#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 :)

[imthepunchlord]

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

Essentially so!

Concept wise, it's really, really great.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Like, take my concept hero, Humdinger.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[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.

[total-feminism-takes]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stephanie has a cool design.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

- ☄️

Congratulations comet anon for maxing out all the tags! ���

- 🧡

[curedigiqueen]

Why I think Appmon is the Best Digimon to Start With

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[akirathedramaqueen]

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

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

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

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

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

The Premise

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

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

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

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

How exactly that Stolas is different?

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

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

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

How would the story go?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[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

[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.

[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.