#plots okay you got those? but need a new character angle?

[charmac]

I think getting railed by Mac would give Dennis a new perspective that doesn’t change who he is and is consistent with his characterisation... Just a thought tho.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

When the twisted wonderland anime comes out what are the things you hope they do better then what they could do in the game?

To quickly clarify a few things (so new readers and anyone stumbling across this post doesn't get the wrong idea): firstly, we do not yet have any confirmation on what the Twisted Wonderland anime will be about. Secondly, I have previously expressed that I would prefer the TWST anime to be random slice of life rather than another main story adaptation. If we assume that the anime will be another adaptation of the main story, I don't think the anime staff has a ton of liberty in the alterations they can make to the source material. Book 2 is widely known to be the greatest example of Bad Writing in TWST, and it cannot exactly be swept under the rug since it's in the main story. I doubt anyone would be allowed to make massive rewrites to the script or to the series of events; the biggest changes we get are slightly compacted scenes in the manga and the light novel. For example:

Skipping lines that appear in the game. (Ex: in the Book of Heartslabyul, Ace does not joke about sharing a room with Yuuken.)

Combining scenes to save on time. (Ex: In the light novel, Yuuya and Deuce meet Leona for the first time not in the Botanical Garden, which is the case in the game. Instead, the mob student that broke the eggs meant for Ace's apology chestnut tart is a Savanaclaw kid that Leona shows up to reprimand.)

Adding slight details to fill in logical gaps. (Ex: Yuuya in the light novel is granted a NRC uniform by Crowley; the uniform is described to us, the readers. Yuu getting a uniform is never mentioned in the game.)

Continuing from the last point, new details can also serve to flesh out character motivations, backstories, and lore. (Ex: the Heartslabyul light novel informs us that Riddle faces social repercussions for his OB and almost got expelled from school; the Savanaclaw light novel sheds new light on Leona's motivations, and the same can be said of Riddle.)

So basically, the story (again, if the anime does end up following the plot of the main story) would be the same. What would make the anime different from the manga, game, and light novel is largely the medium in which it is presented. I have talked about this at length in a number of older posts, but here is one example of how the manga, uses visual storytelling (as it is primarily a visual medium). A manga chapter is usually limited in length due to it being physically printed and shared in a magazine alongside other manga; there is therefore a constraint on how long-winded it can be, and its limited pages must be used effectively. We need to think about the strengths and the weaknesses of each individual medium and how those strengths and weaknesses affect how it might slightly change how TWST I presented.

An anime is able to incorporate animation with sound in a 20ish minute time slot to tell a tale. It gets the same benefits of the game, but far more freedom of movement. There is, however, also a time constraint to be considered. One complaint TWST often gets is that despite half of its core gameplay (I'm not going to count reading as gameplay) being rhythm games, the music the game has is NOT memorable. While the anime most likely won't have a ton of original songs, I hope that it can at least creatively incorporate some of TWST's scores as background tracks to fun scenes and make them more enjoyable that way. The anime will also be able to... well, be animated!! We won't get just a static screen where a maximum of three characters are crammed onto the screen at once staring back at you. It's okay to have in the game to save on time and budget, but you have to admit it does get boring to look at after a while. But with an anime production, we can get exciting lighting and camera angles that result in cool animation! I hope that this will really help the TWST characters' stories come to life on the screen ^^ One scene in particular that I hope the anime will adapt well is the VDC/SDC performances of RSA and NRC. The game tells us that RSA's performance is clumsy and amateurish, but it still managed to capture people's hearts. The game also tells us that NRC was not able to perform at their maximum capacity because they were already physically worn down from dealing with OB Vil. I want to see these descriptions actually be realized on screen (the Rhythmic/Twistune alone isn't enough), as it could help us better judge and have an enhanced understanding of the situation. I know a lot of fans who, to this very day, still feel that NRC was cheated of the win and shouldn't have lost to such a lackluster performance from RSA, so I'm hoping that a fully animated version might give us more perspective.

[ckret2]

Since your Human Bill!AU has him as a person with a uterus, does he get periods? If he does, how does he react the first time he gets one? Is it possible for him to become Agent Powers’ baby momma?

Yeah, I figure he does.

Bill has some issues that arise from shoving an alien mind into a different species's body (such as his issues with binocular vision and balance issues). But once you set those issues aside, I imagine that otherwise the body he's been stuck inside is, at the outset when he receives it, normally abled. Peek inside his body and everything is built and structured the way a college anatomy textbook says a generic human body ought to be structured, all the hormones are in average ranges, etc. He got handed a body at peak adult performance. Mainly because the axolotl was like "you're gonna suck SO bad at this, you need every advantage you can get." If Bill had been sent to earth with a gluten sensitivity or back pain or whatever, he'd be dead within a week. Like not even from the disability itself, he'd just go "this is too hard" and lie down and give up.

(Caveat that I might change my mind on this later if I think of a condition that fits him well or that I think would be interesting to explore; but for now that's where I'm at.)

And if you take The Most Average Body With A Womb In It, in early adulthood, with no underlying health conditions—yeah, it's gonna bleed once a month and it's gonna be fertile.

I imagine he reacts to it about the same way as he does the first time he gets bad gas—"ow, that hurts, is something malfunctioning" followed by "oh, blood—okay, I know what's going on, I'm familiar with this phenomenon," and now that he knows X symptoms indicate the approach of Y event, he doesn't care the next time he experiences X symptoms.

He COULD become someone's baby mama—but I'm not planning on it. It doesn't fit in well with the other ideas I'm looking to explore with this AU. I'm angling toward a slow redemption arc (or, more accurately, a learning-to-be-a-better-person arc), and I feel like having the threat/promise of a baby pushing him would undermine the impact of any decisions he makes. Like yeah sure "bad character decides to become better because now they're starting to think about a helpless baby" is a fine plot arc—but that makes it EASIER to choose personal growth. If he's only thinking about HIMSELF, can he become better?

(And, outside of that, over on an RP blog recently I just roleplayed a character going through a full-length real-time nine-month pregnancy that concluded in January. It was a really fun project to do, but now that I'm done with it I don't wanna start ANOTHER pregnancy plotline. I've had enough of that for a while.)

So biologically, it's possible; narratively, I'm not gonna do it. THE MOST I might do is play with the idea (like "lies about being pregnant to fool a threat into going easy on him" or "accidentally gets knocked up and goes 'nope not doing that' and confidently aborts it"), but when push comes to shove I STRONGLY doubt those will be ideas I'll want to explore in the AU itself. Bill's just gonna have to put on his big boy pants and practice safe sex like any other human.

(Even as much of a reckless party animal as he is, I think he'll be better at this than some of his other human-body-maintenance tasks. If you skip showering then you smell bad—this is a consequence Bill doesn't care about if he isn't planning on interacting with a human he needs to impress. If you skip safe sex then you risk unpleasant diseases and a whole new person growing inside you—this is a consequence he DOES care about. He's probably not gonna get an A+ in safe sex practices but like, he'll get at least a C+. Some sort of passing grade.)

[commenter2]

I'll be okay with Hazbin Hotel season 2 only having 8 episodes IF that season mainly focuses on the smaller stuff, like Charlie again trying to focus on redeeming sinners and the Vee's plans against the main characters.

As much as I want to see more big moments about things such as Lilith and what she has been doing all this time, getting hints about Eve and Roo, seeing Charlie interacting with angels like Jesus Christ and her angelic aunts/uncles, and seeing other HH characters like the von Eldritch family and Crymini (who again I think should be a Hellhound) I would like to see those stories be expanded and explored properly and not be rushed in a small season like Vivize and the writers had to do for Hazbin Hotel season 1.

I got a few ideas for what the 8 episodes can be about related to these things:

The season premiere has the hotel crew meeting their new resident Baxter. I can see the episode going over several other things such as the aftermath of the season 1 finale, like how stopping the Extermination has made the Pride ring a little crowded and sadly the characters learn there is going to be another Extermination happening in about 9 months. We could learn that Charlie has a bit of PTSD from the battle and is still guilty about Pentious' death. Maybe as a way to coup wiht this she has doubled her efforts to find a way to get sinners into Heaven.

I also could see such an episode having a plot point where people are checking into the hotel BUT most don't want to actually be better people, something Baxter does at first before slowly changing, so Charlie and co. now need to weed out those that want to be redeemed from those just using the hotel for various purposes. I could see the last idea being the premise of its own episode, as it would be a great way to add several characters to the hotel staff/group at once.

Exploring Vox and Alastor's past. This could explore a bit of Alastor's human life, but also what happened to Alastor 7 years ago. Great way to start dabbling into the Roo (or Lilith if you believe in that) connection theory.

Charlie trying to terminate Angel's contract with Valentino once and for all. I have brought up the question why Charlie hasn't made Angel leave his job as a requirement of him staying at the hotel and after seeing how badly Val treats Angel and with the Vees being the main antagonist of S2, this should happen. This would basically be like Helluva Boss's mid season 2 episode but I can see it being more dramatic and pleasing to see Val lose. this can also lead to Val getting more motivated to take down the hotel crew in the end.

Charlie goes to Lucifer for information on how Heaven and Hell decided who goes where after they die, in hopes of finding a clue or angle for her redemption program. This episode could also count as the eventual flashback episode showing how Lucifer and Lilith met, the whole apple thing, and the war between God and Lucifer's forces. Charlie could learn the shocking truth about how something really went down compared to the version she was told/led to believe.

A episode in Heaven where we see Sir Pentious getting use to Heaven while he and Emily deal with Lute. Like I brought up in my first season 2 episode idea post, they could decide to disobey Sera's orders and try to contact Charlie to show that redeeming sinners is possible.

Alastor cashes in the favor Charlie owes him by asking her to show her a legendary item or place, which leads to Charlie taking him to a special area. In no time shenanigans happen like something gets stolen or gets out of the room, causing the two to clean up the mess before something bad happens. Along with seeing Charlie and Alastor bond, especially if we get more of Al's life in such an episode, there would be a twist at the end where we find out this was part of Alastor's plan/mission as someone else was able to get in the special area get either another item, read something from a powerful book, or something else mysterious. Maybe Mimzy steals something in it and we get some development from her and she joins the hotel.

An episode about Niffty and her backstory. She didn't get any serious development in season 1, and such a premise was one of the scrapped ideas for the original HH season 1. I could see this being a good episode that is more entertaining then doing anything to advance the main story.

Speaking of which, another scrapped HH episode had Angel getting kidnapped and Husk and co. go searching for him, especially Husk. That would be a GREAT episode to have airing before the season finale.

A crazed Lute performs the Extermination attack of Hell earlier than scheduled. The events here could lead to the season finale, as I could see the Vee's attacking the weakened Charlie and the other characters after they have just dealt with the angelic forces.

The finale would be a battle between the hotel crew and the Vees, where maybe near the end Emily and other heavenly forces come to aid Charlie' side. I can see it ending with the Vees being punished by Charlie like maybe Val and Vox temporarily lose their Overlord titles (though Velvette getting out of it somehow) but Heaven as an apology for Lute's actions says that while the angels are currently debating on the topic, they will hear out Charlie's redemption plan again if she can redeem another sinner or two without aid from her father or and demons/angels before the end of a set deadline (AKA the season 3/4 finale). The season ends with everyone being happy until they are surprised by the appearance of Lilith at the hotel.

Another good thing about having season 2 focus o these things is that it will mean other, bigger stories will have to be told in later seasons and while currently mixed about Helluva Boss' planned 4 season run, I LOVE the idea of Hazbin Hotel having a lot of seasons.

Do you think these things should be the focus of Hazbin Hotel season 2? What could you see happening in it?

[weird-gay-disaster]

Uh, so this is really out of left field for me to talk about, but I've been feeling this type of way for over a month now.

I'm very ambivalent about the new Famicom Detective Club.

Before the game's reveal and when we basically had a teaser to go off of, there was a lot of speculation (jokes, memes, or otherwise) over what the project could've been. I'm not much of a survival horror enjoyer, I was just interested in what it could've potentially been. I noticed some accurate leaks about it beforehand, but didn't think they were legit.

When it was fully announced, I basically went "oh. okay..." before feeling a growing sense of disappointment and embarrassed for having such an autistic level of obsession over the teaser. Not because of it being a visual novel, but the fact that it was a certain type of visual novel from a series I genuinely did not care that much about. And the way it was described in Yoshio's interview (mainly the part where the ending was described as "divisive for some people") made me think "oh...so THAT'S how it's gonna go...").

And I probably wouldn't be so vexed with it if I didn't notice a number of FDC's (supposed) fans responding to some similarly disappointed people by...basically insulting them. Because...that'll make people want to enjoy the obscure, niche thing you seem to care about so deeply.

What made things even worse was when I noticed a certain Twitter profile (@WhoIsEmio) and thought it was an ARG linked to the teaser somehow, especially since the bio linked to Nintendo's Emio website/the new Famicom Detective Club game website. There were somewhat sporadic, cryptic uploads with seemingly random Japanese words and music (?) that I assumed would've hinted at certain plot points of the game.

So imagine my shock & disbelief when I eventually found out this shit was apparently an AI experiment from a college that may not exist. And this apparently has nothing to do with the actual game (which creates a number of...interesting questions as to how they even knew about certain dates revealing more FDC information...). It legitimately made me want to jump off a building or something.

Uh, so for the demo (as of Ch. 2 right now)...

I think the music's pretty nice...and the mystery is at least interesting enough...the antagonist is pretty menacing & enigmatic so far....

But....

I'm not saying it needs to be like Danganronpa (especially since that series has issues with a good number of its character designs being increasingly more derivative), but...the character designs here are REALLY bland and boring to look at (besides the main antagonist himself). It's like it's trying to go for a more "anime/stylized realism" angle, but it ends up looking very cookie-cutter instead. Many visual novels, even with all their flaws, at least have some interesting art direction, so seeing how it is here felt very lackluster.

And the writing...the mystery itself is fine so far, but much of the regular dialogue between characters incites little to no emotion within me. Beyond certain key characters, I personally didn't feel that much for the main cast.

When I got to the point where you had to wait at a bus shelter before deciding whether or not to call a taxi, the pure silence and the angle made me paranoid enough that I assumed Emio was either watching from the background or was about to creep up to the protagonist as he closed his eyes to...somehow summon a taxi. Needless to say, it felt anticlimactic when neither of those things happened.

I might continue looking into this, but very likely via a playthrough online (and not just because I'm currently poor).

[moviemunchies]

With Dungeons & Dragons becoming more mainstream in the last few years, through things like Critical Role and that one episode of Community, it was only a matter of time before they tried to make a mainstream movie adaptation. And so we got this: Honor Among Thieves.

Good times.

Our story’s main characters are Edgin and Holga, a bard and barbarian warrior trapped in jail after their last attempted burglary went wrong and the rest of their crew escaped. When they escape, they find out their former companion Forge set them up to be captured, became lord of Neverwinter, and turned Edgin’s daughter against him. Oh no! So they get a crew together to steal all of Forge’s shiny new treasure and get Edgin’s daughter back.

So it’s a heist movie! Except in a fantasy setting. Which is quite fitting for a DnD film, because so many of those quests are team efforts for treasure or to stop a villain. I don’t know precisely how well this film maps onto the expectations of what a DnD sessions tend to go, but I imagine they’re often unpredictable (for the players) and fun adventures, much as this story turns out to be.

What I enjoy about this story is how out there it is? It embraces the fantastical. There are plenty of nonhumans who are just there in the population (often with practical effects!) without anyone questioning it or sitting and explaining it to you. You don’t have the rules of magic explained, but they’re alluded to and they clearly exist. Any asides of “Hey, what IS that?” is for the audience to understand what’s going on. And even then, there are some things which the movie doesn’t tell you, just reveals through context–that panther thing in the maze comes to mind. It’s not a fantasy epic like Lord of the Rings but it is a unabashedly fantasy film that revels in its genre.

Our emotional centers for the movie are Edgin and Holga, the bard and the barbarian, played by Chris Pine and Michelle Rodriguez. Yes, there are other group members and they have development, but these two are very much our leads. Edgin because he’s a fallen hero and he’s trying to get back to his daughter, and Holga who feels she has to prove herself. Their relationship is fantastic, because it’s NOT romantic. They’re best friends! And that’s okay with the story. Their relationship is obvious from their first scene together and it only gets more fun to watch from there.

[The bard doesn’t actually show many bard abilities in the movie other than singing and playing the lute though. Don’t know if that will bother you.]

I was going to happily say that this is a fantasy film without any sort of romance arc, but that’s not quite true, is it? Simon, the group’s sorcerer, previously tried dating the druid, Doric, and he would desperately like to try doing that again. I don’t know if the story really needed this angle, as it really adds very little to the story. But with that in mind, it’s not intrusive–it’s not as if the Plot derails to try to make this into an all-consuming love story. Still, it also barely matters to the characters or their quest, it’s only a way to introduce Doric to the group because Simon already knows her. I appreciate it doesn’t overtake the film, but it makes me wonder if it had to be in the movie at all.

Doric is kind of underdeveloped, and that’s a shame. TV Tropes tells me that supplementary materials gives her much more backstory. I suppose it makes sense that in a movie with this much going on, some material’s going to end up on the cutting room floor. I still think that it should have ended up in the movie–after all, most audience members might not know what a tiefling even is!

Also, I only noticed that Doric had a tail towards the end of the film. Was it always there? Did I just miss it? I need to rewatch.

I had fun watching this film! I’m very happy to be watching a movie that’s not a reboot, remake, or revival of another movie. I suppose there already has been a Dungeons & Dragons movie and television series, and being based off of the game it’s not a completely original film, but it’s still fresh and new. The makers of the film even admitted that they didn’t plan to build a franchise around the movie (though they’re open to making sequels), so it’s nice to see a self-contained story without the expectation of getting invested in a series.

It’s good. See it if you can.

[Though it’s worth noting the paladin isn’t in as much of the book as you’d guess from the advertising campaign.]

[darkpoisonouslove]

Do you have any advices against writer's block?🙃

Hi, anon. I'm sorry you're going through this. It sucks but it's important to remember that it's not the end of the world (even if it feels like it).

I just want to say that you should make sure it's actually writer's block and not burnout. If you're generally tired and you don't feel like doing anything, you should rest. Also, I'm assuming you mean that you're blocked with the writing itself, not with the ideas so that's the kind of advice I'm going to give.

First of all, cut the last few paragraphs you've written and paste them in a different document. Try continuing the story without them and in a (slightly) different direction from before. Usually, you don't hit the wall immediately, you write a few more sentences before you block and then it's hard to figure out where the problem is.

Try the Comic Sans font. Personally, I haven't used it but a lot of people claim that using it annihilates writer's block. What have you got to lose? If it works, it works. If not, it won't do any harm.

Change something in the scene - weather, setting, moment of the day, add a character or remove one. It doesn't matter. The point is to find a new angle to look at the scene and try to make your way through it that way. Brains tend to go in circles when they can't make it past an obstacle. You have to get yours out of that rut and the best way is to switch things around.

Get yourself a voice recorder or a speech-to-text tool (if you can find a good one that actually works) and TELL your story instead of writing it. You can transcribe it later or fix it. Just try to see if you can get it flowing this way. You can even pretend that you're telling it to someone like it's a bedtime story.

Take a few dolls or stuffed animals (whatever you have) and play out the scene with them. It will help you visualize what's happening and let you direct the flow of the scene better. And you can't take it too seriously while you're voicing your plushies' internal monologue, can you? That should help your brain reset its expectations and make it less demanding towards itself.

Talk to a friend about it. If you have a particular problem with the story, tell a friend. Either they'll help you or you will help yourself. The fact is that when you're telling your story to someone who doesn't have it in their head, you need to present all the details in a logical way that they can follow. That often helps you find something that you're missing when you're just turning it around in your own head. And even if you don't have a specific problem, telling a friend can get you both hyped about your story and help break through that writer's block.

Get excited about your story. Either reread some of what you've already written or imagine the future scenes that you want to write. Maybe even skip ahead and try to work on them. If there's something you're excited about writing, do that! If you're not excited about the story, try making a playlist for it. Listening to songs that remind you of the characters or plot can really get you in the right headspace for the story. If that doesn't work, make a moodboard. Find images on the internet that remind you of the story and try to arrange them together in a way that appeals to you. While you're looking, you might get a feel for the setting or for the symbolism of the story, anything that could help you write.

Reread old writing/comments you've received on your writing (or remember those if they were given to you in a verbal conversation). Focus on the things you and/or others like about your writing. Remind yourself why you love it. Writing can become so tedious or even downright painful - like pulling out teeth. It's okay if you feel that way about it but if that's the case, then it's likely that that becomes a barrier that your brain has to overcome first before it can even attempt to focus on the actual writing. Prepare yourself snacks or a favorite drink. Make it fun.

In that vein, try to write something else just for fun. It doesn't have to be anything that goes in an actual story or whatever. Take your favorite characters (whether from your own stories or from a show you like (I'm not clear on whether you're writing original fiction or fanfiction and I don't want to presume)) and throw them in an entertaining, low-stakes situation. Have them just hang out and write them bantering. Or have them in an action sequence if that's what you want to do. The point is to not put pressure on yourself to write this. Just jot down what comes to mind. Go wild with it. Doesn't matter what the quality is or if it makes sense, just that you have a good time writing it.

If none of these work, try just... disengaging completely from the writing. Watch that movie or TV show that you've been meaning to for a while, read a book, play a video game. If you have some craft that you're into (like crocheting or knitting), do some of that. Go out with friends or to the gym or to the theater (and I mean theater with live performances). The point is to stop thinking about writing and focus your energies elsewhere so your brain can recharge and find new inspiration. Sometimes the best thing you can do is to focus on a completely different thing and let your subconscious work out the problem.

Some stories need a little (or a lot of) time to marinate before you can write them. I've had stories that are impossible to write for months on end and then one day... it's suddenly all crystal clear. Sometimes the problem isn't solvable right now. You're just not at a place where you can write it. If you're sure that you care about this story and you won't abandon it, then just have a little patience and a little trust that it will work out in the end. In my experience stories (both our own and media made by others) come when we most need them. Maybe it's just not the right time yet. Don't despair and try to find something else to work on whether it would be writing or another hobby altogether.

You can also check out @/ao3commentoftheday for more advice in case I've missed something (or you need a different kind of advice).

Good luck!

[crossdressingdeath]

(Mind flayer Durge anon again) Oh wow so. I did not know ANY of that mind flayer lore. I just did some more reading on some wikis too and what the fuck. My only experience with mind flayers had been Bg3 itself and god the game really brushes past all that huh. I very much get WHY they chose to make it vague in the context of the story they wrote, but I very much do NOT get why they wrote the story that way in the first place if they knew enough about it to know they had to leave it vague. Anyway never mind my previous ask lol, I really did think it was just your new Squid Forme and a resistible urge to eat brains until a few minutes ago.

Also you are so right about Omeluum. Lbr the fact that Larian wanted the contrived conflict over the pc having to turn themself or someone else into a mind flayer, is exactly the reason why Omeluum thee mind flayer ally only gives you a bag of potions when even characters like Mol (literal child) and Valeria (famously lazy) and Mizora (evil!!!!) will show up to help your ass in the final battle. It’s kind of an insane plot hole actually but whatever I guess 😭

Yeah, Larian kind of leaves it at "You're MONSTROUS now, you've got TENTACLES and you EAT BRAINS" and like... no. You're dead. You die. The tadpole devours your brain. The "you" that exists post-transformation is an echo made from your memories, and there's honestly no real reason to believe that that echo is going to last; mind flayers generally don't retain much of their host's personality, and the fact that you seem to be the same person now doesn't mean you're going to stay that way. It seriously undercuts the whole "sacrifice" angle of the transformation that the writing treats it like it's basically fine. One of the things making Omeluum Best Squid is that unlike the Emperor it does not claim to be the same person it was; the Emperor's like "No no I'm still Balduran, really, I'm definitely the same person, trust me!" but Omeluum just... is a person. Not the same person it was, but a person all the same. But I suspect Larian not going into why turning into a mind flayer is a really really really really really bad thing is why we get things like people acting like the LIs not breaking up with the player if they go full illithid is The Only Correct And Loving Choice (despite the fact that both "you eat brains now and can barely control yourself" and "you're not actually the person I fell in love with, you're a tadpole-based echo that likely won't last" are extremely valid reasons to break up with someone; let's be real, most people would break up with their significant other under those circumstances) and people insisting that letting Karlach go full mind flayer so she doesn't have to go to the Hells is her best ending: despite "if we don't do something we'll turn into mind flayers" being the inciting motivation of every act one companion, Larian did a really bad job of properly establishing why that's such a bad thing beyond the basic "tentacles and brain-eating" thing.

And I didn't even think of it, but you're probably right that Omeluum doesn't show up for the final battle because otherwise it would be really obvious that there was a solution to this issue that didn't require anyone turning into a mind flayer. Although honestly even if Omeluum didn't exist I think it would feel incredibly contrived; Larian, please explain to me why we need a mind flayer to control the Netherbrain when non-transformed and imprisoned Orpheus working alone and without the Netherstones already has the power to keep it at bay. Please! RPG writers! You do not need to cram Horrible Dilemmas With No Right Answer into the endgame! Sometimes it's okay to end the game by just fighting an evil guy! Or an evil brain in this case!

[cosmic--marmalade]

2 and 23 for the horror movie asks please :)))

2. What is the scariest horror movie you have ever seen?

23. Do you have any controversial Horror opinions?

Well I am answering these ones at the same time and then giving/elaborating on a few of my others cause, yes I think I have a few of those.

The scariest horror movie I have ever seen, and probably my most controversial opinion rn, is Skinamarink. Stop cringing and allow me to explain, okay?

Does the movies have a coherent plot? No. Does it focus on poorly lit, weird angles on walls and muffled dialogue? Yes. But this isn't an issue for me, very specifically me because I know for a fact this movie is long, and boring, and not scary to many many many people.

Most importantly, did I finish it? Didn't even make it halfway. Why? I've had chronic severe night terrors my whole life, and experienced sleep paralysis regularly until I was a teenager. Skinamarink perfectly captures what that experience was like for me, like uncannily so. When you have night terrors and sleep paralysis at the same time, you end up having nightmares while awake and completely frozen in your own body. It does not help that one of the characters has a name that's one letter away from my dead name, and familial abuse/divorce is implied to be the situational backdrop of the movie. It was a lot to reexperience all at once.

Picture this, you're about 7, you just got done listening to your parents fight over bills again because you're stuck awake in your body, you've been staring at the same poorly lit wall for one, two, three, fuck if you're really unlucky four hours. Something is in the room with you, you can't see it, maybe you think you can hear it, but you can feel it. You don't know what it is, or what it wants besides to hurt you. Your active imagination fills in the blanks. When you wake up you know it'll just happen again.

Congrats you don't need to watch Skinamarink now! The hazy nightmare logic, the tired meandering, combined with the emphasis on the lack of agency of the really young cast just got to me in a way that other horror movies haven't. I couldn't detach myself from the horror of this movie the way I have other movies, because it reflects the memories of lived experiences Inhave actively been avoiding thinking about for like almost 20 years. Oof.

More controversial opinions under the cut

First and foremost,

ELI ROTH NEVER NEEDS TO MAKE ANOTHER HORROR MOVIE AGAIN! I hate him, I hate grindhouse torture porn bro horror with such a visceral passion, Eli Roth is a shitty filmmaker and I could die happy if he never makes another movie, let alone a horror movie, ever again.

Halloween 3 is good actually. Not explaining that one.

And on that note Blackula, black explotation films within the horror genre are good actually (this one may not be as controversial but I got into a huge fight with a dude in a film class once about it and it stuck with me ever since).

I think Bly Manor was just as scary as Hill House. The intensity is the same to me, it just emphasizes different aspects of gothic horror that's not as popular as the themes of Hill House. I think a lot of people were expecting a happier ending than they got which is why the backlash of that season was so enormous tbh.

Can we stop making catholic propaganda into horror movies? Unless you have something new to give me possession movies are overrated at best, and genuine conservative catholic propaganda at worst, I'm Fucking Over It.

[general9chaos]

Okay, that's quite a thing. It just hijacked my brain for the last few hours. I can't not reblog it. You know insight porn? Yeah, this feels like actual insight into why I like the things I like.

My autism level is 5, because I'm most interested in fanfiction and jumpchain. I don't even watch or read most of the canons I read fanfic for. I am well steeped in fanon. I read fic from many fandoms, but my mainstay is Worm. Wormfic is mostly on the forum Spacebattles, rather than AO3. It often revolves around giving Taylor, the MC, powers from some completely different story. It's playing legos with powers, and there's always some new power to give Taylor and see how her character changes with it. Power based characterization is my jam.

You've probably never heard of jumpchain because it's obscure and I talk about it on spacebattles rather than tumblr, but goddamn is it autistic. You know the thing where people of any level can enjoy just about any story, as long as they can enjoy it in the way they prefer? Yeah, jumpchain is a way to take any setting and turn it into a well formatted list of perks and items, ready to be vacuumed up into the database in my brain. I love thinking about combos and comparing and contrasting perks that do the same thing. My companions tend to start as lists of perks I like, and then accrete archetypal personality traits around that core.

Even beyond that, though, the route to my heart is interesting details about some setting presented by someone who clearly understands that setting at an incredibly deep level. Also power fantasy. That's great too. I love Ryuugi's rants just as much if not more than the stories they expand upon. I'm clearly not reading him for well structured plots, because he never finishes things! I'm reading for the worldbuilding, the powers that canon forgot, the deep understanding of the stuff he has read, and the conclusions he draws.

Brockton's Celestial Forge draws on jumpchain as a source of crafting perks. I love the consideration LordRoustabout gives every perk that Joe gets, the towering stacks of perk combos Joe has accumulated, and the things Joe has made. The pacing is dogshit and the characterization is great, yet I keep reading for the perks. Many readers dislike the way the story stops and turns into introspection about the newest perk every couple thousand words, but I love precisely that.

I really seriously don't give a fuck about pacing. You want to stop writing about the fight you're in to introspect about something for a dozen paragraphs? Be my guest. I'll pick up where you left off when you're done thinking. You want to spend the next couple months recapping the big fight from someone else's angle? Sure, I'll read that. You want to explore the consequences of the big fight for the ground level people for a hundred kilowords? That's the good shit.

When Exalted/Worm fics were getting popular, I got into Exalted. It's a tabletop RPG with fantastic worldbuilding and lore, as well as hilariously broken systems. I have never played a game of it, and yet I read through the whole chapter on mechanics and combat resolution so I could actually understand what the charms do. I absolutely needed to know how the fuck a paranoia combo works, and I figured it out!

Ascensions and Transgressions, an Exalted roleplay log, has a lot of things going for it. The characterization in particular is the epitome of the whole "take traits and archetypes and random junk and make a person out of them" thing. Read Calesco's character description. It's amazing. To build a character Aleph and EarthScorpion style, start by making a dozen lists, from pantheon charms to political ideologies to elements to Keris's principles to the yozis. Pick an intersection on two of those lists. Flesh out that character with stuff from all the other lists. Then roleplay with that character for years and integrate all the cool ideas you come up with into her. That is the kind of character building that really gets me.

I'm going to wrap it up there so I can get some sleep tonight.

i get that she's moved on from her more politically incorrect irreverent brand & i definitely have issues with this video's framing of autism as both pathology & just a 4chan conceptualization of a weirdo loser, but it's also the first fucking time i ever considered my autism as something that informs my taste & identity and kinda changed my life as a result. konjiki no gash bell is a level 4 autism manga thats why i loved it so much as a pup.

[bucksfucks]

𝙁𝘽𝙍𝙊 ; 𝗯𝘂𝗰𝗸𝘆 𝗯𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘀 [𝟳/𝟭𝟭]

summary┃bucky’s past comes back with a vengeance and you’re determined to get the answers you’ve been searching for. 

pairing┃roommate!bucky x f!reader

word count┃2,682 words

warnings┃bucky’s past is revealed, character mentions; [sam wilson, natasha romanoff, tony stark], pet name [kid (platonic), sweets & baby], threats made against bucky + reader, trust-issues, mention of hit-men, brief mention of death, phone sex, praise kink, masturbation, mention of toys, slight angst, soft ending — 18+ ONLY • MINORS DNI

notes┃there is A LOT of plot here but also some filthy goodness and a sprinkle of angst <<3

SERIES MASTERLIST

     Ex-wife.

    Bucky’s words echoed in your ears as he didn’t dare to look at you.

    His ex-wife was threatening you.

    And he didn’t think to mention her? Ever?

    “Can I please explain?” Bucky croaked finally, voice sounding broken as you shrugged your shoulders — in a state of shock.

    That was all he needed before he recounted his previous relationship with the woman who was now sending you threatening emails.

    Married young, too young and too fast and it ended up blowing up in their faces.

    Well, clearly she hadn’t gotten over it.

    “I thought I lost her,” he explains. “I thought that moving halfway across the country would be enough.”

    You finally looked up to meet his eyes, glossy, sad and terrified as you sniffled.

    “There’s a reason only Tasha calls me James.”

    It broke your heart hearing that, the way his head hung low and he nearly winced at the sound of his own goddamn name.

    But you didn’t know who to trust anymore.

    Bucky always glossed over how he, Sam, and Nat knew each other — telling you that they were old friends that go back.

    How far back?

    You needed to know, but clearly you weren’t about to get answers from him.

    “Buck,” he stopped you, taking a step closer as his eyes begged and pleaded you not to finish your sentence. 

    “I can’t,” he shook his head, “I need some time.” 

    You couldn’t bring yourself to say those words that would shatter both of your world’s. But you had no idea what the hell you had gotten yourself into and you needed answers. 

    And you knew exactly who to go to for them. 

    “I understand,” Bucky sighed. “I’ll stay at Sam’s for some time, okay?” 

    You could only nod your head, watching him walk past you and into his door. 

    Then he shut it, something he never did because his door was always open for you. No matter what you needed and no matter what time of day it was. 

    It felt...wrong. 

    But you couldn’t dwell on it, grabbing your keys, phone, and whatever other important things you could think of being you nearly bolted out of the front     door. 

    You plugged your headphones into your phone, hitting shuffle and descending down into the subway. 

    The entire ride made you anxious, slowly approaching your stop and you were way out of place in this crowd. 

    People rushed by you in expensive suits and what you could only guess were the infamous red-soled shoes that were worth close to your monthly rent, if not more. 

    You cringed, thinking of the man you were about to see in his stupidly tall office building that you had to crane your neck at an uncomfortable angle just     to get a look at. 

    The elevator could not have taken longer, tapping your foot impatiently as you rode up to what felt like the heavens before the doors opened to revel smooth wooden doors that reach from the ceiling to the floor. 

    You were so close, before you were stopped. 

    “Ma’am, I’m sorry, you can’t be here right now.” A man’s voice stopped you, dressed in a security guard uniform and oh, this was so him. 

    “I know him,” you said, intent on seeing the man probably sitting behind those large doors. 

    “I’m sorry, I can’t let you do th—”

    “It’s okay, Marv. I know her,” his voice came not from behind the doors, but from the long hallway to your left. 

    The security guard, Marv, nodded his head as he looked at you once more before retreating back to where he was leaning against one of the walls. 

    “This is a surprise,” you rolled your eyes, “Tony, please. I don’t wanna hear it.” 

    He walked over to you, embracing you in a hug, “oh c’mon, I’ve missed you, Kid.” 

    You shook your head, “I haven’t been a kid in years,” you tried to remind him, but it was Tony, he wasn’t going to listen as he just laughed it off and welcomed you into his office. 

    It was much different from last time, all new furniture and appliances, but nothing lasted more than a year with Tony. 

    Tony was an old friend, sort of.

    He was an old friend of your father’s, something like an uncle, but also like your older brother. 

    So just one giant pain in your ass.

    “So,” Tony sighed. “What trouble did you get into this time, Kid?”

    You told Tony everything. 

    From being roommates with Bucky to the way he asked you to be his fake girlfriend to Sam’s wedding and all the way to the situation you were in now. Confronted by his ex-wife without any idea of what she was going to do. 

    Tony had that look on his face. The one where he was going to tell you that you were crazy. 

    “I don’t know how you manage to get yourself into these situations,” he chuckled, hand clamping over your shoulder as he walked around his desk and typed something into his computer. 

    “Last name is,” he looked at you. “Barnes.” 

    He nodded his head, typing away at his computer again before he stopped. 

    There was a brief moment of silence, Tony hiding behind the computer screen before he stood up and walked back around the desk, “I’m gonna need some time.”

    You understood, shaking your head. You were asking Tony to hack into any known database and collect as much data on Bucky as you could. It was wrong, but you just needed to know who you were dealing with. 

    “Thank you, Tony. I-I really appreciate it.” You weren’t good when it came to...well, the heartfelt side of things but luckily neither was Tony. 

    “Don’t get sappy on me now, Kid. You know it makes me sick,” he joked playfully, smile on his lips as you stood up to give him a half hug. 

    “I’ll call you as soon as I know anything.” He promised before you walked out of the too-tall building with far more questions than you came with. 

    It was a waiting game that you didn’t want to play, but you didn’t have a choice. 

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

    It seemed like your relationship with Bucky was doomed from the start. 

    Friends to lovers rarely, if ever, works out in anyone’s favour. 

    The fake dating trope you could handle, pushing your feelings aside to help Bucky win a bet didn’t seem like the worst thing in the world. You had a great time, great fucking sex, and a trip out of it. 

    Then Steve wouldn’t leave the picture. Going as far as coming to the wedding as Natasha’s boyfriend to spite you not realizing that you and Bucky had gotten married. 

    Married. 

    You and Bucky were married. Bonded in a whole other way and now, his ex-wife was out for you and him. 

    Maybe this was a sign from the universe, a big red fucking flag telling you that it wasn’t worth it and yet...you couldn’t let go. 

    The apartment felt empty without Bucky, his bedroom left the way it was in the morning with your favourite sweater of his laid out on the covers and a little post-it note on top of it. 

    You never could really decipher Bucky’s handwriting. It was absolute chicken scratch as you picked it up and managed to make out in case you get cold scribbled onto it. 

    It was an easy decision to pull it over your head and drown yourself in the scent of Bucky’s cologne as you fiddled with the small gold band you now wore around your neck as a necklace. 

    You didn’t want anyone other than Bucky. There was no in the world who understood you better. Who knew how to make you laugh when you were having a bad day. 

    Everything led you right back to Bucky. 

    So when your phone rang from the other side of the couch, you were secretly hoping it was Bucky. 

    Instead, Tony’s name flashed and your heart sank into your stomach as you quickly hit answer and held the phone up to your ear. 

    “You’re not gonna like this, Kid.” Tony’s voice flowed through the speakers as you took a shaky breath in and braced yourself for what Tony was about to tell you. 

    “He did a damn good job at erasing his history, but you can’t erase all of it,” Tony chuckled as you rolled your eyes, “quit stalling.”

    He sighed, “the Howling Commandos was an organization tasked with,” he paused, “tasked with collecting intel and making sure that information never got released to the public.” 

    This time, it was your turn to fall silent. 

    “Like, spies?” You asked and Tony hummed, “sort of.” 

    “They had spies, agents, hit-men.” 

    No. You shook your head, no. 

    “James Buchanan Barnes was their highest ranking hit-man. Him, along with Sam Wilson and Natasha Romanova worked as a team. A spy, agent, hit-man trio.” 

    You had to shake yourself out of spiralling, what you needed was everything Tony could possible tell you. 

    “Anything on his ex-wife?” You then asked and heard shuffling on the other line, “not much. Mary Barnes, but I doubt that’s her real name, was part of a training initiative the Howling Commandos were testing.” 

    You bit your lip, at least you had a name, even if it wasn’t her real name. 

    “By that point it looks like James—” 

    “Bucky. His name is Bucky.” 

    Tony cleared his throat after a moment’s silence, “Bucky looks like he had disappeared. Blipped off of the face of the Earth. There’s nothing in his file after 2014.” 

    That makes sense. Bucky was perhaps the most old-fashioned man you knew, only upgrading from his flip-phone just a few years ago. He barely knew how to unlock it, though. 

    “Sam and Natasha went on to live normal lives, Kid. I’m sure that’s all Bucky wants.” Tony tries to assure you and you laugh, “you sound like my dad.” 

    He laughed on the other line, “oh gross.” 

    “Thanks for everything, Tony.” You said, “you know what number to call in case you’re in trouble.” 

    With that, you both hung up, tossing your phone away from you to digest everything you’d just been told. You knew you had to talk to Bucky, but you didn’t know when. 

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

    “So you’re tellin’ me,” Sam was confused. “That this is the same Mary that tried to get you killed?” 

    Bucky rolled his eyes, taking another swing of his beer as he rounded Sam’s kitchen island. 

    “That’s the one, you know, the undercover agent working for Strucker.” Bucky scowled at the name. 

    He was angry, beyond angry at the fact that his past was creeping up on him despite how far he had gone to erase it. 

    “But why now? Why come after you now?” Sam poses the question that even Bucky doesn’t have an answer to. So he just shrugs his shoulders and finishes off his beer. 

    “Unfinished business.” 

    They stand in silence for a little while longer, listening to the old ticking clock hanging on the wall before Sam takes a step towards Bucky. 

    “Whatever you need, you know that Tasha and I are here for you, right?” He whispers and Bucky feels the warmth blooming in his chest as he gives him a half-smile. 

    “Yeah,” he nods his head, “thanks, man.” 

    Sam knows that Bucky was never really good at the sappy shit, so he doesn’t force it. Instead, he offers him another beer, bottle necks clinking as Bucky’s thoughts race. 

    He was worried. 

    Not about himself, but about you. 

    And you were worried about Bucky, curling up in his bed as you sighed and tossed and turned. There was no way you’d be able to fall asleep alone tonight. And hugging his pillow just wasn’t enough. 

    So you grabbed your phone, hitting his name and waiting for the ringing to sound before he picked up — tired and groggy.

    “We need to talk.” You didn’t give him a chance to greet you. He sighed on the other line, but hummed in agreement, “tomorrow?”

    You hummed in response to his question, the sound of his voice soothing as you played with the sheets of his bed.

    “I miss you, Sweets.” Bucky whispered, your breathing hitching at how low and raspy his voice really was.

    “I miss you too, Bucky.” You admitted, shifting as you got comfortable on the pile of pillows against your head.

    There was a moment of silence before Bucky spoke again.

    “You know what ‘m really missin’ right now?” His words sent a shiver down your spine as you shakily inhaled, “what?”

    Bucky sighed, reminiscent of how he sighs when he runs his hands all over your body. 

    “I miss that sweet cunt of yours.” Bucky purrs, you know he’s smirking, possibly even dragging his tongue across his bottom lip as he closes his eyes to imagine you under him. 

    You’re at a loss for words, feeling your panties grow damp, core aching and you’re going to have to touch yourself soon. But that’s all part of Bucky’s plan, you think. 

    “Here I am, all alone, with my hand wrapped ‘round my cock,” he whispers, but you can hear him stroking himself. 

    “And all I can think ‘bout is that way your tight little pussy grips me and milks my fuckin’ dick, baby.” Bucky was always so good with his words, knowing exactly what to say to make you melt. 

    And it was working, because you were a squirming mess in his bed. 

    “Well,” you could tell he was smirking by his tone, “what’re ya waitin’ for, Sweets. Go on, touch yourself. I wanna hear you work your clit.” 

    Your hand flew under your panties, being given the permission only made it sweeter as your fingers came in contact with your soaking folds. The sensitive bundle of nerves needed desperate attention as you slowly circled it. 

    “Good girl, that’s my girl.” Bucky praised, continuing to work himself. 

    “God,” he hissed, “can’t wait to have you all to myself again. Bury myself deep, maybe even have you sit on my cock as you beg me to do somethin’.” 

    You worked yourself a little faster, applying some more pressure as you let out a whine at his words. 

    “Add two fingers, Sweets. I know how much you love bein’ stretched,” Bucky chuckled deeply, “been thinkin’ of gettin’ you a mould of my fuckin’ dick for when ‘m not home.” 

    Oh my God. Oh my God that shouldn’t be so fucking hot so why does it make your walls flutter and breathing uneven as you have to stop yourself from actually fucking cumming. 

    He chuckles again, “yeah, you’d like that, wouldn’t you?” 

    You can’t verbally respond, too focused on the tight coil in your abdomen that’s ready to snap. 

    “I know you’re close, can hear it in how fuckin’ desperate you sound,” he pants, “so why don’t you make a mess all over my clean sheets.” 

    You gasp, how did he know, but you don’t get to dwell on it for much longer than a moment because your orgasm rips through you and leaves you panting Bucky’s name. 

    Both of your breaths are uneven and ragged through the phone’s speakers, bed springs creaking on Bucky’s side as he hums. 

    “If only you could see the miss I made for you, Sweets,” you shuddered at his words, closing your eyes to relish in the moment. 

    “Now get some sleep, okay? I’ll see you tomorrow.” His tone has changed, entirely sweet and caring as you grab the phone to bring him closer to you. 

    “Okay,” you reply, another lick of silence before you hear Bucky going to end the call but you stop him. 

    “I love you, Bucky.” You quickly blubber out and it feels good to finally say those words because there’s no more denying how you really feel about him. 

    “I love you too, Sweets.” 

    It’s a bittersweet ending to the phone call, thoughts and emotions running wild as you’re forced to remind yourself that Bucky has a lot of explaining to do. 

[worstloki]

Okay, this is gettin’ real screwed up here.

I watch a lot of TV. Probably too much. And I’ve seen characters beaten to their knees before, sometimes even with collars. And yeah, there’s usually someone standing over them, and it’s been a woman sometimes. The kind of scene we got in episode 5 of Loki is not new ground.

But here’s the thing. In EVERY OTHER SCENE I can remember like this, the person kneeling is the hero. They’ve been brought down, fully humbled before the sneering villain, and in a few minutes something will happen to get them back on their feet again. It’s usually a tense moment, a “what if they break?” that makes you want the hero to win. You aren’t rooting for, or even liking in some cases, the person standing. You’re cheering for the person on their knees.

This doesn’t seem to be the case with the Loki show. Yes, the viewers may be rooting for Loki, but there’s no hatred for Sif there. She’s not proved herself to be a cold, heartless villain, ruthlessly pounding the hero until all he can do is kneel at her feet.

Except…she did kind of do that. But it isn’t treated as something bad. It’s treated more as something Loki deserved, in my opinion. The show wants us to feel like he deserved to get repeatedly beaten up and told horrible things, just for cutting off a lock of Sif’s hair. I’ll grant, it’s peanuts compared to what happened to him in the mythology. But it’s still bad. Especially since they had him acknowledge it, repeat her cruel words back. They’re playing it off as if Loki is still the villain by himself, and is only good because of other people- Mobius, mostly, but Sif is part of that.

That’s not the way Loki’s character is. In the comics particularly, his biggest arcs are always about reinventing the labels given to him, changing “villain” into something good, something he can use, and doing it by himself. Yes, there’s outside influence, but ultimately Loki is the one who decided to change.

The show is not letting him do that. The show is portraying him as a stubborn jackass who refuses to change until other people show him the light- either with psychological torture presented as therapy, or with beating him up a bunch of times until he gives in. The show and its characters are forcing Loki to become good- they aren’t showing him doing it by himself. He is not becoming one of the good guys, he’s being essentially enslaved by them, and the show is passing it off as somehow all that good influence finally rubbed off on Loki’s cold, villainous heart. That’s why him betraying Mobius was shown as so bad even though Loki barely knew him and had been psychologically tortured by him- Mobius is written as a character who can choose to be good, and Loki is written as a character who must be forced to be good.

And something about an entire show revolving around an independent character being treated as a villain, literally enslaved by the “good guys” (back when the show still wanted us to think the TVA weren’t shady as all hell), beaten to his knees with a collar around his neck until he accepts that he deserves to be alone because he isn’t “good” like everybody else…that doesn’t go down right for me.

The TVA being presented in not just a neutral but often reliable light is something I thought would change once Loki literally called out their propaganda and Sylvie called them fascists, but, for some reason the authoritarian genocidalists are not being presented as a bad thing and it irks me too.

It's especially weird because of the way what Loki claims to have wanted by making choices for people and what Mobius claims the TVA do ARE THE EXACT SAME THINGS, except Loki, until the show, hadn't done that of his own volition and was being tortured during the invasion and is treated terribly for something he didn't even succeed in doing, while the TVA successfully erase events on a mass scale but are presented as having a higher (or at best, - equal) moral ground.

The exact same thing was done in Ragnarok where Loki's "turning point" from a tricksy villainous scoundrel happened because Thor left him frying on the ground and gave him a pep talk filled with lies and general slander about how he could be better - and people see that as good because Thor is framed as a hero, and it's because instead of accepting Loki is a complex character they take what the narrative tells at face value and that is that Loki fights the protagonist(s) so he's bad.

I personally don't like the narrative pushing a character that is canonically an abuse victim and attempted suicide and was tortured right after as someone who needs fixing because he's lusting for power and needs it to gain a sense of control during a retcon which is occurring for the sake of calling him a complete bad guy who needs to change (probably because no actual original character development could be thought of?) after he was just confirmed as queer and colloquially (i assume) called a narcissist because of twisted love.

That he deserves to be alone was presented neutrally as a joke even as he was repeatedly getting beaten to the ground, and then both people he could call friends were removed from his immediate vicinity right after.

Loki isn't being presented as a character that has done a huge mix of good and bad in the movies, he's being presented as an oft incompetent idiot that deserves what he gets because he shouldn't have run away from captors, or he cut Sif's hair, or he killed his mother, or he dared to think he had any importance or could do something good, because the truth is he's an evil lying scourge.

"But maybe," Mobius says, "Maybe he wants to mix it up. Sometimes you get tired of playing the same part. Is that possible? He can change?" And everyone's already forgotten that moments before the mission Mobius said to Loki's face that the TVA has pruned a lot of Loki variants because he's so nice! look! he has hope in him when no one else does! It's also easy to forget the "and hey, if it doesn't work, I'll delete him myself," right after because the guy was smiling through it and the scene is followed by Loki really badly trying to explain the logic of being a trickster who everyone knows is a trickster.

A lot of people payed more attention in Ragnarok than to the other Thor movies so it's not a new retcon and people seem fine with the extremely strange take that 'loki is bad but he can do good sometimes,' because the character is more animated and acts foolish and that's generally more fun for comedy, which is fair for people to prefer imo, people find different things entertaining.

But I do solidly hope the show doesn't go that way though and takes a side with Loki on the narrative stance eventually because I've seen a lot of people who just. miss that the TVA's concept is bad. And those who think they're "reforming" Loki. As if the guy needs anything but a break at this point lmao he only got away from Thanos like 2 days ago please just let him rest for a bit he's a fail villain and it's cringe to have your supposed 1st open queer character get beaten to a pulp by Sif and then put wack sexualizing shots for it too :/

it's like the show itself is trying to sell the angle of "Loki is a villain" and I'm a clown who is still wanting that to be intentional because if it is? It could be amazing and playing with how different parties are framed would be s p e c t a cu l ar and could encourage people to reassess the hero coding in other movies including ones Loki was previously in - but we're reaching the last two episodes and I don't feel like that'll happen.

I feel like even if Loki does reach the end of the show as a transformed person it'll be done leaving the audience with "perhaps you're not so bad after all, Loki," and then also give credit to Mobius or Sylvie or whoever else was involved, simply because as even of yet Loki hasn't taken on a lead role in the show. I'd argue he hasn't really contributed anything worthwhile to plot either. As you've said, he's being shown as someone who needs to change but isn't really motivated to. Aw man they better not make romantic love the reason he wants to change.

[thefools-journey]

So. Some of you may be wondering why we haven’t written a whole ton about the secondaries or what have you. Here’s the reason: we were waiting for them to end before we really dug into the problems we were noticing. We felt that it was only fair to wait for the routes to finish so that we had an understanding of the writers’ vision. Who knew, we thought, maybe they would see the problems themselves and course correct, maybe they are building to something we can’t quite see yet and these issues will have actual payoff, maybe-

In light of Muriel and Lucio’s endings, and the general mess that has dominated Portia’s route for a year plus now, we are breaking our silence. We are actually going to talk about this shit show.

The fandom at large has talked about a bunch of issues with the secondaries but for me, the cardinal sin, the thing that really all the issues lead back to, is this: the writers lost sight of the tarot themes which so strongly defined and held together the primary routes. Let me explain.

The primary routes each center around three thematic cores:

The Love Interest’s Major Arcana and its Reversed/Upright meanings

The MC’s Fool’s Journey, both how it can go right and how it can go wrong

A question about the MC’s identity and their relationship to said identity

Asra’s route asks: Who was the MC? How does the MC navigate a past they cannot and will not remember? What do they owe a past they cannot remember? How do they handle the revelations of what Asra, Nadia, Julian, etc did? How do you right the past? Can you?

Nadia’s route asks: Who is the MC? The MC has no past. Are they the Fool only? Are they actually the same person they were? How can they tell? Who are they, really? Are they an imposter? No one can answer these questions for them.

Julian’s route asks: Who will the MC become? How does the MC see their future? Is there anything worth fighting for for that future? What will become of them and their loved ones? 

Now, if you notice, these themes are expertly woven throughout the primaries. Asra’s past dominates his route, Nadia is also missing memories and trying to construct her identity both with her family and with Vesuvia, and Julian’s fear of the future drives his flailing for control. Asra has to learn to take a broader view of his actions to get his Upright Ending, Nadia has to learn to trust herself and those around her for hers, and Julian has to learn how to let go for his. These lessons are the issues their cards stand for. The primaries are so dang elegant and delicate in their handlings of theme it is honestly awe-inspiring.

Thematically, the secondary routes have completely lost their hearts. First of all, the MC does not have strong, core questions which need to be answered. They just don’t. I suppose the writers did not want to retread old territory (which is weird considering how tightly bound the primaries are; it really tricks you into thinking you’re living the same events but from different angles depending on your route) but they did not replace the old with anything new. Muriel’s route is, on the surface, about discovering and owning his past, the good and the bad. Why not tie MC’s self-discovery to that story? Or they could have taken the angle that Muriel’s route is about convincing him to be present and active in the world while MC builds an identity for themself outside of Asra, the shop, and the memories they cannot retrieve. Why not tie the investigation themes running through Portia’s early route back to MC and their past? Portia has the unique angle of being as in the dark as MC about all of this, why not discover the past together? And for goodness’ sake, Lucio has no future when his route begins, why not tie that to his need for growth, responsibility, and MC’s own future between the Fool, the Devil, or something mortal and in between?

Secondly, the routes lost their tarot backbone. We have a primer on how to get specific endings for each LI and it still holds, but the writers did not follow through on the thematic coherence of each secondary. The Hermit is looking for something, be it perspective, insight, a solution to a problem, whatever. The key here is that the Hermit must find or learn what they are searching for, this thing must change their understanding of the world, and finally, they must bring this lesson back to the world from which they retreated. Can someone please enlighten me as what exactly Muriel learns then teaches the world around him? Nothing Muriel learns from Morga, MC, or even the Hermit ties back into anything. The Devil warns that you are out of control and exerting a lot of manipulative, destructive behavior on the world around you. It asks you to take responsibility for yourself and your actions. So can someone tell me why Lucio’s route actively avoids any interaction or reflection on two of Lucio’s biggest victims: Muriel and Julian? Why does the route only try to make amends with the “easier” of his victims in the cast? The Star is first and foremost the card of clarity, the light at the end of the tunnel. Perseverance, if you will. Yet Portia’s route has been the muddiest of the trio; the writers drop the investigation aspect of her route in favor just handing her and MC information they could have easily found and muddying the waters with Tasya (she blows up the palace but it’s all okay bc she has a secret daughter Julian never thought to bring up or mention) and the complete removal of the Devil as antagonist. 

So that leaves just the Fool’s Journey trying to hold this stool up with only one leg. And well...it doesn’t go well. At best, the secondary route books pay the barest surface level homage to the themes of the individual cards. At worst, they ignore the cards completely. Muriel's Moon book has nothing to do with illusions or delusions or lies or even an Alice in the Looking Glass upside down world. Portia's back half is a complete and utter mess, starting with her Temperance book being so badly mangled that Muriel's aftermath book does it better. Lucio's route too bungles the Tower and the Star. There just isn't enough here to carry the routes alone.

Add to the core loss the loss of intertextuality. The primary routes are very good, even great but they too do have their moments and mistakes. What helps strengthen them when the cores stumble is how the trio is woven together. Things you learn in Asra's route can inform the way you play Nadia's, for example. Julian's route informs what is going on in Asra's route and slots some missing puzzle pieces together. Nadia's route tells you of the power struggles she is facing and informs the other two routes' handling of Julian and his trial. On and on, the three routes support each other because they are built out of the same basic plot beats, just tackled in very different ways. Now, the writers are allowed to try and write whatever they want. They apparently wanted to be more experimental and less tied down to an overarching plot with the three secondaries. Okay, fine, they are allowed to do that. The problem is that they sacrificed one of the key strengths of the primary trio and didn't replace said strength with anything else. They also, on some level, harmed the very premise of the game, which is that only the player's choices and route selected change the overall plot. Instead of feeling like legitimate possibilities or offshoots of the same timeline/plot, the secondaries feel almost like Arcana AUs. The secondaries throw out all relations to the primaries and each other as quickly as possible and for what? 

It is probably the height of arrogance to suggest fixes for works whose behind the scenes I do not know. At the same time, some small, obvious changes could have salvaged Muriel and maybe Lucio's endings (rip Portia). Instead of having the Hermit appear as a disappointing cameo, why not have him say something cryptic to Muriel, then have MC start trying to seal the Devil. Then let Muriel use his forget me mark to cloak MC and hide them from the Devil's attacks. Protecting MC by hiding them from Lucio, keeping him focused on Muriel, seems to me a simple third solution between Muriel's desire to run and his desire to never fight again. It lets him stand up to Lucio and let him have it while holding onto who Muriel has become. The Reversed End would have MC try to draw Lucio's attention at some point, disrupting the sealing, and eventually leading to Muriel killing the Devil. With Lucio's Upright End, I just have to ask: why doesn't MC fully claim the power of the Fool instead of the Devil? We don't need the other Arcana involved in this fight; we have three routes that demonstrate that. Just have MC pull Scout into the conflict, then have Lucio tell MC he believes in them, then add his power to the mix. You got yourself a full Fool who leaves Scout guarding the realm until they and Lucio's mortal bodies fail and they return to the realm to be together forever. Boom, you're done, you can even add some ambiguous lines so that players can decide how happy their MC is with this arrangement, send me the check.

Here is the bottom line. Our group is full of aroace, and several combinations therein, individuals. We are the last group who should have gotten into a dating sim of all things. But the Arcana did something with the primaries that was special; they wrote a compelling plot with dazzling lore, complex characters, and strong themes wrapped up in a dating sim bow. The writers know better and we know they know better. I do not know what happened with the secondaries, especially around books 10-11, which is where minor issues slowly start spiraling into major ones, but it is clear that Nix Hydra needed some more planning before they released these routes. Hopefully they will learn.

TL;DR: Nix Hydra fired their tarot consultants about eighteen months ago and it has wrecked their secondary routes until they were just embarrassments. They never intended for the secondary routes to even exist and once they had to make them, they scrambled and threw out everything that made the primaries work.

- Mod Telos

[purposelynana]

Vegas And Pete, An Essay.

Genuinely I did not watch any KinnPorsche before episode 12. I tried to watch episode 1 and then nah I just couldn't take any of that seriously. Then, I decided to just saw it through GIF and clip which scattered around Tumblr and Twitter. But episode 12 is really the one that changed the game for me.

It's always fascinating to watch a broken relationship. That's why, subjectively Love Mechanics is such a dear to my heart. Because its depiction about love is truly ugly. Because in real life those unfortunate situations could happen to you despite its trigger warning. It sparked discussions whether it was about the stupidity surrounding its characters, or perhaps the plot which is closer to makjang rather than an actual young-adult romance show. To me this kind of tropes is constantly evolving and left me with so much new perspective.

And then came, episode 12 of KP. We came so far from dead-fish kissing era. KP's love scenes already proved that. But there was something different in Vegas and Pete, something sinister lurking behind the shots and lighting. Everything was designed to be weird and strange. And hell, I can't stop thinking about it. It seemed like a B-movie because of the Dutch angles, but at the same time the lightning and its colors reminds me with Wong Kar Wai's stuff. Okay. This sounds like a complete bonkers. It was by no any means that this series is an outstanding piece of art. It still has plenty of problems but that particular scene, it did something to me. It was so unsettling and yet, we kept watching it to kill time. Why? Is this some kind of foreshadowing? Is it me being dramatic ass bitch? After all this is just some tv-show that will probably gonna sit comfortably at the back of my mind.

In addition of the technical aspect of the scene, we moved into a rather controversial point and generate its own conversation revolving that. Which is the treatment of BDSM practice. Yep. People have their own takes, it's fine. A lot of discussion narrowed to one specific thing. Trauma can lead someone to their preferable sexual activity but I dunno I'm not a psychologist and certainly not a BDSM practicer. Yet, it was rather engaging to find discussion and people trying to give their analysis for that matter. And to me, it felt like I was gaining new knowledge.

Vegas is still maddening piece of shit. The series didn't walk away from his horrendous attitude that had been portrayed in the novel. But the screenwriter clearly removing a few harmful traits which makes him yeah not so far from redemption, even though, subjectively, he doesn't need any redemption arcs. What for? We love a character who's proud being a bad guy.

Meanwhile, Pete. Ah Pete. What a treat to get something as complex as him. If this is called VegasPete The Series, it would be wonderful to see what makes him, him. Is it child abuse? Is it the days that he spend during Vegas' captivity? What is it? What is it that makes him entrancing? Because to me he never stood out, he was lurking in the back, and the choice of production team to made him as invisible as possible paid off because by the time he was on his own story arc, he was explosive.

Oh God.

The acting, oh my god. Rarely I found a pairing that complete each other in terms of acting. The last time is definitely Ohm and Nanon. And now this. Whatever BoC did on their workshop, it worked. My god. I was bawling to see the emotional scenes. I was relieved when finally they got their happy ending. I was mad because maybe I'm not going to see such a brilliance in a long time. BIBLE BUILD RULESSSSSS!!!!

In conclusion, it seems conflicted for me to recommend KinnPorsche because as a whole series this is not the greatest thing out there. In fact, I have so much disapproval towards everything except the cinematography and how they handled VegasPete. It felt like all over the place. It appeared to be that the 3 directors who helmed this, never consulted with each other. So, sometimes it did sense like 3 different series put into one.

Now I wonder someone on youtube make a VegasPete cut. Come on universe do your thing.

a very suitable song for vegaspete indeed.

[riathedreamer]

Zero is Null

A discussion of Zero’s love-hate-relationship with RvB and struggling independence; including a hotdog too big for the bun, tragic backstories, a single bow-chicka-bow-wow, and a cookie at the very end.

Welcome to what will be a lot of text. Basically, it will explore why Zero fails as an RvB (with emphasis on RvB) season. I will not be the first one to bring forth some of the points, and I promise to be fair and civil and fun. This isn’t supposed to be a piece of hate – in fact, I’m writing this because I love Red vs. Blue.

Okay, first of all, to increase your fun – take a guess on just how much of Zero is spent on fight scenes. You see, I’ve calculated the exact amount, and I will reveal it later, but for now, take a guess and remember the number. Maybe you are the winner!

Alright, time to share my thoughts. Wait! Since I suffer from anxiety and have this one annoying voice pretending to be all those critical statements my opinion could be met with, let’s give it an actual voice and address the points throughout this review.

“Why would I care about your opinion, Ria?” – I don’t know, you’re the one who clicked Read More.

“Your opinion doesn’t matter!” – Of course, it doesn’t! Geez. Do you think your opinion matters, though? Listen, we’re on Tumblr, the actual equivalent of screaming into the void. And it’s fun, too!

“If you don’t like it, don’t watch!” - *activates Uno Reverse Card* “You can’t talk about something you haven’t watched!”

“You’re just a Hater” – Actually, this is a point I’ll come back to. Like a cliffhanger. Also, at the end of this, there’ll be a cookie. But this will also include me talking about the stuff I like, because, surprise, Zero is not without talent!

“You just don’t like it because the Reds and Blues aren’t in it!” – Actually, that’s a good point, so instead, this review will start with a sole focus on Zero and discuss the problem that lies within that story. Then we can address why the lack of OG cast is understandable and problematic and weird.

But first! Backstory.

When the first 5 second teaser dropped back in spring (you know, when we were young and innocent and the world didn’t feel like an apocalyptic movie yet), I held onto that one image of what I thought (hoped) to be Grif and Simmons in the sunset, hopefully addressing Grif’s hateglue arc, but boy was I wrong because a) that’s not Simmons, that’s Sarge, and b) the image was from a PSA since the Reds are not in Zero.

Actual face-reveal of me below:

Admittedly, when I heard that the Reds and Blues were not going to be the main characters (or even show up), it felt like a gut punch. However, I actually found myself getting excited due to the creators’ hype. I want to praise them for this. It’s been a while since an RvB season was talked so much ABOUT before its release; it had advertisements, it had creators and voice-actors talking about it. Please. More of that in the future. Their passion rubbed off on me, and that deserves recognition. So it pains me that this was clearly a passion-project, and then when I gave it a try, I didn’t want to touch it again for weeks.

Here’s the thing. I cannot whole-heartedly say that Zero is bad. It’s not gonna melt your eyes. It’s not even so-bad-it’s-good. For me, it’s meh. It’s a Saturday-morning-cartoon aimed for a younger audience with a rushed plot and clichéd characters. The problem is that it calls itself RvB, and with that title comes something to live up to – but more importantly, something to continue.

My main issue is that Zero forces its story into existence by ignoring established content rather than adjusting to it. Let’s call this for the hotdog-too-big-for-the-bun syndrome solely for the sake of the bow-chicka-bow-wow that’s coming now. Bow-chicka-bow-wow. Many of the separate issues I will dive into all add to this hotdog-issue, so I will scream “Hotdog!” whenever this is the case so we can all keep track of my argument.

You can continue the story of Red vs. Blue without the Reds and Blues. While that would personally crush my heart, it can be done. There’s a story of Red vs. Blue that can be continued. The world can be expanded, the previous actions of the Reds and Blues can be explored from another angle.

So.

How does Zero do this? It doesn’t.

I just want to make it clear that new elements can definitely be added when it comes to worldbuilding. That’s literally the point of sequels. But Zero’s settings are presented with so little grace and with no connection to previously established worldbuilding. We get Alliance of Defense and GLASS thrown in our face as very big important organizations – yet we’ve never heard of them before. A big central plot point of RvB is the UNSC and Project Freelancers, and those were introduced naturally with the plot. We already have big established intergalactic organizations. What is AOD’s connection with those? We aren’t told. We are just told they exist and expected to accept it, no questions asked. If this was a whole new world and story – fine. But when you need to build on an already established worldbuilding, you need more grace than this. Chorus was a whole new setting, but it was explained, and it was connected to the previous plot. Same with Iris. Same with Desert Gulch. In Zero, it feels lazy. It feels forced. These organizations are just there because the story is built around them (HOTDOG).

This vagueness when it comes to wordbuilding is also reflected in the settings - we have a desert, a training base, a lab, temples, Tucker’s workplace, and we do not know if all those are set place on the same planet. If that is the case, what is this planet’s relationship with Chorus? Is it Earth? And most importantly, what is the deal with the temples? Why are they connected to Tucker’s sword if it isn’t the same planet. Are they made by the same aliens? Are people okay with this? Why haven’t these temples been explored before? Chorus makes sure to establish this, while Zero doesn’t, adding to a growing amount of confusion.

Okay, so no connection with previous worldbuilding. What about characters? I mean, we got Wash and Carolina and Tucker! So we have RvB characters, it gotta be RvB! Technically – yeah. But it feels dirty. These three characters are not here to be characters. They are here to be props to the new cast. They are not given any development. Their presence isn’t even that important, and if this was a whole new show, they could easily have been replaced with an unknown face. Worst of all, they feel miswritten.

Carolina and Wash are working at a new military organization? Leaving the Reds and Blues behind? To help people? First of all, fucking bad idea, Carolina, the last time you left the Reds and Blues alone, they changed the timeline. But most importantly – Carolina and Wash just joined this new super elite military organization? After being mistreated and manipulated by such an organization in the past?

Carolina is there to introduce the characters. That’s it. We are force-fed their personality by having her literally read out loud their personality. There is no gentle introduction to the new cast. We are not allowed to get to know them naturally. Why show when you can tell, huh? That’s Carolina’s role. That’s why she is there. To introduce the cast and explain their story. That’s it. (HOTDOG).

How about Wash? He is there to get beat up and be a damsel in distress so that the new cast has a reason to explore the plot. Oh, and that brain damage that was the consequence of previous seasons – gone now. The guy who literally has trauma from having an AI explode inside his head is fine with having a computer inserted into it instead. Because that’s needed. To explore his brain damage wouldn’t work now when his role is to be a prop to lure the new cast for one episode and then be put onto the bench for the rest of the runtime (HOTDOG).

And Tucker – he is there to die for a second and have his sword taken from him. That’s literally it. And for the few moments he is there, he feels like old super flirty Tucker, which erases the character development he went through in previous seasons. Okay, so Tucker dies, and then not dies, and then he is put on the bench with Wash where they can sit and talk or whatever (‘cause holy shit, the new cast is not allowed to that), because he isn’t important. The sword is. Tucker is just a prop, even more than his sword is (HOTDOG).

Damn. Wash gets beat up. Tucker gets beat up. Dies. Gets his sword taken away. Almost seems like a Red’s wet dream. Sorry not sorry, Blues, you were done dirty.

So there are miswritten old characters. Even worse is the retconning. The plot needs a “normal” Wash, so, bam, magic computer solution. Never mind Wash’s trauma and character traits. Never mind the logic of the new worldbuilding which also includes a character suffering for years to heal an illness. But the brain damage that was such a big consequence that it became the main part of the plot of the last two seasons – gone. I mean, a gunshot to the head can be healed by CPR. That’s canon. But no one gave Wash CPR so it’s a big thing, okay. It was canonically a big thing, and Zero erased that. This is not me saying that a Cerebral Enhancer couldn’t work in the RvB universe. Imagine it being done right. Wash struggling with the choice of getting used to his disability or accepting the possibility of help - at the cost of reliving his trauma. The struggle between what to choose - what should he choose when he wants to help as many as possible, the sacrifices he thinks he has to make, the way it could have been used as a part of his character growth. But in Zero, the enhancer isn’t a part of Wash’s character. It’s there so the story can work without having to deal with the previous plot’s consequence (HOTDOG).

Same with the sword thing. They sorta explain it by having Tucker flatline, but it’s weak. Honestly, I find it sorta offensive. What about Locus’ sword as well? It’s twisting previous lore to make the new plot work (HOTDOG). (Also, are we not gonna talk about the ultimate power being Spencer Porkensenson’s helmet? Have the writers forgotten Spencer Porkensenson? Have we as a community forgotten Spencer Porkensenson?)

If you have Red vs. Blue in your title, you cannot ignore what you inherit from it. You need to respect the worldbuilding, the established characters, and the previous plot. Zero does not do this.

Let’s talk about the Triplets. No, really, let’s do it. I don’t think I’ve ever talked about them before, because season 14 was a mixed bag for me (that I have now learned to appreciate. Thank you, Zero.) because I have heart at the size of the Grinch and can only love a few characters at a time, and that did not include the Triplets. Can’t even remember their names. Well, I can, but I can’t for the love of me remember which state is which, and my tongue is twisted every time I try to say Ohio, Iowa, and Idaho, and I know it’s on purpose. I know it is. And it got me good. That being said, the fandom actually embraced them really, really well! Seriously, I’ve seen more content for the Triplets than for Zero as a whole.

Why talk about the Triplets? (Was Iowa the lesbian? Or was it Ohio? Fuck.) Because like Zero, they introduced new characters with a story of their own. The Reds and Blues didn’t play a role. But here’s what I feel like the Triplets got right. They didn’t change the settings to force their narrative. They used stuff already established (Project Freelancer), added their own story as a continuation of that. They even included old characters in the beginning (Wash and some other Freelancers) but it felt natural and it didn’t feel like it happened at the expense of the old characters. Wash’s writing felt natural, and his presence wasn’t needed to tell these new character’s stories. He wasn’t a prop to them. He was there to establish the setting and to establish the relationship with these new characters, and then he and the other familiar faces (helmets??) left, and we as the viewers were left with these new characters. And the new characters told their own story by themselves. It felt like, hey, here’s something you know – remember Mother of Invention, and remember Wash’ lower rank, but now, try to imagine being even lower rank than him, aren’t you curious about those fates? Now let’s hear their story! It was new, it was something else, but it didn’t wreck what came before it, and it stayed true to the classic vibes of RvB.

As I said before, the hotdog-issue is my biggest problem with Zero. It infuriates me. I will return to this. But there are more issues, even if we try to look past the title-related problems.

If we try to imagine Zero as its own story and universe (as it should be, in my opinion), it still earns the meh review from me.

These isolated issues include awkwardness, the writing, lack of self-awareness, and pacing. First of all, holy shit, this is a tell, don’t show. Nothing is subtle, nothing is allowed to develop. It’s like the show thinks you are six years old with an attention span of a goldfish. You are not just led by the hand – they have literally pulled off your arm by the end of the show. We are force-fed every bit of information, every bit of personality from these new characters.

The voice-acting is a mixed bag for me. Sometimes it’s pretty good, sometimes it’s not. Some of the problems can definitely be blamed on the dialogue that you can only do so much with. It’s not good. I can’t remember any good jokes (the one joke I really appreciate was the cast on armor, and that was freaking visual humor. That was so RvB. Kudos to that. It was fun. More of that, please.), and RvB is known for having memorably good lines. This is a show built on good, clever, funny dialogue. Zero does not deliver. You have to sit through clichéd lines – “You’re not my dad”, “I trusted you”, “Come with me”, “It can’t be!”, “She’s way too powerful”, and “We have to do this together” – performed unironically. I cringed more than I laughed. Worst thing is that Zero could be a good parody. Sometimes, it feels like it is. One-dimensional characters, a villain wanting ‘the ultimate power’, very overpowered characters, bad one-liners, etc. But Zero takes itself seriously, and I was one of the people rooting for Jax to show up at the end and yell “Cut”. That would have been a funny-as-fuck twist. A spin-off parody. If I can’t have “Sarge the Movie”, I would have taken that and loved it. I would have forgiven everything. “We put so much info into finding that power, but we had no idea what it was” is really a line in the finale, and I cannot believe this is real in a show that somehow still tries to present itself as serious. What a plot.

We have to talk about pacing. God, first of all it should be stated that RvB is a mess when it comes to pacing. I honestly get what they were going for. Sometimes, RvB has come across as a bit boring when you get three episodes stretched over three weeks without much going on. I know season 11 did not have the warmest welcome because it was seen as boring until the finale. But when you see season 11 as a whole, as a movie, as a part of a trilogy, it works so well. Zero is more focused on being episodic. They want something to happen all the time so we will stay tuned. The thing that will happen – a fight. Oh god. The fight scenes.

I have done the math. I have run the numbers. I deserve a freaking cookie for this. Are you ready?

If you put all the episodes together, you have a runtime of 106 minutes. HOWEVER, with the introduction of credits in every episode, you gotta account for this. Removing the credits, this gives us 94 minutes of actual runtime. Out of that, 45 minutes are dedicated to fight scenes. That means 48% of the show is fight scenes.

If I wanted that many fight scenes, I’d watch Death Battle. Except the actual RvB Death Battle episode has a runtime of 20 minutes, and out of that, 5 minutes is dedicated to the actual battle. For the people who hate math – that’s 25% of the actual runtime.

RvB Zero has more fight scenes than a show called Death Battle. Take that in.

The pace suffers from this. Where’s the time to explore the characters? Where’s the time for good dialogue? All I can think of is this:

I get that RvB is a show that’s literally making fun of itself by acknowledging all their characters do is stand around and talk. I get that you want characters to do more than that. But for the love of Church, would it kill the new characters to stand around and talk? For just a minute? Stop fighting, I am begging you, stop fighting! Am I a pacifist now? Am I purple? Have I joined Doc’s team? What has Zero done to me?!

The good thing though is that fight scenes are very good. They’re entertaining. However, they seem to deconstruct themselves when we need to get a fight scene in every episode. Usually, the few fight scenes in an RvB season were in some of the most climatic episodes. In Zero, I can hardly keep up with the pace because they won’t stop moving. Fight scenes aren’t plot. They aren’t character development. You need more than just fight scenes. They entertain, but there’s a limit to that.

Noël Wiggins, the co-writer, stated the inspiration was a Saturday-morning cartoon. They nailed that vibe. If that was their goal, hurray, they have accomplished something! Because of the poor plot and constant fight scenes, it feels like you could just switch on the TV and drop in at any moment and let yourself be entertained by the cool and colorful soldiers punching and kicking each other. I will admit that the fight scenes entertained me. But they don’t make it a good season.

If I were the six-year-old with the attention span of a goldfish that the show believes I am, I honestly would enjoy it. The stiff dialogue and the constant tell-don’t-show makes you feel like an audience that’s not supposed to do anything else but admire the flashy fight scenes. I miss the cleverness of RvB. I miss the characters I get to connect with as I see them grow.

I miss the tone of RvB. Because this isn’t RvB to me.

It’s not that RvB hasn’t changed its tone before. Holy shit, I sorta do want to experience the absolute shock the RvB fandom went through when s6 aired and they were given new characters and serious plot. I would have loved to experience that, but I was too busy being ten years old. The Freelancers seasons also introduced a new tone and more fight scenes with very talented fighters compared to the Blood Gulch gang, but a balance was kept by having half of the season still revolving around the Reds and Blues. But Zero – Zero is so much change. And it’s on purpose. At least this has been made very clear from the beginning.

They constantly seem to appeal to new fans, rather than be directed towards older fans of the show. If you want an entirely new audience with a season with a new cast, new worldbuilding, and new tone, I’m confused as to why they don’t just make a new show. The hotdog-problem begs for this solution. This story and environment and characters feel so out of touch with the original RvB, that with a few rewrites and lack of Halo-armor, it could just be a new show. Problem solved.

If not this, then present it as a spin-off. In all ways, it feels like a spin-off (again, see everything marked HOTDOG). But the creators refuse to do this, and I don’t understand why. I could forgive many of these issues, had they officially separated themselves from canon.

Ah, what’s the idiom? You can’t both swallow and blow? (You can hear the Bow-chicka-bow-wow in the distance). Something about eating cake and having it. Forgive me, English isn’t my native language. POINT IS why are you calling yourself RvB while actively fighting against the core essence of RvB? In my humble opinion, you can’t be both. Marketing it as a spin-off would have granted it some defense when changing, well, literally everything, and I just, would someone please properly describe why it isn’t a spin-off? Isn’t this season marked by its association with the plot of RvB rather than a continuation of it? Zero presenting itself as not a spinoff feels like a toddler clinging to the hem of its mother’s dress while forcefully running away from her, ripping the dress in the process.

When they do connect with the original RvB, it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. When they let Carolina, Wash, and Tucker appear for a moment, it feels like luring viewers in with the RvB title. Look at me. Look at me! I’m not saying this is the case. I say that it gives me the annoying vibes of being lured, rather than letting the characters be a part of the show for their own development, rather than having RvB in the title to continue its story. I should not be getting these vibes at all. But I am.

If you want to use RvB in the title, something from the core of RvB needs to be embraced. Things can be changed. They should. Something new should be brought in. But there’s a limit to how much you can change and replace and twist until it would have been better with an original show. As a season of RvB, it should tell the story of Red vs. Blue.

From my perspective, Zero fails to do so.

It pains me that the old cast has been replaced, but as stated earlier, a season could have worked without them. However, I do not like the take that one should be excited about all the new characters. That it isn’t a big thing that the OG cast got replaced. That we should just deal with it. Just, try to imagine another show suddenly replacing the main characters with characters we’ve never met before. Imagine RWBY suddenly only focusing on a new team of huntresses with the previous main characters reduced to an Easter Egg presence, or Camp Camp suddenly being about a new team of campers, no warning given. Can you imagine the outcry? So maybe let’s agree that a replacement of the main cast is a big thing and should be addressed and it’s valid to be upset about this change.

Could Zero have worked? It’s hard to answer this. How can I accept something as RvB if the season actively pushes away the core of RvB aside for an isolated story that could have been told in any other media? As a spinoff, I could have ignored it. To enjoy Zero, I have to fully separate it from RvB in my mind, and then it’s alright. S’not good. But it’s not bad. It’s entertaining enough. I really ended up liking Raymond and Tiny, and there were a few good jokes, and the fight scenes were admirable (but too much) and I love the creators’ passion. But it’s not RvB. I also wish that the new characters had been attached to previous worldbuilding, for example soldiers on Chorus or agents from Project Freelancer. That way we could build on familiar lore which would have decreased the confusion and added a much needed connection with the previous seasons of RvB.

God, the anxious voice is back (by the way, it sounds like Tutter from “Bear in the Blue House”).

“You’re racist” – I hope not. Literally, I do not want to be. Tell me if I’ve ever crossed some lines, because I swear, that is not my intention, I will apologize and most of all, change and do better. I included this because I’ve seen this take thrown around in the big ugly mess that is the fandom clashes regarding Zero. And racism is problem within RT community (this includes AH and RvB, sorry, I just use RT as an umbrella term for the latter), and I’m not saying it hasn’t been a problem with this season. Writers should never be harassed, and never-fucking-ever because of their skin color, and voice actors shouldn’t be treated like they are responsible for the choices of the show. But I was legit nervous to post this review, and I hope it’s been factual without feeling like personal attacks on the creators because that has never been my intention. I was delighted to hear about the diversity behind this project, and Torrian’s passion legit blew me away because it’s been a while since I’ve seen that for an RvB project. I’d hoped for it to be good, and when I feel disappointed, it’s for the reasons stated in this analysis. That said, Zero is made by a diverse cast and it’s made with love, and both of those things are so, so great, but it does not mean that Zero cannot be criticized. It can, and it should. It’s a product, just like all the other seasons, and fans are allowed to discuss it – both what they loved, and both what they found troublesome. And to repeat previous points, and be respectful, always, fuck racists, and never-fucking-ever harass the staff behind a season, what the fuck is wrong with you if you do this.

“Don’t you get it, it’s different because it’s trying something new!” – Hey, remember the philosophical question: if you replace all the parts of a ship one-by-one, is it still the same ship when you’re done? If it doesn’t include the Reds and Blues, if it ignores previous plot, if the old characters feel miswritten, if it values animation over dialogue, if it values fight scenes over comedy, if it wants to be Fast and Furious instead of Red vs. Blue – is it still Red vs. Blue? Because it doesn’t feel like it to me.

“It's been 17 seasons, it’s time to let the Reds and Blues go so someone else can shine!” – I simply do not understand us having been with the Reds and Blues for 17 seasons should be an argument to let them go, rather than be an argument as to why their absence hurt like hell.

“The Reds and Blues ran out of things to do!” – Did- did they, though? I mean, if we were discussing pretty much any other show, I’d probably agree that they were running out of content. But for the Reds and Blues… I think the PSAs nailed it this year! I’m not kidding, I had more fun watching the Reds and Blues discuss how to do laundry than watching Zero. You could literally give me an hour of the Reds and Blues trying to bake a cake or clear a gutter or simply settling down with an ordinary life, and I would trust them to make it worth the watch.

“The flaws were due to the fact it’s only 8 episodes long!” – Look, I can only judge a product the way it’s presented to me. I cannot come up with excuses for it. If they had 8 episodes to work with, they need to come up with a plot that works with this runtime. Seriously, this excuse cannot work when 48% of the season is spent on fight scenes. They could have used more runtime, sure, but the show needs to be able to pace itself and be planned accordingly.

“The OG cast couldn’t be a part of this year, hence Zero!” – That might be true. But. Would one year without RvB kill it? Is Zero necessary? Again, I just can’t judge excuses for the show. But trouble with the cast has been an issue before. Season 15 solves Geoff’s sabbatical by actually making Grif’s absence a part of the plot. Zero’s lack of Reds and Blues just feels like this excuse to tell a story that needn’t be a part of RvB.

Am I a hater? I guess? I greatly dislike Zero for the critique stated above. I do, however, not harass the creators and no one should ever do that. However, I have to admit that I feel there’s been this weird rejection of any critique of Zero where everything’s been brushed off as haters gonna hate, including the critique stated above. And I think that’s a problem because critique, as hard as it can be to hear (and I know this. I’m an author of original works. Weird flex, I know), is valid and necessary and shouldn’t just be shrugged away. As always, both sides of the fandom should always be respectful, but my own opinion is that addressing the flaws of Zero should not be controversial.

Does this super long rant/critique/whatever mean you cannot enjoy Zero? Gods no! I almost envy you if you enjoy this season, but holy shit, feel free to love it and tell the creators that you love it! Me pointing out the issues I have with the season shouldn’t be stopping you. I loved (and still love) s15 when it came out, and it was majorly rejected by the fandom. There were many, many critical posts, people were going on about how RvB should have ended with s13, and it evolved into the writer receiving death threats (me, once again: never ever harass the creators, assholes). But I didn’t tell people to stop being negative. I actually agreed with many of the flaws that were pointed out, and I enjoyed the season despite this, because that is possible. We, as RvB fans, should agree that RvB, is... I mean, it’s not the greatest, most flawless of shows, but we love it nonetheless. So go ahead and love Zero. This is not a stop sign. This is my opinion that you chose to read.

Wait, I promised you a cookie, didn’t I? Well, you’re not getting one. Why? Because I’m a Red and this is my chance to piss off a Blue. As Caboose wisely said: “Well, at least I don't go around... knocking on people's non-doors... and promising them cookies... and then NOT. GIVING. THEM. COOKIES!”

Blue Team sucks.

End speech.

[bigskydreaming]

Tom is already rehashing some things, like too many homages to the nineties run, Zucco's daughter plot point, Beatrice had ideas for societal reform he's taking that and giving it to Dick. It'll probably be half hearted, but it stings that Beatrice left just a few issues ago and she's already completely forgotten for the sake of DickBabs or a love triangle.

Like the thing about the nineties runs is I mean, as much flack as we give various elements of them, there’s so much from that time period that was good? Great, even! Just....myself and the writers seem to have very different opinions on what the most interesting elements of the nineties comics were, oh well.

And omgggggg I’m still so mad about Bea, and its literally Shawn Tsang all over again. The writers keep introducing new, interesting characters, investing just enough time and focus into them to have us interested in them and wanting to see more.....and then they toss them aside to go back to drawing from the same well as always.

And the thing is, this isn’t even about me not really being a Dick/Babs shipper, because honestly, I’m not enjoying the Dick/Kory stuff in what I’ve seen of Titans Academy either, and for the exact same reason:

When they create new characters like Shawn and Bea, they KNOW they’re starting from scratch and need to build interest in those characters from the ground up. So they’re forced to put their best foot forward. There’s no short cut there, if you want people to care about a brand new character you have to give them REASONS to care. You have to make those characters likable, you have to make people WANT to root for them, you have to hook them with intriguing backstories that don’t feel formulaic and new angles that don’t feel just derivative of older characters, and that’s how we got stuff like Shawn’s history as a former sidekick to a villain and now running a support group for rogues trying to turn their lives around, and Bea’s work in societal reform.

But then the second they stop having the patience to build the new characters up enough that the interest in them can actually start to reach the levels that lets older characters last and grants longevity....they just toss them aside and move on....except they never really move on, just backwards. Because the problem with so MANY superhero couples, far from just Dick and Babs or Dick and Kory, is just....how lazy it seems to make so many canon writers. They just fall back on rehashing the same old tropes and just updating popular moments that resonated with fans in the past, now just recreated with a slightly more modern twist but without ever really being anything new. 

Even with ships that I’ve never really been sold on in the past like Dick/Babs, I’ve always said, there’s usually nothing stopping me from GAINING interest in them.....its just....the writers have to GIVE ME A REASON TO. And so many of DC’s writers just aren’t even trying. They’re just moving parts around and pushing characters together in various arrangements like everyone’s just a puzzle piece that you can mix and match however you want......and then just basically expecting readers to be interested purely because of who the characters are, or because it hinges on a nice moment that they then milk the hell out of without ever expanding that into building actual STORY around these moments but rather just squeezing each one til they get everything they possibly can out of it and moving on to the next as though its all just about chasing the next soundbite...because it is! LOL.

And honestly, this problem extends far beyond just the Nightwing title or the Batfam or Taylor’s run or writing in particular.....its a company wide issue right now. In fact I would bet just about anything that its a matter of editorial edict, that even before Taylor started his run DC said okay here’s the approach we want everyone taking with their stories right now:

And that’s like.....its all about banking on nostalgia and the comfort of the familiar right now. I think Taylor is drawing all these elements straight from the 90s Nightwing comics, like Blockbuster and Dick having been a cop, etc, because these are the elements of past Nightwing stories that are so well known. Its the same reasoning behind why they put Tim back as Robin and so many of their new characters are just new spins on old faves like Punchline and Harley Quinn, and why they’re pushing all these older ships that haven’t been together in ages and why specific team lineups are reappearing....its because nostalgia is the name of the game for DC right now, and all their writers are just pulling together threads of classic stories that have stood the test of time, figuring anything that landed particularly well with fans in the past will sell with people here and now, and weaving these threads together and brushing over them with a modern social issues veneer. 

As an approach, its basically all just about repackaging previously successful story moments and elements with just enough changes or in just new enough a configuration that readers aren’t likely to complain en masse that like “hey we literally already read all this. We’ve already BOUGHT these issues. When we were kids.” Its minimizing creative risk while maximizing monetary profit. Spend as little creative capital as possible outside of anything that’s already been successful in the past and as such is a relatively proven quantity, instead of testing new material that’s an unknown and runs the risk of falling flat and thus not being profitable.

And see, I’d almost guarantee that all THAT, that whole line-wide approach to DC’s storytelling, is because the powers that be looked at the last several years of stories and how many of THEM fell flat with readers, and decided that the problem was they’d BEEN trying too much new stuff and readers just didn’t like it. Because they WERE concentrating on presenting totally new stories and building up new ideas throughout their books.....but readers have been pretty vocal for years now about being disenchanted with most of DC’s major stories. And so DC I think looked at that and came to the conclusion that okay, people just don’t want new right now, they want the familiar.

But like.....DC’s problem IMO was never that they were trying new stuff? The reason so much of their new and original storylines weren’t gaining traction or bringing in readers and kept shedding old readers had absolutely NOTHING to do with them being new and previously unseen storylines, which makes falling back on nostalgia very much a non-solution to entirely the wrong problem.

No, DC’s problem for years has been that they’ve been all about spectacle instead of story. There’s ZERO emotional pay-off to any of their biggest plot twists or character beats, and emotion is LITERALLY what people read stories for. Its all about racing to the climactic action packed finish of every storyline and then immediately resetting everyone back to square one and jumping straight into the next big story, without ever giving the events of any of their stories time or reason to MATTER to the characters.....and if they don’t matter to the characters, our proxies that we’re viewing these stories through, then why should any of it matter to us? Why should any of it linger, dig in roots, resonate with us as moments that left an impact and that we accordingly want more of?

And again, like because I’m a Dick Grayson focused blog I’ve obviously largely been focused on how much I dislike the SPECIFIC reactions or non-reactions to so many of the major beats in his stories.....but it was spread throughout their entire line.

Bruce and Selina almost got married....but why should anyone care outside of Tom King’s title when nobody else seems to, no other characters feel anything about this, and Bruce in none of his other appearances seems the same as ever without any reminder that he just almost got married but then didn’t.....and if the characters don’t ever seem to be affected by or feeling a need to revisit or reflect on recent stories, why should we bother remembering them either? 

Jason was dramatically and fucked-upily (yes its a word, I totally looked it up and everything) exiled from Gotham....and then all of that is undone in a single issue with one low-stakes awkward conversation between him and Bruce. Damian quits as Robin and goes off the map and everyone in his family is like “hey don’t we have a littler brother, I feel like we did maybe” for one panel per story arc, and that’s it. Roy’s back from the dead and everybody’s like oh hey cool instead of the kind of return we used to get like when Donna came back and everyone was like oh shit, this MATTERS, because we MISSED you....just like Dick’s death never mattered to anyone but fans of his character because much like I was just saying earlier with them not really giving me a reason TO emotionally invest in Dick and Babs’ relationship if I wasn’t already, same thing with the aftermath of Forever Evil. They didn’t give anyone else reason to emotionally invest in that as something that HAPPENED to Dick and that he was AFFECTED by....because the writers didn’t bother writing him as all that affected by it and it was just like oh he’s a spy now, all that was last year’s content, we’ve moved on, keep up.

And on and on it goes. Ric Grayson was the same problem all over again. Rinse and repeat down the line with everyone from Wally to Donna and etc etc etc.

THAT’S why DC’s stories have been falling flat. It has nothing to do with people not being interested in new ideas, characters or directions, its that’s ALL they were giving us, but it was like just reading wiki summaries of events just alongside pretty art, but no real emotional weight or substance to anything we were reading....and thus, literally nothing that we couldn’t get much the same outcome from if we just...stuck to reading wiki summaries after the stories were over, with no real need to follow along with them. For years most fans have basically just been about keeping up to date with changes in the characters’ lives, but without feeling any real need to watch those changes unfold and play out.

And so honestly I worry we’re just gonna be subjected to a company wide rehashing of old and familiar storylines, directions and character beats, but repackaged and delivered in the exact same way DC was delivering us their new stories and ideas these past years....and its basically going to have the same results, because its the same problem. They didn’t actually fix anything by switching gears, they just shuffled around the actual issue.

And DC’s just gonna be like well now wtf are we doing wrong, we were so sure this would work, everyone LOVES nostalgia right? Did we pick the wrong stories and character beats to bring back?

When really its like......it honestly doesn’t matter WHICH stories and beats they rehash, because its not about them picking the ‘right ones,’ the real keepers, the stories that everyone really WAS eager to see brought back or made new again.....

Its about like, the only reason any of those stories or beats or dynamics stood the test of time and are still familiar and well-known....is because the stories AROUND those moments and ideas gave us reason to emotionally invest in them and retain them as crucial to our view of the characters and things that would resonate and stay with us for a long time.

It was never that any of those ideas or stories were just so innately brilliant that they couldn’t help BUT linger in the overall reader consciousness...it was the fact that we CARED about what happened in those moments and stories.

*Shrugs* But I mean hey, what do I know? I’m just a dude on the internet lolol.