#where she starts off bad and goes through forced character development

[sieglinde-freud]

one time eva told me that inigo was basically just a total drama character and i cant like that kinda hit me like a slap in the face but like in a good way because like. she was right. and that was several months ago but the concept was so good i sometimes just come back to it and now i have a question for the class

no i dont think inigo (or anyone else i excluded) would win but if you have a case for him im open

[sapphic-agent]

Let's Talk About Izuku Midoriya

As most of you know, Izuku is my favorite character in the show. But dismissing my bias for a second, there are a lot of issues with his character. Mainly, how it's handled within the story and the negative affect it tends to have on the overall plot.

What I think really dampens Izuku's character is a lack of depth. Fellow Izu fans hold your fire... let me finish.

The lack of depth wasn't always a problem. In season 1, he tends to have a lot of lines that indicate complex emotions. When he's walking home after Bakugou's suicide-baiting, he shows at least a little contempt for what was said even if he tries not to take it to heart. Hell, even during the suicide baiting itself, he reacts with anger and intends to stand up to Bakugou even if he is forced into silence by fear. During the bus ride to the USJ, Kaminari and Asui are (rightfully) observing that Bakugou is a dick and Izuku is surprised at the swap in their roles. In the Battle Trials, he's guilty when Bakugou accuses him of purposely hiding his quirk, but also confronts and outsmarts him, knowing that beating Bakugou (standing up to him) is the only way he can even start to become a hero.

(This is evidence that at some point Izuku was aware that Bakugou's actions weren't alright and wanted to condemn them, he just didn't have the strength or confidence to go through with it. This entirely disappears later in the series with no reconciliation of those feelings)

We don't get many scenes like this later on. Izuku takes Bakugou's insults and attacks with no reaction or just a nervous one. And we never, ever see him attempt to stand up for himself against him.

And no, I don't count Deku vs Kacchan Part 2. Izuku was practically forced to defend himself as Bakugou would have attacked him either way, and his entire role in the fight is going on and on about his admiration for Bakugou. Izuku isn't standing up to Bakugou, he's being placed in a situation where he's forced to help develop him. The entire episode is solely for Bakugou's benefit while shoving Izuku into a corner.

But even taking a step away from Bakugou for a minute, Izuku also becomes more one dimensional in regards to Uraraka.

I've said this before answering an ask, but in the beginning of the show Izuku was the one who was attracted to Uraraka. He was flustered by her kindness and reacted bashfully to her hero suit. And for some reason this... goes away. The last time he gets even slightly embarrassed around her is the licensing exam when she appears jealous of Camie (Toga). Not only that, it feels like all of that transferred to Uraraka. She was the one who ended up becoming bashful and flushed and embarrassed, which would make sense if Izuku's feelings didn't almost entire disappear. It does both their characters a disservice; Uraraka is reduced to a more one-dimensional love interest (don't @ me for this, she has her moments and I love her) and Izuku loses another aspect of his character.

I would even say this is present with Todoroki on some level. Izuku was supposed to be his first real friend and they barely interact. Which is even worse considering they're both part of the "main trio." It would have been so easy to play them off of one another since they're supposedly best friends and should be the closest two in that trio. Their friendship was one of the starting points of the entire series and their connection is an integral part of both their characters. Yet they both interact more with Bakugou than one another.

(For comparison, look at Bakugou and Kirishima. They're in a multitude of scenes together and we see how their relationship develops over time. We see their companionship and how Bakugou comes to trust and rely on him. We don't get anywhere close to that with Izuku and Todoroki.)

Over the seasons/volumes (whichever you consume), Horikoshi has dumbed Izuku's character down to crying, defending others, and being self-sacrificing. And these aren't inherently bad traits for a main character, but they weren't all he had in the beginning. He had more personality and he had stronger feelings. Taking that away from him cheapened his character.

Another failing of Izuku's character is how him being quirkless is blatantly ignored by the series.

This was an integral part of his character. It's what separated him from the vast majority of people in the show. It destroyed the only dream he ever had. He was discriminated against for it. It defined his entire existence for the first fourteen years of his life.

And it's never talked about.

Okay, I shouldn't say that. It is used to draw parallels between him and Shinsou (and Aoyama later on). But other than that, Izuku really doesn't acknowledge it. For someone who would grapple with not being good enough for OFA, him not really dwelling on being quirkless is odd.

In a series about the corruption of society, it's strange that the discrimination the main character faced from that society isn't talked about. In fact, outside of Melissa (she's legit the only character who was born quirkless and stayed quirkless, everyone else who's listed quirkless had their quirks taken away or received a quirk later), the series doesn't really introduce quirkless people at all even though they make up 20% of the population (and that isn't a small number by any means, that would be 1.6 billion people in 2023).

Yet this issue that was very present in the beginning of the show is just... swept under the rug. Like everything Izuku went through because of it just doesn't matter. A four year old came to the realization that he was beneath his peers by society's standards, but Izuku just doesn't talk or think about it ever again.

It not only ignores the very real trauma and struggle the main character went through, it also shuns a very important piece of world building. Having Izuku born quirkless was the perfect way to introduce this problem with society. But no, other than his dream being ruined and Bakugou's bullying, Izuku doesn't struggle with this in any other way. We only have vague implications of what he went through growing up quirkless so we can't imagine what it's like for the other 1.6 billion people.

This ties into his lack of depth, but a lot of the time it feels like Izuku's only relevance is to be a prop for other characters. Bakugou is obviously the main one and I went over this in the apology analysis. But Izuku doesn't respond to his apology in any way, we never get to see his thinking or how he was affected, and then he faints at the end. Izuku is a puppet in place to further Bakugou's development. This is also present in Deku vs Kacchan Part 2; all his thoughts are centered around admitting Bakugou and propping him up.

As much as I hate it, it somewhat makes sense for Bakugou. But it's utter insanity that this is extended to Endeavor as well.

Back during the Sports Festival, Izuku displayed disdain for Endeavor. He was aware of what an awful person he was and how he hurt Todoroki. Yet for some reason he then tells Todoroki that he thinks he's ready to forgive him.

This is completely out of character for Izuku. For one, he never inserts himself into others' business unless it's to defend them. And up until that point he hadn't said a word about Endeavor; not to comfort Todoroki and not to abhor his actions. So why in the world would the first thing out of his mouth about him be that Todoroki seems ready to forgive him?

It's almost like he's acting as a mouthpiece for Horikoshi, indirectly telling the audience that Todoroki no longer holds any resentment for Endeavor. Izuku's relevance in this scene as Todoroki's best friend should not have been to assume that he's ready to forgive his abuser.

He also verbally defends Endeavor against Dabi. Even though he knows how abusive and neglectful Endeavor was to his children. Condoning Endeavor while disparaging Dabi makes no sense for Izuku's character. He was defending Shoto too which makes sense, but there was no reason to add Endeavor into that. Just because Endeavor was his mentor (for like three weeks if that) doesn't erase what he's done.

To make Izuku ignorant of this was a slap to the face of his entire character.

Even in his own major arc, Izuku gets the shaft. Dark Deku was a major let down because there was hardly a deeper dive into his character. He was on his own with the past OFA holders for weeks and we barely see him talk to them. Him cutting contact with Toshinori when we didn't even get to see them interact much made no sense (Toshi didn't even try to find him afterwards which was so out of character). The top 3 heroes allowed him- a fifteen year old student- to run on his own without even trying to talk him out of it.

And what's supposed to be an honest attempt to get him to come back and trust him turned into 1A a) physically attacking and ganging up on him and b) allowing Bakugou to goad and insult him. And he wasn't even close with all of 1A for nineteen of them to do this. This should have been restricted to Iida, Todoroki, and Uraraka (and maybe Tsu and Aoyama). He has issues with showing vulnerability in front of people, why om Earth would it make sense to blindside him with his entire class?

(The only part of Dark Deku I truly enjoyed was Uraraka sticking up for him at UA and Kota and that woman he saved earlier running to comfort him and show their gratitude. Although Eri not being there is very weird.)

Like I said above, I love Izuku. But I absolutely hate the way he's been handled by his author. He deserved an actual well thought out character arc and a lot more focus and attention. He deserved to have more intricate, complex relationships with other characters that weren't his childhood bully. He deserved to be treated well in his own story.

[rise-my-angel]

I can understand the anti jonsa/jonrya/jongritte but I'm wondering about the jon/daenerys thing and if you don't mind I'd like to know why (asking as someone who only watched the show & wasn't bought by their dynamic)

It actually starts with the exact same problem as Ygritte's dynamic with him. Jon arrives at a place and is taken prisoner, his weapons are taken from him, he cannot leave of his own accord and has no way home alone, and he has no choice but to try and convince the people or person keeping him hostage that they should trust him. Only for the other person to develop an attraction, and whose dynamic can only be developed as long as Jon still is not allowed to leave or fight back. Only for it to go apparently romantic, when really, his situation has not changed if he resists.

If he is with Ygritte, and he shows signs of resistence or being against her cause, she and the others will kill him, and he knows it.

If he is with Dany, and he shows signs of resistence or being against her cause, she and her dragons will kill him, and he knows it.

Remember, when he goes beyond the Wall (gods protect me thinking about that episode), he literally has to leave by force because she still refused to give him "permission" to leave the island she's kept him trapped on for weeks. Their reunion is not romantic, and neither is them getting together. Up until a day ago, he was her prisoner and he still is at the mercy of her dragons.

If at any moment Jon truly resists her, she will kill him. There is not a single moment of their relationship where she didn't consider Jons life forefit if he didn't meet her exact expectations of total loyalty. Just like Ygritte did.

What it comes off to me, is that Jon has no interest in her whatsoever nor does he want to be with her, but he knows he is still her prisoner and even worse, she has dragons that could destroy his family and kingdom if she so chooses, if he stood against her. I think Jon realized Dany was interested in him, and realized that he was in a situation just like Ygritte. Trapped, and forced to play along much to the determent of his own mental health.

Jon is never not at Dany's total mercy if he displeases her.

Any time they get together it is clearly Dany summoning Jon, and one time it's very bad. Jon is extremely drunk to the point he can barley stand on two feet, and she is stone cold sober. She tries to get him to have sex with her, he resists and she still tries and it only ends because it turns into an argument about another topic all together.

If Jon was trying to convince a drunk girl telling him no, to have sex with him, we all know what we'd call that. What we'd call him. I do not consider Jon being a man, and Dany being a woman, to change that dynamic. Dany also has all the power of him as a Queen who forced him to bend the knee, and she has two dragons in his home that will kill him and anyone else she chooses whenver she wants.

Jon is literally unable to consent to this relationship at any point and the literal only way out he had, was to unironically kill her.

If you look through my anti jonerys tag you can find other posts I've made going into the details about why I think they do not work fundementally as characters in general, but I stand firmly against the show relationship for these reasons.

It's the same prisoner/abuse/rape situation as with Ygritte, but even worse, because Dany can and would use her dragons on him, his family, and his people if she decided Jon wasn't loyal enough anymore.

I don't think Jon ever wanted to be with her, in any way shape or form. But was forced to pretend to because he was her prisoner from the moment he stepped onto Dragonstone until the moment he killed her.

I think as for the books, they just do not work as a couple in even a functional manner and there is no hint that they ever even would become a couple in the first place and that shipping them in the books is pure jonsa style wish fufillment fanon.

Again, my anti jonerys tag has many posts about this topic since I've tackled it at many angles over the past few months if you're interested further in what I think!

[blackbatcass]

I really really wanna know more about Donna Troyyy, so far I love her so much but I don't wanna be the type of person who claims they love a character then can't name 5 things about them. I wanna do her justice and really understand her character and purpose. I also don't wanna read something that completely mischaracterizes her because I'm aware that there's a LOT of that these days. I was hoping you could give me some recommendations to read after my tests?

Thank you so much if you do, and have a wonderful day! <3

I think I can help with that! Luckily donna's characterization is pretty solid & consistent in any comic up to around 2006. i would be wary of more modern interpretations of her but for most of her older appearances you don't really have to worry about bad writing.

The number 1 rec for donna is always New Teen Titans, that's where pretty much the majority of her appearances and character development take place in the 80s and 90s. The whole series is very long though so if you want more specific recommendations that focus on her I would definitely read ntt vol 1 #38, vol 2 #7-9, #18-21, #47, and #50-55. Issues 18-21 especially are probably my number one rec for donna if you're interested in seeing her flaws and struggles; those four issues took place when the titans were kind of falling apart, donna had to step up and call the shots, and it's a really neat insight into her character that i don't think gets quite as much attention as arcs like her origin stories. You'll probably honestly get a good feel for her if you pick any couple of arcs from NTT and read them through.

Wonder Woman (1987) #126-136 is a very important arc that reiterates donna's borderline horror dimension-bending origin weirdness. Titans '99 is a must-read for her, and jumping off that the Return of Donna Troy miniseries is like... Thee donna comic of all time so i would definitely recommend that. In between ntt and titans 99 she was in things like green lantern and darkstars but honestly the biggest things for her character you have to know from that time are that she and terry got divorced, she was dating kyle rayner, terry tried to take custody away from her, and terry & robbie died in a car accident.

There are way more detailed and comprehensive rec lists you can find in my donna tag if you're interested- I left out arcs like total chaos which are narratively very important for her but i don't think are quite as good a showcase for her as a character- but I think if you just want to get a feel for her character these are a good place to start. if you want like a primer on some of her major character traits i can definitely provide that lol:

donna is an incredibly emotionally intelligent and kind person who is a very good listener and always ready to help, which is why she's pretty much the #1 trusted person every single titan goes to when they need to vent. unfortunately being the appointed Fixer of All Problems Mom Friend when you're like barely an adult gets pretty overwhelming and is a very unfair weight to put a person; you can see this start to grate on her in titans 99 especially. something I like about donna is how open and honest she is with people about her struggles. most characters in the superhero genre would rather die than admit they need help and will never ever talk about their problems without being forced to, but donna isn't like that. if you ask her what's wrong she's going to be honest and tell you what's bothering her. she struggles a LOT with trying to appear 'perfect' in everyone else's eyes, and is really motivated by seeming to have it all together even when she doesn't. this is fueled a lot by her not being born an amazon and not knowing where she came from; the fact that for a lot of ntt she doesn't know her own history really gets under her skin. donna's identity issues are a HUGE part of her character especially later on as retcons and reboots get folded into her story. her past doesn't make sense. she has like nine competing backstories. she's one of the only people to remember the world pre-crisis on infinite earths and has literally been been forced out of existence and remade through pure memories, not to mention all the times dark angel forced her to live different lives until she reached rock bottom as a punishment for diana lol. in one origin she literally is not a real person and was just a mirror twin of diana. the main tagline associated with her is 'who is donna troy?' lol. which i think is fascinating and a very fucked up existence.

Anyway! I can talk about my girl all day. I hope this was at least a little bit helpful!

[arcane-ish]

No perfect, the problem of Powder and Jinx (and what that means for Vi and Silco)

Me: should write a meta about Powder versus Jinx and about maybe people finding season 2 confusing because they are not sure what the underlying Metaphor of Powder versus Jinx is anymore.

Meanwhile Christian Linke:

SCIFI VISION:   To start off, can you sort of talk about how Vi and Jinx’s relationship will or will not develop this season? I mean, is there still a chance for them? Is she still in there? CHRISTIAN LINKE:   Oh, lordy. Well, I will say that I think Powder definitely is still in there. The question is, can Vi reach her?

Gee, thanks Christian.

I think the reason why this is so an issue is because of course Silco was a very central and driving character of season 1 an the conflict between him and Vi was heavily about Jinx versus Powder. Granted in the end it's also what Jinx/Powder actually wants (ie Silco could be right about Jinx being the main deal but what Jinx wants out of life is to hang around Vi and torture her), but the underlying thread was also who is the better family member because they know and understand Powder/Jinx better.

And wrapped into that was also all the fandom fights about Silco and whether or not he was a bad, a good or a mixed father. Which of course goes with the whole premise of his character which is at heart "he did some immoral things, but he fundamentally had the right idea".

Note that I personally considered myself in the mixed bag camp, that he meant well but that he imposed or projected some of his unhealthy outlooks or comping mechanisms onto her. (I was also in the camp of people who assumed Jinx and Silco would stay more entertwined and that he would be a constant voice in her head or the voice of fishbones, rather than what actually happened)

Okay, let's look at some positions on the various ends of the spectrum.

Jinx as a trans metaphor

I know that independant of what the writers intended, some aspects of the story deeply resonanted with people was a trans metaphor. Where Jinx is the real personality and Vi is kind of being a horrible sister by not seeing/understanding that and trying to force Jinx into being powder again.

I think this view doesn't really fit with season 2 anymore, where we see Jinx also not liking Jinx anymore (declaring that Jinx is dead) and aspects of Powder seemingly emerging precisely in moments where she's happy. (Plus quotes from Christian Linke suggesting that Vi is not categorically wrong in looking for Powder, she's just not particularly good at it)

[in case it isn't obvious, everybody can always take real meaning from art, whether the author intended it or not, this is more whether we can expect the show or the writers to see the metaphor through to the end because they are working off the same metaphor]

The locked away princess / the brainwashing hypothesis

On the other extreme is Vi's point of view which blames the existance of Jinx fully on Silco, that he brainwashed Powder and that is she just removes Jinx from Silco's influence, Powder can come back and they can make up.

I for one thought that this approach was quite flawed and that Powder's relationship with Jinx and vice versa was always more complex and layered than that. (For example we see her have hallucinations on the bridge, long before Silco took her in, and I always thought the Enemy music video was quite representative of how Jinx is both something Powder feels but it also appeals to her because Jinx is cooler/stronger)

Jinx as a mental illness

Another take was that Jinx is the expression of Powder's mental illness and such as will always be a part of her, that it's a part that maybe can be managed, but that can't necessarily be healed.

Jinx as a coping mechanism

The twin of this approach is that Jinx is a coping mechanism for Powder, when she can't handle the guilt or the trauma. And that here in theory there would be scenarios where let's say she learned to deal with her guilt in a more organic way then she could let go of Jinx. (respectively in a world without trauma Powder would just be Powder and there would never be a need for Jinx)

I would argue that there are vibes of this in Jinx and Isha, that Jinx is almost getting to relive some of the childhood she lost out on or is getting a chance to heal her inner child.

This way of viewing Jinx is also has interesting implications about SIlco. If we presume that SIlco saw himself in Powder, or that least tried to show off himself by example: Silco is somebody who was fundamentally convinced that reacting to trauma/betrayal with a hardened personality was the right choice.

So if Jinx's story seems to sort of disagree and say that she would have been happier if she had found other ways of coping that makes one wonder if it's the for Silco? If the path he chose was the wrong one, not just for Jinx, but maybe for himself too?

(and again: Silco is a character who is heavily defined by "the ends justify the means", so him being wrong in his intuitions and take on the world has double the implications for him and is pretty uncomfortable for people who agree with his point of view or were persuaded by his point of view in regards to Jinx [ie Vi is a shitty sister and yes it was kind of shitty for Silco to lie to Jinx but his interest in keeping Vi away is legit because Vi can't accept Jinx; or yes he did immoral things, but he ultimately was right to want to make Jinx stronger)

[for what it's worth, the "Jinx is healing her inner child through Isha" also has implications that maybe her childhood with Silco didn't succeed in doing that for her]

Jinx and Powder both as aspects of her

Basically both Jinx and Powder are natural parts of her and the "happy ending" would be for her to accept both and create a synergy (and there is both her disliking Powder because she saw Powder as weak and Jinx being disliked for her violence or lack of control).

And I guess there could be variations of which part contributes more in the end.

Evolution or Powder and Jinx both are just stepping stones

Another take could be that we are always changing in life and that we could take Jinx's "Jinx is dead" as face value and that the natural, happy for her (if she isn't pulled back by tragedy) would be to move from one personality to the next and the next stage would be yet again something new/a third option.

Jinx as a superhero metaphor

Something that occured to me when in the preview it seems like Vi is begging Jinx to join the fight. And we have seen shimmered up Jinx being a formidable fighter.

A frequent story we have seen in modern media is the superhero. Of a person who takes on a certain identity to a fighter. There are different version, from the superpower and superhero identity being a burden and a trauma (like Hulk), a temptation, to the civillian identity being something they take on only occasionally get some peace.

Here the proposition would be something like Jinx being able to switch between Jinx and not-Jinx more at will and bringing Jinx out if she needs to fight, rather than spending all her time in the Jinx identity.

Jinx as a metaphor for Vi's guilt or you can't undo the past

Vi caused the creation of Jinx by hitting her and/or not taking care of her. She cannot accept Jinx because she is struggling with her own guilt and wishes to undo her own actions. However undoing your own actions is impossible. The "right way" to act in this metaphor would be to learn to suck it up, handle her guilt better, accept that Powder is gone.

The premise here is that Jinx really is her own person, responsible for her own actions (and can be judged by them, rather than Silco or Vi being at fault), the change is irreversible. Vi should move on from her guilt, accept that she can't fix Jinx and instead try to do better with other people in the future.

Jinx as a metaphor for Vi's inability to move forward and accept change

Vi is haunted by guilt and be ause she was thrown in prison and robbed of her childhood she is sort of stuck in arrested development and because of that she struggles with change.

The healthy way here would be for Vi to be more accepting of change but see that some things stay the same even as things transform (like Vander being inside of Warwick).

For her to slowly form a new bond with Jinx so they can move forward together with a new, changed relationship.

(this could fit with what Christian says about Vi having to come see Powder as that and her relationship with Jinx actually improves after that, but at the same time, it maybe improves because she sees Jinx interacting with mini!Powder, aka Isha)

Jinx as a metaphor for Vi's judgementalism or Jinx as a metaphor for violent revolution

The read here is roughly like this: Vi is like Vander, a judgement, holier than though person, who judges Jinx and Silco for being immoral and/or violent and/or endangering people. (While being more accepting of for example Caitlyn or Jayce doing violence) When Jinx didn't want to be Jinx anymore, she also resisted the call of the revolution.

The good option here would be for Vi to stop being judgement or else she'll be washed away by the revoltion.

The downside I see here to me it doesn't really feel like Vi's problem was so much violence? And more not being able to recognize her sister. And when Jinx was resisting the call, it didn't really feel like she was rejecting violence, she was just having a fun time with Isha and wanted to focus on that?

I also have my doubt that Vi would embrace the revolution because I count on her sticking with Cait.

The revolution is bad actually

Like above, except Vi is actually right to judge the violent revolution negatively and the "good ending" would be either Vi defeating the revolution or for Jinx and the revoltion to realize they have to lay down their arms.

(again: same points about the theme of violence not feeling as present to me causally. Yes, Jinx doesn't do much violence while with Isha but it didn't feel like her guilt over doing violence played that much of a factor?, I dunno it's late and I'm not making that much sense)

Jinx as a metaphor Zaun

Jinx is chaotic, violent, creative and hurt by Piltover just like Zaun. Her and Zaun fates are linked and mirror each other. Both Zaun and her will have the same ending (ie if Zaun goes free, so will Jinx).

The downside I see here that Jinx feels very self destructive to me, and I'm not sure I would necessarily describe Zaun that way? Like on one hand Zaun has some rather healthy communities like Ekko's, then the percentage of "issues caused directly by Piltover versus as a chain reaction" feels different to me between Zaun and Jinx to me.

And parental figures just play such a big role for Jinx while I don't get the same vibe from Zaun (yes one can also read Vander and Silco as the fathers of Zaun, but I guess to me it always felt like Zaun was around for a long time and Vander and Silco tried to liberate it more than they were creating it from scratch (again, probably going more with League lore here rather than stuff that has been explicitly covered by the show)).

There's probably more I'm forgetting about. Anyway, we'll see soon enough which shape Jinx will take and whether she is happy or sad, victorious or punished with it.

[longbobmckenzie]

THTH2 Episodes 1-3 Thoughts!

Eeeek it's THTH2 (Too Hot to Handle the game) time!! Last season fizzled out halfway through but based on the first few episodes of season 2, I've got hopes that this one will be better!

First of all, it's 15 episodes as opposed to 10 - there's room for development (and more bombshells/dumpings!)

There's more customization! I feel like it's improved, although others have said they had a harder time with it. I'm not a huge fan of the hairstyles and outfits we've been given so far, but we'll get more

In the initial episodes, there are 5 friends and only 4 LIs - that might be a little disappointing at first (especially since the friends are all hot - URGH I want Santiago!!), but this actually fixes some of the problems with the first season

More non-romanceable characters is a good thing because it means there will be more storylines besides MC/LI and Jada/Justin/Carter

A lot of us started to hate Jada after a while because she kept popping up and we were forced to be friends with her. Having more friends is a good thing because we'll be able to talk to more people instead of just one person. I'm hoping there will be some branching involved where some scenes are dependent on who your highest relationship is with, but we'll see!

Less LIs is fine for the reasons above - sure there's less choice up front, but with next to no branching in S1, every route was the same, and there were only 3 couples at the end. It didn't make sense. Plus...

We're already getting at least one bombshell next week! It's highly likely they'll be LI(s), and no doubt there will be more people incoming

In Season 1, all the LIs had hard-ons for MC even when MC didn't show them any interest - so far that doesn't seem to be the case, and I love that. It was weird that 9 people were obsessed with us, honestly. This time, our choices matter more

They're already setting up a love triangle! It makes so much more sense to have a LT early on when everyone's new rather than force it with a bombshell we don't even like midway through the season

The characters so far seem to have more personality traits than just whatever their jobs/interests are. Hopefully I'm not speaking too soon, and there is definitely still some of that, but I feel like I've already had deeper chats with them. And they ask about us too, and we can define a bit more of a personality for ourselves

More under the cut...

I picked Antoine so far (love a Canadian hockey player!!). He's basically an upgraded (yes, I said it) version of Theo (the art style is slightly improved - the smiles aren't as creepy this time!). I wasn't a Theo girlie but so far I'm vibing with Antoine

I was a Liam girlie, but Liam 2.0 (Wesley) doesn't have quite the same appeal. He's still hot, but Idk, he's not my Liam

There's a fun Antoine glitch (not sure if any of the other characters have it) where he's fully naked. It's pretty funny

I've already broken a bunch of rules, mwahaha!

The list of achievements this season is interesting 👀 There's an achievement for getting eliminated, which I will definitely be trying to do. And stuff about the others trusting us (probably a way to earn back money)

They still have the "beach hut" confessionals, but I feel like those episodes are shorter, which is great because they could be a drag on replays before, or when you just want to get to the next episode

Santiago is my boy, I'm loving the representation with him. I'm curious if we'll ever get a chance to get our hands on him even without romance, because we do have a flirty vibe and I would absolutely jump at that chance!

Overall, I'm excited to see how this goes! It does seem like they've taken our feedback so far, the initial episodes felt a lot like last season but that's not at all a bad thing - last season started off great, and this one has too. I do think this season has better potential overall and my fingers are crossed that it delivers

[definitelyunhingedagentphoenix]

How each I Expect You To Die character sleeps.

Handler:

This man wears pj shorts with the agency logo on them and a t-shirt that has holes in it. But somehow it's cute? And one of those really uncomfortable blue robes that never fit properly. He carries a cup of tea to bed every night with the intention of drinking it while reading or watching a movie. He NEVER drinks it. The second he gets in bed he falls asleep. He's a side sleeper. Almost always on his right side. WILL CUDDLE WITH ANYONE WHO IS IN THE SAME BED! Hates blankets. Somehow wakes up with zero blankets left on his bed but is still in the same position he fell asleep in.

Roxana Prism:

Sleeps anywhere but a bed unless forced into it by someone else. Robutler was good for making her go to bed on time but on her own, she just falls asleep where she falls asleep. Couch? Yeah. In her lab? Most likely place. If she does change into sleep clothes, it's just an oversized t-shirt. I mean that. Like it's a fucking dress on her. Snores a little. Sleeps like the dead. Will not wake up unless absolutely necessary.

John Juniper:

He wears a matching silk set of pjs. Has an entire sleep regimen. It starts with a shower where he loudly recites monologues he has done in the past or is currently learning for a role. Then a 40 step skin care routine. Once he makes it to his bed he takes off his dramatic ass robe that looks like something a woman who just murdered her rich husband would wear when the cops show up to investigate and gets into bed. He has someone whose entire job is tucking him in. Like tight. This man does NOT move in his sleep. He wears a sleep mask and puts his arms over his stomach and STAYS that way until he wakes up.

Dr. Zor:

Has an expensive pair of pjs and goes to bed like a normal person. Literally nothing of interest. If they can't sleep because they're haunted by the memories of their past, they turn on some white noise or rain sounds and falls asleep pretty quickly after that.

Agent Phoenix:

Looks like they fucking died in a glue trap. Limbs should NOT bend that way but they do? And it's comfortable?! They claim it helps them with their back pain but there is no way that's true. Most of the time they come home exhausted and just collapse on the bed in their work clothes. If they can muster the strength to have a shower beforehand, they wear something warm, something comfy, and something that if they were attacked in their sleep, they wouldn't be embarrassed. Not that they would know if they got attacked. They would sleep right through it. Only three things can wake the agent when they're sleeping. Their alarm, their handlers voice and their nightmares.

After the death engine, they were fine. There was something about the Death engine. They knew they were going to survive that. Even if it seemed far fetched, they KNEW they would be okay. But after the elevator, they developed bad nightmares. Something about knowing that the decision they had to make would either save themselves or save millions. They hadn't hesitated to remove the power cords from the elevator; the only thing keeping them from falling to their death. They had attached them to Zor's device and stopped the launch of who knows how many nuclear weapons. And they had fallen, as if in slow motion, hearing the pain in their handlers voice as they called out for them, heard Zor taunting them, watched the fire rising...

When they had believed they were about to die, it was fine. But when they lived. When they pulled themselves out of the rubble of the collapsing building, and to the nearest safe house, something had changed in them.

They relive that day very often. Each time a little less vivid. With each retelling it gets a little easier to cope with.

When they wake up, they've thrown most of the objects that aren't glued down around the room using their T.K. implant. This is also how they end up in the uncomfortable positions. Though they will never admit that.

Hivemind:

Cuddles with the bees.

[anti-gruvia-blog]

Alright, let’s dive deep into the convoluted mess that is Gray and Juvia’s relationship. Honestly, where do I even begin? First off, after the battle in the last Fairy Tail arc, Gray still didn’t give Juvia a clear answer and attempted to perform the ice shell spell, only to be interrupted by Natsu. This already sets a problematic tone because it shows Gray avoiding a straightforward conversation. During the battle, Juvia “sacrificed” herself for Gray, which Gruvians gleefully celebrate as an act of pure, selfless love. But let’s be real—her sacrifice feels more like a desperate ploy to make Gray fall for her. Her ability to turn her body into water and the potential for her blade to pierce through her makes it seem like she engineered this moment to manipulate Gray’s feelings. And then the creators have the audacity to say that the transfusion of Juvia’s blood is the reason Gray started developing feelings for her? Give me a break. That’s such a flimsy, lazy excuse for something that should have been developed organically. Juvia didn’t actually die; she was resurrected, yet Gray tells her he’ll give her an answer after embarking on a 100-year quest that he conveniently excludes her from. This reeks of poor writing and a blatant disregard for character consistency. Fast forward to the sequel, and Gray goes on this absurd 100-year quest, completely flipping his stance. Suddenly, he’s proclaiming himself as the best man for Juvia, and whenever romantic love is mentioned, he instantly thinks of her. Gruvians are over the moon, treating this as a monumental win. But let’s not forget the anti-Gruvians who point out that Gray is putting Juvia’s happiness above his own, ignoring his true feelings. This suggests that Gray doesn’t genuinely love her but feels indebted because she “sacrificed” herself—a manipulative dynamic that’s anything but healthy. To add more context, Gray has a history with other women who genuinely cared for him. Ur, his teacher and mentor, sacrificed herself to free him from darkness, and Ultear, Ur’s daughter, also gave her life for him. Both of these women truly cared for Gray without any ulterior motives. Meanwhile, Juvia’s actions—overstepping boundaries, forcing herself on him, making creepy dolls of his likeness, using his image in inappropriate ways, trying to get into his bed, and moving in without consent—are nothing short of toxic. These are not signs of healthy affection but rather clear indicators of obsession and disrespect for his personal space and feelings. Gray has been burdened with immense guilt from losing Ur and Ultear, leading to survivor’s guilt. When another woman like Juvia “sacrifices” herself and then is brought back to life, it feels like Gray is compelled to repay that sacrifice by giving in to her advances. Every time he talks about Juvia in those scenes, it doesn’t feel like he’s expressing genuine love but rather trying to repay a debt, further highlighting the unhealthy nature of their relationship. If, by some stretch, Gray is genuinely in love with Juvia after all this time of rejection, then it’s atrocious writing. The writers have completely altered Gray’s character to fit a romantic narrative that was never there to begin with, solely to appease the Gruvia shippers. This new Gray is inconsistent, shallow, and undermines the strong moral compass he was known for. It’s infuriating to see his character assassinated in such a way, especially when the relationship is built on so many red flags that were previously dismissed or ignored.

What’s even more disheartening is that more people aren’t discussing how bad this writing is and how it ruins Gray’s character. Instead, the focus remains on glorifying a toxic relationship that overlooks all the boundaries Juvia has blatantly ignored. Gray deserves better—a portrayal that respects his character’s integrity and acknowledges the unhealthy dynamics at play. It’s time to call out this poor storytelling for what it is and demand more thoughtful character development that doesn’t sacrifice integrity for fan service.

[zolusbian]

so while rewatching shippuden we have been waiting for the moment where it turns from Really Good to Really Bad, right. because it happens. and it happens as soon as madara starts pulling the moon bullshit at the 5 kage summit. up until then, everything is narratively tight, themes are being developed, and characters have arcs. naruto goes through the experience with pain and has his worldview both turned on its head and reconfirmed. nagato is an amazing villain and it forces you to think because he's right, but he's also so wrong. and naruto is right, but he's naiive, and he has to go through this. and, of course, the side characters are getting great development; hinata's bravery and sacrifice, shikamaru stepping up to take responsibility for everything, sasuke going through the shit with itachi and his struggle to press down his emotions, sai and danzo, etc.

and it doesn't need to end at the pain arc, right. like pain is a mid-level villain. and there's still narrative threads that need to be followed through, namely terrorist sasuke and danzo's undermining the leaf. and these things could still be taken care of without the utter bullshit fuckery that starts with the 5 kage arc. here is how i would rewrite it:

final villain is NOT madara but danzo. it's revealed danzo killed madara but in the slimiest way, basically cutting off his life support of hashirama cells and then killing him like a COWARD because danzo is a COWARD and he is only powerful because of systems in place.

obito can still be there, working with/being manipulated by madara and then eventually danzo. he's still a villain during the war. the war still happens. the edo tenseis still happen. the moon thing can still be there and be an excuse. again, though, danzo has effectively manipulated the uchihas in an attempt to consolidate power for himself that turns sideways.

sasuke can still kill danzo.

we can still have cool war arc moments like gai going 8 gates on madara (madara's there bceause of edo tensei)

naruto and sasuke can still have the VOTE2 fight. but there's more development of sasuke's redemption. he still goes on his journey of atonement (maybe seeking out remaining akatsuki sympathizer cells) and has the forehead touch with sakura. sakura can still join him on his journey but this time she's like, an actual person and character, and doesn't accept sasuke's urge to cut off all attachments.

naruto realizes the systemic flaws and actually DOES reform the village. he starts small, with the clans, and through that he's able to develop his relationship with hinata more deeply and profoundly. (no need for neji to die).

maybe some spin-off gaidens with naruto learning how to be a politician under tsunade and then kakashi. he's still the 7th hokage.

ninja academy still exists but now it's about upholding tradition and friendly sparring. it's a proper school up to 18 years old and becoming a ninja is optional. clans still preserve and practice their unique jutsu but also find different applications for them.

no boruto. if there is a sequel it's like, 100 years into the future, maybe after a long-lasting era of peace is disrupted. powerscaling reset. protagonist can be naruto's great-grandson or something. boruto himself lives a completely unremarkable life.

[yume-x-hanabi]

Concubinage Behind the Scenes - ch. 7

So apparently I forgot to cross-post a couple of these "behind the scenes" posts for my longfic I wrote a couple years ago, and since I'm about to resume this series, now's a good time to post them, starting where we left off at chapter 7.

(chapter | DW post | previous posts)

Aftermath of the beating

Thankfully, Arst was able to heal himself somewhat, so he's... well, still in pain, but less pain that he could have been. Not that it changes much—he's the type to push through and pretend he's fine anyway.

Plus, as I've mentioned before, he's got some practice at enduring beatings—and the ones he got in the past often happened in the middle of campaigns, so he sometimes had to go into battle still sore from the previous night's punishment. Not ideal at all.

Here it's just a training session, so it's more bearable, but still far from fun.

Lin's POV

Lin, as he'll explain in the next chapter, did have an inkling that Li was forcing the other trainees to submit to him, but he very naively thought he was just bribing them. He was not totally off-base tbh, that's something that happened a lot in the court: offer some gald here and there, and people look the other way.

Since Arst 'dared' to win against him, Lin was convinced that he would not be so easily corrupted. Despite how humiliating it is for him to lose in front of everyone, he finds it even more humiliating to have people fake defeat against him, so Arst actually treating him seriously was a much welcome change. That, coupled with their friendlier interactions as of late, actually made him pretty hopeful about the future of their relationship. Arst came back in a bad mood from that practice, but Lin chalked it up to him having had an argument with Li about the bribes or something.

The next day, they're facing each other again, and Lin is actually pretty excited about it (Arst, however, sees his smile and friendly banter as mockery). But then... Arst fakes a loss. He proves, in Lin's eyes, that he's no better than all the others who don't take him seriously. Lin is pretty crushed about it, and cuts his practice session short. (Here too, we have a misunderstanding, as Arst turns away before he sees the sadness and disapointment on Lin's face.)

While waiting for Arst to come back, Lin ponders what to do. He even briefly considers offering Arst more money than (what he thinks) Li did, but then he realizes that won't solve the actual problem. So he resolves to simply confront Arst about what happened. Which is... kinda big for Lin at the time, because he hates confrontation. It's a testament of how bothered he is about it that he's ready to address it head on.

Of course it doesn't go very well, and he's a bit taken aback by the sheer hostility Arst is now directing at him. That, plus Arst talking about "learning his lesson", eventually clues him in. He knows exactly what "teaching a lesson" means around here. So he tells Arst to undress for confirmation (dude, you could have just asked).

His first reaction is to jump into problem-solving mode. Arst is hurt = must stop the hurt. So he goes to his special stash of painkiller tea, all ready to share, but then he thinks of Minah and her healing abilities, and decides sending Arst to her would be even better. He makes up that pretense about fetching tea because 1. he's too shocked to think clearly and all the nonsense he was told about acting like a prince is taking over, and 2. he's got an inkling Arst wouldn't believe him anyway. So as long as he can get Arst to her, that's all that matters.

After Arst leaves, he probably spends the rest of the afternoon pacing around the room while processing everything he's just realized.

Minah

Oh Minah, my dear Minah. I think she was more middle-aged in my early concept of her, but then I decided a grandma-like character would be more fun. I didn't have much planned about her in terms of personality or anything, but she kinda... developed on her own within three lines lmao.

She's a bit of an odd one in that environment. Protocol? Traditions? Gender roles? Don't know 'em! Maybe it's because she's ran her shop on her own unbothered for so long, physically within the court but spiritually in her own little world, so she's not really bound by anything that happens around her.

She makes sure to stay as uninvolved as possible, and in return she's left unscrutinized. She's been there for so long she's practically part of the decor, in a way. So most people tend to overlook her. Need medicine? Go to old Minah! But aside from that they kinda forget she's there. Except Lin and a few others, who've come to enjoy her company and peculiar brand of wit.

Despite keeping her distance, she likes having company around, and she loves a good gossip. She was really looking forward to meeting Arst, so she got her wish there. Not the kind of introduction she expected, but definitely the highlight of her day.

She's really gifted with spirit artes, especially healing, which she started practicing since she was a child. She grew up playing assistant to her court healer father, so she developed an eye for illnesses and injuries pretty early on. This enabled her to notice that something was off about Arst. If this was a murder mystery, she'd definitely be the detective XD

Healing

I didn't set out to explore worldbuilding about healing artes from the start, but the more I brought them up, the more I naturally developed lore around it. I love giving a more in-depth spin to gameplay mechanics, so this was a good occasion. Healer Arst was something I'd decided on when I started, though. I loved the discovery that he was programmed to have Cure and Resurrection (unused data has always fascinated me!), and I wanted to make it an actual thing in a story. Since this is an AU, I thought that it would be the perfect setting for it. Especially since it'll be very useful to him here.

[kaisacobra]

need a part two !! all about revenge but with a happy ending😭 this would’ve such a good series. readers dynamic with mindy and sam is so interesting to me. both mindy and sam loving tara so much but knowing how much tara hurts reader.. PAIN. i see ppl in the comments talking about sam and reader being a possibility but i feel like that’s kind of out of left field. i totally see sam and reader being more like family because of tara and sams just really appreciative of reader and seeings her as another little sister she wants to protect but it’s hard because she has to protect her from tara so mindy does it. and mindy and sam totally give each other looks whenever something particularly unfair goes on between r and tara. it’s like a car wreck where they just can’t look away. i think it’d be cool to see the aftermath though. maybe reader finally gains self respect and tries to move on (even tho i think it’d be difficult after loving someone for so long). i wonder how tara would react to it, the regret she’d feel would just tumble over and she’d want to think she was right in everything all along but no one’s backing her up and she’s likes oh shit i made a mistake and do need help. also think it’d be interesting to see reader and quinn maybe develop a relationship even if it isn’t serious. like them just fooling around do reader has a distraction and quinn would know. god knows reader isn’t ready for anything serious and quinn, being ghostface, well this would be a perfect opportunity to drive the relationship between tara and reader even more into the mud. quinn would totally be like “she never appreciated you. and you deserve so much better” to reader and r would be agreeing with her but still defending tara. and tara would be all jealous and she’s forced to see it cause r has a roommate so they can’t go to their room and quinn lives with tara so she cant escape seeing them together. and when quinn reveals herself she’d totally make fun of the relationship and be like “and don’t even get me started on r because even when we were together all she could talk about was u, tara” and she’d spit taras words back at her and be like “you’re right she is pathetic. there’s no wonder you kept her around with how she’d follow ur every move/i get why you’d be tired of her bc she was so obsessed with you” and tara would be shocked at the cruel words and hurt because she realizes that’s exactly what she said to reader. i feel like i won’t be seeing a happy ending cause there’s so much angst but i will be rooting for a happy ending ! sorry i’m rambling but it came to my head and i had to let this out. lmk ur thoughts idc if u think it’s bad lol

was this based off anything ? i kept thinking of second best by laufey but a million other songs ran through my head

Okay, first of all, i absolutely love long asks and I'm gonna make sure to answer this with the same energy🤠

I see people are starting to want happy endings too, huh🤨 While I don't think second best is gonna turn into a series, maybe I could make alternate endings for y'all

I do love Mindy and Sam's relationship with R because they balance each other out. Mindy stays by R's side because she knows Tara has Sam and Sam feels relieved that R is getting support from Mindy because she can't leave Tara

And yeah, i don't really see R getting with Sam on part two. However, since I love mixing characters from different universes that I've watched, I considered a lot putting Enid Sinclair (at least a version of her) as Tara's new "competition".

But I also have to say I love your idea of it being Quinn! Although I would make her more of a Tiffany Valentine (if you've seen Chucky) killer in a sense of being a passionate lover who's not afraid of hurting her partner

About it being based off anything, it's not really, at least not intentionally. Second best was actually supposed to be one of those "4 times and 1" where we would see the 4 times Tara put R second and the 1 time R had enough. I'm glad with the outcome though.

And I loved your thoughts! Honestly, you make great points and I'm happy that people seem excited for part 2🥰

[ladyravenjadethe2nd]

Fixing MHA Girl's character development part 2 Tsuyu Asui

Bet your surprised to see her on here because she is such a unproblematic character. She doesn't have any of those dumb weaknesses given to females for no reason. She has a cool quirk, cool design, is calm under pressure, what's not to like?

The problem is that she comes like that. She starts off as a character that doesn't really need much growth. How can her character develop when we see no issues?

She's just there being pretty cool and that's it. Considering her background it's kind of a waste. She is the oldest of serval siblings and that's interesting.

No one else in the class has younger siblings at all that we known about in the class. Oldest sibling syndrome is a thing. I bet she was always the 'mature for age' and 'a delight in class' kid.

It's not common to talk about how older girls will be forced to handle adult reasonability, but it happens a lot and that doesn't mean she needs to have a bad relationship with her parents either.

I'd like to see her siblings brought in more. I'd like her to refuse an outing here or there because of babysitting. To talk about needing to buy something for her siblings when she goes to the mall. Little things.

She can love and enjoy spending time with them, but she has hero training and needs a social life. I'd like her parents to not be bad people or even bad parents, but to not realize that they are taking her for granted.

I think it would be great to see a build up of stress on Tsuyu. I'd like to see what she looks like when the pressure starts to get too much and I'd like to see good parents notice and set some boundaries with her so she isn't taking on too much.

This would be a good way for her to devolve a friendship with some of her classmates if they notice she is having issues and wants to help. It seems like all the girls are friends because they are girls and that's really boring.

You could also do a lot with the frog thing. We know their is discrimination about mutations and we know certain quirks can have weird effects on people.

Her quirk is Frog. Let her eat bugs. For real let her have an ugly, gross side effect of her quirk that she hides because she would be picked on. The spitting stuff up thing honestly just looks sexual, she should eat bugs instead.

At the very least her dad is a Toad man and a scene where one of her siblings asks her to take them to the park instead of their dad because they don't want to be seen with them would be emotional and heart warming as she talks them through not letting others stop you from spending time with those you love.

Lets bring in the mutant discrimination a bit more. Let's show some depth with her. I know she had that one snake friend from middle school which is nice, but her dad would have had a very hard time looking like a Toad. It would effect his family and that would be a lot closer to home for her.

I just think an episode of her family dynamics would give her so much more. She's not bad, but they gave her an interesting family and an interesting quirk and half assed the natural conclusion having those things would lead too.

[mirimangarecs]

kill the villainess - haegi & wol-saeng sa

being suddenly reincarnated as a hated villainess, a normal woman is desperate to die in order to return to the real world, but the price of escaping might be more than anyone expected

the couple: it’s a slow development with a mature tone. he’s plain, loyal, and calm; she’s cruel, calculating, and extremely traumatized. he’s the only one who respects her boundaries and loves her for who she is

story & setting: the world itself is very detailed with a magic system that gives just enough information to intrigue you without overexplaining. the tone takes a sharp turn about halfway through to remind you that you are in fact reading a tragedy. even though it was emotionally awful, watching the pieces slowly come together was extremely satisfying

the art: gorgeous from start to finish

cw: attempted suicide, rape, misogyny

(spoilery rambling and analysis)

i finished reading like 10mins ago and raced over here this is Not gonna be organized or make sense

i think it’s ultimately another harem subversion story with a dark, even cynical bent, but i can’t say it’s wholly unearned. both within the genre and reality, the consequences of men hating and desiring you are oftentimes devastating, with little recourse to reclaim agency outside of drastic, self-injurious measures. on a meta level, there’s a huge emphasis on how much agency she or anyone can have as characters. eris turns down every attempt, goes through legal and social channels to separate herself from the various men that pursue her, tells everyone her feelings extremely bluntly, and begins seeing a different man, but they ignore these signals to the point of irrational self-delusion. they covet her even after her death, to the point where she orders her corpse to be burned to prevent them from getting their hands on her, and she’s correct to do it! it’s an extremely dark take on the “i’m the villainess, but suddenly all the male leads are in love with ME instead??” trope. everyone suffers because of this redirected attraction, and eris is to blame for exactly Zero of it, but it also serves to demonstrate how the supposed “happy ending” story where the rightful fl is adored and cared for by all also had the same capacity for obsessive cruelty under the veneer.

initially i had a little chuckle at her name literally being “eris misery” because it seemed a little edgy, and while that might be true, it turns out it is extremely apt. she sows discord over love with an almost supernatural quality, through no fault of her own because that’s just what eris was written to be, and now the person who became eris is being perpetually victim-blamed by the entire reality around her. it feels disempowering and incredibly frustrating for both her and for the reader.

i mentioned the tonal shift about halfway through and it really is dramatic, but it ultimately didn’t come out of nowhere. eris tells the reader who she hates, who she thinks will harm her, and that she wants to escape this world very early on, and it’s your fault if you don’t listen to her. the audience falls into the same traps as the men in assuming that she really will want to stay in that world after all, that it’s not so bad, that she’ll end up with one of the men who pursue her, and other isekai/fantasy romance conventions. the events halfway through are just a rude reminder that things really Are that bad.

the ending is brutal. the fact that like, almost everyone literally dies could come off as shock value but for me it felt more like a natural conclusion because dear god, this world is unloveable and no one can make it out alive. even original fl, though it was horribly sad, is better off dead having made her peace than being forced to be a plot object in the proximity of the men who are honestly incapable of respecting her as a person and have currently gone completely off the deep end. also, the political theatre surrounding these events is really masterfully done and brought a level of deep gravity to the situation. and technically the main couple is happy so like. it’s not all soul-destroyingly awful. thank god she got out and went to therapy

[dragon-cookies]

Okay so overall thoughts on the new indie horror game, Suffer the Night by TaintedPact Games. I saw some clips of it on TikTok and decided to check it out

It's got an interesting premise and fun characters, but kind of suffers from an identity crisis during the second and third acts. Heads up for spoilers below the cut.

The game starts you off with a mysterious top-hatted man appearing at your doorstep and giving you a game on a floppy disc, with his only instructions being to play it, or else he's going to break into your house and murder you. It's a simple yet effective premise that gets straight to the point.

The entire first act is just you playing through a text-based horror adventure game, while the hatted man stalks you from outside the house, taunting you in a fun little sing-songy voice and occasionally reminding you to keep playing. There's a button designated solely for looking over your shoulder while at your computer too, something that's freaked out basically every let's player who noticed it.

With the way this first act is set up, and how the demo is also presented, it kind of leads you to assume this is going to be the entirety of the game. You're trapped in your house, forced to play a game through to the end, while fending off a powerful and mysterious threat. But then you beat the game, get got by the hat man, and then it goes through a pretty large and drastic shift in mechanics.

You wake up in a gothic, Amnesia-like area with musty stone walls and mutilated bodies, where it's revealed that after Stacey signed the book at the end of the game in the first act, she has now been transported into the world of the game itself where the hatted man, who we learn is called Mr. Tops, has total control over. Now, you must survive Mr. Tops' gauntlet of challenges he's set up for you, and gather the items you need to make your way to his domain and defeat him in order to escape.

It's at this point where the identity crisis kind of kicks in for me. The tense, atmospheric horror you might have experienced in the first act is now replaced with puzzles you need to solve, obstacles to overcome, and enemies to either avoid or kill with weapons you pick up along the way. Not a necessarily bad thing if you like this style of horror, but it's very different from the first act like I said. You also go from this gothic horror setting, to a creepy carnival playhouse, and then back to gothic horror with a dose of cosmic horror right at the end. All of which are not bad subgenres of horror, but they are a bit thematically jarring when crammed all into one game.

The third and final act features Stacey confronting Mr. Tops, where he reveals that he put her through all those challenges in order to claim her body as a new vessel, through which he'll use to supposedly wreak havoc on the real world. Stacey refuses, which leads to the final boss fight between her and Mr. Tops.

This is also just kind of a 'me' thing, but I found Mr. Tops' final boss form once again a bit thematically jarring.

The bat wings and scythe are cool, but they don't really fit very well with the rest of his appearance in my opinion. I feel like maybe black raven wings and longer claws could've fit a little bit better, but again that's just personal preference.

Stacey defeats Mr. Tops and stabs him with his own dagger (honestly a very badass move) and goes to finally escape the game world. It's here where, if you've collected all the Tarot cards throughout the game, you can unlock the good ending where you find the original developer of the game, who tells you can destroy the game's source code and delete everything. Follow his instructions, and the game and everything within it will be erased from existence. Stacey wakes up the next morning in her house, and smashes the game's floppy disc under her foot.

If you don't have all the tarot cards, or just choose to not delete the source code, Stacey will still escape back to the real world, but it's soon revealed that Mr. Tops essence still lives on within her, and she mutates into her own monstrous form as a living vessel for Mr. Tops.

So yeah like I said at the start, I think the game is strongest during its first act. I personally found Mr. Tops to be the most intriguing during that part, where we still don't know who he is or what his true intentions are. Learning more about him kind of kills that intrigue in my opinion. It's kind of like if we learned who the Happy Mask Salesman is from Majora's Mask and why he does what he does, a lot of the fun of that character comes from what we don't know about him.

But yes overall, not a bad experience. I'd probably put it at 7/10 like a fair number of other reviewers are. If you want to check it out yourself it's available on Steam!

[sketching-shark]

Hi hi! I’ve been reading all your posts about Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, and also about your … dissatisfaction with a particular Lego retelling of this monkey character and their handling of him. The reason for this, is I think Flying Barks are trying to write this “Lego Monkie Kid” story in the same manner Dreamworks did with She-Ra and SPOP, and Cartoon Network with Steven Universe. But there’s a reason why those shows work and this one doesn’t:

SPOP: She Ra in its original iteration is just an advertisement show for toys, shallow and simple. This blank slate-like setting allows for its writers to weave complex stories and relationship with its characters, without any hangups about their original ones from before, such as Catra and Adora/She-Ra’s relationship changed from a straightforward enemy-hero dynamic with a rivalry for the affection of one of the male characters, to a complex childhood friends to enemies to lovers story, along with the other characters that also lack depths in the original show changed to be more elaborate.

Steven Universe: The main reason that conflicts happen in this show is because of this one character named Rose Quartz, or Pink Diamond as who she really is, and this show is mainly written to be seen from the lens of her son, Steven Universe, who’s something of an audience point of view in this. Rose started out in this show seen as a deific figure, a one-dimensional embodiment of goodness that Steven tries to emulate and fill in to appease his parental figures who were mourning their loss of her. As the show goes on, it slowly peels back this image, by showing the baggage that the other characters have that were already there before Rose happened, or Pink Diamond, their complicated relationship with her and her influence on them, and the effects that she left behind, good and bad, in the wake of her death. It also shows that Rose, like any other normal person, didn’t start out with the knowledge of what’s right or wrong, who also grew up in a very toxic environment, and the struggles that she goes through in growing to be a better person in a non-linear direction while also hampered by her own self-destructive issues, which results in her decisions that where well-intentioned but not well-thought out. This also impacts other characters, who also affect other people in their grief and how they cope with it as their own person, making it a complicated effect. The reason why we don’t get her true thoughts on this is because she is dead, physically gone from the story and with no way of coming back, and the characters are left with that void with no concrete answers. The fact is that Steven learns of her development in a backwards manner is why he began to grow complicated feeling about her as a person, but it also means he is growing as a person as well as he starts making his own mistakes that are not Rose’s fault, and owning up to them in a way Rose no longer could, while also dealing with his own issues. TLDR Steven Universe is a show about grief of the death of a beloved figure, and the unravelling of said figure’s story in all of their complexities, while dealing with the fact they could never receive their unbiased truth of it. Steven Universe Future mainly deals with Steven’s existential crisis as someone who fought a war, different from his mother’s but still the same effect, and how he’s also dealing with his trauma and growth as a complex person.

As one of the writers work on ROTTMNT, one of more famous iterations of the TMNT franchise, I imagine they think they could apply this approach to Sun Wukong. However, TMNT is actually a simple setting as well: four turtles who were changed by outside forces to be more humanoid and trained to be ninjas by their rat master. This lends to a flexibility in reworking the story and the cast’s roles in all sorts of manner, and is easily accepted by masses The reason why this approach to this Monkey King adaption irritates and puts-off many is because, 1) Sun Wukong originated from a literature work that is already complex and multifaceted to begin with, and is also a metaphorical journey of Buddhism so the attempts to simplify and dumb down the character does not gel well with the theme they represent, 2) Rose was already dead when the show started, and thus she can no longer affect the story, also most of the problems that were affected by PD/Rose’s decisions were just a reaction to it as they already there to begin with and her decisions also paved a way for others to do better for themselves. Sun Wukong is still alive and present, and so far all the show do is paint him as the sole reason where the cast’s problems originated from, which does not bode well for his presence in the story and its meaning, while also seemingly stripping him of any means or power to change it. 3) As Sun Wukong’s roles are already set in and has its reason that makes the story, it requires any other writers to acknowledge both his flaws and virtues without removing his qualities that made him competent and reliable to other characters, as well as the positive impacts that he does make.

I hope this makes sense, as I am not an analytical person by nature, and I don't offend you nor do I wish to impose on you, merely stating my opinion as a neutral party. Have a good month!

Hello there @angstandhappiness, absolutely no offense taken, apologies as always for the complaining lmao, and many thanks for taking the time to write this all out!

I think your reasoning here does make a lot of sense, especially since I can definitely see Flying Bark trying to adapt elements from cartoons that proved themselves to be quite successful, even when it means MASSIVE rewrites for the og classic Monkie Kid is ostensibly a sequel to. I do also think that it certainly isn't fair to say lego show Sun Wukong is presented as the ONLY figure responsible for a lot of the nonsense, what with obvious villains like the Demon Bull Family, Spider Queen, and Lady Bone Demon running around. It's undeniable, however, that the Monkey King has pretty consistently been written as a major screw-up who ultimately had every achievement from the classic undermined or flat-out erased, all while one character after another has yelled at him for being awful. I know people keep saying we need to wait and see more flashbacks from his point of view, but it is hard to dredge up enthusiasm for that given that literally every one of the flashbacks to the past, even from his own perspective, just make him worse and worse either because they confirm he was doing what he did for strictly selfish reasons (don't think I can forgive Flying Bark for deleting his entire monkey yaoguai family lmao) or to just hammer home what a screw-up he's apparently been for centuries. Seen other people say this, but it's one thing to make a character flawed--hell, anyone who's read Journey to the West could tell you how deeply flawed all of its protagonists are--and something completely else to have, as you said, put major focus on SWK's terrible actions all while providing him little opportunity to act otherwise.

It is kind of wild though...I know that the ever-famous Xiyouji itself is often though of as a story of both enlightenment and redemption, and I know that of the redemption stories out there Zuko's from Avatar is still hailed as one of the best, but currently it really seems like the thing a lot of stories supposedly about redemption don't actually want to do is spend the time setting up a satisfying redemption arc. Instead, they just go the route of doubling tripling and quadrupling the increasingly heinous acts of a character before they get a last second redemption. Like sure, you'll get your explodey and/or teary and/or true love's kiss endings where everything works out for the best, but I'll be honest it's been really frustrating seeing how these insta-redemptions mean you're supposed to immediately forget about everything a character pulled up until that point, whether it be bullying, murder attempts, or even multi-planetary genocide.

And I suppose that right there is one of my main gripes with how not just Monkie Kid SWK but multiple other characters have been handled; where they do something harmful, they do something harmful again, the stuff they pull just gets worse and worse and worse, but then instead of that being addressed outside of someone screaming at them well it's time to put down a world-ending threat with their help and then we barely if at all address the shitty things they did, at least until the next time the plot needs angst and drama.

Like thinking back to the season 4 special it could have been an AMAZING story for SWK to start a true journey of redemption by trying to save the Azure Lion by having genuine empathy for this big cat and actively using his own immortality and invulnerability--the very things that apparently made SWK turn away from his sworn brotherhood in the first place--to help Azure instead of just fighting the blue cat and staring at him after being like "how are you alive bro I bodied you myself lol" all while Azure is screaming in pain and disintegrating right in front of the Monkey King (which does make this the second sworn brother to blow up in front of SWK with him barely indicating that he cares haha). But the point being that if you think about it, the Azure Lion here was pretty much what SWK was last season; someone who became so convinced that they and they alone would be able to save the world in spite of just making the situation 1000x worse than it had to be that they pig-headedly plowed ahead no matter the damage until literally the entire universe was in danger of being destroyed. So SWK knows what that's like. He's been there, and very recently too. And it could have been a neat start to his own journey of atonement for the shit he's pulled both past and present to extend some of the compassion and upteenth chances he received from others to the Azure Lion.

Idk, I suppose I would actually like to see SWK genuinely becoming a better person instead of twitter telling me he is and then not actually showing much development in the show itself god bless.

[mdhwrites]

You know I noticed a detail that made me think why l/umity lost it's spark, but metaphorically so to speak about their color themes.

Luz is purple, Amity was a dilemma because of her track color but everyone kind of agreed with green, purple and green are opposites which fit their dynamic. However you can notice the pallets of purple and pink forced on Amity later, the groom dress and her grudgby uniform. (Not sure if real but there were some official concepts about her originally having a green tuxedo for groom instead of a pink dress and tbh they should've kept that, you can tell the colors were off-putting with the dress)

Green with pink it's a bit chaotic on it's own and it quite reflects on Amity's drastic changes, but the combination with purple just doesn't work.

Then her theme turned to purple as well and well, purple with purple it's boring. You don't even know what heart emoji colors to use for them anymore when in s1 it used to be like this 💜💚, some people resulted to this 🤎💜 but again not working

.

I guess this is why I was so pissed when they started treating anything green related as Odalia's bad influence (which was stupid). And it's like a slap in the face to the fans who were invested in Amity's green era. So what? Me preferring her green hair makes me a supporter of Odalia's abuse now? What about these stylish fanarts of her pulling the green hair with different outfits and styles?

.

Originally I thought she dyed it to impress or get her mom's attention, when Odalia was thought to be a strict perfectionist parent not the dumbster fire of a character they turned her out to be. The point is that it was on Amity's own acord, not mom's. Thrown outta window I suppose.

But in that case I would've preferred Amity growing her natural hair in time as a reference to her becoming her own person, meanwhile having Luz go through a development of her own to change her color theme so they have another contrasting that works. It's kind of hard to imagine Amity in anything other than purple now from her spell circle to her abomination, not to mention her room (heck everything's purple)

In The Power of Love, I actually made it that when Amity was young, the two figured out her hairstyle and dyed it both as a bonding moment and just because yes, Odalia is a bit obsessive. The style was Amity's choice though and she liked how it made her mom feel. You know, because families don't have to be terrible all the time. As far as the color theory stuff goes, it feels more like Luz's color should have been something besides purple more than Amity needing to stay green. That it either wasn't thought out... Or seen as a positive. Because it is in line with the rest of Amity's character and even the haircut she has right after dying her hair: She is just in line with Luz. Everything about Amity in S2 is about falling into line with Luz. Has daddy issues? So does Luz! Doesn't like the coven system all of a sudden? So does Luz! Have short, slightly messy hair? So does Luz! This actually caused a period of time before Amity got her long hair when black and white fanarts would make me pause to figure out who was Amity and who was Luz because they looked so similar. And GOD FORBID they both be in their school uniforms because then you were just screwed back then. It is all part of the girlfriend-ification of Amity where her priorities and very identity are focused entirely on Luz. It's probably also why people don't seem to do NEARLY as much with her now because, much like losing the contrast in color theory, she lost all flavor and the like. Lost what made her unique. Her methods, morals, priorities, etc. just became the same as everyone else's: Whatever Luz needs. It is EXTREMELY boring from a narrative standpoint and part of why the arcs in TOH frustrate me so much. You start with an interesting character and then replace them with a bland, template character that fills a role around Luz. Her surrogate mom in Eda, her girlfriend in Amity, her... Lancer? Kind of? In Hunter, her big strong girl with Willow and her smart guy in Gus. Except to even define them this much is awkward because the show doesn't really care about what jokes or the like they're doing with certain characters when outside of shipping moments. This is where you get high society Amity being the biggest clutz on the planet in S3 Ep. 1. It's all frustrating and it's even more infuriating that you're right: Looking Glass Ruins is when this started in full force with Amity changing her hair to not only match Luz in style but also match closer to Luz's normal colors. And it would only honestly go downhill from there with the very slight exception of Eclipse Lake. And even then... That's the last time we'd see Amity actually have that sort of drive... And it's only because of Luz. And that kind of sucks when she used to be so much more a distinct person with her own goals and desires. Instead... She's a lesbian defined mostly by her interest in another girl. I thought that was normally something that annoyed people. Edit: Just to add: I still like Amity's S1 haircut the most. It's the most distinct visually, is actually a unique design besides 'long hair' or 'short hair with a dye job that went unfinished apparently' and it's just a very cute look in my opinion.