#like there was specifically a plot point where the age gap between two ghosts was too uncomfortable.

[landoffreaksandfrogs]

Do you think it's weird to be romantically attracted to your pre-scratch self, or do you think the signless only platonically hates kankri? Better yet, does kankri think it's problematic to be romantically attracted to your pre-scratch self?

[blurhawaii]

yuletide 2024

dear yuletide writer,

hello and happy yuletide! thanks for checking out my letter, whether you’re my writer, someone looking to write some treats, or you’re just curious. i’m pretty easy to please and i always try to leave comments befitting the effort you’ve gone to write me something, because i’m well aware that managing to write anything is incredibly tough.

all of the prompts below are merely suggestions, jumping off points for if you’re struggling to come up with anything. if you’ve got something else that you’re excited to write about, go right ahead. trust me, i’ll happily read it, no matter how out there it might be.

and, most importantly, have fun!

+ treats are very welcome and much appreciated.

++ this is easily my longest letter yet. sorry about that.

general likes:

dysfunctional relationships eg. codependency, messed up father/son dynamics, enemies to lovers (with or without the friend step in the middle), power imbalances, age gaps

unexpected team ups with unlikely characters OR bottle episodes as fic where characters are stuck together in a place/room, unable to leave

vulnerability in men, uncertain intimacy, UST, slow burns first times, forehead kisses, emphasis on hands and touch, touch starved characters, tough love as a means of showing affection

canon divergence and what-if fics, missing scenes, post-canon, fix-it fics, outsider POV, character studies over purely plot driven fics, go way weirder if you like as long as it still feels in universe

bonding through shared trauma—bonus if that leads to messy codependency, PTSD, redemption arcs, found family tropes, difficult family relationships, characters that can’t seem to stay away from each other

supernatural horror, magical realism, cosmic horror, body horror, gothic horror, noir tropes, dark humour, monsters of any kind, ghosts, time loops

size difference, age difference, rough manhandling, competence kink, incompetence kink, loyalty kink, praise kink, pilot kink, clothes sharing, cigarette sharing, character studies as porn, breathplay, clothed sex, rough sex, biting, hair pulling, awkward sex, crying especially during sex, blunt communication between sexual partners

angst (with or without a happy ending) and hurt/comfort fics (heavy on the hurt)

polyamory—especially when an established couple brings in a third, and the journey towards getting it to work

consent issues in terms of characters having sex for reasons that aren’t just straight up attraction, such as for comfort, loneliness, thinking it’s what the other person wants, hero worship, being undercover, previous emotional and personal baggage, a difficult family history leading to messed up dynamics with other parental figures, avoidance of bigger problems

soulmate and daemon fics (this is mostly fandom specific, see prompts for more info)

any rating from gen to porn

DNWs:

AUs that are completely disconnected from canon e.g. high school and coffee shop AUs

crossovers with other fandoms

genderbending, trans headcanons, and asexual headcanons

extreme feminisation of male characters

fics that are entirely tooth rotting fluff

permanent character death and terminal illness (temporary death, ghosts, resurrections are all fine though)

A/B/O fics

scat/watersports

mpreg

first person fics, crackfic, chatfic, songfic, and reader inserts

the departed (2006)

*billy costigan *sean dignam

one of my favourite films ever. i request it every year so you can't really go wrong with this. trust me, i will devour anything you write for these two.

my number one love is dignam. i love his filthy mouthed defense of his undercovers (which includes billy) and his obvious loyalty towards the job and his partnership with queenan. i get a lot of enjoyment from how much he seems to hate sullivan on vibes alone. he’s basically got legend status in both the cop world and the criminal world, and i would be very interested in seeing how and why that came to be.

i have a vague headcanon that dignam was once a younger undercover who got out somehow, and since that rarely happens cleanly i can see a lot of potential for a fic that delves into the trauma of that, and how it relates to billy’s time undercover—which definitely DOES NOT end cleanly.

billy spends the entire film struggling with repressed violent tendencies, crippling isolation, constantly being reminded of and compared to his well-liked father (his uncle and cousin too, but less favourably), and having to juggle various different identities to the point where he doesn’t know which one is real anymore. all of which are themes i would also love to see be explored further.

and obviously i am fascinated by every interaction between these two. from dignam’s attack dog interview tactics, which are fully designed to verbally tenderise billy. dignam expertly reading and needling every one of billy’s weak spots, tearing him down to nothing, ready for queenan’s slightly softer good cop approach meant to reshape him to fit their purpose. to the very rare moments where dignam actually softens too (we need you, pal and my personal favourite why don’t we meet up, sweetheart. let me buy you an ice cream), all leading up to the ultimate loyalty moment of dignam killing sullivan at the end as revenge for billy’s death (and probably queenan too.)

i have written a couple of departed fics myself, centred around shipping costigan/dignam. but in all honesty, i would be happy with anything involving them both. shipping is preferred but whatever you are comfortable with is fine. due to the nature of the film, i am perfectly comfortable with physical violence and the screwed up relationship they are bound to have. the friction born of the situation they are in vs the fact that they need each other to get through this is what i am all about.

prompts:

i have already promised my eternal gratitude to a previous gifter who wrote me a wonderfully odd fic for this prompt. so i can only offer something lesser like an arm or a leg if you write me another fic that incorporates the why don’t we meet up, sweetheart. let me buy you an ice cream line. if you can make that happen in-universe, during the time billy is still undercover, my arm and/or leg is yours to do with what you wish.

any fic where billy survives is always welcome. whether it centres around the very real consequences of taking a bullet to the head, the recovery period that follows, and the long term future billy is looking down barrel of. OR billy never takes the bullet. maybe dignam shows up in time and a mexican standoff in the elevator goes very differently.

maybe some kind of role reversal where instead of madolyn being billy’s therapist point of contact outside of both the cop world and the criminal world, billy could show up on dignam’s doorstep looking for some of the world’s worst therapy. if dignam was a previous undercover, it could be perfect for some trauma bonding.

i’ve always been of the opinion that a time loop fic could work well with this. whether it’s billy having the knowledge to avoid his ending (only for an actual good ending still being hard to get), dignam feeling guilty for not answering billy’s calls by the end and wanting to fix both billy’s outcome and queenan’s. OR maybe go really wild and have an outsider POV stuck in a loop, someone striving for their own personal outcome that somehow also benefits billy’s and/or dignam’s fate, like sullivan or queenan.

as i said in my general likes i think some kind of soulmate or daemon fic could be very interesting in a world where undercover work is the setting. billy and dignam having each other’s names on their person could lend itself to some interesting scenarios. just imagine the interview scene with that fact in dignam’s back pocket. and something about daemons being a true reflection of souls really appeals to me when dropped into these circumstances. bonus points here if you twist or subvert these tropes into some unusual take on them.

slow horses (tv)

*river cartwright *jackson lamb

first of all, i’ll definitely be all caught up on the show by the time that yuletide goes live, so no worries there. i’m also currently reading through the first book and will probably continue after that. feel free to throw in some later book canon if you feel you need to, i’m not too bothered by spoilers, but i am mostly familiar with the show canon and the characterisation we’ve been shown so far.

so from what i can gather most people seem to view these two purely through the lense of a father/son relationship. and while i definitely see it and agree it’s there, it doesn’t exactly stop me from being interested in the shipping potential. honestly, river’s slew of mother issues, father issues, grandfather issues, and so on…combined with the reluctant hero worship and the unwanted mentor/mentee relationship, the vaguely father/son relationship he has with lamb just makes the whole dynamic way more deliciously dense for me.

i am fascinated by all the history lamb has with river’s grandfather, both the personal and the work related, and how that ultimately affects how he views river. i love the reality of lamb slowly divorcing the preconceptions and assumptions he first has about river being just the grandson of the OB who fucked up majorly on the job, to lamb seeing river as his very own messed up individual who fucked up on the job. BUT ALSO as someone who still continues to do good and always strives to do better. as two opposing characters, i very much enjoy that dichotomy of river working so hard to escape slough house and lamb barely working to stay where he is.

i’m a massive fan of loyalty in characters, especially when they try so hard to hide the fact that they care, so obviously i love lamb’s fierce defense of his joes, all while constantly berating them and making sure they know they’re losers. which also brings me to river’s coin flip bouts of competence and incompetence as a spy, both of which delight me in equal measure, just as much as it delights me to see lamb’s reaction to both extremes. on top of that, pretty much any time that river gets roughed up and bloody, i cheer and gleefully drink it up.

i love the spy craft elements of this universe, the blend of the old world and the more modern practises, depending on the generation of spy doing the spying. also, just the unrelenting bureaucracy of the job and how being a slow horse puts them right at the bottom of the totem pole, as i’m always pulling for the underdogs in any story.

i enjoy every other character doomed to work at slough house (particularly river’s work buddie louisa, standish’s motherly concern and her own history with both river and lamb, and shirley just because), along with taverner, spider, and even duffy. if any one of them were to show up in something here, i would be a-okay with that. just remember i’m mostly familiar with the show.

prompts:

as i said above, i do ship it and i would be over the moon to receive a gift that manages to craft a believable, in character reason for these two to fuck. i’m envisioning any one of the scenarios i mentioned in the consent issues paragraph from my general likes. from hero worship reasons, weird comfort, loneliness, spy mission in which they’re stuck together and the safe house only has one bed, what starts as twisted payback for lamb’s hatred of david cartwright turning into something else, whatever you can think of. if you draw attention to the vague father/son and mentor/mentee relationship here, i’ll award bonus points.

if you’re not comfortable writing anything shippy, i’d be very happy with any fic where river and lamb have to work together in the field for whatever reason. maybe lamb has to come to river’s rescue OR even the reverse of that. and you can’t really go wrong with in media res-ing a situation where river is hurt and lamb is begrudgingly fixing things.

i’ve given a lot of thought to the idea that lamb has known river since he was young, or at least has been aware of him ever since river was left behind in his grandfather’s care. i’m not too sure of the actual timelines, having less familiarity with the books, but i would be very interested in a kind 5+1 fic detailing moments they’ve met before, back when river was just a boy, growing up, leading to him joining the service, and inevitably the mistake that lands him at slough house. i’m not looking for any shipping content when river is still underage, but after that is fair game to me.

the color of money (1986)

*eddie felson *vincent lauria *carmen

this film manages to cover so many of my interests and i can’t believe it took me as long as it did to watch it. but watch it i have, many times since, and i’ve even gone back and watched the hustler for extra context and more paul newman.

for this request i would like for all three characters to play a part in any fic. i ship all configurations and, if you’re willing, i’ve been craving an ot3 fic since the moment i first watched it. if you’re not comfortable writing explicit content, that’s fine too. please just include everyone.

for me, the draw of this film is the theme of corrupted goodness. by the end, i think all three of these characters have fed into each other’s worst traits and made each other even worse—and honestly i love that. the case is strongest for vincent, i’d say, who starts this film being pretty naïve, whereas eddie and carmen are definitely more streetwise. or professionals, as they call themselves. although, eddie running into them again at the end of the film goes to show that eddie hasn’t managed to change all that much either.

there’s also the amazing line: you make him feel, i teach him how to run—and that very much sums up the dynamic i love here, of accidently creating a monster out of vincent, who eventually turns on them, which in turn keeps both eddie and carmen from rising to anything better. let them all wallow in the gutter where they belong, just as long as they’re together.

there’s the older/younger dynamic between all of them, there’s the mentor/protege relationship between all of them. there’s even the special mention of a father/son relationship which the film wonderfully lampoons with eddie allowing vincent to get hurt in order to teach him a lesson. the way eddie gingerly wipes the blood from vincent’s face afterwards while carmen drives the car is one of my favourite scenes. a fic that explores these many criss-crossing connections would be amazing.

the whole road trip setting leads to some very interesting moments where personal boundaries are tested. i’m fascinated by the way vincent and carmen keep openly pushing eddie when it comes to their relationship, flipping between teasing him and enticing him when they let him into their room while they’re showering and getting dressed. contrast that against the moments where we see them happily hanging out, watching tv, and eating meals together. they seem to genuinely enjoy each other’s company sometimes—the odd kindness vincent and carmen show eddie when he gets played himself is so strangely sweet—all of which makes the later jealousy and betrayal even juicier for me.

i love kitschy americana diners and cheap motel rooms as vibes and atmospheres, along with smokey pool halls and less than reputable bars. i love the passing of different generations, eddie having to come to terms with the fact that times are changing, especially after the events of the hustler, and him now being confronted by vincent and carmen’s youth.

and lastly, i’ve always been of the opinion that eddie passing down his pool cue to vincent is pretty phallic in nature. i don’t really know what to do with this knowledge, i just know i enjoy it, and now it’s yours to do with what you wish.

prompts:

i would love any fic that’s set during their time on the road, going from pool hall to pool hall, getting more familiar with each other. maybe to save their hustled money they have to share a motel room, making it a perfect opportunity for a ‘only one bed’ scenario. i can imagine vincent and carmen having to coax eddie into bed with them because an old man like him shouldn’t be sleeping in a chair. it could also include: stopping at diners, driving late into the night, deep conversations, falling asleep on people’s shoulders, fooling around in the backseat and the voyeurism of a third person pretending not to watch.

maybe lean into the whole playing pool thing and the art of the hustle. only, this time, bring carmen into it more. have eddie and vincent teach her how to play, both the game and other people. or they could be the only ones left at a deserted hall, because no one goes to halls to play pool anymore, and what starts as a teaching moment quickly becomes a game of one-upmanship.

anything post-canon where they continue to run into each other, tripping up the other’s plans and grifts on purpose. real childish nonsense of deliberately getting in each other’s ways, all because they can’t seem to stay away, for better and for worse.

from (tv)

*jade herrera

i’m currently watching the new season as it airs, and will definitely be all caught up by the time that yuletide goes live. any potential writer or gifter, i’m giving you a blanket statement allowing you to include and reference anything that happens this season. as i will definitely be craving some supplemental material to go with whatever craziness they see fit to leave us with.

having said that, if jade dies, i will riot, as he has been my favourite since the very beginning. this weed smoking, schrodinger’s bisexual, arrogant tech company guy who thinks his money can buy him everything, including a way out of this (vr) nightmare.

since his arrival in town, he’s maybe the character that has changed the most. a lot of his arrogance has been stripped away by the cruel reality of this place, and his tailored capris pants and expensive shirts have been replaced by practical sweaters and winter coats. his transformation from pretty boy to mountain man initially caused me some distress, but i have since come to accept it, if only because i do love to see a character in decline. i think it succinctly conveys his new state of mind and his humbled acceptance of his place in the town. it most definitely helps that we are still occasionally graced with his kitty cat shirt, which is maybe my favourite thing about him—and i’m barely even kidding.

i am enamoured by his tendency to rub people the wrong way, despite the fact that he is always trying to help fix things and figure out the mystery of the town. his obsessive personality is both a boon and a hindrance in that regard. though i do still believe he believes he’s the smartest person in any room, only that nothing about the town makes any logical sense.

on that note, the connection the town seems to have with him fascinates me too. it’s very supernaturally psychological in nature. journals full of mad scribblings, visions and cryptic symbols and, of course, we can’t forget the screaming ventriloquist dummy. any fic that delves into this weirdness would be amazing.

i devour each and every small bit of info we learn about him. his long term friendship with tobey, growing up in paris with his grandmother but having to come back to the states to live with his uncle when she dies (really makes me wonder what happened to his parents), his ability and his contentment of playing the violin, his apparent habit of playing dress up as a kid, the million dollar software company he just sold before arriving in town. if you want to write backstory about any one of these things, i’d love to read it.

more generally, i love the horror tropes of this show. the constant looming threat of the monsters, the confusing mess of shit they find in the woods every time they venture out there, being confined inside during the night, the body horror, the teleporting trees, the japanese water spirit, the looping nature of the road in and out of town, the forced comradery of living with strangers, whatever the hell the cromenockle actually is. and so on and so on. feel free to make up your own weird shit and throw it into the pot. as long as jade is there and suffering, i will read anything you can come up with.

prompts:

i requested only jade this year for ease of matching and, rest assured, i will be perfectly happy with a gift featuring only him. pick anything i’ve rambled about above and you’re golden.

on the other hand, if you are willing, a lot of my joy of jade does come from his interactions with others. i ship him with so many people in town, and love his platonic interactions with so many others too. if you would be interested in including them, for my gifter and the potential blessed occurrence of treaters, i’ll briefly touch on a couple of my favourites:

jade & tian chen: from the moment she yelled at him, I knew i was in for a wonderful ride. maternal figures just cut straight through jade’s bullshit and i love it. the scene where jade monologues about his grandmother to tian chen and, despite the language barrier, she just GETS him. ah, chefs kiss. recent events in the show have completely gutted me however. she made him tea :( a soft or bittersweet missing scene before that with the two of them might help piece my heart back together.

jade/jim & jade/tabitha & jade/jim/tabitha: i love both of the relationships jade has with jim and tabitha separately. the logical experiments and science based worldview of the town that he shared with jim—against the supernatural, scooby doo mystery sleuthing, vibes based view that he shares with tabitha. they also both yell at him a lot and that’s always good. as for the ot3, i just think jade has the capacity to fix their fail marriage by being so annoying it brings jim and tabitha closer together again, by them wanting to fuck him just as much as punch him.

jade/boyd // jade & boyd: i just think if they pooled their knowledge and means together they could finally get some serious shit done. there’s nothing more to it than that, really.

jade & victor: bring back the violin. i love how much it meant to victor, and that victor eventually trusted jade to even touch it. i also love the idea that word might spread that jade can play, and others might miss music so much that they force him to play to a bigger crowd.

jade/khatri // jade & khatri: a real missed opportunity here, i think. jade called him beautiful while high, and since he loses his oldest friend tobey on the same day that he arrives, maybe talking to a friendly priest is all he needs. there’s also the fact that jade is one of the few people who also regularly sees ghosts of dead residents in town. other than boyd, who better to bond with a dead khatri?

as for more general prompts, i think the necessity of the talismans could lead to a great bottle episode type of fic, as well as contriving an in-universe reason to stick an unusual combination of characters together in a place overnight. roll a die, if you want, and force them to play monopoly or two truths and lies. whatever gets them talking.

if you want to go really weird, how about a fic where jade’s right about it being a large scale larping situation, or a VR simulation that tobey has actually did set up. what happens then when people die in town?

24 (tv)

*tony almeida *jack bauer

i was a huge fan of this show back when dvd boxsets were still a thing, and i pretty much wore my sets out watching them on repeat. more recently, it showed up on disney+ and i’ve since been reliving my obsession again.

seasons 1-4 were the golden years for me. i continued to watch past that and enjoyed it, but certain events of season 5 (namely: the deaths of tony, michelle and david palmer) were hard for me to get over. i give special dispensation to season 7 because they brought my very special boy tony almeida back as a villain (which i admittedly hated at the time, but have since come to love and really appreciate as a legitimate path for his character to take. more on that below in my prompts.)

it’s so amusing for me to go back to the first season and see tony as this smug, soul patch having loser. a minor character that i’m pretty sure we’re meant to dislike just for the crime of being opposed to jack and nina, all while knowing the amazing journey his character goes on. just know that i appreciate every era he goes through.

tony manages to stay very dry and sardonic throughout, which i adore in a character (i still mimic his flat yah every time he answers a phone.) he shows that he can hold his own in the field too (heart eyes for the times tony shows up with a gun at the last second to save the day, like with terri in season 1 and jack and audrey in season 4.) but he’s also savvy enough at the bureaucracy side of things to rise up the ranks to head of CTU. (RIP to george mason, my absolute favourite side character, despite lasting only last two seasons. xander berkeley the GOAT.)

i love tony’s relationship with michelle because i find it fascinating how similar she is to jack at times. the thing with jack and michelle is that they are very much believers of the adage the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few and the one, which is obviously very important for the job they do. whereas tony is always more interested in saving the people around him, the people he cares about, and ultimately his wife. it’s what leads to his arrest later, tony putting michelle above his country, and that kind of loyalty, him damning all the consequences, is numero uno in my book.

as for jack, i definitely grew up thinking he was the coolest person alive (i find ways to bring up the moment at the la coliseum when he runs up the wall and snaps that guy’s neck an embarrassing amount.) he’s a one man army, a terminator, endlessly persistent, and yet he can still find the time to sit in his car at the end of a long day and cry. he really can do it all and there’s not much more i need to say.

there’s an underlining of loyalty between these two that starts, i think, from the moment they learn about nina’s status as a mole. the fact that they both slept with her at different times (possibly even overlapping) lends itself to a certain bond going forward. a mutual betrayal building a weird commiserating trust. from there, i love seeing tony become one of the few people at CTU jack trusts pretty implicitly. he entrusts kim’s safety (*sighs* oh, kim) to tony on numerous occasions, to the point where tony and michelle even help jack fake his death. can’t get much more trusting than that.

the 24h clock format for the show really was groundbreaking at the time, and i think it still continues to be a major positive that the show has going for it. i love all the subterfuge and having spies working both sides right under your nose. the quick and sudden violence underscored by the ticking clock. the technology is also hilariously dated at this point too that payphones were a legitimate defense against terrorism and secret agendas.

prompts:

i do ship it, along with liking a lot of their canon relationships. i would love a shipping fic involving tony/jack, but gen is fine. depending on the season setting you choose to write in, i’m fine with references to past relationships like tony/michelle, tony/nina, jack/nina, jack/kate, jack/audrey. i do love ot3 fics as well, so if you want to write any combination of jack/tony/nina and jack/tony/michelle too, it will eat it right up.

straight out of prison, depressed and alcoholic tony is a personal favourite of mine. the way jack relays all the sad facts to audrey so casually has always blown my mind. it means jack was there at the sidelines to see it, and he even mentions michelle’s side of things too, showing that he’s familiar with her too. i once read a post where someone wrote: do you think jack was the best man at tony’s wedding? that question has haunted me ever since, and being confronted with tony at rock bottom always brings it to the front of my mind.

there’s so much potential in a fic set pre-season 3. the whole secret OP that jack, tony and gael organise off the record, which involves getting jack addicted to heroin and in with the salazars. it’s rife for further exploring, maybe something messy and uncomfortably intimate with tony being jack’s only point of contact during this period, and having to sneak behind michelle’s back out of necessity.

i’m weirdly fascinated by the reality of working at CTU during the non-disaster days. the boring, day to day stuff we don’t ever get to see. anything set during any era could honestly be interesting. whether that’s early season 1 during the break in jack’s marriage, or season three when jack is head of OPS and tony is his equal. hell, bring back george mason for a day and let him and tony bitch about jack and their coworkers while standing at the water cooler together. i’m game for anything and anyone, as long as tony and jack are present.

season 7 villain tony. i love the angst jack experiences when learning that tony is alive. i think the show fumbles tony’s true motivations a little by having him flip flop between real villain, undercover good guy, back to actual villain getting revenge for michelle. if they had picked one and stuck with it all the way, i think it might have worked better. having said that, i can get behind both versions, and would love a fic detailing either paths. especially something post-season 7 that explores jack reaching out to tony while he’s back in custody.

[ninasfireescape]

The ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’ review no one asked for

I wanted to enjoy it. I really did.

I was one of the people who didn’t dislike The Last Jedi. Sure, I didn’t love it. When I watched it, I thought it was too long and had made certain characters choices I wasn’t too happy with, but overall it was enjoyable and left me feeling satisfied. It was not as good as The Force Awakens however and hearing JJ Abrams was returning, I thought he might be able to restore the final episode to its former glory.

That indeed seemed like the case for the first hour. The gang were back together, it was quick-paced, I had an emotional investment in what was going on (and it seemed like they were taking the Finnrey route I wanted them too). I couldn’t exactly follow every plot specific but does that really matter in Star Wars when it’s so exciting? The bit on Star Killer base was genuinely inspired, I was laughing away at once again what terrible shots the stormtroopers were and at Hux being the spy. Every scene with Lando in was gold.

It was just after they got to the water planet that things started to go wrong. I’m not sure quite what it was exactly that made it so disappointing from this point onwards. Perhaps the gang splitting up or the rather horrifically done Leia death scene. I know they didn’t really have much choice with what footage they had but having watched each member of the original trio died, this death was devoid of emotion and predictable. And she died to make Kylo Ren hesitate for one moment. What a waste!

Then the pointless force ghosts! Seeing Luke was nice but it felt like he was just there to add clunky explanation since the plot made so little sense at this point. And when Han appeared, I actually laughed. It was so inconsistent with the tone of the film and he appeared all while Kylo Ren was standing in the middle of a stormy sea that he could fall into at any moment, right in the most climactic section of the film, just to have a conversation with the son who killed him! It was the most outrageous example of a fan service cameo that just didn’t assimilate with the rest of the film.

I don’t actually have a problem with Rey Palpatine. If anything, I thought it was really cool she was a Palpatine. I really didn’t want her to be a Skywalker because I felt it would be predictable and repetitive. Her being a Palpatine also sends the message to young viewers that blood relations don’t make a family which I think is very important for children to hear. Honestly, the only problem I have with it is that it means some poor lady had sex with Palpatine. I agree that it was a ridiculous retcon of The Last Jedi but then I didn’t like the reveal about her parents in TLJ anyway because of how it was executed. Another thing that bothers me about it is the utter lack of information we get about Villanelle Rey’s mother. Already we don’t know much about her father other than that he’s Palpatine’s son but with her mother, we get nothing. With Rey having wondered about who her parents were for so long, surely it would make sense for her to want to know more about her mother and maybe even take her surname in place of ‘Palpatine’. I also firmly believe Rey’s mother should have been played by Hayley Atwell because she looks so much like Daisy Ridley. And while Jodie Comer is an amazing actress, I think 1. She deserves a bigger role in the Star Wars franchise and 2. Her casting as Rey’s mother exemplifies Hollywood’s fear of casting older actresses as mothers. A twenty six year old as a mother!?

About Zurii, I always appreciate new female characters in Star Wars and I thought she had a great design. However, it is blatantly clear what her purpose in the film was. It was to stop people calling Poe gay, inserting a female character for one scene (she barely spoke in her other scenes so I’m not counting those) with no backstory of her own, just to prove he is attracted to women. Well, first of all, he can be bi, secondly, that’s not going to stop people shipping Finnpoe at all. I didn’t clock until afterwards when I saw people talking about it online, but it was super problematic to make Poe a former drug dealer. Sure, the only Latino character in this trilogy. Also, it in general complicates the little we know about Poe’s backstory so far.

With Rose, all our worst fears were confirmed. She just wasn’t there. She appeared in a couple of scenes and had some lines but you’d think she was no more than another miscellaneous rebel, no more significant a role than Billie Lourd’s character. Did they really give into the white fanboy pressure? How could they erase Rose when she was such a good character? She was tough and fought strongly for her beliefs, but she was also compassionate, sensitive. Now, I never particularly shipped Finn and Rose in TLJ. I thought it seemed a bit of a rushed romance and Finn didn’t seem that invested in the kiss they shared. However, you can’t just pretend they didn’t kiss in the last film. They interacted a few times but there was no sense of any bond between them. Where there relationship stood was unclear. Were they now a couple or had they had an offscreen conversation where they decided they were better off as friends? Who knows?

And now onto the worst part of the film: Kylo Ren and more specifically that kiss. Gross. Okay, to be clear, I wasn’t entirely opposed to a redemption arc for Kylo Ren. Sure, it would be predictable, but it’s not like Kylo Ren’s crimes are any worse than those of Darth Vader and he was still capable of redemption. I liked Kylo Ren as a villain. He perfectly depicted that type of whiny, entitled white man who we see so commonly in real life, but again, he could have achieved some redemption if it were implemented correctly. What we got in the film was not this. He was still committing genocide at the start and carried out one good deed which was saving the woman he had a crush on. For this one good act, he was entirely forgiven and somehow all of the genocide wasn’t his fault. And he got rewarded with the woman! If anything, I’d call that act selfish since he only wanted to save the woman he liked. Adam Driver did the best he could with it but everything about it was awful. And it was out of character for Rey to kiss him and forgive him. She stabbed him little more than half an hour earlier! At the end of the last film, she slammed a door in his face. It makes no sense to me how she could suddenly be so invested in him becoming a better person. There’s also the fact that wasn’t included in the films that Rey and Kylo Ren are related (aunt and nephew to be exact). I wasn’t aware this was Game of Thrones! And according to Wookiepedia, Rey was 18 at the start of the films and is now 20 whereas Kylo Ren is now 30. A ten year age different would be fine if Rey were older but at this point, the age gap is uncomfortable and very borderline.

If they’re going to make the claim that it wasn’t actually Kylo Ren who was doing the evil deeds but some dark force corrupting him, they should have explained how the mechanism works. At least in the prequels, we got some sense of Anakin slowly being corrupted. To me, it reads like in some horror films when the abusive characters are found to have been possessed by demons or something. It trivializes abuse which is something very real, acting instead as if no abusers can actually be responsible for their actions and it is the cause of some supernatural force instead. I suppose the kiss doesn’t have to mean anything. After all, Leia and Luke kissed in the original trilogy and Finn and Rose kissed and apparently that meant nothing.

I firmly believe the series intended a Finn and Rey romance. Lest we forget The Force Awakens, Finn awkwardly asking Rey if she had a boyfriend. That was clear coding for him having a crush on her. In that film, the two developed such a strong bond, and they have so much more chemistry than Rey and Kylo Ren ever had. All the scenes with Rey and Finn (and Poe) were full of light and emotion. The scene at the end where the three of them hugged was honestly the high point of the film. Now, when I left the cinema, what was plaguing my mind the most was that throughout the film, Finn had a secret he wanted to tell Rey. It was first suggested when they thought they were going to die in the quicksand. “Wait, Rey, I never told you!” It had to be that he loved her. What else could it be? Supposedly, it was that he was force sensitive. I don’t believe that for one second. If he needed to tell her that, why couldn’t Poe be included? And why did he never get the chance to tell her? It was a build-up I got invested in with no payoff. It must have been that he loved her. So, if that was the case, that leaves us with two options. Either there was a Finnrey subplot that got cut but they forgot to cut these scenes out (or simply couldn’t be bothered to), or they thought it would be funny to have the black supposed male lead chasing after the white female lead who didn’t love him back because she was instead in love with the genocidal white villain. I ship Finnrey so much and find the second option so horrific but I wouldn’t put it past the writers. Finn played such a significant role in the first half of the film, as he should since he’s meant to be the male lead in the series, but after that, he was dangerously underutilized. At least the ending where no one ends up with each other is compliant with my headcanon that Rey, Finn and Poe (and I don’t mind Rose being in the mix too) all end up married to each other and adopt a bunch of porgs.

And lastly, the lesbian scene. Pathetic. We don’t know the character names and I can’t even find out who the actresses were that played them. Okay, they kissed which is a pretty big deal (even though kisses apparently mean nothing in Star Wars) and it’s certainly a step forward from the Avengers: Endgame ‘’’’representation’’’’, but it’s still rather useless considering the big deal JJ Abrams made about how there would be representation.

[poetlcs]

books I’ve read in 2020 (so far) + their ratings

non-fiction

crossing the line: australia’s secret history in the timor sea by kim mcgrath: important research into australia’s theft of oil in timor leste. didn’t rate

hood feminism: notes from the women that a movement forgot by mikki kendall: essay collection dissecting modern feminism, pointing out the exclusionary practices of mainstream feminism and offering new frameworks through which feminism should operate. really recommend. didn’t rate

the uninhabitable earth: life after warming by david wallace-wells: good introduction to environmentalism and the climate disaster. a little too introductory for me but good for those new to the topic. ★★★

homo deus: a brief history of tomorrow by yuval noah harari: it is simply not Sapiens nor as good as Sapiens. Looks at potentials for our future but, thought it was a little poorly researched. Some parts were still interesting though.  ★★★

SPQR: a history of ancient rome by mary beard: a little dense at times, but super interesting and detailed look at ancient rome. enjoyed it a lot. ★★★★

sister outsider by audre lorde: collection of audre lorde’s essays and speeches, about feminism, lesbianism, the queer community, being Black and a lesbian ect ect. outstanding, important collection anyone interested in intersectional feminism must read. ★★★★★

all boys aren’t blue by george m. johnson: memoir about johnson’s experiences growing up as a Black gay boy in a poor neighbourhood. Very poignant memoir, written in such accessible language which I liked. guarenteed to get you emotional, another one everyone should read. didn’t rate because it’s so highly personal that felt wrong but highly recommend. 

under a biliari tree i born by alice biari smith: memoir by an Aboriginal Australian detailing her life growing up learning traditional Aboriginal ways and how the lives of Indigenous Australian’s have been impacted through the years, specifically in Western Australia. Probably more aimed at school age people but still a 101 I think many Australian’s (and non Australian’s) can benefit from. didn’t rate 

classics

maurice by e.m forster: gay man coming of age story in college + themes around class and sexuality. forster’s end note saying he thought it imperative to write a happy ending because we need that in fiction, i love him. ★★★★★

emma by jane austen: read before seeing the movie. loved emma as a character but thought this was okay compared to other Austen I’ve read. ★★★½

perfume by patrick suskind: a man with an incredible sense of smell starts murdering young women to try and bottle their scent for a perfume. weirdest shit I ever read still don’t know how to feel about it. ★★★

the color purple by alice walker: follows the life of Celie, an Black woman living in rural Georgia. deals with her relationship with her sister Nettie, her lover Shug Avery, and with God. this tore my heart to shreds absolutely everyone must read it, like even just for the beautiful writing ALONE. ★★★★

a study in scarlet by arthur conan doyle: its sherlock holmes #1 no further explanation required. not my fave sherlock story, was the weird morman subplot needed? ★★½

dracula by bram stoker: yeah vampires!! this was way easier to read and also way funnier than I expected. we STAN gothic aesthetics and Miss Mina Harker here. ★★★★

fantasy

the diviners by libba bray: teens with magical powers/abilities solving mysteries in 1920′s new york. reread. ★★★★★

lair of dreams by libba bray: the diviners #2. reread. ★★★★½

before the devil breaks you by libba bray: the diviners #3. reread. best one in the series hands down.  ★★★★★

the king of crows by libba bray: waited so long for this series ender and it let me down lol. ★★★

clockwork princess by cassandra clare: the infernal devices #3. dont @ me this is my comfort reread series and I was travelling. ★★★★★

we unleash the merciless storm by tehlor kay mejia: we set the dark on fire #2. latinx inspired fantasy about overthrowing a corrupt government with an f/f romance. didn’t like as much as book one but still good, BEST girlfriends ever. ★★★½

wolfsong by t.j klune: basically feral gay werewolves and witches living in a town together. feels like a teen wolf episode but way more gayer. despite that hated the writing style and I don’t like age gap romances so yay the concept no the execution.  ★★

the fate of the tearling by erika johansan: the tearling #3. finally finished this series, dunno why everyone loathes the ending so much I thought it was cool. underrated fantasy because it’s very unique. ★★★★

girl, serpent, thorn by melissa bashardoust: persian inspired fantasy about a girl who is cursed by a div to kill anyone she touches. has an f/f romance. bashardoust writes the most aesthetically rich settings I love her. ★★★★

crier’s war by nina varela: reread. f/f enemies to lovers where the main character poses as a handmaiden in order to try and murder the princess whose father killed her family. PEAK gay content literally a modern classic. ★★★★★

we hunt the flame by hafsah faizal: I was so disinterested in this book I barely can describe the plot but basically it’s a prince and a hunter who are enemies but are forced to go looking for this magical artifact together anyway it was boring.  ★

ghosts of the shadow market by cassandra clare + others: short story collection set in the shadowhunter world. probably the strongest of her collections but they just don’t hit the same as her full length books. didn’t rate. 

a storm of swords: part two by george r.r martin: a song of ice and fire #3. I WILL finish reading these books eventually i swear !! probably the best one yet though. ★★★★

amarah by l.l mcneil: world of linaria #3. high fantasy with politics, dragons, warring races. tolkein/asoiaf vibes if they had more women with agency. didn’t rate because I haven’t decided my feelings on the end yet. 

science fiction

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone: f/f enemies to lovers between spies on rival sides of a time war. good book but writing style wasn’t for me (others love this so eh take my opinion with a grain os salt:  ★★★

not your sidekick by c.b lee: main character is from a superhero family but has no powers herself, so she takes an internship working with a superhero corp. has an f/f romance with a villain character. so much fun and super cute

speculative fiction:

the deep by rivers solomon: speculative fiction wherein pregnant African women thrown overboard by slave ships gave birth to babies that became mermaids. main character holds all the memories of her people’s past but runs away after being unable to deal with the burden. about self discovery, intergenerational trauma and the burden of remembering. a little short imo but still all round excellent book ★★★★

how long ‘til black future month? by n.k jemisin: short story collection, many with an afro-futurism focus. hard to explain because there is such a wide variety of stories but this is an AMAZING collection. didn’t rate because I don’t like rating short story collections but wish more people would read it. 

mystery

the family upstairs by lisa jewell: woman inherits an english house and starts to unravel the secrets of a mass cult suicide that happened there years ago. loved it because it was wild. ★★★★★

the hand on the wall by maureen johnson: truly devious #3. boarding school mystery where the main character has to solve a murder that happened in the 1920s at her school while another mystery is happening in present time. my least favourite of the series but satisfying conclusion nonetheless. ★★★½

contemporary fiction

maybe in another life by taylor jenkins reid: dual timeline book showing the two outcomes of a decision the main character makes. cool concept but ultimately boring book because I didn’t care about the main character at all.  didn’t rate because I didn’t finish it. 

girl, woman, other by bernadine evaristo: vignette stories of various women whose lives are vaguely interconnected. incredibly well written with such vivid characters. deserves the hype. ★★★★

tin heart by shivan plozza: australian YA, the recipient of a heart transplant wishes to connect with the family of her donor, after she discovers the identity of her donor. good story but didn’t like the writing style. ★★★

a little life by hanya yanigahara: follows the life of a group of friends living in life, especially that of jude, a closed off and damaged man with a troubling past. a little too torture-porny/Tragic Gays but I cannot deny the author has a beautiful writing style and I went through all the emotions. didn’t rate

a girl like that by tanaz bhathena: explores the events leading up to the main character dying in a car crash. set in Jeddah, saudi arabia and explores expectations on women, feminism and expressions of sexuality and relationships between women during teenage years. kinda no good characters but I loved it for it’s messy depiction of teen girls (whilst not condemning them for this). underrated. ★★★★

little fires everywhere by celeste ng: drama in white american suburbs when a new family moves in and the neighbours start investigating their past. eh, I heard a lot about this and thought it was just okay. ★★★

stay gold by tobly mcsmith: trans boy decides to go stealth at his new school and falls for a cheerleader, georgia. about navigating being trans and definitely felt like it was written to educate cis people. it was okay but ultimately not my thing and not really the story I was looking for, even though I respect it being written by a trans author and still would recommend to certain people. ★★½

everything leads to you by nina lacour: main character and her best friend have to unravel a hollywood mystery, all while the main character is trying to get over her ex-girlfriend and find work as a set designer. f/f romance and loved the focus on movie making and the power of stories. ★★★½

the falling in love montage by ciara smyth: a girl meets another girl at a party, but she’s not looking to date due to the amount of family issues she has going on. so her and the girl decide to spend the summer having fun, renacting scenes from rom-coms, but never dating. awesome family dynamics and the relationship between the two girls was sweet also set in ireland which is fun. 

normal people by sally rooney: explores the relationship between connell and marianne, who meet in school, date secretly, and then are inexplicably drawn to each other for the rest of their lives. explores power dynamics, relationships, love and trust, and what we owe to eachother. great book, great mini-series, love it to bits. ★★★★★

the glass hotel by emily st john mandel: impossible to explain this book, but there’s a mystery about grafitti, a ponzi scheme and a character falling to their death on a boat under suspicious circumstances. honestly idk what happened in this book but I liked it. ★★★½

historical fiction

half of a yellow sun by chimamanda ngozi adichie: historical fiction about the biafran war loosely based on adichie’s family experiences. incredibly well written with an ending that punches you in the gut. ★★★★

hamnet by maggie o’farrell: explores the shakespeare family after the death of their child, Hamnet, from the plague, and how this leads to Shakespeare writing Hamlet. cool as fuck concept and boring as fuck book with such tropey female characters. ★★

all the light we cannot see by anthony doerr: WW2 fiction, dual perspective between a blind girl living in france and a german boy forced into nazi youth. I cannot believe this book is award winning it’s so boring and predictable and i reget the time i wasted on it. ★

poetry:

on earth we’re briefly gorgeous by ocean vuong: poetry memoir. vuong writes a letter to his illiterate mother, knowing she’ll never read it, exploring their relationship, his experiences growing up as second generation Vietnamese-American, and hers during the Vietnam War. My favorite book I’ve read so far this year, just too good to explain, genuinely just feel like everyone is better off for having read this. ★★★★★

currrently reading:

girls of storm and shadow by natasha ngan

meet me at the intersection: edited by rebecca lim & ambelin kwaymullina

stamped from the beginning: the definitive history of racist ideas in america by ibram x. kendi

get a life, chloe brown by talia hibbert

[shadowed-dancer]

SVTFOE Season 4 Rewrite

Long, long ago I hinted that I’d make this and then I didn’t post it. It’s been sitting in my drafts for months so I figured “hey, maybe it’s time.” Some of you may recall this rewrite I did back in May which changed the events of Cleaved, but I wanted to go further. In an ideal scenario, we never get to the point where Cleaved is a necessary episode because the build up of the season was designed in a way that any resolution ends up being unsatisfying.

For this little writing exercise I’ve decided to undertake, I’d like to establish my ground rules. I will be working with the amount of episodes already allotted to season 4 (21 episodes) and I’ll be writing under the idea that they are aired the same way (two every Sunday, with the finale being aired alone. I’ll put a “-” in between episodes so you know which would have aired together). Some episodes will remain the same, some will be similar but will have changes, some will borrow ideas from real episodes, and others will be the same as episodes we actually got, just shifted to a different point in the season. Some of my episodes will be 10 minutes, others will take the whole 20.

As always, this is just for fun, I still have the greatest respect for the svtfoe team and what they created.

It’s a super long post, which is why it’s under the cut. I worked really hard on this, so any likes and reblogs are appreciated! Alright, without further ado, season 4!

Episode 1: Butterfly Follies

I found that this episode was a lovely reintroduction to the characters, so I wouldn’t change anything about it.

Episode 2: Escape From Pie Island

Honestly, it was fine. I think it tied together the “finding Moon” plot from Butterfly Follies pretty well. I’d include a little more about Festivia if anything.

-

Episode 3 A: Moon Remembers

A nice episode as is, I wouldn’t change anything

Episode 3 B: Swimsuit

Also an awesome episode! One of my favourites actually, so it stays (don’t worry, we’ll get to the juicy changes soon enough)

Episode 4 A: Ransomgram

Ransomgram was a cute episode. It helped us take a break from the plot driven drama of the past few episodes. HOWEVER, I would change 1 thing. At the end, when someone has to stay in the ab dimension to repair the damage, I’d have Star do it (like she tricks Marco into leaving, closes the portal behind him, then comes out a few seconds later in Mewni). This way her age evens out with Marco’s. The way it’s currently written actually makes the age gap worse! So yeah, have Star stay behind without Marco.

Episode 4 B: Lake House Fever

A good episode, I loved seeing more of Dave and Wrathmelior, but I would start really foreshadowing that Star and Tom are about to break up. Don’t have the cute “are you an angel” exchange at the end. Instead, let them have the awkwardness of a couple who’s fallen out of love. We want to break people off their desire for Tomstar early, not super late.

-

Episode 5 A: Yada Yada Berries

Who doesn’t love a good detective episode? Plus, the events of this will be important later. It stays the same

Episode 5 B: Down by the River

Similar to the original, but now have Moon actually excited to start a new Kingdom. It’s in her nature, she’s been trained to be queen her whole life, so show the establishments of the new kingdom, but with a queen who really wanted it (have her be excited when new people show up, have her eagerly establish living quarters and such).

Episode 6 A: The Ponyhead Show

Same title, different plot. Ponyhead’s new show is set to premiere with it’s first celebrity guest, Eclipsa, but someone cuts the connection. The show was supposed to be Eclipsa’s first official address to her people. This episode’s plot is the characters trying to get the connection back before their allotted time runs out. They end up succeeding and Eclipsa gets to sing her song. Also, cut all the Kelly and Marco interactions, or at least make it super obvious that they are just friends (why not give Kelly a boyfriend? One that isn’t Tad)

Episode 6 B: Surviving the Spiderbites

Perfect episode, wouldn’t change a thing. Absolutely amazing.

-

Episode 7: Curse of the Blood Moon

Yeah, I cut the entirety of the original episode 7 and shifted this one up a bit, but can you really blame me? Those episodes were pointless! This episode was good, I wouldn’t change to much, however, make it really obvious that, after the curse is broken, Marco still thinks everything about Star is adorable. She could also feel the same way about him. To make room for this, cut that weird couch segment.

Episode 8 A: Princess Quasar Catepillar and the Magic Bell

This was a fun episode, and since we’ll just be coming off of a plot driven episode, let’s do something cool with Ludo!

Episode 8 B: Ghost of Butterfly Castle

Same as the actual episode, but now we learn that Mina was not only behind the Yada Yada berries, but she was also behind cutting the connection at the Ponyhead Show.

-

Episode 9 A: Cornball!

Same as the actual episode we got, but without the whole “Break up buddies” thing between Marco and Kelly (remember how we cut that whole episode?) Now, we just have Marco and Kelly being friends, maybe with Marco hinting that he really likes Star and Kelly giving some relationship advice?

Episode 9 B: Meteora’s Lesson

Same title, but it’s been rewritten! So, the episode plays out the same up until they meet Toffee. In this new episode, they don’t meet Toffee at all! Instead, they travel to Skywynne directly after she destroyed the dimension. Turns out the lesson wasn’t for Meteora, it was for Skywynne. Glossaryck reassures Skywynne that everything will work out between her and her crush and, as proof, he brought her great granddaughter from the future. Skywynne is super confused and attributes the whole thing to being a hallucination caused by her dipping down for the first time (because remember, Skywynne thinks Glossaryck is dead at that point in her life). Glossaryck tries to explain that he’s real and, to prove he’s fake, Skywynne grabs her wand and is about to blast him. Meteora reacts to this and dips down to protect him (like the way it’s described in the book, out of the protection for another). Glossaryck and her go back to their own time, leaving Skywynne really confused. It ends the same way the real episode does.

Episode 10 A: The Knight Shift

I didn’t like this episode, but I like the relationship building between Marco and Star. It ends similarly with Marco saying that, no matter what, he’ll be there for Star and will visit her often. He then gets a call from his parents, leading us to...

Episode 10 B: Mariposa

A completely new episode! Marco and Star learn that his new baby brother is about to be born, so they return to Earth. Maybe there’s some trouble getting there or whatever. It would just be a cute episode, so I won’t go into huge details since they don’t matter, but it would obviously end with the baby being a girl and being called Mariposa! Star decides to stay on Earth for a few days, realizing that she feels more comfortable there than on Mewni at the moment.

-

Episode 11 A: Britta’s Tacos

Pretty much the same episode we actually got. I liked it.

Episode 11 B: Beach Day

Again, same episode as what we got in the actual season. However now there is the obviousness of them slowly wanting to be a couple.

Episode 12 A: Gone Baby Gone

Pretty much the same episode because I love getting to see the teen designs for Mariposa and Meteora. However, this time it’s not Heckapoo who leaves a portal open, instead someone (doesn’t matter who) accidentally cuts a rift to the abs dimension. Also, now we’d actually get to see adult Star from when I aged her up back in ransomgram!

Episode 12 B: Sad Teen Hotline

Tom comes to visit Star on Earth and breaks up with her. It’s basically the same as the original episode, but the portals are actually being affected by their emotions (not by Heckapoo closing the portals). It ends with him coming to terms with it and is able to make a proper portal to leave.

-

Episode 13 A: Pancake Day

Similar to the episode “A Spell With No Name” from the actual series in the sense that we get to hang out with the spells again. Star’s spells are in a bit of a panic because ownership has transferred from Star to Eclipsa and they fear they may never be used again! To help ease their minds, Narwhal and Spider go out to the other rooms and interview spells from past queens (specifically spells we actually read about in the book) and they get to realize that, even if another princess doesn’t use them, they still can lead good lives inside the wand! To celebrate, the invite their new spell friends back to their room for a pancake day.

Episode 13 B: Junkin Janna

Star needs to accompany Eclipsa to a meeting with the MHC, while Tom needs help keeping his mind off his breakup with Star. Janna tags along with Star to Mewni and offers to take Tom boot sledding. Eclipsa and Star learn that there are readings of magic being emitted from the destroyed Butterfly castle (not the monster temple). Eclipsa and Star say they don’t know who it is, since neither of them had gone back. Meanwhile, Tom and Janna get attacked by the bird and we learn that Mina is creating a giant suit of armour for... something.

Episode 14: General Loveberry

A flashback episode! Yay! This episode starts the same way “Pizza Party” starts, with an introduction to rag peddler Mina meeting Solaria and the promise that Mina will be the fiercest warrior Mewni ever knew. It cuts to a scene at the meeting table (the one from “Moon the Undaunted”) with Jushtin yelling at Solaria that the idea is insane. Mina says she’ll happily risk herself to defend the kingdom, and that perhaps Mewni is lucky Jushtin never became queen. Jushtin stands up and takes Eclipsa from Solaria, saying that it’s his sister’s choice on how to proceed, but that it’s no place for a baby.

We then go through a series of cuts to the different Queens at the table. At each cut, Mina becomes a little more unstable.

We start with Queen Eclipsa and Shastacan arguing about whether to deploy the Solarians. Mina reassures Eclipsa that her armies will destroy every last monster, making Eclipsa squirm. She says that she’s the queen and her decision is final, they will not use the Solarians.

Cut to Festivia and the MHC. True to Festivia’s chapter, Rhombulus is suggesting war, Omnitraxes says to wait, Glossaryck isn’t there, and Heckapoo is being super supportive of Festivia. She decides they will go to war and Mina says her army will fight just as hard, if not harder, than when Solaria had first made them.

Cut to Dirhhennia doodling balls on a piece of paper while Festivia introduces Mina and describes all the valiant things she did. Dirhhennia looks up and shrugs, making some comment or whatever. Festivia and Mina exchange a look and it cuts to the literal same scene, but now it’s Crescenta excitedly listening to the victories of Mina. She says that, with her plans for the kingdom, Mina and the Solarians won’t need to fight, and that they can take a break, but it’s good to know they fought so hard.

Cut to Rhina asking if it’s possible for the Solarians to protect her on a trip to the Underworld. Mina explains that not many Solarians are left, and besides, their job wasn’t escort missions, they were made for battle.

Cut to Celena comforting Mina, as we learn that she is the last Solarian left.

Cut to the MHC arguing again with Estrella drawing instead of paying attention, while Mina tries to explain the benefit of another war.

Finally, we cut to Queen Comet explaining her idea for a peace treaty. Mina tries desperately to change her mind, but Comet refuses and explains how the tension between monsters has been going on for too long. She tells Mina a detailed plan for her trip to make he deal, and is then called in by Moon, who needs help figuring out a pie recipe. Comet leaves and Mina is left to think.

Under the cover of night, Mina goes out to the Monster camp. The Monsters freak out as she walks in, but she explains that she means them no harm... yet. She demands she speaks to the general (Toffee) and she gives him all the details of Comet’s travel plan. She says that a peace treaty won’t benefit either side, and he says he agrees. She tells him to do whatever he wants with that information, before she runs back into the woods.

We then get a cut to the present, where Mina is standing in the garden at night, facing statues of the previous queens that we just saw. She apologizes to Comet, saying that it was the only way to end the war once and for all. She hears footsteps behind her, and Moon appears. She says “I’m ready to help” and Mina smiles.

-

Episode 15 A: A Boy and His DC‑700XE

Again, same episode. This was a really nice, fun episode. However, any and all jokes about Tomco are removed, and instead Tom says that if Marco wants to date Star, he can.

(I want to deal with this now, because I know someone will ask. The reason I don’t want any Tomco hints is because, in this fake season, Starco is already under way. I want to minimize the shipping drama and just build as healthy a relationship as possible for Star and Marco, one that the fandom would hopefully be ok with).

Episode 15 B: Return to St. Olga’s

Eclipsa comes to Star and says that Meteora won’t stop crying and she’s not sure why. She gives Star a drawing that Meteora did, which Star immediately recognizes (it’s just a bunch of scribbles, the audience isn’t meant to know what this is but somehow Star gets it). She tells Eclipsa she knows what Meteora wants, and goes to get Marco. They then go back to St. Olga’s and we get to check in with the girls over there (they’re doing well). The details don’t really matter, but in the end they find Meteora’s old car parked out front (the one she used to live in) and in the trunk they find the dolls of Eclipsa and Globgor. They return with the dolls and Meteora begins clapping before hugging them close. Eclipsa expresses her shock, stating that she hadn’t seen those dolls in 300 hundred years. It ends with Eclipsa looking at the Globgor doll and smiling.

Episode 16: The Monster and the Queen

Similar to the real episode, but longer. It ends with Star proclaiming that Eclipsa will receive a proper coronation, and then will become the proper queen of Mewni once again.

-

Episode 17 A: Doop Doop

Same title, altered plot. Moon goes to Star and tells her to go on vacation to Earth because the stress of planning a coronation is clearly starting to get to her. Star agrees, saying it would be nice to take a break from planning. Star and Marco go through Mewni and say good bye to all their friends, ending with Doop Doop, before actually leaving for Earth. Once they’re back on Earth, Star says she forgot something and tries to open the portal, but it doesn’t work. She questions if it’s because she’s emotional, like what happened with her break up with Tom. She attempts to call Tom with the intention of having him bring the thing she forgot, but it goes to static. Her and Marco realize something is wrong with the portals.

Episode 17 B: Jannanagins

Same episode, but now Tom isn’t here.

Episode 18 A: Mama Star

Same episode, but Tom isn't here.

Episode 18 B: Ready, Aim, Fire

Similar to the real episode, but Globgor is not free yet. Star, Marco, and Janna all wake up in different places on Mewni (Doop Doop, lint catcher, and Meteora’s nursery). Marco learns that the MHC plans on freeing Globgor, then having the Solarians attack while he’s still disoriented from being freed. Moon is shocked that Star has returned, and Star goes to help Eclipsa, whose castle is under attack. Janna is staying with Meteora while Eclipsa defends her castle and her people.

-

Episode 19 A: The Right Way

Star and Eclipsa defeat the one warrior (not with the total annihilation spells, just with something else). Moon shows up to help but slips up and reveals she sent Star to Earth knowing this attack would happen, and that she wanted Star away from the danger. She’s then forced to explain herself and reveals that she (Moon) made the new Solarians with the intent of getting rid of Globgor once and for all. Moon speaks of the horror stories she was told about Globgor, leading Eclipsa to speak up with the truth.

Episode 19 B: Queen of Darkness

A flashback episode, very similar to “Moon the Undaunted” from season 3. This would be the story of Meteora’s kidnapping, Globgor eating Shastacan, the attack on Spiderbite village, and Globgor’s crystallization. The whole episode would end with Eclipsa being crystallized.

Episode 20 A: Here to Help

Moon tries to reason with Mina, explaining that she was wrong about Globgor and that he was just a parent looking out for his family. She takes away the powers of the Solarians, leaving Mina as the only one left. Moon tells Mina that Eclipsa will leave with Meteora and Globgor will stay crystallized forever. Mina complains that they are all being let off too easy and tries to attack, but is held off. The group of heroes fall through a portal like they do in “Pizza Party”, and they meet Heckapoo.

Episode 20 B: The Tavern at the End of the Multiverse

Heckapoo reveals that Rhombulus and Mina are going to destroy Globgor and there’s nothing they can do, so they might as well stay safe until this whole thing blows over, then Moon and Star can return, while Eclipsa and Meteora stay in hiding. Moon is mad until she realizes this is exactly what she did to Star, and suddenly understands Star’s conviction to fight for her beliefs. Star is freaking out over the whole thing and sees Glossaryck, forcing herself into his eye. From there, she tells him she needs advice and he takes her to the grandma room. The ghosts appear similar to the actual grandma reunion scene, but this time Star asks them for help on what to do. A few of them motion to Moon’s tapestry, revealing Toffee can speak. He and Star have a civil conversation which leads to him revealing that Mina gave him the information on where to find Comet. Star turns to ask the ghosts if that’s true, but they’re gone. She sees her tapestry though, it’s her and Marco holding hands while standing on a stage. They are facing away from the audience. Facing towards the audience is Eclipsa, Globgor, and Meteora, being cheered on. Star realizes this is the coronation and that she needs to make this happen. She returns and explains that Eclipsa needs to be the true queen again. When Moon protests, Star reveals that Mina helped plot the murder of Comet. With that, Moon prepares for battle.

-

Episode 21: Cornonation

The episode begins with the group of friends all backstage while Eclipsa gets ready. It’s not as huge of an auditorium because they’re trying to keep things pretty quiet so they don’t attract any unwanted attention. (At some point here, Marco can point out the typo of “Cornonation”). Eclipsa learns a string on her guitar broke and runs to go fix it. Star goes after her and finds that Globgor has escaped. It was Mina who convinced Rhombulus to let Globgor out, but they didn’t anticipate he’d be so fast and he escaped. In a panic, he crashes into the coronation stage (rather than running to the swamp) and Mina goes for the attack. At some point, we show Moon returning to Butterfly castle to get her armour, and there can be another scene where she looks at her mother’s tapestry, smiling before going out to avenge her.

At this moment at the Coronation, Eclipsa is being crystallized but suddenly breaks out her butterfly form and dips down for the first time. She and Moon join forces to do the spell with no name but now it's effects are less deadly, it simply destroys Mina’s armour (rather than flying out and melting everything else). Moon can have a cool moment where she confronts Mina about Comet.

The MHC is still fighting Globgor and we get a similar cool fight scene. Tom suddenly flies up (he was back stage with Marco) and summons the dead queens (remember how he did that with Mackie Hand?) Mina is about to deliver the final blow on Globgor, who’s been reunited with Meteora, when Solaria intercepts the blow. Mina asks her why she’s doing this and she just holds Mina’s face in her hands. “You’ve served me valiantly, Mina. But it’s time to rest.” Mina returns to her normal form and looks around and sees how innocent Globgor looks with his family. She runs off into the forest.

The dead queens take a moment to look at their family. Solaria has a touching moment with Eclipsa and her family, showing she accepts it. Jushtin can swoop in and ruffle Eclipsa’s hair, causing them all to laugh. Maybe even Festivia and meet with Eclipsa (just a silent scene), perhaps with a hug from Eclipsa to Festivia. Meanwhile, Star and Moon reunite with Comet. Star finally gets to meet Celena and apologizes to Festivia for destroying her legacy. Star then makes amends with Skywynne, to whom she confesses that she was her favourite grandma. All the queens wave goodbye and are about to leave when Eclipsa stops them. “I know that some of you aren’t my real family, but we were all Queens of Mewni. And this kind of reunion doesn’t happen every day so... will you stay for my coronation?”

It ends the same way the real episode ends, but now we see all the character’s we’ve come to know sitting in the audience (including the queens and including some earth people like Marco’s family). The credits roll as Eclipsa and Globgor continue singing an extended version of their song. The last shot of the show is Star and Marco kissing backstage, with Marco’s cheeks glowing.

-

Some Final Thoughts

I hope you enjoyed! Since I have your attention, I thought I’d justify and explain some of my reasonings for making the changes that I did. If this doesn’t interest you, feel free to click away now

Ending With Globgor’s Freedom

Some of you may be wondering “Why would you free Globgor at the end?! Don’t you want to show how cute he and Eclipsa are?” I do, which is why I extended “The Monster and the Queen” and why I added another flashback episode about them. I want you to think really hard though for one second. After his freedom in the original series, what did he do? He was injured, sure, but that didn’t lead to anything. He was just sort of... there. Did you know that Globgor doesn’t say a SINGLE word in Cleaved? Yeah...

Ending With the Coronation

Think about it. Svtfoe has always been about Star being a magical princess. This is the physical proof that that point in her life is coming to an end, just as the show is coming to an end. When I first watched season 1, I kind of assumed the series would end with Star becoming Queen. After we learned that Eclipsa was still the true heir, it only felt right to end it this way.

Adding “General Loveberry”

This fan made episode was honestly just a way to give the queens voices, but it also helps flesh out Mina’s character and show her descent into madness. She has seen all her fellow solarians die, she has served every queen, give her this recognition!

Making Mina Responsible for Comet’s Death

I had seen this theory floating around, but unfortunately I don’t know who created it. However, I think it adds a valid reason for Moon to turn on Mina. In the original, Moon flips sides too much, and her only reason for betraying Mina is “I didn’t know she would go so far”. HOW DID YOU NOT KNOW THAT? In mine, Mina DOESN’T go that far. She’s ready to do her duty to get rid of Globgor, and that’s all. It’s her past actions that catch up to her.

ALSO it would show Moon that her monster bias wasn’t completely right. I didn’t elaborate too much in the above section, so I’ll do it here. I would make it very clear throughout the series that Moon kind of blames all monsters for Comet’s death, so learning it was actually a Mewman, her trusted general no less, that was truly behind it makes her rethink everything.

Swapping Toffee for Skywynne in “Meteora’s Lesson”

Reason #1 is because I want to hear her voice, and she wouldn’t be in the “General Loveberry” episode. Reason #2 is because I want to see moments of the book addressed in the show. The fact that a queen destroyed a dimension is oddly glossed over in the series. I also think that visiting a past queen is more relevant than visiting Toffee, especially in my rewrite. Originally, Toffee’s appearance felt like fan service, but it kind of reminded people that Toffee wanted magic destroyed. Well now we don’t want to destroy magic, so Toffee can have his appearances in “General Loveberry” and “The Tavern”.

Not Destroying Magic

In my opinion, destroying the magic was NOT a satisfying way to end. Magic had always been a part of this world, so to come to the decision to destroy it  ONE episode in advance, it felt awkward. Keep magic, keep the queens, but now it’s a new generation. A generation where a queen will rule hand in hand with a monster.

Changing “The Spell With No Name” to “Pancake Day”

Is it just me, or did the original episode “The Spell with No Name” feel super over hyped? Like, they foreshadow this horrible destructive spell, and then Eclipsa uses it a few episodes later but nothing happens! There’s no “Oh my corn we need to stop it!” It just flies off, doing who knows what, and it’s never addressed! With my shift to a lighter episode, we get to address something that I assume would be a very real concern for the spells (not being used) and we get to meet some other spells. This also helps ease the audience into the idea of meeting the past queens, so it doesn’t seem as weird when they pop up at the end.

Why not break up Tom and Star even earlier?

I considered breaking up Tom and Star right after the Bloodmoon curse thing, but it felt too rushed. I felt there needed to be time where they're in a relationship, but it’s clear they aren’t super pumped about it. The way I have it, we still get lots of time between their break-up and the finale, plus Star and Marco never actually confirm they are dating. It ends more on the promise of “Let’s see if this works”.

[fyrapartnersearch]

Chapter 1; In Which Death Awaits and a Plot is Hatched

“You’re fucking persistent, I’ll give you that,” Izar growled, planting his foot in the snow and pivoting around to face the wards. He slammed his hands on the wards, causing a deep resonance to sound across the snowy grounds.

He was lifted off his feet and sent flying. Izar clenched his lips together before he gave a delighted laugh, not even stopping as he was deposited harshly onto the ground. He spread his arms out around his body, making tracks in the snow beneath him. Odd… he never had made a snow angel before. 

Izar leaned his head into the snow, ignoring the eerie quiet that reverberated across the grounds. The army was flabbergasted at what had just happened, Izar knew. Though, hopefully they were impressed, because he was even impressed with himself. Sadly, it didn’t take long for the fighting to continue for he heard magic and curses being passed back and forth between the crowds a few yards away from his current position.

Chaos would erupt shortly. The two groups were still in quiet surprise over the areas lack of magic. Soon, the students and the professors would either herd together inside the castle, escape, or join the fray.

Until that time…

Izar kicked his arms and legs out, creating a snow angel beneath him. His green eyes stared at the sky above him, observing the snowflakes as they slowly drifted into focus. Without the soft and yellowed glow from Hogwarts, the only thing left to light the grounds was the half moon and the curses being released from their owners’ wands. He smiled thinly, finding himself feeling rather numb despite the situation that transpired earlier.

He issued a controlled moan.

“What… are you doing?”

Izar gave the towering man a look of disdain. “Exactly what it looks like, My Lord.”

Voldemort’s lips thinned as he watched Izar create a deeper snow angel. “They did warn me that the insanity was strong within you. Obviously, I hadn’t given it proper consideration.” A pause. “Until now.”

While his Master’s tone was light in his mocking, Izar could see the man deeper than that. There was a knowing glint in the crimson eyes as they watched Izar in the snow. The Dark Lord believed Izar was averting his focus and attention away from reality in order to avoid thinking about his near-death experience.

Was he? Possibly… no, most certainly. He had almost been absorbed into the castle’s wards. Izar had been taken off-guard. There was this nagging feeling that Izar could have prevented everything that transpired in the last few minutes. 

–

Chapter 1; In which Death awaits and a plot is hatched.

Did the above introduction catch your interest? I sincerely hope so. I also hope that, from there, your eyes continue on, trifling through this post, absorbing the information I offer and nurturing a growing interest that will lead you to my door.

Writing is not just a pass-time. It’s an adventure, an extravagant and deeply fulfilling world created for our very own enjoyment - this is the reason I am now here in search of partners. Optimistically thinking, I have not scared too many of you away with my mutterings and lavish vocabulary!

Let’s move on, shall we?

First and foremost, I am here with a particular request.  If this does not interest you, but my extract above did - then please direct yourself towards the following sentence: “While I am searching groundlessly for a partner to investigate a specific plot, I am very open to ideas of other genres; drop me a message, and perhaps we’ll find another ground on which to muse”

Onto the important stuff!

Who Am I?

Arik is the name, roleplaying is the game (or something like that). Online, I go by the aforementioned Arik or Ari, Ariikos Melanthios for those interested in the more formal route (and if you can tell me what those names refer to, I will be thoroughly impressed). I’m an 18+ British roleplayer working a full-time job that is taking its toll. I’m a little eccentric, which you may have noticed by now, and an avid gamer who’s looking for a new muse to fill in the gaps in her days. 

How Do I Roleplay?

Due to my nature, I am comfortable playing all kinds of characters, including genders and sexualities, as well as races and nature of minds. There isn’t anything I’m not open to trying (or at least, not so far), so I’ll most definitely be your hot stud to your M/M romance or the sweetheart girl across the street for your F/F and F/M. You get the gist, right? 

My roleplay posts will always be on the longer side, depending on the complexity of the plot, and the situation I’m in when attempting to write a reply. At no point do I expect you to match these lengths, especially when I get carried away, however, I do require enough that I am not carrying the plot alone.

What Am I Looking For?

Now, this is where the fun begins. 

I roleplay in both original and canon universes. We’ll start with the arguably ‘easier’ settings, shall we?

I play both OC and Canon characters, but will always choose to play an OC. Doubling is fine, but I’m only likely to wish to play a Canon to your OC or Canon if the plot is especially interesting!

Harry Potter; any era, though less preference towards next gen. AU’s and crossovers are absolutely and avidly accepted!

Dragon Age; huge nerd of this game, please send any ideas my way, including oscure settings in the general universe but separate from the canon storylines. All of the games are fantastic!

MCU; comics and films, preference towards X-Men but generally open to anything.

The Witcher; books, games or TV series!

Telltale The Walking Dead; a little more obscure, but believe it could make for an interesting take on the original story?

Star Trek; new or old generation, or our own take!

Resident Evil; preference towards the films, but familiar with the games too.

Sword Art Online

Doctor Who; any doctor, or our own! 

Honestly, I’m missing so many here, but just ask and I probably know it! If not, I’m always willing to do the research and put in the effort.

Onto original plots - in general, I want to create a world with you! 

Fantasy 

Sci-Fi 

Urban

Dystopia

Mythology

Medieval

Etc

I’m usually open for anything, though I’m not a huge fan of slice-of-life. Anything with action, and I’m in. 

In particular, I have a world, and a set of characters and I’m looking for someone to join in on the fun. This world is set within our modern one, with the twist of fantasy being a common feature in day to day life (think Hellboy). For the most part, Humans ignore them and go about their day. What’s important though, that even in this mystical reimagining of the human realm, still humans continue under the belief that the Gods are nothing more than fantasy - and lets not even consider demons. 

But what if they were wrong?

More explanations upon a promising start to our communication!

What Am I Looking For In A Partner?

Paragraph replies - the longer the better - and ability to reply a minimum of twice a week (assuming neither of us gets caught up in real life, of course) is also preferable. Please don’t ghost me! I’m here primarily because all my partners have slowly melted into the shadows :c

Finally, please be open to ideas! I wish to get to know you, to create a story of our own creation that will grow as we do. I want both of us to suggest ideas for development, to agree on scenes and scenarios, so on and so forth.

I recognise I am looking for a lot here in a single person, but in my mind, I see this as a long-term project between two people, and a possible lasting friendship. If you’re not interested in this particular original idea, then do not be afraid to still drop me a message, and as I noted in the beginning - perhaps we’ll find other common ground!

Find me @

Ariikos#3683

AriikosMelanthios@gmail.com

Please introduce yourself upon the first contact, letting me know what you’re looking for! If you can provide information about yourself, your likes and dislikes, and perhaps even a writing example (which I would love to reciprocate) then you’d gain extra points in my book! You will absolutely be judged by your introduction :P

Looking forward to hearing from you!

[paulisweeabootrash]

First Impression: Noragami

Okay, after that crappy “reviewlet” thing, I'm back with another show I actually feel like saying something interesting about:

Noragami (2014)

Episodes watched: 5.  Or... actually, 14, but this review is only based on the first 5 episodes of season 1.

Yato is a minor god.  A very minor god.  A god who has no worshippers, no shrine, and relies on doing odd jobs for people in exchange for offerings of ¥5, a service which he advertises with graffiti and hand-made business cards.  His Regalia — a human soul who temporarily takes the form of living equipment a god can use — just quit.  Things are looking down for him.

Hiyori Iki is a martial-arts-loving middle schooler who just happens to encounter Yato, whom she, reasonably, believes to be a regular mortal, on the street.  She is hit by a bus while pushing Yato out of its path and gets reincarnated in a fantasy world temporarily separated from her body.  Hiyori, understandably, has some trouble coming to terms with this, especially when Yato explains to her that she is not dead (or, not completely, anyway), but instead in an in-between state where she is able to repeatedly temporarily leave her body.  Much much more to her confusion and horror, her in-between state grants her the ability to see supernatural creatures usually hidden from humans, including Phantoms, eldritch abominations that often appear as psychedelically-colored flying sea creatures and possess humans, both living and dead, to induce them to do bad things.

Hiyori is now stuck between the “Near Shore” (the world of the living) and “Far Shore” (world of the dead) rather than a resident of either, and those from the Far Shore — Phantoms, human souls, and gods alike — will certainly notice this.  Yato and other gods frequently use their Regalia (what is the plural of “Regalia”?  “Regalias”?  That sounds wrong.) to fight Phantoms in addition to (or as part of) answering the prayers of their followers.  Since Yato needs a new Regalia, at this point, I was starting to suspect this will maybe be a quasi-magical-girl premise where Hiyori becomes Yato's new Regalia and then falls for him in a "please don't think about what is at bare minimum a several century age gap" uncomfortable romcom.  But... no.  This show goes in a more complicated and interesting direction than that.

Regalia must be sufficiently pure (and apparently fully-dead) human souls, so Yato, who seems to look down on humans even compared to other gods, simply drafts the first suitable soul he encounters.  That soul, a teen boy with no memory of his Earthly life, whom Yato names Yukine, luckily turns out to be a very talented Regalia and a quick learner, but also frustrated about his death and prone to sinful thoughts (more on that in a moment).  Hiyori takes an interest in Yukine, mainly to take care of him because Yato is certainly not doing that well, but I actually kind of get the impression she's attracted to him, especially given that, unlike Yato, Yukine is approximately her age (or was before he died... it's not clear how long he, or any other Regalia, have been dead).  She also takes an (academic) interest in the supernatural world in general, which is only partly what she expected or imagined, and she becomes a de facto member of Yato and Yukine's "team" as it were.  But also overwhelmed and mainly just wants her soul to be securely re-attached to her body so she'll stop accidentally leaving it at inopportune times — to her friends and family, it appears that she has now been having severe and unpredictable episodes and collapsing and losing consciousness since her bus accident, and she often leaves her body lying around in public without realizing it.  Or, in one case, draped over the top of a fence, which is... not an ideal sleeping location.  Yato vaguely claims he will restore her, but has no idea how to.

So far, the story has focused on the interactions between the three of them and on exploring the setting/what Phantoms are/how the gods work/etc.  This has revealed a fascinating detail which, beyond the scope of the five episodes I took notes on, becomes one of the main arcs of the first season: although the gods are amoral, or at least behave according to a totally different set of standards, they are still affected by human morality.  Morality, says Yato, is socially constructed by humans, but affects the gods vicariously by causing “blight”.  If humans decide an act is sinful, then a Regalia doing that thing causes a blight to both themself and the god they serve which must be ritually cleansed.  Yukine, despite being initially pure enough to become a Regalia, starts to cause blight to Yato because of his jealousy of the still-living and his attraction to Hiyori, and this proves to be... well... you’ll see.

We also learn from Kofuku Ebisu, goddess of bad luck and poverty, that Yato used to be a war god, with a past darker than Hiyori is willing to accept or think about.  He will grant anyone's wishes to remain relevant, and this may come back to endanger people.  Yato is also dating(?) Kofuku, and seems to have had a previous romantic relationship with a Regalia named Nora who served him and gives off a serious yandere vibe.  Or actually (spoilers), as it turns out, not named Nora.  "Nora", we learn, is a derogatory term for an entire category of Regalia: those who serve multiple gods and generally do jobs normal Regalia would refuse.  This, in connection with the whole thing about gods being corrupted by their Regalia violating human-made moral standards, raises a worrying question I hope we get an answer to: do noras corrupt their gods, or are they somehow unable to produce corruption because they themselves do not believe anything they're doing is wrong?  This is the sort of question this show raises, and it seems smart and thorough enough to try to answer it... if it doesn't, there's the ongoing manga series to turn to, and this is yet another show I've enjoyed so much that I might start reading it.

-----

Revised W/A/S Scores: 7 / 3 / 3 / !

Weeb: Pretty high on this scale mainly because of its very Shinto background, including very specific patron deities of concepts, gods physically residing in shrines, its specific forms of prayer, the dead just sort of... wandering and acting like still-live humans, and of course the presence of shrine maidens because how can you not have shrine maidens?

Ass: Occasional nudity, but not fanservicey.  Ep. 2, for example, has partial nudity in situations like contemplating in bath and locker room that are not framed sexually but probably would be in a different tone of show.

Shit (writing): I have a weirdly specific translation complaint (because of course I do).  I accidentally learned via Wikipedia that "nora" means "stray", and this seems like information that maybe should've been dropped in the subtitles at some point?  It might actually have made the reveal about what "a nora" is work better in English than in the original Japanese because this meaning would be a surprise to the English subtitle-reading audience.  Anyway, enough about that.  I find the characters enjoyable and their arcs pretty believable.  A main plot conflict between Yato and the nora is clearly forming by the end of the five episodes I cover here, and I'll cheat a bit to say that the first season successfully plays out two story threads while leaving others open for the next season, but not in a cliffhanger or "we clearly didn't know how to wrap this up" way.  An advantage of adapting a popular ongoing manga, I suppose: you can pace things better and also be reasonably sure that there's enough interest to get you another season.

Shit (other): Pretty ending, meh opening.  Great reaction faces.  Moods are accentuated well by variations in the art and animation.  I love the design of the Phantoms because I'm a sucker for surreal depictions of the supernatural.  It's not as dramatically bizarre and imaginative as, say, the witches in Madoka Magica, but still excellent.

Content warning: It is a recurring point that the gods' duties include saving people from suicide, and multiple suicide attempts are depicted (although they are thwarted by divine intervention by Yato).

-----

Stray observations:

- Yato starts out appearing to be a magnificent bastard, but it becomes apparent quickly that... uh... maybe he’s just an asshole.  

- I have no idea why, but Yato sneaking into Hiyori's house and mirroring her dad's actions is one of the funniest things I've seen recently.

- You'd think at some point Hiyori would develop a plan, or at least a cover story, for abandoning her body, even if she remains unable to control when she leaves it.  Not to mention that she'd sometimes come back to an injured body or find that someone has moved her or called an ambulance or something.

- The background music includes rap in English with autotune, which is... surprising, but neither good nor bad.

- This setting raises the same set of troubling questions about the concept of an afterlife that a lot of afterlife concepts do, since it appears that people are "frozen" at the age they were when they died but also have the ability to learn (and later, outside the set of episodes I covered here, to mature mentally at least somewhat)... do child Regalia or children's souls in general ever mentally mature in the same way that real children do as they ender adolescence and adulthood?  Are there baby ghosts hanging around with no concept that they are dead, unable to ever gain that concept because they will never age?  (I feel like this is turning into a literary criticism of religion, and that's waaaay outside the scope of this blog, so I'll end this here.)

[edgedestroyspt2-blog]

NITW THOUGHTS: THE TERROR OF BANALITY [SPOILERS, DUH]

SO. THIS GAME GAVE ME A LOT OF THOUGHTS AND I’M TRYING TO ORGANIZE THEM. Couldn’t log into my old tumblr so I literally made this one just to do this haha. (you can catch me on twitter at just edgedestroys)

I’m gonna get spoiler heavy here with some theories so if you haven’t played yet, you’ve been thoroughly warned. Lets get into this.

My thoughts are probably going to be really stream of consciousness and messy here so bare with me but WHEW. NITW. Let’s talk. Upon finishing the game I was left very [??????????] about it, a LOT of questions and I hate uncertainty, I hate loose ends and my brain does moon-gravity-only tony hawk’s pro skater combos to try to make sense of uncertainty. When I exit a game like NITW and feel like “what the heck just happened wait what” I look for theories to help me sort what I’ve seen out but here I’ve kinda had to work a lot out on my own. NITW towards the end felt very A and B, not A to B with the supernatural but before I get to that let me back up and say the Young Adult Existential Dread Terror Of Growing Up Collapse Of Small Town Idealism Generational Gap Decay Horror Simulator parts of the game were so well written. SO. Well written, the writing and dialog of this game freaking SHINES with such lived-in relatable personality. If you want to skip reading about my thoughts on the real life stuff and go right to my thoughts on the supernatural stuff, just go to the *****

I felt myself painfully drawn to Gregg as a character and his relationship with Angus. The talk Mae and Gregg have after the knife fight really hit home with me. Much of Gregg’s fears I still have even though I’m almost 6 years older than him. It feels to me for sure like my boyfriend takes the mundaness of adult life in stride, doing the Real Job, being responsible, having his shit together (not to say he’s boring, just better at adulting than me), while I’m still being dragged kicking and screaming into that mature life even at 26 years old. Sure I manage to pay my bills but it’s in spite of still hanging on to naive and frankly childish ideals for a more free/fun life. I’ve faced very real panic of being afraid that I’d screw things up with my boyfriend (also like Angus, his butt is nice).

Mae obviously is incredibly relatable too, the money problems, the anxiety and depression and dropping out of college, feeling like you should be the one to be that success story for your family, the uncertainty of adulthood, hell even at 26 that shit freaks me out especially with our current sociopolitical climate. My mom has helped me a lot in the past, both in morale and financially. The game didn’t specifically talk about this (at least in my current playthrough experience) but the generational gap themes definitely leave it open to discussion, I’ve spent a lot of time in the past thinking things like “when will I get my shit together, she won’t always be there to catch me when I fall, I can’t keep doing this to her, I can’t keep her afraid that I can’t stand on my own when she’s gone”. Bridging that gap is scary as hell, I find myself depending on illustrative commission work because honestly I never manage to keep retail jobs, I have a ton of social anxiety and there’s a barrier there for me in the “here just convince strangers to buy shit” role and considering I never finished getting my BFA in graphic design which is already an already oversaturated market... I have a pretty solid recipe for uncertainty in the Future Financial Stability department. I’ve never really publicly talked about this before but good lord this game is ruthless and earnest in picking open those wounds and making you think about them.

At this point if you’ve played the game though, you probably already know about all that, the terror of being a young(ish?) adult, the gen gap, the discord between baby boomers and millennials, the metaphors of society and capitalism and the small town idealization leading to community decay, the futile sacrifice of xenophobic paranoid dads to try to maintain a halcyon lifestyle built on a collapsing foundation... etc etc, we know how that goes at this point, what I REALLY wanted to talk about is the supernatural stuff... or what felt to me like a lack thereof and what took me a few hours of thinking to really grasp.

*****

So when I finished NITW that ?????????? feeling stemmed a lot from feeling like I didn’t think the dots for the supernatural elements were really connected, the dreams, the dusk constellations, the ghost musicians, the huge spirits you encounter when you assemble the ghost band in the dreams, the cat god, the lovecraftian elder god creatures, the eldritch horror that both was at the bottom of the hole and in Mae’s mind, standing as metaphors for mental illness and socioeconomic decay, all of that felt so “how did I get here, how do these tie together???” to me. I had a pretty rushed playthrough so I know I’ve missed some story elements that I already know about but still. I didn’t miss the news article about the hallucinogenic fumes from the mines so I know the theory is floating that Mae hallucinated a lot of the supernatural but let’s operate under suspension of disbelief for a second. 

Throughout the game I felt like it was preparing me for some Huge Paranormal Showdown™, like some kind of fusion of The Legend Of Korra and Final Fantasy. I’d pieced together this narrative in my mind that I was learning about all these Dusk Constellations with my old teacher because I’d go into the Spirit World and summon those spirits I was experiencing in my dreams to fight a very literal Apocalyptic end of the world that the DadCult was helping facilitate in tandem with the mechanizations of a void left in the wake of a god figure leaving us behind to figure our shit out ourselves. But in the end you just find a bunch of paranoid middle aged community members in robes afraid of change, trying to preserve their idyllic vision for Possum Springs through their sacrifices which, depending on how you think those hallucinogenic fumes and Mae’s mental illness may shape her perception of the world, may be the realest weird thing that happens in the game. I didn’t get the big Armageddon Ghost World Summon Spirit Battle For The Fate Of The Universe, just some old assholes in a mine my friends and I buried alive (Not to downplay the importance of Mae coming to grips with her mental illness and the whole “maybe I don’t need to survive forever but I will for now” moment there) and that left me, I don’t want to say disappointed, but definitely not sated. 

After a lot of thought, something started to emerge to me about all of this, a lot of people talk about how this game’s mythos and plot all are a metaphor for how scary being an adult is, suburban collapse, the very real terror of mental illness, the economic and social ruin of generational divides, etc. But one thing I haven’t seen people talk about yet is I think this also is meant to make you think about how scary The Mundaneness Of Life is. If you really think about it, people thrive on escapism and fantasy, being “normal” is scary as hell to people, the idea of living an “unextraordinary” life. Banality is freaking TERRIFYING to most people I think. And I think the ending of this game really forces you to just sit with that discomfort. Here’s this generation that was raised to have a wild imagination, you spend the game getting deeper and deeper into this supernatural world while still clinging onto childhood and irresponsibility and it brings reality crashing the heck down on you. You don’t get Mae becoming this vivid magical JRPG hero glowing with overlimit powers battling The Void Of The Cosmos for the fate of the world, you just bury some old assholes in a mine then go have band practice and pizza with your friends. The cognitive dissonance of the comedown from this imagined grandiose hero role into real life is visceral as hell and coming to grips with how bland real life is compared to the fantastical visions we like to imagine for ourselves actually kind of hurts. Like, pretty bad depending on how into that kind of stuff you are. And I think despite initially being disappointed by this Wild Ass Spirit Battle not happening (tbh I still am a little because damn it’s set up for that so freaking well), it exposes the brilliance of the writing for this game. I’m in the goddamn furry fandom haha, I know a thing or two about how hard people thrive in escapism and living in an imagined world more interesting than the banality of real life. If you think about it, one of the most devastating coming of age stories you could tell is “no kid, you have to grow up and you’re not going to be a magical warrior saving the universe from unspoken evil, real life is boring as hell”. That shit is thick and scary as heck. 

I recently read a behind the scenes article for Lost Constellation where the creators talk a lot about loss as a theme in the sense of finding that “something” to hold onto when you lose faith in religion and I think that makes the idea of being mundane is scary as a plot device all the bigger in NITW. You basically meet god in Mae’s dreams and he says “peace out assholes I’m sick of you asking me questions, you figure it out” and you think, “oh shit, what now?” You bury the dadcult, go play music with your friends and after having this perception that you’re on the brink of fighting a huge supernatural battle you just go back to normie life in your rundown town falling apart on a decaying foundation of social norms and economics that are on life support that isn’t effective. You’re thrust out of the fantasy of childhood, into the reality of adulthood and you have to find that “something” to cope with just being a dang average ass not magical boring ass person. “At the end of everything, hold on to anything”; everything isn’t literally the world or universe, it’s the shift in your perception of it and the death of the idea that you’re greater than yourself in a fantastical way; anything is whatever you can hold onto in your average ass life that makes you happy despite being forced to acknowledge you aren’t a magical hero that will fight evil instead of filling out your tax returns and knowing your dead end job won’t merit you the legacy of a mystic warrior. 

Yeah, I would’ve loved that spirit world summon battle for sure but if you think about it, that’s probably the easy way out of the woods. There’s a soul crushing heaviness to facing reality and despite my beefs with the pacing at the end and the connection of the supernatural dots not being spelled out for my idiot ass, I can’t do anything but praise the hell out of the NITW team for making the sacrifice of not holding my hand and babying me through what I wanted to experience to feel something, but rather shoving me into what I didn’t realize I maybe needed to really feel something. Being mundane is freaking scary as hell and the way they force you to grow up into it and face it leaves you feeling something deep deep down few other games I’ve played have made me feel. I think maybe the most spiritual/supernatural thing about NITW is how it asks you how you will cope with the void left when you leave the supernatural behind.