#like oh no the book is missing the arc for its main character

[heir-of-the-chair]

Lowkey hyperfixating now and I’ve come to the devastating conclusion that Jacob the main character of Water For Elephants… doesn’t really have a character arc

[thewardenisonthecase]

About the Lucanis Romance

(this is a long ass post ok so bear with me)

So I've been meaning to adress some of the complaints/criticisms of Lucanis's romance and I was thinking on how to do it and I finally figured it out. While I don't like making comparisons because I think they're somewhat unfair, but this time, I'm gonna do it to show why I have some many complaints about the Lucanis romance.

And I'm gonna compare it to Fenris's romance arc in DA2. The main reason for that is that 1) they're both very troubled man who brood and went through A Lot tm and 2) considering DA2 also doesn't allow you to just talk to the companions whenever and doesn't have a spam kiss button and is a shorter game, it feels the fairest comparison.

'Lack of reactivity when it comes to the flirting dialogue options'

One of the biggest complaints when it comes to Lucanis romance is his lack of reaction to the flirting dialogue lines. I've seen the argument that 'oh but he's awakward, he doesn't know how to react'. I'm not the biggest fan of this because there are ways to better portray a character being bad with flirting than having 0 reaction.

During Switch and Bait, the quest where Fenris is recruited, you can flirt with him. And how does he react? He gives a nervous laugh, because he's not used to do. But that conveys that he listened to the flirt line and is responding to it, even if he doesn't actually say anything. There are other moments where his reaction is looking away, smirking, and a few times he does flirt back.

Even if small, I never felt that Fenris wasn't reacting to what was being said. Meanwhile, Lucanis has a painful moment where Rook tells him "I'm here" and he, with the straightest face ever, responds with "We need to talk about Ilario". And this is not the only time where it feels like there was no response to the flirting, its just the most egregious of them.

So, while I can understand what people mean by the fact that he's awkward, there are better ways to portray this. It's important to remember that this is a video game, which is an interactive media, and on top of that, it's an RPG. The player HAS to feel like what they're doing matters, because if it doesn't, it's easiert to just read a book.

'Not enough romance scenes'

I think this is a criticism that has been misunderstood by many people. Romance scenes do not mean just sex. I'm asexual, the sex scenes are the thing that least matter to me. Like, Fenris only has 1 sex scenes and it's a fade to black where he immediatly dumps Hawke after, so clearly, sex is not what I care about.

What does matter are scenes that establish a connection between the two character.

And while Lucanis has them, and I think they're great (the coffee scene and the almost kiss one are the highlights for me), due to the way these scenes are spread out, it feels like there's something missing.

DA2 also doesn't have a shitton of romance scenes, and considering the fact that Fenris breaks up with Hawke halfway through, its understandable. But the difference is that DA2 is a much shorter game than Veilguard, or, at the very least, Act 2 of DA2 is waaaay more concise than Act 2 of Veilguard, which is where most of the romance is happening.

That means that, even if there aren't that many romance scenes, they are better splayed out, so you don't feel like you're missing stuff. Another thing that I think happens is that you can really dive in and just ask the companion a lot of things.

Take Fenris's Questioning Beliefs quest in Act 2, which is a really important scene for the romance. Much like veilguard, its a scene that doesn't begin as a romance one but if you have been picking the flirting options, it can turn into Fenris and Hawke discussing about being intimate in the future. And in this scene, Fenris confesses to not having been with anyone in long, and doesn't remember if he actually ever has been with anyone.

This can be made so much longer by the fact that Hawke can ask multiple follow up questions from there, and that helps in both creating a connection between the two and also establishing the romance. Even if they don't do anything then, Fenris will say 'another time'.

And this happens in the act 3 version of Questioning Beliefs, which has the culmination of Fenris's and Hawke's romance, where their relationship is rekindled. And I think they do what Veilguard should have done: they let the player adress Fenris leaving Hawke.

One thing that bothered me, and that other people have brought up is that after Lucanis's runs away from the almost kiss, it's never adressed again. And I think if they could have had a moment where Rook and Lucanis talk about this, it could have been great to understand Lucanis and his history with relationships, how he feels internally about what's going on with them, heck maybe even apologize. Just something to feel that that wasn't a random scene, that was something important that happened.

Also, because you can interrogate Fenris so much in those scenes, the feeling that he was yearning for Hawke but all his trauma was stopping him felt more natural/real/explicit. I remember getting to the endgame portion of Veilguard and Lucanis pulling out the 'when i wanted to be with you but was scared' and thinking this is a lovely sentiment but why it hasn't been shown before? Because yes, the almost kiss is a good way to establish this, but if it had been actually delved in, that feeling could have been made more explicit.

I also wanted to add that, while the gift giving in DA2 is nowhere near the mechanic it was in DAO, it still helped with establishing that connection, and it gave even more chances for characters to flirt, and if DATV had used this opportunity, it could have helped a lot, instead of just having the character go "for me? thanks"

'Banter'

I'm gonna adress two issues here at once. The first is Neve.

Out of the gate, hating on Neve just because she flirts with Lucanis and gets with him if you don't romance either of them is weird, and at the very least, sexist.

So, what I want to talk about is that if you're romancing either of them, for some reason, their flirting banters still trigger and that can be uncomfortable. It sure is weird to be romancing a character and have them still flirt with another, because it comes across as 'oh maybe the choice to romance them doesn't change much' which isn't good for an RPG.

DA2 also has a couple that flirts through banter and gets together if Hawke doesn't romance them, and those are Isabela and Fenris. The difference is that, if you romance either of them, those flirty lines of banter do not trigger. At all. So much so I had no idea they got together because I've only romanced Fenris so far in DA2, so i never even knew of these banters until I looked at the wiki.

So, truly, lucanis and neve getting together is fine (i think neve should have been with bellara but that's another story) but these flirting line should not trigger if either of them are being romanced by Rook.

Still on the topic of banter, maybe I was unlucky and didn't get it to trigger often, but I felt as if, even though everyone was living together, the fact that Rook and Lucanis were in a relationship was not really ever addressed by anyone else? Like, I know these banters exist because I've seen them online, but I feel like there were just too little of them?

In comparison, the DA2 characters have a LOT to say about Hawke's choice of partner (and again, I'm focusing on Fenris here). Merrill adresses the romance through banter ('you make sad puppy eyes whenever Hawke looks away'), Varric, Isabela and Anders have specific scenes where they talk to Hawke about Fenris and give their opinions on the two of them together. Heck, in Aveline's quest where she gets with Donnic, she can briefly mention the two of them. And these all of them also have banter in which they adress the romance.

And its this sort of thing that really helps filling in the gaps of the romance scenes but also showing that these characters know what is happening. And the DA2 gang doesn't even live together!

And for Lucanis in specific, if there always was going to be less scenes with him due to how he is a person, having a few scenes where the other companions talk to Rook about it would have helped bridge that gap, in my opnion. Again, considering you can't directly talk to this characters (as in, click on them and start a dialogue), this would have been a nice touch.

And now a very personal complait of mine

'Kisses and the Commit to Romance scene'

While I stated at the very begging that I don't care about sex scenes, that is another story when it comes to kissing scenes, and I'm sorry, but it's WILD to put the ONLY kissing scene in the romance AT THE ENDGAME PORTION OF THE GAME.

Give it or take, kissing is an intimate act and it can be used, in my opinion, to show that a character is comfortable with that sort of physical touch. And for a character like Lucanis, who is just so troubled, maybe one kiss before the grand finale would have been really fucking welcomed. In fact, I know the scene they could have added that - the one in the café after Ilario is taken down.

It could have been a short, sweet kiss, that was just a follow up to the almost kiss scene. Just something to hammer in more that these characters are together.

Because let me tell you, it is not a good sign when people say they thought the game was bugged after the dessert scene.

That scene, while lovely on its own, does a bad job of making it clear that yeah, these characters are dating now, and that's due to the fact that that is not something really said out loud.

I'm rewatching this scene as I type this out and at no point, is it made clear through dialogue that Rook and Lucanis are agreeing to being together. In fact, Lucanis says that what he's doing is not enough, and Rook disagreed with the sentiment and says they're easily bribed. That's it.

Meanwhile, in DA2, not only in act 2, do Fenris and Hawke lowkey make plans about being intimate at a later date, and Fenris explicitly says he wants Hawke, but in act 3, he once again makes it clear that he wants to be with Hawke, and I feel like this only really happens with Lucanis at the endgame portion of the game.

This is all to say that: The Lucanis romance is lacking, and that Bioware has done something like this before and they did a better job then than now.

[ravensvirginity]

Titans #15 Review

Oh my god. Where do I even begin.

To start with my one and only positive: the art is gorgeous. Lucas Meyer is the best artist the Titans have had in ages, and his new Raven design really delivered. I'm so sad that it appears that the artist who'll be taking over for him in #16 is undoing his design changes, I think it's a massive shame. I did appreciate the detail of Raven's white cloak design having rings on her index fingers, but it feels a little pointless without the lore of Azar's rings to back it up.

Now, the negatives: literally everything else about this comic. This comic fails to deliver on an eight issue arc in any kind of satisfying way, has a bizarre and out of character tone, and severely misunderstands the lore of its main villain. They literally defeated Trigon with the power of friendship. Maybe that could work in Teen Titans Go, but in a main timeline DC comic? What?

First, the demon Raven stuff. Gar saying that demon Raven and regular Raven aren't two different people--yeah, obviously. The severe degree of separation between demon Raven and regular Raven has been one of the big issues of this arc, and this conclusion is as unsatisfying as the rest of it. Raven and her demon side being able to talk face to face isn't new, but them being two separate people with separate physical bodies who can operate completely independently of each other--while there is some precident for this, to me it's a very strange writing choice and misses the point of a demon Raven arc.

The original idea of Raven and her demon side was that her demon side is her. It's all the worst instincts she inherited from Trigon locked up and carefully controlled. When Trigon takes control of her and turns her into her demon form, everything she's repressed, both good and bad, is released. Raven still having a soft spot for the Titans in her demon form makes sense; she's still Raven, just corrupted by Trigon into something she isn't. Raven deciding to stop being evil (not that she even really was) and going back to normal from one brief conversation with her teammate does not, and is really anticlimactic.

It's just such a waste of the story's potential. If you don't want to commit to Raven being the villain of the story, don't do a demon Raven arc! It's possible to do a Trigon story without Raven being evil, I don't get why they didn't just do that. None of the drama with Raven being evil was particularly well executed, and all it seemed to do was drag the comic on longer and longer with nothing actually happening, because they were unwilling to make Raven actually do anything villanous.

All that pales in comparison to how they defeated Trigon. I don't think I've ever seen such blatant disregard for previous canon. As Raven, powered up by the other Titans, fights Trigon, Gar narrates as follows:

"I doubt Trigon has ever been in a fight. An actual fight. With someone his own size and power level. Never had to face someone like Nightwing one-on-one. Never tried to stand while being pinned by the power of Donna Troy's will. Never been blasted... with a giant-sized Apokoliptian blast from Cyborg. And never, ever... felt the full force of a Tamaranean hit powered by the stars."

WHAT?

This comic canonically takes place in the same timeline as the New Teen Titans. There are many homages to the New Teen Titans. It has been made very clear that the team started as the New Teen Titans, and then after many, many years of crazy comic book history the team reformed as the Titans of this run.

The first ever Trigon arc that introduces him and Raven as characters takes place in the first six issues of the New Teen Titans, and culminates in Trigon being defeated by the Titans and thrown into an interdimensional prison. I can't stress this enough: literally every single one of the things Gar said have never happened to Trigon happen in that fight. Donna uses her lasso to dampen Trigon's will, in combination with Raven and Arella's empathic abilities. Wally rips a hole through the fabric of reality to throw Trigon into, and Kory and Vic connect their powers to amplify their blasts to throw Trigon into the interdimensional rift. The whole thing is coordinated and managed by Dick Grayson (who was still Robin at the time).

Gar was there when all this happened. There is no reason for him to not know that this happened. The only explanation is Tom Taylor doesn't know, or he doesn't care. This would be disappointing for any comic book run, but it leaves an especially sour taste in my mouth for this to happen in a run that's so built on NTT homages. It's clear that the writing could not care less about the comic it was inspired by.

And then Garth causes Trigon to have a heart attack. Okay, that was just stupid. Admittedly, I did think the page of Raven stabbing Trigon was cool (again, the art is really the only saving grace here), but her saying "Fuck you, Dad"? Seriously? An ongoing problem in this run has been the dialog feeling janky and too much like lines from a generic superhero movie, and this line embodies that very well. I'm not opposed to swearing in comic books, but to me, this is not the right time for it. It doesn't fit the moment, and I think it's quite out of character for Raven, even if the sentiment behind it isn't.

And then Trigon isn't even dead? What does "Demons don't die. They just fade away." even mean?? Is he dead or not? Will he come back tomorrow or in a thousand years? It's such a strange, confusing letdown of an ending.

I didn't have high hopes for this issue, but it was somehow worse than I could ever have imagined. I'm so glad that this run is getting a new writer. Here's hoping that the coming issues will actually feel like a team book, and that the decades of lore and characterization of these beloved characters will actually be considered during writing.

[mad-not-disappointed]

Other than catra/catradora, what problems do you have with the show?

oh boy, where do i even start? i'm just gonna try and keep it short because if i try to explain every single aspect in detail, this post could be turned into a book. so i'm just gonna list out all the problems i have with this show, both in terms of problematic elements and poor writing.

blatant ableism towards the autistic character

bullying and mistreatment of a young boy being played for laughs

war and desolation being used as an Aesthetic™ rather than a theme/message

rushed and poorly written character arcs (and no, it's not just catra)

amatonormativity and forced ships (the show is supposed to be representative of the LGBT community, yet almost all of the characters need to end up in a relationship, in order to have a happy ending)

boring and poorly written Final Boss™

too much fanservice (little snippets of fanservice is fine but when you ignore and disrespect canon just so you can make the viewers happy, that's a problem)

an entire kingdom is conquered and its people probably killed/seriously harmed, and its ruler is shown moping around in a bathtub and eating ice cream as if they got stood up by their date instead (this connects to my earlier point about war being trivialized)

the only non-binary representation being a shapeshifting lizard creature (look, i like double trouble as a character but you have to admit that they're not exactly good representation)

one of the most powerful female characters in OG she-ra being reduced to the "doting aunt" (for a show that claims to be about empowering women, they sure ignore the powerful women in canon)

weird pacing and inconsistencies (apparently two or three years passed within the five seasons, yet the characters haven't aged at all, especially frosta who supposedly went from 12 to 14, yet looks exactly the same)

the princesses are useless (they should have named the show 'Catra and the others' lmao)

overuse of character archetypes instead of making original characters (the peaceful vegan flower princess who sometimes loses her temper, the depressed emo girl™, the hyperactive child™)

stereotyping of certain communities (the high-functioning autistic genius, the angry latina, the predatory lesbian, etc)

bad comedy (this is probably subjective and i don't expect everyone to agree, but most of the comedic elements is SPOP was just.. corny. only scorpia worked well as a comic relief character imo)

the only polyamory representation being two bullies and their victim

death of the author™ (basically, confirming things outside of the series, instead of portraying them well in canon)

plot holes and unsatisfying conclusions (adora's origin was a huge plot point in s4 but they completely abandon it in the last season)

there may be a lot that i've missed because i have a goldfish brain and tend to forget stuff. but i'd say these are the main problems i have with the show. it did a few things right, but fucked up on a thousand others.

[glindalesbian]

H, N, and O (if you don't mind another one!) for the Letter Asks!

H - What is your favorite source text for fandom stuff (e.g., TV shows, movies, books, anime, Western animation, etc.)?

Oh this was SO interesting to think about. I think a tv series is kind of ideal for fandom for a lot of reasons - there's generally a lot more content and a lot more characters to work with, you get longer/more narrative arcs, and there's new content with each new episode if you're in the fandom while the series is actively airing, which is really exciting. I actually really miss the era when we didn't really get shows all at once and we didn't get much in the way of a mini series and massive groups of people were watching the same thing at the same time each week, not to mention the chaos of waiting for the show to come back for its next season. Good times! Anyway I looooove a tv series fandom, but I've also really enjoyed fandoms for one-off movies like Inception and Dead Poets Society, as well as MANY musical theater shows!

N - Name three things you wish you saw more in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice).

I know I just said magical realism is a favorite trope of mine in another ask, but I am reiterating that we need more magical realism fics in just about every fandom. Drag Race is my main fandom rn so I guess I would say I would love to see fandom branch out a bit more with who they write about! There's kind of core fandom ships and queens, and obviously plenty of people write rarepairs or play around with new ships, but that's always my favorite stuff I love people pushing beyond the bounds of what fandom at large writes. There's like 200+ queens in the us franchise alone, I think we can diversify our ecosystem. This is my soapbox. Write new weird ships today! I mean this is why I organized the all stars 10 roulette challenge. I just think it's fun to explore new characters and dynamics! And then for my third wish list item hmmm maybe more romcom aus? Or just aus in general outside of the classic high school and college aus - and I say this as someone actively writing a high school au right now so please nobody take this as criticism dsklglgjsdklg I enjoy them all too! I just think it would be fun to read more like, take your fandom to work aus! inception aus! romcom aus like you've got mail and while you were sleeping and the proposal and etc etc! Sports aus! Theater aus! idk make your fave a marine biologist or a hockey player or a heist team leader or a kindergarten teacher or whatever your beautiful mind can dream up. I think the summary of all three of these things is EVERYONE GET WEIRDER WITH IT! HAVE FUN!

O - Choose a song at random. Which ship or character does it remind you of?

Okay this time I got Summertime Sadness by Lana Del Rey, THIS is a fun one for this question because when I played Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, I had a playlist I put together to listen to before the show and Summertime Sadness was on it! So the answer, believe it or not, is Juliet Capulet dlskgjldskjlgksdjds <3 I think I'll miss you forever! Like the stars miss the sun in the morning sky! Kiss me hard before you go!

Send me more letters!

[thecncitygirls]

Happy 20th anniversary teen titans!

I missed it because I was celebrating ANOTHER nostalgic action show: Danny Phantom! I bought the new comic book (it's called A Glitch In Time and it is SO GOOD). I want to take the time to share my thoughts on the Show.

When I say Teen Titans was my childhood I mean it. Sure I have a LOT of salt towards TTG, but i do have to give it credit the show can be funny and it's clear to be it's own thing (when it's not making unnecessary digs at the OG fans). Every Saturday morning I would wake up just to watch Titans on Kids WB.

I remember watching TT first on CN but my parents cancelled our cable. Lucky it also aired on The WB so I didn't miss much. My favorite will always be Raven, Cyborg and Starfire, I just really loved them and their characters. Funny enough I didn't exactly care for BB and Robin, until later in the show.

My favorite arc will always be Terra. They handled her character much better in the show because she feels like an actual teenager instead of Evil Incarnate���. Oh and Red X too! I really live how thry didn't reveal his identity in the show (I'm holding on to the common theory that he might be Jason Todd). And HIVE! I feel like Hive is so underrated i know everyone talks about Jinx but the other students deserve love too! Brother Blood was cool (actually a lot of TT villains were lit even Mad Mod).

Funny enough I wasn't all that scared of Slade (I was scared of Father from KND). He was so cool on the show and one of my favorite villains. And much more bearable. I do wish the show touched on his backstory considering Jericho was also in it.

But my favorite part about TT is that it is a TEEN TITANS show. So they got focus. No shoving in the adult heroes ESPECIALLY a certain bat. The Titans were allowed to grow and explore by themselves, and I think that's a great message for kids and young adults. You CAN solve problems without always needing an adult. You CAN have a DC show without shoehorning Batman. Literally all the characters were likable, have a wonderful dynamic and there's a favorite titan for everyone. And I liked how other characters outside the main team also got a bit of attention.

To this day this show will always hold a special place in my heart. Even with its flaws I appreciate the show for what it can do for action animation and media geared for kids and teens as whole. Here's to twenty more years of TEEN TITANS.

[thekat-alystreview]

Movie Review - Deadpool & Wolverine

I love this movie. It’s funny, it’s endearing, and its emotional climax actually hit me right in the feels. It manages to balance its signature irreverent humor with genuine heart, which is no easy feat when your protagonist is a walking fourth-wall-breaking punchline. That being said, even in a movie I thoroughly enjoyed, there were a few things that stuck out—some for the right reasons, others… not so much.

Ryan Reynolds is Deadpool, and while someone else could take over someday, they’d have a hell of a time making it their own. Then there’s Hugh Jackman, back as Wolverine like he never left. If anyone thought he’d phone it in after Logan, think again—he’s just as grumpy, just as savage, and just as likely to claw Deadpool in the face as ever. Their dynamic is everything you’d want: pure, chaotic, violent buddy comedy with just enough begrudging camaraderie to make you believe they’d actually die for each other.

However, With each passing Deadpool movie, Vanessa feels more and more like a plot device than a character. It was bad in the second movie, but somehow, it felt even worse here. She gets the “oh woe is me, I’m a monster, you can’t see me” treatment and the kidnapped damsel role in the first film, gets fridged in the second, and now, in the third, she’s the distant ex. It’s as if the writers couldn’t decide what to do with her, so they just cycled through every love interest cliché in the book.

Look, relationships fall apart. People die. But you can’t expect me to care if we barely see them together in the first place. And unlike most of the narrative choices in the Deadpool films—which are usually deliberate, self-aware jabs at genre tropes—Vanessa’s treatment doesn’t feel like a satire of love interest archetypes. It just feels like lazy writing.

When the movie jumps into the TVA and the multiverse, there’s a lot of potential for unique characters and fun new dynamics, and while some of them absolutely deliver, others feel like missed opportunities.

Cassandra Nova is a riot—chewing the scenery in a way that perfectly matches Deadpool’s tone while still managing to be a credible threat. She understands the assignment and brings just the right amount of menace and humor. The scene-stealer, though, is Wolverine himself. The moment he shows up in his classic yellow-and-blue suit, the movie shifts into a whole new level of fun. Watching him begrudgingly work with Deadpool—especially against a grotesque, past-his-prime version of himself—makes for some of the best action sequences in the film.

But not every character gets the same level of attention. Some of the side characters introduced in the TVA feel underdeveloped, existing purely to deliver exposition or serve as obstacles rather than adding any real depth to the story. The film throws a lot of interesting concepts at the wall, but it doesn’t always take the time to explore them fully.

Now, onto something else that bugged me: the whole Deadpool variant thing. The movie directly connects itself to Loki, which did the exact same concept, only… better. Loki had multiple versions of its main character—including an animal one—and I’m sorry, but Alligator Loki is just a funnier concept. There’s something about a scaly little menace in a tiny horned crown that hits on a deeper comedic level than just “what if Deadpool, but dog?”

And beyond the comedy, Loki’s use of variants actually meant something. The show used them to reflect Loki’s self-destructive nature, showing that no matter the timeline, no matter the circumstance, he was destined to sabotage himself. It was a joke and a key part of his character arc—like a snake swallowing its own tail.

The Deadpool variants? Yeah, they were funny, but what did they actually add to the movie beyond being a temporary obstacle to stretch out the finale? There was no deeper emotional or thematic payoff. They were just… there. Which, to be fair, is kind of Deadpool’s whole thing—sometimes, a joke is just a joke. But when the movie tries to have its cake and eat it too, blending heartfelt moments with absurdist humor, it makes me wish they’d found a way to tie the variants into the story in a more meaningful way.

That said, none of these gripes ruined the movie for me. I still had an absolute blast watching it. It’s chaotic in all the best ways, it delivers exactly what you want from a Deadpool film, and most importantly—it made me laugh. Reynolds and Jackman’s chemistry is pitch-perfect, the action is as gloriously over-the-top as you’d hope, and while the movie doesn’t always nail its emotional beats, when it does, it really hits.

Is it the best Deadpool movie? That’s debatable. But did I have an absolute blast watching it? 100%. And in the end, isn’t that what really matters?

[tableintheteacherslounge]

Abbott Elementary S03E07 thoughts

Melissa having a spare room baring in mind we’ve seen her house feels fake sorry - How will she have a room mate but noone look at her pictures and keep control of her kitchen. I get its gonna be for plot but i don’t buy it

I’m w ava that’s a woman who just found out she’s not pregnant - that’s a woman who’s been successfully slutting it up (how’s she gonna slut it up with a roommate)

Omg protective barb 🥺 (ALSO BARBS RIGHT BC MEL WOULDNT GIVE OUT HER ADDRESS WILLINGLY)

AS SOON AS SHE SAID NERD I THOUGHT JACOB

“I know its gods will but hes gotten awfully creative” 😭😭😭😭😭

I love it when Mr johnson lore gets unlocked

Manny and the beard whew 😮‍💨 I was literally wondering where he was so I’m glad they’re using him again

Janine ur SO SMART this is such a good idea and not like a janine unnecessarily fixing a problem like an actual good idea- good job babygirl

Not ava spilling the tea to the whole room

Ponytail melissa at home is so personal to me, I love that this continues from s2, this is just who she is, she throws her hair up when she’s at home. I like that she’s wearing the eagles hoodie we’ve seen before too. Love the hair, makeup & costume details on this show

“I only know how to cook for 12” 😭

Finally mel talking about her breakup! Damn maybe it really was “im not bringing this to school” this whole time

Also Gary being a dead ringer for her dad?? I’m not saying my headcanons are more correct than the show but I disagree with this statement. Gary is not schemmenti coded.

Omg the jacob melissa work momming work sonning ive been dreaming of

“And dont forget theres a 3 booked limit 😒” barb is PISSED and i LOVE IT

“Oh i know what a google doctor is 😤”

Barb really is the best character on tv im sorry noone can do it like sheryl lee ralph like they just cant Shes everything

Janine forgetting the key term (pottery wheel) in her analogy she is so me

“Jacob if u dont like my ziti just say so and i will heave myself out that window” 😭😭

“I went to find mr johnson but he was still crying” NO 😭💔 hes just a sensitive guy 😔

“Mrs howard i blew down the house” 🥺🤏🏻 I love the kids being so central in this ep, I’ve missed that recently, and the kindergarteners are soooo cute

“🐷 I am a pig 🐺 i am a wolf 😄 and im a librarian who thinks she can just change everything around here 👋” IJBOL no please give sheryl another emmy I beg

“This programme is more of a distraction than an improvement” that’s teaaa actually. Thats so often what councils etc do, distract with new flashy things rather than fix the real problems. Even though in this case it’s well meaning it does make u think how big a priority should the library actually be? But actually children reading is super important and what did they say last season? The librarian was an alexa in glasses? 🤣

“You okay? You look like raven having a vision” 😭 you don’t understand how often i say this

I have thoughts on Barbara’s intentions and my instinct is gregory needs to keep her name out his mouth. I do think it’s really important that Janine stood up to Barbara, just maybe gregory made barbara seem worse than she was

“It’s been a rough week I could use the pick me up” i just love mr johnson

My immediate reaction was this one of my favourite episodes of the season - lots of excellent Barb moments, the kids, more mr johnson, story arcs I enjoyed and felt completed.

Janine standing up to Barbara was a really big deal for her considering her hatred of conflict and worship of barbara as a mother figure. It made me really proud to see how far janine has come.

But the longer since watching the less I like it. And it’s two main things:

- the jacob melissa room mate situation feels like jumping the shark for plots sake and not something realistic for those characters. So as much as I enjoy them and their dynamic and their growth it just feels fake.

- I dont care about the librarian. The set up feels like she could stick around and I just don’t care for new characters, I like my main people. (But then the same apprehension was had w the district people and they’ve not seemed to be around much).

I do still really like this ep and it definitely ranks highly in the season, just idk, some eps I enjoy more over time but this has made me feel more confused as to what will happen next I guess.

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

Hello there! I've been thinking a lot about the parallels between Atsushi and Sigma lately(their clothes in their respective flashbacks looking the same,how they're both curled in similar positions with locked up,their faces looking alike when they panic,and Dazai openly saying Sigma reminds him if Atsushi).

With all these comparmemts I've been reminded of hoe Atsushi also apparently has a connection to the book like Sigma does,with Fitzgerald saying that Atsushi is the "tiger beetle" that he needs to find the book in the Guild arc.

I was wondering if you had any theories on what this could mean for Atsushi's character since its been something that's been relatively ignored for a while now which is odd considering Atsushi is the Mc and in other series this would have likely been addressed more but then again we don't really know much about Atsushi as protagonist,but aside from that,any thoughts?

Oh yeah, the parallels between Sigma and Atsushi are numerous to say the least.

About Atsushi: I’ve made a couple theories about him and his connection to the Book, namely

I think it’s possible him and Akutagawa have the capacity to create a singularity that is the only thing that could destroy it or its “seal”. (The tiger claws can cut through anything including abilities/Beast Dazai zeroing in on some kind of singularity they can make which will be necessary somehow, when the tiger claws can’t really be a singularity because there’s no inherent contradiction as far as I’m aware)

Atsushi has two abilities - one is the blue crystal from Dead Apple which is a latent power related to the Book that is “stored” within him for safekeeping. The tiger is a defensive ability specifically for the purpose of protecting it - the red crystal.

About Sigma, I don’t have as much but I did come up with a really weird concept that Sigma was the “main character” of his parallel world. This would explain

Why he has so many notable similarities with Atsushi.

Why his memories are missing - because without the protagonist, his fragile parallel timeline collapsed and now no longer exists.

To be clear I don’t think this is what actually is going to be revealed with Sigma (it’s far more likely he just had his memories written out or there’s some kind of failsafe to keep him from retrieving them - like the “no law enforcement will believe the agency” caveat) but it’s fun to theorize. I wrote up a big post on everything we know about the Book so far, including character connections; if you haven’t already seen that, you can check that out! I intended it as a helpful reference for theory making in the first place.

If you do think up an interesting theory about these two or notice something else cool, feel free to drop me another ask and explain it! :)

[rockybloo]

Thinking of writing a fanfic crossover where Jack and Nana end up in Decking city after a magical accident (Still fleshing out the details of how said accident worked).

If comfortable answering:

I'm curious about how you think Nana and Jack would react to such a such a big change in a new place like that, in a general sense. Especially if there's a bigger issue bringing them here and they realize they have to solve it to go home.

Thank you, and lovely day either way ପ(๑•ᴗ•๑)ଓ ♡

A fanfic of Jack and Nana would make me screech because they are the most ship ever for me and I'd be overjoyed. 😭💚❤️ The concept of anyone considering taking time out of their day and writing a fic about my OCs in general makes me happy.

and WOW my brain waves are powerful because I was literally thinking of an old Beanstalked plot point that basically dealt with the idea of how the main team get yeeted from Lore to Earth and have to figure out how to get back and how to tie it to Glitter and Guilt for a funny little crossover arc.

I won't go into detail about the ACTUAL events that cause it to potentially happen (bc I dunno if I'll do it...I mean I probably will but as a separate oneshot from the main storylines of both stories) BUT I can def answer how Jack and Nana would respond to a similar situation.

This will be a long one so buckle in

First thing to know is that Lore and Earth are two separate planets in the same solar system. Both are waaay closer than either think.

Lore occupants know about Earth, specifically they know it as "The World without Magic/Happy Endings/Fairy Tales/etc." It's kinda of mythicized.

Earth has no idea Lore is a thing because Lore has magic rings (kinda like Saturn's but cooler I dare say) that spin around it and make it invisible.

Bloopers are a glitch in reality in Lore where things from Earth often pop up there. Often old or lost objects.

Jack works part time for Baba, who tends to have a whole bunch of bloopers in his shop, which means he has very mild knowledge of Earth. Not a whole lot but if he winded up there-he would know "Oh! This is Earth!" and he'd be able to point out some stuff and name it. So he would know a car when he sees one-it's just a matter of actually being aware of how one works.

Hazel and Kettle have a TON of bloopers they hoard in their bedroom which serves as the attic for the inn Miss Castor is the keeper of. Specifically, they have the super fun bloopers like retro game consoles and comic books. Chances are, they even have some Sweetheart merch but are under the belief that she is merely fictional character.

So Jack is vaguely aware of Sweetheart. SPECIFICALLY as "The pink hero my little siblings thinks is cool".

Merch of villains is a whole lot more locked down with most being illegal save for what is made for the Decking City Park of Heroes AKA the Disney World/Universal Studios of Decking City entirely focusing on it's homegrown hero culture.

So Bitterbat is def not someone Jack is aware of.

When it comes to Nana, she doesn't really dabble much in bloopers or even learning about Earth. Unless it's from Jack's ramblings or mini adventures, she tends to limit herself to Lore and its shenanigans. She spent most her life living in a forest and is just now branching out to learn more about Briar Patch and Lore as a whole thanks to Jack making her realize "Oh hey the outside world is kinda fun".

She's taking baby steps and Earth is a very big jump she ain't trynna make yet.

So when it comes to them getting yeeted to Earth, SPECIFICALLY Decking City, Nana is def more reliant on Jack when it comes to knowledge. Where ever he is going, she is gonna be right there, hugging onto one of his arms for dear life because neither wants to lose the other.

Decking City is very interesting with how it's the least mundane setting for Jack and Nana to wind up in, which works perfectly because they come from a fantasy world. They will ironically feel a lot more comfortable when they see a giant monster attacking or some hero versus villain battle going on than dealing with crossing the street with a buncha traffic or even walking through a grocery store aka over stimulant central.

The biggest problem would be adapting to their temporary stay. Decking City is loud and busy and both would be overwhelmed quite easily from just the sights and sounds alone. A city is vastly more imposing than a kingdom when it comes to its buildings and even then, Jack and Nana spend most their time in Briar Patch which is a small humble town.

Nana would have the worse time because her keen Lupine hearing means every car honk, screech of tires, Kaiju alert siren, civilian yelling at another civilian, would lead to the biggest headache.

Protecting the other and making sure they're safe is their main priority. They care deeply about each other and seeing the constant look of discomfort on Nana's face and how nervous she is is enough to break Jack's heart. And the second anyone so much as breathes in the slightest bit of irritation at Jack seeming to not know where or what he's doing, under the belief he's a tourist, would lead to Nana snarling with her full set of chompers on display.

That's enough to cause anyone in the proximity to steer clear of them...or at least treat Jack very nicely because it's very obvious the two are traveling together.

ULTIMATELY, both would want some safe place so they can gather their thoughts, which are currently being scrambled by the city sights and sounds, calm down and figure out what they need to do to get back home.

Whatever they need to do, they are def willing to accomplish because they are used to being in some slice of hell situations. They've always figured their way out of them. Back on Lore, the gang adventures a bunch and have encountered a lot. Some of which I cannot share for spoilers but just know they are no strangers to dealing with the unknown.

It's just a big matter of figuring out exactly what unknown they are dealing with this time.

[so-bitya]

OK! I had some ideas for the plot and character arcs too i wanted to share. it felt like the show had some great concepts but didn't know where to go with them so..

–Main plot themes/changes

More focus more on the difficulties of growing up, being an adult, reality not being so simple as a child. What can't be easily solve as a precure, and what needs a precure attitude to solve it.

Oh and definitely all the girls are in contact with each other. Like we've been through Covid yall! you think they don't have discord or something?? and they're in contact with the boys too, more infrequently for sure, but they got Syrup, cmon!

–Angel

I think that rather than pollution and climate change, which doesn't really connect with main characters and rather feels too impersonal for the audience, human misery in the current age seems more appropriate. How people get wrapped up in their issues and find excuses to neglect others that it negatively impacts the town. Perhaps Angel was better taken care of in the past and something happened to her caretaker, or something else that's more personal, and she wants to reverse time before the tower is set for deconstruction?

A lot more focus on the passage of time and whether we cling to it too much, glamorize it through our nostalgia, instead of learning from it and moving into the future. I'd like if Angel was influencing the girl's transformations and her monsters were more time themed. (and obv something that saves Angel, because we can't have things too sad. Maybe they stop construction, or they don't stop it but the girls make something out of her memory? Like Komachi writes a book about the tower?)

–Nozomi

I think the first episode encapsulated what i wanted Nozomi's arc to be like. Nozomi became an adult, achieved her dream, and is great at her job! but she still misses being a precure, because the issues she faces as an adult aren't as easily solved back when she was a kid. Honestly, was hoping that the girls didn't transform so fast, or that there was more build up to it? Interesting concept if Nozomi was the last to transform, so she has to solve problems as the adult and feels distant from her friends that can transform.

–Rin

Rin's an adult now and she's got a lot on her plate! Between her demanding job, her hobbies, her family, she also wants to remain Nozomi's ideal best friend. She's genuinely bothered that she can't become a precure anymore, but doesn't even now if she wants to anymore! She and Nozomi have a great talk reexamining their relationship and despite how things change, they'll always care about each other.

–Urara

I thought her struggles were between deciding to be an actress or a singer. I think it would have been more interesting if the play was a musical to use both elements. perhaps Urara wants to emulate her mother too much (aka the actress) she neglects her own strengths (being a singer) keeping the same plot beat of Syrup saying he loves her singing but more involvement from the girls (and they all show up for her musical!!)

–Komachi

Pretty similar to her episode, but I'd like to go into her writing issues!! perhaps she's lost interest in writing fantasy that she was obsessed with when she was younger, so it's giving her both writer's block and a bit of an identity crisis. But after being so involved in the town and learning the townsfolk history, she wants to write about them and gets re-inspired to write more realistic fiction that's grounded and down to earth, that her audience appreciates for being more relatable.

–Karen

Stressed with her job, realizing that she can't simple treat people and expect them to get right back on their feet. She starts understanding some people lives will be permanently changed and can't be healed away (aka disabilities!) and thats okay! its just another matter of adaption. It would be a great mature topic for the show to have.

–Kurumi

Get that stinking manager out of there! Genuinely think workplace harassment should have been a bigger issue!! It would have been realistic issue that many people face, especially women, in the workplace. It would have been nice is Kurumi managed to get testimonies from her coworkers and got the guy fired. Or at least show that she doesn't have to put up with the constant disrespect and move on to a better job (i mean, not leave that for the finale).

–Coco

Cut the melodrama out lol. Honestly would have been fine with him showing up towards the finale so the girls could have some breathing room to revitalize their friendship, but well oh well. I think him having insecurities being king is interesting paralleled with the other girls insecurities after achieving their dreams. I could care less about the romance, but i think it would have been nice if he and nozomi worked on their issues with marriage on screen (like trying to live together for a while). It's nicer to think that they've been discussing it before and the big question during the show is whether they should take that one step further or to stop and move on with life (i don't even think nozomi thought about marriage in show, just being with coco).

–Nuts

idk man I just wanted to see more of him :( like interact with the girls or have a nice talk with komachi! i liked their editor writer relationship and it got him be more open with his feelings and relax more!! let me see it!!1

–Syrup

He's good actually (Except that outfit, throw the whole look out), but it would have been nice to reference his plot a bit, with cure flora and everything?

[magic-is-something-we-create]

15, 17, and 18 for the icebreaker ask game!! - @alesseia

ohmygod tumblr didnt show me that i had asks for almost two entire weeks i hate it here

Thanks for sending this in, @alesseia!!! (I really hope I'm referencing the correct ask game post,,,,)

15. Why does the story follow the protagonist, as opposed to another character in the story? I.e., what makes them so special?

Oh man, this one is a fun question that is,,,, a Lot more complicated for Millennium Saga than for Whispers.

For Whispers: The story follows Marika and Lorelei as narrators specifically because of their unique and drastically different interactions with and opinions of the Shadow (the antagonist). Marika, specifically, is way more similar to the Shadow than she wants to admit at the start, and honestly, I would not be surprised if she and the Shadow ever got romantic (or at the very least sexual, because dear god I gave them lots of tension there). Lorelei, on the other hand, is like the antithesis of the Shadow's whole deal, and that pisses them both off to no end. And I just thought their lenses were particularly fun to play with for the "henchman vs superhero POV" premise!!

For The Millennium Saga...

Well. There's actually two sets of multiple main characters in the series. And I chose Ember's crew (Gab, Annie, Andy, Isa, and Nimbus) because they've got a rather unique mix of people of all societal classes (pickpocket/manual laborer, whore/seasonal tourist attraction actor, seamstress, mechanic, literal grandchild of an immortal, and an apprentice under an outcast, respectively) that allowed me to explore a LOT of the world they're in and how it functions without forcing the narrative out of the way (ideal for the worldbuilding-heavy story the series focuses on).

And the SECOND set of main characters, for arc two, were chosen because they're the more extreme versions of the above, with bonus extra trauma and outsized impact than anyone should reasonably have. Which they acknowledge, and still abuse. Also it means I get to write a lot of darker things into what is an overall hopeful story without dragging the previous rein-holders through the mud <3

17. What’s the best character dynamic between two or more characters in your wip?

Whispers: Lorelei and the Shadow. I will not elaborate, but if you know, you know.

The Millennium Saga: This is entirely out of left field to people who only know the excerpts and nothing else, but Annie and Xavi are the DREAM TEAM gossip buddies who constantly get into Mega Trouble. If anyone other than me was writing this they'd be a couple but because its me Annie is aroace as hell and Xavi is so gay his dad invented homophobia in a queernormative setting

18. How do you want readers to feel while reading your story? after they finish reading it?

Whispers: constant (hopefully cathartic) pain with an added sobbing session afterwards.

Millennium Saga: awe and wonder with occasional moments of utter existential terror mixed in, with an ultimate hopeful and heartwarming conclusion. But lots of stops for pain between books because this series is monstrous

Thank you again for sending this in!!! If you'd like, I'll happily send you a few numbers as well (and the ask game if it has gone missing/been buried since then) <3

[iamheretoyell]

can you pls share your inspirations on trin/genesis/revelations?

its been a long time since you talked about that series I think

Oh my god.

Okay yes. I am trying to collect my thoughts but I'm really just lead paint staring as I try not to explode.

So this is a bit of a complicated answer as there is A LOT.

And also a sort of piecey answer as Trin has three distinct parts that are very different from each other. Sort of. In my opinion.

So to start, Trin overall takes inspiration from three main sources, I would say, Madoka Magica (the big one), the Bible, and Magical Girl Site. AND I WANT TO SAY IT HERE. IT TAKES INSPO FROM MAGICAL GIRL SITE IN PREMISE ALONE. I could talk for SEVERAL HOURS about how Magical Girl Site had so much fucking promise, like I stumbled upon that shit and was left with so much joy, only to face the worst disappointment I have ever faced in my life. I thugged the whole fucking story out for it to get worse every single turn. I have since learned it is okay to just be a quitter sometimes. Sometimes it's okay to stay curious. I'm gettin off topic. Moral of the story, please do not even bother looking into this one, I am just not a liar and need to give credit where it's due.

Genesis: Heavy Madoka Magica elements here. This is my starting point. Because Trin was my 'rewrite' of Wishes, which was just a Madoka Magica AU that followed the story with my own twist. And it was fucking great until I wrote myself into a corner when I got up to the Rebellion Arc. Which sucked. But we got this. And of course, I was like reading the Bible heavy during writing this because I wanted this to align in certain ways that I feel like I may or may have not delivered. There are of course other inspirations individual to the angels the characters fight, but those are all talked about in Things to Overlook and that's why that 'fic' exists. That and I wanted to play with CSS and I didn't have an outlet like CSS Adventures yet.

Also that one Magical Girl Craig TikTok account. Idk if it still exists, I never even actually looked at their profile I don't think, but the user/pfp combo showed up on several comments sections I wound up in and that shit made me laugh so hard and sometimes that's all it takes for my stupid little idiot brain to have a vision.

Revelations: Okay, so I need y'all to stay with me here. I mentioned previously that this takes inspiration from a magical girl series that me and all of six people would actually consider a magical girl series. So I'm just gonna out and say it because we've already established I'm like outing myself for pride month or whatever. Revelations HEAVILY corresponds to Higurashi: When They Cry. NOT JUST THE OG. I MEAN KAI, GOU, AND SOTSU TOO. (Part three was almost called Karma and had a COMPLETELY different ending because of this, but I have since seen enlightenment, as per the next lil segment of this response.)

Revelations also has HEAVYYY Harlan Ellison elements. All of the IHNMAIMS references from Genesis and on are so fucking important, subtle and easy to miss, and absolutely on purpose. Like it's not just I have no mouth, and I will absolutely just drop everything here because who's really reading these besides the angel who asked, right? But The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World was also very taken into consideration here.

Adventure Time. I'm not elaborating. But it's important.

Again, assume the Bible is taken into consideration for everything in this fic and I don't have a specific spot on Things to Overlook to talk about this so I'm just going to say it here because again I'm just fucking talking at this point.

It's REVELATION. It's... BOOK OF REVELATION. The title of this work is RevelationS. This is on purpose.

Rapture: Haha, final title drop bc I actually don't know if I dropped this anywhere just yet?

Rapture has a lot of inspiration from the Madoka Magica Rebellion movie, actually. Because I finally got there. Hilarious, I know. But I also loosely took the concept and ran, like, seventeen fucking miles with it. Because Rapture underwent SO MANY CHANGES from the original ending. (Honestly when this is all over I might just post a page on tto where I talk about all of the potential endings this could've had.) I know no matter what I do with this ending, NOT EVERYONE IS GOING TO BE HAPPY.

BUT. BUT BUT BUT. The 'hit by a car' joke I have been making in nearly ALL OF MY FUCKING FICS finally comes full circle between Rev and Rapture.

And I am personally really happy with the direction this wound up taking and it's not very often where I settle on a decision with my writing and I take time with it and I let it take up space and I'm happy. But it's been months and I'm genuinely happy with this. So there's that.

I'm trying to think if there's anything else as far as Rapture goes but really it's kinda just me taking Rebellion and running while I giggle, scream, and blow everything up like the fucking Joker. Sorry.

Again, thank you for asking this, it took me ages to respond to (I think, it feels like I've been typing on this one specifically for years), I had a fuckin' blast. ALSO IF YOU READ ALL THIS THANK YOU???

[saving-word-crawls]

Comic Book Crawl

By: OuzoAthena11

This is the comic book crawl, a bonus round for the Journey through the Genres challenge 8. It has a variety of steps from short to long, so this is a long and probably hard crawl. I finished this too late for a spreadsheet for points, but this is just a bonus anyways. This crawl follows you, the reader of comic books, enjoying one single comic book series.

For those who wanted to do a bonus round, I hope you enjoy the extra challenge! For those not doing the Journey through the Genre Challenge, I hope this is fun on its own for you!

If you don’t know what your WPM is, it is easiest to just take the first step, write for 10 minutes, and divide the number of words by 10 and use that for the entire crawl.

For the die roll steps, a d6 is assumed. If doing this as an extension of the Journey through the Genre challenges, I would like you to follow those rules even without the points motivation and use a d6. Otherwise, you can use whatever die you would like, even a d20 if you’re feeling adventurous.

Since this is the first crawl I’ve written, I wouldn’t mind some feedback on it!

You finally get the chance to collect all issues of a comic book series you’ve been interested in. Sprint 10 minutes as you pay at the register for your find.

You go home and settle in to read the several issue series. You hadn’t wanted to miss a thing, and now you get to enjoy the full spectrum of the story arcs completed in the series. Up first is…

The origin story

The main character’s daily life is kind of boring. Write for five minutes as you slog through the first five pages, wondering when the exciting stuff is going to happen.

Now comes the exciting part! Pick which event gives the main character their powers/abilities: (choose 1) Exposed to radiation to gain new powers: Write for die roll plus 10 minutes A long dormant gene awakens suddenly: Write 600 words Awesome mentor (and no ‘real’ powers): Do a fifteen minute word war Oh, they were born with it: Do a three digit challenge Genetically engineered that way: Write 10 times WPM

The MC stumbles their way through training and controlling their powers. They complain about the work, but love the results. It still is a struggle trying to continue to appear like things are normal, so you write for an hour as you sympathize with the strain the MC is dealing with

What motivates the MC into becoming the hero of their story? (choose 1) Tragic death of parents/parental figures: Write the amount of words equal to die roll times WPM Being unable to save someone with their powers: Attempt a fifty headed hydra Making the wrong choice with their power: Write 200 words Determination to do what is right not what is easy: Write 50*die roll words

Now the MC makes their first move as hero and thwarts their first evil plot. Write 100*die roll words as they congratulate themselves and feel like they’re on top of the world.

The story continues with the MC repeatedly running into the same antagonist. Write 500 words as they figure out a big plot and scramble to stop it.

Now it’s time for the next story arc the…

The team up

MC is doing their normal thing when something big goes down. Do a three digit challenge as they attempt to go help, but get tripped up along the way, and don’t make the best impression.

A well known group of heroes approaches the MC anyways for help because the MC has a skill/power/ability they don’t. Sprint 20 minutes as the MC thinks about if it would be worth it.

Time for a training and bonding session! Write for 30 minutes plus die roll as the MC gets through it with some really rough stumbling blocks along the way, but they all feel closer by the end.

The first attempt at defeating the villain is a failure, despite all the training and bonding. Something just wasn’t right. Write 1000 words as the MC goes through doubts and then gets a pep talk from the person they look up to the most.

Now the real serious attempt to defeat the villain is coming up, strategies in place, the team tries again. They’re not overconfident this time, but they feel like they have to try anyways. They’re the only ones that can do this. Write double die roll*WPM words as the MC and their team wage an epic battle of wit and power until they win.

The end of the world

The MC had returned to normal life, occasionally teaming up with the other heroes, but much more suited to working alone. Then the alert goes out. Sprint ten minutes as the MC suits up to go help with a serious threat.

The villain of the day, while more serious, is still easy to defeat. However, before being knocked out, the villain reveals that this is just part of a greater plot. Write for fifteen minutes as the MC and others debate whether or not to look further into it.

MC and some others take matters into their own hands despite majority agreement and start investigating. Attempt a fifty headed hydra as they find information that leaves them shaking and then tangled up in a trap.

Now they have to escape and own up to their recklessness. Write for thirty minutes as they get themselves out of the mess and stumble over how to explain themselves and justify it was worth it for the information they got.

There’s another argument about how to handle the situation. More than one person threatens to leave. Write 600 words as the MC steps up and convinces everyone to work together with an inspirational speech and then a solution that takes parts of nearly every idea they had.

The final battle is now upon them. The villainous organization gives them great difficulty, but the MC’s plan involved multi-layers and safeguards with new plans coming into motion as necessary. You’re on the edge of your seat, flicking through scenes quickly. Write for forty-five minutes as the MC sacrifices himself to save the world. The last panel reveals that the MC is alive, to the relief of everyone, including yourself.

The story is over. You close the last comic book and contemplate the series. You wish it had more story arcs and had been more popular. You decide it was worth it anyways, and there were other versions of the comic book out there. Attempt a fifty headed hydra at the discovery that those versions are not the MC you fell in love with! It’s sheer agony to read your MC written another way.

Write a leisurely 200 words as you decide that you will ignore those other versions and just stick with your favorite. You pull the first issue out again and settle back down to reread it.

[coulsonlives]

Now that I got the vfx thing out of my system, I want to cry about ATSV a bit because I left the movie feeling kinda.. disappointed I guess?

I miss the focus of the first movie. It was nice to see more focus on Gwen, but there was wayy too much stretching between Gwen and Miles and like, drip-feeding of the other character's backgrounds and I ended up not really investing in any storyline, Gwen's resonated the most but aside from that I'm like?? Okay I guess.

In the first movie I was rooting for all the characters because I actually got a bit of their motivations/backstory/reason for being there. Here it was like.. okay, they're agents with different quirks from their own universes? But that's not new, we saw that in the first movie, it's not interesting anymore. It just felt like checking off boxes and it took time away from the main characters, where there could've been more foreshadowing about what was really going on with them and Miles. In that way: it felt like an MCU movie. Which isn't a good thing in my book.

I watched ITSV for Marvel, not the MCU. I watched ATSV for the same reason, but I didn't feel like I got that.

The story seemed super flabby, it wasn't anywhere near as tight as the first movie. ATSV lacked the 'charm' of ITSV for most of the movie. Also about the Spot, I could get behind him being in the movie because obviously he's a precipitating event for the movie, but tbh, I got Spider-Man 3 vibes near the end and I'm wondering if they just filled the third movie with too much.. stuff?

Because now you gotta deal with Spot, Spidey 2099, Mile's arc which includes saving his dad, his relationship with Gwen, his relationship with Peter, etc etc. I'm scared. And if some of this is also happening from Gwen's POV.. Or if Gwen also has an arc of her own.. That feels like a lot? There are gonna be two 'big bads' in the third movie, and I feel like they should've downed one of them in ATSV, so the third movie could narrow its focus more.

Gwen's dad's development all happened offscreen. Like, oh, Gwen is gone, now she's back, surprise I miss you <3 and I've missed you this whole time, hugsy time. It felt like a very contrived way to add some kind of resolution to the movie, because otherwise, nothing was gonna be resolved. The payoff just didn't feel earned at all. In ITSV, half the reason the 'What's up Danger' scene hit so hard is because it culminated Mile's development up to that point, we saw him working hard, we saw him struggling before it happened! There was nothing here though, Gwen's dad was in the beginning of the movie, then the end. He kinda just popped back in for an FYI lol, then Gwen was gone again.

That ending, too. I don't mind cliffhangers, but I went in not knowing about that, and wow was the presentation bad. It was like watching five mini endings and not knowing which fcking ending was actually going to cut to the credits, and I was getting whiplash. Cut to Gwen, I thought the movie was gonna end on her, then it cut to Miles thinking well duh the movie will end on him, then cut to Gwen or her dad again, then back to Miles, and omg the amount of face shots of Miles I thought the movie would end on lmfao idk, it didn't work for me at all. LOTR did way better of a job with this because you could tell the movie obviously wasn't gonna end yet because certain things hadn't been addressed yet.

Some of the animation was hard to follow too because there is so so much happening and no real point of focus in some of those shots. If you look away for a moment during certain scenes, you can't really follow what's going on anymore and it takes a few shots to catch up again. Spider-Punk was cool but his shots really suffered from this imo? Just too much janky, pieces-jumping-around shit going on.

Like okay, some parts were cool, I liked some of the shots and Spider-Puss/Cat/Feline had me howling when it hairballed the spiderweb in his face, and the Spideys were characterized pretty good, but idk.

[rednightmare18]

I've never seen anyone mention this, so I will: Kingdom Come is balls-to-the-wall obsessed with symbolism. This is fitting for a medieval game (the medieval world was obsessed with symbolism), and it's loaded with symbols in both its art and storytelling elements. What I find worth remarking on is that KCD takes a far more subtle, literary, and artful approach to its symbolism than most games within its genre; its symbolism thrives in the margins, as with literature. It doesn't flounce in the spotlight with a megaphone as with most games.

[Cut for rambly analysis.]

One of the things I deeply appreciate about the script is that it doesn't talk down to the player. If you don't actively think about the storytelling while you play -- if you don't watch for foils, parallels, symbols, motifs, read character expressions and pay attention to the content of the conversations as well as the emotional delivery -- you'll miss half the meat and meaning and message of the writing. That's a rarity these days; even "writing-based" games tend to spoon-feed players embarrassingly facile stories, childish depictions of trauma, and insultingly thinly-developed character arcs (ahem, rhymes with Why-o-Bear).

And sure, you can shut your brain off or come in with bad faith blinders on and steamroller through KCD's main quest, walking away having had a coherent if mediocre medieval video game experience. But you'll miss Theresa's apples scattering on the ground at the moment the daily life she ambivalently but carefully tended to is torn asunder. You'll miss how Henry's speech tics mirror his mother's word-for-word in delivery and in text. You'll miss that Hans presents himself as a swaggering hunter but is consistently visually associated with a hounded, hunted stag. You'll miss how Henry and Hans's relationship so doggedly parallels what we know of Martin and Radzig's, and to a lesser extent Istvan and Erik's. You'll miss that certain characters' clothing matches or contrasts in color schemes (another enormous medieval obsession). You'll miss how the sacking of Skalitz is what enables village bullies Matthew and Fritz to descend into real villainy, and how Henry gradually gains the sense of self to step outside Matthew's sphere of toxic influence. You'll miss that Radzig speaks honestly to Henry through metaphors and riddles and wordplay since he's far too awkward to speak to him openly. You'll miss that after forming a friendship with a peasant, responsibility-avoider Hans develops a new concern for how his actions affect everyday people, meanwhile layabout loafer Henry develops a sense of accountability to society at large. You'll miss that Theresa is almost always pictured nearby water (rain or rivers or puddles) just as Hans is associated with the forest and Henry is so often cinematically staged facing hills (and usually among flowers). You'll miss the journal entries, some of which are genuinely heartbreaking in the simplicity and earnestness of their longing, and in their hopes for better things ahead.

Some portions of the narrative are so well-crafted in this regard that the weaker portions/writers really stand out. That's the downside of writing in teams, but oh man, with an arty storytelling approach like KCD's, you can fucking tell when someone's writing skill wasn't up to snuff (ahem, Lady Tone-Deafany)... or when the team just wasn't in love with a character or a subplot enough to flesh out the symbolism.

But I'm getting away from my point now and starting to ramble, so I'll rein myself back in.

I edit books, so my storytelling field is a bit different. But by my metrics, the most successful novels—the ones that manage to both perform commercially and offer something of genuine artistic, emotional merit to audiences—do it like KCD does it. The basic narrative must be simple enough for casual readers to understand at a foundational level. But for readers who relish the experience of deep reading—who come equipped with thoughtfulness, a real desire to appreciate storytelling (at context and subtext levels), and the ability to critically & emotionally engage with multiple character arcs at once—there's so much more than the surface.

Many gamers praise game developers for designing game mechanics that don't baby them. Likewise, I praise writers who don't baby me.