#I need to know backstory. Motivations. Key moments in their childhood.

[dbphantom]

I'm going through some of my H2O fanfic documents for... reasons... and I fucking forgot that I gave every single one of Lewis's family members names that start with L ahsggsgss. Do you think that his parents realized as soon as they had their first kid that they could do something extraordinarily funny. I think that's what happened.

#Also yes the only time we see Lewis's house is in the cartoon and that hurts my soul #I physically cannot write any character until I've done a deep dive on them and this is that part #I need to know backstory. Motivations. Key moments in their childhood. #I wrote up the entire point as to why b4 the events of the story Cleo is afraid of the water/swimming #Gave Rikki a whole backstory from before she came to south coast high #I gave Zane a babysitter/nanny that he had for a while until his dad fired her out of the blue #Like I just. I can't NOT know/understand/develop a character before I write them. It drives me up the wall. #They need at least a LITTLE backstory before I can even think of getting inside their brains and swirling their thoughts like spaghetti #Is it important in the long run? No!!! Probably not!! But like... It helps??? Maybe it's just me procrastinating actually writing but. #I think it helps #Cruddy rambles

[hamliet]

The Crows Summon the Sun

Or, Hamliet’s review of Shadow & Bone, which gets a 4.5/5 for enjoyment and a 3.5/5 in terms of writing.

The true heroes of this story and the saviors of the show are the Crows. However, the problem is that the show then has an uneven feel, because the strength of the Crows plotline highlights the weaknesses of the trilogy storyline. But imo, overall, the strengths overshadow (#punintended) the weaknesses. 

I’ll divide the review into the narrative and the technical (show stuff, social commentary), starting with narrative.

Narrative: The Good 

It’s What The Crows Deserve

I went into the show watching it for the Crows; however, knowing that their storyline was intended to be a prequel, I wasn’t terribly optimistic. And while it is a prequel, the characters have complete and full arcs that perfectly set them up for the further development they will have in the books (which I think should be the next season?). Instead of retreading the arcs they’d have in the books, which is how prequels usually go, they had perfect set up for these arcs. It’s really excellent. 

Jesper, Inej, and Kaz are all allowed to be flawed, to have serious conflicts with one another, and yet to love each other. They feel like a found family in the best of ways. Kaz is the perfect selfish rogue; he’s a much more successfully executed Byronic hero than the Darkling, actually. Inej is heroic and her faith is not mocked, yet she too is flawed and her choices are not always entirely justified, but instead left to the audience to ponder (like killing the girl), which is a more mature writing choice that I appreciated. 

Jesper is charming, has a heart of gold despite being a murderer and on the surface fairly greedy, and MILO THE EMOTIONAL SUPPORT GOAT WAS THE BEST THING EVER. I also liked Jesper’s fling with Dima but I felt it could be better used rather than merely establishing his sexuality, like if Jesper and Dima had seen each other one more time or something had come of their tryst for the plot/themes/development of Jesper. 

Nina and Matthias’s backstory being in the first season, instead of in flashbacks, really works because it automatically erases any discomfort of the implications of Nina having falsely accused Matthias that the books start with. We know Nina, we know Matthias, we know their motivations, backgrounds, and why they feel the way we do. It’ll be easy for the audience to root for them without a lot of unnecessary hate springing from misunderstanding Nina (since she’s my favorite). Matthias’s arc was also really strongly executed and satisfyingly tragic. Their plotline was a bit unfortunately disconnected from the rest of the story, but Danielle Gallagan and Callahan Skogman have absolutely sizzling chemistry so I found myself looking forward to their scenes instead of feeling distracted. Also? It’s nice seeing a woman with Nina’s body type as a romantic and powerful character. 

Hamliet Likes Malina Now

Insofar as the trilogy storyline goes, the best change the show made was Mal. He still is the same character from the books, but much more likable. The pining was... a lot (too much in episode 4, I felt) but Malina is a ship I actually enjoyed in the show while I NOTP’d it in the books. Mal has complexity and layers to his motivations (somewhat) and a likable if awkward charm. Archie Renaux was fantastic. 

Ben Barnes is the perfect Aleksandr Kirigan, and 15 year old me, who had the biggest of big crushes on Ben Barnes (first celebrity crush over a decade ago lol), was pretty damn happy lol. He’s magnificantly acted--sympathetic and terrifying, sincerely caring and yet villainous in moments. Story-wise, I think it was smart to reveal his name earlier on than in the books, because it helps with the humanization especially in a visual medium like film. Luda was a fitting (if heartbreaking) backstory, but it is also hard for me to stomach knowing what the endgame of his character is. Like... I get the X-men fallacy thing, but I hope the show gives more kindness to his character than the books did, yet I’m afraid to hold my breath. Just saying that if you employ save the cat, if you directly say you added this part (Luda) to make the character more likable (as the director did) please do not punish the audience for feeling what you intended. 

I also liked the change that made Alina half-Shu. It adds well to her arc and fits with her character, actually giving her motivations (she kinda just wants to be ordinary in a lot of ways) a much more interesting foundation than in the books. Also it’s nice not to have another knock-off Daenerys (looking to you Celaena and book!Alina). Jessie Mei Li does a good job playing Alina’s insecurities and emotions, but... 

Narrative: The Ehhhhhhh

Alina the Lamp

Sigh. Here we go. Alina has little consistent characterization. She’s almost always passive when we see her, yet she apparently punches an officer for calling her a name and this seems to be normal for her, but it doesn’t fit at all with what we know about her thus far. Contradictions are a part of humanity, but it’s never given any focus, so it comes across as inconsistent instead of a flaw or repression. 

I have no idea what Alina wants, beside that she wants to be with Mal, which is fine except I have no idea what the basis of their bond is. Even with like, other childhood friends to lovers like Ren/Nora in RWBY or Eren/Mikasa in SnK, there’s an inciting moment, a reason, that we learn very early on in their story to show us what draws them together. Alina and Mal just don’t have that. There’s the meadow/running away thing, but they were already so close, and why?  Why, exactly? What brought them together? The term “bullies” is thrown around but it isn’t ever explored and it needed to be this season. If I have to deal with intense pining for so many episodes at least give me a foundation for their devotion. You need to put this in the beginning, in the first season. You just do.

A “lamp” character is a common metaphor to describe a bad character: essentially, you could replace the character with a lamp and nothing changes. Considering Alina’s gift is light, it’s a funnily apt metaphor, but it really does apply. Her choices just don’t... matter. She could be a special lamp everyone is fighting over and almost nothing would change. The ironic thing is that everyone treating her like a fancy lamp is exactly the conflict, but it’s never delved into. We’re never shown that Alina is more than a lamp. She never has to struggle because her choices are made for her and information is gifted to her when she needs it. Not making choices protects Alina from consequences and the story gives her little incentive to change that; in fact, things tend to turn out better when she doesn’t make choices (magic stags will arrive). 

Like... let’s look at a few occasions when Alina almost or does make choices. For example, she chooses to (it seems) sleep with Kirigan, but then there’s a convenient knock at the door and Bhagra arrives with key information that changes Alina’s mind instantly despite the fact that Bhagra’s been pretty terrible to her. If you want to write a woman realizing she’s been duped by a cruel man, show her discovering it instead of having the man’s abusive mother tell her when she had absolutely no such suspicions beforehand. There’s no emotional weight there because Alina doesn’t struggle. 

When she is actually allowed to carry out a bad choice, the consequences are handwaved away instead of built into a challenge for her. Like... Alina got her friends killed. More than once. I’m not saying she’s entirely to blame for these but could we show her reacting to it? Feeling any sort of grief? She never mentions Raisa or Alexei after they’re gone, just Mal, and I’m... okay. They were there because of you. Aren’t you feeling anything? Aren’t you sad? The only time Alina brings up her friends’ deaths is to tell Kirigan he killed her friends when they were only there because she burned the maps. She yells at Kirigan for “never” giving her a choice, but she almost never makes any, so why would he? Alina has the gall to lecture Genya about choices, but she herself almost never has to make any. 

Which brings me to another complaint in general: Alina’s lack of care for everyone around her when they’re not Mal, even if they care for her. Marie dies because of her (absolutely not her fault of course) but as far as we know she never even learns about Marie. She certainly doesn’t ever ask about her or Nadia. Alina seems apathetic at best to people, certainly not compassionate or kind. 

The frustrating thing is that there is potential here. Like, it actually makes a lot of psychological sense for an orphan who has grown up losing to be reluctant to care for people outside of her orbit and that she would struggle to believe she can have any say in her destiny (ie make choices). It’s also interesting that a girl who feels like an outsider views others outside her. But the show never offers examines Alina’s psychology with any depth; it simply tells us she’s compassionate when she is demonstrably not, it tells us she makes decisions when it takes magical intervention to do so. It’s a missed opportunity. This does not change between episodes 1 and 8, despite the episodes’ parallel structures and scenes, which unintentionally reinforces that Alina had little real development. 

Inej and ironically Jesper and Kaz embody the concept of “mercy” far better and with far more complexity than Alina does. The Crows have reactions to the loss of people who even betray them (Arken, etc), learn, and course-correct (or don’t) when they are even loosely involved in having strangers die. They’re good characters because they change and learn and have their choices matter. When they kill we see them wrestle with it and what this means even if they are accustomed to doing so. Jesper can’t kill in front of a child. Kaz wonders what his killings do to Inej’s idea of him.

Narrative: The Mixed Bag

Tropes, Themes, Telling vs. Showing

So the show’s themes in the Alina storyline are a mess, as they are in the trilogy too. Tropes are a very valuable way to show your audience what you’re trying to say. They’re utilized worldwide because they resonate with people and we know what to expect from them. The Crows' storyline shows us what it wants us to learn.

Preaching tells, and unfortunately, the trilogy relies on telling/preaching against fornicationBad Boys. It’s your right to write any trope or trample any trope you want--your story--but you should at least understand what/why you are doing so. The author clearly knows enough about Jungian shadows and dark/light yin/yang symbolism to use it in the story, but then just handwaves it away as “I don’t like this” but never does so in a narratively effective way: addressing the appeal in the first place. If you really wanna deconstruct a trope, you gotta empathize with the core of the reason these tropes appeal to people (it allays deep fears that we are ourselves unlovable, through loving another person despite how beastly they can be), and address this instead of ignoring it. Show us a better way through the Fold of your story. Don’t just go around it and ignore the issue.

The trilogy offers highly simplistic themes at best--bad boy bad and good boy good, which is fine-ish for kid lit but less fine for adult complexity, which the show (more so than the books) seems to try to push despite not actually having much of it.

Alina and Mal are intended to be good, we’re told they are, but I’m not sure why beyond just that we’re told so. Alina claims the stag chose her, but in the show it’s never explained why at all. Unlike with Kaz, Inej, Jesper, and hell even Matthias and Nina, we don’t see Alina or Mal’s complex choices and internal wrestling. 

Like, Inej’s half-episode where she almost killed the guy they needed was far more character exploration than Alina has the entire show, to say nothing of Inej’s later killing which not only makes her leaps and bounds more interesting, but ironically cements her as a far more compelling and yes, likable, heroine than Alina. We see Inej’s emotional and moral conflict. We can relate to her. We see Kaz struggling with his selfishness and regrets, with his understanding of himself through his interactions with and observations of Inej, Alina, the Darkling, Arken, and Jesper.

We don’t explore what makes Mal or Alina good and what makes them bad. We don’t know what Alina discovers about herself, what her power means for her. We are told they are good, we are told she knows her power is hers, but never shown what this means or what this costs them/her. Their opportunities to be good are handed to them (the stag, Bhagra) instead of given to them as a challenge in which they risk things, in which doing good or making a merciful choice costs them. Alina gets to preach about choices without ever making any; Inej risks going back to the Menagerie to trust Kaz. Her choices risk. They cost. They matter and direct her storyline and her arc, and those of the people around her.

Production Stuff:

The Good: 

The production overall is quite excellent. The costumes, pacing, acting, and cinematography (for example, one of the earliest scenes between the Darkling and Alina has Alina with her back to the light, face covered in his shadow, while the Darkling’s face is light up by her light even if he stands in the shadows) are top-notch. The soundtrack as well is incredible and emphasizes the scenes playing. The actors have great chemistry together, friend chemistry and romantic when necessary (Mal and Alina, the Darkling and Alina, Kaz and Inej, Nina and Matthias, David and Genya, etc.) All are perfectly cast. 

The Uncomfortable Technicalities Hamliet Wants to Bitch About:

The only characters from fantasy!Europe having any trace of an accent reminiscent of said fantasy country's real-world equivalent are antagonists like Druskelle (Scandinavia) and Pekka (Ireland). When the heroes mostly have British accents despite being from fantasy Russia and Holland, it is certainly A Choice to have the Irish accent emphasized. The actor is British by the way, so I presume he purposely put on an Irish accent. I'm sure no one even considered the potential implications of this but it is A Look nonetheless.

The Anachronisms Hamliet Has a Pet Peeve About: 

The worldbuilding is compelling, but the only blight on the worldbuilding within the story itself (ignoring context) was that there are some anachronisms that took me out of the story, particularly in the first episode where “would you like to share with the class” and “saved by the horn” are both used. Both are modern-day idioms in English that just don’t fit, especially the latter. The last episode uses “the friends we made along the way.” There are other modern idioms as well.

IT’S STARKOVA and Other Pet Peeves Around the Russian Portrayal 

Russian names are not hard, and Russian naming systems are very, very easy to learn. I could have waved “Starkov” not being “Starkova,” “Nazyalensky” not being “Nazyalenskaya,”  and “Safin” not being “Safina” as an American interpretation (since in America, the names do not femininize). However, “Mozorova” as a man is unfathomable and suggests to me the author just doesn’t understand how names work, which is a bit... uh okay considering a simple google search gets you to understand Russian names. They aren’t hard. I cannot understand why the show did not fix this. It is so simple to fix and would be a major way to help the story’s overall... caricature of Russia. 

Speaking of that... Ravka is supposedly Russian-based, but it is more accurately based on the stereotypes of what Americans think of Russia. Amerussia? Russica? Not great. 

The royals are exactly what Americans think of the Romanovs, right down to the “greasy” “spiritual advisor” who is clearly Rasputin and which ignores the Romanov history, very real tragedy, and the reason Rasputin was present in the court. The religion with all its saints is a vapid reflection of Russian Orthodoxy. The military portrayal with its lotteries and brutality and war is how the US views the Russian military. The emphasis on orphans, constant starvation, classification, and children being ripped from their homes to serve the government is a classic US understanding of USSR communism right down to the USSR having weapons of destruction the rest of the world fears (Grisha). Not trying to defend the Soviet Union here at all, but it is simplistic and reductive and probably done unconsciously but still ehhhh. 

However, I’m not Russian. I just studied Russian literature. I’ve seen very little by way of discussion of this topic online, but what I do see from Russian people has been mixed--some mind, some don’t. The reality is that I actually don’t really mind this because it’s fantasy, though I see why some do. I'm not like CANCEL THIS. So why am I talking about this beyond just having a pet peeve?

Well, because it is a valid critique, and because it doesn’t occur in a vacuum. The Grishaverse is heralded as an almost paragon for woke Young Adult literature, which underlines itself what so frustrates me about how literary circles discuss issues of diversity and culture. Such praise, while ignoring its quasi-caricature of Russia, reflects a very ethnocentric (specifically American) understanding of culture, appropriation, and representation. All stories are products of their culture to various extents, but it bothers me on principle what the lit community reacts (and overreacts sometimes?) to and what people give a pass to. The answer to what the community reacts to and what it gives a pass always pivots on how palatable the appropriation is to American understandings and sensibilities. There’s nuance here as well, though. 

I'm not cancelling the story or thinking it should be harshly attacked for this, but it is something that can be discussed and imo should be far more often--but with the nuance it begs, instead of black/white. But that’s a tall ask. 

#s&b #hamliet reviews #shadow and bone #six of crows #kanej #jesper fahey #kaz brekker #inej ghafa #alina starkov #malyen oretsev #the darkling #darklina #malina #aleksander kirigan #netflix shadow and bone #s&b review

[alaskasmonsters]

No Strings to Hold us Down | Takami Keigo

(spoilers for chapter 299 ahead!) 

requested by @waffleareniceandfluffy​: can I request a hawks x reader where yk how ehe in the car with best jeanist faked his death all that yeah and he says he’s free of his shackles can you do where they’re both free and they discuss his backstory (reader is childhood friend she knows about his abuse) and can you include any other thing chapter 299 with him as like can u make it hella angsty but with a little fluff and definitely a fluff ending.

part two

pairing: takami keigo x fem!reader

w.c: 4.269

warnings: spoilers for ch. 299, some amount of angst (with happy ending), mentions of neglectful parents

a.n: so this took me a hot minute and i’m so sorry you had to wait for so long! it’s also like 4 k words and i don’t know how or when that happened i-... i hope it’s angsty enough and i hope you like it! please enjoy :) <3

The silence hung thickly in the air of the freshly washed car, weighing heavily on you. A glance to the side told you that Keigo was still asleep, head propped up against the window.

He’d fallen asleep as soon as you’d taken off from the hospital, the only sign he was still alive was the even lifting and lowering of his chest.

You knew he was fine, Keigo was the most stubborn person you knew and as long as he hadn’t given up yet, there was nothing that could keep him from going on. Still, there was this little voice at the back of your head, barely an itch, that urged you to make sure just once more, if he was still alive, still breathing, still going.

He’d taken a lot of damage during his battle with Dabi. The villain hadn’t held back, hadn’t even hesitated when he’d burned his wings off, almost ruining the cells in his shoulder blades they were sprouting from beyond fixing, before he had moved on to his face and neck, leaving nasty burn marks behind wherever his hands had reached.

You remembered when you had stormed into his room, ignoring everyone who told you to take care of your own injured first, to take it slow, saying Keigo needed rest now, and you had first laid eyes on his battered form. The bandages covering his body, the absence of his wings, the peaceful look on his burned face as he was still sleeping soundly.

For a moment, a never ending moment, you had thought he was dead. You wouldn’t have known what to do then, when Keigo had actually left you behind, all alone in a big cold world, a world even colder without his silly jokes and genuine smiles. It had been awful, that feeling of dread, heavy and suffocating, that had taken a grip on your throat and squeezed.

Then the beeping of the vital signs monitor had reached your eyes, barely audible through the ringing of your ears and the loud beating of your eyes and you’d been able to breathe again.

Since then you hadn’t left Keigo’s side, even denied Best Jeanists help when he’d suggested to accompany the two of you. He’d wanted to drive, since you were still heavily injured, but you’d denied.

It felt too personal, visiting the house of Keigo’s mother, a woman you’d only met once before but had heard too many stories about, to not be by Keigo’s side when he had to face her after years of separation.

Luckily, Best Jeanist had realized this and instead agreed to meet you back at the hospital later, leaving Keigo and you alone on your ride to your destination.

Out of the corner of your eyes you saw your friend’s body stirring, straightening out of his hunched over position, his eyes blinking open tiredly before he seemed to recognize where he was.

“I’m sorry. I fell asleep,” the robotic voice of the translation app he was using, chimed through the car.

Another reminder of how close Dabi had gotten to him, you thought.

You glanced at him, your eyes falling on the muzzle he was wearing that prevented him from using his voice.

You smiled at him, hands tightening their grip on the steering wheel as you stopped at a red light.

“It’s okay. I’m glad you’re alright.”

You seemed to repeat yourself around him a lot since he’d woken up. “It’s okay.”, “I’m glad you’re alright.”, “How are you feeling?”. At this point you felt like a broken record. If he noticed, Keigo didn’t mention it.

“I’m glad that everything with Best Jeanist went smooth,” the voice chimed back.

You remembered when Keigo told you about it. The plan involved Best Jeanist. Before he’d even asked the man himself about it.  He probably hadn’t been allowed, the commission usually forbade any exchange of important information between the two of you, but Keigo never cared.

He had always told you anything, it’s been like that since forever.

The rest of the 40 minute ride was endured in silence. Keigo was looking out of the window, eyes unfocused, and you tried to focus your attention back on the street. The concerned voice was pushed to the back again.

You arrived soon after, parking the car in an empty spot and exiting the vehicle together with Keigo. The mansion at the end of the street caught your eyes immediately and you were once again impressed how much money the commission was willing to spend to keep their little pet obedient.

“Is that it?” you asked, covering your eyes against the blinding winter sun.

“Inside that house,” Keigo assured, passing you without giving you a second glance.

You let out a sigh, sensing his nervousness, maybe even fear to see his mother again. Locking the car, you followed after him, stomach churning with something you could only identify as dread.

When you arrived at the door Keigo rummaged around in his pockets before he pulled out a key card. He hesitated, grip tight around the little piece of plastic, before turning to you and typing a few words into his translation app.

“Before I fully recover and show my face again...you know there is something I need to be sure of.”

Maybe he felt like he had to explain himself, as if you didn’t already know exactly why he came all the way here to see his mom again after he hadn’t even bothered to keep in touch with her the last few years. His eyes were searching your face, hand on the handle and you gave him a soft nod.

“I know,” you replied quietly.

He opened the door wide and you entered the house.

It looked just as spacey and clean as the outside let suspect. The interior was beautifully put together, the furniture was expensive looking and excessive. It looked all very tidy and you knew that the way everything was decorated has probably been the work of interior designers.

Something about the fact that the place reminded you strangely of where Keigo was living stuck with you. His apartment was just as clean, just as nicely decorated by the hands of strangers, just as well put together.

How ironic.

The similarity of it. Mother and son both separated and still connected through the hands of the commission, the organisation the woman sold her son to.

It made you feel sick, no matter how much Keigo acted like it didn’t bother him, it just seemed to anger you twice as much.

How these people working for the Hero Public Safety Commission managed to make it appear all nice and clean from the outside, sweeping all the unpleasant details under the rug. They made Keigo the perfect hero, paid off his mother and ensured their comfort, ensured your comfort to him. Only to have the man in their debt.

The commission loved how close you and Keigo were, if only to use your friendship against you and use it to their advantage. Although it had only been him they had taken in, fixed up and trained for years, you were just as much controlled by them as he was. Due to your friendship.

They didn’t think of you as talented or as perfect as him. Hawks was charming, impressive, loved by the public, the number two hero! You weren’t even in the Top Twenty, your quirk wasn’t as flashy as most of Japan’s Top Heroes’ and you weren’t as loved by the public either.

You were only useful to them when it came to the dirty work, keeping Keigo in line that was (and you hated it hated it hated it), being the one responsible when he had to get punished after a mistake he made because it was on you when you didn’t pay enough attention, wasn’t it?

And only because the two of you had been childhood friends. Because you knew Keigo better than anybody else in this world, even himself. Keigo did have no issue sacrificing himself, burning himself out in the process if that meant he did a good job. You were the one who had to ensure he was at peak performance at all times.

Of course, being the commission, they had also used their sources (you didn’t believe it was Keigo who had told them, he would have never done as much) to uncover your awful past and find out about your family home just to use those things against you. As leverage. As if Keigo’s safety and wellbeing wasn’t motivation enough.

Your past was filled with pain and regrets.

Your mom, who’d left you with your dad after you were born and your dad who’d turned to alcohol and drugs to numb the pain.

The man had neglected everything. His health, his job, his life...you. So it had been your responsibility to keep the both of you afloat. You had started shoplifting when you were merely old enough to tell the difference between left and right. Everything you’d stolen, you’d taken to keep your dad and you alive.

The commission knew about this and liked to use it against you. It didn’t matter that you’d only been a child, old enough to know better for sure but too young to see any other possibilities for your hopeless situation.

You had met Keigo back then, too, when you’d been 7 and he’d been 8, after you had stolen from a small shop and accidentally caused havoc when you were caught and ran away, causing two cars to crash into each other when you’d crossed the street without looking, which forced one of them to swerve the other way so it wouldn’t hit you.

Keigo had found you hiding behind a group of trash cans in an alleyway crying, saying his feathers had tingled and that’s how he knew something had happened in the city. He had wanted you to return what you’ve stolen but when you had told him in tears about your situation and begged him not to tell anyone he had taken pity on you. Making a promise to not snitch on you if you were being more careful.

That’s how you’d become friends.

Although he’d gotten in trouble for leaving his house, beaten and screamed at by his paranoid piece of garbage of a father, who believed he’d tried to rat him out or something...That didn’t stop Keigo from seeing you again.

You would both sneak out in the middle of the night to see each other, meeting in forests and on playgrounds all around the town. He’d share food with you or bring you little things he’d managed to sneak from his dad’s newest gig.

Since that day in the dirty alleyway, Keigo had never stopped taking care of you. The both of you felt connected through your abusive fathers and (in Keigo's case emotionally) absent mothers. You both had scars you'd rather hide with everyone but never each other and you both felt lost, unable to be yourself in a home you didn't belong in.

You had realized, even at your young age, that you could never let him leave because you’d never find a person like him ever again.

So when the commission got involved, when they took him away, isolated him from his old environment, which involved you as well, your heart broke.

Although Keigo, sweet caring Keigo (who now had to go by Hawks. Commission’s orders.) still never entirely left you. He’d asked the commission for one more favor beside taking care of his mother and him. They had to ensure your safety, get you away from your father and into a better household.

You were the very first person he’s saved and although he tried to downplay it you knew he was proud of the fact that it held him together on days he didn’t feel much like a hero.

These days, it was rather often...

The house remained silent, the calls of the robotic voice for Keigo’s mother echoing through the big room.

No answer followed.

You looked around the room, noticing that what you had called clean before was really just the absence of everything that was supposed to tell someone that this mansion was inhabited. No dirty dishes, no books or newspapers lying around, not even a glass of water on the sink.

“Do you think she left overnight?” you asked, strolling around.

Keigo didn’t answer your question so you turned around to see him standing with his back to you, something clutched into his hand. Curious of what he had found you stepped up from behind him to look over his shoulder, catching a glimpse of what looked like a letter addressed to Keigo.

From his mother.

“Did Dabi use people for this...? How did he even get this far...?”

You hummed softly, reaching up to grasp his shoulder tightly. Keigo had already suspected that it must have been his mother to tell Dabi or people Dabi sent about his real name and family background. Still you knew there was a little part of him that had hoped this not to be true.

Now, though, with the letter that his mom left behind in her abandoned home, there was no doubt about it.

His shoulders sacked and his body hunched over as he let out a deep sigh, barely audible through the muzzle.

“Guess it really was my mother that leaked it then,” for some reason even the robotic voice sounded heartbroken about the fact.

You reached up to card your fingers through the hair at the back of his head, or rather the part that wasn’t covered by bandages.

“I’m sorry, Kei,” you mumbled lowly.

He leaned into your touch and let out another deep sigh, the tiredness that had been edged into his features ever since he had woken up in the hospital bed seemed even more prominent now under the cold lights of the living room.

“When the name “Takami” had been taken from me, the relationship between my mother and i had finally disappeared. I had always thought i was fine with that,” he explained, the robotic voice breaking the silence again.

“What i thought of as being saved was just me turning my back on everything. Even on you, y/n.”

You looked up in surprise at his words, staring at the back of his bandaged head with furrowed brows.

“You’ve never turned your back on me, Keigo,” you assured him, giving his shoulder another squeeze.

How he could even think that he’d ever done as much was beyond confusing to you.

Keigo reached to put his hand on your hand, the skin warm against yours and the touch comforting. He tightened his grip ever so slightly.

“Yes I did,” the speech assistant continued, “After we’ve met again a few years back, I’ve run from you, kept my distance, because you represented what i wanted to be but couldn’t.”

After we met again a few years back.

You’d seen him in the news one day, when you were still training in hero school, and recognized him immediately as your childhood friend, even after all the years you’d been separated.

The huge red wings were a distinct tell.

You had run out of the Starbucks, leaving behind your freshly ordered drink to where you’d heard the incident had occurred. Out of breath and disheveled from all the running you’d gotten there just in time to reunite with Keigo for the first time in years.

Since then you’d never left him out of your sight again, too scared you’d end up losing him again.

Hearing Keigo say that he’d tried the complete opposite, keeping a distance to you because of what you’d represented, something he wanted to be but couldn’t...what did that even mean?

“A guy who helps people...”

Your hand felt cold when Keigo dropped his own again, letting it hang off to his side.

“That’s the only thing that’s returned. Actually it’s refreshing,” he continued.

The air around you felt heavy, suffocating, just like earlier in the car, just like when you’d stepped into his hospital room. Although now the reason for it was a completely different one.

“What do you mean?” you asked quietly, your voice barely a whisper.

“The commission is currently at a stand still, y/n, in total dysfunction.”

You swallowed thickly at the reminder. The commission, the one thing haunting the both of you whenever you were with each other, the organization holding Keigo in an iron clasp and ensuring his obedience with your help...since the Jaku Hospital Raid, since Dabi exposed Endeavor and Hawks, the number 1 and number 2 heroes of Japan, they’d been silent.

Scarily so.

“There is no one to give me orders anymore. And they won’t be able to control you anymore either. I won’t let them.”

You took a step back away from the man when you noticed how violently he smashed the screen, his shoulders tense and the recovering wings under his jacket bulking.

“Keigo...” you tried weakly.

“They won’t get to abuse your kindness anymore, have you chained to me..”

You didn’t have to see the look in his face to know what emotion was displayed on it, neither did you have to hear his voice.

Your heart dropped at the words, at the bitterness he so desperately wanted to put into them but couldn’t because of his injured throat.

“Keigo,” you repeated, this time with more insistence.

“I know why you did it. You wanted to return the favor. I saved you, you save me,” the electronic voice sounded awfully smug all out of the sudden.

Your stomach twisted, a horrible hot sensation built in your chest and you had to clench your jaw to stop yourself from saying the first thing to come to mind.

Which would have been an insult.

You clenched your fists, pinned them to your side as you stared at Keigo’s back, your face twisted into an ugly expression.

“No, fuck that,” you spit, “how dare you?”

His face came into view when he turned half to look at you over his shoulder, eyebrows lifted in surprise at your outbreak.

You snarled, unable to contain the hurt as tears started to build behind your eyes.

You’d always been an emotional crier and you really hated it.

“It’s not about a favor. Don’t say shit like that.”

Hawks cocked his head, eyeing you for a moment before he fully turned towards you. His posture was more relaxed than before but there was a question behind his eyes.

He lowered his glance only to type in the next words...

“What? You care about me so much, sweetheart?”

You scoffed, wiping at your eyes in frustration.

“You know i do, stupid bird brain,” you said, still angry.

How could he even believe for a second that you endured the commission’s whining and yammering out of guilt. How could he not know how much you cared for him after all the years you’d been by his side now, after all the times you’d been there for him.

Keigo grasped your wrist, stopping your frantic wiping to push them away and make place for his own hands, thumbs softly brushing the wetness from your cheeks.

He found your eyes, his own wrinkling at the edges.

“No chains left,” the phone chimed.

You watched in anticipation as Keigo reached behind him, hands moving to his neck, and removed loosened the clasp, pulling the muzzle off.

Now you could see the smile, too.

“To shackle us down,” he told you with a hoarse voice.

“Kei,” you scolded him, looking down at the muzzle between his fingers.

You took a step towards him, closing the distance between you. Then you reached forward to gently run your fingers down his throat. The fabric of the bandages was rough against your fingers.

Hopefully he hadn’t started talking too soon.

“Y/n.”

You looked up at him and caught his eyes that were staring down at you with a determination you’d seen directed at you so often before, but couldn’t deny they had still the same effect on you as if it were the first time. Making your head all dizzy, that was.

“When we’re driven into corners, we find liberation. That’s when a true person’s nature rears its head. That’s why Bubaigawara was such a great guy,” he explained, gripping your wandering fingers into his hand, holding them close.

“At heart, he was desperate to be a help to others. I also want to be like that.”

You smiled up at him, squeezing his skin between yours.

“You’re already like that, Kei. You’ve always taken care of me, haven’t you?” you teased, hoping to ease the tension between the two of you a little.

“I think it was more the other way around, y/n.”

“I don’t-“

“Without you...i would have never known what it is like to have someone care for you. To have someone by your side no matter what. To understand...i think i would have never understood what it meant to love.”

You froze, staring up at Keigo with wide eyes. He tightened his grip around your hand, feeling that you wanted to draw back, instead keeping you close, thumb softly stroking the back of your hand as a way of calming you down.

“I think i love my mother, but that’s more out of obligation than anything,” he explained, searching your eyes but you couldn’t tell what he was looking for, “I never feel like i have to be anything than me when i’m with you. Nothing about being with you feels forced, or like it’s an obligation. It’s just...us.”

The room was spinning suddenly as you felt something cold wash over you. Your chest tightened, your heart daring jump out with every harsh beat against your ribcage.

He couldn’t be saying what he was saying...right?

He didn’t mean that. He couldn’t mean that.

“Keigo...are you saying you love me? As in...in love with me?” you wanted to laugh, just a little, to lighten the mood, but it got stuck in your throat on its way out.

Unlike you the man in front of you looked calm, not at all deterred by your panicked state.

“Yeah, I do. I think I have for a while now, but i didn’t fully realize until recently.”

Still gripping your hand in his left one he raised the other to your face, gently cupping your cheek. You leaned into the touch instinctively.

A faint smile tugged at his lips at your action.

“It’s alright if you don’t return my feelings, but I think you do.”

You frowned in thought.

You’ve never thought of the man in front of you as anything else than just Keigo, the kind hearted boy whom you met in a dirty alleyway, the one that brought a little girl food and presents every now and then. The teenager who wrote letters once in a while to keep you up-to-date. The man who you spend your free days with, eating chicken and watching movies.

You meant it when you’d said you wouldn’t leave his side, not if you had any say in the matter. Now, you weren’t entirely sure what you meant with that.

Stay with him? Forever?

Maybe Keigo was right.

He was always able to read you better than anybody else, just like you were the one to know him best as well. That’s also why he noticed your inner turmoil just by looking at your screwed up face.

“May i kiss you?”

Your breath hitched, warmth spreading through your chest as your heart fluttered in your ribcage.

“Yeah.”

His lips were warm against yours, the touch soft and delicate. Like he was testing the waters, giving you the opportunity to pull away if you wanted to.

The feeling was foreign to you. You had kissed other people before, quick pecks, sloppy kisses, passionate making out...But this, this felt different to all of them.

He kissed you gently, carefully, holding you with a delicacy you weren’t used to.

Your heart pounded in your chest as your knees suddenly grew weak, hand reaching out to curl around the back of Keigo’s head, urging him even closer.

He pulled you in, accepting the closeness happily as he deepened the kiss. The taste of toothpaste invaded your mouth.

Your mind went blank, the only coherent thought you were able to grasp was that you were making out with Keigo...in his mom’s house.

How ironic.

Your lips tingled when the two of you parted again, the aftertaste of peppermint lingering on your tongue. The warmth in your chest had spread to your face and you weren’t sure if you were blushing out of embarrassment or glowing because wow...that was something.

Keigo was staring down at you with an undefinable look in his eyes, but he looked happy, content like this and it made something in your chest flutter softly.

You did that.

“I-“ you started but the wide grin spreading on your face against your will, growing despite your attempts to suppress it with a bite to your tongue, made your voice die with a squeak.

The man chuckled, the outline of his wings moving under the fabric of his jacket and the thought of Keigo ruffling his wings joyfully in response to your obvious happiness...you wanted to kiss him silly.

“I think i love you, too, Keigo.”

He might have been the happiest bird man in the whole entire world when you said those words and for a moment...just one small moment, you really felt like the two of you could be free.

Taglist: @crystal-lilac​

#bnha spoilers #bnha #mha #bnha manga spoilers #bnha 299 #keigo takami oneshot #keigo takami x reader #keigo takami fluff #keigo takami angst #takami keigo #bnha oneshots #bnha fluff #bnha x reader #mha oneshot #mha fluff #bnha angst #hawks oneshot #hawks x reader #hawks fluff #hawks angst

[shenanigans-and-imagines]

So I've seen some reylos defend Kylo Ren's redemption arc because they say that we should be more open to characters getting redeemed in stories. It made me wonder, what do you think defines a good redemption arc and which characters are allowed to be redeemed?

That is a really complicated question.

Redemption arcs are always personalize to the character.  A childhood bully is going to have a very different kind of redemption arc to a war criminal.

I do think there is a way to reform most characters, but in order to make it satisfying the character themselves has to be interesting.  Reforming a Saturday morning, purely evil villain doesn’t work unless you put in the leg work to make them more nuanced.

I think when people say they’re tired of reforming villains, it all comes down to the writers not putting the leg work to make the villains nuanced characters.  They just slapped on a tragic backstory and called it a day, not taking into account how their actions have effected the world and other characters.  It sends a message to the audience that no matter how much a person has hurt you, so long as they say they’re sorry, you should forgive them, which is a dangerous lesson.  You’re not required to forgive people.  And you’re especially not required to forgive people if they don’t make any real effort to make up for the pain they’ve caused you.

As for Kylo Ren specifically, his redemption was doomed to fail from the word go.

It is very obvious from the first moment that he takes off his helmet, that Abrams is going for a Zuko style redemption arc.  He’s a character who we see making bad decisions and are supposed to be rooting for him to wake up and realize he’s going down a dark path. 

But, here’s the problem.

We don’t know who Ben Solo is.  With Darth Vader, we are told that Anakin Skywalker was once a kind and powerful Jedi.  We then get the Prequels and The Clone Wars to expand on who he was before.  In Avatar: The Last Airbender, we get “The Storm” which shows Zuko being a wide-eyed child who is willing to stand up for others.

We never get to meet Ben Solo.  We don’t know who he was as a Jedi.  We’re never told what kind of student he was.  We don’t meet any former friends.  We have nothing.  The only reason we’re rooting for Ben to come back to the light is because we don’t want Kylo Ren ruining the happy ending of the characters we do care about, namely Luke, Leia, and Han.  And that’s not enough reason to care.

We also never see why he went to the dark side.  We are told Luke felt darkness rising in him, but we’re never shown what exactly that darkness was.  All we know is that there was some darkness in Ben, Luke tried to kill him, and then Ben was like “well, guess I’m evil now”.  And I don’t want to hear any of you say, “well in the novelization” or “in the comic” or “if you listen to the commentary” or any of that bullshit.  We are looking at the movies and movies alone.  And in the movies, we don’t get any motivation as to why Ben fell to the dark side and without the insight into why he’s evil, there is no solid foundation on which to reverse it. 

With Darth Vader, he turned to the darkside in a last ditch attempt to save his wife.  And when everyone he had known was dead, all he had was Palpatine.  So, his redemption comes with saving his son’s life.

With Zuko, we see how messed up his childhood is.  His father burned his face off and banished him on a fool’s errand.  We see that the Firelord has no love for Zuko, so his redemption comes only after Zuko realizes this and knows he has to make it right. 

Ben doesn’t get anything, which leads me to a key point in what redemption arcs always need; suffering.

We need to see these characters atone for their actions.

For Zuko, it’s renouncing his throne and going to help the Avatar, which include a number of episodes with individual characters of the squad allowing time for him to bond with each of them.  Not to mention his years of exile, face burning, and just getting his ass kicked by the world in general.

Darth Vader’s redemption comes at the cost of his life.  There was no other way he could be redeemed after killing so many.

Now some of you may be saying, “but Ben died to save Rey doesn’t that mean he suffered?” To which I say; no.

Zuko had to go through seasons of suffering before realizing the error of his ways and then fighting to change it.  Darth Vader was turned into a monster before finding his humanity again and coming back to the light.

Ben has been large and in charge of the First Order.  We never see him really suffer at the hands of Snoke or anyone else.  And he changes his mind after one two sentence conversation with his ghost dad.  Again, since we don’t know what turned him to the darkside in the first place, his moment of revelation of the evil that he’s done never hits home.

His dying and apparent love for Rey comes out of fucking no where, with no tie to his redemption or anything else. 

His redemption arc is completely empty, void of any meaning. It is a tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

And if you don’t believe me Reylo shippers who I am sure have read every word of this post, I leave you with this little test. 

Picture, in your mind, Danny DeVito. 

Now, picture Danny DeVito, playing Kylo Ren, including that final kiss at the end of The Rise of Skywalker.

Does Kylo Ren’s redemption arc feel narratively satisfying now?

#kylo ren #ben solo #star wars #the force awakens #the last jedi #the rise of skywalker #redemption arc #writing #the danny devito test #sorry it took me so long to get to this #i had a lot of thoughts #long post #anti-abrams #bad writing #anti-reylo

[dalekofchaos]

Giving Draco Malfoy a redemption arc in Deathly Hallows

Long and detailed post that you may be tempted to scroll past, but hear me out: Draco Malfoy would have become an amazing character if he joined Harry, Ron, and Hermione and gotten a full redemption arc throughout the span of Deathly Hallows. Near the end of Half Blood Prince just before his death, Dumbledore tells Malfoy that he knows Malfoy had been planning his assassination all year long and offers him and his family protection from Voldemort. Now what if at that moment, Malfoy had actually lowered his wand and agreed, asking Dumbledore to help him? Dumbledore could assure him that he doesn't have to follow his father's path and that he is his own man who has the freedom to choose who he becomes. The rest of the scene can play out as it does--the Death Eaters barge in, Snape kills Dumbledore, etc, but we get verbal confirmation that Malfoy does not want to be a Death Eater anymore. At the very end of the book, he can go directly to the trio after Dumbledore's funeral, having hidden away from the other Death Eaters during the battle, and ask to join them.

Of course, all three undoubtedly would reject any proposal for help that Malfoy has to offer, but Malfoy could insist that he truly means well. After all, Voldemort now knows that he had failed to kill Dumbledore, so Malfoy knows he would likely be killed if he returned. Now that he's gone, he'd be branded a traitor and would immediately be executed if he was found. He also insists that he can be very useful to them since he has insider knowledge on the Death Eaters that could be precious info for them. As proof of where his true loyalties lie, he and Harry perform an Unbreakable Vow in which Malfoy swears his loyalty to Harry for as long as his family is safe and away from Voldemort and that he and his family will never again turn to Voldemort's side. It would be a really cool image: two bitter rivals--a Gryffindor and a Slytherin, one branded with a scar and the other with a Dark Mark--coming together after six years to put an end to the one who threatens their families (which will play a very key role at the end of the book).

Now here are all the great moments we could get if Malfoy had become a main character for the final book:

Malfoy--like Harry--would have to be disguised as a Weasley cousin and, much to his disgust, would be forced to interact with and be among the family he's mocked all his life. And while the Weasley children would certainly be quite mean to him, I'd imagine Arthur and Molly would share some sympathy for him and treat him quite warmly, and this could be a big moment for Malfoy as he sees the Weasleys show each other such love and compassion that he's never really seen in his own family before.

Malfoy could be the one who gives information on Dolores Umbridge owning Slytherin's locket, which he knows from being with the Death Eaters, and gives the backstory of Gellert Grindelwald, whom he would know presumably from being a Slytherin and the son of Death Eaters.

Malfoy's presence would add more incentive in Ron leaving, perceiving Harry as even trusting Malfoy over himself. During Ron's absence, this could be a great time for Malfoy to start bonding more with Harry and Hermione in his place. We could learn more about his childhood and about his inner psyche, undoubtedly earning him sympathy points from the audience, and during this time he could formally apologize to Hermione for all the years he's been racist towards her.

Malfoy Manor would be the greatest test to his loyalty, with the gang being captured by Snatchers and Malfoy being returned to his parents. While the others are being imprisoned and/or tortured, Malfoy would be offered a chance to start again. If he and his parents bail now and go into hiding, they could leave behind the entire war and stay in safety, and since Malfoy wouldn't be betraying Harry to Voldemort, he still would be safe from the Unbreakable Vow. This would be the biggest milestone in his character arc as he willingly chooses to not flee and instead to help his new friends, playing an integral part in helping the gang escaping the manor. Malfoy learns for the first time in his life to prioritize the needs of others over his own as Draco Malfoy escapes from Malfoy Manor. Oh, the ~symbolism~.

For the entire second half of the book (and all of the Part 2 movie), Malfoy would be a changed person. For the first time, he calls the others by their first names and insists they call him Draco, as he no longer wishes to be associated with the name Malfoy. He's much nicer to others and they, in turn, respect him as well. He helps in Dobby's funeral and is repentant that he mistreated him so poorly before. He's no longer motivated by the desire to be just like his father like he was all his life nor is he motivated by a desire for self-preservation, but now by a new desire to forge his own path and to do the right thing.

Draco helps aid in breaking into Bellatrix's vault (using his Death Eater knowledge). Instead of Harry, Draco would be the one who performs the Imperius curse on the goblin (it makes way more sense for Draco to be able to perform this curse successfully rather than Harry, who's never done it in his life before).

Later during the Battle of Hogwarts, Draco could actively speak to all the Slytherins about his experience as a Death Eater and rally a group of Slytherins to fight to protect Harry, which would be a great chance to emphasize to the audience that not all Slytherins are evil Nazi children.

In the Room of Requirement, Draco is confronted by Crabbe and Goyle and tries to persuade them to join him, but they are too dead-set on their old ways and Draco has to fight his former friends in order to protect his new ones. Unlike the book, which makes it basically an accident that the diadem was destroyed, Draco could be the one who definitively destroys it.

Draco could also be the one who opens the Chamber of Secrets to get the basilisk fang. Sure, it doesn't really make sense that he would know Parseltongue, but it makes a world more sense for a Slytherin to have tried to learn some words of Parseltongue than Ron just happening to know how to open it like it was in the book.

And here's probably my favorite addition to this change: For the final fight between Harry and Voldemort, Draco's redemption arc could better explain the Elder Wand's change in allegiance as well. Instead of the wand switching allegiance from Draco to Harry because Harry yanked it out of his hand in the Malfoy Manor, it could instead be explained that because Draco swore an Unbreakable Vow to fight for Harry, the Elder Wand interpreted this act as Harry becoming Draco's master, and therefore the wand's master as well. After all, the wand values strength and power above all else, and would never choose to stay with a wizard who swears fealty to another. This small change would be a really great thematic moment since the whole series hammers in how Harry and Voldemort are different because Voldemort fails to understand the true power of love and friendship. Harry wins the wand's allegiance not by physically overpowering Draco (like in the book), but by befriending him and accepting his help. Voldemort thinks he's become the Elder Wand's owner through acts of power and violence, but Harry becomes the wand's true owner through an act of loyalty and friendship.

I definitely think the seeds should have been sown far earlier, maybe in the fourth and fifth books. We first need to believe he can change if we are to truly accept him as wanting to change. However, this post was purely limited to the span of the final book.

I also do think that there is a lot of merit to the idea that it's more realistic for someone who grew up privileged and misguided as Draco did to have a harder time going against these beliefs, but to that I say that's basically what we got with Snape. He was a Death Eater through and through, and even when he starts helping Dumbledore it's for purely selfish reasons. It's not until much later in his life that he finally starts to appear to do the good thing for the sake of the greater good and not for his own selfish desires. I think having Malfoy go through a redemption arc as a 17 year old would be a great way of showing how he's managed to avoid becoming Snape. He's been proven wrong about his ideology now as a teenager so that he can learn and grow from it, whereas Snape didn't realize the error of his ways until he was an adult and therefore took much longer to become someone willing to do the right thing.

Source 

#Harry Potter #Draco Malfoy #Drarry #Dramione #Slytherin #Harry James Potter #Ron Weasley #Hermione Granger #Redemption Arc #Redemption

[beautifulterriblequeen]

If your Runaan is King theory is true, do you think there might be any parallels between Runaan and Lain friendship and Harrow and Viren friendship (before Viren was taken over by dark magic)? And if Harrow died before he and Viren drew apart, would he have asked Viren to take care of his kids (same way Lain did with Runaan)?

Oh man, this is such a fun question! Gosh gosh gosh. I think there should be parallels there, yes! Lain is Runaan’s BFF, and Viren was Harrow’s. Like, that parallel is already there. The BFFs have/had a wife, and the leaders have had spouses too. There’s a group of four for each of them, two couples, with these pairs of men as the closest friends. 

Both sets of relationships are complicated, and though we know a bunch of the issues Viren and Harrow have dealt with, we really don’t know much about Lain and Runaan’s friendship or how it’s affected their friend group and marriages, aside from two things: Lain got Ruthari together by encouraging Runaan to tell Ethari how he felt, and Laindrin trusted Ruthari with Rayla’s upbringing. That’s kind of all we got so far.

But I would love to see a handful more really key mirrors and parallels in place. Some things that are the same, and some that are different. That’s really how this show’s characterization works, so I’m practically expecting it.

Viren and Lissa divorced because Viren was creeping her out with his dark magic, apparently. Lain and Tiadrin are still together, and they fight as a dedicated battle couple. But that doesn’t mean they didn’t face some kind of crisis moment too, where maybe Lain had a hard choice to make and Tiadrin decided to support him instead of pull away--or maybe Tiadrin was the one making the choice. 

Maybe it involved having Rayla? Or joining the Dragonguard? If Lain was the one invited, and he really wanted to go, Tiadrin would have to choose between staying with Rayla or staying with Lain. That’s a big echo of Claudia’s “Don’t make me choose!” right there, so maybe there’s something to that? (I have an angsty hc that Runaan, as the assassin leader, sent them both to the Storm Spire for many reasons. If one of them was to prevent Tiadrin having to choose, and if he chose to suffer the loss of both so they could remain together, gosh...) If they struggled with a decision and then left together, then Runaan and Ethari would have to support their friends’ departure while trusting that they’d be stronger together. Oh man, the feels.

Harrow and Viren are both men who will do things on their own if they must. We saw Sarai as more of a “I can go with you or leave you to your folly but clearly you need my help” kind of person when it came to the Magma Titan mission. And iirc there’s a tweet out there saying that Tiadrin and Sarai would be great friends if they met under peaceful circumstances. 

So maybe Tiadrin, with her tactical mind, has the same approach as Sarai, and Lain is more of a “Dude, bro, dude, let’s just do the thing, bro my dude my guy, I gotchu.” He’s very supportive, but that can also become enabling if it goes a little too far, so maybe Lain has gotten Runaan into some tight spots, or at least not talked him out of said spots, over the course of their friendship? And it was Tiadrin who saved their butts, which she does not let them forget. I can see Sarai teasing her boys about their follies and her needing to save the day, too, gosh I love that.

We don’t know what kind of societal role Lissa had. I’ve been assuming she didn’t fight like Sarai did, but I could be super wrong on that. If she isn’t a combatant, then she actually kinda parallels Ethari. Three fighters and someone who doesn’t fight, but with the pairings are swapped. That just adds more possibility to the paralleling options, though. 

And I’m wondering, maybe Runaan and Ethari had a moment like Lissa and Viren, where Ethari might’ve had to choose whether to stay with this stabby idiot after he saw something very unpleasant. Perhaps it was Runaan getting his scars? Viren sacrificed someone (presumably) to save Soren’s life. Perhaps Runaan nearly sacrificed his own on a mission. There’s a really dark parallel with these two about how little they value life--extra ironic and complicated for Runaan as a Moonshadow--and I can totally see a big scary moment happening where their spouses realize exactly how different their loved one’s philosophy is from their own. Except that Ethari stayed and Lissa left. and now Runaan has gone but Viren remains, aaaaa

I wonder how the other couples might’ve played out, there. When Viren and Lissa split, how did Harrow and Sarai handle it? What did Harrow try to do for his friend? Did they try to reconcile the couple? Probably. That could’ve felt like political pressure to Lissa. And I wonder if Harrow even knew what Viren had done to save Soren’s life, that he killed someone. I bet Viren wouldn’t tell him that part. Maybe he even lied, because his need to be Harrow’s friend, to be close to power and allowed to practice his magic, was so strong.

Lain and Tiadrin would’ve tried to talk to Runaan and Ethari too, I’m sure. They’re both assassins, just like Runaan, so they’d see his side, and Ethari might’ve felt very pressured as well, to just submit and go along. Not just as a freaked out spouse, but as the craftsman who made weapons for the assassin leader and for others, keeping them safe. If he left... who would keep Runaan safe? That’s kinda sus, bro. But I can see the Moonshadow logic in it.

Viren has attached himself to Harrow as friend and protector, and he’s dedicated years of his life to helping Harrow protect their people. Possibly Lain had the same motivation? “This guy’s important, so I wanna be his friend and help him out with that.” That’s not a bad thing at all. Viren’s motives were a little tainted by dark magic. Maybe Lain’s a stand-up guy. But maybe he also has some kind of self-interest involved in being Runaan’s best friend, too. Moonshadows be complicated.

tl;dr: Yes anon I am very here for an interwoven, complicated friendship between Lain and Runaan that involves spouses and plenty of good and bad history, similar to the long and complex relationship between Harrow and Viren. I am jonesing for more moonfam backstory so bad.

As to your other question, I do think that Harrow would’ve wanted to entrust his children to Viren before he and the dark mage drew apart. The question that arises for me is: when did that begin? 

I think it began with Sarai’s death. Harrow had his own plan, but he trusted Viren and did it his way, and he lost his wife in the process. Fifty thousand lives is a lot more than one life. But that one life was the most precious one to Harrow, and it made the sacrifice personal in a way that losing fifty thousand citizens never would be. 

Harrow might still have given his kids to Viren. But Amaya was also a choice. The general or the mage? Neither are super safe for a childhood environment.

Interestingly, in this parallel, Amaya is a lot more like Runaan: the fighter, who would’ve trained Callum and Ezran to fight because they grew up in such a dangerous environment. I wonder if there was another option for Laindrin to give Rayla to, one that was more magical, or more dubious? Lujanne comes to mind! Hah, can you imagine? Crikey!

I think that if Harrow and Sarai needed to give their boys to someone, Sarai would advocate for Amaya and win: “With troops like Gren and Corvus and the whole Standing Battalion to protect and raise them, there’s no safer place in all of Katolis!” It sounds like something Tiadrin would say about leaving Rayla with Runaan and Ethari, amidst the assassin corps. It’s not ideal by miles, but I can see why she, as a warrior herself, would see safety and a like-minded community as the strongest benefits.

If it was only Harrow, after Sarai died, it might still be Amaya, because his trust in Viren had begun to fracture, but it’s hard to say. I get the feeling that Harrow has never really seen Viren as dad material, even though he has kids. That hug thing in the S1 novelization was really weird, and I will never unsee Viren saying “familial clasp.” Viren, why are you like this. Anyway, Harrow might just decide that leaving his kids with a guy who literally doesn’t know what a hug is, might not be the best move for their emotional development.

He’s a good dad, an angry widower, an iffy king, a great jokester, a loving husband, and a loyal friend. He’s as complicated as Runaan is, kings or no. But I hope that he and Viren had many years of true friendship, just like I suspect Runaan and Lain have had. Positive, healthy relationships are good for everyone.

Please though, TDP, moonfam friendship stuff. This parallel is begging to happen and things don’t feel balanced without it. What’s that, there’s not enough time? 

*magically sprinkles five extra minutes onto each episode* Reality schmeality.

#asks #viren #harrow #lain #runaan #tdp parallels #king runaan #moonfam #amaya #rayla

[dmsden]

Campaign Basics - Fleshing out our villain

Hullo, Gentle Readers. In our last article in this series, we came up with what stat blocks we would use for our heroes to encounter the Angel of Chaos, the titular main villain for the campaign we’ve been putting together. Now, it’s time to go beyond stats and flesh out our villain. We want them to be compelling and memorable, so we want to give them some distinctive features and an interesting backstory.

Adziel (the name I chose in the last article) was an angel, so what happened to make them change the way they have? I posited last time that they were an angel in the service of Valerius, the god of chivalry, and that they had become infected with Chaos. They have become convinced that Valerius is too weak to continue to hold back Chaos. The only way for Civilization to be saved is for a more aggressive, powerful deity to take Valerius’ place, and they intend to become that deity themself.

In a way, this is a retelling of D&D’s fall of Asmodeus. We haven’t really talked about what place the devils fill in the cosmology of the Beyond the Borderlands campaign. It’s possible that the Archdukes do not yet exist. It’s even possible that Adziel *is* Asmodeus, and that we’re going to tell the story of their fall and “Rise”. If the PCs defeat Adziel at the end of the campaign, perhaps the gods then step in and create a new order of “angels” whose job it is to hold back Chaos in the lower planes. Adziel and their followers could become Asmodeus and the devils, giving the PCs a front row seat to this cosmic event. I hadn’t thought of this before sitting down to write this article, and I love the idea, so I’m almost certainly going to plan on that. That’s likely a long way off, however, so I’m going to put that aside for now. Before we get to this ending, we need to see what happened to begin the beginning.

I’m thinking Adziel was the Guardian Angel of one of the Keeps on the Borderlands, back when they were many. Perhaps Adziel saw the signs of the coming assault by Chaos and tried to get Valerius to intervene to save the city they loved. Valerius might have made an error, or they might’ve known that, tactically, the best move was to sacrifice Adziel’s city in favor of saving Shieldwell Keep. 

So this sparks me off on a bit of Worldbuilding, as these things often do. Perhaps each Keep had its own Guardian Angel, eight of whom will now be Adziel’s lieutenants, flocking to the Angel of Chaos’ banner because they too blame Valerius for the loss of their Keeps. Why eight? So that they can be the other eight dukes of Hell down the road.

The other thing is makes me think is that I will need to develop an NPC Angel to be the Guardian Angel of Shieldwell Keep. This is likely a figure who could be a patron and benefactor of the PCs, so I’ll want to have them in my back pocket, especially later, when a party cleric might gain the Planar Ally spell. Likewise, when a PC cleric casts Commune or something similar, it might be this Guardian Angel that intervenes to give aid. Just a bit of world flavor, but something I’ll want to develop more.

So there’s a decent motivation. Loss makes people do crazy things. I imagine Adziel in the ruins of...oh...their Keep will need a name, because the ruins of it will almost certainly be an adventure site at some point in the campaign. Perhaps we’ll give it a name that faintly foreshadows badness. The name Grimstone Keep leaps to mind. That was its original name. Perhaps now, it’s known at Bloodstone or Dreadstone or something similar. It’s similar to Shieldwell, but broken, crumbling, lonely, and menacing. Maybe the PCs will even see its ruin in the distance as they head to a different adventure. It might seem like just a bit of world-flavor when you describe the sad ruins on the hill, long since picked over, but it will be important later.

So what is Adziel like when encountered? I imagine them as being extremely sad, almost like Blue Diamond in Steven Universe. Rather than normal tears, however, perhaps blackish blood constantly streams down their cheeks from their dark eyes. Riffing off the Blue Diamond concept, maybe anyone of Good alignment who comes within a certain aura of them must make a Charisma saving throw or begin to weep blood as well, imposing Disadvantage on attack rolls and Perception checks made to see anything, as well as doing hit point damage on successive rounds. That’s a neat and memorable idea.

Personality-wise, I think Adziel is kind and gentle towards good characters...right up until the moment they know the PCs cannot be swayed to their cause. At that point, all that sadness becomes a cold disdain. The PCs aren’t wise enough to understand the scope of Adziel’s plans, and now they are of no use. If they directly oppose Adziel, that disdain becomes an intense rage. How dare these mortals interfere? Clearly, they are the ones infected with Chaos, and they must be swept away like chaff.

I want some other trait to make Adziel really memorable. What if Adziel is guarding the final descendant of Grimstone? This could be a child who the PCs can encounter - a complete innocent who believes wholeheartedly in Adziel’s plans, trusting the angel implicitly. Ironically, saving this child might’ve been the first step in the angel’s fall. Ordered to stand aside, the angel didn’t trust Valerius to save the people of Grimstone. Adziel directly interfered, which allowed Chaos to bring greater force to bear. This led to Grimstone’s utter destruction, but Adziel doesn’t understand the part their actions played in this.

Since I dig this idea, I jot down a few quick thoughts. The child has no memory of her name, her parents, or where she came from. She is called Summer by Adziel, who keeps her locked in eternal childhood. She is sweet, trusting, innocent, and will immediately befriend the PCs when they meet. Perhaps this is the key to causing the angel’s surrender, much further down the road. On the other hand, the child’s death could also begin an endgame, but not one I like the idea of.

I’m starting to feel like I have a solid concept here, and one that will likely spark many stories. I especially like the idea that the little girl, Summer, appears before each time the PCs meet Adziel. This will likely be creepy and disturbing for them. In the next article, I will flesh out the elements that I think will represent this storyline and how I might use it in the “sandbox with benefits” theory of story design that I’m favoring these days.

#D&amp;D #d&d #d&d campaign #beyond the borderlands #angel of chaos #d&d 5e #d&d 5th edition #D&D 5e homebrew #d&d 5 #dnd #DnD stuff #dnd campaign #DnD 5e #dnd 5th edition #dnd 5e homebrew #dnd 5 #Dungeons and Dragons #dungeons & dragons #dungeon master #dungeonmaster #DM advice #GM Advice

[nettlestonenell]

Armie Hammer wants a sequel to The Man From U.N.C.L.E.—shouldn’t you?

This post is a long time in coming, Gentle Readers and @jammeke​, but now, though it might be here, before your very eyes, to think it will be well-laid out would be a mistake. It’s set to be just about as messy as Ilya’s misplaced loyalties and murky motivations.

How dare!

I probably first watched this film well over a year ago (courtesy @jammeke​ posting things about it). I used Sling OnDemand (I think on TNT). In the ensuing viewings I also watched it in that way, but as I was sitting down for a fourth(?) viewing, it kept coming to me that I was tired of watching it with commercials I couldn’t skip, and I had a sneaking suspicion that it had been edited for time and I was missing out on scenes. [pointless aside: I was also watching the film in chunks, and never as a whole]

Where is she now? What’s the time stamp? How far along did she get? Are you shagging the hotel hostess yet?

So, I, uh, set out to buy it on DVD—without any luck! In the sense that copies I could find cost more (w/ shipping) than buying it to stream. So, I bought it to stream on Amazon. Do I regret my choice, Gentle Readers? No, no I don’t. I do regret burden of knowledge in learning that TNT was already playing the entirety of the film. That was a hard pill to swallow.

Nope, I’ve looked. That’s absolutely everything. Nothing additional lurking around here...

So here it is, as it is, @jammeke, “My Notes on The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”

Look, I don’t know what this film is. I probably can’t fully articulate its appeal. Or maybe I can--certainly after transcribing four page I’ve tried. Number One thing to know about me and fiction/films is that a top draw for me is seeing something out of the ordinary, such as beautiful locations, a historical era, delicious costumes. There are times, frankly, this can trump weak story and undefined character for me. (The best films, of course, combine all three) Certainly, The Man... delivers in the delight of the eyes. Additionally, I must confess that growing up as a person older than @reblogginhood​ but younger than Miss Fisher, so much of what was on TV was essentially reruns of this film’s iconic Look(tm). So, when I see women dressed like Gaby I am just another three-to-seven-year-old overcome with the drop dead glamour of it all.

Darling, tell me how you really feel...

Some questions I have:

·         IS Armie Hammer a hulk of a man? Everyone in this film seems to think so, yet he always tracks to me as trim (rather than hulking)

·         Why translate via captions some Russian speaking, but not all?

·         IS Napoleon’s backstory directly cribbed from USA’s White Collar?

·         DOES Gaby have a German accent?

·         Does Ilya get preternaturally attached to all the people he’s ordered to look after? Also, what is his bonding rate with kittens?

Sorry, wrong iteration. 

 ·         If Lady Villain knows the lens is wrong—if her technical understanding is that in-depth--does she really need Gaby’s dad to make the bomb?

·         How old was Gaby during the war?

·         What happens when Ilya gets a NEW puppy assigned to him? (please let this be addressed in film #2)

Hooray for:

·         That bathroom fight! *all the Burn Notice feels!

·         Gaby is her own lady, and chooses sides as necessary—not always unilateral in her support for either male character. Case in point: she sides with Ilya over the clothes, and Napoleon over the incident of the wallet.

·         That delicious (speaking as Rusty, here) Ocean’s 11-stylized action. It’s pretty, so I’m not bored with it. Sometimes a sandwiched montage gets shown, so I’m REALLY not bored. I’ve got 18 tiny moving boxes of things to look at!

·         Pinkie rings. There, you’ve told me everything I need to know about that character.

·         Solo in a beret. English has not yet found a word for the feeling it evoked in this viewer. Somewhere between ‘precious’ and ‘oh, no’.

See, there? Now you’ve felt it too.

·         Goggles! All the accessories! Dune Buggies! (I mean, that’s what I’m calling Napoleon’s chase-scene ride)

Things I adore:

·         It seems (after some research) that more than a few folks view Gaby as a third wheel, and though she’s not exactly a Princess Leia commandeering her own rescue and exuding competence and a deserved take-charge-attitude at every corner, she IS a foci for both male characters (though romantically it would seem only for one), just as Ilya is a foci for both her and Napoleon [no one seems to worry about Napoleon, though they should--film #2, anyone?]

·         Mechanic Gaby not needing a beauty makeover, or being dragged into one. She gets some nice clothes, but it’s never suggested that she’s not attractive or acceptable before putting them on, and I respect, nay, embrace it.

Oh, my heart. She’s still not as tall as them!

·         Ilya, drab pigeon Ilya, knowing fashion

·         Oh man, don’t even get me started on the power of the statement, “it doesn’t have to match”

·         You knew it was coming on this sublist: the wrestle-fight. I mean, c’mon. Poor little Gaby, locked behind the Iron Curtain, living a life of always being watched. She’s in the swankest hotel (I mean, Napoleon chose it, so we can be sure it’s swank with an E). She’s trying to celebrate her freedom, her liberation. She’s playing verboten music, she’s drinking to excess. Girl wants—and deserves—a party. And Ilya is…not built for that (that he knows of). For some fun, just imagine if she had been given Napoleon to room with instead.

                            o   I will say that this scene, and some of their other interactions have what I would call early (non-sibling) Luke and Leia energy. Ilya seems to have moments of being struck by Gaby in a way Luke is struck by Leia in the early part of the trilogy. When Leia takes charge, and Luke accepts it. When Leia does something incredible, and Luke is left open-mouthed. *no, I don’t see OT Star Wars in everything. Shut up.

·         “He fixed the glitch.”

·         Again, shout-out to the non-action action.

·         “I left my jacket in there.”

·         The whole race to rescue Gaby I am in love with beyond words. [I have noted it as “Crazy Jeep Drive with Warhead!”] Probably b/c it comes across as totally egalitarian. Both men want her rescued. They’re no longer in competition. It’s just as important to Napoleon as it is to Ilya to catch up to her. Also, it is bonkers, like some sort of X-games version of a commercial for the vehicles they’re driving. And screaming Willie Scott does not make an appearance.

         Someone says “winkle” out.

·         Look! Another note about the screen divisions and how I love it, shout-outs to the original Steve McQueen The Thomas Crown Affair (a contemporary of when this movie is meant to be set), and TV’s 24.

Things that get a great, big NOPE:

·         Jerrod Harris: you’ve been in so much streamable content in the last decade I can’t hate you, but frankly, you’re terrible here—unless you’re supposed to be giving a mannered, not-campy-enough-to-be-enjoyable performance here. Your American English puts me in the mind of Alex Hawaii 5-0′Loughlin where it feels you’re concentrating so hard on your accent that you fail to convince anyone that you’re a harried, over-worked and exasperated spy handler. Your performance is at odds with every bit of dialogue you’re given to say.

·         That awful, mishandled title that doesn’t even connect to the film until the final moments (a sequel set-up, for sure)

·         Look, you don’t introduce Hugh Grant casually mid-way through your film in a throwaway appearance. I mean, he’s HUGH GRANT we all know something’s up now.

·         This is not exactly a great big NOPE, b/c I love a flat cap, Tommy Shelby—but I feel like a less tall man with a far rounder face in a flat cap would track more as Russian to me that AH does. To me, he just looks like he’s about to go golfing.

Over par? Unacceptable!

·         Is Victoria a British-accented Italian? A British woman who married—what? Gaby’s uncle isn’t Italian!? An Italian who went to school in Britain? My head hurts. Also, is her hair meant to be unconvincingly bleached?

Other commentary:

·         Napoleon’s adult ne’er-do-well backstory is so far from being emotionally equivalent to Ilya’s childhood trauma [and his enslavement to the USSR] it seems bestial when he calls it out on multiple occasions. Badly done, Solo.

·         Gaby is the film’s key (sorry, Buffy fans). Everyone is connected to her. Yes, she could have been given a bit more on the character front, but I don’t see her as as much of a flaw in the film as some others/reviewers seem to.

·         Look, essentially (and not very nuanced-ly), Ilya is a stalker. I think the film goes a certain distance in establishing that his early behavior toward Gaby is not normal, but concurrently it does not truly call him out on it. He’s essentially viewed as an odd-duck, sure, but not a true threat to her (should she not reciprocate or tolerate his intensity toward her). I think I might be able to cite his behavior when Gaby comes on to him (that he doesn’t jump at a chance with her) that maybe he’s given a little more nuance than a straight-on stalker, and it helps that he and Napoleon never get into a pissing match over Gaby’s person, only over her new clothes. But overall the film has to walk a fine line (and the jury is still out on how successful it is, I’d say) between playing Ilya’s laser-like attention to Gaby for its humor, and calling it out for the unsettling, threatening behavior it is.

·         Honestly, it wasn’t until I engaged the Closed Captioning that I understood Napoleon was calling Ilya the ‘Red Peril’. So, that was nearly three viewings in.

·         I give the screen credits A+, on both ends. Not to mention the end credits are actually INTERESTING with lots to see and learn! (Certainly we learn more about HG in them than we do at any time during the film)

Things I would have liked:

·         More of fish-out-of-the-Iron-Curtain Gaby moments

·         A better dichotomy shown of East vs. West Berlin/Germany. There’s nothing easy either visually or otherwise to distinguish the two.

·         HC being given a more specific American accent (from an actual locality). This, for an American viewer, works better than the flat, unlocated American accent many a British actor will bust out. *Mind you, HC does a generally good job, but he fails utterly on both “Immediate” which he pronounces at least twice as “immeedeejt” [rather than imm-E-deeot] and “Nazi” as “NAHT-zee” [rather than “NOT-zee”]. And let’s not get started on that late in the film use of ‘earnt’, a word that—well, it’s just not in the American English twentieth century lexicon.

·         C’mon. You gotta tease the Hugh Grant more.

·         Solo is a blank before the war. I’ve read thoughts on the film calling out Gaby as the blank character, but they’re wrong. Solo is the blank. He’s the ‘made’ man, his identity seemingly assembled during the war and after. For example, he doesn’t go into the war a thief, nor (it would seem) a particularly educated or urbane individual. Now THAT’s a juicy backstory I’d love to learn about, perhaps in film #2--or #3? What creates a Napoleon Solo? What would he be doing if he weren’t on the government’s leash/incarcerated? Is anyone left caring about him back wherever he calls home? I mean, who doesn’t love a gender-flipped 60s-era Holly Golightly backstory? [And yes, I would love there to be an ex-wife or even a current wife mixed up in his origins as well—Guy Ritchie, call me!]

Notes I have that I’m not sure if they still make sense to me:

·         Only mom calls me Napoleon (do he say it ‘mum’?) Is he a secret Canadian?

·         Solo’s torture, 1st view recall Napoleon’s childhood? *I think this means that after watching the first time I somehow erroneously believed that during the torture Napoleon’s childhood was a topic gone over. This was wrong. HOWEVER, this would have made far more story-sense than the backstory we’re given on an easily disposeable villain.

·         “Even the average Russian agent. You’re special.” ?

·         Uncle is Baddie (*so glad I made this note to myself)

·         Ilya’s dad IS an embarrassment. I’m not sure what genius commentary I had in my mind, here. Perhaps that Ilya himself is embarrassed of him? Not just Ilya’s handler’s? [Also, aside: Napoleon totally slut-shames Ilya’s mom, which is the doublest of double standards from ‘I got myself the biggest and most ornate suite b/c I-wanted-plenty-of-space-for-my-random-seductions’ and I really wish Ilya had thrown that back in his face] *yes, of course I know that Ilya and Napoleon would not likely equate a wife/mother’s sexual exploits with that of Solo’s, but let’s be honest, this film tweaks the nose of (I won’t say reverses, it doesn’t go that far) plenty of tropes and gender expectations, and this certainly seems like a missed opportunity to call Solo on the carpet (which I hope film #2 does far more)

Things I wrote down so long ago I don’t recall what they mean:

·         CC-save

In conclusion:

What does film #2 look like? What title does it get? Will the Peter/Neil White Collar dynamic continue to grow? *note that I have no confidence a second film will ever come to pass...

In the end, all I know is, “It didn't help when American Tom Cruise, who was slated to play U.S. spy Napoleon Solo, dropped out, prompting the casting of Cavill (who had previously read for the Russian role).“ I would not have watched that film.

#tmfu #tmfu 2015 #ilya kuryakin #napoleon solo #gaby teller #henry cavill #armie hammer #alicia vikander #the man from uncle 2015 #the man from u.n.c.l.e. #the man from uncle #i don't know what this film's tags are meant to be to keep it from popping up in the TV series searches Sorry

[letterstothemidnightsociety]

It’s 2020 and my anxiety level is so high, I grind my teeth while I’m asleep and awake!  But let’s ignore all that and instead focus on critically analyzing America’s premiere soap opera for monster hunting! It’s Supernatural! 

As you may have already guessed, I watch a lot of TV. And in the Year of Our Troubles, 2020, when I’m encouraged to stay home and indulge in my favorite pastime for the health of the nation, I watch a hell of a lot of TV. When you watch that much TV, you start to notice the rhythm and the flow of how seasons of television progress. You probably notice it too, even if you don’t think about it as much as I do. 

Like, you know that episode that happens right near the end of the season where all the characters are happy? They’ve overcome a whole bunch of obstacles and they’re finally winning and they can see that light at the end of the long tunnel? You know the one I’m talking about. That’s the moment that you, as an audience member, know things are about to go downhill very quickly

Like when Poldark smiles over something and you’re just like, ah yes, I’ll prepare for the funeral. 

Season 1 of Supernatural is like a case study of the rhythm that makes a network show work. There’s this wave effect throughout the season, building the tension up for a few episodes and then sliding through the next handful. Look at the first five episodes: they’re all about holding our breath, we’re gasping at every new turn - death and ghosts and monsters and Family Drama and Bloody Mary and PREMONITIONS AND THEN we let it out over the next three. 

Aaaaaaand exhale!

This first season especially, but I’d argue the first three definitely, you can see this pattern repeated over and over again - building the tension, ramping the horror, bringing it to a major Mythos or Series Arc Moment and then releasing all that tension with a cool-down filler/self-contained episode. 

And that’s where I am in the show now. We just had a major series arc episode with “Shadow” - John finally reunites with his sons, the villain is revealed (Meg and also the demon that killed their mom), and the endgame (for this season at least) is in sight. BUT! We’re a network show with 22 episodes to fill, and we can’t just head straight into the Finale Fight now, we’re only on episode 17! I mentioned in my last post that getting the team together again for all of 6 minutes and 44 seconds (yes, I did go back and count) felt like a slap in the face. I assumed it would have something to do with Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s shooting schedule, but looking at it again, it probably had more to do with the fact that it was too soon to bring John Winchester back as a major player.

So our next episode, our breather episode after all this High Drama, should feel a little disappointing to anyone caught up in the arc of the season. But. BUT. But. The next episode is “Hell House."

Yes, this is a filler, but this is filler done RIGHT. I mean maybe it’s just cuz it’s 2020 and I’m very tired and sad and scared all the time, but I was SO HAPPY to see Ed and Harry again, guys you don’t even know. Guys, the GHOSTFACERS ARE HERE!

And man, I am SO glad that this is a recurring side team that shows up throughout the series. Pease no one tell me that they die in a later season, I’ll find out eventually, I just can’t handle it now. 

They are the anti-Sam and Dean. They have no idea what they’re getting into, they have no idea how to hunt anything, but they’re here to get famous and that’s just...it’s beautiful guys. Just beautiful. 

Plus, you have this soft b-story line where Sam and Dean get to be Real Brothers for a hot second and prank the shit out of each other the whole episode. It’s like even Sam and Dean are saying, yeah, we need a break from all the feelings, let’s put itching powder in each other’s boxer briefs. I want to say that I was really annoyed the first time I watched this and did not care for these shenanigans, but this time around, it was a REAL JOY. 

I’m also not mad about this.

And this breather feeling sort of carries over into the next few episodes. Sort of.  

“Something Wicked” is another feelings-heavy episode. Backstory! Child-eating Monster! Tiny!Dean! I think Dean maybe cries again? Or just does that thing where he stares into the middle distance, all pain and torment and chiseled jaw line and I’m doing it again, I’msorrynotsorry. 

You know. THIS face.

All of these things lead to an episode that has a lot of character development and strengthens the bond between Sam and Dean. Sam literally validates Dean’s whole existence by apologizing for fighting him on this job and then saying “I know I’ve given you a lotta crap for following Dad’s orders, but I know why you do it.” It’s a lot. It’s a big moment from Sam, who hasn’t really reconciled with John yet and who’s still hoping for a future that isn’t all about killing every evil sonuvabitch they can find. It’s a big moment for Dean, too, since his main motivation is protecting his family and (from his limited point of view) that family keeps trying to leave him. And while we do get some insight into the f-ed up childhood that was forced upon our eponymous heroes, there’s nothing really driving the season’s plot forward in this episode. 

Same goes for “Provenance”. This episode is another good horror episode. I mean, even if that painting wasn’t possessed by a murder orphan, it is deeply haunted and I hope props burned it when the production wrapped. And what is it about ghost children particularly that’s upsetting? Is it the size? Is it the fact that their eyes are too big for their heads at that age? I mean, it probably has something to do with perverted innocence and goodness blah blah blah, but also their hands are tiny and so all the knives look bigger.

Same, Sam.

Aside from that, Sam gets another nice growth moment where he gets to imagine a world after Jessica. He’s been so fixated on finding Jessica’s killer - I’d argue more so than his mother’s killer albeit they are the same entity. That’s not a judgement against him, mind. He knew and loved Jessica, he did not know his mother, so I’m not mad about that character decision. But the show is really wrapping up the Jessica plot line because that won’t have legs in a season 2. And that’s harsh, so I’ll temper it with the fact that Sam, as a human being, is getting to the final stages of processing his grief and starting to move on with his life. Plus, I think that Dean wingmanning his brother is adorable and I love it. Good Brothering, Show! 

But nothing in this episode has anything to do with the killer Sam’s been fixating on, so there’s no progression for the season’s main arc. 

Last but certainly not least on this disc of my season 1 box set is “Dead Man’s Blood.” My notes on this episode include the key phrases “I’m pretty sure this episode is...dumb?”, “ I...do not care for vampires,” and then like, two lines later, “Nope. Still don’t care for these vampires.” They’re just making up some random-ass lore and their fashion sense is SO 2006 and I just...I just hate them. 

I hate them SO MUCH.

BUT! That’s not the point of this episode. The point of this episode is to point us towards the season finale. FIRST, we start to see a little bit more of the world that the Winchesters inhabit. We actually meet another hunter, Daniel Elkins. He dies immediately, but that’s a cold open for ya. And when Sam and Dean go to investigate Elkin’s death, John comes back, this time for good (haha, lol). We get a real taste of the family dynamics in this episode - John and Sam fight and come together and fight and come together and Dean’s standing there kinda like, SPONGEBOB! 

You know, Plankton! Krabs! Dean Winchester! Right? Anybody?

All sides have good arguments, and I appreciate that none of the conflict between the the three of them feels forced, or at least, it doesn’t feel forced this watch. The fights all come from deep character places that have been established through the whole season. They’re natural progressions of what we’ve come to expect of these characters. 

And finally, most importantly, John knows how to defeat the demon that killed their mother. Enter Deus Ex Colt Revolver. 

Colt Revolver Ex Machina?

CAN I just take a break for a second to say that BOTH Elkin AND John were ready to WASTE PRECIOUS COLT BULLETS on VAMPIRES, who can be killed IN OTHER WAYS?? Listen, you make a magic gun that only works with these  like, 5 BULLETS, and then you just THROW AWAY A BUNCH OF SHOTS, GUYS??? ALSO, what the HELL does Haley’s Comet and The Alamo have to do with this STUPID GUN??? I JUST- you know what, we don’t have time for all that. 

Attaining the Colt is the brick they drop on the gas pedal to drive us into the season finale of season 1. 

Wasting a some PRECIOUS F*CKIN’ BULLETS, GUYS.

When you look at the season’s pacing at the outset, it seems like it shouldn’t work. I was that person who felt disappointed in each episode where it became clear we were definitely on a side quest, not the main quest.  Watching it now, though, I think that pacing is important. Yeah, the Monster-of-the-Week episodes are a little hit and miss, but sometimes you have to think of a TV season like a marathon and not a sprint. There will be times when you pick up the pace, yes, but it’s a long race and you’re gonna need some periods of recovery if you’re gonna make it to the finish line. And frankly, a lot of those side quest episodes ended up being my favorite episodes of the entire series. 

NOW. I doubt you would see this sort of structuring in a show today, specifically in shows that don’t get a 22 - 24 episode order. You MAY get, MAY, a Ghostfacers-type episode thrown in after a major emotional climax for that breather effect. MAY. But if Supernatural was made today - probably for an online streaming site, probably with only 10 - 13 season order - I don’t think you’d see episodes like “Something Wicked” or “Provenance” or “Faith”. The nice thing about short seasons is that you can keep the storytelling focused and tight, but I also think that can be a weakness as much as it is a strength. What do those three episodes all have in common? They’re strong on character and relationship development. We, the audience, get a deeper understanding and appreciation of the Winchesters and how they work and grow as a unit in these episodes. So if we’ve watched this far, through bugs and ghost trucks, through all their little victories and major setbacks, we’re well and truly invested in how the season is going to end. 

I’m not saying you can’t have big character moments in a shorter season. And I’m not saying that a show more focused on plot, on the What Happens rather than the Who It Happens To, is a bad thing. But watching this season over again in comparison to present day television seasons, it’s highlighted what Supernatural did right. On this side of the series, it’s easy to see why the show went on for another 14 years.

#Supernatural #Supernatural Season 1 #Sam Winchester #Dean Winchester #John Winchester #Hell House #Something Wicked #Provenance #Dead Man's Blood #cw #WB #Televsion #Television History #15 SEASONS #And this is where it all started

[thegodskeeper]

Roll Initiative and Draw Your Cards

This post began life as a Patreon exclusive post! To see posts like this at least thirty days before the rest of the world, please consider supporting me on Patreon! 🎲🏹🤺💔🧩

Roll initiative! As some of you may know, when I’m not looking at my runes and figuring out my life, I like to play a couple of roleplay games. I have a weekly Pathfinder game, and in fact one of my main characters is also a diviner. And a storyteller. Perhaps they’re looking over my shoulder while I make this post… They say to write what you know, so I guess that applies to roleplaying too; which is where this little idea sprung up from! Ever have trouble thinking up what character you want to play for a new campaign? Then perhaps this six-card “spread” can help you learn a little more about your deck and build a character at the same time. Let the cards be your GM!

Since this is an entirely new idea (to me) I actually took this concept to a couple of people on the Diviner’s Anonymous server and asked them to help me test run it and give me their thoughts! Big thanks to beamagical​, centerpointwitch​ and the-odd-aardvadillo​, especially for unraveling some of the kinks in the first draft. In this tutorial, we will be creating three characters - one for each of my beta-diviners - and explaining how they built the characters that they did.

Fun bonus fact: some aspects of how you signify “you” in this method are a little sneak-peek at the Wandering Oracle system that I am hoping to debut on mu Patreon.

What you need:

A tarot deck - physical is best. If you happen to have to use an online deck or an app, then you’re going to need a piece of paper or some other way to keep track of all cards already drawn.

A character concept (optional) - we don’t want the key details, that’s what this system is for, but if you happen to have a real inkling to play a Chaotic Evil half-elf called Daisy Dukes, roll with it!

A roleplay system - I had Pathfinder in mind when writing this up, but it should be adaptable to Dungeons and Dragons, Dark Heresy, Changelings… it’s designed to be open-ended. If you’re going entirely from scratch, I would heavily recommend looking up the d20PFSRD.

Start by shuffling your deck and drawing cards until you find a face card (ie. any of the suit cards beginning with Page, Knight, Queen or King). That is your character’s class.

Analyze the key traits of the card, and decide what role would suit someone with that sort of personality, or those kinds of personal skills.

Keep drawing cards until you find a Major Arcana card (ie. the ones without suits, such as Temperance and The Lovers). This is what motivates your character in their chosen class.

Note: Whether or not you choose to use reversals in your character is entirely up to you. Some may have an obvious meaning, while others may seem irrelevant. Trust your gut, or honestly, go with whichever sounds more exciting for you to play!

Example 1: Cas drew ‘The Page of Cups’ and ‘The Heirophant’, and settled on “an idealistic Bard who aims to learn every heroic epic they can”.

Example 2: Bea drew ‘The King of Wands’ and ‘The Magician’, and decided that their “character is  a Paladin, and their motivation is personal power”.

Example 3: Alene (also) drew ‘The Daughter/Page of Cups’ and ‘The Emperor’, and thought of “a Rogue from a noble house who ran away from home to be in control of their own life”.

Next, draw another three cards; any cards. These are the cards that tell you about different parts of your character’s backstory. At this point, hold on to any jumpers - they may be extra information you might not otherwise have thought about, perhaps a plot hook to save until a special moment in the game.

Family and Childhood

Career and Evolution

Beliefs and Influences

You can analyze these cards the same way you did your class, as well as considering what they might mean in the context of what we learned in the first two cards. What are the key traits of the card? What might this mean for your character, knowing your class and goals? Think of it like a three-card tarot spread, and build your backstory based on how each card relates to the next.

Example 1: Cas drew ‘The Knight of Swords’, ‘Temperance’ and ‘The Two of Pentacles’. In their words, “basically [my bard] studied anything they could as a youth, and their studies of heroic songs showed them how few and far between heroes really are. So they became a paladin, a knight of goodness to help any they can.”

Example 2: Bea drew ‘The Eight of Pentacles’, ‘The Hermit’ and ‘The Five of Wands’. In their words, “my character came from a family of craftspeople. They made shoes, but my character really didn't like the social aspect of being a salesperson, so they wandered off. While they were out wandering, they realized that the world is not a safe place and that they needed to learn to protect themselves, so they learned how to fight and became a warrior.”

Example 3: Alene drew ‘The Father/King of Wands’, ‘The Two of Wands’ and ‘The Three of Wands’. In their words, “my rogue decided on their path after leaving their Noble background and their father behind. They were joined by two loyal companions and are boldly going in their new direction but probably still have some internal conflict to resolve due to their upbringing and relationship with their father.”

Finally, draw cards from your remaining deck until you find a Minor Arcana card (anything with Wands, Cups, Pentacles or Swords in the name). This final card helps determine your character’s reasons for joining up with an adventuring party.

Yet again, it’s time to analyze your card. What key traits do you have? Did your character have ties to members of the party beforehand, or are they a true newcomer? Are they simply traveling with people for security? Did they even want to be in a group? Do they have a score to settle?

If your GM has given you a little bit of story to work with already, then you can align your results from this step with the overall plot, as well. Who says the GM needs to know everything...

Example 1: Cas drew ‘The Six of Pentacles’, and is thinking their character met the party ‘on order of their god… to join a group’.

Example 2: Bea drew ‘The Nine of Swords’, and tragically their “character was about to jump off a bridge, and someone saved them”.

Example 3: Alene drew ‘The Son/Knight of Wands’, so their character ‘charmed their way in’.

Bonus Rounds!

Still want to add some spice to your mix? Keep on piling on those cards:

Does your character have a secret? Draw a Major Arcana card from the remaining cards, but keep it hidden from the rest of your party. Analyze the key traits of this card, and how they relate to the “main spread”. Perhaps you have a secret alignment (oooh) or you used to work for the bad guy (aaah).

Is there an important NPC(s) in your character’s life? Draw face cards from the remaining cards - as many as you want there to be characters - to learn a little about their personalities and roles. If you can’t find any left, then maybe your character has no ties (oh no!).

Not settled on an alignment, yet? Draw another card, any card, and see what it says. All together now… “time to analyze the key traits”.

So, what building blocks do you have to create your character? Has this method been helpful, or has it left you even more confused than before? If you don’t think you have enough to work on to build a detailed personality or backstory, why not do a reading for your new character! A good ol’ Past / Present / Future reading may give you some more hints.

If you think you have enough to work with without that, then now it’s time to go hogwild! Name your character, figure out their age, figure out their race (if you haven’t done all this already). And then take that character out into the wide world over yonder and throw some monsters at them. Happy adventuring.

#tarot #roleplay #lee talks

[littlemisssquiggles]

Pinehead Headcanons: Oscar’s Other Rose

Someone asked “ You ever notice how you can literally just take any screencap of Oscar looking at Ruby and 99% he has a soft look in his eyes and a soft smile too? I did, and I lose my mind over it all the time. “

Squiggles Answers: 

You are indeed correct about that anon-chan. It’s adorable that Oscar has grown attached to Ruby enough that he now looks to her both for inspiration and out of care for her own well-being. Be it in support or in need of motivation, Oscar has eyes only for Ruby Rose. As a matter of fact, you just helped spark a new Pinehead headcanon which I believe may be my favourite one yet, my dear anon-ninja.

To my fellow Pineheads who are curious about Oscar’s past life living in Mistral with his family, have you considered this concept:

What if…the Atlas Arc will introduce us to a second Rose who shares a history with Oscar?

For the sake of this headcanon of mine, I’m going to christen this character fittingly ‘Rosaline Fox’ or simply Rose for short and this character will share inspiration from both the Fox and the Rose from the Little Prince. 

What if…when Oscar was a young boy growing up in the farmlands of Anima, he had a childhood best friend named Rose who used to live next door to him during a timeline where Oscar still lived happily with his parents (or single mother since I’m still rolling with that theory) back in his old neighbourhood before he moved in with his Aunt and Uncle.  

Imagine…Rose Fox being part of the brighter half of Oscar’s life and the two were close friends since they were in diapers until Rose moved away to Atlas with her parents when Oscar was seven years old. Since then, he never saw her again until they surprisingly reunite with each other in the hallways of Atlas Academy.

I really, really love this concept because it could potentially be a way for the audience to learn more about Oscar’s life. As we know, the main series doesn’t highlight Oscar revealing much more about himself beyond the generic ‘he’s a fourteen year old farm hand from Mistral’. While some Pineheads are satisfied with this and believe that this is all we need to know about Oscar, as you know this squiggle meister firmly but respectfully disagrees. I understand that Oscar is only a supporting character but he’s still part of the main cast of heroes and holds as much importance to the plot as characters like Jaune, Nora and Ren. If we can get to learn that Jaune has seven sisters, even being introduced to one of them in V6 in addition to having a full episode focused on Ren and Nora’s backstory then the same could be done for Oscar, right?

I know all three of these examples were given because the plot set aside time to demand that these stories be revealed since they were relevant to the narrative. We had to learn about Jaune’s sisters since one of them housed our heroes while they were in Argus for V6 and we had to learn about Ren and Nora’s connection to Kunoyuri since the monstrous Nuckelavee that decimated that village was the final boss fight for RNJR back in V4.

Perhaps it can work the same for Oscar where the plot will demand we know a little bit more about him since it will possibly tie into the Merge and/or have some part with him reconciling with Ozpin within his mind. We will see. My point is that I really would love to learn more about Oscar’s past because it’s a good way of knowing more about who he is and what his life was like before. If Oscar is expected to, quote, unquote ‘disappear in the Merge’ as the story tries to imply then wouldn’t it make sense if it spends some time fleshing Oscar out before that time comes. I’m just saying.

This is why I like the idea of Oscar meeting an old friend from home in Atlas. Before we got to meet Saphron Cotta-Arc in V6, the series dropped a hint of her existence way back in V4 and before we saw how Ren and Nora became orphans (particularly Ren), remember we got that hint from Nora back in V3.

Oscar having a second Rose in his life (before Ruby Rose) who was his childhood friend could encourage him to reveal more to our heroes and essentially the audience of what he was like growing up in Mistral. Besides who wouldn’t want to see someone from Oscar’s past tell embarrassing stories of the little farm-bred rascal he used to be.

Plus I like the idea of Rose being part of Oscar’s childhood before he went to live with his Aunt and Uncle on the Pine Family farm.

It’d be interesting if this Rose reminds Oscar of when things were good for him but she is blissfully unaware of the truth of what became of him and his parents after she moved away.

Picture it. RWBY and JNR enjoying Rose talking about the old misadventures of Oscar and Rose of the Mistralian Farmlands and the carefree mischief they used to get themselves into; revealing a different side to Oscar that our heroes weren’t familiar with. This then leads to Rose innocently asking Oscar about his parents and how they were doing/feeling about him being all the way in Atlas since she remembered how overprotective they were of him as a kid, only for Oscar to freeze up and give a rather cutthroat response before trying to change the subject; indicating that discussing his parents was a very touchy subject for him.

Imagine if…Rose Fox is the kind of bold girl who doesn’t know when to take a hint and she brazenly tries to force Oscar to open up about his parents, even going so far as to tactlessly touch the bandages on his neck, questioning the context of those two. This results in Oscar getting testy and storming off, much to everyone’s surprise, especially Ruby’s.

Rose: …Sheesh, lighten up Munchkin! I was only joking. Oscar: *furiously* Yeah well sometimes you don’t know when to stop!”

In the end, Ruby is the rose that goes to comfort Oscar and as a parallel to how Oscar got Ruby to open up during the dojo scene from V5, Ruby encourages Oscar to talk about his family and she is the rose and possibly the first person outside of his family to know the truth of what happened to Oscar’s parents---their tragic death and the deep pain it caused him that he’s been bottling up for years since it happened.

This additionally ties into why Oscar wears the neck bandages; to cover up an old wound he sustained from the incident that claimed his parent’s life. I still wish to think Oscar was raised by only his mom but that’s another Pinehead headcanon for another time.

Oscar doesn’t show Ruby his scars and out of respect for his feelings, she doesn’t push him to. Instead she consoles him and shares her own qualms over losing her mother at a young age too. It’s a pain and an understanding she shares with Oscar and she also fully comprehends why talking about is very sensitive for him.

In the event that a moment like this occurs, I can see it being another key moment that symbolizes why Ruby is important to Oscar. While the other Rose could be the one that makes Oscar remember his home, Ruby represents the new life Oscar has with the JNR_QROWBMY.

While the other Rose is a remnant from Oscar’s past---a life he ultimately left behind, Ruby is a part of his present and will unknowingly move onto to become a meaningful part of his unforeseeable future. Or…at least that’s how this squiggle meister would love to look at it anyways.

My Pinehead headcanon is that once Oscar starts attending Atlas Academy, Ruby’s slight protective nature of Oscar will be amped up to about an eleven. I can definitely picture our veteran Silver Eyed Warrior transforming into a sort of mother hen; constantly hovering around and doting over Oscar every chance she got to ensure that the young farm boy and huntsman in training is doing alright during his first time at huntsmen academy.

I can see Ruby being like this with Oscar to some extent because she was around Oscar’s age when she first started Beacon and her first day was a mess. I’m sure Ruby remembers fully well of all the shenanigans she got up to during her first day at Beacon so she’ll probably want to do her best to ensure that Oscar doesn’t bumble and suffer the same misgivings as her. I can definitely see Ruby continue to look out for Oscar a lot more at Atlas Academy. Kind of like his version of Yang Xiao Long to help him get adjusted.

But get this; I also have this hilarious idea that ties into a response I gave to @albion-93. Imagine if…Oscar is surprisingly popular with the ladies---unintentionally being dubbed one of the heartthrobs of the first years at Atlas. Imagine…Oscar having his very own entourage of squealing fangirls who have dubbed him as the ‘Little Prince’ based off of @miki-13’s fanfiction.

By my imagination, I can picture Ruby’s possessive side as a confirmed Scorpio-born surfacing as she constantly has to shoo away hordes of gushing Atlesian first years drooling over poor Oscar.

In the beginning, Ruby figured that Oscar was blissfully ignorant of his rampant popularity with the ladies but to Ruby’s surprise, Oscar is fully aware. On the contrary, he’s kind of used to it. My Pinehead headcanon is that back in his old neighbourhood, before he went to live with his aunt and uncle, Oscar was the only boy in his age group within a 30 mile radius so Oscar became rather popular with the young girls his age along his block who all had crushes on him and used to literally compete with each other over who gets to be his main girl.

The one girl who didn’t have a crush on Oscar was Rose Fox and she instantly became his best friend since she never tried to force him to be her boyfriend and to infantile Oscar Pine, that was great in his book. Speaking of Rose having a crush on Oscar, I’ll come back to that in a sec.

So Oscar is no stranger to girls’ trying to bark up the Pine Tree’ if y’know what I mean. Fun fact: Did you know that Pine trees smell really good and are known for their distinct scent. Perhaps this can apply to our precious farm boy. Maybe he’s the type of guy that smells good like all the time and has a natural strong yet good scent about him; even when he sweats. I mean it’s a thought.

I can picture girls swarming Oscar like vultures only for the Ruby to be the one to shoo them off; similar to how Rose used to protect Oscar from the boldfaced girls in their neighbourhood trying to court him. I really dig the idea of Oscar having two protective roses in his life.

I like the idea of Oscar being lenient of Ruby’s overprotectiveness toward him, implying that it reminds him of his mother and aunt who used to coddle him the same manner. If it weren’t for Oscar’s Uncle Henry; still nurturing but more willing to challenge Oscar and teach him lessons necessary for him growing up as the father figure in Oscar’s life then he would’ve grown up too soft.

I can picture Aunt Em being protective of Oscar especially after he came to live with her. I can definitely see Oscar being appreciative of Ruby looking out for him all the time since, in a way, she reminds him of Aunt Em. The only difference is that Oscar finds Ruby’s mother hen attitude a likeable quality that he admittedly finds rather cute about her. Picture these two Rosebuds like…

Oscar: Y’know…you’re the closest thing to a close friend I have here and…in many ways, I consider you my best friend. Sorry if that sounds…weird.

Ruby: No, no it’s fine. I consider you my best friend too. *good-humouredly* Don’t tell Weiss though. I don’t want her to get too jealous.

Ruby and Oscar share a laugh.

Ruby: *sheepishly* Sorry if I’ve been overbearing lately with the…y’know hovering and stuff. I just want to make sure that you’re okay and not overwhelmed by everything like how I was my first day.

Oscar: *laughingly* I think we’re way past that actually. Besides it’s okay. I know you’re just looking out for me and I appreciate that. But I also want to look out for you too. Be someone you can depend on. That way, I can return the favour once in a while. So it’s fine if you wanna continue to be a mother hen just so long as you don’t mind me being a papa co---uh…father rooster. We’ll look out for each other. Whaddaya say?

Ruby: I’d like that.

I can definitely see the Rosebud friendship flourishing in Atlas and I’m interested in seeing where V7 may take them. Resuming talk about Rose Fox, remember when I said Rose was the only girl from Oscar’s neighbourhood who didn’t have a crush on him.

Well, turns out Rose did secretly have a crush on Oscar when they were kids and meeting him again in Atlas just brought all of those past feelings bubbling to the surface; rekindling her romantic interest in him.

The concept I had is that this Rose Fox character can play the role of an imposter rose inspired by the Little Prince but her main purpose would be more akin to the Fox.

In the Little Prince fairy tale, after the Prince befriends the Fox, it teaches him the important lesson that made the Prince realize that his rose was his true love.

My reasoning for liking the idea of a Rose Fox character is that I can see them being the reason that not only makes Oscar realize his true feelings for Ruby but Ruby as well.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m really, really liking the idea of Ruby falling in love with Oscar around the same time he’s falling in love with her. I believe in the Little Prince, the Rose acts vain towards the Prince and doesn’t realize how much he means to her until he leaves her alone on his journey, right?

Well, imagine if…it’s the same with our Rosebuds. Imagine if…at first Ruby is rather ignorant of her growing feelings for Oscar and downplays it to it simply being that he is her friend and she cares deeply about him.

However when Rose Fox makes her interest in Oscar known, Ruby uncharacteristically finds her strongly disliking Rose’s romantic advances to woo Oscar. Rose even lets it slip to Ruby that she does have a crush on Oscar; not in a manner of her trying to antagonize Ruby but purely out of Rose wanting to befriend Ruby seeing as she is the new Rose in his life and from one Rose to another, she was hoping she and Ruby could be friends as well.

And at first, Ruby didn’t mind Rose---albeit slightly jealous of her knowing more about Oscar than she did (however Oscar made up for that by telling Ruby everything about him with the two bonding from that reveal). But besides that, the two Roses got along especially since they both shared one commonality---their care for Oscar.

I love the idea of Ruby coming to realize her feelings through a character like Rose Fox. Imagine…Ruby suffering a parallel to the Rose from the Little Prince where when she’s threatened to losing Oscar, even if it’s to another Rose, she is suddenly fuelled with a sense of envy she’s never experienced before. Ruby Rose, for the most part, has always been spirited, passionate and kind to those around her.

Can you picture Ruby being selfish, vain and/or a bit manipulative in the pursuit of ensuring she keeps something or…someone she doesn’t wish to lose to another or anything else? No. Not really.

Do you think she’s void of these kinds of emotions? Not in the slightest.

As a matter of fact, if the prospect of losing Oscar to another Rose turns Ruby into an arrogant girl then this would bring her closer to Salem than she’s ever been. But we all know Ruby isn’t like that. She’s nothing like Salem. However, it could be potentially interesting to see her character temporarily fall pray to these desires only to be brought back by the people who help keep her grounded. Her friends.

If Ruby becomes like this, then I can see Oscar giving her a good scolding to bring her back to her former self. I can even picture Jaune doing that since Jaune knows what it’s like to come out the sore loser in the pursuit of one’s affections. It was the same for him with Weiss and Neptune.

But while Jaune never told Weiss the truth of his feelings, he did help Neptune with his. And I can see Jaune providing Ruby with the same advice. This can be a great example to highlight the core big brother dynamic Jaune shares with Ruby.

Maybe in seeing Jaune comforting Ruby, Oscar gets the wrong idea about their relationship. Then again, I’ll admit that I am NOT a fan of Oscar being jealous of Jaune because he believes he and Ruby are in love or something.

I dislike that fan theory just as much as I dislike the thought of Qrow and Yang having a problem with Oscar having a crush on Ruby.

For how much I’ve talked about it before, you all know how much I’d prefer if Jaune and Oscar share a big brother-little brother dynamic too and harbour a great sense respect for one another. I don’t mind if the plot demands Oscar misinterpreting the Lancaster friendship as romance but not in the sense where he reacts immaturely to it as I’ve read in one or two fanfictions on the subject.

Thus far, Oscar has been shown to possess a level of maturity beyond his years. He generally handles his problems rather casually (albeit a little too casually) and even if he is to have an outburst, it’s usually after an extended period where he surprisingly manages to keep his emotions in tact only speaking out when its reached overwhelming levels that he can’t ignore.

I cannot picture Oscar to be the jealous type to act like a petulant child, throwing tantrums just because Ruby isn’t giving him enough attention. Does that sound like Oscar Pine the RWBY character? Not to this squiggly Pinehead. If this is sadly somehow how he ends up becoming then I will only shake my head in disappointment at the mishandling of an otherwise mature young character.

If anything Oscar strikes me as the type to be silent with his jealousy; choosing to brood internally while doing his best to keep his envy contained. But as mentioned, if it reaches its peak then he’ll probably lash out in one big upsurge that will leave him embarrassed but unapologetically unabashed since these are his true feelings and he can’t run away from them especially if they get to this level.

Anyways, that being said, even if Oscar unintentionally lashes out at Jaune out of jealousy, I feel like it’ll have the same outcome where they’ll both be able to talk it out like brothers. As a matter of fact, I feel like Oscar and Jaune could have a similar talk akin to Victor Krum and Harry Potter in the Goblet of Fire after Krum accuses Harry of cavorting with Hermione who Krum is interested in. But that’s just me.

On a final note, I’m not sure if the possibility of Rose Fox for RWBY is in the cards. However I think she would have made a great character. I like the idea of another Rose helping our Rose to see the truth in her feelings about Oscar. For me, I love this headcanon just for the likelihood of hearing a Rose Fox character say something like this to Ruby Rose:

“…I tried to tame him. I thought if we spent more time together like we used to then at some point he would look at me the way he looks at you. But he never did. He always looks to you even when he’s with me. It’s my fault really for trying to gain the love of someone whose heart has already been tamed by someone else. I may be the Rose he likes but I’m not the Rose he loves…” 

It’s moments like these that really make me wish I was a CRWBY Writer just so I can chuck this line of dialogue in Miles and Kerry’s faces because it’s a sweet ass line. Makes me like my fanon Rose Fox girl even more now.

Bonus if Rose Fox is actually a Faunus. I really dig the idea of Oscar’s first friend back home being a Faunus girl. Perhaps…Rose’s family were the only Faunus in Oscar’s old neighbourhood and there were some folk back there who were rather prejudice toward the Faunus. However Oscar’s family weren’t one of those people and raised their son to be the same.

Oscar was always pleasantly nice to Rose which was part of the reason why she liked him so much. The day she started crushing on Oscar was when he complimented her ears after some of the neighbourhood children made fun of Rose for being a Faunus.

If I had to describe my vision for Rose Fox then I can picture her with shoulder-length reddish-brown hair that’s white at the tips like a fox’s tail with dark skin and blue-grey eyes to contrast with Ruby’s silver eyes. Her Faunus feature would her ears so she’ll have cute red Fox ears. I actually quite like this.

But you know, as always, these are only my Pinehead headcanons.

Anyways, if Ruby and Oscar are destined to fall in love with each other then I can only see them coming to realize their true feelings with a little help from a fox.

More Squiggles’ RWBY Content

~LittleMissSquiggles (2019)

#squiggles answers: rwby #rwby #oscar pine #ruby rose #rwby rosegarden #rwby theories #pinehead headcanons #squiggles pinehead headcanons #rwby: defining rose fox

[sparda3g]

Kimetsu no Yaiba Chapter 142 Review

The fate of their life continues to be in peril. Although one would bet Shinobu will take the fall, I want to believe she will make it out alive somehow, someway. After this chapter, well, I’m being challenged on my hope. One thing that’s certain is this battle is seriously good. As horrifying to witness the slow burn to someone’s demise, this chapter was a thrilling one that you can’t skip out.

To my surprise, it begins with Doma’s backstory. I thought it’s an interesting timing since this could confuse the readers on whether to believe he will die here or not. Shinobu’s chance is higher, but this gives him a small increase. With that said the flashback is disturbing in its own right. Since childhood, he was placed on a pedestal, meaning he was worshipped like a special being. He’s practically seen as voice of Gods, yet he never once heard one. He saw them as fools, so instead of reasoning with them, he played along.

He also has or had his own religion circle, where people gathered around to speak about their suffering. It was then he realized how sad it must have been to suffer. His solution to it is death, because you don’t feel anything anymore. It’s a twisted ideology that makes him horrifying. With his view believing people are dumb and worshipped like a lord, he sought for solution for those in need of saving, which result to death by his hands. That’s disturbing.

There is a brief time-skip to the battle, indicating Shinobu has tried all the method of poison but no prevail. It’s reasonable to skip in order to keep up the pacing. If we didn’t skip, the whole chapter would be dragged out by failed attempts, so this is a good move. Once the battle does begin however, the intensity rise up to the highest level and it’s all for one clash. A clash that had me gasping for air.

It’s an intense clash with a terrifying result. It’s basically speed versus speed; only their attack decide the fate of the opponents. Doma takes the hit, remark her speed to be very impressive. Sadly, he too was fast and she takes a serious blow. If I can scream, I would. I cringed when I saw that brutal cut that said to damage her lung. Not only it looks brutal as hell, but it’s Shinobu that took it. I ache to know if she will seriously die; now, the chance is very high. It saddens me to watch her wounded, but the following scene is even sadder.

Shinobu is fearing for her life, which doesn’t assure my hope for her survival. It’s pretty discouraging. It’s like her life flashes before her eyes or rather it is. She grew a sense of believing she took the wrong path. She begins to lose her faith on winning as well as swelling with tears. This hurts me because I was hoping she has some fighting chance and while she had earlier, it was quickly vanished and Doma is invulnerable to her poisons. Her speed is amazing, but if only she was skillful in aim for the head target. I felt bad for her.

Kanae’s image appears before her, pushing her to stand up and win. This is a nice rebound to feel encouraging again after depressing fallout. Granted, this type of image could also mean she’s at the death door, but if she’s going to die, she will have to do with one strong sendoff. That aside it’s a necessary approach to motivate Shinobu to fight and win for everyone’s sake, including her promise to Kanao. I don’t know if that’s a sign of guaranteed death by Kanao’s side, but still hoping she will help out when she arrives. All in all, this got me pumped up. If only Kanae were to give her six extra breaths.

Shinobu stands up in which amazes Doma. With blood coughing, lung and other points badly damaged, and not willing to die, she comes off as a strong human. Seriously, don’t kill her off. Doma reassures her fate is sealed; she is beyond saving at her state. I am one not encouraging an asspull, but I do hope there is something that would somehow save her, though her days as a pillar is over. That said it embarks a high-raising intense battle.

Speed is key and Shinobu goes all in; no pause until she strikes him down. It’s jarring how fast she can seriously go, but if she is going to die, then dammit, she will take him out with her. One chilling moment that had me scared was when Doma almost slash her into pieces, but she dodged it just barely. That was seriously close. From low angle, she aims and thrust the hell out of him with her sword. That was satisfying as hell. Is it over? I don’t think so, but it does depend on her condition. Doma still holds his fans, so if both are okay to go longer, this battle is only going to get bloodier.

Overall, this was a thrilling chapter. The backstory was disturbing, but interesting and if it were to confuse the readers on who’s going to die here, then good job. The reaction towards the brutal attack was hard to watch, but rebound with a small hope for a satisfying end. The visual is pretty good as well. I was saddened to see her suffering but encouraged by that thrust. The battle was engaging with a possible cliffhanger that reads “to be continued” or the end is next. Starting the year with fear; what a time to be alive.

#demon slayer #kimetsu no yaiba #chapter 142 #review #spoilers

[relishredshoes]

Hello Team! Welcome to the (belated) second weekend of our Write Along.

Last week we undertook exercises to refine our individual vision of our key characters (protagonist, supporting lead and antagonist) and to help decide the POV character for our story.

This week The Weekend Novelist (Robert J. Ray) sets us the task of developing a backstory for our protagonist.

Again. Many of you probably feel like “Everyone already KNOWS the backstory Red, why are you wasting our time?” But much as I said last week… do they? Because while we all know the black and white off of the page (For example, take Severus. Canon details from backstory give us a strained, poor, probably abusive childhood. Subjected to bullying. In love with Lily Potter. Wooed by Voldemort etc.) but when we read between the lines we all get a slightly different story and that renders each of our characters separate and unique even if they begin from the same text on a page.

And so, I would urge you to commit your protagonist's backstory to paper. There is detail there that will inform your character's motivations and inform what both their wants are, as well as their needs and tell you where those things are at cross purposes (ahhh conflict). It is also a second exercise that will help you polish your individual vision and narrative voice as a writer.

I will not include the offered exemplar of a backstory offered in the book as it is quite triggering (TW, Rape, child neglect). If you would like to read it, it can be found here:

https://docs.google.com/.../1k.../edit...

Guidelines.

* As trite as it may seem, you should think of yourself as a writer in search of your character’s motive (Susie hates men because she suffered abuse at their hands as a child) and not waste a second mooning over your beloved protagonist or seeking to be their therapist. Be “professional” in your approach - curious, open-minded and dispassionate.

* I don’t mean to sound too dark or edgy, but many of your character’s strongest motivations may come from trauma.

* Watch out for your internal editor. Work fast now. Worry about rewriting later.

* Begin with an overview, then zero in on the trauma. When writing include cause and effect - when Susie is six, her mother’s death forces her to live with her Aunt; the Aunt, we find out, has boyfriends; the trouble starts here. Add lesser but influential traumas to fill out other traits of your character sketch: Susie’s toothache at age eleven, with no one to comfort her, tell the reader that Susie is a brave kid.

* in just a few sentences you can zoom across the years from ages six to eleven to arrive at the most crucial, character-defining moment of backstory (in the example, Labor Day of Susie’s twelfth year). There will be other important “doorways” in your character’s past that leave a mark on them as they cross those thresholds - falling love, being heartbroken, a first paycheck but pick the one which in your mind is the one that first set them on the road where your story will find them.

The audience may never know everything that makes up the history of your protagonist but they will feel their history as depth of character so long as you, as the writer, does.

* Your backstory should move quickly through the key highlights to focus on the crucial trauma/incident itself. The dynamics at work, the emotions felt by your protagonist. In the example, we have enough detail through the earlier incident with the toothache to that it is implied Susie can not count on her Aunt for support and can therefore conclude a dark future awaits Susie until she is old enough to flee her situation. As you draw down into the focus event of your backstory draw on sensory detail to close in. Biting a towel, the smell of whiskey, Susie’s hands against the cold porcelain. Sharpen your word picture with detail - square fingers, hair slick with oil, stained clothing.

* Be sure to research any cultural or historical references to the time your backstory is set (in the case of the example set in 1969 we have references to Robert Redford in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Hair, the musical)

Exercises.

1. Chronology: Dates as Doorways.

Make a chronology of key dates for your main characters. Not just those offered by canon, but those that tie to YOUR versions of the characters (which may include post-canon or time-travelling shenanigans). Do your characters overlap? Share experiences? This is the time to start seeing how they either overlap, oppose or complement one another through shared or similar life experiences. Ideally, start this with their birth and end the list where your story begins

2. Write the backstory.

Picking one date from your chronology write backstories for your main characters (again I would suggest your protagonist, your leading support and your villain/antagonist). Ideally, you would do this in 20 mins or less for each backstory.

3. Wants list.

Start a wants list. What does Character A want? Character B? Do their wants clash? Where in the story will that clash likely happen?

Thanks Team! That’s all the new stuff for this week, but I would dearly love to read your character sketches from week one if anyone is willing to share - I think it would be a wonderful conversation starter to see how differently we actually all see the same slate of characters that we love.

#sshg #sshg fanfiction #snamione #sevmione

[demoiselledefortune]

Dragon age inquisition playthrough! Which I actually moved from failfandomanon to rpg.net because they kept spoiling me in my own subthread :(

Last game session was another short one but filled with personal quest one. First, I met Varric's sexy voice. I'm sorry, I mean I met the Varric's "It's Complicated", the infamous Bianca, because CLEARLY Kirkwall wasn't enough hard boiled for Varric's background, it had to be a femme fatale with lots of eyebrow raising allusions/anecdotes but without much details or explanations. And she has a very very sexy voice, like I didn't think they could do a more sexy voice than Fenris, but apparently so. Picture me going "Guh" through most of this quest. She's also the source of Corypheus' red lyrium although that seemed to have been accidental, which "ooops" (or rather "well shit" as the quest is named) but whatcanyoudo. I felt her reasons were more easily excusable in the context of Bartran still being alive in my worldstate although my friend disagreed. I mean it's nice to see that Hawke's not Varric's only source of "well there was a situation and I dealt with it but now there's another situation from the consequences of those choices and it's kinda actually worse so I guess I'll have to do something about it too... which is why I'm going to need your help!" Also Biance and Varric were pretty cute, so it's a good thing I'm a multishipper. After that Varric invited us to play Wicked Graces with almost the whole gang. (Me, two minutes into the sequence: "[Josephine]'s going to clean them all out"). (We are left to assume that Solas and Leliana, unlike Josephine, had some kind of qualms about cleaning us out, and Vivienne... declined. Maybe?) The scene is adorable in a nice reminder of the good parts of DA2, the sense of people hanging out because they're friends. I think my character was left a bit sad that Varric continues to have a hard time not seeing her as this far off iconic person (obviously and thankfully he does try though -- and I don't think she's the best at finding common ground with him). I will take note that while Dorian stated his desire to watch Cullen's walk of shame, he did walk away; whereas Iron Bull... did not XD Then Leliana dealt with the letter left to her by Justinia. The scene is nicely dramatic, with a sister sent to spy on us which Leliana immediately spots and warns us about... and then tries to kill her. She didn't exactly represent a threat so I stopped her and then Leliana did finally admit that Justinia wasn't in the right to have her always act ruthlessly. Overall the softening character arc has a lot of interesting things about Leliana, but I'm still a bit annoyed that some of initial points that you can't miss out on to manage it are 1/ very easy to miss 2/ not necessarily well justified (the first or second time involved one of her agent who had betrayed the inquisition, for ex, which is a situation where killing him does make sense even if you're not trying to be Hard Woman Making Hard Choice; at least without more context to make it seem like there were other elements in play). Made me feel like those were steps I had to go through because I had to rather than organic decisions for my characters (the hardening thing in Origins didn't feel that way to me). Overall my characters wanted Leliana to confront her own feelings though... she was feeling bad about what she was forcing herself to do, while putting Justinia on a pedestal; and figuring out she didn't have to was important. My character doesn't really pick ruthless or violent choices when she can avoid them... but I don't think she systematically disapproves of them when done by others... however it's not something that people should feel obligated to do. Also Sera brought us on the roof to eat cookies! It's a cute scene, and interesting to hear Sera talk about her childhood. I was left with the impression that she kinda had a crush on Emmald. There's a little sense making about Sera not liking it when people lean on the prejudices against elves; although I wouldn't say to the extent that she shows dislike for. Part of it doesn't make sense, though "you get alienage for that"? Since when alienage were treated like a prison rather than where you put all the elves in a big enough town?) IN ANY CASE Cute scene. Last, I brought back the heard of a snow wyvern to Vivienne. This personal sidequest is mostly here to humanize Vivienne (she genuinely cares and loves her love even though his patronage was key to her grabbing power and advantages) and isn't badly done but felt a little bit too emotionally manipulative in the way it's set up. I wish Bastian had been more set up and active in the background (we could have had banters/rumours about him in Wicked Hearts for example!). Although right now the problem I have with Vivienne mostly comes from my character waiting for her to do something, ANYTHING, to show herself a potential leader for the mages, someone capable of building up something in term of institutions in a way that might have long term positive impact; and feeling like the only thing Vivienne knows how to do is begging, charming, or conniving her authority from those of higher status than her rather than building it up from the community. A skill set that makes a lot of sense given Vivienne's backstory, but not one that my character values a lot in a possible leader (and she's not very impressed by Fiona either, so she's kinda miffed at the moment on that front. The only person so far who's had some concrete ideas about how to deal with mages in order to have more positive result was Cullen). And obviously there's the question of the Divine election, which I haven't made a decision on yet. I'd say Cassandra is a bit ahead by virtue of 1/ obviously feeling motivated by the job 2/ showing great passion and having a vision of things to do about wanting the Chantry institutions to do better 3/ being capable of self criticism. OTOH Leliana has from times to times extremely intriguing ideas, however she feels a bit more erratic for that sort of position, and didn't sound nearly as into the idea. Then again, I expect the end of the softening process might have some result; we'll see.

#dragon age #dai #dem plays da

[orphanblackzone]

“You are shit mother.” —Helena

Orphan Black has come full circle. Season 1 ended with Sarah (Tatiana Maslany) trying to kill her twin sister, Helena (Maslany), and the penultimate episode of Season 5—and the series—ends with Sarah trying to save her. Imprisoned in the bowels of Dyad by P.T. Westmorland (Stephan McHattie)—and emotionally tormented by Virginia Coady (Kyra Harper)—Helena makes the only choice that makes sense to her: to commit suicide to spare her unborn “bebes” from the life of torment she has endured. (And flashbacks showing the unholy acts of monsters wearing holy clothes emphasize that she has been viciously abused from a very young age.)

Luckily, Sarah’s non-convincing impersonation of Rachel (Maslany) lands her in the right place to offer a life-saving blood transfusion, which allows Helena to take out Coady—a “shit mother” if there ever was one—in brutally satisfying fashion. But we’re left with a major cliffhanger, as Helena’s water breaks while she and Sarah are trying to escape Dyad.

Joining us to break down all the plot twists in the second-to-last episode of Orphan Black is co-executive producer Alex Levine, who tells us more about Helena’s flashback scenes and gives us a few hints about next week’s huge series finale.

Penultimate episodes can be tricky because you want to build momentum, but you don’t want to outshine the finale. And “One Fettered Slave” isn’t just any penultimate episode, it’s the penultimate episode of the entire series. Did that pose any special challenges for you? Alex Levine: Oh man! Every episode of Orphan Black poses special challenges, but yes, you’re right, the pressure was high on this one. And frankly, we shifted gears very late in the process. As a creative group, the decision was made to set the story on the mainland, in Dyad, during prep, rather than return to the island. We actually overhauled the story and rewrote half the script well into the prep process, which is very unusual. But we all knew we were making the right decision by changing course.

It’s an honour to write such an important episode of the show, and I was willing to do whatever it takes to make it as good as possible. But it wasn’t easy! I am confident that we made the right decisions. And I have to give credit to a posse of young creatives for pushing to change the direction of the episode and make it great: Mackenzie Donaldson, Renee St. Cyr and Tatiana too.

This was Helena’s episode, and we find out lots of details about her backstory. How did the writers’ room decide what portions of her dark past to focus on? The Helena flashbacks were challenging but so fun to dig into. The genesis of the early convent scenes was a scene from a classic Faulkner novel, Light in August. There’s a killer in that story who has a seminal event in his childhood. So I riffed on that, and with Tat’s help, created a visceral early moment in Helena’s childhood where we see that she isn’t just an evil child, she’s a victim. The other scenes were key moments of her past we knew we wanted to explore, and it was about choosing the moments we felt would resonate with Helena’s current predicament. John was always eager to show her first kill, and the twist of her not knowing she’s a clone really made it sing. Graeme and Renee deserve much credit for the Barbie scenes with Tomas. The Barbie house that our art department created was brilliant.

Cynthia Galant played young Rachel in Episode 507. Why was Habree Larratt cast as young Helena for this episode? Cynthia was cast to portray young Rachel, and we love her in that role. She’s composed and obedient and restrained. She’s a wonderful young actor with great chops. But in portraying young Helena, we wanted to be sure we had an actor who could explode emotionally, who is wild and untameable. And Habree really blew us away during the auditioning process. Her portrayal gave us the confidence to expand the scenes with Young Helena.

I thought the scenes between Helena and Dr. Coady were fascinating, with their back and forth about Coady killing her kids and Helena being an unfit mother. In any pairing, we are looking for the deep dramatic juice. We wanted to dig into this relationship anew, because they did have a number of scenes back in Season 3 at the Castor camp. We knew Coady was struggling with her responsibilities as a mother and that helped crystallize the line in which P.T. forces her to euthanize Mark. And we figured she would want to drag Helena into that nightmare with her. Tatiana actually pushed for Coady to be harsher in the final climactic scenes. She wanted Helena to be destroyed by this woman, to properly motivate Helena’s decision to commit suicide.

The scene where Coady killed Mark was both chilling and heartbreaking. Why did she go through with it? I think people forget that Virginia is a ruthless eugenicist. She bought into P.T.’s grand vision and had the cold, evil heart to do certain things that no other party would do. She started this thing with him and she had no moral qualms about using humans as experiments. She always saw the big picture, even with the Castor sterilization plan. And she was very loyal to P.T.; she knows he has the grand vision, that she can’t do it without him. But she also grew to love Mark and became a mother by default. The struggle you see is the amoral heartless scientist suffocating her own maternal instincts. Kyra is a terrific actor and she definitely showed depth in that relationship and in that scene.

I’m sure you gave half the OB fandom a heart attack when Helena tried to kill herself to save her babies from Neolution and herself. Tell me about the decision to have her attempt suicide—and, after all she’s been through, can she handle being a mother? We had a number of discussions about this choice. We know it’s a very dark choice, that it’s almost anathema to lots of people, specifically mothers. But we saw it as a heroic choice. Helena saw that these children would end up being tortured, being used and manipulated, being twisted and corrupted as she was corrupted as a child. And she believed by making this choice that she was saving them from a lifetime of horrors. I likened this choice to the siege of Masada, one of the final events of the Roman-Jewish war in 73-74 AD. The Jews were trapped on their mountain top village, Masada, surrounded by the Romans. It was only a matter of time before the Romans, who were building a ramp, would invade and enslave them. Having resolved never to be servants to the Romans, the Jews in Masada decided to die free instead. They killed each other and last man committed suicide. But Helena is so resourceful, we had to take her to a place where she truly felt she was out of options. And it sure helps to have an actor as strong as Tatiana sell that moment and make the emotionality credible.

As for Helena being a fit mother, I think she’ll be OK, in that she’ll probably let them run around like wild pigs and climb trees and eat dirt.

If there was any doubt about it, this episode proved that P.T. Westmorland is an evil, crazy misogynist—and he’s also bald! What do you think of him as the ultimate villain of Orphan Black? Is he someone that you and John Fawcett and Graeme Manson envisioned all along? P.T. was always supposed to epitomize the misogynistic patriarchy that still pervades the world. But he really lets his flag fly in these last few episodes. I think we always knew he had to say some evil things to represent this accursed, awful world view that is the root of all the horrors of Neolution, we just needed to get him to a desperate enough place where he would let loose. I think he and Coady are joint grand villains, sort of a 1a and 1b. And by the way, Stephen McHattie isn’t bald. He’s got some hair, but he thought the better choice would be to shave his head once the wig came off, and it turned out great.

OK, this episode ends with Sarah and Helena—who’s in labour!—trapped in Dyad with Westmorland. What can you tell us about the big series finale? The best thing I can tell you is that the finale is not all run and jump/battles. We will get to see our sestras as they come to terms with life after the war. And that, to me, is the most interesting and rich part. I have to give Graeme full props for carving out of each episode and each season ample time to explore these characters simply as human beings in a very credible version of our world. I forget who, but somebody smart said sci-fi is just a vehicle to explore how people react under different circumstances. It’s only good when the characters are truly relatable, no matter how cool the sci-fi ideas are. And that’s the best part of Orphan Black—the mundane, the realistic, the human.

You have been with Orphan Black since the beginning. How has the show changed you as a writer? What will you miss about working on the show the most? I have grown so much as a writer working with Graeme and some of the best writers in Canada. Everything I write now is coloured by what I’ve learned on Orphan. The reason I stayed with the show all this time is that the material and the characters speak to me. I don’t think any other show being produced in Canada offers the same canvas in terms of all the story and humanity we get to put on screen. And Orphan Black is really three or four shows in one: a thriller, a love story, a horror movie, and a suburban satire. Where else am I going to find that, all in one script?

John and Graeme are experts at what they do. John is such a seasoned director, his instincts are so good in prep and on the floor. And obviously—OBVIOUSLY—we have the best actor in Canada, and working with her is such an incredible treat. To watch her transform material is really rewarding. She is such a professional in every way and sets a tone for all the other actors and cast and crew; and us as writers and producers. And we have a bunch of other amazing actors as well. Jordan and Kevin and Kristian and Maria, just to name our core cast. I’ve been on other series where there are difficult people, people who put their ego above the show. And that never ever happened on Orphan Black. Not ever. And that’s a testament to the quality of the bosses and department heads. Special shout out to Kerry Appleyard, our exec from Temple Street, who’s also a lovely person and brilliant creative who always helped set the tone. End of the day, I’m extremely humbled and grateful to have been part of the series.

#orphan black #5.09 #s5 #alex levine #clone club #article #habree larratt

[complexfemaleprotag]

Kaleidoscope Days gives us a continually changing pattern of relationships...

This exploration of flawed family screens October 21st as part of a slate of dynamic shorts by female filmmakers at the Flicks by Chicks Film Festival!

6 PM - SHORTS BLOCK SCREENING at Alamo Drafthouse Cedars 1005 S Lamar St. Dallas (https://prekindle.com/event/33691-flicks-by-chicks-fest-dallas)

Local Filmmaker, Jasnik Moreno created this gem as her senior thesis at UTA.  We are elated that she is going to be at the festival and wanted to chat with her briefly about all things Kaleidoscope Days!

FXCF: Kaleidoscope Days is a very moving and empathetic look at a flawed main character and her relationship to her daughters.  It is so easy for writers to fall into the trap of writing imperfect characters, but then judging them.  You don't let Dolores off the hook, but at the same time - you manage to make us care about her and want to understand her.  Did you find crafting that character difficult and were you clear emotionally on how you wanted the audience to feel about her?

J: I honestly was never sure how an audience might feel about her. Even now I’m nervous about it because we don’t ever explicitly hear about all the mistakes she’s made, but I’m fascinated by the way people perceive her. And that’s my favorite part about creating characters is seeing how they are viewed by people who are all as different in their own ways. It was difficult in the sense that she wasn’t based off of a sole person I knew but rather emotions I’ve felt and emotional turmoil I’ve seen others go through - and even turmoil I can imagine people have gone through just based off my own assumptions. I put a lot on Dolores, and seeing as how I’m not a parent of two teenagers I had to really see things through a foreign perspective. Elisa Annette (played Dolores) really helped me reassess a lot of her motives and what made her the character you see on screen as the final cut.

FXCF: Casting is key to a low budget project - I loved the cast.  Did you know these actors and have them in mind when you were writing or did you do a casting call and bring them all in separately?    A friend of mine worked with Spielberg and said he is nervous interacting with actors and mostly leaves them alone - then there are directors like Sydney Pollack who was very involved in the actors process. What is your approach to working with actors?

J: I was not writing for actors, I had to cast. I got really lucky with the casting but first I had to get dragged through the mud. I think I did like 3 separate casting calls because I knew finding Dolores was crucial. Fortunately Elisa was one of the first women I saw and she blew me away. I already knew she’d be it. I had to do a lot of searching to find Teresa, and I did eventually after attending a film festival geared for Latin American filmmakers, I connected with Miranda. As for the character of Dani I ended up having to gender swap since originally that character was a son. I think it really worked out in the end since Ruby did an amazing job.

My favorite part of directing is talking to the actors. I am very empathetic so I love to see what feelings they feel first when reading the script. Where they are coming from and all that. There’s definitely a lot discussion and “what ifs”. I don’t let them know too much about the backstory in my head because I trust that they have the potential to expand on their own - they should! I know I’m working with a good actor (despite their skill or experience) if they have doubts about what I typed out. I love those moments where their suggestions seem so obvious I’m always mentally slapping my forehead as to why I didn’t think of it before.

FXCF: The Kaleidoscope is a significant prop and obviously  part of the film title.  Why is that a prominent part of the narrative and, although I have my take on how it relates to the story - what was your intention?

J: The kaleidoscope is a weirdly forgettable toy. I had one as a kid but I think it was cool in a moment and then I moved on to something else. So for this film I thought it fit as a good representation of childhood and it would garner enough attention since a kaleidoscope is a weird thing to hold on to. You’ve looked through one, you’ve looked through them all. Thus, in the film, Teresa & Dani made these homemade - mind you, a shittier version of one you’d buy at toys r us - kaleidoscopes  as kids with their dad. Dolores holds on to it because it reminds her of the last moments before things were fragmented.

Which is another thing I liked about the kaleidoscope. How everything is broken up and you can’t really make out a whole since you are just looking at a fragment of something over and over again yet if you get past needing to know what the thing your viewing is you’ll see that these colors are beautiful! The movement of the little spinning effect is cool as fuck! There really is beauty in just taking in what you are given at the moment and letting the rest subside.

FXCF:  Fun side note!  Producer, Cydney Cox, was a student of mine at SMU - she rocks and come meet her and Jasnik at the screening and events this Saturday!!