#the prequels are all about people trying to save their world and failing

[charmwasjess]

I think I realized what is giving me such frisson about Sifo-Dyas's whole last words/final transmission to the Temple thing.

It's the fact of a prequel character, in an era that is so much about inevitable narrative doom, cynicism, and corruption from within, looking straight into the camera and earnestly saying "I've done my best."

Like. It didn't work. But I don't know, there's something really beautiful about that moment.

[themattress]

Birth by Sleep was the point the KH series began going downhill. It was hyped up as a prequel that would answer a lot of questions, which it did...but it also had somehow mutated in development into something that went beyond that into recontextualizing the entire series rather than helping to logically progress it, which included heaps of blatant retcons that contradicted the previous games. All the new Keyblade lore in this game never went away and gradually consumed the series, as did its main villain for a long period of time. The anticipated fall-out of "save Terra, Aqua and Ven from their tragic fates" transformed into "save everyone from their tragic fates", undermining any dramatic weight the series had.

Yet despite that, it was on the whole executed quite well. I love the graphics, the music, the gameplay, the Disney worlds, the overall atmosphere, the new characters and their superb designs, the mini-games including the Command Board, and even the story on its most basic level plus clever writing/pacing by Daisuke Watanabe that shines through even Nomura and Oka's clunker of a script. It may not have lived up to expectations and was when the series jumped the shark, but there is so much good in it that keeps me coming back all the same.

I cannot stand Xehanort the Keyblade wielder as a character, for a multitude of reasons I don't want to relitigate here (I feel everyone ought to know them by now anyway). But despite that, there are three places where I actually enjoy him a lot - in Birth by Sleep where he's written as just the delicious wicked, unsympathetic villain of that story and origin behind Terra-Xehanort plus is voiced wonderfully by Leonard Nimoy; in Kingdom Hearts III's Re:Mind DLC where he's just treated as an enemy you can enjoy hating and beating up without thinking about him all that much plus is voiced wonderfully by Christopher Lloyd, and in the KH3 manga adaptation where most of the problems he suffered from in the game have been excised, from having his plan depicted as a new comeback rather than "the pre-destined master plan all along" to having the unearned pathos and dignity in his send-off removed.

358/2 Days is a mess, but it's.....how do I put it....a sincere mess. It's got the same dumb shonen anime vibe as KH2 did, but dumb shonen anime that are genuine and comfortable in being dumb shonen anime are charming to me, moreso that dumb shonen anime that overreach and try to pretend they're some avant-garde work in the way the KH series grew into from Dream Drop Distance and onward. I consider Kingdom Hearts, Chain of Memories, Kingdom Hearts II, the special editions of all three, the original Coded (the mobile game that doesn't exist anymore), 358/2 Days and Birth by Sleep to be the Golden Age of the franchise.

Xion kicked off many unfortunate trends that would contribute to the degradation of the KH series and as a character she's very shallow in how plot is put ahead of any form of distinct personality, but that plot wasn't half-bad all things considered (it should have been a disaster, yet it shockingly wasn't), and while her personality may be tepid her personal struggle is effectively portrayed and I can't blame people for getting invested and choked up over it.

Of course, I straight-up love the manga version of Xion. She doesn't qualify for this meme.

Kingdom Hearts III is an abomination of a story, just one shade removed from its direct predecessor Dream Drop Distance. It officially killed any interest I have in the franchise going forward. But much like Birth by Sleep, it's a damn well-executed game! The gameplay, while shallow, is really fun, and by God the Disney worlds are superb - they may be the most filler they're ever been plot-wise, but they've also never been better designed, successfully combining the best of KH1 and KH2 style design in a way BBS and DDD failed at while also cleverly incorporating different genres of gameplay that match the world's aesthetics. The Gummi Ship is a similar "best of both worlds" situation, I adore minigames like the Bistro, Classic Kingdom, and the Flan Heartless, and all the stuff brought about in the Re:Mind DLC (except for fucking Yozora) is fantastic (Data Greeting, my beloved!) So while KH3 being my final big experience in the KH series could have been better, it could have been worse too.

Under better circumstances many characters from the X sub-series and overlapping Lost Masters Saga could have had potential, but the writing is so bad that I just end up turned off of the characters altogether. Except Strelitzia. Despite (or maybe even because) her having some of the worst treatments of a female character even by this series' standards (which is saying something), I can't help but appreciate her. While I hate the "Keyblade wielder in ancient times" angle for all of them, something about the dynamic between Strelitzia, Lauriam and Elrena is endearing and adds a lot to the bond between Marluxia and Larxene that beforehand was just a shallow one rooted in mutual power-hungry aspirations. So even if I disregard literally everything else involved, I'd still want to headcanon Strelitzia as existing.

[mareastrorum]

I’ve been relistening to Witcher 3 music so I can more readily identify songs during the next Nein again watch, and it’s like, I should just replay it. Again. For like the 5th time. It’s such a good game.

I want to clarify something for anyone who hasn’t played it: there is a popular quote that gives people a completely wrong impression of Witcher media. It first appears in the prequel book, and it’s been rehashed into the various shows, movies, and games, and it goes:

Evil is Evil. Lesser, greater, middling… Makes no difference. The degree is arbitary. The definition’s blurred. If I’m to choose between one evil and another… I’d rather not choose at all.

It’s in the prequel. The very start of Geralt’s story. The book tells about his recovery at a temple interlaced with short stories where things just kept going wrong. Young Geralt’s dream of becoming a white knight swooping in to save people is demolished, and he succumbs to depression and despair. He is a mutant freak rejected by common folk. His romance collapses. His purpose is thwarted. He can’t save anyone. Every attempt fails.

And at the end of the book, he keeps going. He makes a choice that it is still worth it to try. He leaves the temple, essentially gives a giant fuck you to the knights sent to chase him out of their lands, and resolves that he isn’t going to stop trying.

Geralt’s story is that doing good isn’t about winning. It’s about doing what little you can even when you can’t be sure of the result. He makes mistakes. Sometimes he makes the wrong conclusions about how to fix something, and other times he helps someone with malicious intentions. Most of the time, the people with good intentions are also bigots or tyrants. If he had just waited, if he had just let things happen, he’d have seen that there was always a downside, and it’d have saved him the effort—but he hopes regardless and steps in, in spite of all his cynicism and naysaying. He doesn’t go gentle into the night, and he’s a bitch about it the whole time.

There’s no justice in these stories. The world is horrendously unfair and full of monsters. Geralt only ever holds off death and pain temporarily. The point is that life is still worth living, people are worth saving, and love is worth the heartache.

So if that’s the kind of story that helps when the world is this bleak, I heartily recommend the game. The first two aren’t as well polished, but also enjoyable. The third is wonderful, and it doesn’t take long to understand the lore.

Also, the music is fucking fantastic.

[glassshard]

Whenever I don’t like a major piece of media I really like to analyze why. Ever since the RLM Star Wars Prequels reviews I’ve found this exercise super helpful. I think it’s even more helpful than analyzing why I love a piece of media, since my heart is a lot more shallow than my head, and will happily latch onto media with all kinds of problems simply because a boy was stabbed in a sexy way or the music was good.

But after ten hours of Baldur’s Gate 3 this weekend, I just had to drop it. I don’t like the game. It charmed me at first with its high production values and its excellent exploration, but my ardour cooled quickly as it began to butt up against my personal predilections. At first it did so in totally subjective ways with its unlovable D&D mechanics. I don’t know D&D and the game did not have any interest in teaching me about it. It just kinda throws you into a system that has no place in a video game in my opinion, full of unnecessary tedium and opaque mechanics. But you know what, that’s just me. Plenty of people love it. I could deal with bad gameplay, I like lots of games that play like crap. Let me sing you a song of the Legacy of Kain series.

But then the story failed to grip me. It’s written like fanfiction, with no explanation for any of the races, proper nouns, or concepts because you’re expected to already know them. I love in media res, but c’mon. Ya know what though? Still just my opinion. Open world games are super popular, lots of people love them. Remember how much you enjoyed Dark Souls? Look at that vampire, keep going. Sure he’s walking around during the day and vampirism in this setting just seems to equate to some Spirit Halloween accessories but it’s fine!

But then! But then! Then that vampire killed my character in a cutscene! And I thought that was GREAT. Unexpected! Finally! The game’s getting good! I’m invested! I’ll need to save scum and reload but-

Wait, I don’t need to? That wasn’t a game over? I can... I can rez my character? My character died in a story cutscene and I can have another character rez them with a scroll? And then... then I can go talk to the vampire because he’s still hanging around? But I can’t even tell the other party members about it? This is... this is not right. This feels objectively not right.

You can’t use a game mechanic to rez a story death. That’s not how this works. That’s like if Cloud had pulled out a phoenix down on Aeris or Corvo just started shoving jellied eels down the dead Empress’ throat. That is deflating the very concept of death in the game. There are no stakes now. Why should I care about anything? Why do people even hate vampires in this world if death can be cleaned up with a square of toilet paper available from any shop?

Still, I pushed on, in a stubborn daze. This was a sixty dollar game, I had to keep trying!

The underwear inventory slots felt juvenile but that’s fine, that’s fine. The character designs are extremely Ren Faire, but no big deal. One of the party members is named after a Care Bear but don’t be superficial, Ashley. I can equip armour I’m not proficient in and the game’s not going to tell me why I shouldn’t, but I’m not going to take it personally. The mind control mechanic is making every interaction feel cheap and silly, and all the parasitized party members feel fake and offputting. It seems very contrived that they’re traveling together, and I don’t understand why my character would remain in the company of ANY of them when he himself knows they have his same mind-control powers and can never be trusted and sometimes the illithid powers are framed as course-altering and sometimes they’re not and nothing is consistent except the cartoonish characterization of the “evil” races but it’s fine, it’s fine, keep going

But then I got to a portion where my character was able to ask a dead Mindflayer questions about the plot. And I realised, sharply: I do not care about the answers. I do not care about this world or this cast or any schemes at play. No immersion will be happening; my suspension of disbelief is irrevocably snapped. This is a Saturday morning cartoon with dicks.

And it all really went back to rezzing that story death. While a lot of my gripes about this game are completely subjective and to do with my own tastes, I think it’s objectively bad design to allow a story death resurrection. It deflated everything for me and I couldn’t recover.

So! I did not like Baldur’s Gate 3, and in my mind my character’s story ended when their trusting nature was exploited by a vampire, and they were killed. But the experience did teach me some interesting things about my own tastes, and what I require to become invested in a video game narrative.

[lilith-is-off]

Ghostwire: tokyo x Ninjago Au #1 (?)

Ok, I'm not sure if any of my followers or mutals ever heard about this game but I opened it recently again and couldn't stop thinking about it(still not over microsoft closing tango gameworks)

So for those that don't know the game I will summarise ita bit(w/o spoilers ofc) Basically you play as guy named Akito(first pov playthrough) who got possesed by a spirit of a guy named KK after people from whole Tokyo sudennly vanished. Your job is to collect all of the souls, fighting youkai and monsters named visitors while trying to save your sister Mari from a guy named Hannya. After merging with KK, Akito gains powers that are a result of formers affinity to ether. (If you are interested in playing the game it will be free on Epic Game Store from 31st October till 7th November - Ghostwire:Tokyo- Prelude is free on both steam and EGS all the time- it's a prequel to GW:T made as a visual novel)

So for the Au:

All of the pairs will be scattered around diffrent parts of Japan

Not every duo becomes later a couple (I choose some pairs for diffrent relationship dynamics)

Spirits will later regain back their bodies(their psychical bodies are in some sort diffrent realm which is placed between world of death and livings)

Pairs are presented in order of appearance

I had to change some of game worldbuilding for the sake of the Au and my own sanity(like spirits comming back to living)

Jay (vessel) x Cole(spirit) - will become a couple

They were both part of the same team since highschool (now both in collage)

They often bicker but it is a part of their strong relationship

Back in the day others often assumed that they were already a couple (no one told them) so they both complained of begin unable to find a partner and even recived weird looks whenever one of them flirted with someone else

Cole became a spirit after a failed attempt at purifying the shrine, he knew that Jay wac close so thats why he possesed him

Cole was the one with the powers and Jay was his support with bow and talismans (plus acctual knowagle about their enemies and some sort of plan always in his head)

Before every mission Jay alwasy studied building plans so they would have a way to escape

thanks to their good cooperation Wu never woried about sending them on a mission(he never expected that eventually Cole will be th one that will end up dead)

They both know Zane(was a member in their team)

Before The Vanishing Jay was the one to make usable objects for them while studying Hannya's actions alongside with Wu and Zane

Cole was responsile for buying groceries, checking and refilling their supply from Nekomantas and cleaning(applied to both their hideout and his and Jay's collage room)

2. Kai(vessel) x Zane (spirit) - not a couple

Didn't knew eachother before

They have a hard time getting along at the begining due to personality diffrences, they make it work eventually

Zane "died" after begin stabbed by Kuchisake

Kai's goal is to rescue his kidnapped sister that was taken by unnamed man(one of people that works for Hannya)

Kai was taking care for him and Nya since their parents death

Zane never was a human- he used to be a visitor named Shiromuku that was born form negative feelings that surrounded area close to Dr. Julien's home. He was working with previous generation of Wu's team and with the help of Shimo(name I choose for previous master of ice) they managed to cleanse the visitor which later become a boy named Zane - the one that was created to protect those who cannot protect themselves

Even tho Zane's powers manifested as ice, after he mearged with Kai his powers manifested as fire which they often are mistaken as ether

after regaining Zane's body Kai loose all of his powers

3. Lloyd(vessel) x Harumi (spirit) - will become a couple

They both knew eachother since childhood - Harumi was Japan's princess and Lloyd was a son of high rank officer

Harumi used to work for Hannya but backed out when things get out of control - the reason why she joined him is bc he promised to bring backe her bio parents which end up begin a lie

Harumi was escaping from Hannya for months not knowing from whom to seek help, eventually she was separeted from her body by Hannya himself

Lloyd was always aware of other world existence and able to see what others couldn't- when he was young no one told him that he sould never reveal what he can see, so he was a lonly child

His mother dissapeared when he was 6 months old- leaving him with his father that fought with Hannya's power inside him to not turn into a visitor - this power was inherited by Lloyd and gave him other ablilities that no one was avare of (they manifested after Harumi possesion)

For a very long time Lloyd had a hard time with trusting Harumi after finding out what she did- it often put them in extreamly dnagerous positions since they were unable to cooporate and trust eachother - it often lead to them begin separated by stronger enemies

They somehow made up after Lloyd risked his life while trying to take Harumi's body from Hannya who needed it for a ritual and Harumi almost destroyed it to save Lloyd from Hannya

Once their relationship becomes more steady Harumi helps Lloyd with finding his father that left to stop The Vanishing from happening and disappeared(Lloyd found out about his father plans after finding his journal at one of his friends house)

4. Zane (vessel) x Pixal (spirit)

After Zane regains his body, him and the rest of the team (bruise and llorumi are still merged) stumbled int Cyrus Borg that worked on a project that will be an opposite of a visitor born from positive emotions and feelings and named her Pixal which become his assistant (Borg helps with defeating Hannya from the shadows)

Zane feels drawn to Pixal due to thier similiar nature

At first Pixal doesn't have a physical body - she merges with Zane which boost his powers

Pixal is extremly knowegable when it comes to youkai and visitors- Borg insisted for her to learn everything in this topic

She can sensein which direction then can stumble into a friendly youkai(better than spectral vision but is unable to sense visitors and ether objects)

She eventually gains a body that is made by Jay and filled with ether

She doesn't have powers on her own which led her to learning how to fightit

After gaining her own body she asks to refer her and Pixal or Yukine

5. Lloyd (vessel) x Morro (spirit) - not a couple

Morro is forced into Lloyd after a ritual which led to Cole and Harumi begin separeted from their partners and send somwhere else

They really don't get along

After Morro learned that Lloyd is Wu nephew he resented him even more - he was Wu student, he told him that he has a great potential but didn't let him search for Hannya. Morro escaped and end up dead and blamed Wu for it(he was a lost kid that was told he can become saviour of the world)

When their relationship finally become more steady(they found Wu that managed to made up with Morro), the team manages to travel into the realms of spirits thanks to Morro's sacrifice

6. Nya (vessel) x Cole&Harumi (both spirits)

Due to team changing the realms the world kind of fck itself and Nya ends up separated form Hannya and regains conscioudness just to realize that she have two people in her head

Thanks to two spirits in her body Nya ends up with a very strong ether energy- sometimes she lose control over it

They have a hard time with agreening on the same thing

Thanks to Harumi's obserwation they realize that Nya's the best at using water ether

They eventually end up in realm where their bodies are placed in and find Nya's and Kai's parents that were held captive there

After separating from Cole and Harumi, Nya looses all of her abilities besides weaving water ether

Even after separation Lloyd doesn't loose his powers and Jay loose them(he's only left with spectral vision and his trusty gagets)

So that's it for current partners in the Au- if it will gain some interest i will make more about it and may even make some drawings. I still need to find a way to get Kai and Jay their powers later(I have an idea that may work for Jay). I also need to make a proper timeline and explain Garmadon's connection to the story+ Harumi's powers (even if it won't end up with a lot of interestants I will be updating it(probably) but I will be focusing more on my ongoing fanfic - i swear that I am working on that next chapter.

[je-blauge]

It realy gargles my goyles when people talk about how badly the sequel trilogy failed and people respond with that quote about "every day Star Wars fans come on here and say 'Man, Star Wars would be so good if it was good," cause like, we're talking about something Completely different when we talk about the sequel trilogy.

The OT and PT are written with a specific ideological core. Everything in them is there to make a point. It's about eastern philosophy, specifically Taoist/Buddhist thoughts about control, detachment and acceptance, how trying to controll your destiny causes tragedy, causes things to spiral out of control, and how accepting the world and the people in it for what they are brings peace. EG, if I want to end food scarcity, I can't just say "give everybody food, goddamn, it's not hard." I have to answer a lot of boring, unsexy questions like "where are we going to get a bunch of excess food for hungry people? Where are the people in the most need? How will we get it to them without it going bad? Who will prepare it, and how? How do we deal with dietary restrictions with the resources we have available?" I'm not saying these questions don't have answers, but if you don't get your head out of the clouds and answer them--accept the situation for what it is while you work on improving it--you won't make any progress.

If Luke kills Vader, he's acting out of fear and defiance of fate and starting his path to the dark side, the side that tells you "You're the Hero. You have to fix it all, save them all, don't delegate, don't share the burden, and don't share the glory." Whereas if he nurtures the goodness inside of Vader, IE, by telling him he knows that Anikin is still in there and that he trusts him to do the right thing, then he can save the galaxy from violence and fascism without positioning himself to be the next Galactic Emporer (and therefor the next threat.)

Conversely, in the prequel trilogy, Anakin tries to controll his fate, protect his wife from death by himself, and ends up selling his soul to a cruel, controlling manipulator and destroying everything he loves, wife included.

He doesn't have to do this. If he was willing to accept the idea of loss, he could have confessed everything when Yoda asked him what was wrong, told him about the vision, and gotten the Jedi's help figuring out what was going on (ie, that the vision was tampered with by a sith lord at the very least, if not flat-out saving the day by exposing Palpatine to the Jedi before he was ready to move against them.) This may or may not have saved Padame (probably would have,) but he would have had to leave the Jedi order. So he tries to hold on to everything he loves by himself instead of trusting his loved ones to be kind when they found out about his wrongdoing and wise when choosing their course of action, and loses everything.

When we say "Star Wars would be so good if it was good," we mean that we have an issue with the way this message is portrayed, the way information is communicated to the audience, or the philosophy itself.

What's the philosophy of the sequel trilogy? What does it have to say about the philosophy of episodes 1-6? What conversation is it having with the rest of the franchise?

Anybody?

Aaaanybody?

Crickets?

Yeah. That's the issue. Also the movies suck.

[jaylynn1318]

Prequel to this

Based on this video

*warning: Swearing, Misogynistic language, verbal abuse*

Mack was driving Kevin’s van, Kevin was in the back, laying on the mattress in the van, holding his guitar, and looking spaced out and drained. Mack decided to open his mouth

Mack: Man, Kevin, you really missed out. Vicci's friends were wild and crazy. Glad that town wasn't a total waste.

Kevin: I met some wild ladies too. They changed shape and appeared out of beams of light and one of them even four arm-

Mack: Hey dumba$$, save the poetry for San Francisco, Star Child. We've got a big day ahead of us tomorrow.

Kevin: don’t call me a dumba$$ Mack, and I'm serious. Something's goin' on back there.

Mack: What are you, stupid? Just wait 'till you see what's ahead of us. It's FAME AND FORTUNE BABY!!!

Mack tries to play some music by pressing the 'Play' button on the radio, only for nothing to happens

Mack: What the fu- Hey, what the hell did you do to your tape deck? You been putting pennies in here, you weirdo? Play something for me, Star Child

Kevin obediently strums his guitar and begins to sing

Kevin: 🎵waking up at start of the end of the world, and it’s feeling like every other day of before-

Mack: 🥱what the hell is that? You're gonna put people to sleep with that. Where's the sappy sad stuff coming from?

Kevin :*blushes and continues is a downer tone* I-I just can't stop thinking about that woman at the show.

Mack: Okay fine😏, how big was she?

Kevin: Eight feet tall... massive blue hair...

Mack: okay now I know your messing with me *sigh* this is your problem. You want one huge woman, when you could have multiple small ones.

Kevin: uh in case you forgotten Mack, women are people too, they don’t exist just to please you.

Mack: Just follow my lead okay? I'm gonna get you everything you want. Money, fame, and tons of ladies wanting to your who-

Kevin refuses to let him finish that sentence, who in their right mind would say that. Besides that wasn’t what Kevin wanted, that was what Mack wanted

Kevin: What if I want to go back?

Mack looked like he wanted to murder the tattooed rock star wannabe, what did he just say?

Mack: what did you say?😡 Star child?

Kevin: What if I want to go back and be with her?!

Mack toke his eyes off the road and hands off the wheel, an angry look in his eyes, ready to give Kevin a piece of his mind

Mack: Listen right here you idiot, no one gives a sh%t about your feelings Kevin!! They're making you lose sight of what's really important!! Now Stop lying about this blue tall bimbo and-

Kevin screams at the top of his lungs: WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!? WATCH THE ROAD!!

Headlights become visible in the windshield of the van as a truck, looks like it was one of those 18-wheelers trucks ,approaches. Mack manages to quickly swerves the van out of the way in the nick of time and stops it beside a billboard that reads “welcome to OceanSide, it’s always beach time here”. Both Mack and Kevin were in shock and frozen in fear, Almost having a mini heart attack. Kevin decided he should talk first after taking a deep breath.

Kevin: Why do you always decide what's important?😠

Mack: Because I'm your manager, and you're just some spaced out, stupid kid. I'm taking you to San Francisco , and you're gonna play, and you're gonna like it. Maybe you'll even make me some decent money for once. Maybe you’ll succeed where Joshie failed.

Kevin: who’s Joshie?

Kevin answered his own question when he realized that he wasn’t the one guy Mack try to make money off of, and then proceeded to blow off his side of deal, call him stupid and a dumba$$, insult the women in his life, and pin all the blame on him.

Mack: that doesn’t matter, why don’t you go back to making lyrics for your songs, maybe one of them will be good.

Kevin: Get.Out.Of.My.van.

Mack: sit down Kev

Kevin:*raising his voice* I said... GET OUTTA MY VAN!

Kevin kicks Mack out of the van onto the rainy roadside, and drive off, leaving him behind, in the heavily pouring night.

Mack: What are you doing? You're making a HUGE mistake! Get back here Star child, you’re nothing without me

Kevin never came back.

[maulish]

I'm late to the party (wake?), but I've taken considerable time off from Star Wars. I think it was around season 2 of The Mandalorian that I really felt like this ain't it. Nothing really caught my interest enough to come back to it until The Acolyte which I now just finished watching. I should know better by now than to see what people have been saying about it, given I was around to witness how it was the prequels already that "ruined Star Wars".

While the Acolyte was a painful watch it again points out what should be obvious now. If there is anything at all that's at serious risk of ruining Star Wars (outside of bitter middle aged men on youtube), it's Disney. Disney is to Star Wars what Amazon is to Tolkien.

We all connect with particular characters, storylines and elements within the cosmos of an IP and its lore, but I think what forms the core of those emotional bonds are stories told with heart and integrity. There is something significant that Star Wars shares with LOTR in that sense. The film franchises both started out as passion projects that performed miracles with small budgets. The people working on those films came up with ways of bringing these worlds to life without the guarantee that it would pay off financially. They also created the gold standard of cinematic worldbuilding. The franchises obviously turned out to be really successful and seeing the large bult-in fanbases and now proven profitability attracted corporations which held all of the interest in the potential of financial gain, having none for the source material and core ideas that had originally propelled these franchises to begin with. These corporations instead approach the IPs with a sense of arrogance thinking that the audience will simply lap it up because of a proven emotional connection to the material, and the more they can churn out, the bigger the profit. The initial optimism and interest for a new film or series may even briefly seem to affirm that belief. Eventually the idea of all the money to be made will make the corporations look at how to cut down the costs, how to compress the production timeline. The ambition grows, but the quality of the work put into it suffers and the passion fizzles out. Instead of a dream of bringing a world to life it will become a calculation. This is where we're at. But it's that lack of passion that is always evident in the finished work.

The Acolyte is symptomatic of what corporate greed does to culture and cultural artifacts. It's not the initial idea that is the problem, it's not the main characters, it's not the wokeness. The fundamental problem that set the series on a downward path from the start was that it was planned from the POV of corporate ambition to branch out and generate a maximum amount of product to the widest and least specific audience. And they forgot about the story they were trying to tell in the process.

And on a side note, the way the Disney acquisition pushed a LOT of high quality content out of the canon just for the sake of gaining free reign should have been a clear sign of what's to come.

The Acolyte was destined to fail. It was structured in a way that assumed multiple seasons that it would never survive to see, because the story itself was poorly planned and written. The writing for the series is embarrassing to put it mildly. The series is also giving screen time to random background characters with no actual plot line, and a good chunk to a bunch of others that steal precious time from the main characters, only to all be killed off without any of them save one having made an impact. And so the first season that should have sold us on the idea sold us nothing at all.

There's the kind of 'feedback' that would have us think that there isn't room for everyone in a galaxy far, far away. And then the kind Disney ought to take to heart. But if they've shown us anything then it's that they're not yet motivated to learn from their mistakes. And until then there is no story they can't or won't ruin.

What a waste.

[fnaf-stories-and-posts]

Halloween Night at Freddy’s (Pizzaplex) [Act Two]

Prequel fic to Christmas With A Freddy by ShadowBelle23 (Me) on AO3.

Since Evan is now being called Dave. I know that some people think that Cassidy is the crying child and Afton’s son while Dave is the fifth victim of Afton. No, it’s vice versa because of Princess Quest.

Since there’s already a living child character in this fanfic called Dave, I’ll leave the name Evan alone. Also, I wrote this fanfic a year ago and I’m going through it now to polish it up compared to the original AO3 post.

Word Count: 4,334

Character Count: 23,770

Reading Time: 15 minutes 46 seconds

Speaking Time: 24 minutes 5 seconds

————————————————————

*The Next Day*

Max was in Skylands with Ro-bow at his side, he had called a meeting with some of the Portal Masters that were available. If some didn’t show up, he was content with it as long as the word got out. So far, it’s just him, Isabel, Rachel, Crystal, Amelia, Jamie, Gin and Elliott.

They currently sit in one of the spare living rooms that the Academy has. Max understands that this isn’t a typical “Skylands in danger” reason to be serious, so Master Eon wasn’t with them.

“So, I’ve gathered you all here today. I know that we usually do meetings for serious Save Worlds situations, but today isn’t it,” Max says as they listen. “Recently, my friend Dave and I went to Freddy’s Pizzaplex and we discovered an abandoned animatronic underground. We believe she’s having emotional trauma about herself for feeling abandoned and unwanted. She even shooed me and my friend away with slight aggression. But even if we’re not Portal Masters saving worlds, we know in our hearts it’s right to help another in need.”

They all nodded in agreement and Max showed them the pamphlet. “Glamrock Freddy told me that they’re doing a Halloween special for customers to stay there overnight like a sleepover. When the place closes and everyone leaves, the whole building is ours to do as we please. We could bring our Skylander friends to help out looking for her,” Max continues.

“Her?” Rachel asks curiously.

“She doesn’t have a proper name. She was given 1Z-2Y, so we named her Onesie. I think she was supposed to be a human Glamrock animatronic but I guess she never made it to the Final Cut after being built, therefore forgotten by the company,” Max clarifies.

“Ouch, talk about getting a hard kick to the shin by rejection,” Jamie winces.

“I’m in, I would like to enjoy a day to forget about work to get the Taylor Swift songs out of my head,” Isabel admits.

Everyone laughs. They have known Isabel long enough to know that when it comes to working at the movie theater, they know sometimes she ends up getting the end credit songs stuck in her head if there are lyrics. Even the annoyingly catchy ones. But because of the Eras Tour, it’s nothing but songs playing in multiple theaters.

“I love Taylor Swift. Bless her heart. But I feel like I’m losing my sanity constantly hearing her songs,” Isabel continues, and everyone continues laughing. “I’m serious, I’m at this point that I’m going to have to look up song titles from the span of seven years I’ve heard from the end credits to make a Spotify playlist just to get her out of my head.”

“I’m in for it, staying overnight at a business sounds fun,” Rachel admits.

“And we’re not getting in trouble for it,” Jamie adds. Since people in the past have either successfully or failed to stay overnight at a business since after closing hours makes it trespassing or “breaking and entering” some would stay.

“I’m in!” Crystal says. “Sounds like fun.”

Amelia, Gin, and Elliott look at the pamphlet. Amelia was on her phone trying to see how much the reservation was. Because something like that isn’t cheap. Sure enough, Amelia squeaked as her eyes widened in shock. She showed her phone to Gin and Elliott, they were shocked as well before she showed the others. Matching the same expression too when they saw the price.

“Dang,” Isabel says in surprise. “That’s a lot more bucks than a private reservation party for the Eras screening.”

“How on Earth are we gonna come up with that amount of money in a short period? Some of us that have jobs don’t have the affordability for that!” Rachel then asks.

“I know that Mags can turn treasure here into authentic Earth money, but I don’t know if I have enough treasure saved for this sort of thing,” Jamie admits.

(I know they could ask the Golden Queen for help but they don’t want to take advantage and abuse her power like that.)

Even the others agreed with Jamie. That is until they heard Isabel take a deep calm breath in and they looked at her. “I may have years worth of treasure put to the side,” Isabel admits.

“How much?” Gin asks curiously and Isabel makes a thinking sound. “Honestly, I’d rather show you,” she says. Which made everyone intrigued. They quickly went to the house she shared with Rattle Shake, they went into the living room and Isabel moved the furniture using her Chaos Emerald and uncovered the floor from a rug.

She turns her knife into a crowbar to reveal a hidden latch door that camouflages with the floor. Revealing an underground “bunker” of sorts. Rachel immediately goes down in the hole first. It wasn’t too deep and she could easily climb out.

“Isabel!” She exclaims in awe at what she witnessed. “You have ten Imaginite Chests full of treasure?!”

All of her friends look at her and she gives a smug look. “What better way to reuse them? And it’s not just treasure from Skylands, there’s thousands of gold rings from Sonic’s world too,” Isabel says. “Besides, I’m now curious about how much I’ve gotten in Earth money now.”

Her friends squeal in glee. After getting one of the chests to Mags, it was enough to pay for the Halloween reservation and more that they added to the package deal as a treat. Thankfully those who have jobs were able to get the day off for it.

*October 31st 2023*

The day finally came and it was Halloween. They got there around opening time and an employee greeted them inside. “Hello everyone, my name is Carol and I’m your Faz-tenant for your room today,” the employee greets herself. “If you’ll follow me, please, I’ll guide you to your room.”

So they do reluctantly. Their party room is like a large hotel suite with a large living space with beds in a different room. It was decently decorated with Halloween and Fall decor.

“This is your party suite for you to stay and relax whenever you feel the need to. Our employees will not enter here during your stay so you won’t feel disturbed unless you ask for provided services or have any concerns about the room. But, we do care about your safety here for your overnight stay,” Carol continues and opens a closet with a metal briefcase in it and hands Rachel it.

“This contains your access key Fazbands to your suite, there’s even trackers in them so the animatronics can find you throughout the Pizzaplex. There’s even a health detection concern security, HDCS, in case of emergencies if you’re having an allergic reaction, stroke, seizure, high blood pressure, sudden fatigue, or any serious health concerns and the band will immediately send an alert to 911. And please do not lose or break the bands, they’re not cheap to replace.”

“Don’t worry, I added a down payment in case of accidents,” Isabel adds. “Thank you, Carol.”

“You’re welcome,” she says before remembering something before she decides to leave. “Also you’re welcome to come and leave the Pizzaplex as long as you wear your band in case of emergencies or if you want to just leave for something. Anyways, I’ll leave you guys to your fun, Superstars.”

“Speaking of Superstars, is there anyone coming to the Daycare today?” Isabel asks curiously. Carol pursed her lips and checked her clipboard. “I don’t think so, nothing has been scheduled or called in. It is Halloween and kids will be trick or treating,” Carol says.

“Can Sun hang out with us? If no one is coming to the Daycare today, I don’t want poor Sun being stuck in Daycare with no one to talk to and with no one to have fun with,” Isabel then explains.

“Fair,” Carol says, agreeing with her. “I will allow it, but if someone does have to leave a child in Daycare, he has to go back to his work, okay?” Isabel then nods. “Alright, have fun, Superstars.” Then she leaves.

“Aw, typical Izzy being the generous one,” Rachel smiles.

“I’m right, you know. Halloween is the one time of the year when kids will be with their parents away from home. So having the Daycare open today is kinda pointless. Besides, I don’t want to leave bored people away from having a good time,” Isabel admits.

Rachel then opens the briefcase on the coffee table and inside are various bands with a simple one-color pallet or is designed for a certain character’s color palette. “Ooh, dibs on this one!” Isabel says, gladly taking the Sun/Moon band.

Rachel chuckles and decides to have a band to match her Chaos Emerald including Jamie. Crystal chose mint green while Amelia chose a yellow one with pearl white accents. Gin chose cyan and Elliott chose a powdered black.

“I wish they had the Sun/Moon one separately. I would have chosen Moon and you can be Sun,” Elliott tells Isabel.

“Nah, Amelia would be Sun because of her element,” Isabel says and Elliott lightly laughs at that statement with Amelia. “But I agree, Elliott.”

Currently, Max and Dave are having a Rock, Paper, Scissors battle over the Freddy and Monty bands. “You know, you could flip a coin to see who gets what,” Isabel tells them before handing them a quarter. “Freddy is heads. Monty is tails. Someone makes the call without looking at what side will the coin is up. Depends on who’s right or wrong will get said band.”

“Easy,” Max says and lets Dave flip the coin. “I chose heads.” Dave flips and heads is up. Max gets Freddy and Dave gets Monty.

Everyone then leaves their belongings as they go to have fun. Isabel decides to go into the Daycare to find Sun via a big slide into the ball pit. After getting up, she looks around and doesn’t see Sun anywhere. “Hello?! Sun?! Are you here?!” Isabel calls out to him.

She then sees Sun jump off from his balcony and into the ball pit before emerging from it. Then he sees her. “Well hello there, I wasn’t expecting a visitor to come to my domain this early. Do you plan on leaving any kids here soon? So far, my databanks tell me no one is coming in today,” he says, sounding slightly disappointed at the last bit.

“Sadly no. I’m one of the overnight visitors today for Halloween. I talked to Carol and she’s allowing you to be dismissed from your job to have fun with us until someone comes to drop off a child,” Isabel says before holding out her hand. “I’m Isabel, you can call me Izzy if you wish.”

“Aw, thank you,” Sun says, charmingly holding her hand and gently shaking it. “I’ve always liked Carol. But I’m supposed to stay here in case any kids show up and I’m not allowed to leave.”

“Sun, you’re dismissed until otherwise. Besides, there’s kids in our group anyways so you won’t be missing out,” Isabel says. “And if you still refuse, I’ll carry you out myself.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Sun chuckles. “Let me just get my security badge quickly.” He then walks to the desk to get his special badge with a lanyard attachment. “I can’t leave this behind, it’s too important to leave around in the open.”

As Sun was about to grab his badge, Isabel saw a blinking green light before he snatched it. “What was that?” Isabel asks curiously.

“My AI reader. Whenever I want to take my badge, I have to scan my AI first as a safety protocol. Because if someone like you snatches it without my AI scan, the lights in the Daycare will turn off and Moon will come out to hunt for the badge to retrieve it back,” Sun explains before approaching Isabel. “Since you got Carol to dismiss me, you will be my trusted Czar of my card until I need it back. But you have to promise to never use its power without my granted permission or to ever take it off.”

“I promise, Sun,” Isabel says and they pinky promise to it. Then she allows Sun to put it around her neck like a medallion of honor. She is sincere in keeping this trust.

The two walk out of the Daycare, hand in hand, and they find Isabel’s friends talking to the Glamrocks at the stage area. Guess Max was introducing his animatronic friends to the Portal Masters. Guess they heard them coming since they turned to see them. “And that’s Isabel,” Max says to Freddy and his band.

“It’s nice to meet all of you,” Freddy says and his band members agree. Then the bear sees Sun. “But Sun, aren’t you supposed to be in your area?”

“Yes, but Isabel got Carol to dismiss me. For now, until someone decides to drop off their kid. Highly unlikely today, but I’m willing to join the fun,” Sun says cheerfully.

“He made me his card Czar until he needs it back. I promised to not use it without his granted permission,” Isabel adds. “And to never take it off. I’ve been told it’s important.”

“I’m glad you’re a friend to Sun,” Freddy then smiles. “And letting him join you guys, he doesn’t get out of the Daycare much.”

“That is true,” Sun sheepishly admits. “But, I’m excited to see every inch of this place as possible.” He chuckles.

“But also be wary of The Blob too,” Monty adds. “It usually doesn’t leave the underground when we’re busy, but it’s best to warn you in case you come across it.”

The group nods and considers the warning. They then take off in different directions while the band gets ready for today. “So Sun, any thoughts on where you want to go first?” Isabel asks, and Sun shakes his head.

“I’ve never left the Daycare for fun or leisure before,” he admits.

“That’s okay, we can play Fazer Blast together,” Isabel smiles. “It will be fun.”

“And the card?” Sun asks in concern, not wanting her to lose it or let it fall off.

“I know you said not to take it off, but I can tuck it into my supportive garment for safety,” she assures Sun. “Don’t worry, I’m clean, my garment is clean. If I sweat on it, I can replace the lanyard and wash the card.” Knowing he can be a bit germaphobic.

“Thank you,” Sun sighed contentedly before they went there. The employee there almost denied Sun playing if it wasn’t for Carol. Probably because the place was dark enough for Moon to be triggered to come out.

Thankfully Sun assures the employee that as long as there is some light, Moon can’t come out. They were the only ones there, usually, they would start the game if there were more people. But Carol let the two play together.

While they watched the video, Sun and Isabel decided to role-play for the game. They continued with the space theme, Sun is an alien protector of the galaxy called Supernova, and Isabel is Dr. Mars. An evil mad scientist with the desire to become the God of the Milky Way.

Sun’s keycard that Isabel has. Is the keycard for Dr. Mars’ destruction of Earth to conquer it. The only way to stop Dr. Mars’ missiles from destroying countries is if Sun captures all of Isabel’s flags before the countdown launch ends.

To be honest, Isabel didn’t care if she lost during role-play. She wanted Sun to be happy. She proceeded to play, capturing Sun’s flags until she soon realized they each had one flag standing. Isabel decides to defend her only flag and sees Sun approaching. “Give it up, Dr. Mars!” He says triumphantly. “Your reign is coming to an end and I will make sure justice will be served!”

Cheesy, guess he’s not familiar with acting and action movies to come up with a good line. But it can be pardoned, he’s a Daycare attendant, not an actor. Before Isabel says anything, all the lights in Fazer Blast go out; audio, their suits, everything. And Sun starts to freak out. Then Isabel heard the PA squeal, hoping it was a sign of employee concern that they could fix. But it was not, instead, Isabel hears this;

“In shadows deep, Isabel, beware.

The Moon's cold gaze, your life laid bare.

A serial killer's eerie song in darkness chill,

Isabel, your fate, he longs to fulfill.”

A female sing song voice while Sun resists Moon from coming out. He fails before hearing him change. Using her phone light, she sees Moon in all his glory.

“Naughty, Naughty,” Moon tisks at her, taking the Fazer Blast suit off. “You must be punished.” Isabel didn’t bother to ask why or what for. Moon is unhinged and after her. She starts parkouring across from above rather than dealing with the maze structure below. Moon decides to do the same thing too to follow her. Out of all the robots she fought and destroyed, this one, she cannot.

She was okay with Moon following her as long as she was out of reach to bring him into the light. If Moon refuses, she can use her powers to bring him out. She runs out of Fazer Blast, past the employee who is confused as to why the lights are off and running. But when Moon came out, they quickly put two and two together and went away.

Isabel was soon out in the light of the Pizzaplex while Moon stalked in the shadows at the entryway of Fazer Blast. Isabel checks her surroundings and no one is around, so she uses her Emerald to force Moon out telepathically. It works but he still resists. Once he was out in the light, Moon switched back to Sun.

“Rule breaker! Rule breaker! You’re banned from the Daycare!” Sun says angrily as his programming kicks in before he realizes where he is.

“Isabel, did the lights…?”

“Yeah.”

“Did Moon…?”

“No.”

He then sighs in relief.

“Do you remember what happened after switching?” Isabel then asks curiously.

“Besides the light turning off? No,” Sun says.

“Then is Moon listening?” She then asks.

“Yeah, he’s always listening,” Sun admits, then he was quiet like he was listening. “Moon asked if you heard someone singing over the PA.”

“How could I not? It was creepy. How did they know we were in there, and how did they know my name?” Isabel then wonders curiously.

“I don’t know, as much as I loved having that short amount of fun with you, I’d feel better at the Daycare knowing that there isn’t a creepy person trying to harm people,” Sun admits and Isabel understands.

“Then I’m sorry your fun was short-lived, Sun,” she then says sadly.

“Don’t be, I had a great time. I just don’t want to risk Moon coming out again. He’s quite unpredictable and chaotic and I don’t know what he’ll do if he’s out again.” He says assuringly before pausing. “You can be sometimes.” That was directed towards Moon.

Isabel chuckles. “How about you take a break in your area? It sounds like whenever you change, it’s painful to you. And don’t worry, I will warn my friends of what’s going on.”

“Okay,” Sun sighs before cheering himself up again. “I will not let this get me down, for you and your friends, Izzy.”

Isabel smiles and gives him back his keycard and returns the vests and blaster to Fazer Blaster. Isabel then frowns in worry as she goes to find her friends. The only person that knew she and Sun were in there was Carol. Did Carol turn off the lights on purpose? And was that her over the PA? Something suspicious was going on and she didn’t like it.

She found her friends in the arcade together, she didn’t know if it was a good idea to speak out loud of what just occurred to her. She didn’t know if Carol was listening.

“Rachel. Jamie. Didn’t you get my text?” Isabel asks and Rachel looks at her confused.

“What text?” Rachel asks and Isabel then sends her message to Jamie and Rachel in a group text. They both looked at their phones as they heard their text ringtones. Reading the text she sent about what happened at Fazer Blaster.

“Okay, we’ll be careful,” Jamie says. “And we’ll let the others know.”

“I’m gonna be at the suite. I’m not used to danger being thrown at me when I’m in a comfortable environment,” Isabel sighs.

“Alright,” Rachel says and looks at her phone, not even noon yet. “At noon, we’ll eat lunch together. Afterward, bring Sun to the suite, we’ll need to come up with a plan to figure out what’s going on and who’s doing this.”

Isabel nods and hugs them before leaving. Jamie then sighs in frustration. “The one day I was hoping to have a break from heroism,” he says in exasperation.

“Sadly I don’t think this is something we can blow off and ignore,” Rachel adds. “As long as there are bad people out there, we have to stand up against them. Especially if a bad person is targeting one of our friends.”

“I know,” Jamie sighs. The others weren’t happy either, saying the same thing as Jamie did. When lunch came, Isabel felt guilty even though it was not her fault. Causing her to stress eat her feelings.

“Isabel,” Gin says and slides her plate of brownies away from her. “It’s not your fault. You have nothing to blame yourself for.”

“Yeah!” Elliott agrees. “Besides, me and Gin betted how long it would be until we had to start doing our hero work.”

“Who lost?” Isabel asks and Gin raises his hand.

“Besides, October is serial killer season anyway. Who wouldn’t want to take down a Michael Myers wannabe anyway?” Gin adds. “We’re not gonna stay here overnight and twiddle our thumbs, knowing there’s a killer on the loose until someone is dead. We’ll take care of this together.”

“I guess I can repay you guys for a movie,” Isabel chuckles.

“You don’t have to repay us,” Amelia assures her. “But we won’t hesitate on that offer though. Now cheer up before we get Sun to tickle you until your lungs hurt.”

“Guys, not in public,” Isabel says bashfully with a slightly embarrassed tone which makes everyone laugh.

Once lunch was over, Isabel quickly got Sun and his badge. Then they went to meet their friends at the suite. Sitting together in the living room and looking at the map of the building’s layout. To keep their conversation private in case there is a hidden bug in the room, Isabel, Rachel, and Jamie use their Emeralds to create a magic static sound around the group to keep anyone from knowing their plans.

“So, what do we do in a situation like this?” Isabel asks. “There’s a psycho murderer on the loose. I may not watch a lot of horror films, but I do know it makes targeting us easier while apart. Unless that’s what they expect us to do.”

“But we don’t know what they’re planning,” Rachel says before looking at Crystal. “I know you can handle yourself. But I don’t wish for anything bad to happen to you, and I wish for you to stay with one of the Glamrocks while we work, okay?” Crystal nods, not arguing with her sister.

Rachel continues. “It’ll be me, Jamie, you, Amelia, Gin and Elliott. With Sun’s help if he wishes. While Dave and Max go find Onesie underground. Since Dave isn’t a Portal Master. Max, I want you to summon Ro-Bow to be with you to protect him and to help you in case you run into trouble underground.”

“I don’t mean to interrupt,” Gin says. “But this place is massive. How are the seven of us going to cover so much ground while trying not to get killed?”

“We have access to the security feed in the cameras. We can keep an eye on the footage of which rooms you’re not in,” Sun informs. “With my badge, I can have access to emergency communicators we have that you guys can talk to each other with.”

“Like special walkie-talkies?” Dave asks and Sun nods.

“Okay, that solved one problem,” Rachel sighs in relief. “Isabel, you can patrol around the arcades. I will stay at Monty’s while Jamie is at Roxy’s Raceway. Amelia goes to Chica’s Mazereise. Gin at Bonnie Bowl and Elliott at Fazer Blast.”

“Since it’s Halloween, the building will close at nine,” Sun continues to inform them. “Because of how slow it is, I’m sure they will be gone soon after.”

“Then we grab the communicators and split,” Isabel nods. “For now, we wait.”

That was the hard part. Time anxiously ticking by felt slow, by the time it was three PM, they did everything they could at the Pizzaplex to keep themselves entertained until their options dwindled. So they made the reasonable choice; sleep. If they were going to deal with a serial killer, they’re going to need all the rest they can get.

[burnnouts]

Quick Bio: Padmé Amidala is a senator who represented the people of Naboo during the final years of the Galactic Republic. Prior to her career in the Senate, she was the elected Queen of Naboo, having run her first campaign at only fourteen years old. Padmé's two terms as queen were so successful that the people of Naboo campaigned for her to have an unprecedented third term, but she declined and was assigned as a senator by the newly elected queen instead. During her time in politics, Padmé often worked closely with the Jedi Knights, eventually falling in love with one, Anakin Skywalker, and marrying him in secret. Anakin, having a dream that she died in childbirth, fell to the dark side to protect her, and became Darth Vader, and their children--Luke and Leia--were hidden across the galaxy for their protection.

Note: Padmé is a canon character from the Star Wars universe. I pull mainly from the prequel films for her characterization, though I am in the process of reading the 2020 novel, Queen's Shadow. I have not seen the Clone Wars show (yet).

Extended bio under cut:

TWs: pregnancy, death in child birth, (fictional) politics

A human born on the planet of Naboo, Padmé was a precocious child who spent every day baking and often traveled with her father on relief missions to offer aid on suffering, nearby planets. When she was seven, she helped a planet relocate after ecological disaster, but when the plan failed, and the people were unable to adapt to their new world, Padmé was devastated and vowed that she would try 10,000 times in order to save just one person.

Although her family came from modest origins, Padmé showed great promise (and motivation) from a very early age, devoting herself to public serve, and, at just eight years old, became a junior senatorial adviser. She attended the Theed Royal Academy to study politics and joined the Legislative Youth Program at 12. Two years later, she began her campaign to become the next Queen of Naboo, running on the stance that Naboo should break its policy of isolationism and make allies with other planets in their sector. Because she was known simply as Queen Amidala, her first name unknown to most, she began to switch between the persona of Queen Amidala--dressed in elaborate makeup and gowns--and Padmé, a handmaiden who could move among the common people unnoticed. When she went out as "Padmé," one of her own handmaidens would stand in as queen.

During her time as queen, the Trade Federation threatened Amidala and her planet and asked her to sign a treaty that would would give them full control of Naboo and legitimize their invasion. She, of course, refused, causing the federation to blockade the planet and prevent shipments from reaching the surface. With her people quickly running out of food, Amidala gathered defenses and sought aid from the Jedi Knights. When the Federation sent in an invasion of battle droids, Amidala was captured but was, thankfully, rescued by Jedi Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi. As they made their way back to Naboo, the ship malfunctioned, and they were forced to land on the planet of Tatooine, where Padmé went undercover as a handmaiden, learning about the planet, working with the Jedi, and met a young slave boy, Anakin Skywalker who helped them get the parts they needed to leave.

In order to save her planet, Padme went to the Senate and moved for a Vote of No Confidence in the leadership of the current Chancellor, helping to put into power Palpatine instead, the man who would later betray her and all of the galaxy.

Back on her own planet, she and the Jedi Knights fought off the Trade Federation by making an allyship with the other species of Naboo: the Gungangs. Together, they were able to defeat the Federation and take back control of Naboo. Afterward, Padmé led the planets rebuilding and recovery efforts. After the invasion, the planet was divided on tactics to prevent another hostile takeover, with Padmé ultimately deciding to add an ion pulse canon to the surface of the planet, much to the displeasure of her own parents.

Amidala served two terms as queen, and by the conclusion of her second term, the Naboo had grown so fond of Amidala that a faction tried to amend the constitution to allow her another term. However, Amidala declined this and stepped aside for her elected successor. Not long after her coronation, the new queen asked Amidala to serve as the representative for Naboo and the other worlds in the Galactic Senate. As one of her first goals as Senator, she sent advisors back to Tatooine to look into ending slavery there, though this was outside of the Senate's control.

Ten years after the Invasion of Naboo, a Separatist Alliance broke out in the Galaxy, with several planetary systems deciding to break off from the Senate. This led to a vote for the Senate to build their own army, which Padmé strongly resisted. Soon regarded as the leader of the opposition to the Military Creation Act, Padmé's life again was threatened, as one of her ships was bombed, and her most loyal handmaiden was murdered, the assassin believing the woman to be Padmé herself. The Jedi Council assigned Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi and Padawan Anakin Skywalker to protect Amidala and investigate the incident, though Amidala objected to the added security. When the assassination attempts continued, however, Padmé was convinced to leave the capital planet of Couruscant and return to her home planet of Naboo with Skywalker as her companion and guard.

Though she initially resisted his advances, Padmé found herself falling in love with Anakin. When he dreamed of his mother's kidnapping, she left her hiding place on Naboo to accompany him in saving the woman, but they were too late. Before they could return into hiding, news came that Anakin's master, Obi-Wan was also in danger, so he and Padmé left to rescue him too and were captured in the process. Two hundred Jedi arrived to aid them, but a battle broke out that had them cornered and overwhelmed. At that point, the newly made Grand Army of the Republic--created from clones--arrived and saved them all. And so, the army Padmé had fought against was created anyway and used to save her.

After, she secretly married Anakin Skywalker. They spent several years seeing each other in secret while both continuing their work in the Senate and Jedi Order respectively. When Padmé became pregnant, however, it was much harder to keep their secret, and Anakin's continuous nightmares of her death in childbirth put a strain on their future. Anakin began studying the dark side, looking for a way to save her, but in the process, pulled away from Padmé, leaving her stunned when he finally turned on the Jedi entirely and went to the dark side.

Verse Dependent: In canon, Padmé dies in childbirth and her children, Luke and Leia, are raised on separate planets for their own protection. Padmé's default verse will be before this point, but for characters in the later era of the Star Wars timeline, I write Padmé as living and helping to lead the resistance against the Empire formed by Palpatine and her husband.

[a-dauntless-daffodil]

Then a human saves his daughter's life from the sea witch and it turns out Triton actually IS open to learning new things about humans

I'm not poking holes in the first movie! I'm PRAISING it!

ARGH MORE RANTING sorry this isn't aimed at you i jjust neeed to vent some more sorry

Triton the character makes complete sense, but that doesn't mean the audience is being told to take his side or agree with him- we have more information than he does at the start of the movie. We know the humans aren't what's threatening his daughter. Part of the drama is how he can't see that, until it's too late.

There's a reason the movie ends with Triton giving Ariel a life on the surface. His main character trait was never human trauma, it's love. He loves his daughter. He didn't understand her or connect with her and failed at protecting her because of his own past pains, and it didn't change how much he loves her. Instead HE is the one willing to change FOR her, in the end.

That's good writing.

Because the movie says Ariel IS in the right here. Not Triton. The narrative and facts we see all stand behind Ariel.

That's what frustrates me.

A character can be understandable without being RIGHT. And in this case that particular character is TRITON, not the teenager, it's her PARENT.

The prequel movie doesn't change that. Pirates, who hurt other humans more than anyone else, are part of why Ariel's mom dies but we never saw pirates in the original movie. Apparently they aren't a big enough problem to try capturing a prince or crashing a royal wedding. They are one small part of the world above, and nowhere NEAR as dangerous as the seawitch lurking below.

Triton had to learn that. And he did.

BUT THE AUDIENCE IS TOLD ALL OF THAT FROM THE VERY BEGINING WE KNOW ALL OF THAT ALREADY WHY WHY WHYYYY

why do people not listen to kids. teens.

why do we have this knee-jerk reaction and assume that EVEN IN FICTION they can't be right about something their parent says is wrong, even when we're shown that yeah, actually, the kid is right this time.

it irks me. Not the movie, the /that/.

why is it that so many people watching the original little mermaid, they almost ALWAYS side with Triton and say "yes humans dangerous must keep Ariel away from them this is reasonable"

Because, in the movie, the danger to Ariel always comes from the sea and sea creatures. Not the land. Not humans.

it NEVER shows humans as dangerous to merpeople.

Triton doesn't know that, sure- but WE the audience see them talking respectfully of the sea king as they're out sailing, we don't see them plotting to catch or hunt merpeople, we don't even see them hurting each other! One of them almost dies saving a dog! They fish, yes, the chef wants to cook a crab. And that's it. Normal, usual, eating meat behavior.

They aren't even show accidentally threatening the balance of life under the sea, no hint of over-fishing or pollution, just the occasional shipwreck that no one other than Ariel bothers with.

On top of that, the only danger even the shipwreck was to Ariel wasn't the shipwreck's fault! A shark, a SEA CREATURE, tried to eat her.

And the only threat to Ariel throughout the whole movie (shark aside) is Ursula. The SEA-witch?

Ursula, who we see spying on and plotting to use and manipulate Ariel even BEFORE Ariel met and fell in love with a human. The human thing just became the easiest way for Ursula to entrap Ariel. If it hadn't been that though, there's no reason to think Ursula wouldn't have tried something else.

Which wouldn't have been hard because Ariel ONLY goes to Ursula AFTER Triton breaks his daughter's carefully curated room full of treasures in front of her. Ursula doesn't exploit Ariel's love for a human specifically, no, she just wedges herself into the space between Triton and Ariel the moment their trust in each other starts cracking.

So why, when the only danger is from the sea, when humans aren't a threat, when Triton does things when he's angry that he's quickly shown to think better of and regret-

"Do you, er, think I - I was too hard on her?" "Oh, what have I done? What have I done...?"

Even TRITON knows he's making mistakes and not handling this well!

Why do so many people assume he's right?

In the real world a mermaid would be in danger of humans, but in THIS story, at THIS moment, they aren't. And the movie shows it.

"He must have a good reason for thinking humans are dangerous-" maybe so, but we never see it. It's not important enough to be shown. It's never backed up by the behavior of the humans his daughter meets. He calls them savage, harpooning, fish-eaters, but aside from the fish eating None Of That Is Depicted Or Even Hinted At. He's been cutting off contact with the surface for a while it seems, meaning whatever happened (cough cough ariel's mom got herself squished by some ships cough) happened long ago and has nothing to do with most if any of the humans we see now.

But still. People watching trust him to know the right thing.

I don't get. I don't get it!

Trion's worry is understandable as parent, but it's also CLEARLY shown to be aimed in the WRONG direction!

He's so on edge and furious about the surface but never warns Ariel about Ursula! Ariel gets chased by a shark and that's not what makes Triton snap! He shatters his daughter's dreams of the human world and leaves her along to sob- WHILE A SEA WITCH WHO CAN TRANSFORM PEOPLE AND IS KNOWN FOR MAKING CROOKED DEALS WITH ANYONE WHO DESPERATELY WANTS SOMETHING IS LIVING RIGHT NEXT DOOR!!

He's not being rational! Understandable, but not rational!

Gods, how can anyone watch the opening of this movie and end up thinking TRITON is the one who knows what's going on here!

I dont. I just don't get it. Hurts my brain, ow pain, ow.

[callahanisms]

are you on the square?

as i wrote in an earlier post, here is a shitpost about which ghost songs i’d assign to the hotd cast. i am a massive ghost fan outside of hotd and have written my fair share of fics. :)

all of these songs tend to have catholic references (as is the nature of ghost). but some of them fit really well with ghost especially since the faith of the seven is based off of christianity.

ser criston cole

from the pinnacle to the pit - meliora

in reference to criston soiling his white cloak, the man quite literally has a fall from grace. which i find aligns with the imagery present in this song since it involves an angel being cast out of heaven. but unlike the angel, criston has a savior to catch him.

“you are cast out from the heavens to the ground, blackened feathers falling down. you will wear your independence like a crown.”

daemon targaryen

darkness at the heart of my love - impera

daemon loves the people around him. but in a literal sense, his love is tainted. there’s something dangerous about his love (seen with rhaenyra). it’s only befitting to give him a song that mirrors the complexity of his love whether it’s love for his wife, for his brother, for his children.

“there’s a darkness at the heart of my love that runs cold, runs deep. the darkness at the heart of my love, so bold, so sweet. and all this time you knew that i would put you through the darkness at the heart of my love for you.”

rhaenyra targaryen

deus in absentia - meliora

deus in absentia is a song that questions the state of the world (and is part of the whole theme of meliora which interrogates a world without god). since rhaenyra has plunged westeros into war, it’s a song that fits with her worldview being challenged and for her to have to interrogate a world without her father.

“you’re so goddamn frail, failing for a change. you had just begun to explore the dark in the urban night. the world is on fire and you are here to stay and burn with me. a funeral pyre. and we are here to revel forevermore.”

alicent hightower

witch image - prequelle

alicent opened pandora’s box when she wore that green dress to rhaenyra’s wedding celebration. and arguably, she is responsible for the death of many people (even if done without her knowledge and whether or not she wanted it to happen). however the woman is willing to do anything to protect her children even at the cost of other lives.

“while you sleep in early delight, someone’s flesh is rotting tonight like no other to you. what you’ve done, you cannot undo. while you sleep in early delight, still your soul will suffer this plight. but like a mother would save her own child from digging a grave.”

aegon targaryen

absolution - meliora

as the oldest son, aegon has responsibilities. he has responsibilities of assuming the throne despite rhaenyra’s position as heir. he hates having these expectations and personally wishes that his sister would ascend faster. the meaning of the word absolution is a formal release from guilt, an obligation, or a punishment. and well, aegon wishes to be free from his obligation as prince.

“ever since you’ve been born, you’ve been dying. every day a little more you’ve been dying. dying to reach the setting sun. as a child with your mind on the horizon, over corpses to the eyes you kept your eyes on, trying to be the chosen one.”

aemond targaryen

spillways - impera

ever since losing his eye, aemond has felt anger and bitterness for most of his waking hours. it never goes away. and it all builds up over the years until it eventually begins to seep out and affect the people around him. it affected vhagar, it affected his mother. and he just lets his emotions continue to fuel his body and soul.

“all your faith, all your rage, all your pain, it ain’t over now and i ain’t talking about forgiveness! all your faith, all your rage, all your pain, it ain’t over now. it’s the cruel beast that you feed. it’s your burning, yearning, need to bleed through the spillways, through the spillways of your soul.”

helaena targaryen

ghuleh/zombie queen - infestissumam

queen helaena is a figure revered amongst the smallfolk. she is beloved by them. they see her as the rightful queen rather than rhaenyra. of course, her death becomes a morale boost for the greens and enhances aegon’s claim. she becomes a figure that lives in the smallfolk’s mind even after her death.

“the moon is full and shines. an evil blinding light. under a monolith, her likeness, marble white. zombie queen! zombie queen! black light guides you. ghuleh! ghuleh!”

jacaerys velaryon

hunter’s moon - impera

when he received news about the death of his younger brother, prince jacaerys swore vengeance on luke’s grave. he swore he would kill aemond. and the dance of the dragons is the perfect time for him to achieve that vengeance. he’s quite literally hunting for aemond.

“it’s been a long time coming, i’m coming back for you, my friend. to where we’d hide as children, i’m coming back for you, my friend. though my memories have faded they come back to haunt me once again! and though my mind is somewhat jaded now, it’s time for me to strike again. tonight, it’s a hunter’s moon!”

[writerbuddha]

George Lucas on Prequel Jedi: "They are the most moral of anybody in the galaxy."

GEORGE LUCAS: No. They're not like cops who catch murderers. They're warrior-monks who keep peace in the universe without resorting to violence. The Trade Federation is in dispute with Naboo, so the Jedi are ambassadors who talk both sides and convince them to resolve their differences and not go to war. If they do have to use violence, they will, but they are diplomats at the highest level. They've got the power to send the whole force of the Republic, which is 100 000 systems, so if you don't behave they can bring you up in front of the Senate. They'll cut you off at the knees, politically.

They're like police officers. As the situation develops in the Clone Wars they are recruited into the army, and they become generals. They're not generals. They don't kill people. They don't fight. They're supposed to be ambassadors. There are a lot of Jedi that think that the Jedi sold out, that they should never have been in the military, but...

PAUL DUNCAN: Do you think that?

GEORGE LUCAS: It's a tough call. It's one of the conundrums of which there's a bunch of in my movies. You have to think it through. Are they going to stick with their moral rules and all be killed, which makes it irrelevant, or do they help save the Republic? They have good intentions, but they have been manipulated which was their downfall.

GEORGE LUCAS: There was never a war between the Jedi and the Sith Lords. The Sith lords were in control for a long time. And what happens when you have a world full of Sith Lords? They start killing each other t see who's going to be the top Sith Lord. They don't vote; they just kill. It's the medieval feudal system. (...) Then the Republic came to power and the Jedi brought peace into the galaxy by being ambassadors and troubleshooters. So when the Senate decides to do something, or the Jedi Council discovers something that's amiss, the Jedi fix it. The Jedi don't like to fight people. They're monk-warriors. They're monks first, and they try to convince people to get along. And if you don't comply, your hand comes off. They use their power to keep the governments of all the planets in line, so that they don't do terrible things.

PAUL DUNCAN: And they have the moral authority to do that?

GEORGE LUCAS: Yeah. They are the most moral of anybody in the galaxy. They're monks. The Sith practice the dark side and are way of of balance. They Jedi aren't as much out of balance because they're the light side of the Force. They still have the bad side of the Force in them, but they keep it in check. It's always there, so it can always erupt if you let your guard down. The Emperor snookered the Jedi with Order 66. The nascent Rebellion and the Jedi didn't move fast enough.

GEORGE LUCAS: The Jedi won't lead droids. Their whole basis is connecting with the life force. They'd just say, 'That's not the way we operate. We don't function with nonlife-forms." So if there is to be a Republic army, it would have to be an army of humans.

(The interview is form Star Wars Archives 1999-2005)

George Lucas' foreword for Shatterpoint:

"For a thousand years, the Old Republic prospered and grew under the wise rule of the Senate and the protection of the venerable Jedi Knights."

"As dedicated as the Separatists were in their resolve to create a new order to replace the failing Republic, the Jedi were equally determined to preserve the Republic and defeat the Sith, who they understood all too well were the masterminds of the Separatist movement. They still believed in the Republic, still deemed it a Republic worth saving. Their faith, which gave them superhuman strength in the face of mind-boggling power of the enemy, had yet to be shaken."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

And how they function with life forms:

YODA: Clones you may be, but the force resides in all life forms.

(TCW S0101)

SHAAK TI: They're [the clones] living beings, not objects.

(TCW S0301)

CLONE: We're just clones, sir. We're meant to be expendable.

PLO KOON: Not to me.

(TCW S0102)

"He's not acting like the other Jedi. He has no respect for us."

(Clones between each other about the fallen Jedi, Krell (TCW S0409)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Jedi were not enslaving the clones, they were not fighting for the Republic because they were corrupt, they were not fanatic stoics and certainly not the villains of Star Wars.

[sebstanns]

Deserve

Summary: You broach a tricky subject with Bucky. Recovering / soft Bucky x female reader. Angst / fluff / smut.

Warnings: 18+ for sexual content. Unprotected sex. Language.

A.N: I kept meaning to write for Steve but this happened. I usually write for Boyd Holbrook characters on my sideblog - Masterlist.

I didn’t tag anybody but let me know if you’d like to be, possibly a part 2 or a prequel to this. I’d like to thank @ionlyjoinedforboydholbrook​ for her constructive feedback! It’s my first time writing for Bucky so please be kind!

Your heart skips a beat when you see Bucky waiting outside your office building, holding a bunch of flowers no less. He's awkwardly leaning against a wall, eyes darting around searching for you.

"You shouldn't have." You smile as you approach him.

"I was just passing." He murmurs, cheeks flushing as you kiss him.

"Passing a flower stall too?" You ask, accepting the blooms.

"Yeah, I guess so." He smiles.

"Mr Barnes, sorry to bother you." A voice pipes up. You turn and vaguely recognise the guy, you've seen him in the office building. What does he want with Bucky though?

Bucky eyes him warily. "Do I know you?"

"Oh no, I'm uh....I'm a big fan." the guy stammers, starting to sweat.

"So you're a fan of my work as the Winter Soldier or...”

"No no, I mean since then. Saving the world and everything."

"Sure, thanks." Bucky sighs.

You kind of feel for the guy, Bucky wasn't exactly known for accepting compliments, you know that better than anyone.

"Hey, can I get a selfie?" the guy asks, pulling out his phone.

"He's off duty, sorry." You say diplomatically, taking Bucky’s arm. "Let's get going."

"I'll never get used to that, " Bucky mumbles, as you steer him away from his fan. "I spent so much effort trying to hide and now..." He trails off.

"You saved the world, that's what people know you for now." You say, determined to put a positive spin on things.

"It wasn't just me." He says, as you cross the street. He moves his arm and grabs your hand instead, squeezing lightly. He's wearing gloves as is usual in public, concealing his gleaming hand in black leather.

You fall into a companionable silence as you head in the direction of your apartment. You can't help noticing that you're taking the route that happens to pass Bucky's favourite diner - where you first met in fact, a little over four months ago.

"Feel like coffee and pie?" He asks casually.

You grin at his predictability. "Sure."

Your flowers sit on the table in a kindly donated water jug as you and Bucky tuck into pie and ice cream, apple and cherry respectively.

"This...is...the...best...pie." Bucky says between mouthfuls.

"I knew you were going to say that." You tease.

He smiles, his eyes twinkling and crinkling at the corners. Oh, he seems so happy and relaxed, you impulsively decide to broach a tricky subject, figuring now to be a good a time as any.

"So, you know my sister's getting married in a couple of weeks." You begin, glancing at him as you toy with your food.

Bucky's eyes flicker and he fills his mouth with pie. "Hm-hmm." He mumbles.

You take a deep breath. "Well, I was wondering if you'd consider coming with me, as my plus one?"

He pales a little and offers a tentative smile. "I don't know sweetheart."

"Clare wants to meet you, that's all. You don't even have to stay for the full day, just to say hello."

"Sounds more like a family thing." Bucky says tightly, shifting in his seat.

"Well yeah," you swallow, feeling yourself flush. "But you are my....I mean..."

He sighs. "I don't think it's a good idea, you saw what happened outside your office. Imagine that times a hundred."

"Everyone will be focused on the wedding, my family won't bug you, I promise. They aren’t like that.”

Bucky scoffs. “You might be surprised how brave people get after a couple glasses of champagne.”

You sigh impatiently, feeling something inside you break. "What are we doing here Bucky?"

"I thought we were eating pie." He half-smiles.

"You know what I mean. Us." You hated to push him like this, you really did, and you already knew that he wouldn’t react favourably to it, but your developing relationship had seemed to come to a standstill lately.

"We agreed to take things slowly, didn’t we? One day at a time." He says quietly, reaching for your hand.

"But that was four months ago, I thought that we might have progressed beyond that by now. It's like one step forward two steps back with you." You say, your voice cracking with emotion.

"You're not my shrink, ok?" He snaps suddenly.

You slide your hand away from his and reach for your bag, tears forming in your eyes.

"I'm going home." You say softly..

"Don't go, please. I'm sorry." He says, looking up at you, a note of quiet desperation in his voice.

"Enjoy your pie." You sniff, not looking at him. You’re halfway home before you realise that you've left the flowers on the table.

X - X - X

By the time you get home you're angry with yourself more than anything else, cursing the fact that you even mentioned the wedding. You had agreed to take things slowly, but the truth is that you’re falling for Bucky and you want him to be a bigger part of your life. The wedding seemed like the ideal opportunity to introduce him to your friends and family, but on reflection, you realise how overwhelming it might be.

Half an hour later when there's a knock at the door, you know that it's Bucky. He's carrying the flowers, still in the water jug.

"The waitress said we could have this, I think she just felt sorry for me." He chuckles dryly, following you into the living room.

You can’t help but smile at the image of him walking down the street with the flowers.

"I'm sorry." You murmur, setting the flowers on your coffee table.

"Why are you sorry? I was a jerk back there." Bucky frowns.

"I shouldn't have pushed you like that."

"You weren't pushing." He sighs.

"I spooked you.” You say softly, looking up at him.

"Yeah." He smiles. "A little. Look, I’m still trying to figure this out."

"I know. Me too. I've never been in a relationship like this."

"I should hope not." He says wryly.

You chuckle, fighting the urge to just throw youself into his arms.

"I like you, so much." Bucky murmurs, his eyes searching yours as he strokes your face. "But I can't help thinking that you'd be better off with someone else."

Your stomach drops. "No, Bucky-”

"I mean like someone who doesn't get spooked when you want to do regular relationship stuff, it's not fair on you." He says, brow furrowed.

"Look, forget the wedding, I'll ask one of my friends to come."

"It's not just the wedding though is it?" He sighs.

“I don’t want anybody else.” You state firmly, placing your hand on his chest - you can feel his ever present dog tags through the thin material of his sweater.

"You've been so patient with me, it's more than I deserve."

"This is what you deserve." You say, and kiss him gently on the cheek. "And this." then corner of his mouth. "And this." finally the hollow of his throat.

He lets out a soft groan and grips the nape of your neck, kissing you deeply, opening your mouth with his tongue. He tastes of cherry and vanilla, his lips soft but insistent.

"I want you." He breathes. "I want you."

Without a word, you take his hand and lead him to the bedroom. Bucky was so gentle and hesitant when you first started sleeping together, terrified of hurting you with his strength and self-conscious of his arm. You managed to convince him that you could take - even sometimes desired - a little roughness. He loved to take his time undressing you, kissing and touching your soft flesh as he went. And when you reciprocated, he'd been touch starved for so long that the feeling of your hands and lips on him was almost enough.

Tonight he didn't deviate, pulling off your clothes and kissing you everywhere as you laid on the bed. He hovers over you, still half dressed, and you stroke his hair, fingers entwined in the short strands as his lips travel down your body, making you squirm. Finally he kneels between your legs and tugs at your panties, eyes dark with lust.

"James." You sigh, touching yourself, wetness coating your fingertips.

"You're so beautiful." He says gruffly, eyes focused on you as he removes his jeans. You'd seen him naked a number of times now but you never failed to be impressed by his magnificence, even his cock, now hard and leaking at the tip, is a thing of beauty.

You hold your hand out for him to return to the bed but his hands reach for your waist, indicating for you to turn over; you comply and he moves behind you, lifting your hips and pushing into you in one swift movement. You cry out as he fills and stretches your pussy, digging your fingers into the mattress as you back up against him.

"Does that feel good, sweetheart?" He growls.

"Yes, please...don't stop." You mewl, as he buries his cock to the hilt.

Bucky’s flesh hand is between your legs, fingering your aching clit, while his metal one still grips your hip. You place your hand over his, interlacing your fingers with his vibranium digits.

The rhythmic clink of Bucky's dog tags and the sound of your soft cries fill the air, he continues to work your clit in tight circles as he moves inside you, leaning down to pepper kisses on your shoulder - it isn't long before you feel the familiar tightness building at your core.

"Oh, Bucky, I'm going to-" you trail off as he drives into you harder, making you come apart and you moan loudly as your orgasm rolls through you in hot waves.

Compared to you, Bucky's almost silent, quietly panting and groaning, his hold on you tightening as you feel him throbbing into you.

Afterwards he spoons you, his bionic arm around your waist like a vice, kissing your hair.

"Look, about the wedding-" He starts.

"We don't have to talk about it now." You yawn. “Let’s leave it until tomorrow. One day at a time.”

“One day at a time.” Bucky repeats, softly.

[linkspooky]

Yuta vs Yuji

(They are both Good Boys ™ and that’s the Problem ™ )

As this week the boys are still fighting, I thought it would be interesting to take a more in depth look at both of their characters and how they compare and contrast with each other. Yuta and Yuji are both protagonists who have protagonistic motivations. Their central conflict, Itadori’s struggle to find a good death surrounded by people he loves, and Yuta’s struggle to be surrounded by people he loves and protects them, relates to protecting the people they love and the world around them. However, that’s also what drives them into conflict with each other. They both view themselves as “the hero” even in conflicts such as the fight against each other, where there is really no good guy. 

1. I want to live / I want to die

Yuta and Yuji are opposites in their stated motivation. Yuta’s goal is to find a way to live a happy life, surrounded by the people he loves. Yuji’s goal is to find a way to die surrounded by people he’s helped in life. 

Not only are their stated motivations opposites however, on the outside they are both the opposite in several ways. Yuji is someone who is known for his strength whereas Yuta is immediately remarked upon as the type to get bullied.  Yuji is immediately remarked upon for his cheerful disposition, whereas everyone who knows Yuta picks on him at first and notices how gloomy he is. 

Yuji is someone who seems to make friends and connect with people almost immediately, whereas Yuta is someone who it probably took him a long time to start getting along with Maki and Inumaki based on what we see in the prequel. Maki challenges him at first, and Yuta doesn’t understand Inumaki at first. 

Yuta is passive, and Yuji is active. Yuji is known for running after people to save them. Yuta’s actually not as motivated to save random strangers as Yuji is, he’s simply going along with becoming a Jujutsu Sorcerer because that will help his goals, 1) to make new friends and find a reason to live 2) to release Rika.

The difference between them even manifests in the way they became cursed. Yuji actively chose to swallow a curse, because he wanted to help Megumi and needed the power to do so. It was a decision he made. Yuta was the one who cursed Rika yes, but not only was it a jujutsu technique he used unconsciously, he also forgot about it and blamed Rika for cursing him instead.  

Which is also something that reflects in the central flaws of both characters. Yuta is someone with a victim complex. He tends to avoid taking direct responsibility for his actions and blaming it on someone else. He acts passive in almost every situation, and doesn’t accept that it may be his fault. Which is why he misremembered what happened to Rika. Yuta could not accept the idea that he was to blame for cursing Rika, so he blamed Rika in his memories instead for cursing him.

It’s been outlined by Maki before Yuta’s victim complex, but basically he reads as a nice person on the surface by pretending to be innocent when he’s not. Which is why she says his goodness feels fake, and he himself feels gross. Yuta kind of just, represses and ignores the bad parts of his personality, to seem like a hapless victim. Of course Yuta is not good or bad, he’s just a dude. But, Maki even goes further to point out Yuta himself doesn’t even seem to know who he wants to be. 

Yuta’s central character flaw is that he never accepts responsibility for his own actions. He has no self confidence and because of that he has a really tough time standing up as an individual. 

When he can learn to control his power, and stand on his own two feet rather than just avoiding responsibility and acting like a victim with no control over his situation. Yuta begins to change, but I think he also elevates his friends far beyond himself. 

He aspires to be like his friends, but he also feels like they’re already better than him and he’s unworthy. Which is why he’s constantly insecure about the relationship and needs to protect them. Yuta believes himself to be weak, he sees himself as a weak person, and so in every situation he tends to assume he’s the weak one or a weak victim which makes it hard for him to see what he’s responsible in those situation. 

On the other hand Yuji takes almost too much repsonsibility. Rather than trying to depend on others, Yuji is always, running ahead on his own and that’s where he makes his mistakes.

He thought he was strong enough to take down Choso on his own. He wasn’t. He thought he was strong enough mentally to prevent Sukuna from rampaging, he wasn’t. Yuji’s mistakes always come from taking on more responsibility than he can handle, and then letting things fall out of his control. 

Yuta’s irresponsible because he sees himself as a victim and doesn’t understand how strong he is, Yuji’s irresponsible because he constantly overestimates what he himself can handle.

If you take the scene after Yuji dies the first time into account. Sukuna outlines several facts. One, that Yuji is not actually strong enough to suppress him. Two, that he rampaged against Megumi specifically because Yuji got cocky and tried to use his power without using a binding vow and think it through. Three, that Yuji overestimates himself and his capability to keep Sukuna down and because of it, he agrees to a simple terms of “If I defeat you inside my own body you revive me with no conditions” and then just immediately dies. 

All of this of course being foreshadowing for what happens after the Choso fight. Once again, Yuji overestimates himself and how he can win the fight fighting alone. Halfway through Yuji gets overwhelmed and Sukuna surfaces. When Sukuna surfaces he rampages, because Yuji did not even think of the possibility that Sukuna might rampage if he died or lost consciousness, and therefore there was no binding vow in place to stop him. It’s not because Yuji is a bad kid, but because he is a kid, and doesn’t know better. He acts like any fifteen year old would dealing with a 1000 year old spirit that’s much smarter than him. But it’s also a case of Yuji thinking everything comes down to strength and he can beat Sukuna just by being stronger, when Yuji actually solves none of his problems by fighting alone, and all of his major victories come from fighting together with others. 

Yuji and Yuta are even opposites in regards to their curses. Rika loves Yuta and wants to protect him. He loses control of her because he’s too scared to face her, and has no idea how to begin controlling his power, which is once again this flaw that Yuta’s fear is a fear of taking responsibility. Yuji on the other hand his curse Sukuna loathes his guts, and is constantly trying to undermine him. Yuji’s problem is again and again he’s proven to underestimate Sukuna, he’s not afraid enough of Sukuna because Yuji himself considers himself a strong person and overestimates what he can be responsible for. Rika is an ally outside of Yuta, and Sukuna is an enemy within Yuji. 

However, after going to such length to establish them as opposites they have one central similiarity. Both of them are incredibly lonely people. They can’t really make friends or connections normally. 

Yuta has this fear of living alone, and Yuji this fear of dying alone. 

They both only form relationships on the basis that they’re needed. Which is why Yuta goes so insane about protecting his friends. Which is why Yuji keeps focusing on death above all else, because that’s their true “purpose” that underlies their stated motivations. They’re both doing this because they are afraid of being alone.

However, they both need to prove that they are “worthy” of love. In order to do that, they need to be good, useful people. Thus they are heroes, thus they are good guys, thus they are protagonists. 

Yuji becomes so insanely motivated to fight after Sukuna’s rampage, because if he doesn’t help someone, if he doesn’t justify his decision to keep on living somehow they’re just a murderer. Both Yuta and Yuji don’t really care about the world or circumstances around them, they just want to be validated by the people around them.

Yuta is a deeply selfish person, because he just wants other people around him to tell him it’s okay to live. However, he’s also just a suicidal fifteen year old kid in the first place, any kid his age would feel that way, would need that support and he shouldn’t need to earn it. That’s what he misunderstands. However, Yuji and Yuta keep trying to seek external validation. They keep trying to earn love rather than having it given to them.

It’s what Yuta completely fails to internalize after his fight with Geto. The lesson he needed to learn was that there was more to the world around him than just protecting the people he loved, but it seems coming back to both of those people he loved being hurt has caused him to double down on “protecting the ones he loved” vs “thinking about what is justice”.Yuta’s still stuck in this mode where he has to earn love, and that becomes his first priority in everything.

The problem with making the decision to ignore justice is that you can end up at the wrong side of the equation. Yuji is Yuta. He’s another victim who allowed a curse to rampage because he was cursed as a teenager and could not control his own power and people ended up dying for it. 

However, because Yuta only understands that his friends have been hurt, and refuses to understand Yuji as both a victim and a person outside of himself he accepts his role of executioner.

Yuta was the person who was going to be executed a year ago. The only reason he didn’t was because Gojo gave him a chance and extended a helping hand. However we’re now seeing Yuta take the opposite path. he’s made the decision to become executioner, to not save when he himself was saved. Which is just sad because Yuta and Yuji are character foils.

 A conflict against Yuji, the other main character, is really just Yuta fighting himself. Yuta cannot forgive himself for the crime of being weak, and therefore he blames Yuji for being like he was a year ago. Yuta still doesn’t know how to stand strong on his own, to accept that his friends love him for who he is, so he’s still trying to earn love by avenging them and acting overprotective against Yuji, when we know Inumaki was friends with Yuji and probably would not want him to be hunted down and killed. 

Yuta and Yuji are both seemingly completely selfless people who can come off as rather self centered when you examine their deeper motivations (they do what they do, because they want to be loved and needed) but it doesn’t come from a place of ego, it’s just that they’re lonely. They can’t feel accepted for who they are so they both try to be heroes instead. 

[randomnameless]

I swear if it weren't for the self-insert, dating sim nonsense, this franchise would have died with Awakening. Good grief. Sometimes I wish it died with Tellius on that day. But, I wouldn't have gotten Marianne, Dwyer and Lucina though :( Sigh

Well...

You pointed it out, even if there are a lot of things we don't really like about the post Awakening games (FE13 included) there are still things we do like!

And if FE really died after Tellius/the Archanea remakes, then we wouldn't have them!

Not to say other games had "nothing" problematic, I rambled enough about FE Tellius and its message regarding "coexistence between Laguz and Beorcs".

While I was a bit worried about adding a "futuristic civilisation" in the FE series, the Nabatean and Agarthan debacle and subsequent war is really something fresh and something I find interesting. Relics being a subversion from Jugdral's HW? Good. Nabateans post-Zanado hiding for fear of being terminated but still trying to help people, as best as they can, because they love Fodlan and its people? Nice, 10/10. Tellius AU where Lehran had a renewed faith in Humanity after Serenes, only to lose it little by little, thinks only the Goddess can lead Tellius and its people to prosperity but doesn't think terminating the world is the best solution, so he tries to find roundabout ways to reinstall Ashunera? Only for Sanaki to barge in with her imperial army asking him to die because his ears are pointy and he is not "human"?

Fodlan could have been great. Ideas are here and there.

It's just that IS decided to... shat a, at best, milquetoast story about saving the waifu of your choice, at worst, an offensive story with "artificial" stakes and a lot of player pandering to create parasocial relationships that will make player spend money on FEH.

Now I know War of Heroes prequel/DLC will never be released, because it can't make Supreme Leader/Puppet look completely off the base regarding "reforms" and the state of the world, even if they depict her glorious ancestor as the chadest chad who ever chaded out in the universe, or who tried to apply those very same reforms she "apparently" wants to install, and how, it failed 1100 years later.

There's no "maybe they both believed in what they did and had valid points" to have with a guy who genocided a race, of the people who asked him to do so - even if I legit thought no one would ever play colonial propaganda from the 1930s straight

But hey, that's why we have fanfictions, and if anything, Fodlan is ripe with fanfic material - for the people who often browed r/atheism or think feudalism is all about people having swords, horses and a nobility title - but also for people who generally like stories about acceptance and mutual understanding despite differences, like the shape of their ears or technological advancement.

Y'know, what could have been if that game had better writing lol