#okay but i have a better plotline for some of these characters for season 2 and a lot of it involves ej

[eddiediazismyhusband]

just a caual reminder that eddie does not need to kiss, date, or sleep with anyone other than buck to make his queerness any more valid

queer characters don’t need to hookup a bunch of times and date around before settling down because queer people irl don’t have to do that either

there are other ways a character can “let loose” and blow off steam than just throwing them into a hookup plotline, and doing so with eddie would just rehash the buck 1.0 plotline and would be lazy writing

not to mention it being yet another roadblock for buddie canon

like ik it can be frustrating to see the writers refusing to give eddie any care within the story and giving him some sort of happy arc, but that doesn’t mean that the only way he can be happy is by simply dating a man… just like how bt isnt narratively satisfying, eddie dating a random man isn’t going to be narratively satisfying either… i want queer eddie as much as the next person and honestly, if it had been a few seasons ago maybe i wouldn’t be as apprehensive to this kind of arc, but this show isn’t going to last forever… i don’t want them to keep dragging buddie out convoluting the plot by bringing in more li’s for both of them just because the fans are “okay with stepping stone relationships”

we’re entering season 8. we’re entering the 7th year of buddie being a ship. we don’t have time nor need for stepping stone relationships anymore. i know that jealousy and mutual pining arcs are enjoyable, but atp anything prolonging them getting together is just risking us never getting buddie… i don’t want a repeat of s6 where they wind up with shit engame li’s bc they wasted too much damn time dragging their feet and giving them these rando love interests

we also run the risk of fans jumping ship again if eddie were to get a male li that isn’t buck because there are so many people out there who (like w bt) just wanna see eddie kiss a man and once they get that, they’ll ditch the buddie ship, and we’ll once again find ourselves struggling to stay afloat

yes ik this show is a drama, ik slowburns thrive off drama, but this slowburn has been building since s3 (arguably s2 for some of us) it has been beyond enough time for them to keep it a slowburn; they need to actually go through with it now rather than continuing to bait us bc Ryan and Oliver both deserve better storylines to play than that.

i am obviously trying to remain cautious and will not trust the writers to handle things well until they do, but it doesn’t help our cause to be suggesting storylines this late in the game that will only serve to convolute the plot even more than it already is at this point. these tropes are amazing in fics that have no set end date, but 9-1-1 as a show is not going to run forever— we don’t even know if we are even going to get a 9th season yet. This could very well be our last opportunity to get buddie canon, and cheering on plotlines that would push buddie canon even further back on the roster is only going to dilute our chances even more.

i say this with love, not with spite, but i have seen a lot of people wishing for/posting about how they hope to see these storylines play out and i’m here to say we are not in a position for any of these anymore, and that’s just the unfortunate reality of a show entering its 8th season in a television environment where shows are lucky to get past 2 or 3 seasons.

[raayllum]

So. This scene. A few things:

Love the way it's almost a parallel to Viren and Callum's dark magic dreams in terms of the spotlight effect and of course potential light/dark symbolism. And of course that score tugs right on the heartstrings

Rayla is a character who places a lot of emphasis on memory in her dialogue and action, partially because memory is the biggest source and antithesis of grief, something she's experienced a lot of in various ways (and often as the sole carrier of her family's grief). Her blades are all she has to remember Runaan and Ethari by (no pictures or other people who knew them as she did, unlike Callum, Ezran, and Soren with their loved ones) as she says in 4x08; she had to remember her parents throughout most of her childhood and now her other set of parents as well, as she spent 2+ years believing she'd never see any of them again; her vow to always remember and carry Callum with her in Dear Callum; and last but not least her "Just remember me, okay?" to him in 3x08 as a parting request, particularly reinforced since the Silvergrove literally erased her. Rayla is a character who greatly struggles to actually put down anything she carries with her, emotionally. So it's heartbreaking but unsurprising that memory is a focus here as well.

And then we get to the crux of it, which is just like all three of the parents that stand before her, Rayla has always put the world above her own needs and her own family, just as they put their missions and duty ultimately above her. It also nicely sets up the contrast between her and Callum in 5x04 as his response is the opposite to hers, as well as showing that Callum and Ezran are also her Family (and have been for quite some time). And I do also think that the memory of Rayla's parents here is what's helping guide her to her own conclusion to not spend any more time on the coins (and she does a very good job at masking her pain/grief about this season, much better than she had in previous seasons) because she knows, or believes, this is what they would do in her scenario. To prioritize the good of the world over their loved ones at the cost of great personal suffering. Speaking of costs...

The "at any cost" is a great motif callback to Rayla's repeated insistence on price paying ("But I'm ready to pay that price" in 1x06 / "But if I'll die, I'll just be paying the price they should've paid a long time ago" in 3x08) as well as her statement in 3x09:

Callum: We have one objective today: protect the Dragon Prince. Rayla: At any cost.

The fact it's about her literally coined parents is just a bonus, as well as the potential set up later of Rayla saying they have to stop Aaravos, at any cost, while holding an assassin's bow... (but that's for when the possession plotline comes back around I suppose).

Last but not least, the relative warmth of the vision sequence is taken away, as the apparition of her parents and their warm smiles fade, and Rayla is left alone holding the bow, but brokered by new resolve. And then immediately arrested seconds after she finishes crying. Poor girl can't catch a break

[trashc-anon]

hazbin hotel is polluting my mind so if I were the editor's intern: reco

• either stretch the season into 16 episodes or cut the plotlines in half;

• definitaly cut Alastor's screen time in half (if not more)

• make up your mind how much of the pilot is canon (especially regarding Lucifer)

• episode 1 is good as is, a soft reboot from the pilot without getting in too much detail and I love hating Adam, "Hell is Forever" is banger (i hope the music writers were properly paid and Disney learns why AI is a bad idea!)

• episode 2 is a problem, because Sir Pentious presence is only because of the V's, make that episode 2/2;

• ep 1/2 - Charlie and Vaggie leave the hotel to recruit; Sir Pentious attacks, all on schedule

• Charlie or Vaggie save some of the eggs from being crushed; when the "battle" is over, Pentious is cautiosly agrees to entertain their hospitalty; angel is untrusting;

• "Starts with Sorry"

• leave the Vs as unseen foes, and Alastor's only appearance is his shadow at the end of the episode (Overlords are mysterious unseen threat)

• episode 2/2 - Vs are anxious that Alastor is with the princess;

• see, the first couple of episodes make sense, but they take away from the girls and the hotel

• but "Stayed Gone" is sooo good! maybe use at a later date?

nevermind

• "Stayed Gone" is a fun song, BUT it doesn't make sense for Alastor, mysterious serial killer, to have childish rivalries; why didn't he kill Vox back when he rejected him and Vox got 'pissy'?

• either make Vox less pathetic or less there;

• soooo, episode 3/1 is would be trust exercises

• i actually liked Angel's plan with BDSM, he's not wrong and I wished he had the chance to be an adult that LIKES sex separate from the victim that uses overtsexuality as a defence mechanism

• each character could have their own moment to show what trust means to them; trust comes in different shades;

• between Angel and Maggie we see sexual intimacy and surviving extreme situations; Husk has issues with openess; Niffty with intrusive thoughts;

• IN FACT! actually stablish WHY Husk and Niffty are part of the exercises! they're not guests, Husk says as much, they are employees LOANED by Alastor; they're not there to earn redemption; *vague hand gesture in confusion*

• OKAY - Overlord meeting... ehhhhhh

• i still want to cut Alastor's screentime! whats the point of the meeting? screentime for the overlords, the dead angel (which we know, but main cast won't until episode 7) Carmila being responsible is important, we need to know who to ask for help, but ugh. I get its also, prelude that you need love to fight and win against angels, but its never stablished in canon, Carmila says it to Maggie to use as internal compass to keep her fighting beyond pain and fear; bloodlust is distracting, love is focused;

• my delight with Zestial being all dark and yummy need to take a hike for the sake of - what am i even doing any more?

• I can't help but think how much of these decision are also based on Voice Actor salaries; because Keith David (Husk) gotta be expensive and for a character that is literaly always presented he almost never talks; and just, ALL of them being expensive and ~ahahah better make fewer episodes if you want big names in your projects~

• ughhhh that's when you know a series has issues, when trying to fix you run into a thousand more problems;

• i would respect how much they put into 8 episodes, ONLY IF it's true they didn't know they would get season 2. Because in that case a bunch of these plot lines needed to be dropped, I don't care how fanfavorite the character is;

• the Vs serve no purpose what so ever, you can easily have Valentino as a lone villain (also less confusion about hells social rules about SA and abuse);

• Lucifer should've been the last big name to enter screen; work up to the trial with Heaven for S2E01 (why even a trial)

• just how PLOT heavy is this series that Viv needed Lilith's bomb to drop in season 1? which is a major inconsistancy for a series based on the theme of redemption, a CHARACTER heavy theme;

• as it is, i don't see how Sir Pentious being redeemed is a good thing, because he died before entering Heaven, so other souls need to die too and hope it's not forever? wouldn't that fuel Exterminators cause to kill in name of 'clensing'? (holy shit, the more I write the worse it gets)

• IS there an primordial EVIL to scare the angels so badly?

• omg I hope they won't try to bring actual GOD into the series; I know there is concept art floating around, but please, do not;

• Supernatural barely got away with it in Season 5 because it was a funny 'what if' and made it got bad in Season 10 (?) (no series should ever emulate Supernatural, its a warning I mean it, don't, not worth it, you don't have 10+ years of dead horse to beat)(the fans, me, stayed out of, idk, regretfull loyalty)

• my english is not good enough for this... KAY IM DONE NOW! BYEEEE

[onyourowndaisymae]

𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒈 𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒆𝒌𝒆𝒆𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒈 - 𝒖𝒑𝒅𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒔, 𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎𝒆 & 𝒓𝒖𝒍𝒆𝒔, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒚 𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝒉𝒊𝒂𝒕𝒖𝒔

hello!

i'm alive. yay! it's certainly been a minute since i've posted anything substantial, and i'm here to rectify that. this post is long. very long. i talk about a lot here-- my absence, my thoughts on obey me nowadays, what i've experienced as a writer on this platform, and updates i'm making to the way this blog looks and runs.if you're interested in catching up but don't have the time or motivation to read all of this, feel free to scroll down to the closing remarks.

☆ 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐬 ☆

so, i will say this unintentional hiatus was caused by three things: my health, my shaky relationship with the obey me franchise, and the growing difficulties of participating in fandom. i'll address all three in that order.

★ 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡 - my health has been shaky practically all of my adult life. i'm getting better about managing it, but even now, being twenty two years old and unable to keep up with my peers is... so exhausting. on my worst days, i am stuck in bed and distracting myself from the pain. the american healthcare system is a doozy that gives me a headache, but just know that i'm working towards proper diagnoses and treatment as fast as i can. i know that pushing myself to write for the sake of a regular posting schedule is ridiculous, so i have no intentions to do that. i will roll with the punches of my shitty health and hope i don't get knock on my ass again, lol.

★ 𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐲 𝐦𝐞 - okay. hater time. i don't really like nightbringer.

i know! i know! hold your rotten tomatoes and let me make these stocks my soapbox for just a minute while i explain! i promise i'm not being a thoughtless critic!

i think the writing for the franchise has been slowly going down in quality for awhile. i'm never going to act like this is the best writing i've ever seen in a video game, but obviously season 1 of the og game was good enough to get us all hooked. the conflicts felt real, the relationships felt earned, and the lore was really interesting. season 2 of the og game has a special place in my heart. the franchise used to be romantic! dark! horny! complex! it feels like in recent months, the game has become so sanitized that it's alienating the same userbase that gave such an odd concept a chance in the first place. season 2 opened with an aphrodesiac plotline, and now we can hardly get a kiss from our love interests. i'm not saying everything needs to be graphic smut, but come on! it's a romance game, damnit! with as many competitors solmare has in the otome market right now, i don't know why they wouldn't be focusing on dynamic and interesting romance.

nightbringer itself is. whooo. a dual-edged sword. on one hand, it turned me into a solomon simp, and clearly i can't get enough of this man. it also had some really touching character moments. asmo's arc about falling and missing how things used to be was fantastic. satan's early development and issues bonding with his brothers were handled really well. but at the same time... these characters have also struggled with flat and rushed writing in this game. satan almost exclusively is just "cat guy with a temper" now. barbatos' character, while nice to finally have romantic storylines, has been butchered for the sake of making sure every romanceable character is marketable early on. characters are saying "i love you" ENTIRELY too fast. i get that this is not the og game and things will obviously be different in this timeline, but at the very least, i expect the writers to handle this stuff with care. i'm disappointed by how one-note everything feels now.

also, while i'm up here on my soapbox, i will also say: i think the events are abysmal nowadays. fucking hell. i am disappointed every time i click on a story portion and read three lines before the screen fades out and it's over! the events used to be low-stakes, interesting ways to explore the characters, but now it's just. disappointing. i think something similar has happened to the devilgrams and the romance that used to be in them, although it's nowhere near as bad.

for all of my bitching and moaning, i still clearly like this game franchise. i'm still going to write for it. but i think it's important to discuss these failings as a community. it helps people feel less alone when their passion begins to wane for something they once loved for seemingly no reason. maybe we can prevent the series from falling apart before its bitter end. it does not make you a "bad fan" to be able to critique something you love-- it means you love it enough to know when it's not at its best.

★ 𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐦 - at some point, i found i got really intimidated by posting on my own blog. i began to psych myself out with every post, every like, every thing i got excited about. "is this good enough? do i want people to see this?" it's one thing to want to put your best foot forward, but another entirely to try to make every single thing you post perfect in an ill-fated attempt to fend of criticism from yourself of others. it's why i never took up art or music to any serious degree-- why put so much effort into something that's doomed to fail?

and then came the worry about notes and reblogs and followers. fandom should never be a numbers game, and for a lot of people it isn't. but it became a legitimate worry of mine that people would be disappointed if i didn't put out something with universal appeal, and thus, i'd be disappointed myself that i didn't live up to some unspoken expectation. i wanted to start posting for a new fandom, but then i became really worried people would feel "cheated" for following me when they expected one thing and got another.

obviously, this is not a healthy mindset. i needed to take a step back.

how did i resolve this? why didn't i just quit? well, for starters, i took some time to remember why i started posting. i have been writing fanfiction all of my life, usually shared with only a singular person and obsessed about until all of the dopamine was wrung dry from it. bringing it online was a deliberate choice. at first, it was because i was desperate for content for a small fandom (collar x malice, my beloved!) and thought "if nobody's gonna post this, i will!". but then i got into obey me, a much bigger fandom. through posting, i found a larger community of people who loved this piece of media just as fervently as i did. so many people of amazing talents dedicating their time and effort into expressing their love for this hobby. as i did the same, i began to gain a small following. one of my series blew up and gained me praise from some of my absolute favorite people in the fandom-- now, they're my friends who i adore. i began to grow proud of my writing. i'd never been proud like that before. posting on tumblr has proven to me that i'm capable of stepping out of my comfort zone and take the risk to do something, even if i'll fail. that is something i am so thankful for and can never replace.

i won't pretend fandom doesn't have its faults. every time i log on, i can scroll long enough to find something that absolutely exhausts me. labors of love are, at the end of the day, still labor, and work without appreciation is demoralizing. fandom is run by passion, but when there's a drought of people willing to put themselves out there it becomes hard to invest your energy into.

i don't have a perfect solution for this. all i know is that i can also scroll long enough to find a piece of writing or art so breathtaking that it invigorates my creative spirit. or i'll check my notifications and find a comment or reblog that absolutely makes my day. and isn't that worth sticking around a bit longer?

in the future, i'll try to be better about announcing my breaks and also just... pacing myself better. sometimes it'll be a bit until you hear from me. i hope that's okay. know i'll never log off for good without an explanation. i'd like to keep posting my silly little stories for a long time.

☆ 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐠 𝐮𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 ☆

jesus. that previous section was waaaaay too long. okay. time to lock in.

★ i have a new theme! i used to have a sort of vague space-y theme, but i'm committing to the stars. do you like them? i hope so :3

★ i'm gonna get a bit weirder with the content. part of what has inspired me to keep writing is people coming up with the most off-the-wall, random, interesting ideas that i come back to consistently. that will include some dark content and the themes surrounding it like violence, horror, etc. things here will ALWAYS be tagged as thoroughly as i can. if you're not interested in reading that, no worries! hopefully something else i've written will catch your eye. (and obviously, minors, do not interact with this content. you shouldn't be in here-- my "byf" page has indicated this page is 18+ since the beginning).

★ as a general rule, i've decided that i'm no longer going to take requests. i love the enthusiasm and hearing people's ideas, but ultimately, i never end up doing them. instead, my ask box is always open for post suggestions, conversations, etc. i just don't want the sort of obligation that requests come with hanging out in the background anymore. this is, however, subject to change for special events, like that trick or treat event i did in the past and the fics for gaza event i'm doing currently, so stay tuned!

★ ... despite my in-depth obey me ramblings above, this is a multi-fandom page, lol. i will forever and always give my flowers to collar x malice. i am interested in posting occasional fics here for other fandoms in the general otome genre, so keep an eye out for those.

★ the above rule has been broken by my beloved, twisted wonderland. remember above where i mentioned wanting to post about a new fandom? yeah, it's this one. it became too much of an obsession. the new blog is centered around making night raven college an actual college, as well as just other twst content as well. the username is @daisystwistedgarden. give it a follow if you like that content! i probably won't discuss it much here, as i want the writing to stand on its own, but the pages have very similar layouts. that's me on a sideblog, don't worry :)

★ the masterlists are getting an entire overhaul and will now be organized by character. i procrastinated the hell out of these-- make overhauling the masterlists reason 3.5 for the hiatus. i will queue those up to post overnight sometime this week, so expect those sometime soon.

☆ 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 + 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐬 ☆

if you're here, i want to say thank you. this blog, which originally started on a whim, has really done a lot for me. i love writing (even if i hate all the boring administrative parts of running a blog) and the fact that you people spare the time to read my silly little posts is insane to me. while i was gone, we hit the 2k follower mark (and the 2.1k follower mark, too!) and i'm just. baffled. thank you.

i'm back, i'm ready to write, and i'm excited to see where this takes me. give me a couple of days to fully replace all the old posts with new ones and make everything look right, but after that, i'll be posting again like normal. if you're interested in my twisted wonderland content, follow @daisystwistedgarden, and if you want to support my writing and gaza at the same time, consider donating to my "sponsor a WIP" page here.

once again, thank you for reading, for liking, for reblogging, for following, for hanging out in my ask box-- all of it. it means the world to me that i get to enjoy this slice of the internet with such wonderful people.

talk soon. (for real this time). xx

[mrsbsmooth]

I’ve been so turned off by what fusebox has been putting out lately that I haven’t even opened the app in a year or so, but I’m glad that people seem to be liking s8 so far!

I’m super curious to know how you would rank it against past seasons and what your thoughts are overall ❤️

RANK? YOU WANT ME TO RANK THEM

hjeslafhajsdkfgsdj

omg okay. way to make my night. I'm supposed to be writing. Let's fucking gooooooo.

[Noting based on my recent post, this is my ranking for if you're pursuing a male LI. WLW rankings would be very different].

So, to me, I think there are two main criteria that define a season: Love Interests and Gameplay.

Love Interests can be further broken down into:

Sprite Design: How good they look overall as a cast. Are they proportionate? Unique?

Variety: How different/unique are they to previous seasons? Are they all models and carpenters and finance bros?

Fandom Impact: This one is silly and subjective. Are people still talking about them years later? Do they have fanfics and art? If you don't know this person, are you missing out?

Gameplay can be further broken down into:

Quality of Plot Drama: How it's written, how impactful it is. Is it stupid manufactured shit, or is it important and moves the game along? (Cherrygate? Great drama. Suresh wanting to 'give Lulu a chance' after he'd been all in for us? Shitty, awful drama).

Challenges: Are they engaging and interesting? Do they move the plot along?

Replayability: Are there enough unique aspects in the routes that you feel the need to replay?

So, based on these two criteria, I assigned rankings to each season, with Season 2 being the best that fusebox can possibly do. (We already know that it is).

These are completely subjective, but this is what I came up with.

Some brief explanations:

Season 1:

Not the best art style, but overall the proportions were spot on, the body shapes and types were different and unique. Personalities top tier (Tim? Jake? sigh.) Cherrygate, dunking challenge etc.

Season 2:

The best the fandom can do in terms of consistent art style, poses, challenges and replayability. Every route is unique. Characters are overhwhelmingly gorgeous. Some may not like the drama, but I think it's just enough.

Season 3:

I thought things were ranked too high but then remember Tai? Rafi? AJ? The waterfall date, the water balloon and tent challenges that meant something and caused drama?

Season 4:

Lost points for the NaJamUno character merge, but gained points for Youcef and Oliver. Great characters, poor challenges and drama points. Dylangate was dumb and so was making us sleep on the daybeds.

Season 5:

The less said the better. But the sprites were hot af.

Season 6:

The great character merge was atrocious. But the drama from Casa, the Marshall&Ozzy plotline, and HAMISH oh my god, he gets a bonus point for drama all on his own.

Season 7:

Personally very forgettable season. Some of the sprites were lovely. Evan was a highlight and he's gorgeous. But given how quickly everyone forgot about this season, it's loowww.

Season 8:

Gets a high ranking for fandom impact purely based on the immense amount of art and interest that's come about this season. Even with up to a half-point deduction to account for recency bias, this season ranks highly.

This gives us an updated ranking of:

Third? THIRD? Season 8 is THIRD?!?!?

This gives us an average season rating of 6.4. We could remove the outliers, but we're trying to plot how good each season is against the average, so let's not. If we then plotted this and threw in a bar to show the average:

It says the only seasons that are 'above average' are Seasons 1, 2, and 8. Which, honestly, given my adoration for Bruno, Ciaran, and Lewie, rude. How dare I hurt myself with my own chart!!!!!

I'm sure one of the maths people could do something statistically significant and make this fully mathematically valid, but this is just me latching on to a silly ask and being an idiot about it.

I like S8 a lot. It's worth playing.

In other words:

Yes. Play it.

[butterflydm]

revisiting my WoT s2 speculation now that we have some more info

Okay, we know a bit more the shape of the season to come, so I want to poke at that a bit. Includes tidbits of pretty much all the season 2 spoilers that we've heard so far. My previous speculation is found here: wot speculation. Also spoilers through The Shadow Rising in the books.

Mat and Min being together on a poster feels like it adds weight to the possibility that Mat and Min are going to go to Falme together.

(Min could then return to the White Tower in s3 in the company of Verin, if the Wondergirls don't go back there for plot reasons)

Now, there was that glimpse of Min where it looked like she was standing in front of a window that has slats that resemble the ones in Foregate, where Rand is staying (I have not been able to find this again when searching the internet though!). One of my speculated paths was Siuan taking Mat to Cairhien -- Siuan, Logain, Mat, and Min could all theoretically go to Cairhien, either together or with Mat and Min secretly following Siuan because they don't trust her or because they're hoping she'll lead them to Egwene, Nynaeve, & Elayne, who have all vanished.

The big question remains of 'how do Rand & whoever else might be with him get to Falme, on the opposite side of the continent?'. Will it be the Ways again? (but they don't have anyone as a guide) Will we get the Portal Stones? (which would also mean that Rand would be able to use them in S3 to toss them all to the Waste) (the Portal Stones would also be an opportunity to show hints of some of Rand's future relationships before the show actually gets there?) Will it be a boat? (we're supposed to get Doman but... it really doesn't seem like a boat would get there quickly enough, unless a lot of time passes in Perrin & co and Egwene & co's storylines in Falme itself, which they could do)

We now know that Rand is going to start in Cairhien itself and Lanfear being an innkeeper in Cairhien is... a much better cover story than "noblewoman who just happens to be in a parallel world where no other people exist". Lanfear's cover story in the books is... so flimsy. We have to really be willing to believe that Rand overlooks all sense because Lady Hot in order for that plotline to work. So I think this is a very good change that suits the fact that Rand is being written as much more emotionally mature than Rand was in TGH (it isn't until TSR that the ta'veren boys really start to feel emotionally their canonical ages, I think? They mostly feel like they should have been 14-15 years old in the first three books, I think... definitely the first two. iffy on TDR, I guess.)

But we may get flashbacks to what happened right after the Eye, or maybe we'll just follow one character (Moiraine?) from the Eye and she gets to be Lead Detective again, like she was in the first couple of episodes of the first season. Because in some of the previews of Moiraine, it looks like she's still in a similar situation as she and Lan were in at the end of S1.

If we think in terms of relationships...

Early season -- Perrin's relationships focus on Loial, the Shienarans and his growing connection with the wolves.

Mid-to-late season -- Loial captured by the Seanchan; Perrin meets Aviendha, and we get to know Aviendha through Perrin (I like this idea a lot; they never interacted in the books even a single time, I think, but their storylines could potentially complement each other a lot). Is Perrin the one that Ingtar begins to see as a leader and lord, and Perrin the one who has a final moment with him? Perrin successfully hunting the Horn would be a good moment of victory for him. We're also going to be further setting up Perrin's conflict with the Whitecloaks.

Early season -- Egwene and Nynaeve have a rift in their relationship (mentioned in interviews) due to Nynaeve being a powerhouse in the Power while Egwene feels overshadowed by her. This may lead Egwene and Elayne to (emotionally) bond with each other?

Late season -- after Egwene has been captured by the Seanchan, Elayne and Nynaeve will spend a lot of time working together on how to free her. If Min and Mat get to Falme on their own (without Rand & Moiraine, etc), then they may be intersecting with Egwene and/or Elayne and Nynaeve's storylines at this point, much as Min did in the books. The question here is how the Horn gets into Mat's hands. It seems like the boys would need to all meet up at some point in Falme for that to happen.

Early season -- Rand in Cairhien, 'connecting' with the innkeeper Selene and struggling with his powers.

Mid-season -- Rand with Moiraine in Cairhien; we can assume that 'Selene' has left by this point, I think, since I don't think they'll want Moiraine and Lanfear's paths to cross. We know (I think) that Barthanes's party is happening and I believe Moiraine's sister has also been cast, so we should get Damodred Shenanigans.

Late season -- Rand finds out (from Siuan??? From Min and/or Mat???) that Egwene & Nynaeve are in danger on the west coast? Rand runs across and/or gets threatened by Fain, who tells him to go to the west coast? Did 'Selene' say she was going to the west coast? Is it in a dream from Ishy? Lots of question marks. But for whatever reason, Rand makes his way to Falme and confronts the Seanchan.

Early season -- Moiraine struggles with not being able to use the Power. She and Lan begin to have a rift in their relationship (mentioned in interviews). She learns that they've released the Forsaken and not killed the Dark One.

Mid-season -- Moiraine and Lan both trying to mentor Rand in opposing ways, perhaps? Making their rift worse?

Late season -- does Rand leave for Falme without Moiraine or does she go there with him?

I do like the idea of the viewers getting to know Min better via Mat (Min talking to Mat about That One Viewing rather than Elayne would be such a great change that would improve Min as a character a lot; though I'm also good if we get her talking about it to her aunt); getting to know Aviendha through Perrin; and getting to know Elayne through Egwene and Nynaeve. So all of them are full characters even before we get into future romance stuff.

But even with all the new info, it feels like there are still a lot of remaining questions (which is great!). Fingers crossed for a final trailer next week.

[psychologicalwarclaire]

I scrolled past a rise fic that had this tag

Are you telling me that my friend and I are gonna have 2012 TMNT part 2???

Woah woah woah woah!

Ninjago writing quality depends very much on personal opinion. A show that has been going on for 13 years is not gonna be perfect all the time!

Here's a season play by play based on my personal opinion

Rise of the Snakes & Legacy of the Green Ninja (seasons 1 & 2) - pretty fantastic writing. Writers still getting a hang of the characters in the beginning, but overall very good.

Rebooted - not my personal favorite for REASONS. Some writing is my meast favorite part of the show (cough love triangle cough) but the finale is epic.

Tournament of Elements - PHENOMENAL. Season four has some of the best writing, pacing, action, and characters in the show.

Possession - not my personal favorite but pretty good writing for the most part. Very interesting concepts.

Skybound - ...okay so some people love this season, some people absolutely hate it. Writing is not the best, but it can be enjoyable for some people. I personally really like it.

Day of the Departed - eh. It's... fine.

Hands of Time - oof. The main writers Dan and Kevin Hagemen were gone for this season and it shows. It's...not the best.

Sons of Garmadon - absolutely fantastic. There are some parts that offset some people, but I personally think that season 8 is a fantastic season.

Hunted - SO GOOD. Finale is a little rushed but the rest of the season is REALLY REALLY GOOD.

March of the Oni - eh, it's okay. There are some really good parts and some not super great parts. Very rushed and an underwhelming finale but it's not BAD by any means.

Fire Chapter - it's... rough. Fine though. Writers are gone again and the 11 minute format doesn't work super well at first.

Ice Chapter - also kind of rough but there are more enjoyable moments.

Prime Empire - pretty awesome. I really like this season and think that despite it's faults, it's one of the better ones.

Master of the Mountain - STUNNING. Season 13 is really really (two really's) amazing. Fascinating and wonderfully executed.

The Island - four episode special that is uh... okay? Definitely very forgettable.

Seabound - AAAAAAAAAAWESOME. Genuinely amazing. Writing is top notch in every single way. Seriously so very very very very good.

Crystalized - the first half is really enjoyable and REALLY well done. The first half is epic. The second half... trips up a bit. I've only seen the second half once and it was pretty good at the time, but the more you think about it the more disappointing it gets.

Dragons Rising season one - YES. YES. New writers took a little bit to find their stride and adjust back to the 22 minute format, but the season is SO GOOD. Good characters and concepts and it's freaking awesome.

Dragons Rising season two part one - YES. AMAZING. I personally was a little frustrated but the whole thing is doing a really good job of setting stuff up and balancing the many, MANY plotlines all happening at the same time.

So overall, Ninjago has some fantastic writing. Yes, sometimes it is inconsistent, but the writing is never outright BAD by any means.

[dandelionsandderivatives]

Oooh, tell me about Mer Lin and/or The Magician’s Guinea Pig! (your choice)

Someone else asked for The Magician's Guinea Pig, so you get to hear about both!

Mer Lin is the working title for a Tam Lin/Merlin (BBC) crossover. Merlin was a huge guilty pleasure for me and my siblings back when it had just been released, and it's a very weird show because it combines some genuinely cool ideas with some genuinely baffling creative choices (my poor Morgana and her arc). As far as I can tell, the vast majority of fic authors also feel a great love for the characters and a great frustration for the writing, and so there are a ton of very interesting AUs and fix-its and such.

Anyway, about two years ago I was listening to every interpretation of Tam Lin I could get my hands on, and somehow I came up with the idea of doing Tam Lin but in the Merlin universe – and the pun, of course, made the whole project worthwhile. (Sometimes I'm not sure if it's kind of me to subject my readers to my sense of humor, but it's not like they're compelled to keep reading if they don't like it.)

This is, like a lot of Merlin fics, set in an alternate universe where Everything Turned Out Okay, and Merlin and Morgana ended up together. Except everything's not okay; Arthur is on the throne, but everything is slightly off in Camelot. Gwen sews on the same project every day but never seems to finish it; Arthur's knights joust and play chess and never do anything else. And only Morgana seems to remember that they used to have a court sorceror, and that she was married to him. So yes, this is essentially Tam Lin + a sort of time loop (which, now I think about it, is very similar to the one from the first season of Once Upon a Time). The backstory was supposed to be a slow reveal wherein we find out that Camelot has been at war with a magical army for some time. Merlin managed to avert at least some of the danger, but as a consequence he's now magically enslaved to the queen of said army, and he's also lost his memory. Given that he's possibly the most powerful sorceror ever, this is bad news for the world at large. Morgana's the protagonist and is trying to rescue Merlin so that they can break the time loop – which will, of course, happen through faithfulness, as in Tam Lin proper.

I like many things about this idea – for one, I think that fantasy novels based on Tam Lin are almost always great. But I'm actually not sure how well it interacts with the source material. The fun of fanfic, imo, comes from making the source material work with different storylines, characters, themes, etc., and I'm not sure that the canon material adds much to this plotline. It might be better with original characters, but then it might feel uncomfortably similar to Fire and Hemlock.

I do still think the idea has its interesting points – I think the situation is the sort of thing that would have made a good episode of the show, and it fits pretty well into the formula, which goes something like this:

Magical crisis envelopes Camelot

Our protagonists (usually Merlin) have to scramble to figure out how to stop magical crisis

Arthur is oblivious

The crisis is averted by throwing more magic at it

End with Merlin, somehow, having to do some unpleasant menial labour

You'll notice I've innovated by cutting out Step 5 and having Morgana do the investigating in Step 2.

All joking aside, though, I think the real heart of this fic would be the tension and romance between Merlin and Morgana, and the idea that, as in canon, they're the only two together against the world that doesn't acknowledge or understand them. (I think this is maybe where the idea came from originally.) I think one of the issues I'm having with writing it is that a good amount of their tension in canon comes from the fact that their arcs are inverses of each other, and in this AU they would obviously have a different relationship. I'm pretty good at writing yearning, but I don't know if I can write it convincingly enough to make this story feel worthwhile. Maybe it would help if I flipped the roles? But then I think that part of the fun of this is having Merlin, who's generally rescuing everyone else in canon, be the rescue-ee. (It's a fairly popular plot in fanfics, so I'm not the only one who likes it.)

Anyway, this is one story idea that has a very cool vibe in my head, but I'm not sure it's enough to build a story on. I do like the fact that I haven't seen quite this plot in Merlin fic before, and I think it would be possible to set up some cool echoes of canon (in that Morgana would essentially be doing the same thing Merlin did in the earlier seasons). But I think it needs more justification to be set in this universe.

I still think the name "Mer Lin" is hilarious, though.

[doberbutts]

Okay well I watched the first episode of Blood Origin and honestly my thoughts are:

I just don't understand why people are so resistant to changes/new plotlines/some lore breaking of *recent* franchises but gobble it up when it's older. People telling an untold portion of a common tale is well established in storytelling culture. The first example that springs to mind is Lancelot, who straight up does not exist in original Authorian legend and was a FRENCH invention when the myth spread. Nowadays, most casual enjoyers of King Author stuff don't bat an eye to Lancelot's presence. Lancelot, who comes to mind, because Sapkowski writes said Lancelot to be in love with Ciri, and we're totally cool with *that* but not with changes to Sapkowski's work.

It's really telling that there's such a bigoted negative reaction to this because honestly? The black people so far have been BLACK black, darker than me, darker than even my black family sometimes. I'm enjoying seeing melanin in fantasy don't mind me. And the hair on the sisters is excellent, I'm liking the costuming, and I *really* like Eile.

The accents are kind of all over the place. Both as individual characters but also as the actors themselves. Sometimes Fjall goes from generic American accent to some form of fake Irish to ????european???? and back and it's distracting and weird. HOWEVER I do like the Irish and Welsh accents in high born kingdoms, because too often those accents are for commoners and poverty only, and this sort of turns the trope on its head.

I'm not sure how much I like the pan-Asian vibe I'm getting from some of the props and architecture. Some things look vaguely Chinese while others solidly Arabic while others a weird fusion of Indian and Korean and it's just odd to me. At first I thought it was because of clan structures but then I saw that it's just sort of everywhere. I have 0% Asian in me so I'm not really a good authority to speak on it but it's a weird vibe, a little Orientalist to my eyes. I'll freely admit that I like the aesthetic since I was raised pretty pan-African but I recognize that most continentally grouped cultures don't love that and it's mainly the black diaspora that's embraced it because we don't really have much of a choice.

I STILL feel that doing away with this short-season "but the episodes are an hour long!" nonsense would help pacing so much. Literally every time I thought the episode was going to come to an end, it's been roughly at the 20-25 min mark, which a standard TV episode would have been ANYWAY. So there's not really much point to having this be 4 hour-long episodes when it could be done better as 12-15 20 minute episodes... which would be the eqivilant of a short season while 24-32 is a more "standard" season (instead of 8 hour-long episodes). It gives you more time to flesh the characters and plotlines out while also allowing you the chance to trim some of the long-and-boring content people get tired of watching.

I really do feel bitter that the witcher tags continue to be people making racist and misogynistic memes instead of a fandom happily discussing a pretty strong first episode that introduced a billion fantasy characters of color. It really sucks that black people in fantasy is received so poorly when my inner 10 year old is happy to see people who look more like me having fun with the genre. I long for the day when I can exist in a fandom space and happily discuss my favorite black characters without having to justify their existence every 2 seconds.

Oof that CGI is pretty rough though. Which surprises me because the S2 CGI was not this rough so idk what happened here. That monster in the first episode is, uh, bad. And the background in the weird magicky place is also pretty, uh, bad.

I don't understand why the first witcher being an elf would piss Geralt off except maybe because that means Jaskier knows more about witchers than Geralt does? All of Geralt's iterations- the books, the games, the show, the comics- are pretty chill with elves as long as they're pretty chill with him. He only pursues certain elves and elf-blooded mixed race people when they pose a direct threat to him or his loved ones. Same as humans. So I don't really get that line at all unless, as said, it was more a "wow Geralt's gunna be pissed that I know this story and he doesn't"

[firstofthenewguard]

Blood of Zeus Season 2 thoughts (There's alot of them)

I watched Blood of Zeus when it first came out in 2020 and the pandemic kept us trapped in our caves. I really liked the first season, mainly because it’s one of the few media outlets for Greek Mythology that isn’t wildly inaccurate, awkward, or just plain bad. It also set up a lot of interesting possible plotlines, and when the trailer for season 2 came out last month my hopes for those stories could not have been higher. I watched season 2 twice and… I have some notes (unfortunately)

First of All things I liked:

The entirety of episode 3

Hades and Persephone NOT being villains

Hades and Persephone being the only successful and functional couple in this show

The look of Hades’ Palace

ZAGREUS AND MELINOE!

The fact that Typhon is on a “He-who-shall-not-be-named” level and this time it actually has consequences

Other gods actually getting lines instead of just being backround characters on Olympus!

Hades using shadow teleportation, and using his bident like Mjolnir, only cooler

Other races in Hellas being acknowledged

More monsters; the Hydra being an ocean species is a very interesting take

Seraphim getting more development

Gaia and Hecate looked amazing

Problems with the Season:

Okay, a gripe I had with season 2 was Hades motive, and let me be clear I love the idea of Hades wanting to ascend the throne so Persephone wouldn't have to leave for 6 months, but to have him hate being in the Underworld seems like a stretch. In the myths, Hades knew the responsibility of ruling the dead and he did it with pride. It would have made more sense to have him hate being alone in the Underworld. They could've tied into the fact that Hades was the first to be swallowed by Kronos and was in his stomach alone for who knows how long.

Along with that, the season felt disjointed, like they were focusing on the wrong things, at the wrong time, for WAY too long. There were just some scenes that took up big chunks of the episodes and they didn't need to be that long, especially scenes with Heron. I know he's "The Main Character" but if you're going to make him that then please try to make his writing interesting enough for that much time to be devoted to his plot. I know that he's lost so much but his writing honestly felt clunky, it felt like he needed different scenes to make his choices more believeable. His dialouge also seemed stiff and I don't think his voice actor helped either.

We could've had a scene where Hades is talking to or doing something with Zag and/or Meli, showing how he's a better dad than Zeus, but we never got that.

If your going to give Hera a redemption arc GIVE HER A SCENE/EPISODE WHERE SHE CHANGES! Instead, the second she shows back up she's already redeemed? Really?

So, The Demon problem is just over? I don't remember them burning the giant flesh, and on that note where did Seraphim and the Demons move the giant flesh?

Ok, let me get this straight, they could've imprisioned the Giants' bodies in Tartarus the whole time?!

Also the giant problem felt like it was resolved way too early.

They didn't really focus on the open throne idea, yes the 3 trials were to decide the next king, but they needed scenes showing who the other Olympians thought should be in charge, show that scene about Ares rallying others to his side, maybe apollo did the same, or there could’ve still some loyal to Hera.

Minor: I loved Hestia but she looked WAY too young

Minor: Why are Horses just always the ones pulling the Gods' chariots, that's boring! I know most divine chariots are pulled horses in the myths, but for the love of mike be creative!

Minor: The giants guarding the hidden realm looked way to human.

Minor: They kept using the forest backround when they were in Tartarus, isn't the whole place on fire? I wanted to see some lava.

Minor: The other races that showed up for the funeral should've had varying respones to Zeus' death, like Hephaestus said.

The whole Eluesian Stone plotline seemed rushed and felt like it just came out of knowhere. The show said that Zeus drawing the stone from 3 others was how he became ruler of the Heavens, but wasn't the reason in season 1 being because he married Hera who was already queen of the Heavens?

Evios and Kofi didn't really get enough scenes for their characters to really do anything.

Alexia had the same problem she kind of just went along with Heron's whole thing this season, she didn't really do much except (sorta) talk to him.

They really should've brought all of Zeus' misdeeds to the trial, Prometheus especially.

[tizzymcwizzy]

I may be interested in watching Trigun, but I have doubts cuz I see there's a 1998 anime and a current one so, I should watch both to understand the plot or is it a FMAB situation???

oooooohhhohohooho *rubs my hands together* >:] okay

it is KIND OF a fmab situation but also not and all,, the trigun 98 anime was airing alongside the manga and then ended before the manga finished so it had to improvise a lot about the ending and thusly (from what i know, i have not read the manga yet) ends differently than the original manga and does not explain a lot about the plot and villains,,, i haven't seen the original fma anime yet so i don't know how deep the comparison goes but they seem like they have the same case

and the stampede is, yes, a later rerelease of the story that can only exist since the manga has been finished,, but from my impression !!! it is STARKLY different in some aspects to that of the manga's plotline and pacing, which is a very different case to fmab which is a truer adaptation that follows the original manga's plotline

SO neither of the animes will give you the truest understanding of the manga's story (also there's 2 mangas, trigun and trigun maximum and im not fully aware of the differences between them, again, haven't read them yet) that's why i'd recommend watching both of 98 and stampede!! which is what ive done, if you don't wanna do that then ill give you a rundown of the differences so you can pick which seems more interesting to you

trigun 1998 begins the same way the manga does and does all its reveals and like, early story stuff the same way the manga does (I THINK,, AGAIN, HAVE NOT READ THE MANGA) the tone of the anime also matches the manga, i think, and that may not seem like something that's super important,, but it has a lot of a funny goofy silly moments and mystery !!! that i feel add a LOT to the experience of the story that stampede just doesn't have cause of it's shorter runtime, the characterization of the main cast is i also think way closer to the manga and (in my opinion) way more fun and likable than stampede JDGDHFJ

stampede is very different from the original storyline (again,, i will reiterate,, my impression of it cause idk exactly how different 98 is to the manga but im sure 98 is much more similar than stampede is to the manga) it begins, runs, and the season ends very differently to how 98, and manga, i think, does the story,,, it switches out set pieces, characters, and plotlines,, BUT it really gets into the lore and villains in a much deeper way than what trigun 98 does, it actually explains shit and includes plotlines that the 98 anime just could not include which makes it really intriguing and more dramatic

enough about the plot and more into my personal opinions,,, trigun 98 is super fun and silly and has a lot better of an introduction and characterization of the main cast than stampede does. 98 has a better intro to the story and world than stampede does beCAUSE stampede is only 12 episodes and rushes through a lot of the beginning for the sake of getting to the plot and lore, but stampede has a much stronger ending and a deeper exploration of the main characters and villains than 98 because it actually has the resources from the manga to pull from

that's why i think that if you wanted to watch both you should start with 98 first because it's got a better beginning and set up for the story's main themes and messages than stampede does, but stampede then delves into those themes l messages, and villains! that 98 didn't have a chance to explore to their fullest

this is also why id recommend you read the manga as well cause there's a lot that is still missing from the entire trigun story that neither anime will explain to you (we'll see what stampede season 2 has to offer but that's a ways a way)

WHOO THAT WAS A LONG FUCKING ASK IM SORRY DHDHJFJGG but i hope it gives you some insight on how to approach getting into it!

TLDR: the 98 anime and stampede are both different from the manga in different ways so id recommend you watch both of them, 98 first and then stampede, but also read the manga :)

[themonotonysyndrome]

Sorry for the length of this, but you got me thinking! I feel like I should have started keeping an eye out on Erik not planning a lot of major plot points when he introduced Xavier right before the games, gave us no time to get to know him, then killed him and had characters (even Freelancer) react in a way like they were bffs with him like what in the Star Trek redshirt was that? But Inversion was so good otherwise to me that I ignored that.

I feel like I really should have taken more notice when Milo recovered from his Inversion injury after two videos (but Erik had personal reasons for that so I went sure). Then, after all this lore talk of how much bloodlust new vampires have and how much they struggle, we didn't see any of that with Lovely, but we were still not to far off from Inversion so I ignored it again lol.

There's some personal preference stuff where I get confused at his lack of consistent framing when it comes to consent where Alexis is the bitch and is more or less a villain (with little nuance so far in canon) for ignoring Sam's consent. But Cutie (with how Erik says they and Geordi aren't broken up) is framed as being able to work towards forgiveness despite years of ignoring Geordi's consent even after he cried about it to them.

I'm on the fence about his 'I intended Imperium season 2 to be the end' because I don't think it's the worst place to stop, but I do think that there's some more story to tell and if the views were a lot better then he probably wouldn't have stopped (only guessing here)?

I think what made me finally stop and wonder 'does he plan?' was how Quinn's capture (after all that build up) happened off-screen and only had Darlin' punch him while he was tied up. I thought the Summit was fine in a very Clue way, but watching the Vega video today had me go '...oh okay' which I don't mind deaths, but that shouldn't be a reaction to that lol.

I feel like I want to give one more of his big plotlines a chance and hope he's planned that one, but idk. The guy capable of making Inversion has to be able to do something even sort of to that level again hopefully??

Don't apologise, Anon! I love reading your thoughts.

Xavier was the beginning. Yes, I was also emotionally devastated; it added stakes to the Inversion, but a part of me always wondered if killing off a character was the only way Erik could add impact to the Inversion? Because no matter how good the angst is, if you introduce a character, make them have ties with one of the main cast and later kill them just to add depth to the main cast, it feels very cheap.

Maybe this is me being salty, but making Milo unable to Shift for at least a few more videos before his Core is healed enough would've been better. The anxiety of not knowing if he became truly magicless and the trauma that would bring would be a better alternative to Xavier's death. I feel like Erik is so damn afraid to do anything bad to his cash cows nowadays. That aftermath from the Summit? The talk that David had with Angel or whatever? That was honest to go foreplay. Yes, the Shaw Pack was affected by William's plan; they saw a murder happening right in front of them, boo hoo... boo hoo. The Summit is absolutely nothing when compared to the Inversion, where hello? Actual and thousands of deaths occurred!?

That thing with Lovely, and how well and quickly did they transition into the Vampiric lifestyle? Lame. Boring. Where's the struggle? Oh right, the fandom scared Erik badly enough to scrap Bright Eyes.

Also, I get that Erik's movie is Clue, and he was trying to do the same for the Summit, but it just turned into, 'Great idea, bad execution' kind of video. Meh.

That Alexis and Cutie parallels... I never noticed that before, Anon! Huh! You have a good eye when it comes to details. Listen, I love Alexis. I love Cutie. I love deeply flawed characters, and I also love deeply flawed characters that either own up to it or revel in their shittiness. I just want Cutie and Geordi to break up already so Cutie can find someone on their level, and Geordi can find someone with enough patience to deal with him and his baggage. Though both of them need to work on their own stuff first, tbh. Cutie is not blameless, and neither is Geordi.

Will we get an Imperium Season 2, though, Anon? I already don't have faith in Erik's story writing so I'm not looking forward to he'll fucked up another series.

Ah! So Quinn's Ending was your tipping point, Anon. I hate Sam and Darling but even I believe they deserve better. Though I giggled when Darling beat up a tied-up Quinn as a way to get their revenge. Oooo, so badass! What a strong Listener! You feel empowered at that moment, Anon? I feel like I was ridiculed after everything, IMO.

Vega's death was a slap in the face to me because of the utter disrespect. You built this character up to be ancient, manipulative, powerful, only for him to moan and die? Wow! I wondered if he actually hated Vega! This might be a gambit, and Vega might be faking his death, or this is some part of his plan, but I don't care anymore. At least give him a proper end, ya know? Again, same with Quinn's situation. I FEEL RIDICULOUS FOR EVER INVESTED IN THE SERIES.

I'm not morbidly curious to see how he's gonna fuck up Project Meridian. I don't doubt that Erik can create a new series that starts off fantastically, only for it to end like a wet fart. Let's hope Inversion isn't his one-hit-wonder, eh?

[sweetcloverheart]

Clover Rants Miraculously: “Just Do It”

I often see the adage “Character X isn’t obligated to help Y be a better person” echoed in the fandom quite a lot (especially when it comes a certain blonde bully). Not that I disagree with it, mind you - heck, I’m a huge proponent of the idea of not forcing a character to forgive/absolve an enemy or someone that hurts them just because it’s what a “good person” does. I think it’s very important for anyone to learn “I can fix them” is not an obligatory reaction to someone being in a mood.

The problem I do have with this attitude is that it’s often hitched to the other idea that “X should just be good” (often also accompanied by “Well so-and-so has a similar backstory (except it’s often just a very surface level similarity) and they’re nice! Chloe has no excuse”). And while that attitude isn’t wrong, I feel like it doesn’t really address the issue with how Chloe’s “attempts” to be good could have been done/handled better

So I have to ask - how? How is Chloe supposed to just “be good” despite years of having it internalized to her that being a self-serving narcissist is the best way to live life? What steps should she take? How should she better herself?

Like, this is a show aimed at 7-8 year olds. Kids aren’t stupid or cruel from the jump yeah, but if often goes a long way to actually give them tools/advice on how to achieve the kinds of behavior/attitudes parents want them to embrace. Sometimes just saying “Just be nice” isn’t enough and some people do need the extra help/guidance.

“But you just said no one’s obligated to help someone that hurts them become a better person?” Yes I did - however, these two attitudes are not mutually exclusive in my opinion. Marinette isn’t obligated to act as Chloe’s therapist and hold her hand the whole way towards her redemption, true, and taking the steps forward is mostly on Chloe herself - but that doesn’t mean the former can’t try if she wants to, nor does it mean Chloe must be blocked from any and all people willing to give her the tools/instructions necessary to make these changes if they want to. There’s nothing wrong with a character receiving help to be a better person (especially if it can lead to them eventually continuing to improve on their own once the training wheels are gone). It doesn’t need to be “Oh all’s forgiven just don’t do it again okay!” or something along those lines. You can have Chloe being directly helped into being a better person than she is and emphasize that this is something she has to choose to do while showing that Marinette and co aren’t insta-forgiving her for all the bullying and torment for all those years.

Honestly, the majority of the issue comes solely from how the show set up the whole thing. I mean, let’s look at Chloe’s “arc” in seasons 2-3 for a bit - we had so many characters telling Marinette she needs to simply “be the bigger person” and give Chloe another chance because it might help her be nicer, but I don’t ever recall anyone actually giving...genuinely actionable advice on how to achieve this goal through these acts. No “maybe make her do some volunteer work and see if that helps”, or “Maybe help encourage nicer behavior by showing her the benefits of being nice and have her emulate you”, or “Maybe use your role as student president (or as Ladybug) to force Chloe to actually help out the class (even if it might fail because of her using her dad to get out of it)”, or even “Ask for help from her childhood friend who should be more involved in this plotline considering he is, y’know, her childhood friend”. Just keep “forgiving” the mean girl when she goes out of the way to humiliate you and give her a magic haircomb, and then hope for the best (and if it fails, we’ll blame you for not doing more/preventing her fall from grace even though we did nothing too and likely could of helped)! Yeah, Chloe only acted like a hero because of the Bee Miraculous and helped out, but what about being Queen Bee encouraged better behavior from her outside of “Well, Ladybug likes me! :)”. Who and what was encouraging her to bring out that same attitude in her civilian life? Why make the whole onus on Chloe’s self-improvement be on only her and Marinette’s shoulders when the folks pushing the former to play redeemer for the latter “clearly” saw good in her could have directly assisted? Having the cast “Give chances” can only go so far - they also need to give actual goals (or at least smaller achievable daily actions) for whosoever is being redeemed before we can say “Well, they tried”.

Also, why is it that only Marinette is making these efforts - where’s Bustier, who keeps claiming she thinks there’s good in Chloe when she prompts Marinette and the rest to turn the other cheek, to assist by reigning in Chloe’s bad behavior? Where’s her father, who’s totally willing to defy her order to send her half-sister back to New York but will still gladly shut down half the city because one particular person irked his daughter or stand back while she and his wife mistreat her, to finally put his foot down and stop using his position as mayor to allow her to act however she likes without repercussions? Where’s Adrien, who sees his childhood friend mistreating his classmates and friends (and future girlfriend), yet will defend the behavior with “that’s just how she is” and won’t intervene until it actually directly affects him (“Despair Bear”) or he learns about an event from years ago and only cares since that’s interfering with his relationship now (“Derision”)? Where’s Master Fu, who encouraged Marinette to let Chloe have the bee and stood to the side as the entire thing broke down and lead to “Miracle Queen” happening?

There were also no actions taken by the narrative to force reflection on her behavior - Situations like “Rogercop” (Getting her “best friend’s” dad fired), “Maladictator” (Causing her father to get akumatized over her flipflopped decision to leave the city), and “Miraculer” (intentionally hurting her “best friend’s” feelings/getting her targeted by Hawkmoth because of the ID reveal) should have been major changes for Chloe and put a halt on her status quo. Even “Despair Bear” (despite how much I like the episode), really only scratched the surface by having Adrien threaten to end their friendship and force Chloe to actually consider her behavior for 10 secs before going “LOL just kidding, she’s still awful” and sacrificed that small moment of potential character depth for the sake of a joke. Imagine how much more interesting it would have been if Chloe had gone for an insulting compliment to show she’s still mean but at least is trying maybe? Or have Adrien get upset that she went right back to bullying everyone and eventually made good on his threat at the end of season 3? Why not actually have more situations like that, that lose her friends and the privilege of her status that either forces her to reflect on her behavior or doubledown until she loses everything. Why can’t there be effort put in to try and make Chloe seem like she was trying (or not trying) and failing to be a good person - or having it actually look like the cast was failing to reform her by showing them actively doing things to force her to be nice and her failing at them/being a hero and refusing to help/be better despite Ladybug’s attempts to steer her in the right direction and have her lose her miraculous because of that (instead of the eventually made moot “hAWkmoTh kNoWS YouR iDEntIty” thing). How hard was it to show Chloe and everyone actually trying instead of just going “Well Marinette said Bustier and everyone tried to give her a chance (and no, I’m sorry - standing back while Chloe torments her classmates while also blocking Marinette/others from making any open opposition because they think that eventually the magical nonexistent switch in her brain will flip to “good little angel” if they just do nothing is not “trying” in any universe) so clearly she’s just evil” after spending a majority of the 4-5 season demanding the MC and audience take the “be the bigger person” approach while claiming Chloe has potential to stop being a brat.

[sunnydaleherald]

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Sunday, June 16th

Jenny: Willow. Willow: Yes? Jenny: Um, I might be a little late tomorrow. Do you think you could cover my class till I show? Willow: Really? Me? Teach the class? Sure! Jenny: Cool. Willow: Oh, wait. W-what if they don't recognize my authority? What if they try to convince me that you always let them leave class early? What if there's a fire drill? What if there's a fire? Jenny: Willow, you're gonna be fine. And I'll try not to be too late, okay?

~~Passion~~

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[raayllum]

you don’t have to answer this if its too discoursey but i’m too afraid to say it off anon cause I don’t wanna get yelled at, but I am not the biggest fan of emperor/king Callum fics, mainly since it feels out of character for me (since he feels more connected to magic than he does royalty as a whole, he’s only the crown prince because he & Ez don’t have any family left to take up that role)

and also because to me, as a black person, it feels really weird that it just sidelines Ezran, they always just kill him off for no reason except to put the white person in a position of power

Its okay as a concept, i suppose, say Ezran feels like he can’t bear the responsibility at his age, so Callum takes up the mantle, but it just feels Weird to me, and maybe I’m reaching but it does feel like there’s a hint of racism going on even if its not exactly the author’s intention

So back in like 2020 in the months following S3, Regent Amaya became a popular headcanon in the Janaya corner of the fandom (because they wanted to have to interact Politically with Janai rather than just personally? I don't know) and it never sat right with me for similar reasons. (Cue people complaining in S4 that Janay's plotline was more Janai centric than Amaya centric. Mmhm.)

Because here's the thing (and I've said this before) while Callum is not white (he is mixed, he's half Asian and half white) he is lighter skinned than his brother and I do understand why people think he's white at first glance (more discussion/perspectives on Callum's race in this tag) and Ezran very clearly is not, and it's also very clear how that can affect them sometimes fandom wise. Of the five like main Main characters (although that list is 100% expanding in S4), Ezran is one of two main characters of colour (bonus core protagonist points alongside his brother) and he is the only darker skinned character of colour, comparatively in the trio.

There are other reasons I think as well about why Ezran doesn't have as much fandom made about him (he's the youngest in the cast, most of the fandom is older; he's not part of a main ship, etc) but race absolutely affects a lot of the critique he (and Harrow) get as kings. I have seen people with their full chest go "I hate TDP's monarchy, they're such bad kings Viren was right" because their issue isn't at its core the monarchy, it's that their white fave's bloodline wasn't the one on the throne for once.

Also talking about race is never discoursey IMO so always feel free to drop stuff in my inbox about it. (I'll happily take getting yelled at for it, it's way easier to bear as a white person & it doesn't happen as often as a result.)

Since 2016, we've seen this mini trend of casts having one Black character, usually a boy who's a best friend of the protagonist, get routinely sidelined. Lucas had to carry Stranger Things on his back (although I think it's gotten better? Idk for sure I stopped watching the show after s2 for unrelated reasons), Finn from Star Wars deserved so much better (and I left the SW fandom bc the racism was so bad and he was my favourite after just six months), Bow from She-Ra got virtually nothing, and Gus from The Owl House actually did.

TDP, thankfully, does not fall into that trend (having more than like 1-2 Black characters in general also helps a great deal, JC) and I now no longer watch every season like a hawk to ensure that it won't, because I trust that it won't.

So. King Callum AUs. The first thing is that you're right, Callum isn't that interested in politics. While he has a mind for politics (he immediately realizes what the egg could mean globally) he's not motivated by them. In 1x06 he gets pissed & fed up because Rayla insists on giving him only the political reasonings for why she's travelling with them and not stealing the egg, and it's not enough (he wants the personal reasons). His Tales of Xadia bio reaffirms this, stating outright that he's "beholden to [his] inner circle, not some silly kingdom" in spite of being Crown Prince. I think in some ways if Callum was left alone as King, regent Amaya would be more likely, not less, even if Callum might resist out of a grief fuelled desperate "I have to do this" at first. Being King is genuinely liberating for Ezran in ways it'll just never be for his brother, thematically / personality wise

And Callum being king because Ezran died is, IMO, unnecessary and actually more restrictive for both of their characters. If you want Callum grieving but away from the throne off adventuring with Rayla in an angsty AU, you can just have him think Ez is dead and achieve the same aims. If you want Callum on the throne, you can just have him do it out of love/loyalty for his baby brother. Otherwise, Ezran actually being dead leaves Callum solely grieving and stranded away from magic (his true calling, or the temptation of dark magic). But if Callum becomes regent to try and shield his baby brother, it leaves a lot more for them to grow, disagree on and develop, etc. Just a lot more avenues. How I think this would go (honouring Ezran's role to play and how I think their dynamic would realistically develop with this addition) here.

Being aware of what does or doesn't displace a character can be tricky, but I always think of it in regards to "do you take something another character has earned and give it to another character with little consequence," killing a character off when it wouldn't change that much to keep them alive and just tweak other things (like the above), or "are you taking the challenge one character has set before them and giving it unequivocally to another".

For example I've thought about "is my theory of Callum sacrificing/handing over the Key of Aaravos for Rayla's life displacing him" but it's not, in my eyes, bc 1) all the repercussions that come from that action is still something he has to deal with, 2) he'd have a vested interest and arc in reclaiming the cube, 3) it highlights the tragedy of Callum regaining his agency from brainwashing and still being forced into Aaravos' tragedy, 4) still leaves Callum perfectly free and motivated to uncover the secrets of the key himself beforehand, it just won't end well for him. And if Callum was having big conflicts with Ezran RN, I'd probably swap in Ez as a possibility for who he'd hand the key over for too

Last but not least I do wonder if Callum will even remain his brother's High Mage. The symbolism of a brother on either side of the Border has always felt fitting to me, and I think Claudia would make a great high mage to Ez if/when she gets redeemed / she'll want to stick close to her brother. Now that Callum has Ibis' staff, I wonder if that'll also eventually include having Ibis' post, especially now that Soren has stepped up in S4 to really be Ez's protector (and Cal and Ez would still write letters all the time, of course <3 Ez checking in on him through his link with Zym).

But yeah I think if Callum did continue to be in a political role beyond high mage, he'd be best suited to be one of Ezran's top generals, and that would take its own interesting toll on Ezran's psyche

Anyway this is probs longer than you were expecting but thank you for sharing your perspective! It's something I think the bulk of the fandom has noticed and it's always good to look at areas of like, perhaps more casual than outright racism when it comes to characters of colour, and how we have a responsiblity to examine those areas when exploring things, even just in fanon

[theywontletmebeprincipal]

okay I've watched Fionna and Cake and WOW I enjoyed it a LOT more than I originally thought I would.

I had to sit with the last episode for a while. Trying to decide my feelings on it, you know? My first reaction to how they painted Simon and Betty's relationship was that they did that so the audience could better cope with Simon's choice to move on. Thought about it more and yeah, I was wrong. It just removed the rose-colored glasses. I think the one thing I didn't like was Beth spelling the whole thing out, like yeah I got it. The chose your own adventure allegory worked! I got it. I like the last episode! The part when GolBetty was still protecting Simon when Scarab kept trying to fuck with him got me emotional

Winter King was the biggest tumblrsexyman bait I have EVER seen- selfcest bait and all! Pretty funny, I respect it.

Loved both what Gary and Marshall Lee were doing and what was happening with the main characters. I wasn't sure if I would be too interested in them, but fucking. I got invested in the baking!

BRO THE THEME SONG!?!?! I had only seen the one for the first episode beforehand, so the real intro was a surprise to me! I love it!

Trying to organize my thoughts is hard uuhh just I liked it and will probably rewatch it :]

1. ok the thing about the choose your own adventure allegory isn’t that it’s just that. I thought it was the one weak aspect at first too but in the ending sequence there’s a reveal that totally recontextualizes it

remember the little girl who wanted to be a writer because of ice king’s fionna and cake books? she sketches casper and nova during that sequence. casper and nova isn’t just some random allegory they pulled in — it’s HER BOOK. those are her ocs based off of the stories simon told her about him and betty, and ultimately it was that girl’s portrayal of them, not beth’s explanation, that made him realize what was going on

re: beth, I think it was at least a very interesting dynamic. simon is usually paired with characters either much younger than him or just less worldly than him, and he’s very book/world smart, so I think people tend to forget how immature he can be. ice king was just simon to the extreme after all, not to mention the way simon acts in the earlier episodes (him refusing to run from scarab because he just doesn’t feel like it is a great example). he’s a very smart guy but sometimes he gets so caught up in that that he doesn’t step back to consider anything except surface level logic. pair that with him going slightly mad with worry and I fully understand why beth thought he was shermy doing a bit

simon isn’t childish per se, but there’s a lot of things he doesn’t know because he doesn’t ever really look outside his own perspective, and I like how casper and nova illustrated that. simon has always been this sort of fatherly figure that everyone else admires but nobody else sees the worth in, he’s always trying to shoulder so much for no reason. there’s been this imagery the whole season of simon caring for people younger than him (baby finn, normal finn, fionna, astrid, etc) but he never actually lets himself be cared for. so it makes sense that him being given the grace that a kid would be given and ultimately realizing his wrongdoing after seeing himself through the eyes of a child would be a thing that happens

2. you’re so right about gumlee me too man. the scene where they kissed while pb n marcy were hurtling to their toxic codependent yuri deaths was crazy. holy shit

3. I honestly think there’s a LOT to winter king I have a couple posts worth of analysis on it. I think the idea of simon doing something so wildly unethical is very fascinating I loved watching him spiral into madness. slay

4. the biggest surprise for me I think was cake’s arc? like looking back I totally should’ve seen it coming but it was I think my favorite ongoing plotline from the show. her wishes being at odds with fionna’s presented this really interesting dynamic that finn and jake never had and the way she was a narrative foil to simon was like. ohhhh that was fucking evil of the writers . simon desperately wanting to destroy his mind and cake desperately wanting to keep hers. the way that translates into their dynamic with each other. the terrifying dawning realization that fionna might prefer her non sentient. of course it isn’t true, but it would’ve felt that way, no?

also just fucking. “everybody dies. they should get to die as themselves.” “fionna, I am myself. like this.” what if I spontaneously combusted killing everyone in a 3 mile radius. what then