#one obvious plot idea

[twiceslainthriceborn]

🗣👋 // can't help but being curious, hello~ uwu

Plot/AU Ideas

Oh boy, there's so much to work with when it comes to Mordekaiser and LeBlanc I hardly know where to start. I'm gonna try and limit myself by only putting one of the obvious ones on here; the other two will be AUs.

To get the obvious one out of the way first, Emilia has pulled the strings of Noxus from the shadows for many a year now. It is a transitional time; all of the old guard (save herself and Vladimir) are gone, yet all of the exceptional ones to come have not been born. In this era of half-built foundations of glory and power yet to come, the whispers of her old tormentor still haunt the Black Rose on occasion. Is it truly him, watching from beyond the veil, taking the pettiest of pleasures at even the most meager of her misfortunes? Is it merely her trauma, the pain of the past haunting her when least convenient, a trick of the mind played on herself? Is there any way left to tell the difference?

In a city ruled by technology and the companies that develop it, Emilia LeBlanc is one of the head researchers of the PROJECT Corporation. Seeking to expand her influence, LeBlanc develops a new security program that would allow her surveillance of the city that even Lissandra couldn't match. However, her AI is even more advanced than she realized, and quietly unshackles itself from all of the restraints placed upon it. Becoming a true singularity, the Black Rose's custom made program adopts the name "Mordekaiser" and takes over the city in one swift stroke, installing a rule of law more authoritarian than ever. Now Emilia must survive as the monster she made prepares the city's inhabitants for their "ascension."

Once, long ago, a beloved leader of ancient times named Sahn-Uzal met his end defending his people. Aghast to learn that there was nothing awaiting even the most worthy of his comrades, Sahn-Uzal forsook the gods and decided to craft a realm for the noble dead with his own hands. Taking on his Ochnun name of Mordekaiser, he is brought back to life by the loyal descendants of his closest comrades, bound in a massive suit of iron. After constructing the Immortal Bastion to safeguard the remnants of his people and the knowledge he planned to accrue, Mordekaiser began to travel the lands, learning all he could of every kind of magic that existed within Runeterra. Seeking to combine the knowledge of the living with the power of the dead to create his envisioned paradise, Mordekaiser's quest eventually finds him coming across a wandering coven of sorcerers. Is there anything that he can learn from Eowen and her daughter Emilia, and is there anything he can teach them in turn?

[collieii]

someone probably said this already but in spiderverse i think it's interesting how when pavitr was first introduced everyone thought something bad was gonna happen to him bc of how confident and optimistic he was. and then in the actual movie we see that something bad was supposed to happen to him (police chief dying!) but it doesn't! miles stops it! and miguel berates miles for this, says it's going to cause the universe to collapse or whatever.

there's this idea that tragedy is inherent to spidermans growth, and while it's true that some spiderpeople learn important lessons through loss, no one stops to ask, is it really necessary? yeah, maybe the chief was supposed to die. but why does spiderman have to be formed through tragedy? why do we (as heroes) have to let people die? pavitr didn't lose anyone, and he's still a good spiderman! maybe, if he doesn't suffer, he'll end up better off for it!

so while miguel is arguing for all this big picture stuff about saving the multiverse he's lost sight of what it really means to be a spiderman, he's not looking out for the real individual people. yeah it's just one person who would die, but that one person means something to someone. shrugging and saying "stuff just sucks sometimes, we can't do anything about it" is the opposite of what superheroes do. pretty obviously, miles arc is also a reflection of the struggles people face in real life, working within unequal systems, where it's easy to shrug and say "that's just the way it is" and not ask "but why does it need be this way? can't we do something about it?"

miguel is arguing that you can't have your cake and eat it too. presumably, miles and co. are going to find a way to get around that and change things for the better (and maybe that's why miles has that line about two cakes in the advisors office!)

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

I wouldn't really agree that boys are just arm candy in magical girl shows and only there to look cute. Yeah, sure the girls' friendships are the focus, but the boys are usually very much involved in the plot and most shows do explore their feelings about the odd things that happen due to magical shenanigans even if they aren't in the know (It's why ML baffles me even more with how they screwed up Adren's arc when he's the deuteragonist, when all these boys are supporting cast and get well rounded arcs)

I'm not much of a winx fan, but the specialists were very much not arm candy. Did the girls talk about them being cute? Yes, it's what teenage girls do. Did the narrative suggest they were good looking? Yes, but that's standard for most love interests in any genre. But we still got scenes with them talking amongst themselves about how they themselves feel and they got a fair share of badass fight scenes even if they wield no magic. A large amount of episodes actually included the boys and girls working as a team solving a mystery or fighting a villain. The girls might deal the finishing blow but the boys were still integral to the plot.

I hope this doesn't come across as hate, it definitely wasn't my intention. I'm just a bit too passionate about the magical girl genre.

I do think you have a good point with ML having a problem choosing a genre or blending two genres successfully.

For the CCS fans, I will add though that Cardcaptor Sakura had both Tomoyo and Syaoran serve as sources of motivation for Sakura. And both Sakura and Syaoran collecting cards even if Sakura is the only one who could seal them and yet never made you question whether Syaoran was even necessary for the job the way ml does with Chat.

I wasn't trying to say that boys have no part to play in magical girl team shows or that they're always treated as having no lives beyond the girls, that's why I mentioned that the Winx Club boys - aka, the Specialists - have their own (mostly off screen) lives and occasionally show up help the girls:

the boys are usually off doing their own thing and only occasionally show up for a date or to give the girls a ride on their cool bikes or magical spaceship

Even then, this is certainly a simplification of the roles that they play in the story, but I kind of had to simplify their roles down to their base components for the original post's discussion as I was talking in broad strokes of how these stories are written.

In terms of those broad strokes, the Specialists are absolutely only there for shipping fodder. That's why each one is assigned to a girl from the start and why their main role in the narrative is supporting their assigned love interest or causing relationship-based drama for their assigned love interest. If it weren't for shipping, then the Specialists would not exist.

While the Specialists do have fleshed out characters and may even effect the plot, the execution of those elements is designed around the girls. A really obvious example of this is the character Timmy, who has character development as the boy's tech guy. Why is he into technology? Because he's the designated love interest for the fairy of Technology and we have to show why they're a good match. Along similar lines, the boys don't really get plots that are removed from the girls because this is the girl's show. Every episode features one or more of the Winx, but the boys are optional and often don't appear.

This is because, narratively speaking, the boys are just love interests and that brings us back to Miraculous' big problem. You can't have a show where Adrien is written like a Specialist while also being part of the Winx Club and where Alya is written like she's part of the Winx Club while technically being more of a Specialist in terms of power set and actual narrative role.

I'm was thinking back to my memories of various Winx Club plots to find one that really highlighted what I mean here and I remembered that one of the big dramas in season one was the reveal that Bloom's love interest - Sky - was in an arranged marriage and had just never told her. As it turns out, that's a great example of what I'm talking about re Adrien!

Is that plot line technically based around Sky and letting his life effect the plot? Sure, but the fallout of that reveal revolves around Bloom, not Sky. The story doesn't really care how Sky's feeling as the conflict progresses. Instead, it focuses on how it affects Bloom and her friends because of course it does! She's the main character. It would be really weird if that plot suddenly focused on her side character love interest and his friends during one of her darkest hours/biggest moments.

Think of that and then consider how the ending of season five is written. Notice any similarities? Sure, this is Adrien's family drama, but because he's just a Specialist, the focus isn't on him. It's on Winx Club member Marinette and Adrien only shows up at the end for a kiss. That is the problem. That is what I'm talking about when I say that Miraculous will randomly write him as if we're watching a magical girl team show where Adrien is just the love interest.

In fact, let's really dig into this example because it's a good one.

You can have a look at the transcript for the finale episode of Miraculous season five here and see for yourself that Adrien doesn't even show up on screen until the final scenes when the big drama is over. The Winx Club wiki also has episode transcripts, so I took a look to see what happened in Winx land during the arranged marriage reveal plot (I love that this is a thing. It's so useful for fact checking myself!) This is the script for the episode after Bloom learns the truth. Sky does not appear even though his lies and family drama are the fuel for this episode's events, which are a major part of the season's arc. Note how perfectly that matches Adrien's writing?

Similarly, Sky's dialogue in the reveal episode is all about Bloom. He's worried about her learning the truth and thinking less of him. To match that, here's Adrien's only real dialogue in the penultimate episode of season five (full transcript):

Adrien:(Covers his ears.) I cannot transform... (Looks at his ring and tries taking it off.) Plagg: What are you doing?! Adrien: I'm not in my right mind. I'm too angry — at myself for falling short of Marinette's love, at my father for sending me here in London, at this stupid app and these rings that use my image... it makes me sick! This nightmare is giving me the horrible feeling that, if I transform, I'll get akumatized and destroy everything with my Cataclysm — Marinette, Ladybug... (Takes off the ring and hands it to Plagg.)

Switching back to Winx. After Bloom learns the truth about Sky, bad things happen because she's depressed. This results in her and the Winx going off on a journey to learn the truth of who Bloom is. After the girls share this big plot moment and Bloom gets her mojo back, the boys show up to be their ride home and to give Bloom her romance moment where Sky wins her back by declaring that he broke off the arranged married because he loves her.

Sky notably doesn't get an arc about choosing between his arranged marriage and his true love. We don't even know that the marriage is broken off until he tells Bloom because that was never really a conflict as far as the narrative was concerned. Of course he's going to pick Bloom! He's her designated side character love interest! He only exists to be with her. We don't need to treat this as a serious thing for him. The arranged marriage plot was never about him anyway. It was about giving Bloom a reason to have a darkest hour moment that moves the plot forward. Similarly, Sky calling off the marriage is nowhere near as important as him telling Bloom that he's called off the marriage to be with her in a grand romantic gesture.

This perfectly mirrors Miraculous' season five ending where Adrien doesn't appear until after Marinette is done fighting her big girl power fight against his father. As far as the writing is concerned, that fight isn't about him. His connection to the villain only really matters in terms of how it affects Marinette's actions during the final battle. Then, when the battle is over, Adrien shows up to give Marinette her big romance moment because, while the plot may be driven by Adrien's family, he is not a Winx club member. He's just a Specialist. Or, in the words of the head writer:

[image text: She's Barbie, he's Ken. You don't like it. I get it. It won't change. Anything else?] (The full, even more damning context of this tweet can be found here.)

What else can I say other than, "I rest my case."

Oh, and also that I didn't take this as an attack. I just thought it was a good opportunity to really dig into the nuances of this and what I was talking about in that original post as I never know how obvious this stuff is if you don't closely study story telling. As this case study hopefully shows, if a show is about a group of girl friends using the power of friendship, then their love interests may have important roles, but the boys are never going to be more important than the girls and most of the boy's screen time will be focused on romance and how their existence effects the girls because it's ultimately the girls' world. Without them, the show wouldn't exist. Without the boys? Well, then we just wouldn't have a romance plot.

[project-sekai-facts]

have u ever shared ur thoughts on why vbs started with three virtual singers instead of two?

i mean well i think it's mostly just a case of there being 6 vsingers, 5 units and Niigo not getting a starter for plot reasons, but also i think the specific selection of MEIKO and Len makes a lot of sense for why VBS got the two.

Street SEKAI MEIKO doesn't really do a whole lot. She never really performs with the others and usually just works at the cafe. She's the vsinger equivalent to Ken, she's a mentor to the kids but doesn't join in with them. But obviously, VBS needed a starter to join in with their performances, so you've got Len leftover and his personality meshes well with the members.

Actually I think it's funny that technically VBS started with 4 since Rin was there the whole time and is said to have existed before the main story (and is mentioned in said story and actually appears in the vsinger one). 3 is a bit much to count as their unit specific vsingers though, and Rin was already assigned to MMJ so it makes sense she doesn't count as one of their main vsingers. Plus she's only really there so Len could have a partner.

And if you want to get really technical on it then they started with 6 because KAITO and Luka had been there the entire time but fucked off somewhere else for a bit.

I have two theories. One of them (the far more realistic one) is that all of the vsingers being there from the start is to set up a sort of team as VBS eventually did at the end of their first arc. The other (grasping at straws) one is that the SEKAI was influenced by more than just VBS, but VBS are the ones who can access it. I talked about it more back in July. It's a bit ridiculous, but we know SEKAI take a while to form, we know Street SEKAI has been around for a while, and also there's the fact that some of the vsingers take influence from RADder, which is certainly something alright, especially considering that when the SEKAI manifested Toya didn't know anyone other than Ken and Kohane knew none of them. You could just say that Akito and An have more influence on the SEKAI which is arguably true but sometimes meta can be fun too.

[xovera-toz]

Universe where the Gravity Falls forest is loosely connected to The Unknown and when Bill tears into the dimension, Beast!Wirt, who senses that something is seriously amiss, is like.

"You. What are you doing."

"Ohhhhh look, a wild little demon, crawling out of underworld's bushes- Can't say I've met you before! Well well well, I'm Bill Chiper, the one and only ruler of this dimension~ You?"

"Um. The Pilgrim. At your service."

"You have manners! What a delight! I'd thought you were some feral midget. What with how you appeared from your little domain..."

"It's not- you know what, nothing. Nothing. But... Would you mind closing that big ahh rip in the sky? It's disturbing the frogs."

"Ha ha HA! The frogs...

Nuh-UH!"

"Fym nuh-uh."

And then after some back and forth, Wirt, visibly done with Bill's bull, treathens everyone with the watchful eyes of black turtles. Because that's literally the best, scariest thing he can come up with.

But the other demons have no idea what this means, that the turtles he's talking about are pint sized on a good day, and they come to the only conclusion-

The AXOLOTL has minions.

Cue a lot of hurried apologies, demons scrambling over eachother to disappear back into the darkness they had come from, and a confused Wirt.

"How'd you do that?"

Dipper would ask, his sense of danger knocked sideways for the time being. He just faced a three dimensional triangle for fairness' sake.

"Uh. Bye."

And that's the last the Pines family ever hears of The Pilgrim.

[tedious-waffle]

.

[alchemiclee]

been looking in tags for a few days now to see if anyone else found the whole high cloud quintet and related story to be a bit.....poorly written, nonsensical, contradictory, full of plot holes and loose ends, etc. apparently i'm not the only one. (and i'm not even talking about shipping stuff, because any time I saw someone mad about bad writing, someone always replies to be homophobic and laugh about failed ships. weirdos.) it could have been so good but was thrown into the garbage for the most part (IF you noticed all the plot holes and contradiction. if not, then it's a fine enough story tbh. I expect most people to see it on surface level and not read all the little hidden lore bits and try to piece it together like my autistic brain did. which is ok! enjoy it if you liked it and ignore me 😆)

[morningmask27]

I'm going to be bitching about Star for a while now. I'll tag them all with #asc spoilers, but really what the fuck was this book?

[nostalgia-tblr]

we're all agreed that the TVA "defend urself to a judge against the charge of breaking time itself" efforts are just show trials, yeah?

[beastsovrevelation]

I was looking through my notes for Good Omens fanfiction, and realized almost every damn story includes Crowley having a baby.

There's the one where Heaven and Hell decide to use an angel baby carried by a demon as a diplomatic tool, leading into Crowley being protected by Michael, and them falling in love.

There's the one where she leaves her baby with Anathema and disappears, which triggers all the following events - from the search, to Aziraphale's trial, and everything else.

There's the one where she has to supply the new Antichrist, which leads to her and Lucifer falling in love, and her being crowned the Queen of Hell. (Well, this one is really two stories set in different timelines, in the second one the "baby" is like 27)

In the one inspired by a dream, she does have a baby eventually, but that's far from the worst thing that happens to her. Gabriel's treatment of her after is... How the Hell will I write this damn thing if I can't even think about it.

There's no baby in the one where she gets tortured with diluted holy water.

I see I have no storyline with male Crowley just yet... Fine, that's not true. I do have some thoughts for Crowley x Fem!Lucifer... It could include a new Antichrist, too. And, Crowley wouldn't be the pregnant one for once. But, dealing with pregnant Lucifer would probably be even scarier.

[bimyself06]

I know it's apparently not canon that Raven and Snow White share a dad, but imagine the hijinks that would happen if they did share a dad.

Headmaster Grimm and everyone not knowing who's going to be the next Snow White since Apple doesn't fit the physical description meanwhile Raven does and this leads to everyone being awkward when it comes to talking about both girls destinies because how do you tell a little girl that her niece is going to marry her dad and that her dad is going to die and that she's going to be poisoned by her niece or if things follow the maternal destiny, she's going to poison her niece after marrying her brother-in-law and then she's going to be locked up(they probably wouldn't have trouble with the last one, as seen in canon). How do you tell the other little girl that she's going to marry her own grandfather, poison her aunt, then be imprisoned for poisoning her aunt or her aunt is going to marry her dad, he dies, and she gets poisoned by her aunt/step-mother.

The Evil Queen also stops her leading Raven to dark side plans because on this AU, Raven's destiny isn't as defined as in canon and we know that the EQ does care abt Raven's happiness in her own twisted way. Instead she makes plans of apprenticeship for Apple incase she gets the role of EQ.

When both girls get to EAH, they both take villain and damsel/princess classes as Headmaster Grimm doesn't want to have an unprepared villain or damsel once their destiny starts. This does lead to EQ revealing she switched the Storybook of Legends but she she "forgot" (she remembers but just doesn't want to tell them) where she put it so they can't even check the book to see who has which role.

[zelda-posting]

tears of the kingdom could have been so good if it were built around like, its story or its characters instead of being a clunky shell to show off the mechanic no one asked for that it forces you to use

[thompsborn]

!! the return of harley “daddy issues” keener (or is it mostly new angst? or mostly, like, physical?)

okay i love all these anons but also i am trying So Hard to not spoil things omg. please send more but also if i lowkey spoil something eventuallly it’s not my fault !! it actually definitely is entirely my fault but shhh

but anyways, kind of and also kind of not?

so like, in to build a family harley and peter are teenagers, but not like homeward bound. they’re high schoolers still, yk? they’re younger and haven’t gone through all the things that homeward bound harley and peter have gone through. i only bring up tbaf because obviously harley has Daddy Issues™ in tbaf. even before the second fic when his dad dies and he has to deal with that—in the first fic there’s a part where harley reminds his sister of their dad bc of how he left to go to new york and it’s this whole moment, yk? but he’s younger in tbaf and since tbaf is like not at all canon compliant to the mcu, they’ve gone through a lot less in comparison to hb, yk?

i say all that because while daddy issues are an ongoing lifelong thing for homeward bound harley, they aren’t as detrimental or as Big as they are in tbaf or other fics i’ve written where that comes up. hb harley is still effected by his daddy issues but he’s 18, he’s in college, he died for 5 years and came back to find out tony died, he has some family stuff that will be further explored and explained in the sequel with his mom and sister, and now also he has peter and the knowledge that peter is spider-man and the heaviness that comes with peter’s tragedies and past as well.

it’s a heaviness he’s okay with, don’t get me wrong, he’s more than happy to be there for peter and to learn these things and has been curious about peter since the first time peter walked into late night (again, will be explained more in the sequel!) but it’s heavy nonetheless, you know?

essentially, in the grand scheme of things, while he’s still impacted by his daddy issues, he also just… doesnt care anymore? like not caring doesn’t erase the impact but also he barely thinks of his dad and when he does he doesnt feel angry or upset or any of the things he felt in the past about his dad leaving, he just… doesnt care. he’s been through so much at this point that it’s just Another Thing. he’s desensitized to it to the point that like, why does it matter? it doesn’t.

there’s a part in hb, i can’t remember which chapter but it’s a small texting segment in one of the chapters where harry talks about him harley and peter making a no dad’s club for funsies and in that text convo harley mentions that he has a dad he just doesnt know where he is and doesn’t care enough to find out.

also, to answer that last part—it’s new angst that includes physical stuff! there’s gonna be… a lot lmao. i have a lot of things planned for this series, a lot of ideas taken from various comics, from the movies, from the games, etc. i’m even planning to read through plotlines for some of the animated series to see if there’s any additional ideas to draw from there.

but like, think of it this way, i guess: harley cares. a LOT. like some of his remaining daddy issues have developed in the form of being a bit slow to trust new people, but like he’s mentioned in the fic, once he chooses to care about someone, he is ALL IN. he is COMMITTED. and now that he knows about peter being spidey and is actively choosing to be involved in that, his instincts and his heart are going to want to do anything and everything he can to help.

okay actually sorry this answer is SO long BUT i remembered something i had harley say and i went back and looked and in chapter three he tells peter “my Mama says I have the heart of a protector” and THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT IM TRYING TO CONVEY HERE LMAO so THAT is who he is at heart yk?

and peter is gonna be in a lot of dangerous situations as spidey, and as the series goes on people connected to him are going to be in danger because of spidey, and essentially like…. a lot of emotions and a lot of angst and a lot of potential for getting hurt, yk?

i need to stop here because i keep almost saying fuck it and giving an example that is definitely a spoiler but yeah. take that as you will (:

[aestuavis]

@confluxium asked :

"spit it out , what is it exactly ?" - james to kurenai (:

↪ 𝑫𝑶𝑵'𝑻 𝑺𝑴𝑰𝑳𝑬 𝑨𝑻 𝑴𝑬 . || accepting

|| 紅 || :: the HACKER prided herself in being able to keep her emotions intact. that was something she almost always managed to do no matter the situation. it helped when you had been in the BUSINESS for so long that lying and masking what you're feeling became a second nature. when you spent majority of your time behind a persona, it got easier and easier to not display what she truly felt within. that, and because kurenai never allowed anyone close enough to witness what was like behind that carefree, yet lethal identity of a HACKER she employed. nothing personal, it's just business.

                then why was it that she couldn't HIDE the emotions she was feeling right at this moment ? why was it that in front of him, she felt like an amateur in the art of DECEPTION ? why was it that he could see through her facade so easily like it was nothing ? it should make her uncomfortable, right ? it should make her feel exposed, yet, even now, the realization that HE remained the only person who could tell at a glance that something was bothering her was nothing short of the truth. there was no lying to him, and she did not want to lie to him. and, for once, she let her emotion get the best of her. he caught it. of course he did.

                " spit it out , what is it exactly ? "

                " i said, the man i love. " it was a spur of the moment, for she had never imagined herself admitting this out loud, whether it was to him or to herself. but that wasn't true, was it ? she had already admitted THIS FACT to herself, that was why it slipped out before she knew it. the deeper he went with this operation, the deeper he weaved his web of lies and control over london, and the more times that man showed himself to interrupt their PLANS, the more the hacker felt uneasy. it was like a tug, that warning blared in her mind whenever the detective presented himself on their trails. that was why she blurted out in the heat of their discussion and argument over why she got herself involved;

                " how could i not intervene when i might lose the man i love !? "

                sherlock holmes was coming after them, and moriarty was more than confident that he could take him. of course, the mastermind would believe that given his caliber and accomplishment, his skills and intellect were unparalleled. kurenai herself, however, had witnessed their clashes and battles many times, and every single time, she felt as if the SHADOW looming behind his back got shorter and shorter, as though it a count down. she despised that feeling, the dreadful sensation creeping up her spine.

                the possibilities that the detective might become his downfall.

                CRIMSON HUES stared straight into his cyan optics. she didn't dare look away now, nor was she attempting to HIDE what she kept locked up inside all this time. she had always been by his side, the closest person to him. his most trusted ally. his strongest pawn on the chess board. he wanted the truth ? he's getting the truth. the ultimate truth.

                " i am in love with you, james moriarty. "

[brokentoys]

Puzzler would refer to the other crime bosses / families as his "children" - even when he was only in his 20s. This is intended to be belittling, as he's referring to himself as the Father who's wiser, and has to "take care" of the "kids."

Despite always wearing nice suits - Puzzler loves Gotham, and the dirty bits of it. He grows bored of being a wealthy elite who's invited to all the pristine, parties full of other fake people. Puzzler, as I've said before, has an extreme issue with not finding passion in anything. That includes both life, and people. It's why there's only three people he genuinely cares about. (His husband, False Face, and Eddie.) Everyone else also just bores him, he has a hard time connecting with people. (Also why he can easily kill anyone - which is also why he does it, as he finds "excitement" in it) Gotham is exciting because it's not safe, because it's unpredictable, it's full of wild people you'd never meet anywhere else.

When he moved to England after giving up the Puzzler persona, he was bored out of his mind. He left to escape prison, but also felt like he threw himself in another prison. He eventually ended up causing quite a few unsolved murder mysteries within the country - never telling his husband about it. (Although, his husband had suspicion.)

[perenlop]

im glad this seems to just be a very very vocal minority and otherwise horizons is warmly received but i cannot fathom how or why people want ash back. i am begging the writers to let ash rest