#BUT as much as i slate my immediate extended family (does that even make sense? i just mean my grandparents) on my mum's side | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

bigskydreaming · 4 years

Text

Not to be super dramatic or anything, lolol, but just one, just one multi-chapter “bringing Jason back into the family/derailing the worst of the UTRH events” fic that mentions Dick killing the Joker because he mocked Jason’s death.

Just one for the love of Batcanon please can we have just one, lololol.

Like, I’ve read one-shots where they discuss it, and some of them are great, but in all my searching I have never found a single full ensemble family fic specifically about reuniting Jason with the family, that so much as acknowledges that Dick grieved for Jason enough that he beat the Joker to death with his bare hands for making light of Jason’s death.

Jason may have focused on Bruce not killing the Joker, but ultimately he just wanted to feel that someone cared that the Joker took Jason away from his family.

And Last Laugh is literally the single most relevant piece of Batcanon in terms of that single most definite want Jason has!

It absolutely kills me that its been minimized and ignored as much as it has. And for the life of me, I can’t come up with any explanation for that other than people just not wanting Dick and Jason to have the kind of rapport that could organically develop from Jason having that single relevant piece of evidence that proves his older brother does in fact love him very much, and always did.

Gaaaaaah. And the thing is, its not even that I begrudge people liking Jason and Tim’s dynamic and wanting them to be close. But when so freaking many of the ‘bring Jay back to the family’ fics focus on the kid Jason resented so much for replacing him he beat him half to death, being the one who most easily and naturally forms the strongest connection to Jason...while ignoring any and all instances of canon that acknowledge the actual canon history of Dick and Jason that would bring up the question of why Dick doesn’t seem to care now....it just feels weird. And I’ve looked at the narrative situation enough times that I feel pretty confident its not solely my character bias making me think that, y’know?

Its like......idk, maybe its the fact that Tim has plenty of reasonable justifications for being the one whose initially wary of Jason’s return and takes a little while to warm up to him post UTRH and feel confident Jason no longer wants to hurt him....so it in no way reflects badly on Tim at all, for him not to be the one taking point on trying to bring Jason back to the family.

Similarly, having Dick be the one to take point in no way minimizes the potential for Jason and Tim to then go on to form a strong bond of their own as well. Nor would any such bond between them be lessened by an equally strong one existing between Jason and Dick....anymore than they’d be incapable of forming strong bonds if Jason had never died and Jason and Dick’s bond just pre-existed on the basis of knowing each other longer than Tim.

By contrast, pointedly keeping Dick ‘out of the way’ of Jason and Tim being the ones to develop a strong initial bond due to Tim taking point on bringing him back to the family fics....DOES minimize the potential for Dick and Jason to ever go on to have equally strong ties after that point, because based on that specific narration, there will always then be the question of why didn’t Dick take point in that, or the fact that Dick does have less justifications than Tim to be wary of Jason and more reasons than Tim to try and bring Jason back into the fold.

So inevitably, sidelining Dick to any extent during that kind of storyline does bring into question the legitimacy or strength of any bond Jason and Dick form after Jason’s return to the family, and casts doubt on the validity and strength of any ties they felt before Jason’s death as well.

And the thing is, it would be one thing if the canon was just an equally clean slate where all characters were concerned.

IF Dick really was as aloof and/or a jerk to Jason in canon pre-ADITF as fanon makes him out to be. IF there were extended storylines about Tim being the sole one with hopes of Jason returning to the family, rather than just the one storyline about helping him escape Blackgate, which Jason immediately turned around and killed more people, the one thing Tim had asked he not do, in exchange.

IF there weren’t stories with Dick begging Jason to let him help. IF the Arkham thing really DID follow the fanon narrative where Dick callously tossed Jason into a cell next to the Joker, instead of the canon context where Dick specifically said he put Jason in Arkham to keep him out of general population for his SAFETY, Joker was nowhere near Arkham at the time, and Jason specifically stated his biggest complaint with his time in Arkham was he was bored.

IF Brothers in Blood didn’t end with Jason acknowledging that he had always considered Dick family. IF Last Laugh didn’t exist as pointed proof that the one and only time Dick has broken the Batfam’s cardinal rule himself, it was Jason’s murderer, after bringing up Jason’s death to him.

But when any and all of those things have to be completely disregarded in order to craft a narrative that posits Tim being the only one willing to reach out to Jason, and posits that Dick doesn’t have any strong feelings about Jason other than guilt for not being a good enough brother or whatever....

Like, I really don’t think its just character bias that makes me say the dynamics that result from that are always going to feel a bit stilted and awkward....because not only do they disregard pivotal canon events....they disregard the actual characterizations that led to those characters acting the way they did in those canon events.

*Shrugs* It just makes those stories feel disjointed and yeah, a little petty, because its like trying to force specific dynamics through a mold that’s based on the actual shape of the characters....and thus with stuff inevitably getting trimmed off around the edges and left behind. Because those specific dynamics/characterizations don’t actually FIT the narrative they’re trying to be pushed through.

Again, like I said, it’d be one thing if canon events like Dick killing the Joker just never ever happened and it was a fairly even playing field in terms of what characters make the most sense to play certain roles in certain specific narratives.

But when your narrative revolves around Jason initially still being estranged from his family because he remains convinced nobody cared enough to avenge him....but said narrative makes zero mention whatsoever about the very much did happen story where Dick....cared enough to avenge him....

And this pattern persists in dozens of stories about this particular premise, with practically no exception I can think of....

Like, there’s something off there, lmao, and I really don’t think its just my own character biases making me feel that way.

28 notes · View notes

renaroo · 4 years

Text

Some Times (Time and Time Again) (3/8)

Disclaimer: Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, and associated characters are the creative property of DC Comics. Warnings: Canon shaken not stirred, Heavy canon references to Booster Gold (2009-2011) and Blue Beetle (2016-2018) Pairings: Boostle Rating: T Synopsis: Booster Gold and the rest of the Time Masters are still straightening up things in the wake of the most recent universal Rebirth. But Rip Hunter is still missing in the aftermath, leaving Booster in charge with Skeets, Michelle, and Rani. But there’s a distraction for Booster, one he can’t keep himself from ignoring.

Ted Kord, miraculously, is still alive. And that makes everything more complicated than Michael could have ever imagined.

A/N: So look. First of all, I apologize to everyone who were looking forward to this fic before I took a very long hiatus this year. It’s a weird journey to go over, but basically I became a public school teacher and got a job in the middle of this year and the time flew by very fast. Ironically.

Does that mean I want to leave you guys hanging for months like that again? No, but stuff does happen. I’m trying to use my winter break to write as much as possible while still getting stuff ready for my kiddos, but priorities will lie where they lie and I’m sorry if that means leaving you hanging again. I totally get if you want to check out until the final update so that you can read the whole fic. Hopefully I’ll plan out better and write it all before posting to start with. So hindsight is.... 2020 you might say.

Special thanks to @fred-astairs-dark-impulses, @shibascarf, @mcbangle, @spiralcass, sinkburrito, @secretlystephaniebrown, starchaser22. doingsuper, Ithildyn and ivettxwrites for the support and kind words! That means so much to me, and I cannot apologize enough for being one of THOSE fanfic writers which I most certainly am and leaving you hanging for so long.

Little Girl Lost

Rani doesn’t necessarily intend to go against Michael and Michelle’s attempts to get her to sleep. Sometimes, things simply happen and there is no stopping it.

For Rani, it’s the need to make certain her adopted family — her new and most recent adopted family, that is — are still safe, alive, and not leaving her alone again that she cannot stop.

With her eyes only closed for a moment or two after hitting her pillow, Rani springs awake, ignores the colorfully decorated bedroom that is exclusively hers, and barrels out without so much as slippers on her feet.

Huffing and puffing, Rani races down the corridor toward the laboratory and kitchen of Time Lab. She only slows to a stop once reaching the disarray of the laboratory and overhearing the close by sounds of Michael and Michelle talking to one another.

Her heart races despite the calming assurance that she’s not alone. There should be three adults in their home instead of only two, and that causes a pang in her chest she barely knows what to do with.

Taking a deep breath, Rani glances around to the broken up laboratory and thinks about how upset poor Boppy would be if he was still around.

Rani bites her bottom lip until it hurts. She hates thinking of Poppy in the past tense. She hates it. And she can’t stop it.

She has played this game too many times before already despite being so young.

“Rani. I don’t believe you should be wandering around the laboratory. It is still a danger zone for the time being,” the familiar drone of Skeets comes as the tiny bot flies into her vicinity.

Looking to the golden sheen of Michael’s trusty assistant, Rani can’t help but feel that something is off. Something more than usual for Time Lab.

“Skeets, would you know if Boppy came back?” she asks.

“Doctor Hunter would likely make himself known to us if and when the time was right for his return,” the robot answers methodically.

Rani’s brows knit together. “So… you can’t do it?”

“That is not what I said,” he answers without answering anything at all.

Biting her lip once again, only now more in thought than in anxiety, Rani thinks about Boppy — Rip — and how he would make himself known.

With a slight hum in her throat, Rani walks past Skeets and makes her way to the large chalkboard still standing amongst the ruins of the Time Lab. She reaches the board quickly and begins scanning the blank slate for any signs of change — any at all. Her eyes fall, rather quickly, to the bottom right corner where a scribbled message causes her heart to race again. This time not in fear or worry, but in precious joy and excitement.

“Boppy!” she barely musters over her own gasp as she reaches for the board and touches it cautiously with the tips of her fingers.

Ted Kord is the key.

A chill runs down Rani’s spine, a thrill overcomes her pattering heart.

“Boppy wanted me to know…” she surmises. Her eyes squint in thought. It is her corner of the board, where she has been caught a few times sketching unicorns and butterflies. For Boppy to write there out of all the space on the board, surely means the message is for her and her alone in that moment.

And Ted Kord. That is not any name, that is someone very important and special. He is Michael’s most important friend, the one he talks about in his biggest and wildest stories to Rani, and the person whose name comes up the most often in the history books when she searches for information about her dear Mikey.

Rani thinks, just maybe, she understands what she needs to do. And for the first time since the big explosion, Rani feels calm and excited. She has a direction to go in and it means all the world to her.

It probably means the whole universe if it’s important enough for Boppy to leave it on the board for her.

“I should immediately tell Booster about this!” Skeets determines in a flurry, beginning to zip off.

He doesn’t make it far in the direction of the kitchen, however, because once he sees that Rani is going deeper into the lab, he changes course.

“Rani! Please, the laboratory is still very dangerous. We haven’t gotten very far in the cleaning process so… Rani. Rani! Michael would not be happy with this. Please return.”

For the first time, Rani thinks she might understand why Michael ignores so much of what Skeets says.

“It’s not a message for Mikey,” she informs the robot with a prideful huff. “It’s for me. Boppy wanted me to do something so that’s what I’m doing.”

“Whatever this is, I believe it is a terrible idea,” Skeets announces.

Despite her near constant quivering and skittish nature after the explosion of the Flashpoint, Rani is constantly aware of her adopted family around her. As much help as she isn’t in the cleaning and retrieving process, she knows that there are several things Michelle and Mikey have yet to contain.

Like the wormhole in the cupboard.

Rani’s knowledge of theoretical physics was far less than her knowledge about every episode of Zoo Crew Michael had gotten her on DVD. But she did know that one time, while working on the time sphere with Michael, Boppy had shaken a wrench and talked about using wormholes for transport.

And what did Michael and Michelle use to leave the Time Lab when they needed to? Transport.

It only makes sense. Even to her under ten mind.

“Rani,” Skeets is beginning to wind up into yet another speech just as Rani’s fingers brushed the steel frame of the cupboard.

“It’s okay, Skeets,” Rani assures the robot as she opens the door. “Mikey said it would be okay.”

“That is not quite reassuring,” the robot retorts just as they enter into the whitish glow.

Skeets, unfortunately, is wise beyond his years as it turns out.

Rani feels a pressure build up against her body the moment the light engulfs her. It’s pressing on her, stopping her body from breathing or screaming, compacting her, squeezing her. She immediately feels blood flushing to her face, heating up and making her eyes swim in their sockets as tears begin rolling out.

This isn’t even close to what she had been expecting when it came to transport and wormholes. Mikey and Michelle never mentioned it.

“Rani!” Skeets’ electronic voice carries, even as Rani’s ears pop with the pressure.

It’s hard to see with the blurring whiteness, but soon the golden swatch of Skeets is upon her. A silver arm extends out from a slot on his underside and Skeets begins reaching out.

The pressure feels like it is building up behind Rani’s nose and into her mouth, but she focuses just enough to reach out and be snatched by Skeets’ extended hand.

The moment they connect and make contact, the whirling of the wormhole around them comes to a stop.

All the pressure that had built up against Rani releases with a terrifying POP and she not only can scream, but she can hear herself scream as her butt hits a cold concrete floor and slides to a stop.

She’s shaking uncontrollably and her scream is cut short into an unexpected but high pitched wail.

Even with daylight filtering into the room she is in and bulbs on overhead, the new place Rani is in might as well as be a pit with the sudden change from the wormhole’s eerie glow.

Her body is no longer pushing against itself or into places, it feels like jello against her bones, and if it weren’t for Skeets actively holding onto her wrist she might have already collapsed.

All in all, the transport may have taken five seconds. Perhaps not even that.

Rani huffs and chokes on air as her vision adjusts. She knows she’s in a new place, she knows that her transportation experience is over, but everything else is a painful and terrifying reality.

Skeets lowers his hovering and comes close to her line of sight.

“I apologize, Rani,” Skeets says in his familiar robotic tone. “Transporting is not easy on smaller bodies like yours and mine. And without a direct destination somehow directed to it, it can take longer than expected. I am sure with your claustrophobia and neuroticism about destructive forces this was not an easy or simple journey—“

Not even waiting for the tiny robot to finish, Rani flings her arms around his metallic body and draws him in for a a calming hug. She feels his cool siding against her cheek and catches her breath finally.

Skeets seems to sputter in place for a moment, a whirring noise coming from his internal gadgetry.

Then, affectionately, the same metallic clamp that had held Rani by the arm before pats her back.

There is calm between them, if only for a moment.

It ends when a heavy door pushes against its hinges and hit the metal walls on the other side of the room they’re in. The lights immediately turn on, heavy and loud, as a man’s voice carries.

“No, I’m telling you, it was weird,” the voice says as boots walk across the concrete floor. “How weird? I don’t know, Bea, weird enough for me to call you and ask about it.”

The hairs on Rani’s neck prickle and she looks wide eyed into the direction of the noise as she lets go of Skeets. Her heart picks up even more from its already frantic pace as she sees the daunting shadow of the man walking across the room. It has been a very long time since she has been this close to anyone who wasn’t Mikey, Michelle, or Boppy. And the last one had been a Nazi, which means super duper bad person from her understanding.

Her regrets of leaving are building up rather quickly.

“No, I don’t know how you can get a hold of him, it’s just… I’m worried. And…” The man stops and stares right at her and Skeets.

He’s not a tall man compared to everyone else in the Time Lab. Not short like she is, but not as tall. His hair is a mousy brown, sticking up in several places but especially underneath the yellow goggles on his head and over his ears in a way that reminds Rani of Boppy just a bit. His face is full of expression, big eyes and a roundness to his cheeks that makes Rani want to see him smile.

And every wrinkle on his forehead is gaining length as his eyebrows race quicker to his hairline.

“Hey, uh, I’ve gotta go,” the man says into the phone pressed to his head. “Yeah, I know it’s sudden. But there’s like…. A child in my lab. And I’m mildly freaking out about how weird my day is. Tell Tora I said hi.”

After a moment, the phone pressed against the side of the man’s head stops glowing and he’s left in place with a paper bag that smells much better than Mikey’s cooking in the other.

“Okay,” the man says, taking a deep breath, “strange child staring at me in my lab not saying a word…”

“Skeets?” Rani whispers, turning her head ever so slightly toward the robot without taking her eyes off the man.

Skeets whirs in that happy way that seems like a recorder starting before circling in the air once and making it to Rani’s other side. “Rani, this is Theodore Kord, formerly known as the Blue Beetle. He is the CEO and prime technologist of Kord Industries, begun by—“

“Whoa whoa whoa!” the man calls out, holding out his hands with as many fingers as he can spare extended. “First of all: Skeets? What the hell? I just saw you. Second of all: ixnay onyay ethay eetlebay, okayay?” He then lowers his hands as he shifts toward looking squarely at Rani once again. “Of all the third: …hey? Are you okay? You uhh… seem to be a child in my super unsafe and barely halfway managed laboratory. Which is probably as new for you as it is for me.”

Rani, finally catching her breath, pushes up from the floor. The wheels are turning in her head as she holds the gaze of this mystery man. “Blue Beetle…” she gaps in wonder.

He lets out a grunt of frustration and glances at Skeets. “Now, see? You’ve doxxed me, Skeets!”

“It is not a difficult task, Mister Kord,” Skeets retorts shortly.

“Well, I went to a Big Belly Burger dressed like this, so I see your point! BWAH HA HA HA!”

Rani is unsure of herself and concerned until that laughter hits the air.

It’s not like any laugh she’s heard before, like a rumbling explosion from deep inside someone. The kind of laughter that can’t wait to escape someone and infect everyone around them.

One time, while tucking her in, Mikey had told Rani that his best friend Ted had the greatest laugh in the whole world.

And, now, Rani is hearing it.

“Ted Kord is KEY!” she remembers the message out loud.

The former Blue Beetle abruptly ends his rumbling laugh and glances toward Rani curiously. “I’m what? OOF!”

Ted’s question is barely out of his mouth before Rani is crashing into his waist, wrapping herself around him tight and squeezing with all her might. It’s the kind of hug Mikey gives her, and she hopes Ted Kord can tell it. The confusion in his utterances suggests that he probably can’t tell.

“Okay, help me out here, Skeets, I’m mildly freaking out,” Ted says.

“Thank you, Mister Kord,” Rani says with jubilation. “Thank you for having the best laugh in the whole world, and being the bravest man, and for being Mikey’s bestest friend ever!”

“I guess this is where I say… you’re welcome? And then ask you your name or something,” Ted responds.

Looking up, smiling the best she can, Rani answers, “I’m Rani.”

“You’re Rani,” Ted repeats. Suddenly, there’s a glint in his eyes and he sets his bag and his phone down on the floor behind him. “Rani… Rani… Booster’s appointment or whatever earlier. And you’re with Skeets. Who is not being helpful whatsoever, by the by.”

“I apologize, Mister Kord, but I am limited by the… uncertainty of many factors currently,” Skeets admitted. “I do not believe Booster Gold has tested the effects of this meeting yet.”

Ted’s brows squeeze together, causing worry lines to surface on his forehead. “Tested? Booster? I didn’t even think he tested the products he shilled for.” He then puts a steady hand on the top of Rani’s head. “And you, pipsqueak—“

“I’m Rani,” she reminds him firmly.

“I’ve never heard of you before. What’re you doing hanging around with Booster?”

Rani blinks through her confusion. It’s such a strange question. And certainly nothing close to what she has thought of before. She’s with Booster and at Time Lab because… Isn’t that where she belongs now? With no planet and no adopted family and no—

Her breath catches in her throat and she’s shaking slightly. She catches herself doing it, but she can’t stop it.

“Whoa whoa whoa,” Ted says, lowering down to one knee in front of her and getting to her level. His jovial face is all scrunched up in concern now. “Calm down there, kiddo. I didn’t mean to get you worked up.”

“I am afraid she has been through a lot, Mister Kord,” Skeets excuses.

“Apparently,” Ted says, a tinge of something more scrutinizing and suspicious in the corner of his eye.

Taking a deep breath, Rani grabs hold of Ted’s shoulder. When he looks her in the eyes, Rani says gently, “Mikey takes care of me. And… I take care of him.”

Ted looks her over before offering a soft and genuine smile. “Sounds like tough work,” he says solemnly. “But you seem pretty tough.”

Rani considers the ways her teeth chatter and her heart races and her chest tightens so much and so hard. And she thinks that tough is like Boppy or Mikey saving the day or Michelle defending their home. “Really?” she questions.

“Absolutely,” Ted says. “If you’re looking for Booster, Skeets should’ve told you that you’re late by quite a bit.”

Warmth spreads through Rani’s chest and she feels her shoulders roll back more confidently than they’ve been in a while. She is pretty tough when she thinks about it.

“Say, I actually ran through this grease bucket called Big Belly Burger to get the fries with Booster’s stupid pretty face on it,” Ted jokes, throwing a thumb back toward the brown paper bag. “A joke for… whenever he gets back here. I can’t eat that kind of stuff anymore… but something tells me if you’re hanging out with Booster he’s put you on a strict diet of whatever your adorable face asks or something.” He pauses for Rani’s giggles and, with a soft smile, adds, “So do you want something to eat?”

“I didn’t know Mikey was on food…” Rani admits, grabbing for the bag as Ted Kord offers them to her.

“Wow, I feel like that’s the only thing most people do know about him!” Ted laughs at the irony. “For a good minute there, it felt like it was the only thing I knew about him, too.”

Rani downs the fries quicker than even she expected. They’re greasy and gross like a lot of the food from this century that Mikey complains about. But that’s also kind of good about it in a way.

By the time she’s licking her fingers, Ted is on some strange, boxy device, fiddling with the buttons and lights on it.

“What’s that?” she asks.

“My Justice League communicator. The old version,” he admits. “I’m trying to get a hold of Booster and… uh… figure things out.”

Confused herself, Rani tilts her head. “But why don’t you know already, Ted Kord?” she asks him suspiciously. “You’re supposed to be the key!”

“To what?” he asks right back, looking up from the communicator with a brow on high alert. “And what do you mean by this key stuff anyway? Is that something Booster said to you?”

“No, it’s on Boppy’s board,” she answers firmly.

“Caution, Rani,” Skeets chides, floating in on the conversation. “You must remember the rules. Who knows what dangers can be unleashed on all of reality by testing them.”

With a gasp, Rani claps her greasy fingers over her mouth.

“Hey, now, that’s a lot of pressure to put on a kid, Skeets,” Ted argues. “And what are you even going on about?”

Uncertain of what to say back, Rani bites on her bottom lip and looks at Skeets. But the robot does not seem to be all that concerned about answering.

“It will be best if we wait for Booster Gold to answer,” Skeets assures her instead.

“I hope he brings drinks like we promised,” Ted mutters with a roll of his eyes. “After all this excitement today I feel like I earned it.”

Rani’s tiny heart races in her chest for a moment, regret and worry building up as If she had been taking stock for her anxiety to unleash in that moment. Boppy left her his message, she is doing the right thing. Right?

The excitement in her frame doesn’t have time to subside, however, as a large boom and flash occur in the same room as them.

Ted covers his eyes and tries to turn in the direction of the excitement. “Booster?” he calls out.

“For the good of all reality,” a booming, yet hauntingly familiar voice calls from the light as it dulls around them, “and for the survival of the multiverse…”

Once the light is dulled significantly, Rani blinks and can make out the slick black armor of the tall and imposing man across the room from them. And, more importantly, she can make out the shape and direction of the gun he is holding as well.

“Oh, fu—“ Ted says, getting to his feet.

“… Ted Kord, you must die!” Black Beetle snarls before pulling the trigger.

#writing #dc fic #DC: Some Times (Time and Time Again)#Rani #Ted Kord #Blue Beetle #Skeets #Booster Gold #Michael Jon Carter #Black Beetle

15 notes · View notes

eurusholmmes · 6 years

Text

free to be you and me| c.g.

Well, I already wrote this once before my computer updated itself, but I hope you guys enjoy!

Prompt: Requested by Anon - Hello!I just wanted to say I just love your account and your imagines like queen you slay ❤ I was wondering if you could a Carl x Reader Imagine where they find MP3 player and list to songs such as Still into you by Paramore and Troublemaker by Olly Murs and dance around sing and be dorks together?And by the end of the day the talk about the pros and cons of the life before the apocalypse on a roof?💕

Songs used are Troublemaker by Olly Murs

Still Into You by Paramore

Dawn fell upon Alexandria much quicker then anticipated, bringing a sense of relief that spread over its people as the last of the bodies were buried and the walkers burned. It had been a rough few days trying to recover from the herd that had broken down its walls, pulling the citizens of the community together to rebuild it.

Unfortunately, this also included the children - Which boiled down to you and Carl being split apart by Rick and Michonne so you didn’t distract each other while you were working. After a grueling three hours of digging graves and burying the ones who had lost their lives, Michonne and Daryl had thought it best to gift you with what Glenn had found several weeks prior; An IPod that had been synced with some of your favorite bands.

“You’ve had this how long?”

“Six weeks, maybe less.” Daryl replied from behind the cigarette dangling from his mouth. “Glenn wanted to give it to ya way before the herd even became an issue. I told him to stick it-” The hunter grunted under his breath when you threw a punch into his arm and sprinted down the street towards the house without a second thought. It had been so long since you’d heard music, your heart was actually racing with anticipation over hearing music that you loved. With your past as a contemporary dancer, you were aching to release your stress into dance.

“Rick!” You called out, quietly shutting the door behind you as you tiptoed into the kitchen where former Sheriff Rick Grimes was bent over a high chair with Judith, who was giggling wildly as she shoved the spoon of baby food at her father. “Has Carl come back from his shift yet? I have somethin’ I wanna show him.”

“He’s been pretty frazzled since he almost got hit by that bullet. Sent him home earlier this morning, so he’s probably sleeping.” Rick replied, wincing as pain seared the left side of his bandaged head. While you had not been witness to the demise of the Anderson family, Carl had told you that Rick had managed to somehow curve around him despite the distance and got grazed in the process.

You crept up the stairs and into the hall, peering through the slightly cracked door. Sunlight filtered through the slate grey curtains on the windows and illuminated Carls face in a ray of gold, his hair dripping water as he exited the bathroom.

The eldest Grimes smiled softly at the sight of you dressed in his navy blue flannel, your y/h/c hair pulled back into a loose braid behind your shoulders and your skin reeking of gunpowder and smoke. You were still the most beautiful part of waking up every morning and his favorite thing to look at before he went to sleep at night.

“Hey. Heard you come in the house, wanted to get the blood cleaned off my gorgeous body.” He flashed a sultry smirk at you, noting the way your eyes focused on the planes of his torso. “Did you have something you wanted to show me?”

You grinned widely and reached into your back pocket, producing the silver IPod before you motioned to his half clothed body. “Get dressed and then meet me in that abandoned back room, okay?” Carl nodded quickly and turned to his dresser as you disappeared down the hall to the last bedroom on the right. It had been a guest room until someone had died in it, who you didn’t know, but the furniture had been cleaned out and all that remained was a blood stain in the corner by the closet.

Can’t count the years on one hand that we’ve been together I need the other one to hold you Make you feel, make you feel better

“Where on Earth did you find an IPod?” Carl questioned as he leaned against the doorway, now clad in one of Noahs old Nirvana shirts and a pair of loose fitting faded denim jeans. “And.. I’ve heard this before. Who sings this?”

You motioned him deeper into the room with a bony finger as you slowly began to sway your hips to the song. “I heard it on the radio alot whenever my mom and I would be in the car. It reminded her of Dad, and even after he died, she still listened to this song like it was her drug.” You smiled sadly as your mind flashed to the last time you had seen your mother - When she had been violently ripped away from you by the walker version of your brother. Screaming violently, she had gripped the doorway of your front porch so hard that her blood had been shed on the wood, and the last thing you saw was the pure terror on her face before she was taken from you.

You hadn’t been able to save her.

It’s not a walk in the park to love each other But when our fingers interlock, can’t deny, can’t deny, you’re worth it

“Hey.” Carl whispered lowly in your ear as he wrapped his arm around your waist and pulled you flush against his body. You instinctively nuzzled your face into his shoulder, feeling his skin beneath the tip of your nose until you came to rest comfortably in the crook. “It’s just us now. No walkers, no blood, no death. We’re free to be you and me.”

‘Cause after all this time I’m still into you

Age 7

Recount the night that I first met your mother

One of your favorite memories was the first time you and your mother had come across Lori and Carl Grimes upon your first day of first grade. You and Carl were enrolled in the same elementary school and somehow ended up in the same class. Some people called it coincidence.

You called it fate.

“Can we be best friends forever?” You cheered, extending your hand in a fist to bump his own. Never mind the fact that his other friends had never done it to him before, but the fact that a girl like you wanted to be friends with him sent his heart into a tizzy.

“Best friends till we part!”

And on the drive back to my house I told you that, I told you that I loved ya

Age 10

Lori grinned at you from the drivers seat as she parked her Suburban in the driveway of your family cottage. Carl was sitting quietly beside you as you rushed to unbuckle your seatbelt and gripped the handle of your backpack, pressing a sloppy kiss to his cheek in the heat of the moment before you were standing outside the car and staring at him so intently with your y/e/c eyes he was sure his heart was going to explode.

“Love you Carl!”

Age 16

And now here you stood; You’d survived the start of the end of the world, one war, multiple deaths, multiple herds of walkers. You were here with the people you loved, the boy you loved.. Safe, protected, you were home after so long trying to find one.

You felt the weight of the world fall off the shoulder And to your favorite song we sang along, to the start of forever

“Can I tell you something?” You murmured, lifting your head to gaze up at his icy blue eyes. Carl nodded softly and rested his forehead against your own, releasing a shuddering breath as your fingers wound into his hair. “Have I ever told you how much I love you?”

He nodded again, much softer this time, as the song changed to a much more upbeat tune. You weren’t nearly as familiar with this one, but it immediately lightened the mood as you and Carl parted from one another - and began to dance.

“You haven’t stopped telling me since we met!”

The two of you were immediately interrupted when Tara of all people burst into the room, her eyes alit as she pointed to the dock. “This song is legendary!” She cried. “Olly Murs blessed us with this song!!” She flailed her arms at the two teenagers. “C’mon, children! Dance with me!”

Why does it feel so good

But hurt so bad

My mind keep sayin’ run as fast as you can

In those five minutes that Troublemaker blasted through the room, you found yourself lost in the reality of the tune. Your arms seemed to move on their own, your feet in sync with the rest of your body as you fell back into your old habits from before the Turn - creating the choreography with every beat of the drum and note of the electric guitar.

I say I’m done but then you pull me back

I swear you’re givin’ me a heart attack

Troublemaker

By the time the song had ended, you were covered in a sheen of sweat and smiling so beautifully that Tara was sure your face would remain that way. You and Carl decided to unwind by taking a pile of blankets and spreading them across the awning outside the bedroom window, huddling in each others body warmth as the afternoon was quickly met with dusk and a cool breeze swept the stench of the dead away from the Safe Zone.

You spent almost two and a half hours talking about what the world had been once upon a time, what you missed, and what you looked forward to if you managed to survive tomorrow. You only had one reoccuring thought the entire time.

“Carl?”

Carl tucked his arm behind his head and used the opposite one to sling it across your waist. “Yeah?”

“I’m gonna marry you one day.”

He simply smiled and kissed the top of your forehead. “I’m gonna hold you to that.”

Guess what? Tucked into a tiny box beneath his mattress is a gold engagement ring with a sapphire tucked into the center. He’s saving it for a special occasion.

#carl grimes #carl grimes x reader #The Walking Dead #TWD #The Walking Dead oneshots #The Walking Dead imagines #Kayla Grace writes imagines #Character: Rick Grimes

173 notes · View notes

fireflydunes · 3 years

Text

2020 Reflection: I basically come back to tumblr annually just to reflect.

Here’s something I wrote in 2017, I’ve answered this every year since.

“Dear future me,

Are you happy?

Do you have someone you love?

Can you drive yet?

Are you one step closer to achieving your goals?

I bet you’re still fat :p work on that yeah?

Oh and please love yourself bc i certainly love the idea of you”. Its November 2019 now. Its been over a year since my last update. Am I happy? The answer is a bit complicated. If you were to ask how my mood was, I’d say everyday it fluctuates between “Okay” and “Content”. I may have placed too high of a bar on happiness there. What does that mean too high of a bar. Do I need to have no negative emotions in order for me to be truly happy. Thats certainly not true; I feel a collective swarm of emotions and all throughout they hit me like a whirlwind. Either a cold breeze or warm fuzziness, it’s constantly washing over me. What’s important is that I hold onto the good stuff, reflect on the bad stuff but let myself feel everything fully and then let them go. This is also much easier written than done; this is my first time reflecting in a long while, I’ve been going to counselling and it’s alright–sometimes I feel amazing sometimes I don’t. I forget that that’s okay. But yeah, I think collectively as a whole, I’m doing really well, I’m no where near unhappy–I was terribly miserable as I’d just started uni and found out too much of my identity was tied to Physics and I’m letting go of Physics because the course just isn’t for me. I still feel disoriented, like an empty slate–not really, I’ve got my values and traits very unique to me, yes, but I feel like something veryy important to me has been taken away. And I do want to evaluate why that is?

Why was physics so important. I’ll explore that in a separate document. But hey, am I happy? Yes, but not how I’d thought I’d be happy when I was younger. I might actually prefer this–being able to take in all the emotions that aggregate something that feels…good. Do you have someone you love?

I nailed this last time and I continue to nail this aspect. Afu, Naani and my sister have continued to remain very strong foundations of constant love and support. I have lovely friends that I love dearly and miss, I met my boyfriend at possibly the best time–it was when I really didn’t need one nor was I looking. My life was so full and rich with love, the thrill of the next step, loads of travelling, love even from my mother and the extended family (an unexpected source). But I was so so full and I had an amazing relationship with myself as well. To then meet someone, that still, added to this was amazing. I was able to fully open myself upto a new type of love and be comfortable with my vulnerability and I love him so much for that. Can you drive yet?

I’m in Canada right now, so I can’t drive here yet ;-; This is terribly sad, I was already an awful driver and now it’d gonna be worse. Are you one step closer to achieving your goals?

In a way, yes. In another way, no. I’ve gotten closer in the sense that the rug has been ripped out from underneath and everything I believe in, has changed. I am in a forest, vast and dense. I am pretty lost–but I am trying to figure it all out. In a way, I feel like this is me looking at what I truly want, without any underlying desire to gain my parent’s approval and prove my worth.

The next part is on Body issues.

Lately, my relationship with food and my body hasn’t been great. It was really amazing the majority of the year bc I exercised daily, I ran everyday, did a couple of marathons, but I did kind of grow endurance and also did some extreme stuff like running 7k after 2 hours or badminton. By then I was at my fittest condition but my relationship with my body, and eating, was still no where near healthy. I’m more aware of it now, and do continue to work on this. But at the same time, I’d like to mention, my relationship with food is not amazing, but my body remains loved and cared for–the extent of it is just something I wish to deepen. I’m gonna skip the next questions and go right to the very last one bc that’s what I want to talk about. I chose to study. I’m in university now, but 2019 was not at all about university. 2019 was about, isolation, finding a way to grow in that isolation. Being surrounded by the loveliest sweetest kids, learing how to live with mom, learning that I’ve so much work to do. I learned how to comfort my mother, I learned what it was like to fully feel good in my own body–which was amazing but always came with an awareness and knowing the danger of feeling so good in a body that looked really good. “Does this mean my fall will be even deeper?” I do want to reach a point in my life where my value and worth are no longer so dependent on image and shallow opinions of others or how I am to be of service to others. We’re gonna work on that. Question for 2020 zuha. Are you living off-campus now? How has that been? It’s End of November 2020 Are you happy?

I agree with me from a year ago, it’s very much not a bad thing and quite normal to be feeling a swarm. I feel varying degrees of happy, sad, upset, hungry throughout the days. I’ve just broken up with my ex after a year and a couple of months in, so I’m learning how to just be okay with this new norm of feeling heartbroken, sad, missing him, and almost each time going through the waves of grief. With COVID happening I think, since March, there’s been a lot of heartbreak, emotional strain, isolation like never before, loneliness...really feeling so alone. I’m really struggling now because that still, helped so much with making me feel not-alone. So I’m also struggling in general right now, haha. This one’s not as well-worded as the others, everything still feels fresh even though its only been a month since. I’m struggling most with my urge and want to immediately be better, immediately be resilient and not really give myself a chance to be in pain, be heartbroken, just be devastated. I’ve said this a lot throughout this post but I think, I’m struggling with this one, haha. I’m trying to find joy in small things now, I think that’s what give you happiness, sustainable happiness. The daily tasks, small things, the interactions with people. Just trying to focus on one day at a time, and small things that might give me warm fuzzy feelings.

Do you have someone you love?

Yes, I’ve also lost two relationshipsthis past year. I’ve lost my first real “I love you” person and I’ve lost what was an incredibly close and loving relationship with my sister. But in this time, my friends have been my family, my utmost support, they banded together really to come lift me up. I feel very loved, and grateful to have them. I’m learning to find peace with how things are with my sister. I’m trying to actively reach out to my friends--I tend to self-isolate and feel like a burden in my relationships. Which is a bit unfair, because it’s alright to admit that some of our actions can be burdensome to others, but people help you regardless and in spite of the inconvenience because they love you. So I’m trying to have a habit of thanking them rather than apologising. Also, yes, myself. A thought that brings me so much comfort is knowing every version of me that existed and will exist, loves and cares for me so much. Looking back at the past me’s I only feel love and kindness and I know a year from now, older me is giving me a hug and telling me everything going to be alright.

Can you drive yet?

I can, and I drive on Sundays or when I’m off to get an errand. It’s really rare though since I’m so cooped up and swamped with uni. UM, big change though, I’m a very calm driver now, I drive very slowly. The reckless driving really was not cute and endangered many lives at one point and I really learned from that. And I think as you grow used to your surroundings as well, and have a shift in I guess, maturity, things just naturally slow down.

Are you one step closer to achieving your goals?

Yes. I’ve also really made peace with Physics: It’s the novelty of it and wanting something absolutely without a doubt amazing. A mix of, i want to do something grand and amazing so I am deserving of my parents’ love, as well as this is definitely unambiguously amazing and so I will undeniably be amazing, special, and seen as such by my pare--you get the point. So the thing now to watch out for, isn’t what profession I choose or careers I want togo for, it’s making sure I’m choosing it not to make up, yet again, for this lack of love and attention as a child.

I had an amazing year exploring my subjects, I’m a complete humanities baby, I love anthropology out of all of them at the moment for the freedom and range within the discipline. It was also really lovely meeting professionals in the Creative Arts, also very wonderful being told that taking that leap of faith last year was brave. I’d realised that this was something perceived by many and also I’d internalised, as something cowardly, so it was extra meaningful to have so many people see courage instead.

I’m also still allowed to love physics, ofcourse, and astronomy and be amazed and awed but also--be sulky and sad and every now and then grieve the loss of that childhood to early twenties dream.

So far the most important thing I’ve learned is, you don’t just have one career, you have multiple, and neither of them are your identity.

I bet you’re still fat :p work on that yeah?

I’m honestly surprised that in 2017 I was so harsh on myself but then remember it was later that year I started therapy for the first time ever. I’m also, not surprised that last year by this time already I’d noticed that my relationship with health in general is a bit strained. It’s not diagnosed or anything in case anyone’s reading, just a general notice of when I’m mentally doing not ok, I eat in a way that I don’t really feel good and this brings about a lot of shame. I also had tied way too much of my identity to running and being healthy. This year, I haven’t done a lot of either, so naturally my weight has changed. I’m struggling with it right now, moreso because of how isolated I am, and the actual comments from the outside I’m getting on it. It helped to, instead of getting sad, to get angry at them. I’ve said things back, retaliated a bit, drawn the line at inappropriate (but not perceived as such in my community) comments. that’s been extremely good. However, it’s been a challenge ever since my dad made such a point of it. This might be something worthy to think on, the relevance of him. But, I think for now, I really am trying to remind myself at every weight I’ve always been weary and cautious of health, internally i’ve been the same person, same qualities, same amazing fun loving all that jazz, I’ve always been worthwhile. That being said, my knee ache is back, my PCOS is worse, my hairfall is terrible--I need to lmao build some muscle, be more active, but in a way that elevates my mood and I don’t tie so much of myself to it.

Question for 2020 zuha. Are you living off-campus now? How has that been? So this was meant for Off-campus in CANADA. I’m not there b, I’m back home, same as every transitionary moment in my life haha. It’s a mixed bag honestly. With COVID, male’ isn’t any better. No where seems any better honestly. Some days are tough, but I feel really touched by my friends, the checking up, the gaming together. It’s quite lovely. Univevrsity has also been quite =, nice but HARSH. Universities have really proven themselves as institutions for profit, it’s really disturbing and saddening, but individuals within have been so lovely and understanding and you really love these subjects and these people far more than anything in Physics kek. 2021 Zu, Nice to meet you. I’m really curious to see where you are a year from now. What would you want me right now to know. :)

#personal #fireflydunes

0 notes

maddiebiscuits · 7 years

Text

Maddie’s Big Gigantic Breath of the Wild Write-Up Where I Talk About Things I Like and Things I Didn’t Like

And regrettably, there are many things I did not like. But that doesn’t make this any less of a fantastic game that I enjoyed - I just wanted to put all my thoughts down in one spot. And yes, there’s spoilers.

--------------------------------------| Things I Like | ----------------------------------------

You can read any review for the game and that’s pretty much this section. There’s not much to say about the core game that hasn’t already been said, dozens and dozens of times, by professional or at least more knowledgeable game reviewers and critics out there.

Breath of the Wild (BOTW) is a big return to the uttermost classic Zelda feeling, of being a plucky hero in a big world that’s yours to traverse and discover, and get through on your wits and skills alone. But I’d actually argue that BOTW does the sense of open world and exploration far better than any other Zelda game comparison, not for the size of the maps (and man oh man they are big) but in that it gives you all the tools you need to explore within the first area and then kicks you out the door into the world. Any and all Zelda games, including the first, regardless of how “open” and non-linear you think they are, have a formula in that to progress through certain points, you must find an item that allows you to do so. BOTW dismisses that notion entirely and teaches you the core game mechanics and gives you the tools to explore wherever you want after the first area, and that’s a good thing. I spent the first several hours (upwards of a collective 20 or so) getting lost and just exploring, cooking food, finding side quests, fighting monsters, scaling mountains, and in a big way that’s sort of how the game is intended to be played. It’s full of creatures to hunt or befriend, hills to snowboard down on your shield, an expansive and hilarious physics engine to exploit, NPCs to meet and quests to be found and completed.

I like the provinces on the map, they’re either classic Zelda locations or call-backs to places from past games that weren’t always in Hyrule (large Majora’s Mask vibes, which makes sense, as this game takes place within the Child Era timeline). Even places that seemed the same at first ended up having subtle or severe differences, and of course the crisply-rendered graphics make the world vibrant, bright and inviting. While I miss the big orchestral scores I’m used to from other big console Zelda games, the subtle atmospheric music ended up being very nice and tonally appropriate, with familiar tunes sneaking in here and there in fun and sometimes beautiful ways.

NPC designs are unique, expressive, and full of character. Towns and hubs have a real sense of being lived in, with their own culture and way of life. Locations have their own passive dangers and benefits that make the world feel exciting and treacherous, and you can take any kind of approach to all kinds of situations. You can make special buff food or elixirs (one of the most fun things to do because I love watching the little food bits jump around in the pot) to brave the elements or give yourself extra bulk, or you can wear specialty armor or clothing, or do both. You can dye most outfits too, and tame and register your own horses and customize them. While a part of me misses the iconic green garb, being able to traverse Hyrule on a jet-black steed decked out in skulls and tattered leather while my Link was adorned with sleek black armor and cloak is kind of the best (and you can get the garb later, and then just build a custom green outfit yourself, which is how I went into end-game) Any weapon is fair game to wield as well, which was another part I greatly enjoyed and gave an added sense to exploration and that “get by on what you can find” survival aesthetic the game provides.

There really is a kind of subtle, almost accidental thoughtfulness to this game’s incarnation of Link. The background plot of the game describes, shows, and in some areas at least implies that Link was not a plucky hero from humble beginnings that the series is used to - Link was a prodigy in BOTW, a son of a proud and excellent knight who was to follow in his father’s footsteps to defend the kingdom and the royal family. Since he was a child he was groomed for this roll, despite the stress it caused him, until he became a trained and powerful warrior, even going so far as becoming the knight appointed to Princess Zelda, and wielding the Master Sword. He was the Hero from the beginning and was raised and trained his whole life to fulfill that role.

And he failed.

For all intents and purposes, Link in BOTW more or less dies (well, it’s implied he’s just unconscious and on the brink of death, but for my joking need to continue this “Link is the Chosen Undead” Dark Souls joke, yeah, he died). All the pomp and circumstance and careful, strict training surrounding his life ended up meaning nothing in the final grand scheme against Calamity Ganon. And this narrative carries not just to Link, but to the other cast of characters and Hyrule as a whole - years and years of careful planning and preparation was not what was needed to defeat Ganon.

The game starts with Link being resurrected, with no memory of what happened 100 years ago and nothing to his name but a shirt and some shoes (and the Sheikah Slate I guess). But it’s this Link, stripped of everything, who has to cross the wilds and adventure, working his way up from scratch, completing test after test and trial after trial laid out by the ruined Hyrule and the ancient Sheikah sages in their shrines, who reclaims the Master Sword, earns the green garb (or doesn’t - you only get it if you complete all 120 shrines, which I think fits tonally because I wouldn’t exactly dub a guy who failed the first time a hero until he’s been thoroughly re-tempered for the task) and defeats Ganon. It’s not a bunch of strict, stately training given to a person who’s told their destiny from a young age and forced immediately to live up to it that makes a hero in Zelda games - it’s the plucky adventurer coming from little, courageously taking on feats bigger than them for the good of Hyrule and the people within it, working up to the final encounter.

Hyrule and the NPCs you meet echo that tone as well. It’s a world that’s had to pick up the pieces since Ganon re-emerged and laid waste to their world. Descendants and spiritual successors of champions from the past risking themselves for the good of their people, unprepared and outmatched compared to what they’re up against, but coming out on top with determination and follow-through in the end. The main story of BOTW has a bittersweet, but ultimately powerful and true-to-form Zelda tale that, on top of the immersion and pure fun the game provides is why it’s so easy to see why people have rated it so highly.

Unfortunately, extended playtime with this game revealed a ton of flaws and personal nitpicks, because despite what these scores claim, no game is perfect, and neither is BOTW.

----------------------------------| Things I Didn’t Like | -----------------------------------

BOTW gets...repetitive, and at times annoying and even vacuous. I’d find a lot of really cool places during my exploration of Hyrule, but found that a lot of them just ended up being set-pieces to the world, with maybe a Korok hiding there (or maybe not, which was just super frustrating, climbing to a high mountain peak to find nothing up there). The game became measurably more enjoyable when I upgraded to full three stamina wheels, which took a lot of my early shrine upgrades to do, and that ugly, ugly little green wheel just constantly reminded me of how much I loathed it in Skyward Sword. I’d climb and climb and climb, usually not finding much of anything at the top later into the game. I’d find a set of interesting ruins, clear out the same enemies I’d fought 200 other times during the game, and not really find anything of interest within them. And god the enemies are repetitious. the same three core enemies in different colours, the same four or so core world bosses in different colours, the same Lynel and Guardians in different colours with ridiculous health bars that hit for 12 hearts a strike to impose the illusion of difficulty, when you end up just hitting them with ancient arrows, or using upgraded Stasis on them, or some other cheap trick because the combat and the difficult-to-time parrying and dodge/flurry attack prompts are not fun to activate (and if you fight them “properly”, especially the Lynels, get ready to run through all your resources).

When I go to a new area I want to see new enemies. Where are things like...I don’t know, Gibdos? Redeads? Poes? Darknuts? Skulltulas, Deku Babas, Gohmas, Armos, Dodongos, Aeralfos, Peahats, Likelikes SOMETHING ELSE besides these damn Lizalfos that keep JUMPING AROUND. I had one amazing encounter with a serpent dragon on an icy mountain peak, and had thought that I would have similar awesome encounters with the other two dragons in the game. Turns out the other two just sort of float around in locations and you don’t do anything with them except try to shoot them to farm items, no special encounters. Why.

I’d find a weapon I’d love but it would break quickly, so I ended up forming this habit of hoarding good weapons, bows, and shields, thinking I’d have to save them for later for fear they’d break, then ran into a problem where I was constantly getting showered in weaponry and had to play min-max on their attack numbers to decide what I was taking with me and what I wasn’t. I’d run into Koroks constantly to upgrade my storage space, but over time the malaise of searching for them after about 270 (out of a grand total of 900 Koroks) became too tedious and I stopped doing hyper-thorough canvasing of areas, especially because the canvasing didn’t really yield anything that exciting. I began, less and less, taking my horse places with me, because I could fast-travel and paraglide to locations I wanted to explore, and very often they were places I couldn’t even take my horse to. Armor variety, which I liked, ended up making a big chunk of food and elixir buffs superfluous and I no longer really felt a sense of danger or need to prepare for big exciting ventures into the bitter cold or so on. And upgrading armor ends up being a nightmare, as high-end stuff requires farming very precious materials, and if there’s one thing I did not like about Skyward Sword, it’s farming for materials.

Environmental hazards that could not be overridden with food or armor, particularly rain, halted my gameplay. I’d be trying to scale a cliff and, whoops - it was raining, which means you slip all the way down or exhaust your stamina trying to force through it. I’d have to go somewhere else and halt my progress on that spot, or attempt to find a place to make a fire and wait out the rain, which seems realistic in theory, but disrupts gameplay in practice. There’s also this weird abundance of cold areas in the game, but only really one hot area and only one “you’ll literally catch on fire here” area. A lot of shrine tests revolve around the same combat trial against the same enemy with a fluctuating health pool and do not get me started on the frustrating motion control mechanics for a few. I played the game on the Wii U as I did not want to get a Switch just yet, and suffered draw distance, framerate and even freezing issues. I figured this was an issue with the Wii U hardware, but hilariously it turns out this is an issue on the Switch as well (as an aside...it’s not really a good idea to have your flagship launch title with your new console be a game that the console can’t even run...)

Then there was the story. I know I just talked a lot of good about it, but the thing is, the tones and storytelling I was talking about come across as...accidental, a sort of side-effect of the game as a whole. I don’t really play Zelda games for top-tier story - let’s be real, Zelda games do not necessarily provide enriching, unique narrative experiences. They are fun, generic adventure games with action-RPG elements, and that alone is enough to make them classics beloved by so many. But it’s been 25 years and the world of Zelda has expanded into a deep-reaching and ridiculous lore, enough that it has enough content to provide for a hard-cover art book, a historia featuring a collective timeline with three branching routes, and an upcoming encyclopedia. As years go by, narrative elements in Zelda games, such as story and character development, become larger and more prominent as the series develops. This is not a bad thing, and as a huge Zelda lore nerd myself it gives games a bit of extra appeal for me personally.

The issue with BOTW, and maybe the Zelda series as a whole, is that it’s kind of “blooming late” on the story and character narrative department in a generation where huge arcing epics with deep and relatable characters run regular in a lot of mainstream triple-A titles. BOTW, for example, is the first Zelda game to feature voice acting, something I was very wary about when I first heard about it, and ended up being rightfully wary. No it’s not terrible - the cast is doing the best they can with the stilted dialogue and passive direction they clearly had to work with, but it creates a very underwhelming and at times embarrassing experience that shouldn’t be so in a time when English dubbing/voice acting and localization is at some of it’s best (though not always of course), especially for a big-name title like Zelda from a big-name company like Nintendo. If this was the first time they were going to try voice-acting, this doesn’t really inspire me to look forward to it being a repeated trend in other titles. And even then, there’s actually only a handful of scenes that are actually voice-acted, with the rest of it being the usual textbox scrawls with some vocal sounds over top like in previous games, which begs the question as to why they bothered to go with the voice work at all.

BOTW does something I refer to as A Plot and a B Plot, the A Plot being the main over-arching story of the game and the B Plot beside an over-arching side-story of the game. Typically, A Plots are the here-and-now of a form of media, it takes place in the present, with the B Plot being in the past, the future, or behind the scenes but being woven into the A Plot. When I set out to play BOTW, I thought that the failings of the past and it’s events would be the B Plot, with the A Plot as the here and now, focusing on new characters who would pick up the mantle of those who had fallen and see me into battle with Ganon. I thought I would follow the trials and tribulations of Princess Zelda in the A Plot, as well as the four champions, but it turns out, I was wrong.

When the game starts, the four champions are dead, and Princess Zelda is keeping Ganon trapped within Hyrule Castle, her power about to expend. At first I thought this was tonally appropriate - after all, they did fail, and it is supposed to paint a bleak picture of Hyrule. But this also meant that the only way for me to really learn or care about these characters was through optional flashbacks, and flashbacks are not really good tools to tell a story most of the time. I went and collected every memory, but didn’t really end up learning anything particularly new or exciting about any character other than Zelda herself - a wonderful character and incarnation of the classic princess, who is, honestly, a nerd. She’s an insecure scholar, burying herself in research to escape the stress of her failed ability to use her magic (Triforce, Light Force, I don’t know - the Triforce doesn’t feature at all in the game), the loss of her mother, and her honestly mean and scornful father and the doubtful whispers of her kingdom. She’s in over her head, and while her abilities and passion are best suited for studying the ancient technology and the Divine Beasts, at every turn it seems that she is forced away from this and told to focus on her destiny, that of using her sealing power to trap Ganon away. It plays again on that theme that pre-conceived notions and strict preparation in the name of prophecy and destiny and what have you still lead to failure, and that it’s through the heart of adventure and discovery that heroes that can defeat the darkness are forged. I expected that new champions would rise to replace the failed ones of the past, born from the adventure and sudden struggle of Ganon suddenly re-emerging, without any preparation beforehand. I expected Zelda to get her big moment where she proves that she doesn’t need old rituals and prayers to unlock her power, and that her inner strength comes from her true passions, and uses her research and scholar prowess to find ways to balk Ganon and use her power. I expected new heroes to rise and take control of the Divine Beasts in the steed of the failed champions of the past.

Well that doesn’t happen. The Divine Beasts get piloted by the ghosts of the fallen champions, who are ultimately dull and kind of not really likeable save maybe one or two. The new characters who help you get onto the Divine Beasts, which act as the “main” dungeons in the game, fall to the wayside and are forgotten after, apparently unable to become champions themselves (as only “champions” can board the beasts, apparently) despite the trials they face to assist Link and fight back against Ganon to save their people. The main dungeons lose their luster quickly too - they’re puzzle-based, requiring the same mechanic for each one (find five terminals, beat the boss at the end, each boss looks kind of the same). Something I thought was interesting was that each beast can be controlled from within, and you use that mechanic to solve puzzles. Two of the beasts end up using the same tilt mechanic though, and three beasts require shooting arrows at it to board (two of which are bomb arrows), and with the beasts’ interiors all looking the same it just sort of gets...a bit dull after a while. Been there, done that, done this, again. I really do miss more classic Zelda dungeons if just for the cheese factor, but this game does not have them.

Since the game has to use flashbacks instead of a continuous story to show the development and relationships of the characters (where dialogue is delivered unnaturally), the original four champions seem very one-note, defined by maybe one or two traits. The case of Revali is especially frustrating. Why is he so mean to Link? Is it his pride, did something occur between them, is it something else? We don’t know, we never learn, because primary characters introduced are not developed, he’s Just The Rival character, to fulfill the trope. His introduction in a mandatory flashback comes from Link literally looking at a bunch of planks of wood on a flight landing (I’m serious), and Revali is more or less an arrogant jerk to the end because That’s His Character I suppose. While we’re on the subject, the entirety of Rito Village is a wash - NPCs talk about how there’s nothing to do there, the Divine Beast is not causing any serious harm, it’s just not letting the Rito fly as high as they like and is being a general nuisance, the Rito that helps you board is just Some Guy and you don’t really see him again unless you want to do yet another optional and inconsequential mini-game. The dungeon is easy, borrows a boarding scenario from another beast, and borrows its in-dungeon mechanic from another beast. The whole area is such a let-down.

And then there’s Zelda, my poor, poor Zelda. She fails, just as everyone does, and I thought, and hoped, and prayed, just as I said before, that her inner strength would come through in the form of doing things HER way, using her research and her smarts, sticking it to the father and the people who didn’t believe in her by succeeding with the very methods they disapproved of. Well no - she activates her sealing power at the last second to protect Link because she loves him. It’s “tru wuv” that sparks her big character moment, where she does exactly what destiny pre-determined she do, not some awesome defiant moment where she pools her strength and self-confidence through her research and herself. She doesn’t even get to research and discover for herself that the power is apparently so closely linked to her “heart” or whatever generic nonsense works the magic this time - gotta love The Boy, that’s what makes you strong. And this is not extrapolating - when you complete all the shrine quests Kass the Rito bard gives, you can see him at Rito Village, where he tells the story of his teacher and the events just before the Calamity, and how his teacher fell in love with the princess, but the princess was in love with her appointed knight. The song his teacher taught to Kass after his teacher witnessed Zelda unlocking her powers was how her love for her knight was what brought it to the surface. Even the Zora champion Mipha, who I guess was supposed to be some callback to Rito from Ocarina of Time in a way, hints that her amazing healing ability is born by “thinking about who she cares about most”, and that’s not her family or friends or anything, that’s Link - who she loves and adores and wants to marry because that’s the Rito callback I guess.

I was so angry, it’s trite and tropey and ruins half the tone the game manages to do so well. Show me a BOTW Zelda who overcomes after failure not through “true love” and all the pre-destined nonsense that lead them all to failure to begin with, but the scholar she is using her research, her passion for knowledge, her wisdom, to unlock her power, to stop the Guardians, to seal Ganon.

Oh and then there’s Ganon. “Calamity Ganon”, now a non-character - just an amorphous, shadowy entity of no real interest. I suppose you could say that after the events of Twilight Princess or Four Swords, Ganon(dorf) is really no more, no longer a proper physical entity, no longer the Gerudo man who had ambitions or menace or a tangible presence when he entered a room - that person was long since defeated properly, and it’s only the lingering malice, that sort of twisted essence of the primordial Demise from Skyward Sword, that remains. From a lore perspective that works, but it doesn’t make for an interesting villain, just like flashbacks don’t make for interesting storytelling and character development. The final battle in and of itself is hugely underwhelming too. Calamity Ganon’s first form is an apparently “incomplete” gooey, robotic spider...thing...it’s very ugly as a design in a game that’s had largely strong character and enemy designs, except for the Divine Beast bosses which, I guess fits tonally. And unlike other enemies where you can kind of take multiple approaches to the battle, you MUST bounce the laser beams in the second half of the fight back at the boss with either a shield parry or the Master Sword, which I think is the game trying to do the old “tennis mechanic” callback but it’s really...kind of janky and often unresponsive? The second form LOOKED much cooler and more tonally appropriate, with a huge, flaming Dark Beast out in Hyrule Field that I’d ride around on my trusty steed fighting. But instead Dark Beast Ganon just faces one direction only, shooting lasers at nothing. Your horse sort of meanders around and you just ride updrafts or stand safely beside it waiting for Zelda to shout very loudly and clearly about the GIANT GLOWING TRIFORCE-SHAPED WEAK POINTS you can hit with your Light Arrows - it’s all an exact, even easier version of all the “boarding the Divine Beast” scenarios you did earlier in the game.

Zelda re-appears, seals Ganon, gives these really wishy-washy smiles and lines. The ghosts of the king and the Champions linger in the silhouette of Hyrule Castle and say nothing. We get no closure on the king and Zelda, who as far as the game wishes to imply in flashbacks and a hidden diary the king left in the castle, parted on extremely tense and unfavorable terms. the Champions get no final word in either. Zelda is shown after the credits kind of just...acting like everything’s a bit “back to normal”, saying her and Link need to go to Zora’s Domain to give the king closure on Mipha which...it’s been 100 years he’s...more or less made peace with the death of his daughter by now as was shown earlier in the game. Zelda says she can no longer hear the “voice” in the Master Sword and admits her powers must have weakened over the course of 100 years, but she’s actually okay with that for once, which I think would have been a bit more powerful of a statement to her character if she’d previously shown that her own determination and smarts were her true strengths all along, and not this HUGELY powerful magic. There’s a shot of the Silent Princess flower at the end, a flower that in the game Zelda comments on, saying that it cannot bloom in captivity and only in the wilds. Again, it would be a very thematically-appropriate metaphor for how Zelda’s true strength came from her journeys in the wild, focusing on her unique strengths and not those pre-determined by her destiny, but the game has her...literally in a state of “captivity” holding Ganon back. If anything the Silent Princess flower metaphor makes a stronger thematic statement for Link, not Zelda, and that’s really telling about how inconsistent and weak a lot of the story-telling is in this game. It was clearly supposed to really be about the relationship between Link and Zelda and their character development, but since they spend the entire game separated and only show shallow interactions of them together in short flashbacks that only really serve to develop Zelda (as well as her diary entries found in the castle), things end up feeling...vapid, forced and ultimately weak.

And I just...want to fight. A Darknut. One damn Darknut and have a cool sword fight. Or a Poe. Not another dAMN LIZALFOS. LET ME CLIMB TO THE TOP OF A MOUNTAIN AND FIND A WHOLE DUNGEON UP THERE.

I MISS.

HEART PIECES. AND UPGRADES.

AS REWARDS FOR EXCELLENT COMPLETION OF MINI-GAMES. IT INCITES. YOU TO REPLAY THEM.

AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

In summary, Breath of the Wild is excellent. But I’m a huge nerd and it’s clear that a lot of people who reviewed this game only went in for about 20 or so hours and didn’t complete it before passing final verdict. I hope Nintendo builds from this game’s strengths and learns it’s weaknesses.

#zeldablogging #maddie's writing #botw spoilers

35 notes · View notes

njawaidofficial · 7 years

Text

'Game of Thrones' Prequels: Are We Really Getting All Four of Them?

http://styleveryday.com/2017/07/12/game-of-thrones-prequels-are-we-really-getting-all-four-of-them/

'Game of Thrones' Prequels: Are We Really Getting All Four of Them?

While the end of the road for Game of Thrones is in sight, HBO is by no means walking away from its storied franchise.

When the fantasy drama based on George R.R. Martin’s best-sellers returns July 16 for season seven, it will have 13 episodes remaining, with seven this year and the remaining six either in 2018 or 2019. Then it’s up to HBO’s development pipeline to see if one of the four (possibly five) prequel series comes in strong enough to move forward after the rightful heir to the Iron Throne is finally revealed.

In an unprecedented move, HBO announced May 4 that it is teaming with Max Borenstein (Kong: Skull Island), Jane Goldman (Kick-Ass), Brian Helgeland (Legend) and Carly Wray (The Leftovers) to develop what Martin calls four separate (potential) “successor shows.” Martin is involved in all four, co-writing at least two of them. Thrones showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss, meanwhile, opted to remain on the sidelines and will forgo executive producer credit on a potential prequel in favor of focusing on the final two seasons and, after a decade-plus, stepping away from the world of Westeros.

“I truly think it will go down as one of the best shows in the history of television,” HBO president of programming Casey Bloys tells The Hollywood Reporter. “It will be insane for a network not to at least entertain the idea of a successor show.”

Should a spin-off from the two-time Emmy-winning drama move forward, it would be the first time that HBO has revisited one of its iconic series. And Game of Thrones makes the most sense: It’s HBO’s most-watched show in history with an average gross audience of 25.7 million viewers. “It’s easily a multibillion-dollar brand,” says Henry Schafer, exec vp at branding specialist Q Scores. “Given all the TV fragmentation, it’s a great brand to help hold on to their subscribers. Game of Thrones is the No. 1 audience-engaging show on cable television right now.”

All four prequel ideas are in their infancy; Bloys hasn’t so much as seen an outline yet, let alone a script. Few details are known about the various projects, but Bloys did confirm that all of them are prequels that will be populated with entirely new characters. The executive has no plans to dilute the franchise or piggyback off the final season and rush the next potential chapter. Also off the table is a popular theory that the cabler might air the final season — which could consist of all theatrical-length episodes — anywhere other than on HBO. “This is for subscribers,” Bloys stresses.

Still, HBO remains optimistic that one of the four will come close to the quality of the flagship and help extend the franchise’s life, though Bloys wouldn’t rule out going back to the table again should none of them work out. And if all of them are strong? “That’s a high-class problem that I’ll solve when it comes to that,” he says with a laugh. “It would be nice if we got one of these off the ground and it ran for multiple seasons. The nice thing about George’s universe is it’s so vast. So could you do another one after that? Sure.”

In the meantime, HBO has been busy ramping up an impressive drama slate that includes Westworld (its highest-rated freshman series, returning in 2018); David Simon’s James Franco porn drama The Deuce (Sept. 10); J.J. Abrams and Misha Green’s Lovecraft Country; Alan Ball’s untitled family drama starring Tim Robbins and Holly Hunter; and Damon Lindelof’s buzzy Watchmen take, among others.

“It would be nice to have a Game of Thrones property, but the fate of the network does not hang in the balance,” Bloys says. And as for just when the final season will air? Bloys defers to Benioff and Weiss, who are busy writing and prepping the production schedule for the globe-trotting series.

Below, Bloys opens up about all things Thrones.

You’ve only got 13 more episodes at this point. Does Thrones tell a complete story? Do you already know how it ends?

Well let’s put it this way, the guys know very well the story that they want to tell. They have had a good idea of how they want to end their story for a very long time, so we’re just excited to have them do that.

The original idea was 15 more episodes, and now you’re getting two fewer. What happened?

There was never ever really a set plan. I think, honestly, some things kind of leaked in the press or may have been said here or there. They had an idea of where they wanted the arc to go, but in terms of the number of episodes, the number or the length of episodes, that has never been a hard number. I imagine the story is dictating for them how many episodes is right for them.

You’ve announced six more episodes for the final season, and there’s no airdate time frame. Given what you know about the pace of production and working with Benioff and Weiss, is it likely 2018 or 2019?

I can’t really speculate on that. All I will tell you is it is obviously a very ambitious season. This is the culmination of eight seasons of fantastic storytelling. They are writing, and they need to look at the production schedule, and we will take their lead in terms of the airdate that works best for them. They don’t even know; they are still putting the season together. And as you can imagine, it’s a very complicated show to produce, so it’s not like putting together a production schedule for a sitcom that shoots on the stage. It shoots all over the world and takes a long time to figure out where, when and how to shoot. So they’re in the process of doing that, and they’ll let us know.

Have you kicked the tires about how the final six episodes could air? Could they be weekly? Could you space them out and split them like Mad Men’s final season?

We haven’t gotten into to the airing plans. I don’t anticipate anything totally unusual, but again, until we figure out the production schedule, everything is going to come from that.

Would you rule out airing in theaters? Or having some kind of theatrical release, maybe Imax?

I would. This is for subscribers.

This is the first time HBO is revisiting one of its originals. How did the idea for these successor shows come about? Was this an organic decision or did pitches start coming in out of the woodwork?

I consider us incredibly fortunate to have a show that this many people have such interest in and that is such a good show. Truly I think it will go down as one of the best shows in the history of television. It would be insane for a network not to at least entertain the idea of a successor shows — I was going to say “prequel” but they’re not spin-offs because there are no existing characters going off the flagship. It’s not Laverne & Shirley from Happy Days; they are prequels. But it would be insane — with a universe like George has created that is so vast and has so many characters and so many timelines — to not, at least, entertain the idea, which is what we’re doing.

George has said there’s a fifth one in the works. Who is the writer?

I have a deal for four spinoffs right now with four writers.

You’re taking a highly unusual development path with these; it’s rare to develop four properties at the same time. Why go this route?

This franchise is really rich and very exciting. It is going to be really, really hard for anybody to match the level that this show has set in terms of quality and filmmaking. So the idea was, if we’re going to try it, let’s take a couple of shots and see. My hope is at least one lives up to the level of quality Benioff and Weiss have set. But again, it’s also very early in the process. I haven’t even seen an outline for them. The priority here is obviously season seven and then season eight. You’re not going to see a situation where we’re launching a prequel on the back of the final season. The final season is going to be its own event. It’s going to be a big deal for us and the fans. I’m not interested in using it to launch any other show. We mentioned the spin-offs because obviously there’s a lot of interest in them, but it’s a very embryonic process, and you know how development goes — it can be a long process. We confirmed their existence because there was a lot of interest, but it’s not something that we are fast-tracking to get done to air immediately after the final season. I’m guessing fans will need some time to decompress from how amazing the final season is.

If these outlines and these scripts come in, can you see one of these prequels airing before the final season?

No, absolutely not. No way. There’s not going to be anything — the only thing that will be Game of Thrones related on the air will be season seven and season eight, and then it will be a good long while if and before anything [new] gets on the air. Again, I say that only because I think when we confirmed the [prequels’] existence — that we were exploring this — that read to the general public that, “Wow, these are far along.” We were just confirming it so people didn’t speculate.

You’ve said before HBO is not going to have a version of Game of Thrones on in every quarter — which is a strategy AMC is doing with The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead. But in success, what happens if three of the four come in great?

You know the odds in development. I think that is probably unlikely. I was at Touchstone during Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. They had a hit show and they aired four in a week. This show is very special. I’m not looking to have as many as possible. My sense right now is we would be very lucky if one of the four rises to the level that we have set. Now, theoretically, what if they’re all great? That’s a high-class problem that I’ll solve when it comes to that. But knowing what we know about the development process, that’s why we wanted to increase our odds. But I do not see a scenario where we have more than one. But again, high-class problem.

This is such a sprawling world in terms of timelines, mythology and characters. How much trepidation do you feel starting over from scratch? These are all prequels and as you’ve said, completely separate from the successful world you’ve already built.

Doing any show, any pilot, any potential series is very difficult — it’s lightning in a bottle. There’s a little bit of magic, a little bit of luck. Even with the best of scripts, it has to be cast just so, it has to be directed just so, written just so. In the best case scenario, it’s difficult to get the show right. What you’ve got in this situation is probably one of the best shows in television history as a benchmark. That makes it that much harder. We have world-class writers taking shots at this. I’m hopeful, but the fans have come to expect a really high level of writing, acting and storytelling, so it’s a high bar, no question.

Considering all of the projects are prequels, will these be more along the lines of Fear the Walking Dead — which exists in the same universe but does not have any direct connection to the flagship — or Better Call Saul, which will eventually take viewers to the beginning of Breaking Bad? Could these eventually connect to a flagship or will they be in an island of one?

The whole world is connected to some extent family tree-wise, and the timelines are so vast that unless you jumped ahead tens or hundreds of years, I don’t see [the prequels connecting] happening. The other point I want to make about clamping down spin-off fever is if none of them work, remember, we are building up our drama slate: We have Westworld, which is our highest-rated freshman drama in history; Watchmen, which we’re very hopeful that Damon Lindelof is excited about working on that; we’ve got Lovecraft Country; Alan Ball’s show; we’ve got David Simon’s new show. So it would be nice to have a Game of Thrones property, but the fate of the network does not hang in the balance.

If you were to look, say, 10 years into the future, what’s the state of Game of Thrones on HBO?

Going back to that Who Wants to Be a Millionaire comparison, I think overdoing it — like having multiple shows — there’s a risk of diluting the quality and driving it into the ground. I have no interest in doing that. But it would be nice if we got one of these off the ground and it ran for multiple seasons. The nice thing about George’s universe is it’s so vast. Could you do another one after that? Sure. By the way, in 10 years, I’m guessing that will be someone else’s problem! (Laughs.)

How involved is George in all of these?

He’s co-writing two of them. A lot of it will depend on how much George is engaged and how he clicks with writers and how much the writers want to bring him into the process. That will vary project by project. But he’s a fantastic resource. Nobody knows the universe better than the one who created it.

Will Weiss and Benioff be credited as exec producers even though they want to walk away from the franchise after the flagship ends?

In theory, they are entitled to passive participation as a sign of respect for what they’ve done with the franchise. By the time the eighth season airs, they will have been with this show for 13 years. And I think it’s important to point out this is the only thing they’ve worked on. They haven’t gone out and pitched other TV shows or movies. This is an all-consuming job, and they want to see it through. When they’re done, they don’t want to feel any sense of responsibility or obligation, and they said to me they hope to watch whatever spin-off they have purely as a fan, sitting at home, not overseas working on a production. So I understand that they need a clean break. They’ve done something historic and huge and they don’t want to feel obligated to participate or offer any guidance to a show.

Will they have any say in terms of what moves forward, if anything?

They don’t want any. They want to focus on, at this point, season eight. I don’t think they want to be distracted by somebody else’s writing that they’re not responsible for. They have said that 13 years is enough.

On the flipside, what happens if you’re not impressed with any of the four prequels? Would you try again?

Maybe. I don’t know, it’s hard to say. We’ve got some really amazing writers so I’m hopeful. It would be nice to find something else there. HBO will survive with or without a prequel. But that said, the world is so rich, it’d be great if we could crack one.

Considering the scope of this world and the volume of characters, have you considered doing something like a prequel anthology where it’s either a different character every season or every episode, a la Black Mirror?

No. I want to be mindful of overdoing it. I look at this universe as very precious resource. I do not want to overexploit it.

Game of Thrones returns Sunday at 9 p.m. on HBO. Bookmark THR.com/GameOfThrones for theories, news, interviews and more.

Game of Thrones HBO

Source

#Game #Prequels #Thrones

0 notes