#there's for sure an audience but you have to like. really enjoy writing about conflict and difficult solutions to said conflict

[punch-love]

conflict anon here again and im SO GLAD you agree man. i think what really gets me about it is that i was specifically searching for conflict-packed fic and that's why i was so let down. i also feel like authors are entitled to write whatever they want forever but it just FEELS to me when im reading their fics like they would be happier writing something more domestic, and i want to find something where they're more feral.

i want the ID reveal and the relationship-confirming to cause MORE problems, hell i want them to get together and blow out into a massive argument and breakup then have breakup sex and get back together and then realize the sex didn't actually fix anything and then break up again but they can't stop being obnoxiously in each others space either way

but it feels like fic im trying to find like this fights the very concept of conflict so hard and wants one singular plot point to fix everything as quickly as possible without even walking me through the characters' insight as to HOW that fixed anything other than "problem over, let's be together forever now!" let alone the level of conflict that'd be so engaging like that with a million curveballs

im so aware its a personal taste thing its just been frustrating reading fic after fic after fic and finding so little of it. its no ones fault i can't find fic perfectly tailored to my tastes specifically, i just tend to ramble about my frustration. you and oprime and sci and a couple other authors are my favorite for writing it the way you do, she's not gonna die today will always be one of my favorite fics of all time because it gave me that ever persisting conflict driven by their obsessive need to stick together even when they're fighting every step of the way. i just always get into a longwinded ramble when this comes up and i was hoping youd like to share your thoughts so thank you for answering 🙏

I think this pairing kind of presents a unique challenge to writers (at least it did for me) that action and conflict is such a huge, borderline essential part of their canonical dynamic. If you're not used to writing/utilizing both physical and emotional conflict, your stories can often fall so, so flat for these two, specifically because that's the fuel that makes the engine run. The first true action scene I ever wrote was chapter two of love-punch, and I like, now I'm an action writer for life now (editing an action sequence as we speak) but I had to get out of my comfort zone because I realized that type of stories I wanted to write about them required them to beat the shit out of each other to work.

These two are definitely not problem solvers so much as shit starters. I feel like for them, the problems they actually have to solve are the ways they perceive each other (because both of them heavily project onto the other) and what that means long-term for their relationship - every other form of conflict, to me, is up for grabs forever when it comes to their relationship. The shit talking, ass kicking, and fire starting is what makes them, them.

I've said this before, but a lot of people write fanfiction as an exploration of their own ideal relationships. (which is absolutely fine) I think spideypool is a difficult sell though, for that specific fantasy, because their relationship operates on instability and violence primarily. I think most people aren't looking for a relationship where your communication consists of name-calling, beat downs, and moral differences so severe it makes you almost kill each other a lot. That, does not make a good, a good or healthy real world relationship but SUCH a fun fictional one. People are going to write their fantasies out, though, and that fantasy is that one kiss/one fuck/one confession creates relationship fueled bliss forever because many people, hate conflict - both experiencing and reading it. It sucks, if you're a reader who likes problems. I also always say this, but I encourage you to channel that energy into writing your own work. It's what I did, and it paid off so great for me because now I have 12 works specifically catered to my own personal needs exclusively. Fandom is always going to suck, but you can be the change! (and if you don't want to write, that's cool too, sometimes it's good just to get your qualms out into the world and find people who agree)

tagging @primewritessmut again so she can read your praise straight from the source.

It's a tough fandom if you really like their canonical dynamic more than their fanon one, I feel you man. I am always holding a prayer circle that more writers who like problems more than they like easy resolutions joins in and starts writing some real fucked up shit.

[chaifootsteps]

wr.t. leaks (spoilers, duh!). Viv really chose the most boring and uninspired rendition of Alastor possible, and I could not be more disappointed. The signs were definitely there in Season 1, but if you wanted to you could easily dismiss as sloppy writing and one-time reactions to extraordinary events.

Like, I know no fan is *entitled* to have their particular interpretation of a character be validated, but... really? He's been reduced to the form of a one-dimensional, entitled manchild you might find as the villain of a self-insert fanfiction. Ohhhh nooo luci hurt his feefees and Rosie didn't actually make him an all powerful god, so time to storm out and whine about it. Why make a deal in the first place? Well, duh, he gleefully murdered so many people for trivial inconveniences he didn't wanna end up a tortured soul in Hell. He's basically Valentino, but, on the 'good team', and not a rapist (yet.), or Adam, or Vox, or Mammon, or Stella (frankly, you could even put Stolas in this bucket, if he weren't so unintentionally manipulative). A parody of a threatening character, incapable of creating conflict in any way that doesn't involve waving around a big stick and reminding everyone and the audience who the author blessed with magical power don't you forget it!

I've said this about pilot!fanon!Lucifer too, but, the fandom interpretations are just objectively more interesting. It's not like you can't write a story, or even a good story, about an entitled man drunk on power obsessed with his own image and getting what he thinks he's owed. But why would you 1) choose an enslaved racial minority character (!!!) to do this and 2) do it instead of multiple more compelling options given you already have multiple of this exact character on the cast?

Fanon!Alastor has emotions other than anger and insecure whining, he just can't express them because decades of crawling his way up two different hostile societies have beaten into him never expressing vulnerability. His very smile is symbol of societies like Hell ultimately victimize both the powerful abusers and their victims. Fanon!Alastor had a deal with ___ not because he's drunk on his own desire to murder but because he's vulnerable to the very same weakness and temptation he's learned to exploit in others. Fanon!Alastor has a natural dual conflict with Charlie: Alastor's connections and practical knowledge represent a way of making her dream a reality, at the cost of potentially corrupting her and having her get there in an incorrect/immoral way. And Charlie's dream presents Alastor with a pathway to more power and stability, but unbeknownst to him threatens to unwind his entire psyche in allowing himself to care about something. Fanon!Alastor, far from being image-obsessed with a need to be constantly in the limelight, is capable of being subtle, fading into the background when it benefits him.

I could go on, but I'm just tired. It hurts me that, come release, fan works which I enjoy making and reading will be expected to comply with this. I don't want to write Alastor this way. I don't want to be told I'm writing him 'wrong' for not doing it. I hope that in some way the earlier fanons are preserved and kept alive even as canon is polluted with all this slop.

It's sad and exhausting, for sure. It also doesn't help that the standom will attack you pretty viciously if you have the audacity to prefer the pilot to the actual series.

[ennn]

Initial Agatha All Along Ep 7 Meta Thoughts + Reactions

This ep was a work of art and my brain is buzzing while my heart is in awe.

YELLING at how the show is just leaning into the gay now that we're in the endgame. This is the current star TV show product of Disney Marvel and I am stunned and delighted. Two of this show's lead characters flat out saying they're not straight / queer.

I can only hope this spills over to more open marketing and interviews. Yes, I'm still shook about it and will be for the time being.

"I'm your mom's ex [forever pause] best friend." Congratulations Wanda-Agatha shippers, I'm happy for you. Also Agatha's "oooh" at possible epic Maximoff drama? Nice.

We've hit Doctor Who levels of time shenanigans! And timey whimey storytelling is a sure-fire way to hit the feels. There's something so powerful and tragic about Fate.

I keep drawing parallels about how the show feels like such a spiritual successor to DW with the Agatha-Billy team up, and the incredible layers (and theatrics and cunning and drama) with Agatha. Now we're directly playing with time and it's glorious!

As much as Billy is giving Agatha a hard time now, it's probably a good thing and healthy this conflict is in the open. Billy's expressing his hurt and anger and making it super clear he doesn't trust Agatha – which of course, structurally means he will of course have to trust her by the end of this story.

Them snarking at each other attempting the trial? I enjoy these bitchy dumbasses.

What an incredible writing feat in how they did the time skips, with the focus centered on Lilia so we can experience her tragic journey. I can't wait to hear more about how Schaeffer and the writers plotted this out. A new masterclass in executing a series reveal, with stunning cinematography to match. (the colours! the framing!) This episode embodies how it's really the craft and execution that delivers, less of the idea or the plot point.

Patti LuPwn effortlessly grounding this episode with her performance. I'm glad a wider audience gets to experience this Broadway legend's talent. My only regret is we never got more of her singing.

Agatha's back in her active leader-y role in driving the trial to succeed (and of course saving her own skin): tackling Lilia so she doesn't get impaled, reminding them to hurry up, and ultimately saving them crucial seconds by putting down the Death card.

Congratulations to Agatha officially joining the monsterfucker club. The way everyone looked to her (look, everyone saw Rio's dumb scar confession) was gold.

Vindication for my Death's missing heart theory -- although now it looks like the wound is more likely self-inflicted? I wonder exactly when and how.

Vindication for my perception of Rio as not a liar (as I do love the contrast with Agatha's duplicitous nature and tendency to run). She literally told everyone she's The Green Witch. In a scary voice no less.

Excited to see how they tackle Rio being the original Green Witch. Death being a witch is certainly a new take? And I'm still not sure how human or not this makes Rio, which makes the last two eps rather unpredictable. Yes, she's got a skull face and can do weird shit with her body. But the Scarlet Witch was able to pull off some inhuman things in MoM.

[cripplecharacters]

Feel free not to answer this question as it's more a research-type question, I'm just not sure how to go about finding what I need: do you happen to know any fiction books with portrayals of medium to high support autistic people that are considered realistic and positive? All I can find is rep of low support autistic ppl (unless it's in semi-educational children's books) and it's making it harder to figure out how to write medium to high support autistic ppl myself.

Hello!

When I was diagnosed, it was before the levels were used (Or at least before they were used where I lived). I suspect that I would be considered 'level one autistic' today but would likely have been 'level two', bridging into 'level three' as a child. This is all just to explain my perspective with this.

That being said, here are some of my recommendations:

A Step Toward Falling by Cammie McGovern

I just finished this book earlier today and while it isn't specifically about autistic characters, it does feature several autistic characters with high support needs as well as other disabled characters. The book is written from the perspective of two characters, one of which is developmentally disabled (Belinda). Although her disability is never specified, I do see a lot of autistic traits in Belinda. The premise of this book is a bit heavy. It's about two characters (Who are not disabled) who end up volunteering at a centre for adults with developmental disabilities. One of the things I appreciated about this book was how well rounded the characters are. Each of them has their own stories, interests, and ideas. I also like how it discussed sex and relationships in the context of people with developmental disabilities. Something to note is that this does have some sensitive topics such as ableism, sexual assault, and bullying. It is also written by a parent of an autistic child but, as far as I'm aware, the author herself is abled. I did have some conflicted feelings about specific parts of it but I'll leave that for you to make your own decisions about. Target Audience: Young Adult

How to Speak Dolphin by Ginny Rorby

I also read this book recently and I personally really disliked it. There were several scenes that made me feel very gross and I found that the autistic character was dehumanized very often. One line that stuck with me was another character about a blind character, essentially saying, "I thought she was going to drown herself. If I was blind, that's what I would do." Although the character does get to know the blind character and changes her mind, it really felt awful to read and seemed so unnecessary -- especially given the target audience. The way it talks about blindness in general bugs me. That being said, I have seen several autistic people recommending the book (Which was why I read it in the first place) so I'll include it here anyways since my opinion seems to be in the minority around this book. Target Audience: Elementary/Middle Schoolers This is a brief review from another autistic person. [Link]

Planet Earth is Blue by Nicole Panteleakos

This book centers around Nova, a young autistic girl with high support needs. Nova is a foster child who is missing her older sister and the story is told through a mix of narrative, letters to Nova's sister, and flashbacks. It's been a while since I've read this book but I remember really enjoying it (And maybe crying a little bit too). The author is autistic herself and also consulted many other autistic people with a variety of experiences, which I appreciated. Target Audience: Middle Schoolers This is a more in-depth review on the book from a reader who (I believe) is also autistic. [Link]

These are also a couple books that I've seen recommended but can't personally recommend as I haven't read them myself yet:

Real by Carol Cujec

Remember Dippy by Shirley Reva Vernick

I know it's not very much but hopefully it's enough to get you started! If anyone has any recommendations for anon, feel free to mention them in the notes.

Cheers,

~ Mod Icarus

[faejilly]

@rebelren requested the deeply complimentary if slightly broad "I WANT TO KNOW ALL YOUR RICKY/ESTHER THOUGHTS" and I have so many thoughts

let's see where I ramble, huh? There is no plan here? This is mostly just season 1 stuff because that's where I am in my very slow attempt at fic writing.

They very much have a Lois and Clark vibe to me and that is one of my foundational OTPs, so.

She's too smart and sharp for almost everyone else she's ever met but that is in fact what he likes about her. He's deeply impossibly committed to actually being nice and kind and doing the right thing ALL THE TIME without any ability to tell how that's even more unusual than his superpowers absurd good looks and physical abilities and she recognizes that about him.

Ricky is not subtle about his crush on Esther, but he is completely respectful about it. He texts her whenever he has a thought, but that's because he wants her thoughts back, not because he's trying to make her think about him, if that makes sense?

I spent most of the first campaign being very 'she likes him back?' but not sure if I really thought that based on anything she was doing, or I thought that was how the story was being built/structured and it was just gonna... happen. And I was honestly fine with that because Brennan and Zac have such good chemistry, plus the aforementioned respect in approaching the relationship, so I was just gonna take what I got and be happy about it.

BUT on a rewatch (or transcript re-read on the wiki) it becomes increasingly obvious surprisingly early that she is INCREDIBLY KEYED IN ON RICKY AT ALL TIMES and it makes me *pterodactyl screech* a lot A LOT A LOT:

See how quickly she responds to all his texts every time! In group settings even if she hasn't said anything lately she'll usually answer a Ricky-question before anyone else can! She legitimately seems to enjoy figuring out how to rephrase things she's said that were too academic for him to follow!

Like, she's not just humoring him, she is in fact interested in how his mind works and the way he feels his way around information whether or not he understands it in at all the way that she does.

Usually not, obviously, but that doesn't mean his perspective isn't valuable to her.

And also funny, sometimes entirely on purpose, which is again a Lois/Clark thing because Clark is absolutely a bit of a troll about making terrible Superman jokes for no one except himself and eventually also Lois, and Ricky and Esther give me the same "we're in this nonsense together" vibes whenever Zac managed an especially good dumb-but-hilarious-and-not-actually-stupid Ricky line.

I guess what I'm getting at there is that, even beyond the quality chemistry and adorkableness, they genuinely enjoy each other's company, yk? They like each other even when there's an invisible barrier that the audience (and Ricky) can only sort of tell is there that prevents a deeper relationship/understanding during s1.

There's a really good line in a fic, tenets of devotion by fensandmarshes: "[Ricky] took his Oath of Redemption to the world; he took Devotion to Esther, he thinks, no matter that that’s not really a thing." which is I think incredibly accurate and is a thing I am weak for, the conscious deliberate explicit choice to devote yourself to a person because they are perfect for you (even if you are completely aware of their supposed flaws and weaknesses and humanity at the same time). THEY'RE BOTH JUST SO COMMITTED Y'ALL, I'M LOVE THEM.

While I have no problem with inter-party romance and am deeply fond of battle couples and all that stuff, I do think it's important that Esther is not an active party member, and while incredibly competent at it, is not explicitly designed for combat in the same way the PCs are, because despite his skillset, Ricky is pretty damn conflict adverse personality-wise, so it's nice his partner is a research nerd and not usually a combatant.

Because Ricky never wanted a blade. He accepted the Questing Blade but he didn't choose it, it chose him. (Obviously his weapon-searching-arc in s2 makes me feral. Someday I will manage fic about it, hopefully?)

This is a recurring theme in TUC actually, that except for Cody who is definitely the other side of that coin on purpose (sorry not sorry) most of the PCs and their primary NPC friends/relatives/whatever did not go looking for magic or power, but DID accept the responsibility once it happened. (This adds a nice depth to their relationship, the fact that part of why they're careful getting together is that sense of responsibility, so I'm including it here even though it's more about the setting/campaigns rather than Ricky/Esther specifically.)

They have not even been on a date and her curse is broken and they are immediately "let's live a dangerous life together" aka they are my favorite kind of batshit, 100/10, no notes

(I mean, obviously I have a lot of notes. I have all these things I just wrote down, and a fic about the almost-year before s1, and one about the campaign itself from Esther's POV, and a thing about Ricky cataloguing all the ways he'd broken the tenets of his Paladin Devotion Oath as part of his transition to Redemption, and a thing that takes place between campaigns that is mostly smut and crying for probably obvious reasons, and a s2 epilogue mostly about the proposal, (not currently anything during s2 unlike Esther's POV for s1, but I suppose that might change if I ever figure out the stuff that takes place before it), and possibly an AU where the curse wasn't broken before the final battle so when Ricky dies, Esther falls, and an entirely different Curse Breaking Thing After That, so.

So many notes.)

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

You: *writes two small essays clearly, cleanly, and thoroughly going through issues you have with the writing in Miraculous, and how they affect what the show is actually saying vs what the writers are going for vs what the audience is taking away from the show, without treating the characters as autonomous people who actually exist a single time*

Someone who pisses on the poor: 'oh so you think this abused child, who was magically created from a feather, deserves to be maliciously lied to by his lifelong romantic partner and fellow 14 year old? After everything he's already been through?'

Media literacy classes should be a requirement everywhere

Thank you for your kind comments about that post. Comments like yours have been very validating after what was initially a really disheartening series of events.

I was quite pleased with what I wrote and thought that I had done a good job focusing on the writing and emphasizing that I was talking about the big picture of the narrative, not chastising or praising specific characters for what the writers had them do. But after I had multiple people go off on rants defending Alya and Adrien, I started seriously questioning my own sanity and communication skills. I even looked up the definition of betrayal to make sure that I wasn't somehow misusing it since that word really seemed to upset people. In case anyone was wondering:

Betrayal is the breaking or violation of a presumptive contract, trust, or confidence that produces moral and psychological conflict

After verifying that I hadn't been using "betrayal" wrong for well over a decade, I got a little annoyed and did my angry rant in the hope that it would save me from further backlash.

While it has been super validating to see that my two initial essays did in fact make sense to a good number of people, that last post did go a little viral, which I didn't see coming, so I want to take a moment to make it clear that I DO NOT want anyone go after the people who did the rants that spawned my rant. Nothing they did or said was worthy of any sort of pile on. They were just expressing opinions and that's fine. I even get it to some extent because a lot of people have unfairly salted on Alya, acting as if she's the problem and not the writing. And that can be really upsetting when you like her because she doesn't deserve those pile ons any more than Marinette does. They are both victims of bad writing!

I get the desire to treat fictional characters like real people, I really do, but Miraculous is frankly not a good enough show for you to do that. The hand of the author is far too blatant, making characters do whatever the writers want instead of what makes sense for what has been established. One of my favorite quick examples is that the writers gave us a full episode where Gabriel "proved" that Adrien wasn't Chat Noir only to have him figure out Adrien's secret identity because he heard his son use the words My Lady as if that's a super unique pet name that would make Adrien's secret undeniable.

It's all nonsense, which is why I focus on the writing issues, treating the characters like the tools they very clearly are. I simply can't do the kind of character analysis you can do in well written shows where the characters feel real and their actions make sense in the established narrative.

I'll close with this statement to explain how I try to run this blog: the characters in the show are fictional, the people you're talking to on here are not. In the grand scheme of things, nothing about Miraculous is bad enough to be worth fighting over. That's why I enjoy talking about it. With all the truly important fights going on in the world, it's nice to come on here and relax by talking about writing - a topic I adore - without having to care if people agree. It's also why I have this as a side blog. I want people to be able to avoid my content if it upsets them as my goal is first and foremost to have fun dunking on a show that is bad in interesting ways. If I only ever got upset replies to my posts, then I would not run this blog because Miraculous is not worth being miserable over. No piece of fiction is.

[protect-namine]

Hello! So excited to see your list of favorites. This is my first time, saw someone who love Shen Yuan, also Cheng Xiaoshi, Lelouch, and Emma, too! Diversity is beautiful....

Can you believe, that I think about Orpheus and Eurydice when I saw last episode of Link Click s2?

As Link Click fan, can I ask, your top 5 fav moments from the series (until now)? Also, why do you love Link Click (what made this special for you)?

for any link click fans reading this, the emma being referred to here is emma woodhouse from jane austen's novel, emma. this is not the emma from link click XD (although I do love her).

anon you've got to check out hadestown if you haven't already. it's orpheus and eurydice in a time loop (take into account that this is a theater production, and imagine every play is one loop). that's as shiguang as you can get. I have sooo many thoughts on link click and theater metaphors ever since they gave us those theater posters but that is a post for another time.

anyway. hi, yes, I love link click!! I'm gonna apologize in advance because I can already tell as I'm writing this that this is gonna be a long post. you've given me an excuse to write essays on this topic.

I will mostly talk about S1/S2 but there will be yingdu spoilers below.

why do I love link click? I think I just really love their motto: "past or future, let it be." be forgiving of the past, act with intention in the present, because both of those make up the future. when cheng xiaoshi dives into the past to resolve a client's regrets, he is not changing the past. he is changing their future. I really like that. although this mostly counts for S1 and S2; clearly this direction may potentially change with yingdu, which is fine with me. but this is the theme that first drew me in, and I hold "past and future, let it be" dear to my heart.

it's also just the kind of story that fires the neurons in my brain. I love stories where a late revelation re-contextualizes earlier scenes. I enjoy puzzling out the plot, regardless if we're overthinking continuity errors or not. yeah sometimes the fakeout cliffhangers in S2 are annoying. and yeah sometimes I can tell when the show is trying to make me cry, but I'm gonna let it, because the experience of watching it is enjoyable to me.

I also just love the time travel aspects of it? like, sure, some people will say link click is a story about love told through time travel. but to me, the time travel itself is a major element of the story. it's the meat of it. it runs through its themes, its conflicts, its character arcs, and even the way the show itself engages with the audience.

like, to compare with other media (and note, I absolutely love every media I'm gonna list here) (this part might be contentious, I'm sure others will disagree with me on this). erased has time travel elements, but I would say that that is a character-driven story where time travel is a story device, but not the main subject. pmmm has time loops, but to me, that show is about magical girls. the time loops are a result of homura's wish when she became a magical girl. it's a vehicle for her love for madoka, but the story itself examines the magical girl aspect of the show more than the time travel aspect. life is strange is a video game where the main character pretty much has the same abilities as cheng xiaoshi, and it's probably the closest to the type of story link click is. loved that game to bits, but making branching narratives in video games is understandably hard. it kinda sucks that, in the end, the butterfly effect only really converged to two different endings, so I feel like the concept of it didn't reach its full potential.

and again, I love each media I've listed here btw. I am not saying they're lesser or worse than link click. they're just different, and the way they treat the time travel aspects of their story is just different. like, pmmm itself is a masterpiece on its own. but anyway, I digress.

I like that link click has a character establish time travel rules, and then breaks them. I like that the show commits to closed time loops, and then doesn't. I like that it closely examines the mechanics of time travel in its world. I like that the studio is pushing how much they can do with the concept of "time travel" that it extends to how they communicate with the audience. like how, recently, we just learned that the PVs for yingdu arc actually took place in a different timeline from the yingdu we're watching now in the show. that's bananas to me. personally, I love them for doing that.

my brain loves these kinds of stories. my favorite danganronpa game is V3, and if you're familiar with this series, this should tell you how much I personally enjoy stories that try to trick me with its concepts, and stories that go meta on itself. I like svsss for the same reason. I love unreliable narrators. link click is just right up my alley.

I can go on and on about what I love about how link click uses time travel in the story. how the stories are about intimate, personal connections and personal regrets. the weight of a small action in the grand scheme of things and how it ties to the emotional core of our characters. but then this post will never end, and I would probably just rehash what this video is talking about. so go watch that instead.

also, the soundtrack is immaculate.

as for my top five favorite moments... it's funny, because I vastly prefer S1 over S2. that's just my personal preference. and yet, when I reviewed the episodes, it turns out all my favorite moments are in S2? go figure. I think it's because S2 establishes a lot of character moments that have been building up since S1, which I deeply appreciate.

here's the tl;dr of my favorite moments thus far (in chronological order). you asked why, and I will explain why under the cut.

S1E10: "the game is over."

S2E5: "after you get the doll, remember to show an appropriate... look of happiness."

S2E8: "you know what? I have a younger brother."

S2E12: "if you don't have the guts for that, how can you be my friend?"

S2E12: "time is a hypocritical construct"

I did not include yingdu moments in this yet because with a show like link click, some scenes become more interesting in retrospect than while watching in the moment. so I'll let yingdu finish what it's doing first and let it marinate in my brain for a bit.

gonna put the reasons under a read more cut because oh boy it's gonna be long. it turned into several character analyses along the way. I am so so sorry about this. I can't turn my brain off and I can't shut up about this show.

top five favorite moments: (in chronological order)

S1E10 - "the game is over." this is quite literally the coolest scene in all of link click. no scene has surpassed this scene imo. it accomplishes several things exceptionally well, all condensed in one single moment.

one, it shows that despite lu guang's own fears, he decided to trust cheng xiaoshi with leading the operation. perhaps you could say he didn't really have a choice, since he couldn't forcefully exit cheng xiaoshi out of xu shanshan's body, and so he couldn't do anything but help cheng xiaoshi trap liu min in the darkroom. but either way, this is still a monumental moment for him. it doesn't seem that way at first in S1, but with the context of S2E12 and YE1, it's surprising he'd let cheng xiaoshi do this at all. that he'd let cheng xiaoshi lead, or that he'd even trap him alone with a serial killer in the darkroom. you know, where he previously died? that's a massive amount of trust to give. he could have just as easily trap himself with cheng xiaoshi and liu min in that room. but he couldn't, because he had to contact the police while cheng xiaoshi distracted liu min and got a confession out of him. and if he wants the plan to work, lu guang had to (whether he's forced to or not) trust that cheng xiaoshi can handle himself in that room. that cheng xiaoshi won't die.

maybe cheng xiaoshi isn't the only one who has grown in this timeline? it's a very... optimistic interpretation of this scene, I admit. but lu guang's actions in this scene is fascinating to me in retrospect.

two, it shows that cheng xiaoshi can be a tricky and clever planner — in fact, this is a defining character trait for him. lu guang is the meticulously analytical one, the one who plans out every detail to the last minute. cheng xiaoshi is the one who thinks outside the box and sees the loopholes. and mind you, this was planned. cheng xiaoshi was working on this plan even before he told lu guang what he wanted to do. there's a scene earlier before the dive where we see cheng xiaoshi setting up pictures in the darkroom. he only told lu guang about the plan once he was possessing xu shanshan.

director li describes cheng xiaoshi similarly: (I love how he's defensive over cheng xiaoshi's intelligence)

"the thing is, cheng xiaoshi seems flippant, but you saw him at the end of the first season. he can be pretty clever when it's crunch time. I had a lot of classmates who performed badly in class, but they got their scores up from 60 to 90 in just two months, right before the national college entrance examinations. these kinds of people do exist. that sort of cleverness is incredible. it's something you're born with."

three, this scene perfectly makes use of the time travel rules this show has established thus far. the closed timeloop (the call liu min made in the morning can only happen because cheng xiaoshi provoked him into playing a game, which only happened because cheng xiaoshi already got the call). the clever use of photos to "teleport" but also to resolve regrets, because cheng xiaoshi used photos of the victims.

I love how danny motta describes it in his reaction:

"[lu guang] literally trapped this guy inside of [cheng xiaoshi's] boss arena. I never considered how much fucking power and authority [cheng xiaoshi] has in this room specifically."

and finally, how awesome is it to hear the beeping of overthink at the end of the episode, and instead of being filled with dread because of a cliffhanger that could potentially put our favorite characters in danger, you're instead hyped because you just know cheng xiaoshi is gonna fuck up the main bad guy of the season. it's such a great reversal of how they have been using overthink for the past episodes.

it's like the show saying, "remember how worried you felt at the end of each episode before this? that's how liu min should feel right now, because cheng xiaoshi is absolutely gonna fuck him up next episode."

it's just so many great elements of the story condensed into one, single badass moment. this is link click at its peak for me.

S2E5 - "after you get the doll, remember to show an appropriate... look of happiness"

when I watched this scene, I thought, "oh. so li tianxi is the mirror to cheng xiaoshi." and of course S2 continues with this mirroring with the running scenes, the film strips, and so on.

but I love the look of surprise from lu guang in this scene. cheng xiaoshi, as li tianxi, was already looking happy before lu guang even finished his sentence. because cheng xiaoshi was happy. and why wouldn't he be? he gets to spend a morning with a loving mother.

in this moment, cheng xiaoshi and li tianxi were in sync.

it highlights cheng xiaoshi's empathy and how sometimes that empathy can be something so personal to him. it highlights his sincerity and naivete, and even li tianxi's too. it's a great character moment for both of them.

S2E8 - "you know what? I have a younger brother."

this is great character moment for qiao ling. I love her relationship with cheng xiaoshi, but the way she communicated with li tianxi also deserves praise. I've already talked about qiao ling extensively here, and I feel like I'll just rehash everything I said before, so I won't repeat them here. I'll just highlight the parts that are relevant to this scene:

she's the one who truly connected with tianxi and knew how to communicate with her — even better than cheng xiaoshi could, and cheng xiaoshi was the one who actually got to live as tianxi. [qiao ling] is the person that gained tianxi's trust and knew how to meet her where she's at.

I love any moment that qiao ling gets to shine, but especially the ones where she is defined and forms connections outside of shiguang. and actually, that's her job in the supernatural business of the photo studio! she's the one who seeks out and communicates with clients! so of course she's the one who'd be able to communicate with li tianxi.

S2E12 - "if you don't have the guts for that, how can you be my friend?"

liu xiao doesn't do much in S2, but I've come to really like his character. this is also an important character moment for li tianchen.

I will admit, the reason this entered my top five scenes is rooted in half canon, half headcanon. but I think this scene says a lot about xiaochen's relationship. notice how liu xiao reached out to li tianchen with bare hands. li tianchen went from living with a clown villain who always wears gloves (sorry, but qian jin was a joke) to partnering with someone who will let him touch his hand despite knowing li tianchen can possess people through touch.

but! you also have to read this in the context of all of liu xiao's interactions with li tianchen thus far, and all the warnings studio lan has given us about not trusting the guy. he's a mastermind. he's a manipulator.

so, here's the headcanon territory. liu xiao is probably manipulating him, and I think li tianchen is a little bit aware of it too tbh. but even if he knows, he lets him, because what else does he have? he always looked up to liu xiao anyway. li tianchen is probably doomed, even more than cheng xiaoshi. but then again, have you seen the lyrics to prometheus? does li tianchen even care at this point? he lost his sister. he left his phone behind; he's leaving the past behind. liu xiao is the only one he can trust.

li tianchen is the actual most doomed character in link click, for me. like, I can imagine a happy ending for shiguang, but it's really hard at this point not to think of li tianchen getting the Bad Ending™

liu xiao, the mastermind, being the one to first reach out, unafraid that li tianchen can possess him at any time, is such a great introduction to their partnership. he is li tianchen's light the way lu guang is cheng xiaoshi's.

I'm really hoping for xiaochen to be the foil to shiguang in S3. like, li tianchen knows he's being strung along. turn that into a foil for S3!cxs who discovers that lu guang has been hiding something from him all this time, that perhaps he even made up the time travel rules to control the timeline and avoid cheng xiaoshi's death. there's a lot of potential for liu xiao and lu guang foiling too, especially with themes of "control" over the timelines.

again, this is mostly speculation, but idk. I think xiaochen just has a lot of potential.

S2E12 - "time is a hypocritical construct"

link click knows how to do a finale. even when you know from episode 1 (from the brief showing of dead cheng xiaoshi in lu guang's mind, or the XƎTЯOVerthink mv) that this was gonna be the reveal, it doesn't dampen the execution of the scene.

like I said earlier, I love when a late revelation re-contextualizes the whole story, and this is THE prime example for that. this scene instantly gives lu guang's character sooooo much depth, and all his interactions with cheng xiaoshi in S1 and S2 has extra layers in them when you rewatch the episodes. when he calls cheng xiaoshi an idiot for joking about hanging himself in S1. when he gets mad that cheng xiaoshi dived into security footage to tail liu min without lu guang to guide him. when he loses his shit when qian jin shot cheng xiaoshi. even the chibi short where qiao ling does tarot and lu guang hides his card from cheng xiaoshi becomes more and more interesting (qiao ling notices him hiding it too).

love a guy that dooms himself.

the weight of his tragedy also makes me appreciate the small moments of peace he gets as well, especially in the chibi shorts. I am incredibly fond of the elizabeth episode for this reason. lu guang is timelooping; how can he think of treating each timeline as "home" when he could potentially fail again and again? at first he didn't want to keep elizabeth, but he clearly does, and he was sad when she had to leave. I like to think that in a happy ending, shiguang gets to keep a pet cat. it's a commitment to this particular timeline. it's to say, "this is home."

what really elevates the scene is the use of mastermind as the insert song. lu guang reveals that he's been breaking his own time travel rules since the beginning, and then we hear "time is a hypocritcal construct" in the background? 11/10, no notes.

but beyond that, there's something else I love about mastermind being the finale song. I'll just copy my tags from this post. I love that the lyrics of mastermind uses the same metaphors we associate with liu xiao:

“destiny is just my game but it's all you're counting on right now”

“the hunter when a prey lies / it's just what the world's like”

“mastermind stays in the dark”

“can't you see it's checkmate?”

I just think it's so cool that liu xiao doesn't really... do anything (that we see) in S2. but he still gets the last word through this song. like that's such a mastemind thing to do. idk, idk, that's just so cool to me.

okay, that's it. I don't expect everyone to read my word vomit but if you reached this point, thanks for reading lol. and again, sorry anon for answering with an essay. like I said, I cannot shut up about this show.

[zara-renata]

caleb

i feel like i need to address this because tomorrow is caleb's livestream and the fandom is already being hilarious in the tags, and by hilarious i mean benafflecksmoking.jpg.

I'm really excited for caleb's release. i think infold should have just double downed with the adopted sibling backstory, as it's a cultural nuance that is known and popular in the region where the game is made and where the bulk of its market lives. i understand that they're changing translations and the storyline for the EN audience probably for legal and shareholder, as well as cultural reasons. i have no idea what motivated them to dissolve the adoption through caleb/josephine's deaths, because i know absolutely fuck-all about chinese adoption law--whether the dissolution is realistic in terms of actual law or just for managing the PR of caleb's story, I can't say. but what i do think I know for sure is that the devs always intended for caleb to be a love interest, and I'll be a little pissed if it turns out he's not being released as a LI, won't lie.

i started playing the game back in feb or march 2024 and didn't know they killed caleb, and he was my fav until they blew him up. after i googled and realized they intended to bring him back in the future, i have been excited ever since. If you're bothered by him as love interest, if you are squicked out by the fact that he was raised with mc and was adopted with her, then you're probably not going to enjoy my blog if i end up liking him as much as i hope to like him. i will always love sylus and intend to keep writing about him and enjoying him, but i have room in my heart for more than one LI and the likeliest candidate imo is caleb because of the angst possibilities and meat of his story.

I love dysfunctional relationship dynamics, of the familial, romantic, platonic kinds, and finding the humanity in them. There is potential for so much angst just from the MC and Caleb being raised together aspect alone, and that's delicious to me. And THEN! his death! MC's grief! his coming back potentially a cyborg, and filled with rage, of the trauma of what he went through, MC's rage and trauma of having lost him, there's so much meat. and i like his character model-a guy as big as Sylus, with his soft downturned, pretty purple eyes. before he went boom, he already expressed the fact that he likes to provide for and care for mc, that he wants to protect her. All the things i love about sylus too. sign me the fuck up. And her response was a struggle for him to see her as independent, to prove that she's strong, doesn't need looking after, doesn't need anyone, when he's like please just let me do this for you. I really really am looking forward to them continuing that angle if he hasn't changed so fundamentally because of dying/being brought back.

We likely won't even get half of what i want, if sylus's story is any indication. because despite sylus's introduction, his unhinged, awful behavior has never been properly addressed by the writers. they even make jokes about it in the anniversary event, when we never saw the conversation where sylus is like 'hey maybe i shouldn't have fucking choked and starved you.' So it could be that i end up being disappointed at the writers' lack of exploitation of all of caleb's potential, and he's just a sweet LI in the same vein that the other guys are, and i won't end up loving him like i want to.

but the point is:

i do not have time or interest in arguing with people about why media and fiction are often most interesting when they contain meaty, uncomfortable conflict, and how even silly mobile gacha games can provide a safe vehicle for exploring unhealthy human experiences in an entertaining, thought-provoking, empathetic way. So that's my take, do with it what you will, thanks for reading.

as for my fanfic writing: i have an idea for mc/sylus road trip + hozier lyrics, i have an idea for bestfriend!sylus where mc has a shit boyfriend and sylus just... slowly eclipses him lmao, i have a codependent calebmc fic that i've already started that may never see the light of day because caleb may end up being wildly ooc, but i'm having so much fun writing it, i have a request for zayne + sylus + kidnapped/injured mc, i have some cute ideas for sylus that have come into my inbox in the last week, and of course I'm still thinking about the sylus series, and scenes i want to write now that mc realizes that sylus is in it to win it. I want to do all of these things, I want to enjoy the game. updates may be slower because post-holiday surge at work, lots of contracts to snarl over, and my non-work time is busier this month as well, but i'm still intending to and enjoying writing for lads. thanks for getting this far, i wish you the best of luck and health and happiness whoever you are.

[the-bloody-sadist]

What’s the thing that fascinates you the most about wump and how did you learn about it in the first place if I may ask?

THE PAIN. HAHAHHAH.

No but seriously, whump is just a yippee look at this guy getting beat up by the author situation, not anything very deep. I mean for me, personally, I know why I enjoy certain things, but as I've mentioned too much, whump as a category doesn't exactly...exist? To me? If that makes any sense. From an author's perspective, it's just someone making sure there's conflict in a story, and that some character is put in danger so that the story will remain interesting and the stakes will be raised. If you spend a little longer on the beating them up part, that's just fun and games for the tension. I DON'T KNOW, IT'S STILL HARD FOR ME TO BE LIKE OH YEAH WHUMP INSTEAD OF OH YEAH, A NICE STORY DECISION THAT MAKES MY FINGERS TINGLE!

So to be honest, there wasn't "learning" about whump, it's always existed as my favorite part of whatever media I was consuming. Literally since I was a kid, as I've seen lots of others mention on here. But I was born a sadist, so that's not a surprise. Where the sadist ends and the psychology nerd with a special interest in trauma begins, I have no idea, but there are so many reasons I like seeing and writing and drawing characters getting whumped. There's no particular fascination, I don't think? More of a coping need. I've always used it as an emotional/stress release, especially in childhood when there was nowhere else for that to go without endangering myself.

Honestly, if anything were fascinating about it, it would be the fact that it NEVER gets old. I see new whump and suddenly I'm a hormonal teen again with an obsession over the smallest details of a scene where a man gets choked against a wall, listening to the tiniest changes in his breath, evaluating his line delivery through clenched teeth, appreciating the ominous soundtrack in the background, the little lines on his face as he makes the perfect pained expression....BAHAHHA NEEEERRRRDDDDD I'M SUCH A NERD.

It's better than porn, and I always call whump my porn addiction, because as a kid I never wanted to look up dicks in secret or search for people fucking. I just opened YouTube in a private browser and searched for Gale getting whipped in The Hunger Games and went on a spree of hunting for other videos like it. Or I'd rewatch scenes from the animated movies we had on DVD when my family was out of the house. But I'm also asexual, so who knows how much I was affected by the fact that I didn't want to know about sex except the parts where it could possibly hurt me (yeah, religious upbringing where the only thing I was allowed to read with sex in it was the Bible, where it's all violent rape).

Sorry for turning every single ask I get into a life story, JESUS FUCKING CHRIST. Thank you for asking, though! You may always ask! I just feel a little bad that whump is a weird topic for me and I mostly use that word to promote and tag my work so I get the right audience, not particularly because I interact with it the way I see other people do. Whump is great as a description, in my opinion, so people know what you're talking about, but as a category of story/media, I find it less helpful. I can't be interested in whump as a standalone. I have to have substance behind it, a story and a character I care about and proper writing of the tension to enjoy it.

OH GAHOOK I TOTALLY FORGOT, I discovered the actual NAME for this stuff once I joined Tumblr, unsurprisingly. I was really startled at the community existing, when I thought it was WAY too niche of an interest/obsession to find other people who talked about it the way the community did. My favorite part about the community existing is the absence of shame (a big part of my childhood and experience with whump) and the sharing of clips from movies and shows that I hadn't seen before. Plus, I've found at least three long original stories that I never would've found if I hadn't been here, and those were amazing. I'm still talking oh my god. Sorry.

Last thing, the box boy universe being a thing unique to this community is really nice. It's the asexual counterpart to the master/slave/pet BDSM theme with trauma driving it. Couldn't ask for a better way to indulge in my favorite dynamic, especially when there ARE sexual elements, and it's MORE TRAUMA.

OKAY I'M DONE. PFFFF, I TOOK LIKE FIVE BUSINESS DAYS OF BEATING AROUND THE BUSH JUST TO ANSWER YOUR SIMPLE QUESTION.

[s4pphic-sh3nan1gans]

hi! the bokris yapping never ends, so i'm here again 🥰 what types of stories about bokris do you enjoy the most? maybe some fave tropes or dynamic or kinks or plot points you enjoy reading about (the "creative differences" for example lmao or smth like that)? maybe you'd like to read something about them but it's not been written by anyone yet?

OOOOOO these are interesting questions!!!

I have to think about this for a minute lowkey 😭 honestly I'll read pretty much anything bokris-related, and I'm sure I must have read about 95% of the bokris fics on ao3. but as for my absolute favourite tropes, this is what I can come up with:

any variation of first kiss/getting together/confession of feelings - maybe I'm a bit basic for this one but I'm a sucker for reading about how they go from casual flirting to serious flirting to falling in love, and how the lines are blurred in between.

friends to lovers - again, basic 😅 but I never get tired of reading about them slowly falling for each other over the years.

enemies to lovers - now this one works perfectly when paired with the distortion saga or the creative differences saga. the drama, the conflicting feelings... AAAAA!!! I eat that shit UP!

mutual pining/miscommunication/idiots in love - this is an absolutely lethal combo but I kinda love it for bokris. both of them being extremely dense and not realising that the other has feelings for them fits them perfectly. it makes me want to bonk their silly little heads together.

teasing - in every sense of what this means, either sexually or non-sexually. and it's pretty versatile too: Bojan could be teasing Kris because he wants to see him flustered or to get a rise out of him, or Kris could be teasing Bojan because he's been far too cocky lately and could do with being taken down a few notches 🤭 basically, I like to read about them bickering or being a little mean to each other and using it as their flirting.

okayyyyy, and now some of my favourite kinks to read for them 😇 I have to say I'm a top!Kris bottom!Bojan truther, but only because that seems to be what fits most of my own personal headcanons 😭 I do enjoy reading all dom/sub variations between them so I'm definitely speaking broadly here for all of these:

praise kink - works for either of them, although you can't tell me that Bojan, golden retriever personified, doesn't have one of the biggest praise kinks in the world.

hair-pulling - all I'll say is that I'm sure there's many uses for Kris growing his hair out... (wow, I sure am doing a good job of "speaking broadly" about these 😭)

choking - I mean... we've all seen that video, right?

exhibitionism - sometimes, they can't keep their hands off each other, even in their rehearsal space. and I'm sure they wouldn't mind a small audience........

restraints - idk man I just think it's hot 😭 and it works pretty well with their dynamic.

and finally!!! the thing I'd really love to see more of is genderbent bokris as lesbians. there are a few fics (and, um... I confess I was writing one myself, which I am determined to finish at some point because I made a promise to myself 😭) but honestly? there should be more. they would be so hot as lesbians 🥰

so, there we are! I definitely rambled too much here (I can't help myself 😅) but I hope I answered your questions, anon! <3 there's loads more stuff too that I've probably forgotten, but these are the main things that I thought of straight away :)

[ophernelia]

! LONG READ

I heard you want to make a machinima. I think I could help with that. Welcome to the first session of machinima bootcamp!

Alright, stop booing me. I know I kept you waiting for months. It took time and I had so much more learning to do myself! I am by no means an expert, but I think I could offer some helpful advice. This is just how I do things so feel free to use what resonates. “Where do I start? It’s as easy as opening the game up and recording, right?” That’s one way to do it for sure. The way I do it requires a lot more planning. Blame it on me being a Capricorn lol. A LOT of work goes into making Lykaia. Episodes usually take me a week or two to make. From writing the script, to filming and editing, it takes hours upon hours to produce. I love doing it. It's like a passion project, so the hours of free time I pour into it are really healing. Whatever you create, make sure it’s something you really do love. Here’s how I made Lykaia and how I intend to make other series going forward. 

*Lykaia specific info is annotated.

One thing you have to have before anything else is a story. One that you are genuinely interested in and enjoy telling. It’d be best to refrain from doing whatever gets views or whatever you think the community might enjoy. In order to stay consistent, you have to enjoy what you’re making. You have to know what story you want to tell. You don’t have to have everything planned out from start to finish, but get a good idea of what you want to explore first. The first season of Lykaia was just for me to try out machinima making. I didn’t have much direction with the story. Lykaia is just the cinematic version of my gameplay save. Lou and Imogen were my current household, so I figured I’d tell their story. It can be something as simple as that. A favorite household you love playing. A favorite story trope you’re into. Whatever inspires you. Try not to focus on how the masses will react to it. There’s an audience for everything. The viewership will come. Don’t let that discourage you or be your main focus. Enjoy the process of creating. Create for creation’s sake, not for praise or viewership. 

What makes a good story? I’m not sure. Sorry! I still wonder if Lykaia’s story is good. Though, even if it isn't, I just like telling it! Having interesting or complex characters is a good tip though. I quite like the idea of there being very few or no true villain in a story. Complex lives, complex people. It’s good to get an idea of who your characters are. What do they like? What do they dislike? How do they behave around people they’re close with? What was their childhood like? How do they speak? What do they look like? Where are they from? How do they handle conflict? How do they handle romance? There’s a bunch of questions you can ask to work on building out your characters. Once you’ve got a good idea of who your characters are at this starting point, you can build outside of their world. Make their friends, make their family. Figure out where they’re from geographically. How does their environment impact their life? What’s the place they live in like? Do they like living there? Where is it? What’s the climate? Are you using in-game world names, making up your own, or using real life places? How does all of that impact the story line? Are they a small town person or a city person? Go in depth thinking about all these questions. I’ll include a list of these questions for you to answer. You don’t have to share these with me! It’s simply for you to plan things out on your own. Again, you don’t have to have everything planned out. Nothing has to be permanent. Watching characters grow and their environment change is entertaining. Just know where you want to start at least. Playing the game can help give you some inspo too! The sims have a habit of being pretty messy on their own. Once you figure out what story you want to tell, you’re ready to move forward. 

*Like I mentioned previously, Lykaia is essentially the cinematic version of my gameplay save. The stories I told myself when playing their household, I am now telling to you. However, over the course of making the show for the last few months it’s really grown and developed. With the addition of characters like Savannah and Owen, to developing a thoughtful storyline for Rory, all of that has come as I’ve worked on the show. I’ve always had a thing for storytelling growing up. Won young authors competitions all throughout my schooling, but never did much with it in adulthood until now. When I say I take the time out to really develop the cast, I do. Lykaia takes place in several worlds. I even develop those out too. I think about the culture there. How close they are to other worlds. All of that really helps build a deep lore for your series that your audience and yourself will enjoy. 

As for making the cast, I won’t go in depth about actually making your characters in CAS. That process is pretty straight-forward and solely up to you. Make your cast look however you want them to. Use cc, make the cast with vanilla TS4, it’s up to you. I can’t offer much advice about that. It’s a pretty personal process. (Personal as in, you do what you wanna do lol. Not in a ‘I don’t wanna share my process’ type of way.) 

The next step after that is world building. This part should be a lot more simple if you’ve planned out your story. I mean literally world building. If you want a really unique looking series, it’s time to start building babe. Build your own lots, edit the worlds, do it all. I mean really go in! You can use inspo from Pinterest to help. I do that often. Check out the world building inspo for Lykaia here. On occasion I’ll use a build made by the community, but for the most part I make my own. It makes you feel like you’re actually immersed in the world of Lykaia. It’s a different San Sequoia, a different Copperdale, etc. It’s important to make your worlds your own. Get an idea of street layouts and everything. Try to envision the world your characters live in. “But there’s only so much you can do with TS4!” I actually disagree (Well, since discovering these mods.) and there’s a few mods that really help drive that home. These are the most pivotal, but there’s a variety of other ones that are helpful too! Like the Better Build/Buy mod and even CAW by TwistedMexi but it isn’t out yet. Still in development. 

The TOOL Mod by TwistedMexi. The TOOL mod allows you to take objects off a lot, but that’s not all you can do. Rotate, duplicate, scale objects and more. If you ever wonder why my game looks different from the EA base worlds, it’s because I edit all of them. Add more trees, add more deco buildings, add more debug objects, etc. World customization is essential. However, it is a very tedious process. Editing San Sequoia for S2 of Lykaia took me about a week in total. Primarily because I’m still learning how to use TOOL effectively, but because I put a lot of details into my worlds. I add cars around. I use S4S to make hidden objects show up in-game. It’s a long process, but having a world that’s really unique is so rewarding. Sure, we all have access to the same sandbox but we don’t all make the same things. That’s the best part about the community. The creativity is boundless. Have you seen that one person with an Ancient China savefile? Bonkers. So creative. You can do some crazy stuff with this game. Don’t be afraid to push it to its limits. 

The All Worlds are Clickable Mod by Awingedllama works so well in conjunction with the TOOL Mod. I’d say it’s almost necessary to have both. This mod does just what it says on the tin. It makes all worlds in TS4 clickable. No longer will you see that red circle with a line through it. You can walk anywhere. It also helps to place objects using the TOOL mod. Sometimes figuring out the grid is hard, it's easier to point and click. I highlight an object with TOOL and click wherever around the world I want to place it. Now, this will cause some routing issues with your sims. They’ll walk through stones, lakes, etc. Taking the mod out is an easy fix for this whenever you want to just play your game normally. I rarely play my game these days, but when I do I leave it in, it’s kinda funny to see Victor Feng running through the lake in San Sequoia. 

Emptied Newcrest & Willow Creek by Awingedllama is also a great mod if you want to take things a bit further. It gets rid of everything and I do mean everything. Think TS3 empty create-a-world. It does so by hiding certain objects, so don’t be surprised if they don’t show up in game for other worlds. It makes things look a bit wonky, but if you really wanna start from scratch, then this is a great way to do it. You can completely customize the look and layout of your world. Add more tropical vegetation or more tepid vegetation. It’s up to you. It does take an immense amount of work and I’d recommend following this tutorial to get the backdrops for the worlds in game. Also this tutorial if you’d like to add custom debug houses.

* Lykaia’s world is based on TS4 worlds, but with real life influences. Copperdale is meant to give that east coast small town vibe. Heavily wooded areas that experience a lot of rain. (Just because I love really gloomy weather irl.) It also makes doing ambience easier. The sound of rain is easy to throw in. San Sequoia is meant to be like San Francisco. Del Sol too. I usually just go in and add more trees and vegetation. Place more cars and deco people to make the worlds feel more full. I also add in other little objects that are specific to the series. More places to sit. Just to overall make the worlds feel more lived in. TS4 can feel like a ghost town at times. Green Haven is a new area within Lykaia that I am currently working on. It’s a full town I’ve built from scratch using the emptied Newcrest and Willow Creek mod. Inspo for it is on my pinterest. It is supposed to mimic small towns in upper Cali. 

In the next session we'll start talking about filming, sets, lighting, etc. If you ever have any questions, just send me an ask!

[my-mt-heart]

What really confuses me:

If there's a show that could rely solely in nostalgia it's Caryl's. Carol and Daryl's stories are the wires that cross the whole show. They were there from begging to end. Their relationship was there from begging to end. They have all the nostalgia in their favor. There could be at least 3 seasons of Caryl only dealing with past trauma, callbacks to iconic moments, and dialogues composed of memorable quotes. And yet there's so much more to tell. There is so much conflict/tension to explore and resolve.

Even more than TOWL (Rick and Michonne left TDW at some point and Richonne's relationship only started later in the show. And I think all that needed to be explored/resolved regarding them was done in the main show and in the season 1 of TOWL. There's not much conflict left)

A lot more than Dead City (Negan's most iconic moments are of when he harmed other people and he already got his redemption arc/flashbacks in TWD, so there's not a lot of trauma healing left. Meggie's most iconic moments are with her family, which is, besides her son, dead, so there's not a lot of connections nor motivation left (they can't rely on her son forever). Meggie also left at some point and her relationship with Negan only started in season 5, in a horrendous context that doesn't leave a lot of room for development (and she already forgave him in the main show). There's not much conflict left)

So what I don't understand is, with such gold material in their hands, how can they screw up so badly? Even if they were lazy, all the material was there in plain sight, they didn't have to dig it up.

Do you think I'm justified in thinking that even a child with some critical thinking could do a better job? 2. To what do you attribute this writing mess (from season 1 to season 2.6 spoilers)? Is it just plain bad writing or purposely screwing Carol/Caryl (and even in-character-Daryl)? 3. And what would they gain with failing so hard? 4. Do you think there's more investment in the other spinoffs? 5. Are you still holding on any hope they could do Caryl/Carol/Daryl justice? 6. And what would you do differently if it was you in command? 7. What's your favorite nostalgic moment you'd like to see revisited in the spinoff?

I could have sworn I posted this already, but apparently it's been in my drafts for over a month?? Anyways...

1. Yes.

2. Both. Zabel only cares about his original characters/original concept and Nicotero was put in charge during the strike

3. In their minds? Freedom to tell a story about men by men for men

4. I think AMC invests too much time trying to market every show to the built-in TWD fanbase as a whole and to new viewers (new= more dudebros) instead of accepting that each spinoff has its own core audience who connect with specific characters and growing those separate fanbases and then diversifying with viewers who can enjoy different elements without stepping on the core audience's toes.

5. They can try to slap a band-aid on things. Not sure they're motivated to do that and as long as Zabel is showrunning, pushing the friendship narrative, and shipbaiting, then there's no way Caryl/Carol/Daryl will get the storytelling they deserve.

6. In addition to giving Daryl and Carol their own character development and writing a compelling external plot (that treats the audience like they're intelligent), Caryl's relationship needs to be the emotional core of the show. We need to e x p l i c i t l y see them grow together as a romantic couple in ways that honor their shared history on the flagship show.

7. Well, the painful thing is there are so many nostalgic moments and story beats that were left unexplored between Caryl that I've been dying to see, but I don't even want Zabel to touch them because I think he'll just ruin them. He doesn't understand Caryl's story well enough to do it justice. Melissa needs more creative control.

[pearl484-blog]

Has Miraculous Lost its Innocence?

Just got an ask from @tallwriter asking if Miraculous has lost its innocence permenantly, but my inbox ate it. Sorry.

So, just to be clear, I'm not really sure I understand the question, so I'll answer it in a few different ways.

Will Miraculous Ladybug ever return to primarily catering towards its younger demograghic again? No, I don't think so. It seems pretty determined to interact with older fans and grow up with its audience. I doubt it's going to backtrack. Which is kinda a shame, because one of the things it seems determined to lose is its episodic nature in exchange for an arc. Unfortunately, the episodic nature is not the writer's strength, and arc plots are...difficult for these writers. Their inexperience in this type of writing shows. Their style of arc building how also lead to them not being able to contain their stories in small chunks anymore, which leads to me ...not enjoying them as much, along with them following this weird piece of writing advice to make whatever is the most painful thing to happen to the characters happen.

On a side note, for any writers out there, please do not follow this advice. For a stronger story with a more coherent theme, figure out what your theme is and try to come up with conflicts that might naturally arise from this, and would enhance your theme instead of distract from it. Think of it like cooking. No matter how tasty all the ingredients in your kitchen can be, you can't make them all, and some foods do not pair well. Figure out what you're working towards, warm and savory? Cool and refreshing? Healthy and lean? Then go towards that. A triple layer chocolate came next to grilled salmon and roasted mixed veggies is an ...odd choice that would raise some eye brows. Is Miraculous always going to have mature themes? Miraculous has always had themes of bullying and child abuse from the beginning. Part of why I liked this show was its realistic depiction of emotional abuse with Adrien, and its refusal to adhere to the trope that is the school bully somehow being the most popular girl at school. Considering how its aiming towards an older audience now, and it's never shied away from subverting comon trope expectations, I do not expect this to change.

However, that is not to say that I enjoy every trope subversion that MLB has done, nor do I think that it has always handled mature subjects very well, but I'll touch on that a bit more in my next section.

Have I Lost My Faith in Miraculous Ladybug Permenantly

Short answer: No. But it's going to need a lot of back bedaling and extremely good writing to make me invested in the series again.

Most of this is related to one unfortunate plot point, the mishandling of child abuse. Of course, that's not the only issue. I also do not like Lila. She is my least favorite character in the entire series. I do understand what the writing team is trying to do with her. They messed up with her character during the episode "Chameleon" and they are trying to fix that error. It is an admirable effort, but unfortunately their attempts to fix that issue have not rendered a villain that is likable or is clever and easy to hate. Unfortunately, each time I see her, I see the hand of the author every time she shows up. Everything about her is contrived, and I do not believe that she could have all these lies. Furthermore, the handling of Chloe in Seasons 4 and 5 also seemed unnaturally spiteful and petty. Perhaps, they were trying to backtrack and make the character someone fun to hate, but unfortunately, they could not. Each time she appeared, I could only sense ill intent from the author, and it was not a good look. The absolute final straw was when Chloe is revealed to have a learning disorder, and Marinette takes the time to say that it is unfair for Chloe to get accomodations for her disability because she's been taking steps to mask it by having Sabrina do her work for her. This does not make me dislike Chloe in the way the authors apparently thought I would.

However, the biggest flub of all is Adrien Agreste. He is abused. I could use an abuse checklist, and he'd hit most if not all the boxes. The show is still one of the most realistic decpictions of emotional abuse in the media and a good demonstration of abuse, why people might not recognize the abuse, why a victim might make excuses for their abuser, why a victim might not believe they are abused, and in season 5, there was an excellent depiction of the honeymoon/apology part of the cycle. I am honestly so shocked at how realistic and well portrayed Adrien's abuse is compared to the stereotypical abused woman who's got bruises and blaming it on walking into a door. BUT dear god. There is so much victim blaming towards Adrien. Adrien is too weak to stand up for himself. Adrien needs protecting from his own fragile emotions. Adrien can't know information. Adrien keeps fawning. He keeps making VERY concerning statements about himself, his feelings, his relationships to people, and no one realizes how fucked up it is. No one challenges him. The narrative, at several points, ends with his fucked up abuse logic being the end-point of the conflict. In order for Miraculous Ladybug to regain my faith in it, I need for people to challenge the fawning. I need for Adrien's unhealthy behavoirs and mindset to be challenged. I need for those behavoirs to be shown as wrong. And I need for the victim blaming to be shown as wrong. I need for people to understand what they did was wrong.

The senti-monster thing, by the way, DOES NOT HELP. It is not a good metaphor for abuse. Gabriel and Adrien was a good representation of a parent abusing their own child, now it's a representation of a creator abusing his creation. There is so little representation of a parent abusing their biological offspring. Why destroy it?

Did the authors not think the audience would be able to understand why Adrien obeys without magic? By making him controlled by an item, they undermined the whole abuse theme.

Adrien should be controlled by the man who raised him. The man he loved his whole life. The man who should've loved him. The man everyone told him loved him and knew what was best for him.

Adrien has been emotionally crushed his whole life. Told he's impulsive, too emotional, that he never makes good descisions, and the only way for him to be worthy of love is to be obedient, to be unresisting, to be perfect. He should think that molding himself to whatever people wants him to be is right, is expected, and his friends should challenge that. But they don't.

Each relationship Adrien has has been carved away besides Marinette and Plagg. Marinette will not help him. She cannot help him. Plagg is an abuse victim whose also internalized worldviews similiar to Adrien. He teaches him how to rebel. He understands these rules, but Plagg cannot acknowledge them as healthy.

Miraculous can restore my faith by re-aligning its abuse structure. Backpedaling and saying that abuse victims are not weak because they bend their knee. That sometimes they see obedience as the only option to survive, and that's okay. That victim blaming is not okay. That accomodation is good and necessary, and its wrong to be a jerk about it. That fawning is unhealthy. That molding yourself to what others want you to be is unhealthy. That judging your self-worth on how useful you are or how happy you make other people is not healthy.

I do not think it will do that. But it could. And the fandom has done that, so I will continue interacting with the fandom.

[harukamitsuki]

hey, its me again, another thing I implemented into my rewrite idea that I curious for your feedback on is the corruption of hpsc. The president in my au is sir nighteye, who went into politics after breaking uo with all might, which was after all might killed afo and was crippled from the fight(but thatsba story for another). He makes the perfect candidate in my opinion because his control freal nature fits that role to a T. Also the hpsc have changed tactics from after lady nagant. Now instead of kilking corrupt heroes, they simply prevent the public from knowing about the herpes misdeeds.

This comes into conflict with herpeton, who plans to expose corrupt heroes to the public, and show that they aren't the deities they make themselves out to be.

The commision get more desperate with trying to get rid of him after he exposes endeavor at the sports festival. From hiring mercenaries, creating the nomu(I made a post detailing my aus version of the nomu, so go check that out for some clarification), sending hawks to do him in multple times, and even partnering with the maestro(which backfires horribly as he turns on them and mind controls every hero and hero student into becoming his villain minions, which is my version of the my villain academia arc)

Speaking of hawks, my versiin of him is more corrupt than canon, instead of having him be brainwashed into thinking he's doing the right thing, he really is just doing this because he wants to live life on the top(after he had an awful childhood), no matter if people below him have to suffer for it.

So, any thoughts or questions?

The HPSC 100% needed to be more included in the story, considering they manage hero society as a whole, which was displayed to be toxic several times throughout, though never truly addressed.

Making them included in this way is great.

In canon, Nighteye was controlling from the start, believing his opinion truly mattered about All Might's successor, despite not being close to him at that point. He thought he was always right, and never admitted when he was wrong, even to himself.

Hiding the corruption from the public rather than killing corrupt heroes honestly makes more sense. Because the HPSC are obsessed with presenting hero society as perfect, and are unwilling to admit where they're faulty. It works especially since the maestro is a main antagonist and an example of a corrupt hero.

With Hawks, either way is fine. I enjoy the canon portrayal, but yours can be equally impactful to show how corruption runs in hero society, yet most are blind to it.

I'm of the mind that being selfish is perfectly fine, but not if it hurts innocent people. To Hawks, he would feel justified in his actions and ignore any guilt, or even excusing it with something like, 'There was no other choice,' despite having a variety. Which, again, can be impactful, as the audience are left to consider when looking out for yourself turns into selfishness.

All in all, I like your ideas. I read the post about the noumus, and it was... pretty cool. Especially if, as you implied, All Might really did kill All for One, meaning he wouldn't be able to create them. Plus, as you mentioned in that post, noumus don't feel important at all after a while, considering they were easily made and weren't treated with the horror they deserve, and having only two makes them feel like actual threats and significant.

The herpeton exposing all of this would make him a hero to us.

But, people hate the truth. Exposing corruption will make a lot of people like him, but it wouldn't just make the HPSC hate him - many others would too. We see this IRL a lot, with people becoming defensive or angry whenever someone exposes a shitbag, because they don't want to admit that they fell for it.

I'm sure you've already kept this in mind - I doubt you wouldn't have thought of it considering how much you've already thought about it.

Good luck with your writing endeavours, and thanks for the ask!

[elkian]

What I'm getting from the "let Marcille be conservative" and Netflix erasing Sokka's misogyny discussions is actually a piece of pretty helpful character building device.

I have a hard time letting characters mess up - let alone make mistakes that impact the story as a whole - and I think I'm starting to grok why.

A lot of my characters' flaws fall into Anime Badass Flaws range, and that's not in itself a bad thing, *but*: what I've also done is planed smooth some smaller flaws to satisfy an audience I don't even actually have yet. Kill the cop in your brain etc.

My characters don't just need Angsty Brooding On The Rooftop flaws, they need Regular People Flaws. I'm talking shit that makes people go 😬 and suck air between their teeth, like Marcille's old-fashioned views and Sokka's sexism.

I'm actually gonna veer and talk about ATLA's character writing and how crucial it is to the story because I totally missed it until I started thinking about this very specific thing.

Sokka being sexist is crucial to the story. It's how he pisses off Katara until she accidentally frees Aang, bringing him back to the timestream and kickstarting the entire show! Speaking of kickstarting the entire show, Aang's avoidance tendencies are what put him on ice in the first place. The story would be wildly different if he hadn't run away, and he might not have run away if the elders he'd once depended upon had made their concerns more accessible to him, instead of trying to control his life and take away his most important guardian.

Sokka absorbing feminism and changing his ways is his first, and possibly biggest character arc in the show. Sokka being sexist impacts his actions at Kyoshi Island. I have to wonder - the Kyoshi Warriors seemed to enjoy a certain level of popularity on their isolated home island. Sokka crashing in and disrespecting them might have lead them to realize that the outside world didn't have the same veneration and views as they held. This might have lead to Suki and her gang heading out into the Earth Kingdom, which has impact in several later episodes, to say the least. Suki's presence is the reason Sokka and Toph survive the finale.

Every character in the show has little human flaws like that - not just Epic Anime Flaws, but stuff that makes them a little bit unlikeable, just like real people have. (And being unlikeable makes them more likeable because they feel more complex and real in turn.) Everyone's flaws affect the story in some way - Zuko's flaws motivate an enormous chunk of the plot and have substantial impact on the Gaang well before he joins up.

Iroh is so likeable that it's easy to forget that he spent months sieging a city and presumably letting hundreds of soldiers to die, only to pull out when his son died. He's wise and friendly to Zuko and the Gaang, but he has done some pretty selfish stuff that has affected the course of history (and that's not even getting into his casual sexism). He could have been written as totally flippant, or Angstlord Extrordinaire, but instead he's a complex and hurting old man who still has the time and energy to try and help the people in his life.

What I'm realizing is that to really drive a plot, and make characters feel alive, is they gotta be a little Problematic. I shaved off Ray's chivalry bc it was problematic, not thinking about how that means that trait causes Problems, or in other words, generates conflict that drives a story. If I want my characters to feel complex and alive, I think they need to suck a little bit! I think sometimes you gotta let your character be a True Believer in Astrology, or is rude to the waitstaff, or will walk 2 miles rather than pay for a cab, or what have you! They gotta be a little dumb and messed up! Sure, this character has no self-esteem, but how does that affect others? How does it make them uncomfortable and change their actions, and not just in a platonically perfect way to 'fix' him?

It's pretty interesting to chew over implications like that - I've read and absorbed "let your characters have flaws" over and over, but only recently come to realize that means they need to suck a little bit. They need to be kind of uncool. They need to have traits that would make you wrinkle your nose at if they were real people. Etc.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Do you think Gabriel and Tomoe trying to force their kids together when they never seemed to care about that before season 5 was too much drama? @tallwriter

Yes.

Here's a little writing tip: if you want to keep your audience emotionally invested, make the drama build and try to keep most of it tied to the plot. Miraculous is really, really bad at this. It has no idea how to build the drama up to a solid, satisfying, logical conclusion. Instead, it tries to keep people invested through extremely cheap, pointless drama that goes nowhere. I'll use season five to explain.

Season five's conflict is that Gabriel has all of the miraculous and the heroes want the miraculous back. Season five ends with that happening. But does anything in the season actually lead to that ending?

Here's a list of all (or at least most) of the multi-episode conflicts introduced and arguably resolved in season five:

Nathalie no longer blindly supporting Gabriel

Gabriel getting cataclysmed and slowly dying

Nathalie slowly dying

The reverse crush drama

Kagami having a crush on Adrien (and Marinette?)

Lila's lies and team up with Chloe

Gabriel and Tomoe wanting their kids together

Felix having the peacock miraculous

Marinette being unable to say that she loves Adrien

The senti plot

Adrinette getting together

The only thing on that list that kind of mattered to the final was Gabriel getting cataclysmed because it meant that he could die without it feeling like suicide since he was already dying. Everything else on that list could be cut and the ending would not meaningfully change because there is no story arc for season five. Stuff just happens.

This is what I mean by cheap, pointless drama. Season five doesn't care about setting up a good, powerful ending. It just cares about keeping you invested and asking "what's going to happen next?"

The is not how epic stories are told. This is how soap operas are told. The entire draw of that genre is melodrama. In other words, it's for people who enjoy drama just for the sake of drama. People who don't care if the characters are mostly shitty, awful people or if plots get dropped mid-season or resolved in wacky ways because the audience is not here to fall in love with the characters or to hear an epic story. They're here for the drama and that's about it.

To be clear, there's nothing wrong with soap operas. It's a massively popular genre for a reason. I'm sure that there are even standout examples that have fantastic plots, but that's simple not a requirement for something to be a good soap opera any more than a good romance requires the main couple to be healthy. The problem with Miraculous having a soap opera structure is that - as far as I can tell - Miraculous is not trying to be a soap opera. It's trying to be a serious narrative (which is why you have the writers claiming things like Marinette and Gabriel are supposed to represent individual creative spirit versus corporate greed), but it's failing and failing hard.

A show that was succeeding at telling a good, logical plot would have had multi-episode conflicts like:

Chat Noir and Ladybug figuring out how the miraculous powers are being given to people

Chat Noir and Ladybug trying to figure out if Tomoe knew that her rings got hacked/assuming the Tsurugi tech is behind everything and somehow infuriating the company, likely with Kagami's help

Chat Noir and Ladybug learning the truth of the butterfly and peacock and dealing with that/going to the mansion with purpose

Felix, Chat Noir, and Ladybug playing a season long game of cat and mouse

You know, stuff that would actually lead to the ending of the season instead of Felix randomly telling Ladybug what she needs to know right before the final without her actually doing anything to make that happen. (But don't forget that she's smart and clever guys. I promise you that she's smart and clever! The writers totally know how to write a smart and clever character!)

Another thing you may have noticed is that most of those suggested plot points build on each other. This is how good stories work. You should be constantly resolving subplots and, in the process of the resolution, you introduce new subplots. For example, they figure out that the rings are how the akumas are getting their powers, which leads to the investigation of Tsurugi tech. Two separate subplots that naturally link together to allow for a logical story flow while keeping things interesting.

This was a big problem with season four, which introduced the Ladynoir conflict that was just kind of there, looming over the story, but not doing anything for 20-something episodes. For all of season five's flaws, at the very least the writers kept things interesting. They just didn't keep it interesting in particularly talented way. It's all bullshit melodrama and, while I truly have nothing against soap operas, I'm not a fan of the genre.

All of the above is why I don't have any faith in the next season of miraculous. They writers clearly cannot handle conflicts that last longer than an episode because literally nothing they introduced set up the final. It actually weakened the final because season five spent a lot of time making Gabriel worse than he's ever been, which is not how you setup a dramatic, last-minute change of heart.

To end on a positive note, the one thing that I will give the writers some credit for is the reverse crush BS. Rumor has it that this season was originally supposed to have The Reveal and, if that had happened right after all of the crush stuff, then it would have been more satisfying than a reveal without the reverse crush.

While Adrien has always been a Marinette fan and him eventually developing a crush feels logical, Ladybug has been really anti Ladynoir for a while now, so having her backtrack that stance pre-reveal would have strengthened the reveal and the relationship that follows. It still will even though Ladybug's Chat Noir crush is now nothing more than a brief rebound that was quickly forgotten. That doesn't change the fact that it happened which means that we now know that she's okay with her and Chat Noir being in a romantic relationship no matter his identity when it previously came across like she was completely opposed to the idea until she learned that it was Adrien under the mask, which was something I always viewed as a terrible writing choice, so I'm glad they backtracked it instead of trying to solve it post-reveal.