#like she made SEBASTIAN sympathetic and lovable

[thebellekeys]

cassie is so good at writing male characters who are morally dubious and/or have been assholes and yet are still lovable and sympathetic so it’s a wonder to me she hasn’t written a single convincing female character like that

[notebooks-and-laptops]

Merrill on Solas’s side: my one fear given nuance

Okay, so, I want to build off the post I made a while ago about my fear of Merrill being on Solas’s side in DA4. Because my feelings about it are mostly NO THANK YOU but also there’s some nuance and hey, I work best through my character feels out loud. So let’s talk about it. I’m gonna put most of this under a cut because oh boy it got a bit long actually.

Because the thing is...it could be good, actually. There’s a very, very specific version of this idea in my head that could be good. Why would it be good? Well. Because Dragon Age hasn’t really had any sympathetic villains yet. And I get that solas is supposed to be our sympathetic villain and if that works for you great! but for me, he wasn’t established well enough as friend before he became enemy. He’s just the weird racist guy who gave me a castle and now wants to fix his mistake by...making the exact same mistake all over again. And while he does have individual moments of banter with the DAI crew that are very fun, he doesn’t actually show up to any of the bonding scenes (wicked grace night for example) nor does he have any cut scenes that develop a particular relationship between him and say...Dorian, who’s also hanging out in the library. 

But Merrill? Merrill has friends. True, proper, established friends. She’s lovable. She loved. Varric, Carver and Isabela in particular, but Bethany, Fenris, Anders, Aveline, Sebastian - they all had positive interactions with her regardless of how they viewed her magic. And she certainly cared about them.

And Merrill’s characterisation could be simplified down to ‘restoring the old ways’ and ‘protecting her people’. In Dai in particular, we hear that she has turned her attention to city elves getting caught in the templar/mage conflict crossfire - her ‘people’ are expanding from the dalish to all elves, and her cause is expanding from ‘history’ to ‘rights’. To the present. To fixing things. So, she still likes the old ways and wants to restore them, and she sees the systematic abuse elves suffer clearer than any other companion in game (apart from maybe Fenris, though Fenris makes comments rather than actionably trying to fix whats going on). 

So Solas comes to Merrill, an incredibly talented mage and historian, who basically rebuilt her own eluvian from scratch, and recruits her. And Merrill goes with him because she can restore the old ways, and protect her people who’s treatment is getting steadily worse and worse (masked empire, but I also imagine by da4 we’ll see that Solas’s prophecy of ‘they’ll blame the elves’ for the dai events will be coming true - especially with them disappearing) - and perhaps the only way she can see it getting better is a complete revolution where the current order is completely overthrown (she had some role models there, after all). And she becomes your sympathetic villain because not only is she doing it for all the right reasons (not for elves long dead, but for elves now) but also because...can you imagine Varric and her seeing one another on opposite sides of a battle? His daisy who wandered into gardens she wasn’t supposed to? Or Isabela? Can you imagine the internal struggle that would play out in Merrill’s mind. She’s a keeper - it’s her job to remember. But does remembering truly equal restoring? Would she convince herself that the collapse of the veil would actually be good for everyone? Would we have scenes where she tries to beg Varric to listen to her? Where she tries to get Fenris to? Hawke? The new protagonist? 

Merrill is kind. Being in that position would tear her apart, and I think it would tear her apart in incredibly interesting ways. 

I also think she’d be a great final act betrayal for Solas. Because she’s clever, so clever, and I think eventually, she’d realise that what Solas was trying to do was probably going to destroy a lot of elves too, let alone humans. And I think she could be a great dagger in the back for Solas, and a great friend for us in the final part of the game if we chose to let her work with us (maybe similar to Loghain? To get her we have to lose a current companion or something?).

BUT there’s also a lot of worry. All of this, if done, would have to be done with such nuance and tact that I’m not entirely sure they can devote to a secondary character who wouldn’t be around the protagonist much. Like, it couldn’t be like Calpernia, it would have to really show an intense internal Merrill struggle to make me enjoy it and to not, ya know, massacre my favourite character in the entire franchise. Also, its impact would be very tied to how many da2 characters are going to be present. There’s literally no point in doing this if Merrill isn’t going to actually be on the opposite side to her friends, if Varric isn’t going to have an absolute break down about his Daisy, if the new protagonist isn’t going to have the perfect moment to kill her and her weapon is knocked out of her hand by Isabela.

And also...Merrill is our ‘good’ blood mage. I deeply, deeply don’t want that to change. Merrill shows a nuance to magic, shows a perspective that is alien to the chantry in a very sympathetic light. And I think it would be too easy to demonise her. Or like...have what Fenris said about her ‘justifying her need for power’ by killing innocents for their blood come true. Which, I think Merrill as our resident sympathetic blood mage needs to stay away from that - she can’t be the person to sacrifice innocents for magic because a) she cares too much and b) then we have no blood mage left in bioware cannon for us to like - we just have confirmed chantry propaganda about why they’re bad. 

And also...I just don’t trust bioware to do it right. Like. I think Merrill cast as bad-guy-on-Solas’s-side would too quickly become someone obsessed with the old order, someone close to Solas. And honestly? Merrill would kick Solas’s ass if she’d been in dai. Like. Solas is incredibly disrespectful to elves! All the time! To the dalish! I couldn’t see Merrill being friends with him at all. She’d find him interesting for about 3 seconds, and then he’d go and say something racist, or something mighter-than-thou and it would totally rub her the wrong way. I think Solas would remind her so much of her Keeper and their circular arguments and the fact that she never listened to Merrill. Which again, could be an interesting dyanamic, but I’m not sure it would have room to breathe that it needed in a video game format. Merrill could reveal how Solas doesn’t actually care about elves, but only about the ghosts of the old elves, and she could do that by being on his side or ours, but the temptation in the writers room to make her Solas’s second in command in an uncomplicated way I think would be pretty high. 

Idk. Like. I think it could be good. I would read a fanfiction with this premise that was Merrill centric and explored all these interesting things. But there’s just so many ways it could go horribly wrong that I just. It is my deepest fear for da4. Because I could handle them butching quite a few of the characters, but Merrill is so important to me if they did it wrong I’d be so fucking sad I’d probably struggle to play the game much. 

[princesssarisa]

So Jennifer Lopez is turning Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella into a miniseries.

That should be very, very interesting!

Here are my hopes for it:

(1) I hope it's not based on the 2013 Broadway version. It can include the songs that were added for that version, but I want the lovable King and Queen back, not the villainous chancellor Sebastian, and I don't want the fairy tale bogged down with political themes.

(2) Still, I wouldn't mind if it keeps 2013 Cinderella's political idealism. Showing her actually being suited to the business of being queen, and capable of advising Prince Christopher and helping him to be a better future king, is a good way to make Cinderella more of a "strong heroine" for a modern audience without losing her sweetness, and in a way that's distinctly different from the 2021 Sony musical's businesswoman Cinderella. (Although of course the 2013 version wasn't the first with a political idealist Cinderella – Ever After did it first and probably did it best.)

(3) I also hope they bring back the 1957 and '97 Cinderellas' character arc of learning to take charge of her own future (with her Fairy Godmother's help, of course) instead of just wishing and dreaming. I like a Cinderella with an actual character arc!

(4) I hope all the songs are by Richard Rodgers. So far, every version of the musical has added new songs, and I'm sure this one will be no exception. But they've always been by Rodgers (with either Hammerstein, Hart, or himself as lyricist), whether borrowed from one of his lesser-known shows or from the many songs that were cut from his famous shows. No version so far has added music by any other composer. I sincerely hope it's the same this time: all Rodgers.

(5) I hope the Stepmother is written strongly and consistently. I won't be surprised if they go the same route as the 2021 Sony musical and try to make her more nuanced and sympathetic, but unlike that version, I hope they do it (a) without diluting her, (b) without seeming uncertain of whether she abuses Cinderella or not, and (c) without redeeming her too easily.

(6) It might be too much to hope for, but if we're going to have a Cinderella series, I hope it bears some slight resemblance to the excellent Cinderella series that already exists: the '90s anime Cinderella Monogatari. If the writers would only look at that series, they might find some good ideas for storylines and for developing Cinderella and Prince Christopher's romance across multiple episodes. I would also love to see them introduce the Fairy Godmother early on and have her secretly helping Cinderella with her magic throughout the series, meanwhile befriending her in the guise of an ordinary woman, just like the anime did.

Still, whether these hopes come true or not, I'm looking forward to the series. Slightly tentatively, but looking forward to it all the same. I've always loved Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella and rewatching every version last year made me fall in love with it all over again. This new series has the potential to either be very good or very bad, but I sincerely hope it's good!

[compositionwriternotes]

I made a decision to cast my characters for my story Ocean of Stars.

The main character, Danielle "Dannie" Butterfield

Planet of Origin: Earth

Features: Blue eyes, Dirty blond, mix shade (long) hair.

Personality: Strong willed, Head Strong, Objective Oriented, Perfectionist.

Astrology Sign: Virgo.

Keywords/Phrases: "I wasn't ugly but I wasn't pretty either - it's just me, nothing special."

Gif (Shailene Woodley)

Wyatt "Shrink" Hillard

Planet of Origin: Earth

Features: Blue eyes, Dark blond (feathered) hair. Wears glasses.

Personality: Calm, Collected, Leadership Material, Introverted, Socially Awkward.

Astrology Sign: Aquarius.

Keywords/Phrases: "He's a man of few words, and when he did speak - people listened."

Gif (James Spader)

Bradley "Earth Boy" Miller

Planet of Origin: Earth

Features: Blue/gray eyes, Black hair. Teeth too long for mouth.

Personality: Goofy, Lovable, Arrogant, Devoted, Stubborn, Dreamer, Uncompromising.

Astrology Sign: Taurus.

Keywords/Phrases: "Out of all us, everybody knew, someday he was going to space."

Gif (Jake Gyllenhaal)

Wilbur "Flight Man" Pope

Planet of Origin: Mars

Features: Black eyes, Dark brown (short) hair. Sometimes wears a beard to hide dimple in chin.

Personality: Outgoing, Loud, Impatient, Bold, Sensual, High Intelligence, Generous, Emotionally Warm.

Astrology Sign: Sagittarius.

Keywords/Phrases: "He was a distraction."

"What type?"

"Sex, mostly."

Gif (Sebastian Stan)

Pete "Bright Eyes" Thompson

Planet of Origin: Mars.

Features: Brown eyes, light brown (curly) hair.

Personality: Hyper, Childlike, Curious, Fast Learner, Nervous, Quick Witted.

Astrology Sign: Gemini.

Keywords/Phrases: "He's clearly too young for the Corps, but he can hold his own like any man. That goofy smile, and proud disposition - he belonged here".

Gif (Tom Holland)

Rebecca "Lady Bird" Fern

Planet of Origin: Moon (Earth)

Features: Green eyes, brown (long) hair normally plaited or free braids

Personality: Creative, Articulate, Pessimistic, Tenacious, Manipulative, Sympathetic.

Astrology Sign: Cancer.

Keywords/Phrases: "In another world, she could have been a well practiced fortune teller. Better yet, a traditional conman. Her eyes could read a man before she spoke."

Gif (Rebecca Ferguson)

Daisy "Captain" Ray

Planet of Origin: Mars

Features: Brown eyes, Bright blond hair cut in a bob.

Personality: Passive, Courageous, Driven, Honest, Emotionally Stable, Impatient

Astrology Sign: Aries

Keywords/Phrases: "She was driven, and that is what matters. No matter the odds. Our Captain was scared but never showed it. Not to us."

Gif (Daisy Ridley)