#the show if it had actual writers/budget

[back-in-the-landslide]

I swear to god I haven’t watched the show and immediately it’s made me want to make it better then how it was written.

This one isn’t an actual redraw, I did it out of boredom. So enjoy this one too I guess. 👍

[ashtonisvibing]

i've seen the minecraft movie trailer

who was the writer that decided to make steve reference "the children yearn for the mines"

i just want to talk

no ignore the baseball bat in my hands

[ssaalexblake]

sometimes fandom is wondering if the person blaming a writer for the shitty costuming actually Knows how idiotic that is or if they're deliberately being an idiot for ~agenda~ purposes

wardrobe departments, entirely mythical and/or working at the hands of writer tyranny apparently.

[cathymee]

me when i have 4 hours to finish a project before submission

[loregoddess]

I think I've figured out why I like On the Way to a Smile so much, and it's not bc it made Advent Children make sense, or explain Rufus and the Turks' seemingly sudden heel-face turn...

but rather bc it's about that weird timeframe of "after the adventure comes to an end and the world must heal", but not in a vague "and then they rebuilt"--it actually takes and explores a handful of characters and makes that weird narrative timeframe (which so often gets glossed over via "x years later" in epilogues and stuff)--the book makes that weird timeframe the story focus itself

[foolishlovers]

With 2024 coming to an end, I just wanted to give a quick shout-out to my favourite fics I (re)read this year. I have so so much appreciation for all writers creating beautiful works about our beloved angel and demon pair. Reading these sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes sappy, sometimes deliciously filthy stories has been a constant source of joy. I truly can't even begin to describe how thankful I am to be part of such an incredibly creative and loving fandom. So so much gratitude for all the different versions of them, all the genders, all the tropes, all the canon fics, and all the human AUs. There are so many more amazing fics I read this year and there are so many more to explore in 2025, but the following few have made themselves a home in my heart. I promise they're worth a read! 💜 [I do fic recs all year long, check out this tag for more.]

Date by @ddagent (2.5k, T)

Every year, Aziraphale is spoiled on his birthday. This year, he decides to do the same for Crowley. There's only one problem - he's not actually sure when Crowley's birthday is.

Roller Derby Queen by @summerofspock (2.5k, M)

Crowley skates for Hell on Wheels and she's pretty good at it too. She'd be better if she weren't so distracted by the new skater on the opposing team.

Sweet Nectar of the Eldritch Gods by @brenna (3.2k, G)

Azira writes a letter to the purveyor of her favorite honeys and sweetness ensues. No offence, but who says “by the by,” by the way? It’s adorable? By the by, do you like wine? Crowley

Poor Men by @why-not-go-with-style (3.9k, G)

What To Do When Two of Your Professors Are Hopelessly in Love With Each Other: an instruction manual by Adam Young (featuring Pepper Moonchild because someone has to be the voice of reason here).

!False (It's Funny Because It's True) by @mirjam-writes (6.4k, E)

Aziraphale drew a long breath through his nose. Crowley, of course it had to be Crowley. The new guy in the sales department, who would promise potential customers just about anything to close a deal. Arrogant, annoying – and wildly, stupidly attractive. Aziraphale hated him.  Aziraphale is a stellar software architect and a project manager, who is so done with the sales department selling unrealistically scheduled and budgeted projects. And he definitely doesn't have a crush on anyone, thank you very much.

Show me where the Nightingale sings by @sabotage-on-mercury (6.5k, G)

After settling into their new home in the South Downs there are still things to process for Aziraphale and Crowley before they can start a new chapter of their life. But winter is turning into spring. There is magic abroad in the air. And finally, the nightingale is back.

The Art of Human Nature by @ineffable-doll (6.5k, T)

Crowley is a painter who has only ever had an eye for nature. That is, until a client named Aziraphale commissions her for a painting to boost her self-confidence, and Crowley discovers that her client is as beautiful as the Earth itself. Then she goes and catches feelings, because she’s a disaster.

Lit by @fellshish (12k, T)

Crowley takes a university course on literature and surprise! The book they’re discussing is Good Omens. Uh oh.

Paradigm Shift by @hakunahistata (13k, E)

“Apologies, apologies! The time got away from me.” Aziraphale Fell entered the room brightly, a binder in one hand, tea mug in the other. Crowley’s languid sprawl went rigid as the senior accounting analyst who had been the indulgent secret in the back of his mind took the seat opposite him.   Or, Crowley Pines at the Office: An AU.

Feast by @ashfae, mostlyjustgoose (15k, E)

Crowley's spent the whole of lockdown asleep. Aziraphale has spent the whole of lockdown baking, cooking, and becoming increasingly frustrated with his solitude. Which eventually leads him to the perfect way to solve all his problems at once... Or, Aziraphale attempts to seduce Crowley with a truly excellent meal, and Crowley is amenable.

Ever-Fixed by @hkblack (19k, E)

Aziraphale Fell had a plan. Go to school, get his degree, and start his life with his beloved at his side as man and wife. Until one day Crowley disappears. Decades later he meets a man, and finds the love of his life again. Anthony J. Crowley, suave, cool, masculine, in control, unflappable, has spent decades building himself up. He refuses to let his confident facade disappear for Aziraphale, who once almost tumbled down the stairs to certain death because his nose was stuck in a book. It’s just sex, and they’ve been dating for months, this time around. There’s no need to get his knickers in a knot. But the past isn’t easy to let go of, even if you’re both avoiding it. A story about love, intimacy, and finding each other again. (Alternatively: Tender smut, but then I wrote love story flashbacks, and now it's just emotional and there's plot in my pornography)

Fireworks by @optimistic-starlight (19k, E)

He had to get himself under control. Aziraphale needed him. That prick boyfriend of his drained so much of Aziraphale's time and energy, dampened so much of the gentle, beaming happiness that Crowley had always adored about him. He needed Crowley there to support him, to do the things a best friend should be there to do. And, well, if Crowley needed him too, if he had to subsume his own pain to focus on making Aziraphale happy, that was something he could bear quietly. He could do it for his angel. Crowley groaned and dropped his head against the tiled wall of the shower. His angel. He had to stop thinking of him like that.

Maybe Next Christmas by @flamingbentleyy (21k, T)

Airports were tricky business, but waiting in airports was as close to hell as one could possibly get. Nobody knew it better than Aziraphale, whose luck had made him end up in one right on Christmas Eve of all days. Although his airport experience turned a little less hellish and a whole lot more entertaining after he ran into an old college friend in that same airport. And then again. And again…

The Small Ad by @theladydrgn, @sylwritesstuff (32k, E)

WORK WANTED: Partner For Hire. Tall, lanky ginger of arguable gender available to be your significant other to keep pesky relatives, nosy coworkers, or well-meaning friends at bay. Able to be as annoying or as polite as you like. Causing a fight over Christmas dinner with your odd, bigoted uncle/aunt/cousin will require an extra £200 up front. £50 for the first hour, negotiable otherwise. Ciao.   It isn't the sort of advertisement Aziraphale usually paid any attention to, but desperate times do indeed call for desperate measures.

Heavenly Wicked Cafe by @waitingtobebroken (33k, T)

There is a terribly rude barista that makes amazing coffee and a saint of a barista, whose coffee tastes vile. And they are in love.

Petrichor & Parchment by @katnoggin (33k, E)

“Mr. Crowley, I presume?” Aziraphale asked in lieu of an introduction, which was not forthcoming. The guy hadn’t even removed his sunglasses. Oh God, he had a tattoo on his face. Aziraphale wasn’t one to judge, but… what kind of gardener had a snake tattoo on his face? Now also available as a podfic from Literarion  [Huuuge recommendation for the podfic!!]

The Heart of the Forest by Kalimyre (33k, E)

Retired librarian Aziraphale moves into a small, isolated cottage deep in the forest with a strange history. He soon realises he's not alone in the woods; a presence watches him. But as he begins to befriend the stranger that lurks in the trees, Aziraphale comes to understand there's more to him than appearances suggest - and Aziraphale's own destiny may be tied to the mysterious creature with the golden eyes.

in your own time by @ineffabildaddy (33k, E)

Aziraphale and Crowley grew up together as next-door neighbours on Hogback Lane, classmates at the local Catholic school, and inseparable best friends. By the age of eighteen, both were hopelessly in love with the other, despite the knowledge that they were doomed to live apart, as Crowley aimed to pursue university study in London and Aziraphale committed himself to remaining in Tadfield, dedicating his life to the Church. After almost twenty years spent away from his hometown, renowned botanist Crowley decides to come and visit Tadfield again at a moment's notice; the purpose of his visit is to speak at a Careers Day for the school he and Aziraphale, now a beloved priest and a frequent helper at the school, attended. The twenty-four hours that follow will change both of their lives for ever.

Between Comfort And Chaos by anathxmadevice (45k, T)

“And how long have you two been a couple?” “Oh, I—” Aziraphale panics. “Ha, well, that’s a funny… We’re not actually—” “We’re just friends.” Crowley says, their voice clear and calm and lightly amused, either because of or in spite of Aziraphale’s flailing attempts to divert the conversation. “Ah, yes, quite.” Aziraphale says, then takes a sip of his drink just for something to do, instead of focussing on the way Crowley said just friends, and how it causes a painful throb in his chest that he has never fully got used to. His memory can only scrabble at the edge of a time where being just friends with Crowley didn’t feel like a particular form of torture. * Or, Aziraphale has been desperately in love with his best friend and housemate Crowley since they were students, but is too scared to do anything about it.

Loving You Slow by @tawnyontumblr (46k, E)

Crowley just wants to dance, but he's not prepared to sell his soul (and other things) at Mayfair's Hellfire Club to do it. Tending bar at The Bookshop in Soho is just the escape he needs, providing Crowley can convince the club’s owner he really belongs on the stage. Unfortunately Aziraphale Eastgate is not quite the generous guardian angel Crowley has been led to believe. Welcome to The Bookshop, where it always pays to look under the covers.

A Billion Points of Light by akitsuko (50k, E)

The firefighter lifts the visor on their helmet, and Crowley may not be able to see very well, but those are the most beautiful eyes he’s ever seen in his life. Crowley has never been one for the whole 'love at first sight' business, but he may need to reassess after Aziraphale - a gorgeous firefighter - saves his life.

More Than by @naromoreau (55k, E)

Crowley would like to spend another year without marrying, especially when thrust-forced to pick a husband. She refuses to cave in on a matter of principles. She refuses to cave in specifically on a matter of not wanting to be married to Lucien Morningstar. But she might need a hand to break free from such a burden. And who knows? She might even find something else along the way.

Lavender Apiary Of Your Honey Eyes by @snek-of-eden (66k, E)

The first thing Aziraphale registered was fiery red hair matted with sweat. The second thing was the man’s face, sharp and intelligent and a little guarded, sunlight dappling a spray of freckles. Upon seeing this, two contradictory thoughts crossed his mind: ‘Gosh, he’s pretty’, and ‘I don’t believe I’ve ever heard a man use that many expletives in the space of a minute’. “Oh,” he said, swallowing hard. “Hello, then.” __________ When Aziraphale inherits a small, cosy cottage in the countryside, he finds unexpected company in a gardener he didn't even know he had. Crowley is sweet, and strange, and about as foul-mouthed as you can get. Before he knows it, he's falling pretty goddamn hard for a man whose friendship he's terrified of risking. Ah, the foils of love.

Old Vines by @sevdrag (189k, E)

A.Z. Fell, one of the most respected names in wine and food blogging, has been sent on assignment with his assistant Warlock Dowling to spend six months in California Wine Country. Under direction (by his boss, Gabriel) to use this experience to double his blog followers and write a novel, Aziraphale is both excited and anxious about the opportunity. Anthony J. Crowley is the owner and viticulturalist of Ecdyses, a winery that unexpectedly fell into his lap eleven years ago when he hit rock bottom. He may be in debt, yeah, but he’s paying off his loans — and despite pressure from his lenders and their team of inspectors, Crowley has found a kind of contentment tending his little corner of terroir and producing extraordinary wine. Crowley’s old vines are the heart of his vineyard, and he’s never let anyone in. Crowley finds Aziraphale intriguing; Aziraphale finds Crowley enthralling. Turns out a famous wine expert and an experienced viticulturalist can still learn things from each other. The summer of 2019 unfolds. [Big recommendation for the podfic here too!!]

[kamehamehamlet]

The Tumblr reblog sensation is returning. But like the Sayians or Shakespeare’s folios, it has the potential to develop in many forms.

Visit kamehamehamlet.com to be notified when we have more details.

Follow this blog for a peak behind the curtain.

And read on to learn more about the show, how we got here, and where we’re going.

Thank you for waiting just a little bit longer.

Revival Project FAQ

Who are you?

Hi! I’m Daniel Cole Mauleón (@writepictures), the writer of Kamehamehamlet. In 2015 I co-founded the theatre company Play-Dot Productions with KHH’s director Shalee Mae Cole Mauleón.

What is Kamehamehamlet?

Kamehamehamlet: Good Night Saiyan Prince, was an hour-long one act play, performed during the 2015 Minnesota Fringe Festival. It’s a staged retelling of Vegeta and Freeza’s battle on the planet Namek. Marketed as a Dragon Ball Z and Hamlet mash-up, the parody quickly shuffled off its weighted gi, revealing it was actually a Waiting for Godot spoof. After five performances, Vegeta hung up his helmet of spiky hair. Seven years later, K (@amokslime) wrote this incredibly gracious post on Tumblr, which inspired two people to reach out to me via Reddit to ask if I had a script or a recording of the performance.

I want to pause the semi-marketing voice and say a heartfelt thanks to K. Kamehamehamlet was brought to life by an incredible team of artists during a summer I’ll never forget. We got laughs at jokes, gasps at fight choreography, and we broke even on the budget (a Fringe miracle TBH). K’s post gave me the chance to revisit that show through someone else’s eyes. The mix of pride and humility it stirs up is truly indescribable.

If there is art which has changed you, and especially if the artist is still alive I encourage you to non-intrusively share that with the artist.

Is there a copy of the script?

Yes, I’ll speak more about that at below.

Is there a recording of the performance?

There was, but I genuinely lost the files. And that’s for the best, honestly. It was a last-second attempt, filmed from two cheap cameras (with different qualities and resolutions!), both at bad angles and with truly awful audio. Trust me. It’s better this way.

That said, I do have other archival footage from rehearsal's, tech, etc. that I look forward to sharing for those curious.

What’s next?

This is the question I’ve been asking myself over the past year and the reason it took so long to post anything. Especially since one thing I want to do differently this time is make sure that any artists involved are meaningfully compensated for their time and skill. However, I can’t plan without a better estimate of what kind of support we would have, and I didn’t want to share our intentions without concrete details. Right now, the best way you can support this project is by signing up for the announcement on kamehamehamlet.com and following us on Tumblr and YouTube!

The second best thing you can do is to share with others about this project, if I’ve learned anything reading through the comments on K’s post, it is that there’s a much bigger audience for KHH than I could have ever imagined, and you likely know at least one more person who would be interested.

And while I don’t want to promise anything I can’t deliver on, I will share that I’m planning on making the script available this year and I’ll be writing a separate post about that in near future.

Update 5/21/24: We've announced a staged reading for later this year! (Click to learn more) Update 6/11/24: We're going live on YouTube every Saturday through June to rally fans and talk about the project. This link will always take you to the upcoming stream. And this link will take you past recordings.

If you’ve read this far thank you so much.

Photography by Ann B. Erickson. Vegeta is played by McKenzie Shappell. Freeza is played by Cayla Marie Wolpers. Costumes by Sarah Noel Simon.

[madonnamadeofasphalt]

EA & Bioware honestly did an incredible job at killing any enthusiasm I had for a new Dragon Age. Fucking hell, man, I've played the first two games so much I could probably go through them with closed eyes and still pick all the right dialogue options to get My Exact Personally Canonized Plot. And the only reason I didn't do the same thing with DA:I is because it was made after EA completely gave up on optimizing their shit so the fucking thing takes up like a billion terabytes of disc space and takes 10 hours to download and install. I honestly think it's the best-written cRPG franchise to ever have a budget that doesn't involve a list of Kickstarter backers or getting an eccentric Estonian billionaire fixated on the project. And the gameplay is also there, I don't really care about that part.

Then they proceeded to fire all the talent that made me love those first three games, and scratch and restart the production twice, and be suspiciously cagey with any details or gameplay footage for a fucking decade, so my hype consistently went down and down. And yet I still managed to hold out some hope that somehow, by some miracle, it wouldn't fucking suck.

I kept that hope until the trailer dropped. You know the one. The one where we see a bearded Varric. This, I think, was the exact moment when I lost any desire to play fucking Veilguard.

Like, first of all, Varric being there at all is already an issue. Leave the man alone. His presence was already kinda forced in DA:I. And after DA:I and Tresspasser, his story couldn't be more finished if he got killed, eaten, shitted out, condemned to hell, redeemed by divine sacrifice, bathed for eternity in the everlasting light. There is no point to Varric anymore. Whatever arc they've given him in Veilguard, and I don't even give a shit enough to read the spoilers before writing this post, it has no business existing. Fuck you. The only reason he's there is because he's a recognizable IP, and when you're a certain kind of soulless corporate moron, you think there's nothing more important than putting a recognizable IP in whatever new bullshit you're trying to peddle. Maybe if you didn't fire every decent writer in your trash fucking company, you'd have someone to tell you about the importance of Ending The Fucking Story When The Story Fucking Ends.

But that's not even the core of the problem. Beard? they gave Varric a Beard? Varric I fucking hate everything that's even tangentially connected to dwarven culture with a passion which is why I've made a point to shave my beard all my life to spite anyone who gives a fuck about it Tethras? beard? you gave him a beard? He changed so much offscreen in the goddamn timeskip between these two games that he got a motherfucking berd? fucshhfdbeard? feadsgfsvarricafgfdh BEARD? yyousftoiuslyhhabevarricasgsfucningbeardandthivkimgosabedineditit?beard????

PS. (edit after finding out spoilers) I've gone to TV Tropes to read up on Varric's role in DATV after writing this (just in case I'm wrong and dumb, and there's actually a deeply compelling narrative reason for his presence), and, well, this shit is cheaper than I thought. And more importantly, just as I thought, there appears to be no justification for the beard beyond "adding a beard is a cliche way to show that a bunch of time has passed, and we didn't care enough to think this shit through". I'm fucking tired, man.

PPS. (edit after reading the rest of big spoilers) This is so much worse than I could even begin to suspect. This is worse than the final season of Game of Thrones. This is the final season of Game of Thrones if they straight-up fired GRRM, burned his notes and hired a showrunner who's only read a one-page summary of the first six seasons. This is fucking depressing, man. I'm genuinely fucking sad. So many subplots that were started over the course of these three games, that were clearly going somewhere, scrapped in favour of a simplistic good vs. evil story that would get rejected by fucking CD-Projekt in 2007 for being too basic. All because the artists who poured their hearts and souls into this bullshit franchise got thrown out like trash by its "owners". Morrigan's kid, the Well of Sorrows, all the implied complexities of Tevinter politics, the Crows, the Old Gods, Andraste. All went to shit. Death to capitalism.

[lemonhemlock]

the thing is i don't care about how hard it must be for the hotd writers to adapt from book to screen with budget and time limitations (even though i am historically sympathetic enough to these difficulties and i do understand the need to make changes to fit the story in a different medium)

but what i see as understandable excuses would be shoddy cgi or costumes and less impactful action scenes or even fewer action scenes/battles. which we already got anyway, the only battle (rook's rest) is humdrum and rather spiritless. to a certain extent, i can even excuse cutting out characters or merging them or simplifying storylines.

be that as it may, the fact of the matter is that, even the scenes which should have cost the least amount of money in this whole production, i.e. the sitting-around-in-rooms-talking genre of scenes for which GoT became famous, SUCK. the politics in this show are non-existent. the characters' motivations are so wishy-washy to the point of parody. the character arcs look like they were settled via a game of russian roulette. the S2 version of characters doesn't make sense as a progression of their own S1 canon.

and this has nothing to do with money OR time constraints. it plainly only has to do with bad writing. a talented writer can absolutely have a canon-divergent vision and an understandable desire to adapt their own vision. but they have to recognise if they have the TIME or the BUDGET to bring that canon-divergent vision to life, if they can sufficiently commit to integrating those changes in a way that feels organic to the characters. IF NOT, THEN DON'T DO IT.

i get it if they're big rhaenicent stans or if they really, really like this version of alicent that lives in their heards, the one that would ditch her kids in favour of rhaenyra or if they're so enamoured by the idea of heroic rhaenyra (and that's just scratching the surface when it comes to all the points the show fumbled). but if they don't and can't fit those changes in a way that doesn't destroy the logic of the narrative, in a way that doesn't leave other characters hanging dry with no motivation left to carry out the plot points they have to hit, they should have had the maturity to drop those ideas and settle on something else that could have been easier to film with the resources available.

i said it before and i'll say it again: 1) whether fans are satisfied with the changes made to the source material and 2) whether those changes make sense in the context of the show are two separate issues that apologists sometimes try to merge in other to muddle what the actual problem is. "oh you're just mad because it's not book canon" or "you're mad because your headcanons diverge" or "we had logistics limitations" are not pertinent responses to critiquing the integrity of the show's storyline!

so i hope the writers and executives see all these criticisms and choke because they did a piss-poor job of everything and turned S2 into a goddamn hack operation

[neil-gaiman]

So I may have gotten into a heavy discussion recently regarding how picky authors can be when their books are adapted into shows, movies and theater. Apparently the person was a director, and hated it when the author actually had a hand in the directing portion of the adaptation.

I do happen to know of one author who was a nightmare to work with when one of his books was adapted into a comic. He apparently went off on a characters neckline. It was showing a little too much, or so the stories say. Sadly he passed away, and now what might have been now will never be, show wise.

My question is, what was it like for you? In both American Gods and Good Omens. What was the experience adapting it to the big screen, and how much did you have to fight others to keep even some small things from changing?

You might have been asked this before, but I had to ask. Sorry if I'm bothering you.

I didn't have a lot of say in American Gods. Each season had its own showrunner. (I did a draft of the script of Episode 1 of Season 2 of American Gods, but I don't think a lot of what I wrote made it onto the screen.)

I was showrunner and sole writer and working hand in hand with the director on Good Omens Season 1, and co showrunner with the same director on Season 2. I fought hard for what I wanted to keep. It was harder in Season 1 -- on Season 2 they trust me, and as long as we could do whatever the plan was within budget, we could do it.

[azaharinflames]

Well, hello my fellow and beloved BuckTommies. I come here with a new theory - not quite or what will happen, but on what did.

Let me put my tin hat firmly on my head for a second, alright? Because we have been talking about all kinds of possibilities, and have theorized about BTS, and even budget cuts, but.

We are all missing one thing.

What happened during the summer that has repercussions in the series right now? Or that will have in the immediate future, but we’re only seeing the start of...?

An ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ reboot was officially announced.

It is set to be filmed in Australia come the New Year. And JLH, famously having been in the first one, is going to Australia to film for this one as well. 

This means that, just like they did in Season 5, they will have to take JLH’s absence and other compromises into consideration. In Season 5 she was on maternity leave, this time around she has a movie to shoot. And it just hit me that it might be the reason why things got moved around, and why perhaps they did what they did with BuckTommy.

(Disclaimer: I am not putting this on JLH, and I don’t want anyone to do it either. If this is something that clashed with the initial plan, what the writers and Tim came up with it’s on them, never Jennifer)

We know Tim is not someone who writes his stuff in advance. He’s flying by the seat of his pants; he writes as he goes, and this is something he has said before. So now he has to write and plan in advance because Jennifer will be somewhat absent. The direct result of this is, in my opinion, Madney.

The storyline of them having a second child at home, having her go back to her family, having Jee notice her absence, and then starting to debate on whether to have a second kid… had the potential to be more than one episode. Or, at the very least, to end the episode with them deciding that, yeah, they want to try, they want to expand their family. Maddie’s mentality on PPD could’ve been an episode in itself (Lord knows we don’t get enough Maddie episodes, especially lately), instead of a throwaway line on how she doesn’t want PPD to define her. I do think it’s amazing she’s at that point in her life and on her journey, but I can’t help but think this could’ve also been a really nice episode arc to have. Chimney’s doubts were also gone pretty quickly, with not even needing to talk to anyone about it. All in all - the storyline felt rushed and a bit anticlimactic. And at this point, I can only imagine they will somehow try to create some drama surrounding the pregnancy in 808 (807 perhaps, but it feels like it’s busy enough) so that Jennifer’s absence is justified. We don’t know if, just like in Season 5, Kenny will also be absent (Chim going with Maddie wherever she goes, I don’t know). People weren’t happy with him having to be off the show in Season 5, so I hope he stays, but we don’t know just yet. 

A side result of this could’ve also been BuckTommy. If there is something I’ve gathered from Oliver and Lou’s interviews is that both were a bit surprised it happened this soon. Now, we don’t know if this means they were breaking up for good later on in the season, if this was supposed to be a longer arc, or if they knew there were talks of break-up-make-up, once they were more established. As it is, this happened now.

And in my mind there are two possible theories. Let me present first why I have them:

-They need some substantial drama to go on for 8b. Bathena went through it in S7 and now are rebuilding their life, so it would be a bit of an overkill to have them go through it in S8 as well. Eddie is going through his own stuff and is going on a journey of discovering and enjoying himself (that, personally, I hope deals with actually dealing with it and having deep conversations with Chris). Hen and Karen have just gone over the drama of the adoption and, to be honest, they need a breather. Give them SLs that don’t involve them somewhat losing their kids (be it adoption, or an accident). 

-So… that leaves Buck. Buck, whom we all joked was the only one doing fine in Season 7. Whom we all said was going to go through it in Season 8 to compensate for his happiness in 7. Well. The joke’s on us. He’s had such a drama-free period of his life (yes, affected by what was happening around him, but not directly involved in it) that I think we forgot they enjoy making him suffer. We barely saw a thing with Gerard, and nothing to last the whole season, so… now this. 

So. From this, I see two options:

-They always knew they wanted to have BT have issues, that they didn’t want them to be easy or smooth-sailing, because has a couple in this show been that? No, right? So why would they? So they wanted a break-up arc, potentially ending in making up. Perhaps things moved around a little bit, we don’t know. But maybe they want 8b to deal with Buck trying to see what Tommy meant, yet realizing he still wants Tommy, thus starting the make-up arc. Meaning, they decided to have BT bear the weight of the heavy drama of this second half. People are already invested, clearly, and with JLH gone for a bit, they need people interested in what will happen next.

-Sort of the same, but different results - they just want Buck dating around and having drama with that. Admittedly weaker than the other option, but it is one I don’t necessarily eliminate just yet. Mostly because I’ve learned to be skeptical of 911’s intentions. 

Previous to 806, I fully expected 8b to have more Buck/BT, Madney stories as A plot, as they haven’t had one in 8A. But now that I think about it all, I can’t help but wonder if those last minutes decisions were to accomodate what will happen, just like it happened in Season 5 (which, I will remind you, dealt with her absence by having a lot more of Taylor than we were expecting. Her appearances went down quite a bit once JLH and Kenny were back, and shortly after, she was gone).

Again, I am aware I might be delulu right now. But for the first time in days, something has fully made sense to me. In conclusion:

[a0random0gal]

Yeah so Remember when Ryan Condal said Aegon and Sunfyre's bond was "Green propaganda" and everyone got understandably mad at him??

Take a look at what he said regarding b&c:

https://www.reddit.com/r/HOTDGreens/s/NabfGkmeWs

Bro...what the actual fuck did you just say?

Apparently blood and cheese was all green propaganda that Alicent spread to make saint Rhaenyra look bad. It was all a misunderstanding, there was no choice between Jaehaerys and Maelor, it was all made up.

Alicent just invented the most evil lie she could muster up to villainize the amazing blacks. What was shown onscreen is the real representation of what transpired.

Jesus Christ Condal i get that you hate book! Alicent (and Alicent in general) for some reason but can you stop blaming that poor woman, who had to watch her grandchild get beheaded, and not say she was lying out of her ass? Is that so hard?

"You were supposed to be rooting for blood and cheese and hope they didn't get caught!"

For the love of the Seven, if you don't want all the money you spent marketing this show to go down the drain Hbo please keep this man away from any interviews, I can't listen to him anymore without wanting to turn my phone off.

I genuinely can't fault many greens for deciding to stop watching because of this bs.

It's so embarrassing that a writer who is supposed to portray a civil war and keep both sides on equal ground pulls this type of shit. For me the next episode is coming out tomorrow and honestly I have no motivation to watch, absolutely no excitement.

I tried to deny it in the past, but now the writer's bias has become so blatant that my love for the show has taken a hit. Hotd truly is a high budget team black fanfic.

And here I thought without D&D in the picture we would be fine.

[jackoshadows]

It's weird how a TV show's fanbase are these days attacking the actual authors of the books or people connected to the source material for daring to criticize the TV adaptation of story/themes/characters they are intimately familiar with.

I mean, when we as an audience can criticize a TV show for doing so and so and not making sense or mutilating characters and their arcs, surely authors who know the source material better than anyone also have a right to do so?

This happened with Brandon Sanderson when he criticized the Wheel of Time adaptation on Amazon Prime and show fanatics then went on to attack him and his writing of the WOT books. And it's now happening with GRRM calling out the HOTD adaptation on HBO.

And a lot of the times the changes in story and character are not even because of budget or time constraints and all that. It's because the showrunners/writers simply thinking they know better than the actual author of the books or that their version is better or that their favorite characters need more screentime and plot while sidelining the main characters of the books. It's their fanfiction which they get networks to finance by using the IP of popular fantasy works out there.

The reason we got only mild criticism from GRRM after GOT ended was because the books were not finished and D&D had no source material to adapt. That is not the case with HOTD and F&B.

Anyways, I don't watch HOTD after the way HBO/D&D massacred the ASoIaF books with GOT and don't intend to. The nihilism of HBO's version of this world - especially after what HBO/D&D did to the character of Daenerys Targaryen - is not for me. The world is already shitty enough for women, I don't need it in my fiction as well.

In fact I hope HBO is angry enough with GRRM that they stop consulting with him for future prequels etc. - which leaves GRRM time for finishing THE WINDS OF EFFING WINTER!! Like come on GRRM. Jon Snow has been lying dead in the snow for 13 years! Dany is still in Essos! Arya is still in Braavos! Bran has had 3 chapters in 19 years! Finish the book. That's all ASoIaF fans want at this point, IMO.

[copperbadge]

I like my job; I like my boss and the work that I do, which is socially meaningful. But I also would really like to make more money than it's realistically possible for someone of my skills and experience to make in nonprofits, so I've been considering transitioning to the for-profit world.

The problem is my job doesn't really exist in the for-profit world. So I've been going through my resume and reworking it to demonstrate general skills (administration, budgeting, cat-herding, etc) and trying to figure out what kind of job those could support.

I also googled around for some kind of way to like, input my skills and get a list of jobs I could do with those skills. I found one site that had you rate 20-30 common job skills on a scale from "no knowledge" to "expert" and rated all my skills, then breathlessly hit the submit button to get the job suggestions back...

Well, I guess they aren't wrong.

[ID: My match results showing the top three jobs for someone with my particular skillset; number one is "Poets, lyricists, and creative writers" while number two is "Music directors and composers" and number three is "Art, drama, and music teachers, postsecondary."]

What extremely lucrative and easy-to-attain careers. ($73k a year my ass.)

I do actually have a ton of white-collar office-worker skills, but clearly my dislike of hard work and my passion for bullshitting shone through...

[iapetusneume]

So, a friend was venting about this in the Discord Server, and the result was an interesting discussion about disability in 40k. And I don't know how much it might have been originally purposeful, but I do know that later authors have definitely explored how characters interact with the world and with disability.

To ignore disability in 40k is to miss a huge aspect of the setting and it's characters.

In the grimdarkness of the future, you'll probably lose a body part.

There is a post somewhere on Tumblr that talks about how, if you need glasses/contacts/surgery to see properly, you have a disability. And there were a lot of people who were upset by this, saying that it was so common, how could it be a disability? But they're right - glasses or contacts are disability aids. A simple one to use, sure, but it's still an aid.

I bring this up because in our current day and age, needing glasses/contacts is not considered unusual. You don't see someone with glasses at the grocery store and be like "omg what is even going on."

And I feel like this attitude is to any sort of prosthetic/augment in 40k. There's definitely a discussion to be had about the quality of the prosthetic/augment, and how that can show class differences (which is very much a common theme in 40k), but their existence and seeing people with them is not unusual.

There are also many parts of the narrative that does deal with the issues that arise from this. Maintenance, malfunctioning, replacement, sometimes phantom pain. There are a few people whose bodies reject the prosthetic/augment, and so their disability becomes more severe.

It is also brought up that, in more idyllic sci-fi, this is less visible. There can be many reasons for that. I think it was part budgeting reasons that in The Empire Strikes Back Luke's hand looks so surprisingly like skin. I'm sure part of that inspiration came from the desire to not want to have to deal with an extra costume issue for the future.

I wonder how often in live-action sci-fi that this was done. Or throwing a glove on a hand like Luke does in Return of the Jedi to hide that his fake skin on his hand was damaged.

But Warhammer started out with written descriptions and drawn illustrations, which gave a huge amount of freedom to imagining how the world would look. They were only limited by a writer's ability to describe a scene, or an artist's ability to draw it. There wasn't the restrictions of what practical effects could do for live action, or budgeting, or Actual Physics. Prosthetics/augments could be wild and crazy and common.

Time has gone on. We now have animated episodes and so many video games, and characters having prosthetics/augments are a part of the setting. At this point, it would honestly feel weird to look at a group of people (and this includes space marines out of armor) and not see at least a few people who have something.

It's as common to us as wearing glasses, and it sure as hell ain't virtue signalling.

[bwat5-blog]

Pacing For Season 2

**Spoilers For All of Arcane**

If it has not been made clear by my continuing posts about this amazing show, I love Arcane. I loved both seasons, the characters are perhaps some of my favorites of all time, and I am eternally grateful to the people who brought us this story. So much so that I have started doing what I have been doing here, because the lack of literacy and understanding of the true depth given to this work seriously bothered me. However, like all of you I have seen both Amanda Overton and Christian Linke speak out recently trying to explain or justify the pace of season 2. At the end of the day, I'm just a fan. I am not a director or writer or any of that. And I at least understand what Amanda said regarded showing versus telling. I love delving into these characters and the story and finding the meaning in each moment, and I think ultimately they conveyed a beautiful story no matter what. But knowing that they were offered several more seasons to flesh out this story, and CHOSE to not even spend one more really rounding out this saga, I simply cannot agree with their defense.

**I’m still not sure I’m seeing it how they are, but someone kind of enough to respond did give me some clarity on their options regarding more seasons. From what I understand they had the budget to spend on more arcane but chose not to, but also had planned arcane for only two seasons and were locked in that way. So if that’s the case I’ll amend it to say that choosing to shortchange those moments because of writing was disappointing, not because of production**

**I in no way support of any sort of hostility or aggression towards them, they crafted a beautiful story that literally revitalized my love for fiction. I just wish they had taken their time.."

Pitfighter Vi:

I have gone on in great detail across various posts about my love for Vi and her story, so I won't delve into all of that here. But are you seriously telling me Vi didn't deserve to have us spend more than the intro of "Blisters And Bedrock" seeing her at her lowest point? We watch this incredible character fight so hard for those she loves, trying so hard to do the right thing, and then spend approximately 3 minutes and 50 seconds on her pain. This moment deserved more weight. It is the breaking of all that Vi has been trying to hold on to, and then she is back on her feet focusing on someone else who needs her. Again. And I understand that this has taken place over months in the universe, I do. But you can tell someone it took a year of hard-work, and planning, and coordination to build a skyscraper. If all they see is the blueprint and the finished product, it will never carry the same weight.

Caitlyn's Redemption:

This is perhaps the most heavily debated and contested plot line in season 2. I have made my feelings clear on a variety of occasions but since I'm doing this I will reiterate. I understood every point that they made. Each step they showed us as justification of her redemption made sense to me, and collectively I think they showed her remorse and her evolution through her rage and pain, back to becoming the woman Vi loves. But it was just. So. Quick. I understand the idea that Caitlyn is not a "big speech" type of character. I agree with that, and that's never what I was expecting. And I understand when she and Vi reunited on the ridge, she never imagined Vi would still care for her, so when she called her Cupcake it gave her that hope again. What I have used in prior discussions that makes the most sense to me, is imagine a math student has been asked to solve an equation and show his work. The answer is correct, and he shows his steps, but instead of actually showing the entirety of each step, he gives a summary.

Caitlyn's arc and her development are in my opinion some of the most dramatic in the show. She quite literally begins as a naïve rookie enforcer who wants to help people, falls into the darkness of the world surrendering every ideal she held true and betraying those she loves, and re-emerges as the true protector her city she had always wanted to be. I understand the context they use to help us see her remorse and I have mentioned it on several occasions. But Caitlyn deserved to have a moment where we saw her thinking of Vi... A moment where she questioned what her mother would think of what she had done... Maybe a moment seeing someone she'd interacted with in the undercity carted off to stillwater... For me this is not a question of "did they pull it off". It's a question of what such an incredible character deserved.

Jinx Comes Back:

Jinx stands alone, having decided that there is truly no version of her worth saving. She has made her peace with Vi and left her behind, burned The Last Drop, and cut away her hair. And as she detonates the bomb meant to take her life Ekko arrives at the last second and saves her life. She attempts to kill herself a few more times, with Ekko pleading with her to stop, and speaking to her of the hope of building something new. 1:34-3:08. One minute and thirty four seconds spent before Jinx's return as the fully realized version of herself, in a truly epic scene leading the Undercity to battle on her bad-ass war balloon. Again, I understand the context (starting to feel like a broken record here). It's not that they didn't pull it off in terms of belief. Even the emotional weight of knowing that it was BECAUSE Ekko had come to believe in her, and a world without Hextech again after his time in the AU ("Vi is the Jinx" people take notes, you completely missed the point). But we watched Jinx suffer so.. so much. I cannot see a justification that explains why she didn't deserve that moment. That moment of realizing who she is, is the good version of her. That buried underneath all of that pain and darkness she was the person her people would follow into battle. The person who loved Isha and Isha loved in return. The person that at the end of the day, Vi would never give up on.

Closing Thoughts:

Yall, I love this show. Damn do I love this show. With every deep dive I have done, and every post by the rest of you I have read, or been fortunate enough to discuss with you, I feel like I gain a new level of appreciation for these characters every day. And I'm not done. I have many relationships, and characters, and themes I want to continue to explore. I have really tried hard to avoid any negativity regarding the decisions made in the crafting of this season, because so much of the fandom so jarringly has misrepresent and underappreciated this incredible work. I hope I have been clear in my belief that my issue is not with the story, or the quality of these characters. It's like being given given a glass of the best drink you have ever tasted, but they will only fill it halfway, because they chose to leave the other bottle at home. I just... don't understand.