#this looks like his villain origin story bc that's exactly what it is

[evilkitten3]

they animated this so well... villain origin story right there

Hashirama's new chinese mobile game intro is so evil it looks like he's the main villain of the story🙄

at least Madara looks fine.

[sorryimananti-romantic]

i read your reblog last night right before bed and i really shouldn't have because i couldn't fall asleep because of how damn giddy it had me like skjkdjjd kicking my feet with the biggest dorkiest smile on my face like this is MY WIFE FRFR we're 🤞😤🔐

i can't believe light was inspired by the absolute bread crumbs that i threw into your ask box like i had to go back and read what you could have even taken from that lmao 💀💀 what's crazy is that i remember being 🤏 so close to adding light to my favorite ateez songs (mostly bc of that yunho fancam iykyk) but yes, seonghwa is just soso made for angel fiction, it's woven in his dna.

speaking of light!seonghwa, your explanations do make much more sense now concerning his romance arc and the dynamic with reader. i'm also very prone to bad-boy-blindness so 😔😔 i can fix him frfr (reader is a scientist after all). and omg the sequel ideas, i think it'd be time to bring that betrayal arc to life. reader.. cleans up the angel with dr. choi's help and then he rids of them and all otherworldly messes they left behind once and for all. & goes public about his (and reader's) research under a heroic preface. 😈 and since the angel ended seonghwa's business by then. they can fight it out in heaven or hell, wherever they end up. everyone's happy ever after?

it's like the answer was there all along. if everything/everyone has evil and good inside of them of course there isn't one or the other to find balance with each other. only out-doing each other's evilness/goodness. 😮‍💨

you can use me anytime to yap your brains out. i love love love hearing about the behind the scenes, the process and (original) train of thought and how different our interpretations can turn out to be. i'd read it over and over again, like enrichment that gives the story more life. 🥰

still can't believe light was for me. like. huh? me? 👉👈 i caused this? and you did all the amazing work. 😭 this is one of the sweetest things anyone's ever done and you being so shy to mention it until the very end!! like skjsdfjkn i was already rolling around in bed and you had to put the cherry on top and break me 🫨🫨 is there another step after marriage because?? pls don't say divorce lmao

YOU'RE A GIFT! MOST PRECIOUS! ALL THE LOVE FOR YOU! MWAH MWAH 💖🫦 (tell me these essays we write aren't the modern way of handwritten loveletters)

○ chron 🃏

omgg stop that's exactly what happened with me when i read your reblog I SPENT AN HOUR ON IT A SOLID HOUR i did it for my wife frr 🤞😤🔐 and then i kept thinking about it and ugh readers like you make writing so worth it :'))

omg yes bruh bc i had no idea what to write next, and ever since your dazzling light reblog it got me thinking if i could write more angel fics and then you sent your preferred tropes and genres in the ask and i um cooked sth up with what i had hehe (seonghwa was the member of choice bc i hadn't written him in a while, and the title just fit so well even tho it was mostly unintentional lmao) and omg yes light is such a sweet song and yunho fancam hehe i think i know what you're talking about

bad-boy blindness is so real, me as the writer had it and then i had a few days off from writing in between and that's when clarity hit me-- that seonghwa is supposed to be the villain, the baddest. he gets no redemption, and that is his tragedy. and omg not you going strong with the betrayal arc AHAHAHA i mean... greed is a real thing. reader had it. dr. choi def has it too. he's capable of doing that heuheuheue. i don't think we could ever get a happy ever after in this fic tho 😭 we did it with hala hala we couldn't do the same thing here :')

aw that's literally so sweet of you. i mean it when i say, readers like you are genuinely what makes this site worth it and what makes me want to write and post. and honestly, talking about the process of writing a certain fic or the different interpretations of it etc makes me the happiest! it's my fav thing and i always look forward to talking about it in the reblogs, comments or anywhere (and i'm glad readers are able to pick them details or ask about it-- and you def do every time it's the best thing ever :')) thank you!)

YES. light was for you. i honestly should have tagged you (i'll tag you next time i promise) but i have to credit you for the trigger that brought this fic to life- the dazzling light reblog (which got me thinking about angels) and then the tropes/genres (which got me thinking what if seonghwa angel and angel bad) LMAO yes that was my thought process. and i'm very shy even tho i may not seem like it lmao

OMG did i break you AHAHAHAHA next step after marriage is definitely divorce (i'm about to say sth 18+ i have to stop myself but just read that rolling around in bed putting the cherry on top and breaking you line in a diff context-)

NO YOU ARE THE GIFT YOU ARE SO SOOO PRECIOUS AND THANK YOU FOR BEING YOU LOVE 💖💖 HOPE YOU HAVE A LOVELY WEEK!

[lesbianwyllravengard]

Alrighty here’s mah lil ranty rant (But long, many apologies I dunno how I could shorten it)

Let’s start with Ada bc mommy- I mean mommy- I mean- (/j)

Ada Wong:

-So I see a lot of people trash Ada for the fact her personality seems to be more cold. She has distant she’s cruel (although she still seems to have lines she won’t cross, like with Wesker and the Las Plagas sample). I see people complain about that but I would like to make a hot take, here: it’s actually better. She’s a mercenary. She’s a gun for hire- her job has to be cold because she could be betraying her friends at any given second. In the older games, she was sort of just… I don’t know… A bit too human for the job, and the role in the story that she is meant to fill. I see people describing her as a Bella, and honestly, I strongly disagree. In fact, I would argue that the original was more of a Bella then the remakes. This is because all she was really there is for the generic “Ooh look pretty woman, bad ass eye candy” trope. I’m not saying that she didn’t have any depth as a character- I’m just saying that the remake gave her much more credit as a character, and made her much more interesting.

all right, moving onto the old man. (#1 Wesker hater over here I’m sorry I’m not sorry lol)

Albert Wesker:

-I know that I hate this guy, but even I have to appreciate that out of quite a few of the Weskers that have been made, this version is just better written. I see people complain that he is too angry and honestly, I disagree. The fact that he has a hidden anger, makes sense from a character perspective. And he’s getting increasingly more cheesed off at Spencer for obvious reasons. No wonder he’s pissed. Personally, I think the fact that they’re showing that he has emotions- he’s just learned to control them- is honestly much more compelling. I still hate the guy, but I can see where he’s coming from- in a twisted and a messed up way.

yeah. That’s it l. that’s all I got for him. I don’t really like him that much so he doesn’t deserve a whole essay like Ada imo. (Still like his character, though he’s very interesting.)

that’s my rant. Thanks for hearing me out -> I know this was ridiculously long. That’s why I asked permission first. I basically just wrote an entire essay in your asks and I am so sorry lmao

hjadsg no need to apologise. I may have to contest you for #1 wesker hater tho,,, 👀 I hate his guts too

BUT you're absolutely right the DLC added so much depth to their characters. and personally made wesker MORE hate-able to me personally because we just further see how messed up he is, to the point where even Ada - who has had to numb herself to the details of the job to survive - had visible negative reactions to his genocidal nonsense. I loved Lily's performance in the base game but she especially got to shine in the DLC, she absolutely nailed the cold look with emotion hidden underneath. Ada's cold exterior is her armour against her own emotions, she can't take a second to feel as that could be the second she dies, she doesn't have the luxury of emotional vulnerability; even though she does feel, she does care, she cannot afford to let herself. And little things like eye movements, lip twitches, subtle body language, and her inflections were all techniques Lily used to portray that tumultuous relationship between Ada and her feelings, and Lily did fucking amazing at it. Best Ada performance ever. Ada's never been allowed that depth before because she's always had to be palatable to the male audience :) so I'm glad she's finally getting it. And Wesker finally feels like a real villain, rather than just another power hungry white guy (which, he very much is, but now there's depth to it lol). Wesker's dialogue in the DLC is scary, and it makes the audience more aware of what exactly he believes and what his motives are. This DLC added so much to the base game that really drives it as my favourite RE game.

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

It's almost fascinating to me to finally see so many people doubting the localization that I've been doubting for years (at this point, a decade). I used to see people get so defensive of localization and "how much work goes into it". Frankly I don't care how much "work" goes into it if they're gonna change the script anyway, and the localizers clearly didn't care how much work the writers put into making the original script in the first place.

Now here we are, with people saying the same things I've been saying for years about localization (with regard to this franchise specifically. Not all localization gets to this extent).

From what I understood of FE14's changes at least, most were made because of cultural differences (like Marks/Marx being changed to Xander iirc). I haven't looked all that deeply into it, but at least from what I did see, most were reasonable changes (including the Soleil support disaster).

FE13 was my first side eye though of the localization, and the beginning of my distrust at the localizations' ability to keep FE4/5 any bit in tact with their canon selves (mainly in Heroes once that game came out, but also in any future ports or remakes... which to this day I still don't trust them with. I'm perfectly content with FE4 being available on NSO in JP only).

Specifically, the Henry stuff struck me as odd, as if they were trying to ignore the fact that this game has war to begin with, so it's not a happy go lucky franchise. It was as if they thought it was "too much" for western audiences... and then we got shit like FE16, and yeah. Apparently it was.

As for FE10 though, I can forgive those changes because they're not extreme and also, they're not propping up characters to be something they're not. They didn't change entire meanings. Ike wasn't invading other lands or being an aggressor, touted as being a savior all the while. No idea why they removed the entire extended script, but that's less changes made and more just... nobody knows why they did that. There were also just some genuine accidents/mistakes in the translation process from what I understood and not intentional changes (this is true of FE9 as well).

It's funny you mention not wanting to play games without dual audio. I've been that way for a long time now. Generally I do prefer playing games in English, and especially if I can generally trust the localization not to mess with things intentionally (like Tales games for example. I have very few I prefer blatantly in JP, like Graces, and that's mostly a voice acting/voice direction problem for me. But Legendia? Hard English (especially because Shiloh Strong exists and his voicing of Moses had me over the moon. He was my first real, genuine "wow, English voice acting is actually getting amazing" back in the wee days of voice over in the west not being taken too seriously). Abyss and Vesperia I'm pretty equal on, but I prefer English since it's my native language and thus easier to get through in said native language).

I can't say anything for FE15 in comparison to either its original script or FE2 because I haven't played FE15 nor watched a playthrough of it and have no interest in doing so.

Seeing other people (you in this case!) mentioning that they don't want a game not offering the JP script because of the localization changes absolutely sends me because I am so glad other people are recognizing this issue and not uwuing over "how much work goes into localization". Y'all mean how much work goes into altering the script to fit the localizers specific preferences, yeah??? Yeah???

I used to get so much flak for this lol; especially in the Jugdral department. I don't care if people prefer playing their games in their native language or if they want to listen to the amazing voice acting, and that was never my issue. It was always that I don't trust the localization and don't trust that they change things in good faith in FE (FE14 was the exception for the most part at least). FE16 came out and well... literally everything I'd be talking about from day 1 was proven correct lol.

Considering that the English translation prettied up Caspar's endings for Flower (changing "often out of control to "sometimes reckless" and removing the text confirmed Caspar's career involves invading other countries), while vilifying his non-CF ending (saying he had victims), yeah. Same with turning Rhea restoring the Church to her rehabilitating it. There's definitely reason to side-eye the changes made by the translation team.

TBH,

(bcs i didn't enjoy FE14)

FE16 and Nopes (and all Fodlan content) seriously made me reconsider my stance on the localisation.

After FE Tellius I knew (I mean after FE10) that changes/omissions existed but never thought they were deliberately made to push one character by destroying others, the general feeling was the same at the end of the game (we are supposed to worship Ike, the localisation played it up to 11, but FE10 does it on its own).

Now, FE16 ?

I was pleasantly surprised with FE15's voice acting so I thought the dark eras of lolcalisation were behind us...

But then Rhage popped up.

And with Rhage, I started to notice all little tweaks here and there made in the localised (some at least) scripts, that added end up with the result that "maybe Supreme Leader isn't that bad" that is pretty different from the JP/og version.

When FE10's loc said "Ike is the most awesome dude ever" instead of the jp FE10 saying "Ike is the most awesome dude", the Fodlan lolcalisation tries to give a different meaning to the solution/story given by the game!

As you pointed out, Caspar doesn't invade countries and is "sometimes" reckless, instead of being "out of control while invading the rest of the known world", his non uwu endings are worsened, Rhea was swapped by Rhage, the church needs to be "rehabilited" instead of "restored"...

I don't want to be overly critical and dissect everything when I'm playing a game, I'm playing first and foremost to enjoy myself but when I listen to Leigh's voiced lines and see this :

or this :

even if you're not thinking about localisation too much, you can see there is an issue in voice direction, which leads to discovering issues in script localisation and then... you start to ask "why", and come up with sad answers.

So, because Fodlan verse really disappointed me lolcalisation wise, even if I made exceptions earlier for FE14 and FE15, I can't be assed to trust the lolcalisation at all, so if a game has audio but no dual audio, it will be a hard pass.

Even if a kind soul, like the ones who made the FE Datamine site, compile and upload the script with the different audios to compare, it's a big no-no.

I know jp audio will not solve everything (especially if i still don't understand the jp script lol) but at least when the localised script tries to sell me the apple that is orange in the original script is akshually purple I'd have some clues about something being wrong.

More power to you if you like purple apples, but if I was supposed to get an orange apple, I would like to get this orange apple (or maybe red or yellow if needed), and not another product.

[wellnoe]

Hey! I adore following your art and it so inspires me to draw as well. So thank you for your work. I wanted to ask how you imagine Magneto in your style and what impact he has on your Scott's story or character, if any. The Uncanny X-Men Comics around the Nation X era where the two develop a super interlinked dynamic have always been super interesting so I was wondering.

thank you!!

hmm well i have posted magneto i think exactly twice, as part of a commission (x) and as part of a gift (x). the gift was done this year so its probably more indicative of how he'd look in my style, but also i think my art has been changing a lot in the last couple of months. i like magneto, but he is not one of the characters infesting my brain and motivating longer projects, so i just draw him more rarely. even in stuff i don't post.

tbh the nation x stuff (as w a lot of stuff post-2000s) is kind of a big blind spot w me. i just kind of bounce off superhero nation stuff i think no matter who's involved. but i do like the bit of stuff i have read concerning magneto and scott.

i think earlier magneto spends a lot of time thinking of scott (and the original five x-men) as like. extensions of xavier. like he cares about his relationship to xavier and his philosophical and political opposition to xavier and anything scott says politically doesn't get filtered through as scott's position so much as xavier's position as stated by a particularly rigid and kind of harsh student. i think this basically bc magneto has a tendency to talk through the other x-men to charles when he's in villain mode, and also bc in my mind stuff like god loves man kills does position scott as an extension of xavier. like. scott's the true believer here. he doesn't doubt, even when charles himself does. the way magneto comes to see scott as his own person with his own political ideas is really cool to me, and i enjoy seeing the like. backing magneto has for scott? it feels like it is founded on this decades long non-relationship of seeing scott and the x-men continue, which is then helped along by a new closer relationship.

ig my thinking on how magneto impacted scott is like...not very much on an interpersonal level, for a long time. like they just didn't actually know each other that well at all, and scott's really into adopting some of xavier's position as pretty like. rigid rules. like scott is more uptight than charles is. i think magneto largely operates not as a person but as an idea for him to orient himself against and also a threat that sometimes tries to kill him/ kill other people/ make scott's day worse in some other way.

i think in general scott is kind of confused by magneto?? on an interpersonal level?? which is part of what makes their later dynamic fun to me. the idea that scott can continue to be confused and frustrated w magneto even as they become much closer and be like oh ok. this isn't an x-men vs magneto thing, you are just kind of annoying and confusing on purpose. he's just kind of like that. i think after you get into utopia and afterward scott clearly comes to value magneto's opinion more, but before that magneto's not even a guy to scott he's just this like. nebulous idea of what scott is against and also scott does not like him.

[zazikels]

finished the game loved most of it but i have a small rant (donut read unless you did the part of wyll's quest that involves searching for something underground esp bc there will be spoilers about the emperor)

highkey insane and kind of brainless to me that the emperor will straight up betray you and fuck off to join the netherbrain of all things like a moron if you don't want to condemn an entire race of people to being a lich's pawns forever.

Yes I am trying to have my fucking cake and eat it too but fucking come on, this is the type of thing that should've been set up and determined by how you treated him throughout the game and there should've been a persuasion check to convince him to stay. It's insane bc there are serious pieces of lore about him that you can completely miss out on and that is fucking insane given what a main character he is lol, esp when some of these things I think could've been worked into some kind of relationship system or dialogue that would've served as persuasion checks to not make him just casually flip and do the thing he's just been avoiding for no fucking reason especially when you find out WHO HE ACTUALLY IS.

Wyll hints at the "change" in duke Stelmane and if you're mean to emperor squiddie when he wants to fuck he reveals the truth to you: that he was dementedly puppeteering his precious duke the whole time and they never had any kind of friendship or relationship. (This is also just what's in the descent into avernus blurb on Stelmane. A mindflayer induced a seizure in her and she's been waging a silent battle against the thing and can't break free or cry for help). (and his whole demeanour changes after he reveals this to you and he becomes a villain: YOU ARE MY PUPPET AND YOU WILL DO AS I SAY).

Oh and of course, if you do Wyll's quest and are sent to find Ansur you learn the truth, tentacle man is not just any old adventurer HE'S FUCKING BALDURAN. Does this make any impact on any of the final decisions or become relevant literally outside of that. NOOOPE. He murdered his best friend dragon who rescued him from the elder brain to begin with the first time and we can basically never talk about it again lol.

Like this one is especially egregious because it's not the outcome of you calling him a freak or anything, this is literally just the truth and his fucking origin story. You can't do at least one persuasion check on DUDE THIS YOUR FUCKING CITY. THAT YOU FOUNDED. WHAT THE FUCK.

Anyway I just feel like there are these big pieces of lore that should've informed how the emperor behaves and whether or not he betrays you. Why can't you say "remember Ansur?" or something idk. Like it takes all of two seconds for Orpheus to not turn on you, so he behaves exactly as Voss said he would. Throw in a difficult persuasion check for him too!! IDK!! I think it would've been better if they at least let you free him and THEN forced the ultimatum on you bc it would make the emperor look less like he's throwing a fucking temper tantrum and doing the one thing he absolutely never wanted to do because you absolutely have to trust him but heaven forbid you want a chance on something lol. At least it would make sense if he chose to act out of self preservation when the threat was direct instead of being like 'no he hates you pc, you're ugly to him, listen to meeee'

[rappaccini]

I get what you're saying. I adore him in spiderverse though I think he's better in the comics, but I get the feeling the writers think they have to bend and twist other characters to prop him up, which isn't needed at all. Its like how they changed Miguel to an asshole, Peter is made to look incompetent and careless and Gwen's entire character is sacrificed and water down to sell her as a love interest. I lowkey get the feeling they're gonna try to make it to where Peter's more inferior than him: like how they're framing it so far, Peter couldn't do this, or that, he couldn't save this person but Miles can cause he's better. He's special. And yes, he is a great character but you don't have to water down other characters for his sake. He's already great on his own. I mean as someone who loves both Peter and Miles I think they should be able to coexist without putting one another down, but it kinda feels they're setting up the story to be that way. And while yes, hit at the critics and racists who bash Miles all you wany, but putting it to where you think he's a superior than Peter because...whatever isn't exactly the way to do it and will only make things worse.

yeah, i feel that.

i wrote a whole novel about how i hate that gwen's been watered down to make miles look more special, so i won't repeat that here.

man i feel sorry for comic miguel fans. they've been fighting for their lives bc of atsv. i have conflicted feelings about this version of miguel, because on the one hand i think the role he plays in the movie works and he's a great villain, but i still wonder if they could've come up with a different plot for atsv that didn't revolve around responding to the backlash against miles, or at least made someone who isn't another poc the face of the backlash.

peter b though... hm. one of the biggest problems with him in the comics pre-itsv (which still pops up, but less lately) is that he keeps being built up as this oh-so-special chosen one that all the other spider-ppl have to kiss the ring of (especially miles), and it's so annoying. so taking him off the pedestal and saying 'no, he's kind of a loser' is very satisfying.

it also highlights how the presence of miles in his life can inspire him to finally grow the hell up for good instead of being stuck in this constant state of arrested development. and since itsv was most people's first impression of miles, it was SO important for miles to not be following peter around with puppy dog eyes, and for peter to instantly understand and appreciate how special miles is (because if peter does it, so does the audience).

atsv is where i think the problem comes in. peter b being so benched doesn't track with his characterization. like, you're telling me a girl miles went on one bus ride with who friendzoned him is risking her life to come see him, but the guy who mentored him for days and loved miles so much he decided he wanted to be a father because of him won't? no. absolutely not. if anyone was going to sneak away from the society to see miles it should have been peter. and no way in hell would he be grinning taking selfies with his baby while miles is being hunted by the society. they flushed the miles-peter dynamic down the toilet to replace it with miles-gwen and it sucks.

it also doesn't work with the metacommentary. because let's be real: the canon events all center around peter parker. he's the blueprint, and the movie doesn't mention it at all. like, isn't that weird? there are more peters at hq than any other type of spider-person, and nobody mentions it? wouldn't peter be uncomfortable with being put on a pedestal like that? wouldn't miguel have a huge inferiority complex about not being peter parker? wouldn't this be a great opportunity for the original spider-man to tell the racist fans who won't accept miles that they're full of shit? why is he just wandering around in a robe and slippers.

as for miles being superior... i think btsv is what'll make or break it. as of the end of atsv, miles thinks he's better than the spider-society and that's why he thinks he's going to be able to break canon. he's proud of himself for "beating" them, he keeps telling gwen he's gonna be the guy who'll be different for her (he won't), he wants to be the most special spider-man who gets to cherrypick his canon events and he hasn't considered that the idea that canon events are mandatory might be the real problem. if btsv revolves around miles realizing he's wrong and helping everyone else break their canon too, i love it. but if btsv ends with the theme of 'sure, canon exists, but some people, like miles, are special enough to be the exception' instead of 'everyone deserves better' that undermines the whole story. i'm just gonna wait on it.

[willel]

If Will was mistaken for El and there was nothing intentional going on about him then i am going to say Will is a pretty irrelevant character in the story. Because what is his role exactly, being an accidental victim that Vecna decided to use at some point? And i guess he is gay and will be accepted or something. I think that is like the most boring character and narrative ever, especially bc his story never gets focus ever at all. I dont know why they would leave this for s5 at all.

Please reread the post. I'll screenshot the relevant parts.

I believe Will's circumstances is all of these things. I don't see how Will would suddenly become an irrelevant character just because he wasn't the original target.

If he was just mistaken for El for a split second on the road but discovered to be someone else, that means it took Vecna/Henry 0.5 seconds to change his plans and incorporate Will into them instead.

If he was mistaken for El for the entire chase and kidnapping and wasn't discovered to be someone else until he was taken into the Upside Down, that means despite knowing he wasn't El, Vecna had the Demogorgon chase Will down for an entire week. A seemingly easy task given what we saw the Demogorgon do in S4 and yet it took it an entire week to track him down "safely" for capture.

If he was mistaken for El for his entire kidnapping and wasn't discovered to be someone else until he actually caught by the Demogorgon, that still means the Demogorgon, despite its claws and sharp teeth which it will happily use on anything that moves.... "decided" to not harm Will in any way shape or form and gently posted him up on a library wall for the tentacles to have him.

It seems like people are looking at this in black and white like "It was completely on accident and a complete coincidence" or "it was completely on purpose and entirely planned out from the getgo."

No, right now I believe the Demogorgon was tracking down El that night and mistakenly confused Will for her at first. It perfectly parallels the rest of S1 where Hopper is chasing down El the entire time thinking she was WIll.

BUT THAT ISN'T ALL. Even though he might've been mistaken for El at first, I think the Demogorgon/Vecna realized he wasn't and STILL had an interest in Will because he is Will. I think there is something about Will that is close enough to El (or potentially more suitable to whatever he's planning) that made Will a valuable asset.

Even if him running into the Demogorgon was a wrong place wrong time situation, I think Will would've attracted the Demogorgon eventually anyway. If the Demogorgon was tracking El and already mistook Will for El once, then of course the potential for that to happen any time of day was very high. Their house is literally smack dab in the hunting zone. We saw it chase Joyce multiple times while she was just chilling in her home. Will likely would've always been a target.

Not only that, the fact that his kidnapping and capture was somewhat purposeful has already been proven thanks to S2. Even if you're someone who believes what happened to Will in S1 would've happened to anyone and it was a complete and total accident.... there's no way you believe everything that happened to him in S2 was also just a coincidence and an accident.

To me, in writing, whether it's the villains or the heroes, they should be able to adapt their plans when the need arises. If an easier way to accomplish the same goal pops up, then you should take it. If you find a shortcut, take it.

If you find a kid who is strangely similar to the one you were already looking for who is also strangely similar to you and seems to have some kind of potential spark........... then why wouldn't Vecna kidnap Will?

I mean, obviously he still wanted El but life gave him lemons in the form of William Byers so it only makes sense that he'd make lemonade out of it.

Did Vecna plan to kidnap Will the moment he escaped from the Upside Down? No I don't think so.

Did the Demogorgon/Vecna intend to run into Will that night on the street? No.

Did the Demogorgon/Vecna intentionally chase Will all the way to his house and kidnap him into the Upside Down even after realizing he probably wasn't El? Absolutely. We saw the Demogorgon chase Joyce at least 3 times or something. Compare those chases to the Demogorgon chasing Will through the woods, to his house, through a locked door, and then all the way into the shed....?

I hope you can see how it's a mixture of "happy" coincidence and intentional fluid plotting?

Even if this were all a complete accident in season 1, it's not an accident anymore. I still find the narrative of a kid getting wrapped up in a plot way bigger than him and suffering for no apparent reason compelling. It's that juicy eldritch horror stuff y'know? So it's still entertaining for me.

[bluejay-in-write]

villain protects chosen one bc wtf that’s a baby

Ahhhh I finally finished this wonderful prompt sorry for the delay :') <333

"A Deal"

"The Chosen Ones" Scene/Opening (3,623 words)

Not much context is needed for this one due to the fact that this was written for this prompt and isn't part of any of my other stories but due to how many ideas I had when writing this and how much I enjoyed writing these characters I will be making this into it's own story! (Title is still in progress)

Also I want to say a shout out for my wonderful new beta @vaguelyaperson who has helped me so much with the editing process and @ipanicatmorethanjustthedisco who has been there every step of the way in the development of these characters.

***

The Villain had been waiting for years to see what The Organization would throw at him. He had heard talk of them finally finding the “true Chosen One” who would be powerful enough to defeat him once and for all.

But what everyone seemed to forget is that he had originally been the Chosen One. That was when The Organization still had him under their thumb, head filled with visions and dreams of being the hero and saving the day. Eventually the fog started to lift as he began to notice the increasingly suspicious behavior and that all the promises The Organization had made didn't seem to be adding up. 

Not long after, the Villain stumbled upon the truth and when he found out what they had been grooming him for he decided to end his last day with a bang, destroying the headquarters behind him.

That’s when The Organization had labeled him the false chosen one and a Villain that threatened the whole of society, essentially erasing his credibility and the truth he had discovered along with it. After that it was obvious that the whole chosen one thing was a scam.

They had lured him in, a child who needed to hear he was special by giving him exactly what he wanted. The Organization had told him that he was the one they had been looking for all these years, someone who was meant for greatness and under their teachings would go on to save the world.

The catch being that the only way to fulfill his destiny was to do everything The Organization asked—and he had for a while. Up until the moment he realized that instead of being the people’s savior like he thought he was, he was actually just The Organization’s puppet.

The Villain could still picture the false looks of innocence on their faces as they asked him to trust them, explaining that he was just too young to understand how they were shaping the world for the better. Maybe that argument would've worked a couple years earlier, but he was a lot less naive by that point and not so easy to manipulate anymore.

Instead the Villain had decided to destroy the whole building and their years of research on his way out, stopping whatever nefarious plan he was sure they had concocted in its tracks

But it looked like The Organization had rebuilt and were back again with a new “Chosen One"—that they had no doubt raised and trained to continue their previous plans and take down the terrible Villain once and for all. But this time he was stronger than he had ever been before and much more prepared. The Villain wouldn't let the Organization use or hurt anyone else, ever again.

He kept this oath in his thoughts as he pulled on his dark heavy cloak and moved through the hallway at a slow but steady pace. He wasn't eager to rush into this battle but he knew it had to be done.

If he didn’t end this here and now, then The Organization and their puppet hero would only continue to get stronger before he could figure out how to destroy them for good.

The Villain pushed open the large oak doors into the entrance hall which had dark stone walls and flickering torches that sat in sconces all along the room, contributing to the foreboding atmosphere. 

It was empty of all but a throne that stood in the middle of the room, making the hall look larger than it was. He entered the room, waving dramatically to an absent audience to get himself into the correct headspace, before climbing up the dais in the and seating himself on the elegant raised chair.

The Villain always had to make a big statement, as was expected with the role he played, and he thought the throne did that just nicely. It was a large chair with a tall spiked back sculpted out of pure onyx and able to fit two grown men comfortably. The seat back and cushion was made of the finest black velvet as were the armrests—gemstone did not make for the most comfortable seating.

Just as he settled down for a nice long wait, resting back against the plush cushion—sure that the Chosen One was on their way—the doors burst open with a bang.

In the doorway stood the chosen one; framed by one of the doors, barely hanging onto its hinge for dear life and an empty space where the other should be. The Villain’s eyes slid over her form, instead glancing to the side to see where the other door had landed.

“That was dark walnut,” he muttered under his breath with a pout before clearing his throat and sitting up straighter. “You know I'm going to have to pay to repair that, don't you?” The Villain said, rolling his eyes until they finally stopped on the Chosen One. 

Positioned in a defensive stance, her sword held aloft, the Chosen One looked exactly like he expected and yet nothing at all. Her eyes narrowed as she stared up at him sitting on his expensive throne, as if trying to figure out how exactly to drag him down.

And she stood firm and unyielding, covered neck down in gleaming steel armor with elaborate designs etched in gold, armor fit for a hero. But even with the armor doing its best to shield the Chosen One it couldn’t disguise the fact that the person underneath was young. So very young. 

If he looked closely the Villain could tell she still hadn't gotten rid of the baby fat around her cheeks. And although her form was perfect, her short arms refusing to quiver under the weight of a sword that was at least half her size, she still looked slightly unbalanced, as if unsure of the body she was standing in. Growth spurts tended to do that to a kid—he would know.

But there was no question, she had the heart of a warrior even if her body hadn’t managed to catch up quite yet. The Villain couldn't help but laugh aloud at his own ignorance, stifling the unhinged chuckles in his gloved hand. Obviously he still had much to learn, despite his understandable assumption that he had grown smarter over all these years.

He had long been prepared to fight the next chosen one, but what he hadn't been prepared for was fighting a child. At second thought the Villain realized he should've considered it a possibility. 

When The Organization had found him he had been no more than thirteen. Practically a man they had told him, ready to defend his country and protect the world. At the time he'd believed them.

No doubt she had too.

“What are you laughing at!” The chosen one snarled as she took a step towards him, pointing the tip of her sword directly at his throat. And yet she didn’t leap forward to cross the distance between them and attack as he would’ve expected.

He looked down at the girl, lowering his hand from his face, while trying not to let the despair in his smile show.

Because that's what she was. Not the chosen one, or a hero, or their savior. She was a girl. One too young to be fighting in someone else's war.

But the Villain wouldn't let them do this, he reminded himself. Not again. Not to her or anyone else. He would destroy The Organization once and for all and he would do it right this time. They would never hurt anyone else ever again and he would make sure of it, the Villain thought as he adjusted the previous plan in his head to suit this new information.

“I'm laughing at the fact that they sent a child to defeat me,” He finally replied, mentally making sure his villainous mask was still in place and hoping against all hopes his new plan would work.

“I am not a child!” The girl exclaimed in indignation, her expression turning furious.

Her fingers clenched around the sword she had pointed at him, looking even closer to using it, as if that thing could have defeated him. Even if it wasn't wielded by a child.

The girl must've been working with The Organization for years, considering her control with a sword and the power emanating from her, but it would take many more before she was strong enough to do damage to someone like him.

“If I'm not mistaken you must be around sixteen years of age. So, despite whatever The Organization might've told you, you are indeed a child,” The Villain said, doing his best to estimate her age from the information he had gathered, hoping his expression looked more like a smirk than a grimace.

The girl's eye darted away nervously for a second before snapping back to meet the Villain's eyes head on as she seemed to grow even more determined at his words. 

That break in her focus—that sideways glance—his estimate of her age must've been wrong. The Organization must be taking them in younger now and he felt his heart splinter at the thought.

“And what do you know about The Organization?” She snapped, latching onto another topic, most likely realizing that she wasn't going to win the argument.

Although to the villains interest her expression looked more urgent now than defensive. 

“And why do you want to know?” The Villain asked, looking down at her with a tilt to his head, doing his best to maintain his smirk.

“That's none of your business! You're going to die soon anyways. So you might as well prolong your life by telling me everything you know about them,” The girl demanded as her sword arm started to quiver, the request sounding rehearsed as if she had practiced in front of a mirror.

“Die? By your hand?” His smirk turned into a genuinely amused smile, incensing her further.

“Don't underestimate me! I'm stronger than you realize, Villain,” She snapped and his eyes narrowed into slits.

The Villain adjusted himself on his throne, crossing one leg over the other, before leaning his elbow on the onyx arm rest and placing his chin in the palm of his hand. He stared down at her with a pointed look and she smartly took a hesitant step back.

“Oh you are, are you? Well then Chosen One, I'll just tell you all I know,” The Villain said, leaning back with a sinister smile to hide his loss of temper.

“How about the fact that they track down children just like you. Children who have lost their homes and families. Who have no one to care when they go missing.  Stupid children who are stupid enough to be deluded with ideas and promises of grandeur.”

“You said stupid twice,” The girl interjected, looking a tad less impressed with him.

“Look, little girl, no matter how strong or special they deceived you into thinking you are, what you really are is expendable. You are just cannon fodder to throw at their enemies until they find a shiny new child soldier to replace you.

“You will never be the hero of this world or any other. All you are and all you'll ever be is nothing. And well, the idea of a nothing like you ever defeating me, is laughable,” The Villain spat, chest heaving in reaction to the girl's arrogance, that sounded a little too familiar.

“I told you not to underestimate me! I'd like to see you call me weak after I cut you down from that garish pedestal!” The girl snarled, leaping into action.

Swinging her sword in unnecessary motions she stalked towards the throne she had just insulted.

“It would be entertaining to watch you try,” The Villain replied, obviously goading her on as he attempted to regain his composure. 

She snarled once more before leaping up onto the dais at his feet. Without a moment's hesitation she sliced her sword down in a straight trajectory towards his neck. But even with a split second to react the Villain made no move to stop her. No matter the anger she had brought out in him, he would stand by his vow and do nothing to hurt this child.

The sword stopped a centimeter from his throat. The girl had even better control with a sword than he expected. She continued to hold the sword aloft in the air, chest heaving from her impassioned attack. The Villain hissed under his breath as her heavy breathing caused the sword to edge forward and graze him.

“Why didn't you stop me?” The girl demanded, pulling the sword back to her side in a precise motion.

As she stepped down from the  took a few steps back her eyes never strayed from the small cut she had made on his neck where a drop of blood was beading at the surface.

“As I said before, you are a child,” The Villain began, pausing to raise his hand up when the girl opened her mouth to argue. Thankfully this time she kept silent. Lowering his hand back down, the Villain wiped away the line of blood that had formed at his neck before it could fall onto his cloak and began again.

“You are a child as I was when they recruited me. I know where your mind is at and what they told you to make you believe their lies. They brainwashed you, like they did me. Not with any crude technique like torture but with words of affection and affirmation. Tall tales of the prophecy written ages ago about a child born to be a hero, the hero of heroes who would save the world.

“Look, I know all you want is to save people, but I've been where you’re standing now and this is not the way. So tell me, how could I ever raise a hand at you when I see myself in your stance, your anger, your eyes,” He said, dropping the holier than thou act entirely

The girl’s eyes widened, her limbs going loose as if his words had cut the strings controlling her. The sound of her sword clattering to the floor seemed to pull the girl out of her stupor. Her eyes snapped back to him, sharp and clear as her body returned to fighting form on instinct, even without the protection of her weapon.

“You were…like me? Just like…me.” Her eyes widened once again, this time in understanding.

“They said you were a false chosen one. They said they realized you were the wrong one when you were overcome with power and turned against them. But that's not true is it? 

The Villain watched as the girl talked herself through the same realization he had when he was seventeen years old. Her arms were still held in front of her, ever vigilant in her defense, but they were lower than before as if she didn't have the conviction to fight any longer.

“Sometimes I would overhear this man muttering under his breath when there was no one else around.

‘Beloved Chosen One. When will you come home?’

He always sounded so lost… Tell me the truth, Villain. Was that prophecy just something they used to control us…to control me? Is there even really a true chosen one? Or are you everything they say you are?”

The Villain's breath caught in his throat. There was only one person who called him beloved chosen one. He hadn’t even been sure the man was still alive after he had burned the place to the ground. Honestly at that time he probably wouldn’t have even cared.

“So you finally figured it out. The truth about them…” The Villain began as a distraction from his reaction to her words, then paused, unsure how to continue.

When preparing for the fight this outcome had not occurred to him. It felt almost too easy but yet held none of the satisfaction he would've expected it to have. He had created distance between The Organization and their hero but now there was this nagging question of what was next. The Villain quickly brushed the question aside, deciding that he would have to answer it later.

“As you can see, The Organization can't be trusted. They claim omniscience but after taking a closer look nothing they say seems to add up. I believe they were using you just like they were me.

“Using the title of chosen one and the prophecy to make us trust them and believe that what they were telling us must be right. It's what they do. They saw your potential for power and strength and used that to turn you into their weapon,” He began again, regaining his confidence with every word.

“Even if that is true, what makes you so trustworthy? If everyone seems to want something from me, then what do you want?” Her head that had lowered in thought during his theory raised again, this time with an odd look in her eyes that he couldn't place.

She was smarter than he was at her age, quicker to believe the truth, but not so gullible as to trust who it came from.

“If you allow, I'll share with you everything I learned about them when they had me dancing in the palm of their hands. It has been awhile but I'm sure there’s probably much they haven't changed about their technique.

“This should be proof enough that there is some worth to trusting me, wouldn't you agree? As for what I want from you?” The Villain paused again to think about it, what did he want from her? Unlike the former, this question wasn't so easily ignored.

Did he want the girl to join him on his crusade? No. Regardless of his hatred for The Organization, he stood by what he said. She was a child and no child should ever be fighting in someone else's war. But he knew The Organization better than anyone, her family was most likely dead, gone if lucky, slaughtered by them if less so.

Either way they had made sure she had nowhere to return to and no one to ask for help. 

If she was truly going to leave The Organization like he did, that would be a problem. And if he let himself think on it for longer than a few seconds the Villain couldn’t help but feel somewhat responsible for this newly created complication.

So therein lies the question? What did he want from her? He couldn't take on a child, especially not with the crusade he was planning. And yet he couldn't just leave her out on the street to fend for herself.

He continued to think on it for a moment, watching as the girl got visibly more impatient, fists that had once been raised now crossed in front of her chest. Then it came to him. The orphanage! She would be safe and cared for there and after the Villain dropped her off he would be done with the whole thing.

“I want you to tell me everything you know about them. The more intel the easier it will be to destroy them. After that I will take you to the nearby orphanage. From my recollection it's rather nice and they will take proper care of you there,” He finally replied, clapping his hands together.

He couldn’t help but feel slightly proud of himself, his answer having wrapped everything up in a nice neat bow.

“No,” The girl stated, her voice clear and firm.

“I know it will be difficult to fully turn on the people who taught you so much but—”

“I said no! If you're going after The Organization, you're not just going to drop me off at an orphanage and be on your merry way. If you're going after them, then I will too, at your side. If what you’re saying is true then they took just as much from me as they did from you and I'm not going to let them get away with it.”

Now he recognized the look in her eyes; it was resolve. The girl had already decided and the Villain could see that no matter what he said he wouldn’t change her mind on this.

But he couldn't just take her with him. What he was doing was far too dangerous for a child to tag along. Although maybe with her by his side he could mitigate that danger. It would be a lot safer than her just going rogue after he left her at the orphanage…

“Fine, but if you're staying you're going to have to listen to everything I say. Ask all the questions you want but at the end of the day you will do what I tell you to. I will not risk both of our safeties just because you want to act out.

“Obviously I will also have to train you. This will be dangerous, far more dangerous than working for them. I need to know that you will be able to defend yourself when the time comes.

“So how about a deal? I teach you all I know, you follow orders, and we both take them down for good,” the Villain offered, holding his hand out and hoping with every bone in his body that he wasn't going to live to regret this, or even worse—die before he got the chance.

“Deal,” The girl said, reaching up to take his hand tightly in her much smaller and calloused one.

With one firm shake their fates were sealed, and the Villain realized; nothing was ever going to be the same, again.

[bagheerita]

I am a SO ready to talk Godzilla movies. I’ve only seen a handful of them compared to like the dozens I know exist-the more recent ones where they were trying to do Avengers but the big Monsties-but god I love them.

Admittedly Kong is seared into my brain because it came out at the Height of my Tom Hiddleston obsession-I even own it in dvd like I was that deep-so that’s the one I remember the best. And it’s the one I like the most because of the wide range of monsters we get to see. Big Buffalo guy? The skull lizards? Fuck yeah love my monsters wish more movies were monster movies lol.

Anyways, the others are more spattering in recollection. But I wanna ask, which of these movies is your fave, why, and what do you think of the empty core earth/godzilla goes into the center of the earth to recharge like Superman does to the sun? I remember finding that very. Odd? But ripe for interest bc in Kong they set up that whole. Under-earth world the skull things came from.

I've also only seen a handful of the movies... exactly 6 Godzilla/Monster-verse related movies (that I can recall anyway): the original Gojira and the original King Kong. And then Godzilla 2014, Kong Skull Island, Godzilla King of the Monsters (watched last night), and Godzilla vs Kong (watched today!).

I've only seen each of them once, and Kong Skull Island is the only one I saw in the theater (Tom Hiddleston obsession what....😅😅💚❤). Watching Godzilla KotM's last night was the first time I'd actually seen several of the monsters I already knew of through cultural osmosis, like Rodan and Ghidorah, which was very cool.

My favorite is hard to say. (I mean, to say the best movie would be easy: it would be Gojira, because I think it's awesome and perfect and very much a product of its time that said what it needed to say. But I feel like it's an entirely separate genre than the other movies I've seen.) I enjoyed Skull Island and I remember it being slightly better story-wise than the Godzilla movies, IE it made me care more about the human characters and they had better development and reasons for what they were doing.

Since it's the one I just watched I might say KotM is my favorite, just because I loved all the monster battles, and because there are apparently no locked doors in this world (Millie Bobbie Brown can just walk into Fenway Park, and also her family home that's been abandoned for months/years, without any keys or any problems). And also because of Charles Dance, who is a fantastic villain even though he looked like he was phoning it in and even though he didn't get eaten by a dragon (It was all I wanted... what was promised. lol). GvK was fun, but not quite enough to overcome the silliness of the premise. (like, come on, giant monkey versus radioactive dinosaur. who do you think wins? I did like that the movie turned it into a team up against Mechagodzilla/the ghost of Ghidorah.)

The first mentions of the Hollow Earth Theory kind of took me by surprise, so it took me awhile to get over the silliness of it especially the gravity inversion lmao. (Just last month or so I finished watching Sanctuary, which has its own Hollow Earth theory lol) But I did really love the concept of Godzilla's temple where he would go to recharge in KotM. (Too bad they blew it up 😭 Or did they?? Maybe Godzilla's temple where he hangs out can withstand nuclear blasts? 🤔) I love the idea that he would go to this place of ancient worship to rest and regain his strength, sleeping among the memories of when he was perhaps more literally a god. The whole "recharging from the center of the earth bc there's radiation" is whatever. The origins of Godzilla have changed so much to get him to fit into this new idea of him and his place within the world and what he represents, so... sure. The Earth is a hollow, Godzilla recharging battery. 👍

I really liked the development they did for Hollow Earth in GvK. I like that Kong's axe gets charged up by Godzilla's blasts. And I loved that when you see Kong's "throne," Godzilla is carved into the stones around the base of the throne. To me this suggests that rather than a rivalry, Kong and Godzilla have an ancient symbiosis: Godzilla is King Kong's guard dog... or perhaps "court wizard" in the sense of the archetypal magician, with the knowledge and power to comprehend a balance within nature that he then "advises" the "king" about. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I dunno but I think that would be really cool. I'd love to see more "monsterverse" movies with fewer human characters getting in the way (though I did really like Millie Bobbie Brown's posse wandering around and stumbling onto Mechagodzilla; that was a cool way to reveal that information to the audience). But more stories specifically about the interactions between these ancient creatures would be very interesting. In the special features for KotM they say that Mothra is the only female monster, which is kind of odd. I suppose Godzilla never really "dies" so he doesn't need to... reproduce in a standard-for-higher-Earth-life-forms way, but I'm pretty sure I remember Kong having parents in Skull Island, which I guess makes him (or his mom) an outlier if we're roping him into the monsterverse. Though the continuity for any of these stories is very loose (in KotM there are kaiju on every continent, but GvK is 3 years later and all of them... left? Everything's normal now. We're all fine here, now, thank you. How are you? And then Godzilla rolls up in Hong Kong and trashes it. There's one shot of a "kaiju bunker" or whatever, but no other preparations or any sort of contingencies for what to do if attacked by world-destroying monsters which last happened 3 years ago).

Anyway I hear there's another Godzilla movie coming out this year, and one called GodzillaXKong which I can only hope is the shipper movie we've all been waiting to see!! ;b

[saviourkingslut]

okay but curry can we PLEASE talk about how fucking PHENOMENAL like action Mihawk is. Had me on the brink of mental collapse 24/7 bc I kept thinking about his magnificence- he knocked it out of the PARK GODDAMNIT!!! Who's your fave from the live action cast and what are your thoughts?? Personally I think it's very good, I just wish Sanji's arc hadn't been cut (tho Don Krieg sucks as a villain, ngl, kinda happy Mihawk got rid of that bitchboy so easily ☠️☠️☠️), but other than that I'm SO proud of everyone involved, they really put in lov and dedication and respect for the series, I'm looking forward to more!!! How about you??🌸🌼🍀

ok full disclosure lest anyone think i have read the manga or seen the anime: i haven't, it's way long and i've never felt particularly drawn to it. HOWEVER i've seen my fair share of (shounen) anime and when i saw they were doing a live action of one piece i really thought it was going to suck bc the live actions always suck. boy was i wrong. everyone working on this from screenwriters to cinematographers to costume department to the actors themselves clearly love the source material and knew exactly what they were doing, and the vibe is Exactly Right. it's camp and fun and a little stupid like shounen anime tend to be and it fully embraces it and so it feels completely natural. of course the cat-themed pirate crew hiss and wear knife-gloves. of course there's characters with blue and green and whatever colour hair. of course the officers in the marines have personal Themes. we don't need any explanation, the world is just like this. and it's balanced exactly right so the more emotional, serious aspects of the story carry the weight that they need to without feeling out of place.

also, as a someone who hasn't engaged with the manga/anime, i think the series cut away/kept enough of the original material to come out of it feeling well-paced, understandable to newcomers and filled with fun recognisable bits for long-time fans. perhaps this meant, as you say, cutting out some pieces of character development/background that might have been enjoyable, but it's a well-made sacrifice bc it prevented the story from feeling too bloated. i think it was just right like this: gave us background on everyone and simultaneously left room for the story to process, without too many things at once to focus on. you could still sense that it was based on a manga bc of its little arcs - usually two eps with a minor boss to beat each time, and a bigger, badder boss at the end of the season. so i feel like keeping that theme in a narrative sense also really helped to make it reminiscent of the material it draws from and made it well-rounded and well-structured overall.

ANYWAY. mihawk. oh my god. i rewatched his scenes. multiple times. he was gorgeous. effervescent. insert the lady gaga meme. again i haven't engaged with the og material but i know these kinds of manga characters and there's so many ways to do them wrong but steven john ward really said 'i was made for this role actually' and he served absolute cunt. definitely up there among my favourite characters in the show - and that's saying a LOT bc im obsessed with almost everyone in it fr. they made me like the fucking clown (i hate clowns) buggy is genuinely incredible. the main cast? what the hell dude. they just found luffy living irl like... genuinely what the fuck. iñaki was born to play him and he did it so wonderfully - guy who is fatally optimistic but also insane and it works. nami's really cool as well - i've heard/read some stuff abt the writing of women especially in the earlier parts of the manga (woman in shounen main character group syndrome) but i think she was solid here and her interactions with the rest of the cast were great. also usopp! is so cute! so much potential to not have that kind of character work out in a real life adaptation but he's so lovable

and on that note the fucking. interactions amongst the main cast? im sobbing screaming crying they're everything to me. the way they're so supportive and proud and protective of each other and yet they talk shit the whole time too. there's so much chemistry among them and they truly do feel like people from different backgrounds who (sometimes reluctantly) come together and would do anything for each other. like real friends who have fun and make fun of each other too, it's a great dynamic and they really hit the mark there.

as to who's my favourite, well, as i said, mihawk's definitely up there, and im a simple hoe - i love zoro. but i think i enjoyed sanji's scenes the most and not just bc of his ass. heard he's kind of pervy in the og material? well the direction they took him in the live action where they kept the 'imprints on woman' but is overall sweet about it and generally less moody than he is in the anime/manga was a great direction i think. he's supremely enjoyable as a character. the accent? the facial expressions? the smiles? the jokes? im on my bed swooning and giggling and kicking my feet he is so fucking funny and i want him so bad. 'apologies madam i didn't see you there.' 'oooh back for seconds must have liked it' i literally re-watched every scene he was in at least once. his kicks were so nicely choreographed too it was really satisfying to look at, very clean (taz did god's work on his training). sometimes at home ill be doing nothing in particular like ill be standing in the living room and i'll mutter to myself 'cotelette. collier. epaulé. poitrine.' and go on with my day he lives in my brain rent free.

so uhm yea i think the series is really good and 1) sanji 2) mihawk 3) zoro if i had to put them in order i think lmaooo

[bunnyloaves]

brba genderswap au bc i am cringe

i apologize for the brba fandom thinkies rn, but thinking abt the genderswap brba au with skyler and jane being walt n jesse,,, and all the other characs are swapped too, this au is making me giGGLE

so my thoughts on it is like, no is this au skyler would not be cooking meth, i see no reason for her to know how that works and i think its kinda lame for her to learn how to cook meth from this hypothetical au walter (plus i think the fact that in canon-verse her thing IS cooking the books, both for walts meth empire, and by profession (and the layer of her being meticulous in a way a man could never be, all too aware of the details))

but yes, she n walter (+ flynn n the yet to be born holly) are still broke n poor in this au, but walter never pursues his meth thing and he remains the ever ineffectual and impotent father. while its skyler who ends up as a criminal, how exactly? well here goes, so ok family is broke, walter still has cancer n stuff, so in some turn of events she works as some clerk at mesa verde, doing idk bank stuff. but the thing is the bank is one of the fronts madrigal has, which how we drag lydia into this au. this whole bank thing is how she runs into kim, whose already deep in her “sally/giselle” persona, take ur pick whichever one she is. 

so all three of them, cook the books, if you will for the madrigal company. idk how deeply involved they would end up being in the meth aspects of it, but i imagine this au more of a court style mind game, girl betrayal drama more than anything as active n shooty rooty n tooty as canon brba.

but also, i think it’d be interesting if skyler’s whole hustle of selling knick knacks in s1 could be play into this. she could kinda be like those women who steal millions from companies by stealing coupons in bulk, by having an inside contact. then reselling the coupons for more and in her attempts to ‘clean’ the money she interacts with sketchy people.

anyways back to the bank angle for this au, so by cooking the books for mesa verde, which does other illicit stuff aside from tax evading that her villain origin story ig, like enabling the operations of this wretched conglomerate even when she knows who it is and what she is working for.

i think her fatal flaw, much like walter’s narcissism (wherein he cares more abt projecting himself as a father figure, protector, provider more than actually providing) is her enabling attitude. like shes doing this to provide for her family and i know she’d be more earnest with those wishes more than walter ever could be in canon. she’d be the type to bond with her kids, actually know and care for flynn much like in the canonverse, but id like to think that her working for madrigal and enabling them would come to bite her in the ass later on in this au. 

also her dynamics with walt would be interesting, like what would that even look like damn, cuz skyler has always been headstrong, or else she wouldn’t been able to put up with even becoming ‘part’ of walt’s operations but what would it even look like when its her heading those operations (with all that womanly, motherly meticulousness. like she wouldn’t be able to pull off chem tricks and ricin stuff like walt, but shes got the chops to do schemes of her own too)

ig the two aspects to juxtapose in this au, would be the whole mother+saintliness vs what she enables madrigal to do. 

ok lets talk abt jane, ngl im not sure hoW theyd meet each other exactly, but imo the scene that would make skyler ‘irredeemable’ (like the scene that makes walter irredeemable to the audiences eyes, is like the s2 ABQ episode) this au’s version of it, would be pushing jane to the point of relapsing o___o, which is how i think the consequences of working for madrigal would fully sink in for her. 

oH also marie is law enforcement in this au, which imo would make things hurt more cuz they are literally sisters and not just in-laws. gus would be lydia i think, saul would be kim, and mike would be francesca (ig?? girl help idk anymore)

(regardless of how they meet tho, i still think theyd have that fucked up codependency walt n jesse have lmAOO,, also i refuse to let anything bad happen to jesse in this au, he will remain the goth bf and thats final, no questions asked)

anyways these are just my thinky thoughts do not perceive

[semimedieval]

the beach part 7: I dunno, don't judge my Chuji metaphor

We begin with a crowdsourced call to action.

Rim saw a pearl lying on the ground. Could it be the pearl? MOOPY277: (Vote A if yes, or B if not. Then vote C for him to be attacked or D if he won't be attacked) DRAGONODSESSED: BC! TOESOCKSQUEEN: BC. they should all be attacked and the pearl should be sparkly and magical,wrapped around by the dragon as he sleeps. Let's get all of our charcters in one central place in the water.

Augustine is conspicuously absent, a fact that will surely not come back to bite anybody in the ass as they make decisions about his storyline plan. The decision has been made, though, and the storyline acts accordingly. This kind of flops too.

To his dissapointment it wasn't the pearl. He started to swim up when a huge snake slammed into him. He glared at it and swung his fist, causing a massive water current to slam into it. (Someone wanna control the snake?) DRAGONODSESSED: Dracus (the snake!) was thrown back by the current, but went forward right afterward. (BBL, dinner.) TOESOCKSQUEEN: (Me!Me!)The Snake hissed and glared at Rim. This was not his battle, for there was no need to kill just one. Yes,he would wait until they were all together. He swam back into the depths of the water, letting his silvery wings flap behind him.

I love it when Jack and I both go for something and it's equally lame. That said, it's roleplays run by 11-year-olds - they're always going to be corny. Mine isn't corny but it's boring, which is the far greater sin. It's no wonder that Jack won this one.

That said, I can still giggle at the way he wrote villains the same way I giggle about the way I write villains:

Dracus looked up and smiled sadistically. He knew what to do. They had woken him from his slumber and now it was time to pay. He swam round and round, swirling the water. (Dracus is'nt a bad guy, he's just protecter of the pearl. If it got into the wrong hands, mass choas could be realesed.)

Jack makes a great point: what the hell are the greater implications of the Soul Pearl? 15-year-old me made exactly the right move by defining its rules in very specific terms, that is to say, fairy tale rules. It appears as a favor, to reward a great deed done for the fairies, rooted in stories about the Fairy Queen's own loss. I think we should double down on that in part 2 – maybe there should be something big that someone (Mari or Lark?) sacrifices to the fairy queen bring back Tallin? Maybe it should be a reward for freeing the kids in the Castle on the Strait? Either way, maybe the most important part isn't just the sacrifice – it's real people caught up in fairy tale rules. Tallin's return is joyfully impossible, but it's also strange and frightening in the same way that a fairy showing up at your real-life baby's baptism to give her gifts would be strange and frightening. Even if magic was otherwise real. Operating by fairy tale rules in real life would be, well, weird and scary.

Anyway, in the original roleplay, no element of the Soul Pearl's lore is ultimately addressed at all, though Jack does try here. You sly dog, Jack, you've got me monologuing!

Everyone's like 'ah, the water, it's shaking!' We get stock reactions from everyone. Wow, Moopy was LOVING Indiana Jones that summer.

Suddenly, the whirlpool got faster and faster, threatining to suck them all in. The dragon burst out of the water,curling it's massive body round them, as to not let them escape. Rim hammered it with water, trying to squeeze out of its coils. "SO THIS IS WHY INDIANA JONES HTES SNAKES!!!!" He screamed

There's a reaction from all four (!!) of my characters (Katia ditch Lorcan or else, I am no longer asking), the unniest of which is "Obsidian attempted to use his powers, but they appeared to have been drained." Are they drained, Obsidian, or are YOUR POWERS simply no use against a fuckoff sea dragon? Much to consider.

I try to control the dragon again but Jack once again writes a significantly better post than me, which I hope means I've given up on the 'sharing' thing and just ceded control for once. The time to assert leadership was 10 pages earlier, Katia, when everybody was milling around on the beach without anything to do. I was always too unauthoritative as RP leader – collaborative storytelling is built on strong ideas, not vibes. That's right, I'm a narrative authoritarian.

He closed his eyes and the sea started churning, another snake began to form, made out of hardened water. The serpent concentrated on using it's powers to make a magnetic pull that stopped all powers from being used in the circle. But wait...the boy. He had water, the only power he was unable to block. the Snake muttered a curse in a foreign tongue.(rim get's to be the hero! XD) Ky tried to cry out, but was cut off as salty water filled her mouth and nose.

I like the idea of Rim getting a big story moment but I do giggle at the idea that water is the 'only power Dracus can't block.' Shouldn't it be the power Dracus has the most authority over??? Clearly in the coherent version of this story the gang can't use their powers because they are BUSY DROWNING and rim is ok because HE'S THE WATER GUY AND CAN'T DROWN.

Obsidian gets owned by a wave of water, Lupus and Ky hold on to each other until Ky is pulled away from him by a wave, Quartz loses track of Obsidian and calls out his name. This is the lamest part of this adventure, the fact that every single person online except Moopy decides that every single one of their characters JUST HAS to heroically rescue someone or get heroically rescued.

I must really have had some kind of undefined Jack Problem this summer and been trying to disguise it as character development for my newly deep and edgy character, because I have Lupus's internal monologue be an actual genuine jackass:

Ky drifted down into the water, frozen in shock. She watched as the bubbled escaped from her mouth and floated away. A sort of calm washed over her, and she exepted it. She was going to die. "What about Lupus?" she wondered. How would he fare with it all? Lupus....she must find Lupus.....there he was swimming towards her....she wanted to say "It's too late. I'm gone." and reach out to touch his face. Her eyes began to close and darkness started to take over her vision. "Ky!" he tried to yell but only bubbles exited his mouth. "KY!" He pressed down toward her. (wow, dramatic.) He took her hand and kicked upward, making little progress. A tiny part of his brain, the treacherous part, was complaining that she had to pick this of all times to be the damsel in distress, but he ignored it as he often had to.

SHE IS DROWNING YOU STUPID ASSHOLE. SHE DID NOT "CHOOSE" TO DROWN. EVERYONE AROUND YOU IS DROWNING ALSO, IF YOU WOULD CARE TO CHECK THAT OUT.

Anyway, a fairly similar story plays out between Quartz and Obsidian while Rim fights the snake. Meanwhile, my middle school playlist reaches Starships, which means we're officially in Summer 2012, or Extranei Summer. Being a middle schooler in the early 10s means having nostalgia moments over the silliest fucking songs. It's so incredibly funny that this is one of Nicki Minaj's big hits, given that I do not feel it has a lot to do with her general artistic identity. Also i love that 2018 me put the fucking clean version on this playlist for peak authenticity to what my friends and I were listening to. Good lord. Also I fucking put Good Time on this playlist when it was transparently the Summer of Call Me Maybe. Liar, revisionist, tasteless, you are not too good for Call Me Maybe, NOBODY is too good for Call Me Maybe, i'm going to have to remake this stupid idiot playlist aren't I –

Sorry. Where was I.

Tim yelled louder then he had ever before and the snake of water smashed into Dracus. He was in the water snakes head now, controlling it. He made it wrap itself around Dracus, a test of, well, strength. Obsidian! She had to find Obsidian! She tore through the water, catching a glimpse of Rim's snake and the serpent entwined; they were pretty evenly matched. Obsidian felt the whirlpool pulling him down. Despite fighting against it, he was still drowning.

Jack starts setting up for a pretty silly anticlimactic ending while Moopy, to their credit, maintains a very appropriate sense of stakes –

Dracus thrashed against Rim's water snake. He felt Rim's presence in his mind. Was the water....speaking to him? He stopped to listen.(Rim,say something to explain to Dracus about Tozi and the Soul pearl ect. ect.) Rim gritted his teeth and managed to negate the whirlpool. He concentrated harder on his snake, but he was slowly going down hill, he couldn't keep his snake hard enough, and fight Dracus at the same time. &quot;Freeze the snake a little!&quot; he screamed hoping Lupus would hear. Spark treaded water much more easily as the whirlppool stopped. She looked around, seeing Quartz swimming to Obsedian as quick as Chuji to fresh Rassberry pie.( I dunno, don't judge my Chuji metaphor...XD) Rim true to speak to Dracus through the pendant, maybe it would work. "Please, we don't wish to fight! We only wish to brig back our friend Tozi with the soul pearl! If your guarding it, then I will ressurct him where you like so you can stop or kill me if I begin to do evil!"

I love him. What a great negotiator. I do love the aspects of Extranei that involve Negotiating With Powers Beyond Your Comprehension, and I wish the original roleplay and especially the novelization had more of these moments.

Lupus heard and letting go of Ky with one hand extended it and sent a blast of ice, albeit not a very strong one. Quartz pulled Obsidian from the water and held him close. "Obsidian..." Rims snake froze a little, giving him an edge.

Dracus is ready to negotiate but the act of ice freezing sets him off again. Meanwhile, Spark realizes she hasn't had a chance to do a heroic rescue yet, and runs off to rescue Miyong. She does "CPR minus mouth to mouth...XD" but mouth to mouth isn't really an effective part of CPR and is not included in current procedures – the chest compressions make all the real difference. I don't know if that protocol was already in place in 2012, but if not, Jack was ahead of his time. Good on him!)

Rim negotiates a little more, while Quartz and Obsidian reunite.

Rim dissolved the snake and landed on a part of the snake in front o it's face. "I apologize, and I am deeply sorry for the fate of your brethren, however we were not the ones to do it. Though if I were to meet them, they would not last a second. I to am a guardian of sorts, I hunt down people who kill and steal. I am not an evil person." Quartz grabbed Obsidian's hand. "Obsidian! Can you hear me" Obsidian's vision wavered and he saw a figure in front of him...it looked vaguely familiar. "Quartz?" he asked thickly. The dragon nodded and all hostility vanished. The waves stopped and he unwrapped his tail from around them. "I see. Thank you. Remember me. If I ever see you again I will consider you my allies. Let me get that pearl for you and I'll meet you at the shore."

Several takeaways from this, including 1) that rim is a cop, boo, 2) that picking nostalgic taylor swift songs for the playlist is hard because so many of them are ubiquitous enough to not REALLY work as nostalgia-triggers, but "ours" REALLY hits, right down to the memory of that cringe as hell video where her Cool Alternative Boyfriend Her Dad Disapproves Of is... in the us military??? 3) that the problem with this adventure isn't that the ideas are BAD, necessarily, only that there are way too many ideas! I would say the sea dragon is more compelling the pendants if I had to choose one, but the pendants are the thing that's directly relevant to the future of the story, so...??!! I guess I could include one of these stories as a Lost Years feature, but that feels iffy, 4) that we came SO CLOSE to getting that damn pearl in the way Jack rather than Augustine envisioned. In fact Jack straight up narrates Dracus getting the pearl!!!! It was the wild west out there!!

I narrate Obsidian standing up and Jack replies with "Stood up? We are still in the water...XD" This is a certified 'bro is onto nothing' moment, how did Spark give CPR while floating in water?? I don't think that's possible without at least like a flotation device??

Anyway, Dracus shows up and has a cool new twink form, which is stupid but completely to be expected. Rim explains that his deal with Dracus entails Dracus having the right to kill Rim if he feels he's fucking up, which is actually a really cool idea and works better as a Chekhov's Gun for Rim dying than a stable plot solution, but Rim dies under pretty unrelated circumstances so let's not worry about that.

I rip off Discworld in a pretty lame way – 'where mass goes' during a shapeshifter transformation is a profoundly lame question in a non-comedic (not intentionally comedic) work of fiction like Extranei, because the very easy answer is 'IT'S MAGIC, WHO CARES' - but it's okay because we get another one of those subtle little Rimquartz moments. Aw <3

"Yes. There are many like me, who can shift their shapes between their guardian animal and human. We have the choice to walk among you." Rim nodded in reply to Lorcan. "I thought you might of been some form of Asian lung, apparently not. We're Extranei" "Interesting," Quartz said thoughtfully. "How does shape shifting work then? A sea serpent must have a much larger mass than a human, where does that go?" Normally Rim would have veen annoyed, but it was hard to dislike Quartz.

It's a pretty personal question. To Jack's credit, he gives a pretty good "shut up, it's magic" coded answer:

Dracus looked at her, with piercing silver eyes and began to speak. "Our mass mixes with our aura, a practically weightless glow that surrounds everything."

Oh, hey, I did put Call Me Maybe on the playlist after all. Thank God. But "Good Time" came out after "Call Me Maybe," so it had no business at all coming first.

Anyway, Rim thinks ominous thoughts about shapeshifters and their physics, Quartz glances at him in a worried manner because glancing at boys in a worried manner is the most fun an Extranei girl can have without glancing at girls in a worried manner, and Dracus has "three bags of chips, a whole chocolate bar, and a leg of chicken", which is like... not an unreasonable amount of food. Hey, wait, we're doing Rimquartz! Quartz, maybe he seems different because he's narrowly avoided death twice in one day, ever think of that?

Quartz turned to Rim. "What's happening?" she asked. "You seem...well, different." Rim hesitated. "A year ago, there was a crim hiding in a forest, and I was looking for him wih some soldiers, he had a gun," He whispered. "We came close to an object, it was glowing, the soldiers went to take when we were attacked by a huge tiger, the soldiers, they shot it, it turned into a boy before it died and tried to say something, and then it faded away," He swallowed, the horror of it trickling back into his memory. He hadn't like it at all then, and it was even worse now. "Oh." Quartz was unsure of what to answer to that. "Sorry I asked."

Go, girl, give us nothing! Also, AT LAST, we have resolved the pearl situation, which is good because you'd think that, if we were planning to get it back Dracus-ways, there would have been SOME HINT OF NARRATION INDICATING THAT. But what do I know.

TOESOCKSQUEEN: (Rass wants us to find the soul pearl a different way. Let's just say Dracus gave us a Dragon blessing and was protecting the rare dragon egg.) DRAGONODSESSED: Okey-dokey. I didn't know that ;)

I don't know if the wink is supposed to indicate that we talked it over at school and I'm pretending we didn't for Moopy's sake, or that I'm just being nice. It's anyone's guess. See, I can forget things about middle school!

Rim drops his line AGAIN, a melancholic feeling comes over the beach, and Quartz completely fails to play ball. I'm sure that what Rim was planning to tell Quartz about was something convoluted involving magic lore, but I wonder if I was half-convinced Rim was gearing up to confess his love. I think at this point in my life I was getting teased by Jack and Augustine about having a crush on Moopy, which I don't think I ever did. I mean, maybe a little? But certainly not moreso than I had a crush on Augustine. Pick your battles, guys.

The song changes to "Here's to never growing up" by Avril Lavigne, which is a song I have a lot of fondness and nostalgia for but came out in 2013, *not* 2012. Sigh.

Rim looked at his feet. "But how am I supposed to tell her about it?" He asked, half to her, half to himself. Obsidiabn glanced at Quartz. She was changing again. Quartz looked out onto the ocean. The wind was building, and waves crashed over the shore. "G'bye," Quartz muttered, distracted.

She keeps ditching him to talk to Spark. Another lull falls over the story – Moopy disappears before Rim can say or fail to say anything to Quartz, Augustine remains absent, Obsidian takes a nap, Ky and Lupus commit to frolicking on the sandy dunes, and Quartz approaches Spark for their famed field trip into town. There are very interesting Quartz character things coming up, but we will tackle those next storyline and I – to my regret – will go back to doing my actual job. 12:22 letters done? We can only hope.

And Die Young by Kesha is on. It still goes hard. It's a shame about the circumstances. Some good things from your young years (like Adventures of the Extranei) are enriched by context, and some (like the Kesha discography) only make you sad and a little sick to consider.

[kirnet]

Review under the cut bc I needed to get it out of my system. Spoilers for this and also for Cowboy Bebop, because this woman brought a good story into this shit and I need to protect it.

I have been looking forward to this book for years of it being on my TBR, of hearing booktubers and readers and fantasy enthusiasts rave about this book. It seems like everyone has read this book, so I went into this assuming it would be an easy 4 stars if not 5.

What a disappointment.

I’ll start with the positives, because there are a few. The cover is phenomenal, props to the illustrators (because many of these versions are stunning) for convincing me to pick this piece of shit up. I loved the idea of the world, of all of the different Londons and magic systems. Splitting them up by colors, gray London being our fugly foggy London, white London being desaturated etc were all really cool, and they did feel like distinct locations with their own cultures and histories. I liked the opening with the king and Kel, and I think it did a lot of good character and setting introduction work. I like the ideas of the characters and plot, but not the execution. The prose itself is mediocre but inoffensive, not bad. I have definitely read worse. Yeah… That’s about it.

My issues:

- The Characters: They ranged from boring to unbearable. I wanted to love Delilah so bad. A cutthroat cutpurse with dreams of piracy is on paper, right up my alley. But she, on paper, made me want to drive my head into a wall. You could tell with every word that Schwab thought that she was sooooo cool and sooo edgy and just the coolest, while in reality every fucking sentence made me hate her more. I like complex unlikable flawed female characters, but I can not stand annoying stupid characters whose decisions are framed as genius because the author loves them too much. I did love her motivations and drive for adventure, and some of her lines and actions were cool, but she was just too violent and edgy to be taken seriously. She really read like a 13 year old’s original do not steal self insert oc. Someone who realistically is used to survival will know when to pick fights and when to let things lie, when something is a trap, how to outmaneuver stronger opponents. She doesn’t, yet we are told that she is sooooo cool isn’t she the coolest. Kel was wet toast, he wasn’t awful but he certainly wasn’t interesting. I liked his relationship with Rhy, I liked his complex feelings around his “parents,” and I really liked the fact that he smuggled trinkets and felt a sense of connection to them! Unfortunately he was just really boring when it came to magic? Which is exactly the opposite of what it should be?? I did not feel any chemistry between the two of them. Rhy was fine, he’s a character archetype I really like bisexual royal whore), but I didn’t care for him enough to get invested in the stakes of his character.

-The Villains: I can’t even remember the twin’s names. They were one dimensional mustache twirling nothing. Which is fine, I guess, honestly it would probably be worse if there was more of them. Holland was easily my favorite character in the book. He’s ruthless and efficient but not comically evil. He has motive, backstory, some tragedy, an actual threatening presence. I don’t like him enough to continue the series though.

- The Pacing: Bad. Awful. The plot does not start until over 100 pages in to a 400 page book. I praised the opening scene because I do think it’s well done, and then new opening scenes just kept going. And going. While I understand that this is a world and magic system that requires some explanation, Schwab manages to explain the same fucking concepts over and over. I understand that Kel has one black eye. I understand that the different Londons have different magic. I understand magic has a verbal component. Trust me to follow along. It is such a slog to get to the actual plot, and by then I was so soured that I couldn’t stand the rest of it. The story is not innovative, not exciting, not meaningful, not precious enough to justify such a slow buildup. There were many scenes that could have been edited together to be more economical, but this is a book where you can tell that Schwab is too obsessed with her own creation to kill her darlings. The actual plot is then dragged down by Lila and Kel having to attempt to use any combined brain cells. With their backgrounds, a smuggler and a pickpocket, I was expecting some cool thieving, some rogueish cunning schemes, four dimensional plots and magic and a looming sense of danger! It was mostly them just getting jumped in various locations. Honestly, I can’t even complain about the McGuffin because I don’t remember enough about it even though I just finished the book. I have heard similar criticism of the pacing in A Secret Life so I think this might be an issue with her. Schwab’s writing and sentence structure also doesn’t have that Oomf needed for fights and high stress scenes. Honestly, it reads very politely British.

- The ending (and the stakes): Speaking of killing your darlings! <spoiler>Side characters that we don’t really care about die in this book, but again, I don’t know these people and I don’t want to.</spoiler> The pacing and the characters removed any stakes that I felt in the story, however, there was a moment in the ending that I thought was gonna turn it all around. I sincerely thought that Schwab had planned this all along, that I had fallen into her trap and that I would leave this book being a fan. <spoiler> I really thought she was gonna kill Rhy! I really thought she was going to leave Lila in White London and Kel and black, and then we would have has a brutal dual POV fight in the next book for them to survive and reunite. Not that I trust her to do that well, but it would have got me to pick up the next book just to see what would happen. I would have respected the move to actually hurt her characters. But, no. Rhy lives. Kel and Lila remain in Red London. I’m not sure what the fuck the climax was but the power of friendship I guess? Or the power of cool rock? The power of the spoken word? I could not tell you. It had a nice happy ending with the characters all laughing and chatting and it pissed me off!! </spoiler> Maybe this changes going on in the rest of the series, but as I see it now Schwab is not dedicated enough to her story or her characters to actually take the hard routes.

- Cowboy Bebop : I love Cowboy Bebop. I instantly could tell that Schwab did, too. That, and ATLA. For ATLA, many of the magic fight scenes with the elements read like she was imagining the show, that she wanted it to have this really cool mental image, but all it succeeded in doing me was reminding me that ATLA is a better story. Same with Bebop. <spoiler> Lila has two eyes, one glass and one fake, and they are two subtly different shades of brown. Hmm. Spike Spiegel has two eyes, one cybernetic and one real, both two subtly different shades of brown. This is an obvious set up that Lila is antari, OMG! Isn’t she so special! But it is also an incredibly recognizable and frankly distracting reference to Bebop. Spike’s eye serves a symbolic and narrative purpose, he sees the past in one and the present in the other. Never the future. It perfectly sums up his history and his character flaws, that he’s too obsessed with a past that he can’t let go and revenge to actually work towards a life. It kills him in the end! </spoiler> Lila lacks that depth, that significance, that honestly iconic status. It’s just a reference, which would be fine if it a) had the same amount of narrative AND symbolic weight and b) if Schwab wasn’t already so seemingly obsessed with hearing herself talk. Wear your inspirations on your sleeve, take ideas and make them your own, but your story needs to be able to stand on it’s own legs. I know that this is just mad raving, and that it truly is not that serious, but it wilted any last good grace I had for this book or series. Maybe she should try being original, because when she is it actually works! To sum up, watch the Hbomberguy video about RWBY, as it literally has this exact fucking issue.

Was this book actually awful? No, I have read worse and worse has been written. There are redeeming qualities, but the disappointment I felt, that sinking feeling with every further page, made me hate it more than an awful but ultimately thoughtless read. Perhaps if I had read it when I was younger I would have been more attached to the characters, but as it is now I can’t stand them. I don’t plan on continuing the series, and I’m not sure I’ll give any of her further works a try. I can understand why people would love this, I can see the appeal, I also wanted to enjoy it! But I didn’t. Sigh.

I am going to WIN against this book I will BEAT IT

[luthienne]

What exactly do you hate about the hobbit movies?

in my opinion, they were a blatant money grab by a greedy production studio w seemingly not a single person onboard with a love for or commitment to the source material.

it’s a small book stretched out into three films for no narrative purpose but for the money. from interviews by the cast it seems like no one even bothered to read the book. it created a fandom that cares more about shipping characters that barely interact than they do about tolkien’s actual story or message. the frame rate in cinema made it annoying to watch, the amount of cgi takes away any feeling of authenticity, there simply did not need to be an added superfluous villain (azog or bolg) to fight—that was never the point of the book.

you can just tell that there was no love or care put into these films the way you could so easily see it the lotr films. love in the way it was handled by the actors, by the directors, by the screenwriters, by the casting team, by the make-up team, by the weta team, by the weapons and props team, etc. the hobbit films have nothing subtle or artful. the cgi characters look straight out of a video game.

on top of these issues, the casting felt lazy and unimaginative. oh another vaguely angular white person? great, cast them as an elf. never mind that they don’t exude anything particularly ethereal or otherworldly or elvish. oh great martin freeman is cast to play an iconic character as … himself bc that’s all he ever does.

and every time someone says, try just watching the “tolkien cut” (a fan-edit of the three films on youtube cut down to one film) i just want to point out that everything irredeemable about the films still exists in the fan-edit. sure it cuts out some of the unnecessary filler but the exorbitant waste of money on cgi that looks like it would fit within a video game, the poor writing, the poor characterizations, the absence of a framework that would create something cohesive and compelling, endlessly badly executed green screens (sir ian mckellen himself admitted to crying on-set bc of those conditions)—these are all still the beating heart of the films. even the soundtrack feels derivative of the lotr films and not in an organic way. it feels like the composer was not given a cohesive story to orchestrate.

also the cast of original lotr trilogy were endearing in all of their bts footage. the hobbit cast just comes across as crass. on the set of a film based on a children’s book. there’s so much more to characters like thranduil than his fandom potential to be sassy or slutty for a fandom that cares more about shipping him with thorin or bard than they do about the injustice of finally getting to see mirkwood and wood-elves adapted to a live-action film and getting. that

editing to add that i forgot one of the biggest points: production massively violated workers' rights during filming of the hobbit. ugh

[tobi-smp]

I’m still catching up on all the drama lol so maybe you’ve already mentioned this, but I think a big part of the disc war discussion that always gets left out is that yeah, maybe it wasn’t Canonically C!Dream Stalking C!Tommy at that time, maybe it was just them goofing around and doing a Funny Bit — but regardless of if that’s true, it’s canon now! It’s part of the lore! It’s been referenced many times by c!Tommy and other characters as an actual part of disc duo’s history. I think it’s fair to want to have a post just talking about how smart cc!dream is, bc yeah he’s super impressive and I think there’s a fair argument to be made that that moment was just cc!Dream and not acting-Dream (at the time). It’s fuzzy in the early days of when exactly people started Acting As Characters more consciously and to what extent, but it’s clear now that those events are considered canon to those characters and (even if it’s possibly in retrospect and not the original intention, like so many things in the dsmp) they’re definitely part of the lore. So all the people arguing that it isn’t canon or it’s stupid to think it would be are entirely missing the point, in my opinion. It’s not really a matter of if it was or wasn’t lore Then, it’s a matter of if it’s lore Now. I don’t think op was really at fault here, but I also don’t think it was silly of you to assume it was a lore post at first glance.

Context: [Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4]

here’s the thing that people don’t understand !

they are acting even when they Aren’t telling giant robust stories. smps have Always been about roleplay, literally always. tommy played a main villain on smp earth, it wasn’t earth shattering lore but It Was Acting. smp earth Has Lore, you could lay out the history of what happened on the server like a story if you wanted to.

likewise, just look at Any of tommy’s minecraft mod videos. all of them have characters and narratives, and that fact doesn’t change just because they’re Silly.

in the early days of the dream smp the disc war Wasn’t intended to be a part of an on-going narrative about abuse because that narrative hadn’t been written yet. but It Was Intended To Be A Part Of The Conflict On The Dream Smp.

nobody was Actually angry with anybody in this, nobody was Actually waging war for anything. the real human being dream was taken was not trying to punish the real human person tommy innit for breaking his rules. they were Playing Up Their Characters On The Dream Smp to Act Out A Conflict For Their Audience. this was acting !!

and at the time the “bit” was that dream was Overly Obsessed with winning the war. That Was The Joke. he was called obsessed and called tommy’s stalker by other streamers at the time, they Played Up how creepy he was being On Purpose Because It Was Meant To Be Funny. that Was the bit, self evidently faljksdjklafds

that’s why cc!dream spent so much effort doing it ! because it was fun and because it was funny ! what I said Was The Intended Takeaway Of The Joke At The Time.

which is part of why it’s so Interesting that it works so well in hindsight, and why it’s Impressive that they continued to play into that dynamic that they’d established so early so Well and so realistically.

the disc war Is canon. it simply has to be with how integrated into the rest of the series it is. it has been actively acknowledged as a real thing that fully happened with in the lore and between these two characters through every single arc. every single one of them calls back to this event, both in a broad sense and in specific events that happened. Objectively the disc war is canon.

and Yes, people are reading into it now in ways that wouldn’t have been intended at the time, but that’s how Stories work. you learn more about the characters, their motivations, and their relationships together as we get more information and watch more events unfold. the fact that This story wasn’t planned out from the beginning doesn’t Change that.

nobody Has to talk about the lore if they don’t want to, but you can’t just strip away the context of a piece of media just because you don’t Like that context. objectively the disc war is much Sillier piece of the dream smp’s lore, but it is still a Part of it.