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#I got the main antagonist and the how the plot is solved
ultimateily-icus · 2 years
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What if I make the members of the chain into mythical creatures.
What if I make em go on an adventurer
What if Sky was a God
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the-awful-falafel · 7 months
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Okay. I returned briefly to R&M just to watch the latest episode because I heard Evil Morty came back.
... unpopular opinion I guess, based on the excitement in the tag, but I... didn't like how they executed his return that much? Like it was promising on paper, but in execution I was constantly like "... :|"
From the moment Evil Morty showed up in front of Rick C-137 and Morty Prime, he just felt like he was there to stand around and quip constantly and to get counter-quipped about how much of an asshole he was being, as well as to pull off Rick-tech cyborg badassery to fight alongside Rick in a very overblown way (his more unique manipulative skills only getting to show with the fakeout near the end). There's no... gravitas, for a lack of a better word. He just shows up and oh, he's here, and he's helping, and he feels strangely superfluous to the plot in spite of all the little ways the episode has him progress the fight against Rick Prime. It felt fanservicey and not in the good or natural way.
It also felt like there were scenes missing between the moment he appears and the moment he starts giving backhanded technobabble advice to Rick about how to improve his tech. Like... shouldn't there be more tension, instead of this casual acceptance of "oh this guy again, this is happening"? Why does the episode not give time to explain why Evil Morty decided to help our Rick kill Prime to solve the curve-fracking disruption, instead of just killing him? Why is Evil Morty giving snarky advice and/or cooperating with Rick like they're a real team with minimal preamble? It didn't go enough into the thought process from A to B for most scenes in the episode, honestly. Things were just constantly being thrown at you with no time to digest what was going on, making it all feel rather shallow (until the end, I guess)
Also, aside from that moment where he shows interest in bringing Morty along, Evil Morty gets no meaningful interactions with Morty Prime at all (who, as an aside, does so little this episode it's uncanny, even though being faced with a competent alternate version of himself who loathes Rick is perfect character development fuel, and they just keep wasting it by giving him nothing to do and not following up on the confrontation in S5 meaningfully) and in addition he's randomly acting far more tolerant to the main duo + giving them more credit for reasons that feel very OOC and more just to justify the rushed team-up. They could have done a lot with his distaste for our R&M because they represent what he hates about the abusive dynamic he left, like they hinted at in the S5 finale, but that seems quietly dropped or at least ignored. All the interesting parts of his character aside from being a hypercompetent asshole Morty got kinda glossed over due to the insanely rushed pacing and him existing as a plot device, even though I conceptually like the idea of him being less of a straightforward antagonist and more of a wild card who wants to be left alone after his escape in Season 5. He did feel somewhat more natural at the end once it he was downloading the Omega weapon information from Rick Prime, but his parting words where he shows an interest in our Rick felt so forced I cringed.
... I did like his intro backstory somewhat, but there wasn't anything really surprising in it (aside from the Evil Rick attempted suicide scene, jesus that got dark real fast and reminded me of my old fanfic), so in practice it kinda just ruined the mystique and prior applicability of Evil Morty's character to every Morty's backstory + character trajectory. Ironically, showing too much led to his character feeling smaller, not larger, and muddied what made his parting speech in S5 work so well. I feel like they should have just kept him relaxing in his private resort and dropped the rest of the intro, honestly. That was the best part, seeing how pissed he got at his peace being interrupted.
All that being said, I think a lot of the ideas in this episode were decent on paper, but it should have been a two-parter. Nothing was given room to breathe as they just hit you with canon after canon to service Rick's greater arc, and as a result Evil Morty felt really wasted here. And I was surprised since I was going into this expecting to enjoy it as an Evil Morty fan.
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Rewatching Inside Job again and just thinking about how great the ending is in a sense of what it set up and ended. It tied up so many things but also made up so much room for different and new opportunities.
Like Rand and JR are in Shadow Prison, allowing Reagan to be the head of cognito. They aren’t super crucial to the plot but they still can contribute to the story in different ways (ex Reagan going to them (mainly Rand) for advice or the robes using them as bait/threats).
It introduced obviously the whole Robes as antagonists and a mystery to be solved, while also introducing a new dynamic between the main Gang and the different secret societies. It also introduced a really interesting place for Reagan as a character, having to be an actual leader on her own, limited influence from her parents, and, ofc, how she would deal with Appleton. Also Brett! Brett in Appleton showed a completely different side of him- a leader with a lot more confidence in himself but still needing the support of a team or others around him. It would have been great too to see how he could grow as a leader and a person. Like you can tell how much Shion wanted to grow these two characters and help them find happiness.
(The scene where Reagan tells Brett she’s running away is so good AHHH. The silence and how he just says “I got this” after looking at her injury, her deadlines, and her medication and how this job will kill her if she keeps going like this. This issue was never tied up or addressed and it would have been so amazing to see Reagan working in a place where she has everything she wants but so much to prove and so much work + the grief from Ron and Rand, how would she handle it??)
I also feel like, had the show gotten the chance to exist in its finality, I’m sure there would be so many callbacks from the earlier episodes. Nostalgia Brett would be powered up for the series finale, The Flat Earther guy would return as king of the mole men, and I’m sure even Ron would find a way to come back whether it be as just a reminder rod what could have been or as something more.
It was such a good ending to set up for so much. I can’t stand that it’s cancelled and I need some more fandom content. How many fanfictions can one gal read. Ugh, everyday I’m begging someone to bring this show back.
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linkspooky · 1 year
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Would you ever do a Fukuchi meta? I'd love to read your thoughts on him and his role in the story.
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Fukuchi is an interesting character in the fact that he is not what anyone expects him to be, and he never does what's expected of him. I feel like he doesn't get discussed a lot, for many reasons, one being he's the reason this arc is dragging, the second he's an antagonist who's not a pretty anime boy, he's also kind of soaked up screentime from DOS who all indications point to is the longterm more important antagonist. However there's still a lot going on with his character, the hunting dogs may be late additions to the story and their arc may have like cannibalized the whole narrative but they're still fantastic characters in their own right.
1. The Two Fukus
So Fukuichi's character really starts when he is revealed to be Kamui, turning him from what was a pretty shallow foil for Fukuzawa, an old buddy and wise mentor type just on the hunting dogs not the detective agency into the prime antagonist of the arc. I call this plot twist, the surprise twist that is not really a surprise. After all despite Dos being effectively billed as the main villain of the decay of angels, and Sigma and Goggol being his instruments he has been effectively in prison the whole arc. It is the hunting dogs who have dogged the detective agency every step of the way.
A lot of what makes Fukuichi's character and the hound dogs as a whole so meta-textually interesting is the way he plays with all of these expectations. After all, why would we expect anyone other than Fukuichi to be the main villain of the arc? The antagonist has always been the hunting dogs. They've been shown to be both brutal and relentless. They have amoral members like Jouno and Teruko who are perfectly willing to employ torture both psychological and physical to their enemies. Jouno even admits that he enjoys it, and he doesn't even particularly care if the person he's hunting is innocent or not because it's not his job to sort out who is innocent and guilty it's his job to just hunt down whoever he's pointed at to the best of his ability.
Yet it's surprising as a reader that the leader of the Hunting Dogs is the main antagonist of the arc, and the one responsible for framing the detective agency in the first place? And why is that?
Perhaps, because the natural assumption is that because the Hunting Dogs are working with the government, instead of say outright criminals like the Port Mafia that they must have some honorable reason for what they are doing. They are recognized by the government and given that position of privilege and power so therefore their government approved justice must be the right justice.
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In the way we ignore basically every sign that the Hunting Dogs are corrupt and a perversion of justice because they have government backing, we also tend to just assume governments themselves are by default good because they create and maintain laws.
We assume because the government is just, that the framing of the Detective Agency is just a misunderstanding, or a malicious manipulation by Fyodor to hurt our heroes. That once the framing of the detective agency is cleared up then of course everything will go back to normal, because the problem is not how the Hunting Dog relentlessly pursue their targets and their perverted wielding of justice, it's just they've got the wrong guys. If they were to pursue actually guilty people with those same methods than that's totally okay. Which is why for the vast majority of this arc, the Detective Agency only cares about clearing their names assuming naturally this will solve all problems.
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This all comes to a head of course when it's revealed, not only does Fukuichi already know that the detective agency is innocent, he is the one who framed them to move his agenda forward. Fukuichi is in an instant changed from what looked to be the most honorable and reasonable of the hunting dogs, to traitor despite being close friend and personal foil of Fukuzawa himself the moral backbone fo the detective agency.
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And I think a lot about what is interesting about Fukuichi's character is the subversion of what he represents. Fukuzawa is a trustworthy authority figure, he's also a character who is steeped in traditionalism, and a character of the older generation. We trust him because we are told to trust our elders and believe the previous gen has our best interests in mind. Despite the fact that children are pretty regularly exploited in Bungou Stray Dogs, and we have tales of horrible poverty and abuse in many of the younger generations backstories we still believe that older generation and organizations like the government are keeping the peace and doing the best they can.
The world of BSD as shown to us if anything is one that has the thin veneer of peace and order, and yet is clearly ravaged not only by a terrible war in recent history, but also suffers from extreme proverty and unrest in areas, not to mention crime so bad it requires leaving an organization that deals in human trafficking, organ harvesting, drug trading on the regular like the port mafia in power because it acts like a crime deterrent. Fukuichi convinces the world's assembled governing bodies that the world itself teetering on the brink of chaos is this way because of "terrorists" of a few bad eggs like dostoevsky and his ilk, and not just a natural result of what seems to be a really shoddy governmental system that's bad at keeping the peace.
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And we're given a pretty obvious reason as to why the government as depicted in Bungou Stray Dogs is so poorly constructed to begin with, and it's because rather than using you know, social programs, taxes, services for the public good like governments are supposed to do the government instead focuses on fighting enemies and maintaining order not only through an iron fist but also through the empowerment of a select few powerful individuals. This is something really made worse by ability users, of cousre in a world where superpowered individuals exist one of the government's main way of enforcing its power is by supersoldiers. It seems obvious if you think about it.
So Fukuichi's character if anything reads to me as a criticism not only of the blind faith the citizens and even the good guys like the detective agency have in a government that has so clearly failed its population as an institution, but also the readers as well and our tendency to trust governments and institutions like the police and the military even when they've pretty obviously failed or abused their position. And why? Well, one of the biggest reasons is because people are tempted to simplify what is a messy reality into a black and white conflict between heroes and villains. It all starts with a character we naturally assume to be a good person, a war hero, a person who wields justice in the name of law and order turning out to be a selfish manipulator.
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The subversion around Fukuichi's character only builds from there. First, Atsushi having main character privilege and plot armor there's never really been a character that's able to stand up to the tiger before. Atsushi won the super power lottery, he has super healing, on top of one of the naturally strongest abilities even though he's not actually that good of a fighter. The first thing we're shown is Atsushi is absolutely useless in a fight against Fukuichi.Main character privilege doesn't apply anymore. Atsushi's not the hero anymore, in fact in one perspective he is fighting a hero who has saved the world several times on a scale Atsushi as a teenage boy doesn't really udnerstand.
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The first thing Fukuichi does is cut Atsushi's leg off and order him to stand, because the pain he's facing right now is absolutely nothing compared to what Fukuichi has been through. Atsushi's not facing off against someone with a powerful ability, but a seasoned hero who far outstrips his combat experience in every step of the word. After which point he imediately paralyzes Atsushi with fear and cuts off his plucky hero attitude.
Fukuichi is unique among all of Bungou Stray Dogs antagonist in how genuine a threat he is. Nothing the heroes throw at him works. Dazai's near omniscient planning ability fails. The Shin Soukoku combination which has always beaten any enemy that it was up against before not only doesn't win the fight, but all they can manage to do is flee in shame after sacrificing Akutagawa's life.
Fukuichi doesn't really conform to any narrative expectation of him at all. After all he was the antaagonist who showed up at the end of the arc, he was supposed to be put down by the Soukoku combination like a final boss and after they retrieved the page from him, the detective agency would be proven innocent and then everything would reset to status quo like it did after Fitzgerald and the Cannibalism arc. But... thats not what happened. Not only does he subvert the expectations of the narrative, but the characters themselves keep trying to make Fukuichi conform to a more easy to understand character. After all one of the first thing Atsushi shouts at him is that he must have suffered from a tragic backstory during the war time that is responsible for his fall.
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We learn right away he did experience the horrors of war, but he wasn't the victim in that case, he was the crimminal who committed war crimes. He's tormented not by actions done to him, but rather actions he did to others.
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Fukuichi makes it clear to Atsushi the much harder to digest idea, that it was the needs of the government itself and the "greater good" that even the detective agency is supposedly fighting for that required him to be a monster. Something that Atsushi immediately rebuffs and simply labels him as an evil to be stopped.
Which is interesting because the Hunting Dogs have always been about doing evil in order to pursue absolute justice. But once again, we as the audience misinterpret this to mean well they're only being cruel and ruthless on people who are crimminals and therefore deserve it. We miss out on the really obvious fact that if they're willing to act this inhumane with crimminals, then really how far away are they from practicing that same cruelty on completely innocent people.
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Fukuichi then goes on to express a very budhist idea.
The eight worldly concerns or eight worldly dharmas (Skt. aṣṭalokadharma; P. aṭṭhalokadhamma; T. འཇིག་རྟེན་ཆོས་བརྒྱད་, ‘jig rten chos brgyad) are a set of worldly or mundane concerns that generally motivate the actions of ordinary beings.[1] They are:
hope for pleasure and fear of pain,
hope for gain and fear of loss,
hope for praise and fear of blame,
hope for good reputation and fear of bad reputation.
Preoccupation with these worldly concerns is said to be an obstacle to genuine spiritual practice.
Basically budhism elaborates on the concept that the reason evil or misfortune exists in the world on such a grand scale is because it is perpetuated by everyone, normal, average people are so preoccupied by normal every day concerns that they don't spend their lives living in pursuit of justice or the right thing.
Which is essentially the concept that Fukuichi's entire character revolves around, because most normal people don't pursue justice, because the vast majority of people are weak, because they do what is easy rather than what's right they force the burden on heroes like Fukuichi. People rely on narratives of heroes, of good and evil, because they don't want to face the very mundane corruption of the world around them. Fukuchi is a monster and a tyrant but he's also someone who has been forced into that role, because both he, and everyone around him had to sacrifice their humanity for the sake of the so called "Common Good". Fukuichi's suffering is extremely profound, even as he freely hurts others and betrays close friends and allies. He mentions to himself that his own existence is so painful, he'd rather have been nothing and not have been born in the first place. He doesn't even seem to want to be doing the things he is doing, but continues on out of necessity.
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Fukuichi's methods are selfish manipulation and cruel betrayal of his own allies the moment they call his actions into question and stand up against him, and yet he seems to carry it out for entirely selfless reasons. Fukuichi himself remarks on his actions not like they're enjoyable, but they are necessary suffering he must inflict on others and the world, like they are karma, fate, like justice isn't just an idea but rather an inevitable force like gravity.
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He is not only made into a human greater than all of humanity by the needs of both government and the common man, he also makes himself into a superior human being in order to strike back against those things.
The subversion of expectations continues and continues. Fukuichi claims he does everything for the sake of his own allies, and then procees to butcher said allies as he seizes control. He claims to be anti-government, but his goals from what Ranpo can suss out from them are sheer world domination. He acts like an anarachist, but his method seems to be making himself dictator of the world.
The main draw of Fukuichi's character is that he is pretty impossible to pin down, which is exactly why his motivation despite being the focus of chapters upon chapters worth of scrutiny also hasn't been revealed to us yet. He gets even more screentime and focus then Dotsoevsky as of late, and yet he's just as mysterious to the audience. He doesn't conform to the shallow ideas of heroism and justice carried by characters like Atsushi who like to play hero, hence why Teruko gets extremely angry when Atsushi tries to convince her the one hunting dog who remained loyal without being manipulated to change sides with mere pretty words.
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In the most recent chapters we are shown again two people desperately trying to fit Fukuichi into a narrative, the first being the government official who wants an easy solution, that Fukuichi is still a hero and his extreme actions are secretly a way of saving the world. The second being Fukuzawa who believes his old friend only wants selfish revenge for him and his comrades. Only for both of them to turn out to be wrong with their very black and white answers.
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It's the desire for easy narratives in the first place, that create people like Fukuichi and allow him to manipulate people so easily. Interesting when you consider the origin of Fukuichi's name and his connection to Fukuzawa, an author whose main goal in life was to educate the masses and make the common people able to read and understand the current events in the newspaper.
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It's the weakness of the common man that has created someone like Fukuichi by requiring him to be superhuman, and yet at the same time that seems to be his greatest weakness as well.
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Fukuichi was created out on the battlefield, he was no one before that point, and he's also so self loathing he desires to just not exist. So, the perspective he's completely seperated from is that of an average, ordinary person, which is why even up until now he hasn't been able to find one simple girl running away with Dracula's head. That is what is likely going to be his undoing as well, not a defeat handed to him by a hero, but rather an ordinary and average human stopping him.
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Which I believe will fulfill Fukuichi's goals and wishes in a way, even if it's not the extreme reforms of the world he wished for, he is still someone who desperately wants the burden of heroism to be lifted from him. It's not just politicians who send soldiers to war, but also the average people who live far away from that conflict and yet support the jingoistic and nationalist attitudes of the country they inhabit. So what can better prevent those same wars, then average people stepping up in gerater numbers in the place of heroes.
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rmbunnie · 8 months
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Watched through adventure time start to finish for the first time and of course it was great and of course I'm going to be drawing fanart at some point in the not-distant future (can't say near tho lmao school is keeping me busy) but my god the finale. I already knew the plot points tbh because i Am Online and Like Cartoons and if both of those things are things you are, you see the bubbline kiss and Finn saying "I always thought i'd go out a hero" and that's pretty much unavoidable, but what really got me was Time Adventure.
I saw someone on Twitter or something, maybe on here, say that the antagonist of Adventure Time is personal stagnation, and it was a comeback to someone else, but it really is true that from season 7 on the show starts leaning Realllllly hard into Growth as the topic the show's about (and season 7 is like. a pretty noticeable line for this switch tbh, NOT that the first 6 seasons are unimportant to the final end point, but the change is visible.) This is especially clear seeing as Gumbald and Fern, who refuse to accept growth and change to a unique extent, and are incapable of personal growth due to being an outgrown past version of the mc held that way indefinitely by a grass curse, respectively, are the main antagonistic forces of the final season. (Betty also counts as both an antagonistic force in the finale and unable to accept growth to me seeing as she was the reason Golb was summoned and, I mean, Temple of Mars is ABOUT her being unable to grow on an internal-beliefs level despite accepting the magic of the future as an external tool, so that checks both boxes, but i'm not sure of the overall Betty opinion and also she isn't the main point.) What I'm getting at is, with the major emphasis on changing as an individual, Time Adventure is especially poignant to me, because outside of being a (still very good) meta song about the show ending, in the context of the show it reads as a song about how sad growing as a person is when you're the person who's changing, and how it would be great if you could just. always be a 12 year old kid in the first season who doesn't understand that there are problems that can't be solved and fights you can't win, who can always go back to his treehouse at the end of the day. And how with the passage of time, it's inevitable to change, but at least that kid is and will forever be in season 1, even as the only physical version of himself from the past blows away in the wind as he asks to go back to a place that's now rubble. This isn't exactly breaking news but still, in a show that leans so hard into the way maturing means changing as a person the final message being "it's hard to be a new person and lots of things ARE lost forever but all past versions of you that you can no longer be exist in the past and aren't going anywhere" instead of like, "woohoo! Maturing is neat! Look at how much everything has improved!" is really good. Idk it just kinda means more really knowing that they're sad about the change.
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thegeminisage · 10 months
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i decided to make a list of 15 of my favorite plot devices
i think they're mostly in order but all things are subject to change. time to explain my passions
1. asexuals - self-explanatory. the best number one joy of all time is when there is an asexual person, canonically, and not just in my mind palace. so far no show has managed to do this except fucking shadowhunters (and bojack horseman ig but it's not my thing). i know there are people out there who can write way better than the shadowhunters writing room but i don't know why they aren't getting on this. tick tock. example: raphael shadowhunters
2. amnesia - notably different from dementia, which is depressing and bad (thinking about you, dean winchester). amnesia is only good because eventually they get it back. the best thing about amnesia is that it shows you who your Little Guy (gender neutral) is with everything stripped away from them including their sense of self. do they still go for the same kind of coffee? do they still click with the same people they used to love? can they still fight? what do they stand for? it's very rewarding when your little guy acts the same way without knowing why. it's also especially cool for action heroes bc they'll still be able to win a fight and it's like wow <3 fight scenes with emotional stakes!! also i love that it gives us a mystery to solve. sometimes a partially amnesiac character is amnesiac because they did a terrible crime. and they've got to solve it while accidentally working against their past self. fun! examples: fang from ff13. wolverine. why, who did you think i was going to use
3. brainwashing - for the same reasons as amnesia. it's the same concept: take away everything and who is your little guy? the real little guy is in there and they are working so hard to get out. also they will be sooo sad about all the crimes they did later. example: fenris dragon age. d'avin killjoys. and okay fine one other guy we're not talking about
4. enemies to lovers - what's better than two people wanting to murder each other until they don't......always a good side of bickering with this as well. main draw tho is the process of simply two people getting to know one another in the way that you can tell strangers things you can't tell your friends. it's more work to love someone when you hate them and with more work comes a better reward. also, sexual tension. example: so many. fenris/hawke. fenris/anders. botw link/zelda. john/aeryn. bonnie and damon if the cw weren't cowards and i don't even like damon i think he's unforgivably horrible (derogatory)
5. monster under the bed character - i don't know if this has a real name. it's like the One Guy (again, gender neutral) who has shaped the protagonist's whole life who is threat number one in any given situation. Primal Fear of this guy and all they represent is similar to how little kids are scared of the monster under the bed hence the name. it's not JUST an arch enemy or an antagonist it's like. the only enemy that matters. not a bad guy but THE bad guy. if you can boil someone's issues down and stuff them all into a single person and then also make that person scary. and then also they can fight!! fuck yeah fight scenes!!! if you're really lucky this will overlap with either somebody's parent or somebody's ex. examples: AUGH SO MANY. for dean winchester it's yellow eyes. for sam winchester it's lucifer. for fenris it's danarius. for jace wayland it's valentine. for dutch killjoys it's khlyen. for anakin skywalker it's palpatine. for derek hale it's kate argent. going nuts just thinking about it
6. reluctant assassins - crucially if they don't care about being assassins it doesn't work for me (sorry kassandra asscreed). i went into this in more detail here but your assassin simply Must be compromised in some way so they can regret all their little crimes later. otherwise what's the point?? this overlaps so thoroughly with brainwashed iedk if it should count as its own entry but whatever. examples: fenris dragon age. dutch killjoys. d'avin killjoys. elliot leverage. and the other one
7. two-person love triangle - this is a very specific sub-example of secret identities in general which ARE good except they're usually in superhero media and i am really just so totally fucking over the entire CONCEPT of superheroes. anyway it's when one person has a secret identity and the other person forms a relationship with their "real" identity and their "secret" one. and then they feel conflicted about loving two people at once and having to choose but SURPRISE it's the same person! i like this because it has anti love triangle energy. lots of romantic tension and none of the dumb fucking YA bullshit. (apologies to YA.) example: arthur and merlin (who is also "emrys" at least in fanfic)
8. 4th wall shit - when the piece of media is in your house with you. i don't feel i need to clarify further than this because dr gaster is probably spying on me as we speak. examples: everything toby fox has ever made. s*pernatural, sometimes. i also had a deeply haunted experience with final fantasy x.
9. last guy (gender neutral) standing - part of a team or group that got tragically mcmurder prior to the start of the story and this person is so terribly sad about it. crucially this has to be a side character whose relationships with dead people are more important than or equally important to their relationships with the current living cast members. character deaths you almost agree with because then at least they can be with their fallen buds. examples: auron from ffx, noel from ffxiii
10. immortal characters - for the same reasons as above but also they CAN'T DIE EVER so they don't even have that to look forward to. also sometimes they wind up being science experiments. examples: jesse turner from @cambionverse (sorry jesse)
11. evil doppelganger - usually this is in video games where they just take the sprite or the polygons and recolor them to be black but also you have some mirrorverse/au shit going on sometimes and then there's evil twins, and shapeshifters, and clones...i love when everybody gets tricked into thinking somebody is doing crimes but actually theyre just out here and it's their evil double causing problems on purpose and not even being the one to go to jail forever because of it. also, when the evil double has mind-reading powers or whatever b/s to 1. make them a better trickster 2. to make them better at precision-point roasting of whomstever they look like. also acceptable: when you little guy just suddenly turns fucking evil and/or gets possessed and you have to cure them to get them back. idk maybe that should go under brainwashing. examples: dutch and aneela. link and dark link. zelda and the puppet. soulless sam. demon dean. hullen johnny.
12. fire powers - WHO doesn't love a little arson...i feel like this is the same concept behind werewolves which boils down to "fear of anger" bc with anger comes the loss of control and the devastating fallout... your fire guy (gender neutral but idk any fire girls) has to have a lot of self control or they'll fuck everybody up. they're very dangerous! not unlike assassins. also, fire is pretty. bonus if they have done crimes before either on purpose or on accident. examples: jesse turner again, roy mustang aka the OG fireguy, prince zuko
13. big damn reunion - when two people are split up with little to no chance of ever seeing each other again and then they do anyway. this is why i'm never mad when they bring characters back from the dead. examples: i'm actually totally blanking on these, i feel like it tends to happen in fic so much more often. also i've been writing this list awhile
14. time travel - i love! time travel! i love when people see an apocalyptic future and go back and fix it (chrono trigger, ff13). i love when there's a stable loop (tears of the kingdom) or a paradox (song of storms in ocarina of time). i love visits to the ancient past (skyward sword). i love when there's just an actual fucking timeloop (s*pernatural). it's really good!!! examples: oops i just listed them all
15. body swap - last but not least i think it is so fun when two people wind up living each other's lives. it's more fun in tv when people get to switch which character theyre playing but it's good in any form because what a way to get to know someone and also the endless potential for shenanigans. examples: dreamless (webcomic), your name, various episodes of tv shows many of which are bad (s*pernatural's was extremely bad).
ok, that's the list. originally it was 10, then 13, then 15, so i think i'd better stop here.
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Guanyin temple thoughts (AKA nothing can stop a dramatic bisexual)- spoilers!
I'm reading the Guanyin temple scene in MDZS at the moment and LORD none of the media censoring Wangxian's gay relationship will ever be able to convey just how much Jin Guangyao got upstaged by them here-!!!
Especially comparing this whole fiasco with the one that went down in CQL, every few lines these 2 are doing SOMETHING really gay, usually also really funny because of the timing, while everyone else is paying attention to the plot. In CQL, this whole arc felt like a culmination to Jin Guangyao's and Lan Xichen's subliminally gay plotline more than anything, but the great thing about the novel is that Wei Wuxian especially just keeps stealing Jin Guangyao's thunder. First they have to deal with Wei Wuxian's obliviousness, then Wei Wuxian confesses, then Wangxian have their really sweet moment and spend every moment hereafter making their gayness known to all in a 5 mile radius (case in point: Wei Wuxian taunting Su She and making Lan Wangji laugh, Wangxian hugging and being super loud about it because of Wei Wuxian's trauma-induced cynophobia and then Wei Wuxian covering Lan Wangji's ears from the wrongly-played guqin)...and THEN Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian have THEIR moment while Jin Guangyao is discovering his mother's body is missing. Jin Guangyao's antagonism almost means nothing anymore.
Not to mention, Jin Guangyao is barely an antagonist for over half of this entire scenario. Even though he's keeping them all hostage, it's not like some of them have better things to be doing really (read: Wangxian and Nie Huaisang). All the catharsis they'd desperately needed for years, they're getting that here anyways. Jin Guangyao literally joins in on getting Wei Wuxian to realise his feelings, almost like it's a casual gossip sesh giving life advice to your (gay) sworn brother's son-in-law-to-be:
Wei WuXian glanced at him before turning to Lan XiChen, “It’s like this. I couldn’t sleep tonight and took a stroll outside the inn. I only came here accidentally. HanGuang-Jun’s in another room. He doesn’t know I went out.”
Jin GuangYao found this strange, “You two got two rooms?”
Wei WuXian, “Who told you we’d definitely get one room?
Jin GuangYao smiled, but said nothing. Wei WuXian, “Oh, I know.” Lan XiChen told him. Wei WuXian, “You two really do talk about anything and everything.”
This does NOT feel like a hostage situation- this just feels like a gathering of people who would be happier with extensive therapy. And...I have nothing useful to say really. I just think this is really funny. Especially when you consider how Wangxian's presence in the farce that was the Second Seige of the Burial Mounds (that legit just happened) derailed how THAT was supposed to go too, with Wei Wuxian solving the mystery of the gravedigger guy in live-time while Lan Wangji silenced anyone trying to argue with his bf.
Jin Guangyao and Su She are being sidelined hard in their own plot, and not just by the oriole to their mantis AKA mastermind Nie Huiasang. Even though they are supposed to be the main antagonists facing a climax, the real climax is the resolution of emotional conflict between the hostages they've taken. As for their fate, that was decided years ago when Jin Guangyao accelerated Nie Mingjue's death. The actual plot, interesting as it is, was barely ever in question because of the constant background presence of this mastermind, who's trapped Jin Guangyao exactly where he wanted to. There is no real defeating of the villain, because Jin Guangyao is made to be at his weakest in the temple, and his strongest before Wei Wuxian was even summoned back yet. It's so strange...it really sets in stone that in the novel MDZS, there is no real villain. There are people who learn from their mistakes, people who don't, and people who judge them as if they're any better. Nie Huiasang is Jin Guangyao's retribution for his continued crimes and Wei Wuxian is the person Jin Guangyao could've been if he stopped blaming others for said crimes...both of them, subtly or unsubtly, dominate his hostage attempt completely. Maybe that's what I'm really trying to say here. I do feel quite bad for Jin Guangyao though, having put his entire life into building up a reputation knocked over in 1 fell swoop, and having to watch his only true remaining friend lose trust in him in real time. All this additional conflict just further emphasises how Jin Guangyao's fall from grace has really already occurred.
Sidenote: Everyone becoming homophobic effective immediately after Wei Wuxian's ill-timed confession is also just really funny, they were so mad at his obliviousness like 2 seconds ago and now they're edging away from him (maybe to give them space, sure, but still)...Wei Wuxian, in all matters, is the epitome of "damned if you do, damned if you don't". Except for Jiang Cheng, in which case he's just straight-up damned (/lh).
Also the way they're yelling (it doesn't say they were yelling but I picture them yelling this) about hugging when Jiang Cheng shows up and while everyone else is like, "What's Sect Leader Jiang going to do? Will he beat Jin Guangyao? Will the plot advance?"
Wei WuXian, “Hug me!”
Lan WangJi, “I am hugging you!”
Wei WuXian, again, “Hug me tight!”
Lan WangJi, also, “I am hugging you tight!”
Managed to upstage not just Jin Guangyao but Jiang Cheng too, effortlessly, as Wei Wuxian always seems to :,) Take that, Jiang Cheng's pride! /lh
These guys have been separated for 13 years, ok? They deserve to have this.
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synergysilhouette · 5 months
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How "Mystery Inc." ruined the gang (and what they could've done to fix it)
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Lemme just say: this series was one of the best (if not the best) Scooby Doo shows for it's storytelling, but the storytelling is also what I'm frustrated with; the gang are given personalities that I wasn't a big fan of upon rewatching, and it's a shame, since there were opportunities to explore the characters' psyches rather than having them feeling like random takes on beloved characters.
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Fred Jones--I'm about to get a lot of negative attention for this, but I HATE this version of Fred. Since the 21st century (and even the late 20th century) the charming, intelligent, and sociable Fred Jones is nowehere to be seen, usually being portrayed as cocky, ignorant, or in this case, flanderized. In "Mystery Inc," Fred is socially inept, and while someone told me this may be because he was intended to be autistic, the show contradicts this in episode 6 of season 1 where he has a crisis over Daphne missing. He says "guys don't have feelings" and has this very weird sexist moment out of NOWHERE. It's never explained what made him feel this way, which is frustrating since the show did have the potential to show it. Along with this, Fred has an unhealthy obsession with traps. Like, it's not even funny; it's just annoying, especially since it was a big plot point when losing the planospheric disk. Mayor Jones--Fred's dad (no spoilers about that)--is shown to be distant from his son and discouraged Fred from solving mysteries so their town of Crystal Cove could thrive on tourism. THIS RIGHT HERE explains it: Fred's only parent figure is emotionally distant, leaving him to believe that men don't have feelings and thus shuts his out, relying on traps, something he can control and he can only blame himself for if they disappoint him. But no; it's a "kid's show" and thus the parents aren't involved unless they're directly tied to the mysteries at hand. His obsession with traps and emotional dissonance are instead reduced to quirks--annoying ones, might I add. Such a shame.
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Daphne Blake--I'm ENRAGED that her main storyline was about her relationship with Fred, especially since he never feels right for her due to the aforementioned reasons. Even when he got better with acknowledging his feelings, it always felt like Daphne deserved better. But that's not what my main point. My main point is this: Daphne comes from a family of rich and successful people, including four sisters who look like her and who she has iffy relationships with (they seem either not that close or antagonistic). It makes her insecure, and her feelings for Fred strengthen in order to rebel against her family's perfect wishes for her...but we rarely see the "perfect" image take hold. Throughout various versions, Daphne has proven to have MANY skills and interests, but "Mystery Inc" doesn't capitalize on this like they should. Ideally, they would've shown that Daphne is Ms. Perfect, and that she's unsure of what she wants to do in life because she's scared of her family's reaction (remember: her dad fainted when she said she and Fred were engaged). I wanted Daphne to explore herself before falling for Fred--and I wanted Fred to be a character worth her time. This is why the series finale felt so weird, since Daphne is now successful and her sisters are underachievers, but this is never a dream Daphne expressed having.
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Shaggy Rogers--Shaggy is portrayed more or less the same as all his other versions, but it's the details that make him less likeable for me. Noteably, he's been shown to have difficulty making decisions, particularly in his relationship with Velma. He allowed her to control the relationship and stressed out in order to try to keep her and Scooby happy. This is a lot of Velma's fault, but I'll get to her. With Shaggy, the show could've explained it by showcasing his confusing upbringing; his father is lenient and easygoing, while his mother is more strict and condescending, especially where Scooby is concerned. Shaggy being the loner due to a lack of social skills would've made sense since he was always worried about pleasing others and didn't want to put himself in stressful situations, as well as his deep connection with Scooby--plus Scoby isn't a normal dog; his speech, diet, and physical abilities mimic humans, so Shaggy treating him like one makes sense. And IDK how long they've known each other, but Scooby also has longevity and no health issues in sight, mimicking a human Shaggy's age.
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Velma Dinkley--Just like Fred, I haven't liked her 21st century interpretations. She's frequently bitter, cruel, and insecure, with the exception of "What's New," where she's just insecure (didn't like that aspect, though). She also engages in a toxic relationship with Shaggy and devalues Scooby. Now it was confirmed by someone at some point that Velma was closeted, which led to a forceful relationship with Shaggy that she desperately tried to make work. This doesn't excuse how she treated him (did she apologize, or was it just Shaggy?), and I assume her treatment of Scooby stems from her use of logic in every situation. Once that whole "Nightmare on Elm Street" episode came out, she had a mini-breakdown about the lack of logic in a supernatural situation, which could imply she was treating Scooby like a normal dog as a coping mechanism. Again, an apology was appropriate. However, how she acted around others, similar to the rest of the gang, could and should be traced back to her parents. They LOVE the supernatural--or at least what they can monetize from it. They lie and embellish things at their job to make it more interesting, and Velma takes pleasure in exposing the truth. It makes sense that growing up with people who do business by "stretching the truth" can make one jaded and cynical about life, but again, it's never explored for Velma.
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Scooby Doo--Scooby is probably the least damaged of the group in this show, imo, however my main issue with him does seem to be his inconsistency. His "dog? Where?" takes on a new meaning here, as the story is more serious and deep (except for the aforementioned issues), and they gloss over an existential crisis for Scooby: he acts like a dog one minute and a person the next. He has no worries like humans do aside from monsters and has typical dog mannerisms, but is quick to be offended or confused when people reduce him to a simple dog. While his feelings are understandable, he never sticks to them, expecting to be treated like a person whenever his feelings (or his appetite) is at stake, and a dog the other times. Given Scooby's various talents, I think it would've made more sense if he rarely ever acknowledged being a dog and audibly expressed his displeasure at not being seen as a human rather than it being a gag. It'd make him seem less contradictory and hypocritical when he's upset with Shaggy trying to spend more time with Velma than him.
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imaginethedragon · 5 months
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I’m so disappointed with Hazbin Hotel.
Big spoilers for the whole show, episode 5 and 6 in particular
The first four episodes were a bit fast, a bit packed, but they had promise, and the next two episodes just squandered it.
The first batch set up the Vees as the antagonists for season one. Valentino as Angel’s abuser and the force pulling him away from the hotel and back into sin. He was a bit less... intimidating than I was hoping he was going to be, being played more as a joke compared to Vox and Velvette, but it could have worked. Vox was being set up as a rival for Alastor, one who Alastor didn't seem to take too seriously, but would have been fun to watch their interactions, and would have been a good lens to learn more about Alastor. Velvette being the only one without any sort of tie to the main cast was a bit strange, but they could have leaned into episode 3 and her antagonizing the overlords. It would have been a cool B-plot, and a way to show hell itself and flesh out the lore, along with learning about the overlords and their dynamics. She only interacts with Carmilla and Zestial; what do the other overlords think about her and the Vees plans? How do they feel about taking on heaven and the exorcists?
The time jump after the first four episodes was, in my opinion a huge mistake, and a MASSIVE missed opportunity. That time should have been used to develop hell, establish the hotels presence. Why does no one want to join the hotel? Angel is only there (at first) for the free rent. Why aren't more demons taking advantage of that? Why aren't people showing up to creep on Angel? What are the Vees up to? Based on episode 3, they're quite eager to go to war. What in specific are their plans? What are they doing to work towards that goal? Skipping 4-5 months ahead makes them feel toothless, and not in an intentional way. Carmilla killed that one exorcist. How? This could have been a cool and fun mystery for Velvette to solve over the course of a few episodes, but we just get handed "Oh Carmilla did it to defend her daughters and she doesn't want to go to war." Okay, well, again, how did she do it? That should then be what Velvette is trying to solve. Lucifer has next to no build up, and his song with Charlie feels like unearned catharsis for a conflict that was barely established before it was resolved. Him not having a relationship with Charlie not because he's a bad father, but because he doesn't know how to, is a super interesting plot point, and I'm so disappointed it was resolved in the same episode it was introduced. He should have been way more established before being physically brought in. We should have learned how he runs the pride ring, what the people living there think of him, what his reputation is. Those 4-5 months should have been used to build him up as the powerful but reclusive ruler of hell, maybe invoked as a threat (against the Vees by Carmilla for example, "stop provoking the overlords or I'll call Lucifer in to deal with you"). We should have seen more from Charlie talking about her relationship with him, building up their strained dynamic, and how it came to be. Did Lilith keep them apart? Was Lucifer busy and not make enough time for her when she was a child/pre-teen? We could have seen him interacting with an underling, or even talking to himself, lamenting that he doesn't know what he's doing as a father, seen more of him being locked away in his workshop and learned why he keeps to himself so much. Or not, if that's being held back for future plot reasons, but we needed SOMETHING more than what we got.
Vaggie being a fallen exorcist was introduced and then revealed to Charlie in the same episode and feels like a wasted opportunity. I know they don't want to make Vaggie the bad guy or show her directly harming Charlie, but Adam and Lute threatening her and then exposing it to Charlie almost immediately seems wasteful and incompetent on their part.
Angel's growth is all happening off screen, and I think that's a shame. He's such an interesting character, and I want to see more of him gaining confidence in himself. I think a character that's not CHOOSING to be better, but is GETTING better by experiencing genuine love and friendship is so interesting, and it's just not shown. He goes from "I'm staying here for the free rent. Crack is expensive" to standing up to Valentino in front of a crowd of onlookers with what seems to the audience as one song of development in between.
Overall there's too much happening too fast. In my opinion, the first season should have been the Vees time to shine; they should have been the villains. We should have spent the whole first season learning about the dynamics of hell, exploring what the deal is with the overlords, even a monster-of-the-week type plot with demons showing up to the hotel and the cast evaluating if they want to redeem themselves or if they're just there to creep on Angel. Everything in episode 5 and 6 should have been season 2. Mid to late season 2 at that. I think the episodes themselves were fine, they just should have come later in the show.
This isn't even going into my issues with the first episode and how the pilot relates to it, and the choice to recast everyone.
I wanted to like this show. When the pilots initially dropped, I thought Hazbin had a lot of promise, and I was really looking forward to it. The first 4 episodes made me cautiously optimistic about the show's chances. But episode 5 and 6 really just shot that in the foot for me.
There's so much promise here that's just... being squandered. And I can't for the life of me understand why.
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quackle · 5 months
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If there’s a third season in the future, what do you hope to see?
Mine are:
1. More Mkulia. And they somehow find a way to gain control of their team.
2. Raj and Wayne got separated into two teams, I want to see how they deal with their own team and their thoughts of compete against each other.
3. Add two more characters and make it 3 teams with 6 person.
4. An unexpected villain arc for a originally good character and let them win. (I kinda want to see Damien got one after he knows Total Drama well enough.)
gonna ramble about my s3 wishes under cut. i'll probably come up with more as the days go by:
i just think we deserve a girl vs girl finale. too many missed opportunities for one. i need to see girl success.
i love julia, but let's give the main antagonist role to someone like, oh i dunno, the contestant who has sworn vengeance on this cast during both of her eliminations maybe? (i'm looking at you scary girl. keep your word! make it to the dang merge and make their lives hell! i've written an analysis for you and everything!)
i don't even care if nichelle wins anymore (and that's saying a lot coming from me), but can we PLEASE just PLEASE get her to the merge at least? i am so sick of people calling her niche-L like STOP 😭 can we TRY with her character instead of making it into a gag? just a little attempt?? for me??? (as you can see, i am staring hard at the only two contestants from this gen who didn't make the merge in both seasons)
give us a challenge at night. give us a swimming challenge. give us alt outfits. give us new settings. give us some creativity and fun. we deserve it. the island is cool but imagine if we were quite literally anywhere else. your ratings will peak.
i would also like to see the hockey bros on separate teams, especially after wayne has seemingly gotten over his fear of being on a different (hockey) team than raj. it would be interesting for their characters imo!
no central romance plot i BEG. put that big binder AWAY. not saying we can't have a romance plot (i think they can be cute and nice!), but let's just make sure it isn't the central plot or i'll lose my mind <3
make mkulia canon you cowards. i know i just said no central romance plot but like. we can still make this a subplot if we try hard enough.
i need more drama in total drama. like. let's make the drama STICK instead of having it rushed and solved in the span of an episode. long lasting tension leaves the audience gagged and wanting more. if we gotta make longer seasons then so be it! (oh how i miss the longer seasons...)
if y'all don't make emma and bowie talk next season like........... do not separate the besties like this! bring them back!
and speaking of my fav white girly—we need her to get some plot. i do not ever want to see her eliminated the way she was ever again. that was heartbreaking!
if we can't make a world tour/musical season happen again, first of all, BOOOOO THAT SUCKS, and second of all, can we at least squeeze in a musical episode? i gotta hear them sing, i'm sorry... my musical phase is never-ending i fear
you know that one intern? the one with the really good design? it would be soooooo cool if they made her a contestant to fill in a contestant quota or something. it would be sooooo cool 😇 don't you guys think it would be sooooo cool?
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safyresky · 7 months
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So I've only watched this last week's (this has been in my drafts for WAY too long) episode once (I usually do it twice but have yet to do a second watch and feel a rewatch will be in order at some point) but I have been rotating it around in my head since tscs mutuals first started posting their thoughts and I have SO MANY thoughts because this episode ONCE AGAIN packed soo many things in one go. Why don't they understand how PACING works? My GOD.
Anyway~
My initial thoughts before even watching the episode were "this is whack". Here's why.
This is episode 3.
Of 6.
We are halfway through. And our antagonist (Mad Santa) and Protagonist (Santa Scott) have yet to cross paths. And post watching S2E3, Mad Santa only JUST got his hands on some North Pole magic.
THREE EPISODES IN. HALFWAY THROUGH.
Do you know how much stuff is going to be packed into the next THREE EPISODES? Let me make a list (bc I LOVE lists)
Mad Santa getting back to the Pole
The obligatory "I've failed ):" from Santa Scott when Mad Santa gets to the Pole
Mad Santa GETTING to the Pole
The Council giving Scott 3 months to get Cal shipshape, and episode 3 starting with Olga saying IT'S BEEN THREE MONTHS.
(ALREADY????)
So we still have THAT to look forward to, assuming they even LISTEN to their own boundary, since we know this show's track record with continuity is. Bad.
PLUS we still have a Sandman cameo coming! And a big old snowball to be thrown in Scott's face! (I have my clown shoes on)
Carol is STILL trying to find the missing nutcracker. She has gotten no closer; her trail is so cold she's looking at JACK as a suspect (yes I saw the cameo too, absolutely delightful for us Jack stans on main)
(pun absolutely intended)
Cal and Sandy are only JUST talking to one another about how their magic training is going, and are only JUST like. Diving into the drawbacks of being raised up North AND NEVER GOING ANYWHERE as well as the trauma that must be there from experiencing life in the real world, ENJOYING IT, and being yanked back to the Pole for the "family business"
Befana and Sandy. So THAT is a thing that was lovely then fell apart for no good reason--it was ONE MISTAKE and could've been handled better Befana, come ON girlie!
Easter Bunny being turned back into his EB form (tho tbh we should keep him as a bunny. Sorry not sorry, I have always been an EB hater on main)
Cal dealing with A) first heartbreak over Riley (which was stupid, more on that later) B) not wanting to be/do the Santa thing BECAUSE of a MULTITUDE of reasons he has NOT shared with Scott and C) the fallout when he realizes the vest is gone. He is NOT going to tell his parents at ALL. His whole existence practically rides on "I gotta make Dad proud!" and this deffs won't do it, but HEY! Maybe the writers will surprise me and he'll be OPEN and HONEST with his Dad!
Bc let's be real, ALL OF THEIR PROBLEMS COULD BE SOLVED WITH OPEN COMMUNICATION
I am off topic. Deep breaths. Whew. SO. We have all THAT to focus on.
PLUS Sandy's powers! She's apparently more powerful than Befana thought? Sandy now has to deal with that SANS her mentor and I DOUBT Carol will be helpful with that. She WOULD'VE BEEN in the MOVIES. But SERIES CAROL? APPARENTLY NOT FUCKING LIKELY SINCE ALL OF HER CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT HAS GONE OUT THE DOOR FOR TOKEN FEMINISM THAT IS IMMEDIATELY CHECKED OFF A LIST AND MADE IRRELEVANT WITH THE PLOT OF "One woman is jealous of another woman"
Oh my god off topic again. SORRY. RIGHT. So, we have Sandra's magic to deal with still. Her mentor/mentee relationship with Befana. Cal's own magical struggles and his relationship with his Dad in terms of Mentor/Mentee. These kids need THERAPY, SOMEONE CALL NEIL
SO ALL OF THAT. IS GOING TO BE JAM PACKED INTO THESE LAST THREE EPISODES. AND I JUST KNOW (based on last season) THE RESOLUTIONS WILL NOT PAY OFF.
So yeah, thems the opening thoughts (with some watch thoughts leaking in, admittedly).
AS FOR THE EPISODE ITSELF.
OH BOY.
It's still very mid. It gives a lot of good bits but either A) contradicts them or B) gives them not enough time to flourish (see: Carol and Befana for A, and Cal and Sandra for B). It is also STILL ignoring its own continuity, and not just from the movies, but from literally the first two episodes of the season!
Did Cupid not say. One to two episodes ago. "Hey Santa, we, the Council, aren't really sure about this Cal thing? So uh. You've got three months. and if it's not working out. We're calling it."
And did Olga not say. At the start of this episode. "It's been THREE MONTHS since we escaped and we are NO CLOSER" yadda yadda yadda.
So THREE MONTHS have passed between THIS EPISODE, AND THE LAST ONE?
SO WHERE THE HELL IS THE COUNCIL? HELLO???
I actually thought that that would be like, the big crunch time thing for the series, you know? THE plot motivator. Or at least, one of many. Like I was expecting a montage and for each episode to have a month packed in and for the final episode to involve resetting everything to Scott's ideal status quo and defeating Mad Santa and Olga. Needless to say, I was SHOOK when they opened with THAT.
Olga and Magnus are fucking hilarious, full stop. I kinda want Olga to do a stab ngl!! Their whole dynamic has been interesting lol.
The Judy cameo was a fun Easter egg, but it's a shame they didn't give it a bit more hype, you know? That would've been fun. The Jack cameo (if we can even call it that) was ALSO a fun Easter Egg, tho I am much too mad at Carol's writers rn to be like WOO JACK. But you bet your ASS I saw that lil easter egg, lol. It's kinda frustrating? They keep throwing these lil cameos/easter eggs at us like it's an attempt to placate us or smth. Idk, I am tired and JADED and Don't Trust Like That.
Right so what else. Going in for round two. Wish me luck:
Agree with ALL OF YOU about the poor elves being used as reindeer stand ins 🙄🙄 AWFUL. SOMEONE KNOCK THIS GUY OFF A ROOF FOR GOOD! DAMN! (Santa not Cal)
Sandra and Carol. GOD. So much cringe! SO MUCH! BECAUSE OF BAD PARENTING. HOW DO THEY SUCK SO MUCH AT BEING PARENTS? WE ALREADY HAD 3 MOVIES OF THIS AND CAROL WAS NEVER A W F U L
(RIP spider on Carol's shoulder)
Carol and Scott talking about the kids was just. They are SO OUT OF TOUCH. AND SCOTT HAS A SISTER??? I DO NOT BELIEVE THIS PERIODT. He has only child energy, and wow did he EVER suck at reassuring Carol. Anyone else sick of Old White Men? Anyone?
Sandra reading the transformation spell and then accidentally doing it is deffs foreshadowing. She's gonna transform the SHIT out of Magnus, calling it NOW
EB HAS APPEARED! KIDNAPPED BY OLGA! ICONIC! And they were PALS??? Magnus I am so intrigued. Who Are You
And obligatory "BLERG BLAH CONTINUITY" re: EB being there all the way back then
NTS: There is an Easter Gopher too. I am taking notes.
Scott being an undignified, pathetic name: GET HIS ASS (count: 9)
EB is so wrong about Peeps. He is falling lower and lower on my list of Legendary Figures. Him laying the egg. Cool EB magic, disgusting execution. I am 99% sure bunnies don't even LAY EGGS
Where tf do they get the eggs from???
OKAY CAL AND SANDRA
Love that they're having sibling bonding. "doing it for everyone but yourself" GET HIS ASS, SANDY. (GHA Count for Cal: 1). Hate how short the scene was and how it boiled down to a sort of silly joke (being a crossguard instead of Santa). Like. They could;ve axed the dinner with Noel scene, cut tight to Santa training Buddy (Cal), and after that debacle moved on to sibling scene and having them bond. Like. There is substance and it is there but it is not being well executed. LET THE KIDS HAVE ROOM FOR GROWTH! (but dani! we have 3 more episodes to go! SEE MY FIRST LIST! THEY DON'T HAVE THE TIME!)
Santa asking for a jetpack and Carol being like "don't force your son up there to get over the heights thing" and then telling him to just say "I love you and I'm proud", GET HIS ASS (GHA Count Scott Edition: 10. And we're not even halfway through the episode). GOD. I wish Carol would take her own advice re: Santa and Cal and apply it to Sandra and Herself, come the fuck ON guys. DO BETTER.
DINNER WITH BEFANA (Scott: can't make it Carol: Gonna kill him. GET HIS ASS)
Cool idea, HORRIBLE execution. I am not a fan of how Carol was like "woo! ladies being ladies!" and them immediately we get a plotline of her being jealous of another woman. It's very. Token/preformative feminism. It's like they are checking items off of a list. I dislike how SHALLOW most of these subjects are in the series. Like, if you don't know how to handle something like that, THEN DON'T WRITE IT. GOD.
Like. When Sandy lifts the salt with magic, SUPPORT IT. Don't be like I NEED TO ONE UP IT. Also, interesting that Mrs. Claus. Despite being Legendary by marriage. Doesn't have magic?? I think she should. GIVE CAROL MAGIC 2k23. Carol overreacted and then so did Sandy and I just think that this whole La Befana/Mrs. Claus plotline could've been done better!
Especially Befana inviting Carol over and then Carol promptly asking if she should bring a broom, something something, witch stereotypes being a thinly veiled allusion to magical racism something something
I BET IF BUDDY HAD GONE WITH CHARLIE TO THE "CLUB" HE WOULD'VE GOT IN JUST FINE
"Are you talking to the float or me" I am SO angry for Cal/Buddy. The poor kid thinks his Dad is super not proud of him, his whole existence seems to hinge on his dad's approval and I am so upset about all the implications of this I'm gonna explode things with my MIND
"Hare to the throne" Cal you are so stupid. And my GOD the Hare vs Heir argument being the reason Sandy explodes things like I just. That could've been done better.
This whole SCENE could've been done better! Befana didn't need to be so mean! It was an ACCIDENT. She explains it loud and clear and what do you MEAN something else entirely I'm SCREAMING. Befana being like we're stepping back? Like. UGH. And then the jealousy thing? Oh wow! More pitting ladies against ladies! GOD. I'm so upset about this whole thing it's unreal ):<
OKAY. SO THE SLEIGH STEALING SCENE AND WHERE THAT GOES.
WE LOVE TO SEE BUDDY AND SANDRA BONDING! STEALING THE SLEIGH! (not to get all OCs on main but JACQUELINE APPROVES). I love to see them working together to be delinquents, but my GOD the Riley thing
UGH
Like. I know we're supposed to feel bad for Buddy but like, the whole romance between him and Riley has been so ick and the way their breakup went. It was like. You KNOW. It was written to be poignant with lines like "you're always busy with your dad" and "I want you to dust me so that you never met me" which would have worked if. You know. They weren't FIVE. (16-18). It just didn't work :\. I haven't had time to like, enjoy them and they made Riley very, very. Unlikable tbh.
ALSO. Cal from CALGARY? As a Canadian, THERE ARE A BUNCH OF OTHER PLACES YOU COULD'VE PICKED! VANCOUVER? TORONTO? YOU WENT WITH CAL FROM CALGARY? I can't with y'all. ALSO. THEY DID SCHOOL TOGETHER FOR A YEAR. I FEEL AS THOUGH THE KIDS SHOULD KNOW WHO HE IS. OH YEAH THAT WEIRD EXCHANGE STUDENT WE HAD FOR A YEAR. Y'ALL ARE DOING LONG DISTANCE? SUPER! LIKE. HELLO???
Kudos to Sandra for being the funniest bitch alive with the creeping in the corner like "That was rough af bud." It's giving
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ehehehe.
And FINALLY Mad Santa has his magic back. Here's how I'm guessing the next episode is going to work:
Mad Santa practises using his magic to make Santaopolis all fancy smancy
Manages to make it up north by the end of the episode
Cal has a fallout with his Dad over the Santa vest thing
It becomes a bigger deal than expected
Sandy cameo probably bc EB is missing and he was last seen THERE (Man Santa, you're really getting on the Council's radar in all the bad ways, huh? Putting Jack to shame! 273 counts of attempted upstaging of Santa vs how many billion counts of magical exposure? And an EB kidnapping? Bc I bet that'll be a thing posited next episode)
As if La Befana can't undo a spell (I AM ROLLING MY EYES)
They will make ZERO progress on figuring out who Mad Santa is and they will be very confused when he makes it to the North Pole next episode
I also tho wouldn't be surprised if they stretch Mad Santa getting to the Pole to episode 6. That seems on brand for how they treat pacing (as if it does not exist).
tl;dr: too much preformative stuff. very mid. Cal and Sandy are fun but I wish they were given more time to shine! Pour one out for our boy Noel who is having a rough go of it tbh and Kris too who's gonna get back from Costco very, very confused
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weepingnightmarenaruto · 10 months
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Kishimoto sucks at handling trauma, but the difference between how he handles male characters trauma vs female characters trauma is a good example of Kishimotos misogyny and the way he views women, how trauma impacts them and the different ways women deal with it.
Like with many of the male characters he at least acknowledges the trauma and makes a plot line out of it before he screws them over. With the female characters he just gives them sad backstory/implies they have one and then screws them over.
For example with Hinata he gives her a whole backstory of how she is abused and disowned by her dad and how that is the reason for why she is the way she is (low self confidence, insecure, shy, quiet). And then it’s never brought up again. The way Kishi explained the whole sealing and main/side branch stuff with the Hyuga also implies that the person out of Hinata and Hanabi that doesn’t become the next clan head will be sealed and become a side branch member, but Kishi never awknowledges this or does anything with it, and after the chunnin exams the whole Hyuga plot is abandoned.
With Karin we only get a backstory on how she met Sasuke during the Chunin exams. Kishimoto heavily implies that there is more going on with her, especially considering all of the bitemarks all over her body, but he never goes into detail on how she got them. Like theres so much that is implied with Karin, that SP gave her a whole filler backstory that honestly makes a lot of sense.
Konan is basically the side character of an antagonist. She has a tragic backstory, but we don’t get her perspective on it. We also don’t get a backstory for why she was an orphan and we don’t get that for Yahiko either but he was dead upon the start of the story so that makes sense (we can’t get his perspective on thing when he’s dead.) There’s also the scene were she is sexually harassed by Jiraya, and how that would have impacted a 12 (?) year old girl. And then after Nagato dies and theres no male character left to tie her story too, Kishimoto kills her.
Tsunade gets a whole backstory on how she left Konoha and isn’t a practicing ninja and medic anymore because she lost her little beother and boyfriend. Something that lead to her having a fear of blood. But then after she meets Naruto, gets over her fear of blood and becomes the Hokage it’s barely mentioned again. When like her becoming hokage should not erase her trauma. And her fear of blood is not something she should just suddenly get over, it should be a process and it would be nice if Kishimoto acknowledged this later on in the manga.
Theres also the way all of these are good examples of how Kishimoto is unable to give female characters sad backstories without having them meeting a male character magically solving all of their problems.
There is probably more examples of this, but these were the first ones I thought off.
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bi-zo-zo · 8 months
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BUFFY SEASON 6!!! (Triggwr warning for S/A and Mental Health Issues)
Imma just use this app to vent cause no ones gonna see it. I first watched that season and felt crazy attached to it when I was 10. (okay maybe an 10 year old shouldn't have been watching some of the scenes but where's the fun in being a sheltered child I legit watched it w my mum) Back then watching it I resonated with it but I didn't know how I resonated with it I just yeh it become like a comfort season.
Flash forward to the current day, and I'm older and struggling sm silently with my mental health, and I randomly watched it again today after seeing an ad for the new Slayers project. HOLY SH*T !!! That's why it resonated. Here's a season of a show where mental health is the main antagonist. Every character that u love and aspire to be like is showing how they aren't these perfect happy go lucky versions of theirselves. Now, don't get me wrong, Buffy has never shyed away from showing it in early seasons, and it was never like any character was never portrayed as one dimensional. However, this one season emphasises it SO MUCH MORE! Like when it shows Willow's magic addiction and how she eventually goes dark after Tara gets shot, Xander leaving Anya at the alter and her becoming a demon again, Buffy being ripped out of *possibly heaven* by her friends and coming back wrong and her dealing w that and being disgusted w herself for using Spike as a coping mechanism, Spike ultimately S/A Buffy and running away to go get his soul back from the demon trials after he realises what he's done, Willow dealing w Tara's death and like in the episode where it's Buffy's birthday and the main group are locked in the house by one of Anya's old friend from when she was still a demon, the way it shows how Dawn is dealing being in the background of everyone who is supposed to be the adults taking care of her not even giving her a second thought sometimes. Those are the main plots but I know there are a few more. ALL OF THESE ARE JUST PERFECT EXAMPLES OF EVERYONE STRUGGLING AND NOT JUST BEING HAPPY AND CLICKING LIKE THEY USED TO BECAUSE NOT EVERYONE CAN! Now I know why I resonated with this series so much and still do... because IT'S REAL LIFE! Everyone is having problems and sometimes they just can't address them to those closest and sometimes they can but it's still just as hard dealing w them. Yes the plots in the show are a bit of a far fetched example but regardless it really shows people struggle and sometimes everyone around u loves you deeply but they can't always be the solution.
To put what I'm really meaning into perspective in the earlier seasons like say season 1 or something after the fight with the 'Big Bad' or just a general demon they main trio and Giles always had each others back. If there was a problem they solved it together and they were in high-school and although they weren't care free their lives in comparison to season 6 weren't the same. Now this is because yes they matured but they also got worn down by the constant struggle of it all. It must've been hard being a young adult and having to worry abt the apocalypse and getting your essay in on time. However, I think it would've been interesting to put who they were in season 1 in the place of the events of season 6 because personally when I think of it that way I think they would've been more open with each other and it probably would've altered the course of the entire season. That's where it comes down to after all the constant fighting they realised they themselves were fighting internal battles due to it all.
To anyone who did read this which I know will be barely any thank you I know it's long. ❤️
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overlordofcute · 9 months
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Honestly pretty disappointed in IDW Sonic #64
Full disclosure, I've only started reading the comic from #63 onwards, so I realize I'm not getting the full picture here.
But man, as someone who actively despises the trope of "Antagonist joins the group and ruins the protagonist's life by actively causing harm while everyone thinks the protagonist is overreacting or acting out of turn (because why would the new guy ever do anything wrong)," (I find it tedious and frustrating, but that's a tangent for another day) I was somewhat hopeful in a subversion wherein Whisper ended up believing Silver and was willing to side with him. It seemed like the comic was going "yeah, I get that this type of plot might be frustrating to read, but we're going to move into them trying to actually catch him instead, since that's more interesting."
...Until we got to next issue in which their genius plan to catch Mimic was to stalk him, actively put him in harms way, assault Lanolin when she rightfully doesn't believe you given you don't have any evidence, and then proceed to assault Mimic (as Duo) in the misguided hopes that he'd instinctively blow his cover (when he's already demonstrated that he has no reason to when he can just play the innocent card and everyone will believe him).
It honestly just felt like a filler chapter, given all that was really accomplished is that now Mimic has access to the main office with Jewel and now Silver's been booted out from the Diamond Cutters.
As part of my disclosure, I realize I don't fully have a read on Whisper or this version of Silver like more long-time readers might have, but this just felt absolutely impulsive in a way that was very frustrating given the monthly release schedule (Which, another tangent, I need to stress I'm glad the comic book is released under, I don't think putting stories out weekly is something that is sustainable for the mental health of those working on the comic). I just don't understand what either of them were thinking when they did what they did, and I was left siding with Mimic given he felt like one of the few sane players in this plot that wasn't a neutral party such as Lanolin herself (Which feels very wrong to me given he's literally the antagonist here).
I'm going to keep reading because I want to see where this plays out, but I'm just disappointed that I waited a month to only be told "Nope, they're just going to mess things up and look like an idiot, wait until next chapter to see how this plays out."
EDIT: Some more thoughts:
I'm not frustrated that they didn't resolve the plotline immediately or anything. I'm more frustrated that very little was accomplished or taught to us. Realistically, I would've been less harsh on this if the plot was Silver and Whisper staking out Mimic to try and figure out what his deal was, learn his motivations or plans, and still are unable to convince Lanolin or the others that something's amiss.
In a way, all we're told is "Whatever Mimic is planning, he's playing a long con for it", as well as, I guess, "He's trying to cause discourse within the Diamond Cutters by having them try and oust him to no avail (given he's directly showing himself to be Mimic to people)".
But... I don't know. It just felt like I waited a month just to be told "nah, they're just going to attack him and hope that solves things. Wait until next time to see if he actually does anything."
I did think it was cute that it tied into the Sonic and Blaze B-plot by having a cute heart-to-heart moment between Silver and Blaze, though. I thought that was a nice moment even if the story that lead to it I felt was faltering in execution.
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thewebcomicsreview · 2 years
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What are your thoughts on Gunnerkrigg's current chapter? Something feels very strange while reading, but I can't quite put my finger on what - I saw the earlier anon question about Gunnerkrigg in general, but would it be possible to get your take on this particular chapter? Thank you!
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So, this revelation is meant to answer the long-standing question of why the weather's never changed near the shore, and-
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Wait, no, not that shore.
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That's the shore of the Lake. Gunnerkrigg Court has the ocean on one side and an artificial lake on the other side. And on the third side was the River Annan, with the long and now-solved mystery of the ghost on the shore. So the Court has three unrelated mysterious shores. But I can imagine why people are confused about the weather on the shore never changing being a plot point when the only mysterious shore we've ever encountered in the comic, the one that's connected to Omega which is the latest Big Mystery, is one where it mysteriously rains a lot. But Aata is talking about the Ocean Shore, and we've never seen it rain in the Ocean. Granted, there's been one (1) Ocean chapter, but at least it's true that the weather mysteriously never ch-
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Okay, but that's not the shore, that's the Ocean itself. It's rained on the Ocean and it's rained on the shore but it's never rained near the Ocean Shore. All right? Anthony said that somewhere, and we saw the shore in Chapter 49
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Look, there's....there's foreshadowing that it's not a normal ocean! And, yeah, there's also foreshadowing that rain's coming with those dark clouds back there but, y'know. We never see them move.
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It all actually makes me think of Homestuck, of all things. There's a ton of stuff in Acts 1-4 setting up the idea of the Game Prompt/Narrator as a malevolent force that the kids are being controlled by, which would make "the kids escape the story" a logical and satisfying ending. But it's mostly dropped in Act 5 in favor of trolls and gods and other stuff that made the comic more popular, and completely dropped for most of Act 6, to the point where when Hussie said "Time to cut the bullshit and resolve the main tension of the comic" the audience was deeply invested in the bullshit and barely remembered the supposed main tension, and the ending was widely hated.
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Gunnerkrigg Court is similar. Haven't you ever wondered how the Court has so much space? No, not really. We never really got a great sense of how large the Court was. It seemed to be the side of a small city, which is pretty big for a school but hardly, like, some impossible mystery, especially when it was revealed that the Court "grew" from the seed Bismuth and thus they didn't need to spend zillions of dollars building everything. Especially since the Court's location was so vague. It's not the kind of thing you wonder about, it's the kind of thing you suspend your disbelief over. Especially since Kat is a scientist who made a remote control flying drone and thus needed to know distances accurately and she never wondered about it.
It feels like this comic was originally going to have Annie and Kat solve the mysteries of the Court and then Tom realized he forgot to have them actually do that so now they're getting all the revelations just told to them by Aata and Arizona, who have no actual motivation for sharing all this information besides "Enh, why not".
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And it's hard for me to get invested because the Court's Evil Plan has nothing at all to do with the plot! Robot is the most interesting antagonist in the comic, easily, and the robots are the thing the comic's built the most intrigue over. Loup is a lame and terrible replacement for Coyote, but at least he's a malevolent force actually threatening the characters, and is even slowly getting more interesting with this Jerrick thing. I still don't understand why Annie and Kat even care what the Court is doing. This entire chapter could be Aata's revelations about his favorite bagels, and it'd be no less relevant and actually develop a character slightly.
This whole chapter feels less like shocking revelations and more like exposition, like it's building to the court's plan getting wrecked or something. It's an infodump. This entire Star Ocean Til The End of Time subplot is a massive, unending infodump with no real reason to care about it.
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caitie-likes-talking · 11 months
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Part 4 Rewrite Concepts
Ok I've officially decided in my head that I'm going to at least plan out a part 4 rewrite, which is why now im going to give u all an extremely messy and poorly organized list of ideas I have just to like..help myself think them through more!
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Ok so I'm having trouble deciding how I want to start the story off. Mainly because I don't want to include the Anjelo arc. I've always thought of part 4 being messily divided into 3 parts (Anjelo, Akira, Kira), which is something I know I want to change and have the whole plot just focus on Kira. I was thinking maybe just have it start in a slice of life style like some of the filler eps but the main problem is that I need to figure out what exactly sparks the whole 'we need to catch the killer' thing. Maybe Josuke and Koichi find Reimi instead of Koichi and Rohan? Idk!
And yknow mentioning Akira, I think this is the hardest arc to write out of the story. I don't want to include it very much, but it was really important for Okuyasu's character arc imo. I also just need to reread part 4 i literally own all of the p4 manga why haven't I done that yet..
I'm thinking of changing stuff w Reimi. I kind of want to make her be born a bit later, therefore killed later. Mainly so that she could be connected to Josukes past and this would better set up the framing of Jotaro that I want, as it would make him 17~ when Kira first kills her (I’d also make kira 5 yrs younger ofc)
For josukes past I’m still a little iffy. I think I might have Reimi just be there w the boy to help pull Tomokos car out of the pothole but idk. Is that cheesy? Just bc I still want Josuke to have his hair and everything..
I want to give Keicho Surface. Ik he alr has a stand, and I love Bad Company, but I wanna make Surface plot relevant and give it to someone who I also want to be plot relevant soo..yeah. In my rewrite I imagine Keicho teams up w Kira bc Kira promises to find a way to kill Keicho’s father.
Also yeah I want to have Jotaro be framed for all of the murders bc again that’s fun idk. And this way there can be a subplot abt clearing his name. Also I want to add holly and possibly baby Jolyne (is that too self indulgent?)
I’m still going to keep the plot w Cinderella (as in kira changing his face) bc I love hayato and shinobu. Plus that whole arc is when we got into p4 being rlly good
For yukako I’m thinking of making her josukes cousin, mainly so that they can have a pre established relationship since yukako probably isn’t getting her stand in this (bc she got it from the arrow right? I don’t want to include that arc. It drove me crazy how everyone kept getting a stand)
I’m thinking Joseph gets introduced after Jotaro is arrested and Jotaro is all like “u need ur dad to help solve this!!”
I wanna focus on the conflicts between Josuke and Joseph. I especially think this could be fun bc ryohei would still be alive, so it’s like a case of “u might be my biological dad, but my REAL dad is right here.”
I also want to let Tomoko actually do something but I haven’t decided what yet.
I’m keeping mikitaka in somehow bc believe it or not I do enjoy fun and whimsy
I’m probably cutting out Rohan entirely tho. He was honestly a good antagonist and I love his stand so I might use that somewhere but I just can’t stand him. (lmfao stand)
Also like at the end of the day this is my au and I do what I want!!
I think I might make one of yukakos parents be a police officer. Bc 1. whether I make her and Josuke related or not, they’re still connected by their relatives on the force and 2. I feel like this could possibly help set her up to help in the kira investigation? Like maybe she’s planning to become a cop or detective in the future so she alr has some skills. Or maybe she could help find files or something. No matter what, I want her to get to actually help w the plot instead of just kidnapping koichi then being sidelined like in canon
For okuyasu I’m thinking his arc is going to be changed a wee bit. Like his brother works w kira, but he befriends Josuke and realizes that what his brothers doing is wrong and like..learns to stand up for the right thing regardless of what his brother says. And a bump in this road could be keichos death. Like imagine ur finally branching off from ur brother and then he DIES? I’d be crawling back to his grave too lmfao
I’m going to work on stand profiles and giving them actual limits and rules. Bc a LOT of them just don’t have that.
I think some stands I’ll still include just bc I like them. Like highway star (even tho that arc was so boring the stand is cool).
Also I still want to focus on the affects of Dio for part of it. I think I might mainly do this w Jotaro and his ptsd tho..
Overall I’m excited and I hope I can flesh this out more !!!
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