#so when i revisit i can see how they tie into the plot/characters

[dangerous-advantage]

istg the knives out franchise is literally made for people like me specifically. good at noticing and remembering details? have a wealth of random information that generally wouldn't even matter/be brought up? have a really specific understanding of certain things? knives out is for YOU

for example, in glass onion, there's a scene (semi-spoilers) where all of these characters are arriving onto a private island where they intend to spend the weekend. before boarding the boat, they were given "wristbands" that would give them access to their rooms.

miles (who owns the island) says that he color-coded them based on the different chakras, and one character loudly exclaims about how she was given the sacral chakra.

now, if you are a normal person, this might not mean much. but if you've spent time researching things for no real reason, you'll know the associations of the sacral chakra -- creativity, joy, and perhaps most applicable, sexuality.

birdie (the character who gets the sacral chakra) is miles' girlfriend. she's loud and dumb and flaunts her sexuality. the sacral chakra definitely fits her character.

but thats not all. its a misdirect.

while she's talking excitedly about getting the sacral chakra, we get a split-second glimpse of another character, whiskey, who was brought along as another characters' plus one.

and for just a moment, while birdie is still talking, we see her wristband flash green. the color of the heart chakra.

while i was already theorizing the existence of an affair between her and miles due to their greeting on the island and the necklace comment, that tiny detail was what made me go, "oh yeah. they're having an affair."

(side note: birdie is used later in the movie as a misdirect -- not so much as a red herring, but as cover. i's wager she's used a lot more to "cover up" things in the movie, but i'll need to do a few rewatches before i can say for sure. still though, very cool to see how this not only fits so artfully into her characterization, but also foreshadows her later misdirect!)

[stopthatmyhandsaredirty]

Star Ware Rebels Bechdel Test Rewatch- 3x18 'Secret Cargo'

Plot

The Ghost crew must escort Senator Mon Mothma, now wanted by the Empire, to a meeting that can change the galaxy.

Female Characters: 3

Hera Syndulla, Mon Mothma, Arihnda Pryce

Male Characters: 8

Ezra Bridger, Zeb Orrelios, Grand Admiral Thrawn, Jon Vander, Erskin Semaj, Kassius Konstantine, Vult Skerris

Droid Characters: 1

Chopper

Does it pass?

Yes, this episode has always been a favorite of mine and I'm happy to say it passes with flying colors! I love Mon Mothma, ever since I saw her in Return of the Jedi. I wanted to know more about this woman who was leading the Rebel Alliance. She popped up in The Clone Wars, Rogue One, and is a background character in Revenge of the Sith since all of her scenes were deleted. At the time this episode aired, this was the biggest showcase for her story we had gotten on screen. Now, we have Andor so we know quite a bit more about her. I loved revisiting this episode with knowing her backstory. The episode passes throughout as Her and Mon Mothma talk in the cockpit of the Ghost. They discuss the Rebellion and what it means to fight behind the scenes vs the front lines.

I love seeing the formal formation of the Rebellion here. It is more meaningful knowing how narrowly she escaped the Imperials to get there. Gold Leader himself, Jon Vander, is also here and gets some fun scenes fighting the TIE Defender with Ezra.

This episode is notable in that it is the first episode featuring Hera but not Sabine. Sabine is off with her family at this point, so we won't be seeing her for a few episodes. This is also the first episode that hasn't featured Kanan. I'd also like to mention the character of Gold Two, one of the female pilots escorting Mon Mothma. She has a decent amount of dialogue before she is unceremoniously knocked unconscious when the Rebels fall under attack. She is never named, not even on Ye Olde Wookieepedia, so I can't count her as a named character. To be fair, none of the members of Gold Squadron are named in the episode.

[stuffnonsenseandotherthings]

Triage Final Thoughts

Watch It Or Drop It Challenge

Did I drop this drama or did this drama drop me? (i.e. I loved it until it turned into something I no longer recognised)

Strengths

I watched the first 10 episodes of this drama in 3 days.

3 days.

I may have been on holiday but, even for me, that's quite a lot of drama in a very short amount of time, especially when I had other things going on.

Anyway, needless to say I was hooked.

Much like Manner of Death (with whom it shares a director and screenwriter), Triage is much more a mystery drama with a side of BL than a BL with a side of mystery but, in my opinion, that doesn't hurt it in the slightest. In fact, I would even go so far as to say that focussing more on the non-romance elements allowed it to strike a good balance in its storytelling; the time travel aspect was well thought out to the point of having a fun little detail where wherever Tin fell asleep had an effect on how far back in time he travelled, the illegal organ farming plot line wasn't immediately obvious and developed nicely with bigger and bigger clues being dropped along the way, and the romance found space to weave itself believably through both and tie everything together as the emotional impetus.

The pacing of the drama shouldn't be overlooked either. It was quick, concise, and moreish (in the way all the most binge-watchable shows are), never lingering too long on a plot point or story beat but instead spending just enough time on key points and characters that you were invested in what was going on. I liked Tin and his growing desperation to save the man he'd come to love, I liked the morally grey Tol and how he was still learning how and who to be in the world, I liked the subtle changes in Sing and Gap's relationship and the anticipation of the sweet sweet pay off when their sniping finally turned into something more, I was both deeply frustrated by and sympathetic towards Mai and her moral dilemma of how best to support her mum, I was swept up with how each (re)iteration of the timeline built up over time and with each revisit we got closer and closer to an answer, to a solution, to something...

As I said, I was hooked.

And then the end of episode 10 hit, Tin died and everything changed.

Weaknesses

A word of advice to anyone writing a plot including time travel: DON'T set the final arc of the plot in a completely different timeline to the one you've spent more than half the drama developing and ESPECIALLY DON'T give the characters your audience have become attached to entirely new personalities and story arcs.

What do you mean Tin is a nihilistic arsehole now who, instead of being an exhausted but conscientious doctor, actively overlooks medical malpractice??? Since when??? And why is he dating Fang now (other than to highlight the show's issue with female love interests that I'd been giving the benefit of the doubt up until this point)??? And WTF has happened so Sing?? Did he hit his head? Why is he all sappy and dating Gap now? Yeah I know I said I wanted them together but not like this with all the build up conveniently skipped! (also Gap did not benefit from increased screen time and a boyfriend, take them away from him).

Deep breaths

Anyway, to add insult to injury, not only did the characters become completely, slightly/much more unlikeable people who just happened to be played by the same actors, multiple key plot points were thrown in the bin. Tol's heart condition, despite it turning out to be the whole reason he was doomed to die in the first place, no longer an issue! Yay! All the time travel rules about who can remember what, what can be changed, what can be brought back from the present? Deader than Tin at the end of episode 10!

These were not the characters I was invested in, these were not the plots I wanted to see to the end, this was an entirely different story.

Conclusion: I gave myself a week's break before I tried to write this because I wanted to avoid ranting but, looking back, I'm not sure I succeeded in that. In my defence, I was (and still am) incredibly frustrated by the whole experience because there is so much to love about this series and the first 9 and a half episodes are incredibly strong. I'm still thinking about scenes and plot points and characters fondly from the first half of the show and I know how badly it ends for me. I genuinely believe that, without the last 2 episodes, Triage could well have been one of my favourite Thai BLS of all time and that makes me sad because I feel like I missed out on something special.

Now, I am willing to give the show some benefit of the doubt. I know that my personal philosophy regarding the soul and the self is very different from the Buddhist viewpoint and that will have coloured my reading of the timeline switch greatly. I also know that I was pretty stressed towards the end of my holidays so that might have lowered the amount of goodwill I was willing to give at the time. Both of those things could have affected my experience of those last 2 episodes and maybe one day I'll give Triage a second chance and realise I was far too harsh on first watch.

Maybe

But not any time soon.

I need to recover first.

Watch Or Drop: DROP (I skipped through all of episode 12 and I barely know what happened in the end, I need to be honest with myself and admit I dropped it at the last mile).

Final Score: It was on track to get 8.5 but I didn't finish it so N/A

Would I Rewatch It: Not anytime soon.

Highlight:

Confirmation of the fact these two haven't killed each other yet (gif credit to the wonderful @pharawee)

Representative Screenshot:

Watch It Or Drop It Masterpost

[aroundthewaygirlao3]

I know there's a lot of angst floating around the Portwell fandom about the introduction of Val and that the character will break up Gina and EJ. And it's not unfounded… that's a well worn teen TV trope.

But I genuinely can't make it fit Gina's character arc. (It doesn't serve EJ's either, but that's another post.)

Gina's whole arc has been about learning to connect, to trust, to build something lasting. Up until she got to East High, she's comfortable with life being transient and change being a constant. She says as much when she tells EJ it's "sometimes stressful, sometimes freeing." In fact, her major hurt so far came from sticking around, not leaving. There's no growth for her in a narrative where her nascent ability to forge connection gets trashed by her being dumped for another girl. That would play into her expectations of life that nothing stays, and move her backward, not forward. And while a good character regression/heel turn can be fun, I can't see them shifting Gina's narrative THAT drastically, especially when they already have (and seemingly have promoted) Lily to fill that role. Gina was already given a chance to slip back to "mean girl" during the BATB auditions and they made it very obvious she chose not to. It seems unlikely to revisit it.

I also feel like a traumatic breakup where EJ chooses someone else would have obvious reverberations through Gina's relationship with Ashlyn. The writers made a conscious choice to have Gina move in with the one character who has an enduring tie to EJ. Given the season one dynamics we saw, a lot of other characters could have been a more obvious fit than Ashlyn, but that's who she ends up living with. And that living situation is tenuous… we only know her mom agreed to let her stay in Salt Lake to finish the year, not remain indefinitely. Having something bad happen between EJ and Gina wouldn't bode well for Gina remaining in Salt Lake. Writing off two of the "core four" at once doesn't seem to be the plan, so there's some need to plot armor Gina and Ashlyn's relationship to keep Gina in the story at all. Which would seemingly provide some cover for Gina and EJ as well.

Now, that said, is there still space for them to have a healthy breakup, even one where Val is a catalyst? Sure. There could be an arc there where they realize even though they care about each other, the timing is off and EJ should be with someone in the same "stage" as he is. It would be a fairly realistic take on a relationship between a sophomore and senior (and I say that as someone who DID date a senior as a sophomore). I could get behind it if it's well written. BUT that's kind of "been there, done that" with the Rini S2 arc… that individual growth needs to take priority over them as a couple. And that worked beautifully for both their individual arcs. But Gina's arc has consistently bent in the other direction, towards interdependence and learning to rely on others. It wouldn't serve that narrative at all, it would actually fly in the face of it. Not to mention recreating a whole dynamic with another main pairing seems a little lazy. (Never mind ANOTHER love triangle is lazy, too… but that's more from the EJ perspective.)

I feel like a much more likely way they'd use Val specifically for Gina's development is to be someone who brings out Gina's insecurities, which she and EJ figure out how to work through together. ESPECIALLY with Meg Donnelly only billled as a guest star vs. regular or recurring. A guest star becoming a serious love interest for a core four character seems unlikely, and having her drop in just to break up a couple and bounce is a little too deus ex machina in reverse. I see that role being used the way Asher Angel and Jordan Fisher were, to make them confront their feelings more directly, maybe pushing them towards a love confession.. I actually wrote a whole fanfic about this very scenario.

At the end of the day, the writers are going to do with this what they will. But I can currently see a lot more narrative potential in leveraging Val to move them closer, not break them up.

We'll see! Come on Season 3!

[kuekyuuq]

Praise and blind spots... (6x12)

I know, I wouldn't be able to do the topic justice, so I will refrain from going in too deep into 6x12′s plot. This is not my usual format and will focus more on the series as a whole, in light of this episode...

Azie Tesfai wrote a beautiful episode on a very important topic. And managed to tie it in to what Supergirl (the show) needed to be, among other things.

Yes, it's a superhero show. But that's the thing: While movies have the luxury to keep their focus on the big picture, series should also find the time to address the micro-cosmos, the consequences, the backlash, the whole canvas.

We watch shows these days, that are more and more departing from the olden format of episodic and towards the serialized - meaning, not only villain-arcs (vaguely) span over the whole of a season, but also the main characters' developments and evolution... and more importantly the stories and characters surrounding them. This should allow for interesting stories to be told in the background, without becoming background-noise. What saddens me, is that Supergirl only really started using this narration device in an effective way in its final season. With a very important topic, that while having been touched on before, deserved a good depiction, worthy of it's depth.

In this season we had two episodes before, that made me happy on that level - both also heavily featuring Azie's character, Kelly. The story about the young black man and his little brother was a heartfelt one, a relatable and thought-provoking story, given more depth by being picked up again. Being treated not as just another plot-device.

Oh, I wished we had a time-machine, cut out so many of the unnecessary and bland filler stories (that never really went anywhere) and got to dive in deeper into the many topics CWSG checked off it's PC list during its run and actually told something worth revisiting. Like this. Like what Azie did right here in 6x12.

Now, we’ve got this little gem. In the last season. Focusing on one of the secondary main-characters. The girlfriend of the sister of the titular hero... While the titular hero herself is and has been side-lined in the past 4 episodes. (If not longer... *sigh*)

I really liked this episode. I really love its format. And the topic is so very important. On all its depicted levels (and there were many).

...why did this have to happen only now?

On one hand, I feel, this is something the series can be remembered for. The last season's arc of Kelly and the story her character has to tell, the awareness this story brings forward. In a show, that should have so much impact.

On the other, I feel it's taking up room from our main character, when there should be time spend addressing Kara's traumas, her healing, her relationships.... her story. And in better hands, we possibly could have (had) both. But, alas, this is the CW.

We should have had this episode two seasons ago!

Now we have a new hero, build up before the series' finale, when we know the new Guardian will not get to shine or tell her stories (is there even talk about a spin-off for her?).

I hope, sincerely, that the last stretch of episodes will be able to balance its stories much better. That Kelly - now that her story and origin and drive has been told - will not sink back into the shadows, while we also get more Kara (and let’s not forget wrapping up the rest of the Superfriends’ arcs).

The show hardly felt like "Supergirl" in a while now. Kara is there, yes. And I get the behind-the-scenes reasons as of why they had to have her on her own separate adventure for the first 7 episodes. But... there are so many unresolved topics around Kara, herself. (IMO, the only character that continuously got this much attention is Lena Luthor, having almost more background-story, character build-up, -arc, emotional depth and consequences, personal and surrounding her, than Kara - including the horrible over-the-top mess that was season 5.)

Gosh, the show even made a point of having Kelly say, that it wasn't Kara's job to deal with these little things. Which is right and wrong at the same time. Supergirl is an over-powered superhero. Which brings conflict in its own right. Which - in a series - should leave room to explore her as a person and dealing with the chasm between her powers and her vulnerability, her character, her emotions, her traumas, her desires, hopes and dreams and wishes, her evolution and re-evaluations...

Kara Zor-El Danvers should be the - or at least a - focus in her (last!) season.

And on top of that, we should get to see what happens when the heroes dust off their hands and leave the scene after fighting the big bad.

Consequences. The show has been horrendously bad at addressing those before. The Children of Liberty arc tried to deal with that... but in a way that lead to extremists, and for the sake of a big bad - rather than in a relatable Everyman / Everwoman / Every..person(?) way.  This episode did that. The previous Kelly episodes did that. So very well...

...addressing the little people, the normal people, the minorities, the (unintentional) victims, the over-looked, the individual sufferings, the by-standers...

...but also unintentionally showcasing the shortcomings of the show in a very unflattering way. But I guess, for an episode titled “Blind Spots”, that attempts to cast light on things that have been ignored before, that’s rather fitting...

... I don't think, I can say much else without accidentally taking away from Azie’s master piece or her intent and thoughtful execution...

I did very much appreciate the "24h earlier" bit, showing Kelly's tale paralleling the 'grand adventures' of the Superfriends.

I did not think, Diggle needed to keep telling Kelly how proud her brother would be, as Kelly should not need her brother's thumbs-up or for the show to yet again inadvertently compare a female to their male 'counterpart'. Kelly's Guardian will (hopefully) not be like James'. Just like Supergirl is her own woman and comparing her to Superman is just inadequate.

...and I love how even the mail was quicker than the jet that brought Lena back to National City.

...

I love the show for its quirkiness. Not the unintentional one, but the funny and goofy bits. For Kara being walking (or flying) sunshine incarnated, but also relatable in her day-to-day struggles. For characters with so much promise that I got so much more invested in the show, than its average writing deserves. It is a series, that had so much potential. To tell big and small stories, important and impactful stories. Fun, sad, thought-provoking, entertaining, exciting, adventurous, soothing, real, fantastic... I never asked for the show to 'pick a lane' (I'd take Lucy...) because there has always been potential to meld so many themes and motives and ...moods together - that's what an ensemble cast is perfect for.

Thank you, Azie Tesfai, for a great episode!

Fingers crossed, the last stretch of the show will be able to keep up with a bar suddenly raised so very high.

[bonvoyagenoona]

O: How do you begin a story–with the plot, or the characters?

I love this question! I don’t know if I’m consistent there, but I am consistent in the way that I use characterizations as motifs for major life themes, and plot almost as moral to express thoughts about those themes.

I don’t know if that makes sense, but maybe I can take some fics and use them for context? Read on if you’re interested!

Plot First, Characters Second: Kittenfishing

An anon asked if Kittenfishing was always going to be Tae’s story. I wrote here that Kittenfishing is meant to be about vulnerability, and that each main character stands for some aspect of that vulnerability:

Tae = What / how much do I share of myself?

Yoongi = What stays / how do I stay the same?

Kitt = What / how much do I change?

And I knew it would be Tae because I see him as being so unafraid of being vulnerable and emotionally charged, as well as extremely giving with his time and emotions, evidenced by stories like his inability to reject a proposal to date because he didn’t want to hurt people’s feelings lol.

Other fics I think I’ve used this plot first/characters second approach with are Idol Hands (theme: depth of relationships, and why we make certain choices), Bear with Me (theme: platonic vs. romantic love, is there even a difference) and The Cul-de-Sac Cons (theme: commitment vs. independence, persona vs. real identity, and in both cases, is there even a clear boundary between the two), and -- interestingly -- because they’ve been inspired by scenes rather than ideas, or because they were requests that asked me to choose the members, many of my oneshots, like Haze, Unravel, Hold the Door, Clink, and Stressed and Pressed.

Characters First, Plot Second: Like Butter

I was inspired to write Like Butter when I saw Yoongi’s concept video and came up with the story in a Flash (teehee iykyk). I also gave myself the added challenge to write the entire fic in a week! That’s right, one chapter per day during the week of the Butter MV drop. The story was built around the characterizations that I saw (i.e., the desire to revisit Mean Kim Namjoon and Angsty Yoongi).

Other fics I think I’ve used this characters first/plot second approach with are Bon Voyage, Noona, A Weekend with Noona, In the Margins, and, actually, many Yoongi oneshots, like the three fics that make up my Yoongi series 3(0) for 30.

Y/N First: Matchmaker

As an offshoot of Characters First, Plot Second, I also often start with Y/N. There are so many things that I want to say about my own life experiences. With Matchmaker, I wanted to examine several themes:

Compatibility vs. love

How we establish relationships

How we can grow after meeting new people

Sexism in the tech industry (and any industry, really)

The tendency to intellectualize phenomena in order to understand it vs. going with what they feel / intuit about a situation (I am constantly doing both)

I had my Y/N fleshed out already, so it then became an exercise of assigning characters to each of these themes and then build the plot from there.

Other fics I think I’ve used this Y/N first approach with are Office Hours (my thoughts on academia), Hideaway (more thoughts on sexism in industry, as well as how love stays consistent/matures over time), Countermelody (my thoughts on how dreams can change and evolve, and how we change and evolve with them), and The Road to You (my thoughts on my love of writing, how writing has shaped every stage of my life, and how each of the boys stand for some kind of interpersonal tie-in to how my own relationships looked at each stage of my life).

...This was super long-winded again lol. But I got so excited! Thanks for playing!

Play the FanFic Ask Game with me! | ask here!

[jacaranda-bloom]

FIC WRITER QUESTIONS

Thank you to the lovely @allwaswell16 @runaway-train-works @so-why-let-your-voice-be-tamed @uhoh-but-yeah-alright and @evilovesyou for tagging me to answer some questions about my writing.

1) How many works do you have on AO3?

47

2) What’s your total AO3 word count?

901,445 (Hoping to hit the Magic Million by the end of the year!)

3) How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

1 (One Direction)

4) What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

When Tomorrow Comes 1155

The Baby Whisperer 950

Love, Ever After 898

Harry Poppins 856

Play Me A Memory 760

More under the cut…

5) What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Oh gosh. Uhm. I don’t really write angsty endings? All my fics have Happy Endings and most have epilogues to round them out and tie them up in a bow. Perhaps I’d say If You’re Out There (I’ll Find You Somehow) purely because (spoiler ahead) the epilogue is written 100 years into the future so they’ve both passed.

6) What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Interestingly, I would actually say the answer is the same as above, If You’re Out There (I’ll Find You Somehow). The epilogue is so uplifting and I cry happy tears every time I re-read it. It’s written from the POV of their granddaughter and you get to see the world they had a hand in changing for the better through her eyes, so you get a sense of how impactful their lives were on the rest of society. Oof, tearing up right now just thinking about it.

7) Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

Yeah, I have actually. I really enjoy doing new takes on an existing universes, although they aren’t always the easiest thing to pull off tbh. I’m not sure which I would say is the craziest, but the hardest to write was definitely The Peter Pan/Hook AU.

Harry Poppins - Loosely based on the book/movie Mary Poppins, but without any magical aspects.

Playing To Win - Set in the Big Brother house.

The Pirate and The Piper - A Peter Pan/Hook AU which I took a lot of liberties with.

In The Still Of The Night - My Dirty Dancing AU.

A Hungry Heart - This is a Great British Bake Off AU that is due out in September for the Cliche Fic Fest!

8) Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Whoa Nelly. Yeah, I do. All the time. Every fic actually. There’s only one, Exposed, the only fic I’ve published that’s not rated Explicit and doesn’t have smut. But, to be fair, the challenge was to write exactly 666 words and I still managed to get the implication in there. Plus, Louis was naked and Harry was applying body paint for the majority of the story, so like, I think I can get a free pass on that one - I tried!

In terms of what type of smut, I guess it varies depending on the story. I tend not to push the boat out too far, but I do dabble in BDSM in quite a few of my fics. A recurring theme in the comments I receive is that my smut scenes are well constructed and detailed, without being too tedious or drawn out, which is lovely feedback to get because they can be challenging to write.

9) Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Absolutely. Every single one.

10) Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Not often, people are usually so kind, but there have been a couple.

11) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I’m aware of!

12) Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yeah, quite a lot, particularly on Wattpad, all with my full consent. That said, I’m thinking of stopping this because it’s getting a bit out of hand and I’ve been feeling uncomfortable about it recently for various reasons that I won’t bore you with here. 

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

Nope! I don’t think it’s really my thing tbh. I get very in my head about writing and struggle even to brainstorm or share too much until I’m well into a story.

14) What’s your all time favorite ship?

Of the 47 fics I’ve written, there are 45 Larry, 1 Narry, and 1 Louis/Dermot O’Leary (I think mine is still the only fic with this ship hahahaa), so that’s probably a good indication of my fave writing ship.

15) What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I have one lonely WIP sitting on AO3 from 2018. I keep promising myself I’ll finish it and it’s on my schedule every year, then I get distracted by other fics/fests and it gets pushed back. Plus, it needs a complete rewrite because my style has developed so much since I started it, so it’ll be a big job. Based on that, I think that the fic, in its current form, won’t ever be finished as the rewrite will completely wipe out what it was, although the underlying plot will still be there.

16) What are your writing strengths?

World building (or so I’m often told). I write very visually and people often say they can imagine the scene exactly, or that it’s like a movie, or that they think it’s actually a real place I’m describing, when most of the time it absolutely isn’t, it’s just something I’ve created in my weird brain.

17) What are your writing weaknesses?

Dialogue (although my lovely beta disagrees) and telling rather than showing. They’re both things I’m actively working on.

18) What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I’ve never really considered it. It’s not something I’d shy away from necessarily, but it’s just never come up.

19) What was the first fandom you wrote for?

One Direction. First and only.

20) What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

Wow. This is really tough because it changes over time. I find that once I’ve finished a fic I don’t want to revisit it for a few months because I’m kind of over it. But I find comfort in them after a while, like I get to go back to that happy place and immerse myself in that world and the characters again, similar to catching up with an old friend. It’s familiar. I think I also like different stories for different reasons and I’m drawn to various ones depending on my mood. My top 3 (although, ask me next week and the list will probably be completely different!) would probably be:

1. If You’re Out There (I’ll Find You Somehow). Written for the hybrid fic fest (a fest I created just for this fic lol). It’s not everyone’s cup of tea due to the hybrid aspect, but it’s one of the stories I feel is the most rounded from a character development perspective and the world building was pretty epic, if I can be so bold as to throw that out there myself!

2. No Going Back. One of my Big Bangs from 2020. I adore the way their relationship develops in this fic and the setting (as remote lighthouse keepers) was such a lot of fun to write. Plus I got to collaborate with an amazing artist who created an entire website as an accompanying travel blog which was truly wonderful.

3. From The Heart. This is a series I wrote for wordplay back in 2019. I had no idea that what I was doing was so unusual and so meta by having Louis essentially write for the equivalent of wordplay in the fic. It was such an fun way to share my writing process and challenges I encounter (exactly how many synonyms tabs do I have open at any one time?!) and I thoroughly enjoyed the outcome (although getting there was definitely a struggle).

~

This was really fun and thanks to anyone who made it this far! Writing brings me so much joy and is a wonderful outlet for all the imaginings in my head, so I appreciate everyone who supports me and joins me on that journey.

~

I’m pretty late with this and I’m not sure who has already done it but I’ll tag @fallinglikethis @homosociallyyours @lululawrence @reminiscingintherain and @beau-soleil-louis if they’d like to do this and haven’t already.

[buckyscrystalqueen]

Managed: Part 3

Pairings: Clark Kent x Reader (Henry Cavill Clark)

Warnings: Maybe swearing

Word Count: 2,777

A/N: Doesn’t have a completed end yet, but just giving you more content to try to get myself out of a writing funk.

Part 1 / Part 2

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“OK, hold the fuck on.” Your best friend from work, Sarah, said as she waited patiently for you to safely enter your currently room temperature hot tub to cool off on your first hot day of spring. “You’re the one dating Clark Kent?! Tall, drop dead gorgeous, hasn’t looked at a single woman since he started at Blue Ridge to the point we were starting to think he was gay, Clark Kent?”

“People thought he was gay?” You asked with a huffed laugh as you sat down in your favorite spot.

“I mean, have you seen how he dresses?” She asked as she got in and sat across from you. “Those tight shirts?”

“So that makes him gay?!” You laughed as you wrapped your ponytail into a bun and secured it with the hair tie on your wrist.

“OK, not exclusively.” She laughed as she hit the display panel and turned on her jets. “It’s all talk, you know. That’s all. He’s just never showed interest in getting to know people and he’s never once mentioned a significant other to anyone... you know how usually that shit just kinda slips out in passing. I don’t know, it’s just an observation.”

“Well now that it’s out, it’s spreading like wildfire. Everyone seems to know now.”

“That’s the fun part of working at Blue Ridge.” She said over the sound of your jets starting up. “Everybody is in everybody else’s business. I’m just surprised that y’all were able to keep it a secret as long as you did.”

“It was more out of fear than anything else.” You started as you looked over at the familiar rumble of a pick up truck and its tires coming up your gravel drive. “He was worried about my job, I was worried about his. Now that people know, it’s like a weight has been lifted off our shoulders.”

“Is that his truck?” You nodded your head and turned the slightest bit to yell at Clark that you were down stairs when he got out of his truck. “Does he live here?”

“We go back and forth between here and his place. We have been slowly starting to throw around the idea of getting a place but it’s still just pillow talk.”

“I swear, you live in that hot tub.” Clark teased as he walked through the side fence.

“Sue me, I’m a mermaid.”

“Got that right.” He chuckled as he came into the screened in porch. “Hello, Sarah.”

“How’s it going, boss man.” She teased. “Or is it baby daddy now?”

“Clark still works just fine.” He laughed as he leaned over the side to kiss your forehead. “I’m gunna go shower and wash this day off me and thank God we have the next two days off.”

“For doctors appointments.” You pointed out. “So many doctors appointments.” With a nod of his head, he said good bye to Sarah and headed inside, while your friend simply shook her head at you.

“Luckiest bitch in the world.” She muttered when she was sure the down stairs door to your house was closed.

“I know.” You laughed with a shrug as you stretched your legs out under the water and got even more comfortable in front of your jets. “He’s a heaven sent angel for sure. That man has the patience of a saint to put up with all my crazy.”

“Yea, and we both know how much crazy that is.” She laughed, which made you pout and splash some water in her direction.

“I’m serious though. He puts up with me and helps me not spiral out of control better than my own mother can. I seriously have no idea how or why he has stuck around this long...”

“Because you are worth it, (Y/N). You are worth this happiness I can actually see in your eyes. You deserve to be happy just like the rest of us... well, not me. I’m a piece of shit.”

“And you have Larry.” You pointed out as you turned in your chair to grab your bottle of water off the side.

“Two fucked up sides to the same coin.” She laughed, whole heartedly. “God, I love that man. Pain in my ass, and I definitely don’t deserve him, but I love him for loving me all the same. We should all grab dinner sometime. Like a...”

“If you say ‘double date’ to me right now, I will drown you, pregnant or not.”

“Spoil sport.”

——

“So I’ve been thinking...”

“Oh that’s a dangerous thing to do.” Clark teased as he got ready for bed later that night.

“Maybe it’s time to revisit us moving in together and buying a house.” Your boyfriend actually froze half way through taking his under shirt off and stared at you as you looked away from your Facebook feed and up at him through your lashes. “Save money before the baby comes and all.”

“So you wanna buy a house to save money.” He laughed as he took off his shirt and tossed it in the laundry basket. “What brought this on?”

“Well.” You breathed as you turned off your phone screen and rolled over onto your side to face him. “Sarah asked if we were living together when she saw you pull up and I told her we were just talking about it, but the only reason I have been hesitant about it was because of work but since work knows, there really isn’t an issue anymore so there isn’t any reason not to now, right?” He nodded his head slowly as he put his folded jeans on his dresser for the morning and sat down on his side of the bed facing you.

“You know that I have wanted to move in with you for months.” He started as he reached out to put his hand on your hip. “So I am beyond excited at the idea of this actually happening. But I want to make sure that you are ready for this and not just jumping into it because you think its gunna make other people happy.”

“No, I know.” You agreed as you scooted forward so you were a little closer to him. “I have wanted to live with you since you asked me to. I know it’s a big step and yes, its already stressing me out, but I know that at the end of it all, I will be with you. And that’s all I want. I just want to be with you. You make me so happy, more than I’ll ever deserve. And I know that it’s time to take the next step in our lives together. Besides that, we can’t really start our family living in two different houses, one of which is with my mother...”

“OK, well that is another thing we need to discuss.” He said as he leaned over so that he was propped up on the bed behind you with his elbow but still partially laying on your legs. “Because I already know you well enough to know that your mother is a big part of your support group and moving you too far away from her isn’t going to work for both of your sakes. She needs you as much as you need her...”

“OK...”

“And there aren’t many properties in this area for sale right now. Trust me, I’ve been keeping an eye on it for a few months.”

“Of course you have.” You giggled as you propped yourself up on your hand to see him a little better.

“But, there are two different plots of land, one across the street and one a little ways up the road that are up for sale and are pretty cheap. We could possibly build a house...”

“We could... And there’s also the bottom of mom’s property...”

“What, in her yard?”

“No, the neighbor’s old garden.” You replied a you gestured in that direction. “Mom made that comment when we first moved up here, of me possibly building down there so she’s a little less alone on the mountain. If that’s not too crazy of an idea to you, we could talk to her and see if she’s still ok with something like that and maybe see if she would sell us that land. Maybe, I don’t know...”

“Honestly, knowing you as well as I do, that would be the best case scenario here.” He agreed.

“That’s not weird for you?” He smirked and shook his head as he moved his hand enough to rub your back.

“Baby, I love you. And I know that family is important to you. I knew a long time ago that we’d be living near your mother and I don’t have an issue with that now, like I didn’t when I realized that. I like your mom, she’s funny...”

“Oh, don’t ever let her hear you say that.” You laughed as you reached down to run your fingers through his dark curls.

“And I know she respects boundaries enough that it’s not going to turn into an ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ situation. But we need to talk to her. And we need to really think about this and make sure building a house is something we wanna do right now. It takes a while to do, and there’s a chance, even if we start on Monday with talking to the city and getting the ball rolling, we might not be in the house before the baby is born... You’ve stopped listening, haven’t you?”

“No, I’m hearing you.” You said through your giant smile. 

“No you’re not.” He laughed as he sat up and gave you a chaste kiss. “We’ll talk to mom after your morning appointment.”

“You’re way to good to me.” You sighed as he got up to brush his teeth for bed.

“I’m just treating you like you deserve, sweetheart. That’s all.”

——

“OK, scale of one to ten.” Clark said behind you as you walked through your almost finished house, making sure all the details were exactly right like you did every night you got home from work. “How badly do you crave a trip to Disney?” You stopped and looked back at him before gesturing to the Disney character drawer pulls that you had put on the drawers of the dressers in your closet, and the Star Wars ones in your bathroom.

“Really?” You asked as you gestured toward the guest bathroom, that was going to be finished to look like the hallway in the Haunted Mansion, and the stacks of boxes in the master bedroom behind him of the collection of Disney things the pair of you had collected over the years. “Really?”

“So like a four?”

“Like a ten million.”

“Enough to wanna go on a short baby moon in a few weeks?”

“Is that why I was approved for my paid time off days that I never requested off?” You giggled as you turned turned back to the closet to look at the painting that got finished in there today. He laughed whole heartedly behind you and nodded his head behind your back.

“I thought I beat the response on that and we gotta use them anyways or we lose them. Hey...” You paused your inspection and turned around with your hands on your bump and your back, and he smiled and pulled you toward him by your shirt. “Let’s go to Disney for a bit. The house is close to being done, you haven’t found a single issue with it in the the last seven months, and I think we should just relax for a few days while we still can. Before Wendy comes...”

“Her name is Evangeline.” You countered with a smile. “The sooner you accept that...”

“Yea, yea, yea.” He chuckled, knowing that your daughter’s name was going to be Evangeline (since he picked it out in the first place), but just wanting to pick on you to see the cute annoyed face you gave him every time. “I’m still partial to Tegan...”

“Then you shouldn’t have given me Evangeline.” You said in a sing song voice as you turned to head back up to your mom’s place for dinner, since your kitchen was not even close to being finished yet. “It’s all your fault.”

“You haven’t given me an answer, sweetheart.”

“Why do we have to wait a few weeks to go?” You asked as you stepped over some boxes of flooring that was waiting to go in your kitchen once the island was installed.

“Because that’s the way it works.” He countered as he helped you squeeze between all of the  cabinets for the kitchen and the bathrooms that were going up later that week when the painters were done. “That’s when I could get a site at Fort Wilderness so we can use your mom’s camper to save us some money...”

“Wait, how are we affording Disney right now? We have so much money tied up in the build...?”

“I still know people working at Disney, sweetheart. So I called in a few favors from people who were more than happy to spare some tickets, let us use their discounts, and spread a little pixie dust on two expecting Disney fanatics.”

“Ok, but even still, it’s gunna cost us...” You tried as you stepped out the front door on to the porch.

“Let me worry about that.” Clark interrupted as he locked the door and you turned back to face him.

“You can’t keep doing that.” You said softly with a shake of your head. “You can’t shut me down when it comes to money anymore. I understand you want to give me the world and you don’t want me to ever have to worry, but that’s not how this works. We’re building a house, and starting a family, Clark. And you can’t take on that financial responsibility alone no matter how long you have saved up for it. You’re not the only one who has. But you have to let me... please. Because otherwise, I will keep canceling orders on things like the paint, and those drawer knobs, and these rocking chairs and rebuying them on my name, on my cards...”

“I was wondering how I had more money in my account than I should have.” He sighed as he sat down on one of the two rockers and gestured for you to sit down as well. “I don’t like it...”

“You don’t have to like it.” You grumbled as you sort of just flopped down after a long day on your feet. “Just like I don’t have to like growing a child. We still gotta do it though.” With one more sigh, he nodded and sat back in his chair.

“I’ve had money for the house for years. Evangeline is throwing me for a bit of a loop, but I um... well I opened another credit card and it’s covering her expenses...”

“Clark, you didn’t have to do that.” You sighed as you leaned to the side the slightest bit to reach out for his hand. “Because you’re not the only one saving money here. And there’s no point in me saving money just for it to gain interest in a bank when it could be used to help us better ourselves by... oh I don’t know, buying a crib and diapers and cute little dresses and sweaters and little baby booties. It can buy those towels I love for the guest bathroom, which, by the way, it already has and they will be delivered on Tuesday.”

“I thought you changed your mind on those and that’s why they were canceled.”

“Nope, just repurchased.” You clarified as you sat back to rock yourself back and forth.

“I’m sorry, (Y/N).” He said softly after a few moments. “It’s just... hard. I was raised to be the man of the house and that leaves me with the burden.”

“And if that’s the case, then I’ll stay at home and parent. But either way, I still have money saved that can help us out here, OK? Money for a house, and a wedding. May even be able to afford a trip to Disney and the baby I’m growing, too. So you are not allowed to take on the burden of our life together alone anymore. Or you can sleep in my mom’s basement while I enjoy our house with Evangeline all by ourselves.”

“Alright, fine. You win.” He breathed with a nod. “You’re going to be the death of me, you know that, right?”

“Oh, don’t you know it.” You giggled as you stood up to head home. “Come on, I’m hungry.”

[tokiro07]

I think I may have talked about this before, but I really hope that DBS: Broly sets a precedent for canonizing older, non-canon characters and plotpoints

That being said, I realized today that I don’t really want every single Dragon Ball movie to be rehashed into excuses for Goku to get stronger ad infinitum

Instead I think it would be cool if they were rehashed to be excuses for EVERYONE ELSE to get stronger! 

It’s basically gotten to the point where Goku is incomparable to basically everyone else anyway, so when the “final” Dragon Ball villain finally shows up in the next X number of years, I think it would be good for the rest of the cast to be a bit more balanced with him. Sure, we know he’d still be the last one standing and would probably get another power-up to shoot ahead as always, but it would be a lot more engaging if the rest of the cast was at least able to put up a real fight. I don’t imagine they’d each be getting a movie, but I don’t want them to have super short OVAs either, so I think somewhere between 5 and 10 episodes each would do really well

So let’s say we bring back Dr. Wheelo from World’s Strongest; while it might be cool to get more scenes with Roshi, I don’t think we quite need the whole “stealing Roshi’s body” plotline anymore. Instead, we could use it as an excuse to bring back Android 13 using Dr. Wheelo as the impetus. From there, this plotline follows Krillin, 18 and 17 on a family trip, wherein we get to meet 17′s wife and children. Wheelo shows up with 13, maybe 14 and 15 too, trying to get 17 and 18 so he can use them to upgrade either his own robot body or further upgrade 13. After the group dispatches with 14 and 15, Wheelo has 13 upgrade himself into Super Android 13 with their cores like in the film; this necessitates that 17 and 18 get stronger by also finding a way to become Super Androids, which also ties in and canonizes certain aspects of the Super 17 Arc from GT. At the same time, Krillin is also finding a way to upgrade himself, leaving him to beat Wheelo while Super 17 and 18 beat Super 13

Lord Slug gets repurposed as specifically a Piccolo villain and showcases a new Namekian transformation, perhaps the armored form seen in Dragon Ball Heroes; in order for Piccolo to defeat Slug, he needs to also access this armored form. It’s been stated that in order for Piccolo to fully regain the power of the Nameless Namekian he would need to reabsorb King Piccolo and allow evil back into his heart. The need to attain the armored form may be what prompts him to bring back King Piccolo’s soul and absorb it, with the major character arc of the film being Piccolo confronting the villain he used to be and finally overcoming it once and for all. Garlic Jr. could also serve this same purpose, and I actually think it would be interesting for Garlic Jr. and Slug to somehow team up, but I also think it would be better if it were a bit more focused and only chose one. 

Turles could be repurposed as a Universe 6 Saiyan, giving him an opportunity to be redesigned to look less like Goku so as not to overlap with Goku Black. Vegeta finally makes good on his promise to visit Planet Sadala and decides to bring his family with him so that Trunks can be closer to his heritage. Goten either sneaks aboard or Vegeta allows him to come with because he thinks it’s an opportunity he’d never get from Goku. After taking in the Saiyan culture and giving Vegeta some time to reflect on how things could or should have been for him and his race and family, the plot shifts to Turles betraying Sadala, possibly under Frost’s orders, and attempting to drain it with the Tree of Might. Because he’s draining the Saiyans and not Earthlings, he gets a massive powerup that far outstrips what he got in the original film, allowing him to easily dispatch with Cabba, Caulifla and Kale. This in turn requires either Vegeta fight him with the powers he’s currently learning from Beerus in the manga or Trunks and Goten gain a power up as Gotenks. I do think that Turles would be better served as a Vegeta villain specifically in this case, as while I think Goten and Trunks need more development, Vegeta definitely deserves to have a story where he’s the hero

Tapion and Hirudegarn could easily provide Trunks with the development that he’d otherwise be getting from Turles, repurposing the sibling relationship he developed with Tapion in Wrath of the Dragon to have a bit more of a lasting impact (actually forcing Trunks to be confronted with the choice of killing Tapion rather than just having Hirudegarn escape from Tapion’s body before Trunks does anything as just one example). This would not only build up Trunks’ character, but would give him a really easy powerup in the form of Tapion’s Brave Sword

Garlic Jr., if not a Piccolo villain, could then in turn be a Goten villain, as Garlic Jr. was previously always defeated by child Gohan. Goten could be confronted with Garlic Jr. while Trunks is busy with Hirudegarn, forcing Goten to fight without relying on fusion and ultimately finding his own way of fighting that’s distinct from Goku’s ever-evolving Super Saiyan forms and Gohan’s Potential Unleashed. This would also make it even more impactful when Goten and Trunks reunite into Gotenks later in a bigger final battle

Bojack would then return as Gohan’s villain, but this time Gohan would have Videl with him (who would also be given an opportunity to improve her skills), as well as a slightly older Pan who may exhibit the same kind of untapped strength as Gohan did at her age. Gohan would either find some way to surpass Potential Unleashed to defeat Bojack or would specifically be able to beat him because his family is there fighting with him. Perhaps something like “Bonds Unleashed,” wherein Gohan exceeds his potential through the power of his love for his family or something silly like that? It’d also be a good chance to revisit Bojack’s team and develop them a bit more, especially fan-favorite Zangya

Cooler could give us a chance to develop Frieza on his own a bit, allowing him to finally reach the Fifth Form and subsequently combine it with the Golden Form while also exploring the culture of Frieza’s species, or at least the dynamics within his family as galactic conquerors

Janemba doesn’t really have anyone in particular aside from Goku and Vegeta that he would make a ton of sense to be a villain for, but given how frequently Janemba is compared to Buu, I could see him being a way for Buu and Uub to team up, fully reintroducing Uub and giving us a way for Buu to level up, maybe somehow channeling his Super or Kid forms in a more constructive way

Baby of course would be a way to reintroduce Super Saiyan 4, but seeing as he’s a Tuffle Machine Mutant, I could definitely see him coming into conflict with Broly as a way to get Broly up to Legendary Super Saiyan 2 or beyond. That said, Broly’s probably going to be brought back long before they rehash Baby, I just think that would be really interesting, especially since Legendary Super Saiyan is such a similar concept to Super Saiyan 4 (going Super Saiyan while in a pseudo-Great Ape state as opposed to going Super Saiyan while actually in Great Ape). My main problem is that I’m not sure how SS4 can be introduced at this point since it might conflict with SSG and SSB, but that’s an issue for the writers. I also don’t think it’d necessarily be good to have Baby remove Vegeta from the plot by possessing him like in GT, so maybe Baby’s Saiyan body should be a Universe 6 Saiyan. Perhaps Cabba would be a good candidate, since he’s pretty clearly far weaker than Caulifla and Kale, so it might lead to some good development for him

Finally, the Shadow Dragons would be a good way to tie everyone back together, with each of them (barring Frieza, probably) taking on a different Shadow Dragon using what they’ve learned; since I couldn’t find a place for Tien or Yamcha, perhaps they can team up to beat any of the Shadow Dragons that the others don’t get to. I don’t think it would be good to end things on a repurposed villain, so of course Omega Shenron wouldn’t be the final Dragon Ball villain this time around, but perhaps this would be where Goku finalizes and masters whatever abilities he’ll be using against the true final villain

I don’t know if other people would like this as much as I would, I just think it’d be really cool to revisit all of these characters and concepts, tweak their designs a bit and also give the extended cast a way to powerup and get closer to Goku’s level. Probably won’t happen, but I’d personally love to see it

[scrapyardboyfriends]

Because I’ve read too many “Robert was awful to Aaron and Robron fans loved it but Ben forgives Aaron for bullying him and Robron fans hate it” comments about this story, I have some thoughts... (warning for an incredibly messy rambling post)

For me, what has always been most important is a good and entertaining story and the basic point for me in all of this is that Robron was an entertaining and fascinating story and so far, Ben and Aaron is not. 

Robert may have done awful things to Aaron throughout the affair, sure, but it was interesting. It was soapy and dramatic and made for a good story. Did he try and kill both his parents? Kind of. Did he tie him to a radiator and hold a gun to his head? Sure. (Although for the record, Aaron set the whole Lodge thing up and attacked him first and Robert was only defending himself and then panicked and turned into a crazy person having a breakdown but I digress...see interesting). I may have wanted to ring his neck with how terrible he was to Aaron after Katie’s death etc but it was always fascinating, complex content to watch and analyze. The fact that we saw all of this play out on screen too just makes it better, in fact, it’s key.

And after all of that terribleness, did Aaron forgive him instantly? No. It took months for them to be good again and Robert had to work for it. He paid for all of the affair stuff with getting shot and then he was Aaron’s rock throughout the whole Gordon story. And after all of that awful behavior, it was just as fascinating to watch him start to let all of that go and be able to support Aaron and not betray him like in that scene with Chas where he’s trying to get her to look deeper into the Aaron/Gordon situation after he knows the truth. The point is though, that there were months worth of story to watch unfold before Aaron forgave him enough to try again, before he trusted him enough. 

And we had another version of all of that with the one night stand and the break up era, months and months of content. 

With this Ben and Aaron stuff, it’s hard because obviously they’ve only had about four episodes so far and we really don’t know what they’re going to do with it or where it all might go, so I realize I’m judging it on very little, but then so are all of the people who are like “this is great!” so I feel like, for the purpose of this essay I seem to be writing, it’s fine. 

Now, I’ve said before, I have no real problem with them giving Aaron a new love interest from a story standpoint. It was always going to happen. This isn’t about whether I love Robron or not, it’s just about writing the show moving forward. It’s just that, above all else, I want it to be a good and compelling story. 

I mean, I hated the set up right from the start because I don’t know why this team thought the perfect or most interesting love interest for Aaron was a kid he used to bully, but that aside, the most baffling thing to me about the forgiveness aspect of it all, is that it happened instantly. And this is not to say that Aaron is not forgivable. Aaron has very compelling reasons for his behavior back then, reasons we’ve seen unfold during his time on the show. And Aaron is a good guy, we know that. And the thing is, I didn’t even dislike those scenes in which Aaron apologized and Ben got to talk about the bullying and how he felt and then seemingly forgave Aaron for the most part after. The scenes were fine. They were written decently and the acting was good. The issue for me, is that I don’t understand why you would seemingly resolve your conflict so fast from a writing perspective. It’s boring. 

I’m not saying more won’t come from it. Frankly, we don’t know until we see all of this play out but I get tired of seeing it simplified that we don’t like that Ben forgave Aaron over some bullying when we love Robon’s insane tumultuous relationship. For me, and I feel like for a lot of people even if they don’t realize it, it’s largely because the pacing makes no sense. Saying it just happened too fast is less of a critique of the character’s motives in forgiveness and more of a critique in just not understanding why they would bother introducing this conflict if they were just going to resolve it instantly. 

I do realize there’s obviously more coming next week but those spoilers half sound like a retread of the first two weeks of this and that’s not a good thing. My biggest problem with current Emmerdale is that every story just ends up being tediously repetitive, which makes them boring. I don’t want that for Aaron. 

Ultimately, what I want for Aaron, is for him to be a character that feels integrated into the rest of the show again. I want to see him have more connections. I want to see him getting involved in other stories here and there (yes I know, covid). I want to see him have friends. I want to see him actually go to work. I want him to be able to be a grown up and move forward in his adult life rather than continue to get dragged back to his past. Aaron’s abuse story is one of my all time favorites, but we’ve done that and we’ve revisited it multiple times already. We didn’t need to necessarily do it again with this. It will always affect him and that should be reflected on screen, but it doesn’t need to be a part of every story he has. 

Right now, I feel like my main investment in this current story with Ben, is just trying to figure out what they’re actually doing rather than caring at all about the actual content of it an that’s not a good thing. 

On another note, since I’m here, I just genuinely don’t understand the people who are finding any of this Ben stuff interesting enough to ship right now. There’s literally nothing there. I mean, I know I’m never going to ship it in that way anyway, but really what is there? Do they just think Ben is cute? Did they like that one scene of awkward Aaron asking him out? That just would never be enough for me, especially when you know what an interesting character Aaron can be. 

People claim to want a good story for Aaron but are also just like “I want Aaron to be happy”. First of all, Aaron hardly seems happy. He’s spent most of this just feeling bad about himself and apologizing. I mean, rightly so in some cases but I wouldn’t call that happy. Second, why do people want characters to be happy all the time? Especially in a soap? Happy = boring and no screen time. Even though Robron earned their happiness, I was still kind of bored by a lot of it. 

I love angsty Aaron and it’s not because I love seeing him miserable, it’s just more interesting to watch. Do I like when his stories have a happy ending? Of course, I don’t want him miserable all the time, I just want him to get good content. The angst and the struggles are what make the happy moments worth while. 

I don’t know, this is a rambling disaster but I keep wanting to yell into the void about things I read so I just thought I’d write it all down. 

I mean, on a boring story matter, I don’t understand all of the people who just want Aaron to become a youth counsellor and live a happy fulfilled life that way while he waits for Robert to come back either. Haha. I mean, maybe if Aaron was getting a spinoff show where that’s the whole thing and we can dig into the stories of multiple kids and find interest there but otherwise, that sounds incredibly dull as the D plot it would end up being. I mean, I could see Aaron fostering a troubled teen the way Paddy did with him and the show actually doing a better job with it than they did with Aaron and Liv with actual conflict that didn’t get resolved in a repetitive series of overly sappy scenes but that’s a whole other issue. 

Okay...I’ll stop now...(at least until I get the inevitable set of anon asks from posting this)

[threeletterslife]

AYSIB...

DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN’T READ ALL YOU SEE IS BLUE (I MEAN, UNLESS YOU WANT SPOILERS)

「 background 」

man i held onto this plot for over a year before i wrote it. looking at my google docs history, i came up with the idea on feb 13 of 2019 (wow and the day before the lovey dovey spirit of valentine’s day 😀how ironic). this is an excerpt, VERBATIM, from that same original plan that i made on the doc: “ok so here either jk STOPS the sacrifice or helps yn run away or IDK HE SAVES HER or she dies in front of his eyes hahahsbfhdjs”

yes. i came up with the idea. the castle. the price. the sacrifice. but i had no idea how the story should end 😀😀and this was all before i had any idea of yn and jk’s characters too! (i essentially came up with the plot and then dipped lmao) 

but fast forward a year later, i revisited this idea in my drive and found that it actually had a lot of angsty potential LOL. i decided to tie this story into my society series! (it wasn’t originally planned to be so.) and my society series as a whole has this ongoing trend where the characters just end up succumbing to their strange society’s needs. so i knew once i put aysib into the society series, yn would have to end up dying 😀😀the next step was to figure out how i would execute yn’s death and also somehow develop her relationship with jungkook???

「 characters 」

making the characters for this was especially significant, i feel. if you know mbti, i typed yn as infp (also a pisces) and jungkook as intp. i wanted to make yn a dreamer—someone who dreamed of living in the royal castle. someone who would be so excited and happy she was chosen that she was blinded to her actual surroundings. then, i needed a male lead who is charming but cautious (maybe even cold at times) and also—and most importantly—morally challenged. in a strange way, prince jungkook is also a dreamer. he’s naïve (has been outside the castle like, once) and doesn’t understand hardship as yn does. he’s privileged—hella privileged—and doesn’t know what to do with it. he feels sorry for himself and not the poor sacrifices. he feels sorry that he has to witness murder... and yet doesn’t do anything to stop it. and when yn asks how he’s going to rule, he tells her he will just like how his father did. he’s definitely not big on change, yet he envisions it. yn, on the other hand, knows hardship but she chooses to block it out of her life to protect the fantasy bubble she lives in—you can see that in the way she casually talks about her “mother” who doesn’t act like a proper caregiver to yn at all. personally, i think that “dreamer + dreamer = chaos” because no one in the relationship is going to shake the other’s shoulder and go “snap out of it! get your head out of the clouds!”

i wrote this in an ask but jungkook is what i would call, lowkey cold, midkey alcoholic, highkey broken. he’s also a bit of a coward. even if he loved yn (which he didn’t) but even if he was in love with her, he would’ve still let her be sacrificed.

i don’t think what yn and jungkook had was love. and it will never be love. yn thinks of jungkook as her savior (at least, in the beginning). to her, jk is her literal prince charming. he’s nice to her, helps her acclimate to royalty and! he even pays attention to her!! it’s a win-win-win. but she doesn’t love him. she may adore the idea of him. but let’s face it. how much do they know about each other? not much. and are they willing to sacrifice anything for each other? no. if the cerulean king asked yn if she’d rather kick herself out of royalty or jungkook, she’d kick jk out in a flash. and jungkook... well, he literally let yn be sacrificed and watched it too. they were two pretty lost souls who just met fleetingly and parted just as quickly. they used each other to feel a little less lonely. (and jungkook gets brownie points for knowing what would happen to yn but still choosing to lead her on 😐) but i do sometimes think about how their possible romance could’ve blossomed if they had run away (though the thought is brief because as a couple, they would not survive a single week together)

but in all honesty, i had a really hard time writing yn’s character. i mean, she was so innocent and go-with-the-flow, and if you’ve read some of my other female leads... none of them are like her at all LMAO. but it was refreshing to write a different character. and it was satisfying to let her die after she broke through her innocent bubble. something she had idolized her so much had been the cause of her demise. i find that ironic. but technically, she died for her own cause, right? the skies in the cerulean kingdom will be clear and blue thanks to her 😳😳

jk’s character is complex. dare i say the most complex character i’ve written?? so i guess he’s my favorite character i’ve ever written then 😳😳i find it funny that he pities himself for being the prince of the cerulean kingdom. in reality, shouldn’t he be pitying the poor sacrifices?? if he hated it so much then why doesn’t he stop his father? sounds like daddy issues to me 😐and why was he so infatuated with yn? i mean, yeah, she’s canonly attractive. but why her? or is yn part of his annual cycle...? does he fall for every sacrifice girl who steps foot in his castle? what if yn wasn’t special at all? i’ll leave that one up for reader interpretation

but i will say that yn’s death affected jk a lot. we’ll be having another one of these ‘jk’s character’ talks after the spin-off is posted!

「 extras 」

fun fact,,, this story was supposed to be like... way longer! like way, way longer. 20k+! yn was supposed to stay alive for a week or a full MONTH before she’d be sacrificed 😳i originally planned that yn and jk would actually fall in love. that they’d explore the whole castle together (stables, ball room, closet room, pool room etc.) i had too many ideas but decided that i’d rather let yn be sacrificed after three days because i didn’t think the yn x jk chemistry would work out in the long run. three days seemed like sufficient time for them to only have good memories of each other when yn ultimately dies 😀(they’d know each other on a shallow level, yk? enough to be infatuated with each other but nothing too serious at the same time)

god it took me SO LONG figuring out which scenes to cut and which to keep. the ones that did make it in were the winery, kitchen, garden, library and bedrooms 👀the wine room was important to show jungkook’s alcoholism 😀the kitchen was to show how indulgently jungkook lives in comparison to the poor villagers (the privilege was real 🙄). the garden was a “first-time” meeting ground for the two of them—where yn was the closest to the sky! we needed the library for some light ‘reading,’ which yn doesn’t like (and therefore shows that she uh... ain’t that book smart i guess 😔). and the bedrooms were just there for convenience i guess LMAO

i’m actually really happy with the current length of aysib. if it was any shorter, the characters might not have been well-developed. if it was any longer, the story would’ve felt dragged on

「 motifs/final questions 」

lmao well, the sky was a big motif as everyone probably noticed. yn loves it so much because she always has to look down during harvest. the sky offers her a sense of escape. too bad it landed her right into a brutal sacrifice 😔also! it is never proven that the sky gods exist 😐imagine if they killed all those poor innocent girls for no reason... lesson learned, should you really believe what everyone around you tells you?? or should you figure out shit by yourself? 🧐is it even moral to sacrifice one person for the good of everyone else?

and why did the king choose yn? did he see jungkook eyeing her? is he that sadistic that he wanted someone who caught his son’s eye to be sacrificed? or was it just plain bad luck?

it’s open-ended and up for interpretation 😌

[blurrypetals]

Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer - blurrypetals review

originally posted aug. 12, 2020 - ★★★★☆

My O.G. shitlord lives. My relationship with Twilight is a long and complicated thing. Without getting into it too much, I kind of sort of fell in love with reading because of this series. I was in the seventh grade in 2007, when a friend of mine recommended the first book to me and, like many others of the time, I was instantly hooked. It was the biggest book I'd ever read by myself without the help of my mom reading it out loud like she did with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Because of Twilight, I got into authors like Scott Westerfeld, Darren Shan, and, the granddaddy of all my favorite authors, Christopher Moore. The first book is still, to this day, the novel I've read the most times, sitting pretty at 5 whole times, which isn't even taking into the account the dozens of times I've skimmed the pages, memorizing the pages, the chapters titles... My enchantment with the series died a quiet death about a year and a half later, in 2008, when the final book in the series came out and, a few months after that, the movie adaptation came out, silencing just about any enthusiasm I might have had left in me for the series as a whole. That said, any time Stephenie Meyer has released something new, be it Twilight related or not, I've always picked it up. Apart from The Chemist, which I just haven't gotten to, I read the Bree book in 2009, I read the strange and incredibly ridiculous Life and Death in 2015, and I watched every movie adaptation as they came out, even though most of them brought me great pain. I pay respects to the roots my reading habits were born from and sometimes it's fun to revisit this ridiculous melodrama. So that all brings us to May 2020, right? Sort of! Another thing that killed my love of the series was the Great Midnight Sun Leak of 2008. When those first 12 chapters were leaked back then, I read them, and, besides The Host, I felt it was the best thing Stephenie had ever written. It was fun, Edward made for a more interesting protagonist. Its biggest problem was that it just wasn't finished. And now we're in 2020! One of the worst years on record and May hits us with what I consider to truly be a gift: We're finally getting Midnight Sun. It's finally finished. Our nostalgia fodder is on its way. So what do I think about it now that it's finally here? I fucking love it, man! Besides The Host, it is still the best thing Stephenie Meyer has ever written and it was an absolute joy to read. I think this book is kind of a genius move on Stephenie's part, as it inoffensively and canonically adds context and breathes new life into the first book. Twilight as a book is now better for having this book as a companion. I honestly wasn't sure I could ever bring myself to fangirl over anything Twilight-related ever again in my life, but my god the extra things, all the things Edward and the rest of the Cullens got up to when they weren't around Bella were all fucking great! There is a part earlier in the novel where Edward observes through his mind-reading powers that Ben and Angela each have crushes on one another but they don't really have the guts to ask the other person out, so in their Spanish class they have with Ben, Emmett asks Edward very loudly if he's asked Angela Weber out yet, and it gets Ben to finally ask Angela out and it's so fucking cute and the things it did to my heart made me think I was 12 again. There are also a lot of lovely flashbacks, including a scene about Edward's first Christmas with Carlisle that very nearly evoked a couple of tears from me. This book was honestly the medicine I needed for the ailment that is 2020 as a year. It also made me ache in a certain way I wasn't expecting, but it was because I enjoyed this book and its nostalgia that I began to wish for something I haven't wished for so deeply since I was 14 years old: I wished Breaking Dawn was a different story. Breaking Dawn is what dealt the heaviest blow to my enjoyment of the series, and my severe hatred of that book stems from many areas: the creepy half-vampire baby, the truly horrific pregnancy Bella goes through, the fact that it kind of sort of almost definitely condones pedophilia in a quiet yet still disturbing way, the utterly ridiculous conflict-non-conflict that is the final act of the book, and so much more. However, there is almost nothing I found more disappointing at the time than the fact that, several hundred pages spending time with these characters and their desires, Bella is turned into a vampire, and that never made sense to me, especially in Edward's story, where we are told time and time again that being a vampire in this world is basically torture for people like him and Rosalie, it never made sense to me that Bella ended up as a vampire. In all my months of theorizing how the series might end in the time between the releases ofEclipse and Breaking Dawn, I always expected for a cure for vampirism to be found and that would be how Edward and Bella would get their own small forever together. No awful pregnancy, no baby, no pedophilia, just a way for them both to get what they always wanted: to be together, have a life together. This isn't a review of Breaking Dawn, but the reason I bring this up is I kept hoping for this book, Midnight Sun to pull a Life and Death. For the uninitiated, this means that, like the crazy gender bender, Life and Death, which, despite being nearly identical to Twilight as far as the general plot goes, has a different ending from its forefather to tie up the idea of rewriting the entire series in this new gender-bent universe, and I found myself wondering whether Stephenie might be moving toward a similar change. This book deals very much with Edward's humanity. It's more than twice as long as Twilight and much of it is added content like the Christmas with Carlisle scene I mentioned before, but much of that extra time is spent learning how Edward thinks of himself, how he wants to be, what he wishes were different, and his desire to live a human life and, moreover, to let Bella live a human life, is extremely powerful. It makes the fact that she's turned in Breaking Dawn even more disappointing. There was a part about halfway through this book where Edward listens to Alice's mind as she has a vision of Bella's future as a vampire, and I genuinely felt crestfallen by the idea, even though I have known her fate for over a decade now. We get to see how Edward views Bella and, on top of that, we get to hear their conversations in much greater detail than before. It honestly was wonderful, finally getting to see what he sees in her, and I really do see it. Bella is actually really cute and funny in this book in all of the added content and I found myself appreciating her as a character in a way I had never done before. I would be excited and interested to read the rest of the series from Edward's point of view, especially if Jake Abel, who translated beautifully from an actor on the screen to an actor on an audiobook, returned as the narrator. I would really like to see the events of New Moon in particular through his eyes. He is a genuinely fun and interesting protagonist and I would relish in just about anything else Stephenie might feel like adding to his story. This was a really fun, melodramatic, and honestly really cute adventure. I'm truly delighted that Stephenie Meyer finally got to release it after not only the leak that happened in 2008, but also how, as soon as she decided to get back to this in 2015, E.L. James decided to release her own "first book told from the main guy's POV" book in Grey, delivering what I can only imagine to be a devastatingly demoralizing blow. She finally wrote the thing and it's pretty fucking good. Good on ya, Steph. Good on ya.

[moriganstrongheart]

On Firefly, Mediocrity and Problematic Media

When I first set to writing this, I intended to write a review of Firefly. I had recently rewatched Firefly and its tie-in, semi-sequel movie Serenity with my fiancée, and I wanted to express my thoughts on it. But I put the original first draft aside after writing two sentences and did not revisit it until months later. By then, I found I was no longer interested in reviewing Firefly, opting to explore issues of underlying misogyny and mediocrity in media instead. I think that Joss Whedon’s work is a good case study for these problems, as he exists simultaneously as a folk hero of sorts when it comes to speculative fiction, and as the harbinger of the now divisive Marvel Cinematic Universe. And Firefly being so beloved by its fans, I think it's worth diving deep into its problems to illustrate my points.

Perhaps the best way to demonstrate Firefly’s problems is in how it appeals to its fans. While I find the character interactions the best aspect of the show, I’m sure that quite a few fans—primarily young, white males—are attracted to the space western setting of the show and all the trappings that come with it. The Verse is filled with guns, alcohol, rape, savages and prostitutes—everything a new frontier needs, or so I expect is the intent. I don’t think these are ever the focus of the show, nor are they something Whedon ever places on a pedestal as ideals to strive for. But they are a part of the worldbuilding, and so were included with intent. There has been a debate for several years among fans of speculative fiction on whether worlds inspired by historical periods or specific cultures should include these so-called “less favourable” aspects of that period or culture, or if the speculative nature of the fiction should allow for their exclusion. I want to make it clear that I am in the second camp; I don’t believe that just because a fantasy world is set in a medieval time period that women shouldn’t be allowed to be knights, or that aliens or people of colour have to necessarily be slaves in a colonial space opera. It is speculative fiction after all, and we are under no obligation to hold ourselves to any supposed cultural or historical accuracy.

This is, of course, ignoring the fact that the cultural and historical accuracies being strived for have flawed origins, having been decided by academics with their own bias, or even maybe their own agenda. I would make further arguments that historical fiction and literature are themselves often coloured by the author’s intent, and so certain aspects are accentuated while others are ignored or downplayed in order to tell a specific story—often to the detriment of minority groups. It’s impossible to divorce bias from one’s work, no matter how objective the work claims to be. This has been proven time and again, evidenced by the revision of textbooks throughout the years.

Regardless, counter arguments to the exclusion of “less favourable” elements are normally that doing so waters down the source material, diminishing its authenticity and, more interestingly, it represents a disagreeable emotional sensitivity on the part of the opposition. This point of view assumes that the opposition is averse to certain perceived realities in the world, and that the narrative they want to ascribe themselves to would be unrealistic and, as such, not entertaining. In reality, all parties are involved in some form of escapism. The outcry for realism is a smokescreen for the desire to keep a specific form of escapism, one which can only be described as a violent, misogynistic power fantasy. The source of this outcry—again, predominantly young white males—sees the inclusion of bigotry and sexual violence as essential to their viewing experience, as they take enjoyment out of them. That isn’t to say that having violence, sexual themes or social inequality don’t have a place in fiction; they just need to have a purpose. Without purpose, they are only there to service the twisted fantasies of the target audience.

For an example that brings us back to Firefly, it never really feels like Irana’s career as a courtesan serves any other purposes than as an excuse for partial nudity, sex scenes and for Malcolm to call her “whore” on the regular. There are times where her position as a high-ranking courtesan opens doors for the Firefly crew, but this is a contrivance of how courtesans work within the Verse, and not a part of the skillset she has accrued to become a courtesan. The only true exception to this—that I can remember—is her role in grooming the magistrate’s son in the episode Jaynestown, which directly affects the primary conflict. Apart from this instance, none of her meaningful contributions to the plot necessitate her being a courtesan. She could have just as easily been someone with social or political clout. However, this wouldn’t have allowed for her to be the ship’s prostitute, there only to drive Malcolm up the wall and have someone he could call “whore” without guilt. As such, it became necessary for Whedon to not only make her a sex worker, but to create an entire system around her which would give her importance to the plot. In essence, he wanted his cake and eat it too. It’s disappointing, as the idea of having a sex worker being an important member of the main cast is interesting enough as a concept to explore. Ideally, this person would be treated with respect by others for their work, and their value should come from them as a person, not from a fabricated social status.

As a side note, I acknowledge that most people in the show respect Inara, but it is because of her fabricated social status and not because of who she is as a person. The only people who respect her for who she is and what she does are women and the one person of colour on the crew.

There are a lot of other small decisions within Firefly that show Whedon’s intent, such as the characterizations of River’s mental illness and Jayne as a character. I can’t help but wonder if Firefly were produced today on HBO or Netflix, if the showrunners would have allowed the inclusion of far more sexual violence and bigotry in hopes of attracting a larger audience. Because while we have collectively become much more cognizant of issues like diversity and the portrayal of women in media, shows with portrayals of sexual violence and bigotry tend to perform better overall. Unfortunately, the vocal minority shouting their preferences on social media only helps to reinforce this trend.

However, I don’t want to make the wrong impression. Sexism, racism, violence and bigotry are not the focus during Firefly’s runtime. In fact, Whedon generally does a good job of representing healthy relationships, strong female characters and positive representation of people of colour. For example, Zoe and Wash’s relationship is very admirable, and Kaylee is perhaps the best character on the show. The problems exist beneath the surface, informing everything from story conflicts to character motivations. Whedon comes off as a guy just wanting to have some fun, someone who is cool and trendy, just rude enough to be interesting, but knowing where to draw the line. Really though, he’s just the best of a bad lot within the entertainment industry. A lot who are, unsurprisingly, white men catering to their younger selves.

As a white man myself, I am constantly checking myself and the works I create to ensure I am providing a compelling story while avoiding trappings indicative of a male power fantasy. Because of the environment I grew up in, it can be easy to rely on tired old tropes instead of thinking of meaningful and interesting things to write. Does that mean that catering to the needs of a diverse audience is too difficult, and as such, is detrimental to the creative process? I don’t believe so, despite what many may believe. If anything, it forces writers to think of novel, more captivating stories that don’t rely on tropes and power fantasies to work. I believe that the reason people have become so weary of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and similar works is because they all rely on a power fantasy to function. I myself have grown tired of seeing the same story over and over, and it is only in the last decade that I realized the reason for this is that most people behind the works I consume are—again—white males catering to their younger selves.

This has led me to question if it’s right for me to have my voice heard at all. Would I not just be another straight, white male entering a space already filled with the same? Perhaps, but I don’t think the intent of fostering diversity in media is to exclude white people. In fact, if people like Whedon were the worst in terms of what white males have to offer the entertainment industry, I think we’d be in a better place. The problem is that the majority of the media we consume today is problematic and doesn’t allow for any variance from what’s trending among a young white male audience. All I can do is hope that shows like Firefly can be used as a learning experience for creating more compelling and varied stories. Stories should rely on interesting characters, worlds and the interactions in between them to be entertaining, and not on fulfilling the twisted power fantasy of the audience under the guise of realism.

[iamabeautifulcreature]

Just finished reading all of Justice League Odyssey and I have thoughts...

(This is more for me to get thoughts out of my head, but if you do have a read of the below I’ll warn you it’s not very coherent.)

So at the premise I was really hopeful, I liked the core four of Cyborg, Jessica Cruz, Starfire, and Azrael, and I liked this story would encompass very little of the A-list heroes, because I thought that would mean these guys get some genuine character development and a new classic story for us to dissect. Overall, it wasn’t a complete flop, but I certainly did not see all of the core 4 getting the same opportunity for growth. In fact both Azrael and Starfire kinda got shat on most of the time....

General Plot:

The basic plot is that Darkseid is trying grab power blah blah blah, and is manipulating Cyborg, Azrael, and Starfire into getting the objects of power he needs from within the ghost sector....

The first 10 issues of plot I liked (on the whole), there was tension and looming fear of what Darkseid was up to... I enjoyed meeting species who worshipped the others as gods, and the hijinks they got up to getting used to one another. However by issue 12 (SPOILERS) Azrael, Starfire, and Cyborg are turned into Darkseids new (new) gods, then the plot takes a whole new turn (and yes it is a new volume but hear me out...)

Basically jess gets killed by Darkseid, only for her corpse to be transported to a ship on the edge of the universe along with Queen Blackfire, and a black cube (it’s an Eskaton, a creature that’s aim is to kill Darkseid FYI). Basically from this point forward it becomes a time travel story and we see nothing of Azrael and Starfire for multiple issues, and only see Cyborg like once an issue... only to prop up jess.

We then see Jess lead a new team of Her, Blackfire, Dex Starr, Orion, Hax, Gamma Knife, and Epoch. Now, I actually like this group together, they grate on each other, but all pull together, they have interesting interactions and honestly were fun to read. 

Long story short Epoch was basically building a time machine to try and stop Darkseid from ending the universe. He recruits the others to help finish it while holding Darkseid off. But it turns out this is too much for Epoch, as he has not thought of every possible thing that might go wrong with his changes, and Jess calls him out. He gets annoyed, sends Jess back in time, then dies at Darkseids hand anyway (Don’t worry, Jess comes back within an issue lol).

I can’t be arsed to go into every detail but the team use some time travel to bring back the core 4 from the past prior to their turning into new gods, and they fight Darkseid who retreats... (I’m positive this is to set up his use in a next major multi-issue release). Jess goes to see the Green Lanterns, Orion and Azrael takes the newbies to Darkseid, and Cyborg and Starfire go to warn the justice league on Earth.

So this summary leaves absolutely loads out, but I don’t want to make this longer than it already is. A lot of plot happens in very few issues. But overall, the last 3rd compacted loads in a very short amount of time. They obviously had loads of ends to tie but not enough issues to do it justice as they had been cancelled.

For example, we never go back to those planets to see them freed from the beginning. Never see how Tamaran fares (what’s up with Kory no longer being bothered by #25 about going to Tamaran lol. That was her whole reason for going to the ghost sector in the first place). 

But to be honest, I can live with this, they had a limited time to tell a story and they did their best. The biggest gripe for me was the characters...

Jess:

Basically this story became about her. Justice League Odyssey became Jessica Cruz Odyssey. I do like her a lot, and I liked seeing the progression of her character, but it saddens me they writers obviously favoured her at the expense of the other 3. Why can’t we lift her and the others up. A lot of the comic became “I’m right because the protagonist to progress the plot” and often was right over other characters. Also the whole omega power thing was funny and weird. “The ring was crushed into my hand and absorbed the omega blast from Darkseid so now I absorbed the residual energy which brought me back to life...”

Cyborg:

He got the 2nd best development in the story. Like he does fall for Darkseids plan, but somehow because he is able to have this internal struggle with himself when changed he can communicate with Jess and switch sides. Him and Jess apparently connect a lot, which is nice I guess, but also a bit weird. Like we only saw you working together for a 3rd of the issues so their bond sort of feels unearned to me (Yes they had that mind message for a bit but Jess couldn’t have been 100% sure that was really him and not her own thought, she can’t use that to get close to him). In my opinion that bond should have been shown with Kory more (they do this at the beginning, then it falls off teh radar.)

But yet again we barely see him after his transformation, I would have liked to have seen more of him (and maybe we would have if it weren’t for the cancellation). There is very little character arc apart from him fighting through his godly body.

Starfire:

Oh my sweet summer child. WHAT DID THEY DO TO YOU. Okay, advantages are that she wasn’t sexualised (I can’t believe I had to note that down as a positive). She had some of her characteristic emotional beliefs and that she can be hot headed. That was great! However, they also kept referring to her as a mess. Like towards the end of act 1 I can see that because she was succumbing to the power. But they say she’s been a mess since the beginning and it didn’t feel seen through her actions. 

She gets supposedly healed in I think #3, but that was Darkseid, so she wasn’t healed at all, just negative symptoms subsided. They never revisit this dodgy old man who evidently doesn’t take the power away from her... Like lets have a convo on that.

I don’t know, they just make her out to be completely non-functional for most of this, even before she succumbs to her new powers, and I didn’t like it. Especially because she yet again had exactly 0 arc to get over this supposed negative and become a better person from the experience. Also... her and Blackfire trying to kill each other, then the other being horrified when they both do it was just badly written. They’ve been at this tug of war for a long time now guys... They should have spats but not keep trying to kill each other. 

Also, where was her struggle against the control of Darkseid? Why is she not strong enough? Nope instead we saw New God Starfire for one issue, ad Blackfire killed her immediately. 

Tldr: WHERE WAS THE CHARATER DEVELOPMENT? She was just a plot device...

Azrael:

Basically similar stuff to Starfire. He was an interesting character that was reduced to a plot device that got killed off for most of the latter part of the series. He did not get a decent character progression (the more he was under control by Darkseid the nicer of a guy he became lol).

He nearly had this good b-plot of him and Rapture (somebody who kinda got underused), but then after act 1 that was thrown out for Jess and the time travellers lol.

He also in my mind got no character development and really didn’t need to be there.

Basically Starfire and Azrael could have been replaced by 2 other heroes, and it would have very little impact on the plot. Which is really my biggest grievance. I can handle dodgy plots if the characters go through an experience that makes them better heroes. But we saw none of that. Overall it was a shame. There was some great potential, but the core characters were plot devices to prop Jess up (and I do like Jess), which sucked. I’m hoping wherever the characters go next they underused ones get some proper time to shine.

[popculturebuffet]

Ducktales (Comic) Reviews!: Happy Happy Valley!/Fight! (Issue #4)

My first look at the IDW Ducktales Comics! And for a comission by @weirdkev27​! Seriously he’s basically my boss at this point. If you’d like to comission your own comic or animation review just pm me or shoot me an ask to get my discord. Single stories for a comic are 3 bucks, single comic issues and single episodes of a show are 5 bucks with deals on multiple issues or episodes of a show. With my shameless plugging out of the way the stories themselves are:

Happy Happy Valley! (The Comissioned Story): The Main Cast sans Beakly end up stranded at a resort where everyone’s forced to be happy all the time. A classic trope with a twist ending you can’t predict.. mainly because it’s.. 

Fight!: The boys have a garage sale with stuff from the broom closet to raise money for Huey’s woodchuck trip. Naturally this quickly snowballs into a samurai fight to the death. 

Wonders, a full recap with spoilers, and extreme stupidity await bellow the cut. 

After a quick commission break for this week’s episode I’m back in the saddle and back into comics no less! It’s been exactly a year since I’ve done a single issue comic review. Oh sure I looked back on house of x, and will again next year, and I do want to cover Empyre at some point and some other comics, but I haven’t done a full recap of a single comic book in some time. But the first story of this issue  really, REALLY confused and infuriated Kev, and rightfully so, so I got the commission call, and of my own volition I’m doing the second story entirely for free. I just wanted to do both for completion’s sake and because when I did read this comic I remembered the stories not being very long so it gives me more to write anyway. And if your curious yes I would gladly review classic Don Rosa, Carl Barks or really any duck writer’s work on a story by story basis, it just works easier to do the Ducktales issues all in one since their both more recent and I don’t have to go back and do it later if, once i finish seasons 1 and 2 at some point in the distant future, I decide to do this series too as well as the Sound and Fury mini that was clearly used to offload stories they had left over. 

As for my experience with these comics I DID read them when they started out. .but quickly petered off and never even got around to this story, I remember reading page one but never read the rest of it. Part of it is I tend to flitter in and out of comics and part of it was the stories just weren’t that gripping, with the characters often feeling like flatter versions of the far more multi-layered one’s in the show proper and the stories being a bit too short to properly flesh things out like the show, especially since for some weird reason each issue has two stories instead of having one big story on occasion. They weren’t bad and there is a story or two I want to go back to like Lena and Webby being spies together, Fethry and Fenton have a story together apparently, we get an early look at Della, and there’s one where Bradford hints at them plotting against scrooge long before the show revealed it. There’s some interesting stuff I might look at eventually, I just have a LOT of show to get through too, and i’m not going to pidgenhole the entire series as bad or lackluster based on a few early issues.. or one story in this issue. But yeah i’ve held it off long enough.. let’s talk about 

Happy Happy Valley!

First off the titles for these are .. pretty lack luster. Their basically just what the stories are about.. Happy Happy Valley and a Fight, that’s.. about it. I didn’t realize just HOW awesome the show is at titles, making each sound like a thrilling and unique adventure which they usually are, until I got to here. It feels like IDW, and by extentsion disney, didn’t care what the stories were called and just wanted a comic out to tie into the show. Which bothers me when they put this on IDW, clearly having a release platform for disney works.. but didn’t bother to use it for their Darkwing Duck comic continuing from the original, the reprint of the BOOM! Studios comic, or the short lived Star VS Comic Deep Trouble, which I will be covering at some point as it was pretty good. Same with the Boom! Studio’s darkwing, I just want to watch more episodes before revisiting it. Point is the title isn’t great. The story is even less than that. 

We open properly with our heroes.. all woken up from their beds in the middle of the night for an adventure. It’s not a bad start, though Louie weirdly starts in constantly about how Scrooge’s rich and can do this and that and Subtley dosen’t exist in this story does it?  Anyways, later, far away from Louie’s bed.. that’s the caption they go with and I love it, the Sunchaser suddenly stops working and Launchpad’s crashing skills come in handy, 

This isn’t a bad scene as Donald brings up good points and likely has his own “times he’s been nearly sacrificed tally” like Louie.. and Della likely also said “Della’s coming out on top!” when her total went into triple digits. Also  “When your rich you can even buy luck launchpad”

It just.. dosen’t fit Scrooge at all.. granted this issue hasn’t BEGUN to not fit Scrooge at all but let’s save that for the end. Anyways rather than hostile locals they find Gladys Seeya, good pun, an overly smiley woman whose eager to please and just wants everyone to be happy and has them carried because tired people aren’t happy. Yeah it’s suspcious as heck and a well worn trope, really nice place with a dark secret, to the point the series proper would parody it in the Mervana episode, and subvert it by having them turn out to just be very nice hippies who i’m still convinced had a three way with Donald... I mean he could use it, they were really nice, and Donald is probably very generous. That’s something you didn’t want to think about but now you have to and it’s there. If you GENUINELY think that’s bad, then you should hear about Goofy’s sex life. 

See way more horrifying. Now everyone’s miserable! Horay! Moving on, point is Donald had a mer-three way and this is a well worn trope, but it is used in an interesting way.. that’s entirely ruined by the stupid ending, but we’ll get to that.  Point is everyone is soon happy, given a buffet, all the food they can eat, and whatever they want. They just want you to be happy.. no secret plot here.. wink. Louie continues his annoying “Every rich person gets X” schtick which feels forced as hell and gets worse with every line and more obvious. It’s one of the weaknesses with this story. It’s basically the writers constantly elbowing you and saying GET IT.. YOU GET IT.. BEING HANDED EVERYTHING YOU WANT IS ANNOYING GET IT. YOU GET IT.  The problem is.. the Island’s moral dosen’t fit that. Kev  helped here as we discussed the issue once I finished it, as I hadn’t thought of it yet, but the valley isn’t about giving you everything you want.. it’s about just FORCING you to enjoy things. Sure you can be happy off some things like the food but when Donald politley declines to dance because he can’t, which tracks with his life in general, they basically all glare at him to do so. Later they basically force acvitites on them with the ducks only agreeing because clealry they worry about what might happen if they DON’T. Telling someone to smile or enjoy something dosen’t make them enjoy it it just makes them miserable. Problems are 1, the issue very clearly WANTS to have the other moral and 2) the series would do this kind of story MUCH better with “Mystery at McDuck Manor!”. That’s not on the writers fault, as this comic started right before the show premiered and this issue came out before said episode, but it really doesn’t help the show came along with the same exact moral of not forcing your idea of fun on someone else and did it WAY better. It’s the same message, the ducks being forced to endure something only one person thinks is fun, but delivered right and wrapped into a very clever and fun mystery. Honestly I might cover that one this week or sometime soon because it both fits the Halloween season and this issue if nothing else reminded me how good THAT episode is. 

But I’m stuck doing this issue. Naturally, and in one of the issues few clever moments, the Ducks try booking it out of there as soon as they can but find their raft gone, and a ring of sharks suddenly there that weren’t before, and Donald understandably doesn’t want to risk the kids lives with that. Thankfully Webby soon comes up with a plan using the activities, and uses a napkin to get it around. This bit.. is actually clever as they use the various bits to get a plan and even Huey has a really clever bit where he just leaves his hat and shirt behind to go looking for the generator, likely on Webby’s request, knowing his brothers can just play him once in a while to draw suspicion. Also apparently Huey wears a tank top under his shirt, which looks weird on him, as he’s not the sporty type, but does fit his “always prepared” mindset well so I like it.  Using Basket weaving and balloon decorating, they create a way out, and Webby ties up their host while everyone escapes. They nearly don’t fit out but luckily Donald contributes. And again i’ll give the story this: Donald does more in this one story than he got to do in the vast majority of season one.  So our heroes escape with other patrons begging them to take them with them and the stories apparently wrapped up. The generator Huey found was to show the sharks were just holograms which given the science in this world makes sense, as does it jamming the sunchaser. What doesn’t make sense, and what got me my three bucks for this review in the first place is this. I”m putting the full picture there both so you can let it sink in and to let you know, since most of you probably haven’t read this comic, that i’m not making this shit up, nor is it one of my jokes. This .. this is the actual twist for the comic. 

...................................................................................................

 This is probably the thrird dumbest line in comic book history. Before you ask the other two are

And why yes those are both from the series. And why no I will not be covering All Star Batman and Robin unless someone forces me too.  My point is WHAT THE FLYING HELL IS THIS.  I mean this makes NO sense on any level. For STARTERS one of Scrooge’s most well known traits, that’s part of his character in every version is that he doesn’t like to spend money. He will to MAKE MONEY and sometimes grumble about it but if he doesn’t. Even if season 1 had it dialed way back, he still reused his old teabags, charged extra on his in house vending machines and tried to get out of buying burritos for recently freed slaves. Being cheap is an iconic part of his character. Granted the series took out things from the comics and original like underpaying employees, barely paying Donald even though in the comics he supports three children, as well as barely paying those children, and refusing to donate to orphans, but still it’s not THAT so far removed that THIS is remotely in character! He had to either buy this old resort or have it renovated to keep up the ruse, pay for the creepy lady running it, pay for the other guests as actors because otherwise his hired minion KIDNAPPED people who were begging for escape, pay for the activities/escape supplies, and pay gyro to build the GIANT GENERATOR THAT BOTH PROJECTS SHARKS AND MAKES TECHNLOGY NOT WORK. While I do think Scrooge would gladly want to teach Louie a lesson, this is a lesson that at best costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not at least a million to pull off.  And that’s not even getting into how he forced everyone else to go with it, denied them a good night’s sleep and clearly told NONE of them. Beakly not being there actually makes more sense as she would’ve noped out of this horrible horrible idea and bonked him on the head for this. It makes no sense and it’s GROSSLY out of character. And while I’m used ot that from comics, writers often don’t give a shit about the characters their writing, I expect better from DISNEY when it comes to lisencing shit. They’ve done better. I’ve mentioned better and even SINCE this they’ve done better: Christos Gage’s Incredible’s Comics are excellent and I want to read more of them. And the previous run by mark waid is also suitably incredible, if now sadly no longer canon.  And even in this very ISSUE there’s a much better, if not amazing, story we’ll get to in a moment. I get disney’s greenlit weak tie in material before but this is ridiculously bad and shoddy. Shame on them, shame on the writer, and shame on this INCREDIBLY stupid story. We get an everybody laughs ending, who cares. we’re out. 

Final Thoughts for Happy Happy Valley: 

I don’t have much less to say about this story. This about sums it up. 

Fight! 

We open with a samurai.. though it quickly turns out to be Dewey with a mop on his head hitting Louie with a broom while saying Two Damage! Two Damage! and already in one scene this is so much better and feels so much more natural. Naturally this story has a different writer. The artist is different for both too, and the art is good on both though I do prefer the art for “Fight!” more as it’s a bit more expressive. Though it also benefits from having less characters to juggle so that probably helps.  The boys are having a Garage Sale, or Yard Sale as some call it. As a huge fan of Garage Sales, I’ve gotten tons of stuff from them over the years and good shit too like my G1 Snarl, or even just recently a three in one of the first three loud house Graphic Novels for a freaking quarter. You REALLY can’t beat that. It’s why I love these things. So this story already had my money. As for why, Huey needs money for the Junior Woodchuck Camping trip. How else is he going to hold hands iwth Violet and Boyd under a tree. Wait neither of them existed yet.  Damn. Well i’m retconning that in anyway. If they can retcon the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver not to be mutants, which If eel is getting undone VERY soon, or if not Hickman will use that well, I can retcon this to taking place in season 3. Plus i’ts all very wholesome and innocent... their only eleven. 

But yeah Scrooge in a nice moment if an off-screen one gave them the contents of the broom closet.. which is really just a bunch of old used up brooms, some buckets and other cleaning supplies. Probably stuff Beakly rarely uses or has long replaced and if not.. well he’ll have to pay for them himself won’t he. Unlike the above clusterfuck this.. feels entirely in character. Scrooge likely apricates that Huey is working hard to EARN the money for his trip and that his brothers are helping, especially Louie since he gets nothing out of this unless they go over what Huey needs. But also being Scrooge he still only gives them some old Junk.  But Louie, being louie easily scams a guy into paying 15 bucks for a broom. Still this is slow progress and if Huey wants to be with his poly relationship he’s gotta step it up. Luckily, and naturally given this is Scrooge’s closet, they find an old Samurai helmet, which Huey feels could be worth millions. granted...

But eh it’s going to a good cause, tiny children holding hands by campfires, and when has common decency EVER stopped Louie? Dewey though, wants to start a collection of war stuff.. starting with this. It’s part of why I LIKE the story better: not only does it have much better dialouge but it’s actually rooted in the characters instead of “One trait of Louie’s cranked up to 50 and drilled into our heads”. Huey is trying to earn money for the woodchucks, Dewey only wants something for petty reasons and Louie wants money. It feels like the actual characters and not just cutouts and makes me wnat to read more stories in the hopes of finding more like this.  Anyways naturally nothing Scrooge has in any of his storage areas of the mansion tha’ts ancient isn’t cursed, magical or really neat to look at, and the helmet comes to life as they fight over it, and the helmet clints to Dewey, who talks in a deep red voice calling himself Ronnith of the Twin Samurai. The name.. isn’t great but the concept is. Thankfully Huey knows what it is thanks to the guidebook. and just like the Donald bit last episode this one story gets the guidebook better than season 1 did a lot.  Turns out the twin samurai were two brothers who hated each other and always competed for their mothers affection.. their mother was also forced to sell her beautiful sculptures for next to nothing after their father left. Instead of going after him though they both blamed each other as teens when invaders struck and burned everything including their mom I guess down, and fought the rest of their days, and while Ronnith never settled things due to growing too old, his spirit, and his intense hate, went into his helmet which now curses any brothers who fight over it to fight with the looser turning into a statue. 

Naturally no one wants this but Dewey can’t get the helmet off and Ronnith possess him to destroy the guidebook.. though Huey explains it’s his “third backup copy” which.. yeah again like the tank top thing tracks. Ronnith then manifests armor on Louie and we get the image above.. which is really neat. With Ronnith forcing the two to fight each other, Huey searches for a way to stop it. And while he can’t find it he does figure it out and the solution is REALLY clever: Just as Ronnith’s about to kill Louie, with Dewey apologizing.. Huey blocks. And Ronnith is naturally confused and upon finding out there’s a THIRD brother, the curse dissipates and thus everything’s back to normal. And wrapping things up nicely a guy shows up to buy the helmet and while Dewey tries to just give it away Louie says it’s free with purchase of a bucket for 50 bucks so Huey has his money to go on his romantic camping trip.. though he does ask if hte guy has a brother.. best be safe.  Final thoughts on Fight!: It’s like night and day. While the previous story is stilted, has one of the worst endings in duck history and overall is just kind of bland outside of one or two moments this .. is really good. It doesn’t add much to the world or anything, but it’s a fun side story with a clever monster of the week and resolution, some great lines and some good art. This is what should’ve lead the issue, as the main story is again just dreadful. Overall i’d recommend checking this story out.. though maybe get in in trade instead as the A-Story here is really bad, but you can find both on comixology and this issues on comixlogy unlimited if you want to check it out along with a ton of other great comics. 

That does it for this review, if you liked this I do regular coverage of ducktales every week, I JUST COVERED THIS WEEK’S EPISODE YESTERDAY.  So check that out and until next time vote if you can and check your house for Gary Busey!

[fillorian-pocketwatch]

The Makings and Fate of Quentin Coldwater: What Were the Writers Thinking?

Trigger warnings: Quentin Coldwater, seasons 4 and (briefly) 5, mentions of suicide/suicidal ideation, outdated ideas about the purity of women.

General warnings: Spoilers for the show and the books.

Buckle up, darlings, and my apologies in advance: this is a rough ride, and I don’t recommend reading it if you aren’t in the right headspace for it right now.

I hope that those who do read it might drop some LGBTQIA+ positive book/tv recommendations in the comments as a pick-me-up for others. I will add some myself if I can think of some good ones.

So as it turns out, I ran into something entirely by accident: the inspiration behind the character of Quentin Coldwater.

I knew that Eliot and his "will-they-or-won't-they" dynamic with Quentin in the Magicians books were both borrowed from Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited (Grossman has said so himself)--

but I didn't realize there was an actual preexisting character Grossman borrowed from for Q:

Quentin Compson, from The Sound and the Fury.

This explains so much for me. So much.

I ran across information about the character the other day while doing something completely unrelated (looking up some other book if I recall correctly), and when I saw the similarity of the two names and then learned about the first Quentin’s fate, I thought, could this be LG’s inspiration?

Further research revealed that yes, Lev has said as much in articles. And even if he hadn’t, the fact that he has written extensively *about* TSatF online makes it a relatively easy conclusion to draw.

While the two Quentins aren't actually much alike (at least on the surface; I haven't read TSatF yet, just in-depth summaries/analyses of it)--other than the fact that they are both mentally ill over-achiever college students, are preoccupied with the idea of another world (the world as they each wish it was), and constantly associated with symbolic clocks and watches--Quentin Compson's fate explains everything for me in terms of how to understand Quentin Coldwater's series-four fate.

Quentin Compson ultimately kills himself in the famous classic novel; he does so by drowning after jumping off the Anderson Memorial Bridge in Boston, Massachusetts. Today there is a plaque there to commemorate the character:

In the Faulkner novel, Quentin associates the smell of honeysuckle with his obsessions over his sister’s purity--an ideal he comes to feel let down by after she loses her virginity and then seems to lose herself further in the company of men he feels are unsuitable.

I can’t help but make a parallel with the “drowned garden” of season 4, episode 12.

Quentin makes the following speech in the drowned garden, and as far as I’m concerned, it’s the closest thing we get to a suicide note:

You know the worst part of getting exactly what you want? When it's not good enough. Then what do you do? If this can't make me happy, then what would? Fillory was supposed to mean something. I was supposed to mean something here. But it's all... it's just... it's random. It's so random that the only way to save my friends is to yell at a fucking plant! Honestly, fuck Fillory for being so disappointing. You know what, maybe I was better off just believing that it was fiction. The idea of Fillory is what saved my life! [laughs.] This promise... that... people like me... [weeping] People like me... Can somehow... Find an escape. There has gotta be some power in that. Shouldn't loving the idea of Fillory be enough?

But the idea of Fillory is not enough, in the end, because the idea of happiness is also not enough. And by the end of his time on the show, that’s all Quentin has: the trappings of happiness (or at least the ones available to him, the ones he thinks might get him there), without the actual emotion.

Maybe he realizes, in the drowned garden, that he is at the end of his rope. Maybe that is where he decides to give up.

That, in my opinion, is why he begins to seem so shut down: it isn’t uncommon for people to distance themselves emotionally as a precursor to suicide (hence Jason being accused of “refusing to act” toward the end of S4).

I think it’s also why he doesn’t stop to wait and see how Eliot is after Margo strikes the Monster with the axes: he has given up on the idea that the things he thinks will make him happy actually will, or that happiness is actually attainable for him in the first place.

Quentin Coldwater drowns not in the fading of honeysuckle; for him it’s peaches and plums. In any case, he is definitely in over his head, and the water that spills out of the mirrors after his death feels like an homage to that literal drowning of his predecessor.

The TM writers found ways, as the show progressed, to tie the books back in to the show; the way they did it, however, was often roundabout to say the least. Their takes on how different plot points should occur, or be interpreted from book to screen, were usually close to abstract. They did do it, in many ways, but theirs was far from a faithful adaptation.

It fits, therefore, that they would tie The Sound and the Fury into S4 the way that it appears they did.

It also tells me something about how blame for their decision can be distributed, because either the showrunners:

a.) really did their research re: Compson and put together that this was the character that inspired Lev

or, as is much more likely, they:

b.) discussed it all with Lev himself--or LG was the one to broach the subject to see what sort of take they could spin.

Whatever the lead-in to the decision, I think three things combined to give them the idea for Q’s fate:

1. Quentin Compson;

2. Alice’s description, in the third book, of watching an old god kill herself to make way for a new world (which was when Umber and Ember emerged);

3. The following lines from The Magician’s Land: “The truly sad thing was that Ember actually wanted to do it. Quentin saw that too: He had come here intending to drown Himself, the way the god before Him had, but He couldn’t quite manage it. He was brave enough to want to, but not brave enough to do it. He was trying to find the courage, longing for the courage to come to Him, but it wouldn’t, and while He waited for it, ashamed and alone and terrified, the whole cosmos was coming crashing down around Him.

Quentin wondered if he would have been brave enough. He would never know. But if Ember couldn’t sacrifice himself, Quentin would have to do it for Him.”

So, it appears, the group of writers (LG included, however actively) apparently decided to take Quentin’s thought from book three and put him in exactly that position: make the choice, or fail to make the choice.

But the need for him to make that choice was never horribly convincing. They were very mistaken if they thought it was. And no matter what, it was ultimately a horrible, damaging idea. It hurt the audience, and it killed the show. The only sacrifice that was made was made in the name of ego and “clever writing” that the writers thought was edgy and risky in some desirable way.

[Quote from vulture.com]

It's not so deep.

What they did, ultimately, was borrow from more than one outdated work, and use those as excuses to do the wrong things re: mental illness and LGBTQIA+ representation:

Evelyn Waugh’s characters fail, once again, to live their lives and desires freely and openly (What a waste to rehash the long-denied dynamic from Brideshead Revisited only to deny it again);

Quentin Compson’s legacy of suicide and hopelessness lives on (and this is made all the more offensive when you learn that Compson’s suicide was based largely on ideas of spoiled purity which were solely the burden of women to uphold).

They took what could have been made right and beautiful and instead used their story to perpetuate the same sad old traditions of queerbaiting and Burying the Gays.

Tragedy is not more profound than happiness (just ask Quentin Coldwater). I'd argue that to make something really beautiful, you need to mend what's broken.

The world is a broken place. It's easy to break things here.

The worst thing they did to Q, by far, was to use the beautiful concept of minor mending against him like it was the fuse on a stick of dynamite: the thing he’d spent his whole life seeking--his specific field, his special skill in the actual real world of magic--was what he used to kill himself. He killed himself by *fixing something.* We need no further evidence that Q had given up hope.

What a terrible message, and what a slap in the face to viewers who put their trust in this atrocious writing.

And they did nothing to redeem themselves after the fact, either. If anything, they made it even worse, somehow:

Eliot, by the end of the show, has even less than he started with.

Eliot, apparently, is us: left without Q, stripped of the comfort of a world we thought we knew. Utterly let down by the writers who had the power to make things different.

I hate to end this on such a terrible note. So let me just say that if you were let down by the show, and you miss Q, you’re far from alone! I see you, and I hear you, and I share your pain.

TM got it all wrong. But I have faith that others will get it right.

And no matter what, in the last book, Quentin lives, and has nothing but a whole world of possibility open up before him.