#I LOVE WHEN THEMATICALLY RELEVANT THINGS HAPPEN TO CHARACTERS

[imminent-danger-came]

So, this parallel, right.

That parallel and the 4x11 shadowpeach fight as a whole:

Macaque: "No that's YOU! You're the one always running off! Looking for more power, more sources of immortality—you're the one who wouldn't quit while were were ahead! Not the great sage, he's got to drag EVERYONE else into his mess!" Sun Wukong: "You're not in this mess, you're still free! Everything I did was for us!" Macaque: "You did it for yourself! You've become like this, obsessive demon! I told you going against the Jade Emperor was a bad idea, but no, Wukong doesn't listen to anyone! He just does whatever he wants! You put yourself here, not me."

(4x11 A Lifetime of Mistakes)

-

A large part of Wukong's motivation to keep getting more power was the freedom of it—the more power you have the easier it is to do whatever you want. It's easier to ignore everyone else and focus solely on yourself. It's also easier to ensure yourself and your loved one's are protected and have the ability to do what they want.

So, a punishment where the great Monkey King is imprisoned and trapped for hundreds of years? It's effective and tragic and fitting. Wukong wanted to have the freedom to protect the people he cared about, and in trying to reach for the power to do that, he completely had his freedom removed. He went from the mountain, to then the circlet, and then all of a sudden he had morals and was bound to those.

And then I think about his end of s3 choice to go face the Lady Bone Demon alone. Once again Wukong was trying to protect his loved ones (not to mention the whole reason he went after the Samadhi fire to begin with was to have the power, the freedom to stop LBD (which in itself is another case of SWK believing he needed to be stronger for such freedom)), but he also wanted to make sure MK and himself both had agency. He didn't want MK to have to fight LBD, and he didn't want LBD to end the world.

This is exactly the sentiment he tells Macaque in the 4x11 flashback:

Sun Wukong: "It's so we don't have to worry about anything or anyone ever again! Just living a lazy life, sitting in the sun, eatin' fruit, and doing whatever we want!"

But where does it all lead him?

To possession, imprisonment. Once again Wukong no longer had the freedom to do what he wanted (which is to protect the people he cares about). Once again in his attempts to help his loved one's, he only hurt them.

This can be applied to his relationship with Macaque, to MK in s2, hell, even Wukong trying to get the map in the first place left him powerless, which then led to him and the gang being imprisoned in 3x02. It's a familiar pattern, one we see with antagonist and protagonist alike.

MK in s2 trained to become more powerful, which in the end only strengthened LBD and forced him and his friends on the run. Mei in 3x12 protects MK by letting herself get captured and placed into LBD's crystal. Mei in 4x05 goes to protect MK, breaking her sword and leaving her vulnerable to being captured by Kui Mulang ("How am I supposed to protect everyone without my sword?"). DBK reached for more power and then became possessed by LBD, hurting his wife and son. Azure reached for the Jade Emperor's power and bound himself to that role, jeopardizing Peng and Yellowtusk in the process.

It's a cycle of reaching for power, endangering others, and then being imprisoned.

So anyways, here's why MK is going to lose control (his agency) next season and hurt his friends with his own- *get's shot*

#*cough cough* shut up this isn't similar to Callum and Viren from tdp at all. #Ignore everything I said about the reach for power to have freedom and that leading to consequences. Shhhhhhh #anyways GOSH HMMM THE CHARACTER ARCS YAY #I LOVE WHEN THEMATICALLY RELEVANT THINGS HAPPEN TO CHARACTERS #Like. It's not just ''Wukong got possessed'' it's how Wukong getting possessed plays into his character and the show as a whole #Which is why lmk is so good #A league above the rest #Ignore that this is also the exact same thing that happens to Callum with possession. Shhhhh. #But y'all get my point #So anyways in reaching for power and having the agency to protect those you care about #And continuing Mei and SWK parallels #I think it would be neat if Mei accepted the Samadhi fire again to protect her friends for whatever reason #It'd also be neat if she did it specifically to fight MK/get him back #Like teehee that would be so cool #Am I saying MK next season might very well parallel possessed Wukong? yes that's exactly what I'm saying. #lmk SWK #lmk #lego monkie kid #lmk analysis #you know what executive decision tag #hero mei warrior mk

[beescake]

i am in love with your sollux i think

sollux love party :]

if you’re interested heres some of my personal fondness thoughts on him.. big warning for the mega long read ahead aye

as we alr know sollux's rejection of participation somewhat mirrors dave's rejection of heroism, but even without getting cooked to completion i still find sollux's character v compelling beyond the fourth wall

as someone who doesnt get a pinch of that Protagonist Sparkle to begin with, he can openly say he wants to leave anytime…. and unlike dave, he actually Can leave the scene anytime. but he can never be truly Free from the story via permanent character death like the other trolls.

his irrelevancy is indeed relevant - he’s there so u can point him out.

while his image is intended to be a relic of past internet subculture, his role is not only about hehehaha being a Chad or a 2000s cyberforum 2²chan haxxor ragequit gamebro.

his continued existence also happens to add a Bit to the overarching themes of homestuck! a Bit that gives him longer-lasting thematic relevance compared to the trolls who could’ve had more character potential but didnt get to survive beyond the main story.

the Bit in question:

his defiance contributes to the illusion of agency (treating characters = people with autonomy). he’s “aware” of it, and that recognition is worth noting enough to forcibly keep him alive as both reward and punishment.

considering how his personality & classpect is designed its definitely a very haha thing for hussie to do LOL. he’s made to be op asf so he's resigned to doing dirty work, gradually deteriorating along the way but never truly dying. as fans have mentioned before, him openly rejecting involvement after a while of grim tolerance is like if the sim u were controlling suddenly stopped, looked up and gave u the finger while u were step six into the walkthrough for Every Possible Sim Death Animation.

but since he’s just a sim… the more he hates it, the more you keep him around. if ur sim started complaining abt your whimsical household storyline you’d definitely keep that little fuck.

but yeah i like that sollux is just idling. the significance of his presence being that one dude who's always reliably Somewhere, root core Unchanged, no individual ambitions (possibly due to fear of consequence?), and design-wise: a staple representative product of his time.

compared to dirk's character, who has aged phenomenally well into the present (themes of control + AR + artificial intelligence, clearer exploration around navigating relationships/sexuality, infinite possibilities of self-splinterhood and trait inheritance), sollux's potential is really... contained. bitter. defeatist. limiting and frustrating in the way old tech is.

the world continues moving on to shinier, brighter, more advanced automated things - minimalist and metaverse or whatever but sollux is still here 🧍‍♂️ going woohoo redblue 3d. (tho personally i imagine his vibe similar to what the kids call cassette futurism on pinterest mixed w more grimy grunge insectoid influences eheh)

conceptually-speaking,

at the foundation of it all, the rapid pace of modern development was built off the understanding of ppl like sollux in the past, who were There actively at work while the dough was still beginning to rise

thats one of the cool things abt the idea of trolls preceding humans! the idea that trolls like sollux excelled back when lots of basic shit still needed to be discovered, building structures like networks and codes from scratch, and humans will eventually inherit and reinvent that knowledge in ways that become so optimized it makes the old manual effort seem archaic, slow, and labour-intensive.

but despite information/resources/shortcuts being more accessible now, much of the new highly-anticipated stuff released on trend still end up unfinished, inefficient, or expiring quickly due to cutting corners under severe capitalistic pressures

meanwhile, some of the old stuff frm past generations of thorough, exploratory and perfectionistic development still remains working, complete, and ever so sturdy.

those things continue to exist, just outside our periphery with either:

zero purpose left for modern needs (outdated/obsolete)

or

far too important to replace or destroy, bcs of its surprisingly essential and circumstantial usefulness in one niche specific area.

which are honestly? both points that sum up sollux pree well.

dramatic ending sorry. anw are u still on the fence or are u Sick abt him like me </3

#ask #anon #sollux captor #homestuck #hs2 spoilers #2023 #vioart #hs2 sollux explaining girls and bitches to john: 🗣️🗣️🗣️ #mr foods‚ setting up the visuals: LMAO ok pause. cool story bro theyre all gone its just u n ur sandwich bro. #now that i think abt it sol's kind of a toaster? awkwardly takes up countertop space #lacks the versatility and sociability of an air fryer/pressure cooker. unwashed and littered w crumbs! #but sometimes the clear‚ frank simplicity of the toaster is a temporary lifesaver for ppl who struggle w low appetite / decision fatigue #or ppl who just have a habit of eating toast for breakfast LOL #and eh ¯\ _(ツ)_/¯ even if u dont feel like toasting today thats ok he's still gonna be sitting there 👍👍 #a funnyman..... i curse him in my pan but root for him in my biscuit 🫶

[anna-scribbles]

can you share some of your writing/planning process for thirteen? i adore the non-linear format - how do you decide what scenes to put where?

ahh thank you!! idk how much of a defined process I have, but there's definitely a lot of planning that goes into it and i can show you some of that.

i keep all the chapters in one doc organized by month, and then i plan everything out in bullet points in a timeline at the beginning. here i just have october and november as examples bc after december things started to get more detailed/messy

all of the scenes (especially at the beginning) set the stage for things i’ve planned to happen later, or establish something that feels relevant to adrien’s character by the time we meet him in canon. the task of condensing an entire month into about 2-3 scenes has been a bit difficult; i’ve found out that i’m a very present-moment kind of writer so it’s harder for me to describe the passage of, like, weeks of time. so i’ve been pinpointing specific threads of adrien’s story that i want to be sure to tell and choosing scenes from each month that build on that.

i’ve had the idea for this fic in the back of my mind since about 2021 so i’ve had several scenes cemented in my mind, ways i’ve decided things played out, etc. some of the writing process has been building the narrative around those things or figuring out how we get there. that’s what i love about prequels in general, honestly - it’s inevitable where we’re going to end up, but how do we get there?

adrien’s situation, at the moment we meet him in origins, is SO endlessly fascinating to me. he is in the process of doing something reckless and rebellious and bold - running away - against the will of his father, a man he spends the rest of the series struggling with his compulsion to submit to. we find out, via the rest of the show, exactly how difficult it is for adrien to stand up to his father. and yet, in his very first appearance, adrien is running away from him.

how did he get here? what, exactly, pushed him to this point? was this the final escalation of a steady build of rebellious behaviors, or an impulsive breakthrough after one awful day too many? what has this small boy been through in the last year, and why does public school seem to be his only fathomable escape?

and WHY, if his circumstances are so dire as to compell him to rebel so boldly in the first place, does he still throw it away to help the old man in the road? what makes him so kind, when he has everything to lose? what happened? how did he get here?

i’m interested, obviously, in the character of émilie. i think that the hole she leaves in the narrative is a compelling silhouette and i’ve been having a blast trying to pencil in its details. it’s obvious that adrien loved her deeply and had a stronger connection to her than with gabriel. but also, adrien was still shut off from the world while she was alive. he was still, presumably, an exploited child star while she was alive. she was an actress and a mother and died by broken magic and never told her son the truth about any of it. figuring out who i think she was and then how to show that through young adrien’s eyes has been a huge part of planning this story for me.

as far as the twenty three year old adrien sections, those have been less involved as far as planning goes. i only recently mapped out which areas of the house i want him to visit during the different months. i wanted his sections to line up at least thematically, if not physically, where thirteen year old adrien is at in his story. for example, in december twenty three year old adrien cleans out the dining room where thirteen year old adrien was having terrible christmas dinner. and in january they’re both in the garden, etc.

it’s a bit harder to map out twenty three adrien just because it has to also make sense geographically - i can’t have him running back and forth up and down the stairs, let’s be real he doesn’t have the energy for that. i’ve also opened up the agreste mansion page on the miraculous wiki so many times while trying to map this out 💔💔 did you know that apparently there’s a third floor we never see in the show. yeah i have to figure out what to do with that now

ANYWAY long story short: the planning process for thirteen is kind of a mess, but the whole story is built around some central plot points that i knew i wanted to hit from the beginning. the details change a lot (as you can see from the outline above - it’s not quite right) but i keep the end in mind. just have to figure out how we get there.

thank you for asking!! mwah<3

#thirteen #anna rambles #asks #sorry for writing SO MUCH #in my defense i’m sleepy #and i just started rambling #adrien agreste…..kissing your forehead my love. tucking you into bed. agreeing with you about tamaharu #i don’t even know if this answered the question this is just truly my process #the process is that i think about adrien agreste and then write it down #ml

[yourhighness6]

Okay, so, I have talked briefly before about how I do think that Katniss/Lucy Gray were intended to mirror each other but Peeta was meant to be a parallel to both Coryo and Sejanus. There are other parallels between these five characters as well, of course, but they don't really affect what I'm about to say so imma just leave that there. Let me explain.

When you think about the core problems with Snowbiard, they basically all come from Coryo's selfishness (you could definitely talk about certain classism/ a commentary on class there, but again, not really relevant). He COULD have been happy with Lucy Gray, living out in the forests beyond district twelve, but he would never have been happy there because of his core traits. He wants people to recognize him, to see him as someone to both respect and fear, because he feels he deserves more than he was given after his family lost their fortune. That's the hallmark of his character and definitely not new info. But Sejanus was the exact opposite. He felt like he was given more than he deserved after his tough childhood because his family circumstances were the EXACT opposite, coming into money at the same time Coryo's family lost theirs. He could have felt the same way, entitled and like he didn't have enough, but instead, he showed empathy and demonstrated compassion in ways Coryo never did. But that's where the next gen comes in, because Peeta and Katniss shared certain circumstantial similarities that almost certainly reminded Snow of his own teenage relationship with Lucy. But that's where Peeta mirrors Sejanus, because above all, that boy is KIND. He's compassionate and empathetic and his core values are very similar to that of Sejanus. HE was a glimpse of what Coryo could have been, if instead of looking for power, he'd taken Sejanus's advice and followed his example. If he'd chosen to be someone kind and compassionate and empathetic like Sejanus and Peeta and developed a goddamn moral code, he COULD HAVE HAD THAT LIFE. HE COULD HAVE LIVED OUT HIS DAYS IN MEADOWS WITH TWO KIDS AND A LOVING WIFE LIKE PEETA DID BUT INSTEAD HE CHOSE TO BE SELFISH AND VINDICTIVE AND A GODDAMN MURDERER.

Peeta and Coryo foil each other in such an insane and nuanced way that I can't help but obsess over it. These two characters who seem so different but actually maybe share some thematic similarities treating the loves of their lives so differently is just... ugh. Like even if it happened some sixty years apart, Snowbiard really was a guy who had it all refusing to realize that and his narrative foil ending up with the girl of his dreams because he was a good person. Snowbiard fell apart because Coryo's selfishness but Everlark fell together because of Peeta's selflessness.

And, look, that on its own is incredible and thematic and Suzanne is a genius blah blah blah but ALSO, this isn't the most important thing, but I find it absolutely INSANE that Peeta and Katniss found love in a forest while running for their lives and Coryo and Lucy Gray lost love in a forest while running for their lives.

#finally posting that thing about thg #Im so distracted always like why #anyway here's the thing #snowbaird #everlark #sejanus plinth #coriolanus snow #lucy gray baird #katniss everdeen #peeta mellark #parallels #thg #tbosas #the ballad of songbirds and snakes #the hunger games #suzanne collins #paralells

[penultimate-step]

In Defense of Ruby Hoshino

Or: Yes, the Aqua/Ruby interactions from the last couple dozen chapters ARE necessary for characterization and thematic reasons, why do you ask?

The Oshi no Ko fandom has kind of frustrated me over the last few months. It feels like every chapter that comes out and any discussion of it now has people making over the top angry exclamations talking about how much they hate incest, calling it "bait" and irrelevant to the story. Now, while of course anybody is free to have their own preferences and things that bother them, I do think some of this is taken out of proportion, and perhaps blinding them to the actual narrative importance of Ruby's supposed feelings for Aqua. Which, I do think this is a critical, load bearing part of Ruby's character arc, and corresponding the themes of the story as a whole, so it bothers me when I see so many people dismissing it as "brocon fanservice" or shipping nonsense.

I think perhaps out of an instinctive disgust reaction, people have trouble engaging with it. The way people act seems to be that either this is a serious romance plot, and the series will end with them dating, or that it is merely for sexual titillation and shock value on the part of the author, with no greater meaning, but it's pretty clear that it is neither of those things - Aqua/Ruby is not a romance, they will not date, they do not have romantic feelings for each other. However, that doesn't mean that what's going on between them is pointless.

The issues that Ruby has, both in their relationship and just in general, hinge pretty explicitly on Ruby's assumptions about her own feelings in her past life. she cannot develop past those without first confronting them.

And this is not a new thing. The groundwork for how Ruby has been acting in the movie arc was laid down long before, and needs necessary followup. To simply not have her talk about potential feelings for Aqua, as some fans wish, would have meant leaving many threads hanging, and made for a worse story. Almost everything about how they've interacted was something that could have been predicted from chapter 77. In it, Ruby makes it clear that she believes her feelings for Gorou are romantic, and that she intends to try to initiate something in her new life. However, at the same time, the fact that it was never going to happen is also, I feel, fairly clear.

In the past, in the flashback scene, Sarina claimed she was in love with Gorou. He told her he would reciprocate when she turned 16. In my opinion, I do not think either of the feelings the characters expressed in this scene were meant to be believed by the audience at all. Sarina is 12 here, she might have a puppy crush on the doctor but I think true romantic interest was probably beyond her. Meanwhile, Gorou isn't actually a pedophile? His statement was made with both parties knowing that she would die long before then, a way to make his rejection hurt her less, and as a desperate attempt to motivate her to keep living as long as she could. Though it is clear that both are the most important people to one another, and that this is an expression of their real care, I very, very, much doubt there was any actual romance in this scene.

Does this not seem very relevant for a series with the theme of people not understanding love? Back then, Gorou was Sarina's one true bond. Her parents had abandoned her and she had no friends to visit her. This was the one example of real mutual care she had, of course she would call it "love." (I mean, I'd also call it love, but not a romantic love. Familial, if anything, but friends works too - the actual name on it is unclear, what matters is that they cared for each other, but not like that.) Now, in her new life as Ruby, she has many more people who love her and who she loves in return, but having died both painfully young before, she hasn't had the opportunity to really grapple with all the old feelings about the doctor. It's pretty obvious to me whenever we see Ruby thinking of Aqua now. Just look at this page from 126:

In Ruby's own mind, he's drawn in a completely different style, like a manga romance hero. Her feelings about Aqua are fantasies, dreams, and projections, not substantial or tied to reality.

Much has been made of how Aqua, despite being Ai's son, still puts her on the pedestal of an idol, and can not see her flaws and interiority, even as he tries to avenge her death. Part of this movie arc is having characters like Ruby, Kana, and Akane start to see Ai from new angles, and relate to the human part of her. But for Aqua and Ruby to truly develop past their issues, this isn't the only pedestal they need to tackle. Ruby's regard for the doctor is a direct mirror to Aqua's feelings towards Ai. Even with the object of her affections right in front of her, she can't she past her own assumptions.

And of course, while Ruby is slowly coming to understand Ai and still failing to understand Aqua, there's one more person in the room who Ruby needs to come to an understanding about: herself, both as Sarina and now. Her refusal to see Aqua's flaws is tied up in her own feelings about the past - to acknowledge him as imperfect would mean understanding that part of the reason Sarina loved Gorou was tied up in her own desperation to love and be loved. Furthermore, while she has many more ties in her life as Ruby, I don't think its a stretch to say part of her is still stuck in that past state, holding people at arm's length.

While she has friends now, the bonds she thinks of as strongest are the ones from back then - her idolization of Ai, her love for Gorou. When Aqua reveal's Ai's secrets, in 106, Ruby says that despite being siblings, raised together for 17 years now, she didn't think of Aqua as family on his own terms - she felt a bond solely because they were linked through Ai, and does not hesitate to cut him off. She doubles down on this in 122, calling them "strangers who happened to be born in the same place." Similarly, while Ruby has been shown to be friendly with coworkers like Kana and Mem, as well as classmates like Frill, on some level she is keeping them at a distance. Beyond the simple fact that she can't talk to them about her previous life, she's been keeping plenty of emotions held in for a long time - pretty much every Ruby appearance from the Miyazaki Return arc to today has shown her not wanting to acknowledge her own struggles. Her pain from her life as Sarina is easy to keep buried. When nobody else knows Sarina exists, all she has to do is not think about it, not talk about it, not say anything, and it's almost like it never happened. Not til her breakdowns in chapters like 115 and 121 does she speak it aloud, but always either with plausible deniability or when she thinks she's alone.

I don't think her bonds as Ruby are fake - part of what she says to aqua, I think, is a defensive cope - but much like how she says she is in love with Gorou now, that is what Ruby believes. To her, all the friendships and bonds she's made in her new life are transient and fleeting things. She can never feel secure that they are based in real feelings, that they won't simply drop her when she becomes inconvenient, as everyone in her past life did. This perception contributes to her own willingness to reject others. Putting her friends at a distance during her revenge arc, cutting ties with Aqua over the Ai reveal, these are all things she does because she has no faith in the foundations of these bonds, and without understanding them she is willing to throw them away for Sarina's old memories - for the sake of the one person she believes will never let her down.

The only way Ruby is going to solve the story of Oshi no Ko is through coming to an understanding. Of Ai, of Aqua, and of Sarina. Ai didn't understand love until the day she died, and both of her children have in some ways followed in her footsteps, but Ruby has the chance to be the one to break this, to understand what was holding her back before and fully embrace loving her family and friends.(platonically. geez.) Reckoning with her feelings for Gorou (and by extension, Aqua,) was always going to be a key step forward for her. These dominoes have been laid down for 60-70 chapters now, at least, and I am excited to see where it goes.

#oshi no ko #ruby hoshino #step.animanga #step.blogger #step.effortpost

[emblazons]

I'm gonna keep it 300: Once I realized that byler v mlvn (at least in canon) was never a competition of "ships" or even heteronormativity versus queer rep but a conversation about thematic points being made by the duffers, I ceased feeling any real doubt about the outcome of this segment of the intertwined character narratives.

Why? Because The Duffers (while notoriously mum about their plotlines and twists) are vocal as hell about what they value & what "lessons" they're trying to drive home.

With The Duffers (unlike a lot of TV writers today) its "find the thematic line and you find the endgame plot." That's literally it. And tbh, even if I was someone who couldn't stand byler for whatever reason, from a narrative theme perspective, its pretty clear that

"15 year old boy who both longs for and fears the consequences of nonconformity finds the bravery to get out of a relationship that fuels those insecurities while leaning into his relationship with his fellow-nonconforming best friend"

tracks more with The Duffers value system than

"boy and his superhero love interest spend their 5th consecutive season barely seeing eye to eye on interests and problem-solving while relying on other people who know them better than they know each other to fix their relationship before dramatically separating and coming back in a melodramatic flourish."

Like. I don't even need to do more mental work than that to understand whats happening with this part of the story, because after 7 entire years of watching the rest of the show, its clear they'e written Mike and El into the same corner that's broken up every other dysfunctional relationship in Stranger Things, from Stncy to Joyce and Bob: a lack of common interest and a lack of common goals.

When you look at that, and combine it w/ any knowledge of the—

"What's wrong with playing DnD as an adult" "we are nerds and children at heart" "we hated HS & did other people's assignments to stay relevant" "one of us married a fellow horror fan who shares our interests (Ross) and the other has decided not to officially partner (Matt)"

—Duffer Brothers? lmao.

The only snag I ever hit trying to understand that was the S3 tone shift...and even they admit that was their narrative "play" season, which (however you feel about that as a writing decision) says every single thing about what's gonna happen when things get "more serious" (while moving back to S1 energy) in S5. 🤷🏽‍♀️

#byler #anti mlvn #I am a generalist not a specifist when it comes to analysis and it's saved me a lot of detail-oriented heartache here lmao #like at this point I don't feel doubt or even a desire to 'analyze' byler sans showing how the little pieces connect to the main theme #its become so straightforward in my head I don't know how else it might be otherwise resolved LMAO #my st commentary #stranger things

[mtkay13]

I accidentally sent a keysmash! I'm really sorry but I hope it can bring at least a laugh to you. I opened your askbox to make a consideration about TYK: I'm not sure if anyone has already talked about this, but I think Faraway Wanderers is a romcom with a wuxia subplot and not vice versa. I don't know how to articulate this more but I really feel like all the gruesome details make the romance humourous in a way (WWX and ZZS flirting often happens during very violent fights and the consequence is that you can't take neither the violence nor the romance very seriously) but also give depth to it thematically (the need of finding peace in one's own life as opposed to a lifetime of struggle and cruelty). It's like the wuxia setting is functional to the love story.

Helloooo!! Haha yeah the keysmash was very interesting hahaha, thank you for that <3 .

And thank you for bringing this up!! I have given it a bit of thought today, and I feel ready to respond now, haha.

First of all, it was great food for thought, and I personally think it's a great way to look at TYK.

There is definitely a play on genres within TYK, and I think that the wuxia-ness of the story is absolutely taking a backseat for the human relationships and dynamics to happen at the foreground. If anything, it initially does feel like an accessory or an artificial setting to put the characters in and let them do their thing while nearly ignoring most of the background plot during the story.

I also fully agree that there is a surprising lightness and a lot of humor in the way the story is presented; not only are WKX and ZZS quite funny, but the whole cast is often made fun of, turned into a joke--the LLJ (glazed armor) itself is a rather ridiculous McGuffin, and on top of that Priest really likes to tank her climaxes and emotional beats with either jokes or sudden events that both give whiplash and considerably defuse the tension (or outright turn the whole scene into a joke, LOL).

I think the twist I find in that is: WenZhou mostly deal with everything that happen in their lives with lightness because… it's what they are used to, it's maybe not that big of a deal, and it's also a way to not make it so serious when it threatens to be overwhelming. The extreme violence is normalcy, and it's that "casualness" that can suddenly make it jarring once recontextualized. The same way the wuxia genre is subverted in TYK (in the way the story doesn't follow the typical wuxia storyline, in the way some themes are turned on their heads), I'd argue that the romantic comedy genre is also subverted, and at times borders on…. tragedy, to be honest?

I feel like the latter part of the books, although some scenes like WKX's aborted confession (when he tells ZZS he'd like to spend the rest of his life with him, but then laughs it off like it was a joke, for the tone of the scene to then flip and be about the loss of WKX's parents); the scene where ZZS sings Li Sao, and many more later, and of course not to mention the entire last ark and extra 4---all of those passages send the message that actually, most of this was serious. In a way, those scenes, and the latter part, reframe the narrative to make that lightness serious, and as it turns out, the romance, the violence, all of that was serious and meant to be taken seriously.

The humor was there to cover for sorrow, frustration, disillusion, investment, and all of those more serious, deeper feelings. The ridiculous wuxia plot was no joke and was the core of WKX's entire life story. ZZS has a very serious backstory when it comes to attachement, to love, to commitment, and is going through a lot regarding his own ambitions, goals, and what living means to him, etc. On top of that, the wuxia story responds to Qi Ye's themes and storyline as well. So---the wuxia "subplot" is irrelevant until it becomes sadly relevant.

So to summarize… I almost want to say that it's a tragic love story set in a dramatic wuxia setting disguised as a romcom set in a setting of wuxia subversion, hahaha. Like you put it very well, actually; the way both genre are articulated around each other, and the way the romance and relationship between WenZhou take precedency over the wuxia narrative allows for it to be explored with depth.

I feel like the gradual deepening of seriousness is also to signify that, when people start mattering, when the characters care for each other, the events of the story start mattering in ways that they can't just be light and comical. The way the romantic comedy topes and the mockery of some wuxia archetypes only serve to amplify that and make it even stronger, more apparent, in contrast.

Anyway!!! Hahah thank you for raising those considerations and discussion points! I actually really wanted to engage properly and think about it thoroughly to the point I asked some people around to see what they thought and what they had to say as well. I really enjoyed it and I thought it was a great angle to go about the story. If you have anything you want to bounce off from this or feel like responding, I'd also be very, very pleased.

Many, many thanks for reaching out!!!!!!

#tian ya ke #ask #meta

[elzorton]

Some thoughts about Otohan Thull, the impact of chance on storytelling structures and themes in ttrpgs, and the catharsis of fulfilling story beats.

BIG SPOILERS FOR C3E91 OF CRITICAL ROLE UNDER THE CUT

You have been warned.

Hang with me here cause for the first half it could sound like i’m whining but i promise that this isn’t a negative or critical post. (also, i’m a little sleep deprived so if i’m not making sense just ignore me oops)

Okay, so a thing for me when it comes to ttrpgs compared with, let’s call it ”traditional” mediums of storytelling such as books or movies, is that the randomness that comes with dice rolls, chance and improv can sometimes leave certain story beats feeling… unfulfilled? Chance can lead to things getting resolved in a way that doesn’t feel impactful - or at least not as impactful as it could’ve been.

The death of grand villains such as Otohan Thull is a very good example of this. We expect villains to meet their demise dramatically, and thematically. As i was watching the latest episode, i found myself hoping that Laudna, Imogen or Orym would get the hdywtdt on Otohan. They are the ones who personally have been hurt by her the most, and therefore ”should” (according to my brain that is used to certain story structures ) get the final blow. If the story was told through a traditional storytelling medium, these are very likely scenarios. I’m not saying that it definitely would’ve happened like that, but I’m saying that however it would’ve happened, it would’ve been in a thematically impactful way.

In ttrpgs however, the thematically impactful death of a major villain isn’t guaranteed. The fact that some things aren’t gonna get resolved in the most fulfilling ways is something that we just have to accept. And i DO accept that - but it doesn’t stop the moments where it happens from feeling… incomplete.

WITH ALL THAT BEING SAID - here comes the part where it will stop sounding like i’m about to be whiny about the way it played out.

The outcome of this episode, the death of Otohan, DID feel fulfilling and impactful. It WAS impactful - and thematically relevant. Just not in the way that I expected. Which is exactly what I wish to experience around storytelling.

FCG’s sacrifice is heartbreaking and beautiful. It left me devastated and thankful. Otohan Thull has been so masterfully set up as a villain throughout the campaign. For their death to feel fulfilling, it kind of NEEDED to happen in a grand and impactful way. To me, she DESERVED a memorable death. The most obvious ways that could’ve come true is if Laudna, Imogen or Orym would’ve killed them. Laudna, she would kill the person who murdered her and further her spiral downward into Delilah’s embrace. Imogen and Orym, they would’ve gotten revenge on the person killing the people they loved the most.

Of course, those scenarios aren’t the only thematically fulfilling ways Otohan Thull could’ve died. What transpired this episode is absolutely, 100% meaningful and fulfilling. It just fulfilled another story beat then the ones I expected.

I have already seen a lot of posts highlighting 4SD discussions, previous conversations between characters and the growth of FCG as a character preceding this episode, where among other things FCG’s tendencies to want to sacrifice themselves, their journey towards the Changebringer and her philosophy of choosing your own path, and their growth towards viewing themselves as a living being with a soul. Therefor, I don’t feel the need to go into details of why their death felt thematically in line. We knew they were a ”ticking time bomb”. We knew they wanted to keep their friends safe with any means necessary.

What this means for the death of Otohan, is that it happened in a way that is bittersweet, cathartic and simultaneously expected and unexpected. THAT, is everything you could wish for in the death of a major villain. Otohan Thull has been one of my absolute favorite villains in all three campaigns. She has been brutal, involved and has kept the characters looking over their shoulders in fear everywhere they go. They deserved a grand death. They deserved something impactful, thematically relevant and unforgettable.

Otohan’s death will forever be etched into my brain. As Brennan said so beautifully: ”Why do we tell stories? To try to make sense of a world that can be terrifying and enormous”. This made sense. It was still terrifying. But it made sense. It was fulfilling.

TL;DR, ttrpgs don’t guarantee that major villains will meet their ends in thematically fulfilling ways. In this case, it WAS fulfilling and impactful. Just not in the way I, personally, expected.

#okay i'm done now. thanks for coming to my ted talk #gonna go sleep lol #critical role #cr spoilers #critical role spoilers #c3e91 #fcg #fresh cut grass #otohan thull

[12freddofrogs]

Look, I didn't actually hate the new Wish movie. I didn't love it, either, but I didn't hate it. Some of the songs were catchy, the more subtle easter eggs were fun to recognise, there was some fun ideas in the magic system.

The thing was, the story had bones in there to be really good, and they missed it. I'm not even necessarily talking about the original concept, about the Star being humanoid (although that would have helped a lot - not even necessarily as Asha's love interest, just that it would have made the Star an actual character instead of a prop). I think what annoyed me more was King Magnifico being set up as well intentioned, and then that was completely forgotten.

He was sympathetic. His goal was to keep his kingdom from burning down. He was traumatised and trying not to let history repeat. And then the movie even went out of its way to inform us that the book - the book he only opened out of desperation - was corrupting, that it was a direct result of a curse that Magnifico was getting crueller, that this curse was permanent, and just... forget about it. Whoops, villain is defeated, toss him in the dungeon without a further thought.

Instead, you know what I think would have done wonders for making the plot more cohesive and fitting together the themes, plus actually tying together that whole "A wish is the most powerful magic!" lore, and even giving what should have been a protagonist but was kinda just a torch a real, actual scene?

Have Star grant Magnifico's first, truest wish.

Not directly, click his fingers fix it. That's against the theme of working for your wish. But have Star pull out of the pile of wishes the one that Magnifico made twenty, thirty years ago when he first pulled up on this little island and put down the first bricks. The wish that no magician, no evil would ever harm this kingdom.

And then, while Magnifico is frozen, staring at his own wish for something more, he looks at the green flames around him and actually, honestly sees them.

They said that curse was unbreakable, but they also said that a wish is the most powerful magic that exists, and this is a star that came down solely to grant it. The wish glows brighter, the green stretches for them, but Star is there and the wish wins. Curse breaks. The world glows again, and there's just a king, collapsed and human again, and Asha is the only one willing to sit next to him as he stares at his kingdom.

And then, just to properly tie the movie back to the beginning, Asha gets the job as the apprentice that she'd been interviewing for. She can keep the wand, sure, fine, but what she needs is to actually study. Her new wish is to be able to help people make their wishes come true, and neither the stars nor the king are going to click their fingers and make that happen for her. Magic takes years to learn, but it turns out Magnifico is actually a pretty good teacher.

If you wanted to finish the movie on her 18th birthday that got mentioned several times as upcoming but never became relevant, that would be thematic. Maybe she makes the wish in private, glowing, pulls it out of her chest to see herself as a fairy godmother, before she puts the wish back into her chest to go back and work on making it real.

#in this au i am imagining that the queen is an actual villain who's been gently encouraging her husband to darker paths for the power #she wants the curse but doesnt want to be cursed so this works for her wonderfully #that way you can still get a villain to defeat more notably than just a book #but it wasnt wholly necessary and i just really wanted to complain about tragic villains when the writers forget its a tragedy #wish 2023 #wish #disney's wish #disney #fanfic #wish 2023 fanfic #i guess? #didnt think id ever use that tab tbqh #king magnifico #magnifico #asha

[acertainmoshke]

Let's Talk About Notion

So, I use Notion for plenty of non-writing things to keep myself organized, but the main thing I use it for is writing. And I love it because it can be simple--just pages nested within pages and including lists or paragraphs--or as complex as you need. The template I use for keeping track of my novels I did pay $20 for, but that was to the random person who put in all the time and effort and not to the company. There are free templates and if you put in the time to figure it out, you can make the complex ones yourself. And I do have a side page to just add pages for random ideas and not clutter my official system.

Anyway.

This is the front page of my favorite Notion template ever, WIP. I can add as many projects as I'm working on, complete with cover pages (which I use just to be thematic but if I had actual covers I could upload those too) and summaries, but those aren't the practical parts. Based on the word count goal I entered, it tells me how close I am, as well as calculating how many book pages each takes up and how long it would take to read.

There are also tabs for concept stories that I'm still planning and don't want to count towards my word count goal yet, and archived ones that I'm putting on hold.

under the projects section, still on the front page, I have word count cards where I can enter my daily word count and it automatically updates the goal based on the end word count goal for all active projects and the date I said I wanted to finish each.

If I open one of my projects, it gives me all this info in what is technically the header. I entered the summary, genre, dates, and goals, but it calculated the rest.

That page includes chapters, which I can put in different stages of development, name, and move around; characters to keep track of, which I can attach to relevant chapters, and tasks I don't really use but they work as a checklist. That may be more useful when I'm in the 3rd draft and editing.

Below all of that there's also a storyboard. I don't use it for TDATS and I don't really want to share the one I do use regularly, but basically they're pages attached to various chapters and you can use them as scenes or events to plot out the story, move things around, and get an idea of what's happening before writing.

I prefer to write my actual stories in Word, but I could write them here directly in the chapters. There's also a spot to include specific words used or introduced in a chapter. Most of what I use these for is keeping track of word count, because you have to add them to the chapters for them to be added together into the project total. But it calculating how long it takes to read each chapter is certainly fun.

Anyway, you should definitely use Notion--there are other writing templates if you want something free or just different, and you don't have to use templates at all, but as a chaotic neurodivergent author, this has seriously helped my organization and planning.

The website is notion.so and there's desktop and mobile apps and the service itself is free. I guess there is a pro version but I think that's only useful if you're trying to use it as a team for work.

#moshke writes #writeblr #notion

[hexhomos]

hey I’m here from ur Twitter, saw some of your posts about gale/astarion mystra stuff because I haven’t played the game yet and wanted to know about TWs/if it’s handled well/etc. I don’t really mind spoilers if they’re necessary! thank you

Id say as pretty traditional DnD adaptation game there is a lot of bloody battles and i guess... disturbing implications? when it comes to things such as kidnapping/murdering/cannibalizing people and general eldritch assassin blood cult stuff that has to do with the BG series.

If your particular concern are depictions of SA/CSA the game is written in such a way that they all took place quite some time in the past, and those discussions exist mostly in the realm offhand mentions or between-the-lines presence in the dialogues of companions -- as all of the core companions in this game are in some way abused and not quite cognizant of that abuse all of the time, and the player has the option to help them.

MILD EARLY SPOILERS FOR BG3 WARNING

Gale and Astarion are the only companions where that theme of abuse/agency crosses into sexual territory; Astarion explicitly speaks about being tortured in non-sexual ways as part of being a thrall/vamp spawn (basically an eternal servant for a Real Vampire) and his romance route includes multiple discussions of those things & the atrocities he's committed under that household. The game writers do not include sexual abuse in those infodumps- that i know of- but Astarion seduced people to their doom and has a weird relationship with sex as a result. Gale is not aware that he was being groomed at all and actually believes that he's the one who did badly towards his abuser, but the other companions Will question this interpretation of events and as the story goes on if you romance/befriend Gale he is able to look back on his situation and realize the 'love' he was used to was frankly sort of rotten in comparison. idk how deep it goes if you're doing friendship only but i can attest at least in romance mode that happens.

There are other situations in game (particularly at a brothel) where allusions to their abuse are made and they seem very uncomfortable being peer pressured or propositioned to. I think for a game of this size and mainstream appeal it's handled fairly well, mostly kept offscreen, and has thematic relevance to the story as a whole and the storylines of the other companions. Multiple parts of these storylines are also incredibly optional: you have to seek out these characters to learn more about them, and some of the more telling interactions aren't *given* to the player so much as found if you pay attention, if you get what I mean. I think BG3 as a whole is very entertaining and well written but you should go in knowing a measure of gritty dark themes are a central part of this setting, and while not all of it is perfect, it's one of the Best for its genre.

as a postscript: characters in this game can literally break up with you if you cross or don't care for their boundaries.

#bg3 #bg3 spoilers #gale of waterdeep #astarion

[trainsinanime]

The Movie - The Bad Parts

Based on discussions with @emsylcatac earlier today, let's talk about Miraculous Ladybug & Chat Noir - The Movie (also known as Miraculous Awakening), and specifically what sucks about it. I want to clarify that this post is meant to be unfair on purpose. It's all about complaining because complaining is fun! Overall I think the movie was perfectly fine, I had fun and I recommend watching it on a big screen because it is really pretty. This post is full of spoilers, and I'll put it in the queue for the 29th so people who watch on Netflix can see it then.

Let's get to it. There are a number of different directions from which you can criticise the movie. Too many fart jokes. Too many Volkswagen cars. Not enough metro trains. Uninspired songs. I'd like to pull it back a step, though, and ask fundamentally: What was the movie trying to do, you know, as a story? Because I don't think it knows.

About something

The movie has set itself a fairly difficult task, trying to fit a monster-of-the-week show into a single cohesive narrative. This isn't impossible, other superhero movies from Marvel and sometimes Sony and even the odd DC one do that all the time. They do that by finding a core story to tell about the people involved. Tony Stark goes from war profiteer to taking responsibility. Shang-Chi fled his father and must now face him. Jessica Jones faces her trauma. Kamala Khan must figure out who she wants to become and what it means to be a hero. Hawkeye must shoot an arrow out of a bow. Stuff like that.

As a show, Miraculous Ladybug doesn't really have that. Marinette isn't standing on the wrong side of a central dramatic argument and must learn to find and believe the correct answer. Her only real problem is that she isn't kissing Adrien right now. Similar things go for Adrien, who has plot attached to him, but not really any arc beyond going from not kissing Marinette to kissing Marinette. And that's perfectly fine for a show like that, there are plenty of arcs for each individual episode. And sometimes you don't even need that and can just save yourself with twenty minutes of being fun.

The movie is exactly like the show in this regard, and in my opinion, that's a mistake. Marinette is clumsy and afraid of being awesome, but that is just basic hero's journey stuff, that isn't a real character arc. Adrien doesn't have an arc at all. So really, there is nothing here, no theme, no arc. Stuff just happens. The stuff that happens is very adorable in my opinion, but most of it doesn't mean anything.

And really, that seems to be the main point of the movie: Have adorable stuff happen. There are a lot of great trailer moments, but then if you see how they fit together in the movie, well, they mostly don't. There are some cute Adrinette scenes, but they are just here to be cute, they don't actually matter. There's some excellent Ladynoir banter, but it doesn't actually change anything or tell us anything about the characters, it's just here.

The movie certainly pretends that there's an arc here. Marinette gets an "I want" song that tells us she's unhappy about being clumsy, and she'd like to design clothes. We have a bit of a hero's journey. We have a tiny bit of a conflict when Chat Noir is in love with Ladybug, but she can't be in love with him because she's in love with Adrien, and he reacts poorly to that (oh god, are we going to get Adrien discourse again? Please, anything but that!). We defeat the villain, and Marinette learns the "Miraculous Ladybug" healing power. It feels like an arc, but the things don't connect to each other in any thematic way.

And sure, the movie pretends there is a theme here, which is "we're stronger together". Except being together is not really that relevant for the conclusion, and besides, nobody ever said they weren't stronger together.

Weirdly enough, there is one character who gets an arc, which is Gabriel, who realises his mistakes when he sees that Chat Noir is his son. That's nice but comes a bit out of nowhere. And the way Adrien forgives him that easily also feels unearned to me. If you go strictly by which character learned the most and changed the most, you could technically argue that this is Gabriel's story more than anyone, which is just silly.

So it all feels a bit lifeless. Many subplots start and stop at random, and many scenes in between the trailer moments feel too short and lifeless.

The Changes

The other thing that feels weird is all the ways that the lore was changed. I'm totally okay with changing the lore to fit into the movie, but so many of the choices just feel less interesting.

Most crucially, when Marinette falls in love with Adrien in the show, it's the culmination of a mini-arc in which she was wrong about him, and he was bad at social interaction, which they resolve with a ritual umbrella exchange. That is really meaningful. In the movie, Marinette falls in love with Adrien because he's handsome and he asks her if she's alright after she drops some books. That's less interesting.

A smaller detail, but in my opinion even more important, are the Akuma villains. There's no doubt that the gargoyle looks great��� but it's a random person who we don't know. We certainly didn't know Ivan that well at the end of season 1 either, but we had at least some connection to him. Most importantly, Marinette had a connection to him, and so her fear for this guy she knows felt real and important. That's gone here. Same for the other villains. They're all just some guys Hawkmoth found somewhere. They don't matter to us or to the heroes, they're just around. In their fight for great visuals, they made the story less interesting.

There are plenty of other examples where the show weirdly forgoes personal moments. The Adrinette montage, for example, is sweet, but it passes by way too quickly. And it's not like the movie didn't have the time, I mean, have you seen these fart jokes?

When it comes to the superhero fights, I am mostly stumped. The movie invented completely new rules, but these rules are for the most part not better or worse, just different. It feels like they feared they'd infringe someone's copyright, but doesn't Zag own the copyright? I think the lack of insane plans prompted by a lucky charm was a bit sad, but I wouldn't call it a dealbreaker.

The Music

I think the songs were alright, I'm just mentioning them here because I know others hated them. My main issue with them is that they felt so unmotivated. It felt like someone had said, "this is where a Disney movie would have a song, so we'll put one here as well".

The Ending

Cutting there? Come on. Not gonna lie, that part got a big groan at my cinema.

The Nachos

Mine didn't taste that great.

In Conclusion

I really should have written this Sunday or Saturday when my memory was still fresh. But I think you get the gist of it. It was a fun experience, but I think it squandered most of its opportunities. There were fun moments, but the connection between them wasn't really there. Most importantly, the movie just didn't really have any story to tell other than "that Ladybug one". But while that is a fine story to have as the premise of a show, it doesn't really work well for a single movie.

#miraculous ladybug #ml movie #ml awakening #ml movie spoilers #ml awakening spoilers #ml salt #ml movie salt

[suffarustuffaru]

so @alderamiin said subaru for the ask…. yes your ask was the one i deleted on accident whoops 😭😭 BUT HERE WE GO I MADE SURE TO REMEMBER TO DO YOURS WKDNDN (and i LOVE subaru fr i simply could not skip over him also) (pls expect my usual chaotic rambling im so sorry i really am overusing the caps button 😳😭😭)

Sexuality Headcanon: bisexual 👍 subaru being somewhere on the ace spectrum isnt a super strong headcanon of mine compared to the bisexual hc but i am still fond of it <33 bc i do tend to just hc him as bisexual but i suppose i could kind of see it <33 :DD !!

Gender Headcanon: subaru is literally, as we’ve all discussed, like EVERY letter of lgbtq+ i swear. like natsumi EXPLICITLY being stated to be his ideal self….. what cisgender boy has his ideal version of himself be a woman…. come on….. and hes been like. dressing and trying to pass as a girl for his crossdressing pre-isekai too. like subarus Practiced A Lot at this. subaru clearly enjoys doing this and he was crushed when he couldnt pass bc of his voice pre-isekai :(( AND LIKE subaru and his complex relationship to masculinity and feeling insecure in his own skin like……………… and then natsumi being his ideal self…… natsumi being the Heroine……….. and its like. subaru clearly has a case of “do i want to be them or be With Them” when it comes to men hes attracted to (most notably julius.) so like. it could apply to women too. like. and then the way subaru reacts to felix’s presentation too………. i just think it says a lot. i dont care what tappei says but he wrote all this shit in the text fr!!! and also in general. natsuki subaru being a gender neutral name…. same with natsumi schwartz… so yes genderqueer subaru for the win. i personally hc subaru as genderfluid or bigender!! and also like. subaru being Very LGBTQ+ is so in line with rezero’s themes of self love and self improvement and self discovery and Identity. i think it hits so much harder if subaru Is lgbtq+ versus if he was just insecure straight cis man. like no wonder subaru was struggling Even More. hes so so far in the closet and struggling with like the internal homophobia and shit fr :(((

that and 1. subaru being lgbt is such a great subversion of what you would think when you first meet his character. and also a subversion of ur typical isekai protag which ADDS to rezeros subversion of isekai in general and 2. i love making Certain People mad with these hcs. like its so supported by the text the only thing missing is explicit confirmation. which. i have my doubts with tappei on that but iirc he DID say he nearly wrote a lust if with the guys…. tappei. come on. you already explicitly said that natsumi is subarus ideal self.

A ship I have with said character: im very open to most subaru ships!!! i just love a lot of them—reinsuba, ottosuba, emisuba, remsuba, julisuba… i just like how each kind of dynamic with subaru has so much range like even in just main route alone?? and then you factor in the ifs and it gets So Interesting. theres so much history with each pairing and so much to explore, whether its platonic or romantic. and subaru has a LOT of love in his heart.

i just like each pairing for different reasons hah—like ok ive talked a lot about reinsuba and emisuba already in other asks so. i DO like remsuba okay. not in the sense that i want it to be the endgame ship in main route bc thats very much not happening and i would prefer The Most Detailed emisuba development of all time. which would be more thematically relevant <3 but i DO ADORE remsubas relationship in general. like its so so complicated??? like. yeah theres the conflict in arc 2. theres the conflict in arc 7 with her waking up and being different and being so mean to him about natsumi :((( theres her “youre my hero” versus “youre not a hero” WHICH. URHGHF ITS SO GOOD….. and like yeah remsuba really do be. iffy. in terms of how healthy it is. but its so complicated bc you also have rem being like—she was like the first person, narratively, to be willing to DIE to save subaru the exact way he does for other people (including rem). and then the famous from zero scene in season one which is a MASTERPIECE but i hate how people fixate on “i love emilia” LIKE REM IS HAPPY FOR SUBARU. SHE IS HAPPY AS LONG AS HE IS. EVEN IF HE DOESNT LIKE HER BACK. but also he did like her back romantically for a time. and also of course rem had her fixation on subaru :(( subaru had his own obsession for emilia while rem had hers for subaru pre-being gluttonyed?? :(( yeah like. remsuba being so complicated is so interesting to me. like she and subaru are very passionate people yes. but also they do need to learn to tone it down sometimes you know? REM ESPECIALLY TOO BECAUSE EVEN AFTER SHE STOPS BEING MURDERY TOWARDS HIM… FOR EXAMPLE IN SEASON ONE SHE WOULD CANONICALLY GO TO HIS ROOM IN THE MORNING AND WAIT FOR HIM TO WAKE UP…. like she'd just sit there at his bedside and Stare at him... like girl chill a bit its okay T^T i havent read sloth if. but it seems like they learned to mellow out and have a happy life T^T apart from. a shit ton of people dying in the background and also subaru dying of old age and resetting back to arc 3. i am interested to see if we’ll get further remsuba closure in arc 8 yes. but also im bonking subaru on the head in arc 7 for saying even REM TORTURING HIM was a fond memory. pls let this be addressed again later i swear sodndn.

ok also julisuba and ottosuba. i am no expert on julisuba but on the other hand i have analyzed Too Much Ottosuba so perhaps i am an expert there wodndn. but YEAH i love those ships. they have so much history and moments between them and they are. definitely the more Explicit evidence of subaru being bi (between subarus Interest in julius and reid calling julisuba boyfriends and SUBARUS INTEREST IN JULIUS... vs ottosuba repeatedly being like “omg do you Like Like me?” “NO I DONT SHUT UP” and also their continued divorce arc dynamics yep). but also i will say i really like ottosuba because specifically they are the subaru pairing where theyre like. Very Much Closer To Being Equals. if theyre not already equals in something. like in terms of power levels and intellect and their very loving families and previous inability to fit in or be believed by people and also their status in the narrative as Being Just A Guy in comparison to everyone else. and yet ottosuba are the MOST important members to their camp for their jobs—subaru keeps everyone alive, and otto handles All the politics, which we see over and over again. they are literally THE power duo. otto is so so important too as the second person to die FOR subaru the same way subarus died for others. like the paralleling of otto pushing subaru out of the way when the white whale drove otto insane (and later otto tried to go back for subaru once he regained his senses ;-;;;) versus otto pushing subaru out of the way so he didnt get killed by garf ;-;;;;;. and otto being the second person after rem to also give subaru an EXTREMELY IMPORTANT speech to him (otto-rem parallels...???) <33 except ottosuba also foil a lot bc of their Different Morals. but theyre both stubborn as hell and have a tendency to go off and do shit they think is best without telling anyone bc theyre too deadset (hah) on what THEY think. (OTTO. SPENDING A WHOLE YEAR SECRETLY GETTING THE BOOK OF WISDOM AND HAVING IT RESTORED?? HELLO???) anyway yeah ill stop right here bc i have So Much ottosuba posts on this damn blog wkdndn but i really do think the appeal of ottosuba is that they Are on a more even playing ground. and their morality flipflops sometimes. ottos issues are just more lowkey than subarus widndnd. i am. however. nervous about all the ottosuba and vincent-chisha parallels in arc 8 bc………. possible otto perma death on the horizon??? 😭😭😭😭 itd CRUSH subaru.

also of course the similar flavors of julisuba and ottosuba….. u can have ur tsundere x tsundere ships in TWO DIFFERENT FONTS. anyway ill become a julius lore expert someday i promise.

A BROTP I have with said character: BROTP ottosuba and ramsuba are so so funny and great wofndn but special shoutout to garf and subaru in particular!!! i think its interesting how far their relationship has come bc they had a VERY rough start and its like. 1. im sure garf would immediately regret going into a rage and killing a shit ton of people in that One Failed Loop and 2. we learn garf is a traumatized fourteen year old whos been trying so hard to take care of the demihumans inside sanctuary while his sister and mom left him, one way or another, and hes very afraid of the outside world. and its like YEAH now your behavior makes sense. and its so good to see garfs growth and also his growth in his relationship with subaru (and otto) bc he looks up to subaru sm!!! subaru helped garf so much T^T theyre brothers guys 😭😭 i think its so adorable and so sweet. ill defend garf all day everyday. garf 🤝 subaru with their DAMN hero complexes while otto tries to keep them both on a leash so they dont do stupid shit. subaru IS a good role model for garf though ill say that. subaru tries so hard to be a good role model wkdndn. and yes i always laugh when garf teases subaru for drawing doodles and writing encouraging things for emilia in the temple.

A NOTP I have with said character: okay so. maybe i will spill some tea here. hah so i went over in ram’s ask how i think ramsuba in wrath if is actually super interesting widndns but otherwise ramsuba to me is bland. which. i also just feel like subaru/crusch and subaru/ana and subaru/priscilla are also bland. like. i dont think theyll ever feel interesting to me akdndn. like theres not. as much to work off of imo. like i just dont think theyre a good match romantically at all. like At All. priscilla especially LMAO…. and im tired of people reducing women in the story to just boobs and being fucked by subaru 😭😭😭 like i dont have anything against those subaru ships, my biggest notp is just seeing a bunch of characters be butchered just to have subaru have sex with various women. 😭😭 obviously not everyone in the fandom does that but i see this happens the most with priscilla fr. pls. shes more than just boobs :(((

anyway. my other notp is like. echidna/subaru but like. i feel similarly to ram/roswaal on this where its like. theres a potential there to show a nuanced complex toxic relationship bc THAT IS what echidna/subaru are. even more so in greed if. like theyve spent an UNGODLY amount of time together like their relationship is so fucked. like god the amount of details that were added to their dynamic in the greed if ln makes me go INSANE….. like you know how echidna said that subaru could use her body with this contract?? what she ALSO really meant was HEY SUBARU YOU CAN KILL ME IF YOU WANT. ILL JUST COME BACK BC WE ALWAYS MEET IN A DREAM WORLD AND THERES NO CONSEQUENCES BUT ITLL FEEL REAL TO YOU. LIKE HOLY FUCK FR 😭😭 and like in generally reading through greed if ln is a Trip alright. like “no yeah duh of course it is, suffaru, its GREED IF” but LISTEN……. echidna being subarus weird mother figure and then like. idk there are obvious implications i feel from like the body fluid tea and then echidna being like “you can use my body” and then theres a moment where she puts his hand on her chest and yeah its to feel her heart but LIKE…. SOMETHING ABOUT THAT SCENE FELT LIKE. SOMETHING. TO ME. AND THEN SHES SO OBSESSED WITH HIM AND HES DEPENDENT ON HER LIKE JESUS ITS A MESS. ITS LIKE HOW SHE WAS WITH OG ROSWAAL. GOD. *puts my head in my hands*

anyway my real notp is like. depicting echidna/subaru like it is a Healthy Thing like no it is not 😭😭😭😭 it never was healthy and it literally never will be unless ur changing echidnas character drastically. if ur gonna show off echidna/subaru then they are gonna be SO RANCID in like every way possible there is no other correct way to write them. she is terrible for him. she literally saw him and went “i can make him worse” and then it happened. bc greed if subaru is a Terrible Person. like. its not even a question. the biggest example i can think of rn other than obvious Rbd use is KEEPING MEILI. A CHILD. HOSTAGE AND LOCKED UP IN ORDER TO USE ELSA. HER OLDER SISTER FIGURE. JEEZ. my biggest notp of all time is treating unhealthy relationships as if they Arent unhealthy.

MY OTHER BIGGEST NOTP OF ALL TIME FOR ANYTHING IS SHIPPING A CHILD AND AN OLDER PERSON TOGETHER. subaru/petra SHOULD BE AN OBVIOUS NOTP BUT SURE DOESNT FEEL LIKE IT SOMETIMES….. guys she is a child. come on. hes seventeen and shes TWELVE. GUYS…. and then theres tappei making iirc an ACTUAL petra if????? and idk what the content in petra if is exactly but i worry given tappeis track record with the child characters sometimes 😭😭 AND THEN PETRA BEING IN LUST IF. TAPPEI…… N-NOTHING HAPPENS, RIGHT? *EXPLODES WITH RAGE*. even if petra and subaru get together later when theyre Older Adults in some AU or something its like. subaru knew her when she was a young child. and she had a crush on him then. um. personally idk if im fully comfortable with that hah T^T

A random headcanon: GONNA TALK ABOUT WRATH IF. anyway so the wrath if divergence point is that subaru gets beatrice to teleport him away and ram chases him down, ram tries to strangle him to death but fails, he smashes her head with a rock. yes. BUT OKAY when u watch the anime. beatrice comes for his aid AFTER subaru gets to the cliff and tries to psych himself up to like. jump off to save rem and stuff. THEREFORE wrath if subaru still considered trying to rbd via jumping off that cliff. he just decided not to and agreed to have beatrice teleport him away. this is something not many people seem to mention or maybe even notice (??) but I THINK ABOUT IT A LOT…. :((

General Opinion over said character: i LOVE SUBARU WITH MY WHOLE BEING. he is my absolute favorite anime character of all time. his character arc is so chaotic and complicated and i think the way he Does like still struggle with the same Inner Conflicts is so so much more realistic. recovery and self improvement are NOT linear and he shows that perfectly. and i hate how much people misread subaru T^T the whole chadbaru trend in fandom of how he should get harems or how he should leave everyone or be terrible to emilia for *insert a long list of Terrible reasons here* is so. like did we all read and watch the same damn story or what hah. the whole point of rezero is LOVE ITSELF….. and subaru ultimately has a lot of love for so many people around him. though of course i do worry for how rbd reveal is going to be handled, and im not entirely sure how to feel about subarus arc 7 development atm. rbd reveal is gonna have catastrophic consequences for Everyone. like everyone hes ever been close to finding out hes died a shit ton of times to save him?? that so many of them have like. maimed and killed him or at least Tried To Do That? like HOW are we gonna get a happy ending out of all of this—hows tappei gonna handle this?? 😭😭 i worry sometimes that when rbd reveal happens it wont be nuanced or itll gloss over certain things or it just. wont be so satisfying. bc u have arc 7 subaru out here with SUICIDE PILLS……. ARC 7 SUBARU IN REPEATED INSANE DEATH LOOPS AS A CHILD….. how are we gonna come back from this?? 😭😭 i have my doubts sometimes but tappei loves insane character development for subaru so i suppose i will hope. i just wish for all the trauma to be seen and addressed akdndn and the fact that rbd is so. complicated. it makes subaru and his relationships with everyone else so complicated. and rbd is inherently unfair in a lot of ways to both subaru and everyone hes close to. i cant wait for more subaru development but i also think after arc 8 he NEEDS a break or like otherwise, personally i think subarus gonna snap for good and not be able to return from it 😭😭 or ill just have to suspend my uhh disbelief. i suppose. but yes i do love subaru a lot!!! his hair is a Pain in the ass to draw but ill endure the pain just for him. <33

but regarding all of subarus loved ones maiming and killing him a lot—i think its fascinating how the if routes prove he is JUST as capable of ruining all their lives. like i feel like people forget that sometimes in favor of woaaah cool what if routes where subaru becomes “badass”…. but LIKE…. hes SO SO CAPABLE of so much destruction. he is choice itself. he is capable of changing the entire world and everyone around him. he is capable of causing the deaths and trauma for SO MANY PEOPLE… and like i think rezero itself and subarus relationships are like an extreme version of hedgehog’s dilemma, u know? like u get close to people to love and be loved, but ur also very vulnerable to getting hurt. and rezero is About love. and part of close relationships are that ur so close u Can be hurt. maybe you Will be hurt. but u will also Love….. unless ur one of the ifbarus then fuck u for making the wrong decisions ig wodndndn. im telling u guys that subaru is LITERALLY an eldritch being at this rate. todd is so right.

and. okay one last thing im gonna be real for a second. im a little eh on subaru being a child, honestly. like i DO like the trope of turning characters back into their child selves in order to explore their psychology that way!! but like. idk i feel like the childbaru arc is kinda too similar to the whole amnesiabaru arc in arc 6. it feels Extraneous. it doesnt feel different enough for me personally. (emphasis on personally. this is all my opinion hah.) and then he is STILL A CHILD IN ARC 8 EVEN THOUGH THE OTHER PEOPLE THAT GOT TURNED INTO KIDS ARE NOW BACK TO NORMAL…… LIKE…. im sorry but the childbaru has overstayed its welcome by the time we get to arc 8 imo 😭😭

#re:zero #natsuki subaru #ask #arcs 7-8 spoilers #i decided to do ur ask as soon as i could so i didnt forget bc i deleted ur ask oops HAH #i dont know if people like remsuba on here BUT I LIKE REMSUBA OKAY THEYRE COMPLICATED AND I LIKE IT. #and. yep there we go theres my usual ottosuba agenda 😭😭 #if anyone asks me otto ill write even more essays ig 😭😭 HAH…. #i just think. subaru ships have a lot of great flavors. but they also have some of the most rancid flavors in my opinion lmao 😭😭😭 #rancid (affectionate or derogatory) #my reply to these asks keep getting longer and longer aalsdjdfls oh well

[i-am-the-hero-alfred-jones]

OFMD Season 2 Finale Spoilers

That was THE MOST DISSATISFYING ENDING

Now granted, I'm usually dissatisfied with endings that wrap everything up in a neat little bow, because some stories just work better with an open-ended ending.

For example, one of my favorites will always be Labyrinth. Sarah goes back home, but the goblin king keeps his kingdom and power.

Let's talk about WHY I'm so disatisfied (and honestly, maybe that's the point, it sort of seems like they want the fandom to be like that in order to fix it later one, but idk) 1. Stede Fucking Bonnet STEDE DID NOT BECOME A PIRATE FOR ED

This ending is unsatisfying because why would Stede give this up?! Stede LOVES being a pirate, it's Ed who's disatisfied with that life. Stede CHOSE this life, Stede loves this life, for him to leave it for Ed is fucking ridiculous.

STEDE BONNET IS MORE THAN EDWARD'S BOYFRIEND HE'S HIS OWN GODDAMN CHARACTER AND HE'S THE MAIN CHARACTER FOR FUCK'S SAKE

His pirating is what attracted Edward to him in the first place! You can't take that away from him! It makes him a shell of what he is! Stede never wanted the good peaceful life- he had that. He hated it. Now he just has it with Edward. And sure, he loves Ed, but that's not gonna fix his disatisfaction.

-Now granted, this does seem intentional. It could very well be that this inn ending is intentionally there to show both Ed and Stede, that a part of them really does love the seafaring life, and that they want to return to it.

-You know, like a callback to when Stede returned to Mary and realized what he really wanted was Ed. Instead Stede and Ed are going to try the quiet life and realize what they always wanted was the sea. It was just that they wanted the sea with each other.

-If that's the route they take in Season 3 (or a similar one), I can totally get behind it, and I think it'll fix the Stede Bonnet Problem. [For the record, I think they handed Edward's arc CRAZY well]

2. Izzy Fucking Hands

-. . . Guys. . . One the one hand, the monologue he gave when he died NEEDED to be given.

-Izzy does things more with actions than words, and Ed needed to say how much Izzy meant to him, along with Izzy needing to say how much he loves this crew.

On the other hand- way to kill your guys. Way to immediately fall into old tropes and make us hate ya, Dave. Granted, in the past he has played with tropes intentionally, so this COULD be that (in which case he's sitting back and laughing maniacally like the BASTARD that he is-) Where he's making us believe Izzy is gone for good only to bring him back. [I HAVE HOPE DAMN IT]

-There seems to be this idea that Izzy was the last remaining bit of Blackbeard, but Izzy is his own person and he got to grow into his own person during this season.

Of course, now that he has no thematic relevance, to kill him off is fucking pathetic. NOW we kill him, he's of no use to us. Why keep the disabeled gay? We don't need him anymore. THAT is the vibe that we've been given. Now that he's grown, we're done with him. (as if anyone truly stops growing at any point-)

-Buuut, on the one leg that Izzy has remaining,

-This could be a really good way to tie into Edward's story that he is and always has been Blackbeard. That Blackbeard was never Izzy's creation, but rather a part of himself. And he gets to choose what to do with it.

BUT EVEN IF THAT HAPPENS IZZY JUST DIED FOR EDWARD (Sure, what the character always wanted- but not what he deserved)

-If Izzy comes back from the gravy basket (Maybe with Buttons? lmfao-) with a newfound sense of independence and growth (maybe he learns to love again, idk.), this could be beautiful. A beautiful way to fuck with tropes and to show other shows how people SHOULD be handled. Bury your gays, then bring them back fuckers.

If he doesn't, this fandom will never be the same. Nor will it ever forgive it's writers. We deserve better, man.

#infodump #ofmd #ofmd 2 #ofmd season 2 #our flag means death #our flag means death season 2 #our flag means death rant #our flag means death season 2 spoilers #ofmd season 2 spoilers #izzy hands #stede bonnet #edward teach #ofmd speculation #ofmd criticism

[itsclydebitches]

It occurs to me that all the fun of an Alice in Wonderland story kind of gets sucked out when your characters can just beat up everyone there instead of being forced to engage with the nonsensical and unfair rules of the setting. Where's the fun in tricking the Queen of Hearts and playing a bizarre game of hedgehog croquet? Just knock her block off.

I might have argued that RWBY backed itself into an inevitable corner by being a combat show - you have to forsake the bizarre rules and trickery of the Ever After for choreographed fights because that's just what RWBY is and what the viewer expects - IF we hadn't been introduced to the Jabberwock first thing. Plus, you know, Neo is there. We have the perfect setup for classic battles via old enemies/fantasy beasts and new, fun, interesting conflicts that require the girls to navigate a situation with skills other than brute strength... but no. I mean, maybe we'll get something moving forward, but the Prince's game isn't very reassuring in that regard.

You know what I was thinking about throughout that part of the episode? The Magicians. Specifically the scene where Quintin plays Push. Basically, he's a magic user playing a game of War, but in this version the whole point is to cheat. The player who's better at putting the right card in their own hand, the wrong card in their opponent's, or generally just fucking with the deck is the winner; a game of skill, power, and creativity. For all the show's many other problems (oh boy did it crash and burn lol) I love that scene and it kept popping into my head as the Prince yelled about humans cheating while, of course, cheating himself. That cheating could have been interesting, especially with a supposed strategist leading the charge, but as you say, instead we just get another beat 'em up fight. (You know, how Yang also wanted to solve her arm problem.)

Which I'm admittedly ambivalent about because we dodged three potential battles in the first two episodes (vines, Jabberwock, guards) and I was absolutely going, "When is RWBY going to give us some combat?" but it's one of those details that make me wonder why we're in the Ever After in the first place. If the show wanted Ruby to grapple with her depression while engaging in straightforward battle sequences, rather than grappling with her depression via the twisty, metaphorical rules of an alternate reality... she could have just done that in Vacuo. Thus far, three episodes in out of ten, all the Ever After has provided is a weather cue for when Ruby is feeling really sad. Otherwise every important character moment is easily removed from our setting. Some opportunistic Vacuo thief could have stolen Yang's arm. Ruby could have found something that reminds her of Penny among the Atlas civilians (which probably would have made more sense). Hell, people can even ask probing, thematically relevant questions like, 'Who are you?' given that they're unwelcome refugees. I'm slightly interested in the trio remaining small for a time, but beyond that everything we've gotten - Ruby is separated from her weapon, Neo's semblance evolves, Yang and Blake are still flirting, etc. - is not a result of the setting, it just happens to be happening in that setting, which begs the question of why we're taking this Ever After detour in the first place.

#rwde #rwby #mymetas

[lost-tardis-room]

something i've noticed about the difference between good omens and doctor who fandoms rn is that the good omens people are either making funny art or coming up with increasingly unfeasible theories about supposed 'hidden messages' in the show and generally being weird about it going out of their way to say they LOVE EVERYTHING about the show, and the doctor who people are like. damn this sucks.. unfortunately it's also really compelling. oh well <3

like idk the good omens people (generalising here of course) seem incredibly strung up on what Could Be Meaningful and making wayyyyy to much of a big deal out of minor details. and like the show is clever! there are secondary levels of meaning! but not everything is or should be. not everything is a metaphor. continuity errors exist. and the doctor who people (even new fans) are still yknow eating drywall over it but are also like HAHAHAHthat bit was awful. anyways its also incredibly thematically relevant to these other episodes so it's very important you watch it lol.

and i think the difference is that good omens is twelve episodes. just twelve. there's the book of course, which is a different angle than the show, there's the radio version etc. but there's only so much story. and a lot of the version are the plot of the book in different formats. whereas doctor who goes on forever and ever and ever and there will always be more content. so the good omens people are overanalysing the same few moments over and over again because thats all there is, they probably know their content better than the doctor who people, but b/c you only see them in so many Situations, its also easier to begin to warp your perception of them. you only see them deal with a crisis a couple times under very specific circumstances. there are only so many character moments, so things can be blown out of proportion b/c you cant compare it to another similar moment.

but doctor who is infamously long and infamously has a Very large eu so you have a lot more time with the characters to pull together your perception of the characters, even when regenerations and new companions come and go. you simply have more to work with to build your understanding.

like if you compare the 'i just lost my best friend' scene from good omens to any of the 'doctor thinks companion is dead' scenes--crowley reacts like that only once. he is distraught, obviously, doesnt quite know what to do about it at first, doesnt know what's happened to aziraphale--but its a specific moment. bookshop burned down. world is ending. aziraphale Gone. whereas doctor who there's a range of scenarios with a range of reactions--guilt and also hope when bill gets shot and then taken away. anger and denial over clara willingly dying knowing that she must (actually resolved her character arc quite well i thought, though so did hell bent). there are more but i forget. uhm end of s1 second to last episode rose gets vaporised but it's actually a teleport, the way nine responds to that. there's just more to work with!! which i think is why the good omens fandom is so deeply embroiled in arguing over minutiae of character and background detail b/c they dont have anything more to read about them except fanfics (which are obvious a feedback loop in any fandom) and because they only see aziraphale and crowley for such a short time. they cant compare their reactions during times of The Literal End of the World and The Disruption Of Their Quite Nice Life Together And Also Possibly the End of the World to them just chilling.

#idk thats my take on it at least #havent really thougt about good omens much recently but i'm still seeing a lot of teh fandom stuff #had to unfollow a few people though cos. hoo boy. #but yeah. #just something i've noticed #good omens #doctor who #damn this is long sorry. hopefully you see my point