#where they are both completely different characters with zero nuance

[alea-jottun]

Arcane season 2 rewrite part one : Viktor

(other parts here)

Here are some ideas I have been entertaining for an alternate season 2 I'm working on.

I have been mixing s2, what little of LoL lore I've heard about, and what I wish would have happened (I apologize in advance for any mistake, English is not my first language):

With the way they established a link between Viktor and Singed during s1, I think it would have been interesting to mix the LoL lore and Arcane canon : Singed could have been encouraging Viktor down the Lol path (spurring him to commit more and more unethical experiences in the name of progress, while providing him with shimmer and helping him replace his sick body with machine parts, etc.).

I can see Singed feeding Viktor's resentment towards Jayce and Piltover, preying on his pain after his banishment (and claiming that he understands him because he lived through a similar experience). Of course, from a purely objective point of view, Viktor is aware that Singed is trying to reel him in and has ulterior motives. But despite his best efforts, the emotional pain is still too raw and powerful. He knows Singed's intentions towards him cannot be good, but he is also grateful to him for helping him continue his work (in this AU, Viktor managed to steal some hex crystals) and for helping him with this new body.

Back in Zaun, Viktor drowns himself in his work, trying to forget how much he's hurting (how could Piltover do this to him ? How could Jayce side against him in his trial, this kangaroo court, after all they've been through together ? How could he have been so wrong about Jayce ? How could he have been so naive to think Jayce would undertsand ?)

He becomes the Machine Herald and, once he's no longer under imminent threat of death due to his illness, he begins to work on mechanical machinery, body prosthetics, etc. in order to improve life in Zaun.

And that's when things go wrong : Viktor's new body is powered by the hexcore Jayce has implanted him with (because I like this idea, let's keep the beginning of episode 1). But now he needs shimmer to keep his mind and body together (after all, it's by mixing the shimmer variant, his own organic body and the arcane that Viktor fixed his leg in s1), and the pain at bay.

He becomes a shimmer addict.

At first it's manageable, not as nocive as regular shimmer, and he only replaces the parts of his body that are actively hurting/killing him (his lungs, his spine, etc.). But with his regular shimmer consumption, he begins to develop side effects, which spurs him to modify even more of his body, which in consequence make him even more dependent on shimmer.

A few years pass, and now he is involved in shimmer traffic (there could be a possibility to link his arc with Jinx's or Sevika's here, I will need to develop this point later). He keeps healing desperate Zaunites, knowing that every prosthetic he builds helps the patients survive but will get them addicted to shimmer eventually. He tries to convince himself that he is doing the right thing, that he is doing more good than harm, that some sacrifices are unavoidable. He hasn't had a resting night of sleep in years.

Viktor keeps transforming and fears that one day he won't recognize himself anymore. If he doesn't stop taking shimmer he will lose the rest of his humanity, but if he stops his machine body will fail him. He has never felt this lonely.

[kitkatopinions]

When people talk about how "rwde is mad that RWBY subverts expectations" I wonder how much of what's considered subverting expectations is actually ignoring set up, doing things out of nowhere, and actually doing a popular and very much so expected thing.

Like don't get me wrong, I do think sometimes people have ideas for what RWBY should've been and then think that it was more set up then it actually was. Like, people who took Blake saying she grew up outside the kingdoms and had to learn to fight to mean "I am an orphan and spent my whole life on the streets" that then got mad when Blake had pretty big house and parents. I might agree that RWBY perhaps shouldn't have given Blake the privileges they gave her specifically because of how they decided to use her to tell the other Faunus to stop being mean to their oppressors (though I'd sooner throw that part out than get rid of Blake being the daughter of a leader with a big house,) but I don't think it was pulling the rug out from under people the way some people do.

However, then you have things like Adam, where some people in RWDE are saying "he was set up as this interesting character who would be an ideological foil for Blake that cared about the cause and his people, and it felt like he'd be used as a way to talk about the injustice in the world of Remnant and then was reduced to nothing but a girl-obsessed hate sink two dimensional incel" and some anti-rwde people are hitting back with "you're just upset that the edgy bad-boy isn't getting redeemed, you just wanted Adam to be Zuko, but RWBY subverted your expectations by not redeeming him and instead giving Ilia the redemption arc, and giving Blake and Yang the sympathy."

And there's a lot to unpack, there. Including the fact that redemption arcs and sympathy aren't a zero-sum game in fiction and as someone who loves both redemption arcs and when characters get justified sympathy, it's frustrating when people act like there isn't enough redemption to go around as if it's a pie and Adam getting a piece of it means Ilia doesn't get any.

But more to the point, A. I at least have zero interest in Adam being a Zuko, because so much of Zuko's redemption arc hinged on Zuko confronting his and his people's role in oppression. Adam is oppressed. Zuko was scarred by an abusive father and banished from home, Adam was branded like cattle by a supremacist who he was working for as a child laborer. Although both are incredibly sympathetic, they're incredibly different. Whether or not the writers were trying to harken back to Zuko (which I believe they were,) they seemed to completely miss the differences between the two characters, and also deciding to 'subvert expectations' when the circumstances they themselves wrote were so different is a bad look at best. As if they couldn't have 'subverted expectations' with a different character like Cardin or Jacques or even Roman Torchwick, that wasn't a member of their in-universe oppressed minority group.

B. A member of an oppressed people group that's been hurt by the oppressors of the world and yet spends their time committing horrible cruel acts that force the heroes to stand against them is not some never before heard of thing. In fact, it's very common. A revolutionary supposedly fighting for equality that's actually hurting the people he's supposedly fighting for is a pretty regular every day thing. People have literally been criticizing how it's misused and usually racist propaganda (usually written by white people) since long before RWBY was even concepted. Adam isn't a proper subversion of anything, in my opinion, because you can't do the common thing and then say you subverted expectations by not doing the less common thing. Which in this case, the less common thing would actually be to make the oppressed person who had been branded and was shown fighting for the rights of his people to actually be a nuanced and complicated character who does deserve sympathy and could be redeemed.

C. It might just be me, but if you're going to 'subvert expectations' then the thing you write instead of the expectation had better be pretty freaking good. Because sometimes the expectation is there because it just works well. Like in a group of heroes, you expect them to develop a friendship. If people want to subvert expectations by instead having them hate each other, the story better be golden because the reason people tend to expect friendship is that it's usually much easier to connect to character dynamics when they actually like each other. If you're going to write a story where hope is a central theme, but you want to subvert expectations by making a sympathetic and cool character with a personal connection to the mains look like they're gonna get redeemed but then instead make them just the worst person imaginable, then you better do it super well and make him instead a great well-rounded nuanced and fun to hate villain. So not only do we have to pay attention to why the writers shouldn't have gone that route for Adam, we gotta look at the quality of what they did with it, and... Nope. It sucked. Adam was paper thin and horribly voice acted and honestly if he'd never attacked in V6 nothing would've really changed because it had no real consequences that couldn't have been better achieved in a different way, and introducing his branding scar in the same scene he got stabbed was purely for shock value, and nothing came of his character, and idk if Ruby ever even learned his name on screen or Weiss knew anything about him, and it was so badly done. If you're going to 'subvert expectations,' you gotta do it well, or people are always going to want the thing they expected in the beginning instead. Unfortunately, the RWBY writers didn't write Adam well at all. So I for one can't blame anyone for saying 'honestly, I wish they'd gone with the other thing.'

D. Back to 'sometimes when people say subverting expectations, they really mean ignored set up.' With Adam in particular, I do believe that he was always meant to be a bad guy who did bad cruel things from the very first trailer he appeared in, but that doesn't at all mean that set up wasn't ignored. From Blake talking about him as a mentor, to her crediting him with the Grimm masks, to the ideological differences, to Cinder literally having to threaten and coerce him into working with her on screen, the set up indicated that at the very least, this would be a complicated and nuanced 'villain with a point' and that point was going to matter and be addressed. The set up was that Cinder's coercion was going to be addressed and would matter. The set up was that Blake's complicated feelings about Adam and her desire to help her people and her later established care and compassion for Ilia (who may I remind people is at least just as bad as seasons 1-3 Adam in at least attempt if not execution,) would lead somewhere when it came to Adam. The set up was that seeing a child laborer literally branded on the face with the logo of WEISS'S COMPANY would lead to big discussions and some sort of recognition of just how bad the current system is and how bad the SDC itself as always been. And instead Weiss as far as we know never even heard about it and continued on being angry that she wasn't set to be CEO and calling her grandfather a hero and Blake was completely disinterested in attending a rally against Jacques Schnee and teased Weiss about her family owning half of Atlas. Like ???

E. Doing things out of nowhere is also not subverting expectations. In regards to Adam, this looks like randomly making him totally obsessed with Blake enough that he stalks her for weeks when he literally let her go repeatedly before that. Doing things out of nowhere is making Adam not care an ounce about his people in order to do whatever Salem says when we saw him reject Cinder outright and need to be coerced with threats to his people. Those aren't subverting expectations, that's just doing one thing and then retconning the character to do something out of character.

This post turned out to be mostly about Adam, but there's tons of examples of this, like people saying RWDE are mad that the writers 'subverted expectations' by making Ironwood turn evil when we were sitting there like 'the fact that he wasn't evil was subverting expectations in the first place! And they had to throw V3 out the window to get where they were in V8! And it was super badly done!' People just throw around 'subverting expectations' when it comes to RWBY because it sounds a lot better than 'flying by the seats of their pants doing whatever pops into their heads with no care or consideration towards set-up or emotional pay off' but that's it, that's what the RWBY writers seem to do. When I expect something to happen in RWBY, it's because it's the natural thing that makes sense to happen, and in their supposed effort to 'subvert expectations,' the writers instead made a show with no consequences where you can't expect the writers to make anything that happens matter and you can't trust what's in the show because the writers might say sike and retcon it. It's endlessly frustrating to be like 'hey was any of what was in the show going to matter' and then have people say 'you're just mad because RWBY subverted your expectations.' RWBY subverted my expectation that the show would be good, how about that?

You know, if the show actually was interested in subverting expectations, Jaune wouldn't be in the show nearly as much and he'd be more gender-non-conforming and be a support healer role instead of the man now with like twenty years of experience on the mains who always has his trauma get plenty of focus and gets away with screaming in Ruby's face that she's responsible for all bad things while he mourns the three different women that were shoved in the fridge for the sake of his character development. They could've started with making the white straight cis able-bodied not-faunus man actually not be a basic underdog-protagonist turned Michael-Scarn-esque tragic hero that Weiss lusts after, but whoops. Like what am I supposed to think, that they're super interested in subverting expectations for the sake of women when Jaune is right there guzzling up screen time? Nah babes.

(Before someone comes in here talking about Adam-obsessed fan boys, I do not even like Adam, canon Adam is not only gross but far too two-dimensional for me to even enjoy, and my own ideas for rewrites involve me boiling Adam down to a concept and building him up again as if he was a different character as much 'Adam' as Ruby is Red Riding Hood. Nobody accuse me of being an Adam-obsessed dudebro or I will lose it. Because that's another thing that a lot of anti-RWDE people seem to do, is decide that the only reason anyone would ever talk about problems with Adam is because they're an obsessed incel man. And meanwhile I'm over here as a bi-women who dislikes Adam partially because he reminds me of my controlling 'my happiness is your responsibility' ex-boyfriend who we - long story - thought might've stabbed someone with a sword once. So yeah, not an Adam fanboy lol.)

[projectjasper]

i think what people miss a lot of the time with tropes that are generally disliked is the nuance. which is not surprising because the internet is the place where nuance comes to die, but you know.

bury-your-gays isn't just any gay character dying. it is a very specific juxtaposition of that death to many things: to other gay characters, if they exist in the story; to their partner, if they have one; to the narrative structure, etc. if it's one of the many otherwise living gay characters in the series, if it's not the devastating finale for their partner's story, who then ends up alone and miserable, if it is not the conclusion of the overall story of what it's like to be gay, then it's not just fine, but has the potential to be an amazing relatable story of grief, for instance.

bury-your-gays is a trope that very explicitly leaves the viewer with the conclusion that if you are gay, you are either dead or miserable because someone else gay died. and all of that is wrapped in the additional context of 1) how queer and queer-coded characters have been presented for many years (someone who ultimately deserves to be punished for their queerness) and 2) how society has perceived queer people and our lives (with a blanket idea of a horrific and sad life and zero possibility for a long and happy one, in some places up until the 2000s or 2010s or whatever mark cishet people want to put on the sudden claimed end of oppression, in others - to this day).

something very similar can be said about the cure-as-happy-ending trope. it's not that just any disabled character becoming abled again is some horrific crime. it is once again about the juxtaposition of it. is it placed in the middle of the story or perhaps at 2/3 of it, to showcase the truth of the experience that doesn't actually simply end with a blink? has there been a sufficient amount of nuance and detail about the disabled experience, so the story doesn't feel like a speedrun lesson through disability that leads the character to the long-awaited recovery? is the actual cure something that exists in real life or, taking it even further, something that is accessible to the average person and therefore actually relatable, or does it fit under the miracle cure trope as well? are there other disabled characters in the story who are disabled and ok with it? (shock horror, i know, more than ONE disabled character in the same story??? and they are HAPPY as well????? perish the thought! /s)

cure-as-happy-ending, much like it directly states, is a trope that very explicitly leaves the viewer with the conclusion that a disabled person's happy ending is not being disabled anymore. and all of that is wrapped in the additional context of 1) how disabled characters have been presented for many years (someone who gets their happiness by either ignoring their disability, becoming abled, or dying, often by euthanasia) and 2) how society has perceived disabled people and our lives (completely miserable, incomplete, constantly seeking a way out, hating our disability or even ourselves).

and well, there is of course also the conversation of how certain stories, even when they are authentic, realistic, relatable, and respectful, are far more common than others, because they are considered more palatable or sellable or what have you. and people wishing for more representation of other experiences is both understandable and fair. but that's a conversation for a different day.

[suffarustuffaru]

I've read some rezero crossover fanfics , but I really don't understand why some people like to impose the whole background and character traits of other characters on certain characters in Rezero, and some fics even directly stated that A in Rezero is in fact B from a certain work, which is very bizarre and disrespectful to both canon source material, it's like B is cosplaying A but is a completely different person on the inside, if you want to insert a character from other works into the rezero world why don't you just keep their original identity and characteristics? Personally, I really hate this type of rezero crossover fics tbh :///

anon i understand you so much hah.

i joined this fandom months before season 2 started airing, so i was there to see rz ao3 pick up and the fanfic scene in rz be more established—so seeing this trend in rz fic has always really confused me tbh?? 😅 and i dont personally like it either for the same reasons you stated. its just one of those rz fanfic tropes that i 1. am not very fond of and 2. am continuously confused by given these arent very fandom typical trends, theyre extremely rz fandom specific if that makes sense (the react fic trend… re:forgotten… etc)? and i dont often see crossovers treated like this in other fandoms, and rz in general seems to be a fandom that really enjoys fic because its kind of. astounding?? that theres a whole fanfic thread that gets continuously renewed on rz reddit and is almost always pinned right at the top of the page. its rare to get a fandom that very openly acknowledges its fic in this way i feel? but you know, you go on that fic thread and you see a lot of people suggesting crossover ideas that—as you said anon—tend to be very “rezero but character a is character b”?? its like such a commonplace thing that occasionally i just go through that thread out of curiosity and read it like you would a morning newspaper hah and you cant go more than a minute without seeing a crossover idea like that.

and if anyone else is seeing this and confused on what the hell that means, one example i see a lot is “rezero but subaru is guts from berserk” wkfndnd

i think subaru is the one this happens most to, just because various audiences have various relationships with subaru, mainly because there tends to be a habit of 1. using him as a self-insert and 2. thinking hes absolute hellspawn or the best most perfect person to ever exist with zero nuance, so the whole “person a is now person b in everything but name and looks” thing is so. telling. like sometimes when i see people talk about a character like subaru it always boggles my mind because its like?? do you… even like subaru as he is? and if youre warping rezero to be more like that other media youre crossing it over with, do you even like rezero either? anon saying “its like B is cosplaying A but is a completely different person in the inside” is exactly how it feels like?? T^T

and of course its not as if you cant write crossovers. i love seeing crossovers!! i read some crossovers myself and ive written a whole bunch of crossovers and i come up with all sorts of ideas. its super fun to do and i completely get it. but the “person a is person b” thing is odd to me because at the heart of it, it feels like it basically means “*insert character* but theyre not actually themselves”. and of course its not like you cant make AUs where things are changed from canon, or AUs where the character grows and changes in general even if its different from canon. but theres a difference between “im gonna put this character through shenanigans and see how they change as a person but theyre ultimately still the same deep down and im examining how theyd most likely realistically act in this situation if this happened to them” vs “im gonna change the entire point of this character until theyre only recognizable in name”. i feel like it completely misses exactly what makes these characters and stories so good in the first place.

also side note: headcanons are a whole different thing because thats just “i have specific ideas about how this character is like” and is usually fine unless youre being pushy about it or condemning others for having (innocent!!) hcs you dont agree with wkdndn

and okay, i also get it if people have issues with how characters or media are written and want to change it. i myself have issues sometimes with how tappei handles rezero, but i still like rezero and so many of its characters. you can critique a media without trying to change what the heart of it is, and rezero for example is ultimately a story with a lot of heart to it and clear purpose behind so much of its writing. and its clear to see some things this crossover trend because so much of it is done with subaru. because it 1. misses the point of all of subarus nuances, complexities, the intent behind his character writing, and what makes him so good in the first place and 2. shows that people dont want him to actually be subaru. they want him to be someone else, which is ironically a plot point that comes up again and again in rezero wkdndnd. its interesting that it comes up so much in rezero too, because i feel like its in part most likely commentary on how audiences react to subaru and often try to change him to fit what they want.

but yeah thats just my thoughts on this whole crossover trend in general 👍👍

[scalproie]

FINAL(?) THOUGHTS ON MK12

the story in general: enjoyable if you take it as face-value and dont dig deeper than the surface level, also if you dont have any passionate attachments to what came before.

the earthrealm champions storyline: genuinely liked it. Kung Lao/Raiden/Johnny/Kenshi's introduction and characterization were strong enough to carry them through the story. It was pretty easy to fill the gaps between timeskips and the dynamics were enjoyable

the outworld storyline: lots of players in this one but having a clear villain (shang) that ties everyone's motivation together makes it easy to follow. Overall I did like it.

the lin kuei storyline: as per usual, its isolated from everything else, but it's given NO screentime to actually develop, and even seem like an afterthought. I'd even dare say that with a little tweaking, you could remove them completely and the story would be no different. The only thing accomplished here is making explaining who the characters are harder than necessary, and I swear if I see one more person with vague knowledge of what theyre talking about trying to explain them to people who know even less and getting it absurdly wrong because of this game, I'm going to lose it. By far my biggest disappointment.

The timelines shenanigans: in a weird limbo where it's simultaneously too much focused on and not touched on enough. It felt like it was here for spectacle rather than smth they genuinely wanted to explore, but then again we have one interactions thats kinda sweet and satisfying. Overall, the entire story revolves around this so its pretty solid? but I also did not quite like it on a fundamental level. So it was... whatever.

INDIVIDUAL CHARACTERS:

Liu Kang: the closest thing we have to a clear protagonist, as he ties everyone together, which is fitting for his role both out and in-universe. I dont mind him even tho he is definitely flawed as its impossible to write a character with that much control as 100% good (we wouldnt have a game otherwise). Think he shouldve kept the white god hair tho.

Raiden: his role being switched with liu kang's was expected and the logical following of their storyline in mk11, I am more than fine with that. Raiden feels like himself in a different circumstance. I sure do wish his electricity was inherent to him and not the product of an amulet tho, I have no idea why this change was made. I did like him overall.

Kung Lao: Kung Lao is consistent in his characterization and this familiarity made me like him even more than usual. He gets really sidelined early on but I know the chapter system is to blame for that. There is a lot of cute moments involving him.

Johnny Cage: god, the writers fucking ADORE him do they? As one of mk's sole comic relief characters, I get he is the only one able to deliver a bit of comedy to the mix but fucking hell they almost abuse him in that regard. BUT they also give him a shocking lot of nuance too? The scene with his future ex-wife and everything involving kenshi? He gets a LOT of screentime and development and he is nothing BUT characterization, hence why, as someone who doesnt care that much about him, at one point it starts to feel really fucking unfair. Johnny is fine but I have to check myself because if I get too much exposure to him (which is inevitable) he genuinely starts to piss me off so fucking bad

Kenshi: he's fine. Kenshi here, like Johnny, is a character that isnt tied to anyone else, so the both of them having a joined development thats resolved in this very game is pretty good. I dont have a lot of things to say about Kenshi, he complete his arc and gets his job done in the narrative.

Geras: Geras has only been in one game prior so he does not have overwhelming expectations weighing him down. I really liked him here, his relationship with Liu Kang really does both of them favor.

Sub Zero: Bi-han fit the antagonistic role he was given well enough. Sadly it comes at the price of his already feeble reputation of an originally neutral character. But even when I lower my expectations, here he is given no nuance and no room for growth, not in a satisfying way anyway, as things are right now. The "depth" (read: one or two lines) he is given feels more like inconsistence on the writers' part than him having complex feelings. As usual, he COULD have been great, but he isnt. I'm really disappointed.

Scorpion: Utterly Unrecognizable. He is not fully Kuai Liang on account of being Scorpion, and he is not fully Scorpion on account of being Kuai Liang. This isnt a character, this is a checklist: 1) get the scar (Kuai Liang part) ✅️ 2) be shirai ryu (Scorpion part) ✅️. He is the only character to be given this treatment, or at the very least, the only one where its THAT noticeable because he is made of arguably the most popular characters of mk. We are missing CRITICAL parts of his and his brother's characters to make us care (his motivation comes from an unknown and unseen dead father that never existed before and such a massive big deal is never given development or focus, despite being all they're talking about), their entire storyline rely on nothing other than the HIGHLY popular rivalry between "Scorpion" and "Sub zero". No love and care was brought to his character, nor his brothers', nor his storyline.

Smoke: Smoke... sure as hell was there. Personal thoughts: but the more time passes the more I Do Not Like his characterization. He is written no longer as an equal to Kuai Liang but as what I can best describe as a sidekick, even moreso than usual thanks to him being written and played as younger than the brothers. Yet another thing I dont like about the Lin Kuei storylike. Literally miss (bi-han) after miss (kuai liang) after miss (smoke) for me. They're out.

Hanzo: genuinely ask yourself. Are you happy that hanzo is here? His presence in mk12 is the same as nrs holding up a cardboard picture of him so people wont be mad that he's absent. Everything that he had has been given to "scorpion" aka kuai. He cannot be important because he is young. And when we get a timeskip of him being finally being older then what? The only thing people want of him is dying and coming back as an angry wraith? That's all he is and will be? I'd rather have no Hanzo at all rather than him being stripped of what made him him and used in an unsatisfying way.

Harumi: Harumi went from being the wife of Hanzo Hasashi that dies to being the prize of Scorpion's character. She is finally given development but said development is so confined to the game she's in that it doesnt even matter to me, adding to the fact that they're going in a direction I find boring (to my tastes) with her.

Kitana: she was also there. Which is surprising because kitana always felt like... the protagonist when outworld was involved? While I understand her role, I personally am not that fond of her being relegated to a supporting character.

Mileena: she is an entirely new character with mileena as a basis. I think her story has holes but on the surface it gets the job done. She is definitely one of the more focused on character all the way til she gets her own chapter to conclude her arc, and she has plenty of relationships to bounce off of, so she's definitely one of the more rounded characters here. I dont mind her, but I cant hide personal pettiness that her popularity mightve been the reason why she's so important.

Sindel: I genuinely DID like sindel but I look at her and in the back of my mind there is always the devs' voices going "sorry sorry sorry". Still, I liked her. I liked her death also! It made sense and, while I think it couldve been done MUCH MORE EMOTIONALLY, Im fairly okay with the way it was done. Idk if her being a flawed leader is completely a feature or a bug but I did like it!

Li Mei: I literally did not care that much about li mei until the revelation that she and sindel used to be friends, and then a lot of things clicked together, so I would say THIS was good. Other than that, li mei is whatever to me.

Reptile: one of my main issue with him just boils down to him being hot. I do not mind him having one big monstery form and one human form, but the two are clearly not treated equally, and yeah yeah I know its easier with a human model or whatever BUT LITERALLY BARAKA EXIST. So him being "good looking" 75% of the time with sad backstory and an IMMEDIATE nice an easy going personality (even tho imo he should maybe be a bit angry and grieving that his fucking family died in the living forest until at least his own chapter) = the writers trying too hard for me to give him my sympathy. And I dont like being forced. Aka reptile lost most of his edge with me, it's like hes trying so hard to be likable he has no flaws and so he annoys me a bit in return. But I still like him. I SHOULD love him, so much even, but when I try there is always smth bugging me. I want him to be more fucked up, and no, eating a bug once (1) doesnt count, its what should be NORMAL for him.

Tanya: she's so weird to me. Tanya is mk12 is like, if she was from a mirror universe where she was the good version of an evil jade, if you get what I mean? She's not tanya in almost every way, yknow? Also, usually if you think the writing staff do anything with shipping in mind, you're reading too much into it, and shipping itself is not smth that's seen with respect... BUT THAT BEING SAID I genuinely wonder: if tanya/mileena had never been a thing, would they still had picked tanya for this role, or would they simply just have picked jade.

Rain: to fully appreciate rain you have to hunt down everything involving him in mk12, cutscenes in storymode, endings, intros... my man literally has SO little. But. What he has is literally so inoffensive to me, I actually quite like this rain a lot. He has his own thing going on and I like the direction it took!

Baraka: his inclusion feels like mileena's story was thought of first, and baraka's was built all around it to support it. No, I still dont like the tarkatans being a leprosy allegory now, and no, the new identity Baraka has doesnt do anything for me even if (or because) it was made completely out of nowhere for the purpose of mk12. People dont want SOME characters to suffer (even tho it makes for an interesting story), but when baraka is reworked into doing nothing but suffering, nobody bat an eye because he is no one's favorite. Also he is severely underused in story mode, where he could give us more insight on tarkat and the flaws of the regime, but doesnt. He also helps the earthrealmers out of the kindness of his heart but it really does feel a bit forced, especially when intros show he is not actually that kind in general. Still, just like reptile, I liked baraka.

Shao: funnily enough shao is given interesting depths in this story, but because shao has been an absolute fucking bastard in his 30 years of existence, nobody seems to notice or care. But I Do, despite myself I notice and care about whatever weird thing shao has got going on this time around. I know he has to be a lil bit problematic in there if I dig a little but nothing BIG on the surface so far??? And its the addition of MISGUIDED BUT NOBLE GOALS in shao that were previously non-existent thats so fucking weird to me. I'm literally looking at him under the microscope.

Reiko: Jobber Supreme. Reiko was funny. He is carried by his relationship to shao but it could legit be interesting so yknow what Im gonna let this silly fucking guy entertain me. What can I say, I like when villains have positive interactions and relationships.

Shang Tsung: Shang Tsung (both of them) was funny af. 10/10 no notes. Extremely entertaining. No fucking redeeming qualities. Critical amount of Kunt being served here. Evil and having fun about it. Caught being stupid in 4k by his own self. His plan(s) was pretty straightforward and I can appreciate that. I have nothing bad to say about Shang.

Quan chi: Quan chi was there to make funny faces and be mean gays with Shang Tsung. I dont mind him. Him being an outworlder and "turning white" is not smth I enjoy much tho, whats wrong with him being tied completely to the netherrealm?

Ermac: his design is something you eventually get used to. But as soon as you do he fucking get That Face. I swear I almost end up hating Jerrod in spite because of how they used Ermac. I cant deny it technically makes sense why they wouldve used him like that but I cant help it, I Did Not Like It. didnt liked it in mk9, dont like it now. I think I wouldve liked more the idea of Ermac being influenced by Jerrod rather than him being downright possessed by him. My opinion was much more scathing before the leaks but I have since calmed down a bit. But Ermac gets treated so badly in this game, he actually gets all my sympathy and more, compared to other characters.

Ashrah: Ashrah is okay. I like what she adds to the earthrealm team (and god know they needed her bc damn this was the no girls allowed club before she showed up) but I'm not sure I would enjoy her on her own without someone to bounce off of. Because she also was a character whole neutrality got removed to make her a fully good-aligned character. One thing that really endeared me to her tho was her "I've never had a home before!" line and the genuine happiness she showed there, I wish this part of her had been more explored. And she is also one of the characters that gets a lot more fleshed out in the intros to me. But still, like I said, Ashrah was okay.

Nitara: yeah the megan fox voice acting is objectively bad but it could also be way worse. I know its different bc this one is just an optional skin and not the character's actual voice but fucking listen to JCVD's voice acting. As for nitara, Im really sorry but it feels like she is just here to fill a niche, and said niche being "fanservice". So i'm really sorry for people who like her but yeah she is outshined by her VA and the "well she is a 3d era character that hasnt been shown for awhile so lets bring her back for the people" sentiment. As for her role in the story, I know we need jobbers but she is so isolated from everything they could remove her and it wouldnt change anything. Her personal motivation is not even given the time of day even tho it's the ONLY thing she has, so yeah Im having a hard time to care. Which is sad.

Havik: as soon as I saw his bio I knew he was going to be done dirty, the trailer he showed up in implied it but him having such a sympathetic backstory all but confirmed they were gonna go the "guy with good reasons to change the system fucking take it too far so you cant endorse him" trope with him. Everything with him seems a bit random (which is ironic considering he is mr. chaos) like, why is scorpion the one to give him his iconic open jaw look? (It also cements scorpion as the checklist character ngl). Anyway I do understand the reason for his inclusion as well as the story needing jobbers, doesnt change that I still think he's whatever tho.

[consistentsquash]

Asoiaf Detailed Rec - Rubicon: A Dreamer's Sextet

Asoiaf Sunday! Easter Sunday so best time to rec a fic about the Failed!Jesus archetype Rhaegar Targaryen. I am actually late by one day but anyway.

TL;DR - He's a total loser. But also the guy who never learned to hate.

My fav author summary ever - She is horny. He is not. They live.

Why Rec - Because using sex for character development and story exposition is valid! Because good ace representation doesn't have to always mean sex repulsed. Because sometimes humans do be complicated and messy. Because established relationship means you have got to keep establishing it. Because het doesn't mean it can't be super queer. Rhaegar is Ace coded with really low/zero sex drive but he's got the kinkiest married sex life and that becomes the biggest building block in their relationship. This is actually my favorite Ace characterization I have personally read.

YMMV - I feel like when a fic deviates from a lot of standard conventions it can be a tough sell. Which is totally understandable. I am reccing it because I loved it. But of course YMMV. These things are subjective. There is a lot of sex for exposition which can also be YMMV.

Big things - This fic won't make sense if you don't have some basic info about their canon.

Ok! Time for details! Sorry if my rec is really bad but I don't go for het fics normally. Also no agegaps. Also they are married. Also they have kids. Stuff I totally nope out of. Idk I mean trust me. It's an eldritcher fic. So it's just really weird/sensitive/brilliant. Nothing is normal.

Will probably clean this up for writing a meta on AO3 later :D If i get the motivation.

Link - Rubicon: A Dreamer's Sextet

Author - eldritcher

Pairing - Rhaegar/Elia. There is also some vibes of Rhaegar/Oberyn but it's complicated.

Type - het, canon divergence, Not canon compliant in the sense Rhaegar, Elia and their children survive

Length - 150000 words. Complete. It's a collection of fics. So depending on whether you read the full thing or just some one shots the length is going to be different. I used the series length here. We get POV one shots from Rhaegar, Elia, Aerys, Rhaella, Arthur Dayne, Rhaenys, Lyanna, Oberyn, Doran. Highly recommend reading the full thing because it's brilliant.

Themes - Asexuality

One of the best parts about this fic. It really said here is this handsome hero archetype everybody crushes on. Also he is Ace. Deal with it. Total sensualist. But you can have sensuality w/o wanting sex. You can also be sex positive. You can also be bi and ace. Like you can be anything and how you feel about things can change from time to time. Mess is ok. Of course it doesn't say it like it. The fic doesn't feel like checklists on good rep. It's just when you read it you get it. YMMV. Idk if that's better than flat out saying things. But this really worked for me. Also the reason why I am writing a het fic rec. Omg.

Themes - Masculinity

Rhaegar's characterization is a meditiation on masculinity. Idk how to explain. But it breaks him down in this flesh and blood style. Really sensitive. Normally in fanfic/romance genre I am more used to seeing sensitive takes on female characters instead of male characters. Especially cishet hero type male characters in a het fic where they can be for wish fulfilment type roles. Slash fic is of course different but also similar. One of the M/M characters generally will get more sensitivity/focus compared to the other character. This is pretty different. The vulnerability/nuance in Rhaegar's characterization is insane.

Themes - Queer

Asoiaf fandom like hp fandom can get pretty weird about what a het fic should be like. Probably not the right place to talk about it. But I feel fanfics can be subversive in a lot of ways. I really love how this fic subverts some fandom concept of a het fic. Rhaegar and Elia are really queer in the sense they are super different. They are not neurotypical, they both have hyperfixations, dysphoria but at like some emotional level. Anyway it's the type of mess idk how to describe because they are super messy humans.

Odd and odd, matched in equal wedlock, and it has become something like felicity.

It really says you can be weird and also the world's biggest loser but you can be happy in a relationship.

Themes - Failure

The biggest win of this fic is the Rhaegar POV. He is a pretty controversial/polarizing character whose motives are unknown/ambiguous in canon. Fandom can get into whitewashing/bashing territory for that type of character.

This fic straight out builds his character as a failure and also makes us sympathize with him. I mean you end up rooting for him because that's how great the character development is.

He carries the rivers he failed to cross.

Themes - Love

A really unconventional love story. But it's definitely love. It's the type of love that just becomes mythological but like without epic soundtracks or montages.

There is a promise in the reek of burned clothes and hair and the man bathed in her water. Something of the father handed to the spouse. It is only a promise. Words are not deeds. It is only a promise, that he will cross this last river to her.

What I really love is how they really fail a lot. Like they make promises and don't succeed like they want. But it's ok. Because trying your best counts! Points for effort! :D

Themes - Hope

I mean! This is an eldritcher fic. Hope is everywhere! The vibe is pretty Tolkien about that. Sometimes you got to believe in stories and that's what you need to get to the other side of some tunnel.

"Nymeria fled the cruel dragon-lords after Garin fell. She took her people with her, on any sea-worthy vessel they could get their hands on. They sailed, for months and months, until months became years. Many perished, many deserted, many rebelled. One night, Nymeria stood at the steer of her vessel, and looked up at the bare sky in despair. Perhaps she prayed to a god. Perhaps she prayed to none. A star rose for her. Bright it was, and enduring. She led her fleet where the star went, south and south and south, until they washed ashore on Dorne. There, waiting for her, beneath the star, was Mors Martell. Gladly, she married him and twined their houses, binding her sun to his spear. He gave her a myrtle crown and taught her about the fruitage of oranges. Thus she became the Dornishman's wife." An old tale Doran liked to tell Oberyn and her when they were children. Her odd husband listens to her raptly. There is a strangeness in him that is not merely dragon-blood or dreams. She thumbs his brows to undo the frown that has settled there. Children believe in stories. And it is belief that gives stories life. "Only a story," she tells him.

Themes - Feminism

Really, really feminist. I mean. Idk how to explain. It is a Rhaegar centric fic. But a male protagonist doesn't have to mean you can't have a fic which is feminist. Rubicon is pretty uncompromising on that. No boss ladies or femme fatale or archetypes like that. But this story in canon is a really slippery one for the Bechdel test. Which means the fic fandom just can get into character/ship bashing and writing female characters like archetypes/pit them against each other. I really love how the fic explores the female character trauma in the canon with a lot of sensitivity.

Characterizations

Book characterizations. No show elements from GOT. But the characterizations are deeper/more nuanced because these are not POV characters in the books. They are dead by the time the books start. Really beautiful interwoven characterizations where you can see Isabel Allende style The House of Spirits influence in their generational trauma. This fic got me from somebody who just didn't like Rhaegar's character to actually seeing him in a more interesting light. Deep and beautiful characterization and character dynamics of the Robert's Era Rebellion Targaryens. The Aerys and Rhaella POVs are insanely good and dark. The Rhaegar characterization is superb. Elia is also brilliantly characterized. The whole series is unforgettable, intense, unsettling, uncomfortable and absolutely a must read.

Plot

It doesn't really have a lot of plot. It's just Rhaegar and Elia from 16 to 40. How their characters change/grow. The plot parts are just the canon divergence because they survive the war and get a bittersweet ending.

Prose

The prose style is kind of less poetic compared to Ossuarium. Which works great because Ossuarium had dragons. By the time this fic happens in the canon timeline the dragons are dead. So their world is less supernatural/magical. The lowkey prose kind of reflects that.

Some other thoughts

Rubicon is Ossuarium honestly. Just a continuation in the canon timeline. It has the same queerness and feminism vibes IMO. YMMV.

Length - 150000 words. Complete. It's a collection of fics. So depending on whether you read the full thing or just some one shots the length is going to be different. I used the series length here. We get POV one shots from Rhaegar, Elia, Aerys, Rhaella, Arthur Dayne, Rhaenys, Lyanna, Oberyn, Doran. Highly recommend reading the full series because it's insanely brilliant.

[pumpkinstrawbrew]

how do you feel about nolan’s batman/scarecrow?

i’m not fully sure what you mean here. like, as in how i feel about the characters in that movie or that version of the pairing? 

but either way, i don’t hate it! i don’t hate any of batman movies tbh. no matter, how different or hella campy they are compared to source material, i still can see smth redeeming in them. i’m generally somewhat lax n’ chill with superhero movies/games. in most cases, i’d be more nitpicky toward cartoons/newer comics, than i’ll ever be toward cinema or video games. nolan’s batman falls into that category too. it’s not my fav batman movie by any means, but it has its moments.

besides, i believe that it was the first dc’s newer *2000 era* cinematic project back then, n’ i happen to watch it as a kid, so i have somewhat nostalgic memories about it as well. i also must say, that the tone of nolan's dark knight was very different compared to more campy, playful batman movies till that point. so it was nice change too. very unexpected turn in a way.

personally, for me it was hit in some places n' a fairly big miss in the others. for one, i get why a lot of people were annoyed with who nolan chose to play the scarecrow, since yes, it is strange to see a character, who canonically was considered to be far from pretty *to put it mildly* suddenly becoming basically an opposite of it. but tbh, i usually not very sold on who they pick to play characters in those movies. so it’s not like i tend to be 100% pleased in that aspect. n’ i do find it somewhat amusing, that for once, jonathan can be a real ‘princess’, both in manners n’ looks. it took some getting used to for sure, but i’m not super-duper upset about that change! i feel like i would have more inner dissonance if that batman movie, where nicolas cage was about to play crane had actually happened lol. i mean, it could have been interesting tbh, bc i cannot imagine cage being tame in his performance, esp back then. so maybe it's actually too bad that it didn't happened, bc we might have gotten the most over the top jonathan crane, who ever existed. like, you see jim carrey's riddler n' there is still no riddler to this day to top his exaggerated, campy performance lol. n' i have this vibe here too. i can bet 10$, that nick would have improvised in some scenes, n' like licked batman's face or smth. .... ah man, now i kinda wish that it had happened, dang.

but uh err, back to nolan's movies. if i’m being completely honest here, my main pet-peeve with nolan’s scarecrow wasn’t his looks per say, but rather how little he was presented in those movies in itself, and how nothing was really going on there for him. it really rubs me the wrong way, that he wasn’t even his own thing, just a pawn for another batman villain to use. he was never allowed to play a major role in anything, despite *might be wrong here tho* how nolan said that he considers the scarecrow to be batman’s real arch-nemesis not the joker, so this is why he used the scarecrow first. the scarecrow being batman's real fuel is smth i’m 100% sold on, and it all considering, that i actually love the joker as character. but like, the clown gimmick is basically antipod to literally everything lol. him being batman's 'fuel' always felt kinda idk, a bit lazy to me. at least, make the black mask or two-face his arch-enemy, this would be way more nuanced vs the clown, who's just hella insane n' have zero morals. so if nolan was also one of those people, who felt that the joker can be put aside for a moment or two, n' let another old batman's rogue shine, welp, he didn't implemented said sentiment very well in his movies.

there was a lot of room to do smth with crane’s character. to flash him out in newer ways or craft him more specifically for the setting, that they had going on. batman 2022 actually got this bit right. their edward was still very riddler-like, while also possessing enough ‘original’ elements to make him exist within the movie’s narrative/tone perfectly. he felt like that movie's main villain specifically n’ he played the part. n’ it all considering how he also was on the screen for idk, 20 minutes at max. but his presence was important n’ left an impact. not hannibal lector from silence of the lamb level, of course, *you cannot beat a suspense masterpiece after all* but still, it was smth. n' it was one of those things, that made me like the movie way more, than i expected.

with this in mind, now compare it to how we had to sit through a long ass movie, where we were teased with the scarecrow being the main antagonist. only for it to turn out to be a lie. instead, crane was taking the back seat to ra al ghul. just degist this sentence. he wasn't even bested by the joker or bane. but by ra flipping al ghul. like out of curiosity, i asked a couple of people, who have very limited n' slight knowlege of batman's media as whole, but who watched nolan's movies, n' i asked them who was the villain in the first movie. and they all were like 'the scarecrow'. no one even remembers ghul. an' it's not bc crane did smth big in the movie, but it's bc no one really cares about that past lore, where ghul was bruce's teacher. everyone only remember, that he kinda died or smth, when the cave/building collapsed lol. granted, i’m also bias here, bc ra al ghul is one of those batman’s villains, who personally bore me. and naturally, him stealing the spotlight from crane doesn’t win him any brownie points with me. but like, idk. this is just so unfair to the scarecrow. i mean, his iconic fear toxin wasn’t even released by him or on purpuse, which had me like ??? as a kid. bc it just made zero sense. it would have been the same, if i dunno, a clock king in btas had released joker’s laughing gas, all while the joker himself was just sorta/kinda there. just idling in the background without any proper input, aside from being the one who created the said gas lol. this is what had happened there. so yeah, it was a very awkward way to make bruce's old asshole teacher revelant again. also jonathan being a drug dealer *kind of* an' having a 'business plan' is so hiliriously opposite of what he usually did in the comics/btas. maybe, he could have shared his knowlege of how to make money with other cranes, who are usually broke as hell lol.

n’ well, if i had to be nitpicky here, i also was disappointed with how little thought they put into crane’s scarecrow costume. the excuse of ‘they tried to make it more realistic’ doesn’t work on me, bc catwoman in burton’s batman was designed with the same idea in mind, n’ her costume was freaking awesome n’ creative. but oh well…it is what it is.

as for nolan’s scarebat version, well, i don’t mind it. i love comic/btas crane n’ bruce the most. love jon as that socially inept, unsightly, closeted gremlin, n’ bruce as a low-key emotionally stunted, but still sympathetic hero. but aside from that, i can see an appeal in a good-looking scarecrow, who might have the power to sway batman with one smokey look. granted, jonathan already acted all whorish around the bat in the movie, so it’s not hard to picture him trying to seduce his way out of an encounter with batman just bc he feels that he can do it. so just this one time, crane can have it ‘easy’, when it comes to wooing the big bad bat. there is also smth funny about people expecting the fearsome scarecrow to look literally anything, but how nolan’s one looks. an' i also must add, that i've read a few of nolanverse scarebat fics an' usually the authors doing a better job at flashing out crane, than the movie did lol. so props to them for that!

[lvicevlk]

#sometimes I make the effort to read LWJ charitably#who did he ever have to teach him nuance? no one#accepting that there's more to morality than mathematically applying the consequences of 3000 rules is a good step#a hard thing to do#(note I do not think the Lan Rules themselves are morally worthless)#(just that applying them also requires nuance that LWJ is either too autistic or too spoiled to consider)#(really it's both. they reinforce each other - uncertainties are hard for him)#(and he's the baby in a situation where everyone else is ALSO repressed and traumatized)#(so they neither want to make him confront nuance nor know how)#(so he just doesn't!)#switching his moral center from 'the rules are correct' to 'wei ying is good' is genuinely a big step!#but it's not actually ANY less black and white#it's not ALL about his dick#but he has resolved his ethical dilemmas by deciding that his desires and ethics are in fact completely compatible#and has done zero further introspection since#and he simply is too self-absorbed to NOTICE the consequences of his actions for others#even those he genuinely loves!#and also he bullies children that he doesn't like when he is annoyed#because LWJ is snape and MXTX is spiritually if not literally a snapewife thank you for coming to my ted talk#and I will never forgive him for it (via @spaceshipoftheseus)

#yeah I mean. honestly. post-timeskip LWJ is a worse person than he started out as I think#it’s very romantic from WWX’s point of view for a variety of reasons#finally! someone who’ll turn his back on the entire world and flip off his family to prioritize WWX’s every whim#and never makes him explain himself or talk about his feelings#that’s gotta feel great!#meanwhile literally every other adult who’s had to actually deal with LWJ in any kind of up close capacity#probably thinks he’s a huge asshole#I think there are reasons his biggest in-universe fans are teenagers and people who’ve never met him#the untamed (via @cerusee)

#finally some good fucking lwj characterisation#yes hes not a moral authority! none of them are!#they all show different versions of the same problems and how it affects/benefits different people#taking away the fact that lwj IS a petty man who has not actually had to Work for his reputation#or bear any responsibilities or actually make hard decisions for the sake of Other People#pretty much takes away rhe few things that DO make him an interesting character#and not just a cardboard cutout gong for wwx#and his behaviour is tied very very deeply into his position in their society! (via @millialani)

[chellyfishing]

so last week for our movie night we watched bullet train and barbarian, two movies that went totally off the rails (no pun intended) in completely different ways. it reminded me of another movie we watched a month or two (?? i forget) ago, do revenge. anyway i kinda wanted to analyze the three of them just for like... fun?

i’m not going to spoil what happens in any of them but i am going to say way more about barbarian than a person should know going into it so if you still intend to see that, avoid.

(we also finished the first season of white lotus yesterday and i won for figuring out who the dead person in the beginning of the first episode was.)

let me start off by saying i’m not a movie person, i can’t really analyze things in terms of cinematic language, mostly what i understand is plot, story, character--writing things. so that’s where i’m coming from on this.

so i guess what ties the three together for me is the amount they escalate. all of them just absolutely rocket off the scale by the end compared to where they started. for do revenge, you think you understand the scale of the escalation until like the third act when everything just kinda fuckin explodes. for bullet train, it’s just a constant escalation as more and more things are thrown into play. and for barbarian, you get a huge spike at the end of act one, and then it craters again until act three.

do revenge i saw a little further back than the other two so i don’t remember it as well and am therefore not going to be able to talk about as much. the obvious comparison is strangers on a train, which is of course deliberate, but the twist to the latter was that one guy was serious and the other wasn’t. that’s not the twist here. it’s not an “i made a little oopsie joking with a dude i met at complete random.” this fully commits to the messiness of everything about revenge and the cycles it creates. and it skews younger than either of the other two films, so this is is a skip if you don’t like teen nonsense, or unlikable characters. do watch if you support women’s rights and women’s wrongs.

bullet train reminded me a lot of a quentin tarantino or a shane black in tone. i don’t think it’s as smart or sophisticated as either of those, but it’s like a spiritual cousin. and let me be clear, i like quentin tarantino films in spite of myself. and even then it’s mostly like, the kill bills (one watch of pulp fiction was more than enough for me). bullet train, while an EXTREMELY sexist movie, doesn’t feel as fetishistic about it, and there’s no fuckin sexual assault. it’s sexist in the way like 20th century action films would sort of take for granted. there are fully two fridged women backstories (it’s the same thing for both of them, it’s the same backstory) and zero living sympathetic women. i still liked this movie a lot. another comparison i could make is hot fuzz, though again, it is nowhere in the same LEAGUE as that, but what makes them similar is that everything in the beginning of bullet train is setup and everything at the end is payoff. i like a story that keeps track of its own nonsense, and bullet train does a really good job of that. it is frequently very unsubtle about it! but there was one brick joke that absolutely floored me and i’m still laughing about it days later. skip this movie if you care about like, nuance and craft, or if you’re someone who has no patience for a delayed payoff. (i would watch this movie with my mom, but i also know she’ll be going “well i don’t like that this happened!!!” in a way that’ll have me going, mom. mom. just watch. just keep watching.) do watch if you want surprisingly likable characters, bright colors, loud noises, and just a good time.

barbarian... the comparison i want to make here is romeo and juliet. no no hear me out!! so in romeo and juliet, you know how the guy comes out at the beginning and is like, actually what you’re about to watch is a tragedy and everybody fuckin dies? it’s because the first part of the play is written like a romantic comedy before it switches genres around act iii. in barbarian, the genre shift is only noticeable in hindsight: the beginning was, in fact, a romantic comedy! but it was written like a horror because the whole film is a horror and they couldn’t have a guy come out and say “the first part of this feels like a romantic comedy but you’re actually here for a horror.” there is still a bait and switch, but that comes from the fact that the horror is a totally different kind to what you were expecting, and coming from a totally different place. unlike the first two, there is a lot of building tension and you will spend most of the film thinking, what the fuck is going on? don’t watch this movie if you don’t like being jerked around by the narrative or if you’re one of those people who gets mad if someone in a horror movie does things you don’t think you would do in their situation. do if you like horror and wanna get a little bit fucked up!! content warnings for off-screen sexual assault.

anyway i liked all these movies in different ways. strangely i think the one i’m least likely to revisit is barbarian, which sucks bc i got a second copyright strike from my isp for downloading it (it’s streaming on disney+ so ofc). it didn’t click with me as much as i was hoping it would, probably a typical case of “everyone talked about how it was so good and i went in with my expectations too high.” whereas for the other two i had zero expectations and ended up being surprised by how fun and over-the-top they were. maybe for that reason i should watch barbarian again, in order to reassess it. i guess i will probably do that.

[skullsandwineglasses]

Someday or One Day (2019) - Final Review

I told myself that I wouldn’t cry. And yet, here I am bawling. The ending made sense. It was logical. It was appropriate. There was closure. No regrets. And yet here I am crying. Because even though it’s implied that LZW and HYX might meet and fall in love again in the future (since there’s only a 10-year age gap between them), I’m just sad that everything they’ve gone through in the original timeline is erased. In the new timeline they’ll have a normal, mundane life, and no one will remember how much pain and suffering they went through in another lifetime. LZW freakin waited 16 years to be reunited with HYX only to be killed. But that’s lost to time. All the memories and all that they’ve done for each other are gone.

But overall, the drama was very intense, but very tightly woven. Never a dull moment. Every episode reveals something about the characters and the plot. You have to pay close attention to what the characters say and the objects around them in order to clue in on hints. Just when you think you have the full picture, the curtain pulls back some more.

This drama should have a ton of trigger warnings attached to it though. Murder, animal abuse, sexual assault, depression, suicide. A lot of heavy topics. 

The time travel and body switching aspects were handled elegantly, and there were minimal glaring plot holes. There are many layers to the time traveling plot, but it’s not unnecessary convoluted. 

The plot admits that you can’t change the time travel loop. Like Rainless Love in a Godless Land, SOOD deals with the issue of the characters’ (lack of) agency to change the trajectory of a pre-destined fate. And if you do try to change time (which is near impossible), then everything changes in a cascading effect. The drama doesn’t sugarcoat that, like how it doesn’t sugarcoat any of the other topics that it explores. HYX managed to change the course of history and prevent CYR from committing suicide, but she’s also accepted that in doing so, she’ll have to sacrifice the relationship she’ll have with LZW. It’s a zero-sum game. 

A lot of the characters embrace death because they realize it’s necessary in order for the next part of fate to unfold. It’s almost futile to resist because no matter how much you try, you still end up where you were destined to be. It’s quite morbid. LZW (in WQS’ body) accepts that he needs to get on the doomed plane in order to be able to return to his 2003 body in order to guide the events. 

But at the same time, both dramas seem to say that agency isn’t dependent on outcome. It’s dependent on awareness and choice. When you’re presented with the truth and all possible outcomes, what do you choose? LZW/WQS ultimately chooses to get on the plane even though he knows what will happen. But he still wants to make that choice. 

At the beginning of the drama, you’re led to believe that there are two parallel couples. But really, there’s only one couple all along: LZW and HYX. They just inhabit different bodies and take on different identities. 

The acting is superb from the whole cast. Yan Yu Lin played such an endearing best friend in RLiaGL, but he’s such a creep here. I have to applaud him for being such a chameleon. 

Greg Hsu and Alice Ke both gave incredible performances. Greg played 1) a bubbly and rebellious high school student (LZW), 2) a closeted high school student (the real WQS), 3) a college student (22-year-old LZW in WQS’ body), 4) grown-up LZW/WQS, and 5) mid-30s LZW with glasses, a cane, and greying hair. He played off the nuances of these 5 characters perfectly. You can feel the age difference between the various versions of LZW, and WQS felt like a completely different character. From his posture, the way he rode his bike, the way he held his head, and the way he he held people’s gaze. In that short 5-minute montage of WQS, Greg brought an entirely different character to life. 

Alice was amazing playing the 17-year-old depressed CYR and the confident 27-year-old HYX. HYX has incredible chemistry with LZW, but whenever CYR had scenes with LZW, I was tempted to fastforward those scenes. The difference between CYR and HYX was that palpable. They truly felt like different people to me, even though it’s all Alice. 

And you can tell that the drama put in a lot of thought and effort to emphasize those behavioural differences, because these are the differences that LZW picks up on. From the way CYR walks to the way she holds her head to her microexpressions, LZW can tell that she isn’t HYX. It’s just such a great;y portrayed love triangle. 

While LZW and HYX have an epic romance, WQS and CYR are tragic characters. CYR gets a redemption arc at the end, but WQS doesn’t deserve what happened to him. He commits suicide, LZW takes over his body for 7 years, and then his body goes down in a plane crash. 

I just feel that the story is a bit unfair to CYR and WQS. Both have their bodies taken over and their consciousness displaced. I keep saying body switching, but really, there was no switching. LZW and HYX just invaded their bodies and took over. CYR manages to regain control at the end, only to be told that everyone preferred when HYX was the one controlling her body. That is definitely traumatic to hear. 

You could write so many essays analyzing the creative choices for the plot direction, but I just want to summarize what happened here. I had to pause the drama every so often in order to update my timeline map. 

I’d say the first arc is about HYX travelling back to past, learning about CYR’s murder, and trying to figure out who the murderer is. This first arc ends when she gets confirmation that LZW is WQS. This happens when she sees the drawing of her in his room, which is the same drawing that WQS hung in his office. As the audience, we’ve already seen multiple hints that LZW is WQS, the very first one being when he kneed her the same way that WQS kneed her. We just aren’t sure how exactly LZW becomes WQS. 

When HYX learns this, she reawakes in the present and runs to confront the uncle at the cafe. LZW finally reveals himself to tell his side of the story. In 2003, when LZW returns to Taiwan from Canada, he tries to visit MJJ in jail, but MJJ refuses to see him. LZW drives down the mountain while listening to the Last Dance song. He cries we he remembers their high school days, and crashes the car. He spends 2 weeks in a coma, but during those 2 weeks, his soul or consciousness or whatever is transported into WQS’ body in 2010. WQS has just tried to commit suicide by drowning in the ocean after being bullied for his sexual orientation. WQS’ true consciousness is never mentioned again, so we assumed that his consciousness has just completely disappeared. In WQS’ body, LZW remembers what HYX told him back in 1998, and so he decides to find the present-day HYX and pursue her, in order to fulfil the story about the future that she told him about. LZW/WQS spends a blissful 7 years with HYX until the 2017 accident. 

Right before getting on the plane, he’s approached by his true self. He realizes that he’ll return to his true body in 2003, and knows that he needs to get on the plane in order to be able to give HYX the walkman that will allow her to go back in time so that he’d fall in love with her. 

LZW’s consciousness then returns to his comatose body in 2003. He spends the next 16 years (until 2019) keeping to the shadows, secretly keeping tabs on LZW/WQS and HYX. At some point, which we’re not shown, he makes contact with the uncle. That’s why in 2010, he calls the uncle to make sure that LZW/WQS has successfully been accepted to the same uni as HYX. 

In 2008, MJJ is released from jail. After MJJ’s gradmother dies, he commits suicide at the same spot where CYR was killed. LZW tried to stop this from happening, but there was no use. Fate still charged ahead. 

After LZW explains what happened, he and HYX are finally reunited in the present, both now having the same memories, and not one person having more than the other. They are finally on the same page. HYX waited 2 years to be reunited with LZW, but he’s waited 16 years. The scene where he returns home to their apartment was so emotional. For HYX, his absence was recent. But for him, he hadn’t set foot in this home for 16 years. 

The next segment is about the revelation of the true villain, Xie Zhi Qi. By gaining HYX’s trust, he was able to gain access to the walkman and travel back in time to attack CYR, which is the event which caused HYX to go back and inhabit her body. (In the new timeline, CYR gets hit by a car but isn’t attacked). 

When LZW gets home, he chases XZQ out of the house, but XZQ ends up killing LZW. 

The fourth and final segment is HYX trying to change the past in order to bring LZW back to life. She travels back in time, but she’s now stuck in the sunken place in CYR’s subconsciousness. She no longer has control of CYR’s body, and she watches helplessly as CYR tries to pretend to be her. 

But no one is fooled, especially LZW. The timelines plays out as it always has. HYX is unable to prevent the events from unfolding, CYR commits suicide, and MJJ takes the blame. 

HYX is transported back to the present. There was no way to change to the past. One day, she drives to the sea. The walkman is broken, so she plays the cassette using the car stereo. She’s transported back once again, to the pivotal moment right before CYR fell. MJJ is now able to successfully pull her back. History has now completely changed. 

HYX and LZW’s relationship no longer exists. But CYR now gets a chance at life, and she and MJJ have a chance to be together. 

HYX and LZW may not have their memories, but the feelings are still there (similar to how XTD’s feelings still linger in RLiaGL even after her memories are erased). They’re also fated to be together, so they’ll always find each other. The one interaction between that the new timeline didn’t take away was LZW meeting the 6-year old HYX. 

It’s left to the audience’s imagination to wonder how LZW and HYX might meet again and fall in love as adults (under what circumstances do they meet since it can’t be at school because they’re 10 years apart), but it gives us hope nonetheless. 

I think one thing that I’ll bring up is that the characters don’t realize that CYR’s death is what causes LZW to become WQS to pursue HYX. If CYR doesn’t die, LZW doesn’t drive while grieving about the past, and he doesn’t get into the accident. It’s noble of LZW to want to save CYR and prevent her death, but I feel like the drama doesn’t explore this moral dilemma. LZW knows the cascading effect that CYR’s death has, but he still tells HYX to try to stop the death. Perhaps LZW knows that if CYR survives, he and HYX’s romance wouldn’t exist, but he doesn’t mention that to her. 

One other criticism would be how conveniently HYX managaed to travel back in time again and ended up at the pivotal moment to help prevent CYR’s death. It felt a little too easy, when the entire drama had avoided taking the easy way out. 

I also feel that there are a lot of symbols and metaphors that went over my head. It wasn’t until I read MDL reviews that I realized how the use of technology at the beginning foreshadowed what to expect (e.g., finding a doppleganger, using VR to simulate and relive an out-of-body experience). Also, the red ear buds to symbolize the red string of fate linking LZW and HYX. 

Was rain a symbol? I remember in English class we talked about rain and water as being symbols of birth and rebirth in novels. Also, WQS drowned in the ocean and LZW’s plane fell into the ocean. Meanwhile, HYX and CYR and linked by their birthdays, but also, LZW was able to differentiate them by how they looked in the rain. It rained on the night of CYR’s death and it rained the night when HYX thought she saw LZW. Not sure if the drama just wanted to be moody or if it was intentional. 

Writing and photographs are big motifs (i.e., how you are reflected in your hand writing and your expressions that are captured on camera). 

Objects introduced at the beginning take on new significance as the story unfolds. 

For instance, HYX was drumming on an object on the psychologist’s desk. We later see him brushing that object and realize that it’s a rock, and we wonder if it’s the same rock that was used to attack CYR. 

Also, the large tree where they laid under and whispers secrets into seemed by spiritual and biblical. That whole park seemed very...heavenly? Like their own Eden. 

LZW meeting the 6-year-old HYX was significant in 2 ways: HYX dated her first bf because he reminded her of the “older brother” who helped her find her way home and gave her a sense of security, and the interaction was also immune to the time change and so it was brought back again in the final scene. 

Every object and scene just keeps giving. They have multiple utilities. 

This drama is like a masterclass in storytelling. On MDL, someone wrote that the romance is a hero’s journey. I’ll have to unpack that analysis, but I’m guessing they mean that the romance leaves the familiar world into the unfamiliar, encounters obstacles, gains an object, etc., and the returns to the familiar world changed. If this is the case, then I’d argue that the romance goes through the hero’s journey twice because the relationship between LZW and HYX is transformed at least twice. 

I’m just in awe. What an intricate, detailed, and thoughtful drama. It’s a great romance, suspense, and mystery drama. I also love that the humour isn’t just for the sake of having comedic relief, but what’s being said actually has significance later in the story. 

[tuiyla]

Are there any plots that you just refuse to take seriously and/or hold against the characters, because you find them to just be THAT stupid or ooc?

Like for me, I just simply cannot be bothered about Santana's role in the Brody mess. The whole plot was clearly about giving Finchel that "stay away from my future wife" moment that we're meant to swoon over, and Santana was nothing but a plot device to get Finn in the room. So whatever. I am not engaging.

And it's slightly different, but I still mostly ignore the entire Lucy Caboosey plot. To this day, I mostly view it as them grasping for something to mock about Dianna, and coming up empty, they were like "let's just have fun destroying a pic of her in photoshop". The only good thing I took from that plot was it allows Santana to call her "Lucy Q" in fics.

Okay no more procrastinating answering this, hey Anon. Sadly I can't say I took so long because I've come up with a myriad of examples. Truth is, Glee's both a) so inconsistent and b) so far removed from reality at times and tonally shifting all the time that there are a bunch of moments we could dismiss as OOC. It actually seems to be an issue that everyone has that line in the fandom where they ignore things but the line is somewhere else in each case. Fun, thanks Glee.

For me, I actually don't cut Santana slack for that one because it was a big Yikes and unfortunately something she would at least sorta do. I do fully consider Finn a freak for it as well and hate the framing of the scene. As for Lucy Caboosey, it's funny, I've never known where I stood with that. I still don't. Honestly, since I can make it work I don't hate it all that much. I often feel like I do a lot of the heavy-lifting for the writers, more so than they deserve but Lucy Q is one of those that I can sort of make work so I don't ignore it.

An example of my own that immediately comes to mind is the infamous sex tape, of course, which is played for laughs and is the second most infuriating thing Flopson has written. Wow that man's scripts suck. I simply cannot treat it seriously or even as part of canon most of the time because it's just so icky. Maybe that makes me a hypocrite because I won't hold it against Britt's character but I just refuse to engage with that plot on any serious level. You can't, it's non-consensual distribution of underage p*rn played for laughs. Not even good laughs! Pathetic.

Another much less serious example that comes mind, and one that pisses me off regardless of it being a minor instance is Rachel and Mercedes' bathroom scene in 100. When Mercedes says Santana is one of high school ghosts? When she and Rachel commiserate about people like Santana and Quinn? No. Absolutely not. I refuse to indulge this pity fest designed to reestablish Rachel as the ultimate underdog despite all her dreams coming true. I refuse to let the writers throw not one, not two, but like four rich and interesting female dynamics under the bus. All so we can be clear who the baddie is and get rid of any sort of nuance in the Pezberry feud. They can pry Sancedes from my dead cold hands, and same goes for Quinncedes. Wasn't it enough throwing Quinntana under the bus in Trio? God, where does it stop.

Those moments often annoy me much more than entire storylines do. When the writers can only elevate one friendship/relationship by downplaying another. It's a sign of weak writing and I hate it. It's like they treat personal relationships as a zero-sum game. Anyway, other than that I'm blanking on standout OOC moments. I'm sure there are loads, like I said Glee's inconsistency is awful and happens not only from episode to episode but within 45-minute spans. It's inevitable that many moments will feel OOC and completely out of place. The ones I'd care most about are, naturally, Santana-related ones, but for better or worse I can integrate just about anything into a logical arc for her. Except for not talking to any of her friends in season 6. But I don't see that as an in-universe problem.

[mayhem-ensues]

Welp, finished Azure Gleam

I will start off by saying that I think that Azure Gleam has the best first half of all the different routes. Getting a good look at the internal politics of the Kingdom was great, the prologue with Rufus was fantastic, and seeing Felix and Dedue getting some of that main story spotlight was brilliant.

I’ll also say that the Lions supports were consistently great throughout the route, and seeing Rodrigue getting much more fleshed out as a character was great.

I preface this post with praise for Part 1 + the supports cause I’m gonna bitch about the 2nd half of this route and I want to make it clear that this route definitely started real good and still had some positive elements throughout even if I really, really hated the 2nd half of the route. 

Having said all that, I think Part 2 of Azure Gleam is by far the worst part of Three Hopes, and of course, the culprit of that is those Slithery bois. Even leaving aside how gross and unsatisfying Edelgard is handled as a result of bringing the Slithers to the forefront of the route as the main antagonists, the route is just made worse in general by them having such a large role in the plot. 

The Slithers just inherently don’t work as antagonists here because there is no real drama to be mined from their interactions with a majority of the characters in the game. Like, compare and contrast Edelgard as the antagonist in Azure Moon to Thales as the antagonist in Azure Gleam and it’s like night and day. Edelgard and Dimtri have both an ideological clash, and a personal history that makes their relationship interesting to explore and leads to some of the best scenes in the game. Like, I think just about everyone could agree that Dimitri snapping following Edelgard being revealed as the Flame Emperor is absolutely top notch.

Dimitri and Thales have none of that. Neither Three Houses or Three Hopes bothered to develop any kind of ideological motivation for the Slithers besides “hating all the other characters” so there is nothing of interest to be found in an ideological battle. And the only history between Thales and Dimitri is of course, Thales involvement in the Tragedy of Duscur, but that’s not particularly interesting either because we’ve spent the whole game fighting people involved in the Tragedy. Thales being the mastermind of the tragedy doesn’t add a unique element to his and Dimitri’s conflict, it just makes him like every other character Dimitri has spent the route fighting. 

Even leaving aside the lack of personal rivalry in the story, the Slithers are just so one-dimensional cartoony evil that it becomes impossible to be invested in fighting them. Especially since all of the most interesting story elements of Part 1 were the bits where we got a nuanced look at the conflict. Seeing Dimitri talk up the pros and cons of assisting the Church with all of his advisors was great, watching him talk about fighting “those mages” is just boring.

And like, the Slithers being so one-dimensional also takes away from some of the other stuff that the writers are trying to explore in the route. Like at the start of Part 2 a lot of characters start talking about how “we’re the invaders now” and there’s a lot of drama and interesting character conflict that could be mined from that, but the whole thing has zero bite or tension to it because the Slithers are so evil that they’re killing more people from the Empire than all of the Lions combined.

All of this is made worse by the fact that instead of keeping other characters like Felix and Dedue relevant like they were in Part 1, we go back into Three Houses mode, where the Lords does 99% of the talking and then each character chimes in with their one line per chapter and that's it.

Not to mention that the secret team up chapter makes even less sense as a result of all this. Like, Claude and Dimitri talking about the Central Church made complete sense in the context of Golden Wildfire, but they have pretty much the same conversation here despite it making zero sense for Claude to start going off about the Central Church when he’s ostensibly Dimitri’s ally. And then Edelgard and Dimitri also have pretty much the same conversation from Scarlet Blaze, for some reason not at all addressing the fact that Edelgard was mindwiped and not herself for the last six months and presumably never will be the same person again once they get out of Zaharas. Like, you’re not going to talk about that at all? Really?

It feels like this route was written as a response to people complaining about the Slithers being such a non-factor in Azure Moon and Dimitri taking them out by accident and all that stuff. Funny thing is, that I think Part 2 of this route being what it is shows how absolutely correct they were to ignore the Slithers in Azure Moon.

Also just as a brief aside at the end, that Sreng paralogue was fucking wack.

[bushs-world]

Anon challenge: this challenge is to help spread awareness about the harms the Loki series has done.

https://lowkeycritical.tumblr.com/post/665952395270995968/a-letter-to-the-cast-and-crew-of-loki

Read this letter and share with 3 people you think would be interested. Reply with your thoughts Below!

Anon I had already tried reading this long, long letter when it was first published unsuccessfully. I did try again, only because I was curious why people found selfcest transphobic.

After reading this, I can say I only agree with one problem the series had- the genderfluid representation, but it's nothing new since I realised the series had this issue long before I read this letter.

The rest minus the AGP part was completely useless and a complete waste of time. Like the Loki series did harm because Loki was ooc in the series, was nerfed, didn't use magic and allspeak? It makes zero sense to me. There are so many troubles in the real world right now, we just got out of a global pandemic, there's unrest everywhere. And this is the thing antis believe does harm? A fictional character being ooc in a fictional series? Loki is a fictional character in a fictional story so how the hell does his power level do any real life harm?

Now about the AGP and selfcest part, I get that there are some people who feel selfcest is transphobic. And I am not trying to invalidate anyone's hurt. But this has been niche sci fi concept for so long. And let me assure you a majority of the sci fi fans don't look as this concept as trans rhetoric but as fun, thought provoking concept that can't exist irl. I myself was so confused when antis started calling sylki transphobic, because the fact that such a stereotype ever existed about trans people only came to my knowledge after antis started ranting about it.

But keeping all this aside, there's one fundamental flaw in this selfcest controversy that is often overlooked no matter how many times the cast and sylki fans shout it off the roofs. And that is Sylvie is her own person, not just a female Loki. Loki didn't fall for Sylvie because she was his female counterpart, but because of her own strength and grit and their bonding over their life. I have never seen antis factor in this when they rant about sylki and selfcest. Instead they follow his absolute rigid thought that sylvie is Loki, completely invalidating Sylvie's struggle in the series to separate herself from the role of a Loki. This absolutism reminds of some TERF ideologies which leave no room for expression of one's individual identity. Imo, Sylvie is stripped of her self identity, one she made for herself and beaten down in the role of a Loki in order to shame the ship and it's shippers. Many antis straight out refuse to factor in this nuance of Sylvie, rather they employ a black and white thinking where either sylvie is a Loki or she is not.

That said, there was two things in this letter I found absolutely baseless and totally stupid. First that sylki is incest' because they both share the last name?? Sylvie is the daughter of his universes' Laufey, Loki the son of his universes' Laufey. If you go see Spiderman NWH, then you will realise that each of the spidey had their own aunt May. And I don't think I need to tell people that Tobey! Aunt May, Andrew! Aunt May and Tom! Aunt May are three totally different people. For Sylki to be incest, they are supposed to be born or raised by the exact same person; being born to two separate variants with the same identity isn't the same as being born to the same person. So, this incest is just deliberate twisting of the situation to add fake morality so that it is easier to hate the ship

Secondly, it's true romance isn't necessary for each story, but that doesn't mean adding romance makes a story worthless. And if a story wants to add romance as it's main theme, like the Loki series did, it has very right to do it. This idea that romance is inherently bad and unnecessary is a misogynist thought that looks down upon romance because it is something predominantly enjoyed by women. Hating a romantic arc is one thing, claiming a story would have been better without a romance or that it wasn't needed is another.

Ultimately, minus a few valid points, this letter feels like a rant because the series didn't fit into the headcannon and desires of certain fans. And while it is ok to rant about it or hate it, I don't get why antis are so eager to push their agenda down our throats. It's definitely exhausting.

[wordsnstuff]

30 Days of Outlining - October 2020 Writing Challenge (Preptober)

– Yes, I am aware that October contains 31 days, but I take Halloween off to celebrate and give myself a breath before starting NaNoWriMo on November 1st. There’s a bonus prompt at the end, just in case. I look forward to seeing all of your guys’ responses here using the hashtag #wordsnstuffoutline and over on Instagram, where you can tag me @ writingandsuch.

This challenge begins on October 1st, but I thought I would give you guys some time to plan stuff out, because you may need to switch some days around to accommodate your schedule. You’re free to do one day’s challenge on another day if your schedule doesn’t allow enough time to complete that day’s challenge. Best of luck to you!

Patreon || Ko-Fi || Masterlist || Work In Progress

–

☼ Prompt List ☼

What point of view are you writing from and why does it suit your story?

What structure are you using based on your story’s genre and character arcs?

Is your story driven primarily by characters or plot? How do they work together?

If you have a zero draft completed, list what you hope to accomplish as you rewrite. If you are approaching the zero draft, list what you’d like to accomplish in this preliminary telling of the story. *

Where does your story begin and why? 

Where have you placed the climax and how does this aide in the smooth resolution? If you’re writing a series, what does the climax introduce that will not be solved in the resolution?

If you’ve fleshed out your characters, how can you utilize different plot points to show their traits and nuance to the reader? If you haven’t, I recommend the “Character first, plot second” questionnaire.

What details of the plot/characters have you left to discover as you write or revise in future drafts? Why?

Create a “timeline” chart that demonstrates the pacing in your story. Describe the pacing trends and how this serves your story. Are there any points you would like to space out or condense?

Make a five sentence summary of your story. One for each of the major stages of a story; Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, and Resolution.

How do you resolve your major conflict, and how does this resolution provide payoff for the built tension?

How do you build tension throughout the plot?

What are the major stakes that persist throughout the plot? How are they answered in the resolution?

Create a three-sentence summary for each of your main characters’ arcs. Where do they begin, what causes a shift, and what is the outcome?

What will your reader notice when they read your story the second time that will make them say “I should have seen that coming”?

How will you incorporate foreshadowing into the plot without giving away the ending or being too subtle?

What are the major themes you hope you incorporate into the plot/arcs and why? 

Where will these themes be placed amongst the subplots, main plots, and character arcs?

How do your themes tie together as a complete work?

Make a simple chart that demonstrates the rise and fall in action, as well as the major twists that occur in your story. How evenly placed is the action and the reaction?

Describe the evolution of the 3 main relationships portrayed in your story, using the Beginning, shift, and outcome structure. 

How do you plan to incorporate time-period and setting into the story in a meaningful/note-worthy way, without info-dumping?

Are there any symbols you initially see incorporating into your plot? Go through your outline so far and note places where you may have room to hint at them.

Describe the evolution of tone in your story. Focus especially on suspense and tension.

List the major and minor events that occur in your story, then describe their consequences, both short-term and long-term. 

How does your falling action effectively bridge the gap between the climax and the resolution?

What emotion do you hope the reader exits your story with? What do you hope they remember most about the story?

What commonalities of the genre have to incorporated into your story, and how have you changed them to suit your original vision?

How do your characters, theme, and conflict develop throughout the story? Does one develop faster/deeper than the others? How can you create or maintain this balance?

Are there any scenes that you are looking forward to writing the most? How can you utilize them to motivate you to continue, as well as get into the groove of the story the fastest?

*Zero Draft: a preliminary telling of the story to get the main ideas and events out of your head to be edited, refined, rewritten, and perfected in subsequent drafts. (A rough, rough draft that is meant for your personal use)

☼ Bonus Challenge ☼

If you’ve already planned your major scenes, go through them and make sure you know how each scene serves the plot, develops the characters, and prepares the reader for upcoming events/information.

☼ Useful Resources To Help You Win ☼

Plot Structures

Useful Writing Resources | Part II

Pros & Cons of Different Points of View

Resources For Plot Development

Guide To Plot Development

Writing Long Stories Without Filler

Novel Planning 101

Tackling Subplots

Outlining By Chapter

Character Driven vs. Plot Driven Stories

How To Write A Story Timeline

Making A Story Come Together

How To Engage The Reader

Pacing Appropriately

Tips on Introducing Backstory

How To Develop A Distinct Voice In Your Writing

Balancing Detail & Development

Tips on Balancing Development

–

Masterlist | WIP Blog

If you enjoy my blog and wish for it to continue being updated frequently and for me to continue putting my energy toward answering your questions, please consider Buying Me A Coffee, or pledging your support on Patreon, where I offer early access and exclusive benefits for only $5/month.

Shoutout to my $15+ patrons, Jade Ashley and Douglas S.!

[elevatorladylady]

Series Analysis: The Folk of The Air

I went through this series a couple of times before setting it down and I wanted to break down some of the things that really worked with this series and what didn't.

The Pros

Morally Grey Characters

This series does a really good job of introducing a lot of morally grey characters. Madoc is a murderer and puts his daughter and eventual foster daughters through a huge trauma, but he is also the only kind of parent these kids have after that and more or less treats them with love and respect in the household.

This sets up some really interesting dynamics as well that just have to be complicated and weird for everyone. Vivi is the priority when Madoc comes to Jude’s parents, but she’s also the oldest and is least interested in following along with Madoc’s interests. Jude and Taryn end up being more interested in the life Madoc has forced them into and they have to grapple with the guilt of actually enjoying any parts of their life with him.

There is also always a bit of grey morality when the culture is more or less okay with cruel and murderous acts whether it’s used as a way to dispense justice or if it’s just because the people in power cannot be held accountable for their actions. 

But despite this wonderfully nuanced set up, I have some complaints about the way a lot of these things get simplified.

Humans and the Folk

I really love that we get to explore the differences in the cultures and biological differences between these groups. The inability to lie presents a lot of interesting moments between Jude and Cardan that really show how that kind of difference can impact the words you choose and the ways people can use language to put on a front with or without lies.

The differences between the two worlds is a really interesting juxtaposition and I  think it’s great to get to see our main characters navigate both spaces. The folk have an advantage in the human world and can more easily inhabit it than a human can inhabit the faerie world. We see how Jude has been hardened by her experiences and can’t easily just take up a normal human life.

Vivi and Heather are such a great dynamic to explore the power dynamic between humans and faeries. Vivi has good intentions with her human girlfriend but by ignoring the ways fae can and will harm humans, she inadvertently puts her human girlfriend in danger, and uses that power against her.

Jude and Cardan’s Character Arcs

I do have some complaints but I love the way these arcs unfold. Jude is a powerless girl and then she becomes as powerful as she possibly can when controlling cardan and has to grapple with the cost of having this power and how the power didn’t end up protecting her in the way she thought it could. She learns that at some point she cannot control everything in her life through sheer will and force, and that she is going to be more fulfilled and potentially safer by learning to put her trust in others.

Cardans arc is more about finding himself. He is not respected or appreciated by his family and friends unless he’s being awful, but we start to see change almost immediately when he’s removed from that. He can just be with the court of shadows and he can be more open and honest about his desires and motivations with Jude. As king he is once again forced into a role, but this time he gets to try on different variations of being king. He’s one of the spies with the court of shadows, he’s his old self with his friends minus the cruelty with his friends, he’s a king in front of his subjects, and he’s a more open and vulnerable version of himself with Jude. He’s still being forced into a lot of these roles, but this gives him a chance to find his footing and decide who he might want to be when Jude isn’t forcing him into things. And he ends up choosing to be a better person in those roles than before.

The Cons

Black and White Ending

Jude and Cardan are morally grey earlier on and we get a lot of Jude questioning her own decisions, but by giving the ending giving her ultimate power as king and queen and the narrative affirming this as good takes away the complex morality of these characters.

By the end they are considered benevolent leaders by the land and the people, and Madoc and those that followed him are bad people who deserve punishment. Jude gets to hand out punishments as she see fits without anyone but Cardan being able to check her (and we know he probably won’t). Jude is even encouraged to treat everyone as if they are beneath her. These two have ultimate power and they will likely be harmful to some of their people regardless of their efforts otherwise and even more so if they aren’t proactive about how they lead.

The book ends with a toast to schemes, but they aren’t scheming anymore. They are fully embracing their public facing roles and enjoying their personal roles. While Oak is still technically supposed to take the throne there is zero indication throughout that he wants it and they are also clear that they won’t force him into it, so it no longer even feels like a temporary thing for Jude and Cardan to rule.

I would have preferred an ending where we see Jude map out a new ultimate scheme to dismantle the monarchy or distribute power to lower courts or something more radical to show that shes not just going to be another person with unchecked power.

It also squarely puts Madoc as bad and everyone on his side as bad with the punishments Jude hands out. Madoc is the main antagonist here, but is Jude really better than all of the people that were willing to follow Madoc? Do those people deserve to have their hands stained or live as birds when Jude will be shown deference by every person in their kingdom. Jude made a play for the crown too, and the only reason she doesn’t get punished is because she was successful. And then we’re supposed to joke about the idea of Madoc’s punishment in the human world and he’s just reduced to the blundering bigot in the family that you just accept as such.

And Vivi’s dynamic with Heather also gets simplified to just caring about the betrayal of the glamour instead of the ongoing dynamic that Vivi has to be an advocate for Heather in the faerie world and she has to always be mindful of the power dynamic.

The final scene really just feels like the end of a rom com even though these dynamics have really serious and troubling elements. 

Taryn’s Redemption

This dynamic also suffers from the shift to a black and white but it starts even earlier. Taryn’s betrayal with Locke is horrendous. It’s so personal and it cuts really deep compared to the political betrayal with Madoc.

I don’t believe the level of acceptance and forgiveness Jude gives Taryn at nearly every step. Her initial interest into wanting some kind of relationship once she becomes hand of the king is understandable, but it quickly turns into Jude doing quite a lot to preserve Taryn’s feelings. Jude wants Cardan to keep Locke in check, Jude doesn’t want to bother Taryn before her wedding with her almost murder, she doesn’t want her to know her husband tried to kill her, and she threatens Locke to keep him in line multiple times. It just doesn’t make sense that she would care so much to protect Taryn’s feelings from the guy that she chose over Jude especially when Taryn’s only kindness to Jude is designing great clothes for her.

All of this sets up even more problems for how things go in the final book. If Taryn’s only betrayal had been the political one, I could see Jude getting past it, but she does it when hasn’t even remotely atoned for the deeply personal one. Jude is rightfully angry but forgives her almost immediately when she learns about the baby. Jude has maybe one line about whether or not she can trust her sister again but her actions suggest she’s completely over it and eager to have a nice sisterly dynamic.

This could have been a really interesting dynamic about dealing with someone you love but can’t trust. It could have been more interesting if Jude had actually killed Locke when he came after her and Jude had to grapple with the guilt despite him being awful. Or even Taryn realizing her mistake earlier and pleading for Jude’s help to get out of it.

And Locke also just becomes a full on villain. Maybe you need that, but he was more interesting when he seemed to have a boundary with the physical violence.

[bookofmirth]

after rereading the series and finally finishing silver flames ( which i truly enjoyed, even when there were points which felt disappointing and a little incoherent ) i feel like i can finally pinpoint what is so jarring to me regarding this series. It just seems so disjointed, which becomes especially apparent after reading MaF and the immediately reading WaR.

We move from the first two novels of the series, which are coherent and clean, to WaR - which is hoenstly just a mess, something which was so blatant to me on the reread. during this time, it’s clear that sjm made several massive changes to link this book to the future spin offs, and also obviously changes her original plan to pair mor and azriel - which monumentally changes the way that the previous book is read, and the perception of their characters.

Even with FaS - setting up for cassian and nestas story, sjm completely changes direction between this release and silver flames. And all of that lead up with the Illyrian rebellions and cassians not being respected as a bastard, and his mission fighting for Illyrian female rights - amounts to absolutely nothing.

Don’t get me wrong, I really really enjoyed silver flames, and perhaps some of these ideas will crop up in azriels book and therefore won’t be wasted. But it just makes the series feel disjointed and leaves me at least, feeling unfulfilled.

Sjm is such a good author, in ToG the plot was expertly executed and when you reread the series, you can see hints and foreshadowing even back to book one. She knew exactly where she was going almost from the beginning, and each decision and plot point was used to create impact and build up to the ending. I don’t get that with acotar.

There is so so so much build, and almost no pay off - and I really got that sense in acosf, I loved it as a stand alone - but when we look at it through the perspective of the entire series, there were things which grated and a lot of things which I felt were built up to and nothing happened... Tomas, Cassians mother ( was so sure we would learn where she was buried at least ) the Illyrian rebellions and the Illyrians hatred and disrespect towards Cassian, Mor and Nestas relationship, CASSIAN AND MORS RELATIONSHIP ( I understand that the mor situation will be something which is focused upon primarily in azriels book, or hopefully her own, however their relationship involves Cassian as much as them both and I really wish Cassian had actually confronted the part he played in that whole situation - a part he played for 500 (!!!!) years. It’s a role which he was unable to relinquish in ACOWAR, and actively rejects Nesta to act as a buffer multiple times, seeing it as an obligation almost - and then in SF, pays it no attention at all. Feyre and Nestas relationship also isn’t really touched upon, as if that final act healed everything - what about that interrupted conversation in the library, when Nesta was cut off ? Why Nesta always favoured Elain, even Amren and Nesta - we still don’t really know what happened there... argh there’s just so much potential and so much set up, and it just seems forgotten about ? It makes the book seem disjointed and a bit of a let down.

Yesss I totally get what you mean here. ToG is honestly the superior series, and it’s because it has the cohesion that acotar doesn’t. Everything feels like it’s meant to be there, each character, each worldbuilding detail, their histories, everything just comes together in a wonderful way that just wrecked me when EoS came out and then was resolved perfectly in KoA.

Compared to that, acotar feels like sjm is figuring things out along the way and it is seriously driving me nuts. I’ve had multiple conversations with other people in Discords and they’ve said similar things. acotar at this point feels like sjm is just coming up with random ass ideas and throwing them in. No book in the series feels more like that than acowar. And it was that point where we knew that there would be more books, right? So combined with the fact that she pounded that book out and it got rather half-assed editing, you’re probably right that a lot of things were changed in order to set up the other books, even though it didn’t make sense with what she’d written before. 

I agree with you re: Mor and Az, and I feel like I’ve been seeing more people say that lately? That there is a feeling that they actually were supposed to be together and she changed her mind? I wrote a bunch of fics for them back in the day and they’ve gotten a bit more attention lately. But once acowar came out I was like, I’m gonna reread, and I’m gonna find all the clues, I’m gonna see where all this build-up was, and.... considering how often people say that sjm is so “good” at foreshadowing, I’m sorry, but not in this series. In ToG, yes, because she had a clear goal at the end! She knew where she was going and she stayed on that path. In acotar, idfk. Anyway my point is that I’ve reread the series a couple of times through since acowar came out and I’m still over here shrugging because up until that point, Mor and Az could be read in completely opposite ways. (Maybe it’s an Azriel thing, given the current discourse, idk.)

I will say, however, that we had clues that there was tension between them and I had noted that Az is quiet troubled and even pre-acomaf, I would not have been surprised by his extra in acosf. But all of that could have been addressed with Mor and Az still being together? We all had plenty of explanations at the time for the tension, and Mor being queer was like 1 of 100 of those explanations. 

If we look at Mor’s character through the books we have so far, I still see almost zero signs that she’s queer except for her literally saying “I like women and Rita’s has a lot of women and here’s my gay story”. Other than that, there is like..... nothing that feels organically queer about her!!! And I love her and I want her to be gay af!!!! But I wonder if my forgiveness of how acowar went down was more about my personal reaction than how well the story was actually done.

And the fact that, like you said, there is still no resolution to the fact that Cassian is supposedly a buffer between Mor and Azriel? Like???? We were all sitting here after acowar thinking “okay, well if she’s gay then someone knows. Someone has to know. She can’t just be gay and NO ONE WHO LOVES HER KNOWS.” 

Then in comes acosf with a big “fuck you, y’all thought” which just.... to me, it signals that her queerness was an afterthought. It’s still an afterthought because her queerness is limited to Mor and women blushing at her and Mor has her corner of the world in which she can be gay, but that gay never spills out into any other aspect of her life. It’s just conveniently isolated so that it doesn’t touch or affect other characters. 

In terms of continuity, acowar was such a huge shifting point in the series that people left in droves. It was a huge mess in the fandom. And then acofas was just fluff with no real point in pushing the story forward - even the Nesta stuff was a sneak peek, it had nothing to do with acofas itself. And now acosf comes in ignoring things she had set up previously, with almost zero nuanced discussion of the Cassian/Azriel/Mor thing, which means she still (?) doesn’t know what’s going on there. And I think that we did get some answers with Nesta’s reflection on her relationship with her mother, but the deal with the Illyrian rebellion was just in the way so let’s nix that, and then let’s focus on Eris (🤮) just because she feels like it even though she’s set up all these other characters whose stories need more. (Much like acowar, this paragraph is a MESS LOL)

And yes I KNOW that the series isn’t over, clearly, but she keeps setting things up and then letting them go nowhere, or making them seem important and then resolving them off-page, or changing character relationships (Mor and Az) but then having the characters involved act exactly the same, as if nothing had changed (by having the “buffer” situation still exist as a real thing).

I did enjoy the book, a lot, it was a fun read. But tbh we have so many arguments and disagreements within the fandom rn because things have been so left open to interpretation that we it’s not even a matter of “oh I saw this slightly differently”, it’s “WHAT book did these people even read???” That’s kinda weird, to me. There is reader response, and then there is what we have now, which is people having absolute opposite reactions to what they think happened in acosf.