkins at the end of s4. so while having the characters not interact much for a year or two would probably keep the audience the most invested in the characters... how would this happen without feeling like it came out of nowhere?

and. well. it Did surprise me a bit how easy it would be to explain with story beats we were already shown.

watching the show it’s actually interesting how far the group drifts from each other. it’s also a frequent complaint i’ve seen from viewers: we start with a close knit friend group in s1. but s2 already breaks from that idea a bit by having the hospital and non hospital group. Will and Mike are doing their own thing, and even before Will gets possessed Mike actively pushes their friends away who are trying to help. and as the seasons progress and more characters become important they start splitting off. Dustin is usually with the older teens or Erika and rarely with all of the party. El and Mike were established to neglect their friends for a whole summer. and then in s4 this reaches a peak and is finally starting to get addressed. Max ghosts them. Will and Mike barely talk. and the argument that is highlighted between Lucas and Mike IS about the party splitting up and going their own ways. and it doesn't get resolved by the end of the season.

so we’re actually already left with a set up where the integrity of the group dynamic got repeatedly challenged and then finally verbally called out during s4. the idea that this could be built on during s5 isn’t that far off, especially given that the argument between Lucas and Mike is still open ended

interestingly enough. if we’re actually getting a scenario of Vecna targeting Mike pre time jump, Will’s love confession about Mike being the heart of the party could actually be some really cruel foreshadowing.

because what Would happen if Mike was out of the picture for the time skip?  well thankfully Will actually went out of his way to tell us this last season. the group would fall apart.

the line did always feel significant to me. it seems very deliberate narrative wise to have Will not only point out Mike’s importance to their friend group, literally calling him the heart twice, but also mentioning what would happen if Mike wasn’t there.

just throwing ideas out there but this could play out as them genuinely growing further apart without having Mike act as their heart /glue in this case. or them growing more focused on their individual goals without Mike acting as a unifying factor since he’s always been the unofficial leader of the group, their DM. this could have El and Lucas stuck trying to find Max, possibly with different approaches too thanks to their different abilities (we’ve seen Lucas read to her, El was trying to find her in the Void etc). we were already shown that Dustin would stick to the town and school, the Duffers confirming he would be dealing with grief over Eddie also fits that picture. and all this would leave Will on his own, most definitely clinging onto the hope that Mike is still alive which would give us the perfect parallel to s1 like we were told we would get. however, this time it wouldn’t be Will who’s missing

[borkthemork]

The Wu Whereabouts Theory

Now that people are getting hyped for the month countdown toward Amphibia Season Three’s release, I am going to be talking about a theory my friend and I talked about over the past few months, and it’s time to buckle up because we’re going to be tackling this theory from a production, character design, and semantics perspective.

And why these specific factors? Because the theory revolves around these three characters.

And why I believe all of them are related in some way.

Now, you might ask yourself: Bork, how in the hell are these characters related? The old woman character doesn’t seem to have any semblance of features relating to Marcy. What about the dad, are you going to explain the dad? Are you pulling my leg?

And to that, we’re going to have to start small. I’ll first explain why the character on the right seems to be an important character to the story, how all these characters can be connected through deliberate design/semblance, and then I am going to hit it out of the park with the probability from a logical perspective with what the intro and past Marcy interactions seem to give us on why everyone is where they’re currently at.

Especially where Marcy’s father is currently located.

This theory is very, and I mean, very long, so hang on to your seats as we dive into my thoughts about where Season Three might lead us.

And credit goes to @CynDavilaChase on Twitter because she made me realize the probability of this theory in the first place.

And with that, let us begin!

Section One - Who’s This Woman?

With animated introductions, I think one of the big things I noticed with Amphibia Season Three’s intro is that it’s heavily serialized. Compared to Amphibia’s introduction with Seasons One and Two, there are a lot of animated scenes found in the sequence where the story is already being told in a narrative.

You get shots of Anne being introduced to her house, you get new important characters introduced in a lot, there appears to be insight into future events such as Anne getting a moped while being chased by government agents or the massive monkey robot chasing her through the alleyways.

A lot of the intro is prioritized over its serialized format, and that means the characters seen and animated in the foreground have to be important characters or else the studio is basically wasting time focusing on a background character that will never be seen again.

Of course, you get some sliding shots like with the construction workers or the beach scene with the beach-goers but that’s only for a second and they’re not truly the forefront.

But during the shots between 0:29 and 0:49, the sequences we see include a lot of what appears to be important scenes with important characters that will play some role in the story itself.

There are no parts in the sequence where background characters are put in the foreground. Each bit of the animation needs to count, it needs to tell a story of what’s to come and what the audience can anticipate to see.

Now that begs the question:

Why is a supposed random background character in the foreground?

We got some reason as to why the engineer lady looks important since she was in a shot full of important or supporting characters, but why her??

Sure, one could argue this shot could just be indicative of Andrias’s invasion, but there are numerous other ways to show that there’s an invasion without putting too much animation effort on one background character, especially from a composition perspective.

Pardon the messiness, I had to do this quick, but look at how all three ladies are lined up.

The far left grandma, when following from her head to the the front lady’s creates a line that not only creates a sense of direction for our eyes to follow but follows the more significant and foreground character of all three. Look at how the dragonflies occupy most of the top of the frame while the two older women stay in the marketplace’s form, and how this leaves the younger woman to be abruptly placed in the open — creating a visual that this character in particular is more important than the rest in the shot.

Check the way the characters move their eyes when the scene happens too: the background characters quickly look to the right, then the woman out in the open then directs her eyesight to the skyline, where all the dragonflies are flitting by.

Now, I’m not a storyboard artist or composer, I could be wrong on how the crew created this scene all together, but regardless it is still so odd to put emphasis on a background character in the front and then just leave it at that.

She has to be important in some way, and this is where I want to talk about character design.

Section Two - All Related or Am I Just Racist?

When it comes to character design we need to talk about how the character designers make sure to give Anne some form of semblance to her parents, and in this case, she looks a lot like her mother.

They got the bushy hair, the same skin tone, eyebrows, etc. And with her dad you could even see that Anne got her fluffy bangs from him specifically. Only one shared genetic trait, however.

This is deliberate, we know that for sure, and that is why I need to make this very clear as we transition to the similarities found in Marcy and the theorized characters, and why I believe they’re related in design. Mainly because the concept of race and appearance could be quite a debacle and I wanted to make sure that all of you know I am not assuming things out of naivety, and if I am, feel free to get my ass.

Other than that, let’s look at them again.

And here I shall compile the appearance stuff that each character seems to have.

With these three characters they seem to connect to one another with one genetic trait, but if one looks closely, there comes the question of the older lady (who I will just call Marcy’s mom at this point) and why she’s vastly different to Marcy when it comes to skin tone, hair color, and hell — if we look between Marcy and the engineer — why these two characters have vastly different hairstyles compared to the woman.

Even though I could give speculation and some doubt to the engineer and Marcy’s mom being related, and on first glance I couldn’t do the same with Marcy and her mom either, but then I did some digging and realized something. I can connect Marcy and her potential mom in one way — hair design.

Marcy and her mom both share the same poofy hair, it’s just that one is more short and the other is allowed to grow out in a nice little nest.

Don’t believe me?

They got the same floofy bangs with that specific hair line.

And when Marcy was little, Marcy appeared to need a hair tie because her hair was growing out, and it looked like this.

If we consider that what Marcy’s hair tie is holding up might be her bangs — bangs that might cover her eyesight from how floofy it is — then if you removed the hair tie then she and the woman would have a very similar looking design hair-wise.

Even with these hair similarities, however, there is still inquiry as to why Marcy is vastly different compared to her mother when it comes to skin and hair color, and here is where I go into some speculation to piece all of it together:

Marcy actually carries the appearance of her dad more than her mom.

Her dad has olive skin and black, straight hair, while her mother harbors tan skin and floofy, brown hair.

It’s this one piece of speculation that basically slides everything into place, but regardless it’s still speculation and one that I cannot confirm or even argue much about due to the nature of genetics and the limited info we have. But with this piece set in place, we could start to create the argument that maybe, just maybe, these characters are related.

But if they are, why do we only see Marcy’s mom and her supposed sister and not her dad?

Why do we get no indication of Marcy having a sister until Season Three?

How do we put all of this together?

Section Three - Distance and Finance

I rewatched True Colors numerous times when it came to understanding and interpreting what I could with the limited Marcy-centric flashback we had. I even went through episodes such as Maddie and Marcy, New Wartwood, and a lot of other episodes just to fit everything into place. And I think I have a good indication as to why this family is the way that it is.

First off, we’re going to be talking about Marcy’s dad and his new job out of state.

California is a very expensive state. And as someone who lives in California, the housing crisis and the ability to even stay in a house/dorm without sweating over the idea of being bankrupt is a very real thing.

So it is a curious thing that one of the reasons that the Wus had to leave came out to moving out-of-state due to a new job offer, one that infers a lot more money and probably a more stable living environment.

You could even hear the dad saying “Marcy, you have to understand!” when Marcy runs out, meaning that there’s probably a good reason as to why the parents believe that the move is essential, and I am banking on the idea of money for a number of reasons.

One, living in Los Angeles is expensive as hell.

Two, the coping mechanisms Marcy has makes sense if finance is the main comeuppance.

Three, the background art.

And four, why this girl has straight A’s and a PSAT book.

We already covered number one, but let’s take a look at what I mean about coping mechanisms.

Marcy Wu’s many flaws come from what looks to be the fear of being alone, and the fear of being seen as unvaluable and worthless; that if Marcy doesn’t prove herself lovable and essential to the people around her then she gets anxious and will do anything in her powers to make the people around her like her or stay with her.

She will omit information, move along objectives through passive and indirect persuasion, allow people to assert their will over her because they said so and, most importantly, does all of this because she fears the consequences when she gets outed or rocks the boat. Because rocking the boat means people will get mad at her, and she appears to try to avoid that situation of vulnerability like the plague until it all culminated into True Colors.

She is terrified of getting hurt. She is terrified, specifically, of consequences — punishment through stress, frustration, the people she loves looking at her differently because of the mistakes she’s made, etc.

Why do I say this? It’s because if we look into Marcy Wu with her pre-Amphibia self, a lot of these fears could be placed into that middle school scenario very well. Marcy Wu plays videogames and loves fiction because it is a form of escapism or happiness away from stress; she has this intense curiosity to basically anything of interest and uses that to thrive with getting straight A’s and an overall very solid record, but there’s still a probability that high expectations or making the people around her love her comes through said status of being the smart one (after all, she prides on her intellect, and sees it as essential to basically surviving the day to day).

Look at Marcy’s flashback in True Colors. She’s a middle schooler but is studying for the PSAT, which is mainly held in High School, and I’m no expert but I don’t think you read that stuff for fun or at least study it that early.

And I find it interesting that that’s the first shot we get of Marcy before we dive into her parents’ argument — education, studying, the expectation of high scores.

And then when you remember that Marcy is the least athletic of the girls, the thrift shop’s street she retreats to away from her parents is not that faraway from her neighborhood.

And this street, is messy as all hell. And with the revised background art for this area, nothing about the place changes but instead gets emphasized through more shots of how rundown it all looks!

The fact there’s a bail bonds building behind Mar-mar also doesn’t reassure me in the slightest.

So here’s where we are: Studying, getting good grades, a serious financial situation, lives near a rundown section of the city, high expectations, and the evaluation of one’s worth through intellect and academia.

What we are witnessing is a nuanced family situation. If we go by the assumption that the three girls’ lives are not only vastly different in personality but upbringing, then on an income scale, Anne would be middle income, Sasha would be high income, and Marcy is low income.

Her family’s struggling to be stable in a city that they can’t afford to live in, there’s a very high emphasis on good grades and education in the household, and the situation is so bad that her dad would take the proposal of a higher-paying job out of state than finding a similar job out in the city.

However, in this household’s struggle to have a better life, the parents had to focus on their children getting better living than them, and this means Marcy had to live in an environment where the biggest source of reward and praise is through intellect, academics, the approval of the parents.

And I could probably assume that this focus on finance also lead to very rough patches where Marcy was unable to be encouraged over stuff she loves like C&C or videogames, since the level of attention is low compared to the amount of happiness and pride her parents get when she gets an A+.

Especially when we consider that in the dialogue we hear from Mr. and Mrs. Wu, her dad is more assertive while her mom appears to care but doesn’t seem to go against her husband’s tone, so a lot of the probable issues might’ve come from Marcy wanting her dad’s approval and her mother never standing up for her when he became frustrated.

That would make a lot of context with Andrias even worse in retrospect, because that means the moment a male adult figure decided to care about her and give attention to what she loved, then Marcy fell for it hook, line, and sinker.

And could you blame her?

Now, let’s finally get a glimpse on one other character I’ve been neglecting in this essay.

This gal! Because if Marcy and her are somehow related, then we need to question why she was never mentioned or why she wasn’t involved in the conversation between Marcy and her parents.

I’ve done a massive theory post about this already, but the biggest probability comes in the design itself, since if Marcy’s sister went through trade school to be a mechanic/engineer then there’s a high probability she’s in her mid-Twenties. And if we consider that Marcy is 13, then Marcy would’ve been born when her sister was 12 or 13, and ultimately leave the household when she turned 18.

This means Marcy would’ve gone on with less contact from her sister for 6 years, and that’s a lot for a developing child.

It’s not improbable for Marcy to have lost contact with her big sister, or at least had lesser time to meet up with her due to work, college, or her own adult life now that she’s out of the house.

After all, in Maddie and Marcy, I find it very interesting that out of the advice Marcy could’ve given to Maddie about siblings, Marcy tells her that even though Maddie is the older sibling and is allowed to have her own life she suggests that maybe she should make some time for her sisters occasionally. Almost as if this was a ditto moment for her, that she understands but also had a good example of a sister who made time whenever she had the chance.

On more speculation terms, it would be cute to think that the reason Marcy has so much fire and spirit toward her fiction and love for games is because of her sister. After all, Marcy harbors the same interest toward engineering and robotics, it wouldn’t be a stretch in the imagination that perhaps her sister encouraged her to keep on going with what she felt passionate for regardless of their parents’ lack of response, to basically be unapologetic of what she loves, and this mantra kept her going for a lot of her life even when her sis went for trade school.

But let’s go on a side note here. I find it quite interesting that the character design of Marcy’s sis is also very telling, because not only does it tell a supposed story about who she was in the aftermath of graduation, but we could find a way to also put the theme of income and finance into her story as well.

Let’s be real these two are partners in all the way — from mechanics to engineers to straight up girlfriends, these two basically have their own business going on and I find it interesting that none of them just go with robotics or mechanics as a full-time thing, it’s mainly two jobs rolled up into one.

Why is that? There is some speculation that maybe they’re specialists and work in a very science-related area, but it seems highly likely that their main jobs are being car mechanics by day and robotic expert nerds by night. After all, the city can be hecked with money so I wouldn’t be surprised if they did two jobs at once to keep the lights on. I could also see them doing freelancing to repair or experiment with engineering projects since they take more money than actually makes in most cases.

Overall, money plays a big part with the family, and culminates to what I like to call a Massive Shitfest TM when they get alerted over the girls’ disappearances.

Section Four - Massive Shitfest Boogaloo and Where They Are Now~

In the aftermath of their teleport to Amphibia, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Wus had a big argument over Marcy and what should be done in the aftermath. Really, the family still needs to take that job because of finance, people are blaming each other over who pushed her to the brink, and then you have Marcy’s sister — who was probably out of the loop but probably knows how it was in the household — getting added into the mess of what just happened and adding her grief into the mix.

It is a blunder, terrifying and could break apart a family if I’m being honest. but what comes through is this:

People have now become stubborn in the Wu household, and no one is going to back down.

And what I mean is that Mrs. Wu, devastated by what happened ever since the argument in True Colors, will stay in Los Angeles out of grief and a supposed hope that Marcy would return. While Mr. Wu, determined to keep the finance going and keeping everyone stable and safe, abides by Mrs. Wu and decides to go out of state regardless, bringing back a flow of money to keep the Wu household stable through the aftermath.

It would make sense as to why Marcy’s mom is present in the intro but not any suspecting candidates for the dad.

Or how we see that there’s two older ladies with her in the intro. They might actually be close relatives who moved into the household out of the obligation to comfort Mrs. Wu but to also keep her company throughout this dark time in her life.

After all, when one loses a child, a lot of prior relations start to unravel as the status quo changes, and we are definitely going to see Anne confront the Wus and Waybrights when it comes to upbringing and home life.

But really, it is all up in the air. With Season Three around the corner, I am excited to see what the story has in store for us when it comes to the deep-diving into Marcy’s home life. She might’ve had a nuanced family life. She might’ve had abusive parents, perhaps no sister at all but a lot of relatives who grieved for her.

But with this theory out to the public, thank you all for reading along with this massive beast of a post, and I hope we get to see Marcy out of the aloe vera sauce very soon!

[aemiron-main]

I have a few questions actually Mr...Aemiron? sure, anyway- my first question is 1: what specific powers do you think will is going to have?

2: will we see new monsters? if so, what will they be?

3: are the kids gonna still go to school?

4: what characters are you absolutely CERTAIN will die?

5: also this isn't a question but how COOL would it be to see Mike with a SWORD?!??! I MEAN IT WOULD BE SO COOL TO SEE MIKE ACTUALLY DO SHIT FOR ONCE.

6: and my last question, how do you think El is going to die?

AAAAA HELLO LMAO!!! <3 MR AEMIRON IS SO FUNNY BUT IN A SWEET WAY LIKE ITS WONDERFUL but please feel free to just call me Em or call me whatever you want LMAO like im happy to be called anything i just dont want you to feel like you Have to be formal ANYWAY IM RAMBLING LETS GET INTO YOUR QUESTIONS! 1.) OHOHOH THIS IS A QUESTION IM STILL TRYING TO FIGURE OUT. Personally I think a lot of will's powers are going to be tied to the fact that so far he's the only person we've seen whose physical body can do the same thing in the real world and in the upside-down at the same time, and so technically that may also fall into time travel because if the upside down is really stuck in time and doesn't just look like it's stuck in time, then therefore, Will has been able to exist in two times at one during his upside down episodes in s2. I also think he might have healing powers, with him being referred to as a cleric regarding dnd (but also a wizard sometimes so hmm but i think its more that will the wise is a wizard whereas mike sees will himself as a cleric- and mike as a paladin- and so that would align w will having cleric-like powers). 2.) Absolutely. I feel strongly that we will totally see new monsters, and that one of them is going to be some sort of weird dragon creature, like what Nancy mentioned about a huge creature with a gaping mouth. 3.) THIS IS A GOOD QUESTION: I think it could go either way but seeing how the school gym's been converted into a relief centre for the time being, and how the storm was approaching the characters at the end of s4 and how the duffers talked about jumping right into the action in s5, I don't think they'll be in school because I feel like a.) theres too much happening and b.) story-wise, the duffers have already set it up in a way where them not going to school isn't a plothole/their absence wont really be questioned because even though the whole town doesn't know about the supernatural side of things, they DO know about the earthquake destruction. 4.) HMMMM I can't say I'm absolutely certain of anyone's death except for Vecna's (and even then i wasn't really certain of his until they had Will emphasize that they have to kill him and then thought more about the ways in which Henry's tied into Will's narrative and why he's gotta die/Will deserves to kill him), but I'm starting to wonder about a steve death considering that fire and rain, a literal song about death and mourning and suicide (which could tie into steve sacrificing himself and getting himself killed), played during steve's six little nuggets speech. I'm also definitely starting to lean towards the idea that Mike is going to die briefly and then come back to life because a.) s5 is seeming like it's going to tie back to s1 in a lot of ways/parallel it, which means that since will was the one who seemed to be dead in s1 and mike was searching for him, the roles will likely be reversed in s5 and b.) mike has too many death flags waving about his head for him not to die in some way but I can't see them killing him permanently. 5.) IT WOULD BE SO COOL IT WOULD BE AMAZING I WANT MIKE TO GET BACK TO DOING THINGS BC USUALLY HE DOES DO THINGS LIKE HES SMART HE FIGURED OUT THE UPSIDE DOWN AND THE HIVEMIND BUT SEASON 4 WAS MOSTLY GAY PINING TM FOR HIM SO HOPEFULLY IN S5 HE GETS TO GAY PINE WITH A SWORD!! 6.) I don't think that El will die in s5, I think that in a metaphorical way, the identity of "Eleven"/that superhero persona that's been forced onto her is going to die by the end of it once everything is saved and she has her independence and freedom! In regards to El's eventual death because she is a human being after all, though, I like to think that she'd be somewhere after living a long life, surrounded by people who love her in a place that makes her happy!

[the-ghost-king]

So I'm not going to start like an Anti-Chiron tag because I don't find that enjoyable personally, but every so often people ask why I dislike him so here's essentially a "masterpost" of my thoughts on that situation for when anyone asks, just so I have it to explain some...

This isn't nearly a full list, and there's many more "incidents" that make me less than fond of Chiron, I don't hate the old man but he leaves a bad taste in my mouth and I'm not a fan of that. He's a very twisted character.

- The Lightning Thief

This quote is literally just after Percy's mom "dies", they're all sitting on the porch of the Big House right after he's finally woken up after days of sleeping, and that's the line Chiron pulls out on him.

That's straight up emotional manipulation which was entirely unnecessary in the context of what Chiron was trying to explain. There wasn't a single reason for that, in the slightest.

Immediately following that, and Percy, who canonically has anger issues, does his best to remain calm, he is immediately threatened by Dionysus, and Chiron doesn't even tell Dionysus off for doing that; Chiron just let's it happen. It's Grover who has to speak up to tell Dionysus off...

The only reason Chiron comes out looking like a old guy in this scene is because Dionysus was so much worse in his behavior, at one point intimidating Percy with his power over madness.

- The Titan's Curse

This is the aftermath of when Nico ran away upon confirmation of Bianca's death. When Percy is telling Chiron about the situation, Chiron wishes Nico had been eaten alive rather than recruited into an army.

He'd rather a child be dead than fight against him, and he openly tells this to other children he's in charge of. If Percy went missing would he have said "I hope he was eaten <3" as well?

I don't blame Perry for not delivering the truth here, it was done in an effort to protect Nico; which wasn't something Annabeth had planned on doing... I don't blame Annabeth for that though either, she's been beneath Chiron so long that she probably doesn't realize the shady stuff he does, and to her "going to tell" probably was the "right" move because she was a child...

But the fact that Chiron believes Nico truly would be better off eaten than alive :/

- Tower of Nero

This quote from Tower of Nero shows that Chiron lied to a bunch of young children (most of them were young because the older campers are largely dead because of the war or too old for camp now). It wasn't just a little white lie that adults sometimes tell kids either; they were walking into battle and he told them it was a field trip.

Did he even begin to explain the danger he was putting these kids in? Did the children understand their situation? And how dangerous it was?

Kayla has been blindsided over the years into thinking that telling children they're going on a field trip instead of fighting a battle is something to make a joke of and not be questioned... (Again, I don't blame her she's only like 12 in the book, but still)

Apollo also agrees, which isn't on Chiron but it's a whole mother reason why I can't stand Rick's interpretation of Apollo...

<><><><><>

This isn't me being like "oh Chiron is the worst most evil character ever" I just think that he has numerous flaws which are largely ignored in favor of the "perfect wise teacher" narrative when in fact Chiron and Dumbledore share a lot of.. Offputting qualities.

I do think that some of the situation is simply a result of Chiron having his hands tied behind his back by the gods some. And he even goes so far as to confirm this in a scene of TLT

However many of the scenes in which he exhibits behaviors like that in my first three screenshots are not related to anything the gods require and are, in fact, of Chiron's own free will.

Some things I would blame Zeus and the council for, such as how he withholds information from Percy to an excessive amount for long periods of time even when Percy straight up asks about things. I could easily see that being Zeus trying to prevent Percy from claiming the prophecy as his own, and I could see reasoning that maybe Chiron had sworn over the River Styx or something similar.

But those things don't apply to Chiron making such an unnecessary comment about Percy's mother so close to her "death". It doesn't explain why he would say he hoped Nico had been eaten out loud, and it doesn't cover the fact that he led children into a battlefield without telling them that's what was happening.

I think the context of Chiron's choices and comments would be different if the campers were older. If they were in their late teens or early twenties for the most part, I wouldn't really have much to say about how Chiron handled the situation.

But this man is in charge of children and extremely young teenagers, Percy is only 12 in TLT, maybe if he would have been 16 or 17 then I could give Chiron a pass, but he wasn't. Within the context of the comment he made in the Titan's Curse, Percy is only 14 and Nico is 10 at the beginning of the book... You don't wish a 10 year old had been eaten alive by a monster no matter how bad you think the alternative is, and if you do wish that you don't say it out loud to a group of other children. In the battle from Tower of Nero we get a quick look at the battlefield, and although Ben's age, and the age of another girl fighting alongside him are never confirmed they are implied to be fairly young, and we know Kayla is only 12 at the time too; yet Chiron told them it was a field trip instead of a battle, limiting the time they would have to mentally prepare themselves for what was coming.

On top of that, the nods the reader gets to the fact that Chiron can't act out against the gods depletes over the course of the series. After TLT the amount of times the situation involves the gods interfering with what Chiron is allowed to say lessens, and by the time the Heroes of Olympus series comes around, these limitations on his speech is almost entirely gone. Yet as seen in Tower of Nero he still does morally questionable things in regards to how he treats the campers.

Like I said, I recognize that in many scenes Chiron's hands are tied behind his back because of the gods.. But there are undeniably things he does of his own free will that are, in the nicest manner, very :/

This also isn't a full list of comparisons just a few notable scenes. I don't think Chiron is equally as bad as Dumbledore, but I think it undeniable that Chiron has some significant flaws built into his character design.

A good character has flaws, and there's nothing wrong with having a character that doesn't always conduct themselves properly or have good intentions- it's actually good writing, and I can appreciate that, but for some reason I find myself personally rubbed the wrong way by Chiron. This doesn't make Chiron badly written, or poorly designed, in fact I would say Rick's Chiron is very well designed in lots of ways, but I just don't like how it's never acknowledged by anyone in the series.

Like I said, I'm not starting an anti-Chiron situation, I just think little events like those mentioned, the way he's built a child army, and how he doesn't even try to plead with the gods over raising the ages on campers being allowed to battle is a little sus. But it more so bothers me that there's no attention payed to this problem anywhere in the books, not even by a side character or Luke, nowhere.

I don't actually care that much and this isn't that important to me, but sometimes people ask why I don't like Chiron and this is basically just my explanation to hand off to them... It's not even so much that I dislike Chiron entirely, he's well written and has his "good" moments, I just don't like the way other characters interact with him and his actions.

It's more a personal beef with him rather than an aspect of poor writing or him "being bad"... PJO in general (and HoO/ToA to a much lesser extent) shows that there's not such an inherent good vs bad in the world, and that sometimes people are victims of circumstances in some situations, or they're horribly misguided in their actions, but the series does a good job of showing those people as human still, and I applaud that.

I don't really know how to tie this up in its entirety, but there's nothing wrong with having a morally grey character who does questionable things and in many aspects it is good writing. I think Chiron is a result of Rick not thinking through the implications what he's doing in lots of situations, and I can see a fairly consistent drop in Chiron's characterization from PJO-ToA which is consistent with most other aspects of Rick's work.

I also want to clarify that if you like Chiron and disagree with me, that's absolutely 110% okay, I just personally dislike Chiron and that's on me. Like my problem with many of Rick's other immortal characters, I think he missed important aspects of them in some manner and slightly (or entirely in some cases) mischaracterized them in comparison to their original myths.. Some of these characters he came around on and fixed their character in many aspects to their more "correct" characterization (like Hera), while others (like Chiron and Apollo) he never quite figured them out. Which is a running complaint I have with Rick so I'm just adding this to his tab.

But yeah, I don't hate Chiron I just dislike him and those are different things, and I don't think it's a bad thing to have a morally questionable character, Chiron just personally rubs me the wrong way and I just wanted to explain that more fully because I've been asked about it multiple times.

Also I apologize for not adding a [read more] to this, it's a complaint of mine often when scrolling through the tags but I'm on mobile currently and don't have immediate access to a computer so~

[imthepunchlord]

so I recently read through your "Always a hero"-works. And now I am hooked on LfM. And while Adrien Seems so much different from canon, he really isn't? Marinette not being in his "friends-folder" means he sees no reason believing her over Chloe. (I cannot recall situations like that in canon but when does canon explore sidecharas much other than to akumatize them)

It essentially is canon Adrien, though been focusing on his worst aspects as we’re going into 4 seasons, and those issues have yet to be addressed and I’m a tad salty and LfM is a salt fic response fic. And Adrien for a while will have that salty focus. Largely because

And yeah, canon won’t put focus on side characters (or even truly focus on our lead herself) as those characters have to circle around the love square, their akumas, or 

Actually the most we got is Chloe. 

She got focus outside Adrien and the love square. Unfortunately, all her focus was a big waste of our time and essentially another tease of “is she going to be redeemed or not”. Ultimately not and its like, why even bother spending two seasons focusing on will she won’t she be better. That could’ve been shortened down to one. Now she’s a very irritating character and canon wise, I don’t want to see her with another miraculous ever again. 

Which is a shame as I was one of many up to see Chloe redeemed, especially since I’m fed up with the idea that 14 yos girls are irredeemable but Gabriel will probably be redeemed. It shouldn’t be like that for Chloe or Lila. But they want to push that these girls are absolutely evil, more so than the active terrorist who is a neglectful father and by Chat Blanc abusive so... 

It’s also a big shame cause there was so much potential in the side characters outside love square and Adrien. 

Putting this under cut cause I just go off and it gets lenthy. 

Alya could’ve had an amazing arc if she was a full time hero. Could’ve had a struggle of balancing her hero and civilian lives, as one she is essentially living her dream. Another option is learning, hey, being a hero isn’t all glory and glamour. And depending on the miraculous, there was more to learn, especially since I myself am not big on her having Fox anymore and there are better alternatives, both in matching her but also teaching her things she needs to learn. She could learn to be more of a team player and to be more conscious of her friends as when she gets going in her goals, she can be quite inconsiderate. She can also learn to be more self conscious of her own security as she can rival Adrien in reckless behavior around akumas. And in truth, any miraculous can teach her the importance of secrecy, not Fox exclusively. 

Honestly, Alya and Nino should’ve had their miraculous swapped (most characters actually don’t have a miraculous that suits them in terms of kwami,  powers, or/and symbolism).  Alya at the core is meant to be a supportive friend that is supposed to have her friends’ back, but also prefers to be on the front lines. Turtle would allow this, and teach her to be more aware of the danger she and her friends are in. It won’t essentially stop her reactive behavior, but she can learn to be more smart about it. 

And with Nino, it was always weird to me how popular it was for him to get Turtle. And then it happened in canon and I’m just put off by the assignment. Nino at the core isn’t a character that wants to be on the front lines, but Turtle is a miraculous that is meant to be on the front lines as a protector. Nino is a support role, but not in that sense. Fox would’ve been better as its more designed to help from the shadows. It won’t be as aesthetically pleasing still as Nino is so color coded for Peafowl, but would fit better as it allows Nino to be a background support. It would also help him learn to be more observant and aware of others, and wanting to be a director, you need to learn to put on a good show that draws your audience in. Mirage can give him a chance to truly practice this. Mindful, Fox still isn’t my top pick for Nino (I think Fox would be more fitting with Marinette or Felix), Peafowl still is as that’s what he is coded for, and even canon wise, it would be a more fitting miraculous for him than Turtle. But of what Fu has, Fox would’ve been the better pick for Nino. 

And speaking of Nino, it’s revealed from a tweet from Thomas that Nino had lost an older brother and that his hat belonged to him. That actually gives Nino an emotional tie in to the plot as, while he wants his brother back, he wouldn’t go to the extent that Gabriel is. 

Classmate wise, there’s potential too. 

Origins shows that everyone was afraid of Ivan and assumed the worst of him, he could’ve had an arc of changing those views. Go from being feared to being seen as a hero to trust. A source of protection and security. 

Juleka wants to shine out more. But she struggles in that spotlight and to even be heard. She could have an arc about being heard, and building her confidence. 

Rose is a girl ruled by her heart and is full of love and trust for others. It could be interesting seeing her have a miraculous and struggling with the factor that fighting is involved, but she herself is a pacifist (at least I get that impression). And that can be an interesting thing to explore, as she’s not wrong, but sometimes fighting is the only way. She can also learn to be more conscious that there are those who will take advantage of her and will have active malicious intents to her and others. 

Kim actually states that he wants to be a hero. Not only could him as a hero be fun, it could help him mature as a character and be more serious, as akumas demand focus and be treated as serious. Copycat shows that he can be an observant character, I’d be intrigue to see ML’s residential himbo be surprisingly observant and offer up advise to his friends. 

And of alternative love interests... 

Well, this is more Kagami than Luka, at least in terms of character potential and an arc to see. Though, as of now, if all the predictions are correct SPOILER ALERT, Lies will break up Adrien and Kagami, to me its going to make them another Chloe. More specifically, why did we spend two seasons building up and teasing these alternative love interests only to immediately break them up at the start of s4. 

To me, that sets them up as pointless inclusions who ultimately didn’t bring anything to the narrative. 

Either way, this is about character potentials and I see more potential to explore with Kagami than Luka, and that’s more on the writers and how they handle Luka as most Luka episodes wound up more about Adrien than him. So he is largely a character I just don’t know what to do with. 

Kagami though, she’s an aggressive character that could learn to cool it, she wants to branch out/rebel from her mother, she wants to make friends but struggles with it, and can learn to be more conscious of others and step up into the hero role, of helping others. 

Honestly, working solely off Riptose, she would’ve been a better rival for Adrien than Marinette. Not just as a love rival, which he truly has yet to have, but a rival in general. While she wants to branch out from her mother’s influence, fencing is still her passion and her goal, something Adrien himself lacks. Outside being romantically involved with LB, he has no passion or goal for himself. Kagami can challenge this, why is he here when he doesn’t truly care about fencing? 

And as a romantic rival, she’s one of the few who doesn’t need a miraculous to join fights, she can vigilante to assist LB and pay her back for her helping in cleansing her, but could end showing that she’s a better partner to LB as she takes things more seriously and is more battle smart in fights. Which ultimately would force Adrien to step up his game, take things more seriously, and wise up for throwing a tantrum will only take you so far. Especially when there’s a 3rd party member that’s judging you for your immaturity and shows LB she doesn’t have to bow to his whims just because he’s having a tantrum. 

...You know, maybe Luka then would’ve been better as Marinette’s rival. Not a love rival, Marinette has enough between Chloe, Lila, and Adrien’s fanclub. But more of a rival for Ladybug. Though, it won’t so much be an arc for Luka himself but one for Marinette. If Kagami and Luka are supposed to help Adrien and Marinette grow, then this at least keeps in that theme. 

With the show taking a turn that Marinette is feeling overwhelmed and stressed with her role as a hero and now Guardian, and slightly playing off Origins and her doubts of whether she’s a good hero; Luka could’ve been an interesting character for her to come across and consider. Ultimately, he is set up to be a very solid hero: he is calm, mature, shown to be a planner, and considerate and aware of others. Only thing he has against him is that he’s a removed character and is mostly seen sitting on that boat. 

Romance between them I’d leave as optional, but it could be intriguing to see Marinette considering the possibility of retiring as Ladybug and passing it on to Luka so she can fully embrace her Guardian duties and not be so overwhelmed. And in general, it is a big wonder, who would take over as the Ladybug if Marinette has to leave and not come back, or that she can’t balance between being a hero and being the Guardian (and in truth, Tikki is no longer a good kwami for Marinette to have as she’s developing an Atlas complex through her and she hasn’t been helpful as a guide and adviser in a long time). 

Now the show writers would butcher this, but it could’ve been interesting to see. Maybe Luka could’ve been a means to help her learn to manage things better if she has to stay LB and Guardian. 

But yeah, it’s a shame that this show won’t delve past the LS which has long since gotten stale and quite toxic. There’s a lot of potential, but they won’t touch it. Won’t care to. 

[cricket-boyy]

Just gonna ramble a bit about what my ideal Digimon game would be like.

It would definitely need to be a jrpg but not a monster collector. I feel like the comparisons to pokemon are the main reason for why that's the go to concept for a Digimon game. But whereas pokemon's thing is "gotta catch em all", Digimon's is something different. The core point of Digimon has from the very start been the bond between digimon and their partners. Therefore to stay true to that theme in a videogame would to me mean a focus on narrative, where instead of playing as a blank slate silent protagonist you'd control a fully fleshed out character. I would also want the partner digimon to be a proper character in their own right (personally I'd love Veemon who evolves into the Veedramon line). You could still have a choice of who your partner would be like in the Cyber Sleuths but then they'd all just be written as the same character. Only the model and names would change.

I believe Digimon would lend itself well to being a traditional story driven jrpg with set party members. Now if you really need monster collecting in there, I'd have it as a slapped on side thing and have the story be about needing to build an army to revolt against the villain who's a ruler of some sort. I'd definitely write a Digimon story with heavy anti-capitalist themes. But I think ultimately the story should have a simple plot and be mostly character focused. Characters get isekai'd to the digital world, get partnered up with their digimon, explore, a problem is presented (ie bad guy is doing bad things), they solve it, shit gets fucked, more bad guys, stakes are raised, maybe go back to the real world cuz villains go there, solve that, get back to the digital world cuz gotta take care of the big bad, the end.

Dialogue choices and branching paths would be cool but not necessary. Maybe a social link type mechanic that unlocks side quests or something. I wouldn't wanna tie evolutions to those though. One of many things that was disappointing about Survive was that evolutions past champion were these missable side things. Evolution scenes should be hype pop-off character developing moments but taking them out of the main story and having the writing be flimsy and just bad (I mean all of the writing in Survive is bad), ruins one the most fun parts of Digimon. They didn't even have voice acting.

Gameplay-wise I'd take heavy inspiration from SMTV, at least with the exploration. Open world is a recipe for disaster, so multiple open levels is the way to go. I'd also love to see environments in the digital world that we don't usually get to see like a big city. Exploring jungles, deserts, ruins and then going to a huge busy city could be a great moment.

Combat should have some kind of a gimmick. I'm often disappointed by turn-based combat systems due to them being too simplistic to me. I have a bunch of ideas I'm not gonna list here, but something that encourages you to use all of the tools available and keeps you on your toes. The last thing I want is just using your strongest attacks over and over, and the only strategy to keep in mind is some rock-paper-scissors weakness system.

Also the vibes should be Y2K heavy. I'm talking trance and prog house music, late 90's-early 00's style fits on the main characters.

When it comes to videogames the Digimon franchise has so much to offer, which is why it's so sad to me to not see that potential realized. The Cyber Sleuths are difficult to go back to cuz they don't respect your time, Survive is a badly written visual novel, and I doubt whatever comes next will quench my thirst for a Digimon game that I could love. It's great to see how much effort they're putting into the card game, I just wish Bandai would take a chance and put a similar amount of effort (and money) into a videogame. I mean the Cyber Sleuths, despite not being very good, got a lot of attention on them for being better than what had come before, having a bit more mainstream appeal and good old fashioned word of mouth. Imagine how a game that's on the level of, say Shin Megami Tensei V (but with a better story pls) could do.

So yeah, here's hoping one day a Digimon game can rock my socks off.

[sydneydoesstuff]

Dear DSMP fans (specifically my worriers),

c!Tommy’s not going to die, nor is cc!Tommy quitting the SMP.

The absolute uproar I’ve seen because cc!Tommy was acting sus in today’s stream is absolutely insane.

I understand the worry over his character dying, or that he’s going to quit the SMP, but it’s unlikely that either will happen.

Take a breath, it’s going to be okay. I promise.

—

First, about cc!Tommy.

“Tommy’s more focused on YouTube, and this could be him attempting to exit the SMP and quit streaming.”

Yes, Tommy’s been more focused on YouTube, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to quit streaming. He’s testing out new content on YouTube to see if his fan base will enjoy non-SMP related videos. This is a common procedure YouTubers do to see what content works and what doesn’t. Right now, streaming is where he gets a good portion of his YouTube videos, and he won’t just stop streaming without any notice. He says he’s really enjoying YouTube at the minute, and while he is streaming less, he still likes to stream!

As for quitting the SMP, if you pay attention to other cc’s perspectives, you’ll know that they have plans that involve Tommy’s character. Jack Manifold has been working on a scheme to kill Tommy with Niki’s help, and there are way too many loose ends to tie up before that happens.

Hypothetically, if he did quit playing on the SMP—which he’s not, take a breath—he’s going to be in DSMP S2, so it wouldn’t be long until we see him playing with everyone again.

My next point is that, career wise, it wouldn’t make sense for him to completely quit playing on the SMP. The SMP allows him to collaborate with a multitude of creators, and as such, the SMP is the primary reason for his huge influx in success. While he may take a step back, I don’t think he’ll fully leave.

Lastly, Tommy has said many times that he really enjoys playing on the server and hopes it never ends. He’s been playing on the server nearly everyday offline—he said so himself.

He’s not losing interest in the server, he just wants to explore new things.

—

Now, for c!Tommy.

I have the utmost faith that Tommy’s character is not going to die tomorrow.

Narratively, it doesn’t make any sense for several reasons:

Dream.

Dream has made clear that his story with Tommy is not over and won’t be for a very long time.

“I don’t think our story will ever be over, Tommy. I think that, you’re just too fun.”

Dream plans on keeping Tommy alive, for a very long time, to torment. As he says, Tommy is just too fun to leave be. He’s his primary source of entertainment, and I don’t think Dream will ever willingly leave Tommy in peace—and that includes allowing him to die.

“It’s not your time to die yet, Tommy.”

“It’s never my time to die.”

“That’s true.”

Dream has way too many plans for Tommy to simply kill him off. What’s the point of the discs if the person who cares about them is dead?

Niki and Jack Manifold.

If Tommy were to die, it would—from a meta perspective—throw off Jack and Niki’s plans.

Jack’s plan is riding on Tommy making it past tomorrow. In two weeks time, Jack and Niki plan on luring Tommy to a nuclear test sight to “accidentally” kill him. There’s no way to do that unless Tommy makes it out alive tomorrow.

Their revenge arc would feel pointless if Tommy were to die tomorrow, and it would leave their characters in limbo. Niki and Jack’s characters currently ride on Tommy’s existence, and they have no further motivation past him.

Wilbur.

Wilbur is currently experiencing a resurrection arc. If Tommy were to die and become a ghost, it would completely overshadow Wilbur’s arc.

Wilbur’s arc is moving pretty slow at the moment, and if Tommy were to interrupt it by dying, it would quickly overtake Wilbur’s story.

Technoblade.

Tommy, while briefly reunited with Technoblade, has not resolved his conflict with said man.

It would feel out of place for Tommy to die without fully resolving that tension. Their dispute would take the back-burner, and it would cheapen their issues.

Overall.

It would be messy. Tommy’s death would make the entire story feel never-ending, with loss after loss after loss. It’s not good storytelling, and it would ruin too many threads throughout the narrative.

The heroes need to have losses and victories, and a permadeath is much too heavy of a loss after just losing L’Manburg. That’s why it’s more likely that Tommy’s ends up in prison than canonically permadying.

The prison, while said to be the equivalent of losing all three canon lives to whoever’s put there, inspires action.

It’s not a coincidence that Tubbo has nuclear weapons, and we have no way of knowing how those nuclear weapons stack up against the prison. There will eventually be a need to test that power.

While it’s possible Tommy and Tubbo may win their fight tomorrow, it’s not very likely, as Tommy would dub it “the end” of his story.

“Once I get back the discs, it’ll be finished, the melody will be over.”

And we all know Dream’s not going to let that happen any time soon.

Tommy’s story is not over, and it won’t be for a very long time.

[utilitycaster]

Im very very intrigued by your take on wisdom being the more arrogant stat. Is your thinking that wisdom is more ‘inherant’ while intelligence is typically earned? Please elaborate!!

Not quite about what's earned vs. inherent and more about where these types of arrogance draws the line.

In real life, while I’ve run into no small number of immensely arrogant academics, nothing will ever exceed the smugness of people who claim to be “empaths” while generally being insufferable black holes of energy and time. At least the academics are correct some of the time. Having good insight is all well and good but if instead of using that simply to inform your interactions with that person, you act like you know what’s best for them…that’s a level of arrogance that intellectual snobbery can never, in my mind, achieve.

To use the examples I gave - I think Percy is, to be clear, a hugely arrogant prick (honorific), and I think Keyleth is typically a more well-intentioned person than he. But I also think that Keyleth does, for example, tend to operate on a sense of legacy that presumes a thousand-plus year lifespan, and doesn’t really think through the fact that Percy is someone who’d be lucky to live a century and who has spent his entire adult life assuming he is the sole survivor of his family line. It’s not that Percy’s actions are good; but they are understandable, and he is coming from a very different place than Keyleth. And it’s Percy who’s able to point this out.

This is also true of Caduceus, who of the Mighty Nein has very little life experience, but does tend to assume he knows what’s best for people. He is, as I’ve discussed many times, a quietly deeply arrogant character. Many of his banger lines absolutely don’t land with the target - “rest well with your poor decisions” is hilarious but judgmental and completely misses Fjord’s objectives; his line to Trent flies so far from the mark he may as well not have said anything at all. He’s not wrong, per se…but he assumes everyone operates on the same principles he does.

I think while the flaw of intelligent characters is often to assume their knowledge surpasses that of other people, the flaw of wise characters is often to assume that their perspective is objectively the right one. And the thing is, an INT 20 wizard probably does know way more than other people, whereas a WIS 20 cleric probably doesn’t have a universal perspective. Wise characters often don’t know what they don’t know, and intelligent characters often do.

I should point out - in Worlds Beyond Number, this observation concerned a fey-influenced girl with anti-magic abilities who had a job with a weird and unpleasant hedge mage. Suvi, a wizard of the Citadel and essentially the adoptive daughter of someone important within the Empire, suggests she go to the Citadel for opportunities. Ame, a witch from a small town, opposes this in part because she (with a good insight check) realizes that the girl is not unhappy in her role, which Suvi does look down upon. The thing is…neither of them know what will be best for her! They both assume they’re right, and they’re both well-intentioned. But Ame fucks it up specifically by telling Suvi that she (Suvi) had opportunities this girl would not - which may or may not be true (it’s genuinely not made clear). Both Suvi and Ame make a ton of presumptions here, but Ame is the one who specifically assumes Suvi is wrong.

This also happens to tie into another common thing about WBN: While for narrative reasons I do expect the Empire to be a deeply flawed and well, imperial thing, I’ve already seen so much that’s just people knee-jerk hearing “empire” and losing any sense of nuance and analysis. It’s simply not possible yet to have any meaningful discussion of the actual flaws in the specific society in question. We’ve really only seen Suvi, who is, I should note, arrogant, but also at most 20 years old and a wizard prodigy who was orphaned at the age of six by parents who died for the Empire, and that should be taken into account. Which kind of gets back to the main point! A lot of people who I think would consider themselves insightful and empathetic tend to also go off gut feelings instead of actually exploring the reality of a scenario.

[clevercorvidae]

How is the Dream SMP gonna end?

I think it’s time we really start talking about it. And I also think it’s time the ccs start considering it as well if they haven’t already.

The story has hit a massive lull. All the people playing characters central to the plot have started new projects and have begin branching away from the smp. And it seems they’re becoming less interested in playing on the smp and in continuing it’s storyline. (If you want me to elaborate I will but I’m just gonna say it outright here)

So, as it seems the ccs wanna move on, not to mention the new update that would call for a server reset anyway, I personally think this is the point where we should really start thinking about the end of the server’s story.

There are few things that have to happen to make the end of the smp satisfying so I’ll just list them out now:

1) tie together the plot lines of the smp

2) make sure the loose threads are tied up as well as possible

3) include everyone to send off the server with a bang

4) end the story in a way that ties it together

So for the first bit. Tying the storylines together is gonna take some TIME. We know that all the plot points are connected in some ways and we need to start getting answers to these questions the audience has. What is Ranboo’s other half and how is he connected to Dream? We need an answer to that. What is the Inbetween and the Other Side and who wrote the books there? What’s going to come out of the Egg? How will Dream get out of Prison? There are so many questions still unanswered. We don’t need all of them to get answered at once, we just need to start getting a feel for what’s going on at the core of all this, if there is a core reason behind the mysteries of the server at all.

After we get more concrete information, it’ll be easier to have the storylines converge into a more cohesive final arc. We need a unifying conflict that will tie it all together. It could be lots of things but it’s more than likely gonna start with Dream escaping prison and getting the ball rolling.

On the second thing, and this ties into the first point, we don’t just need answers to the mysteries in the story. We need narrative answers to plot points. We need a bedrock duo confrontation of sorts that can end that point of conflict. We need a reveal of Ranboo’s connection with Dream and his past to be revealed to other characters and for them to REACT. We need to see Fundy and Wilbur’s conflict be resolved. We need a character arc for Techno that satisfactorily resolves the conflict his character caused. We need to see where Sam’s corruption arc ultimately leads him. We need to see the repercussions of Quackity torturing Dream. And the thing about all these things is they need to start being set up now, or getting to the actual end of the smp is gonna take even longer.

On the third point, we need the plot to lead the characters in a way that all characters will be present at the end. The server’s story ending without participation in the plot from everyone will be unsatisfactory. We need the final conflict to be a server wide issue that requires equal participation.

To the fourth point. The end of the story needs to tie to the beginning in some way. It’s just the narratively pleasing way to do it and makes the whole thing feel more cohesive and satisfying to the audience. We all joke about how silly it was that highschool English teachers made us point out the central theme or message of a book, but without some core, unifying SOMETHING at the center of a story, the whole thing feels hollow. So the finale should be showing us what that something is.

I don’t want the Dream SMP to go out with a whimper. I want it to end in a way that’s memorable. And I’m pretty sure most of us want that closure. Maybe I’m mistaken and the ccs aren’t drifting from the dsmp as much as I think they are, but every story need a good ending. And I don’t think it’s wise anymore to keep going along in the story without a destination in mind. I just hope that whatever happens, we’ll get to send off the story in a way it deserves.