#turns out there’s been a central plot since the get go that i was simply too distracted by vibes to notice

[peachcitt]

me: listening to tma again will just make me sad and frustrated especially in s2 because jon makes every bad decision possible

s2 jon: (spies on his coworkers’ houses)

me: fucking freak. tell me more

[helenofblackthorns]

this is your invitation to talk about all your two theories :))) thoughts on janus? the role of the princes of hell? pleaseeee feed me

thank you for this opportunity anon, as it turns out I have far more to say on this than I thought (buckle up for a massive amount of yapping)

firstly, Janus. He's an interesting character given all we know about him, but he also feels very straightforward. At this point he is being presented as an antagonist, a very central one at that, but in the scheme of things he seems very minor. He is nowhere near the same level of threat as the other antagonistic forces that we know await us in TWP, which brings his role in things into question. Normally, a tsc antagonist has some connection to the main character(s) and there is a specific reason why they become entangled (eg. Valentine is Clary's father, Mortmain created Tessa, Malcolm needed the Blackthorns to raise Annabel etc etc). Janus as a villain however has no obvious connection to any of the twp mains, and it's the total opposite when it comes to Ash despite the fact his motivations are known. He is focused around Clary, Jace, and the other tmi mains and given what we know its hard to see why he would come into conflict with Kit, Dru or Ty. There is the parallels between him and Livvy, but this doesn't seem antagonistic to me, he just represents a possible future for her (as Magnus said in gotsm, if she does not do great things, she will do terrible things).

All this is to say I think Janus is a massive red herring and not the person we should be worrying about. I think his relevance as a antagonist is going to come from his alliance to the Seelie Queen, who's motivations we know nothing about. She has been entangling herself in matters ever since she requested their audience in City of Ashes and we do not know why. It's especially obvious she's up to something when you compare her relevance in the modern timeline to the historical one, where I don't think she mentioned at all. Some of her actions are also suspicious, such as how she went out of her way to ensure Meliorn was the faerie representative. It's a plot point that gets resolved with the reveal she's working with Sebastian, but Sebastian was dead when she did it and I doubt even she would have known Lilith was going to raise him from the dead. This implies she had different plans that she then abandoned to aid Sebastian, because he could give her something she wanted; Ash. Ash clearly holds more significance to her than simply being her child as the Seelie Queen has only ever had two children, Auraline and Ash, and they were born over 200 years apart. There is clearly intention behind this, there is something that both the Unseelie King and Sebastian have in common that the Seelie Queen wants her children to have. What her plans are, we probably won't know until twp, although there may be hints in the Better in Black short story.

Like the Seelie Queen, the Princes of Hell are also likely up to something big behind the scenes. The last time we've seen from any of them was in 2010 with tlbotw; they're entirely absent from tda. This is strange as it makes tda the only series where they do not make an appearance or play a role in the story (side note I do include Lilith as a Prince of Hell even though she's technically not). Which is extremely suspicious and it's very likely that not the case, and that it'll be revealed that they have been influencing things in twp. Thule especially is something I think they're involved in, for a number of reasons. We're told the thing that altered the timeline was a powerful demon giving Lilith the strength to kill Clary, and CC said on tumblr the demon is one who is associated with Lilith in mythology. At the time (2018) CC was very mysterious, but we know enough about the PoH now to make a very educated guess that it was Sammael. Also, it's always struck me as odd that there was such a massive passing of time between Annabel & Ash coming to Thule and Emma & Julian following them. Every other time someone has gone through the portal, time has passed more or less the same and if there was discrepancy it's very minor, nowhere near the years that Ash was in Thule for. I would not be surprised if someone (Belphegor?) manipulated the portal to ensure Ash was in Thule for a certain amount of time before Emma and Julian could interfere with anything. Why the PoH would want any of this I have no idea, except poor Ash is seemingly a pawn in their plans (again) (free him for all these evil plans hasn't he been through enough?)

There is also Lucifer, who is by far the most mysterious tsc character and we know next to nothing about him. However, in the PoH art series CJ did, it does say on Belial's page that a) he claims to have convinced Lucifer to rebel and b) he is sometimes called the "father of Lucifer." A lot of the information in these arts come from preexisting Jewish & Christian mythology and can be easily googled, but that doesn't seem to be the case here. Either it's more obscure or CC made it up herself which is slightly terrifying because what does that mean. is Nate losing the title of Tessa's worst brother 137 years after his death?? ig we'll find out in 2026

[samobservessonic]

Next, we move onto a Knuckles story that I’m much more glad has run for six parts than I was the last six part Knuckles story, with the shock(?) reveal from last time that Nack has betrayed the Chaotix to the new Metallix army in exchange for cash. I assume this was arranged prior to the Chaotix getting the jump on Knuckles at the start of this arc? So Knuckles was probably an added bonus for Nack

No one is surprised to learn that the Metallix aren’t keeping their word to Nack. What’s the most interesting here is the hint that Nack is a tech guy in StC. He’s hardly been established beyond “traitor” here, but we will be seeing more of what he can do in future

Even here, while it doesn’t help him, we see that Nack was prepared for a potential betrayal and brought a shrinking gun hidden in his hat. That’s kind of Nack’s thing in StC - he’s got weapons and stuff that he can shrink and grow. We’ll definitely be seeing more of that later

It does paint the picture of how much money means to Nack as well, if he assumed that the Metallix were probably going to betray him, but went along with this on the slim chance that they wouldn’t

Here you go everyone - Knuckles with a gun

Had he not been struck down, Nack could’ve even walked away with a victory today, since his weapon does manage to wipe out all of the Metallixes!

And since the Chaotix are the good guys, they even take him with them as they make their escape

That’s the last we see of them for this story, as on the next page, Knuckles is being dropped off home by the now recovered Omni-Viewer. He rightly assumes that there’s more to the Metallixes’ behaviour than what Robotnik’s ordering them to do and oh boy, we’re coming up to that plot point!

Eh, maybe Nack wouldn’t have been okay after all, since it turns out that the Metallixes were faking it. That’s actually really clever - they’re robots, so a display of bravado means nothing to them. The best way for them to win the fight was to simply pretend they were beaten, so their opponents would leave without causing them unnecessary damage. You don’t normally see this outcome in a comic aimed at young teenagers, since the goal is often to get to the cool fights as quickly as possible. But them wanting to avoid a fight just makes the most sense

Also, they’ve got an evil Omni-Viewer now. They can go anywhere in time and space, easily making them the most dangerous enemies in the comic. I’m also chuckling nervously, because now I have to confess that I’m a casual Doctor Who fan at best (shout out to the Ninth Doctor, love that guy!) and I’m probably not going to pick up on all the Doctor Who inspiration that went into these guys. But trust me when I say that it’s there

To hammer home this point, we end this story on this awesome establishing shot of the Brotherhood of Metallix! Once again, Elson absolutely sells this. You can feel what a massive threat this is and I’m sure there were no shortage of kids writing in asking to see more of this story But for now, it’s over and it looks like next time we’ll be getting that Knuckles & Tails story that was allured to in the main story last issue Well, now that it’s finished, I only have good things to say about this story. Despite being a backup story, it established some very central themes and gave us the biggest threat in this comic so far. If you were wondering how they’d hit the ground running after the S3&K arc, well, this is it! A lot of concepts from the game were brought into the fold in one fell swoop and honestly, for me, it worked really well. While I’d have had no problem with Nack getting a separate introduction arc, I like him as the traitor to the Chaotix and there are a lot of places you can take him from there. The Chaotix themselves are going to become big players in StC from here on out as well. Y’know, I do wonder if SEGA gave a push to StC and Archie to work in the Chaotix after Knuckles Chaotix came out or if both comics just decided having more game characters in the mix was a good idea. Because, I’ll be honest, if not for the Chaotix being in StC, I probably wouldn’t have heard of them prior to Sonic Heroes. Knuckles Chaotix was not a game anyone really talked about when I was a kid and I wasn't online until a lot later But where Archie kept the Chaotix as Knuckles’s support cast, StC actually used them mostly separately to Knuckles, adding another point to their “StC was accidentally right about something to do with the Chaotix” tally. This isn’t to say we’re never going to get more stories with Knuckles interacting with them, but we’re also going to be getting a lot of them doing their own thing. One of the biggest arcs I remember with these guys teams them up with Sonic, not Knuckles, as he gets stuck in the Special Zone for a while

I’m getting ahead of myself there. For now, we have a solid arc that leaves us with a lot of potential in future, as StC refuses to wind down the stakes on their way into the dry period of getting new Sonic games

[blvcklizard]

So, I've decided to recycle an old theory of mine, because I actually believe in that part of it.

I think Sigma isn't actually born from the book, he was simply given amnesia by the page. (Now, I don't doubt that the book can create people. I just don't trust that Sigma is.)

I see how that might be related to other things, but it's a little weird to me that Sigma's age is stated to be "unknown" in his character card. Like, if I remember correctly we know that according to Fyodor, he was created three years ago. And sure, the "unknown" is probably referring to his physical appearance, so what about the other parts of his info that are "unknown"?

It's his birthday and ability name. And yes, that makes sense, since those are two things that are taken from the irl authors, and Sigma isn't one.

Except that if that were true, why not make something up? He obviously has a birthday (even if I'm wrong and it happens to be the day he was written down) and ability name, and if Sigma is just "Sigma", no more and no less than the character we've seen, there is no reason why those couldn't just have been made up. Like, neither of these informations are plot relevant, and while it gives him this aura of mystery and unfamiliarity, there doesn't seem to be a real reason beyond that.

Because here's the thing, the character we know as "Sigma" doesn't really exist. For all I know, it's actually been stated that Sigma isn't his real name, but what's giving it away even more so is his ability. Correct me if I'm wrong but the only "independent" ability user (excluding family members that have an ability for plot reasons, such as Tachihara's brother for example) in the series that isn't based on an author is Nemo, and I'm not counting him because he only appears in a light novel. I can't think of a reason why Sigma would be the exception here.

I see that this argument is rather weak in light of the actual theory, since just because he's probably an author too doesn't mean he can't be born from the book, but let's keep looking at his ability. It's, said simply, flawed. Taking only the bare base into consideration, he can't use it for his (or whoever is using him, poor Sigma) benefit without giving his enemies the same advantage. And like, yeah, it makes sense, there are very few abilities in this manga that don't have any weaknesses/ties to conditions, but if the DOA had the opportunity to create a perfect character, why wouldn't they get rid of this? The only explanations I could think of are that giving their enemies information is part of their plan (and I'll say it as it is, I'm not smart enough to judge whether this is true, because I can't imagine it is, but I may very well be overlooking some stuff) or that they couldn't give him a different ability because of the plot rule (which makes even less sense to me). The information exchange just seems like more risk than Fyodor would usually be willing to take, but maybe that's just me.

On a similar note, if you think about it, the role Sigma played on the DOA's plan... is ridiculously small. He's strong, and yet they threw him away after one move, and technically he had been meant to do even less, as Fyodor told him not to pick a fight with the Hunting Dogs (although I can very well imagine this was a reverse psychology type of thing since he knew Sigma would do it anyway). My point is, there are so many ways you could use a person that's created from the book, and none of them apply to Sigma in the slightest.

Okay, and why tf would the DOA mess with Sigma's memories?

1. As Fyodor pointed out, it's a power boost. Assuming that his personality didn't drastically change, Sigma would be a lot weaker without his wishes and despair driving him. (I like how this is turning against the DOA now, but let's see how this proceeds.)

2. It might have been a practice run. Overwriting memories is like, a central part of the DOA's plan and I don't see Fyodor as someone who likes taking risks. So if they were going to power up Sigma a bit anyway, this was a perfect opportunity.

Who is Sigma then?

...no idea. In the original theory I said that he might be Mishima, and while the possibility exists, I don't think it has any more base than literally any other suggestion (aside from how similar their names are, to be fair). His color pallette also fits the russian characters, so maybe he's someone else entirely.

[unganseylike]

ok so re: your tags on that post about the trc covers and adam / blue’s “books”

i went back and forth on the same thing (adam and blue and trb and bllb)

but i eventually decided that based on A) adam’s major character development in bllb (whereas in trb he remained somewhat static internally, even though externally he changed a lot) and B) the POV breakdowns, with adam having the most POV page time out of the four in bllb, that bllb is adam’s “book”

in the interest of cool discussion, can i ask why you consider trb his book?

oh i love this discussion thank u for sending ask! its been a sec since ive read books (ok actually just over a year so not really) so forgive me if I misremember details..

if i didnt have to choose just one character for the books and instead was considering most main characters for the book i think:

trb- gansey blue adam; tdt- ronan maybe adam; bllb- blue adam; trk- gansey blue

what do i define as most main character? Idek its kinda vibes and whose plotlines contribute most to the central plot. this is typically going to be blue and gansey to me because the overall plot of trc starts and ends with their evolving relationship to each other (true love and/or killing). but maybe thats bc im biased and love gansey and blue most; im sure fans who are really into pynch and also adam+ ronan separately would see them as most central.

anyways so i agree that adam is a centerpoint of both trb and bllb. thats an interesting point about the most pov time and he definitely gets lots of development in bllb.

but to me bllb is blues book- she even has her name in the title! the other titles kinda correspond to characters too, with dream thieves obviously referencing ronan and raven king referencing ganseys kingliness and quest. trb is ambiguous and to me is a reference to the story from blues pov and and introduction to her world. anyways, the main plot of bllb imo is the search for maura and kinda the overall exploration of cabeswater/related magical areas/caves as a result, which ultimately leads to the demon plot and thus ganseys foretold death which is of course the overarching plot. so its blues family and her drive to search for her mother that progresses the series plot forward. we also get to spend a lot time with blue alone and with different groups of people and see how she interacts with new people, all contributing to her character growth in this book. plus her relationship w gansey becomes definitively romantic love, which again is necessary for the series plot and its tagline. although adam grows as a character (what i recall- learning to use his connection w cabeswater, the lead up to the trial w his father, being able accept his friends help, pynch), i dont think it contributes as much to the main plot of bllb or the series overall.

Trb is the hardest to assign to me. I do think there are great arguments for blue or adam or gansey. of course thats partially because they are the pov characters. i think its more between blue and adam though, because they are really the ones introducing us to the trc world as theyre both outsiders. and of course they are kinda in a relationship— even though gansey is her ~true love~ adam is actually the one that leads blue to her involvement w the boys. i’d say blue is more of a “main character” than adam in this book simply because it opens with her monologue and her knowledge of ganseys death plus she probably gets more pov time. but main character doesnt equal their both to me necessarily. we see so much of adam through others eyes but he turns all of their beliefs of him on their head when he takes matters into his own hands and goes to cabeswater. i dont remember much about first reading the book (i cant believe it was like 10 years ago now!) but i remember being surprised when adam did that- i actually got a little nauseous. it was not what i expected for him and i realized that his actions were going to change what i had expected to be the clear cut plot of the series. it was no longer just this drawn out plot for blue to kiss and kill gansey, and adams bargain sets the stage for so much of the rest of the story! to me its really his defining moment. so overall i think trb is adams book solely because hes the star of its conclusion; we realize we dont know adam as well as we thought and neither do his friends, but we know his actions will have consequences that will affect everyone and everything.

but i think i could be persuaded in either direction for which book is whose, i can easily see the arguments in the other direction. and i actually love that its blue and adam’s plots that we are debating- i love their relationship and their parallels :)

Let me know what you think!

[butterflydm]

wot reread: overall view from LoC through KoD

spoilers through knife of dreams

Fav arcs:

Rand dealing with LTT. This is kinda The Big Arc for Rand in the Jordan-penned books and it is also the arc that lands the best... when it actually gets screen-time. We see his growing worry over how clear LTT’s voice is becoming, his worry that LTT might seize saidin from him. It’s a rollercoaster a lot of the time, though mostly he’s going down and down, but it’s intense and dramatic. And it feels like we really effectively build up to the scene in KoD where “Lews Therin” does seize control for a while. Main problem with this storyline is simply that Rand gets minimized as a character in the last few books (though not as much as Nynaeve does), so we don’t see enough of this on-screen.

Egwene becoming a Real Amyrlin and not just a figurehead. The most significant difference between Rand and Egwene’s leadership arcs, I would say, is that Rand is thrown in the deep end and has to learn ‘on the job’ while Egwene gets extensive (albeit unorthodox) training before she gets put into her leadership position. But her storyline throughout these books stays interesting all the way through.

Black Ajah Hunters; take two! Elaida accidentally starts off one of the best subplots in this second half of the series. I LOVE the Black Ajah Hunters subplot. Seaine and Pevara, especially, are both great characters and it has a lot of interesting twists and turns. In a set of books where I felt like most plotlines were being stretched out too much or shouldn’t exist at all, I would have been fine with more Black Ajah Hunters! scenes.

Elayne and Aviendha’s journey to becoming first-sisters. I am absolutely on the Avilayne train for the show, but I do also love pretty much everything about their relationship in the books. This relationship has a depth and a complexity to it that the VAST majority of the romantic relationships only WISH they had (and is more romantic too). If the first five books kinda centered around Mat x Rand as the central relationship I cared about, the latter five Jordan books center around Elayne x Aviendha for me.

Elayne dealing with politics in Andor. Genuinely enjoyed so much of this! Politics & intrigue. Sieges. Plots and treachery. It was such a breath of fresh air in the last two books, especially. I was always relieved when I got to an Elayne chapter.

Least fav arcs (or themes):

Perrin and the Shaido. Perrin’s whole meandering plotline is a mess. The Shaido should NOT have been an issue after Dumai’s Well, period. They were absolutely played out at that point and it was kinda ridiculous that they apparently managed to survive yet another complete bloodbath of a battle that they were the losers of, after already going through that once with the Battle of Cairhien. And then Perrin deciding to partner with... the Seanchan? Instead of getting back into contact with Rand’s forces? You accomplished your mission, Perrin! Masema is Right There. You and Rand don’t have to play at being enemies any more! This is all a result of there just not being Enough Plot for Perrin, I’d say. I think it was @essie007 who suggested we should give Perrin the Seanchan plot with Tuon, while Mat goes back to Caemlyn and actually gets to be the General for the Forces of Light for a worthwhile period of time. Since Perrin ends up slogging through a Seanchan plot anyway, consolidate and give us only ONE Seanchan team-up plotline in this section of the books.

Mat and Tylin. Poorly framed. Turning rape into comedy is always a bad choice, and I don’t care if Jordan’s intention was to go “look at the role reversal” because way too much of the world doesn’t care about women being sexually assaulted either, so it unfortunately doesn’t even make an effective point about how reversing the ‘typical’ genders can flip PoV. That it ends with Mat deciding that actually it was All Okay and He’ll Genuinely Miss Her is... particularly awful and has been used by so many people to say it actually wasn’t sexual assault at all.

Mat and Tuon. The Joy Of Talking Yourself Into Being In Love With a Slaver. Will always hate that Mat was given this as his endgame pairing. He deserved so much better. I could pick a random character from the books out of a hat and they would probably be a better match for him and a happier ending. Ugh. Featuring such hits as: a. Consent King Mat no longer cares about consent and thinks that Tuon is ‘more beautiful than ever’ when she is actively enslaving people; b. Tuon turning genuine gifts from Mat into ways to hurt innocent people because she is a trashfire of a person; c. Mat putting in 110% effort while Tuon passively accepts it as her due because she’s the One Real Human In The World (the only person who can never be non-person’d, from her PoV). I think more than Tuon herself (who had the potential to be interesting), I really despise what this relationship turns Mat into. Which is a common problem with Jordan’s romances! Same thing happens with Faile and Perrin. Their relationship turns Perrin into such an annoying person. (#AreTheStraightsOK?)

The ‘Actually, Slavery Isn’t So Bad And Makes Life Better For Everyone Else’ Seanchan-related narrative arguments that we start to see, especially in CoT & KoD. This is the point in the books, I guess, where Jordan wanted to start making it clear that We Are Going To Ally With The Slavers (since Rand wasn’t able to drive them away in TPoD) and so he needs to buff and shine them up to attempt to make this entire concept less vomit-inducing. And I guess this also kinda goes along with the increasing vibe in the series that Love and Prophecy are both also kinds of leashes/servitudes and that it is Right and Good to submit yourself to this kind of slavery (plus we also keep having Bad Women Who Deserve To Be Slaves due likely to Jordan’s own Can’t Kill A Woman issue, and it all leaves a very bad taste in my mouth).

Rituals involving women Must Contain Nudity. *frustrated sigh*

The ‘love triangle’ between Perrin-Faile-Berelain aka a supposedly saavy ruler spends... 6 books (?!?) desperately chasing after a married man who is desperately in love with his wife and was never going to ‘pick’ her in a million years. So pointless! So annoying!

Min Completely Changes Herself For A Man, all while protesting that she hates women who do that sort of thing. She goes from someone who seems confident in herself and personality to someone who has molded herself to most closely fit Rand’s desires as best she can determine them without ever actually having a conversation about it at any point. It’s especially sad because... Rand liked Actual!Min fine? She didn’t need to completely change herself for him. When we find out in Winter’s Heart that her hair isn’t naturally curly and she’s been curling it daily ‘for him’ ever since she showed up in Caemlyn... and there isn’t a single mention of her hair when it isn’t in ringlets, which means that she’s doing that literally no matter what other important things might be happening because Glamming It Up For Her Man is her Most Important Job.

Women Deserve Fates Worse Than Death (because it’s so terrible to get them killed!). The double-standard around how female villains are treated vs how male villains are treated is GLARING in this set of books.

Top 12 characters (in alphabetical order because I can’t pick):

I added extra because two of them are conditional and so only half-count.

Aviendha -- we finally get some Aviendha PoVs and they are absolute gold, every single one. We get to see her being thoughtful and adapting to new situations and being sweet and emotional and honest, but also have that ruthless core still.

Berelain (Lord of Chaos/pre-Perrin chasing) -- she’s such a competent ruler! And she flat-out borders on being adorable when she’s interacting with the Aiel. And then... the one-sided Triangle of Doom happens. It’s such a bizarre and useless thing to do with her character. It never adds anything of value. It feels like it was there as excuse for Berelain to tag along with Perrin but she already had a POLITICAL reason for that. But I love Good Proxy Ruler Berelain and her dynamic with the Aiel. TBH, a Good Ending for Berelain would have been to get married to one of the Aiel clan chiefs. I think it would have made everyone happy. Sorilea would have been happy to matchmake for her.

Egwene -- I like Egwene a lot better once she stops lying to the Wise Ones and starts lying to the Aes Sedai, lol. Mostly because at that point she’s doing political maneuvering, rather than lying to people who have been nothing but helpful and kind to her and have considered her essentially family. But once she gets to Salidar, she feels like an underdog who is working her way to success by gaming the system to her advantage. The Aes Sedai deserved to be lied to, basically. And she is probably the best part of KoD, though Elayne comes close.

Elayne -- love seeing her get super-excited about creating ter’angreal in LoC. she gets a lot of growth in re-thinking her assumptions about Mat in ACoS. It’s just a shame all that growth gets cut off at the knees when Mat gets spliced into the Seanchan storyline. And I liked her politics in Andor arc. She grows into herself as a queen and an Aes Sedai. Love how her relationship with Aviendha develops.

Elaida --  okay, hear me out, lol. After being reminded in LoC that she’s been tainted by Aridhol, her story is actually both fascinating and tragic! She’s early books Mat, only she doesn’t have anyone who cares for her enough as a person to see her becoming a paranoid monster and fight to find a way to heal and save her from it. Also, while Elaida is becoming more and more egotistical and paranoid, so is Rand, so she actually provides a compelling counterpoint to Rand’s descent. She parallels Rand, but a different part of Rand than Egwene does.

Loial -- he’s a tertiary character and always been sent off somewhere out of the main plot but he’s an enjoyable stand-out, whether he’s feverishly taking notes about whatever it is that Rand’s is doing or putting a long handle on his axe to help out or finally getting married.

Mat (pre-Tuon) -- Mat in Lord of Chaos: S-tier. Amazing. Wonderful PoV. Love him to pieces. Peak of his development. Flawed but always interesting. He’s funny in an oblivious PoV way, we get to see some very nice leader of the Band of the Red Hand stuff from him. It really does suck that this dynamic almost immediately got taken away? He gets the BotRH at the end of TFOH and then the very next book, he loses them when he goes to Ebou Dar and doesn’t reunite with them until KoD. It really does feel like Mat HAD an arc as Rand’s general and then Jordan remembered about the prophecy and he was abruptly sliced away from that plotline so that he could be spliced into the Seanchan plotline instead (he doesn’t even get to finish out the plan that he made about Sammael!) where he is slowly ground down to a shell of his previous self and it is heartbreaking. He goes from flying Rand’s banner and risking his life to free slaves (LoC-WH!Mat) to giving a slaver gifts and pandering to her whims in hopes that she’ll fall in love with him so that his marriage isn’t a total hellscape (that marriage is gonna be a TOTAL hellscape; she does not respect him as a person)... in less than two months! A character assassination arc that pretends to be an ‘arranged marriage’ romance.

Nynaeve -- my darling angel, our lovely rage healer. She grows so much in this second half of the series! Love that she was able to break her block and get her man. She helps Rand cleanse saidin as well, which is epic. She kinda drops off the map after that, with the exception of a great set of scenes with Lan & his people, which is unfortunate. We needed more Nynaeve!

Rand -- All three of the main male characters get put through negative character arcs in these six books but Rand’s feels the most purposeful so it doesn’t bother me like Mat and Perrin’s do. The actual progression of his ‘relationship’ with Lews Therin I like. The increasing amounts of paranoia, reckless, etc. is very concerning but makes sense. His relationship with Min mostly feels like it undermines his story, though, rather than adding to it.

Seaine -- our first of the Black Ajah Hunters that Elaida semi-accidentally sets up and I love her to pieces. Her love for her dead family and for kitties and that she has friends outside her Ajah! She kinda gets less and less important as the Black Ajah Hunters storyline goes on, but I do love her.

Sulin -- (Lord of Chaos) We have her struggle to try to protect Rand without setting off his overprotectiveness alarm, her willingly incurring toh to do her best to ensure that he’s guarded appropriately. Her servant arc and then dropping it, again, for Rand’s sake. Claiming Rand as her first-brother! It kinda sucks that she gets sent away from him in ACoS. imo this was done because No One But Min is allowed to be affectionate towards Rand now that she’s got him on the hook, so Sulin got sent away so that MIN and only Min could play caretaker.

Verin -- Always fascinating. A ruthless pragmatist in many ways, she’s also subtle enough to avoid detection. I feel like she would have made a much better post-Moiraine mentor for Rand than Cadsuane and even more complicated.

And just a quick shout out to Selende and Merana for being excellent tertiary characters. And while I hate the Shaido sideplot, I like Faile & her companions inside it -- I just think they deserved a better plot. Galad gives SUCH a strong performance in the prologue of KoD that I have to add him too. Ituralde is also a good tertiary character, as well as Bashere. I also enjoy pretty much the full set of Black Ajah Hunters, not just Seaine.

Fav scenes (roughly in chronological order):

Bashere dealing with one of Rand’s fits of cold rage, early on in Lord of Chaos. It’s an impressive scene for Bashere and shows why he is a good fit for working under Rand, who does have certain issues that he literally can’t control.

Literally every time the Maidens fuss over Rand in Lord of Chaos.

Rand with the Two Rivers’ girls in Caemlyn! It ends sadly, but the early part of it is fairly cute and sweet and Rand enjoys himself even with the guilt he’s feeling.

Elayne and her joy about creating ter’angreal. She likes it and she’s so good at it.

Rand at the school in Cairhien! Love love love! Everything about this scene is magic and I hope we get Rand’s Schools in the show.

Egwene and Rand refuse to help each other in LoC. A sad scene but it works really well as two PoVs clashing and they both make perfect sense to themselves but are completely coming across the wrong way to the other person.

Mat dealing with the Aiel attack on the BotRH.

Rand figures out that IF THEY WERE FARMERS, he and Elayne wouldn’t be considered related at all. lol

Berelain takes tea with the Wise Ones. Even in Egwene’s negatively-biased PoV, Berelain comes off so well here and her relationships with the Aiel Wise Ones are beautiful.

Sulin being done with her toh because she needs to save Rand.

Perrin calling on the wolves to come help save Rand.

Rand removes the Cairhienin crown from Colavaere’s head using the One Power.

Elayne stands up against the Salidar embassy and re-affirms that she IS Aes Sedai and they will stop treating her as if she is still Accepted.

Nynaeve breaking through her block & being reunited with Lan. (if we take out the Jordan-obligatory Romantic Violence)

Elayne takes the Aes Sedai to go meet the Kin and they learn how old Reanne is (much older than any Aes Sedai).

Elaida accidentally putting the first ball in motion for the creation of the Black Ajah Hunters in the White Tower.

Seaine immediately disobeying Elaida’s order for secrecy and bringing her old friend Pevara into what she has decided MUST be a hunt for the Black Ajah.

Mat’s fight in the warehouse in the Rahad, trying to avenge Elayne (he thinks she’s dead at that point).

Though I HATE that Mat isn’t there to finish out the plan against Sammael, when we actually see Rand’s side of it unfold, it’s very cool and clever. First in Illian and then in Shadar Logoth.

Rand meeting Moridin in Shadar Logoth and their streams crossing!

Rand getting the crown of swords. I love how it marries the kindness that we remember from Rand in earlier books to the arrogance that he’s developed in the time since then, and the ominous warning note that the book ends on.

Elayne unweaving her Gateway and the aftermath of it, the moment she realizes when she wants Aviendha for her first-sister.

Egwene takes control during the meeting to declare war on Elaida.

The Black Ajah Hunters find one of the Black Ajah!

Elayne and Aviendha become first-sisters. 💕💕💕💕

Elayne and Aviendha finally getting to see Rand again; it’s been a million years (we’ll ignore how quickly he dips on them, just for the moment).

In the middle of his own escape plans, Mat frees the captive Windfinder and shows her how to free the others.

The cleansing of saidin is pretty epic.

Elayne and Aviendha reacting to the huge usage of saidar that makes the cleansing.

Egwene declares that they can open negotiations with the White Tower... with their terms being Elaida surrendering completely, resigning, and going into exile.

The lesser consensus of the rebel White Tower stands to send an ambassy to the Black Tower to open negotiations for an alliance.

Aviendha has a careful conversation with Egwene in TAR, where she doesn’t disclose any of Rand’s secrets.

Egwene takes over Bode’s place in the plan to create the blockade in the harbor of Tar Valon.

Having learned that Morgase was abused and imprisoned by Valda, Galad challenges him to trial by combat and defeats him, taking control of the Whitecloaks.

Egwene is taken inside the Tower as a captive, but realizes this gives her a chance to bring her battle inside the Tower itself.

Ituralde vs the Seanchan. 💕

“Will he ride alone?” 💕

Lews Therin grabs saidin and fights against Shadowspawn, introducing Rand and Logain to Blossoms of Fire, Deathgates, and Arrows of Fire. Rand struggles to get LTT to release the Power afterwards.

Elayne gets rescued by Birgitte and immediately realizes she has an opportunity to move forward and secure the throne of Andor.

Thoughts on canon Romances so far:

For the Rand romances: Whenever Rand and Elayne think about each other, I am Struck Dead by Romance. When they finally get to interact in a scene again, it is Amazing, and Elayne is the key element to making the poly relationship feel poly and not like a harem. Sadly, they have far too little screentime, once again. Poor Aviendha is also avoided by Rand during this latter set of books, despite how much he likes her. The main romance to feature for Rand in this arc is, of course, Rand and Min. Oh, boy.

First, gotta say, such a strange narrative choice for Jordan to focus on how Rand loves Elayne and Aviendha too much to subject them to his dangerous presence, and then have him drag Min around everywhere with him like a backpack after TPoD. It’s especially weird because, as the ONLY non-channeler in this set of relationships, Min is actually way more vulnerable than either Elayne or Aviendha and much more likely to have been accidentally killed. Min is constantly put into dangerous situations as a result of standing next to Rand. I mean, I assume the reason for this is that Min has already done everything for the narrative that she’s required to do, so she literally has nothing better to do with her time than be Rand’s accessory, but it does stand out.

As for Min, her thought before she sees Rand again (in Chapter 41 of LoC) kinda sums it all up on her side of things: you’ll be whatever you think he wants you to be.

Aviendha and Elayne are both very much still essentially the same person with or without Rand in their lives -- they love him but they do not shape their identities around him. Min embroiders her clothes when she’s never done it before and grows her hair out and curls it into ringlets down to her shoulders and wears heeled boots that make her wobble and that she hates, and sits on his lap and simpers and flirts even though she’s harshly judged other women for doing the same. Out of the three women in Rand’s life, Min is the only one who ‘changes herself for a man’. She shapes her entire identity around being of service to Rand and being mildly sassy as she does it doesn’t change that fact. It would probably bother me a lot less if Elayne x Rand and Aviendha x Rand were also being given screentime at the same time, but when Min x Rand is the ONLY pairing that gets actual attention, I notice all the things I dislike about it more.

Related: Min is bad for Rand’s mental health and well-being, actually, imo. My evidence consists of a few main points - viewings she has that are bad for him, and her inability to keep secrets about him while being able to keep secrets from him.

Her viewing that “Aes Sedai will hurt you” ends up being part of what makes Rand run headlong into Elaida’s embassy and The Box.

Her viewing that “Cadsuane needs to teach Rand a lesson” actually hinders a potential Rand & Cadsuane partnership because Rand isn’t actually honestly responding to what Cadsuane is doing; he’s responding to Min’s viewing, which means that Cadsuane uses ineffective and counterproductive means for a long time.

Her viewing that Elza will “serve Rand” “in her own way” does not age well in the long run. And that’s a weird viewing, too, because Min DOESN’T have a viewing at first but desperately WANTS a viewing and then all of a sudden a viewing appears that is exactly what she wanted it to be.

Her viewing that Alivia will ‘help Rand die’ seems to feed into Rand’s death wish. And then she’s an asshole to Alivia for no good reason.

She spills all of Rand’s Box trauma about Aes Sedai to Cadsuane, Cadsuane’s two Aes Sedai minions, and Caraline Damodred and Lord Darlin. She does not tell Rand that she’s breached his privacy.

She initially hides from him the fact that she’s had (what she believes is) a failed set of viewings, which means that he views her viewings as Absolutely Certain. Given Rand’s dependency on prophecies at this point, I absolutely believe having an ‘in-house’ fortune teller is a bad thing for him. (she does tell him sometime between CoT and KoD but it’s clear that Rand’s belief in her viewings has solidified by this time, even when she WANTS him to doubt her now)

She almost immediately also tells Cadsuane that she’s bonded to Rand, continuing her saga of “can only keep a secret from Rand, but never on Rand’s behalf”. And she ALSO tells Cadsuane that she told Rand that he needs Cadsuane, so she very much is giving Cadsuane every possible advantage over Rand that she can, despite this being AFTER she was disturbed by Cadsuane saying she would only hurt Rand “as much as she needed to”. She appears to like and trust Cadsuane much more than she trusts and likes her romantic partner.

In their brief scene together in CoT, she appears to be trying to stoke Rand’s paranoia higher by telling him that her viewing of Logain having an aura of glory might mean that he’ll try to displace Rand as the Dragon Reborn. She had that viewing of Logain back in TFoH, I believe, and there’s never been anything in it to indicate danger to Rand. But in KoD, Rand uses this viewing as part of his justification for not trusting Logain’s warnings about Taim subverting the Black Tower against him, which leads to Taim’s control over the Black Tower remaining unchecked.

Rand didn’t want her to come along to meet with (fake) Tuon, but she manipulated him to make a promise to her during sex, and then she refused to stay with the rest of the group (like he asked) and came up next to him instead, so that he essentially had to choose between protecting always-helpless Min (and losing his hand) or letting her get killed. Min is relatively helpless, an absolute damsel-in-distress compared to Rand’s other love interests. It really was inevitable that she would end up being used by the narrative like a damsel-in-distress if she kept insisting on going with Rand to all his most dangerous locations. It’s only surprising that it didn’t happen sooner, tbh.

Also, how strangely convenient it is that Min ‘which one of us will he REALLY marry’ Farshaw “doesn’t remember” her viewing that Elayne is pregnant, despite telling half of the Royal Palace about it before she jetted with Rand and Nynaeve.

Overall, Min is a LIABILITY to Rand for pretty much the entire time that she’s with him from LoC through KoD. She contributes nothing useful, despite actually having knowledge that would help him (she knows about the sul’dam secret), mostly spends her time being Rand’s Sexy Sexy Lamp or making his quality of life worse via her viewings stoking his paranoia and her lack of trust in him leading to her empowering people who treat him poorly (Cadsuane).

For Egwene: Kinda meh to ‘eh, might as well’ lol. She flipped a switch over to Gawyn during TFoH and basically just marches along that path in these books. It’s not a romance with very much substance to it (or screentime!), imo, even as they tell me how much they love each other. Egwene’s real love is politics, and THAT pairing I do like for her, lol. (apologies to @markantonys lol)

For Mat: Kill all ‘romances’ here with fire, lol. Hated everything with Tylin. Hated everything with Tuon. I do think Mat has a lot of chemistry with the women that he’s not allowed to seriously romance in the narrative (Elayne or Auldra, for example), which makes his actual ‘romances’ even worse in comparison, lol. Before, I was all “just let him be single; he’ll be happier that way” and am now on “wtf, just let him be single because the Pattern sucks at matchmaking”.

For Perrin: For all that the domestic violence/struggle between Faile and Perrin frustrated me early in the series, I have to admit it comes off much better in retrospect when compared to what’s happening between most of the relationships NOW.

In The Dragon Reborn (book 3), Faile and Perrin’s struggle over her preferred name vs Perrin forcing her family-given name of Zarine on her ends in Faile’s favor with him accepting that HER choosing to be Faile means that she’s Faile. In Tuon and Mat’s storyline, Mat is NOT allowed to have his preferred name be used by his wife -- instead, Tuon will use anything EXCEPT his preferred name for him, and we end in Knife of Dreams (book 11) by having her force his family-given name on him, refusing to call him ‘Mat’ and only using ‘Matrim’.

When Faile punches and attacks Perrin in The Shadow Rising (book 4), he makes it clear that he does not consider this acceptable behavior between romantic partners. I’m not thrilled with how Jordan went for a ‘fire vs fire’ approach of having Perrin humiliate/beat Faile into not enacting violence on him (violence to stop violence generally is not a great solution) but no one even tries to push back against the domestic violence anymore! It’s just considered acceptable for wives to punch their husbands hard enough to make their knees buckle (Setalle Anan to her husband in Winter’s Heart, book 9) or make them worry that they’ve broken a rib (Tuon to Mat in Knife of Dreams).

When Faile and Perrin get married in The Shadow Rising, though it is a rush decision, the relationship is still entered into with honest and clear eyes on the parts of both parties. Perrin is technically fated to be involved with Faile, but his decision to be with her is not based on Because Destiny Says So and is instead because he genuinely WANTS to be with her (even if he doesn’t understand her and there’s a major culture clash between them). They do choose one of their cultures to get married by but, again, Faile still AGREES to marry Perrin and she doesn’t do it by accident or get tricked into it by the Pattern, the way Mat is tricked into saying his vows to Tuon in Winter’s Heart.

The entire Faile and Perrin courtship is looking a lot healthier by comparison with all the later relationships that get featured screen-time. Both sides actually have to compromise and talk things out and the burden isn’t placed entirely on one party to do all the compromising. They’re together because they both freely choose it. And, after some struggle, they’ve realize that impulsive violence is not something that should have a place in their relationship.

I do still hate the tunnel-vision that Jordan gave Perrin in these recent books though. Literally anything that isn’t Faile gets dismissed as unimportant, whether that’s a best friend losing a hand or slavery infesting the continent where he lives.

For Nynaeve: Actual Equal Relationship? Sorta? With Consensual Kink? It Seems? The only bad part is that Nynaeve continues to feel shame about sharing her sexual feelings with... her husband? Like, Nynaeve if you can’t share them with LAN??? He is literally the most appropriate person to share them with. Please stop feeling ashamed about wanting to have sex with your husband; it makes me feel so sad for you and also makes me judge the Two Rivers hard. Plus the fact that the narrative kinda tricks them into the kink makes me sad all around. Don’t do it if you don’t like it! It doesn’t matter that the Sea Folk literally write kink into their wedding vows! They are not in your bedroom!

... if Avilayne were a canon romance, it would definitely be the winner right now though, with barely any competition. Emotionally intimate! They are never violent with each other! They support and care for each other and are a safe place for vulnerability and trust. This is what a healthy relationship looks like. I would like every heterosexual relationship in this series to please take some notes.

I’m planning on rereading New Spring and maybe The Strike on Shayol Ghul before I dive into the Sanderson books. But my next post is going to be my personal evaluation of The Slog (tm). Summary: oh boy it is so real.

[agentnico]

Dream Scenario (2023) Review

This film features possibly the best fart joke in the history of the cinema. They should advertise that on the poster!

Plot: Hapless family man Paul Matthews finds his life turned upside down when millions of strangers suddenly start seeing him in their dreams. When his nighttime appearances take a nightmarish turn, Paul is forced to navigate his newfound stardom.

This past decade Nicolas Cage has managed to enjoy a real comeback. Ever since he's paid back all those millions he owed to the IRS, he no longer needs to accept every acting role that's offered to him. He instead actually chooses some exciting and weird projects. Though they don't always pay off, they exhibit his care for the craft and consistent strive to deliver something different to his audience. Simply observing his last few years in the business, he's given us movies like Pig, Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Color Out of Space, Mandy, Into the Spider-Verse, Willy's Wonderland, and Mom & Dad. Heck, even Croods 2 was way better than expected - me and my fiancée laughed our heads off. Again, not all those films are masterpieces, but they certainly are different and provide a visceral viewing experience. So when I heard that Nicolas Cage was teaming up with A24, a studio that too recently stands out as a production company striving to give new filmmakers an exciting voice in the indie medium, it simply felt like a match made in heaven. Thus we have Dream Scenario.

Look, folks who know me know that I adore Nicolas Cage, so I do not want to come off as biased when I say this, but Nicolas Cage is great in this movie. Nope, it's not due to him having yet another weird haircut (what's with that recently by the way??). It's the fact that he manages to act as this very regular Joe, yet still makes him stand out. From his awkward demeanor, an honest naive outlook, and his voice - he was pitch-perfect, managing to be hilarious in his inept old-school perspective on things. It's Nicolas Cage at his best. Also, I have read that originally Adam Sandler was pitched for this role, and though I can see his farcical nature fitting in, it would have been a very different character to that delivered by Cage. Additionally, supporting turns from Julianne Nicholson, Tim Meadows, Dylan Gelula and Michael Cera were all welcome additions to the movie.

As for the film itself, it's also great. I love this idea of a random dude suddenly appearing in people's dreams for absolutely no reason. It's so rare to have a new original conception in a film in our day and age. Though this film could have so easily fallen into the trap of being an elongated one-joke, the creative team behind this seems to know what they are doing. Talk about getting everything out of a concept. The movie starts and you think, okay this is a lot of fun, but where are they going to go from here? Have no fear, they have plenty of tricks up their sleeves and the wild ride continues throughout. The film is hilarious. It contained some of the biggest theatre laughs I've heard in a long time. But it's more than that too. It actually gets quite touching and sad and has some really thought-provoking stuff going on. I do think it gets a tad lost in the cancel culture message, but only slightly.

The fact that this film started out as a project of Ari Aster is no surprise, as it has much in common with Beau is Afraid - notably the hapless and powerless central character and some surreal and blackly comic moments. In fact, what I really enjoyed was when the film leaned into that element of horror and the grotesque. Some of the nightmarish dream sequences really had that unsettling shock factor. I wish the movie was willing to go further into that, as even though I really like that the film went the more melodramatic route, in my mind I also wanted something even darker. That's not a gripe, but more so an observation of how a different vision for this film could have played out.

As for the aforementioned fart scene. Not spoiling anything, but this gag had the audience members in the screening howling with silent breathy cackling. It is one of the most well-calibrated comedic moments I've ever witnessed. The build-up to the timing and the actual punch line was simply sublime. Also, for a fart gag, it never felt crude, which is impressive in itself.

Overall Dream Scenario is a real treat. It has a very limited theatrical release here in the UK so had to travel to a different city to see it, but I'm so glad I did as one can never get enough of the man, the myth, the legend that is Nicolas Cage.

Overall score: 8/10

[aspoonofsugar]

on jaunes inspiration being the maiden of orleans ( and how she was called the holy maiden or la pucelle ( the maiden ) a theory I have often seen and believe is that the crwby originally planned for jaune to be the next ozpin (but due to effectively gotten threats from fanbase to miles (the attacks on him ) they created oscar ( I mean the maiden powers came from ozpin and the wizard of oz in the books was a fraud who pretended to be a wizard and got into a leadership position which is like how jaune forged his transcripts and got into a position of leader both the wizard and jaune got trained by an active practicioner ( glynda trained oz in magic pyrrha trained jaune in combat ( though oz's best asset was still his head) plus the whole salem wanting to see ozpin burn ( jaunes inspiration being put to the fire for witchcraft ( among other things ) and salem witch trials being associated with witch burnings not to mention the ozark mountain range which includes the salem plateau. ( and

And I thought of the word Ozark, as in the Ozark Mountains/Plateau in the central/southern US, and I know that both Ozpin and Salem are (to a degree) named after places already

So I looked it up on Wikipedia, and it turns out that it’s split into subdivisions, including one called the Salem Plateau

Which made me think maybe I’m on to something here, speaking crackpottily

So then I looked at the etymology of Ozark(s), and learned that it might be a corruption of the French phrase meaning “of the arches,” (It is even suggested aux arcs is an abbreviation of aux arcs-en-ciel, French for “toward the rainbows) aux arcs

aux arcs

Ozark

Oz Arc

arc en ciel means rainbow

( jaunes family symbol on the shield is the rainbow ( and the only color jaune doesnt currently have in his design from the rainbow is the color green the one color missing from the rainbow)

Hi!

Mmmm I am sorry, but I am generally not interested in these kinds of theories...

When you start a series, you are gonna brainstorm for ideas... so obviously you are gonna come up with tons of plot-points you are not gonna use... I am only interested in what is in the final story... not because alternative ideas are bad or uninteresting, but simply because they were not written, so... there is really nothing to comment

In general, I don't like people deciding writers change things because threathened by the fandom... Unless it is stated by the writers themselves (like... for example Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes), I am not gonna get interested in such behind the scenes theories. Moreover, I think there is this idea going on in the fandom that Jaune has been somehow "downgraded" from MC and is now a secondary character. Well, imo this is simply wrong, he is a MC/deuteragonist and his importance is not less than the beginning. It is just this is an ensembled cast, so he has to share focus. His arc and story is still one of the most important in the series.

Oscar's introduction and story work for several reasons and I think he was always meant to be put in the narrative. His existence is foreshadowed since ep 2/3 when Blake speaks about a man with 2 souls. His story strongly parallels Ruby and they comment each other's arcs. I think the writers stated that since Jaune was growing they wanted a new newby that could give a fresh perspective on the other characters and the conflicts they were going through. Finally, his own allusion sets him up to be introduced later on. Princess Ozma/Tip is a key character in the Oz series, but she doesn't appear in the very first book. So, it makes sense for Oscar to appear after the first arc as the 8th true MCs after Pyrrha's death.

In short, I think the idea of having Oz reincarnate in Jaune is interesting and would bring a very complex dynamic and different plot-points and arcs for the characters. However, this is clearly not what the story wanted to do. Jaune and Oscar's arcs are similar, but different and both are important for the story... Having Oz reincarnate into Jaune would simply be a completely different series :) I also think it is totally fine for people to speculate and headcanon, though!

Thank you for the ask!

[pjotvshownews]

April 16th blog update from Rick Riordan:

“[...] I also don’t have to be on Twitter to anticipate what questions you are probably asking.

Like for instance: When are we announcing Annabeth and Grover, and can it be right now? Answer: Soon. And no, it cannot be right now. As I said before, I think we’re very close to having everything wrapped up for our main trio, but there are numerous levels of approvals to get and deals to close before we can announce anything. Things are starting to move into high gear, though, since we begin filming in June, so we are probably talking weeks, not months, before we can share more news. As always, I need to warn you that this is ONLY my personal guess. What I can say is that the production team is united and excited about where the casting decisions are heading, and we are receiving excellent support from our studio and network partners.

Other questions I bet you are asking: Are we going to make Walker dye his hair black? Answer: We have had zero conversations about this. Personally, I think this is a non-issue. For me, finding the right actors  has never been about hair color, eye color, skin color, or any other single physical trait, even if they were described a certain way in the books. As many of you know, I flubbed such details myself several times in the series. Thalia’s eyes changed from green to blue. Oops! Annabeth’s hair was curly and then it was straight. Nico was described as olive-skinned, then later as pale. Blackjack even changed from a mare to a stallion over the course of two books. Whelp, not sure what happened there, but too late now! If I may invoke the Movies That Shall Not Be Watched, I know a lot of you cared deeply and were unhappy when Annabeth turned out to be a brunette rather than blonde, but for me, that was never the main issue. What mattered were that those actors, as talented and wonderful as they are, were WAY too old for the parts as I wrote them, and their age was central to the plot. What I want to see are age-appropriate actors who can embody the personalities of the characters, nail their voices and their sense of humor, and make you believe: “Yes, that is Percy. That is Grover. That is Annabeth,” even if they’re not exactly how the characters were described physically in the books. Again, that’s just my personal opinion and my approach. So blond Percy? Hey, why not? IMO Walker is awesome just as he is. He is perfect for the role. The same will be true for our other characters when I can announce them.

You are asking: What about the other casting choices? Those are well underway. We are reviewing a flood of audition tapes as we speak for all parts. And yes, I am involved in every decision. I have seen dozens of Sally Jacksons at this point, and even more Mrs. Dodds . . . all wonderfully sinister. In fact, I may or may not have had nightmares about math teacher Furies last night….

Will there be open casting calls for (fill in the character you wish you could be)? As I’ve said before, I very much doubt it. There are so many great actors out there who are looking for work and who have already made the commitment to devote their lives to acting, have put in years of training, have struggled to get agents and get parts — we have no shortage of great, diverse options. Acting is hard. Getting good at it takes time, patience and tons of unglamorous difficult work. Also, it’s simply not practical or economically feasible to do open calls for every character, especially extras. There are also many laws in place  . . . for instance, to work as an extra in Vancouver, where we are filming, it’s my understanding that you have to be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, in order to support the local economy. So can we fly you halfway across the world so you can appear on set as “Tree #3” for a day? Alas, no, although I agree it sounds like fun!

In addition to all the excitement about Walker last week, we were working hard in the writers room to outline the remainder of the first season scripts. I’m very pleased with how that’s going. This will be The Lightning Thief — the story you know and love, but with added depth and layers of nuance that many of you have been yearning to know about, judging from the fan letters I have received over the past fifteen years.

Have a great weekend, and Happy Easter to those celebrating. I will get back to you with more news as soon as I can!”

x

[lacroixqueen]

every last drop

summary: you decide to go out on a friday night with some of your friends from the Gardens, and then bump into one of your regulars. things turn spicy, smut without a plot yada yada yada

pairing: sevika x fem reader

wordcount: 3.2k

rating: M

warnings/tags: slapping, choking, bruising, spitting, some non-graphic violence, bdsm, sadism, masochism

notes: if you liked reading, feel free to check out my violyn fic, and other works on ao3! 

It was Friday evening, and the night was still young in Zaun. You and your coworkers from the Gardens decided it would be the perfect opportunity to blow off some steam from work and go out to have some fun for once. 

For some odd reason, you still couldn’t get that night you spent with Sevika out of your head. Almost a week has passed and memories of it would still flash randomly in your mind, distract you when you least expect it, or even appear in your dreams. 

How sturdy her thigh felt between your legs, the way her hands felt wrapping around your neck. 

Or perhaps in the middle of the night, when no one was looking, you would fantasize about the way her soft, full lips felt against your neck, and reach into your panties and touch yourself. Of course, it wasn’t enough. 

You hated yourself for it too, since you didn’t want all of your free thoughts to be preoccupied by her.

But you just couldn’t help it. 

“Hey… earth to Y/N!” Stella was snapping her fingers in front of your face. 

“Oh my god, I’m sorry,” you shook those unwanted thoughts out of your head. 

“What’s up with you?” your coworker asked, leaning over the vanity while applying an absurd amount of mascara. “It’s like you aren’t even paying attention to anything I’m saying.”

“I know,” you sighed, trying your hardest to focus on flicking out your winged liner. “I’ve just had a lot on my mind recently.. And I don’t think I’m getting enough sleep.”

“Oh?” Stella capped her mascara and took out her lipstick.  “Why’s that?”

“No particular reason,” you muttered quickly to avoid further questioning. 

You looked yourself over in the mirror. You wanted to look and feel good tonight. 

It’s been so long since you’ve had the free time to go out for an entire night and not have to think about work or any other responsibilities. You decided to wear a maro  on, velvety cami dress and a matching choker. The dress complimented your figure nicely, with a scooped sweetheart neckline and a backless cut. 

“Dang, Y/N,” Stella looked you over as she fixed her hair. “You didn’t have to outdress me for the hundredth time we go out, you know that, right?”

“Oh, shut up,” you giggled, pushing her back playfully. “You look amazing too. Besides, I just want to drink away all my problems and not remember any of this tomorrow morning anyway.”

“It’s like you read my mind,” your coworker laughed as she grabbed your arm, pulling you out into the bustling streets of Zaun. 

Even for a Friday night, the undercity felt remarkably alive. Restaurants had lines out the door, clubs were blasting music until their walls were literally shaking, and the neon lights sparkled fearlessly in the midst of all the chaos. You and your friends decided to hit up the best place in town: The Last Drop. 

Now, The Last Drop was more than simply just a bar. It was almost sort of like the central hub of Zaun itself. The breeding grounds for backroom deals, smuggled wares, and hushed conversation, all concealed with the thinly veiled disguise of poured drinks and cheery mingling.  

You pushed open the wooden doors, only to be greeted by a bar packed to the brim with guests of all different shapes and sizes. At the table to your left was a group of drunken Yordles laughing uncontrollably at some joke. The main bar seated couples chatting away the night, lonesome travelers who have lost count of their drinks, and shady characters abound. 

And in the midst of it all, like a present that fell into your lap, there she was. Sevika was seated in the back corner of the bar, gambling with a group of large, intimidating-looking men. And it seemed like she was winning by a longshot. The warrior was grinning ear-to-ear, a cigar hanging in between her lips, while collecting mountains of golden, glittering coins after every round. Her opponents threw down their cards in frustration, only to be replaced by another group of equally oblivious, overly confident rivals who were watching from the sidelines. She had quite an audience going, with dozens of other bargoers crowding around the table to see what the commotion was all about. 

You felt like you were in disbelief. Now, it wasn’t at all a rare occurrence to spot Sevika playing poker in the back of The Last Drop on a Friday night. It was, after all, the place to be. What caught you off guard, however, was seeing the woman who railed you into oblivion last week just sitting casually in the tavern playing a game of cards. Your eyes glazed over her bulging arm muscles and taut stomach that peaked underneath her top. And that smirk. That stupid, stupid smirk she always wore when she knew things were going her way. 

You scoffed, crossing your arms across your chest, glancing in her direction every few minutes to see if she even saw you enter. But it didn’t seem like she was even paying any attention to you. 

“Come ON, Y/N,” Stella cried out, jerking you out of your fixation. “Still spacing out? Let’s line up and get some booze. Maybe we can seduce one of those Shimmer dealers over there to buy us free drinks.”

“Okay, okay,” you capitulated, following close behind her. Perhaps getting to the bar would get you closer into Sevika’s field of vision. You would be lying to yourself if you said you weren’t going to dress up and go out with the slim chance of bumping into her tonight. And how lucky you were. 

By the time your group reached the front of the bar, Stella was already chatting up some fish creature who was easily falling for her charms. You sighed, resting the side of your face against your hands, still looking over at Sevika. It was pretty obvious she knew you were here, since she did take a few glances over in your direction, only to look back at her game. 

How utterly frustrating. And frankly, very rude in your opinion.

“Is everything okay?” your coworker asked, waving her hand in front of your face as she pushed two fruity cocktails towards you. “Oh.” She followed your gaze to look over at Sevika, who was currently winning another hand of poker. 

“I’m fine,” you say through gritted teeth, gulping down the majority of the sugary drink in just a couple of seconds. 

“Isn’t that one of your regulars?” Stella asked, nudging you teasingly. “She looks like she’s having a really good time.”

“She just fucked the living being out of me a few days ago, and now sees me at a bar and then pretends like I don’t even exist!” you blurted out, suckling on an ice cube in between your lips. “It’s like she’s embarrassed of me, or something.”

“I mean, it’s not like you’re her girlfriend or anything,” Stella shrugged, sipping her drink at a much slower pace. “Honey, she pays to have sex with you without anyone else knowing, and then once she’s done, she hangs you out to dry. It’s just how the industry works sometimes, you know?”

“Yeah, whatever,” you pout, setting down your glass against the bar. 

“Aw, come on, don’t be like that!” your coworker encouraged, as she signaled over to the bartender. “Just forget about her! We are here to have a good time. When was the last time either of us had this much time off? Let’s just take some shots and not think about all that other bullshit, okay?”

“Alright..” you agreed. She was right. If you just spent the entire night pining over Sevika, you wouldn’t enjoy yourself at all. The bartender fixed you both a sizable amount of tequila shots. 

Stella sighed, picking up two in either hand and giving one to you. 

“Cheers,” she said, raising her glass in the air. “To a productive week at the Gardens. To you being one of the best friends I could ever ask for. And.. to this night. To this fantastic, glorious night.”

“Cheers,” you replied as you clink your glass against hers, not hesitating before downing the absolutely horrendous liquid. It felt like it burned off your insides as it sloshed down your esophagus and into your stomach. You grimaced as you set down the shot glass, only for Stella to hand you another. And another. And another. 

The room was starting to spin, and you felt like you blacked out for a second before you felt some grubby arm of a chemtech worker snake around your shoulder. 

“Oh my goodness, get off of me!” you pushed him away, scoffing as you took another drink. Stella was nowhere to be found. Probably snuck off with some guy she just met. 

Your gaze landed back over to Sevika, who appeared to be finished gambling. She was just smoking a cigarette at this point, while clinking whiskey glasses with some of the other men at her table. 

For some nonsensical reason, you decided to stand up from your barstool and hobble on over into her direction. In the back of your mind, you knew this was a stupid idea and that it most likely wouldn’t end well. But you just couldn’t help yourself.

That pesky, aching, fluttering feeling in your tummy that has been there since the night you spent with Sevika was simply not going away. You felt this undying urge to just sit on her lap, or give her a kiss, or whisper stupid, flirty things into her ear. Anything. Just anything. 

By the time you hobbled on over to her table, you snuck up behind the warrior and wrapped your arms around her neck.

“Hiiii Sevika~” you slurred out, clearly very drunk, and clearly completely unaware of what was going on. 

The group of men who were sitting beside her at the table erupted into a fit of laughter as they watched Sevika suddenly grab you by the arm and then lead you away from the crowd. 

“Hey, Sevika! Go get an actual room!” one of them called out after her, unable to stifle another laugh. 

At this point, the woman was dragging you across the bar like a ragged doll, and you were just going with the motions. Your heart sank to the bottom of your stomach, since you knew you were in trouble and that she was having none of it. 

She flung open the wooden doors to the bathroom and briskly locked them behind her. Wordlessly, she picked you up and slammed you on top of the counter, her mechanical hand gripping over your neck. Without warning, she took her other hand and slapped it against the fat part of your cheek, hard enough to leave a very noticeable red bruise. 

“Don’t. Ever. Do. That. Again.” she hissed between her teeth, increasing the strength of her grip. 

“I-I’m sorry..” you whimpered, reaching your hands up to hold onto the one that was slowly choking you. “I promise I won’t.” 

Sevika growled as she reached up and gripped onto a large clump of your hair, using it as leverage to pull your head forward so she could speak into your ear. 

“Do you realize what you just did?” she snarled. “Those were enforcers. We were making a deal. You embarrassed me.” She was never one to mince words, and this time, they were so harsh they cut into you like a knife. 

“I know..” you sighed, looking down in shame. Your lips started to quiver, tears rolling down your face. You genuinely felt really bad. The conversation was probably something very important, and you ruined it all just because of your own selfish desires. 

“I’m really, really sorry, again, Sevika.” 

The warrior’s cloudy, gray eyes bore into yours, not wavering even for a second. She maintained her grip onto your hair, even pulling it harder, and upwards this time. Her mechanical hand snuck up your neck and cupped your face, squeezing your cheeks hard. 

“Open your mouth and stick out your tongue,” she commanded, yanking your hair back again. The sensation burned into the back of your scalp, but you quickly obeyed and did as you were told. 

You presented your soft, pink tongue for fucking. Sevika immediately took the index and middle finger of her mechanical hand and laid them on top of your tongue, and then gradually forced them into the back of your throat. 

“Suck,” she said simply, reaching them even deeper until they prodded against your gag reflex. You could feel yourself beginning to gag again, until she pulled onto your hair one more time. 

“Don’t. Make me repeat myself,” she warned, watching you struggle to take in her fingers. 

You nodded like the good girl you were, bobbing your head up and down in motion as your pink tongue wrapped around and between her two fingers. You moaned softly as you continued to suckle and flick your tongue against them. The squelching, sucking noises from your lips bounced off the walls of the empty bathroom. 

Occasionally, Sevika would let you rest, disconnecting her fingers from your tongue to leave a thin rope of saliva between them. It would only be for a split second though, as she would shove them right back in once she has lulled you into a false sense of security. Finally, the warrior withdrew her mechanical fingers from your mouth, only to cup your cheeks once more. 

“Open,” she said, tightly squeezing your cheeks. “I said keep them open.”

You did as you were told, your heart pounding against your chest, anticipating what was to come next. 

Sevika pursed her lips as she gathered all her saliva into the front of her mouth. With a ‘tuh’ sound, she spit directly into yours. You could feel the warmth of her saliva collecting in the dip of your own tongue. 

“Swallow,” she commanded, pushing against your cheeks with the thumb and index fingers of her mechanical hand in order to close your mouth. You swallowed her saliva, gulping it down, and then parted your lips open to show her that you did so successfully. 

She smirked, very pleased that you have been taking all her orders. “Good girl.” 

Sevika released her grip from your hair, now both hands sliding down to the small of your waist.  

You looked up at her, pleasantly surprised that the woman was still towering over you, even if you were sitting on a bathroom counter. She leaned down gently, brushing her soft, full lips against yours and then sneaking her tongue into your mouth. You instinctively wrapped your arms around her neck and legs around her hips, moaning while kissing her back slowly and sensually. 

You absolutely relished in how she tasted: The musky residues of smoke and liquor, and the slightly saccharine hint of Shimmer.

She paused the kiss, only to brush the tip of her human hand against the plumpest part of your bottom lip.

“You know, you really are a cheap little whore..” she whispered into your ear, her voice low. 

“Wh-what do you mean?” you stammered out, looking up at her. 

“I don’t even have to pay for you this time,” she smirked, as she planted her lips back on top of yours. 

You rolled your eyes, a twinge knotting in your stomach. Unbelievable. She was always so arrogant, and felt the need for every last person in Runeterra to know. Even as you two were making out in a bar bathroom, she still has the time of day to waste her breath on degrading you even more than she already has. 

Without warning, Sevika dropped her human hand off your waist, resting it on top of your thigh. Over time, she gradually reached underneath your cami dress, the tips of her fingers pulling at the tops of your panties. 

“Sevika, no!” you cried out, breaking the kiss and peering over at the door that led right into the crowded halls of The Last Drop. “What if someone sees us?!”

“Suddenly so concerned about that now?” she laughed, as she used her weight to push you so your back was now pressed up against the mirror. She hastily tugged off your scarlet, lace thong, throwing it carelessly onto the dirty floor. You felt her rough hand rub large circles over your swollen vulva, even pinching your nubby clit between her two fingers every now and then to tease you even more. 

You could tell she could feel just how wet you were, and how she smiled to herself because of the fact. It made her smug. 

“I’m just saying!” you blushed, pouting as you looked to the other direction. “And hey! Why would you throw those on the ground.. ah~!”

A jolt of electricity ran up your spine as you felt her two thick fingers pushing deep into your vagina. The walls of your cervix gripped onto them tightly, as they worked their way even further up into you, hooking so they brushed up against your special spot. 

You moaned, hugging around Sevika’s neck for dear life as she fingered your helpless, unsuspecting little pussy. 

The straps of your dress were slowly falling off your shoulder, revealing the tops of your black and red lace bra. Ugh. And now Sevika saw that you even took the time to match for her. As if you weren’t already humiliated enough. She took note of this, giving you some mercy by not commenting on it. 

“Ahw, ah~,” you sighed, as Sevika rammed her fingers in and out, the pads of her calloused palms rubbing relentlessly against your clit each time. She grunted, using her whole body as a fulcrum, her mechanical arm gripping onto the edge of the counter as she used the full force of her other hand to obliterate you the way she wanted to. You were beginning to see stars at this point, and you could feel Sevika beginning to edge you. 

She knew you were close.

If she just swept her hand over your clit one last time, or just pushed her fingers slightly deeper, it would be enough. If she could just go just a tiny bit harder..

The intimate moment was immediately interrupted by a pounding knock against the bathroom doors. 

“Hey, can you lovebirds hurry it up in there?” a drunken girl called out. “You guys have been in there forever!”

Shit. 

“Please, Sevika,” you begged, gripping onto her muscular arm. “Please, please, please.. I have to cum.”

The warrior chuckled a bit, giving you a few more weak pumps of her finger, rubbing her palm against your clit one last time before withdrawing her hand altogether. She appeared to be quite smug, almost laughing to herself at how desperate you were. How easy it was to get you into the state you were in. 

“You cum when I say you cum,” she replied simply, lightly slapping her wet hand against your cheek. She quickly flipped open the faucet and washed you off her hands under the running water. 

Without another word, she unlocked and pushed through the bathroom doors to re-enter the bar.

You sighed, legs shuddering as you leaned up against the cold bathroom mirror. Your juices leaked all over the counter, and started to drip onto the floor. 

Fuck. Now what did you get yourself into? 

[testudoaubrei-blog]

“I’m loyal, that’s my whole thing.” - Scorpia, Season 4 Episode 6, Princess Scorpia

“Everything they taught us in the Horde about loyalty is meaningless” - Lonnie, Season 4 Episode 5, Protocol

Rewatching Season 4, I just finished Princess Scorpia. This is an episode that has always stuck with me, especially the A plot of Scorpia realizing how badly Catra has treated her and everyone else and deciding to leave. One thing I’ve been thinking about since I finished the series, though, is what this episode is telling us on a larger level. Looking beyond the character arcs and more at this show’s larger themes and message. Because this show is very much a show that says things, made by people who believe them. That earnestness and depth is one reason I keep coming back to it.

In the pull-quote above, and throughout the episode and before it, Scorpia defines herself in terms of loyalty. It is her identity - as she says, that’s what Scorpions do, they’re loyal. Her actions for three and a half seasons bear this out. When she first shows up, she tries to position herself as Catra’s new best friend, the one who won’t leave her and will stick by her no matter what. And that’s what she does, until this episode. She sticks by Catra through Catra’s increasingly villainous plots and erratic behavior. But she doesn’t just stick around. Until the portal, she barely contradicts Catra, and even afterwards, does so only furtively and immediately backs away as soon as Catra pushes back. For more than a year of show time, Scorpia has not just stood by Catra, or supported her, she’s actively assisted her in her most villainous and destructive acts. Scorpia is fighting by Catra’s side, eagerly carrying out her orders, and doing her utmost to see that Catra succeeds. But her loyalty goes beyond this practical help. Because for all that Catra loudly declares that she doesn’t need a new best friend, she consistently seeks out connection throughout the show, even when she’s at her most isolated in season 4. She needs moral support, and connection, and to know that she isn’t alone. Scorpia provides that, and keeps Catra going. Though Scropia isn’t initiating Catra’s various misdeeds, she’s assisting and supporting Catra throughout. On a personal, psychological level, the only word that seems adequate for this is ‘ennabling’ - Scorpia, sweet as she is, is Catra’s enabler. We see in the next few episodes what happens when Catra doesn’t have Scorpia’s support - she breaks down, and realizes that her actions really do have consequences, and that the affection she took for granted for so many years is something she can’t live without. But as long as Scorpia’s still around, Catra can’t make that realization.

Now I’m not going to say that Scorpia is morally culpable for Catra’s own actions. She’s not. Catra is solely responsible for her various betrayals, manipulations, violent outbursts and assorted murder attempts against...most of the rest of the cast (though being raised by Shadow Weaver sure as shit is a mitigating factor). But while Catra is obviously being a bad friend to Scorpia throughout, Scorpia isn’t actually being as supportive or helpful to Catra as she thinks, because Catra doesn’t actually need unconditional support, she needs people to be honest with her and express to her how she’s hurting them. She needs people who will stand up for themselves just as she needs to take responsibility for her own actions. This is part of why she and Adora have such a healthy dynamic in season 5 - Adora doesn’t take her crap, and Catra takes responsibility for her crap.

However, Scorpia -is- responsible for her own actions. And as I said above, she’s been with Catra every step of the way as Catra has attacked just about everyone and made war on Etheria. On a larger, political level, Scorpia is a willing participant in upholding the Horde’s oppressive system, and executing a war of aggression and colonization against innocent people. Speaking of colonization, perversely, she’s loyal to the very organization that dispossessed her and literally stole her birthright, then discarded it like a useless trinket when it was no longer useful to them. No one ever suggests ‘why don’t we let Scorpia connect with ~her runestone~’ until Glimmer does (and Glimmer’s motivations and arguments aren’t exactly forthright). Scorpia’s loyalty makes her an accomplice in her own oppression (like a bunch of the themes in this show there’s some interesting post-colonial stuff that the show doesn’t fully explore, probably because Noelle and the crew felt self-conscious about telling a post colonial story, or just didn’t know where to go with it). Interestingly, Scorpia’s loyalty to the Horde here parallels her loyalty to Catra, which has made her completely disregard her own wellbeing, which is the most obvious take away from the episode.

But I would argue that everything above shows that for Scorpia loyalty has been a way of avoiding developing her own moral compass. Scorpia repeatedly shoves aside questions of right or wrong in favor of being loyal to her friends and to the Horde. Loyalty has made Scorpia not only willing to accept her own mistreatment, but to willingly mistreat others, and to keep herself from asking any hard questions about what she’s doing or why. This is despite the fact that Scorpia is, by inclination, an incredibly gentle, kind and compassionate person. She’s willing to silence the best parts of her nature out of loyalty to Catra and the Horde. In the end, she also commits acts of violence and perpetuates the oppression of Etheria. And this is so insightful, because we see this sort of thing in our world all the time. So many oppressive institutions depend upon the loyalty of their members to keep them ‘just following orders’; so many abusive systems depend upon loyalty to stifle dissent and silence potential whistleblowers before they even speak. We see this in some of the most oppressive institutions and the worst scandals in our own society, and looking back through human history we see it in some of our nation’s and our species' most infamous crimes.

And when we look at the Horde as a system that Hordak has built in imitation of his elder brother’s empire, we see just how central loyalty is an ethos. Hordak himself is motivated entirely by loyalty to Prime - being a former clone, he spends the entire series not fully capable of accepting himself as an autonomous being (even when he acts like one and enjoys it, there’s some fucked up religious shit there that I won’t get into). He seems to have instilled this in his followers. The Horde Trio, Catra and Scorpia all hold loyalty as one of their highest values. Catra clings to it as her biggest accusation against Adora - that she was disloyal, as expressed in Catra’s perception that Adora broke her promise and abandoned her. Loyalty keeps the Horde Trio together and fighting for the Horde, and Scorpia with Catra. I think we can read between the lines and say the Horde runs on loyalty (as well as fear) and this is a very insightful portrayal of oppressive military and paramilitary institutions like armies of conquest and occupation and other instruments of state violence.

There’s another, related way of looking at how a sole reliance on loyalty as a moral framework has stunted Scorpia’s moral growth, and I think that brings together both the ways that it makes Scorpia willing to accept her mistreatment and participate in the mistreatment of others. Namely, loyalty in the Horde style isn’t just sticking with someone or something, but subsuming your own will into theirs. Following orders. Supporting your friend in what they do no matter what. Whatever you call it, it’s about turning off your own self - your self preservation, your self respect, your conscience, whatever other things you value - and just going along with what the person or institution you are loyal to wants you to do. And this is where Horde loyalty goes full circle, back to its origin - Horde Prime, the narcissistic self-made god who wishes to control or destroy everything that is not himself. Loyalty as Hordak conceived of it and as the Horde believes in it is a reflection of Prime's absolute control over all his domain.

In a way, self-determination is one of this show’s highest values (together with love). It’s at the heart of Adora’s 5-season, 3 year struggle to become her own woman and her own hero as she shrugs off one imposed destiny and then another and finally embraces what she wants. In a more negative form, it’s at the heart of Catra’s arc, as she finally accepts responsibility for her own actions and their consequences and starts working to make a world that she actually wants to live in, as well as admit to herself that what she really wants is love. And I could go on. This self-determination is existentially, obviously threatened by Prime chipping people, but it is also stunted by horde-style loyalty that demands unquestioning support and obedience.

Both the Horde Trio and Scorpia reject the Horde’s ideal of loyalty and walk away, but I think it’s interesting how they do it. Neither rejects loyalty entirely (not on the way Adora does) - the Trio, realistically, remain loyal to each other and simply walk away and walk out of the war (this might save their lives), joining the other disillusioned cynics in the Crimson Wastes. They reject loyalty to the horde and embrace a more supportive and respectful form of loyalty to each other. Scorpia leaves, but she actually comes to her crisis and makes her decision out of loyalty, and because it’s clear that her loyalty isn’t returned. The immediate situation - loyalty to Emily and Entrapta’s memory on one hand and Catra’s orders on the others - creates the conflict between loyalties that forces Scorpia to actually make her own choice rather than deferring to Catra. But she also reflects how Catra betrayed her loyalty to Entrapta, and thus how all of her friends’ loyalty to Catra is not returned.This is another point about horde-style loyalty - it’s one way - Hordak or Catra will demand your loyalty, but they feel no obligation to return it, which reflects Prime’s view of every other being in the universe as disposable. It’s only when she’s with the Princesses that Scorpia starts to find a new moral center, though sticking up for and protecting her friends remains important to her. In neither case, though, are these kinds of loyalty coming at the cost of either the Trio or Scorpia’s autonomy or ability to make moral choices of their own. In the very next episode, she says she wants to 'be A good friend' which is how the Princesses typically describe sticking together, which is a much more active and holistic concept than 'loyalty'. Scorpia confesses that she doesn't even know how, but she wants to learn and thinks the princesses can teach her.

There's another interesting counterexample to Horde Loyalty. Adora repeatedly breaks with the people around her to do what is right. First she leaves the Horde, then walks away from Catra by stages when it is clear that Catra is going to continue to harm other people and Etheria. Then she walks away from Glimmer, defies Light Hope and breaks loyalty with her supposed destiny and purposes as well as loyalty to the homelans she has never known. By season 5, Adora is loyal only to herself and the people she cares about, but she isn't constraining her will to anyone else's. For all that she seems like a rule follower Adora has a rebellious streak a mile wide, and she will do what is right, no matter what. This is what allows her to save the universe 3 times.

So the show’s argument is that loyalty is not a good moral framework to base all of our actions around. I don’t think it goes so far as saying that loyalty has no place in our ethics (being a good friend, which is such a huge part of the show, certainly includes loyalty, especially sticking with people when the going gets tough), but the show stresses time and again that being loyal to something or someone shouldn’t make you disregard yourself and what you think is right. Because it’s only by living out our own values and taking responsibility for our own actions that we can come into our own as moral beings. Moreover, if we insist on maintaining loyalty to institutions that oppress us and others, we can’t dismantle the systems of oppression that are holding us and other people down. (Yes, this is a pretty radical message, but I suspect that Noelle is some kind of anarchist? Anyway, it’s a thing.)

Okay, so that’s what I, a 35 year old, get from this kids show. I think it’s also worth pointing out that this lesson applies to younger viewers too, in their most immediate lives. Younger viewers will have had friends who didn’t treat them well, or might not have treated other people well, and who might have pressured them into participating in the mistreatment of others (this is kind of how bullying works a lot of the time). I think it’s important that younger viewers see how being a good friend never means disrespecting yourself or other people and it means a lot to me that She-Ra shows this in such a nuanced and realistic way.

[crybabysunflower]

Why I recommend people to watch this 'strange' anime

Introduction

To be honest I am actually not at all that much of a religious person so when initially I was recommended to watch this film by my friend, like many others similar to me, I was skeptical of it. More so because the unique concept weirded me out.

Also disclaimer, if you are someone who are not comfortable with their religious figure being portrayed in any comical sense whatsoever please refrain from reading my post

Saint Young Men is a slice of life, comedy anime movie based on the manga by Hikaru Nakamura whose plot centers around Jesus Christ and Gautama Buddha, central figures of Christianity and Buddhism respectively, living together as roomates in an apartment in the Tachikawa region of Tokyo as they take a vacation of earth from their heavenly duties.

Why I recommend watching this anime

Its wholesome message:-

One of the central message of this movie is about finding joy in little, mundane things in life. The story depicts its main characters in various situations, situations such as going to an amusement park, going to the swimming pool, planning a surprise birthday party and many more. It shows us how little things in life can provide so much comfort, going on a walk with your friend, wishing a simple hello while smiling to your neighbours can create a positive impression in them because, in the end it feels good (as the neighbours remarked that these "weird foreigners" seemed like good natured people) . A vending machine can be fascinating, a sip of your favourite drink can revitalise your mind and body after a long day of hardwork (as remarked by one of the characters saying "we became ascetic for these simple pleasures while they were eating chips), giving a gift to your friend will not just make them feel good but also watching them being happy with it feels good as well. Going along with this message, it also tells us that these religious figures wont really mind not being the central figure of the festivals related to them (Jesus forgetting his birthday on christmas and instead enjoying the day like any other person, even getting excited about Santa Claus) they might just simply marvel at the beautiful world they have created. Further going more into this meaning, this movie tells us that even with the commercialization of these religious festival, the faith, the values the ethics persists (as depicted by how Buddha helped the mean child during the Mikoshi festival, despite being constantly bullied by that kid). This movie (and this series at large) instead of shaming people for indulging in "materialistic pleasures of life" tells us that faith has always been existing and will be existing forever.

Mixing references from religious texts with the story

In this movie, we see multiple occasions where references from religious texts related to both of the figures were made, the opening scene were the birds were collectively perching on Buddha's body, Jesus turning water into wine out of excitement, him also narrating about Walking on Water, their tshirts always having something written related to their respective faiths (as routinely noted by the cashier who is always curious about what kind of shirt they would be wearing on the next day). One of my favourite of such of these references was when Jesus was communicating with the yakuza and actually having parallels with that man (the yakuza ending up in jail because one of his gang members having betrayed him is no less similar to what Judas did).

Authors note:-

Since I haven't been writing for a long time, I have kind of lost my confidence in my writing and it was not only my friends recommendation which made me watch it but also because one of my favourite youtubers, Accented Cinema had recommended the same movie so I really had to watch it and, I am really thankful to both my friend and the youtuber for recommending me such a wholesome movie

[honklore]

invisible string | dreamwastaken

(requested plot by red string of fate soulmate au, dream is still a streamer, reader has commitment issues, dream just wants someone to love, chat is the best wingman, sapnap and george try but they suck, reader is timid but dream makes them feel brave, taylor swift references, this is not very deep or poetic at all, i don’t like typing y/n so after this i’m going to move to ___)

listen to: invisible string by taylor swift

In kindergarten, red strings were simply a crafting tool, and teachers never mentioned how much pain they would eventually bring.

Because when they appear, from a child’s eighteenth birthday and beyond, they tighten like a godforsaken high school ring that came in one size too small. Like the universe is a child tugging their mother towards the ice cream truck, you’re pulled around central Florida, passes faces you can’t memorize and voices too garbled to hear.

The string knows where you need to go, and when.

And you’re at the park, feeding ducks and trying to ignore that incessant pull that tugs at your pinky, when you hear it.

It’s a voice you know only because it’s a voice that’s been in your house before. At least, through your brother’s tablet screen. Some gamer online — a streamer, with a distinct wheezing laugh that you’d recognize anywhere.

And you do. Behind you.

You risk a small peak, and your heart drops into your chest. He’s tall. Too tall to not intimidate you. And his sandy hair is wavy, curling at the collar of his sweatshirt, falling perfectly into place when he runs his hands through it. When he does, you see it, the red string.

Which means he could see it too. All he’d have to do is turn around.

But you’re not ready. You haven’t been, not since you watched your cousin get rejected on her eighteenth birthday. Since you watched a string of fate get clipped in front of you, like the three fates had finally had enough of your cousin’s happiness.

It was enough to make you curl into yourself, and reject the natural pull set before you. So you run, and you try not to think of what would’ve happened if he saw you before you saw him. You try not to feel the clippers, but the blade feels tangible against your skin.

You don’t stop running until you arrive home.

“Hey chat, just wanted to do a few practice runs and catch up with you guys,” Dream mumbles into the mic, already restarting his game after deciding he didn’t like his seed. The donos begin rolling in, even before Sapnap and George have unmuted, so Dream flits his eyes to the display screen, subconsciously reading along with the text-to-speech voice, “Dream, what if we shared a string of fate? Ahaha, just kidding... unless... love you bestie.”

Dream chuckles, “Actually chat, I felt a tug today! Isn’t that weird? I was actually reading up on what that could mean, and it seems like either my soulmate is in a lot of distress, or they were in my vicinity. I’m hoping, for their sake, it’s the second one. How would you even comfort a soulmate if all you can do is tug on a stupid string?”

“Simp!” George finally unmutes just to be annoying, and Dream knows soulmates are a touchy spot for him, considering he wasn’t given a string on his eighteenth. Which is strange, but not impossible. Of course, chat doesn’t know this, because it would give them more hope of becoming George’s metaphorical soulmate, but it certainly makes for awkward conversations once Dream and Sapnap get into their own soulmate bonds.

“I’m not simping, George!” Dream feels a bit defensive, because he’s genuinely just curious. He has no interest in meeting his soulmate right now. At least, that’s what he tells himself. He has his streams, and his friends, and chat. He’s fine.

[abbywastaken donated $10: dream why don’t you go back to where you felt the pull and see if you feel it again? that’s how i found my soulmate. okay luv u bye.]

“Thanks, Abby. Love you, too. Um, honestly I was in a pretty public place, so I don’t know if they would even come back anytime soon. Also, this is Orlando, right? Tourists are everywhere.”

Sapnap snorts, and Dream thinks it’s funny, since he’s in the other room. “Just say you’re a coward and go.”

“I’m not!” Dream says. “It was just a small pull, okay? It wasn’t even a big deal.”

He feels another lurch when he says that, but this one is in his chest. It taps against his heart, a quick reminder that it beats for someone else, and he needs to watch his words. “Okay, it was a big deal. Sort of. I’ll go tomorrow, okay chat?”

Chat is spamming all types of messages, from encouragement to jealousy. Dream manages to read off a few donos and create his first nether portal of the stream. He answers as they appear, eyes scanning for a fortress. “No, I didn’t see them… I’m not telling you guys where I was, that’s weird… I’m wearing a sweatshirt and jeans… Hi, Sarah and Patrick…”

He trails off as the donos do, and works at getting blaze rods. George is talking about a riddle he just learned, and he’s trying to trick Sapnap into saying something stupid.

Lost in his own thoughts, he finally closes the stream after a hasty goodbye. “What if I missed my chance?” He asks the two boys on the other line.

“It’s a string of fate, Dream,” George says. “You didn’t miss your chance.”

“Maybe they saw how ugly you are and ran away,” Sapnap says, completely joking, but the thought lingers in Dream’s head.

Did they feel the tug, and run away?

You pour cereal for yourself, and when your brother shuffles into the kitchen, you make him a bowl as well.

He’s eleven, and as little brothers go, he’s pretty chill. Aside from the inappropriate jokes and hogging the bathroom when you have to get ready for work, you like hanging around with him.

You pass him his bowl, and he grins. “I’m gonna watch Dream’s new video on the TV, since mom’s not home.”

You furrow your brows. Dream must be one of the dozens of streamers he likes. Maybe one of his friends will be in chat with him, and you will be able to connect a voice to a face. “Can I sit with you?”

He gives you an odd look, and it’s true, you don’t ask to watch videos with him often. “I guess.”

You eat a spoonful of cereal and settle into the couch while he gets everything ready. He clicks on a lime green icon of a little white blob man, and when the first video appears, you’re taken aback by the voice.

That’s the voice you heard. It’s this one, out of all the random men yelling about a block game. It’s Dream.

“Why doesn’t he show his face?” You manage, wanting information about the person that shares your string.

“What?”

“Like, he’s handsome, right? Why doesn’t he have a facecam?”

Your brother snorts. “Handsome? He’s never shown his face, Y/n. Don’t you know who Dream is? He’s like, super famous.”

“Oh.” You think of his golden hair, as sunny and soft as the glow around his entire being. His voice right now, joyous as he gets chased by his friends. “I mean, I don’t keep up with streamers.”

He begins to explain Dream and his friends, along with lore in their role play server, and it’s all interesting enough that you sit and listen, holding on to the little bits of information you can collect about your soulmate.

You file these facts in a secluded corner of your brain and try to make a whole person, along with the hair and the laugh and the intense music he plays as he gets hunted by his friends.

By nightfall, you’re following all of his socials and binge-watching his old streams, holding on to the way he speaks to his friends, and the fond way he replies to donos.

[dreamwastaken is live!]

You click on it, bundled underneath your covers as if someone might see you and find out your secret.

“Hi, chat! I know I was just live yesterday, but I cut it too short and wanted to come talk to you guys.”

He uses his avatar to wave at the screen, and it’s kind of an adorable sight.

[gogysimp donated $25: did you go see your soulmate?]

Your heart stops. Does he know? Did he see you? Or even worse, has he already found someone else, and he just hasn’t severed the tie?

“No!” Dream’s laugh pulls you out of your worries. “I was busy with meetings today, actually. And I was too nervous. Sapnap also refused to come with me, so I’m just going to go another day.”

So he didn’t see you. He just knows you were there.

You click the donate tab before you can stop yourself.

[y/n donated $1: would you reject your soulmate if you didn’t like them?]

Dream mumbles the question, and you try to ignore the way your heart deflates when he skips saying your name. “I don’t think so,” he states plainly. “I mean, logically, a soulmate would be your other half, so I wouldn’t not like them. But I know some people just don’t click, or there are other issues. So, I don’t know. I guess the only thing I can say is that I don’t want to reject them. And I hope they don’t reject me. I mean, imagine finding out your soulmate is a Minecraft Youtuber. That would be pretty weird…”

You giggle to yourself as he trails off and answers another donation. So he’s against rejection. Okay. Maybe you have a chance.

[kyra donated $60: i’m your soulmate.]

“Meet me where you felt the tug, then,” Dream says sassily. “Chat, don’t be weird, okay? I can’t control who my soulmate is, and I don’t want you guys to exclude them if they become a pat of my life.”

Oh, you think. So his chat is vocal about their opinions, and apparently they mean a lot to him. You shiver despite your warm position and imagine how annoying you might seem to his loyal viewers: someone who only knew about him because of their brother.

Insecurity pushes against your chest, so you close the stream and push your phone away, hoping to forget this ever happened, that maybe you won’t have to deal with the inevitable if you don’t think about it.

Yogurt Barn isn’t the first place on your list of dream jobs, but it has decent pay and helps you pay off student loans, so you appreciate it nonetheless. The teal sweatshirt they gave you as a uniform keeps you warm as you scoop the frozen treats.

Your coworker, a girl named Madison, is busy manning the counter, so you check each flavor and refill the ones running empty.

“Can I ask you a question?” Madison met her soulmate, Anna, only days after she got her string. It was a textbook romance, two people meant for each other, no doubt in anyone’s mind. She might be able to help you now. That is, if you can even admit to who your soulmate is.

“What’s up?”

“I felt the tug,” you say, avoiding her eyes in favor of restacking the medium cups.

“No way!” Madison is perky in a way that makes you want to be included. You like this about her. “Did you see them? Did you talk to them?”

“He—” You want to say that the part of him you saw was perfect, enough to keep you up when you should be dreaming. But reality is nothing if not disappointing. “I ran.”

“Y/n…” Madison gives you a stern look — like a mother finding out their child didn’t defrost the chicken in time. “Why would you run?”

“I don’t want to be rejected.” The magenta swirls painted onto the walls are a stark change to the clay sidewalks of the strip mall. “And before you say he wouldn’t… It’s happened to my cousin. It’s possible.”

Madison frowns. “But that can’t be the only reason, right? I mean, we all know someone who has been rejected. It’s usually not the end of the world for them.”

“He’s a famous streamer,” you blurt, and you’re thankful the shop is as empty as it is. Just the words themselves sound fake.

Madison snorts. “Like, gaming? That’s what’s holding you back? He’s a gamer?”

“I don’t care that he’s a gamer!” You hiss. “I care that he has a loyal fanbase who more than likely all want to be his soulmate!”

“You can’t say that for certain,” Madison says. “I mean, everyone knows about the soulmate system. If you watch someone and don’t feel the pull, you know they aren’t your soulmate, right? So why wouldn’t they accept you?”

“I don’t know,” you say. “I’m just scared. I mean, he’s got this huge following and everything and I’m just me. I work in a yogurt shop for goodness’ sake.”

You head into the back to grab more cups, and the bell rings, signaling a new customer.

“Welcome to Yogurt Barn, what can I get for you?” Madison’s customer service voice pricks your ears.

You sift through the boxes to find the smaller cups and listen to the customer’s order. “Can I have a strawberry cone?”

Your string pulls, that same familiar voice filling your head, not on the screen but once again just a few feet away. He’s infiltrating your life, so close you could reach out and touch him, but it’s such a terrifying thought that you set down the cups.

You tear off your apron, and run into the break room to grab a water and calm yourself down.

It’s ten minutes before Madison comes back to find you. “Hey, are you okay? You disappeared.”

You take a deep breath and stare at the poster on the wall. It’s brightly colored, with a walking yogurt cup waving and reminding employees to wash their hands before scooping. “That was him. The guy— the pull— Dream— I can’t— Does he know? Is he following me?”

“It’s okay,” Madison runs her hand down your back. “It’s okay. He isn’t following you. When the pull starts it tends to draw the couple together until they meet. He probably doesn’t know it’s you.”

You nod and take your breaths in gulps. “Okay. Yeah, you’re right. You’re right.”

“Why don’t you go home early, okay?”

Dream is live again.

Fresh out of the shower, you pull a t-shirt over your body and burrow into your blankets. Earbuds in, you try to focus on the sound of his voice, ignoring every ounce of anxiety that’s been riddling your mind.

“Hi, chat. I’m gonna practice speed runs again. I think George is joining soon.”

You open the chat and scroll through the emotes, clicking the ones you like and sending them, just to calm yourself down.

[kylo donated $5: did you find your soulmate?]

Dream laughs. The sound makes your chest tighten with longing. Your fingers ache. “Actually, I went to the place I felt the pull again. I dunno what I was expecting, but they didn’t show up. But after that, I was running some errands and I felt it, chat! I felt the pull again.”

He trails off while his character starts to look for a lava pool. “I feel discouraged but I don’t want to like, chase them, you know? I don’t want to scare them off.”

You click the donation tab again.

[y/n donated $1: maybe your soulmate heard your voice and got scared of you because they watch your videos.]

It’s not the total truth, but it might help him sleep better. You don’t want him to feel discouraged, but you can’t bring yourself to follow the pull.

“That could be a possibility…” Dream crafts a portal and sends his character through. “But I wish I could talk to them. I wish I could tell them that it’s okay. Like, we don’t have to rush into anything.”

[y/n donated $1: They probably wish they could talk to you too]

“Thanks, Y/n.” He sucks in a breath as soon as he says your name. The Minecraft pause screen appears and the sound of a discord call can be heard.

Your heart pounds in your chest. Something about him saying your name just solidified everything. Your arms feel hot and cold all at once, like you’ve just been thrown in a frozen lake. He has to be feeling it too.

“Chat, I gotta go, okay? I’ll try to stream again soon.”

“Hello?” A sleepy voice comes in through Dream’s earbuds.

“George! Their name is Y/n!” Dream is so excited, his voice raising a few octaves as he talks. “Someone donated with that name and I felt like, super weird. I didn’t feel it until I said the name out loud.”

“That’s crazy,” George says, monotone but supportive. “Do you think the dono is actually them?”

“I don’t know,” Dream scrolls through their past donos and quickly screenshots each one. “I mean, they definitely could be.”

He shares the pictures in their group chat.

George hums. “It sounds like they’re trying to tell you how they feel without admitting that it’s them. Where did you say you felt a pull?”

“At the park, and at the yogurt shop down the road.”

“So go there again. Maybe all they need is a little courage. If you feel the pull this time, you should follow it.”

Dream thinks about it for a moment before finally agreeing. He changes the subject to their next jackbox stream, and George is now happily talking about how they’re going to team up against Sapnap.

He goes into Sapnap’s room that night. He sits on his desk chair while Sapnap sits cross legged on his bed, scrolling through his phone. “Do you wanna get frozen yogurt tomorrow? My treat.”

“Hell yeah!”

The new strawberry-lemonade custard is a hit. Not only are the colors aesthetically pleasing for the teenagers who want a nice snapchat story, but there was a promotional coupon in the mail that has people lining up to the door.

“It’s not even that good,” you tell Madison while the two of you are on break. You’re both using a sample spoon to try out the new summer flavors, and in your opinion, strawberry-lemonade isn’t even the best one. “Blood orange is better.”

Madison wrinkles her nose. “No, blue raspberry is best.”

“It’s sour, though,” you say.

“Guys! Break’s over and you’ve got a line!” Your manager stares disapprovingly at the cups of custard the both of you are indulging in.

“We’re coming.” You toss the cup into the trash and walk out, scratching at the sudden itch on your pinky finger.

Pulling on your gloves, you grab a scoop and address the first customer, “Welcome to Yogurt Barn.”

“Hi!”

You still like you’ve been caught stealing on camera. You look up, hand clutching the scoop so tightly you can feel the cold steel through your gloves.

It’s Dream.

It’s him. He’s tall, and his hair is a sunshine blond, dark at the roots and curling beneath his ears. And his freckles… little spots all across his cheeks so endearing that you get a little distracted staring at them.

Then he’s talking, and you have to focus on his jade-green eyes, not his lips, which are a warm pink. “It’s you.”

You blink. Fear strikes your spine and you drop the scoop. “I gotta go.”

“Wait!” Dream calls, just as Madison shouts your name.

You exit out the back door again. Your heart is pounding against your chest, ribs expanding, and all you can hear is the sound of your name coming out of his lips, just last night through a screen.

“Y/n?” Only it’s in front of you, a few feet away, and he’s searching your eyes for any reassurance that you won’t run away again. That you won’t reject him. “That’s your name right?” He keeps talking, a nervous smile flitting across his face. “The donos? That was you?”

You can see the string now, red and blaring, tightening with each step Dream takes. It’s signing off your fate, for better or for worse, and you can’t fathom why he’s trying so hard, why he cares so much.

It’s hot in Florida but you feel cold, chilled to the bone. You straighten up. You figure you owe it to him to look up in the eye.

He leaves you breathless, eyes shining in the sun. “It was me,” you say. “You’re Dream.”

“Clay, actually,” he says. His smile widens, and it’s magnificently bold. He’s triumphant, just from your reply, and that alone gives you the slightest bit of hope.

“Clay,” you say. “I’m— I’m not— I don’t know if I’m ready.”

“You don’t have to be.” Clay is quick to reply, hands open and palms up. It’s a complete surrender — putting it all in your hands. “We don’t have to announce it. We don’t have to be anything at all, if you need time. But I would like to be your friend. If— If that’s okay.”

But you want to be close to him. The draw of your strings pulling each other closer and closer makes you want to wrap your arms around him. If he hasn’t rejected you, maybe you can do this. “I– I want to be more than friends, but I’m terrified of you rejecting me. I’m afraid of the string getting cut.”

Clay set his brows, “I won’t let that happen. We’re connected. Fate, ya know?”

“Yeah,” you breathe, and it’s a sigh of relief. “Okay. Maybe I’ll give you my number?”

“I’ll give you mine!” Clay is animated, holding out his hand for your phone. “That way you can text me when you’re ready.”

The red string shines like gold in the Florida sun, and when your fingertips brush, it burns with a satisfying warmth.

[back2themax]

It was right there and they didn’t use it

So something that particularly bothers me about the rise of the machines/salvation timeline is that the tools were right there at their feet and they just did not use them.

I talked about it a little bit before but I absolutely hate the fact that Rise of the Machines said “you know what. Fate was inventible the whole time fuck you.” (Despite the main quote of the damn franchise and the entire point of the first two movies). There was multiple things they could have done instead of making that- really bad- choice. It hurts because they were right there and pretty obvious options to take but … while I appreciate “well the military just took it over” it doesn’t sit right.

How judgement day happens anyway despite being prevented:

1.) Her father lied

This part drives me particularly insane. They decide “there’s no core or shut off at all oh no!” What the fuck? That’s- ok first, within all logic there 100% should be a central hub for this computer system if not the power it’s specifically drawing from. And secondly why is that your instant thought when being sent to a bunker?

The easier and more clear route to go in would simply by that Brewsters dad simply used his dying breath to save his daughter. He lied about the location to keep them safe - not thinking they’d be able to pull off the shut down “to dangerous, not enough time” etc. so they’re tricked into going into the old nuclear bunker instead of the actual core. Judgement day happens anyway because they spent so much time getting inside that it’s to late to turn around and try again. Boom. (Also why is John calling those computers old? They weren’t even from the 60s he had one in his childhood bedroom-)

2.) The arm!

This one they should have went with all along because it’s literally set up in T2 and has since been made a plot hole (as originally there wasn’t going to be anymore after). Bob lost his arm in the steel mill and it wasn’t destroyed like everything else! Every other piece of future skynet tech is burned except for the arm- cyberdyne could super easily send out for the arm like they did from the first terminator. Set up someone to take over the work- sure it’s all lost but they just need to search for another mind like Dyson. Maybe push his kids in the same direction?

How did they not go with this? “Oh it’s inevitable” you had a way easier plot that made way more sense sitting right in front of you and you didn’t take it!!

[silenceinternalmonologue]

A Review of Loki (2021)

[The following is an exact transcription of Twitter user @/diolesbian ‘s thread linked here . They gave me permission to cross-post their thread on my Tumblr. Keep in mind that this review is fairly long and quite critical of the series. I agree with this review wholeheartedly, and would be welcome to discuss it with anyone else.] 

Loki is a character who has died many times, but his own series may be his most brutal character assassination yet.

1.  Loki’s role in the series. Instead of tackling Loki's most villainous state of mind in Avengers 1, the series literally speedran through his development in the subsequent films, after which they almost entirely halted his character progression.

Because this series was set right after Avengers 1 it had the responsibility of developing Loki further in place of The Dark World and Ragnarok. In Episode 1, this development was kicked off by having Loki watch a reel of some of his defining moments in the MCU, allowing him to see his future all the way up to his death in Infinity War. Sadly, this scene ended up being the most development he received in the entire series. And arguably, this isn’t even true development but more like a speedrun of his character up until that point, serving as a simple tactic to explain why he wouldn’t be acting all dictatorial and murderous during his own series. As soon as he had been made “good” (read: docile) enough to follow along with the plot, his agency was completely thrown out. From that point on, the series wasn’t about Loki making things happen but about things happening to Loki.

Loki was supposed to be the main character, but he wasn't the protagonist in this story. In fact, he was more of a side character than we’ve ever seen him be in the MCU before, perhaps excepting IW and Endgame.

A protagonist is by definition someone whose important decisions affect the plot, whose development is followed most closely by the audience, and who is opposed by an antagonist. Loki exhibited none of these traits in this series. Especially the latter half of the story, he was reduced to simply reacting to the revelations around him, such as the reveal that the TVA members were all variants and that Kang was the true mastermind behind everything. He never truly involved himself or acted based on any of these plot points, and hardly played a key role in what was supposed to be his own story. Even in the films, where Loki is a side character, he makes choices which impact the plot to a larger extent. He almost seems more like a background character in the role of protagonist than in the parts he plays in the films.

2. The antagonist. The TVA could have worked as the perfect setting for Loki to have a new arc. It’s a thematic antithesis to who we know Loki to be. But when this Loki turns out to not be who the audience thought he was the TVA’s thematic significance falls apart as well.

In Episode 1, the TVA’s Agent Mobius enlists the help of Loki the Variant to pin down a greater foe who we are told is another, more malicious version of Loki. Order and chaos meeting in the middle, teaming up to take down an enemy, who even happens to be the protagonists’ literal evil self: that works, it sounds promising. But this dynamic is soon undermined when Loki leaves with Sylvie. Still, the benefit of the doubt is easy to grant here: a story about tricksters is bound to contain twists. But by Episode 3 the series is halfway done and the TVA has been appointed as the main antagonist again: we’ve now established villains three different times. And then the Cloud Monster At The End Of Time is introduced, and finally Kang. In other words, the Loki series has no consistent antagonist, no one to pit its main character against. And this is where we once again miss out on an enormous aspect of Loki’s potential characterization.

Protagonists are always defined by an antagonist, whether a purple Titan, a flat tire, or themself. Loki is not given anything to define his morals, motivations, or development in opposition to and this is a huge oversight. Especially given the fact that Loki has taken on the villain’s role in the past: how is the audience supposed to know that the “bad guy” is now a “good guy” if there’s no “even worse guy” to stand up against?

3. The plot. A plot should show off its MC’s strengths and match their personality. The Loki plot hardly relied on his presence at all, he didn't play a key role. The story had so little to do with Loki that it seemed as though he has barely any impact on “his” narrative.

One of the most central conflicts in the Loki series doesn’t involve him at all: it’s between Sylvie and the TVA. This plotline was a good concept overall, but its main problem is that it’s practically the only conflict in the series. Loki himself, as mentioned before, isn’t set in opposition to anything or anyone. And thanks to his relationships with Sylvie and Mobius being weakened by conflicting storytelling devices, he appears to be in a bubble by himself away from the rest of the cast for much of the story. First he follows Mobius around, then Sylvie, then he wanders aimlessly in the void before following Sylvie once again and learning that Kang is a Really Bad Guy who he should be opposed to even though by this point he has interacted so little with the story unfolding around him that the audience doesn’t even understand why he should be choosing to play the hero.

The plot and the characters both suffer by being so incredibly unrelated to each other. A series, especially an MCU one, should tell an overarching narrative through the perspective of its main character.

In the beginning of the series, when Loki was still getting his bearings in the TVA, this lack of decision-making was more understandable, especially since some of his skills were still being shown-- he discovered Sylvie was hiding in nexus events, and he made the choice to leave Mobius and follow her. But by the latter half of the series he still hasn’t had much impact on the story or taken any actions of his own, and simply allows plot points to happen to him. Just because the Loki series had to introduce the TVA and Kang didn’t mean it had to forgo telling a story about its protagonist. If Loki’s story had been intrinsically tied to the overarching plot points, if his choices had been some of the primary factors determining how events ended up taking place, the series would have succeeded in every aspect. But instead Loki is pushed aside by the plot of his own series, a plot which subsequently ends up coming across as largely hollow and pointless due to its lack of character drive.

4. Loki’s arc. One of the main reasons MCU Loki is loved is for his excellent character development across his films. TVA Loki was extremely lacking in that aspect and chances to take his character in interesting new self-aware directions were thrown away without much thought.

Throughout the MCU, Loki is on a journey with many highs and lows. He goes from a bitter and disheartened prince standing in the shadow of his brother, to a self-loathing Jotun bent on destroying his own people in a desperate attempt to win his father’s love, to a half-mad partially mind-controlled dictator with delusions of grandeur fueled by his own insecurity, to a prisoner wondering what there is left for him to lose, to a savior of Asgard’s people finally coming to accept his place in what is left of his family, to a tragic sacrificial victim who knew he had to die so the true hero might live on. That’s a hell of a journey, incidentally shown in less than TWO HOURS of screen time, and the prospect of TVA Loki embarking on an equally stimulating one, this time told over the course of over four hours and shown from his own perspective the entire way through, was exciting. But as it turned out, this relatively simple expectation went completely unmet.

For a story trying to say so much about individuality and self-acceptance, the Loki series seemed to pass by every obvious opportunity to tackle those questions.

Sylvie’s introduction seemed like a good idea at first: Loki would be able to literally bond with himself and learn to accept who he is that way, and forays could be made to explore what Loki’s personality could have been like if he grew up under different circumstances! But aside from a scene or two in Episode 3, this was not how things ended up going. Loki didn’t come to any grand or important conclusions about his identity, he didn’t choose to act differently, all that happened was a vaguely-worded confession of pseudo-romantic feelings which was cut off in the middle, made no sense, and weakened the narrative in a whole host of other ways explained elsewhere. Loki’s encounter with other versions of themself in the Void was similarly meaningless: Loki didn’t end up expressing or demonstrating a single thing he learned from meeting all of those alternate selves, despite the fact that there was potential for massive self-discovery there.

Less than 2 hours of MCU screen time portrayed Loki more coherently than this entire series. Loki is loved because of how much he changes, and it felt like he didn’t in this series. He started off lost and stayed that way throughout the entire plot.

By the end of the series, it was impossible to identify who Loki had become. He said he didn’t want a throne, but it was not obvious why not. He looked sad to be betrayed by Sylvie, but never expressed what that meant to him. He seemed afraid once Kang was unleashed, but why? Why did he care about the Sacred Timeline? What were his motivations? Throughout the series the answers to these questions became less and less obvious, culminating in the final episode which ended without a single moment of reflection or explanation as to who Loki had become. He wasn’t a villain, but only because he wasn’t murdering people. He was in some capacity a hero, for… being against Kang, probably, but once again with no explanation as to why Loki had decided to feel that way. He never seemed self-assured in his heroism, as if he hadn’t chosen the role for himself. Again, making one’s own choices that shape the narrative are what differentiates a protagonist from a side character, but Loki did not do that in this series.

5. Loki and Sylvie’s relationship. Loki and Sylvie had the potential to be a powerful duo representing the process of self-acceptance but instead they were reduced to a strange pseudo-romance.

Despite Loki’s many developments in the films, he never truly liked himself. He has been known to act extremely confident and self-righteous at times, but this is merely the opposite side of the coin containing his self-loathing and insecurity. Having him literally meet and subsequently befriend himself in Episode 3 was a move towards developing this aspect of him and potentially teaching him to finally accept himself as he truly is, but this buildup was all shattered in Episode 4 when the relationship is portrayed to have romantic undertones. Instead of a powerful struggle to accept oneself, the relationship between Loki and Sylvie becomes a twisted thing which is memeable at best (selfcest LOL amirite?) and outright damaging to both characters and the very concept of loving oneself at worst.

Ultimately, Loki and Sylvie's relationship didn’t add anything to either character’s development and actively detracted from what could have been a touching story.

Romantic love is extremely different from self love; romantic love has connotations including dating conventions and sexuality which are impossible to ignore and in this case serve as a distraction. And on top of ruining a potentially powerful storyline, this strange relationship makes both Loki and Sylvie seem out of character. Loki is once again one thousand years old and he has never even had a true friend, so why would he possibly fall for someone after knowing them for only two days? Meanwhile in Sylvie’s case, Loki’s “feelings” for her cause the audience to pay more attention to her romantic life and gestures rather than her actual character and motivations.

6. Loki’s Sexuality and Gender Fluidity. Loki’s sexuality and gender has been shown in several comic runs, and the series was advertised as featuring this representation as well. But due to several fundamental errors and problematic storytelling this also fell flat.

Sylvie’s introduction filled many fans with hope regarding the portrayal of Loki’s identity. In the MCU neither of their LGBT identities had ever been touched upon, while the series introduced a female variant of Loki and explicitly stated their sexuality. But this portrayal soon unraveled, most notably in Episode 5, in which many other Loki variants were shown but not a single one besides Sylvie was non-male. On top of that, when TVA Loki mentioned Sylvie and referred to her as “a woman Variant of us”, the other Lokis agreed that that sounded “terrifying”. Why should a genderfluid being be afraid of a version of themselves presenting as a different gender? It read as both fluidphobic not to mention strangely sexist.

The pseudo-romance between Loki and Sylvie only aggravated the situation. Not only did the nature of the “relationship” seem to follow heteronormative storytelling tropes (falling in love after a couple days of knowing each other, one party being reduced to a love interest, valuing romantic love above any other type, etc) but it also seemed distressing and offensive to many genderfluid people. A romance between a male and a female Loki, one of which doesn’t even call herself by that name, seems to be implying that an individual becomes someone else when merely presenting as a different gender, which of course isn’t at all the case. The writing wasn’t necessarily malicious here, but it was certainly ignorant and potentially even harmful. The opportunity was there to translate Loki’s powerful comic representation into the framework of the MCU, but this attempt did not succeed.

7. Loki’s characterization. Loki is a chameleon, but there are certain traits fundamental to his character. These traits were either ignored or actively mocked in the series. The audience already knew “what makes a Loki a Loki", but the series threw that knowledge away.

Episode 1’s premise of stripping Loki of everything he is used to was an intriguing setup to ensure the discovery of the core of who Loki truly is. The only problem was that this truth didn’t end up being found at all. Mobius made fun of Loki’s most defining traits, such as his habits of lying to manipulate people and acting out of a place of insecurity, which seemed to be a signal for the narrative to forbid Loki from exhibiting any of those traits from that point on in any way. This reduction in Loki’s character was reflected in everything, from his lack of humor (in the films he’s even funny while he’s taking over the world!), the underpowered way in which he fought against Sylvie (he’ll use magic to dry his clothes, but fight with a damn vacuum cleaner?) to the way that he wore the same boring outfit in every single episode-- it may sound shallow, but clothes are important when presenting a character. Every one of Loki’s looks in the films said something about him and his state of mind, and sadly that bland TVA outfit seemed to convey that Loki really was nothing more than a subservient pawn in what was supposed to be his own story. Ironically, the writing stripped Loki of everything that made him Loki, and left us with nothing but a Jotun-shaped void to be swayed by the whims and wills of the characters and plot devices surrounding him.

8. Loki’s past and abilities. This series could have elaborated on aspects of his character which had been teased at in the films and theorized about by fans, but ended up being a disappointment in this aspect as well.

Aside from Loki’s characterization and development, something else the series ignores is much of his canon story in the films. Since Thor 1, a truth that always overshadowed Loki was his Jotun heritage. He struggled with it up until the time of his death, clearly visible in his relationship with his foster family. It’s understandable that Loki was supposed to be independent from Thor in his series, but that’s no excuse for completely ignoring this central part of who Loki is. It doesn’t matter how much he goes through or how much his circumstances change, this feeling of unbelonging sits deep in Loki’s core and should have been both explored and explicitly discussed in the series. A series all about Loki was the perfect opportunity for him to finally confront and explain his relationship with his heritage, and potentially come to terms with it as well. And this isn’t even to say how cool some more insight on Loki’s Jotun inheritance could have been-- hypotheticals aren’t the point of this review, but it would have been fascinating to see Loki reacting adversely to heat like he has been hinted to in the past or even using his ice powers like he did in Thor 1.

Loki's magic was tragically underused. It felt like he was stripped of all of his magical powers even after his TVA chains had been removed, and this was never explained.

A second huge oversight is his magic. His powers are all over the place in this series. They were always a bit vague in the films, but this series was the opportunity to set that right and explain exactly what Loki was capable of as a sorcerer, especially now that the MCU has embraced magic more than it had ten years ago. But instead, Loki showcased an inexplicable lack of magic use-- again, the vacuum cleaner fight can be presented as evidence. There is a single scene in which Loki says that he learned his magic from Frigga, but no information is given as to how much he learned or why he doesn’t always favor spells. His power levels are incredibly inconsistent (he forgoes using magic when first confronted by the TVA, but is later shown using telekinesis to save himself from being literally crushed to death). And, strangest of all, there is a scene in which he tells Sylvie that he “can’t” enchant living beings. Loki, the millennium year old Trickster sorcerer god, who can hold an Infinity Stone with his bare hands, reanimate Surtur in the Eternal Flame, and trick the average person using illusions with ease, can’t cast a little enchantment? And if so, why not? The series offered precious few explanations concerning Loki’s magical abilities and instead only raised more questions. And in this way, Loki is once again relegated into the background and left with not a single shred of any new characterization or development. 

Loki contains multitudes, but the series reduced him to two dimensions.

This isn’t to mention every other facet of Loki’s story that could have potentially been explored to great success in this series-- his torture and subsequent partial mental influence at the hands of Thanos just before the events of Avengers 1 is one obvious example, as is his youth on Asgard, as are his suicidal tendencies (people don’t tend to survive falling off the Bifrost, and he knew that when he threw himself off of it), plus infinite other facets of him. Of course, it was both necessary and more interesting for this series to be its own story rather than one which lingered on past films-- but that’s not to say that none of these plot points should have come back, at least subtly, to play a role in this story. Plot points exist to be brought back later, not completely ignored. Otherwise a story may as well be written about a completely original character.

[dutchdread]

Hi again, I'm the same anon from your last ask. So my next question then is why would you consider it to be a bad story if Cloud ends up with Aerith in the end? You also say Cloud and Tifa supposedly have something going on, but even if they did, Aerith doesn't know that. Neither Cloud nor Tifa tell anyone, or even show that there's anything going on between them throughout the whole story. Did you see that in Remake that Aerith even asks Cloud if Tifa is someone special and he says no?

Thanks for the question. Your question is comprised of two parts, why Cloud ending up with Aerith would be a bad story, and then the secondary part about Aerith not knowing about the history between Tifa and Cloud. I think understanding the later will be helpful to understand the former so I'll start with that. This goes back to what I said in my last reply concerning the difference between thinking someone is a bad person, and thinking they're a bad character. First off, let me just make clear that I don't judge Aerith too much concerning her behavior in the OG, since as you rightly state, she didn't really know that there was anything going on between Tifa and Cloud, she probably knew there was some attraction there, but nothing about the extent or the history. And if in the remake it turns out she's actually blissfully ignorant I'll be more lenient there as well. However, in my opinion the remake heavily implies she does realize there is a thing between Tifa and Cloud. You mentioned Aerith asking if Tifa was Clouds girlfriend, and him replying "no". However, as always, there is context here, for starters, the scene doesn't end there and then. Aerith replies knowingly "but she's someone special". Moreover the scene is also only one scene in a series of relevant scenes concerning Clouds relationship with Tifa, which starts with Jessie asking about who Tifa is too Cloud, this plotpoint then continues through Aeriths flower. When Aerith gives Cloud the flower she mentions that his girlfriend will love it, then later when Aerith asks him who he gave the flower to Cloud says he doesn't remember, and Aerith calls him out on the lie. The question is then answered when Aerith goes to the 7th heaven and discovers Cloud gave it to Tifa, prompting a smile from Aerith. She figured it out, actually, she probably figured it much earlier, but now it was confirmed. She had a hunch about Tifa, just like Jessie, Cloud was defensive at first, then evasive, but ultimately, Aeriths hunch was correct, Cloud gave the flower to Tifa. He can pretend all he wants, Aerith knows. Personally, I think she smiled because it reminds her of the future. Throughout remake Aerith is hinted to know more than she lets on, and that's especially true concerning Tifa and Cloud. When Tifa is kidnapped she pushes Cloud to go after Tifa, calling Tifa Clouds special person. If I recall correctly she even uses the same terminology that she used to describe Elmyras husband. She actively tries to make Tifa jealous by calling Cloud her bodyguard, and then she straight up tells Tifa to follow her heart. She gives me the distinct impression that she knows perfectly well where Cloud and Tifas hearts lie, and is trying to push them into action. This is borderline confirmed during the Aerith resolution where she basically straight up admits to knowing more about Clouds feelings than she actually should, assuming you think that this apparition is at least somewhat related to the current Aerith in some manner. The thing that really clenches this in my opinion is a trace of two pasts, where Tifa straight up tells Aerith about her and Clouds history. If Aerith doesn't get it by then, then she's being willfully ignorant. But lets say she does indeed not know, that would to some degree absolve her as a person. But it would still make her a bad character, because WE, the audience, know. We know that Cloud is supposed to end up with Tifa, we know that's how the story goes. And when you rewrite old stories in such a way that you take things away from one character, just to give more to another character, you run the giant risk of insulting the characters involved. You see this in things like the star wars sequels, where they effectively character assassinated Luke Skywalker in order to artificially make Rey seem better. But there are two reasons why this doesn't work, for one, it tends to create Mary-Sue like characters who just get given everything, and two, it inherently causes the fans of the other characters and stories to resent the character that's taking it away.

People don't like people who are simply handed everything, even fictional ones.

In a sense, this is also why Cleriths so often seem to hate Tifa, because they feel like Tifa took their story away from them. The difference, of course, is that Cloud ending with Tifa is a part of the original game itself, while Aerith coming back to life and ending up with Cloud would be a 25 year retcon which would blatantly disadvantage one character in favor of another, this in turn would reek of favoritism, which in turn would generate bad blood in the player. A character who needs to take away from other characters in order to be put forward is not a good character. Good characters add to the characters around them, not take away, that's what Aerith in the OG does, that's what Aerith ending up with Cloud, would not do. This effect would then be magnified by Aeriths already over importance to the plot. Having the universe revolve around one character generally isn't good writing. One of the things that makes Lord of the rings so timeless and beloved is that Frodo is just a small hobbit in the grand scheme of things. Likewise, one of the key elements that makes FFVII so appealing to human nature is Clouds humanity and lack of importance. The fact that Cloud turns out to not be a soldier 1st class, but just a grunt who wasn't good enough, who still ends up being the one who saves the world, speak to the human spirit. Aerith living and ending up with Cloud wouldn't be just a small difference where the overall story would stay the same with only the love interest switched, no, it would inherently ripple effect into all other aspects of the story. From the smallest details to the overall themes of the story, from directing to the personalities of characters, everything would be effected and all of it would fall apart. I could go over a hundred examples but I'll limit myself to some of the smallest and largest. Stories have a flow, where what is happening follows logically from what came before. It's not that it's impossible to write a story where two characters that are roughly similar to Cloud and Aerith fall in love, get separated by death, and where the Cloud character mourns and pines for her after she's gone. The problem comes when you add in Tifa, Zack, and all the other context and details of the story. Consider Zack, if we take the concept of Zack as it relates to Cloud and Aeriths relationship and boil it down to the essentials we could see it as a story about a girl falling in love with a boy because he's channeling the spirit of her dead ex, the main internal conflict the characters need to overcome could then be the question of whether these feelings are true, or whether they are just the shadow of her feelings for the old boyfriend. On the surface, this premise works as the basis of a story. The problem lies in the execution. If you write such a story there are a few things you can and cannot do. For one, you have to make this love exceptionally obvious, you can't tell a story about whether or not feelings are true if you never even get to establishing the feelings in the first place. One of the key things you need to do for this is establish the two characters central importance to the others internal emotional arcs. The first thing you DON'T do is establish a second female character and have Clouds emotional arc revolve mainly around her. If you want to tell a story where Tifa and Clouds relationship turns out to just be friendship, while Aerith and Cloud turns out to be love, then you show the scenes establishing that. However, whenever Cleriths argue for a story like this they have to assert that Cloud no longer loving Tifa is just something that happened off-screen and is never mentioned. But if this were true, this would be extremely important to show. So again, if this is the story, then this is bad direction, aka, storytelling. Scene choices matter, if your story requires you to assume that the scenes you're shown aren't important, and that the crucial bits have to be imagined to happen of screen, then that's bad writing. And the reason you can't suddenly do it now, 25 years later, is

because of a thing called "set-up". Even if they were to change to story to suddenly direct it as such now, it would constitute a drastic change of direction, which means the larger 2-decade long story we've been told is no longer a single coherent whole. If the story in remake is that Cloud always loved Aerith, then why wasn't the ground work for that lain 25 years ago? If you want to say that the story is about Cloud loving Aerith, and ending up with her eventually, then you can't have Cloud not speak her name for the second half of the original game, and devote that time completely to establishing port-mortem that Cloud wasn't himself while with Aerith, and that his true self has deeply ingrained feelings towards another woman. And not some minor character who exists only as a plot-device, some fake hurdle designed to try to raise some fake tension, but Tifa, a character who is routinely established to be the "heroine" of the game, someone of equal importance to Aerith who cared for Cloud while he was in a coma, whose history with Cloud started his internal character arc, whose history with Cloud resolved his internal character arc, and who lives with Cloud 2 years later.

And the same thing goes for Zack, it was possible to write him as negligible when it was just FFVII, if you ignored the addition of Tifa and JUST focused on the Zack element as a side character. But the addition of Tifa and the existence of Crisis Core cause the narrative to become disjointed when trying to view it as a single story. This is why people so often want you to ignore Crisis Core, because they understand that if a conclusion of a story is that Zacks role isn't that important, then why did your story spend an entire game cementing the importance of Zack? One of the things I hear most from Cleriths is "why couldn't Cloud just get over his childhood crush on Tifa and fall in love with Aerith? It happens in real life" , or some other variation of "why couldn't this happen?" But this shows the problem with how they want the story to go, because stories aren't real life. Anything CAN happen in a story, but not anything should. Stories have a concept called " checkovs gun", if a gun is introduced into a story in the first act, it has to be fired somewhere down the line. If the gun turns out to not have a role in the story, why was it there? But the same thing doesn't apply in real life, in real life, chekovs guns almost never fire, with few exceptions, real life is a bad guide to how to write stories. Stories written like real life, generally suck. If characters in stories behaved like characters in real life, half their lines would be "uhhhhh", and half the scenes would be them sitting on the couch having meaningless unrelated events happen.

The entire flow, pacing, and sequence of events is wrong in a Clerith version of this story. In order to sell the idea that FFVII is a story about Aerith and Cloud getting together you first have to sell the idea that all these plot threats concerning Tifa essentially don't matter. But if they don't matter, then why are they there? What purpose do they serve? What purpose does Tifa serve? Or Zack? In order to "fix" their preferred interpretation, Cleriths need to get around this problem, which causes them to have to re-interpret everything that happens and twist it in order to create the appearance of a coherent story. This requires them to resort to minimizing characters, character assassinating characters, and generally misrepresenting everything that happens. I think there is no bigger indication of why Cloud and Aerith getting together would suck as a story than looking at how the people who propose this version of the story look at Cloud and Tifa as characters. What follows are some excerpts from the dumbest person I've ever debated.

This went on for over 200 replies, this is not a mentally sound interpretation of the story, but this is what you need to believe in order to get the Aerith/Cloud love story to work. You're forced to minimize Tifa and her importance to the story, and you need to demonize Cloud. So basically you have two options here, you either have to say "all this stuff with Tifa and Zack, doesn't matter", all their scenes, all those plot threats, they all aren't a part of the larger story being told and ultimately amount to nothing. Or two, you remove all those scenes or rewrite them to instead focus on Cloud and Aerith. And both those approaches suffer from the same basic problem, they're both effectively going "screw everything, all that matters is Cloud and Aerith". Which brings me back to my earlier point. If your story is pushing everything aside in order to hype up the main character, you're not writing a good ensemble story, you're writing a bad fan-fiction. This is the writing people HATE. Cloud is no longer a sad but likable character with complex motivations and feelings who wasn't as important as he thought he was, no, he's cliche self-insert main character that the world revolves around, who every girl genuinely loves regardless of whether or not it makes sense, even though he's a complete asshole who abandons children and takes advantage of women just because he's "lovesick". No other man could ever compare, a week with him braindamaged and you forget all about the man you pined after for 5 years. Aerith is not compassionate to a man who blames himself for his failings and thinks he'd do more harm than good, she's compassionate to a piece of human filth who refuses to go save children because he doesn't care about them. She's not just a girl with a big destiny and a tragic fate, no, the universe itself resets to make sure she gets laid. Tifa isn't a powerful woman who devotedly supports the man she loves through his darkest hours, instead she's a weak unimportant doormat without self-respect who even in 2 decades could not measure up to a week with Aerith. Zacks connection with Cloud doesn't come with complex implications about Aeriths feelings, Zack never really mattered, his entire story of getting back to her? Doesn't matter, it only exists to show how much Aerith must love Cloud to choose him over Zack. The entire lifestream reveal concerning Cloud? Doesn't matter, nothing matters, it's in the past. The central reveal of the story isn't important because Clouds true self suddenly likes Aerith now.....good writing. etc, etc, etc. Where Aerith was once a part of an ensemble cast, the heroine of the external plot, tasked with saving the world through her powers as an ancient, while Tifa as the equally important heroine of the internal plot saves Clouds through their shared feelings, now everything instead revolves around Aerith, and the other characters only exist in service to her, not as characters in their own right, but only to make sure she and Cloud gets together, like every hated mary-sue in history. The pain of her death? Gone, the impact and nuance of the story? Gone. Literally everything that made FFVII special? Gone. And concerning the small, even the little details would no longer be coherent, Cetras thematically guide people to the promised land, note: "GUIDE", but now Aerith would suddenly be the promised land herself. The through-line of Cetras "returning to the planet"? Gone, if Aerith doesn't die that doesn't link to the story anymore at all. Tifa's bar being the 7th heaven, aka, the final heaven, aka, the promised land where Aerith guides Cloud to? Suddenly a meaningless name. Tifa's last name "lockhart" being a direct hint towards the "tender feelings locked up inside Clouds hart"? Completely trivial, the feelings weren't that important to the story. And I could go on for hours, every aspect of FFVII, from small to large, would be fundamentally poisoned if Cloud ends up with Aerith.

I could rewrite the story to make it work, but that's the point, then you'd be rewriting the story in order to diminish every other character and story in favor of Cloud and Aerith. Which brings us back to it becoming a horrible fan-fiction where no one and nothing matters except Cloud and Aerith. It's ok to write unimportant characters, it's not ok to make your important characters unimportant in retrospect in order to wank off another character. Thanks for asking.