#it's the writers who make them 1 dimensional characters who are being used as plot points

[origami-butterfly]

I know the best way to avoid fandom discourse is to just not engage with the worst offenders, but I'm so fucking tempted to unblock [redacted] and send them anon hate.

[sisaloofafump]

So you want to write Lois/Clark/Bruce (or similar)...

Here are some ideas of things that I like to keep in mind when writing Lois and poly or exes cloisbat. It is far from a checklist, and I have absolutely no judgment for those who follow different approaches, but this is the advice I would give to exploring cloisbat writers.

First 2 points are about conscientious writing. The rest are relevant information about Lois.

1. Be intentional and respect your own character arcs.

A common pitfall that cloisbat or exes!clois fics fall into is using Lois solely as a tool to get superbat together*, and then abandoning her without resolution. Regardless of your thoughts on Lois, this can be quite weak writing as it leaves a plot thread conspicuously untied.

So, if you're using her as a major supporting character, be intentional with her arc. To be clear, she doesn't have to be part of the endgame. But what does she get out of it? Does she find solid ground in single life? Do we see glimpses of her working on a story even as her and Clark are still struggling to recover from a break up? She deserves a spot in the epilogue.

If you want her to be a minor character/cameo, then ask yourself why she is the right fit for the scene, and what dimensionality you can allude to her having so her minor inclusion makes sense. Be intentional about her minor role - why isn't she in the main part? Why is she allowing x to happen? Why choose to cameo her in the first place?

There is no right or wrong reason to give for her inclusion or lack there of, but being intentional with why you chose her, what she brings to the story, and how to provide her a resolution, will keep her the fleshed out character we know her to be and your writing stronger itself.

*see later points for expansion on the wingman Lois trope

2. Tell us why they are together.

While the statement "everyone is a little bit in love with Lois Lane" is canon, that doesn't mean it's solid enough proof for a story.

- Yearning -

Consider a fic that starts off in modern comics with a yearning Bruce. It sets the scene by saying that everything is the same as standard canon, and that Bruce has fallen in love with both Clark and Lois.

Immediately, that feels unbalanced. Clark and Bruce have decades of close history to draw from, we can see how/when Bruce would have fallen in love. But we can't easily picture it with Lois who interacts with him so rarely.

Instead of telling us what features Bruce has fallen in love with in vague terms "her brilliance, her beauty, the way she keeps Clark on his toes*" (which reads much more as superficial admiration rather than love), tell us when he fell for her. It only has to be a single throwaway line, but it gives us the implication that they've actually had time/opportunity to fall. Maybe it was when Lois saved Superman in battle, or maybe when he caught her sneaking around the back halls of a gala, or even over the course of monthly family dinners with Clark and Lois. Give us a reason to see Bruce's love for Clark and Lois as even approaching equal in his eyes.

*"her fierce personality, her determination, her fight for the truth" was my original list of attributes, but I liked it too much. It doesn't make her sound as much like a Barbie whose main purpose is to love Clark in a way Bruce approves.

- Dating -

It's an acknowledged problem in canon comics that they struggle to properly show why Clark fell for Lois*. It's even harder for Lois and Bruce.

So tell us: how do they have fun together? Why are they dating? Show us that they genuinely and uniquely enjoy each other's presence.

Some ideas for what keeps them coming back:

A sense of shared adventure, team-ups, or information sharing

Enjoyable conversations, sex, shared activities (like finding refuge together at high class events)

Tension and dares. Constantly getting in each other's way, poking each other's buttons, challenging each other to do things. Enjoying the chase and the catch.

Emotional connection - being the one who truly seems to understand the other, or who they can share (at least some of) their secrets with. Coming together in grief over a third's death

Ulterior motive - fake dating, revenge on the third, manipulation to get information, rebounding after a break up.

Note: Lois isn't actually super materialistic - at least not as a major character trait in comics. She loves to dress up, and she loves her Maserati (and stealing Bruce's) but she isn't swayed by riches and even asks Clark to stop giving her fancy gifts. As such, Bruce's tax bracket likely wouldn't be a primary reason for attraction. Instead, she's often attracted to features like charm, bravery, compassion, heroics, adventures, and proof of an interesting/exciting life - whether this is found in superheroes or in civilians like actors, astronauts, and fellow reporters.

* read the forward to Man and Superman by Marc Wolfman to see how one writer confronts this

- Married + third -

It's a common default that Clark and Lois are already married. It's also common for fanfiction to then add Bruce on as a third - often just for Clark.

Polyamory can come with added complications, extra communication*, and equal respect for all sides. It isn't a blank slate where their first-established relationship (in this case, married Clois) has no effect. Even if they're in a "don't talk, don't tell" open arrangement, a long term marriage will still have a foundational impact on the characters, regardless of how short it's time in the overall plot is.

*I say this, and yet my favourite trope to write is polyamory miscommunication. Just because they need to communicate to be healthy, doesn't mean you have to write them in a healthy relationship. Let them be dumb and hurtful and confused and never know what the other is thinking

Honestly, I'm all for a superbat story where it mentions that Lois and Clark are still married. But if superbat are getting together while clois are married - why? Let us hear from Lois. Tell us why it's in this form, and why each player enjoys it (or not).

If it's already a pre-established arrangement, and you have space for it in your story, remember the unfeatured pairings! Even in a throwaway line, let us know what the unfeatured character (in this case, Lois) is doing. And remember: she won't be all "go get 'em, tiger!" all the time. She'll be busy, she'll have her own life and concerns, and this arrangement may be routine to her. Give her three dimensionality instead of only existing to cheer on superbat.

(Also you should totally let her kiss Bruce too, and tell us why she likes him... but I'm biased like that)

(actually no fuck it this is my post. if youre not writing cloisbat where loisbat is a central feature, what in the hell are you doing. believe that they can love each other. now.)

- Exes -

If any of them are exes, that sets a distinctive stage. It automatically makes us ask: why were they together? why did they break up? and what will make this next relationship different?

The three of them share a lot of similar flaws - too busy, too stubborn, too prone to isolating themselves. They are constantly invasive and have little respect for boundaries, while keeping their own so high. As such, if you make two of them exes, what's to say that the next arrangement won't have the same flaws that drew the first one apart?

Having a semi-prominent ex relationship is almost a Chekhov's gun in a romance story - consider giving us the resolution in how the characters face similar problems and overcome it, or why this one is different. (Here's a hint: the next relationship can have the same flaws. But this time they will have grown and learned from their past mistakes and know how to navigate it better) (or maybe they haven't, and it stays delightfully messy)

3. What happens when they break up?

Lois and Clark have broken up a lot (or gone on major separations after fights), and three things almost always happen:

The initial conversation is civil. It is sad and 90% Lois talking and calling the shots because she has already made up her mind. However, this usually comes after many failed attempts to get Clark to talk through their issues before.

Lois leaves for weeks/months. It's the same thing she does after nearly every tragedy, and alludes to her childhood growing up constantly moving. Sometimes she goes backpacking herself, sometimes she goes to visit/travel with her family, almost always she tells Clark not to contact her and doesn't pick up the phone. (If Clark is already travelling, she'll stay where she is and ask him not to come back).

They struggle being friends. This is the main thing I see fanon depart from, but in canon, exes!clois are incredibly messy. Their lives are so intertwined that sometimes the months of space isn't enough. They fight often. As Lois Lane (1986) says, "They had gotten too close. It was easy to get hurt, to misinterpret moves". Consider that the primary reason they break up is Clark not opening up to her and Lois fighting for her independence.

Sometimes Lois leaves after they fail at being friends (post-crisis engagement break off), sometimes the failure takes place repeatedly over the many years after she returns (bronze age). As for canon reasons Clark and Lois fight/break up:

Independence - Lois fighting for her to not just be "the wife". Clark trying to stop her from publishing certain stories when they have a difference of political opinions. Superman not wanting to marry her because he knows she would hate being a stay at home mom.

Secrets/Emotional Availability - Clark/Superman not opening up. They both know his identities, but he will never admit it. He says its to protect her, but they both know that's a flimsy excuse just to keep his own self-isolation

Infidelity/Jealousy - Clark and Lori kissing while clois is engaged. Lana interfering with their relationship - with words and kisses. Clark's dubious attraction to Wonder Woman. Superman failing to appreciate Lois/stringing her along for years while he seriously courts other women as well. Similarly, José breaks up with Lois because he knows she's in love with Clark

Physical Availability - Their constant busy schedule. Clark spending a year away from her and then immediately leaving again. Superman failing to save her father's life (she knows it's not his fault but the blame and resentment still grow).

Bruce and Lois date and break up much less often. But their reasons have been: because she finds out Bruce is Batman, because she finds out he isn't Superman, or because Bruce is no longer amnesiac.

Because of how big jealousy can be in their relationships, and how messy their breakups and attempted friendships are, I really advise steering away from the "ex is happily my wingman" trope for clois without intense consideration over how to make that work. However! When she's dating someone else and they're best friends (à la N52)? She canonically tries to be his wingman then. Wingman!Lois is not at all impossible, but in my opinion it's very hard to make work in character when they are exes.

4. Lois + Jealousy

Lois has an incredibly complicated relationship to jealousy - and in various eras (especially the Silver Age) it was considered one of her primary traits. However, what she does get jealous at or not is very specific.

What makes her jealous?

Self-comparison - Lois can be very insecure, especially when compared to powerful, beautiful women. The primary example of this is Wonder Woman, who was long a source of insecurity for Lois before they became friends. Famous actresses, models, and princesses can also spark this comparison-fueled jealousy.

Emotional Infidelity - For years, Superman never committed to either Lois or Lana (or any other), and actively courted them both, promising that one of them would be the one he would marry. And Lois was jealous. As a whole, her bouts of jealousy are when seeing Superman/Clark actively pursuing other women (Lana, Cat, etc) or being pursued by an ex (Lori, Simone, etc). She also caught him and Lori kissing when engaged—but curiously, she never brought it up when she dumped him a few weeks later (because she saw Clark put a stop to it? It's up to interpretation as to why). But, in summary, she is jealous when there is a genuine romantic threat.

Secrets - Lois is incredibly curious; honesty in her partnerships is very important to her. She worries what Clark is doing when he's not with her—she'll watch him walk out of her apartment arm in arm with Wonder Woman and wonder what goes up when they're off together. And it is a valid worry, as Clark does keep secrets—belatedly telling her that him and Lana kissed, never telling her that him and Lori were engaged, working behind her back with Perry, etc

What doesn't make her jealous?

Tricks - For decades, Lois was pushed into many scenarios where her and Superman could get married, but she never took them. She would never marry him based on a trick, and doesn't believe in anyone else who uses tricks to get him. And, so, she has set him up in fake relationships, and (modernly) has felt nothing but compassion for when he has been kissed by strangers without consent. (In contrast, Superman would set her up on fake relationships (including with Bruce), and then, despite knowing it's fake, still become very jealous)

When she is taken - This varies depending on the story, but the biggest example is in the n52. Lois and Clark are each other's missed chances, and Lois instead dates Jon Carroll, a war correspondent. She isn't jealous over Clark dating, and even tries to set Clark up with her sister, despite considering him "the guy I almost fell in love with".

The other lovers themselves - A very important note is that Lois becomes friends with her "competition". They may initially start as jealous rivals, but eventually they settle into a balance. Even after catching Lori and Clark kissing, she still stays friends and roommates with Lori. After getting to know Diana, she becomes the one Lois asks to take care of Clark when Lois is gone. Lana is... complicated. But when Lana isn't actively trying to sabotage their relationship, well, Lois put it best: "We'll always be good friends even though we're both in love with the same guy." There are even imaginary endings where both Lois and Lana are happily dating Superman together.

Which comes down to the question: does Bruce make Lois jealous?

It's up to interpretation, and each person's reading of her tone. For example, consider the classic exchange from Checkmate vol 3:

Do you read bitterness in Lois' voice? Is it over Bruce's closeness, or the fact that Clark affords more freedoms to him than he does to Lois? Is Lois mentioning their closeness in support, or in jealousy?

She has actively supported Clark and Bruce's friendship in the past and pushed for them to become even closer. I think you could write it either way, but I don't think she often is. She looks down on Bruce just enough not to compare herself, and she knows the ins and outs of Clark's relationship with him sometimes better than Clark does. She is allowed to intrude on Bruce's space, and that is the biggest signal of trust between them.

5. Lois is invasive (and that isn't necessarily bad)

One of my favourite aspects of Lois, Clark, Bruce (and Selina), is that all they have very skewed ideas of boundaries. And yet, it comes with a few major aspects:

It is mutual/consensual - Lois expects Clark to spy on her, just as Clark expects her to read his work notes and steal his stories. Bruce has no issue with Lois stealing his car, just as Lois knows that Bruce is tracking where she takes it. As Lois Lane (1986) says, "She grew to appreciate [Superman's help], even use it to her advantage. But that was okay, they were both reporters. It was part of their job, using people. So he knew what she was doing and he went along with it." It becomes their symbol of trust and of the highest respect. They know that the other will use these knowledge and tools in important ways. And often, they love each other, it isn't an imposition.

(Sometimes Lois' pushing can also be interpreted as threat—if Bruce shares everything with Clark, then he must with Lois as well, and if not she might draw Clark away).

I think its also important to note that the Lois who takes what ever information or tools she wants (in modern comics at least) is Work!Lois. At home, information is something to be given, never hidden and needing to be pried. Work!Lois and Batman get along splendidly, but Home!Lois and Batman don't—in her space, they follow a different set of rules.

She requires absolute honesty in her protected space, and for it to be a haven away from the rest of the world. When Bruce or Kara brings bad news, she demands answers, then treats them as invaders and tells them to get out. In my opinion, one of the worst things you could do is lie to her in her own home.

As such, you can extend this mentality outwards and choose to go with post-crisis Lois who respects the sacred nature of others' home life too. She is surprised that Batman expects her to know who he is under the mask. Bruce thinks that Clark would have shared everything with his wife, meanwhile Lois never asked—she respected his non-work privacy.

So consider what they are and are not invasive about, and to what extent they would share that information. There are many variants. Lois doesn't often leak Superman's identity—but would she try to figure it out? Would she leak it under dire circumstances? Does Clark treat Lois' invasion as a game to playfully undermine, or does he go the other route and spy back? Does she consider Bruce an invader when its the Batman who knocks on her door? Lois takes objects and information and breaks into public buildings—would she break into a home?

6. Lois and Sex

Lois and Clark have a decently active (stymied by very busy schedules), and often playful, sex life. (Side note but: Lois mostly sleeps in the left side of the bed - Clark on her right). How active it is when she's single varies depending on canon, but it can range from seemingly nightly dates with random suitors, to fast hook ups with old friends, to having sex with Clark on their first date but not with anyone else she was tentatively seeing.

Would she easily hook up with Bruce when Clark was dead? Potentially—it was in Snyder's plans, and she does kiss Jeb in the comics. But this kiss comes after turning his more explicit advances down, and is racked with guilt after. One common through-line in post-crisis comics is that it is very hard for her to do anything more than share a kiss and spend some time together with anyone other than Clark. However, this is very much not the same in other eras! Do whatever you want, forever.

- Kinks -

A character's sex life is often incredibly up to interpretation, and has lots of room to play around with and take creative control. Lois is no different.

It's very common to write Lois taking a dominant dynamic in bed, and there is some canon basis for that! While incredibly fun, and often in character, I want to take a moment to promote vanilla and sub Lois too.

As mentioned numerous times before, Work!Lois and Home!Lois can be different—home is a place Lois rigorously defends for the right to relax. Half of her macho bravado is taken to the extreme in public for the sake of getting what she wants in the way her fathers (General Lane and Perry) modelled and taught her. At home, she lets the intensity (and mask, if you want to call it that) slip. As such, I believe she should occasionally have simple vanilla sex when she is with someone she loves and trusts, and allow herself to relax in bed like she does elsewhere at home.

And for sub Lois... you can 100% lean into the playful brat route. You can also lean into the fact that she is incredibly attracted to an incredibly big strong man. Bottom line is, don't think you're stuck to dom Lois!

That said, we do know 2 of Lois's kinks:

Exhibitionism (and flying sex around the city)

Roleplay (sometimes as pre-reveal Superman and herself, or both as other characters)

----

Pretentious conclusion:

An interesting thing about fanfiction is that it does not exist without outside context. While in original works you could get away with using a girl best friend as a cameo tool to get the main male characters together, Lois is already a fully fleshed out character in canon. You are not introducing an NPC when you mention her in the background, you are flattening a primary. It's up to your fic and your plans to figure out how much you want to include her in a cloisbat or exes!clois fic—but be intentional. If you want to strengthen the reading of your fic, try to allude even briefly to her complexity.

In my mind, Bruce loves Clark partially because he loves Lois—it reassures him that Clark can love a human. And Lois loves Clark partially because he loves Bruce—it reassures her that Clark can love someone so flawed.

I personally think Lois can be very interesting in polyamorous situations. For it to be healthy, it would require intense honesty, the respect to let the other pry, and the respect to leave when the boundaries around her space are slammed down. I also think she needs to look down on Bruce, just a little, just enough to bring him to her level, if she is to share him with Clark.

I referenced a lot of things here, if you want me to expand on any of them i can, but it might take a while to find the exact issue number.

thank you for reading this large sampling of a small number of my cloisbat considerations

[almacambiondaughterofsaleos]

Why Helluva Boss Failed With Stella When Villainous Succeeded With Sunblast

I would like to describe them as first impression hate sinks/assholes. In their first appearance they are supposed to be hated in order for you to cheer for the protagonists they opposed. They are also shown to be abusive towards the people they targeted in the past and make their lives a living hell.

For Sunblast, he in the pilot is shown to be a bully who uses his status as a hero beat up Penumbra who is trying to plot out the sun because of a condition she and several people in her homecity have. Despite this, it is shown he doesn't really care and just wants the fame and recognition of being a hero. You then cheer when the Villainous trio shrinks him and hands him to Penumbra for her prisoner.

For Stella, our real first impression in the actual series is of her having a strained marriage with her husband. She in the episode is shown to be a rather awful parent by making Stolas go to Octavia alone while hogging the covers. She isn't any better in the present where she throws things at Stolas and yells about him sleeping with an imp which emphasizes how much of a classist she is. From what we are hinted in this episode, she has been a toxic presence to her husband but from her daughter's perspective it's only got started recently when Stolas hints it's never been sunshine and happiness between them. As a result, we are left with strong hints of why Stolas had no hesitation of cheating on her.

Now let's see how they develop over the series in contrast with one another. In episode 6 of Season 1, we see Stella is revealed to have hired Striker to put a hit on her husband regardless of what their daughter would feel. It does show how despicable and petty Stella it also kind of contradicts how the episode of "Murder Family" where it was the same premise for imp to kill a family due to the mother sleeping with a client's husband. As a result, it feels like a confused mix of morals and a case of protagonist centered morality where it's bad if other characters do it but not the main ones. One could say at this point this should have been an indication where Stella goes downhill as a character since they will just vilify her and just make her into the bitter ex-wife who was scorned.

However, one thing that no one expected with Sunblast that he actually would change from being held captive by Penumbra. From here he doesn't stick to being a hate sink like Stella does but instead he gets a new perspective and we get more development as a character. He stops thinking only about himself but also sees how he actually has been hurting a whole community by just pounding on a woman trying to fix a mistake that affected them all. From there on out, we see Sunblast focusing on the journey to become a true hero which is someone who does things because they care for others not because they get a reward for it.

I do think these above images sums up the cemented direction both characters were intended to go in by their creators. Stella's childhood picture is meant to cement she was always bad from the beginning and she wouldn't be given any sort of depth to her as a character except as a one dimensional hate sink who lives to make Stolas miserable. Sunblast's image after Penumbra was kidnapped by Miss Heed is that of someone who has grown to see someone he used to torment as the person he wants to protect the most. It's a case of someone who has the ability to change and also is someone who isn't just a carboard box, but someone who can see the errors of his way and has become a better person. This isn't the case with Stella nothing about her shows she is capable of it and she only gets worse from there, while Sunblast gets better.

This one statement cements what she is all about which is being an obstacle of torment for Stolas. She is not Octavia's mother or anything else, but just Stolas' chain and ball. She can or cannot change because the writer's refuse to give anything but be a horrible spouse to Stolas. As a result, it blatantly show how the attempts at grey morality is more bs and that favored characters only get that view, while also not making sense at all. Stella could have been explored more on her side of being forced to marry someone she doesn't love, but that would mean caring about stuff other than Stolas rather than treat him as a cant do no wrong sad bird. And in an attempt to try address female on male domestic abuse it comes off flat, because of the fact that Stolas had more resources to get away from her and how he could always have her sent away. There is also the factor of domestic abuse being treated by comedy the protagonists which makes this also fall flat. It doesn't jive up when you don't give a reason why she would be able to hold such power over him. It just makes less like a way to depict abuse but more of a reason why we want to hate a character.

Their different developments are a showcase of how both shows actually tackle the themes of grey morality in a setting that seemingly should skew black/white. Helluva Boss has been stated it wants to show grey characters out of hell, but fails when the scorned wife is written to just revolve around tormenting her husband and not given any other expansion on her character and no interaction with her own freaking daughter which could given more insight into her personality besides being a scorned wife. While I was ready for Stella to be bad, when it comes down to it there is nothing you can mine from her character except she fits in those ron the death eater fanfictions you find which derails a canon love interest of a pairing the writer likes.

However, Villainous goes into the grey territory by not just making things black and white by portraying one side as totally good and the other side as devils. It is instead showing how grey the world of Villainous is by sometimes good people forced to become villains due to circumstances in life or at least have redeemable qualities that prevent them from being totally evil. However, even the show admits a lot are still villains and deserve to be stopped. While the heroes have many who are less than good people, those like Sunblast truly have the ability to really become true heroes if they let go of their selfishness and protect those they care about like what happened in "Shrunken Rescue".

That panel right there sums up what development that Sunblast went through in order to come to the realization he hates his past self for hurting Penumbra due to basically using his status as a hero to be a bully. He is shown to regret it and wants to show it by not fighting her directly. Again that is how you get a grey character someone who realizes that they have done wrong in the past and wants to correct it. Sunblast unlike Stella was allowed to reflect and grow, while also going out of their way to see to it that their former victim turned friend is not used by someone who only seeks to abuse them in a different way. Sunblast's developments as a whole shows that an asshole doesn't have to stay static and that they can grow when they either learn of circumstances or learn that their actions have consequences on people. As a result, it really is a heartwrenching scene where you really see how far he has come and understand he deserves now being a hero where no one else would know it because he only cares now she is free and doesn't no longer wish to see her in pain like she was before.

All in all Stella and Sunblast are a great example of demonstrating of how to portray a first glance jerkass character the right and wrong way. Since Western Energy, Stella is just going downhill especially with the fact that the narrative wants to portray her as dumb while her brother is the real brains which again emphasizes the fact that there is nothing more to her character but a device of torment for Stolas. Meanwhile, everything after the pilot shows Sunblast strives as a character who goes to a journey of self-reflection and discovery while understanding the meaning of a true hero. The former comes off as a character who has little to no substance, while the other you see happy he goes from one point to another. As a result, it shows what good/bad writing does for a character like both of them.

[zahri-melitor]

Newish Comics:

Batman: The Brave and the Bold #14: I am largely uncompelled by this set, but I was amused that they had to specify "look! This Barry/Iris story takes place before we break them up! Because we want fluffy Barry/Iris!"

Also charmed that in the Black and White story at the end with flashbacks to previous events there's Bruce as Tengu in KnightsEnd! That's a bit of a deep cut I wasn't expecting.

Green Arrow #13: Williamson please learn to pace a story at some point. That said, I was very fond of seeing Roy and Lian snuggled up together, and Connor and Mia hanging out together. Also Williamson finally acknowledged Sin's existence for the first time? I think? in this comic.

I also note Williamson is on team "we like Jade" rather than on team "Jade's a villain who's done a bunch of irredeemable things" (Which. Both positions are perfectly acceptable, but does give me a bit of an 'of course you're like that' for a guy with a known tendency to prioritise biological relationships)

The plot is ridiculous but it's editorially mandated, everyone is about to go into their Stupid Eras for the next two-three months.

The Flash #10: speaking of editorially mandated storylines...I was snorting at 'make Ollie and Barry punch each other', in terms of Ollie was doing everything but shouting what his name was and Barry was going ??? mystery guy who is not Bruce.

Jai is great in this issue. Wally is busy ascending into a higher plane of existence, still, and I am waiting until his brain comes back online and the various creepy higher dimensional beings stop trying to brain wipe him and use him as conduit, as they will not enjoy him handing them their asses.

Please get Bart into a room with his friends so he can notice they're also young adults over 18 and stop reverse aging himself, he's drawn younger than Jai in this. Or actually address the plot point that Bart's currently making himself be the age he was when Max was his guardian, and what that means about their relationship.

Zatanna: Bring Down the House #1: oh this is fun. It's functioning as a Zatanna origin story, and a good reminder that Zatara is in hell.

And now a look at everyone losing their minds for the Event:

Suicide Squad Dream Team #1-4: super reluctantly reading this as lead in for Absolute Power.

I'm not sure if I'm more mad over how Amanda Waller is being villainised here or how they're characterising Lori Zechlin. Lori, what have they done to you?

As I scrutinise this, it's written by the actor who originated Nia Nal, and uh...it could use being less Nia's perspective v general Squad attitudes. It just feels very very righteous v Waller Being Evil For No Reason.

I dunno. I don't think Nicole Maines has enough experience or practice in writing for a shared property. Her Nia stuff on its own has been fine so far, but managing to write decent team dynamics for the SUICIDE SQUAD is something that takes a lot of skill and experience (given the number of strong personalities involved). It probably shouldn’t be handed to a writer who’s effectively never written a comic that doesn’t star the character she played on TV.

Absolute Power: Ground Zero #1: sigh.

This is not going to be a particularly compelling event to me.

Like hmmmmm part of me wants to point out that under a different storyline, Waller living out 20 years of peace in a virtual reality as a mother figure would be something that would affect her a lot, given her history.

Unfortunately, we are no longer in Suicide Squad 1987.

The Warlord #58: this week in Skartaris we don't see Travis at ALL. Guy who's cosplaying Travis is doing a terrible job of it, and pissing off Tara, who has been driven back into finding her childhood sweetheart Graemore attractive. We get a full retrospective of their childhood growing up together: Graemore was the son of a blacksmith and a tailor whose family were captured in warfare by Tara's father. Graemore played with Tara while his mother made swords for Shamballah and his father educated Tara. It's a very cute 'they grew up together' teen love story.

While all of this is going on Darvin the Thief goes to try and extort more money from the people on council paying him to hold Travis prisoner, and he suddenly realises where he's seen Joshua's weird bracelet before...on Tara's arm!

Surely this can only end well.

In the Arion backup, I am very slowly starting to get my head around how to fit Skartaris's ancient Atlanteans, Earth's ancient Atlanteans and modern Atlantis together. They do all come from the same group (which is what I expected) but it's definitely interesting in terms of the various interactions between magic and advanced technology.

(Now I actually need to read some more Aquaman to confirm my understanding, as it's still pretty vibes based right now)

[movierankingreviews]

A Review of “Arcane: League of Legends Season 1 & 2 (2024)”

I am no League of Legends fan. I played it a long time ago but I wasn't particularly into the lore or story or anything. When I first heard of an animated project based on the game, admittedly, I wasn't that interested. Not until I saw the first trailer that my curiosity was peaked.

Firstly, the animation is phenomenal! The style has this unique hand-painted look to it that makes every frame look stunning! The characters have incredible facial animation that easily allows us to see the nuance in their feelings. The excellent mix of 2D and 3D animation is done in a way that makes the animation here so incredibly unique. I also adore the steampunk meets fantasy world of Piltover and the grimy gloom of Zaun. The show is also elevated by the amazing soundtrack. Every song choice feels purposely chosen to illustrate and elevate a scene to even greater heights. There are many action scenes in the series that are exceedingly well-choreographed and just a blast to watch!

What makes this animated series a near masterpiece is how compelling the story and characters are. The story delves into many themes you've seen before, such as rich vs poor and the dangers of creating new technology. However, it is done in such a wonderfully endearing way that it all feels new. The main plot line of sibling rivalry between Vi and Jinx is extremely engaging, as you like both of them. The captivating lore and the magnificent world-building, keep you engrossed in the world of Arcane. The writers do a phenomenal job in making the lore of the world so easy to digest that even someone with no understanding of League could get it. The story also benefits from being an animation aimed at adults. This allowed them to explore darker storylines and violence that made it stand apart from typical fantasy stories. The characters are also very nuanced and have many layers. None of them were one-dimensional archetypes and even characters closer to that of an antagonist were easily sympathetic in many ways. The likeability of the characters was also thanks to the terrific performance from the voice cast which is stacked! Special mention goes to Ella Purnell as Jinx who I believe nailed the performance of the unhinged yet sympathetic nature of the character. Season 1 alone is a masterpiece and I would easily give it a 10/10.

However, season 2 takes quite a dip in the quality of the writing department. What is most noticeable is how the pacing is way too fast. Characters will do 180 in personality within a couple of minutes, constant time jumps throughout the season, and a bunch of random things happening without much explanation. There are some interesting developments for the world and characters in season 2 but they just aren't explored enough. Many plotlines and developments needed more room to breathe to let it sink in for the audience. They just immediately jump to the next crazy thing or straight up forget about things. The series also does some weird things in my opinion. It introduces a group called the Black Thorns which was easily the most uninteresting plot line in Season 2. They are just introduced with minimal foreshadowing and don't even get a satisfying wrap-up by the end. It feels like they were there to set up a future Arcane sequel or spinoff show. They also gave screen time to a certain character that Vi meets that seemed like they would be important as they had a mysterious vibe. However, they end up doing nothing relevant and don't even get a backstory so I wonder what exactly was the point of them? On that note, Vi who was one of the most important main characters in Season 1, doesn't have much to do in Season 2 which is such a shame. The ending is also quite rushed.

Overall, even though season 2 is disappointing compared to the first, it still maintains the amazing soundtrack and art style with great direction. Episodes 6 and 7 in season 2 are phenomenal even despite the whole season's shortcomings. Arcane is no doubt one of the best-animated shows to come from the West. It is also one of the best game adaptations I've seen. With a near-masterpiece season 1 and a pretty good yet flawed season 2, the show is no doubt a Legendary show. I hope we get more future animated shows of this calibre!

For more reviews like this visit:

https://moviewarfarereviews.blogspot.com/

[neo-zone]

People have been complaining about the addition of too many new characters in this season and the lack of the protagonists from past season (sans Eun-yu), which I definitely agree with.

But the real problem of Sweet Home season 2's new characters is that the writer(s) don't really put an effort to make us attached to them, sans our greenest green flag Chan-young ofc (and Sergeant Tak for me, Kim and his loyal subordinate also to some extent). The fact that season 2 is a set-up for season 3 or that the writer(s) probably struggling and overwhelmed in trying to handle both them & juggling with the new plot points is not an excuse to write them like that.

Despite their screen times, we are not even given anything much about their past or depth (no, that party scene in the confession room didn't count), thus making most of them painfully one dimensionally annoying (especially that ugly man with the South Korea jersey, glad he fucking died). It's hard getting attached to a bunch of new people with their own motives and personal agendas that's not even barely hinted by the show and we still don't even fucking know at all in the end of the season.

Season 1 cast also grow on us because of their found family-ness (except that ugly beauty monster and the fucking pedo, fuck them), their character developments, and genuine care for each other to survive. Season 2 cast on the other hand, everyone's just busy being a bitch to each other with a stagnant character progress. No solidarity, lots of backstabbing and manipulating, unnecessary drama of Eun-yu's persecution, unnecessary barely fleshed love triangles, the military controlling the survivors in a progressively fascist way, etc. So much drama of annoying strangers we barely know from the start to the end.

The sub-plot of Yi-kyung and her daughter on the other hand, despite supposedly being one of the main highlight of this season, feels so poorly handled with it being fucking crammed in the last two episodes, which is not enough to make some people being attached enough to her daughter. It's like being given a rundown of someone's poor tragic life and being expected to sympathize with them shortly after that

That's why it makes the watching experience more tiresome/boring to most people and unbearable to some people who expected more of season 1 surviving characters or more monsters and fight scenes (which what made the season 1). The trailers did such a great job hooking people to watch it when everything shown there is the only good parts we got so far in season 2. Nothing more, nothing at all besides that.

[thereisnolumos]

What annoys me about jk Rowling and how she writes slytherin: I feel like she goes back and fourth making slytherin house outcasts in the school to extremely evil villians. But doesn't commit to either because she needs conflict and to keep readers guessing. I don't know maybe there's something wrong with me that while reading the series the first time I kept getting annoyed that a group of people around my age was always depicted as the villians and the jockey Gryffindor house always kept winning. Like to fully love the book you had to have this black and white thinking of Gryffindor good slytherin bad. And you can't think that maybe slytherin are the way they are do to deeper meanings but never explore those meanings or resolve the issues. Like the school literally encourages putting these houses against each other with a manipulative point system that really doesn't help learning. We are suppose think this one house in the school is evil. Yet we continue to let the house exist, and do nothing to fix the problems. Just continue the generational trauma. Because you know wizard British traditions.

So… I completely lost this in the depth of the ask box… awkward 🥴

JKR is a bad writer who wouldn’t notice subtext and complexity of they hit her right on the face (among her other sins, but that’s a can of rotten worms for the entirely separate post)

She writes “all Slytherins are evil and Gryffindor is the most desirable option” in the words of an 11yo who never came to be any kind of smart, and one would assume, that it would be a plot line throughout the whole series to prove him wrong, to show that no House is inherently good or bad, and no House os better or worse than the other. But than she keeps backpedaling on this very simple plot point, showing that nope, he was right, Slytherin=Bad, Gryffindor=Good. Even with the woke Snape ordeal that she presented as the epitome of a redemption arc (it wasn’t) and bravery (is bravery in the room with us?), even there she backpedaled on the absolutely real possibility of showing “HERE! A GOOD SLYTHERIN! LOOK”, by writing Dumbledore lamenting over “sorting students too early”, implying that once again, Slytherins just can’t be good, and if Snape is good he must’ve been sorted wrongly. LIKE COME ON!!!

She even made it a point to write that all Slytherins came to Voldemort after evacuating form Hogwarts, except for Draco, which 1)Narratively wrong, we know that at least Crabbe and Gould remained in Hogwarts with Draco, and 2)Makes zero fucking sense! Seriously, ALL of them? Every single one? Not all of them even had parents being Death Eaters, if she wanted to write the lamest “everyone chose the same thing their parents did” point. The only reason we ever thought she was a good writer is because we were little and had zero critical thinking and she managed to create an appealing story despite being shitty at writing

Every good thing about the HP series happened in canon DESPITE all of JKR’s intentions and I absolutely love this paradox. Every single nuance that we love now as adults, all of the gray areas and characters, every possibility to broaden the lore and universe that we live in fandom is there despite her every single attempt to smother them and make everything strictly black and white one-dimensional boredom. The whole fandom is still so alive because we divorced her and took full custody over a child 👌🏼

[transfemlogan]

ok so obviously my mental health has been super fucking bad. um. for monthd jts been terrible so this is less me ranting abt sanders sides & more me having a mental break but were gonna ignore that bcuz im upset

i fucking HAAATE sanders sides fans who will defend thomas 2 the fucking death. im losing my mind.

i just saw someone say that janus acting onw way in svs & acting completely different in the grwm vid is "added depth 2 his character" . i acknowledge that character depth can be subjective but 4 the love of fucking god no it is not. that is not added depth.

character depth makes a character NOT one dimensional. current janus is VERY MUCH ONE DIMENSIONAL. he fits in2 a single trope, he does not stray from that trope. everything about him is TOLD to us, not shown. and i get that we havent actually seen him in canon sasi vids bcuz thomas cant do his job & its been 4 fucking years but holy hell. current janus is the "sassy gay man". hes the "bitchy & mean villain who doesn't care about anyone around him". he fits into THAT ONE TROPE. & does not have a DIMENSIONAL BONE IN HIS BODY. he is a remy fucking COPYCAT.IM SO MAD

svs janus while not perfect had some sort of fucking depth. janus has strayed so far from his original character that he is not the same fucking character. if u put svs janus & current janus in a room 2gether i think svs janus would kill the other.

and it SUCKS EVEN MORE. WHEN PPL CLAIM THAT A CHARACTER BEING OOC CANT BE "TRUE" IF THE "CREATOR IS WRITING 4 THEM" could u fucking imagine. imagine reading a book & the main character switches personalities midway thru w/o plot development & acts nothing like the og & the author just goes "what? its fine its my charafter i can write them 2 b how ever i want."

like 1: you obviously have never written anything in ur fucking life b4 if u think writers cant fuck up their own characters. but 2: if you ARE a writer i am EMBARRASSED. AND WORRIED FOR YOUR FUTURE WORKS. i am embarrassed for you. thats embarrassing.

its one thing 2 claim that thomas' writing is good (its not this guy cannot write) & adds depth 2 his characters (no it fucking doesnt do you KNOW. WHAT CHARACTER DEPTH IS.) but then 2 add "well actually um its his characters so who cares if its bad"

critical thinking is dead. media literacy is dead. your brains have been rotted so much 2 the point where u r a fucking idiot. i cant do this anymore. go outside & touch grass. i have 2 leave this fsndom again

[warsamongthestars]

@thegrimcroissant

That's because of a few things.

I've talked about it before on a... post somewhere on this messy messy blog, but I'll go into depth here.

Overuse of Chandler's Law

Lack of 3D Character Writing

Plot-Driven

Chandler's Law, is a term made by Raymond Chandler (A detective-novelist, whose works would go on to be apart of the Film Noir Genre--such as, for example, the Big Sleep--and is one of the writers who solidified the idea of the fedora-wearing detective).

It details that, if you cannot push a scene forward, have someone come in with a gun. Basically, have something surprising occur that causes reaction and pushes the plot. When used correctly, and not overused, it'll push the characters to action and allow the writer to leap over their writer's block.

When overused, it's a writer that's avoiding doing the heavy lifting required to push a story or a character.

The monster thing that appeared between Hunter and Cross. Echo abandoning the Bad Batch (It was abandonment). Hunter going "Squirrel!" in Episode 1 alone--there are lots of moments of Chandler's Law's overuse. I'm pretty certain they've broken that law.

Lack of 3D Character Writing. When I was a kid I used to look this up. I was obsessed with creating characters that were proper, out of fear of being chased off with monikers like "Mary Sue". So I looked up quite a bit of character writing (and still do, only this time, out of fun and study, not because I give a rat's ass about what dudebros have to say.)

3D Character writing, or three-dimensional character writing, involves three major layers. Ask any OC writer / artist, they do all of them in a nice neat package.

To make a sum, this involves.

Layer 1: Aesthetic and Persona. How does the character look, and how do they talk, what equipment or powers do they have. The easiest layer, anyone can do it. If you only have this layer, they are a one-dimensional character. Nothing wrong with that, plenty of background characters are one-d. You need one-d's to fill in the space.

They also lack development. If you put them in the rattle-em-boys machine, they'll come out no worse for wear.

( When we're first introduced to Luke Skywalker, he was a cheerful kid, near adult, in sandy clothes. In any other setting he'd practically be ordinary--save for the desert planet with 2 suns and alien merchants.)

Layer 2: Backstory and Relationships. Relationships in this case isn't an Character / Character, its how a character connects to other characters, places, or more. Usually this involve backstory.

A character with mulitple facets is not going to treat every person they know the same, same with enviroments--they're not going to treat a subway the same they would treat an arcade or a home (or if they do, then that sounds like someone to write about--contradictions get attention.)

Backstory is the character's history. How did they come to be, Why did they come to be, what things occurred in their past, who were they before, how did they come to know some people or things, the works.

( Luke Skywalker is already interesting in that he doesn't share the same last name as his aunt and uncle, and in fact, it was both him and the audience learning his backstory, that drives him forward to know more about his deceased father--and potentially, be more like him. )

This sounds complicated, but its also only results in 2D characters. 2D characters are a starting point. When you get introduced to your main cast, they're all 2D characters waiting in development.

This is one definition of "Character Development".

But then comes in the complicated layer. If one is an experienced writer, you can nail this outta the ball park on the first page.

Its also one of the most important layers.

Layer 3: Dynamics and Reactions.

This is actions and behaviors, the voice of the character through the writing. Its not the how or why or who, its the What and Where. Place the character in situations and watch how they act and react. If you're making a main character, this is essential.

Its this layer that pushes the story through the character's actions and reactions. This is the layer that makes them a Main or at least a Focus Character.

( But when Luke reacts to the cries of a pretty girl, he wants to help! When he finds their ride is ancient, he reacts in disgust. When it comes to being a Jedi, he struggles, but seems to have a natural talent if only he's allowed to learn. When it comes to sneaking onto an enemy spacecraft, he disguises himself instead of going guns ablazing. When in an environment which he excels, speeding across space in a fighter craft, almost like the speeders back home... he's both the savior of the day, and the only survivor. )

The first and second layers all set up for the 3rd Layer.

This is the other definition of "Character Development".

( Often the best way to achieve Layer 3 is to give the character a Goal. Sometimes the best way to achieve Layer 3 is to avoid giving them goals beyond throwing them into shenanigans. )

Now comes the super secret layers!

Layer 0: The Environment / the Setting. A character fits the environment. In a world of Sci-Fi, you aren't going to find a Fantasy character (Or you might! Depends on how great the argument you make for it is). But in general, if you want a character to fit mechanically, then you've got to know the world you're working with first. You aren't going to find the Fallout Player Character in Skyrim, for example.

Layer 4: What I love to call the "Prove it" Layer. You've got all three layers, now its time to show the third party--the Audience. The audience is going to see things you didn't, and also see things that aren't there, just remember that you hold the cards, even if your interpretation isn't the audiences (The 3rd Layer is magical in the fact that your very characters can take writing from you, instead of you giving writing--its a peculiar phenomena).

You don't have to show the audience all layers all at once, the layers are for YOU, not them. You prove you know your layers to the audience based on your story. We'll pick it up if you succeeded or not.

Sidebar: You might be wondering about Character Development. Character development isn't necessarily that the character changes, its simply that, the audience now knows more about the Character. Character Development is a quasi-2D-3D element--sometimes a character develops because you've learned their backstory and now all their actions make sense. Sometimes, the character learns a thing through 3D dynamics, and that's also character development. You can also do both.

The point is that you shouldn't change the core character. Just because one learns something or has his position shifted, doesn't mean he's magically a brand new character--It just now means he's in a new situation with new shenanigans to deal with.

TBB's BBs are in a quasi 2D state. They're in this state.. because they Lack Backstory. Oh they'll reference missions, but... we really dont' know anything about them, do we?

They also lack 3D: Dynamics. Reactions? Reactions are easy shit when you have barebones archetypes like "Big Strongman He Talk Funny" and "Big Brain Smart Guy who Does all the Soft Skill Jobs" and "Grumpy Man who does Grumpy Things" (Toss up if I'm talking Echo or Hunter--it doesn't matter).

But you want Dynamics. There aren't any Dynamics.

You could argue Crosshair--but Crosshair also lacks a Backstory. Any development he has undergone is also Under Chandler's Law, it is a series of surprising reactions--the absolute worst thing about it too is that the Writers try to push that it is Character Development / Redemption as opposed to Character Recovery, and he doesn't even get that right because we are missing character layers. He's got nothing to Recover Too that doesn't involve become 2D.

And because this is throw away in-enviroment element, the Mind Control Tumor / Inhibitor Chip, that means the writers have attempted remove Layer 0.

This is plot driven lazy writing, coming from a source that shouldn't be either. That has the resources to do the job that a fanficer often does for free and without resources!

And that goes into...

Plot-Driven. They do things, because the writer said so. Its not because they have character, the writer wants it to be. They do things because its expected, but the character gives no thought on the matter. In a plot-driven story, anyone can fit in anywhere without issue, because the writer says so--3D Characters cannot run on Plot-Driven.

The Writer has Goals and Dynamics, but the characters are merely pieces on the board. Their job is just to get to the chosen end, performing maybe a couple of functions.

You can kill Tech and the characters will simply keep going without changing. You can remove Echo and nothing changes, and he'll be in and out because it didn't matter to begin with. You can remove Crosshair and the characters will simply act as if he wasn't ever there. Oh look, a convenient Child Character Replacement!

Plot-Driven stories when you've established character-driven characters, such as CF99 from TCW, is basically scalping the 3rd Layer of 3D character writing. Gets worse when you divert all development to a super duper special donut steel original character, who is not in the name, not in the promotion, and edges on breaking the world-build.

In fact, thanks to the writer's plot driven and lazy efforts, they've already broken the world-build by trying to say that important bits of Layer Zero don't matter / don't exist, after significant years long development said "yes it do".

If you've broken the game, its not canon anymore. They really did fuck up that badly.

They placed so much emphasis on dynamics with Omega, because they weren't developing the BBs and didn't care to. They introduce so many guest characters, that the guest characters got more development than the main cast did.

BBs were main characters in their own show, they were side bits.

If anything, the biggest reason Crosshair had so much dynamics with Omega is because of character popularity. Same with Tech, and well, they threw Tech away. Same with Echo, except they kept fishing Echo back anyway.

This is, content-farming clickbait writing talking. Playing the numbers because it gets the blood up, not because they're going to do anything real.

... How did the TBBshow fail at the starting line?

I did get sucked into TBB S1, because I was prompted by the idea of "Oh, my favorites! They're getting a show!" after the clone wars show.

And after Ep1, I was lured by the possibility of payoff.

... there was no payoff. And this set up of luring to no paypoff, starts with Episode 1.

Its like when you do a job or do a task, and how one's attitude can set one's self up for failure? or how certain small things can build up to big disasters?

Its less watching a car crash, and more like, second hand embarrassment. You know that someone is doing things that can be easily fixed, and that you know they know they can do it, but they still perform the worst possible choices and inevitably, the outcome is bad.

( @laughhardrunfastbekindsblog ; because I said I'd get your attention. Just note, I'm not particularly forgiving about the TBBshow and prep for swearing )

Let's start.

No Communication The Bad Batch, as a team of unique characters with unique abilities and quirks, with contrasts and parallels with each other, with implied history, and shown examples... Are written and introduced to be a tight knit group. That's how they're handled in Clone Wars, that's their introduction. There is no argument about how tight these boys are going into TBBshow. Obviously, if something was wrong, they would talk about it with each other. Obviously, if you want an interesting character driven story, which this unique set of characters are set up to do, you want to see that conversation because it makes the story or scene interesting--it produces Character Development and forwards the Plot. But. And with Example. The moment something goes wrong in the TBBshow's TBB Team... they ignore it entirely. The Example. Crosshair, who we the audience knows has fallen under the chip, repeatedly and aggressively berates his brothers (and especially Hunter) about following Orders. His whole set up to being under the chip involves shooting at a Child, Former Commander or not. Yes, there were bouts of callout about his behavior... But it wasn't really a callout was it? It wasn't a, "take this character aside and confront them about what's going on". It was a shout of surprise... and then forget about it next scene. A tight knit group, like the Bad Batch, who back each other up, form plans that instinctual trusts each other, would immediately be set off if one of their number isn't acting right and they would, absolutely, move in for confrontation--because bad attitude on the battlefield or up against the scary monster, is how you get each other Killed. This is a lesson repeatedly brought up in the Clone War Show, of which TBBshow is an explicit sequel of. And yet, they let Crosshair fester. And the moment, the exact moment, they finally confront him--Hunter gets immediately distracted by thoughts of a kid they Just Met, whom is Hundreds to Thousands of Lightyears away. When his brother is right in front of him. This shows that the show, even when its trying to tease conversation, will not dedicate time to allow the characters to talk to each other--even when its at its most Serious. This same situation has repeated time and time again, througout S1-S2. The Finale of S1, where Crosshair makes a bunch of oneliners, and Hunter just kinda stands there dramatically. S2, where another of their closest, Tech, outright Died, and nothing was done--which was, I should point out, exchanged for more focus on Omega. That brings up the next point

Omega's Overimportance. Sidekick characters have always gotten mixed results. How you solve that, is often by context. You practically have to choose your suspsense of disbelief, inspite of known flaws, when it comes to certain circumstances. ( Such as Batman and Robin. Robin is a kid in costume, fighting people who will kill him. But if you still want Robin with Batman, because they're the dynamic duo, you still have to write that situation repeatedly, even though a super hero's baseline is usually to rescue kids from that very situation. Sometimes you gotta pick the losing option to maintain your story. ) The problem with my explanation above, to prove the point about choosing the losing option... is that Omega is Not a Sidekick character. She is the Main Character of the show that is, by set up and promotion and promise, meant to be about the Bad Batch. To use a comparison I've used before, its like setting up a team of friends to go on adventures... only to focus on the "main" character's little brother instead. (Such as watching MLP, but by episode 3, Spike the Dragon is now the main character ) Omega is set up to be too special. Both by using the lore (she's a clone with force abilities and naturally ages and the only-just-now introduced assistant of the great and terrible Nala Se), and by character. As pointed above--instead of confronting Crosshair and maybe, finding out what's going on, Hunter instead goes "Squirrel" and decides retrieving Omega from a planet lightyears away, was the better option. And as the seasons go on, Omega becomes more and more important, until she's making the adult decisions and suddenly is playing therapist to PTSD sufferers with no consequences, because she went from naive cadet to fucking clone messiah.

There is nothing about her, beyond being a cute kid, that would put her in this position of taking the show, that wouldn't involve a writer deciding their Donut Steel (my name for Mary / Gary Sue) was more important than anything else. And that leads into...

Destruction of Character Dynamics Again, the Bad Batch are set up and written to be a tight knit group. To take from TCWshow introductions... ... Tech and Wrecker immediately set up to backup Crosshair, when he confronts Rex about Cody calling them in. When Jesse gets into his face, Wrecker doesn't hesitate to pick Jesse up and keep him away from Crosshair. ... And in turn, Crosshair will stop Kix from interfering with Wrecker. ... While Wrecker might tease Tech's caution (and break down the door), when Rex asks about Tech, Wrecker immediately echo's (haha) Tech's words of "This is a delicate operation". Wrecker can rush his brother, but nobody else, is allowed to. ... Everyone (save Tech, but that's because he's a semi-polite, semi-feral formal boi), uses the term Reg. ... When Rex loses his cool and starts to yell at Hunter, in regards to Echo's condition when on their way to the Skako Minor City that holds him, Crosshair immediately steps up to take attention from Hunter. (Saying some pretty cruel things in the process,a nd getting decked) ... Hunter will tease Wrecker about heights at one point, but then try to assure him later on. ... Crosshair uses Tech's shoulder as a rifle mount ... Hunter will unashamably compliment and promote Crosshair's skills. All that? Is just in 4 episodes in TCWs, and shows off a tight group of brothers in arms and friends, whom might tease each other, but have a lot of positive things to say about one another, will step up to back each other up no matter what's going on, and its Them Against the Galaxy And when Echo comes along, its Crosshair who actually shows the first positive action with him from the Batch, by his patting / resting a hand on his shoulder. ( Crosshair... who is one sassy fuck. ) So what does TBBshow do? Immediately has Crosshair fall under the chip, forgoes any positive interactions for snarking, refuses confrontation of whom is meant to be their very close brother in exchange for a strange child on another planet.

By removing his element from the Bad Batch, it immediately destroys the dynamics set up by The Clone Wars. Suddenly, they're missing a very important piece of character, and that defeats the whole purpose of having a Bad Batch centric show.

They do this at Episode 1. No set up, no episodes to establish character before they destroy the dynamic--its just Gone out the Gate. And there's no show or set up that Crosshair's absence did anything to the Batch, there's no discussion of him (or of the home they lost, or of the people they knew) and when it was time to show the tragedies... they opted for getting attacked by droids. Most of S1, experienced by myself and others, was spent wondering when Crosshair was going to return. Because its not the Bad Batch without all the Bad Batch. When was the Bad Batch going to discuss rescuing Crosshair? Or even, discuss Crosshair at all, without some dramatic looks int he distance? When was the show actually going to treat the characters as if they were important to each other, like they did back in the Clone Wars? But instead, the show takes steps to replace him with Omega, a child we were not here to see. She takes his comm, takes his place as the long ranged sniper, and because she becomes the main character, even takes the Show. And come S2, they did the same to Echo, who left without preamble. Without discussion, with maybe vague hints, and not even with a sliver of an idea that the Batch was better or worse without him. In fact, most of his S1 episodes regulated him to either droid man or perpetuatal Bitcher. Nothing he said solved anything or was listened to, beyond a snarky quip.

( yes, there was the explosive-chemical episode. However, there was nothing in that episode that wasn't already shown in S1. Echo left for nothing, and trying to imply him being there regulated the Batch, did nothing because all he did in S1 was Bitch about Everything and do Nothing--which is already against Echo's TCWshow characterization but that's a discussion for another time and post. )

That leaves Omega to replace not only Crosshair but Echo.

Then Tech dies. They gave him enough development to get attached, and then killed him without preamble, for a situation they could've have performed in S1.. but then didn't. Leaving S3, to have Omega replace just Tech, and Echo, once Crosshair returned.

We ended the show as we began--with non existent character dynamics, that if they show the slightest hint of connection beyond aesthetic, gets interrupted by an outside character (Omega) or destroyed by an outside force (the entire fucking plot). There are no character dynamics, because over the course of all 3 seasons, they showed that each character can come and go as they please, be replaced by the slightest inclination at random, and it will have no impact on any other character, or gets immediatly consumed by the donut steel.

Character dynamics have to be Shown and then given and weight. You have to slow down for a character to act and react to situations.

And that goes into...

Rapid Fire Plot.

The show never slows down. It keeps going and going. They had order 66 performed in Five Minutes, and then were immediately moving on to Kamino for five minutes, oop combat in the cafeteria, which immediately moves on to a training op, and then a mission for five minutes, and oops donut steel across the galaxy gotta go, opps arrestted, oops hunted down, oops friend betray, oops GONE

Constantly building tension and action for No Pay Off...

... And no Reason.

There's no conversations about anything important, because the show refuses to slow down. Its not a "fault of the world". A writer can write whatever scene and story they want, they can slow things down because time is only as meaningful as its written.

But TBBshow keeps wanting to add and add and add, to keep the tension so fucking High, so that when ti finally does slow down, it feel less like a relief, and more like exhaustion.

The moments that should have been slowed, are conversations (communication) between characters about each other (Character Dynamics) without interruption from other relationships (remove the overimportance of Omega), stating either plainly or with character style and goofiness, about situations they're going through.

That means, slowing the hell down. That means, acknowledging that one of your brothers is acting off and is probably being mindcontrolled or something in the empire (because even if he's salty, he can't be that bad, and we know something is up because everyone is acting off--and remember those geonosis brain worms?), or that one of your brothers wants to go out into the galaxy to help his other brothers (and why not? we'd be in a familiar place with familiar people, and it beats doing jobs for a lizard bitch).

Or that someone very close, died. (or might not have. Because its Star Wars, and falling off cliffs didn't even kill the guy cut in half. )

But slowing down means making the main characters important, and if you make them important, you can't introduced someone else...

Which goes into...

Guest Characters.

Episode One immediately has Tarkin, Saw Guerrea, Nala Se, Kanan, Kanan's Master...

None of these people, except Nala Se, can be considered important to the Bad Batch characters.

Imagine, if you will, we get a new show of Superman. Like, we're here for the Boy Scout, its Superman's show... and then his entire first episode involves Batman, and the Flash, and Wonderwoman, and Superman only gets a few scenes here and there for superpowers, but then the show insists on listening to conversations of Batman and Wonderwoman about Superman...

Guest characters are fine in moderation, whcih means, in low amounts. But it seems that most of the episodes in TBBshow, insists on "bringing back" characters from everywhere else.

Rex? He's fine, because he connects to Echo and he's important to a post-Republic era.

But the twin mechanics? Fennec Sha? Cad Bane? Jabba the Hutt's Fucking Rancor? ASAJJ VENTRESS!?

( A llama? SHE'S SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD )

They're not, important, to the Bad Batch. They're don't add anything to the Lore. Anyone can walk in and fill their shoes.

All the hype about them, takes attention away from the Bad Batch as characters and from the story. You pay more attention to familiar figures, than to the very figures that this story is about.

There is no argument beyond "fan fare" and "fan hype" to keep these characters in the story. They contribute Nothing.

Meanwhile, they kill off Tech, turn Crosshair evil for no reason they bothered keeping, and removed Echo, the only real main character from TCWshow proper, for no discussion and no impact and no story interest.

Like the point above, it only serves to have Tension with no Payoff.

CONCLUSION

All this? Starts with Episode 1. Yes, there are episodes where guests aren't around, where Omega isn't the focus, where the Bad Batch have some impact on each other.

But its not enough to change the story, its not enough to change the result, there's no character conversation that can be named, no impact on characters or plot that can be pointed out to that isn't already started by the contrivance, and the team was destroyed by the begining, and stayed destroyed in new ways, by the end.

Its all about Tension, Hype, and Attention. If you argue they could've had more time...

A Star Wars team backed by billion-dollar Disney can do 3 seasons in 3 years, for a subscription online service without having to fight for airing times.

Habro's MLP did it under restriction. Cartoon Network's Over the Garden Wall did in 7 episodes.

They didn't need Time. They needed Focus. They had all the tools, and still opted to use a Sledge Hammer for Screws.

They had preset characters perfect for an entire show, and then still made a super special OC, and destroyed the very team they had.

They had a preset plot, post republic rise of Empire, and still opted to do every mission that wasn't involved with the Empire.

They had a PRESET CONFLICT, with the chips, and then opted to say that the chips don't matter midway through S1.

THEY HAD A PRESET WORLD BUILD. CLONE TROOPER CULTURE, and still opted to introduce every Star Wars character from here to gods damn Wild Space instead.

I have never seen such a disaster where everything was possibly laid out before them that could be easily made, with the time and resources they had (because everyone else who had less time and less resources, such as Hasbro, Cartoon Network--hell, Nickelodeon)--and then they decided that no, they were instead going to do their own thing.

And it turned to Shit.

And it all started, with Episode 1.