#not like anything he actually does in the narrative it seems. plus the other two protags sound boring as hell

[perenlop]

havent read tbc but i think its so funny how shadowsight seems to be popular to the people i follow just because “the narrative treats him like all the female characters do so hes an honorary girlie”

[rpgchoices]

More on Davrin's character (his beliefs about gods and elves) (part 3)

I promise I will stop at part 4! I just want to collect all the possible info before I actually start writing fanfics. Part 4 will be specifically for his romance, tho I already wrote a small meta about it here.

This part contains SPOILERS mainly from Solas' murales/memories.

Part 1 (Davrin and his Dalish clan) here Part 2 (Codex, Davrin naming Assan and his journal) here

In this part I wanted to talk about:

Davrin and the gods (Solas' murales) plus some contraddictions with "Vows and Vengeance"

A bit more about Davrin's vallaslin (90% sure it is Andruil's)

Davrin's feelings abour protecting other elves

Some extra from the artbook (his age, when he left his clan, his armor)

Davrin and the gods/believing Solas' memories

Transcription of the video: (first scene) Bellara: And the mages who declared themselves my gods. Well, mine and Davrin's. And Rook's. Rook: They're not gods at all, much less my gods. Davrin: I'm with Rook.

(second scene) Emmrich: This is astounding! The ancient elves were spirits who voluntarily manifested a physical form! Davrin: I'd rather go back to talking about the blight. Taash: Hey, Lucanis. Could Spire turn into an elf? Lucanis: No. Bellara: Sorry, but. What? Rook: Okay, no. This whole spirit thing is stupid, and I vote we ignore it. Davrin: Seconded.

(banter) Bellara: Elf came from spirits! Emmrich: An incredible revelation of what happened thousands of years ago! Bellara: I asked Davrin what he thought, and he just shrugged! Emmrich: Ah, he would! Bellara: Rook! Do you feel any different? Rook: As an elf? Should I? Bellara: More spirit-y, maybe? I don't know.

While sometimes it is frustrating to see characters and companions not reacting to the big lore revelations, I find it works pretty well with Davrin. He is clearly uninterested in Dalish gods, even if in Vows and Vengeance he uses "May Andruil guide you on your path", and he is uninterested in openly (with others at least) talk about his feelings on the main revelations. Elves are spirits? He shrugs it away or decides to ignore it (much more interested in how this will affect elves than anything else), the gods? Not his, not interested in them.

He even calls Solas "Baldy" and is not particularly intimidated by him or by the two remaining Evanuris (or respectful of them). (And we also know he does not believe the Fade is real, tho much of that Emmrich banter seem more like he is teasing him).

Another small element of his relationship with the gods is another Vows and Vengeance comment. Someone mentions Fen'harel doing a ritual, and Davrin reacts quite alarmed, asking where the other person heard that name. Does he actually believe in Fen'harel? Or is it simply the idea that someone would use the name of the trickster god?

EDIT: UPDATE! There is a dialogue between Neve and Davrin where Davrin confirms he never truly believed in the gods, he always thought they were a myth.

Neve: Does it bother you they're elven gods? Davrin: It won't help our reputation, that's for sure. Davrin: But me, I never gave our gods much thought. They were just a myth. Neve: Not anymore.

I also wanted to say - yes, I know some discrepancies are probably writing related. To me the most "out of narrative" explanation is that the Vows and Vengeance writers did not fully consult about his character with the game writers, and the game writers rushed through these revelation and did not allow for many reactions.

About Davrin's vallaslin

In a previous interview the answer was not given (it was treated like it was supposed to be a big spoiler), but in the game, as far as I can tell, we do not see any identification for Davrin's vallaslin.

I talked before (here in part 1) about why I think it is Andruil's (or a mix of Andruil and Ghil) and now I am even more certain it might be Andruil. Not only Davrin is the one who tells of the tale of Andruil during the Solas' memories event, but in Vow and Vengeance he gives Nadia a blessing from Andruil:

Nadia: My love. He waits for me Davrin: Then may Andruil guide you on your path.

This is of course a Davrin pre-Veilguard. In Vow and Vengeance he also is alarmed by hearing that the Dread Wolf is doing something. I am a bit confused by how much he actually believes in the gods, at this point!

Davrin and protecting elves

In general, Davrin seems the only character to mention elves discrimination, mainly through banter or some rare comment here and there. We also know he is the only elf who lived away from other Dalish elves (different from Bellara who seems still in contact with her clan and lives with a group that highly respects elves), and we know he described his impact with the outside world as "different" (from what he imagined, see part 1 here).

At the end of the game, you can also have a banter between him and Solas:

Video here.

Solas: You are Davrin of the Grey Wardens. And judging by your vallaslin, you are Dalish. Solas: I expect you have been urging the team not to trust the Dread Wolf, based on the stories you heard around the campfire in your youth. Davrin: What story should I tell? The one about the Dread Wolf creating the blight when he and Mythal slaughtered the Titans? Solas: Have you told the Dalish? Davrin: Why? So it can spread and make humans blame elves for even more things our ancient ancestors did? Davrin: Sharing that story would get a lot of people killed. Davrin: So the best thing I can do right now, as a Warden and a Dalish elf, is to stop the blight and clean your mess. Solas: Mala shivanas ar athim.

(the last seems to translate as "Your duty humbles me").

A similar sentiment is shared after the "elves were spirits" memory from Solas:

The main core reaction we get about the Solas' revelations are not inwardly focused (his own reaction to them) but focused outwards: towards other elves. It seems not to be as important that Solas made the Titans tranquil as much as the danger of humans to blame elves. He is not as interested in elves derived from spirits, as much as he is interested in bigoted humans starting to see all elves as demons.

I think it is also interesting that he only mentions "humans", even if the reactions regarding the Titans would probably come from dwarves, it is clearly humans that in the DA world oppress and discriminate elves.

More Davrin info from the Artbook

I also just wanted to add this for completion sake!

He's in his early 30s and left his dalish clan in his teens. Usually elves (from the codex compiled in the wiki page) get the vallaslin around 18 or younger, so it could overlap to being just before his departure if he got the vallaslin in his clan.

Also the artbook says he created his own armor from different pieces!

I love seeing the stitches in his main blue-like collar jacket, and you can see some wear and tear on the rest of his clothes, especially the waist piece!!

[aroaceleovaldez]

okay outside of the retcons and continuity errors in TSATS, I think the main part that bugs me is how much the book seems to infantilize Nico, particularly relating to his relationship with Will. Especially because the book seems to remember and then forget again that Nico is autistic only when it’s convenient to infantilize him further.

Nico is randomly nerfed and basically helpless at literally everything the entire book. There is not a single fight EVER in the book that he actually fights without someone else very directly doing the work for him or actively helping him (usually LITERALLY holding his hand), save for that singular time where he sneak-attack kills the monster that just regenerated, but honestly that doesn’t really count as a fight. Or the aeternae, but they literally weren’t attacking him.

He’s in the underworld! He’s been dating Will for a year! How is he completely incapable of the simplest tasks? He tries to help Will - in the infirmary (is helpless at it), patch up his wounds (Will’s condition only worsens), put batteries in a sun lamp (he drops the batteries) - every time he manages to fuck up like he’s never done a single task in his life before. He runs away from every fight or someone else does the work for him because he’s randomly incapable of it for some random excuse. He completely loses several notable powers of his (only ever using one of his powers the entire book, and the only other reference to his powers is his shadow-travel which we don’t actually see) and acts like he’s physically incapable of them even though they logically should be the best answer for a particular situation (geokinesis! dream powers! influencing fear/nightmares! one-tap kill dissolve-you-to-bones! rip souls out of living people!) Yet Will randomly can do everything he can’t - generates two completely new powers to fight Nyx with (alongside bringing back an old power that got forgotten)! Plus a third (growing flowers/plants) that doesn’t even have anything done with it! Can pick the fruit from Persephone’s garden when Nico can’t (LITERALLY IN NICO’S OWN HOME)! Nico panicking? Soothes him without even trying. Will saves Nico in fights like five different times when he’s supposed to be the one with zero combat experience and explicitly isn’t a fighter (and doesn’t even have a weapon) and Nico’s the one who lived on his own as a rogue for three years! They’re in the Underworld, Nico’s home, and Will - WHILE ON DEATH’S DOORSTEP. LITERALLY. - is more powerful than him! For no reason! Nico is a Big 3 kid! He’s SUPPOSED to be extremely op! We don’t even see Nico speak to any true ghosts the entire book and they even acknowledge that he’s Ghost King!

And then on top of it all, the narrative keeps treating Nico as not knowing what’s best for himself and making Will always correct. Or making it so Will is the only one who is able to comfort Nico ever. And have Nico constantly refer to Will with almost exclusively babyish pet-names - “Night-light,” “Care bear” (when logically Nico shouldn’t even know anything about Care Bear lore?), even “sun therapy lamp” isn’t great. The constant “My little ball of darkness” also isn’t great? Like, if you establish that Nico’s extremely short, then it’s not as bad cause then it’s a height joke, but since the book never establishes that it just reads as more infantilizing.

I get they were trying to hype up Will for this book and let him have some action scenes so it wasn’t just Nico dragging him through the Underworld for 50 chapters while he does nothing but be emotional support. And Nico’s powers usually means he very often acts as an almost literal dues ex machina in a lot of plots. But you can still work with that without nerfing Nico so much, or completely infantilizing him! Just because Nico has trauma doesn’t mean he can’t be capable on his own, and that doesn’t have to negate him having people he leans on for support! These things can coexist!

[ihopesocomic]

I actually prefer what you guys originally did with Adamant and Quiet suffering from Jasper's abuse

It's more subtle

I think the realization that Jasper is responsible for Quiet's death and had promised Adamant to be someone's queen without her consent or knowledge hits that much harder

Because up until that happens Jasper seems like an okay dad to the two of them only for it to hit you that he never loved Quiet either and only sees Adamant as someone useful to him rather than a daughter he's supposed to love

It reflects real life on how most cases where there are multiple victims of abuse, people will only focus on the ones they deem had it the hardest, while the other victims fade into the background as if they never existed

But I think IHS does it well because we see the aftermath of that abuse: Quiet's death and Adamant surviving without her and having to leave the place she once called home(not to mention Edge's entire family hunting her down because her asshole father promised her to them)

Though I would love to see more of Quiet and how Adamant deals with her being gone in general rkdjdjdjje

Basically what I'm saying is don't be too hard on yourselves, I think you guys did a great job

Completely get what you're saying, anon, and it's appreciated but the old chapters aren't going anywhere and you could perhaps wait and see what we put out first before having a preference.

More exploration doesn't mean we're going to uproot everything and do things differently. We're not after making things 'more obvious' and spoonfeeding people because that's kinda patronising. We just want to touch more on certain things.

This point of the story is still from Hope's perspective so she can't see everything that's happening, but we can show a panel or two of Adamant being trained by Jasper while Quiet gets ignored. We can show a point in time where Careful stops treating Hope like a lost cause.

We also want to show more of Vicious's anti-Traveller rhetoric and where it comes from, but it'll be subtle and won't call for a flashback sequence to break the narrative or anything. Plus, I get to fulfil my secondary dream of being a songwriter. lol

But in all seriousness, we're not changing a TON, just tweaking things here and there. And we'll certainly be archiving the old chapters on the Tumblr too, so you can look back on how it all began and compare. c: - RJ

[batsplat]

Do you have any thought on the podcast that vale just did with Mig. I had never come across someone that had the Marc fell on purpose in Sepang narrative but I’m just wondering how much of what he’s saying now aligns with what he’s said over the years and is anything new information that’s he’s never bought up before? I also saw that he mentioned Casey and Dani apparently but I haven’t seen that bit yet.

I'd say it more or less aligns with the stuff he's said previously, but he's expanded on some points. him kinda implying there was something fishy about marc's fall itself was a pretty popular theory at the time, enough to be referred to by journalists, though as far as I can recall valentino has stayed clear of it (always getting handlebars caught up in inconvenient places in controversial racing incidents, eh). as for the other stuff:

argentina: valentino hasn't spoken much about pre-sepang incidents in general, at most referring to them with half a line (including races that usually aren't integrated into the timeline of the 2015 collapse, like silverstone and misano). I've talked about it here, but valentino's line about marc's riding there should be read in context of another past comment - that valentino was told marc believed vale had cost him the title, which you would assume to be a reference to argentina (more on that in a moment). while it was obviously deemed a racing incident, it should come as no surprise that narratives accusing one or the other of ill intent were discourse points at the time (see here). both valentino and jorge seem to think that marc felt valentino deliberately crashed him out (here). if they are to be believed, it leaves you with a version of argentina where both parties thought the other was deliberately attempting to make them crash. this version positions argentina 2015 less as a precursor of things to come and more as a breaking point neither party ever moved on from

assen: valentino has spoken about this as a turning point before, saying back in 2016: "at assen I realised he was only my friend when he beats me"; plus in october 2015 saying more broadly that marc was "angry about assen". he hasn't spoken about a direct conversation between the two of them before, though the words he attributes to marc do broadly align with what we have footage of marc saying in the actual press conference (for instance, marc feeling he had won the race, see here). so yes, the stances they both take according to valentino basically match up with the stances we know they publicly took at the time, but again: this is the first time he's talked about this conversation, and we have no evidence for it occurring (certainly not in parc fermé - my best guess is that this would have happened when they were at race direction). all of this is in line with reading assen as essentially the point of no return as far as that relationship was concerned - from then on, the collapse is locked in

alzamora: his involvement is something I've been wondering about for ages now (here, here and here). as is discussed in those posts, valentino said way back in october 2015 that alzamora had told him after sepang that marc "behaved as he did because I caused him to lose the world title". this had always felt bizarre to me, because the description made it difficult to judge the tone of the encounter - surely, you would have to have good reason to harm your charge by running your mouth like that. valentino's version presented in the podcast, which now explicitly attributes active malice to alzamora, does make more sense than alzamora just... randomly approaching valentino to worsen the conflict. the notion that alzamora spoke openly in the paddock about damning valentino's championship bid, as well as this getting back to valentino via spanish friends, is also new. alzamora did have a troubled reputation of his own, as a lot of these managers tend to, not least as a result of the honda in-fighting he was involved in (see here). he has at times been seen as... overeager in getting mixed up in his charges' business - see also how he dealt with reporters and photographers. reporting of valentino's alzamora claim in the immediate aftermath of sepang 2015 mention "yet another disagreement between crew chief santi hernandez and alzamora", the "questionable" role played by alzamora, and alzamora's "very different priorities than honda" (see here and here). alzamora's alleged insistence on being at the meeting, even when valentino thought it was not his place to interfere, does seem to gel with his general conduct. to my eye, there are no obvious inconsistencies between how alzamora's influence was discussed at the time and what valentino is saying now, though the detail of this confrontation including a verbal fight at race direction is also new

at race direction: the details of the look exchanged between marc and alzamora are new too. valentino has spoken about a conversation between himself and marc where marc stared blankly at him, and just based on my own conjecture I did think race direction was the logical place for this conversation to take place. this is in large part on the basis of two media scrum answers marc gave in late 2015 that make explicit reference to this conversation, which I should probably get around to uploading (and valentino likewise spoke about it at the time) (so we can be reasonably confident that it happened and that marc was not best pleased by what valentino said). but the smile is new, yes

that was all I saw in terms of additions! other stuff like uccio's involvement and how valentino describes marc as a rider are basically what he's been saying for years. the most interesting bits to me personally were the alzamora comments because, again, that element of the story was odd enough that I was kinda hoping someone would eventually expand on it. much obliged

[velvees-archive]

TGAA 1-1 Spoilers (Live React)

*with spoilers for AA first and second trilogy

finished the first case for the great ace attorney. verdict? i really enjoyed myself. playing tgaa feels like a reintroduction to the ace attorney games that hooked me in the first place.

musings under the cut!

i wasn’t supposed to start my tgaa playthrough until next year bc i wanted to give myself space to be a functioning human being + write ace attorney fic…but then my brother begged me and i am an older sibling before i’m anything else, i guess, so here we are.

first case’s logic was pretty sound. it’s the tutorial so i wasn’t expecting anything groundbreaking. coming from someone who tackled the aa trilogies + aai duology first, the lack of “scientific” autopsy reports adds tension to the courtroom battles that does wonders for increasing stakes. i’m intrigued and a little overwhelmed at the idea of watching passive witnesses during cross-examinations. in a good way, i think. like taking apollo’s perceive ability and loading it with crack and a bit more realism.

there’s some character bloat bc we technically exposed two criminals. nothing too jarring, though it does make the case stretch. leaving the murderer’s motive unexplored reminds me very much of aa4. this case felt like an amalgamation of the dahlia and kristoph trials. two thumbs up!

i remember reading somewhere that shu takumi had a hard time writing apollo bc he’d already exhausted his creativity writing phoenix. clearly that wasn’t a problem when it came to fleshing out ryunosuke bc his character is very discernible from the former, and written in such a refreshing way that you can’t help but be endeared by him. make no mistake though. the real star of this case is his defense counsel/best friend: kazuma asogi.

oh my god he makes me wanna eat drywall

they put him front and center in this case. a captivating design, a sheathed katana, and a headband that defies the laws of physics makes for an eye catching character. that among uh..

other……….aesthetic-related considerations.

i didn’t mind the 3D models in spirit of justice very much (don’t look, dd phoenix, trucy, and apollo can’t hurt you) but capcom evidently hit their stride with the tgaa models because! because!!!!

bro.

setting aside the fact that the two main characters constantly reaffirm their friendship plus kazuma calls ryunosuke partner no joke 10+ times throughout the trial, i am loving the implication that ryunosuke very well could have been found guilty had he chosen not to defend himself. kazuma’s ‘oh how sad, you didn’t believe i could get you off’ hit a little too close to home. for narrative reasons i hope they turn that into resentment. they probably won’t though.

the central theme here is belief in your client. at some point during the trial, kazuma throws in the towel, but ryunosuke doesn’t. is this not good set up for a best friend-turned-rival/enemy plot point?

kazuma seems like your typical justice-oriented defense attorney but i am sensing something very dark about him that may or may not be proven correct as i continue playing. he says something about proving a client innocent by all means necessary or something close to that effect. im guessing that isn’t a good thing if dd has anything to say abt the phrase.

as of writing this, i’ve just finished up the whole case and kazuma’s got a secret mission + a deep fascination with ryunosuke’s talent for pointing out contradictions…yeah ok this guy has to be an antagonist in the making right? right???

please don’t actually spoil me, i am shooting theories into the dark bc i derive enjoyment from being proven right or wrong

at the very least, kazuma isn’t as honest as he makes himself out to be. i have a sneaking suspicion this guy is going to pull the wool over my eyes one way or another.

theories be damned, though, i’m interested to see how shu takumi will balance having 2 best friends/defense attorneys in this game. i’m mindful of bloat but cautiously optimistic that he can make it work, unlike whatever the hell took place in the apollo justice trilogy.

i’m still doing my ace attorney first trilogy + aai duology replay so my blog posts are going to be an odd mix of everything. sorry abt that…

tl;dr we are sooooo back

[aesolerin]

So, a dd2 class guide (of all things) ended up bringing me to some really fascinating realizations when it comes to how Baldwin and Sarmenti are foils to each other, so of course I can't help but share it with you.

Short Version: Leper and Jester as characters contrast themselves in terms of personalities compared to skills. These seemingly in-built contradictions are the exact opposite of one another, which is likely why they synergize so well from both a narrative and game mechanics perspective. The makes them a duo of complimentarily contrasting contradictory characters. (yeah, try saying that five times fast)

Long Version: As we both know/adore about him, a key feature of Baldwin as a character is his selflessness, this key desire he has to help and serve others, while his own personal happiness instead comes from the simple joys of life. In his backstory he went out of his way to comfort his sick citizens, killed off his advisors to keep his kingdom safe before abdicating, and even now the reason he wants to die fighting is to help others succeed in their goals with all the skills he has available.

It's super interesting, then, to look at what said skills actually do - heal himself, mitigate his own inaccuracy, protect himself from shuffling via immobility - all things prioritizing self-reliance first and foremost. Out of his ten DD2 moves, only two can be said to have some level of 'party support' mixed in - Purge to clear corpses, and Intimidate to weaken enemies (and remove stealth when upgraded). And even they exist first and foremost to mitigate the blindspots in his own fighting style. Altogether, even as this seems to contradict his actual values as a person, it wouldn't be wrong to frame his entire kit as selfish in nature.

To put it another way, Baldwin personally goes out of his way to help others by prioritizing himself first.

Compare this, in turn, to Sarmenti - a character narratively defined by selfishness (eg; his desires, his ignited ambitions, his prolonged suffering, his current suicidal death wish, plus any other impulse or whim he has at any given moment). And yet, his skills are almost entirely support-focused, with even a lot of the damage-dealing ones being less about the damage and more about applying debuffs and combo tokens to the benefit of the team. It's such a selfless prioritization of others that he has barely anything left in his toolkit that focuses on either his own survivability or his damage-dealing capabilities. (His main exception being Finale, which one could still argue is selfless in how it leaves him immediately vulnerable and slow after he's likely nuked an enemy from any possible rank - meaning the ideal is for other people to take advantage of this.)

As such, Sarmenti's selfish desires and goals lead him to greatly prioritizing the group's benefit over himself as an individual.

And it's this nature as foils, this reversal/mirroring of each other's innate contradictory natures, that make Jester and Leper such a complementary duo both in terms of personality and combat synergy.

idk, that's just how I came to look at 'em in my pretentious academic perspective on the ship, lol. you got any thoughts brought up by it??

oh man, this is such a fantastic analysis, i feel like there's nothing more i really need to add! i do have some thoughts though:

looking at this and thinking about it, yeah isn't it just a bit odd that the selfless Leper barely aids his team, and if anything eats up a lot of the resources they put out? man eats combos like he needs them to live because he kinda does. but oh man, if you take care of Leper he will take care of you tenfold. he rewards selflessness with his strength.

i think his skills could also be viewed not as entirely selfish, but as self-reliant. gently turning down Vestal, Occultist, Plague Doctor's, any sort of healing and simply fortifying himself, allowing them to heal someone not as strong as him or attack with their own skills. using Purge to both strike down a foe and clear corpses so someone else doesn't have to nor can their enemies take advantage of it. let him weaken a foe and draw their ire with Intimidate, he has the strength to take it.

and Jester is such a fun contrast to think about, his top-tier supportive skills vs his snarky and biting personality. all that setting up and dancing he does, the grand orchestra he plays, why doesn't he make himself the star? i think he'd insist it's because he's a twig in a clown costume, why should he be drawing the enemy formation's attention? the faster the warm bodies between him and those bastards cut said bastards down, the better. hence, a selfless skillset for selfish reasons. there is probably some element of fun/humor to it, too. man's Silly.

and together, they work perfectly in sync. Jester wants those bastards dead before they hit him, Leper will smite them out of existence if given the opportunity. Jester will give him those opportunities, Leper will strike down their enemies. also they kiss. nature is beautiful.

[ivyembracertifiedbitch]

FHJY Finale Thoughts: Episode 19

Disclaimer: I know I've been really negative about the last two episodes but I do actually have real criticisms, and I will try my best to not be just 'I hate this' about everything. No promises though. Also, none of this is hating the IH or Bleem. I respect that they're very fucking tired when shooting this and don't have a week in between episodes to think, and so these criticisms are made with that in mind. Also feel free to debate and discuss, I just wanted to share my opinions and try to pinpoint where the narrative went wrong, or where BLeeM could've made a better DM choice, but I love hearing other people's thoughts!

Bringing back K2: Bringing her back to have a second healer is really smart, but saying that Kristen liked having a sister around doesn't make sense. There was never any moment where Kristen and K2 seemed to get along, and honestly, I think K2 got along more with Fabian and Fig. Show don't tell is actually really good advice.

The short rest (and Ice Feast): Just nope. Nope. Not a fan, solidly don't like it. This is the big finale, and I felt more concern during the dragon fight than here. That's the problem with playing level 14 characters, I'm aware, but like. Not letting them take the short rest, actually having The Rat Grinders be skilled at fighting (If Brennan was lying about them grinding rats, you don't think he was lying about them only doing the killing blow on monsters? Plus, do you really think Porter would have his first worshippers and warriors only know how to do a killing blow?), having Kipperlilly steal the votes, anything man. Ice Feast played a big part in giving them the advantage, and I wasn't cool with that too. Taking away fire damage, making them unable to be stunned, all of that took away like the biggest threats of the fight. (I do think it's really cute that Brennan actually made Ice Feast for his friends, but allowing them to use it before the final battle, on top of the short rest was too much)

Strategy: Rewatching, it's actually fun to see them strategize because they're so good at it! It just sucks that they feel nothing but hate for these kids and we know that doesn't change after everything they've seen. And the narrative's going to reward them for it.

Squeem: Honestly? Also, not my favorite. Like, to have a short rest, and Ice Feast, and several allies on their way? What's the point of even fighting? Just skip to the victory dance. (Was so funny to have the return of hot chocolate with a shot of cortado, and lemonade cortado)

Battle Set: Once again, the art department has fucking slayed. Truly, such a work of art. 10/10, no notes.

Mary Ann: Not getting into it a lot with this episode, but see here for my general thoughts. Also, not happy with the cast's reactions to Mary Ann freaking out over getting her strawberry burned, as that's most likely her having a meltdown.

Ivy: I do appreciate Brennan trying to get the Bad Kids to be nice through the Hangman. Also, if Ivy truly does like looking good, great for her, but the only things we know about her at this time are that she's besties with Oisin, she was into Fabian, she's kinda bitchy, and some of her class stats. So the idea that just because she's a "mean girl" she'd take offense to getting called ugly feels misogynistic, especially coming from a complete stranger/someone literally not in her universe of existence. As for what Fabian said and did to Ivy, in my opinion, part of it is because he rejected Mazey at the party to impress her and feels bad, part of it is because she rejected him, and part of it is because he feels bad that he 'yes and-ed' the racist remark she made about Mazey. Also, the close proximity to the rage stars. I think he was wrong for what he said, and I'm not going to get into the virginity comment now because I still have a whole 'nother episode to get through, but I do want to say this is when Fabian/Mazey stopped being cute to me. Also, Brennan using Ivy's last moments to have her make a mean comment really feels like he's trying to cast her as the mean girl, which again, it's fine if she is. You can't convince me she's not just a kid scared for her life.

Oisin: Smart to get him somewhere he can't counterspell Adaine, and to take him out of the fight first, but why didn't we have anything directed at him? Like, I know that he never really got close enough to Adaine for episode 18 to be a full betrayal, but everything with Ivy and Ruben was so intense, I'd expect something. On behalf of Ivy and Ruben, I'm offended he was mostly left alone. As a general Rat Grinders enjoyer, this does count as a (small) w.

Buddy: So sad that Ally's insight roll on him failed, and I will not tolerate anyone calling him stupid or naive about the plan: see here. I get annoyed that Buddy was played up as a joke villain, but whatever! He's just a dumb southern hick, right?

Ruben: Saying there's no loyalty from Ruben is soo arrogant. They never emotionally connected so who would he be loyal to? The friends he's had for three years, or some random girl who had one real conversation with him? Tumblr user @rubenhopclap says it best. Fig's speech to Ruben is just *argh*. Girlie you don't know anything about him! (I do understand Emily's annoyance, because she did spend like at least one roll per downtime session on Ruben! But also... it was Wanda Childa talking to him, not Fig. He didn't have a real person to connect with, so why would he bother?) Like, out of all The Rat Grinders, we have explicit information that he is scared despite all of the rage and yet she just yells in his face? Thought the theme of the season was doubt beats anger, not war conquers rage. I'm also uncomfortable with Fig, who earlier in the season explicitly states that she think she's a monster for ruining one person's stay in hell as opposed to punishing all of them, deciding that just because Ruben was annoying and a waste of time he should be going to hell to be punished.

Kipperlilly: No notes. Literally, girlie was getting w's the entire episode.

Jace and Porter: No notes. Honestly? Their fucked up dynamic carried me through the finale.

The Lava: Just another solid no. With the amount of advantages we already have, it makes no sense to let their 'being immune to fire' translate to 'being immune to magma.' Bringing in some science, magma is literally a fourth state of matter, different from water. That's not going to feel like taking a swim, it's going to feel like getting crushed by cold lava. (Yes, I understand different DM's would allow that and different DM's wouldn't allow that, but with the advantages they already have, I feel like making them roll even for just half damage would be fine. Plus, fucking common sense says 'don't jump in lava, even if you have fire immunity.')

Making fun of Porter: I adore a group of teenagers just absolutely clowning on a 40 year old teacher, but I do wish they had engaged with the themes. We know it's really fucking likely The Rat Grinders have rage stars, and yet they just completely skip the part that Porter can control anyone with a rage star. And it's not like the Academy hasn't failed them before. It's not like Aguefort himself hasn't failed them before. They should be angry about that! Just, the refusal to engage with the themes in a story is irritating.

See Episode 20 thoughts here

[bloomeng]

maybe i’ll get into this more in detail but i think the reason why the fandom is currently so divisive on the topic of characterization is that s2 is fundamentally a different show. pretty much everyone changes and not in a character arc/growth way, i mean the show’s tone changes so dramatically that the character’s are forced to change as well.

my speculation is that the writers had too much access to what fans wanted— plus a lot of factors going on behind the scenes— and what we ended up with were characters that were no longer built for a romantic-comedy. using izzy as an example because he’s the most divisive, but izzy in s1 is meant to act as an antagonist, maybe a character foil for stede, but more than anything (like most characters in comedy) we were meant to laugh at him (the same way we were often meant to laugh at stede).

so when people try to make claims about his nature in s1, about how he was trying to control blackbeard etc, we don’t actually know that. we do know what he says out loud but he really doesn’t get enough focus for us to make those sorts of definitive judgements. blah blah blah unreliable narrator, because it’s stede’s pov. he very well could’ve been trying to control ed because he sucked or it could’ve been about survival. while i have my preference for which i prefer i don’t think there’s enough to evidence to say for sure what his real motives were.

and then s2 blew everything out of the water. we still don’t know exactly what his past with ed is, but he is immediately the victim at the beginning of s2. not only was there the toe incident and the various other abusive things ed did to him, but their relationship is far more intense than it was prior. we even have jim stating canonly “he was your friend.” we see a softer side of him, one that loves and wants to be loved, he calmed down significantly, and he’s effectively become a third main character, with how much screen time he gets. suddenly the reading of him being power hungry doesn’t make sense, but the survival reading does. he moves from being a two dimensional character to a three dimensional character and we’re made to have sympathy for him.

i think for a lot of people this tone shift felt jarring, esp if you really didn’t like him in s1. which btw i don’t think there’s anything wrong with disliking him. he was an antagonist. hell i didn’t really like him. i never hated him but still. he was well written because he elicited negative responses the way he was supposed to. i have no idea if izzy was always supposed to move in this direction or if the writers saw the response from fans and were influenced by it. who’s to say really.

i also want to point out that s1 was pretty much only from stede and the crew’s perspective so naturally izzy is gonna seem like an angry caricature. s2 shifts around more because stede is no longer the only story the narrative is following.

i also see ppl say that con’s interpretation of izzy is fighting the script which i don’t agree with at all. jenkins has always been upfront about how much he likes izzy. although i do think fans shifted con’s perspective of izzy into a more nuanced headspace of the character and that might’ve effected things, but i think the same can be said of the writing.

tldr/ in s1 there was no “right” interpretation of izzy we didn’t have enough info. in s2 everything changed and whether it was because of the fandom or not they leaned into the sympathetic reading.

[555-95472]

so two different people have asked me about #18. Favorite Beta troll? and it was already getting long, so. here we go 🎉

i won't sugarcoat my garbage opinions here: its eridan fuckin' ampora. welcome to my ted talk on why i love this terrible idiot.

so for context. i read homestuck when i was 14 and it like 6-12 months before my egg would crack. i was starting to be drawn toward male characters in a way i had never before. and my favorite types of characters were (still are?) under-discussed secondary characters with big "i can fix him" energy. so, naturally, eridan really caught my eye.

i liked the contrast between his tactical skill and his interpersonal ineptitude. b/t being kinda badass and being truly pathetic. b/t his attitude of supremacy and his endlessly deep self-loathing. and, yes, i definitely woobified him Big Time back then.

now coming back to the fandom like 13 years later, i see something more? those contrasts still draw me, but now i think about him in terms 1. what it means to be Villain in homestuck (both in his actions and his beliefs), and 2. erisolsprite

since this became an Essay, im putting the rest below the cut

tldr: examining eridan as a villain shows that some Really interesting choices were made in his creation and show how effectively he fills his narrative role. while erisolsprite forcibly hands someone else's perspective to an endlessly self-centered character.

with regards to villainy, in 2011 we had a totally different perspective on timelines and doom and free will and shit? looking back. and its so clear that eridan Had to be what he was, both narratively and meta-narratively?

what got me thinking about it was actually kanaya's sylladex releasing the matriorb? her fetch modus only releases objects when its The Right Time. and The Right Time was for eridan to fucking destroy it. and i realized that shit would've probably been pretty fucked if they got to the condesce with the matriob (something she wants Badly) and feferi (the heiress she was meant to kill).

narratively, eridan was predestined to destroy the matriob, and had he done anything differently, it would have doomed them. and i know this is the case for literally every decision, but idk something about that perspective hits different for eridan, who acts on his worst impulses and almost never has a positive impact on anything

like, goddamn, his classpect is prince of hope, and his planet is wrath and angels. people talk about whether or not he fulfilled his mythical arc or whatever? but it seems like LOWAA was meant to push him to that place of furious tension and volatile fear. it needed to happen and his planet made it so.

(plus i think there's some really interesting post-canon au stuff to explore with eridan learning to redefine prince of hope from "i destroy with my conviction" (meaning "i kill with magic/science") to "i destroy my conviction" (meaning "i deconstruct the things i once considered my core beliefs"))

and meta-narratively, eridan is Useful and also pretty interesting? imo there needed to be some representation of what the expected hemocaste beliefs of alternia were like. specifically someone representing the intersection of hyperviolence and bigotry that forms that backbone of their culture. eridan, as a war-tactic-obsessed seadweller, does a really good job of that.

but what twists him into something more is his role as an orphaner. in homestuck, eridan is the voice of his society's most violent and genocidal beliefs, and he is uniquely placed in a position to enact them. but he doesn't.

if eridan's bigotry is thought about as a narrative necessity for the arcs of other trolls (♋, ♉, ♐, etc.), it becomes more clear that some really clever choices were made to show a complex version of that (while still not overshadowing how Terrible he is). eridan is meta-narratively given infinite opportunities to do unspeakable violence that he Does Not Take. which serves to both undermine how dangerous he is, and to call into question the depth of those beliefs.

and with all that in mind: holy shit erisolsprite. eridan joined in mind and memory with sollux, a powerfully psionic goldblood who grew up in the shadow of helmsmanship. erisolsprite is so united in their self-loathing that they find unshakable common ground (as opposed to sprite-sploding like others do). its arguably The most stable relationship we see eridan have and the most stable sprite made of 2 trolls, and thats so wonderfully fucked up.

for eridan specifically, who is almost defined by being self-centered, he suddenly has the full memory of growing as sollux, who lived his life in the shadow of his own doom and was endlessly willing to sacrifice himself for others. eridan is literally is shoved into sollux's shoes and given memories of every previous step, all while sollux is still wearing those same shoes.

and while being erisolsprite definitely Sucks Ass, i can't stop thinking about how much that would affect eridan (Positively) if he ever got out of the sprite. tbh im also curious what sollux would walk away from erisolsprite with, but thats a post for a different time. i could go on, but it would probably just turn into a fanfic about it

ok my eridan rant is over. i hope this made sense. thank you for coming. here's a little bonus lowres eridan 💚

(also i havent played pesterquest yet so idk anything about that. ive been meaning to but its dubiously canon so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

[houseofbrat]

Terrible all around, for so many reasons. As a comms person I could do a series of Tedtalks about this.

Nevertheless I really pray for Kate’s recovery both physically and mentally.

Yes, its all very sad but could have been prevented with proper management. The Palace Comms Team needs an overhaul.

Exactly. This seems to contradict Kate’s message that she wanted to wait until they told their kids and now they say it’s because of a potential leak? Which is it then and why would they now blame a potential leak? Who does it benefit by changing the story now and why did they even bother to? It’s so bizarre.

I think it’s a bit naive to blame this on KP’s team. The team is only as good as their bosses and William is pretty inept at handling press

This to me has nothing to do with a leak and everything to do with Easter. They knew she wasn’t going to be present for Easter so they had to make an announcement and get out in front of it early.

This was my first thought as I watched Kate’s video. If not for the leak, they still would be silent.

The idea the rota is pushing is it’s all the public’s fault for wildly speculating, and it’s not sitting well with me. It was mostly jokes about Kate being at the Willy Wonka experience or that she was getting a BBL. Then they released the fake photo and AP flagged it.

The papers got pissed because there WAS a story and the Palace wasn’t feeding them, so they turned up the heat. Nobody was talking about Rose Hanbury until The Independent (I think that was the paper) ran that story “Who is Rose Hanbury?” and repeated the old rumors of the affair. And some other online news site ran a story asking what would happen if William committed a crime. And then you had Piers Morgan saying he has heard wild rumors and if even half of them were true, he was concerned.

Yes, there are nasty people out there who gossiped but the media help set this situation on fire. And KP completely bungled the PR response. But they need to spare us the “shame on you all” narrative.

Wishing Kate the best and I hope the people who accessed her medical info are held responsible.

It's the fake photo and AP killing it that set this whole thing into the stratosphere. Before that all noise was limited to a small corner of the internet. No fake photo and ninety-eight percent of mess that happened never would have happened. KP is responsible for the mess and no amount of scolding from the rota will change that.

Sometimes I wonder what their long-term plan was for this? Obviously Kate having cancer would mean she’d need more time away than what they previously let on, so if the conspiracies never took off and they weren’t under a ton of scrutiny, I wonder how/when they would have told the public about her diagnosis, if at all.

Considering how they’ve handled more minor health issues, like William having COVID, I just assume KP never wanted to be transparent in the first place and were forced. Which sucks for Kate but has bad implications for a publicly funded institution IMO.

I don’t think there was ever a longterm plan here. I think everyone was taking it one step at a time and trying to process and figure out what the next step would be.

I’m honestly surprised because I am sure Rebecca English said they didn’t have their hand forced. Plus there were two days between Wed and Friday and any leaks could have occurred then as well. I do think it was getting to the stage it was an open secret witch certain circles.

I don’t understand why this and the “were angry about speculation” stories have been leaked - if they’ve been leaked by W&K and not somebody else. Not going after the alternative theories with this comment rn.

Like, they do want this to die down, right? I’m assuming so, because Kate is sick. I’ve never really cared about her actual illness in this whole debacle, but cancer or not, in her shoes I’d want the least amount of speculation possible. And the “we’re angry about speculation post” before the reveal was not the way to do that. All that was going to do was increase the speculation because if there’s one thing the internet likes doing more than anything else, it’s doing behavior they’ve been told not to.

Now it’s been revealed that Kate has cancer and I think the whole slew of “you’re bad for speculating no matter what the speculation was, even if it wasn’t health-related” posts were bad because they encouraged talk about her even as they were saying people shouldn’t talk about her, but that wasn’t in W&K’s hands so I’m not gonna blame them for that. Either way, the gossip around her did die eventually.

But now they’re bringing it back up of their own accord, if this is them? Why? It was already said that people tried to access her info. If this inside source was BP, revealing this is just bad for the overall family image. It proves Harry was right once again. If it wasn’t, I guess I understand wanting to talk about the source, but it’s still giving attention that I don’t think would be wanted or needed right now.

This is what has fascinated me about the KP PR ever since this entire thing started. It just seems like completely weird decisions over and over and over again.

100% this is a situation of their own making. They literally exist to be seen- what did they think was going to happen if one of them just disappeared? They’re so angry at how everyone reacted but maybe they should take some time to self reflect and see how their own actions and life created this whole mess.

Because the PR/comms team is incompetent and their employers are stubborn with gigantic hubris.

The virtue signaling “everyone participating in the gossip and making jokes and sharing memes should be ashamed!” will never sit well with me. We’ve been shown time and again for decades at this point that their PR is very sloppy.

they're really trying to guilt trip the public for not knowing she had cancer after faking a photo documentation as an official government institution, aren't they?

look, if someone tried to access her.files that's criminal and should be prosecuted whatever. that's another issue. 

but the BRF cannot use fear of public speculation as a tool to divert us from the fact that they faked an image and tried to pass it off as real. this is incredibly problematic on many levels. not only we cannot trust them to pass on truthful info about themselves (which, with their history of throwing women to the wolves, is icky), but as british official representatives, they should be held to all possible standards.

on a personal level, i hope she recovers, her treatment isn't too terrible as in side effects and her kids are able to grow up with her love all around. 

but as someone with basic standards for media and government, and also a citizen of a democracy (in the global south, where we have been victims of rich countries' bullshit explanations), they can all fuck off with this take and blaming.

They even put out a statement around late January where they said she didn’t have cancer. They can’t be surprised that people thought something was up when they weren’t being entirely truthful.

King Charles's team announced he has cancer and just moved on, so did the public. I genuinely don't see why they couldn't have done the same for Catherine. A quick "we did surgery back in December, discovered i might have cancer, will be stepping off the public eye for a few months to seek treatment and spend time with kids" would've done it. Her team is not being asked for her to deal with her emotions in public, the public just wanted to know why she hasn't been seen from or heard from for a long time. They completely bungled this one.

[suckishima]

haikyuu rewatch s01e04

it wont seem like it when this posts but ive been away for over a week and havent watched anything since then so im excited to get back to it

"the view from the summit" woooo

oh yeah this is the episode that starts with the quote, and i think the manga has it too? interesting, tbh this still feels a bit like furudate finding their footing in terms of how they wanna go about storytelling. i dont dislike putting the quote in at all, but the sentiment of it (that the six is stronger than the one and how a player feeling special is done for in volleyball) is shown really solidly throughout the series and in general i feel like the show is at its best when the narrative is speaking for itself, so i guess i just dont totally find the quote necessary

ooo i do like how it leads directly into kageyama's pov on his middle school moment tho. that does work pretty well

okay the fact that he literally has nightmares about it too waah

idk if we're supposed to interpret kageyama ignoring hinata while he talks about how pretty shimizu is and whether shes their manager as him being stressed about the upcoming match or just him not giving two shits about whether people are attractive or not (both of which have a fair amount of other evidence imo), and it's probably the former but i think its more fun if i imagine it's both lol

the running gag of tanaka's ear getting big whenever people talk about him ashakjs iirc one of his trivia things on the wiki is 'has really good hearing' or something lmaoo

i know im tsukishima & yamaguchi brained at all times and im super conscious about not over talking about them, but so many questions and curiosities about their dynamic at this point in the story. tsukki is trash talking and yamaguchi is like worried about it?? worried that tsukki wont make friends? or worried tsukki will get in trouble?? either way he seems surprised tsukki is doing it at all, so has he not been doing this often??? that seems odd to me too, especially when last episide yamaguchi was smirking when tsukki was talking down to kageyama. tbhhh its probably just the worried about getting in trouble thing? that (and again, furudate still finding footing about characterization) makes the most sense to me i guess

hinata: "beh!!!"

kono imagination o kakaete !!

lmao tanaka shirt lasso

shimizu seeing hinata jumpppp it never gets old seeing people react to him for the first time lol

yamaguchi standard standing float serve directly into the net and tsukki scoffing in annoyance, ohhhh how far we eventually go :') im fine

really interesting how in kageyama's flashback we see kindaichi yell and tell kageyama his tosses are reckless and whats the point if they cant even spike them, and then internally kageyama is like 'but we can't win if we can't get past their blockers.' his initial reaction is actually about the team and not about his teammates sucking at all, but then he starts to spiral thinking about losing, about not being able to play anymore, about this ending (screams in manga spoilers) and so what he actually says to kindaichi is the infamous 'move faster jump higher!' and obviously they all get offended by that. but the characterization is what's so cool to me there, his main issue here is his lack of communication—how differently would his teammates have reacted if he had just expressed the bit about not being able to get past them? and then much later in the series when he's feeling similarly trapped he does the same thing, he stops talking—except now hinata calls him out for being quiet, and they can right things again (iirc this is in seijoh 1), and i just. the attention to detail to characterization is so good!! the character threads are so consistent!!

aaaaand yeah here's hinata stating his facts. ive essentially made this post before but yeah 'hinata whose grateful for literally any toss plus kageyama terrified of his tosses being ignored equals narrative soulmates'

AAAAAAND tsukki is being a dick about it—but what he says here too says a lot about him as well. 'so straight forward and pure. how irritating' damn how was i not fascinated by these dynamics right off the bat lmao, he clocks hinata exactly and hinata's just done a positive thing, so why doesn't tsukki like it? i simply was too naive have enough faith in the show yet to think these threads would be followed up on lol

holyyyy FUCK the 'i'm here' with hinata in kageyama's eyeball with the same framing as the ignored set from middle school rraaahhh it's ART

"i'm going to do battle with this body, win and win, and be on the court as long as i can" excuse me while i go sob..

the little sound affect when kageyama does the tiny finger point bc they dont have signals yet is so funny lol

god suga is so cool. i hope kageyama thanks him in his ghostwritten memoir, so much of kageyama's eventual success is bc of him and its so coooooooool

ooohoooooo the pinpointtt

and tsukki's acting like reality itself was shattered ahasjas to him it basically was lmao

waaah kageyama is having funnnnn when was the last time he had fun playing volleyball rrraaaaAAAAHHHH furudate ily

ITS A VIEW I COULD NEVER SEE ON MY OWN AAAAAAHHHH

its been four episodes and we're already starting to see this come to fruition—and yet it only keeps getting better!! this show is insane

[transmutationisms]

re: last ask (hope this isn't unwelcome) - tom alluding to shiv's "bad time" and bringing up a very specifically sexual and sensual anecdote seemed to me to be about him preying on his knowledge of the fact that shiv responds to emotional vulnerability through hypersexuality and reminding her of the times when he provided that for her in the hopes that she would initiate that same dynamic again - they're right back at the start of their relationship. tom saying "I kept asking you" also reminds me of "do they sit on your face to shut you up?" as if she was bringing up that encounter specifically (or maybe tom always does that) from ep1. plus "i like it all" is haunting me i don't understand it. it doesn't read as romantic to me it reads as maybe shiv responding to her "bad time" (possibly abusive relationships with men in combination with a "party girl" lifestyle) through hypersexuality sort of "shutting" tom up in the act of sex by saying "i like it all" (like the tomshiv "even though i don't love you" scene from S3 - "do anything to me, say anything to me" = "i like it all") in conclusion i think tom is very deliberately trying to re-enact early tomshiv because that's how he knows to get in on her. idk i'm just fixating on "i like it all" i can't stop thinking about it ...

yeahhh so i disagree about the reading of shiv as 'hypersexual.' like, that's a narrative mostly pushed by roman, and i think it says more about his insecurities and views of women/sex than it does about shiv's actual behaviour. textually we don't see her seeking out a 'pathological' amount of sex (scare quotes because.... define that). it's like how the roman pervert allegations largely come from shiv and logan, and tell us a lot about how they see the world and the things they misunderstand about roman.

also i don't really see the party girl thing honestly. i'm not discounting the two lines about her being "a mess" and having a "bad time" but those are just so vague, like... there are a lot of potential readings there, and the shiv i see on my screen i would have a hard time reconciling with some kind of party girl stereotype.

however. i agree tom is trying to remind her of their early dynamic and appeal to her in such a way that she falls back into it. this time obviously the difference would be that he tries to directly replace logan's presence in her life, rather than providing her a conduit to logan. i think tom remembers "i like it all" as shiv 'surrendering herself' to him (he opens this anecdote by using the phrase "know each other" in a biblical sense djghfj) whereas shiv remembers that line as her being in a horrible place and having nowhere else to turn, and probably wanting to make tom happy.

so it cuts to the heart of a lot of misunderstandings in their relationship, with tom romanticising the moment as some sort of transcendent sexual encounter whereas shiv seems unhappy remembering it and is too busy worrying about her dad and everything else that's going on.

[crazykuroneko]

Idt we're suddenly going to see a bunch of happy times in s3 when its from Lestat pov like there's a lot of plot from TVL to get through and vampire lore, and its not really great for forward momentum if they're rehashing the same time period. Plus its not like TVL gave us any huge insight or new scenes from their life together, it was just a few paragraphs of retconning.

If anything I think the show's pov is that louis is overcorrecting from his 70s interview by making thing seem happier than they were, thinking of the scene when Daniel plays back the tapes for him but what Daniel says doesn't feel consistent with the vibe I got on screen (it didn't really seem that happy in ep2 even). Everything the show and actors are saying feels like they just have a supernatural inexplicable bond that doesn't make sense i guess.

Not really, if TVL is broken to two seasons as well. Unless suddenly AMC got S3 greenlighted with 15-16 episodes per season, which I doubt very much. They can go with 7 - 8 episodes for two seasons, like IWTV era, or call them both as one season, but still released as two parts ala Better Call Saul S6A and 6B (total 13 ep). Anyway, I can't see TVL will be done as only one season if it'll only have 7 or 8 episodes. Not when they have to tackle the OG TVL plots, ongoing Louis with/without Armand-Daniel plot (depends how involved Louis is with Devil's Minion in the past) and segueing to the concert and QotD. So, amount of content wise, you can no longer compare it to the book.

Yes, Louis is "overcorrecting" his narrative from the '70s interview, but in what way, it's still not clear. To make Claudia the hero? to ease his pain? to make Lestat the big bad? Sometimes I think it's one thing, but then Louis did some things that are contradictory to it. I have my main guess ofc, but now I'll just wait for Season 2.

And as I said, Season 1 (IWTV Part I) is not whole; it's not supposed to stand on its own. The lack of "good times" in S1 makes the writing feels kind of lacking, in terms of convincing the audience the relationship between each character. Because that's what good writing should do. So, I don't think we'll have to wait until the TVL era. S2 aka IWTV Part II probably will give us some crumbs (which is possibly why Rolin said we'll still see a lot of Sam). It's similar to when we're reading the second half of IWTV and go "wow, Louis actually has deep feelings for Lestat to the point he's seeing things." The difference is the book deals with how deep the feelings are, while the show may deal with how deep the connection is. Because frankly, so far, it's Sam and Jacob's chemistry that does a heavy-lifting on that part.

(About S3 though, I don't think they'll retell the whole flashback in Lestat's POV, no. But I think they'll still talk about important points in the past. Especially if the interviewer is Daniel again or someone who knows/has heard what Louis has been saying in IWTV era. For me, Lestat knowing what Louis has said about him is very crucial for his character development. So, I assume there must be a way for people or someone outside the Dubai trio to know the content of the interview, no matter if it'll be published or not)

And I don't begrudge actors being vague with the answer because like us, they only know the scripts. They didn't know in detail how the show will tackle certain things in the future. They only know the script says Louis would stay no matter how bad Loustat were with each other and their job is to make it make sense to us despite the script/character being secretive about it. And even if they know, they can't spoil it to us either. (and this is what some of us tend to forget when we're processing actor's answers in interviews)

[create-with-afp]

Bleach Fanfiction Master Post

Figured I would make a fun little catalog of my years of Bleach fanfiction. (Jeez, I am so old.) All of it is ByaHisa because that is my special kind of brain rot. My favorite romantic set-up involves a firm stoic falling hard, and we know like… five things … maybe? … about the other half of this canon pairing, which leaves a lot open to interpretation/artistic license. Also, contextualizing or reframing the woman character whose sole function in a narrative is to serve as characterization for a male character is a Fine Undertaking* in my opinion, and Bleach has so many interesting dead wives to choose from….

So, without further ado, here we go (in-progress or completed stories only):

Mortal Devices: Part III of the Maid!Heist/Dark Academia series with The Darkest Black as Part I and An Education as Part II. This WIP departs from both Maid!Heist and Dark Academia, as it's more of a political slow burn with espionage and clan politics taking up most of the breathing room. It's still firmly ByaHisa (as the politics of their marriage is explored in depth), but the main plot revolves around locating stolen documents and research from the Twelfth before they can be used to devastating effect in the WOTL. [a03 exclusive]

An Education: Part II of the Maid!Heist/Dark Academia series with The Darkest Black (described below) as Part I. This is finally complete and is the “Dark Academia” portion of the tale. The chapters are broken up into seasons for each year (Year One: Autumn, Year One: Winter, etc.). Accordingly, the chapters are largely episodic with a few themes woven into each “Year.” I’m not quite convinced I’ve nailed Dark Academia with this one; it seems more “Slice of Life” than anything else, which I think is partially owing to the dual POVs with Byakuya (the other POV character) not attending the Academy. (He’s actually banned so… yikes….) [ff.net (discontinued on ffn, but there are a few chapters there so I'll link it) │ a03]

A Thin Red Line: This is my longest work to date, as it’s basically the length of four traditionally published fantasy novels (400k+ words). To be fair to me, this is a retelling of Bleach where Hisana does not die so it covers the Byakuya and Hisana origin story, the major arcs, plus that whole 40-year period where canon Rukia was basically living in a gothic novel. Mind the tags. Still in progress after like 10 years…. Edit 6/19/23: And she’s DONE! Bonus content on AO3 for registered users. [ff.net │ a03]

The Darkest Black: While stuck with writer’s block on ATRL, I wrote an entirely different “how did Byakuya meet Hisana” story that is… bleak? Bleak for me, at least. Probably not bleak objectively. Hisana is a thief who agrees to steal a priceless piece of art from the Kuchiki family posing as a maid. Hijinks ensue. Byakuya is particularly unlikeable as a character in this one, but that’s probably more of a side-effect of Hisana being the main POV character. This was my way to make a “Hisana as a maid” meet-cute between these two characters make sense in my head. Complete. [ff.net │ a03]

Smoke and Mirrors: A dark ByaHisa origin story with Hisana as an oiran. It isn’t particularly graphic in terms of sex or violence since that isn’t really my style, but the text and subtext are definitely there that terrible things happen to Hisana, and her mental state is understandably not great. [ff.net │ a03]

Without Frontiers: Like the Peter Gabriel song! (Yes, that song was the inspo. I write to music just like probably 95% of anyone who writes.) This is a pretty fluffy one-shot where Byakuya and Hisana are childhood friends. There is like 0 romance. They are legit kids just making up stories and being goofy. There are some hints that Hisana may be exposed to Bad Things that she is trying to process through story-telling because, really, who doesn’t want a little Adult Fear injected into an otherwise light-hearted story? [ff.net │ a03]

Charcoal Hearts: This is my very tame attempt at a reincarnation fic. The story is about Byakuya taking Rukia to a ballet during their off-time. He is there basically to ogle the reincarnation of his dead wife as a ballerina performing Serenade. It has a flirty ending, but, since I don’t particularly love Hisana reincarnation fics, it ends ambiguously. [ff.net │ a03]

So Far Away: A pretty depressive one-shot where an injured Byakuya recovers in Hisana’s hovel in the deep Rukon. Here, Hisana is a barmaid who scavenges and does side jobs to support herself, and Byakuya is… well… sort of an asshole? Like I think writing this one-shot was where I had an epiphany about Byakuya’s character (or at least my attempt to write his character): That “epiphany” being that because he lives in a rich people bubble, he (1) is extremely entitled and (2) struggles to understand and connect with others. These two traits create a feedback loop that makes him come off as simultaneously arrogant and stiff/awkward. I don’t think Byakuya is canonically on the spectrum, but I could entertain that theory, especially in light of the CFYOW books. Instead, I think there is a point when someone has so much privilege that they never learn how to read the damn room because all rooms, at that point, are basically designed to cater to them. Everyone is artificial with them so genuine concern or emotion seems inconvenient, at best, to alien, at worst. All that said, in this story he very much trips all over himself, but he improves. Slowly. Over the course of like years. [ff.net │ a03]

Stages: A short ByaHisa origin story that incorporates the five stages of love challenge that was popular on LiveJournal back when LJ was a thing. (Is it still a thing?) Hisana is a courtesan. It isn’t the best, and I sort of hate it, but it is part of the plot bunny that prompted me to make a version of Hisana as a courtesan that would be interesting, or more interesting, and better researched in keeping with the Edo Period sensibilities of Soul Society, which led to Smoke and Mirrors and A Thin Red Line. [ff.net │ a03]

White Flowers and Red Hearts Trilogy: These stories are the earliest of my ByaHisa brain rot, and they probably read exactly like that. I have not done a re-write (or, hell, even a re-read) of any of these in like a decade or more so… yikes… But, from what I recall, the first story, Dissidence is the meet-cute, where Byakuya meets Hisana while on a mission. Hisana is a Rukon local working as a host performing tea ceremonies, and Byakuya sort of winds up in a “you broke the thing, now you must buy the thing” situation with Hisana, explaining his decision to marry her. Dimuendo is the middle child, and it chronicles their first year of marriage. Both Dissidence and Dimuendo are pretty fluffy with some light angst. Dolente is like super depressive because… well… death is pretty sad, and it is the final year of their marriage. Would not recommend any of these, and, like Stages, I would probably delete them if not for the sentimental value. [a03]

The Rites of the Dead: It’s a weird story. Technically, it’s a one-shot, but it has a few “movements” that break the story into parts. It has no romance. The subject matter is dark: Hisana is a member of the Fourth and is tasked with preparing the funerary arrangements upon Ginrei’s death. And, I like it? Still. For some strange reason. Sure, there are things that I would go back and fix on a technical level if I were to re-edit it (which I have no plans to do), but the idea of Hisana and Byakuya’s first meeting being on a tragic occasion seems poetic? Also, the idea of a bunch of “dead” people having to mourn and “bury” their dead is so on the nose, that it seems right. I found the wordplay in some parts of this story to be pretty clever. (No one else did.) [ff.net │ a03]

A Suggestion of Marriage: A light fluffy one-shot where Byakuya asks Hisana to marry him. She says, “yes.” Shocker. I know. I do kind of like the backstory for Hisana in this one, which is that of an Academy flunkie who goes on to work at a tea house. I think this is the story where I got the idea to finally take the plunge and make her an oiran; although, she isn’t technically one here. [ff.net │ a03]

Fan Dance: A one-shot where Byakuya and Hisana meet during a sparring match. She is the Lieutenant of the Fourth, Byakuya is the Lieutenant of the Sixth, and they get matched to spar during an event where all the fancy pants Shinigami are supposed to release their zanpakuto for public spectacle. Byakuya gets more than he bargains for when Hisana winds up not being a total powder puff. No hugging or kissing, which seems to be a theme among like half of the one-shots…. [ff.net │ a03]

*On a tangentially-related aside for anyone who comes across this random post and who wants recommendations from an internet rando on actual literature where real, serious authors reframe women who got the short end of the narrative stick, see Wide Sargasso Sea, The Penelopiad, or The Problem with Susan (Jane Eyre, The Odyssey, and the Narnia series, respectively).

[imthepunchlord]

In the Marinette and Adrien Swap with thier special!counterparts, how they would interact as civilians?

A little hard to say with most, as I don't have anything to work off civilian wise for the Special duo outside looks. Hero wise, easier as promo images shows off their dynamic (which I see strong sibling vibes as that's the only reasonable explanation for them to work together but also upstage/dig at each other; which is just icing on the cake cause this Special looks hilarious and I actually kinda want to check it out, everything I see just cracks me up).

Anyway! Civilian interactions with the swapped pairs, yeah it's hard to say. Marinette's the easier of the two to try and predict, Adrien not so much.

Like, Adrien in the Special could look like that cause he's rebelling against Gabriel/his parents (as far as we know Emilie could be alive in this reality), or it's his way of dealing with his mom's death(?), or he could be looking like that cause he's possibly crushing on Marinette and trying to connect with her.

I actually have yet to hear/see anything of why he's this way. Though I have heard, supposedly, Marinette is that way because she reached her limit due to Chloe's bullying and no helping her (which is so valid, I wish canon Marinette got to do so).

So for this ask, I'm going to stick to Special Leads being in canon as I just don't have a lot to work off yet in the Special's reality, and as far as I know, the Special isn't going to give me a lot, but who knows. Also, I'm going to work off personalities I'm predicting/speculating based on promos and what it seems like to me. Also this is not written with romance in mind.

So Special Marinette in the canon settings, working off Canon Adrien, civilian wise it's up in the air what their relationship could even be, it may not even exist. It does depend on how Origins goes, whether Alya or Adrien sits next to Marinette.

If Alya sits next to her, I don't really see them having much relation, civilian wise.

Given Marinette is this way due to Chloe, knowing Adrien is Chloe's friend, when he shows up at the end of the day, she just nopes out. She'd rather walk through the rain than be near "Chloe's friend". Also Adrien may be wary of her. Like, if Gum Incident still happens, I could see this Marinette taking a napkin to get that saliva filled wad of gum and chucking it at Chloe's hair. And given that Adrien does not like getting involved in conflict, he'd be a little intimidated and uncertain. Plus, him hardly reaching out and really interacting with any of his classmates on his own, yeah I don't see them really clicking or having much of a dynamic. The narrative/universe would have to go out of it's way to get any sort of relationship civilian wise.

Now, if Adrien sat next to Marinette, you'd have more to work with by default of them sitting next to each other and are expected to work off each other more naturally.

Like, first time, when Gum Incident happens, Adrien's going to be compelled to try and make up with her cause she's his desk mate and he wants his first year in school to go smoothly and she's a little scary to him.

Also due to think he gets to face and deal with Chloe's bullying, he's set up to see it more as she comes after Marinette because he sat next to her, and he's going to have to deal with that.

And what starts with tension to neutrality becomes a familiar dynamic as Adrien learns Marinette's a softie despite her glare, pettiness, and appearance; and Marinette softens up because Adrien reminds her of a more subdue Chat. And you just pretty much have the same dynamic civilian and hero wise, though the former is a little tamer. And when the reveal happens, they want to slap their foreheads cause it was so obvious. And things were all so familiar. They were idiots for not realizing sooner.

And then Marinette has to deal with Adrien ramping up being a dork, and letting the Chat persona bleed into his life more, escalating the puns and jokes until he gradually becomes who he is, the mixing of Adrien and Chat.

And she may roll her eyes a lot, but life is improving, she has someone on her side, potentially relations with the class also improves, Chloe finds she can't bully as much as before, and Marinette starts easing back into her previous style. Things just really worked out.

Now, for Special Adrien being in canon and working off Canon Marinette, for this we'll go with the style being a mix of rebelling against Gabriel and dealing with his loss. And by default of who Marinette is, they are set up to work off each other whether Adrien's sitting next to her or not, as Marinette is someone who socializes and involves herself with her classmates.

Marinette by default is set up to have an easier/better time with this Adrien existing too, specifically, Chloe isn't going to bother her over Adrien. She took one look at Adrien and was horrified and disgusted and won't be seen with Adrien, denouncing their friendship then and there. So if Marinette ever talks with him, no Chloe shoving her aside.

Now getting into this Adrien rebelling against Gabriel, he doesn't care to uphold a public standard his father wants. He makes his opinions more clear, he's a little more openly rude and dismissive, makes his lack of care clear, and anyone into fashion kinda leaves a bad taste in his mouth. So by default of her interest, Adrien rarely will make a backhand comment about her designing, projecting some of his frustration onto her since his dad is largely absent. Marinette though is able to ignore his comments and continues forth, knowing that he's not interested and he has something going on with his dad the fashion designer, it's probably meant more for him than her. And I don't know if she'd crush on this Adrien or if he'd even offer an umbrella to her, but for this, we'll say there's no crush.

So his words don't really leave much of an impact.

Figuring he's going through something, she does make an effort to include him in group activities, and he does show up. Usually he's a little hard to talk to, but as he joins more activities, he starts to talk a little more, cracks some jokes and makes jabs, and will happily share embarrassing stories about Chloe (much to Alya's delight).

And through friendships and kindness, and a lot of patience, this Adrien gets nicer, smiles a little more, laughs and jokes with the class a little more. Even shuffles up his looks a little bit, though he doesn't break away from the aesthetic entirely. It's not going to go until his dad's controlling habits go. At some point, him and Nino discover a shared interest in film and bond over that. Through Nathalie's help, Adrien breaks away from the modelling Gabriel tries to get him to do and does more acting, starting to set himself up as an upcoming acting star.

And if by chance Adrien is sitting next to Marinette, this relationship is a little more speed ran.

It'd be a slowburn in their dynamic, but that's not a bad thing. At the core, it'd probably be more bubbly sass working off cynical snark, and have it turned up to 110% when she's working off Claw.