#they want to help him so very earnestly and hes so stuck in the narrative hes spun where they hate him and he hates them

[randomwriteronline]

"Pohatu!"

Huh.

Lewa sounds... Worried?

Something must have happened. Hopefully it wasn't a Makuta attack. It'd be weird if neither Krika nor Pohatu were there to fight with their siblings - although the Toa have no reason to believe their brother of Stone has any business with the Brotherhood beyond knocking their masks into the bog water with a roundhouse kick, so really there's nothing to worry about. If he mentions he met a Makuta they'll likely assume he simply came across one and was briefly busied with not being pummelled into protodermis hummus against the nearest tree.

He touches down bouncing once, twice, to slow his momentum before he comes too close to that coward's trap; his Le-brother lunges for him to wrap his arms tight around his neck in a nearly suffocating hug.

His own limbs encircle the other's back in a lukewarm embrace, half stunned, half puzzled.

Alright. Something has happened.

The question now is, frustratingly: what, exactly?

"Where have you been?" Onua, for once, is quicker than him and gets to ask first. He sounds almost... distraught.

Pohatu turns to him with the unpleasant feeling of being in the dark about something squirming familiarly around his heartlight: "Swamp?" he replies a little dumbly pointing behind himself. "There aren't that many places to be down here, I met a big bugger-"

"All these years?" Gali continues. She is not talking about the swamp. She is worried, heartbreakingly worried, just as much as her brothers. "What happened to you? Where were you?"

Kopaka says nothing, but he looks at him. His eyes seem guilty.

Pohatu looks back at him in earnest confusion.

"The Codrex," Tahu visibly struggles as he searches for the correct string of words in his choked up throat for a moment, torn between reaching out with his hand and holding back.

The fog clears instantly.

"You weren't in the Codrex," he tries. "You weren't with--"

Pohatu shoves Lewa off of himself with a stiff thoughtless movement: "Ah," he says. "Good."

The other five blank.

Something shifts in the world around them and tilts it all askew, paints the air with a strange imperceptible color that makes their heads light, their footing unstable, their eyes unfocused. Their Stone brother is the same - his silhouette has been changed by the adaptive armor but he looks the same, they recognize him, they know him, right? He is still their sibling, he is still the same, the exact same, in his usual body with his usual gaze and his usual voice, but then why - why does this Toa look nothing like him?

Tahu flinches when his shoulder is grasped.

"Do you remember the energy storm?" Pohatu asks, sounding the exact same and yet completely, impossibly, horribly different.

"What?"

"Do you remember the energy storm?"

"Pohatu, I - you - where, how did you-?"

"The energy storm, do you remember it?"

"You weren't with us, all this time- how did you get to-"

"ANSWER THE QUESTION!"

They recoil.

Pohatu doesn't shout like that. Pohatu doesn't speak like that, quick and far too straight to the point. Pohatu doesn't grind his fingers that hard into what little of a shoulder a piece of armor might expose. Pohatu doesn't stare that harshly. Pohatu isn't that furious.

"The energy storm!" he insists, snarling - Pohatu doesn't snarl - "Do you remember that!"

"Yes," Tahu spits out.

"Good!" and his tendons hurts when they are released.

Pohatu doesn't stand like that. Pohatu doesn't look at his siblings like that - with a growling scowl so sour it almost makes their stomachs twist. Pohatu doesn't look like Takanuva does since a shadow leech bit him, he doesn't look like the Shadow Matoran, he just looks like himself; but Pohatu doesn't act like that.

He gives them all a quick glance, looking for confirmation on their faces beyond the stunned concern. The storm's mention and his cold eyes seem to do the trick as he catches small affirmations.

"Call it a feeling or a hunch or what you will, but something tells me there's going be another one coming down soon," he tells them with that voice that is his own yet doesn't sound like him - to them, at least, because they had yet to hear this facet of it which he's allowed to stew silently with the rest of his bitter fury. "And it'll turn Karda Nui into a nice big open air common grave, if you five keep sitting around this chunk of metal waiting for our little siblings to get fried out of the air like Nui-Rama."

The information takes a moment to sink in.

He watches their eyes widen, understanding dawning within them. They know now as they knew then what an energy storm is, what it means, the destruction it brings.

They begin speaking, they ask him how he knows - he answers harshly, flippantly, relishing in how they wince back as if stung or bitten each time he responds to their kind tones with hisses and growls that are so deeply wrong to their audio receptors - they start planning, and he retains no information whatsoever of whatever Tahu starts prattling about (a strategy, of course, because he is the leader, and a leader makes strategies and plans escapes and runs away when the ship begins sinking) because he sees his foot shift, he sees his hand beckon the rest of them towards him, he sees him make his way toward the inside of the Codrex, and white hot rage bursts out of him in a shout that he can't hear himself.

He can only tell he's shouted because his body is tense as it leanse forward, his lungs are empty, and his disgustingly spineless siblings are shaken and terrified as they turn to him.

He's not letting them escape on their own this time.

"None of you will be doing anything until we get the Matoran out of here!" he roars again. "Especially getting into that thing!"

"It could hold answers - helpful tools," Onua speaks in his warm enveloping tone. A hand reaches out for him, to soothe him, to try and calm him, return him to his normal self--

He's swatted away sharply, so hard that his wrist hurts.

His brother glares venomously: "It doesn't," he decides snapping back at him, "You're just trying to escape again, aren't you?"

"Again?"

"Don't play dumb with me! You said you remembered!"

"But it wasn't--"

"We're doing it my way this time! And you'll better comply or upon the name of the Great Spirit I swear I'll crack that infernal machine open like a Pokawi egg if you try to set a single foot in it!"

"Pohatu!"

He has no idea who is speaking: the voices and masks and colors melt together, his head spins, the heat of his anger turns his thoughts into a tangled mess that starts wrapping tight around his lungs to squeeze every breath of air out of him; so he flies away, diving briefly into the swamp, terribly close to the water, before rising back up along one of the trees, towards the stalactites.

(Somewhere far away a chunk of stalagmite blows up, scaring the wits out of Bitil. As his heartlight flashes madly the Makuta curses the Toa of Stone under his breath.)

Someone calls for him.

He ignores them and continues flying.

He's so furious that he nearly crashes through the branches.

A sense of nausea builds up in his throat like vomit.

The voice reaches him, shouting his name almost right in his audio receptor: his arm is grasped, wrenched up, his body unbalanced and turned upside down. He twists in the air aimlessly for a few seconds before he manages to stabilize himself again and regain his bearings enough to search for whoever jumped him.

Gali floats slightly above him, her eyes disbelieving and hard behind her mask: "What is happening?" she demands to know.

Pohatu glares at her. Then, out of nowhere, his brows unfurrow, his face softens, he breaks into his easygoing smile: "Nothing," he blatantly lies with his playful tone and no intention of masking his rage nor his sarcasm behind it, "Nothing ever happens. Didn't you know that, sister? This afternoon we're going to have a tea party with the Makuta and wait for the energy storm to decide the air is a bit too brisk to come down this week, and then tomorrow we'll all attend a nice Kohlii match the Av-Matoran are setting up with the Piraka as the referees."

"Stop it!" she shouts. His little show unsettles her immensely, and the fact only makes him glad. "What's happening to you?"

He laughs: "Nothing, I told you," and he does a little loop to keep from shattering a fallen stalactite in half, "Nothing ever happens to me! Why would anything happen to me?"

It scares her even more. "I said stop it! You're not like this!"

Oh, he isn't?

He isn't like this?

If she knew. If only she knew.

She would hate him as much as he hates her again.

"What's wrong with you, brother?" she cries. She really does sound like she's going to sob. "What happened to you? What is making you act like this?"

Oh, but didn't she say she remembered?

Didn't they say they remembered?

Liars. Liars. Liars. The bile surges back to cover his eyes, to coat his mouth with its horrid taste. He can barely breathe.

"Nothing!"

"It can't be 'nothing'!"

"I said, it's nothing!"

"Pohatu, please!"

He thinks of driving his hand right through her heartlight.

Gali watches her brother stutter, suddenly frightened by something she cannot see nor hear not imagine, she watches him lose height for only a moment in which he seems to plummet into the bog below: before she can fly down to his rescue he spins up again, twirling away from her. She follows his trajectory until he lands, heavy and tired, on a sturdy enough branch.

He hears her touch down a few steps away from him much more gracefully. Keeping his eyes shut at least spares him from having to look at her.

He is a Toa. He has a code to follow. Even when it's hard.

Even when it would make it all so much simpler.

Even when it would be so deserved.

But he is a Toa.

Not a Bohrok.

Not a Rahkshi.

A Toa.

And he doesn't want to kill.

"Pohatu," she calls again, so gentle, so sweet. Her hand sits on his shoulder, pulls away slightly when he flinches at the contact, lays once more with an even lighter weight. "Brother, I'm begging you. Speak to me. Share what hurts you."

You know exactly what it is, sister.

All of you do, and you pretend otherwise.

You left me. You planned your escape and went through with it.

You left me to do the work of six Toa alone because you were too scared of dying like the Matoran you didn't care for.

It was your plan from the beginning, wasn't it? It must have been. Otherwise it makes no sense. I was never part of your escape either, was I now. Because I was never as good as any of you.

You left me. You left me, and you planned to leave me. You didn't tell me anything. You didn't care if I would have looked for you while I was dying. You didn't care if our little brothers would have called for you. You left us all to die and you planned for it. From the start.

You disgust me. You left me. You left me. You left me.

"I'm worried," he says, because that too is true.

Gali's arms embrace him kindly, pushing his head to lay on her shoulder. He'll let her believe the shiver that courses through him is out of a need for comfort instead of repulsion.

"We'll get them all to safety," she whispers. Her tone is soft, almost lulling him to sleep.

"When?" he asks. He feels so tired. "Is there even enough time?"

"There will be," his sister reassures him as her hand cradles his nape. "I promise they'll all be on their way to Metru Nui before the storm can start forming. We'll make sure of that. Me, our brothers, and you. United, it won't take long."

It wouldn't have taken long back then either, he thinks, but the bite in his thoughts is too weak to voice them. He is so tired. So exhausted from his anger. Gali is so comfortable. So kind.

It's a trick.

It's all a trick.

He has to remember that.

Anger helps him remember that.

His siblings hate him.

It's all a trick.

Just a trick.

The stuttering sound of a pair of rockets approching them has his sister turn slightly. Her grasp on him loosens, and he pries himself away from her hold despite some traitorous speck of his mind begging to be allowed to lean on her. It's a trick, he chastises it as he finally opens his eyes to see who's coming: just another dirty trick.

Lewa touches down almost next to them, jittery and anxious. He looks at Pohatu with a certain fear behind the goggles of his mask.

His brother replies to his frightened gaze with silence.

He and Gali speak - of what, Pohatu can't tell. He's so tired. When at last he forces himself to be mentally present to the conversation, it seems they have reached an agreement.

"I will reassure our brothers, then," she says. "We'll be there to help you before you know it."

"Heartthanks, Watersister," Lewa nods relieved.

They watch her disappear downwards again. So it seems they will be handling the first few evacuations on their own, and then the others will join them.

It's good to see they have a bigger sense of duty than they used to.

Or at least, that his rage scares them more than death.

Fingers grab him before he can lift off, in an unsteady grip: "Pohatu," his brother calls with a trembling voice.

When he turns to finally face him fully, Lewa looks at him no different than he did when he first arrived on the branch: frightened, concerned, jittering. He grasps his forearm with both hands, like he's afraid he'll slip away from him.

"We need to go," Pohatu tells him simply. He is so tired.

"You," his brother begins softly, but it takes him another moment to word his thoughts properly: "You... How... Are you?"

"Tired."

"Are there - offvoices, like the mindkraana, in--"

"I am just tired. Let's go."

He winces hard at the harsh words, but he holds onto him still: "Stonebrother - you were... You weren't with us. In..."

"I wasn't. Let's go."

"Wait - wait, please..."

He sighs. He feels so tired. So tired. Why is he so tired.

"If you weren't... If you..." Lewa struggles. He is deeply worried. For him. "Where... What... Happened, to you? During all this time?"

His legs ache and twitch to kick him off this blasted branch. His body screams at him to knee the Air Toa in the torso hard enough to cave his armor into his lungs.

But the building bitterness hemorrhaging from his every joint after he allowed his tightly compressed rage to blow out of him is eroding his strength the more poisonous it becomes instead of fueling him as it has so diligently done for the past one hundred thousand years, and he is so tired.

"Now isn't the time to talk about this," he snaps.

"But it will be?" his brother insists.

He is so, so, so tired.

"Later." he concedes. "Once all this is done."

"Heartpromise?"

Somehow, he manages to fake a convincing smile: "Heartpromise."

Lewa smiles back at him, heartlight a little lighter.

They lift off together.

[idleorbitals]

(ray) thoughts from of ep 4

goddamn this ep came out swinging. I think however I take this it's just going to be a ray breakdown so let's just have a little ray breakdown

we get so much characterization in that first scene and oh boy is it painful. ray in an empty bathtub in flashback, calling mew in the middle of what looks very much like an intentional od. except he's not quite there; this is desperate cry for help territory. he reaches out to mew and tells him explicitly where he is and implicitly what he is doing; he either hasn't taken anything yet or hasn't taken enough to be in physical danger.

(khaotung's fucking acting in this scene. jesus christ.)

the ray mew dynamic is suddenly entirely heartbreaking because we can see that ray has attached himself to mew in a way that mew doesn't reciprocate, not even to touch romantic feelings. when mew picks up ray's call he hears him sloppy and emotional and is immediately exasperated and pushing him away (are you drunk again? I'm not picking you up this time. you're talking nonsense)

when he realizes what's going on mew runs to the rescue because he does care about ray, and wants him safe. but it's clear that mew does not want to be ray's emergency contact here. he's going to do what he can to help out someone he loves, but he has a solid self-preservation drive and he is going to stick to his guns the same way we've seen him do with top so far. for the next two years ray will continue to cling to mew like a lifeline and mew will continue to push ray away as much as he thinks he can handle it.

a strength of this show is that it doesn't shy away from showing the reality and the nuance of this kind of situation. this dynamic plays out in emotionally abusive relationships on the regular and I've watched it close up and it rocks me in fiction not in the indulgently angsty way I love but in a pit-in-my-stomach way.

ray is putting mew in the impossible place of being his only reason to stay alive. this is heavyweight manipulative behavior, even though it's coming from a place of desperate pain and grief. maybe ray is repeating a pattern he learned young; maybe he's come here in the throes of his own self-destruction. whether intentionally or not, he's picked someone relatively invulnerable to this tactic, and so he only feels lonelier and more broken as it plays out. ray is looking for a savior in mew that mew refuses to be.

this dynamic gets an echo in the scene where ray kisses mew without consent. goddamn the narrative framing on this is well done. ray gets told off, both directly by mew and metatextually. he will return later to apologize earnestly for his behavior.

ray screws up over and over with mew. and we still hurt for him, because mew has the self-worth to stand up for himself, while ray loses no opportunity to add evidence to his reasons-I-am-a-terrible-person file.

meanwhile sand. we have seen already that the only thing standing between him and taking the psychic damage ray is dealing out everywhere is his quickly crumbling boundaries. he's stuck them so far, but only nominally. every time ray applies the na? na? he folds so fast it hurts to watch.

three minutes exactly post the above screenshots it has become a joke we share with the camera, in which ray says "hey, I saw a record store nearby. will you go there with me?" and we cut from one singular na directly to a closeup shot of sand's hands as he flips through a stack of records.

this scene also gives us ray trying to recreate the banter they had in their early interactions, in which sand threw insults at him and ray gave him bedroom eyes in response. ray names some insults sand has used in past and asks to be yelled at as punishment for bailing on him to pick mew up and without the na of doom sand just stares at him and thinks about what he's done.

sand doesn't want to throw insults at ray. sand is grasping at least one piece of ray's mo. he looks at ray and sees the lonely sadboi underneath, and he wants to save him.

unfortunately for sand but potentially fortunately for their long term prospects, as of yet ray is not looking to him for a savior the way he has with mew.

the end of this episode brings us back to ray's bathtub. the first time we were here ray was not using it as a bathtub. not to put too fine a point on it, but with no water in it, a bathtub shares some notable characteristics with a coffin.

this time, there is water in the bathtub and ray, again, and a glass of liquor, again, but no pills. this time, there is also no fully clothed mew to offer contrast to the physically and metaphorically naked ray. (mew, as it happens, is busy being physically and metaphorically naked in top's shower)

this time, ray is alone. but he's closing his fist significantly around the keychain that represents his relationship with mew, and looking significantly over at the poor boy shirt that represents his relationship with sand. the levels of analogy the of production team have wrung out of that singular t-shirt deserves an award

now we cut from the t-shirt Directly back to the record store, to sand saying "just give it a try. I think you might like it", which is definitely about the music and not a metaphor for anything, and putting headphones onto a ray who is gazing back at him like so:

as tender gentle acoustic music fills in raysand exchange longing glances and sand mouths /do you like it?/ and then has to ask again aloud, and ray affirms, and then has to take his headphones off to say it again more explicitly. no metaphors here, folks. we're talking about the song, and the song only.

then they tenderly and gently begin to take each other's hands.

I think I remember this scene from the lion king

so what's next? unfortunately we are only 1/3 of the way through this series, which means that raysand are still far away from any happy ending they may or may not be allowed. this episode suggests a possible bookend to ray's pining after mew, but those feelings don't change overnight, and sand is still forebodingly in the dark about them. also big question marks around ray's ability to approach reciprocal love in less toxic ways. also various addictions in play here. this could go wrong in so many ways I can't even guess the most likely! but boy am I along for the ride

(all ofts reflections)

[maxwell-grant]

May I please ask where you set the boundaries when constructing a crossover? (i.e. How far are you willing to bend characterisation of the setting a character's adventures take place in and of the individual characters themselves to make this crossover work? How many settings are you actually prepared to smush together before you feel you're losing more than you gain in this mix? and so forth).

I could be off the mark here, but this question sounds like you yourself got a very big idea planned but you are unsure of how far you can, or want to, push the concept. Two words of advice upfront: 1: Stop overthinking it, and 2: Run your ideas by people whose judgment you know and trust. I run some of my biggest and stupidest ideas by friends of mine and they help me make them less stupid or at least stupider but in a better way.

I mentioned in my post about potential Shadow crossovers that "boundaries" are not the priority to fret over so much as having a good working knowledge of the characters. And part of that is because a crossover, by design, already constitutes the breaking of boundaries. That's by default what a crossover does. You don't wanna test or break boundaries, then you picked the wrong kind of story.

A crossover is still a story like any other. Two characters meeting is not a story, it's a premise. You don't start a story by defining where it can't go, before you've even decided where you want to take it. Some boundaries are important, others aren't. Some boundaries are hard-coded and unbreakable, and others HAVE to be broken for the story to work, and the process of deciding which is which is easier when you have a clearer idea of what are the characters and what is the story you want to tell, and what you can and can't do with either. You gotta understand the properties you're working with, or at least, understand WHY you want to work with them and make this crossover happen in the first place.

For example, you could, very easily, write a crossover between The Shadow and The Spider, just by going through the motions. They are urban vigilantes with fairly similar designs who live in the same time period and fight crime with their supporting casts. I'm sure most writers offered the job wouldn't think twice of putting them together. But as someone who's read their stories quite extensively and who likes and obsesses over both characters, I would not cross over the two, because their stories and characters are fundamentally incompatible with each other in a more "serious" narrative, and you could not merge the two without seriously fraying one or the other.

It's a story that doesn't work, with characters that are not supposed to function together or in each other's narrative real estate, even with a character as malleable as The Shadow. This doesn't mean that it's impossible to write a good Shadow and Spider crossover, but to me, personally, these two are hard-line incompatible. That is, if it's a crossover based specifically on these two, because that changes if said crossover expands to more characters, as I'll get into.

Regarding the question:

How far are you willing to bend characterisation of the setting a character's adventures take place in and of the individual characters themselves to make this crossover work?

By default, any crossover is already going to have to create new settings from scratch based on relevant bits and pieces from the properties in question, so you do get more leeway for bending it.

But regarding characters, it's a question that cannot have a unified answer, because it's even more so dependant on a case-by-case basis. You could argue "only as much as necessary for the story to work", sure, but that's not really a good answer, because a story can do anything it's author wants to, and sometimes the story is not good to begin with, or the characters are just not made for being in the same narrative or even partaking in a crossover to begin with.

No amount of justifications for a story or characterization can excuse an unsatisfying result. Joe Yabuki and Guts are two of my favorite manga protagonists, but there would be no point to even attempting to put them together in the same story, because you'd have to twist either their narratives or their characters past the point of recognizability, which defeats the purpose of making a crossover to begin with.

Like, yeah, we've all heard the argument that Zack Snyder's Superman makes sense in the context of his movies, doing his own thing. Sure. But there's a reason any discussion of that character in the context of Superman in general comes prefaced with "Zack Snyder's" first, and why mainstream audiences who earnestly looked forward to Batman V Superman walked away feeling cheated, because, to borrow RLM terms here, they got "MurderMan vs Captain Hypocrite", and you can't even tell which is which in that description. You gotta give audiences at least a bit of what you promised them.

How many settings are you actually prepared to smush together before you feel you're losing more than you gain in this mix?

This one actually DOES depend on the story, because most stories that aren't just short narratives require multiple settings for it's scenes. Chances are your narrative will already be combining multiple settings, because setting is a word that can refer to "Korea during the Joseon dynasty", "spaceship traveling through lost nebulas" and "the McDonalds parking lot", as if they are the same thing. And in a way, when you look at a narrative's bones, they basically are.

To an extent, I think opening yourself up for a massive crossover of multiple properties of different characters and settings can, indeed, be a better choice than just going off purely by X meets Y. You start off by making it very clear to the audience that the boundaries are thin and you will be breaking them, and you use said framework to instead tell a myriad of stories, big and small. Stories that you couldn't really tell if you stuck to an existing framework or defined strongly the boundaries you can't cross. I'm gonna use Smash Bros as an example:

Smash Bros is arguably the biggest "official" crossover of all time, and it doesn't really have a "story" other than the basic framework that the series was built on, that these were representations of Nintendo icons dueling it out, and the few details that used to define this in the older days (like the characters being trophies and copies, and not the real deal) have been basically pushed aside. The most story you get in Smash nowadays is in the form of what the trailers showThe "point" of Smash was never really to tell a big, dramatic story with these characters. And maybe you really can't tell this kind of story, or a good story, with this many characters to juggle.

But they tried it once.

I'm sure most of you who do remember Brawl, as anything other than the blistering shame of the franchise that it's treated as these days, remember it mainly because of Subspace Emissary, which was this big, dramatic storyline where the end of the world was at stake and all the characters had to pull their weight to fight it. Subspace didn't have dialogue, it didn't have much story other than characters going from scene to scene while fighting, several of the characters either got nothing to do or were written poorly (mostly Wario), and none of this mattered at all, because Subspace, I'd argue, was the one and only time Smash Bros ever really recaptured that childhood feeling of smashing toys together that the franchise was built on.

Because if you remember being a kid smashing toys together, you remember not just doing it because you wanted Max Steel to kick Cobra Commander's butt. No, you did it because you wanted to tell a story where Max Steel got trapped in a rapidly filling water tank along with He-Man's Battle Cat while Cobra Commander kidnapped Max's girlfriend April O'Neil and bombed the city, and Max Steel had to talk Battle Cat into not eating him so they could together save the city and April from evil, and so they reconciled their differences and saved the day. Those things mattered to you. They were the stories you could tell with the resources you had in hand, sagas you did for the sheer fun of it, regardless of whether they were "good", you probably didn't even think of that. Why would you? You had bigger things to do.

And that's what Subspace did. It was big and dramatic and the world was at stake and all these heroes were coming together. Ness sacrificing himself to Wario so Lucas could have a chance to run away. Diddy Kong dragging along seasoned Star Fox pilots to rescue his buddy. Samus and Pikachu forming a bond. Peach stopping a deadly battle just by offering tea. ROB's story arc culminating in actual genocide, hell, ROB having a story arc to begin with. To a lot of people who played Brawl as one of their first games, this would have been their "introduction" to a lot of these characters in any sort of narrative, and to characters like ROB or Ice Climbers, this would have been the only chance they would ever get to be part of a great big dramatic narrative. Hell, Pit sure looked like he was on the same boat at the time, until Smash brought the Kid Icarus franchise back from death, and now Smash is where characters or properties get to stay relevant or at least on life support (Captain Falcon), or make glorious comebacks (King K.Rool). Brawl was what destroyed the idea of there being boundaries as to who could get in Smash or what kind of story could be told within it.

And people don't seem to recall this nowadays, but Brawl was when Smash exploded in fan content, specifically inspired by Subspace. This was the period of the Machinima craze and the fan mods galore and fan remixes and fan art and fan headcanons and fan films, and suddenly it hit people that, just because the games couldn't accomodate the stories they could tell with the premise, didn't mean that they couldn't start telling them on their own. We even got the formerly longest piece of English fiction off of it. The devotion Melee inspired in competitive players, Brawl did for artists and creators who got their start off in Smash fan content.

And because of it, suddenly a lot more people started writing stories with ROB and Ice Climbers and Pit and Captain Falcon and so on than there would have ever been if it wasn't for Brawl and Subspace. Smash gave ROB a story the character likely would have never gotten otherwise. And if you don't grasp what I'm getting at because you still think that fan content is a long way from being "official" or at least respectable, I don't know what you're doing following someone who rants about pulp fiction all day.

The point I want to get across is, boundaries in a crossover are important, yes, they exist for a good reason, but the boundaries should be defined by the story and characters and whatnot, not the other way around. Boundaries in fiction exist to be crossed or tested, they exist to tell you where you can't go so you can try to do so anyway and either fly high or crash.

Sometimes, bending or twisting characters and settings can be both a grave sin, as well as the thing that allows them to survive. Sometimes there are rules that seem unbreakable until someone breaks them without trying. And sometimes, going big and stupid and carefree over-the-top is either the worst, or the best outcome. It's fiction, taking risks and having fun is part of it.

So I'm afraid I thankfully cannot give your question a universal answer.

[nyerus]

MDZS  vs.  The Untamed

Differences between “Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation” (Mó Dào Zǔ Shī - 魔道祖师) and its live drama adaptation “The Untamed” (Chén Qíng Lìng - 陈情令)

(If you want to skip right to the differences, please see below the cut!)

I’ve recently fallen into the MXTX fandom by crying through TGCF and I’ve been delighted to see that I’m not the only one who’s been newly inducted. I've been seeing so much of the live action adaptation of MDZS, i.e. CQL, on my dash, and I'm so happy about it. After watching it, I thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to make a post cataloging the differences between CQL and MDZS for those interested.  (ﾉ´ヮ`)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ The goal of this post is for two reasons: First, to help people who are totally new to MDZS and are starting out with CQL as their entry, and then reading the novel (or going to the donghua/manhua). This will hopefully help them get their bearings in regards to the fandom, so that they won't be confused when coming across certain content that isn't in the live drama. Second, this is to help folks who have already read the novel/etc to understand what's different in the live action, so when/if they choose to watch CQL, they aren't caught off-guard by any changes. (I won't get into the manhua/donghua in this post because it's already too long as it is.) Hopefully, this will also help bridge the gap between fans, so that we can have a fun and shared experienced over this incredible world brought to us by MXTX! This post is split into two distinct sections: one without any major spoilers, and one with spoilers. If you want to be as unspoiled as possible and just want to know the big differences between the novel and drama, please read only the first portion. The second //spoiler-filled// portion is divided into other major and minor differences, and is mainly intended for people who have experienced at least one version already. Additionally, if you are completely new to MDZS, there are things which may seem like spoilers to you, but happen in like the first page of the novel/in the summary itself (or in the first 10mins of the first episode), and will not be treated as such. I will do what I can to keep actual spoilers out of the first section….

Before jumping right into it though, I think it’s time to say that many of the differences in CQL are in large part due to the strict censorship laws that China has. Unfortunately, we just have to live with this fact. Thankfully for us, the creators of CQL have earnestly tried their best in keeping the major points and themes of MDZS in tact, and have really stuck to the spirit of the series. Kudos to them and the actors for their hard work!

SPOILER-FREE DIFFERENCES

There is no explicit romance between Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji in CQL. They are literally called soulmates right in the CQL summary, and there are very obvious romantic undertones to their relationship in the drama—but there is nothing explicit on-screen. Naturally, due to censorship. While the novel has the two in an intimate (and very explicit) relationship where they end up literally married, the show tones this down to something more subtle. It’s still pretty obvious that they’re in love though. (Especially in the 20-episode wangxian special edition.) Also, they always seem to be sharing a room with one bed….

The plot is modified for CQL. In the novel, the plot revolves around Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji following an aggrieved spirit as they uncover the truth of what’s going on. In CQL, this was changed from the dismembered arm of said spirit to a sword, but it serves virtually the same purpose as it does in the novel. The other real major difference with the plot is that something known as “Yin Iron” is what drives a majority of the past’s plot. It has its origins tied to demonic cultivation, which I will explain more below. It doesn’t drastically change the actual plot itself, but does change some motivations, etc. This is not present in the novel.

Wei Wuxian is not the founder of demonic cultivation in the drama. Yes I know this seems whack. After all, the original novel is literally called Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation/Founder of Diabolism. But due to censorship laws, they had to change this. Wei Wuxian still uses demonic cultivation, and still invents many things (the compass, the spirit flags, the amulet, etc). He’s still shown as a prodigy—but demonic cultivation is a thing that’s been around long before the story takes place; it’s just that no one uses it except Wei Wuxian. The reason is the existence of the Yin Iron. It was something that was found and revered long ago, and is a source of dark power. Hence, why demonic cultivation already exists, but also why no one follows that path. The necromancy angle is also downplayed in CQL.

Wei Wuxian’s morality is somewhat different. Again, due to censorship restrictions. In the novel, Wei Wuxian is far more of a gray character who does some questionable things. He makes mistakes, there are things which are definitely his fault, and he has many things which he regrets. However in CQL, he is shown more as a victim of circumstance. He’s portrayed as a much more innocent character, who happens to be doing what’s right, and is just continually fucked over. He still does plenty of questionable things, but it’s less so than in the novel. In both versions, he is still Chaotic Good, just the novel emphasizes chaotic, and the drama emphasizes good. Also, CQL doesn’t really portray Wei Wuxian’s breakdown or deteriorating mental health before his death too deeply.

Wei Wuxian’s death in the beginning of the story is different. The novel is much more vague in this regard, and it is more drawn-out. I will return to this point later as well, in regards to spoilers. The live drama has a more… “peaceful” and quick type of death for Wei Wuxian, and given how it’s the very first scene that you see in the show, it may catch novel fans off guard. Still absolutely heart-wrenching though, especially when you see it play out in full later on.

The structure of the live drama’s narrative is different. While MDZS intersperses its main story in the present timeline with flashbacks (as do the donghua and manhua), CQL goes about it differently. After episode 2, CQL takes the viewer all the way to the past and goes through the entire timeline of events which happen leading up to Wei Wuxian’s death as seen in the first few scenes. From episode 3 to episode 33, you are firmly in the past only. Novel readers may find that this causes many things to be revealed quite early on. The change in structure is probably the biggest difference. From episode 33 and onwards, you are back to the present.

Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji’s relationship in the present timeline is different to start out with. The novel has Wei Wuxian first operating under the assumption that Lan Wangji doesn’t like him. This eventually turns around, and deepens into a romantic relationship between the two. CQL on the other hand, has present-timeline!Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji having a much more tender relationship from the moment they meet again.

Wei Wuxian’s appearance remains the same after he is resurrected in the drama. While in the novel and other adaptations, Wei Wuxian takes on the appearance of Mo Xuanyu (who happens to look similar to a younger him, luckily enough), this does not happen in the drama. Probably done for convenience’s sake. It is never properly explained other than the fact that along with the soul-summoning spell, Mo Xuanyu did some other things to ensure that Wei Wuxian returned to what looked like his old body. (Some body parts snatching might’ve been involved.) Thus, Wei Wuxian hides his identity by wearing a mask.

Everyone looks the same as they did when they were teenagers. Again, probably just for convenience’s sake. They spend a lot of time in the flashbacks so getting viewers used to one set of faces, and then changing everything would be jarring—and also expensive to swap out actors. So despite a 16 year gap, everyone looks the same with no aging. #cultivatingimmortality

The time gap between Wei Wuxian’s death and resurrection is slightly longer in the drama. It’s 16 years versus 13 years in the novel. Unsure of why the change, as it doesn’t change much apart from serving to make some of the kids older. Some kids’ ages are also slightly altered. It’s not a huge difference and it plays virtually no difference in plot. Also, I can’t confirm it, but everyone seems to start out older as well.

Xiao Xingchen, Song Lan, and Xue Yang are encountered much earlier in the drama. Before Wei Wuxian’s death, the three of them are encountered in Yueyang before the start of the Sunshot Campaign. The rest of their story plays out after Wei Wuxian’s resurrection.

Jiang Yanli, Wen Qing, and Wen Ning attend the classes at Cloud Recesses. This gives them a lot more screen time. Elaborated in spoilers below.

Wen Qing’s relationship with Wen Ruohan is more antagonistic from the start. Just like how Wei Wuxian is shown more as a victim of circumstance, so is Wen Qing (and by extension Wen Ning). Elaborated below.

The next section is spoiler-filled. It’s divided into two parts: major and minor differences. Turn back now if you don’t want serious spoilers for either CQL or MDZS!!!

SPOILER-FILLED MAJOR DIFFERENCES

After the dancing statue/Dafan Mountain incident — Wei Wuxian passed out, and wakes up in Cloud Recesses in Lan Wangji’s room. Both of them know™ already. Thus, Wei Wuxian doesn’t even try to pretend that he’s Mo Xuanyu in front of Lan Wangji, but he keeps up the appearance for other people until he’s figured out. This allows the two of them to have a very private relationship with each other.

Also lending to this, Wei Wuxian dies in a much different way in the drama, and dies knowing that Lan Wangji cares deeply about him. Thus why their relationship on his resurrection is so soft. He knew that Lan Wangji protected him and tried to save him until the very end, and is far more affectionate as a result.

Speaking of his death…. In CQL, Wei Wuxian chooses to basically swan dive off a cliff after seeing the horrors in front of him. It has a very lucid finality to it, and feels as though he has decided that only his death can bring peace, and so he falls back off a cliff—only to be caught momentarily by Lan Wangji. He eventually wrests himself from Lan Wangji’s grasp and falls to his death as Lan Wangji (and Jiang Cheng) watches in horror. The novel is far more vague and hints that he met a more gruesome end.

Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian essentially make up at the end of the drama—or at least end on decent terms by agreeing to put their past behind them and move on. Wei Wuxian wipes away a stray tear as Jiang Cheng cries in front of him in the temple. After everything is said and done, Jiang Cheng privately and quietly wishes Wei Wuxian well as he leaves with Lan Wangji.

Lan Xichen does not go into seclusion at the end of the drama. Despite his trauma, he’s relatively okay as compared to the novel. The drama doesn’t really comment on this aspect, to be honest.

In CQL, Jiang Yanli attends the classes at Cloud Recesses with her brothers. She is given extra interaction with Jin Zixuan during this. Yanli is in general given way more screen time in CQL. She is present during the destruction of Lotus Pier (she appears with Jiang Fengmian), and escapes with Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng to Yiling.

Similarly, Wen Ning and Wen Qing are also present for the classes at Cloud Recesses. This is where they first meet Wei Wuxian (and Jiang Cheng), instead of Wen Ning and Wei Wuxian meeting in Qishan later. This gives all of them a pre-existing relationship before the events at Lotus Pier. Jiang Cheng also harbors a tiny crush on Wen Qing for a little bit. #same

Wen Qing is handled with much more suspicion by Wen Ruohan and Wen Chao, and during the Sunshot Campaign, she is even locked up. She’s saved by Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng, but goes her separate way until Wei Wuxian encounters her again after becoming the Yiling Patriarch proper.

Mianmian is shown to be a part of the Jin sect in CQL, and is close to Jin Zixuan. She renounces her ties to Lanling Jin after everyone starts hating on Wei Wuxian.

Mianmian is also encountered in episode 1. She and her family replace the random farmer family they meet once they leave Gusu (for the second time) on their way to the Burial Mounds. The timing of this may also be different. This is because there is no real “epilogue” that takes 3 months later, like the final chapter of MDZS.

Mo Xuanyu was not ostracized for the same reasons as in the novel. In the novel, he’s also thought to be insane, but was thrown out because he supposedly “harassed” Meng Yao (i.e. had romantic feelings for him which were found out and he was driven out of Lanling). In CQL, he was thrown out for “harassing” Qin Su, but in actuality was only trying to reveal the truth about her husband, and was thrown out as an excuse to get rid of him before he became troublesome.

During the hunt in Phoenix Mountain, Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian have a heart-to-heart, and establish that they do, in fact, care for one another. (I’m pretty sure they use the word soulmate here, but the subs are like “lifelong confidante” lol.)

The origins of the bunnies is different in CQL, and is tied to Lan Yi—an ancestor of the Lan clan (the one who invented Cord Assassination). Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji find a cave in Gusu during their classmate days, which holds the spirit of Lan Yi. There, she reveals information about the Yin Iron and that she is guarding one piece of it. After all this, Wei Wuxian looks after the bunnies after taking them out of the cave, and as he leaves Cloud Recesses, he leaves them in the care of Lan Wangji.

The Gusu Lan sect is less rekt in CQL, as many of them are able to hide away in the aforementioned cave during the destruction of Cloud Recesses. Su She, then a disciple of Gusu Lan, betrays them by telling Wen Chao that the others are hiding in the cave. He’s summarily kicked out. In the novel, he’s the one that tries to rat out Mianmian when they’re facing the Tortoise of Slaughter. (He is still the one who casts the hundred holes spell on Jin Zixun.)

SPOILER-FILLED MINOR DIFFERENCES

In CQL, after his 33 lashes, Lan Wangji goes into forced seclusion for 3 years first. And then his 13 years of playing Inquiry start. Extra depressing, but it doesn’t change anything else.

The ghost baby that Wang LingJiao sees is replaced with a dismembered eye. Still gory. Don’t really know which one is worse…….. Her death is definitely less gory in CQL, though.

The Stygian Tiger Amulet was made of the strange weapon found in the Tortoise of Slaughter in both the novel and drama, but in CQL, said weapon was actually a fragment of the Yin Iron.

CQL shows a few scenes of Wei Wuxian when he first gets tossed into the Burial Mounds.

Lan Qiren is the head of the Gusu Lan sect, all the way through the story in CQL, including the end. Lan Xichen is never referred to as the sect leader.

Gusu Lan's rules are a little less strict in CQL. And co-ed classmates and cultivators seem to be the norm.

This post is certainly not 100% complete, as it’s just what I managed to pick up as I watched/read and remembered to note down. But if you have questions or comments, please reach out to me and I’ll do my best to answer! I hope this is as accurate as possible, but since I’m flying off memory...  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Take care, all! Feel free to drop into my DMs and scream with me!  ଘ(੭ˊᵕˋ)੭* ੈ✩‧₊˚

[bittysvalentines]

The Science of Crushes

From @17piesinseptember

To @jackzimmermemes

Happy (Bitty's) Valentine's!! I hope you have a fantastic day.

Justin/Tater, general rating, no archive warnings

Justin is in the middle of packing-up when a man rushes into the museum's lecture theatre, startling him. Thankfully, he was only holding a packet of balloons and not one of the more lethal accessories he uses in his science demonstration.

“Can I help you?” Justin asks, starting to gather the balloons now scattered over the table.

The man’s figure is shadowy. The stage lights are on but Justin switched off the audience lights after everyone left. The only thing Justin can discern is that the man is tall.

“Have I miss the show?” the guy asks. He has an accent that Justin thinks is some kind of Eastern European. It sparks something in his memory but he doesn’t know why.

“Yes, sorry. I just finished,” Justin tell the man.

The man says something in a foreign language. Justin doesn’t know exactly what but he’s certain it’s a swear word. 

“You have another today?” the man asks, walking toward him, every step bringing him more into the light. Not only is he tall, but he’s broad as well.

“No. Sorry,” Justin apologises, still gathering balloons. “I’ve got two tomorrow though. One at eleven and the other…”

Justin trails off as the man comes fully into the light and Justin realises why the voice was familiar.

The man is Alexei Mashkov, former Falconers player and Justin’s celebrity crush all through college.

Seeing him in the flesh brings a flash of the old attraction back and Justin’s heart speeds up despite him being fifteen years out of college and not having watched a game in years.

"The other?" Alexei prompts.

"At two."

"Okay. Will remember."

Alexei turns and walks out before Justin can quite process that he was in the presence of Alexei Mashkov.

-

True to his word, Alexei turns up to Justin’s 2pm show the next day. 

Sure, Alexei asked Justin about his show times, but Justin didn’t really expect the man to turn up. Which adult comes two days in a row to the same kid-centric science and technology museum? 

Justin deals with Alexei's presence by trying to ignore him and stick to his script. It doesn’t work. Alexei is the odd one out in the audience, not only because of his height and his fame (and Justin’s rekindled college-days attraction), but because he sits and takes notes during the whole show.

After the big finale with the liquid nitrogen and a balloon, the room clears quickly. Except for one person.

Justin swallows, throat dry, as Alexei approaches with the notebook in his hands.

Justin should have a better grasp on his hormones after having lived with them for 37 years. He apparently doesn’t.

“No kid?” Justin asks, because of the not-having-a-grasp-on-his-hormones thing, and it seemed better than blurting out that he used to have a poster of Alexei in his college dorm.

Alexei frowns, but responds. “I don’t have children.”

Justin’s stomach twists in embarrassment. “Sorry. I wasn’t asking that. That’s unprofessional. I mean, no kid here with you?” Justin isn’t making things better. He decides biting his tongue is the solution.

“Ah.” Alexei’s expression smooths out and he shakes his head. “Is no kid. Just me.”

“You came to the kids’ science show by yourself?” 

Will biting his tongue was unsuccessful. He’ll have to try something else.

“Yes. I come to learn.” Alexei holds the notebook up. “Then can go back and tell niece about show.”

“That’s sweet,” Justin tells Alexei, while his brain is flipping out to see Alexei’s sweet side up close. It was always part of the narrative during his time in the NHL; ferocious on the ice and a big teddy bear off it.

“Thank you. She meant to be here but a few days ago, she fall badly,” Alexei explains. “Now can’t walk while healing.”

“That’s rough,” Justin empathises, surprised Alexei is still standing here engaging him in an actual conversation.

"Yes. Spending holidays in hospital not fun."

“Which hospital is your niece at? If you don't mind me asking."

"Royal Far West."

Justin nods. "I know it. I did a rotation there when I was in med school."

Alexei looks at the table covered with Justin's props. "You have gone to med school?"

Justin laughs at the look on Alexei's face. "Yeah. Burnt out after ten years though. It's intense."

"Intense. I understand this."

Alexei looks down (down!) at him and Justin feels like he's back in college. No, even worse. In high school. 

Alexei holds his hand out to Justin. "I'm Alexei."

Justin catches himself from replying 'I know', finally on top (somewhat) of his hormones. "Doctor Justin Oluransi."

Alexei’s hand is rough and warm. And large. 

"Doctor Oluransi." He smiles at Justin.

"Justin is fine,” Justin replies as a shiver runs through him at the way Alexei shapes his name. Maybe his college crush isn't as in the past as he thought. 

Not knowing how to act on that, but trying to extend his time in Alexei’s orbit, Justin makes a suggestion. "Look. If your niece is stuck in a hospital bed, I can get in touch with the hospital and arrange to do a show there."

Alexei’s eyebrows raise. "You can?"

"Sure. I've done it before. We have a partnership with them."

"You are a saint,” Alexei says earnestly.

Justin flushes. "Let's see if the hospital approves it before declaring my sainthood."

Alexei throws his head back and laughs. Justin’s stomach feels fluttery and he subtly pinches his leg. Yep. It’s real. Alexei is laughing at something he said.

-

The hospital is more than happy for Justin to come and do an abridged version of one of his presentations. Then Justin is stuck with how he passes that information on to Alexei. The hospital could have done it for him but he wanted to speak to Alexei again. Thankfully, he's on good terms with a lot of the staff still, and when he explains the situation he's pointed in the right direction.

He finds Alexei's niece in a private room already crammed full of flowers and get well cards. If he didn't know after some late night googling that Alexei was childless and single (not that he's focusing on the second part) he would've assumed they were father and daughter. She has his exact colouring.

Alexei is thankfully in the room and chatting to his niece whose entire left leg up to mid-thigh is covered in plaster. Justin at least knows the language is Russian now, even if he still doesn't understand a single word.

The girl spots him first and says something to Alexei that puts a blush on his cheeks.

"Doctor Oluransi!" Alexei unfolds himself from the chair and comes over to shake Justin's hand. Justin's still not over how towering his height is. It's so rare anyone is taller than Justin. All the man has done is say hello and Justin's already got jelly legs.

"I don't have to do my presentation in Russian, do I?" Justin jokes, holding onto Alexei's hand too long.

"No, no. Sandra first language is English."

"Uncle Alexei is just teaching me Russian for fun," Sandra explains.

Justin turns to her, hoping he appears casual and not flustered because Alexei's now holding his shoulder. "For fun, huh."

Sandra nods. "Yep."

"I get it. I used to try to memorise the periodic table," Justin tells her.

"Already done that," she grins.

"Already--" Justin looks at Alexei who nods at the declaration. The pride for his niece is clear.

Justin must hold Alexei's gaze too long because Sandra clears her throat to get their attention.

"Uncle Alexei, can you get me a coke please?"

"Yes. Of course." Alexei turns to Justin. "You come also?"

"Actually," Sandra interrupts. "Can I ask you some science questions, Doctor Oluransi? Please?" She asks so innocently Justin gets the feeling there's an ulterior motive.

"Well, uh, I guess if it's okay with Alexei?"

Justin can't believe he just used Alexei's name like they're close enough to be on first name terms. He pinches himself. Yep. He really did that.

"Is okay,” Alexei confirms immediately. “I trust you. Plus, am very bad remembering facts, even after writing down. You will do better."

Alexei leaves them alone and Justin takes the seat by Sandra's bed. "What do you want to know?"

"Do you like my uncle?"

So much for Justin appearing casual. "That is not a science question."

"You're a scientist, so it half is,” Sandra points out.

Sandra's intelligence astounds him again. "I'd rather not discuss feelings I may or may not have for Alexei with you."

Sandra pouts. "Fine. Being in here is so boring though."

"So is my love life," Justin sighs. 

Realising it's maybe inappropriate to have shared that, he moves on quickly. "I think I can make it less boring, though. I came here to--"

"So you do like Uncle Alexei!" Sandra sits up straight and fist-pumps.

"No.”

“But you just said--”

“I was talking about you being bored. Not my love life."

"Oh." She slumps back against the pillows.

"Right. Well.” Justin worries he isn’t making a good impression with Sandra. Not that it’s something he should be worrying about; making a good impression with Alexei’s niece. 

“The hospital is letting me do a science show here on the weekend,” he tells Sandra.

Sandra's face lights up again. "That's so cool. Really?"

Alexei returns then with the coke. "What so cool?"

"Doctor Oluransi is doing a science show here on the weekend!"

"See?” Alexei crosses to them and places his hand on Justin’s shoulder. “You are like saint."

Justin's going to have to be more careful about letting his rekindled attraction show while Sandra's in the room. Thankfully, it’s impossible for her to see how fast his pulse is racing as Alexei’s fingers graze the skin above his collar.

“You forgot the straw,” Sandra pouts at her uncle.

“Ah. Sorry. Think I was distract.” 

Sandra sends Justin an indecipherable look at Alexei's words.

“I go get now.” 

Alexei shoots an apologetic smile at Justin. As soon as he’s out of the room, Sandra grins at Justin.

"You do like him," she declares, and takes a sip of her coke without waiting for the straw.

Justin doesn’t try and deny it this time.

-

Justin prepares for the show like he would any other, even though it’s at the hospital and even though he knows Alexei is going to be in the audience. He’s decided that even though he’s clearly still attracted to the man, there isn’t a future there and he shouldn’t spend time imagining one. 

Alexei goes with Sandra back to her room after the show. Justin tries not to feel upset by the fact, but even without the daydreaming, a part of him was hoping Alexei would come and talk to him after the show (that part of him may have gone so far as to make Justin dream of that very thing happening last night).

Telling himself it’s for the best, and he should let his interest in Alexei fade, Justin is totally blindsided when Alexei finds him in an elevator on his way out of the hospital.

“Ah-ha!” Alexei exclaims, stepping inside. “I find you!”

Alexei doesn’t press any of the floor buttons. The doors close and the elevator continues taking Justin down to the parking lot.

“You were looking for me?” Justin knows it’s not possible for his heart to flip over in his chest, but it feels like that’s what happens when Alexei nods.

“Of course I look for you,” Alexei tells him. “Need to say how amazing show was.”

Alexei’s eyes are on Justin. His dreams haven’t done them justice. They’re so warm, Justin feels his blood heating just from staring at them.

The moment is broken as the elevator opens and a mother and son enter. Alexei shuffles in closer to Justin to give them room. Goosebumps run up Justin’s arm when their elbows bump. He’s never found his elbow an erogenous zone but there’s a first time for everything.

The child stares at Alexei. Justin sees the moment he realises who he’s in the elevator with. The kid’s jaw drops and his eyes widen. Justin hopes his face wasn’t that transparent in his adoration when Alexei showed up at his show that first time. It mustn’t have been, otherwise Alexei would have run the other way.

“You’re Alexei Mashkov,” the child announces.

“Honey, don’t bother the man,” the mother tells her son.

“Is no problem,” Alexei smiles and crouches down in front of the kid. “You can call me Tater.”

The kid beams. “Can you sign my cast, Tater?” The child lifts his arm. His cast is already half covered with scribbles. Alexei adds his name.

“Thank you so much,” the mother says as they exit at the gift shop floor, leaving Justin and Alexei alone in the elevator again.

Justin is thoroughly charmed by Alexei’s interaction with the kid. The college crush he had on the man that flared up when Alexei showed up at his first show hasn’t gone away like Justin was imagining it would. Every interaction they have, Justin discovers more of Alexei. And it makes him want to know even more.

Justin doesn’t think he’s in a position to ask for that though, not from a man he’s only interacted with a handful of times. 

As soon as the doors shut, Alexei turns to Justin. Justin notices they aren’t standing as close anymore.

"Sorry,” Alexei apologises. Justin isn’t sure what for until he continues. “Happens a few time with me. Was hockey player in NHL for many years."

"I know,” Justin tells him.

Alexei blinks. "You know? You know who I am all times we talk?"

“I used to follow hockey," Justin admits.

Alexei shuffles on his feet, ending up closer to Justin. “Used to? Where we go wrong?” 

Alexei smiles and Justin laughs. He never thought he'd be teased by Alexei Mashkov. Maybe asking Alexei out isn’t the ridiculous fantasy he first thought. 

“You didn’t go wrong,” he assures Alexei. “I did a doctorate and that took most of my brainspace for 3 years. I never got back into it after that.”

“If you want to start again, I maybe get you tickets to a game?" Alexei suggests. "Falconers, of course.”

Justin's jaw drops. "Seriously?"

"Yes. Serious.” Alexei nods. He shuffles his weight again and ends up so close Justin can smell his deodorant. “You do so much for Sandra. You are great, smart, kind man."

Justin's insides melt. He knows it isn't possible, but he can’t think of another way to describe it.

“That would… That would--Yeah. Okay,” Justin stammers. “That's amazing, Alexei.”

“Okay." Alexei smiles. The right side of his mouth pulls up higher. Justin’s enamoured by it. 

"And I go with, then. Like date.”

Justin’s brain short-circuits. He’d only come around ten seconds ago to the possibility of asking Alexei out. Now Alexei is maybe asking him out?If twenty-year old Justin could see him now. 

“Like a date. Or a date?” Justin checks.

“Ah, I not want to pressure you.”

“I’m a grown man. I can say no if I want.”

“Are you say no?”

Justin is the one to move closer this time. “No way. I'm saying yes.”

[amwritingmeta]

dean said cas to stop being their nurse. what’s wrong in that? this is how people show their love - for protect and support someone you are loved. it’s like dean with his sam - yeah, they are more codependent but the same reason - take care, show love. and dean has nothing like "this is wrong". so why he told that to cas? he doesn’t need his help bc cas blundered? Or he doesn’t care at all? I can’t believe in that tbh

Hello, my dearest darlingest Anon!

I believe that you’re referring to the scene in 12x19 when Dean tells Cas off for acting like their “babysitter”? 

This comment comes off of Cas explaining his reasons for not contacting them when –>

a) he went off piste and decided to bring Kelly to Heaven instead of shooting her with the stolen borrowed Colt

b) his truck broke down and he knew he needed help

And Cas’ foremost reason for not contacting them is that he believes Kelly and the baby - because they’re an extension of Lucifer being free from the cage - are his responsibility. 

A sentiment he’s stated more than once throughout S12. 

A sentiment rooted in his need to feel useful and to have a purpose. 

This need, in turn, rooted in the fact that, at this moment in time, he’s never felt more lost or uncertain of where he truly belongs, feeling like he doesn’t belong anywhere, like he doesn’t even know who he is anymore, loving Dean with all his heart and feeling no hope that the love will ever be returned he’s drifting, without any anchor whatsoever.

Of course, Dean then doesn’t help the situation when he negates Cas’ biggest motivator and dismisses it as though it’s really all in Cas’ own head: protecting them isn’t his job.

Dean is right, of course. It was never his job. He made them his job, he interpreted his orders to protect them in a way that would justify staying close to them and I think that’s underlined in 7x21 when he tries to stop Hester from hurting the brothers by saying “Please, they’re the ones we were put here to protect” and Hester replies simply with a “No, Castiel”. 

And that’s the truth.

Cas has extended his order to bring Dean out of hell and secure Michael’s vessel to protecting the brothers against all odds. Because he’s falling in love with Dean, and he can’t make sense of that emotion.

This has made him dress himself as the hammer and assign all his worth to that role because, again and again, it’s underlined the brothers only call on him for angelic assistance. The problem is, again, miscommunication, because throughout S12 Sam finally, and very vocally and earnestly, contradicts Cas every single time he says that Lucifer is his responsibility. Sam is the one to repeatedly tell Cas he’s wrong in S12, they’re in it together, and he should come to them for help.

But Sam isn’t the person who needs to say it.

Dean agrees, but he agrees in vague ways, like being pissed off - which to our literal angel is the same as negating Sam’s words or being nothing but hyper critical of Cas’ opinion, which for our as-stubborn-as-Dean-Winchester Cas more or less means he’ll just dig his heels down even deeper - or Dean agrees by saying stuff that only underline Cas’ belief that Dean can’t possibly see any real worth in him. That he’s a liability. And expendable. Only useful for the powers he brings to the fight.

This is in 12x23, of course, where they’re together, TFW about to assemble, but instead of there being a sense of team spirit, Cas gets a Dean who barges in, takes over and then asks if he still has the immense power that killed a Prince of Hell.

In 12x19 they finally begin to open up the doors to open communication during the Mixtape Exchange, but that episode is titled The Future and I believe that cornerstone was placed there to show what they’re working towards. That scene is a beautiful study of body language because both of these actors are remarkably attuned to using it as a tool of expression. And that’s more or less the basis for the entire Destiel narrative because it’s so much in the subtext of how these two interact with each other. 

That’s how you build a will-they-won’t-they, btw. No matter the genders involved. There has to be a dance of long looks and glances when the other isn’t looking. There has to be stuff neither one says out loud. There HAS to be miscommunication because complete honesty takes away the obstacles and without obstacles there’s no character growth and there’s absolutely no fucking intrigue to following the progression of the love story.

But now I digress.

So if 12x19 gives a cornerstone to open communication, then why don’t they keep building on that? They are, and they will. Moments of misunderstanding - like this one in 12x23 where Dean is more or less hinging their survival on whether Cas still has the power up juices flowing through him (look at Cas’ face - it hurts him!) - are more or less essential at this juncture, and these misunderstandings stem from the fact that these two men care so much about what the other thinks of them that they can’t stand the thought of disappointing the other, or failing them in any way, neither understanding that how they feel the other can’t disappoint them or fail them no matter what they do is how BOTH OF THEM FEEL ABOUT EACH OTHER! 

(dance my pretties dance!)

There is all the love here, darling Anon, don’t you fret!

The reason Dean tells Cas that he isn’t their babysitter comes from Dean’s conviction that Cas still thinks of himself as their protector foremost, like he stated out loud and unequivocally in 7x21. That statement came as a horrified surprise to Dean back then, because that was Dean’s biggest fear, wasn’t it? That Cas was one of those angels that, when they try to care, it ends up breaking them apart? 

That’s how he views Cas’ choices and sacrifices by the end of S7: they’re breaking Cas apart and Cas made them because he cares.

The problem for Dean is that he’s wanted to humanise Cas - to make him CARE - almost from the moment their story began: giving him his nickname is just the beginning. Why did he do that? 

Because Dean Winchester is a control freak, plain and simple. 

I don’t believe it’s love at first sight with these two. It’s attraction at first sight for Dean (that I do believe), but Dean is out of his depth with Cas and he has an immediate need to bring him down to Earth. To make him feel like an equal. Possibly even an inferior.

Which is why, at least this is my interpretation of it, whenever he gets to put Cas in a tight spot doing human things - such as taking Cas to a den of iniquity - Dean is practically bouncing in his seat from having the upper hand completely and irrevocably.

S12, however, does a lot to tell us that much has changed since S7, including how the brothers view Cas and his choices and his sacrifices. 

In 12x10, after the whole Ishim incident, Sam tells Cas that Cas may have changed, but it’s for the better. And Dean voices support as well, telling Cas he’s not weak, like Ishim proclaimed him to be.

So for Cas, nine episodes later, to come off as though he still considers himself the brothers angelic protector rubs Dean the wrong way. He doesn’t want Cas to feel like he has to protect them because he’s not their defender, he’s not the hammer: he’s their friend and brother in arms and worth a helluva lot more than whatever responsibility he feels like placing on his own two shoulders. 

(Also Dean is completely in love with him and, I’d argue, is subtly terrified that Cas still, after all these years, is so much an angel that whatever that “I love you” in 12x12 was, it sure as hell didn’t mean Cas is in love with him, because Dean’s still nothing more than a mere ward for Cas, someone he feels responsible for, someone he’s formed a bond with, sure, but a bond that never could be romantic based on how they’re from two so completely different worlds - hence the mixtape from Dean, as he tries to over-subtly test the waters)

So, you see? Dean telling Cas off for acting like he protects them by excluding them comes from a place of love.

“You, me, and Sam - we’re just better together.”

Dean tries to convince Cas with this statement, but the Mixtape Exchange is a Destiel scene, and Cas is done now, after having said “I love you” out loud, no matter how vaguely, to pretend like he doesn’t want more. That’s why he gestures between him and Dean when he says “We?” and Dean ruins it when he says “Yes, we. You, me… and Sam.” Unable to give Cas more than his little finger and leaving Cas thinking that, after all is said and done, Dean Winchester does not love him back. And again, neither is stating the whole truth, nothing but the truth, so help them Chuck - dancing around each other for this fear of rejection, this fear that stems in the feeling that they’re really not worthy of the other’s love.

There is a complex web of emotion that these men are stuck in, and I, for one, cannot wait to watch it slowly detangle.

And Dean cares. Oh, he cares.

Looooooook at his faaaaaaaace! :)

xx

[robedisimo]

Deadpool from script to screen: what we were getting vs. what we got

Standing as we do a year after Fox’s Deadpool hitting theatre screens – with it having become one of the highest-grossing films of 2016 in the meantime – the time may be right to reflect on one topic I haven’t seen discussed as much as I’d have expected upon the film’s release: namely, how does the finished product stack against the script draft that had been leaked during the extended period of time the movie spent stuck in development limbo?

What follows is a brief account of what changed from the original script to the product we got on-screen, going over not just what changed but also why it changed. How does the final version stack up against what could have been?

LESS MONEY = LESS ACTION

Deadpool was not written to be a particularly cheap film, but in the end it was precisely that: with a production budget of $58 million, it’s by far the least expensive entry in the X-Men franchise, even cheaper than the original 2000 movie, which clocked in at $75 million (and a lot more when adjusted for inflation).

This, of course, because of the studio’s doubts about the film’s marketability given its questionable content and hard “R” rating. Since then, Deadpool’s success has opened the door to more R-rated superhero adaptations such as the now-opening Logan, which in turn runs on a $127 million budget.

In practical terms, a smaller budget meant a massive reduction of the film’s action side: the opening set piece on the freeway was originally bigger and almost twice as long, a lot more action was supposed to happen in the middle of the film, and the escalating climax was supposed to be a veritable cornucopia of bullets, explosions and sick fighing choreography...

... all of which was of course sabotaged by Wade forgetting his gun-packed duffel bag in the actual film – one of a few moments in which it’s kinda hard to tell whether badass action was sacrificed for the sake of comedy, or the comedy itself is there to cover for a lack of funds.

PASSING THE BECHPOOL TEST

The first thing that leaps to the eye while going through the script after having watched the finished product is the conspicuous absence of two characters that feature more-or-less prominently in the final draft: Negasonic Teenage Warhead – Colossus is the only X-Man appearing in the original script – and “Angel Dust”, Ajax’s super-strong henchwoman.

The inclusion of both these characters is easily explained by an understandable desire to add a couple more female roles to an otherwise heavily male-centric story – never mind that the proper movie doesn’t actually pass the Bechdel test, as no female character ultimately interacts with another – by throwing some variety into the mix, which is a commendable thought.

The most egregious product of this policy being the strange screen adaptation of the Negasonic character, who only shares the name with her psychic-powered comic counterpart: her power set in the film making more a gender-swapped version of Cannonball, if anything. Which brings us to...

A DAMPER ON SUPER-POWERED FUN

I think most comic book fans will agree with me that Deadpool is at his most entertaining when right in the middle of Marvel’s panoply of colourful characters, where his violent and irreverently trope-aware narrative style can shine all the brighter by stark contrast with other heroes’ more conventional streaks.

And yet the film was rather low on super-powered spectacle, even joking about how it “couldn’t afford another X-Man”. The original script, however, played at a higher level by giving prominent roles to a then-expunged trio of Ajax henchmen: Garrison Kane, a cyborg whose bionic arms turn into rocket launchers and flamethrowers; Sluggo, a colossal, superhumanly-strong brute; and Wyre, a mutant whose fingers produce inorganic filaments to whip or strangle his enemies. The Angel Dust character would eventually inherit Slug’s strength – as well as his role in the climactic Colossus scrap – and Wyre’s plot-crucial matchstick-chewing schtick.

Now, this ties into a strong impression left upon me by the Marvel/Netflix television franchise: namely, that comparatively lower-budget productions tend to have a very small pool of go-to clichés when it comes to depicting superhero action, revolving mostly around super-strength and explosions. The reason is simple: they’re both really cheap effects, as inhuman strength can be easily portrayed by means of lightweight, brittle props and attaching wires to any stuntman who’s meant to be tossed across a room. It’s no surprise, then, that Luke Cage, the upcoming Iron Fist and Jessica Jones all feature characters with stock super-strength, the latter with the addition of a villain who’s super power is just to... talk to people, something very cheap indeed.

And so we end up with complex, spectacular villains replaced by a routinely super-strong hench-girl and a teenager whose power is to blow herself up. The unexpected consequence of this choice is that our hero finds himself “challenged” by nothing but simple humans throughout the movie, which makes his triumphs entirely unimpressive. This is at its most evident in the actual film’s climax when compared to the original script’s third act, in which Deadpool has to defeat Kane – as well as an army of heavily-armed mercenaries – before getting to big-bad Ajax. It’s a long sequence in which Wade’s fighting prowess is highlighted at every turn, against insurmountable odds and super-human foes.

Conversely, what we got in the movie was Wade casually offing a handful of faceless normies and then going on to face Ajax, who – it bears saying – is clearly the least impressive of the only two antagonists in the movie... and even then not really managing to steal the win until he gets some accidental help. Not a particularly good show on his part, and not a particularly memorable action sequence, when all’s said and done.

Will this change in the sequel? The inclusion of characters such as Cable and Domino would suggest as much, as does director Tim Miller’s departure over “creative differences” concerning the studio’s unwillingness to keep the second film small and low-budget. Whether this will mean an improvement over the first instalment remains to be seen.

LESS OF A PSYCHO, LESS OF A HUMAN?

The way Deadpool is depicted varies a great deal from the first-draft script to the released product – in the script his disfigurement isn’t consistent with the comic design, as he’s described as horribly scarred but still retaining his hair, his scars being the result of the experimental surgery performed on him rather than outright mutation – but it’s arguably his inner portrayal that differs most from that original write-up, way more than his exterior.

This is exemplified in three moments throughout the script: first, a scrapped montage featuring Wade visiting increasingly-shady “alternative medicine” parlours, ultimately ending up in a fradulent psychic surgery shack in Mexico. Here he shares an earnestly empathetic moment with an elderly cancer patient, only to later murder the charlatan “doctor” by ripping his still-beating heart out.

Second, a brief scene in which he mercy-kills his fellow Ajax victim “Worm”, an entirely-unnamed character in the finished film whose fate is there mostly ignored. And lastly, a whole mid-movie montage revolving around Wade’s repeated and varied suicide attempts after escaping Ajax’s “workshop”, again scrapped from the final draft of the script.

In the actual movie, the latter montage is replaced by the one detailing Wade’s killing spree as he goes through Ajax’s contact list. All in all, the final script doesn’t back that far away from Deadpool’s violent, even sadistic nature, but it certainly focusses more on the lighthearted side of it than on any semblance of actual human pathos and emotion. Which leads us to my next point...

MORE SEX, LESS (MEANINGFUL) VIOLENCE

The final version of Deadpool is more a comedy than an action movie; the original script is indeed filled with jokes, but there’s no doubt that the version we got to see tipped the scales decidedly in the direction of laughter, and all clues point to the cast being largely responsible for that.

This brings us back to my previous mention of the recent break-up between director Tim Miller – who reportedly aimed for a “stylised”, small-scale sequel – and lead actor Ryan Reynolds, who on the other hand wanted a “raunchy comedy”... which, it’s reasonable to expect, is what we’ll ultimately get now that the man got his way.

The comedy in the film is similar to that of the original script, save for a couple adjustments: one, the script was more comic-oriented in its references, while the film includes way more nods to other superhero movies; two, the amount of sex jokes and general toilet humour is decidedly higher – in no small part, I’m sure, due to on-set improvisation on the cast’s part.

One joke that didn’t make it to the final draft is an entertainingly bizarre running gag revolving around Wade having chosen Amy Winehouse as his pick for the “Dead Pool” betting board, leading to a series of brief cut-away scenes throughout the movie in which the singer goes through all manners of ridiculous near-death accidents. This was obviously perceived as in too poor taste after the artist’s actual death before the film could start production.

In my review of the film I made no secret of my general unimpressed feeling towards the constant barrage of Seth Rogen-like scatological humour, but there’s absolutely no denying that it was likely an important factor in the movie’s commercial success, as well as a solid contribution to the cause of lending the product a distinct identity of its own.

CONCLUSIONS

Call it a case of sour grapes if you want, but all in all the version of the Deadpool movie that emerges from the original script is the superior one, at least where my personal taste is involved. The one we got to see is definitely recognisable as the same film, but there’s a good deal less of it in several departments.

It would’ve been interesting to see this never-produced “writer’s cut”, evidently axed due to the studio being too doubtful about the project’s commercial prospects to invest all the money the script begged for. You can read it over here or by putting a little effort into a simple Google search.

[rai-jin-andro-jin]

The only good thing about my retail job is is the queer people, like one of my department execs is gay (pretty sure he knows I'm queer, too, even if he doesn't know all the details) and yesterday I was in the back room of the dressing room looking for some clothes for an order, and the door of that room has a little curtain on it, and I left it only slightly ajar so he couldn't see I was in there, and suddenly he's outside that curtain having a very serious meeting with a few of his department workers, and I'm just sitting in there, in this little back room, not wanting to interrupt, pretty sure the clothes I'm looking for aren't in there anyway, waiting to leave, but trying not to seem like I'm eavesdropping on the meeting either. And when their talk is over, I step out from behind the curtain, and the exec is slightly startled, laughs, and goes, "omg coming out of the closet, I see! You're just like me!" And I'm like, "the perfect month for it, ahhhhh!" And I'm still sitting here now, feeling really warm and safe, because yes, thank you, I'm super queer, thanks for noticing; I'm one of the very few queer ppl on this entire staff, and having this kind of interaction makes me feel really seen, even tho I'm not totally out either. Just knowing that, when I'm ready, I could come out to him — that is everything.

And in the same day, a coworker of mine — she's trans and really supportive, and the only person I'm almost fully out to on most accounts, and she and I have talked about queer representation in media, and what it's like to be queer irl at work and online, so I feel really safe talking to her about stuff — she was asking me how I was doing, and I admitted to her that I was having a rough day, and an even worse day the day before, and she asked what had happened, genuinely wanting to know, so I was sitting there telling her how much I really want to write fiction professionally and have that sort of impact and work on projects like the movies and games that inspired me and made me feel amazing. And I had planned to apply for a really cool position as a game narrative writer on a game that seemed to be looking for queer voices, so I was so excited, and then the application closed before I got a chance, and I was really upset because I feel overwhelmed by this current job, and they scheduled me on overtime too, so I had even less time to focus on pursuing stuff like this. And I just felt and still feel really stuck. And she was so encouraging. She told me earnestly to keep chasing my dreams even though I had a pitfall the other day, and really made me feel so valued and seen and needed, all without ever having read a word of my fiction, fandom-inspired or original. She was right with me, even to the fanfic bits, and that meant so much to me because not many irl people are pro-fanfic. And it just made me feel really safe and seen. She told me to keep writing, really listened to my words, really heard me, and I felt so loved right then.

All that to say:

LGBT community. Real life community, not just online. Find them out in the world and stick with them. They will help you stay afloat.