#this is such a fun idea and has a lot of potential for character growth and development

[directdogman]

Hi, I hope you're having a decent day! I'm sorry if this is an invasive set of questions - feel free not to answer - but do you still actively like DSaF as your own creation, or is it more of a "it was fun while it lasted but i outgrew it and it's for the best to leave it behind" kind of project? Do you ever regret making the games? If you knew they would get so popular, is there anything you would have changed about them? Is there anywhere I could read more of your writing.

It fluctuates a bit. These last couple of years, I've really just been sorta nostalgic for it. I've seen a lot of people discuss those games being a source of comfort during bad times in their lives, people talking about how much the characters mean to them and it's hard not to smile when you see that.

It's a funny thing for close friends of yours to see people WITH fanmade DSaF merch out in the wild, or to watch a random youtube video and being hit with a DSaF reference outta nowhere. It happens from time to time, even today. On a few occasions, I've even had a person reference my work to me in real life and not realize who they were talking to, believe it or not. It's really fun to play dumb and get someone to explain your work to you like you don't know what it is.

I certainly didn't think any of that would happen when I first made the series, or even during development. I think the normal assumption would be to look at DSaF as it exists now and assume its release was a peak for it, but believe it or not, the official discord only had 30 people in it shortly before 3 dropped! The archive listing of the series (reposted to a single page after the series ended) is now sitting at over 1.1 MILLION downloads.

People kinda assume the true heyday of something is when it's new, when it's fresh and novel. For instance, some people look back at when FNaF itself was new and see that time as its peak because it had a lot of internet cultural relevance as big new indie thing on the block. But, raw numbers don't lie. The series has been continually growing since its conception and that growth has similarly bled over to its fan projects. This explains why DSaF, despite not having a new series release in almost 6 years, seems to be inexplicably growing.

Just recently, I saw someone post footage of a scene from DSaF 2 on Twitter, which got over 16k likes. People praised its writing and largely celebrated the scene. The ironic thing about that particular scene is that I remembered being unsure if it was good or not, so I showed it off in one of the FNaF community hubs. The response was broadly lukewarm to negative. Now, it's held up as one of the best scenes in those games. That's kind of the point I'm trying to make, my thoughts on the series have certainly changed with everyone's else with years of hindsight.

Heh. I'm not sure if I've talked about this in a long time, but y'know, the very first scene I implemented in-game was actually the very first Phone Guy scene in DSaF 1, more or less exactly how it appears in-game today. This was before I'd even written the bulk of the game. I was pretty unfamiliar with visual novels as a whole, pretty unsure if something like this would be palatable to a fandom that was really just used to sit 'n' survive stuff that were far more gameplay than text. I mean, there wasn't any FNaF fangames really LIKE DSaF before that point. Closest was FNaFb, a jokey turn based RPG made in the same engine.

The engine I made the game in is also not exactly fit for VNs out of the box either, and I wasn't 100% sure the idea would actually work. But, the very first time I added the image of the prize corner, Phone Guy, the audio of that iconic cheesy stock track and booted up a test screen, I had a little moment where I said "Oh. I think I'm onto something interesting here." I kinda remembering instantly realizing in that single moment how much potential the idea had. Over 8 years later, I still remember that moment like it was yesterday.

I think lately, that's the sort of stuff I think of when I see people coming to me and asking about the series. Yes, it's really rough around the edges, yes, there's jokes that've aged poorly. But, it is a source of comfort for people and entertains tens of thousands of people each month. And that's gotta count for something, right?

[lemotmo]

one thing i'm a bit worried about as we got into season 8 is that there are a lot of fans talking about buddie like it's an inevitability and saying things like "buddie canon confirmed" because of the bts stuff we've seen.

it feels like people are setting themselves up for being disappointed and mad if buddie doesn't end up going canon (and honestly, it's kind of their fault for reading so much into fun little posts from the cast when the only way they'd ever confirm buddie is in an episode).

i really want buddie to be canon, but I'm keeping my expectations low because I don't want to be disappointed and it feels like people should be prepared for that potential outcome.

All right Nonny, here's the thing...

I get it. I completely understand what you are saying. I have been in the 911 fandom since season 1 (not so much on Tumblr) and when season 2 happened I hopped onto the Buddie train (on Tumblr).

I have been there, season after season after season. I saw people building up a lot of hope only for that hope to end up in disappointment. And I felt some of that disappointment as well. Although I have to admit I was always on the sidelines. I never really thought it would ever go canon. I hoped for it, but I had very low expectations.

After all, both men were canonically straight. Even though we could all see the queer-coding, fundamentally nothing ever changed. Buddie got closer than ever, but they still had girlfriends and relationships.

So yeah, I didn't have high expectations and I was happy just chilling in my little Buddie corner, speculating and reading/writing fan fic. Just genuinly having a good time.

But then season 7 happened. The show got cancelled by FOX at the end of season 6 and ABC picked it up. The first thing ABC did was put Ryan and Oliver front and center, having them freely talk about Buddie. I couldn't believe my eyes when these interviews happened. Articles were written, not just by smaller click bait sites, but actual reputable magazine sites. I watched all of this with wide eyes, not sure what to think of it. 'Would they? Could they?'

Then another bomb went off when 7x04 happened and Buck came out as bisexual. I was floored. For the first time in 6 seasons, I started entertaining the idea that the show might just go there. If they made Buck bisexual, surely they wouldn't ignore the highly popular Buddie aspect of it? Would they?

Let's not get into the whole Tommy debacle that happened afterwards. Because in the end it's not important for this answer. Tommy has been set up as a narrative device to help Buck out of the closet. He isn't even a factor in the overspanning Buddie arc we've seen progressing over 6 seasons.

I also want to add that it's crazy that we know for sure that it was actually supposed to be Eddie who would come out of the closet (first).

The end of season 7 gave us an Eddie who told Kim that he is broken and he can't be fixed. Chris left and now he's all alone. No more Chris, Marisol or any other distractions. He is on his own now. Lots of time to reflect upon his life and relationships. His arc will be built around his emotional journey and his personal growth. And we all know who will be by his side for all of it. It's a given at this point.

Then we have Ryan doing these interviews, saying things like:

“The character has been established now, we kind of know what to expect with the vibe. Now it’s just kind of falling back in old rhythm. The only thing different now is where the character’s head is at and where he is going.”

Next to that we have new looks for both Ryan and Oliver. A new beginning perhaps? That moustache has some clear queer symbolism attached to it as well. Something we cannot ignore, because the show knows that its fans aren't stupid and they also know that they have a solid queer fanbase.

And yes, Ryan and Oliver seem happy and relaxed on set these days, while especially Oliver didn't seem all that happy at the end of season 7. In fact, Oliver has completely ignored the Tommy aspect of his new 'canon' relationship. He speaks more about Buck's bi journey and ignores the Tommy factor as much as possible.

So Nonny, if you read all of the above information (and I'm sure I forgot a bunch of stuff) how can you not become more hopeful and a lot more positive that there is a high chance of Buddie happening in season 8?

I'm all for protecting yourself from possible disappointment, but when you are constantly wrapping yourself into a protective cocoon so you don't get hurt in the process, you might just miss the best (and most fun) part of being a shipper: the experience of your slow-burn ship finally becoming canon.

I admit it! I too strongly believe Buddie might just happen in season 8. I'm almost completely sure.

And yes, if Buddie doesn't happen, there will be disappointment and there will be people who choose to express that disappointment through anger. But honestly?

They would kinda have a point.

Because no, it wouldn't be the fans' own fault for getting their hopes up if Buddie doesn't happen. During previous seasons I would have said 'yes', but not now. Not anymore. Now I would definitely say that they are right. It's the show itself that has gotten our hopes up by the consistent Buddie promo, the many Buddie scenes, the whole Eddie being in every part of the BT arc thing, the bts and all the other things they've thrown at us. They know exactly what they are doing. They are hyping Buddie up to the max.

I don't actually believe there will be disappointment though. This is truly the first season where I have been pretty confident that Buddie is in the works. I've never had that feeling before and I've been here forever.

Now that being said, complete certainty doesn't exist for a shipper. if, for some reason, Buddie doesn't happen? There will be disappointment (for me as well) and anger (for me not so much), but in the end that emotion will fade and Buddie will become just another great fandom experience with a bad ending. We've all been there before. It happens.

That is just the nature of being in fandom: 'You win some, you lose some.'

However... this time? With Buddie?

I really think we're about to win big. Sorry Nonny!

¯\_ (ツ)_/¯

[puhpandas]

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 :)

[onyichii]

My Reply to you Cocogum

This is a response to @cocogum post! Since it is SUPER LONG! Imma start doing this instead of reblogging if I have a lot to say.

OG Post by COCOGUM:

YES COCOGUM!! I am LOVING YOUR ENTIRE POST! I have a few thoughts to add...

A) I'm happy her hair is growing out too! I hope she eventually has hair as long as her mothers.

I want her to look like a forest goddess.

I think the growth is a symbol of just (as you said) being happy or at peace. In TV/movies people cut their hair as a symbol of change (freedom from the past) and grow it out again (sometimes) when they're at a new happy place. As we have seen, her hair and that green leaf she sports now are a symbol of her new found happiness.

B) I too was not expecting the "adult fun time" scene but i am hoping we get A TON more especially if this series is gonna be 100 chapters. I want more fluff, more hugs, more kisses, more f--ks! lol Put a baby (or three) in her Yugo! Give the Sadida kingdom an heir!

I can see where you are coming from that Yugo was having a wet dream. If that's the case, that is funny because he (presumably) had just pollinated his flower queen and he is dreaming of doing it again! 😀😀 And he called her tireless!? LMAO. Whether it was a dream or they were interrupted before the nut we can agree that they are BOTH hungry for each others touch/warmth (based on that scene alone).

I still think they were interrupted before they...made sap🌳and fell from the air.

I think the "adult fun time" positions you were suggesting are accurate and I can see Yugo switching too. I think it would depend on who initiates it. When she initiates she's top but when he initiates he'd top....sometimes (not all the time because as you said—he loves the view)! lol

C) For the open room. I think the construction of the floor (or level) gives them privacy. Like a long corridor before the room entrance. And at the entrance to the corridor there'd be a magical cotton bell (as seen in s3) that rings when pulled to let the royals know when servants want to enter. BUT if there is no magical door bell (OR ANYTHING) that is bold of them!! lol.

Rereading your post...if the doorway is open like that it makes me think of this quote (the last quote at 1:40) from the film Scary Movie (watch from 1:30 to 1:42 for context)

D) So I am GLAD people have been bringing up Draconiros. I am not deep into the WAKFU/KROZMOS/DOFUS universe and had NO IDEA who he was nor any of the other primordial dragons.

I got into Wakfu for Amalia. I thought she and Yugo would be cute from all the hugs she gave him. When they canonized a potential Yumalia (in the OVA) I STANNED for their star-crossed lover romance that could never be. I love the whole cast but Amalia's character design is so cute/fun (it drew me into Wakfu).

Anyway, I am curious if Draconiros is ALSO responsible for Nora's daydream in ep 4 of season 4. THIS SCENE ALWAYS THREW ME OFF!

I feel like this scene was added for two three purposes... 1) to introduce the audience to Efrim (in a foreshadowing way) 2) to add to what Oropo says in episode 1. Questioning Yugo's "good" intentions and actions which have caused (and WILL CAUSE) trouble for the World of Twelve. 3) To sneakily, introduce Draconiros (without the audience knowing).

The reason why I think this is Draconiros and NOT Efrim is because—how would Efrim know any of what was said in that scene? Efrim is in the Necroworld at this moment. He and Nora were in the Krozmos away from the World of Twelve for a long time. There is NO WAY Efrim would know about YUGO's effects on the World of Twelve. At none, that I can think of...

Which also brings to question, how did the Goddess Eliatrope know the Brotherhood of the Tofu and everyones names when they entered the temple? Did I miss something? I mean Quilby could have told them some things. From before his imprisonment...but I digress...

Anyway, I think Draconiros took on Efrims form/voice in s4. And now he is making an official appearance in the manga.

If they had shown Draconiros in season 4, it would be a loose end. And Tot wanted to wrap the animation up without any loose ends. So (to me) it'd make sense not to show Draconiros' true form at all in s4 and have him take on Efrims form/voice.

E) I think this dude is gonna be a problem. But I may be over thinking 🤷‍♀️. And shouldn't he be referring to her as QUEEN Amalia instead of LADY Amalia? Does he have some passive aggressive beef with her? Or is it okay to refer to a Queen as Lady instead. I feel like the Sadida's are more chill about titles (compared to other kingdoms) but...idk.

His character design (in this scene) is just giving...bad guy or pawn to me. If I am right, he could play a betrayal role (if the plot takes that turn). I do not see him being a fan of the Eliatropes either.

F) And I agree that the Sadida kingodm is tense with it's new residence. I'm glad you brought up the perspective from the Sadida but let's talk about it a little more with a Eliatrope in mind...

The Eliatrope have NEVER had to live with another race before. EVER. They had their OWN PLANET. No other race existed on there but them.

Thanks to Baltazar (in s2) they had been watching Yugo through the Eliacube, but have they been taking notes on the customs of the world around him?

Being on a new planet with so many races must be a SHOCK to them. ADDITIONALLY, they haven't interreacted with anyone but each other for goddess knows how long!!! So the communication, customs, cultures, and everything probably hit them like a TON OF BRICKS. I would assume that they don't (quite) understand what tolerance and acceptance of other cultures is thanks to their isolation too.

However, it is something they are gonna have to learn. Starting with the Sadida race.

Since they're teens I think (...well, I hope) it'll be easier for them to learn and integrate into the world of twelve via the Sadida Kingdom.

ALSO...It will take time for the Sadida's to be comfortable with the Eliatropes too. I mean...people have been trying to take their homeland (via possess the tree of life) for a long time. It's no surprise that they are weary/tense of some alien race residing on said homeland. They may know Yugo, but they don't know his people. They probably think they'll take over....IDK.

But I am here for the tea! 🫖🍵

FRIDAY NEEDS TO HURRY UP!!

[flower-boi16]

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.

[favvn]

Perhaps the Amok Time scene of all time (minus the fight). A 5 minute and 32 second clip. And 3.8k word analysis below the cut!

I can hear the bells (when Spock gazes upon the photo of T'Pring)! It is so fun how the new musical themes composed for this episode lurk around and act as another character to the events. The same bells that will announce the Vulcan procession that begins the ceremony are sounding now as Spock looks upon his betrothed. Again, the music acts as the sound of fate that waits for Spock.

My reference to Hairspray aside, Spock is looking at an image of a young T'Pring, aged seven when they were initially bonded and betrothed. T'Pring is his fiancé and this is presumably the only picture of her he has. YIKES! Either I'm applying human standards to an alien species (it's technically true) or, what's the alternative? Vulcans enter into love-less marriages? Just for the sake of creating offspring? Groundbreaking! Like we haven't seen that before. 🙄

I realize this episode was written before D.C. Fontana's Journey to Babel, that in fact this episode was intended to be a part of the first season but Sturgeon took his sweet time with the script on top of all the rewrites and input from others involved in the show--notably Gene Roddenberry, Robert Justman, D.C. Fontana, and Gene Coon. I need to be clear on this: The finished episode itself is a product of all of them. A lot of what exists in the finished episode is missing from the script that is available online to read. Dialogue and scenes were cut but still present in the script. What was intended by one person is not what remained in the finished episode because the finished episode is the culmination of other people's ideas.

I bring these details up and look forward to the events of Journey to Babel because the existence of Sarek and Amanda as a couple speaks to a Vulcan notion of romantic and sexual love, regardless of what further details may exist in the beta canon of the books and so forth (I am writing these notes around the episode Amok Time itself; I might dig into the script versus what is filmed and recall later information given by other episodes of The Original Series, but I'm limiting myself solely to TOS in this). Fontana herself was of the opinion that Vulcans do not have sex once every 7 years and that such an interpretation was a misunderstanding of the pon farr. Frankly, I'm inclined to agree, especially when the completed episode does not include any sort of timeline for the pon farr, merely that Spock assumed his time would never come owing to his human half.

Hell, the couple of Stonn and T'Pring as revealed later in Amok Time suggests something beyond pre-arranged bondings and betrothals, logic, and innate mating drives spurring Vulcans on to choose their mates. T'Pring states that she wanted Stonn and he wanted her in return. Don't tell me that conversation was strictly the logical choice to pursue a marriage of convenience just because Stonn was physically there on Vulcan, otherwise what's to separate Stonn from all the other eligible Vulcans on the planet? T'Pring's attraction to him and all that such a thing can entail. Stonn was ready to fight an adrenaline-fueled Spock and potentially die for T'Pring. Where's the logic of that unless Vulcans do in fact abide by various forms of love? Doesn't the existence of these two couples show that there are degrees of love and emotions that even Vulcans--yes full, 100% biological Vulcans--act and live on? What notably separates Vulcans from the computers they are so harshly compared to is that Vulcans are living, organic beings capable of growth beyond what a computer can do. They operate primarily by logic, but that is not all they are. They are still physical beings inhabiting a physical world. They may seek the ideals of the mind, but as this episode shows, no amount of discipline or logic can overcome the physical realities of biology, of hunger itself.

My point is: if all Spock has of T'Pring is an old photo of her aged seven, how close can they be? He's in his thirties and he has no recent photos of his fiancé. They haven't been shown to have any sort of contact with one another until this episode, but they're supposed to get married. Is it any wonder that T'Pring doesn't want to marry Spock? Did he try at all to nurture their bond?

And why is Spock treated as the perfect example for how Vulcan marriages, divorces, and the pon farr goes given all the things that set him apart from other Vulcans? He is half Vulcan, half human. His father is an ambassador. Spock joined Starfleet instead of the Vulcan Science Academy. He has had a strained relationship to his father for 18 years. He hasn't returned home in 4 years. Despite these things which set him apart, Spock is the only Vulcan character we have known for an entire season, so he must be the representative of all of Vulcan rather than seen for the outlier he is. Is it not possible that his family's status or his hybrid nature has changed the way his pon farr is handled? (I realize the reality of some of these pesky details is because Star Trek decided to model itself off of the standalone story structure of anthology series like Wagon Train. Doesn't mean I can't gripe about it or realize that, because of that standalone structure, Spock's lack of a relationship with T'Pring is an issue that was baked in to the very episode plot before it was ever brought up. Technically, had this been made into an issue to correct, someone could have found a way to imply something between T'Pring and Spock off-camera, but alas that did not happen.)

SPOCK CANNOT CONFIRM OR DENY THAT HE WILL DIE. HE CANNOT SPEAK. WHAT THE HELL. He cannot admit to the reality of his situation, not to himself, and certainly not aloud to Kirk.

"Is it something only your planet can do for you?" = "Is there nothing we can do for you here? Is there nothing I can do beyond getting you to Vulcan?" (I could say more about the pain of knowing something is terribly wrong with someone but being unable to help them in any manner and what that would mean to someone like Kirk who continues to persist in situations where most would rather give up. How this question is both an attempt to still respect Spock's privacy but also try to get much-needed information for him. How it is very much a declaration of love and care which Spock cannot indulge in at this time lest he loses himself.)

"SPOCK!" THE WRIST GRAB! THE SHAKING! (Ignore the continuity error of Spock putting the pen down before the wrist grab but having it back again in his hand. Yes, you notice these things in rewatches and editing. Sorry to point it out.) THE CONTACT, THE CONNECTION. If Vulcans are touch telepaths, how much care and concern do you think Spock received in that moment? No wonder Spock cannot look Kirk in the eye afterward.

KIRK: "You've been called the best first officer in the Fleet."

McCoy said it in Operation: Annihilate! Twice! Hello, continuity! I love you. And Spock closes his eyes as if this praise hurts him, as if he cannot bear to look at Kirk for saying this.

This line and Kirk's following line, "That's an enormous asset to me" have been understood as Kirk appealing to Spock's sense of logic and retaining the necessary distance of professionalism. Why disrupt the smooth operation of the ship? Why jeopardize the Enterprise's five year mission? Why throw away such a distinguished career? And it works. Spock begins talking, but only after getting up to place a physical distance between himself and Kirk.

Spock can't even bring himself to face Kirk, he stands in profile if not with his back to Kirk (and his back to the audience, if you want to break that fourth wall). He moves to the opposite wall in the room before saying, "It is a thing no Outworlder may know, except those very few who have been involved." So there's a precedent to Outworlders--non-Vulcans--knowing of, if not participating in the koon-ut-kal-if-fee, the marriage or challenge ceremony, and knowing of the pon farr as a result! Fascinating!

SPOCK: "A Vulcan understands, but even we do not speak of it among ourselves."

I know I'm getting ahead of the series by doing this, but once more, Journey to Babel establishes that Spock and Sarek have not spoken to each other "as father and son for 18 years" and Spock has not returned home in 4 years. Let's assume that Spock is 36 given that was Nimoy's age at the time. 36-18=18. This is Spock's first pon farr and he was betrothed/bonded to T'Pring at the age of seven. This is my roundabout way of saying, who exactly is going to be telling a child about the pon farr if it is considered a time of madness and mating, or am I to assume that Vulcan children are given every bit of detail same as an adult would because they are innately logical? (I'm being sarcastic; I understand Vulcan logic to be the result of great discipline and hard work to suppress the emotions if not the commitment and further work to undergo the complete purging of emotion.)

Moreover who would Spock be discussing the pon farr with? His human mother? How would that help him? Certainly not his father if their relationship became strained when he rejected the VSA for Starfleet! Perhaps a teacher at some point in his first 18 years on Vulcan before joining Starfleet? But again, the age of when this would happen would surely alter the details of the discussion, right?

Again, I realize I am applying details that did not exist when this episode was written, but if we are to accept what Journey to Babel tells of Spock and shows us of his parents, then their estrangement shows why his parents were not there for the ceremony and it explains how Spock can say such a thing as, "We do not speak of it among ourselves." He would not have told them to begin with, and I think Sarek and Amanda are smart enough to keep a discreet distance had they been notified.

I'm making a note of this for a reason: if Spock's only understanding of the pon farr came from him being aged seven at the earliest (again, this is not divulged in the episode), is it not possible he built it up in his own head, especially understanding how different he is as a half-human? This isn't to say that I believe the pon farr isn't serious, but Spock is not your typical Vulcan, so his fears and the weight he's placed upon the pon farr exceeds the norm because of who he is. Of course he'd feel more shame about this, especially if he thought, however briefly, that he would be spared it entirely. Imagine that: Spock, the Vulcan-human hybrid untouched by the madness of pon farr. I think he would be so elated his lips would twitch in the closest he'd give to a smile. Instead, here he is, torn by a drive he does not wish to understand because it undoes everything he has lived by. He is only half-Vulcan yet this time still comes for him. How unfair it is to have a body that is half human yet still beholden to the drives of its Vulcan half. How unfair it is for Spock to work so hard at living according to Vulcan teachings and philosophies, suppressing his emotions and retaining such clarity even as he works among humans, and the pon farr undoes it all and creates questions he cannot have the answers to unless he survives.

Think about it: what if his body cannot physically take the pressures as a full Vulcan's would? What if he dies, regardless of T'Pring, regardless of the blood fever triggered by her rejection? How would anyone know how the first half-Vulcan, half-human hybrid's first pon farr goes? The fact that Spock was betrothed speaks to the assumption that he would undergo the pon farr and would survive its effects. In other words, think of the betrothal not as arranged marriage (especially given how the betrothal can be challenged and rejected) but hope for a life after the pon farr. The ceremony exists for a reason: to ensure Vulcans live.

I want to also point out the absurdity of such a statement: "we do not speak of it amongst ourselves." AND YET. There are rituals they follow, down to wearing specific garments, ringing bells and gongs, creating betrothals during childhood specifically for this time, allowing for either a marriage (the koon-ut) or a challenge/divorce (the kal-if-fee) because these betrothals are not understood to be permanent. Awful lot to do if there's no speaking about it! (I suppose one could say that there are plenty of traditions that people have continued enacting throughout the centuries without really scrutinizing or knowing why they do such a thing, but that falls apart when you consider the thought and care that would go into preparing a match for bonding/betrothal. Perhaps the details as to why the bells must ring, why the sash is purple, and so forth can be forgotten with time, but I'd say the rest is pretty damn obvious and too important to be forgotten, especially by a race as logical as Vulcans). I point this out because I feel like so much of the understanding of pon farr has come from accepting these statements as wholly true and absolute fact rather than considering them in light of the information the episode reveals afterwards on the planet Vulcan itself. In other words, Spock is not his usual self at this time and he is an unreliable narrator for these details at best (to say nothing of his status as the first Vulcan-human hybrid! That informs his perspective too). A previous scene had him not realizing he ordered the ship to Vulcan. Is it not possible that this scene is the result of his fears, heightened by the adrenaline of the pon farr?

SPOCK: "It is a deeply personal thing. Can you see that, Captain, and understand?"

FINALLY. He asks to be seen. He asks for understanding! And he looks directly at Kirk! Except! He's asking for more privacy! He's asking for Kirk to fill in the gaps and accept his non-answers as explanation because Spock himself does not wish to say it. He's running away to hide again, putting up walls mid-conversation, and pushing Kirk away. Spock, what the hell??

Kirk orders Spock to explain it to him and Spock responds, "Captain, there are some things which transcend even the discipline of the service."

Again, Kirk understands he cannot get Spock to talk any other way but Spock is now willing to risk disciplinary action for disobeying Kirk's orders! A failure to communicate due to the shame Spock feels for needing instead of being able to deny, and he is willing to jeopardize his career with Starfleet for this shame.

Kirk walks towards him and bridges their distance, and tells Spock he will treat their conversation as "totally confidential."

Gotta love the "we are going to commit to tripping the censors" that Star Trek TOS pulls. Note the discordant return of the Mr. Spock/Contrary Orders theme! How fun that the audience can giggle at Nimoy and Shatner as they repeat "Vulcan biology" and other variations of it, knowing that they cannot say sex yet still hear such a serious tune as they do so. Adds an extra layer of disorder to this scene, mirroring the chaos that Spock is struggling against. There's also a meta-layer to this in that, due to the network censors and issues surrounding discussions of sex within general audience television, the censors create the same inability to communicate that propels the episode's plot. And I would be remiss to overlook the acting here. Nimoy delivers a physically pained if not annoyed Spock, as if he cannot believe he must spell out the obvious to the captain. Shatner gives Kirk a lost expression as he listens before it all clicks and we have the suave, ready-to-solve-the-issue captain.

I love that they took the "birds and the bees" idiom and played it straight for Spock! It is not just a euphemism for sex, it is earnestly true: Vulcans are not like any other creature. What other creature would try to control itself as Vulcans do, suppressing the emotions if not purging them entirely, forming a civilization ruled by logic and the mind (a civilization that might as well seek Plato's highest idea of the absolute and unchanging Forms in their attitudes towards logic; honestly this is a stretch but it could be that this is how Surak's teachings evolved with the passage of about 2,000 years)?

SPOCK: If any creature as proudly logical as us were to have their logic ripped from them as this time does to us…

Yes, pride isn't a very Vulcan thing to have, but it has been made clear that Spock takes pride in being a Vulcan and in being different from humans. Most of Spock and McCoy's banter with each other stems from McCoy putting on a big show about how alien and strange Spock is only for Spock to happily (as much as he allows himself to show it) double-down on whatever difference sets him apart from humans. And again, for Spock especially pon farr is an undoing of all of his hard work, all of his discipline, all of his control and denial and he is powerless to stop it despite his attempts. This is world-ending for him hence how he phrases it in such a visceral way. (To say nothing of the inherent dichotomy between logic and madness!)

SPOCK: How do Vulcans choose their mates? Haven't you ever wondered? KIRK: I guess the rest of us assume that it's done… quite logically. Spock: No. It is not.

Once more, BULLSHIT. The very fact that Vulcans match children together to share a bond specifically for their future pon farr, and the fact that they are betrothed to one another at such a young age again for the future pon farr, and the fact that the pon farr itself is contained by the marriage or challenge ceremony means that there is a very logical process to it all! The only time logic would go out the window would be if a Vulcan were to reject their betrothed to marry the one that they love. (This is assuming a dichotomy between logic and love, Logos and Pathos, objectivity and subjectivity, absolute reality and personal perception, etc. Science can quantify love into numbers and biochemical processes and so forth, but it is not enough to yield understanding, otherwise a lot of literature, poetry, songs, art, and so forth are all saying absolutely nothing of import.)

But the caveat here is, they could have hardly said, "How do Vulcans mate?" on 1960s television even though that is the question which would--logically--earn such a response. Lmao.

That aside, Spock returns to his seat, not to put physical distance between him and Kirk, however. Perhaps now Spock is becoming more agitated as this conversation continues, and so he cannot stay in one place for too long.

SPOCK: We shield it with ritual and customs shrouded in antiquity. You humans have no conception. It strips our minds from us. Brings a madness which rips away the veneer of our civilization. It is the pon farr. The time of mating. There are precedents in nature, Captain. The giant eelbirds of Regulus Five, once each eleven years they must return to the caverns where they hatched. On your Earth, the salmon. They must return to that one stream where they were born, to spawn or die in trying.

The music! Suddenly there's horns, drums, and the bells. It sounds like a march in its tempo and crafts a sinister atmosphere.

Spock keeps his hands clasped together in his lap while Kirk starts rubbing at his face and mouth with his hand and fingers, taking Spock's words in and lost in thought. So much of this episode is centered around the communication of need versus the shame of one’s need leading to secrecy, so to suddenly make the lips/mouth the object of worry, when one uses the mouth to communicate verbally or to kiss another…. This was not the first episode produced for season two but it is the first aired episode of that season, so it is interesting that this would be the first time audiences see that Kirk's nervous hands move to his face and mouth. (In other words, Shatner started doing this in season two, which is also the time that he gave up smoking, so this change was probably the result of that. Still, what serendipity.)

Well, they certainly shield and shroud the madness of pon farr with the rituals, if not attempt to contain and redirect it so that it is not destructive to others or the self. Think about it: if the pon farr taps into the fight-or-flight response and increases the feelings of fear and aggression, then a fight is technically the way to get those feelings out. Of course, the urge for violence is not all of it. It is a mating drive that urges for sex.

Spock gives two other examples of creatures that follow a mating drive, both animal species. What is notably missing is the detail that within the salmon run, the bulk of adult salmon die after they mate. It is not a matter of "try or die," it is inherent to the cycle: they return home, they mate, they die. Sex and death are linked together in the salmon run. The Vulcan pon farr follows this albeit with a twist: either they mate or they die. Sex or death. One can create life, the other is the end of life. (I could bring more Bataille into this owing to how he writes about the desire to posses the beloved even to the point of killing them (mate or die), but if I do so, the ensuing excursion would get this way off track. Just understand, the linking of sex and death is a conscientious choice beyond what I am arguing here for Spock specifically.)

These are two extremes for the cycle of life and polar opposites, and it follows how the pon farr negates the principles Vulcans live by in general, but it especially negates the way that Spock adheres to Vulcan principles--control versus impulse (if not rest, the relinquishing of control), denial versus need, moderation versus excess if not nothing versus all--and it speaks to Spock's fears of losing his identity as a Vulcan and the strict control it takes to maintain that identity. It takes the mental ideals of logic and breaks them for the biology and impulse of the physical.

KIRK: But you're not a fish, Mister Spock. You're-- SPOCK: No. Nor am I a man. I'm a Vulcan. I'd hoped I would be spared this, but the ancient drives are too strong. Eventually, they catch up with us, and we are driven by forces we cannot control to return home and take a wife. Or die.

It is not known, of course, if Kirk was going to call Spock a human or a Vulcan, but Spock assumes the word to be said was human. If so, Kirk was calling Spock human out of the concern that no human could possibly survive the thing that Spock is speaking about. And of course, this is perhaps the tragedy of the pon farr: Spock fears it for undoing his control and the identity created by it, but by undergoing the pon farr, Spock is confirmed in his Vulcan heritage. Who else but a Vulcan would experience the pon farr?

KIRK: I haven't heard a word you've said, and I'll get you to Vulcan somehow.

Mum's the word. Kirk gets up and goes over to Spock before saying it. If he were to reach out, they would touch, but Kirk maintains that physical distance and Spock does not look up, not until Kirk leaves. The angle of his face mirrors the look he has later when he is in the blood fever. Perhaps this conversation has unsettled him in more ways than the obvious Vulcan control slipping away for fear and anger.

Edit: I did forget something. Of course, I forgot something! Because initially I was responding to the dialogue itself and the discrepancies to it and how such were necessitated by 1960s social mores (Within the show itself, one could argue the discrepancies are a sign of Spock's unraveling. He isn't making sense.)

SPOCK: How do Vulcans choose their mates? Haven't you ever wondered?

Spock initially uses the term "mates" when leading up to telling Kirk about the pon farr. The context is referring to Vulcans in general. Mate is a gender neutral term, so this implies that any Vulcan, regardless of gender, will undergo the pon farr. In using such a gender neutral term, the gender of the Vulcans involved in the ceremony are open to being anything. In other words, a same-sex couple could very well exist (off-screen, if not in the margins).

SPOCK: No. Nor am I a man. I'm a Vulcan. I'd hoped I would be spared this, but the ancient drives are too strong. Eventually, they catch up with us, and we are driven by forces we cannot control to return home and take a wife. Or die.

As Spock continues telling Kirk of the pon farr, however, he eventually uses the term "wife" instead. Wife obviously implies only one gender, yet Spock uses this term after he specifically mentions himself. He does return to the plural pronoun of "we," so it could be argued that this too is to refer to all Vulcans, but I'd argue against it given his initial phrasing. Spock got really personal in this conversation, going from all Vulcans, to himself, only to suddenly return to all Vulcans again. Is this not a way of putting up barriers and trying to distance himself from the conversation, of trying to forget what separates him from all other Vulcans (his hybrid status and the questions it creates)? And is this not a way to finally bring T'Pring into the conversation, at the very end, after the scene opened with her image? It creates a bookend for impact. To take a wife is Spock's assumed fate because his betrothal was set years ago. He hoped the pon farr would not impact him, but it has, so now he must adhere to the plans created for his survival because he has denied this would happen to him and has denied the reality of his condition. Spock is in the 11th hour. At this point, T'Pring looks like his only hope because his denial refuses to see any other alternatives.

[imthepunchlord]

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.

[variousqueerthings]

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

[dapper-lil-arts]

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

[time-is-restored]

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.

[toads-treasures]

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

[heavilykaffeinated]

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.

[kivishipps]

How would you rank the Villians in Legend of Korra from your favorite to least favorite? In terms of design, powers, story, etc...

My ORIGINAL favorite was Kuvira, partially because it was so close to my omnisexual awakening. However years later as I am now a big girl with big girl idras and observations it’s safe to say my ranking has definitely changed up a little bit as you will find below!!

Amon; Ignoring the fact he is simply my favorite and I would run away with him any day, Amon is an extremely well rounded character in my opinion. Not only is his design very well… well, designed, but it also took a lot of thought and dedication. Following this the more I think about what he stands for the more I realize how right he was. Now no I don’t agree benders should lose their bending, but he was addressing the system of oppression at its core and that to me is something that can’t be made light of. I am disabled, LGBTQ+ and fall into multiple minority groups and understand the frustrations of the oppressed on a pesonal level meaning that to me his motivations were real, and extremely well written.

Kuvira; I admit I don’t have a big reason for this outside of thinking she’s absolutely gorgeous and a real powerhouse of a woman. That being said she is not without her own personal strengths and I think her years of dedication to her craft made her a very cut-throat and growth inducing(for Korra) villain. Her motivations were admittedly super lackluster because I feel like the need for power had been used time and time again.

Zaheer; Zaheer and the Red Lotus to me was a very creative plot point to work around, and in general I really do enjoy the idea of there being other more secretive gatherings of power out there with the potential to influence the world just as much as the avatar does. Following this he was extremely skilled for having become a master air bender in only a few weeks!!

Unalaq; I just… didn’t care for book two, I’m sorry. To me the only good part of book two was learning about Ravaa and seeing Korra’s parents as well as the tribe she grew up in. I’m a sucker for lore and getting background on my girl Korra was a lot of fun but ultimately Unalaq’s goal made ZERO sense to me and his design was the only reason he had points to begin with.

Noatak could solo him easy.

[plasticpaws]

My main idea for a g3 Treesa is to put her on the same scale as Gooliope! I think it'd be a lot more fun to have a tree character who's huge, as opposed to her just being a bit bigger than the standard dolls, as well as having an awkward-looking growth gimmick.

(Image 1 source, image 2 source)

Could do away with the amount of tendrils she has. I get the idea with giving her branches and vines, but I don't think it looks very good in practice. The ones on her head are fine, though, and could potentially be expanded into a sort of antler situation.

My go-to idea for her aesthetic is probably elegant, mother nature/forest spirit vibes, maybe a bit cottagecore if we want to get trendy. At the same time, though, I think it could be funny to make her a friend of Venus, and thus a bit punk. Maybe that'd be encroaching too much on Thorna Thornwillow, but ehhh, I don't know if anyone would actually care.

[bojackandherb]

Gina

Oh yeah this was from when I told people to ask about my opinions on bjhm characters, right?

Anyway, I liked her :)

The way her dream of singing/theater fell apart made me so sad. But also kinda frustrates me, like, girl, you had one bad audition. The problem I think is she kind of gave up on her dreams too quickly. I think she like. Had always longed to be in theater but didn’t think she could do it. So she went into a different type of acting but like. Sure she sang for fun but I don’t think she ever got voice lessons or anything. So like.

She wasn’t a terrible singer, she has potential, she just could have benefited from more vocal training and such. But the fact she never truly believed she could do it to begin with means she didn’t actually truly work towards it, and when she finally did get an actual opportunity due to Bojack she just. Gave up right away when things didn’t go well on her first try. So it’s very sad but also very frustrating because it’s like nooooo girl it doesn’t have to be this way! Honestly maybe she’s benefit from learning about the growth mindset…

But also like, her giving up so quickly makes sense because like. She had such bad luck in Hollywood for so long that she decided that like. Not caring about stuff and giving up up things quickly and having zero expectations was the way to go to avoid getting hurt. But while those mindsets potentially protected her, they’re also just like, not great mindsets to have overall.

Tbh her and Bojack like, never really seemed like much of a couple to me, it kinda seemed they were both lonely and mainly just needed a friend, and honestly they seemed more just like friends to me for most of their relationship. I like them way better as friends than as a couple, but they did have a few genuinely sweet moments together. Which just makes what happens at the end up of Showstopper all the nore heart wrenching.

Under her cynicism she has a sweet and dorky side that Bojack is surprisingly able to bring out… well, him and the success of the show.

Tbh they never really made sense as a couple to me. Like there’s not really any spark between them, and. The only time they act like an actual couple is the beginning of the showstopper, and like. A lot of the development for their relationship going from “casual friends who tease each other and also bang (but the banging is pretty much just because they’re both lonely and don’t have anything better to do)” to “actual couple” happens offscreen. Like, he accidentally gives Gina the idea that he really does want to date her when he and hollyhock sneak into her house to try to find drugs. And then after he crashes his car she apparently visits him a lot in the hospital and then their relationship actually blossoms into an actual romance I guess. Apparently. But we don’t really see any of it, there’s the time skip and then it’s like “oh they’ve been dating for months now.” Anyway idk how much the show actually wanted us to ship them anyways.

In the end Gina and Bojack’s relationship was just a plot point the writers used to get Bojack to a low enough point that he had no choice but to get help and go to rehab. Now that I think about it the way the show used her might’ve been kinda crappy. But idk

However it was pretty neat how the show explored “people who don’t want to come forward about the abuse/trauma they dealt with in Hollywood and how for some coming forward about it might actually do harm than good” through her.

Her season 6 scenes made me sad… glad she was able to get a part in Kelsey’s movie, though! (Based off of posters we see in the background)

Anyway.

There’s more I could talk about but asjkndkandkwnsman idk how to articulate my thoughts and I’ve already rambled a lot haha

Anyway. Gina is a sweetheart who deserved better

[m1ckeyb3rry]

note: i have never done one of these and don’t know if they’ll be a regular offering on my blog but this was fun!! anyways, without further delay…@tigreblvnc, i think your blue lock match is marc snuffy!

☪︎ to be honest, at first i was going to say barou because a lot of the things you said in your description reminded me of him, but then i was like — “okay, no, i don’t think two of them in one relationship would work all too well”

☪︎ however, with the ubers in mind, i quickly arrived at snuffy, and i ended up really liking the idea!!

☪︎ i’m sure this isn’t really a common pairing but i am nothing if not interested in side characters and i think you would go surprisingly well together with snuffy based on what we know about him so far

☪︎ bear with me here LMAO i’ll go through why i made this choice and hopefully you can see the vision!!

☪︎ starting off, i think everyone knows snuffy best for his focus on teamwork and strategy, especially with how he leads the ubers

☪︎ this aspect reminds me a lot of what you said about yourself — “i prefer when things go fast and efficiently, meaning that i’m very good at finding the fastest way to finish something with the least effort possible”

☪︎ i think that snuffy would appreciate that efficient and logical thinking!!

☪︎ on the topic: “i’m the kind to encourage people to take initiatives so i can work on my own tasks without always telling people what to do, even though i like things being done in a precise way” this just screams snuffy to me with his whole ‘soccer-is-work’ ideology and how he carefully constructs a multitude of strategies for the ubers but ultimately leaves the execution on-field up to them

☪︎ according to sendou, snuffy began their training by analyzing each player’s individual style in order to fit it into the ubers framework. i think that for this reason, he would probably appreciate your skills at analyzing others, as well as how you recognize other people’s potential and encourage them to do their best. considering that’s one of the reasons he’s won four out of the five leagues, he definitely recognizes the value in that!!

☪︎ you mentioned not wanting to be reminded of past failures — well, snuffy is the king of working past his former mistakes, of which he has unquestionably made many, so i think he would be very good at uplifting you in the present instead of pointing out things you may have done wrong before, because he knows better than anyone that people can change

☪︎ “people have told me i’m very effective in my work and i’m proud of it” now where have i heard someone talking about “work” before?? LOL

☪︎ “i love and need to be challenged by inspiring individuals who can teach me how to grow and become the best version of myself” — like i said, snuffy understands growth better than almost anyone in the blue lock cast; along with that, snuffy is considered the number one overall player in the world by noel noa himself, so, even setting aside his other characteristics, how’s that for inspiring??

☪︎ along with these similarities, i think you two also have qualities that balance one another out!!

☪︎ when it comes to your temperament, i think snuffy’s patience balances out your quickness to anger as well as your firmness. he’s not the type to engage in a yelling match; if it’s space you ask for, it’s space he’ll give you, and if you just want to have a calm conversation, then he’s more than willing — as we see with him and barou, he is reasonable and, although he has his opinions and viewpoints, he also is willing to change his mind when proven wrong

☪︎ i also don’t think we ever see snuffy angry?? like of course chris prince has his infamous crash out and same with lavinho, but for the most part, snuffy is just encouraging, determined, and methodical, which goes well with your need for organization and control

☪︎ on the flip side, i think your playfulness, love of laughing, and curiosity entertain snuffy to no end. he can be a bit serious, especially given how his misadventures when he was younger led to the death of his friend, but i think you help him remember how to have fun and enjoy life while still being serious and focused on the things that are important

☪︎ furthermore, your love of psychology aligns very well with how seriously snuffy takes mental health. he is as concerned with his teammate’s well-beings as he is with their individual talents and performances, and i’m quite sure he’d love to hear your input. i think your wide base of knowledge would help him out more than once, especially when he has to deal with particularly difficult personalities barou

☪︎ getting into your likes and dislikes, the one that jumped out to me was traveling HAHA i mean considering how many leagues snuffy has WON if you stick by his side there’s likely no end to the places you’ll get to visit!! he’s very popular and in demand, and based on his desire to win all five leagues, he doesn’t seem like a person who’s content with staying in one place for too long

☪︎ adding onto that, his design is based off of an eagle, so yeah. traveling. he’s got you covered.

☪︎ like i said earlier, i think your fun personality helps snuffy find joy in smaller things, and this translates to your likes as well!! things like amusement parks and restaurants feel like a more mature form of the partying he used to do and are more in-line with his current mindset

☪︎ snuffy’s also very generous as we see with him and lorenzo so i think he’d like to indulge you with whatever you want at a given moment!! life’s too short to hold back in any sense, whether it’s with gifts or praise or vacations

☪︎ also — “absurd humor like british people” — considering he’s won the premier league, he’s spent plenty of time with the british and definitely at least understands that brand of wit, so if anything he won’t get offended by it (you’ll probably draw a chuckle out of him)

☪︎ as for your dislikes, i think snuffy would be in agreement with you!! he doesn’t seem like he’d relish in gloominess or sadness or anything like that, so he’d much rather go somewhere warm in the winter than force the two of you to suffer through the nasty weather

☪︎ “indecisive and unreliable people” i think snuffy is like the exact opposite of this so we’re in the clear there

☪︎ being vulnerable — here’s another area where i think snuffy actually helps you out!! he’s not going to force you to do anything you don’t want to, but i think he understands how to be someone that people feel safe confiding in and works hard to be that kind of person, so whenever you want to share, he’s there for you

☪︎ when it comes to your hobbies, i don’t know if snuffy would understand them without a little bit of explanation, but he i think he would be super interested in hearing about your adventures with things like writing!!

☪︎ “i wasn’t good at writing when i was younger, so practice everyday is what helped me to improve my skills significantly” i think that that kind of work ethic is something that snuffy finds super admirable in a person!! he definitely appreciates how committed you are to bettering yourself and improving in your chosen areas

☪︎ for some reason snuffy just seems like someone who would know more than a couple of languages so i can clearly imagine you guys having conversations and then just randomly switching languages as you please

��︎ maybe it’s because he’s a master striker so he gives more fatherly vibes than some of the blue lock characters but snuffy reminds me so much of those dads that just wander into the kitchen and steal a bite of whatever you’re making HAHA i think he would at least ask first (and respect it if you say no) but suffice to say he is the number one fan of your cooking and baking endeavors…he’s also probably game to trying anything once so he doesn’t mind being your guinea pig and taste-testing whatever you come up with

☪︎ just from the different things you’ve mentioned about the music you listen to as well as you specifically saying you like classical music as well as the general vibes snuffy gives off i’m just going to say that the two of you have almost identical music tastes (did you mention liking pink floyd?? i hope that was you lol anyways i can envision snuffy listening to them incredibly well LMAO like he definitely blasts comfortably numb in the car)

☪︎ on to the love languages!! you said you enjoy physical touch as receiving, but only when you are genuinely comfortable with someone. i think snuffy is empathetic enough not to push — again, i think he would wait for you to seek it out before he does anything, but once you give the go-signal, he’s all for it!

☪︎ also this is just my opinion but i think snuffy gives really nice hugs so there’s that

☪︎ when it comes to giving, you said that you’re good at acts of service, and honestly i think this is something that goes perfectly with snuffy!!

☪︎ he’s used to being the one shouldering people’s burdens and doing things for others — whether it’s helping out those in need, like lorenzo, or taking on the responsibility of his team’s successes and losses alike, the way he does with the ubers, he’s almost always the one assuming a position where the onus is largely on him to perform

☪︎ for that reason, i think that having someone who does even small things for him is a major relief and makes him feel super super cared about. does that make sense??

☪︎ you could literally leave a granola bar in his soccer bag because you don’t want him to be hungry at practice and he’d have heart eyes — anything more than that is the cherry on top!!

☪︎ especially given your attention to detail and intuition with guessing things about people, i feel as though you’re incredibly good at figuring out exactly what he needs and doing it without making a fuss, which not only helps make his life easier but also has him feeling very recognized??? appreciated??? something along those lines

☪︎ as for your appearance and personal style, all i’m going to say is that “sports and practical clothing in my everyday life but classy for special occasions” is exactly what i’d picture snuffy being like!! he’s not going to go crazy on a normal thursday (although he’s always put together) but he knows how to clean up well

☪︎ unfortuantely we have Iike zero information on him so i can’t speak to your signs’ compatibility but hopefully i’ve presented my case well enough that that’s alright HAHA

note: well, that’s all from me!! i hope you enjoyed this even though i’m sure this isn’t a character you were expecting (i did some investigative work and i think i’m the first person to pair you with snuffy?? even though you did say master strikers are alright hehe) and that this was alright (like i said, not a matchup master by any means). i enjoyed doing it though and apologies if there were any typos or repetitive language or if i like. horribly misunderstood you. or anything like that 😭