#what makes a character a good villain is about stuff they do while theyre being a villain

[pandoratheprocrasticreator]

no by all means keep judging cartoon villains solely by if they get redeemed in the end. i know some of us like to talk about other stuff like characterization or entertainment value or nuance as something that makes a good villain. but i think the only thing that actually matters is if the villain ends up on good terms with the protagonist at the end. all the Good TM cartoons with Good TM creators make the villains die a Horrible Death for being Abusers or whatever. and all the Bad TM cartoons with Bad TM creators Forgive Fascists by not making them get publicly executed by the 14 year old protagonist in front of the 8 year old target demographic.

i mean im so glad that more cartoons nowadays are subverting the psyop to support fascists that a few queer artists and queer shows definitely invented in 2017. there are so many popular cartoons doing that. it's almost like there are more properties killing their villains now and in the past than there ever were of properties that didn't do this. and it's almost like whether the villain gets redeemed at the end is more about the context of the story and its themes leading up to a narratively sound decision.

but you know. a few queer shows made by trans ppl were popular and they didn't kill their fascists and even had the gall to make them nuanced while also looking into the harm they did. guess it's trendy to forgive your abusers now because like two cartoons said so. out of like 40 other similarly high profile works that just straight up hit their villains with a bus or smth. by all means. keep heaping praise onto that one show about how they "let their villain just be evil" instead of talking about anything more interesting. that's so subversive, everyone's doing it!

[swellsha]

I saw ur Prime Defenders villain au and I’m so curious about it, it seems so interesting and fun and I wanna know everything!!! Where is it different from the what if? How did the ghostkicks & polypd happen? Tell me everything :)! Also love ur design for Kota I love his long hair 👀!

ahh tysm for asking!! SO theres a lot different, i suppose i should go character by character

(tw for some pretty dark themes)

to start with will. (in this au uses they/them) they are pretty similar to the oneshot except i made up backstory stuff because i can!! part of it is that they cant feel any pain and never have been able to, so theyve always been fascinated by the power pain has over people and what it can make them do, especially given they dont really know what it feels like. their backstory is similar to normal william wisp except theyre more power hungry and start to use their abilities to take the power from the creatures they and the unwitness protection program find. theyre ... not exactly chill w that and the group breaks up. will starts to withdraw themself more and more and listen to the voices in their head telling them they should totally just kill everyone and eventually theyre like "wow yeah i should kill everyone!!" so one day during church they use their powers we saw in the one shot which lets them make everyone have an insatiatble bloodlust and basically cause a slaughter and they run off. given they didnt exactly hide it very well theyre arrested when they arrive at rockfall and taken to the supermax

tldr: wills obsession with pain and power goes A Tad Bit Too Far and they end up in jail.

as for kota (she/her in this au) she has always been a bit feral. ill try and make this explanation shorter but basically every adult that shouldve taken care of her died and she took that as a sign that she just wasnt good enough for them, that they didnt want her. she went into the care system and saw kids who had powers always being chosen over her. she even begged ms g (who she later came to sort of blame for her parents death) to take her in and train her but ms g didnt take her seriously becuase she was only a kid with no powers and rejected her. in a kind way, but it still stung. due to this kota began to grow to hate superheroes and just the world in general, viewing herself as an outcast to the world. being about 8 years old she decided the logical thing to do is run away to the woods to be raised by wolves. however instead of wolves shes found by grandma cole (who is more evil in this au) and trains under her and master cole. being an edgy kid she calls him master kill which is where her name comes from. they treat her terribly but tell her that she needs them and they love her and noone will treat her better. when shes 18 grandma cole falls seriously ill and while kota is out getting firewood she dies. except not from the illness...(oo mystery mystery intrigue intrigue) kota runs to the nearby rockfall city and totally pushes that girl off that building on purpose. however when theyre found ppl still assume kota was trying to save her and she undergoes the same surgery. however the surgeon is also evil because everyone must be and also puts a whole demon in her as well as the heart. anyway she wakes up kills everyone leaves gets arrested and taken to Rockfall supermax.

(i said id make this one shorter but wow it really wasnt huh)

as for virion, (any prns in this au) hes the closest to canon. he alsp falls thru the portal and gets ppl in her head exvept this time doesn't just kill a theif but also a bunch of cops too and is taken to the supermax! wow that one was short and sweet

ashe (she/her) hates how powerless her upbringing has made her. she resents the world from afar and the only time shes entertained is when awful shit happens. the only time she has ever felt in control of her own life is when the trickster took her over and totally killed her mum! ironic because she wasnt even the 1 in control there lol. she loves the power the trickster gives her and begins to study it more and more. im sure that wont go badly.

when theyre in the supermax (ashe is the only one not there) they all become a sort of gang and meet tide, and they work together to escape. this is where ghostkicks starts except kota is too thick to realize she has some sort of feelings for them and william is scared of the potential feelings and pushes them down. kota basically becomes williams guard dog lol. kota doesnt like virion cuz she feels hes taking will away from her. after they escape they start to work under the lambert brothers (who are also all evil here) and also with ashe. they call themselves the "prime offenders" lol. they burn down the base of the prime defenders (who in this au is doug, cantrip and le frog) to try and capture wavelength

as for ghostknife, their dynamic is similar to in canon except william is somehow more weird about it. idk how better to explain it

pizzarat (virion and kota) is one sided (at first, anyway) because virions falls for kota after she beats him in physical combat which i feel is a very virion thing to do. kota continues to dislike them but xey keep trying to show how devoted they are to her and eventually kota starts to trust her more

WOW thats a lot huh!! i apologize for how damn much that was and i haveny even talked about the prime defenders or their siblings, xavier and alan, the lambert brothers or what wavelengths and tides whole deal is here

thanks so much for asking!!

[moonlit-dreamers]

Can you rate all TSAMS characters?

oh dear lord- i can certainly try tho i get the feeling i'll forget some lol

in order of favorite to least favorite

sun - 10/10 - hes perfect, nothing can change my mind. hes heavily traumatized and incredibly anxious. hes the perfect specimen for whump AND hurt/comfort. im also just Heavily biased

ruin - 9/10 - yall cant fight me on this hes one of my favorites. hes a tragic, morally gray villain that did what he thought he had to. hes a sad pathetic wet cat of a man who i bet all my money on (a whopping 500 bucks) that he doesnt even know who he is as a person

eclipse - 9/10 - him being below ruin on the list means nothing bc theyre equal in my heart. again, tragic wet cat of a man whos too damn tired to deal with this shit any more. i also relate to him in ways that probably arent healthy <3

solar flare - 8/10 - BRING MY BOY BACK HE DID NOTHING ‼️

dazzle - 8/10 - sweet baby girl she can do no wrong

jack - 7/10 - he can do many things wrong but nothing could make me hate him forever <3

molten - 7/10 - he baby. he sweet. he dont know the world and thats okay. maybe i just like it when murder machines turn into pacifists and just want to have fun.

dark sun - 7/10 - he fascinates me. i want to put him in a lil test tube and study him under a microscope. i need to ask so many questions, most of them being some form of "what is wrong with you"

computer/spaniard - 7/10 - we dont talk about the previous 2 computers we dont care about them (i dont hate them im just biased <3) i only care about SPANIARD. i miss my boy why did they have to kill him he couldve been so good. sun needs his husband back/silly

old moon - 6/10 - he is... certainly a specimen. i keep bouncing between "i hate him i want to rip his head off" and "im wrapping him in a blanket so tight he cant breathe". before he died he was an absolute prick and the fandom ruined him for me bc everyone fell for his manipulation and blamed sun for shit moon did and bc i was so biased towards sun it was difficult for me to not hate him. after he came back hes more fun (and tolerable) due to him actually improving but i wish he had more set-backs bc like. to him he'd been dead for like. a week. he should be struggling more <3

earth - 6/10 - cant quite pinpoint it but i Do feel like she could be done better as a character. she... doesnt really change that much? idk how to describe it. maybe i just find her boring lol

solar - 6/10 - yes i am putting him this far down on the list bc i feel like he couldve been done SO much better. he has so little flavor it hurts. what are his struggles? what is his goal? what does he even do outside of sun n moon?? and dont even get me STARTED on how little his past is brought up in a meaningful manner, let alone be something that effects him. you could say "oh hes gotten better" yeah but we saw none of it so like?? fbkdsgnjkds i'll need to rant about his character another day smh my head

killcode - 6/10 - it was fun while it lasted or something like that. he was interesting and i Do wish they had just.. left him alive? not bc he would be "useful" or wutever but just bc like. wut if he wants to come back randomly? like he wouldve just been a fun side character

nexus/new moon - 5/10 - listen. i dont wanna put him down here. but his current arc fucked him over. he was so fun and whimsical before! he was just a silly lil guy trying to navigate the world around him and desperately trying to fill a role he couldve never filled. his current arc couldve been SO much better. but its not as emotionally charged as it could be. like. they just completely threw away his original motive! and now he doesnt care?? not even the slightest??? booooo tomato tomato tomato throwing tomatoes/ref

lunar - 5/10 - again, you can fight me, but current lunar just isnt it for me. lunar before he died? hell yeah. he was such a lil shit that only cared about stuff if it benefited him. he didnt care that he was hurting moon with his movements, he just switched sides bc moon actually paid attention to him. him and bm couldve been SUCH a good duo too OTL

bloodmoon - 5/10 - honestly i liked v1 bm more than v2. idk man. something about their energy was so different and it lured me in. v2 kinda just felt.. boring. no critiques on his character, just not for me *shrug*

gemini - 5/10 - i dunno. just boring to me

monty - 4/10 - yet another moment of "no direct hate on the character just uninteresting to me" with monty. theyre just. boring. also another moment of "i liked them before [insert event]" with the event being before earth.

the creator - 4/10 - just. meh? he could be better as a villain but hes like. been here for so long that i wonder if he really does much of anything? idk man. im losing steam atp dnf,jsdgndkj

this might be all of them..? i dunno. probably missed a bunch (and yes im aware i shoved in some laes characters shush). im gonna leave out eaps characters so this doesnt get longer and so i dont go on a hate rant about puppet/j

[enden-k]

Can I ask what makes Arlecchino evil? I'm v much a villain enjoyer and like some morally greyness, but I genuinely didn't pick up on a lot of bad stuff with Arlecchino. She was super helpful during Fontaine and seemed to be the only powerful person who cared about helping the common folk when the water levels were rising.

I'm not here to start an argument, just wanna expand my view 🙏

dw didnt think u want to argue! i will also use this to say i wont tolerate arguments, this goes for everyone here

i will talk about sensitive themes under the cut (mentions of when i was groomed/emotionally abused by my adoptive father/mentions of abuse/grooming in general) so if someones not good with this, be warned please and dont click for your emotional comfort.

i really love arlecchino (theres also difficult, personal reasons ig) and id rather wait for her to arrive to get more information than we have so far through other characters/side quests/main quest but well.

her goals aligned with ours in the fontaine quest which is why we have the impression shes a good/nice person, especially considering our other meetings with the harbingers we met so far (signora, childe, scara, dottore) and the situations. shes very calm and diplomatic (lets see how it changes in the next update when we fight her)

but we shouldnt forget how the travellers on their toes the entire time/everytime they come in contact with arle. its because shes a harbinger after all. shes a danger. her graceful politeness and calmness is supposed to have you on guard, make your hairs rise. shes mentioned to be manipulative and shes manipulating others to achieve what she wants by being nice and calm. she has ulterior motives. we should be careful. this is my impression based on my own gaming experience and idk if it was the same w others, but bc of us being on guard around her i was always prepared for her to turn on us until the end of the main quest.

anw, arle is supposed to be intimidating and have you wary. even tho she comes off as nice and polite, having done good and helped in the main story. its bc thats what she wanted and you happened to have the same goal. also lets not forget scaras and childes thoughts about her which already tells a lot

she has two sides. the one we saw in the quest, the graceful, calm, polite face to get what she wants. and the other, the one scara and childe talk about here, the one they call "crazy"

not to mention her codename, "the knave". what does it mean? servant. what else does it mean? "dishonest/deceitful man". basically, swindler. isnt it perfect?

shes manipulative and whatever her "true" nature is, we dont know (yet). she may have "good intentions" here or there but will achieve them no matter what it takes.

as for the thing you can consider as bad; the house of the hearth is an orphanage that raises children into fatui agents. only those who have potential join the ranks while the others are kept close (its not known whats done with them afaik). theyre basically grooming/raising child soldiers/spies.

before the sensitive stuff comes up, for the ppl who dont want to proceed, arlecchino fools/manipulates you into thinking shes a nice person/good parent. its amazing and so in character for her. its also scary how some ppl cant see the abuse/manipulation unless you went through this too or well. just actually read and realize it.

arlecchino is an emotionally manipulative parental figure. now, this is coming from someone who went through heavy abuse/was groomed by their adoptive father who was extremely manipulative and i spot so many things very well known to me. others who went through the same get this feeling. these signs you immediately recognize.

you get punished for the tiniest mistakes and when you get loved, it makes you forget all that was done to you, just for that tiny bit of affection you crave. you try to do your best, to do everything asked and expected of you, not to disappoint the only parent you have and youre dependent on, to be a good kid deserving of love and when you slip up youre in shambles. there was a time i did a tiny mistake by accident and my father said to me in the coldest voice "you broke my trust" and i remember so vividly how it broke me, how i cried until i got sick. i was physically abused before and none of it hurt me more than this. it still gets to me after all those years. emotional manipulation is cruel

what im trying to say is, she came in a time of need. taken as a savior while it just is one abuser swapped out with another. like my adoptive father having me dependent, giving me love i never received and being everything i wanted, making me believe hes everything i need, a common thing abusers do. wanting to do everything youre asked of and do it good, the fear of disappointing and being punished, believing you deserved it bc its your fault and treating your abuser like a savior, being conditioned. this is whats happening.

now, arle genuinely loves and protects her children; its very clear that the life of the children matter to her the most (look at childes line and freminet/lynette etc) - she was one of them too after all. so, its possible to love and still do these. moral greyness etcetc

anyway idk if its understandable or if i can explain it in proper words while maintaining a good distance so ill add the voicelines of the siblings heavily implying this, and also a tweet adressing this that brings it to proper words, better than i can say

tweet here bc tmblr doesnt insert the link properly

[kijosakka]

alejandro,,, so fun <3 OKAY I HAVE MANY AN IDEA SO TO BEGIN WITH: panopticon

as established, panopticon is a Thing in this au mainly as a theme (but also a very very big influence in the creation of this in the first place).

panopticon itself refers to an institutional/prison design wherein a central guard tower and the construction thereof makes the prisons unable to tell if theyre being watched at any given moment; thus, self regulation.

^ dramaturgy, as an AU, focuses on noah acting ‘in accordance’ with the cameras in a genre-savvy adjacent manner; he self regulates. the ‘central guard tower’ to him is the audience.

to alejandro, however, the audience is not a variable. his competing does not factor in the audience and public the way noahs does; instead, his focus is shifted to his castmates.

to slot it in now, im talking about alejandros perception of the audience and the perception of him thereof (which, this and the above will be compounded upon with the stuff below further explaining alejandros facade/masking).

^ again, the audience just isnt a necessary variable to alejandro (at least, beyond *his family). playing in the manner he is, orchestrating and manipulating, you just cant fit in the time to placate the audience to make them love you. the more important thing is the opinions of his castmates, who are the real variables impacting his win.

and so, in short, alejandro is polarizing. people love a villain, but there is still the in-universe distinction of it being a reality show. it is real people; so, some part of TD’s audience will account that and denounce alejandro for being so comfortable in manipulating his peers so shamelessly.

[*his family, as seen in canon, seems to be something he is acutely aware of. he would be aware of how he presents himself, and would do so in a manner pleasing to them.

this is not to say hes unaware of the audience. he knows theyre there and speaks directly to them in the confessionals in a shifted manner (exaggerated/nitpicked for the purposes of this AU).

< where most characters speak about their competition to the audience, alejandro often speaks directly to the audience. tiniest distinction but i feel i should make it and emphasize it]

and now,, his actual facade; what it portrays, what it hides, and the reasons/motivations.

^ restating another post (ty ophe), alejandro has a mask of a person hiding antagonism. he acts like an idealist version of his actual person; kind, sensible, intelligent, considerate. athletic, helpful, goodhearted, compassionate, attractive to boot. taken to an extreme, holier-than-thou and patronizing. diminished, way overcompensatory, or maybe doormat-ish.

while this version of noah comes off as uncanny valley because no real person is so detached and lifeless, no real person is so perfect either. alejandro would trigger the same bells but to a much, much lesser degree. more like there were pieces of a puzzle missing rather than something distinctly wrong.

because alejandro seems like a person, he portrays depths and facets to himself (while all positive), and interacts with his castmates like how people interact with people.

it is, again, a the veil of an idealist person hiding antagonism. i don’t think alejandro is a cartoonishly antagonistic, unremorseful supervillain character (and hes not really portrayed as such in canon, but just to say), but he is absolutely not the perfection he portrays himself as.

now is a great time to add that alejandros mask heavily relates back to the expectations his family pushes on him; not only is it good socially (for the purposes of the competition) but theres probably a sense of validation there aswell (if shallow, because its still not an appreciation of the ‘real’ him).

^ and thats a Thing as well, the ‘real’ alejandro. flawed and imperfect, able to be irritable and snappy and meanspirited with arrogance hiding the cracks of overwhelming inferiority. as a person, that is, in intent for the game hes, well, an eel. conniving and slippery and manipulative and sly and vindictive and unapologetic.

and as for reasons,, staying in line with the burromuertos ‘high society’ position in this AU, maybe it was something like a way to prove himself; he works the social game and shows business promise because of it, and brings a hefty sum of money home to his family that he earned.

and his facade is an easy one, not only a way to show a sense of professionalism and keep the burromuerto name ‘untainted’ by blatantly unsavory behavior similar to someone like duncan, but a way to keep his castmates none the wiser while the steals the money from under them.

BUT within the au itself things umm do not go to plan as noah makes it his mission to unmask alejandro as just as fake as he himself is.

which brings about the topic of a very specific cast relationship: noah and alejandro

as,, yk,, the backbones of his entire au (ok its more like nervous systems. noah is central and alejandro is peripheral) i want to save a full digging into their relationship and developments for another post entirely (probably going episode by episode until pre london focusing mostly on alejandro, and then another post after i figure out the actual events of WT going through the changed canon)

but to just go through it very quickly; noah doesnt trust alejandro and sees through him. alejandro eventually catches wind of the fact that noah doesnt trust him, and i imagine it would trigger a wondering of how? spurred on by noahs whole ‘no substance’ thing.

and besides, nobody has anything on noah despite him being their castmate going on 3 years now. and now that he’s thinking about it, what does he himself really know about noah in the same way he knows things about the rest of the cast? that’s interesting. *

^ i imagine alejandro would be wary but not worried about noah knowing, simply because of the passive nature he’s read of the other. < poor alejandro. it is not nearly that easy.

[*interesting,,, i will cover that more on the actual post going ep by ep for their relationship. because i do have Thoughts]

[blub-blub-bish]

Most of my thoughts while watching rise of red & my opinion on the whole movie

Spoilers under cut

-Opening-

I don’t know how to feel about them implying Carlos died…

WHAT CARLOS WOULD HAVE WANTED??? HES THE SON OF CRUELLA, WHAT DOES HE HAVE TO DO WITH WONDERLAND????

I’m a bit uncomfortable rn

-red with maddox-

Red has mental problems and mommy issues… that’s concerning

-queen of hearts intro-

Queen of hearts is girlbossing but in a bad way

-Bridget and Ella meeting each other-

ISTG THE SEXUAL TENSION BETWEEN CINDERELLA AND THE QUEEN OF HEARTS IS VERY THICK

-After they went back in time-

THEIR KIDS TOO????

Chloe’s hair is so pretty

The dance choreography is a bit….cringe

-meeting past Bridget and Ella-

Bridget is so sweeeeet

Also, did the prank made her British or smth?? Why is she not British as a kid???

Is this high school musical???

-villains intro-

The villains are so unnecessarily hot wtf

like HOOK???ULIANA??????MALEFICENT??!?!?

Maleficent and hades being a high school couple that got married right after highscool and get divorced a few years after makes so much sense

-Uliana fell into a pool-

Uliana is a fucking brat, I do NOT like her

-the whole homecoming thing-

BRIGET AND ELLA ARE SO GAY FOR EACH OTHER???? LIKE MOVE OVER CHARMING, THEYRE GAY

Charming’s hairstyle is so shit😭

-at Ella’s house-

Poor Ella

Ella talks so gayly about briget istg- JUST KISS ALREADY

Red instinctively tell her what to do to hide the broken vase makes me think she relates and idk how to feel about this…

-at Bridget’s dorm-

Past Bridget is so sweeeet aghdhehdbbdd

Bridget unconsciously helping red’s mommy issues is so fuckin funny

Red and briget’s hair turning straight in the bad future is telling something but idk what it is

-back to their own dorm-

Chloe keep rubbing red’s mommy issues- like, stop playing dirty girl😒

Ella’s shirt looks cute tho

-Merlin’s office-

Chloe and red gay????👀

Red realizing she’s not A bad person is so sweet and sad at the same Time

-coming back to the future-

Why don’t they check the mirror first tho???

I take the hair thing back.

New Bridget not knowing the time and place for stuff is a bit…annoying and kinda in character of her

-after thoughts-

Is it just me or the ending feels so… rushed?

Actually, the whole movie feels rushed

Songs are pretty good tho.

Also, did they just fuckin made up a whole, new, backstory for everyone?????

This makes everything complicated holy shit.

I’m so sad they didn’t show what happened in the homecoming thing, like, I want to knowwww

Overall, it’s a 6.5/10. It’s…okay ig? Some of the songs are pretty good, but the story line is very confusing and rushed,and the whole Carlos thing is kinda uncomfortable to me.

Could be 6/10, but the extra points is because the nostalgia of it I guess?? Idk

I would watch it again tho. Maybe I’ll understand it better

[hearts401]

Why do you think Helluva Boss is better, in terms of writing?

OOOH i have a LOT to say about this.

I think it's a lot less rushed. it FEELS a lot less rushed. And thats not saying its all perfect, it went pretty fast too, but not as fast as hazbin.

For example, hazbin had this big deadline and they had to fit in angels arc, the carmilla/vaggie situation, the heaven stuff, AND charlies shit with her dad. So despite it being a comedy, they had to stuff a LOT of things together, which means theres less chance for filler which means it gets rushed. (bc honestly, it feels less like a comedy and more like an edgy teen humor show BECAUSE they're stuffing the comedy in while rushing to get all the important lore bits in)

so helluva boss feels more like a comedy. they have serious moments, but it leaves space for jokes and humor that dont feel out of place (for example, in the hh finale they kept making jokes that rlly didnt fit? like charlie profusely apologizing to angels who are slaughtering her people? or when pentious died and it was a joke but we were supposed to take it seriously???)

helluva boss has episodes with less emotional baggage in them, like the pilot, murder family, spring broken, and CHERUB, and the harvest moon festival, all in season one. and while they do HAVE emotional moments, theyre not super heavy. then you have episodes that feel like a mix, like truth seekers and loo loo land. and then you have heavy episodes like ozzie's and queen bee. its much more balanced (and im focusing on s1 of hb bc its unfair to pit a two season show against a one season show.)

also also also, and this is smth i complain about a lot, Hazbin Hotel is OBSESSED with making their characters as likeable as possible. unfortunately this falls on characters who DONT DESERVE IT. Like angel dust. When he harassed husk, it was supposed to be humor and funny and whatever, but when husk snapped at him, he was the bad guy suddenly. and angel still never apologized. and im not saying hb doesnt have that issue (ESPECIALLY with stolas) but i think its handled better.

blitzo is a good example. i have complaints about the circus situation, but in the end hes still not a good guy, excuse or not. he's rude, he's nosy, he's dismissive. he hunts his sister down despite her making it very clear she doesnt wanna see him. and he brushes off stolas and even uses him under the guise of a sweet date. in general, blitzo is just waaay better handled than angel dust is.

i also like the villains more? theyre not made out to be a joke as much as the villians in hazbin (per my earlier statement about all the humor being stuffed in) crimson is made to be genuinely intimidating, striker, while mocked a lot, is still a very serious villain, mammon is a big joke on purpose, and it makes sense! and then other antagonists (verosika, one and two, ect) are made out to be funny because theyre NOT big villains, they're just bitches who have beef with imp. the worst villain in hb is, of course, the one woman, stella. but thats a conversation for another ask.

meanwhile the hazbin villains are sooo dumbed down. our most serious villain was lute. adam was a huge joke and relatively annoying at times? like most of what he did was watered down by bad jokes (like killing pentious??? ppl seem to forget adam beat alastor without even tearing his clothes and its because everytime hes on screen theres a terrible joke about to be made) and the vees are just??? eh??? i dont have a TON of complaints about velvette aside from how little she actually did to the point where she hardly feels like a villain? shes moreso just annoying. and then vox hypnotizes people and hes like. evil ceo type shit but thats overshadowed by his crazy ass beef with alastor because again, he didnt do much else. and then val had that stupid scene with vox that i hate so so so so much. hes made out to be funny when he SHOULDNT BE!!! They dont take val's character seriously its weird. ick. and also we didnt have many villains to even go off of? helluva boss gave us lots of characters to work with in season one, and all of them are unique in some way, and had time to shine and will have more time to shine later because the story isnt rushing. hazbin INSISTED on concluding this arc in one season when it really shouldn't have. they didnt have the time to do it, and they tried anyway. helluva boss is better because they gave it TIME. striker is introduced in season one and we KNOW he'll come back because he got away! and he does! and hes great because they gave him TIME to be there and be gone and be there and be gone.

and now he's our most recurring villain. and i think hes awesome. crimson didnt actually have a lot of time to vanish and come back, but hes also new so its a bit different. and he had two episodes in between showing up and disappearing, and the second one had more focus on striker anyways.

i think that while hazbin is a 4/10 for me (5 if im being generous), helluva boss is a 6 or 7/10. the worst part about the helluva boss writing is stolas's family and how the women are written tbh.

tldr: helluva boss is better paced and the characters are better, and hazbin hotel is too rushed and forces these characters onto you

[lunatic-fandom-space]

Oughhhhhh its like 2 am but im getting so fucking madddddd, I just saw someone be like "dont get me wrong, I love atla and I think Zuka is a great charater but I really think people with low media literacy really took away the wrong thing away from him" and I got kinda excited because I definitely think that about Zuko and him being held up as this great pinnacle of redemption arc writing but I feel like people rarely ever talk about it, but then the post went on and they were like "and by people with low media literacy I mean people creating cartoons nowadays, and by took the wrong thing away from him I mean theyre just giving everyone a redemption arc even though they didnt eeeeeeeaaaaarnnnnnn iiiiiittttt" and then the first thing in their tags was them complaining about steven universe and it made me so mad I didnt even finish reading the tags, I just blocked them. it was very lily orchard-esque if Im being honest

And like, okay, first of all, I think when people talk about Atla making redemption arcs more popular or "trendy", as Im sure this person would reductively say, I think theyre fundamentally misdiagnosing the issue. Atla didnt make redemption arcs popular in kids shows because it was a popular kids show and had a redemption arc in it, atla contributed to serialized kids media becoming more popular where redemption arcs are more common because idk, its just an obvious thing to write when you can write a continously flowing story where there are consequences and where characters can change, rather than having to reset everything at the end of an episode like with episodic shows. I feel like asking "why are there so many redemption arcs in serialized kids shows?" is like asking "why are so many prestige dramas about amoral assholes doing fucked up shit?" because its compelling, next question

Seriously though, while I as an adult like redemptions arcs in general as a tool for teaching kids about different perspectives and that people arent born evil and that life isnt just black and white, I can tell you now, kids dont watch kids shows to learn stuff, they watch them to have fun and drama is fun to most kids and redemption arcs are dramatic, so theyre showing up in kids shows a lot

So thats on redemption arcs in general, now lets talk about my issues with Zuko specifically, or rather, my issues with his arc being held up as the pinnacle of redemption arc writing. This is actually something that the original poster Im talking about mentioned as a positive, but Zuko isnt really a villain; hes an antagonist, but every season contrasts him against a Bigger Bad (Zhao, Azula, Ozai), Im pretty sure hes portrayed as atleast somewhat sympathetic as early as episode 3 of season 1 (although its been a while since ive seen the show so dont quote me on that), and he doesnt really have a lot to atone for because while he did believe in all the fire nation propaganda because thats what he was raised with, he clearly never liked doing what he was doing and didnt really want to do it. Like, all of his villainous actions have this air of being coerced somehow, which is fine, Zuko's arc isnt bad by any means, its a good character arc, but it is really annoying how it made people think that the only characters that its acceptable to redeem are good people who were manipulated, when I find redemption arcs about actual villains who actually did bad stuff of their own volition a lot more compelling.

It think it stems from a fundamental (and very christian) misunderstand of what redemption even is but this post is already very long and its almost 4 am now and my brain is turning into mush, so I'll save that for another time.

Tldr: Zuko's arc is an example of a good character arc, but I wouldnt say its an example of a good redemption arc because I dont feel that he was really that bad or was ever really portrayed as that bad, and I wish people would stop holding it up as the pinnacle of villain redemption arcs when its really more of a well-meaning guy who doesnt really know any better and is in a pretty tough spot rn that makes him do bad stuff redemption arc

[rosetheocto]

hi!!! i wanted to ask about your thoughts on what should be changed in eeveelution squad!! ive been thinking about it a lot recently and ive seen you on the tag from time to time and i wanted to know more about what you think!!

OOOOOO there’s a lot of things actually!! This is kinda long and all over the place tho so uhh have fun with that!! :0

if you want me to elaborate more on certain things or have a point make more sense just send another ask my way lol

No CC. sorry to whoever made her but she SUCKS and I don’t like her. Her backstory makes no sense even in an AU and she’s just. very overpowered lol (also her and Gai have no chemistry)

speaking of ships with no chemistry: Lazuli/Speed/Silvia. theyre all so toxic to each other and Speed has shown clear disinterest in them both for nearly the whole comic. They only got together in the end cuz The Fans Wanted It, completely ignoring stuff like Lazuli/Silvia kissing Speed during a PTSD flashback without his consent. I can go on and on about how much the romance in this comic is bad but I’ll be here all day lmao. I may make a rant about them all in another post in the future

TLDR for that being: most speed ships suck (I see him as aro tbh, Stella was an exception), Black and Pearl also suck but not as much, I’m glad Crystal didn’t get with Trace

Leaf needs more personality, tbh all the girls do. Like seriously name one female character that doesn’t have any major ties to a guy. like even Sunshine has a love interest in Axel and they’re 3/4 years old

I wish the berserker lore made sense. ik EV made it overly complex to Spite The Haters or whatever but I just don’t really get it half the time. in terms of unique stuff ES has like those and the Coastal Eevees or the timeline resets it could’ve been handled a LOT better and made more sense

(and I know the Journals have more info but I’ll get to those in a sec)

Shade just sucks as a villain and you can tell he was rushed to give the finale a proper final battle (Special 12B wasn’t meant to be the finale originally if you didn’t know that)

(If I were to make a final villain to ES it would’ve been Alan but that’s just me lol)

there’s way too many characters and most people can’t even tell the slight differences in appearance as well as I can. like there were people mistaking Blaze (Pearl’s mom, Flareon with the hair swirly thing) and Mollie (Triplets mom, Flareon with a leg missing) as the same person for a while and that isn’t really good for design and story stuff. and like there’s so many characters that show up once and never again until you find out that They Actually Had A Bunch Of Story Relevancy You Didn’t Know Until Just Now! (Shade)

and looking at the drafts for the After Story it doesn’t really answer any questions and just made things more confusing?? and there’s also stuff that I just. refuse to accept as canon. Speed would NOT abandon his daughter for years just cuz “he wants to explore again” yeah he may not be the best father figure in the world but CMON :((

AND SPEAKING OF THAT: there’s way too much Journal only content, which is fine if the average reader knew about all those journals. The stuff from those should’ve really been incorporated into the story sooner, cuz most stuff that’s been established in journals for years only got to shine in the comic at the very end

Those are all the major things I can think of really! If you read this far, then thanks!! I have a lot of thoughts on this comic lol

[kqrmen1]

💵🦹😡☠️👤🍍

donnie👻?

💵 - "How do your turtles make money? Or do they only scavange?"

ive actually thought quite about this lol

okay so for raph, leo, mikey and splints, they all get money through withdrawals from Lou Jitsu's bank account (missing people still make residuals for movies, right?)

donnie mostly scavenges, but april and repo buy stuff for him occasionally

🦹 - "Who is the main villain?"

for the first arc, the main "villains" for donnie and april are probably going to be the purple dragons, while the other boys fight the foot clan. once donnie is reuinted with his brothers tho, i want the shredder and the foot clan to become the main villains. im unsure as of now if im going to do anything with the movie plot? but as of now thats whats up.

😡 - "What is your villain's motivation?"

shredder and the foot clan are motivated by basically the same things as in rise, although im playing around with some ideas for shredder and bringing some more 2012 influences in there (but we'll see ;>)

as for the purple dragons, its a combo of jealousy on kendras part and their canon motives.

☠️ - "Does anyone die in your au?"

no, and i dont plan on it. maybe some minor background character death at most, but no major character death. not my thing

👤 - "Are there any OCs in your au?"

im thinking of creating some purple dragon OCs, maybe a few yokai OCs, but theyre all pretty background.

🍍 - "Who likes pineapple on pizza?"

leo. mikey thinks its morally reprehensible, and raph doesn't like the texture, but leo thinks its funny to gross them both out (and also thinks its genuinely good).

👻 - "Does [Donnie] have any fears?"

*slaps donnies big bald head* you can fit SO many anxieties in this baby boy. hes afraid of being left alone, but also afraid of being around others. also an arachnophobe because i think it'd be funny

[cleromancy]

actually. still thinking about the stuff i mentioned in this post about like. people getting disproportionately mad at jason for mia compared to. like. any other supervillain that is *absolutely* also supposed to be somewhat sympathetic. like, thinking of two-face here in robin: year one (the dixon/beatty version).

because harveys role in the plot is adjacent to what Jason's is. he poses a clear danger to robin that makes the guardian/mentor reconsider the wisdom of having a kid sidekick at all. jason's actually there to make mia think about it, moreso than ollie, but their role as the antagonist of the story raises similar questions.

and i get that with comics in particular, your emotional reaction to what you read will always be influenced by what you see the fandom doing, and you do have... like im fairly sure the harv apologists are just like "i dont care who he hurt he looked good doing it" (and tbeyre so valid for that). and by comparison the jason legion, for we are many, are this whole scatterplot range of--some people only like him as a villain/think hes "unredeemable" (🙄), and some people want every bad thing hes ever done to be whooshed away by "pit madness" (🙄), and some people who. i have no ill will towards them but theyre fans of the new guy, the prime earth guy, and thats just a different character from my guy to the point that hes not even really relevant to ga 69-72 when we talk about it-- but nevertheless theyre in the same fandom, and the guy they like has the same name. so that can color peoples interpretations of whats on the page jf, for example, any of those factions really grates their cheese.

anyway. all that aside i do still feel like people get very angry at jason for being the antagonist--being a supervillain, even--maybe because he's so sympathetic by comparison in under the red hood/lost days (or i guess stuff the new guy's been in, if thats more your speed). like why did he terrorize mia! why did he scare her and beat her up!

and while i think the answer to that, from a character motivation perspective, is so obvious as to be. fucking asinine to need it spelled out-- the real answer is because as the storys antagonist he is there to challenge the protagonist. and in this case the challenge is not only the physical fight, its also a challenge to the question of whether or not plucky teen sidekicks should still exist in a post-death in the family dcu, where the baddies are badder and anyone can die.

r:yo was never asking that *specific* question, so lets just set it aside. thank you for your help harvey.

jason is a much easier target for reader anger than ollie because well. jason is absolutely doing something *wrong,* and he knows it, but he also has a fucking point, *and he knows it.*

ga01 was ABSOLUTELY engaging with and exploring aspects of the kid/teen sidekick trope that we know and love--mia kills a man on her test run, and the responsibility for mia being in a position where she felt like she had to do that, and the resulting trauma, is placed squarely and correctly on ollies shoulders. mias origin story meant she was never safe in her fucking life until she moved in with ollie, and now she finds out its left her with something permanent and life-changing--shes HIV+. what is safety? what is childhood? what does she want out of life, faced with her own mortality? she wants to help people. she wants to be a hero. and the way this unfolds, in the context of the dcu and how it works, you can see why ollie says yes this time. (and im so so glad he did.)

and jason shows up 20ish issues later when shes good and established to be like, "hi. you sure about that?"

and this is a chicken or the egg kind of situation where jason would not have done this to a civilian. shes a superhero. shes in uniform. there is an inherent danger to doing that and while you know that--both you the reader and you, speedy, green arrows junior partner and teen titan--nobody demonstrates it like jason "trolley problem" todd, both as the first notable dead sidekick and an incredibly dangerous, incredibly *terrifying* person. one who is *hell-bent* on *proving* it to you.

and when i say chicken and egg i mean while jason's responsible for his own actions, Ollie is explicitly responsible for mia's safety. imo blowing up the school wasn't to scare mia--it was to scare ollie. jason took the stakes of what it means to be speedy, or to *have* a speedy, and made them concrete. and that takes the concept of a plucky teen sidekick and makes it uncomfortable again because, god, she's just a kid. should she really be fucking doing this? (should her guardian really be *letting* her do this?)

(and people forget this, or purposely ignore it, but jason cant be more than 2 years older than her in this continuity, using tim as a benchmark. and i say this not because i want to emphasize that he would see mia as a peer rather than a child--though he would--or to imply he wasnt responsible for his actions--he was. i say this bc what was he doing in the supervillainy, he should have been at the club)

what i was getting at was i think rather than allowing the concept to exist in that gray area it is so much easier, so much more comfortable, to instead just be like. Well jason shouldn't have done that. he could have done it a different way. if he never put her in danger she wouldn't have been in that danger that night. and yknow all of those things are true but they don't negate the point he was making (and he was also doing more than that yk but this post is already Long lol), which was that that uniform puts a target on her chest. are you prepared for what that means?

and the difference between jason doing this, and Harvey, aside from the relative annoyingness of the people who want to condemn or exonerate them, is that. jason is not just a supervillain. he is a victim of *exactly* this thorny question. and he became a supervillain directly in response to this. you can not separate his actions here from the part where he knows what the fuck hes talking about, because it happened to him. and to make that less thorny, less uncomfortable, the focus turns away from the point he was making back to. Well he shouldn't have done it like he did it. while also ignoring that...... he did it like he did it because he knew how it felt, what it meant, to be a hero. if he didn't do it like he did it, would it have gotten through to them at all? would we still be talking about it like 20 years later?

anyway jason did such a good job posing uncomfortable questions in the narrative 🥰 im so proud of him for all his hard work!

[thevalleyoftriumph]

Since I reblogged it from you, here’s what I’m curious abt for your OC’s!!

MY ENTIRE EXPLANATION FOR 11 JUST GOT DESTROYED IM GOING TO KILL TUMBLR. anyways since last ask had an 11 im choosing a different ocverse for this one

11]

hi. um. roblox ocs :3 their lore takes forever to explain so im just gonna explain the characters instead of the plot.

basically theres 3 of them ok.

cody, a noob who loves playing fighting games and helping people get their footing in them. very silly, very kind, and has a bestie thats a guest named horns [horns is my friends oc :3]. cody ALSO has a bit of a slow moving "curse" that is the result of their arm being Fucking Cut Off. its a corruption in their code that is slowly spreading across their body, which will end up with their entire set of code and body being Basically unraveled from the inside out in a way thats Worse than death ! :D they spend most of their time trying to figure out a way to undo that while still being the same happy person. they see blade [other oc] as a brother figure once the two meet!

blade is a bounty hunter of sorts, who goes after exploiters to make the world safer for people, thanks to his own experiences as a kid with exploiters. he is VERY good at his job, having been training since he was a younger teen, and has been doing his job for anywhere from 15-20 years [havent decided.] his current target is inkcap, his childhood friend and previous crush. its a whole thing. also, hes the one who saved cody from being COMPLETELY killed during their exploiter encounter!

inkcap is . well. the exploiter mentioned previously. instead of their encounter with exploiters driving it to better itself and help others, its trauma [and also blade leaving it when they were both 15 to go on his first mission, and then just. never coming back] had led it to lean into its trauma, and learn the same exploits that hurt it, and more. it decides that if it couldnt be happy anymore, if it lost everything and everyone it loved, then no one else should be able to have these things - because no one tried helping it when it needed it. its the one who attacked cody, and the one blade is currently hunting down - but inkcap is sneaky, and good at its own "job," being the most infamous exploiter - and for good reason.

the whole story with these three is the different ways people deal with trauma, mostly the.. unhealthy ways, and their very, VERY slow path to healing and getting better. it has a happy ending! it just takes a long time to get there. they all have a Lot of stuff to work through.

12] pick a fav

OK THATS THE THING I GENUINELY CANT.

theyre all equally loved as a whole because i adore them, but in terms of different catagories, THEN theres favs, so just. choose whichever one you think is most valid.

for drawing, i LOVE cody. theyre so simple and cute to draw i have little doodles of them in Every notebook and sketchbook. i like drawing them with my friends oc. :3

for actual design, i LOOOVE inkcap. inkcap is my beloved their design is sooo <333 pretty

for LORE.... i love blade the most SORRYYY his whole deal makes me sick in the head

19] describe the sillies you think about that dont go in the story

I HAVE OTHER ROBLOX OCS FOR UMM. A THEORETICAL GAME. theyre not related to those threes^ story at all so they count for this question lol

theyre another noob/guest duo, agon and unnamed/default [both are interchangeable]. since i do one day wanna make their game a reality i wont go Too into detail but they live in a mountain town and are besties who have Something going on and theyre super sweet to each other and are bestest friends Ever ever but then default goes MISSING one day and NEVER COMES BACK and agon has to DEAL with it and gets all SAD and um. yeah :]

20] how have they horribly mangled your message/theme

they would either villainise inkcap to hell into an irredeemable villain, OR turn blade into a budget cop. i hate it so bad but thats just what would happen.

THAT or theyd completely IGNORE the message of the story being about healing from trauma and how some coping mechanisms are unhealthy and turn it into like. a classic "everyone just gets over it" thing and turn the whole trilogy into a shitty action film and ignore the characters trauma and their paths towards healing and it would be so bad and oh god oh god . puts my head in my hands.

theyd also probably turn inkcap into a girl and cody into a boy so like. not a story mishap but a general fuckup theyd do because of how inkcap is an it/they w a romance plot w blade [and also their character model has the "girl torso" from the blocky character pack on roblox] and cody is a they/them with a masc name.

[waywardsalt]

unorganized ganonbeck brainworms going strong so now im thinking about ssbu ganonbeck cuz thats where it all began and its also just a really good ganonbeck premise

i mean, off the bat, ganondorf is a main playable character (i think y’all call em ‘smashers’? idk) and linebeck in ssbu is a master spirit so theyre both likely going to be known across the board by other spirits and smashers, so… they’re known. they can’t exactly fly under the radar and are generally visually noticeable, too.

i think ssbu ganonbeck is at its funniest when they’re trying to keep it a secret.

i mean, there’s probably hints in the beginning, linebeck going out of his way to watch ganondorf fight, ganondorf being seen talking with linebeck more often, other legend of zelda smashers and spirits having their own complicated feelings about these specific people seemingly getting to know each other better.

(im specifically interested in reactions from… idk specifically villains associated with ganondorf or… ANYONE canonically associated with ganondorf lol. linebeck just has toon link on his side)

the beginning stuff probably ramps up to slightly surprising stuff, linebeck seeking out ganondorf more often despite what people might assume of him, going as far as asking him to get drinks or something, and ganondorf just being oddly interested in what linebeck has to say over some others that make more sense and occasionally brining up things that linebeck has told him, this going all the way up to the two of them being noticeably flustered around each other, clearly signifying something-

and then to onlookers things appear to taper off back to just being friendly.

before things taper off, other spirits and smashers begin to take more notice, keeping an eye on ganondorf and linebeck out of curiosity, but once things appear to settle on just simply being friendly that attention goes elsewhere.

(of course, behind closed doors both literally and metaphorically, at that point ganondorf and linebeck start dating, but due to the prior attention decided it would be best just to keep it under wraps, out of irritation towards that attention and out of some sense that the knowledge of them dating wouldn’t go over well for some of the spirits or smashers, plus [mostly on linebecks end] worry over others making a stir over how odd the pairing is)

so time passes but people also start to notice that ganondorf is… less of an asshole? he seems to be in a better mood more often and while no one is really upset about that, it is curious and worth looking into.

it takes about a week for a group of smashers and spirits to (correctly) deduce that ganondorf is dating someone, and keeping it a secret. they can’t just ask ganondorf, so now there’s this little investigation group trying to figure out who’s caught ganondorf’s eye, and linebeck is removed from the suspect list because of course not, he’s more likely to be afraid of ganondorf and why would ganondorf be romantically interested in some random guy like that, they clearly dont have anything in common- (the group does not know about linebeck’s history of possession [he prefers to keep it secret], he still uses his old facade around the majority of people, and it is not common knowledge that he’s kind of a freak)

ganondorf and linebeck catch wind of the investigation and figure out their own set of excuses and hiding spots and every possible method of keeping things secret, so its practically a game to them as the investigating smashers and spirits go off on a wild goose chase the moment they eliminated linebeck as a suspect.

not every smasher or spirit cares about this investigation (they’ve seen enough relationships pop up and don’t really care about this new one) so in the midst of this mess, ganondorf and linebeck plan their next meetup based on what the investigation group are doing (without accounting for an uninterested party) and wind up getting walked in on by a group of smashers not involved with the investigation

linebeck and ganondorf end up being massively relived that the group that found them wont say anything (i always figure like. lucina (shes seen enough relationship shit to not care rn) cloud (its Not His Business) and sheik (really just wasnt interested) are the ones who find out), and the discovery group leave with exactly one rule: do not let toon link find out.

cue more ganondorf and linebeck figuring out ways to keep things secret, this time with a small group who do know, but they inevitably slip up a few more times so more and more people are in on it until the fact that they are actually dating gets out.

eventually, things flip; ganondorf and linebeck are no longer trying to keep their relationship a secret from everyone, everyone is trying to keep it a secret from toon link.

[my-lunaberg]

I got sick and didnt feel like watching dsmp so I just watched a bunch of random movies I found on my german piracy site of choice for almost a week but now Im better and Im about to watch Eryns origin story and idk man, I just felt like sharing my thoughts about that guy so far

First of all, Im so curious about this concept of any dsmp character having an origin story bc its like. their origin story is that they showed up. thats it. Like yeah, a lot of people very obviously have histories going back to before they showed up on the smp but theyre never really elaborated upon. Niki and Wilbur would kill for eachother with no hesitation, no explaination needed, stuff like that

Also, Im curious about some of the demon lore we'll potentially get bc like, demons arent a thing in minecraft the way slimes or endermen are but Eryn said he is one and also actually confirmed that BBH is one as well (I think he did anyway, I know its been popular fanon for a while but I dont remember it being brought up in canon before he said it), so Im curious how theyre gonna be integrated. My prediction is that theyre basically just gonna be like, the nether-equivalent of humans. Like, in the overworld the humans (or player characters ig) are the only sapient creatures and in the nether its demons.

But thats general lore stuff, now I wanna talk about my guy Eryn !!!! :D

I like him so much and idek why. Hes just a fun guy a fun lil guy I love him :D

I guess the best way to describe it would be like, Im very charmed by him. I love that hes like, this edgy-lookin ninja guy who likes to cause trouble, hes really the chaotic teenage boy this server has been missing ever since every other teenage boy has either been horrifically traumatized or is Purpled. I also like that, despite him being this chaotic teen boy who does what he wants, he seems to very sincerely admire Eret and listens to them for some reason ?? I say 'for some reason' because Eret has kinda been old news for a long time, like the fact that theyre a king doesnt mean anything because actual governments just kinda stopped mattering to everyone except for Wilbur and Quackity, but that honestly just makes it more charming. Eryn and Erets entire dynamic is just so good idk why, but its so comfy and chill in a way where you can tell theyre still just aquaintances but its still so nice yknow. This kinda ties into my previous point as well, I really like how he put a shit ton of effort into getting good knight armor and honestly really wants to be a knight while also demonstrating that hes willing and able to like, steal shit from the prison

Another thing that I find really interesting is his complete and utter lack of connection or interaction with Dream. Like, he arrived after Dream had long been in prison and while he left an undeniable impact on literally everything in the server, no one really. talked about it? Eryn seemingly had to go out of his way to get any kind of information because when Dream was still locked up everyone was all like "welp, the big badscary villain man is gone, and we're all safe so we dont have to worry about him anymore and we'd rather not talk or think about him lest we spoil everyones good mood" and then when he escaped they were all like "oh no, we're already feeling so anxious and bad bc we dont know where he is so we'd rather not talk about him lest we make everyone feel even worse when everything is already so terrible". His mindset is that Dream hasnt harmed him personally and hes never really interacted with him so he doesnt really have an opinion on him, which is very interesting as well. On one hand, it seems a bit naive to think that way when literally everyone keeps telling him how horrible that guy is, but also, while none of the conflicts on the dream smp have ever been caused by mob mentality, they have certainly been exercabated by it, so i guess its better to have less of it

I do have mixed feelings about that though. I feel like I'd need to see Eryn interact with Dream in order to really form an opinion on that and I feel like they might actually do that. Like, Eryn is Tommys friend and I think if Dream somehow found out that he doesnt have any negative feelings towards him on the basis of "he hasnt harmed me personally", he would definitely try to exploit that and I think that could be really interesting. If that doesnt happen in canon I might write an AU about it, probably not straight up villain!Eryn but maybe leaning more towards chaotic neutral idk

[sing-me-under]

I’ve had my “THE FINALE WASNT HORRIBLE AND HERES WHAT I LIKED” arc.

Now, the time for me to complain about why I don’t actually like the finale is approaching because I’ve argued most of my points against the general negative consensus.

I’m not gonna go in depth right now. It’s 4 in the morning I just spent the entire time baking Christmas goodies until I forgot to put fucking sugar in my last batch of cookies.

But to summarize some of my positive opinions on the finale:

The finale was the most logical scenario with the resources and people they were working with while still maintaining the same ending. There was probably a better way, but it was the most direct and logical route to a set destination.

Tommy’s character arc required him to NOT COMMIT MURDER. STOP ENCOURAGING MURDER. ITS NOT GOOD FOR HIM.

c!Dream was being pitied for his fall from grace because c!Tommy knew they weren’t getting out of the prison alive. c!Dream would never have been allowed a redemption arc, and if there was enough time, he wouldn’t have taken the option anyway, especially not with c!Punz having no reason to not continue with the plan for his own personal gain rather than some twisted end game.

The content creators have been playing Minecraft for so long that they’re fantastic at displaying motion and body language through their characters. I dunno. Maybe you didn’t pick up on it, but I could sense the stress and pushing and limping and just THE MINECRAFT BODY LANGUAGE WAS GOOD.

Now for a sneak peek on my negative opinions:

A vast majority of finale neg and crit is valid and I agree with it. I just disagree with a lot of the rest of it and that’s why I’m vocal about what I liked. I don’t like to rehash what other people have said though, I also don’t like to actively ruin my enjoyment of something I like, so you probably won’t hear me putting in my two cents on the stuff that’s already been beat to death. I’ll just focus on specific crit that I don’t see much of.

They didn’t need the revive and limbo scene. I think it was stupid and I don’t get it. Everyone agrees that literally fucking killing cTommy then him going “Ah yes Dream wasn’t always bad” was a good idea, but for my own sanity, I chose to gloss over it. Just have like one normal conversation. Or just have cGeorge or cSapnap actually be there and having a dynamic with cDream instead of doing whatever the fuck limbo was.

Literally any other fucking character taking part in the last finale stream would have made it like twenty times better because there’d be someone to talk/slap sense into any of them instead of letting all of them have existential crises.

If it weren’t for the fact that cc!Dream plays both c!Dream and DreamXD, a finale in which DreamXD fucks up c!Dream and renders the nuke useless would have been much better.

Literally just ANY OTHER CHARACTER. ANYONE ELSE AT ALL BUT ALL THE RESPONSIBLE CHARACTERS GOT FUCKING EGGED AT THE EXACT SAME TIME. BUT THEY COULD HAVE GRABBED SAPNAP OR GEORGE. PLEASE. UNLESS THEY WERE OCCUPIED BY THE XD FINALE. PLEASE GIVE ME THE XD FINALE SO I CAN STOP CRYING OVER SAPNAP NOT BEING IN THE DISC DUO FINALE.

CPUNZ STOP BEING A FUCKING SIMP FOR CDREAM AND STOP MOPING OVER CDREAM NOT THINKING THEYRE FRIENDS. DRAMATIC IRONY MADE US KNOW YOU WERE A VILLAIN ALL ALONG BUT YOU COULD HAVE BEEN A PLOT TWIST GOOD GUY. LITERALLY PUNZ AS A PLOT TWIST GOOD GUY WOULD HAVE MADE THE FINALE SIGNIFICANTLY BETTER EVNE IF THEY SLL DIE TL THE NUKES ANYWAY. BUT WHY THE FUCK WAS HE SO DEVOTED TO CDREAM THAT THEY EVEN KILLED AND REVIVED EACH OTHER OVER AND OVER AGAIN.

anyway. That will be all for tonight. I have work later and tomorrow and then a long day of putting up with family that makes me want to rip my lungs out.

[nobodywritingao3]

sorting through my writing problems

just for my own sake

how to be a human being au. originally was going to publish a sequel where tubbo and ranboo are introduced & more among us lore is revealed but i cant see an ending at all and i dont think id finish a sequel id start. additionally i wanted to rewrite a few of the chapters to include vore but im not sure it would be worth it. i think ill finish how to be a human being & set it down (for a while or permanently). if i want to write among us vore then ill just start a fresh au & make either wilbur or technoblade the impostor lmao

allies or enemies (how to be a human being rewrite). i reread it recently and kind of hated it. i feel obligated to finish it but i dont want to write out of obligation. ill probably put it on indefinite hiatus and then anonymize it so i have to look at it

lady lie. kind of a mess. i saw a scene in my head where 3/4 sbi minus tommy were the heroes and they found out that he was the top villain. and they try to parent him out of that but it doesnt really work. i saw a dramatic climax where tommy realizes who they are while theyre on the battlefield & he double crosses the villains and completely annihilates them. sbi would have to make peace with the fact that tommy is the most powerful one & it's only because he likes them that the villain empire has been shut down. i dont think ill finish it. probably put on indefinite hiatus and anonymize

im not angry anymore. ohhhh same problem as lady lie. i enjoy the [techno and wilbur leave for college and then tommy grows up bitter and they come back and hes v impressive and kind of hates them and theres angst] plot but i dont have anything special to add. i think id honestly rather ghostwrite what someone else makes in regards to that trope. indefinite hiatus and anonymized

cold love. im throwing up and screaming. im a little insane about cold love. the plot i saw for that was quackity, wilbur's friend from the village, being revealed as a dragon. he'd explain all the dragon stuff to sbi & sedate wilbur so he's brought out of his instincts. and then wilbur would wake up after a week and be a total mess because they know what his secret is & he feels guilty for all the havoc he wreaked while temporarily insane. id just ruin his life for a little bit. problem is that i dont have a solution to the angst and id probably finish the story with wilbur being a sad sack who thinks his family hates him. no ending. just angst. idk what to do about cold love.

very good bad thing. same thing. i just wanted the angst, i didnt want a real ending. i play around with very good bad thing as a warm up these days. i dont see a real direction to take it in.

your love. i think im as passionate about your love as i am with how to be a human being. i could see this story going very long form & i see different branches i could take it in. i want to finish this story but i have to admit that im kind of scared of it. i dont want to get overwhelmed or lose interest and never finish it because i think its a special story & it really freaks me out that i wont do it justice

shameful company. this doesnt feel like a story im making up, it feels more like a story im transcribing. i know exactly how it goes and i know exactly what happens to all the characters and how it ends. writing shameful company is more about actually writing it than it is about creating the plot and figuring out what happens. its a really long story and that kind of overwhelms me but i know what the story is so i really just have to put in the effort of doing it justice. i care about telling this story right

little soldiers. oohhhhhhhh little soliders. i need to revamp little soldiers. i had a plan in my head and i feel obligated to follow the plan but the planned story isnt as fun as it would be if i just wrote which parts feel natural. im afraid of little soldiers. this one needs a lot of work. i might start using google docs just to deal with little soldiers. little soldiers is a google docs level problem.

finish how to be a human being euthanize allies or enemies, lady lie, im not angry anymore use cold love and very good bad thing as warm up writing because i like the angst and dont care about the ending your love is my little pet project finish shameful company and jam pack it full of vore because im no longer self conscious about writing that trope give little soldiers as much as i can and if that fails, just humanely euthanize it

after ive made plans for all my current writing i can take a look at the insane backlog of story ideas i have & write my horrible vore in my horrible little vore corner