#me and meta that will never come up in any thread: name a more iconic duo skfjdlfs

[flockrest]

firm believer of no.tts being taken under te.ba's wing regarding Elder Business.....like. the kid who rallied and allocated roles for all the other kids who would listen as best she could in a time of major crisis, the kid who calls herself "the inspector" because she's diligently checking for anything amiss in its aftermath, the kid with eldest sibling syndrome? no way everyone who took a look at her did not go "those are some nice Marks of a Good Leader ( That Should Be Cultivated )"

and there's never been any expectation for the role to be passed down via bloodlines, but there was a brief stint before no.tts was officially apprenticed where tu.lin tried his wing at learning something about these duties from his father out of genuine interest — whereby they both realised wow. this is kind of terrible. Absolutely Not, Thanks,

[mybg3notebook]

Gratitude and care in Astarion

Disclaimer Game Version: All these analyses were made up to the game version v4.1.101.4425. As long as new content is added, and as long as I have free time for that, I will try to keep updating this information.

It’s hard to say if Astarion has a level of gratitude, which can be understandable since, as he said explicitly during the bite scene, it takes some time for him to trust in another person due to the torment that Cazador made him pass through (but like everything with Astarion’s words, it may be a plain lie to excuse himself in front of Tav ). The main reason for this lack of gratitude, or a twisted version of it—if there is any—, comes from the possibility of “Dark Desires” working on him (check post about Vampirism).

Astarion has two situations in which he seems to show, ever so slightly, a thread of gratitude. 

The first one is during the bite scene. The acceptance of his vampire nature is not exactly what he is grateful for, but for the willing offering of blood. This is—if we believe in what Astarion told us—the first time he has ever tasted blood from a thinking creature. This may be, like all words from Astarion’s mouth, a lie/half truth. We need to remember that Astarion considers a broad group of humanoids who are thinking creatures as animals (check Astarion Analysis). So he may or may not have drunk blood from a, let’s say, goblin or a gnome before. It’s also true that the only images we saw in his head by using the Tadpole were rats in his master's crypt; we don't see anything about his recent feedings (we know it was a boar). From Astarion’s perspective, killing a nearby goblin would count as feeding on animals, but technically it is not and therefore, Tav is not his first. 

In any case, putting aside this consideration, Astarion explicitly says that this offering of blood is a “gift” that he will not forget (if your rolls succeeded in stopping him). We still need to see how this apparent “gratitude” will manifest—if it ever does—.

If we got the bad luck of failing those checks, in which Tav asked Astarion to stop twice, but he did not, Astarion would end up killing Tav. In the next morning, he is not even guilty or ashamed for his excess (an excess that one could understand a bit since the vampiric bloodthirst is too intense in general), but his careless attitude and his dismiss of the gravity of the situation, giving an apology more concerned about his permanence in this group than being honest with Tav, shows that Astarion cares little for Tav. If he does, it’s always around the fact of guaranteeing his permanence in this group of powerful members that gives him safety and potential solutions in controlling the tadpole. When Astarion kills Tav there is no scene of “gift”, so Tav is completely unaware of how important this event was for Astarion…. if it truly was such (why would Astarion not say anything about it later since it has been such a “gift”? I’m deeply distrustful about his gratitude). Later, in datamined content, we will see Astarion subtly asking for permission to feed on the companions (Check post Astarion's Standards and Manipulation)

The second time he shows a minimal hint of something remotely similar to gratitude is in datamined material, related to a pair of videos that pjenn has shown about the scars on his back [1] [2]. He needs help to read it since he can’t see his body in reflective surfaces due to his vampire nature. We get from the narrator: 

* He might be sneering, but you can see pain in his eyes. He needs help, but doesn’t know how to ask. *

Helping him to decipher the infernal message on his back (if Tav is a tiefling) or at least attempting to (if Tav can’t decipher it at all), Astarion will add “thank you by the way, this is… well, it’s something.”

And that’s all. That’s all the content in EA where you can see a hint of “gratitude” in Astarion, if you squint your eyes, scratching content from a single phrase in two scenes. There is also no meta-knowledge information to add to this, or any explicit reaction from Astarion that could imply more gratitude than this. As a character who represents a “bad behaved victim” probably makes sense. He has only focused on himself and on his own needs for survival. There is little room for gratitude there.

Should we expect any gratitude? Personally I don’t think so. Although he follows the troupe of the bad-behaved victim, he is also a power-focused character that manipulates constantly every situation in order to guarantee his survival or simply to have fun (bloodshed or sex). Those small details of apparent gratitude may have perfectly been part of the games he plays. 

Could he eventually be grateful? Hard to say in EA. If he is, it seems to me that he will be in the evil way. When I say this I keep in mind what Swen said in several talks/videos about how they were not considering alignment change in characters but only in the main char. Which is a curious change from bg1 or bg2, or simply the true reason to work with more generalised alignments: good, neutral, and evil alone. 

It is clear that we cannot trust in Astarion’s gratitude, only shown in two single lines that will not always be seen. Astarion is a great manipulative char and that small hint of gratitude he shows may be one of the many tricks he uses to survive and gather power.

Does Astarion care for someone?

Since we are talking about gratitude, we can also talk about care. If Astarion has shown something clearly during all EA, it is his lack of honest interest for the well-being of any creature beside himself. This includes the members of the group. There is never meta-knowledge information displaying that “deep down, in a silent way” he cares about his companions.

The only opportunity in which he apparently seems to care about some companions, is when he is reading the book of Thay, which apparently is asking him to kill the group, to which Astarion answers with a “No, I won’t kill them. Maybe *insert scripted companion’s name*”. 

We know at this point that he would enjoy seeing his companions suffer and die, because bloodshed is always “fun”, but he is prioritising how this group protects him. This concept can be seen pretty clearly when we are witnesses of Lae’Zel’s death at the hands of the githyanki patrol. Astarion will say something along the lines “what a pity, she was a powerful specimen”. Another proof of this aspect is when he approves of sacrificing one of the companions to the fish-people who worship Booal. Astarion doesn’t truly care about anyone of the group (not even the main char, to whom he may kill in a bite dismissing the gravity of the situation) but he needs them as protection and also as the only way to find a way to control his tadpole. It’s always about his needs.

After all, we should not forget that iconic phrase during the stargaze scene: 

“You think I’d kill you, just like that? Darling, I would never. I still need you.”

And this had been stated in every opportunity: The most important thing at any moment is survival. Astarion doesn’t care about killing or betraying. He enjoys it, “it’s fun”. He is not turning against the group basically because, by now, it’s the only safe and promising means to guarantee his survival. He needs this group so badly that he won’t abandon it even if a good aligned Tav mistreats him and disrespects him at every opportunity they have. Tav is the one who has to insist for Astarion to abandon the group, and even then, he will try to convince them of the contrary. That speaks volumes about what this group (and Tav) truly means to him. Like everything with his character: just a means for survival.

This post was written on April 2021.

→ For more Astarion: Analysis Series Index

[rpbetter]

what's the nicest possible way to tell a close friend their roleplay blogs suck and if they want followers and interaction like they keep complaining about they have to actually put effort into it instead of just making blog after blog and slapping a character on it like that's they need to do. I've tried to suggest this to her before by comparing other blogs that play her muse but she just feels inadequate instead of inspired to emulate them which I understand but it's very frustrating when I suggest a million ways to make her blog better and she brushes them all off for one reason or another and I don't want to say anything because she's like a sister to me. sigh.

Unfortunately, the short answer to this is that there really isn't any way you can make her see this unless she's ready to see it.

But, I don't like giving those sorts of answers, they feel hopeless and shitty, so, let's try this...

Understanding what the problem with your friend and her connecting with this information is, is important. It might help in talking to her about the issue.

What I find in these instances, and a lot of similar ones, is that the mun is unhappy about the results but quite happy with the process. She's enjoying some part of this, it's just not the lack of interaction, obviously. It's the very things she's doing to turn people off of her muses.

I think a lot of people get kind of addicted to new muses. I mean, the entire process of having a new muse:

interest to outright fixation, no matter how short-lived, in a new, inspiring muse

who is almost certainly in a new fandom, and probably, one that is very busy and popular at the moment

"someone stop me" phase, even though they've already decided

picking the perfect URL, creating the new blog, making the graphics and batches of icons

reblogging All The Content about the new muse, at least, the visual content and maybe, a couple of "oof, right in the feels" style short meta posts

plugging the new muse on the old blogs, through friends, etc.

mass follows

new mutuals! Shiny new meme asks in the inbox! New threads!

It's about the newness, the excitement, and the irrationally promising feeling that damn it, this time, the blog and muse is going to be successful, popular even, beloved, the actual favorite iteration of the character in the RPC. Like anything exciting, it's addicting for people. And like anything addicting, it can take hitting rock bottom and going several more feet down, a few times, before they're over it and want to change.

Which is, of course, where you come in with your as-yet failed RP interventions.

What makes what you're trying to do here very difficult is that there isn't a total bottoming out she's going to reach. There will always be something new and exciting coming out with a new and exciting muse that'll fix the problem, in her mind. There will always be the option and availability to create another blog, slap another muse on it, rinse and repeat. With shampoo and conditioner that never runs out.

You definitely had the right idea by trying to get her to contrast between why what she is doing isn't working the way she wants and why what someone else is doing is working out that way. It's just, as you found out, often not the best idea, no matter how well-intentioned it is. With her blogs constantly failing for reasons she refuses to believe, it's incredibly likely she's already done some comparison in all the wrong ways, ultimately going back and forth between blaming the other iterations, finding nothing but errors in the way they write the character and set up their blogs, and feeling depressed that she's not good enough, but they are.

So, you might have unintentionally inflamed all of this! She could be in a place where she's even more likely to believe that what she's doing is great as a defense mechanism for being hard on herself.

I'd also like to say that I'm aware the "right" advice here is, "there's nothing you can do, you'll just make her feel bad, people have a right to RP however they want." But, you're also her friend, and you have to be around the complaining and upset when this just keeps happening.

Furthermore, when we have very close friends like this, we automatically keep trying to fill in the gaps for them at cost to ourselves - every time they make another blog/muse, we get roped into writing things we know are just going to be dropped, making them things we know are going to left on a deserted blog, and so on. Eventually, it makes you feel bad about yourself because your efforts aren't good enough, either. It can really ruin the hobby for you, sucking away enjoyment and creativity you could be spending elsewhere.

I don't think you're wrong in trying to help both her and yourself.

Keep being honest with her. When she complains, be honest about why this is happening. And you can, indeed, be kind and honest!

Let's say that she says something about how she wrote all these opens and no one is going for them.

You could say something like, "that sucks. I liked this one, it's the one that feels and sounds like the character to me. What were you doing when you wrote that? You should rewrite the others to be a little more like that, I think people are looking for more of the character like we saw them in the series."

You're acknowledging that she's right, it does suck, it's a shitty feeling no matter how at fault for it she is. While pointing out something she did good (and, okay, maybe she didn't, maybe they all categorically sucked lol but find one that was even a tiny bit better/that has elements you can use to both boost her confidence and show her what is right, not just wrong). Then, giving her an idea - whatever she was thinking, watching, listening to at that time, she tapped into something more like the actual character, and she could do it again. And telling her what the problem is, at least with this, that people don't want a cardboard cutout muse, they want the one they like from the fandom book/show/movie.

No need to actually compare with another active mun and muse, or tell her that it's because what she's doing is terribly and driving you nuts. Even if both are true.

If she's the one that compares herself to another blog this time, seize the opportunity!

"Well, people like that the muse is developed and like the character they know. When you interact with another canon, don't you want them to be like the character you liked? You liked -current muse- for a reason. When I've felt like that, I reminded myself of why I was drawn to the character and worked harder on writing them accurately and getting their voice down. I think this other blog has done that and you haven't yet."

It's a little harsher, but she may very well only be looking for validation from you that this other blog actually sucks and she's doing great. A lot of complaints on tumblr are that - seeking validation, not help. The entire culture of that shit is not at all helpful. You don't want to try to sort of shock her out of it by being too harsh, but you do want to make it clear that you're not going to just give ass pats and tell her what she wants to hear.

You're telling her why this other blog is more successful, that the muse comes off as the character and is enjoyable to write with. Because the mun put in the effort to make them both accurate to the character and a muse that's fun/interesting/engaging to write with in RP.*

*Not all characters transfer over well to RP, either, and this might also be some of her problem. For whatever reason, some people are deeply drawn to the worst possible choices for them. They will find the least applicable character in a whole series, one with a billion characters that spans decades of material, plenty of viable options all around, but no, it's got to be this one. The one that's impossible for them to pull off, boring or disliked by the fandom, is incredibly difficult to interact with (think manic pixie bullshit, villains that are extreme loners, incredibly quiet and reserved characters, or those who are only ever seen in their canon to be bantering with friends and enemies - people they have established relationships with, unlike someone else's muse, even if that muse is a canonical friend or enemy), or is an active turn off in RP, like an outrageously overpowered character whose entire existence is based on being OP as fuck. That's going to be what they go for. Every. Damn. Time.

If you notice she's doing this, she could be compensating without even realizing it by turning the string of muses into identical and empty clichés she thinks people want to interact with, but that she can still handle writing. And unfortunately, your job is even harder, OP, because everyone has a character type...and your bestie's is Fucking Impossible to RP for 90% of the RPC Population Type lmao I'm...I'm so sorry.

Maybe if this is the case, you can get her to try out a different character that has some of the traits you've noticed she seems to always be drawn to, but without the complications. Work smarter, not harder, though! Propose this as you desperately wanting your muse to interact with x. Some people react very badly to being told "you'd write a great -muse name," others are flattered by it. If you don't know for certain that she'd be flattered, or at least not offended, that she doesn't hate this character or anything, do not say this. Just tell her that you love this character, you think she could handle them as a NPC in a thread, could she please try?

And make that the single most interesting thread in the history of threads. Specifically, for her. Give her tons of engagement with this NPC of the sort she tends to want the most. It might stick and reset some of her perspective on the types of characters she keeps choosing.

You're reminding her that she's a RPer, too, which sounds like a crazy thing to have to remind a RPer, but we do weirdly lose track of this. We get very invested in what we're putting out more than what we've successfully been given, especially when we're not being given much of what we want. So, you're prodding her to recall that there are two parts of this equation, she's been on the side of it - she's wanted to interact specifically with a canon muse because she loved the character/ship with hers/whatever, and has, as we all have, experienced both the disappointment of running through a ton of them who just are not that character and also finding the version that very much is.

This helps to put other people back into perspective in a way that isn't just "interactions." (Read as "desired attention." Which isn't a slam, it's true. It's also not a problem, we all are here to interact, we all enjoy having devoted mutuals and such. It's only a problem when we stop seeing them as anything other than a means to an end for ourselves.) She might be able to relate to them, thus, why they don't like her muses, if she can put herself back into their shoes.

You stick with that and transition it into why she picked the current muse. It's the same deal, there was something about the muse that sparked interest, creativity, etc. What was it? Something that isn't there, or there enough, in her writing. In all the excitement of muse-creation, she's probably let whatever it was slide right out the door. If you can get her to recall that feeling of interest and identify for herself what all triggered it, she might be able to stick with it.

And you've encouraged her again to give people what they want if she wants interactions by developing her muses. You've also done so, if it all applicable and true, by using yourself here, making it feel like not just a common problem, but one experienced and overcome by someone she cares about and trusts.

She might have an issue with needing a lot of high-interest, high-reward scenarios, too.

This is a high-effort, minimum reward situation for her. A lot of us in the RPC have shit like ADHD that can really make this difficult once we're experiencing it in this way, but even those who don't absolutely fall into it as well. So, you'll need ways to make it fun, but...I think if you can sort of kindly trick her into experiencing the effort as its own reward, it'd go a long, long way.

I can't really say what I do, having this problem with high-effort, minimal reward because I don't tend to experience that in RP. The writing is the reward for me, as much as I lose it utterly with happiness every time a writing partner is loving what I've given them. My reward system is set up around the writing and exploring characters. Hers seems to be set up around the reaction to it and amount of engagement with it. You need to try to use the latter to give her some of the former.

If she likes Halloween or Christmas, Fall or Winter, this could be your way into doing it!

Get her hyped about a seasonal prompt list you're doing. This does, yeah, mean you will have to do it, too lol but in the end, any time you aren't able to produce something daily like these lists usually are set up for, you're showing her that it isn't a job she's got to fulfill - the rules are only as strict as she wants to make them for herself. And if you keep yours short and fun, she'll feel like it's perfectly fine and good to do it this way as well. That it doesn't need to be a damn masterpiece or anything, just fun, something different to show off her muse.

While what she's actually doing, in addition to that, is getting in touch with and developing her muse. Importantly, when we write in a way that is just for ourselves like this, we tend to kind of...bond, for lack of a less weird sounding way of putting it, with a muse. It makes them stick with us longer, raising their importance and easier availability to us.

Let her know you're doing this, pick one out you genuinely like, and don't expect her to be down with it immediately. It's work with no foreseeable reward. Except, it's very hard to listen to our friends be excited, proud of themselves, enjoying themselves without wanting to join in. It'll be especially helpful, though, if you think people you interact with will like the posts and comment on them, or even try to turn them into threads if you include their muses (with their consent, of course, and no pressure). If she sees that, it might make it even more interesting to her. You might also have to pose this as her helping you out, that you don't think you'll get more than two done if she isn't doing it as well, as a sort of a challenge she can hold you to.

Whatever you think might work best for engaging her, you know her well, you can do it!

Be there to help her out with ideas if she goes for it. Throw out some easy, fun suggestions you think she might like, that even give her some opportunity to write something with her muse that she doesn't get a chance to. Pull from the muse's canon, is there something in their canon that goes with the prompt word "snow," for instance? Is it something she enjoyed about the canon story? Suggest it. Thinking about both the muse and your friend, is there something else that came to mind about that prompt you could suggest? Do it!

Again, whatever she's most into, it's an angle. Humor? Her serious muse is forced into a ridiculous, funny situation that involves the snow. Angst? A sad memory associated with the snow. Shipping? A romantic, fluffy scene (or steamy one). And so on.

Be there to express interest and encouragement while she's doing it. Don't do things that are going to come off as pressuring or helicopter moming her, of course! Like, asking how much she's gotten done, did she start working on it yet? That's a bad idea, unless she enjoys that sort of thing. Instead, tell her how much you can't wait to see this, ask about how it's going, tell her about yours to encourage her to talk about it.

And be there to be her audience when she posts it. This really seems to be her highest reward, so give it to her. Like the post, comment on the post, tell her in messages. Not individually, all of those things. If you can find a way to that doesn't mess up what you've got going on with your blog, mutuals, other friends, etc., mention it on your blog.

At this point, people might be both aware of her RP habits and wary of engaging with her, but someone might bite if you're enthused and go like the post. If it's applicable, make some jokes about it on the dash, turn it into a moment of inside joke-like crack for people to see. Mention that she wrote this and you loved it, link it or outright reblog her post. Hell, mention that you and her are doing such and such prompts for whatever holiday or season before the fact, that way, it doesn't come out of nowhere to your mutuals, either. Again, if applicable, you can ask to turn it into a thread.

The point, at this juncture, isn't to attract people to her blog and posts, it's to demonstrate to her that this is fun and rewarding. If you can get people to go like the posts, great, but you can only count on yourself to do it at first.

Most people enjoy those sorts of prompts on their dash from mutuals, though. You're always going to have some who feel like it's annoying because it wasn't strictly a RP reply, but whatever, they're not the majority in most fandoms anymore, thankfully. Point is, it's literally showing her mutuals that she's capable of thinking as her muse and working on her muse. It's showing off good things and making her muse more interesting and uniquely hers in a good way. And it's totally possible that she's going to organically generate likes, people wanting to use this as a plot with her for RP, and mutuals who are increasingly following along with every post made.

The hope is that she experiences the beginnings of more interest in the muse than she does making muses, gain some confidence in doing this with the enjoyment of it, and stick with a muse longer than five seconds so that she can actually end up with the interactions she wants.

There are definitely other ways of doing this, the prompt thing just came to mind because it's major prompt season. You've got a prompt list floating around for literally every popular point of interest right now, from whump to extreme fluff to horror to humor. And it's going to keep going until January. It's also something that can be as short as a paragraph or as long as several thousand words, and that a hell of a lot of people don't do all of. So, it's easy, so long as she's got a reason to find it interesting and stay on course with it even a little bit.

You could also try getting her into doing something like moodboards for her muse but with little additions of writing that go along with them. Nothing major, just things like a quote from her muse or a sentence from a starter, thread, whatever.

So long as you can get her to start refocusing on RP being enjoyable from the inside and not just the outside, it's valid as hell to try it! She seems to be experiencing RP as instant gratification and basing that gratification on things she can't control, like popularity.

Right now, even giving her the sober truth that one can write the best version of a canon muse there is to be found, be someone enjoyable and interesting in OOC interactions, and be an amazing writer without that being enough to garner popularity, or even the plots that are wanted. That being a very popular RPer and having more interactions than you know what to do with (honestly sucks ass) isn't a set of absolute values, but rather, variables that are always in flux and often, totally mysterious. It's usually a mixture of total luck, visual appeal, and both mun being on point with what people want to see right this second and muse being the mixture of fanon that is desirable, also, right at this exact second. It is seriously not within anyone's control, no matter how much effort, quality, or even outright bullshit they have to put out there.

If she's ever going to stick to a muse and not find herself envious, upset, and bored it's absolutely got to come from herself. She's got to be popular with herself, enjoying herself regardless of what others are seemingly achieving or want to give her. It's not going to be recognized no matter how harsh or sweet you are about the problem, unless she's capable of really looking at those problems as problems, and I don't think she's going to get to that point through negatively bottoming out. She might get there through the opposite, though!

It's...just going to take a lot of effort and patience from you, with no expectation of reward yourself.

Because it's still likely as hell it's just not going to happen. And while it seems like you are the kind of friend who would find the effort worth it because you care and are invested in her, please know that there's no shame in merely contemplating this and noping right out.

You've got a life and are trying to enjoy the hobby as well! And if it seems like something that could sour your friendship? It's not worth it. You're better off just accepting that she'll inevitably tire of doing this and move on to another hobby, maybe decide to do fandom blogs or something instead that you can support her in.

It's definitely an unenviable and frustrating position you're in. All you can really do is try not to let this negatively impact the friendship, to keep refraining from just outright telling her things she'd find hurtful, and try your best to show her that it's rewarding to develop the muse and stick with it, not a task. That there are improvements she can make to her blog, and that it isn't a negative reflection on her that they can be made. You can try all the compassionate trickery in the world to lead her there, but it's ultimately up to her whether she brushes this off as well, don't let it hurt your feelings or exasperate you too much!

Also, it's totally possible that even if you met through RP and/or it has been a big part of the friendship, you might have grown in different directions in the hobby.

Growing within the hobby is inherent to any hobby you stick to for long enough, especially if you started out in it young. Some people seamlessly just keep growing to things that make them happy, others experience a lot of growing pains along the way as they're maybe ready for change, but only in select areas they have to discover for themselves. Still others grow in a way that doesn't make them very happy, but they're both not ready (or willing) to approach why and what they can do, and also still too attached to the good times they had to reassess whether it's still something they want to do, or if it's something better moved away from into something else.

That's always very difficult as a friend. Difficult in watching your friends not go the same directions as you anymore, even in something as comparatively silly as a hobby, in seeing them not enjoying themselves, and in the possibility that it could signal the end of enjoying the hobby with them. It's sad and frustrating, and can feel lonely, but if you're close enough friends, you've got so many other things to still be good friends over, so keep that in mind!

She might need to keep doing this with her blog and muse situation until she comes not to the realization that she needs to change how she's RPing to get what she wants, but rather, that she wants to stop RPing. That could be the burnout that happens here eventually, but again, not only can you still be great friends, if it makes her happier, it's good.

[maxwell-grant]

Ever read or heard of Al Ewing's El Sombra trilogy?

So now that I actually finished Pax Omega I can give my thoughts on the trilogy. In short: I like it! It's got a lot of incredible strengths and interesting takes on the material it pulls from, it's got a very rich setting and interesting characters to explore, in terms of what else I've read from Al Ewing's general work it's second only to Immortal Hulk for me. This trilogy may have actually convinced me that steampunk has at least some value as something other than obnoxious set dressing, and that is no small feat.

I got a separate post planned for El Sombra as a character because I want to write about his character arc and the trilogy's relation to his respective influences, but below are my particular thoughts on the books. Spoilers below the cut

El Sombra is easily the simplest of the three, and the most straightforward "pulp" novel of the three. For the most part it's 200+ pages dedicated to establishing the misery of Pasito, the vileness of the Nazis, and the character of El Sombra as he hacks his way through whatever bastards he can get his hands on. It has to do a lot of work in making sure we fully understand El Sombra's character before the next novels can get to work putting him on bigger settings in a supporting role, and in that it succeeds very well. It's a Zorro character stuck in a 2000 AD world of dystopian mechanized nightmares and fighting savagely to kill it, gradually learning that he needs more than just a sword and superhuman skills to do it.

One thing that sticks out to me about El Sombra is how grueling of a read it can be, especially in the first two chapters when the story's establishing the situation of Pasito nine years after the wedding massacre, through the POV of the story's villain. While there are many pulp stories that include Nazis as villains, I've never seen one that goes as in-depth into the sheer atrocities of Nazi regimes as much as this one. Ewing really spares no time conveying just how utterly wretched they are in many ways other than just ethnic massacres (and the massacres of the book are harrowing to read as well, no grisly detail spared), the many insidious ways totalitarianism corrodes the soul of all subjected to it, long before the Nazis actually start dying. It's incredibly disturbing and not at all out of line with the real atrocities perpetuated in history.

And it's made all the more effective because the book goes to great length to describe the many, many life stories of all those that get killed by El Sombra, whether irredeemably evil or merely misguided soldiers, which lends a lot of weight to them. He's not just tearing his way through cartoonish embodiments of evil, he's murdering people brutally, to our enjoyment, because painting Nazis as people is not the same as humanizing them, it only makes them much, much more horrifying than any doomsday weapon could ever be.

The scene in particular where El Sombra has to dash alone into a burning building to rescue children, children who are seconds away from dying, children he had to kill an entire squad of Nazis just to be able to rescue, children that he cannot leave on the streets because otherwise they will be trampled or killed by a mob, had me gasping and not wanting to turn the page out of fear, actual fear that he wasn't gonna make it.

"Zorro vs Nazis" is an incredible simple premise, and I don't think it could be done better than it was here. Very, very solid start, although I do recommend that you go in aware of just how brutal and disturbing it can get.

Gods of Manhattan was the first one I read, and contrary to El Sombra's more western and pulp roots, this very much reads like a superhero comic book centered around pulp icons. Out of the three it's the one I like the least, but it's a very good book, one that could easily work on it's own even without it being a sequel. It's considerably less harrowing of a read than El Sombra and instead much more based around meat and potatoes storytelling, showing how the building blocks at work here are being arranged, and a larger exploration of liberty and egalitarianism and political aspects of the works Ewing's pulling from. Gods of Manhattan is the trilogy's moral compass, contrasting to the simple revenge thriller in El Sombra and the science fiction anthology of Pax Omega, setting up the major players of this world before Ewing can knock them around for the final installment.

One of the things I like most about the El Sombra trilogy is the mix-and-match of properties. Doc Thunder, for example, bears many surface similarities to Doc Savage, but he functions mainly as a Superman figure. He wears a logo akin to Shazam's, he has a reputation akin to that of Captain America's, we later learn his real name is Hugo and he's the in-universe equivalent to Hugo Danner. As the most straightforward superhero of the setting, Thunder condenses the history of it's biggest icons into a single being. The primary Shadow analogue here is the villain, but the villain also shares more common traits with The Spider and Spider-Man, and traits of The Shadow manifest in two other characters (the titular El Sombra, and a character known in-universe as The Blue Ghost who functions as more of a Spirit analogue). There's a shapeshifting dead-faced supervillain by the name of Anton Venger, referencing the pulp hero The Avenger. The Lex Luthor analogue turns into Doomsday by the story's end. It's the crafting of an interesting new mythology from bits and pieces from a larger whole and there's enough rich content here to last for a whole franchise.

If I had one major problem with this book, it would be the character of Marlene Lang. Marlene functions here mainly as the Margo to Blood-Spider's Shadow, and naturally, she gets twisted to the extreme. While the story's demonization of The Shadow's archetype is grounded in a larger point about the dangers of dark vigilantism, it's treatment of not-Margo/Nita here is purely for the sake of reinforcing the Spider's own awfulness. The story demonizes her by painting her as decadent and sadistic and promiscuous, and the latter in particular is really hammered into you as something that paints her as evil and unlikable, which is really shitty. I expected better from Ewing and I don't think this is a decision he would have gone with had he written the story today.

Still, Gods of Manhattan is terrific and gets a very solid recommendation from me. But much to my surprise, my favorite of the books actually wound up being Pax Omega.

Pax Omega is an incredibly ambitious book, spanning the entirety of time from beginning to end, every chapter presenting a radical shift in setting as we jump through time periods of this world's history. It has a truly staggering amount of worldbuilding to get through and a lot of it is pure exposition. It's a one man sci-fi anthology, and while that's turned off some of it's readers, I liked it considerably better than the other books. It weaves together it's narrative threads incredibly well as it gradually gives you a sense of where the story is heading (and was always heading right from the first book) as wilder and wilder concepts get brought into play corresponding to the massive changes brought by time.

Despite how separate a lot of these stories are, they all come together, and there is not a single wasted chapter or page here. It's got fun thrills, it's got action, it's got harrowing descriptions and passsages (particularly regarding El Sombra's discovery of Berlin), it's got enough worldbuilding in here for entire shared universes and not a single dull moment. Pax Omega cements this trilogy as one of my favorite superhero universes as well as easily the best superhero novels I've ever read, although it's playing with a lot of images and icons much older than superheroes, and even weaves in a bit of meta-storytelling.

It's definitely the book I'll most likely revisit in the future, and while I don't think this is a trilogy that could work as well outside of it's literary format, I think there's a lot of interesting aspects here to be learned from by anyone who wants to tackle pulp characters, or superheroes. Very impressed with this one.

[avaantares]

FFVII:REMAKE - A Review

So I beat the game two weeks ago and started writing down my thoughts while they were fresh in my mind, but I didn’t post anything then because my one IRL friend who is also playing it hadn’t finished it yet and I didn’t want to risk posting anything spoiler-y. But the extra time has allowed me to play through the game again on Hard difficulty, which has allowed me to reconsider and elaborate on some of my thoughts. And frankly at this point I just need to dump my Very Big Opinions somewhere, so... here ya go.

I discuss visuals, gameplay, character and story below. I’ve tried to keep spoilers minimal up front, though obviously if you want to go into the game totally cold, don’t read this. All major spoilers are clearly tagged. All of it is below a cut to spare your dash.

Also, there are pretty pictures, because why not?

First, my background with this franchise: I played through the original FFVII multiple times; I’ve watched and rewatched Advent Children and Last Order, played Crisis Core, gave up on Dirge of Cerberus despite my deep love for Vincent Valentine (sorry, VV, but your game was just a mess), and lamented that Before Crisis wasn’t available in my country. I even played (and own!) Ehrgeiz, the obscure fighting game that featured the main cast. (Still bitter that they didn’t keep Miki Shinichirou as the voice of Sephiroth. He’s one of my faves.)

^ Ehrgeiz, a mediocre fighting game that forever endeared itself to me by including Turks!Vincent Valentine as a playable character. 💖

In short, I’ve been waiting for this game for DECADES.

So. Here we go. My thoughts on Final Fantasy VII: REMAKE.

The good:

The character models are very pretty. With individual pores, threads and scuffs visible, they’re so detailed that it’s almost impossible to reconcile them with the mouthless sprites from the original game – even more so than Advent Children (and dear goodness, that was over a decade ago now, wasn’t it?). Still, they’ve kept the costume details and absurd proportions largely intact (Barret’s fists are literally larger than Tifa’s entire head, yet somehow it works visually), so it’s not too much of a departure from the familiar.

They’ve kept the aesthetic. I was afraid the game would try to update the iconic world of Midgar, but by and large, it’s full of visually-arresting designs that preserve the gritty-industrial look and feel of the original.

Japanese version is included. BLESS YOU, Square Enix, for including the Japanese voices and character animations. Not only is it impossible for me to hear Cloud in anything other than Sakurai Takahiro’s voice, but the Japanese script is a bit nicer to the characters. I’m not really keen on the English dub… but more on that below.

They fixed the spelling of Aerith’s name. This may seem like a minor point, but considering it’s been 20 years and I’m still bitter that Devil May Cry still hasn’t corrected “Nelo Angelo,” it’s a small victory.

Improved combat. Admittedly, I wasn’t sold on the new combat system at first, but after playing through the game twice, I’ve come to really like it. It has a few rough edges and can get chaotic in some battles, but it does a decent job of blending the feel of an action game with turn-based strategy. The fact that you can switch to a more traditional turn-based system if you prefer is also nice. (I haven’t tried Classic mode yet, though.)

Weapon customization. The Skill Points system allows you to upgrade your loadout instead of acquiring new gear. The tutorial was somewhat lacking (I didn’t quite figure out the multiple-core-unlock thing right away), but I appreciated the ability to add materia slots or stat buffs rather than just cycling through a dozen swords that Cloud apparently keeps in his back pocket.

Background dialogue management. On the whole, the conversations as you run through town enhance the story without slogging down the gameplay; you don’t have to stop and talk to every single resident, because snatches of their conversation reach you (and your on-screen chatlog) as you pass. You can stop and listen for more detail if you want, or you can just keep moving. The extra worldbuilding is really nice.

The music. The orchestrated versions of the original themes are excellent (and some of those music cues gave me goosebumps… Did I spend way too many hours immersed in the original game? Probably). I can take or leave some of the collectible jukebox tunes, but the background music in general is good. (But did I earn that Disc Jockey trophy? Yes, yes I did.)

Supporting character development. Jessie, Biggs and Wedge actually have characters! And personalities! Clichéd ones, admittedly, but it’s an improvement over the original game killing them all off within the first few minutes. The game also does justice to the Turks, and actually surprised me with how much depth of character it gave Reno and Rude in particular (perhaps setting them up for a mini redemption arc so players forgive them for dropping a plate on tens of thousands of slum residents?). Their moments of concern for each other and (brief) crises of conscience made them more than the stock villains they were in the original game, more in line with their temporarily good-aligned characters in Advent Children. Tseng, likewise, was on point. However, I do have to qualify all this with one irate question: Where the heck is Elena?! Seems like the female characters are always getting left out… /sigh/

Improved plot devices. REMAKE cleans up some of the more questionable and outdated content from the original. As you likely already know from the demo, the new game somewhat exonerates the protagonists by having Shinra blow up their own mako reactor to turn public opinion against AVALANCHE (possibly because someone finally realized that it’s hard to sympathize with characters who are willing to melt down an entire reactor and kill a bunch of innocent civilians). AVALANCHE are still eco-terrorists, but they’re… terrorists with a conscience? I dunno, at least they feel bad when people die now… Likewise, the weird and uncomfortable Honey Bee Inn segment of the original game has been reborn as an amazing dance extravaganza. Less voyeurism/prostitution, more Vegas floor show (complete with minigame choreography) and makeover. The whole Don Corneo scenario is still hella creepy, but frankly, there’s nothing that can fix that.

Series references. Fans of the original will appreciate all the inside jokes and direct references to the original game and other franchise entries: One-off comments about Chocobo racing; a broken console in Wall Market that shoots at you; a framed picture of the original 32-bit Seventh Heaven; ads for Banora apple juice; side mentions of characters and plot devices from spinoff games; PHS communication… The game definitely pays tribute to its history. They even recreate the original loading screen and several of Cloud’s iconic poses/animations throughout the game:

The neutral:

Recycled gags. Look, I know Advent Children was the ultimate evolution of FFVII for a while, and admittedly, it did some things very well. The running gag with Rude’s sunglasses and the victory fanfare being used as a ringtone are some of the best moments in the film, in part because they were so unexpected. But as much as I enjoyed the repeated nods to AC in this game, they felt a little desperate, like there were no new jokes to insert so they had to double down on the ones they’d used the last time this franchise had a renaissance. (See Rude’s broken sunglasses, below.) And fitting into the series as a whole, it feels a little weird. Why is Rude’s ringtone the same as the clones’ from Advent Children? Does Barret really need to sing the victory fanfare over and over when he defeats an enemy? Is there supposed to be some history behind that song that was left out of the worldbuilding? It just feels too meta.

Arbitrary localization of names. I don’t really grasp why it was necessary to rename so many items and characters for the English market. Some changes make sense for localization (e.g. Whack-a-Box certainly works better for an American audience than Crash Box), but others seem arbitrary, like changing Aniyan Kunyan to Andrea Rhodea or Mugi to Oates (a play on the meaning of his name in Japanese, but... does it matter?). And then… well, I don’t want to spoil A Major Plot Element, but there’s another thing that changes names from one English word (in the Japanese track) to a different English word. Why? No idea. It doesn’t affect gameplay, and it’s not really a problem, but listening to the Japanese track, I found it jarring to have the subtitles contradict what I was hearing.

Underutilized characters. While the whole gamut of original FFVII characters make appearances, several of them aren’t used to full effect, or aren’t used at all to advance the story. Rufus Shinra’s bossfight is a decent challenge, but while his character was vital to both the original FFVII and Advent Children, his presence in this game is little more than a cameo. His fight could be cut or swapped out with any other boss, and it would have zero effect on the plot. Similarly, while Hojo is a key player in the full story (which this game doesn’t cover, since it’s only a fraction of the original timeline), he’s largely wasted here, except as a means of extending play time by making you wander through corridors and fight a bunch of monsters for “research.” (I have no idea what his motivation is; you’d think he’d be more interested in recapturing Aerith or Cloud, but instead he just... opens an elevator and lets them leave? after they beat up some midbosses.) Reeve Tuesti actually has a solid presence in this game, but since he’s ONLY ever active as himself, there’s no explanation for the random Cait Sith cameo in one scene (players new to the franchise probably have no idea why a random cartoon cat showed up for a few seconds and was never mentioned again). Obviously the plot arcs have to change when the game is covering only a few days’ time in a much longer story, and the major players need to be introduced at some point if they’re going to feature in later games in the series, but from a narrative standpoint, there are an awful lot of superfluous characters doing things for no reason in this installment.

The bad:

THE PADDING. Dear goodness, there is so much padding to make this a standalone game instead of just the first chapter of a longer adventure. I got really, really sick of running literally from one end of the map to the other on side quests – and that’s me, an avowed trophy hunter who spends hours scouring dark corners for collectible items in other games, saying that. So much of this game felt like time fill that didn’t really advance the story. It’s also full of unnecessary new characters with improbable Squeenix hair, like Roche the super-annoying motorcycle SOLDIER (below), or Leslie, Don Corneo’s doorman who somehow merits his own backstory and side quest. (Though in fairness, every FFVII sequel has added superfluous characters, with Crisis Core possibly being the worst offender.) But it just felt really drawn-out and bloated for a game of this generation. If this game had been as compact and tightly-written as the other games I typically play, it probably only would have taken me 15 hours to beat instead of 50. (I don’t actually know how many hours I spent on it the first time through, as I didn’t check the play clock before restarting on Hard difficulty. I do know it took me over 110 hours total to complete the game on both modes, though much of the second run was spent dying repeatedly on a handful of nasty fights. Hard mode removes items and MP replenishment, and if you run out of MP at any point during a chapter, you’re going to die. A lot.)

The pacing. Related to the above... the Midgar portion of the original game was just the setup for a larger story. It wasn’t meant to have its own complete dramatic arc so much as to introduce you to the world and the major players. Consequently, there are some really odd beats in this story, as well as a total lack of urgency in your mission. There are no natural places to slot in the side quests and minigames, so they’re shoehorned awkwardly between plot sequences. “Quick, our friend is in mortal peril and needs our help!” "Okay, cool, we’ll go rescue her after we spend ten hours running around town doing random errands for townspeople and playing games with the local kids.” Uh... what?

The graphics just aren’t as good as they should be. While the character models are gorgeous, there are a lot of low-res background textures and weird polygons that don’t quite match up with other components. Most egregious are the Shinra logos, which frequently get close-ups as part of the fixed camera work and, frankly, look like lossy JPEGs. (See image below, screencapped from a PS4 Pro. Those jagged edges on the logo are present throughout the entire game.) There are weird clipping errors and artifacted images and reflective surfaces that don’t reflect, making the game look more like something from the PS3 era than a 4K late-gen PS4 game. (And it’s not that we don’t have the technology: Uncharted 4 was released back in 2016, and the rendering of its vast world was twice as pretty. Devil May Cry 5, released in early 2019, has far more realistic textures and object interaction. Granted, those are different types of games with fewer NPCs to render, but I feel like there’s no excuse for a game this big to look this mediocre.)

The HUD could be better. The lower-corners concept is okay, though it took me a while to train my eyes to travel between both sides of the screen and track the fight action. But for a long time, I didn’t even notice the commands in the upper left corner of the screen, and after playing through the game twice I still have no idea what they say because I couldn’t focus on the tiny text long enough to read them while trying not to die in combat. (I just looked it up; apparently they’re combat control shortcuts? Huh, that would have been useful to know.) It wasn’t until my second time through that I realized there even WERE separate controls on screen during the motorcycle minigames; I had resorted to panicked button mashing to figure it out the first time through because there was no tutorial (you’re just dropped into the action) and, having ignored the small text for the previous hundred combats, I had no reason to look for on-screen instructions there. Not that it would have helped, since on many backgrounds the text in the upper left is really difficult to read (see below). It’s worth noting that I have better than 20/20 vision and played this game on a large TV screen and still had trouble reading some things; on a smaller TV, or for someone with less acute vision (like my sister, who is blind in one eye), I think even the basic menu controls would be difficult to see. While you can resize the font for subtitles, my cursory glance through the menu did not uncover an option to increase the size of the HUD. 

Inter-fight menu mechanics. Specifically, the inability to save (or save loadout settings) between fights in a multi-part sequence. There are several back-to-back fights in which it is necessary to switch characters or change gear between bosses. The game treats them as one continuous fight, though it does allows you to access the equipment menu by holding square during key cutscenes. Which is good, if you only have one of a particular materia or accessory that you need to switch between characters, and in most cases when you die the game lets you restart just before your current fight instead of restarting the whole sequence -- also good, since some multi-stage bosses can easily take 20-30 minutes to beat, and if several of those are strung together in sequence, you’re in for a long play session to get past them. But since it’s treated as one fight, you can’t save between bosses (more than once, I had to leave my PS4 running in Rest Mode overnight and just hoped we didn’t have a power glitch), and if you happen to get killed and need to restart the fight, your loadouts reset. Which means if you’re, say, fighting the end boss on Hard difficulty and get killed in the first two minutes -- which happened to me a lot -- by the time you restart the fight, sit through the unskippable cutscene, access the menu and rearrange all the materia and accessories you need, you’re spending five or six minutes gearing up for two minutes of play, and then doing that over and over again every time you die. It gets really old.

The English dub script. *deep breath* Okay, look, I know I can be a bit elitist about translations, but I really do not like the English adaptation of this game. It makes Cloud come across as less socially-awkward and far more of a deliberate jerk, Aerith is mouthy and even swears (which is not accurate to her original character), and it downplays some of the symbolism that’s more obvious in the Japanese script. One quick example: When Aerith gives Cloud a flower, she says (in Japanese), “In the language of flowers, this means ‘reunion.’” It’s subbed/dubbed in English, “Lovers used to give these when they were reunited.” That’s a subtle difference, but since the concept of “reunion” is a freakin’ huge part of the FFVII plot, and since Sephiroth was on screen literally seconds before that line is delivered, my brain automatically went, “OMG REUNION!!!” while I’m guessing people listening in English only picked up on the romantic subtext. It’s a pretty minor thing, and of course translation is always a complex balancing act between literal meaning and local market understanding, but the English version just seemed to me to have a different vibe overall. (Unfortunately, the English subtitles are the same as the dub, so unless you can understand the Japanese audio you’re kind of stuck with that dialogue.)

-

-

[WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW THIS POINT]

-

- …And my #1 complaint about Final Fantasy VII: REMAKE is…

…it’s not actually a remake.

Sure, the game starts out the same way and covers a lot of the same events, but fundamentally, it’s a sequel, not a retelling. It’s evident from Cloud’s future-oriented visions throughout the game that something else is going on, and the ending MAKES NO SENSE if you don’t already know the story. Heck, even the rest of the game doesn’t really make sense if you don’t know the story -- Sephiroth’s presence is never explained; Zack isn’t even introduced, just shows up randomly at the end; Cloud’s flashbacks of Tifa and her dead father in Nibelheim are left as a complete mystery (and since she evidently remembers the burning of her town, judging by her dialogue outside Aerith’s house, why doesn’t she even react when Sephiroth shows up?).

The core elements of the plot – the Feelers (Whispers) preserving a specific fate; the three entities from the future (whose weapon types just happen to correspond to certain named characters) defending their timeline; the return of post-Advent Children Sephiroth (the only time we’ve seen him in human form with one black wing), who has inhabited the Lifestream since his death and promised that he would never truly disappear, who in the end appeals to Cloud directly for an alliance rather than attempting to control him, because he knows now that Cloud is strong enough to defy the Reunion instinct; the change in the outcome of story events in which Biggs (and, unconfirmed as to which timeline he’s actually in, but quite possibly Zack) now survives his intended death -- all point toward Sephiroth trying to manipulate destiny into an alternate outcome in which he is victorious, and using this naive version of Cloud to facilitate it. That means this game is taking place in an alternate or splinter universe, created at some point after the events of the original Final Fantasy VII, and possibly even after the events of Advent Children.

All of that is fine from an overall continuing-story perspective – it opens up a lot of interesting possibilities, like the fact that Aerith might survive now that Cloud has seen prescient flashes of her death (among other events), and there are opportunities for more story twists and changes from what players might expect. But touting this as a remake of the original game has the potential to confuse players who are new to the franchise. FFVII was groundbreaking back in 1997, and it defined JRPGs for an entire generation of Western gamers. But that was more than two decades ago, and a lot of current gamers weren’t even born then, so while they’ve probably heard of the classic game, they aren’t necessarily steeped in its lore. FFVII:R relies heavily on prior knowledge of the series to carry its twist ending, so it largely fails as a standalone game.

Also, speaking as a longtime fan of the franchise… I honestly found the ending rather lackluster. It was a twist, of sorts, but not the sort of shocking, mind-bending revelation that made the first game so iconic. Granted, it’s hard to follow an act like revealing that your protagonist’s entire identity is a lie, not to mention killing off one of your main characters a third of the way into the story! But when the surprise ending is just, Surprise! We’re going to change things up a bit this time around so you aren’t entirely sure what’s coming! Also, here’s a gratuitous Sephiroth fight because everyone expects that, even though it doesn’t serve the main story at all nor resolve any conflicts previously established within this game! it smacks of Different for the sake of Being Different, not for the sake of a really amazing storyline they’re hiding up their sleeve. It’s a bit of a let-down, and I find that I... just... don’t really care that much. Which, for someone who’s been a fan of the series for nearly a quarter of a century, means there’s a Big Freaking Problem somewhere. If you’re not keeping the attention of your die-hard fans, how do you hope to build a fanbase of players new to the franchise?

Given the pacing and story issues inherent in this game, I’m not convinced that the following game(s) in the franchise are going to be structured any better. Considering the amount of pure side-quest padding they did in Midgar, I have no idea how they’ll maintain that same tone on something the scale of the World Map portion of the original game, unless they just completely eliminate things like Fort Condor and the submarine and the spaceship side quests. I have a feeling the Gold Saucer is going to be reduced to a Jessie flashback, a Chocobo race (probably to win a key item), and a battle arena run like the coliseum in Wall Market in this game. If they include all the story elements and side characters from the original, this series is going to be a dozen games long.

Still, on the whole this game was enjoyable, and I’m glad I played it. It wasn’t as good as I’d hoped, but they haven’t completely killed off my interest, so I’ll probably continue with the series whenever the next game comes out. Though I’m not really sure if the higher-priced edition I pre-ordered was worth the extra money, so I may wait and see how the next game is shaping up before deciding which version to get...

But if they don’t give me a really pretty (playable) Vincent Valentine in the next installment, I may riot. I do have priorities.

[mysticandskepticmuses]

RULES.

First and foremost: content.

I write a lot of characters that are dark and do very bad things: Joker, Kilgrave, Thanos, Joe Goldberg, Snoke, Palpatine, Vader, Kylo Ren, just to name a few.  There will be dark and potentially triggering plots here.  I tag everything I can think of and most anything that’s asked but content such as duvious consent (mind control etc), torture, mass murder, enslavement, prejudice, genocidal tendencies, misogyny and more will be present in interactions.  

Second, activity levels.

I am either here all the time or not around at all; you might get a reply in a day, or it might be ten months.  No exaggeration.  Patience is 110% key in plotting and writing with me.  You will never get consistent replies. This may improve once I am back in therapy & on medications for my physical health issues, my insomnia & adhd (among other mental health issues) or all the meds might kill my motivation entirely.  Who knows.  Please do not follow / interact if you are going to be impatient and get mad when I write w/ someone else or pounce someone else’s starter/meme/thread and yours is still sitting untouched.  It’s just going to make you mad and if you spout off at me it’s just going to piss me off for no reason.  This is something I do for fun.   I’ll write what my brain can, when I have time, when I want to, for who and what I want to.

Thirdly, zero drama.

Period.  Tag your clalout posts, your drama, your fights with other people, your anonymous hate, I have enough stress in my life to choke an elephant I don’t need it here.  You are welcome to come talk to me for advice but I will not get dragged into drama and or mediate and or anything of the sort.  What you say to me stays between us.  I expect the same in return.

Fourthly, characters.

I tend to add characters all the time.  My muse and interest ebbs and wanes.  I’ll hyperfocus and obsess and then not touch a character for weeks / months.  Sorry, it’s just the way it is.  You are always free to make starters or send memes for any character, and sometimes plotting and getting new things going helps nudge a character to life but again, patience is 110% necessary.

Fifthly, theme, graphics etc.

I made my own graphics & templates for the theme, I made all my own icons and promos and banners.  Do not take them.  Every icon I’ve made for use here is available on my resource blog @tuppencetrinkets as a base.  You are welcome to those.  Do not use my edited stuff.  End of story.

Sixthly, length & replies.

I can write one liners or novellas.  It all just depends on my brain, sleep levels, partner preference & so on.  Please feel free to let me know what you prefer for any given interaction and I’ll do my best to keep up / trim down to match.

Lastly.

I accept meta, headcanon & drabble prompts from anyone.  I prefer to keep in character interactions to mutuals only.  I don’t give a hoot about reblog karma.  Most of the memes that I reblog I also reblog over at @memesandmonologues though so if you want to reblog from the source or from that blog that’s fine.  You are always welcome to bombard my inbox with memes (ic for mutuals, ooc/headcanon for any or anon), send what ifs, plot ideas or whatever through the inbox.  Send as many as you want, ever.  I am slow as shit getting to them but they literally make my day so much brighter.

Personals are NOT ALLOWED to interact / reblog any of my metas, headcanons, roleplays etc. - doing so and not taking them down / not responding etc. or giving me attitude when I ask you to delete them will result in a block.  

RP blogs that constantly instigate drama will be blocked.  Anyone that makes posts condemning or ragging on people that write a character I write or the kind of content I write will result in a block.  

If you have any questions or I didn’t cover something you want to know feel free to drop me a line & ask.  You can also find me at @rykerelias and @prophecyread and @undcrworldawakcning and @alteredcarbonalteredegos from time to time.  This blog & most of its’ characters were previously found at tuppencetrinkets, comediking, tragediknight, dramaquiinn, shearedsaber, crimsoncored & others.

[takeseffort]

O O C

NAME : monroe, though some of you know me as mango thanks to a friend of mine filling my queue on an old RP blog with over 100 pictures of fucking mangos, so there’s definitely that.

FACECLAIM :  I don’t really have a mun faceclaim, I just use whatever icons aren’t associated with the blog I’m posting on, so miscellaneous, other muses, faceless icons. I used to use a combination of belle, baymax, or gogo but ya girl is lazy when it comes to non-rp icons.

PRONOUNS : she/her, they/them.

HEIGHT :  I was 5′2 forever but my last appointment they put down 5′4/5′5 & I haven’t recovered.

BIRTHDAY :  april 10. I’m an aries raised by a leo & a scorpio. 

AESTHETIC :  I have an entire personal aesthetic board on pinterest & I feel like that says a lot more about me than I’d like to admit tbh.

LAST  SONG  YOU  LISTENED  TO :   heroes never die - david chappell (unless you count the sailor moon theme, since that’s what I now have on as background noise)

FAVORITE  MUSE (S)  YOU’VE  WRITTEN : is it cheating for me to say all of them? each of them is so stupidly unique, but I guess Alec. he’s challenging for me in a way none of my other muses are, but the problem is Jonathan is so flexible. don’t make me choose tbh. 

* GETTING  TO  KNOW  THE  ACCOUNT :

WHAT  INSPIRED  YOU  TO  TAKE  ON  THIS  MUSE :  it was a whole host of things. Alec was always a character that stuck with me long after I’d finished the first three books of TMI & also TID, but I read them long before I was into writing canon characters so it never occurred to me to write him as a muse. I remember being so excited to see the movie at first... & then being disappointed in Alec’s casting to the point I didn’t think on it again after that. looking back, I find that fucking hilarious because I don’t actually have a problem with the casting but what the entire fuck was that bondage inspired wardrobe? anyway. flash forward a few years, I vaguely got back into it when I watched an episode during a weekly friend dinner, but the real push was when RPers from the show started crossing my dash. I wanted to interact with them, & friends who were making verses for the show/universe. I usually make verses for new material on an existing muse before I consider making a muse, & usually it’s enough so I did this with Brock & to this day I fucking adore what I came up with for him, but it did NOT get me where I wanted to be. thinking on it a bit harder, I decided to go ahead & bite the bullet, making the muse that kept nudging me. & thus, Alec was brought to life.

WHAT  ARE  YOUR  FAVORITE  ASPECTS  OF  YOUR  CURRENT  MUSE :  I love the fact that there’s expansive canon for him across multiple mediums - there’s the books, which are well established, with amazing world-building & deep characterization, there’s the movie which gives me a decent visualization of that same world-building, then there’s the show, which gives me an alternate take on a few things, introduces new material & characters for him to interact with, & challenges my creative drive, so I guess this makes my answer his blended canon.

WHAT’S  YOUR  BIGGEST  INSPIRATION  WHEN  IT  COMES  TO  WRITING : my biggest inspiration remains meta-writing & exploring worldbuilding with my partners - this is how I develop everything & sustain muse. outside of that, I tend to listen to scores from source material if they’re available, & I also make my own playlists that help. sometimes if I feel particularly drained or the creative well is dry, I re-read or re-watch key scenes, but most of that only nudges me - the biggest source of inspiration comes from talking & plotting with partners. it always has, always will.

FAVORITE  TYPES  OF  THREADS : I used to be terrified of angst, now I tend to prefer it. hurt/comfort, domestic slices of life. I also have an extreme fondness for AU threads, because I can’t think of a better challenge than taking my muse & seeing if I can transpose their canon self into a whole new world. 

BIGGEST  STRUGGLE  IN  REGARDS  TO  YOUR  CURRENT  MUSE :  I lost Alec for a hot minute - not just losing his blog thanks to random termination, but I also just straight up lost his muse, forcing me to slide onto my other muse in the fandom as my main for nine months. Ever since that, it’s been hard to find the same motivation & fire that first encompassed this blog but it’s slowly coming back. Also, verses. Unlike Jon, Alec is far harder to verse-craft for.

Tagged by: @runedwhip Tagging: @erchommai, @tallowes (Lirael or Harry), @murios (clary), @hiddensteel, @johnscn, @lcdgerbled, @dawnheroics, @seraphbled, @faerieborne, @warricrsbcw, @bornmajesdane, & @enoughrunning because I don’t interact with any of y’all enough.

[snowmcid]

1-38 or ur a coward

Meme || No longer accepting (CAUSE THERE ARE NO MORE QUESTIONS TO ASK) || @agirlofwinterfell​

the be honest meme.   

WoW Britney. 

Questions under the cut. 

What would prevent you from following someone?

Excess drama, reblog karma, vauge-posting, and general aggressiveness are big ones for me, but the main thing is if I like their writing style and if I can see our characters getting along.

Are aesthetics important to you? If they are, why?

Aesthetics are kinda “meh”?? I mean, I like pretty things, but it’s a lot of effort and I’m very lazy.

What current rp trend do you hate?

Over edited icons and tiny dark themes?? That’s just a personal preference because I have poor vision and it’s hard for me see/read. 

How do you explain rp to someone in the real world?

hahaha I don’t. I just say I do collaborative writing as a hobby. 

Do you prefer interacting with male muses or female more? Why?

Female muses. I love male muses, but I’ve been here so long and since I’ve only written female muses, I had to deal with that particular brand of discrimination and so every time I interact with male muses I’m still filled with this sense of anxiety. 

Do you prefer writing male muses or female more? Why?

Female muses, and I guess it’s because that’s what I’m comfortable with??

What’s your opinion on call out posts?

I understand why it might be done, but at the same time I think it’s a bit unfair? No matter how good the intentions are, someone is being branded as this, that or the other thing according to a handful of people on the internet. If that information is wrong, or someone is misled - that causes a lot of heartache for the accused and I would just prefer not to be a part of it. 

Name any three things about the rpc that bother you.

Discrimination

Mob mentality

BRITNEY SENDING ME ALL 38 QUESTIONS (no I’m kidding, ilu)

What is your opinion on exclusivity? Do you practice it? Why / why not?

I get it 100%. I get pretty attached to my partners and sometimes it gets to a point that I have a hard time writing with someone else that writes that particular muse since I already have so much history with my partner, but on the other hand, tumblr is constantly changing. People drop in and out all the time and that’s cool, so I feel like exclusivity is just a temporary thing. 

Have you ever had a bad experience with commissions? As either someone who makes them or as someone who buys them?

Nope. 

What do you know now about rp that you wish you knew when you first started?

While we know that communication is integral to real life relationships, online friendships tend to require more upkeep and more effort at reaching out. 

Have you been involved in drama? Do you regret it?

Possibly? It was private stuff and my name was never brought up.

Have you ever thought about leaving rp? What caused it? What changed your mind?

Nah, not really.

Do you think rp has had a positive or negative affect on your life or you as a person?

I think that it has a positive affect! I’ve met a lot of nice people and it’s a fun hobby. 

How has rp changed you personally?

It’s made me more confident in my skills as a writer and more honest with how I feel about certain subjects. It’s taught me to focus on me and not what the world or internet might think about me. 

If you could change one thing about rp on tumblr, what would it be? Why?

Any of the three things that bother me from above, for obvious reason. 

Have you ever sent a message to yourself on anon? Why?

Nah

Have you ever sent hate to yourself on anon? Why?

Nah

Do you delete anon hate or post and address it? Why?

I delete it, I don’t see a point in reinforcing that sort of behavior? Someone that is sending anon hate is going to be continuously checking your blog to see how you respond. They want that attention, they want the satisfaction of knowing that they hurt you or got to you in some way and nothing is better than frustrating someone that hateful. 

Have you ever felt pressured to write something you weren’t comfortable with?

Yes. 

Have you ever followed someone because you felt like you had to, not because you wanted to?

Nope. Tumblr is a hobby and it’s meant to be enjoyed. 

What would make you block someone?

Rudeness, blatant disregard for my rules, harassment, and drama. 

Have you ever stolen something from someone else?

Not intentionally and not that I’m aware of. This is something that I’m constantly afraid of?? I love duplicates and I often follow/discuss my muses with them and I’m always scared that at some point, I’ll claim that something we’ve spoken about or that I saw around, was my own idea. I tend to avoid metas for this reason and if there is ever something that I do want to make canon for my muse, I always ask first and credit where possible. 

Have you ever had something stolen from you? If so, how did you handle it?

Not that I’m aware of?? 

Are you open to duplicates? Why / why not?

See above.

How do you feel about vague posting?

I think it’s childish. Just talk to the person that you’re having issues with and I just am too tired and too anxious to put up with it. 

Do you follow people even if they don’t follow you back?

Not so much anymore. I tend to do a lot of mobile browsing/blogging and I don’t ever want to push myself into place where I’m not welcome, so by only following mutuals, I save myself a lot of time. 

Do you read people’s rules before following or interacting?

Yes, but I forget them pretty immediately, so I tend to do a refresher before I send memes or write a reply to a thread. 

What is your opinion on “reblog karma” and do you practice it?

No, I can understand how disheartening it can be to reblog memes and not get anything while other users are reblogging things from you, but it’s the internet and everyone is free to do whatever the hell they want so long as it is not exploting/hurting others and I don’t think it’s fair to coerce/force/guilt other users into interacting with someone.

How have you responded to popular slang used on tumblr? Do you use it in every day life? Do you use it at all?

Nah, not really. Vines are the ones that have fucked up my vocabulary. 

Is there something you don’t know the meaning of but you haven’t asked anyone because you think it’s supposed to be general knowledge? Was there ever something you had to ask someone to explain?

I used to be confused about the differences between “private” and “mutuals-only”, but I’ve got it figured out now. 

Have you ever experienced discrimination?

I’ve been writing female muses on tumblr for just over seven years. 

How do you feel about personal blogs following your rp blog?

It’s fine, so long as they don’t reblog threads. 

Have you ever cried while writing a reply?

Ohh yeah. @rcsethcrn​​  is to blame for most of my tears. 

Do you read other people’s threads or do you only read your own?

I read ones that come across my dash, but I don’t really follow them? I’ll read the ones that catch my eye.

What’s one thing that other people seem to hate that doesn’t bother you?

I’m not sure tbh?? There isn’t anything I can think of at the moment. 

How do you feel about tagging triggers? Do you tag them? How do you determine what is triggering content and what isn’t?

I do my best to tag triggers. I think they are valid and given my work/education, I can’t bring myself to leave them off. I try to stick to general terms for things that may be upsetting to others?? I’m not very specific, but I try to go off of what I would find uncomfortable or refer to this mental list of things that are more generally upsetting. 

What advice would you give to someone new to rp?

Be kind to yourself. Don’t let what people say get under you skin, don’t get hung up on who follows you and who doesn’t. Do what is best for you and your mental health. 

[douxreviews]

The Flash - ‘We Are The Flash’ Review

“Now it ends.”

We’ve reached the culmination of the season-long march towards the iconic image of Barry sitting in The Thinker’s chair. You didn’t have to be a comic buff to see that coming.  You just needed to spend five minutes on the Internet once The Thinker was named this season’s Big Bad. Was it worth the wait? I think so.

I’ll be honest. My first response to the finale was disappointment. After last week’s cold open I was so hyped, I don’t know if anything could have lived up to my expectations.  The idea it took all of Team Flash to the defeat The Thinker was a given. I originally thought (and hoped) it would be a combination of the gifts and skills they brought to the table but I should have known better. If that was the case they could have defeated him at any point in the season. It made far more sense for it to be the strength of Team Flash’s emotional bonds.

As DeVoe’s intellectual abilities grew, his emotional awareness deteriorated to the point where emotions no longer figured into his calculations. This left him vulnerable and thanks to his increasing hubris, oblivious to those vulnerabilities. Thus we have the final confrontation. Barry traveling into DeVoe’s mind in search of the last shred of goodness based on Marlize’s belief that part of the man she married still lives in The Thinker. Wrong. He literally killed that part of himself in the mistaken belief that aspect had no value.

Yet her theory was sound. There was still goodness there. It was just in the form of Ralph Dibny. His willingness to sacrifice himself to save Barry completed his redemption arc and confirmed him as a hero. In addition to everything else this episode accomplished, it solidified Ralph’s position as a member of Team Flash. His actions, along with the others, led to The Thinker's ultimate defeat. And the name of the episode.

Cecile has become more than just Joe’s loving partner and the mother of the latest addition to his growing brood. Over the season she has become the mother that Iris and Barry never had, a friend and confidant to Caitlin, and a full-fledged member of Team Flash. Cecile's telepathic abilities from her bond with her unborn child are the literal representation of those connections. It granted her the power both to connect with the other members of Team Flash and enabled her to be the conduit Barry needed to link to DeVoe’s mind.

Joe’s love for his family gave Joe the ability to resist DeVoe’s mental control. While it wasn’t enough to stop DeVoe, it was proof of the power of love. Just as Barry’s love for Iris was what enabled him to hide his thoughts for his final mental showdown with The Thinker.

The sheer amount of narrative ground covered pushed Cisco’s story to the background but his relationship with Harry has been one of the highlights of the season and it was paid off here in both his vow not to lose anyone else and his heartbreak at learning that while his friend had been saved, Harry’s brilliant mind was lost forever.

Caitlin’s journey this season was more about coming to terms with the darker and lighter parts of herself and integrating this new version within Team Flash. Yes, I know that Killer Frost and Caitlin are separate identities. However, since they resided within the same body and Caitlin came to the conclusion that she is incomplete without Frost, I think my argument is valid. Besides, is there anyone who thinks Frost is gone for good?

Which leaves Harry. Harry thought of his intelligence as a force for good. The means of keeping Team Flash safe from any who would harm them.  However, he was not devoid of hubris and his arrogance could brook no intelligence greater than his own. This led to more and more reckless choices culminating in the loss of that intelligence. In a reverse image of DeVoe, as his intellect dwindled his emotional intelligence increased. And at several crucial moments, it was his emotional awareness that ultimately allowed him to succeed in protecting his team despite the exorbitant cost.

The idea Harry’s sacrifice would be the cost necessary to defeat The Thinker made narrative sense though logistically problematic. Given their love for Harry, he would always have a place with Team Flash whatever his intellectual shortcomings. Unfortunately, those shortcomings limited his narrative contributions which led The Powers That Be to have their cake and eat it too. Marlize’s cure restored Harry’s personality but not his intellect. This saves a beloved character and leaves open the possibility of him returning and/or regaining his intelligence at some later date while not entirely negating his sacrifice. Unfortunately, it also undercuts the power of that sacrifice.

The Powers That Be made multiple unexpected choices. Chief among them appearing to resolve the war with the Thinker in the first half hour and leaving the rest as a prologue to next season. However, this year’s focus on the bonds forged by family and friends also serves as the setup for the next. Both in terms of how Killer Frost intersects with Caitlin’s father and Barry and Iris’s daughter Nora.

No episode is perfect and finales have the additional burden of tying up all the threads of the past season. That said, I thought this was a fitting end for one of the Flash’s better Big Bads and it left me with enough questions to torture me over the long hiatus. Success.

4 out of 5 world-saving sonic punches

Parting Thoughts:

Barry might actually solve cases as Barry next season. It looks like the Mayor had a change of heart and he’s getting his job back.

They did a much better job of making me care what happened to Harry then last year’s finale. Or was it simply the product of knowing Harry longer than I knew HR?

After his misogynistic introduction I was surprised both that I missed Ralph, and that I’m looking forward to seeing him next year.

And while I know they aren't going in this direction, shouldn't Ralph have all the abilities The Thinker stole from the other metas?

I don’t know what pleased me more. Seeing Wally back in the bosom of his family. Or, the acknowledgment that there is no place for him with Team Flash. He’s a good fit over on Legends.

My suspicion that our mystery girl was Barry and Iris's daughter proved true, although I thought she'd be Dawn from the comics.

Quotes:

Iris: “What do you see?” Barry: “Nothing.” Cisco: “A little vague for the viewers at home. What do you mean, ‘nothing’?”

Cisco: “Everyone chill. It’s not like Cecile is going to lose her powers if she has this baby. Cecile’s going to lose her powers if she has this baby? Won’t that leave Barry stranded in DeVoe’s mind?” Marlize: I’m afraid so. Cisco: “Information you may have wanted to share, like, way before now!”

Cisco: “I won’t lose anyone else today.”

Barry: “Have you seen him?” Dibny: “A good DeVoe? No. Just the evil, floating chair variety.”

DeVoe: “They’ll be no defeating The Big Bad this year, Mr. Allen.”

DeVoe: “We are gathered here today to worship in song. I suggest ‘Kumbaya.’”

Dibny: “Allen, you said the only way to save the world is by finding the good that’s left in DeVoe. It’s right here. With a hole in its chest.”

Barry: “They can read our minds.” Dibny: “Then we do this Dibny-style.” Barry: “What?” Dibny: “We don’t think.”

DeVoe: “How did you beat me?” Barry: “I didn’t. We did.”

Marlize: “Goodbye, My Love.”

Harry: “Don’t worry. You have been and will always be my friend.”

Barry: “Who are you?” Nora: “I’m your daughter, Nora. From the future.”

--

Shari loves sci-fi, fantasy, supernatural, and anything with a cape

[witchyfoxelf]

[tv review] tng 6x12 "ship in a bottle" (1993)

apparently the creative team loved the sherlock holmes setting but wasn’t able to return to it for quite a while thanks to a protracted legal dispute with the doyle estate, but once that was settled we saw them pick back up the thread of the sentient professor moriarty! they even made the long gap between the two episodes into a story beat with moriarty being pissed that picard & co appeared to have forgotten about him for all that time.

but undoubtedly the most memorable thing about this episode is the “we’re actually still on the holodeck!” twist. that’s just an iconic tng moment.

this isn’t a complaint exactly, but i think it’s pretty hysterical that when captain picard & co are faced with the seeming impossibility of a holodeck character literally walking off of the holodeck and existing in the real world, captain picard takes the time to lecture him about how crimes are still not allowed in the 24th century??? like, he literally sits him down and is sternly like “DON’T DO ANY CRIMES!!!” and it’s like, i really don’t think this is our biggest concern right now my dude? it just makes me laugh inappropriately every time.

but yeah, i have only two actually more substantial complaints about this episode? the first is that given her character’s rapport with moriarty in “elementary, dear data” i’d be pretty miffed if diana muldaur wasn’t offered a guest starring role in this. (and i haven’t seen any mention that she was.) that’s just a huge missed opportunity if they didn’t even try. but even if muldaur the actress was approached & declined, i think pulaski the character at least deserved a name drop here.

the other is that they play this ending like it’s a happily ever after sort of thing, but they’ve trapped a sentient being in a fictional world and lied to him about it? that’s… actually kinda dire, guys! you’re kinda literally doing the same thing as the bad guys in the matrix! like i do think they did their best, but idk, i’d like their tone to be less “we did good!” and more “we did our best but it kinda sucks and we’ll have folks working on this because it really sucks for him.”

okay actually one more thing, but this isn’t actually a problem with this episode? it’s more of a meta problem. i really wish we had had an episode between “chain of command” and this? maybe one where picard is taking some time off and riker is in command?

like, we don’t have to super dwell on what picard is going through or make it the focus of the episode, i get that tng likes to keep things light and i actually kinda love that because it makes stuff like “chain of command” stand out all the more? you can totally just have it be a riker episode or whatever, we don’t need to have him wrestle his older brother in the vineyard mud again.

just, having picard be so actively involved in this episode and making literally zero mention of what he’s just been through doesn’t really sit well with me? and the fact that it literally never comes up again for the rest of the series, all the tng movies, and two seasons of picard but his trauma from being assimilated comes up multiple times is just a rather glaring omission in my opinion.

but yeah, nitpicks aside, this is a seriously great episode. definitely one of the ones i’m always looking forward to.

s-rank

[tobespecial-a]

HIYA  FOLKS  WELCOME  TO  MY  BLOG  HERE.  GONNA  KEEP  THESE  AS  SIMPLE  AS  POSSIBLE  SO  LETS  GET  TO  IT.  ---  this  blog  is  dash only  for  now  but  may  change  in  the  near  future. 

first  things  first.  i  am  a  student  in  school  monday -  friday  from  1-5pm  so  expect  some  slowness  on  my  end.  i  am  studying  to  be  a  mental  health  and  addictions  worker  &  am  really  passionate  about  the  field  i  am  in  so  i  will  be  obviously  prioritizing  school  &  also  irl  commitments  over  rp.  please  respect   this  &  we  shall  be  dandy

now  that  thats  outta  the  way.  HI  THERE  I  AM  ES  !!!! (  well  technically  its  ESTELLE,  but  you  can  call  me  either  or  i  do  not  mind  !!! )  YOUR  LOCAL  NON-BINARY  GAY (  they /  them  pls  )  who  is  in fact  straight  af for  a  certain  gay  icon  zachary  quinto  ---  i  hail from  the  pst  timezone  in  vancouver  canada.  fun  facts  about  me.  ANYWHO  ON  WITH  THE  RULES.

REPLIES

this  is  not  my  only  blog  folks,  it  will  be  one  of  my  more  active  ones,  but  it  is  not  the  only  one  i  run.  please  be  patient  in  terms  of  replies.   i  usually  try  to  stay  on  top  of  my  game  but  sometimes  i  miss  shiz.  pls  poke  me  after  2  weeks  if  you  are  wondering,  i  may  have  missed  it  !!  however  it  is  likely  in  my  drafts.  PRO  TIP  THOUGH,  i  like  each  reply  or  starter  posted  to  me,  if  i  didn’t  like  it  there  is a  95%  chance  i   did  not  see  it.  so  please  feel  free  to  remind  me  after  the  2  weeks.  

also  personals  do  not  reblog  my  threads,  ooc  posts  or  anything  thats  not  a reblogged  photoset ,  its  annoying,  just  don’t  do  it.   --  i  also  have  minor  case  of  dyslexia  so  please  be  patient  with  spelling  errors.  i  catch  most  of  them,  but  sometimes  i  don’t  get  them  all.  if  something  becomes  an  issue  please  tell  me. 

FOLLOWING  AND  UNFOLLOWING

i  am  mutuals  only.  please  keep  this  in  mind.  i  will  only  take  ooc  asks  from  non  mutuals.  if  i  am  not  at  least  following  you  (  cos  i  know  some  people  who  i  write  with  /  have  written  with   don’t  follow  everyone  cos  they  want  a  clean  dash,  but  they  still  wanna  write )  then  please  don’t  attempt  ic  interactions.  this  is  your  first  &  final  warning.  i  will ignore  attempts  &  block  if  it  persists. 

do  not  follow  &  refollow  me  repeatedly  its  also  annoying  &  will  likely  get  you  blocked.  i  take  a  while  to  follow  back  sometimes,  please  be  patient. i  rarely  unfollow  so  if  you  see  it  happen,  please  poke  me.  however  i   have  the  right  to  ignore  it,  or  not  answer.  you  have  the  invitation,  i  just  don’t  have  to  invite  you  in  if  i  chose  to  revoke  it.  

disclaimer  i  probably  will  not  follow  blogs  that  romantically  ship  peter/claire.  incest  normally  doesn’t  bother  me  enough  to  mention  it, but  this one  just  really  is  a big  nope  for  me.  sorry  in  advance.  

CHARACTERIZATION

gabriel  is  based  off  nbc  heroes  &  my  own  personal  headcanons.  at  the  point  of  writing  this  i  have  seen  the  first  &  second season,  i  am  making  my  way  through  the  rest  of  the  show  at  present.   don’t  worry  about  spoilers  though  as  i  pretty  much  know  most  of  the  major  plot  points  for  gabriel  during  the  series,  just  not  all  the  specifics.  ---  threads  will  generally  take  place  in  aus  &  content  i  have  seen  however,  until  i  have  caught  up.  though  idk  how  big  the  fandom  is  so  i  sense  a  lot  of  aus  my  way  any  ways  lol

***  REGARDING  HEROES  REBORN

i  have  no  plans  to  watch  it.  sylar  isn’t  even  in   the  show  so  its  really  just  not  required  of  me  to  view  it.  any  plot  lines  transpired  in  that  canon  will  never  be  seen  in  any way  on  my  blog.   sylar  reforms  himself  post  series  &  just  goes  on  from  there.  when  i  officially  make  it  through  the  whole  show  i  will  write  proper  headcanons  on  that.  

ACTIVITY 

because  of  school  &  other  blogs  i  won’t  always  be  around.  however  i  can  always   be  reached  by  mobile  if  you  need  anything,  just  hmu.  thank  you  for  your  patience  in  this  regard.  also  fair  warning  i  do  have ADD  a  low grade  form  of  ADHD  so  i  get  a  lot  of  the  fun  extras  that  come  with  it.  please  respect  there  are  times  i  may  need  to  step  back  or  times  when  i  become  disassociated ,  its  been  happening  a lot  lately  so  i  wanted  to  inform  people  so    they  don’t think  i  am  ignoring  them.  i  promise  its  not  you,  its  me,  i  just  need  space.  FOR  THE  MOST  PART,  i  am  usually  always  around  to  answer  ims  &  messages  so  do  not  be  afraid  to  message  me  or  anything.  

SHIPPING 

ah  yes  everyones  fave  category.  if  anyone  has  questions  you  can  always  im  me  or  hu  my  ask  box  for  more  deets.   GABRIEL  IS  PANSEXUAL   BORDERLINE  GRAY  ROMANTIC  (  hes  between  demi  &  gray  )     

imma  start  off  by  saying  that   i  ship  syelle  as  well  as  petlar.  a  note      about  the  later, from  what  i  have read  &  seen  i  will  only  really  ship  them ( petlar )  during / post  the  wall,  which  at  the  time  of  writing  this  i  still  need  to  view.  i  would  be  open  to  pre  show  aus  to  start  at  this  point. 

anything  else  is  fair  game  at  this  point, just  be aware  sylar  isn’t  looking  for  anything  serious  really  during  heroes  canon.  plus  hes  not  exactly  a  nice  guy  so  like  be  warned  there.    ----  honest  to  god  if  your  interested  in  shipping  with  sylar  or  gabriel  (  yes  there  is  a  difference  )  pls  come  @  me.  the worst  i  can  do  is  say  no.  

i  will  also state   i  don’t  ship  sylaire  because  well…. shes  underage  ???? &  before  you  leap  down  my  throat  about  heroes  reborn,  most  of  the content i  have  seen  is  her  being  underage. but  i’m  not  gonna  accuse  anyone  of aging  anyone  up  for  a  ship,  cos  there  is  canon  where  she  is older.   i  am just  not  interested.  don’t  see  the  appeal,  i’ve  read  way  too much meta  &   just  don’t  see  it.  

it  is  also  worth  noting  that  post  3x01 the  second  coming,  sylar  can  no  longer  die.  he  is  immortal.  save  for  one  weak  spot  which  he  aint  about  to  tell  anyone  where  it  is. 

finally ummmm  i’m  22  guys  so  no  lying  about  your  age  to  smut  with  me.  i  will  block  your  ass  if  you  do.  don’t  make  me  be  the  bad  guy. 

GODMODDING

pls  do  not  god  mod  my  muse.  you  wanna  write  him  ??  make  a  blog  of  your  own,  or  go  write  some  fic.  i  play  three  strikes.  first  time  is  a  reminder,  second  time  is  a thread  drop  third  time  is  a  partner  all  together  drop.  THESE  CAN  BE  EXERCISED  AT  MY  DISCRETION  HOWEVER 

also  i  think  its  worth  mentioning  cos  some  might  see  this  as  potential  godmodding.  sylar  is  not  a  nice  guy,  hes  a  type  of  serial  killer.  he  will  kill  you  if  it  benefits  him,  or  if  you  piss  him  off  enough.  hes not  above doing  it  just  to  prove  a  point.  he  will  hurt  you  if  you  make angry,  might  not  kill  you  but  he  can  hurt  you  if  you  anger  him.  so  if  your  muse  riles  him  up  enough ??  just  be  prepared  for  potential  violence,  that  might  follow.  ---  i  will  not  exercise  my  muses  strength  cos  you  think  its  funny  to have  yours  poke  the  hive.  --  if  you  don’t  like  this,  please  don’t  attempt  to  write  with  me.  my  muse  is  a  villian  for  most  of  the  show  &  i  won’t  be  watering  him  down  for  you.  

OOC  VS.  IC  KNOWLEDGE

at  the  point  i  am  in  the  show,  the  only  people  who  know  what  sylar  looks  like  are  the  people  that  have  seen  him,  furthermore  only  those  who  have  heard  the  name  know  he  is  even  a  thing.  so  its  safe  to  say  a  lot  of  normal   savillians  don’t  know  him.  HELL  a  lot  of  the  heroes  don’t  know  him  either.  ---  keep  this  in  mind  when  interacting.  if  your  character  has  special  abilities  to  know  who  he  is,  thats  different,  but  don’t  just  assume  you  know  who  he  is  or  what  he  does.  

FURTHERMORE  TO  GO  OFF  A  TANGENT  i  am  not  gonna  be  too  keen  to  see  a  bunch  of  starters  of  people  begging  for  their  lives.  gabriel  is  a  hell  of  a  lot  more  then  just  a  random  serial  killer.  he  is  a  complex  character  who  has  feelings  &  issues  of  his  own.  hes  not  going  to  kill  just  anyone  for  the  sake  of  it.  please  bare  this  in  mind.  i  will  likely  not  reply  to  those  kind  of  random  interactions.  ---  by  all  means  if  you  wanna  plot  something  like  that  i  am  game  for  it,  but  please  give  me  the  heads  up.  i  will  not  reduce  my  muse  to  a  stereotype  killer,  cause  hes  not  & thats  the  tea.  he  only  kills  when  it  benefits  him,  its  not  a  sport  for  the  hell  of  it.  

TRIGGERING  CONTENT

given  the  nature  of  my  muse  there  will  be  some  triggering  themes  on  this  blog.  such  as  murder,  gore,  suicide, manipulation.  if  anyone  is  bothered  by  this,  please  blacklist  accordingly.  i tag  “  insert  trigger “ tw.  i  will  not  be  posting  heavy  gore  on  this  blog  in  visuals  at  least  &  i  ask  you  tag   it  if  you  post  it.  i’m  fine  with  a  bit  of  blood,  but  too  much  makes  me  a   little  ill.  writing  is  fine,  anything  like  a  photoset  with  heavy  gore  needs  to  be  tagged  for  me,  &  i  myself  will  not  be  posting  such  content.

MAINS  &  EXCLUSIVES

i  will  only  be  doing  exclusives  for  ships  &  crossover  fandoms  at  this  time.  if  you  are  interested  in  being  mains  lemme  know.  i  do  however  require  previous  interaction  ic  or  occ,  preferably  both.  if  you  wanna  be  exclusive  i  ask  you  return  the  favour  otherwise  i  drop  the  exclusivity.  

AND  I  THINK  THATS  ABOUT  IT  !!  I  PROMISE  I  AM  LESS  SCARY  THEN  THESE  RULES  MAKE  ME  SEEM,  I  AM  GIANT  NERD  WHO  IS  HELLA  FRIENDLY  &   LIKES  TO  GUSH ABOUT  HER  FAVES  ALWAYS !!  MUTUALS  MAY  ASK  FOR  DISCORD  IF  THEY  WISH  TO  TALK  THERE

NOW  HURRY  UP  &  ATTACK  MY  INBOX  OR  IMS  OR  LIKE  A  STARTER  CALL  LETS  WRITE  !! 

[elizabethrobertajones]

This or That - SPN

I was tagged by @bluestar86 and then ignored it for 3 days because I suck at doing these things >.> 

I’m going to tag @shardspoon @destiel4life67 @fangirlingtodeath513 and @teenwolf45537 for always being in my notifications ;)

1. demon!dean or soulless!sam?

Demon!Dean!! And not because I love Dean more but we got probably exactly enough Soulless!Sam... We had some build up like oh no something is wrong, and we had the goofy cracky episode about it, and then it turned serious and got resolved in one of The Best Episodes Of The Show Ever so all in all I am completely content and happy there. 

And then demon!Dean was only 3 episodes and the Mark of Cain stuff either side was so LONG and honestly the crack spec in the start of season 10 that Dean would get killed a come back as a demon like multiple times would have improved season 10 so much. You get crack episodes where it’s like oh shit I’m a demon. You get episodes where they use demon!Dean to get shit done. You get the inevitable time when it’s too much of a mess and Something Has To Be Done. I mean the 3 episodes packed in a lot but there are gaps and I think season 10 suffers a LOT from all sorts of random plot jerking around things, like not wanting Dean to be a deomon in the 200th episode just so they could have a musical, etc.

2. balthazar or gabriel?

I don’t really have a preference because I like Gabriel better in canon maybe but there’s SO much fanon about him it even ended up in 9x18 and it takes a serious meta workout to reconcile it all... Balthazar had a much smaller part (although I guess about the same no. of episodes) and at least in the fan fic I read, rarely shows up except to do exactly what he did in canon, basically :P I think he’s much more fun without it being really complicated but Gabriel is far more interesting. Since I’m lazy I’ll pick Balthazar for being fairly low energy to enjoy and of the 2 of them with nearly identical deaths his was way more glamorous to Gabriel’s over-dramatic :P

3. cas’ blue tie or striped tie?

1: I agree with Saz that tbh “no tie” was the best, but I think the classic tie is better. It had a lot more of Cas’s rebellious, scruffy personality in it. I associate it with him being windswept and angry, which are my 2 favourite Cas traits.

4. season 5 or season 12?

Season 5, because it’s just so epic and unlike anything the show has ever done before or since. I do get the old Kripke nostalgia even if I actually prefer pretty much every season since’s emotional arcs and characterisation much more. There’s still something electric about it for all its problems.

5. the colt or the angel blade?

There isn’t really a “the” angel blade... I mean I think the flippy flippy thing is awesome, whoever is doing it, but the Colt has style and history and fires in slo mo and is a one of the kind thing the show was practically built around... It has way more personality, so it’s not really a contest to me. I mean if it was “Dean shooting the Colt in slo mo or Cas doing the flippy flippy thing before he’s about to fuck something up” it would be a much harder question. :D

6. spn verse or au?

Canonverse aaaall the way. 

7. “mystery spot” or “free to be you and me”?

What sort of questions are these?? :P Do you prefer Sam angst or Sam angst with a side of Destiel bonding? I mean it’s not really a choice but are we supposed to get deep with Carver’s writing of some of his more iconic original episodes or what? :D I don’t think these episodes compare in other ways because they’re 10/10 for completely different reasons like crack or plot or character stuff or concept, none of which the other can remotely compare to even when it’s got its own 10/10s. Like the only common thread is the flower boxes in the diner are in the motel room when Cas is getting up in Dean’s personal space. 

Am I in too deep in the meta of this show.

8. jimmy novak or emmanuel?

Jimmy! He’s his own character and we probably need to take a moment to remember him every other time we talk about Cas or Claire so he’s so important even if his role is just the one episode and a few lines in Heaven. I really love everything about him in The Rapture. Also, these are weirdly biased Carver questions so I’m just going to lol that he has the same job and wife as the fake backstory Gabriel pretended to have in Mystery Spot when they confronted him. I have a mental venn diagram for weird little Carver tropes and it *cracks me up*.

Emmanuel is interesting but I don’t see a lot of “variations” of the characters as their own distinct people in the way they often get depicted as unique versions. Like I get separating them out for distinctions of who you’re talking about, but Emmanuel was just Cas with memory loss and his “Emmanuel” identity had very little development or exploration - we really just knew how Daphne found him and how he picked his name and some other little tiny details like his sweater or house... All the rest including healing people and all the stuff between him and Dean was ABOUT and FOR the fact he was Cas and ties into Cas’s characterisation anyway so... I don’t see any need to separate him out except for being clear about what I’m talking about :P 

9. favorite hair: sam’s, dean’s or cas’?

DEAN. It looks so fluffable. And soft. And then spiky and ready for a fight. Dean is his hair. His hair is Dean. Please pat him on the head someone. Or grip his hair really tight and pull it. Hee.

10. “i lost my shoe” or “you have a guinea pig? where?”

“I lost my shoe” is a CLASSIC kind of line that gets put on mugs and bumper stickers and shit. How can I not say it??

11. abbadon or ketch?

Abaddon because she’s terrifying and sexy and deserved to take over Hell and get a whole season as the big bad/Queen of Hell and I am still disappointed. Ketch was fun and all but he was in and out and did exactly what he needed to do in the story. Abaddon just got TEASED to us and then they murdered her awfully instead of letting her be awesome. I’m always going to be frustrated they brought her back and never worked out what to do with her.

12. lucifer or michael?

Michael absolutely any time ever. He’s legit scary and the big bad of the show. Lucifer is a joke and even in season 5 when he’s scary he’s not AS scary or important as Michael. Like yeah he’s the devil or whatever, but it’s all branding. Look at him. It’s all paper thin because he’s the Worst Sam parallel but it’s just like, so what if he was actually a monster with all the expected murdery-ness - Michael’s the Worst Dean parallel and taking THAT bundle of anxiety about what Dean might be and turning it into an enemy is horrifying. 

13. benny or charlie?

Long live the Queen :(

[solerey]

Rules & Verses for Mobile:

Having had these requested for my Finn account, I thought I should go ahead and make some mobile-accessible rules/verses for the rest of my accounts too, so here are Rey’s! (This also includes the various parental backstories I will play for her.) Note that while I don’t change my rules much (or basically ever lol) the VERSES information here is definitely not going to be up-to-date because I am forever making new aus…but here’s a start, at least, to give you something to explore until you get back to your computers!

Mun is named Nicky and is well over 21. Muse’s age will vary. Multi-ship and multi-verse.

RULES:

Following and Mututals:

This is a sideblog of nickyrp and as such cannot follow back.

We do not need to be mutuals to send memes or starters. Feel free to throw things like that at me at any time even if we’ve never played or plotted before. If I’m not interested or just too busy etc I promise I will let you know politely and not just leave you hanging!

If you want to play please send me a message or toss me a starter; I’m bad at paying attention to my follower count and probably didn’t notice your subtle arrival! Or thought you wanted to lurk idk. Say hi!

If you are a multimuse with a lot of characters or a lot of fandoms all on one url, I may not follow you because that tends to be overwhelming for me. It’s nothing personal nor a comment on your writing style; it’s just more than I can easily keep track of, myself. (That’s why mine are all on their own sideblogs.)

If I can’t read your blog (small text, low-contrast colors, etc) I will not interact with your character. I don’t have the best eyes and straining to read sucks all the fun out of rp. If you need any of my formatting or color choices adjusted for your own ease of accessibility please let me know! I will do so happily.

You can reblog any of my shit (headcanons, graphics, verses, meta, whatever) even if you’re a personal blog, I don’t care; it’s all one fandom imo. That said please don’t reblog my interaction threads with other people because most rp-ers do not like their things reblogged and I want to respect that. If I reblog anything of yours you do not want reblogged just let me know and I will delete it; I promise it’s just because I thought the thing was cool and got excited!

Interactions:

I am always up for trying new things so if you have a crazy idea, please hit me up! I promise I rarely disintegrate anyone.

I am happily open to interacting with Original Characters! I need to know who your character is though, so if you don’t have a bio or background I can find on your blog I’m not going to be interested.

I will not write smut with anyone under the age of eighteen.

If I ever do something that upsets or confuses or offends you, please let me know. It probably wasn’t intentional and I always want to be called out on problematic behavior because how else can I learn to do better? I promise to react apologetically, not defensively.

Formatting:

I’m a visual person so I like icons and gifs and will almost always incorporate them. If you don’t want to use images that’s cool with me, but I majored in comic book art so I enjoy the marriage of words with images. I should further admit that interactions with visuals do tend to keep me more excited than plain ones – I’m shallow!

I’m not a big fan of fancy formatting. I don’t mind if you use it but I don’t. Feel free to adjust my formatting to suit your aesthetic if that makes you more comfortable, but I’ll likely keep mine simple.

If you need any triggers tagged message me and I’ll do so gladly.

Canon & AUs:

I have as of yet read very little of the expanded universe materials for the New Canon (a few comics, the Thrawn novel, etc). As such, my portrayal of Rey may at times be lacking in regards to supplemental canon information. Please never hesitate to inform me of any details relevant to your character or any ongoing/burgeoning threads. I appreciate that assistance!

As far as the Legends EU goes, I have read most of the old novels (excepting NJO period) and many of the Dark Horse comics but that is a lot of material and I do not promise to remember everything. Please let me know if I make a mistake or assumption you do not agree with; I promise I will not be offended!

I will generally default to putting Rey into the canon of the Sequel Trilogy because that is where she comes from, but I am happy to play her in Legends Canon too – just let me know! If you don’t indicate verse/time on a meme or starter, I might pick another verse (or make a new one) so please indicate where you want to play if you have a preference!

I also love making AUs whether canon-divergence or totally off-the-wall so please don’t hesitate to throw new verses my way! I love both plotting and winging-it when building new worlds, so don’t be shy!

Characters Relationships & Shipping:

Platonic Ships: I generally enjoy Rey without any ships and am thus extraordinarily eager for friendships, familial relationships, and Found Family interactions. (Antagonistic and abrasive interactions are also welcome – it doesn’t have to be all sweetness and light all the time!) Rey very much wants to be loved, but it isn’t romance she is primarily looking for. I will usually write Rey as being either an aromantic or biromatic asexual.

OTPs: That said, I do thoroughly enjoy the idea of a Finn/Rey/Poe polyship and would be thrilled to play out interactions under that set-up. I will also happily ship her with either of those two gentlemen on their own, or with Rose Tico or Jess Pava or Jannah or really anyone whom it makes sense to ship her with, providing there is chemistry and a basis in friendship to build the ship from (whether that be formed via interaction or plotted ahead of time). Interspecies ships with non-human characters are also welcome!

NOTPs: No teacher/student, adult/minor, or incestuous ships, please. Additionally I will not ship Rey with Kylo Ren in any verse. I have no objections to playing in verses where they are not related, but due to the fact that I started thinking of them them as siblings about five minutes into my first viewing of TFA (the Jaina/Jacen vibes were too strong for my Legends-based heart, sorry!), it is simply something that I am not comfortable shipping regardless of their actual familial status in a verse or lack thereof. Please tag your reylo so I can block it?

One-Way Ships: I will never force a ship on you. I expect the same courtesy in return. That said, you are more than welcome to have your character express unrequited romantic feelings toward mine. (In most cases I expect I’d even be okay with this sort of one-way attraction coming from a Kylo Ren character; if it ends up crossing the edges of my comfort zone I’ll let you know!)

Main Faceclaim: Daisy Ridley [older: Keira Knightley] [younger: Raffey Cassidy]

“We are the spark that will light the fire that will burn the First Order down.” ―Poe Dameron

VERSES & BACKSTORIES:

I am a big fan of AUs and canon-divergent verses so if you don’t see something here that looks like your cup of caf know that I am always happy to plot out a new one! Also feel free to pull anything from my wishlist.

BACKSTORY OPTIONS: I find that I enjoy the Rey Palpatine/Rey-Chooses-Skywalker Idea more and more the longer I contemplate it. I do however remain wholly convinced that Rey Organa-Solo was the original intention with the character in TFA. Thus, for threads set early in Rey’s character arc I am likely to default to Rey Organa-Solo while in threads set later I’ll probably go the Palpatine/Skywalker route. (And I have other options too!) If you have a backstory preference, please specify before starting a thread.

The Last Solo (default canon verse): Rey was too little to remember that her full name was Breha Organa Solo but it wouldn’t have mattered if she’d been one hundred; when Emperor Palpatine decides to mind-rub the entire galaxy, they forget. Sensing the all-but-unprecedented power within the little girl, the half-resurrected shadow of Palpatine was too tempted by her potential to destroy her outright; instead he erased her life. He couldn’t erase the emotional weight of her absence, though, nor the instant sense of connection felt by both Rey and those who had once loved her. Even Kylo Ren didn’t know why the little girl he dragged from the ruins of the Jedi Temple mattered, but he couldn’t bring himself to kill her, instead abandoning both her and his father’s ship on Jakku before following Snoke into the Dark. Palpatine’s lies about Rey’s lineage fooled everyone for a time – but in the end, the truth felt real in a way that the lies did not, and Rey reclaimed the heritage he had stolen. In the end, Palaptine lost everything.

The Last Skywalker (secondary canon verse): When the half-resurrected former Emperor mind-rubbed the entire galaxy to forget Luke Skywalker’s daughter, he succeeded – but his former Hand recognized the feeling of his touch on her thoughts. Mara Jade immediately knew he was back. She didn’t know why she felt such a connection to the little girl buried beside her in the ruins of the Jedi Temple, but she knew she had to kill her former master – and that she had to keep this child safe. She “borrowed” her brother-in-law’s ship and went searching for Palaptine, her forgotten daughter in tow. When she reached Jakku, she left the girl and the ship behind, knowing the next step was too dangerous to bring a child she loved along – but the Final Order she found was more than the fragments of the Empire she had expected, and Mara never returned for her daughter. That didn’t stop the girl who called herself Rey from sensing a connection to her true family when she finally found them again, nor stop her from claiming her true lineage in the end in spite of Palaptine’s lies. (Can also be played with a different mother!)

Palpatine’s Heir (canonical canon verse): When Rey at last discovered her lineage, she was horrified. She was the granddaughter of Emperor Palpatine, the man who had destroyed the Old Republic and created the Empire – and was now the resurrected Lord of the Sith. After initially giving in to fear and despair at the darkness she believed she saw within herself, Rey eventually returned to the war. With the assistance of Kylo Ren, who had turned his back on the Sith at the last minute, she was able to destroy Palpatine while the Resistance obliterated the Final Order’s fleet. Hope was restored to the galaxy, Rey was restored to life in a final act of atonement, and the stain of the Sith was at last ended…at least for now. Choosing to turn her back on the bloodline that spawned her, Rey has instead declared herself a Skywalker in essence if not in birthright, carrying on the legacy of the late Luke and Leia. As the first of the new Jedi, Rey now looks to teach others the ways of the Force as Leia did her – starting with her dearest friend, Finn.

Not So Nobody (alt canon verse): The daughter of Kam and Tionne Solusar, two of Luke’s earliest Jedi students, Rey was the first child born within the Temple. Kylo Ren desperately wanted to make her his first apprentice of the Dark Side, but the Solusars escaped the slaughter and fled across the galaxy. The First Order pursued. Unable to shake them, Kam and Tionne made landfall on the nearest planet: Jakku. They hid Rey with a junk dealer and left, planning to lead Ren away and double-back when it was safe – but the First Order caught them. They convinced Kylo Ren that Rey had died of wounds taken during the attack on the Temple, but the deception cost them their lives. Kylo Ren was irritated to have lost Rey as an apprentice but had more important things to do than dwell on the death of one child…until he heard about the girl on Jakku who helped the deserter. He knew immediately who she had to be – and that she would become his apprentice after all, or he would ensure that her parents’ lie became the truth.

Orphan of Jakku (alt canon verse): Kylo Ren told the truth: Rey’s parents were nobody…but what does that matter? A person’s worth isn’t determined by their lineage but by their choices. And Rey chooses the Light and the Resistance and she will give her all to defend her friends and to free the galaxy from the shackles the First Order wants to wrap them in. Kylo Ren might be descended from Darth Vader but Rey doesn’t need to be a Skywalker too in order to end him and his reign.

Twinverse (for duplicates): Twins run in the Skywalker line, and B(rey)ha and Pad(mey) were no exception. Named for both of Leia’s mothers, their loss hit her as hard her son’s fall to the Dark Side – and hit the girls even harder: separated for the first time in their lives, they were scattered to distant planets and lost, abandoned. So young they could barely remember their own names let alone those of their family, they grew-up like orphans until one day “Rey” found herself leaving aboard a ship whose controls fit her hands like they’d been made for her. When the Force stirred in Rey, it reached out to her sister as well and Mey went looking for the family that had never come back to find her. (I’m happy to play either Rey or Other Rey in all versions! Can also be done as Skywalker twins or nobody twins. Names changeable!)

SEQUEL TRILOGY VERSES:

Her Mother’s Daughter (alt post-TFA): Leia had always been too busy running rebellions and piecing-together governments to truly master the Force, but she knew enough to teach Rey the basics – at least until the old friends she dispatched to fetch her brother could talk him into coming back. She could have sent Rey, but after losing Han she didn’t want to let her daughter out of her sight – not so soon after finding the long-thought-dead girl again. Besides, they had so much to catch up on…and the Resistance could use a Force Sensitive woman like Breha, training or no training. And for General Organa, duty always came first.

Corrupted Coordinates (alt post-TFA): the map did not lead them to Master Skywalker. Artoo wasn’t sure if the data was corrupted or if Luke had been there at one point and then moved on – but wherever he was, it wasn’t here. Unwilling to return to the Resistance empty-handed (to fail again the way she had failed to save Han, to protect Finn) Rey went looking for every rumor of Luke she could find. Aboard the Millennium Falcon with Chewbacca and R2-D2 in tow, she is determined to keep searching until she can come back to Leia with something that will give them all hope.

A Newer Hope (alt TLJ): It wasn’t Rey who finally convinced Luke Skywalker to come back to the Force, back to the Resistance, back to his sister; it was the droid Artoo Deetoo, perhaps Luke’s oldest living friend. Artoo’s old hologram reminded Luke of the boy he’d once been and the hopes that had once filled his life to brimming. Lifting her Jedi Master’s ancient X-Wing from the water had been the last task Rey completed before Luke deemed her ready to return to the galaxy and to continue her training from within the Resistance, although he was cautious about letting her progress too quickly, unable to shake his fears of creating another Kylo Ren.

A Skywalker Returned (alt TLJ): If Luke had not cut himself off from the Force he would have recognized his daughter’s presence the moment she set foot on that island. As it was, the resemblance she bore to his sister – to the woman his daughter would have been if she had lived to grow-up – seemed like a cruel joke of the Force and inspired him to push her away instead. His daughter had died alongside her mother, murdered by Ben Solo in an attempt to hide his fall to the Dark Side…or so Luke had thought. Unable to kill his little cousin, Ben instead mind-rubbed her and dumped the confused girl on an out-of-the-way planet. He never expected the girl from Jakku to come back to haunt him – but the Force has a way of returning things to their proper balance, and Kylo Ren knows now that no lies will keep him safe from his long-lost cousin. Unless he can twist her to the Dark Side the way Snoke once twisted him, their next meeting will leave one or both of them dead.

The Rise of Organa-Solo (post-TLJ): Rey felt an instant connection to Han and Leia (and Kylo Ren), the Force within her whispering that this was the family she sought. Her father thought her resemblance to his beloved Leia was mere coincidence and died before learning the truth; her mother surely sensed something when they met but whether out of concern she might be wrong or hopes of sparing Rey further emotional turmoil before she started her Jedi training, Leia said nothing…and Luke had cut himself off from the Force and thus was unable to recognize his niece. Now only Leia remains to guide Rey into the Light away from Snoke’s lies and toward her destiny – but will the truth make it harder or easier for her when she has to kill her brother?

The First Jedi (alt post-TLJ): While Leia reforges the fragments of the Resistance into a New Rebellion, Rey has a mission of her own: finding other Force Sensitives and leading them with her into the Light before Kylo Ren’s agents can drag them to the Dark Side. She is no Jedi Master but she has the ancient Jedi teachings to draw from, friends to support her, and her own clarity of vision to guide her. She will learn, and she will teach. The Jedi will not end with her.

The Sunrider Option (alt TROS): With Kylo Ren dead at her hand, Rey  faced Palpatine alone – but she had read the old Jedi texts and knew of a different sort of sacrifice she could make. She did as commanded and struck him down, claiming her position as Empress of the Sith – but severed herself from the Force at the same time. The spirits of the Sith moved from him to her…and found nothing waiting there that could house them. They faded, dissipating into nothing but impotent screams. Before the Final Order could realize the ritual had failed, she gave the command for their fleet to stand down. The combined Resistance and Free People’s Fleets destroyed most of their ships before they could fight back or flee, and Rey returned to her friends alive and untainted – but forever sundered from the Force. Now she does her best to pass her training on to Finn so he can guide the new generation of Jedi that she will never be a part of…and learns to live with a world that will feel forever muffled, forever less.

The Balance Restored (post TROS): While Poe Dameron, Rose Tico, Kaydel co Connix, and the other leaders of the Resistance turn their hand from rebellion to building a government, Rey has a mission of her own: finding other Force Sensitives and training them as Leia did her. From the fragments of the Jedi Order, something new will rise – something that is not bound by the limitations of the Jedi Code or the sins of Jedi past, but something nonetheless firmly rooted in the Light. She will restore balance to the galaxy one student at a time, starting with her first apprentice: Finn.

Rebel Daughter (pre-TFA divergence): Breha was not lost when her brother fell to the Dark Side. She grew-up amidst the strain and stress of political upheaval and imminent war, but she also grew-up surrounded by family. Breha’s devotion to the Resistance is total – almost. The loss of her brother cut her too deep for even the dozens of unofficial aunts, uncles, and quasi-siblings of her parents’ friends and allies to assuage – but dragging Ben back to the Light would do it. Breha refuses to give up on the big brother she once adored, no matter what Uncle Luke or her parents caution her, but will she risk the continued survival of the Resistance she loves on her certainty that Ben is still in there somewhere, and she can bring him back? She tells herself it’s the will of the Force guiding her – but maybe she just misses her brother.

Scoundrel Daughter (pre-TFA divergence): when Ben Solo fell to the Dark Side, Leia and Han decided that the Force was too dangerous for their remaining child. Duty demanded that General Organa stay with her burgeoning Resistance, so Han and Chewie took young Breha away from war and into the safety of the seedier side of life. She grew up more on the Falcon than off, flitting from port to port and learning the tricks of the smuggler trade rather than the ways of the Force. It wasn’t until Hosnian Prime met its grim fate that they came home to Leia, joining the Resistance for a desperate mission to Starkiller Base – and Breha’s first confrontation with her brother since she had been a little girl and he had not yet become a monster.

Dark Lady of Ren (pre-TFA divergence): When young Ben Solo proved resistant to Snoke’s manipulations he set his sights on an easier target: the boy’s baby sister. His assault on the Jedi Temple left many survivors, but it had all been a distraction so he could kidnap Breha. Raised to the Dark Side and indoctrinated with the beliefs of the First Order, Kreya Ren has few memories of any life before and even less interest in uncovering them. With her family convinced that she died thirteen years ago, she might never have discovered her origins – save that Poe Dameron knew the moment they came face to face who this woman who looked so much like Leia had to be. That had been Kreya’s first mission as a Knight of Ren and she took Dameron’s escape and the defection of the traitor FN-2187 personally. Vowing to destroy the Resistance once and for all, Kreya Ren never expected to discover a brother barring her way – nor parents who refused to accept that she would never turn her back on the Dark Side.

Orderly Mechanic (pre-TFA divergence): The First Order was never picky about where it harvested its resources – or about how willing they were. Rey didn’t want to leave Jakku but she wasn’t given a choice when stormtroopers marched over the sands “recruiting” anyone useful. She was barely a teenager but everyone knew she was good with machines and they needed people to keep their ships spaceworthy. At least she’s learned a lot, although “traveling the galaxy” probably would be more exciting if she ever got to step foot off the ships for more than the occasional dirtside repair. Being a young and self-taught prodigy has netted Rey few friends among her co-workers, but some of the stormtrooper recruits at least are nice to the girl who helps fix their boots and blasters…and so far no one, not even Rey herself, has realized that her instinctive avoidance of Kylo Ren is anything more than ordinary prudence. And every day, her lost family feels a little further away…

More Coming Soon! like literally as soon as soon as someone asks for or suggests one, I love AUs. Don’t be shy!

LEGENDS EU VERSES:

Another Desert Daughter (as Shmi’s great-granddaughter): Luke felt an instant connection to the new Jedi trainee the moment Rey stepped into the temple. Here was yet another Force user from Tatooine, another orphaned child of the sands who dreamed beyond the confines of her hot and distant world, like Taihiri Veila and himself before them. So why did the extent of her powers frighten him? Was it because the coincidental resemblance of her features and his niece’s, his sister’s, had Luke making the mental leap to yet another Jedi from Tatooine? But this girl was no Vader, surely! Of course, if he had known that she too carried Skywalker blood in her veins, Luke might have let himself worry more…but Shmi Skywalker had died too quickly to tell her son that there was another. (can be set at any time in Legends Continuity but probably not NJO because I don’t know it)

Lost Hapan Princess (as Allana Djo Solo): deeming it too dangerous to hide her daughter in plain sight with Han and Leia Organa-Solo, Tenel Ka sent Allana to Dathomir after faking her death – but the ship never made it there. Left on the nearest planet for safe-keeping by her escort while they dealt with the threat pursing them, Allana soon found herself abandoned and alone. Her memories damaged by the upheaval in the Force following Caedus’s fall and Abeloth’s rise, she spent the next several years sure of nothing but that she had family out there somewhere who would be coming back for her…but as the amnesiac girl drew inward to shield herself from the darkness in the Force, Tenel Ka was forced to conclude that her deception about her daughter’s death had become the truth: Allana was gone. But the Force wasn’t done with the woman now called Rey just yet… (for post-LOTF interactions)

Littlest Solo Sister (as Breha Organa-Solo): either taking Anakin Solo’s place as the youngest of the three Solo children, standing alongside Anakin as the second set of Organa-Solo twins, or as the fourth and youngest of the siblings, Breha grew-up as the daughter of the New Republic’s Chief of State and the niece of the Jedi Grand Master. It was a life that involved lots of affection from a host of unofficial aunts and uncles, the occasional kidnapping, and training in the Jedi Temple on Yavin Four. It eventually involved war as well, interspersed with tragedy and darkness. (can be set at any time in Legends Continuity but I really don’t know the NJO so assistance with details may be necessary if you want that)

More Coming Soon! like literally as soon as soon as someone asks for or suggests one, I love AUs. Don’t be shy!

[2187nomore]

Finn’s Rules & Verses:

I got a request from someone who can’t see my pages while on mobile, so for anyone else having trouble here they are! Note that while I don’t change my rules much (or basically ever lol) the VERSES information here is definitely not going to be up-to-date because I am forever making new aus...but here’s a start, at least, to give you something to explore until you get back to your computers!

Mun is named Nicky and is well over 21. Muse’s age will vary. Multi-ship and multi-verse.

RULES:

Following and Mututals:

This is a sideblog of nickyrp and as such cannot follow back.

We do not need to be mutuals to send memes or starters. Feel free to throw things like that at me at any time even if we’ve never played or plotted before. If I’m not interested or just too busy etc I promise I will let you know politely and not just leave you hanging!

If you want to play please send me a message or toss me a starter; I’m bad at paying attention to my follower count and probably didn’t notice your subtle arrival! Or thought you wanted to lurk idk. Say hi!

If you are a multimuse with a lot of characters or a lot of fandoms all on one url, I may not follow you because that tends to be overwhelming for me. It’s nothing personal nor a comment on your writing style; it’s just more than I can easily keep track of, myself. (That’s why mine are all on their own sideblogs.)

If I can’t read your blog (small text, low-contrast colors, etc) I will not interact with your character. I don’t have the best eyes and straining to read sucks all the fun out of rp. If you need any of my formatting or color choices adjusted for your own ease of accessibility please let me know! I will do so happily.

You can reblog any of my shit (headcanons, graphics, verses, meta, whatever) even if you’re a personal blog, I don’t care; it’s all one fandom imo. That said please don’t reblog my interaction threads with other people because most rp-ers do not like their things reblogged and I want to respect that. If I reblog anything of yours you do not want reblogged just let me know and I will delete it; I promise it’s just because I thought the thing was cool and got excited!

Interactions:

I am always up for trying new things so if you have a crazy idea, please hit me up! I promise I rarely disintegrate anyone.

I am happily open to interacting with Original Characters! I need to know who your character is though, so if you don’t have a bio or background I can find on your blog I’m not going to be interested.

I will not write smut with anyone under the age of eighteen.

If I ever do something that upsets or confuses or offends you, please let me know. It probably wasn’t intentional and I always want to be called out on problematic behavior because how else can I learn to do better? I promise to react apologetically, not defensively.

Formatting:

I’m a visual person so I like icons and gifs and will almost always incorporate them. If you don’t want to use images that’s cool with me, but I majored in comic book art so I enjoy the marriage of words with images. I should further admit that interactions with visuals do tend to keep me more excited than plain ones – I’m shallow!

I’m not a big fan of fancy formatting. I don’t mind if you use it but I don’t. Feel free to adjust my formatting to suit your aesthetic if that makes you more comfortable, but I’ll likely keep mine simple.

If you need any triggers tagged message me and I’ll do so gladly.

I am extremely uncomfortable with reylo due to the fact that I interpreted Rey as being analogous to Jaina Solo within the opening minutes of TFA. If you play either Kylo Ren or Rey and enjoy that ship, I ask that you not reference it in any interactions with my Finn, and furthermore that you tag it so that I can blacklist. Thank you!

Canon & AUs:

I have as of yet read very little of the expanded universe materials for the New Canon (a few comics, the Thrawn novel, etc). As such, my portrayal of Finn may at times be lacking in regards to supplemental canon information. Please never hesitate to inform me of any details relevant to your character or any ongoing/burgeoning threads. I appreciate that assistance!

As far as the Legends EU goes, I have read most of the old novels (excepting NJO period) and many of the Dark Horse comics but that is a lot of material and I do not promise to remember everything. Please let me know if I make a mistake or assumption you do not agree with; I promise I will not be offended!

I will generally default to putting Finn into the canon of the Sequel Trilogy because that is where he comes from, but I am happy to play him in Legends Canon too – just let me know! If you don’t indicate verse/time on a meme or starter, I might pick another verse (or make a new one) so please indicate where you want to play if you have a preference!

I also love making AUs whether canon-divergence or totally off-the-wall so please don’t hesitate to throw new verses my way! I love both plotting and winging-it when building new worlds, so don’t be shy!

Characters Relationships & Shipping:

Platonic Ships: For my interpretation of Finn, friendship takes precedence as the most important thing in his life right now. He never had a chance for much of that in his life before leaving the First Order, and he’s still getting used to the idea of caring about people and being loved in return. So please, bring me all the platonic ships – pals, mentors, comrades, buddies, frenemies – you can think of!

OTPs: My favorite ship would be Finn/Rey/Poe and I would be thrilled to play out some polyshipping. I also like the idea of Finn/Poe and Finn/Rey on their own, and while I don’t think TLJ gave us enough to build a Finn/Rose ship from I would be thrilled to explore that option properly in rp as well. Likewise Finn/Jannah although to be frank I like the idea of Ex-Stormtrooper BFFS even more than Ex-Stormtrooper Lovers, but really anything’s good there! Honestly provided that there is chemistry and a basis in friendship to build the ship from (whether that be formed via interaction or plotted ahead of time), I’m probably down. Interspecies ships with non-human characters are also welcome!

NOTPs: No teacher/student, adult/minor, or incestuous ships, please. Given Finn’s history, I am very unlikely to ship him with any First Order muses in anything outside a massively different AU but I’m not listing them as strict notps because let’s face it: I love AUs.

One-Way Ships: I will never force a ship on you. I expect the same courtesy in return. That said, you are more than welcome to have your character express unrequited romantic feelings toward mine. If it ends up crossing the edges of my comfort zone I’ll let you know!

Main Faceclaim: John Boyega

VERSES:

While I will readily play in canon verses, I am also a big fan of AUs and canon-divergent verses. If you don’t see something here that looks like your cup of caf know that I am always happy to plot out a new one! (Note that while I will always write Finn as being Force Sensitive, he will not always know he is and thus his connection with the Force will vary from verse to verse. Any questions, ask!)

SEQUEL TRILOGY VERSES:

Pulled the Trigger (alt-TFA): FN-2187 did not enjoy the battle – the slaughter – on Jakku, but he did what he was trained for. It didn’t matter that it made him sick. He obediently returned to Jakku to search for a droid and found more than he’d bargained for: a girl who thrashed half his unit with nothing but a stick. 2187 eventually got the drop on her but Kylo Ren’s impatience sent an airstrike, and in the ensuing chaos 2187 had no option but to pretend the reason he hadn’t shot Rey was because he was a Resistance sympathizer. They fled together and returned to the Finalizer to rescue the droid’s master. 2187 figured he would tag along and turn them in as soon as he got a chance…but they succeeded in their mission, and the longer he spent with the Resistance, the more he began to think he didn’t want to leave. Too bad he’s already reported their destination to the First Order…

The Newest Hope (alt-TFA): Finnick Peckhum has always been able to hear the voice of the Force. For years, he tried to ignore it – but eventually the call was too loud. Finn followed it Ahch-To, to Luke Skywalker. The self-exiled Jedi Master was reluctant to train a new student after Kylo Ren, but even he could not deny the will of the Force itself and gave-in, teaching Finn the Jedi arts – but another call summoned him back. The young Jedi Knight arrived on Jakku just in time to help a scavenger escape a First Order patrol. Finn heard the Force in Rey too, and knew he had to train her in the ways of the Force – and to find the Resistance led by Luke’s sister, Leia. With a Jedi Knight and his Padawan on their side, the Resistance finally stands a real chance. Together he and Rey will take the fight to Kylo Ren, intending to right the balance he upset with his turn to the Dark…one way or the other.

Another Kriffing Farmboy (alt-TFA): growing-up with a loving, hard-working family on a planet so far from galactic civilization it might as well not even be on the charts, Finn Peckhum never gave much thought to politics – until the First Order bombed Ennth and destroyed everything he ever loved. Frightened of their overwhelming might, Finn gave no thought to revenge until yet another low-paying freighter job took him to Jakku where he crossed paths with a droid and a scavenger desperate for a ride off-world. Agreeing to smuggle them in the ship he worked on in exchange for a hefty reward seemed like a chance to safely tweak the First Order’s nose until they blew up that ship, too, leaving Finn and his new allies to flee in the first wreck they could get their hands on. As things got more and more dangerous, Finn kept meaning to leave – but somehow, he never got around to it, and the next thing he knew General Organa was handing him a blaster and welcoming him to the fight…

There Is Another (alt post-TFA): while the lightsaber never called to him the way it did Rey, something helped him retain his humanity through the First Order’s brainwashing; something helped him hold his own against Kylo Ren with a weapon he barely understood…and that something was the Force. While Rey was off seeking Master Skywalker, General Organa helped tutor Finn in his own Force skills while his body knitted itself back together under the tender ministrations of Resistance medtechs. He might never be able to able to best a true master of the Force, not without more thorough training anyway, but Kylo Ren was no Darth Vader. And with the new lightsaber he’s just completed, Finn can’t wait for a rematch with the monster who almost severed his spine and broke his teacher’s heart…

Trusted Leadership (alt-TLJ): most of the Resistance’s leadership was lost in the explosion that wounded General Organa, but General Antilles had always been a cockpit warrior himself and hadn’t been anywhere near the ship’s bridge. When Poe took the plan he, Finn, and Rose had concocted to him, Wedge was happy to put his own resources behind the scheme and with a reliable slicer in tow, they infiltrated the Supremacy and shut down the tracking program, allowing the Resistance to escape. Holdo was furious with Antilles but he had the rank to whether her temper, and thanks to the timely arrival of Rey and Chewbacca in the Millennium Falcon, the infiltration crew made it back to the fleet only a little the worse for wear. The Resistance went to ground to lick its wounds and plan its next strike against the First Order, and Finn was officially inducted into the fight by a recovered Organa.

The First Pebble (alt post-TLJ): no one ever gave much thought to stormtroopers as people, not the First Order or the Resistance either. They were just there, anonymous and disposable shock troopers…but they weren’t. And Finn proved that both to the galaxy and to his former comrades. Within the stormtrooper ranks, his choice started a revolution. When word got around that he had even bested the mighty Phasma, not once but twice, well…it made all but the most strident diehards take notice. Now Finn wasn’t just some ordinary defector; he was a rallying cry. The first time a stormtrooper unit got in touch with a request for help defecting, Finn thought it was a fluke – but Poe Dameron knew better. He knew this was the start of an avalanche that might bring the First Order down from the inside…if Finn is brave enough to make himself the face of this new revolution.

Matched Lightsabers (alt TROS): in the wake of the Resistance’s near-obliteration on Crait, the survivors have to work harder than ever – which in Finn’s case means more than just running missions and pitching revolt to stormtroopers. It means training with Rey and Leia in the use of the Force. He was an uncertain, reluctant apprentice – but Leia was adamant that he learn, and Finn could no more say no to the General than to the Force itself. Confidence was his biggest hurdle. What business did a former stormtrooper have learning to master the Jedi arts? It wasn’t until he and Rey walked onto Exogol that Finn finally admitted to himself that he was a Jedi – a declaration that nearly killed him. Together, they managed to defeat the half-resurrected Palpatine and restore peace to the galaxy. Now Finn faces his biggest challenge: how to teach as well as learn.

The Next Jedi (post TROS): Finn never expected to become the first apprentice of the New Jedi Order – never really wanted it, if he’s honest. But the Force had been whispering in his ear for years and eventually, that whisper became a shout he could not ignore. Even with the First Order crushed to ash and dust, there is plenty to be done patching the galaxy back into shape and building a new government to keep people both safe and free; plenty of things for Finn to focus on instead of his training, working with Poe and Rose and Kaydel and Chewbacca…but Rey is stubborn, and so is the Force. Even if it scares him as much as it entices him, Finn is going to have to learn…and alongside his friend and teacher, someday construct a lightsaber of his own.

Stormtrooper Advocate (post TROS): Finn knows that Rey wants him to focus on his Jedi training while Poe and Rose want his help with their diplomatic efforts – but Finn knows who really needs him now: all the lost stormtroopers recruits who need to dig their way out of the First Order’s brainwashing and learn to be people. It’s a lot of trauma to recover from; a lot of indoctrination to unlearn. Alongside Jannah and her crew of defectors, Finn is spearheading the reclamation effort. Whether that means designing programs for prisoners, negotiating cease-fires with stranded units, taking whole bases down with stun-blasts for forceful deprogramming, or just giving broken kids someone to talk to, Finn won’t give up on these people. They're his people and it’s his responsibility to save them. If he doesn’t, who else is going to care?

Running All His Life (alt post-TROS): as long as Finn could remember, he’s been running away from something…but it wasn’t until facing Kylo Ren in battle that he realized that something was the Force – and that realization terrified him. Watching Rey struggle to master Leia’s teachings and learning more about how Ben Solo had become the monster in his nightmares only cemented that fear, and Finn did everything he could to deny what he’d long known was true: he could feel the Force, too. He knew he was being a coward, letting Rey face that burden alone; lashed-out at Poe for keeping secrets about his past out of guilt for his own silence…but he couldn’t, daren’t, admit the truth to anyone. When Rey tried to tell him she could sense the Force in him, he denied it; when she started searching for Force Sensitives to train, he threw himself into his work rebuilding a galactic government alongside Poe, Rose, and Jannah instead. But every day the voice of the Force in his head is getting louder; how long can he keep running?

A Knight Of Ren (alt Trilogy): the First Order tests all their stolen “recruits” for Force potential, and they found it in the one designated FN-2187. Trained alongside the next generation of the Knights of Ren – mostly taken from the First Order’s youthful conscripts, some gathered along the way – to wield the Dark Side and serve Snoke and Kylo Ren, Finn was loyal and devoted…and troubled. While he was a strong Force user, he could never fully commit to the power of the Dark Side; never completely embrace it. Knowing that his doubts made him weak, he did his best to push them away…but then he met the girl from Jakku, and his whole world went sideways.

LEGENDS EU VERSES:

Rebel Defector: just because snubfighter jockeys and ranking officers made the splashiest exits when they left Imperial service didn’t mean they were the only ones. For stormtrooper conscript FN-2187, the Empire was the only option – until stunts like the Rand Ecliptic and monstrosities like Alderaan changed his mind. Getting away from the Empire alive wasn’t easy, but when Finn was assigned guard duty for a Rebel prisoner he knew his chance had come. Talking half his unit into coming with him and dosing the other half in stun blasts, he marched the prisoner onto a Lambda-shuttle for transfer to the Lusankya…and then the rebellious stormtroopers overpowered the Imperial pilots, opened the Rebel’s binders, and jumped to freedom. Adjusting to service in the Rebellion’s infantry was difficult, but not as difficult as carrying-out Imperial orders. And maybe someday, he’ll make up for what he did for the Empire and can go on to have a normal life at last. (for Rebellion and New Republic-era interactions)

More Coming Soon! like literally as soon as soon as someone asks for or suggests one, I love AUs. Don’t be shy!

[brokehorrorfan]

Blu-ray Review: Wishmaster Collection

The phrase "made for fans, by fans" is often used to describe indie horror films, but it rarely applies on a studio level. Wishmaster is a rare exception, with a bevy of genre talent involved both in front of and behind the camera. It was followed by three sequels of diminishing quality. All four films are collected and presented in high-definition for the first time in Vestron Video's Wishmaster Collection Blu-ray set.

Wishmaster was executive produced by the late, great Wes Craven (A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream), allowing the film to be advertised under the "Wes Craven Presents" banner. Special effects veteran Robert Kurtzman (From Dusk Till Dawn, Scream) assumed the director's chair, bringing aboard his prolific KNB EFX Group to handle the copious practical effects. One of his partners, Greg Nicotero (The Walking Dead), worked as second unit director.

The cast features Robert Englund (A Nightmare on Elm Street) chewing the scenery in a supporting role, plus cameos from Kane Hodder (Friday the 13th Part VII-X), Tony Todd (Candyman), Ted Raimi (Evil Dead 2), Joseph Pilato (Day of the Dead), Reggie Bannister (Phantasm), and Angus Scrimm (Phantasm) as the narrator. You can even spot the Pazuzu statue from The Exorcist.

Watching the horror icons act in normal roles is fun, particularly since several of them are killed off in a rare turning of the tables. It serves as a passing of the torch to Andrew Divoff (Lost), who plays Wishmaster's demonic djinn. The actor is well-deserving of the recognition, as he plays the djinn with great conviction, both in and out of the heavy make-up.

Peter Atkins (Hellraiser II, III, and IV) penned the script, naming characters after genre writers Jack Finney, Charles Beaumont, August Derleth, and Abraham Merritt; a subtle nod far easier to stomach than the tired cliche of naming characters after famed horror filmmakers. Jacques Haitkin (A Nightmare on Elm Street) served as cinematographer, while Harry Manfredini (Friday the 13th) composed the score.

Wishmaster is about a djinn, an evil genie of sorts. As in the the tale of The Monkey's Paw, the wishes he grants never come true in the manner intended. They come at a price; usually the life of the wisher. Divoff's performance is sinister with a hint of camp, not unlike Freddy Krueger in the early Elm Street movies, while his occasional turgid monologue brings to mind Hellraiser's Pinhead. Tammy Lauren (Homefront) stars as Alex, an auctioneer who becomes entangled in the djinn's plan to free himself and his demonic brethren on earth.

Hiring an experienced special effects artist to direct proved to be a smart decision, as Kurtzman was able to navigate the effects-heavy script with ease. Left to their own devices, he and the KNB crew created tons of gooey effects that still hold up in high definition. Their work is integrated with early visual effects, supervised by Thomas C. Rainone (Lord of Illusions). Some of the digital work is alright, though most of it looks rather crude 20 years later.

Wishmaster was released in 1997, but it was obviously produced before Scream single-handedly changed the horror landscape. While most subsequent genre efforts aped Scream's brilliant meta aspects, glossy production value, and hip, young casts, Wishmaster shares more in common with '80s horror movies. Because of that, coupled with a top-notch restoration, it doesn't feel as dated as most '90s films (Hodder's mullet notwithstanding).

The Wishmaster disc is a special edition in itself, loaded with extras. Kurtzman, Divoff, and Lauren reunited for a new audio commentary, while Kurtzman and Atkins' existing commentary - recorded for the LaserDisc release! - is also included. A third track features Manfredini being interviewed by Red Shirt Pictures' Michael Felsher for a half hour, discussing working with a larger orchestra (and budget) than usual, followed by isolated score selections.

A plethora of new video interviews are featured: Kurtzman and co-producer David Tripet; Atkins; Divoff and Lauren; Haitkin; and Englund, Hodder, and Raimi. It would have been nice to have them all edited together into one comprehensive retrospective, but there's a lot of good information shared as is. Extras are rounded out by a vintage making-of featurette, behind-the-scenes footage, trailers, TV and radio spots, and storyboard and still galleries.

Wishmaster's modest success was enough to warrant its first straight-to-video sequel, Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies, in 1999. Arriving while the budding DVD market was taking off, the budget was lower but not obstructively so. Divoff was the only member of the primary cast and crew to return. Hoping to replicate the formula, another genre vet was brought in to write and direct: Jack Sholder (A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge, The Hidden).

In typical horror sequel fashion, Wishmaster 2 brings back the presumed defeated villain with little attention to logic while altering the established mythology. This time around, the djinn is granting wishes in exchange for souls, as the prophecy requires 1,001 to be fulfilled. Divoff has more screentime but spends a lot less of it in the djinn makeup. For the bulk of the film, he's in prison in his human form before squaring off against Morgana (Holly Fields), a criminal with a heart of gold, and Gregory (Paul Johansson, One Tree Hill), her priest friend.

In spite of the drop off in quality, the movie still has its charms. There aren't any horror actor cameos, but a number of character actors populate the supporting cast, including Robert LaSardo (Nip/Tuck), Tiny Lister (The Fifth Element), and Bokeem Woodbine (Devil). While the first film was fairly light in tone, the sequel skewers more toward comedy, as both the plot and the performances are more over-the-top this time around. In one of the most memorable scenes, the djinn grants an inmate's wish for his lawyer to fuck himself.

A fun set piece at a Las Vegas casino helps stretch the budget, but Wishmaster 2's scope is noticeably smaller than that of the first. That includes the special effects, which were essentially the backbone of the original film. Anthony C. Ferrante (who has gone on to direct all of the Sharknado films) supervises effects on some clever death scenes, but they pale in comparison to KNB's sumptuous work.

Sholder sits down with Felsher for a fresh audio commentary. It's an interesting listen. I was surprised to learn that Sholder passed on the script for the first film but was interested in doing the second when he learned he could write it. A still gallery is also included on the Wishmaster 2 disc.

Wishmaster 3: Beyond the Gates of Hell and Wishmaster: The Prophecy Fulfilled were filmed back-to-back and then released straight-to-DVD in 2001 and 2002, respectively. Although Chris Angel directed them both, the scripts were pened by two different writers, so they each tell entirely different stories. Part 3 was written by Alex Wright (Seance: The Summoning), while John Benjamin Martin (Devil's Diary) penned Part 4.

While the two films share the same crew, the only connective thread on screen is the djinn. John Novak assumes the role, technically playing a different djinn than the one portrayed by Divoff. The makeup/suit looks fine, although it has even less screentime than in the previous films. There are a few decent special effects set pieces, supervised by Roy Knyrim (Sinister II), but the scope of both films feel minuscule even compared to Part 2. The films would likely be forgotten entirely (or never produced altogether) if they didn't have Wishmaster in the title.

Wishmaster 3 plays like a watered-down version of the previous films. The djinn takes the human form of college professor Joel Barash (Jason Connery), and he's on the hunt for Diana (A.J. Cook, Criminal Minds), the studious teaching assistant who releases him from his jewel. Despite his best efforts, Connery lacks Divoff's creepy stoicism. The film adopts a cheesy fantasy angle by introducing a character inhabited by St. Michael the Archangel (Tobias Mehler, Disturbing Behavior).

Wishmaster 4 introduces a bizarre love triangle between a conflicted woman (Tara Spencer-Nairn), her wheelchair-bound boyfriend (Jason Thompson, General Hospital), and their djinn-possessed lawyer, Steven Verdel (Michael Trucco, Battlestar Galactica). The romantic melodrama is better suited for a Lifetime movie, with a punch of Cinemax-style softcore nudity. Fantasy elements are present once again, with an out-of-nowhere angel (Victor Webster, The Scorpion King 4: Quest for Power) hunting the djinn and a trio of half-formed djinns awaiting their time to come to earth.

No new special features were produced for the latter two films, not that anyone was clamoring for them. The DVD extras - audio commentaries and behind-the-scenes featurettes - are ported over. Although I remain unimpressed by both efforts, Angel's passion on the commentaries (one for Part 3 and two for Part 4) made me appreciate them more. With each film shot on a tight, 16-day schedule, I can sympathize with his plight.

Wishmaster was a valiant attempt to create a new horror icon among the bland 1990s genre offerings. Its sequels prove a thriving franchise wasn't meant to be, but the original stands as a crowd-pleasing special effects showcase. The film looks better than ever on Blu-ray, and the lesser sequels can be seen as special features in this definitive three-disc set.

Wishmaster Collection will be released on March 28 via Lionsgate.

[nickyrp]

General Rules:

Note that most character blogs have specific entries in their rules related to their fandom or particular choices/preferences/triggers/etc applicable to that specific character. Some of those may negate some of these! The following are general rules just to give you a sense of what kind of rp you’re likely to find with me.

Mun is named Nicky and is well over twenty-one. Muse’s age will vary. Multi-verse and multi-ship.

Following and Mututals:

We do not need to be mutuals to send memes or starters. Feel free to throw things like that at me at any time even if we’ve never played or plotted before. If I’m not interested or just too busy etc I promise I will let you know politely and not just leave you hanging!

I’m not very reliable when it comes to double-checking who is following me back before I send asks or memes or like starter calls to someone I see on my dash. If I’m bothering you, please just block me. I promise I won’t be offended!

If you want to play please send me a message or toss me a starter; I’m bad at paying attention to my follower count and probably didn’t notice your subtle arrival! Message or askbox me a hello - or just start a thread!

If you are a multimuse with a lot of characters or a lot of fandoms all on one url, I may not follow you because that tends to be overwhelming for me. It’s nothing personal nor a comment on your writing style; it’s just more than I can easily keep track of, myself. (That’s why mine are all on their own sideblogs.)

If I can’t read your blog (super small text, low-contrast colors, etc) I will not interact with your character. I don’t have the best eyes and straining to read sucks all the fun out of rp. Again, it’s not personal; just a personal limitation of mine. If you need any of my formatting or color choices adjusted for your own ease of accessibility please let me know!

You can reblog any of my posts (headcanons, graphics, verses, meta, whatever) even if you’re a personal blog, I don’t care; it’s all one fandom imo. That said please don’t reblog my interaction threads with other people because most rp-ers do not like their things reblogged and I want to respect that. If I reblog anything of yours you do not want reblogged let me know and I will delete it; I promise it’s just because I thought the thing was cool and got excited!

Interactions:

I am always up for trying new things so if you have a crazy idea, please hit me up!

I am happily open to interacting with Original Characters! I need to know who your character is though, so if you don’t have a bio or background I can find on your blog I’ll have to pass.

I will not write smut with anyone under the age of eighteen.

If I ever do something that upsets or confuses or offends you, please let me know. It probably wasn’t intentional and I always want to be called out on problematic behavior because how else can I learn to do better? I promise to react apologetically, not defensively.

Formatting:

I like icons and gifs and will almost always incorporate them. (I majored in comic book art; I love pairing words and images!) You do not have to use them back or match what I use although I admit that threads with visuals included do tend to keep me excited longer. I’m shallow! XD

I’m not a big fan of fancy formatting. I don’t mind if you use it but I don’t. Feel free to adjust my formatting to suit your aesthetic if that makes you more comfortable, but I’ll likely keep mine simple.

If you need any triggers tagged message me and I’ll do so gladly.

I don’t have any triggers I need tagged but I would prefer if you refrain from including either dead cats or aesthetic “cool vibe” cigarette smoking in threads with me, please!

MUSE LIST & SIDEBLOG LINKS:

Fair warning: this list is likely not up-to-date. Please see this page for full character navigation!

Rachel Berenson    

Leia Organa-Solo   

Rey (Solo/Skywalker/etc)

Finn (FN-2187)

Mirta Gev     

Boba Fett(s)

Rhysati Ynr   

Allana Djo Solo   

Zekk

Hermione Granger       

Narcissa Malfoy   

Draco Malfoy    

Scorpius Malfoy   

Susan Bones

Severus Snape   

Illyana Rasputin  

Kitty Pryde