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bonefall · 1 year

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Do you have any plans for Moth Flight in your au? I always felt like she had a lot of potential, but her super edition…. Oh it’s bad. God forbid a disabled, young, single mom try to raise children and have a job at the same time. Too bad there was no one to help her when things got stressful, like you know, her clanmates… No women should have a job and children at the same time ever again.

If it wasn’t obvious that was sarcasm, Moth Flight’s story has awful implications. But! In BB Clerics Not being allowed to have kits wasn’t a law until the Ripple Era, it used to just be a personal vow and was a bit taboo. So I’m interested in of Moth Flight still had something to do with the creation of the vow itself? And just in general if you have any plans to fix her story or if you’re just throwing the whole thing out. (Which would be completely understandable.) I just think there IS potential there in her story, especially in BB where the Clerics Vow is actually ACKNOWLEDGED to not make sense and be bad. It could be interesting for the idea to rise from such a hyper specific, awful situation. The Clans having altered her story so much over the years that it went from the truth, “the first Cleric was a young, single mother of four, trying to raise her children while morning her husband and convincing the other Clans that they needed Clerics. The odds were against her.” To the perfect, Cleric’s Vow supporting lie, “the first Cleric had kits. She was unable to balance raising them and caring for her Clanmates. She taught the Clans a valuable lesson, a Clerics first and only duty should be healing and worshiping StarClan. Kits only get in the way of that duty.”

Idk, I just feel like there’s still an interesting story to tell somewhere through all of Moth Flight’s super edition’s bs. In the hands of a better writer who doesn’t ACTUALLY believe that Moth Flight’s genuinely tragic life means that all women who have jobs can never have children or get married again.

There's HUUGE overhauls here. I spoke about it eons ago during the last wave where I was discussing my changes to BB!DOTC, but let me give you the fragments thus far.

It's VERY different. Get ready for Moth Flight to be a completely different character.

MOTH FLIGHT'S VOW

She is no longer the child of Wind Runner. In fact...

She's the daughter of Wind Runner's shitty ex, Branch

Moth's other dad is Cloud Flight (prev. Cloud Spots). Since the Great Battle, Cloud has been wandering between the 5 groups as a sort of traveling doctor. It's a lot of work, there's only him and Dapple and an overwhelming amount of cats who need his skilled paws

So Moth Flight has always been a bit detached from people. I want her to actually have ADHD this time around, instead of it vanishing when it isn't convenient.

She kind of has Military Base Kid energy, hopping place to place with unresolved mental health issues. She probably bites ppl because I love weird girls

"papas can i bring my leeches" "honey no"

Cloud really wanted to train her to be a Medic the way he is, but... she has to learn how to do it her own way.

Branch doesn't help he's a goof and mostly interested in playing games with his baby.

I want to portray Branch as someone who's flighty, not another example of "before the Tribe cats came we were uncivilized heathens without society"

I also don't like his original narrative purpose to give Wind Runner trust issues that don't matter. If she had trust issues, what exactly was all that "please let me join ur group" about??

BB!Wind Runner is a breakaway from the River Kingdom, and the leader of the loosely united Moor cats. She created the Wind Coalition and is its intense, notoriously ruthless leader

So something eventually calls Cloud to do his work for the Wind Coalition

Branch: *SWEATS*

Cloud Flight: "..............branch. what did you Do"

Branch: "youre not allowed to be mad at me"

Cloud Flight: "tell me what you did and then we'll see if im mad at you"

The take might be controversial, but I do like the way that Windstar has problems with Moth Flight for no reason. I wanted to preserve it while removing it being yet another case of motherly child neglect, and more of a case of Wind Runner holding unfair grudges. I think it's good drama

Moth Flight's love of nature, herbs, and the natural world eventually prompts her to follow a Hairstreak Butterfly to the Moonstone. It leads her through the winding tunnels, a path that only Clerics will know how to navigate in the future, to the shimmering chamber in the middle.

Through her special connection to StarClan, drawing off the early cultural view of their ancestors as nature spirits (the fact that they are star spirits is a Park Cat contribution and all 5 leaders have their lives by this point), Moth Flight is able to come into her own as a holy speaker and healer. She begins to blur the line between holiness and healing, marked by how Clanmew has only one word for both concepts.

Hairstreak Butterflies also become known as a "herald" type of butterfly. I could get into the linguistics of this, but the old Tribemew word for moth/butterfly becomes the Clanmew word for sacred butterflies.

Micah is not supremely important anymore, but he's there. He doesn't become a healer in MFV, he's just Moth's mate.

But things begin to go wrong when her kittens are born.

All four children are born with a high connection to StarClan, just like their mother.

She takes it on herself to train them, as Cloud Flight had done with her, wiser from understanding that they would learn in their own ways.

Dapple and Cloud Flight never have this connection to star spirits, and they're growing old. Cloud is ready to retire, Dapple dies in some way before she's able to train a replacement

It begins to cause panic in the groups. It was bad with only two healers, but now everything is stretched even thinner.

SkyClan, notoriously violent, is the first to make the move. Skystar was not above the practice of Kit Stealing, taking Misty's kittens and giving them to Petal Claw for her loyalty ages ago.

Kit Stealing wouldn't become common until the creation of the Law of Loyalty, which is only a few years away, but it did exist before then.

They want a Mothkin kitten.

The Wind Coalition, of course, moves to fight and protect them. They call on ThunderClan, who can usually be relied upon

ThunderClan's request... they also want a Mothkin kitten. They need doctors too.

The River Kingdom and ShadowClan are also moving to take a kitten

EVERYONE needs a doctor, and they will fight and kill to get one. They all begin to realize... if they don't separate, there will be blood. People they love will die, and they'll be ripped apart anyway

Moth Flight, seeing this, BURNING with sorrow and fury at the violence of the Clans but knowing there is no other option, tells her children to make her a promise.

"That there will be no Mothkin after you. That you will never take a mate, or give your kidnappers more children. That you will remember that they were willing to kill their own families to steal you, and that you will be loyal the pursuit of life, virtue, and your sacred ability to heal above the cruel commands of the treacherous Clans."

Having accepted this, the family calls for an end to the fighting. Each child chooses a Clan to go to, and has their name changed.

ThunderClan: Spider Flight -> Spider Flight (no change)

SkyClan: Honey Flight -> Honey Pelt

RiverClan: Bubble Flight -> Bubbling Stream

ShadowClan: Blue Flight -> Blue Whisker

They're being shuffled based on which Clan they go to because it always bothered me that their names don't match their Clans, and also Spider Paw going to RiverClan when he has a phobia of water is insulting and I said no

So, TL;DR, this is a completely different story because DOTC is the one arc that I don't value "fixing." It needs a complete overhaul, imo.

This one would take place after Thunderstar's Justice, which immediately follows the First Battle. In terms of timeline, first is Hollyleaf's Century, 30 years later BB!DOTC begins and lasts several years, a few months after the First Battle begins Thunderstar's Justice, and then Moth Flight's Vow follows a year later.

#Moth Flight's Vow #BB!DOTC #Better bones au

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fandoomrants · 3 months

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Okay, so I'm fully into my HP obsession again (honestly, I don't care what anyone says or how much the world tries to cancel this fandom. This is my childhood, it's a part of me that's always there and I eventually go back to between the other things) and therefore, the Marauders era's obsession.

And like, I've always loved them for some reason. Honestly, when I found fandoms and stuff and saw they're actually almost a fandom on it's own, I was so happy and relieved that I'm not the only one. (I realised at one point that I love HP yet I've never read a fic that's not about them from this fandom...)

But I've been thinking about some things and also came across some random videos summarizing what we know about them (because there are so many hcs that most people accept as common that it's easy to forget the real facts) and now I have so many thoughts I need to share because they haunt me.

-They were like... Big jerks. Especially James and Sirius. Mostly them, tbh. Like, not only because we see them from Snape's perspective in memories and he hates them but because, well, they were mean. Especially Sirius (he's my absolutely favourite character but still), he's done pretty shitty things. I think James mostly had beef with Snape but they were overall kinda bullies.

-Even though I love Wolfstar just as much as 90% of this fandom (I mean the Marauders era), I think they're a famous ship just because we get to see interactions between them while alive and not just flashbacks but I don't think they were really close back in the days. James and Sirius were the ones extremely close and maybe if we had seen extended Marauders' interactions or they were eventually all alive, then most likely Wolfstar wouldn't have been that popular.

-I'm 99% sure that the great friendship between Lily and Remus is completely fan-made. I believe Remus was the most reasonable (but nobody can convince me he wasn't the mastermind behind 99% of their pranks at the same time) and wasn't into being mean with anyone so it's possible that they were interacting on much better terms than her and James (I mean, until they got together) but I don't think they could have ever been called friends.

-In fact, canonly, Sirius was taller than Remus. (What a shock, right?)

-Lots of people say stuff like "Who was the fifth guy in their dorm?" and there are many theories about it but do we even have a proof that the four of them were in the same dorm at all? Nope.

-Now that's my personal opinion but... I absolutely believe they were really good friends and while at school at least, nobody was left out intentionally but... Maybe Peter betrays them in the end because of some build up stuff throughout the years. We know James and Sirius meet on Hogwarts Express and immediately become best friends. We don't know when Remus and Peter join exactly but it must have been shortly after, I think Peter is pretty much the last who joins. Seeing how some of the people are very good friends, it's a bit hard to truly feel a part of a friend group and might make you feel a bit left out at times (but that's basically a rule in every friend group, tbh. There are the two best friends and well... the other, still close friends).There's also the fact that Peter canonly wears the Sorting hat for over five minutes so here you have another episode of feeling kind of left out. Then later they learn about Remus and they all decide to support him and even learn how to transform and Peter is the last to learn how to do it too. Then even later, James and his family take Sirius in. What I'm trying to say is, we have no canon information of any of them doing anything for Peter and I'm not saying that they weren't good friends, it's just that he was exposed to them doing stuff for each other, and like, really big stuff too (granted, it was really all about helping a friend in a big need) but he was never the center of it + some occasions that might have left him feel kind of uncertain and uneasy about himself like not being sorted for a longer time or needing help to transform. And the result might be feeling emotionally distant from the group and with desire to prove himself worthy of something. So, that's maybe why he finally turns to Voldemort.

-They canonly don't trust Remus much by the end and even suspect he might be Voldemort's spy.

-There is a big chance that Harry and Remus really meet when Harry is 13, meaning that he never saw him as a baby.

-Speaking of feeling left out earlier... I think Remus might have also felt so more often than not. I think they were all into innocent pranks but he wasn't into actively being a jerk, especially considering that he was someone who would have gotten lots of hate if people knew about the werewolf thing. The stupid prank in 5th year must have been a real punch in the gut too. The fact that he gets to stop interacting with them and they even start mistrusting him. Lots of things, really. AND HE STILL NEVER BETRAYED THEM, WAS NEVER A JERK TO ANY OF THEM, AND GOT TO LIVE FOR 12 YEARS BELIEVING THAT ONE OF HIS BEST FRIENDS KILLED THE OTHER TWO!!!

Okay. I made myself enough sad for one evening. Might add more to this.

#harry potter #hp #hogwarts #marauders era #marauders #james potter #sirius black #remus lupin #peter pettigrew #lily evans #wolfstar #rant

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itsclydebitches · 1 year

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Honestly, I think most of the issues in this season exist because they clearly planned four seasons. Ted was supposed to go through a flop era, where he'd be checked out and his divorce and overall shitty situation with Michelle (the therapist thing) would have bitten him in the ass, and he'd struggle with his own positivity. It's crucial for Ted as a character to be critical of his life in Kansas, otherwise his character doesn't do anything but serve as an enlightened american spiritual guide to a bunch of brits (NOT a classy plot line and not a good move, especially since most of the brits are either queer or poc). I swear to god, if they make Ted go back to Kansas and end the series with him returning to the status-quo, I'll riot. His story was clearly about trying something new and brave for the wrong reasons, and finding himself in the process! He was not happy in Kansas! He has built himself a life in England that he never had in Kansas (otherwise we'd see him missing his friends, not the never-ending loneliness).

But it's a season long arc, and a recovery process that would last them another season. I was sure they would stop after the fourth season, not the third!

I think they might have decided to wrap it up early, either because of the impending strike, or because Sudeikis got bored.

Sudeikis has come out and said (on a couple of occasions I believe) that the show was pitched as a three season arc, not four. However, as a fellow writer who always needs about 75% more time/space than she originally planned for a story, I can easily picture how a perceived three season arc could actually need four seasons once you're in the nitty-gritty of writing it. I also don't know enough about the inner workings of Apple TV and Sudeikis' creative process to guess at how everyone was originally conceiving a "season." Certainly the 7-10 episodes of today are a far different beast from the 24 episodes of decades past. If Ted Lasso was still three seasons but with season 3 clocking in at 19 episodes... that would make a hell of a difference.

Regardless, I do think this season needed more time and that the issues there are seen more clearly in "International Break" than anywhere else. Nate quitting his job from one episode to the next, Rebecca suddenly being able to laugh uproariously with Rupert, even Roy having this 'aha' moment about being with Keeley... it's not that I think the show hasn't been building towards these things (it has), but rather that the final push feels sudden and, though not out of nowhere, not what I was expecting to happen just yet if - as said - the show had more time to develop these complex moments of growth. Also, though I'm a big fan of the show's sprawling cast and I think that's integral to its overall messages (you need that diversity in characters and their relationships), there was a lot of 'filler' I think this season could have cut to better focus on those key dynamics. For me, Keeley is the most egregious example in that regard. Shandi and Jack added little to her story imo - beyond a without-a-doubt queer confirmation and a little growth in terms of being a boss - so I would have rather had more of the focus be around Roy and her company more broadly.

Anyway, yeah, HARD agree about Kansas. I've already written about how disappointed I'd be in that ending. Personally, I don't think I'd want a whole season of Ted's "flop era," especially since that's where he started out: the presumably useless American "wanker" who is driving the team into the dirt. The shorter arc we got this season where Ted struggles, doubts, and then makes a tremendous comeback worked well for me. What would I have given Ted instead to fill that time... I'm not sure, which is one of the reasons why I think the show does benefit from that three season structure. There's only so much you can do with the concept of "Presumed failure is not a failure after all and actually is supper successful" before you're forced to backtrack (which undermines the message) or just sit in the boring "They're great aren't they great everything is great" ending. So Ted's football arc works for me, we just need more time for all those relationships. Keep the basic structure we have in terms of overall plot, but add in episodes to fully take the characters through the conflicts Season 2 introduced: How does Nate possibly redeem himself in Rupert's clutches? How can Ted come to terms with Michele dating their therapist? Why is Beard still 'happily' dating Jane after Higgins' intervention and his violent night out? How does Roy overcome this all-consuming belief that he's holding Keeley back? What in the world is going on with Rebecca and this maybe baby? How is Trent going to confess his love for Ted?

As said, the season IS answering all these questions, it just feels like the short structure has landed us with, "This is a problem, this is a problem, this is still a problem, the characters are acknowledging it's a problem... oh look the problem is now solved off-screen/in one scene! Happy days."

#Ted Lasso #Ted Lasso spoilers #I feel like this ask makes it sound that I'm disliking the show a lot more than I am #like you can tell this season is rushed in many respects #but I still think the moment-to-moment writing is REALLY good #like do I care how messy Keeley's arc has been #if it gets me drunk bonding with Mae?#...I mean yeah I care but not nearly as much as I would have if there wasn't Mae bonding lol

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council-of-beetroot · 1 year

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I think most of the infamous aph fics (that I know) are already mentioned in your notes. For Auf Wiedersehen Sweetheart, it's mostly infamous due to how /famous/ it is in the fandom if that makes sense. Lots of fic writers get their stuff compared to DeValier's fics cuz of how many people loved Auf Wiedersehen, which made a bunch of people hate it even if they've never read it. (I've never read it, it doesn't sound interesting to me, so I have no opinion.)

Gutters I mostly hear is really sad. Post apocalypse, I think, but I don't care for the Nordics or Sealand much, so I never bothered reading that one either.

Danish Slaughterhouse sounds like guro from what I've heard explained to me, but again, I never cared for the Nordics much, so I never read it.

Acceleration Waltz is another big fic, at least among ger/ame shippers, and IIRC, the author came back and wrote for it again during lockdown in 2020, so I think it's finished now?? It's post WWII and is a human AU. I haven't read it in years, though, so I don't remember a lot of details.

There's a few versions of the Recession Gang-bang trope, so I'd go with the rec in the replies of that post, and while it's not as infamous as some of the others, I've seen Seven Little Killers mentioned here and there. It's a thriller-ish type story, where there's 7 killers, and the Axis trio are the detectives.

Also not as infamous as the others, or at least I don't see them mentioned as much is Book of the Tentacles. It's mainly noncon smut via a tentacle monster, and last I read it, it had almost 70,000 hits I think.

I think The Empty Cradle (ameripan) might count too. I think someone even read it out loud for a stream a while back.

Maybe someday I'll read gutters and auf wiefershen i just can't find the motivation to do so.

I have no desire to read danish slaughterhouse although I've probably read worse

I haven't read Acceleration Waltz but i have read other works by that author. Their sims 4 version of Zachem ya is hilarious. I need them to finish War anthem because it stopped right as Tolys was like alright plan A didn't work, time for plan B *unzips pants*

I've read book of the tentacles i just looked it's the fifth in most read (Excluding Crossovers) on AO3 i always tell my self that no matter what my fics will never get as much fame as tentacle porn and i can live with that.

Seven little killers has it's own tv tropes page as well link here. I skimmed through the document i downloaded it seems pretty typical of fanfiction of that era.

I think i haven't read the majority of these solely because i don't usually read fics outside of my main characters i focus on.

I can't remember if I've read the financial crisis gangbang or not

Now I'm curious about your guy's thoughts on this list of fics that have their own tv tropes page

I've read like three of these on the list.

Maybe in ten years one of my shitty fics will be viewed as fanfic from the days of yore.

#hetalia #hetalia fanfiction #anon #asks and replies

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gg-ladybug · 2 years

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Okay, but one of the most compelling things for me was the fact Evolution made me grimace for Gabriel-

Of course, I know people are going to be sat reading this like:

But just hear me out

For the first time, we’ve genuinely seen Gabriel this desperate. To the point he’s downright suicidal. He completely forwent any warnings given to him, sacrificing his own health in the hope he could get the upper hand on the heroes. Frequently, he was unable to walk, or even just stay conscious. Seems familiar, right? Gabriel is beginning to start acting like Nathalie in season 3. Which is, in itself, ironic considering her complete 180 at the end of the episode.

But we don’t really take it seriously

I mean- it’s not just a nuance thing either. They’re clearly crossing the bridges of mental health this arc. The paralleling between Marinette and Gabriel is amazing. The final scene was a staple to the fact they were always two sides of the same shitty coin. Same day, same reactions. But for completely different reasons. One feels the weight of failed responsibility, and the other finally feels responsibility.

Even taking a look at his panic attack, you’ll see a minute detail: his eyes are zoned in on his ring.

Gabriel has spent this last year + entirely devoting himself to the Hawkmoth character. Expensing his work life and other relationships in a co-dependent like state to revive his wife. But with Nathalie (and only Nathalie) in his corner, he’s never had to deal with the fact he’s done wrong. By not indulging anybody else; he’s had no rational mind to guide him. And dear lord is he the type that needs to be guided.

The only person who’s mattered in terms of opinion was her. Adrien would, had he been in the know, but he isn’t. Simple as that. He doesn’t know. To Gabriel, his disdain for Hawkmoth couldn’t be properly proportional, because of a ‘surely it’d be different if he knew about his mother’ mindset.

He’s a family man, and he considers Nathalie (as of this episode at least) part of said family. Going so far as to give her the other ring. If Nathalie concurs, he thinks he’s doing exactly what he should be. He admires her. He’s said as such in the Nathalie mini-episode. Until now. Someone he so openly cares about, as far as he sees it, hates him. And while getting the thrashing he deserved was all the satisfaction, his response certainly was not.

In a way, it was child like. He’s disappointed his guardian for the first time, and he doesn’t know how to deal with that. But the progression is important, because we’ve finally witnessed another milestone. Persistent, traumatic grief can cause us to cycle (sometimes quickly or in a nonlinear pattern) through the stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

These stages are our attempts to process change and protect ourselves while we adapt to a new reality. He’s finally come out the denial era. And while this new found anger may be misplaced onto Ladybug, it’s still a sign he’s finally beginning to accept what’s happened to Emilie.

Many people have said he’s lost his goal after all this time, and that may be true. But I raise this: it’s not about power either, like many suggest. In the ice-Paris scene. He’s merely trying to prevent what he sees as an ambush.

As far as he knows, he has a fair reason to worry about the mysterious box. It’s happened before, it can surely happen again. He’s aware they’re trying to draw him out, and that’s dangerous. Every time he underestimates the smallest of things, it bites him. We laugh, but from an outsider prospective, many would’ve overthought it.

Even when he was making the decision, he thought they were trying to defeat him as Scarlet Moth. Destroying the current timeline before he even had a chance to meddle. Monarch had no way of knowing whether or not his change would take place first. And all things considered, that’s precisely what they were trying to make it look like.

He wasn’t going to take their miraculous, he was attempting to push them into another burrow, like before. Hence his promise of return. He was going to go through with Nathalie’s idea! He just needed to stop them attacking the old him before dropping the USB in. Had he wanted to wish it, then there would be no need to come back at all. He was worried about his current timeline. Current relationships. So on and so forth. If he ‘chose wrong’, then he’d have nothing to go back to.

His choice wasn’t driven by power, merely worry for what he currently has. Gabriel is beginning to see what’s in front of him, rather than behind. That worry, though, was immediately repaid by the most devastating words of his life, no doubt. He, basically, was just told that his wife’s death was his own fault. Whether or not that’s what Nathalie actually meant doesn’t matter. That’s how Gabriel took it.

Given what we just saw too, that he’d been the one to deliver the miraculous to his wife, those words would’ve hit all the worse. The real kicker was the declaration of what he deserves. He’s just been shunned by his one true friend. Everybody else is merely an associate, or someone he sticks with because he owes them something, or they have something for him in return. Even the dynamic between him and Audrey relies heavily on the fact she was his mentor and likely has some other (presumably magic related) weight.

Plus, we see no evidence of any other family. The canon family tree for Adrien shows no grandparents from Gabriel’s side. Only Emilie’s. His current connections are likely all he has.

So step back, and take a look at this from a different angle. Widowed husband, mere inches away from saving his recently deceased wife. Reliving the very moment that caused her death. And then, his timeline comes under fire. So he goes to stop it. Just to be tricked. And then abandoned by the one person he can confide in. And widowed husbands often take other woman as ‘replacement wives’ in an attempt to get their emotional outlet back. A woman he puts on an equal mental pedestal to Emilie just told him to go fuck himself, in 3 different metaphors.

-His decision making

-His mental capacity

-His worth

Fucking ouch

He is, frankly, moving to his PV goal. Mirrored by the change in attire. Richard Sphinx was trying to forget his wife. Doing everything he possibly could to distract himself from her absence, and filling the void with material things.

At first glance, it’s not much, but if you think about it. It was… heavy for a first episode. I have no doubt he’s going to feel more sucker punches this season until his eventual defeat. And that’s genuinely concerning when we see how far he’s already descended.

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purplemys · 2 years

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Inuyasha Rant/Rambling

I think it would have been cool to see Izayoi outside of being sad, dead or a damsel in distress. She could have been given much better substance.

I would have loved to see what her and Inuyasha's lives were like pre-death. Wiki says she died of natural causes. It can't possibly be old age because discounting the 3rd movie, Inuyasha ages like any human would. (If anyone says otherwise, that would make him way older than not only Kagome, but Kikyou too.) He was 9 - 10 years old when she died. Then this would mean sickness? Would have been nice to see Inuyasha's last days with her or how her family treats her... Ya know...to make me care more...

Some alternative deaths I have in the back of my mind,

a) getting killed by a rival demon of Toga's to show that yes, she was always in danger by mere association, let alone having the child of a Demon General/King. At that point, getting murdered by a demon might as well be a natural cause of death at the feudal era.

b) The house/estate got stormed by a hate mob because she's "impure" or a major target by other demons. She was either disowned or her family legit just fell into ruins. Either way, nobody would protect her. Wouldn't it be so tragic if it was humans who killed Inuyasha's mom instead of just demons? There's so many ways to make all this (TogaxIzayoi story, InuKik,Inuyasha learning to trust humans again) so much more heartwrenching. Inuyasha rarely mentions her in both the manga and the anime. At least in the anime, he mentioned her to Kikyou once which was nice but that's about it. In the manga, she didn't even have a name or a face.

I think it would have been cool to see Kikyou outside of being sad, undead or a damsel in distress.

No, but seriously, there could have been better ways to write Kikyou's character than what we have been given. For all the shit I say about the characters I hate (like Kikyou and Hawks), at the end of the day, I appreciate the concept/attempt. They're like stylized bottles with little canon substance in them.

Kikyou, self-insert or not, she's integral to the plot- to Inuyasha's life. Now how would I rather the story have gone when it comes to Kikyou?

A) They should have written her relationship with Inuyasha way better.

B) She should have remained a major antagonist.

C) Let the characters (who always call one another out on their bullshits mind you) call her out on her shitty actions during her redemption.

Better yet, A + B (since her being an antagonist, getting called out should be a given) or we keep the plot as is but with a bonus C!

With Option A, it should fix the major issues I have with InuKik: a)Their dynamic and how it's inherently in Kikyou's favor. b)Their mutual distrust of each other. c)The lack of intimacy outside of being romantic/sexual partners.

a)Their dynamic and how it's inherently in Kikyou's favor.

Socially: Inuyasha was an outcast from having no family (they're either dead or hate him), being homeless, and worst of all, being a half-demon. In contrast, we have Kikyo, who is a priestess of high status, she is loved, she is legendary, she is powerful (if she killed him upon their first meeting, no one would care).

Mentally: Kikyo in canon, is not only regarded as older, she is meant to be wiser. She was educated, trained, and was (supposed to be) smart. Inuyasha by contrast was very likely homeschooled, sheltered and never had any of the social interactions Kikyo would have had. Inuyasha is said to be physically 15, if said to be 200 years old. Okay. Based on what I said about his actual aging in canon, he is 15 years old. Kikyo should have known this, yes? She met this young social outcast who was hated by both man and demon and thought "Yeah, ask him to be human. That solves both our problems and we can be happy!" But would it have worked?

But before all that, why would Kikyou specifically want the jewel gone?

"She wants to be a normal woman." Okay, but what even is normal in a world full of demons, witches, and other supernatural entities? "She doesn't want to be the guardian of a jewel that grants immeasurable power, that puts her life at stake more than usual." Fair enough, but I raise you this, her life was already at stake all the time anyway simply by being a powerful priestess (Midoriko for example). Inuyasha was even helping her guard the jewel which was barely kept safe.... at a shrine in the middle of the village... why was it just placed on an altar. I don't know. I won't touch it.

Now, Kikyo has been robbed of a regular childhood just by being born a priestess. I'll giver her that. She's way too young, even by their standards, to be burdened by a life-threatening job. Which begs the question, why does Inuyasha have to bear the consequences of that? He was already helping her, protecting her and her village. She proposed the idea of him being human, leaving himself vulnerable, leaving something he was born with, just to conform with society- and what changes with her? She already admitted she's just going to live as a priestess without the threat of the jewel. That's something so heavy to leave on him -

(I had to check what she actually said and it was just "I will be an ordinary woman." See earlier point. Wishing him to be human doesn't suddenly rid her of her powers, she'd still be a priestess regardless lest they elope which was never stated or implied. I mean, she could have dropped her position as priestess ? But it was never stated or implied what she meant. Honestly that proposal between her and Inuyasha didn't feel like a proper conversation between lovers who planned to eventually marry.)

Which now leads to my next point, it wouldn't have worked.

(Disregarding the possible implications of the jewel being destroyed had they just burned the jewel inside Midoriko's mummified corpse, or if not, just sealed the entire cave with Kikyo's powers that came next to Midoriko's.)

The jewel, at least in the anime, was finally gone due to "the right wish" - Kagome's selfless wish. The Shikon Jewel got tainted by any sort of impure, selfish desire, yes? The mere inkling of jealousy, hate, and envy was enough to taint the jewel. While I think Kikyou just wanted that jewel gone and never to see Inuyasha again. I'll entertain the idea for the sake of my argument. Kikyou's supposed wishes on the jewel were (in the first case, was going to wish)

1) "For Inuyasha to be human." - The main motivations for this wish aren't inherently awful but it's still questionable at best. Inuyasha clearly hesitated and she insisted that this wish will lead to them living normal lives. Inuyasha clearly dislikes being human - being weak, vulnerable, and essentially unreliable during an attack lest he trains to be a soldier afterwards, and even then that's not going to stop demons who just know what he looks/smells like-he'd be dead. To end this point, this clearly benefits her more than it does him. That's clearly still selfish.

(Even if Inuyasha was fully into it, that wish is still by all technicality, self-serving, - a wish tainted by possible feelings of resentment and loneliness, only to be somehow "fixed" by conforming to a world that clearly hates him.)

2) Supposedly, "Kikyo wished to see Inuyasha again" and that somehow manifested into Kagome being born with the jewel. I'll lightly entertain the idea that that wish is what caused the jewel to be recreated and brought back to the feudal era. That wish is still very much self-serving. It is what she wants, after she "killed" or sealed her supposed loved one. You really can't ask for someone back after you did that to them. (This is ignoring the fact that the narrative wasn't even sure what happened back there. She aimed to kill. Then he was sealed because "she didn't want to kill him." Then the story says "she followed him to death." Which. Was. It.

This leads me to my next point, relating to her wish. Kikyo clearly had a basis of what the right wish could have been. She wouldn't have suggested that wish to Inuyasha if she didn't know what constituted as a wrong wish, right? "She wasn't sure actually, cut her some slack!" Then why would she want to test her idea out on Inuyasha, who she supposedly cared about. She knew the jewel was dangerous and likely twisted any wish the user had based on any sign of impurity.

Why use it on Inuyasha?

What, because he was desperate enough to let her.

b) Their mutual distrust of each other.

Inuyasha didn't trust her enough to know that she wouldn't just suddenly fire arrows at him the exact day they promised to seal their fate together. He didn't even bother checking her scent- very important, mind you. It's actually evident post-resurrection that he didn't even put it past her to keep hurting him. With Kagome, he always doubted if she could ever actually hate him. I think it is also note-worthy to point out that after thinking Kikyou betrayed him with those warning arrows, he never bothered to sought her out, hurt her, confront her or anything, just snatch the jewel, sack the place then run.

Kikyou didn't even bother checking the aura of the person who she thought was Inuyasha. This man fought for you, helped protect you and your people, always made the effort to get closer to you, even agreed with your questionable plan, ready to abandon half of his identity to be with you, and you didn't once think "Hey. Something ain't right."

"They were fooled! Naraku was cunning! The disguises looked real!" Naraku can't hide scent and aura! These two "lovers" lived in an era where shapeshifting demons who want them both dead were a thing and they never thought it could happen? This lack of acknowledgement ties into another point I have.

c)The lack of intimacy outside of being romantic/sexual partners.

So they didn't trust each other enough and it was barely given proper acknowledgement and introspection. What did they have going for them outside of the kissing and being social outcasts "together"?

Well, they went out on a boat ride together. Sat nearby each other whenever they were barely talking. Didn't talk about much and it was about loneliness and about the jewel. (minus the one time they had brief mention of Inuyasha's parents and Kikyou even apologized for damaging his robe.) She asked him to bathe with her once. Don't know the rest.

They could have literally talked about anything else of substance. Inuyasha's Mom, Kikyo's parents, Kaede, the villagers, places they've been,Favorite Food, people they've faced, Onigumo, The looming threat of being ambushed by shapeshifters, nasty bandits, their hobbies outside of what they do, their education, the topic of how their marriage would be, what their life would be like, where would they go- literally anything else?

"That's the point! It's tragic and sad and they didn't have enough time! It was cut short because of Naraku-"

Tragic implies inevitability of the awful thing that will happen. e.g. A forbidden relationship being found out, put to the test and despite doing their damndest, one or both of them die.

Kikyou for some fucking reason, never bothered to tell Inuyasha of this Onigumo (who lusts for her mind you). Inuyasha never bothered to be more open about not liking being human. The both of them not even bothering to try giving the other benefit of the doubt.

"That's the point! They're immature! They were desperate and needed each other's company!" That's not love. That's infatuation at best and unhealthy at worst. I wouldn't mind you know, if they (the narrative and characters) just treated it as such. Say so, they were lonely and just needed someone and it happened to be each other. Now why would you want to marry someone you're not emotionally intimate with, let alone you barely trust?

How Can All These Be Fixed:

1) Have Inuyasha and Kikyou have simple scenes of bonding outside of being angsty teenagers. Kikyou was capable of playing with kids, so she's probably somewhat fun. Apply that to Inuyasha then. Yeah, "but that's childish!" Let the young people have fun- eat together, play board games, stargaze, talk gossip, literally anything lighthearted, please. The atmosphere around Inuyasha and Kikyou always felt so heavy. Not even in a somber, melancholic way. More of "Do these people even really enjoy each other's company?"

So there was one scene that wasn't shown enough of and when I read it, I really like it: The origin of the subjugation beads. Kikyou decided not to kill him after finding out he was after the jewel. Made the beads and was about to trick him to wear them as a present but decided not to give them to him when he suddenly gave her his late mother's shell of rouge, which she likely felt touched by. Questionable, even she admitted it. If she gave it, she should have confessed to it and never use it- kept it as a necklace gift. Either way, that, that kind of moment is honestly cute. Plus, the mention of his parents I stated earlier. :)

Should have had them courting each other with presents and late night talks instead of whatever the anime gave us.

2) Have Kikyou try any other way of making Inuyasha welcome in society instead aiming for what honestly should have been a final, desperate attempt.

Inuyasha did not like being human. Simple. Kikyou should have known this, yes? Nope. Because Inuyasha never showed himself to her as a human. Never told her about. He was never around long enough for her to even come close to seeing him human. Because he didn't like being vulnerable around her or anyone for that matter. Come to think of it, their "relationship" properly "developed" because Inuyasha for once felt compassion towards her. Kikyou started the entire meeting thing because she felt confident, arrogant even, that's he's just a half demon she doesn't need to kill. Alright, fine. Standard "They didn't like each other at first because of obvious reasons." Then she felt some sympathy when she found out that Inuyasha's parents were interracial and both deceased. Okay, nice development. Then it ends there. That's the best they could do with them. Basic remorse and sympathy. For all the months that Inuyasha stayed at that village, Kikyou didn't even invite him to stay inside with her and Kaede. The attempt. The mere offer would have been nice. Kikyou should have at least made more of an effort to integrate Inuyasha into the villages (she had influence over them). Inuyasha only seemed to matter to the villagers when he's needed for a fight or when he's feared.

I would understand if Kikyou and Inuyasha wanted to be rid of their respective powers if they actually tried to be normal and the villagers just did not like them being together. But no, Kikyou tried being normal for a day, playing with kids which for some reason, she only started doing when Inuyasha was around because "she felt more human with him" or something. Yeah but why though? What's the difference with Inuyasha around and him gone, in regards to her duties at the village? Fine, say Kikyou did feel softer and kinder when Inuyasha came because it's the first time she had to actually feel sympathy for someone who isn't human. Why hammer in that Kikyou pre-Inuyasha was kind, caring, and loved by all? Wouldn't it have made sense to write her being colder to everyone except Kaede, at the beginning, feared even but she started changing with Inuyasha which could lead to the people being more accepting of half demons?

Fine- if you don't like that option and that Kikyou had always been an open-minded, kind, smart person, why not use that influence to make Inuyasha an equal. A hero. "Oh she didn't trust him enough for that." or "The society will never like Inuyasha even if she said anything."

Currently, Inuyasha's respected in the world by doing what he does best and it was helping people, slaying demons and protecting the weak. Something he was already doing pre-seal anyways. It's baffling that there wasn't even an attempt to take him everywhere as her bodyguard and to spread that positive message to all the villages that not all demons were evil.

Could they have thought she was bewitched? Probably. But it seems Kikyou's word was gospel to the lot of them. The attempt would have been good.

3) Kikyou should have died any other way, caused by Naraku.

The only way this whole ordeal felt "tragic" was because of the curse Tsubaki placed on Kikyou (weird plot-convenient curse she had there). What was her fucking plan really? Just hope that Kikyou was gonna eventually fall in love? What if she didn't? What then? Kill her? Why not do that to begin with? Kikyou knew all this actually and just vowed to never fall in love but later in the anime she managed to deflect a curse and turn it on Tsubaki? Is there no way to counter the initial curse? She's much more powerful! But the reason why this was never properly dealt with was because it would be convenient for the plot for Kikyou to just die because of Inuyasha. And he didn't even know about all this until later on , if I recall correctly.

If we took that whole thing with Tsubaki out, we would have been left with Naraku's scheme. (Which is what I grew up knowing about, I only knew of the curse now. I was just told her power would diminish when she fell in love, which is bullshit because Kagome never had that problem and Kikyo's powers didn't weaken by that much. So apparently ist was a curse. Huh.)

"But Naraku's whole M.O is manipulating and tricking people!" It's one of them sure, but Naraku is also ruthless when it came to his attacks. Should have went with that route instead of them falling for an obvious trap that pretty much proved how shallow their "love" for each other was.

In this new version, since Inuyasha and Kikyou are an actual couple, they wouldn't have been fooled by obvious trickery and Inuyasha would have known about Onigumo- this leaves the options of possession/puppetry, trapping them both in an illusion, and or just straight up killing Kikyou while Inuyasha was lured elsewhere. But if we insist that she had to have been killed while he was transformed as Inuyasha, just to fuck with her, then at least have her know that it wasn't him but someone she isn't sure of (condition being she's not aware Onigumo has a thing for her) , wishing that Inuyasha would avenge her. Inuyasha, upon finding out that he's been lured to somewhere else (something that can happen, like with Mt. Hakurei) or tricked, and Kikyou had been killed, yeah, he's out for vengeance. The way he could be sealed was if Naraku then uses Kikyou as a disguise to attack him then get Tsubaki to do the seal. With the first one, since Inuyasha knows Kikyou is well, dead, it leaves who could possibly be out for the both of them (not immediately thinking it's Onigumo since last he checked, the man was a critically injured human who has no relationship connection to either of them). With the second, Tsubaki gets to fuck with them both because she's always hated Kikyou and wanted to one-up her. There, you have your tragic lovers who deserve to be together and get revenge for what happened to them.

Option A + B

This is the one where Kikyou doesn't get redeemed. Fast forward to Kikyou being resurrected because the hag thought she could do something with that. She's bones, gravel, spite and hatred incarnate. And she should have stayed that way. I adore the idea that had Kikyou been written to be good and then upon being dug up, turned into this awful husk of a person who just resented the living.

You can't have both the likeable, kind, sympathetic Kikyou while she goes around hurting people, stealing souls, scaring kids, helping Naraku, killing someone with her powers-an innocent human at that.

She goes on resenting Kagome, who is an unwilling participant in this love triangle, a 15 y.o who actively helps Kikyou and Inuyasha. (The manga is littered with Kikyou pointing out that Inuyasha was hers to heal and keep. I'm not against the idea of Kikyou coming back as this vindictive spirit but they should have acknowledged that. Not even her sister acknowledged it. Kikyou legit went "Inuyasha's gentler now. When he wasn't with me. She's healing his heart. I should have been the one to do that." and Kaede just went "Kagome is a strange child." Maybe tell her to not be so possessive? Yeah I know she looks a tiny bit like Kikyou but damn, she was willing to murder a child.) She goes around hurting the people she used to care about (Kaede, Inuyasha), hurting the people Inuyasha cares about (Kagome, the gang) and this creates heavy impactful angst! Because if they were an actually happy couple and this happened with Kikyou, then it comes down to Inuyasha's "She's no longer the woman I loved. She's a danger to the people around her and herself. Her soul needs to be put to rest." And then you have her die once, at the end to finally give her closure with Naraku and Inuyasha. I would have cried if that was the case.

and Option C, the one where she gets redemption.

I hate the love triangle because of how convoluted it is. Inuyasha looks like a fickle cheater at times, Kikyou clearly hates Kagome, and Kagome is just in it, trying to be the bigger person for the both of them and not fucking die.

If we kept the entire story as is, the least they could have done was acknowledged how awful Kikyou was to Kagome, Kohaku, Kaede, and a lot more people.

Her bullshit plan using the jewels to give Naraku a new body and then destroying him, along with the jewel was so ridiculous, not even counting the lives ruined in the process.

Would that arc have been solved if the characters just acknowledged that she was being shitty? No. Because that also needs to be coupled with her owning up to her mistakes.

She never owned or admitted to trying to kill Kagome, Inuyasha, and Kohaku. She never took accountability for being such a liability in during battle. She never owned up to the fact that she was absolute trash to her boyfriend, trying to drag him to hell, making him for guilty for even finding happiness with another woman, nevermind not even sure if they were dating, just chalking her up to "her replacement". She always had to be right and pitied on and that was so infuriating.

I think I'm getting a headache. Lets move on.

Now to fix the redemption, with Writing A + a bit of B.

Rewind back to Kikyou being resurrected, she's spiteful and bitter and the resentment is now personal, focused on Inuyasha, Kaede and most of all, Kagome, who she views as her replacement.

Since in this version, Kikyou knew Inuyasha didn't murder her, the hurt now comes from the fact that it seems like he moved on, with her reincarnation, and he hasn't avenged her yet. Of course she would be upset, she has every single right to be. To be a memory. To be stuck in the past. I'm gonna tear up just thinking about it.

Now where does Kagome come in all this. Nothing changes. She already actively helped Kikyou and Inuyasha in canon. She had always been understanding, the only condition being Inuyasha tells her beforehand that they will meet.

Kikyou and Kagome's relationship wasn't always just about their romance with Inuyasha. There were other things to be petty and or insecure of, like their roles as priestess, rivals of Midoriko's legacy, all that.

So here we know that Kikyou lost everything, not just her life, her beloved, she lost her position, her life's hard work, and all that went to a woman from a different time period- clearly she didn't belong here.

So there, we have the angst and drama on both sides. Kagome's insecurities trying to measure up to an amazing priestess and person, and Kikyou's insecurity of being replaced by "another her".

"But that's already canon! Kagome is an extension of Kikyou! She's her reincarnation! Wouldn't that make them the same person!"

No. I hate it when people disregard the message said and told by the narrative that Kikyou and Kagome were never and will never be interchangeable. Kagome is not Kikyou's 2nd Chance to be with Inuyasha. She's Inuyasha's 2nd Chance at Happiness. Kikyou is not Kagome from the Feudal Era. Kagome and Kikyou are two very different people.

You can make Kikyou and Kagome opposites without making the other ridiculously unlikable. (With Kikyou being so unkind and unsympathetic and Kagome being "bratty and spoiled" -according to InuKik shippers.) I don't have to put Kikyou down to prop Kagome up. The writing did that all on its own.

I'm trying to put them on an equal bar while trying to keep them with their individual personality and quirks.

Pre-Death Kikyou can be the calm, collected, intelligent, fearless one. She was mature for her age, probably overworked and never got to experience all the joys of being a teenager. (One might even add some level of paranoia that adds in to Inuyasha's protectiveness towards her and why he's so special to her. )

Kagome is the impulsive, temperamental, resourceful, brave one. She's emotional, sassy, and all around a social buttefly that got all the experience Inuyasha and Kikyou never had.

There. Complete opposites without the other being so unbearable.

Now how would Kikyou and Kagome's relationship go?

Well, only in the anime, I appreciate the attempt to make Kikyou respect Kagome. The episode was called "Kikyou and Kagome Alone in a Cave."

I would have liked this more if this wasn't one episode among multiple episodes with attempts on Kagome's life, Inuyasha's life, Kohaku's... Ugh.

For this version, she can probably try killing Kagome once because she was newly resurrected and "there can only be one of us." Kagome immediately tells Inuyasha this and this obviously angers Inuyasha which Kikyou then accuses him of actually replacing her. This drama causes a rift between the two that has nothing to do with Naraku or them being gullible or selfish because that was absolutely infuriating. Kikyou then keeps looking for ways to send Kagome back to her time (which she did in the first movie, she quoted "You don't belong here. Never return." )

Kagome clearly bottling up resentment at this point, because this undead woman whose name she has to live up to hates her, wants her boyfriend back, and just sent her back to her time. We have that scene of her realizing she loves Inuyasha but wanting to be supportive. The same goes as follows until Kagome finds her again, injured and filled with miasma after her last encounter with Naraku.

Kikyou, still bitter at this point, wandering around, stealing souls to stay "alive", looking for Naraku, just sees this girl and gets defensive. Kagome, having decided to be the bigger person and be sympathetic, offers to help Kikyou. Kikyou obviously taken aback, begrudgingly accepts this.

Kagome leaves the situation with more pity and sympathy for this woman she barely knows, and maybe some perspective. Kikyou isn't immune to mistakes and getting injured. It's okay to not live up to her right away. Kikyou leaves the situation with newfound respect because if it was the other way around, would she have helped? Would she have set aside her resentment to help someone again? If she didn't, what would that make her? Was she always this vindictive beneath the surface? Without the expectations of being the mature older sister/priestess, would she be selfish? Kikyou should have pondered stuff like that in that state.

Because Kikyou is supposed to be smart and self-aware.

Maybe have Kikyou want to get to know Kagome personally-? Maybe earn her trust back?

Now what happens to their relationship with Inuyasha involved? Kikyou now having more respect for her reincarnation, should actually stick around to see her and Inuyasha in action, maybe even try to help out, see what their dynamic is like, maybe kinda see if Kagome's better than her or not. This drama is better than the constant Inuyasha running off to see Kikyou and Kagome being jealous even though Kagome stated outright that them seeing each other was not the issue, it was them going behind her back.

Okay, so I love Kagome and InuKag but this needs to be stated, they were all did dirty. Kagome and Kikyou's potentially complex relationship was boiled down to relationship drama.

How Do We Fix The Love Triangle?

Easy. It ceases to exist. Let Inuyasha, Kikyou, and Kagome have a proper friendship and talk about their situation. The common argument neutral parties have about the love triangle is that "Inuyasha cares about them both equally!" I'd believe you if it didn't feel like InuKag + Kikyou attempting to homewreck an already good relationship.

"The Love Triangle was integral to the plot!"

It was a fucking parasite is what it was.

"But what is the drama of these three if not the romance?"

Insecurities, Duties, Mortality, Regrets, Expectations, Trauma, Loss, and Competition, among other things. The feudal era is a goldmine of drama and angst and you want to settle for this weird trite?

Inuyasha's main conflict in the series was avenging Kikyou and getting a happy ending for himself and Kagome. Great. Cool. But that damn love triangle made it seem like it was a 'who did he love more' then proceeded to show that Kikyou was awful and Kagome really just was the better choice.

Now, with this version, what is the main conflict, if he and Kikyou were indeed happy and Kagome is there, the new girlfriend... well, it is letting go of the past and moving forward.

Kikyou is quite literally dead. Kaede, Inuyasha, her village mourned her 50 years ago. Next thing she knew, she was conscious- made from clay and bones. The world move on without her and that, she never had a say or fault in any of what happened- to her, it was like days ago (since Inuyasha did not age) You can't even fault Inuyasha for this if they were happy. The tragedy lies now in what they never got to and never will finish.

Kikyou's clay body maintains itself from souls of dead women. Wether she takes them or her body's just a magnet for them, up for debate. Either way that is not sustainable and she's taking souls from strangers, not letting their souls to move on and rest.

"But the relationship was supposed to be flawed and exploitable and that's tragic!"

You're asking people to care about two people who barely care about each other beyond the bare minimum.

If the goal was to make them flawed but believable why did they have to crank up the problems to 20?! If Inuyasha and Kikyou were meant to be individuals with serious deep-seated issues, why not bring that up, lets talk about that. Address it. But nah, the story kept flip-flopping between calling it an undying tragic romance and a betrayal that somehow stemed from a lack of trust. Feeling betrayed ≠ Not having any trust in that person.

"It's like enemies to lovers where they don't trust each other completely!"

First off, there's no ideology/authority that makes a human dating a demon illegal. The exception is priests and monks because they're spiritual heads who are tasked to killing demons so yeah it would be highly questionable. For the demons, having intercourse with a human isn't really unheard of because they already see humans as lesser, be it entertainment or ya know, food. They raise eyebrows when the demon in question falls in love and makes an offspring. The point I'm trying to make is that they were never actual enemies and the story never painted them as such. Their description in canon is "tragic lovers". Also, the proper taboo here is it being interracial.

Inuyasha himself has no personal grudge against Kikyou at the start because why would he? He never had the intention of hurting or killing her because Inuyasha never harmed humans out of fun or spite. Kikyou, it's just business. Her job was to protect the jewel. She did so.

End of this segment, just brought it up in case someone tries to justify why two "lovers" didn't trust each other to not get attacked by the other.

Now for my final thoughts, there was a point in time that I was a fan of Kikyou's design, her aura, all that. I even drew her nonstop at that period. Same goes for Hawks actually. But why inflate what actually happened in canon? For all the fun what-ifs, could-bes, this is what we have. This is what is shown and told to us. I'm more of a show and tell person and but if I had to choose, it should be Show. Kikyou's pretty design doesn't really mask the fact that she's underdeveloped and written like scribbles on cardboard.

Miscellaneous things to mention before someone brings it up:

1) Kagome's final wish on the jewel was selfless because of her very personal motivations at the beginning and at the end of the story. Kagome stayed to help collect the shikon shards because she felt personally resposible for it shattering. Kagome didn't have to, really. She didn't know these people, even worse, they were 500 years ago. They'd still be long gone when she returns home to her normal life. But no, she selflessly stayed to help fix the mess she accidentally made trying to fulfill Kikyou's shoes. Now, at the middle of the story, friends and all. What did Kagome specifically have to lose if she walked away from the fight, with Kikyou back to do her job? Her pride? Her job of filling in for Kikyou? Inuyasha? Yeah, true. But those are still things she started without. What did Kagome have at the start of the story that she never would have lost if she walked away- her family, and her life at the modern era. She personally had nothing to lose at the end of the day by wishing for the jewel to disappear. (The wish was anime only. The manga states Kagome will fight in Midoriko's place eventually which yikes...)

"Kagome wished for the jewel so she could stop fighting because the jewel hurt her friends and so many more people!"

Yeah. Other people. Not her, specifically. She chose to fight. She didn't have to. She had no obligation to. "She didn't belong in that era." Kagome had nothing to gain from the jewel's power- no personal vengeance, no lifelong grudge to speak of. The wish benefited everyone else the most. Which is why it was the right wish to make and why Kagome was the right one to make it.

2) InuKik would not be cute or romantically tragic if Inuyasha was a girl and Kikyou was a man- it would be way too obvious it's unhealthy at best and abusive at worse.

See my points about the disparity between social status and maturity. Side tangent: Now the rich person x poor person is a common trope and the implications of abuse of power is usually sidestepped by having the poor person secretly being rich, becoming rich or the rich person losing those riches and power to be with the other. Now Kikyou and Inuyasha don't have a class problem but it's more of a position/status in society issue. Kikyou is a priestess, someone with the authority and "pass", if you will, to exterminate demons people deem dangerous. No one would care if she killed Inuyasha on first sight because who would protect this man's right to live? He had no support system, no family, friends, nothing. That itself isn't the main issue because she spared him for vague reasons. The issue now lies with her attempt to ask him to use the dangerous jewel to make a wish. If something goes array and he hurt her or anyone else, she'd have "good reason" to hurt/kill him in self-defense. Just a thought.

Kikyou has been really nasty towards Inuyasha despite him always being the one to get closer despite getting hurt. She was possessive, making him feel guilty for her death, asking him to die for her, to abandon the happiness he got from Kagome and his friends.

Now all the issues I've mentioned here and paragraphs beforehand and then genderbend that. You'd call him controlling, manipulative, selfish, abusive, yes? Because that's what she was like.

"You're reading too much into it!"

And why shouldn't I? If their relationship was so important, why shouldn't we look at it and scrutinize it?

"You're overreacting. She did reassure him that it was all Naraku's fault! He tricked them!"

- By exploiting an already weak relationship.

"InuKik was supposed to be endgame but the author of the manga was pressured to make it InuKag."

You as the author, have the power to make your story any way you want. If you're gonna upset a bunch of fans for a pairing you've written well for, better back it up with an equally well-written pairing. Leave no room to argue. No one will give you shit if it was done right. If you can somehow make a good way to write Kikyou back in and give Kagome a satisfying ending then yeah, it would be fine. Not happy for everyobe but it would have been serviceable. I'd say, if you're gonna piss the fandom off, at least do it well.

3) I'm not a mysogynist. I'm a girl and I would like to not see someone go "Ew. You're too hard on Kikyou but give Inuyasha a pass. You're just pitting two women against each other!"

I just said how Inuyasha's character was tainted by the love triangle, along with how we can have two powerful likable women and not reduce them to romantic rivals Inuyasha just had to choose from. I appreciate the "what Kagome and Kikyou offered him if he chose them" but I can totally understand how that would come off as unfair to the other party.

4) I have enjoyed fanfics with Kikyou before.

The first one. Can't remember the title but it was a ficlet about Kikyou being a narcissist. She kissed Kagome in that one because she was so entranced about Kagome being pretty. It was so weird because I don't think it was meant to be romantic. Kikyou was supposed to be self-absorbed and unsettling. This was the same woman who thought so highly to herself and told the 15 y.o stranger that she was an extension of her. Damn.

The second. It was what I suggested, maybe have Kikyou actually want to get to know Kagome. In this fic, Kikyou, after having been saved, wanted to befriend Kagome, earn her trust back. Kagome, already nice to her by default agreed to hang out and they even had friendship necklaces! :D It was a cute ending when they finally set aside the thing with Inuyasha and just talked about being girls, school, teen stuff- because Kikyou never had that so Kagome brought her presents from the modern era and I should stop rambling omg.

The third. Kikyou post-resurrection, having been rid of her duties and mortality decided that she should be more chill and carefree. The fic was half serious, half Kikyou just flirting with guys, sleeping with everyone who wasn't taken, ugly, or a minor. The fic was just fun, because it wasn't weighed by the characters not talking about the very suffocating relationship drama. Inuyasha, Kagome and Kikyou talked, remained friends, and she was over all being friendly now that yeah, she doesn't have to be crushed by the weight of responsibilities and it wasn't like she was leaving Kagome to do the work since she decided to stay with them to help out. Also, SessKik. It was just interesting.

5) The easier and more dramatic way Inuyasha could have betrayed Kikyou was to take the jewel when she handed it to him and he secretly wishes to become a full demon and then mauling her (still fulfilling thay violent death curse Tsubaki set on her). Just a thought.

6) KagKik is so fucking odd to me because Kikyou first thought Kagome to be an extension of her and then she flat out hates her. The the story thinks Kagome was Kikyou's second chance to be with Inuyasha. I don't need to tell you why it's a tad bit weird. I swear.

7) A polycule is a weird way to solve this. That takes out the tragic part of Kikyou being dead. To each their own I suppose but this should come with the condition of Kikyou being a well-written partner to begin with and Kagome being somehow okay with a three-way with her boyfriend and his undead ex girlfriend. ' - '

#salt #rant #anti kikyou #anti inukik #inukag

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tenpintsofsundrop · 1 year

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Bunny i'm so so happy I stumbled across your new blog! Life's been pretty hectic for me atm so when i finallyyy got around to checking in on you and your blog I was so sad when I saw it was deactivated :(

I should have checked in sooner and I'm really sorry that I didn't.

enough of my waffling, how are you! It's been way too long since my last lil check in. I hope you're doing well and that you're happy :) What have you been watching lately? I think I remember you mentioning you liked horror, have you seen any new horror flicks recently?

In short, I'm wishing you the happiest beginning to your new blog and just general lovely thoughts your way, Sunny <3<3<3

I'm also glad that you found my new blog!!

especially because I've been getting back into writing Titans stuff and I know you have enjoyed my Titans fics in the past <33

you don't have to apologize for not checking my blog sooner, I definitely understand that not everyone is on tumblr every single day like I am lmao

I've been doing well, I've still been dealing with my physical illness, but switching over to my new blog has really improved my mental health, and a little while ago I got out of the house to see The Little Mermaid and small outings like that always help improve my mental health (I'm actually planning another outing this weekend to buy my sister a birthday present, and I'm really looking forward to it.)

I am a really big fan of horror movies. I haven't seen any new ones recently, but I did go back and revisit House of Wax (from 2005) because I hadn't seen it in a very long time (like, since I was in high school) and it's one of my favourite horror films of all time. I think it's a horror movie that is genuinely flawless. the atmosphere is amazing, the characters are really awesome - they focus on a sibling dynamic, which not a lot of films do.

and the overarching themes of appearance vs intentions, industry and million dollar companies taking over America and how it has a harsh bottom line on the working class and 'the perfect family' - it's all so beautifully crafted into the narrative, and it's one of those horror movies that makes you genuinely think about societal horrors at large as well as having great kills and horrific moments within the film that are presented right in front of you and don't fall flat because of shitty CGI or something. I really fucking love it

(I could make a long list of all my favourite horror movies from 2000 to 2009, because that is my favourite era for horror lmao)

I also wish you happy thoughts and I hope you've been doing well, and I hope you enjoy the new fics and the reposts as they come out!!

#pikispixies #lovely people #sundrop answers #about me #personal

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kenobihater · 1 year

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len my dear friend do u have a like list in ur mind of like wild west media that u think showcase what u love abt the genre(westerns?? cowboy stuff??)

ps. willing to trade jidaigeki recs gehehe

i'd LOVE your jidaigeki recs, and i have lots of western recs, tysm for asking! i was raised on westerns, and though i have PLENTY of issues with the genre overall and how it was used to enforce an ahistorical ideal of white heteronormative patriarchy on an era that was actually pretty queer in compairison to the rest of the western world at the time and had a significant number of people of color and strong women in it, i still love the genre despite all of its faults.

the first western that comes to mind is true grit, the original true grit. i hate john wayne personally, but even i have to admit he does a good job in this film, though the real show-stealer is the actress who plays mattie ross. the new true grit is also really really good and more accurate to the book, which is okay and i only read for school.

the next of the classics that i wanna mention is the dollars trilogy (a fistful of dollars, for a few dollars more, and the good the bad and the ugly), of which i've only seen the good the bad and the ugly in full and remember liking as a child. the first in the trilogy, fistful, is a remake (or a ripoff, depending on how you look at it) of yojimbo! so, if you liked the basic plot of that, you'll probably like fistful as well if you don't mind clint eastwood. also, even if you don't like the films, do yourself a favor and listen to the soundtrack of at LEAST the good the bad and the ugly. i love it so much i have it on vinyl lol!

another classic western that is a remake/ripoff of a samurai film is the magnificent seven, which is inspired by seven samurai. i've honestly only seen the shitty chris pratt remake, so i can't speak to the quality of the original, though i've heard it's good.

onto modern westerns! tombstone is the first one to come to mind bc of how popular it is. it isn't my favorite bc of how it mythologizes a kind of shitty person, wyatt earp, into this larger than life figure. same goes for doc holliday (though i admit i'm only human and i ADORE val kilmer's performance in this film). if you're at all interested in unraveling the wyatt earp myth, i highly, HIGHLY recommend picking up the wonderful biography wyatt earp: a vigilante life by andrew c isenberg! it really cuts through the bullshit and the many lies the man told about his life and got early hollywood to buy into.

another modern western i like is django: unchained. it's been a few years since i last watched it, but i really want to stress to y'all that this is both a tarantino movie, so expect gore, and a movie about slavery, so expect blatant racism. if either of these things are a trigger or exhaust you, steer clear.

idk if this is classified as a western bc it's set during the era of fur trapping and mountain men, so a little earlier than most westerns, but the revenant was a good and gritty revenge story. though it was also pretty gory, so avoid it if that bothers you

one i really enjoyed was the harder they fall, though warning for gore again, though not to the extent of tarantino or anything. it was wonderfully told and it was SO cool to see a black-led western. i know there was some controversy around colorism and the handling of a queer character which i don't feel is my place to comment on, but i do think the film was good despite its flaws.

this isn't a movie, but i cannot stress enough how much red dead redemption 2 is a good example of western storytelling. arthur morgan's journey in the waning years of the wild west is SO compelling to me, and though it isn't flawless it's imho the closest thing on this list to my perfect western story. 10/10 recommend playing this one!

that's everything that's currently out that i can think of, but a western show i'm looking forwards to is the new bass reeves show that the yellowstone creators are making. yellowstone bored me to tears and i heard 1883 was bad, but i have high hopes for this bc bass reeves was a certified badass, likely inspired the lone ranger, and honestly deserved all the hype wyatt earp got for being a good lawman. so hopefully that will be good!

oh, and i'm sure you're aware, but there's a lot of bad westerns out there bc they pumped them out like crazy back in the day. modern day less so, so i can point to specific ones that suck major ass, like the ballad of buster scruggs, hostiles, and dances with wolves, but just as a rule of thumb if you aren't vibing with what's happening onscreen just turn it off lmao cause there's so much bad shit out there you could waste years watching it.

those are all of my recommendations (and a few to avoid for good measure), i hope you enjoy some of them and thank you for letting me ramble about westerns!!

#len answers #long post tw #kicking myself for nearly forgetting rdr2 lmao. it's my favorite western idc that it's a game!!

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jay-auris · 4 months

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Hi I just wanted to tell you how much I love and admire your fic!! Ive been reading it all day and can't seem to put it down. I skipped going out tonight so I could keep reading it. I love love love the world you created: I feel like I can really see Coventry. And you've just absolutely nailed the characters' voices, but you're also fleshing them out in a way the show never will. Your story feels like a safe, warm hug. I love the references to therapy, all the queer characters, and the attention you pay to the cops' shitty and discriminatory behaviour. You also write like a film theory grad student. Either you have a couple of degrees in this, or you've done a huge amount of research. Thank you for all the work you've poured into this fic!! It has made my day, and I just want you to know that I'm getting a huge amount of joy out of it.

SO MANY LOVELY COMPLIMENTS SKSJDJFKJFKSKD Thank you so much! I'm flattered that you skipped having a night life one evening for my lil' old fanfic. One of my favorite parts of writing is world building, creating a place that feels lived in, with a history and physical presence that is just as interesting to inhabit as the story itself is to follow. And in order to do that, I couldn't shy away from the social realities of what the characters might face, which, by nature of the canon, the show is able to poke at but never really forces us to sit with. Part of the joy of fic for me is getting to go to those darker places that the show can't or won't. I love that, in spite of all this, the fic still feels like a warm hug to you!

I'm laughing at the film theory grad student comment; my background is in mental health, but I have one of those kinds of brains where I absorb information like a sponge about a wide range of things. Film analysis is one of those areas where I've spent far too many hours watching YouTube video essays, reading the AVClub pre-Gawker media era, and in general being fascinated by and learning as much as I can about the art of filmmaking. Laszlo got good use out of the last 10+ years of a hyperfixation. In another life I might have gone that direction, who knows! If I ever get a novel published and they adapt it to film, I will be in the writer's room if they let me 🤣

Anyway, thanks for reading, and I hope to get the last few chapters out soon 😊

#alethophobia

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ncutii-gatwa · 1 year

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i share your thoughts completely! the sambecca and the tedbecca, oof. just, why? why do this? i am kinda okay with none of it being truly canonized at the end but not within this type of context they presented.

and jamie... oh, our poor jamie. i refuse to accept that last part as canon, i do not care, it just does not fit into anything else they've set up for him as a person. i am closing my eyes and covering my ears, i do not take input from the ted lasso creators on jamie any longer. also, when roy saw jamie and keeley talk and hug, and then he immediately invited jamie to out to get drinks, jamie so happy they're friends (!), only to then ambush him with this dumbass demand to stay out of his [roy's] way... and then the video mention... like they put so much time into building this royjamie friendship, and keeley has always been an aspect of that due to their past. but they've resolved respectfully ages ago! it just felt shitty to the characters and their friendships, honestly.

i understand your feelings on roykeeley <3 somehow the execution of their breakup and aftermath fell so flat to me that i somehow lost interest in it immediately at the start of s3?? i know it was hinted at the end of season 2, but i thought we would actually get to see them have problems and at least try to work things out for a bit? their talks have been so strong in the previous seasons... simply the fact that it was not even really explained why they broke up until much later threw me off emotionally. and how keeley did the same thing with roy that she did with jamie – break up, sorta move on from him to somebody else, have one last one-night-stand, and then remain friends. idk. especially how she talked to rebecca afterwards, about how you have to feel really low to get back to an ex who treated you badly etc, and it was all set up to say that this is essentially what keeley was doing with roy? because she was down about her company. not sure if i'm making sense but it did not feel hopeful or emotional and deep anymore, and i was so disappointed... when shandy was first introduced as one of the many friends who married football players, i legit thought that the season would end with a roykeeley marriage LMAO. oh, how wrong i was.

sorry for rambling sksksksks i also had no chance to really let out my thoughts, pls ignore this if it's too long! i send a hug and blindfolds for everybody who is in the ignoring canon era <3

again i totally agree with you! i did ship tedbecca a little but i dont care that much that they don't end up together. i feel like they're good as friends or partners. it doesn't really matter to me which cause they work well together and have a good relationship between them. kinda annoyed the writers faked us out with it though.

i thought more was going to come of shandy tbh. i liked her and thought we were going to get more of her and maybe a whole revenge thing that went through the season but apparently not.

really in my head roy and keeley never broke up and roy was already going to therapy, jamie doesn't forgive his dad cause fucking hell why should he (another thing the writers did jamie wrong on), and the team won the league. but that's too boring i guess.

dont be afraid to keep talking to me more about the show if you want to id love to chat about it too :) xx

#i got mail #anon #ted lasso #ted lasso spoilers

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mixelation · 2 years

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Worst fandom takes: Itachi had more agency and responsibility for his crimes at thirteen than Orochimaru did for his crimes at thirty/forty-something.

Congratulations, this ask aged me by about ten years and made me go into my 2012-era reaction gif folder.

12/10 for how tired this take makes me, but... hm... 8/10 for rancid. Mostly I won't give it full rancid points because usually the "Orochimaru was just MANIPULATED by _____ factors!" crowd isn't like.... actively arguing what he did was okay (although they're like two steps away from this argument)? Nor do the weird "Itachi should have done XYZ!" people argue murdering children is okay. So I will not give full points.

But jfc, fandom. Why? The narrative does fucking backflips to make the Uchiha Massacre other people's responsibility in addition to Itachi's, and while I won't make the argument he was doing the best possible actions wrt to it, I don't think the story makes sense if Itachi thinks he has other options. He was thirteen, he was taught complete obedience to authority figures, and he was taught violence and murder are acceptable, viable solutions even if he personally doesn't like it. He was told "if you don't stop this, there WILL be a civil war" and "the solutions are either you kill everyone but your brother, or we'll kill everyone AND your brother." Does he hold responsibility for agreeing to murder? Yes. Were there other players actively pushing, supporting, commanding a thirteen year old to do this? ALSO YES, JFC

But, given how some Itachi stans want him to be a 100% morally pure uwu bean, I can kind of see why a person might get frustrated by that and push for Itachi having more culpability than the manga ultimately gave him. Like, the whole situation was deeply fucked up, and I do agree it's weird to completely absolve Itachi of it... especially given every other decision he makes about Sasuke afterwards. (What the FUCK, Itachi?) So while I am tired by less than nuanced takes on Itachi, this isn't driving the high rancid score.

But I do NOT get the fandom push to absolve Orochimaru of planning and then carrying out secret child experimentation projects, and then continuing them in Oto. Like, okay, you want Danzo to also be in on it because life is easier if there's one clear villain guy driving everything, alright. But do you really think Orochimaru, a full grown man and master manipulator, is somehow being brainwashed into.... doing something he genuinely seems interested in doing, and continues to do for the rest of the series? Like, at BEST, maybe Danzo was promising him he'd have support from above for ignoring the normal ethical standards. Orochimaru still chose to experiment on and murder children. You can argue he's Like This due to past trauma, sure, but other people had shitty childhoods and they don't murder children. Come on. The sorts of moral contortions you have to make to go "oh yeah, a full grown man wasn't at fault at all for things he literally planned and carried out while in a right state of mind--" is just exhausting. Also, by denying his responsibility for his own actions, you are just making him a less interesting character. Can we not do this?

Also god forbid you think both things at once. "Thirteen year olds should know better than to listen to the ninja president, but a full grown man should be able to have a hissy fit and murder children when his sensei is sort of mean to him." Actually, full 10/10 rancid if you're trying to argue both things at once, fandom. Please just admit you like one character and dislike another rather than twist yourself up in a pretzel trying to argue one is morally fine and the other is a moral failure.

EDIT: To clarify that last point, it is totally normal for the internal logic of your feelings on fictional people to be inconsistent. I definitely have characters I like because they're fucked up little guys and character I don't like because they're fucked up little guys, where the difference is shit like "one is FUN about it and the other isn't" or "one is pretty." But I think think if, in the same breath, you try to make a moral argument about two characters at once... please admit your standards are inconsistent because you like one more than the other (totally fair; I do this too), rather than trying to argue something that doesn't make sense and potentially just makes you go "children can't be manipulated but full grown men can :("

#ask meme answer #uh general disclaimer that you are allowed to disagree with me on things lmao #this are fictional people and we're debating fictional actions here

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dgcatanisiri · 1 year

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Someone on Twitter last night brought up the state of Star Wars, and, in particular frustration, its fandom. And I definitely don't argue that the state of Star Wars fans is shitty. Like, I'm the guy who, despite having frustrations with TLJ and discussing it at all, is also fully aware that there is a definite reason that I am in a position of having to justify my dislike of the film, because the worst people were the ones who drowned out any other criticisms of the movie, so any discussion I might have had on the subject would start with me on the defensive, needing to say "no I have VERY. DIFFERENT. REASONS. for not liking that movie!" So like... I get the disdain of the shitty fans.

But seeing the thing that the shitty fans are doing now really crystalized something about modern Star Wars for me. I honestly don't like it as a complete tapestry at this point, just in the individual pieces.

Star Wars has been MCU'ed, where it's a bunch of individual pieces, ostensibly overseen by a single head, but, in truth, that single head just lets people go out, do their own things, and then later crafts together the unification of it all in a single piece of media that needs like twenty hours of preceding research to fully understand, and if you miss one of those feeder pieces of the franchise, you're lost.

That's definitely what the Mandalorian has been this season - everything happening there depends on knowing the information from various other aspects of the franchise, not just the Sequel Trilogy, but also the Clone Wars, and probably various other "smoothing the kinks" side content of novels and comics, and Bad Batch has had a lot of that as well (it's less egregious there, since that is sequel series directly, taking place in the same time frame, but it's still how the show is structured and built).

And, okay, in the interests of fairness, I will acknowledge that yes, it's not like the Legends line was free of this sort, but the Legends stories had the benefit of advancing the narrative at the same time - sure, you'd have something like the Hand of Thrawn duology, that basically tried to make sense of the mostly-self-isolated various Bantam era novels that sometimes barely acknowledged or even contradicted one another, or the almost instant snapback of the evolution of the views of the Force brought by Vergere, followed by the subsequent retconning her as a Sith to help justify it, but there was still a sense of the narrative advancing, that the characters were growing over time.

By virtue of EVERYTHING ongoing in the Star Wars EU at this point happening prior to the Sequel Trilogy, none of that is there for Disney's Star Wars. The result is basically a feeling of a lot of fanfare for nothing of significance. Because the story just keeps setting up the things we already know are coming - if it's set prior to the Original Trilogy, it's setting up the Empire's eventual fall, maybe laying seeds for the ultimate Palpa-jack for Rise of Skywalker. If it's set after the Original Trilogy, it's setting up the fall of the New Republic and the origins of the First Order, and... we already know where that story goes.

I mean, functionally, we also knew that when the First Order was introduced as the new Empire, and the Sequels set about basically doing the Original Trilogy, just slightly different.

And I mean, yes, I'm still willingly buying the novels, and, if finances were in a better state, I'd even have the comics as well (those are my triage choice, consider my pull list at my comic shop is already out of control). And if Disney would stop encouraging the capitalistic hellscape we are forced to subsist in and release DVD sets again, I'd be buying these shows on DVD as well (seriously, how in the fuck do you justify purchasing multiple franchises BUILT on the concept of collectibles and then discontinue series DVD sets?!).

But the heart's not in it. And it's very much on the basis of how at this point, the franchise exists in a state of spinning its wheels, basically trying to retroactively justify everything that they've done, rather than owning up to mistakes.

And, honestly, this is reflected in that shitty fandom, because as much as they whine about Star Wars not being what THEY want it to be... Honestly, they ARE the ones getting the most out of this era of Star Wars content, because it's just returning and revisiting the existing world, rather than exploring where it can go next.

#dg rambles

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an-american-whovian · 2 years

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• An American Whovian Reviews: 'The Power of the Doctor' by Chris Chibnall.

- The Story Thus Far -

After almost five years and three series -- the Chris Chibnall, Jodie Whittaker/Thirteenth Doctor era is coming to a close.

(Much to the the joy of a decent amount of Whovians.)

Will he go out with ANOTHER subpar story -- or will he FINALLY pull a decent story out of his ass!?

- The Great (Space) Train Robbery -

I'm always a sucker fer opening an episode midway through an adventure. Aside from the shitty special effects -- not a bad way to get started.

Like, I enjoyed this bit more than I've had the entire Chibnall era.

- So Long & Thanks fer All the Fish -

So after a random scary incident during the space train sequence -- Dan just up and decides he wants to leave the TARDIS!?

DUDE SAW THE UNIVERSE ALMOST GET DEVOURED LAST SERIES AND THIS MAKES HIM WANT TO LEAVE.

Just a useless and VERY underdeveloped character (even worseso than Yaz).

Later, Dan. We hardly knew you.

Literally.

- Character Regression -

So after three series during the Capaldi era of character development with Missy, the Master, just ups and goes back to being this manic psychopath?

I'll never understand it.

Maybe, if they, like, had said this was an incarnation we hadn't met before -- then I could get behind it.

Although, I do love him actually being Rasputin. Very classic Delgado Master stuff.

- Show and Don't Tell at the Same Time -

I REALLY wanted to like Jodie as the Doctor. I was all about a female Doctor as a fresh change. Be that as it may, holy fuck, did Chibnall do her no favors with the dialouge. It's, like, he wrote her fer blind viewers or something -- 'cause she is PERPETUALLY telling me what's happening.

Like, yes, I can see that this little girl isn't just a little girl -- but some sort of cosmic energy! Thanks making it clear . . .

It almost makes anytime she speaks unbearable to listen.

- A List of Gripes -

1. Fucking hell. These "CyberMasters" are even worse shots than Stormtroopers.

2. What was the point of Chibnall making a reference of UNIT being closed two series back -- only to just bring them back out of nowhere? Stupid.

3. There's CyberMasters, Daleks, a companion leaves, two old ones show up, cosmic manifestation and missing paintings -- and we're only 20 minutes in.

(In the last ones defense: at least I'm not bored.)

- A Welcomed Return -

When Ace referred to the Doctor as "Prosessor", I TOTALLY got misty eyed. She's definitely in my top 3 companions; it's a shame they took this long to bring her back.

Tegan, on the other hand, I could care less about. Literally one of my least favorite companions.

Good to know she's still a bitch.

- I Take it Back, Maybe -

Okay, my gripe of the Master going back to being a psycho aside, this has pro'ly been the scariest the Master has been since Missy's first appearance.

More importantly, this has been the best THIS incarnation of the Master has been. Like, dude was legit creeping me out trying to get into Yaz's head; and when he reminds Tegan about how he shrunk her aunt? Perfect.

"I'm human intolerant." "Master's Dalek Plan".

Gold.

- And Vinder Was His Name-O -

Vinder came back fer some fucking reason. Remember Vinder? He was around during 'Flux'. You wanted him back, right?

Yea, neither did why . . .

Ashad is back, too. You know, that incomplete Cyberman that would've more interesting if he was a vengeful Adric? He's back, too. Helping the Master.

You know, fer reasons . . .

- The Man with a Plan -

So the Master was able to recruit the Daleks AND Cybermen in a plan to capture the Doctor -- out of sheer mutual hatred!?

Pretty weak, Chibs. Not the best plotting device; but this story was so well paced and pretty that I'll let that actually fucking slide.

Mainly, 'cause the Master's plan led to him regenerating into her(?). Which then gave us . . .

- Spoilers 🤫 -

The return of Doctors One, Five, Six, Seven and, one of my FAVORITES, Eight. 'The Power of the Doctor' officially gets my stamp of approval solely based on not just bringing McGann back -- but, also, in his awesome 'Night of the Doctor' garb.

*chef's kiss*

- I Take it Back, Maybe, Again -

The whole interface side plot with the Doctor and past companions REALLY got to me. Especially the one with Tegan.

When the Doctor mentions Adric? That look in her eyes!? 😢 You got me there, Chibs. You got me there.

The reasoning fer the Doctor's looking older through the AI was genius stuff.

- A List of Gripes, Pt. 2 -

Okay, like, what was the plot of this episode? Volcanoes flooding the Earth? Why was Graham just hanging in a volcano? Why did the Master turn into the Doctor!?

So many questions and no answers.

Chibnall's era in a nutshell.

- In the End it Doesn't Even Matter -

All my griping aside, this is OBJECTIVELY Chris Chibnall's best 'Doctor Who' episode EVER. Sincerely, I couldn't tell you what the fuck was going on; but I, also, didn't care.

This episode was fast paced fun, well scored, decently acted and a nice love letter to fans of Classic and NuWho.

Daleks, Cybermen and the Master? Classic Who companions galore? A sweet fun swan song to the Thirteenth Doctor era.

This was, also, Yaz's best effort. I especially adored her and the Doctor eating ice cream atop the TARDIS and floating in space before their non goodbyes.

Could've definitely done without Graham just popping out of nowhere. Him having a 'Doctor Support Group' was beautiful, tho', and a great way to bring back old faces.

I always judged an episode on how quick I want to rewatch it and this one had me wanting to come back again and again.

It's definitely flawed. Yet, what's good in it -- is great.

'The Power of the Doctor' gets three ⭐s out of four.

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chaidrivenwhore · 2 years

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i'm haunted by this book it made me feel feelings

@chifuyuuuuuuu-simp suggested this book and i got amma to buy it (bc i'm broke) and i read the whole thing in one sitting and let me tell you- this book hit me in the right places.

now i'm gonna talk abt it and hope i don't fall into another rabbit hole of thoughts bc ffs this book MAKES SENSE.

kinda not spoiler free, emphasis on the kinda

the only spoilers are the things that happened in the ramayan (og)

fun fact: w karkidaka month (last month in the malayalam calendar) going on, my ramayan era is here and i'm thriving

so the concept of this book is fairly interesting and as someone who ADORES different interpretations of hindu myth (looking at you, meluha), this is spectacular. SITAYAN bro, it doesn't get any better than that.

sita as a character who has conflicts in her mind, who works like all of us do, who isn't made out to be an untouchable goddess is p awesome to see. she's like so fucking strong, mentally, physically and emotionally and it makes me wanna cry istfg- she's intelligent, resourceful and you can see the love and care she feels for everyone and for her husband, the most. she didn't deserve the agni pariksha or the second exile fr

there's this running theme of different types of love. it deals the way love is felt by different people, how people react when in love, what different meanings can love take on, all of this. it resonates within you.

the author makes sita an introspective character and her thought process is glorious. love makes you afraid. love makes you hurt others and/or yourself and it'll blind you as much as it makes you see things that others cannot. love is powerful and scary and it'll make you feel like you're being drowned in the deep end and then set aflame.

moving on

ram is duty bound, loves his wife, but he's selfless to a fault- he can't be selfish and he believes the same extends to sita, but while ram is still pleased if his subjects are satisfied (and he isn't), sita wants everyone to be happy and content by meeting in the middle. this is a huge point that's seen throughout the pre-second exile arc (your relationship includes you and your partner(s), please do not bring in random citizens into it- remember, communication is key)

LAKSHMAN (sorry, he's my fav) slays. he's devoted to ram and that extends to sita but their dynamics are intriguing. a protective younger brother and the older brother's wife- quite fascinating, if you ask me

urmila the real mvp, gives edwina sharma, bc sita is literally adopted and is amazing in general. supportive sisters bro i'm in love. the concept that she was in a 14 year long sleep instead of her husband is dope asf i've read it somewhere before

dasharath is a good king and a shitty husband. partiality isn't good, he does that only. four kids you have sir, you can't just give all your attention to one. three wives and he can't respect them equally pshh

kaikeyi is one character that i've been huuuugely invested in, considering her part in the whole 14 years of exile in the forest and all. she's a powerful woman, by herself and in the eyes of her husband. she's spoilt (?) and rather malleable opinion-wise- ergo manthara could formulate most of her opinion. kaikeyi was flawed and it showed, but somehow, it was alright.

hanuman is sooo unproblematic and i love him sm (both as a character and a god to be worshipped). he's literally called the perfect devotee and he's legit too good to be true vibes. he's my life and that's all that there is to it

the author stated in her a/n that she'd been heavily inspired by the adbhut ramayan than the considered og and by virtue of that, ravan and mandodari make it into the major character list

mandodari is a p important character in this book. she's a queen, through and through. she endures, she listens, she loves, she's lost and her spirit's taken so much but she's never truly broken, or atleast until the plot twist

like clint, i did NOT see that coming.

but like i said, this book makes a whole good lot of sense and PLOT TWIST, once introduced, is very easy to digest. once you've understood the whole scenario, the lanka arc gets a million times worse and you're stuck overthinking abt the why and how and what the bloody dingle bottom fuckity fuck ever

it's beautiful.

now to the main antagonist. ravan. he's so complex, makes me wanna throw him under a microscope and study his nuances. he's terrorised gods, he's humiliated and vexed them, including his half brother kuber. he's also a great devotee/follower of lord shiva, he's a scholar and one of the most intelligent people on the damn planet.

he was brought to his knees by greed.

the first time i found out abt ravan's entire story, i was shocked fr. i mean, someone this accomplished and he pulls off shit like this?? but then greed has the potential to be one's undoing and that's what happened. it's like watching a train wreck in slo-mo. gah the character is so fucking complicated and i love the way he's been written.

the whole 'ram-sita are incarnations of lord vishnu-lakshmi devi' and 'ravan and kumbhkaran being jaya and vijaya, the dwarapalakas of vaikuntha but reincarnated' is seamlessly added into the story in the forms of visions and dreams and it's amazing.

lanka arc is painful and hits you in the feels bc sita's stuck there, sad and alone and she's not given up like ma'am, hat's off.

the whole 'society's opinion is important' is all well and good and the way the author shows the effect of that in the lives of our main characters is wonderful and honestly, while reading that part, i thought i'll have more time before the dhobi makes ram rethink his decisions.

then the second exile arc arrives and everything's back to shit again.

COMMUNICATION IS KEY.

please talk to your partners, everyone.

if only ram had talked to sita, if only lakshman had succeeded in convincing his brother, if only, if only-

lav and kush are the only kids i like bc irl kids are a hard pass (i'll take toddlers and babies but 9 y/o and up? i'll giggle if they fall down)

they're the sweetest kids okay? they're precious, and even though they didn't know their dad or aunts or uncles or other family members in ayodhya, they had valmiki, they had the people in the surrounding ashrams and they grew up w their found family. it's really sweet.

then the ashwamedha yajna and subsequent drama.

ram was like "one more agni pariksha so that the people of ayodhya would be satisfied for good" and sita was like "i'm done, we're done, no more." she's done seeing women being blamed for things that aren't in their hands, she's done seeing all the struggles that women go through that could've been avoided had there been better circumstances created. she's done giving in and compromising.

she's been wronged against and she'd proved herself once before and in this situation, there are no winners.

sita in this part feels emotions viscerally and everything is INTENSE and dukh dard peedha and then she's just so angry and sad and the firewood kept around her starts to burn, the ground splits and she knows this is the last of her that anyone will see.

lav and kush were held back by their uncles bc i think somewhere, even they realised that sita needed to do what she did.

the last lines of the book slapped me and said poignant.

"Because this is the most important aspect of love, whose other face is compassion: It isn’t doled out, drop by drop. It doesn’t measure who is worthy and who isn’t. It is like the ocean. Unfathomable. Astonishing. Measureless."

guide to wtv different language(s) i've used:

karkidaka month: karkidakam is the last month in the malayalam calendar during which people read the ramayan in their homes, it's going on rn i'm having fun

agni pariksha : trial by fire (like literally walk through fire to prove chastity and purity)

dwarapalakas of vaikuntha : according to hindu myth, vaikuntha is the place where lord vishnu resides and jaya and vijaya were two heavenly beings who guarded the gates (dwarapalaka is a gate-keeper) of vaikuntha- now their story is really interesting

dhobi : washerman

ashrams : group of hermitages

ashwamedha yajna : a ritual in the vedic period where a horse accompanied by a king's warriors would be released to wander for a year, if the horse is stopped, it is seen as a rebellion against the sovereignty

dukh dard peeda : dukh is sorrow, dard is pain and peedha is suffering (there is no english phrase that can give the same effect as this phrase in hindi- this is also a meme)

i didn't know i could write this much abt a book that i've read ONCE.

feel free to ask me abt shit and lmk if there's anything that's wrong? bc i really don't wanna spread wrong info sjhdjdjs

alr thankyou if you've made it till here, go read this book now <3

#the forest of enchantments #ramayan #ramayan sita #this is a lot of rambling #desi #desi <3 #gid speaketh

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davidmann95 · 3 years

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Sooo… Superman and the Authority?

magnus-king123 asked: Your thoughts on Superman & the authority Give it to me...lol

Anonymous asked: Seeing Bezos take his little trip into space the same day Morrison puts out a Superman comic that touches on how far we’ve fallen from the days when we dreamed of utopian futures where everyone explored the stars was a big gut punch. Not used to Superman being topical in that way.

Anonymous asked: What'd you think of Superman and the Authority#1?

This is far beyond what I can fit in the normal weekly reviews, so taking this as my notes on the first six pages, with this and this as my major lead-in thoughts:

* Janin's such a perfect fit for Morrison - the scale, the power, the facial expressions selling the character work, the screwing around with the panel formatting as necessary to sell the effect, the numinous sense of things going on larger than you can fully perceive amidst the beauty and chaos. It's a shame he wasn't around 25 years ago to draw JLA, but I'll take him going with Morrison onto other future projects.

* His intro action sequence is such a great demonstration of why Black actually does have something to offer, and also how he's such a dumbass desperately needing Superman to save him from himself.

* While Jordie Bellaire didn't legit go with an entirely monochromatic palate the way early previews suggested, it's still an effect frequently and excellently deployed here. And glad to see Steve Wands carry into this from Blackstars since there's such an obvious carryover from its work with Superman.

* "Gentlemen. Ladies. Others." Great both because of the obvious - hey, Superman's nodding at me! - and because it's a phrasing that reinforces that this take on him (and let's be real Morrison) is old as hell.

* I'm mostly past caring about whether this is an alt-Earth Superman until it becomes indisputable one way or another, this and Action both rule so what does it really matter? But while there are still a couple signs in play suggesting some kind of division (the Action Comics #1036 cover, Midnighter up to time-travel shenanigans) the "lost in time" quote clearly thrown in after the fact to explain how he could have met Kennedy outside of 5G that wouldn't be necessary for an Elseworlds, the assorted gestures towards Superman's current status quo, the Kingdom Come symbol appearing in Action, and that Morrison would have had to completely rewrite the ending if this wasn't supposed to be 'the' version of Clark Kent going forward as was the intent when they first planned it all say to me that no, no fooling around, this is our guy going forward one way or another.

* Janin and Bellaire making the first version of the crystal Fortress ever that actually looks as cool as you want it to.

Anonymous asked: I like that Superman and The Authority is basically the anti-All-Star; instead of the laid back, immortal Superman who is supercharged, we have a stressed, ageing Superman whose tremendous powers are fading. The former will always be there to save us, but the latter is running out of time and needs to pull off a Hail Mary. Also, he mentions in his monologue to Black that he was "lost in time" when he met JFK, so maybe he is the main continuity Clark. Or he's the t-shirt Supes from Sideways.

* You're absolutely right - the power reversal is obvious and the ticking clock in play seemingly isn't for his own survival but everyone around him as he wakes up and realizes all the old icons grew complacent with the gains they'd made and he's not leaving behind the world he meant to. Both, however, are built on the idea of preparing the world to not need them anymore - it'll still have a Superman in his son, but that'll only work because of the others he empowers and inspires. The question is what happens to Clark if he's not going to live in the sun for 83000 years.

* Clark's 'exercise' here does more to sell me on the idea of Old Man Superman as a cool idea than however many decades of Earth 2 stuff.

* Intergang being noted alongside Darkseid and Doomsday speaks to how much Kirby informed Morrison's conception of Superman.

* This isn't exactly the most progressive in its disability politics but at least it makes clear Black's being a piece of shit about it.

* It's startling how much Clark can get away with saying stuff in here you'd never expect to come out of Superman's mouth. "I made an executive decision" "Privacy, really...?" "You have nowhere to go, Black. Nothing to live for." "There are few people in my life who I instinctively and viscerally dislike, and you've always been one of them." It only works because there's zero aggression behind it, he's just past the point of niceties and being totally frank while making clear none of these assessments preclude that he cares and is going to unconditionally do the right thing every time. He is absolutely, per Morrison, humanity's dad picking us up when we're too drunk to drive ourselves home.

* The story doesn't put a big flashing light over it, but it's not even a little bit subtle having the material threat of the issue be a ticking timebomb left by the carelessness and hubris of generations past.

* Manchester keeps trying to poke the bear and prove his hot takes about Superman and it's just not working. The front he put up under Kelley is gone after decades of defeats, and as Morrison understands what actually conceptually works about him as a rival to Superman underneath the aging nerd paranoia he's exposed as what he absolutely would be in 2021: a dude with a horrific terminal case of Twitter brainworms. I was PANICKED when I heard there was an 'offensive term' joke in this, I was braced for Morrison at their well-meaning worst, but it's such a goddamn perfect encapsulation of a very specific breed of Twitter leftist who uses their politics first and foremost as a cudgel and justification to label their abrasive, judgmental shittiness as self-righteousness (plus it's a killer payoff to a joke from way back in his original appearance). Cannot believe they pulled that off when they're so very, very open about basically not knowing how the internet works.

* @charlottefinn: Manchester Black using his telekinetic powers to force someone he hates to fave a problematic tweet so that he can screenshot it and start a dogpile

@intergalactic-zoo: “Once they cancel Bibbo, Superman won’t be *anyone’s* fav’rit anymore!”

* Friend noted this issue had to be fully the conversation because the whole premise stands on the house of cards of these two somehow working together, and with three 'silent' inset panels the creative team pulls off that turning point.

* So much of this feels on the surface like Morrison bringing back the All-Star vibes with Clark, but when he drops a "That's all you got?" in a brawl you realize what's underlining that bluntness and confidence in the face of failure is that deep down this is still the Action guy too. This dude ain't gonna get wrecked in his Fortress while the other guy chuckles about him being A SOFT WEE SCIENTIST'S SON!

* Bringing up Jor-El made me realize that Morrison already spelled out that this is the final threat to Superman, what he faces at the end of the road:

"Now it's your turn, Superman."

* A l'il Superman 2000/All-Star reference with the Phantom Zone map!

* There's so much intertextuality going on here even by Morrison standards - Change or Die with the old hero putting together a team of morally nebulous folks out to 'fix' everything, Flex Mentallo with the muscleman trying to redeem the punk, Doomsday Clock with the fate of the world hinging on whether Superman can get through to a meta stand-in for an idea of 'modern' comics cynicism, DKR and New Frontier and Kingdom Come and Multiversity and Seven Soldiers and What's So Funny and All-Star and Action and the last 5 years of monthly Superman comics and Authority and probably Jupiter's Legacy and Tom Strong - but none of that's needed. You could go in with the baseline pop cultural understanding of the character and not care about any of the inside baseball shit and get that this is a story about a leader of a generation that let down the people they made all their grand promises to as inertia and day-to-day demands and complacency let him be satisfied with the accomplishments they'd made long ago, looking at a new era and seeing the ways its own activists are dropping the ball. The only thing that fundamentally matters in a "you have to accept you're reading a superhero story" sense is that because he's Superman he's willing to own up to it and listen to people who might know better about some things and try to set things right while he and those who'll take his place still have a chance. And yes, the oldster looking back on their legacy with a skeptical eye and hoping for better from the next generation, hoping most of all that their little heir apparent can fulfill the promise inside of him instead of being a provocating little shitkicker, is obviously also autobiographical.

* The overlaying Kennedy reprisal is such a great visual of a sudden intrusive thought.

* The Kryptonite secret is the obvious "This is going to matter!" moment, but "He lied about his son" is a bit that doesn't connect to anything going on right now so maybe that's important here too? More significantly, the Justice League can't actually be the villains here but that Ultra-Humanite's crew are in an Earth-orbiting satellite makes pretty clear what's up.

* I've said before that between Superman, OMAC, and a New Gods-affiliated speedster this was going to use all of Morrison's favorite things. King Arthur playing a role isn't exactly dissuading me.

* Love the idea that all the antiheroes have their own community in the same way as the capes and tights crew. They definitely all privately think the rest are posers though and that they alone are Garth Ennis Punisher in a mob of Garth Ennis Wolverines.

* Manchester's fallen so far he's gone from trying to convince Superman to kill to convince him to dunk on people for their bad takes and Clark just doesn't get it. Official prediction of dialogue for upcoming issues:

"According to these bloody Fortress scans, the only thing that can restore your powers is an unfiltered hit of dopamine. Don't worry, Doctor Black has a few ideas."

"Hmm. Maybe I'll plant a nice tree?"

"...fuck you."

* Ok I already talked about how great the Fortress looks in here but LOVE this library.

* A pair of pages this seems like the right spot to discuss from Black's original appearance that underlines both his and Superman's inadequacies up to this point:

Responding to the problem of "the government and penal system are hopelessly corrupt" neither of them has any actual notion of what to do about it in spite of their respective posturing beyond how to handle individual outside actors - each is in their own way every bit as small-minded and reactionary as the other. Clark's coming around though, and he's holding out hope for the other guy.

* Superman: Have a lovely mineral water :) proper hydration is important :)

Manchester Black: *Is a dude who can get so mad he vomits and passes out. At water.*

* That last page is the one to beat for the year, and does more to put over the idea of this as an Authority book than that Midnighter and Apollo are literally going to show up. It also feels like Morrison tacitly acknowledging all the ways the premise could go or at least be received wrong - from Superman saying 'enough is enough' to who he's bringing into the fold to go about it - in the most beautifully on-the-nose fashion imaginable. Maybe they'll save us all! Or maybe they'll drown us in their vomit.

#Superman and The Authority #Superman #The Authority #Manchester Black #Grant Morrison #Mikel Janin #Jordie Bellaire #Steve Wands #Opinion

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