#Seth is great I need to change his name to something less Overused

[ardeawritten]

Big part of Dragon Sword is "everyone has a story." David's the main character and is going through a massive coming-of-age moment of his own, but so is everyone else, in their own way, and the whole cast is plotted to be the main characters of their own lives.

Unfortunately that means I am catching myself stuffing too much of other people's stories into Dragon Sword, which is purely from David's POV, and there are bits of other people's drama that are either slowing down the narrative or he wouldn't naturally be witness to. Mostly relating to Seth, who is my blorbo of the book.

David is supposed to be witness to his mentor's slow steady progress back to the respected and competent warrior he once was, but as the story stands now he's also apparently accidental witness to a lot of platonic/emotional intimacy between Seth and Kheris, the school's headmistress and Seth's former commanding officer, because me-the-author simply liked writing those scenes. The two have a very unique relationship by the time David is around, more like "Witch and Familiar" than anything else, and I'm trying to figure out how much of their story is going to stay "on screen" and how much really needs to go in Seth's book.

David needs to see Seth weak, grumpy and making mistakes, and he needs to see Kheris being endlessly kind, patient and forgiving with him, but he might not need to be in the room anymore for some of their deeper conversations or Seth's worst moments of PTSD/self-loathing. Fun as that is to write. It's being edited out of Dragon School and into a different word doc :P

#dragon school #Seth is great I need to change his name to something less Overused #Kheris keeps Seth's literal demon out of his head so she's pretty much in his head herself all the time day and night #and they have an understandable lack of emotional boundaries / privacy between the two of htem #but kiddo David wouldn't naturally be the witness to that nor is it exciting reading for a middle school boy audience #author decisions #just writing things

[jwgammuto]

The Good, The Bad, and the WTF for Monday Night Raw 4/22/19

We’re officially on the road to Money In The Bank, typically one of the more anticipated and entertaining shows on the WWE calendar. Should we be excited? Only one way to find out and that’s with The Good, The Bad, and the WTF: Bray’s Clues Edition.

The Good: We’re going to get AJ Styles vs Seth Rollins at MITB for the Universal Title. Getting there ate up a little too much of this show for my liking but you can’t hate the result. Also a fun fact, MITB is up against the Game of Thrones series finale on May 19th and I suspect this matchup is a direct result of that. Not that everyone watches both or that you can’t watch either at your leisure because of how 2019 TV works but I find this an odd choice regardless. But all that said, this should be MOTY type stuff and no matter what the rest of the card is, this is a great start.

Styles vs Joe vs Mysterio. Great match with an insane ending. Really showcased how great Styles can be without making the other two guys look terrible. Maybe best Styles Clash ever? One against Nakamura is springing to mind but that’s about the only comparison I can come up with.

Miz vs McIntyre vs Whatever the hell Vintage Corbin is. BAD COLE! God he’s the worst. This was another good match, just a hair less entertaining than the previous triple threat. Miz looked great and had a couple of near falls that almost had me convinced he’d pull it off and even though I shouldn’t be I was fairly shocked that Corbin got the win here. McIntyre seemed like the logical choice. Not sure what they’re waiting for with Drew but Corbin continues to get the cheapest heat possible and that’s who he is and it works.

Cesaro vs Cedric Alexander. Two new toys for the red brand and I dig it. Solid match that ended with Alexander looking like he might die from a vicious uppercut. My lone disappointment was a lack of Lumbar Checks because I need them all. Alexander showed off some impressive strength here against arguably the strongest guy on the roster. Can’t be mad at any of this. Fresh and great. Ok that’s not true. New entrance for Cesaro please. Give the guy some originality again now that The Bar is done.

Teaser for the USOs vs The Revival. This is literally the only reason I wanted Jimmy and Jey on Raw. Give it to us immediately. Welcome to the Revival Reformatory!

Lacey Evans continues to shine on the mic and in this feud with Becky 2 Moves. I do still like Lynch but I think the edge is gone a bit and having two belts and being on both shows is starting to expose her a bit. While Becky throwing Alicia Fox around was fun for a spell, the real highlight here comes when Evans slides into the ring delivers two Women’s Rights, the first of which wasn’t sold terribly well but Lynch made up for it the second time. Really made it look like she got her bell rung. I don’t know what to expect from this match at MITB but I’m hopeful. The feud is building nicely thanks to Evans delivering on every level with her character.

Robert Roode and his GLORIOUS lip sweater vs Ricochet. First and foremost, thank god Roode is finally a full blown heel. Long overdue. This guy is a star when he’s allowed to be a dick. He cuts a solid promo about Gable being dead weight and moves right along. This was also a damn good match with some great back and forth that ended with a sick Glorious DDT (thank you Jake). Right guy won here and we get a fresh take on a performer who has been buried too long.

The Bad: The opening segment. What a predictable and overused slog of a template. 1/3 of the men’s roster  come out to say three lines and make their claim against Rollins. It’s been done to death and it took up 20% of the show time. Just give me something original. I love most of the competitors here and loved the idea of triple threats to decide who was going to get a shot but this can be done in about 100 different ways and they just used the same old same old. Also Triple H, who historically forgets nothing, seems awfully Buddy Buddy with a guy who was nicknamed the Kingslayer just a couple years ago. He doesn’t have to be Vince. But he doesn’t have to be Teddy Long either. Bleh.

The fourth name change for the War Raiders under the WWE banner. They are now the Viking Raiders, which is only mildly better. Notice how the fans no longer chant WAR!? Thanks a lot, Vince. That was one of the most fun things about these guys. On a bright note, they absolutely destroyed The La Tolteca Experience so that was fun.

Styles vs Corbin in the main event. It certainly wasn’t awful and given how they’ve booked Baron it probably shouldn’t have surprised me if he won. But thankfully he didn’t and that was the predictably right call. This wasn’t anything special though and maybe it should have been given how most of the ring work for the rest of the show was pretty damn good.

Just gonna put this out there. It’s time for Sami Zayn to do something. This mic work is brilliant and all but it’s getting stale. It’s the same act in every city. It’s quickly becoming Evans’ catwalk. Sami is a great performer in the ring. Someone come to the fans’ rescue soon.

The WTF: Naomi vs Billie Kay. This marks the third singles match The IIconics have lost since winning the tag titles. There was no point in putting the titles on them if you’re going to make them a joke who can’t beat anybody. This lesson was clearly marked by how they booked Dash and Dawson after they gave them the titles. I know Royce and Kay aren’t world beaters and are still raw in the ring, but it doesn’t take much effort to write a cheap win. This does very little for Naomi and damages the rep of the women’s tag titles even further. Just bad.

Finally. The Firefly Funhouse. I honestly don’t even know where to begin. This is like if Steve from Blues Clues was on heroin. Oh wait. He was. Well this is worse than that. The internet is strangely divided on this. Wyatt looks slimmer and a bit revamped and this angle is certainly right in his wheelhouse of creepy but I find myself wondering what’s the best case scenario? He’s psychotic Mr Rogers/Pee Wee and it’s hilarious? Is the King of Cartoons coming? A talking plush chair? It’s certainly original it just also very well may go sideways and be utterly and ridiculously bad. The Meth Den of Horrors match is clearly Bray at his worst. I’m not certain this won’t be worse. What if he ends up with another god awful talk show segment, that WWE never gets right anymore? It’ll be him and his puppets interviewing Bobby Lashley. No thank you. This is what we’re getting so we obviously have to give it a chance but the odds of it being in this column permanently are extremely high. Prove me wrong, Mr Wyatt.

This show had very little that was mediocre. There was a stark gap between what worked and what was head scratching. But we did get some hope in a lot of ways so I can’t be mad. The Firefly FunHouse really sucked all the air out of the show for me. Maybe that’s why I didn’t enjoy the main event as much as I wanted to. 3.25 Hogan Belt Whips because MUSTACHE, Styles/Rollins, and the Lady of the WWE nearly made me forget about Pee Wyatt’s den of potential molestation.

#WWE #WWE Raw #pro wrestling #WWE WWEraw ProWrestling Wrestling Raw