#the plot deepens

[kaisumisucreations]

okay the hollow knight post has gotten around 2,700 notes in 5 days, and became my most popular post on kaisucreations followed second by another hk comic.

the bug fandom aint fucking around 👀💦

[theblackestofsuns]

"The Plot Deepens"

Love & Rockets: New Stories #5 (August 2012)

Jaime Hernandez

Fantagraphics Books

[botlabyrinth]

the percy jackson tv show is actually great when there isn’t a little shit in your ear telling you it’s not “book accurate”

[kacievvbbbb]

In my opinion (which admittedly doesn’t mean much) JJK is a story that could’ve and maybe should’ve gone on for much longer than it did while mha should’ve ended earlier than it did.

To me jjk feels rushed while mha feels dragged out.

[quenthel]

I wish RPGs were stories about something and not just epic hero sim with romance content... Like the romances should be one piece of the puzzle and deepen your understanding of the romanvxed characters story that in turn interacts with the major themes of the work.... We need to stop fan service...

[longagoitwastuesday]

I am liking Jujutsu Kaisen, way more than I imagined I would, but I foresee it will let me down and it's keeping me from enjoying this as much as I could haha

I think the characters and dynamics are well set, and I think many of them have an incredibly good and deep potential, but I would be willing to bet they'll not get a proper development, enough for them to really hit. A well assembled set of gears is not enough to make the movement go, you have to wind the clockwork.

I think Gojo and Megumi have a fascinating and very complex dynamic, but I doubt it will be given the time and care that imo it needs to actually work. And it is going well enough for now! One could see the intimacy between them was deeper than the one Gojo had with, say, Yuji and Nobara ever since the very first few episodes despite the fact Fushiguro too was a first year. But the pieces forming what they have are extremely complex, and it just wouldn't be realistic if it doesn't show, even if in a not showing way, or if it doesn't have consequences or implications.

It's one of those dynamics that shape one's life, the way one regards the world, the way one establishes or not relationships with other people. It's one of those dynamics that could be full of fondness, gratitude, resentment, admiration, trust, and that imply intimacy, the good kind or the bad, even if in just the knowledge of someone who's been a constant through your life. It could, and would, imply a myriad of feelings, and probably in such a mix it could imply contradictory feelings too. Even the nothingness would weight, even the nothingness would be significant and meaningful.

Gojo took Megumi and his sister under his wing, the son of a man who murdered him, because of both selfish and selfless reasons. Megumi looks like Toji. What does Gojo feel about this? How does Gojo deal with this? How does Gojo go about taking care of Megumi? Would he walk him to school? Make him breakfast? Celebrate his birthdays making him blow candles? Did he take him to the zoo? Does the relationship between them feel professional or is it something more? Gojo appreciates his students, but is Megumi to him just another student? When Gojo faces Sukuna in Megumi's body, did he see the kid he raised, or does he just see Sukuna in one of his students' body? Did he have one faint wavering instant? And how does Megumi feel about this? Is he resentful of him? Resentful of the situation? Of the selfishness behind his actions? Does he feel like a pawn? Is he grateful? Does he resent feeling grateful? Would he rather not? Does he love Gojo? Does he feel nothing about him other than what he could feel about a teacher that sort of annoys him but knows he's reliable in his strength? Does he think it unfair, cruel or unfeeling that Gojo is close, closer perhaps, with Yuuji or Yuta, considering their story? When Sukuna slices Gojo in two, does the remnants of Megumi's soul tremble?

And not just Megumi and Gojo. Yuuji and Nanami, Gojo and Nanami, Yuuji and Fushiguro, Nobara and the boys, or Nobara and Maki, Todo and Yuuji or Yuta, Gojo and Yuta, Megumi and his sister. Gojo and Geto, even! If the pieces are well set, the dynamics are intriguing, interesting, and have potential to be deep, but then the characters have like two plot relevant scenes that punch you hard, but little more, it's not nearly enough. Especially not nearly enough for the enormity that is shonen dynamics and situations. And the potential existing at all, and then not delivering, makes it all the more frustrating when you're left with something mediocre that could have been so good.

The development of dynamics through not only a few plot relevant gut wrenching moving scenes, but also the smallness of life, is important. The friend who recommended this to me said that those things were just unnecessary filler, but I disagree. I think there's a big difference between a large amount of anime-only filler episodes whose existence is based on the fact they had run out of manga chapters to animate, and moments of quietness. The low stakes character-driven moments of quietness can be so telling and so insightful, and they are so satisfactory when brought back later in higher stakes situations. My friend teased me there was no scene of Gojo making breakfast to Megumi, that it would be an idiotic idea, but it would be so telling. How he makes breakfast, what they eat, if he tries hard or if it's all mechanised, if they have personal bowls or if they use whatever, if he just buys them some pastry on the way to school, if the way they have breakfast changes through the years, or if he doesn't make them breakfast at all! All that would be very insightful on their dynamic and its evolution. All that would give a glimpse on how they regard each other and why, even in the present. All that could become meaningful in tense situations and high stakes scenes.

These moments also let the plot breath; if a lot is happening all the time, if every character is always experiencing trauma after trauma, the entire story is so emotionally draining that at some point you don't even care all that much. Besides, these nothing moments or low stakes plot arcs, besides deepening and developing dynamics, also let some in-world time pass, which would make the intimacy and bond between characters more believable imo; between Yuuji eating Sukuna's finger and their last confrontation in December how much time has passed? A few months? Am I truly to believe these characters are so everything to each other in only a few months?

Without some smallness, some repetition, some daily life, some low stakes not plot-centric development, the dynamics don't hit, they don't truly feel fleshed out, and dynamics as complex as the ones Megumi and Gojo have, or as supposedly meaningful as the one Megumi has with Yuuji or his sister, should be fleshed out if they're going to exist at all. Otherwise they'd risk making the writing feel awkward and fake. Besides, if the dynamics felt well fleshed out and realistic, they would shape the way the characters interact and act, and how they deal with situations, thus being plot relevant.

The shonen genre has so much happening all the time, the stakes are so high, the dynamics are so rooted in big events and the relationships carry enormous weight and implications. Yet they barely get developed, and it feels so stupid, so plain, the absence of something so important noticeable like a constant void, a shapeless nothingness present in every scene. It makes the characters feel like cardboard figures. Jujutsu Kaisen is already getting a better job than many, but I doubt it will do enough for what I've heard, and I fear I am bound to feel let down, and bound to feel unmoved.

After all, if not enough time and care has been given to develop a dynamic, I am not going to feel pressured by the high stakes; if not enough time and care has been given to develop the dynamic between Megumi and Yuuji, as good potential as it has I am bound to feel little for this last confrontation between Sukuna and Itadori, and his effort in getting Megumi back.

[morporkian-cryptid]

I'm getting overwhelmed again with wanting to rewrite the entirety of Lupin III - Goodbye Partner as a fic my own way, because I am still salty about how Jigen's betrayal was handled and I am pretty sure I could do a better job than TMS did (hell, they handled that same premise better in Seven Days Rhapsody, and it was a B plot!!)

Except I can't do that because 1) I have to finish writing Hanafuda and 2) I have like. zero plot for it right now (but I know if I put my mind to it I could)

In the meantime please have this song that makes me think about what that movie could have been, while I daydream about magic tricks and lighters and proceed to chew at my walls 👍

[iobartach]

That screenshot scene is so misinterpreted because people think that Miguel's evil for replacing his alternate self. The guy only wanted to help raise, Gabby just so she wouldn't go on with the rest of her life without a father

tell me about it, anon-mon, i could go on for ages about how some folks still to this day claim he was a villain rather than an antagonist , when, y'know ... the spot also existed 🥲

that said, i continue to be on the fence about it myself? like it feels we're getting the cliffnotes version of what miguel did -- what's the full story? was there more to his decision than what he revealed to miles?

and whilst on the one hand, it is sweet that he wished to be there for Gabriella, even if it meant pretending to be someone else (like, how did nobody cop the red eyes?!) it's also ... skating on some reaaaaal rocky ground here. inserting himself into another reality, leaving his own... unprotected? presumably?

like there's so much to unpack here the more you dig into it. and i love checking out posts that explore this in detail. it's very interesting.

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

rewatching 13s era for me is not so much diminishing returns as it is something opposite and eviler...............increasing losses? increasing losses

[selene-moonie]

if you're going to throw deaths at me, make it make sense.

you see that shit hiro mashima pulled with gray after the grand magic games? i stopped the manga for that shit.

do not. i repeat. DO NOT. KILL YOUR CHARACTERS UNNECESSARILY

[kath-artic]

one of the hallmarks of my favorite things media-wise is when the line between reality and fiction starts to get blurred. ntbts does it, fishing with john does it--those are the two main ones i'm thinking of rn. even in real life if someone tells me a story and its told well enough that i don't immediately clock it as bullshit + believing it doesn't have any consequences, then I just choose to believe it no matter how outlandish it is. 0 skepticism makes the world so much cooler

[alphawave-writes]

It Will Come to Pass Chapter 2: Ghost, Guardian, Angels, Shadow | Casper Darling x Tom Zane

Darling and Zane learn more about the TZEs and get a clue as to who might be the cause. A stranger confronts Zane about a terrible deal he made 30 years ago

[lupismaris]

The found family aspect of the Oceans trilogy is unparalleled, unmatched, unattainable even

[werewolf-apologist]

ppl who complain that muto hates finn or that the show loses focus on finn bc it also includes side character episodes……..are u ok

[etherealphosphor]

I was almost done with my newest fic, but of course I had to go and come up with a better idea for it and now have to rewrite a ton of scenes.. (;´ ヘ`;)

I apologize if this one takes longer than usual! It’s for the best. <3

[todayisafridaynight]

they called me that because the last boy i hooked up with like. it was so weird. we fucked once and i told him: yo i dont want anything serious or even a fling. i just want to maybe casually hook up here and there. and he was like: ok

then a couple of days later i wake up to a HUGE text from him where he detailed a "dream" he had of me which was. SOMETHING. i want to translate it to you so you can enjoy it in full.

"i dreamed we went to middle school together, we were from different classes and there was a running competition that i won and became popular even tho i hated it. i was on the mess hall and my ex was yelling at me that she wanted to break up and she hated me. then you saw that and felt sorry for me and asked me to date you in front of her, she got mad and slapped me so hard i fell. you took care of me in the infermary... 2 days later she asked to get back together but you tried to protect me and you fought until you almost died. i didnt see who won bc there was a school shooting and i died."

can you imAGINE getting this text message at 8am and not immediately hanging yourself. he was batshit insane. that bitch later stalked my reddit.

anyway so YEAH daigo and yayoi i feel your pain my dudes.

THIS IS THE SAME AS THE REDDIT STALKER DUDE????