#this is an out of character post because it required too much explanation lmao

[dadatello]

What is home like for Dadatello and the kids? How much does it look like one giant lab?

I'm not an environment artist and some of this may be subject to change, but it definitely looks a lot like a giant lab! After everything that happened, Donnie did not feel safe enough to go back to the sewers, so they've made their home in an abandoned corner of the Thunder Drone instead.

Picture-heavy explanation as well as extra notes under the cut:

Considering what the Thunder Drone looks like, along with its sheer size, it makes the perfect lab, as long as they're able to hide in plain sight. The mechanics behind this I've found inspiration for in the Portal environments, with moving arms, plating and high-tech mechanics making sure that anything suspicious is going to be hidden behind the walls when the three leave the lair.

At the same time, Donnie wants to give it a homely feel, much like the two lairs shown throughout the show and the movie, so the homely, yet workshop-like environment of the hackerspaces from Watch Dogs 2 come to mind when thinking about Donnie's lair.

He will also be bringing back the giant battleshell wheel, which is going to be housing twice (or thrice?) as many shells, and the many, many computer screens.

Some extra notes, some of which are things I haven't been able to draw:

-The upstairs houses their bedrooms and the bulk of their entertainment, so it is easier to hide.

-Donnie doesn't have the heart to cover up any graffiti, as it reminds him of Mikey. Instead, he works around it with neon lettering.

-Materials both big and small are recycled, such as old tech, abandoned cars and car parts, and he even somehow gets his hands on medical equipment. He does have a small medical wing dedicated to housing this kind of stuff, just in case.

-Screens EVERYWHERE. He has a wall dedicated to any screens he finds, a corner to workshop any new inventions, and a few central computers (backup for a backup for a backup) to power everything as well as provide internet and other such necessities.

-Despite everything being digitized, he's going to want to keep a cork-board and plenty of notebooks around to record current events. He records everything from the twins' progress while growing up to canon events on the timeline. He also has many, many copies of his schematics, as run-ins with the Purple Dragons and Kraang infestations have made him paranoid.

[syneilesis]

[fic] Coffee Break

Coffee Break

Love and Deepspace | Xavier (Shen Xinghui) x Main-Character!Reader | G | 1.2k words ao3 link

You buy Xavier a new coffee machine.

A/N: I am so in love with this man. Day 2 of the closed beta test and here I am writing fic lmao. God, I love Shen Xinghui so much. This fic is inspired by his Shimmering Sunlight story. Some spoilers about the main storyline and character-exclusive stories, though nothing too significant. Though I frequently refer to his CN name in my other posts, in this fic I use his EN version -- Xavier.

The box is light in your hands, but the salesperson assured you that weight does not equate to quality. Price, too—because although the Hunters Association is generous with their pay, you don't want to raise flags by taking missions incessantly. Tara's nose for intrigue, of course, is well-known among your circles.

It would be all the worse if Xavier gets in on the gossip too. (You'd have to thank the stars for the man's indifference to workplace drama—and to most in general. Xavier may be airheaded at times but when he's focused on something he is monstrously focused on it. It's impressive, and—well—cute.)

The recommended beans are secured inside your messenger bag. You don't call Xavier this time to give him a heads up. He had, a few days ago, granted you the privilege to enter his home whenever you like, his hand tracing the book spines on the shelf, all the while saying it. He wasn't looking at you, but his tone remained light, playful even, that it prompted you to tease him by pointing out that if he merely wanted an efficient alarm clock, he could just buy one of those state-of-the-art ones sold in major stores. That's when Xavier whirled around to look at you, mirth in his eyes but with a secretive, scheming tilt on his lips.

“I'm coming in,” you announce, regardless, by the door, pushing it in with one hand, and Xavier's voice floats across the hall.

“You're really taking advantage of this, huh.”

“Well, a wise man once said that one must seize every opportunity given their way.”

Xavier emerges from a room in all his cardigan-and-sweatpantsed glory, hair mussed enough to indicate that he's just risen from his bed.

“Good morning!” you chirp.

He glances at the clock—two in the afternoon—and eyes the box in your hands. The caution—and curiosity—is obvious in the lilt of his question. “What's that?”

“For you.”

He takes the proffered item and inspects like it'll explode at any moment. You sigh and retrieve it again, and he follows you when you make your way to the kitchen.

“I already have a coffee machine,” he says, confused, as you begin to clean the gift.

“And it brews bitter coffee.” You spare a glance at him to find that he's watching you. You tap the lid of the machine. “This is a more recent and an undeniably better model.”

“I don't recall asking you to buy one for me.”

“That's because you didn't.” There's a pause where you deliberate telling him your next sentence and facing him directly as you say it. You go for it, in the end. “It's a gift. This is a gift from me to you.”

It doesn't register to him at first—it's as if he's waiting for an explanation that requires the mention of Captain Jenna's orders. But after a blink and a shuffle, it clicks, his eyes widening and he's fully awake all of a sudden.

And when he responds, it seems urgent: “What's the occasion?”

You shake your head. “Nothing—or rather, it's the occasion for drinking good coffee.” The coffee beans make their appearance. “Go sit on the sofa or something while I work this thing out.”

Xavier chuckles. “What—now you're ordering me in my own home?”

“And making you good coffee!”

“You're a guest—even I know that it's rude to have the guest make food or drinks for the owner of the house.”

“It's fine! And besides, I'd like to test this out as soon as possible. Refund and exchange policy only lasts for seven days from the date of purchase. I'd want to know if this works just fine.”

Xavier attempts to protest a little more, but you hold firm. Once he trudges back to the living room, you concentrate on the coffee. The salesperson seemed trustworthy enough when pitching the product, and you really can't forget the time Xavier served you a cup of bitter coffee. Not even three sugar cubes could salvage that unholy concoction.

When it's done, the heavenly aroma wafting along your nose, you test a sip from your own mug. It's a success. Placing the mugs on a tray, you head to where Xavier is.

He's reading a book. Though 'reading' seems to be a stretch because his head bobs twice, his eyelids drooping, the edge of a nap threatening his posture.

“Xavier,” you call him, and his head snaps back to attention. You bite your lip to stave off a laugh. Sitting next to him on the sofa, you put the tray on the table and hand him his own cup. “Try this one.”

A sniff and a tentative sip. And then he hums in approval, now drinking it normally. You smile around the rim of your mug, your eyes falling on his book.

“This is good,” he comments, wearing a smile of his own when he turns to you. “Did you use another kind of coffee beans?”

“Yep. The salesman recommended me another one, and it was the right decision. By the way, why are you reading an instruction manual on building a claw machine?”

“It's nothing,” he says, swiping the item away. There's another book on the table—a collection of short stories—and he snatches that up instead. You recognize the title.

“Oh! I've read that before.”

“Is it good? I haven't read it yet.”

“Yes. I particularly loved the titular story. The suspense buildup was done skillfully and the payoff was perfect.”

“I see, then I look forward to starting it.”

Surprisingly, Xavier begins reading it then and there, occasionally sipping his coffee and turning the page. You, beside him, are minding your own cup, thoughts drifting here and there. Your next mission. New strategies in battle. Your next appointment with Dr. Zayne.

It's when a weight has plopped down your shoulder that you jolt out of your musings: Xavier falling asleep on your shoulder, mug empty, the coffee residues pooling at the bottom, book opened in the chapter of your favorite story.

“Xavier?” you murmur, careful not to startle him if he's truly asleep.

He doesn't stir—only burrows further into the crevice between your neck and shoulder, the puffs of his breath close and warm against your skin.

It would've been cruel to push him away, not when he looks comfortable. And besides, you're afforded an opportunity to study him—so you let him as he is.

From your angle, staring down at his sleeping face, you note of his eyelashes, long and thick and seemingly soft, slightly curved upwards, hovering over his smooth cheeks. They frame the blueness of his eyes very well. They make him even prettier under daylight. You're reminded of the time you and he strolled under the blooming peach blossoms, the pink backdrop highlighting the radiance of his presence, statuesque. He as sublime art itself, rivaling that of Rafayel's paintings—or better yet, surpassing them. And when he smiles—

Unbidden, heat crawls across your cheeks and settles there. Oh no. Oh, no no no.

Oh dear, this won't do.

You swallow, and turn away. Against your neck, Xavier sleeps on, unaware of your unfurling realizations. By the window, a familiar bird perches, twittering under the afternoon sun, a small but melodious background song.

[druidshollow]

HI HELLO WHO ARE ALL YOUR ITERATORS AND WHATS GOING ON HSHFKSKD . i want to be interested but my brain requires at least a simple explanation to understand things /silly /genq

also do you have any Slugs . any strange cats perhaps

OH LORDY LMAO.... right now im actually working on a doc with a simple timeline of events and all the comics in order buuut as for slugs yeah theres a few! this is a slugcat post >:)))

this is the vanisher (they/he), lovingly named shifting shades by phrases! their colony originally lived on top of adamant dune's can, but after the iterator begins becoming increasingly violent towards the slugcats their colony flees. but they are not furred or terribly well adapted to the cold, so they need to live atop or near iterator cans to escape the cold. in an attempt to save their family, the vanisher journeys over the mountains of the great divide to find a safer home for their colony. instead they find themself very much entangled in the corners' group's issues with rivers. oops! when they reach phrases the consuming (rivers' rot lizards purposed specifically for killing iterators) is already destroying glass incident, and phrases agrees to let the slugcats move into their city Bastion, while campaigning the slugcat to kill the consuming and save their little sister's life.

they manage to defeat the beast using the power of being very slimy and slippery, and on the way back to phrases' can they run into our next slugcat, the juggernaut (she/they), later named mighty compassion by phrases!

compassion is one of two slugcats purposed by eleven rivers for the purpose of delivering the consuming to his targets, the twins, and stealing their mass rarefaction cells to render them too weak to defend themselves. she was sent to glass incident and was Very much successful in her mission. on her way back to eleven rivers she runs into shifting shades, and at first the two quarrel over what to do with the cells. compassion wants to complete her mission and bring them to rivers but shades is very much "NO YOU SHOULD FEEL BAD GO GIVE THEM BACK. IM HEADING THAT WAY ANYWAYS. JUST COME WITH ME" compassion is convinced and they return to glass incident with shades, but glass asks them to instead bring the cells to phrases, whose cells had also been stolen. she reasoned that the damage had already been done and she was dying no matter what anyone did, but since phrases was unharmed they could still be saved if their power was returned. phrases is incredibly grateful and very touched by glass' sacrifice, and gifts compassion with her name as well as the mark of communication

after everything goes down and is done going down mighty compassion is welcomed into Bastion of Warmth by phrases and shades' colony

this is red/brave triumph (he/him), rivers' other slugcat and mighty compassion's brother. (he doesnt get a title name because he wouldnt be playable lol) he steals four falling phrases' rarefaction cells, originally i was going to have this be a mistake (went to the wrong iterator fucking ioops) but i think i'm going to have rivers do it intentionally so that phrases cant use their senior privilege to stop him and also because they were already meddling by sending shades to kill the consuming. not sure yet. havent decided yet. anyways he steals phrases' cells but when he is sent back out to release the consuming in rivers' other target no long nights, he abandons his mission, feeling dejected by rivers' increasing unfeeling nature and aggression towards him. he runs into his sister atop phrases (this is when phrases gives him the name brave triumph even tho he doesnt have mark and cant understand. they just love naming slugcats. i think he probably finds some way to gesture an apology and phrases feels quite moved by it) but he doesn't stay, feeling ashamed because when they were pups he was violent towards glass incident.

this is the eulogist (they/she), lovingly named fuzzling by glass incident, lmao. its a character trait of glass' that shes bad at naming things sdghsgd fuzzling finds their way into glass' chamber a short time before the consuming is released into her structure, when they are still just a pup. glass, a BIG lover of slugcats, takes the pup in and raises her. they grow very close. right before glass' collapse, she urges the pup to flee as to not get hurt, but still young and afraid fuzzling refuses to go. glass does her best to shield the slugpup through the fall and luckily she is mostly unscathed. glass however, wasnt so lucky. although she actually remained conscious after her collapse for some time, after some time the cold was too much for her systems to cope with and she passed away. she could feel this coming and wrote one last message for her brother no long nights in a pearl, urging fuzzling to bring it to him. fuzzling however is afraid and doesn't leave until they are fully grown. i have a lil comic of fuzzling returning from finding food to find glass dead. i cant remember if ive posted it but i dont think i have so im attaching it lmao

the message fuzzling brings no long nights includes a goodbye from glass, and a slideshow of her favourite memories of nights and fuzzling. she began saving these memories on the pearl as soon as she started losing them (massive :(((( ) so she could eventually give them to nights. fuzzling stays with him after delivering the pearl, and nights suspects that glass really sent the message so that him and the slugcat could be together, that glass wouldnt want either of them to be alone.

god thats fucking heavy. uhhhh the rest are all root's slugs i think!!!

these guys arent relevant until far after glass and rivers have collapsed, after the world as a whole is plunging into an ice age. feeling lonely, isolated, and afraid for the future, ten silver roots purposes the frequencer (they/them) to travel around and send out a sos message that basically said "DEAR VOID SOMEONE PLEASE MESSAGE ME BACK I AM SO LONELY AND SAD I DONT KNOW WHAT IM GONNA DO" and eventually it reached phrases, who was also desperately lonely and afraid, having lost half their siblings including their best friend. the two quickly become very close, and create the lovers, who are basically vr slugcats that they can tap into so they can play together and also hug they both just really wanted to hug eachother

[emilystheories]

I think you have some great theories but some require so much explanation to make it work and are buried in references and outside sources, we almost get away from what we know - SJM makes whatever lore she pulls from her own. Some are so complex and very specific to the way you analyze, we can't possibly expect SJM to have been on the same wavelength as you. Considering how often SJM retcons and contradicts herself in interviews, I just don't think she's putting in as much work as some fans do with some theories. Yes, she has plot twists and turns, but they aren't overly layered and she's not the best as creating two demensional villains either. She's also made some questionable writing decisions that so many fans never could've predicted. Like, I remember all the wild theories for KOA & ACOSF and none were remotely close to what she planned in terms of plot development aside from the obvious, Nessian as endgame. I think at best, the theories that do come to fruition are the simple ones even causal readers can pick up. I think you have some creative ideas, but I think we are expecting too much from SJM.I think she's a simple gal, who loves writing romance. Will you be disappointed if none of your theories come to be true? If none come true, I hope it doesn't stop you from expressing your thought and blogging, there's so many other fandoms who would appreciate you in their corner.

This is a valid point, so thank you for bringing it up!

I think first and foremost, it goes without saying that most SJM fan theories will (likely) be wrong in some capacity - my own included. I am definitely aware of this, which is why I am intentional with my wording (ie. I will never say "I figured it out!", or try and present my theories as canon facts). For me personally, theorising isn't about trying to be "right" (as that's pretty much impossible); instead, it's about pondering all the different possibilities that SJM could take in future books, and then sharing these possibilities within a community.

As for expecting too much from SJM - I am undecided. I do see where you are coming from, and I especially agree with KOA; a perfect example of this was Elide's character - SJM hinted several times that Elide had Blackbeak blood (which spurred on the creation of many incredible theories), but then it ultimately lead to nothing...? However, I also know that Merrill's hypothesis in ACOSF (about the 11 different dimensions, or as many as 26) is a direct reference to String Theory - and then the Harp, with the 26 strings, represents this. To me, this does indeed suggest that SJM is thinking about her worlds (and how they interact) beyond the surface level.

This is also why I often reference outside sources in my theories (such as mythology or folklore), because to me it is clear that SJM derives so much inspiration from these same sources. For example, Helion appears to be named after "Helios" (Greek god of the sun), and Thesan appears to be named after "Thesan" (Etruscan goddess of dawn). Knowing that SJM is connecting her characters in this way lends itself to questioning the other remaining characters - for example, why is Hunt named after Orion; a famous hunter in Greek mythology? Why is Mor named after The Morrigan; a famous war goddess/shapeshifter/banshee in Celtic mythology? Does it mean something? (Or, are you right, and SJM is just choosing names at random?)

So, I guess I can admit that I do have high expectations of SJM going forward, and that my theories reflect that. However, if SJM does indeed opt for more "basic" storylines in her future books (ie. much less of a crossover than we are anticipating), then it wouldn't be the first time that my theories have failed to account for that. In the past, I have actually posted theories for two well known TV/book series, and both went "viral" within those respective fandoms (I still remember when Reese Witherspoon posted a news article about my theory to her instagram story lmao). However, both times, the author went for a much more "obvious" ending, and as a result, I was on the receiving end of fandom backlash (that my thoughts were too "outlandish," or that my expectations were too high).

But, that's still part of the fun. Honestly, my one true goal is to write my own fantasy series - that way, I am free to include as many "outlandish" twists, turns, and ideas as I wish !! :)

[zenithgays]

contemplating what i should do if i ever write fic that ISN'T for feh (there's a couple fandoms i've like. Contemplated writing for, one of which i... technically have already? it's just stuff SO self-indulgent and requiring explanation that i'll never post lmao. it's also unfinished)

like. do i make another sideblog specifically for other fandoms or just use this one. i'll admit the idea of having to tag fandoms on this blog makes me wanna thrup, not sure i want that visibility. i guess in theory i could just. continue to Not tag for fandoms but it feels weird. like it's fine now because this is a single fandom blog but...

i know for a damn fact though that even posting other fandom stuff on this blog would not make me change my url or anything. my girlfriend chose this url for me and so it stays god damn it

anyway this is all hypothetical because i will probably never post any fic that isn't for feh because the only thing keeping me from not being ashamed of playing in my little sandbox is the knowledge most people in this fandom don't care too much about the characters i like. even if i'm generally pretty confident in my ability to write characters' voices AND my ability to analyze characters i'm like "oh nooooooo what if it turns out bad and people throw tomatoes at me" but i don't have to care about that w/ the gacha game lmao

[despondent-beauty]

I can't be bothered to change my response to fit your revised post because, frankly, it's basically the same thing minus the embarrassing ignorance of how to spell Occam's Razor. (Which sucks, because that was really funny, especially considering that it takes 5 seconds to search up XD)

Anyway...

You missed the point of my first post. You have no right to say that they're overanalyzing anything because that NECESSITATES that you're claiming to know what the 'right' amount of analysis is. Which, frankly, is impossible and entirely subjective, so you need to stop projecting that standard onto others.

What you DO have a right to say is 'I believe your conclusion is weak because there is an explanation that accounts for the same evidence but requires fewer contrivances given the information in the plot. For instance, when John says X, it's much more likely that he's joking than it being anything representative of his deeper character because the comment doesn't lead to any actions and, ultimately, could be deleted without changing the impact/meaning of the scene as a whole.'

Also, I like how you claim that it's not a criticism, but saying 'over-analyzing' is literally a comparative; there is such a thing as 'analyzing the correct amount' because the idea of 'over-analysis' cannot exist without there being a spectrum of under- to over-analysis. So, like, it MUST be criticism, because you're literally, by definition of the construction itself, saying 'you're analyzing too much.' (Again, in comparison to what precisely? What would you determine to be 'the right amount of analysis?')

It's just an empty, worthless, meaningless, pointless, meanspirited, stupid criticism that says more about your inability to voice the reasons why you disagree with someone than it says about their analysis/argument itself. 💀😂

I frankly don't give a damn about your intention. There's intention, logic, and emotion in communication, and you can't neglect ANY of those things. Your intention is communicated through your tone (emotion) and your diction (logic). In this case, your diction may be failing to communicate your intention if you TRULY believe that you're 'not criticizing.' I implore you to check your word choice and choose something that does not, on a very literal, logical level, REQUIRE that you be criticizing the other individual for reasons outlined above.

To be honest, entering into a discussion about this with someone who thinks that it's an okay/valid thing to say is kind of counterproductive, since you have to be a bit on the slow side to think that in the first place, which means that you probably won't grasp what I'm saying to begin with? But, like, meh? I find rambling about this personally satisfying regardless of your comprehension. Mostly because this phrase is such a trigger to me (see above reasons) and I fucking hate whenever anyone uses it.

PS: Telling someone to chill out is, like, one of the worst things to say to someone that you actually want to chill out. It's just aggressive and counterproductive. Legit 'woman, you are simply hysterical' vibes ngl. Have you never taken a communications class? Lmao.

PPS: Pleeeeeeaaase respond to this by saying 'you're over-analyzing' to prove my point.

👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎

I love when people over analyze characters and go over details with a fine tooth comb. Makes my lizard brain go eeeee

[mariaiscrafting]

ahhhh ty ty ty <3

ok, so I think that what makes Dream act this way (iykyk) is how dreamwastaken became so big so quickly. and by quick I mean fucking lightning speed.

he didn't have enough time to learn enough about cc etiquette, especially in these three aspects: influence, boundaries and fanbase/stans/whatever you call it. I'll try to explain it:

• Influence: Does he know the influence he has? Like, when he hears that he is the myct with the largest fanbase, does he really process that? I remember he talked about not being able to control all of his fanbase and there's bad apples everywhere -- which is true, and that only like 1% of his fanbase breaks his boundaries (that include sending hate for him, harassing, doxing, etc. yk, basic twitter culture lol) but, honey, with your big ass fanbase, 1% is still a lot of people. As a content creator you *have* to be aware of that.

let's take the hbomb situation. First off, as a streamer, it's you that set the mood of the stream. Even if he was only messing around with his pals, even if they did say to do not send hate to hbomb, dt dunking on him created a toxic environment, which caused his fans being toxic towards hbomb and you know what happens next. Hell, when this happened, I was watching Tapl and he was watching them and he was crying laughing over them screaming bc they were just. so loud and so aggressive that it was kinda ??? Sirs, this is literally a Minecraft Stream lmaooo

my point is, that was not the road that dreamwastaken, 21M fans, should've taken. he don't condone his fans actions but he knows his fans are diehard and will always be on his side, he should be more careful before stating negative opinions, especially if its towards another person.

• Boundaries and Fanbase: He posted a list of his boundaries a while ago, idk if you know or seen it (btw please george copy your bestie for the love of god <3) but I'm not talking about those boundaries, I'm talking about the basic boundaries between cc and viewer. boundaries that, in my opinion, should exist between cc and viewer. I get that Dream is an open person, an oversharing type of open person if I may add, but I think he should take a step back regardless. When I heard that he was taking a time from twitter, I genuinely got so glad, not because he couldn't start any drama then, but because it would do so so good for his mental health. I'm not even that fond of him, it's just that for me, any cc taking a break or outright leaving twitter is a win for me. I know how RSD is hard to deal and honestly letting shit out it's better but dream you have dt you have bbh so please don't make things worse online 😭 I know how good can be to feel validation from millions of people but. it's not a good idea, especially in the state that his fanbase is on rn (this topic is kinda sensitive to talk abt for me bc people be outright ableist and hide it as criticism like. say that shit's not helping his reputation and whatever without acting like he's fucking. manipulating his fanbase for being affected by his rsd💀 or, on the other hand, don't say that hes just being adhd🤪 when he's just being an asshole like damn that's a Him thing bro lol)

(omg it's so big I'm so sorry and theres a part two I'm so sorry tumblr user messed-up-gal ToT) - morango 1/2

pt. 2:

Dream is the proof that the people who loves you can be your downfall. istg. Have you noticed that every drama that Dream enters, people usually get more mad abt how his fanbase reacts (85% they'll react in a bad way) than Dream himself? it's not always, but its definitely more likely. I'm not saying Dream is saint, he Is petty and his ego does him dirty and made him choke multiple times before,, But! i dont think hes a bad guy. he's literally just a dude. ok, he's a 21yr old white gamer man that has a trumpie past (maybe?? idk. I think hes cured now ig lol) so he's bound to do some shitty things but he still tries to get better and hopefully he'll mature. 21 is old enough but it's still so young, yk? I kind of lost my mind during the end and my eyes are literally begging to be closed so tl;dr: Its gonna be hard for him to become a better cc bc his fans don't let him be criticized (by infantilizing his adhd symptoms or the mob mentality as soon as someone says anything abt him), the honest criticism get lost between lies from antis that don't know shit, he still has a lot of growing up to do and overall he became famous too fast and he needs to learn things even faster bc as soon as there's not a single one dream hater on sight they'll turn their back and attack him instead lmao I hate twitter i definitely have more to say but I'm tired and my memory is shit. just-- hate dream if you want, love dream if you want, nobody is obligated to have an opinion but I wanted to express mine. have a lovely day! -morango 2/2

Aight, there's a lot to unpack here, so Imma try to only go into the points I have something to add to (here's what I talk about in each paragraph, if you want to jump to a specific point):

Speed of Dream's rise to fame

The "bad apples" in the Dream fanbase

Post-MCC HBomb stream

Not condoning versus actually condemning his fans

Manipulation & RSD

Criticism of Dream, his fanbase, and his brand

The “just a dude” argument, flipped

First, I agree that one of the many factors that has resulted in the current image Dream has set up for himself, the way his fanbase functions, the ways people hate on him, and the way the Dream brand functions, is the speed of his rise to fame. It's unique, and there are probably a hundred social/psychological angles that could be used to examine the exact effects of that speed upon all of these facets of the Dream Name; did rapid fame beget the rapid rise of unrighteous hatred, did those waves of hatred then instigate the rise of a surprisingly overdefensive fanbase, did that rapid fame get to his head and/or result in an inability to appropriately handle all the after-effects of rapid fame, etc.? That point you bring up, about how the speed of his rise to fame requires him to learn even more quickly, is so interesting to me. I think that maybe Dream expected to get pretty famous pretty quickly, hence the preparedness in regards to some mechanics of influencer fame- merchandise, business-building, networking, knowing how to manage his fanbase to best benefit him. But I don't think he expected to get this famous this quickly. This is all speculation of course, as are this entire post and your ask, but I think that he just couldn't anticipate having to learn how to handle enmasse controversy, waves of antis, or every Youtuber speculating/knowing about him; and yeah, that results in him having to learn all of these things very quickly, lest he allow his whole brand and fandom to fall apart.

Second, I disagree with the frequent argument that Dream's fanbase is only marginally toxic. Personally, I think that the circumstances of Dream's fame, his personality and management of his fanbase, and his brand of content have resulted in the very specific kind of stan that Dream stans are. I don't think this is simply a case of "all fandoms have a small percentage of assholes who take it too far;" rather, the nature of the community itself breeds the kind of mentality of "an asshole who takes it too far." I only even know this because I was a Dream fan (kinda a stan, I'm ngl). At one time, I watched every single Dreamwastaken & Dream Team video multiple times; I listened to the Manhunts on repeat, as though they were podcasts; I followed mostly smiletwt and dttwt accounts on mcyttwt; I had upwards of 10 tabs for AO3 DNF fics open on my phone at a time; I watched DNF and Dream Team Being A Family-esque compilations on repeat; I watched every George and Sapnap alt stream I possibly could; I went out of my way to defend Dream against Redditors and Twitter antis regarding the cheating scandal. For the latter half of 2020, and a couple months of 2021, I lived and breathed this part of the fandom; so when I say that Dream stans are a whole other breed than any other kind of mcyttwt stan, I say that because I used to be like that, too. I usually use parasocial very loosely or ironically, but Dream stans are genuinely one of the most parasocial fanbases I have ever seen or been a part of. The level of investment Dream stans have in this man's life, the lengths they will go to to defend him, the amount of psychonalysis and digging they do on his life and character, the amount of emotion he can evoke in them- it's taken to another level, man. This isn't just characteristic of a fraction of his fanbase; this is what the fanbase is like as a whole.

Third, I partially disagree with your take on the HBomb thing, but not in the way one might think? I actually empathize with the way they reacted much more than I thought I would, simply because I suspect I have RSD (also suspect I have ADHD, have for several months now) and I can see myself getting insanely frustrated because of something like that. Like yeah, it was "just a MC stream" or "just an MC game," but that's kinda disregarding the fact that something that might seem like "just a [insert inconsequential thing]" to a rational mind might have a major emotional consequence/take a major emotional toll on someone with RSD, or really anyone who gets easily impatient/angry about video games (Sapnap reminds me of many of my friends, in that way). The issues I, personally, had with the way they handled the HBomb situation is that these are simply explanations and reasons for my empathy; they are not excuses. I have no excuse when I get irrationally angry about something inconsequential in my own life, for a couple of reasons. One, because I am an adult and I need to learn how to handle my reactions and manage my own anger. Two, because as someone with many mental problems, it is my responsibility to learn coping mechanisms to ensure my own emotional stability and livelihood; this includes learning whatever I need to handle RSD- whether that be isolating myself from others when I know I will become violently/passionately angry about something, creating and sustaining a support system that can get me through bouts of extreme emotion, finding healthy emotional outlets for my negative emotions that won't harm myself or others, or a combination thereof. I don't think what they said about HBomb post-MCC was an irreversibly horrible thing, or anything. I think there were errors committed by two men who should be fully capable of foreseeing and preventing those errors, but I don't unconditionally hate Dream or Sapnap for the post-MCC stream or comments. I just wish they had made amends quickly, publicly, and sufficiently, because the greatest consequences from the whole thing weren't even from those two criticizing HBomb themselves; they were from the waves of backlash because of their immense influence on the MCYT fandom, which could've been prevented, if they had acted maturedly and responsibly after the stream.

Fourth, you’re right, that he doesn’t seem to condone his fans’ behavior. I detest the frequent anti argument that one of the reasons Dream should be criticized is because he explicitly uses his fanbase to attack others, or something of the sort. Personally, I think he created his fanbase in a very specific way and interacts with them in such a way so as to benefit him as much as possible, yes, but he never actually tells his fanbase to go and yell at or harrass anyone. Still, there is a significant difference between not condoning something and condemning something. It might seem unfair, and it might be annoying of me to say this, but I truly think that someone with this large a fanbase, especially one as overzealous as Dream’s, needs to be condemned every single time it goes on some kind of rampage/harrassment campaign. Either that, or Dream needs to make a definitive, permanent statement against any kind of harrassment of others on his behalf. I know he’ll occassionally make the odd tweet or serious stream addressing something his fanbase did, but one of the many reasons his fanbase keeps doing the same damn thing is because he’s so lukewarm and spotty about this condemnation. A fanbase like his needs to be given explicit guidance and boundaries for the numerous things they do in his defense- harrassing/doxing antis, harrassing people who criticize him who aren’t antis (respectful criticism, other CCs, other MCYT stans, etc.), harrassing the people he critcizes (i.e., HBomb), speculating about his personal life (his relationship with his gf, his mental health/ADHD, his romantic life, his childhood, etc.), and speculating about his relationships with his friends and colleagues.  My personal ideology is that, if you have significant influence over someone or a group of people, you are at least somewhat responsible for the things those people do or don’t do, if it at all relates back to you. I’m so fucking tired of the argument that CCs aren’t responsible for what their fans do. Obviously they aren’t responsible for every single one of their fans, and obviously they can’t fully control their fans at the end of the day. But I think there are certain things that reach such a level of extremity that does make those CCs responsible. This can be measured by either scale or intensity; that is to say, if a CC’s fanbase does things on an extremely large scale, or one person from/a fraction of the fanbase does something really extreme, then the CC is made all the more responsible. Another CC I’ve always had trouble discussing with other people on this subject is Pewdiepie, in particular, about the extremists in his fanbase. Because the things a small handful of his fans have done in reference to him and/or in his name were so fucking extreme, I thought Pewdiepie had to take at least some responsibilty. Along a similar vein, because the things Dream’s general fanbase does are so widespread and on such a massive scale, Dream has to take at least some responsibility.

Fifth, okay. Hmmm. I want to tackle this point you made about the ableism he faces in some criticism of him carefully and with empathy, but not coddling. One, I do think a lot of the criticism he receives for the ways he handles criticism (post-cheating Tweets, reactions to John Swan, post-MCC HBomb stream, etc.), disregard his RSD and can be oftentimes ableist. I’ve actually encountered people irl who criticize this aspect of Dream’s character, and have had to explain to them their disregard for how ADHD/RSD affect neurodivergent people’s reactions to criticism. But - and this is a big, and very controversial but - I think mentally ill/disordered people can 100% leverage their mental illness/disorders for the sake of manipulation. This is actually something I’ve learned from a psychiatrist, regarding the ways people I know and I handle our anxiety and depression. This manipulation can be unwitting or intentional, but it is entirely possible, and the possibility shouldn’t be entirely dismissed as ableist. Living with a mental illness or disorder that others know about/that you are very public about puts you in an interesting position to receive frequent sympathy, empathy, and/or pity. I’m not saying that empathy for Dream having ADHD/RSD is entirely unjustified; on the contrary, I have frequently expressed how I can relate to his ADHD symptoms and have defended him for expressing those symptoms, both on mcytblr and in real life. I am saying that Dream fans tend to use his ADHD as a kind of shield for a lot of criticism levied against him, including the supposition that he could be manipulating his fanbase to defend him because of his public expressions of RSD. So yes, my theory is that Dream knows how to levy every aspect of his life for his personal gain and for the growth of his brand, and that includes his ADHD. I think he has courage for his openess about his ADHD, I think his openness has contributed to the rise in awareness of mental health and empathy for neurodivergent people within Gen Z, and I think at least some of his expressions of RSD publicly/online weren’t intentionally made public. All that being said, I also think he has to know just how much his fanbase cares about defending him for his ADHD, and I think he has to know that some of the things he does related to his neurodivergence endear him to his audience, in a coddling, baby-ing, mildly ableist sorta way.  Maybe this is all incredibly presumptuous of me. Of course, I can never know the real intentions behind any Dream video, Tweet, or stream. Maybe I’m just projecting, because I can see myself doing just this, if I had the maturity I had circa 2018-2019. Idfk know, man.

Sixth, I actually agree with you here, people probably do get more mad at his fanbase than him. Dream puts out content pretty seldomly, considering the frequency of content output for other Youtubers/streamers in his field/at his brand size. And yet, he has received masses of criticism. Considering that the things Dream himself does/says do not entirely correlate with the amount of criticism he receives, I think it’s a logical assumption that a lot of that criticism actually goes back to the size of his presence online, rather than the man himself. That is to say, because of the massive community he’s amassed, the exponential growth of his fanbase, their presence on every single social media site and in virtually every single Internet space/fandom, and the size of his metaphysical presence in his fields, Dream is much bigger than the man himself, so the criticism he receives will, at least in part, be a direct or indirect result of all these other aspects of the Dream brand.  Something I don’t think many Dream fans/stans, or even most MCYT fans in general, understand, is that Dream isn’t just “one guy” in the eyes of the Internet- at least, not anymore. He hasn’t been for nearly a year. Like Pewdiepie, Mr. Beast, and other CCs who have amassed similar levels of fame and wealth via Internet content creation, Dream is a brand now, and most people will treat him as such. He isn’t just some uwu soft boy playing Minecraft anymore. He is on a whole other level from any other MCYT in his friend circle or colleague interaction bubble. His words will never again live in a vaccum or private bubble, his friend circle will never again be under anything less than intense scrutiny, his past actions will never again be simple mistakes or silly errors, his words will never again be casual tweets or streams for laughs among a couple thousand followers. Dream’s name represents something much bigger than just the one man. As such, all aspects of his brand, including his fanbase, will tie back to him and, ultimately, to any general criticism of him.

I’m not saying I like any of this, and I actually think the evolution of influencers from people to a marketable brand with similar mechanisms, responsibilities, and liabilities as a corporation is some kind of late capitalism nightmare fuel; I’m just stating my own observations and theories as to why so much anti-Dream criticism seems to be directed at his fanbase, rather than him.

Seventh, he’s just a guy, you’re right, but I think a lot of the antis on Tumblr understand this more than you know. As I’ve seen it, the sentiment among much of the “DSMP stans DNI” crowd seems to be that of “Dream/other MCYTs are such ‘bad’ people, so why do their fans stick to these mediocre, racist men, when there are so many better people to watch/better content to consume?” We know this argument is flawed for many of the obvious reasons - the conflation of all MCYTs’ actions regardless of individual identity, the equating of a CC’s fanbase’s morality to that of the CC they enjoy watching, the exxageration of any error MCYT CCs have committed as bigotry/racism, the fundamental misunderstanding and misinformation that led antis to believe this exxageration of the facts, etc. But I want to focus on the general, underlying sentiment of, “why not watch someone better, when your creator is problematic?” Sometimes, I ask this of Dream stans. Yes, being mildly ignorant, getting involved in the scandals Dream has, and being a right-leaning/libertarian centrist in the recent past all seem like harmless things, all things considered. One could say Dream isn’t nearly as bad as many antis who are misinformed seem to believe, and that there are much worse CCs Dream stans could be watching and creating fan content for. But I think what Tumblr antis wonder is, aren’t there also much better MCYTs/CCs people could be watching and stanning? Because he’s just some guy, right? Is his content truly so exceptional or is he really so exceptional a person, that people have to stick by him, despite the things that spike up regarding his current or past actions? I think that’s what made me finally decide to stop watching Dream. I realized he was just Some Guy. The Dream Team was a comforting dynamic to indulge in, DNF was a cute ship to read and speculate about, and Manhunts were fun videos to watch; however, once the Reddit posts came out and I read them in-depth, the cost-benefit analysis tipped over to the “not worth it” side for me. I realized Dream’s content, while fun and comforting, was not entirely unique, and wasn’t worth sticking around for, given what I then knew about his past political leanings. If he is just Some Guy, then there are a hundred more like him out there. There a hundred more ships, a hundred more found family dynamics, a hundred more entertaining and skilled Minecraft players. So while I agree with you on the point of people being allowed to love him regardless because he is just a guy, at the end of the day, I think that, if we are to believe that sentiment or use that argument in such a manner, we should also understand the flip side- that, if he is just some guy, why is it worth sticking around? To that I say, maybe because people just enjoy the simple things they enjoy.

Anyways, I wholly agree with your tl;dr. Thanks for that insanely long ask, this was a fun thing to keep me occupied while I’ve been at work, facilitating Zoom sessions this whole morning.

[phoenix-before-the-flame]

I’m wondering how would you improve Lucy star dress , Erza requires and take over forms ? Also hi hope your doing ok !

Well i mean first things first get rid of the gross sexualization that they all have lmao. Thats the main thing.

With Lucy's stardresses hmmm🤔🤔🤔 Possibly explain it a bit more. While absolutely cool af, stardresses kinda popped outta nowhere after the timeskip without an explanation as to how it came to be. Stardress is essentially a completely new branch of celestial magic that Lucy invented. Personally i would've liked a few lines of how she figured it out. The dresses thenselves also needed more time for their abilities to be explored, much like the celestial spirits themselves, they're shown to do one ability basically before moving on to the next one. So seeing what else the dresses were capable of would've been nice.

With Erza stop👏introducing👏so👏many👏fucking👏armours👏. Jesus Christ she has too much! It takes away the awe, takes away any tension from her fights! How can her fights be interesting if she literally almost always has an armour to counter whatever she faces?

You know why pokemon caps you off at a team of 6 in the game? Because limitations add interest! If in the game you could walk around with all 18 types of pokemon then there'd never be any point to think or strategize and it'd be boring.

A lot of her armours are largely unexplored or have abilities that seemingly overlap (that armour she pulled out in avatar arc, can't remember the name but it was essentially an upgraded heavens wheel armour) so what to do? I'd cap off her new armours at around oracion seis/edolas arc so that they're could be greater focus on her earlier armours (black wing, adamantine, lightning, sea, fire, etc). Then around GMG/tartarus give her 2 new armours then after tartarus she'd get 2 more. Less armours can go a long way. Also as an added factor, in Tenrou if i'm remembering correctly Erza was shown to be able to mix weapons with different armours (She was wearing sea empress armour and summoned the flame empress sword with it) so have her mix weapons and armours to add interest and unpredictability to her battles.

Uhhh takeovers. Explanations. Like many of the other side characters magic i think i'd just like a decent explanation. I think i said this in a different post about takeover but it brings about so many questions i'll just copy paste it here:

'Also what are the parameters to takeover? Like are there specific rules for it to take place? Do you have to absorb a certain amount of creature souls to gain their abilities or just one? Do you need to best it in combat before taking over its soul or can you just go for it? Are there certain creatures whose souls can't be taken over? Can 2 different types of take over magics be mixed? Is there a limit to how many takeovers a wizard can have? Lots of questions here man'

[legends-live-in-memories]

I Have Too Many Opinions. ep. 1

lmao. i got encouragement to post my opinions on fandom things and now i want to make a miniseries doing just that. so here i am. doing just that.

im putting it under the cut cuz this was 4 whole pages including the disclaimer. yes i put a disclaimer and i explain why.

Anyways, here is the first piece in what inevitably will become fandom info dump, this time on thomas astruc’s writing on miraculous ladybug. but only some of my opinions cuz we would be here all day otherwise.

So… a disclaimer before I begin… 

I do not hate Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir (yes i'm using their government name). I am quite a fan of the show actually despite its faults. I am also older than the intended audience but was obviously younger when the show first aired which is how my interest was piqued (the fact that its been 6 years and only 3 seasons says more about the show than me being a fan for that amount of time but also i never want to rush content creators cuz they're doing their best) and due to my age, there will be inherent bias in my approach of what i'm about to say as there is in EVERY opinion. The fact that it is an opinion should imply the presence of bias but most people tend to lack the critical thinking skills required to draw that conclusion ANYWAYS…

If I did hate the show I would not have this blog nor would I be even writing this because i tend to not give more than 2 seconds of thought to things i actively dislike (some of yall should give this a try) and i'm allowed to like things that are designed for an audience that i was originally a part of but grew out of. (I don't suddenly stop liking things because I'm older despite what many younger fans seem to believe about older audiences. I also don't need to be ‘allowed’ to do anything cuz i wasn't asking for permission anyways.)

This will not be character bashing, astruc bashing nor fandom bashing cuz, again, that would imply i hate any of those elements and if i did, i would not dedicate brainpower to them. Analyses and criticisms of media are fun and engaging and required if you wish to produce good enjoyable content. Now most of this should be already assumed and self-explanatory but people on the internet like to play morality roulette roll dice on purity culture and I rather have documentation that I am in fact not bullying fictional 14 year olds or a grown man. But alas, people get trigger happy whenever someone has less than 1000000% positive opinions on something they like and will throw out words they can't define (gaslight, baiting, toxic, problematic, gatekeep etc) in an attempt to defend their blind devotion, 

which is not needed, if you like something you never have to defend it, even if i don't like it. If you respond to anything I post saying you disagree with me, I will not argue with you. I won't debate back and forth and try to convince you that the things you like are wrong. Unless you are being absolutely tone deaf to what i'm saying, you wont get a negative reaction from me. So don't try to fish for a fight. Please. I got metaphorical hands for days and I'm mean, you don't want me hurting your feelings on the internet. Do yourself the favour. Difference of opinion is how we get diversification in media and is inherently a good thing. Now that that's out of the way, please don't ever let me have to say that again. I beg.

Now onto the fun stuff

I didn't know what I wanted as a first topic so my trusty internet friend @moonlitceleste suggested astruc’s writing… 

AND BOI do i got some opinions on ole tommy boi. Again I don't hate the dude. In fact, he has worked on a few shows that had defined my childhood, including but not limited to W.I.T.C.H. (all eps available on youtube for those interested, 2 seasons, general fun time all around).

So I don't think he’s scum of the earth but I do think his approach to writing mlb specifically has more misses than hits.

The first big miss is that he has no idea how to write 14 year old girls. At all. Almost every girl he has ever written feels like some terrible archetype built entirely for marketability and childish projection and pubescent self-insert (kind of). He has never been a 14 year old girl. I have. In fact when the show first aired, I WAS around the (assumed) age of the mlb characters. The behaviour he passes off as quirky or awkward or just the character’s genuine personality tend to perpetuate harmful stereotypes of teen girls found in the media and are never actually addressed as harmful. they just get swept under the rug. Marinette’s exuberant collage of teen heart throb model boi Adrien Agreste and her very painful almost fan worship she has of him (which flip flops like a paper sandal in the rain) being portrayed as a cute school girl crush uwu, Chloe being the y7 Regina George, Alya being the token best friend of colour with her ‘sassy’ personality (i want y'all to imagine me eyerolling so hard i bust a vessel in my eye), Kagami being the very damaging Perfect Asian Child stereotype. And before y'all get on your dusty soap box and defend going on about “BUT IT'S FOR CHILDREN”,,,, know this.

 i don’t give a solid fuck. 

Not one. 

Children arent stupid. Children are always going to remember the richy bitchy blonde who bullies the art kid, and the big kid, and the shy kid, and the non white kids, and was only nice to her equally rich white friend who she probably had a crush on or was only ever civil to her equally white lapdog. They're going to remember the half asian girl who was never allowed to actually be asian or the only black girl who existed solely as a soundboard for enabling bad habits or chastising the main character for the same habits she enables in the first place (boi aint THAT a topic for later). Like do i really need to explain that alya chastising marinette for taking max’s spot in gamer just to play with adrien rings absolutely hollow when she actively encourages her to sabotage the contest she’s in just so Kagami doesn't win?? Like I don't have to explain that right?? Again kids arent stupid and its quite something that Mari gets chastised for proving herself the best video game player regardless of her intentions just cuz it comes at the expense of max’s feelings/ego but is actively encouraged to sabotage not only kagami but herself by extension cuz kagami is ‘competition.’ Adrien is not a trophy to be won. And no I don't expect 14 yrs old to be perfect and to always make good decisions but these decisions are never addressed as being bad decisions. they get swept under the rug cuz those decisions were necessary for the ‘plot’ but astruc can barely keep characterization consistent and his characters suffer for it and it's the same children you preach are watching it that suffer as well. Cuz guess what? I KNOW 14 yr olds aren't like that cuz i've been there done that (this is the last time i'm saying that i promise) so I know astruc is just metaphorically throwing darts to figure out who says and does what without consideration for pre established personalities to drive the stalemate plot along. The same kids you say are watching this don't know that that's not how preteens work and will absorb and internalize those dynamics like baking soda and vinegar. Cata-fucking-strophically. 

And I haven't even gotten to the boys yet. Which honestly doesn't require much explanation anyways cuz they suffer the same fate as the girls. Tired archetypes with nothing to give them life. Nino falls into Adrien’s person of colour token best friend who dates the female lead’s person of colour token best friend so they can have cute double dates uwu. Except the plot goes nowhere and we have no inclination of romantic development beyond moments that only act to actively convince me to anti ship the lovesquare (i don't want to do that so i self indulge in fanon that actually cares about the characters and plot. may i interest you in True Sight on AO3?). Max is the residential nerd but it doesn't matter (cuz he and everyone are dumbed down for the sake of ‘plot’), kim is the sports jock (which interestingly subverts the asian comedic relief stereotype but only barely) and luka is cute older guy ™ that wears black nail polish and is in a band. The point of all this is to say there is no depth in the characters. It's especially blatantly obvious with the characters astruc doesn't like (chloe). Again, it being a show for kids is not an excuse to be absolved of putting effort into the characters you make.

This is one of the biggest misses astruc has. I haven't even gone into all the nuances of this particular miss. And i havent gone into how that works against him in the plot either. Mostly because the plot itself hasn't gone anywhere and partially because I wanted to go into the plot (or lack thereof) separately as its own miss. 

AND BOI is it a miss. 

SO home boy astruc wanted to reap the benefits of a serial show with ‘engaging’ plot without putting in any of the work to make a linear storyline and relying on the episodic format for, again, marketability. You can't have the best of both worlds, you are not Avatar: The Last Airbender. Which btw has a lot less episodes and a desired end goal that didn't involve top dollar. Legend of Korra did but that's not the point and it had its failings with that too. I challenge you, tell me how many episodes actually contribute towards a plot point or introduce new thematic elements to the show? Can you name them? I can and I'm going to include the plot points that moved the story in some direction if only temporarily. Yes only temporarily for some of these and i will explain later. (if you're in the server you already saw this list *wink*)

25/26. Origins- self explanatory, the beginning of the story, 

24. Volpina- introduction of the grimoire and Master Fu (kind of) and no, Lila is not a plot point,

28. The Collector- proper introduction of Master Fu,

37. Sapotis- introduction of Rena Rouge,

41. Syren- introduction of new aquatic power ups,

44. Anansi- introduction of Carapace,

47. Frozer- introduction of new ice power ups,

48/49. Style Queen- introduction of Queen Bee,

51/52. Heroes’ Day- introduction of Mayura and mass akumatization,

66. Startrain- introduction of Pegasus,

67. Kwami Buster- Marinette wears multiple miraculouses,

68. Feast- backstory as to how the miraculouses were lost,

69. Ikari Gozen- introduction of Ryuko,

70. Timetagger- introduction of Bunnyx,

71. Party Crasher- introduction of Roi Singe and Viperion,

73. Chat Blanc- alternate timeline that essentially means nothing but got a reaction out of fans anyways (myself included)

 77/78. Love Eater/Battle of Miraculous- Marinette becomes guardian and other heroes lose their miraculous,

New York Special- other heroes exist and there is an American miraculous box,

That's 21 episodes. 21 out of a heaping 78 plus 2 specials. Everything else was just your typical akuma of the day episode and everything that happened outside that had no lasting consequences on the plot thanks to the miraculous status quo. Was it entertaining to watch Lila stir the plot of the class dynamic? Hell yeah. Too bad it meant nothing by the end of the episode cuz we were struck with miraculous status quo. She literally doesn't appear again until Heroes Day. that is from episodes 25 all the way to 51, she means nothing and yet she is treated with the severity of a b-villain/rival thing. She means nothing by the end of Volpina if I'm being honest. She is only relevant for 20 mins of episode time she’s in then it's back to magic status quo that undoes any shift in dynamics and relationships. It's like Spongebob who can't get his driver’s license. The worst part is I actually like Lila and I wish the story treated her with the seriousness we as an audience are expected to treat her with. Despite being painfully inconsequential by the end of each of the 3?? 4?? episodes she’s in, it's entertaining to watch a character create drama just because. 

Too bad it means nothing.

Astruc is constantly building up suspense to something ‘important’ only for it to not deliver and fans are constantly having the rug pulled out from under us. Oblivio teased us with a reveal only that gets undone cuz memory akuma. Chat Blanc teased us with romantic development but that gets undone cuz time travel bullshit. Feast introduced more miraculous lore and the history of the guardians but that means nothing by the next episode or ever (i'm not including any reference to the season 4 trailer cuz i've been around the block a few times and im familiar with this lil dancy dance). Heroes Day teased us with a possible future team of heroes but that gets undone in Battle of Miraculous cuz ????? why?? (here's why; astruc was having a jolly ole time letting us know how irredeemable Chloe is at the expense of shooting his own stagnant plot in the foot. Again, discussion for later.)

Too bad anything that slightly swerves off course from the akuma of the day gets undone or ignored. Too bad nothing has any lasting consequence. I mean, if anything did, the episodes would have had a consistent order and release schedule so im not scrambling to watch the leaked ep in Portuguese or something while the french dub is two episodes behind while the english version hasnt even been dubbed. I really wonder how he plans to conclude the show when he’s so afraid to step out of the corner he painted himself in.

Again, not going into nuances. If you want you can ask for more specifics (i doubt anyone would) but this is really just a slightly detailed general overview of my opinions on astruc’s writing. 

I was going to include another miss in his approach to this show but imma save that for another time. 

How’s that for a ‘first’ post?

[akechicrimes]

loki appreciation agenda continues because i am speculating on the reasons why goro can change outfits. this is a super speculation-heavy post on goro’s outfit-changing abilities based on theories that loki was created through experimentation to force goro to awaken a second persona, and i don’t think i can necessarily “prove” anything in this post, but the lore on how personas work surprisingly checks out so it’s plausible if nothing else.

anyway, i think goro has two different outfits because he awakened to his “first” persona, twice.

explanation under cut:

(FIRST of all, i know there’s doylist explanations for why certain characters get new outfits and others don’t. this is a watsonian explanation because i have goro akechi brainworms and i cannot stop thinking about my boy.)

the basic premise is that your outfit is something you get when you have the will to rebel. outfits manifest when you’re in a palace that sees you as an enemy, thus activating your rebellious spirit to tell them to suck a dick.

that rebellious spirit comes from a moment of resolve: knowing that you don’t want to die, knowing what it is that you fight for, and knowing whose ass you want to beat. usually, then the character manifests a mask, hears the voice of their persona inside them, and they rip it off.

the will of rebellion also typically triggers a character awakening to their first persona. i’m going to call it the starter persona.

insofar as i can tell, a starter persona is a very specific type of persona that comes from a very specific type of phenomenon:

the manifestation of your resolve/will of rebellion

the persona you get when you awaken to your persona-using abilities for the first time

the first form of your persona

a persona that is unique to you and your soul

theoretically a persona that comes from within you, rather than an external source (e.g. shadow negotiations or the velvet room)

a persona gained under extreme duress marking a drastic resolve in oneself

a starter persona is not:

an evolved edition of your starter persona due to a moderate change in yourself (second-tier/third-tier awakening)

a new persona gained through capturing a shadow (akira’s new personas)

a new persona gained through fusing pre-existing personas (velvet room)

when a second-tier persona occurs, or a new persona is gained through shadow capture or fusing, a new outfit is not gained, because outfits come with the starter persona only.

so my theory is that robin hood and loki are both “starter” personas, even though loki was gained ostensibly way, way after goro had awakened to his general ability to summon personas. loki is not a persona that was gained through shadow negotiations or the velvet room, and loki is not an evolved form of robin hood, since robin hood and loki coexist and first-tier personas disappear when they turn into second-tier personas. 

loki is basically as if goro underwent his first awakening, but a second time, and that’s why there’s a separate outfit for him, in the same way that all the phantom thieves get an outfit when they awaken for the first time.

and now i’m going to go into way too much detail about how starter personas are a very hyper-specific phenomenon that are different from the wild card ability to gain multiple personas and are also different from second-tier awakenings:

CASE ONE: wild cards

wild cards demonstrate very well that starter personas are unique in that they’re created from within a persona user, whereas other personas that wild cards can wield must come from outside sources. and even for wild cards who have six jillion personas, they really only have one starter persona (and in akira’s case, one accompanying outfit). 

i think it’s alright to assume there’s something unique about arsene in relation to akira, in the same way that izanagi is unique to souji or orpheus is unique to minato. every other persona that these wild cards get have to be gotten from either capturing shadows in the wild, or from fusing captured shadows in the velvet room. they’re personas that are found from outside of the wild card, and then taken in to become one of the wild card’s masks.

by contrast, arsene, izanagi, and orpheus seem to come from “within” the wild cards, in the same way that any non-wildcard undergoes an awakening to pull a persona from inside themselves. arsene, izanagi, and orpheus aren’t gained through capturing a pre-existing shadow or fusing pre-existing shadows. so even though akira and other wild cards can wield multiple personas, all of them only have one starter persona.

i’d theorize that, although wild cards have the ability to wield many different masks, the other personas are more like impermanent additions to the general ability to wield multiple personas, which comes with the starter persona. (arsene and izanagi in particular seems really stick around even when you fuse him away, especially since arsene comes back in a second-tier awakening as satanael and izanagi as izanagi-no-okami.)

(NOW THAT I’VE SAID THAT, according to persona lore, all personas come from the sea of the soul! i did not forget. when i’m making the distinction between a persona that comes from “within” a persona user and a persona that has to be found externally, i mean that all shadows/personas ultimately come from the vast sea of the soul/collective unconscious that connects all human beings, but these personas get obtained through different ways: starter personas seem to be summoned from the sea of the soul entirely internally, whereas other shadows have to be summoned from the sea of the soul from either finding them in palaces, mementos, or the velvet room.)

akira, obviously, does not get a new outfit every time he gets a new persona, although that would have been cool as fuck. the outfit happens only when the starter persona is awakened--the persona from within akira, rather than a persona he acquired from the outside.

CASE TWO: general persona users and second tier awakenings

normal persona users don’t have the ability to find external shadows and make them into their own persona. normal persona users have only their starter persona which they got from within themselves, in the same way arsene is unique to akira, and are born from a moment of internal resolve. their personas are all “internal affairs,” so to speak.

normal persona users also have the option of a second-tier awakening, though. second-tier awakenings involve only the starter persona, a new resolve in the character, and again seem to be a persona that comes from “within.” so it seems a bit like the persona user has “awakened” a second time. it’s certainly an entirely internal event, requiring no additional personas obtained from palaces, mementos, or the velvet room.

but the second-tier persona is not an entirely new starter persona. second-tier personas are just their pre-existing already-awakened starter personas changing into a slightly different persona with the same abilities. second-tier personas inherit all the stats and abilities from the first as well, a bit as if it’s just the starter persona in a different form. so although the phantom thieves “awaken” a second time, it’s not so much an awakening so much as it is just an evolution of a pre-existing persona.

this makes sense in terms of the “personas manifest as a will/resolve to rebel” logic, too. it’s not necessarily that they manifested an entirely new resolve to rebel; their pre-existing resolve to rebel just evolved, changed, or was reaffirmed.

there’s also a visual cue for this: awakening a starter persona is a whole fucking deal involving a stressful situation, thinking you’re going to die, usually having to face some asshole in your life who abused you, hearing voices, screaming, manifesting your mask and ripping your face off. second-tier awakenings don’t involve this lmao. god could you imagine if it did. it’d actually be so funny tbh

second-tier awakenings, also, seem to be a phenomenon specific to “starter” personas, or personas obtained from within. you wouldn’t see a persona that akira got from a shadow negotiation evolve in the same way that arsene evolves into satanael, or carmen evolves into hecate, or izanagi evolves into izanagi-no-okami. you could argue that “high pixie” is a second-tier of “pixie,” but there’s no way to make pixie have new resolve and evolve into high pixie like a pokemon; pixie would have to be fused with some other persona to create high pixie. personas obtained through external means have to be fused with other personas, or absorb the life force of other personas through executions. 

anyway, to get back to the point about goro’s two-outfit deal, second-tier awakenings also don’t get you new outfits. which makes sense if we assume that outfits come with obtaining a starter persona, since second-tier awakenings are just your starter persona evolving and is not actually an event in which you obtain an entirely new starter persona.

CASE THREE: haru and sumire

weird fact i forgot until i wrote this meta!! but both haru and sumire are cases of people who got their outfits and a “semi-awakening” to their personas, that then led to a period of not quite being able to actually summon their persona. so, from what we can understand, their will to rebel is there, just not solidified enough to manifest a persona.

morgana, our resident lore expert, tells us that when haru has her outfit but not her persona, milady is more or less there already, just confused due to conflicted feelings about haru’s father, and therefore can’t fully take shape. so she can sort of summon milady, but just not in an effective way that can deal battle damage.

personally i think this is just the atlus writers creating a reason to have haru in the palace in cute clothes without having her go through an awakening, so that she could awaken later for full dramatic effect. but since morgana went to such lengths to explain the mechanics of it and tell us that milady is technically already there, it’s a really interesting case study that demonstrates outfits are not something that are specific to having a starter persona, but doesn’t guarantee that that persona can be summoned.

the same thing happens to sumire: she gets her outfit sometime in october, and for some reason can use cendrillon up until she remembers that she’s sumire and not kasumi. then she winds up in a state like haru’s, where she has an outfit, has the will to rebel, and technically even has cendrillon, but she just can’t summon cendrillon. then she has to go through the whole song and dance of ripping her face off to awaken to cendrillon (which might be kasumi’s soul depending on the interpretation of the scene). and of course, from there her starter persona can have a second-tier and third-tier awakening to vanadis and ella.

but it looks like the same case as haru, ultimately: she technically had cendrillon, but wasn’t able to use it or manifest it because her resolve was jank as fuck with all her identity issues.

SO BASICALLY: 

what i’m getting at is that the outfits come from awakening to a starter persona only. 

a starter persona is, as shown above, a hyper-specific phenomenon in which you pull a persona out of your soul, as opposed to capturing an external shadow and adding it to your pre-existing persona abilities, or transforming your pre-existing persona into a new one. awakening your "first” persona is a thing that happens only when you dig up all the weird sediment from your soul when you think you’re going to die, generally. starter personas come from a moment of internal resolution, and the resulting persona seems to be unique to that person and the circumstances of the persona’s awakening.

really, it’s such a theatrical ordeal, too. like i mentioned before, starter personas get obtained through this WHOLE fucking ritual involving stress, hearing the voice of your persona inside you, manifesting your mask, ripping your face off, manifesting your outfit, etc, etc. (i think it’s fairly important to note that ripping the mask off is the first instance of the larger outfit showing up, too; the mask itself, the outfit, and the starter persona seem to come hand in hand.)

we already know that loki is not a second-tier awakening of robin hood, because robin hood co-exists with loki. we also know that loki is not a persona gained through shadow negotiation or fusion, because external personas that are gained through those methods don’t come with an outfit.

so it really looks like goro just manifested the internal will to rebel, and the accompanying new outfit and entirely new persona, twice.

this, actually, fits really well with the medical experimentation thing, since starter personas, the will to rebel, and the outfit seem to come from stressful situations, where the persona user, in an attempt to not die, pulls a new persona out of their soul from no external source. if the featherman game is implying what i think it is, shido’s scientists and maybe wakaba were trying to force a persona out of goro with stress and trauma, in the same way that you’d manifest a persona for the first time. these scientists were not handing him shadows to turn into personas, like how the wild card is intended to be used. these scientists were not trying to transform robin hood into a new form, like how a second-tier awakening is supposed to work. they were inducing the same conditions that you’d need to awaken a persona for the first time.

it also makes sense from an in-universe perspective, because i’m assuming that, since goro and these cognitive psientists didn’t know jack shit about the metaverse at the time, goro just told them what he knew about persona awakenings: he awoke to robin hood under duress, he reached into his soul, found robin hood there, did a bunch of yelling, pulled off his face, BAM. robin hood. so the scientists said, well, if you wanna see a phenomenon a second time, you might as well recreate the conditions from the first time, right? make him pull off his face again and see what happens.

that would explain how loki is unique to him, in the same way that arsene is unique to akira, or any of the other personas are unique to their phantom thieves. it would explain why there’s an accompanying outfit to go with loki as well--it’s literally an entirely different “first” awakening, as if he manifested the ability to summon a persona twice, rather than just adding on new personas to his pre-existing ability. and it also explains how he has two unique personas that are separate from each other.

it also explains why he never seems to, say, use robin hood while in the black mask outfit, and why he never uses loki while in the white crow outfit. it’s not a cosmetic choice; the outfit is tied to the persona he’s using at the time. the outfit is tied to the separate awakening, and the separate “first” persona that was generated from that awakening. (EDIT: goro does actually use loki very briefly while still in the white crow outfit during his boss battle, although presumably loki is not “fully” summoned because loki is blacked out/colored strangely/vaguely see-through.)

(meanwhile, hereward doesn’t get a new outfit to match him because he’s a tiered transformation awakening. a pre-existing power gets transformed. hereward even existing is also good evidence that robin hood and loki are “starter” personas rather than personas gained through external means, since shadows obtained through mementos/palaces/velvet room don’t get tiered evolutions.)

which is a really interesting bastardization of the wild card ability, if that’s actually what happened. because he’s a wild card with the ability to wield multiple personas, he was able to awaken for the “first” time twice and wield two different personas, but in an extremely corrupted way, not at all the way that wild card abilities are intended to be used.

and i know that this is all just speculation at this point, but it does make hereward look a little bit like goro managed to finally fuse together the two “corrupted” halves of his wild card ability into a singular, whole persona. something or other--growth can only occur when thesis and antithesis synthesize? ...something like that.

anyway i’ve never felt so much like matpat in my life.

[myonmukyuu]

hot milk tea, thoughts and feelings

I’ve only mentioned it briefly, but I’ve said that I’ll be taking a break from my SetsuAyu series - mainly because of my uni workload though.

But for now, I have a lot of thoughts about the entire thing as a project as well as myself as an artist. So I figured that I’d write a reflection of sorts (warning: it gets kind of personal).

Can you believe it’s been 3-4 months since the series started? I can’t, and I’ve been the one drawing all of these!! If you’ve been reading my work, I’ll say it over and over but I really appreciate it!!! Like I’m dead serious!!! Completely!! Utterly!! Without a doubt!!! I love all of you!!!

When I posted that first comic, I didn’t think it’d get the positive reception that it did get. Like, I’ve been producing basically entirely Muse content for years and suddenly decided to tap into Nijigaku? You could argue that it didn’t get that much attention, but either way, the attention it did get surprised me. I was so happy that people were engaged (and it still makes me stupidly happy, like on a level where I’m almost embarrassed to admit HAHA)

Recently I’ve just uploaded the bonus for the 3rd update which wraps up that part, and it really just clicked - that I really have invested soooo much time into this series. 36 pages now! And we’re only 3/10 main updates in!! I have so much passion for this - like a fire that can’t be put out. Every single update has something that I want to communicate/show so I always feel fired up. Heck, if you’ve spoken to me during the process you’d catch me always saying “I’m excited for the next one!!!” while working on it LMAO. It’s been my longest string of non-stop work. Usually I feel burned out more quickly but I was always so excited that I couldn’t stop! You’d find that I’m usually in a  state of conflict bc I alwaaaays want to talk about it but at the same time I don’t want to spoil anything. (THE NEXT UPDATE JUICY)

I think it’s a clear reminder of why I draw actually. The answer between each artist always differs, but I think it’s something important to be aware of. And well, for me? I’ve realised I’m a passion-monster. Passion keeps my blood pumping 100%. As a result... you could say I might be a more selfish kind of artist. Maybe it’s burn-out from running all those ask-blogs/RP when I was like 13-16, but I’ve realised that I’m having the most fun drawing what I genuinely love. It’s kind of why you’d rarely see me do requests and why I no longer do commissions. That isn’t to say that I hate drawing for other people. It can be fulfilling! But it’s more like - I barely have the time to draw for myself, so drawing for others is kind of a lower priority in general. It’s also why I’ve decided against studying graphic design when I graduated highschool. It’s just not happening as a career.

When I ask myself, “what kind of artist do I want to be?” I always think “Somebody who marches to her own beat and works hard to make content that she loves.” It’s also why I never delete anything - even my oldest art that makes me cringe. Because the me from 5 years ago put her love into that too. It’s really cheesy sounding but that’s how I see it LMFAO. I couldn’t do that to her. And also, just because I don’t like something anymore, it doesn’t mean that no one else does. So I’ll continue to never delete my old work. As a bonus, we get to see how far I’ve come too~.

I feel a little vulnerable admitting something like this and I’m pretty sure I’ve only told like 4 humans, but I think my #1 goal as an artist is that I want people to be able to look at my work (that I actually put my heart into) and think “this person loves this” or “this person works hard”. If you can do that, and sincerely feel the feelings I put into my comic, then I’ve already reached my goal. Can people tell how much I love these characters? The series? The concept? Can people tell how much work I’ve been putting into these updates? Can people tell when I’m having fun? It’s something I think about a lot. The idea of that people might think so makes me tear up HAHA - I get really sappy thinking about these kinds of things. And well, if people can’t tell then I’m not working hard enough!

That isn’t to say that I’m always putting my life-blood into everything I make. I’m mainly referring to the stuff where I do. I think it’s pretty clear when I’m pumping a lot of love into something. In general though, there’s always an intention for me to like communicate some idea or feeling and doing something like that requires maybe a bit of love~.

I feel like that as a character, Setsuna really resonates with me a lot. In personality? Not at all LMFAOOOO (she’s such a nice girl!!). More because of her ideals and principles. After typing like everything that I did up until this point, I bet you can guess why. I’ll keep it short and simple though, since this post is getting stupidly long.

Basically, I really resonate with her drive and passion as both an artist, and just in general actually? I’m a believer in that if you’re passionate about something, you can spread that passion. That’s the mentality I have with my art. If my love shows, then maybe other people will understand why I’ve come to love something. And maybe they’ll come to love it too. If I’m having fun, maybe they will have fun too! Very cheesy, I know, but that’s just how I roll!!!

Like rare pair? New fandom? Still applies. It might take awhile, but eventually either the people who love that thing will find me, or I’ll help people come to love something new (or at least see where it’s coming from lolol)! 

And as Setsu says:

You tell ‘em girl !!! That devotion is my driving force!!

Of course I know this is idealistic, but I think that’s fine. It’s no bother to me if someone feels indifferent/ negative towards my work because that’s just natural.

I think it’s a form of communication and that’s what drives my art. I’ve been intending on writing a guide/ or talking about my art process for comics for some time now and I think that’d be the first thing I’d mention? I’m always trying to communicate some sort of feeling/tone/idea and that comes from a place of love y’know.

I feel like I’m saying “love” and “passion” a lot - you can really tell I’m vibing with Setsuna huh LMAO. There are other reasons I vibe with her too, but I won’t touch on that.

Coming back to my SetsuAyu series. You can tell why I’m so happy about it right? The story, the pairing dynamic, I feel like that people are understanding what I’m trying to communicate - that people are receiving my feelings of love for it and that makes me smile so widely. I really put a lot into it!!

This series is the first large project I’ve ever taken you see and I’m so so happy that I’ve been able to get this far! It really means a lot to me. But it wasn’t actually the first comic series I’ve tried to do. I actually had a Muse long-running comic planned years ago - a Dancing Stars on Me! AU but it never came to life. I think it was my lack of confidence that held me back. It might be weird of me to pat myself on the back, but I’m proud that I managed to get going this time!! I’ve actually written the SetsuAyu series in a way that for the first half, I could drop the series if I really wanted to at any point (each part is pretty independent, and that description I always copy-and-paste is all the explanation you really need), but now I know for sure that I don’t want to drop it! I wanna keep going!! Even if it gets tough. Although it might be a little early for me to make such bold declarations, I’m only 3/10 through LOOOL. But that’s just the way I feel right now!

I know it’s irrational and it’s something I’d rather not admit, but an anxiety that’s always looming over me is the idea that I’m not working hard enough - or that people think I’m not? Each comic update...takes like a month right? And a month is a long time. There’s this part of me that is convinced that people think I’m lazy for working so slowly. And I know it’s not true!! It doesn’t make sense for it to be!!! But like I said it’s irrational.

I’m really proud of this comic y’know. It’s a really big commitment and I’m proud of myself for being able to commit. I work full time 9-5, and I also am in my final year at university. I’m... kind of busy lol. So the huge factor in that month-long update turnaround is just that I don’t have the time to always be drawing. But I try to draw as much as I can! If you have me on discord you might notice me work on it for like 2-5 hours, almost daily before I go to bed (1am). Of course I’m not only drawing, but after I get everything plotted out sometimes that’s all I do. This comic is super time-consuming LMAO - and I try my best to work on it a little at a time.

So yeah, the entire month of comic-production is me drawing every almost every night.

Yeah it, - it’s kind of exhausting. Even though I’m itching to work on my next update, I’ve decided to take a break for uni crunch which is why I say the next one might be two months. It’s really odd though. The other night I was in bed feeling restless. It was so weird not drawing till 1am that I felt like I needed to be doing something. This comic series might have weird effects on my habits...

It makes me anxious thinking that it’d be so long till next update. But I’ll do my best to push that aside ! Hopefully I can get uni done and dusted ASAP! I want them to date dammit...

I've decided that I want to see this series through to the end. It’ll probably be May next year when that happens though LMAO! Please bear with my slow turnaround time. It’s only been 3 updates, but I can already see that I’m improving with each one. With each update I feel like I really learn from the previous and I always feel this sense of excitement with trying out new techniques and trying to create different feelings. I really want to see how the last updates will look compared to the first!  Technically we’re 3/10 (10 is an epilogue), but after 6 I actually stop doing bonuses? So teeechnically I’m like 40% of the way through~.

It might be a little over-ambitious, but I kind of want to print it out and make a hard-copy when I’m done. I’m not sure about what the demand would be if I were to sell it, but I definitely want to print it for myself first and foremost (after touching up the earlier updates of course LOL). It’d be like a physical representation of my achievement. I hope I can make it there.

Anyways, I’ve rambled for far too long. I’m not sure why I suddenly felt like talking about uh, everything but yeaaaah. If you’ve read this far, kudos to you! You now have a window into my soul that I’m still not sure if I’m comfortable with revealing (but I’m comfortable enough because I’m posting this so...)! 

After reading all of this, can you tell why I always get so so happy after each update? It’s the fruition of what’s usually 2-3 weeks of non-stop hard work! Seeing people connect with it always sends me to another realm of bliss and I always feel soft like putty LOL.

[marybeatriceofmodena]

TFW when you try to do Anastasia but you also suck at your job: A Master Class by The Rise of Skywalker

Okay. So, I promised you guys a TROS review, and it’s coming, I promise… except I’ll be making two “spin-off posts” about specific issues just in order to clear up some stuff, mainly because in my mind, those issues are important.

First post is going to be, of course, about Rey’s parentage.

So. After TFA, it would have been possible for Rey to have been the kid of “someone”. However, TLJ made it impossible to do so, unless you’d have some serious, bullshit retconning going on – which is exactly what happened.

I know this is a VERY controversial thing to say at this point, but post-TFA, Rey Palpatine “could” have been possible. Okay, maybe not have her be Palpatine’s granddaughter, but more of a descendant of his.

This said, I “tried” making an origin story for Rey Palpatine that “works” for the purposes of this meta, on a hypothetical basis, while making it consistent with canon (something JJ Abrams and Chris Terrio clearly couldn’t be bothered to do, LMAO). I had plotholes no matter what. I do think I could have eventually found something with a little bit of brainstorming, but truth is, IT’S HARD, and a lot of exposition would have been for novels/comics only.

From a thematic perspective, though? It wouldn’t have been a bad idea. For this to work, though, you would have needed to go on full-blown Romeo and Juliet mode with sprinkles of Anastasia, though. I mean, The Lion King 2 did something similar, so why the fuck not. Because, yeah, Ben Solo, the grandson of Darth Vader, son of Han Solo and Leia Organa, the last prince of Alderaan, who falls in love with the last Imperial princess Rey Palpatine while they’re on opposite sides of the war but not the ones you’d think of is the stuff of fairy tales and star-crossed romances, except this one would have a happy ending and brought peace to the galaxy.

Truth be told, I still really enjoy fanfics who go for that story and find a way to make it work in canonverse or in AUs – because it’s genuinely fun. But in canon itself, as I point out earlier… it’s not easy.

So, we have Rian Johnson who said he made a list of potential origins for Rey while he was working on TLJ’s script. You bet Rey Palpatine was on that list. However, he came to the conclusion that Rey Nobody was the best way to go, and whatdyaknow, he made the right call.

Why? Rey Nobody requires minimal exposition. Storytelling-wise, you don’t have a lot of brainstorming to do, and it’s easy to have Ben revealing it, and easy to present it as a repressed memory of Rey’s. On a thematic level, that puts Rey on the same level as Jane Eyre or the main character from Rebecca: she’s a nobody from nowhere who is thrown into a family drama, and since she’s the glitch in the matrix, she must stop the story from becoming a tragedy.

See? Simple. You got your easy exposition, you got your thematic coherence, and you got the literary call-backs.

So, JJ and Terrio decided to retcon this shit because, as they said, they thought it was boring. I think Colin Trevorrow probably thought it was boring too, because I have my reasons to think a lot of TROS is from him (but more on that in my main review). But thing is, it’s not it’s “boring”, it’s literally that they didn’t know what the fuck to do with Rey. No, more than that, they don’t understand her, and frankly, they can’t be bothered to do so. She’s an empty vessel they can toy with at their ease, and in the process, turn her in a Mary-Sue. Because yes, TROS!Rey was a Mary-Sue, whereas TFA/TLJ!Rey was not. So, what I say above regarding Rey might be a bomb for some, considering how people are (understandably) defensive when it comes to that statement. I promise I will elaborate more about it in the main review, once again.

So, with the lineage aspect addressed, it’s time to talk about Rey’s parents themselves.

It’s hilarious how HARD JJ and Terrio tried to make Kylo’s explanation work – because as much as they butchered the shit out of him, they said: “Well he’s a bad liar, right? Gotta keep that in mind.”

Although, I don’t think it was a case of them being concerned with Kylo’s characterization – they’re not that graceful. They had to figure out QUICK why the hell Kylo wouldn’t have known Rey was a Palpatine from the get-go, because the Force is a great DNA test and shit, and I guess that’s how Palps located Ben’s Mighty Skywalker Blood™. Except that still doesn’t work because Palps couldn’t even locate his own goddamn granddaughter, but I digress.

Seriously, why would Kylo lie to Rey about her being a nobody instead of her being a Palpatine? It makes no sense, because if you’re going to roll with the theory Kylo just wants UNLIMITED POWAH, the Palpatine princess is not only a great asset (since marrying her legitimizes your claim to the throne in the eyes of the Imperial Remnants, I mean, that’s literally why Henry VII married Elizabeth of York), it’s also the one argument she needs to hear in order to sway her to your side. So I guess JJ and Terrio’s one shared brain cell kinda flicked a bit at that moment.

This said, getting the Palpatine princess on his side is clearly Kylo’s intention in TROS (which, again, makes no sense with what was set up in TLJ but that’s something I’m keeping for another post), except they trip all over themselves by having Kylo say he didn’t lie to Rey in TLJ. Except…

So, what Ben said in TLJ was the following:

Her parents sold her for drinking money.

They’re dead and buried in a pauper’s grave somewhere on Jakku.

Rey is related to no one.

Here’s what Ben reveals to Rey in TROS:

Her parents sold her for her protection.

They died on another planet, while being hunted down by a guy working for Palpatine and instructed to bring Rey back to them.

Rey’s dad is a Palpatine and Rey’s mom is Villanelle (nah, for real: the actress who plays Rey’s mom is Jodie Comer).

So, um, yeah, it’s the EXACT opposite of what Ben said in TLJ. Just say Palps was fucking with Ben’s mind-reading or Rey’s memories instead, JJ. Not that “Oh Ben was telling the truth, but he didn’t have the whole story”, because that’s not it.

For the latter, once again, it would have been feasible: the one thing, for me, that was possible to be added was that Rey had killed her parents accidentally, by having their ship to leave Jakku crash down with the Force: that’s what made her Force powers go dormant for all those years and provoked her trauma. It would also make sense that Ben would willfully not bring that back to her memories, because she’d understandably not be able to cope with the truth, which is often what happens to a lot of trauma victims. THAT was the theory I had pre-TROS, because that’s the only answer I could come up with when it came to JJ saying that there was more to Rey’s past. I guess I expected JJ to be, like, actually able to write, lmao.

I even wonder if that was actually in the cards, considering we see Rey in TROS bringing down a transport that supposedly has Chewie in it… but I guess they deemed that to be “too dark” for their heroine. Except the bullshit that comes instead is actually… much worse.

To make things simple, I’ll just take the above points and develop them.

Rey’s parents sold her for her protection.

Okay, so, Rey’s parents need to hide her to make sure Palps doesn’t get his hands on her. Fair enough. This said, why did it have to be Jakku and not, like, ANYWHERE ELSE? Especially that Palpatine had interest in Jakku at some point and that maybe having Rey anywhere close to that place would not be a good idea?

But let’s play the game and say that Jakku is the only place they can hide her because… I don’t know, it’s hard to find someone there with the Force. Whatever. Even then, why the fuck would they think Unkar Plutt is a proper guardian for a tiny little girl? You know they could have walked a few miles more and found a nice old man who likes the Light Side of the Force and the Jedi and all that shit called Lor San Tekka? Hey, why not even try to find a guy like Luke Skywalker who’s like, a Jedi and shit, and have him take care of their little girl and protect her? 

Even then, why the hell doesn’t Rey’s mom stay with her daughter? Her husband is the Palpatine, not her. All Rey’s mom has to do is find a nicer hiding place for her and Rey somewhere on Jakku, like, not Niima Outpost (again, Tuanul is just a few miles away), and just let Dad hide somewhere else. He’s a grownass man, he can take care of himself and he just has to hide on Nar Shaadaa or some shit. Fuck, why don’t all three of them hide on Nar Shaadaa? Or in the Coruscant undercity? ANYWHERE ELSE?

Also, wouldn’t Plutt clearly see two desperate parents as a business opportunity? Like, if you want to do a Les Misérables comparison here, he wouldn’t “buy” Rey from them, he’d try to get money for them à la Thénardier with Fantine. Except Rey’s parents make Fantine look like frigging Einstein because at least she had the excuse of thinking Madame Thénardier would take good care of Cosette since Éponine and Azelma seemed well-cared for.  

Again, a creepy-looking alien who exploits the outpost’s inhabitants for portions in exchange for junk, who asks you to pay him to take care of your kid should be a big fucking red flag – unless you want to involve blackmail, but that’s a whole other can of worms.

Seriously, why the hell would Rey’s parents even ACCEPT money that comes from selling their own child? Were they really that desperate? Fuck, even if I had no other way of getting off Jakku, I wouldn’t even THINK of using money that comes from selling my own child. Any parent who’d even CONSIDER doing that is automatically a godawful parent in my book. Shame on you. And shame on JJ for trying to make me buy them as saints, because THEY’RE NOT, JUST BY THAT SINGLE ACTION.

They died on another planet, while being hunted down by a guy working for Palpatine and instructed to bring Rey back to them.

I didn’t notice it until Jenny Nicholson pointed it out in her TROS review, because it SOMEHOW completely escaped my notice, but… Rey’s mom saying Rey is DEFINITELY NOT on Jakku is like the worst fucking lie I’ve ever seen in a film because it’s so hilariously bad. Congratulations, Space Villanelle, may you be forever remembered for this line.

Also, it’s stupid af that Oshi (that’s his name, right? Can’t be bothered to Google it, might just call him Barney the Bounty Hunter from now on) just kills Rey’s parents, because HE’S EVUL MUAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA, because he literally creates a dead end for himself. He still has no fucking clue where Rey is, and he just killed off his only leads. CONGRATULATIONS BARNEY THE BOUNTY HUNTER, YOU SUCK AT YOUR JOB.

Rey’s dad is a Palpatine and Rey’s mom is Villanelle.

So, Rey’s dad looks like he’s in his early thirties at most, right? Maybe a little younger than Luke and Leia, then. So, unless he got frozen in carbonite at some point, that means Palpatine fucked at some point while looking like this:

Anyway, I sure hope Sly Moore was Grandma Palpatine because she’s pretty much the only person who’d be game to smash raisin ass. Which leaves me with extremely disturbing pictures of Palps and Sly having sex, so I’ll spare you the more graphic details of my twisted mind that’s screaming for an end to this misery. 

I sure hope having Rey’s mom as Jodie Comer isn’t a clue that we’ll get spin-offs with those two (GOD PLEASE NO), but while I crack jokes about how Rey’s mom is Villanelle and Palpadad kinda looks like Ramsay Bolton… I find it fucking hilarious they dressed Rey’s mom in BLUE. LIKE, SEE? SEE? SHE’S IN BLUE, LIKE THE VIRGIN MARY, BECAUSE REY IS SPACE JESUS!!!! GET IT??? GETIT???? PLEASE TELL ME YA GET IT, OKAY???? *gross sobbing* I knew we should have had Rey born in a manger, that would have made the artistic intentions clear *wipes tear*

All right. There’s a lot more that could be said about Rey’s lineage, but I’m keeping that for my main review because what’s left to say ties up to the bigger picture. What I tried to point out with this preliminary post is that while Rey Palpatine *could* have worked, in different circumstances, it couldn’t have had post-TLJ… and we’re left to see a mutilated horse who was dead on arrival. And that’s tragic.

[jamestaylorswift]

You're so mind-blowingly brilliant -- your posts never cease to make my day! I don't even have a tumblr account, but I check your page at least ten times/day, hoping for a new analysis. Reading your essay on "folklore"'s dreamscape felt like an acid trip in the best possible way. Please share your thoughts on the original "Cardigan" lyrics ASAP!

Thanks, anon! You’ve got me blushing like a damn fool over here 😊 You’re always welcome on this blog, lurking or otherwise!

Okay so this is more a line of reasoning that starts at the OG “cardigan,” not just lyric analysis. I’m not exactly sure how to organize all these thoughts so I’m just going to put them in the order that they came. Apologies if this is a mess. (And under a cut because I can’t shut up lmao)

To me, the OG “cardigan” is the antithesis of the song as we now know it. That got me thinking about how the core of the album might have been much different too.

The album-making process started with “my tears ricochet.” (I believe this song is from Karlie’s point of view, per the notes in the dreamscape essay.) I’m assuming Taylor didn’t edit this song much. She has implied in the past that a song is “written” when it takes musical form (i.e. lyrics literally get put to a track). The idea of a dead lover is also extremely compelling. She made “cardigan,” “seven,” and “peace” next.

It’s likely that these four songs represent folklore’s original ideological pillars. The common thread of Aaron’s three songs (both versions of “cardigan”) is the idea of age or maturity. “peace” and “seven” are age-related endpoints and “cardigan” is a midway point. “my tears ricochet” happens to be an endpoint (i.e. dying, as opposed to reaching an adult maturity).

From these songs, I extrapolate that Taylor wanted to explore emotional growth specifically by addressing Peter Pan and Wendy’s philosophical disagreement. (Also…veer off into gay childhood trauma.) “peace” is about the strongest argument anyone could make in favor of Wendy—growing up is necessary, especially in order to love and treat someone properly. (This song even argues for mutual maturity/understanding.) “my tears ricochet” is the fallout if two people end up fighting with each other, not for each other. OG “cardigan” comes down on Peter’s side—if given the choice to preserve youth or yield to age, one should prefer the former. The album was to transform an endorsement of Peter into an endorsement of Wendy.

The three songs done with Aaron were likely written to appear in the order they do today: “cardigan” as exposition, then “seven,” then “peace.” Observe that to chart a course hitting all four songs, Taylor has to align OG “cardigan” with “my tears ricochet.” “seven” can stand on its own, provided she pads it with enough storytelling. “peace” and “my tears ricochet” cannot both be endpoints of the story, especially because they are at odds with each other. The mutual understanding in “peace” is not at all consistent with the hatred and sadness in “my tears ricochet.” Thus, the track list requires the partial ordering of OG “cardigan,” then “my tears ricochet,” then (much later) “peace.”

Let’s talk about OG “cardigan.” The first verse paints the potrait of Karlie. “Vintage tee, brand new phone // high heels on cobblestones // when you are young they assume you know nothing” alludes to the glamor of modeling, plus its stereotype as the profession of being young, dumb, and beautiful. “Livin’ in a gold age // sneakin’ to my bird cage” reintroduces the tension of reputation, youth and freedom at odds with oppressive forces. “Laughin’ like a damn fool // breakin’ every damn rule” contrasts the characterization of Karlie in the verse. She instead has a marvelous time being hot, smart, and moderately evil. Through this contrast, Taylor suggests that the power of youth is the freedom to choose to ignore very serious problems (pseudo-escapism?). The OG outro full of zingers is Taylor’s perspective as someone who gets burned by the freedom of choice. Young Karlie leaves young Taylor because the high of reputation-era antics wears off. Then, old Taylor, still affected by this loss, also loses her mind in a reverse-“Don’t Blame Me” kinda way.

Word choice, to me, suggests that “cardigan” was originally conceived not as the Breakup Song of the Cenozoic Era but a narrative partner of “illicit affairs.” Karlie and Taylor are on the same team in OG “cardigan.” They have a marvelous time being hot, smart, and moderately evil and breaking all the damn rules together. “You know damn well // for you I would ruin myself” gets spit back in Taylor’s face and is that much more impactful. 

Karlie is justified in leaving because the moment dies. This phrase describes a relationship that mutually and/or slowly dwindles. Karlie makes a decision to leave and save herself, and indeed makes the better choice because she retains her wild and her sanity. Hence, Peter wins the argument.

It’s unclear when “exile” was written, but I think it was early on in the process because Taylor added bird noises to it. “exile” plus OG “cardigan”/“illicit affairs” illustrates two joint affairs, such as double bearding. Pronoun issues with the second verse of “cardigan” aside, Karlie’s eventual downfall (i.e. the emotional end of “illicit affairs”) is implied to be a result of Taylor…also cheating? Maybe it’s the whole Friends “we were on a break” thing. (IDK, I’ve never actually seen Friends.)

OG “cardigan,” “illicit affairs,” and “exile” were once closely affiliated. More pertinently, by the partial ordering, “illicit affairs” and “exile” were meant to explain how OG “cardigan” connects to “my tears ricochet.” Karlie leaves Taylor during their illicit affair; the affair ruins Karlie; Karlie dies and Taylor shows up at the funeral because she’s pissed; Karlie becomes a vengeful ghost and Taylor is also emotionally ruined forever. Scene.

But these are not the connections that Taylor put out into the world. Obviously we can never know precisely why. One thing that does stick out to me, though, is how hard it is to turn around and align with Wendy given the illicit affair narrative.

In “peace,” Taylor shows her own maturity by acknowledging that she was cowardly and dishonorable. For what? Karlie left her in OG “cardigan,” not the other way around. Taylor runs away with someone else in “exile” (“him”), ostensibly to enjoy a more stable relationship. Her playing the role of the angry funeralgoer in “my tears ricochet” is perfectly reasonable. Taylor was promised love and Karlie didn’t give her what she needed, so she moved on. Therefore, we should conclude that maturity is really…hanging onto someone who doesn’t stay? Having the courage to stay in an incredibly tenuous affair? Apparently, one also must be cheated on in order to mature. These are all strange conclusions.

Taylor illustrates Karlie’s maturity with a monologue of numerous promises—of pretty much everything except peace itself. The illicit affair narrative does strongly support the argument that maturity is learning how to stay true to one’s word. Yet its logical beginning is that one must cheat on another—plus be unfaithful to the person they are cheating with—in order to mature. (Karlie gets burned by the freedom of choice only when she later faces the consequences of the affair.) Also strange.

The illicit affair narrative as a primary emotional catalyst of the album generates even bigger inconsistencies.

“august” both humanizes the person cheated with and leaves them worse off than the cheater. “my tears ricochet” emphasizes the opposite: the one cheated with stays alive and becomes a very ugly person, but the cheater dies.

Arguably, both people should have anticipated the fallout of the (implied to be years-long) affair. “my tears ricochet” is internally inconsistent. “I didn’t have it in myself to go with grace” suggests Karlie died an unfortunate or unforeseen death, not an inevitable one. “You turned into your worst fears” suggests Taylor turned around and became a cheater too.

“invisible string” can support the argument that Taylor and Karlie were always bound to get back together after a breakup. Morally dubious underwriting of the initial affair notwithstanding, this song contradicts “mad woman.” Taylor wrote “mad woman” song shortly after “peace;” in it, she is staunchly against cheating. (She avoids morally dubious underwriting of illicit activity on the album by axing the OG “cardigan”/“illicit affairs”/“exile” narrative, then condemning cheating and seducing in “mad woman” and “illicit affairs,” respectively.)

Again, it is impossible to know when, why, or even exactly how the narrative of the album changed as Taylor was writing it. The dramatization I’ve provided of inconsistencies piling up is only one plausible explanation—and a convoluted one at that—for a change of artistic heart. Whatever the reason, I think it is significant that Taylor performed a volte face to never argue in favor of Peter in the first place.

The album version of “cardigan,” and indeed the entire love triangle, supports Wendy’s side of the argument. “cardigan” shows that James and Betty’s relationship was vibrant, joyous, thrilling, and tender, but above all, perfect. The tone of the song helps Taylor denounce James’ choice to leave Betty as cruel and unnecessary. It is James’ fault for leaving once the “thrill expired,” not Betty’s fault for believing James would stay after the honeymoon phase. “betty” reinforces James’ characterization as the ignorant fool too. Because the album necessarily pigeonholes the leaver in the role of the coward, Wendy wins the argument on the grounds of moral fiber.

(James technically ‘wins’ in “august” because the titular character is left devastated and alone. August embodies youth through hope and yearning. James’ lack of conviction kills that hope. Thus, youthful traits are always collateral damage of the entire maturing process. And, the narrative that pits the characters against each other ends with James, regarded as the paradigm youth, losing the most.)

Perhaps this is the best justification for the existence of the teenage love triangle. Introducing characters who are maturing in various ways still allows Taylor to explore emotional growth. Three separate but fixed perspectives act as a proxy for one person’s changing perspective. By aligning herself with each character at a different time in their life, she shows that maturity (e.g. realism, reliability, patience, etc.) always gives one the upper hand.

The love triangle’s main purpose is to illustrate the philosophy that permeates the rest of the album. folklore as we know it is Taylor’s memorial to all the things lost to youth. Maturity would have prevented so many losses. At the same time, it is impossible to mature without first being youthful, making mistakes, and feeling lost while doing so. This is Taylor’s singular but melancholic endorsement of Wendy. How sad, valuable, and necessary, she says of growing up.

Lest my point be misinterpreted as ‘we can confidently reverse-engineer Taylor’s artistic process,’ here are my main takeaways from the “cardigan” changes:

OG “cardigan” is sad and we should appreciate it as such. “I knew to love would be to lose my mind?” Please.

“cardigan,” as a midway point with respect to age, is the only ideologically ‘variable’ song of the original quartet. Furthermore, by placement and construction, “cardigan” is/was intended to be expository. Changing “cardigan” changes the course she charts through the album. Taking sadness out of one song and spreading it over a storytelling album really changes the meaning of that sadness.

Of the eponymous characters, it’s worth noting that Taylor is James, the leaver, whereas she is left in the OG “cardigan.” It’s utterly fascinating that Taylor chooses to embody ‘hanging on to youth’ angle. What we assume is a very deep, primal feeling is one she overemphasizes for narrative purposes. Consequently, dismissing the love triangle as (fix-it) fiction requires dismissing Taylor’s attachment to youth—being Peter. To that end, we might also need to dismiss the infamous “I never grew up, it’s getting so old” line from “The Archer.” Many others, too…

Red herring though it may be, the love triangle alters folklore’s underlying philosophy, hence the very essence of its melancholy. It seems rather unwise to ignore the love triangle or to reduce it to a cheesy storytelling device. Recognizing that Taylor endorses Wendy and only Wendy is, in my opinion, crucial for clarifying other nebulous ideas in folklore. (I know I sound like a broken record, but I really do think abstraction in the music requires abstraction in analysis. It’s really easy to fall into the habit of tying specific lyrics to people or events. Personally, I find richer and deeper connections by actively working against that habit. I’m not saying this is the only way to do analysis—on the contrary, I think all analysis is correct because it’s all subjective. Rather, I think people overlook the value of occasional abstraction, much to my distress. folklore analysis even seems to demand abstraction. Sue me for believing that things like the underlying philosophy of an album are important, I guess?)

Would you believe that there’s more to this change than what I’ve argued? I’m weary that this is answer is already not what you wanted, so I won’t bang on and quadruple its length. In conclusion: the Implications.

[soundwavereporting]

*insert catchy text post title here*

So! WFC Siege thoughts, now that I’m home from work and slightly more awake.

Under a cut because spoilers (obviously) and because I rambled:

Soundwave (which is my usual metric for judging anything tf) is pretty much what I expected him to be, which is...not much. lmao. I’d half expected him to sound like autotuned Hazbin Hotel Alastor, so having the flat voice was almost a shock, but honestly it kinda fits his not having a personality, except for that one line and him once again getting the brain cell of the Decepticons. But honestly, rarely does Soundwave have an explicit personality that doesn’t require digging into supplemental material and rewatching/rereading the media to find a few snippets of characterization from which to spin a whole character, so really it’s nothing new. No. I’m not bitter at all. Do I sound bitter? Also. I want to know what happened to him. Did he get blown away by the Ark’s engines????

However

I am SO INTRIGUED by the tiny hints given about Soundblaster...why was he made...what does Soundwave think of him? I don’t care about the war anymore. I just want a whole show about Soundblaster. I want a novel. I want a whole series. PLEASE Hasbro. PLEASE.

IRT the actual conflict between Autobots and Decepticoons......I’m gonna admit I breathed a sigh of relief when there was some actual effort into making the conflict actually dimensional, rather than ‘good Autobots vs evil Decepticons’. Maybe I’m still burned by the tfp discourse but it was so, so nice to see the nods to Functionism, to the class differences between Autobots and Decepticons, etc. And Impactor/Mirage’s argument, with Impactor practically quoting Towards Peace? *chef’s kiss* (and Ratchpactor...good)

However, the fact that the writers couldn’t decide whether to make it a war of ideals (nice) or a war of different races (not nice) left me wanting...I would’ve liked someone to give a full backstory on the OP/Megs/Mags thing, as well as a coherent explanation of...the actual central conflict. Was it initially an ‘us [op/mags/megs/alpha trion] vs them [wfc equivalent functionists]’ that ended with megs going too far, splintering the initial ‘good guys’? Was it something else entirely? As it stands, the conflict feels like it was written by someone who was forced to read the entire IDW1 comic run in a couple days.

The whole macguffin allspark/reprogramming plot is a whole other post (as is the depiction of the female characters) so I don’t want to get into it, but I do want to talk about Optimus, and Magnus, and their honor (aka pride). I love me some moral conflicts but Mangoes....if you can literally end the war by shooting someone in the back, is it not worth it to sacrifice your honor in order to save the lives of your friends, the people you love, and also allow them to keep their ‘‘‘honor’’’?

I know the conflict was probably supposed to be interpreted in a different way, but I can only see it as:

“is your personal sense of honor really worth the lives of your friends. the survival of the species you are so determined to save. (yes)”

(this is why I’d make an absolutely TERRIBLE autobot.)

Also. Optimus blatantly disregarding the (very valid) concerns of his lieutenants because......he loves his friends and has faith and hope...and everyone raises a stink for half a minute and then goes along with him anyway? I understand that he’s not the military leader, but he made patently terrible decisions throughout the entire show.

The decisions worked out, because he’s Optimus and he’s a good guy, but honestly, it might benefit you to take a few minutes to ponder the potential fallout of your actions before putting your plan into place. I don’t think Megatron should be the one telling you to consider the consequences of your actions because you disregarded your lieutenants telling you the exact same thing.

Just saying.

Finally, it’s a first for me, but Bumblebee was a whole #mood, at least until he got the macguffin Alpha Trion protocols and suddenly became all about the Autobots :/

tl;dr I’d give it a solid 6/10. I’m definitely gonna rewatch it again, if only for the Soundwave (and Soundblaster!) parts. I’d love it if the sequel series focused on the people left on Cybertron, but I have a feeling that’s....probably not gonna happen, since. Earth. Eugh. I also really want an actual, thoughtful exploration of the moral differences/reasonings between Autobots and Decepticons, so if anyone has those kinds of fics to rec, hmu. It also means that I’m more determined than ever to finish some of my current WIPs so I can write a fic that attempts to do just that.

Anyway. This got long. If y’all want to chat about the show, I’ll be on for a while, either here or on discord.

ETA: ASTROTRAIN!  I want more Astrotrain asap! He is so huge and looked absolutely terrifying when compared to tiny Prowl. Why did he only get like three seconds of screentime, smh

[unordinary-analysis]

Episode 175

Honorable mentions:

The news report that one student was trying to turn into Isen was titled, “Retaliation Against Jokers”

The two definitions of “hunter” are: 1. a person (or animal) who hunts game or other wild animals for food or in sport. 2. a person who searches for or seeks something.

Wasn’t expecting so much on Isen, but now here we are

Claire’s instagram actually exists @little_apple7 and the first post was created on March 14, so you can go follow her if you want haha

Blyke already knows that Isen likes to look at girls from other schools, I don’t know why Isen’s hiding Claire from him smh…

I'm so hyper right now jesus christ

I wanted these posts to be getting shorter smh

Wait-- do Arlo and Sera know about when the superhero posse became the superhero posse? Lmao

The fact that all Seraphina knew about Claire was her name and her town, and that Isen was able to find her ilffkjkeajsfgdsf

DOES ANYONE KNOW THAT JOHN IS A YEAR OLDER THAN EVERYONE IN HIS GRADE OR ARE THEY GONNA FIND OUT WHEN CLAIRE SHOWS UP it’s not that big of a deal i'm just interested

Not proofreading so hopefully I didn’t cut myself off mid-sentence anywhere rip

Isen:

    There’s actually a few things on my mind this week when it comes to Isen. First of all is his reluctance to be involved, which isn’t new and is actually something I’ve talked about before, but oh well. The second is his ability. I have also mentioned this before, but Isen’s ability has always seemed pretty vague to me, which is surprising considering that he’s one of the main characters and we’ve seen it a good amount of times.

    Anyway: his reluctance to be involved with any of the hierarchy drama. Isen is, at this point, notorious for wanting nothing to do with Arlo and his drama. Though he’s being more straight-forward with this currently, Isen has always displayed this. At the beginning of the comic, Isen was hesitant about investigating John for Arlo. And there was also that time when Arlo made Isen head of the newspaper, despite Isen not wanting the job. Also when Remi became a superhero, Isen was kind of dragged along and resisted participating (kind of weird example if I’m honest). These are some quick examples, but there are more. I’m just kind of lazy tbh. Anyway, recently, Isen has been vocalizing his discomfort even more. The best example of that is probably episode 164 where Isen directly calls Arlo out for not only involving Isen in things he wants nothing to do with, but also for involving others. I talk about the nature of that conversation, and how it highlights the character differences in Isen and Arlo, in my episode analysis for episode 164. Anyway, Isen has a big issue with this and explains this to Arlo.

    This theme of wanting to be left out of drama isn’t exactly specific to Isen, though. It’s a pretty common theme for people to be pissed off because they’re being forced into situations, usually by Arlo. Seraphina experienced this a little near the beginning of the comic when Arlo brought her along to turf wars even though at that point she’d stepped down from being queen. Elaine tends to experience this often, as well, though not exclusively with Arlo, whenever she is involved because of her healing ability. The big example is actually John, however. John has stressed many times that he just wanted to be left out of the hierarchy to all of the other characters, especially Arlo. This is his “reason” for taking down the school’s hierarchy. John didn’t want anything to do with the hierarchy, but when he couldn’t stay apart from it any longer, his remaining option to not be a part of the hierarchy was to destroy it.

    My point is, that if Arlo keeps forcing people into situations and responsibilities that they either don’t want or aren’t ready for, he’s going to have a real issue on his hands, like what happened with John. He does realize this, however, which we found out after he was dethroned and was reflecting on his interactions with John. Regarding Isen, I think that there’s a possibility Isen will either fail Arlo or turn on him (hopefully teaming up with Cecile, but we’ll keep our fingers crossed for that one). Isen’s been too vocal about his dislike of being involved with things (wording?) to continue to go along with it. Even though he is a very temperate character and doesn’t usually act up, I don’t think this trait alone will solidify his loyalty to Arlo. That also wouldn’t be utilizing his character’s potential in the current storyline, and the plot is probably the most detailed and worked on aspect of UnOrdinary. The thing about all of this is, Arlo can’t exactly just leave people alone when they want to be left alone because all of his decisions are made on the behalf of the school and if he can secure the school’s well-being at the expense of putting more pressure on a singular person, he’s obviously going to do that. This is what makes Arlo’s situation so complicated. There is no “correct” answer. Arlo is involving Isen because he needs his expertise to investigate characters like John and now Terrence. Nobody else would be as effective as Isen, which is why Arlo turns to Isen. There isn’t any way for Arlo to totally win.

    Anyway, like I said, I think that Isen will reach his breaking point relatively soon and Arlo is going to suffer from that. Whether it’s betrayal or not. This idea of forced involvement really involves both of these characters so any changes in their dynamic as it is right now will really affect the storyline, I think. We’ll just have to look out for this, however. 

    Their dynamic in this episode, though, is a bit too comedic to support any type of breaking point between the two, which makes me uneasy.

    Now, let’s move on to the second topic of Isen’s section: his ability. Isen’s ability “Hunter” is one of my personal favorites. Mimicking a “hunter,” Isen has a set of skills that help him to track down and take down his targets. The list of skills is listed on the UnOrdinary Wiki as follows:

Targeting

X-Ray Vision (involving people) (aka when Isen detects location/heartbeat)

Enhanced Strength

Enhanced Speed

Telescopic Vision (Passive (?))

Enhanced Precision (similar to Targeting)

Enhanced Hearing

    These are more of defensive traits, so here’s a bit of description on his offensive ability from me:

Built-up/wound-up punch: “He builds up his power into one punch, which, when let loose, is appallingly effective. His ability probably multiplies the force of his initial build-up, releasing when Isen’s fist hits his target.” -(my episode analysis of episode 126)

Visible “Target” on opponent: (Targeting from above, but used in a more offensive way)

“Isen’s general fighting style is a one-hit K.O. system. He attacks them with the strong attack, leaving his opponent weak, then rushes in for the “kill,” a kind of animalistic instinct… His method doesn’t require much strategy or stamina. It is efficient and precise. Strike to take down.” -(my analysis for ep 126)

Isen’s offensive is strong enough to hold up in a fight against Blyke (before Blyke started to level up) because in one of the first episodes, they have an ongoing battle over Isen’s pen that neither wins. This puts Isen’s offensive at relatively high (because Joker’s obvious power advantage didn’t really show this off when Isen and John fought)

    Anyway, there’s the base of Isen’s power and kind of what we already know about it. But in this episode, we get to see it again, like I said before, it’s always kind of fascinating to me whenever we get to see Isen’s power. His is one of the more interesting ones in the comic by far. It’s animalistic nature paired with human mechanics creates an interesting blend that we don’t see in any other character really. The idea of Isen’s power is so alluring to me for some reason. I don’t know. I’m not really going anywhere with this lmao. Anyway, we learned a few things about Isen’s ability in this episode that we didn’t know before.

    One: Isen does not have the passive ability to sense people/auras like John is theorized to have (this isn’t canon, right?). This isn’t anything surprising seeing as John’s ability is literally called Aura Manipulation, but it’s pretty exaggerated in this episode that Isen really needs to activate his ability to be able to sense people, even having to close his eyes, but the eyes part might be more about the execution of his ability, which is my third thing.

    Two: Isen can sense people!! Lol this might seem a bit redundant after my last point, but this is something new from him that I haven’t really noticed before even though we’ve technically seen it before. In episode 124, near the end of the episode, we have a scene where Isen is running around the school scanning through walls and people looking for Seraphina. He is technically “sensing” people and is even able to identify them as not Seraphina, so obviously he has some way to distinguish people. This makes Isen almost like a walking Marauders' Map, for lack of a better explanation. I’m not really sure how to go deeper into this because I’ve never really been all that confident in talking about the UnOrdinary Characters’ powers, so I’ll just leave it here that I think Isen being able to sense/find people is really cool.

    Three: Echolocation. This is something really new to this episode. In episode 175 (this episode lol), Isen is shown mentally standing in a black void/abyss along with Sera and Arlo with puddles like ripples around each character’s feet, when he activates his power to try to sense anyone else in the room. This visual is very similar to how bats, and other animals, use echolocation to “see.” Echolocation is, “the location of objects by reflected sound, in particular that used by animals such as dolphins and bats,” according to the Oxford dictionary. If Isen is truly using echolocation, then he locates people by soundwaves, which would make sense considering that sound seems to be the thing Isen is usually shown to be involved with (wording was bad but idc). I do think that this detail is a bit weak in comparison to echolocation because there have been times where Isen has sensed/tracked people where it would have been difficult to rely upon sound, like the school or the mall, but if his hearing is really that enhanced, it could still work. I’m also up for looking for things besides sound that Isen could be sensing with his ripple thing. I know I labeled this as echolocation, but it’s very possible he uses a more supernatural trait to utilize these. I just liked the idea of Isen having echolocation if I’m honest. I found this whole concept interesting because of the animal ties and Isen’s ability being named “Hunter.” I also might be tempted to look into bats specifically in the future if we get more details on Isen’s ability that make it worthwhile. I want to compare the two, but not if it’s unprompted. 

    Terrence:

    We get some new information about Terrence in this episode and it is as follows:

Isen would put Terrence around a 2.4 ability-wise

Terrence only started attending Wellston at the beginning of the year

    Along with this, we also get some less straight-forward, but just as meaningful, information. Isen says, “So the invisible guy at the mall… That was him too?!” which from a storytelling standpoint basically confirms that it was in fact him. This quote would not be included if it were not correct because it would only add confusion if it were incorrect (which is its possible intent, but I’ll talk about that in a second). Another quote from this episode was Arlo’s quote, “Then he, or whoever he’s working for… has some sort of fixation on hightiers.” Because of the same reasoning from above, this basically confirms that Terrence is working for somebody or else it would be a very random thing for uru-chan to include in the comic especially since there is no evidence for the characters to even suspect that Terrence is working for somebody. Same thing with Sera’s quote, “I’m almost certain that… Terrence is connected to my ability-loss.”

    But, like I said, there is a possibility this is all a juke by uru-chan to get us to believe these things so she can successfully trick us and reveal that Terrence has been fighting EMBER this whole time or some shit, but I don’t think that is likely because if that were true, I feel uru-chan would have stressed this Terrence and EMBER connection even more than she has already. But this is still a possibility, though I will be ignoring it in this post. Because that would be just awful. 

    Anyway, now that that’s all out of the way and we are caught up, I don’t want to waste my time talking specifically about these things because they’re either too small of details or I’m not getting inspired because of them. The only interesting thing that we really learn this episode is that Terrence transferred to Wellston at the beginning of this school year (which is around when the first episode takes place), but I’m not sure what to think about that so I’m going to give it a week or two before discussing that. The rest is either unimportant or we basically already knew (or at least suspected).

    What I am going to talk about is Terrence’s involvement with EMBER and my thoughts on it. I’ve been pretty clear in the past when I say that I think that Terrence is part of EMBER. I’ve made whole posts on this, okay? I think. I don’t know. It feels like I have.

    Anyway, I’ve talked about this a little in the UnOrdinary chat here on tumblr, so come join if you haven’t. But basically, I think that Terrence works under EMBER to some extent, or however that would work, but on a lower-tier. He’s a lesser employee, I guess. I don’t really know how to phrase this, though it should be easy. I think that Terrence works at a level low enough where he is not directly being made aware of EMBER’s true intentions or actions, and that he’s probably been given some bullshit reason for the jobs he’s done that makes it seem to him like he is doing a good thing. EMBER might be really convincing too and have him thinking that the things EMBER is actually doing are good. Whatever it is, I think that Terrence thinks he is doing the right thing. This could be his incentive for working with them, though I like the thought that Terrence wants some of EMBER’s ability enhancers for either himself or someone he knows, because that has more potential as a motive.

    So, I just said that the things mentioned in this episode are basically confirmed because of their mention, so I’m going to use them as examples of what Terrence has done under EMBER. The same goes for when, in episode 172, Seraphina thinks, “Invisibility? That day, on our way back from Kovoro Mall… the person following us also had invisibility. Is this just a coincidence?” That’s part of this for the same reasons.

    I think Terrence’s main job is to spy on whoever he is told, but that from time to time, he is also required to do some other small jobs like being a lookout or the get-away car person (I don’t know what it’s called). He’s spied on John and Sera on their way back from the mall, he’s spied on the main characters in hallways at schools, etc. And he was the driver with the superhero posse’s mall incident.

    Something brought up by the UnOrdinary chat was that Terrence would solve the problem of EMBER having to give out teddy bears to track high-tiers, but I think that giving Terrence the task of tracking the high-tiers at school would be way less efficient than direct trackers. Also, you don’t really want to rely upon a second-year in highschool for your entire scheme, now would you. So that’s why I think EMBER doesn’t use him to find high-tiers. Also, Terrence only has access to Wellston’s students, which is a very small pool compared to the literal rest of the world.

    The only thing that I can’t exactly figure out is Terrence’s connection with the school newspaper. The best thing I could come up with was that Vaughn, the principal or whoever he is, is working for EMBER and is giving Terrence instructions on what to do, but that doesn’t make sense when you take into account that Vaughn hates the authorities and EMBER are probably working with or even are the authorities. Shame, though, this would’ve been interesting. Terrence does, however, go out of his way to publish his stories in the school newspaper, which needs an explanation… This makes me think that EMBER as an organization are focusing on Wellston specifically. Maybe because they know about John’s history and want to see what he would do to Wellston (which is another thing that could be a possible connection to Vaughn and why he’s so lenient about John’s actions). They might be using Terrence as a way to fuel/spark any conflicts or climaxes. There’s also the interesting detail that ever since Isen became the head of the newspaper, Terrence hasn’t submitted anything that big, at least according to Isen in this episode.

    Anyways, I think that Terrence’s presence in the comic is a very big deal because it is the most direct connection to EMBER and their activities. Terrence, himself, might not play the biggest part, but he is a way for the other characters to dive into EMBER themselves, and a way for the audience to be reminded of the big, underlying plotline.

Claire:

    Claire’s mention in this episode is one of the highlights to most people. And to me. I am most people. God, I love Claire. In 2018, the only two comments I made on UnOrdinary were, “Petition to transfer Claire to Wellston for drama,” and, “#TRANSFERCLAIRETOWELLSTON.” So, just the fact that we’re getting Claire is just blowing my mind right now. Obviously, I know she's not transfering, but I don’t care. We’re getting Claire. And I am screaming.

    Anyway, we’re getting Claire interaction between Seraphina and Claire, which is not only very entertaining, but interesting considering how similar their experiences with John were. This is actually why Seraphina is reaching out to Claire. Seraphina is going into this interaction with the knowledge that John accidently views her as this person, which is bound to make an interesting dynamic between Claire and Sera. And dynamic. Is. Everything. Anyways, I don’t really have an analysis for this, but I want to make a bunch of kinda predictions because I feel like that’s all I can do. 

    I don’t think that Claire is going to want to talk to Seraphina at first, because she obviously wants to leave that part of her past behind. But they do eventually have to talk to each other so-- I think that Claire is going to be very serious towards Seraphina when explaining to her everything about John. This is why I think they will meet up in person right away, despite them having the option of texting and despite Claire living far away. Something else I’m excited for is all of the new things we’re going to learn about John. I think that Claire is going to be very interested to hear about how John became a cripple for about a year, because that’s just something I think Claire would find hard to believe. I’m interested in seeing what Claire knows about John’s dad and what their relationship is. I don’t know, just--John’s dad has gone for too long, especially considering what happened recently. Anyway, I think that Claire and Sera are going to end up as good friends. Either that or they’re going to hate each other, which would be amusing, but kind of unlikely. The thing about all of this is that we literally don’t know anything about Claire’s personality and what happened to her after John. She is unknown to us.

    I also think that Adrion is going to play a big part in the comic as well, because his presence was focused on along with Claire’s a lot. Adrion was in, I think, every photo shown of Claire and John (in this episode). We also don’t know a whole lot about him, which is unusual because you would expect that we would at least know his ability, but we don’t. We know the abilities of almost every minor character, but Adrion is a recurring and important character. This is why I think he’s going to show up, and why I think he’s going to be different than he seems. Like, maybe he’ll be introduced to Seraphina as all friendly and stuff, but then we find out that he’s evil. I don’t know. I just like stuff like that.

    This section is hella short for the topic it’s on, but because I don’t have much to add to this Claire thing and also that my feelings have kind of numbed out during the past week (because this is being written/posted really late), I don’t know what else to add. I’m just really excited and it’s hard to get your thoughts together about something you're really excited about. I don’t think we’ll get any interactions with her in the next episode, but the one after seems likely to me.

[alleyskywalker]

Can you talk about "Lies About Love" (it's just a beatiful, wonderfully written fic) and "Years After" and "Absolution" (these are my favorite ones of your fanfics about sonyakhov and tbh, I like to think they're somehow related) please?

Lies About Love

Two things that definitely came together to make me write this - 1) I wanted to write something for Femslash February and 2) I’ve been wanting to write some R&J/RetJ femslash. I mean, obviously R&J isn’t the best fandom for femslash, given the lay of the land, so to speak, in that canon wrt female characters. But, something about that made me want to do it even more lmao.

Why this…odd sort of ship? Well, initially it came up as almost crackship thought stemming from this lovely Revival cast promo photo in which Nurse is just casually hanging out on the Montague side of things with no apparent explanation. Even Juliet is kinda more in the middle there, and she’s an item with Romeo canonically, so it’s not strange for her to be there on his arm. So what’s Nurse doing? Well, I guess, going by this photo you could come up with with Benvolio/Nurse Thoughts if you were so compelled (and LBLL then becomes some weird teenage UST thing?), but the more natural thought for me was…well…this is a story all about star-crossed lovers. Tycutio thrives a lot from hitching its wagon to that trope/construct. And because there’s no Lord M in RetJ and het is so commonplace it gets boring, the best answer there seemed to be a Nurse/Lady M backstory. (I then proceeded to relay this idea to the RetJ discord server to everyone’s horror and accompanied by a shippy manip-ed icon that I spent way too long on given the content.)

But sad backstories are like the honey to my bee, so I grew fond of this idea in principle, even though I didn’t really intend to do anything about ti at that time. (I mean this was in December - I had yuletide to write for and an exchange to co-run so shhhh.) Also, the Russian version of “Et Voila Qu'elle Aime” has this great verse about how Nurse used to be young and naive about love, and then was clearly disillusioned. That song/verse is also where the title comes from. I think, in the end, despite the Revival photo being what initially gave me this idea, I ended up with a Nurse characterization closest to the Russian one.

(I will say that one of the reasons why I ended up posting the fic on March 1 instead of the last couple days of February like I thought I would, is because I realized last second that I made HUGE timeline mistake which would have led to the AU scenario of Romeo being younger than Juliet. So the stupid thing required some re-writing.)

I admit that I’m pleased that I was able to make this story work in a way that still allowed for my Lord M/Lady M ship, because, at least in many verses if not all, I do like to imagine them as being in love. IDK why I’m so set on the whole “Montagues are reasonably functional as a family internally, at least to the extent that they all genuinely love each other.” Like, I get both families need to be messy and messed up and not a “safe space” to their respective heirs at least on some accounts, and yet….

Absolution

Aww! I really don’t want to disapoint you or anything wrt this fic, since you say you like it so much, but truth is I don’t have that much to say about it. This one was written to a prompt and is very prompt-driven, in the sense that the relationship and characterizations were skewed a certain direction on purpose to fit the prompt. It wasn’t intended to be specifically related to or in the same universe as Years After although there is nothing in the explicitly in the fic that precludes them being in the same universe.

I’d say that this fic stresses the “idea woman” part of Dolokhov’s attraction to Sonya. Which is canonical, especially if you care to account for the “First Drat” publication of War and Peace (in the actual canon it’s more inferred). But in my headcanons that part of his attraction to her more prevalent in canon-era when they are both younger. Their post-war relationship I see as a little less…mmm…idealistic and idealized, I guess you’d say. Also, in this fic, Dolokhov comes off as very guilty about his past, to levels that I don’t actually headcanon him being. I think Dolokhov, especially when younger, may have longed for a way to be “purified” and to be more righteous, but also felt confident that when he did things, he did them because he wanted to or he had to, that it was the correct and necessary thing for him to do at that moment.

Years After

This fic I love! It is, in a way, a re-purposing of what would have been the beginning of a post-war Sonyakhov longfic. (Which I never ended up writing as we see lol.) Agh I actually don’t know what to say about this one - it’s an illustration of my main Sonyakhov headcanons (admittedly ignoring the epilogue to work timeline-wise). This is the headcanons verse where they meet (again) after the war - him having lost a lot and clinging desperately to his son, the reminder and last thing he has left of his best friend and another woman he’d loved for years (hello, my Dolokhov/Helene headcanons), and her having had her heart broken and disillusioned about life (and her family/people in general to an extent). Dolokhov is more grounded, both because his youth is gone and loss weighs heavily on him and because he has such a big responsibility wrt his son. Sonya is a little less idealistic and a lot less didactic and moralizing in her worldviews, willing to not just be kind but also understanding and realizing that the world don’t always have right and wrong answers.

And this fic is specifically concerned with setting up Sonya’s shift(s) in perspective and what makes her more open to Dolokhov - her loneliness, her desire for children/a marriage of her own, that she recognizes more acutely that the people around her take her for granted, and that she can’t quite help being bitter, though she does feel at least some guilt over that. But also the recognition that she had been attracted to Dolokhov and that there’s some regret about not giving him more of a chance, even though she doesn’t like admitting that to herself. Her meeting with Dolokhov is also all about the shifts and starting shifts in her perspective - she sees him differently because they share a commonality in losses, she’s more open and aware of his pain and his humanity, and I’m sure him having an adorable child helps too xD

And, ah, yea the parade-memorial is totally ahistorical creative license lol.