#still plotting with people on the other sc but yeah

[tragedia]

like this for a starter.

[teethstitch]

Since you are into TMNT I am curious what’s your opinion on each of the turtles in general since you seem to be into all iterations of them /gen question

ooh fascinating question. unsure if you mean each individual turtle from each gen or just each gen itself but i'll go into both!

so i actually have a tmnt powerpoint i'm working on right now, so i'll lift some stuff but obviously i won't lift it all, ill go in franchise order. shows and comics in order (show specific comics will go in the show sections) and then movies. spoilers for pretty much every single thing i talk about. if you haven't finished a specific iteration just skip the paragraph about it

Mirage

I havent read too much of mirage, though i'm sure its good i find it a bit visually noisy and actually struggle to read it- my vision is fine as far as i know and i don't usually have trouble with other black and white comics but man mirage is hard to read, whenever eastman would draw for idw annuals or issues i'd have a hard time getting through them because even though the style is cool i just can't see anything, so yeah, that for the time being kind of sums up my thoughts on mirage, i think the shredder worm shark is funny as hell though. i suppose the only thing of note i have an opinion on is the april race debate - wherein by one of them she was thought of as white and the other thought of her as non-white (i can't remember which ethnicity), so based on that i've seen people say that means she's white or the other ethnicity but since they're co authors i've just gone with the idea that mirage april is biracial. that's about the only mirage thing i can actually give my two cents on, moving on!

1987

I really like 1987, i haven't watched it all but trust me i'm slogging through it o7. i adore the animation mistakes, the way they give one turtle another turtles lines, and i think the characterisation is pretty solid. sometimes the show can feel tedious to watch personally, which is why i love saturday morning adventures, it's a much more concise, thought out version of the show itself and is a beautiful love letter to the show (they also finally sent usagi home :'D). obviously it went on for way longer than it realistically needed to, a majority of episodes basically mean nothing unless they introduce new characters, its the one piece of the franchise, lots of filler, i still think it's great though. i also love shredders revenge, it was the first tmnt game i've played since joining the fandom and similar to SMA it is a genuinely beautiful love letter to the community and franchise, i'm an avid cross stitcher as well so pixel games make me happy because i can stitch straight from the game sprites, which i've been doing :3. I love how the turtles are characterised, Cam clarke is iconic and i love shredder and krangs dynamic, irma has become the love of my life and much to my dismay i love the neutrinos which sucks because they're only present elsewhere in idw, i'm doubtful but begging Tottmnt to bring them back.

2003

2003 is by far my favourite of the shows, i actually enjoyed fast forward unlike much of the tmnt fandom, i thought it was fun, though sterling was meh to me, i just didn't like him - even though i liked fast forward i can personally admit the show dealt with similar issues to 1987 of just. extending itself. when they were able to focus on plots and do arc episodes was great, but the seasons could have definitely been cut down sometimes because the formula of an episode was beholden to ads, which meant every 5 minutes someone had to say something shocking or nearly die only for it to be dissuaded or continued after the ad break, watching it digitally now with no ad breaks was kind of funny though because i would be up late sometimes and delirious and the 03 singers yelling 'teenage mutant ninja turtles' at me while mikey or other did a cool move entertained me much more than it should have. I really love that the opening scene is recreation of the first scene in the mirage comics, even if i have trouble reading it i think thats cool and fun, i love all the turtles voices and characterisation, i never have any complaints about voice in any iteration but especially not here, they all feel perfect. the fandom is a big part of the joy of 03 for me, but i do still love watching my favourite episodes back from time to time, and like any good 03 fan i can scream about good genes and same as it never was like a banshee, though i do also have a lot of thoughts on other arcs dw. usually i find it easier to pick a favourite turtle iteration to iteration but man is it hard here, they all have their moments, i think the humour and the darkness are played really well (cough except for when leo got stabbed in the shoulder and i had no idea where he got stabbed until he got a scar next episode because there was no blood). I was drawn into the fandom by rise and it will always hold a special place in my heart but 2003 is far and away my favourite iteration. forever sad about the dreamwave comics being cut short and no one picking them up. we deserve more official 03 comics.

IDW

I'm also still reading idw - don't kill me its long and also theres just a lot of turtles stuff to get through, okay? I really have enjoyed it thus far, i jumped for joy when the neutrinos were revealed, i hated chet with a passion and they somehow wormed me back in with the fugitoid reveal, i will say similar to watching 03 digitally and just getting hit with the before ad and after ads cutaways back to back, there's a bit of an annoyance in trying to find and read everything in exact order, because missing a micro/macro or short side story like the secret history of the foot can kind of screw you over, so when someone says they're reading idw its not actually the 150 issues, its well over 200, though i haven't counted specifically. if you read the powerpoint pictures you'll see the artist death match, basically i was just going to pit them against each other by choosing the best design of reoccurring characters and the artist would get the point, there are some great artist who had a hand in this series, i can't deny all of them are talented, but man some of them are just not for me, getting through an arc with a style i don't like is a breath of fresh air, right now my main example of a style i like is Mateus Santolouco - not all the character designs are my favourite but the secret history of the foot clan was gorgeous, especially karai, she's always been one of my favourite characters. i enjoy idw, i think the worst thing i can say about it really is sometimes theres styles i don't like and akin to other comic series it can be stupidly difficult to figure out the exact reading order when you're not there from the beginning.

2012

possibly controversial (definitely, i'm lying to myself), 2012 is probably my least favourite of the franchises shows (no, its not below next mutation, just talking animated main shows). just to explain myself, I do LIKE the show, but of the shows i find its the least in line with my humour, the gross out humour is a little more uncomfortable for me given the 3d style, i can't deny the story is probably the most well done of any of the shows thus far, i do enjoy the story and i think even non relevant episodes to the main storyline do a good job of serving some kind of purpose to character development or giving the viewer a look into the world, it is by no means a bad show, i would never say it is, i do like it, but for myself personally i struggle to sit down and rewatch because of some of the things i pointed out and some other things like the way apritello is written, leorai (shudders), idk why but 2012 splinter just annoys me, i will say the turtles and april are really enjoyable characters, i find most of the characters (karai, casey, some of the minor villains even) pretty engaging, everyone feels really fleshed out and similar to 03 the voice acting is on point, though this iteration isn't my favourite in terms of rewatchability, i audibly cheered when i realised shelldon was greg cipes, when he said booyakasha i was on the floor weeping. 2012 is a show that i would watch on occassion when it was on, its the one i technically grew up with, though i wasn't really into tmnt as a kid, but greg cipes was pretty much my childhood as a big teen titans kid, as well as mae whitman, i was a big tinkerbell kid, so those 2 are a huge highlight of the show for me. my feelings on 2012 are pretty confusing, but i still do like the show, its just if anyone (like you) asked, i would have to say its technically my least favourite, but again, by no means means that its bad, because it isn't, it's just not really as for me as the other shows. the '12 comics i enjoy, i haven't read too many but the batman crossover was sick as hell, style wise the 2012 comics are solid, while i don't think 2012 looks bad as a 3d show i would personally be more drawn to it if it was 2d like the comics, i just prefer 2d.

Rise (2018)

As previously mentioned, like many others rise was my formal introduction as a teen/now adult into the tmnt fandom, for a while it kind of stood out as my favourite before 03 topped it, but still i love it with all my heart and i rewatch episodes frequently. i think the voice casting was on point, i had recently finished ducktales so ben schwartz and josh brener were welcome surprises, kat graham was in perth for a con recently and i was so sad she wasn't scheduled for the melbourne run of that con and was heavily tempted to go just to see her, rise april is definitely my favourite of all aprils, while i think its a fun dynamic when April is an adult and sort of an aunt figure to the turtles, rise april really killed the older sister thing, every episode she's in is a treat, omar miller and brandon smith (am i meant to put middle/second names i have no idea) were stunning choices for raph and mikey, rise raph is so brotherly and silly, he just brings so much heart to raph, Mikey is so much fun in rise, i can get caught up in inflection and the way a line is said and there's a lot of variety with Mikey's lines, its funny and i couldn't ask for better delivery, i think they're all good at it but brandon knocks it out of the park with mikey. So, partially the blame goes to 03 but rise was also what got me into usagi yojimbo, it's kinda funny how the only show without a canon usagi is the one that kinda goes the hardest in adding him into stuff. the format of the show not getting to focus a lot on plot and mostly just being one off episodes obviously isn't ideal, but for what story we got i really enjoyed, i also just liked the one off segments, the majority of them i really liked and found funny, for me this is probably the show that makes me laugh the most out of any of them - while i tend to participate nowadays more with the 03 section of the fandom, i still love rise to my core and still interact with it here and there.

Ronin

As i said before, theres a lot of tmnt to go through, but uh. everyone talks about the last ronin, so i detoured my regular watching and reading to dive into it. I liked it, there are things i would love answers to but i might just need to reread to know because middle of reading my cat threw up and i had to pause to clean it up, so yeah- there are things i'm worried to have possibly misunderstood, like the dissolution of their treaty of sorts, misremembering or misunderstood that part of the story is a possibility but if its not that i'm still desperate to know who actually betrayed who first, what actually did the turtles/foot truce in? i haven't gone into re-evolution or lost years yet, i've been meaning to but occasionally i'll get a new shiny hyperfixation and when i return to turtles i tend to dive right into the shows or long running comics first compared to stuff like ronin. i am very excited for the game and the film, little nervous at the idea the film will be live action but i'm mostly just going to wait and see, no sense hating it before i even know what it looks like.

Mutant mayhem/tales/2023

i know i said movies last but its kind of different since the movie was before the show- so deal with it ig. mutant mayhem is a great movie, emotional, funny, i really like it, and the style translates beautifully into 2d animation for the show, i don't have much to say on the movie itself, i really liked it, i watched it with my mum who really liked it and she can be pretty hot and cold when it comes to movies. Tales is a fun show, i similarly don't have too much to say, i struggle to rewatch things i've watched semi recently because i get burnt out on it quicker, but i'm super excited to watch this iteration continue, i'll miss rise like hell but i think tales shows great promise and i'm looking forward to more of it!

Bayverse

if you're wondering why i skipped the 2007 movie its because i haven't watched it, semi similar to mirage the style is a lot, but not similar in the way that i can actually tell whats going on in 07, i just. don't like the style. bayverse is pretty controversial but i like it enough, i don't really rewatch it because the 3d models freak me out, but i love the fanart people make, i do think the character designs themselves are very good, peoples fanart definitely helps you look at them more clearly as well. I still don't visually get leo's bone necklace placemat thing. splinter in the first movie is too furless and he needs to be shot. the movies themselves i don't find too special but i don't dislike them, i remember watching the second movie because some cousins and i went out with our nan and my younger cousin wanted to watch it so we did. i had very little turtle exposure as a child but out of the shadows was part of it.

Original trilogy

I quite like the original trilogy, it's very campy but i think its a fun watch, similar to mutant mayhem i watched these with my mum, we really only watch the movies together and we had a good time, we both struggle to really take them seriously. we had to pause the first movie for a WHILE to laugh at the bathtub scene, i still laugh about it frequently and remind her of it just as often, 'i'm coming....... tO A DECISION' also was funny, the third movie is there also.

Batman vs tmnt

Holy crossover, batman. i really like this movie, as a tmnt fan and a batman enjoyer this movie is just so good, many have said it before and i will continue to say it. the movie is so full of easter eggs, i'm still trying to figure out if that portrait in the turtle van is of mikey or jennika - everyone is characterised so well, the dynamics between the batfam and the turtles is done amazingly, alfred and mikey as a duo is delightful and as always the voice acting is so good, i would sell my soul to hear kyle mooney and baron vaughn as mikey and donnie again. eric bauza is always fun to see given his history with tmnt, so seeing him actually be a turtle for once was great, i really enjoyed his performance as leo, i still can't believe darren criss is raph. i'm a gleek and a huge starkid fan and i can't hear it but i know its true. its fucking insane. the movies story and pacing is just really good, and is one of the few animated tmnt iterations to actually let people get hurt, have visible injuries and get fully murdered on screen, when i saw that foot ninja DIE die i was fucking pumped, a lot of the other video iterations lack actual tension because yeah shredder wants to murder a guy but this is family programming, so he wont and can't. but you watch people die and suddenly that hologram the foot tried to kill doesn't just feel like a 1987 thing where the one time the villains are able to do real damage its a decoy, it feels like a truly necessary precaution, had batman not done that, someone would have died, no doubt. i've spent an extended period of time analysing the easter eggs in this movie, especially when it comes to the turtle van itself, i LOVE the van design, the fact its an old rv, the call back to 87, the spare tire being an anti-foot symbol, the grafitti saying 'Foot Stinks', the April calendar with a picture of a turtle on it, its all a genuine treat. I love this movie, i think it's the best tmnt film ever, i love rise's film but to me nothing holds a candle to this. rarely do i only ever have one criticism for a movie but the only issue i have with the movie is the fact they clearly imply mr freeze DIED and that mutated batman killed him but they NEVER TOUCH ON IT AGAIN. i need directors commentary, i need a script, i need SOMETHING to tell me what happened. anyways. the fighting is so much fun, i love it, it's delightful to watch a tmnt fight and to be fully dialed in because it feels like a real fight, 03 had some pretty good fight scenes but in essence they were very cartoony in the way they won a lot of the time, i just think the batman vs fights are golden, especially the penguin fight, but again, all of them are really good.

so yeah. i have a lot of tmnt opinions, there's more i could say about each iteration individually, especially the shows, but i'll leave it with a list of my favourite characters and their iterations.

IDW Karai, 2012 and 2003 karai, they mean the world to me, i'm a big karai fan and i think they're great. of course the neutrinos, as little as they appear they mean the world to me. 2003 casey is definitely my favourite casey, second is probably idw casey. Batman Donnie is so much fun, his lack of social awareness is really played up but it feels natural and very donnie and i love the think he does where he moves his head like he's going to hide it in his shell but doesn't so he's just poking out. Rise april has my entire heart, she's the best and i'd die for her. 03 and 24/MM Leo, they're both great. really the entire rise cast has my heart. also the 03 cast but special shout out to 03 splinter he's just very sweet. i have to stop now because i could yell about even more characters forever, so last one i would say Alopex, i think she's a great addition to the franchise and i hope more people adapt her.

in case you weren't wondering because i'll tell you anyways, i do have oc's, i just don't really draw that much or particularly well so i don't post about them, i do write about them but i don't publish it bc i don't think anyone would care much, i don't really dip into oc fic either so.

so yeah. general thoughts on most of the franchise! if you want me to expand on any of the thoughts i shared here i'd be happy to but for now my fingers ache from typing so bye :3

[loveharlow]

If I wrote the script kie would have a gf and jj would be dating a girl not in the group and topper and rafe would’ve have love interests like why was writing so good season 1 and now it’s giving riverdale but not as bad and why do they keep adding more blonde to Sarah and kies hair even jj also the way Sarah’s hair was short in the last scene of season 3 and from bts it’s long like what they literally film okay I can’t remember which it is I think they film in sc because of the nc laws against the lgbtq community and that was important for them so where’s the gay characters im tired of waiting also unpopularity opinion i love Cleo and her and pope but I don’t like how she’s all the sudden in the group I kinda wish she was a recurring character like still having her in every episode but not in the group like they had her in season 2 also I hate that she was only written cause they wanted someone for jj then switched to pope like her chemistry read was with Rudy she’s such a good character why do men do that also the accent the way she would randomly drop it and they didn’t edit it out like she really doesn’t need it

okay hear me out, if i wrote it? i agree, kie would have a gf and their personalities would actually match (unlike her and jj's that clash so bad it's not even remotely funny), jj would have a girl who's he crushing on bad AND she'd be a kook and that's why he doesn't tell anyone and they wouldn't realize it until like season 2 or 3. why? i'll tell you why. JJ MAYBANK. #1 Kook Hater, ends up being in love with a kook? and no, she doesn't change his views on kooks, but she's his exception. plot value? yes. still cute? yes. as for topper and rafe, i would give rafe a girl who has like INCREDIBLE tension with but nothing happens. I love those relationships in shows. like those two people where they're always in each other's face all angry or whatever. but they're "friends" and you're just like JUST KISS ALREADY GODDAMIT. Idk about topper. Topper needs therapy.

and completely agree, season 3 was giving me riverdal spidey senses. and now the teasers for season 4? did they feel off to anyone else or am i just picky?? and i had no idea about the lgbtq thing, but yeah that is weird.

I LOVE CLEO. her and pope are so cute but i understand, i wish we were able to see more of how she got so close with everyone individually, which i plan to try and do with poguelandia. but i prefer her and pope over her and jj. but i actually love her accent, i think it's important considering where she's from and it adds some form of diversity in the show.

[kmze]

My attention span had spread thin by the time of s8 so I barely remember anything except a few sc moments and I'm probably in the minority but I loved loved the first proposal and more than the second one.Your post also reminded me Bonenzo was actually a thing.I don't know why I thought he died in s6.I would love to know though what you think about how different the finale would have been if kevin hadn't returned.

Oh yeah I think when I watched it lived I zoned out on a lot of the plot because I was so tired after S7 and was just happy to get good SC scenes but on rewatch I really enjoyed it. I think a lot of it was that there was so much chaos in S7 with them driving around and different locations and finally in S8 it was basically back to Mystic Falls with all the familiar sets. I liked that it was a new species of villain with the siren and I liked when they used the creepy whistle and I liked the search for the macguffins felt like S1. God Bonenzo lol, I have the most complicated feelings about it because on one hand I'm glad Bonnie got a guy who was completely and totally devoted to her and loved her but Enzo is so... he should have died in S6! And in S8 they give me nothing, just meaningless dialogue and dances.

I actually think the finale would have been pretty similar if Kevin stayed away because Brett Matthews basically said that in his EW podcast breakdown on S8. The writers planned out the whole season once they decided it was going to be Damon dying and they liked the idea of Damon compelling Stefan to let him die, which I agree with that was the only way Stefan would have left him. KW came back around 8x11 and was like Stefan killed Enzo he has to die, which I don't buy. I think what happened is his brain exploded at the idea of Stefan and Elena both being human at the end of the show and not together and basically guilted Julie into changing it. The writers only made Stefan human because they needed the brother who lived to be mortal to do the final scene. And because Stefan was human when KW came in the writers wouldn't feel as strongly about him living as they did prior, plus he was absolutely miserable as a human!

So what I think would have been different in the finale is Damon would have seen Elena in limbo and they would have had a heartfelt goodbye. It would have been a great full circle moment from 1x22 when he said "he came to the town to destroy it" and now he saved it. Stefan still would have offered the Boarding House for the school as part of his atonement and the 'S' would have been the Salvatore one (like in the kitchen) rather than the 'S' on his ring. Damon probably got some memorial wing or the library (not sure Damon knows how to read though). Probably a SE scene at Damon's grave that would have mirrored their meeting at the graveyard in the pilot. Still could have done the Klaus letter, Bonnie's ending would have stayed and I think Elena would have left MF for med school and we'd see some scene of her with her family watching over her maybe with a new guy or not. Stefan would have done the final diary outro and said something about how he lived a long life helping his wife with the school saving kids being the man he was supposed to be and that's the end of his story (FULL CIRCLE AGAIN) then he'd find Damon in peace like the ending scene we got.

Edited to add: Completely forgot to say I LOVE THE 8x02 THE MOST! I mean I do think the 8x14 proposal is one of Stefan's best speeches (it's that or the 6x22 one) and it's beautiful and sincere but that first one was SO THEM! And I'm more partial to their relationship as two vampires/immortals than Stefan ending up human, that was always the root of their relationship and Caroline helped Stefan accept more of his vampire side and here he was proposing to her with eternity being the goal. And I kind of love that people hate on it because they hate that it wasn't a cliche speech and Steroline got a proposal catered exclusively to them, like no other ship on this show could have done that proposal. And the kiss was probably their best kiss.

[burstofastar]

Ehh... Yeah, you could say I agree with that at some point. After all, a video game is a product and must be sold; regardless of the content, there is plenty of it for each type of audience. But, on the other hand, it is... sad that lately there is more quantity than quality, especially if it is the product that has been on the market for 20 or even 30 years, or more. And yes, how can we forget DOA or SC and their not at all oversexualized female characters, LMFAO.

DBD was very interesting, really. And even though it's not canon, it was a lot better than most of her slow development during the canon series. Perhaps Tekken 4 is Nina's peak as a character; if we talk about her return to her assassination for hire after Tekken 3, and then her ending where she discovers about Steve. You know? I watch that ending to this day and it still gives me chills because of how good it is, both from her perspective and from Steve's.

On the other hand, yes, it seems that the thing with Nina and Anna, and this "rivalry" is pure filler (and one not so bad but not very good either because it ends up being almost the same). Literally, it's watching Tom and Jerry, and it loses its fun a little bit. After all, one of them would have killed the other a long time ago if they were "serious" in their fights because, come on, they're both the best in the business.

I think that "slowness" in general defines the entire Tekken saga, the fact of lengthening the plot when they could explore interesting relationships in an "official" way and not based on headcanons like many fans who we surely have in large numbers. After all, and taking your example; Anna has hardly interacted with anyone outside of Nina, Kazuya and Lee: she has never been seen interacting with Steve outside of the campaign mode in Tekken 6 (we know these dialogues are not canon either, but... you know what I mean), or interacting much with Bruce. I hope that when they add Anna in a future season pass, which I hope they will, the developers deign to have both Nina, Anna and Steve share something meaningful... or something minimal, because we know it won't be very deep.

Word, my friend... You have perfectly described what not only happens in Nina's situation and progress, but also what one as a fan feels with this direction that the developers have given her in Tekken 8. It's just that... it is totally incomprehensible, inconceivable that she just now plays for Kazuya just because or because she is "just an assassin who does the job for the money". It is literally throwing away that slow but consistent progress that has been given to us. Because while we know that she isn't the best person in the world, or that she doesn't have the best personality, or that her line of work is questionable, she is intelligent and rational. She is perhaps the most intelligent and rational character that exists in the series.

I've seen many comments saying that they now hate Nina more for working for Kazuya, or that they claim that she now works for him "bEcAuSe ShE's JuSt aN aSsAsSiN aNd LiKeS mOnEy." My brother... Nina is consistent in the game, yes, but even after so many years we know little and nothing about her. Yes, there is some official information, but... what else? Yes, she is dedicated to work, but what does she do in her free time? Yes, she has worked for many people, but where does she vacation or where is her "secret home" where she feels comfortable and relaxed? She surely has a lot of money, but have we seen her flaunt it or dress excessively ostentatious? Despite everything we know, I think Nina remains a mystery; But if we are sure of one thing, it is that despite her personality and work, deep down she has known how to act intelligently, rationally and logically in the most critical moments.

I want to believe that this is a similar premise to Street Fighter X Tekken; where she works for Kazuya but is Jin's spy. Otherwise, it is a betrayal by the developers of her character and of those of us who are fans of her. Curiously, not long ago I wrote this; that (leaving aside the idea of the dream ship... because yes, I am Nina x Jin shipper), I like the dynamic between her and Jin, that more than professional union that they maintained especially during Tekken 6 (and the outcome in Tekken 7). Not just for her being his right-hand woman, but for Jin being able to open up and trust someone in that way like he did with her.

I think they both changed each other's lives, or at least found someone who didn't judge them, and maintained mutual fidelity, trust, and respect during the (stupid) journey of the beginning of World War III.

Nina the only playable female in the demo because they know we know who the real Queen is

[boyfhee]

🗗 UNLIKELIHOOD | prologue

❝ the unlikelihood of . . . ❞

PRECIS. the chances of you confessing to your crush sums to zero when you realise you have to pretend to have a crush on sunghoon, just to help your friend hide her feelings for the ice prince.

or, alternatively, in which you borrow an eraser from your friend, yi kyeong, which has sunghoon's name written on it ( or so you think ) so, when the mentioned boy sees it, you have no other choice but to lie that you have a crush on him to avoid disclosing your friend's secret.

GENRE. humour, fluff, angst if you squint hard enough, coming of age

WARNINGS. math + other warnings will be mentioned in their respective chapters

NOTE. i said i won't be writing but here we are. this is very very slightly inspired by kieta hatsukoi. this, in no way, is supposed to disrespect the manga plot in anyway. i'm aware that it's a bl manga + show, i respect that. i wanted to write something with the plot and i know i could've made this a bl fic but first, i'm simply not comfortable with romantic portrayals of idol x idol ships and second, i'm not experienced with writing x male reader fics and i don't want to get anything wrong. besides, nothing really is same except the eraser and name incident. on another note, the pronouns for reader used here are they / them to make this more inclusive so you can imagine it whichever way you wish. send an ask / comment to join the taglist. happy reading <3

“huh?”

you stare back in confusion. “what?” 

“that eraser,” sunghoon gulps, eyes fluctuating between you and the eraser in your hand, with visible panic evident on his face. “it had my name.” 

“no, it doesn’t.” that’s a lie. “you’re mistaken.” he’s not. 

no one wants to lie at nine in the morning, right before a practice test, especially to someone who you’ve never talked to in your whole life; unless people are crazy enough to lie pathologically as a passion. you, however, happen to do the same, in hopes he would believe you. 

but sunghoon is sure he saw his name on your eraser. not only his name, but a heart as well. ‘ psh ♡ ’ that’s what it said, and he’s certainly assured that it’s for him. 

“i’m not. i’m sure i saw my name,” at this point, none of you care about the practice test. he’s trying to prove his point while your mind is lost amongst the field of excuses, looking for the right one. 

“no, you didn’t. you’re mistaken!” gaslighting is definitely for the right excuse but, that’s the best you came up with, in seconds. the look on his face tells you that he isn’t buying your words. you slowly feel the situation grip out of your hand, every second burdening on your shoulders as you hope for sunghoon to give up and move on like nothing ever happened. 

“then, show me the eraser,” sunghoon demands, eyes fixed on you for a response. he trusts his instincts, he should, he isn’t lying. you don’t know him at all, but you know that if he wants something, he gets it, no matter that. “if i’m mistaken, then show it to me. i’ll check myself.”

and so he does, snatching the eraser from your fist as he looks at you with a knowing gaze. there’s amusement in his eyes, a glint of pink resting on his cheeks, but that’s from the winter cold.

“no way, yn, you like sunghoon?” that’s sunoo, and this shouldn’t be happening. you whip your head around, looking at him as he seizes the eraser from sunghoon’s grip, taking a better look at it. “who would’ve expected?” 

no one, exactly. you don’t even know sunghoon. he’s just a classmate, someone who’s popular in whole school but not in your eyes. you respect him for his grades and talent, but you’ve never paid him any attention. instead, your mind has always revolved around sunoo, forever looking at him in a room full of angels, to put it in better words. 

“listen, it’s not mine.” yeah, it’s better to not lie; not in front of sunoo. why is he here in the first place? sunoo sleeps through his days at school, no matter how important the classes are, and somehow still manages to score good marks. he’s a miracle, a work of art, epitome of intelligence and beauty, a true angel. your heart overflows with love for him. 

“who does it belong to?” sunghoon counters, and you don’t want to answer. honestly, you could do way better if sunoo left but like a curious cat, his eyes hover over you for a response. 

“it’s—” a pause. you can’t possibly disclose your friend’s feelings, that’d be unfair to her. and you, well, you have no option but to save yourself a good friendship. “mine.”  

you don’t look at sunghoon’s face. you simply don’t have the courage to do that. so, you get to the practice question paper lying on your desk, reading through algebraic equations while your brain is enmeshed between math, your friend, and the person you’re pretending to have a crush on; all in the presence of your actual crush. 

taglist in the rbs.

[screadingchallenge]

Behind the Keyboard Volume 31

Behind the Keyboard is a series of interviews with different Schitt’s Creek fanfic authors. The series will last as long as there is interest (from authors) and capacity (from me). If you are an author from the Schitt’s Creek fandom who would like to participate, send a DM to this account.  

Each author was given ten questions. The first five questions are the same for every author, the last five will vary.

Let’s meet our next author:

@delilah-mcmuffin / delilahmcmuffin

How many fics have you written?

90 in the SC fandom. 30 in a precious fandom a long, long time ago. 

When did you publish your first fic on AO3?

August 15, 2019

Describe your writing process from “Oh, I have an idea” to pushing publish on AO3.

My writing process has changed from the beginning. I used to just get an idea that wouldn’t leave me alone and start writing, look it over for obvious errors, then hit the old “Post” button. I started using outlines when I wrote my Stranger Than Fiction AU because it was so complex, and found that I couldn’t really go back to just writing with no guideline anymore. Most of my fics (except for prompt fills) are outlined now. Not that I stuck to them religiously but just like having an idea of where things are going so I don’t paint myself into a corner as much anymore. So I outline and I get feedback on that from a few people, then I start writing. I’m a very anxious writer, requiring lots of validation and head pats and I am lucky enough to have some very patient friends who are willing to put up with my neediness! 

Tell me about your most recent fic? What do you love about it? Is there anything you think you could have done better?

My most recent fic was a teensy little prompt fill, and the one before that was a birthday gift for a friend which I’m still debating whether to add a second chapter to. So I’m going to go back to my third most recent fic [Editor's note: Until You Can Love Yourself Again] which was an introspective look at David’s anxieties about his appearance after Patrick makes the “he goes to the gym” comment about Ted. I really like how the story turned out, but there are always things I’d like to tinker with after the fact. I rarely do, aside from fixing grammatical errors that I’ve caught on a reread. I generally fret and worry as I’m writing, letting trusted friends have a look throughout the writing process to keep me on task and also give me honest feedback on whether I’m on the right track or if I need to rethink certain phrases, plot points, or if I need to scrap an idea altogether. So by the time I actually post a fic, there’s not much of change. 

What advice would you give to someone who’s thinking about publishing their fic for the first time?

Absolutely do it! If there’s a story you desperately want to read but haven’t found, then chances are there are other people who feel the same way. So put your words out into the universe! In this fandom in particular, people are very generous with their support in the form of kudos and comments. 

How has writing fic changed you?

It’s made me more aware of how I communicate. And it’s found me a gaggle of wonderful friends, which has changed my life for the better. I’ve had some very tough times over the last few years and I can honestly say I would not have made it through without some of the very important friendships I’ve made. 

What does a successful fic look like to you?

For me, I feel like something I’ve written is successful when someone says it’s moved them in some way. It has nothing to do with the number of kudos or hits (although they are very lovely and I appreciate them immensely). But when someone comments that something I’ve written made them laugh or cry or shoot coffee out their nose…yeah. That’s a great feeling. But success is also about telling a story that I want to tell in a way that I think only I can tell it. I’ve written fics that maybe haven’t been super popular, but they meant something to me and I’m proud that I’ve put them out into the world. 

Do you think your fics have a brand? What is it?

Is second hand embarrassment a brand? If so, I think that’s probably pretty accurate! In all honestly, I think my brand is humour, through the good times and the bad. I wrote a fic that was very much about loss and heartbreak, but I was very conscious that there needed to be little pockets of levity sprinkled throughout the story so it didn’t get pulled under by it’s own weight. Everything I write has at least a little cheeky humour in it. And sometimes my fics are just pure nonsense. So. Yes. Humour. It me. 

Fill in the blank. You couldn't pay me enough money to write: non-con/dub-con. David & Patrick having a kid together. I also don’t really write BDSM but that’s not because I have any issue with it. I just think there are other writers out there who can do it much better than I ever could. 

What is the favorite scene you’ve ever written?

Oh my gosh. That’s like asking me to pick my favourite child! One that comes immediately to mind is a prompt fill I did where Stevie and Patrick talk about sex. That was the prompt. I decided to have them do it while drunk and they ended up talking about David’s dick and Patrick was very put out that it wasn’t at the top of Stevie’s list of best dicks—was just in the top ten. At the time, I remember thinking “this is too much. It’s too ridiculous. I’ve finally jumped the shark.” But the responses I got were so fantastic! I had the same feeling about the car scene with Clint and Marcy in my broken bed fic. But again, I was surprised by the response and I love it!

[felassan]

Dragon Age development insights and highlights from Bioware: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development

Some really tasty factoids here.

Cut for length.

Dragon Age: Origins

The continent of Thedas was at one point going to be named Pelledia, a name initially floated by James Ohlen

“Qunari” was a temporary name that ended up unintentionally sticking, much like “Thedas”

Mary Kirby wrote the Landsmeet. To this day, nobody understands how it works, except possibly her. If she’s “really really drunk” she can explain how it works. There’s as many words in it as Sten’s entire conversations put together

Concept art for Thedosian art - as in in-world art - draws heavily on Renaissance-era portraiture, the Art Nouveau movement, religious styles and media like stained glass, and favorite pieces from the golden age of illustrations in the early 20th century

Andrastianism in-world (art-wise) is depicted in wildly different methods depending on who in-world made the art in question. “One religion, 3 different lenses”. There’s the Chantry take, the Orlesian take and the Fereldan take; each with its own different interpretations, different mediums and different stories

The stained glass images were drawn by Nick Thornborrow for DAI, to decorate religious spaces in that game “and beyond”

irl Viking art influenced Ferelden

Greek and Italian art influenced Orlais

The book also had other insights into and anecdotes from the development of DAO, but I’ve transcribed them recently as they’re essentially the stories DG has recently been relating on the awesome Summerfall Studios DAO playthrough Twitch streams. (On those streams he provides dev commentary while Liam Esler plays through DA. The ones with DG are currently once every two weeks. Check them out! Here’s a calendar where you can check when the next one is) Instead of repeating myself I’ll just provide the link to the first transcript. From there you can navigate to the subsequent parts. Note these streams are ongoing. At this point I will also point you to a related post which is cliff notes of the Dragon Age chapter in Jason Schreier’s book Blood Sweat and Pixels.

Dragon Age II

DAO had the longest development period in BioWare history. In contrast DA2 had the shortest

Initially DA2 was going to be an expansion to DAO. A few months in EA said “Yeah, expansions like these don’t sell very well, so let’s make it a sequel.” So it suddenly became DA2 and they had to make it even bigger, although they still only had 1.5 years of time in which to do this

Production of DA2 officially lasted only 9 months, and at the time the team was still supporting live content for DAO! They finished development that January after the design team crunched all the way through the holiday period that year. Then it went to cert 9 times

The limited time they had is why the story takes place mostly in and around 1 city, and over 7 years (so it was temporal, rather than over physical distance, because a more expansive world would have taken more irl time to make)

They had no time to review even the main plot. Mike Laidlaw pitched the idea of 3 stories taking place at different points in the PC’s life, tied together by Varric’s recollections of events. DG rolled with this and made 1 presentation on the idea. This presentation was then approved and off they went

As they were writing DG realized that there was going to be no oversight and that everything was going to be a ‘first draft’. “Because nobody had time.” He sat down with the writers and said “Look, here’s the conditions we’re working under. A lot of what we’re putting out is gonna be raw. We’re not going to get the editing we need. We’re not going to get the kind of iteration we need. So I’m going to trust you all to do your best work.”

Looking back, DG has mixed feelings on DA2. “A lot of corners were cut. The public perception was that it was smaller than DAO. That’s a sin on its own.”

Despite this he thinks DA2 has some of the best writing in the series, especially character-wise. The DA2 chars are his favorite

The pace with which production progressed may in some ways have helped. “When we do a lot of revision, we often file away [as in buff off] some of the good writing as well. Somehow DA2′s whirlwind process resulted in some really good writing”

The pace meant chars landed on the writers in various stages of completion. For example Isabela was fairly defined due to appearing in DAO. In contrast Varric at the start was just that single piece of widely-shown concept art

Varric was conceived as a storyteller not a fighter. His skills are talking and bullshitting. Hence the question became, so what does this guy do in combat? The direction was to make him as different as possible to Oghren, so not a warrior. He couldn’t be a dual-wielding rogue in order to differentiate him from Bela. But you can’t really picture this guy with a bow. “For a dwarf, it would probably be a crossbow. We didn’t have crossbows, or we only had crossbows for the darkspawn. And they were part of the models. We didn’t have a separate crossbow that was equip-able by the chars. They had to like, crop one off a darkspawn and remodel it. And that became Bianca” (quote: Mary Kirby)

“Dwarven mages are exceedingly rare.” [???]

If DAO was a classic fantasy painting, DA2 was a screenshot from a Kurosawa film or a northern Renaissance painting. (Here Matt Rhodes was commenting on art style)

John Epler: “In any one of our games, there’s a 95% chance that if you turn the camera away from what it’s looking at, you’ll see all kinds of janky stuff. The moment we know the camera is no longer facing someone, we no longer care what happens to them. We will teleport people around. We will jump people around. We will literally have someone walk off screen and then we will shift them 1000 meters down, because we’re fixing some bug.” John also talked about this camera stuff in a recent charity Twitch stream for Gamers For Groceries. There’s a writeup of that stream here

Designing Kirkwall pushed concept artists to the limits of visual storytelling, because it has a long history that they wanted to be present. It was once the hub of Tevinter’s slave empire, so it needed to look brutal and harsh, but it also then needed to feel reclaimed, evolved, and with elements of contemporary Free Marches culture

The initial plan was for DA titles to be distinguished by subtitles not numbers, so that each experience could stand on its own rather than feel like a sequel or continuation. (My note: New PCs in each entry make sense then when you consider this and other factoids we know like how DA is the story of the world not of any one PC). Later, DA2′s name was made DA2 in a bid to more clearly connect the game to its predecessor. For DAI they returned to the original naming convention. (My note: so I’d reckon they’d be continuing the subtitle naming convention for DA4)

DA2 was initially code-named “Nug Storm”, strictly internally

The Cancelled DA2 Expansion - Exalted March

This was a precursor to DAI

It was meant to bridge the gap between DA2 and DAI

It focused on the fallout from Kirkwall’s explosion, with Cory serving as the villain

Meredith’s red lyrium statue was basically going to infest Kirkwall and it would end up [with what would end up] the red templars taking over Kirkwall and essentially being Cory’s army

To stop him Hawke would have recruited various factions, including Bela’s Felicisima Armada and the Qunari at Estwatch, forcing Hawke to split loyalties and risk relationships in the process

It was meant to bring DA2′s story to an end and end in Varric’s death. DG was very happy with this because all of DA2 is Varric’s tale. The expansion was supposed to start at the moment Cassandra’s interrogation of him ended in the present. “And we finished off the story with Varric having this heroic death.” It tied things up and would have broken many fan hearts, something BioWare writers notoriously enjoy. But between a transition to the new Frostbite engine and the scope of DAI, the decision was made to cancel EM, work any hard-to-lose concepts into DAI, and in the process save Varric’s life. DG has talked about the Varric dying thing before

Concept art for EM explored new areas previously not depicted in the DA universe, with costumes that reflected next steps for familiar chars. Varric was going to war, what would he have worn? With Anders, if he survived DA2, the plan was to present a redeemed Warden

A char that vaguely resembled Sera in DAI was first concepted for EM. This fact was mentioned near this concept art (see the female elf) and this concept art of Bethany with the blond bob

The writers sketched out plans to end it with Hawke having the option to marry their LI. This included alternate ceremonies for party members like Bethany and Sebastian if the player opted not to wed. There was even a wedding dress made for Hawke. This asset made it into DAI (Sera and Cullen’s weddings in Trespasser). The dress can also be seen in DAI during an ambient NPC wedding after completing a chain of war table missions

The destruction of a Chantry was explored in concept art as it might have happened in EM. This idea ended up carrying over to the beginning of DAI. (My note: Lol, the idea that DA2 could have had 2 Chantries being destroyed in it 😆)

World of Thedas

Sheryl Chee and Mary Kirby started with “a disgusting little dish called fluffy mackerel pudding”. In the middle of DAO’s busy dev period one of them (they can’t remember who) found a recipe online for this, scanned in from a 70s cookbook. “I don’t understand why it was fluffy. Why would you want fluffy mackerel pudding?” MK says. “We loved it so much we included it in a DAO codex.”

This led them to create more food for Thedas, full recipes included, like a Fereldan turnip and barley stew from MK and SC’s Starkhaven fish and egg pie. The fish pie became Sebastian’s favorite. “To me it made sense for it to be fish pie because a lot of the Free Marches are on the coast”, SC says, “It was something that was popular in medieval times, so I thought, let’s make a fish pie! I looked at medieval recipes and I concocted a fish pie which I fed to my partner, and he was like ‘This is not terrible’”

For WoT the whole studio was asked to contribute family recipes which might have a place in Thedas. SC adapted these to fit in one Thedosian culture or another, including a beloved banana bread that localization producer Melanie Fleming would regularly bake to keep the DA team motivated. “Melanie’s banana bread got us through Inquisition”

DAI

It says part of DAI takes place in or near the border with Nevarra [???]

This game was aimed to be bigger than DA2 and even DAO in every conceivable way

The first hour had to do a lot of heavy lifting, tying together the events of DAO and DA2 while introducing a new PC, new followers etc in the aftermath of the big attack. DG rewrote it 7 times then Lukas Kristjanson did 2 more passes

DG: “Our problem is always that our endings are so important, but we leave them to last, when we have no time. I kept pushing on DAI: ‘Can we work on the ending now? Can we work on the ending now? Can we do it early on?’ Because I knew exactly what it was going to be. But despite the fact that it kept getting scheduled, whenever the schedule started falling behind, it kept getting pushed back... so, of course, it got left til last again.”

“The reveal of the story’s real antagonist, Solas, a follower until the end, when he betrayed the player”. “Solas’ story remains a main thread in Inquisition’s long-awaited follow-up” [these aren’t DG quotes, just bits of general text]

Over the course of development they had 8 full-time writers and 4 editors working on it. Other writers joined later to help wrangle what ended up being close to 1 million words of dialogue and unspoken text. While many teams moved to a more open concept style of work for DAI, the writers remained tucked away in their own room, a choice DG says was necessary, given how much they talked. All the talking had a purpose ofc as if someone hit a bump or wall in their writing they would open the problem up to the room

As writing on a project like DAI progresses, the writers grow punchier and weirder things make it into the game. This is especially the case towards the end of a project (they get tired, burned out)

Banter and codexes require less ‘buy-in’ (DG has talked about this concept a few times on the Twitch streams) from other designers. DG liked to leave banter for last as a reward because it was fun. Banter begins as lists of topics for 2 followers to discuss. These may progress over time or be one off exchanges. One banter script can balloon to well over 10k words. “The banter was always huge because we were always like, laughing, and really at that point, our fields of fucks were rather barren, so we would just do whatever”

The bog unicorn happened pretty much by accident. It was designed by Matt Rhodes and was one of his fav things to design. They needed horse variations and he had already designed an undead variant which was a bog mummy [bog body]. irl these are preserved in a much different way to traditional mummies. When someone dies in a bog their skin turns black and raisin-like. The examples we know of tend to have bright red hair for whatever reason. It’s a very striking look and MR wanted to do a horse version of this as he thought it’d be neat. 5 mins before the review meeting for it he had a big ‘Aha!’ moment, quickly looked up a rusty old Viking sword, and photoshopped it through its skull like that was how it died. “And I was like, ‘I just made a unicorn. Alright, in it goes!’” It got approved. “So we built the thing. It fit. It told a little story”

With the irl Inquisition longsword, one of the objects they tested its cleaving ability on was a plush version of Leliana’s nug Schmooples

The concept art team explored a wide variety of visuals for the Inquisitor’s signature mark. It needed to look powerful and raw but couldn’t look like a horrific wound. In some cases, as cool as the idea looked on paper, they just weren’t technically feasible, especially as they had to be able to fit on any number of different bodies

Bug report: “Endlessly spawning mounts! At one point during development, Inquisitors could summon a new horse every time they whistled, allowing them to amass a near infinite number of eager steeds that faithfully followed them across Thedas. “You could go charging across levels and they’d all gallop behind you,” Jen Cheverie says, “It was beautiful.” Trotting into town became an epic horse siege as a tidal wave of mounts enveloped the streets. Jen called it her Army of Ponies”

The giants came from DA Week, an internal period when devs can pursue different individual creative projects that in some way benefit DA. They also had a board game from one of these that they were going to put in but they didn’t have time. It’s referenced though. It was dwarven chess

Josie’s outfit is made of gold silk and patterned velvet, with leather at her waist. She carries “an ornate ledger” and she has “an ornamented collar sitting around her neck, finished by a brilliant red ruby, like a drop of Antivan wine in a sunbeam”

Iron Bull’s armor is leather. His loose pantaloons and leather boots give him agility to charge

On DAI in particular, concept artists took special care to make sure costumes would be realistic, at least in a practical ‘this obeys the laws of physics and textiles’ sense. “While on Inquisition, we thought about cosplay from a concept art perspective. Given how incredible a lot of [cosplays] are, I now am not worried about them. In fact in some cases in the future I want to throw them curveballs like, ‘All right, you clever bastards. Let’s see if you can do this!’”

2 geese that nested on the office building and had chicks were named Ganders and Arishonk (it wasn’t known who was the mom or the dad). Other possible names were Carver Honke, Bethany Honke, Urdnot Pecks, Quackwall, Cassandra Pentagoose, the Iron Bill, Shepbird, Garroose, Admiral Quackett, Scout Honking, HChick-47 and Darth Malgoose

Bug report: “The surprising adventures of Ser Noodles!” DAI was the first time the series had a mount feature, meaning this had a lot of bugs. A lot of the teams’ favorite bugs were to do with the mounts. There was a period of time where the Inquisitor’s horse seemed to lose all bone and muscle in its legs. They had a week or so where all quadruped legs were broken. It was a bit noticeable in things like nugs and other small beasties but the horse was insanely obvious. “The first time we summoned the horse [for this] and started running around, the entire QA exploration room just exploded with laughter.” Its legs flapped around like cooked fettucine, leading testers to lovingly nickname it Ser Noodles. At galloping speeds the legs almost looked like helicopter blades, especially when footage was set to classic pieces such as Wagner’s Flight of the Valkyries

For DAI the artists were asked questions like “What would Morrigan wear to a formal ball? Can Cassandra pull off a jaunty hat?”

On DAI storyboarding became the norm. John Epler: “Cinematic design for the longest time was the Wild West. It was ‘here’s a bunch of content, now do it however you want’, which resulted in some successes and some failures.” Storyboarding gave designers a consistent visual blueprint based on ideas from designers, writers and concept artists

Quote from a storyboard by Nick Thornborrow (the Inquisitor going into the party at the end of basegame sequence): “Until Corypheus revealed himself they could not see the single hand behind the chaos. A magister and a darkspawn combined. The ultimate evil. So evil. Eviler than puppy-killers and egg farts combined.”

A general note on concept art:

In the early stages of any project, before the concept artists are aware of any writing, they like to just draw what they think cool story moments could be. It’s not unusual for the team to then be inspired by these and fold them into the game as the project progresses

– From Bioware: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development

[saberies-stuff]

If you were to rewrite any season of Supergirl which one would it be and what kind of changes would you make?

Ooh, this is a super fun question! I’m tempted to say Season 6 right off the bat, because we all know my feelings on that gosh-awful shoddy excuse of a finale, but that’s a lazy answer so I’m just going to take that disaster out of consideration and focus on the rest.

The first three seasons were actually pretty solid, in my opinion. My favorite was Season One; the show just had this goofy, fun, comic-book vibe that got lost when it moved to the CW and never really came back, but 2 and 3 actually weren’t bad. It’s the last three seasons where things went off the rails, and if I had to pick a worst offender, it would probably be Season 4. Season 5 at least had a couple redeeming moments (and some instances where Kara remembered she possesses a backbone and put her foot down about a certain somebody’s BS). But Season 4? I can remember almost none of any of it. Literally. None. It’s a blank void in my head. Things happened, but I couldn’t tell you what or how or why anyone should care.

So yeah. I’d pick that season to fix. As for how I’d fix it, I think a big part of where Season 4 went wrong is that it was the point where the show started trying to do too much. It got super preachy and political and forgot that most people were watching it for a fun, goofy superhero show that wasn’t as off-the-wall as Legends but also not as grimdark as Flash and Arrow were getting. Not to mention that it tossed in a bajillion characters who didn’t really need to be there at the expense of the ones that the audience already cared about. If I had my way, I’d lose the Legion thing- I love the Legion, but that plot went nowhere- and keep Mon-El around. One criticism that SCs love to make that I actually agree with is that the show spent too much time on Kara’s relationship drama, even after Mon-El was gone. And that’s because the writers were way too obsessed with the “having it all” thing. If you ask me, the question should never have been whether Kara could have it all, that’s sexist and dumb and I hate it because no one ever asked that about Barry or Oliver or any of the male heroes, but how she was going to have it all, how she was going to take all the different sides of herself and build the life she wanted out of them. I think a good step towards that would be to give Kara a stable partner who supports her and is in her corner no matter what, and leave the romantic side there. This wasn’t a romance show and it never should have been treated like one (and that includes insane shippers who look at everything including the actors through their headcanon goggles).

As for the rest of the season? I think the show really needed to tighten up and focus on the bonds between its core characters. We can keep Nia, we can keep Brainy if we really have to, I’d even like to have Winn back as long as he had a decent storyline and wasn’t just there for the sake of expositioning and cracking jokes. And for heaven’s sake, find someone who knows how to use James properly. But all the other random characters who were thrown on board? J’onn’s brother, Agent Liberty, Red Daughter, Colonel Whatever Her Name Was, get rid of them. Some of them were cool concepts, but the way it was executed was either too preachy or just too much. The show didn’t have enough breathing room to explore anybody well because it had to keep so many balls in the air. I would have liked to see a different, smaller-scale threat be the “big bad” of the season, something that really tested the bonds of the Superfriends and forced them to figure out who they are and how they still fit together with all the changes they were going through. There was so much untapped potential in that team that never went anywhere because the show was too busy tossing in everything but the kitchen sink. Maybe we could see some of James grappling with the new fears that come with being a hero in his own right instead of a sidekick. Maybe we could see more of Nia as Kara’s protege, because that really got lost. Maybe we could get a glimpse into all the emotional trauma that Winn has going on under his permanent comic-relief-ing. Maybe we could even find a way for Brainy not to be so incredibly annoying, although that one might be pushing it. I just really would have liked to see a season that quieted things down a little and narrowed its focus to really showing us who its core characters are and what makes them such a good team. I think the show could have really benefited from taking a breather from the world-ending threats and giving us a chance to get to know the characters on a deeper level before the next near-apocalypse came along.

As for the Luthors, I’m just going to come right out and say it. CLOSE THAT CHAPTER ALREADY. Lex was a really, really good antagonist, but that whole saga just went on far too long, and Season 4 is where Lena went from “oh great, here’s this girl again” to “I’m so sick of seeing her stupid face.” Just figure out how to close that chapter and move on to something else, preferably after putting Lex back where he belongs as Clark’s nemesis instead of Kara’s, and taking away whatever golden get-out-of-jail-free card Lena was holding and introducing her to the concept of consequences. The Luthor thing was just milked for all it was worth, and Season 4 was where it became infuriating to watch. Ideally, I would have liked to see the Luthors bow out in the first few episodes of the season, and that smaller-scale threat I mentioned take their place for the rest of it. I think Season 4 really just needed to clean house and get rid of the extra stuff, and spend some real quality time with the characters who made the show great to begin with.

Holy cow, this is on its way to being a dissertation. But it was a really fun question to answer! It made me want to start up my Random Ramblings again; between my fic-writing and being a theater major in the middle of show season, I’ve really fallen off the wagon there. Thanks for asking this, lovely friend!

[acourtofthought]

It's so funny that whenever we point out that Elain needs sunshine, their argument is always "The night court has sunshine".

Yeah obviously the NC has that, but not the kind of sunshine that Elain clearly needs. Not when in acowar she tried to get sunshine as much as possible.

The spring court has moonlight and stars, but it's not the same as in the NC. Feyre was content for a while in the spring court, but when she arrived at the NC aka velaris, she felt like home.

The cruelty of the NC troubles Elain and the night is overshadowing day. She has already told us that all she wants and needs is sunshine. It's also cold in the NC and I'm guessing winter is longer than summer and spring, right? Makes no sense for every court to have the same seasons and the same sunshine and moonlight when the courts are literally called night, day, dawn, summer, autumn, winter and spring. I'm also guessing that the nights are longer than the days, especially on winter solstice..

Just like Feyre thrives in the night court rather than in the spring court, Elain would thrive in the day court (or spring court and summer court) than night court.

I'm also thinking that the sun in the night court is just ordinary (like in the human lands), but when the moon is up, the nightsky is so extraordinary and the moon so clear, you can see the constellations that the stars make and it's just so beautiful.

And it's the other way around in the day court. The nightsky is just ordinary and the moon ain't special looking but when the sun shines, the sky is so beautiful and clear, it gives you a very pleasant warmth.. the sun makes the flowers shine and they would live forever. The rivers there are also always glistening and so on.

Cassian said that Elain doesn't fit in the NC. Nesta said that she would absolutely love the SC.. it just proves that despite the nightcourt having sunshine, it not enough for Elain to thrive there.

Exactly!

It's like saying because the sun shines in Alaska it's the same as the Florida sun 🤦

Sure they both have sunlight and seasons but the feels between the two is drastically different.

And it's not just about the actual weather, sun and stars. It's about what the Courts represent. The Night Court is a bit cutthroat in an effort to protect that which is most important to them. They'll play the part of bad guy when necessary, they'll torture their enemies, they'll plot and scheme and on some level they thrive in their roles so long as they can remain protectors.

Spring and Day have their armies and political scheming too but they don't have the reputation the Night Court does. They aren't (as far as we know) labeled in the same way, as brutal warriors (the Illyrians) and cruel wicked people such as the ones found in the Hewn City. Even though Rhys, Feyre and the IC are inherently good, they are still responsible for overseeing the groups of people that did lend truth to the rumors behind the Night Court.

Feyre and Nesta are such perfect fits for the Night Court and it cannot be disputed that Elain is different from them. So a place where they thrive is not going to be where she thrives.

It's just wild how some turn blind eye to everything that supports the idea that the Night Court, a land known for its darkness and cruelty, is not where someone like Elain, who dislikes pain and suffering and who craves sunshine, sunshine and more sunshine is meant to be.

[bewareof12metersfrogs]

Warning: long rant. Probably messed up grammar. Not LXC-friendly.

So Pinterest gave me this:

And I was like

Ah yes, Lan Xichen.

I mean, I love that guy, but oh gosh that man is BLIND. Like, man's so blind Xue Yang could use him to slaughter people.

(I'm so sorry for that joke)

I really loved him when I first read the book, esp pre-Nightless City, but then I read it for the second (and third) time and that love turned into "uhh, I guess I kinda like him?"

I mean, in Sunshot Campaign arc, NMJ just got freaking tortured. He just got beaten, made to watch his men die, and his former deputy "betrayed" him -- and then LXC was just like, "oh da-ge CALM down, this is all part of OUR plan, A-Yao's our spy lol put Baxia away don't shout at him smh"

Why didn't LXC say to NMJ that the whole thing had been orchestrated? Okay, I get it, maybe he couldn't risk JGY getting caught, but couldn't he just tell NMJ, "hey, this is the plan. You're gonna get caught at Yangquan by WRH and our spy will take care of the rest of it" ? I'm pretty sure NMJ was angrier about his men getting slaughtered than himself getting beaten. NMJ is kinda like WWX; they were both idiots, but they cared about their people. Pretty sure he cared more about his men than himself. If he knew about the "plan", he'd most likely bring the disciples who were ready to die.

THEN LXC just went to NMJ like, "Hey let's be sworn brothers!". Xichen, dude, his wounds aren't even healed. I mean, it's a bit insensitive right?? I think it is. The whole sworn-brotherhood-right-after-shunshot-campaign thing still bothers me. To me, it seems like no one cared about NMJ. I mean, he was the leader of SC, people used his skills, his men, his everything, and then he was just, like, casted aside?? Pretty sure man's got PTSD. Also, qi deviation. Oh gosh I forgot about qi deviation.

Anyway, yeah, LXC was blind throughout the novel. I won't talk about the scene where Wangxian tried to tell him that A-Yao = bad, but I will talk about the scene where NHS decided to "use" his er-ge to kill his san-ge. Was it intentional? Perhaps. Was NHS lying? Maybe. Was it bad? Absolutely. Was it expected? Of course.

Let's put ourselves in NHS' shoes for a second. Your big bro, who is also the one who raised you and the only family you have left, died. People are quacking "oh it's the Nie curse, and isn't it such a tragedy?" BUT NO! One day you be minding your own business and then BAM you found out that da-ge'd been murdered and mutilated AND betrayed. So you started scheming for like a decade. Everything was going great, as great as a 10 years revenge plan could ever be. You just gotta wait for a few more hours, you just gotta listen to your nemesis' retelling his sad background story, you just gotta endure the pain of seeing your dead big bro wrecking havoc, and you'd have your revenge.

Then of course your er-ge, your big bro's best friend, gotta help your big bro's killer. He just gotta treat his wounds, huh? Pretty sure NHS was unstable. He was desperate and maybe even full of wrath. I understand that, at least, the same way I understand that maybe LXC tried to treat JGY's wounds because he still saw him as his brother -- he didn't want to lose another brother. But how about NHS? He was watching the man whom he thought was his brother treating the man who betrayed and murdered his actual brother. NHS was being a dick, yeah, but it was expected.

Think about this for a second. NMJ's corpse was still right there (and gosh, NHS had to sew his big bro's corpse by himself). NHS was RIGHT there, and LXC had the audacity to tend to JGY's wounds after the man himself admitted to his crimes. I think it's understandable if NHS felt at least insulted.

Also, he was perhaps sick of people not thinking that his big brother was as important as other people, that he was also a human being instead of just a war machine or even a mere tool that can be casted aside whenever they want to. Why did his brother have to die because of other people's greed and selfish decisions? Why did he have to lose the only family he had left forever and why did he have to just sit back and accept it?

Most importantly, LXC had been too blind for more than a decade too long.

Also, the bit about "You're Wangji's only mistake":

Bruh.

If WWX is LWJ's only mistake, then (trusting) LXC is NMJ's only mistake. I mean, sure, WWX is as dumb and oblivious as a rock, but can you really blame him?? HE WAS TRYING TO KEEP HIMSELF, HIS FAMILY, AND THE WEN REMNANTS ALIVE, DUDE'S GOT NO TIME TO THINK ABOUT FKING ROMANCE.

Sorry, I got carried away.

Anyway, are we just gonna ignore the fact that LWJ had been acting like he hated WWX since, like, the first time they met?? I mean, I really love LWJ, but his only mistake is his communication skills (or lack thereof).

But LWJ never gave up on WWX. He learned to express himself way better. Man's got dedication and he's not afraid to learn. I really love that about him.

Also, I understand that LXC was angry because LWJ took beatings to protect WWX, but I don't think he had the right to blame WWX for that. Yes, I know WWX did plenty of things wrong; he was extremely reckless and untrusting, but he never asked LWJ to protect him. LWJ did everything voluntarily. Ffs Xichen WWX didn't even know that LWJ did that. You know why? CAUSE HE WAS FKING DYING THAT'S WHY.

TLDR: LWJ was a grown ass man.

Okay. So, do I hate LXC? No. But do I find him flawed? Yes. But that's why I like MXTX's characters, including WRH, JGY, and LXC (the only exception are perhaps JGS and MXY's fam, and I think we all know why). They all have flaws. For me, LXC is too naive and blind, JGY is too power-hungry and selfish, and NMJ is too stubborn and unyielding. NHS? Well, he's a lot of things. He's manipulative, unsympathetic, and IMO he's got a problem with obsession too. He and JGY are alike, in my opinion. The main difference is their goals: JGY seeks power, NHS seeks revenge.

Everyone has flaws. LWJ and WWX have flaws too; they're EXTREMELY flawed. Heck, even our lord and saviour Shijie also has flaws, as much as it hurts me to type that.

Then why do I get so worked up about LXC's flaws? Honestly I don't really know. Maybe it's because I'm tired of (almost) the entirety of fandom treating him like a god, maybe because I'm tired of people who treat NHS like the devil himself, or maybe because I'm disappointed in him. I mean, JGY's our main villain, but I still love him so much. Heck, I love him even more than I love LXC. Bruh, nowadays I even like WRH more. At least that guy is downright evil and he looks cool while doing whatever evil things WRH does (I'm talking about the novel and donghua mmkay).

Anyway, this is the end of my rant. I apologise if I'm offending you, this is just something that's been bothering me since the first time I re-read MDZS. This whole thing is like a plot bunny but instead of a "plot", the bunny is shaped like a "rant". This is a rant bunny. I need to get this outta my head. I've edited this thing like four times already because I keep finding errors and stuffs. I also added like two new paragraphs.

I'm sad now.

[yenafmd]

q2 plot call.

hey guys gays and theys, i’m here to write out some thoughts and ideas of what yena is up to during q2 and any potential plots that might come from that. as always, feel free to like this post, slide into my ims or hmu on d*sc*rd: dilemma dilemma#5703 . i’ll see if in the next few days i will post either a open starter or a starter call (or maybe both) but for now, this is it, i’ll love to hear from you all!

THE CALYPSO GIRLS!!! THEY’RE THRIVING!!!!

but also yena is absolutely busier than ever, dimensions throwing a bunch of very sudden schedules onto calypso’s shoulders and in the meantime her solo schedules keep coming in as well (the latter i have yet to completely confirm through claims but imagine its a lot of acting/modelling work) 

so she’s very very busy and honestly her enthusiasm about being relevant only gets her so far? so i can imagine she has some moments where she just,,, crashes, tired, overwhelmed, running from one place to the other. she could definitely use some tips from people that are used to having busy careers on how to manage this

on a more angstier note she probably ends up blowing off plans at the last minute/showing up late/forgetting plans entirely. any muses are valid to call her out on it because damn no need to ghost ppl now ur finally relevant miss nam

dimensions artists will see her a lot around the hq, working on their new album and stuff, something yena will never shut up about, rollin doing so well on the charts is one thing but actually getting a new album while dimensions told them they’d have none of that coming their way is Extra special to yena 

there is some more surveillance on yena from the company than their usually is so it’s a bit harder for her to get up to the nonsense she usually does. come catch her out on a very stressed smoke break or let yena use your muse as an excuse to stray from management’s watching eye for a second, she needs it

there is also a bigger pressure on calypso than ever and honestly, it kind of freaks yena out as the quote unquote ‘least talented’ member of calypso (by her own judgement), for someone that’s so used to cutting corners she’s very very anxious about her performance all of a sudden, someone try to help her manage these worries? or offer her some extra help with her vocals/dancing/rapping

for quantum members of course there is the song swap thing, yena will be very giddy teaching the rollin choreo, it’s something she’s very proud and enthusiastic about but she will def be a bit of a tough teacher in the way that she will tolerate none of that ‘boygroup-ifying’ of the choreo. they better be prepared to pour their whole quantussy into the performance.

also she’s very excited to do chained up, i can imagine like, calypso in suits, pretty chokers, looking hot af (beth bestie pls just call me out if im Wrong) but yeah she’s excited for that one, both to learn it and to show off her peak sexi vibes

i think this is most of my thoughts? ofc there is the standard stuff, rollin’ repromotions span the first 2 weeks of april still and chi mat baram will be in june so anyone who promotes around these times will see a lot of yena too 

but yeah that’s basically what she’s going through atm, pls do share any thoughts! i’d love to hear them!

[jay4firefic]

Pride, Buck x Kelly, Stella Kidd, 900 words

TW mentioned homophobia, mentioned child abuse, dieting

“You’ve never been to Pride?” Buck’s voice goes high at the end with what Kelly feels is an unwarranted amount of shock.

“Responded to a couple parade accidents and some ODs,” Kelly replies with a shrug as he goes about making breakfast. Usually Buck cooks breakfast and...well, everything else, actually. But now Buck is on some stupid diet with Stella - for Pride - that has him drinking protein shakes for breakfast, leaving Kelly on his own. It’s not that Kelly is incapable - he survived most of his adult life on toast and bland omelets hidden under too much hot sauce, sandwiches, and rare steak, though he certainly spends a lot less money on takeout since Buck moved in and took over his kitchen. 

“That doesn’t count,” Stella says from the bar, where she’s glaring into the depths of her own protein shake like it’s personally wronged her. Kelly has tried the damn things - it definitely has.

“Seriously, you’re telling me you’ve lived in a big city your whole life and you never went to Pride?” Buck huffs. “I grew up in a census designated place, Kelly! I didn’t get to go to Pride until I was twenty, and you just - ignored it your whole life? That’s not fair.”

“It’s not really my scene.”

“Not your sc--” Buck sputters, slamming his shake down on the bar. Kelly flips his omelet and then glances over his shoulder to raise an unimpressed eyebrow at his boyfriend. “Getting day drunk and partying with half naked hot people is absolutely your scene, Kel. What the fuck?”

“I told you,” Stella mutters, elbowing Buck. “He’s the straightest queer man I’ve ever met.”

“Nothing straight about what I did to Buck last night,” Kelly replies with a leer before turning back to the stove. Still, as he stares down at his omelet, he wonders. Nobody would ever accuse Kelly Severide of being a particularly self reflective man. He’s probably spent more time thinking about his feelings and how he communicates in the year he’s been dating Buck than in his entire adult life beforehand, excepting the aftermath of his first failed attempt at getting married. 

Kelly has been to plenty of gay bars - mostly with Shay, or when he wanted to pull - but before Buck’s latest fixation on reading about queer history in the lead up to Pride month he’s never really given much thought to his sexuality, or any community that might accompany it. Being bisexual is pretty far down the list of things he finds interesting about himself. He’s a firefighter first, that’s his community, and-- 

“It’s not like I’m not out,” he adds after a pause that lasted a little too long. “Just never really had a reason to be loud and proud about it. It’s not exactly an advantage in our line of work.” Which would make him sound like a coward, except he’s definitely out to the whole damn CFD after the Union barbecue last month, and he’s got no regrets. Punching Ethan Johnson in the teeth for calling Buck a fag had absolutely been worth the two shift suspension. 

“Yeah, I guess.” Buck is frowning when Kelly joins them at the bar, but he replaces it with a smile as soon as Kelly hooks their ankles together around the leg of the stool. “Can’t imagine Benny Severide was too thrilled when his only son came out.”

Kelly barks out a laugh, shakes his head. “Not at all. Got my bell rung pretty good when he and mom were trying to make a go of it again and he walked in on me with a guy when I was sixteen. But he was gone again too weeks later, so it didn’t really matter, and mom was too checked out to care.”

“Sorry.” Buck winces, knocking their shoulders together. Kelly just shakes his head again and drops his hand to squeeze Buck’s knee in silent reassurance that it’s all good. “I got myself all psyched up, gave a whole coming out, love it or leave it speech before taking a guy to winter formal one year, and the Buckleys just told me they weren’t interested in my latest phase and to stop being so dramatic.”

Just as Kelly opens his mouth to say something - something reassuring, hopefully, but he really isn’t sure - Stella knocks into Buck’s shoulder from the other side and chimes in. “My parents were dead by the time I figured it out, but Grant was never a fan. Probably should have been an early warning sign.”

“Jesus.” Buck laughs, and somehow it doesn’t even come out sad. “We’re a pitiful bunch, aren’t we? But that’s why we have Pride, man. To go celebrate who we are with all the other rejects, make it so nobody can just ignore our existence. You sure you don’t want to go, babe?”

“I’m sure,” Kelly says. For the first time since Buck and Stella started plotting and dieting he feels a little bad about that. Maybe he should pick up one of the colorful books Buck has left piled around the apartment these past few weeks and think about why he’s so opposed a little harder, but for now… “Maybe next year, if you two get into too much trouble without me.”

“Us? Get into trouble?” Stella asks with a grin that is anything but innocent.

“Never,” Buck finishes for her.

Yeah, Kelly has a feeling he’s going to have to go to Pride next year. If only as a babysitter.

[ourmondobongo]

I don't think Hanji's death had any purpose narratively. I mean, what impact did she have on the 104th? Yeah, they cry a bit but later Armin only remembers Erwin later, who in-story has already been dead for four years. He later decides to thank Eren for the genocide, which is against Hange stood for. Onyankopon mentions her once. Levi doesn't mention her, she only appears in his flashback, which is about Erwin and Armin. So what's the point? Making Armin commander?

You sent it yesterday, way before all people’s answers and analysis. Sorry for the lateness!

But, yeah. This have been answered mostly in the most recent discussion...

When we do accept the development of Chapter 132's plot the way it is, then we have the plane flying, and carrying Humanity's last hope! If not for this sacrifice, for Hans slaying the Titans for a few minutes, then the world and everyone will be damned!

But looking into the problems with the circumstances of Hanji’s death and the aftermath of this event, her death held no meaningful advancement value in terms of the main plot narrative.

In chapter 127, we already saw that Erwin and the other fallen SC soldiers were not agreeing with Eren's doing, nor standing by the genocide to save Paradis;

Armin and the others have no reason to mention Hanji, though. Their own "sins" and Eren’s doings was all that mattered for them in the end. And Isym tried to make Armin as much important and relevant as Erwin, but that never happened. Because in the end, he didn't let him develop smoothly. The end of AOT was so rushed. And since the very beginning, in the Female Arc, Armin had always been all over Erwin's way of thinking.

And let's not even mention the thank you to Eren. But Armin didn't mean to be grateful for the act itself. He wanted to ease Eren’s burden, to be close to this really dear friend/family, and Isym said he intended to show how him and everyone still would be benefitted from the horror. But, yeah, there are other ways to express that you still love and care for your family/best friend without wording things like that. Or using another best friend to ease the mood. Idk, I wish Isym could have made it more serene...

Onyankopon, my hero, might mentioned Hans only once, but it was in the most appropriate time! He reinforced what was the reason the plane was flying in chapter 133! And later this became a call back when in chapter 139, Levi and him shared the look after seeing the plane flying. Antis can say as much as they want that it has nothing to do with Hanji, but just ignore it. If Hanji wasn't the link between them all, there would be no meaning in drawing exactly Onyan and Levi sharing the knowing look. And before that, Onyan could barely talk later as the plane crashed too....

As for Levi, in chapter 133, Levi offers the alternative path to avoid killing Eren by killing Zeke to stop the Rumbling, and says that is based on Hanji’s predictions. So he actually did mentions Hans. And about Levi's flashback in chapter 136, there is a lot of plots needing to be tied there. Levi addressed the fact that Erwin had indeed let him with a last order to fulfill, and that he seemed unable to fulfill (which particularly makes me remember Levi wanting to prove to Kenny he was capable back in the Uprising arc...) and thus him personally killing Zeke might be probably something he will have to let it go; Levi wondered about the extent of their roles (which makes me remember how deeply the world changed for everyone after the Ocean); Levi, again, shuts up every last doubt people may still stubbornly have about whether Erwin and the SC would support a mass genocide or not, makes it clear again what was the main and common drive backing the sacrifices his dearest set of comrades; Levi proves again he is not being moved by Zeke to keep fighting, but to above all give meaning to the devoted hearts; Levi proves he might be broken, but he won't give up the fight; Levi restated that he didn't regret not saving Erwin, which is a recurring topic we all know because there is always the "This wouldn't have happened if Erwin was alive because he would have done this and that!!!!"

Still, the last panel we have of Levi is him chilling with Falbi, Onyankopon in London. And as I've said in Onyankopon's part, they remembered Hanji’s sacrifice. Levi has the scar in his face also making the readers remember he wouldn't be alive if not for Hanji saving him. That's the final tribute Isym possible might have intended to subtle imply there, but still, people will read as they want...

As for Armin as a Commander, I've also talked how to me Levi was the real last interim Commander, and Armin never used the title; and the idea that, for narrative advancement, Hanji died that way so Armin could be finally put as Commander is something that I hate because it's weak as hell, but it's certainly part of the main plot. Armin as future Commander had been foreshadowed for a very long time. And for a new Commander to step up, the previous either dies or resigns. Hanji stick to her beliefs, to her principles and fulfilled her role and duty rightfully. So Hanji had to die so Armin could get the place, and be the end of it.

And... we got to the point again: what was the point of Hans's death to the big plot. Or rather, the value of Hanji’s death in the big plot. Because it hurts to see her being killed off to give space to fulfill part of Armin's narrative in a so contrived way.

[bellaslilpapercut]

Eclipse reread part 2! This is gonna cover a lot of chapters because I forgot to include stuff from chapters 4, 5, and 6 in part 1 (in my defense your honor, this book is very grating to read). Awayyy we go:

1. so chapters 4-6 really could have been one chapter tbh since the plot is: Bella ditches work at Newton’s Outfitters to hang with Jake and then writes some graduation invites with Angela. She pushes her rusty old behemoth as fast as it can go through driving rain but then hangs outside with Jake the whole time so I don’t really know where the rain went. She also manages to hear Jake gasp through her closed car door! Super sonic! Anyway, Bella insists that Edward is a good guy, Jake makes Bella hold his hand, Jake explains imprinting (yuck we can skip that), and then Edward drives threateningly past Bella while she’s on her way to Angela’s house. Angela reminds Bella that, at his core, Edward is a teen boy who is Totally Jealous of how Ripped and Sexy her 16 year old best friend is. Then Alice kidnaps Bella. Fun times!

2. During the imprinting convo it becomes very apparent that Meyer thinks the worst thing that can happen to a girl is getting broken up with. Somehow Leah got the “worst end” of the Sam/Emily/Leah fiasco despite Sam turning into a “monster” and Emily getting literally mauled in the face. What’s worse is later in the book, during the “Legends” chapter, when Bella wonders if Leah thinks Emily’s scars are a form of “justice.” Yea, Bella, that’s justice. 

3. I love this Rosalie quote but hate the entirety of they way meyer writes her story. Others have mentioned it before but Meyer writes Rose's dialogue there as if Rose is an author and not like...a person telling a story. An easy fix would be to format Rosalie's story "flash back" style rather than have her narrate all the way through. Then you can include all the superfluous details of exactly what everyone's voice sounded like and all the excessive dialogue tags you want.

I also Violently Abhor this quote here:

Yea, meyer, the Hot Girl hates your self-insert because her stupid ass brother didn't have the hots for her. It just reads like weird middle school revenge fantasy "I only hated you because you were so Special!!!" Sure, sure. Also "all those females!" People don't talk like that @stephanie

4. I do love the scene when Bella “escapes” from Alice with Jake (I don’t know why i put escape in quotes, Alice could definitely murk Bella) but then that whole adventure ends with Jake telling Bella he’d rather she die than turn into a vampire. And yeah, fair buddy, but also you’ve known Bella for a long time. This should not be a surprise to you at all even a little bit. a) she mentioned it before, b) you knew she would never get over Edward even if your plan in NM had worked, and c) you’ve known that she’s fully obsessed with the Cullen’s since you started hanging out with her again. The last time you guys hung out she went on an impassioned rampage about how lovely and good and fantastic Edward is (footage not found) I really don’t know why you’re surprised that this hard-headed girl is prepared to commit to vampirism for him. She is not normal lmfao.

5. The legends chapter. Oh boy. Stephanie, Meyer, Smeyer. Honestly it might have been less offensive if she had just made up a whole new tribe to give these backstories to, for all that they have in common with real Quileute legends but actually that would still be offensive and terrible anyway. I don’t know how to describe this adequately but if you’ve ever seen G.I. Joe’s portrayal of indigenous people that’s exactly what meyer made Old Quil and Billy’s dialogue sound like. Just absolutely dripping with Mystical Native/ Magical Native trope from the content to the tone. https://mthg.org/ Because it can’t be plugged enough.  

6. The legends chapter ends with this Wuthering Heights quote:

I have no qualms with it's inclusion, if you really want to push the Edward is Heathcliff and Bella is Cathy agenda, I don't believe it but fine, whatever. But those last two paragraphs are such a dumb way to end a chapter. Every chapter ending should make the reader want to turn the page: this makes me want to shut the book (actually I did take a long break after this lmfao). Anyway, just end the quote on "drank his blood," bold those three words, and end the chapter there. Don't go back and say "the three words that stood out were... Anyway it could have fallen to any page I believe in coincidence teehee!!" That's just annoying.

7. Okay guys I hate to say it but Edward does get a lil bit of ~character growth after the first few chapters. He comes home after having Bella kidnapped (she decides not to be angry, surprise surprise) and is all "so I've been thinking about it and you're right my Beloved Angel Face or whatever, please hang out with Jacob but also wear a helmet on your motorcycle my Beloved Dumb Idiot or whatever" (paraphrase). And he also says this in chapter 12:

Which is like, man I hate when I agree with Edward but I agree with Edward here. Now I know from MS that he only wants Bella to stay human because he's creating an Unfolding Drama in his head but this bit of dialogue is really sweet. And it's funny that he thought Bella didn't want to marry him because she just wanted to use him for immortality but it's also a Dark Reminder that he's literally only romantic with her because he can't read her mind and can't tell that she's just as obsessed with his looks as the other Teen Girls TM.

8. uuuh Jasper’s Backstory Time. This is so infuriating to read for so many reasons. So we know that smeyer got Jasper’s name from a confederate memorial/ listing (from a New Moon Q&A but the link isn’t secure so I can’t share) so I know that his backstory was always meant to be Confederate Soldier which makes everything else about his characterization just baffling. Again, he was the only Cullen that was genuinely kind to Bella besides Carlisle for the entire first book and he’s still incredibly kind during Eclipse (which is another issue I have though because no one mentions again that Jasper tried to eat Bella and they stand close to each other and hang out and Bella’s never like “this is scary, this dude tried to kill me” but i digress). The point is: smeyer knew he was going to be a confederate from book 1. She never addresses that this was bad, she never has Jasper mention that he regrets his role in the war, he is the only Cullen that’s actually capable of empathizing with humans anymore (Carlisle cares but I would not categorize him as empathetic), it just... None of these pieces fit together. This is a fraught and bloody history that smeyer throws in with no thought to how it might alienate black readers (though tbh she constantly emphasizes “white beauty” throughout the series so I doubt she cares) and the editors don’t question it either. No one, at any point in time, said “Hey, steph, you know confederates fought for slavery, right?” Every black american deserves reparations. White women and men who glorify the civil war should be the first to pay up. 

9. I’m gonna jump back to chapters 9 & 10 here (target & scent, respectively) to say: no tension is being effectively built. I get it, someone stole your clothes. You’re annoyed because you have nothing to wear and Victoria is scary. But where is she? Where is the volturi? Move it along, please! This is one of the challenges of 1st person narrative because the author is stuck in the eyes of, usually, the person who knows the least. Meyer is not a talented enough author to make this interesting. Not to bring up THG again but Suzanne Collins really knew how to work 1st person. Everything that Katniss asserts with certainty throughout the series gets either confirmed or denied by the narrative, keeping it interesting. She assumes the worst of the people around her so we’re pleasantly surprised when people violate those assumptions. We’re kept on edge by how little Katniss knows and SC never gifts Katniss with more knowledge than she could be expected to have. Bella is constantly gifted with knowledge and her assumptions are rarely proven wrong. You can dig into the canon a little bit more, read the lexicon and the guide, and find all the examples of Bella being unreliable or making wrong assumptions. But within the narrative she is rarely incorrect. She doesn’t get opportunities to grow out of her false assumptions (while Edward does, at least in Eclipse). So to keep the Victoria debacle interesting, smeyer has to plant seeds like- during these two chapters- Bella thinking of Laurent and Victoria while the cullens discuss who could have been in Bella’s room. That just doesn’t cut it for me. 

This is hella long and I’m only halfway through the book. I probably should split the second half into two parts as well but based on how talented smeyer is at stretching out the mundane, especially just before the climax, I probably wont need to. 

[demoanais]

do you loathe the M/CU? do you genuinely like Sharon Carter *and* Emily VanCamp? Congratulations, you can read some uNPopULar opinions below.

The so-called ‘heavy hitters’ and ‘scene stealers’ in the M/CU are a) male characters who read off sassy one-liners and/or take off their shirts every 25 minutes while fans lovingly analyze how they breathe and blink at the same time or b) female characters who snappily KO dudes twice their size without effort because girlpower and/or frequently use their thighs to incapacitate enemies, and yeah, EVC wasn’t given those trappings of mainstream popularity like many of her costars.

I have no idea if A/BC held F/eige at gunpoint and forced him to cast her as SC, but it’s a very common anti argument that’s been used to discredit her from the beginning. If she was bullied into the M/CU, why would they waste a paycheck on her for T/FATWS? Because of her infinitesimal fanbase? Because it was an act of charity to write off on their taxes? There’s absolutely no reason to bring her back if she’s so woefully miscast. 

If SC is minimally used, it will be because the story is primarily about S/am’s C/ap journey (necessary), padded with B/ucky fan service due to his popularity (S/tan himself said he didn’t think there was much more left to do with the character) and because they only wanted to use SC as a plot device and offer EVC a consolation prize for her previous mistreatment. If that’s true and EVC still accepted, there’s nothing to be done about it. It also ostensibly means T/FATWS has no female lead at all, but that’s another story.

The R/ussos were practically salivating at the mouth to ‘work’ with J/ohansson  (i.e. insert themselves into a scene where one of them could breathe down her neck in close contact for some contrived reason) and openly admitted they wanted to expand her role for this purpose. That was at EVC’s expense, and it certainly wasn’t because she couldn’t stand up to the acting chops of ‘babies taste best’ E/vans or G/regg’s ~incandescent charisma.~

The audience has been spoon-fed a cult of bland male mediocrity and embarrassingly performative white feminism for the entire soulless, lowest-common denominator M/CU pantheon. These are the same people who think W/andaVision is the height of ground-breaking, introspective cerebral cinema when episode 8 was a glorified car commercial.

And even if A/BC got EVC an in, that’s just networking. You think H/olland was cast in C/herry because the R/ussos scoured the globe to find the perfect lead? All the top actors get jobs by connections, not by sheer talent. No one is claiming that EVC is winning Oscars for her work, but implying that she’s being purposely downplayed because she can’t hold a candle to her costars is a joke. The audience can easily discern when a character is telegraphed to be liked – that’s why 6 seconds of SC in T/FATWS trailer elicited more positive responses from the GA than all her 7 minutes of screen time in the movies.

Not because EVC’s skills suddenly improved, but because someone different was behind the camera and because they (possibly) weren’t constrained by the derivative female character formulas the M/CU has championed. EVC isn’t the variable, the decision making is. Decision making that could have presented her sacrifice for S/teve’s friends much more dramatically, heroically and memorably instead of framing all her actions as insipidly as chewed gum.

EVC and SC aren’t in this position because she inherently can’t pass muster; she’s in this position because m/arvel only allows one woman’s ass to block a shot at any given time and that catsuit was already spoken for. But instead of complaining that SC never got to meaningfully interact with literally any other female character, or that female characters in the M/CU are by and large treated like trash (until they’re unceremoniously killed off so that their solo films can introduce their younger replacements), fandom will simply demand one less women on their screens because…EVC is just not up to par I guess.