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gayleviticus · 1 year

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8 years after watching the TV ending of FMA 03 for the first time, I finally watched Conqueror of Shamballa for the first time. Tbh I was a little scared of what I’d find – fma 03 was a super special series to me back in 2015, but rewatching it the TV ending felt way more inconclusive and unsatisfying than I remembered.

I knew what would happen in Shamballa from years of scrounging through tv tropes entries and Wikipedia plot summaries, but I didn’t know what it would feel like in practice. I needed something that fulfilled the melancholy, dark, emotional, but hopeful promise of the series. I needed angst and loss and sadness, but not grim-darkness and cruelty just for the sake of it.

Thankfully, I enjoyed Shamballa on the whole. Now, to be sure, it’s undeniably very, very messy. Unlike, say, End of Evangelion or Madoka Rebellion it doesn’t feel like a movie except perhaps towards the end; the new characters introduced like Alfons, Noa, and Eckhart are more interesting thematically than because they’re afforded any particular depth, and the plot mechanics aren’t especially well-crafted (but granted this has always been the case for 03).

It feels like there’s also a ton of incredibly character dynamics they could milk but just don’t have room for – how did it feel for Ed to live with someone who looked so much like his baby brother but just wasn’t the same person? How did Winry feel being left behind forever by her best friends after being locked out of the loop for so long? How did Al losing his memories of the past 5 years and embarking on a quest to bring Ed back shape his relationship with everyone else in Amestris? Did Ed feel guilty that Al ended up throwing his whole life in Amestris away to come be with him on earth? There’s just so many possibilities this movie throws out that could have been explored, and emotional beats (like the brothers reuniting!!) that aren’t used to their full potential.

These are all pretty noticeable flaws. But I also kindve think… it doesn’t matter that much? Don’t get me wrong, I would’ve loved to see an actual proper 13-episode second season fleshing out Shamballa’s boatload of cool ideas, but I think there’s something just as captivating about the huge range of possibilities the movie can’t possibly hope to contain. There are plenty of stories I’ve experienced that do an objectively better job of fleshing out their characters, but it's like… well, you’ve already exhausted their depths. There’s not much left to mine. 03 + Shamballa might not use its characters to their maximum potential, but I think it’s impressive it creates such a firm foundation for its characters that they have that kindve potential in the first place?

(On that note this just makes me curse the fact the 03verse in general has been so neglected by FMA fans even more, bc it just feels like its begging so much for fans to plug these gaps and analyse and dissect and headcanon these characters? But anyway)

Something I was a little torn about at first was the ending – it was more satisfying than TV 03’s awkward mix of open-ended sadness with sickeningly saccharine optimism, but I couldn’t help but feel this awkward sense of hollowness. It was tragedy on the brink of cartharsis, but not quite there. I wanted to cry and mourn everything the Elrics had lost, I wanted angst and conflict between the two of them, I wanted to experience the weight of everything they’ve gone through.

But after thinking about it, I realised that the thing about Shamballa is that it’s not about pain, as such, but specifically ache, and loss.

Doomsday, a Doctor Who episode that aired about a year after Shamballa, is a similar tragedy of people separated forever across parallel world. But it’s a very different type of pain – it’s sharp, acute, sudden. It’s having someone you loved so much so deeply snatched out of your life with no warning, no buildup, barely any chance to say goodbye.

Superficially, Shamballa is similar. In the chaos of Eckhart’s invasion Ed and Al disappear forever into the other side of the gate. But I think it’s very different in that the Elrics aren’t really leaving a specific person behind?

Of course, there’s Winry, and obviously it must hurt for her to lose her best friends since childhood so suddenly. But even then, her life goes on. She loved them so much, and she’ll always remember them – but she’s not a widow sitting at home mourning the death of her husband in the war. She has friends, she has family, she has her career as an automail engineer. Life goes on for Winry. It hurts, but it’ll go on.

Aside from her – well, Izumi’s gone. Rose was friends with Al but didn’t really know Ed. Mustang’s crew clearly care for the boys, but I think for the most part their relationship in 03 is relatively professional. In the end what the boys are cutting off isn’t any individual person in particular, but their past.

And so what Shamballa is about isn’t the sharp, shocking pain of losing a loved one, but the dull, heavy ache of grieving your past. As Ed says at the end, Earth is their world now – not Amestris. They’ve resigned themselves to losing their past, to leaving behind the childhood world of miraculous alchemy and friends and carving a path in the here and now.

It’s the pain of mourning a past that can’t come back, the people you once loved who just aren’t in your life anymore, the innocent childhood you’ll never be able to reclaim. The brothers who once tried to reclaim their stolen innocence through resurrecting their mother have made their peace with living in the here and now – and though they’ve finally found happiness, and paid the price for their original sin, they’ll never forget everything it took to get to this point.

It circles back to what Ed told Rose all the way back at the beginning. Stand up and walk on your own two legs. Keep moving forward. Fight against tragedy, but remember that you cannot rewrite your own past.

The Thule Society and Noa mistook Amestris for Shamballa – a perfect world, a homeland – in their longing for heaven. But no such promised land exists. There’s only the here and now. The Elrics give up their longing for something they never had, accepting heaven is lost, and find their home in themselves.

#fma 03 is so good....#fma 03 #fma #fullmetal alchemist #fullmetal alchemist 03 #conqueror of shamballa #fma 03 conqueror of shamballa #edward elric #my posts #alphonse elric #fma 03 spoilers #long post

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redwyverndht · 2 years

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Ghost Game, or how I stopped worrying and love the mystery box

Incoherent ramble incoming!

my brain is rotating gulusgammamon and what in the Kentucky Fried Fuck will happen next and/or why

gulus

hokuto

my man Hiro is taking the loss of his dad like a champ lol

blacktailmon uver

blackagumon

blackgargomon

what are all these black digimon doing

no one notices any digimon ever

how long is ghost game gonna be even because if they have only 52 episodes it's been one hell of a setup and the payoff is nowhere in sight

The thing is, despite these numerous loose threads and no answer in sight, I still can't help but love this dang show. Its characters, the horror ambiance, the animation, and the individual episodes are dripping with emotion and I love it

And my love of the episodic nature of it has made me keep watching it! And idk, if the expectations get in the way, it's better for me but to not expect anything like we've seen before

depicted: me going feral over digimon and the state of the entertainment industry for my poor, unfortunate mutuals

The mystery box and its problems

There's a concept that gets thrown around when talking about JJ Abrams and his work on Lost, Star Wars, and Game of Thrones: the Mystery Box.

It's a way to create engagement for your audience, setting up and building up expectations to get resolved later, making the audience wonder and ponder what the result will be

That, the horror, and the charming characters are Ghost Game's greatest strengths. But the thing with the Mystery Box is that it's really difficult to get resolved satisfyingly (re: game of thrones season 8)

This episode made me realize that I have absolutely no idea where all of this is going. And normally that would be a bad thing, but there's one small problem with the problem:

Ghost Game is actually competent,,,,,,,,

It's not that simple

There are lots of instances where I've been legitimately enjoying watching it way more than any previous digimon season. Ghost Game (imho) thrashes every single digimon series in individual episodes quality, especially lately (this is a contentious take and you don't have to agree with it don't worry) The horror buildup, the tension, even when they're not resolved 100% satisfyingly, are golden on their own

Considering the shoes Ghost Game has to fill:

A friggin digimon season

One after the weird success of Adventure:

Helping boost the VB

Being televised before the anime adaptation of the MOST IMPORTANT SHONEN OF THE DECADE THAT'S 1000+ EPISODES LONG

Most people watching it aren't 100% familiar with digimon; they probably just saw adventure (1999/2020) and stayed

The real reason of its episodic nature really comes through

I'm all for plot, but we in the streaming era have forgotten how catastrophic it is for a show's odds of survival it is to have your audience not know what's going on. TV is (surprisingly) still huge in Japan, so that's probably why the show is how it is.

You will never watch Adventure again, and why that's ok

It's not 1999 anymore, though. The era of big networks and monolithic media consumption is over here, where everything is more niche and fandom-ized. That's why western digimon fans have this reaction that might differ from the real target audience: the Japanese (for now) mainstream audience (I'm firm that there's a decent chance Ghost Game crosses the pond with a dub at some point, given the abundance of text in English in the actual anime)

Tumblr is really good at this, since there's not that much elitism here, but it sometimes seems like the fanbase is just desperate to see Adventure/Tamers again, and revive that spark they felt when they were young. But, despite sharing some similarities, Ghost Game isn't Tamers. It's not Adventure. It's also not Hunters nor Appmon. But, since episode 13, it's become increasingly clear that it's also not just Scooby-Doo digimon. Then, what is it?

Every digimon series has reinvented the wheel radically, and there's little to no consistency between them, but that just means that they can adapt, shift, and never stagnate. They're not perfect by any means, and you can complain about lots of things. But you can't complain about stagnation.

Despite how nearly every big media franchise had pivoted to nostalgia (See: Disney remakes) or settled to appeal to the majority, Digimon still experiments and reinvents itself.

Even with the relentless prioritization of Adventure since the start of Tri, they still made a wildly different, yet same in spirit, season. One that had probably the second most passionate and protective fanbase, second only to Adventure itself. In the middle of "the Adventure Nostalgia" era, they made Appmon. It wasn't 100% successful, and it has its flaws, but there is greatness under the surface, and I love it

I definitely don't want to say all complaints about Ghost Game, or Appmon for that matter, are only because everyone has too much nostalgia, but it does have an effect on the perception most people have.

Fast forward to today. Even when they literally remade Adventure with the same characters of the same age, after all of this, they still managed to make a great original digimon season that stands all on its own!

Conclusion

I have no idea of how Ghost Game will end. But I am certain that the staff at Toei have some degree of competence that gives me hope. Case in point: despite being completely unexpected, last episode kicked ass!!!!!!! *fangirl time*

Vamdemon was very imposing and disgusting (in the best way possible). And the final Canoweissmon reveal, unexpected as it was, was awesome (especially that little gulug teasing we got). Even though I wanted to see more of Dracmon and the other villains, it feels like it's not the last time we'll see them...

All the loose threads, as unresolved as they are, make my matpat-loving gremlin really happy to speculate, and it's still really fun to see the main 6's shenanigans every week!

There's a lot to be enjoyed in Ghost Game, and it really is starting to take shape. But where? I have no idea, and yet I love it for what it is.

anyways stan gammamon

#digimon #digimon ghost game #wyv rambles #long post

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talkingtea · 3 years

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The show lost viewers this season because it was insanely dreadfully bad. If they want any chance of a successful season 8, they're going to have to make some serious changes.

1) un bloat the damn cast. We do not need DP playing 2 shittily written mediocre characters with no plot taking up screentime when they can't even write 1 well. If they're not going to get rid of them both, I'll take Caitlin's blank face looking ass over white privilege Frost. Get rid of that dumbass Chillbean. Get rid of all and any Caitlin love interests forever bc DP has no chemistry with any of them. Cecile needs to be guest or recurring - she has no more use for the plot, esp now that Jenna is nonexistent and Joe is sharing scenes with Kramer. Unless they have a continued significant plot for Joe next season, he needs to be bumped down to supporting cast too and ACTUALLY support his pregnant daughter. Allegra doesnt need to be in episodes not focused on Citizen plots. Even if I dont mind her character, we don't need Sue back. She serves no purpose in the overall narrative. Why tf did they feel the need to bring her back and write for her when they can't even write their existing longterm characters properly?? Too many plates at the table. This focus on side characters has got to go. They didn't develop them well when they first joined the show which they should have done to make us invested. Trying to force in filler for that now after the fact is too late and disrupts the trajectory of the show. The only one they've done right is Chester.

2) go back to the roots of the show, with the Wests and Westallen family at its core and the characters and character dynamics driving the narrative, not the terrible and inconsistent plots. The show needs to stop being so invested in the spectacle and focus on the heart.

3) cool down the corny goofiness and gearing this towards kids bc I doubt the younger audience make up the majority of viewers at this point. This may not be a late time slot show but it is starting to resemble Disney shows with how "kiddy" and silly it has become. If s8 is indeed the last season, I hope they say fuck it and stop giving a damn about those (probably made up) constraints. Is it really that much to ask for the main couple to have some intimacy in bed? Even just cuddling under the covers? Steamier kisses?

4) let the writers who have experience writing the show and characters have more episodes because inconsistent characterisation and writing is ruining pivotal moments. And conversely, stop letting longtime writers with a clear anti agenda have pivotal WA/Iris episodes to write because again, inconsistent characterisation and writing is ruining it

5) they need to do right by Iris. Proper journalism story arc, proper pregnancy arc with her husband, proper investment in her vulnerability emotions and fears. Enough with the misogynoir.

6) a strong overarching villain with good, steady buildup and good motive who has stakes in the personal lives of every character, otherwise ppl are not going to get invested in the fight.

7) utilise their stronger actors more. They have significantly better actors with less screen time playing support like roles and keep pushing the actors who can't fucking act or carry episodes at the forefront and it is resulting in pretty bad episodes. A good actor can make bad writing tolerable. A bad actor just highlights all the flaws in the show. The focus on side characters exposed the show, bad writing, and how crappy some characters are this season, which we've been able to disregard in the past for the most part because at least there was fantastic acting and moments we could focus on instead.

8) they refuse to dismantle Team Flash at this point, so they need to make Barry a CLEAR leader. No more looking to others for decisions or having them in his ear all the fucking time. He's spent all seasons needing everyone's help for everything. How is he supposed to build his legacy as legendary if he needs everyone else to tell him what to do? He's about to be a father. They better have him shape up quick and learn to be a protector and leader in his own right. He's a muppet I can't take seriously at this point. If the titular character is written shoddily, the rest of the show won't hold up.

And 9) STOP PANDERING TO THE RACISTS AND DUMBASS WHINY BITCH FANBOYS. How hard is it to understand that whenever they do, the show suffers for it and has worse episodes, and when they don't, it thrives?? It's morons running this show I swear. How are fans of the show understanding the show more than the actual ppl who made the show??

It's not too late for the show; they can turn it around and end on a higher note but they seriously need to reevaluate the wrong turn they took after s4/s5ish.

🗣🗣🗣

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chocolateslatte · 4 years

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🚨The Rise of Skywalker Detailed Review and Spoilers Ahead🚨

George Lucas: “If the boy and girl walk off into the sunset hand-in-hand in the last scene, it adds 10 million to the box office”

The “fairytale” we got: A long long time ago in a galaxy far far away, there was a curse of pain and death in a family that just went on and on. They were never able to break it and they all die, the end.

Well, you did it JJ, you little punk...you ruined 40 years of cinema. Kids are coming out of theatres crying, they can’t understand. I guess this was the “fun and hopeful ending” you were speaking of during the press tours. Are you on crack or something, or just sadistic....why would you promote it like that!? Did you forget Star Wars at its core is a story of hope, light, a fairytale in space for children? They did it...they united Reylo’s and Fanboys through hate.

JJ you do realize tragical romances are only tragically romantic if there was romantic buildup? Romeo and Juliet married in secret, Anidala did as well and flirted in the fields. How was this supposed to be satisfying? A five-second beginning, middle, and end. How this went through multiple execs is beyond me.... I would have understood if Reylo was Rian’s creation. BUT JJ LITERALLY was the one who told Rian to go forth with it...he created Reylo so you can’t say the last Jedi derailed things on that front. JJ wasn’t brave enough for his own vision. This movie was like “the crimes of Grindlewald”, a lot of stuff happening that made me feel nothing.

Okay, first things first. The OG trilogy was necessary, the prequels were necessary to set up that Vader did not start off bad. What was necessary about the sequels? They just dismantled everything the Skywalker family worked for. Why did we have to see ALL of our favorite characters die? Was the aim that a villain can only be redeemed through death? How original. I’m convinced what they were planning for since force awakens was a journey from villain to hero...but instead we got this a 10min redemption resulting in death a la Vader. Why call Adam Driver’s character a “Disney Prince”?When did Happy endings become so controversial? We go to the movies to feel hope, to escape reality...George Lucas understood that. JJ’s trilogy is uninspired, bland and contributes nothing to the saga. JJ went as far as to recon his own “The Force Awakens”.It had the chance to define generations but no. Literal and utter garbage. Rian made some odd choices but he was bold, unafraid and had the vision. HE knew emotion was at the heart of Star Wars.

WHERE DID THE SKYWALKERS RISE? MORE LIKE RISE OF PALPATINE, HE BLOODY WON

BUT my problem is not with the ending, it’s the bloody entire movie. This movie made me realize that it's not Reylo that I am a fan of, it was Ben, Leia, Han, Ani, Padme, and all those other characters. I’m upset because this movie is not my Star Wars: of family, love and above all else hope. This is just a 2.5-hour video game with no emotions. This trilogy was all angst with NO payoff.

Okay, you will never ever convince me Palpatine was planned the whole time. This whole movie was retcon for the Last Jedi that pissed off the fanboys. Lucas films did not have an outline for the three films and Rian derailed whatever they wanted to do....except they didn’t even tell him what they wanted! This should be a cautionary tale of why you need to plan. Kylo ain’t bad, Snoke is gone....well pull out Palpatine I guess. This whole film is JJ’s mad scrambling. Alright, I will humor you, tell me how Palpatine came back when he fell down a shaft and exploded....not *boom boom because of force*. The force in this movie is not canon George Lucas force, it’s just an easy out whenever JJ wants one.

1. Opening Crawl: As soon as I saw this I knew all the leaks were true, I wanted to bolt from the theatre. When I saw them in August I laughed cause it was so ridiculous it couldn’t be true. How could Disney let a whole movie leak? The plot seemed like a bad fan-fiction. Actually, fanfics are way more true to lore. Anyway, so Palpatine “announces” that he’s back. Is this the shrewd Chancellor Palpatine we know? Certainly, not...why in the world would he announce it rather than keep on the DL and just attack. Yo Palps ain’t this dumb why would you let them (the resistance) prepare?? Because of plot...well okay.

2. Did Last Jedi even happen: this film is the sequel to the force awakens, like TLJ never happened...except it’s acting like there was some movie in between that JJ made. Okay, so why is Kylo trying to run Rey over with his tie fighter...he doesn’t really want to kill her. It’s just meaningless action shots. And don’t get me started on exposition, the dialogue: “hey look its the Knights of Ren”. Except they do nothing. Cool cool. Kylo’s character goes back to Force awakens era like no development had occurred...except he’s not even there he’s just messing around not even being a real villain. JJ’s specialty is set-up and he does this beautifully....but he can not wrap up and follow through.

3. Rose Tico: yup last Jedi never happened, she has nothing to do. She and Finn are irrelevant. Finn has reverted to being obsessed with Rey. Cool Cool. I honestly feel so bad for the lovely Kelly Marie Tran. How did you relegate a relatively big character into the sidelines?? Why introduce two new characters this late. Rose could have filmed in for them...but alas we must snub Rian at every turn because that’s just how petty JJ Abrams is. ( don’t get me wrong Jannah was cool)

4. The Rise Of Poe Dameron: Finn has been relegated to a side character who does nothing and just yells “REY!”. It was a great setup, a stormtrooper who was force sensitive but doesn’t want his life to be fighting for nothing. You could have explored trauma, the discovery of the light but nope nada. Tell me the point of his character journey. So flat and static. And with Jannah and the ex stormtroopers they could have gone with the arc of these lost, sad kids coming together to find family.

5. Leia: Okay you’re telling me our Princess would give up on her son before he was born, just throw away her lightsaber and accept Ben’s fate? Cool alright. And she knew about Rey Palpatine and didn’t say anything...my princess would never.

6. Mary Sue Rey: Ahh Rey this girl feels no emotion in this movie...just like the audience. Sure she’s trained but she can just do stuff with the “force” that even Jedi masters can’t. Stopping a whole starship, something even Yoda could barely do...yup she can do it. Beat Kylo all the time except one, yup she can. Manipulate the force in mind-boggling ways, heal people...sure Luke couldn’t but Rey certainly can. Cause she is the chosen one...hell even Ani wasn’t this talented and he had years of training. Poe and Finn have a genuine connection, Rey just seems disjointed (totally understandable why)...but if so the ending is even worse. She doesn’t even find peace with her friends. She’s not realistic and human like Luke and Leia were.

Force sensitivity in the galaxy: What a perfect setup, the boy with the broom at the end of TLJ that was force sensitive. The message is that the power to use the force was spreading through the galaxy. No longer confined to the elite. People were hearing of Luke’s battle of Crate and rising.

7. Kylo/Ben: I still maintain that he, other than Ani was the most nuanced character in the whole saga. His arc from Force Awakens to Last Jedi had progressed. How great that even someone from the legendary line of skywalker and solo could fall to the dark again. He wasn’t flat, he was a tortured boy that was conflicted since the first movie. How great would it have been to see him as a conflicted supreme leader, which was set up in TLJ. But *gasps* a plot of his very own, no can do, this is the nature of JJ’s crush on Rey and Daisy.

Disney released comics that made us sympathize with him, to see that all along he was manipulated by Snoke, and Palpatine the voices in his head. Neglected by those who were supposed to love him. Adam Driver was cast perfectly, he had almost no lines that weren’t related to Rey’s charcater arc. If he were a woman I’m sure everyone would be offended. That single line’s delivery “Dad-”

Come on Poe had more lines than him, and Driver according to JJ was half of the protagonist. He was pitched an arc opposite that of Darth Vader that’s why he signed. Man JJ really did do everyone dirty.

8. Ben had no lines while redeemed other than “ow”...I am so sorry ADAM that this nasty ass JJ did this to you...this part was 100% improv by Adam, I am willing to bet my life on it. You know why “ow” was brilliant? Cause it meant he felt pain and emotion, he was no longer hiding behind the hardness of Kylo REN. Adam’s performance as Ben left me speechless, he was convincing as Kylo, intimidating...but as BEN he shines in the way only Solo’s can. The way his eyes become determined once he accepts he must give his life, and he does so happily for the love of his life. His soulmate. Star Wars and JJ never deserved the talent that is Adam Driver.

9. They are supposed to be equals in the force yet they missed the opportunity to fight Snoke together. Tell me how they are equals. He existed only to further Rey’s plotline.

Oh and the other Jedi including Anakin whisper and help Rey...when his own grandson has been asking for help in distress for like 30years. Nice real nice.

10. Finally Reylo: it felt unearned cause there was no buildup, JJ just threw it in for kicks forgetting all the P&P parallels he was shooting for. An afterthought. Driver and Ridley’s acting saved the day, they had no lines. Adam Driver is truly one of the finest actors. You could see the difference between Ben and Kylo in his subtle gestures...the sass was pure Han Solo.

11. And then the death: I wouldn’t even say we won, but at what cost. We won in no way. Had he died fighting I would have understood, but this death was so unnecessary and put in just for the fanboys. Let me say again I would have been okay with death had it been justified. How is this any different than Vader x Luke. JJ can only copy not create. How crazy that you can just bring people back from the dead...Anakin is here like, am I joke to you? I could have brought Padme back say what???? What was the point of his whole fall to the dark. The force is infinite, that’s the whole point...once you know how to use it you can’t run out of it like juice. Oh, and Ben did not become one with Rey but rather the Force according to the Disney website. So why pray tell did he not appear as a force ghost? I’m convinced JJ was on crack.

12. No Mourning BEN no acknowledgment: 5 seconds! And then she moves on from losing her soulmate, half of her soul. She loses it over Chewie but nothing, no emotion not even a second over her other half. Seriously? No one ever knows Ben came back...nada. JJ set up Reylo, time and time again he has said that he crafted the story around the romance. He was left scrambling after Last Jedi and this was a last-ditch shock ending. No Reylo theme song, no across the stars

13. Last Jedi told us you don’t have to come from a powerful family to be important. THE WHOLE thing was that you could be force-sensitive and be a nobody. Nobodies can become somebody. A Hero is not born but made. The force lives in all beings, not just powerful families. It inspired me, what a great message to young guys and gals. Kylo’s line, “you come from nothing, you are nothing...you have no place in this story” finally turns out true. You have to come from something to have a part in the Star Wars story. And Rey had darkness inside her cause she was human. Because none of us are pure, we are shades of grey. But no, it’s cause darkness only runs in families. In the Last Jedi when she wants to see her family all she sees is herself and a shadow (Ben) who joins with her. Please do explain this JJ. And if this granddaughter thing was set up I would have had no problem...but they pulled it from their asses. You can have nothing but mean something. But no pander to the fanboys. In the end, a Palpatine lived and all the skywalkers ended....and we are supposed to have hope. Palpatine really did win.

14. Rey’s biggest fear was ending up in the desert alone, we were told “the belonging she seeks is ahead not behind” and “there’s someone who could still come back”. They mentioned she felt just as alone with the resistance. Only the other half of her soul understood her. This is truly tragic and sad...I am so heartbroken for her. And don’t tell me she isn’t there to stay...the soundtrack is called “a new home”. Enjoy the rest of your days being exactly where you started Rey....but hey at least you got a droid boo. I’m convinced this is not the balance JJ envisioned in the first movie. At one point in TFA Rey looks up sees an old woman alone, scavenging in the desert. This rattles her to the core and it starts her journey of wanting a better, different life. I am so sorry Rey. Okay so you may say she has the resistance and her friends...but let’s consult the last Jedi. In the end when everyone is on the ship...Rey is surrounded by friends yet looks more alone than ever. No one but Ben, maybe Luke, Leia, and Han understood her pull to the dark.

How sad that these two hopeless souls who had never known a moment of belonging and true love, found it for all but a few seconds.

I will quote: “preventing female characters with strong, compelling narratives from experiencing love, intimacy, and affection is just as regressive as reducing them down to sexual accessories. Assumes that women must choose between a romantic interest and depth of character”

Men really can not write good female characters, can they? A woman really can’t be a badass and end up with the love of her life

15. The Skywalker’s and Redemption: How truly truly sad that Han and Leia gave their life for their son who also died at a young age. ALL the Skywalkers and Solo’s have a tragic end. This is not what George Lucas wanted. What a tragic way to end this saga...they weren't able to break the curse. AND to all those troubled kids out there that lashed out and made terrible mistakes in their youth....doesn’t matter what you do dying is the only way out. You could have exiled him, made him pay in other ways. Nothing can be done to make up for your sins but death, no amount of good means that you can come home. To the young boys that get wrapped up in terror organizations, sorry the only way you can be redeemed is death...don’t bother changing and coming back. They could have exiled him, had him start an academy with Rey for Jedi kids. He could have spent the rest of his days redeeming himself. Why tell us he was literally preyed upon, haunted, and manipulated as a child. Even in a fantasy world, a victim of mental illness and abuse can not catch a break. Ben as a child could not fall asleep due to the demon-like voices in his mind. Everyone abandoned him in his time of need. Ben never desired power like Anakin, he went over to the dark because “the voice” of his grandfather promised belonging. I am shocked that this is the message Disney sends us. Oh and yeah you can totally take on the Skywalker name for kicks...the disrespect I swear

16. The worst bit is that I am 90% sure there was another ending that was scrapped. There was a promo shot of Jannah in a field, soft lighting, lush planet. It was exactly like P&P. Daisy Ridley said the lasts scene was known to only Her, Jannah on that panel (Driver was away). Convinced Jannah was looking at Rey and Ben starting a new life away from the desert which she and Luke hate so much. Hence the production of “A New Home” soundtrack. Hence why the “Farewell” song played behind Reylo kiss was hopeful. Why Luke’s soundtrack when he became part of the force was not triumphant. Why the death scene was sudden and cut weird and no sorrow from Rey. CAUSE THEY SCRAPPED THE ORIGINAL ENDING LAST MINUTE. Everyone knows JJ was still editing one month before. The concept art which was supposed to be released this month has been pushed to March. Why you ask? They need to remove the pages with a happy ending. He just didn’t have the guts, pandered to everyone and yet no one. He was successful in creating a beautifully filmed action-filled movie with none of the heart of Star Wars.

And then she goes and buries Anakin’s saber on freaking TATOOINE. He HATES Sand and Luke wanted to get away from there as soon as possible. Of course, a Palpatine would torture them that way. But nostalgia is the cash cow so. JJ can only generate nostalgia, not create original stories. IF he had any creativity she would have buried it at Padme’s grave.

The fanboys say “leave the romance for the romance movies”....have you seen the original trilogy or the prequels? Star Wars has always had hope and romance entwined with it.

SO AFTER 40 YEARS...PALPATINE WINS...HIS BLOODLINE LIVES ON

...and people thought the prequels were bad

JJ you also said that your goal was for people to come out of the movie feeling more hopeful and happy then they went in...yet here I am. My roommate literally had to console me and buy me ice cream. I am just so numb. I am sure the casual fan will enjoy this, as seen from the rotten tomatoes ratings. I think the critics were too generous with this one,

Star Wars is very simple at its core, Good vs Bad and Dark vs Light. The kids are expected to understand that a Palpatine being the only one who lives is hopeful? That is the conclusion of three generations of Skywalker sacrifice...

This is how the Skywalkers are remembered...In Tragedy and Curse??

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bigskydreaming · 3 years

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Oh also, something else I’ve been seeing lately or was seeing and then got distracted and forgot about seeing but now I remember so ahah!

Right, the thing:

A mini-surge or sudden trend of fics tackling the issue of Bruce hitting Dick after Jason’s death by revisiting those events and rewriting them so that this part doesn’t happen.

Which, actually? I’m all in favor of. Like I’m always saying, fanfic is MEANT to be transformative and actually doing the work of transforming a shitty instance of writing into something less shitty rather than just dealing in the fallout of such a thing while acting like the inciting abuse never even happened which is literal abuse apologism? Yes. Good. More of that please.

BUT.

I like big BUTS and I can not lie:

The issue I’m having with this particular mini-trend is that writers seem to be writing out the physical abuse of Bruce hitting Dick.....BUT still leaning into the part where Bruce then still tells Dick to give his keys back and kicks him out of the home he once told Dick was his and always would be.

And this is a problem, see, because like.....it was never JUST that Bruce hit Dick in that issue. It was the one two punch of that actual punch and the emotional one of having the security and stability of the home that had been GIVEN to him - even if he hadn’t actually lived there in years - literally taken back, ripped out from under him. Retroactively declared conditional, with Bruce saying that actually, it was never really his in the way Dick had come to believe it was.....not if the rights to it could be revoked any time Bruce felt like changing his mind.

The issue of that issue, pardon the pun, was never just that Bruce hit Dick. It was that in an ironic repetition of how Dick lost his first family and home and all resulting stability all at once, in one fell swoop.....at this point in time, from his POV, the exact same thing was happening with his second family. With him losing his father figure - even if not yet actually named as such from a legal standpoint - and losing the comfort and security offered by even just MEMORIES of a childhood home, all on the same day he found out he lost his brother. With it all taken away at once.

Thing is, this is as blatant of emotional abuse as you can get. And I really would like people to interrogate themselves when tackling this particular moment in time about what their specific motivations are and what they’re hoping to gain from the specific changes they make to it, otherwise you might inadvertently just end up swapping one problem out for another. In this case, swapping out the abuse apologism of pretending like Bruce abusing Dick wasn’t the inciting element of their estrangement after Jason’s death for the abuse apologism of treating the matter as though so long as Bruce doesn’t actually physically hit Dick, he can’t be labeled abusive.

Abuse doesn’t always have to be physical, and I encourage people tackling this particular moment in time in order to lessen the existence of Bruce as an abusive father to ask themselves if they’re still more motivated in transforming this moment because of what it says about Bruce than because of what impact it has upon Dick. Because I would argue that this will always be an exercise in futility and ignores tackling the real issues of abuse, because it still caters to the default problem we so often face in society: wherein we make abuse more about the abuser than the victim.

I would argue that even when Bruce physically hit Dick in that scene....the emotional damage that resonated with him for years had just as much to do with taking back Dick’s keys and actually kicking him out, as it did the betrayal of being physically hurt by someone who was meant to protect and care for him. Dick has massive abandonment issues - not even just because of Bruce but just from the nature of how he became orphaned and then removed from his home. Even though no one involved there, in terms of the people who cared about him, like, WANTED to abandon him by any means, that doesn’t change the resulting issues because abandonment issues are somewhat of a misnomer. Its kinda the exact same problem I talk about with focusing on abusers rather than their victims....the focus is put on the inciting element and classifying it in a certain way (’abandonment’) even when that’s not strictly true and the best definition of what happened.....rather than the focus being put on the resulting issues they impart upon the one left dealing with the fallout.

So my point with all this is yes, please, absolutely keep examining that moment in canon and how it impacts the characters and the stories that resulted from it......but see what happens when you primarily keep the focus to the recipient, Dick, and how it looks through his eyes, how he’s affected, rather than from some attempt to absolve Bruce or lessen his culpability. The result is going to be entirely different depending on where you put your focus, I’d argue, because the simple reality of abuse is it NEVER exists in a vaccuum. Even when there’s only one and one only instance of outright physical abuse between a parent and child, whether in reality or fiction, chances are, things didn’t get to that climactic a precipice out of NOWHERE. There was buildup, tension, previous times when the parent might have come close or the child might have been afraid they were close. Physical abuse just doesn’t pop into being in isolated instances. Emotions are almost always a precursor to action, and whether actual emotional abuse predates every instance of physical abuse or not......in the AFTERMATH of physical abuse, suddenly things which previously on their own might not have seemed all that bad can suddenly take on an entirely different light, from the perspective of the victim.

Basically....abuse is simply too complex and multi-faceted to be easily isolated down to just one specific instance or element, and trying to do so, especially in the name of making an abuser look better or at least just not as bad, like.....I don’t think its ever really going to have the result that people who go into it from this angle are aiming for. You just can’t condense the hurt of an abuse victim into something mathematic, so long as that hurt and confusion exists at all, like...there’s no formula for ‘if you remove x from the equation of this abuse, it equals not as abusive’ - y’know?

Just....food for thought, please. Abuse is an extremely complicated topic and its one that never deserves anything less than thorough examination of the why of writing it and the aims its intended for, IMO. Its GOOD that people are tackling the subject, I think, and this particular moment in canon in particular. Again, I’m all for that. I’m just asking that people make sure when doing so that their focus is on BOTH sides of the issue and they’re not just looking at it from Bruce’s POV or as a fan of Bruce specifically.

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ostrichlady · 3 years

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THOUGHTS AND RAMBLES ABOUT SNK CHAPTER 139 (SPOILERS!!)

Rating of this chapter: Lukewarm tea.

And everyone knows lukewarm tea tastes bad.

I do think the best way to deal with this chapter is to not overanalyze it. Read it once, call it quits and move on. I did that and felt great the next day. But because I spent too many years of my life in this story, of course the thoughts came back and there are a few things I need to say before leaving this story behind.

I never wanted a happy or tragic ending. I never wanted for everything to be solved neither for everything to end on a depressing note. The only thing I ever asked for was that the finale was fair and made sense.

But unfortunately, what happened was the exact opposite.

Everything that happened after the 3 years time skip was a big whatever and the only thing that comforts me is that Armin is alive, and Historia seems happy with her child.

I still don’t understand why Reiner and Annie were so easily accepted. I mean, at least Reiner showed huge amounts of regret and we saw how he dealt with the trauma that everything caused to him (although now he's back to being a creep for Historia? Ew). But Annie? She herself admitted she would do the same shit all over again no problem, and why was she tearing after talking to Eren in the PATHS? Didn’t she say a few chapters ago that if they had to kill him, she wouldn’t hesitate and was almost judging Mikasa and Armin for not thinking the same way? Excuse me Annie, but what made you so emotional all of the sudden?

Then we learn that the world is still a very dangerous place for Eldians and Paradis; the yeagerists are in charge of the military force and will swoop the alliance’s ass very easily if they find them chilling outside. And my question is: killing 80%of the population lead to this? Really? At any moment, Eldians can be exterminated, this is even worst than before!? They don’t have proper military training, the world still doesn’t like them and the alliance ambassadors or whatever are not very liked either sooo...I truly don’t understand the point of this. Now, don’t get me wrong: I never liked the Rumbling plan because as Hange said, "There's never a good enough reason for committing genocide", and I also always believed the Rumbling would make everyone else hate Eldians even more. But if 80% of people had to have their lives taken, at least don’t let it go to waste!?

Anyways, going back to when they’re still at war.

So Eren went around everyone’s mind and now everyone cries for him. A little late, but sure.

Everyone who was transformed into a titan is back, making the previous chapter be even more useless. Imagine reading the volume, get some shock value with Jean, Connie and everyone else becoming titans just to turn the page and they are back. I mean, I thought it was really unfair Jean died (and I hope he’s not arranging his hair for when they meet Mikasa) but having him and everyone else coming back like this is just....dumb?

The fact we had Eren’s intentions explained this way makes the whole situation even messier. From his conversation with Armin to the road trip he did through people’s memories, it was just a big dump of information that did nothing but pull out a wtf from me. I think it would be a lot better if we saw a POV like the one from chapter 131, more honest and raw being that we would be seeing his true thoughts with no outside opinions and questioning. But this whole mess felt so, so displaced that for two seconds I wondered if they were all going crazy, Eren included.

And I will never accept that Eren “killed” his mom for the sake of whatever the heck this became. Just no. Carla was Eren’s most important person, the one who said he was special simply for being born, and you want to convince me she had to be pulled into this mess because of some weird shit Ymir had going on with Mikasa, and Eren had to follow through?? This was cheap shock value that didn’t even shock because of how nonsense it is. The scene in which Eren asks Reiner why did his mom have to die lost all of its value and weight. How can one rewatch or reread snk, see the tragic and emotional scene where a 10 year old kid cries and screams as he see his mom be EATEN BY A TITAN and feel anything at all? Honestly, what a disrespect to Carla. Someone should have told her Yeagers can’t be trusted.

Speaking of Yeagers: Grisha, your kids are a mess. Come take responsibility for this-

Besides the fact that Zeke was killed for absolutely NOTHING, Eren’s character became a joke on a dozen of panels. More than angry, I’m shocked with how Isayama pulled this off. From having one of the best MC in modern shounen to having a pathetic little idiot that doesn’t know wtf he’s doing and has an intense unresolved crush on the girl he’s always had zero chemistry with. Legit I would be less surprised if he said he had a crush on fucking Connie, for god’sake. All of his motives, ideals and determination were sacrificed in sake of complete obnoxious notions of love I’m not even gonna ramble about here. And don't come at me with the whole "Oh bUt hE's JuSt A tEeNaGeR aNd DoEsN't UnDeRsTaNd HiS eMoTiOnS aNd WaS hIdInG hIs LoVe FoR mIkAsA". That's a cheap explanation for a cheap argument for a cheap mess that makes no sense. If you’re an Eren stan, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what happened but I feel your pain.

Last but certainly not least: Mikasa and Ymir.

I could say so much about these two but to sum it up: what a miserable duo. I’m not head over heels for Mikasa but I thought she had her place in the story and could have had some good character development. But ever since the timeskip, I had a feeling it wasn’t going to happen and it really didn’t. If Isayama chose this way for her because there’s a message between the lines, I don’t care because this was the last chapter and we all wanted answers. So we’re working with what we have laid down plain which is: Mikasa had a miserable ending, can’t let go of Eren and is stuck in the past. Her so called “selfless” love and obsession towards Eren is a very unhealthy response to her own traumas. This connection between her and Ymir just proves even further what I said as both of them are devoted to a love that never gave back and deeply hurt them in more ways than it’s apparent.

And still on Ymir’s topic, I don’t understand why she now has stockholm syndrome towards that nasty, disgusting, waste of human being king when the plot was setting her up in a complete different direction!? That whole talk of Eren finally freeing her from being a slave to the royal family, and giving her the chance of choosing her own path, where did all of that go!? What was that chapter for!? All of this buildup just because she was waiting for Mikasa?

Where has the entire talk about “everyone deserves freedom because they were born into this world” go? Why has a theme bigger than any of the characters gotten reduced to “waiting for Mikasa to decide herself about her feelings ‘cause omg tragic loooovee story”??? This just makes the deaths of everyone, and the scouts look completely useless. That Ramzi kid really died for this...

I swear, what a mess.

Overall, if you read this chapter in one go and then sigh relief as snk is finally over, this ending will probably be okay or just meh. I’m not angry or anything near that. Just disappointed and shocked that these two last chapters were this bad. Again, even if there are hidden messages between the lines, this is the last chapter and we shouldn’t have to be debating that. It’s okay to pull out a bunch of foreshadowing and questioning and whatnot in your story but to leave things in the open with the most weird messages and morals on the surface is just...blergh.

#snk 139 #aot 139 #snk last chapter #attack on titan #shingeki no kyojin #snk spoilers #aot spoilers

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roz-ani · 3 years

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Okay, so first: I am so sorry it took me so long to respond, dear anon. I was really busy with school. Not to mention Tumblr wasn't kind enough to put this in my ask box, but I fortunately took the screenshot the day I received the message, while it got lost in all the other notifications.

Now, properly responding to your ask would require me to write a looonnngggg analysis. I have absolutely nothing against Bumbleby or Blacksun. In fact, I feel indifferent about both. I did say once I ship BS, but it kinda... disappeared? I think around V5. I'm not even sure what to think about Bumbleby at this point. I do feel like something is missing there, but I also don't think Blacksun should've become canon? Like I said, I haven't formed my opinion on the matter, but I'll try to explain it as good as I can while hoping to not write a novel XD

In volumes 1-3 we witnessed how friendship between Blake and Yang formed. After leaving Adam, Blake needed someone who would focus on positives, make her feel comfortable and offer emotional support. She found that in team RWBY. Did she form any special connection with Yang then?

I think this moment is one of the most important ones in their whole relationship. Yang told Blake she can't focus on fighting all the time - she has to rest too, with her friends by her side. She even winked at her, but I don't see it as something romantic. I'd connect it to Yang's playful personality.

After that, we didn't see anything really important. There were a few smaller moments between them, usually shared with Ruby and Weiss. Until the Fall of Beacon:

I've noticed many people pointing this out as the first evidence of Yang's feeling for Blake. For me it doesn't really make sense. I'm 100% sure her reaction wouldn't change if it was Weiss, not to mention Ruby.

After that, Yang expressed how disappointed and crushed she felt when Blake left. She obviously didn't blame her partner for what happened, but she was trying to protect her at that moment, she heard how she screamed after Adam hurt her. But Blake felt guilty and went to the only people she had left in her life - her parents. Sun travelled there with her, therefore they logically had to spend more time together. More one that later.

Now, them missing each other is understandable, but were they really that close? Yang wanted Blake to be with her. It was not the first time someone left her, when someone didn't give enough support after something tragic happened. Many people saw it as something romantic. I didn't. Weiss explained Blake's way of thinking to Yang and Sun did the same for Blake. However, many interpreted that longing as more than friendship. I honestly don't blame them. It really felt like they tried to work with something that... just wasn't there. Now, it all seems to come back to the moment when Yang lost her arm and Blake left her. And that's the thing that probably confuses me the most, so let's just leave it here and move on.

Volume 6, oh sweet, sweet volume 6. We started with Yang still being uneasy around Blake... for a moment. She said it'll take time for things to be normal again, but what mattered the most was the fact her partner came back. On the Brunswick farm Blake tried to show her support by promising Yang she'll protect her - Yang obviously wasn't happy with that. The audience received an information that there's still a problem, something's wrong... but then they started to talk normally again. Now, there were more important things to focus on, but it felt like the whole issue disappeared, it went absolutely nowhere. Then we got the fight with Adam. My biggest problem is his line "What does she even see in you?". It's really, really difficult, if not impossible, to not see it as something connected to love/romance. Would he say the same thing if it was Weiss not Yang?

After that we got the hug and hand holding. Was it romantic? Pretty much yes. Saying that the Renora airship scene from v4 was intimate, but this one wasn't seems kinda unfair to me. But why? Why was it romantic? What lead to those feelings? Where did they come from? There had to be something in v6. If we accepted the fact them missing each other was completely platonic then why it would suddenly become romantic?

Now, Blacksun. The first time we met Sun he immediately found Blake interesting and knew about her being a Faunus.

And while he might’ve been a bit “insistent”, he kept supporting Blake while trying to get closer to her. It’s obvious he was the one initiating something, like inviting her to the dance. Then we got this:

Now, blushes are something that can be interpreted in a few ways, mainly embarrassment or something more romantic. I think we can all agree it’s the second option. Again: why? When did Blake start to see Sun as someone she could possibly date? We obviously skipped some school weeks in the story, so it’s possible that they just spent more time with each other. Still, there wasn’t much we could pick to support this. At the same time it was more than what Blake had with Yang at this moment. While Sun became someone she started to develop feelings for, Yang remained her close friend.

Then came the Fall of Beacon. Blake ran away and Sun went after her. He felt like he couldn’t leave her alone, she needed support. Like I said, Sun can be insistent, but he’s still a great friend. The only time he acted like he was flirting with her was when he called her “his hero”. After that he kept being supportive, help her solve the White Fang problem etc. Blake on the other hand was constantly saying she doesn’t want his help and that she came here to rest. If there was any romantic development from v3 left, they both knew it wasn’t the right time for it. After Sun got hurt, Blake revealed why she ran away, why she didn’t want her friend to get close to her. She viewed herself as the source of their problems, wanted to be hated. Sun explained to her why her mindset isn’t healthy.

He even knew Blake kept thinking about Yang.

Oh, I almost forgot about the parents thing XD It’s obviously an old scenario: overprotective father and supportive mother meeting their daughter’s boy-friend. It’s always connected to romance between two young people, so I don’t blame Blacksun shippers for pointing it out. After that, we didn’t get much between the two. They focused on their mission, Sun kept supporting Blake in her fight. I v6 Blake expressed how much she'll miss him and kissed him goodbye. Sun told Neptune it was never about romance and it’s true to some degree. I’m sure he’d go after her even if he wasn’t in love. Sun is an amazing friend. He has his flaws, but you can’t deny his loyalty.

Okay, I skipped a few things here and there, but there’s still something I want to point out: the audience perspective. I think it’s safe to assume that Blacksun was more obvious choice. Does that mean Bumbleby never had a chance? Absolutely not. It’s not about whether it was planned from the beginning or not. It’s about buildup. When Blake and Yang got separated it was obvious they’re going to reunite. I wasn’t part of the FNDM during v4, so I assume people expected Blacksun to become canon during v4-5. I think it was still important to remember the fact of Blake and Yang reuniting in the future, which would obviously be crucial for their relationship. I also believe it was pretty obvious Sun wouldn’t stay with the group, so Blacksun would have to be confirmed later. I think the biggest problem with Bumbleby people seem to have is how obvious it is now. We all know it’s going to be canon, some even say it’s canon now. It does make sense since it’s inevitable at this point. But let’s look at this:

It seems like they’re trying to make up for what was lost in the previous volumes. Bumbleby technically isn’t canon yet. Blake and Yang seem to be fully aware of their feelings, it’s just a matter of time before they confess. Now, that may annoy some people, because we all already know it’s the endgame. At least that’s how I see it.

Now, which ship had more buildup? It’s honestly hard to say. Just because two characters shared more scenes together it doesn’t mean the ship is going to be canon. You have to look at the context. It’s also important to not have those characters be together all the time. It gets boring and annoying. Sadly, RWBY likes to do that (although v8 is doing a great job so far). I think both ships would need more time to be properly built up. Now Bumbleby is basically canon. The ship has its flaws when it comes to writing, but it’s not something that can be changed.

#rwby #bumbleby #blacksun #yang xiao long #blake belladonna #sun wukong #anon ask #roz writes #mine

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makeste · 4 years

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There's been a lot of talk about Mina's optimistic line about how they'll all be fine and back to class is a death flag, but if anything I think it's a desth flag for U.A. They'll be fine, but they won't be back to class as normal, because there won't BE a class to attend(RIP Shinsou)

seems like everyone in the fandom is talking about death flags and kids dying and society falling to pieces these days lol. fwiw, as I’m sure most people have seen by now, Viz’s translation showed that Mina was actually talking about Midnight, so if this really is a “famous last words” situation, it would apply to her rather than the kids.

but it seems like the speculation hasn’t really died down despite that! so since the whole “kids dying” thing keeps coming up, I’m gonna go ahead and weigh in on it again here and say that I don’t think it’s going to happen. so far I’ve mostly been trying to keep my reasoning short and sweet and leaving it at “it would be too dark”, but in truth, the real reason why I don’t see it happening is because I don’t think it would serve any purpose.

here’s the thing about character deaths: assuming that the writing is any good (which I would argue that it is, in BnHA’s case, although you are free to disagree!), they should always serve a purpose. and in most cases, that’s going to mean one of four things:

it serves as a way to write the character out of the story for whatever reason (for instance if the character is getting in the way of letting a plot be resolved, or if the actor is leaving, which of course doesn’t apply to BnHA but is a huge factor in a lot of other media). an example here would be Twice, who was written out of the story because his quirk would have prevented the heroes from having any chance at all of winning.

it sets the stakes and takes away the audience’s sense of security by establishing that No One Is Safe, and that People Can And Will Die. this is important in that it builds suspense and makes the audience more invested than they might otherwise be, because they can’t be 100% certain that their fave is going to make it out alive. a good example of this would be the recent massacre at Jakku, which showed in no uncertain terms how powerful Tomura has become, and also demonstrated that Horikoshi has no qualms whatsoever about killing off any number of pro hero characters in this arc.

it completes that character’s arc and serves as a fitting (if depressing) end to their story. this is probably the most controversial as far as “reasons for killing someone off” go, because it’s so easy to fuck up, and because someone will almost always argue that there were other, better ways for a character’s story to end. most “redemption” deaths fall under this category, as do the “character makes the ultimate sacrifice to protect their loved one” deaths. if Endeavor ends up dying there’s a good chance it will fall under this category. so far though, BnHA has been pretty light on these types of deaths, which tbh suits me just fine. ideally this sort of death is supposed to provide some sort of closure, but in practice it doesn’t always work out that way.

lastly, the death furthers the story in some way. it galvanizes another character into action, or serves as a motivation for them. or maybe the death shifts the political landscape of the story and sets new plots into motion. most tragic backstory deaths fall under this category; for example, pretty much the entire Shimura family (r.i.p.). this is another potentially controversial area though on account of there being many other ways to move the plot forward without resorting to killing someone off. not to mention that “fridging” deaths also fall under this category -- deaths where one character is used as a plot device to move another character’s development forward. Nana, unfortunately, is an example of this, but that’s another rant for another day.

anyway, so these are the four biggest reasons to kill off a character in a story. there are others as well, including simply adding some more tragedy and emotion to the story, but IMO that doesn’t really apply to this particular genre. BnHA isn’t a tragedy, nor is it the kind of bleak, grimdark narrative where killing off characters more frequently would make sense. this isn’t the kind of series where gratuitous character deaths are necessary to add shock value or realism. making the shift into that kind of writing this late in the game wouldn’t make much sense, and IMO would do a lot more harm than good.

so as far as I’m concerned, this means that if Horikoshi is going to kill someone off in this arc, that death needs to come under one of these four categories. oh, and something I forgot to mention before -- it should be necessary, as well. in other words, it accomplishes one of these four things, and is the only way that said thing can be accomplished. those are basically my criteria for a “good” character death.

and as far as I can see, none of the kids’ deaths would currently fall into that “necessary” category, or meet any of those other four criteria. none of the kids are so powerful that they need to be written out of the story (and even if they were, there are other ways to do that with AFO and the quirk-be-gone bullets now in play). they don’t need to be killed off in order to raise the stakes; clearly, fandom is already very convinced on that front already, or people wouldn’t constantly be freaking out over death flags and such in the first place. and none of the kids is anywhere near the completion of their respective story arcs. maybe if one or more of them had been featured more often recently, and there was some actual buildup, like we saw with Mirio right before he lost his quirk, or with Nighteye before he was killed. but we haven’t seen anything like that recently for any of the kids, with the possible exception of Bakugou (hence why I’m still pretty certain that he’s currently heading towards what Aizawa would call a “death”, with quotation marks, i.e. the loss of his quirk).

so that just leaves us with “their death would further the narrative in some way”, which is probably the most open to interpretation of the four. but for the life of me I just can’t think of any way that the death of a kid would advance the plot in a way that couldn’t be achieved by other means. want society to freak out about children being involved in a war? just injure a bunch of them, or have one of them lose their quirk on live TV with the world watching. want to traumatize the other child soldier characters for some reason? kill off one of the teachers, then. or, again, take away one of their friends’ quirks, and have them feel some misplaced guilt over not being able to stop it. this was the winning formula for the Basement arc, so I don’t see why it wouldn’t work here as well.

tbh a lot of this does depend on what exactly Horikoshi’s goals for this arc are, which still aren’t 100% clear even this late in the game. I’m not sure right now what he’s planning for the aftermath of this thing. will it be like Kamino and Fukuoka, where society is shaken up but still rallying behind the heroes and giving them their support? or are we instead building up towards a scenario where society’s faith in heroes finally crumbles and people are left totally demoralized in the wake of yet another brutal attack, and the total decimation of the Billboard Top 10? the latter outcome is seeming more and more likely to me, but an awful lot of it depends on how the next few chapters play out.

my best guess is that we end up with a scenario where the heroes succeed in staving off total disaster, but at a heavy cost. a lot of the pros are either dead or out of commission, Tomura and the League are still at large, and everyone is basically just sitting around trying to process what just happened and figure out what to do next while they wait for the other shoe to drop. word gets out that the kids were pretty much the only reason the battle didn’t end in even greater disaster, and as a result they get swept up in the ensuing political drama. the HPSC tries to parade them around as the next big thing; humanity’s hope for the future. but meanwhile a growing faction of the general public is furious at the government getting children involved in a war, and start arguing that the hero program should be shut down and U.A. should close its doors. and in the midst of all this, the kids try to lick their wounds and deal with the aftermath, and enter their second year very much unsure of what the future will hold.

anyway, so this all got very long-winded and out of hand as usual, but to sum up, I don’t think any of the kids is going to die here, and I think there will still be a year two of U.A., but that it’s going to feel very different from the U.A. we’ve known up to this point. if the threat of Tomura is still looming over everyone’s heads I very much doubt the kids will be able to focus much on their studies. but it may also be a case of them trying to cling to what little semblance of normalcy they have left. the teachers might decide to press on simply because it’s the only thing they can do. basically I’m anticipating something very similar to the aftermath of Kamino, but with the tension ramped up to 11, and with the adults fighting a losing battle to keep the kids from getting caught up in the middle of it all.

in other words, I don't think it’s an actual death-death we need to worry about here. rather, it’s going to be a much slower and much more subtle death by a thousand cuts. but it’ll be the kind of angst the characters can still work under; the kind that, rather than suffocating them, instead makes them grit their teeth and find a way to push forward. so yeah! anyways though, now that I’ve said all this, watch as Horikoshi goes and fucking decapitates Aoyama next week or some shit. lol maybe I should knock on wood just in case.

#bnha 279 #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha meta #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha #asks #anon asks #long post

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laughing-with-god · 5 years

Text

Pandemonium XII

(Author’s note; so I owe everyone an apology. I haven’t written for this story in a long ass time and tbh it shows. I’m sorry but I lost inspo for this story and that’s why this story had been dead for so long. I’m trying to get back into the flow of this plot, so please just have a little more patience with me. I have no right to ask for that but I really need it. But anyway, this chapter is more of a buildup for the next big event I want to happen in this story, please enjoy.)

Words; 3.6k

“Your mom’s chest hair!”- Janis Ian, Mean Girls

You were having a Lindsay Lohan moment in a bathroom stall….except the ‘Regina George’ in this situation was God fucking with you in a form of a shitty day.

Okay…*record scratch* you’re probably wondering how you got yourself into this mess.

You gasped after the dreaded ‘D’ word left your mouth and before you could give Namjoon a chance to respond over the phone, you hastily pressed the ‘end call’ button to return to your pitiful sobs.

Except these sobs were harder than the ones before because like...what the fuck?? You called Namjoon daddy….. Why?

The taboo word slipped past your lips as if it was nothing, as if your brain didn’t send signals to your mouth to form the name and release it. You didn’t give your mouth permission to utter it, but it was said into the receiver of your phone before you could even process why the fuck you would say it.

“‘Word vomit”, some might say.

Two ‘Mean Girls’ themes in one day...you were on a role.

How could you face him after that? Knowing you accidentally fed into his dumbass daddy kink just because you were having a meltdown and needed someone to call on. The fucker probably thought he ‘snapped you into submission’ or something. His pathetic male ego was most likely purring right now.

And your timing couldn’t possibly be any worse.

You JUST had this conversation with him and told him that you would never play into his weird little bdsm game, yet here you were. You couldn’t comprehend your own stupidity.

Hastily, you pulled out your laptop from your bag. While sitting on the toilet with little regard for hygiene in favor of your record-breaking distress; you quickly opened your gmail to send a message to your professors that you would be missing class for the rest of the day.

After doing so, you slammed the device shut and exited the stall.

The mirror reflected the tiredness and annoyance you felt. Your skin was blotchy and drained of color whilst your nose and eyes were red with evidence of your crying. The swelling of your eyelids was enough to make you head to the sink in attempt to splash some cold water onto them.

While hunched over the sink, you heard your phone buzz from its’ place in your pocket. You reached around to grab it but when you saw whom it was, you felt the need to throw it out the window before jumping out yourself.

However the person calling was not to be put off by the decline to talk, given they only tried again and again. When the device began buzzing for the fifth time, you groaned but answered it in hopes to give them a piece of your mind and end the line of future communication for good.

“What do you want?!” You growled, sure to let the bitchiness overlap your tone.

“Y/n! Thank god you picked up! Where are you? I saw you looked really down and just ran away. Do you want me to take you home?” You heard a rustle over the phone which told you that he was indeed looking for you. His heavy footsteps and background noise of student chatter hinted that he was still wandering campus in search of you.

“No Jungkook, I really rather not talk to you right now.” You bluntly responded.

“Why? did I do something wrong? At least let me talk to you~” He whined pathetically, the sound more annoying than what you originally recalled it to be.

“I don’t know. Maybe ask your bros why I feel like trash.” You couldn’t help but be passive aggressive, not caring if you were giving in to the stereotypical women trope of being petty without reason and emotional without logic.

“My ‘bros’? What does that mean? Did one of them say anything to you? Because if they did then I will kill them I swear-” You cut him off with a bitter laugh.

“Listen, I don’t think I can have a sugar daddy who goes to the same school as me. It’s too….” you struggled to find the perfect word. “...problematic.” You said, the words surprising even you for the solution to the problem was staring at you right in the face.

With the other brothers, there was a clear line of personal life and professional. You never had to worry about running into them on campus or having your classes and peers interfered with given that all of them were older. All except Jungkook. And although he was closer to age with you, he still was a man. And you rarely trusted men that age, much less men in general. You would live in constant fear that he would spill the truth to your classmates about what you’ve degraded yourself to in the name of money. Today was a slap in the face of just how much power Jungkook held over you in this arena, the paranoia now unveiled by seeing him laugh and talk to other college guys.

It was too risky.

“W-what? Where is this coming from?” His footsteps became more hurried as his voice began to tremble. “Where are you? Let’s talk about this. We all have bad days, Y/n. I’m sure tomorrow you’ll think differently. Just tell me where you are so-”

You ended the call.

What followed was a nervous pacing driven by your frenzied exhaustion of the drastic turn of the day. Perhaps when this day was over you would look back and realize that this was an extreme over reaction on your part. But at this very moment, in the midst of a nervous breakdown, all you felt was an insufferable itch to abandon anything and everything that seemed to complicate matters. And at the moment, Jungkook was very much complicating an already complex situation.

Your head pounded due to the sudden stress it had to endure in the last few hours. With a deep sigh, you paused your pacing to rest against the wall and catch your breath...or rather hyperventilate. Over the sound of your haggard gasps for air, your phone continued it’s onslaught of ringing. It was a mixture of calls and texts that only succeeded in making your brain ache more.

There was no ignoring for the disturbance of peace was persistent. You felt annoyance in its’ purest form and was determined to yell at the fuckboy to never contact you again. This was your goal when you picked up the device to answer the incoming call.

“Leave me alone!!” You barked into the speaker after pressing the phone to your ear, no time wasted on greetings.

“.....I don’t recall asking for that attitude so I strongly recommend that you drop it.” A baritone voice rumbled right in your ear.

You spluttered for a moment as you were met with Namjoon over the line and not the expected manchild.

“Listen, I’m in your campus parking lot if you need a ride home.”

This statement made you gather your senses.

“I-I don’t recall asking you to come.” You bit back, startled at his sheer boldness.

He chuckled. “Yeah, because you’re obviously doing so well where you’re at right now.”

“Sometimes I can’t help but wonder who you think you are.” You said this through gritted teeth.

“Don’t worry about who I think I am and just focus on what you think I am; daddy.”

You choked on your own salavia. “I’ll drop you just like I did your brother, don’t fucking try me I swear.”

“Dropped? My brother? You must tell me more when you get in the car.” He sighed, voice as casual as someone discussing the weekend weather.

“You still have yet to tell me why I should leave with you.” You rolled your eyes while saying this. You noticed something within the brothers, they all only paid attention to what they wanted to and never what they didn’t. It was selective focus that you suspected was inherited from the breastmilk because they all had it.

“Let me break down your options. You can ignore my ride and continue your hellish day at school whilst trying to avoid crying again. You can ignore my ride and insist that you go home on your own, relying on some public transport given it’s pouring rain out here. Or you can save yourself the trouble and take a free ride home.”

Perhaps you were just too tired and drained to even muster another retort. You felt your stance slump as you released another sigh of defeat (you seemed to be doing this a lot lately),

You were a prideful person.

But you also weren’t stupid.

Why bite the hand that feeds you?

Even if that hand was attached to an insufferable and egotistical man….it was still feeding you.

“I’ll be out in a sec.”

How many unlucky events could occur within the same 24 hours?

You seemed to be the runner up for that record breaking given you just tumbled up yet another unfortunate conclusion.

Namjoon’s car was quiet except the pattering of the rain against the vehicle. You had not said a word and neither had he. Perhaps it was your stiff posture and miserable expression that told him to back off. Thankfully, it was a short ride to your dorm.

But a doomful emptiness welcomed you when you reached into your pocket for the usual key to said dorm.

It was missing.

And Kat was at school and wouldn’t be back till hours later.

Namjoon watched carefully as your face dropped and hand frantically grasp around your (empty) pocket.

“Oh no~” He whined in a fake tone of concern that barely masked his grin of delight. “Did you lose something?”

You glared at him but huffed, “I don’t have my key.”

“Whatever shall you do?” Namjoon was really bad at acting, even his dimples were on display as he tried his best to pull off looking sorry.

“I’ll wait until my roommate comes back.” It was unrealistic as Kat wouldn’t be back until much later and that’s a lot of time to spend just sitting outside your front door, but he didn’t have to know that.

“Y/n, don’t be stupid.” he chuckled and before you could reach over to open your door, you felt him pull out of the parking lot.

“Hey! What the fuck?! Stop this car right now!” You growled and watched in horror as he crruised into the main road.

“No, you’re coming to my place.”

Namjoon’s apartment was far too big for one single person.

It was yet another high-rise penthouse that was doused in expensive furniture and decor that somehow managed to be brutally pricey while also being overly minimalistic. Blacks and greys seemed be colors fond to Namjoon’s heart and you briefly got flashbacks of a certain bunny-smiled fuckboy…

Just what did the brothers have against color?

Did it come with the territory of being rich?

Were dark colors the only thing allowed in their aesthetic?

The layout of the apartment was a bit more complex than Jungkook’s home. When one entered the apartment, you were in a small corridor that eventually lead to a living area (complimented with a bar and fireplace) while next to it was an open kitchen area. You spotted a smaller hallway beside the kitchen but you didn’t bother asking what the other rooms were, though you counted three. Before one could get into the hallway, one would have to pass a staircase that lead to an upper level of the residence.

Your time of inspecting the space was cut short as Namjoon gestured for you to follow him.

He lead you up the stairs, and you noted with small surprise that the whole second floor was just his massive bedroom.

He began talking and walked around the area comfortably, lazily unclasping his rolex watch and tossing it onto one of the bedside tables.

“I have some extra sweats in the third drawer down over there. You can wear those and I’m sure you can find an extra t-shirt in the drawer above it. I have netflix and hulu and whatever the fuck you kids watch these days. Not that youtube red bullshit though.” he explained before he began pulling his tie off.

You made your way over to the drawer that he had refenced, pride being easily outweighed by the alluring comfort of over-sized sweats and a t-shirt. You spotted a doorway leading to a connected bathroom, so after you gathered the clothes you made way to dress there.

When you returned back to the bedroom, Namjoon was nowhere to be seen.

You didn’t quite care. Instead you hopped into the bed and climbed under the covers, moaning as you did so due to the cloud-like softness of the matress and the gentle threading of the expensive sheets.

You rolled over but felt the hardness of a remote halt your movement.

You grasped at the object and used it to light the giant flat screen across from the bed to life. It didn’t take long until you found a movie to entertain you.

You were about 10 minutes into Ratatouille (cheering the old hag on as she shot up some rats) when you heard weighted foot steps approach up the stairs.

Stubbornly you kept your gaze on the film, not addressing the male as he climbed into the other side of the bed with you.

“So, are you going to talk about what happened today?”

“I think I finally snapped.” You deadpanned, purposely avoiding further details.

“I’m going to take the freedom to assume that you’re meerely referencing a bad day and not a murder or something.” He rumbled, causing you to shoot him a glare.

Namjoon had a way of speaking that was amazingly condescending, yet it was not the tangible type of rude (as in the type that you could call out). It was very clever, as if he was explaining something to a child and not a grown woman, it was amicable enough to slip under the radar but the symboliminal passive aggressiveness was also evident to anyone willing to pay attention.

You huffed and flipped to your side, curling up and closing your eyes as you let the stressful weight on your eyelids win its’ battle.

“Are you going to tell me about the brother you ‘dropped’?” He pushed, not at all affected by your show of bratiness.

“Your toddler asshole brother was talking about me to his other fuck boy allies.” You informed him, eyes still closed and ignoring the sting in your heart at the foul memory.

“I’m not the one to say ‘I told you so’ but I’m pretty sure I expressed that you needed a man and not a boy.” After saying this, you felt his larger and warm form curl behind you. One of his lengthy arms circled around your waist and pulled you into his firm chest.

“I need money.” you said, strategically not favoring the ‘man’ or the ‘boy’ as it was not a relationship so much as a business transaction. You then instinctively breathed in his foriegn cologne that somehow smelled aristocratic. You found his smell to be very soothing, and very ‘Namjoon’. Is it possible for certain scents to just scream money?

“I make my own wealth while Kook has to rely on his trust fund.”

You snorted at this and allowed your body to melt into his, exhaustion being harder to keep at bay.

Silence spilled onto the bed after that, the only sound being the french music of the Ratatouille movie sounding from the high-tech speakers. The world became flooded in darkness and the only stimulation you were able to experience was the feeling of Namjoon’s nose running up and down your neck, his breath ghosting the skin and leaving goosebumps in its’ wake.

A warm glow of vulnerability blossomed from your stomach as you curled closer to Namjoon’s side, a touch starved mammal was all you could bring yourself to identify with in that moment. You didn’t quite care that cuddling was a tad too intimate for your tastes, you were far too tired and simply appreciated the protective hold he had you in. It lulled you to sleep and calmed the nerves that had been abusing you all day.

You just hoped he wouldn’t read too into it or bring it up to the others.

It would be a shame if another Jungkook situation happened again.

With that though, you fell into a deep sleep.

Dreaming of baguettes and cold hard cash.

“What the fuck do you mean he found out?”

“How should hell should I know?”

“Joon, you’re the closest to him. You can talk him out of this.”

“It’s out of my hands. Once he’s made his mind up, nothing could change it.”

These were the words you heard pull you out of your slumber.

The voices started out muffled but became more coherent as you became more aware. You pulled yourself from the dark comfort of sleep and opened your eyes to investigate the intrusive sounds.

You groggily sat up and glanced around the bedroom, only to discover it was completely empty and dark; the television no longer on and Namjoon no longer present. This meant that the voices were coming from downstairs, you could see the light from below and the sounds of pacing occuring in the living room.

You yawned and stretched before slowly getting up from the bed to lean over the railing.

Namjoon was pacing beside the wall-sized glass while three other people were sat on the enormous sofas, faces not clear due to the sky-view that only allowed you to make out the tops of their heads.

“Well, it’s not for us to decide really. Y/n would have to make up her own mind about it. We can’t force anything.”

The light-hearted and soft spoken tone was easily deduced to be Hoseok.

And at the mention of your name you decided to waltz down the steps, all too eager to involve yourself in the phantom conflict you were somehow associated with.

At your approaching figure, all their heads snapped towards you.

Seokjin, Yoongi and Hoseok all widened their eyes at the sight of you.

“What the fuck is she doing here?” Yoongi growled, glaring at Namjoon with his piercing black eyes.

“Princess, did Joon force you here or something?” Jin favored to focus on you, eyes roaming up and down your figure in search of any evidence of harm.

You shook your head in response to Jin and directed your attention to Namjoon, who was furiously shaking his head in decline to the foul implication of him trapping you here.

“Okay so...what were you guys talking about? Who found out what and how do I have anything to do with it?” You asked while casually plopping yourself between Yoongi and Hoseok, noticing the way they grimaced at the clothes you were wearing (belonging to their brother).

“Nevermind that honey. Have you eaten yet? Do you want us to uber eats you something?” Hoseok’s attempt to divert the subject matter was laughable enough to make you roll your eyes.

“I’m fine thank you. Now onto the decision I supposedly have to make.” You watched as the brothers awkwardly exchanged glances, obviously caught off guard and not knowing how to dampen your interest in the clearly sensitive issue.

“Babe why don’t you tell them about the Kook situation.” Namjoon prompted, causing the three brothers to raise eyebrows at you. You scoffed at Joon and shook your head.

“I’d rather address the ordeal you guys were talking about before I came down.”

“Yn, it’s not often that I give a shit so please don’t take my words lightly; you’re gonna wanna stay out of this shit-show.” Yoongi told you with that deep voice of his, face unusually somber in contrast to his usual aloof expression.

“Well now I have to know.” You groaned. If it was enough to make Yoongi on edge then it must’ve been a serious matter. Your interest was peaked and you couldn’t help the need to know what the fuck was going on.

“Y/n, why don’t we wait ‘til later to talk about it? We still have to tell our other brothers and figure out the details. I wouldn’t want to give you half the story.” Jin said this with a kind smile, a dazzling show that he must frequently use on women to make them bend to his wishes.

You huffed a breathless chuckle and stood up.

“Tell me now or I will walk home and never speak to any of you, I swear on everything holy!”

“Being a brat won’t get you anywhere.” Namjoon frowned, as he always did when any disobedience was shown on your side.

“How long are you going to use that threat?” Yoongi drawled.

“Guys, lets just tell her.” Hoseok pleaded with the others, always one to submit to any demands.

“Fine, but don’t force her into anything. This isn’t the only option. We could always work around this.” Jin sighed.

“Yn….our dad was informed by various employees that we had an altercation during your job interview.” Namjoon ran a hand through his hair and plastered on a look of despair (an expression that didn’t fit his powerful aura). “He has requested that he meets with all of us.”

“What does that have to do with me? Is he an evil mob boss or something?”

“.....Our dad is a very….terrifying man.” Hoseok said, face also downcast.

Yoongi took it upon himself to finish your unanswered question.

“And it includes you because he told us to bring you along.”

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goose-books · 4 years

Note

Ok first of all your Darkling magic post was fantastic and I can't get enough but now I MUST know...what kind of magic do the Stayer sisters have and how does it manifest??? (Also if you want to share more about Jasper's I will take it because I can't get enough of this bastard)

first of all: i apologize for the length of time between my posting of the worldbuilding post and the posting of this ask... i had almost finished writing you a response and then my computer shut down and the ask did not save! so that was a blow directly to my head! i also apologize for... the length of this!

second of all: [cups my hands and offers you this]

They say Cressida Stayer was nine years old when she turned her hair to gold. They laid her down in bed blonde, and the next morning, the waves cascading down her shoulders were solid metal, glinting harshly in the sunlight, weighing her down, creating that odd head-cocked expression she still wears now. Nine years old. Two or three years before most people develop enough magic skills to dye a single curl. Much less transfigure their hair into precious metal.

People also say Leovald Stayer’s immediate reaction was to hack it off her head and melt it down for cash. But generally they say that part a lot quieter.

— darkling, segment iv: control

so: the stayer sisters and magic.

if we charted the stayer sisters on the passive-to-active scale, it would look like this!

(left to right: ruby, cressida, and gracen.)

that said, they’re all leovald stayer’s kids, and leovald is pretty well known as one of the most magical people in dovermorry, if not in general. so he fully expected his children to have large amounts of raw magical energy as well. and they didn’t disappoint. cressida is the one well-known as a Magical Prodigy ™, but gracen and ruby are also notably powerful and notably in-control of their magic, especially for their ages! (21, 19, and 16, in descending order.) most people don’t get really, really good at controlling their magic until well into adulthood. technically you can join the guild at 17 or older, but the median age on the Mage’s Guild’s high council is, like, sixty. (when leovald is the young guy in the group, there’s an issue.)

interestingly, cressida is about two months from turning 17. but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. in descending order:

gracen’s entire thing is control. gracen stayer has a lot of power inside of her that would very much like to be outside of her, and gracen would very much like to prevent it from getting loose. she deals with this by being so hyperaware of her magic that it cannot possibly Do Things On Its Own, because she keeps it on an extremely tight leash. (this is a pretty good metaphor for how gracen deals with things in general.)

gracen... runs the stayer household. by which i mean she does everything from cleaning up after Mandatory Family Dinner to helping cressida with her calc homework to making sure ruby comes home before curfew (as not to get yelled at) to organizing leovald’s paperwork and making sure he doesn’t say something stupid on TV. gracen does most of leovald’s grunt work, actually. does she hate this? yes. but she’s also pretty sure that training the most powerful man in dovermorry into instinctively relying on her for everything is… a good long-term move, pragmatically speaking.

so gracen has a lot to do! and a lot of magic that she absolutely will not allow to build up inside of her. and she deals with this by using her magic for everything. she parcels small bits of magic out for every small task - doing the dishes, summoning a pencil from the other side of the room, making paperwork organize itself. if someone spills their drink on the carpet, gracen will draw the drink back out of the fibers, drop by drop, into the cup. by twitching one finger. understandably, this takes a lot of practiced focus and control; magic is very much something you can study and gracen very much studies it the way feral high schoolers study for the ACT. it almost doesn’t matter how active her magic is, because her magic NEVER takes any kind of natural form - she wrings out every drop in a very deliberate way. (i say almost because she can still feel it. she deliberately keeps it calm. it is harder than it looks. pretty much everything i’ve just said about gracen’s magic is a FANTASTIC metaphor for [gestures] the everything about gracen.)

and then there’s ruby, who is exactly the opposite. quelle surprise.

look, ruby is fully aware that no matter how much she practices, she is never going to be as good at controlling her magic as gracen. so she just… doesn’t. she just doesn’t! she doesn’t control it and she doesn’t use it. magic isn’t her best skill - her skillset lies in writing, in thinking, in persuading, in befriending, in provoking. why on earth would ruby magically whisk her laundry off the floor when she can just pick it up? and why would she pick it up when she can probably convince someone else to do it for her?

“but max,” you are thinking, “doesn’t her magic build up like you’ve been saying?” yes and she likes it. to be fair, she has comparatively more passive energy than her sisters; it’s easier for ruby to deal with this buildup than it would be for gracen. or for jasper, for that matter. when jasper’s magic gets to be Too Much, it’s a physical palpable thing; he gets itchy and shaky and tense and sometimes sick until he can twist off the metaphorical cap and let off some steam. for ruby, it’s more like an adrenaline rush - pounding heart, shaky limbs, heightened senses and emotions, without the risk of Making A Mess in public. she likes to let her magic build and build and build and build and then pull it back and release it into something deliberate at the very last minute. she finds this thrilling. which isn’t to say she doesn’t care! that honestly takes as much control and focus as gracen’s strategy does.

at her high school graduation, ruby “accidentally” “lost control” and set off magical fireworks over her head as she crossed the stage. loudly and vividly. leovald in the audience was so psyched he shouted. gracen would have slammed her head into the wall, except she had to comfort cressida, who reacts to loud noises like this:

as much as gracen and ruby differ in their ways of handling their magic, they’re… very similar at the core. what looks effortless is actually a lot of concentrated effort behind the scenes. and then there’s cressida, who just… does not have that.

some people (leovald) think of magic as a thing to flaunt. some people (jasper) are constantly fighting it. cressida just… does not care all that much? she just does not care. magic comes very naturally to her because it is first and foremost a way she copes with being trans and autistic in a world that is not made for her. she used to turn the lights out when rooms got too bright (and then sat back and let everyone else wonder what had happened). she’ll change fabrics to make them softer or smoother. the real story of her hair has nothing to do with gold - she was ten, not nine, and she grew her hair out to shoulder-length overnight, because she was sick of having short hair. and that was what made the rest of her family realize that maybe all that stuff about wanting to be a girl was, like… significant.

technically, yes, she is a Magical Prodigy ™! her magic settled very early and she has a LOT of it. and her magic, more than even her sisters’, is very similar to leovald’s. leovald lets his magic do WHATEVER the fuck, and the result is that he warps the world around him a LOT - fireplaces light when he walks into the room; lights flicker when he raises his voice; doors burst open in front of him even when they aren’t automatic; when his emotions are running high they affect the weather. cressida’s magic would like to be doing all of that. leovald would also like cressida’s magic to be doing all of that.

but cressida… kind of just doesn’t give a shit? she has a lot of untapped potential that she is fine with not tapping. she is perfectly content with living her life using her magic to, like, change the radio station from the backseat of the car (when you’re the youngest of three children, you NEVER get shotgun).

buuuuuut leovald is really psyched about having a freaky magical savant child. and most people see cressida - quiet, staring off into space, blank facial expression, not great at talking - and quietly assume that the magic thing is… like… all she has going for her. so she’s very much been pigeonholed into Magical Prodigy Zone, whether she likes that or not.

whoa this is a lot of text have an image

and then jasper is just… the anti-cressida. he has a thousand and one talents and gets perfect grades and charms everyone he meets and he is a walking biohazard when it comes to magic. and it drives him CRAZY, as much as he pretends not to care.

most people have their magic all figured out by the time they’re in high school. jasper is sixteen, almost seventeen, and something about it is… still just not working for him. even simple stuff (duplicating post-it notes! making flashcards shuffle themselves!) just… takes much more effort than it should. and because he hates being bad at it, he doesn’t use it, and then it builds up, and he ends up jittering like a live wire, and then if that goes too far things explode.

jasper has elected to blame his mother pretty much entirely for this, because vee has NONE of the same problems. (plenty of problems! but not related to magic.) …plus, you know. jasper’s had enough mishaps in public to know that his father ALSO blames jasper’s mother, pretty vocally, whenever he gets the chance.

on a conscious level, jasper is actually fine with having magic that just Does Not Fucking Work. because he has SO many nonmagical skills that it makes up the difference. at his boarding school, he sits atop a throne made of forged prescriptions, pay-per-page homework, and confessions of love from people who do not know him nearly enough to confess their love to him. on a subconscious level he has a whole complex about it but [gesturing] that’s a given, isn’t it

#suits-of-woe-main #THANK YOU BTW SERIOUSLY...#i adore your writing so your interest in this makes me 🥺🥺#so here i am writing an essay as per usual.#max.txt #darkling tag #leovald stayer #gracen stayer #ruby stayer #cressida stayer #jasper greenwood #all maxes know... is rewrite shakespeare... and respond to questions with a full page of text...#asks

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offrankies · 4 years

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Car-fessions || Graham & Frankie

Timing: Right after the S1 finale. Parties: @grahamstoker & @offrankies Summary: Sometimes, when life’s too much, a teen human just needs his vampire roommate-dad to be there.

A few hours had passed since they had managed to get home. A few hours since the wall separating reality and fiction had been completely ruptured in Frankie’s world. Not a single word spoken the whole walk home- well, calling it walk was an overstatement; they had to limp, almost crawl their way back, Frankie’s weak frame trying its hardest to hold Layla’s almost mauled body, both of them covered in blood. It had taken a long time to get her girlfriend cleaned and patched up, both of them numb and almost robotically moving around the apartment. But somehow it had been done, and after the human had made sure the werewolf was fast asleep, she had found herself back in the shower, scrubbing all her body with soap, shampoo, shower gel, even bleach - but no matter how much she scrubbed and how long the water ran down her body, she couldn’t stop feeling dirty; disgusting, even.

She wasn’t sure how long it took her to leave the bathroom, the pink, unaware Kirby decorating her pajamas almost mocking her with its wide smile. Hair was still wet when the door of the apartment opened, but Frankie didn’t even move from her position on the couch, legs propped up so she was hugging them, chin resting against her knees. Both exposed arms had a mix of bandages and bandaids, her right arm clearly the most beaten since the white gauze covered it from elbow to wrist. But Frankie didn’t really feel the physical pain, or how her body felt like it was being crushed by a large rock from both the physical and mental exhaustion. She was just staring at the wall, eyes lost as her brain rewinded once, and then twice, and then for the gazillion time the events that had happened that night. Graham had since grown used to having to slip into the house during the ungodly hours of the night for a couple of reasons - one of which was to prove that he could do it and help get more sneaky and the other because he didn’t want to deal with usually one, now two moody teenage girls if they didn’t get enough sleep. Suffice it to say, as he hung his keys on the hook he deemed as ‘his’ and turned to take his shirt off - it was always the first thing to go when he was safely in his house, he was a little taken aback to find someone on the couch. “Oh shit,” He said with less surprise but the tone was still there as his blue eyes danced up and down Frankie’s diminutive frame, made even smaller from her position. “Uh… everything all right?” He caught the bandages almost immediately and he was glad he had trained himself not to breathe… he was almost certain that the stench of blood filled his apartment and he had the feeling that now was not the time to lose his mind to the frenzy.

The voice coming from the entrance felt distant, as if Frankie had been locked behind an invisible glass wall; and though the small, rational part of her brain knew that it was Graham most likely asking why she wasn’t asleep, she was too confused, too shocked to make out the words, less alone who was delivering them. Talking felt like an impossible task at the moment. The memories of the cop shooting at the lake people, Layla ripping their limbs, fire demon dogs burning corpses, and Nell chanting as two demons fought each other -- how could she continue a relatively normal life after experiencing everything? And not only that - how was she supposed to continue a relatively normal life when she needed to share a bed with Layla? Her heart clenched at the idea, but everyone’s warnings had finally happened. Not only she had hurt her physically - intentionally or not -, but Frankie was now completely destroyed emotionally and could barely even look at her. She didn’t bother looking up, less alone asking him what he had said, but instead sunk deeper on the couch. He was finding himself concerned with the fact that he was concerned about Frankie as she didn’t react to his presence, what he asked, not even making a noise. Graham decided to keep his shirt on and for a moment, he stood in the entryway of his apartment awkwardly, wondering if it would’ve been best to turn around and leave, go straight to his room with maybe one more passing sentence or some third option. He… took the third option. Giving a psychosomatic exhale as he would’ve when he was human, expressing the relinquish of emotional buildup, he went over to the couch and carefully sat next to Frankie, close enough that he could feel her body warmth against his side. He flipped a mental coin on whether to lean forward on his knees or sit back in an open position, ultimately deciding on the latter and he kept his eyes on the television in front of them as if some mundane show were on and he was too lazy to change the channel. He didn’t say anything but he consciously moved his stomach up and down to give the impression that he too was breathing, steady, slow, calm. He didn’t know what was going on, he didn’t know where Layla was and he didn’t know what Frankie needed but he prepared himself for any possible outcome he could think of.

Frankie was barely aware of the adult moving next to her, empty hazel eyes still fixated on a post in the wall; or at least they looked like they were staring, cause all she could see in front of her was Layla’s wolf form covered in blood, her hands desperately grasping at her fur, trying to locate the source of where it was coming from, but her imagination liked playing cruel tricks, and no matter how much she pressed and tried to cover the wounds, red never stopped flowing, and the wolf quickly stopped moving beneath her hands. It was a repeating nightmare that didn’t wait for her to be asleep to torment her, and at some point her hands started clenching, nails digging at the exposed skin on her legs, breath suddenly spiking. She was trapped in her own mind, her sight red, her hands covered in the wolf’s blood, her hands covered in a murderer’s blood, and Frankie was too slow, she had been too late to save her-- It should’ve been obvious by this point but Graham wasn’t an aura reader; as far as he was concerned in terms of aura reading, Frankie was in braille. However, the man did used to be an empathetic doctor who was damn good at his job. It was that part, the part before his own drama, the human part, that managed to find some form of connection with the teenager that something was very wrong. He wasn’t sure if it was stress or trauma but the heart that lay cold and still in his chest would’ve felt a pang had it still functioned correctly. Still remaining silent, he let the human part activate for just a few moments, acting on what he would’ve done years ago and he placed a strong hand on Frankie’s head ever-so-gently, stroking her wet hair before his hand moved down to her shoulder where he carefully pulled her towards him until she was leaning against his torso. He put his arm on the back of the couch to not make her feel trapped and he kept his position calm and open. “I’ll be okay, kiddo.” That was all he said and he wasn’t sure if it was true but that’s all he could think TO say rather than remain completely quiet.

It could’ve been seconds as well as hours, but one second Frankie was sitting by a wolf’s corpse, drowning in blood, and the next she was back in the apartment with her head softly pressed against a cold chest. It took her a moment for her to grasp what was happening, her eyes slowly processing the bandaged arms in front of them and she found her mind back in the bathroom, rubbing them with bleach as if that would take what had happened away. But she wasn’t at the lake. She wasn’t in the bathroom. She was sitting in the living room with Graham’s arm loosely around her. Frankie’s throat tightened, jaw clenched, and her eyes began to sting as a wave of emotion washed over her, but she refused to let it out, scared that her sobbing that could potentially turn into a loud episode would wake up the sleeping werewolf in her room. But as much as she tried, she couldn’t contain the way her body shook or the tears that had started to run down her face against her will. Frankie tried to hide her face on her legs, ashamed that the vampire had to witness her slow descend to madness, and with the softest broken voice she mumbled: “I can’t do this anymore.”

Graham swallowed the spontaneous urge to laugh and tell her that she was overreacting to whatever was going on but he had to firmly remind himself that she was a human and very well might remain as such; a lot of people weren’t given that second chance whether they wanted it or not so he remained where he was, unusually quiet and strangely receptive. His sharp tongue that he didn’t bother to change in the privacy of his own home slithered out of his mouth and absently scritched at his chin when he heard Frankie talk and he could feel her restraint to keep her composure, getting the feeling that she was doing so to remain quiet - Layla must’ve been in her bedroom. So something happened,something that traumatized Frankie but not Layla to the point that she was either asleep or they were just separated. For a moment, he hoped they didn’t destroy more of his furniture but they’d cross that bridge when they came to it. “...It’s okay.” He replied, repeating what he’d said before. “It’s not your fault.” He was gentle in his delivery but still tried to be objective without being blunt. “It’s hard. It’s really fuckin’ hard and even if someone blames you, just remember that this isn’t your fault.” He reiterated. She must’ve been talking about her relationship with the werewolf. He knew this would happen. He wasn’t sure when or how but he knew it.

More time passed before Frankie said anything in return, Graham’s cold hand gently strokes on her hair were soothing in a way she hadn’t felt in a very long time, and for the first time since she had arrived to White Crest, she missed home. She missed her grandma and her cookies and strangely she also missed her mother with her never ending yelling, and she missed Mrs Park and her prying eye. But mostly she missed her normal life that didn’t have demons and dead people and shapeshifters and brainwashing cults and witches. A muffled sob finally managed to escape, which only made Frankie’s frame tighten and cower more, but it was enough to open way for another, and then another, until the young human couldn’t contain them anymore, one hand moving to cover her mouth in a poor attempt to remain as quiet as she possibly could. “There was--” Her voice choked with the sobs, and she needed to take a deep breath in order to talk. “-- a demon and--- fire dogs coming-- coming out of a witch--” As the last word was said, Frankie’s voice broke once more letting out a loud sob, and in half a second the teen found herself shifting on the couch so she could bury herself on Graham’s chest, hand never leaving her mouth to continue muffling the cries. She continued talking, but between the crying and the position she was in, not even she could tell what was leaving her mouth. At least she was finally expressing herself, once again getting body fluids onto his shirt. Graham couldn’t help but wonder whose divine plan it was for him to end up in this position but he figured he had enough time to contemplate that in the long term; for now, he just listened to every muffled word that spilled out of Frankie’s mouth like the tears that ran down her cheeks. He kept gently petting her head, still keeping his eyes looking at the tv to avoid staring as he processed what she was saying but unable to connect the dots in a coherent enough way. He didn’t deny that witches or demons or fire dogs existed but that sounded like some kind of ritual. Was that where the marks on her arms came from? “It’s okay,” He soothed, keeping himself steady for her as he felt every strained muscle in her small body. “Just, uh… keep breathing. D’you wanna go out to my truck? You can scream in there,” He offered, again trying to be mild but not unwelcoming to her.

The coldness of the body against her made her mind wander to her mother once more. She was also cold but in a different way, with her scolding and harsh words, and how she always brushed her off almost like she had never wanted to have her as a kid. And it didn’t matter how much Frankie tried, she couldn’t remember if Terry Calloway had a warm body like hers, or a cold one like Graham’s, and the thought almost made her laugh in irony. Except the potential laughter only came out as more sobs, and the image of her mother sitting in the kitchen drinking coffee was quickly replaced by the same woman standing at the lake, looking at her with disappointment, before a wolf lounged at her, ripping her neck. Frankie’s head nodded frantically, partly to get rid of the idea of Layla murdering her imaginary mom, and partly to accept the offer to go somewhere else, though her body did little moving beside the waves of sobs that kept relentlessly coming at her, making her shake. Whether intentional or not, Graham pushed energy through his body in what felt like an instant when he got a response and in a fluid motion that seemed like it took no effort, he moved his arm around Frankie’s back, maneuvering around to stick his other arm under the bend in her knees and he swept her up as though she were a stuffed animal. “Hokay, girlie,” He said with a fake grunt as he took her through the door, grabbing his keys and gently shutting it with his foot behind them, down the stairs and out to his little black truck. Unlocking it, he carefully set Frankie down in the passenger seat and shut the door before going around and taking his own place in the driver’s seat, laying his arm across to close the distance between the two as he brushed a knuckle, palm up against her to let her know that it was available for any reason. “Alright, kiddo. What’s going on? Scream at me.”

Getting carried to the car was a blur, and before Frankie could allow herself to continue weeping, she accepted Graham’s hand and held it like her life depended on it, free hand wiping her face to try to get rid of some of the mess on it. She was still partially sobbing, but at least she managed to keep it enough under control to get some coherent words out. “I was--- at work and--- something made me go to the lake…” And as if a switch had been turned on, Frankie started talking, about the three girls and the cop, how she couldn’t leave the imaginary circle, making weird gestures once she started describing the freaky lake people and how the cop and demon dogs had started killing them, her voice slowly getting steadier and louder, until at some point she let go of Graham’s hand to make a huge gesture as she described Layla transforming, before her left hand landed on top of her right, where the bandage covered most of her arm, voice getting quiet once more as she described how the witch had user her blood, and how the wolf had killed several cultists and how she had almost died. Her breathing was hard from talking too fast, from recalling everything that had happened that night, and she finally looked back at Graham, eyes broken and glistering from the tears, but at least they weren’t running down her face anymore. “I don’t-- How. How do I-- How am I supposed to process... this?”

And so he listened to everything from Frankie’s panicked hiccups to her explanation of what happened at the lake, the ritual, Layla’s transformation… and felt how he tensed up when she mentioned that Layla hurt her. Damn werewolves. Damn teenage girl werewolf. Graham waited patiently until she was done, however, before he pinched the bridge of his nose with a false sigh but he wasn’t sure what he was sighing about; there was so much about this situation he found himself hating. “Well, Frankie,” He said first, looking at the younger girl, his expression rather serious as he found himself in rare form. “If I’m being totally honest with you, you have two options. The first one, which I recommend, is that you leave town.” He didn’t sound aggressive or demanding, but pragmatic. “I said this before but it’s dangerous for people, especially the non-cursed, non-powerful and non-violent ones,” He gave a half-shrug. “So you can leave town, start over somewhere new - you’re friendly and sweet so I’m sure you’d have no problem making something of yourself. Do some therapy, process through these feelings and work out the trauma,” He added. “OR you can stay here and let your experiences here shape what you want to become as you remain.” He said. “Search for a therapist here, keep learning about the supernatural, decide what YOU want, how you do want to process this because if you stay, this ritual and shit won’t stop and you’ll need to cope with something else possibly bad happening.” He paused. “... I don’t think Layla did what she did on purpose but that doesn’t change that it happened. So I guess the question now is what you asked but only you have that answer: How are you going to process this?”

Had the space allowed it, she would’ve found herself clinging to Graham’s neck once more; but instead, Frankie listened in silence, bringing her feet up the seat so she was hugging her knees in the same way he had found her earlier, chin resting on them as she stared at the dark parking lot. It felt bittersweet hearing the words she didn’t want to hear, but that she also needed anyways. Leaving town and going back home was definitely the easy route. The safest one too. And though it pained her to admit it, it was also the most tempting one. But she also knew she couldn’t just bail on everything. One month had been enough to plant some roots, and leaving Layla when she needed her the most would cause her a heartbreak she didn’t know she could endure. A soft, almost inaudible chuckle tried to leave her as she thought that, already knowing what the vampire’s reply would be if she said that out loud. “I’ve never been much of a quitter.” She mumbled instead, before finally looking at him with puffy, red eyes, cheek now resting on her knee and the weakest smile on her face. “And I can’t give my mom the satisfaction of being right.” Probably not the best time to be joking, but the truth was hiding behind it. Graham was right, as usual. “Guess I’m just... going to take everything one step at a time.” Said that, she took a deep breath, the human clearly more calm than before. She straightened on the seat, before leaning to the side, she rested her head on his shoulder. “What do you know about demons?”

#p: graham #// graham is a dad confirmed #❪ ⋅ ⋆ —— ❛ para ❜ ❫#Car-fessions #wickedswriting

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akimojo · 5 years

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HONESTLY the next kh saga better be a huge deal for destiny trio because

Sora was not only physically seperated from his friends, but everyone who resided within his heart had left as well, rendering him completely alone for the first time in the whole series and thus meaning it’s time for him to get over his fears and insecurities of being alone (unless it really is true that Vanitas still resides with Sora, which would be hella interesting too)

Kairi has expressed her need to be with Sora throughout the whole series now, and with Sora gone, the one thing she wanted most has been stripped away from her, its anger and angst time baby (sadness and anger in particular are emotions we haven’t seen Kairi experience nearly as much as anyone else and most other protagonists have had tragic events (mainly loss) happening before they truly develop so aaaa) not to mention this could be her chance to become more independent and in the process she could be honing her skills to become a better fighter and learn more about her mysterious past.

Riku would have to deal with the loss of his best friend, and most likely the guilt of not being able to protect whats important to him. maybe this could lead to him and Kairi becoming closer as well, considering they’ve both lost someone who was important to them and might think all they have left is eachother, perhaps something along the lines of “i’ve already lost Sora, i couldn’t bear to lose you too”

hhhHHNFSGGHFG there’s just so much potential and it would be so disappointing if Nomura didn’t take advantage of any of this buildup;;

#kingdom hearts #kh3 spoilers #sora #kairi #riku #destiny trio

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elvencantation · 4 years

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just went to see tros. major spoilers ahead

[[MORE]]

so i’m gonna try to go through this as in order as i can

- rey doing the avatar pose with the rocks orbiting her was super cool. as was her training with leia

- her getting distracted (and becoming somehow angry) by kyle ron staring at his grandads melted skull? not so much

- leia in general i think they handled pretty well. i even was okay with her death, though it did feel rushed. either way any glimpses of our beloved carrie warmed my heart

- i fuckin love bb8’s little sidekick. him being narratively incredibly important? felt forced

- lando? YES!!

- the weird rey doing force lightning? NO!!!

- i just have so many issues with this ‘dyad connection’

- stop trying to make more jedi powers. first the connection, then healing, then the lightning tree?? seriously?

- speaking of which, sith rey was way overdone. i could have understood her appearance in the first place, hearkening back to the dark cave luke went into on dagobah. but once again, it was played into the ground. and the teeth? seriously? (yes it was very attractive but that’s beside the point. evil versions are always hotter)

- kyle ron just kept pissing me off. but that’s a whole nother post entirely. i would’ve liked the helmet kintsugi for purely aesthetic reasons if it had any emotional impact at all. kintsugi is repairing a broken object and making it more beautiful for its having been put together again, and the love put into fixing it. none of that fit with the weird reforging of his helmet. he didn’t even do it himself palpatine’s little slaves did it. it looked cool but felt wrong

- hux being the traitor because he just ‘wants him to lose’? made absolutely no sense whatsoever and came completely out of left field. unless i’m just missing something. which i definitely could be

- rey getting completely distracted on the way to get the knife and letting her friends get captured? dumb. stupid narrative decision. it felt dishonest to the rest of her characterization up until now

- and it made for another weird connection scene with ofc i didn’t enjoy. vader’s helmet has great symbolic importance. it being left on that planet just to tell kyle ron that rey was on his ship? another stupid narrative decision!!

- also what the fuck was zorri and the whole spice runner being a secret thing? are we in dune? like let’s shoehorn in a backstory that has no emotional impact because there was no buildup or investment whatsoever. yes i understand they were trying to draw han solo parallels but it was just- once again- awkward and forced

-jannah just rubbed in our faces all the lost potential of finn leading a storm trooper rebellion from the inside. we were ROBBED

- if they had played with the c3po losing his memory storyline it could’ve had much more potential. but once again there was no emotional impact because it was badly written and awkwardly placed just to give us another ‘cute’ character. which yes. i fell for. i love babu. sidebar: i just looked up that characters name and they were voiced by moaning myrtle??

- the scenes on the destroyed death star. the fight looked beautiful, it was well shot and the set was amazing. i loved the giant waves, everything. but han? seriously? at least they didn’t try to make him a force ghost. that’s literally all i can be thankful for. leia reaching out to him could’ve had that very same narrative outcome of him throwing away the lightsaber. and it would’ve made so much more sense

- merry popping up everywhere without pippin was both sad and jarring for me personally

- and then we get to the final battle

-i’ve been drawing a lot of parallels between storylines in the movie and from the thrawn trilogy

- admit it, Exegol doesn’t sound half as cool as Mount Tantus

- cloning tanks, secret super powerful fleet, all of that was in thrawn but done much better

- i absolUTELY hated the view palpatine gave rey of the battle scene. it was done in the return of the jedi, it was done in the last jedi, it just felt overdone

- i’m not even going to talk about the reveal of rey’s identity. it’s just fucking stupid. her choosing to call herself a skywalker would have been just as impactful, if not more, if we’d kept her parentage a non plot point

- also don’t think that i didn’t notice the parallels to the alien at the festival asking her last name to the lady on tattooine. since when have last names ever been so stressed in star wars. it just felt awkward

- whats with the red storm troopers? yet another awkward detail added for #aesthetic with no reasoning behind it whatsoever?

- and onwards we go- to whatever the fuck happened when kyle joins rey in front of palpatine. this isn’t harry potter. he isn’t a dementor. it’s just- completely out of place. like wtf

- i am 100% convinced the weird chanting ‘audience’ was just rows upon rows of empty cloaks palpatine was animating because he’s a fucking drama queen. like if not, where did he get that many people? who are they? are they more force ghosts in inappropriate places?

- speaking of, i guess i could see what they were trying to do with the whole ‘i am all the sith/jedi’ thing, but it really didn’t make any sense, even with the ‘be with me’ thing rey was doing at the beggining of the movie. yet another new jedi power. ugh

- my brain personally has disassociated the re*lo kiss from the scene completely. it feels like something out of a different movie. there’s no lead up, it feels like two completely different characters than the ones we’ve been watching these past three movies

- we could’ve just had him die killing palpatine, or shielding her or giving her the chance to kill palpatine by sacrificing himself

- and no, i don’t count the part where she healed him any sort of lead up to the kiss. it felt just as awkward and forced as the rest of the directors/writers trying to redeem the relationship. no. emotional. impact. and the parallels they tried to draw between him and rey? also didn’t work

- the lightsaber trick did look really cool i enjoyed that a lot. i also surprisingly enjoyed kyle ron out of armor. he looked a lot more... real? in fact he looked so much like a different character i was even kinda emotionally invested in him in that scene. maybe i have a weak spot for ‘strong’ characters being vulnerable? or beat up angsty people? both? either way i actually enjoyed watching him onscreen those like five minutes. adam driver’s a good actor. ain’t his fault his character was written badly

- what’s with their bodies disappearing?? are we pulling a voldemort here? only yoda did that and he’s special. also leia’s body waiting to vanish until kyle died? i understand what they were getting at but it just doesn’t make sense

- that all being said, finn and poe’s screen time was lovely. they work so well together. that hug after the battle, thank you oscar isaac it was so gay. finn’s hair looked amazing, them being generals together felt so right, it had such potential

-the sandstormpilot hug was also amazing. poe kept grabbing rey’s hand and finn tearing up and- i’m gonna pretend they’re all together and everything is good with the world. they just make such an amazing team i love them so much

- most of the filmography and settings were gorgeous. the recreation of the podrace was eh, but rey wrecking the TIE fighter was better than that entire scene and pretty much made up for it in my mind. also since i’m in that scene, the scare of losing chewie was just plain cruel. it wasn’t a good plot twist, it didn’t work, it was just mean

- why did rey get a sentinel lightsaber?

#tros spoilers #anti r*ylo #sw spoilers #sw #tros liveblog #ish #blue watches #hope that amused yall #im starting to have a headache now #i literally started dissociating like an hour into the movie

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kaspmatic · 5 years

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How would you say you relate to Eddie?

BIG FUCKING OOF –ok, I hope you guys are ready to go on a wild ride with me down memory lanehere. there is quite a bit that I can cover on how I relate to Eddie – soplease bear with me and if you read this then; kudos, brownie points, goldstars, all of that shit to you. I’m going to put my actual answer under a read morebecause I know this is going to get lengthy. And honestly, probably a littlepatchy and I might jump around a bit so I won’t force this shit on anyone whowon’t intentionally click that read more for the deets. LOL.

OVERBEARINGFAMILY - REPRESSED HOMOSEXUALITY

To lay a little backgroundon everyone, I grew up NOT knowing my biological father. I lost himat a young age and spent a lot of my younger years growing up with a singlemother – my mom worked in a hospital, so every little thing that happenedbecame a giant issue; I had a cough? go to the doctors. I was always cold? goto the doctors. I sneezed funny? go to the doctors. (I think you guys get mydrift with where I’m going here). as a child I spent a lot of time in and out of thehospital because of this, now I’m not saying my mom has Munchausen Syndrome byany means, she definitely didn’t force diseases onto me. I justrelate and understand that pain of always having to go to the hospitalfor the most trivial of concepts. As a child, however, I did spend quite a fewyears toting around an inhaler that I didn’t even fucking need. Call it a baddiagnosis or whatever you will – but it was still something that I had todo that I didn’t even need.

Not having my dad aroundlead for a lot of weird and one-sided views in my mind throughout my youngeryears of life – for a long time I had only the woman’s point of view onevery aspect (at least until my mom remarried years later - I was in myteens by that time).

To continue talking aboutmy overbearing mom – she still tries to be to this way alongsideher husband to this very day (hi, I’m fucking 32 years old here – just tothrow out my Grandma age on tumblr so you aren’t shocked in a paragraph or two).Everything has to be done a certain way or its wrong – they thrive on avery myway or the highway look of things, and this has been something that Ihave constantly had to push back against in more recent years - because I havefound love and support from those who are willing to tell me that its fuckingOK to not be the person your parents want you to be.

Like Eddie, I’ve lost partsof myself throughout life appeasing my family with moldingmyself to fit what they thought I should be - what I needed to be. The biggestissue being homosexuality. I grew up with a Catholic Grandmother who wouldat anychance and drop of a hat find any reason to bitch about the gaysin the most hate speech and closed minded filled way I have everheard in my entire existence. I grew up believing that I couldn’t come out –that I couldn’t truly be who I wanted to be because my family wouldn’t be onboard and I was terrified that they wouldn’t understand or support me and Ibelieved wholeheartedly that if I DID comeout, that I would lose each and every family member that I had becausemy Grandma and other members of my family have very strict views on it - andneed I repeat, are overwhelming overbearing and controlling. When I was firststruggling with the idea that I was part of the queer community, oddly enough,I was 13. By this point in time I was used to listening to my Grandma bitchabout the LGBT+ community for years. I remember one instancedirectly with my mom; we were on a vacation and I remember asking my mom what shethought of the LGBT+ community and she told me flat out that I wasn’t allowedto be Gay.

That right there told me everythingthat my young mind needed to hear. That no matter who I was as a person, that myfamily wouldn’t support me – even over something so simple as lovingsomeone of the same sex. I spent the next 17 years hiding who I was, just toappease the ideals that I thought I had to adhere to. I dated strictlyboys and it landed me in unhappy relationship after unhappy relationship– ultimately my last relationship with a CIS male was a completelycontrolling and abusive one. One where they wanted to control everyaspect of my life - much like how Myra does to Eddie once he’s given in andfallen to Sonia’s whims and has told himself that he has to take the easy wayout. I was miserable in the relationship and everything had to beapproved of by him. It was some of the darkest times in my life but thatrelationship was one that defined me and really made me realize just how unhappyof a life I was leading just by appeasing those around me.

Granted, my repression andcloseted sexuality doesn’t end there. I got out of that relationship when I was22 and spent years recovering from the sheer amount of abuse I was taking fromhim – all the while I was still so tightly wound into the clutches of myparents. I traded off from one controlling household, to a new controllinghousehold, and back to the one in which molded me.

I spent the next 8 yearsgoing through a lot – all the while I was being medicated on anything andeverything under the sun just to right me as a person – because obviouslythat’s the answer here. I spent a lot of time in and out of hospitals due tobad reactions to medications, medications not mixing well, just generallytrying to get myself back to WHO I was. I was just a shell of myself duringthese years, I was in college and struggling even more so with myself and mysexuality as a free bird – so to speak. I tried dating around and nevertold my family when I was with a woman because I didn’t know how. I didn’t knowhow to tell a family so openly against it that’s who I waswith. So, I continued to lie and appease and struggle.

The entirety of my closetedyears – those 17 years – I struggled with every sexual thought Ihad toward a woman. I hated myself. Told myself I was wrong and that it wasn’twhat I was supposed to do. It took me a long time and some reallyfucked up situations to really start to love myself for me. To understand thatno matter what – whether my family love me or accept me – that I am who Iam and NO ONE can fucking changethat.

Granted this story at thevery least has a happy ending, unlike Eddie’s, I met Ari and finally came outat 30 – much to part of my family’s dislike – but my parents wereaccepting and my Mom ultimately didn’t even fucking remember the trauma she hadinduced when I was young. BUT I DIGRESS….

EMOTIONS - DEALING WITHEMOTIONS

Eddie and I both similarlyshow our emotions – and it’s not always in the best light. I struggle withsomething called Emotional Overwhelm which I actually have a headcanon for I’vebeen meaning to write up for Eddie for fucking weeks since I went and saw ITChapter 2’s early release. It’s something that I recognized in Eddie and reallystruggle dealing with in day to day life. Emotional Overwhelm is an instancewhere things kind of pile the fuck up – everything,even if it’s something small, can feel like a deep wound. People whostruggle with emotional overwhelm feel things differently than normal – anoffhanded comment that could make one person laugh and blow it off will feellike a stab to the heart and a betrayal to someone who deals with it. Strugglingwith this kind of an emotional issue causes me to lash out at unnecessary timesand can be rather debilitating in relationships if your friends, family, oryour partners don’t understand it. It’s worse when you feel a sense of being “gangedup on” (at least for me) so during times of joking around I can easily lash outand take a simple joke as a complete attack.

My chest constricts – mybody will not allow me to breathe easily and if I don’t force it – and ithurts deeper than it should. My anxiety runs high during these times and that panicsets in deep. I can’t fathom emotions if there are too many in place, my mindwill refuse to address them so they pile up. During this time, my mind will fogand I can’t even process anything being said – for instance; if I’m in asituation where issues are being listed off to me and I start to hit thatemotional overwhelm peak – my mind is still focused on exhibit A while theperson is already listing exhibit E. My mind will not allow me to process situationslike this as a WHOLE not in a rapid-firesuccession. The buildup can be excruciating and takes a toll on my body that itall will spill out in a sassy, feisty, and – for the lack of a better word – kindof a shitty outburst.

Having these outbursts stemfrom growing up in a household where I wasn’t appropriately taughthow to handle my emotions. My family were not people who would discuss emotionsor situations where my emotions got “out of control” – it was always a “stophaving emotions” type argument. I was gaslighted, manipulated, and bullied intothinking any and all emotions were bad. Plain and simple. I wasn’t allowed tocompose my emotions into words as this was not a thing that would everhappen with my family.

Much like Eddie, I tend tohave my emotions out there regardless of what I was taught – regardless ofbeing able to recognize those emotions I hate talking about them. It’s a viciouscycle. Discussing my emotions brings out my emotional overwhelm and it’s justan all-around messy situation at that. So, I try my best to hide my emotions– I clench my jaw, I go silent, I refuse to talk about it, I completelyshut down – I’m stubborn. It takes someone remarkably special and someone Itrust completely for me to really level with them – to be raw and showevery little bit of emotion that I have. Someone who is tolerable of it andunderstands what I’m going through, how I process my emotions… So needless to say,I have only ONE person who I feel comfortable with being this raw andvulnerable towards given my home life. So, a lot of the time my emotions– if every questioned by anyone will mostly be met with anger, because itwas the one emotion I was used to receiving growing up. It’s easier to lash outthan it is to make yourself vulnerable.

When I’m not having a terriblytraumatizing day and my emotional overwhelm hasn’t taken over, I tend to hide myemotions behind my sass. If I magically have a day where I’m notcompletely losing it and on an emotional overload type of day, my hurt showsthrough real quick sass and sometimes it’s not always tasteful. My brainto filter usually shuts off when I’m hurt and I feel like I’m being come for.

UNDIAGNOSEDADHD - MENTAL HEALTH

Ok, this is another headcanonsituation I want to write up – mostly because of instances between Chapter 1 andChapter 2 that I picked up on. But I’m a firm believer that Eddie has undiagnosedADHD – take for instance the entire scene where they’re first introduced to TheClubhouse. Eddie’s reaction and the way he bounces from subject to subject withhalf sentences, his reaction to the paddle ball with Stan, his rapid fire nearlystumbling speech. I wholeheartedly believe that Sonia wasn’t concerned in theleast about mental health issues, only concerned for issues that would harmEddie physically and more in the realm of physical health issues.

Much like this, my Mom wasadamant that I didn’t have ADHD and refused to have me tested by any means. Istruggle with half sentences where my mind will be moving faster than my mouthor fingers – I notice this more when I’m typing, whether it be having adiscussion on discord or responding to replies. I don’t know how many times Ihave gone back to proof read and somehow, I’m missing portions of sentences andeverything is nearly a half thought. My mind processes things too quickly andone moment I’ll have my attention in one place and within a second something elsewill catch my attention. It’s always fast and catches nearly everyone around meoff guard that don’t really understand what’s going on.

To kind of wrap this backaround to my abusive situation and the lack of HELP in the metal health realm where the Mom’s are concerned. WhileI was dealing with these issues I dealt with a lot of mental health ailments(ptsd, manic depression, insomnia, and major anxiety/panic attacks to name afew.) these were all situations that required a lot of help through doctor’s,psychiatrists – you name it. But my Mom (and her husband) were always inthe realm of thought that a mental battle can be won without the use of medication– and this is honestly how I feel Sonia Kaspbrak thought and took mentalhealth issues. That they weren’t as big of an issue as say “health” issues areconcerned. That they were easily bypassed and just a “phase” that could begrown out of. Considering Sonia, who is a woman suffering with MunchausenSyndrome – mental health issues don’t get you the same attention as say asick and suffering child would with an actual sickness or disease that can beSEEN. And that is the biggest difference and I think why Eddie was nevertreated for having ADHD.

It’s seen, but it’s not onethat would necessarily bring about any sort of sympathy from others or keepEddie bound in her realm of control that she preferred to rule.

#Anonymous #⌊ they’re gazebos! they’re bullshit! ⌉ - ooc #ooc.#⌊ have you ever heard of a staph infection? ⌉ - answered #answered.

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mediaeval-muse · 4 years

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Video Game Review: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (CD Projekt Red, 2015)

Genres: action RPG, fantasy, open world

Premise: Geralt of Rivia returns for a third installment in the Witcher series, seeking his lost adopted daughter, Ciri, who is being pursued by the spectral warrior band, the Wild Hunt. Along the way, Geralt runs into some old friends, former lovers, and a whole lot of monsters.

Platform Played On: PC (Windows)

Rating: 4/5 stars

***Full review under the cut.***

I am evaluating this game based on four key aspects: story, characters, gameplay, and visuals.

Story: I liked that this game dug more into Geralt’s past. Witcher 1 and 2 have been teasing Geralt’s history with Yennefer, Ciri, and the Wild Hunt for a while, and we finally get to engage with that head-on. About 1/3 of this game is spent pursuing Ciri and checking out all the places she went, so personally, I didn’t find that part of the plot exciting. I may be biased, though - I don’t really like plots which are based on following someone’s trail.

But while I did like that we dove into Geralt’s past, this game also simultaneously felt disjointed from the other two. Things seemed to be dropped in at random. For example, the “Last Wish” quest had no emotional buildup, and we got no hints of Geralt and Yennefer’s magical bond in the previous two games. I would have liked to see more exploration of this bond before players finally deal with it. Also, the other two games had Geralt struggling to overcome his amnesia, but when we get to Witcher 3, he seems to remember everything without any problems. I understand that Wticher 3 is meant, in some ways, to be accessible to players who haven’t played the first two games, but I would have liked to see more continuity.

Main plot aside, I very much appreciated that there seemed to be a lot more folkloric flavor in this game than in the previous two. Side quests had Geralt encounter beasts with a lot of lore behind them, so it was fun to get to learn about the worldbuilding through these monsters.

However, the conflict between humans and non-humans, which was so central in Witcher 2, is completely a non-issue in this game. There are still dwarves, elves, etc. and some pockets of Scoiatel bands, but the game says that the political conflict is more pressing than people’s racism, so everyone’s largely forgotten about how much they hate non-humans (except moments of random brutality). Instead, there’s discrimination against magic-users to deal with, due to the fallout from Witcher 2 and the Lodge of Sorceresses. Honestly, I had to side-eye this change a little, because people don’t just put aside their racism when a new political conflict arises. While I understand the plot can’t encompass everything, this is just another example of the disjointedness between the first two games and this one.

You still have the opportunity to sleep with various women in this game, which was irritating. Most of these chances come up in “meatier” side quests, so they’re woven into the plot rather than random chance encounters. I honestly hate that aspect of the Witcher games, and even though they’re toned down from the first installment, they still are prevalent enough to bother me.

I did play through both DLCs/Expansion Packs: Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine. I really liked the way Hearts of Stone was structured, with the Frog Prince allusions and heist plot. I did also like that it included some much needed POC, but I was uncomfortable with part of the plot that involves killing a bunch of them. I absolutely hated the part where you have to let a ghost (Vlodomir) possess Geralt’s body for a night. The idea wasn’t a bad one (the ethics of letting a ghost control you is interesting), but Vlodimir is so damn horny and sexist that I despised being forced to spend time with him/act as him for so long. This DLC also had Shani make a reappearance, and I love her as a character. I just hate that she, like so many other women, is head over heels for Geralt, and Geralt can sleep with her. Blood and Wine had the experience of a whole new game, with more maps to explore, diagrams to find, and so on. I enjoyed the characters of this story more than the plot itself; much of the plot involves things happening off-camera and being told of them later. But to its credit, the DLC expands the lore on some monsters that we don’t see much of in the previous games, and has some fun side quests that are much lighter in mood than anything in the base game.

Characters: Geralt is more or less the same as he was in The Witcher 2, but I found him even more easier to like and play as a noble character. Of course, his characterization is going to be largely up to the player (it’s an RPG, after all), but I liked that the game gave Geralt ample opportunity to be a kind-hearted person.

We do finally meet Yennefer in this game. She’s stubborn and assertive without being too over the top or controlling, which made me like her, even if she could be annoying. I chose to romance Triss, so I got an extra dose of that annoyingness when Yennefer wouldn’t respect my boundaries and took some of her anger out on Triss’ belongings. However, I do like that these traits made Yennefer flawed.

Speaking of Triss, she’s back in this game and has an extremely noble character arc. She spends a lot of time fighting to get mages out of a city that wants to destroy them, and willingly puts herself at risk for people who probably don’t deserve it. She’s so kind-hearted and focused on justice that I took to her as readily as I did in the previous game - perhaps more.

Ciri, unsurprisingly, was also a delight. She is headstrong and impulsive without being cold, and players are given the chance to mold her story when she becomes a playable character for brief periods.

Many of the side characters felt fully-realized, so I had no trouble immersing myself in the world of the game. I very much enjoyed the characters in the DLC (save Vlodimir), who were morally grey and complex in interesting ways. Regis is the best!

Gameplay: Like Witcher 2, there are a lot of controls to keep track of (at least on PC) but I picked them up fairly quickly. Crafting is a bit more involved than the previous games, as well as the alchemy. It took me a bit to realize that alchemy flasks were replenished with meditation rather than having to be made manually, but when I figured it out, things ran more smoothly.

I will say that with this game being open-world, there was A LOT of exploration. I do like to wander around in games sometimes, but after a while, I did grow bored. Maps were expansive with hundreds of points of interest, all with rewards that weren’t super beneficial (except to sell) after a certain level. I know I don’t HAVE to explore every POI, but I’m a completionist. Completionists, therefore, might find this game a bit tedious.

I furthermore resented the fact that players could have Geralt sleep around with multiple women and get many sex scenes. It was annoying, but I easily avoided romancing anyone accidentally.

The introduction of the Gwent card game in place of dice was extremely enjoyable. It relied a little less on luck, allowing players to exert some control via strategy, and rewards included unique cards in addition to money. It’s almost like a deck-building game, with some different rules.

Visuals: The Witcher 3 is a beautifully-rendered game. The environment is full of textures and unique layouts, even though much of it is wilderness, and everything from the monsters to the armor appear more visually interesting and colorful than their incarnations in previous games. I especially appreciated the effort put into making the world seem inhabited; inns were decorated with paintings and garlands, homes had personal effects, and peasants didn’t seem to be too repetitive in their appearance.

Although the sexism in this game was scaled way back even in comparison to the previous game, I did still find some of the character designs for women annoying. Kiera, a sorceress who assists Geralt at one point, is introduced while she is taking a bath, and while dressed, her shirt is so open that you can see her nipples - even when you’re questing! It was irritating, but since women’s outfits on the whole were drastically less male-gazey than the previous games, I was able to ignore it and focus on plot.

I will say, though, that I was bothered by the fact that everyone in this game is still white (except for a couple succubi, unless I’m missing some others). There are some POC introduced in the Hearts of Stone DLC, and some of them are interesting characters, but part of the plot involves killing a bunch of POC, so it was kind of uncomfortable. I know the game is based on a Polish novel series, and people will be quick to say that Slavic people are largely light-skinned, but this is a fantasy game, so in my mind, there’s no excuse.

In-Game Triggers: violence, gore, body horror, presence of corpses/blood in the environment, sex and nudity, racism, drug use, miscarriage, domestic violence

Recommendations: I would recommend this game f you’ve played the previous two Witcher games, or if you enjoy fantasy RPGs, games with Slavic folklore, and games with strong father-daughter relationships.

#video game review

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