#writing is wild and fun and interesting

[codenamethebird]

More Hades 2 rambles from me! Though this time round it's a continuation of a point I made in this post.

Specifically, that I think the final boss of the Surface will be a living human mortal.

A couple people on that post disagreed that it would be a human, mostly just because of boss fight mechanics. Which I do get, but this is my not so little refute of that idea (all in good fun of course, I very well might be wrong! I just have thought a bunch about it since then and wanted to ramble about it).

I'll be getting into later how the game could have a hard mechanically satisfying human final boss later, because first I want to talk about how it would make sense naratively. Not because anyone remotely argued this point, I just think it's interesting haha.

So let's go back for a moment to Hades 1, and it's final boss, Hades himself. On a mechanical sense, it makes total sense, Hades is the god and master of the underworld Zag is trying to escape. He would be the final obstacle. But what really makes Hades work as the final boss, is the story and emotional reason he's there.

The plot of Hades is ultimately about Zag's messy relationship with his dad. And that final boss fight is an ongoing conversation with him. While irl you and your questionable dad constantly fighting to death is not a great way to fix your problems, these are weird bound to underworld greek gods. Death is their weird love language for like half this cast haha. There is a reason Death is one of, if not the main love interest.

Okay now that I've established that, let's look at the one final boss we do know from Hades 2, Chronos. Now it's Grandpa's time to shine. Unlike Hades 1, he fits a lot cleaner into a more traditional villian role. The monster who literally takes over your house and takes your family hostage.

In that way, it is a personal fight for Mel to save her family, but Mel lacks a specific personal connection to Chronos himself. Obviously there's the whole Grandpa thing, but she wasn't like raised by him or anything. He is a convient big bad she can hate simply and wholeheartedly. While he does try to challenge her beliefs at times, Mel will never listen to him because of the whole family kidnapping thing, and Gramps equally doesn't want to engage with her either. He just wants to be a dick to her.

While I'm a firm believer in the "We (the gods) are actually the bad guys" theory, I don't think Chronos is secretly an angel. He did you know eat his kids and that entire scene with Hades and him just reeked of shitty dad vibes. While Chronos might be better for humanity, I think he really is using them as a prop and doesn't genuinely care about them. (This is a derail, but I do think the human army side of things including Prometheus will turn on Chronos at some point. Specifcally that they are already planning to).

But yes, basically, while I adore Chronos as a villain, you get none of the character growth from either party that you got between Zag and Hades in the first game. Obviously, we are still in early access, so there's more dialouge to be had. But from what we have seen, those two are not changing the other. So this is my roundabout way to say that must mean the Surface boss is the one that is going to be all about Melinoe's character growth.

I don't think I need to explain why fighting a human would be a fascinating place for character growth for humanities #1 hater Melinoe. Mel's the Hades equivalent in this game (not the Zag), who will not listen to anyone who disagrees with her. Getting beat up by a human might actually start to get it through her head.

But also I want to dig into why I don't think the final boss will be another Titan. I've seen Atlas thrown around a bunch as a possible final Surface boss. Also Typhon... I'm certain there are others. But I don't know what they would add to the narrative, especially as a final boss? I think there's more evidence for Atlas, so I'll focus on him.

It would make some sense, he was the leader of the titan rebellion and much like Prometheus, in certain versions of the myth he was also freed from his punishment by Heracles! Which considering Heracles suspicious lack of dialouge so far, and the dialouge he does have being a god hater, I do think he's the one who freed Prometheus in this game.

But other than those connections, what does Atlas add to make him an interesting antagonist to Mel? He's not particularly tied to humanity, and while his punishment sucked he did lead a rebellion against the gods (and traditionally the reasons have nothing to do with humans).

Mostly, in my opinion, if the game was going to have a titan also be the final boss for the Surface, it wouldn't be Atlas. It would be Prometheus. He's the powerful titan who has a legitimate gruge against the gods and who can engage with Mel in interesting ways, challenging her stance against the gods. But they have already used Prometheus, I don't know how they could write Atlas (or whatever titan/god) in a way that would be more interesting than Prometheus, and rival the Hades boss fight for thematic weight. Also, it would be 2 titans in a row, which isn't nessisarily a bad thing, but still.

I've also seen people throw around it might he Ares, which I will admit would I would be way more excited for that another titan. Theres some interesting ideas to be had with an Olympian who has betrayed the gods. But we already have dialouge with Athena where she says how Chronos' armies motivations wouldn't line up with Ares'. And I feel like going from a dude only obsessed with war to someone fighting for some kind of higher cause would be a jump in character. Not impossible, but a little weird.

And ultimately, I just think that a Human would serve the purpose better as an antagonist to Mel who would shake her worldview on living mortals in particular. A fight with Ares would mess with her relationship with the gods, but not as clearly with humans.

Okay now that I've talked about themes, how about what people actually had an issue with lol, how would a final boss with a human make sense from a boss fight perspective. I have three main ideas, that don't really contradict each other and could all exist in the fight.

1st idea: multiple enemies. We've heard that there are human armies, the final boss could possibly be a leader of them. We could have hords of enemies, could have select recognizable commanders that have different skill sets, etc. None of the Surface boss fights have multi bosses in them (they have random mobs but none like the sirens or Theseus and Asterius), so I don't think it would be strange to have it. And while stretching the definition of a human boss a bit, these other bosses could be ghosts and other kinds of beings (I just think the main boss should be a breathing human).

2nd idea and tbh my main one. Have them be a Witch! Or some other kind of magic user. I feel like this should be obvious, but a lot of the theming around Hades 2 is witchy/magic stuff and it's wild we don't have a major witch enemy yet (other than obviously Hecate, but for obvious reasons I don't count her).

I'm thinking some kind of High Priestess of Chronos kind of character, we still don't know exactly how Chronos was revived and this could tie in, but there's a bunch of ways you could spin a magic user! I think it would be a prime place to put a narrative foil to Melinoe. A fellow Witch whose family was stolen away by the gods who is looking for justice. Maybe when finally looking into a mirror, some of the stuff Melinoe's been told will finally breach her thick headed skull haha.

I don't think I really need to get into the technical about how a witch fight could be cool. But one idea, tying into my first point, a magic user could have mind powers and compell powerful beings to fight for them. This could be the Zag boss fight of borderline crack theories or even maybe the aforementioned Ares who maybe got captured during his war path. A magic fight doesn't need possessed enemies, but it could be cool.

And finally, my 3rd idea. You might be going, but how could a human be more powerful than Prometheus? Well first point magic, but more seriously, just have them be boosted by Chronos and/or other allies. I mentioned a theory about a high priestess sort of character (the power of God and ani--), but more specifically, if they do go the route of a foil to Melinoe, she has her boons from the gods. Much like Theseus in Hades 1, the final surface boss could gain the boons of Chronos/Prometheus/and the like. Maybe even a Chaos boon, they have already aided Chronos once, and there's a decent chance the humans might betray Chronos at some point so Chaos might be chill with them. This could also be a way to introduce more titan characters and the like without needing to make models for them haha.

But yes, tldr, magic human gives us both the thematic weight of it being a human, witch stuff to parallel Melinoe, and just cool powerful magic fight as a final boss (and it could parallel the Hecate boss fight, the first boss u fight and the last being magic based).

[matryoshkalex]

i forgot i started this in like april and never finished bc i got super busy with tmaynt but i suddenly remembered and finished it this week!!

i watched 2003 when i was in like? middle school and same as it never was stayed with me and was one of my favorite episodes because ive always been a fan of the darker and more angsty stuff. so i thought about 2012 in the sainw timeline and couldnt get it out of my head so. here they are. two versions because i couldnt decide which background i liked more

[orangemytummyhurts]

Rediscovering my childhood special interests is so fun everyone needs to try this. Like, I should re-memorize dog breeds cause why not? Wings of Fire obsession? Give it back! Why was I into Wild Kratts to an unreasonable amount? Idk but I’m retrying it

[phantomrose96]

is a Riteru read of ABoT the intended one?

It can be if you want it to be buddy. Go enjoy the world!

More genuine answer: I'm an aro-ace writer with a long long streak of gen-fic. Shipping doesn't interest me. I don't hate it; it just doesn't click for me at all. I joke that the only way romance ends up in the story is if it's a plot-necessity (Tetsuo and Jun are there because 'married man suspected of having an affair' is what pulls Reigen into the entire Mogami-possession plot. The Kageyama parents are married because they're, well, the parents. Teru and Mei's relationship is a joke until it's plot-relevant.)

So to me, I'm not writing Ritsu and Teru's relationship as a ship. But also? This is all pretend. It's all transformative. This is for fun. I absolutely know that if I were a ship-writer, Riteru would be the obvious choice. I know they're one angry-kiss away from being someone's enemies to lovers fic. So if you look at Ritsu and Teru in ABoT and say "they're holding hands, to me", go right ahead, go hog-wild, come play Barbies with me.

[miladydewintcr]

Happy DADWC-day

Oooo villians... well I am drawn to Meredith, and my first thought is Meredith and Orsino... maybe with added Elthina if you're up for it, because i kind of want to lock those 3 in a room and watch what happens 😂

as for a prompt... how about "no matter what i do, it's never enough." front he 𝑨𝑵𝑮𝑺𝑻 𝑺𝑬𝑵𝑻𝑬𝑵𝑪𝑬 𝑺𝑻𝑨𝑹𝑻𝑬𝑹𝑺.

Thank you for the prompt <3 I locked them in a room for you!! I didn't quite get the prompt in there exactly, but I think the Vibe of the whole thing fits it? if that makes sense?

For @dadrunkwriting

Rating: T Characters: Meredith, Orsino, Elthina Word count: 719 TW: mentions of torture, abuse of power, mentions of child abuse, imprisonment-- nothing explicit, but canon-typical DA2 things

Meredith was pacing, her heavy boots thunking rhythmically against the stone floor. Orsino bit his tongue- no matter how much he wanted to say something, he knew from experience that it was usually better for her to work her frustration out of her system first. Sometimes, occasionally, she was amenable to listening to his suggestions-- when she was in a good enough mood. She had to be in a good mood first, though. It was pointless to try otherwise.

“We will have to clear out the entire eastern wing,” Meredith was saying, mostly to herself. “Everyone who’s set foot there in the last… week or so, should be examined for signs of demonic possession. I’ll have Cullen lead the interrogations.” Thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk. Spin. Thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk.

There were a few times where Orsino almost spoke up (there were two classrooms in the eastern wing, did she truly intend to interrogate teenagers? Children? (she did, and she would- they both knew she would)). But things rarely went his way if he said anything at times like this. Instead, he tried to catch Elthina’s attention, as subtly as possible. A slight wave of his hand, still held stiffly by his side. An imploring look.

Elthina finally caught sight of him, the growing desperation in his eyes, and stepped forward with a barely audible sigh.

“Knight-Commander,” she said, with enough firmness to halt Meredith’s pacing entirely. “Far be it for me to tell you know to run your Circle, but-”

- Meredith bristled slightly, but kept her mouth shut.

“Could we perhaps consider quarantining the potential blood mages? Instead of expending Templars to interrogate them when they could be better used elsewhere.”

Solitary confinement. It was still torture, but it would not be as bad as it could be. Orsino had to grasp hold of the small victories.

“I would need to station Templars as guards,” Meredith dismissed the idea, and Orsino felt his heart sink. “It would be far quicker, and thus more efficient, to go through with the interrogations. If we were to use your idea, Your Grace, I would lose those Templars for at least the next week. My method is quicker. In, and out.”

“You do know their workloads best,” Elthina conceded.

“With all due respect,” Orsino spoke up, fighting to keep his voice steady. His hand clenched at his side. Stay calm, he reminded himself sternly. It does no-one any good for you to lose your temper.

Both women turned to face him; Meredith, as though she’d forgotten he was in the room at all; and Elthina with an expression that begged do not say anything foolish.

Orsino had been First Enchanter for a long time now. He liked to think he knew what he was doing, when it came to Knight-Commander Meredith.

“Do you plan to employ the same methods you used last time you suspected blood magic, Knight-Commander?” he asked coolly. “Because I believe your Templars were asked to extract confessions of guilt from the accused, and not to accept a denial under any circumstances.”

Elthina shot Meredith an incredulous glare, and Meredith looked, for a fraction of a second, like a chastised schoolchild. She quickly fixed her features into a scowl, which she turned on Orsino with full force.

“Where did you hear such information?” she asked, taking a step towards him.

Orsino flinched. No amount of control of his body and his mind could prevent such reactions, and he inwardly cursed himself for it.

Meredith’s brows furrowed further. “Who told you?” she asked, voice low, deceptively calm.

“So you don’t deny it?” Elthina cut in.

Meredith realised her misstep a fraction of a second too late. In full view of Orsino, but out of sight of the Grand Cleric, she rolled her eyes before turning back to her superior. “Blood mages lie, Your Grace. Surely you must know this.”

“Is not a person accused of any sort of crime innocent until proven guilty?” Orsino said.

Elthina’s eyes flicked between the two of them. Her expression hardened. “We cannot take such risks with blood magic. Not in a city like Kirkwall.” To Meredith, she added, “I will defer to your judgement.”

Orsino wondered how he was going to explain another group of mages made Tranquil to their loved ones.

[samuelroukin]

oh twelve tabs of research we're really in it now

[fictionadventurer]

Well, I didn't get any writing done, but I did watch the Wiggles documentary.

[animangalover-writes]

Time for another dream i had, this time about zutara.

This one is a lot shorter, but essentially I had a dream where kataras whole family(which seemed to have more members then in the show) all live in the fire nation, hiding the fact that they're water tribe(rather, they were water tribe).

Katara is in some sort of relationship with zuko. It's unclear if she's his wife, his girlfriend, or his mistress, but its not hidden. People know about her and her relationship with him.

(Putting the rest under a cut so I don't clog up the feed lol)

If she was his mistress it's kinda held in that way that kings had other women they'd sleep with along with their queen and it was just an accepted, albeit kinda shitty, thing to do.

Anyway, katara is also pregnant, which was kind of an underlying "plot point" and would return home to her family every day to check on them.

It's revealed here that katara is basically the only reason her family is doing pretty well for themselves. Her relationship with zuko means that they have enough to get by. It's also noted that her whole family(katara, sokka, their dad, their grandma, and some made up new family members) all live in one house. So its clear they're still kind of struggling.

It's also revealed, through a conversation with her grandma, that the only otehr reason katara is with zuko, is because it was part of a bigger plan. She and her family are part of a resistance against the fire nation, and when they realized zuko liked katara, wanted her to infiltrate and pretend to be in love with him.

The plan had clearly gone on longer then anticipated, for whatever reason, and katara is conflicted because she actually does have feelings for him now, not fo mention she's pregnant with his child.

There's a "scene" either at the beginning or after this reveal that shows zuko in a meeting with other fire nation officials, including his father and sister, and that either he was against one of their plans but is ignored or his plan gets shut down(I don't remember which). Katara always sits in on these meetings with him, and afterwards, as everyone is getting up to leave, she leans her forehead against his and whispers that everything will be alright. This is why we can tell she truly does care about him, to some degree. But it's also a moment showing potential manipulation, like shes pretending to care. It's supposed to be a little of both, she needs him to trust her but she does still love him.

After all of this, we cut to a scene in a forest/swamp. This part is kind of blurry in my head, but basically, it's a secret meeting. Katara is dressed similarly to the painted lady, her and a few other resistance members, including Sokka, Suki, and Hakoda, are planning an ambush on Zuko and his family, who are supposed to travel down a path nearby. Katara is a key part of this plan, as she's the only waterbender, and she knows this. She nods along to everything regarding the plan and she goes over important points herself as well. But as everyone else continues talking, katara is having doubts. She loves Zuko. She's about to have his child. She cares for him. But she needs to free the world from the fire nations clutches as well. She doesn't want to kill Zuko, but she has to in order to help others. She's hesitating.

They continue with the plan anyway, and through the foliage that katara and the others are hiding in, we see a carriage making its way down the path. Zuko and his family(or at least his father) are in there.

Everyone is getting ready to fight, to jump out and attack. We see a close up shot of Katara, conflicted. She's still not sure if she can go through with this, if she can kill Zuko.

And then I woke up.

[squeakadeeks]

dont talk to Singer or her son ever again

[skitskatdacat63]

This is my personal crossover event of the century

[lazaruscorpse]

things i'm currently thinking about

jason being both little red riding hood and the wolf

jason being nicknamed little wolf (possibly by crime alley)

[inkbomber]

i have done something so strange with the pronouns... it's like, thematically relevant and shit but also weirdly interesting from like, a psychological perspective? i dont want to talk about it too much because if it doesn't work when read i don't know that it's going to be an effective metaphor... but it compels me...

[yellowocaballero]

You played the golden deer route!! (I think?) What's been your thoughts so far just like in general but also in comparison to blue lions? Claude and the golden deer are just so fun!!

I have not finished yet! Yes I am like 5/6ths done with the Golden Deer fic. I did something that I really shouldn't do, which is like consume 1/4th of the media and go "okay I could make a fanfic out of this" and then write a long-ass fic just based off initial impressions (this is how Theater of the Absurd happened - if you're wondering why everybody was so drastically out of character, that's why). I'm still only mostly done with the Academy phase, so no spoilers!

Thoughts so far? Claude is so funny. I am genuinely so, so fascinated by him. He's one of those characters who clearly has an entire existence and situation and insanity and you're just barely privy to the surface of it. Our C support is me walking into his room (why did I do that?) as he concocts poisons. He's a mad scientist. He wants to dissect his friends like they're insects. He's incredibly self-absorbed. He's convinced he's the smartest person in the room. He's on his gap year and he's taking a vacation with the white people and the country he leads is not his biggest priority. He wakes up in the morning, looks at himself in the mirror, and says "I'm a SCHEMER I'm a TRICKSTER I'm IMPENETRABLE I'm NOT LONELY". He has a biracial narrative and it's left him with a superiority complex because the alternative is to always be inferior. He'd be a better leader if he cared more.

I love Hilda also. She's so cunning but so kind, and her competence is underlined by her severe self-esteem issues. I haven't really connected with most of the Golden Deer - their ensemble narrative is not NEARLY as strong as the Blue Lions or Ashen Wolves. They aren't all part of the same story, I feel like. I'm still working on their supports (which are mostly C and some B right now...I kinda substituted most of them on the battlefield for the AW...sorry I have faves). Most of them are either a little annoying or uninteresting...Lysithea baby girl...Lorenz is actually deeply Felix coded in that he's kinda the sanest. He cares about all of the actually important things that nobody else cares about when they really should, and a lot of unimportant things,

I didn't expect this to happen, but Claude as your BFF actually deeply underscores how 1) Dimitri is insanely in love with you, and 2) Dimitri's bugfuck. Claude's so normal about everything. Makes me go "Wow Dimitri was normal about fucking nothing".

I'm looking forward to the War Phase and seeing how things change. These kids are fucking disasters in their lives and to each other, which mirrors their disaster country. Right now Claude's the most fascinating aspect to me. I'm not plugged into the fandom, but from what I can see his complexity and depth is kind of slept on - he has a comic relief role in dynamics, but I can already tell it's pretty constructed. Writing him as a jokester is like writing Dimitri as a preppy, perfect, adorably awkward nerd. Yes, that is a major part of how they present themselves to the public. I can't entirely call it a lie. But if you think that those performances are genuine, then you're buying what they're selling. Claude, Dimitri, and Edelgard are liars, and if you stay surface level in your depiction you're scrubbing out what makes them good characters. Also, especially in Dima's case, The Point

[utilitycaster]

WAIT just remembered that Laura's original concept for a sorcerer was wild magic tied to a deal with a fey entity...Travis is entertaining deals with Nana Morri...Imogen, there's a backup option if you're worried about Predathos the Big Red End.

[elegyofthemoon]

wait actually ruan mei wanting to become an aeon brings back that questionable legend about how someone on the luofu became lan i need to go back amd look for it but its a thought.

[transbeamrooikat]

writing Ghoul is always so fun she's so. feral animal (/pos)