#raya and the last dragon spoilers /

[a-crack-in-the-universe]

After reading a lot of posts blaming Namaari for what happened to Sisu, I’ve decided to make my own post defending Namaari. Spoilers abound below.

Seriously... did we watch the same movie??? People act like Namaari murdered Sisu in cold blood, when actually she didn’t show any sign that she’d decided to kill Sisu. Her finger wasn’t even pulling on the trigger.

The truth is, Namaari was right when she told Raya that Raya was equally to blame for Sisu’s death. I couldn’t believe people were absolving Raya of any blame when Raya did the one thing you should never do when faced with an armed person aiming a weapon at an innocent person. You should never fucking attack the armed person, because it could lead to them accidentally shooting and injuring or killing the innocent person. And yet that’s what Raya did. Sure her intentions were good, but she still endangered Sisu’s life by doing what she did.

[kidnaps-you]

Huh cool!

Raya and Namaari should kiss lol

Heyyyy, wanna watch a movie with us?

Im boredddd

I miss you and Doldre

- @kidnaps-you

Oh yeah sure!!

Can I pick what we watch?

Sorry i'm like 6 hours late lmao, I wasn't online today

[donuts4evry1]

I watched somewhere that Raya's whole "Dragon Nerd" thing was kinda demeaning(?) towards the sanctity of Dragons in SEA culture and while I do agree with that to some degree... I personally think they also went too tame with Raya's whole "Dragon nerd" thing

Raya was only nerd enough to plot dump, but if someone was truly a "Dragon nerd" then they should have really went harder with it. Made her absolutely fanatical about it. To the point where she freaks out other characters about it. We were robbed of adorkable nerd fighter Raya and I'm a little sad about it

(Also, this post was inspired by Xiran's video where a group of SEA people assembled to talk about Raya... And also the character of Elrand from "Campfire Cooking in another world with my absurd skill". Just see what I mean here:

THIS is what I'm looking for in a "nerd" character.

Granted, this is unholy levels of obsession from a single character, but I LIVE for this kind of character. It gives them life and animation!)

[nerdyenby]

I swear dead girl media (tm) is a thing but I was having a hard time thinking of examples so here’s a list

Marvel’s Runaways (Amy)

Ducktales 2017 (Della)

Big Hero 6 (Tadashi, it doesn’t have to be a girl)

Raya and the Last Dragon (Sisu isn’t properly dead but people thought she was)

Miraculous (Emilie)

Lightyear (Alisha)

Secret Invasion (Maria)

Into the Spiderverse (blond Peter)

Proxy (Marie)

Hawkeye (Natasha)

The Dragon Prince (Harrow)

Dead End: Paranormal Park (Jennifer Swan)

Timeless (Amy and Jessica)

Dead girl media (tm) is not my original terminology. It describes a piece of fiction in which the world, characters, conflict, and/or general premise are all shape by the (presumed) death of a supporting character — usually a woman — before or early on in the events of the story

[lunadove]

For all the Raya x Namaari fans - in “Once Upon a Studio”, I think Namaari is riding Tuk Tuk with Raya at the end, when posing for the picture.

[ramazo]

Exactly. We have to remember that under Sisu's advice, Raya DID trust her, enough to literally bring Sisu AND the stones in front of her. She truly did believe that Namaari was going to work together for all their sakes, despite backstabbing her at the start and being her nemesis during the movie. In fact, everything went smoothly, and Raya was about to let bygones be bygones and patch everything together when Namaari literally pulled a crossbow on her in an attempt to steal the stones for herself. Again. In front of all the other clans, showing that she and her clan could NEVER be trusted, even when everyone's lives are at stake. Raya wasn't wrong for trying to protect her friend from someone who was literally going for her life, who has proven time and again they are selfish and cannot be trusted. Whose finger, by the way, was ON THE CROSSBOW TRIGGER. Do people really think "Oh, Raya should have waited until she actually pulled it" or something? And then afterwards, after KILLING SISU, Namaari has the gall to pin part of the blame on Raya. She doesn't show remorse, she shows that she's just a snake who won't only backstab you but push the blame to you. She earned absolutely NONE OF THE TRUST that Raya was supposed to have for her. It might not be "gaslighting" in the traditional sense but it sure as hell is guilt manipulation, and it worked - on Raya, and the audience that has somehow believed it was partially Raya's fault at all. If any character really needed development, it was Namaari. They should have made her slowly realize she was in the wrong and she needed to fix things and work together, instead of apart. Have someone ELSE kill Sisu, or trigger something awful, like her mother, and have Namaari fight together with Raya to fix it. Have her EARN her redemption, and show Raya that Namaari has changed, she's not the same snake she was before. But no, the movie chose to force a "forgiveness" message that is all kinds of messed up and even pins the blame on the victims.

Was Namaari gaslighting Raya?

In Raya and the Last Dragon, one hot take you’ll find quite a bit is about the part where (spoilers) Namaari says to Raya that they’re both responsible for Sisu’s (temporary) death. They’re saying that Namaari is “gaslighting” Raya here, and that she’s the one responsible because she’s the one that brought the crossbow to what was supposed to be a peaceful meeting. Is that true?

To discuss this, first of all, let’s set aside the fact that this is not what “gaslighting” means. Gaslighting is an abusive long-term project, not a single thing you say once. People way overuse that term on the internet. I’m sure there are people who say that scams like shell games or NFTs are gaslighting (they’re not). This scene, if anything, is just normal lying and/or blame shifting, but it seems to me that this is what we’re talking about anyway. I’m also going to ignore that Namaari clearly didn’t bring the crossbow to kill Sisu, but rather to (threaten to) shoot Raya, because that’s still not a nice thing to do.

Personally, I think that at the very least, Namaari is telling her truth here. She truly thinks that she and Raya are both responsible for what happened. She isn’t deceitful, she isn’t trying to manipulate Raya, she’s not even begging for her life, she’s just explaining her view. Of course that is only partially relevant; just because it’s not a lie doesn’t mean it’s the truth.

So that is the big question: Is Raya to blame here, at all? Even though it was Namaari who brought the crossbow, and pointed it? I think yes. To explain why, let’s look at the structure of the movie.

This movie is almost an ur-example of the structure described by screenwriter Craig Mazin in his “How to write a movie” talk (original audio version). The movie has a clear central dramatic argument: Cynicism and isolation versus optimism and trust. Raya and Namaari both have similar arcs where they start the main part of the story very cynical and isolated; Raya arguably more so.

Throughout the movie, Raya meets more and more characters and situations that discourage her cynicism and encourage her to be optimistic and trusting. She has moments of being trusting, and sometimes it pays off, sometimes less so. And as she meets more and more people who prove trustworthy after she gave them a chance, her cynicism slowly melts away.

Namaari’s arc is parallel and similar. She believes she lives in a doomed cat-eat-cat world, partly through her own actions, and everything she does to protect her own people is justified because there is no alternative. But then she sees her favorite dragon has returned, and she begins questioning everything she thought. She sees that there is hope after all. But just like Raya, this isn’t a one-and-done thing, especially since her mother encourages her to stay cynical.

When they meet outside the Fang city, after Raya’s letter, we find both of them at the midpoint of their arc. Both know their old, cynical mode of being doesn’t work anymore, and they both want to get rid of it. Both would outright say “I guess trust is a good thing”. But neither of them is yet ready to actually believe it.

Yes, Namaari brings her crossbow, but she’s not taunting Raya; she’s apologizing. This time, she knows she’s doing something wrong, but she can’t bring herself to do the right thing yet either.

Meanwhile, this is Raya’s big chance to show that she’s learned the movie’s lesson. It shouldn’t be a surprise to her that Namaari brought the crossbow. Your ex enemy doesn’t immediately become a friend just because you wrote a letter, and that wasn’t the point of the letter. The point is this, here: It is Raya’s chance to convince Namaari to do the right thing. And that was always going to require Raya placing a certain amount of blind faith in Namaari. Raya needs to tolerate Namaari’s aggression long enough to convince her. The movie makes it clear that she has an actual chance of making it work.

But Raya can’t bring herself to trust Namaari long enough. She knows she should, but she hasn’t internalized this yet. And so she gets aggressive and escalates a situation that she always knew was going to be tense.

For both of them, this moment is the test: Have they learned the lesson of the movie yet? Both of them fail miserably. And wow, do they get punished for it.

What follows is the low point of the movie, where both of their world views are shattered completely. Their old cynicism is gone, their new hope and trust is destroyed, and now all that’s left is depression and blind rage. The movie helpfully points this out by giving us some extreme backlighting, making the entire fight between the two almost monochrome. The characters have basically lost all color and nuance, and are now just shadowy silhouettes, because that’s what their emotional state is right now. Yes, the folks at Disney do know what they’re doing.

Namaari is the one to say this out loud. That’s why she doesn’t care if Raya kills her. And Raya realizes the same. That’s why she doesn’t kill Namaari; not because she cares, but because she doesn’t anymore.

Then some time later we get a do-over: The same situation again; the stakes even higher, success even less certain. And this time, Raya has realized her mistake; now she has full faith in the theme of the movie. This time she is open to Namaari, she is patient with her, and instead of being aggressive or guarded, she isn’t showing any resistance to anything anymore. And when she turns to stone, she is smiling. Because now Raya knows that even if it doesn’t work, she’s still doing the right thing, and that matters the most.

It takes Namaari a few moments more to get there herself. She even briefly considers leaving, through the small but unstable way out that exists for her. But she can’t; not because the way out falls, but because she hesitates too long. Raya’s faith in the theme of the movie worked, and she did convince Namaari, even if Namaari hasn’t yet realized it herself. Finally, of course, she does realize that Raya has already won her over, and she does the right thing after all. And when she turns to stone, she’s kind of okay with it as well.

And of course we get literally the same moment we had in Finding Nemo or, even more literally, Frozen, where it seems like it didn’t work, and the faith in the theme of the movie was misplaced. Plus, in this case, we get to appreciate some incredibly beautiful subsurface scattering on the stone statues (meaning the way the light partially filters through the edges). Seriously, the graphics in this movie are amazing. You’re doing yourself no favors by being too jaded to appreciate the finer pixels in life.

Of course, as Mr Mazin said, faith in the theme rewards, and everything turns out fine and it’s all peace, happiness and pancake, as we say here in Germany.

But the crucial part is that this high point of the movie works because we previously had the low point; because we previously saw it go wrong. Not just the world at large, but both main characters. It’s their third, final chance, when both have finally learned their lesson.

If you want to assign blame like a traffic accident, to decide which percentage gets paid by whose insurance, yeah, maybe Namaari gets more of it. But narratively, Sisu’s temporary death happens because both characters failed, and both need to fix it together.

[theturncoattournament]

Do you love a character with a good redemption arc? Or a corruption arc? Or even just seeing the kind of storylines that emerge from a character who was formerly aligned with an enemy side decide to join a different one?

Then welcome to...

The Turncoat Tournament!

This is a tournament for characters who have changed sides at some point in the story. It can be from good to bad, bad to good, or from one morally ambiguous side to a different morally ambiguous side, as long as the change in allegiance is still clear. Characters can change sides multiple times, and ultimately end up returning to their original side, and still qualify for the tournament!

Due to the subject of the tournament itself being inherently spoiler-y, I will by default not be tagging posts with spoiler warnings. However, below I do have a list of all the pieces of media that have characters in the tournament; if you see something on this list that you do want spoiler tagged, please let me know, and I’ll start tagging it with spoiler warnings!

Media list:

(Arranged in alphabetical order)

2001: A Space Odyssey/2010: The Year We Made Contact

Ace Attorney/The Great Ace Attorney

Animation vs Minecraft

Arthurian legend 

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Bamse - Världens starkaste björn

Bones

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Bungo Stray Dogs

Centaurworld

Chess The Musical 

The Chronicles of Narnia

Code Geass

Critical Role (Campaign 2) 

Cult of the Lamb

DC Comics (Batfamily, Flash characters, Shazam family)

Devil May Cry

Doctor Who

Dog Man

Dragon Age: Inquisition 

Dragon Ball Z

The Evillious Chronicles 

Fable III

Fairy Tail

Fake Princess

Farscape

Final Fantasy XIV

Game of Thrones

Genshin Impact

The Good Place

Gravity Falls

The Grinch Who Stole Christmas

Hannibal

The Hunger Games

I Expect You to Die 3

The Incredibles 

Just Dance

Kingdom Hearts

Kinnporsche 

Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts 

Kirby series

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords manga

The Librarians

The Locked Tomb

Machineries of Empire

Maleficent

Marvel Cinematic Universe

Marvel Comics (X-Men, Avengers) 

Megamind

Merlin

Mistborn

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls

Nan Quest

Once Upon A Time

One Piece

The Owl House

Pandora Hearts

Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door

Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Person of Interest 

The Pirates of Penzance

Pirates of the Caribbean 

Portal 2

Power Rangers: Dino Fury

Pretty Cure (Fresh Precure, Kira Kira Precure a la Mode, Suite Precure, Hugtto Precure)

Provost’s Dog

Princess Tutu

Raya and the Last Dragon

RWBY

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

Smallville

Sonic the Hedgehog OVA 

Soul Eater

Soul series (Soul Calibur/Edge) 

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Star Wars (Prequels, Original trilogy, Rebels, Clone Wars, Knights of the Old Republic) 

Steven Universe

The Stormlight Archive

Sunless Sea

Tangled: The Series

Teen Titans (2003 series) 

Teen Wolf

Terminator films 

Transformers

Tron Legacy

Vorkosigan Saga

Warrior Cats

Wings of Fire

Wolf 359

Worm

Young Justice

Yu Yu Hakusho

[weaselbeaselpants]

If I were a cartoon review youtuber, some of my videos would definitely be:

Underrated Animated films you should see vol. 1 - ongoing

Complete look at Skunk Fu! and all it's episodes

What's ACTUALLY wrong with Illumination films (spoiler: it's not the designs). And that video would probably have a sequel ironically unironically accusing Chris Meladandri of being a White Walker who rips out movies' souls.

Disturbing Animated Film Iceberg.

A calming, sweet short retrospective on The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends.

Killing off the idea of "endgame". Tho, tbf, I'm definitely going to be writing that thesis statement down someday. I guess in video format it'd be a big "did this series REALLY fall off cuz the creator catered to fans?" breakdown of a few shows.

A video about 9. Because of course I'd make something about 9.

Politically heavy (but not horror) animated films.

An essay explaining the difference between what I want to see in a story vs what's actually good in a story; and likewise the difference between what I personally do/don't find offensive and what's objectively offensive as a viewer.

The dichotomy and standards between different talking animal films.

A review about Mary and Max and why I like it but it's okay if other autists don't. which would be a broader video about how to listen to the opinions of demographics and minorities and not to treat any one as a hivemind.

Movies that I dislike but aren't actually bad.

Movies I love that aren't really all that good.

A deeper dive on my take that Steven Universe was always deeply flawed but having an otherwise working ending; where Star vs was a well-written show that utterly biffed it on the ending.

The Swan Princess is secret conservative propaganda.

The 31 dumbest things in Oogies Revenge.

Zero's Journey is the only good TNBC continuation.

13 Horror animated Feature Films. For Halloween, of course...

My issue with Dreamworks' stans and why I dislike How to Train You Dragon 2.

My issues with Anti v Proshipping. Def would be a multi part series explaining why I think most of the problem is just people really aggresively bulling one another -AND THEN, getting into heinous fandom shit that no one talks about and the ethics of children online and freedom of expression.

Prolly then would make an exclusive (cuz it's dirty) review abt the rights of r34 and adult artists and what they had to/have to put up with both from peers and websites banning explicit material.

What absolutely doesn't work about Pocahontas and Anastasia.

I'd do a series called "Spitball Re-haul" wherein I go through a revisioned show's premise and then explain all the reasons for the changes. I'd make:

How I'd rewrite The Owl House season 3.

How I'd rewrite Star vs the Forces of Evil "Cleaved".

How I'd rewrite Strange Magic.

How I'd rewrite Raya and the Last Dragon.

How I'd rewrite Seasons 4-8 of Friendship is Magic.

My tinfoil hat video on Disney trying to profit so much off of fans is hurting their bases.

Mapping out and analyzing different types of crossover fiction, their merits and their issues with story-keeping.

Mythological and cultural animated films.

and finally, for when I'd muster up the strength:

an HBomberGuy-type callout/deepdive into MysteriousMrEnter and Lily Orchard and how they've made cartoon reviews worse.

[badass-queer-couples-battle]

Sword gays showdown, round 1 of bracket one

Propaganda:

For Raya:

she travels her kingdom to find a way to save her father and people from shadow monsters and is very good with a sword. Technically not a *canon* lesbian but the subtext between her and Namaari is strong, Raya calls her a word that translates to 'beautiful' and her VA also believes she's gay.

For Izzy:

‼️SPOILERS FOR OFMD S2‼️Izzy is quite literally THE best swordfighter in the whole show and is renowned worldwide for being virtually unbeatable (except for that one time with Stede but that was a fluke and we don’t talk about it). In his debut scene, he slashed Stede’s shirt into scraps in the sluttiest way possible in less than a second, and he didn’t lay a single scratch on his chest. He was shown to be able to extinguish several candles with a swipe of his sword, without knocking a single one over, ON A FRESHLY AMPUTATED LEG! Not to mention that he’s the embodiment of an elderly shelter cat with a dozen different medical issues and a bitchy attitude, but that’s not the point of this tournament! Izzy Hands, this slutty, sad, sopping wet cat of a man, is the best sword gay among sword gays!

He cuts open a dude’s shirt by spelling out his own name in sword flicks. He later “trains” with the sword shirtlessly, surrounded by candles, in front of said dude. 

he's a wet cat 

[arty-holly]

Thoughts on Kalki 2898 AD

For any new watchers, it might help to get some context. Kalki 2898 AD is about the emergence of Kalki, the last and 10th Avatar or Avataram of Lord Vishnu. There are 4 yugams according to Hinduism. Satyayugam, Tretayugam, Dwaparayugam and Kali Yugam. When evil shadows the world, Vishnu is born into Earth as a human to rid all evil. Krishna is one such very popular avataram of Vishnu. Kalki, the last Avatar has not yet appeared in Kaliyugam( the most evil of all times) and this movie is an imagination of that probable time.

Spoiler Alert!

Cons-

The dialogue, I understand that they now live in a place of amalgamated cultures but why does some of it sound so bad?? I watched the Malayalam dubbed version in theatre and it is actually not that bad but still this use of english slang that sounds so awkward and which can be easily replaced with regional slang is so annoying. For example why does the rebel fighter keep calling bhairava "bro" 😭. Especially when it can be replaced with "chetta" or " anna".

The names, Characters that should have traditional names like Shobana's character has Mariam, I mean Huh?? Who thought this was a good idea? Prabhas's character has a name that does not suit him even slightly( sorry guys but Bhairava is reserved for Ram charan's Magadheera, and he actually lives up to the name) It does not fit him thematically either bcz Bhairava is a form of Lord Shiva and that is not connected to Prabhas's character in any way whatsoever . As they revealed him as Karna at the end, they could have given him a name connected to being a son of the Sun god or smth like that. And the women's names. Sigh. Guys didn’t we all agree about using names like Kyra in Indian cinema. Then why does this KEEP HAPPENING. I mean Kyra, Mariam, Raya, Roxy(her character is another issue entirely)???What. Why. We have a bajillion good indian names both traditional and modern and u choose this, really. And if they're so adamant on using western names, use good western names like Rose or smth. Also who wants to bet that they thought they were the only ones who watched Raya and the Last Dragon and thought it'll be a good name for a indian girl.

THE TREATMENT OF FEMALE CHAARCTERS, I have been yapping about this for years to my sis so I might as well yap here too. Does the movie have good female characters? Yes. Does it treat them well? Hell no. Kyra, dead. Mariam, dead. Leela, left to die, probably dead or used as a sex slave. Roxy, there to add some spice and romance into Bhairava's boring life and consecutively forgotten and never seen again. Good thing Raya is a literal child or the writers will probably kill her off too. And it's the way their deaths have no meaning too. The man who Kyra sacrificed herself to kill is alive actually! Mariam after barely escaping death in the aircraft just gets stabbed by the villian. Sumati's case is gonna be a bit more controversial bcz while i like that she is free from the lab and might get a life of her own, it still doesn't stick quite right with me on her being told by Aswathama that her dharmam is to give birth to kalki ( more accurate and appropriate wording would've been duty or 'kartavyam') I forgot about Mrunal Thakur's character's death at the beginning bcz it had no impact at all. I don’t understand how the man who directed Mahanati could do this to the women of his movie.

Casting choices, You can sue me to hell and back but Prabhas was..not a good choice for Bhairava or as he is revealed to be, Karna. Let's be honest, every single movie after Bahubali was a huge huge miss for him and i'm almost convinced now that the reason Bahubali was such a hit was bcz of Rajamouli and the immense talent he was surrounded by like Anushka Shetty, Sathyaraj and Ramya Krishnan. For all the marketing they did for him as presenting him as the central character, he is not the main character(as he should be bcz I doubt he'll do a good job of it). His acting stands out like a sore thumb amongst Amitabh, Shobhana and Deepika. And i'm kind of disappointed that he's Karna bcz Karnan is such a complex and good character. Unpopular opinion but DQ should've been Karnan. He just fits. And Vijay Devarokonda does not fit Arjun either. His lines feel flat and emotionless. Maybe instead of casting popular Telugu names they should've casted people who actually fit and can act.

Bcz I sing, I feel slightly qualified to comment on the music in the movie. Prabhas's romance song needs to get burnt to ashes immediately bcz what. what even was that. Ew. But the theme of Kalki immediately bought back my hope for music in the movie bcz that was excellent. But I still feel like it could have been better by adding female singers in a lower pitch. The contrast would've been phenomenal. Bahubali's music director Keeravani already used these techniques in the Mahismati song guys, it's a guaranteed hit. Or maybe it's just my disappointment that there weren’t more female voices.

Krishna's voice should've been sweeter. He is pookie ok? and he deserves a sweet voice. I'm pretty sure he's described to have a voice that melts your heart. His current voice would've suited Balaram more.

Pros:-

The VFX was actually not that bad. Compared to the usual, it was miles better.

Amitabh as Aswatthama, Kamal Hassan and Shobhana delivered. They were absolutely excellent.

The little details were great. Humans get smaller through the progression of the yugams so Aswatthama being 8 feet bcz he was from the Dwapara Yugam fit perfectly. The mythical city Shambala. The little sculpture of Kalki, Bhairava holding and protecting the statue of vishnu from falling( foreshadowing?), Ashwattama meditates near Kashi's shivalingam, Gandhivam, the 5 objects around Supreme(Kamal Hassan) being the 5 evils.

Bujji, sarcastic and fun AI is always always a plus. Healthiest relationship that Bhairava has with anyone in the movie. And voiced by Keerthy Suresh? Double plus.

So many malayalam actors, it makes my malayali heart sing. Anna ben from Kubalangi nights, Shobhana and DQ 😭😭, and Malavika Nair as Uttara too. We were fed so well, just wish they did’nt kill all of them.

The inclusion of cringe english lines might've been dissapointing but the inclusion of races all over the world absolutely made up for it. Shambala's citizens being of all races, black, white, east asian, middle east and all of them being equally happy at Kalki's return made me cry. Hinduism and God is for every single person on earth regardless of their ethnicity. " Vasudaiva Kudumbakam" meaning the entire world is one family was embodied so WELL in that scene, I am floored.

No matter how many times Deepika walks into fire, she does it perfectly every time. Also that parallel between the birth of Krishna and Kalki!! Vasudeva walks through water while Sumati walks through fire. Literal chills

One can't mention chills without mentioning Krishna. It was the absolute BEST part of the movie no doubt. And not revealing his face was the best decision they made in the movie, the audience unknowingly understands that he is pure divinity. And he's Dark skinned too!! Granted he's said to be as dark as the rain clouds but meh, i'll take what I can get. I doubt that an actor with a skin colour like that is accessible. But not revealing his face and letting only the horse and his silhouette show was such a good choice, I can’t get over it.

The monks with guns 🙂

The Shambala weapons in the shape of Murugan's spear??😭 Excuse me while I cry.

The Mahabharata scenes

Supreme(Kamal Hassan) taking one drop of Kalki's essence and reviving from a Skeleton to a normal human body and that LAST POSE OMG

So even though the movie had it's flaws the good parts alone were all worth it and the theatre experience is phenomenal. The simple fact that all of this is going down and lil Kalki has'nt even been born yet is hilarious to me. It could definitely have been better but the parts that mattered, they did well.

And the iconic scene, Sree Krishna himself (forgive the trashy quality)

[toodrasticallydumb]

20 questions for fic writers

Oh! Hello! I was tagged by @pinkytoothlesso11 ! Thanks for thinking of me pinky! I’m kinda new to the whole fanfic scene so i really appreciate it! This was already a long list of questions to begin with but i fear i may have made it worse…

OH WELL HAVE FUN SPORT :}>

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Unfortunately just 2, though I do plan to add a few more in the future as ideas flow. Might take me a minute ‘cause my schedule is just a little bit kinda sorta really swamped down with my main child which requires let me you, A LOT OF CARE DONT SIGN UP TO ADOPT KIDS PEOPLE IT’S NOT—

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

Phew. ummmm it changes very rapidly (because i’m a girl w suspected adhd and can NEVER be told to shut up) with every chapter but as of this moment is 228,665! wow! i don’t really know how great of a number that is but i’m sure it’s a lot! I told you I can never shut up! (-whispers- Hey kid, u want some dRuGs? i mean- an update? That itty bitty word count is about to take another not regularly scheduled mini-skyrocket so get ready for it ehehe ;})

3. What fandoms do you write for?

For now, just Trollhunters/Tales of Arcadia, mainly Trollhunters despite the fact that the first of the Tales of Arcadia shows that i watched and really enjoyed was actually 3-Below, but oh well my man is in Trollhunters sooooo oopsie but i DO have some random snippets of fics for Miraculous (rewrite), the Star Wars sequels (rewrite), Batman, some for the Dream SMP, and weirdly enough also Raya and the Last Dragon (rewrite). All of which i prolly wont ever post because i wrote them a while ago and yeaaaahhh not my best writing but if i get enough people other than my best friend wanting me to post them, i might…

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

uhhhh i dont actually HAVE five fics to my name, so i’ll just…put em in order (w their long-ahh title names):

Trollhunter!Strickler: Destiny's Ill-fitted Chosen

'A MiStAkE' because I haven't updated in ages--A Stricklake month 2023 prompt collection

but i am so happy for the people who have left so many kudos on my work it really warms mah little heart ❤️

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes. At first, I sorta struggled with it (who the heck am i kidding i STILL do) but since my fic USED to be two times a week updates i would feel like i couldn’t respond to a comment left after i posted a new chapter so i might’ve left some comments in the earlier days unanswered, super sorry. Nowadays i make it a point to reply back to everyone in the order that they commented in because (anxiety makes me think if i don’t respond they won’t comment anymore and know that i love reading their comments and that they’re so amazing for actually taking the time to write something back AND I DO LOVE IT I PROMISE IT JUST TAKES ME A WHILE TO RESPOND—) …because it’s pretty chill to geek out w em and see they liked stuff that i loved to write! I do have a backlog of comments to get to i just end up overthinking everything to match the person’s energy to be sure they know i love em.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Unfortunately, i haven’t actually finished a fully-fledged fic to say it has the angstiest ending bUt definitely a contender would be chapter 1 of my 2023 Stricklake prompt collection because i just leave it on the sad note and don’t do anything about it because angst and because spoilers for my actual story fic that will eventually make it to that point.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Happiest ending, huh? I like to say that most of the things i will/have chosen to write end happy/hopeful because i hate when books/tv shows end bittersweetly it’s like i have enough with life itself being bittersweet most of the time let me be happy LET THEM BE HAPPY. But that doesn’t exclude me from providing the proper banquet of angst that ends in caretaking, my absolute favorite trope.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Oh heck no. I would be devastated honestly, but thankfully everyone who comments is always the sweetest and kindest people ever and really encourage me to keep going, for that i am only thankful.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

No. Just no. I love romance but i am a minor, so i’ve never consumed smut nor intend to ever write it. Give me a soft romance and loving gestures, I can allude to greater happenings but not details.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I don’t, sorry. I don’t know something in me just doesn’t sit well with crossovers, for the life of me I don’t know why. Like genuinely i wish i could get into them but maybe it’s like food on a plate? i don’t like the foods touching each other so maybe the same rules apply??? yeah i’m drasticallydumb

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that i know of, no.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I don’t believe so, and if someone did they’re in for a heck of a lot of work there…

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Nope! I’d like to sometime but i have no idea how one even goes about making a co-written fic, on top of which i am a very sporadic person in terms of motivation and random ideas produced by a song i’m listening to while writing.

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

Stricklake obviously is a really big contender if not the winner, the ship that brought me to AO3, writing fanfics, and tumblr. But, if i had to pick other options i’d say Eugene and Repunzel from Tangled would be one of my ogs, another might be uhhh Chris and Aviva from Wild Kratts the og of the ogs.

15. What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Chapter 3 of my stricklake 2023 prompt collection, it just has a lot of moving parts and me and my best friend are chronic procrastinators and with the month pretty far gone it might just end up sittin’ there for the foreseeable future 😞 but who knows

16. What are your writing strengths?

Phew, that’s a dozy mainly because i’m not super sure. I’d like to think one of my main strengths is descriptions and really putting you in the mind of the character, i don’t really like spelling things out and i like a little investigating to get you where u end up, u know? I like to think my writing FEELS a little more like a show on a page rather than a true book, most to blame would be my maladaptive daydreaming taking up a lot of time in my planning for my writing.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Ah. How the turn tables. I would say that my weaknesses in writing mostly consist of me going a little *too* far into detail on meaningless things or making it too convoluted for people to understand, sometimes spelling it out is better in certain scenarios and i just really need to get myself past that. Another one i would say is that i go REALLY into detail not only in a sentence/chapter sense but also a complete STORYLINE sense, i hate time skips and i shoot myself in the foot wanting to completely document every moment of everyday w a character and hence it seems like a lot of time in universe hasn’t gone by. Trying to improve and grow tho 💪

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

Can’t wait to do more of it! Especially with Claire and her family (including NotEnrique) speaking spanglish w each other automatically mainly because i am hispanic and completely fluent in Spanish and live in a similar household so i just love to add a little ✨personalization✨ to my dialogue and interactions in that way. Other languages………….yeaaaahhh i’m not super good will prolly use google translate and hope.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Trollhunters, my gateway into AO3. HOWEVER. if you promise not to tell, the very first fandom i read/wanted to write a fanfic for was actually, as far as i can tell, Wordgirl. don’t ask why. don’t ask me how. it just kinda happened. But, officially, it’s Trollhunters. (maybe with a side of Warrior Cats).

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

Not hard at all! My pride and joy, my youngest baby in the grand scheme of my writing journey, Trollhunter!Strickler: Destiny's Ill-fitted Chosen! A surprise to absolutely NO ONE. It’s honestly so amazing to both write and see people read and enjoy as much as I do, he’s my little man ❤️ And doing so much rewriting and character growth and having so much written and planned for the future, it’s just my absolute fav

[fantomette22]

Update about my Elden Ring playthrough ! (Spoilers !)

Thanks to the TVs at school I managed to continue Elden Ring a bit over the weekend !

First, I already have Godrick, Rennala & Radahn great runes.

I finished Nokron (& Nokstella) : beat the 2nd spirit but I can't beat the 2 gargoyles yet T_T (I didn't try again this last 2 days) sorry Fia I won't see you soon.

Blaidd why are you not at Nokron ?! Milicent you said you could help me in a fight if I needed. WHERE are you ?!

So this week-end I did the following (+others things I don't remember well... I know it's not a lot but I didn't have access to a tv 24h/24)

So, I advance greatly in Ranni quest ! I give her the knife and I realized to late that oh Seluvis and his quest are dead now. Good I guess ??? I went to Nokstella after that. Weird guys T-posing were more disturbing than the inhabitants of the underground riding ants... I also found mini Ranni ! my beloved , i beat the shadow and reach the lake of rot and I stopped here 💀 Instead I went to the Raya Lucaria tower (inversed it and damn !) I beat the noble and the bridge too... didn't except him here... I went at the top of the tower next and well... found half the rune of death, the key and... you know 😔

It got me thinking... did Ranni really wanted to killed Godwyn in the first place ?? What if it's just a collateral damage ?? Just Because the black knives decided "hey let's kill Godwyn too because screw Marika and the greater will" what if Ranni just wanted to kill herself and it half-worked because she didn't wanted to succeed Marika as an empyrean ?? (WHAt the hell is an empyrean anyway?!) I only know I am potentially missing a lot of stuff!!! I knew a few things about elden ring lore already but not all and it's the first time I play...I will just keep that in mind and see later T_T Ranni...

And I got the the ring ! Iji seems fine but I'm worried about Blaidd... and I hear things if you managed to finish Seluvis quest... I need to go see this it seems crazy

And then I finished Sellen quest...sorry Jerren but I din't know you well... I got the set of Azur & Lusat set after that. T_T

I almost beast the noble apostle too... I got lost in the volcano manor trying to get to him again... then I almost beat him.

Lantenna is a really useful summon at times, you just need to left her in a safe corner.

I beat the dragon at Raya Lucaria and Adula just teleport lol

I continue Varre quest too... I could go beat Mogh if I wanted. And I thought about Vyke... about the dead maiden in the church next to the frenzied flame village (Lanseex too I guess)... and our maiden who died before our adventure begin... what went wrong... I have feels about therolina too...

[viatrixy]

TIME FOR MY AU LORE!!!

So Bassicly, there is this thing called drune inside my au. If you have seen raya and the last dragon you know what this is Bassicly gonna be. The drune are evil mist creatures made by queen christalys’s servants. She made them as a way to gain control of every pony inside of equestria, but instead. It only turned them into stone, INCLUDING twilight, celestia, Luna, cadence, and every single princess or queen inside of equestria.

but before the princesses got turned into stone, they made three Crystals resembling a unicorns horn, a Pegasus’s wings, and a earth pony’s core. Which made the drune go away, until the three different type of ponies split up, along with the crystals. Breaking Harmony, but not breaking the protection ring across all of equestria. But, making a crack inside of it, spilling a little bit of the drune.

so now everybody has to get along, reunite the crystals, and be in harmony again. Which brings the Tmnt and my oc into this-

my oc, Mia. Is going to be a earth pony.

⚠️!!!SPOILERS!!!⚠️

Mia finds a book that ms miller gives her for free. Since no pony wanted to read it, she takes it home and discovers the entirety of the lore of what I just wrote!

hope you like them cause they’re coming out soon! Bye!

[erigold13261]

I recently rewatched the JJK vs Mahito arc and I realized how Mahito wanted to see what would happen if Kento (a sorcerer) got transfigured. Ironically, in the Eriverse Mahito gets to see what happens if you transfigure a powered individual into two elementals. So yes Mahito does get his wish in the AU.

I think it was more of IF he could transfigure Kento instead of what would happen.

Because that is one thing I am so fucking mad about, is that (oh spoilers for the end of JJK season 2 btw) Mahito just fucking exploded Kento! He had the PERFECT chance to really fucking traumatize Yuji by making Yuji the one to kill Kento himself by turning him into a transfigured human.

He could have also done this with Nobara, but NOOOOOO! Mahito just had to blow Kento up and pop Nobara's face! For someone who is the most creative fucking curse out there, and wanting to break Yuji, he really fucking sucks at traumatizing!

It's like with Raya and the Last Dragon. I was so upset when Namaari didn't attack Raya with her own sword (which was her dads) because how fucking awful would it be if you died by the very sword that your dad owned? I KNOW Raya is for kids, but still! If I am remembering things correctly, Namaari just throws it back to Raya or throws it on the floor? NO! Fight her with her own sword!

Same thing with Mahito! That fucking idiot could have TRULY broken Yuji by making Yuji fight and kill Kento and Nobara! Yuji would not have the luxury of watching them slowly die on their own like with Junpei because Mahito has gotten significantly better at keeping transifigured humans alive for longer periods of times, so Yuji would HAVE to kill them to end their suffering as fast as possible!

Also, I just prefer how the manga has Kento looking AT Mahito instead of the anime where Kento is looking away. I don't know, I just like how the scene plays out with Kento looking at Mahito then at Yuji instead of looking at nothing then at Yuji, that one is just personal preference, but Mahito just killing Kento is dumb to me.

Okay, rant over, sorry! But yes! Mahito does get to see what happens! Also, I think that would have been the first time he made someone into TWO elements, or at least two opposing elements. Before he was always either adding one, taking away one, shifting elements around to make one more prominent than the other, but with Kento, he made 2 entirely new elements into Kento, as well as them being opposing elements.

This one really was to see if he could do it, but also what would happen if he could but they were also opposite elements. A normal person probably would have just fallen apart right then and there, but Kento was very strong both physically and with his soul, so he was able to stabilize himself enough to continue until Miku could fully stabilize him permanently (since it would have been too long to revert him back fully given her powers at the time).

[theturncoattournament]

Polls will start going up on Thursday! Given the number of them (there are 64 polls total), it will probably take a couple of days for all the R1 polls to be posted.

As a side note: some people submitted their propaganda with notes about spoilers attached (which I've kept in the propaganda), but given that this is kind of an inherently spoiler-y tournament by nature- I will generally not be tagging spoilers.

I have compiled a list of all the media that has characters in this tournament, though- so if you see something on this list that you do want tagged for spoilers, please let me know! Otherwise, by default, I will not be tagging things with spoiler warnings (this list will also be added to the pinned post).

Tournament Media List:

(list is in alpha order!)

2001: A Space Odyssey/2010: The Year We Made Contact

Ace Attorney/The Great Ace Attorney

Animation vs Minecraft

Arthurian legend 

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Bamse - Världens starkaste björn

Bones

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Bungo Stray Dogs

Centaurworld

Chess The Musical 

The Chronicles of Narnia

Code Geass

Critical Role (Campaign 2) 

Cult of the Lamb

DC Comics (Batfamily, Flash characters, Shazam family)

Devil May Cry

Doctor Who

Dog Man

Dragon Age: Inquisition 

Dragon Ball Z

The Evillious Chronicles 

Fable III

Fairy Tail

Fake Princess

Farscape

Final Fantasy XIV

Game of Thrones

Genshin Impact

The Good Place

Gravity Falls

The Grinch Who Stole Christmas

Hannibal

The Hunger Games

I Expect You to Die 3

The Incredibles 

Just Dance

Kingdom Hearts

Kinnporsche 

Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts 

Kirby series

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords manga

The Librarians

The Locked Tomb

Machineries of Empire

Maleficent

Marvel Cinematic Universe

Marvel Comics (X-Men, Avengers) 

Megamind

Merlin

Mistborn

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls

Nan Quest

Once Upon A Time

One Piece

The Owl House

Pandora Hearts

Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door

Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Person of Interest 

The Pirates of Penzance

Pirates of the Caribbean 

Portal 2

Power Rangers: Dino Fury

Pretty Cure (Fresh Precure, Kira Kira Precure a la Mode, Suite Precure, Hugtto Precure)

Provost’s Dog

Princess Tutu

Raya and the Last Dragon

RWBY

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

Smallville

Sonic the Hedgehog OVA 

Soul Eater

Soul series (Soul Calibur/Edge) 

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Star Wars (Prequels, Original trilogy, Rebels, Clone Wars, Knights of the Old Republic) 

Steven Universe

The Stormlight Archive

Sunless Sea

Tangled: The Series

Teen Titans (2003 series) 

Teen Wolf

Terminator films 

Transformers

Tron Legacy

Vorkosigan Saga

Warrior Cats

Wings of Fire

Wolf 359

Worm

Young Justice

Yu Yu Hakusho

[spideyskrunkly]

Wait, why do you hate Rayaari? No hate, just asking.

Oh boy, a RaTLD ask, how rare 😧

(Spoilers for Raya and The Last Dragon)

Honestly imo, they have no chemistry and Namaari just kinda a bitch to Raya. They're both cool in their own ways, but the ship's just lame as hell. If the story wasn't rushed tho and Namaari didn't gaslight Raya in the near end of the movie about Sisu's death (which made me angry at Namaari), I probably would've shipped them tbh 🤷