#love me a good Fun Plot MacGuffin fic | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

zorilleerrant · 1 year ago

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all of this is good advice, and you should definitely try to separate the creation aspect from the social aspect, and even find different ways to feed both if you need to, but there's some stuff you can play around with if you haven't already.

ways to help get eyeballs on the fic you already wrote:

make a tumblr post about it! put a link and the first few paragraphs as a teaser, or give a summary and some of the thoughts you had while writing it or why you wrote it in the first place. you can absolutely make more than one of these. your followers might be interested, or know someone who is!

is it a small fandom? try making a sideblog just for that fandom, and collect all your favorite posts. people will be looking for a content repository, and you can put your fic in with all your other favorite stuff so they can see it

look around the fandom and see if anyone is looking for recs that sound like your story, or just looking to promo other people's stories. (some people don't like self-reccing so watch out for that, but other people specifically seek it out)

make your own rec list! other fics in the same fandom, on the same theme, with similar plots or macguffins, etc. can be lots of fun to look at. and then you can put your own at the end, so people can check out the story by the cool reccer with good taste!

if you're familiar with the writer side of tumblr at all, you can find quotes from your fic that might appeal to different parts of writeblr. at least someone can appreciate your clever turn of phrase, if not the whole fic.

I don't have any advice for this, but some people have luck changing their summaries and tags

ways to get eyeballs on your fic in general:

look, I know it's obvious, but bigger fandoms have a lot more people clicking random stories. try writing a story or two in a bigger fandom to boost your self-esteem

this one seems counterintuitive to me, because I love long stories, but people are most likely to read a fic that's around 1k. so try writing in that range - especially for very long fics, a lot of people won't put in the time for writers they don't already know. a lot of people will look at a drabble too!

look at the popular characters, ships, and ensembles in your fandom. any of them appeal to you? it can be easier to find an audience if a lot of people already like that thing - but if you really don't like any of them, don't bother. it won't be fun for you. stick with characters and/or interactions you like.

any common tropes you like? popular plots, AUs, and motifs can grab people's attention, and some people search by those regardless of fandom. soulmates, pet adoption, and found family are pretty popular cross-fandom.

alternately, look at the least popular ones. when some people are really into a tiny fandom/character/trope/whatever, they'll get very excited over new content! you might make friends!

you can try interacting with prompt blogs. if people find a prompt interesting, they'll often look through the notes for stories, and stick around if they like yours. if there isn't one for your fandom, you might also consider starting one. that way you can find people who like the same things you do.

share other people's fics! if you see other fics on tumblr, or links to AO3 fics, and you like them, keep them. then when people scan through your blog for cool writing, they'll find your writing too, and maybe migrate over to your AO3.

post WIPs. people love WIPs

none of this may be helpful if it's that one story that's deep down part of your soul, but any of it might help if you're just feeling isolated from the rest of fandom. mix and match and see if it helps. and anyway it's pretty cool you wrote a story

any advice about how to deal with posting a fic and getting radio silence? I know ppl aren’t owed engagement ofc, but I feel embarrassed at having spent so long on something no one cares about, and although I liked thinking about the characters and fandom before (and was considering writing more about them), now I can’t think about it without feeling that overpowering embarrassment 😭 part of me wants to delete the fic, but that would mean having to open ao3 and look at it again LMAO

sorry for the venting, I know this is probably a me problem, but has anyone else felt this, and if so, is there any way to make this pervasive shame go away??

*hugs* This is a very painful thing to experience and there isn't really any way to make it just go away, unfortunately. However, you can reflect on it a bit, when you're ready to.

Writing and posting are separate activities. If you've enjoyed writing the story but you haven't enjoyed posting it to the Archive, you can always continue writing just for yourself. This may or may not be something you'd enjoy - you know better than I do whether some of your enjoyment came from the anticipation of a reaction to your work.

Try to analyze where your embarrassment is coming from. Is it worrying that your story was poorly written? A lack of a reaction doesn't mean that the story is bad. Being unpopular doesn't mean it's bad, either. If your story is good to you, then it's a good story.

Is your embarrassment from feeling like you were "caught trying." Is it a cringe at the idea that you put effort into something that someone else doesn't (appear to) find valuable?

Is it actually embarrassment at all? Are you feeling a different kind of hurt instead? Did you hope that someone in particular would read your story and now you feel ignored? Did you hope to be embraced by your community and now you feel shunned?

These are difficult questions that I'm asking and you might not want to think about them right now. That's okay. You don't need to if you don't want to. You can definitely delete the fic and pretend it never happened. Or you can log out of that AO3 account and create a new one and never look back. Maybe you just need to take a week or a month off for a hiatus of sorts and when the ache isn't as bad, you'll be able to face it all again.

When I felt this way, it was because I felt like I'd put something into my community and that I'd been ignored. But since that time, I've found one person who gives me all of the community support I used to get from an entire fandom, and now when I post something on AO3 I don't actually need a response anymore. I get all of the fun and excitement and validation etc from my conversations and RP threads with my best friend.

Once you've got a little distance from the pain of this moment, try to figure out what it is that you were hoping to get and then figure out how you can get it. Maybe it's through posting fic to AO3, but maybe it's not.

Let's see what others can suggest. This is not something you're experiencing alone, anon. So very many of your fellow fan writers have experienced this too ❤️

#look i said something

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perceabeth · 2 years ago

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lucky charms was such a refreshing read bc percy/annabeth/luke are like.. the narrative heart of pjo and not a lot of ppl acknowledge how important for the story it was </3. u managed to capture luke's character so well which literally almost nobody does and it was so clear that u were more focused on their character arcs than shipping. not that there's anything wrong w that but what u did was such a good character study and i loved how in line w canon it was bc they're all so deeply woven into each other's arcs. also i LOVED how u let percy be wrong in certain places bc most mainstream fics (in my experience) always make annabeth be in the wrong in some way while keeping percy perfect and it just gets tiring.

STOPSFODFDSOFDOFPPD idk if ur the same person as the last but this is literally SO sweet of both of you to have tol me because i don't wanna complain too much as well but i do feel fairly disheartened so i've had to make the fic private now SFJlksdfjlks

thank u!!!!!! luke is like. easily my fave character maybe even more than percy really so it's so fun for me to write him not so much as a character but he's basically a plot device??? he's like. a macguffin LKJFKDLFLKDF but it's still so fun to write him so i love when people like him just bc it's like. a lil nugget for ME <3

PLEASE my fave thing about pjo is that percy and annabeth are both wrong and they're both right!!!! i know what u mean like loads of times percy is always Correct and annabeth has to come back on here knees begging for forgiveness which is like . cool. but i think in lucky chams as ell like they're both wrong. they just are wrong in different ways bc they have different ineffective coping mechanism slkJFkdsfkjldsf

but literally thank u guys soooooooo much for talking w me about it it's literaly given me the motivation to finish that chapter and post it despite the fact that i am currently bricking it sdjfksjdfslkf

#thank u thank u thank u!!!!!!!#stevie #q&a

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hankwritten · 4 years ago

Text

TFComics Rewrite

I am currently plotting an outline for a TFComics, and I want to get my thoughts about fixes to canon and possibly get feedback. Since this is a rewrite there’s really no *spoilers* or anything, so I’m willing to answer all questions about what I plan to do. Also some characters I’m not so sure about how I want to retool them, so if your have ideas for your fav let me know!

Disclaimer:

This rewrite is intended to critique the content/choices made in the construction and telling of the Team Fortress 2 comic series. It is not a personal attack on the artists/writers/directors or any of the creatives that made contributions to this series, nor is it meant to substitute or replace the official release. This work is transformative in nature, and relies on an understanding of the source material to be understood. TF2 and its characters belong to Valve.

TFCR is working on the assumption that the audience has read the original comic, and as such will skip over scenes and plot points that are unchanged from the original. I don’t think it needs to be said, but this fanfiction will not make sense if you are not familiar with the source.

I also recognize that there are strengths within the comic’s writing and weaknesses within my own. Namely, that Valve writers are gods in the realm of comedy, and I’d rather not try to match them in the regard. As such, I will state up front that these will not be as funny as the TFComics. That is not to say there won’t be jokes (either ones transplanted from the source or some of my own) or that the tone of this will be terribly grimdark, only that my focus will be on improving story structure and character development as those are what appeal to me.

The Broad Strokes

The goal of TFCR is to give a more engaging story for all the mercenaries we know and love, as--let’s face it--the TF2 mercs are side characters in their own damn story. These are some of the planned improvements.

There will be reason for each of the mercs to actually be there. As it stands, the motivations for almost every character besides Pauling and Saxton Hale are vague and unsatisfying. We’d usually say something along the lines of “money” for hired killers, but clearly Scout doesn’t even know if they’re getting paid, and some of the other characters are even worse. The hunt for the Australium is, therefore, boring. MacGuffins usually are, but at the very least the characters should care about the item even if the audience doesn’t. This work aims to give each of the nine mercs a motive and a reason to be in the story instead of just replaceable joke dispensers.

Explain what “Team Fortress” means, and how it relates to RED and BLU. Long and short: the nine mercenaries we see on the team are not from either RED or BLU but rotate between the two, and were the individuals selected to fight the robots. That means all things do happen to all characters. As Valve pretty much goes with “whatever is funniest at the time”, it’s very hard to make a cohesive theory about “where the hell is BLU team?”, but I’ll do my damndest. We’ll also examine Team Fortress’s relationship with the other capital T Teams, and why they’re considered the “rejects” of the bunch.

Comics 1 & 2 will be removed from the timeline as they serve no purpose, only taking what needs to be known about the plot’s setup and jumping straight to A Cold Day in Hell.

We will introduce the Classic Mercs right away so they can generate threat and play against the TF mercs when they do actually meet head to head.

We will not be killing off Gray Mann. (Not preemptively anyway.) In fact, there will be more focus on him and Olivia as villains facing off against the Admin, providing her foil as the TF2 and TFC mercs provide foils for each other.

I considered waiting until the final comic was out to begin working on this, but that may never happen. Jay Pinkerton said he may reveal what plot they had in store eventually, but considering it took Half Life over a decade to get the “I was once a Valve writer but my NDA has expired and now I can go buck wild” treatment, I’m not holding my breath. The main reason I wanted to do this is that the Administrator’s motivations are not interestingly foreshadowed, to the point where there aren’t even any good fan theories out there. That said, WritingDispenser and Riddle of the Sphinx helped come up with a pretty fun one, which was actually the inspiration for me to get off my butt and start plotting this.

There will be no queerbaiting. This refers both to HeavyMedic (which has been simultaneously used as wink wink nudge nudge joke many times and as encouragement for fans to play their stupid hat game) as well as lesbian Pauling (since femme lesbians are the preferred method for front facing LGBT representation across almost all media, but video games especially). If you need to understand why lesbian Pauling is an issue, Sarah Z coined the term “queercatching” in order to describe word of god confirmations on characters sexualities that are not followed up on in the text. I recommend the full video on it.

Due to the importance of immortality in the theming of the comics, respawn will not be a thing. Deaths we think should have happened previously will be explained as close calls, or that Medic can heal a short time after death. Medic and Scout’s deaths will be cut in the story itself, as after Sniper died and came back, them doing the same thing kinda lost their punch.

Scout

There will be no ScoutPauling hints. It doesn’t make sense to give screentime to this relationship because Valve obviously doesn’t think it’s going to go anywhere so why make Scout turn down advances from other hot women? I mean I get Expiration Date was a Thing but it feels like Scout’s whole motivation shouldn’t be reduced down to chasing a girl who doesn’t like him back.

He’s here because he lost his life’s savings in bad investments and needs the money. That’s it. Which is still somehow more than his canon motive which is question mark question mark question mark

He, Soldier, Spy, Demo, and Pyro all start the adventure with Miss Pauling.

Engages with Heavy on a genuine level when they go to collect him, Heavy doesn’t blow him off when he tries to level about dead dads.

There will be no DadSpy reveal. The way Spy treats Scout has never been “deadbeat dad feels bad about abandoning his kid” but more “this is someone I would kill without a second thought if I felt like it” which makes his reveal in comic 5 feel very disingenuous. I don’t think Valve even had this plotline in mind until comic 3, as #2 still has Spy seeming only to care about Scout’s Ma and not Scout himself. It also makes “seduce me!” retroactively weird.

Uhhh hooks up with Zhanna. This one isn’t critical I just think it’s funny.

Soldier

Soldier is going to be the Ur example of the Admin not treating her people well, as we’re going to lean into the whole “Soldier was only mildly messed up until the whole lead poisoning” thing.

He’s here because he’s blindingly loyal to the cause. He’s actually going to very little from canon because of this actually.

Might be the reason Team Fortress has a reputation of being the lower tiers of the Teams, but that doesn’t mean he’s damn good at his job. Fatal flaw is that he’s unstable, and even though the courthouse plotline won’t be in this fic, it should be noted that he actually does cause problems for the other protagonists due to his short temper. He’s a risky asset, but still essential.

There will be a minor explanation for the WAR! Comic, but I think that’s better saved for Demo’s analysis.

Pyro

Pyro is the character you could cut entirely from the comics and have the least change. Now, they’re going to be Pauling’s right hand. Let me explain.

Engineer and Pyro are implied to live together, and Pyro doesn’t have anything better to do than go with Engie after Team Fortress is disbanded. Rather than having a reveal, we will see some of what is going on with the Admin and friends early on, and see what leads up to her sending Miss P the note that kicks off the whole plot. However, while Engie needs to stay and look after her, Pyro’s skills aren’t useful here, and they are sent as a direct messenger to help Pauling.

They’re loyal, and unlike Soldier rarely mess up orders. They’re also partially mute, making them ideal for handling sensitive info. Pauling trusts them to handle the burning of “Elizabeth’s” paper trail.

Will be using they/them in the narrative voice, but other characters will refer to them as he/him. I considered going with it/its because that’s bubbled up in popularity again, but ultimately I decided against it.

We’ll get glimpses to their train of thought, but like the comics they will remain virtually silent.

Demo

Demo’s role in the cast is going to be very similar to Spy’s. The events of WAR! involved him nearly dying and Soldier taking the win, and he’s very bitter that after all those events *apparently* mercs can just be switched around teams willy nilly and don’t have to kill each other anymore. (As the audience, we know this is because the Admin found out the “make them so angry they won’t ask questions” wasn’t a long-term viable solution, and instead brought TFI forward as a neutral third party that was pretending to mediate the gravel wars.) But Demo’s suspicious, and is only along because he really has been miserable since he lost his job.

This conflict will eventually come to a head, more on that in the Sniper section.

Is fairly forgiving with his teammates. Doesn’t like Sniper but I’m willing to drop a little angst during that submarine scene. Is glad to see Medic actually. Here to be some glue to hold this merry band together.

The Eyelander will not be forgotten after 2 comics because I love this character concept and I think it was underutilized.

Drunk jokes will be kept to a minimum. What I liked about WAR! and Bombinomicon was that it took Demo and showed that they knew how to make him funny without making him one note, which they sort of did in the early TFComics but stopped in the later ones in favor of him….being asleep for the whole plot. I promise 100% awake Demo in my rewrite.

Demo likes Pauling on a personal level, but has trouble reconciling her with his feelings on TFI.

Doesn’t get knocked out by moonshine because. Seriously? Poisoning the Demoman with alcohol? In what world does that work.

Heavy

Not too much to change. Scout doesn’t accompany him when he goes to look for the secret Australium cache, and he engages with Mags and Saxton (which will be when the audience finds out what they’ve been up to) and actually cares about what’s going on with them. He thinks Darling is up to something. Which he is, he’s attempting to unseat both Gray and Helen due to long family history.

Will at least mention Medic. Their reunion falls a little flat since it mostly relies on Meet the Medic for context, as they don’t really interact in the comic. There can be a bit of a flashback to what it was like as all these mercs broke up.

I know uhhh Valve seems to think found family is really dumb, and that these murderers could ever like each other is silly or something, but the mercs do? Like each other? For the most part anyways.

Bronislava and Yana come alone for adventures, not just Zhanna. Again, no real reason, but sometimes I get to have tacky fanfic stuff in my own fanfic because I Wanna.

Engineer

Engie ruminates on his family history of allowing all this bullshit to happen and just kind of shrugging. Basically Moss’s analysis of the Conagher themes.

Has put a lot of time, sweat, and tears into BLU and now TFI, isn’t willing to let it fall now, even if Admin is basically living on borrowed time. He’s doing this because of the ‘ole sunk cost fallacy.

Also we get to see more of Pauling and Admin’s relationship through his eyes.

Medic

Congrats on being the one merc with an actual arc, Medic! As a reward, you will not be changed much.

I’m actually going to use Medic’s section to say that the Classic mercs will be referred to by their first names in order to differentiate them, and we’ll get little previews of what they’re like from Medic’s perspective before we actually see them fight Team fortress. The battle at the submarine will be more of a fight in this sense, working it out so it seems like surrender is the only option after Sniper is killed.

Final fight with Cheavy will be...not blocked so awkwardly. I mean this is now a textual medium so my work is already halfway done, but still the pacing is so weird. Shudder.

Sniper

These are the big guns. Most changes, even more than Demo. He’s been actually hunting for New Zealand/the Australium cache on his own, and doesn’t want Pauling interfering, saying for a he knows she could have been the ones to kill his adoptive parents.

(She hasn’t, but the Admin did actually order them killed in an attempt to stop Sniper because she thought she could prevent the exact thing that is going on right now which is that Sniper is considering trying to get at it.)

Sniper doesn’t know this, but Pauling, Demo, and Spy eventually convince him to share his findings and help them get to New Zealand.

Spy

Similar to Demo but is less conflicted about it. He knows just because he likes someone doesn’t mean he won’t have to kill them later.

Spy knows about who killed Sniper’s parents, and tells Demo, sort of as a test to see where his loyalties lie. He also knows that Pyro is Pauling’s confidant for certain things.

Demo questions him about what he’s doing here, whose side he’s really on. But you know. Spy is Spy and he was never really on anyone’s side but his own. When it comes down to it, it might be exactly as Scout thinks: that he’s ditched them all and run off when he had the opportunity. But, big damn hero, comes back in the end.

He’s here mainly to “keep an eye on things.” Also maybe because his gf asked him to keep an eye on her son :)

#tf comics rewrite #tf2 meta

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bedlamsbard · 5 years ago

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you've probably been asked this before, but-- thoughts on jedi fallen order? your star wars meta/fic/etc is always my favorite and i'm very interested to hear what you think of the new game!

I liked it a lot!

So, as I’ve said before, I haven’t played it; I watched a playthrough on YouTube about a week or so after it came out, so I’d gotten spoiled for it despite trying to avoid spoilers, and the particular playthrough I watched actually had the sound cut out on two of the big scenes, so that was a disappointment. Watching it rather than playing it means that I definitely missed some things that I’ve seen people mention about it, and I’d like to play it at some point if I can get the tech to cooperate, though that likely won’t be for a while.

I was a little wary about Cal Kestis going in because of the comments that the creators of the game had made about not wanting to have a female/POC/alien main character, but for me Cal was good enough, sweet enough, and interesting enough to overcome that. I really liked how much weight JFO gave to trauma, living with it, and overcoming it, with Cal, Cere, Merrin, Trilla, and the other characters. Obviously the poncho is Peak Star Wars, and BD-1 is very sweet. And I love Inquisitors.

I know JFO has gotten some criticism for being ~yet another padawan survivor story, but Cal is so distinct from either Kanan or Ahsoka that that’s not really how it feels to me, and I think his interaction with Cere, Trilla/Second, and the Ninth Sister really make his story unique compared to the other two. I love the beginning of the game; it’s such strong world- and environment- building, and the strong sense of Cal’s personality really comes through in his introduction (headphones, blasting music, “I’m trash, I’m just not approved trash” -- he’s peak 2019 gen Z, in my millennial POV).

As far as the actual plot goes, it’s *flips hand* pretty much eh. It’s a MacGuffin and there’s no way around that; it’s also revisiting plot points from TCW and the Charles Soule Darth Vader comics. I can understand why Lucasfilm would want to continue to revisit that particular plot point but also, I’m tired of it. As far as JFO goes, the MacGuffin is mostly an excuse for the journey, which was...interesting. There are parts of it I really liked; sorry, my dumb brain loves gladiatorial fights even if that probably wasn’t, like, necessary. Kashyyyk was fun; it’s fun to see Saw Gerrera again even if I’m also kind of like “dude, you haven’t changed your armor in fifteen years?” I enjoyed seeing Dathomir again even if I have mixed feelings about the choices made insofar as the worldbuilding, but Merrin was really wonderful. The Zeffo...I still feel that the Zeffo, aesthetically, belong in Stargate rather than Star Wars; their actual use in the game also felt a bit more Stargate rather than SW, for me? I mean, they’re also a MacGuffin, but I suppose insofar as SW go they’re on the same order as Loo Re Anno’s species from the Han Solo comic or the Rakata from the EU, so not really something that doesn’t have a place in Star Wars.

The Inquisitors. I love Inquisitors. I don’t necessarily love these Inquisitors. I unfortunately got spoiled for the Second Sister’s reveal as Trilla/Cere’s former padawan, which kind of affected how I felt about her, and I’m also in the FB cosplay build group for Second and it’s a little cutthroat, so that affected it too. She’s...fine? Something about her just doesn’t hang together for me, and I can’t quite put my finger on what it is at the moment. The Ninth Sister has such a strong personality from the Darth Vader comics, and while she’s in character between the comics and the game, it also means I was a little taken aback by her abrupt ending. (And I note that it feels a little weird that Trilla gets the name and the tragic backstory and the personal attachment and the not-actually-redemption, but Ninth doesn’t get any of those.) It was also weirdly surreal for me to see the Fortress Inquisitorius, a.k.a. the canon version of the Crucible from Backbone, but tbh I think the decision to put it on another planet/moon(?) in the Mustafar system actually weakened it.

I got spoiled for Darth Vader’s appearance and that was one of the places where the sound cut out on the playthrough I watched, so it didn’t quite have the effect that it probably would have done had I gone into it cold. That said, Cal and Cere should probably be dead; as I’ve seen pointed out, Vader hasn’t been allowed to kill anyone of significance in the new canon, which kind of undercuts him. (The closest he’s come has been Jocasta Nu in the comics.)

All right. The ending. I don’t like the ending. Not because I really thought that Cal and Cere should have refounded the Jedi Order, but because I feel like they put the destruction of the holocron in the wrong place; I think they should have destroyed it to keep it away from Vader. The conscious decision made not to re-found the Order is really uncomfortable for me, especially in light of the way that the new canon has treated the subject over the past couple years. I was talking about this with @reena-jenkins a while back, so I’ll just copy and paste what I said there. (Note that this was back in November, before TROS came out.)

(I’ve cut most of Reena’s responses and a little bit of other conversation we were having.)

So yeah, I have some problems with the ultimate ending decision, but as usual a lot of it comes down to how that intersects with other plot lines that Lucasfilm has done over the past five/six years.

Another thing I kept thinking of throughout the game was something one of the creators said -- either in an interview or at SWCC earlier this year, I can’t remember which, that there was a lot of debate on where to put the hyphen in Jedi: Fallen Order, i.e. that it could have been Jedi Fallen: Order (though title-wise that doesn’t stand up as much). I do like how much emphasis there is on “fallen order” -- the Jedi Order, of course, but also the Nightsisters, the Zeffo, the Inquisitors and Purge troopers as a kind of twisted version of the Jedi and clone troopers, even the structure of the Republic being corrupted into the Empire.

One thing that took me by surprise with JFO was also how much intersection it had with Galaxy’s Edge! Not to the extent that I would have noticed it if I hadn’t already been to Galaxy’s Edge, but having gone and also having the kind of brain that literally just absorbs stuff and then retains it. Like, for example, the Galaxy’s Edge sporks that are now no longer used because people kept stealing them; they’re used in one of the meals on the Mantis. Cal remaking his lightsaber and using the parts you can get at Savi’s got picked up by a couple of news outlets; I think this is actually a bit unfortunate, because they went for the Galaxy’s Edge lightsaber proportions for many of his lightsaber options and in my opinion, those are less elegant proportions than usually seen in Star Wars, so it ends up looking clumsy to me. Another proportion thing that follows Galaxy’s Edge -- the holocron, both Cere’s and the MacGuffin holocron; the Galaxy’s Edge ones seem to be proportionally a bit bigger than the holocrons seen in Rebels and TCW, and the ones in the game follows Galaxy’s Edge rather than TCW/Rebels sizing. The Nightsister zombie crate in Galaxy’s Edge may also be a JFO reference rather than a TCW one, though obviously it could also apply to both.

I really enjoyed the Clone Wars/Order 66 flashbacks, though actually Order 66 was ANOTHER place the sound cut out! I told you that it was the most dramatic reveals where I lost sound! I loved that Jaro Tapal was a Lasat; I also like that, as far as I can tell, some of Cal’s specific movement types (wall-running and his tendency to be like “cool, gonna climb that”) seem to be more Lasat-inspired than other types of Jedi movement we’ve seen before. I really like the design of Jaro’s lightsaber; I remember in the promo I was confused about the fact that it didn’t seem to be proportional to Cal, but of course it’s not! It was made by a Lasat for a Lasat! Order 66 is always such a mess -- and actually, I’m struck by how different Cal’s and Caleb’s experiences of it were? I think one thing that the game made clear to me is how lucky Kanan got, in all ways.

The ending is obviously setting up for a sequel; I don’t really think Cal and Cere should have survived, but it we get a decent sequel out of it I guess I’m okay with it. I know I’m missing details in this review, but I really did enjoy watching it; I liked the characters, I liked the worldbuilding, I think it did some really intriguing things even if I don’t agree with every decision made. (And, selfishly, I like my Inquisition better than the canon one.)

#jedi fallen order #bedlam watches star wars #janeghoulittle #bedlam answers

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cheryls-blossomed · 5 years ago

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I think I find SR’s lack of interest in women with no powers and telling their stories very alarming. The Flash is the best when it focuses on the human aspect. This SR appears to be very focused on theatrics and gimmicks the character moments do not come through. Hate or love, Caitlin was pretty much eliminated from the show to make way for Killer Flop. Same way Iris was fridged to make way for an Eva clone. It’s very gross and not a good message to send to young girls watching IMO

It’s easier to write women with powers, or at least according to men, because they just have to have them do something absurd with their abilities, and then the showrunners call it a day, even though they don’t actually have any interest in exploring said woman’s limitations and abilities. Hence you get characters like Frost, who have no redemption arc despite attempts to kill Iris and Barry, violently kidnapping Cecile, and working as a hench woman for Amunet’s meta-trafficking ring. She’s also “badass,” but gets knocked out repeatedly. But she’s easier to write than Caitlin, so Caitlin is just kind of shunted to the side for her “edgier” alterego. I don’t care for Caitlin, but it’s clear the writers felt that they didn’t have much to write for her, so they turned to writing Frost first as a petulant child and then turning her into Caitlin but with a wig, heavy make-up, and an edgier persona. Cecile’s powers function as a classic Plot MacGuffin, and so the narrative repeatedly makes her look foolish, by not having her sense anything fro Mirror Iris (or rather sensing nothing from Mirror Iris, which ought to be cause for alarm), but sensing a million and five things from Nash.

Iris ought to be given the journalistic arc she deserves. She ought to be allowed strong investigative stories, and we should see those stories consistently. I’m sure it’s fun to write for Mirror Iris, but you can’t also neglect our Iris, who ought to have been centered in this story that’s supposed to be about her. Every showrunner thus far has said that they’d focus on Iris’s journalism. Every single one has failed in some way in that regard, some more than others, obviously, so far. It perplexes me, because why is it so hard to write in her journalism consistently? So many amazing fic writers have seamlessly incorporated Iris’s journalism alongside Barry’s super-heroics, reinforcing the notion that together they are truth and justice. At the end of the day, while these showrunners see their leading lady as a hero, they just are incredibly careless about giving her the journalistic arcs she deserves.

The women on this show are short-changed, and they’ve constantly been denied agency. It’s been a persistent problem on this show since season 1.

#replies #anonymous

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jcmorrigan · 6 years ago

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Keeping this gravy train rolling: Which scene was your favorite to write in TBTC?

WHICH SCENE WAS MY FAVORITE? You realize there are TOO MANY TO EVEN

So I’m going to give you a Greatest Hits. There’s no one FAVORITE SCENE but these are the ones I most look back at with pride:

-Well, pretty much any Roman/Snatcher ship scene because I’m love them

-Chapter 19: the battle of the sheriff station (I feel like this storylet was where I made some of my biggest tone-deaf mistakes but the fight choreography, I’m still proud of to bits)

-Chapter 22: When Stork’s suicide attempt gets averted. Because I love acknowledging that my green son has mental issues but then showering him with the love he needs.

-Chapter 26: The rain of destruction caused by the warship. And associated team banter.

-Chapter 29: Sora filling in for Winnie’s play and trying to act like a villain for the crowds. ALL THE WHILE BLISSFULLY UNAWARE THAT HE WAS ACTUALLY PLAYING ONE OF HIS NEW ARCHNEMESES.

-Chapter 33: When Roman decides to get serious about the new Joker due to the fact that Snatcher got beaten to within an inch of his life. BUT ALSO when Team Save Mozenrath tried to cross the Swamps of Sadness. Anytime I can build the camaraderie.

-Chapter 34: Roman’s crew clashes with Joker’s canaries-in-a-coal-mine and EVERYONE GETS TRAPPED IN A LOOP OF PUNS UNTIL ROMAN HAS HAD ENOUGH. Also, this is kind of the same scene, but when they all think they’re about to die.

-Chapter 36: Tyrian Callows’ intro.

-Chapter 39: The competition against Smisse Mond and his posse.

-Chapter 43: The Dark Ace’s dream about Grimhilde winning.

-Chapter 44: The battle of the Great Clock. I actually remember hammering this entire thing out while I was strung out on a bad cold.

-Chapter 50: The Heartless assault on the Fire Nation. SAME CHAPTER: Snatcher opening up about his past to Roman and all the drama that led up to it. I realize a good chunk of that was copy/pasted from my Snatcher backstory fic, but the parts that were written anew were super fun, and hey, the bits I put in the montage flashback were my favorite parts to write from the Snatcher fic, so yeah. Chapter 50 might actually be one of my favorites IN GENERAL that I did because of the combo of action and character development.

-Chapter 53: Stork admitting his suicidal tendencies to his new friends and their pledge of loyalty to him should he feel that way again. SAME CHAPTER: The dance-off.

-Chapter 62: Mim’s nightmare. I realize that gag was exactly the kind of obvious thing everyone would’ve expected but it was still fun.

-Chapter 63: The battle of the Cavern of Remembrance.

-Chapter 64: The karaoke night that ends in Hans teaching Mozenrath to dance.

-Literally all of Chapter 65. It’s right up there with Chapter 50. I just did my best at comedy with building the Hans and Demyx vs. Roman and Snatcher rivalry, and on the hero side, KAZUICHI SODA was involved and I love what I came up with for his intro to the main plot, so yeah.

-Chapter 67: The beach.

-Chapter 68: The blackout.

-Chapter 69: Demyx and Roman playing festival games in Vardaros while Rapunzel bonds with her new pals and Kazuichi goes stalker mode.

-Chapter 71: The nighttime sequence, starting with Stork and Rapunzel’s bro time and ending with the terrible, horrible, life-altering thing I did to Kazuichi.

-Chapter 74: Riku’s new best friends.

-Chapter 77: When the Cinnamons are celebrating their victory and WHAM ensures it goes completely, HORRIBLY wrong in the last scene.

-ALL OF CHAPTER 78.

-Chapter 80: The escapades of Mim in Twilight Town, from her messing up the shopkeepers up through the Cinnamons’ attempt to strike a deal with her. SAME CHAPTER: The montage of what happened once Maleficent got a certain MacGuffin in her hands.

-Chapter 81: When Mozenrath finds out he’s been betrayed in the worst possible way. This was the plot twist LITERALLY EVERYONE SAW COMING but it was still REALLY FUN TO EXECUTE.

-Chapter 82 was one of those chapters where I poured blood, sweat, and tears into it and there were a couple missteps but I’m SO proud of the end product that I have to list it. In entirety.

-Chapter 83: Any and all scenes of the Cinnamons on Destiny Islands.

-Chapter 84: The WHAM ARMY vs. Aladdin. SAME CHAPTER: The big reveal of Maleficent’s powerful new allies.

-Chapter 85: The opening scene where everyone is licking their metaphorical wounds.

-Chapter 86: Todd Tolansky having fun with Dresspheres. SAME CHAPTER: Yen Sid throwing a bone to the bad guys.

-Literally all of chapter 87. So, yeah, I think for whole-chapter faves, it’s 50, 65, 78, 82, and 87.

-Chapter 88: The battle for the Duffel Bag of MacGuffins. SAME CHAPTER: Mozenrath being rescued from his temporary imprisonment.

-Chapter 90: Mozenrath and friends deal with a jerk shopkeeper.

That’s the best skim I can do for ya. :) Looking over this fic just reminds me of HOW PROUD I AM OF PRETTY MUCH ALL OF IT DESPITE A FEW BIG HICCUPS but there were so many scenes that I just LIKED even if they weren’t at the level of these Greatest Hits

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