#which makes a lot of sense because it's effectively a 2/1 at worst

[dravidious]

You're more amazing than searching

Got this in my inbox and decided to finish up the last 2 red uncommons. Also one of the red uncommons was actually perfect for the RG signpost so here's that too

[foxgirlbeans]

A Ninja's Guide to Eorzea: Part 1

I'm currently working on my relic weapon for ninja, and that means I'm suffering I'm going into a lot of dungeons solo as a ninja. And it got me thinking about stealth. Rogues and ninjas have a Hide feature that, aside from a few job quests, usually goes completely overlooked. you can usually run from any overworld enemies, dungeons mean you have to hang out with at least two people who can't hide from enemies, and you can't even try to hide from dungeon bosses.

So the ninja sadly doesn't get many opportunities to live out the classic ninja fantasy of striking from the shadows. But by soloing a dungeon at a higher level, you can sneak from boss room to boss room for the same effect. And since I'm going through so many dungeons right now, I thought I'd write down my thoughts on how well each one lets you live out that fantasy.

1. Sastasha

This is the dungeon I'll be comparing all others to. not just because it's the first, but it's one of the best. stealing a glance at the pirate's password and breaking into their base both happen in relatively secluded areas, so you can ignore all enemies right up until the first boss.

Thing get a little hairier when you first meet the pirates, mostly because their guard dogs can see through your sneaking. Which makes a lot of sense when you think about it, right? They live right next door to the bloody Rogues Guild, obviously they'd have ways of dealing with rogues.

This only really adds one extra fight to the list- the second dog and his master are mandatory to grab a key, and the third is in a wide open area that gives you space to avoid it. if you remember it's there, unlike me.

This dungeon is the quintessential "breaking into a base" fantasy, and it plays that part beautifully with realistic threats to keep you on your toes. also it's pirates vs. ninjas which was a big to-do during the lolsorandom years.

I'm also giving it bonus points bc despite having dogs that can spot you, you can open multiple doors without the door guards ever catching wise.

look at them. morons. A+

2. The Tam-Tara Deepcroft

I'm not going to lie, this one's 100% bias speaking. The sneaking works fine, and you can get to bosses completely unmolested, it's just... almost every "boss" here is just some random guy. it doesn't really strike the right chord like Sastasha did. I'll give it a C+/B-, it's sneakable, but it doesn't feel like a ninja.

3. Copperbell Mines

This one's got plot coupons stuck in enemies up the wazoo, so it's definitely not sneaky. On top of that, the dust bunnies in this place all have tremorsense, so you can't sneak past them, and every part of the dungeon is a narrow walkway so you can't even sneak past the old fashioned way.

If that wasn't bad enough, there's multiple moments where hecatoncheirs appear out of walls, instantly breaking your stealth and forcing you into a fight. Sneaking does get you past the worst of the final room, but by then it's too little, too late. D

3. Halatali

Not gonna lie, I 100% thought this one would turn out like Copperbell Mines when I first thought about it. I've never been happier to be wrong though!

The first and third parts of the dungeon are predictably not an issue whatsoever, you sneak past the trash mobs and fight the boss, no problem. The middle portion is where things get spicy- you see, there's several winches in the area you have to pull to open the door at the end, but pulling them breaks your stealth. Further complicating things, pulling each winch has a chance to drop a monster on your head, which I just spent two paragraphs complaining about!

However, because these winches only get pulled when you want them to be, it feels more like you're disarming a trap than anything else. Waiting for the crowd of monsters around you to wander off, setting off booby traps, and dealing with the consequences actually makes the whole experience very fun. Exploring an abandoned ruin definitely falls more on the rogue side of things than ninja, but it was fun enough that I'll let it slide. B+

4. The Thousand Maws of Toto-Rak

Hard F. You have to defeat every monster in an area before you move on, so hiding here actively slows down your progress when you have to u-turn and hunt down whatever you snuck past in the first place.

5. Haukke Manor

Another dungeon that surprised me with out sneakable it is. All of the manor's keys are either located in a boss you have to kill anyway, or on the ground. this means you can sneak into rooms, nab the key from right under the monsters' noses, and sneak back out leaving them none the wiser. Adding in the patrolling succubi that just so happen to give you just enough time to grab certain keys and hide again before they turn around gives a stealth game vibe to the whole experience like in Halatali. Plus you're sneaking into a mansion to kill a corrupt noble, which is a totally ninja thing to do! Another solid B+

6. Brayflox's Longstop

I was surprised to learn Colibri can see through ninja invisibility, but I guess that explains why Captain Madison had one. The starting room has a couple you pretty much have to fight, but aside from that it doesn't do anything special. It also doesn't really fit the ninja vibe what with you fighting random wildlife, but it has fewer filler bosses and fighting a dragon is always cool, so. B-.

[orenji-iro-no-sora]

Thoughts on TGCF Vol 3

Vol 1 | Vol 2| Vol 3| Vol 4| Vol 5| Vol 6| Vol 7| Vol 8

*Spoilers*

Arc 2: Heart as gentle as a flower

I didn't talk much about the second arc in the last post because most of everything happened in the third volume and I wanted to keep it all together.

To me, this arc was the hardest to read up till now. I was wishing for it all to end which was a sentiment that took over Xie Lian as well as his confidence in what it means to do the right thing waned with the progression of Xianle-Yongan conflict. While in the beginning, he believed wholeheartedly that saving someone, doing something was still better than nothing at all, by the end of it, it was clear that much of his suffering had been futile.

It truly was a hopeless conflict, I reflected a lot on what could be done, what really is the right thing to do and in the end there were no answers. In the face of destiny, there's not much anyone can do and as the state preceptor said: when humans ascend, they're still humans. Gods are still humans, they don't know better and they can't save anyone. Only people believed that Xie Lian should be invincible. He wasn't and could never be.

I applaud MXTX for her depiction of the events as something genuinely unstoppable with so many factors that it becomes paralysing to take any decisions. Having kindness and compassion for all means that making 'necessary' sacrifices is unacceptable as there's nothing, no act in this world that's wholly beneficial, it'll harm someone or something. There's no pure goodness.

Xie Lian did his best though, all his decisions were deliberate, rooted in his virtue, kindness and his desire to save people. He walked the walk, it just didn't make any difference. He was too young to have faced it all and by the end of it, the exhaustion and the inadequacy of his powers caught up to him.

Death isn't something that is deserved/undeserved, it's not punishment that the innocents must be protected from. It simply is and that I think is the most important lesson here.

Qi Rong and the Human Face Disease

Qi Rong was a nuisance from the start. He really brings out the worst in Xie Lian (sibling effect). Out of everyone, he believed too much in Xie Lian's indestructibility and it's not shocking that he ended up hating him so, commissioning those disrespectful statues, inciting the populace to blame him for it all, burning his mother's corpse and possessing Guzi's father. Hua Cheng's hate for him makes complete sense. Xie Lian feeding him his deathly congee was hilarious though.

I didn't realise the severity of Human Face Disease when it was first mentioned in Vol 1. But arc 2 really presented it as one of the creepiest fictional diseases I've ever read. It's the most horrific manifestation of unjust death and I'm just glad it's not a real life thing.

Mu Qing, Feng Xin and The Three Tumors

Seeing the relationship the Xianle trio shared with each other, I finally understood the awkwardness in their interactions during the first volume. While Feng Xin is fairly easy to understand (loyal, faithful, straightforward), I think Mu Qing is one of the most interesting characters. He's insecure but decisive, he respects Xie Lian but also envies him. To him, the end justifies the means which is in complete contradiction to Xie Lian who wants justice at all levels. There are so many complicated emotions between them and the way they go about it is entertaining to read. I hope they can clear out the misunderstanding as we progress further in the story.

The interactions between the Heavenly Officials, especially the Three Tumors, were unexpectedly funny. Every official is multi-dimensional and has a unique personality. It really offered the much needed light-heartedness after the misery of the second arc. I also really like the Wind Master. He's friendly, even when he messes up in shielding Xie Lian from others (poor guy has bad timings). I am looking forward to how they'll deal with the Reverend.

Side note- Ming Yi focused only on the feast is so me lol.

Hua Cheng's unwavering devotion, first kiss, Ruoye vs eming

I didn't expect them to have met so many times. They really were connected throughout their lives. Out of everyone, I think he was the only one who reciprocated Xie Lian's kindness and consideration.

In my heart, you are god! You are the only god, the one true god! Do you hear me?!”

He fulfilled his promise of building the most extravagant temple for Xie Lian and celebrating him with plays and three thousand lanterns. (XL is the light of his life after all). They're so cute and they finally kissed!! Underwater too!! It was still weird though. Just as weird as Xie Lian's heat from the Land of the Tenders. I don't know what I think about it all except for it reminded me of the awkwardness of Mo Dao Zu Shi.

Another cute thing was Ruoye showing off in front of Eming as he cut vegetables for Xie Lian's poisonous soup (?). Them competing against each other and puffing out when Xie Lian praised them was the highlight for me.

[mylordshesacactus]

Tag Game - Writing Patterns

List the first line of your last 10 (posted) fics and see if there's a pattern.

1.Smoke and the sharp tang of blood drifted over Teldrassil. (Reunification, Warcraft)

2. It was a nameless backwater moon in a nameless backwater system, and Ahsoka had never wanted to be anywhere less in her life. (Riposte, Star Wars)

3. Padawan learner Barriss Offee scuffed her heel idly against the duracrete. (When These Moments Have Passed, Star Wars/Fox and the Hound fusion)

4. “Going somewhere, Lady Crowley?” (Shadows and Goldclover, Warcraft, E)

5. It’s a good place for an ambush. (some desperate small creature, Warcraft)

6. Sunrise on Rannoch was—Tali’s chest constricted painfully. (Housewarming, Mass Effect)

7. “Again,” the instructor ordered, voice crisp. (Quicksilver, BG3)

8. The world grows quiet. And their time grows short. (Truesilver, BG3)

9. A boy dreams of a wolf’s whelp. (an unkindness of ravens, Assassin's Creed: Valhalla)

10. FOREWORD (By Miranda Lawson) | In 2196, a young asari named Ashethe Matolis was granted asylum by the Alliance. (257 Years Of Unanswered Correspondence With An Ardat-Yakshi Monastery, Mass Effect)

-

I think the most prominent pattern here is that I definitely have a strong preference for opening "with two feet down", as my high school mentor and creative-writing teacher put it. Not necessarily in medias res, though I do love doing that--but immediately grounded, placing the reader IN the scene from the first sentence.

As such a lot of these involve sensory details, an immediate touchstone for the character's physical location or surroundings, or both. The worst thing you can do for immersion is have your reader spend several hundred words either unable to picture the characters in context, or THINKING they're picturing the context correctly and then out of the blue dropping that they're actually somewhere completely different.

(Unless you're deliberately misleading the reader in order to deliver a punchline, obviously, but I think that should go without saying.)

I also tend to make my opening lines direct and to the point, and rarely open a fic with a full paragraph. In order to give the reader that sense of standing on solid ground--essentially of "landing with two feet down," falling into the fic and looking around to see where they are--you gotta give that opening line a little room to breathe.

The only exceptions on this list are 4, 9, and 10, and honestly, only 9 really counts!

-> The structure of 257 Years is an epistolary fic, so it actually IS serving as that immediate sensory grounding--It's establishing from the very beginning the sense that you are, in-universe, picking up a book and opening it to the front page.

-> Shadows & Goldclover is my fun little Tess/Lorna porn, and the setup is in fact that Tess is startling her in the garden. So the initial brief disorientation (I do immediately give some setting details in the next paragraph) is exactly the sensory experience I want my readers to have, it puts them in the same headspace as Lorna

-> Unkindness Of Ravens is, genuinely, one of the best stories I've ever written and I hope people are willing to give it a chance even if they're not really asscreed people--it stands on its own just fine as an exploration of fictional Norse queerness. And in that case, the deliberate sense of....an unmoored, vague, disoriented lack of any solid physical setting, is exactly what I was going for! It's a prophetic vision; it should feel otherworldly. I deliberately avoid giving the reader ANY solid ground until after the scenebreak..at which point they are IMMEDIATELY given sensory details and a place name, because the whole thematic point of the fic is Valka being brought in from the cold and finding acceptance, security, and a place to belong.

[ewingstan]

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9-11 for whatever Worm characters come to mind! (Or Sophia/Calvert/Taylor/Krouse if you have any thoughts!)

Fuck it. All of em for all of em.

1. Why do you like or dislike this character?

Sophia: I'll be real I don't feel super strongly about her. She's written to be hateable in an effective way, but she's less of a full character than Emma despite being in much more of the story. And her shit kinda gets bogged down by racist writing (a lot of the worst of it happening right before Aisha's introduction, which is also pretty racist). She's involved in a lot of cool and interesting moments but they're rarely interesting because of her.

Coil: Works really well as the first overarching villain in Taylor's story. He's able to sell the "I'm a bad guy but in an excusable way that's not really too bad" well enough, but also has a lot of obvious red flags even before the Dinah reveal. So you can understand perfectly well why Taylor, a kid who really wanted to continue hanging out with the undersiders and do things that made her feel like she had any control, would go along with him. But you can also take a step back and say Jesus, only a kid who really wanted to continue hanging out with the undersiders and do things that made her feel like she had any control would go along with him.

Taylor: Wildbow has a reoccurring tendency to focus on characters who are both incredibly smart and can get an incredible amount of info quickly, but only in specific limited ways. Its true of Taylor, Lisa, Sylvester, Kenzie, Mia—a lot of my favorites. But the interesting thing is that they're never smart in the same ways, never collect the same sort of info. Lisa has general super-induction but no great skill at making plans. Sylvester can read and manipulate people to a superhuman level but is constantly getting blinded by his own resentments and desires. Taylor's hyper-vigilance gave her the ability to see and react to everything external around her, but no means or real incentive to know whats going on internally with people around her. And it makes sense! She's incredibly afraid of letting people in who'll end up hurting her; people who've genuinely been kind to her in the past have used their previous closeness to hurt her later! Knowing that someone doesn't mean her harm now isn't gonna reassure her, so its safer to assume everyone's a threat and not worry too much about what they're actually thinking.

And then there's Rachel, who she not only connects with emotionally, but is the only person who's able to make an emotional connection with her! And since you understand why its not the norm, its all the more incredible to see!

Krouse: oh I'm glad you asked

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

Sophia: I like that she and Lung both get wrapped back up in the end for Skitter's Gold Morning missions. I wish she got to do more in those, but I do like it as a story beat.

Coil: How high he got and how far he fell.

Taylor: Man the escape from Coil's trap is a fucking great chapter. She's a one-woman horror movie. Single-handedly sells her as a villain who'd get national attention, and its not even a moment the public knows about. And its in such a great place in the story too, where all the tricks she's using have been established so its not feeling like a weird escalation in her abilities, but she hasn't all employed them at once or to such incredible effect yet. It’s the real culmination of her taking “lessons” from Bakuda about being scary.

Krouse: One of the moments that really sold me on him was when he was getting attacked by Case 53s, and immediately started thinking about how he could take them down, before he interrupts his own thoughts to go "wait, what am I doing, I should just run away." It just sells so much of his whole deal. He's a great on-his-feat thinker, he can be an incredible strategist when he's on his own, but he also doesn't share Taylor's suicidal urge to face any problem head-on. Its kind of the inverse of one of Taylor's early establishing moments: after getting attacked by Rachel, she reaches for a reason to calm down, realizes she doesn't have one, and immediately retaliates hard enough to get blood on her boots. God they're such good foils, its weird that the extent of their relationship is mutually disliking each other. Not even intense dislike in either case.

3. Least favorite canon thing about this character?

Sophia: That the black member of the trio is the one that consistently gets physically violent, is characterized as the athletic one compared to the others in general (instead of "the cute one" or "the prep" she's "the track star"), gets described as being savage multiple times, doesn't have much of a character outside of sucking despite being in a work that's otherwise really good at giving internality to people who act shitty, all that jazz.

Coil: How little sense we got of what Calvert's dominion would really look like. That we didn't get much of his takeover without other disasters interfering actually works—it fits the themes of constant conflict interfering with stability and safety. But I still want more of a sense of what Calvert wanted.

Taylor: I didn't care about her reunification with her mom. I say a lot that the ending of Worm is one of the best endings of any story I've read, and that's true of Gold Morning as a whole, but I don't actually care much about the last epilogue. The Brian reveal certainly doesn't help there.

Krouse: Do you know how much it sucks that when people ask me who my favorite worm character is, the tumblr sexyman is in contention?

4. If you could put this character in any other media, be it a book, a movie, anything, what would you put them in?

Sophia: any story that takes her basic parts, gets rid of the obviously shitty stuff, and develops her into a real character.

Coil: Disney Channel sitcom

Taylor: Well I already tried expy-ing Khepri into my tabletop campaign, and that got mixed results, so I'll take TTRPGs off the list. I'd be interested in her getting put in a medium where you'd have to be creative with how to represent the bug cloud, like live theater.

Krouse: I was gonna say Mob Psycho but then I remembered that they already had a guy who teleported around being a jackass. But I would like too see a well-animated version of his fighting style.

5. What's the first song that comes to mind when you think about them?

Sophia: I'll Make You Sorry by Screaming Females

Coil: For some reason I get an Everything Everything vibe from him? Maybe Photoshop Handsome or Breadwinner.

Taylor: I don't actually read her as trans but Dysphoria Hoodie is what immediately came to mind. I'm at least theoretically still making a Cicada Days animatic about her. I think portions of BCNR's Sunglasses fits with whats going on internally with her in the Mannequin fight

Krouse: Want to make a Prowl Great Cain AMV for him one day. Lyrics fit perfectly, and the way its sung gets the same otherwise inexpressable intensity of how I feel about him. Darnielle said “This is a song about betrayal. A lot of songs about betrayal are about betrayal and redemption. Not this one.” And yeah, that's Krouse!

9. Could you be roommates with this character?

Sophia: Oh, no

Coil: It would prolly be fine except for how he'd torture a branch of my psychological continuity and then effectively kill it by destroying that reality whenever I leave the dishes out too long. Don't correct me on how his powers work

Taylor: Uhhh probably not. Even if I wasn't much older, I don't really talk to my roommates unless they're the talkative sort. She's been stuck living with clamshells before, it wasn't good for her.

Krouse: I'd have to kill him

10 and 11: alright these are "could you be best friends with" and "would you date" and in both cases the fact that I'm 23 means no. I don't have Blake's ability to form rich friendships with people much younger than me. And I'm not interested in Calvert as a friend or a lover.

[of-mutton-and-wool]

Fellow Kallamar enjoyer I love that squid so much so you have hcs about him 👁️👁️

I HAVE BEEN SUMMONDED

Alright

First of all AHEM

- before becoming the god of pestilence, kallamar lived a fairly unremarkable life, eventually becoming a field medic in the middle of a war between gods

- he doesn’t remember his family well (it’s been thousands of years) He remembers having a sister, with his mother and father both being priests to the great Fowler and (insert former blue crown bearer)

- unfortunately then the war catches up to them. The temple in which these gods and his family resides are massacred. Kallamar survived because he hid.

- seeing the blue crown unguarded, kallamar decides to take the opportunity. In the moment he seeks it required for survival, but in the present, he realizes how that the lust for power is just too great to ignore.

- he meets shamura about a few weeks later! It started out as like a resource alliance (shamura needed crystals and kallamar needed, everything not underwater really)

- but then it kinda evolved into a sibling like bond due to some shit that happened to both of them

- his cowardice isn’t without reason. Being cocky gets you killed in the deep

- he used to be WAY more sassy and talkative before narinder’s banishment.

- oh and the scar on his face was shamura doing (it was accidental)

- the viel narinder wears is made by him!

- kallamar is a poly king and we love him for that (kinda cannon? Not sure how cannon the Valentine’s Day things are. But it’s cannon in my heart)

- oh and I hc as bi well.

- for some reason I’d imagine his followers call him the lord or just lord kallmar

- he runs his cult via fear mongering!

- AND! He recruits followers by sending out doctors into nearby oceans to urge people to come towards old faith settlements for treatment

- if I had to be fr kallamar would be the worst person to be tortured by because man’s a doctor, he knows how the body works, and he knows how to keep you ALIVE during it as well.

- as a follower, kallamar is hard of hearing (it isn’t total silence, but everything sounds like it’s underwater and thus, impossible to understand. Basically he’s aware of sound but can’t understand anything if that makes sense?)

- he also ends essentially living in the med tent because 1) he’s the token doctor 2) he’s very sickly

- he expresses affection by gift giving!

- kallamar is VERY passionate about weapons and decor. Hes VERY particular about where things go and that’s why he’s banned from decorating the cult because he’ll be there for hours. He can also tell you a lot about weapons and what kind of damage they do!

- Before coming into contact with the crown, kallamar could breathe water only. Durring and after his time with the crown, he can breathe both water and air (what crown juice does to you. Being a bishop leaves a lot of effects)

- Kallamar’s people are blessed to have a similar situation. It’s sorta a national holiday that takes place on the first day of summer in the bishops land. It’s basically where anyone that’s willing can get mass blessed and go live in the ‘holy lands’ of anchordeep

(You don’t have to. Kallamar has many beach front settlements and temples. Though your neighbors would be the folks in silk’s cradle).

- he’s a jewelry kinda guy. LOVES earrings

Anyways that’s enough rambling from me

[respectthepetty]

GMMTV 2024 Part 1 - Hot Tops

I did this last year, so I guess I'll do it this year too even though I'm salty like the Great Lakes in Utah about not getting JoongDunk, release dates for the remaining 2023 shows, nor Midnight Museum 2. Even though I have questions like if High School Fremeny is gonna be queer and why GMMTV is determined to make Earth seem old (Ossan's Love, really?!), there was a lot that I liked about this lineup like . . .

#1 - ON SALE Peaceful Property

I don't know if this show is a BL or not or what its name is, but I don't care. I'm gonna watch the hell out of it regardless. After enjoying New in The Warp Effect act wild, then Tay in Midnight Museum (thug tears!) be unhinged, I'm excited to see them play to those strengths in the Thai edition of one of my favorite shows, Los Espookys, because we have the rich kid who needs the help of the poor ghost hunters. It looks like a funny (and heartwarming) take on los espookys, so I'll be scared, but it has color coding which makes it a HOT TOP for me. - For the Heart

#2 - Wandee Goodday

Great was queer in Manner of Death. It was canon to me, so I followed him to Catch Me Baby where he clearly wasn't queer, but NetJames as the support were, so it was a win. So I'll be damn sure to follow this fine man on this wild adventure with Inn where he is playing an actual queer. Like he knows "he is queer and is already having casual sex with a guy" queer. It also features THOR, DRAKE and POND, while being directed by GOLF with the possibility of color coding, so who am I to argue with perfection. - For the Kinks

#3 - My Golden Blood

I don't like vampires, but I love camp, and nothing gets campier than this pilot trailer even if was unintentional. I laughed so many times during it that I'm going to treat this as a comedy whether it is or not. It had Neo and Mond while also saving some space for potential "older" vampires to show up (Papang anyone?). Fluke Gawin continues to take one for the team, yet stays winning, so thank this babygirl for his service, while Joss serves body. Amen. - For the Laughs

#4 - The Trainee

Everyone looks miserable in corporate America Thailand, which is realistic because it is soul-sucking and never-ending, but OffGun are getting to play adults AGAIN, and like I wrote last year - They are Kelly Clarkson. Even at their worst, they are better than every one else, performance-wise, and they have View, Piploy, and Sea with his beautiful side profile as supports. Because it is an office BL, I'm already rooting for it, and it features Gun crying which is only rivaled by Khaotung tearing up, meaning it's marvelous. - For the Adults

#5 - Kidnap

Both Ohms are in it with Title and a newbie, but I'm only showing up 42% for them and 58% for PAPANG! That's it! That's the reason. - For the PAPANG!

Honorable Mention - Pluto

It's really shitty of me to put a picture of the bully, played by THOR (again!), as the image for this when it is a GL, but the entire reason it isn't even ranked is because . . .

WHAT WAS IT ABOUT?!

There are twins? One gets in a car accident with her husband right after the wedding or on the way to the wedding? The other twins takes her place to figure out what happened? But falls back in love with her bestie? Or were they already in love? Or did the chick actually love the other twin? Make it make sense, Mary! All I truly understood was Thor & Baseball Bat. Everything else was confetti. - For the ???

Everything Else

As usual, I'm showing up for everything queer, so even if I'm not looking forward to them I'll watch them.

But Ossans' Love . . . really, GMMTV? *eye roll for making me sit through it again in another language*

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Super Manga ch.97-99

Cell Max is running wild, but don't worry, because Goten and Trunks are here to pad the story give Piccolo and Gohan a breather.

To be fair, the boys do a little better once they turn Super Saiyan, which kind of begs the question of why they didn't just turn Super Saiyan from the start. This page's sole purpose is to have the Gammas notice their "resemblance" to Saiyaman X-1 and X-2. This would be annoying enough even if they did look alike, but they don't. Look at them! Trunks and Goten have tights and some sort of Stormtrooper midriff thing going on. The Gammas are wearing jodhpurs and bellhop jackets. And Goten and Trunks' color schemes are clearly reversed from one to the other. The Gammas match perfectly except for their red and blue capes.

The only real similarities here are the numbers on their costumes, and the fact that there are two of them. Oh, and Gamma 1 has a red cape, and Goten has a red cape. Eerie! What are the odds of two superheroes having red capes? You almost never see that. I mean, there's Superman, Thor, Great Saiyaman, Dr. Strange, Spawn, Great Saiyaman 2, the Scarlet Witch, Supergirl, Great Saiyaman 3, Power Girl, Steel, but other than those characters, I can't think of anyone else!

Then they all pose together and attack Cell Max in concert. It looks impressive, but their quadruple-team fails to do any damage. The Gammas acknowledge that Cell Max is still getting used to moving around in his body, so he's not fighting as effectively as he will be later in the story. So that's why Goten and Trunks can do this well without actually hurting their opponent. And that's fair.

What doesn't make a lot of sense is the Gammas' role in this part of the battle. Of everyone involved in this battle, they alone understand the danger Cell Max poses to the world, because Dr. Hedo told them about Max's powers. That's why they went in first when Cell Max first emerged. They knew they had to shut him down as quickly as possible. And they're not rusty like Goten and Trunks, or unfamiliar with their bodies like Cell Max. If there's a window of opportunity here for Goten and Trunks to fight Cell Max without looking outclassed, then you'd think the Gammas would use this chance to target Max's head and finish him off.

Of course, they can't actually do that, since that's not what happened in the movie, but that's the problem I have with all of this. Toyotaro keeps shoehorning Goten and Trunks into this story, and their scenes tend to interfere with the plot instead of adding to it. The Gammas have a cool gimmick and aesthetic with the super hero thing. It works. They don't need two more characters aping that look right beside them. At best it's redundant, and at worst it just cramps their style. It'd be like if Frieza had a teen sidekick following him around repeating everything he says. It would kill his whole vibe.

Okay, so once Goten and Trunks fuse into Gotenks, the battle plays out mostly like it did in the movie, but there's one part that got changed up and it caused some controversy in the fandom. Remember how Pan almost got killed, and Krillin called out to her and told her to fly, and then she managed to fly for the first time?

So in the manga, Pan has the same moment, except she doesn't take flight. Instead...

In this version, Krillin just flies over and grabs her. And that makes sense. Why would he just assume she can fly on her own? Why not just zip over and get her? However, this kills the character arc Pan had in the movie. She started the film wishing she could do more advanced training, but Piccolo won't let her because she can't fly yet. Then in this scene, she does fly, and when the movie ends she shows Piccolo and he proudly agrees to start giving her the advanced lessons.

Fans didn't like this version, because Toyotaro appeared to be saying "no" to something the fans enjoyed in the movie. Krillin doesn't need a hero moment in this scene because he gets a couple of hero moments when he helps fight Cell Max. He saves 18 and distracts Cell Max with a solar flare. Krillin's fine. So it sure looks like Toyotaro just scrapped Pan's big moment for no discernible reason. This happened in Chapter 97.

Hey, check out this cool shot of Orange Piccolo fighting Cell Max.

Right, back to what I was saying.

So in Chapter 98, Toyotaro redeems himself by having Pan fly for the first time, just in a later part of the battle. When Big Orange Piccolo gives the last senzu bean to Gohan in the movie, Gohan just eats it and that's it. But in the manga, Cell Max attacks Piccolo and knocks it out of his hand. No one can catch it, until Pan goes after it and follows it over a ledge. Gohan's worried, but then it turns out she can fly now so she was never in danger, and she gets to help him this way.

Is it better than the movie? I can see a case for this version, but one thing that bugs me is that it seems a bit contrived for Pan to notice the senzu bean and be able to follow it through the air the way she did. I believe she could and would catch it for her dad. That's fine. But I'm not sure she would understand the need from where she was sitting in Bulma's aircraft.

For that matter, I don't know that it makes sense for Pan to understand what a senzu bean is, or why Gohan would need one so badly. Someone might have explained it to her at some point, but Pan's only three years old. I wouldn't expect her to know everything about everything.

Anyway, it goes to show how much can change from one chapter to another. People were mad about Chapter 97, but only because they didn't have 98 right there in front of them to show them it wasn't that big a deal. This is one major reason why I don't like to read the manga as it publishes.

From here, well, I think I'm just down to cool shots of the fight with Cell Max.

I don't think much is different here, but the art is cool, and this is one of my favorite parts of the movie.

I think this is a manga-only bit. Cell Max works over Piccolo with ki blasts, and it looks like Piccolo blows up, which triggers Gohan's Beast form, but then later it turns out Gamma 1 was protecting Piccolo with his force field, which allowed him to withstand the blast.

Also, when Cell Max tries to use his wings to escape the attack Gohan has planned, Toyotaro has Gamma 1, Krillin, and 18 cut off his wings. Not sure we needed this, but sure, it gives those characters one more chance to shine.

And then Piccolo holds Cell Max down and pleads with Gohan to take the shot, and that's the end of chapter 99.

And that gets me all caught up. Now I just have to wait for Chapter 100, which is supposed to drop on December 20. Hopefully, it'll wrap up the Super Hero adaptation, but I wouldn't put it past Toyotaro to drag this thing out another three chapters with some sort of press conference featuring Sergeant Nutz, Saiyaman X-1 and X-2, and Cleangod.

There's been talk of a big surprise twist or something in chapter 100, but I'm not holding my breath. Usually when this franchise has a big announcement, it's about the date for some actual announcement later, and that announcement usually turns out to be something the fans kind of already heard about anyway. "Yes, we will be releasing a Chapter 101" is the sort of thing I would expect them to "announce" in chapter 100.

It would be cool if Chapter 100 ended with Black Frieza showing up and killing Vegeta or something major like that. Or, I don't know, maybe Goten and Trunks turn evil. Those would be shocking developments, but I doubt this manga would go that far. We'll just have to see...

[the-owl-house-takes]

So I think the worst take of the fandom is that all of the problems of the show would have been fixed had it gotten a full S3. That literally any problem the show had merely came from the shortening. This is... Well, just blatantly shows that the fandom not only doesn't understand how the animation industry works AND doesn't want to actually look at the narrative they did choose to focus on post the shortening call that were just... baffling.

So first let's establish how much of the show was affected by the Shortening. As a fandom, we found out about it during the hiatus between S1 and 2. This was at earliest, August 2020 since the S1 finale came out late August 2020. Dana has claimed two things that are important to this timeline. 1: The shortening was decided on shortly before the finale came out and 2: That the first episode affected by Covid, which would have been back in March/April, was Looking Glass Ruins. So we EXPLICTLY know that the shortening didn't affect the show until after S2 Ep 5.

BUT then we get into production schedules. Before S2 even BEGAN airing, we were told to stop campaigning for a full S3 because they had to get started on storyboards for the season and that was effectively the firm deadline. This means ALL of S2 was effectively done in script and storyboards by the time S2 aired. This makes sense to keep a weekly schedule and the like and most animation professionals will tell you they work MONTHS in advance of release, bare minimum.

This means, AT BEST, S2B was when the shortening really kicked in. And yes, S2B has pacing issues. It has issues in general and is when most people think the quality of the show dropped. The problem is that... The signs were always there. There's a reason why there's been a backlash because as people become disillusioned with the show, you have to ask what was driving so much before.

And a lot of that was potential. S1 is so good when you first watch it because it keeps teasing the idea that it's going to tackle things in a complex way. That it will explore concepts like Amity's abusive family, magic, fantasy vs reality, etc. like that. It's why the fandom was at its strongest during S1.

Unfortunately, the problem with presenting good ideas and then not executing on them, or completely gutting them is that those old parts are a lot harder to enjoy. As Willow was effectively not a character for half a season and then just suddenly was a jock, people began to realize the fact that she in the show is much more a plot device than anything else. They claimed "We're not doing the one kind act into friendship and forgiveness thing with Amity and Willow" and then literally did NOTHING with it until S2B and eventually DID just do the same trope anyways but now with less resonance than it would have had in Understanding Willow.

Not only that but even S1 didn't give a single shit about its worldbuilding. The First Day has Dana Terrace as a lead writer on it. If anyone knows the worldbuilding best, it should be her... So why is it that no one talks about multi-coven things being illegal? It's literally just used as meta commentary and so they entirely ignore the worldbuilding they have. Reaching Out is exactly the same, with Dana as the SOLE writer of that where Amity and everyone else treats joining a coven like going to college and not literally the word of the law.

But S1 couldn't even keep Wild Witches consistent. Half the time Eda can chill and not worry. She can go to a place funded by the EC like Hexide and not flinch for a second that Bump might call the guards on her despite that being kind of the ONE real rule to their society that makes it not just our world but with teeth. Then again, the show gives NO FUCKS about its own stuff, willing excising portions of itself that it finds cumbersome. Escaping Expulsion is BEFORE Looking Glass Ruins and yet it murders Luz's magical potential in its sleep and also discards Amity's family as easily disposable, despite how much the show claims her mother's influence is the reason why Amity behaved the way she did for all of... Three appearances? Because Amity's arc isn't actually good.

It shouldn't be surprising S2 would do this though when the writers already struggled to do anything with Luz's magic. If she's supposed to be learning and growing... Even S1 is shit at this and is repetitive. Not just with the at least three times we do "King has a minion!" B plot that isn't funny and doesn't do anything but also with its lessons. Luz theoretically learns to listen to Eda in the third episode and arguably the second as well. Then she gets her first glyph with the lesson, in theory. of not trying to take shortcuts to do magic and to not steal. And then in Adventure in the Elements, not even to impress Amity but because of her impatience, she steals something to take a shortcut to stronger magic. That is THREE episodes of the first TWELVE of the series. It usually takes most kids shows at least a LITTLE longer to be that bad at retreading its own lessons.

And the final part of this is that... S2 actually had to be effectively the exact same as it was for s3 to happen. You need the foreshadowing of the Collector for the Day of Unity. You need to FINALLY do something with Belos for the revelations of the Human Realm to happen and to do Luz's angst arc. You need Hunter to be at least 90% redeemed so he's there on their side during The Day of Unity, etc. like that. Then you get half a season in the human realm before coming back to the Isles for half a season, just like Amphibia did because returning home is the best mid-season finale you can have there. So any argument that a full S3 would have actually fixed issues with S2B is just... Wrong. The problems with S2B come with the fact that S2A wastes a FUCKTON of time on elements that don't matter.

Oh, and lest we forget that The Collector could have been cut. He had one appearance in a dream, that also doesn't make sense with his characterization, before S2B. In the fact, the crew has admitted as much. He was added AFTER the news of the Shortening because they always wanted to include a character like him so now that they didn't have the time for him... Cram him in anyways.

Could a show have EVER been saved when that's how they treat one of their two final antagonists? It's the sort of statement that just solidifies the idea that TOH didn't want three seasons. It wanted five... If not just to go on forever. To be the next monolithic show, even as it repeats character arcs, lessons and shrinks characters rather than expands them.

So no, the show isn't bad because of the shortening. The show is bad because the writing is bad.

-

[pinkgy]

My Top Best L Cards in the Game and Why

This top makes no sense, tbh i don’t use my brain when selecting cards and artifacts, I strictly only use L cards and L artifacts and that’s it.

And I absolutely despise those cards that have a super short range, and you will notice.

Chapter 6 is coming probably next month, and this is my contribution so y’all can be unbeatable ;D

I see that people in tumblr mix S and A cards with L cards and make super strong combinations, I don’t do that because I don’t know how to, and that’s something you will also notice

1. Bloodshed Beelzebub

Best card ever, no one can top this card.

This Beel by itself carries a whole battle, i use it as a tank, and it’s not a tank, it has a large range (even tho the card is described as a short range) and the ultimate attack it’s literally all you need to win ANY battle when used at the right time of course.

If you level up his passive skill beel replenishes HP, and if you pair the card with its respective artifact, it’s unbeatable.

I love this card sm

Recommendations

- Level up his Ultimate Attack to at least level 3 or 4

- If you don’t have his artifact (Cracked Sunglasses) you could also level up his Passive Skill.

- Level up the card to at least lv 89 (if you can)

- You can use him as a tank sometimes, but if you’re not, try to position him in a centralized area during battles.

2. Satan Bath and Satan Selfie

They are pretty much the same for me, so I decided to put both of them in the second place.

Satan Bath is a bit better tho.

They have a very large range, you can place them really far away from where the enemies spawn and they still attack them the moment they appear.

They both have really good Ultimate Attacks, and their Passive Attacks are both really good too.

These two are basics and they are saviors when you’re just starting in the game.

I usually place them as far as I can from the enemies’ spawning point so both satans can slowly weaken the enemies.

Recommendations

- You don’t have to level them up to 89 or even 90 for them to be super effective, you are good to go if you have them at 70.

- Their artifacts are OK, they are a slight plus, it’s nothing revolutionary so you don’t have to stress out if you don’t have them.

- Leveling up their default attacks is super helpful, I would recommend having them at least at lv4

- Their Ultimate Attacks are good at lv 2 or 3 at most, they are good by themselves.

- If you want to level up their passive attacks, prioritize Satan Bath, his is really good.

- Their HP is shit tho, there’s worst of course, but theirs is really bad, never use them as tanks.

2.5. Leviathan Selfie and Leviathan Attacker

Hear me out

HEAR ME OUT

I know many don’t like Levi’s cards because of their HP, but HEAR ME OUT

The sole reason his selfie card is this high is because of only one reason.

His artifact

Beat artifact in the game ngl, when I pulled those damn gloves for the 2nd time in the lesser key gacha I almost cried.

The card by itself is okay, and his ultimate attack is okay too.

I only have him in my regular deck because of his artifact.

Summarized, when you have his artifact there’s a chance where the enemies disappear.

The chance is low tho, but it has saved me sooo many times.

It also includes boss monsters.

Bloodshed Leviathan is also reaaaaally good.

His Ult attack kills anything excluding boss monsters, which is really helpful during those battles where you have to beat like 50 enemies.

His passive attack is meh, he becomes invincible for like 6 seconds every minute, which is not a lot.

His hp is decent at his highest and his attack power is pretty normal too, a bit better that the other Levi’s

For me the Bloodshed cards are the most solid cards in the game.

Recommendations

- Enhance Selfie Leviathan’s artifact

- Bloodshed Levi works normally at lv 70, but if you want to keep if in your deck I would recommend that you level him up at 89.

- I don’t have his artifact in my Erolabs account :( If someone in the notes can point out its characteristics so I can rank it I would be really grateful.

- He has a decent range like all Levi cards.

3. Attacker Leviathan and Attacker Beelzebub

They are in the same place not because they’re similar, but because I couldn’t decide which one was better.

Attacker leviathan is a bit better because it has a larger range, a better attack power and a better passive skill but Attacker Beel has a better Ult Attack and a Better HP.

I don’t have their artifacts so I can’t say how they are, if someone knows I would be super grateful if you could say it in the notes of his post.

I have both of them in my regular card deck, tbh I only have attacker Beel because his Ult Attack is reaaaaally good, it’s similar to the one from Bloodshed Beel.

I could say that Beelzebub has the best Ult Attacks in the game if Selfie Beel didn’t exist.

I’m going to replace Attacker Beel when I (hopefully) get attacker Satan.

Depending on what you want, you can decide which one you like the most, for me they stand equally.

Recommendations

- Leveling up Beel’s Ultimate Skill is gooood.

- Leviathan’s Ultimate Skill is really good because it his the enemies twice, it’s okay, nothing revolutionary.

3.5. Beelzebub Butt and Leviathan Bath

Come to think of it, this Beel might be better that Attacker Beel.

His Artifact is amazing, and his Ult Skill is also really good.

And his Default Attack is also pretty decent.

Butt Beel a decent card in general.

And about Bath Leviathan, he’s decent too, not too amazing, not too deficient.

I don’t have much to add, I barely use them.

Recommendations

- I wouldn’t prioritize this card in terms of leveling up skills and other things, but he’s a good base meanwhile other cards get released.

- I looooove his artifact.

- And if you can and if you have some extra tears, level up the Ult Skill.

- If you pair his Ultimate skill with Bloodshed Beel’s Ult Skill, you’re unstoppable.

- Leviathan Bath has a very good Default Skill, again, if you have some extra tears I recommend you to Level up this skill.

4. Mammon’s

As I said at the beginning of this post, I hate those cards that have a very short range, and all mammon’s are like that.

They work well as tanks, but Bloodshed Beel is a better tank than them.

And their attack power is terrible

I just don’t like them, I’m sorry.

Bath mammon is a bit better tho, but just a little bit and only because of his Ult Attack.

Recommendations.

- I don’t use this cards, but if you have no other choice, level up Mammon’s Bath Ult Skill, it’s really good in comparison of the others Ult Skills.

- That’s it, again, I don’t like his cards (but I love him)

5. Selfie Beelzebub

Hear me out, when I started playing Whb I got this card in the quiz, and he saved me during my beginnings.

I’m attached to this card, I’m sorry.

It feels wrong to say this, but I hate this card so much.

It was good at the beginning, but it got overwhelmed by the newer cards.

If I’m being honest, all the selfie cards got overwhelmed, I can only save Selfie Satan.

Recommendations

- Don’t

- Jk, if you have no other option, his Ult Skill is … okay.

- There’s better of course, many better, but there’s worse too.

6. Attacker Mammon and Attacker Satan

I’m putting them here because I don’t have this cards yet, but when I (hopefully) do someday, I’ll edit this post.

I can’t wait to get Attacker Satan, I looooove his cards and this artifact looks really good.

And Mammon’s artifact has to be one of the best artifacts in the game so far.

7. Christmas Gabriel, Raphael and Michael

Please bring them back.

They’re also here because I don’t have them.

8. S CARDS AND A CARDS

I don’t use them, sorry, I’m not intelligent enough to learn how to use them efficiently.

I will edit this post when I get other cards.

This is just my opinion y’all, but I would like to hear yours, let’s help each other :D

Also, this is my current deck.

I perfectly demonstrates that I don’t know how to play the battles.

Hope this helped !

[velvet-vox]

THE Yugo defense post.

I am (hopefully) very confident in saying that there are probably a lot of these types of posts lying around, but since the argument has never been truly put to rest even after the show's finale, I feel like it's truly time for someone to give his own two cents again and take a stand against Yugo's haters, because by Osamodas that child cannot catch a break.

(Also I haven't seen season 4 but I know a couple of things about it, but I will focus mostly on 1 to 3 plus The quest for the six Elatrope Dofus).

So I am going to start this post by talking about my own personal character arc in learning to love Yugo, because oh boy, it was a wild and unexpected journey for me. Now, I, personally, am someone who tends to prefer villains and antagonists over heroes and protagonists. That's not uncommon, plenty of people are like that, no, I don't want a spinoff that turns the villain into the protagonist because that would make them less interesting as now we need to learn almost everything about them in order for the story to keep our attention. Therefore, as you can imagine, Nox was my selling ticket for the show. I got the small, almost non existent hype around him and it got me interested. Season 1 ended, it was a banger, but at the time, all I got to think about was Nox and how much I was grieving him. I didn't really think about anything else regarding the season, all I got was him and his arc. I needed a way to overcome the grief, so eventually, I learned that season 2 also had a pretty good villain, so I said "hey, let's use the possible trauma caused by this new baddie to overcome the trauma caused by the previous one" and started watching season 2. Love love love Qilby. And I am going to bring it back up later, but the season 2 finale is the definitive moment where I became invested with Yugo and got deeply interested in him. Eventually, when I watched The quest for the six Elatrope Dofus, I was just deeply in love with him, rooting for him at every turn, and generally, just cheering the guy.

And then.... there it comes season 3. My Iop. I was already spoiled by the fact that season 3 was disappointing, so I kept my expectations as low as possible, but sweet home Alabama I was not prepared at all, if the season had just been bad I would have called it a day, but no, the season is wasted potential at its finest, so many incredible ideas rushed and fumbled, Oropo would have been my favourite villain in the show had he been written better and preplanned, he feels like the Bradford Buzzard of Wakfu and his Brotherhood is its F.O.W.L.

However, while the writing took a nose dive in season 3, I started to realise something that I didn't notice before: damn, I really care about the main cast. Not just Yugo. All of them. This is something that distinguishes Wakfu from other shows: most of the time, writers focus more on making the protagonists immediately likable and interesting, which makes sense, as they are the cornerstone of most stories, but Wakfu differs in the way it endears us to its cast since I didn't feel like the show made a great effort in investing us to the protagonists in the first two episodes, they introduced their personality, quirks, and characteristics, but they didn't show us their struggles beyond Pin Pin's quabble with Rubilax, and this creates the ripple effect later on in the show where you become surprised in your backwards investment of their journey, because that's not how the story started with and yet you can clearly discern their development quite a lot.

And this brings us to Yugo, whose Wakfu untraditional deuteragonism creates a weird case of main character where, the actual season focuses on Tristepan and his journey, but since Sadlygrove is also his own worst enemy with the exception of Dark Vlad, the actual main villain of the season is a foil for Yugo and develops him into a more mature individual.

Which, finally, brings us to the main reason of hatred from some (fake) fans: the villains. The villains in Wakfu tend to be very complex and compelling, while in contrast, Yugo stays mostly static and simple before being confronted with said opponent; then for specific cases of flandarized vitriol, we have:

- Yugo did not try to talk out Nox from his plan nor did he console him, which led to his demise (Pure evil).

- Yugo willingly locked Qilby in the White Dimension again with full knowledge of the reasons why Qilby did what he did (Jerk).

- Yugo accidentally (but not really) created Oropo which caused insane damage to the world of twelve and created all of the problems of the series up to this point (Meh. Still an absentee abusive father).

- Yugo limited himself to locking up the Necromes to starve for eternity rather than killing all of them (Ok).

And I am going to run through each and every single one of them.

- First: Yugo did not know anything about Nox but he killed off Grougaloragran earlier on and his Time Razor just killed Yugo's friend a couple of minutes before their fight, which led Yugo, a child, to his very first fit of rage and did not esitate or waste time to attack Nox, a dangerous murderer who wanted to steal his hat. But when he finally realised what Nox's plan was, he told the Sadida warriors to back off, but since it was already too late for him, Nox left the battlefield of his own volition and ended his life.

- Second: Qilby was a great bastard. A complicated and caring one, but a jerk nonetheless. And yet, Yugo knew and deeply felt that even he didn't deserve to be in the White Dimension, one of the most cruel and gruesome fates any villain could face, but he had no other choice, because if he didn't do that, Qilby would have destroyed the world. And even then, later on in the series the thing that Yugo hated Qilby the most about was not anything that he did, but rather the punishment that he forced Yugo to inflict on him.

- Third: Oropo is just a freak show of a writing mess that I can't even point out how much Yugo is to blame for his condition, at least Yugo feels bad about the Eliotropes, so there, Yugo feels empathy.

- Fourth: Sorry, didn't watch season 4, but again, I assume it was like a binary choice like season 2, Yugo is definitely more of law enforcer despite his carefree nature, he was destined to become King and he just accepts it, in contrast to Amalia's rebelliousness and lack of a forced incoronation (opposite attract each other).

Amalia's going to die one day, and Yugo's going to live for thousands of years and never abolish or question the monarchy. It's sad, but his existence is pretty sad.

As for people claiming that Yugo's an overpowered Gary Sue, I'm sorry but as long as a character faces struggles in any meaningful way then you can't claim that they just break the narrative.

[pineapple-split]

Arcane S2 and what I Did Not Like:

1. THE MUSIC VIDEOS

2. The set up for dictator!Caitlyn and the failed follow-through. This could have been really interesting. You might even still be able to pull off a Caitvi endgame (I think… with a LOT more development and general care), but I see that as a secondary goal to really exploring how an otherwise well-meaning character can go off the deep end. She gassed Zaun using the system her mother wanted to use to clean their air, in her mother’s name!! Follow up on that!! Why give Caitlyn the Lady Macbeth imagery in the intro if it wasn’t actually going to show up?! Caitlyn did not answer for a single one of her actions, never reckoned with how Piltover oppresses Zaun and her role in it, and never took actions to right these wrongs or help the people of Zaun like she was set up to do in S1.

3. The massive fumbling of Jayce and Viktor’s relationship. I’m sorry Jayvik fans, but this was off the wall ridiculous in every respect. There’s a whole 2 minutes spent on Viktor deciding to leave and we, the audience, are meant to infer that he’s upset that Jayce didn’t destroy the Hexcore and/or is so fundamentally changed that he doesn’t feel the “affection (that) held us together”. Except that’s immediately undercut, because Viktor never expresses this again and repeatedly asks Jayce to work with him! If he felt betrayed enough to leave, why does he want Jayce with him again? If that was just a cover and this new Viktor simply doesn’t care like he used to… again why the focus on Jayce joining him? There’s never a textual reasoning given for either scenario.

Jayce is apparently destroyed by Viktor leaving, but there are no scenes to that effect. In fact Jayce doesn’t comment about their relationship until Act 3, when he swings wildly between “my partner is dead” to “I just want my real partner back” with no bridge between.

There’s no acknowledgement of Viktor’s story to this point, which is that he was dying of an illness brought on by the horrific conditions Zaunites live in, and he wanted to use Hextech to improve life in the undercity. Now he wants a glorious evolution for *reasons* that he doesn’t express out loud until Act 3. We the audience have to infer that he thinks he’s helping people, but he’s also speaking and acting so unlike Viktor that it makes us question who’s really in the pilot’s seat. And of course Jayce then undergoes the worst bit of character assassination I’ve seen in a long time and spouts some bullshit about how Viktor was always perfect the way he was (dying, brought on by Piltover’s literal poisoning of Zaun), that he should have accepted his “imperfections” (the illness that was killing him and harming his body). This is after trying to kill him mind you (was the plan to destroy him or try to reason him away from evolving everyone, bc we kept ping-ponging between the two). Also after Jayce’s entire motivation in the back half of S1 was saving Viktor’s life. MAKE IT MAKE SENSE.

This is not a plot line you can squash into the margins of 9 episodes. If you want to get to this endpoint, you need at least an episode of Viktor coming to terms with being alive after the explosion before he leaves. You need to spend time with Jayce grieving and/or trying to find Viktor before he goes to the Hexcore. Jayce probably needs a full episode dedicated to his alt timeline adventure, AND THEN we need to see him wrestling with what he’s done after he shoots Viktor. If his relationship with Mel breaks down (😭) we need to see it. (And if not, there needs to be some goodbye or closure between them ffs). If Jayce is first “destroy Viktor” then ends up at “I want my partner back”, show us that journey! Jayce needs to have some emotional struggle with all this!

Through all this, if we’re to believe it’s still Viktor in there somewhere and not the Arcane talking through his re-animated body, we need more scenes explaining what Viktor wants as well, and how his actions may/may not be achieving this. If he’s angry at Jayce, why? If he’s not, why did he leave? Is Sky a manifestation of his guilt, the Arcane manipulating him, actually her, or some combination of the three? How does he feel about the developments between Piltover and Zaun? Explore these things!

4. Speaking of Piltover and Zaun, what in the fresh hell. I was afraid they would take this route (the oppression doesn’t matter, praise the cops, the Zaunites will be thrown scraps and they should be grateful for it, etc etc etc) but goddamn. I don’t even have the energy to expend the words expressing how fucked up this is, in today’s climate. if you don’t have the guts to address class conflict like this then maybe don’t even bring it up??? Fuck.

5. Ekko was set up to be a true advocate for Zaun in S1. Of the Zaunites in S1 Act 2 and onward, he alone expressed a willingness to take care of people, not just defeat his enemies. He’s shown to be wise beyond his years, empathetic, tough as nails when he needs to be - in short, a wonderful leader. Then they sent him off to a parallel universe to get time warp powers so he could end the show alone and depressed????? He had all of half of an episode for his trauma to be addressed and establish some connection with Jinx, and then it became very clear they only did that to manufacture angst. Again - if you want to get to this end point, you have to actually show us the character journey to get there. Why was he talking about forgetting to build a better future, when he literally never did????? He established the Firelights and the community oasis before hitting 20. He pulled back from killing Jinx on the bridge. He saw an outcast from Piltover and invited them to see his work. And it’s the tree dying that drives him to the Hexcore. HE LITERALLY NEVER LOST THAT FOCUS, so why did he apparently need alt!Powder to re-teach him??? I’m going insane.

6. We really should have seen Jinx emerge as a leader of the Zaunite uprising (and this is a whole season arc, let’s be clear). We also needed a LOT more push and pull between Vi and Jinx before they reconciled. If Isha was going to be important to Jinx, we needed more time with the two of them.

I actually have no problem with Warwick/Vander in Act 2, but I think it should only have come after an actual Zaunite revolt and after Jinx and Vi both had gone through some shit opposing each other. In short, it should not be been resolved with a single hair-pulling fight and then Warwick busting in. In fact, Jinx and Vi still should have been struggling to find footing all the way up to the point where Jayce shoots Viktor, imo. There should have been real consequences to Vi joining the enforcers besides Jinx snapping at her.

At the end of the day, this family was always the heart of the show and that should have been front and center throughout. The ideas and themes they introduced should have resonated through the B plots like they did in S1 before everyone came together in the finale.

7. I also don’t mind the flashbacks with younger Vander and Silco, but if they were going to do that they needed to spend much more time on it. Show the events that let to Vander trying to kill his brother, and use it to parallel the struggle between Vi and Jinx. Show it as a struggle between opposing ideologies as much as between siblings. OR, if you’re not willing to do that legwork simply don’t go down this route at all. 🤷🏻‍♀️

8. I love Ambessa but they could have cut her and the Noxians completely and lost nothing. Sorry, but it has to be said.

9. Which leads me to Mel. I actually loved about 90% of Mel’s story, BUT: she needed resolution with Jayce one way or the other (as he was the major emotional relationship she had in S1), if they were going to go the mage route we needed to see her journey of coming into her power, AND we needed her to NOT BECOME THE NEW NOXIAN COMMANDER. What the fuck!? Piltover is her city, the home she has put her blood and sweat into, the home she came to love and ultimately chose! She rejected the life of a military leader, why make her one now?? Because she can wield magic??? Because the only thing anyone can apparently imagine with that is being a battle mage???? NO.

I would also have loved a more coherent explanation of what the hell the Black Rose is, what they want, etc, but again - you could cut them completely and lose nothing. Mel’s abilities could just as easily be a result of the Arcane “waking up”.

—-

Anyway. Moral of the story is you need reasons and buildup for characters to do things, instead of just bouncing them from plot point to plot point. I really thought the team behind Arcane understood this, but evidently not. Even the most beautiful animation in the world doesn’t save you if there’s no substance backing it up.

The real kicker is I still think S1 of Arcane is damn near perfect. Time will tell if I’ll be able to go back and watch it without S2 affecting my enjoyment.

[angst-is-love-angst-is-life]

☕️the most egregious problem The Flash has is that it literally NEVER ADDRESSES ANY of the trauma it consistently puts Barry and co through, like it has other problems but I think that's the worst lol

1000000% and I will die mad about it.

Since it’s (always) on my mind, let’s take season 2 for example shall we?

If I had a nickel for everytime Post-Zoom-trauma just disappeared at the drop of a hat, I’d have four nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s fucking INFURIATING THAT IT HAPPENED F O U R TIMES

The four (for lack of a better word) victims in question: Caitlin, Barry, Jesse, and Jay.

Caitlin: kidnapped and held against her will for (I believe) two weeks (that’s putting it simply but we’ve all seen the show so🤷‍♀️). The show gives her one single episode to deal with it, during which she shows very real symptoms of PTSD— solved and therefore ignored and glossed over entirely with a single pep talk. I would also like to add that she showed NO fear of him in the season finale which makes no fucking sense with what the show established only an episode earlier. But tbh, this is the best one because at least the show ACKNOWLEDGED that trauma; if only for one episode.

Barry: Back broken during first encounter (among other severe injuries), humiliated by being dragged around the city to show he wasn’t strong enough to stop Zoom, confidence shattered from the experience. Like Caitlin, we got one episode to deal with this trauma and in that episode, Barry also showed signs and symptoms of PTSD (the entire season is evidence tbh). But of course, one pep talk from his dad and everything’s magically ok :-D !!!!!! I’m going to eat glass (also I will definitely make a post on that fucking episode because I hate it). As mentioned; he continues to have PTSD symptoms throughout the season but it’s glossed over so much and attributed to generic-superhero-stuff™️ that it really doesn’t matter. Gods, I could go on all day about Barry’s post-Zoom AND post-Thawne trauma. (Oh, he was also kidnapped, threatened, and {borderline} tortured by Zoom in the Earth-2 episodes; but that’s all normal superhero stuff ofc so it doesn’t matter right :-D !!! gnawing at the bars of my enclosure)

Jesse: Good gods where do I even start. Kidnapped by a known serial killer, tortured by said serial killer, repeatedly and (probably) constantly threatened with death, and held captive for around 9-10 months. Mm also, she was clearly terrified of Zoom every time he showed up prior to her rescue. Sounds like an extremely traumatic experience with multiple opportunities and instances to develop PTSD right? WRONG! According to the lovely writers; people are completely fine after a traumatic experience is over! What’s PTSD??? chewing glass chewing glass chewing glass. They didn’t even TRY with her, at least with Barry and Caitlin they pretended to give a shit about what they went through but Jesse makes two things crystal clear. 1) The writers don’t care about your trauma unless you’re an MC. 2) The writers put minimal effort into trauma if any; MC or not. It’s like they said ‘Ooo, we should have Caitlin kidnapped by Zoom!’ ‘Won’t that have some sort of effect on her? Being kidnapped is a terrifying experience’ ‘Ah fuck you’re right… eh, we’ll give her one episode ig’ ‘What about Jesse?’ ‘Who?’

Jay: Fucking. Hell. I ordered this in what I consider best handled to worst. Jay is by far— handled worst. Let’s see here *checks notes* Ah yes. Kidnapped and taken to a completely different Earth, an attempted theft of his powers, imprisoned and put in a mask so he can’t speak, {not confirmed but very likely with Zoom’s track record and somewhat implied} tortured, had his identity stolen and {likely} mocked and tormented about the subject, and the ~delightful~ cherry on top— held captive in this situation for at least one year. Fuck I’m so tired. Anyways; there’s not much to say. He got rescued (off-screen ofc), was able to access his powers instantly with no problems, and left to go back to his Earth. Trauma? What trauma? *gestures wildly at said trauma posted above* That’s not traumatic at all! *screams* I don’t care how much experience you have as a superhero— that doesn’t just GO AWAY! PTSD, FLASH WRITERS. LOOK INTO IT P L E A S E fuck I just remembered the show is over now ALL YOUR MC’S HAVE IT! EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. Sigh. In the end of *gestures at said trauma* all that, Jay was just used to cause Barry more greif from his father’s death. Obviously he gets roles in later seasons but (as far as I can remember) this whole thing was never brought up again. Sigh.

I COULD GO ON

I COULD GO ON FOR DAYS

but I won’t cause dear gods I’ve been typing forever now

[cathy-pso2]

Rant

I feel like the internet has normalized being a hater too much. There are so many shows and movies in the past decade where people will make longwinded rants on YouTube saying "X is garbage and here is why" or "The absolute state of <Franchise>" or "Y is the the worst <franchise> movie" and then I go watch the thing and it looks either fine or the flaws in it are so milk toast that I honestly don't get where the hate comes from.

My page is PSO2 themed so you'd think i'm strictly referring to that but I'm not even doing that right now. I'm mostly speaking about stuff like Avatar, Star Wars, Pokemon and Marvel right now. I've seen so many videos on YT claiming The Legend of Korra is terrible and absolutely ruins The Last Airbender. The show is alright? Like yeah, the first two seasons have more bad than good but anyone saying Season 3 and 4 aren't Kino are lying to themselves imo.

With Star Wars people hated on the Prequel Trilogy for a whole decade. To the point where when Disney bought the franchise you could actively tell they were trying to distance themselves from that trilogy. But the people who grew up on prequels started sharing appreciation for it online and now we're arguably getting more prequel fanservice than Original Trilogy. And even the stuff that takes place after the Original Trilogy is slowly building the groundworks for the Sequel Trilogy to make more sense. And I don't doubt for a second in a few years that trilogy will have the same effect of late appreciation.

I was convinced people hated the recent pokemon games with a passion but I actually got Pokemon Scarlet for Christmas last year so I decided to finally play it last month and... The game is fun? Probably most fun I've had since Black 2 White 2? Yeah the graphics are shit but I never cared too much about that anyway. I still play games like Gothic 1 and 2 which were made almost 25 years ago and look like the polygons were made with playdoh because I enjoy the gameplay so much that I can look past the aging visuals. And yeah, I don't get the hate for PSO2 either. I play it daily for multiple hours. The game offers insane sandboxes for self expression so it baffles me seeing videos like "PSO2 is a disaster" when its the most fun I've had with a MMO since the initial "MMO magic" ran out.

With Marvel I get its hard to stay invested right now because the only decent plot thread we've had needed to be retconned but a lot of these "terrible" movies and shows are either inoffensively bad or just plain mediocre. How is that enough to make people go on a multi-video tirade on YouTube or a 5 hour long rant?

I genuinely don't get it. Why do people enjoy being miserable like that on the internet? I legitimately can't trust anyone's negative opinion online anymore.

[teeth-cable]

Worldbuilding Questions: The Sinners not being treated like trash in Hell.

1. They are responsible for the yearly cleanse which sometimes results in angels leaving behind their weapons which as proven by Striker isn't just a problem for sinners but the nobles as well.

2. Lucifer rebelled because he refused to kneel before humans and sure you can bring up Lilith but i honestly don't know which lore about her Vivziepop is going with because there's a ton of different versions with the main consistent thing being she's Adam's first wife who believed in equal rights. Like she defied god and his plans so I'm leaning towards Lucifer seeing her as an exception. Also its weird Lilith is drawn as white when she should be middle eastern (because that's where a lot of the bible takes place) or african (humans came from africa according to palentology).

3. Sinners cause chaos in their wake in just pentagram city alone we have territorial violence every saturday which would probably make Hellborn who travel to pride have a miserable experience.

4. Also why does Hell have its technology line up perfectly with Earth? Like since it takes several decades on average for people to die on average wouldn't that mean that tech geniuses who kickstarted a tech revolution wouldn't show up until much later to bring it to hell? And then you have to consider some of those geniuses might end up in Heaven instead. Plus they can't even leave hell like the Hellborns so they can't just swoop in and attempt to have any status via technological advancements even if they are a tech genius who died young because they lack something made within the last few years to reconfigure for hell. Like do you think a succubus is going to hand a sinner a phone she found so they can invent the internet or create cellphones. Also would hell even have the same materials to create the tech?

5. Wouldn't it be logistically seen as a bigger scandal if Stolas got with a sinner instead of an imp? Like Lucifer hates them, your existence as demons is designed to fuck them over, and those assholes could've gone to heaven.

Like I get Charlie and Vaggie were initially written as friends in the pilot but now with the currently known lore. Vaggie dating Charlie should effect Charlie's reputation significantly. Even if we go with sinners being middle class like in canon... Vaggie barely has powers/isn't an overlord, the question regarding royal heirs, and she is literally a being that Lucifer would think is below Charlie.

It just doesn't make sense for sinners to not be treated awful in Hell. The only reason why they're in Hell is because they were terrible in their human life and are supposed to be punished because of it so for them to get off scott-free and do whatever they want doesn't make sense. Also the additional problems the sinners brought in Viv's Hell. Sinners are overpopulating Hell and it will make the Hellborns hate them because now there is a competition for food and space and to make it worst because of the overpopulation, Heaven is now involved and have to do a yearly purging. So the sinners are draining resources from the local species and brought Heaven into Hell, Hellborns greatest enemies that the imps have to clean up after because the angels aren't cleaning their mess. How are sinners not get punish here?

Lilith, I don't think counts as a human anymore because she did betrayed Adam and God and turned into a succubus. So maybe Lucifer sees her as an equal because of their similar backstories and relationship with God. I get what you're saying with Lilith, it does makes sense for her to be middle eastern but I think it's a Jesus situation. Where they both came from Judaism and were very obvious not white in their original appearance but due to centuries of the church rewriting and whitewashing Judaism to fit their religion, the popular interpretation of Jesus became white. Heck, even now when it now public knowledge Jesus wasn't white and was Jewish, people still draw him the white version more. Still not an excuse but I can see why Viv made Lilith white when most modern interpretation of Lilith is a white lady.

If TERF wars were so common and violence to the point, they make it to the local news, you would think they would show that in Helluva Boss.

I guess you can make the excuse, imps and demons stole knowledge from humans to make their technology as advanced as their. Belphegor did trick humans into making machines with the promised it would make them rich or help humanity but when they’re done building, Belphegor stole their inventions. Again though it still weird Hell is technology advanced as humans when Hell has it's own culture and history different from Earth. Even if Hell and Earth do have similar cities and technology, there would still be major differences between the two worlds.

In another Hell show where the world building was planned and thought out well, yes, but in Helluva, Hell's ranks shows imps are below sinners.

The pilot was so unplanned. Even when people use the excuse, it's just an pilot and they will explain the lore in detail in the show, a pilot should still have a basis understanding of it's own lore and show it. Charlie and Vaggie's relationship, friends or girlfriends would still be conversational. Not only for the reasons you mentioned but also Charlie was in a relationship with Seviathan Von Eldritch, a Hellborn prince but broke it off. Knowing how Hellborns can be petty and mean, when they see Charlie hanging around with some random sinner after she broke up with a prince, rumors will surely be made. Charlie was secretly seeing Vaggie when she was dating Seviathan, Vaggie trick Charlie into leaving Seviathan, Vaggie trick Charlie into wanting to help the sinner, Vaggie is only friends with Charlie because she only wants to move up ranks. These rumors aren’t true but that doesn’t matter because the Hellborn will treat them as truth to feel powerful than Charile. If this did happened it actually provide a reason why the sinners in the pilot didn’t respect Charlie or her plan because the rumors tainted her reputation and sinners are suspicious about her motives to help them. It fleshes out the sinners and gives them more of a character than them being mean to Charlie because they’re asshole despite Charlie being the daughter of Lucifer and she can torture them for being disrespectful.

[whumpbug]

hi bug i am here to trade questions!! i have a burning one about your boy archie:

what exactly are his powers? what sort of things can he do? what are the drawbacks to them, how do they hurt him back?

thank you :>

-@whump-kia

thank you SO much for asking this because i've been wanting an excuse to talk about this boy ( ๑˘ω˘ ) like yours, i also wrote a LOT so i apologize in advance

okay so. i think i've said before that his enhancements are like if daredevil and captain's americas abilities combined but ill explain it in more detail for people who aren't totally sure about the specifics of that

the tl;dr is basically this: archie has enhanced strength and heightened senses. he's about 4 times as strong as the average male his age, and similarly as resilient. because of his enhanced strength, he can also run faster and jump higher (the boy has quads of steel). he can also see and hear much clearer and farther than your average human and can even hear heartbeats from a decent distance away!

under the cut is a lottt more detail and context for those who are interested!

so basically, i'm gonna start with some backstory.

archie's villain (hero) origin story:

archie grew up in the city and was never very. affluent.

he grew up with his mother because his father left when he was really young. he doesn't remember him well, but what he does remember is the effect his absence had on his mom. to put it briefly, he grew up around a lot of things that a child shouldn't have had to grow up around.

still, his mother did her absolute best to give him a good, safe childhood. unfortunately, there are things you just cant protect your child from.

when he was about 7, he was walking home from school and goofing around like a kid does, and he somehow got roped into a drug deal that was being made just a block from his apartment.

long story short, the guys were roughing him up (they were assholes.) and one of them was messing around and pretending to stick him with one of the syringes.

and then he actually did.

and it was agony.

poor, tiny archie was immediately overcome with the worst pain he'd ever experienced in his life to this day.

to avoid this section becoming a straight up 100k fic, ill just say that the recovery from the initial contact with the serum took archie weeks to recover from, and it many ways, he hasn't.

the boy is terrified of needles.

about the drug itself:

so you're gonna have to bear with me her because i am not a biochemist, and this might not make any sense.

so the drug, which i've dubbed VSD (Very Scary Drug) was originally made by a very shady crime syndicate, for underground fighting rings, kind of like a steroid but more permanent. the drug has 2 parts.

the first part of it works by acting on a specific DNA sequence, and spurring HGH (Human Growth Hormone) to amp up its production in the skeletal muscle cells, bone cells, and neuromuscular junctions (for better and faster reflexes)

the other part alters the somatosensory cortex, occipital lobe, and temporal lobe, and esentially causes them to be extremely active, to a point beyond human ability, but because of the first part of the drug, it's able to heal itself and create new cells

because VSD was designed to be permanent, it is very dangerous and not for everyone. the thing about it is that you have to be genetically compatible with it, or the entire thing could backfire or malfunction. only about 1 in every 100k people are even able to reap the effects of the drug. about 1 in every 100 even survive taking it at the dose archie recieved it.

if someone incompatible takes the drug, the effects are. dire. they can range from blindness, deafness, loss of sensation throughout the entire body, tumors, complete paralysis, and even the body just. not producing more cells. and then the vicitim would just deteriorate.

so yeah! not a fun time! and archie was incredibly lucky. the drug was obviously discontinued, and archie hasn't heard of anyone else who recieved the same effects that he did. there are only drugs that can do similar things now, but none are permant like archie's, and the abilities dont even begin to compare.

now what the hell can archie actually do?

well, let's first start with what he can't do.

the drug has no cognitive or behavioral effects, so archie is still the same old archie, only his body has changed.

the drug also has no effect on the immune system, both innate and adaptive. archie can get sick the same as any person, and has the same recovery time too!

now lets move on to the fun stuff!

like i said before, archie has about 4 times the strength as your average male his age. because of his muscle mass and bone density, he is also relatively resilient to injuries from "normal" people, but he's not like. invincible. if you smack that boy with a brick, its gonna hurt. he is sometimes unaware of his own strength and limits though, and throws himself to situations with the mindset of "this isnt even gonna scatch me" and is proven very wrong.

as for his senses, we'll start with vision

he can see about twice as far as your average person, and with clarity beyond even 20/20. he is also very privy to noticing small movements, even if theyre in his peripheral.

now hearing! he can hear much much quieter things than your average human. im not totally sure how to quantify this one, but basically he is hearing like.. everything. all the time. which we'll get into later. the way i gauge it is the fact than he can hear heartbeats, even when he'd just standing next to the person.

and lastly (and probably least interestingly) touch! he can feel sensations a lot more clearly than most. the sensation you would have on your fingertips is kind of what he feels all over, and it makes him have pretty bad sensory issues with certain things (me too archie, me too.)

how can we whump this boy?!

okay, now onto the drawbacks of these abilities!

you're probably thinking "bug. how are there even any drawbacks? these abilities seem sick asf! how do i get my hands on VSD?!"

and i'm here to tell you. NO no you do not want this. archie still suffers every day.

the first and most obvious one is the unimaginable sensory overload this boy feels every day. he hardly ever gets a quiet moment, and even when he does, he still can't tune out the sound of his own heartbeat thundering in his ears. it's hell. luckily, hes had 17 years to learn to cope, but he still has days where he curls into a ball in a dark room and sobs because everything is too bright and so so loud

also, the drug isn't painless. since the muscle mass isn't natural, prolonged use of his body (like in fights) cause horrific aches the days after. it feels like his body is trying to tear itself apart, which, it kind of is.

also, the headaches. god, the headaches. the human brain does not take kindly to being toyed with and doesn't archie know it. archie is sort just. in a perpetual headache. and he only really notices when that headache becomes a migraine. get this boy some ibuprofen, please.

another thing is increased appetite. because cells can't just synthesize out of nowhere, archie has to keep up with the rapid production. this boy can EAT. he is always hungry. always snacking.

lastly, the psychological aspect of the whole thing. growing up as a superhuman, where even playing thumb war could break your classmate's thumb, was hard. archie lived most of his childhood keeping to himself in fear of his own strength. as he got older, he learned to manage it a bit better, but he's still very anxious about it. he won't let himself near babies, cats, or small dogs.

and then, of course, there's the trauma. this manifests as a SEVERE needle phobia, as well as just a fear of doctors in general. its the reason why he and Simon's relationship just works. he doesn't see him as a doctor, he sees him as a friend who is always willing to take care of him when he needs it, and for that, he is forever grateful

end!

and that's pretty much it! please excuse my probably horrid typos and grammar errors, i kind of rushed this because i was excited, so i hope you like it kia! thank you so so much for the ask! ヾ(^ ^ゞ