#me bullshitting potential backstory as we go

[hellsgreatestsideshow]

「 𓍼 Deserve far worse? Now what kind of attitude was that? ❝ Hold your horses, that can't be true. ❞ But she felt herself curl in a bit. Was this family drama? She didn't really know all that much about the King. And sure as shit didn't know about his home life, but he looked so sad. ❝ Well, it can't be that bad, can it? My pa once locked me in the barn on accident- ❞ her fingers made air quotes, ❝ I got a few bruises but I'm tough as nails. Good practice for the festival. Ma wasn't thrilled and pa had to sweeten her up, in the end. Now, it wasn't the best option, but what I'm trying to say is that parents make mistakes. They just gotta own up to them. You try talking to her ❞ 」

He let out a low sigh. He felt more than defeated. His whole soul ached. "Trust me, I deserve far worse." He chuckled softly at her zany little antidotes. It was kind of nice. "I just was thinking about hoe much I hurt my daughter."

[slocumjoe]

Biggest complaints about each companion

Warning, reference to in-game dark subject matter.

This is subjective and mostly me wishing for a more thoughtful story, with themes beyond robot racism.

Cait: TDLR; Her backstory is too much for how it's handled

It feels like Cait got thrown every bad thing she could have. With trauma in characters, less is more, and in Cait's case, it doesn't help that her writing is more interested in her trauma than who she is as a person. Like Cait only matters as a character because of what she went through and what that demonstrates about the wasteland, rather being a person first.

I would like to point out, her parents waited until she was 18 to sell her. Because, apparently, age of consent matters to sex slavers. It demonstrates a lack of commitment to the dark topic, which usually means you should tone it down. Leave one aspect, and keep the other. Abusive parents or slavery, not both.

Since Cait is our only basegame raider companion, you could use her to humanize raiders by showing how the cycle of trauma creates them. "But Gage—" is a little bitch.

Codsworth: TDLR; Focuses too much on his pre-war relationship to the player

What was Codsworth doing those 200 years? Did he just hang out in Sanctuary? Did no one ever come to Sanctuary in the meantime? Codsworth has no relation to the plot or world beyond Sole.

I think Codsworth should have had a quest about how he went out and tried to help where he could, but now doesn't know where those people are, and wants to know what became of them. Something to give Codsworth a connection to the wasteland. Or maybe Codsworth shouldn't have been the Sole Surivor's robot at all, just one that wandered into Sanctuary and met them. Then you could have a point that the first human the Sole saw after freezing (Kellogg) was cruel, but the first 'soulless' machine was kind, which makes a point about the main plot and the idea that being human doesn't make you 'human.'

Curie: TDLR; Should have been related directly to the main plot

Curie is a robot that is put inside a synth—which is, biologically, completely human in all but a chip in their head and the circumstances of their creation—and is totally fine. She learns to breathe, gets thoughts and feelings in a way a Ms. Nanny wouldn't, and handles sensations without bricking.

Send this bitch to the Institute and BOS, are you kidding me? Curie is walking proof of synths being more than machines. She has wants, imagination, potentially even dreams and nightmares. This is never brought up by anyone.

Also, Curie is a robot, and then inhuman, but still a person, and she uses science and her compassion to help the wasteland, where those who would destroy or enslave her use it to further their own egos.

Danse: TDLR; MAKE HIM SAY SORRY TO NICK AND HANCOCK

Danse's real character arc starts at his final affinity post BB, and then it doesn't go anywhere. He never learns to accept himself, or synths, or ghouls. Danse is a character that shows the terrible function of 4 Affinity Talks, because he needs, like, 10 of the things.

Danse needed his likes/dislikes updated after BB, interactions with Nick and Hancock, and a proper character arc where he unlearns his worst traits and the BOS's bullshit.

Deacon: TDLR; Dead wife? Really?

Can Deacon not just be a goofball man who used to be a bigot, and now works hard to help the people he hurt? Because Barbara and her death implies that Deacon didn't change because it was the right thing to do, but because bigotry personally affected him.

If there must be a death, make it that his community tore itself apart trying to find synths among them. Y'know, like...a witch hunt? In Salem, maybe? Since we didn't do anything interesting with Salem, one of the most interesting places in the USA? Deacon sees this and sees that it doesn't matter if synths are human or not, hatred will inevitably hurt anyone, because it doesn't actually care who you are. Hatred doesn't need a reason, only a target. The Synth plot should have been an allegory for McCarthyism instead of slavery, change my mind.

Hancock: TDLR; He's a historical LARPER that doesn't do anything in terms of a narrative.

No, Todd. You can't make John Hancock a ghoul and call it an OC.

Hancock could have had a story about identity crisis, idolatry, and trying to escape your past. We also get hints at a complex political issue in Goodneighbor about the push-and-pull between the desire for total freedom/anarchy, but the need for some kind of law and order. Hancock has a casual friendliness, and acts like 'one of the people,' but he is the mayor. There's tension there. Can your leader be your friend? Can your friend call all the shots while still being on equal footing with you? Can you lead a group of people who look up to you as a hero, and still retain modesty and not subconsciously separate yourself?

I like Hancock, he's fun, he has a lot of interesting narrative stuff. But he doesn't do anything with it. It could have been a nice parallel with Elder Maxson, too.

MacCready: TDLR; Small inconsistencies + dude, go get your son???

Mac doesn't ever go back to Duncan, and Duncan never comes to the Commonwealth. I understand that the former is for game play reasons, but the latter feels like the writers forgot that Duncan exists.

MacCready has some issues with the likes/dislikes. I think they're mistakes instead of intended, but still. For example, in the Vault 81 quest. MacCready likes letting Austin die. He dislikes it if you give the cure.

There's also Sheffield, the soda addict in Diamond City. MacCready claims to have never seen someone with a sugar addiction, but Zip, from Little Lamplight, had an addiction.

Mac is mostly fine, aside from these inconsistencies. The Dead Wife thing sucks, but I allow it because it's pretty fundamental to his story, rather then being tacked on for sad points.

Nick: TDLR; Eddie Winter is a stupid bad guy with a stupid quest and Jenny Lands is a stupid tragic backstory

Eddie Winter being the first ghoul ever is mind-bogglingly bad. You're telling me that they made ghouls before the bombs? And even if they did, Winter couldn't be the first. How the fuck would anyone know that radiation makes you immortal if you do it right, otherwise?! So, that's a contradiction within an already contrived premise. And not only that, but he just. Leaves a bunch of holotapes with a number on the back, that make a code to the basement of his favorite sandwich shop, which just so happens to be on the same street Jenny gets fridged?

So, Eddie Winter (or one of his goons) was eating one day, looked out, saw the fiance of the detective hunting him and recognized her (????), shot her, and then presumably returned to his fucking sandwich??????

And then 2 centuries later, a clone of that detective somehow finds the holotapes, untouched, unmoved, still functioning and retaining the painted-on numbers. The numbers didn't...fade? Wipe off?

You can keep the concept of Nick wanted to finish something Pre-war Nick didn't get to, but this...this isn't it.

Like, Skinny Malone was right there. Maybe just Darla shows up when you free Nick, and then later Nick has to contend with Malone and the Triggermen in some grand conspiracy with Mayor MacDonough, Hancock, and Piper.

Preston: TDLR; The radiant quest mechanic fucked him over and his voice actor needed some retakes

The moment you get Radio Freedom, Preston should have stopped giving quests. Easy fix there. It would have saved him almost a decade of shitty memes.

The real problem with Preston is that his VA beefed it bad. I can quote some of his lines with perfect inflection because the VA just did it so poorly. X6-88's VA had to play a monotonous, little-emotion character, and he still nailed it and gave X6 a lot of personality and distinction. Preston sounds like a modded-in character. And Jon Gentry is a pretty good actor! He has a great live-action presence in his demo reels on IMDB. I think he just struggled to put his performance into his voice rather than his presence/body language, and they didn't let/have him do a retake.

Piper: TDLR; So much potential, so much failure. Piper is a shitty reporter, and that could have been a great opportunity to have commentary on the ethics of journalism.

Journalism is supposed to be a duty to the people. It has responsibilities and ethics that are very easily misunderstood or forgotten for the sake of the next article. A good journalist is not always accurate. An accurate journalist is not always kind. A kind journalist is not always good.

Piper is not a good journalist, because her writing is not informative, it isn't news or useful info. She writes about MacDonough being a synth—she's basically writing callout posts on her blog.

Piper is not an accurate journalist, because she never has evidence for this claim. She says MacDonough is a synth, that the Institute took the Survivor's baby even if the Survivor says no.

Piper is not a kind journalist, because she fearmongers and makes things worse for synths. She complains that no one believes or trusts her word, but the second thing you ever see in Diamond City is a man trying to kill his brother for fear he's been replaced.

This is all fine, if addressed and explored. But it isn't. Piper seems to be chasing the high of exposing authority, and both times, she's right. We, the player, know she's right because we find out later she is. Imagine if we didn't. Imagine that reveal scene never comes. Every issue of Publick Occurances is trying to start a witchhunt, and Piper doesn't notice that it's working.

So, let's make her arc about worrying about her sister.

X6-88: TDLR; BRUH HE HAS NOTHING

No backstory, no relationships with other characters, no quest, no character arc.

TODD. You had the chance to humanize the Institute, or at least show what it's like being an Institute synth that isn't free. And you, instead, put all that time into fucking KELLOGG. You think I give a fuck about KELLOGG? I don't even give a fuck about SHAUN.

🌠Honorable mentions🌠

Gage: Hypocrite that thinks becoming the problem is fixing the problem, also he has both eyes. What do you need an eyepatch for.

Strong: Bethesda Super Mutants suck shit. Y'know Erikson fron Far Harbor? Would rather have him.

Longfellow: Dead Wife Man. Again, would have preferred Erikson.

Dogmeat and Ada: Perfect, no notes.

Best companions are:

Dogmeat, for being doggy

Ada, for being robot lady

Preston, for being perfect aside from two technical, Doylist issues.

[antispopausandstuff]

aside from Adora and Catra...

.

Glimmer - too much potential wasted. her relationship with her mother is never fully realized and developed, her friendship with Bow feels oddly surface-level and like it's relevant only because Glimbow is a thing, and i personally don't like how the whole conflict between her, Adora, and Shadow Weaver was written.

Bow - the black best friend, nothing more to him. every opportunity of development was wasted, and he just ends up being a supporter for everyone else ( mostly his lighter-skinned friends ) with no arc, no importance, and no actual happy conclusion beyond ending up with Glimmer, who he had no legitimate romantic chemistry with. his backstory and the arc he had were so interesting to me, but no one did anything with them. that, and he honestly wasn't as angry or on guard with everyone as he should've been, in my opinion.

Mermista - i would've thought she was just another black stereotype, but she's apparently Southeast Asian, so never mind that, i guess. predictable, doesn't seem to care for Salineas at all, her relationship with Sea Hawk is forced and creepy, the only time i've seen her invested ( as far as i recall ) in anything was when Salineas was destroyed, which she didn't care about after 5 minutes, and the stupid Mermysteries episode.

Sea Hawk - unfunny, nonsensical, and creepy. serves no purpose other than to be a romantic interest for Mermista and occasional supposed comedic relief.

Perfuma - eugh. toxic positivity, two-faced, and simply a hypocrite. none of these issues are realized or resolved, resulting in her spouting bullshit about friendship and its 'powers' while she continues treating people she doesn't like ( namely Entrapta ) like trash. completely oblivious or willingly ignorant and irresponsible with Plumeria.

Entrapta - very much wasted potential. severely infantilized by both the writers and cast, even in her design, only considered 'morally grey' because her 'low empathy' ( i tried to look up the scientific name, but all that came up were misinterpretations of autistic people, NPD, sociopaths, and psychopaths, so. ) isn't portrayed well and misrepresents, and it gives a bad taste in my mouth that her time in Beast Island is entirely about her 'not understanding friendship' and not at all about the fact she was betrayed and sent to die. i'm equally for villain or reformed Entrapta, either one is very nice to see from other creators.

Frosta - gonna be honest, though i prefer her character introduction over how she is in the rest of the show, she's kinda an ass for no reason. kinda felt like they were trying to make a 'Toph' like character without understanding Toph at all. there's no explanation for why she feels the Horde isn't a threat to her, especially considering that the two noticeably Horde members ( Catra and Scorpia ) invaded only because Frosta let them, then pinned the blame on Adora for 'causing a scene' at her party?

Spinerella & Netossa - we don't know much about them, and we know nothing about their Kingdoms. literally nothing. we know Net is a strategist and doesn't take shit from anybody ( even if that only came s5 ), but Spin doesn't seem to have... much going for her? i didn't like the "calm lighter person angry darker person" thing they did, that wasn't cute, and i didn't like the thought of Netossa using the fact that Spinerella was involved in a cult and chipped as a way to avoid doing chores in the future.

Scorpia - honestly, there's so much we don't know about her that it drives me nuts. i really wish that we had Catra actually earn something for once, and it would've been awesome ( and tragic, considering s3-s4 ) if it was Scorpia's love, trust, and respect. a lot of her lore is just said, not even really referenced or implied, and hardly ever shown, if at all. and i would've loved her to be called out for her enabling by someone other than Lonnie, since... well, that's kinda just hypocrisy, isn't it?

Angella - ohhh, how she hurts me ( /pos ). one of the better written characters, but still had wasted potential and should've been respected much more, even if it wasn't going to be by Glimmer. dying // being trapped between dimensions while believing that you had been a coward all this time when you actually weren't and not being able to reunite with your husband because he turns out not to be dead is fucking tragic, and, at the very least, her death deserved to be respected and remembered.

Micah - uhh, man, where do i begin with this one? kooky man trope in the beginning, that wasn't cute. don't even recall why he was on Beast Island to begin with. he only got to grieve his wife for a minute or two. the rest of his character either has to do with just being a dad ( when Glimmer isn't even there ) or being chipped, so yay. also, for a supposedly women empowering show, they changed Castaspella from being one of the best sorcerers on Etheria to Micah. and also made them related, with him being the older brother. hm.

Castaspella - speaking of. she's just the unbearable aunt until s5, and even then, she doesn't have much relevance to the plot. the show also made her dynamic with Shadow Weaver fucking weird for no reason. just make them similar ages, if that's the case, you cretins. there's not much input from her about Micah's supposed death, even though, according to the show, Angella doesn't talk to her, for some reason.

Shadow Weaver - RAAAAAH ( /pos )!!! i'mma say it, she was another one of the better written characters and i love her. that said, she does fall under the 'would you look at that, your racism is showing' still, for similar reasons to Hordak and Horde Prime. basically, the bad people... the colonizers... are black. yeah. okay. also, demonizing disfigurement ( ableism ) is not cute, go fuck yourself 🤍.

Hordak - wasted potential, 100%, and could've been an angsty badass bastard if it weren't for how weak the writers made his character. instead of a domineering, powerful lord, he's kinda just a sad blanket that's sometimes cruel and effective. also deals with the racism and ableism issue, wooo.

Horde Prime - ...he's boring, made to sound smarter than he actually is, and falls under the racism ( and potentially under the ableism? ) category, second verse same as the first.

Wrong Hordak - i don't appreciate how he was never taken seriously, in terms of his traumas and struggling to come to terms with it, meanwhile everyone was catering to Catra's. that, and i don't like his name. i prefer calling him 'Horro'.

Lonnie - angry black woman trope. again. is also a bully, never gets that resolved, and somehow ends up with her victim and her enabler?

Rogelio - ... i don't know what to say about him, to be honest, aside from him enabling Lonnie's bullying and not really having a reason for it, considering he's supposedly Kyle's friend. oh, and the fact the only mute character ( apparently he has a speech impediment??? but i don't recall him ever talking??? ) is a big lizard is also not cute.

Kyle - 'everyman' trope, but i love him, and he deserves better than the abuse he faces for literally just existing, and i love when people acknowledge him. i genuinely feel like he deserved either a way out or a villain arc, i don't care how unserious it sounds.

DT - 🤮!!! only non-binary character is a lizard, a creep, act smarter than they are, and simply a plot device for future Catra angst and setting up drama between other characters for no reason.

Flutterina // Peekablue - does it even matter? they're not even real, apparently. ...okay, fine. Flutterina is just a damsel in distress who's pretended ( by the writers ) to be bigger just because it's DT in disguise, and Peekablue could've saved me a lot of headaches if he was introduced to the series earlier. but then again, they never used his abilities when he was introduced, so never mind.

Huntara - repeat after me, everybody: 🎉WASTED POTENTIAL🎉 just like the Crimson Waste, Huntara's character isn't ever explored beyond one episode and, half of the time, it's not even taken that seriously. she could've been an interesting foil or parallel to Adora.

Mara - tragedy. pure tragedy. i think there were a lot of missing details, but i still really like her character and her story ( except for the finale, but i honestly don't consider that the real her? maybe i'm just nitpicking and favoring, though ), and i will always believe she deserved better.

Light Hope - this might get me some heat, but i think she deserved better, too. i would've loved if her character was taken to a 'chained by protocol' route ( COUGHtotally not because i did the same thingCOUGH- ), especially since there were moments we saw her warmth and friendliness, and her attempt to comfort Adora was always kinda nice for me. i get that most people don't like her, or only like her because of her interactions with Mara, but after knowing of how she ( he ) was in the original, i feel like she was wasted and used as an obstacle.

Madame Razz - uhhh... i mean, kooky old grandma trope. once again, lots of waste of potential, especially considering i'm pretty sure that, in the original show, she's the reason the Rebellion could even hide in the Whispering Woods in the first place? or at least part of the reason.

Swift Wind - i prefer elegance and wittiness over this, sorry not sorry.

Imp - i mean. he's. there. that's kinda it.

Melog - deserved sooooo much more than just being Catra's therapy cat. lore was never utilized, the entirely wrong person was comforting them ( Catra. you cannot tell me an overtly aggressive, hostile person would be able to actually help an alien creature that doesn't trust anyone. especially since Catra has no positive relationships. why is she suddenly calm in the face of someone she attacked? ), and they're just an excuse for a 'shipper friend'. that, and i really wish that Melog was able to have an amazing transformation after Adora heals them, like in the original. Melog could've been a great friend to Adora and co. and a powerful asset to the Rebellion. someone talked about the possible trans metaphors Melog could've had and i am FERAL.

essentially, the show's writing is basically:

you had potential. and you fucked it up.

[pronounmelon]

How Leasebound suffers under the ablebodied gaze

Hiiiii I’m on my bullshit again 😘❤️

today we are going to talk about how Leasebound’s disability rep is kind of mid

we all know how I feel about the special ed teacher panel

and BONUS: this is Sunny’s insert. Sunny has never worked with disabled kids. RUSTY has never worked with disabled kids, and neither are disabled to my knowledge. I am disabled AND have worked with disabled kids. I still think that panel is complete bullshit, with the lack of knowledge on the topic showing through in the implication that there is ever an instance outside of imminent harm to yourself or others that you need to restrain a disabled child even if my old post may have admittedly overreacted. There is not. There is never an instance outside of imminent harm to yourself or others. If your special education facility has told you that restraint is an option at all when a kid hugs you too long, get a new fucking job 😭 the next alternative to a “let me go” or a collapse or drop move you weren’t taught somehow is never to “hm. If I don’t go to self defense training my only other option is to restrain them”

anyway to the guys I wanna talk about here

now let’s list off disabled characters

Shanzay (it’s not spelled Shanzey in any language Rusty should probably correct that)

Rocky

Uhhhhhhh

Ginger is most definitely disabled given the knee injury but that was most definitely added to give her a stereotypical middle aged “man” backstory of wanting to play professional football and then getting injured and it doesn’t even really come up on panel. Plus the trans women in the comic are. Well. We all know 😭😭

and I am of the personal opinion that Brick has some form of dwarfism or potentially Down syndrome due to how Rusty draws them (height, proportions, and facial features) but this was not done intentionally by Rusty and seems to have mostly been an attempt to make them look “clownish” which is a whole other set of issues. Like I thought Parniya was supposed to teach your grown adult fanbase not to make fun of people for their height or weight but your commentors say otherwise when it comes to Brick sooooo

anyway the only ones I can definitively say are disabled are Shanzay and Rocky

so so far the only 2 characters who are definitively disabled both got it from some big showey traumatic event, not looking good so far seeing as that’s a pretty common stereotype…

Shanzay has partial blindness, seemingly caused by blunt force trauma

Now I can’t believe I have to say this but…

regardless of how you are drawing this REALLY does not communicate a blunt force eye injury

fun fact: I’m not going to show a picture because HOLY SHIT the pictures are horrible but a healed blunt force eye injury (one that WOULD cause permanent full blindness in the eye) usually includes

partially or fully detached retina

reddish sclera for obvious reasons, it gets better overtime but it rarely fully goes away

usually rather than a perfectly vertical scar with stitches there is a bruise or a scar that isn’t. Yk. Perfectly vertical over the whole eye. Often a scar would be something like a deeper one over the eyelid, or uneven tiny scar bits around the eye. While we don’t see what Chris does to Shanzay exactly, if he hit her with what he had at the moment (his fist), she more than likely got a hugeass bruise with no permanent scar outside the eye, maybe a tear in the eyelid itself if we give Chris the disbenefit of the doubt that his single fist is that strong, or that he got multiple hits in. I mean he sells drugs or whatever so maybe??? I’m gonna be for real I doubt this guy’s mary sue ass strength he looks under half my dad’s weight

Bonus that shit is probably HORRIFIC if the injury wasn’t super bad then because it doesn’t seem like she was taken to the doctors

Better ways to stylize this sort of injury on Shez:

partially detached retina, rough healing

Retina removed surgically due to extreme injury or infection after injury, probably healed better due to medical intervention. Would likely wear an eye cap or glass eye cover to protect the eye

Traumatic cataract (what I think Rusty was going for??). Despite all the models you’ve probably seen or whatever the fuck a traumatic cataract is rarely completely perfect over the eye, and often the original eye color is slightly visible underneath. I specifically made this one partial, giving an easily stylizable but accurate look.

“why is this a problem?? Other media does this all the time”

yeah and I kinda hate it 😭😭 it’s one thing if all your characters have dot eyes, like just put an x there BOOM eye disability communicated. Also, Shez is never shown to have the same or similar disability needs to most people who are partially blind or blind in one eye. The large majority of people with full blindness in one eye cannot drive very easily, first of all. One, in most countries you need to pass a medical test. Also, if Shez’s injury is in fact a traumatic cataract, driving is either an incredibly difficult/stressful task, or just straight up unsafe, seeing as the areas of an eye a cataract falls over only allow for very limited vision.

Like bestie you CANNOT be looking back at Jaden like that regardless of potentially training yourself to drive?? Which even then you’re apparently driving at 3am or so??? It’s DARK AS HELL at 3am fuck off there’s no way

now I’m not partially blind or blind myself so people can absolutely correct me on this (blind people, not people with a totally super real blind cousin or something, I’m not centering ablebodied people here)

Shez seemingly has no trauma from her injury specifically. Only her mother is affected by it. Honestly that’s a lot of the Chris plot line; Shez only wants to save the people around her and that’s apparently good cause “power fantasy” like??? I thought this was supposed to be a comic about realistic women experiences or whatever the fuck.

Oh yeah and why is this panel kind of implying that Shez got her injury on the job when she got it from Chris 😭😭 I guess the rest fits but “this is a rough job” with the weird closeup of her eye 😭😭 bitch what does that MEAN Chris did not injure you at Yonique

okay next one

I have BEEF with this woman ‼️‼️‼️

Whoever decided they weren’t gonna at least teach Rocky sign language is a fucking idiot. Why is she communicating with the same *nod* *nod* she did when her muteness was new at 22 years old. Someone teach Rocky sign language!! ”you can’t expect rusty to learn accurate sign language just for Rocky” then I can’t expect her to respectfully write a mute character without falling into dumbass stereotypes

I do understand why Rocky wouldn’t have an AAC device… I mean, this is 5 (now 6 with Parniya!!) people living in one tiny living space in a city that has a huge classism problem, it’d be very difficult to get their hands on something like that. But. A text to speech tablet?? Like just an iPad?? Maybe??? There’s also AAC-like apps for both Samsung and Android. Rusty invents shit that doesn’t exist all the time!! (Like a plain white simultaneously loose and tight around the boobs turtleneck with plain black text that says yaoi. Looking at Kai) she could just invent an AAC app for Rocky to use that functions exactly like the expensive ones but free and on a standard off brand tablet!! PLEASE it’s giving Teardrop bfb but worse than that because Teardrop was 1. Originally written by children on YouTube 2. Eventually DID get means of autonomy and communication and most people understand and respect her. Rocky only gets nods. How is she getting a job with nods??? Interviews are unfortunately way more complicated than yes or no questions.

now my final issue, applying to both Rocky and Shanzay, which I briefly hinted to earlier

Their disabilities are BOTH from big life altering injuries or PTSD. Which can happen!! That’s fine, but it’s also the most stereotypical form of these disabilities. It’s the one in media most palatable to ablebodied people. Like the little disabled representation coming in the form of wheelchair users who cannot walk at all (often paralysis) or supergeniuses if it’s caused by anything else, or people who so tragically lost an arm, or an eye, or their hearing, or sight in a war, or a fight, or whatever, a mute person who does not communicate in any of the numerous ways that mute people do because the ablebodied writer does not believe they can. Like, you know that dialects of sign language have formed for mute or deaf kids from observation, right?? Even if Meriam didn’t teach her fucking kid to sign or get her in a learning environment where she could learn to, Rocky most definitely knows more than nod and shake, ESPECIALLY as a mute adult.

all the disabled characters are written in the most palatable way they can be to an ablebodied audience, by an ablebodied writer.

Easy fix: GET SENSITIVITY READERS OR DO PROPER RESEARCH BEFORE WRITING SOMETHING YOUVE NEVER TOUCHED JESUS FUCKING CHRIST

[drspencereidshairtie]

The Umbrella Academy Season Four: A Retcon

- they never get their powers back

- they have to navigate just being human

- they work actual realistic jobs (NO CIA)

- they have to find their place in society

- five has to go to highschool or college or whatever?

- basically the whole szn but like the first episode kinda?

- klaus didn't cut his hair (at least not that short) 😭🙏

- no gross-out v*mit scene (seriously, I hated that!!)

- absolutely no marigold and django. worst plotline ever.

- jennifer could just be ben's girlfriend he met at her coffee shop or café or whatever, no django weirdness.

- allison goes to therapy. in fact they all go to family therapy. just...therapy. PLEASE. GO TO THERAPY.

- they let klaus actually stay sober??????????????????? instead of forcing him to be flanderized back into 'im a junkie alcoholic there's no other choice'?? which just felt insanely invalidating towards actual addicts who have... overcome their addictions?? and I'm not even an addict?

- lila and diego go to couples therapy or get divorced or separate or whatever the fuck instead of all that insane bullshit that went down.

- I actually really really really liked what they did with viktor this season. No notes there, keep that going.

(also is it just me or is anyone else irked by the fact that the two characters with squid / octopus related powers and backstories are asian and also romantically entangled or am i just being overly sensitive? Lmk)

I genuinely would rather a boring ass anti-climactic final season like this over what we got. They could have done a lot with them being normal people.

They could even have had another apocalypse if they really wanted, but have the umbrella academy have to navigate it as REGULAR HUMANS for once. Let them have to work through their limitations, or let the 'cure' just be that they have to die in an apocalypse rather than avoiding it to fix the timeline. (NOT THE CLEANSE).

There was so much potential for season four..............but unfortunately we happened to live in the timeline where all of it was squandered. #Earth616sucks

[typicalopposite]

Hmmmmm…… yall ready for the Tommy backstory brain worm I just thought of whilst shopping the grocery store aisles… ( @onthewaytosomewhere we were just talking about me wanting this back and now I lowkey regret it!)

First off I’m all for a Tommy begins but I don’t know how they are gonna shrink him back down to s2 Tommy size and if they recast I will be sad… second, This one’s long and definitely gonna be more that one part sooo yeah, I guess I do that now 😂 I knew it was gonna get away from me as soon as I started it! BUT anyway imagine with me if you will…

Buck is coming off that first shift under Gerrard… he’s annoyed and tired and confused and he calls Tommy to let him know he made it home.

“Babe you’re not going to believe the bullshit I just had to deal with…”

Tommy laughs and asks if Hen was using her Interim Captain authority to still give him a hard time about not coming out to her before the wedding…

“No…” Buck says, a broken half hearted laugh. If only it were something that simple… Instead he says something Tommy never would have guessed in a millions years. “Gerrard is our new captain.”

The sound of the glass Tommy had been drying to put up shattering as it hits the floor startles them both. “Wh- What did you just say…” Tommy asks, ignoring Buck asking what just happened. Buck lets it go easy enough and tells him everything… and Tommy feels like he might pass out…

He feels like he is back in that station under that asshole again…

When he first started at the 118 he got the normal probie treatment; your higher ups are dicks… your captain gives you a hard time to see how good you are… if you’re even good at all. But Tommy was fresh out of the army.. he wasn’t weak by any means, and he’d had his fair share of workplace bullies to know how to take care of himself.

Plus there’s one guy there, Sal… he’s ok, Tommy guesses. He’s not as much of a jerk as the other guys are. They strike up a friendship. Before long the captain takes a liking to him too. Gerrard says he sees real potential in Tommy… begins to take him under his wing, in a way. Things actually aren’t too bad. Until they become terrible…

It’s been a hell of a shift. They are covered in soot and sweat and blood, and they all need showers. Afterwards, Sal walks over to his locker that’s right down from Tommy’s; a towel around his waist, water droplets still sprinkled over his body.

Suddenly the air feels like it’s thick in the room. The temperature is rising and— and Tommy has done this nearly everyday before… plus Sal is his friend… not to mention straight as an arrow… so why Tommy suddenly is finding it extremely difficult to avert his eyes is beyond him.

He stares for maybe a moment, definitely no longer, before finally managing to shake himself out of it. He pulls his shirt over his head and grabs his bag before turning on his heels and beelining it out of the locker room. Sal calls after him, “What’s the rush, T?” Tommy just makes some lame excuse and keeps walking.

“Kinard!” Gerrard’s voice booms from above. Tommy looks up and the captain. He is leaning on the railing; a straight shot view to the locker rooms.

“Y-Yes sir?”

Gerrard stares at him, and if he saw anything… he never says, the the sudden glare in his eye, that he had never had before when looking at Tommy says he definitely did. “See you tomorrow…”

part two

[sugarsnappeases]

kara i would absolutely love to know more about your sybillily good king wenceslas au if there is anything you can share!!

renn i would absolutely love to share thank you so very much for asking!!!

so a little backstory is that i used to be in choir in my primary school and we learnt literally every single christmas carol ever (classic british primary school vibes) so obvs good king wenceslas was one of them, and not just the main verse that everyone knows lol i mean the Entire song, like all five verses..... and it was stuck in my head the other day and i was like hang on..... hang on a second....... we could be onto something here. and that thing was sybillily

for those who aren't in the know, the good king wenceslas story is basically the king looking out the window of his castle while they're having the st. stephen's day feast and seeing a poor man gathering winter fuel. and he asks his page who the guy is and where he lives, and the page tells him, so then the king asks for like food and wood and stuff and he and the page head out into the snow to deliver them to the poor man as some kind of xmas goodwill thing. and there's a bit where the page is like 'sire!! i am so cold!! can we stop now!!' and the king is like dw just walk in my footsteps you'll be warm that way. and there's this message of like how giving to the poor will bless you in turn which is nice BUT!! i've sybillily-ed things up.......

so obvs lily is the king (i was thinking of like changing it to queen but then i was like.... writing those first lines like 'the queen she is' and it made me want to kill myself a little bit so we're sticking w king and i think it's cunty) and sybill is the page. and they're potentially having some kind of secret relationship or maybe sybill is just pining (and it's mutual but she doesn't know yet), i haven't decided yet but anyway lily calls sybill over and asks who the man out in the snow is and sybill doesn't know but she's a little delusional and constantly has slightly unwarranted levels of bullshitting confidence so she just makes up some random name and place.

then lily's like ok thank you :) let's go take him some food and fuel :) and sybill's like FUCK!! SHIT!! SHE'S GONNA CATCH ME IN MY LIE!! I AM SOOOOO FUCKED!! but externally she's just like yes, lily, anything for you, lily, right away, lily. so the whole walk out in the snow and the cold, sybill's panicking like what do i doooo, she's going to knowww, so eventually she's like 'please!! i am so cold!! i can go no further!!', hoping to get lily to abandon this little quest of hers... but lily's like oh no worries babe!! just get up close behind me and walk in my footsteps... maybe there's some coat-lending..... we'll see.....

but anyway they eventually get into some woods, and lily turns around like 'ok i think we're out of sight from the castle now' and pushes sybill up against a tree and snogs her <3333

so as you can see. it's both stupid and ridiculous xoxo and i'm a little bit obsessed with it..... i don't think we talk about sybill just being a fucking liar enough.... potential for amazing stuff there, also idk why lily makes such a convoluted scheme just to kiss sybill, like surely they could find a dark secret corner in the nice warm castle together but anyway, yes.... silly, i love them

[palant1r]

my ideas for rewriting fallout 4

So, I've been thinking a lot lately about what writing changes I'd make to Fallout 4. Disclaimer that I've only finished the game once, siding with the minutemen, and I'm currently on a BoS playthrough. And I haven't finished any other Fallout game. So my knowledge is quite limited. But I still have ideas.

(This is gonna be sparse on precise details. I'm going big picture here)

Main problems to fix:

-Main plot is very railroaded, with little influence over how it goes, and lots of plot holes

-Missed potential with companions and NPCs

-Doesn't feel like an RPG. On one hand, it's clear Bethesda wasn't trying to MAKE a full RPG — they wanted to make it more of a first-person shooter exploration game. On the other hand, this is a fucking Fallout game. We're making it an RPG.

-Factions are very one-dimensional

-Little to no meaningful moral choices

GAME MECHANIC CHANGES

We're using the skills, perks and traits system from New Vegas, because different options for using different skills in dialogue is so fucking choice. And yes we're also using the New Vegas dialogue system where you can see what you're saying, there's no percentages, and you get a stupider thing to say if you can't make the check — no more of this four keyword bullshit. Also no more Radiant quests. We never needed those and they suck.

Also the reputation system from New Vegas. So you don't instantly become a faction enemy by shooting a guy once if you've helped them out a lot. (Cute minor detail: becoming friends with Piper increases your Diamond City reputation as she spreads pro sole survivor propaganda)

This reputation system should come with different raider factions. No more generic raiders. You should be able to be chill with the Gunners.

MAIN THEMES

Fallout 4 is set in Boston, arguably the birthplace of America. There's backstory of the Minutemen trying to start a sort of coalition Commonwealth government, which was ruined by the Institute. This is the perfect opportunity for the main plot to center around trying to build a government. How can these disparate factions of the Wasteland be brought together to create a nation? What sacrifices/compromises will you make? Who will you accept as allies, and who will you destroy? So that's one main idea: the creation of a new nation.

The other main idea: technology. What is the right way to use technology to build something new? What are the dangers of technology advancing too fast? How can government ethically use emerging technology to build itself, without misusing it in exercises of power? This meshes well with the synths. Which brings me to...

SYNTHS

Synths are no longer robots per se. They're genetically engineered clones with cybernetic components — pretty sure that's what they're like in canon, but it's made more explicit here. They existed before Shaun's kidnapping, but this resulted in mutations because they were using irradiated DNA, and the Institute was obsessed with creating the perfect human. The Super Mutants are an offshoot of that effort.

So. You start the game. This goes pretty much the same, except Kellog is slightly more fucked up physically — he has some sort of very obvious and distinct mutation, maybe looks a bit like a super mutant. This makes it a lot more plausible that people would recognize him by description alone.

Then things proceed as normal until you meet the minutemen.

THE MINUTEMEN

The Minutemen aren't a disparate collection of settlers + Preston anymore — they're the last remnants of the provisional Commonwealth government. Preston has lost hope that peace in the Wasteland is possible, and is just looking for a safe place to hunker down.

The Minutemen fill a similar role as canon, in that they're a faction who's most compatible with other factions. However, this should be framed as a flaw. Preston believes that stability is the highest good, and is willing to sacrifice other values for that goal.

The Minutemen quests should be less black and white. Each quest to gain a settlement should have a complication. Maybe a settlement leader values their independence, and you can threaten them into joining the Minutemen. Maybe a settlement will only join you if you chase away a nearby band of ghouls — but it turns out those ghouls aren't feral, and have finally found a place to settle down. Do you try to broker peace? Do you chase off the ghouls? Do you chase off the settlers?

Minutemen quests are no longer radiant, and offer opportunities to run across other factions. For example, maybe a settlement wants you help rooting out synths in their community, which brings you in conflict with the railroad. Maybe a settlement has been defending itself with pre-war technology which you can grab the blueprints for and use to defend other settlements, which attracts Brotherhood attention.

The ultimate goal of the Minutemen is to make the Commonwealth into a proper country, or as close as you can get to that in the Wasteland. To that end, they want to bring Diamond City and Goodneighbor into the fold, and get as many factions on board as they can.

Speaking of Diamond City and Goodneighbor...

DIAMOND CITY AND GOODNEIGHBOR

You come across Diamond City and quickly learn that the city used to have a population of ghouls, super mutants, and even synths. However, they were all recently run out of town by Mayor McDonough as a direct result of Piper's journalism pressuring him into taking action to divert suspicion from himself. Piper didn't like that this happened, but refuses at first to acknowledge the harm that her synth fearmongering causes, even though one of the people run out of town was a friend of hers — Nick Valentine, a prototype synth who once looked human but had a mechanical skeleton and brain. His biological parts have since worn away, and he's replaced them with robotic ones.

There are several ways to go from here to find Kellogg. You can track down Nick in Goodneighbor. You can get help from Piper and the information she's been gathering on the Institute. Maybe even the Minutemen will have insight, because Kellogg had a role in the failure of the previous government effort. Whichever way, you find Kellogg, and...

He has no idea who you are or why you're after him.

KELLOGG

Kellogg is, like Nick Valentine, a prototype synth bridging the gap between meat and machine. He seems like a mutated human, but his brain is mostly cybernetic. However, unlike Nick, he wasn't built from the ground up. He started as a normal human. He came across the Institute when he still had a wife and daughter. And in exchange for his skills, the Institute promised him immortality for him and his family. Kellogg didn't realize that what the Institute really wanted was willing subjects for experimentation.

As time went on, though, Kellogg and his family began to deteriorate and mutate. Their cybernetics got side effects. His daughter was unable to properly age. So he jumped at the chance to help acquire better DNA, thinking the Institute would use it to help him and his family.

Once they had Shaun, though, the Institute no longer had need for Kellogg, and they certainly didn't waste their effort using that DNA to save his family. His wife and daughter succumbed to the horror that had been wreaked on their bodies, and Kellogg himself went into hiding. He went to the Railroad, who wiped his memory and gave him a new identity and shelter, where he now lives as a recluse.

When the player finds him, he doesn't know who they are. He has false memories. You are given a choice: do you let the man who killed your wife and is the only lead you have on your son live a peaceful life, forcing you to go far out of your way and do some other shit to find leads? Or do you bring back his memories and make him the murderer he used to be?

There's a third option: you can copy his brain, basically, and upload those memories into Nick in the memory den like you do in canon. But doing this permanently damages Nick, and you have to reckon with Kellogg slowly assimilating into his personality like canon was GOING to do and DIDN'T.

THE RAILROAD

The Railroad is pretty boring in canon. "Slavery Bad" is a noble motivation for a faction, but it doesn't offer a lot of opportunities for interesting moral choices. Moreover, their conflict with the Brotherhood is so laughably forced in canon I can't believe the game shipped like that. But I came up with a simple change that I think makes them better.

They're a bunch of Super Mutants. (With some synths and ghouls sprinkled in)

Due to their lack of bloodlust, they're not exactly welcome in other Super Mutant communities. But they also share the belief that super mutants are the next stage in human evolution. They believe that humanity should be free to evolve into many different forms, and see synths as an extension of this. After all, they say, it's clear that humanity can't progress in the Wasteland by clinging to its current form. They don't seek to destroy the Institute — they seek to take it over, to offer super mutants and synths the ability to make more of their own. This makes them an inherent threat to the stability of the Commonwealth, even though they are sympathetic with a coherent ideology.

There's varying opinions within the Railroad on wiping synths' memories. Some object to it, believing it's unnecessary and dangerous. Some are idealists, believing that synths should have the option to live the normal life that Super Mutants can't — maybe some of the railroad mutants wish they could become human again. (Maybe you even have the option to give them Virgil's serum). Some believe the memory wipes are necessary to cut off the synths' loyalty to the railroad.

(If you take Synth Shaun with you at the end, you can have the Railroad wipe his memory and replace it with memories of you as his father. Fucked up!)

The Railroad keeps records of synths they've relocated. You can access these records, either through gaining their trust or through bein' a little stinker. That's one way to find Kellogg. But the records are scattered and encoded.

So. You've found Kellogg. You've Dealt With Him. You've probably made contact with the Railroad. How do you get into the Institute?

I think there need to be more options for how to do this. But I don't know what they are. We're moving on.

TO THE BROTHERHOOD OF STEEL!!!

When you first meet the Brotherhood in the police station, you quickly learn that they've changed their secluded ways. They've decided that there will be no future society that will need their technology if they don't interfere now, and the Institute, which actually develops technology instead of hoarding it, has lit a fire under their asses. But they've overcorrected and overstretched themselves. Paladin Danse believes it's their duty to secure the Commonwealth to protect its citizens, but acknowledges that they don't have the manpower. Knight Rhys has beef with Elder Maxson, thinking that the Brotherhood needs to focus on securing its existing territory before expanding. And Scribe Haylen?

She's a ghoul. The first in the Brotherhood. She's pre-war, and got her way into the Brotherhood because they saw value in having someone who could actually remember the origin of the technology they seek...and because Paladin Danse vouched for her despite his own hatred of ghouls. That's why she's so loyal to him. Danse still obviously doesn't like ghouls, but trusts Haylen in spite of that.

The Brotherhood storyline I want is a McCarthyism allegory. When they start causing too much trouble for the Institute, the Institute strikes back. But not with Coursers and synths. No, the Institute works in the shadows. They "accidentally" let slip data that shows there are synths planted in whichever factions they're enemies with at that point (which depends on the players' actions, and if you side with the Institute, you help them do this). This includes the reveal that there's a synth in the Brotherhood.

Cue the witchhunt. Everyone's suspicious and paranoid. The Brotherhood can't get anything done, because they're self-cannibalizing due to their synth hatred.

Because the player isn't part of the Brotherhood, Maxson and Danse know that you can't be the synth. So they trust you to root them out. Even if you're not in the brotherhood but you're on good terms with Danse, he asks you to help him. He says that synths are tearing his organization apart, and he can't bear to see his trusted comrades in arms turn against each other like this. (If your speech score is high enough, at this point you can start convincing him that it isn't the existence of synths that's a problem, it's the brotherhood's own attitudes that have led them to this point)

That's right: Maxson doesn't find out Danse is a synth offscreen. You figure it out. Maybe you take that Institute data. Maybe you find out from the railroad. Maybe you get Nick or Piper's help. And then you get to decide what to do with that information. You can keep it to yourself and watch the Brotherhood tear itself apart. You can tell Maxson, initiating a more canon version of Blind Betrayal as Haylen tips Danse off. You can tell Danse...but unless you talk him out of it, he'll reveal his true nature to the Brotherhood, hoping to end the witch hunt. But if Danse is caught, it doesn't stop. Now that one synth is exposed, after all, who's to say there aren't more? To save the Brotherhood, there are a few options. You can kill Danse and convince Maxson there are no more synths. You can expose Danse and make him the new Elder, changing Brotherhood policy on synths. You can lie to the Brotherhood, saying there are no synths after all and the Institute was just starting shit.

If the truth about Danse becomes known, you and the Brotherhood find out that it was the Railroad who wiped Danse's memory and planted him as a junk dealer. If Danse was exposed and killed, this leads to the Brotherhood going after the Railroad, believing it's too risky to leave them around as they could plant synths in the Brotherhood again. If you change the Brotherhood, this is a possible way to ally them with the Railroad, if you can convince them that they should ally with the peaceable faction of their enemies and that their policy of super mutant/synth genocide isn't tenable for maintaining control of an area.

But yeah, Danse's arc is a microcosm of the Brotherhood's arc: blind hatred of the Other is incompatible with their continued existence. In the Wasteland, you either change or you die. Cling to the remnants of the old world, and even if you surround yourself with bunkers and power armor, you will be destroyed from within.

Anyway. That's all I have for now — I'm still thinking about what to do with the Institute, and there are a lot of companions I haven't met, so I don't know what to do with them. But I think this is a good start. Feel free to add your thoughts/questions.

[beigetiger]

More thoughts about Valkyrie and Nefarian, specifically related to SoW.

By the time book 13 rolls around, Nefarian has never actually cared about anyone (by his own admission). He doesn’t love anyone, he’s selfish, and he likes to press people’s buttons, that’s the persona he plays. But Valkyrie does not take his bullshit and handles him in such a way that it becomes a fun back-and-forth for them.

And so the idiot gets emotionally adopted by her and now they’re friends, and Nefarian has to deal with actually learning to care about someone and how to handle those emotions for the first time in his life.

And now getting to the point of this post, the book doesn’t really discuss how Nefarian handles this, so I’m going to talk about it (and probably state the really obvious in the process). Nefarian becomes really, really hungry for attention from Valkyrie, even more so than his general “I’ll be a bitch so people focus on me”. Like, when they’re standing at the wall, he’s literally going “Valkyrie Valkyrie Valkyrie are you paying attention to me” while Valkyrie has to tell him that she can hear everything he’s saying, she’s just ignoring him. He also tries to divert her attention and/or affection away from her friends (most notably Skulduggery) and towards him. Does this work at all? Hell no, and she tells him that. But it’s really interesting to watch him actually fight for the attention of a singular person.

And thinking about why he learns to care about her is really fun to think about as well. Because a lot of their interactions in the beforehand part of SoW was Valkyrie disrespecting him and projecting how much she hates herself and views herself as evil onto objective reality. And Nefarian can see this woman perfectly fine; he knows damn well she’s not evil. But for whatever reason he sees her being all “I’m an evil person and all those war crimes are my fault, I’m a worse person than Skulduggery” and immediately goes to “hm. friend material”. This has…so much potential for backstory stuff, as well as being really funny to watch.

And watching Valkyrie go from “hey am I allowed to murder this guy” to “guys stop bullying him” was hilarious. I really hope we see more of them in phase 3 because they are such a funny duo and I like turning them around in my head.

[foxydivaxx]

ZOSAN HIGH SCHOOL AU: End Of Paradise Prologue

This story is inspired by the popular telenovela Sin senos no hay paraíso. The title of this fanfic is a reference to that telenovela. This chapter is mostly Zoro's POV.

There was once a boy who had a lot of potential but never got that chance till later in life. This boy was beautiful the way he was, yet society pressured him to get plastic surgery as that would be the one way they would accept him. His name is Sanji Vinsmoke but he keeps swearing that he hates the Vinsmoke name and his tragic backstory justifies the deep hatred.

This young man loved so deeply that his passion led to his destruction. Everywhere he looked for love, he was only shown hate, malice and pain. 

He tried to end his life on a number of occasions. He never showed up in school and whenever he did, it was for attention. I did not understand this boy at all until that tragic incident that befell him. 

Upon learning the truth he tried to hide from the world, my heart sank with pain and guilt. If only I could have helped him earlier. If only I had spoken to him. All he ever wanted was to be loved and to belong. 

Yet, no one gave him a chance. We all mocked him. Made fun of him and his dreams. He always said a line and ironically that was the last thing he said to me before that tragic incident; "Without plastic, there is no paradise."

At first, I wondered why a boy would chase after such a foolish dream till I heard about his family life or rather lack of it. Now it all makes sense. 

This boy's dad left him, his mother, and siblings alone and went off with his mistress. Apparently, the dad was a notorious mobster which says a lot. The family then got into an accident when he was just five. He is the sole survivor of said accident.

The poor guy never got adopted from the orphanage he was placed in and soon got kicked out when he was 11. Ever since then, he has been on the streets and got involved with some street gangs. It is shocking that he survived all of that shit as he escaped death loads of times.

His father soon finds him again and brings him into his gang and turns his little son into a prostitute,pimping the kid out to various allies of his in exchange for drugs and cash. That is why he dresses up the way he does and flirts with girls a lot. His father fucked up his life. 

Why do I feel guilty? Compared to him, I seem to have a far more healthier, easier life. Born with a silver spoon and raised by a prestigious family. Everyone wanted to be my friend or date me. Now that I think about it, that is why he envied me.

He wanted to experience happiness for once. He wanted to be that guy that all the ladies loved and all the guys envied. That alone makes me angry at myself and everyone else. Like why did we destroy his life?!

Here I am, standing right next to him as he still lies unconscious on the bed. The doctors say that he has a fifty-fifty chance of surviving. I call bullshit on that on!! He will fucking survive and my family and I going to do something great with our money, power and influence and save this guy's life. I want him to live. I want him to experience that good life.

My adoptive father Mihawk is already working on some documentation for him and also paid the police to launch an investigation into those people that hurt him because he deserves that justice. 

The doctors even stated that regarding the damage that attack caused, they may have no choice but to do plastic surgery for him. As much as I hate that, we have no choice because his body is seriously banged up and brusied to the point where he is unrecognizable as a result of the acid attack.

I take his hand and stare at his body. "Don't worry Sanji. You will get justice and the happiness that you deserve. I promise." I whisper to him, lifting up his hand to my lips and placing a kiss on it.

This is his story.

[venting-corner]

*sigh*

Chat Noir, what did you say when you explained your power?

Chat Noir: I can destroy anything I touch

...

Anything? Hmm..

Anything... Anything is a lot

"Anything is a lot" is an understatement

Cataclysm is such a bullshit and underestimated power that almost no one sees Chat as the threat that he should be. Writers could've used Chat Noir's underestimation as a way to show his skills, his smarts, his capability... But Noooo! We can't have him be equal to Ladybug! Just saying that he is an equal is enough, even though, episodes show otherwise every. Damn. TIME!

Would it kill writers to make Adrien have the same realization as Ladybug that powers are only limited to the user?

Why couldn't he have this?! :

Then do this?! :

I thought weebs ,being a weeb myself, were supposed to know a lot about destruction, considering animes are full of it. You can use that miraculous to destroy magic, air, molecules, emotions, thoughts, Space And Time Continuum. What would happen if you destroyed a concept like illusions for example? Would the miraculous and all illusions all together cease to exist? Would Trixx die? And these are the things that show is refusing to explore.

They even could've spun an explanation about how Plagg and his ring are dangerous, using the distrust of Fu and other guardians have shown in episodes, therefore, little is actually known about it unlike others. It would've been a perfect backstory for Plagg, as his bond with Adrien needed time to develop compared to Tiki and Marinette, and a way to show why Adrien is the best black cat ever, because he is the first one to actually unlock something about the ring that not even centuries old order of miraculous would know. A way to prove that Adrien was not chosen for nothing and that he really is one of the most powerful people in the show, not some love interest or side character

And I rant about the missed potential, being able to think of a prompt on top of my head that adds more depth and sides to characters, while writers are still fixated on Marinette....

Another thing that keeps me awake at night is Chat Blanc. Words are such interesting things to play with. You can make them mean anything you want. What did Hawky say in that episode?

Hawkmoth: Chat Blanc, I give you the power of infinite destruction!

Infinite... Infinite is an interesting word. Does he mean infinite = more than one use?

If yes, then I will be going down that rabbit hole for a while and will gladly make it my head canon, if it's not true. Writers can't just drop us these broad statements and leave! Overthinkers like me will find many scenarios, meanings and usages for them! Because by equating infinite to being able to cataclysm more than once means that our favorite cat can do this!

And when he learns how to use that power more once he is an adult, he will become Chat Blanc 2.0, just without an akuma like in this fanart

Imagine getting destroyed by this face

And I will gladly let it happen

[nellie-elizabeth]

Grey's Anatomy: Take Me to Church (21x02)

You know how annoyed I have to be about a plot line for me to be on Teddy's side about something?

Cons:

Sometimes it just legitimately feels as if this show is punking me with the character of Catherine Fox. There was no real mention in this whole episode about her bullshit treatment of everyone else. Oh, Teddy and Owen are back at the hospital, and Amelia still has a job, and we're just kind of not talking about Meredith's research here... because Catherine is maybe dying. It's just so tedious! Do you want me to feel anger and frustration because Catherine is so fucking ridiculous and unreasonable, or do you want me to feel tender and sad about her health? Because I'm feeling the former, and I'm not feeling the latter, sorry!

Winston, I love you, but please stop trying to discourage Richard from stepping down. This dude needs to get out of the OR and away from this hospital! I love Richard, but my GOODNESS, they've run out of things to do with his character in a major way. I also just continue to not give a crap about Lucas Adams, and I find the actor kind of irritating? He's got that Disney Channel teenage-heartthrob vibe, and it's kind of cloying. I don't know if that makes any sense, but that's how I see it. He has that icky combination of being incredibly privileged but then also feeling constantly sorry for himself. I'm with Simone on this one; when she brought up the possibility of him being an intern again while the rest of them advance, and asking if it's going to cause issues, I think she's dead-on. I'm already dreading watching that play out. Please spare me.

We get more of a full backstory about Kwan and his amnesiac former fiance. I guess he cheated on her right before she got into the car accident. It's so... soap opera-esque? I guess I wish there could have been a more nuanced reason for them to get into a fight. Something that's not as clear-cut. Kwan having complex feelings of loss and guilt about this woman makes sense, but I was hoping for a bit more complexity, I suppose.

Richard snapping at Teddy and scolding her and holding the chief job over her head... like I said, you know I have to be pissed off about a story-line for me to be in Teddy's corner. But come on, Richard, what the hell? In general, not a strong episode for Webber. I was irritated with him on multiple different levels.

This is just a general note about a thing I hope I get to see, but I was excited to see Amelia and Monica working together again, and then a little dismayed that there weren't really any hints about furthering the potential romance vibes there. Don't let me down, Grey's, I wanna see it!

Pros:

So... holy shit. The Schmitt story-line with the sick kid obsessed with death... I fucking cried real tears, y'all. That moment where he's talking about the dilation of time, and making a list with the kid about what he wants to do before he dies? The kid crying and saying "I don't want to die"... it was such a punch to the gut. And the vibes with the pastor dude seemed like maybe they were leading somewhere? I really liked the switch, where the kid was obsessed with mortality and seemed to be processing it relatively well given the reality of his situation, and yet the second it's confirmed that he'll be dead soon, it's really tough for him to hear. And then Levi breaking down afterward from the intensity of that experience... I really felt for him, and I'm really going to miss him when he leaves the show!

Yasuda and Jules making out in the elevator was great, such a classic moment in the Grey's canon, to have people stealing kisses in elevators! And then the elevator opening with Amelia right outside... lol. I hope the vibes here continue to be fun, and Yasuda's exit isn't too horrifyingly tragic.

While Richard and Lucas are both getting on my nerves of late, I did like that little throw-away moment where Sydney called Lucas out for his privilege, of getting to go golfing with important doctors like Richard and Winston. He has the realization that he doesn't want to pull favors and rely on his family name to get past the mess he's in. He'll re-do his intern year and he'll take his lumps. I do like that in theory, although I'd rather just not have to deal with Lucas at all.

I just gotta say, Meredith is kind of a saint. I love her no-nonsense attitude with Catherine, the way she sets the personal stuff aside to assess her health and honor her stupid wish to not tell Richard what's going on. Getting Bailey involved might be kind of bonkers from an ethical perspective, but Meredith needed a consult, and needed backup with Catherine. Setting aside my specific frustrations with Catherine, I really admired Meredith's attitude in this situation.

Another element I liked in a plot thread I didn't much care for: I really do think Kwan has good chemistry with almost any scene partner you put him with. I kind of root for him with every romance that's been hinted. Honestly at this point, my dream scenario is for Lucas to go the hell away, pair Kwan and Simone, and then let Jules and Mika keep happening too. I know that's not what's to be, but Kwan is good at doing the earnest yearning thing. He grows on me more and more.

So. As we wade further into this season, there are a lot of characters who are annoying me, there are a lot of plot elements that feel repetitive and frustrating. But, at the same time, I have a lot of loyalty and affection for a lot of these people, and I'm down to keep following their stories!

7/10

[x3nnia]

X-02 Origins

First post!

Whole series is smut with plot + a whole lotta lore (don't worry this is just the lore part)

Still, even if theres no smexy stuff, minors DNI. Strong language, and depicted smoking (i ended up not adding it), be aware.

If you are used to tumblr smut stories, or just tumblr period, then you already know what youre getting into, I cant list all of that shit on here while half asleep.

Based on MCU

Some lore got lazy, so some of it sounds incorrect, just go along with it, its fiction.

This is the only part of the series with first person, since this one is only focused around the main character's backstory.

ENJOYEEEEE!!!!

Hello! My name is Lily, and I am a mutant! My powers are somewhat simple; regeneration, bone claws, and government wanting to experiment on you all the time! Whole shabang! But... its really hard to explain this, but... I am 18. 18, forever. It is VERY hard (thats what he said) to explain that to people... like, imagine someone telling you that theyre 123! But, for you to understand more, lets start BEFORE square one...

I was born in the US, Georgia, 1901. Once I discovered my power at 7, I ran away, and went from state to state, hiding, and afraid of what someone would do if my power was revealed. While I was on the run, at 16 I made it into an elite team, with people who were mutants like me! It seemed pretty cool, and there was this one strange teammate who would never really talk, and he was really handsome, but since we were on the job I never really interacted with him, I was too shy. I'm pretty sure his name was Logan, or Jimmy, one of the two. He was really good at his job though, and he communicated with the other members well, just not me, he probably thought I was too young to be doing a job like this.

On one particular mission though, we were asked to go to Nigeria and retrieve a newly discovered material, that could potentially change the world. Or atleast thats what we were told. We were asked during the mission to kill some innocent locals, Logan couldnt do it, he walked out, and a few weeks, so did almost everyone else. We were going after other mutants and capturing them, I couldnt be apart of something so horrible. I went farther into the states, and stayed in Colorado for a while. It was cold, I could go skiing, and it was private. No neighbors. No distractions. Just snow.

Finally, when I was about to turn 18, guess who showed up at my door? Stryker. After the incident in nigeria, I wanted nothing more to do with him, or the rest of the team that stayed with him. He gave me some bullshit lecture about "Your country needs you" and how someone was hunting down the old team... I didnt think I had anything to worry about, until Victor came. Logan's older brother. He was annoying, not to mention frightening, not his face, his nails. They scratched along my walls, making an ear-covering sound. I was thrown around like a ragdoll, and when I was too weak to get up and fight back, they bagged me up and took me to some nuclear reactor site...

As I woke up, I looked around, I was strapped to a table, with X-02 tattooed on my forearm. There was a huge tank of water underneath me, all I could hear parts of conversations from the scientists: "The last one was successful, hopefully this one doesnt escape." "Yeah, Im surprised that X even survived.". A doctor walked up to me, taking notice of my consiousness, they asked me: "Are you ready?" I replied with "What?" then asked "Who is X? What is X-02?". They answered "Oh, X was Logan, he was on your old team. You probably dont remember him. You are X-02, we are performing the same experiment we did on him, onto you. X didnt really fail, he just somehow managed to slip out of our fingers." "Enough with the chatting now, head down, stay still, this might hurt a bit." I looked at them with wide eyes "WAIT- BACK UP- WHAT?" she then says back "And be quiet." She walks off with her clipboard and pen, scribbling down notes.

As I was lowered into the water tank, I was infused with that metal we found in Nigeria, Adamantium. It would make me indestructible, strong, and obviously heavier, since its a metal. It did hurt like hell, I could feel it going into my bones, and the needles going through some bones aswell. I didnt mind it much, since I was just going to heal anyways.

When the procedure was done, god did I feel better. Not only better, different... I woke up in a cell, that looked more like a cage than a cell, really. There were other mutants in cells too, one of them was really pretty, her mutation was diamond skin. She was sort of a crush but I never got to talk to her, so I wasnt too interested. I popped out my claws to see if they looked any different, which they did, and I probably shouldve expected that. Having metal infused into my body.

They looked pretty sharp, like knives, maybe sharper than an average kitchen knife. I tried to test them out on the cell by swatting at it once, but since the cell wasnt made out of adamantium, my claws cut through it easily. I saw a scientist walking past, so I quickly went back to the other side of the cell, pretending like I didnt know that the cell was broken. They didnt seem to notice, as they were looking down at their clipboard while they were walking. As I saw them walk out of the room I tore apart the cell some more so I could squeeze out.

The only hard part now was getting past the guards and getting transportation...

I snuck around to one of the main exits, and it seemed to be unguarded... It was too easy. But as I got closer the sign on the door said "Fire alarm will sound when opened". So I just thought "You know what, this is probably the only one thats unguarded. Im getting the fuck outta here.". And youre probably wondering: "What about the other mutants? Arent you going to save them too?" Well, no, their powers can get them out and keep them safe- I guess they just dont have a plan on how to get out of the building, other than that im not sure why theyre still in those cells in the first place.

Anyways, back to me escaping. I push the door open and sprint out like a track star, hoping I can make it out without getting caught and taken back in. As the door shuts I hear the alarm go off inside, and Im almost long gone now. Im finally free.

almost a year later, im 18 now! I wasnt really able to celebrate on my birthday (as you know), so I just celebrated about a week later, when I was able to get an apartment in New York. I also got a new car, a new name (by which I introduced myself as at the start of the story), and a pet cat named Nyx (SHES SO CUTE OMG). So basically I just hit the restart button on life. Youre probably thinking again "What about your mutant abilities?" as for that... Since im not in danger, I dont use them in public, and rarely at home, because I changed my name and where I live, im not really being hunted down anymore by Stryker. Basically a happily ever after for me! Well- sort of....

Hehe cliffhanger.

If you enjoyed this, then check out my series! This is the origin story for the main character in the series, so people would understand more of the character before reading the main series.

By the way, Lily having a crush on Logan and then having a crush on the mutant girl in the cell, yes shes Bisexual lol.

[sanjidysphoria]

Okay I hate to blow up your ask box but you hit another point that is so interesting to me about Asagiri’s writing which is how he will swing, miss, and somehow still hit something that he wasn’t even swinging at. Mushitaro and Nikolai being much more interesting than Fyodor are both examples of this.

Another that really sticks out to me is how much characters trust Dazai. Like if we’re just looking at the most recent arcs it’s so clear that Atsushi, Ango, and Chuuya deeply trust Dazai, but as an audience member I’m like, why???? I STILL don’t know Dazai. Four seasons worth of content and I do not know this man. Asagiri’s focus was so clearly meant to be that Dazai is incredibly capable, smart, manipulative, whatever, whatever, but honestly the characters who have placed their trust in him (for whatever reasons they have) are the ones being developed because it shows how they relate, think, and emote regarding Dazai. All he’s done is sit there is his cell and bullshit his way Mersault these past couple arcs. Boring. Not impressed Asagiri. Atsushi needing him as a mentor and learning how to use the lessons Dazai has taught him on his own? Great! Ango putting his full trust in Dazai’s abilities in order to stop widespread terrorism? Compelling! Chuuya literally putting his life in Dazai’s hands and vice versa? Hello yeah! But literally none of these things make me like/understand Dazai any more than before and I don’t think that’s what Asagiri was trying to do.

PLEASE do blow up my inbox i love talking about bsd and wasted potential within it.

and you are so correct about dazai. i think we reached that point in the manga, considering that it's been going on since 2012 where it's justified that we want to know more about dazai. to me it feels like (just like the pacing of the manga lately, how it shifts abruptly from one scene to another so you can never fully get the picture (which i dont like either btw, i think theres limits to cliffhangers and asagiri has been seriously abusing that these past few months)) bait tbh. it's like hoho heres this interesting character whom everyone fully trusts and he is also a mastermind. want to understand him better? want his backstory? his childhood? his early days in the mafia? NOPE.

[cherubcallremade]

love to see the watchmen stuff coming from you. i was working at the comic shop when doomsday clock and rorschach was coming out so i remember it pretty well :~) rorschach is my favorite character even though he's terrible. in every way. i kind of love him for it while dr manhattan is the worst guy ever. what are your thoughts

in a joking manner here r my thoughts:

in all seriousness my favorite characters r probably laurie, dan and rorschach :) i want to pin adrian to a corkboard like a moth and study him. adrian himself isnt an interesting character (or atleast as interesting as the others) but lord his dynamics w others need to be put on trial i think there's so much shown potential there. comedian is interesting and manhattan is too i jut also hate them both w a burning passion. obviously both of them are insane parallels abt the lost of humanity due to trauma that is treated as the norm or seen as simply just "as things are" (u ever think abt how comedian was 16 when he joined the minutemen? the same age laurie was when she joined the crimebusters?)

love what happened w laurie in the hbo series. love the rorschach comics. complex emotions abt the movie its both insanely accurate yet also makes me wanna rip my hair out bc there are some choices there that are absolutely insane??? are you fucking kidding me???? WHY. WHY DID U DO THAT TO MANHATTAN AND LAURIE'S ARC. HATE IT HERE.

before watchmen is good. most of it is shit but what is good is amazing. i love the minutemen i love the lore established there. obviously we can't talk abt watchmen adaptations without acknowledging how DC fucked over alan moore and dave gibbons but like. i am happy to get more content that i get to pull apart and examine because lord knows we're never getting the same type of content other DC franchises get.

THE VIDEO GAME IS SO WEIRD THE FIRST CHAPTER OF IT IS FASCINATING. I LOVE IT. THE SECOND CHAPTER IS BULLSHIT. UGH.

if prompted i could give personal reviews abt everything that ive read/consumed w watchmen. like detailed reviews. i think abt it constantly.

i actually have a watchmen oc/self insert bc thats how i consume media his name is jeremiah and he is. well! he sure is.

i dont like how most of the fandom writes dan and rorschach as a romantic relationship. not because i don't think there's something insanely homoerotic going on i just don't think they're able to be a functional couple. they've never gotten married but have divorced 20 times and 18 of those were rorschach's fault. i think there's a lot of untouched dynamics going on w adrian and comedian but i think that's just the watchmen that's in my head.

AND UHHH if i were to ever be in charge or have influence in a watchmen series i think we need something that focuses on the time when crimebusters first formed up until the keenes act. i realize that's been touched on in the comic but i found a lot of before watchmen rlly neglected that. i want more detail on backstory. my friend says that dev patel would play a great dan and honestly i think we should see where that goes. need more dan media. idc if he's "boring". he's my favorite war criminal.

[dymond-dynamo]

ok, just finished rereading the Scott Pilgrim comic, and I can pretty confidently say that the show is easily my favorite version. there's a lot to like about the comic (it's def better than the movie, as much as I enjoy that too), but it really shot itself in the foot by removing the exes so quickly. and this isn't even me being on my Roxie bullshit (altho it's not not that, she really gets so little in the comic. you know she didn't actually have a proper backstory until the show??), all of the exes are such strong characters and letting them flourish is definitely one of the show's biggest strengths

there are two things that I'd kinda forgotten about with the comic that are very good, which I hope to see more of if they keep the show going:

1. just the passage of time. the comic takes place over the course of more than a year, and you can feel it in the way character dynamics grow and change, especially Scott and Ramona. they really feel like people who have actually been together for a while by the end, which is something the movie definitely never accomplishes (and the show couldn't if it wanted to, just by the nature of the thing). I really like that about it, and I understand that that's harder to do in a movie timeframe, but you absolutely could do something with it across multiple seasons of a show, so here's hoping

2. Envy. Envy honestly gets so fucking shafted in both the movie and the show compared to the comic. and considering the whole thesis of the show seems to be giving characters more depth, it's weird to not include it when it was already there (and it's not like there's nothing there to expand on, there's plenty there to build and expand). the best explanation I can come up with is that Envy's story is tied up with Scott, not Ramona, so with him being basically out of the show there wasn't a good opportunity. I'd love to see her get more in a potential second season tho. I'm so curious about the fight that broke her and Scott up, and obvi I can live my life without ever knowing, I've made it this far, but if we're adding things to characters anyway we might as well

I'd also really like to see Lisa in the show. she's a bit of a weird case, because she doesn't actually *do* all that much, she's mostly just there as an object in other characters' arcs. but I like her, and I think they could have a lot of fun with her if they want, especially with the exes as characters

soooo... yeah! imo show > comic > movie (but they're all worth consuming at least once). I never beat the game tbh. I know people like it, but I'm very much not about old-school beat em ups honestly