#the most major plot point of day 4 what?? welp

[walkingstackofbooks]

Treat- Gashiar "Protective Garak"

It took me quite a while to remember if I'd ever written something matching that description hehe XD (I really don't write that much Garashir, and what I do write is canon-typical-subtext with more than a dash of Garak's-a-dick-even-when-he's-trying lmao.)

But actually, yeah - a whole chapter of Vision Awry was Garak being protective over Julian - even if Julian was very much resenting it! - and that definitely was something I was very proud of. So, my apologies if you've already read it, but here's an extract from that!

<Link to ask game here!>

--

“I trust your experiment was successful?” 

Bashir scowled at him. “You really can’t let anything go, can you?” he said, frustration evident in his voice.

“I am certain you've made that observation before,” replied Garak, raising his eyebrows at the doctor. 

Bashir pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing deeply, before locking eyes with Garak. “Fine,” he said, “I’ll tell you. But I’m trusting you, Garak - you can’t tell Girani, or anyone else. Somehow, they don’t understand how important this is. But you’ll understand, won’t you?”

Garak could almost taste the doctor’s desperation. “I’m sure your explanation will be enlightening,” he said carefully; not a lie, but not a promise, either. 

Apparently it was enough for Bashir. He sat up straighter in his chair, still holding Garak’s gaze with a determined intensity - as though eye contact was a task that required great focus. 

“I think you know that this is the third time I’ve re-lived this day, and that in each of the three previous versions, Chief O’Brien died.” He paused for confirmation; Garak nodded. “Well, the first time it happened by accident - but on the second and third days I was able to synthesise a serum that allowed the time-travelling effect to take place once again. We still haven’t worked out exactly what’s happening, but to put it simply, it seems that absorbing delta series radioisotopes into my bloodstream allows me to experience a temporal shift while I sleep.”

“And that’s what you were formulating on my counter,” said Garak, mind racing to work out why Girani was supposedly so opposed to it. “Excuse my ignorance, Doctor, but that does sound rather dangerous - almost as if you’re giving yourself radiation poisoning.”

Bashir shrugged. “In effect, I am, yes,” he said, “but only very mildly, and it seems to disappear when the day resets. Trust me - I’ve given myself a very thorough medical workout, and there are no physical side-effects. It’s perfectly safe.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” Garak replied. “I assume any mental side-effects are equally well-accounted for?”

“Girani’s wrong about me being suicidal, if that’s what you’re asking,” Bashir said bluntly. 

Garak pretended to take a sip of his now-too-cold tea, watching the doctor carefully over the rim of the mug. Bashir continued to meet Garak’s eyes coolly, daring the tailor to argue back. 

“I bow to your expertise, Doctor.” 

Bashir’s eyes widened slightly before his lips settled into a smile, pleased at Garak’s response, just as Garak had known he would be. With his next question already on his tongue, Garak leant forward. 

“If I may ask, what precautions are you taking so that you don’t become so in the future?” 

Immediately, the doctor opened his mouth, but then closed it, sitting back and appearing to properly consider the question. This was satisfying; Garak had hoped that Bashir would find it difficult to just brush his words away. Although he did believe that Bashir genuinely did not think he was a danger to himself, he could not yet be certain that the doctor’s self-assessment was more accurate than Girani’s.

“I’m not going to just… give up,” said Bashir slowly, eyes flickering from side to side as he collected his thoughts. “That’s the crux of the matter, isn’t it? If I can’t save Miles, then I’m going to keep going until I do save him, no matter how I feel. And if he doesn’t die, then it’s all over anyway, and everything will be fine, again.”

“And how are you feeling, Doctor?”

“What?” Bashir looked confused, as though he actually couldn’t imagine why Garak would have asked him that.

“You said that you’re going to keep going, no matter how you feel. How are you feeling today, my dear?” 

It wasn’t sentiment asking the question, Garak assured himself. It was a natural continuation of the trap that Bashir was talking himself into, and the doctor would never answer if he didn’t believe that Garak cared. 

“You asked me something similar in the infirmary, too. Since when did we discuss our feelings?” the young man asked playfully, trying to cover up his vulnerability with a gentle laugh.

“My dear doctor, your feelings are always on display to me . Every discussion we have is positively awash with your emotions. You do not try to hide them.”

That was not entirely true - Julian simply wasn’t good at hiding how he felt. There had been many times over the years where the doctor had suddenly grown quieter, more reserved, some sort of shame stealing the passion or hurt from his voice; but it was not usually so difficult to discern what Bashir’s true feelings were. 

“Earlier, you said I was a puzzle,” Bashir said.

“Earlier, you were.”

“Then why are you asking, Garak?” the doctor replied with a soft, weary sigh. “If you’ve managed to figure me out, why not just tell me how I’m feeling?”

Sitting back, Garak clasped his hands together in front of him, considering if he should take up that invitation, and how far he could go before Bashir decided he’d had enough. 

“Well, if that’s what you’d like…” he said.

Bashir scoffed. “Everyone else seems to be, so I guess I might as well hear you, too.”

Garaks’ lips curled up into a wide smile. “You’re angry, doctor, and frustrated. You resent being put on this fifty-two-hour watch - and actually, I do believe you’re embarrassed by it, too. You’re scared it might interfere with your ability to save Chief O’Brien, and you’re distressed by the memories of watching him die. And you’re trying to ignore the possibility that it might be impossible to ever save him--”

“That’s not true!” Bashir interrupted. 

“Isn’t it, Doctor?” asked Garak blandly. “You’ve accepted that all this time travel might be…futile?”

“Of course I haven’t!” he exclaimed. “You wouldn’t either, if it was someone that you lo-- that you cared about. There’s got to be a way that Miles can survive today - and however long it takes me, I’m going to find it, you can count on that.”

“Hmm,” Garak said. “I am afraid to say that I remain unconvinced. I cannot claim to know how the universe works, but if Chief O’Brien is supposed to die today, then I suppose the day will end with Chief O’Brien dying. You cannot cheat fate, Doctor, no matter how hard you try.”

“I won’t accept that, Garak,” Bashir shot back. “You can’t know that you’re right.”

“And nor, my dear Doctor, can you,” said Garak, increasing the harshness of his voice. “How many days will it take you to stop chasing this pointless quest? Twenty? Fifty? One hundred?”

“I don’t know!” Bashir stood up sharply. “But you can jolly well bet that it won’t be today.”

“Your loyalty is commendable,” said Garak, also rising out of his chair. “But it should not be your priority. Your optimism cannot last forever, Doctor: what happens when it runs out? When will you push yourself beyond your limits, and will anyone be able to catch you when you do?”

Bashir crossed his arms. “You’d do anything for Cardassia,” he retorted, “whether or not it was good for you, loyalty to the state comes before anything else, doesn’t it? Well in the Federation, we’re loyal to our friends - they come first. I suppose I shouldn’t have expected you to understand that.”

Sometimes, Garak felt as though he was merely a spectator in his own body, hearing his voice speak words that he hadn’t yet thought of. His need to win this argument, prove himself right overcame everything else, and muscle memory took over, caution giving way to borderline cruelty.

 “They’re hardly the same, Doctor, but I would not expect you to understand that, either. You have clearly failed to grasp the most basic concept in Cardassian literature.”

“And what is that supposed to mean?”

“I speak of the repetitive epic, Doctor. There is nothing that ever really changes. Oh, small details might, you may be able to buy some extra minutes, even hours for our Chief of Operations. But in the end, you will fail, just as you’ve failed before, and you will be far better off if you accept that now. Chief O’Brien is doomed, and you will be too if you continue down this foolhardy path.”

“This isn’t a Cardassian novel, Garak, this is my life!” Bashir snarled, stepping angrily towards the tailor. “How could I live with myself if I didn’t try? If I give up on Miles, I might as well give up on myself!” 

Bashir was breathing heavily; for a few seconds, Garak watched the rough rise and fall of his chest as the doctor started to recompose himself. The momentary distraction was enough for Garak to swallow his retort, and before he could say something that he would really regret, he walked over to the replicator. 

“More tea?” he asked, causing a huff of breathless laughter from the other man. 

“Is that all you’ve got to say?” Bashir replied incredulously. “More tea? ”

“I think we’ve both made our positions clear,” Garak said. “And now, I am going to make some more tea. Would you like some?”

[karoiseka]

FFXIVWrite2021 Master List

Welp, I got another year fully done, all 31 entries.

Yes, I’m proud that I did, despite feeling like from the first week I was running a loosing battle in time and... talent.  I’m glad I got these out, glad I got things written, and new things figured out.  I do really like several of these, so I’m not all down on myself about it.  I was basically out of spoons as I finished the month, and probably should have just let it be, but I was being stubborn.  I do hope that those that read, enjoyed.  Thank you again to @sea-wolf-coast-to-coast for hosting such an amazing list once more!!  I do look forward to this!!  

Already posted to AO3 HERE! 

Soul Memories:

1) Foster:  Pre-Calamity, Karo meets Seirlait and Feophaux

2) Aberrant: 5.3 Spoilers for Kar’azem Story

3) Scale: Late base ARR, Karo has some insecurities.

4) Baleful: 5.55 Technically with a small reference, Karo and Tataru silliness

5) Free Day 1: 5.0 Spoilers, Rak’tika-ish timeframe.

6) Avatar:  5.3 Spoilers for Kar’azem, MSQ is second major solo duty in SB

7) Speculate: 2.5-ish Spoilers.  A now-deleted MSQ mini-questline! Karo/Tataru

8) Adroit: 5.3 Spoilers.  Karo/G’raha shippy lemony goodness

9) Friable: 5.0-5.1 Spoilers.  Karo/G’raha shippy softness

10) Heady: Late HW Spoilers, Karo/Thancred firsts and softness

11) Preaching to the Choir:  5.0 generic spoilers.  Karo and Ardbert

12) Free Day 2: 5.0 generic spoilers, Karo and Ardbert

13) Oneirophrenia: Karo at the Calamity

14) Commend: 5.3 Spoilers for Kar’a, Hythlodaeus and Hades

15) Thunderous: 5.0 Spoiler (generic) for Thancred x Karo Song lyrics!

16) Crane: 2.1-ish, Karo with Urianger, teasing about backstory

17) Destruct: No real time frame, poor Karo in the kitchen.

18) Devil’s Advocate: 5.0 Spoilers, Karo and Ardbert in Amaurot

19) Free Day 3: 4.0 Spoilers, Karo and Hien bonding (special guest Lyse)

20) Petrichor: 5.3 Spoilers for more than just Kar’a and Convocation talk

21) Feckless: Pre-Cal Karo family!

22) Fluster: Late HW, Tataru teasing Karo after #10 Heady!

23) Soul:  5.3 Spoilers, Karo and her crystal(s)

24) Illustrious:  5.3 Spoilers for Kar’a, Final Days

25) Silver Lining:  5.3 Technically mild spoilers, Karo unwraps and old gift

26) Free Day 4:  5.1 Spoilers, Karo reflecting on Gaius

27) Benthos:  4.0, Karo freaking out Hien and Lyse to the rescue

28) Bow: 4.0 Spoilers, Seirlait still finds a way to take care of his girl

29) Debonair: 3.2-3ish Spoilers, Karo gets surprised

30) Abstracted: 5.55 Spoilers, Karo and the Scions at home

31) Free Day 5: Late ARR, attempted poetry once more

Stats and some more commentary under the cut!

I actually somehow wrote almost 600 more words this year than last, though I swore I only wrote half as much.  I think my favorites were Heady, Oneirophrenia, Avatar, Illustrious, and Silver Lining all for different reasons.  I had quite the little sappy set up there in the beginning of the second week, and kinda went a bit more angsty for the rest.  I did... notice this and attempted some happier stuff near the end.  I wrote most of this at work, or super late at night, and probably pushed myself a bit more than I should have.

The shortest was the last one, the poetry of course at only 57 Words.

Longest was Heady at 1630

I really liked talking about Karo’s dads, and I do have... reunion setting and ideas in my head, but I kinda need Endwalker to come out so I have the proper lore setting without messing anything up (or time) because I do like to stick mainly to the big plot points/timeframes even if I take some liberties.

I also wanna give a little mini-shout out to the Writer’s Lounge of @onyrica​’s Discord, and three of the best cheerleaders I could have asked for: @autumnslance​ , @elveny​, and @sami-at-ciela​ .  I think some of the comments you left me there are honestly what kept me going this month, and I truly appreciate it with all my heart.   THANK YOU.

[ennui-gt]

Here it is. A Piece Of Borrower Content Written Entirely In Stream Of Consciousness:

AN: so this is incomplete and very…needs revisions to the timeline to incorporate some things I added later! It’s the original universe that Mira’s from! I edited it like Slightly to just change Ross’s name to Ross (if u see Max anywhere that’s his old one I just felt like changing it so that’s just him but different. Anyway) Everything's under the readmore tab, cheers!

The Library Fairy:

-

Basic Plot (Chrono, comic starts from human perspective abt the ‘legend of the library fairy’ ig maybe. Nothing here is permanent cept the characterization)

Part A

1- Mira is borrower currently chillin in a college library

2- She lives off of the cafe on the second floor nd reads lots and lots of stuff about everything when the upper floors close (lower floor open 24/7 but upper floors r vacant p much after 12:00 AM)

3- she starts getting increasingly curious about human stuff cos she’s literate nd books r pry neat

4- it starts one night when she spots an unattended notebook and a half eaten blueberry muffin, nd it’s 12:30 so nobody’s coming back in atm (it’s the 80s so no laptops for the plebians quite yet)

5- so she goes ‘welp’ nd takes part of the muffin, then sees the work on the page and goes ‘hmmmm this is incorrect’ so she helps our and leaves notes here n there to point the kid in the right direction and puts down some book refs for further study bcos at this point she’s been there for 2 years and she knows where most things are

6- she stays behind to see if the human comes back for it, hidden in a hidey hole near the desk

7- human comes in, sees notebook, practically melts w relief nd stuffs it in his bag

8- next day human comes back nd leaves nother notebook and a cookie, along w a hidden camera

9- Mira goes ‘o boy, this a trap, innit’

10- Mira then decides ‘eh whatever I haven’t had contact w anyone in years now so I might as well’

11- she steals the camera film nd leaves a lil scrap of paper saying ‘nice try ;)’ on it

12- student comes back, sees paper, goes ‘dammit’, then leaves note addressed to the ‘library fairy’ and another cookie, as well as more of their work for her to help with

13- bout a decade goes by and now the “Library Fairy” is an urban myth, it’s currently 2003 so she’s also wound up on the school’s unofficial Wikipedia page under ‘local cryptids’

14- most library employees know of her but they don’t go looking out of fear stemming from superstitions bout her, somehow the legend grew from ‘can’t be photographed’ to ‘a student once saw her and died that day’

15- there’s now a small shrine devoted to her where ppl bring offerings hoping to get good grades in return, sometimes they will leave papers for her to proofread nd stuff

16- new prof (named Alexei) finds online article thinks he Knows What’s Up bcos he had a borrower friend as a kid, but they left when borrower’s fam found out about them knowing each other

17- he leaves note wedged in one of her secret entrances behind outlet, asking if she can meet w him at some point

18- Mira, already In it, goes ‘Okay. Alright. This has gone on for long enough. Time to go and never return’ but ofc she’s curious as all hell and like she decides she will at least honor the guy’s request for a convo b4 she goes, but on her terms and w/o speaking face 2 face

19- they Talk in the library after hours, bcos he paid off the janitor to let him stay after hours nd most of the student employees recognize him as a prof nd leave him alone

20- they talk again for every subsequent night

21- she uhhhh finally decides to reveal herself nd prays that her hunch was right nd he won’t try to grab her or anything

22- he doesn’t but she’s nervous so she winds up gettin caught in her own climbing rope like idiot, is now dangling from ceiling in tangled mess

23- he stifles chuckle nd she says smthn sarcastic

24- he moves closer and offers to untangle her

25- she’s like ‘please’

26- so he do, but her grip on the rope slips nd he has to catch her

26- so now she’s in his hand and he just sets her down and now he’s a bumbling embarrassed mess bcos he said he wasn’t going to hold her and he just did and o dear pls forgib him

28- nd she’s like ‘dude u just saved my life it’s fine ur fine chill’

29- internally she’s going HOLY FUCK AAAAAAA but externally, her human’s already worked up enough as it is so she’s gotta b the level headed one

29.5- after a while they both kinda get used to each other more, he gets tenure, they celebrate, some more stuff happens, Aleksei got married (not to Mira, Mira hasn’t actually rly thought about being in a relationship w anyone cos she’s laser focused on gaining as much knowledge as possible)

30- eventually Alexei’s like ‘hey so I’m dean of faculty for the biotech branch now uhhhh would u like actual job teaching students? Cos, uh, you can do it remotely thru online lectures n stuff, no in person interaction, and I uh was just kinda wondering—‘

31- she’s like ‘yes. Yes!!! LET ME HELP PEOPLE OFFICIALLY KINDA’

32- so now she’s a professor, and has revealed her Secret a few times here n there to a number of the faculty, nd she has recorded her own findings in a personal journal

33- ‘humans will treat u like a human if they think ur human first. The kids call it ‘catfishing’’

34- enter Ross, an mall goth who accidentally tripped headfirst into a premed program

35- Mira’s favorite field of study is bio so naturally she’s his prof for a majority of his classes

36- being the good boy that he is, he now knows Mira’s secret. There is an Entire Chapter on him finding out and legit just continuing their conversation as if everything was normal bcos he thought that was how he was supposed to handle the situation

37- then she says ‘u can ask questions, u know’ he’s like OH THANK FUCK CAUSE I HAVE SEVEN HUNDRED OF THOSE

38- and now he kinda knows what to look for in terms of ‘do borrowers live here check yes or no’

39-in his apartment, the answer is yes and he mistakenly kinda stumbles upon the mom one night when he wakes up in the middle of the night for Snack and opts to pretend like its not happening. Unfortunately the thing she was trying 2 borrow (piece of crumb cake for Son Boy’s birthday) is the thing he wants 2 eat so he’s like “uh. ‘Scuse me, ma’am.” and he peels back the saran wrap on the other side of the plate, takes piece, nd then leaves some there for her

40-so now the woman is like ‘welp guess it time 2 Leave’

.1- she and husband Talk

.2-they decide it best 2 go

.3-theyre Packing

.4-lil bab Ellie confused

.5-hawk attacke

.6-cut to Ross

41- Ross also happens to work at a bar and he goes outside for a break

43- he finds smal child—smol smal—on the sidewalk and said child is missing an arm, nd has lost a lot of blood, so he’s uhhhhh Losing It highkey

43.5-parents r nowhere 2 b seen, but the hawk is nearby and circling. Ross gets an idea of what just happened

44- he up and leaves work, thankfully his apartment is above the shop so he jumps up the fire escape w the child and

45- he make tourniquet

46- he calls Mira nd asks her 2 come over to ASAP. he’s A Mess at this point

47- it is Very touch and go, kid needs blood, Mira is the only viable donor so she’s just gotta pray that the blood type is fine and won’t kill him

48- and then eventually they manage 2 stave infection thru antibiotics properly dosed to his size, Mira does Math and Prays basically

49- ‘bout a month in, kid wakes up

50- kid doesn’t rember much since he’s only 3

51- hes v scared of Ross at first but over time he gets used 2 the human

52- kid (elliot) starts 2 call Ross ‘dad’ after a while

53- Ross: *internal screaming but in a good way*

54- the end kinda for now

Part 2

A- New Borrowers In The Building

—three of em. paranoid dad, mom, nd daughter that’s Elliot’s age so he’s pumped

B- Elliot offers them a place 2 stay briefly

C- he knows by now bout like, how borrowers don’t typically interact w humans and Auntie Mira’s a bit of a weird case so he just doesn’t tell em bout his dad being the human

D- the kid finds out first nd doesn’t tell the parents, but they figure it out later kinda and think that it’s a ‘o god he’s being kept as a pet’ sitch so they’re >:| abt it

E- they move out and try to take Elliot w them (by force bcos they think he’s brainwashed) but he escapes and makes it to Ross, who’s like “uhhhhhh”

F- and the mom come out the hole near the counter n starts yelling at Ross, who is…kinda used to it since Mira brings in ppl who need help from time 2 time and they typically don’t react well when they’re lucid enough to understand what’s going on. He’s just not used to being questioned about his own kid

G- so they’re like “WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING WITH HIM”

H- and he’s like “r…raising him???”

I- and Ellie steps up and he’s like “this is my dad. I decided he was my dad when I was three. He’s being a good parent”

J- and Ross is like “yeah what he said. I’m a good parent.”

K- Ross is riding that high til the end of fucking time but like back to the story at hand

L- this is when the husband comes out nd is like “lissen. wifey. ily but that is a very big human and he hasn’t grabbed us yet so let’s count our blessings and gtfo”

M- but she’s like “uh no we stay until I’m sure Elliot is Safe and fucking Sound”

N- so they stay for dinner nd stick around a little longer.

O- Val (the kid) gets closer 2 Elliot and also Ross a bit

P- Mira shows once or twice, first time she shows up they’re like “oh god it’s the crazy doctor lady this all makes sense now” (bcos Mira does check up on as many borrower families as possible in her free time so word has got around by now Of her, and the number by which to contact her in case her services r needed)

Q- After a month or so, then they decide to leave bcos they’re like “look we get that ur son is ur son and he only has one arm and in our profession that is kind of a death sentence but we can’t have our kid getting used to dealing w humans who know about our existence” so they go and leave on a kind of sour note bcos Ellie can do anything he wants to do just as well as any other borrower Thank You Very Much and Ross is ready to fite anyone who thinks otherwise

R- Elliot starts trying 2 b more independent, basically from now on he’s like ‘I can do everything my Damn Self Thanks’

S- but uh he does it to a point where he’s going out of the way to endanger himself

T- so they get into a fite about it and ross Yells and Elliot is like ‘kthxbye’

U- and the boi just. Fuckin bolts. Runs Away. Ross is a Mess, he starts smoking again (he quit cold turkey the day he took Elliot in) to curb the depression, he’s jus. Not doin good, worried that his son is dead and the last time they talked it’d ended badly

V- FREEDOM!!!1! Except Ellie doesn’t kno how to take care of himself so it’s a rough month or so and then he runs into some other borrowers livin in their own town in the wild ig, chillin, being hella independent, and he’s like “uh yes ofc I will join u, I was w my dad for a while but.........” he neither confirms nor denies that his dad’s dead but everyone kinda just assumes.

Part 3

W-anyway a year goes by and then the borrower group gets hit hard w some kind of sickness ig. Elliot gets it too he’s basically incapacitated n drifting in and out of lucidity. So. They contact the weird crazy doctor lady who hangs around humans, a.k.a. Mira, and she’s like “oh. fuck. I know this kid.” bcos she does, u kno, and she jus treats em all for their ailment and shows them how to make antibiotic poultice thing in case smthn like it happens again. Mold. Penicillin is basically what it is

X-she and Elliot hav a Chat (Mira basically yells at him a lot) once he’s fixed up and he decides he’s gonna visit his dad but he makes it very clear that he is a Grown Up (he’s not, he’s literally sixteen), and he is living on his own now

Y- he agrees to stay for a week tho since he misses his home a lot tbh and Ross is just. Over the fucking moon to know he’s ALIVE, he’s not gonna fuck up their relationship by insisting that he stay. Or like, by keeping him ofc he would never

Z- unfortunately the borrower community put two and two together and figured out his dad’s human so they have his stuff packed up when he gets back w mira, who’s ready to go the fuck off on them

End 1:

-Ellie is living at Ross’s place atm and hopeful about the future basically. He eventually will go off on his own but he’ll keep in contact w his dad and stuff

Part C.5

55- few yrs later

56- elliot is Adult now he does adult borrower stuff

57- he moves out

58- finds nice borrower gf (her name’s Tess)

59- doesn’t tell her about his dad being human but talks about his dad a LOT

60- so when she asks to meet said father he’s just like “uh. Maybe we don’t do that actually”

61- and she’s like “y tho”

62- and he’s like “bcos”

63- anyway she decides to look into it cos she knows he goes to see his dad nd keep in touch but his dad is allegedly “a recluse who lives in the big scary human’s walls to avoid other ppl”

64- which is. Not true in the slightest tbqh he’s def not an introvert he’s just a workaholic and he Is the big scary human

65- anywho they run into Val and her wife and she’s like “how’s Ross been?” And Elliot is acting Very Suspish so she, being Smart, calls it immediately and is like “oh shit u haven’t told her yet have u”

66- Tess: “told me what”

67- Val: “El’s dad is a human, bro.”

68- Tess: “I’m sorry?”

69- this results in a Big Fight and they separate for like, a month. Elliot blames Val bcos he’s being irrational and doesn’t wanna admit to the fact that lying to his girlfriend for over a year was Real Bad Actually, but over time he’s like ‘yeah it’s my fault sry for snapping at u’ cos he works thru his emotions n stuff

70- Eventually gf comes back cos she’s like “ok so. I understand why you lied to me about your dad. It was a dick move but I do get it and I still care about you a lot. I would like. To meet him.”

80- this is a lie she does not want to meet him she is doing this bcos she does not want to lose Elliot and that outweighs the fear of his dad

81- so they go to meet him but she’s just kinda. Behind the wall at first like “that’s a crazy big human this is crazy ur crazy it’s time to gO”

82- Val is also there bcos she hasn’t seen Ross in a while

83- they eventually coax her out of hiding

84- and by that I mean Val picks her up and drags her out into the open by force bcos she basically freezes up the second she catches sight of Ross and Val’s like “u didn’t come all this way for nothing, bich”

85- they have a Painfully Awkward First Meeting, Tess is trying her best but oh god he’s just too fucking. Larg. Ellie ur dad too big

86- tbh tho the ice kinda breaks after Ellie and Ross get into a fight over smthn stupid (im thinking Elliot grumbles bout Ross’s hair being unruly and he’s worried that mira’s using it like a personal storage system again and Ross is like “I’ve been keeping better track of that actually” and then like a little line of paper clips and a few hand-bound notebooks tied together w some string fall out of his fucking mane and he’s like “I can explain”

87- “dad you can’t keep letting her use your hair like a fucking NEST”

88- Tess is laughing now cos god damn this was not what she was expecting

89- that’s it the end it ends w Tess laughing at them being idiots good times r had by all

Uhhhh that’s it so far. I have More but it’s kinda jumbled rn and I need to fit stuff in places. Anyway.

[calliecat93]

ST: TNG S6 Watchthrough Episodes 14-17

Face of the Enemy: Troi has been kidnapped and forced to look/pose as a Romulan officer. Why? The one responsible isn’t saying, but to say that she’s unhappy would be an understatement. As it turns out, Troi was abducted by a part of the resistance from Unification and they need a Starfleet officer in case their current plan goes south. They even mention Spock… IDK if I can see him approving of an abduction but maybe they just forgot to mention that he disapproved that part… then again I guess it makes logical sense. Eh, whatever. So… this is by far the best Troi episode that they’ve done thus far. She was kidnapped yes, but she is NOT playing the damsel-in-distress. She’s not victimized. She’s not sexualized. She’s not forced into a poorly conceived romance or undergoes anything gross/f*cked up. She has to act the part of a cold-hearted authoritarian among a ship of Romulans and she is freakin’ badass. Especially when she decides that she’s had enough going and thoroughly tells off her kidnapper N’Vek and that he will listen to her. 100% perfection. They even managed to make her empathic abilities useful. Did putting her in the uniform cause this? Did they get it out of their systems in Man of the People? IDK but I am all for it! It was also an awesome look into the Romulans and the going-ons on their ship, something we haven’t really gotten since TOS’ Balance of Terror, and all the Romulans are done very well. N’Vek kidnapped Troi but he did it for his cause and is a great morally grey character, and the female Romulan Commander Toreth is an excellent antagonist. Plus it’s nice to see more of the resistance and to see them within the Romulan ranks. It was an excellent episode and I freakin’ loved it~! Thank you show for giving Troi the badass episode that she deserves (even if it was this late in the show's run), now keep it up! 5/5.

Tapestry: Two Q episodes this season? Hell yes~! So… Picard dies. Welp. Q decides to take this to give Picard an offer: go back in time and undo his greatest regret, the incident that caused his artificial heart that he told Wesley about in Samaritan Snare. Back when he was a hot-blooded rebel who got himself into a fight that got him stabbed in the heart. In doing so, he now has a chance to correct all the wrongs and settle all he regrets in his life since that day. So up to this point, Q’s episodes since Q Who, while still entertaining and interesting, had been more light-hearted. Q still came off as an all-powerful being (Deja Q aside which him not being was the plot point), but his antics had been more comedic or light-hearted in comparison. In this episode, he’s acting like a trickster as per usual, but again more with the purpose to teach Picard a lesson. Why isn’t made very clear aside from maybe he just likes Picard (take that however way you’d like), but it’s nice to see this version of Q again while still utterly stealing the show. Picard got to undo the event… but would it have really turned out any better had it not happened? Would not making mistakes, having regrets, and making all the supposed ‘right’ choices when he should have had truly made a better impact in his present? That’s the funny thing about life, it’s easy to look back and go ‘if I had done this one thing differently, it would have been better’ and te desire to correct it is very powerful. But with mistakes comes the ability to learn. To grow. To mature. You’ll always have guilt and regrets, but you have to accept that this is what you chose and go about your life. Picard is a man full of thrown-away opportunities, pain, and so much more… but it also caused him to become a strong leader, intelligent, a risk-taker, and even with all his faults become a better person in his present day. Now obviously he doesn’t actually die, but he sure as Hell learned the lesson. The life he would have lead would have been unsatisfying, his old regrets replaced with new ones, and been unfulfilling for a man like himself. Now he can truly value the one that he has and the people in it. This was a fantastic episode. It’s crazy how Picard went from one of my least favorites to now one of my absolute favorites. His development and growth from a strict, aloof authoritarian to a much more reasonable father-like figure and much more humbled man and the captain has been excellent, and this episode just helps further that. The only real complaint is there’s not much time devoted to showing how his crew ended up without him, but that’s minor and doesn’t take anything away at all. Very well done~! 5/5.

Birthright: Okay, guess we got a second two-parter… and apparently it crosses over with DS9. Didn’t see that coming. But alrighty, I’m game~!

Part One: So the crew is on Deep Space 9 to assist in repairs of some incident involving the Bajorans and the Cardassians that I guess I’ll find out about when I get to the show. While there Worf is approached by an alien who informs him that his dead father? He may not be dead after all, having been kept in a Romulan prison. Worf doesn’t take it well. He ain’t the only one having daddy issues. While working with DS9‘s CMO Dr. Bashir, Data gets knocked out has a vision of Dr. Soong (a much younger one than in Brothers). Normally Data can’t dream so he’s pretty taken aback by this. So as a first part, this was pretty good. It sets up Worf’s plot well with him deciding to break into the Romulan camp to find out the truth and rescue the Klingons there. Data’s plot is overall nice. He’s never dreamed before so him trying to track down why is very understandable, especiallya after Picard suggests that he quit going through facts and try a more creative outlet to get his answers. So what happened? As it turns out Dr. Soong made it so that when Data reached a certain cognitive point, he would obtaint he ability to dream and he made an AI version of himself to talk to him. I guess he would have explained this to him in Brothers had Lore not shown up/had he not died. It was a really touching moment. Soong’s still not exactly the most ideal parent, but his AI copy seemed legit proud of how far Data’s come. Is it out of ego, legit parental pride, or both? That’s up for you to decide. As this is my first look at Bashir… so far I don’t have too manys torng opinions. he seems to act more liek a Science Officer or Engineer han a CMO, but he is cute and so far liekabe. He’s curious about Data, but doesn’t dehumanize him like Maddox in The Measure of a Man did, if anything he notes Data’s more human-like elements like being able to grow hair than any of the nuts and bolts. He seems pretty well liked from what I’ve seen int he fandom, so I’ll see how that holds when I reach DS9 but I like him so far. I do have some issues, but that more impacts the Overall so I’ll save it for there. So we end with Worf discovering his father’s true fate… and he’s informed by the Klingons there that he’s never leaving the camp. Welp. How will Worf get out of this one in Part 2? We shall see. 4/5.

Part Two: So what the heck is going on? Well, Worf’s father is infact dead, but there were captured Klingons. As they weren’t able to die with honor nor could they return home as it would dishonor their families (Klingons prefer death to capture), they chose to remain in the camp and live out the rest of their lives there. So now Worf is among multiple Klingons, the vast majority of which know nothing about their heritage, culture, and customs and had it outright demonized. To them, the lives they have are the norm and they have no desire to change it. Worf may have been out of touch with Klingons due to being raised on Earth, but at least he can explore it and get in touch with it. The ones in the camp? They can’t do that. They’re essentially in a gilded cage. Yeah, there's the argument that they achieved peace between Klingons and Romulans… by imprisoning said Klingons and demonizing their culture to them with the older Klingons allowing it. Though it seems it’s also because of broken spirits and the dishonor they’d have faced otherwise which is worst than death to them. There’s even one girl, Ba’el, who is half Klingon, half-Romulan… and despite what gets said I don’t get the sense that her parents' union was a fully consensual one. This was pretty good. Worf has found a group that like him were out of touch with their heritage, and he is now able to educate them and guide them. With all that’s happened and his struggle to be a true Klingon and find his way, this was really nice to have. He’s still clinging onto his hatred of Romulans and this episode isn’t going to help it dissipate, but at least it was addressed and Ba’el being upset at being judged due to how she was born was very much justified. Heaven knows that the themes here are still very much relevant in today’s time. Worf’s guidance pays off in the end and at last, they can be free. The younger Klingons have a rough road likely ahead of them since we know that Klingon society isn’t exactly the easiest to get through, but at least they have a chance at freedom. It was a very strong Worf episode and it was great to see~. 4/5.

Overall: Okay, so overall… it’s pretty uneasy. The Worf parts are good.. As I said, it was nice to see him in a position to give guidance to a group even more out of touch than he is. It was very wel done. The issues are mainly with Part One. We have this plot where they go to DS9… and we are barely there. We have Dr. Bashir… and only him. None of the other characters. We don't even see O’Brien despite him having transferred to DS9 at this point. Maybe the actors were busy sot they could only pick one but it kinda makes doing a crossover cheap. Bashir doesn’t even get a lot to do, you could write him out and very little would change. On the upside this means that viewers who haven’t watched DS9 won’t be confused nor would DS9 be required viewing, but it also kind of defeats the purpose of bringing DS9 in. It’s essentially just window dressing. Data’s plot, while nice, is completely dropped in Part Two. It feels like they were required to do a two-parter, didn’t have enough of the Worf plot to fill it out, and came up with the Data dream plot and using DS9 to fill it out. The crew also don’t really do anything in either part. As such, aside from getting Worf into the place he needs to be, Part One feels irrelevant. As such, I can’t give it a perfect rating. It was still good, but as a two-parter Part One bogs it down, but still allows for Part Two to happen. Overall, pretty good. 4/5.

[clevercatchphrase]

2020 Year Review~

2020. Pretty unique year, don’t you think? It’s the first year since 2002 to have only two different digits in it. After 2022, this won’t happen again until 2111. Yep. Absolutely nothing more interesting than that.

Anyway! It’s time I reflect on my 2020, look back on my yearly goals and rant about things that happened to me this year. I made a post like this last year, where I went over my 2019 goals and talked about what I accomplished and what I didn’t, and it’s only fitting I do the same again this year. Read more under the cut for a random stream of consciousness ramble!

So, first things first, let’s look at my 2019 goals;

Finish paying off that last student loan

Put more stuff on my redbubble

Illustrate my own fan fics

Sew at least one stuffed animal

Make an enamel pin

Read one new book a month

Write one page a day/Complete at least one new fan fic

Learn Python or C# for the game I want to make

Finish fully scripting Ghost Switch

Boost my patreon

 Paying Off My Last Student Loan: Going down the list, I am proud to say that I FINALLY paid off all my student loans! (and not a moment too soon. The last payment I made was literally days before the first quarantine rolled out). It took me roughly 4 years on my part-time paycheck to pay off all my loans, and once I finished, I had no money to my name (literally; I had less than 1k as emergency money in case of car troubles or health issues). Heck, I’m STILL living at home as a save up for a place of my own. Finally paying off all my student loans DID activate my secret 2020 new year’s resolution, which was to adopt a cat! I did this too, literally a week later! She is the best thing that’s happened to me this entire year and I love her so much and she is the snuggliest cuddle bug I’ve ever met. I’m so happy she’s in my life now~

Put More Stuff On My Redbubble: ah ha ha ha… I thought I did this, but then I went and checked, and it turns out-! I did not. I made art I intended to go on my redbubble, but haven’t put there yet. They are all drawings of some OCs from a game I want to make, but because I haven’t progressed on making the game this year, I never got around to putting more stuff related to it on my redbubble. At the time of writing, there are 7 days left in December, so I guess I could go and put it up on my redbubble right now, but without context on where the characters are from, there wouldn’t be much point, now would there?

 Illustrate My Own Fan Fics: Another goal that I was so stoked to actually do… and then just didn’t. Gee, I wonder why I couldn’t find the energy or motivation to do it this year? Truly a conundrum. (Hey, you know what? If Ghost Switch counts as a fan fiction in a visual form, then I am doing GREAT on this goal. 2.5 years in, 1 of ~4 arcs done, and still going steady~)

 Sew At Least One Stuffed Animal: Okay, I have a valid excuse for not doing this one. I even knew which stuffed animal I wanted to make, and had the pattern drawn out and everything, but I had no money for materials because I had just paid off my student loans. And then, by the time I did have enough money again, quarantine was in full effect and I couldn’t go out to the fabric store. I’m still trying my best to stay out of public places even if the rules are laxer now, because I don’t want to catch the plague even if everyone in my goddamn city thinks and acts like the problem is over already. Even if they’re all wearing masks, even if they’re staying 6 feet apart, I still don’t want to risk it. I will stay inside until health experts give the all clear, and when that day comes, then I will buy some fleece and make a plush.

 Make An Enamel Pin: I ACTUALLY DID THIS ONE. TWICE! Halfway through quarantine, I was feeling anxious and depressed about my job and how they were planning to have me work with the public despite climbing infection rates and positive covid cases. I didn’t quit then, but in a desperate move to try and become self-sufficient, I went to madebycooper and made two enamel pins based on some butterfly dragons I drew last year. They’re on my etsy store now! I even went out of my way to open a P.O. box just to start a small business! I haven’t sold a single pin yet, and I’m actually really nervous to sell my first because I don’t trust the efficiency of the postal system thanks to the actions of the GOP that really screwed them over this year! (If you would like to see my enamel pins, click here!)

 Read One Book A Month: I did this! With dragon books I bought a couple years back! In fact, I read FOURTEEN dragon books, and still have more books for next year to read! The 14 books I read this year were:

 The Hive Queen

The Poison Jungle

Wings Of Fire Legends: Dragonslayer

Dealing With Dragons

Searching For Dragons

Calling on Dragons

Talking to Dragons

The Bronze Dragon Codex

The Brass Dragon Codex

The Black Dragon Codex

The Red Dragon Codex

The Silver Dragon Codex

Dragon Strike, and

Hatching Magic

 To be honest, I had read The Red Dragon Codex years ago when it first came out, but completely forgotten what it was about. I remembered liking it, and I knew the reading level was on the lower side, but the whole dragon codex series was pretty good! So far, the Silver dragon codex was my favorite, and black dragon codex was probably the worst! Hatching Magic was also really slow and bad and had plot points that went nowhere, but the book was written in the 80s, so I don’t know what I expected. The Dealing with Dragons series was very charming and great for the most part, save for one line in the last book that really rubbed me the wrong way, and all the Wings of Fire Books go above and beyond in this third arc. The second legends book could be a little tighter, though (sky and wren are the best duo and I want a book solely about them, but I honest to god do not care about leaf and ivy’s stories.)

 Write one Page of any story every day/ complete at least one fic: I… did this? Okay, I kinda cheated near the end of the year. I was keeping up the one page a day thing for the first four months, but then the world went to shit and my schedule and habits got disrupted and I fell off my good track record. I completed 7 out of roughly 12 one-shots I had planned for this year (my goal WAS supposed to be one short a month, but… you know how it happens) I kept trying to catch up on this goal all year, but the days kept piling up…. Until November hit. I managed to write over 250 pages for Nanowrimo, and I consider this goal a win. 365 pages of fiction in total, which averages out to about one a day~. SHUT UP IT COUNTS.

 Learn Python or C# for the game I want to make: Another goal I didn’t have the mental energy to commit to this year. Truly a mystery to where all our willpower went in 2020.

 Fully Finish Scripting Ghost Switch: still haven’t done this one yet! The Snowdin arc is completely planned, but I just haven’t gotten around to getting the other areas. I’m not worried, though. I know all the major plot points I gotta hit, it’s just weaving them together in a way that flows nice is the final task. I’m not too worried though. I don’t expect to finish the Snowdin arc for another year and a half, at the bare minimum.

 And my last goal of 2020, Boost My Patreon. I did this at the beginning of the year, but then very intentionally stopped about a third of the way through. It didn’t sit right with me to tell you guys to donate to me when suddenly EVERYONE was financially strained from layoffs or being furloughed. I told my patrons the same, and if you ever need to stop donating to me to take care of yourself first, then by all means, please do. I would feel much better knowing you’re using your money to see yourself fed and housed instead of given to me (where it is pretty much only used to buy gas for my car, honestly)

 Welp! That was all my goals for 2020! I achieved 4 out of 10 goals plus 1 secret goal! Pretty much the same ratio as last year, but now this time I can blame all my failures on the pandemic! I don’t feel so bad about myself anymore~

 ON TO 2021!

 I have 11 goals for the new year, again some rolled over from this list, and some from even older years. They are, in no particular order;

 Read 12 new books (roughly 1 book a month)

Finish the first draft of 2019’s Nanowrimo project and rewrite it

Script TDV

Finish Scripting Ghost Switch

Build A Comic Buffer

Sew 1 Stuffed Animal

Finish 1 Song Comic

Make another Enamel Pin

Finish 2 short original comics (this one counts as 2 goals)

Finish the 5 remaining one-shot fics

 Now to go into depth on each one, more for my own sake, really. I want to know exactly what I have planned for each goal this year, and sometimes just looking at a short list doesn’t capture all the smaller details.

 1)Read 12 new books. Same as last year! I The only difference is I might not be able to make it all dragon-related books. (I try my hardest not to buy from amazon anymore, but half-price-books doesn’t always have the obscure stuff I’m looking for)

 2)Finish 2019’s nanowrimo project. If you read my 2019 year reflection, you’ll notice I said I wanted to do some original writing. And I did! The story I wrote for nanowrimo back then was a story I’ve been toying with since 2017, but it was only last year I finally got pen to paper. Now, you may find it odd that the keyword says “finish”. You may think, “but isn’t that what you’re supposed to do for nanowrimo?” and to that I say, WRONG! I wrote 50k words for nanowrimo, but the draft was only about halfway complete. I was kinda discouraged about what I had written last year, because I didn’t like how it was coming out, but I did manage to get it half done. Now it’s time for me to bite the bullet and just finish the thing so I can finally revise it and make it into something I DO like. (It’s still gonna be hella long, tho. That’s what I get for trying to write an epic fantasy, I guess.)

 3)Script TDV. TDV is the abbreviation of the game I want to make. I… still need to do so much for this project OTL… In addition to getting the story solidified, I still need to draw art and game assets, and learn how to code for it, both of which are no small task. I keep having some sort of new year’s goal related to this on my list, and every year I just don’t hit this one. Will 2021 be different?

 4)Finish Scripting Ghost Switch. (Or at the very least, get the waterfall arc completely written out). I have a plan to break this down into simpler steps, by focusing on just one arc for a month or two. Every major arc has 2 to 3 parts, broken up by flashbacks, and if I can just finish one section a month, then I should have the entire thing scripted by the end of the year. It’s not a difficult pace, but seeing if I stick with it will be the real challenge, as it is will all my goals it seems.

 5)Build a Comic Buffer: I’m actually working on this one right now! Since I paid off my last loan and got a new job this year, my current Patreon goals are kind of out of date. They had all been centered around me paying off that last loan, and working towards full-time employment, but those are both completed now! So instead, I would love to get to a place where my patrons could read pages at least a week ahead, and to do that, I need to build a buffer. And since I’m working 5 full days a week now, I can’t afford to fall behind. But you can’t fall behind if you constantly stay ahead! I would like to have… a 10 to 12 page buffer. That’s roughly 3 months’ worth of pages to always have on hand in case I get swamped with work, or something. Right now I currently have a buffer of 3, which will cover me for half a January, which is better than not having anything at all, but still not the best. (ultimately, I would love to have a buffer so big, I could queue them up for the whole year. Wouldn’t that be something?)

 6) Sew one stuffed animal: same as last year. ASSUMING the plague gets under control in 2021, I don’t expect to get to this goal until the summer at the earliest.

 7)Finish 1 song comic: I have 7 song comics planned. One is a gift, one possibly for wandersong, one is a collab that’s currently in the works, but I’m waiting on a friend to do their part before I can continue mine, 2 are UT related, and 2 (well, technically 3, but one is the collab) are KH related. It’s one of the UT ones that will probably get finished, if I’m being honest. It’s completely story boarded, and now I just need to ink and color it. I would like to get it done for UT’s 6th birthday, since I made a song comic on the fly for the anniversary this year, and it was fun, and I’d like to do it again! So, look forward to that next september~

 8) Make another enamel pin: I have a dolphin design I’d like to make because dolphins are cute, if not little murder machines. (need to save up some expendable income first, tho. THESE THINGS AIN’T CHEAP TO MAKE.)

 9 and 10) start and finish 2 original short comics: I’ve got some comic ideas I want to do, but I need to get them written out first. I don’t think either would be too long. Each maybe a couple “episode’s” length, if envisioned on a website like webtoons or tapas. They’d both be heavy in allegory, but not overly drawn out (hopefully)

 11)And lastly, Finish the 5 remaining one-shots I had planned for this year but never got around to. I’m going to try to write one every other month. Pure self-indulgent shipping fluff. If I finish these 5, then maybe I’ll ask other people for more prompts and ideas, which I’ve never done before. We’ll see how it goes~

 Also, Like last year, I’d like to look at everything that’s happened to me this year, though to be honest, I’m not sure how much I remember/how accurate it’ll be. God, I don’t even remember what January was like. Who was I back then? Who were we all back then? I guess I’ll start my yearly retrospective in march because, heh, god we ALL know what started happening in march.

 Firstly, I paid off my last student loan! Then a week later on March 18th, I drove half an hour out of my city to adopt a cat and I love her and it was the best day of this year for me. Spring break is just beginning this weekend, but the attendance at the zoo is shockingly low this year. Apparently, a lot of people watch the news, and they’re all taking precautions about social distancing. I wasn’t too disappointed. Fewer people at the zoo, the easier my job is for me. I was looking forward to getting some free overtime on spring break, since I’m broke after paying off that loan, and I’m a cat parent now and have a furry child to feed. Monday rolls around. My manager calls me and tells me that the zoo is going into lockdown until further notice. I worry for the birds I take care of, but understand it’s for everyone’s safety.

 For two months I sleep in and watch way too much YouTube. I join a couple writing discords. I have nightmares about my birds escaping their enclosure and I dreamed one of the security guards I really like at the zoo gets covid and has to go to the ER. I woke up really upset.

 I started and finished BBS for the first time. I also replayed and finished KH2 final mix for the first time. It had been about 5 years since I last played KH2 before my PS2 died, and it was like coming home~ I also finished tearaway, and played and beat Ryme for a second time (which I can’t remember if I did that last year, but it was a fun experience regardless)

 Mid-June, and I’m allowed to start going back to work, be it on reduced hours. The zoo is still closed to the public, but I’m loving it! I get to work with full-time keepers and do full-time keeper things. It’s so much fun not having to deal with the public. August starts to creep up and there’s a rumor that the zoo will be opening to the public again, which I’m not stoked about. I don’t want to go back to standing in one exhibit all day, talking to guests who don’t listen to the rules or to me. 2 of my younger coworkers (who had both only been there a couple of months) get chosen for full-time positions, while I get passed up which really pisses me off. My other 2 coworkers quit when they think we might be reopening because they cannot risk catching the virus due to at-risk family. I am now the last keeper in the interactive bird exhibit.

 I keep working, the zoo slowly opens, but with me as the only interpreter in our interactive bird exhibit, we can’t open because I can’t run the entire exhibit by myself. So my exhibit stays closed. September comes and goes, and then October starts. Now there is more serious talk of opening my exhibit before the end of the year because the zoo expects to bring in larger crowds for the Christmas lights event in November/December. I ask if I get hazard pay or health insurance since I’m doing full-time hours until they hire more staff. They say no.

 I immediately start searching for a new job feeling incredibly indignant/hurt/slighted/insulted/used/abused/ALL the negative feelings at my job. I had been there for 4 years, but never got a chance to work full time, while the two newest hires who had only been there 2 months both got moved up. I can’t help but feel they were holding one mistake I made two years ago against me and never wanted to give me a chance. (that, or they knew I was reliable when it came to showing up for work in such a volatile position that sees a lot of new faces, and they didn’t want to bother going through the process of hiring someone new) I don’t want to risk my life working around guests who don’t wash their hands and don’t properly distance. I don’t want to gamble with my health when they won’t offer me health insurance because I’m part time.

 Mid October, I get an interview for a full time job and get hired on the spot. I peace out at the zoo 2 weeks later, literally 3 days before they planned to open my exhibit to the public. It was a close call for me to escape before they opened to the public (and pettiness was only partially the reason I dipped out so close to opening). Sorry new hires who are now in charge of the bird feeding exhibit. I taught you the best I could in the short time I had. If the managers are struggling with what to do with one less person, I can’t say I feel bad. I can only hope they delayed opening/closed you down again for your own safety. You are not lightbulbs. I really hope the higher ups stop considering you as replaceable as one. Will I go back to the zoo to visit? Probably. But not for a year at least.

 I started my new job the very next day after I quit the zoo, and have been there ever since, (which isn’t that long yet, tbh. Christmas day was my 2 month anniversary). It’s full time, but it’s also a small business, and everyone’s hours this year have been on the short side due to the plague. I understand, though. They don’t want us to work if they can’t afford to pay us. Everyone is nice enough, though some people smoke and it’s hard to avoid them with how frequently we have to go in and out, and I really don’t want to get lung cancer, sorry not sorry, please and thank you. Also, with such a small team, gossip is certainly harder to go undetected, so it’s a relief knowing people don’t talk behind one another’s backs.

 I participated and beat my 4th nanowrimo in a row, I made TWO apple crisps on thanksgiving, and made baklava on Christmas and both of these recipes were my first time making them, and they both came out adequately! I voted the first day of early voting, and I did an art trade/collab with two of my friends for my birthday! (normally we would have done monthly “art days” where we get together and do art projects for fun because we’re adults and we can spend our time together however we want, but the plague said otherwise this year) We drew pokemon and it was fun! (hopefully I can show you all the results soon. At the time of writing, I’m still waiting for the last two colored parts to get back to me)

 I reached 100 pages on my undertale comic, and finish the first arc out of…! (im not sure. It’s either going to be 4 or 5, I haven’t decided yet)

 Over all, I managed to stay healthy as far as I know. I wasn’t as productive as I wanted to be this year, but then again, who was? (don’t answer that. I don’t need that kind of comparison in my life right now)

 Will 2021be any better? Honestly? I don’t think so. Not right away, at least. Just because a new year is about to start does not mean the slate is completely wiped clean. The change of the calendar year doesn’t magically make all our current problems disappear. Covid will still be here and cases will still climb when January starts. Small business will still be strained when the month rolls over, police will still go on murdering innocent civilians and getting away scot free, amazon and disney will still be monopolizing all consumer goods and media, and I can’t help but feel like there’s an impending shit show about to go down on inauguration day. I do hope things will get better, though. It’ll be arduous and unpleasant, but I do hope things will improve, because sometimes hoping is all you can do.

 Good night.

[paragonshep]

Happy N7 Day, friends and ememies, and welcome to an unplanned stream-of-consciousness thought experiment I like to call

The Bare Fucking Minimum

What is this, you ask? Well I am, once again, thinking about Jacob Taylor. Specifically, I’m thinking about the complete shitshow that was Jacob’s story arc. What were the themes, the overarching concepts? And were they deliberately trying to piss off everyone who romanced him? 

In honor of the announcement of a remaster that will almost certainly do nothing for him, I’m here to ask: if we assume that all the major story elements must remain the same, what’s the minimum that could be changed to bring all of his everything from a major shitshow to a minor shitshow?

Let me preface this by saying that 1) I am not a writer, and 2) I am not black. The scope of this post is fairly limited, and mostly relates to tidying up the themes and emotional arc while keeping the actual events largely unchanged. I’m fully aware that Jacob’s loyalty mission, for example, is absolutely steeped in racist tropes, and that a lot of people out there would prefer to just throw the whole thing out and start over. I get that, but that’s not something I’m equipped to do, so if that’s what you were looking for, this post probably isn’t the one for you.

This is also pretty much spun right off the top of my head. I didn’t draft this, I’m not really digging too deep. I’m just collecting and laying out some thoughts I had floating around in my head, so this is gonna get pretty disjointed. Feel free to throw out your own thoughts in the notes. I may or may not dive in and chat with y’all, since this is mostly just to get these thoughts out of my head and on a page. We’ll see once things get going.

Anyway let’s start at the top.

1. What’s it all about, when you get right down to it?

So, Jacob’s whole arc is a complete fucking mess and feels like they just threw a bunch of random shit at it to see what would stick, but ultimately I think it’s about masculinity and Jacob’s conception of what makes a man. I think the key to Jacob as a character is understanding what traits embody masculinity, and which people he thinks have missed the mark. There’s clearly things like strength and integrity, but follow-through, duty, and keeping promises seem to be major elements in his definition of masculinity. Put a pin in that, we’ll come back to that later. Unfortunately, it’s time to talk about...

2. The Loyalty Mission

Oh boy. Welp. Let’s get this over with, I guess.

So obviously this is racist and really shit and really Bioware should just throw the whole thing out, but again, that's not what we're going here. This is the part I've given the least thought to, so it will probably be short and not come to many conclusions. anyway let's grit our teeth and look for the theme that ties in into Jacob's greater narrative arc. Specifically, if Jacob's whole thing is "what makes a man", then we need to look at how exactly his father missed the mark.

Spoiler alert: it's duty.

Ultimately, his father was captain and it was his obligation to get the crew home, even if it was personally inconvenient. It was his duty as a father to try to get home himself for the sake of his family. It was about obligation, oaths and promises he broke. Can I get some uhhhhhhhhhhhh fucking themes. Dive into that shit more.

I’m too tired to get more into it bc I’m actually writing this section last, but it’s interesting to note that even afterwards Jacob’s feelings about his father are complicated. Like, he hates the guy and thinks he’s despicable, but he still feels a need to try to find that things he got even half right. He can’t bring himself to write off everything the man ever was. That feels like a rich vein they could have done something with, but they didn’t.

3. The Romance, ME2

This one is an absolute fucking mess.

So there are two threads running through the core of this romance arc: the kink/powerplay element and the time element, and a major problem of the romance is that it doesn’t really know which one it is.

So, I know a lot of people dislike the whole kink element just on principle, but I’m not here to do that. Not everyone is into soft vanilla stuff, and it’s a little irritating how much of the fandom (and the world) tries to paint kink as inherently evil or unhealthy. THAT SAID, the kink here is inefficient in terms of storytelling, it’s sloppy writing, and the whole time I played the romance I was thinking “What’s the point of this?”. The problem with that element, and the fact that the ME2 love scene focuses on it, is that it does not serve any overarching narrative, either in terms of romance progression or Jacob’s whole character. It feels slapped on. It’s just not good storytelling. (and while i’m generally for kink, I am also side eyeing Bioware for slapping this on ME’s first black character and only him. not offensive in and of itself, but feels like part of a greater racist picture)

I’m honestly shocked they didn’t lean harder into the whole theme of time, and specifically time running out, because it seems like the obvious choice. It’s built into the whole main plot of ME2, and it’s an element of multiple other romances. You’re all heading into a suicide mission, there’s a serious chance you’re all going to die, and you don’t have enough time. Like what the fuck! That would have been emotionally satisfying! 

Imagine if the final romance scene had featured Jacob coming to see Shepard and having this whole speech/rant about how he doesn’t like to rush into things, how he likes to take it slow and really get to know each other, but now there’s no more time and you both might die tomorrow, and he might regret this choice if you live but he knows he’ll regret not making it if you die!!!!!! That’s some real shit! it completes a narrative arc! It ties into shit we know about Jacob outside his romance!!! Why the fuck didn’t they go that route!!!!!!! Can you tell I’m still angry!!!!!

4. ME3

So Jacob’s role in this game is pretty minimal, so there’s not a lot to work with and not a lot to change. Good thing I can fix like 90% of its issues with one change:

It’s not his child Dr. Cole is carrying.

Like that alone you can use to fix a bunch of issues without changing the core themes of his character arc! It works in a romance and non romance playthrough! You can still do a fatherhood “doing better than my own father did” arc even if Jacob didn’t contribute the sperm, Bioware!!!!!

So here’s how I picture it: The stuff about meeting and getting to know Jacob can stay the same. The father of Dr. Cole’s child is someone we never meet who is generally out of the picture. Possibly one of the other scientists she was working with who were killed when their part of the project was complete. Her partner disappears, she goes to Jacob for help, and Jacob promises to help her and her coworkers get out and keep them safe. Remember that shit I said back under point one about keeping promises? Boom! Narrative arc complete. This would also serve as an excuse to keep Jacob from coming back the the Normandy, since he made a promise to Brynn and he’s going to see it through. This works even with a romanced Jacob, because he can love Shepard and also note that she’s not the person who needs him most right now! Is this a perfect solution that would please every player? By no means! But I bet a lot of us would be less absolutely livid about it!

In conclusion,

I realize actually implementing these changes would actually be a whole lot of work, and this is not, in fact, a simple quick fix. My point is mostly that this did not require changing any actual plot beats, just recontextualizing them, and that Bioware and the writer(s) responsible could have saved themselves a lot of angry players if they’d just picked a coherent theme for this character and stuck to it. There’s no excuse for Jacob’s writing being as incoherent and terrible as it is.

I could probably write a lot more about this, but since I’m basically illiterate this took me pretty much all day to write and I’m tired. Bioware Stop Being So Racist Challenge, and Happy N7 Day.

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

Who’s worse and why: Futaba or Makoto?

I mean if you’ve read this blog you probably know who I’m gonna choose, but as for why….welp under the cut

I’d have to say Makoto, both as a person and as a character. I know my bf ranks Futaba as the worse solely because of her BS hacking. And listen, for me Makoto and Futaba are both freaking close, and me saying “Futaba’s hacking isn’t as bad as Makoto” is more an opinion than fact, and shouldn’t boost any positive feelings/pride for Futaba fans because I chose her hacking over Makoto. Her hacking is HORRIBLE I was to make that clear, I still hate it. I’d probably hate Futaba more if it wasn’t for the fact that Makoto gets a single amount of criticism that we all have to come and explain ourselves (that’s the only good thing about Futaba is that her fanbase doesn’t come for my throat, but it also doesn’t mean I think about how crappy she is/think as critically about her as much as Makoto). 

With that out of the way I’ll give reasons for disliking both of them:

Makoto:

She never gets dragged. So you might know that I hate the P5MC, I think he’s an asshole and never gets called out on it (and not just he has asshole options, but he does asshole things we can’t not do). One thing I hate is that he drags like Anne, Ryuji, and Yusuke a lot like you wouldn’t believe (like people who are very dedicated to him). But I don’t recall really ever getting a single drag options for Makoto, WHEN SHE WASN’T ON THE TEAM AND SHE WAS AT HER WORSE (even when she drove off our only lead). It was mostly neutral stuff, defiant (not the same as asshole), or begging her not to tell on us. It’s just weird that a lot of other characters will get dragged for not really doing anything wrong, but she DOES screw us over and we don’t get to drag her at least once?

Gets away with A LOT of shit. Like she victim blames Anne, and Anne apologizes? And then has the audacity to say Anne and her are the SAME?! No boo, Anne didn’t know about the abuse, but YOU DID. Anne didn’t report the abuse because she didn’t know, you admit you didn’t report it because YOU DIDN’T CARE ENOUGH. You stalk us, take photos and video recordings without our permission (btw illegal in Japan and would be thrown out in court), but then get surprised when we (mostly Anne/Ryu/Yusuke since they can talk obvie) get mad at you? Complain about how people don’t know your struggles when they yell at you, but you are literally the one causing their grief (so of course they’d yell). Was literally an asshole from the get-go from introduction(she literally insulted Anne from her first words, no wonder Anne didn’t like her) , and pretty much the reason why every scene started to go to shit (only time she didn’t come in like an ass was the scene they called her useless in, and 1) considering her track record they probs assumed, and rightfully so, she was coming to put more pressure on them, which they didn’t need, and seque into 2))

Number 2, she was being useless to the PT! She didn’t do shit while investigating, instead just hovering over us being like “did you get the info? You know will happen if you don’t do this. SO you better do this!” And it’s like???? Bitch, you didn’t even bother to help. You’re useless in the one thing you can do (cause we know you won’t help in the Metaverse). Hell she wasn’t even the person who broke the news about Kaneshiro! We heard a rumor about it on the train as the MC/Mona before Makoto did! But the game made us freaking wait cause we needed the illusion of her doing like…ANYTHING. She also drove away our one gd lead, like WHAT THE FUDGE?! We’re all out here busting our asses and you are just sitting on yours, you really are useless. And she also withheld vital info…..

Withholding info. She does this twice, once during the Kaneshiro arc where we have to waste time investigating this one kid (and we know she knows cause he goes to her after we talk to him, upset cause she might’ve blabbed, oh if only, but like she could’ve asked him questions and she could’ve relayed the same info but NO!). She also doesn’t tell us about Sae’s Palace, and like….that would’ve been FANTASTIC considering we were all like “oh man wish we had a Palace we could go into” the entire gd game.

Her actions and words about her don’t line up (wow awkward sentence XP). People keep describing her as “scary” and “oh man you better not make her mad” and like acting like I should be scared of her. But like???? She’s really such a pushover, she needs to be saved countless times, she showcases no hidden fire-y side (in fact Anne shows that off more, but no the game is too busy dragging her through the mud for some reason). Hell even in the dance games, her and Anne’s reaction of Futaba trying to grope them is different. Makoto is shy and tries to run away iirc, Anne looks like she has the face of murder (Futaba better sleep with one eye open, like jesus what was that game thinking, 1) poor taste to do that to Anne, 2) doesn’t seem like she was having fun and…..that’s so out of place). Just….it’s just really annoying to hear it over and over, and then she needs help over and over. Like she puts up barely any resistence to the guys hitting on them at the beach, all while Anne is ready to throw down and raising a shit fit (understandable, but why isn’t Makoto????) and then if you say “you guys did well” MAKOTO is the one that responds and is like “Oh thanks but it was getting dicey” like bitch you just stood there, Anne was ready to cut a bitch, why are you responding you didn’t do anything????

She takes up too much screen time doing nothing. Her big job is to connect the player with Sae…..and she does a shit job at it. We learn pretty much nothing about Sae or her relationship, except it’s strained (but not TOO strained). She explains easy to understand stuff, but like we already had Mona for that so no need for her. She’s shit at her role as a strategist, 1) she doesn’t do a whole lot of it, 2) the few plans she’s come up with, the majority have failed, 3) her role is useless in a game where we already have a leader and choices are supposed to “matter” so why sin’t the MC just a double duty strategist? 4) Her CoOp ability should’ve already been a part of Futaba’s/Mona’s skill set (like with past Navis). She adds nothing, instead takes screen time away from other characters, as well as removing choice from the players (and possibly coming up with their own plans as well as ideas to utilize everyone). 

Futaba:

Her hacking is unrealistic and OP. Just….it’s just bad in and of itself.

Her hacking removes choice and other means to get around a problem. So many times it’s just “*points at something* Futaba hack it” and it’s done. Like Sae’s dungeon, a lot of people say it showcased Goro’s abilities, but all I remember is him saying “Futaba I choose you! Use hack” and that’s how it mostly went down. So like Makoto, her role screws the player out of a more enriching gameplay experience. 

Also takes up too much screen time. I mean it’s mostly for her stupid hacking too, but if it wasn’t for that and her it could’ve been utilized for other characters. It’s also weird cause she takes up a lot because of her mom, but we don’t get a whole lot about her mom…..it’s mostly just a plot device rather than a character. It just leaves you unfulfilled. 

Her mental illness is horribly written, pandering (in a sense of people thinking it’s cute and you should date her cause of it, not them having a character with mental illness in and of itself is pandering just the……fetishization of it is), and inconsistent (her gameplay and story segregation, aka CoOp and main story segregation, is just so appalling). I think I did one rank of her CoOp and she was all like “MC only you helped me. You’re the reason I started to get better! I can only go outside if you are with me MC! MC MC MC! PT who? Only MC!” and then literally the next f****ing day the main story progresses, she’s waiting outside with Yusuke and everyone is like “You went outside by yourself?!” and Yusuke’s like “nah I picked her up” HMMMM YOU SEEM FINE WITH THE PT WHAT’S THIS ABOUT MC ONLY?! It’s also…..I hate her crush, it’s soooooo unhealthy. She starts to become SO DEPENDENT on you, and is saying some very worrying things like “I don’t think I can do this on my own without you” like all the time. And apparently if you romance her she suddenly becomes more independent, which I don’t think would happen….romancing her route sounded more like I’d encourage her behavior rather than her deciding to just suddenly not do that. The friendship route was the only time it felt like it was realistic, we turn her down and we help her make one more step by herself and let her walk around Akihabara alone within a safe distance and then she gets used to it so it’s possible for her to leave all by herself later. Only time it was semi realistic, because any other time they just bring the freaking mental illness up whenever they freaking please. That’s also doesn’t take in the fact how they “cured” her so they could have a beach episode. A crash course and friendship isn’t gonna cure you suddenly (and it’s not like they actually stole her heart, which I hate she keep saying they did), and that’s an unhealthy mindset and unfair to a friend who wants to help but isn’t fair to put the burden on them to cure you. 

She’s kind of an asshole, like Makoto is an asshole before she joins, but Futaba…..I just dunno how most people even get along in the PT. It’s not social awkwardness, she’s just a straight up douche sometimes and I don’t like it (esp when you can’t call her out). It’s not just her, Yusuke is too and so is Mona (and Ryu is to Mona but he’s not an asshole, but he’s not 100% a good boi, but MC is also an asshole too, but sometimes he can be good). 

I also just don’t like her dungeon. Like how it’s written. But I could say that for most of P5′s dungeons. It tries to imitate P4 but…..doesn’t do what P4 did right. Her’s just steps on my toes even more cause it’s more closer to P4 than any other dungeon, and it’s a gd shame they didn’t expand on P4′s way of doing it (aka you don’t get the info basically handed to before going into the dungeon, there’s actually a revelation as you go through XP)

(Not points against either, but I find it weird that it feels like Futaba is closer to Makoto rather than Anne…..like nothing is special between Futaba and Makoto for them to be kinda like that, but like Anne was the one to technically appealed to Futaba to get her out of the closet…..You’d think she’d cling to Anne more….Sorry more of a confusing writing issue but since we were talking about these two and my mind wandered 8U)

Edit: I think I answered all my points (albeit it’s the abridged version), but god forbid I missed a couple.

[xiaolongpunch]

Rwby’s redemption

I’ve started watching rwby ever since the summer that volume 2 was released. My friends made me watch the four trailers and I was immediately captivated by the breath of fresh air the show promise from its beginning. Four badass girls with unique weapons and abilities? I was already hooked from that point. I binge watch volume after that day, and I immediately got harry potter vibe with the school aspect of the show. I also understood from the get go the the 8 characters we were introduced to in the beginning would be the main cast, that being team RWBY and team JNPR.

This is where my first critique comes in, and it won’t be directed at rooster teeth or miles-kerry or even monty, but rather at the fandom. Volume 1 wasn't shy at showing us who the important characters were, how? The were coloured in and we got to know their names in the first few episodes. The rest was either shadowed in, appeared a couple of times, or simply never be seen again. We knew the main cast was the two teams, and other subsequent characters were more side characters, exemple: Cardin and team CRDL, Velvet, Ozpin, Glynda, Roman, and the other professors and Sun. And one of the major complaints that volume 1 gets is that it was focused on Jaune to much. Statistically speaking, his arc lasted 25% of volume 1, lasting from episode 11 to 14. Other arcs from this volume included Blake’s, Weiss’s conflict with Ruby and probably other minor ones I won’t speak about. Blake’s arc lasted from episode 15 to 16, buut continued into the subsequent volume. Making for 12.5% of the first volume, and about, well the entire volume. Volume 2 was dedicated into busting the white fang and Roman, which directly tied into Blake’s arc from Volume 1, making it the longest arc up to this date since it is still continuing into volume 5. The third arc was the conflict between Ruby and Weiss, although somewhat minor, this arc still lasted for a couple of episodes spread apart from one another. The point being, Jaune’s arc is minor compared to other arcs happening in the show, since his only lasted 4 episodes in volume 1 alone. Sure he had speaking times in other volumes, but none revolved around him, and yet the fandom is still bitching and moaning that jaune is taking too much space. As mentioned before, Jaune IS one of the main 8, not liking him as a character is totally fine, but saying he is taking too much space is somewhat overreacting since he is one of the main characters.

Let’s go on, from V1 came V2, and to this date, it is probably one of my least favourite volumes. I feel like they focused a bit too much on the characters motivation during the mountain glenn arc. What was the point of Oobleck asking everyone why they wanted to be huntresses? It was a bit awkward and I feel like they could've gotten the same result, if not more,  if they made the team sit down around a campfire and make them ask each other their motivation. They would’ve shared some exposition through, shown team rwby bonding, something the fandom has been asking for a while now (Something I will touch later on) aaand they would’ve been able to touch a lot more on Blake’s ongoing arc that way. Btw, this is how critiquing something is done, by talking about what felt wrong and give an example on how they could of improved themselves. I’ve seen way to many people complain and complain and never even explain how they could've improve on what they complained on, and then call what they did ‘critiquing’, but im digressing. Overall, they did what they wanted, expose us to more backstory and motivation, show us a bit more of who the characters are by telling us where they come from. This volume honestly showed me why Ruby is more childish in nature, and it also help set up what they wanted for her next volume. It showed me why Weiss is so cold and distant sometimes, it showed us why Blake acts the way she does..you get the point. It also helped setting up the next volume, which was a real plus.

Next comes V3, and I feel like, like the show, this was where the fandom started to really fall and divide. A reason why people started to become more toxic might have been because of Monty’s death. People started to think that because he died, Miles and Kerry started to ruin the show from his original idea. Especially after a controversial letter came out, you can read it here if you’d like. From that point, it was a shitstorm of fighting, between people who believed shane and people who didn’t. I have read the letter, and personally, I feel like they were some things right and some wrong. Shane seemed to have this idea that Monty was the only one planning the show, but it was with Miles and Kerry, Monty provided the ideas, MK wrote them out. Gray even addressed what the future of RWBY would be, and he mentioned this.

“For those wondering, Monty was heavily involved in shaping the future of the world of Remnant. His story ideas will live on, and you will also be able to see some of the animation he'd begun working on for Volume 3. For some time, the team has known the direction in which the next volumes will be headed, and Rooster Teeth is committed to bringing these tales to you.”

Like I said, you decide if you want to believe shane or not, but I think its clear that Monty planned his show with MK years ahead. And some of the ‘Critiques’ the show got addressed the wrong issues. That volume also sparked the lgbtq representaion controversy, ship wars begun, like I said, a shitshow began. It was also the volume that rwby turned dark and characters died off. And for some reason people got angry at MK for killing them off, because they thought it wasn't Monty’s idea. Except it was, and here is some other complaint. Roman was a major villain, you can't kill him! Actually he was said to be unimportant to the main story plot, and unfortunately I can't find the panel, but I remember that someone in the crwby mentioned that roman was kept alive longer than intended because he was like, but was eventually going to get killed off. Next was Penny’s death, not much complain on that side other then people saying they were sad she died, so nothing to say on that part. But the major character death that got lots of complaint was Pyrrha’s. People had two complaint about, it went too far, and that she was only meant to further Jaune’s character.

To address the first point, I will actually let Gray explain.

“Have we said thanks lately? Thanks again for sharing the story with our youngest audience members out there, it means a lot to us and we take the responsibility to heart. In return, we wanted to take a sec to reiterate some things. We've said from the very beginning that the story of RWBY is actually a pretty long journey, with all sorts of complex changes and themes over time. Because we can only put out so many episodes per year, and the story has been focused the way it has the first couple years, some viewers might assume that this is all there is to the show. Nnnnope. Much like other multi-year narratives such as the Harry Potters, Avatars (the airbending kind. well, the animated, not the live... look, the good one) and Star Wars...Warses... Warii? Forget it -- like other continuity-heavy sagas out there, RWBY will grow up over time. Our characters will be put to the test as the stakes get greater and the full scope of the story is revealed. The tone and imagery of the show will occasionally go darker and more mature. ...You did happen to notice the opening sequence that has been in front of the show all year, right?”

This comes from a blog post surrounding how dark rwby has turned. And I want to emphasize one particular point, because this will counter EVERY complaint on how the show is progressing in terms of change. RWBY was never meant to stay light hearted and happy, it was meant to grow and change, just like many other series out there, and the fact that people complain about it, is in my opinion, kinda ridiculous. When V3 came out, I understood this because it was new, but now? Really? You want change and character development, but complain once the plot thickens and the nature of the show changes? What kind of hypocritical shit is that? I also believe that Monty said that he got inspired by Games of Thrones in some aspect, and that was early on in the show, so death was going to be a thing, I guess the fandom just wants to ignore that though.

The second point is actually a bit more founded. But because of two sides. MK poorly handled team bonding, we barely got any bonding from any teams so we didnt know what they meant to each other other then a few things here and there. And the second side is the fandom’s collective hatred towards Jaune. The fandom complains that Pyrrha’s death was solely to further Jaune’s character, so im guessing they totally ignored her arc in v3 that actually explained why she decided to fight Cinder or why she died, or just simply decided to ignore, knowing the fandom, I wouldn’t be surprised with either reason. The fandom sometimes forgets to piece things together, to read between the lines. It was clear that Pyrrha had an internal conflict about becoming the maiden, and Jaune, being her combat partner, decided he wanted to be there for her, which only fueled the fandom’s belief that this arc was somehow around Jaune. I feel like fandom is honestly just pulling reasons out of their ass to hate on Jaune at this point, yes he did wrong things, but did anyone ever sat down to think that this was actually kinda the most natural portrayal of a teenage boy? Im digressing here, but Pyrrha’s was far more then Jaune, it was a sign, the show basically told us “Hey, things are getting serious, how serious? Welp a main character died trying to accomplish her goal” And her death couldnt of been more brilliant. It was extremely well executed, the symbolism behind it is incredible because it shows that the show isnt a fairy tail, not everything ends happily ever after, and most of all, it furthered Ruby’s character.

A lot of people dont realize that one of the premise of the show was loss of childhood and innocence. Ruby’s character is the very essence of that. And they broke her to pieces in V3, they killed her best friend, and then a close friend. She unlocked her powers and loss her innocence she had for the world. She grew so much as a character it that volume and its sad to see people not looking further then their noses to see how much has been happening in the show to focus on jaune and other minor things like ships.

To go back on Jaune’s portrayal, he is literally a fuckboi in v1/v2 and a bit of v3. Like, thats what his character is, you can hate it, hell I did, but screaming and shouting that his character needs to change because of that is fucking ridiculous, not everyone is meant to be liked, sometimes best portrayals are the ones that actually make you feel something strong about them, and the typical mary sue.

Lets move on, V4 in my opinion was the most poorly handled volume, for many things.They took to long to show how certain character grief and they didnt handle character development extremely well. Nora and Ren’s arc was...short, too short. I felt like they could of really digged into their childhood and their relationship since they grew up together, but they missed out on it. They tanked to show Ruby’s grief, or as the fandom would say, complete lack of. And the plot exposition from Qrow was too fast and really poorly handled in terms of delivery. I feel like they could’ve taken more time to explain some things like magic and the maidens, because the way it was delivered was more like it was speaking to the audience. The filled in gaps on what the audience didn’t know rather then explaining to the character what the hell was going on in their lives.

And I have a major problem with how the fandom ‘critiqued’ this volume. Again, the major complaints were not story, or plot related, they decided to complain on ships and portrayal, which btw is a valid thing if there is an actual problem. For exemple, they non-stopped complained on how Ruby seemingly didnt show any grief, but let me explain to you. People are different, whereas one person might cry their hearts out to someones death, another will feel sad for a bit and move on. We saw Ruby react to Pyrrha’s death, she unlocked her powers because of it. And there is many reason why she might have been shown grieving. Think about how much shit she went through, she saw her school get destroyed, three people she knew died in front of her in one night, she unlocked some weird magical power which she knows nothing about, her sister seems to hate life now, and her friends are mostly gone. Do you seriously think her mind has the time and effort to grief about ONE person dying? No, nobody would in fact, she probably is still in shock of everything that happened. Another reason, which was actually proven in V5, is that she doesn’t grief, she moves on. And they also foreshadowed it a bit, but I will talk about it in the V5 review of this.

The next thing people complained about was black sun, and how ooc blake felt during those moments. Again, I want to remind you that character development is a thing, and traumatic events may several affect someone’s view in life. The reason why Blake seemed ooc is because of her fears becoming a reality. Her friends got hurt because of Adam, she became paranoid, to the point of almost drawing out her sword to the captain when she was confronted. Sun on the other hand didnt experience all of that, and he thought he was doing the right thing by following her because he wanted to help her. And I saw sooooo many people saw he is a predator because she flinches when he touches her, but also completely forgets or ignore she acted the same way when her own mother hugged her. She is scared shitless of everything, this was probably one of the better handled character development in the volume, and the fandom seemingly ignored all of it to let their hatred go through.

The most blatant problem with V4 however was the animation, and I will let the youtuber Cake in his series “Animation analysis”. He really nails the head of what is wrong with the animation, and I highly recommend you watch this small serie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxP3lBW7wm4&list=PL-wKaeXzYOmbnc0cRXxGD0TEY5wgCUipw

I wont speak about Yang, because honestly, this was the one time the fandom is right, her ptsd arc was poorly handled and not well executed at all.

Then came V5, or as I like to call it, Rooster teeth’s redemption arc. This volume, imo, was so heavily touched upon to appease the angry mobs of the rwde tags its honestly kind of funny. Ship wars? Heres more character development surrounding all the characters involved in those ship and their view about each other. Poor character development? Heres ruby actual griefing and explaining how she moved and sooo much more character for the main cast. LGBT representation? Here's the first confirmed lgbt character! They did so many things right and so many things to fix past problems, and yet, the rwde tag is still greedy…

Volume 5 has done a lot of things right, and a lot of those things were things the fandom was asking since the beginning of the show. I believe it was partially RT testing out that if listening to us would actually change anything, and Im afraid the rwde side of this fandom is proving to them that nothing that they will do will change anything, and thats saying something about the rwde tag and the fandom in general.

Lets hit a few things that happened that rt did right. First being, Ruby’s grief. In V4, most of the fandom outcried for Ruby to show how she grieves the death of Pyrrha and Penny, and we got it. And just like I had thought, she moves on. The writers pulled our heart strings by using Monty’s signature quote “Keep moving forward”. This probably wasn't a last minute decision, since we did get a hint of it when Qrow mentioned the same thing to Yang in V3. And we all know how close Ruby is to Qrow, and he probably taught her to move on rather the grief when death hits someone close to you. The fandom, of course, was blind to all of it, and it dishearten me to see that. Because the fandom keeps asking for better writing, and when the are shown that MK can foreshadow things and give hints of two people’s relationship and that the fandom ignores it, it shows that they dont really care, and are probably finding reasons to hate rather then actually seeing their wishes come true.

Yang’s ptsd. V4 poorly handled this, they showed some sign of her illness but it was rushed and it felt unnatural. But rt did try to change this in V5. The random jerks of her hand and arm is a genius idea, it shows that she still suffers from her trauma even though she is trying to be strong for her own sake. This might be hinting at an actual ptsd episode later on when she fights. This is one thing rt did right and are showing they are listening.

First Lgbt character. Spoiler warning, if you havent watched V5EP8 then skip to the next point to not spoil yourself. So in the latest episode, Ilia was revealed to be first lgbt character, she is a lesbian/Bisexual character who is in love with Blake. And not surprisingly, the fandom find reasons to hate this decision rather than rejoice that rt is actually listening to them. This next part is a message straight for anyone who is criticizing ilia as the “villain lesbian” and say its problematic. Do you understand how hypocrite you are? You headcanon characters like Cinder, Salem, and Neo as lgbt, people who are actually show to be pure evil but hate and try to villainize the only villain who’s reason to be villain is due to her past? We have been shown why she chose this path, we have been shown why she sides with Adam at this moment. It hurts her to do so, we could see it when she ordered to kill Blake’s family, we have seen how conflicted she was to have captured Blake for adam, the only character who’s villainy is actual ambiguous and actually is a complex character because of it and you downgrade her to a “Bitter/Jealous murderous lesbian”? FUCK OUTTA HERE, that is completely hypocritical of everything you ever said, she is everything you ever wanted in a character and you still manage to be angry at rt for it?! Do you even hear yourselves sometimes? You wanna complain about something that is lgbt related? How about the lack of it, we have one, they have shown us they are listening so keep on insisting on that representation. You want to complain how the lack of complex character? Criticize MK for the lack of backstory for a lot of the main character, and a lack of personality shown. You want to complain about villains? HOW ABOUT THE ACTUAL BITTER AND MURDEROUS ONE ADAM FUCKING TAURUS. Stop being so blind jfc, there is so many other obvious things wrong about the points you are complaining about and yet you chose to bash Ilia, fucking incredible.

Rwby has a lot of issue, im not denying that, but its time for the fandom to stop complaining about ships and minor problems that have been fixed. Start critiquing instead of complaining and demanding. RT wont listen to you if you only demand things from them, start showing them explicitly what is wrong with the show and offer them solutions in a calm manner. Showing no evidence and not showing solutions is not critiquing on your part, its pure and simple entitlement. My final point is this. We dont own the show, some of us pay for a subscription, but that doesn't make them any more entitled to demand things from rt about their show. You can absolutely critique them for errors, but do it right. Show them what went wrong, explain why its wrong, and show and explain a possible solution. Complaining and whining isnt critiquing, its entitlement of something we dont own. Im probably missing some things I have thought of pointing out in this, and this is highly opinionated in some parts. But I hope my points do make some sense, and I hope anyone who reads this actual give a thought about the points I made. If you disagree with me, by all means, point out what was wrong with what I said and offer your counter-argument, like I said, some of it is facts and some of it is opinions, so let’s debate.

[commodorecliche]

So I've got some thoughts about Shiro in this new season. I'm just speculating right now since I haven't had a chance to properly sit down and watch it. But a lot of parts I have seen so far are making me go

at this Shiro and some of the things he’s saying.

I know a lot of you are rolling with the idea that this is a clone of Shiro, and I think you're probably right. Especially since we have already seen the Galra making a clone of Shiro, it seems quite likely that this is the case. Odd that they would show them doing that if it wasn’t going to be relevant to the plot later. Again, I'm just speculating and spit-balling here so take this as you will - but I think that the Galra are using Clone!Shiro to manipulate Keith so that they can steal the black lion from him.

Here's what i've noticed so far:

1) Lion/Paladin colors have not changed. Meaning that despite Keith piloting black and Lance piloting red, their respective color palettes have not changed. It's a striking image, it stands out, it's noticeable. If this were meant to be a permanent change, one might think the armor color would at least change, but it hasn't. Nor have their clothes (I know the clothes thing might seem nitpicky, but I'm getting to a point in #2).

2) When it comes to clothing changes (excluding Allura in her pink armor because she wasn't previously a paladin so isn't relevant to the point I'm making), SHIRO is the only one whose clothes have changed. This is actually a very common clone trope in science fiction media. Clones are often portrayed as "identical with a minor difference" as a way of distinguishing them from the original person (usually for the sake of a show-down or mirrored parallels - think of the MirrorVerse episode of Star Trek, in which the mirror versions of Spock and Kirk are distinguished by slightly different clothing and beards). This slight difference in Shiro's appearance (especially the cut sleeve - and don’t even get me started about the random moment where he’s missing his scar) could be a way of distinguishing them from each other for future scenes (and possibly for a showdown)

3) As @pilindiel pointed out, there were no Galra guards watching longhair!Shiro until he got up, and they let him escape. If they were in the process of making clone(s) of Shiro, why on earth would they not keep the REAL Shiro under tight supervision, why on earth would they simply let him escape? We've already seen shots of the Galra creating a clone of Shiro, so we know it's something they're doing, and longhair!Shiro is shown having flashbacks of someone calling him by a number. Homeboy is a clone, possibly even one of many clones. Or maybe he’s been brainwashed, but I'm thinking clone is more likely. If he is a clone, though, he likely still has all of Shiro's memories, and thus was probably still 'brainwashed' or trained in one way or another to get him to act how the Galra want him to behave (more on that later).

- Ninja edit: I’m betting too that if he’s a clone, he might not even know it. 

4) Keith is part Galra. And the Galra have been aware of this for some time now: in fact, it was Zarkon himself who first addressed it ("you fight like a Galra soldier"). I think they are hoping to somehow exploit his Galra heritage as a way to either control him or at least persuade him into delivering the black lion. The show made a BIG DAMN DEAL about Shiro bonding with Black and about how Shiro had too much willpower/control of Black for Zarkon to take it from him (astral plane). But Keith? Keith's bond with Black hasn't been shown to be as strong. It's new, and it's likely weaker right now - I mean, we’ve mostly seen her accept him because of his bond with Shiro (saving Shiro from the lizardboars, Shiro's belief in Keith as a leader, etc...) His somewhat weaker grip on the black lion, in tandem with his Galra heritage, could make him easier to exploit for the sake of the Galra reclaiming the black lion.

- for those of you who are wondering why the Galra wouldn't just have the Clone!Shiro resume control of Black and deliver it to them: it’s possible that the black lion wouldn't accept the clone. I mean, sure, Clone!Shiro probably has Shiro's memories, his mannerisms, etc... which is why Black reacted to his escape ship... but at the end of the day, he isn't Shiro. Like I said before, the show made a big damn deal about Shiro's bond with Black. It was a major plot point - it would be a waste of time, and a bit of bad writing, to harp on that bond so much, only to then turn it around and go "welp, Keith's the permanent black pilot now" or to say "oh yeah totally this Clone!Shiro could take over the lion, no problemo". The Galra likely NEED Keith (his Galra heritage, his bond with Shiro, etc...) to be the one piloting Black because Black probably wouldn't accept the phony Shiro. Edit: Black doesn’t respond to Shiro when he tries to pilot her. *SIRENS GOING OFF* 

5) Keith is still reluctant to be the black paladin, especially with Shiro back in the picture, which might run contrary to what the Galra are trying to accomplish. If the Galra need him in the position of black paladin in order to exploit his connection to it and his Galra heritage, then who better to convince him to stay in that position than Shiro? Now, with all that time spent showing Shiro's bond with Black, it seems odd to push the idea that suddenly Keith is the true black paladin: UNLESS the Galra need him to be (as I mentioned in #4). The Real Shiro has, in the past, expressed that he wants Keith to lead in his absence, so Clone!Shiro insisting that he remain as the black paladin isn't super out of character and wouldn't necessarily raise any alarms amongst the team. With Keith reluctant to do so, and reluctant about his position as leader and as pilot of the black lion, what better way to convince him than to present him with the only person who was ever truly there for him and believed in him? What better way to get Keith to do what they (the Galra) want him to do than to have the person he trusts most, the only person who's "never given up on him", tell him to do it? To quote @pilindiel "How else do you dismantle a leader than by being what that leader cherishes most?".

So yeah, this could be way off base, but this is the vibe I'm getting so far. Shiro is a clone and the Galra are using him to manipulate Keith to get him to stay as pilot of the black lion so they can reclaim it.

[survivor-rotuma]

Ep. 3: “People are coming to me like bees to pollen” - Felix

Felix

I think I am becoming bossy. I should cool down for now and lay low. Don't want to be seen as too big of a threat just yet.

Apollo

IM GAGGING! 6-1? Someone used an extra vote to make sure Thomas wasn’t home? Or he had a vote against him? Idk, idrc I survived the first vote of this game and sis it was stressful but easy. Thomas came on like half an hour before tribal and voted for Bradley without talking to anyone, I’m shook. A trio formed between myself,  Borris and Zest whilst Borris and I were also invited for a foursome with Bradley by Brianna. I’m shaking tbh

Marie

Ok jay, if you wanna here about it buckle up. I DONT UNDERSTAND WHY JUMPING OVER A VOLCANO LIMITS ME FROM TYPING WORDS U G H ID BE GOOD AT THIS ONE BECAUSE I KNOW WAY TOO MYCH ABOUT THE SURVIVORS AND TO QUOTE DEBBIE “AND IM PISSED” , have a good day :)

Lysandre

So the challenge has been posted and it's cute!! I like this challenge because it allows me to think critically and analytically!! I am currently putting in WORK in the challenge but my tribe is flopping lmaoo. I'm trying my best to give them tips and tell them to mimic the common things I'm finding and apply it to their own pairings but something isnt clicking!! Hopefully we can pull out a win!

Lysandre

Can my tribe... do the challenge?? I refuse to go to tribal again but I also don't feel like carrying my tribe in the challenge by doing each one of the pairings extensively.

Flint

I’m glad I was able to sit out of the immunity challenge this week. However I am still feeling our tribe of 6 is actually 4 because I don’t see much interaction from Suzy or Charlie.

Lysandre

At this point I am preparing for tribal council. Jay announced the scores for the challenge and our tribe was down by 30+ points and in last place. An actual alliance (our alliance name) decided to vote David off if we go to tribal again because of his problematic behavior and mean comment to GiGi that he totally didn't say lmaoo. The challenge is basically up I'm ready to forfeit and go right to tribal.

Felix

So Suzy and Charlie do not seem to be contributing at all. This is fine I  guess since it just puts a bigger target on their backs as a result. I am just tired of these useless tribe members. Maybe it'd be better to go to tribal in order to vote them off so that they cannot turn on fellow Tuai members later since they wouldn't have that strong of a connection with us.

Felix

Flint just complimented me on my good work in the challenges. It seems that my challenge performance is being noticed. While this ensures that I will be safe in the majority of pre-merge, it will just paint a target on my back during the merge. Plus, I know I will be no good in these individual immunity challenges so let's see how this goes

Flint

I’m feeling pretty comfortable in the game, which makes me nervous something will happen. Our tribe is doing great in challenges and I have a strong alliance, I’m worried about an impending tribe swap!

David Penn

I am worried i will get voted off if we lost, i've only added like two things because i'm too busy rn.

Brianna

Welp. Late update but the Thomas vote went smooth. Also we won the third challenge so woo!!! Nothing really that new going on. There’s an alliance chat for me, Boris, Apollo and Bradley as well now so that’s...cool. That just leaves zest out for the next vote which I’m not too upset about since she doesn’t talk to me a lot.

Charlie

I'm scared I haven't been participating as much as the others and therefore might be out next. I need to start forming alliances ASAP

Bradley

I feel really bad. I did some of the plots for the spreadsheet but everyone else did more. I was busy with hosting family over for brothers bday i didnt really have time. Im glad we won immunity tho. It probably saved my ass.

Charlie

I think I may just have formed a secure alliance, we'll see though

Marie

This vote seems too easy, everyone except for David knows David is going home, not that I’m complaining one bit

Suzy quits

Kathleen

"Yeah tribal was cancelled but I still need to air my David feelings so this was my voting confessional:

Right. Well. You’re rude, you didn’t help in this challenge and I feel like you may have thrown your part in the last challenge even though you were very adamant that if people were not doing well in challenges they were a target. I do not in a million years feel like I can trust you. And I’m pretty sure it was you who wrote that horrible voting confessional for Gigi. Which was horrible and completely unnecessary by the way. It sounded like a bully. And I hate bullies. Bye, I’d say I’d miss you... but I won’t."

Felix

"Now that we are down one tribe member, it is essential to win this next challenge. Though this does mean that if we were to go to tribal council, Charlie would be the one to leave. We still have that safety blanket, but I am just nervous about what happens after Charlie is voted out. We need to do everything in our power to prevent that situation from happening.

I should have seen the One World twist coming since Jay seems to like it. Either way, the Tuai Quad Alliance LLC has decided that I should be one of the representatives out of the two. This will definitely make me seem like the leader of the tribe now. I just have to watch my back and see what happens. If they are going to perceive me like that, I might was well become it. Let's see how this all pans out."

Raul

Well, David better thank the Survivor Gods because we were for sure gonna vote him out. But alas someone quit, I hope they are ok and all is well. <3 Not looking forward to this one world twist -_-

Felix

I am trying to establish ties with a fair amount of people while we are in the One World. For one, I want to become friends with both Raul and Kathleen. They said they wanted to work with me earlier so hopefully they plan to keep that promise. I also want to see how much I can trust Bradley. I did give him the advantage so maybe I have an ally there. I've also talked to Lysandre a bit and think he's alright. Let's hope I can establish myself socially in this game!

Zest

Today is my birthday and I am so grateful for all of the sweet birthday wishes from everyone.

Felix

I must say that people are coming to me like bees to pollen. They all want to talk to me which makes the most sense since they all want to be social. Though some are better at it than others. I've been getting really good vibes from Lysandre, Kathleen, Apollo, and Marie. In that order. They just seem like good people. Also, Marie is 13!? Shook! I did gather some intel though from these people. Apparently, on Mea, David is at the bottom for being a rude-ass and being abrasive. That means if I am on a tribe with David, he will definitely be a target which might help later down the line. Marie is also very upfront and blunt. She asked me immediately "Who is on the bottom of your tribe?" Like girl. Be subtle. I'm not giving info out that easily so I just said no one even though it is clearly Charlie. Everyone on Mea though has mentioned this "bitch" who's on the bottom for being rude. It's David. I'm just so shook that they all are giving out this information that easily. It didn't take long for Marie to start spilling everything to me. She could be valuable as a rat later down the line so long as I don't tell her too much. Though she has said that her tribe really likes me for some reason. I am definitely rising as a leader for the game and will have a target on my back. Though it's great to finally have social ties that could carry me to merge.

Felix

Apollo mentioned working together. As in, if we ever worked together then that should be our alliance name (Club 96). Interesting proposal right there lol

Lysandre

This one world twist was cute until I came to the conclusion that I was playing the game with someone I had blocked and deleted and never wanted to play with ever again. I can see right through his alias and I literally want to will my idol off and quit. And I was really liking his alias until I started seeing connections and speech pattern.. yeah this is really ugly.

Flint

TWIST!! I knew the feeling in my guy was right. I was feeling too secure and now I have no idea what’s going on.

Marie

God knows what jay has planned as long as no volcanos are involved

Felix

Marie is being very pushy. I mean so I am but I like to think I am endearing. I think she is going to be pretty annoying for the rest of tribe so maybe she'll be the next up. Definitely don't want to be on her side.

Brianna

One world. New people. One survivor. Anyways. Marie is cool. But um. I’m tired and don’t feel like getting all these notifications from the one world chat but I also can’t mute it so ughhhh.

Felix

Cassie is just spilling all to me. She has an advantage that allows her to see how many alliance chats someone from the other tribe is rocking. That is such a useful tool. Especially late into pre-merge right before merge. I think it'll be really cool to fool her into using it. I hope she doesn't use it on me if we are ever on different tribes. Now, at least, I know that Cassie is loyal to me since hse is sharing all these details. Apollo is getting antsy that no one from his tribe will be a leader. I'm trying to convince it'll be fine, but he's not having it. He jsut has to trust me and then we can move on from there.

Lysandre

So Marie is actually Marie that's nice to know even though she wasn't supposed to do that ajdjdjsjs. And that impacts the game drastically because people are going to put their trust in her more now that they know she isn't a returnee. It is even having this round effects because she is about to be a leader. Deny the affects if yiu wabt but they definetely exist.

Lysandre

For the sake of Lysandre I am going to continue this game and act like I don't know who Felix is. Lysandre doesnt deserve to have their existance cut short especially considering the fact that they have an idol. They deserve all the love and support.

Dumbass bitch number 1 (Marie)

"To the tune of jeopardy:

Do do do do do do do, do do do do do, do dodododo, do do do dodo do do do, do do do do do do do, do do do do do do do, do do do do do, do dodododo do do do dodo do do do, DO, do do do do do do."

Lysandre

Moving forward in the game I, lysandre, would love to align with Felix in company with an actual alliance.

Boris

PSA: i love Jay

Volcano bitch

I love you jayyyy

Zest

Jay, sorry you are having a rough time getting home. sending good vibes your way.

Cassie

So, here's the thing. I love the vibe with my tribe and the alliance of Tuai Quad. I believe in them, but I know it could be a good idea to keep my options open and form new alliances too. A tri-leader alliance? Oh yeah. Only time will tell what I do with the information I get.

Felix

Another alliance chat down! Woohoo! This one is with Marie, Kathleen, Raul, Lysandre, and I. It's called Drama Bitches. This alliance I feel pretty good about but I do feel on the bottom since I am not from their tribe

Felix

To follow up, I have been positioning myself with people socially very well. It seems that everyone wants to be my friend and that everyone likes me. It will definitely be hard betraying them, but it has to be done. I need to put myself in the least risk out of everyone here in order to make it to the end. I feel I have done that. If people are going to be inactive now, then they must be the next on the chopping block. I hope everything goes well from here. Especially since I have connections on all three tribes. It should keep me safe in case of a swap

Felix

"It seems my socializing has paid off! Firstly, I was chosen as leader for one of the new tribes. I got to choose people for my new tribe that I would be making. I definitely saw this coming, so it was good that I was able to choose them myself. I feel confident with my new tribe. Everyone, except Boris, I have talked to at least once so that'll help. I think I have picked people that enable me to have power over everyone else if I play my cards right. How I see it: I have aligned with Joey, Lysandre, and Rual. I have talked a bit with Zest, and Boris I am just getting to now. I have talked extensively with Apollo. He and I have bonded really well. Perhaps that will keep me safe for the time being. Mainly why I picked the people I did is to have easy boots earlier on (Zest and Boris) and to have people I'm already aligned with be with me (Joey, Raul, and Lysandre). I definitely do think I have picked a good tribe though.

Secondly, my socializing has paid off in terms of immunity. I definitely saw myself having a bunch of connections, but I didn't know it amounted to being the most popular. I think, socially, I have positioned myself well. Now I just got to keep this momentum up in order to succeed! Hopefully, everyone I am aligned with makes it to merge. It might be hard for Flint since he is on vacation. In hindsight, I should have picked him since it would be easier to explain his situation if I was there. I hope he doesn't get a target on his back for being inactive tonight! I think that they might vote out David since he is annoying. I told Cassie and Flint this, so maybe they can use that to their advantage.

Finally, I think this might paint a huge target on my back. People are going to know I am very well-liked by a lot of people. If they carry that information with them, they could use it against me. That'll be a problem for later. Plus, I have an idol to fall back on in case that does happen. Overall, it is going extremely well for Felix Rodriguez!"

Really dumb bitch (Marie)

I just realized I’m a threat, and now I’m lowkey panicking because I just made a plan with some people about how we get to a merge with a majority and now I’m scared that they’ll see me as a strategic and social target because everyone I’ve talked to I’ve been able to persuade. Let’s hope I’m not the Michaela of this game and get voted out cause I’m to strategic

Marie

The second this tribe swap happened I already had so many plans and I’m scared that people might want me out because no one wants to sit with someone who started making moves the second they could?? I done fucked up

Brianna

Well new tribe. I’m pretty okay with the set up tho. Me and Marie have really clicked and we went to talking strategy right away. I’m glad Bradley is here. He isn���t on that much but he will probably vote with me. And Kathleen was another person I got to talk to a lot and she’s from original mea with Marie so that’s good. Haven’t gotten to talk to flint or Charlie. And. Talking with Cassie is just. It’s so dry so far....

Charlie

So the tribe just merged, I've formed a new alliance and I'm super excited to see where it goes haha. Feeling a bit nervous about tribal council however since it is my first one. But I feel confident I won't be voted out just yet

Felix

I have created "The Gold Alliance" with Lysandre and Raul. They have both given me permission to add Joey to the alliance chat. I wanted to add Joey in order to keep OG Tuai safe from harm. If I can do that, then being on this tribe won't be so bad after all. Hopefully, however, Joey can maintain a social status to justify me bringing him into the alliance. Otherwise, he is on his own. I  hope the other OG Tuai are doing well and avoiding elimination today

Lysandre

"Me in the middle of one world: Omg I believe I know Felix's real self and I am literally about to quit I hate the person that Felix is outside of the alias

Felix: Picks me first to be a part of his tribe. "

Lysandre

"Ok so the new tribes have me feeling pretty iffy. Yes I am immune at the moment but I am separated from both Marie and Kathleen. This doesn't give me any comfort knowing that I am on a tribe with individuals who I do not know very well either and being stuck with Raul who works all the time and isn't 100% aligned with me yet.

While on new Tuai, Felix decided to form an alliance between me, him, and Raul which was a fraction of the Drama Bitches alliance that was formed during One World that consisted of Me, Felix, Raul, Marie and Kathleen. Now I am not dumb. I am aware that Cassie and Felix are close and Apollo fits in there somewhere too. My eyes are open. SHARINGAN! "

Marie

If David doesn’t go home I’ll cry

Boris

"Whew so much has happened

I got an idol a couple days ago!! I can't remember if I wrote a confessional about this

Someone walked, I wasn't really all that interested in that.

AND THEN SUDDENLY WE'RE IN ONE WORLD and I have mild panic bc i hate one world's, too many people.

And then we gotta pick 2 leaders, Marie and Felix volunteer and me and the rest of Sumi tribe ALMOST fight because we're messy heauxs but we eventually let it happen

And then tribe swap!! Surprise!! Except no one is actually super surprised but here we are anyway. And best of all, my dynamic trio alliance of me and Apollo and Zest is still together? When will ur faves? So yeah I'm in a good position, I like this tribe way better than my first one"

Maynor

I think it might be me going or its gunna be David. Thats what my vote is gunna be. Hopefully it works.

Brianna

I forgot if I said David is the target but David is the target.

[daskpr01]

Spring 2017 Top 10/9

I think is pretentious of me to pretend I know what I’m talking about here, and I didn’t really watch enough this season to really do a fair comparison on what was the actual “best” anime. This is just me ranking the few I watched in order of personal enjoyment.

[WARNING: SPOILERS]

10. Nothing Sadly, I only watched 12 anime this season, three of which (Sagrada Reset, My Hero Academia 2, and Yugioh VRAINS), are continuing into the next season so I have nothing to put here!

9. Attack on Titan 2 Honestly, I just don’t care for this series in general. It’s enjoyable to watch, but lacks any real substance for me. I did like the second season a little more than the first. Though the first season was much better at telling the story, leaving each new episode on a dramatic cliffhanger, but season 2 was better in terms of character development. I finally was able to find myself being somewhat invested in the characters which was impressive to me. Plot wise, it didn’t really go anywhere, besides revealing things we had already speculated about (or had spoiled for us) long ago. Let’s see how things go in season 3.

8. Grimoire of Zero I was pretty excited fit this one quite a while before it came out. I really liked the idea of an inhuman protagonist that actually had s bestial appearance and I felt the concept was finally something different from typical fantasy anime. And for the most part it was. It was well paced with depth, emotion, some beautifully portrayed scenes and engaging plot developments. Up until the final episode… It suddenly felt rushed and seemed to me like the written fell back on predictable cliches just to quickly move along the story. Then we’re just with a surprisingly unsatisfying conclusion. [SPOILER] Mercenary’s motivation was to become human, so not being able to see his desire fulfilled was rather disappointing to me. I understand this an adaptation of a light novel so I assume the story goes well beyond the end of the anime, but with the possibility of a second season being rare, it feels rather incomplete. (Also, no kiss between Mercenary and Zero??) [/SPOILER] Everything else was great though, so it’s really disappointing that the ending wasn’t as good for me.

7. Anonymous Noise I think this one was good and any issues are probably more personal than anything. The protagonist’s, Nino’s, obsession with one of the love interests, Momo, could get pretty annoying especially when the better guy, Yuzu, kept getting the short end of the stick. I feel like the story was kind of unfair to his character, like they only tease at the possibility of him “winning” the affections of Nino, but not really giving him a fighting chance. I dunno, maybe feeling these emotions actually makes this show good! It was dramatic and enjoyable to watch, plus pretty good music as well. I’ll definitely reading the manga at some point. (P.S. I ship Momo x Yuzu LOL)

6. Starmyu 2 For some reason, I’m having a hard time figuring out what to say about this one. I don’t feel like it hit me as hard as the first season, but there was a lot of great things about this season. It sort of had a rather “romantic” concept (not the love kind). Seeing Hoshitani realize the truth and come to peruse and realize his dream is beautiful. There were also several emotionally moving moments that got me a little choked up. It delivered about what I expected, a nice conclusion to the only unresolved plotline from season 1 and drawing the final curtains on the series.

5. Natsume Yujincho Roku This is such a hard anime to talk about due to its episodic nature. To be honest, I end up liking some episodes more than others which make it difficult for me to really judge a season as a whole. Overall, I think I liked a majority of the episodes in this season. I really enjoy episodes about his past or about Reiko. We also get to see a lot of interaction between Natsume and Natori this season and a furthering of their relationship (as friends). Plus plenty of good feelsy story as per usual. We also get a pretty interesting “reveal” in the last episode that make me anxious for more. I hope they don’t stop adapting this lovely series, I would like to stick with the anime through it’s completion.

4. The Royal Tutor It started out as such a cute, funny bishie anime, but as it progressed, the hints of a more serious plot line that really sucked me in. Although the manga is still continuing, the series built up to a rather well done filler ending that was pretty emotional. In this day and age when anime rarely go beyond a 12 episode season, I really respect the writers decision to do a filler ending, especially one as satisfying as this. The characters were all likable as well, and there were a lot of good messages throughout which are both very important aspects to me in a story. I think this one surprised me the most in how good it ended up being, definitely enjoyed it a lot.

3. Berserk 2017 I feel like I’m one of the only people who like the new Berserk anime. Sure, the CGI is a little clunky, but the story of Berserk is still incredibly awesome. I’m not yet familiar with the manga, but from what I’ve heard, the adaptation was extremely accurate. Personally, I don’t find the animation to take away from the badass moments. I really enjoyed this season. Schierke was an interesting new character and it was great seeing more Serpico in action, plus I finally got my introduction to the Berserker armor. Berserk is just a great story regardless. Hopefully we’ll get a new season next spring as well.

2. Tsukigakirei I feel like the romance and slice-of-life genres have been overused in recent years, but here we had nice, more realistic portrayal of romance. It really illustrated the awkward and dramatic, as well as the innocence of adolescent romance. The interactions between the leads was very believable and much was relatable. I remember experiencing a lot of the same things the protagonists went through, bringing back feels and frustration (in a good way). I also feel like their relationship reflect a lot of modern romance with much of their interaction occurring through text. If I were to have one problem with it, it would be [SPOILER] that they get married in the end. I know, I know, blasphemy, right? But realistically I don’t feel that would happen. Long distance relationships don’t tend to work out, nor do people often stay with their first love or “high school” sweetheart. I dunno, perhaps I just have a cynical view of relationships in real life. Tone wise I think the ending was fitting, but personally, I would have left it open ended or give it a more bittersweet end were they just grow apart and eventually go their separate ways to reflect the truth of real life. [/SPOILER] Still a great romance story and worth watching.

1. KADO: The Right Answer Oh gosh, I wonder if I’ll get complaints for putting this as my #1… I’m truly baffled by how much hate this show is getting because I loved it. I was curious about this show because the synopsis alone sounded new and different, and I ended up being sucked in by the first episode. It did have a bit of a slow period in the middle, but (and I know this a minority opinion) it really picked up in the second half. I wasn’t all that interested in zaShunina in the first half, but he really developed into a fascinating and tragic character that I really found myself feeling for in the end. It utilized interesting sci-fi concepts as well as some spirituality. I really appreciate the blending seemingly contradictory ideas. The plot twists totally blew my mind too. I had a feeling from the beginning that this was going to be a great show and it really delivered for me, it’s sad that it didn’t for a lot of people though. Personally, I feel that has a lot to do with the fact the show kills the zaShunina/Shindou ship… Forgive me for not being a big shipper, so I wasn’t bothered by any of the plot developments in the series [SPOILERS] i.e. zaShunina becoming an antagonist, Shindou’s relationship with Tsukai, or killing off both protagonists. In fact, I really respect the boldness of killing off your main characters. It’s a refreshing idea you don’t often get to see and I feel like not every story needs a happy ending. [/SPOILER] I thought Kado was great and is my favorite for this season.

Welp, those are my opinions, so tell me what you think if you like.

[tylerjosephsdimple]

One Sided Love..(JoshxReader)

This was requested by —- Reader and Josh have a baby together on a one night stand. Reader fell in love in such a short amount of time but Josh has different and a secret that changes everything and I’m not saying that Josh would ever do this in real life. WARNING MAJOR PLOT TWIST AT THE END! I’m evil. I’m gonna leave you hanging. ;) But this is split into two. Reader’s Point of View “Yea, you should have been there. I was playing basket ball with Josh and tried passing him the ball but he wasn’t paying attention and nailed him straight in the face.” Tyler laughed. I chuckled and looked around. Tyler and I have been friends for awhile but I haven’t actually meet Josh yet.  I have heard about him a lot but never had time to meet him. Tyler just got back from tour and he was telling me about all the memories that happened during tour.  I missed Tyler a lot but he had bigger things that he had going on in his life and I had to be okay without actually being okay with it. “The best part was that he blacked out for like two minutes. He’s fine but it was funny.” Tyler said. “Anyways, what going on in my girl best friends life? Anything new? Boyfriend? Best Friends? Have you replaced me?” He looked at me pretending to be hurt and put his hand over his heart and his other hand was motioning a single tear.  I laugh and push him lightly. “Oh never.” I say dramatically. “How could I ever replace you, dear old friend..” You laugh. “Hey, I’m not that old. Hey, I have an idea.” He smiled. “Oh god, this isn’t going to end well. He has an idea. Lord have mercy.” I put my hands up in a praying way. “You’re just a meanie. But, I think you should meet Josh. How long have I known you and you have never meet my rock star bandmate. Plus, I think you two would get along fairly well.” He winked. “Uggh, Why are you like this and that sounds fun….The meeting him part not the ummm, anyways how are you and Jenna?” I asked trying to change the subject. “Were fine but I think we should get back before its pitch black outside.” He turns around and starts walking back the way we came from . “So, aliens.” “Dude, I so believe that they are real. Like how could they not be. I honestly, don’t understand people that don’t believe. How could there not be something that is living besides us in this universe. I mean were here right so how could something else not be here?” I love topics like these but this wasn’t up for debate for me. Aliens are real and I would bet good money they don’t have football heads with bug eyes. “You took the words out of my mouth.” Tyler chuckled. “But I understand. But, what’s up with that probing stuff. Like, where did that come from?” We walk up to the house and I just laugh. I open the door only to be greeted by an amazing smell. I turn to my right and see Mama Joseph holding a big pot of Chicken Soup. My absolute favorite. “Whoa, Mamma J. You need help?” “No, thank you dear.” She smiled. “Come on lets go to my room. Jenna’s getting your room ready.” Tyler pulled my arm and dragged me down the hallway into his room. This was always my second home since I met Tyler. I come over all the time. I went into the room and looked around. Just how it was left last time I was here. Tyler was on tour for  months and I missed coming around but I always came to Jay’s basketball games. Him and I were always close but not as close as Tyler and I. “Awwe, Y/n! You’re here. Its been awhile.” Jenna came into the room and hugged me. It was more like a death trap rather than a hug but it was cozy. Kinda, not really. I hugged her back and let go after awhile. “Y/n, you must be tired. Lets get you to bed.” ———–

“LETS GO ON AN ADVANTURE, Y/n!” “Uggh, Its too early. What time is it?” I say as I pull the bed covers over my head to try to block the sun from my face. “Um, Let me check. 10:56, so almost 11. GET UP YOU LAZY ASS.” He yelled. “Ugh, come on. Where are we going?” Yes, it was late. No, this isn’t unusually. I got up and walked to the my backpack and grabbed it. “Just to the park, then ice cream. With Jenna, You and I…..and Josh.” Tyler whispered the last part but I still heard it.  I looked back at him with wide eyes.  

“You didn’t.” I whisper with wide eyes and my jaw dropped. “Oh, but I did.” Tyler smirked. “and I’m not sorry.” “Why you gotta do this to me, Tyler? And, such early notice too.” I groaned and got up trying to make myself look somewhat presentable. I choose a Fall Out Boy shirt and a red flannel. Then, black skinny jeans and black vans. Eh, I look okay. Just need to slightly curl my hair. After everything was done me and Tyler walked to the park by his house. “No, but Giraffes are the most alien like creature. They have black tongues BLACK TONGUES! And, why are they so tall like why. Yea, They need to reach food on trees but like black tongues.” I chuckle at my choice of words. Tyler laughs but agrees. We continue to walk when I suddenly bump into to someone. “Oh my gosh, I am so sorry. I wasn’t looking to where I was going and —” I look up to the person and see that it’s the guy in all the magazines beside Tyler. “Oh Josh, Duh.” “Okay, not the best start but Y/n this is Josh and Josh this is Y/n.” Tyler laughed at my awkwardness and I just glared at him. I looked at Josh again and might I say he is a mighty fine fellow. And, his eyes are just so whoa. They were so consuming. I couldn’t look away he was just so beautiful. His hair was a purple color that fit him rather well. He smiled and it was a really good smile. He had a snapback on and a Panic! At the Disco, muscle shirt with black ripped jeans and burgundy vans.  He looked good. I liked that shirt on him but I’d like it better o–. “You done staring Y/n? Jenna’s gonna be here right now.” Tyler laughed but Josh just smirked and let me tell you that was really freaken attractive. “Oh look she’s here.” Tyler pointed at Jenna and ran towards her. “So, Y/n you know that were gonna be the loaners while they go do cute couple stuff. Major third and fourth wheel.” Josh informed me. “I think i can handle it. Just a reminded that I’ll be forever alone.” I joked. Well kinda. “Oh, come on. A beautiful girl like you would have any guy on there knees.” He smiled. He then got closer and closer until he was right next to me. He was so close to me that I could feel his breaths on my skin. He then leaned closer and turned his head right next to my ear. “Kinda like me.” He whispers. He then starts walking towards Tyler and Jenna like nothing. Welp, that just happed. Act calm Y/n. A really hot guy just said I was beautiful. Wow. *TIME SKIP*  

A couple weeks after Josh and I met we started hanging out a lot more but there was also a lot of playful behavior. Like, one minute he would flirt with me then the next he would ask if I wanted food. First off, was that even a question. Second, It was really freaken confusing. Right now, Tyler, Josh, Jenna and I were watching Suicide for the hundredth time.  But, things got a little more interesting and unexpected. Josh and I were up and awake but Tyler and Jenna feel asleep in each other’s  arms. Josh suddenly grabbed my hand and laced it with his. He wrapped his arm around me and started kissing me. Okay, this wasn’t the first time this had happened but I still got butterflies each time. I have to admit something. I fell for Josh in such a small of time. I realize that. But, just because I know that doesn’t mean that I am willing to accept it. I don’t want to be in love but love isn’t a choice. But, it was hard not to fall in love with him. Josh was a great guy. He was like a guy in some school girls dreams. Ya, know that guy with dreamy eyes and a perfect personality yep that was Josh. But, even through the flirting I think he doesn’t feel the same way. It was just an act nothing more. “Lets take this to the room…” *SORRY I DON’T WRITE SMUT* Use your imagination.….yea do that. The sunlight came pouring into the room signaling that it was time to wake up. Oh boy, here comes reality. I wake up with a headache and turn around without opening my eyes. I’m one of those people that  have to lay down to wake up I don’t know its weird. I snuggle my head closer to the sheets when I hear a soft snore. Memories of last night came flooding in. I smile at the thought and turn around to face Josh. He was sleeping but that came to an end as he began to stir awake. His eyes fluttered open reveling the brown eyes that were once hidden. His hair was a curly mess but it suited him. He looked at me and smiled which I returned back. “Hi.” I chuckled. “Hi.” He smiled. “Well, I guess its time to get up. I’ll make breakfast.” He said as he turned back around. He got up and got dressed and I did the same. He walked out of the room but not before mumbling something. “What did I do?” He sighed sounding sad but continued walking. “What was that?” I call after him not understanding the words that were being spoken. “Oh, uh nothing.” He smiled. But, I could tell it was not a genuine smile.  I didn’t think much of it and started to walk towards my phone. I had 4 texts from Tyler and 1 from Jenna. I clicked Tyler and the first message was….., T: So, Like can you keep it down please? T: This is really weird. T: Jenna and I are just gonna ya know go. T: Wait, this is my house. I laughed and then I clicked Jenna’s name. J: We left. See you in the morning. I guess. Okay, then. I set my phone down and walked into the kitchen where Josh was. —————-

I was sick, once again. I personally hate being sick. I don’t know why you would like it but hey, I don’t judge. Anyways, Jenna knew I was sick an insisted on helping even though I denied her tons of time. I think I’m fine, I’ll just throw up and go on with my day. I think its nothing but a stomach bug nothing more. (We all know where this is going. Typical. Haha)

“I think we should go to the store and get ya know, a test.” Jenna smiled nervously and looked over her shoulder. My eyes go wide as she said those words. “You really think that.. I-I’m p-” I cut myself off with the sudden realization that comes to mind.

—————– Okay, I’m going to make a part two of this and I’m really sorry but I just want to get something up and so I decided to just make a really long part two. So, I have been working on this other writing and wanted to give you a little peek of what’s to come. Breathing was getting harder and harder as time passes by for Tyler. He knew he had to tell Josh. He knew that it was going to break him. He knew that he didn’t have long. But, one thing he didn’t know, was how Josh was going to act. Tyler was scared, fiddling with his thumbs while looking at the rain that was pouring outside, setting the scene. As if the weather was planned for this exact moment. He was going to tell Josh, it was only a matter of time. Josh was like a metaphoric angel to Tyler. Josh was the only thing that Tyler truly loved and Josh returned that back to Tyler. They loved each other and that’s all that mattered. Not all people would agree with them being together but they kept quite because even they could tell how in love they were. For awhile it was amazing, some may say it was too good to be true, and it was. Sadly, it was. For what once was peaceful and loving would soon be shattered by the thing that had no cure. Just because it had no cure does not mean that there was no hope. Even Tyler himself had hope, him being the one the who was most effected. br>   Yes it’s a Joshler writing.   That was just a little taste.    

[quarkie-blog1]

Thoughts on Arc-V

Welp, finally finished it. Now that more than a day has passed, I’ve been able to properly sit down and think about it more carefully. This is just really a ramble of what I found was cool and what was terrible in the series. Some of them were from reading online (with points that I consider valid), others were more of my own observations/opinions. 

While I don’t have very strong opinions, I may be brutally honest...

So let’s start with the beginning, what I found was really awesome about Arc-V. 

1. Yuya’s personality Following the cheerful and naive Yuma, we have Yuya the entertainer. The first thing I had noticed was that his father had also disappeared, like Yuma’s. Yuya does act goofy, but one could easily tell that he was doing it purposefully, to make others get a laugh out of it. For me, this way of speaking and acting intentionally is something I can relate to on a very fundamental level. While the first season shows that it’s not the best solution to simply laugh it off, I was impressed that he did something rather than staying depressed. The other that did make Quarkie like him is that he handles kids well. It’s just that in the previous series you don’t see it too often (Even with Yuma, who was only looking after Haruto for a little while). Yuya was able to make the kids at Yushow school laugh, and he certainly cared very much about Reira. 

2. Entermage/Performapal deck I know a lot of people found it laughable, but I found it refreshing. The previous MCs had decks with warrior/dragon/magician monsters as the majority. (I don’t know about Yusei’s main deck yet, but I’ve been seeing a lot of Junk Warriors and Stardust dragons). Again, it means that Yuya’s ideal wasn’t to show “strong via strength”, but “if it can make people smile”.  The other reason why I liked it was also because it seemed like a troll deck... when people won’t take the circus animals seriously and the odd-eyes pendulum dragon appears next minute. 

3. Female characters (mostly Yuzu and Serena) The best of the female characters in Yugioh were never able to beat the main character in any duel. Now enters Yuzu, who does so in episode 2. Furthermore, they had given her duels and moments where she develops her dueling. I don’t know about Akiza but this is not seen in the others. Serena’s duelling seems more consistent but you see how her views on Academia change as she is with the Lancers, and how she forms a bond with the other Lancers.  I’d like to take this time to address about Rin and Ruri being “neglected”. I do not know if it really was necessary to have all counterparts having more even screentime, but I was happy enough if there was just one or two properly developed females. Or maybe some just like Ruri or Rin more. 

4. Synchro arc This was where things were most interesting to me. Yes, it was another tournament, but the situation isn’t as safe for our characters anymore. I enjoyed all of the duels, and don’t consider them a waste of time. When the Lancers were up, I could compare their dueling to season 1. I think Serena and Shun’s had the most difference. I wouldn’t have gotten as attached to all the Lancers if it wasn’t for the Synchro arc. On top of that, Yuzu had continued to demonstrate the fruits of her hard work in dueling.  The Lancers had also struggled with the values of the society in this foreign world. Particularly Yuya, and he had to climb up his way so that he can be heard. I found this rather realistic. I do suspect that other than because he had no name Jack Atlas was more critical of him not being honest to himself. 

@homura-bakura had also made an interesting take on Yuya’s egao, and how that develops throughout the series. You can read it here, and I believe that the Synchro arc had significant influences. 

5. Pendulum summoning Like before, a new series meant making summoning monsters quicker. In a similar manner: - When synchro summon came out, you can special summon a monster without waiting for the polymerization card - When XYZ summon came out, you don’t need to wait for that tuner card to come out.  In this case, you can summon several monsters at a time, no tributing needed either. Oh, and your monsters don’t go to the grave if defeated in battle.  I imagine at the beginning there was perhaps rage about this, but there was encouragement and hype also for the other types of summons. By incorporating the dimension wars and summons, they were able to show a wide variety of duels of different styles. In Arc-V, there were specific duels that could easily show that pendulum summoners could still be utterly destroyed.  

6. The music Kotaro Nakagawa was the one who composed the music, the same one who arranged the music for Code Geass. Obviously I wasn’t let down. 

7. The themes Very early on, we’re shown about there’s something lurking in the background. And we come to know about the tension between the dimensions. I found this clash of ideals between different dimensions/societies rather interesting. It’s not just with the differing views about carding people in the series, but also how to resolve conflict as well. There are a lot of people (mostly from the XYZ dimension that believe in defeating enemies and carding them back is the method, while Yuya and his friends simply want to stop them). The stakes are really high, which realy adds more onto the challenge of how is Yuya going to achieve by “bringing smiles to everyone”? The other theme of course is “the other self”, which is common in all Yugioh series. I found it interesting at first how all four MC counterparts already had physical forms, but they were linked by the same conciousness when they are in a desperate duel, or brought together. 

There’s other things that made me really like it, but those were the main ones. Now in terms of the things that I can’t help but notice was terrible... this is in no particular order. 

1. Action cards and Tag Duels For me this isn’t absolutely bad, it was just something I wasn’t too fond of. I have heard that many Japanese fans were also not happy about how the tag duels were handled? I’m not saying that they were a bad idea, but rather it felt there was more plot armour incorporated at times. This could just be me though... 

2. Animation quality Admittedly I watched the Synchro arc and everything else after finishing Zexal. So... it was disappointing seeing the animation wasn’t as consistent. I mentioned before, I suspect that it seemed likely because of the DSOD being in development at the same time. This honestly saddens me. 

3. Yuya’s personality Yep, I like Yuya’s personality, and I do like some of his flaws incorporated in, but there are some that seem a really strange to me. Namely, when Yuya feels like a bit of a hypocrite to me. From Synchro arc, he begins to tell others the importance of smiles (perhaps he started in the previous tournament but I don’t quite recall as much). While he has good intentions, he hasn’t been doing much of a good job with maintaining his own smile as compared to season 1. Particularly when he goes into berserk mode by Roger tampering with his helmet. I guess you could argue that it was showing that Yuya’s previous method of laughing things off isn’t working, but I find it questionable that they would make him seem like a hypocrite. (Also I guess I just didn’t like this flaw in general, but that’s my own opinion, it just doesn’t sit well with me since I don’t feel like it ever got properly addressed). 

4. Side characters (Part I) - Kaito Tenjo, Edo Phoenix & Jack Atlas I haven’t watched much of Jack Atlas, so I won’t talk about him too much. My issue is not that “Arc-V versions made them OOC”, since if I was to write a fanfiction it’d probably be even worse... In Arc V, they are like alternative selves in a parrallel universe but with the same name. Unfortunately, Kaito and Edo were introduced when there were obvious pacing problems. Edo’s abrupt change to accept that “duels can make you happy” was something of a problem ongoing since early Yugioh, but I felt the need to mention it anyway. (Yes I see this issue at times even in Zexal...). However, I can completely understand the issue with Kaito Tenjo. In the context of ignoring what Zexal Kaito, Arc-V Kaito seemed to be acting OOC. How did he suddenly decide to help Yuya and the others when they were surrounded by the Obelisk force? What made him become more accepting of people from the fusion dimension? The questions were still not answered... I know that these three (and Crow, and Asuka, etc) are to be considered side characters and we shouldn’t be too invested in them, but this is creating a plot hole....

5. Side characters (Part II) - Asuka & Sora Sora was a character we see since the first few episodes of Arc-V. I admit that I might have gotten a tad too excited to see his cute but also scary persona. When he had left the Standard dimension there was an unfinished duel against Yuya left hanging. The next time we see him again in Synchro arc, he seems too agreeable with helping Yuya? I legit thought that he was perhaps faking everything, but by the time we reached the 100 episode it didn’t seem like the case. In which this leaves another question, what made Sora do that? Now with Asuka, I don’t mind her having less screen time as with all of the previous gen characters. However, I just question what was her purpose in the duel against Yuri. Maybe they ran out of time, but I was a bit confused when I saw Yuri holding a card. It was then I realised that the duel didn’t even take place at all on-screen. 

6. The last arc: Episodes 141-148 - Responses from the characters By this time, I had low expectations already, since I had a feeling it would be hard to salvage everything after the dip from episode 100ish. However, I felt that there were a lot of questions that could have been addressed. How did the Lancers feel about Yuya being Zarc? What about Reira? (Do they still think of Reira as being too young?) What made Reiji’s mother suddenly care about Reira a lot more? Shun was obviously devastated about Ruri and Yuto not coming back at first. How the heck did he come to the conclusion “Oh, I should accept the duel with Yuya because it’s alll I have left”?  The story really falls apart here.. Overall, I felt that there were a lot of people becoming happy a tad too quickly, and there was no one questioning Yuya’s identity. I know that duels are more important (and it seems that the japanese audience sees them as just as important as plot), but surely some could have already been incorporated in?

7. The counterparts This isn’t a complaint about how they’re all inside Yuzu and Yuya now. It’s not the happiest ending, since they were the most loved side characters in Arc-V but it is oddly realistic. The problem is that it really doesn’t leave much of an impact. (The closest I can relate to is when Atem left for good in DM, but they had spent episodes building towards that) I’ve mentioned that things were really glossed over already, and once again Yuya seemed to have accepted too quickly when Yuri suddenly was talking to him. On second thought, since when did Yuri become so encouraging?

Final thoughts: 

Did I enjoy Arc-V? Yes. I loved the characters and the music. I was very focused on each duel. However, at the back of my head, my alternative self would always go “HAH....” at the end of several episodes. 

There were many things I don’t think were executed well. Whilst I wasn’t raging or angry, there were a lot of unanswered questions in the end. (I don’t expect them to be answered, since it seems like it’s left to our own interpretation and imagination now). EDIT: Yes, I know it is a kids’ show on card games, but it seems that towards the end it wasn’t getting good reception even in Japan (based on Nico nico video rankings. Whether it was due to trolls I don’t know, but glossing over duels didn’t help). 

Seeing the fanfiction section yesterday, I see that people are going be creating stuff to fill in these gaps we are left with at the end of the series. (Either due to rage, or wanting more out of it). Whatever the case is, I think all readers/viewers should be additionally appreciative of others making something to give you maybe a version that should have you more satisfied with. 

That was a long ramble... thanks for reading, and it was enjoyable being in the Arc-V fandom. 

[calliecat93]

ST: TNG S5 Watchthrough Episodes 6-9

The Game: Alright, took a few days off but it’s back to business now! In this episode, Wesley is back on break. Gonna be honest, the show was pretty much unaffected by Wesley going so haven’t really missed him much, so I was indifferent to him coming back. But how did his guest star episode go overall? Eh, it was alright. So Riker got brainwashed via the titular game device on Risa (Dear Lord that place must be cursed) and he does the same to the crew upon returning. So yeah… we have a ‘Wesley Saves Everyone’ plot, albeit I can forgive it since it would be kinda pointless to bring him back and not be major and the brainwashing plot gives a good reason. It does a good job making me paranoid of video games cause haha… yeah the brainwashing process just from that is wild. They don’t even act brainwashed, which makes it even scarier. Wesley and the Ashley Judd character have some good chemistry, although I doubt it’s gonna ever come up again in Wesley’s other appearances. It is irking that while they did have an excuse for it this time we had to make everyone out of it so that Wesley can play hero and is still overly competent, but to be fair he DID still get caught at the end of an admittedly tense chase scene and he had to get Data back up (he got taken out since the game otherwise wouldn’t have affected him) to save everyone. Which the crew forcing the game on Wesley… that was legit horrifying. It was a fine episode, if you’re a fan of Wesley it’s one that I recommend… but as I’ve made it clear that I’m not, I’m just meh about it. But because of the scenario they used, it’s very much Wesley’s best episode, but we’ll see how his other guest appearances go. 3.5/5.

Unification P1: While this isn’t a final two-parter, I’m still gonna do an overall rating and that will be the one I use if this makes it onto the Best/Worst of S5 list. So… I have been so excited for this one! Why? Well in this episode, an ambassador has gone missing on Romulus… Spock. Yep, you read it right. Spock is back! Why has he gone to Romulus and did so without authorization likely knowing what would happen if Starfleet found out? Well, we’ll go into that later. But because of it, he’s been marked a traitor and Picard has been given the unfortunate duty of informing Sarek. Which if you recall in Sarek’s episode, he melded with Picard so… let’s just say that Picard has a stronger understanding of things than normal. But it gets worst. Sarek is dying. Yep, his condition has taken its toll and indeed, he dies in this episode and never sees Spock again. The whole scene when Picard goes to talk to him is just… Dear Lord that was just agonizing to watch. I know that technically he had The Undiscovered Country as his final appearance, but this would be Mark Lenard’s final go in a series and he did an amazing job. It’s so clear how much regret, pain, and love towards Spock that he had and the fact that they weren’t unable to reconcile in the end is just heartbreaking. Hell just seeing him in the state that he was in at that point was hard to watch. Picard talking to Data about it when Data questions why they never reconciled… well they kinda did during the films but eh. Still, a very sad moment but one executed very well. We’ll go more into Sarek and Spock for Part 2. Back on the plot, Picard and Data go undercover on Romulus ala Kirk during The Enterprise Incident only he only had to go on one ship, they have to go onto a whole planet. Actually, there are a good few similarities with that episode. Spock has seemed to go traitor, the captain has to go undercover, and it involves Romulans. Albeit Picard didn’t have to act like he’d gone insane as Kirk did. Thus for the first time, we see the Romulan homeworld… and it doesn’t take long for Picard and Data to get found out… and brought to the figure that they are seeking. This brings us to… oh right first the rating, 4/5.

Unification P2: SPOCK! AAAAAAHHHHH!!! Oh God, I knew that missed him, but I did NOT realize how much until the end of P1. I’m just so happy to see him~! Alright, back to seriousness. So… why is Spock on Romulus? Why did he risk being labeled a traitor by going to the planet of what may be Starfleet’s greatest enemy at the moment? Simple, a mission of peace. As it turns out, not every Romulan is an evil asshole and there is a movement that wishes to reunify with their Vulcan brethren. Hence why Spock is there, a decision that he made on a personal choice to avoid what happened in The Undiscovered Country when he was involved with the Klingon efforts and it landed Kirk and McCoy in prison from happening again. First, Leonard Nimoy is as perfect as ever. Mind you this was apparently being made about the same time as Undiscovered Country so he was already in top form, but still. Spock is very much older, but he carries a lot more wisdom and maturity here since he’s since long come to terms with his issues. Sarek’s about the only snag left, and… we’ll go into that soon. It’s kinda hard to watch because if you’ve seen AOS you know how this is ultimately going to end, so it makes it feel like Spock’s efforts are… kinda pointless. Still, it’s very much Spock would likely do even if he did know how it would end and it’s best to try than do nothing. It can hopefully inspire better things in the future despite what we know happens. The talk between Spock and Data was also really good and Thank God they they pointed out the cardinal difference between them: Spock is half-human who chose the Vulcan way of life, Data is an android who wants to be more human. Also hilarious that Spock says he has no regrets when he outright said that he went to Romulus on his own essentially because of what happened to Kirk and McCoy when he involved Starfleet. Ah Spock, never change~! The ending. Picard allows Spock to meld with him so that he may see his father’s final moments. Which his reaction… yeah it’s… it’s just sad. Spock never got the chance to reconcile… but he did get to see that yes, Sarek loved and respected him. After all those years, he got that closure, and Thank God that he was allowed that. It was good. Not perfect, we’ll go into the snags here in a bit, but just seeing Spock again and him being as great as always made watching it worth it. 4/5.

So overall, it was good! Not perfect, but good! The highlight of course is Spock’s return and allowing closure to him and Sarek at long last. Which those scenes were handled very well and Spock is very much the best part of this episode. But while the episodes revolve around him even when he isn’t in P1, it doesn’t feel like he overshadows anyone. Picard and Data were good and the Spock and Sarek conflict is used to allow some good moments like Picard's history due to the mind meld and Data questioning things like why they didn’t and about wanting to be more human. Not obviously they didn’t know about how the 2009 film would go about when they made this, but the chance for Romulan to reunite with Vulcan and showing that there are Romulans wanting change is really good. Now like I said it’s not perfect. The pacing does drag a bit and honestly, the rest of the Enterprise gets nothing to really do. You could cut most of their stuff and it would barely impact anything, but you can’t just cut them out so… at least they got something to do. Sela comes back… and not only is this apparently her final appearance, but they have her be an utter idiot by locking Spock, Picard, and Data… in a room with a computer with no guards in the room… uuuhhhhh WTF? Y’know had they gone with that ‘brainwashed Tasha’ suggestion that I made I could make sense of it, but again this is Sela’s final appearance so wow, what an utter waste of great character potential. Then finally again knowing that the 2009 movie will essentially make Spock’s efforts null and void… well it sure as Hell makes me even less endeared to the film than I already was. It’s those kinds of snags that stop me from giving it a perfect overall rating. But still, I really enjoyed it~! The plot was interesting, the growing of the Romulan conflict was good, the scenes involving Sarek were very well done, Spock… well I made that clear, and of course, Spock at last getting the closure that he needed was sad, but satisfying to at last have. So while not perfect, it felt like a genuine tribute to Spock and his character, and I can appreciate it for that. 4/5.

A Matter of Time: Oh joy, more time travel. Hooray…So we have a time traveler from the 26th Century arrives on the Enterprise for historical purposes.I thought the guy playing the professor sounded familiar… and it turns out he voiced Panic, Hades blue-colored minion, in Hercules. Welp, THAT was not a voice that I expected to recognize XD So… it was alright. Maybe it’s just because of how hyped about Unification I was, but the episode just kinda caused me to zone out. The actor playing the professor was fun. I don’t wanna give away the big plot twist but long story short,t he professor isn’t who he says he is and Matt Frewer portrays the conman-like attitude very well… though his creepiness towards Crusher is ugh… creepy. But Crusher handles it soundly, hence why I love her. Apparently the episode is supposed to show the darker aspects of the non-interference clause of the. Prime Directive, the professor withholding information that could potentially save a dying planet but he won’t budge. If that is true… then the plot twist kinda ruins that since without giving anything away, it really muddies up the intent.. Like I said, I kinda just zoned out. It was fine, Matt Frewer was the best part of it, but nothing to write home about. 2.5/5.

[caseyvalhalla]

1, 4, 10, 16, 21, 30, 40, 44!

Whoops, meant to add 49 to that, too!   You can answer whenever you've got some time. :)

No prob! Here we go~

1. What was the first fandom you got involved in?

The first online fandom I participated and made content for was Gundam Wing, back in 2003.

4. Do you regret getting involved in any fandoms?

Not really, no. I've been involved in quite a few to varying extents, and whether I just dipped a toe in at one point with no commitment, or wandered off to do something else after a while, or finally hit the point of "welp I think I'm done here" and made a deliberate exit, I don't regret the time I spent in any of them at all.

10. Is there a fandom you read fic from but don’t write in?

Quite a few, actually. Most of the time if I enjoy a piece of media and have a ship I really like I'll go looking for some fic; whether or not I end up writing fic is a whole different set of circumstances. Most recently I've read fic for Voltron, Tales of Xillia/Xillia 2, Haikyuu, Soul Eater, Natsume's Book of Friends, and Welcome to Night Vale, according to my Ao3 history.

16. Are there any popular ships in your fandom which you dislike?

I guess I'm a wholesome goody-goody in some regards bc I like the sweet protagonist ships (not without their problems or a dose of angst but generally speaking, fluffy) and avoid things that are really dark/kind of fucked up just by virtue of existence, so by that account there are... lots of ships in hxh that I steer clear of. My feelings about them vary but overall its just "this is not my thing, it's someone else's thing, and that's cool, it's just not mine."

I have not ventured much outside of victuuri in the yoi fandom but I'm pretty open to most things. The only thing I'm not cool with is Yurio being paired with the adults (Yuuri and Victor especially). Like. He is smol. Let him be smol. Let him date Otabek in like a year or so. He's too tiny and angry to be tossed into an adult relationship.

21. What was the first fanfic you ever wrote?

It was some short thing for GW that I'm not sure I ever posted.... maybe I did? I only remember that it was maybe 500 words and from Quatre's POV.

30. What inspires you to write?

This is so complicated. Sometimes when I first get an idea for a story then I'm really excited to write and it'll just go whenever I have the spare time to write it, and that might last anywhere from an hour to a few weeks or a month. Sometimes being excited isn't enough, though, and I'll open the doc and stare at it for a minute and then go do something else. So I'm not sure. It's some unholy combination of excitement, energy, motivation, and time, and the likelihood of all of these things converging at once is rare.

So usually what I have to do is figure out what I most feel like writing, and then set aside a block of time to work on it, usually first thing in the morning on a day when I don't have any other commitments, and then I push myself to actually get a few paragraphs or a few pages out even if I'm really not feeling it. Inspiration is great but you have to figure out how to work without it, or nothing ever gets done.

40. What do you struggle the most with in your writing?

Like everything. Okay. Maybe not everything but some days it feels like that. On a technical level, I tend to struggle the most with the middle parts of a long story, where I've gone through the introduction and built up the tension and revealed the major conflict, but now I have to establish a handful of circumstances and maneuver these characters into whatever positions and relationships states of mind I need them to be in before the plot can start resolving. It can get really tedious and that's what I'm struggling with in Spring Haze right now--if I can just get everyone slotted into the right places then it's all downhill! I just have to get there. Ugh.

On a more personal and existential level I struggle a lot with self-doubt, which is unfortunate and probably part of the above problem tbh, because I get to that middle bit and start second-guessing all of my decisions and fretting over plot points I didn't pin down early on and left free-floating somewhere in my outline. There's also the problem where, if I post something and it doesn't get the kind of response I wanted/expected I'll get depressed and start thinking it's no good and that I'm a talentless hack and no one cares about my work. None of which is true, yeah, but in the moment it just feels crappy and can be hard to shake off.

Most other things my beta reader deals with, with grace and aplomb xD

44. What is your all time favourite fanfic?

I think Where the Wild Things Are by @theisraelproject is the fic I've read the most times over, from any fandom ever.  More recently No Less Unthinkable by rageprufrock just completely blew me away with characterization and narrative voice and sheer awesome.

49. How did you get into reading and/or writing fanfiction?

There was this sort of perfect storm of events sometime late in 2002 in which I was a) watching a shitton of anime, b) influenced by a very vocal fangirl, and c) had in-home, unsupervised access to the internet for the first time. I was already familiar with the concept of webrings from my previous internet adventures, so it didn't take me long to find all sorts of shrines and archives for various shows--there was also a site called Anime Web Turnpike that was just a warehouse of links to practically *everything* anime-related on the web, including conventions (which is how I ended up at Sakura-con a few months later). Anyway, at some point I ended up at Gundam Wing Addiction, discovered what a lemon was in an unexpected trial-by-fire, read everything I could get my grubby gremlin fingers on, figured out how to subscribe to their Yahoo!Groups mailing list, and it was all downhill from there. Thank you, GWA. Rest in peace.

[bastardtravel]

November 24, 2017. Kutná Hora, Czech Republic.

Trains aren’t so bad once you get used to them. The tall German girl from Athens was right (although I suppose “tall” is sort of a redundancy in this context). By the time I finished this morning’s existential blogging I only had a half an hour before the train left, and it was a 25 minute walk to the station. Pretty standard odds. I skedaddled across Prague, got yelled at by the lady at the bus line and sent down the metro line where a much nicer lady sold me a $5 ticket to Kutna Hora and said, “Platform 4”.

Welp, I found platform 1, went toward it, went away from it, went toward it again, then stopped at a money changing booth and asked the lady there where Platform 4 was. She said, “Just keep going straight”, and I did, and- ahhh, okay, so it’s not like an airport.

Seats were at a premium. I tried to slip into a six-seater booth that only contained one old white woman, but she told me in Czech that it was reserved. It’s reassuring to know that old white women are like that no matter where you are.

I eventually found a seat in the cattle car section and spent the ride staring out the window and thinking about bones.

A smooth hour later, I got off the train in the middle of nowhere. Since there were no roads in the middle of nowhere, hence, nowhere, I had to walk down a set of train tracks. Talk about nostalgia.

In the halcyon days of my youth, everything was a minimum four miles from everything else, and much of it was only connected by highways and bypasses. If you couldn’t drive, and you wanted to go somewhere, you took the train tracks, and you hoped there were no railway police, hallucinating junkie hobos, or Leatherface murder-hicks with the same idea.

After a few blocks the tracks ran parallel to a paved road so I had to hop a shoulder-high fence that was, as far as I could tell, made wholly of rust.

Kutna Hora was silent. I didn’t realize it at first, but for the past month I’ve been dipping from one major city to another. Traffic, noise, low-level metropolitan chaos was a constant, and the only respite I’ve got are these Wal-Mart earplugs which, realistically, are not long for this world. A car would pass, and then I could count breaths and heartbeats before another one came. You don’t realize how much you miss something like that until you don’t have it.

I basked in the quiet until it was disrupted by three Australians behind me, pointing blithely at anything with a steeple and saying, “Is that it?” On the third time, I asked if they were headed to the bone church.

“Is that it?” they repeated.

“Nope,” I said, “Around the corner, couple blocks up. I was wondering what brought ya’ll to this hub of tourism.”

They said they were studying in Prague, then asked the usual battery of questions you ask to anyone in Europe with a backpack: how long you been out, where have you been, how long will you stay out, etc. We reached the cathedral and separated before we could finish the song-and-dance.

Before we get to the good stuff, if you don’t know what the Sedlec Ossuary is, let me give you a quick rundown.

In 1278, an abbot named Henry was sent by a Bohemian king to the holy land. Pilgrimage complete, he scooped up a handful of Jerusalem’s finest dirt, then brought it back and scattered it around the abbey cemetery. Boom. Transubstantiation. That was no longer secular bohemian land, but rather, hot new Holy Land, and everybody in Europe wanted to be buried there.

Many of them would get their wish within the next hundred years, because that’s when the Black Death hit. The bodies business was booming. Then, early 1400s, the Hussite Wars make the cemetery even bigger.

The local Roman Catholic diocese responsible checked out the plot of land and said, “You know, all these consecrated bodies are great, but what we could really use, right here, in the center, is a Gothic church.” So of course they built one. Problem is, that takes a hell of a foundation, so they had to exhume a lot of the bones of the buried faithful, beplagued and slain, then just kind of… tossed ’em in the basement. No harm, no foul.

None of this was decreasing demand to get buried in the Holy Land away from Holy Land, so the bodies were still, literally, piling up. The church, in their infinite wisdom, assigned a partially blind monk the task of exhuming more bodies and stacking the bones. That was his job. Until he died, and presumably joined them.

1870 rolls around, and House Schwarzenberg is now the owner of the largest pile of bones in Europe, containing the remains of between 40,000 and 70,000 dead people in the same way that a Boston cream contains its filling when you squeeze it as hard as you can. Something’s gotta be done, so they hire a wood carver, for some reason, to put the bones in order. Little did they realize this wood carver was nuttier than squirrel shit, and lo, the Sedlec Ossuary was born.

It was incredible. It was also the first time I’ve ever touched a real human skull sans skin. They’re surprisingly tiny, but that might have been because most people in medieval central Europe were like 5’0″.

I puttered around oohing and aahing at all the upcycled dead people until the selfie brigade started to grate on me, then I went to the only restaurant in Kutna Hora and ordered what I hope wasn’t traditional Czech food from a surly, bottom-heavy waitress with eyes dead enough that she could’ve also come right from the Ossuary.

It was an unseasoned chicken breast with reduction of Cream of Spinach soup on top. I didn’t realize Kutna Hora catered to bodybuilders. I ordered the potato pancakes as a side mostly for their German name, Kartoffelpuffer. Teehee. Kartoffel means potato in German, but that’s from the Italian tartufulo, which refers to a truffle, but originally both came from terrae tuber, or earth-bulb. Puffer is both self-explanatory and pretty funny.

Well, I saw the bone church, and I ate. According to tour offers, I could spend the next 6 hours in Kutna Hora learning about a medieval silver mine, but that sounded boring and awful, so I caught a train back to Prague and slithered on to a connecting FlixBus. I couldn’t order the ticket online, so the bus driver made a big deal of saying, “It will be 150% more if you buy from me now.”

“You mean, 50% more?”

“150%.”

Well, it was about 15 Euros for the ticket online, and I wound up giving him 20, which was almost all of the Czech money I had left anyway. I have another 200 or 300 CZK left in my pocket (around $25), but I’ve been on this bus for a couple hours, and I’ve got to be in Austria by now.

You know, considering my track record, you gotta wonder how many ghosts I dragged with me outta that well-stacked pile of bones.

Love,

The Bastard

Kutná Hora: The Bone Zone November 24, 2017. Kutná Hora, Czech Republic. Trains aren’t so bad once you get used to them.