#this is such a fun idea and has a lot of potential for character growth and development | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

1moreff-creator · 5 days ago

Note

I thought your speculation on potential survivors for DRDT was fun, so…thoughts on who will make it out of P:EG?

Hey there! Glad to hear you liked my predictions for Despair Time! I had fun writing that one, so I'm down for a redo for Eden's Garden!

Spoilers for all canon Danganronpa games and P:EG CH1

Preamble

Yeah, I need to do this. See, given how little EG content we have so far, a lot of my arguments for survivors use canon DR as examples of things that may happen in the future. However, the production team has said that they're going to stay away from DR tropes like the double victim in CH3. With that in mind, does it really make sense to use canon DR for reference? Well, it depends.

In my eyes, there's a difference between a "DR trope” and a "trope DR happens to use.” What I mean by the latter is a trope which exists as a result of fundamental storytelling principles, or in other words, something that happens in all DR games just because there's good reasons for it to happen in all the games. And because of that, it's entirely possible in my eyes that said "something” happens in EG too.

For example, take the statement "the sillier characters like Ibuki, Hifumi and Gonta don't make it to CH5.” It's true of all DR games, so is EG going to stay away from it just because of that? Well, not necessarily, because there's a legitimate reason this happens. If you reframe it as "the sillier characters don't make it to Act III", you can see how it's probably a good idea to follow it. The end of any story with the level of tragedy of a killing game is usually pretty serious, so it's natural that you'd want the more serious characters to take the spotlight. And an easy way to make that happen is by killing the sillier characters before you reach the final stretch. Because there's an underlying narrative reason to follow this trope, I think it's fair to use it to argue, for example, that Jett or Cassidy might not be the best survivor guesses.

On the other hand, a "DR trope” is something that happens in all the canon games Just Because. For example, there's no underlying narrative reason for the CH3 killer specifically to have a breakdown at the end of the trial which completely redefines their character, and yet, it's something that happens in all DR games. This is the kind of thing that I don't think is a good way of predicting what may happen in a fangan; if there's no underlying storytelling principle that causes a trope to exist, there's no reason to believe it will happen in all fangans just because it happened in canon.

The separation between "DR trope” and "trope DR uses” is very thin and extremely subjective, so if you disagree with the things I consider one or the other, that's fine. I just wanted to make this preamble to say that if I ever bring up canon DR in this post, it's only to illustrate a point about standard storytelling conventions using stories we're all familiar with, and not because I think fangans have to stick to the things DR does 1:1.

---

With that out of the way, let's first establish how many survivors we're even picking. After all, any number of things, such as multi-murders, number of trials, suicides, etc., can really affect the number of survivors. I have no way of knowing, but since the creators have stated they're not doing a third trial double murder, I'm going to pick an optimistic estimate of six survivors. That's two deaths per standard trial, with five standard trials + Prologue Trial + Deathless Final Trial. If the final survivor count is lower, oh well, and if it's higher, I'll be pleasantly surprised.

Let's start with the easy one: I think Damon's surviving. Protag privilege, and all. Sure, being the protag doesn't guarantee survival, but with how much room for growth this particular MC has, I'd be really shocked if he doesn't make it to the end. Hell, even the Pathos/Logos path split mechanic is entirely centered around the fact that the protagonist is the Ultimate Debater, since it's a reference to the rhetorical triangle. If the protag switched, the existence of that mechanic would suddenly make a lot less sense.

Alright, so we got one. I have no other good guesses :v I'm not kidding, I genuinely have no clue what to do with half the people in this fangan. But I have to predict a few people, so…

The only other character who, by themselves, gives me some amount of survivor vibes, is Toshiko. Quite literally a lot of room for growth, given how much of a child she is, there are many arcs she could go on that would make her a compelling survivor. Of course, that can technically be said about all the characters, but y'know.

She's also decently connected to a good amount of the game's main themes (or, what I think are the main themes based on the little we have of the story). Particularly, she embodies both sides of the theme of "modernity/tradition" (seen for example in Ingrid's intro); her general attitude is that of a very traditional person, but she herself is the youngest in the cast, so in a sense she represents the "future".

Please ignore for this analysis that she's only three years younger than the next youngest of the cast, which is really not that big of an age gap :v

Speaking of her age, being an Ultimate at 14 would certainly give her an unique perspective on the topic of "talent", which is definitely looking like the theme of the game. Though the counter-argument here is that everyone and their mother has some kind of connection to talent, so.

Having her in the final trial also has a small benefit in that she can be a "Truth Bullet Target.” Basically, when you're making a dangan style game, you need to create reasons for minigames to exist. So unless there's a bunch of agree points in a given trial, you kinda need people to get things wrong pretty often for Nonstop debates to exist. Thing is, if your surviving cast is competent enough, you might struggle to believably make them get things wrong enough for the player to shoot truth bullets at. Thus, a talkative character with a tendency to get things wrong is a pretty useful thing to have around, to create weak points in Nonstops if nothing else. I don't remember the canon dangans very well, but from what I recall, Hiro and (to a lesser extent) Aoi in THH, as well as Himiko in V3, are good examples of what I mean.

The EG gang is pretty smart all around, but Toshiko stands out as someone who can get a lot wrong on command. She pushes Diana as the culprit in Trial 1 when she's being accused, then switches to defending Eva when suspicion shifts to her. I can see a world where, if the rest of the surviving cast is made up of relatively competent characters, half or so of all Nonstops in the final trial end with you shooting down one of Toshiko's statements.

To be clear, the whole “Truth Bullet Target” thing is just a possibility, and I don't think it's the best way to argue for Toshiko's survival. I'd more go for the things I said before as real arguments, but I did want to include that as well because why not.

Finally, I should probably bring up the matter of masterminds. I currently don't believe Eden's Garden has an in-cast mastermind the way V3 had, as I don't think we've ever been given a reason to believe anything of the sort. However, if someone is involved in the killing game in some deeper way (be it by masterminding it or doing some kind of traitor-y work), then my bet's on Toshiko.

If you've been around the EG theorizing scene, you've probably heard the reasoning. Toshiko's the only character apart from Eva not to talk in the train scene, which is especially odd with how talkative Toshiko usually is. She also sits in the back of the train, near where the bag with the sleeping gas thing is found. Since she always covers her mouth, it's entirely possible she was wearing a gas mask during that scene, later removing it before everyone else woke up. The only other person who could have such a mask was Jett, but we actually see him fall unconscious, unlike with Toshiko. The girl also gets nervous when the topic of the other people in the train gets brought up during the Prologue:

Grace [Prologue]: I passed a bunch of students on my way to the crapper. I didn't talk to them, though. Eva: They have to have heard the commotion in our car. Why didn't they help us? Damon: Maybe they were also knocked out?

Toshiko [Nervous]: I-I doubt it's something we can answer right now. Can I just introduce you to the others already?

Not to mention that she acts weirdly even after everyone wakes up. She runs away from the courtyard, locking most of the cast near the tree with a lock that Damon makes a point to say he didn't even realize was there at first.

Damon [Prologue, thoughts]: [Toshiko] turned to face the door, but instead of pushing it open… …she reached for a lock I hadn't even noticed before.

This is especially notable because Toshiko's actions here are the sole reason everyone stays near the tree while the organizers set up the prologue's faux murder scene. If she hadn't ran into the building and locked the door, the people who woke up outside said building would have probably gone in to explore before Damon's group got out of it. I don't know why the hell the killing game organizers didn't just make everyone wake up near the tree with the door locked in the first place (assuming this isn't a "the Matchmaker wanted the Damon-Eva and Wolfgang-Grace pairs to wake up together and alone" situation), but it's undeniable that Toshiko's little stunt was quite convenient for them. Pretty notable when said stunt is a very strange thing to do, unless you're specifically trying to get everyone away from the building where Cara's dummy has to be set up.

Thing is, though, Toshiko seems to be genuinely perturbed by the killing game. I don't think she actually wanted anyone to die, so I think it's more likely she was tricked/coerced by the real mastermind(s), and thus would probably go on something akin to a redemption arc after this whole thing gets revealed. Since such an arc would require her to still be alive for a while after what seems like a pretty late game revelation, then I find it likely that she would survive if she really did have a hand in setting up the killing game.

Now we're done with Toshiko, so it's time to address something you probably noted as weird while I was talking about her. I said Toshiko gave me the most survivor vibes "by herself.” That's because all the arguments I've given for Toshiko's survival work in isolation from the rest of the cast. However, other characters give me some amount of survivor vibes when we take into account the dynamics currently present in the group.

See, it's common in this type of narrative where a bunch of people die (not just dangan) for characters to "pair up” in small groups, and for these groups to end up having either one or two characters who make it late game, or even some who survive. And I'm not just bringing it up because it could happen; it has happened. Wolfgang-Grace, Ulysses-Wenona, Desmond-Eloise, Mark-Jett, Ingrid-Toshiko, etc.

It happens because it's an easy way to make a death feel meaningful; even if most of the cast can't possibly get deeply attached to every single person who dies, if there's at least one or two people the person who dies is constantly is interacting with, then the reactions of these people can help carry the emotional impact of the tragedy. Now, these pairs don't always have a survivor, but it's relatively common. For dangan, think Aoi-Sakura, Makoto-Sayaka, Fuyuhiko-Peko, Hajime-Chiaki, Sonia-Gundham, Akane-Nekomaru, Shuichi-Kaede, Shuichi-Kaito, Maki-Kaito, Himiko-Tenko, Himiko-Angie, and depending on whether you count K1-B0 as a survivor or not, K1-B0-Miu.

What I've noticed is that the pairings that don't have survivors always have one death relatively early. Think Mondo-Taka, Mahiru-Hiyoko, Kirumi-Korekiyo (though admittedly that one's not a very strong pair). The biggest exception would be Gonta-Kokichi, but that's because Gonta's death is not central to Kokichi's character arc, even if it is an important point in it. There is an underlying reason this happens; if a character's arc is kickstarted by the death of their "pair", and their pair dies early, the character has enough time to complete their arc and then die… you know, unless your name is Hiyoko. I'm still salty over 2-3.

Which gets us to the first pair to discuss: Ulysses-Wenona. The girl with a great sense of smell, and the boy who can't smell. Truly, they complement each other. Both of these characters have a good argument for a late game run, and the pair itself is one that would probably need quite a bit of time to cook before either character can be genuinely impacted by the death of the other. And if both of them make it pretty far, then by the time one of them dies, it might make sense to let the other survive. The question is, then, who's gonna outlive who?

You might think Ulysses has the worst chance, given his potential "victim gimmicks.” Basically, his notebook and his lack of sense of smell could be used as evidence in a trial where he's the victim. Plus, you could argue Wenona's character has more to gain by having someone close to her die. And indeed, these reasons (and a few others) are why I think that if neither of them survive, then Wenona will likely outlive Ulysses.

However, if one of the two survive, I actually think it's more likely for it to be Ulysses. His notebook can be useful in other ways, and his sense of smell is a Checkov's gun that can be fired without killing the guy. For example, he might walk past someone's corpse without noticing, complicating a trial because he couldn't smell the blood and rot. Bonus points if he walks past Wenona's corpse specifically.

On the other hand, while Wenona seems like a good source of conflict and drama (her imitation piece calls her "a foe” for a reason), it might be strange to have her die too far from her thematic rival Cassidy. It can be hard (though not impossible!) to properly function as a character when your primary foil is out of the story, after all. And since I doubt Cassidy can make that late of a run, Wenona might be kinda cooked.

Finally, Ulysses has standalone survivor arguments as well, and I find them stronger than Wenona's. Although both work with the theme of "talent" and "modernity/tradition", Ulysses has more connections with the third main theme I've noticed, which for lack of a better term I'm calling "historical repetition.” Basically, "history repeats", as claimed by the first EG trailer. It's a bit too long to really get into now, but trust me that it comes up quite a bit, such as in the second Tozu Theater. And obviously the Historian would know a thing or two about historical repetition, so he would work great as a final trial participant, and thus survivor.

Oh, uh, fair warning, the quality of the guesses is about to jump off a cliff. I have less of a read on the remaining characters than the ones I've already talked about :v

Next pair to look at is Jett and Mark! Jett's dying. So. Mark!Survivor it is! Listen, I'm running out of genuinely compelling arguments and I'm interested in getting this post out sometime this century, so I gotta cut a few corners.

(Full explanation: I don't see Jett as a survivor in the slightest, but it's clear his death would have some sort of impact on Mark's character, and the arc Mark would go through, regardless of what it looks like, would probably take too long for him not to survive after completing it imo. I doubt we're gonna get a 1:1 repeat of Himiko-Tenko, but I do think there will probably be some similarities there, given Jett and Mark are already giving me those vibes. Additionally, Mark's crocodile motif is one of the only ones where the connection between the animal and the character isn't immediately obvious, so it presumably runs pretty deep and would require quite a bit of setup to work. That implies a late run, increasing Mark's overall chances imo)

Then, I wanna look at Desmond-Eloise. In a vacuum, I could easily see arguments for both of them to survive. Desmond clearly has some kind of trust issues to work through (assuming that his secret saying "he protects the only one he trusts” means he's protecting himself and doesn't trust anyone else, which I think is the implication), while Eloise has a few things going on, such as the Entirety of her FTEs. Both of them could make for interesting killers too, however.

Since I don't have any better way to go about this, I'm gonna have to rely on previous guesses, and invoke gender balance. While it's not necessary, I find it likely that the team behind EG will aim for a cast with a more or less equal number of girls and boys. I've already locked in Damon, Toshiko, Ulysses and Mark, which is three boys and one girl with two slots remaining, so... I guess that means Eloise is gonna be joining her fellow bird girl in my guesses!

Following that line of logic, we're looking for a final girl to close out the prediction. A lot of you are probably expecting me to say Diana here, and I probably would, if I didn’t think she's gonna get killed by Kai in CH2.

Okay, I'm not that confident on that one, but I do have my reasons for saying that. I already brought it up once, but one of the lines in Diana's second FTE makes me think she's not making it past CH2. It's this one:

Damon [Diana's 2nd FTE]: You'll see who your real friends are when you're face to face with a killer.

That line kinda implies Diana's never been face to face with a killer, which becomes obviously untrue as soon as CH1 ends, as she was face to face with Eva when she got sentenced to death for murder (they were roomates even!). Thus, this line only works in the context of CH1, possibly implying Diana won't have any more FTE opportunities, and thus would probably die in CH2.

There are ways around this, mind you. You could do what SDR2 did with Nagito, and lock Diana's FTEs in later chapters unless the player's already done two in CH1. That way you can lock Diana's 2nd FTE to CH1, where it works. Additionally, since this line isn't referenced in the report card, you could potentially change her FTE a little bit in later chapters, so that the main idea of the FTE and the things in the report card remain the same, but without the weird line in the way. You could also just, like, ignore it. Unideal, but it would work.

However, even with those possibilities, Diana having a gigantic role in the CH1 trial and already undergoing a character arc isn't exactly a great indicator of her survivability. Given who the CH1 deaths were, I think it's safe to say EG will try to give all the characters their own moments to shine, which might make the story too crowded to have a character like Diana constantly active in it. In other words, it's very possible Diana already had her 15 minutes in the spotlight, and is soon to give way to other characters, potentially as early as CH2.

Why killed by Kai, then? Because of the "surviving cast” image thing.

Now, this thing could change however the hell the developers want it to change, but for now, the only difference between the Prologue and CH1 versions of this image is that Eva and Wolfgang disappeared. Assuming the same can be said for the rest of the chapters, where characters only disappear and don't change pose otherwise, this image has to be made with the death order in mind to make sure it never looks ultra silly. For example, it'd be odd (though not impossible!) for Ingrid to outlive Toshiko, because then she'd be leaning over nothing (unless you argue she'd end up looking at Damon? Doubtful). However, if Ingrid disappears, then Toshiko would be staring at the sky in a pose very similar to one of her sprites, so it's perfectly possible for Toshiko to outlive Ingrid imo. This isn't super reliable and what exactly “looks silly” is extremely subjective, which is why I didn't bring it up before.

Anyways, Kai. If Kai disappears, then Diana would be staring at Damon, which works. But if Diana disappears, then Kai would appear to be talking to Eloise… while being fifteen miles away from her. In my opinion, it's gonna look silly unless you move Kai closer to Eloise, but we've established the only changes might be characters disappearing. Because of that, we can speculate that Kai might not outlive Diana. And since I think she's dying in CH2, in CH2 he might go. Technically either he or Diana could be the killer with this reasoning, but I trust my girl Diana more than I trust Kai, so.

I want to reiterate, after saying all that, that this reasoning is extremely weak and will most likely be proven wrong. I've already given ways to avoid the FTE line problem, which is the only genuinely solid reason to believe Diana won't make it far. I'm just doing what I can man.

Back to the topic at hand, final girl. I have to pick between Cassidy, Ingrid, and Grace.

Uh. I don't think any of them are gonna live. Am I allowed to reduce the number of survivors I'm guessing? No? I have to pick one? Alright, uh...

… Grace. Sure. We can go with that. Cassidy's my second answer. No actual logic's being used here, vibes only. I don't care if it contradicts stuff I said before on this post or others, that's how I'm feeling right now.

Anyways, that's the final answer. Damon, Toshiko, Ulysses, Mark, Eloise, Grace. To be absolutely clear, the first three are the only ones I would call actual predictions, the other three are near complete guesses. It's very possible all of these people die, I have no idea what I'm doing.

Finally, I did want to offer an alternative guess based on a pretty unhinged theory, because I kinda like the idea. This is gonna sound like a non-sequitur, but you know the modes of persuasion? Those things the whole "Pathos Route” mechanic is founded on? Many believe these things will have a large role in the theming of the story, since they're a pretty important concept for rhetoric and our protag is the Ultimate Debater.

The reason I'm bringing up these things is that you could theorize that the survivors will be chosen in a way that connects to the modes of persuasion. You could have a survivor each for logos (appeal to logic), pathos (appeal to emotion), ethos (appeal to authority), and the secret fourth mode of persuasion, kairos* (appeal to context). Adding in Damon, who as the Ultimate Debater would represent all these things in conjunction, you got yourself five survivors, which is the average amount (keep in mind six was the optimistic assumption). Let's be clear, this is an insane leap in logic and most likely horribly wrong, but I found it fun to think about so I'm sharing it.

(*Kairos is a strange case. See, the other three things are the Aristotelian triad of appeals, so they're more universally recognized as central to rhetoric, being known as the points of the rhetorical triangle. However, more modern takes on rhetoric include the context (Kairos) in what's known as the rhetorical tetrahedron. It shows up in the Wikipedia page of the modes of persuasion so I'm including it too :v

The idea of kairos is that the same statements can be more or less persuasive depending on the context in which it's said, including the historical moment, the audience it's said to, etc. For example, if I described something as "rad” to persuade you to buy it (which by itself is a pathos statement), it would be more persuasive if I said it in the 90s as opposed to now. I think. I wasn't alive in the 90s what were y’all doing)

You can probably guess that I only started thinking about this after I realized that my three actual predictions kinda fit this idea. I already said Damon would be included to represent the tetrahedron itself, but Toshiko and Ulysses are shoe-ins for pathos and kairos respectively. Toshiko is obviously themed around emotions, being the Ultimate Matchmaker and all that, while the Ultimate Historian would obviously be a great representation of the persuasive mode that relies, among other things, on historical context. I could also see Ulysses as logos or ethos in a pinch, but no one else can fit kairos quite as well as him.

Though, admittedly, putting Ulysses as kairos has the slight issue that, now that Wolfgang and Eva are dead, we've kinda run out of logic users. Which is very funny.

I could see the Desmond logos - Wenona ethos argument (Wenona chosen to conserve gender balance), but personally, I think Eloise as logos is more compelling. I'm mainly basing that on a few of her lines during the trial, but primarily this thing she says in her intro:

Eloise [Prologue]: Acting brash may get you the first move, but it's a steady, analytical mind that secures the win.

Yeah sure. The reason one would have to put Eloise down as logos is that now genders are balanced and you can pick anyone for ethos. Wenona still works, but I don't think the duo with Ulysses would last to the end. No, if this thing about the rhetorical tetrahedron is true (which again, is an insane leap in logic and likely wrong), I'd say that Jean might have a chance. What better representation of ethos than a captain, after all? Again ignore what I may or may not have said on other posts I wasn't thinking too hard about this at that point :v

Thus, the “rhetorical tetrahedron survivor cast” I'll go with is Damon, Eloise (logos), Toshiko (pathos), Jean (ethos), and Ulysses (kairos). I'd say that looks decent! No idea how we get down to five survivors instead of six, but y'know.

In any case, thanks for the ask! This was pretty fun to think about, even if my prediction/guesses probably sound insane. See ya'!

#can't wait for all six of my guesses to die in CH2 somehow!#p:eg #project eden's garden #toshiko kayura #ulysses wilhelm #wenona #do we just tag her without clarifying which wenona we're talking about #apparently?#looked up the tag and apparently that's the plan so #mark berskii #diana venicia #kai monteago #they kinda got mentioned?#eloise taulner #desmond hall

50 notes · View notes

puhpandas · 5 months ago

Note

What about beckory is so appealing to you? /gen

outside of them themselves and my own personal preference, them being a mlm ship and also not canon and completely hypothetical are huge factors to me. it's so interesting building them up in all of these different interpretations since theres not much canon to go off by, but the canon we DO have is really good

and now speaking of the ship itself the last point I made applies because ggy the book is just. really good. when you read it for the first time it's fine but then you reread it and notice things and look deeper and you find all of these things making the friend group you thought was average way more deep and you see everyones flaws, and that makes them interesting. the book revolves around tony and ggy so we get the most about them, and what it shows us about them makes me claw at the walls

it showed us how tony is obsessive when it comes to mysteries because of his dad being put in prison and how he cant handle not getting to the bottom of a mystery because of it, and that obsession has driven a wall between everyone and him. then he meets the most mysterious guy in the universe Rab and he becomes obsessed with ggy to an unhealthy degree while also slowly starting to prefer greg over his best friend since he was 4 (which like how am I not supposed to like the ship when tony inadvertently became obsessed with Gregory throughout the whole book that's so funny😭)

they're both flawed people and even outside of ggy Tony's relationship with Gregory is almost purely hypothetical since they never actually met. but making aus or story ideas where tony survives after the end of ggy has so many possibilities for his and Gregory's relationship

theres a whole new world if you think tony dies and Gregory mourns later on when he gets freed, theres whole new worlds if tony goes on a quest to save Gregory or if Gregory fights back against ggy to save Tony's life or whatever could happen. everything u could think of has potential and it could all be unique and different and could hit off their relationship in tons of different ways

and their relationship has so many directions it could go becuase of their respective characters. in my personal interpretation of them, Tony's obsession doesnt go away after he survives the ggy attack and he tries to track down greg after he goes missing after the attack, and when he finds him it's a year later and greg isnt actually greg at all but Gregory. to me the idea of tony having an idea of Gregory in his head that was never him and that he has to unlearn would cause drama between them but it makes their bond stronger. tony has to get worse before he can get better to me, and that playing out with Gregory as they get older is so good to me

and amneisiac gregory is one of my fave things so the idea that Gregory slowly remembered tony over the course of living with 3 star fam and had an idea of him too, and when he shows up on his doorstep hes excited to meet him and the fact that tony is from Gregory's past thats a whole mystery to him he means a lot to him immediately

I guess tldr they're so interesting to me because they have all the potential in the world and a thousand different things you could do with them, but also their characters themselves are already just so interesting and fleshed out that it's fun to see how they could get to a relationship from their starting points and how flawed they are. they're not immediately compatible and they have so much about themselves and their personal stuff to work through at the time they meet but they go through growth together and it makes them rlly close. they make eachother better people as they get older :)

#hope this explained it well lol #pandas.txt #pandas talks #pandas asks #beckory #Gregory #tony #thoughts

63 notes · View notes

imthepunchlord · 2 months ago

Note

I think I know why Miraculous is so addictive even to people who don't like the show. Miraculous is a show that had a lot of good interesting concepts and ideas with a lot of potential. Like the kwamis and miraculous as a concept is a creative playground where you could do almost anything with it, and a lot of the characters in the show at their cores had a lot of potential and could have gone in really interesting directions. It's just that the show and its writers fumbled the execution of a lot of these concepts and characters, taking in probably the worst directions. I think that's why you see a lot of people re-imagining the series with these characters and concepts. Heck it's also probably why quite a few people take the base concept of the kwamis and miraculous, re-imagine them, and create a completely new story, like @callimara Wildward au and even your animula au.

Essentially so!

Concept wise, it's really, really great.

Everyone likes animals, and this is a chance for your favorite animal to pop up and have a hero worked around them. And that animal can exist as a cute little plush to sell with them being little mascots. Additionally, because animals can be visually interesting or be tied to certain ideas, you can do some really fun designs or ideas. Lions could be tied to kings or knights. Butterfly or Peafowl could be tied to formal attire or something with a performance motif. You could even use animals as a means to work around disabilities or limitations. Like, someone who can't walk or has trouble walking, if they want mobility, they could get Horse and become a "centaur" with the "miraculous" giving them a mecha horse body they can sit inside and it'll move for them. Not remove the disability, but offer enhancements to give them a way to work around it.

And what's clever is that animals are important to people, all over the world, we all have some mythology and folklore about animals, they represent certain symbols for us. And when you factor that in, hey, this animal could offer an idea for a power, and you could make a superhero character working off all that animal represents across the globe, or even just working off what your own views of that animal is.

Foxes are often portrayed as tricksters everywhere, so being an illusionist is a natural fit.

Horses across the globe represent travel, so doing a power based around movement works, be it super speed or teleportation. You can also work off horses tied to bravery, knights, and facing dangers and do something with the white knight idiom.

Rabbit's are fast, so super speed could be a natural fit. Or if you want to reference Alice in Wonderland, I would've voted dream hopping as the power, as one of the things that stuck with me was Alice thinking it was a dream, and dreams can be bizarre and random.

Owls are often tied to death, so something related to death could go to Owl, or you can work off owls commonly tied to clocks and it could have time powers.

And then you got the merit that with all animals can represent and be tied to, they can play a part in a character's growth. They can be their foil, challenge them as they are, and help pave the way to improvement.

Like, take my concept hero, Humdinger.

She's planned to start out as a "Lone Ranger"/the Loner, thinking she doesn't need to rely on others or only she can solve issues herself. And she's paired with Bee who is about community and teamwork. So you have a nice set up on how she's going to start, and how Bee will help her grow as a character.

And what's extra nice, is that writing wise, animals can give you some light guidelines to work off of, on what their roles can be.

You need a villain? Well, there's the "Big Bad Wolf". Snakes and spiders are also big symbols of fear.

This can also go into the Five Man Band if you're not sure how to do a group.

You need a Leader? There's Lion and Eagle to work off of.

You need a Lancer to challenge the Leader? Well, could do Bear or Wolf.

You need a Smart Guy? Fox, Owl, and Raven are all tied to intelligence.

You need a Tank/Strong Man? There's the iconic Bull, could also do Turtle.

You need the Heart, who's usually the love interest and keeps the group together? There's Ladybird, Dog, or Swan. Those are heavily tied to love.

And there's the fun of the little animal beings that power these heroes. You can write them based on animal archetype, you can write them based on their mythology and symbolism. You can tie them to mythical figures. You could delve into the unique morals and views they have. Like the snake could understand duality, or promotes the stance of duality, toeing the line between good and justice, or doing something bad and chaotic. The bee wants humans to live with integrity, work with others, see work done. The lion wants humans to be leaders and to face obstacles bravely, ect..

Additionally, based on folklore and mythology and how animals are in real life, you can get into some really interesting dynamics to explore between these little beings. The truthful rooster hates the deceptive fox. The wolf has a rivalry with the fox and the lion. The bee dislikes the bear cause the bear eats all of her honey. Turtle and snake are best friends. Eagle and horse are best friends. Ect..

Concept wise, this is brilliant for a series. By their symbolism, folklore, cultural views, and mythology, animals can give you so much to work with. And you can have nice guidelines to work off of, or you can do a different spin on those guidelines, like maybe the usually noble Lion is the villain and the often villainous Snake is the hero.

There's just so much you can do with the concept, so many possibilities. And it's a shame that it's used in this romance focused show, which isn't even a good romance, and it's just so uninspired and lazy, and where kwamis easily could've been the most fascinating part of it, they're just pointless inclusions.

And you just see that potential and how it's wasted.

At least for me, that's what has me wanting to do my own take on the concept and do something with the animula. There's a lot of possibilities for what they can do, and could easily be so interesting if given proper attention.

#ask Punchie #ml salt #animula

33 notes · View notes

flower-boi16 · 9 months ago

Text

Top 5 Best & Worst Characters in Hellaverse

So, for the most part, Hellaverse has pretty meh to bad characters. Buuuuut, there are a few decent/good ones, so, just for fun, let's go over the top 5 best AND worst characters in Hellaverse (in my opinion).

5. (Worst) Stella

So Stella. Stella, Stella, Stella...you had so much potential to be interesting...but you just...aren't. Just for the record I don't think making Stella abusive is a retcon since it doesn't contradict any of her past behavior in season 1 minus like...one background painting.

That's not really my problem with Stella being abusive. My problem is that it makes her boring and the show does that as a way to woobify Stolas. Really not much to say, she's just...boring.

5. (Best) Octavia

It's pretty funny how Octavia is pretty much the most beloved character in the critical community. She's both decently likable and is a bit interesting when you look at her, as she's a girl who was negatively affected by her fathers' actions and is dealing with the negative changes that have happened to her due to her parents always arguing...

...also her father is Stolas so she is therefore the most sympathetic character by default. Really, there aren't that many good characters in either Hazbin or Helluva, and Octavia isn't an amazing character, she only appears in like, two episodes, but she's still fine by herself and is one of Viv's better characters.

4. (Worst) Charlie

I already made a full post about the issues with my problems with Charlie as a character so I won't once again go very deeply here. You're probably wondering why Charlie is even here to begin with since I stated that I don't exactly hate her.

...well, just because I don't hate a character doesn't really mean I like that character. A majority of Hazbin's characters have similar problems of not being that developed at all and the development they do have often feels rushed. The reason why I put Charlie as the 4th worst character in Hellaverse is because, well, out of every character in Hazbin's main cast...Charlie is just kind of the one with the biggest issues.

Again, I already talked about my issues with Charlie in my post about her but just to recap; Charlie suffers from being heavily underdeveloped, she isn't a very compelling protagonist and has 0 growth throughout the show. She learns absolutely nothing. Her mentality is never once challenged by the narrative and she is always portrayed as right and anyone who disagrees with her is automatically wrong, and she also feels heavily overshadowed by the rest of the cast despite being the main character.

Charlie is also not the best person at times like some people have pointed out (she KNOWS THAT ANGEL IS BEING ABUSED and she chooses not to do anything about it. Wow, what a great friend), and overall she kinda sucks as a protagonist.

4. (Best) Lucifer

I've seen Lucifer gain a lot of flak from people with them calling him a bad person and it's not entirely unjustified. I can definitely understand why it may be hard to sympathize with the guy who literally greenlit annual genocides of his own people because he thought that they deserved death.

Not to mention him calling Charlie a "failure" in the pilot which is just...never addressed here. Also it's fairly weird that despite Lucifer being the sin of pride...he isn't really prideful of anything...? So ya, there a few issues with Lucifer as a character.

In spite of that though, I don't think that Lucifer is a particularly bad character. If anything, he's actually one of the more well-developed of the main cast and he has an arc that's decently compelling...?

He initially started out as a dreamer, someone with many creative and imaginative ideas for Heaven, but his ideas were always rejected and he was seen as a troublemaker by the elders of Heaven.

After he was cast down to Hell as punishment for accidentally letting evil seep into the world, he lost his will to dream and fell into depression, having a heavily cynical view of Heaven and Hell due to his past experiences. He closes himself off and doesn't stay in contact with his loved ones, mainly his daughter due to his depression. He tries convincing Charlie into his cynical views because he doesn't want his own daughter to face the same crushing rejection he faced.

However, he reconnects with his daughter and brings back a spark in him that was lost long ago, and he promises to support Charlie and her dreams, despite his depression not immediately disappearing.

Admittedly that part is pretty rushed, like Charlie just says "but dad...mah people!!!!" and he's just like "ok". Again, it's not perfect and has some small issues, but compared to most of Hazbin and Helluva's other characters, Lucifer's arc is far more well-developed and is interesting in it's own right. If anything, Lucifer thinking that his people deserve death simply shows his cynical mindset that he's had for years, and Charlie's able to bring back that dreamer that was crushed long ago.

So ya. Lucifer is not amazing, but I like him. He's neat.

3. (Worst) Chaz

Chaz sucks. Chaz is a character that only exists just to make a bunch of unfunny sex jokes and nothing else. He is completely one-dimensional and is nothing more than a walking sex joke. And his "jokes" aren't even remotely funny.

I really don't have much to even say about Chaz. He's just THAT one-note.

3. (Best) Velvvette

I've talked about my thoughts on Velvvette before so I won't go too in depth here again. Buuut needless to say I think she's probably my favorite character in hellaverse. She's one of the few antagonists Viv's made that's actually entertaining and fun to watch, with a well-developed and charismatic personality that's not just "asshole who swears a lot". She isn't the best character in hellaverse though, but she has far more depth as a character compared to most of the other antagonists.

2. (Worst) Adam

I've spoken about my thoughts on Adam before multiple times so at this point I don't know if I have anything left to say about him. Adam is a boring, one-dimensional character with very little depth or personality as a character. He only exists just to be a pure straw character so he can be proven wrong by Charlie.

He can't have any real depth as a character because he only exists just to be torn down by the story. Again, already talked about that in a previous post so I won't go too in-depth here, but needless to say...ya, Adam still sucks.

2. (Best) Alastor

Like Lucifer, I've seen Alastor gain a heavy amount of criticism but personally, like Lucifer, I think Alastor is one of the better characters in the main cast. The has a sense of mystery and intrigue to him that makes him pretty interesting as a character. You're left wondering what his whole deal is & what he's planning.

That combined with Alastor's charisma makes him an entertaining antagonist for the show. He's one of the few characters that I'm interested in to see what they do with in the next season. So ya, I like Alastor...

Now time to get to a character that makes me want to punch myself in the face.

1. (Worst) Stolas

.....Honeslty what can even be said about Stolas that hasn't already been said? I've made so many posts complaining about this stupid owl and you already know my opinion of him at this point. If you really want to know every single critique of Stolas I have, read every post I've made that's tagged "anti stolas". But...I'll just say this.

Stolas could have been a good character. Hell, he could have been the show's BEST character. He had all the potential to be super interesting and compelling character with a great arc...but instead, Viv decided to completely retcon everything season 1 established in order to try and make Stolas an UwU soft boy the show REALLY wants us to sympathize for, in spite of Stolas being a bad person.

I'm sorry if I can't sympathize with the guy who SA's an lower class imp for his own pleasure and frequently neglects his own daughter and pays more attention to st. imp. And, as an artificial way to make Stolas sympathetic, the narrative has to wipe away any actual flaws he has and demonize any character that even remotely gets upset at his actions (which I talk about here), because god forbid we hold Stolas accountable for ANYTHING right? We have to coddle and absolve him of ALL his mistakes despite his flaws being what made him interesting in the first place.

Stolas NEVER grows or develops as a character because of this and so he has basically no character arc. Not only is he a poorly written mess of a character...he's also just BORING now. There's nothing interesting about him anymore, he's just an UwU sad sack. He had so much potential to be interesting but that potential was completely wasted in favor of this bullshit.

And THAT's what makes Stolas SO FRUSTRATING. Really, he pretty much represents HB, and, to an extent, all of Hellaverse as a whole; it started out good with a lot of interesting ideas and potential but through bad writing, all of that potential got squandered and now we're just left with a completely disappointing mess.

Stolas is the worst character in the show because he's the only one who legitimately FRUSTERATES me. He's my least favorite character in all of fiction and a complete mess.

1. (Best) Sera

I already talked about Sera before in a previous post so I won’t go too in depth here, but Sera is one of hellaverse’ better antagonists for having more depth and nuance as a character. She’s the head seraphim of Heaven and greenlit exterminations in order to protect Heaven….and Emily.

In spite of that though, she clearly doesn’t want to do this and is only doing it because she wanted to try and protect her people, and Emily, who she clearly cares deeply for as her older sister. She’s a lot more compelling as a character that most of hellaverse’ antagonists, not being good or evil but rather morally grey, having nuances to her as a character.

To me, Sera is the best character in all of Hellaverse because she's the one with the most nuance and depth compared to 90% of Viv's other characters, especially her antagonists. She actually has REAL DEPTH and complexities to her that make her a lot more interesting compared to most of Viv's characters. Hell, most of the characters in the best list are put there BECAUSE they are just more developed than most of the other characters (which just shows how bad Viv is at character writing)

Like Alastor, she's one of the few characters that I am interested in seeing what they do next with season 2, as she is likely going to get a redemption there. Well just have to see. But for now, Sera is the best character in all of Hellaverse.

So...ya...that was my top 5 best and worst characters in Hellaverse...

....bye.

#vivziepop critical #hazbin hotel critical #helluva boss critical #helluva boss criticism #vivziepop criticism #hazbin hotel criticism #anti stolas #spindlehorse critical #spindlehorse criticism

63 notes · View notes

total-feminism-takes · 8 months ago

Note

I've been very negative so far so nows time for some positivity! Here's some things I like about every total drama girlie:

Eva is just super interesting. I think her character flaws are intriguing. I like her attitude and I think she's fun.

Katie and Sadie are super sweet. I like their often aloof attitude and I love their bond, their so cute and work really well off eachother.

Izzy is really fun. I love how off the walls she is and Izzy is probably one of the most consistently written and consistently funny characters in total drama.

Beth has tons of potential. She's interesting and is probably the most realistically teenage character out of all the cast.

Courtney is really head strong and I love it! She's also really malleable, being able to be a good protagonist and antagonist imo.

Bridgette is basically who little me wanted to be. I love the fact she is a surfer and I love how chilled out she is.

Lindsay is so sweet. I love her and I think she's very fun. Her voice actor does a great job at portraying her. Also her friendship with Beth is so sweet.

Leshawna is so cool. I love how she stands up for herself and knows who she is, I find that really admirable.

Heather is great. I love her in action she was really funny and in world tour she had a great arc from antagonist to anti hero.

Gwen is so freaking cool. I love her voice and think it suits her well. I love her attitude and how she also fights for the environment.

Sierra is such a cool concept. I love the idea of her being a total drama superfan and I think the scenes where she isn't obsessing over Cody is fun.

Blainley is just so fun. I love her design, her song, and I find her to be an interesting character. She's just so fun.

Staci is intriguing to me. Why does she lie? What caused her to lie compulsively? Is there a reason? There's a lot of intrigue for me surrounding her.

Dakota is fun. Her style is impeccable and I love the lesson she learns that she can be loved no matter what even if I don't like how that revelation occurred

Dawn is basically Luna Love good and I think that's great! I love Dawn so much, she's so silly. I like the storyline we got with her.

Anne Maria is one of my favs. I love everything about her. I love how she acts and I think she is one of the funnest characters in the show.

Jo is important. I love how she presents more masculine and how she is a bit insecure about it, I think it's a realistic flaw.

Zoey! I love her in roti d so much. I love when she goes all commando Zoey, I think it's an interesting contrast to her regular self (which I also love)

Amy and Samey are fun. I like the contrast between the pair of twins and I loved it when Samey stood up for herself against her sister.

Ella is cute. I love her Disney princess like self. I find her interest to be fun. I also like her friendship with Sky.

Scarlett was fun up until the twist. I wish we got to see more of her. Her design was neat and I think her voice is cool.

Jasmine is great. I love her personality and I like how she stands up for Samey, I think their friendship was sweet.

Sugar is fun. I think she's neat. Her costumes are pretty cool. I think she has tons of potential if you wanted to explore it.

Sky is good. I like that she isn't a stereotypical depiction of a native woman. I love her friendship with Ella.

Ellody and Mary are really fun. Their designs are great and it's a shame they were booted out at third place.

Laurie and Miles are interesting and are also wasted potential. Their designs are great. I also love the voices of the characters.

Jen is a sweet reference to one of the creators of the show. I love the fashion influencers trope for her.

Kelly and Taylor are fun. I love the growth from them and I feel they have tons of untapped potential.

Crimson is great. She is very stereotypical goth and I think that's super fun. I love her "I'm allergic to the sun attitude" and her design is great!

Stephanie has a cool design.

Carrie is really sweet and has tons of potential. Her voice actor does a great job with the role and I love her. I think she's sweet.

Emma and Kitty are great! I love the contrast between them and the contrast between Amy and Samey. Their great characters together and alone.

Macarthur and Sanders are fun. I think their both really neat and interesting characters. Their potential was pretty well tapped.

Alex is super cool. I love how hardcore she is and I love her attitude. I also find the fact she is preparing for the zombie apocalypse to be enduring.

Nichelle is a interesting character. I love her design, her voice actor does a great job. She has tons of potential.

Scary girl's fun. I love how much she treats the skull she gets, it reminds me of how doll collectors (me) treat their dolls. Her design is fun also.

MK is so fun. I love her so much. I love her design as well, I'm also glad they listened to fan feedback and made her skin colour not yellow!

Emma is so cute and silly! I love her design so much and I love the fact she is a YouTuber. I love the fact she is away from chase in season two!

Julia is a fun villain. I love how unabashedly mean she is. I love her fake kind and zen persona and how she cracks and shows how she truly is, it's neat!

Millie is great! I love how she develops from someone who projects her insecurities to a person who works on herself to improve.

Priya is an interesting character. I think she's the only total drama character with a fleshed out backstory. She deserves more.

Anyways, I love every total drama girlie so much, their all so silly and fun and just great!

- ☄️

Congratulations comet anon for maxing out all the tags! 🥳

- 🧡

46 notes · View notes

curedigiqueen · 2 months ago

Text

Why I think Appmon is the Best Digimon to Start With

Digimon Universe: Applimonsters, better known as Appmon, is the forgotten digimon series, because it quite frankly barely counts as a digimon series. In fact digimon only appear in one episode. And that is exactly why it is the perfect season to start with when getting into Digimon.

Appmon is just a show I'd recommend on its own, even if it wasn't a digimon show. It's got a lot going for it. It's character's are fun, both larger than life and compelling. The characters start immature and flawed, before growing into themselves. Their character dynamics are honestly also unique and fascinating. The plot is well constructed with regular progression, ample foreshadowing and well-earned twists. It's one of the best shows in the franchise.

A lot of the best things about Appmon, are the reoccurring elements that I love about digimon to begin with. The human/monster relationships where the monster evolutions reflecting human growth, themes about humanities future and cross-cultural interactions, strong sibling relationships, and normal kids growing into heroes. Appmon is very much everything I love about Digimon, and thus showcases some of the best the franchise has to offer. But without, the baggage of being a digimon season.

Digimon can be intensely metatextual. While individual digimon stories may be complete unto themselves, its very common for digimon stories to make reference to other lore and themes. Glossing over them for the older fans. Things like Yggdrasil, Royal Knights, Jogress, File Island, Homeostasis as they appear. They are explained when relevant, sure, and often are excluded more than included but any given entry (Cyber Sleuth for example) may throw a whole heck of a lot of them at you without a whole lot of elaboration on the idea. Appmon almost completely strips out the metatext. It strips out the recognizable monsters and by extension, the virtual pet elements (thus the two baby levels and eggs), the character archetype shorthand's, and general digimon reference book references. No Leomon or Wizarmon variants to wave death flags. No virus, data, vaccine types nor armor or hybrid levels or x-antibodies potentially randomly dropped in without context. Because it's not that context is ever really needed: they'll explain if they are, but there is still the decades long, exceedingly over-complicated metalore cooking in the background of any given digimon series. Instead the Appmon being Apps means that any context on the creatures are rather self evident, their app type. The simple act of living in our modern society provides enough context. There are a lot of references to IRL AI culture, such as all the protagonists being seemingly named after AI, and the Dartmouth Workshop of 1956 being a plot point. Appmon has plenty of references and lore, it's just not overly all about Digimon. It doesn't completely strip out metatextual references to digimon, but it is kept subtle and unobtrusive. Haru has goggles because they make him more protag like, the kids find a phone booth, the kids are called "chosen children" once, and episode 44 does bring in Agumon as a video game but its non intrusive and isn't really used as any sort of shorthand. You can know that goggles that do nothing is a very extra character design element denoting protag status without knowing its a digimon thing. Old fashioned technology and modern kids is always funny. The kids were in fact chosen. And one episode out of 52 being a cute and heartfelt crossover is nothing. In short, Appmon doesn't have any of the baggage that might make a traditional Digimon season difficult to get into.

Which is probably the reason they made Appmon, well Appmon to begin with. Why they decided to start the franchise fresh so to speak to target the child (new) demographic while tri. targeted the older demographic. Appmon's come and gone, and they've abandoned that strategy, so newer entries of digimon still try to capture a new demographic while building on the old, so Appmon still remains as most stand alone entry of the anime.

But it is still very digimon in the ways that matter, meaning that if you DO like Appmon, you're very likely going to find at least one other season worth looking into. Logistically the season is a lot like Hunters and Ghost Game, with how evolution and the digital field works, the characters vaguely (with heavy emphasis on vaugely) resemble the Tamer's cast, the way the human digimon relationship's function resembles Savers imo. It's themes of humanities future and chosen one narratives are very Adventure. In other words it feels like a digimon season, because it works a lot like what came before it. Really, digimon seasons vary a lot. For the most part no two seasons are alike, there are very few things consistent in Digimon. Just a lot of things that reoccur frequently. So in the end, Appmon feels like a Digimon season, because it's just like a Digimon season in every way EXCEPT for the actual monsters.

Appmon is particularly similar in it's themes. Digimon often tackles themes of identity, alternate selves, destiny and responsibility, humanities evolution, humanities relationship with digital technology, and cross cultural exchange. So an entry may dive right into: what happens when you abuse your alternate self, or where does the locust of the self actually lie, glossing over the lighter "what would it be like to have an alternate self". Appmon covers many these themes too but it does so through the fresh lens, of Apps and realisticish (Heavy emphasis on the 'ish') AI, building its case from the ground up rather than falling back on typical digital world backstories. What makes an AI a fully fledged person, what is the point of being alive, how will humanity handle being overtaken by its creation, humanties newfound dependence on various AIs, and how can humans and sufficiently advanced AI coexist without one taking advantage of the other. Many of the same themes Digimon usually covers, but in the more specific context of a war between hyperintelligent super AI. Rarely are digimon significantly more intelligent than a human, but Appmon builds itself around the idea. Being Very Digimon, while also bringing something new to the table.

Appmon may have come out in 2016, but it's themes of AI transcending humanity are perhaps more topical than when it debuted. The original Digimon was on some level born out of the mystique of the new technology that the internet was in the early 2000s. As such, while Digimon generally toes the line between sci-fi and fantasy, it usually incorperates Sci-Fi aesthetics, but fantasy worldbuilding. Appmon's worldbuilding actually is heavily sci-fi, no implications of magic, but the themes and motifs of the story border still on mythological. Something closer to our modern understanding of technology. We know our internet, it's nothing special to us anymore. But we forget to a certain extent the power held by the internet in the modern day. Who is this power meant for? Digimon is in many ways, conceptually, a holdover from a bygone era, even as it seeks to stay modern. But Appmon is unapologetically modern, in a way that feels like it should have aged super fast, but somehow still feels contemporary 8 years later.

The other side of what makes Appmon the best to start isn't just that it's good to start with, it's that the other seasons are worse. To start with that is. I love them to death, and I don't think they are necessarily bad, but if you aren't already interested in what digimon has to offer, it might be a bit harder to sell. With how metatextual digimon can be you might think the first season would be the best place to start. I mean how could it not be. It's the first. Well, not exactly. Adventure is both the best and worst place to start otherwise. It is one of the cornerstones of the franchise, and so much of what comes after calls back to it. Adventure is a subtle story in a lot of ways that leaves a lot of the details to be parsed on rewatches. It's a genuinely passionate piece of art. In fact, the show is so detailed they many of the details didn't even make it in the show, with lore clarified in side materials. Most of these details aren't incredibly important, but they do provide insight into some of the shows otherwise confusing choices. Also, most were never officially translated into english. Also, the shows attention to detail left the show rife with opportunities for translation to be mishandled, leading to additional issues. Not to mention the 90s weren't exactly known for their faithful dubs, and this is true of Adventure too. Though Adventure itself still suffers a lot from metatext even outside of its own lore. Taichi's name and design are reused from the manga. File island, Server Continent, the idea of "raising digimon", the frequent presence of "garbage" digimon, and the disjointed evolution lines, are all borrowed from the general V-Pet lore. And ultimately Adventure is even more complicated by the franchises refusal to let it go. New releases, and cameos in other works are varying degrees of canon incompliant. Sometimes recent releases are insightful to the original work, sometimes they perpetuate misconceptions about the original work. Sometimes both. Sometimes its hard to say one way or another. To be clear, Adventure isn't really that complicated, itself. Very enjoyable even if you don't think too hard on it. But it's barely covering a whole maze of rabbit holes. I do recommend Adventure and 02, and it can ABSOLUTELY work as a first digimon series. But it does leave itself open to a lot of bad takes.

But, a familiarity with Adventure is sort of required to get the full effect of Tamer's, which serves as a sort of deconstruction of Adventure era digimon to a certain extent, or to actually understand Digimon Survive (a visual novel) which is in many ways a more mature retelling of Digimon Adventure. Otherwise Digimon series are either too unique in premise (Frontier and Xros Wars), and/or not very good (Adventure: 2020, Ghost Game) to warrant as a recommendation for a "first" digimon series. In all fairness, all digimon season are a perfectly fair place to start. None of them depend on each other to tell their story. I'd even argue that 02 is an acceptable place to start, if a baffling one. You don't need to know the meta-textual elements to appreciate their stories and characters and worldbuilding. That's how the franchise has survived through its multiple iterations. But when Digimon throws "Armor" level around casually, an artifact of an old storyline, it's kind of hard to argue that on some level digimon doesn't have an overwhelming history.

Savers is my second choice recommendation of a first digimon season. It too has its own metatextual elements of course, they are less overt and Saver's also just does its own thing worldbuilding wise a surprising amount. Otherwise its a solid story that utilizes typical digimon tropes, but doesn't explicitly call back to Adventure in its premise.

Of course there ARE other digimon media. The original Digimon media was the V-pets, which are fun, but have niche appeal. The same applies to the Digimon World games. Speaking of which, Digimon Games are generally not the best way to get into the franchise. They're mostly not very good, and I'd also add that Digimon games are even more heavily marketed to pre-existing digimon fans than the animes are. Digimon Cyber Sleuth is maybe the only exception, but even that very heavily pays homage to Digimon Adventure. Though, some of the manga, like Liberator or V-Tamer might be good places to start too.

There is one big problem though with Appmon as a first series. No English dub. Now, generally speaking the digimon fandom is plagued by bad translations. So many of the dubs generally kinda suck, so I usually recommend subs anyway, but I recognize not everyone can handle subs. There is a french dub, for those who understand French. I don't so I don't even know if its a good dub. If you're a dub only person honestly I recommend Tamers as a first season. It was the first one I finished. Its got a few issues that hold it back as an ideal first show for the uninitiated, but a solid story you don't actually need any context for. Adventure and Saver's dubs have problems imo that keep me from recommending them. (There IS a more supposedly more accurate SE asian dub of the early digimon seasons out there, but its harder to find + I haven't actually watched more than a few clips so I feel I can't exactly speak to its overall quality).

Ultimately, Digimon is the kind of thing where you can jump in anytime, and the kind of thing where there are plenty of fans who would be happy to explain the weird stuff. But you DO have to start somewhere. I just personally suggest Appmon.

Appmon is overall, just a solid children's tv anime on its own, as well as a fantastic example of what a digimon season can be. But without the 20+ years of baggage.

#I DO like Ghost Game a lot #It has fun characters and episodes #I just also think it's the worst non Adventure anime #I love how talking about digimon is like #Basically my order of first digimon season recommendations is #Digimon is all bad #except sometimes when its the best franchise of all time #Appmon #digimon

13 notes · View notes

akirathedramaqueen · 1 month ago

Note

How would you write a multiverse story into Helluva Boss? Not talking crossovers with other cartoons or other Vivziepop stuff like Hellaverse meets Zoophobia, but just a classic, “Characters meeting different versions of themselves that are radically different.” I’ve always thought it’d be neat to see a potentially evil, yandere version of Stolas meet the main cast, especially Blitzø and Stolas, and just how appalled they’d be at how depraved and insane this other Stolas from another world is. Be a fun way to explore what Stolas was originally going to be before changes were made to the actual Helluva Boss show cause in the pilot, Stolas was setup to be the villain.

Oh hello again! :) Wow, your ideas are flowing!

We would need the premise for the story. How that villanous Stolas would appear in our world? What his goal would be? What would encountering him teach the main cast? Would there be moral at all, or growth, or does it hold an entertaining purpose?

Guessing by your idea that they have to be repulsed by that version of Stolas, I'd say it has to have some moral . . . huh.

How about this? The main characters aren't our canon Stolas and Blitz. The main character is a villanous Stolas.

The Premise

We know that higher demons have their own sigils so that humans with affiliation to demonology could summon them and ask for favors in exchange for, more often than not, a soul (or cake, in case of our regular Stolas).

So, let's say Stolas gets a request from a politician to deal with toxic waste landfills somewhere in California, and he is adamant that it has to go out of existence, not just dump it in the ocean or something. Stolas wants another soul for his grimoire, so he agrees, and comes up with a plan to dump that toxic waste in another universe. He knows that time is no more than infinite amount of worlds which collide and destroy and new ones get created depending on how different versions of future unveil (someone decided to brush their teeth - boom, two new universes, one being the teeth were brushed and the other teeth were left dirty). So, lots of room for someone's waste. But the solution is unconventional and he tries a very complicated, multi-layered spell for the first time.

He fails. Partially. He teleports the toxic waste out to another verse, but also, he is getting dragged by the portal too.

He isn't quick enough to pick his grimoire, so he finds himself in a pile of toxic waste somewhere in the Pride Ring of our universe, without a way to bring himself back.

How exactly that Stolas is different?

He isn't that different from Stolas we know. But, instead of holding onto his soft side, he chose violence, and he'd lost the faith goodness will take you anywhere long time ago.

So he only cares about his own needs. His daughter is silent and getting mistreated. She went through the same hell Stolas once did, with absent parents, staff in place of them, and her only worth in Stolas's eyes is how much she can do with her magic or if she can be a part of some elaborate politics game. His wife, even though she is that same Stella, that same bitch which tortured our Stolas, is fucking dreading him. Blitz from that world puts up with him, but doesn't hide his hatred toward him, and Stolas often uses his assassin skills for his own plans, either in Hell or in Earth, in order to level up his stance.

On the other hand, he strives in that world, unlike our Stolas. He's a well-respectable royal with a good grasp on the court, and means to take Paimon's place one day. He wants to make him suffer.

How would the story go?

Stolas finds himself in the Imp City, and let's say Katie Killjoy was quick enough to make fucking news out of it. Blitz sees the news, and, scared, rushes there, finds a villanous Stolas but gets confused because Stolas acts nothing like his Stolas.

They quickly find out there are two Stolases now, and that new Stolas is infuriated to see how pitiful he is in that other life.

They kind of work together to send a villanous Stolas back to his place, but along the way, a villanous Stolas often impersonates our Stolas, wrecks havoc, creates problems, but also, helps in some cases - let's say, his assertive dominance would help greatly against Stella during divorce proceedings or something.

And with time, during all these adventures, a villanous Stolas might even grow a little. From his perspective, we could explore just how sad he really is in that infitinitely high tower he'd built and lets no one on board, that while everyone respects him and fears him, nobody really likes him. And, as he (reluctantly) helps our Stolas sort out some of his business - just because he hates seeing himself so miserable - he could find himself jealous seeing just how easy it is for our Stolas to get happy, embraced by Blitz and by Octavia, maybe given a pat on the back by Loona or even M&M's.

Finally, they find a way to conjure a portal to a villanous Stolas's home, but even if he whined and complained the whole time about how he wanted to finally get back, he suddently isn't looking forward to it. And on that note, we could leave that story, or, if we'd like a more positive ending, make the crew appreciate his help despite how much of an asshole he was throughout the whole thing, and make him a bit more hopeful about that he probably can make some changes to the people he might feel he cares about. But not every villain deserves redemption, so that's disputable.

So, there's that. I hope it answers your question. Speaking of a villanous Stolas, there's the version of a 'Just Look My Way' song which was written before the Ozzie's episode came out, and it contains much darker Stolas. This is an OG version btw. :) You could check it out to pick up vibes of that Stolas, but tune it to be even more evil.

youtube

P.S.: there is a good fic which explores Blitz switching places with his other self, Blitzo, from the world where the fire never happened. I think you might like this if you're into multiverse stories!

#akira's overexplaining answers #helluva boss #stolitz #stolas #blitzø #blitz x stolas #stolas x blitz #stolas goetia #blitz #writing prompt

10 notes · View notes

variousqueerthings · 1 year ago

Text

TOP THINGS I'M EXCITED FOR IN THE NEW RTD RUN

getting the obvious out of the way, ncuti gatwa

but more specifically, ncuti gatwa is going in with such an exciting awareness of what he got out of doctor who and how that will inform his take

and both he and millie gibson are firmly taking doctor who into the next generation. I don't know a lot about her (and youknow, I'm getting older, so she seems awfully young, but that's really all I know and isn't enough to form an opinion on -- but susan vibes? hoping she won't be a rose!repeat, but I really really don't think that's the intention here), but gatwa is also next!gen whovian (like me), which is very fun. it's a nerdy show, I like it when nerds are involved

the wardrobe is looking so goooood. three also had quite an extensive repertoire especially, and this feels quite closely aligned with that campness (not specifically the exact style ofc, new doctor, but Vibes)

the other obvious out of the way, dtennant and catherine tate

specifically that there's a lot of potential in the 60th anniversary to properly wrap up ten's and donna's arcs in a way that organically interacts with the previous ending they had. some really fun potential to play with theme and genre in that, I'm a sucker for recontextualisation, and for dtennant having a bad time (but then maybe at the end... an okay time?)

I hope this will also more effectively merge the rtd run with moffat's and chibnall's. they did do a bit more of that as they went along, but I think they both went too hard on the reset button (especially moffat). we did then get some more... what I'll call continuity, but it took a bit (look, I know, the continuity is madness on this show, but I like to know it's the same story at least, and not totally excise what came before)

also donna has a kid now, played by yasmin finney. I'm excited for all of that, the fact that she's called rose, casting yasmin finney, another form of bringing it into the present, rather than it being all about the past, the fact that she's teased in the trailer, but there's so much more to see

speaking of casting -- camp and queerness! so many of the casting announcements have been queer actors, and you know rtd loves queering shit up, and he's got soooo much more freedom to do so now than he did in 2005. It won't just be in the casting, it'll be in the stories and the character-writing

references to classic!who and other dw!materials, as always, and of course rtd loves that. I just like how much of nu!who is having fun with classic!who. and updating it of course

I said it before but. I like watching dtennant be upset. he does it very well. perhaps even tears who knows...

EDIT: CONSIDERING THE NEW THEME SONG REVEAL ALSO FORGOT TO SAY MURRAY GOLD'S MUSIC!!!

some things I'm hoping for:

that the continuity of the last series won't be severed, especially in regards to the various regenerations that have been since ten

similarly that ten's arc interacts both with how they died/what happened with donna, and that they've been other bodies since then and so there has been growth and change, but what does that mean to a multi-lifed being?

that ruby and the doctor won't have a romantic will-they-won't-they and that generally the doctor continues to be a character through which those sorts of things can be interrogated (perhaps more deliberately now than in the past....)

that there will be some more ideas about gender, as has been increasingly played with over the last few years

that ncuti gatwa being black influences the kinds of stories being told in regards to what kind of history and future is important

that rose's part in the specials is important (I mean, even the fact that she's donna's kid is already important, but on her own as well -- that she gets something cool to do)!

that UNIT won't be toooo involved. I'm currently watching three from the start and I remember that UNIT does a lot in that one, and that's fine, I get that there's precedent. but also they're not my favourite part of DW, generally the doctor being associated with Institutions of a military nature. makes sense for three, who's relatively trapped on earth, and I like the way it's one of humanity's ways of reacting to alien life both in classic and nu!who, but never trust military. anyway, UNIT's fine for the specials, also ties in previous seasons with kate, but hoping won't be so much in ncuti gatwa's arcs. or that there's more conflict involved with them being involved

that new writers are brought onboard, especially women, black writers, and millennials

that it'll still be sincere. that it won't suffer from irony poisoning and over-reliance on references (don't think the latter is so much the issue), and that the bigger budget won't erode its ability to tell deeply personal intimate person stories, which has been an issue over the last few years and could be a problem in future. this isn't the show of massive explosions and michael by action, it's the show or a bunch of nerds who want to see practical effect aliens and cry about them

#doctor who #dw #david tennant #rtd #russell t davies #catherine tate #ncuti gatwa #millie gibson #the doctor has travelled with minors before -- not that millie is a minor #but we dont know how old ruby is yet do we?#and whether she's 19 playing 19 or 19 playing a 15 or 16 or 17 yr old #there's more im sure but off the top of my head this is it

57 notes · View notes

dapper-lil-arts · 8 months ago

Note

Seeing your last ask about Allison SLARPG and having had a similar conversation with a buddy recently, what would you change in the show to make Rainbow Dash a better character?

i def already adressed that on every fic I write with her in it, but sure i can say so again; Basicaly like 1 - Make her actually loyal. Like. She needs to value the bonds she has and be true to them, for reals. It should be something that goes above her desire to win, her desire to compete, and even her desire to show off. Wanting to help her friends and believing in them should be a priority! After all, she has plenty of golden medals; Having fun with her friends should be funner than just getting another. Example from my fic "the return of midnight sparkle"

2 - Dial down the "I'm good at everything" energy, and redirect it to have her aim it at her friends too-- constantly believing in her friends and what they can do; What she's great at should be a source of joy, not a source of unending cockyness and selfishness. This is from a fic im still writing, "Across the Shimmerverse"

3 - She doesn't need to care about winning- She just needs to love the competition! The thrill of participating on something and enjoying it should go above her wanting to win at everything-- Reminds me of Flash on the incredibles 1, where he wanted to compete, and knowing he could win easily, didn't mind purposefully getting second place! 4 - Bring back lightning dust and make her a proper rival like c'mon! I actually really like the idea that Lightning dust being faster than rainbow, but not having the same bonds she has, and losing because of it. that'd be pretty fun! and i'd love to see actual competition for the rank of fastest flier in equestria!! Specially on seeing like "this would be you if you had no friends." I think Lightning Dust had a lot of potential for reusage, like RD's very own Trixie heh

Theres certainly potential for a lot of improvement on the character, And i'd say the show rarly has growth stick-- even on the FINAL season she acts with like. Zero loyalty, dicking around and ignoring the cheerleaders that shes supposed to be in charge of

#I think i wanna make fanart of lightning dust mocking RD lmao #stealing her girl #sitting on her chair #petty rival shit lol #rainbow dash #writing stuff

19 notes · View notes

time-is-restored · 2 years ago

Text

btw this might be me swinging a bat at a hornets nest but like. absolutely none of my disappointment from the tl finale comes from ship baiting or any relationships that didn’t happen (though to be clear, i think the tedbecca fake outs were meanspirited and served no narrative purpose - in noted contrast to the season's earlier jamiekeeley fakeouts, for example, which were explicitly there to demonstrate jamie's growth + maturity)

tedpendant is a really fun concept for me, and i LOVE the characterisation + thematic potential there!

but as someone who personally resonated with a lot of ted’s struggles, the idea that ted could leave richmond so… seamlessly, for lack of a better word, really doesn’t sit right with me. the thesis of the shows entire first season - assuming it can be said to have only one - was about how everyone needs the love and support of a community, whether that comes in the flavour of someone who hypes u tf up or someone who will relentlessly call u on ur shit (or, as happened quite frequently, both!).

rebecca, roy, jamie are the clearest examples as the characters with the most screentime: they were all deeply isolated and disconnected from the people around them, and that was making them miserable. the connections they made with the team, the vulnerability they finally allowed themselves to express (the ghost banishing ceremony comes to mind!), and them going on to want *more* out of their life are what made their arcs about *progression* rather than *regression*. without that clear theme of compassion + community inspiring positive growth in everyone who encounters it, there is, frankly, no season one.

my personal favourite scene from season one comes right after michelle walks away from ted, when they’ve agreed to get divorced. ted sits down on the bench looking gutted, and a little shell shocked - and beard sits down with him. hands him the drink, and they sit there together. silent, but together. to me, that scene is an implicit promise from the episode, to the audience: ‘it’ll be okay. it’s going to be hard, but ted isn’t alone, and his friends won’t leave him behind.’

it also makes it clear to the audience that ted isn’t the saintly-giver-of-grace who needs nothing in return, as one might assume on first brush, but rather that he’s Also struggling with his own shit (as is everyone, always, in real life!) and he has something he needs from the people around him too.

and looking at the text of s3, and the conclusion to his arc in the finale, i just don’t believe that he got it. he wasn’t just sad that he was leaving (which would be understandable!), he was completely closed off. unresponsive to the people around him reaching out, borderline confused as to why they were trying so hard!

(side note, while i completely respect the read of ted and trents last interaction being rather rude + ooc on ted’s part, i personally read a different motive into it. for me, it was more like… he didn’t understand where trents enthusiasm was coming from? like, he read that as trent being too invested in what other people think of him, and responded in a way that he hoped would emphasise that ted doesn’t *need* to laugh at everything trent wrote, bc trent Already Knows that he’s done something really cool and kickass, and he shouldn’t value anyone else’s reactions above that. basically, based on his demeanour in the episode, i genuinely don’t think it would’ve even occurred to him that trent was more invested in HIS reaction than he would’ve been with anyone else.)

again, looking purely at the text, the show had already established that ted has really strong depressive + avoidant tendencies, as well as panic attacks (largely triggered by his fear of not being ‘good enough’ in various roles, ie: a father). we saw one area he was able to calm HIMSELF abt these fears (worry for henry, which is a Hell of a choice considering the ending…), but in literally every other heightened moment, he had to rely on his support system to help him make the choices that he WANTED to make, rather than ones inspired by avoidance and fear (ie: confronting michelle abt jake, talking to his mum abt why she was visiting + his dads death).

and to be clear, this is a GOOD THING! we’re not supposed to go through life alone, no matter how bad OR well we’re doing. rebecca and keeleys friendship isn’t worth less for all the scenes where they’re both in good places. if anything, the opposite is true - it’s lovely that they both have someone who want to celebrate the achievements in their life!

and fuck it, we’re sure as hell not supposed to go through life with exactly one (1) person whom we expect to fulfill ALL of our emotional needs at all times either! like, im sure i don’t need to labour my point here, but tying everything to one (1) person in ur life doesn’t make u any less isolated than if u were going it completely alone, whether it’s a family member, a friend, or a partner. i won’t pretend to know the first thing abt what it’s like to be a parent, but i don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that no parent would be at their best if they had absolutely no support/camaraderie/general love provided to them from Anyone other than their child.

so when ted is SPECIFICALLY shown to be in a bad place, over and over again (did he come to terms w his fear to be close to henry overnight???????), and then removed from his community? of COURSE the audience is left feeling unsettled, and like the rug has been pulled out from under them. there was no time in this finale dedicated to how ted would still be in contact with anyone from richmond. no promises of visits, or phone calls - fuck, nothing about emails!! according to the text, we might as well assume this is a clean break (and the maybe-dream-sequence does Fuck All to assure us otherwise. if ted doesn’t go to beards wedding, what WOULD he go to????). and since the show has ALSO completely failed to give us even an IMPLICATION of who/what ted’s support system would be in kansas, there’s… a reasonable argument to be made that this is It for ted. that, after two seasons doing NOTHING but attesting otherwise, the audience is supposed to suddenly believe that ted can (and SHOULD!) pull himself up by his bootstraps, and cope entirely on his own.

that, to me, is a betrayal of the show’s premise. we were promised a show about how, no matter how dark things may get, none of the characters would be left to struggle alone. and then they ended the show with ted alone.

i don’t know. i guess if i had to give this post a tldr; if anyone has any gen fic/meta/Literally Anything in the pipeline, i would absolutely love to be tagged/directed towards it. i’ll be endeavouring to write something myself, as well, but it might take a while before i can return to my WIP, lol.

#this is the most measured version of this post i was capable of fghjskdjhgfdgjhsfd #the least measured one is just the aromantic flag with the ‘we are going to beat u to death’ meme overlaid #look ik this is hardly impartial wrt very small + insular communities like nuclear families #but its fucking impossible to go into media analysis and not bring Anything from ur real life in there w u #so im trying to forgive myself for being a little hashtag Vulnerable + Opinionated on main #in the spirit of what this show could’ve been lol #if not here then where etc etc #Ted lasso spoilers #Ted lasso meta #Ted lasso critical #also just to be clear here im being dead serious abt that last point #im spiritually doing the jamie run to demonstrate to u all how badly i want gen shit #please. p l e a s e .#okay wait last ramble here but. this is also why the lack of information we got on trent was so crushing to me #like ur telling me this man went through the incredibly painful + harrowing process of breaking out of his (comfortable! safe) shell +#cynical journalist persona. came out to someone VERY important in his life. and has done nothing but face the music wrt acknowleding #his past mistakes + endeavouring to be better and kinder. and we never get to know if he has ANY support through all that? at all?#is he dating? what's his family situation like? does he have full custody? any friends from work? any friends period?????#like i can should must and will die on the beard + roy + higgins + colins are trents best friends hill but #its like the premise of the show stopped mattering just in time for him to be left in a legitimately depressing limbo #like 'yes everyone needs love + support bc life is rlly hard. but we're tired of making a show abt that so This Is All Ur Getting #+ screw anyone's personal life that u didn't already see in s1. You Know Enough.'#anyway i love u all this is a very silly show and im gonna go play t.o.t.k for a few hours o/ <3

85 notes · View notes

toads-treasures · 7 months ago

Note

How about 👁️ and ⚠️ for Leda?

You have no idea how much I have wanted to talk about how unhinged Leda actually is thank you so much 😂

⚠️ - If this oc came with a warning sign, what would it be?

She should honestly come with so many. She’s a wild magic sorcerer, so that alone would necessitate several warnings:

⚠️ warning- accidental polymorph may occur

⚠️caution-may burst unexpectedly into flames

⚠️ -area unstable due to sudden plant growth

But I feel like it can be summed up:

⚠️CHAOS IMMINENT⚠️

👁️ - How do other people perceive this oc? How close do their first assumptions come to the truth?

This one is very fun, because I think a lot of people would perceive Leda incorrectly. On the outside she is all glitter and chaos. She adds bows or frills or flowers to pretty much anything she can, armor and weapons included. She loves to have fun and be silly, loves to hear tales of romance and adventures where the good guys come out on top. At worst, she seems naive and even childish, which in a way she can be. At best I think people see Leda as sweet, effusive, and funny.

But she’s a rogue with a criminal background. In my head this means she was involved with Nine Fingers and The Guild before the game, but I haven’t really figured out to what extent yet 😅 But she has a tendency to take the easiest solution, even if it’s not always morally the best. Rather than confront Kagha directly, or bust Halsin out right away, she’ll snoop around and find some dirt on Kagha so she has an upper hand. She won’t go into a fight she thinks she can’t win. She’s not that brave.

The most extreme example of this (which honestly came from my own laziness that I then just incorporated into her character lol) is she became a bahaalist to avoid fighting Sarevok 😂 she’d already killed Gortash, she just had to lie about why. And then she had to kill that weird elephant cop, which to herwasn’t even “bad”. In her eyes, the inspector was happy to pin the open hand murders on a dead tiefling refugee rather than do any actual investigating.

So, Leda’s thought process: nerf this dirty cop or fight and potentially be killed, or worse, watch her friends be killed, by a powerful Bahaal spawn who terrorized the city 100 years ago. Not much of a choice in her mind, plus she was desperate to get her friend back from Orin, and felt like they were running out of time. So, easiest option, lie to these murder freaks and temporarily join their cult 🤷‍♀️

So…. Tldr version is I don’t think people anticipate the bubblegum pink tiefling to be kind of cut throat and underhanded 😂

featuring very disapproving, blurry boyfriend

#these are some of my favorite screenshots in the game 😂#Leda outside the temple of Bahaal with her amulet and also her pink cape <3 #can’t become an unholy assassin if you ain’t cute #oc: Leda #thank you sm for the ask I love talking about my little pink criminal

9 notes · View notes

heavilykaffeinated · 2 years ago

Text

Okay I’ve had a good day to contemplate this shit- let’s do this. I’m going to start with the fact that I found tsats aggressively disappointing- if you have an issue with that, leave now.

Addressing the highly debated concept of Will and Nico being incredibly OOC- I 100% agree. That doesn’t mean that teenagers don’t change, but they took away so much of both Will and Nicos personalities. Will genuinely lost so much- he used to be a very fun and honest enjoyable character even under stress, but we didn’t get any of that. While I like the concept of Will being rather uninformed and having a really hard time in the underworld, it was overdone and Shoved Down Our Throats from the beginning. That whole scene when Will was talking to Persephone??? (That’s an ENTIRE other post lmk if you want that) He just kept being like ‘ew this place that’s clearly special to you? Yucky.’ He insisted on going on a quest with Nico (which other people were clearly more well suited for,) then proceeded to insult Nico’s second home quite often. It’s like Riordan and Oshiro squished his character and made him two dimensional.

As for Nico, he’s missing a lot. I understand coming to terms with some trauma and your personality changing, (which is literally what the entire book is about) but it’s so extreme. They took the Nico out of Nico. This boy would never come out to an entire camp in some huge display to ask a boy out. Come on.

Uhm PERCY AND ANNABETH??? Bruh what was that scene??? Though the whole page 69 thing was amusing- they were just like Oopsie Poopsie We Fucked Up but you get to deal with it have fun 🤩. (Again, that whole scene was really OOC and an entire other post)

Uh oh the big one- the really weird queer rep. Before y’all come at me, I’m gay as hell, this shit isn’t new. Anyway, it felt really forced. The queer rep in ToA was amazing because it was casual and normal- this was not that. Why were demons coming out to them. Tf. The acceptance subplot is amazing in theory, but again, it was Shoved Down Our Throats. It’s like they slapped a rainbow sticker on the book and suddenly it’s supposed to be amazing. It felt shallow and artificial.

What on earth was Will doing down there??? Think about it- we have Hazel, Reyna, and a few other characters who were either not mentioned or barely mentioned who would have been better suited to the underworld.

Will and Nicos relationship felt really toxic and superficial- I get that it’s their first relationship and it’s not going to be perfect, but they were arguing the whole time, they had no chemistry, and they seemed like they hated each other.

On a similar note, this book lost the whole Acceptance thing from the other people Nico loves. HAZEL??? REYNA??? APOLLO??? They were all left out, and any mention of them felt like a rushed afterthought.

Another big one- the trauma motif. (Again speaking as a biatch with ptsd) Nico was scarily self aware- this whole book is supposed to be about Nico growing and being a kid, yet it was always Trauma Trauma Trauma Childhood Trauma, and he was aggressively self aware- there was no growth there. Things like that take time- and that wasn’t represented. It was like somebody snapped their fingers and Nico became a really angsty self aware therapist.

The conflict of the book felt half baked. Literally why did Nyx care. I don’t know. Does she? There wasn’t much action. (except for the dream sequences, those were good.) Tartarus didn’t feel dangerous or scary. I liked the idea of the Cocoa Puffs, but that also felt half baked. Instead of being like ‘these are literally you’ Nyx was like ‘these are your children lmao 🫃👶👶👶’ that storyline had so much potential but it didn’t really work out.

The whole damn thing read like fanfiction. It felt like Twitter fan service

Also Will was ignored??? This book was supposed to be about Nico and Will, but it ended up being just Nico. I wanted to see anxiety Will :(

Rick Riordan has done really well creating engaging middle reader books in the past, but this felt very Fourth Grade Learn About Gay People And Trauma.

Overall, there were good parts to the book, but I didn’t like it. The entire thing felt half baked and two dimensional. I’m going to reread some of Riordans work, and read some of Oshiros books to try to find the disconnect.

#tsats spoilers #yes I’m updating this as I think of more #the sun and the star #nico di angelo #will solace #solangelo #book review #i guess #hello my favorite person

61 notes · View notes

imthepunchlord · 8 months ago

Text

Need Some Help with Miraculous Rewrite

Ok, so, spoilers for the future Miraculous rewrite, though probably not that surprising giving my preference and what I've talked about before. And I don't think it's going to spoil that much of the rewrite, so I think it's going to be ok for me to roll out this post and get some help.

Thinking on the Miraculous Rewrite, working on the timeline and future ideas, one thing I am torn on is on the secondary lead.

Probably unsurprisingly, it's going to be kwami swaps. There will be a few canon matches that do happen, either as they work or narrative wise need to stay, but a majority will be Miraculous with different people.

Marinette for sure will have the Cat. Partly because her and Plagg are going to be so fun to write, and it's one of my favorite kwami swaps for her; but mostly I do think it's going to offer her the most growth and it's going to be different to explore the different guidance Plagg can offer Marinette and how they work off each other. Even more so as, Plagg is THE foil to Marinette in terms of who he is, and both can play a part in how either grow.

Now the issue I've been struggling with is who is the Ladybug going to go to.

For this, working off Emilie and Amelie, Felix and Adrien are twin brothers, with Felix being older of the two, and is going to primarily work off his PV self (and how I perceived him). Adrien in turn will primarily work off his s1 characterization (that want for friends and being a little more sociable, a willingness to openly rebel and resist against his father, and being torn between what's right vs what he wants). Also neither of them (or Kagami) are sentimonsters. There are no feather babies here.

Now, my struggle is which Agreste should get the Ladybug, as both have their own pros and cons.

Felix would work off his old PV set up, from reluctant to be a hero to coming to embrace the role. And you got someone who's skeptical and pessimistic paired with a kwami who is optimistic and bubbly. Which can set up Tikki to be Felix's primary foil, and both can grow in how they work off each other. Potential cons, it would be a more clashing pair, which can have some comedic potential, but I can also see a lot of tension. And hero partnership wise, it won't be an immediate, easy click. It will become a solid partnership and an effective team, it's just going to have a rougher start with Felix's reluctance to be there, and Marinette will pick up on that quiet frustration even if he hides it. I also will say, I am going to explore that bad luck curse concept, only it's from Tikki forcing a spiteful Felix to get out there. So this is going to be a tenser start with a more flawed lead.

Adrien I would work off what I thought his initial arc and set up was going to be, with Adrien starting out treating the Miraculous for freedom and fun, but gradually getting more serious as a hero. In contrast to Felix, it'd be a more pleasant start over all, Adrien easily clicks with his partner and they become fast friends and work off each other well, and he clicks with Tikki quickly and easily. Even more so as Tikki fills the void his mom left, being affectionate and supportive of Adrien, though she does push for his growth and change in character (take initiative to help others, be more considerate, stand up to his father and have an actual conversation with him). The cons are more of a reverse of Felix, where despite the pleasant start, I would explore a sour path later, working off the fact that Adrien struggles with pressure and exclusion and has a tendency to quit. And Tikki will be another who adds pressure and expectation to his life. It will be an exploration of how much does Adrien genuinely want to be a hero, and at this time, I cannot promise that he would stay as one. That end is up in the air.

If it helps in the choice making, both are planned to get a Miraculous either way, it's just one will be a more major lead character and will get a Miraculous sooner. The other has to wait for "S2" at the earliest. To add to it, there is a potential plot bunny I have of the other twin discovering their brother is the hero, and the shenanigans of that discovery which will lead to their future Miraculous involvement. And depending on who's the civilian, that can have some polarizing responses (Adrien would be over the moon while Felix instead would be stressing about it), so this can be a factor to consider too.

I also need to stress, Adrienette will not be endgame in this Miraculous Rewrite. There may be initial crushes, but that's it. They will just be good friends. Picking Adrien thinking Adrienette will happen will not happen. This is more about the characters and how they will grow and work off each other than the ships. At this time, I'd say romance would just really take a back seat, I want it to be more friendship focused initially.

As I see the potential in both options as leads, working off Tikki, and as a potential partner for Marinette, and it needs to be decided before I can take things further, it'd be a big help to get others opinion/preference on the other major lead to follow.

#miraculous ladybug #ml #mlb #miraculous poll #ml poll #mlb poll #ladybug miraculous #tikki #adrien agreste #felix agreste #felix pv #felix fathom #felix graham de vanily #kwami swap #mister bug #fortuno #long post

43 notes · View notes