#who was part of the target demographic for that series

[thoughtofadumbteenprotagonist]

i’m really struggling to articulate this so bear with me, but why do YA writers write sex scenes hidden beneath a mountain of convoluted and confusing metaphors??? Like, if you feel the need to hide your sex scene from your demographic because it’s not appropriate for them, then you should not be writing for that demographic; or if you want to be writing sex scenes but have been told to censor it to protect your readers, then you are //still// writing for the wrong demographic

[the-official-legacies-blog]

I know I said I would only be talking about Palestine this week, but I need to talk about this as well.

This is somewhat political and also a personal rant.

I stated on @crystalsandbubbletea (My main for those who are unaware) that I am a minor with ADHD, Autism, and possible anxiety who is part of the LGBTQIA+ community and is also Indigenous American (Ponca Tribe). Why am I mentioning this?

Because of the 'Kids Online Safety Act', AKA 'KOSA'.

If this bill gets passed, I will be unable to post Legacies or gain access to the things that inspire me to work on Legacies. I created Legacies because I wanted people like me to have a series to relate to, I also created Legacies to debunk multiple harmful stereotypes.

Here comes the personal rant part:

When I realized I was part of the LGBTQIA+ community (I was approximately nine years old at the time), I tried so hard to find pieces of media I could relate to, specifically media with queer neurodivergent non-white people. Unfortunately I didn't find that much media that covered those categories.

Fast forward to some time later (Specifically when I was fourteen), I ended up deciding that I can make a series that people like me can relate to. After multiple rough drafts in my brain, and multiple scrapped storylines, I came up with Legacies, a series that starts off as an alternative history of the world and then eventually becomes a piece of fanfiction. I eventually decided the first protagonist would be a nonbinary polyamorous lesbian living in the Ottoman Empire, and after some more time, I decided their name would be 'Alex Adil Emre Yukime'. I then started planning the second protagonist, this protagonist would be Hungarian-Palestinian that's nonbinary, polyamorous, trixic, demisexual and demiromantic (Note: All the arcs Berat is in takes place in the 2500's).

I was ultimately satisfied when I finalized the storyline, and was happy.

(Rant ends here)

Unfortunately that happiness wouldn't last long when I learned about KOSA. If KOSA gets passed, Legacies will be unable to reach it's targeted demographics, and that will mean all my hopes and dreams were for nothing.

I won't be the only one affected, many more people will also be affected, specifically LGBTQIA+ youth. We will be unable to find anything LGBTQIA+ related because it will be flagged as "Not safe for minors". Trans people are already facing censorship (Looking at you, Tumblr staff) and this bill will make it worse.

So please, call and email your representatives, and tell them to not let KOSA pass. This bill is censorship and censorship is a form of facism.

[autumnmobile12]

The League of Morons vs A Summer Camp

All right, so I love the hell out of this nonsense and I want to talk about the Vanguard's plan and how ridiculous it was.

First, most of the crew showed up a night early and…well, then what?  That first night, Dabi says they’re still waiting on a few more people to arrive.  Okay, so what are you all doing here already?

Did Kurogiri warp them back to the bar after they’d gotten a look at the place?  Scouted the area a bit?  You needed seven people for that? Were they that bored waiting for Twice, Compress, and the Nomu to show up?  What were they doing in the 24 hours between this part and the actual attack?  Standing on that cliff and muttering,  “Heroes…”?

Was Toga all, "Guys, I'm tired. Can we go back to the bar already?"

Spinner: "No, as villain protocol dictates, we must stand here menacingly for a minimum of twelve hours."

Dabi: Fuck you, I'm going to bed.

Except for being a scare tactic, having Dabi start a fire was mostly unnecessary. Their goal was to further weaken society's faith in heroes by targeting UA students, so you'd think he'd be a little more proactive in...well, actually harming someone. As it happened, the fire really only to served to announce there was an attack happening.

But I’ll throw the Vanguard a bone here and say this was Spinner’s doing.  Like their original plan was to start a massive fire that would consume both classes and all the heroes in a singular tragedy, but then Spinner said,  “Hey, pump the breaks, people.  We’re here to uphold Stain’s ideals about toppling the corrupt Hero culture.  Do we really want mass child murder as part of our brand?” Sure, he wanted to go after Iida, but he was a specific target since he was on Stain's hit list.

The two copies Twice made of Dabi were virtually useless in a fight since Vlad and Aizawa both took him out so quickly it was embarrassing.  And yet he’s apparently a big enough threat that No. 1 and No 2. can’t handle him.  Go fig.

Endeavor/Hawks:  Oh, no, he’s too strong…

Aizawa/Vlad:  Listen here, you little shit!

...

Muscular goes and reveals their plan even though he didn’t have to.  They all saw the Sports Festival, they knew what Bakugo looked like, and yet here he is asking Deku where he he can find Bakugo as if he was going to answer him.  Yes, he didn’t think there was any harm in telling him since his plan was to kill Deku anyway, but alerting UA to the fact they were looking to kidnap someone is still just hubris.

Going after Bakugo in the first place was a dumb idea.  We can probably credit that one to Shigaraki because only he would look at the violently temperamental teenager raging on national television and think,  “Yes, he seems like a reasonable person to negotiate with.”

...

Gonna drop in some actual light criticism here: Given the inequality issues that arise in the series later, targeting the heteromorph students for recruitment purposes would have been a smarter move for the LoV.  They’re all part of a demographic that has a justified reason for being dissatisfied with society, so there would have been a believable chance of the LoV thinking they could sway some people to their side.

But hey, the League of Villains was on a learning curve. Give 'em a break.

He totally saw Aoyama here.  Or at least he heard him because he clocked that there was something weird about that bush and he was going to go check it out…and then Twice distracted him and Dabi has an total ADHD moment and forgets what he was doing.

And it's not because Aoyama was the spy. Nobody in the Vanguard knew.

1.) Shigaraki says he tried and couldn't figure out where the camp was, but AFO figured it out relatively quickly. So if even his successor doesn't know who the spy was or called on that resource, then why would AFO tell anyone else in the group?

2.) Moonfish, Muscular, and Mustard were all apprehended, but none of them ratted out Aoyama, as someone with nothing left to lose would. Neither did Kurogiri when he was later apprehended, but that one may have been a loyalty matter. So I think this was a case of AFO saying, "I have a source of info and you don't need to know who it is." Because at the end of the day, AFO is an arrogant narcissist who's definitely not placing all his eggs in one basket. Aoyama wouldn't be an easy spy to replace, so of course AFO would want to limit any chances of him being exposed.

So this was Dabi's screw up.

Speaking of forgetting things, Dabi also straight up forgot they had a Nomu because he thanked Twice for reminding him they had a Nomu.

Sir....how the hell do you forget you have a Nomu?

Toga was supposed to get blood from at least three people.  She failed.

Twice had a simple job. Create clones. He succeeded, but the only two he made were Dabi and I refer you to the previous point on how useless they were.

Spinner and Magne’s roles were a diversion. Distract the Wild, Wild Pussycats and give everyone else the opening to find and kidnap Bakugo.

They did pretty well. Up until the point they were almost caught and Kurogiri had to bail them out. Also Spinner lugged the giant, over-the-top blade contraption all the way there only for Deku to destroy it.

However, they do deserve some credit for making probably the best strategic decision of the group that night, and that was taking out Pixie Bob. We saw on the first day of the camp that she was able to hold back a class of twenty students with an army of earth creatures she was simultaneously controlling. That would have been a huge problem, so for the purposes of their team, good on them for removing that obstacle.

Underrated squad members right here.

Mustard was a legitimate threat for same reasons Dabi and his fire was a threat, plus he brought a firearm into the fight. (I want to know what the other villains thought when they saw that.)

But instead of putting him in the center of the fight where he could do some significant harm, they placed him on the outliers and all he did was knock some students unconscious and everybody made a full physical recovery, showcasing the gas he emitted wasn’t all that lethal and didn't cause any long-term complications. (Again, maybe this was Spinner's idea of Stain's ideology on not indiscriminately massacring children. "Guys, I'm telling you! That's fucked up!")

The Nomu (effectively brain dead without orders) did more damage than any of them, which makes the previous point that Dabi forgot they had it even funnier.

And finally, Mr. Compress was missing for half the night and then almost came in clutch by fulfilling their main objective plus extra credit, only to nearly blow it with his showboating. Seriously, they could have gotten away with both Bakugo and Tokoyami had they just booked it while the going was good.

But no, Compress had to make a dramatic production of it. When he first snatched the kids, he could have just left and Deku and company would have had no idea what happened. Had he just kept his mouth shut and left, they wouldn't have known he even existed. Then as the Vanguard members were leaving through the warp gates, he goes and does it again, giving Aoyama enough time to fire at them with his navel laser, something that also could have bee avoided had Dabi just checked the fucking bush!

The Vanguard Action Squad won by sheer dumb luck and their collective incompetence actually succeeding is the most hilarious thing about this arc. In the end, three members of their crew were arrested.  (Although I think everyone was secretly relieved they lost Moonfish.  Even if he was on my side, I’d be actively worried that guy would kill and eat me in my sleep.)

Yet this self-important twerp is smiling like they actually did something to be proud of here.  All Dabi really accomplished personally was grab a marble (coincidentally the correct marble) before Shouto could, which is borderline more standard older sibling behavior than actual villainy. He literally lost two separate fights in one night and called it a win.

This arc was a five episode Scooby-Doo trap going wrong and succeeding.

Seriously, I hope that after the warp gates closed, they all just looked at each other and immediately started calling each other out on everything. Like Dabi slapped Compress upside the head and asked him what he'd been thinking having 'one last bow' before they got away. Spinner yelling at Dabi about how the clones did nothing. And there's Bakugo all, "I can't believe I've been kidnapped by a gaggle of morons."

Fake it till you make it at its finest.

[hahahafangirl]

gotta put my thoughts down before i forget it but the thing that did it in for me is how spy x family is ultimately and uniquely a “children-focused” work, where the major stakes require that we pay attention to the lives and dynamics of young children so that — specifically — we have to genuinely engage with and invested in their inner lives, motivations, desires, thoughts, emotions, etc.

i think this is a very unique focus in the shounen sphere, where the audience and creators are centered about adolescent boys (the shounen genre, in its name) and thus have a very wide scope of focus that nonetheless has “aged” past “childhood”. usually media about children and childhood are sequestered in its own genre (children’s shows like doraemon, magical girl anime like precure series, etc.) aimed at a different target audience who are in the same demographic as the main characters in the shows. this is, obviously, not a bad thing. but i appreciate the “genre-breaking” focus that spy x family have because it inspires a sort of empathy to children, who are often not the most favorite group of people for the typical demographic of shounen readers, that is specifically vital in today’s climate. (can’t say much about japan itself, who historically has been dealing with declining birth rates, but oh i can speak for the american individualism— ironically where sxf is also very popular in) another thing about this is it’s drive home how intertwined the family life is, and should be. agent twilight and thorn princess’s plot-lines are clearly shounen-esque (a spy fighting for world peace, an assassin weeding out traitors) but they are nonetheless inextricable from the family- and anya-focused story, because by choice or circumstances they are anya’s parents. they’re a part of a larger societal fabric that embedded them in relationships to others — children being one of them. i think that’s pretty neat.

another thing, specially about the depiction of children in sxf: they are fictitious yet realistic enough to portray real children and inspire sympathy for them. a lot of asian home media in general have the problems of portraying young children as “problems”: annoying, loud, privileged, dumb, ungrateful, etc etc. these are such complaints about children that are unfortunately way too common and way too ungenerous and mean-spirited; none of these tropes are present, even in a media full of scions and heiress. complaints about them being brats (red circus bus hijacking arc) was rightfully framed as unsympathetic and unreasonable (they’re children! they can’t help where they were born into— it goes both ways.) i think the crux of this beautiful balance sxf struck in portraying nuanced, dynamics children is sympathy. they can be loud, they can be whiny, cry at the drop of a hat, has too much energy, gross, have bad grades, clingy, inconsistent, academically unmotivated, ran off randomly— and that’s fine, because we know why they do it, we are given space into their inner thoughts, something so rarely afforded to real life children at times. but they can be motivated, they want world peace, they want to have genuine friends, they want their friends to be happy, they have crushes, and most of all they love their parents and they love the people around them.

i think regardless of everything sxf is a work that understands that children are full of love and the majority of the things they do are out of love. i think that alone makes it incredible in the current socio-econo-political climate where sympathy is spared so little and humanity spreads so thin children barely gets what they deserve. i suppose that’s the sort of war we are entrenched in.

[cecilysass]

Why I Think The X-Files Isn’t Really As Much About Watergate and Governmental Conspiracy As Everyone Claims, Maybe Including CC

This one’s really nerdy, get ready.

Media covering the X-Files has always emphasized how much the show capitalizes on a post-Watergate worldview, a paranoia about government and belief in high-level conspiracy. I think CC signed on to this interpretation entirely. So much so that he sure kept on feeding those conspiracy plot lines in the mytharc—even when every other plot line was going hungry. 

So much so that in the revival, he really created a problem for himself, which the media picked up on. Government conspiracy nuts in 2016 no longer were hot sensitive 90s guy outcasts like Mulder or quirky cuddly little nerds like the Gunmen. Government conspiracy nuts in 2016 were media savvy right wing commentators manipulating the masses, getting presidents elected through willful misinformation.  The revival series tried to address this head on with Tad O’Malley, a character who represented this new development. But it was definitely a sticky issue: the sociopolitical context of the original show was gone. Was the show relevant any more?

I would argue yes, or at least it could have been. I would argue that the interpretation of the XF as a show primarily about conspiracy at high levels of power and governmental manipulation is a flawed one to begin with. I think this take makes the show way too thematically narrow, limits it, and obscures the show’s more important appeals.

In the 1990s, media coverage of the show almost always mentioned Watergate the historical event. Sometimes coverage discussed how Watergate was directly referenced on the show (Deep Throat, meetings in parking deck, CSM and Diana both living in the actual Watergate), but also Watergate’s specific effect on creator Chris Carter, who specifically cited it as a formative event. Often it was claimed that the show’s popularity with audiences was rooted in post-Watergate suspicion of government.

I think this could have been true generally speaking, although I always thought it somewhat overestimated the impact of Watergate on the XF’s target audience. Consider that in 1997 many in the key 18-49 demographic would not even remember Watergate especially well, or at all. If you were 30 in 1997, you were 6 when the story broke in 1973. I’m sure that could have left a mark on you, but I also think it might have been something that simply left a much bigger impression on Boomers the age of Chris Carter himself.

Me? I was in college in 1997, and I was nonexistent / unborn during Watergate. So I didn’t remember it, and it held no personal significance in my worldview regarding the United States. I don’t think it ever would have occurred to me to trust that the government was telling me the truth all the time, and I wouldn’t ever be shocked to learn I was being intentionally misled. As a late Gen Xer growing up in the Reagan administration with post-Watergate ideas floating in the air, I just assumed the worst from the get-go.

So I admit: sometimes the earnest speeches from Mulder and Scully about the Truth and being lied to from men in power and a government we purport to trust seemed a little repetitive and obvious to me. It’s taken me a while to realize that these speeches are voicing something very specific and historically real, the furious indignation of Boomers that we can’t trust our institutions. I think I felt like, yeah, okay, okay, I get it. I never had the same kind of trust in institutions to lose in this respect, but this was a major betrayal for people my parents’ age.

All of this to say, I don’t think that the conspiracy worldview and the appeal of the paranoia about government was a big part of the draw for me. I’m not saying it wasn’t for many or even most others. But my instinct about storytelling is that that is a little too abstract or bloodless of an appeal to really hook most viewers anyway. Like, you might be interested in conspiracy to get you to watch initially, sure, but that’s probably not going to keep you watching for years. And it’s really not going to be enough to motivate you to tune in to a revival series in the 2010s.

So what was the big hook for viewers? You’re probably expecting me to say MSR, and if so, I’m going to surprise you a little. I do think that was part of it for some percentage of viewers, but I think it is more complex than that.

I think the show tapped into a late 20th century urge for individuals to become part of something greater than ourselves. Something we might think of as numinous or transcendent. Maybe something meaningful and good (like a quest for truth) — or maybe something that will look down and judge us, for good or ill. Something that means that we are not lonely in the universe. This puts X-Files squarely in an overall 1990s angels and aliens otherworldly trend. 

(Personally, and this could be an only me thing, but I can never quite separate out Tony Kushner’s Angels in America and The X-Files in my mind; Angels debuted on Broadway the same year X-Files first aired, and I was exposed to both at about the same time. They’re both about apocalypse and personal crisis and the end of the millennium and the transformative power of authentic relationships with others. I could do a whole thing on this.)

The desire for transcendence is the part of the show that is summed up by Mulder and Scully watching lights together in the sky, by Mulder’s wonder at seeing ships or aliens, by the entire notion of “I Want To Believe,” by the idea expressed in the last episode of the original series that both Mulder and Scully share—that the dead aren’t lost to us, that “they speak to us as part of something greater than us - greater than any alien force.” Mulder says to Scully that if “you and I are powerless now, I want to believe that if we listen to what’s speaking, it can give us the power to save ourselves.” There’s definitely a part of the show that is about little lonely human beings finding how they fit in a big, unfeeling universe.

The show's interest in conspiracy figures into this. Because after all, what are conspiracy theories but reassurance that there is some meaning behind everything after all? That there is some powerful system running the show, even if that system might be kind of evil. A grand organized secret an individual can actually uncover, rather than a bunch of random haphazard incompetence and chaos. I think this is part of the show's interest in transcendence, but only one part.

And there’s also part of the show that’s about a hero who is wracked with loneliness and alienation — and then two heroes who are wracked with loneliness and alienation—finding a kind of salvation in Truth, in Justice, in Trust, in Partnership, and, ambiguously, Love. (Sometimes Mulder sounds more like a 19th century Romantic hero than anything else.) This makes it a little allegory about late 20th century individualism and alienation and desire for meaning and authenticity and connection with others. 

I think what appeals to people emotionally in the show is that part of us that wonders: is there a universe that pays attention to me? Is there anyone who listens to me and who really, really knows me? Does anyone besides me care what is true and what is a lie? Will I find those who are lost to me and repair the parts of me that are broken? Is there anyone who would give up their life for mine?

I think that the desire to connect with others is a really basic human drive, and it’s most obviously foregrounded in the show the Mulder-Scully partnership. Even romance aside, we see from the first episode that these are two people with distinct worldviews who want to communicate, who see something in one another, who are hungry to be understood by one another. They ultimately see the other person as someone who reflects and affirms who they are. The partnership is definitely the emotional hook of the show, whether you see that as a romantic ship or not, and it thematically echoes the show’s overall themes of wanting there to be more in the universe. 

When the show was at its most emotionally devastating, it was one or both of its protagonists losing a relationship or connection that was important to them, or it was their frustration that their efforts were not meaningful on a larger scale: grief over a loss, a coverup that meant Justice wasn’t served or Truth was concealed.

When the show’s moments were most emotionally triumphant, they were always moments of overt connection, usually between Mulder and Scully, both more dramatic (“you’re my touchstone”) and subtle (reaching out to take a partner’s hand in Pusher or Field Trip). When there were moments of triumph concerning the government conspiracy, it felt more allegorical, like information (Truth) getting free, not progress made in specific governmental reform or anything. 

(And honestly, the moments of triumph against the conspiracy were pretty few and far between. We left the original run of show with the protagonists on the run, pretty sure there was going to be an alien invasion in coming years that had been facilitated by complicit human conspirators, so this conspiracy thread of the plot apparently didn’t even seem like the most important and emotionally satisfying story to resolve.)     

CC wrote a NY Times piece addressing the changing landscape on conspiracies in 2021, discussing why he was skeptical of a new UFO report. He was perceived as having the authority to write this because he created a show that quintessentially addressed government conspiracies about visitors from space.

But for me, the question of whether the government was hiding evidence of extraterrestrial life was really not the main takeaway from TXF. At least no more than the question of whether there needed to be an investigation into the undue influence of witchcraft in Scotland was my main takeaway of Macbeth.

I do acknowledge that I may have been in the minority. Maybe this is not how most people felt. But I also wonder if sometimes the urge to make the show primarily about political paranoia became a distraction from what it did best—these larger, more universal themes. I wonder if that is partly what was so frustrating about the storytelling of the revival.

[pepsi-al]

And now, for another piece of Serena glazing brought to you by an entitled fan from the vocal minority.

Going over this so you don't have to.

The first point he tries to make is that the XY anime in an attempt to prove that the XY anime is "the most popular Pokémon Anime series", using an IMDB rating of it to back it up with, even though the rating in question is, like, taken from about 617 people. Not even a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of viewers the XY anime ended with, let alone started out with. Which should pretty much tell anyone that the people who are giving such praise to the XY anime are not even part of the target audience. Especially since Yo-Kai Watch has been outright beating the XY anime in the ratings throughout the latter's run.

He credits Serena to being part of the success that the XY anime had. Even though the only place where it found "success" was among the periphery online fandom. Meanwhile what her portrayal and "AmourShipping" actually did contribute to in regards to the XY anime is the alienation of the target audience. With the target audience themselves going on record to say that they weren't vibing with what "AmourShipping" was giving them. And in regards to those not among the target audience but didn't vibe with "AmourShipping" nonetheless, they knew that "AmourShipping" wasn't going to go anywhere.

He thinks that Serena "brought new things to the table", all the while already singing Serena's praises, calling her "the best PokéGirl of all time", as well as one of the best characters in the entire franchise. Pretty much blatantly ignoring what was already on the table before Serena even arrived.

He outright thinks that every female companion of Ash's after Misty but prior to Serena is somehow "a copy of Misty". Yeah, sure. Let's just ignore everything else that sets Ash's female companions besides Serena apart from each other, and just boil down their behavior to "Misty-esque". Granted, he does state that they have defining characteristics, such as May becoming a "Performer". (Uhh, dude? Coordinator, while similar, doesn't equal Performer.) But he seems to think they all have the same kind of personality Misty has, which couldn't be any further from the truth.

The attention he calls to in regards to Ash's female companions before Serena being "sassy" and "a jerk to Ash" pretty much shows his entire thought process into making this video. And why he was so reductive towards May, Dawn, and Iris. He's basically telling people here that he projects himself onto Ash, and that he doesn't think that Ash should have to put up with someone who, understandably, calls Ash out on his stupidity on a regular basis. (And in doing so, pretty much missing the point of Ash's character.) Also, was anyone that wasn't a part of the hardcore AniPoké fandom seriously getting tired of a girl being around to call Ash out on his faults? Does this guy genuinely believe that? Last I checked, before the time of the XY anime, they were getting tired of Ash, not his female companions in anything apart from getting sidelined in favor of Ash.

Actually, nobody apart from the periphery demographic actually "fell immediately in love with Serena". And those who did immediately fall in love with her didn't do so because of her personality. It was because of her crush on Ash, and because of marketing. Her actual personality is nothing to sneeze at, and is pretty much not only nothing like her source material counterpart, but also pretty much what you would expect from a character with no depth to her personality beyond "I'm girly because I'm a girl". Also, "kind" and "caring" literally describe ALL of Ash's female companions. Whereas "independent" describes ALL of Ash's female companions EXCEPT Serena. "Kind to everyone" and "not afraid to express how she was feeling" isn't unique to her. (The latter is definitely one of the reasons why Misty is popular. And Serena definitely seemed afraid to express how she's feeling around Ash.) And she's definitely nowhere near the first to be friendly towards everyone and ready to extend a helping hand whenever anyone is in trouble. (Again. That's literally a reason why Misty is popular to begin with.) Not to mention, Serena wasn't bratty? This dude never saw how Serena feels about her mother. And again with the "not a jerk to Ash" bit. Heck, he even brings up when she cares for Ash when he's sick as though it hadn't been done before, when it has by Misty. It's like he doesn't actually give a crap about Serena's actual character, is more interested in the fact that the showrunners made her only purpose on the show to be to make Ash look good, and is only gassing her up both to make her look better than she is, and because he feels like she's the perfect character to make Ash look good; pretty much a regular pastime for guys like him at this point. It also shows a double standard in regards to his thought process. If the female traveling companion of Ash is her own character and made out to be his equal, then anything she does, even if beneficial for Ash, is automatically bad. But if that female traveling companion is instead made specifically to make Ash look good, as though as she were a typical female character in a Shounen anime, then anything that she does, even if it harms Ash in any way, is automatically good.

Also, if things did end up changing for the better in regards to Ash's female companions, they did so in spite of Serena, not because of her. Mallow, Lana, and Lillie, were all pretty much close representations of if not direct translations of their source material counterparts. Chloe, an AniPoké OC, is pretty much the only one that comes after AniPoké Serena who is the most similar to her in terms of characterization. But, despite her doing the similarities she has with Serena better than Serena did, the reaction the periphery demographic actually has towards her (read: Chloe is disliked by the periphery audience for being "too boring", "aimless", "decided upon a goal that defeated the purpose of her character", etc.) only succeeds in showcasing said demographic's hypocrisy towards her.

WRT the unnecessary shade towards Misty's direction, saying that she would not have cared, and that she would have thrown Ash "in the deep end", this literally reinforces what I'm saying about Serena fans thinking that whatever a female traveling companion of Ash's does to Ash in their eyes is automatically bad if she's made out to be his equal and dares to be her own character. Because that's not what Misty would do at all. He completely doesn't understand her character. She would have and has helped Ash whenever he's sick. On that note, what is it with Serena fans and slinging mud at Misty? I swear. They feel threatened by her.

He's right about Serena's "relationship" with Ash being a reason why she's "popular" among the periphery audience. But what he doesn't realize is that the same reason why she's "popular" is also her biggest flaw as a character. Like, he doesn't even question how Serena is able to remember Ash despite it being so long since she supposedly last saw him. (2-5 years before the XY anime, and for a very brief moment at that.) He also ignores that all of the flashbacks to Serena meeting Ash at Oak's Summer Camp are exclusively from Serena's PoV, as well as not questioning how Ash and Serena didn't stay in touch if they supposedly knew each other. And how does he figure that the writers loved Serena when, if they had their way, Serena wouldn't have been given the characterization that she was given? Calling it "wholesome" and "what gave fans diabetes" is just basically talking about the frosting covering the the cake that tastes like stale air. He then rambles on about how Serena sees Ash as a "selfless hero", pretty much talking about Serena's blind worship of him, and downplaying how over-the-top it is compared to the complements Ash got from other girls. Even calling Serena constantly blushing around Ash, and Ash giving her the kind of compliment that he'll give May and Dawn "wholesome" rather than seeing it as the hard-to-watch mess that it is. And again, putting the emphasis on Serena seeing Ash as both "someone who's good at battling", and "someone with a good soul", shows that he doesn't really care about Serena's character, and that he's ignored that other girls have seen Ash as someone with a good soul before without blindly worshipping him. And I struggle to see how anyone can call something so blatantly shipfic-y in an official work "special". He is right about how we're not going to to see something like Ash and Serena again. To which I say: GREAT! "AmourShipping" was a bad idea from the get-go, and should serve as a cautionary tale.

And the last point he tries to make is how the female traveling companions of Ash prior to Serena "didn't really have any much if any impact". Like, what does he mean by this? Story? On Ash? Misty pretty much played a big part in why Ash is as great of a trainer as he is now, and is why he's alive. She was responsible helping Ash discover the entrance to Cinnabar Gym. May was pretty much responsible for picking up the slack whenever Ash wasn't around, and had her own arc. Dawn was chosen by Mesprit to defend Sinnoh. And "mainly used as comedic relief or to fill in that 'girl' spot for the rest of the series"? How does he think that this somehow doesn't apply to Serena? And I don't know how he thinks that Iris is a step in the right direction when, while a breath of fresh air compared to Dawn and May, when she isn't exactly treading new ground. And he's just glazing Serena by saying that she's had a bigger purpose in the story as it progressed when it really wouldn't be different without her as it is with her. And as far as "providing a completely different contrast compared to a Pokémon Trainer" is concerned, Lillie does that job far better due to being her own character and coming across as human as Misty while having her own arc herself, whereas Serena just comes across as no different from a Bond Girl or a one-off "love-interest" for Jim Kirk that isn't named Carol Marcus. He then goes on to praise Showcases, even though they're pretty much a dumbed down Pokémon Contest rip-off. And how does she lose time and time again when her only notable loss is her first ever Showcase, which she didn't really learn anything from? And her impact on Ash's character as a whole is basically non-existent, given that she doesn't even cross Ash's mind in Journeys when he thought about his travels in Kalos, and even almost ran past her like how Shulk ran past Melia. And he fails to realize that Serena actually did to Ash something that would help someone speedrun the ending of a friendship with a depressed person in real life, making his situation about her than about him. Plus, Ash would have gotten out of his funk without her "help". And the entire scene got retconned in Journeys, anyways. And honestly. What "lessons" did she give him that he didn't or shouldn't already know before the XY anime? Her role in helping shape Ash into the trainer who would go on to win the world championship is negligible. And in case he didn't notice, the Ash following the XY anime IS the same Ash from all the way back in Indigo League but grown up mentally, and definitely not due to anything that Serena actually did. Also, Ash learned the lesson that "it's okay to lose" all the way back in Orange Islands, where Serena doesn't even make an appearance. Instead, Ash learned that lesson from LORELEI, and in a later episode, Misty reiterated the lesson that Lorelei taught him. And once again, saying that Serena "beat the jerk and sassy trope" shows his lack of care towards Serena. The fact that he even brings up the "kiss", which even Yajima himself said could have been a whisper in Ash's ear for all he knew, is emblematic of how he really sees Serena.

And really? Does he really have the audacity to ask "how could you not love her"? He's clearly spent no time outside of the echo chamber, and no time in circles where Serena is criticized because of how her character was mishandled. And he definitely spoke to nobody who actually likes Serena as a character that feels like her potential as a character was outright wasted by the direction the showrunners took with her.

As for what I think about Serena's character? I think that she sucks. Period.

[thestrangestthlng]

HOLY DOUBLE FUCKING DOWN BATMAN.

"Remember, this is not me backing down or being defensive." "Remember, this is not me apologizing?"

Babes, who are you talking to? Your little fucking friends who are just as problematic as you?

"Just because you were offended doesn't mean you were right."

Be so fucking for real right now. That is not for you to decide. You don't get to determine what is offensive to someone and say they're wrong. You do not get to tell people from communities that what they were offended by wasn't offensive. You do not get to determine whether or not someone else can be offended by your actions.

"I am not the creator of gay stereotypes."

No, you are not, but that doesn't not mean that you have to continue to give them life.

"they created it themselves." Re: stereotypes about queer hookup culture.

You do realize that straight people have a hook up culture, right? We'll get to that. Do you want to know why there are so many negative stereotypes about marginalized communities? I'll tell you. It's because of white supremacy culture and the patriarchy. White people in power made sure the seeds of these negative connotations were spread far and wide. Media creates those biases and creates the stereotype. Would you say the same thing about Black women and the Mammy and Sapphire stereotype? These are stereotypes that are mocked and negatively reinforced in culture for entertainment and oppression.

"Gay men, I'm sorry... [...] my bad, I thought that because gay men can joke about it, I can too."

It's not that you can't joke about it. The fact was it wasn't fucking funny and I will explain to you exactly why. When you are joking abut a marginalized community, or a demographic that you have a position of privilege over (which you do, as a bisexual woman) you have to PUNCH UP for the joke to be funny. You punched down, which made it an attack and not a joke.

"The hook up culture exists in every sexual orientation [...] so what are you even mad for."

It absolutely does exist with every sexual orientation, WHICH IS WHY YOU COULD HAVE LEFT OUT THAT WHOLE FUCKING PARAGRAPH WHERE YOU TALKED ABOUT GAY MEN ONLY BEING ABOUT THAT THING. (And I'm sure that you're not even old enough to get that reference.)

"The word "target" was part of the fun little dialogue I imagined in my head when I was explaining Tommy pov. It wasn't meant to be taken in a fun docu-series kinda way."

Just because it's not how you intended doesn't mean that isn't how it was received. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. You mocking this just really goes to show how ignorant you are.

"I'm bisexual."

Okay, and? The same way a gay man or a lesbian can be biphobic or make biphobic statements or actions, bisexual people can have queerphobic statements or actions. I explained this to you. Internalized phobias are a think too.

"Queer people are not untouchable."

No, they aren't. You can dislike queer characters, I know I dislike PLENTY. You can just be honest with yourself and be like "I don't like him because he's in the way of my ship." You don't have to prove anything you can just say you don't like him. You don't need to justify this, you can just be honest about it.

The problem is that the rhetoric that you are spewing is homophobic in nature. And when gay men and other queer people are telling you that it's offensive, it's offensive. You were explained to in detail why what you said was offensive, reductive, and dangerous. You just don't care. Your little friends are just in your ear backing you up.

Tommy is absolutely just a character. He will never see any of this shit, but people like him, will.

If after this, you still don't understand how you, a bisexual, can be homophobic or make homophonic actions, I don't know what to tell you.

[andhumanslovedstories]

You know how Cyrus and I got insanely into Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation to the degree that derailed our lives and has driven away friends who will NEVER understand what Wei Wuxian means? We recorded two different episodes on the books. The first episode is about books one and two, and how we were so sure we were not going to continue the series because we just couldn't get into it, and then we hit the Yi City arc, and we were like "OHHHH OKAY WE'RE ONBOARD," like two sadistic little freaks, which is the target demographic for the series.

The second episode was recorded a month later when we had been fundamentally rewired by this series. I'm a different person now. I got too excited reading a book and I exploded. Wei Wuxian was too embarrassing too many times in a row, and I was cured of my debilitating secondhand embarrassment. Also? We have an INTENSE debate about which member of the cast would be worst at improv comedy, and I want you to know you're getting only a snippet of this discussion. We argued about this for literal days.

Part One: Wei Wuxian is a Public Menace apple podcast | spotify | buzzsprout Part Two: Sorry, We're Still Obsessed apple podcast | spotify | buzzsprout

[bullet-prooflove]

Prey!Series Part Three: One in Five - OA Zidan x Reader

Tagging: @trublu2u @mrspeacem1nusone @greenies-green @rosaliedepp @whateversomethingbruh @anime-weeb-4-life @daydreaming-belle @burningpeachpuppy @scarlettsakura @divergent146 @upsteadlogic @malindacath @skyesthebomb @ @kilikonakapamana @yezzyyae @redpool @stxrryswvrld @district447 @soultrysworld @reneejett4

Prey!Series:

Part One: Trafficking - It's during a human trafficking case that Omar meets you.

Part Two: Mentality - Omar learns more about human trafficking.

You’re used to being underestimated. The men you hunt see women as prey, objects that yield to their strength, that bend and break under the violence that’s cast upon them. When they look at you, you know what they see. You’re an older version of their target demographic.

What they don’t see is the years of training.

The boxing, the krav maga, the improvised weapons.

They don’t know about the countless sparring sessions you’ve had with men who outweigh you, because you got caught out once and you won’t let it happen again.

Snake doesn’t know any of this when he literally runs into you in the stairwell. He just sees a woman, weak, pathetic, alone. When his muscular form slams into yours, you hit the wall with enough force that it dents the plaster upon impact. The dust erupts in a plume, showering the both of you with the gritty residue.

You ball up your fist driving it directly into his kidney. His knees buckle, his hand grasping your vest as he goes down, yanking you with him. He draws his arm back, smashing his fist up into your stomach and the air rushes out of your lungs. You end up on your hands and knees, gasping for breath as he scrambles to his feet.

You barely get your own underneath you when he lashes out with his boot, kicking you right in the face. Agony erupts in the left side of your face, the skin splitting as blood leaks into your eyes. His fingers thread through your hair, gripping it tightly at the roots before he slams your head against the wall. You black out for a second, the world shifting as you hit the tiles.

You’ve learned from experience that a second is all it takes.

You find yourself underneath him. His massive hands locked around your throat, his fingers dig into your flesh as he flexes them, squeezing as hard as he can. The oxygen leaves your lungs, and you scratch at his arms as he stares down at you with that look in his eyes. You’ve seen it before, the thrill of the violence, the excitement that comes with holding another person’s life in your hands. Darkness twinges at the edges of your vision as you clench your hand into a fist before striking the inside of his elbow joint with as much force as you can muster.

A scream tears from his throat, his grip loosening before you hit him again, this time smashing the heel of your palm right up into his nose. The crunch of bone and cartilage resounds through the corridor as blood explodes onto your shirt. You drive your fist into his nose again sending his head reeling back. Oxygen floods your lungs, and you leverage your weight, shifting out from underneath him.

You don’t give him the chance to recover. You grab his arm, your fingers digging into the hollow of his wrist and twisting it back into a lock. The agonised sound that erupts from his throat is beyond satisfying.

“Not so much fun when they fight back is it?” You snarl as you snap your handcuffs onto his wrist wrenching the other arm back before securing it at the base of his spine.

You hear Omar’s shout go up behind you, his footsteps resounding across the tile as he approaches.  There’s a relief in his arrival because the adrenaline is starting to leave your body and you can feel that tremble starting in your muscles.

He hauls Snake to his feet, crimson running down the other man’s features as he fixes you that vengeful gaze of his. You can feel the weight of Omar’s eyes on you, and you know how you must look to him. Beaten, bloody, broken.

You don’t even know why it matters.

“I need a minute.” You tell him and he nods his head in understanding before he shoves Snake towards the stairs.

You’re sitting on the floor when he returns after handing Snake over to Scola and Tiffany. Your elbows are resting on your knees, you head bowed low as you focus on your breathing. He says nothing as he comes to sit in the space beside you. His shoulder nudges lightly against yours and you find yourself nudging him back. There’s no judgement in his presence, no pressure, just a simple reassurance.

“It’s me.” You say finally. “I’m your one in five.”

“I know.” He says softly. “The way you talked about their experiences…”

He’d laid in bed last night thinking about this case, thinking about you. The way he felt whenever you touched him, like he’d known you for a thousand lifetimes. He’d stared at the ceiling replaying your interactions and your words, the ones from the hospital coming back to him.

“With rape, the person you are is completely obliterated, you can pick up the fragments, but they don’t fit the same way they used to.”

He remembered thinking how insightful they were at the time, how personal they seemed. A friend or relative he’d assumed. It’s as he listened to the rain pattering against his window that he realised there was sense of conviction in your voice, one that comes with experience. He can’t imagine the immense personal strength that it takes to survive something like that, to have part of your soul ripped away and then come back to this job, facing that violence day after day.

“You’re a badass you know that?” He says into the silence between the two of you.

You laugh, it’s a surprised sound, one that resonates through your entire body as he tilts his head towards you and smiles.

“I mean it.” He tells you resolutely. “Everything about you…”

He trails off because he’s slipping into dangerous territory. He knows how he feels about you, the depth of it. You’re dedicated, compassionate, everything he could ever want in a woman but your also guarded and that means can’t get a read on you.

“I like you, Omar.” You tell him, your fingertips playing with the woven bracelet on your wrist. It’s talisman of sorts, a reminder to live your life no matter how scared you might be because you can’t let the man who hurt you win, you can’t let him keep taking from you. “The way you make me feel…”

Alive, you want to say because there are parts of you that died after what happened and now, they’re flourishing again. When you look at Omar, you see his kindness, his compassion. You imagine nights wrapped up in his sheets, his skin brushing over yours as he makes love to you, his eyes on yours as the climax builds to a crescendo. You’ve been so closed off over the years, your life so devoid of love, of physical affection. You want to give yourself to him, to share that part of yourself again.

“After this case is over, let’s agree to go for coffee.” He says softly as he clambers to his feet. “Low key, no pressure, just you and me in a place of your choosing.”

He holds his hand out to help you. He smiles as you take it and you can’t help but fall in love with him just a little, because Omar, he’s beautiful inside and out.

“I’d like that.” You tell him as he pulls you to your feet. “Really Omar I would.”

Love Omar? Don’t miss any of his stories by joining the taglist here.

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Like My Work? - Why Not Buy Me A Coffee

[kaythefloppa]

How would you rewrite The Lion Guard?

Ooh, good question.

Will pre-face this by saying that I enjoy The Lion Guard and am far more forgiving towards it than others (primarily because I was in the show's target demographic when it came out nearly 10 years ago, so I had a closer attachment to/attraction towards it than, people who were old enough to see the original film drop in theaters). That being said, it has a lot of flaws, some commonly pointed out by the fandom, others not so much (and around 70% of them stem around the finale, which.. we'll get to). So here are some major things I'd rewrite about the show itself (not like, every individual episode because that would be hell lmao)

Word vomit ahead because I have too many opinions on this children's show.

Season 1:

I'd definitely include more of Nala in the pilot episode, maybe showing her personal thoughts on the matter, perhaps even teaching Kion how to fight, or a throwaway line implying that. Also, I would definitely provide explanation on how Scar got away with killing his Lion Guard, and on why Kiara became so obsessed with becoming Queen. Additionally, I'd show some background lions (i.e. non-characters because we can't let them overshadow the mains), just so that we can actually buy Simba's point on there being other lions for the guard (but like, at the end of the day, we know Kion's team will prove themselves/be better). And lastly, I'd fix the climax to where Simba would try to rescue Kiara and then somehow get injured/stuck, so the Guard would have to save both of them from the stampede. I think those main things left a bad impression towards fans outside of the target demo, even as they got better on so, I think re-tooling them a bit would save a lot of that dissonance.

This was something I really wanted to see in the show as a kid; Episodes where the main characters meet "good" animals in the same species as their villains. Jasiri's introductory episode made me think they were going to have this as a recurring theme, where each member of the guard meets an animal who they initially judge for being the same species as their counterpart villain, only to realize that they're pretty great. For example, Beshte meeting a friendly crocodile (this was before S2) Bunga protecting a cobra (or alternatively, rescuing Ushari from the hyenas), Fuli meeting a jackal that's actually honest, or Ono even working together with a friendly vulture (that part specifically I fixated on, because I had this whole story in my head about the unnamed 'third vulture' in Mzingo's flock who goes through this whole character redemption arc, but I digress). This I believe would've fixed the issue that some people had about the portrayal of predatory animals in the series. Because yeah, on a Watsonian level, these villains are in every way amoral, the Lion Guard stops them from over-hunting, not hunting in general. On a Doylist level, the ratio of evil predators to good predators is way imbalanced, and I think this approach that 9 year old me thought this show would go, would've been a huge-lifesaver for the series in that department.

The Kupatana Celebration: The jackals would attempt to steal from the Pride Landers whilst they're all distracted, leading up to the Pride Landers fighting them. I'd also change some dialouge so that Kion and the Guard wouldn't come across as though they are right for hating jackals, and so that Janja wouldn't be proven right in his attempted murder of a child by the narrative.

The Trouble with Galagoes: Makucha and Mapigano would be streamlined into one character. Not only would it save a lot of time, money, and budget just using one model, but it would show the true menace Makucha is, because he was badly nerfed in the show when he became the new Big Bad.

Lions of the Outlands: I have so many mixed opinions on this episode. On one hand, the moral is actually pretty great, a perfect mirror to Never Judge a Hyena By Its Spots. And on that note, we see more of Jasiri and her clan. On the other hand, the Outsiders are in it, for no other reason than to both tie into TLK 2, and build up to the finale, (and they fail entirely on those two merits). The one thing I'd change is make it a two-parter in the middle of the season. The first part would explain the mystery behind the Outsiders, maybe even filling in some of the legit plot-holes the second movie had with them. The second part would be where the real action and conflict begins, with Kion choosing the hyenas over lions and blasting them away to the termite mounds (and I'd easily cut the "Our New Home" to "Our Old Home.)" Vitani would also have more of a presence in this episode, mainly so that it'll be less jarring when we see her again as the successor to the main cast.

And on another note, I would have Janja team up with Kion and Jasiri against Zira as a temporary alliance. It would just seem like an interesting idea. The point of the episode is Kion's views being turned on their head as he realizes that the lions he's meeting aren't as open-minded or kind as him. Having him come to the defense of his most hated rival, even temporarily, would've added to that juxtaposition, and maybe foreshadow his redemption.

I'd definitely rewrite Bunga to make his personality better. Don't get me wrong, it does get better in the show, but in early S1, they try too hard to recapture the magic of Timon and Pumbaa's comedy from the original. It'd be much better to allow him to serve as a comic relief on his own scale to allow a better first impression of him as one of the main characters.

Allow an introduction episode for Ushari. For someone who is supposed to be the hidden secondary antagonist of the series, he gets no introduction episode, and no revelance beyond just cameos and running gags; So unlike Makuu, you don't resonate with him enough to accept him as a key player later on down the line. There was an episode plotline involving a cobra harassing some songbirds that was never greenlit because it was inaccurate t o cobra behavior, but I think Artistic License aside, it would've made okay groundwork for Ushari to appear.

More non-lion characters. In a show where the overall message is "different animals can do just as well as, if not better than lions," and featuring the different animals that contribute to the Circle of Life, they did pretty well, but I would've loved them do more. Episodes with painted dogs, and the values of communication. Episodes with caracal cats where the heroes learn not to underestimate, episodes with that one African Rock Python that encourages boundaries, episodes with secratarybirds where you can stomp the shit out of grumpy bastards who want to kill children. Cool shit.

I'd tone down Kion's roar a lot. I don't mind it in a fantasy setting, but I think a lot of tension, conflicts, and character arcs are undermined by it. I would've preferred it if we had episodes in Season 1 where Kion slowly learns how to use the Roar's powers, akin to Elena of Avalor's Scepter of Light/Night story arcs. Tie that in with him speaking with Mufasa. The more he controls the power of the spirits, the more he is able to speak to them. In the meantime, I'd allow some villains' defeats to be accreddited to the characters themselves, for example, Cheezi and Chungu defeat Nne and Tano themselves, Anga, Ono, and Hadithi being able to chase off the vultures, or Hodari and Makuu both working together to drive off Kiburi.

I'd change the episode arrangement. Mainly to allow future seasons to actually start with the episodes that begin their respective seasons' arcs. The first 5 episodes of Season 2 would be placed near the end of Season 1 to establish a mini-arc about the dry season coming up soon, with the last of these 5 episodes being the Savannah Summit, showing Makuu's redemption and signifying that there's gonna be a change in tune. Then we'd get Trail to Udugu as the Season 1 finale, which would wrap up Kion and Kiara's sibling rivalry from the pilot and show Simba firsthand how well Kion's team is structured through its diversity. It would register as a perfect season finale without there being a heavy ongoing arc for it to cap off.

Season 2

The Rise of Scar would serve as the Season 2 premiere (which it originally was supposed to be, until it was pushed up 5 episodes). And while kicks off the best portion of the show, (S2) it does ultimately also cap itself off in the worst portion of the show (S3), so some stuff I would change:

Ushari's heel-face-turn. It sucks. Even ignoring the messy implications of having the only snake character become a generic bad guy because "evil venomous snake," it's bad character writing. Not only do we have no proper introduction to his character, not only was his prior relevance relegated to background appearances, but his motivation is extremely hollow, so much so that it's forgotten entirely by the time the episode is over and replaced with a new one (that also comes up out of nowhere and has fuck all to do with anything). More than once in future episodes is it implied that Ushari wants reptiles to rule the Pride Lands, and honestly, I think that would've/should've been his motivation for his betrayal. Maybe he sees how other reptiles struggle during the dry season and the Lion Guard is so pre-occupied with the other animals and disasters that he winds up feeling neglected and angry. This is what turns him to villainy.

I would have Mzingo in on the Scar ressurection plotline. One beef I have with S2 is that Mzingo, who was the duel antaognist of the pilot, gets sidelined entirely. Ushari essentially replaces him as the hyenas' spy, with several scenes clearly resembling that of the pilot (right down to the song, which is essentially diet Tonight we Strike). It wouldn't have done much to add Mzingo in, but it would've made sense, and allow for interesting interactions between Ushari and Mzingo.

Instead of Janja, it's Ushari who causes Kion to roar by revealing his betrayal and threatening his family. This does water down Janja a bit, but again, with the idea that he'll be redeemed in due time, you have to put some limit on how far his villainous actions go.

Rescue in the Outlands. Good. God. On its own, it's perfectly fine, but Season 3 manages to make it retroactively worse. If they wanted to give hints that Janja was redeemable, redeem him at all, and imply a ship-tease between him and Jasiri, they should've dialed back some of the shit he does to allow him come across as less iredeemable. The writers didn't have to have him try to incinerate Jasiri and the cubs, and they didn't have to have him openly mock them as they're about to explode, but because they did, it shoots his rushed redemption arc right in the bloody foot. The episode would've worked fine with some workaround.

The workaround I would have for that? Well, I would have it be where Janja chases Jasiri's clan out of the Outlands so they're forced to hide in the Pride Lands until the Lion Guard helps them take it back. We'd see that Janja is content with Jasiri making it out alive under the assumption that she wouldn't come back. Still technically evil, but not anything way over the line. This would also allow Simba and Nala to be introduced to Jasiri, overcoming their own prejudice and bias about hyenas like Kion did, which would make for a far more entertaining subplot than... ugh... Thurston. And in the end, Simba and Nala help Jasiri and the Lion Guard flush out Janja.

The Bite of Kenge: I would include Makuu, just for the awesome factor, and the biology reference: Because crocodiles and monitor lizards are mortal enemies due to how the latter preys on the hatchlings of the former. Makuu absolutely rocking Kenge's shit would be so awesome. And also we'd get Makini and Makuu sharing dialouge (which I swear to god, does not happen at all in the show, FUCK!)

The first half of Season 2 would have Ushari as a red-herring, with several attacks from Outlanders accreddited to him. It isn't until the midseason finale where the Guard discovers that Scar is alive and realizes that he's the real threat they need to take out.

Speaking of the midseason, I would cut out Sumu entirely. He's a cool character and all, but I find it hilarious how not once does Scar consider sending Ushari, a cobra, in to bite the enemy team. Especially since the species of scorpion that Sumu is happens to be non-lethal (whoops!). Anyways, I'd have it be where Ushari takes Sumu's role of poisoning the king, biting him on the tail. This would invoke fear into the other Pride Landers, who deem him to be the big threat to the Pride Lands (i.e. red herring). Ushari's betrayal would be a secondary conflict in the episode, as they still struggle with the idea that one of their own could turn on their home. Ultimately, Scar's return is revealed, and that Ushari's betrayal was in the means of bringing forward a worse threat to the Pride Lands, which sets the tone for the remainder of the season.

Speaking of which, I would keep Kenge in. According to the writers, he left the army off-screen to avoid getting blasted by Kion's Roar, which to me, seems like a clever way of saying "We couldn't get the royalties to re-hire our Game of Thrones guest-star onto our preschooler show as a series regular." But like, I think having him stay on the army would just add more man-power, because why introduce him if he's not gonna play a role in the final battle.

An episode where Scar attempts to contact Zira to be in his army, but the Guard thwards him. Again, just a minor change. Also, once again, we'd see Vitani, possibly her facing off against Kion, to further the idea that she strongly rivals Kion in ferocity, which sets up the finale in a more natural light.

The Hyena Resistance would show both Kion and Jasiri rescuing Janja. That way, his redemption would come across as less of him crushing on Jasiri and more of him having his worldview legitmately changed. Additionally, we would have Kion or Jasiri mention the true cause of Scar's death to Janja, who would deny it at first, listing it as lies.

Pride Landers Unite and Fire From the Sky are meshed into one plotline, so Anga is introduced earlier on. I find it stupid that even though Mzingo is clearly on Scar's side, they don't at all consider him a suspect for the fire sticks. Plus having all of the Outlanders face off against the Pride Landers would be more thematic this way. Additionally, I'd have more members on the team, such as Big Baboon, Thurston, and even some of the giraffes.

Much like with S1, I would change the episode ordering around a lot, mainly because I think some events and interactions do not make sense when viewed by airing order. For example, the Hyena Resistance builds up to the idea that Janja would redeem himself, and the skinks also report Janja's hesitation to Scar, but that apparently means nothing when Janja is working with Scar two episodes after this one. And I feel like Kion gathering forces to help him defeat Scar would be the inciting incident for the end of the final battle.

The order I would arrange S2b in: The Scorpion's Sting -> The Wisdom of Kongwe -> The Kilio Valley Fire -> Undercover Kinyonga -> The Zebra Mastermind -> The Underground Adventure -> Beshte and the Beast -> The Queen's Visit -> The Hyena Resistance -> Pride Landers Unite/Fire From the Sky -> Cave of Secrets -> The Fall of Mizimu Grove

The Fall of Mizimu Grove would serve as the Season 2 finale (as it serves as a climax of the ongoing conflict, but not in a way that ends it). We'd show Jasiri and her clan, Ushari and his skinks, as well as Anga and the birds taking part in the battle before Scar himself is revealed. Otherwise, the episode is mainly unchanged, and once again, the finale of the second season.

Season 3:

I posted a rewrite of S3 onto the Lion King subreddit, but in the context of a rewrite of the grand series, things go differently.

Battle for the Pride Lands would be expanded into a 6-episode story arc, in which the older characters make their final stand in the fight against Scar. I take issue with the fact that for years, they built up Scar as a force to be wreckoned with, dragged the arc into S3, only to end it entirely there. I've entertained the idea of the special being the finale to S2, but I think this approach also works, just to allow the audience to get settled in with the new 'norm' just as a way to fix some of the pacing and writing issues I found in what was otherwise, the best episode of the series.

In this 6-episode story arc, I would allow a redemption arc for Janja in the premiere episode, so that he could have more time to atone for his mistakes. Janja would redeem himself in the premiere after realizing the truth behind Scar's death and that Jasiri and Kion were telling the truth. Janja would immediately leave Scar's army and encounter Jasiri. "A New Way to Go" would be a duet between them. Eventually, let's say Scar traps Janja's clan and Kion's Guard in the lair, and as they're all swimming away, Kion gets stuck and Janja is able to rescue him from drowning. This allows a heart-to-heart between them which also extends to the rest of his clan, Jasiri's clan, and even some of the Pride Landers. The episode ends with Janja joining forces with the Pride Lands, giving them the info they need to beat Scar once and for all.

In the second episode of this arc, we focus on the Outlanders, specifically their reaction to having almost killed Janja. One other beef I have with the special is how the Outlanders besides Janja are all given a backseat, and are eventually just hand-woven redemptions and written off entirely. So my rewrite allows more character development at the end of their story arc. We'd see scenes with Mzingo, him feeling regretful over having almost killed his partner (either accidentally or purposefully). And we'd focus on Dogo and his siblings, who took a backseat in S2, but would now be older. We'd see what Dogo was up to in S2, maybe watching in fear as his parents and siblings would get into more dangerous situations. He'd be old enough to fight, but he's completely burnt out and disillusioned. Essentially we'd see him get the redemption arc he was robbed of. The episode would end with him leaving, and Kijana staying (to show the idea that some people can change, but others can't). The episode ends with Scar threatening the remainder of his army with death if they turned against him, which is what gets them to join his team, but internally, they know that Janja was right for turning on them. Meanwhile, Ushari is still as evil as ever.

Episode 3 of this arc would focus on Kion enlisting help from the other kingdoms; The Theluji Mountains and the Backlands, in order for the impending battle ahead. This would allow some old characters like Sokwe, the Gorilla Princes, Dhahabu, and Badilli to return, and we'd learn more about their history and origins. Meanwhile, we see Scar recruit Makucha on his army to replace Janja.

Episode 4 of this arc would follow through on the redemption arcs. Specifically involving a moral in which not everyone will forgive you, but that shouldn't stop you from trying to be a better person. I think this episode would involve Janja and Dogo helping Ma Tembo and the elephants and hippos take back Kilio Valley and Big Springs, which puts a huge dent in Scar's plans. Perhaps Zito and Johari are those who choose not to forgive Janja and Dogo, but Ma Tembo and Basi do. Plus Janja and Dogo would make a really funny duo.

Episode 5 delves into Scar's past. I think the biggest problem with the backstory in the show is that it is entirely tacked on and is only there for plot contrivance. An entire episode would've been more serviceable, especially with the direction they were headed with. I'd change the backstory entirely. Here, I'd have it be where a rouge lion clawed Scar, and then having the cobra spit at him before he roars them away. He is hailed as a hero throughout the Pride Lands, feeding into his ego until it becomes too big for him, so he plots to overthrow Mufasa. When they refuse, he teams up with the hyenas to get rid of them. He lures them into the Outlands where he roars at them, and the hyenas hide what's left. The hyena clan take the fall, and Scar is left off the hook, but powerless. This is what Scar decides to use as inspiration to defeat Kion once and for all. Meanwhile, Kion and the Lion Guard search through the paintings of Scar's past and see what the audience sees in the flashbacks. At the end, they discover a cave painting of Askari putting out a fire at the Tree of Life, which re-inforces their belief that the Roar can and will stop Scar.

Episode 6 is the big special that caps everything off. The Lion Guard take their battle with Scar into the Outlands. A large majority of the battle portion of the original special would take up this episode. We'd see everyone join in, including Kinyonga, Badilli, the baboons and zebras, we'd see Ushari, Kenge, and the skinks facing off against the reptiles, Simba and his lionesses fighting jackals, Timon and Pumbaa causing mayhem, it's this whole big fucking thing. Eventually the Lion Guard is able to defeat them, but Ushari and Makucha double back. Ushari bites Kion, but it's established that it's only a small dosage of venom that will affect his mind, then Makucha scratches him, giving him a scar.

The big thing I'd change here is that I'd actually have Kion roar at the volcano to make it erupt. Jasiri and Kiara help lead the Pridelanders and Outlanders away from the lava flow. This would allow a set-up for Jasiri eventually ruling the Outlanders, and establish future events of the second movie where Kiara is willing to unite opposing sides in order for a brighter future for all. Meanwhile, the Lion Guard find themselves trapped as the lava surrounds them. Scar taunts them in their final hour, but that is when Kion decides that instead of destroying his enemies for injuring him, he offers them forgiveness, using the Roar to summon the Lions of the Past to destroy Scar. Makucha runs off in anger, and we get the same moment of Ushari's death, which would give off the idea that whilst offering forgiveness is good, some people are too far gone.

I'd make the Mark of Evil more well-defined by stating that Kion will lose control of the Roar and act out more with the small amount of venom within him. Not the whole "you will forget the difference between right and wrong" bullshit. The journey to the Tree of Life begins.

I'd rewrite the villains: A lot. This post did a far better rewrite of the S3 villains than I ever could, especially keeping in the theme of each villain being a 'counterpart' of the main heroes, so I'll link ya there. But yeah, I would allow Makucha to remain the intense threat he is, and give the villains' squad more numbers. I'd also probably switch out Chuluun and Varya's species. A tiger would be absolutely terrifying as a villain, and Varya and her cubs being attacked would be a lot less stupid if she were a smaller cat. I'd also have Mama Binturong be paired against Ono, as they are both the "brains" of their respective teams. Maybe Ono is able to use his knowledge on porcupines/binturongs to guide Bunga over to the Tuliza stash, and Mama Binturong targets him. I would also objectively have Mpishi in the army, she was robbed of a re-appearance.

I'd probably change the animation and voice-direction on Azaad to look younger, because he strikes as way too old for Fuli. And I'd probably keep their dynamic platonic.

Friends to the End is rehauled entirely. The episode assassinated Bunga's character development, and was low-stakes overall in ways that just do the main characters a disservice. Have him actually be worried as to what would happen to Kion, have his friends disagree with him thinking he's wrong. Have Bunga be the one to challenge Kion when he mouths off at Beshte, and have the titular song actually be sung to Kion.

Change the Night Pride. The Tree of Life is meant to be a congregation of biodiversity, so it would only make sense that its protectors be a mixed group of animals and not just more bland-looking lions (Asiatic lion portrayal is appreciated, but I think this was the wrong way to go at it). Once again, saw someone else do a far better rewrite of this, with the royal family as tigers, and with Nirmala and Surak as a dhole and buffalo, respectively.

I'd change Rani's character. A LOT. I think part of the reason why Rani has become such a divisive and controversial character in the fandom is because of her lack of accountability. She doesn't apologize to Kion and the Guard for her part in the misunderstanding, she doesn't apologize them for accusing them of leading Makucha and co. there, and even when Kion and Rani have seemingly come eye-to-eye in Long Live the Queen, the next episode continues to have Rani talk down to Kion, saying he has "potential" and not apologizing. I like when characters have flaws, but it's not satisfying when they don't acknowledge those flaws, apologize, and grow. Having Rani and Baliyo apologize towards the Guard, like say, at the end of Little Old Ginterbong, and gradually learning from their impulsive mistakes would be good character development, and it would allow audiences to get more used to Rani.

More episodes at the Tree of Life. One big issue with the show's ending is that it up and puts so much limelight on the Tree of Life in the finale when it's only been present for over 9 episodes. That's not enough time to get us to care, especially if your main character(s) will be moving in there by the finale. We should've had more episodes at the tree to learn about its history, how it's structured as a kingdom, the biodiversity there. Maybe even tie in with the other hanging threads of lore such as the Evil Lions of the Past, Askari's connection to the Tree of Life, his discovery of the Roar of the Elders, and the prophecy on the Roar returning to the Tree of Life. One of the writers themselves even said that they had a vision for the Night Pride's backstory including the disappearance of Rani and Baliyo's parents and the origin of Rani's scar, that, because of the limited episodes they had planned for the final season never actually made it into the series. If Season 2 can have nearly 30 episodes, then Season 3 can come close to that mark, especially when it's the end of the story and you need to put your all into it.

I would change Binga into a sloth-bear. This is actually a key detail of canon divergence in my fanfic, Roar Towards the Future, but to re-iterate, I HATE canon Binga with a passion. Lazy, unoriginal, and reeks of a lot of tired, worn out tropes from the 2000's. And yeah, it's an interspecies relationship, but in a world where the animals can talk sing, and communicate with each other, would it have hurt to change the species at least? Also, we get an Ono solo song because we were fucking robbed.

I'd change the specifics of Kion's healing, where he is cured of the venom, but still is unable to control the Roar, so Nirmala continues the healing, to which Kion realizes is not physical anymore, it's emotional, and that him mastering the Roar represents him finally having both his body and mind at peace. I really didn't like how S3a built up the venom to be Kion's problem that he needed fixing, only for S3b to say, "nope, it's just trauma," and have his healing focus around that. It's a good idea on paper, especially if you view the venom as a metaphor, but in reality, the way it's executed just gives off the idea that mental/physical health issues are one in the same thing in a box, and that treating one will inherently and unoequivically treat the other, which uhm... is a terrible message to have in a kids' show. They should've not brought up the venom at all and have that be the message from the start, or resolve the venom plot-line and point out how that's not where the healing journey ends, because the end-result makes it seem like the writers just forced the venom in there as an excuse to write Kion out of the Pride Lands in time for TLK 2, with no thought forbeyond plot contrivance.

I'd have the Lion Guard age from teenagers to young adults in S3, starting with the episode Long Live the Queen, to give off the idea that the Guard has stayed at the Tree of Life for a while to the point where defending it from the villains/Kion's healing has become the new norm. According to the writers, they wanted them to remain teenagers until the end, as a contrast to Kiara being an adult, but I think that shoots their story in the foot when it's somewhat a coming of age story, as well as the marriage thing in the finale, so I would personally have them shown to be grown up starting in the episode of Janna's death. I'd also have the origin of Rani's scar be explained. And I'd also establish closure for Sarabi by having Kion say he never met any of his grandparents. I think Sarabi deserved at least some closure in the series.

The Lake of Reflection flashback confuses me so much, because like, Janja is a teen, presumably an older teen when Kion is a cub, I highly doubt he'd be this tiny ass cub when Kion was a toddler. I would just have the flashback include everyone's S1 models pre-Return of the Roar.

I would probably have the final battle at the Tree of Life be a mirror to Pride Landers Unite, where the animals of the Tree of Life help the Lion Guard and Night Pride defeat Makucha and his gang. I'd also have the Rani/Kion romance be a separate episode on its own, which would then end with the cliffhanger of Kion being asked to stay.

Oh boy, the finale. Basically, the main thing I'd change is that it'd be an extended episode, possibly a double-length episode, or even triple-length like the Elena of Avalor finale, just to wrap everything up. Vitani's Guard is made of a mixture of different species on the Lion Guard. You can even keep the all female aspect, just have them be different animals than lions. You'd expand more on the TLK 2 callbacks (i.e. mentioning Nuka, suckers!), wrap up more character arcs, have Vitani and her team actually earn her moment (like say, defeating a new enemy, or maybe Makucha's army comes back and Vitani saves the day). I'd cut the entire bullshit contest, it is so stupid. And by the end, Kion chooses to give up the Roar and stay at the Tree of Life with Rani, BUT the rest of his friends stay at the Pride Lands, (including Makini, because she deserved to stay). The ending isn't focused around Kion and Rani's teenage wedding (because for one, they wouldn't be teens) but it would focus on the animals of the Pride Lands and Tree of Life commemorating Kion's former Lion Guard for all of their years of defending the Circle of Life, ending on a reworked version of "Here Comes the Lion Guard" from the soundtrack.

And lastly, (this is just wish-bait). An epilouge scene showing a reunion between Kion's former Guard in the Pride Lands, depicting the new lives they lead years into the future. As the sun begins to rise, they all head to Pride Rock just in time for a royal celebration; The presentation of Queen Kiara's second-born cub, who will lead the Lion Guard of the next generation. Roll the credits!

[yukidragon]

Just wondering, in terms of the Sunny Time Crew Show, we know who’s Jack, but who are the other characters and what were their respective roles? Where can we find more information on what the TV show itself was about?

I’m afraid our clues so far are pretty limited. What we’ve been able to scrape together so far is some of the teaser tweets and the artwork Sauce made of the cast, one of which is used for official merchandise.

As always whenever I include some of the official publicly posted artwork for the series, I want to give full credit to Sauce for drawing it. They put a lot of hard work into this and deserve to be credited.

Remember, don’t repost the privately posted images from the SnaccPop Patreon. Let’s give our full support to Sauce and the team where we can, okay?

We know the names of the rest of the cast members thanks to a map of Cloudy Town. There were big, big plans, according to this map.

Starting us off is the star of the show, Sunny Day Jack, the main man himself. Even on the map, his school house is right there at the top, drawing immediate attention. It’s in his signature primary colors, though the print shown is worn with washed out colors.

Luckily, Sauce was kind enough to post a version of the map on their twitter that didn’t go through the aging process. Since the twitter is gone, allow me to show it here.

Directly from the school house is Knackadan Drizzle’s field. Quite the name, huh? It’s a pretty sporty place, fitting for a sports themed clown... or rather a coach themed clown?

While nothing has been confirmed for certain, it looks like Knackadan Drizzle was responsible for the lessons on the show that related to sports, likely also teamwork and cooperation as well. Fittingly, he is colored in shades of green and yellow like his field. I imagine even his green mustache might be something of a nod to the green grass on the field.

The playground isn’t associated with any one person, but right next to it is Daisy Chain Jane’s Joke Shop. Like Jack’s school, the joke shop sports primary colors, similar to Jane’s design.

Now Daisy Chain Jane is a pretty interesting character. Those who remember this post I made about the SunnyTime Town AU might recall that Daisy Chain Jane is a character exclusive to that AU rather than the fictional world of the show.

Then again, Buddy existed in the show as a belt puppet that apparently could talk, so it’s possible that Jane might exist in the show’s canon as well.

My guess is that there were plans to have her character introduced during the next season as Jack’s big sister. After all, the map itself was posted with the caption that there were big plans. Jack’s murder certainly scrapped any future for the SunnyTime Crew Show... at least 40 years ago.

Next we have Rory Rainberry’s Bakery in shades of purple, pink, orange, and red. Some of you might know his actor Jean Laurent, but the character he plays seems to be a lot more wholesome than this candid shot.

As suggested by this picture and the map, Rory is a baker. I’m sure he teaches kids about nutrition, staying healthy, eating sweets in moderation, and maybe a few simple cooking recipes they can do at home like putting peanut butter onto celery.

Finally we have Cloudy-Belle Sue and her white, pink, and pastel blue library. Sadly, we don’t have a picture of her alone, but I suspect that she was in charge of story time with the children, likely using fables to teach important lessons that are outside the scope of the more grounded parts of the show.

Overall, the show seems to have been aimed at young children, teaching life lessons in a way they can digest easily, with cheerful clowns in bright colors acting as both their teachers and friends. CloudyTown was meant to be a place of fun and learning. It’s hard to say for sure what the age range of its target demographic was exactly, but I’m sure we’ll find out in the game’s full release when we get a look into the backstory of the show.

I will point out though for those who might not have caught it - the colors of each character’s locations seem to correspond with the main colors in the characters’ clothes and hair. The main colors of the show, as shown by the logo and at the bottom of the map, seems to make it clear that Jack was always intended to be the main character, no matter what he says that there is no leader of the crew during the interview.

@channydraws @earthgirlaesthetic @sai-of-the-7-stars

[olderthannetfic]

I love seeing all the gripes about booktubers and YA authors on here as someone who works in publishing. A lot of the problem from these two spheres has to do with the fact that publishing, especially YA, is suffering right now. There was a boom in YA around a decade ago wherein we saw many YA novels and series received live action adaptions as TV series and movies. This was when YA books were the most profitable for authors. This was a relatively new genre-demographic (technically a demographic, but because there are stylistic and thematic similarities that are consistent across all genres of YA fiction, I will call it a "genre-demographic," "G-D" for short), and publishers were willing to take risks on acquiring more titles because they were valuing quantity over quality. They wanted to fill up shelves with YA novels as quickly as possible. However, this was a problem because they created an entirely new G-D based on a trend. The thematic and stylistic simplicities that were previously overlooked in YA became more well-known. YA began to lose popularity among the masses, and the oversaturation of the market has resulted in increasing competition among YA authors and more YA authors trying to branch out into other realms that will sell better, like "adult" books and middle grade.

Initially, YA was mostly read and purchased by/for teenagers, the intended target demographic. Then, these teenagers grow up, but their tastes did not. Most YA readers are women 26 years old and up. Publishers know this. The readers know this. Yet, the YA readers on book twitter and booktubers continue to push for changes in these books to better suit their needs as they age (slightly older/college aged protagonists, more sex scenes [unless they're sex scenes they don't like], more mature themes [as long as their authors properly prostrates themselves to the readers, of course], etc). They think of YA books as their safe place they can use to mindlessly consume, consume, consume, and anything more complex than an episode of Buffy threatens this veneer of control. The result is YA author Twitter drama. 

Even though all the authors are adults (also: most of their customers are adults, and an increasing amount of teenagers have begun skipping over YA alltogether and reading books for adults), they will fall back into purity culture and use "think of the children" which necessitates we prioritize the metaphorical innocence of the child (read: the adult YA enjoyer) over art, which unfortunately results in the consumer-led sanitization of the G-D. The YA readers are doing this for typical anti-esque reasons: control, moral postering, etc. The YA authors are taking part for two primary reasons: 1) they want to appeal to their consumer-base and the author-as-internet-personality-for-marketing demands this, and 2) they are eliminating their competition. The authors are using purity culture to demonize their fellow authors and victimize themselves. This is what led to the redefining of OwnVoices. It went from being a simple hashtag to help authors get more eyes on their work to being a requirement of YA authors, lest they want to risk persecution from their peers and customers. Publishers are aware of this but do not do much to combat this because it’s free marketing for them, and they don’t want to alienate the only people who spend money in that G-D. Publishers use people like me to follow YA authors and YA consumers on socials to keep track of their comments, as well as how they review books—assuming they actually read the books at all, which we know many do not. This has led to more book hauls are speed reading challenges among reviewers and booktubers, but that’s another thing for another time.

This is the last thing I’ll say before I go. This briefly cut into the mainstream consciousness last year. Book twitter drama (think Isabel Fall, Amélie Wen Zhao-Kosoko Jackson, Sarah Underwood, etc) is outrageous and insipid, but it seldom gets on the radar of those outside these circles. Last year Barnes and noble announced publicly they wouldn’t stock hardbacks of new books, something that was already in practice, to be honest. Cue disgruntled YA authors screeches. This wasn’t an issue and was very understandable. Paperbacks sell more. Hardbacks are larger, more expensive for buyers, and more time-consuming to produce. publishers were notified of this change over a year in advance. None of the authors with upcoming books would be affected because their publishers already knew to print paperbacks, unless their publisher decided to ignore B&N’s warning. People in publishing knew this, but the public did not. YA authors fell back into self-victimization mode and guilt tripping to strategically sell more copies of their books. However, publishers and agents alike noticed this, and some authors were punished behind the scenes. Those same authors then went on Twitter after the fact to target more of their peers in hopes of selling more books. [There are other factors influencing their behaviors, of course, but this ask is long enough.]

That’s all it is, really: YA authors are people in a failing G-D within a failing industry where they constantly need to eliminate their competition and compete to see who’s more moral than the next in hopes of selling books because their publishers don’t market them and give poor advances. YA readers in book twitter/booktubers are functionally conservative anti-intellectuals. (YA authors are also anti-intellectuals if it means they believe they'll sell more books. See the plethora of pathetic Twitter threads around back to school season: "The classics are all boring and bad and spread x ideas. School libraries should purchase more YA. Students should read more YA in class instead, like my book.") If you’re following any of them, please consider stopping for your own sanity. If you see them make or signal boost call out posts, always be skeptical because every other professional with repute around them already is.

--

Back in my teen years in the 90s, the term 'young adult' existed, but the only books I remember seeing were a few Judy Blume titles about realistic teen problems or something. I went straight from kids' books to plain old genre fiction for adults. It's amusing to hear that current teens are going back to that.

A lot of YA boom fallout feels to me like every other time something was a brief blip but a brief blip just as a person came of age: they spend forever waiting for "the normal status quo" to reassert itself and wondering why it does not.

[makifullstop]

I honestly dont really get why ppl hated lore olympus so much.

I havent watched any videos on lore olympus (i dont really wanna get influenced by the opinion of another), ive been just reading the webtoon and i dont think there is smth very bad about it- maybe in the start of the webtoon, things were real rocky, but then i think that it got very much better.

The world the author built is not half bad, the ways they implement the ancient greek mythos, kinda remaking a story using parts from myths and storys and mixing them in the setting they made is very fun, and the illustrations are also pleasent as hell.

i seriously dont see where the problem could be- all im thinking is that i could be a big "this isnt my thing" kind of thing which i do get, the story reading at first like a manhua type "yn x big bad jaded ceo" isnt the most intresting ( i am not really the target demographic) but then it developes into smth more like a telenovela type drama about rich families n' stuff like that (yk the ones).

Over time you see the characters evolve and change with persephony growing out of the sheltered thinking that she had and gainining more confidence and embracing her anger for the good that it can do, while hades does smth a little bit analogus but backwards: becoming less jaded and isolated and learning to accept help, quite literally fighting his trauma involving kronos and becoming more open and inviting. And many other side/ main characters have similar character arcs, slowly revealing more and more of themselves for us to see who they truly are and how they got that way.

And as for the villains, kornos was straight up kind of terrifying, kinda reminded me of white diamond in the way he was introduced, only talked about and in flashbacks, severely intangable until he was not and apolo- he doesnt deserve my praise on anything that fucking cunt. Delusional, stupid, manipulative, r-ist- you can tell the author took some (many) liberties with this one, tbh kinda annoying at some points but keep in mind that the webtoon is using the greek mythos as a base and only a base ( or even a loose inspiration for characters and settings at this point- and at current also ouranos which has been established breifly only in flashbacks and in "meanwhiles" when apolo went to consult him.

Lastly the art as i said is downright gorgeous, smth out of a picture boothan a comic and i absolutely love that! the style of the author is very recognisable without any lines making heavy use of colour in the scenes and on the characters in order to show who belongs where blue for the god of the dead and a series of dark hallways and less than ideally lit-up places, while for the goddess of spring flowers and bight colours and sunshine. this also helps draw the eye on the character that doesnt belong ther- like persephony in the underworld where you can probably spot her pink from everywhere and hades with his black while in the light and sunny overworld.

i really dont think that i have smth real bad about lore olympus (that warrants slander)

it kinda eats!

[arttsuka]

I'm gonna share my thoughts and overall opinion about heartstopper (it's negative), if that upsets you just, scroll away.

So, heartstopper. I don't like it. I'm not very good at writing or articulating my thoughts properly but I'll try to explain as best as I can.

First, I want to address the 'you're not part of the target demographic' excuse I'm hearing here and there. That's really not a good excuse. A good media (whether that is a movie, a series, a book, or anything else) can and should be enjoyed by more than one age group. And while my experiences in life don't exactly align with what these characters are going through, that still shouldn't stop me from enjoying the show.

The characters

Darcy, ooo boy. Legit one of the more unlikable characters on the whole show even if it's clear we are meant so sympathize with her. Her actions are clearly hurting her girlfriend and friends but that's ok because she has problems on her own apparently.

They're all very boring, stereotypes really, with no real personality (at least the main characters). And a lot of them are plain unlikable. Part of it can be blamed on how stereotypically they act.

Charlie is the soft uwu gay boy who's being bullied, has an eating disorder, has 1000 problems, is not very athletic, is the 'black cat' of the relationship. Notice anything? Yes, all these stereotypes could be describing any character (at least how the fandom usually misinterprets them). He doesn't feel like a real person because he has no sense of self. And yes, it is a fictional world, but at the same time it's clearly written to reflect reality on a big level. He is also extremely selfish and not very forgiving (and while yes you don't have to forgive others if you don't want to, closing the door on someone's face with a simple 'no' isn't exactly the best thing to do).

Nick is the golden retriever bi boyfriend who's never done anything bad in his life (despite doing some of the same things Ben did aka the most irredeemable character of the series that I'll talk more about later albeit for different reasons, the resultremains the same).

Tory is very underdeveloped but still, very boring as well. I'd like to see more of her but so far her writing is bad at best.

The gays

I can't stretch this enough, all the characters end up being boring because they are stereotypes without anything new added to them.

And Ben. Ben was the villain, he never stood a chance to redeem himself because someone had to be the bad guy apparently. Obviously not justifying his actions, but it's clearly he had problems as well. He knew he'd be bullied for his sexuality and he had to pretend around others (the difference between him and Nick is that Nick was the 'good' replacement I guess). And isn't it kind of weird how he's the only non-straight character to be cast aside from the lgbtq group? How they refuse to give him a chance? I don't know, seems excessively cruel for our main characters to do.

The writing

I fear the writing isn't that strong. Some episodes are pretty packed while others are a bit boring because nothing really happens to progress the story (and this is a slice of life show, filler isn't really a thing in the usual sense because the relationships between characters and seeing them interact with each other is part of the genre).

The dialogues range from 'pretty believable' to 'no one talks like that' although I can't be sure how much the webcomic is at fault for that.

The acting

The acting is pretty good actually. I really enjoy the performances of most of the cast with 2 exceptions, Tori and Mr. Farouk. I don't know the actual intention behind it, but I feel like they both play into the autistic stereotype, in a way that feels uncomfortable to watch. Again, I don't actually know why, maybe it was intentional but it still feels a bit weird.

All the 'good' characters from this show have to be a part of the lgbtq community. Straight cis people can't really be good people apparently (even Imogen wasn't straight in the end). And I'm not saying gay characters can't be good but it feels like the show itself makes that connection, gay->good (except if you're Ben), straight->bad (or, if good then not straight).

The intimate stuff

It made me really uncomfortable actually. Not the implied sex but the excessive kissing (of the gay characters, God forbid any of the other couples kiss more than twise).

The eating disorder and mental problems

I can't really say much about it. I think they handled it pretty well on some parts and not so great at others. I liked how the show made it clear Nick shouldn't feel responsible for helping Charlie by himself and how having a mental problem or ed isn't something you should feel like a burden for, you can still be a human being.

The transphobia

Again, there's nothing much to say, but I will say this. The statement 'Gender neutral bathrooms will increase cases of sexual assault against women' isn't inherently transphobic, but rooted in misandry (it can obviously be both, but at it's core it's about stereotypes against men). It's how society is formed at this moment, how patriarchy is hurting everyone, not just women and all.

At the end of the day, my biggest problem with heartstopper lies in this. People claim it's a cozy show about the lgbtq youth, finding love, that I'm just jealous I didn't have something like this growing up etc. But at the same time the show tackles extremely sensitive topics like homophobia, transphobia, eating disorders...

You can't have both, it's either a cozy little show that you shouldn't criticize too hard or it's a show that deals with difficult, important stuff that deserve critisism.

I'm closing with this image I saw a while back because it's hilarious

[thebootycrusade]

Oh man am i going to catch some heat for this but someone needs to say it at least once, and my hot take after reading wottg, even after reading a few other review post from notable blogs here, is that the pjo fandom here whos 20s+ needs to realize that they arent the target age demographic/audience anymore. Ive been reading the books since tlt hit the shelves, and even with that much investment i recognize that these are, at their very core, books still written for older kids and early-mid teenagers.

We've had books where characters die, get tortured, and explore other heavy topics on page, but face it, we as 20somethings will never going to get a cannon rrverse book that fully addresses the trauma or ptsd these characters have throughout the series because those topics we want explored as adult readers are way too dry and a little advanced for that age group to stay engaged, and actually chronicling the healing from them wouldnt be so easily explored in a single series. The trio recognizes that they have been through a lot even in demigod standards, but having the ability to talk and articulate through that trauma isnt easy when youre still in it. Being an adult with hindsight, i can recognize that parts of my early life were traumatic, but in the moment, was i able to recognize it as trauma or ptsd? no, i just knew it sucked. while i was in it or slightly removed from it was i ever really thinking about it in any deeper form past "well that fuckin sucked"? no. (does it sound like a familiar demigod anyone?). was i able to recover from it neatly and concisely in a couple months or years? no. and the most important part: could i do so in a way that would sound entertaining or even the least bit appealing to a 12yo when put into writing? Fuck no.

Even switching it up to ricks actual storyline, are there really mischaracterizations? or do we just think people stay the same from 12-16 or 16-18 especially after taking into account everything in the books? or are we just rewriting cannon to "fix" the timeline because now its not following the fanfic fanon timelines and characterizations again. Percy is objectively an awful and unreliable narrator throughout the books, but because we are only ever shown his view of a situation we as readers have to discern if he is reading a situation wrong or if we are. We already know all three of the trio are impulsive, capable of bad ideas, and still (surprise surprise) figuring out how growing as people works because its already rare for greek demigods to live into adulthood, so of course things will happen or are witnessed by percy that can be observed as being completely out of character. Lets be real, the trios entire past 6 years have been "plans with just enough 'winging it' for the world (and conveniently you) to survive" and now that they are finally given some breathing room together, would they really be cognizant of or care if something was "in-character" and consistent with all their past choices? did you make all the same choices at 18 that you would have at 12? 16? hell even 17?

[nomadicism]

That previous ask got me thinking. What else do you think would change about VLD if it was written now compared to back then? What are some of the major changes would you make to it? (Know I have plenty of my own, but I'm too much in the TWST fandom to do a fic rewrite of that series.)

Hi there, thank you for the Ask!

I got caught up in overthinking this one, and had to scale back my answer quite a bit. It's a great question and I can easily go off into so many tangents.

For the first part, this might be a cop out, but I think that almost everything about VLD would change if it were written now compared to 2015-2018. Looking back, it really seems like VLD is such a product of its time that it would be very different if written and produced now, even if same writers, producers, show runners, DreamWorks, Studio Mir, etc. There would be a few big changes that have a snowball effect on everything else, and it comes down to target demographics.

Animation for older audiences must be doing well, so I could see that if VLD were made today, it would be written for an older audience (I dunno, like young adults and people who watch “The Boys” or whatever), possibly with slightly older main characters and the story begins with that darker concept—I forget if this was rumor or confirmed—of the Earth already starting off ruined from war with the Galra and Keith, Lance, Pidge, Hunk, Shiro, etc already fighting as soldiers before becoming the paladins. I’m probably getting that confused, but I remember reading something like that as part of the initial concepts for the show.

Or, because it’s DreamWorks, then the audience would be younger, so that the main characters are tweens and young teens (like 11 - 14). I only say that, because that’s closer to what almost everything else DreamWorks makes that isn’t for toddlers, or spinoffs of their movies for children. It’d be something with a more youthful vibe. But that doesn’t mean that it can’t tackle slightly mature themes, such as in Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts, Trollhunters, or The Dragon Prince. In that case, the story would almost entirely revolve around Keith (like way more than it already did).

Now, if there were things that I could change (not that I know anything about getting a show made, but whatever), it would be:

Pick a tone (or genre, or theme) and stick with it;

The main characters are robot pilots, not GI Joe Special Forces in Space (this also means no Blade of Marmora unless they are also piloting robots);

No magic. No caste of sacred Alteans. No space vampires. No space zombies. No fantasy window dressing. Psionic abilities can slot in for magic, and advanced science will often look like magic to those with far less advanced science. If cloning exists, then it can co-exist with psionics to give Zarkon et al immortality;

No shape-shifting Alteans. With psionic abilities they don’t need it;

Pollux exists, and “The Colony” concept remains in the trash where it belongs;

Zarkon and the Galra should not have already conquered the entire universe (which is always expanding and is so impossibly huge that not even 10,000 years would get an entire galaxy conquered, even with "magic");

If I'm going to crib something from Robotech, and that something is protoculture (e.g. quintessence), then I'm going all in and not stopping at the front door

Specific character related stuff is a very long essay, as there is much (perhaps most) things that I wouldn't change, but what I would change requires a lot of thought