#she might be better because she's a main character and we see stuff through her perspective though

[ilistentogirlinred]

mina is one of the best female characters i've read in classic literature, which i find interesting

[ofswordsandpens]

I've enjoyed episode 3 the most so far, but I think the show is still struggling to find a good balance between taking itself seriously and the absurdist humor that RR writes with. My main takeaways:

The Fight Scenes (or Lack Thereof?)

It seems very peculiar to me that the show is just speed running through its battle scenes. Again, it feels very much like the product of Disney trying to sanitize anything that's too extreme?

The trio fleeing from the kindly ones in the book ended with Percy taking control of the bus and then crashing it. It explodes. They lose all of their stuff (money, food). In the show, they simply bail out the back window. No true panic. No tension. Just, okay :) we're leaving now :)

The Medusa Scene. I'll speak more to this later, but in terms of the fight we get to see... well we get to see nothing. Apparently this fight required us to view it through the lens of the invisibility cap (ie. not at all),

I understand this show is intended for a younger audience, but the books are as well. Even the movies, which are pg, came up with better ways to show things without necessarily showing things. As a result, it feels like anything that might induce the slightest bit of tension or fear are sanded down and its honestly doing such a disservice to the books and the audience.

Medusa

I actually really liked this portrayal of Medusa. The 1950s housewife vibe landed well for me. And I loved the actress's voice -- very soft and soothing but always sounding as if she were just about to cry.

Also, I really liked her dialogue. Her digs at Athena and Poseidon were perfectly tragic.

That being said, I really prefer the trio's arrival to the emporium in the book. In the books, they've been wandering the woods and are lost and exhausted and hungry because of the battle/bus crash where they've lost all of their stuff. It almost feels like the emporium popping up "out of nowhere" was more of it finding them.

Meanwhile in the show, Grover finds it through scent on a satyr path and they immediately know its Medusa, which imo takes out so much of the fun of it all??? In the books, they dont know. Grover's just like, freaking the ever living fuck out, and clearly Percy and Annabeth have let him take sole custody of the shared brain cell, cause they're more concerned about getting some food than anything else

Just... RIP dumbass shenanigans

And honestly, I'm not really sure what necessitated the change here in the show (of them not being tricked). It would have been one thing if they were going to change Medusa entirely to not wanting to harm them at all, but imo, I think its arguable/evident that show Medusa was looking for an excuse to petrify Annabeth and Grover (at minimum) regardless of anything.

Honestly, I would have had the show loosely play it out as: book arrival (they dont know its Medusa), keep the dumbass energy and banter, the trio figures out it Medusa while they're eating, Medusa is the more sympathetic version we see in the show, regardless it still ends with the battle.

Also, I do mourn the book battle. The panic and absurdity is just handled better imo. Annabeth shoving them off the bench, Grover flopping all over the place with the shoes but actively getting a good few hits in, Percy having to use to the reflection to behead her... the #TeamWork was emphasized a little more there to me.

Characterization

I think the show is absolutely nailing certain parts of the characters.

They've gotten Percy's anger and his derision towards the gods down. But, I think they're actually underscoring some of his, idk, sincerity? His kindness? It was the line "she met a pinecone's fate" that just rang off to me. While undoubtedly funny, it's just such a stark difference from his reaction to Thalia's story in the books, where he was unsettled by her fate and felt a sincere sympathy for her. The line in the show I assume is meant to criticize the gods, but still, it feels like it comes at the expense of the sensitivity that he has.

They've gotten Annabeth's bluntness, intelligence, pride, and superiority down cold. No question about it. But I feel like they just need to let her be more of a 12yo kid?

Like. In canon she and Percy banter and argue over the silliest of things. She plays hacky sack with Grover and Percy. She blushes and hyperventilates when Luke interacts with her. Episode 3 is like the first time we've gotten to see her do something remotely childish (buying all that candy) and I'm just dying for more of that!! She's not the "mom" of the group and she has her canon dumbass moments. I'm hoping more of this is captured moving forward. They've gotten a good start on the banter, but let Annabeth be more silly! Cause she is!

(Absolutely none of my personal qualms about the characterization are Walker or Leah's fault. They've done amazing. It's the writing/directing I'm side-eyeing).

OH! And I'm sorry but Percy being like "Annabeth we're going to bury medusa with your hat on" would have never ever flown with Annabeth. In no world.

But Grover eating them up at the end? Iconic. Good for him.

[askagamedev]

Related again to Concord: back in 2016, when Overwatch and Battleborn released simultaneously, I read somebody online say that Overwatch succeeded not because it was a better game, but because it had characters that teenagers were horny about. I know this was a joke, but is there any truth in that? I imagine the main target user of online shooters is mostly male, and in their teens (or ok with juvenile themes). Do games with characters that male teenagers are used to find sexy sell more?

"Sexy" is a subset of the twelfth principle of animation that's applying here - "Appeal". "Appeal" generally means "visually interesting", which we can break down into different aspects. For things to be visually interesting, some things we want to consider are interesting shapes, exaggeration of key features, and paring down the unimportant details so the important stuff stands out more.

The first thing we want to look at is shapes. When we look at characters, the first thing we see is their silhouette. Silhouettes need to look different from each other or they're dull. Different shapes are much more interesting to look at. Our eyes are trained to pick out things that are visibly different, so having the characters be comprised of different shapes makes them stand out more. Look at how Hsien-Ko here has so many sharp angles and different elements to break up her design. The wide belt, the different colored tunic, and the enormous arms that show the broad A-shape of her body.

After shapes, we want to exaggerate their key features. Beyond than the basic shapes, we want certain details about the character to be memorable. It might be a fancy mustache, a waistline, a color swatch, a hairstyle, a particular bit of clothing that makes the character unique. The key features should stand out and draw attention to themselves! Hsien-Ko's attacks all come from inside her massive sleeves, which have the enormous yellow accent on the end. This is on purpose - you can tell at a glance where the attacks will be coming from when she fights. Her body also has extra detail - the belt and tunic stand out against the darker other colors to draw your eye and tell you that this is where she is vulnerable. The hat and talisman identify what she is - a Jiang-shi.

Beyond that, human eyes get confused if there's too much to look at. We want the signal to be as strong as possible. This means we want to pare down and simplify away extra unnecessary details. The important bits about the gameplay must stand out, and all the other stuff should fade into the background. Too much to look at feels overwhelming or "busy".

Look at what happens to her clean design when there are a lot of additional details added. She looks pretty, but there would be so much context lost if this were used in a game - how does she fight? What's important to look at? This takes us from a clean visual design that conveys a lot of information to a more generic "sexy" design that doesn't tell us much else.

Consider what this design looks like when built in the Soul Calibur character creator - the extra details from the hat, sleeve belts, hair danglies, shoes, etc. all break up the look and make things look messy. The "same" design here just doesn't work as well, because we can't apply these same principles as well.

Making characters sexy is a shortcut to making them appealing, since sexy characters lean into the principles of appeal in specific ways. Sexy characters do work these core concepts of appeal, but appeal is essentially universal. The main purpose of appeal here is to convey information quickly about the character in a direct visual way. We do this through using interesting shapes, exaggerating the important details, and paring down the unnecessary extras.

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[freedelusionshere]

S4 thoughts (sorry it's long)

That kitchen is Syd’s. Carmy is just the chef.

If Syd leaves in S4, Tina will be upset AF. She will then probably go in on Carmy because she holds back until she doesn’t, and she’s already issued him a warning about how he treats Syd.

I kind of need to see it? Like, she’ll be pissed and then she’ll ask him what’s going on with him, just like she did when he was trapped in the walk-in. And notice how he feels in that moment like he can tell the truth to Tina, who he knows won’t bullshit him, versus how he reacts to Claire and Richie (his past).

Marcus will have some shit to say, too. Because when he asked Carmy to take them there, he didn’t mean what Carmy does in S3. This is not The Blind Side, LOL, he meant the passion and creativity he brought to The Beef and lifting up others together.

I think a lot about how Syd and Carmy have sort of parented Tina and Marcus in the kitchen and then in S3 we see them collaborating (not Syd and Carmy) and inspiring each other and how they’re in such a different place now, so joyful; it’s not just a job anymore, they’re loving what they do now they know they have made something special together and feel inspired and are shown reveling in it.

What Carmy talked about in Legacy has already happened, whether he realizes it fully or not, but I think he does, because Syd asks him about whether or not he knew Ever was special when he was in the middle of doing it and he admits he did not. Carmy then invites Syd to the Ever dinner which suggests that he’s starting to rethink what he’s been doing and is giving her a direct introduction as an equal. And it’s the happiest we’ve seen her all season.

Richie is still caught up in all the family stuff like Carmy is, so he’ll blame Syd leaving on Carmy. But Richie knows exactly what is going on with Carmy, he lays it all out in Tomorow and in front of everyone (a true Berzatto fam move). But Richie still doesn’t want to deal with the Mikey baggage any more than Carmy does.

Syd has basically replaced Mikey at The Bear in hearts and minds Richie hasn’t fully accepted it yet, he’s preoccupied with his gentleman transformation and looking for alliances. She's not Mikey, but her arrival and her idea that it could be so different (as she tells Carmy in S1) actually holds space for others to become better. Like Chef Terry did for Carmy. Carmy knows how much Syd wanted to go to Noma and she sent Marcus instead!

Now, I think it’s going to come full circle in S4 with Luca being around. Luca knows Carmy and watched him like a hawk. He is on the other side of what Carny has been doing. He knows that Syd was at Ever for reasons and he’s asking her very prying personal questions about herself, just like Carmy and Marcus have tried to do and gets kind of shut down. Not all the way, because Syd lets it go on a bit longer than she did with Marcus or Carmy because Luca actually opens up and talks about himself. She’s still dodging, though!

Syd in S4 might try to run away from stuff which the show has talked about constantly but hasn't shown the why. At least not from her perspective, but since we're getting her having anxiety attacks and seeing flashbacks that mirror Carmy's, I think we will.

I have always thought since I started watching this show (which was very late, I watched the first episode and didn't pick it back up until later) that Syd is actually the main character of The Bear. She's the one who has influenced everything since the first episode. Yes, it's shown through Carmy's POV, but it's about her. All of his thoughts and behavior are centered on her.

[sokacoke]

Compiling some questions and information regarding indigo park from unique geese's live streams.

Some clips might not be long enough for the full answer due to YouTube only being 60 seconds so just keep that in mind.

A bit of the older ones could contain stuff that aren't up to date that I forgot to remove because I was making this in my notes for like 3-5 weeks so lets uh. ignore those!! (ill delete them later maybe)

IF I SCREAM THE STREAM ENDS

'I think comparing Issac to fucking Willam afton is such a sad comparison'

Credits to @lunozapp for the clip

INDIGO Q&A 

“Will there be any boss fights?”

‘That’s a hard thing to say. I’m gonna say no.’

“How old are Rambley and his friends?”

'They’re all over 18. Probably around there early 20s at oldest.  They’re younger but I don’t really have set ages for them.'

“Would Indigo park be rated M?”

'I would argue indigo park chapter 1 could get away as teen but I’d like to rate it up as a M by chapter 2.'

“Is chapter 2 going to take place under the park?”

'No. There might be parts under but chapter 2 won’t.'

“Rambley has been left alone since the park closed. Has he practically sat alone for that long?”

'In all technicality, he was sitting there alone and abandoned for many years. He’s not fully aware of what’s going on, but he is you know?” 

“Do you have any plans for future chapters?”

'The entire greater story has been set in stone for months and we don’t have any plans to change it.'

'There’s stuff in chapter 1 that people won’t realize are important to the plot until chapter 5.'

“Is mollie macaw an antagonist?”

'Depends what you’re saying when you say mollie macaw. Antagonist is a strong word.'

LAUNCH STREAM

“Is the raccoon evil?”

'No. You guys just buckle up. you’ll see.'

REACTING TO YOUTUBERS 

“Did you expect for Rambley to be popular with the furries?”

‘I made a joke that it would be popular within it but nothing in the game was designed to be furry. It was just like “hey we need parody’s of Mickey Mouse and Disney characters” ending up creating characters I really liked.'

“Do you know that there’s already NFSW art of Rambley?”

'It’s the internet sorry. If you make NFSW stuff I just ask you don’t send it to me or inject it to the rest of the community. Keep it separate, these are like my children.'

“How many versions of the railroad did u go through?”

'It took quite a while. We would get to a point where we kind of liked it and then be like “oh I don’t really like this it doesn’t flow really well.” I think the great thing going into chapter 2 we have a better understanding of what we want the game to look. Chapter 2s going to be mainly a lot of the rides. It was kind a deal where I wanted you to feel claustrophobic but it was hard to deal with those open environments. I’m not gonna announce anything crazy but chapter 2 will start in the queue and lobby for oceanic oddesy'

“How many chapters will there be?”

'The game plan is five.'

“Is this the last time we will see Mollie? Her death screen mentions she can copy voices but that wasn’t shown. Will be shown again to do that mechanic?”

'The voices were less of a mechanic and more of showing going on when she’s talking throughout the game. All the dialogue is something she’s heard during game,behind the scenes of the park or something that a guest has said.'

“Is Rambley the bad guy?”

'What part of the game made you think Rambleys the bad guy? No.'

“I trust Rambley with my life. If he betrays us I’ve already forgiven him.”

'Yeah, you don’t need to worry about that.'

“Whys the main character so jacked?”

'It’s just the character model I had I was using. We might change it.'

Critter cuff

'I was big against the idea of having one mechanic. They saw poppy playtime and instantly thought “every mascot horror needs a mechanic.” The critter cuffs important but I also want different fun mechanics that can be worked into it.'

“Do you plan to add more characters?”

'There will be more characters added into chapter 2. There may some returning characters. Obviously Rambley will be the focus of every chapter he’s ur buddy through ur journey. We do have a new set of characters.'

“Will there be another credits song in chapter 2?”

'We don’t want to start planning stuff until we know for sure how much money is there budget wise.'

“Where’s the cat?”

'There originally was just a regular ass cat that was in the and was in the game for quite a while. The model we had didn’t look like it fit the world and the animation looked stiff. Maybe we bring it back.'

“What were the stealth things in the files for?”

'Originally there was a section where Lloyd would follow you and you’d hide. I definitely want to do some stealth stuff where you have to hide under stuff I think that’d be a lot of fun.'

“Will Mollie return?”

'Do you think Mollie will return?'

“Is Rambley sentient?”

'He’s fully aware of everything around him but he’s programmed to behave a certain way. The best comparison would be GLaDOS or Wheatley from portal. Programmed to act a certain way, but also aware and able to see stuff around them and react.'

“How long will chapter 2 be?”

'We’re aiming chapter 2 to be just a little bit longer then chapter 1. We want each chapter to be a bit longer than before. I’d say for chapter 2, two and a half

'The only character that won’t have much influence is clearly Mollie.'

“What about Lloyd?”

'Lloyd’s cool and Lloyd will be important. That is all I can say.'

“Will there be other AI companions?”

'No. It’s just Rambley the main mascot.'

“Is there a possibility of a major overhaul of chapter 1?”

'There’s room to improve it a bit. In the future, I can see us doing a full on remaster of chapter 1.'

“Never make Rambley a creep I will not forgive you for it”

'You got it.'

“What’s the estimated gap between the chapters?”

'Year to Year and a half, maybe two. Chapter 2 is definitely 2025.'

“Don’t be fooled?”

'There was a lot more potential do something with that. If we had more budget then it would be really cool where you’re running through the pipes and you have to listen for Rambleys voice through the pipes and sometimes it would be mollies voice. It would be Rambley guiding you and then you hear Mollie trying to sound like Rambley.'

“It hurts Lloyd”

'That’s the funny thing. I don’t wanna get TOO deep into it but this was kinda just random text. I’ve seen 5 or 6 different interpretations of what people think it says.'

'Without spoiling anything I do think multiple ending’s for the final chapter would be kinda cool.'

REACTING TO MATPAT

“A lot of sexual tension between these guys”

'Shout out to the furries because I’ve seen every combination of characters being shipped and it wasn’t until today that a single female character was involved that all. Not mollie not Nonbinary with Salem it was literally just the 3 men'

“Does Rambley canonically sing Rambley review?”

'Yes he actually does. It’s in between chapter whenever ur going into chapter 2. The player could turn around and find a way out now but he actively wants to keep going with Rambley.'

TALKING ABOUT INDIGO PARK,FNF AND MORE

“The voice and creator of indigo park”

'I don’t voice anyone expect for Jackson and another character that no ones found yet.'

“Are you ever going to get a console support?”

'So we will eventually but to be honest with you I don’t want to do that until we have like chapter 3 out. At earliest if chapter 2 becomes massive then maybe as a bundle, but I don’t know.'

“Is chapter 2 free?”

'No it won’t be.'

FUNKAST THEN FNAF

'Other then a few minor tweaks we have the first few minutes of Rambleys dialogue at the beginning of chapter 2 written out.'

'I don’t think we’ll ever do a fox character. We were brainstorming some of the characters in chapter 2 and thought “oh maybe a fox would be cool” but we were looking at the role that this character would have to play if they were a fox and thought “at some point we’re just making knock off foxy from fnaf”'

“What the species”

'I cant disclose that sorry chief. There are other animal based cartoon characters in chapter 2 if that satisfies you. Furries rejoice I guess? I feel like it’d be harder to do a human villain.'

“How hard is it to make an idea of a character?”

'All of the characters we make need a purpose. It’s layers of talking through stuff and ideas to get stuff we like. The designs for them aren’t done but the idea for them is there and i am in love with them.'

“So the character design isn’t finished but have you made actual development of the game?”

'No. We’re working on chapter 1 right now. Again we’re looking at a year and a half or two years until chapter 2 cuz I’m not gonna rush it or my team. We’ll have little animations stuff and between yeah we’re not gonna do anything with that.

“Update is bug fixes, trying to get controller support working,revamping some of the environments and I’m bringing on a new modeler for some of the monster designs. Not confirming but i think Finley is going to get a full on redesign for chapter 2.”

“What chapter are you most excited for?”

'To be honest with you, i think chapter 3 is where we’re going to start doing the crazy shit possible and then chapter 4 is planned to be the most bad ass chapter i could ever think of. The story gets moving chapter 4.'

NEW FNAF GAME + INDIGO PARK NEWS

'It turned out that jakeneutron who’s my head animator, was going to Disney at the same time I’m at Orlando. We met up and we took so many pictures for reference. We went to universal studios and it was my first time we ever went to universal so I took so many pictures'

“Refs for what?”

'For indigo park bro. Dude I needed anything theme park and I got so many ideas for the future of indigo and stuff.'

“Salem news or I’m not here”

'Do I wanna put out Salem news..Salem is important 👍'

'I’ve kind of teased it a bit but we are working on some minor chapter 1 before chapter 2 just so there’s a bit of a quality jump so it’s a little bit more in the realm of where we want it to be.'

'We are working on some environmental updates. Working on some new assets to put into chapter 1. Which should make stuff feel cooler in my opinion? '

'To accompany that one thing we didn’t have a lot of is that environmental music in regards to what they would have in a real theme park. Like if ur waiting in a queue in a theme park there’s a lot of music and stuff that they play that is custom to that. Let’s say you were waiting for Rambleys railroads, what would that sound like? So maybe a little bit of new music?'

New potential song in clip link

FINISHING INTO THE PIT & NEW INDIGO PARK PLUSH LAUNCH PARTY

“Character hints?”

'I think you will be soft introduced or at least see the character designs before chapter 2s out. Right now at this point of development there are four new characters planned.'

“Is there gonna have a obby theme?”

‘Probably not really. I’ve talked about a little about a mechanic that we started to workshop and figuring out how it’ll work in the lore and gameplay elements but I probably won’t talk about it again.'

“Will there be a haunted house ride or a dark ride?”

'I want to do a haunted mansion parody hopefully chapter 4 or 5. Not in chapter 2 it wouldn’t fit.'

“Space mountain?”

'I have ideas for a space mountain and I can’t tell you what chapter that one will be in.'

'It’s funny cuz I’m reworking all of the chapter 1 environments and I’ve been thinking about it. There’s a fair enough of stuff that theorists haven’t caught onto yet that I hope will be super obvious in the future. I’m super excited to see what people do with chapter 2.'

HORROR GAME NIGHT & TALKING INDIGO PARK

“Will you be selling art prints maybe with posters?”

'We might do posters. There’s some new poster art coming for chapter 2 and I’m gonna leak, the (chap 1) update.'

“Now will they all have villain roles?”

'I dunno. I’ve already told you guys about some of them actually you guys just haven’t figured it out yet'

Talking about the 4 new characters

'I will say the chapter 1 update will have new secrets for you to find and some of it will help you figure out stuff in chapter 2. We are cooking is all I can say.'

“Whats ur favorite out of the 4 originals we know about since u said 4 new characters”

'Yeah let me just reveal one of the characters. No. You guys won’t- actually? You guys will know about some of the characters WAY before chapter 2 comes out.'

BACK FROM PAX! - WATCHING JACKSEPTICEYE PLAY INDIGO PARK & CATCHING UP ON FNF MODS

'there’s a little bit of the new queue! A little bit of a step up. I mean hot take but. Looks a lot better I think.'

Queue in clip

'We’re still working on it but this is what Mollies landing pad looks like now. This feels more themed.'

New mollies landing pad in clip

“Can you make an update trailer for the indigo park update so people know it exists?”

'Yea we will. We’ll change it.'

Extra notes worth mentioning:

it’s been said that there will be a meme ending for chapter 3 though I’m not able to find the clip at the moment so if anyone somehow has it u should tots send it my way

When he's talking about the 'Other character he voices that no ones found yet' it might be possible he’s yapping about the reverse Llyods Limos line Context:

Video is from forgottenstudios1987 on YT

The cat been brought back!

Another part of the new rambleys railroad queue song.

More of the New Rambleys Railroad Third link is just a very subtle railroads gift shop but it counts i think

Other landing pad clip

FEEL FREE TO ADD ANY OTHER CLIPS I MIGHTVE MISSED!

[syn4k]

hello!!! as you are the resident miante person in mcyt (there might be another one but in my opinion it's you) I have a question: if I wanted to watch mianite how would I go about that/where do I find it? I know it's a youtube thing but I don't know which channel it's actually on and I am. Extremely Curious about it & want to watch it but I have no idea where to do that /genuine question

(also, I know it's got multiple POVs, is there anyone you'd recommend I start with?)

hello! thanks for the ask!

mianite has four main POVs that remain in VOD and episode form on the creators' channels, they all have a playlist for it and you can find them pretty easily by looking up "[creator name] mianite s1" on youtube.

i recommend starting off with jordan captainsparklez' POV like we did, as he is involved in mostly everything in both s1 and s2 and his episodes are edited down to only really have the important bits. if you decide to watch back through the series later from another perspective, tom syndicate's POV is another good one to watch as he's kind of on the opposite side of everything happening in s1 and it puts a lot of his actions in context that jordan left out of his episodes.

if you don't want to watch through the series in its entirety (which is completely understandable), fern @voidandradiance has made a playlist of the important lore moments in both mianite s1 and s2 that she'd be happy to share :]

also it's really funny to me that we are the resident Mianite Guy to you when we've only been here for like, six months. this series turns ten years old today and there are people in this fandom who have been here since the beginning of it or at least who have been here for way, way longer than we have.

if you do end up sticking around here, i cannot recommend these people enough:

@kiwibirdlafayette - AMAZING artist who has been here in the trenches here since 2014. syndisparklez enthusiast. his art-only blog is @grailknightmonty and he also posts Hermitcraft stuff occasionally :3

@transandor chase my good friend chase!! resident Jordan Captainsparklez Guy. brilliant writer, also happens to be fistfighting The Horrors, you know how it his

@voidandradiance i already tagged him before and i'll fuckin do it again because this bitch's writing is stunning beyond words and xyr brain is HUGE. if you like the style of the stuff we write, you'll LOVE fern's work. its so beautiful that i physically cannot overhype it. its so good, y'all. its so fucking good.

@syndianites is, as far as we're concerned, the mouth of god himself when it comes to Tom Syndicate SynHD. there is nobody on this site who understands this character better than she does. they consistently leave the most galaxy brain objectively correct tags about him on our posts and she never fucking misses. this bitch Gets It and i am very lucky to be her friend

@coolcattime's blog is more of a general purpose one, like ours is, but she carries the f/f ships in the Mianite fandom and is also a great writer! she's written a lot of neat AU ideas and although we haven't talked with her much she definitely lives up to her url- she's one cool cat :]

@cactusprisms is also someone that we see around a lot in the notes of our mianite posts, although we unfortunately havent talked much. also more of a general purpose blog but worth following anyways. shes vibing.

hope this helps! <3

[murasaki-cha]

So I read Serena.... wow. I'm gonna make a long post expressing my opinions because THERE ARE A LOT!! (there's pictures too!)

These are going to be just my thoughts and how I understood the story + characters so if anyone disagrees, sorry but our vibes don't match, please don't come at me.

Now first of all can they adopt me??

Ok going to be serious here (not for long) this manhwa is so good!! I have read another manhwa of Ina-nim, the author/artist, called "Black Winter" (it's amazing go check it out) so I knew this was going to have layers upon layers as a story. AND IT DID!!

The story is so complex, everyone is scheming something, no one says the full truth and you never know when you might get stabbed in the back.

I'm going to be honest, I've known about Serena since it came out and I didn't want to read it. Not because I thought the story was bad or anything, since I knew how great this author is already thanks to their previous story, but because I knew it was going to be messy. Super messy. And it is, it is a hot dumpster fire mess. And I didn't really want to deal with it since it would have been exhausting and I would have dropped it or put it on hold. But by now (chapter 72 as of the latest update) I think that it has become more "stable" to say and I found it easier to enjoy the story since I read it in one go.

I particularly loved that none of the characters were good. No one. But no one is exactly bad either. Everyone here is just gray, they're flawed, they do bad stuff, they hurt each other. No one is right or wrong. We see things form their perspective and we see their reasoning but whether we sympathise with them is up to us because, let's be real, even their thought process can be fucked up at times.

Besides Victor. Victor is pure evil. If we throw holy water at Victor he will start melting. Victor should be burned.

Now moving along let's talk about the main characters.

Starting with Serena. First of all MOTHER!!🛐-

Now Serena is the type of fl I expected to get lots of hate(and she did). She had a lover while she was married, she was way too stubborn, she thinks she's better than everyone, etc. And yeah she did all those things. She's also a very traumatised little girl who had her entire world shattered at the age of 17, had to marry a stranger and feel her worth slip through her fingers. Serena is constantly paranoid due to her past experiences and the way she's been treated. She's desperately grasping for whatever little power she can have in the begining.

Now that is not to say she's never done anything wrong. Her using Fredrick as merely a way to destress and a shield, her prejudice against Eiser simply because of his family, her thinking she deserves to be in charge even if she is unexperienced simply because she is a Serenity, her refusing to see anything from anyone's perspective but hers. She's too prideful, too stubborn, too guarded.

But she's a great businesswoman, she takes her tasks seriously and she's super intelligent. The moment she started working on the hotel she changed because she was finally in her element. That spoiled, angry Serena in the beginning was simply what the isolation had done to her, the way it had fundamentally changed her. She started seeing everything in a new light when she started learning how to manage the hotel and being more open minded while still being guarded. Serena is a perfect morally gray main character, she's flawed, she's human.

Next we have Eiser. DADDY-

I swear I'm not being biased when I say I loved Eiser SO MUCH! First things first, he is an asshole. Not gonna sugar coat it. In fact that is the sugar coating. He is quite possibly the most secretive man alive, we know exactly 3 things about his past in the last 72 chapters and I'm not even being sarcastic, that's the total amount. And that is probably what makes him so interesting as a character to me at least.

One of my favorite things about Eiser was that he didn't have any feelings about Serena in the beginning. Yeah he mostly saw her as a means to an end and felt a smidge of responsibility because of her brother, but that was it. He honestly did not care about what Serena did or thought. Eiser's only objective is to save Serenity hotel, probably fuck up his family along the way because screw them and the rest is an enigma. He doesn't do feelings, not anymore at least.

We learn from the beginning that he's not a "good guy", he's not Male Lead™ that's mean to fl to protect her or to not get close to her and his whole world revolves around her etc. He's not just this guy meant to be a love interest, he's a whole other well constructed character. He has his own goals (which we never know what they are because his thought's are more secretive and guarded than the Vatican Apostolic Archives), he follows the most efficient way to achieve those goals and that's all that matters to him. He recognized Serena's skills all along yet still thought of her as a spoiled little princess because he didn't care about knowing her, didn't need to, that wasn't going to help him.

There really isn't much development about Eiser aside his relationship with Serena (but that's a talk about further below), but that's kind of on point for him. Unlike Serena, Eiser has been doing business for years now, he knows how to run things, he knows how to work with people, he has experience and skill and friends (surprisingly). Eiser's role is more of a mentor for Serena than as someone who also needs to learn.

And last Frederick (gonna hide behind a chair real quick)

Don't come at me for this but to be 100% honest, Frederick was as interesting to me as a white sheet of paper. Most of the time he was just there. That's it. Look the man is mysterious I agree and his character would have been so so interesting but he literally gave me nothing. I swear I'm being unbiased, even if Eiser didn't exist this man would have done nothing to impact me as a reader. But I think that shows how important or how much impact he made to Serena's story.

Frederick is interesting in the fact that we don't know his role in the story. He says he's doing everything to help Serena yet will that make him an antagonist or not is yet to be revealed. Also Frederick isn't even his name??? so there's that. Unlike the first two, he appears too few times and we don't really know what's up with him. So far he has made it his main objective and like basically his personality to protect Serena from his employers.

I liked that it showed he came here with impure intentions and his own goals but ultimately he just made his entire world revolve around keeping Serena safe and that kind of bumped me. The most interesting thing about him so far right now is the mystery of his past (who he killed, what's his true identity) and whether he'll be an antagonist by the end or not.

And now we move to the most dreaded thing. The romance.

I'm gonna say it straight up, Serena x Eiser for the win. Enemies to lovers has gone and done it again and by god did I EAT IT UP!! They were mother and father fr!!

Now let me express my opinions on both couples here with actual words.

First I want to talk about Serena and Frederick. From the beginning this story did not have a love triangle, at least for me. Serena and Frederick always looked like a relationship born out of necessity (which Serena later on confirms that that's what it might have been all along). Serena craved for whatever warmth and protection she could get and Frederick became kind of a safe place for her. She essentially used Frederick as a distraction, a means of relaxation and someone to just vent. She never properly saw him as his own person or equal but as a means of escape from her struggles.

Meanwhile Frederick himself didn't exactly love Serena in a pure way. He loves her yes, but he's also obsessed with her. He feels the need to make her need him so he can stay by her side. He wants to be the only one seeing her weak and vulnerable, caging her and himself in this relationship. And the only way he knows she will be by his side is if she uses him. And the more Serena takes charge of things as head of Serenity and builds herself up, the more Frederick notices that she's slipping away from him so he desperately clings to the mission of protecting her from his employer. He even admits these himself:

Perhaps they did have something beautiful in the beginning but it slowly developed into a relationship that caged them both.

Now sit down because I'm gonna be talking about mommy and daddy (I unironcally call them that no I'm not joking) and this talk is going to be a loooong one *cracks knuckles*

Serena and Eiser were never the picture perfect couple, furthest thing from it and they were not planning on trying to change that anytime soon. They were toxic, they hurt each other and they didn't care about each other. To Eiser, Serena was just the girl he was supposed to marry to save Serenity and to Serena, Eiser was the man that took Serenity and might kill her in the future. None of them saw each other in a good light and none of them bothered to understand the other. Eiser was completely indifferent towards Serena and Serena just wanted to hurt him. Off to a great start because they were already at rock bottom so the only way to go is up!

The way their relationship developed was really natural and well paced. Everyone knows that the beauty of a good enemies to lover is the slowburn AND THE SLOWBURN WAS SLOWBURNING HERE LEMME TELL YOU! They first needed to see each other in a new lighting as equal business partners to go any further into their relationship or start trusting each other. They're both very calculative people and Eiser did see that, has always seen that, so he resulted to manipulating Serena into "competing" with him to give her the chance to properly work in the hotel. And Serena took the bait but never played right into the palm of his hand and always took charge of things her own way.

It was important for them to recognize each other's full capabilities, not just with the veil of "Grayan" or "Spoiled little princess". Most importantly it was essential for Serena to see that Eiser is in fact truly helping her family without any ulterior motives (that are harmful to her family at least) and never had any plans of taking over and eliminating her. And while Eiser was always aware of Serena's abilities and respected her as an individual, he always too disinterested in her to see how fully capable she is. One of the funniest things in my opinion was how Eiser was showering Serena with praises in his head 24/7 yet verbally he would break out in hives before complimenting her. (Istg the communication in this household died back in that carriage with Serena's family)

And that was the biggest wall that blocked them from going further with their relationship, so as soon as that was gone, well would you look at that, they can actually get along just fine and decently! And the romance just came along to them naturally.

Eiser was always drawn to Serena since he first saw her, he was always intrigued by her actions even if that left him puzzled. He always read people for his benefit, but Serena simply caught his eye every time by pure curiosity. He enjoys seeing her expressions and reactions and her journey to rising to her rightful place. Plus, Eiser always felt a kind of kinship with Serena. He saw the loss, betrayal and devastation in her and recognized it as the same as his own. The fight Serena put all these years to try and keep her place and protect what's hers is what he wished he had done all those years back and what someone had done for him when he was at his lowest. It was only after he truly got to know Serena that all these feelings started to subconsciously transform into something else, something even he isn't truly aware of.

Serena surprised me by being the first one to recognize(?), in a way, she had fallen but I'm not complaining, it was beautiful. Serena's main problem with Eiser was that she couldn't trust him, for very obvious reasons, that mans true thoughts are locked in a safe inside a safe inside another safe that happens to be inside a warehouse in Antarctica. I think the most important thing for Serena was to get to realize that Eiser was trying to truly help her family and the hotel. To me there were 3 major moments where Serena's feelings for Eiser changed: When they went to visit President Harol's mansion and he took the peaches and also defended her, when he said he'll build another hotel by the seaside during their date and when he told her he didn't hate her. All these moment helped Serena see that she had made a wrong assumption about Eiser and even though that wasn't enough to dispel all her suspicions towards him, rightfully so because Serena isn't an idiot, it made her trust him a bit more and be more comfortable around him.

Also their backstory, with Eiser being Serena's "prince" was so freaking cute. And the way she always looked for him when she went to those masquerade parties as a way of comfort, sobbing on the floor. If you go back and reread, you'll see that Serena has always been conscious of Eiser from the very start, albeit subconsciously. She always described him touching her like "The spot where he touched burned even after he had let go", or how she was conscious of being dressed "thinly" in front of Eiser but never in front of anyone else, not even Frederick. In my opinion, she had recognised Eiser as the masked prince at the time or knew subconsciously, but because of the animosity between him and her prejudice against him because he was a Grayan, she didn't want to admit it because that would admit that Eiser was anything but a simple marriage and business partner to her.

And now with the release of chapter 72, I am dreading the road in which their relationship is heading and how far back it may devolve. Like I don't blame Eiser because 1) he doesn't know about Serena's trauma 2) he saw red after seeing the way that man was hurting his wife I support the Grayan in him taking over at that moment. But unfortunately for Serena he just proved her greatest fear when it came to him, that he's still very much a Grayan no matter how much he despises them. Her reliving her childhood trauma and seeing Victor in Eiser could revert her to earlier Serena where she was always paranoid and scared of Eiser, but now with proof that he is in fact just as dangerous as she thought him to be. Worse thing is, she can't even go to Fredrick for comfort because she's suspicious of him too so she's truly alone (she has Sui but Sui was there before too and we saw the state in which Serena was in back than). This is a very complicated and simply put shit situation for them, it could possibly be one of their roughest patches in their entire relationship and it's going to take understanding from both Eiser and Serena to get over it and possibly, hopefully, truly trust each other after this. Please Ina-nim please I'm putting my trust in you!! (Ina-nim played us all like a cheep kazoo with chapter 72 like I could not have been more wrong and thank fuck for that! Never have I been so happy to be so incredibly wrong about something! War is over people cheered everyone cried tears of joy!!)

And lastly, thank you for coming to my ted talk, this entire post was just a way for me to vent all the thoughts this webtoon gave me and If you read it, good for you, I love you. As a reward have this collage of chibi mommy and daddy being silly goofy because my chosen career path requires me to have adobe illustrator and I never use it responsibly

[waitmyturtles]

High points and question points of 23.5, episode 7:

1) The mood is so much better. It's cute! Fon Kanittha does a wonderful job of focusing on elements of family and community in her pieces -- I love that she doesn't keep Ongsa's and Alpha's parents behind a curtain, that they're responsive to the nostalgic joys of watching a group of high schoolers commune and find each other.

2) Having Ongsa and Sun confirm their relationship while Ongsa was wearing a traditional outfit meant a lot. It's a visual bucking of an expectation of how a "woman should behave." Ongsa was of course gorgeous, but the shots of her holding Sun with those big gold bangles also meant that she was taking tradition to a new place, creating her own traditions -- all while we know that she was burdened with fear beforehand about publicly going out with Sun, and being afraid that Sun wouldn't feel comfortable being out with Ongsa (which clearly is not the case). (I also loved the move of having Ongsa get out of the first outfit, which was clearly indicative of a lower station than how Sun and Ton think about Ongsa. That was a nice little twist.)

3) @bengiyo mentioned in his Stray Thoughts on this episode that he wished that we could have sat a touch more in Ongsa's discomfort on the above, and I agree. This show is missing an exploration of emotional stuff that we've seen in other pieces by Fon Kanittha, especially, for me, as compared to 10 Years Ticket.

(On the recommendation of @dribs-and-drabbles, I'm giving My Precious a shot this weekend. MP is centered around a core romance, but in this piece, much of the first quarter of the piece is spent building the huge community around the main couple. And we get emotional nuances, wherever they might be, both from the individual characters, AND by learning more about them through each of their sets of parents, very similar to the structure of 10YT. In 23.5, we've rushed through this, or we didn't explore it in full.)

I have a theory: since this is GMMTV's first GL, I wonder if Fon is either intentionally, or being made to, give more attention to love tropes, either by reference to older ones, or creating new ones for GLs. We saw kabedon last week, for instance, and we're seeing a love interest make a turn for their courtier when it seems like their courtier may be straying, etc. (although the latter isn't necessarily specific to BLs). Since My Precious is also airing at the same time, I can't make a judgment as to Fon's takes on pure romance, as 10 Years Ticket was a community-focused lakorn of many stories. But in any case, it's weird that we're seeing these emotional skips. Just a couple more minutes spent, at this very moment, on WHY Ongsa has this (sometimes excruciating) hesitation of speaking and insecurity would be helpful to match what emotion we're seeing out of Sun. And seeing Sun nice and angry and jealous -- again, from my thoughts last week, I thought we'd see that a bit more after the catfishing reveal in holding Ongsa accountable.

I think this need for emotional clarity is dampening my overall embrace for this show, especially because I honestly didn't expect it from Fon Kanittha. But again, I thought the mood of this episode and the consistency of it made more sense than last week.

[highfantasy-soul]

Storylines NATLA Cut

While the 8 episodes of season 1 managed to weave together most of the plot lines (or at least themes from the episodes) from the animated show into the live action, there were a few notable storylines that were cut. I wanted to go over those plots and speculate as to why they might have been cut and whether we might see them in future seasons woven in (like how a couple things from future seasons were woven into this season).

Imprisoned

One of Katara's first big leadership moments was in episode 6 of the animated series when the Gaang stumbles upon an earth nation village taken over by the Fire Nation. All their benders had been rounded up and sent to a prison so that they couldn't fight back - the Gaang obviously get involved, plot ensues, and Katara gets herself arrested so that she can find the prison and free Haru (the earthbender she inadvertently gotten arrested). With the help of Aang and Sokka providing the earthbenders with some coal to bend, she inspires them to fight back and they free the prisoners.

I think this storyline actually naturally fits much better in book 2: Earth. The focus of season 1 of the live-action was water bending and the avatar state - I think a storyline focused on earth bender resistance fits perfectly in season 2 where we get to see even more of how oppressive Fire Nation rule is and how they're 1) seeking to take out all the other benders and 2) doing their whole imperialist thing with stealing natural resources from the populace they're colonizing.

Katara has her moment to speak on her mother with Jet in episode 3 of the live-action and I think it's a natural change to keep the rebellious side-character count manageable for now. Jet fills the role to show Katara's desire for rebellion and standing up to the fire benders and while I think the Imprisoned storyline is really important, I think they've got plenty of room to do that in season 2. A big part of that story was Katara leading people to stand up when they hadn't been before and I think there's a nice homage to that in the final episode of the live-action when she gets all the women in the North to stand up to Pakku and demand to fight.

So I don't think they've fully nixed this storyline, I think they'll include it in the Gaang's trek through the Earth Kingdom on their way to Ba Sing Se. To me, the live action is doing a better job at building the characters rather than starting out with them fully formed. Katara has learned through the first season of the live action about all different leadership styles and has grown emotionally to a point where she's not only confident in standing up against injustice, but also leading others in that fight against oppressors. I think moving her leadership skills from episode 6 of season 1 to season 2 will let us really see her journey to that point rather than just having her start there.

2. The Pirates

In the animated show, Katara doesn't get the Waterbending Scroll until episode 9 of season 1, everything she does with waterbending up until that point was just stuff she figured out herself. In the animated show, the Gaang stops and Katara starts training Aang in waterbending, he shows off and washes all their supplies away so they have to go into town to buy more. This is where Aang randomly buys a bison whistle (why a shopkeeper in the Earth Kingdom would have a bison whistle is not explored) and the group also is invited onto a pirate ship to brows their wares. Katara notices a waterbending scroll and it's far too expensive for them to buy, so Katara steals it from them (as they made it clear they stole it from its rightful owner). A main theme of this episode is showing how naturally gifted Aang is and Katara getting frustrated because she's had to work so hard for her little bit of waterbending and Aang just surpasses her immediately. Zuko and Iroh show up looking for a pai sho piece and shenanigans ensue with the Gaang fighting off both pirates and Zuko, but of course, they manage to escape.

So the two main things in this episode were 1) getting the waterbending scroll so Katara could learn more formal forms and 2) dealing with how the dynamic of the group changes as Aang easily surpasses Katara in waterbending power.

I like that the live action tied the waterbending scroll directly to Katara's family and them hiding their culture to keep it alive until the time came when they could revive it once more. I think it's a much more impactful way for her to get the scroll than just some random pirates. It also allows her to actually train from the beginning rather than just being naturally good - in the live-action, Katara really has to work at her waterbending and get help. While she's a naturally fast learner and super powerful, she needs at least some form of guidance whether that be how to get in the right spiritual mindspace for bending or the physical movements for different forms provided by the scroll. Animated Katara has already been doing very advanced moves (bending water out of Aang's lungs, lifting a fish, throwing water and freezing it, etc) and it doesn't really feel like the animated show continues to show the new stuff Katara learns from the waterbending scroll - it's just the water whip and then the scroll is forgotten (almost like this is an episodic kid's show where each story is largely self-contained and plot points rarely arc into other episodes).

As it's the episode were Aang really starts learning waterbending and they've held off on having that part of his journey in the live action for now, it makes sense that they nixed it. It's a fun character building episode, but in the grand scheme, everything accomplished here can be accomplished elsewhere (and possibly in season 2). Katara feeling a bit miffed that Aang picked everything up quickly while she had to work really hard at it can easily be moved to season 2 when they address Aang learning the new bending styles. I also like how they moved him getting the bison whistle at a random shop in this episode to Bumi having made it for Aang back when they were both kids.

Of course, they do give easter eggs for this plot as well as the great divide one in episode 6 of the live-action, so it's possible the Gaang did have similar adventures, just off-screen.

3. The Fortune Teller

I'm perfectly fine with them nixing the plot of this storyline and moving the themes of 'take destiny into your own hands, don't look to others to tell you what to do without examining their methods of determining your own destiny' and scattering it through the entire season. The hard plot sets up Kataang as a couple which I didn't particularly like, nor did I feel like it followed the actual theme of the episode. Katara is obsessed with believing everything the fortune teller predicted and for part of the story, the lesson is 'that's bull, make your own destiny, just because she said it doesn't make it true' but then when it comes to her marrying a powerful bender, suddenly that lesson is thrown out and she realizes that Aang is a powerful bender so maybe they will end up together? It felt like a lot of mixed messages with the goal of setting up a 12 year old with a 14 year old and like I've said before, I'm not a fan of child romances. Once they turn 15, ok, but 12? No.

4. Aang's part in Bato of the Water Tribe

I think it was a great beat in the animated show to have Aang so afraid that Sokka and Katara might leave him for their "real" family - then have them confirm to him that they're with him all the way. The storyline does hammer home how alone in the world Aang feels and his fear that everyone will leave him either because they have 'family' of their own or his path is just too difficult. While the character beat was good to include, I think it's too big of a character beat to be relegated to only a portion of an episode in the live-action. I think if they want to explore Aang's fear of abandonment, they'll need to spend a good deal of time on it not only because it's a big part of him but also because to this day, some fans haven't forgiven Aang for hiding that map - if they want to do it justice, we're going to need more than a quick blurb to understand Aang's motivations and give the audience time to forgive him. 

I'm glad they took Sokka's part of that episode and gave him the spotlight - and the spotlight could remain on celebrating Water Tribe culture rather than having Aang in the background making throwing up faces at everything. I think that the live action can still add in the ideas around Aang's insecurity over Katara and Sokka leaving him to go back to their people, and if they add it into season 2, I think it'll hit even harder after already seeing Bato in that season 1 flashback.

5. Sokka's Strategies

 20 episodes in the animated show gave Sokka a lot of opportunity to come up with unique strategies to win in unexpected ways such as using explosives to 'open' the door to Roku's temple, the ventilation shafts to get the coal to the earth benders in Imprisoned, and him tricking the pirates into fighting Zuko and co. While at first, I thought not having so much of that in the live-action was taking away from Sokka's character, on a re-watch, I realized that they didn't remove it, they actually gave the origin for it. Sokka's character journey in season 1 of the live-action was about him accepting that he could be more than 'just' a big strong warrior to help his people, he was allowed to explore his ingenuity too. It's only after he meets Sai the Mechanist that he starts to come up with plans to get them out of situations or form battle strategies. I think it was a great, subtle, way to show Sokka coming into his own and beginning to come up with great plans alongside his warrior skills.

I know some fans of the OG show absolutely love every side quest - and more screen time in plots that aren't all that important give a lot of space for character 'down time bonding' that a tighter story structure just doesn't have room for. I think that most of the animated show's character beats and lessons in each of their episodes was really good (with a few exceptions - one of which in The Great Divide I think the live action actually took and made much BETTER) but when making an adaptation in a completely different format, stuff is just going to have to be left on the cutting room floor.

I LOVE everything the live action added in it's place (expanding Aang and Zuko's conversation during the Blue Spirit section of episode 6, all the Fire Nation royal family stuff, everything about Gyatzo, and Sokka and Katara's spirit visions) so I'll forgive leaving out some beats from the OG. I still think that several of these storylines will make their way into season 2 in one way or another, so I'm holding off on fully declaring them 'nixed' from the live action.

[bisexualshakespeare]

I feel like I dreamt a whole comic book series

I dreamt I was sent to superhero/magic school. There I met an uncle who was shady but I really liked him for some reason so I wanted to believe he was good. I got into kid investigations around the school. Small things that eventually got big enough to threaten the school and then we figured out my uncle was behind it all. I remember there was a moment where he waa like "bet you didn't see THAT coming!" And for a moment it switched to being a ttrpg game and Brennan was like "you were suspicious the whole time! I knew it was you from jump!" And I was like "yeah I thought you probably were bad but i thought i could change you" and we defeat his evil plans and put him under house arrest.

Some time later in like seasion 2, I was outside and I saw someone who looked EXACTLY like me and i turned to tell my brother and when I looked back they were gone. So I say whatever, continue my life, several days pass. I go to a fabric store and it's cool. I leave, I'm walking around outside and then I hear me saying "this person looks EXACTLY like me" and i look up and it's me from the past! I run away so i don't see me again but then I'm like omg time travel is real and it just happened to me on accident?? I start having a panic attack.

Cut to I'm a different character played by Octavia Spencer. She's going on a date with a guy to a diner/roller rink that's a 50s theme that's just opened up and it's super popular. She's so nervous and she likes this guy and he's just chatting away while they're in line and every moment they get closer she gets more nervous. They get inside and she sees all the roller rink stuff and is like "I'm terrified of skating and i don't think we'd even work together. You're such a carefree guy and i should just leave! I can't do it any of it!" And her date reassures her that she doesn't have to skate if she didn't want to. He introduces her to his son who had been inside while he picked her up and that's okay because he's got a lil 50s community in here where they all look out for each other and that makes Octavia Spencer feel better somehow.

But then their nice moment is interrupted by some actual 50s gangsters who have appeared in the diner all of a sudden! Time travel things brought them to the modern times and they dont like being made fun of!

Cut to me waking up (still in the dream) and I'm freaking out because I just realized time travel shenanigans are happening! I run to my brother and wake him up and he's all groggy and I'm like it's an emergency!! He's like, what's going on? I say. I just saw myself from the past! He's like, what? And I'm like, damn i just woke up. Maybe none of that was even real but it FELT real. I tell him what happened and he's like, okay I kinda remember you saying you saw someone who looked like you s couple days ago so let's look more into this. Wecome up with a theory that maybe it's a time dilation where for just a moment, two segments of time overlapped but it was short lived. Maybe it didn't even happen to anyone else yet.

Cut to outside where Andrew Garfield is fighting with a 50s version of himself and the me watching this through my dream is a little into it. I think the me in my dream is also watching but she's in distress.

We remember there's a comic book series comic out with a character based off me. I think our evil uncle made it. We go to its booth but it's just an ad with a poster. The comics won't cook he out for weeks. But then I notice the illustration of the main character and I look down and we're wearing the exact same clothes. Either the uncle writer made this happen or they saw it before and are making money off it instead of warning us.

But then I remember something about the Andrew Garfield fight. There might be some way to reverse all this. I can't really what it was and then i woke up for real

[purplerakath]

Descendants 4 - Purpose vs Plot

Going to go into Spoilers for Rise of Red as I unpack what this movie was. I'm going to cover a lot, but the biggest one is 'what this film is doing' vs 'how this film does it.' As my teaser earlier suggested, the concept is good, the execution is... not so much.

First though...

Descendants is Kind of Weird

Descendants works far more than it has any right to. It is a quick merch cash grab on the part of Disney that through cast, costumes, and director is a much better film. It still doesn't fully work, but it just shouldn't work at all. But more than that each film has a handful of ideas that are just amazing. Never explored further, but amazing.

Audrey's explanation for why she thinks magic is bad is a very good temperature test of Auradonian self-importance and refusal to let others become nobility through pure hearted goodness. Forcing everyone not already in the uppercrust to stay out, and that's horrifying as a concept. Which we don't really explore later.

So that said, what's the good stuff here?

Relationships

So I don't feel the plot of Rise of Red was ever the priority, the priority was Red and Chloe, Chloe and Ella, and Red and Bridgette. The whole thing exists to do a look at our new leads learning how their mothers became the women they love.

These are where the film shines, when any two of those four are interacting we're good. Chloe's rules vs. Red's actions. Chloe realizing Red isn't a villain, so she can tell Red that. So Red might believe it. Ella's pragmatism vs. Chloe's idealism, when compared to Chloe's mother being the bastion of lawfulness that is Queen Cinderella. And then Red's skepticism with Bridgette's earnest nature. Which in turn is mirrored by the Queen of Hearts being a calloused tyranny.

That's what this film is about, and when it's doing this, it's pretty great. I have very few notes about this.

Fun aside: Red and Chloe are doing sort of a mix between Mal/Ben and Mal&Evie. Which means I don't think the plan is romance for them... but they feel pretty romantic as they do a lot of the Ben and Mal plot beats.

The Other Characters

Outside of those four, the rest of the cast is fine. Nothing sticks out as 'bad.' (Maly feels underused but the past VKs are there to serve looks and that's all. Which they do, very well.) Uma is very on the ball for her characterization prior. I expected to see more of Past Fay given how hesitant present Fairy Godmother was about Red, but nothing here is wrong.

They feel hollow because they aren't truly the point.

The Plot AKA Cowardice and Anti-Subversion

So the main comment I've seen is 'this film feels unfinished' which I can fully see. But I think it comes down to two significant issues. The first of which I've summarized up there as Cowardice.

The first Descendants the things that almost ended Auradon were almost always systemic issues in Auradon pointed at the VKs (making things worse). Jane's insecurity wasn't made by Mal, Mal exploited what was already there (because she's an 'ordinary' girl when she isn't allowed to learn magic). Jane wanted her mother's wand because of the ideals espoused by Audrey. And what saved Auradon was that Ben and Lonnie treated the VKs like people, and they choose to stand against their parents over that.

The second one toes a line between 'Uma is the villain' and 'Uma is right.' You can't extend this to Gil (a moron) or Harry (chaos incarnate), but when Uma and Ben talk, Ben realizes he is wrong and that's a pretty subversive take. Uma's methods are bad, of course, but her motives are great.

The third one, in spite of it's problems, has the final messages of 'fear is not the answer' and 'you don't sacrifice the future of nine people just because the tenth might be dangerous.' So it's still a message of breaking systems that are, by nature, cruel for cruelty's sake. Another pretty subversive answer.

...and here our villain is the villain, her act was meant to be cruel, and there's nothing further to it. It lacks the moral greyness of the other three films. That room between black and white they each need. That message is there, it's what Chloe learns from Ella about Red. But it isn't the plot.

Which is the first problem.

The Plot and Narrative Flow

So in the climax of the first film we see someone grab the wand and break the barrier. We assume it's Mal, because we're expecting Mal. Mal is struggling between her mother and Ben all film.

And it was Jane, who just wanted to be pretty and special.

The second film's twist come from Uma spelling Ben, shifting the dramatic weight away from 'Uma is right about Auradon' to 'Uma did that thing Mal did but she doesn't feel bad about it.' It switches gears and takes the momentum out of things.

The third film doesn't have any zig-zag like this, being the most narratively weak, but it also has like six plots going on vying for attention so it does shift gears every so often.

Having your first suspect for the big bad of your film be the correct suspect without any change in momentum feels wrong. So a lot of people picked that up, even if the girls did beat the bad guy, it feels too easy (because it was).

Equally, the ending feels like it's missing the... chaos, that comes with changing time. At the End of Teen Beach 2 there's a huge shift in everything after the timeline resets. Which poses a lot of questions the film can't answer, but it does make those questions obvious and visible.

This film? Not so much. Fundamentally changing the Empress of a walled off kingdom is a drastic change to the world and the final scene didn't suggest anything came of it. That's a pretty glaring omission on the plot.

Which paired with the lack of the plot shifting gears, and the lack of subversive message, all comes down to a hollow feeling at the end. Even if a lot of the film was good.

The End...?

And I want to be clear, I enjoyed this. Every practical set, prop, and costume felt good. The songs were great. It felt more musical-y than the previous three. It's a good ride except for that huge problem it has.

The special effects also felt really good, especially compared to the previous three. The lack of the previous characters (other than Godmother and Uma) didn't feel like a hole, it felt like just the story. A lot of this worked, and worked pretty well.

Just... wish they could do the stuff that worked, and give the plot a better ending.

Aside 2: Rotten to the Core is a better song. Red is a better character intro. It firmly sets up who Red is and her conflict far better than Rotten to the Core does for Mal. It also allowed Red to do far more crime and make her feel more proactive as a hero.

[yusuke-of-valla]

I still stand by my opinion/headcanon that the issue with the "Why doesn't Akira and/or Haru give Yusuke money" thing is Yusuke would see it as a "hand-out" and refuse.

It can be an issue of something he internalized from Madarame and his stubbornness or he feels that doing so would be "taking advantage" of his friends, or even all of the above.

No absolutely. I mean I think again this is a consequence of writing Yusuke like a poor starving artist for gags and not actually examining it and his situation, so they don't just give him money because that would ruin the joke, and therefore I don't care too much but if you want an in-universe explanation there's what you said and then also I'd argue that for Ren that's specifically group phantom thief funds so he can't just give it to Yusuke and Yusuke would say to put the money towards better weapons and armor.

We also don't know how Haru's inheritance actually works she might just usually ask her dad to buy things and just not have cash on hand to give to a friend, she might have a trust fund, or an accountant or someone who handles her main financials but she'd have to explain it and so she can't just pull out a large chunk of money but can say "yeah I'm going out to lunch with a friend"

(This is why I like the headcanon of Yusuke moving in with Haru in college so he doesn't have to worry about rent)

It's one of those things that can be explained if you think about it, the issue is canon just doesn't really bother to because it again, does not care about the starving teenager beyond jokes about him eating weird stuff (which is kind of fucked up for a game about the failures of society and people who slip through the cracks but you know).

But like it's not something I'm pressed towards the characters about, you know?

[airyairyaucontraire]

I was thinking after my conversation about “I Want” songs with my nephew about moments when there should be a song like that, and one example I’d given him was Dorothy singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” so naturally I thought of Luke Skywalker on his little berm, and then I thought of the excellent idea I read somewhere that instead of Disney doing boring live action remakes of their great animated movies there should be animated remakes of live action movies, and those bumped together in my head to form Star Wars the Disney animated musical. Key points:

You are free to imagine the voice casting however you wish with one exception: obviously Ewan McGregor is playing Obi-Wan. Play him again and it’s a musical? Whoosh sound effect and a McGregor-shaped dust cloud as he makes for the studio.

Complete freedom to add scenes, and I don’t mean like the restored ANH scene where Han steps on Jabba’s tail - scenes exploring characters’ feelings through song! Including when they’re alone, which is the only way Leia would ever talk about her feelings.

Must look like classic cel animation. Character designs are inspired by but not required to be closely based on the actors (nor The Clone Wars). The animators will be instructed to draw the idea of Luke Skywalker, not Mark Hamill, if you see what I mean.

Mark Hamill can totally do the voice if he wants to though, obviously.

Definitely still have the stormtrooper who bonks his head on the door.

Examples (may not be in chronological order):

Luke’s “I Want” song obviously. Make it as “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” as you like.

Han gets an intro song making his way through Mos Eisley dodging bounty hunters. Make it as “One Jump Ahead” from Aladdin as you like.

“My Only Hope,” a song sung by Leia alone in her cell as she mourns for her planet and her parents. She falls apart in tears, then pulls herself together with a mighty effort and fixes her make-up with a little magic sci-fi device she had hidden up her sleeve and rises determined to stay in command of the situation and of herself - that’s her only hope.

“Your First Steps,” Obi-Wan’s big number while training Luke on the Falcon. A somewhat more comprehensive introduction to the Force than just trying not to get zapped by a training remote.

Other Stuff I Want:

Boba Fett cameo, because I love him.

Just as Leia cries when she’s alone, I need Luke to actually cry when he finds Owen and Beru’s bodies. Then, again like Leia, he pulls himself together and goes to do what he can. But he’s still sniffing and having to wipe his eyes with his sleeve as he drives back to Obi-Wan.

It would be corny but I’m not opposed to brief cameos, just background glimpses, of other characters who might be on Tatooine at the time during Han’s number. I mentioned Boba but we could also have Fennec Shand, Peli Motto and Cobb Vanth.

Before the medal ceremony ending (for which you’d better believe EVERYONE is singing, solos for the main characters and the entire Rebellion as a choir, the triumphal “A New Hope”) there’s a quiet scene with Alderaanian rebels raising a memorial stone to the people of Alderaan, and then anyone who lost someone on Alderaan can use a little laser pen to write their names on a small stone to place in front of it. Leia offers a stone and a pen to Luke, who demurs that he doesn’t want to intrude on something for Alderaan. Leia says, “I’m still the princess of Alderaan and I’m inviting you. You’re not intruding.” So we have a shot of their stones lying together on the base of the pile, inscribed “Breha and Bail Organa” and “Beru and Owen Lars.”

Yes in legible English (or substitute the local script for international release), I’m not doing Aurebesh.

When you use the Force your hair puffs out like a Studio Ghibli character.

Just go full 80s scifi anime with unlimited budget on the Death Star run scenes, obviously

[checkmatein3moves]

As we're getting into "big family meal" season, what are the ROs family lives like? Among the rich kids, who's family actually does family-only non-business not-for-clout stuff? Sit down meals, that sort of thing? For the not-rich-as-kids folks, who has/had a good family life? Do they keep in touch or get together with family? How would the ROs feel about getting roped into a significant other's family traditions?

impossible question to answer succinctly. the windhams probably have the most wholesome family dynamic including the most cousins the main branch is actually in contact with, but even out of them, it's rare that every single one ends up home. people are busy, sometimes choose to be with friends, but when it all works out there can be up to 20+ at their place for homely gathering.

the kamyas definitely had comfortable sit down dinners, but since elias died the vibes are not the same. monty and her parents don't have a bad relationship but i don't think she can bear to be around them by herself for a family dinner yet. things probably veer towards business by accident, because of the importance they place on it in regards to bettering the family.

the zus were once tied to the wangs (number 6) through marriage, although none of them were very comfortable with mars. unfortunately he is the kind to have everyone together for unity rather than actual family love, and it was easier to go along with than fight. arguments at the dinner table probably disintegrated that, especially because nobody ever took noir's side, not even his maternal aunts or grandparents, even if they agreed with him and often left him the only one standing up for himself which contributed to his position now. presently, zu family dinners are business affairs with mars, lemon and kai in thin debates, zia and sometimes twenty plus whichever simp might've been lucky enough to get an invite to to get an opportunity from mars.

the vinterens threw elite parties rather than family meals. violeta has obviously never been a big family woman, but the she liked the attention and buzz from guests and the excuse to get absolutely smashed rather than sit around and actually talk to her few relatives left. benz might have put his name on them sometimes but they were probably too indulgent for even him to risk getting his reputation too embroiled with.

the hales would've had nightmarish family dinners back when laurel and ten were children. barely a single night they could be in the same room without laurel and benz fighting, so he would've given up and left them with any of his siblings/cousins/in-laws and their partners that weren't too busy to be there. present day he's doubled down on business even more, so like mars he usually uses dinners as an opportunity to get all his higher ups in one place. since hebe has grown up she's better at diplomacy and sits through them to learn, but they are by no means warm or fun affairs. maybe there was exceptions when MC, hebe and elspeth were kids but maybe they see it through rose coloured glasses.

the sissels are another family that probably ends in arguments at the table, though not out of spite but the sheer amount of stress and pressure they feel from being so new, so to speak, to the lifestyle. otherwise they would probably have a happy family gathering not taken over by gossip and speculation, because their priorities would be different. they do like a spectacle though. fancy desserts and fire tricks and less focus on actually eating the food than being impressive. they do definitely try, though. jelly and pixy are simply too old to keep falling for the facade.

the only lower class character who we (as the MC) can infer anything about is sailor, because honey, jareth and ludo have very obscure family lives. they did have a hodgepodge family that loved them, but when their mother got sick the money problem got exacerbated and the glue of the family disintegrated. all the cracks in the fragile happiness got too large to salvage. they enjoy what they have at the MC's place, even if the MC is the kind of person to expect them to eat with staff instead. the food is better and they have a sustainable way to access it, and they know how to make the most of temporary bonds.

[sirwow]

Hi wally!

Since you asked me about paian, let me ask you about loghail! What parts of them in canon did you like and how did you end up with your interpretation of them in rdcc :0?

Also as a bonus you can also use this as an opportunity to ramble about hinode and lucia because idr if you've rambled abt them on tumblr much :]

Ooh loghail… Iv got a lot of thoughts about them after reading way too much into how they act. Get ready for autism blast

First Logan. One of the main things that I kinda stuck to when it came to giving him more personality then just “boyfail” is the fact despite us seeing him fail at least 3 times in game and like another 2 in the Middlesea comics, he never gives up. He’s very determined to do something even if it takes him a lot longer then others to do it. It’s why I like to imagine in the baseball arc he was far far from the best player but still stuck to it because his star Lucky was giving him a chance and who was he to turn that down?

Logan also is very much the stereotypical boy character on purpose so I kinda ended up embracing that fact. He’s made special by the fact he’s just a normal dude stuck in a hospital with way weirder things and has to figure out how to navigate that. Makes friends with a random samurai, sneaks into the cafe to vent to the other most normal person, talks to birds. He’s trying his bestest and I love him for that.

Now as for Hailey due to how Iv written her in CC there’s a lot more to say and dig into. First thing that most people might disagree with but what makes CC Hailey well CC Hailey is she is. Really apathetic n aloof and she is probably subconsciously aware of that fact. She can’t wrap her head around why Logan is so wishy washy (it’s called 14yr crippling anxiety sweetie), ditches him with no other words in 3-1n, doesn’t really catch onto Cole having a crush himself, tells Logan to go outside more and get off his phone as a passing joke. There’s probably a few I’m forgetting but yeah. But it’s clear she does care even if she can’t show it in the subtle ways. She makes the baseball team outfits, stitches bears for everyone in the comics, is very patient for Logan despite the wishy washyness.

Though this aloof nature also plays into her being A hypocrite and unintentionally a jerk. Again with all the Logan stuff above n the fact she doesn’t wanna confess just because she feels entitled to Logan doing it as we can tell from the pre-4-4 dialogue. All of this together combined with the blatant “why is there a teenager alone on a train” moment kinda is why I gave her the rough home she has in CC. Her behavior is indicative of normalizing toxic behavior, fear of losing stuff again, and having extreme independence for a 13-15yr. Going alone across the desert in a train at that age is not normal behavior nor is just talking to random strangers. lovingly. So alas she’s got the bad home life that’s forced her to be dependent on herself- giving her sass and a bit of a high horse but low empathy and unfamiliarity with normal social ques. Also probably some autism in there lol

As for them as a couple there’s not too much else then me wanting to see them improve for the better. Logan growing a spine for himself at the mistreatment and Hailey stopping being so flippant with everything in their relationship. They’re still working off each other through the unknown and strange situations they’re thrown in and love each other more for sticking by.

Now then I’m probably just going to do Lucia alone because while I love you Hino there’s still a lot of writing that needs to happen in that area hehe. Consider this the kid trio explaining.

So Lucia, she’s only got one level to work with and there’s really not much we get from it other then she’s a talented artist for her age (same range as Logan n Hailey) and she’s into video games because of the end text. Therefore I made everything about her up based off vibes alone.

As a result Lucia in CC is an overachiever, straight A student with very well off hardworking parents. Her father a famous Middlesea architect and her mother a entomologist (bug scientist). Lucia however is also generally the victim of her own made stress and why she’s in the hospital sometimes for both anxiety and a racing heart. (And why she’s got both SVT type beats and overlapping classics). Was always a loner kid more interested in the recess bugs and books then ever playing but still kept a keen eye on all the drama going on. One day when Logan hid behind her from bullies during recess she scared them off with a handful of bugs. He didn’t seem too scared of them and he was quiet so Lucia let him stick around till Logan n Lucia became a bit attached to each other’s sides as the weird lonely kid best friends.

Opinion on Hailey is a nice friendly surface level but at the core their personalities clash hard. Lucia doesn’t get how she can be so apathetic and unaware sometimes when she herself notices every little social cue she can almost obsessively. Her not being the greatest to Logan also makes Lucia iffy but remains cordial and friendly to try and understand her better. Though being again, 14 there’s some things she just doesn’t know enough about to notice.

So yeah that’s the basic tldr on these three and Hinode will have to wait another day for if someone asks about all the characters families sob. Thank you so much for the ask the brain rot sure is rotting <33

[elijahs-dumps]

Cassandra and her villain arc; was it bad? Let's discuss... (Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure)

Just wanted to say before we dive in, I'm currently working on a piece about Gonzo from the Muppets and some Hazbin Hotel stuff too. So stay tuned;)

Cassandra was mainly portrayed as snarky, cold, and even a little rude. She's almost a perfect opposite to Rapunzel, which makes them interesting friends. And it's nice that Rapunzel has another girl she can rely on, since I personally believe female friendships are important in media. Within the TV series, Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure, Cassandra is often seen budding heads with Eugene or helping with Rapunzel's misadventures. And as the show goes on, we see Cassandra actively looking out for Rapunzel more and more.

Even though Cass states many times in the first two seasons that she loves and cares for Raps, their relationship is quite unstable through out the show even before she became a main antagonist. Let's take a look at their relationship pre-season two to get a better understanding:

For example, in The Challenge of the Brave (S1 E4) when Raps joins the challenge, Cass feels like Raps is being a bad friend by trying to win something that means so much to her. She's annoyed by Raps' ignorance, and jealous of the admiration Raps is receiving. Yet, Cass never even told Raps how much the contest means to her. So instead of communicating her feelings, Cass starts to act more snappy with Raps and actively tries to get Raps eliminated from the game. However, it's not unreasonable for Raps to be unaware of Cass' wishes, especially since she struggles with social cue. Regardless of the fact that Cass should've been more patient with Raps, I think this episode would've been nice foreshadowing to her change of heart in season three if they didn't try to paint Cass as the victim in this episode. I don't understand why only Raps apologized, when they both should've acknowledged their wrongs.

In Under Raps (S1 E9), Rapunzel tries to make Cass feel better about being single by making her things and showing her appreciation for Cass. When this happens, Cass sort of gets annoyed for no reason even though Rapunzel's intentions are sweet. She doesn't even really verbalize if Raps is pushing boundaries or not, she's just... frustrated?

This doesn't relate to Rapunzel directly, but in Great Expotations (S1 E8) Cass uses Varian to get what she wants. Even though she does make up for it, it's still a testament to her character. Cass often acts without thinking about how others might feel or think, and the way she treats Raps in season one is a prime example of that. She does take into account how naive and ignorant Raps can be, but she refuses to show any patience for it as Raps recovers from literally being isolated for eighteen years. And Cass is supposed to be Raps' best friend! It's the same with Varian. You see, Cass isn't really a bad person. She just wants her moment in the spotlight, her moment to prove herself. In these episodes, that's often what drives her to make these mistakes towards her friends. This would be a great character flaw, and an interesting writing concept. But this show keeps having Cass in this same situation again and again, and she never grows from it. It gets old very fast.

Not to mention, Cass also tried to force Raps not to tell Eugene how she got her hair back when it first happened. All because Cass "doesn't trust Eugene". I thought this was strange, because I don't really know what kind of friend asks someone to lie to their significant other.

In the flashback episode, Beginnings (S3 E6), we learn that Cass never wanted to be friends with Raps to begin with, and there was a lot of guilty undertones on Cass' part of the relationship at least in its early stages from what we can see. Raps clearly latched onto Cass way too fast, because she was still fresh out of the tower when they met. And Cass wasn't ready to be what Raps needed (which was therapy). Cass was Raps' first friend besides Pascal, and I don't understand why Cass would take on that role if she wasn't going to put in the effort to at least try and be compassionate and understanding with Raps.

Moving on to season two, Cass didn't really do anything of substance until The Great Tree episode (S2 E14) which is a little weird in hindsight. But I thought her insecurities about needing to prove herself and how she always feel second place to Raps were pretty justified. We saw a couple times through out the series that people preferred Raps over Cass, or gave Raps opportunities when Cass worked harder for them. Still, I don't feel like that's Raps' fault. Waiting in the Wings did a perfect job of illustrating Cass' feelings on this subject, and it even made me like her more as a character because it gave her so much more depth. Still, the song talks about how Cass is going to keep waiting until her moment in the sun arrives no matter what, which contradicts her villain arc quite a bit considering the fact she did not wait at all. Anyway, I think Cass trying to insinuate that Raps doesnt trust her judgement anymore in these episodes was BULLSHIT. Raps clearly loves and values Cass, and trusts her completely. All Raps did was mkae a call that Cass didn't agree with, I dont think this meant that Raps wasn't listening or wasn't trusting Cass. The two of them simply disagreed on it, which they do all the time.

Technically, the thing that pushes Cass off the edge is the fact that she finds out she's Mother Gothel's biological daughter. But there was one other incident that set this villain arc into motion before the episodes within the House of Yesterday's Tomorrows. Cassandra's hand wound from Rapunzel.

When Cass injuries her hand during the final fight within the Great Tree, she blames Raps for it even after they talk it out and apologize. I didn't understand this at all, because yes Cass warned Raps not to use the decay incantation. But it's not like they had any other choice! And Raps was not in control of herself or the tree when Cass got injured. Not only this, but Raps also told Cass to leave before anything even happened. Why is Cass upset with Raps for not listening to her when she wouldn't listen to Raps either?

The season three opening episode, Rapunzel's Return (S3 E1), shows us exactly what Cass saw in the House of Yesterday's Tomorrows. We learn that Cass is Gothel's real daughter, and this is a huge turning point in the series. Because in this episode, Cassandra's entire villain arc stopped being about her own struggles and insecurities and how she's felt second place to Rapunzel this whole time, it became about the fact that Gothel chose Raps over Cass. I felt like this was a lazy writing choice, to make it seem like Cass' feelings of being inferior to Raps are more justified. But honestly, I think her villain arc could've stood well on it own if they just planted to the smaller seeds of doubt earlier on, and didn't involve Gothel in it. Of all people. Gothel is a naturally selfish woman who would never do anything that doesn't serve some kind of purpose for her. I find it hard to belief she kept Cass around simply to do house work around her cottage instead of just dumping Cass at an orphanage of some kind.

I also feel the need to mention the fact that Cass was absent for almost 12 episodes in a row, during what is supposed her season as the antagonist and her moment to have the spotlight, probably has something to do with why her writing in season three came out so half-baked. Combining this with the fact that her change of heart was only really hinted at in maybe five out of the forty-five episodes, episodes in which the conflict involving Cass' character is always resolved by the end, makes her entire villain arc seem out of character at first glance.

This season went to great lengths to make Cass' actions and attitude as nasty as possible, especially by having her show no remorse or doubts after Be Very Afraid (S3 E9). This is on of the reasons her redemption arc fell flat.

In A Tale of Two Sisters (S3 E14), we see the last bit of Cass' doubt be outweighed by her need to blame someone for the way Gothel abandoned her. So, she blames Rapunzel. But Cass knows Gothel was sick and abusive towards Raps, and she also knows it's not Raps' fault she was kidnapped. After all their years of friendship, I didn't buy the concept that Cass would let her anger manifest in a way that would blame Raps for a traumatic event that happened to both of them.

While I'm well aware that Zhan Tiri has been manipulating Cass since the House of Yesterday's Tomorrows, it still didn't make Cass's villain arc anymore believable for me. It felt like the show's way of trying to excuse its own crappy writing.

Once a Handmaiden (S3 E16) is when Cass realizes Zhan Tiri has been manipulating her since the beginning, and begins to regret her choices. So Cass disguises herself as Rapunzel's current handmaiden to try and find a way to extend some kind of olive branch. This gives us a little more insight into the headspace Cass has been in these past few months, and it gives the audience more room to sympathize with her (especially in the play scene). Yet, when Zhan Tiri reveals Cass to everyone and the guards start attack her, Cass is quick to become incredibly angry, even though Raps was trying to call off the guards. Cass literally takes over the entire kingdom, almost killing hundreds of people after spending the whole day bonding with Raps like old times. While I have issues with the amber-firing machine Varian made, I feel like the switch up with Cass in this episode was absolutely insane.

Cassandra's redemption arc, if you can even call it that, completely fell apart because it was so rushed. It was similar to Varian's redemption arc in that sense, but even though Varian's redemption arc had flaws he was able to sort of get away with it. Varian's villain arc was shorter than Cass', his crimes weren't as bad as Cass'. and he served at least a year in jail anyway. Cass served no punishment for her actions and got to leave Corona scot-free. This also plays into the constant contradiction Cassandra goes through this season of soul-crushing remorse vs homicidal rage.

Considering Cass was one of our main three characters for the entire show, I just think she deserved better when it finally came time to give her some more depth and complexity. But what do you guys think? Do you think Cassandra's time as an antagonist was poorly executed? How do you think they could've fixed it? Feel free to let me know!