#the specific characters in question that I want to make out with:

[loveandlegacy]

i love this analysis! if i can add onto it a little bit to answer your question about what the purpose of the parallels is, i would say there's a lot of room for interpretation but my particular reading of it is that viktor and mel ultimately converge not with jayce as the center that cannot hold between them but with ambessa as their centerpoint.

throughout the whole show viktor and mel dance around the question of what is ethically the best way to help people maybe more than any other characters. there are other characters who also believe in helping or who are chasing ideals about how to improve the conditions for zaun specifically, but they are more certain in their undertakings. ekko doesn't waver on whether or not the firelights are doing the right thing, silco is a fervent revolutionary nationalist, sevika selects who to ally with based on her core principles about who would be the best to liberate zaun. ekko and silco particularly are at ideological odds about how cast off piltover's hold over zaun, but the show doesn't present them as counterbalancing points or even as two people who are imbricated with one another because of their beliefs. they represent two mostly unmoving worldviews.

by comparison, mel and viktor are constantly made to face the limits of their ideological positions.

in s1 act i viktor says that scientists seek to improve lives and to make the world a better place. this is kind of true in that it is one way scientists can operate but we also know that there are plenty of scientists who don't operate that way (singed) and we also know that science itself is a political undertaking regardless of how idealistic one may or may not be about it. s1 viktor wanted to make the world a better place, but his work for a long time largely fuels the class interests of the piltovan council and materially further destroys zaun. this isn't his fault for being an idealist. he is disempowered in piltover, he's disabled, he's dying, and even his dying/his attempt to avoid dying highlights a kind of politics about medical science and who gets access to it and who gets to choose what happens to their body and how it is tended to and cared for. were piltover not the extractive force that it is and had it not devastated zaun with chemical waste for years (two things only made possible by deploying technology and science!) and had it not essentially set up an obvious system of ethnic segregation, maybe viktor's condition might not have deteriorated to the point of terminal desperation. maybe sky would still be alive

this is like....at its most obvious when viktor's in his hex cocoon coma (which like in real world terms would be an actual violation of a DNR request – so again. the scientific power to arbitrate life and death is a political one) while his life's work gets co-opted to create weapons.

science is a political undertaking no matter which way you look at it

mel on the other hand believes and behaves as if the world is a political chess game that she can win if she maneuvers herself well enough and that politics can always function as the high road and higher power to all other inter/national machinations. her flashback makes this pretty clear when she repeats what kino told her, that war is a failure of (and therefore a lesser form of) statecraft. ambessa scoffs at this and at the idea of 'talking [your] way out of anything' and then later mel has to confront (again and again) that political games cannot account for everything and that she is not omniscient and even her savvy and skill can be upended by unexpected acts of guerrilla warfare. jinx bombs the council, ambessa engineers conflict, the black rose abducts elora and mel herself.

everything in the world is politics yes, but not everyone is playing the same political game and mel is limited in her ability to account for this not because she's stupid or incapable but because of her position in the world. she understands violence only as a tool used by imperialists to oppress their subjects. she has never been on the side of the power divide where she can't bargain with or outmaneuver or manipulate her opponents because the power they hold over her is immeasurable – until of course she is in that exact position. the black rose abducts and tortures her and kills elora and against her will awakens a power in her that only exists because of forces acting on her life long before she was even born.

it's actually kind of wild. in the span of like 1.5 episodes mel goes from being one of the most powerful people in piltover to a woman in a position very similar to viktor's – at the mercy of forces that shaped her life and set it in motion without her ever getting the chance to decide what she wanted for herself. however flawed her methods may or may not be, mel has worked her whole adult life to create a world where war doesn't happen and in one single revelation she learns that not only were her efforts small in the grand scheme of things but also that she herself is the very antithesis of what she wants to see in the world: a weapon.

and that's where ambessa matters! more than any other character in the story, ambessa is the embodiment of military power. national militaries are obviously an arm of power used towards political ends, and military might is often advanced by science – and in arcane's case, also magic, which is presented as a kind of science in the forms of hextech and shimmer. ambessa repeatedly evinces that she's distrustful of mages, but we also learn that she seeks to control magic to her own (presumably violent) ends. mel is her first attempt; she's born with the gift of the arcane, but ambessa correctly identifies she's not super into warfare and eventually sends her away

several years later ambessa arrives in piltover in search of magic again in the form of hextech, but what she eventually ends up getting is another mage.

in short, mel is the weapon ambessa wanted, but viktor is the weapon she got

and in this way, viktor and mel's trajectories finally intersect. mel is forced to reframe her understanding of political power and its uses and limits (and i presume this will carry through to her time in noxus), and she now has to live with the knowledge that she is (as her own voice lines put it) 'tainted by the arcane' in ways she never wanted and forced to use it to kill her own mother. viktor, meanwhile, has to come to grips at the end of the show with the fact that he gave up his ideals about science not being used violently and became the scientific weapon he said he never wanted to create in order to make the world (his idea) of a better place

A lot of people point out the visual parallels between Mel and Viktor but not enough people talk about the thematic parallels between them (also excuse the shitty screenshots).

they both grew up with mentors who ended up doing something they couldn't understand (Viktor believing death is better than sacrificing humanity, Mel believing war is bad)

and they remain haunted by that memory as an adult

they later left that mentor, Viktor on his own decision, Mel got cast out. Then they reconnected with that mentor when they are struggling with the same dilemma but their position has shifted. Again Viktor does this on his own accord and Ambessa comes to Mel

After this encounter though they realise their error and shift back to their original position

They stick to the same morals after Jinx's bomb hits but the decision was taken from them, Jayce already sacrificed Viktor's humanity, the council already decided on war

Then for the rest of season two we see them attempt to keep up their original stance but their hand is forced. (It is also interesting that Viktor is already taking away their humanity he just doesn't realize it yet, probably because he is so far from his own humanity he has forgotten what that even means)

They also both have parallels to the one they once defended as a kid

But I'm still having trouble finding what the purpose of all these parallels are. Viktor and Mel aren't very close in the narrative and they're both close to Jayce but I don't feel we see these parallels used in their relationship to him. I think the end point is that it's not Viktor's fault he became a villian in the end. Both him and Mel fought for what they thought was right and they both lost, it was only because of how others used Viktor that he was the reason so many people almost died.

[oceansoul001]

After 170 hours I've finished Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 and I cannot even start to describe this emptiness I'm feeling now, knowing that there is no more of this great story waiting for me to experience (at least for now). What a wild ride it was and what a surprisingly amazing game, with all the twists and turns of the plot, all the memorable characters that I deeply cared about and rooted for, all the emotions of Henry's journey and all the thoughts about war, revenge, duty, and finally making peace with the past and moving on. The emotional spectrum of the game is astounding - it can so flawlessly switch between being extremely funny or delightfully absurd to being heartbreaking or devastating in the heaviest moments. But as the game’s content is so dense and rich, that writing down all my thoughts would require a whole book, or at least a dissertation, I would like to specifically touch upon one, nomen omen touchy subject. The Henry-Hans romance.

I'm not sure if it is possible yet, but I would also like to skip over all the controversy-driven discussions regarding this romantic subplot, clearly lead in bad faith and mostly by people not even engaging with the game, and be able to talk about this topic and analyze it as it is, without questioning its right to even exist in the game. Why do I focus on this quite small and optional aspect of the game at all? Well, I’m not gonna lie – I always find the RPGs with possible romances more engaging and captivating, as love – as a general emotion, with different shades of it – is in my eyes one of the crucial aspect of any hero. So if we are already talking about the love towards parents or other family members, patriotic love for your country, or king, platonic love between friends and comrades, and then all of a sudden omit only the romantic love, something is not adding up for me. If you want to give me a rich RPG experience, give me at least one good romance option, and I’m sold. But it is not easy at all, especially the “good” part.

But as KCD2 is a very unique game when it comes to its different aspects – like the demanding, slow-paced gameplay, or the unique blend of open-world with more contained main plot missions – it is also very unique when it comes to the romance options, or, let me say it aloud – when it comes to THE main romance option, the most integral romance option, the most naturally developing romance option in the game. The Henry-Hans (optional) romance that we can observe growing very slowly throughout this 100+ hours, is for me one of the best and most meaningful depictions of love in any RPG with player's agency. This relation, even if you opt out of romance, simply has it all - is intertwined with the plot, is rooted in character development and has the possibility to depict characters together during many different situations throughout the whole game. And this is how a good romanceable character should be written in a video game – as an independent character first and foremost, NOT as a character that was created with a sole purpose to serve as said romance option. In this case Hans ALWAYS plays a meaningful part in the story, and ALWAYS shares an important bond with your Henry, regardless of player's decision whether to engage with the romance or not. But many other games seem to forget about that, or don’t manage to create the bond between characters first, before the option to romance them appears.

And then comes the hard to describe aspect of THE FEELS. The slow development of this relation, the steady growth of feelings, up to the point, when you cannot deny it any longer, and when you cannot allow yourself to not act upon them - because of the circumstances, because of this sense of impending doom, that makes all the risks worth taking, as any of you might anyway be dead the next day. Audentes Fortuna Iuvat, remember? The risk that Hans takes in the decisive moment of this relation is THE epitome of his saying, and I don’t believe it is a coincidence when it suits so perfectly to the whole theme of the game and to Hans as a character in general. And this bold risk taking is so gut-clenching and heartbreaking, but also heartwarming in this one stolen moment of happiness that seems unreal. Say what you want, but you simply cannot tell this kind of story, invoke this kind of feelings - without first having two equally developed characters, that the player equally cares for and have cared for before any romance possibility was on the horizon. Add to the mix very real external hardships (all good romances need a hardship to overcome!), that due to the time and place make this relation tragically doomed before it even has begun, and there you have it - one of the most compelling romantic stories I have experienced in a video game, hands down.

And please don’t start with medieval this, medieval that, before you stop and think about greatest medieval love stories (that we know of) – these are always stories of impossible love, of doomed love, of forbidden love. Of two people, that cannot and should not be together because of the class they belong to, because of the promises made, because of duty, because of sin and religion dogma. Don’t tell me you cannot see the comparison between Henry and Hans, and, say, Tristan and Isolde, THE number one medieval chivalric romance couple, where they commit sin against God and betray their King at the same time, every time they are together. Don’t tell me that Henry, who clearly aspires to all the ideals that we associate with knighthood – chivalry, protection of the weak, devotion to land and rightful king, and generally noble idealism, let’s call it – is not the perfect hero of chivalric romance, with Hans being of course his damsel-princess, way above his league, already promised to another and soon to be in a loveless, political marriage, spending parts of the game either captured in some tower or stuck in some castle, having to wait for his knight to safely return to him. It is all there, I am sure not accidentally, and it fits all the themes and motifs known from both actual medieval literature and their pop culture representation SO WELL if you think about it for a second.

And there's one more component that elevates this particular relation to S-tier for me. You can have superb writing, you can direct the most impressive cutscene, you can have the build-up ready - all of these won't matter and won't work if the actors don't sell you the romantic feelings in the key moment. Which I assume is not easy, when for the most part you play other aspects of these characters and probably were not cast with this specific plot point in mind. But here comes Luke Dale, showing us the side of Hans Capon that we have not seen before, with the most heart-wrenching expression of his fears, with voice breaking at the exactly right moment, the trembling, the anger, the despair, but also the tiniest bit of hope - and in just two broken sentences he conveys it all, and it's all so bloody real. It's a masterwork, and I'm so happy that I could witness it in game, even more - become part of this relationship as the playable character himself.

I sincerely hope that the end of the main game is not the end of this subplot, as there is still so, so, so much more to explore with these characters in these circumstances. And their relation is so unique, comparing to popular fiction in general, but even more so in video games, that it would be a great loss to just leave them be as they are at the end of the game. I cannot wait for the possibility to go through more emotional turmoil with Henry and Hans, probably because I cannot even remember when was the last time I’ve fallen in love with fictional characters so much and so fast, as with these two. And as already said, love is the key. 

[ephemeralinstance]

Lavellan in Veilguard

The scenes with the Solas-romancing Lavellan in Veilguard are, for me, one of the writing highlights of the game. Of course there are limitations with her being an NPC, but I think that subject to the constraints of the structure of the game, the writer did a really great job of a very difficult piece of writing - creating a depiction of the character that fits with thousands of different versions of Lavellan.

First of all, Lavellan's dialogue is elegant and lyrical, matching the cadence in which Solas speaks and thus showing how in-tune they are even after all these years. One thing I loved about Inquisition was that the language was often really beautiful, so I enjoyed seeing that kind of poetic language return here, and I think the writer understood and captured the heart of what a lot of people loved about the Solas romance - the poetry and beauty of it.

In addition, we get a range of different emotions. Lavellan expresses sadness ('He meant that much'), passion ('You've felt the power of that mind'), anger ('He left me to clean up his mess'), self-doubt ('Am I the prideful one?'). Whatever reaction you personally envision your character as having, you can find it represented in what she says here. I know some people wished Lavellan could have more of an angry confrontation with Solas, but that probably wouldn't have been possible without just allowing us to directly control Lavellan; I think the writer achieved a good compromise by showing us her anger and hurt in this conversation. 

At the same time, she's shown to be mature, self-aware, and reflective. We see her questioning herself, asking 'Am I the prideful one, imagining his broken heart so I'd never have to face my folly?' Lavellan isn't deluded; she's not romanticizing what happened. If she chooses to go with him, it's clear that she isn't naive or being manipulated. She's making this choice in a fully aware, thoughtful manner. And although Lavellan loves Solas deeply, he isn't her first priority. It's important that when Rook asks her if she'd be willing to leave with Solas, she states, 'No. We have to save the world first.' We're shown very clearly that she has a life outside of Solas, and she prioritizes her duty to the people of Thedas: only once her task is done is she able to put herself first, and finally choose her own desires over her duty for once. It's also impressive how clearly she understands Solas, as evident in her speculation that he's left clues because part of him wants to be stopped. I particularly liked the fact that she's shown to have a deeper understanding of him than Rook, as seen in their exchange about 'lies of the heart.' Rook just sees one superficial version of Solas as 'god of lies,' whereas Lavellan understands that although Solas did lie to her, at a deeper level he isn't good at concealing what he really feels. Lavellan absolutely knows and understand Solas' flaws and the 'bad' side of him that Rook has seen, but she also knows a different side of him that no one else has seen. If Lavellan chooses to go with him, it's because she understands him completely: she sees all the good and all the bad in him, and she chooses him anyway.

Finally, sometimes I see people critiquing Lavellan for being passive or not having much going on apart from her connection with Solas. Now first off, this clearly isn't true, since she spends the whole game mustering the armies of the south and sending detailed missives about her military operations - no one in Thedas has more going on than this woman! 

But also, it's important to keep in mind that Lavellan isn't supposed to be a fully-fleshed out character: she's specifically left vague enough so that you can fill in the details with your own Lavellan. For example, we're not told much about what she's been up to in the last ten years, but of course that's not because she's done nothing but pine for Solas: it's simply left unspecified so it can be compatible with different headcanons. Lavellan is specifically written to allow us to fill in the details, and the measure of success is not whether she comes off as a fully-developed character to people who don't have their own Solas-romancing Lavellan (honestly, those people shouldn't even be commenting, this writing isn't for them); the measure of success is whether she works as a stand-in for all of our individual versions of Lavellan. And although of course it's never going to be possible to please everyone, I think the writer did a great job within the limitations of what was possible in the plot.

[caffinated-squid]

i really liked your eltingville club character analysis’s!!! in the bill one you mentioned how bill was showing vulnerability in the intervention, do you think he was also showing vulnerability at the beginning of this fan this monster? considering how his friends weren’t around for him to belittle or reinforce his power to, i’d love to see an analysis from you for bills behavior in this fan this monster and how joe influenced bill. ty and keep up the good work!! <3

Thank you, happy that you enjoyed them! Regarding Bill in This Fan This Monster, I think it could be argued that it shows up a little bit in the beginning considering that Joe is probably the closest thing that Bill has had to a consistent father figure in his life. Focusing on this comic by itself, (the inclusion of the first comic makes it a bit more confusing) its mentioned in the hospital that his parents are divorced and while when it specifically happened is unclear, his presence is also absent in other Eltingville comics. (excluding the first) 

Bill’s mom probably did not play much of a role in his life as well, considering how much resentment they both have for each other, which can be seen though Bill’s mom preferring to get people to tie him up in a chair for hours to fix his comic obsession rather than just talking to him herself in The Intervention and accusing him of blaming her for the divorce in This Fan This Monster.

In summary, Bill is not on good terms with either of his parents and probably latched onto Joe because he appeared to care about similar interests. (though he just sees Bill more as a source of money rather than an actual person)

** From this, Joe probably influenced Bill's behavior the most since a lot of Joe's behavior seen in This Fan This Monster (saying customers have to be treated like idiots, that women don't actually like comics) reflected in Bill once Joe needs to leave for an emergency and in the Epilogue. (especially in his rant to Mandi)

** Though I don't think that Joe was someone that Bill would ever open up to regarding his personal life and issues, its idolization rather than an actual familial relationship at most

I would say that the beginning of the comic has a mixture of two things, Bill trying to appease and learn from Joe while looking up to him as somewhat of a father figure, but also constantly testing to see how much he can get away with, he is still just as willing to break rules if it means he has easier access to the things he wants. Though that appeasement definitely comes back in when he attempts to blame his friends for the destruction of the comic shop in order to still cling onto the power he just obtained.

On his friends not being around, I don’t think that Bill got better without them present. Although he is the leader of the Eltingville Club, Josh and Pete are there to constantly challenge his opinions which prevents his ego from going completely unchecked. With their absence, you can see Bill’s ego gradually become more inflated the more he is around Joe, getting worse when Joe temporarily puts him in charge. Joe ignores Bill a majority of the time aside from making fun of him for doing grunt work, which allows Bill to believe that he can get away with being an asshole because he now has a higher status, and with this higher status, he doesn’t need a friend group to control.

**I tend to see This Fan This Monster as Bills Icarus moment, in the sense that his ego rises over the comic only for it to come crashing down when he sets the comic shop on fire out of spite.

(Hopefully this answered your question/request! I have 2 other analysis essays I am going to write related to Eltingville, then I'll probably be done and focus on another topic of interest)

[physalian]

Making your scenes pull 'double duty'

Something that helps me with keeping steady story progression, by making every scene pull double duty, is to make sure the location characters are talking in also services the story.

Quick reminder that pulling “double duty” like this is when a scene both delivers exposition, but also pulls some foreshadowing. Or, it’s character backstory, but also a big emotional moment for the speaker opening up to their listener. Or, it’s dialogue, but it’s also establishing the setting and details that will be important later.

The opposite of this being two characters doing nothing but talking exposition and walking in a nondescript or irrelevant location. Or backstory, but it’s delivered like a textbook and doesn’t do anything for the characters’ relationship. Or it’s scene descriptors, but no character reactions to the new environment.

One of those “I know what’s wrong but not what it is” editing problems.

Anyway! I usually see this pop up most when you have a dialogue-heavy scene and nowhere important to put it.

I just had one and I’ll explain the layers I worked into it. Basically: A has to explain to B the history that B is unaware of. Straight-up exposition.

Layer 1: The dialogue. The cadence, verbiage, and tone of A’s speech is specific to his character. How he says things, especially when talking about a controversial event, says something about both his character and how he sees B, and anticipating B’s potential reactionary response to what he’s saying.

Layer 2: The timing. This exposition isn’t coming out of nowhere just for the sake of the reader. This is part of a question left over from book 1 finally getting answered and is important information for B to contextualize his loyalties and the history of his side and the other side in this ongoing conflict. This talk is the effect of the cause of a little scuffle where B forgot which side he was supposed to be on.

Layer 3: The movement. I don’t want the action to distract too much from the important exposition, so it’s a classic “two characters walking and talking” but with some added details. A has a lantern they need to see with, B eventually has to carry a stack of blankets. They’re interacting with the environment, not just pasted over it. Also motion to break up the dialogue and the occasional emphatic facial expression or gesture to get B’s nonverbal reactions.

Layer 4: The purpose. Beyond the exposition, A and B are with a group having to make an unplanned pitstop to camp, and A knows this fort to hold emergency supplies, keeping the scene grounded with the rest of the ongoing story. They’re not just walking and talking, they’re on a quick mission to get blankets for their friends, justifying this need to walk in the first place.

Layer 5: The location. A is expositing about a war, standing in a fort that was used to fight in it. In between the dialogue, A’s narration is describing both the decay of the fort and the remnants of a battle, that his side won gruesomely. The location is adding mood and ambiance to what he’s saying. A’s lantern is also illuminating those gruesome details, interacting with the environment.

Layer 6: Sensory details. Using the location, I’ve included sensory bits for the biting cold, the loud echoes of gravel under their boots, a metallic, mildewy smell, the harsh shadows from the lantern, the cramped, decaying walls. This also helps provide mood and ambiance, and also reflects on what the narrator, A, chooses to notice, as a veteran of this very battle.

It’s a short bit of the overall scene, 621 words, but with those layers, I hope it’s engaging to read all the way through.

To summarize and recycle points I've made before, to make effective and compelling exposition:

Make it timely

Make it relevant

Make it grounded in the setting

Make it important to the cast

Make it earned by the cast

Make it entertaining

[djarins-cyare]

I have so many questions about "Din needs an iphone charger to find out what Pedro Pascal looks like" 🤣 Is Din in a modern-day AU? Are we in a wormhole where the Mandalorian, iphones, and Pedro exist together? Is this code for an upgrade on his helmet tech?

Hey Cas! Thanks for asking about this one; it’s one of my favourites!

I love all your ideas, but this is your classic “Earthling in the SWU” story, except with a kind of… meta twist, I guess. I’ll do my best to explain.

Usually, when you get an Earthling in the SWU fic, it’s just assumed that Din would look like Pedro because that’s what he looks like on our screens. But what does that say about the universe our Earthling Reader has ended up in? Have they been sucked into the TV? Are they now in an entirely fictional universe? How can it exist? Or have they been transported into an AU?

To my mind, there are three possibilities:

Yeah, our Earthling Reader has been transported into the fictional realm created by George Lucas and specifically crafted by John Favreau and Dave Filoni, and Din does indeed look like Pedro. It’s like the movies Last Action Hero and Pleasantville – they’re literally sucked inside the movie or TV. This is uncomfortably deterministic since every event is crafted by writers, so essentially, it makes Favroni into gods. Everything that happens to our Earthling!Reader in that realm is predetermined since we know how Star Wars turns out. I don’t like this option much.

Although Star Wars began as fiction, our Earthling!Reader wanted to be part of it so badly that they somehow wished it into existence. So now, a new universe exists IRL, and they have been transported into it. Since it started as fiction, Din does indeed look like Pedro. This universe is a brand new offshoot and not subject to the fictional rules of Star Wars, so our Earthling!Reader can manipulate events to change the outcome of things. I like this option!

The Star Wars Universe exists as a real alternate universe somewhere alongside ours, and somehow (let’s say via the Force or some lowkey Earthly version of it), George Lucas and other prominent Star Wars writers have dreamed/sensed the events occurring over there and have woven them into stories. They think they have great imaginations, but they’re actually Force-sensitive or as close as you can get to it in this universe. Perhaps Favreau cast Pedro as Din specifically because, in his mind’s eye, that actor looked the most like the person he saw in his visions/imagination. In this scenario, the version of Din that our Earthling!Reader meets may not look precisely like Pedro at all. Similar, yes, all the features match up on paper, but somehow slightly different. This is an intriguing option.

In this fic (which I have now given the hasty title: Face Reality), Earthling!Reader has no idea which of the above options applies, although she has been very honest with Din about where she comes from. She explains that in her “universe” (for want of a better word since she doesn’t know if it’s an actual AU), his story and the stories of others he knows are told as fiction for entertainment. In an effort to spare him the existential crisis of “OMG, I’m just a character in someone’s narrative, I’m not a Real Boy”, she continues with the idea of this place being an already-existing universe that people in her world can sense (i.e. option number 3 above), but the question of whether he looks like Pedro or not comes up…

…particularly when Din discovers that some of the stories are visual. He freaks out. He worries an entire universe of people might have seen him without his helmet, and his creed is now in tatters. So, he becomes obsessed with finding out precisely what Pedro looks like and whether or not they’re identical. The trouble is, everything that Earthling!Reader tells him seems to fit him exactly.

So yeah. He’s having an existential crisis… she’s having an existential crisis… and, oh yeah, they both fancy the fuck out of each other.

Lots going on!

I actually have several scenes of this written already, but most are pretty piecemeal. I’ve got bits of the one where they meet, and everything I explained above comes out, but it’s very raw and unedited. Fortunately, the one where they talk about the iPhone charger was pretty solid already, so I’ve decided to give you the whole of that one, which is like 1k words (admittedly, I polished it up a little first and tweaked it to make it self-contained). Enjoy!

This WIP Folder game is really helping me get some of my WIPs in shape, I’m loving it!

Face Reality

“Tell me what he looks like,” Din asks. “Describe him.”

Not this again. He’s been relentlessly interrogating you about Pedro’s appearance for two days now.

“I already did. How many times do you need to hear it before you quit asking?”

He shakes his helmet. “However many it takes to figure this out. Your description could fit millions of humans across the galaxy – me included.”

You know he’s prevaricating. You’ve described the man’s teeth, for fuck’s sake – there are definitely not millions of humans with an extra tooth in front of their lower right lateral incisor. No, the problem is less about your descriptive skills and more about his increasing panic with every new detail you offer.

You’ve tried reassuring him. You’ve tried arguing with him. This time, you take a futile stab at redirecting him. “Well, at least we’ve established you don’t look like Brendan Wayne. That’s a win.”

The withering look Din sends your way comes through the barrier of his visor loud and clear.

“I need more,” he insists, desperation edging his tone. “If he looks like me, and you’ve seen my face….”

A strangled sound of irritation escapes you as you press your palms against your closed eyes. For a guy who’s recently learned his entire existence is considered a work of fiction in your reality, he’s freakishly hung up on his religious adherence. Or maybe it’s the fact that if he does look like Pedro, he’ll need to face the fact that he’s essentially a copy of someone else and not a Real Boy in his own right.

And you get it; you do. But it’s also fucking frustrating when you’ve got some pretty insurmountable problems of your own. After all, you still don’t know how you got here, nor where ‘here’ actually is. Were you sucked into your TV and all this is fiction, or are you in an independently existing alternate universe that George Lucas has dreams about that he makes into movies?

Your companion is not the only one having an existential crisis here.

“There must be more you can tell me. Be specific,” Din demands, and his unyielding insistence triggers your frayed nerves to finally unravel. You miss home, and being stuck in a possibly fictional universe is enough of a headfuck without this endless back-and-forth.

“I’ve been as specific as I can be!” you snap. “I’ve described everything about him in extreme detail, right down to the epic combination of sexy nose scar and cute little heart-shaped beard patches. I don’t know what more you want. It’s just Pedro being his usual gorgeous self, only extra sad and broody. I get that you’re scared about this, but can you please just give it a rest?”

It takes a couple of seconds for your brain to catch up with your mouth, but when it does…

Shit. You got a little carried away there. Please, God – or whatever deities rule over this galaxy far, far away – don’t let him notice how much you’re practically drooling over Pedro.

“You think he’s… gorgeous?” Din ventures hesitantly.

Fucksticks.

Backpedal! Reverse thrusters! Fall back to base camp!

“I mean….” You screw your eyes shut, searching for a way out of this latest living nightmare, but there’s no denying it now. “Yeah?”

A heavy silence descends. You can’t tell whether Din remains hung up on his potentially broken creed or if he’s moved on to wondering how your attraction to Pedro might translate to him if it turns out they do look alike. Become an apostate but gain an admirer… probably not a fair trade in his eyes.

Well, you wanted him to shut up. Mission accomplished. Except it looks like you now have the opposite problem.

If anything, you’ve made things worse.

Fuck, he still hasn’t said anything. Thor? Or is Odin the one in charge? Wait, wrong franchise. Maker? You’re pretty sure only droids pray to the Maker in Star Wars, but at this point, you’ll gladly supplicate a damn space toaster if it’ll end this awkward silence.

And then suddenly, an idea strikes. Whether it’s divine intervention or sheer desperation oiling your overtaxed, still-weirded-out brain into gear, you can’t be sure. What you do know is that you feel like a prize idiot for not thinking of it sooner.

“My phone!” you exclaim, rifling through your bag until you find your iPhone at the very bottom. You present it with a flourish. “The battery’s been dead for days, and it’s not like this galaxy has 5G, so I didn’t even think about it before.”

Din’s visor locks onto the black slab, and you self-consciously flick away some lint clinging to the curling edges of your screen protector. His helmet tilts inquisitively – still mute, still mysterious.

“It’s like a comlink, but it does a lot more, including capturing different types of images. There’s an image of Pedro as Din on here, but I have no charger with me. Not that there’s anywhere to plug in an iPhone charger in this universe. Y’all seriously need to install some USB-C ports.”

His visor tilts back down to the device, interest apparently piqued.

“If you can find a way to recharge the battery, I can show you what he looks like,” you explain, holding out the phone. “Then you’ll know if your creed is intact.”

He accepts the proffered device, turning it over in his gloved hands, and you point out the charger port at the base.

“Do whatever you need to – take it apart if you really have to – but just… don’t break it. I don’t have much left from home. There are photos of my friends and family on there too, so if you can get it powered up….”

Cradling the battered piece of your heart with a tenderness you know he typically reserves for Grogu, Din nods and rumbles, “Thank you. I’ll look after it.”

There we go. Tension diffused, problem solved. Or partially solved. Or… vaguely moving in the direction of being solved.

Whatever. At least now you can get back to fantasising about what’s under that helmet in peace.

[marzipanilla]

I read your keep reading break as my keep reading break and this whole rant almost showed up, ass out for the dash xD

I do my best to be like 'yeah that's a kid, limited experience/perceptions whatevs' but also... that is a fictional character written by an adult. At the end of the day if you fail to make me feel anything but annoyance/rage at the character, I will unapologetically dislike them and age is not a limiting factor lol Plus you have so many opportunities to not make him obnoxious (or at the very least justify his obnoxiousness) and then you don't it's like ?? Then you pile on the added factors of why the fuck is Debbie his main parent, and are we ever going to address why Nolan felt compelled to actually produce another child in the middle of his suicidal depression after fucking up his last one- like... Not only is he a plot device to make Mark think about shit that he has plenty of other plot devices making him think about anyway (his dad's 'we're better than them' speech, finding out every other version of him is a prick- like Oliver saying 'what if dad is right' is SO pointless bc it's a thought that should have already occurred to Mark and been faced and- dealt with or not - we didn't need this specific character to talk about it!) so Oliver just basically fucks up other characters arcs/personalities in the process of asking a question THAT SHOULD HAVE ALREADY BEEN ASKED.

I WILL sit down and write Kregg or Lucan using toddler purple boy as a bludgeon against Nolan's head and him having to sit their with his dead son's brains in his mouth and actually face the immediate consequences of his actions instead of getting to run off to a secondary location and decide how to approach it from a distance. Literally NO ONE had to die on Thraxa Nolan. You could have just left.

Yeah the purple-ness is BS. It's like 'Nolan has red blood, Andressa has blue skin... those two colors make purple!' like SIR ??

It almost feels like the characters personalities have been retconned a bit. Like. Mark guilt magnet 'I must control myself' Grayson absolutely failing so hard at that or even apparently caring at failing so hard at that. I already had my secondary post ranting about Debbie's parenting thus far this season lol Like, do these people not remember anything that happened to them previously ?? The trajectory was wobbly, but you had a trajectory! Mark TRYING to get in control and finding it harder could have been a thing ! But no, he just had strength training and now murders his way through his problems ?? Maybe Debbie overcompensating because Nolan WAS a murderer so she put too many heroes vs bad guys shit in Oliver's head ?? but no ?? they're just ?? acting weird ??? instead ??

Nolan disproved that viltrumites aren't inherently incapable of experiencing empathy! He just had to learn it ! And Oliver was definitely raised in a situation where he should have been learning it ! SO WHERE IS THIS ELITISM COMING FROM. WHERE WHERE SHOW. Did his thraxan mom kissing him on the forehead and calling him the specialist boy ever (worth the destruction of her planet!) fuck up his head?? we ever going to talk about Andressa again?? ever?

So like how you talked about not wanting to read the manga while watching the anime bc it changes things- I am unfortunately anticipating way too much and it's kinda throwing things off for me lol I genuinely wonder if I will like this season a lot more on a second watch bc I won't be spending the entire time screaming at the screen about things almost happening. Like. I knew who was the king of Earth in the future, so, the slow ass build up to it just made me fucking impatient. Not to mention my future comic knowledge of how that story line comes around at all just makes me roll my eyes at everything that happened there- tho at least show Mark points out that Immortal could have just, y'know, STOPPED- something his comic counterpart never seemed to realize was a valid thing to say. Like dude. Suicide by Mark is still suicide. Throw your ass into the sun! You met Mark and Kate at the same time, but you remember him and not her? You've had hundreds of wives? Get this man a pocket pussy, apparently he can't experience any empathy for living things unless his dick is getting wet on the reg. Like. Immortal just annoys me so much. Enduring while everything around you dies is an interesting story ! Somehow every time he tries to bring it up I just hate him.

Though he is just another example of something that I think Kirkman had done a few times- which is it doesn't seem to occur to characters that they can say no. Nolan, bud, maybe DON'T become emperor of the people of a planet you know nothing about ?? Did it ever occur to you that would be a BAD MOVE ? You can help out and not be their ruler. Same for Immortal. Not to mention future Mark being so into dictators he assigns one to Earth is wild. Kirkman just seems to really love dictators.

I think Nolan's almost execution and the break out was done SUPER well. Love watching that pathetic man try and drown himself in regret like this bitch doesn't full on have two kids he is escaping responsibility for in the process. Sir. It is time for you to use your punchy punch powers to maybe start punching things back together.

I thought the reveal that Viltrumites were almost extinct was going to happen at the end of last season, so, to say I have been waiting for this news is an understatement xD I also thought one thing I was super worried about got addressed to never come back to haunt me, only to realize it is still VERY possible for it to be brought up and I just have so much anxiety about that- that until I know one way or another my enjoyment of what is in the eps is SO limited. Like, I NEED TO KNOW so I can know whether or not to be mad and just deal with it, or I can be relieved and just enjoy what comes next.

Fun fact, we now know more about Rae- and have seen her in civilian clothes- then we do about Kate. WILD.

I like PFT but having the narrator come back was so unnecessary. They tried to push the comedy so hard this ep, and I imagine it's supposed to be a breather before more oncoming shit hits the fan but.. Allen is enough comedic relief. I don't need a random voice.

Also Mark, your mom has had some serious traumatic experiences with people breaking into her house- maybe don't sneak people in and not tell her about it. Maybe. Yes haha funny moment (and I was full on waiting for Debbie to be like 'tell Eve I said goodnight' through the door) but I will still sit here and be like stop lying to your mom about stupid shit! Let her know whose in the house so she wont be freaked out by it!

And to jump back to previous ep- Mark faced consequences for once, Immortal? The kid who got a mace through the gut? Almost died to his father? Had to go to Atlantis by himself to face the crimes his father committed? Who almost died getting sent on a mission he had to tell Cecil he would be a good dog for ?? Whose mother and brother almost died bc of a guy who escaped the aftermath you IMMORTAL were supposed to be cleaning up? You think Cecil blowing out his eardrums was the first time he faced consequences?? go fuck yourself. Mark was being stupid but that response is so dumb. 'for once' SIR. you have just been dead and depressed you haven't been around. fuck off.

Mark agreeing to go hang out on a beach w Debbie instead of refusing and the beach is Beach City (am now officially thinking too much about this crossover lol)

The way I got caught up on our back and forth I almost forgot this, lol! AND OH MY GOODNESS, IMAGINE? I forget exactly what which point Debbie makes the beach offer, but I’d love when exactly in SU/SUF-timeline they’d go? There’s something so fucking funny to me about them going during the SUF-timeline and always narrowly missing the strange, Steven-shaped mental breakdowns in the back. I know those don’t occur in a single day, but it’s tickling me. How could they miss anything? I don’t know I just think it’s funny.

Though, post-SUF is interesting if Gems can see the similar “world on your shoulders”, Mark has going on! Steven can shunt the narrative in the Gems’ minds, which I think is neat, if I’m not misusing the phrase since the guy’s on the road far away. Or maybe it’s just before Steven goes and they stumble into each other. I’d kinda love Pearl and Debbie interacting, honestly, if they could talk about loving someone who hurt you, hide things from you, even when you thought you knew them so deeply, and they left you to raise a child. Pearl being in a well adjusted space, and Debbie still grieving.

Honestly, the gems could help train Mark, they’re got experience and similar-ish powers in strength, sturdiness, and they can jump/run fast enough for flying to be vaguely similar enough to lecture about, I think. Or Lapis Lazulis, haha! Peridot with her trash can lid! Garnet, I’d love to see if she told Mark anything about his future in vague, well meaning advice. Or even giving relationship advice considering Amber. Or, importantly, how to convince an entire reign to end their colonizing ways, lol. Is Mark perhaps willing to start a war, take advantage of being related to any leaders, or fake his own death to varying results?

In general, there’s something so fucking funny to me about Nolan, in the sake of comparison, being Pink Diamond coded. Like OH, did an important or well respected of the colonizing empire come to earth and learn the beauty of its people and nature, including faking/lying/omitting things about his identity and background to being in, only to feel conflicted when his responsibility still remained, and he tried to free himself from them? Yikes! We’ve been through that before! Like gimme Pink Diamond and Nolan outfit swap rn. This is tickling me so much oh my goodness.

[lunar-wandering]

"yandere evil cycle Clara" this "yandere evil cycle Clara" that, yes i agree, its drawn very well and is very Aesthetic and im so excited to see where this is going but i have a Question-

why is Iruma blushing through most of this chapter-

either Clara's subtly put a charm spell on him (though wouldn't it affect Azz too in that case?) or, he's somehow kinda into this.

i know the first option is more likely but the idea of Iruma thinking the evil cycles are hot is so fucking funny. could you imagine.

[ai-the-broccoli]

enemies to lovers / but you'll never own my heart

@luzon-dove happy birthday, Quinn!! As a present, I decided to draw a piece fanart of your "blood in the walls of the yagami house" AU fic series, since I found it very well-written and full of super interesting ideas and concepts. I hope you like it!

[hplonesomeart]

Would

(go to one of his theatrical broadway-wannabe concerts or perhaps a late night gameshow comedy hour sketch performance. I’m not too picky I’d be willing to pay money just to see him perform anything period)

Yea I felt like doing something silly in order to break away from the dread of finals week coming up. What can I say? I’m a professional procrastinator. But man oh man it was a good call this time around—I mean just look as this scrumptious masterpiece right here. Time well spent for sure. Genuinely I believe to have cooked with it chat /j

This is a version without the added stars by the way. And the second one is obviously just raw image reference/the original “bereal concert meme” source. I was very tempted to put Puzzles in that same exact outfit—however I decided it would be overly time consuming to make two separate versions. Maybe once finals are over I’ll be able to do that :)

[ckret2]

I have an offering for Bill Cipher. The first is Zooland books, specifically the 1980 version of them. They have the most amazing illustrations and I loved them as a kid. The second is Madeline Le'angles Wrinkle in Time books which is my favorite sci-fi series. Hope he likes them☺️

idk whether he'd enjoy zoobooks (all i know about them comes from those old tv commercials) but he'd be successfully hypnotized by them. book has pictures, he looks at pictures.

ngl I couldn't get past the first wrinkle in time book. Nothing wrong with the sci-fi worldbuilding, just the overall good vs evil plot was too... whimsical for my tastes? It's been years since I read it, I don't remember precisely what I didn't enjoy. so I don't know enough to decide whether he'd like the whole series.

[skunkes]

Does Al ever struggle with his weight / has he ever?

do u mean like, Self Worth wise or actual physical fluctuation wise? if the latter I do like drawing him at firm strongman peak since he's a farmhand but sometimes he isn't actively maintaining muscle so he's saggier (<- most of recent art of him) ....

as for the former I've never wanted to stray in that direction for fat characters, and any issues he has wrt self image (slim as he know's he's endearing and handsome) are more about how his overall size (big and tall) might be perceived as dangerous or a threat due to some formative and isolating events in his childhood, and less about it being focused on weight specifically ykwim. because otherwise he has no issues there ^_^

[steeltwigz]

Saw a post abt the Sonic movies that was like "plz filter negativity posts better" which is GOOD AND TRUE you should be doing that. Ok. But then they kept going to imply that the criticisms of the Sonic movies are all entirely Personal and Ignorable and not like. Usually abt the horrific copaganda, misogynistic writing, and Paramount's disgusting zionism.... Guys a lot of ppls problem w the Knuckles show wasn't JUST a bastardization of Knuckles' character or thinking Wade was annoying or whatever, but like was focused on the grotesque Zionist message from that one episode 😭😭😭 you can enjoy something and still recognize that it has intrinsic and huge glaring flaws and talk abt them. I think actually you Should be speaking up abt the misogyny, zionism and propaganda the SCU supports and discusses, ESPECIALLY if you like the movies! Its important to be able to recognize these things in media and admit that even media you personally enjoy can be deeply problematic, instead of hiding it away and pretending those HUGE FLAWS aren't issues actually....

[every-sanji]

[mantisgodsdomain]

We ought to write more Pokemon fic some time. We want to recreate the Pokemon Manners/Human Manners cheat sheet that we made a few years ago we think that this site would like the Sliding Scale Of Politeness When Greeting A New Pokemon You've Never Met Before.

[smile-files]

i continue to find ii3 baffling. why did they make it (this isn't to hate on the season, i'm genuinely curious)