#The dialogue was originally different so I hope it doesn't show lol

[screwpinecaprice]

Boo! 😑

Werewolf Steven and vampire Connie, suggested by Sharkman Jhones!

And thank you so much to these people for the support at Patreon!!

#connverse #Steven Quartz Universe #Connie Maheswaran #Steven Universe #if they were like birds their courting ritual would involve exchanging puns #my shiz #my comics #skedoobles #comics #steven universe fanart #spoopy #halloween #The dialogue was originally different so I hope it doesn't show lol #patreon shoutout #patreon #steven universe future #su fanart

[biconickyoshi]

NAtLA first impressions (eps 1 & 2)

Here are my thoughts as someone who has been a superfan of the original series since 2007 (spoiler-free first, then spoilers below)!

Honestly, I'm feeling pretty middle of the road about this adaptation so far. I like a lot of the costuming, and some of the actors are good, while others have felt a bit lackluster. There's also some characterization choices I didn't like too much for certain characters (which I will get into in the spoiler sections below). The score is definitely not as good as the original series - I don't particularly like the new elements of the score, and when themes and motifs from the original score are used, I feel like they aren't used enough. The bending, while better than the 2010 version, still feels a bit fake and clunky, as do a lot of the special effects. There's also a problem with a reliance on exposition dialogue, moreso in the first ep than the second.

Now we'll get into the spoiler section. Don't read below this if you do not wanna be spoiled.

EP 1: "Aang"

What I liked:

Getting to see a bit more of the Air Nomads (which makes the genocide feel even more devastating)

The design of the Southern Air Temple felt very warm and inviting - I liked that there were lots of trees and whatnot

The added details about the Sozin purposefully allowing news of the war to be leaked to the Earth Kingdom to throw everyone off their trail of planning to attack the Air Nomads

Making the comet a special event for the Air Nomads, which brings them all together at the Southern Air Temple for Sozin's attack to happen

I like that Wolf Cove was actually called Wolf Cove (since it's never name dropped in the actual show)

Zuko and Iroh did a good job - I think Dallas is capturing Zuko's energy pretty well, and while Paul's Iroh feels a bit different than the OG, he's still doing a good job

What I was not so keen on:

Yep... I really didn't like that Aang didn't purposefully run away, and instead went to "clear his head" after Monk Gyatso told him he was the Avatar, fully intending to return before getting caught in the storm.

They really weren't kidding about removing Sokka's sexism. Instead of Aang being released bc of Katara's anger at this, they just happen upon the iceberg, and somehow while trying to waterbend their canoe closer she waterbends the iceberg open behind her??

Exposition dump from Gran Gran... and her basically just straight up telling Aang to his face "You're the last airbender! All your people are dead! And you're probably the Avatar too!" It all felt very wooden and definitely a bad change from how Aang realizes he's in the future in the OG series.

I had high hopes for a lot of the actors, and I hate to say it (especially considering Sokka's actor is likely not even indigenous at all), but Sokka has felt like the best actor so far. His lines come across a lot more naturally than Katara's and Aang's often do. Aang is alright, and of course looks and acts the part, but the way he speaks his lines sometimes feels too quick/unnatural. Sadly, I think Katara's acting has been the worst so far - in this episode I didn't see any of the emotion in her eyes that I felt like I should've been seeing. I will say I think she got a bit better in ep 2.

Aang, Katara, and Sokka just don't feel close. They never got time to go penguin sledding, to hang out with the village kids, etc. They still feel like strangers.

Speaking of, I guess Aang went out of the Avatar State by thinking about Gyatso? Again, that distance between him and the siblings (especially Katara) is glaring. Katara in general just seems to lack the spark she has in the OG.

EP 2: "Warriors"

What I liked:

Seeing the Fire Navy port - it felt very SEA-inspired, and that street food looked delicious lol.

Kyoshi Island being run by a woman (Suki's mom). Just makes more sense to me lol.

Suki - I looooved how they portrayed her as this kind of socially awkward character who wants to talk to Sokka but doesn't know how. It makes so much sense with her being isolated her whole life. I also felt like her and Sokka had quite a bit of chemistry.

The final Kyoshi battle was pretty cool

I kinda liked Zhao and Zuko both being at Kyoshi Island

Zuko's desperation to find Aang - he really felt like a kid to me in this ep with the acting choices Dallas made.

Strangely, I don't hate them nerfing the Avatar State a bit by making it to where Aang can only enter it when he's in an Avatar shrine. I didn't even realize it at first but the reason he goes into the Avatar State in the SAT is because Gyatso's skeleton was in Yangchen's shrine. I still prefer OG series Avatar State though.

I like that Kyoshi warns Aang with the vision about the Fire Nation's attack on the Northern Water Tribe. It gives him an incentive to get there faster instead of meandering.

What I was not so keen on:

Zhao seems to be a much less arrogant character here, at least outwardly. I know he was probably a bit cartoon villain-y in the OG series, but this dude just feels like another commander. Maybe that will change as I watch more. He's definitely conniving.

The goofy ass high beam lights from the Kyoshi statue's eyes

Kyoshi's characterization... This Kyoshi feels like the caricature all the casual fans perceive her to be (i.e. violence and strength are the best way, smite my enemies type of thing). I also didn't like how she just kept berating Aang for running away (which is weird that everyone keeps accusing him of this bc this version of Aang literally didn't even run away).

Aang is very driven to master the elements and defeat the Fire Lord in this version, which isn't necessarily a bad thing... But I feel like if anything, they could have at least kept it to where he ran away the night of the genocide, even if they didn't want to show him ignoring his responsibilities to go on adventures in the bulk of the show. A major part of Aang's character arc is him learning to accept his destiny and stop running/avoiding.

Once again, no Sokka sexism arc. This ep in the OG series was very important for him, but that's nonexistent here.

Once again, Katara's acting, while better than ep 1, feels like it's lacking emotion.

Overall, it's obviously better than the 2010 movie so far, and I enjoyed the eps to a degree, but there's still a lot of things that I wasn't super fond of. The changes that they seem to have made so far aren't too extreme yet, and I'm actually looking forward to seeing how far they end up deviating from the original show.

The whole time I was watching, I just couldn't stop thinking about how much better the original show is. I just kept missing the characters I knew and loved. Also, I still firmly believe this world and story truly works best in animation.

#natla #netflix atla #netflix avatar the last airbender #atla #avatar the last airbender #natla spoilers #netflix atla spoilers #atla meta #natla meta

[salsedine]

Oh no you reblogged it too. :/ Well then. *cracks hands*

Irene Adler, Merrill, Rings of Power Tar-Miriel and at this point I have to ask him: Ishmael from Moby dick. (how many/if you want of course💜✨)

Hello! <3 And these are all great, thank you for asking! But definitely under 'the read more', this is going to be a little long.

Irene Adler

-First impression: talented opera singer that managed to outwit both Holmes and the king that was stalking her AND carve a happy life for herself + her husbands; “The Woman” indeed.

-Impression now: pretty much the same - although with age I've come to appreciate more the crossdressing subplot. You get the idea that it is something that she does quite often and enjoys (especially given the freedom that comes with it). This is also for the -headcanon/idea for a story section, but I hope that eventually some adaptation will explore the potentially queer aspect of it. No, not you, BBC.

- Unpopular opinion: maybe it's not a big deal NOW, but I still consider the aforementioned BBC adaptation one of the worst in terms of characterization. They managed to make it worse than a story written in the XIXth century, congrats!

- Favourite relationship: her canon husband seems to like her as she is- which is nice, so he can stay.

Merrill

- First impression: I almost didn't recognize her from her tiny cameo in Origins, ops. Beside that, as soon as the other dalish started badmouthing her I pretty much immediately switched into 'protective mode'.

- Impression now: she is brilliant! why nobody notices that! By trying to restore the eluvian she is actually doing a keeper's job, and she didn't even get possessed despite doing an internship with a spirit/demon - that's impressive. And sure, sometime she can be a little awkward, but she comes from a completely different culture compared to the other characters - of course she is awkward. It’s like moving from Abbiategrasso to Amsterdam, I’d be a little overwhelmed too.

- Favourite scene: The "I believe in you, Hawke" moment during The Last Straw - everybody is (understandably) a little torn and full of doubts and yet she is the first one to be 100% on your side.

- Headcanon/story: since she cleansed the Eluvian, I guess that it’s almost-canon that blood magic could cure the taint? It’s kind of a shame that her relationship with Anders doesn't progress past his prejudices (and a few admittedly nice but short dialogues), because then you'd have a dalish mage that actually knows how to deal with spirits and can potentially cure the taint AND a possessed mage/grey warden. It’s pretty much 80% of the magical plot condensed in two characters, come onnnn.

(same with the whole 'tranquility' thing, since we saw very early in the game that interacting with a spirit can, albeit temporarily, reverse it. No I'm not over that quest)

- Unpopular opinion: I wish the romance storyline was... better written? I would have been 1000% more supportive lol. No really, they emphasized how much Merrill idolizes Hawke, while I would have opted for a more equal relationship.

- Relationship: beside the romance option, I'd say Varric and Isabela. And special mention to Aveline – I know she is not a particularly popular character but some of her dialogues with Merrill are quite sweet.

Tar-Miriel

- First impression: Cynthia Addai-Robinson could stab me and I'd thank her for her time.

- Impression now: same :P no really, this character has a lot of regality and grace, like some sort of fragile strenght. She really felt like a Tolkien character, so to speak.

- Relationship: not romantic, but I enjoyed her clashes with Galadriel and Elendil, and the overall idealism VS political realism contrast.

- Favourite moment: the whole sequence with the falling white flowers, and her final parting with Galadriel - she looks like a byzantine empress 90% of the time, so it's hard to pick one.

- Story/headcanon: not much of an headcanon, but I hope that they'll show more of her ruling in Numenor.

- Unpopular opinion: I don't think i have any? Are there popular/unpopular opinion about her?

Ishmael

- First impression: The novel starts with him explaning that he sails to fight depression (“with a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship”) so I immediately liked him. And "call me Ishmael"? - he is the one that tells the story and we don't even know his real name. The epitome of the unreliable narrator, and he tells you that himself.

- Impression now: Pretty much stayed consistent – I appreciate how he is the opposite of what people expected from a male character in a seafaring novel: introspective, melancholic and prone to philosophical musings, with an unconventional approach to religion (a lot), not particularly adventurous in the physical sense, and gay.

- Relationship: “Thus, then, in our hearts' honeymoon, lay I and Queequeg — a cosy, loving pair.” What can I add? It’s like a marriage, "until death to us part" and everything- and even after that, since Ishmael avoid drowning by clinging to Queequeg's coffin.

- Headcanon / idea for a story: I don't think I can write Moby Dick fanfiction, really. I’ll leave that to Vinicio Capossela lol.

- Unpopular opinion: I don't find Ishmael’s musings about whales boring? They are definitely not the worst part of the book (that's the XIXth century racism).

+ cute seal bonus if you read all that stuff, congrats!

#ask #greypetrel #dopo solo 239843290 anni yay

[jubilantmedusa]

Episode 3 thoughts - I liked it better than the first two episodes. But... still not hitting. Spoilers.

What Worked:

Sokka and a mechanist's talk. Sokka as an engineer is underrated. I was so thrilled that they kept his involvement in creating air balloons, but his conversation with the mechanist about the value of being an engineer was genuinely affecting. Of all the Gaang, Sokka is translating the best so far.

Katara having a climactic moment - more on Katara later, but I'm happy she had a moment here!

Azula and Zhao potential alliance. I'm not 100% on board with the changes to Zhao's character overall, but I am on board with this. It makes Zhao's position more interesting, and it gives Azula a chance to show her calculating nature.

Azula intro - I think it worked. And it's horrifying. I'm not someone who thinks Azula was owed redemption by any means, but I do find her into here sympathetically horrifying. She's a child, and her father's turned her into a spy and is comfortably burning people in front of her. Yikes.

Jet - I will say he mostly worked. The actor did pretty well, even with some clunky dialogue. Love the touch about his mothing teaching him swords. And I think swapping out "Jet is willing to destroy a village" with "Jet is going to get the mechanist and Teo killed" works from a stakes perspective.

Zuko being incensed at the idea of Fire Nation terrorists in Omashu. This boy is made niave by honor worship and the rose colored glasses that he views his father with, but it does work to show us - before Zuko's full story is told - who he is.

Zuko burning the cabbages. LOL.

And honestly, Zuko being willing to try to take Aang without his bending isn't bad.

Iroh sacrificing himself to keep Zuko safe. Feels.

The flashback of Katara's mom smiling at sunrise - it was just a nice moment, and the actress was beautiful.

Aang and Teo flying - it was cool.

Mid:

Freedom fighter village - it felt a little Peter Pan for me, but it wasn't bad.

Zhao. I'm not completely onboard with this, frankly, different character who shares Zhao's name. I might honestly being having an easier time if they just made him an OC, because it does kinda work. This Zhao is sneaky, slippery, interesting. Iroh can respect his thought process while at the same time not trusting him. It's interesting. But its... not the Zhao I was looking for?

The addition of a fire nation resistance. I dig it, but the execution was awful. Awful.

What's Not Working:

They bungled the point of the Mechanist and Teo re: Aang. These characters don't hit the same way when they don't live in the Northern Air Temple. Aang does not feel the emotions in the LA that he did in the original, to the LA show's detriment. It was very significant in the cartoon that Aang had just a big reaction to the possibility that there were still airbenders, only to have that hope dashed. But here its just wasted.

Aang is still not quite hitting for me. I'm not necessarily mad that he feels more actively compelled to stop the war in this version, but... it doesn't feel quite earned.

Also it makes no sense that he's semi-training Katara in waterbending despite not being a waterbender? I'm sure there are universal truths to bending, but... what?

Aang sidequest with Teo, who is a boring side character in this version.

Katara. I think there were at least four times when Katara was asked to have a non-verbal reaction to something that she should have been SCREAMING at. The writers of the Live Action just don't get her. At all.

There was also a scene where they were walking by people who were injured from the bombing and Katara doesn't try to help... I know she hasn't acquired healing, but we know Katara always has t help.

Okay... so I think Katara's emotional arc worked here, in terms of her being held back from her bending due to her trauma. However, what doesn't work is that Aang was not there. Katara and Aang's friendship is so vital to the show. I'm not mad at Jet being a part of things, but Aang needs to be there too. They need to be on this journey together.

It says a lot, actually, that its episode three and Aang, Sokka, and Katara are split into separate subplots. Hmmm. The Gaang's bond is so important.

Sokka and Katara get to surf the mail system, but non Aang? Really?

No mention of Bumi?

Waterbending just doesn't look as good on screen as the other bending disciplines so far, hope this improves. It just... needs to look fiercer? And like the water isn't going to collapse? Katara needs to figure out ice, lol.

#avatar: the last airbender #natla #live action atla #avatar the last airbender netflix

[theresawritesstuff]

1, 6, 7, and 9 about your current fave fic of yours (I'm not familiar with what midgexlenny is, but tell me about it if you want to!)

Lol oh I do sometimes feel bad for my poor Sherlolly mutuals putting up with me while I lose it over a different ship ❤️ they're different but the venn diagram of pairings does overlap in places.

First off, this is Midge and Lenny from Amy Sherman Palladino's The Marvelous Mrs Maisel. They're two foul mouthed stand up comedians in the late 1950s/early 1960s and they're soulmates.

If you enjoy Gilmore Girls level fast paced dialogue but with more f bombs and so so so many pretty dresses I definitely recommend at least bits of the show.

Being that Lenny is a fictionalized version of real life comedian Lenny Bruce (originally intended to only appear in the pilot but they brought him back as part of the show because the chemistry was just too good. The actors are friends in real life and the joy in working together comes through in some really beautiful performances) the final canon of the show was a bit handcuffed on just how far the creators decided they could let the ship sail but that's where the fanfic comes in 😂

Which brings me to my fic Guess Who's Coming to Yom Kippur!

*What is your favorite thing about this fic?*

This was my first dive into writing for this fandom and it has been so much fun. Truly delightful! So many things I've enjoyed with this one. But my favorite thing I think is that it really is an ensemble piece. The characters of the show are all very nuanced, often delightfully flawed, sometimes wacky individuals and I love giving them all a seat at the table and getting to know them. Sometimes quite literally within the fic (it centers around a big family dinner for several chapters). I've had to think of scenes cinematically and it's stretched my dialogue writing in a really enjoyable way. There's at least one scene I wrote visualizing it as a long tracking shot with characters moving in and out, very high energy and lovingly chaotic. It's a fic that has a lot to do with family both found and blood related and how love can show up and show through in a lot of humorous ways.

*Were there any alternative versions of this fic?*

Yes! I originally came up with the idea a season prior to my actually getting around to writing it (wrote it after watching season 4, thought of it watching season 3). The original vague concept for it was much shorter and ended with Midge and Lenny in more of an ambiguous but hopeful "maybe someday" where as the current fic has them very much endgame. And I'm quite happy with that. I feel like I discover more about the story and the characters the longer I work on it. I'm eventually going to write a sequel because I'm having so much fun (another first for me!)

*Favorite line of narration/ Favorite bit of dialogue*

So this fic is currently sitting at over 62k words and counting (it comes with trying to emulate Amy Sherman Palladino levels of dialogue) Easily the longest thing I've written 😅😅😅 I'm not sure I could pick any specific favorites without reading through the whole thing again. And maybe not even then. There's a lot of moments I'm very fond of. Though most probably require more context than would make it easy to share. I'll include a snippet of the tracking shot arrival scene I mentioned since that doesn't require a ton of context from the show other than knowing the names mostly.

In this bit they're arriving at a party hosted by Midge's ex in-laws and Lenny is meeting her older brother Noah and his wife Astrid for the first time. Esther is Midge's two year old daughter. Noah is canonically a secret agent. Lenny is known for getting arrested for things he says in his stand up (a proponent of free speech in a red scare era).

They arrived at the Maisel residence as dusk began to settle in over the sleepy suburb.

"Hi everyone! Sorry we're late. Esther needed to make a pit stop," Midge called out as they let themselves through the front door.

"Us too! We just got in," Noah said from somewhere deeper in the house.

Midge set the kids loose and made her way towards the kitchen. "Mama, Shirley, what can I help with? Oh, Esther sweetie, I don't think Grandma wants you touching that."

"Hi Midge," Astrid greeted, coming in holding little Chaim.

"Hey Astrid! One second," Midge called over her shoulder, rushing to corral Esther away from the more breakable tchotkes. "Esther. Esther put that down!"

Lenny smiled, collecting the kids discarded shoes into a pile by the door.

"Oh hi! You must be Midge's friend." Astrid gave him a welcoming smile.

"Lenny," he supplied.

"Lenny. So nice to meet you. I'm Astrid. This is Chaim." She held her son out for him to hold, passing him off. "Would you mind?"

"Oh I–" Lenny took Chaim in hand on reflex as Astrid didn't wait for a yes or no.

"Thanks." 

She gave him another quick smile before dashing out the front door and wretching over the porch rail.

Lenny held Chaim at arms length, both too stunned by the transfer to know how to proceed. 

"Hello…" he attempted, looking the child in the eye.

"Astrid, honey?" Midge's brother's lanky limbs carried him into the foyer in search of his wife.

Midge returned with a rescued porcelain figurine in hand. "Hey Noah, how was traffic–oh my god."

She stepped out immediately to check on Astrid the moment she saw her, leaving Lenny with Noah and his offspring.

"Yours, I believe," Lenny said finally, handing Chaim to Noah.

"Yeah…" Noah replied, taking his son while glancing after his wife and sister in concern.

The two men stared each other down for a moment, neither one quite sure how to react to the other.

"I'm Lenny."

"I know."

#Writer things #Fic asks #Thanks for letting me ramble!

[sapphire-weapon]

Honestly, it's why I'm relieved that the new timeline is taking a different direction. OG Leon was fucked up, they completely ruined his character, in a way that came across as "nobody at our writers table can agree on what he's like". He declares/shows his belief in something. Self sabotages and does something hypocritical. It doesn't get mentioned again. The cycle continues. You can't complain because Cool Action Hero. I want to like OG Leon and Ada but like... it's really fucking hard to, even outside of Aeon, lmao. The arc is hot garbage with too many plotholes. I genuinely regard Aeon as some of the worst writing in RE history and boy that's a HEAVY statement.

It's not just them though. Chris has had so many iffy stories too... I'll never get over the fucking amnesia thing. It was so stupid imo. Alex was a thing that like... succeeds in her plans but never gets mentioned again. Revelations 1... well... happened. I do enjoy the games. I've had RE brainrot for MONTHS now, but sweet jesus there's so much that annoys me (cough the RAGING racism in RE5, original Ashley and Jessica being more sexist than even Ada, RE6 story deserving to be dumped entirely, Jake the superpowered secret son who just up and left, Sherry being underwhelming). Anyway... love your blog. To stay on topic, god I hope remakes continue keeping Leon consistent and actually making sense! lol

He is an incredible character with a great story at his core, but seeing him immediately being reduced to a total moron that can't keep his opinions or goals straight at the sight of someone he doesn't know? Ruins him. Completely ruins everything he could be. Capcom, fix it.

You really touched on the issue with RE in general: it's been passed through so many dev teams and writing teams, all of whom have had their different visions and interpretations of the canon and the characters, that nothing feels coherent. Because it isn't.

I could write a fucking dissertation on what Mikami's departure from Capcom actually did to RE as a series tbh -- because THAT is ultimately what ruined RE's consistency. RE was Mikami's baby, and he oversaw all of it... until RE0 and REmake flopped and Capcom was ready to pull the plug on the series and then also refused to let him develop RE4 on the PS2 and that was kind of the beginning of the end.

Because RE0 -> RE1 -> RE2 -> RE3 -> Code Veronica is actually VERY VERY coherent. It's stupid and filled with 90s-era writing and dialogue, but it's consistent and logical and makes sense.

But with RE4 being developed under extreme duress and then becoming an overwhelming cultural phenomenon despite that -- but then losing Shinji Mikami's vision and direction almost immediately after launch? Led to Capcom just trying to replicate RE4's success for the better part of a decade, throwing as much shit against the wall re: Leon's character as they could to try to recapture that.

This is why the Remake series is so important. This is Capcom's opportunity to restructure the series under a unified vision again, because it hasn't had one since about 2006.

[dragonsarecats]

What you say might be true for the Blue Lions but not for the Black Eagles? SS existence show how functionally the Black Eagles aren't loyal, they can all turn against her in a way that goes beyond not exactly following her like some Deers with Claude. But focusing on Edelgard point of view, she certainly doesn't take for granted loyalty, she think most people will go against her once the truth is out ( it's often brought up, be it in dialogue like Dorothea support or her behavior like the deep suprise when you support her in the Holy Tomb, hell there's even way she constantly ask if Byleth is they're sure they want to follow her consistently throughout the route ) and even with her ally she remain cautious ( the most obvious is her behavior towards Shez, but remaining in house you have the moment when she hide what happened in Arainrhod for example ): just like Claude learn to trust in VW, so does Edelgard in CF. "Having a group of people one can rely on" is also a fundamental theme of CF, that's Edelgard arc with the Black Eagles strike force and Byleth.

And it's normal: Claude has trauma around trust, and so does Edelgard. Claude was an outsider and a kid growing in a situation of deep rivalry, his situation was so dire he was under treat of assassination; and he end up in country which he still has a lot to learn about and where people hate his very origin ( very angry at how people dismiss how horrific Claude past is, and how much it affect him by the way ). Edelgard lived through political turmoil where her father was betrayed in a political coup, then she was herself directly betrayed by a person she trusted, her uncle, ending up in a situation no one should ever have to live through. Ever once she's out, she's under the abuse of a shadowy group that have manipulated major event in she shadow and who can litteraly take people face. All while learning the most influential institution of Fodlan is hiding the truth.

( And Ferdinand isn't loyal? On Edelgard point of view he's the son of the man who betrayed and used her father, and a man who deeply support the system. On Ferdinand point of view you have him constantly doubting Edelgard at the beginning of CF, one of his first line after the Flame Emperor reveal being "As the next Duke Aegir, should I follow Edelgard into battle?"... Felix is miserable when you recruit him elsewhere, but Ferdinand not so much? And it makes sense looking at Adrestrian politics and how he isn't Edelgard childhood friend unlike Felix with Dimitri )

Previous answer here

Okay, so once again, I need to reiterate that when I discuss themes and characters in fire emblem three houses, I am always doing so in relation to how the narrative and gameplay framework go together. I've said it as a joke, but Jeralt is a prime example of how this works and how narrative and gameplay roles really affect each character.

So to that end, I really don't think you can say Ferdinand isn't loyal. No one is loyal in this game save for Hubert and Dedue (as various church people are recruitable and thus by metrics we're using, not completely loyal, although Catherine has a similar situation to Hilda, I think). They can't be loyal because they have to be recruitable.

You also have to keep in mind that you recruit people pre-war. They literally just transfer into different homerooms. No one is recruited with the initial intention of not going back to their home territory after they graduate, lol. But the academy phase is all about developing bonds within the class and with the professor and when the war goes down--well, they all weight their bonds and their loyalties and chose the former, save for a few exceptions (Lorenz, Ashe, etc. Characters you recruit and have to "recruit" again after defeating them with Byleth post time-skip).

That is to say, again, Byleth is the fulcrum on which this universe spins, both narratively and in game. Three Hopes proves it.

Characters need to be recruitable, and so everyone's loyalty is suspect.

Which is why I don't think your Silver Snow argument holds much water? I don't mean that disrespectfully, just that I disagree with your interpretation of what this means. Edelgard and Claude are exceedingly similar in several ways, and are often directly compared in both their routes in their ideals and differing methods. They also have similar trust issues, but again, are vastly different.

Edelgard has always had someone her age she can rely on. She has always had the same person, in fact, in Hubert. Claude does not; he does not have an official retainer for a reason. Edelgard desperately wants to trust people--even in Verdant Wind, she's filled with longing towards Byleth when they've comparatively barely interacted. Claude and Edelgard deal with their trust issues in different ways; Edelgard longing quietly to have a hand reached out to her, and Claude longing to reach out a hand that won't be smacked away. It's why his speech when they defeat Nemesis is so important.

I don't think Edelgard takes loyalty for granted at all--sorry if that was unclear. I don't think Dimitri does either. I don't think they can considering their pasts. But they take for granted this respect that's naturally given to them as leaders, that Claude visibly has to fight tooth and nail for. There's a reason people are constantly hounding over Claude's secrets but not Edelgard's when in my mind she's far more suspicious in her respective route. However, I think on the surface, Claude thinks they take these things for granted. They have loyal, unswayable retainers, noble connections formed in childhood, rivals who they dispute with who don't literally seek to take their power, and just a general respectful air granted upon them that he doesn't.

When it comes to Silver Snow, again, I don't really think that can be compared to what happens with Claude. Without Byleth, Claude loses members of the Deer. This is entirely different to Edelgard losing the Eagles because they are loyal to Byleth. Byleth's charisma and ability to earn the trust of people despite her inherent oddness (even to distrusting people like Hubert and Claude, because again I don't think Edelgard is inherently untrusting) is a feature, not a bug. Edelgard feels so betrayed in Silver Snow not just because her house has left her and she trusted them but because her teacher has turned against her and taken the house with her, an echo of what happened to her father.

It's just. They have very different situations going on, lol? Silver Snow is less a commentary on how people leave Edelgard and more an expansion on the recruitment function--people will, when push comes to shove, chose the bond they've cultivated with Byleth over the bond with their Lord. Without this interference, Edelgard doesn't lose any of her people. They're loyal.

And yes, that includes Ferdinand, lmao.

Each house leader deals with dissent in a different way. Edelgard ignores it, Dimitri tries to placate it, and Claude engages with it. Edelgard and Ferdinand's arc is about him learning to stop comparing himself to her because she is his better; not in their current world, but the world she wants to create, a meritocracy. Her abilities surpass his and he grows to respect that. In Verdant Wind, when confronted on the bridge, he mentions how he feels like he's the only one who can properly advise Edelgard (likely in part to how he thinks Hubert isn't critical enough of her and does whatever serves her best).

He might disagree with her, but he believes it's his role to guide her, and frankly, it is, narratively. Edelgard doesn't show distrust of him because of what his father did, but rather, exasperation. She and Ferdinand may not be childhood friends, but they did grow up together, and she's been used to him doing this since they were children, as she mentions. Any doubt Ferdinand has about following Edelgard is less about his personal feelings for her, in my opinion, and more about what he's supposed to do as someone in his role. "Do I support her as the son of the prime minister?" Not Edelgard as Ferdinand, but an Emperor and her future advisor.

#edelgard von hresvelg #fe3h edelgard #twila answers #twila talks #fe3h #ferdinand von aegir #when discussing loyalty you have to be aware of the mechanics of the game you just have to it informs everything #everything narratively MUST account for the fact that the player is allowed to make choices #whether it be the house recruitment support/ending pairings ANYTHING #there is a reason shez cannot recruit everyone in three hopes and byleth basically can!!! #im not trying to discount edelgard's trust issues but her thing is that she wants someone to reach out a hand to her!! that's the song!! #edelgard is DESPERATE to trust someone she is DESPERATE to have someone to rely on #and she is so happy to have it when she finally gets it #that's why the strike force means the world to her #because this is a small fraction of her dream

[la-pheacienne]

I'm still wondering what kind of brain jump Sara Hess had from going to writing Alicent as a spiteful bitch that forces Rhaenyra to talk the Keep with her new born to... Become full crying Ninicent that doesn't wanna hurt Rhaenyra, but at the same time she 'defies' her father (except she doesn't because she is still doing exactly what he wants), she has power to command over who her daughter marries but then she doesn't know about the coup to install her son in the throne... What was going on in that woman's head? Did she write the episodes in the wrong order? Did she regret writing Alicent as a bitch in the first place? Do these people even do first drafts of these scripts or they are just so arrogant that they never check their own co consistency? I remember once watching an interview with Steven Moffat about a Doctor Who episode saying he actually regretted the episode was like that but that he couldn't get to the deadline to check on the script more and had to sadly give the actors his rough draft and hope for the best (the episode wasn't even bad but there was awkward dialogue and it showed). There was humility there, I don't see that in the HOTD writers, especially not in Hess and Condal.

Sorry, but as a writer, their lack of consistence drives me insane. Especially when they expect us to love Alicent and get mad when we don't. 😂

@ladyalianora I honestly cannot explain what happened in her head. It's truly inexplicable. My guess is that they tried to create a "complex" character but they have no idea what a complex character actually is, and especially in the context of a "medieval European history based fictional drama" (Idk how else to call it). They don't know anything about the historical context that inspires this kind of stories, they don't know anything about actual female rulers and historical events that inspired the author of the source material and even better, they don't know anything about the source material itself. Maybe they read the book like once, but in a very casual manner, without investing, without understanding. They didn't adapt the source material, they were inspired by the source material to do their own, completely different and shitty story.

Another guess is that they wanted to differentiate themselves so hard from Game of Thrones, in all the wrong ways, of course. Something that didn't really exist in Game of Thrones is this kind of alliance/deep bond between two women that is destroyed by men. So they wanted to do that. The problem is, this thing didn't exist in Game of Thrones for the simple reason that GRRM didn't write it, and he didn't write it because it's crap. The alternatives are so much better. And what's sad is that it could be kind of interesting, if they wrote it as a backstory/villain origin story. It would actually be cool. Actually, what's pathetic about this whole thing is this : this whole friendship/love between Alicent and Rhaenyra has narrative weight ONLY if it's terminally crushed and burned by Alicent's betrayal. Like, Alicent's betrayal (real betrayal that Alicent truly chose and is accountable for) would literally give actual depth in this friendship/love plot they went for. If there is no betrayal, if there is no definite and clear catalyst, what is the POINT of this stupid friendship? What is the point of this friendship in the narrative? It's useless.

They added this stupid friendship/romantic bond to show what? What is the tragedy in this? They were friends and remain friends but everyone else is fucking up this friendship and look how sad it is because they are friends and nobody can break this friendship except that it's broken except that it isn't? Lol? This is literally not how stories work?

And all the inconsistencies this creates Jesus Christ. If Alicent is truly afraid that Rhaenyra will put her children to the sword then she SHOULDN'T give A FUCK about her life. That's like, basic common logic? We're talking about her own fucking children here? If Alicent was afraid of Rhaenyra and isn't to blame then why didn't she betroth her daughter to Jace which would LITERALLY secure her and her whole family? Oh because Jace is plain featured and a bastard. So, it's not that she's afraid, it's that she's a self serving treasonous conservative bitch. A self serving treasonous conservative bitch that has to give sexual favours to her servants so that they can obey her? Doesn't compute. NOTHING computes. So she's neither treasonous nor innocent. What the fuck is she?

But in order to understand all of this one needs to respect the source material written by a person who is FAR more competent than them, who has dedicated decades of his life reading history and studying real rulers and creating his world. If one doesn't give a fuck about the source material it's ok, one needs to be an extremely competent writer with deep knowledge of the rules of narrative and tragedy. Are these people qualified? How? Where? In Orange is the new Black ? Please.

#I'm angry af right now thanks for reminding me of the psychedelic level of crap Sara Hess fed us #hotd #house of the dragon #ladyalianora #Rhaenyra Targaryen #GRRM #Fire & blood

[todayisafridaynight]

SORRY in advance for the long ask pleeease take your time and take care, I hope you feel better + get to have a good time at the con or hanging out with your dad :( It means the world to me that you enjoy my stuff though! It did take me a while to notice you were even following me (hence. @ing you on a post you'd already seen gdjfshld) but we got there eventually...

Definitely definitely was expecting to see more of Infinite Wealth at the summit… since the tweets mentioned character introductions but didn't specify for which game, I was under the impression we'd at least be introduced to the as-yet-unidentified voices in the trailer. Gameplay would've been HUGE to include too 😩 I guess it makes enough sense though, since it's not The Upcoming Release...

I shall bide my time. I have no idea what to expect from fall summit (as intended). But if it's going to be a seasonal thing, I figure a potential "winter summit" is the latest it could be to show us gameplay for something that's suppsed to be an early 2024 release, if not just putting out trailers or other showcases and stuff independently.

LEGIT THOUGH IT JUST MAKES IT SOUND LIKE KIRYU IS LYING TO SOUND COOL GDJSKGLDS which is also Arakawa-esque… "maybe I felt like impressing an idiot kid"… If nothing else, I feel like I'll enjoy the dynamic they're going for with those two. Specifically casting Kiryu as a "big brother" figure rather than a father figure also makes me WEEP because the only "aniki" Ichi's ever had is Jo. So it's like... from Jo to Joryu...

Also I just really like the acting choices by the mocap actor for Kiryu, I feel like we've never really seen him move that… casually? His mannerisms also 100% make him look like he's lying lol like there are multiple "tells" it's so funny

I glossed over the proposal (because I expected that to be the main topic anyway, being the only dialogue scene we got) but I completely agree with everything that's been said, basically. Reverse chick magnet for life… but I do expect there's more to it than meets the eye because summit is pretty focused on "generating buzz," so the fact it feels so out of place is probably what they were banking on.

Because like, on top of everything mentioned, Ichiban is portrayed as an entirely passive participant in the romances in 7, and IIRC for Saeko and Eri he wasn't really even fully aware they were into him. So for him to not only be the one to propose but bomb so hard a seasoned hostess (as Kiryu points out in JP)--who'd rather be groped than subjected to Weird Shit--blew up at him and there was fallout from Adachi and Nanba is a huge deviation from how he's portrayed.

It's also kind of like, to me, the translation says something a little different than what was actually being said; Ichi's emphasis wasn't really on the fact she rejected him (implying he expected her to accept + placing more importance on his own feelings vs hers), but the fact she "chewed him out" (implying he should've known better in the first place than to ask).

Of course, he's apparently planning on trying again so he is hoping she'll accept eventually, and the general tone of the interaction suggests he should've known better regardless, but both say something slightly different about his characterization in this scene to me. There's also TL weirdness with Ichi saying Kiryu seems like a good dude rather than just… him explaining that he doesn't mean anything bad by saying he doesn't seem like a ladies' man, which is a bigger mistake but less consequential, I guess.

There's also Saeko's line from the original teaser, "You say that like you're proposing," so it would seem she's already caught off guard (i.e. not taking it seriously yet) and not too thrilled with the idea (provided it's the same convo). I don't really have much to go off of, but if they are in a relationship, I can only assume either she's made it clear she doesn't want to get married or his proposal method was just That Bad, or they're not in a relationship.

In the latter case all I have to pull from is other media with characters who are somewhat like Ichi, but it made me think of times I've seen characters propose for legal or financial reasons or etc. and get Totally Owned, and I'd honestly find that a believable Ichi Situation… Ichi thinking like 50 steps ahead and not explaining himself properly and just Making Saeko More Mad… I'm just musing, though.

Yokoyama and co. were--if I heard right--being pretty cagey about whether they ARE in a relationship in the first place though, which strikes me as odd compared to RGGS' openness about Kaito's ex in the Lost Judgment DLC. So… definitely not beating the red herring allegations just yet, at any rate. Especially when said DLC involves a fake-out on a proposal lmao

Putting all that aside since we can't make any definitive statements anyway, I AM going to make the definitive statement that literally every single design in Gaiden so far is indeed drippy as hell.

such is the cruel fate of being shadowbanned on this webbed site I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream etc etc ( ╯-╰ ; ) but we did get there! and i very much do enjoy what you post :]

if there's nothing for fall summit (though i'm going to hope a lil there will be since that's what. three months from now) then there'll definitely be something for winter summit. if the idea is that there's more of a focus on gaiden since its release date is sooner, then it's fair to assume- with that logic- the winter one'll have the bulk of LAD8 news and demos. either way, im excited for both to see what both of them bring us !

ignoring the elephant in the room of the proposal thing, i also really liked the vibe of it all (and ive also been trying reeaaally hard to make a joke connecting jo and joryu since that's also a bit i enjoy) (❁´◡`❁) i did like that lowkey feel and just the casualness of the atmosphere and the slight awkward/uncomfortable-but-not-overly-offended-and-even-minorly-comedic energy from kiryu lmao. cant ever go wrong with having a scene that's there to slow everythin down a bit, and it does help set up a kind of homely/familial vibe ♪(´▽｀)

i dont need to comment any more on the proposal thing either LMAO everything ima say i been repeating for the past. X asks 😩

and with that. yeah everyone looks FIRE as hell in gaiden (EXCEPT nishitani ima be 100%.... idk the loud primary colors aren't doing it for me.... points for the nails and hair though) 😩

#long post #snap chats #laying down when youre gloomy is dangerous i passed out despite really hating naps jLAEKJ #my dad texted me today saying we wouldn't be able to hang out and i was reminded to answer this ask gjVLKJLKWEJ #needless to say im still not having the best of days. or months apparently ☠️ but moving on from all that #uhh. yeah no i think i said everything i need to say #im pushing my brain to think of anything to say im really out of it #i know if i dont do it now tho i never will cause when i shirk somethin its virtually nonexistent in my mind ajrLKjVLK #at the very least the 'ladies man' comment is definitely not. 'less consequential' if twitter is anything to say LMAO #mostly just jokes of course ik ik For Real Non Consequential but my eyes are still seeing it every other post SO. #on that note. i forgot my personal rule of not commenting on scripts OH NO #i dont understand japanese and at this point i cant trust what english translators provide and evidently the differences can be big #sooo im just gonna. eat shit i guess LMAO IDK #i already done said i have no more notes bout the proposal bit and i dont #i can just say Yeah Thats About Right when it comes to agreeing with whats been said #just feels underwhelming to only say that tho.... but theres no other way i can say it without restating #i myself just feel underwhelming as of late but thats a personal ish jALKJKLJ #in any case my dad said he'd send me pizza money as an apology or something and tbh ive been craving pizza all week anyway for some reason #even if he doesnt i might just get a small pizza for myself and then only eat a third of it cause my stomach's the size of a peanut

[al-hekima-art-astro]

The House of the dragon 1x01 (none reader review)

Coming back to Game of throne HBO show, three years after the infamous finale season 8 is a bit like coming back with an ex after a torrid love affair and a messy break up. Yeah, that was hot but do I really want to go through the same meltdown again?

I've read Game of throne books up to the dance of dragon and watched the 8 seasons of the show, but I haven't read Fire and blood inspiring the house of the dragon. No spoils please!!

Initially my answer was "no, never again" but after watching the first trailers in spring, I was more " ok maybe just one more time?". HBO was really playing music in my ears with more targaryens, more authenticity to the novel, more dragons...

I was the perfect target audience for this spin-off. I really never been that much interesting about neither the Starks, the Nighwatch, and the Others. However I've always been a big fan of Daenerys and really invested into her storyline. Long story short, I'm not against the idea she ended up mad queen, but I think season 8 rushed her struggle with sanity and make it difficult to believe it.

House of the dragon (HOTD) comes like a sincere apologise and a promise to do better. It expands Daenerys Targaryen's tragic story 172 years before her birth. in GOT the targaryens are already gone, Daenerys is born orphan after the downfall of her family she doesn't know much about her culture but what her brother retold her and him also was a child. Dragons were suppose to have disappeared decades before her birth so when she awoke three it comes like a miracle. She didn't really know how to raise them and so do we.

The first episode of HOTD took really great care of old GOT viewers. This pilot was like a date, everything was done to make us comfortable and familiar with the universe : Targaryen's theme was very present, GOT's theme closed the episode for the nostalgia, here some long dialogues around a cup of wine, here some ultra graphic depiction of violence, here some crude sex, here some expensive costumes, here amazing landscape, and here amazing dragons.

Yes it's GOT, but with a complete different flavour almost two centuries ago. I especially love all the scenes with Rhaenyra, our new main character who where a nod to her descendant Daenerys.

Lol the opening scene gave me PTSD😅 last time we saw a dragon above King's Landing it didn't end well... so it's amusing to see we are in a different timeline, nobody is surprise to see a dragon flying above the city. The same dragon above the funeral pyre is an allusion to Daenerys's judgment against the Tarly family. And of course Rhaenyra in front of the throne reminds us Daenerys' final dream of power.

About the new plot in itself the approach seems original. Yes it's still about political struggle: who will succeed the king? but this time it's entirely focused on a deep family feud who happened to control dragons. And this intimacy kind of surprise me. We get use to pompous dialogues, epic war, machiavellian scheme. That will come later because hey! it's still GRR Martin's universe but in this first episode they chose a very human's angle. People think of Targaryens as Godlike because of their control of dragons but without them, they are just like everybody. We see all the main characters dealing with succession in a patriarchal society, the absence of woman consentement during pregnancy, jealousy and envy betweens brothers, dealing with mourning of loved one, hope in dream, sacrifice for power.

King Viserys : Don't ask me why but for some reason he reminds me a lot of Hashirama Senju. Dreamer, easy-going. He seems to not realise how many snakes are around him ready to attack. I love how the actor Paddy Considine plays a well-balanced character, who can take hard decision if needed I was touched by his grief. But as his brother noticed he is really naive about people...

Ah, the brother.... Daemon Targaryen: you can already tell he's going to be the star of this show. Matt Smith's talent is not a surprise for me, I've seen him already in the Crown when he was playing Prince Philip, the Queen's consort. And he already have this talent for playing haughty aristocrat, both attractive and annoying. Prince Daemon is much more rogue, impatient, with a taste for violence. I can't say yet if he is in my top tier because his first action was a big mistake. He was already his brother's heir, all he has to do was to wait and be nice with his brother and niece. But he celebrates his victory too soon and get kicked out. In the same time if he hasn't done anything they'll be no story right😅? So for now I'm like : ok I like his wildness, good villain vibe detected, I can feel the character is much more complex, but I need to see more because for know he's not the sharpest mind...

Rhaenyra : for now she is my favourite, it was easy to like her. She resembles Daenerys both physically and in her attitude. She has the same problem : being a women in a position where everyone is expecting a man. But contrary to her descendant she was not alone. She seems to have a loving family, wealthy and comfortable childhood inside the royal court. Power, dragon and affluence but for how long....? I can feel her life is going to be very difficult. No one is ready to accept her easily as heiress to the throne, will she stay close to her childhood friend Alicent, herself representing her family's interest? And also how will develop her closeness to her uncle Daemon? There is in one side their rivalry to the throne and also we know Targaryens and their openness to incest... so I'm ready to any morally grey situations... 😬

Princess Rhaenys and Lord Corlys : We haven't seen much yet but this couple is intriguing. Rhaenys is called the Queen who never was. Will she accept Rhaenyra becoming heiress to a title she once was legitimate for? And also why her husband is defending Prince Daemon so much during the council lol at some point I thought Daemon was paying his bills lol.

My critics : I was expecting more original scores. They probably choose to play safe for the first episode. GOT's theme is a signature. I think I've never skipped it during the 8 seasons because it emerges you into the universe and there is always tiny details in the opening credits, changing when the story progresses. I've enjoy listened to it again during the ending but I'm ready for a new show having his own identity, I'm expected an original opening next episode for House of the dragon.

To put it in a nutshell, it's an excellent start, I love the plot and actors I'm ready for more drama and bloodshed. And gosh how I missed dragons !🔥🔥🔥

Note 9.5/10

Episode 2

#house of the dragon #HOTD #house of the dragon episode 01 #review #I haven't read the book so please no spoil ! #GOT #game of thrones #house targaryen #viserys targaryen #daemon targaryen #rhaenyra targaryen #daenerys targaryen

[yjhgvf]

"Hey, where's My Best Friend and I Got Dragged into a Portal but We Actually Liked What was on the Other Side? You know, the collab fic with Briar."

Asked none of you ever, probably. But this has been eating at me personally. After all, it's my responsibility to upload the chapters, and yet I haven't been doing that for 2 or 3 months. So what gives?

Well, truthfully the answer is two parts. The first part is that Briar herself has been dealing with a lot. I'm not going into detail because I'm not a dickhead, but there's been a lot of pressure on her and a lot in general on her plate. Because the fic's pure existence caused so much conflict, especially when it first released, updating it with more chapters and making it still somewhat relevant when Briar's dealing with bad stuff felt in poor taste to me. But now, it seems Briar has less negative shit to deal with, and thus I feel comfortable updating the fic without fearing that it'll cause conflict for her.

The second part has to do with me. I've spoken on here before about how I'm actively in college, and thus I'm a full time student. I've also talked about how I have mental illnesses, and how they affect my daily life quite a bit. This case is no different. You see, MBaIGDiaPbALWWOtOS (jesus that's a long acronym) is originally a discord roleplay between me and Briar, with hundreds of messages from both of us making up the fic. In order to transfer it to ao3, I have to individually copy and paste each message into a google doc to make it more coherent. When that's done, I paste the chapter each set of messages makes up onto ao3. The task itself doesn't seem that bad, but trust me when I say that copying and pasting hundreds of individual dialogues and messages to make up ultimately a small part of a fic gets really draining and demotivating after a while. Let me show you the process.

First, we have the message I'm copying. This is going to be in either the next chapter or the chapter after that, so I don't feel too bad about potential spoilers.

I hold on the message and select 'copy text' to have the two paragraphs (or 3 sentences ig) on my clipboard

We're now in the google doc for the fic, with chapters marked out. I go down into a blank line, hold, and paste the text.

Since ao3 gets picky about spaces between lines, I go in and remove that space myself, since it gets confusing for me and Briar if we don't do that ourselves

And there's how it looks when I'm done. Granted, it's a ton easier to do on mobile than on pc, especially since I can split screen easily on mobile, but that's still quite a bit of work that I'm doing myself.

So yeah, that's why it can get draining at times. However, since my semester is ending soon, and summer break is beginning. I'm hoping that with the extra free time I have, I can better work on the fic.

So that's where MBFaI (much better acronym lol) has been. I just wanted to be transparent about it. That's all

#yj’s cool ramblings #yj writes something for once #important

[pumpkinpaix]

hello there, hope you're having a nice day <3

so i've been reading a lot of fics lately, uk for sanity's sake, and i've noticed that in most of them, lwj doesn't use contractions (eg., says do not instead of don't)?? and i think he doesn't in the novel either but i don't remember lol so i can't be sure but anyway that made me curious - does chinese have contractions as well? does he not use it bc it's informal?

hello there! I’m doing all right, i started to answer this ask while waiting for a jingyeast loaf to come out of the oven 😊 many thanks to @bookofstars for helping me look over/edit/correct this post!! :D

anyways! the answer to your questions are complicated (of course it is when is anything simple with me), so let’s see if I can break it down--you’re asking a) whether chinese has contractions, b) if it does, how does they change the tone of the sentence--is it similar to english or no?, and c) how does this all end up with lan wangji pretty much never using contractions in english fic/translation?

I’m gonna start by talking about how formality is (generally) expressed in each language, and hopefully, by the end of this post, all the questions will have been answered in one way or another. so: chinese and english express variations in formality/register differently, oftentimes in ways that run contrary to one another. I am, as always, neither a linguist nor an expert in chinese and english uhhh sociological grammar? for lack of a better word. I’m speaking from my own experience and knowledge :D

so with a character like lan wangji, it makes perfect sense in english to write his dialogue without contractions, as contractions are considered informal or colloquial. I don’t know if this has changed in recent years, but I was always taught in school to never use contractions in my academic papers.

However! not using contractions necessarily extends the length of the sentence: “do not” takes longer to say than “don’t”, “cannot” is longer than “can’t” etc. in english, formality is often correlated with sentence length: the longest way you can say something ends up sounding the most formal. for a very simplified example, take this progression from least formal to absurdly formal:

whatcha doin’?

what’re you doing?

what are you doing? [standard colloquial]

may I ask what you are doing?

might I inquire as to what you are doing?

excuse me, but might I inquire as to what you are doing?

pardon my intrusion, but might I inquire as to what you are doing?

please pardon my intrusion, but might inquire as to the nature of your current actions?

this is obviously a somewhat overwrought example, but you get the point. oftentimes, the longer, more complex, more indirect sentence constructions indicate a greater formality, often because there is a simultaneous decreasing of certainty. downplaying the speaker’s certainty can show deference (or weakness) in english, while certainty tends to show authority/confidence (or aggression/rudeness).

different words also carry different implications of formality—in the example, I switched “excuse me” to “pardon me” during one of the step ups. pardon (to me at least) feels like a more formal word than “excuse”. Similarly, “inquire” is more formal than “ask” etc. I suspect that at least some of what makes one word seem more formal than one of its synonyms has to do with etymology. many of english’s most formal/academic words come from latin (which also tends to have longer words generally!), while our personal/colloquial words tend to have germanic origins (inquire [latin] vs ask [germanic]).

you’ll also notice that changing a more direct sentence structure (“may I ask what”) to a more indirect one (“might I inquire as to”) also jumps a register. a lot of english is like this — you can complicate simple direct sentences by switching the way you use the verbs/how many auxiliaries you use etc.

THE POINT IS: with regards to english, more formal sentence structures are often (not always) longer and more indirect than informal ones. this leads us to a problem with a character like lan wangji.

lan wangji is canonically very taciturn. if he can express his meaning in two words rather than three, then he will. and chinese allows for this—in extreme ways. if you haven’t already read @hunxi-guilai’s post on linguistic register (in CQL only, but it’s applicable across the board), I would start there because haha! I certainly do Not have a degree in Classical Chinese lit and she does a great job. :D

you can see from the examples that hunxi chose that often, longer sentences tend to be more informal in chinese (not always, which I’ll circle back to at the end lol). Colloquial chinese makes use of helping particles to indicate tone and meaning, as is shown in wei wuxian’s dialogue. and, as hunxi explained, those particles are largely absent from lan wangji’s speech pattern. chinese isn’t built of “words” in the way English is—each character is less a word and more a morpheme—and the language allows for a lot of information to be encoded in one character. a single character can often stand for a phrase within a sentence without sacrificing either meaning or formality. lan wangji makes ample use of this in order to express himself in the fewest syllables possible.

so this obviously leads to an incongruity when trying to translate his dialogue or capture his voice in English: shorter sentences are usually more direct by nature, and directness/certainty is often construed as rudeness -- but it might seem strange to see lan wangji’s dialogue full of longer sentences while the narration explicitly says that he uses very short sentences. so what happens is that many english fic writers extrapolated this into creating an english speech pattern for lan wangji that reads oddly. they’ll have lan wangji speak in grammatically incoherent fragments that distill his intended thought because they’re trying to recreate his succinctness. unfortunately, English doesn’t have as much freedom as Chinese does in this way, and it results in lan wangji sounding as if he has some kind of linguistic impediment and/or as if he’s being unspeakably rude in certain situations. In reality, lan wangji’s speech is perfectly polite for a young member of the gentry (though he’s still terribly rude in other ways lol). he speaks in full, and honestly, quite eloquent sentences.

hunxi’s post already has a lot of examples, but I figure I’ll do one as well focused on the specifics of this post.

I’m going to use this exchange from chapter 63 between the twin jades because I think it’s a pretty simple way to illustrate what I’m talking about:

蓝曦臣道：“你亲眼所见？”

蓝忘机道：“他亲眼所见。”

蓝曦臣道：“你相信他？”

蓝忘机道：“信。”

[...] 蓝曦臣道：“那么金光瑶呢？”

蓝忘机道：“不可信。”

my translation:

Lan Xichen said, “You saw it with your own eyes?”

Lan Wangji said, “He saw it with his own eyes.”

Lan Xichen said, “You believe him?”

Lan Wangji said, “I believe him.”

[...] Lan Xichen said, “Then what about Jin Guangyao?”

Lan Wangji said, “He cannot be believed.”

you can see how much longer the (pretty literal) english translations are! every single line of dialogue is expanded because things that can be omitted in chinese cannot be omitted in english without losing grammatical coherency. i‘ll break a few of them down:

Lan Xichen’s first line:

你 (you) 亲眼 (with one’s own eyes) 所 (literary auxiliary) 见 (met/saw)？

idk but i love this line a lot lmao. it just has such an elegant feel to me, probably because I am an uncultured rube. anyways, you see here that he expressed his full thought in five characters.

if I were to rewrite this sentence into something much less formal/much more modern, I might have it become something like this:

你是自己看见的吗？

你 (you) 是 (to be) 自己 (oneself) 看见 (see) 的 (auxiliary) 吗 (interrogative particle)？

i suspect that this construction might even be somewhat childish? I’ve replaced every single formal part of the sentence with a more colloquial one. instead of 亲眼 i’ve used 自己, instead of 所见 i’ve used 看见的 and then also added an interrogative particle at the end for good measure (吗). To translate this, I would probably go with “Did you see it yourself?”

contained in this is also an example of how one character can represent a whole concept that can also be represented with two characters: 见 vs 看见. in this example, both mean “to see”. we’ll see it again in the next example as well:

in response to lan xichen’s, “you believe him?” --> 你 (you) 相信 (believe) 他 (him)? lan wangji answers with, “信” (believe).

chinese does not do yes or no questions in the same way that english does. there is no catch-all for yes or no, though there are general affirmative (是／有) and negative (不／没) characters. there are other affirmative/negative characters, but these are the ones that I believe are the most common and also the ones that you may see in response to yes or no questions on their own. (don’t quote me on that lol)

regardless, the way you respond to a yes or no question is often by repeating the verb phrase either in affirmative or negative. so here, when lan xichen asks if lan wangji believes wei wuxian, lan wangji responds “believe”. once again, you can see that one character can stand in for a concept that may also be expressed in two characters: 信 takes the place of 相信. lan wangji could have responded with “相信” just as well, but, true to his character, he didn’t because he didn’t need to. this is still a complete sentence. lan wangji has discarded the subject (I), the object (him), and also half the verb (相), and lost no meaning whatsoever. you can’t do this in english!

and onto the last exchange:

lan xichen: 那么 (then) 金光瑶 (jin guangyao) 呢 (what about)？

lan wangji: 不可 (cannot) 信 (believe)

you can actually see the contrast between the two brothers’ speech patterns even in this. lan xichen’s question is not quite as pared down as it could be. if it were wangji’s line instead, I would expect it to read simply “金光瑶呢？” which would just be “what about jin guangyao?” 那么 isn’t necessary to convey the core thought -- it’s just as how “then what about” is different than “what about”, but “then” is not necessary to the central question. if we wanted to keep the “then” aspect, you could still cut out 么 and it would be the same meaning as well.

a FINAL example of how something can be cut down just because I think examples are helpful:

“I don’t know” is usually given as 我不知道. (this is what nie huaisang says lol) It contains subject (我) and full verb (知道). you can pare this straight down to just 不知 and it would mean the same thing in the correct context. i think most of the characters do this at least once? it sounds more literary -- i don’t know that i would ever use it in everyday speech, but the fact remains that it’s a possibility. both could be translated as “I do not know” and it would be accurate.

ANYWAYS, getting all the way back to one of your original questions: does chinese have contractions? and the answer is like... kind of...?? but not really. there’s certainly slang/dialect variants that can be used in ways that are reminiscent of english contractions. the example I’m thinking of is the character 啥 (sha2) which can be used as slang in place of 什么 (shen2 me). (which means “what”)

so for a standard sentence of, 你在做什么? (what are you doing), you could shorten down to just 做啥? and the second construction is less formal than the first, but they mean the same thing.

other slang i can think of off the top of my head: 干嘛 (gan4 ma2) is also informal slang for “what are you doing”. and i think this is a regional thing, but you can also use 搞 (gao3) and 整 (zheng3) to mean “do” as well.

so in the same way that you can replace 什么 with 啥, you can replace 做 as well to get constructions like 搞啥 (gao3 sha2) and 整啥 (zheng3 sha2).

these are all different ways to say “what are you doing” lmao, and in this case, shorter is not, in fact, more formal.

woo! we made it to the end! I hope it was informative and helpful to you anon. :D

this is where I would normally throw my ko-fi, but instead, I’m actually going to link you to this fundraising post for an old fandom friend of mine. her house burned down mid-september and they could still use help if anyone can spare it! if this post would have moved you to buy me a ko-fi, please send that money to her family instead. :) rbs are also appreciated on the post itself. (* ´▽` *)

anyways, here’s the loaf jingyeast made :3 it was very tasty.

#mdzs #mdzs meta #the untamed #the untamed meta #lan wangji #lan wangji meta #mine #mymeta #linguistics #chinese #english #cyan chinese school #cyan help desk #languages #contractions #register #look man idk how am i gonna tag this #*yeets into the void*

[xxliteraryladiesxx]

Disney at Dawn Updated PART 2

1. All the Amanda using the Animal Cams to track the keepers in the part is different.

2. The part on page 208 where Maybeck says a word that "would have one again gotten Finn grounded for a week" "Son of a ___"

has been changed to say "sands of a beach"

3. How Finn and Maybeck find the monkey image from Jess's drawing is changed

4. OH! also when they text instead of the text abbreviations and stuff like "otakers" " u c?" etc is written out with correct spellings and punctuations/capitalization

Which I find lame because they are still in middle school and the text abbreviations still totally would work.

5. The part with Finn and Maybeck running into the Lion King Show Finn is getting info from Amanda on the phone when in the original it seems like she was also running near then because it says "Amanda said into his ear" but I will give this a pass simply because this part always confused me cuz how is she right there to cheer them on etc

6. The interactions Amanda has with the kid who wants to use the camera, and then later when the Kid has the tattoo that points her to go backstage are completely different.

7. THE MAIL BOX

which is how they get the fob is gone. which makes me sad I liked that part where it goes "FEED ME" now Finn and Maybeck go to Pandora and find it in a flower thing. and Maybeck thinks the guy is an OT

8. the ROB CALL

He used to say she plays word games. He now says he would like to take away her pen and paper that she is constantly messing with to create word game letters

9.Finn and Amanda backstage

They yell at each other usually like "Go!' he called out to Amanda" "NO. I am staying" and now the dialogue has them saying things like "Please" and "thank you" while they argue with each other. like what

10. "You can fly?" "I can levitate"

Is gone. why is it and other stuff of Amanda using her power gone.

11. FINN AND JESS

originally it goes "Your long hair. the way you looked at me" "I was under Maleficen'ts spell' she reminded him"

"And I was under yours' he thought. 'The thing is, as it turned out, there was nothing to be afraid of"

NOW he TELLS HER "As it turned out I liked you"

WHAAAAAAT idk what to think . I yelled at the book

12. Escaping from the Tigers

basically pages of that part is just gone. shorter, and not as interesting. some weird dialogue stuff

13. Maybeck and Willa

SOO MUCH is cut out about their mission. and a ton of the action is changed completely. They no longer have the witty back and forth banter. AND THE BIGGEST THING about 4 pages are GONE with them finding a magnet to destroy the system and hearing footsteps and getting out and having their hug moment where Willa then pushes him away and goes "dont disgust me!" and Maybeck goes "I probably checked w philby before doing that. I hope it doesn't mess things up" never happens

Im sorry but.... what.... why.... what in the world

14. Finn being very unfinn

in an added half page of dialogue when Jess tells about Chernabog and her dream of Finn being swung like a baseball bat by a yeti. she doesnt say Chernabog but Finn argues that Yes sounds crazy and it was surely just a dream and goes "so we all know just for the recorded i nvr said it was good idea"

This is the dialogue changes I was most mad at. Finn would never

Alright that's all I got for you. what do you think about these changes?

I tried to keep this post shortish by only writing the changes I felt most passionate about lol

Now... onto Disney in Shadow

#kingdom keepers #finn whitman #amanda lockhart #disney at dawn #terry maybeck #dell philby #willa angelo #charlene turner #jessica lockhart #wayne kresky #the keepers #ridley why you gotta play me like that #ridley pearson #idk what else to tag #why is this a thing #rant over #kingdom keepers updated #kingdom keepers changed #virtual magic kingdom

[suncaptor]

So we're having a s7/s8 breakdown on this fine Saturday? Good. May I interest you in theese thoughts (this whole ask might include some wild speculation, I hope you're up for it, if no, please ignore and I will crawl back to my basement, also this got SO LONG I AM ALMOST ASHAMED, but I need to exchange thoughts with someone agsfsdghf):

Amelia was the original blurry wife for Sam. I remember at the time s8 was airing the fandom wasn't really fond of her because she wasn't very special as a character, she felt kind of boring (obviously the wincest/bibro side hated her for different reasons lol) and unfortunately she was very forgettable. She was literally Just Some Woman, a blank canvas. (idk if you agree but this is what I think). But. I think she was set up to be Sam's endgame if season 8 was the last one. He gets what he wanted - out of the hunter's life, white picket fence, a wife and a dog. And it was confirmed somewhere that she was written off due to the hate she received (spn fandom being spn fadom I am leaving this without comment). So that is why I believe she was gonna be the Blurry Wife of season 8, but she was written off....

....."But hey!", you might say, "Sam was the one doing the trials in season 8! So how can she be his endgame if he was going to lock up Hell and die?". I have an answer! Sam doesn't start the trials until 8x14, four episodes after he broke up with Amelia and chose Dean in 8x10. Up until then it was agreed that Dean was going to be the one to do the trials, it was changed last minute in the show (when Sam ends up killing the hellhound in 8x14) and part of me wonders how much it might reflect the last minute change in real life. counterpoint: spn got a renewal on February 11th 2013 and 8x14 was shot November 30th - December 11th 2012 so renewal is not the case, maybe just a general change of direction for the season? idk, BUT......

.... but maybe? now I am thinking. So they make Sam break up with Amelia to get rid of her and so he can do the trials. and he is going to die. so basically once again Sam is going to die in the finale as a sacrifice (like in Swan Song) (oh I just remembered 8x23 was titled Sacrifice. NICE). And now back to Dean and everything romantic that happened that I mentioned in those tags. Let's say they keep the 'I love you' in 8x17 (I am still writing all of this under the assumption that season 8 was going to be the last one). And Cas disappears. And now guess what. He is not in 8x18. He is not in 8x19 but you know who is? NAOMI with this epic line: "And yet you haven't warded this place against us. I know. You're hoping Castiel will return to you. I admire your loyalty. I only wish he felt the same way. I know you don't want to believe it, Dean, but we're on the same side – shutting the Gates of Hell, bringing Castiel in from the cold. Take a moment. Think about what I've said." literally WHAAAAT, what were we supposed to think at this point?!?!? IF THE 'I LOVE YOU' was kept in 8x17?! can you imagine?! (also sidenote: 8x19 is a buckleming episode where they kill off Benny. epic highs and lows, etc.)

So they aren't reunited until 8x22 (i mean last seconds of 8x21 but it doesn't really matter). And Dean is angry, and hurt and we have this piece of dialogue:

CASTIEL: Dean, I can go with you. A FEW SECONDS PASS BEFORE SPEAKING AGAIN Dean. I'm sorry. DEAN: For what? CASTIEL: For everything. DEAN" Everything? Like, uh... Like ignoring us? CASTIEL: Yes. DEAN: Or like bolting off with the Angel Tablet, then losing it 'cause you didn't trust me? You didn't trust me. CASTIEL: Yes. DEAN: Yeah. Nah, that's not gonna cut it. Not this time. So you can take your little apology and you cram it up your ass. CASTIEL: Dean, I thought I was doing the right thing. DEAN: Yeah, you always do.

still with me? ok. so then Cas is sad and wants to apologize and goes out to buy Dean beer and pie but Metatron finds him and they go on their little quest together. blah blah blah, Sam and Dean catch Crowley, they are in the church, Sam in beginning the ritual on Crowley when wild Cas appears and asks Dean for help because... he needs a Cupid's Bow for Metatron to lock up Heaven. and he asks for Dean's help. I mean at this moment I think everyone would have gotten the HINT. Dean leaves Sam with Crowley to do the trial by himself (he chooses to go with Cas this is important because the last time he saw Cas he was angry at him).

And then we have that infamous bar scene where Dean might still be hurt but now he is afraid of losing Cas AGAIN due to Heaven about to be locked up and he is like "ummm are you sure? you're -- you're boarding up Heaven, and you're locking the door behind you. you did a lot of damage up there, aren't you afraid the angels might kill you?" and Cas is like stone cold "yeah they might and I am sure about doing this" :( and then they witness as two dudes fall in love in the bar. hint hint again.

quick cut to Crowley who says: "Don't we all -- you, me -- we deserve to be loved. I deserve to be loved! I just want to be loved". hint hint Love is a whole theme of this episode

AND THEN Castiel's grace ends up being the last ingredient to cast out all angels from Heaven after a nephilim and cupid's bow. And it's brushed off with a no-homo line by Metatron: "I want you to live this new life to the fullest. Find a wife. Make babies." SURE. oh to get my hands on the original first drafts of those episodes... a girl can dream.

in conclusion I wonder what the ending would be here. Dean and Cas eventually reunite and finally talk it out? one can argue: "but why Cas didn't confess back when they were having their moment in the bar? :/" well, because, as he tells us himself, (actually he says it to Kevin prior to he bar scene, but it's easy to understand that he is also talking about himself here): "There is no out. Only duty. You are a Prophet of the Lord, always and forever... ...until the day you cease to exist, and then another Prophet takes your place. Now, are you clear as to the task before you? Then do it, and let's go." (now don't think about this line and Dean's quiet: "Are you sure? Aren't you afraid?" in the bar and Castiel's "Yeah I'm sure")

so then they finally reunite, both human and they find each other and Cas is like "My grace was the special last spell ingredient because ..................." and they would address the Crypt Scene confession finally, I guess. They arrive at the Church and Sam is dead (according to what we know now (if a soul was in hell it will always end up in hell thing) maybe he went to hell. maybe it's locked up but he is the one in charge Rowena-style?). So of course Dean is a wreck but he has Cas by his side. Holding hands as they bury Sam. I don't know but I want to know SO BADLY what they had originally planned here. I would literally willingly sell my kidney to read Carver's mind.

I AM DEEPLY SORRY FOR THIS ASK I HAD TO GET THIS OUT OF MY HEAD ILY <3333333333333

okay I have NO CLUE what they meant to do or the validity of the assumptions, but this is SO interesting and I agree with all your analysis of canon, except I also don't think that Cas like. understood at all or ever thought Dean's "I love you" meant what Dean did at this point xnkslfkdkdkskd so I see your draw to him specifying duty given his probable suicide rather than stay with Dean like he wants.

I also do wonder what they were doing with Sam in s8 it's very disjointed and out of character, so your guesses are VERY interesting. Amelia like made no sense Sam made no sense or the way Sam treated Benny (which I think was set up for Sam decided to choose hunting with Dean over her and Dean about Benny, so I don't know if she was meant to be endgame ever? but I have nooo clue what they could have meant for because the plot is all over the place in s8). anyways INTERESTING. I love all your thoughts thanks for sending this ask 💞💞

#and like to be clear I do view canon destiel VERY similarly to you. you get it. #incest mention #spn #supernatural #destiel #sam Winchester #samelia #s8 #sammy #dean winchester #castiel #cas #amelia richardson #amelia #incoherents #ask

[bellaslilpapercut]

Oh boy New Moon! I've got some Thoughts a brewin' babey:

1. Smeyer: you do not need to remind your audience what happened last book, they aren't stupid. Imagine if SC started catching fire with ANOTHER explanation of what the hunger games are and that's the vibe of the first chapters of new moon. We remember james, we know what vampires are, we know that Bella is white, stop reminding us!

2. Bella has the worst self esteem of all time. Every bad thing that has happened to her since the Van Incident has been Edward's fault but she still blames herself and idk if this is Intentional Insecurity or if smeyer is protecting edward's "character" or both but gdamn it's depressing.

3. The reason I said Jasper was Inconsistently Written jumped out at me again. Smeyer dedicated a whole paragraph to pointing out how terrible jasper is at the diet or whatever but in the guide, smeyer tells us jasper actively tried to starve himself in the past because of how difficult his gift made feeding. He was one of only two Cullens to show bella empathy, he smelled her blood before, why does he attack her? The weakness of this decision is pointed out in the exposition: if it really were likely that Jasper would attack Bella, she wouldn't have needed a superfluous paragraph dedicated to telling us how bad he is at self control. If the story had convinced us of that beforehand, we would have believed the attack without the addendum.

4. The party is my least favorite part of the whole series and I will die on this hill: edward should have attacked bella. Bella should have tripped into something glass and edward should have lost it because he tasted her blood before and couldn't help himself. That way: edwards self loathing makes sense and he's forced to recon with his superiority complex from the ending chapters of twilight AND bella's self blame makes sense. A vamp who was able to starve himself before he even heard of the cullens should not have lost it around someone he spent days in close quarters with, building rapport and friendship. Edward got too high and mighty after he fed from Bella in Twilight, that should have had real consequence.

5. The writing is getting a little better as we near Edward leaving. "Better" isn't a good word actually but it's getting closer to the prose in twilight (which was flowery and annoying but at least it didn't constantly feel like being spoonfed exposition every paragraph). Hm wrote this blurb while I was still on chapter 3 and the vibe of being spoonfed reminders has not really dissipated lmfao.

We remember Sam Uley, smeyer, you introduced him four chapters ago. Just quick question: did anyone proofread this?? I think it's fair to say: when she isn't reminding us of things that we remember the prose is more similar to twilight. A little annoying but interesting enough to forgive the errors (or at least move past them easily enough lol).

6. I'm on chapter 8 now (I'm gonna break this up into three parts so I don't forget stuff like I did during the twilight reread) and there's a very heavy Vibe that smeyer is setting Jake up to be a parallel for twilight-era Bella. This line here is a pretty clear parallel for Bella telling Edward not to hold his breath in Twilight when he tells her she might get tired of him.

7. This line here "almost happy in a shallow kind of way" really jumped out. What Bella's narration says about Jacob versus her conversations with him (and her one paragraph about his happiness being effortlessly contagious) are at odds. It doesn't read like shallow happiness when she's with Jake. However, Smeyer is also a bad writer, she thinks the story she's telling us is literally what the narration says and not what the action shows and I think she realizes this in Eclipse (but obviously I'm not there yet so I can't say for sure).

8. I really can't get over the drop in writing quality. I know that she had already mostly finished Forever Dawn by the time Twilight was published (or was halfway done, I think her website said she had over 300 pages of forever dawn complete when she found out Twilight was getting published). I think the writing quality really reveals that she was not prepared to write New Moon. It's sloppier than Twilight in a way I'm not able to articulate (by that I mean I personally have a more intuitive than technical understanding of grammar and syntax so I don't have the language to break down the differences). Twilight itself is ripe with technical errors and plot errors and awkward exposition so it's not an overt drop in quality but I think it very much reads like a rushed writing job. She was committed to forever dawn, her publishers wanted New Moon, it shows.

9. I think New Moon was when I first started physically editing my copies of the saga lol. Even reading it now I'm so tempted to open up a word document and cut half of the useless shit out and fix all the grammatical mistakes. I can't even talk shit because I am also a comma-abuser but I hoped an editor would at least catch the errors before publishing. Guess not! Brevity is very clearly not meyers strong suit and this would have been a much stronger sequel if she had been able to reign herself in a bit. New Moon isn't supposed to be as narration heavy as twilight, there's already more action in the first seven chapters than the there was in the first 19 of twilight but she always delivers exposition via awkward dialogue or Bella's narration. Again, we already got a lot of the exposition in twilight, we know how vampires work et cetera. You can show us how bella feels instead of making her tell us and the story would run a lot more smoothly.

10. I'll end on a nice note! Little treat!

This is my favorite part of the book so far. I whited-out the useless dialogue tag because the line reads better without it ( line originally ends with "I emphasized" but she could have been brief and just ended the dialogue with an exclamation point for the same effect). The dialogue is natural and shows the J/B relationship that lives in my head way better than anything else I've seen on the page at this point. Like, I literally love this line more than any dialogue that preceded it (including twilight) lol.

#new moon reread #its taken me so long to get through these first chapters because its physically painful lmfao #i think when jacob comes in it gets more enjoyable if im remembering correctly #though im sure the writing quality will be equal to twilight at best #i wish anyone else in the world had written jacob black #everything about his character from the jump has been to serve bella's story #and everything about bella was to serve edward #i think i will write a meta on that eventually

[tsuki-sennin]

There're demons afoot. Not Demons, but... demons. Can we live through this evil? All on America's favorite Kamen Rider Revice discussion segment...

Spoilers, I guess...

-"Vail-san", he says, like he's his friend he met in his math class.

-"Haha yeah, I totally planned that, haha", ok sure Olteca.

-Ohhhh, that ain't good.

-Okay, the Gifu vagina statue is fucking invincible, gotcha! I feel like we should have some sort of... mass produced Driver to arm the Fenix soldiers. I'm sure George will see comparisons to the ZECTroopers and Riotroopers and think it's a good idea to pitch to Direct- OH NEVER MIND I FORGOT WHO'S IN CHARGE WHAT WAS I THINKING.

-Oh boy, Akaishi's busting out the religious references. ...at least, in the sub I'm watching, which I think is Izusubs?

-You talk mad shit for a man in a mirror, Kagero. I love you tho, I'll probably miss you.

-Black and white!

-Don't worry guys, we'll beat Gifu up for child support.

-VICE YOU STOLE MY JOKE, YOU MOTHERFUCKER-

-Oh well, we got more Lovekov dialogue, that was a worthy sacrifice.

-I was gonna make another Weekenders joke for Sakura leaving, but I haven't seen that show on TV since like 2006 lol. There were a lot of cartoons from the early 2000s that were forgotten over the years, like Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, which I think was one of the first times I was exposed to Japanese musicians not named Koji Kondo or Shinkuchi Mitsumune. Puffy also did the theme song for Teen Titans, so they're pretty rooted in my early youth! I... also may or may not have had a crush on them, but that's neither here nor there.

-God, this Drama slaps. The acting, the cinematography, the dialogue, the

-Hi, Buu-san. You uh... wanna help us out, man? :)

-We're in a vicious cycle. Just like the one at 2fort. ...or I guess, Joshscorcher and Alicorn Twilight, if that's a reference you don't mind me making.

-Ohhhh, there they are. Holy Wings and Thunder Gale. ...or I guess... Crow and... Pinwheel, I guess.

-He's free!

-Wow, instant! No hesitation, whatsoever. Poor Akemi-san.

-Oh, that's the reason why it's Live exclusive, seemingly. That... seems a little excessive, George.

-Wow, Akaishi's playing every side. Good on him to be honest, he's earning these little victories.

-I hope you'd pay Kagerou equal wages. ...hell, I hope you pay anyone period.

-A cold-hearted forces a kindhearted man to carry a Cross of Fire for vile purposes of control and destruction. It's funny to think that in that man's own home country, there's another just like him in the almost exact same situation who managed to break free of his chains. Vail may carry the Kamen Rider name, but it seems like it was truly just a name.

-Wait, Noah!? Aw dammit, I was gonna use that name for an OC RIder eventually! Yeah, I know it's just an organization name, but damn. I've been kerpranked.

-Poor Papa.

-Junpei Shiranami and Genta Igarashi. What more does this man hide?

-Good job Karizaki.

-You're not exactly atoning like this, man.

-So, Noah was the original form of the Deadmans Cult... This sort of parallels Shocker evolving into Destron, in a weird way. Like, Shocker was a Nazi remnant organization enforcing a different ideal of evolution while keeping their totalitarian principles of death and violence, but Destron is basically a literal fascist cult of personality that evolved with much of the same ideals.

-Man, we're fucked.

-OHHHHHH THEY CAN SEPARATE

-Another really cool talking shot here.

-I know you're not a puppy, you're a jackal. ...well, I think young jackals are puppies in a sense, but-

-So, if Daiji wins, can he be Live and Evil? I mean, it is his body, and it doesn't seem to have any adverse effects on him. With Kagerou gone, he could carry both modes no problem.

-Shame, I really liked these differing performances, but Wataru Hyuga, I look forward to Kagerou's swan song.

-Oh c'mon, Aguilera! We're busy!

-You seem plenty strong already, homegirl!

-You've been a huge bitch all season Kagerou, you're the baby here!

-Man, they fightin'!

-Y'know Ikki, maybe you could go

-OH SHE BLEEDIN

-Sakura, how hard were you hitting her!?

-Aguilera's investment in Sakura's growth must be a truly tragic means of escapism for her.

-Goddamn Kagerou.

-"All thanks to your kindness that I did." :(

-OH FUCK OFF OLTECA

-This is a man-to-man fight.

-NEW POWER WHAT

-Oh, he's just... stronger.

-Whoa, hey!

-He's all glowy and shit, that means he's like a bajillion times stronger.

-OHHHHHHHHHH THE BREAK

-Kagerou, c'mon man.

-It didn't have to be like this, man!

-Dai-chan :(

-...ok, this uppercut just seems a bit silly.

-That transition from Evil to Kagerou was cool though, I'll give it a pass.

-Scorpion! Grasshopper! Anomalocaris! Genomix!

-Oh, that's horrifying.

-You're all grown up, Dai-chan.

-I am you, and you... are me...

-Holy Wing!

-Daiji... abayo.

-Go shoot 'em up, shoot 'em up, Dai-chan!

-WINGS TO FLY! WINGS TO FLY! HOLY UP! WIND! WING! WINNING! HOLY! HOLY! HOLY! HOLY! HOLY LIVE!

-Ooooooooooooooooooooh, he looks fantastic.

-Birb! Biiiiiirb!

-AW DAMMIT I HAVE TO WAIT ANOTHER WEEK

-Aw, Mama... you're gonna carry the next episode, I can feel it.

-Ok, I'm absolutely not convinced that Kagerou or the Evil forms are gone for good. Toei brings everybody back somehow, but this was a fantastic conclusion to Daiji and Kagerou's shared arc as it stands right now. Reconciling their respective and equally childish kindness and ruthlessness, and spreading their wings to fly. And I for one, very much look forward to seeing Holy Wings soar into a proper asskicking!

-Anyways, I hope you all have a good day, I have to get back to work on my pet projects~! Toodly-doo~! We'll meet again soon, I assure you.

#revive the vice: imprinted like stamps and fossils #revice spoilers #kamen rider revice #kamen rider