#the trick isn't changing the storyline

[mythalism]

i'm back in the building.

i'm still on my first playthrough, slogging through it but i think i realized what it is about this game that feels more like a chore than an actual gaming experience. i talked about the cinematics and like that's a whole thing i have beef with in the world where we have mocap and also just genuinely amazing technology for animation development but WHATEVERRR.

as a person who enjoys story games even without creating my oc, like red dead 2, the witcher series, the reason i find veilguard lacking is that rook is neither an every man character (ala hawke & shepherd 🩷) nor are they an empty enough canvas to fill in (ala hof, inq, tarnished in elden ring) it kinda feels that even as a player you have to suspend disbelief for your own character.

like for example in the witcher, all of geralt's choices cross over through three games and really you can dress him & comb him how you like but the choices are story related and you can still find satisfaction in them. same with red dead 2 and arthur where the game is more rigid storywise but still, you can unlock two endings depending on how you approach arthur's personality as a person.

and the crux of the issue is rook is not a person. they are in every way, a video game character. the infantile gameplay (left off from the mmo no doubt with no tactical view, quest summaries, limited "loot" boxes, no interaction with fauna, no actual crafting just upgrading) the juvenile writing / "storytelling" (telling fans to interpret the plot however they want, trick saying it's possible the evanuris aren't even all gone which renders the entire game pointless if we did all that and elgar'nan is in turkey getting new veneers fitted.) the fact that rook is basically woe. storyline be upon ye. (taash's identity being chosen for them ???, telling either low app, high app, or rom inq what to do w solas and yes the dialogue option of yay let's save him! also exists w low app inq?? which is to say to stop solas isn't the same as having low app but they didn't even let players choose that lol you can still change inq's mind)

like the whole game is an mmo without the multiplayer aspect. the storyline is loosey goosey because well most multiplayers are bc they go through rancid updates and additions (fallout 84 comes to mind specifically, and considering how badly that flopped idk how bioware saw the reception and went yay!!!!! lets do that!!!) and all your companions prefer to interact w each other than you because well. yeah. you're a player. you're not playing a character, you're basically playing yourself or at the very least a very conceptual idea of yourself in this fantasy realm.

anyway i have a nuke enroute to ea's HQ. that's all 🙂‍↕️

i just read this like an old man reading the morning paper, sipping coffee and nodding along like 🙂‍↕️ mhm mhm 🙂‍↕️ 🙂‍↕️

i completely agree with all of this and it really clicked for me how much the multiplayer bones of the game impacted the story and choice specifically. like obviously ive known about the multiplayer foundations for like 5 years and how it’s sooooo clear in the gameplay but this just made it click for me that it’s literally to blame for the story too… of course none of the choices are truly significant. multiplayer games fundamentally cannot have significant choice that affects the world because not everyone will make the same choice. the only MMO I’m super familiar with is ESO and when i think of the choices you’re allowed to make in that game versus what you’re allowed to do in veilguard…. yeah. they’re both shallow, and usually only cosmetic. it makes sense to me that the choice like minrathous vs treviso is pretty much just cosmetic, and then it takes content away instead of adding something new. the companion choices seem to really only manifest in some new banter? except for maybe emmrich? like it’s so clear that they had this multiplayer foundation, which is mutually exclusive with meaningful player choice, and then were told to build a single player RPG on top. it was literally an impossible ask.

also hard agree on everything you said about rook. i literally hate rook LMFAO they are so nothing - like a voice acted MMO character… i do want to play the game a second time but i want to play a veil jumper elf and genuinely the fact that my dalish elf character would have the dread wolf in her back pocket and just never ask him a single fucking question on anything that she and her entire culture have devoted their lives to figuring out and learning is so fucking infuriating I cannot stand to put myself through it

[scoobydoodean]

So like. 4.18 "The Monster At The End Of This Book" and 4.22 "Lucifer Rising" both feature Dean and Cas collaborating on plans where they do things Chuck didn't foresee and said weren't supposed to happen. He didn't write Dean to show up at his house and force him to come with him to the motel where Lilith and Sam were. He didn't write Dean and Cas showing up at his house to demand Sam's location. Like Dean (and Cas) are defying expectations while Sam does exactly what they expect him to do.

And I bring this up because in 5.08 "Changing Channels", Gabriel says:

GABRIEL You sorry sons of bitches. Why do you think you two are the vessels? Think about it. Michael, the big brother, loyal to an absent father, and Lucifer, the little brother, rebellious of Daddy's plan. You were born to this, boys. It's your destiny! It was always you! As it is in heaven, so it must be on earth. One brother has to kill the other.

And he's just... wrong? Dean "loyal to an absent father"? That hasn't been Dean since before season 1 even ended. Dean explicitly violates what he knows would be John's wishes in 1.21 by bringing The Colt to rescue John and there's an entire conversation about how John would be furious with him and that's how Dean knows John's possessed. Dean was shitting on his dad just a few episodes ago in 4.19 and in 5.06. He explicitly says in 4.22 "I'm not Dad". This framing of the brothers in relation to John isn't consistently true of Sam either. It's true of the demon blood storyline, but Sam was all for following John's orders in season 2.

Gabriel has this unbelievably simple caricature of the brothers in his head that he's basing everything that's going to happen around, and it just does not work, and I think he's not the only one. Zachariah and Michael I think lean toward this simplified view as well and it's what ends up biting all of them so hard in the ass. They expect Dean to behave a certain way based on a version of him they've made up. And that's how Dean always ends up being the fly in the ointment the monkey in the wrench the pain in the ass. Because he does not do what they predict him to do. Sam kills Lilith and Sam says "Yes" to Lucifer (whether they get him there the way they thought they would or not). Dean shows up at Chuck's house. Dean tricks Zachariah. Dean shows up where Michael and Lucifer are supposed to do battle and snaps his brother out of possession. He refuses to shoot Jack. He refuses to do all of the things they are convinced they can make him do.

[skyfallscotland]

Writing Advice: tips, tricks & helpful links, from your friendly neighbourhood fanfic author ✨ (part one—the advice)

see part two—the resources here

I've mentioned this before, but I truly believe no one's born a great writer. A great storyteller, yes. A great writer? That's learned. I've been reading and writing basically as long as I can remember. Learning to write is like...learning through both practice and symbiosis. In saying that, I get asked about this a lot, so here's what I do and some things that might help you.

Write what you're inspired to write, when you're inspired to write it.

So you have an idea—great! Are you a plotter or a pantser? Some people like to start with an outline, others just jot down a few notes and let the keyboard take them where it will. I'm in the latter camp, generally. For me, the best way to avoid writer's block is to write what I'm inspired to write, when I want to write it. Sometimes I'll write five chapters of a story at once, others I'll switch between a multi-chapter and a one-shot.

What's most important for me, personally, is that I don't try and force anything. If you suffer from demand avoidance, the worst thing you could possibly do (in my opinion), is set arbitrary goals. You don't need to write 500 words a day. If you want to, great! If that helps you, also great, but in my experience, that will generally just make my brain say well no, now we're not writing anything for a whole week, maybe a month, if you test me.

I also personally like to have a whole fic written before I start posting it online, or at least most of it written. I like being quite far ahead of what readers are seeing because I am a pantser. It takes the pressure off and honestly, there'd be so many plot holes if I didn't. Which brings me to...

First make it exist, then make it make sense, after that make it good.

What you see me post is not my first run-through. It's not even the second. I've written, read over, and changed things at least a handful of times before ever posting it, especially when it's a multi-chapter work. Sometimes I'll write a scene I love and then realise it just doesn't flow well, because three chapters back I had someone say a certain thing. In that instance, I'll put the scene aside.

Note that I said 'put aside' not 'delete'. I never delete them until I'm finished with a fic and I'm certain I won't need them, ever. Been there, made that mistake for you! Having a separate document with just various scenes you can insert at a later date also helps you to feel like it's ok to write what you want to write when you want to write it. I'll be honest, I jump around a lot. Sometimes I'll be inspired to write a scene I know isn't coming for another five chapters, but in my opinion it's best to just write it because when I get there five chapters down the line, I might not have the inspiration or I might have forgotten how I wanted things to go. Write what your brain wants to, fill in the blanks later!

Write from the heart.

My most popular work is the one I find the easiest to write and I almost never wrote it at all. Isn't that ridiculous? I almost never wrote it because I know it's cliché and excessive, and honestly...looked down upon. I almost didn't write it because of other people's opinions; then I said fuck it, I want to read it so surely there's someone else out there that does, too? Turns out there were thousands of you. Who knew?

But that work has really resonated with so many people and I think that's because I've poured so much of myself, my pain, my own experiences into it, into her. For that reason, I'd tell anyone starting out to try original character fic if that's what they want to do. Fuck the haters. All their favourite works were original characters once too.

Don't read similar fic while you're writing yours...unless you need to.

Let me explain. If I'm writing a certain type of alternate universe, or a certain storyline I know someone else has written, I won't read theirs until I'm done if I can help it, especially not if I'm actively writing my take on it. This isn't a hard and fast rule, it's obviously up to you what you feel comfortable with, but I would never want to have someone else's work influence my own too much, or get our ideas confused in my head, you know?

An exception to this rule, for me personally, is if I'm stuck with specific things in particular, like smut. When I wrote my first smut piece from a male POV, I was struck by the fact that I had no idea what an orgasm felt like for them, or how to describe it, because despite reading M/M fic for years, I apparently never absorbed that particular verbiage, so I went looking and read a whole bunch of smut from the male POV just to get an idea. Which leads into...

So you suck at kung-fu fighting.

Action scenes. I'm convinced we all hate them just as much as each other. I hate them so much I've changed whole plotlines from canon just so I don't have to include them. Unfortunately, my main fandom features a bunch of knife-throwing, sword-wielding, dragon riders at a war college who spar for clout, so I mean...it's unavoidable.

I still suck at writing it though, so what I now do for sparring and other hand-to-hand combat is search up youtube for sparring videos or self-defence lessons. It's much easier to describe what you're seeing than to imagine the mechanics and positioning of an artform you've never performed. The kung-fu thing was a joke, I like capoeira personally.

Stop being so damn hard on yourself.

Listen, everyone wants to be better than they are when they start out, literally everyone. I know I sure did. That's normal. Accept that it's normal before you start because the thing is, no one's a harsher critic on you, than you are and you'll always want to be better. There's a quote from Ira Glass that I'll paraphrase:

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap[...]It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit."

It's very true. Hopefully you have the support of a really welcoming fandom to reassure you that actually, you're nowhere near as bad as you think you are.

READ. BOOKS.

@justallihere says you can’t be good at something you don’t know anything about and it's so true, I've phrased it before as learning by symbiosis, when you read more, you'll internalise more. You're subconsciously learning how story structure works—plot hooks, transitions, metaphors and similie, grammar, style and punctuation.

Show don't tell.

...yeah this one I haven't mastered, I could use some help with that myself if anyone's got any words of wisdom, thanks.

Take all of this with a grain of salt.

I couldn't tell you how many writer's advice threads and blogs and whatever-else I've read over the years—too many, for sure. What I can tell you is 80% of what I've read was crap. It doesn't apply to me at best and it's unhelpful at worst. Maybe it's the neurodivergence, maybe it's just the fact that everyone's different and all you can do is give things a try, but based on that I can say with certainty that not all of this will work for you and that's absolutely fine! But I hope at least a few things do 😌

For links to more specific resources including thesauruses, generators, and other writers' advice, click here.

[elkonigin]

Inuyasha - A Meta about Sango's Entrance

So let's talk a little bit about our girl, Sango's entrance into the storyline for the start of Sango week.

Sango's entrance into the story is fit for a character that deserves the emotional investigation that she deserves.

Sango is shown to be the only female demon slayer in her village. Is this normal? We're to assume no, based on how we do see women in the village, but they seem to hold a more traditional role in the village. However, what we can safely assume is that these women are the backbone of the village, because who else is going to spend time mixing and preparing all the salves, powders, and poisons that they use on a regular basis. And let's be honest, they're gonna have to wash those uniforms eventually.

But Sango goes out with the group of demons slayers that HE TRUSTS THE MOST to take care of the infestation at this noble's house.

As we all know, Kohaku, her brother, betrays everyone through the plan of Naraku to kill all the demons slayers and leave the village unprotected and prime for attack.

However, Kohaku kills everyone else first, and then aims for Sango. Naraku saw everyone else as a bigger threat than Sango.

Now this is prime EMOTIONAL DAMAGE material, right? Except it wasn't to torture Sango, it was to eliminate those he thought of as a bigger threat. He viewed Sango and Kohaku as both weaker than the rest, and so he saved them for last.

However, Sango knows her brother, and knows that there's something wrong. Because Sango knows her people, and so she tries to wake Kohaku up.

And Sango is the one to figure out who is behind this whole mess, because she knows that it's an ambush.

And when the castle guards, who had no clue what was happening, kills Kohaku RIGHT AFTER HE'D STABBED HER IN THE BACK MIND YOU, Sango's forgiveness is immediate.

Let's not even talk about how after being stabbed in the back by her brother, she literally crawls out of her own grave.

Because for Sango, this is a resurrection in a sense. Her entire life as she knew it, her way of living, everything that shaped how Sango viewed herself has been eradicated. She is literally coming back from nothing and a complete betrayal by someone she trusted implicitly.

Literally everyone looked at her and went, "She's dead," and she looked so dead that they buried her and even Naraku was surprised about her still being alive.

And once Naraku tells her that Inuyasha was behind the attack at the village, and lays the blow that her entire village is now destroyed, Sango can barely walk and she's out for revenge. In fact, Naraku keeps thinking that she's dead every time she stops to rest.

And let's not forget the first words that she says to the group.

Sango doesn't do anything by halves in this story, and her entrance here is a girl who's lost everything and more, and is literally running solely on revenge and hate. This should've been a villain's entrance. We should hate her. However, Sango's situation begets nothing but remorse and sympathy. We want to love Sango because we know everything that she's been through.

Sango is every bit the villain that the story of Inuyasha deserved. She'd have decimated the group and we would've still cheered for her.

And after she realizes that she's been tricked? It was only after losing the jewel shard in her back that she even felt the pain of what had happened to her, and she still struggled to fight afterwards.

While she's recovering, we see that Sango's heart isn't entirely corrupted. She's still capable of caring, and she realizes just what the gang has done for people that they had no attachment to or reason to care for. But they did it all the same.

This kindness is probably what keeps Sango with them. Sango is inherently kind. We see that before, and we see it now.

Sango's loss defines her, but it doesn't change her. Sango is who she was and always has been.

She's still kind. She's still noble. And if anything, Sango is the proof that we can have great loss in our life and still remain good and uncorrupted.

Sango's entrance into the story shows the dynamics of her character. We see her knowledge and skills, her determination, but we also see her flaws. We know that she's passionate, but sometimes she's blinded in her rage and vengeance. She's loyal, but we see that as a flaw in how she's literally willing to die to get her revenge.

I hope that you enjoyed this little tidbit. Hopefully there will be more in the near future.

[fabianvalencia561]

So what are you gonna do when you finish your corrupted au story?

Mmmm

Honestly once the story is finished

I'm actually planning on remaking it correctly, don't get me wrong I love how my original ttte corrupted au is, but it can be a bit.... Confusing to some and some of the parts come in too fast or too slow

I feel like I didn't explain clearly enough, and some parts are too rushed like how D10 meets Sir Handle, I was too rushed and we don't get to see him and D10 actually interacting.

Also I felt like when (other) Proteus finds out that Crovan is just using Jackie and the corrupted... It feels too soon.. and I hated how Crovan straight up admitted that he's basically the villain, like everyone(us the viewers) already knows that he's the villain but I want to trick the characters in the story to show how manipulative he can be.

I also hated how rushed I was that some parts of the comics were not even a comic/drawings it was just words! It feels lazy in the way I did it before.

I feel like showing the action then saying it, is more better and has a stronger connection with the reader

When I read my past work of the corrupted au... I feel like I'm not doing it justice... I felt very upset and lazy when I saw it, but now I'm improving/trying to improve more of my story telling and I'm gonna remake it! :]

I'm still keeping in @/dieselstooyou @/elovesrandomfandom @/kingdicemrwheezyflowertor @/lovedevildice4ever and other RP parts because they are actually part of the storyline but I'm just going to change little things nothing big just some small things that's all!

Though the RP with @/jayde-jots and @/the-annon-cult-leader will not be part of it. @/jayde-jots and I never finished our RP which is completely fine I just don't want to get anything about their au incorrect, so that's why I won't add theirs.

@/the-annon-cult-leader they deleted the RP and I didn't get the chance to reblog it-

But hey if you want to add your rp to the storyline of course you can since I'm still working on it! But... You have to make sure that your ttte character/ your ttte au isn't like a Mary Sue thing and can magically defeat all the corrupted in a minute lol, most likely if you want to RP let me know and I'll tell you the rules of how the ttte corrupted au works :D

I'm still working on the original corrupted au of course- but once I'm actually finished.. I'll actually make sure the characters, the background, and the story itself are improved! :]

[absolutebirth]

READ THIS POST ON NEOCITIES AT ABSOLUTEBIRTH.NEOCITIES.ORG

Absolute Destinty: Analysis is a biweekly blog analysing Revolutionary Girl Utena as a I conduct my third watch-through in summer 2024. My three priorities are to A) create a guide suitable for following along with a first watchthrough which is spoiler-free enough to not have the show spolied but which might highlight hints toward the cumulative storyline, B) knit together a full analysis of Utena which tackles the show's main themes, with an emphasis on my personal interests of surveillance, spectacle, and power, or the questions who sees? what do they see? and who decides? and C) maintain a section at the end of each blog post with the intent of pointing out, for people who are on their second or third watchthroughs, my favorite allusions to the End of the World.

Each post will be, following my favorite quote from the episode, split into 7 sections:

Episode Summary: what it says on the tin

A Wider Gaze: An attempt to put this episode into the wider view of the show as a whole, contextualizing the development of characters, themes, and relationships in Ohtori academy, and then taking that wide view of the show and applying it to the world as we live it-- the world outside of Ohtori academy.

Institutionalized: Drawing from The Shawshank Redemption (1994), here we look at how the characters in each episode have found themselves embedded in Ohtori, enacting actions against their own better interests for fear of leaving behind a comfortable confinement.

The Eye That Fucks the World: Donna Harraway describes ubiquitous surveillance as "the god-trick of seeing everywhere from nowhere" and goes on to say that "this eye fucks the world." Revolutionary Girl Utena is a story about being watched, not only by the viewer on the other side of the camera but, as we will eventually find, by another eye-- which certainly has intentions to fuck the world. Here we see how this ethos of watching and being watched plays out, episode to episode.

Who Decides Who Decides?: Ohtori is a world of power. As the student council squabbles, power shifts between them are some of the most significant developments in each episode. Here, we check in with the power balance, what changes it, and what that means for both Utena and Utena.

Saito Solace: A piece of Saito's manga art from The Gallery At Empty Movement, to finish off the spoiler-free section of the post.

(SPOILERS) The End of the World: The section for those in the know and my kicking-my-feet giggled realizations about the clues Ikuhara leaves us throughout the first 35 episodes. I don't want to say too much here, because I don't want someone who isn't looking for it to read too much, but suffice to say that Utena is certainly one of those stories where hindsight is 20-20.

In terms of my own background, Utena related and otherwise: I was born and raised in the northern Midwestern United States and moved out east for college, where I'm majoring in "data economy" (a self-made amalgamation of economics and computer science) and ethics. I was into anime in high school, mostly grew away from my obsession, but recently viscerally remembered the awe inspiring masterpiece that is Utena and decided it was probably once again time to think about Anthy at least twelve hours a day. My favorite other pieces of media are Disco Elysium, Against Me!'s album Transgender Dysphoria Blues, Don Delilio's novel White Noise, Infinite Jest, Neutral Milk Hotel's In an Aeroplane Over the Sea... in terms of other seminal pieces of lesbian liturature, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe and everything by Alison Bechdel, but especially Dykes to Watch Out For.

My favorite Utena characters are and always have been Mikage, Anthy, Nanami, and Saionji (in that order) but I hold a soft spot for every single one of them and the spider-thin lines connecting them emotionally and thematically. I believe thinking about the duelists in terms of right and wrong or our id-pol concepts of oppression hinders a reading of the show, just as a flat understanding of those things hinders meaningful connections and community building across the false lines the patriarchy creates, so I generally find myself more sympathetic to Touga, Mikage, and Saionji than others may be. Finally: I suspect, although I haven't cracked their code, that the Nanami episodes are the most significant in the entire show.

The first post, for the first episode, will be posted this Wednesday, May 22nd, 2024.

[inanewmoon]

You've teased Ranma and Ryoga for the world fusion... I know Akane will be teased at some point.. but can I ask about Konatsu? Ninja girl in a Ninja world sounds fun.

Oh, wow, that's a difficult one! 💙 I don't have a good answer yet, but I can waffle a bit about it. Maybe it will end in an idea where to best include her. 💙💙💙 (I guess that by itself reveals some of the answer already - I didn't really plan, or ran into a scene that needed her specifically, yet? But there still might be a cameo if convenient, or a short storyline that includes her in some capacity)

In general, I am approaching this merger by transplanting a handful of Ranma characters into Narutoverse (where Shikako from DoS also lives). These characters "have always lived there" in this interpretation, and I had to tweak their ages a little too, since Narutoverse begins at ±12 years old and not ±16 average for Ranma. I don't wanna *overload* the Narutoverse with Ranma characters, which is why not everyone is getting moved. By design, it's gonna focus mainly on Ranma, Akane and Ryoga, and any other characters are slightly relegated to the background and or cameos. Konatsu, sadly, isn't either Ranma, Akane or Ryoga not anyone close to them, so she starts at a big disadvantage in this cruel Ranma character lottery. I guess her fate also depends on my plans for Ukyo... who I also haven't fully decided on (don't tell anyone).

So first, Konatsu is somewhat easy to transplant (pun intended) into Narutoverse, because her skillset... is actually kinda canon to the Naruto verse. The multi body technique and other tricks are part of the common legendarium of what "ancient mythical ninjas" could do. It's more accurate to say that Konatsu and Naruto share the same roots and inspirations for their powers. 💙💙💙 Very superficially, Konatsu shares some commonalities with Haku. Fearful/abusive childhood, devotion to a saviour (Ukyo and Zabuza, respectivelly), and gender-themes, but it's a stretch otherwise.

Dreaming of Sunshine story has chosen to not lean onto trans interpretation of Haku, focusing on Haku's "oh... and... I'm a boy" instead, but in my heart both Konatsu and Haku deserve to be trans girls. 💙 They just live in the worlds that might not have had that exact word or description to fully-understand at the time? Mostly due to the meta reasons, too (Kishimoto just can't write girls, and Rumiko probably didn't have an lgbt+ vocabulary at the time, even though Konatsu is much more obviously trans-coded than Haku). It's a whole long conversation I don't wanna get into too much.

I will be doing "more gender" in Leaf's Ranma, so Konatsu can feel safe about her identity if she makes the cut 💙💙 So... to sum up in some ways Konatsu's similar to Haku, and one option (devasting for Konatsu-fans in Leaf's Ranma AU) would be to give some of Konatsu's roles and impacts (which were minimal in the Ranma managa, she came entirely too late to change things, even when we love her 💙) over to Haku, not *needing* and extra character in the mix.

But... I don't think that is satisfying enough. The scope of the Leaf's Ranma story isn't huge and all-encompassing, so I might just not find time for her at all (sorry). But if I do... I suspect I will place her by Ukyo's side, whichever form Ukyo is gonna take up in the AU.

So... that's was a whole lot of words to say "I don't know." But if she does show up... It's gonna be with Ukyo. 💙

Thanks for the question, sorry for a mess of an answer 💙

[not-poignant]

How do you 'find the plot' as it were in a story? You've mentioned a few times hat you tend to start out with stories that are only a few chapters long, but then spiral outwards from there. I feel like I have the opposite problem - I come up with character concepts, worlds, etc. but everything fizzles out after a few chapters. It's not that I'm not passionate about the worlds or the characters I build, I just... feel like they have nowhere to go. Any tips/tricks/advice for when this happens?

Hi anon!

So everyone does these things a bit differently. What I do might not work for you! So keep that in mind if I describe something that makes you feel demotivated or uninspired, it probably means it just isn't the right technique for you!

Now to break things down:

Even if I'm only starting out with a few chapters, I usually know where I'm heading. Which is almost always - when it's not straight up PWP - a romance.

Romances by default need to have a HEA (Happily Ever After) or HFN (Happy For Now / Hopeful For Now). That HEA/HFN must feature the two main romantic leads (unless you're writing OT3 or whatever). It's not 'happy but one of them died.' It's 'happy but both of them are end-game.' No matter how long my story is, that is always the end-game, and that never changes.

So you already know where you're going. No matter what. The story is internalised, the rules are firm. You break that rule, it's not a romance anymore. It's something else with a romantic storyline in it.

Generally speaking anon, if you target certain genres or character arcs, you will always know exactly where you're headed - it's your Polestar, your True North - even if you don't know exactly what it looks like yet because you haven't been there before, you know that everything in that story either has to work to get your characters closer to that end-point, or it works against that end-point in a way that will have to be overcome.

And then from there, that is where all my stories gain their shape, even if I don't plot anything. Because even though I write a lot of different genres, the romance is always at the heart of it for me. Or more accurately, it's always the compass point. Even when the romance isn't that important. Eran and Mosk's romance absolutely took a back seat in The Ice Plague, but their happiness was still the end point. I always knew where I was heading.

In amongst your worldbuilding and character building anon, I would say you need to do more concrete work on understanding the genres, and then applying one or more to your own work. I feel like you've put everything in your backpack except for the compass, and then get surprised when you lose your way.

It doesn't matter how good your map is, if you don't have a compass to read it with.

Think of the map as your worldbuilding and character building, then think of the genres and the tropes as your compass.

Go hunting for the compass alongside the map, otherwise you just end up with a map that's unworkable no matter what direction you turn it in. It looks like it has all the information you need, but it actually doesn't, because a map on its own isn't enough. (Even Google Maps uses a compass salkjfads).

When you lose your way, it can help to think of your favourite examples of the genre/s you're writing, and how motivating those endings or conflict points were in the story. It can help to revisit the genre/s themselves. For example if you're writing upbeat action/adventure, you want relatively fast pacing and some explosive moments. If you're writing grimdark, you're going to have to kill off some of your (and everyone else's) faves.

Learn about genre/s, about trope/s, the deeper you go, the more of a story scaffold you'll have as the skeleton beneath all the flesh you put on the story. Without that backbone, without that compass, it will all fall apart.

I am fortunate in the sense that I've been studying story structures what feels like all my life. From the very basic story structures of Grimm's and HCA's fairy tales, to literally studying it at university in scriptwriting and film and creative writing. So my compass is within me, and I don't have to research it in the same way anymore.

But I loved every moment of building my compass, and I hope you enjoy building yours too, anon. Since you already enjoy the worldbuilding and the characterisation, it's the last thing you need in your backpack to keep a story going and know where you're headed. Because your genre is always pretty clear, for the most part, and when the genre isn't, the tropes will be.

[charredcheddar]

Superstitions in Doctor Who

Spoilers obviously

This started during the three specials with David Tennant. Particularly the salt.

He sprinkles the salt and invokes a superstition at the end of the universe, something regarded to be a bad move.

But it seems to be fine no consequences here. (I'm ignoring the whole Mavity thing because idk if that is a direct consequence of this or not but it is weird so I need to put a pin in that for later) Except...

Another superstition. Stepping on a butterfly changes the entire course of human history. This is not how timetravel works. The timeline normally self corrects. At least that's how I interpret it. Take the conversation between Bill and 12 in 10:3

To paraphrase this entire conversation because it is longer than I thought it was:

"It's just time travel. Don't overthink it."

I'm pretty sure somewhere during the show they have mentioned more in detail how the timeline "corrects itself" but I am not watching through every episode again on the off chance I am correct.

Then we get to The Devil's Chord

Another supersition. And what happens when this chord is played?

The Devil enters the room.

Okay so Maestro isn't literally the devil but a tritone summoning an ancient being? That sounds like a superstition.

So we have superstitions that didn't seem to be there before. Then we have these ancient beings. So far just The Toymaker and Maestro but we know there are more.

The Toymaker's Legions, while potentially including Maestro (though maybe not since their relationship doesn't seem to be great) indicates more than one being. Then we have The One who Waits. Potentially the leader or eldest of these "Gods"

Either way, there's definately something going on. Though the real question is where do the Doctor and Ruby fit into this?

The Doctor makes reference to diagetic music. He winks at the camera. He breaks the fourth wall. He tricks the Gods. He's operating on a similar level to them. I'm assuming this will link into the whole Timeless Child storyline with the fact that the Doctor isn't from this universe.

And Ruby. There's something strange about her. The Doctor has been back to the day of her birth and he seems suspicious.

Suspicious enough to do a DNA scan.

What does any of this mean? Who knows, I certainly don't. But I am excited to find out.

[feministsouthpark]

South Park Filler Guide - Season 6

Link for Season 1  Link for Season 2 Link for Season 3 Link for Season 4 Link for Season 5

The classifications are CANON (an episode with major storylines present), LORE (in which we get significant backstory or world building, but could be skippable)  and FILLER (completely skippable episodic storytelling, not connected to overarching story arcs)

PLS my analysis will have spoilers, if you’re a first time viewer, just scroll to the bottom and read the list and only read full text if you are familiar with the content of the show already! No season has a clearer narrative structure than season 6, which is reflected both by my choice of images and the fact that almost none of them are considered to be filler. What might be new for some of you, is the correct order, since I listed this one in production order, so don't say "Jared has Aides" is the season premiere, because it isn't. "Freak Strike" is the season premiere, and I'll ask you to follow this order if you're a first-time viewer. S6E1 Freak Strike is CANON

Because the first scene exists to remind viewers of S5E13 and its long-term consequences with a trick reveal. If you watched it in TV and saw another episode as the season premiere, you missed out on this joke. The episode otherwise cements Butters' place in the group. S6E2 Jared has Aides is CANON

Some of what the boys do to Butters has to be canon, since his later villain arc is based on his experiences of being bullied by his "friends". S6E3 Asspen is CANON

The Stotch's get really friendly with the Marshes and the Broflovskis, which bonds will stay alive and sometimes Butters gets included because of this, even after he is ceremoniously kicked out of the friend group. S6E4 The Terrance and Phillip Movie Trailer is LORE

More bullying Butters shenanigans. Butters will mention events from this one and the next one, and in-series they add to his breaking point, but these two episodes can be omitted if we're looking at this list rationally. S6E5 Fun with Veal is LORE

This whole arc is really a journey of self-discovery for the boys, however this one is not for the long-term consequences. S6E6 Professor Chaos is CANON

They had it with Butters and Butters had it with them. Diane dies, Tweek gets into the group, Butters gets a new persona. S6E7 The Simpsons Already Did It is CANON

Basically every arc from Professor Chaos continues. S6E8 Red Hot Chatolic Love is LORE

I really hate to say it, because this episode is really fun, but other than giving Tweek the same amount of screen presence as Butters, this is pretty much a nonexistent thread in an already jam-packed season. But it shows how much they care about the idea of replacing Butters with Tweek. S6E9 Free Hat is LORE

Again, it's one of those episodes that show the boys' commitment to the fourth friend replacement bit. S6E10 Bebe's Boobs Destroy Society is LORE

Again, even further commitment to the bit. S6E11 Child Abduction is Not Funny is CANON

This is the last main Tweek episode, and we have to include AT LEAST one. And this one features both Randy's emergence and a plot with an intruiging side character, Dr. Janus. S6E12 A Ladder to Heaven is CANON

Another major change happens, when Eric drinks Kenny's ashes and his soul. This is a big part of the Kenny rebirth storyline. S6E13 The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers is LORE

This one doesn't make sense without the context (Kenny's soul in Eric's body) but doesn't provide further context, except that the costumes will be reused later. S6E14 The Death Camp of Tolerance is CANON

Herbert Garrison's triumphant return as the fourth grade teacher is finally here! Also an interesting bit is both Tweek and Butters being present in the episode's beginning, but only Butters stays relevant to the story. S6E15 The Biggest Douche in the Universe is CANON

Kenny's spirit moves on from Eric to Rob Schneider and then dies again. Big events. S6E16 My Future Self n' Me is CANON

Stan learns about Professor Chaos, we see the first glimpses into Eric's possible future and not plot-related, but we have to give props for this episode incorporating the first sighting of Craig's gang! S6E17 Red Sleigh Down is CANON

Kyle helps Eric, while Kyle 2 helps Mr. Hankey. Jesus sacrifices himself and Kenny is resurrected in his place as a christmas miracle, finishing the season and the 'Kenny Dies' arc.

SPOILER-FREE RUNDOWN

Again, CANON means you should watch it, any episode with the LORE label will have an explanation that helps you decide if you should include it or not. S6E1 Freak Strike is CANON S6E2 Jared has Aides is CANON S6E3 Asspen is CANON S6E4 The Terrance and Phillip Movie Trailer is LORE* S6E5 Fun with Veal is LORE* S6E6 Professor Chaos is CANON S6E7 The Simpsons Already Did It is CANON S6E8 Red Hot Chatolic Love is LORE** S6E9 Free Hat is LORE** S6E10 Bebe's Boobs Destroy Society is LORE** S6E11 Child Abduction is Not Funny is CANON S6E12 A Ladder to Heaven is CANON S6E13 The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers is LORE*** S6E14 The Death Camp of Tolerance is CANON S6E15 The Biggest Douche in the Universe is CANON S6E16 My Future Self n' Me is CANON S6E17 Red Sleigh Down is CANON *If you need more context of Butters being the fourth friend **If you need more content of Tweek being the fourth friend ***If you need more content of Eric sharing his body with Kenny

CANON counter:

S1: 9 out of 13 S2: 3 out of 18 S3: 6 out of 18 S4: 10 out of 17 S5: 8 out of 14 S6: 11 out of 17 Overall: 47 out of 97 Personal notes: My favorite season ever, I'd honestly recommend watching it all without any episode skipped, the whole thing carries on so nicely. Possibly the most plot-heavy season out of the first 18 seasons anyway.

[cha-melodius]

Hello hello! If I'm not too late for the director's cut ask, would say something about false dichotomy please? I love that fic so much! You've got mail is such a classic and you've made that au so so charming, it brings me a lot of joy 🤍

I talked a bit about the OCs in False Dichotomy here, but I'll take this opportunity to talk about the changes I made from the movie! I'm putting these behind a cut because there are some pretty big spoilers for the fic itself.

@kiwiana-writes wrote a line in one of his director's cut replies about how, when adapting an existing storyline to an AU fanfic, story has to bend to fit character, and I think this fic is the perfect example of that principle. Although the setup of Henry as the heir to a corporate empire and Alex as the 'little guy' does fit at first blush, Henry isn't Joe and Alex isn't Kathleen. In fact, personality-wise, they're just about flopped. There are aspects of Kathleen that are so ridiculously Henry-esque, particularly her love of Pride and Prejudice and also her grief over a parent's death.

I'd like to add, before I get into some of the details, that while I made a bunch of fairly significant changes to better fit the characters, it was important to me to capture the spirit of You've Got Mail. That means not shying away from the small shop's closing, and also staying true to the joy of the finale moment (though this moment comes before the end of the fic). I've read a lot of YGM AUs where, upon the final reveal, the Kathleen-character is often justifiably angry and there's additional angst where the Joe-character has to do some groveling, and yes, it makes sense for those characters to do that, but IMO it kind of fails as an adaptation of the source material because you lose the emotional impact of the original. Which is not to say these stories aren't good or that they don't do what they want to, but to me, the trick to a good media AU is walking that tightrope between originality and honoring the source material. It's not an easy thing to do, IMO. ETA: Of course there are also the times where you like one part of the original media but hate the rest so you say fuck this and fix it, which is completely valid! That's one of the things fanfic is for! I'm also very aware that some people feel that way about YGM lol. But there are those of us who love it despite its flaws, and I wanted to write this fic for them too.

Some more discussion of specific changes I made behind the cut, for spoiler reasons.

Critically, Alex would absolutely not react the same way Kathleen did upon finding out Henry hadn't told him who he was. I strongly felt he needed to be the one to find out Henry's identity first to give him time to come to terms with it and realize that Henry wasn't the person he thought he was. Meanwhile, Henry was much more likely to be forgiving of the long 'deception'/withholding of information because he's been in love with Alex from the start. I also thought having Henry angst over being in love with two 'different' people would be more fun lol.

A big change I honestly always forget about is of course not having them being in relationships with other people. I suppose at the time this was a good excuse for why Joe and Kathleen never met up, but now it's not odd that you might have a long-term internet friendship with someone that never goes beyond online. But I also absolutely did NOT want to fuck with partners and the ending of relationships and all of that noise. No thanks.

I considered doing the 'journalist writes a story about Under the Rainbow' storyline using June as the journalist, but in the end decided it wouldn't really add anything. Instead I added the whole Okonjo shelter storyline, which gave me the excellent excuse to sow doubts in Alex about Henry's awfulness along with being a step forward in Alex's bisexual awakening/coming out storyline.

Finally, I obviously added quite a bit beyond where the movie ends. Romcom movies can get away with end scene on the big kiss, but I wanted to show not only their conversations about what had happened but also the happy ending for Under the Rainbow. It was important to me that it wasn't as simple as the shop closing, the end. I found it kind of funny about how mad some people were about UTR's closing and corporations winning, considering that in the end I freed UTR from the shackles of capitalism to be the best community center/library version of itself.

[that-ari-blogger]

King Of Fools

Throughout my analysis of The Owl House, you might have noticed that I have been largely focusing on Luz and co., with Eda sometimes gaining the limelight. With a few exceptions, I have mostly glossed over King's storyline, because it has mostly been comedy relief that plays offhandedly into the themes of the story.

But King is a fascinating character, and a complex one. And even in his previous focus episodes, he has been portrayed as relatively flat. He likes conquest and violence, that's pretty much it. So where did that change?

I would argue that King's character development and complexifying began in Really Small Problems.

Let me explain.

SPOILERS AHEAD

This episode fleshes King out by making him simpler, at least in motivation. Here, King's ambitiousness and world conquering nature shift slightly. We are introduced to a fundamentally petty character, and that's not a bad thing, most of the time. He just wants attention.

Now, pettiness is a focus on the small things in life, and that's what King does. He fixates on the little things and causes problems because of it. You might say that he has Really Small Problems. Maybe.

But there is a negative connotation to the word "petty". It's the reason it gets used as an insult, and that's because there is an obsessive element to it and a selfish element. Not malicious, but problematic, which can sometimes cause conflict.

For an example of why this causes issues, take the antagonist of this episode, one Tibblet-Tibblie Grimm Hammer III (TTGH3, I refuse to call this man "Tibbles"). I think that TTGH3 and King are rather similar characters, and it is this that causes character development in king.

Because King is petty. He is obsessive, and selfish, at the start of the episode. And he doesn't stop being those things at the end of the episode, or even at the end of the series, he just matures. He learns in which situations that selfishness is perfectly fine, and in what situation it isn't.

This episode opens with a quick briefing of King's character. Luz has been talking with friends, and King wants attention, so he makes a fool out of himself, and this reframes his actions in previous episodes. Suddenly the comedic antics become attempts for that same attention, and we see how that causes problems in retrospect.

King's goals have been simplified from conquer and rule the world to "notice me" and the complexity is derived from how that goal, despite being much more achievable, gets brought into conflict with other people.

That is actually a summary of the plot as well. King sees Luz spending time with her friends without him, and he makes a fool out of himself trying to get her back. He gets tricked by TTGH3 into making everyone tiny, and directly causes problems.

The symbolism of that friendship bracelet is rather cool, actually. King values it more than anything else, specifically its exclusivity. But when he realises his mistake, his way of remedying the problem is breaking it, shattering the symbol of his obsession, but also breaking it into more pieces. The same heart can be shared between more people.

I am also ninety percent sure that the carnival setting of this episode just exists for that hall of mirrors so that the metaphor of distorted perceptions could be hammered home.

TTGH3 doesn't learn this lesson at all, because he is a mirror of King (more mirror symbolism). TTGH3 is what happens if King continues on his current path, going against his friends and being possessive over them. Reducing them to items he can keep in a box.

But King's pettiness isn't a bad thing. Not exclusively. He is the perfect foil of Luz, and of Bellos, and of the Collector later on down the line (but we will talk about that when we get there). And that specifically ties into his role as the fool.

History Collection has an article about the history of the fool, and the thing I find fascinating is the duality of the character. This was the only person who could mock the king without losing their head, and served a myriad of roles (including sometimes as an assassin) because they were trusted and underestimated. The fool was an eejit who you didn't need to worry about because they were joking, but they were often the most astute person in the court.

The fool made people laugh, and I think that is important. Laughter is a primarily selfish emotion. You disrupt others because you are enjoying yourself, but it isn't maligned. It is encouraged. King straight up references tropes of being a comedian, a role directly descended from the fool.

If we return to the mirror symbolism, King is a mirror of both Luz and Bellos, but in the opposite ways. Luz enters the story wanting a worldly adventure and to save the world, and she gets those things, but she has to learn that it is the small things that matter just as much. Luz has to learn to see the world the way it is, and King's arc mirrors that, but with how he sees himself.

King begins the story wanting to rule the world, and the single best piece of catharsis in the entire series is a photo on a wall in the last episode depicting King playing catch with Eda. It's ok to want the small things, its ok to not know what you want. And its ok to be a bit selfish sometimes. Sometimes you want to laugh, sometimes you need to do your own thing. But you need to understand where that comes into conflict with others, and you need to understand how to take care of yourself and those others.

Maybe it's not selfish or petty, maybe I'm getting the words wrong (language is weird), but the point still stands.

But King is also a direct foil of Bellos. Starting with the obvious of both referring to themselves with titles, King and Emperor. But the contrast between the two is important. Bellos began his own story thinking on an incredibly small level, to the point where his own obsession over it killed his brother, but then Bellos decided he wanted to rule the world. He sacrificed his family for rulership.

King forsakes ruling for (found) family. As later reveals show him to be a titan, and associated with connection and nature, it would seem that Bellos is in opposition to the Boiling Isles as a whole. Not just practically but ideology.

The fool criticises the king. King criticises the Emperor. Fitting, in a weird way.

Final Thoughts

I like King. Tropes often get a bad rap, but they can be used effectively, and one that I will faun over every time is the comic relief that very suddenly turns dramatic. Like King later on down the line, but also like the finale of God Of War: Ragnarök. If you know, you know.

Next week, I'm taking a look at Understanding Willow, and there is a lot to talk about there, so stick around if that interests you.

Previous - Next

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Super Manga ch.88-90

The 2023 Dragon Ball Apocrypa Liveblog concludes with the DBS manga's adaptation of the Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero motion picture.

First up, we have this three-chapter prologue/prequel thing starring Goten and Trunks in their lankey teen bodies. It's well-made, but I'm not impressed. Find out the reason why... inside!

Okay, as the image above shows, this is all about the boys' playing superheroes while they're in high school... just like Gohan did way back in Dragon Ball Z. The main difference seems to be that there's two of them doing it this time, and their motives are a little more frivolous. Gohan came up with Great Saiayaman because he just couldn't help but foil crimes, and the costume allowed him to save the day without giving away his identity. Goten and Trunks also want to keep a low profile, but they mostly seem to be doing this shtick because they're on a superhero kick lately. They call themselves "Saiyaman X1 and X2", but their act mainly imitates their hero, Cleangod, who has a franchise of movies, video games, and so forth.

The added wrinkle is that they're also trying to keep this thing a secret from their families, as Bulma and Chi-Chi wouldn't approve of the boys screwing around like this when they should be studying. I guess it was okay when Gohan did it, but times have changed, and Trunks in particular isn't doing so hot on his report cards.

That does keep things mildly interesting. For example, you'd expect the boys to use costume changing watches like Great Saiyaman had, except they don't want Bulma to find out. So Trunks asks Pilaf to make them instead, and Pilaf can't make them as quickly, so Trunks doesn't get his until chapter 88 is half-over, and Goten's isn't ready until chapter 89. And you know, it probably would make things a lot simpler for Goten and Trunks to avoid the Saiyaman stuff altogether if they don't want their moms to find out, since they've seen this trick before. But they're doing it anyway, I guess because they're just that deep into the Cleangod fandom.

However, this still feels like a retread of a storyline we've already seen. Reading this, I feel like I've gotten too old for Dragon Ball. I know that isn't true. I'm looking forward to whatever happens in Chapter 101 onward, and Daima seems promising, even if it wasn't what I had in mind. There's always something interesting around the corner... but I see stories like this one that are more interested in rehashing older material, and it just feels tired and stale. Younger fans may not mind at all, but I see this and wonder if all we have left is just rehashing ideas we've already seen before.

Besides all of that, I'm not a big fan of high school stories, and there's a healthy dose of Trumai... and let's just get this out of the way before we go any further: I'm not that interested in the whole "next generation" thing.

I know there's a lot of fans who really dig the whole idea of exploring what happens to Goten, Trunks, Marron, Uub, Bulla, and Pan. I respect that, but I've never been very invested in any of them. I liked what we got out of them in DBZ, but that's about it. Let me kind of single out Goten so I can discuss this more easily. For the sake of argument, let's just call the "next generation" concept "Big Goten", since it features the teenage or adult version of the character, as opposed to the little guy in the Buu Saga and most of Super. Trunks, Marron, and the rest can be lumped into this, but it's easier to just refer to one character.

Basically, this 3-chapter arc is probably the best "Big Goten" story by default. Your other options are the End of Z episodes which barely do anything with him, or that one GT episode where he fights Baby and gets possessed. Or the Super Hero movie, where he's barely in it.

And yet, we have this 3-chapter arc, and Goten's basically playing sidekick to Trunks. That's not a huge problem in itself. You'd expect these two to be side-by-side, but it's mainly a Trunks story. He's trying to get Mai to go out with him, but she's part of the Pilaf gang living at Capsule Corp, and they have to be useful or Bulma will kick them out. So she's too busy repairing these "helper robots" that malfunctioned recently. Trunks thinks he can investigate the case as Saiyaman X-1 and get Mai the weekend off so she can date him. Goten's just sort of along for the ride. He enjoys the superhero bit, and he likes goofing off with Trunks, so it's all good.

And honestly, you could probably switch these two around and have Goten be the one trying to solve crimes to go on a date, while Trunks is the supportive wingman. But that's the problem. We have this one story, and they both kind of have to share it, and it really doesn't matter which one of them gets the lead.

Like, in this arc, we learn a little more about Teen Trunks. He's not doing well scholastically, he lacks Bulma's talent with computers or science, and... he's still carrying a torch for Mai for some reason. Oh, and he's afraid of ghosts now. It's not much to go on, but at least he gets something. All we find out about Goten in this thing is that he likes Cleangod, just like Trunks. Oh, and Teen Marron has a brief appearance where it turns out she really likes Cleangod too. Also several of Goten and Trunks' classmates enjoy Cleangod. And Dr. Hedo likes Cleangod. You know, that's how you develop your characters, right? You make them all like the same thing.

The point I'm getting at is that for years I've heard that Big Goten is this untapped well of great story ideas and this arc finally gets around to that and... it's pretty underwhelming. That's the big idea? Superheroes? Again? It worked for Gohan because it was a fresh idea when he did it. And it worked for Dr. Hedo because it helped set him apart from Dr. Gero. But all it does for Goten and Trunks is give them another set of clothes. Trunks is still pining for Mai and Goten is still just happy to be here. It's not enough. It's not nearly enough.

So let's move on. The boys head into town one night to investigate the Helper Robots that are mysteriously disappearing. Turns out they've been hijacked by Dr. Hedo's Alpha series androids. Strictly speaking, the Alphas are just corpses stolen from a morgue, reanimated with cybernetics. Remember those goons working at the convenience store in the beginning of Super Hero? Well this is the same group of guys. Hedo's problem is that he's fare more brilliant than Gero ever was, but he lacks the resources and funding to make the kinds of androids that he wants to make. The Alphas are functional, but only just. Their brains are defective, and you can probably only steal so many bodies from the morgue before the cops get wise to you. So Hedo's big idea is to hijack the Helper Robots and use them to manufacture sushi packages for profit. He could build something more efficient for this, but this will have to do until he gets the cash.

Oh, I forgot to talk about how Pilaf built the Helper bots. I'm not clear on what they do, but there's a lot of them in the city, and apparently Pilaf pitched the idea to Bulma and she okayed it. At first I was surprised to read this, but then I remembered that Pilaf had his own Dragon Radar way back in the day. It wasn't as sophisticated as Bulma's, but it goes to show that Pilaf knows his way around technology. This isn't some new thing they slapped onto his character, like Trunks suddenly being afraid of ghosts.

For a second, it looks like Goten and Trunks are discovered by the Alphas, but it turns out Trunks' pals from school have snuck into the production floor, and they're the ones who get discovered, so Trunks has to go in and save them. Except his superhero wristwatch malfunctions, so Goten has to take out the lights to cover for him.

Trunks cleans house, even defeating Alpha 12, who was the strongest guy on Hedo's team. When Hedo himself arrives to find his base wrecked, his only clue is that it was trashed by someone who goes to "Blue Hal" High School. It's a major setback for Hedo, but what really upsets him is that Trunks took an important disc from his safe. Hedo wants to recover it above all else. Ironically, Trunks isn't even that concerned about the disc, since all he really cares about is disrupting whatever Hedo was doing to the Helper Robots. That way he can get his date with Mai, except it won't. Even more ironically, Mai still has to work on Saturday night, because she and the Pilaf Gang have to repair all the Helper Robots Trunks smashed in Hedo's base. Whoops!

Later, Trunks tries to use Bulma's computer to access the data on the disc he took from Hedo's sushi packaging shop. He briefly sees information related to Cell, but he doesn't recognize its significance, probably because he only knows Cell from hearing about it through his family. Anyway, the disc gives the computer a virus, which Bulla removes because that's her big character defining moment in this story. She's basically a carbon copy of Kid Bulma from the Jaco manga, but at least she's not another Cleangod fan.

Anyway, Bulma had decided to start sending Mai to school along with Trunks. Apparently she realized it might be awkward if anyone noticed Mai working for Capsule Corp. and not going to school. This just now came up? I mean, the Pilaf Gang have been here for a few years at least. If anything, it would have been more awkward when Mai was younger, right? I mean, I get it, this is just a way to get Mai involved in the story, but still...

There's also another new student in Trunks' class: Baytah. Trunks' friend Rulah takes an immediate liking to him, but this is pretty clearly a new android created by Dr. Hedo. The Alpha series was no match for Saiyaman X-1, so he created a new Beta class to infiltrate Blue Hal High School and find out who X-1 really is. Beta begins to suspect Trunks, since he displays some above-average performance on the basketball court, but he can't find a way to prove it without giving himself away.

So here we have this weird scene where they're getting soup for lunch, and Trunks is sad that he can't get extra. Then Beta pretends to trip or something, and throws his soup into the air. I guess the idea was that Trunks would have to use super powers to dodge it, or he'd get it all over his nice school clothes. But instead Trunks just sort of shifts to one side and the soup miraculously lands in his bowl. And he's happy because he gets extra soup? How does it all fit in one bowl, though? Is the lunch lady only filling them up halfway? This whole bit is really contrived, is what I'm trying to say.

Somewhere along the way, Mai figures it out and explains it to Trunks, so they know Beta is looking for Saiyaman X-1. So he knows to be careful about showing off his powers, but Goten just picks up a truck during recess to get a tennis ball back for his classmates. See, Trunks, this is how you get the ladies. Mai is like 55 years old. She doesn't care, but if you pick up a truck or two, all these teenage girls will go wild. Right now, these two girls are thinking about how much they wish they were trucks, being held in Goten's mightly-yet-gentle hand.

Anyway, now Beta is convinced that Goten is the one he's after, and Hedo tells him to attack and get the disc.

So Beta reveals he has a goofy superhero suit of his own, but Goten can't fight seriously because he doesn't have a transformation watch yet. Fortunately, Trunks does, so he shows up as X-1 and quickly slips Goten the new watch Pilaf must have made last night.

I'm not thrilled with Beta's design, but I like the concept. Faced with both Saiyamen, he deploys Beta 2, which is a robotic exosuit that can separate and fight in two modules. The Betas are here for the disc, but neither Goten or Trunks has it. Mai does, because Trunks gave her his bag while he ran off to pee or whatever excuse he had to switch costumes.

So Trunks has to save Mai from the Betas, and as he catches her, she briefly mistakes him for Future Trunks, the only version of Trunks Mai seems to have any interest in. The Saiyamen clean house, and the day is saved. Trunks very nearly tells Mai that he was X-1 all along, but Goten stops him before he can spill the beans in front of the whole school.

Okay, but what's the point? I mean, Goten just lifted a truck with one hand a minute ago? More importantly, Great Saiyaman was revealed to be Goten about ten years earlier. Not that I expect these students to remember that, but that's my point: Gohan was worried about everyone finding out he had super powers, and in the end no one cared.

I mean, there's still the matter of not wanting Bulma and Chi-Chi to find out what they're up to, but that sort of doesn't matter? I mean, the moms just want their kids to study more and screw around less. It doesn't really matter if they're playing superhero or going fishing. Their moms know they aren't studying, because they've got the report cards to prove it.

Back at Hedo's (other) base, he realizes he underestimated the Saiyamen, and realizes that he'll have to build even better androids to defeat them. And he's taken a liking to the Saiyamen's costumes, particularly their capes, so the implication here is that the Gammas' designs were inspired by Goten and Trunks' antics in this story.

Later, we finally get to that convenience store we saw briefly in Super Hero. Hedo still needs money, especially if he plans to build something to defeat the Saiyamen, so he puts three of his Alphas to work at the "Mammal Mart". It's Krillin who makes the bust, and for some reason Mai is there too.

Despite his lofty plans for better androids, the best Hedo can manage is to send more Beta series androids after Goten and Trunks. Beta 7 looks like an Elvis impersonator, and he intercepts Goten's school bus, but Goten changes into X-2 and beats him. Apparently this sort of thing has been going on for a while now.

Mai takes Goten aside and reveals to him that they're being watched by a tiny spy-robot. After the Beta-1 incident at school, Mai investigated and learned that Dr. Hedo is a famous scientist in the area, and she believes he's behind all of this. Apparently he's already figured out Goten and Trunks are the Saiyamen, since he's been sending Beta androids to harass them.

Mai's plan is to defeat Hedo by using the school dance to lure him into a trap. The organizers have arranged for a live appearance by Cleangod at the dance, which... seems kind of odd for a high school dance, but nothing about this super-hero business really makes any sense to me.

Like, okay... I've been a comic book fan for over thirty years. I just read a bunch of Golden Age Captain Americas a few months ago. I think I know the genre pretty well, and nothing Dragon Ball Super does with the concept really rings true to me.

In the first place, the Dragon Ball characters are already superheroes. I went from Batman to Superman to Marvel to Dragon Ball Z, and it was a pretty smooth transition. I never stopped liking the other stuff that came before, so it's not like my tastes changed all that much. I just see DBZ as a natural extension of the same stuff I liked in Marvel and DC.

It made sense when Gohan became Great Saiyaman because the only trope he hadn't done yet was the secret identity thing, and the only reason it had never come up before was that he'd never needed one before then. Once he got into high school, he suddenly had friends he wanted to keep secrets from, so he did the same thing Clark Kent did in 1938.

But then you have Goten and Trunks doing it because they think it's neat, and they're fans of Cleangod, who is a fictional character to them. And this is probably because Hedo was doing the same bit in the movie, where he would wear a costume and do the poses because he was imitating other fictional superheroes. So the idea seems to be less about the superhero genre as I know it, and more of this ironic "Let's be comic book nerds and do cosplay, and also we have super powers so we can do more than just pose in the suits."

Which... fine, I guess. The thing is, I don't understand the fascination with Cleangod. I mean, it makes sense for Hedo to be an enormous fanboy, because he's a nerdy scientist. I'm a nerdy scientist, so I can relate. He wants Cleangod's autograph, and I'm running an anime blog in my late 40's.

But Goten and Trunks are not nerds. Neither, it seems, are most of their classmates. They all seem like fairly normal teens, mostly interested in dates and school stuff and snooping around abandoned factories or whatever. But this high school dance is going to feature a live appearance by a man in a superhero costume. That's the sort of thing a circus would do to get small children to show up.

Is this an ironic thing? Like, did Goten and Trunks start out thinking Cleangod was cringy kidstuff, and they just kept getting deeper into the fandom until they started liking it for real? Is that what's happening?

Sorry, I was explaining Mai's plan. Okay, so Cleangod will be doing a meet-and-greet at a high school dance party. Okay. Dr. Hedo is a huge mark for Cleangod, so Mai is certain he will crash the party just to meet Cleangod and get his autograph. And she plans to be there when he does, so she can shut him down once and for all.

And she gets to go to this dance, because she's attending with...

...Trunks. He wanted to ask her to this thing, but she asked him instead, so he's all a-flutter over this, never realizing that she's just using him to get at Hedo. Except.... she's attending this school now. She doesn't need a date to get in. Hedo is the one who has to find some way to get access to the building, because he's not a student.

I like Mai's armor in this scene, although it really never comes into play. Also, Trunks brought Hedo's disc with him, because.... I have no idea. Maybe he doesn't want to risk losing it?

As expected, Hedo does show up for this thing, and I guess it's because Beta-1 is still registered as a student? I'm more confused about this signing event in the middle of a dance floor. This just feels like a hot mess. Trunks and Hedo bond over their mutual love of Cleangod... wait, I thought Trunks was excited about getting to go on a date with Mai? Priorities, Trunks!

Anyway, Hedo confides to Trunks that he had a Cleangod autograph before, but it was stolen, so he's here to get another one. Hold on, doesn't Hedo know Trunks is X-1? I mean, he was sending androids after Goten, so he must know he's X-2, right?

Mai tries to get Hedo, but then Beta shows up, and Rulah explains that he got back into the school, so she asked him to the dance. I really like Rulah. She doesn't know what's going on, but there's a new boy in town and she's gonna make time with him. She's like an Archie character.

Then the cops show up. Yeah, just draw your guns in a big crowd of children, Krillin, that makes a ton of sense.

Hedo uses a smokebomb to escape and everyone chases after him. By the time Cleangod comes out to make his big appearance, everyone is gone except Mai, who isn't impressed. That's the thing I can't square with all of this. The running gag seems to be that superheroes are both cool and uncool at the same time. People were lining up to see this guy, but the punchline is that he totally sucks? I guess? Characters will praise Goten and Trunks' costumes and then later characters will call them corny.

Like, which is it? That's the thing about superhero comics, at least from my perspective. In the real world, you either think Batman's awesome or he's a giant dork in a fursuit. Fine. But in the Batman mythos, just about everyone takes him seriously because he's a mysterious badass. I get it, Cleangod's basically Adam West working car-shows in the 1970's, but Saiyaman X-1 and X-2 are the real thing. They fought robots in the middle of the football field in front of everyone. I mean, no one called Goten corny when he lifted that truck.

Oh, by the way, Dr. Hedo's jalopy is awesome.

Krillin (reluctantly) brings Goten and Trunks along to chase down Hedo, and he fills them in on the situation. The cops have been after Hedo because they think the Red Ribbon Army is trying to stage a comback and they want to contact him. That.... doesn't quite square with the movie, but we'll talk about that later.

Anyway, they get to Hedo's (third?) base and he's got a dinosaur android to stop them. This is the biggest, strongest one he's made so far, but it's still not very sophisticated, simply because Hedo lacks the resources to build anything better.

It gives the Bio-Broly Buster Crew a little trouble, but Krillin disables it with a kienzan, and then Goten and Trunks take it out with a double-team move. And Hedo's going to jail.

So what about that disc? Turns out it never mattered. Hedo memorized all the information on it a long time ago, so the disc itself had no value to him. What he wanted was the case, which contained, in addition to the disc, his prized Cleangod autograph. Remember? The one he told Trunks got stolen? They didn't know it at the time, but Trunks was the one who stole it in Chapter 88.

And that's really dumb, because Trunks did try to investigate the disc in Chapter 89. He didn't get very far, but he still had to open the case it was in, so you'd think he would have noticed the Cleangod autograph inside. I mean, another character might not have paid any attention to it, but Trunks is a huge fan of Cleangod himself.

And if Hedo truly had no use for the disc, why didn't he throw it away a long time ago? In this scene, he says he discarded it, but he must have only done that in the last few minutes, before Krillin showed up to arrest him, since Trunks had the disc before the dance. This whole thing is supposed to be clever, but it's kind of dumb.

Anyway, this whole caper explains how Hedo got sentenced to prison at the beginning of Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. He could have been given a longer sentence, but according to this story, he agreed to return some of the Alphas back to the families of the corpses he built them out of. This is supposed to be funny, but it's just kind of bizarre. Like, are we saying Hedo resurrected the corpses? I thought the idea was he just used a dead body to build Alpha 12. But this seems to suggest Alpha 12 remembers his former existence. That's kind of fucked up.

Like I said at the beginning, there's a lot that is well done here. Toyotaro's art is on-point as usual, and there's some great action scene with Goten and Trunks. I think the big highlight of the arc were all of the side characters we see at their school, like Rulah and the others. Trunks' math teacher looked pretty cool. The problem is that they were never going to be the focus of this or any other story. It's taken years for Toei or Shueisha to do anything with Goten or Trunks, so their pals may never see the light of day again.

And that's what disappoints me about this arc, because it may have been the one chance of getting a good teen Goten and Trunks arc, and they blew it on this. Did we really need a backstory on Hedo's prison sentence? Did anyone leave the theater not understanding why he was in jail? Was anyone confused as to how he came up with the designs for Gamma 1 and 2's costumes? No. We didn't need this.

One of these days, there will be an official Big Goten story that gets it right. But this ain't it, chief.

[rutadales]

Do you not think cDream is the villain? Sorry this is not at all meant to be agressive or anything, I just have trouble understanding that interpretation. I’m genuinely interested in what you think bc I’m not as well versed in lore as many dsmp fans but from what I’ve seen, cDream is a pretty unequivocally bad person. I think few of the characters aren’t to be fair, but though cDream is more complex than the common interpretations, he doesnt necessarily seem to be morally better? Again, don’t mean to sound rude or anything!! Just kinda trying to understand :)

So this question kinda expands into several branching off points for me, but I'll try to keep it simple and break it down into sections as best I can. this is going to get long

So do I think c!Dream is a villain? Depends on what definition you're using first of all but also in what context, in which storyline, and from whose perspective you're consuming the story from. A strength of SMPs as storytelling devices is that the concrete plot and hard facts of the story are often pretty fluid; what happened when, who was there, who saw what, and who is a villain or a hero is all dependent on which stream you chose to tune into at the time. But as much as this is a strength, it's also a detriment. Entire character beats and motivations can be missed or obfuscated by simply not tuning into a creators stream. A big example of this is how many people missed the Staged Finale reveal, anyone who didn't watch Punz stream will still be operating under the belief that everything Dream did in the disc finale was his true nature, and not an act. Completely changes how to interpret those characters and the entire finale as a scene.

The nature of stream based storytelling is audiences are consuming completely different stories, simultaneously, and there's no hard copy of this story. It's not a book you can go pick up at Barnes and Noble or a movie you can stream on Netflix. To get caught up and engage with the fiction you either have to go back and rewatch hundreds of hours of live content (with dead space and parts that have been completely ret-conned), watch recaps edited by third parties who are at liberty to cut out anything they deem irrelevant to the story, or get it exclusively word of mouth by the audience. A character being more loved by the audience now means that character's narration is given higher value in contrast to other characters. Even supposedly non-biased sources, like the fan wiki, meant to lay out bare bone facts of the story are riddled with un-sourced fan interpretations of the media. Look here

Now, reading a characters unreliable narration as reliable isn't a failing as it is more just engaging with the media as intended. The intent of utilizing unreliable narrators is often to "trick" the audience or to showcase how that character sees the world. Its fine and is used is a lot of different mediums, I'm actually a huge fan. Love me some bitches who just lie. The thing is, due to everything I've laid out above, having a character who is unreliable, like c!Tommy often is, in this medium means fans who only consume the content via world of mouth are getting an unreliable narration without the context that its unreliable. This completely changes entire swaths of the fiction and more, to our point, who is the villain.

A really, kind of neat phenomena in the fandom is how fans bought into c!Wilbur's lies about L'manberg the same way the characters he was manipulating did. Fans became part of the narrative in a strange way. Which is actually a perfect example for how other characters shape the narrative around Dream, both within the fiction and within the fans trying to engage with it.

With that in mind, I don't even read the dsmp as a story with "villains" or "heros", its a story with a lot of different perspectives that clash with each other. Those terms don't really lend themselves to the kind of questions I'm asking about the story.

I think the question you're really asking is "Do you think c!Dream is a good person". You bring up being "unequivocally bad" and moral a couple different times, which to me flags as a question about fictional morality. Because the question of who is a villain in the dream smp is completely dependent on who you watch, which streams you've watched, and whosever narration you decided to subscribe to-- and is why I find the label villain in dsmp analysis fairly mute. It's kinda a pointless exercise to try and determine who earns that label and who doesn't. Not the kind of analysis I'm interested in.

But to answer the question I think you imply here, no I don't think c!Dream is a good person. I don't think anyone on the smp is. Maybe Michael? Well he tried to break into a prison for information, so by some moral standards, absolutely not! I'd certainly agree with you that Dream is more complex than common interpretation would lead us to believe, but that complexity does lend itself to morality in some cases.

Is Dream wrong to want to prevent his home from being split up into countries and thus filled with conflict? Is it worse to threaten, torment, and assault someone because you're pathologically obsessed with them or because you have a larger goal in mind and find those actions beneficial to the goal at hand?

To me, that's it's just pointless hole to get sucked into. I am personally uninterested in ideas of a character possessing or gaining moral purity and much more interested in characters learning to move on from the harm they've caused. C!Dream is interesting to me, not because he's a good person, but because hes a complex one. TL;DR: I am uninterested in using villain as a term within the context of dsmp and find the discussions of the moral goodness of characters reductive.

If you have any other questions feel free to shoot me an ask! I actually quite enjoy breaking down how I think about characters and media and am always open to (friendly) discussions on the matter. <3

[waffelteufel]

I think I vastly prefer Early Access Wyll. Some thots under the cut.

In the released game he is very much the knight in shining armour, the one who will always do good and is pretty much the fairytale romance. Now that's not a problem per se, but I struggle to stay engaged in such a story, when that is never challenged in some way? He really has no internal conflict and stays the same character from start to end.

In the game, Wyll is very much a passive observer. He doesn't really have any agency in the game, as Tav is making all the choices for him, and I find that to be such a damn shame. There is like one moment in the game (when he gets the horns) where we can see his image faltering for a bit, but then it is kind of never mentioned again? I wanted to see how that moment influenced him, if he was struggling because of what people saw in him, you know? Get to know him on a deep level!

Why does he have such a hero complex? Why does he need to save everyone? It would have been such a cool thing if his storyline involved him becoming so self-sacrificing out of compulsion, that it started to destroy him. What if his quest could end with him destroying himself out of his need to protect everyone vs Him finally being a little bit more "selfish" and saving himself instead (I feel like his last choice sorta went into that direction, but the execution was awful)? What if he saved his father and his father still rejected him, was still acting like an asshole, etc.? You cannot save everyone, you cannot always win, people will not always love you. That would have been a rad narrative imo.

Early Access Wyll felt different. He was flawed, he wanted to be seen as a hero, but he was very much not. He would even lie about it, to seem more heroic to you! EA Wyll wanted to become the Blade of Frontiers, but he was pretty far from being one. Some people didn't like that in EA, because they felt like he was a sham. And like? Isn't that exactly what's so fascinating? Like if you didn't let him get his (good) way, Wyll would actually snap at you and get really nasty! He'd call you a wretch!! In EA, the reason he was missing an eye was because of a goblin raid in the past. You then had the possibility to torture/kill or even let Wyll do that to the responsible goblin in the goblin camp, and Wyll was honestly really on board with that revenge trip. It's like a flip would switch, and his mask came off and you saw how bitter he actually was underneath.

I wanted an arc for him where we could help him grow away from that bitterness, or (when evil) help him embrace the more egoistical aspect. Or a middle ground, I dunno. The road to hell is paved with good intentions - THAT'S what I assumed his story was supposed to be.

Mizora is also in this weird limbo that feels rewritten like hell. Originally she tricked him into a pact by offering him the power to repell the goblin horde. Now she is... Whatever she is now, I guess. Maybe that whole thing would have been more cohesive if Raphael had been his patron instead? He could have guided us towards Raphael as a way out of the tadpole mess and at the end there could have been a choice between him delivering the crown to Raphael, or him sticking with us instead. I don't know, I just feel like it would have been much more cohesive somehow? But Mizora has been slobbering all over him in the marketing art, so I guess changing that would have been odd LMAO.

This is him in EA by the way (gosh I miss his old voice so much) explaining his pact:

As he is right now, Wyll's intent is the story just isn't clear to me at all? There is this common theme of self-sacrifice in there, but it's not here nor there and I cannot find it really compelling especially in contrast to other really well-written arcs like Astarion's or Shadowheart. Like there just isn't any internal conflict and I don't see him changing towards a version of himself that makes me go "Wow! What a character!" . I wonder if that has to do with his re-write, because it feels really rushed and the pacing and tension is super off. It makes me sad for the story we never got to experience, cuz some people couldn't imagine that there was more to his story than Early Access showed us. EA criticism towards him in general felt overally critical and dramatic and to me it always smelled of racism. People would legit talk about him like he was the most questionable evil character ever for not being who he claimed to be, it was so fucking odd. :/

I love Wyll! I am sad he got the short stick, man.

[destinygoldenstar]

So going back to my Hand of Time post where I talked about dialogue, I actually got my GF's opinion on another part of that season. (She's on Sons of Garmadon now. She's also a Skybound lover. You may know that I'm not a Skybound fan, but congrats Skybound lovers, you have another one)

That's the family storyline of Fireboy and Watergirl. (Like, the only interesting thing about the season to me)

We talked about how we both thought it would have been much more interesting and fitting of the messaging of the season if the parents were painted in a negative light, and it wasn't a trick.

I was on board with the idea that the siblings didn't know what happened to their parents and why they suddenly up and left them. I mean, it left these two kids forced to raise each other. KIDS.

That's quite a bit of trauma to leave behind. (Which is why I said I wanted more baby Kai and Nya flashbacks)

And they WERE building up to the idea that these people should NOT be role models or impact Kai and Nya.

From what Chen implied, their parents were probably not the best of people and shouldn't be idolized. These two, especially Kai, have idolized their parents, and everything Kai has done with his life is associated with the legacy and honor of his father. But then it's revealed they're idolizing traitors to the Elemental Resistance and were fighting for a cause that was a danger to Ninjago. These kids shouldn't be idolizing them.

Especially not with what the siblings have become NOW. They're ninja. They're protectors of a land they care about. They have a new found family they could call their actual family if they so wished.

It fits with the time theming. It also adds to what Skylor tells them. Don't be so focused on your rocky past. Don't be so focused on the bad people your parents became. Focus on YOU. Focus on NOW. What do you want to be and what do you want to do NOW?

Adding to the Time Twins being stuck in the past. It'd make the siblings the foil.

...so we're both REALLY not a fan of the big twist of the season, that being that Ray and Maya were good people all along.

It goes against the message that was built up to up till that point. It reverts to the siblings clinging to the past again.

I'm not against their parents ending up being good people who were just protecting their kids out of love, but that's NOT what they were building up to.

And I am especially NOT SAYING Kai should've killed his dad. Absolutely not. Nya could've stopped him and reminded him that this isn't him and this isn't who he wants to be. Again, adding to the 'don't focus on the past, focus on now'. They could even release their parents out of sympathy, but not let them back in their lives. At least, not until Seabound, which could be the parents trying to be better. This could just be their redemption arc.

Cause, in the flashback they showed, they didn't even put up a fight when they could have. They're ELEMENTAL MASTERS. FOR FSM SAKE. They can strike a powerless Krux down. That screams to me that it doesn't change the fact that they abandoned their kids in a garden and left them at a weapons shop to fend for themselves. And it very clearly left a dent on them! For Kai, at least.

I also wish the final blow on the Time Twins was done by Kai and not Wu.

Everyone has said this, and yeah, Kai is the only ninja who never gets to defeat a villain by themself. (And now he never will) Every Kai focused story where he has a villain, said villain is defeated by someone else, sometimes someone with no connection to them. I have NO IDEA why Kai is not allowed to get a W, but the others are. I guess someone in the writers room just hates Kai for some reason.

THIS would've been the PERFECT SEASON to let Kai do that.

At least with Krux. Krux is such a personal antagonist for Kai. This is the man who destroyed Kai's family name and life. This is the man who threatened a resistance he honors. This is the man who signifies all of Kai's past ego. This is the man who took Kai's parents away from him and forced him to end his childhood and be the parent to his sister. This man is a PERSONAL villain to KAI.

So if ANYBODY is going to get the honor to defeat this guy, it should be KAI.

But no. Instead Wu got that honor. Despite the fact that his personal connection to the Time Twins is just "I shouldn't have fought Acronix alone, I make so many mistakes and I like to pretend I'm perfect"

How awesome would that have been to have the siblings stand by a claim like "I'm not what you made of my past. I'm what I am now. I'm fighting for now."

Wu could still get lost in time. Like let's say someone had slippery hands in the time vortex. There you go.

Kai is an awesome character whenever he's allowed to be in the spotlight. He doesn't get to be in it, though. I just kinda wish he, like the other ninja did, got a W that he deserved.