#You can ONLY use trial characters they given out and nothing else | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

jjkamochoso · 18 days

Text

The Perfect Fit

Story Overview: Levi Ackerman begrudgingly finds himself falling in love with the Survey Corps’ seamstress. Will they be able to own up to their feelings for each other? Or is their love doomed to fail before they discover the truths of each other’s hearts? This slow burn reader insert story will be filled with angst, yearning, and a bit of mystery as we slowly unravel the truths behind Y/N’s past… and explore her and Levi’s future!

Chapter 3

Chapter 2 linked here

Chapter 4 linked here

Levi Ackerman x female reader

Warnings: cussing, minor character death (not graphic)

As the hours rolled by with nobody from the surrounding villages showing up to their appointments with you, you started to get stressed out. Were they all a bunch of no shows on purpose? Your prices weren’t extravagant but you knew times were tough on everyone, especially after the breach of Wall Maria. Citizens of Wall Rose were fighting for their fair share of resources and jobs while refugees tried their best to not starve on the streets. It was a constant battle for food and wages for anyone outside Wall Sina and you hated to see people fighting amongst themselves when a much larger threat loomed right outside the failing walls. With nothing else to do, you took the time to look over Captain Levi’s torn cape and decide how you were going to mend it. Why did he do that in the first place? Was he taking pity on you? You didn’t mean to tell him all your financial woes, they just slipped out in the heat of the moment. Maybe he just wanted to test your skills with the sewing machine he got you? Yes, that had to be it. You had given the machine a trial run earlier and now you felt confident enough to use it on commissioned pieces. Taking in a deep breath to steady yourself in the midst of the most important project of your life, you got to work.

You sewed tirelessly throughout the afternoon and evening, barely stopping for breaks. You needed to be sure this cape was done before you took your horse into the village tomorrow to see a veterinarian. Speaking of your horse, you heard her let out a long, high pitched whinny. You quickly pushed your chair away from the table and hurried outside. She looked even sicker than she did this morning—an extremely bad sign. She could barely stand, wobbling in her pasture. There was no way she could make the journey into the village, you’d have to run there and ask for an emergency veterinarian house call. You began to cuddle up to her, whispering sweet nothings to her to calm her down, and you could tell she was becoming more and more content. Placing a long, sweet kiss to her snout, you reluctantly pulled away.

“Hold on for me, sweetheart. I’m going to get you some help. Just hang in there. Please.”

Your horse just looked at you and you prayed to whatever higher being might hear you that she understood your intentions. You ran back inside to grab a lantern and jacket for the run through the chilly night air. Taking one last look at your horse, you ran as fast as your legs could take you to the village with the vet.

You were sure that when you came running into the village you looked like a complete madwoman, but you didn’t care. All you knew was that you needed to get to the vet’s house as fast as humanly possible. When you saw his house, the front lantern thankfully still lit, you ran up to the door and pounded on it.

“Dr. Becker! Dr. Becker! Please, it’s an emergency! My horse is sick. I need your help, please!”

There was no answer. Your fists collided with the door mercilessly until finally there was movement behind the creaking wood.

“Don’t you realize how late it is, girl?” the older doctor asked, opening the door. He had a disgruntled look on his face that only slightly softened when he noticed how desperate and close to tears you were.

“Please, Dr. Becker, my horse is sick. She can barely stand, won’t eat, and she’s been coughing. I’m begging you, please do an emergency house call right now for her. I don’t know where else to go.”

He sighed, rubbing his hand on his face. “I’m off duty right now, you know.”

“I know. I have money,” you said, pulling out a pouch of coins and letting him inspect them to prove their authenticity. He let out a “hmmph!” and collected his medical bag.

“Come, child. Show me the way.”

When your house came into view, it took all you had to not climb out of the cart you were riding in to run and greet your beloved companion. As Dr. Becker parked his horses, you ran over to your own. She was lying down, completely still.

“No, no, no!” you exclaimed tearfully, your hand in front of her snout to check for breathing. There was none. Dr. Becker made his way over to you, putting a comforting hand on your shoulder.

“I’ll check to make sure she’s truly gone before I leave.”

As he got on the ground to check her pulse, your mind was reeling. What were you going to do? You barely had enough money to cover the vet visit, there was no way you could afford a whole new horse! And what about your own house calls? You used to ride your horse into the village once a month to help out your elderly customers who couldn’t make the journey to your workshop. The kind veterinarian caught your eye and shook his head.

“I’m sorry. She’s dead.”

You were too numb to cry. In a daze, you handed the doctor your pouch of coins to cover the inconvenience of coming all this way, but he would only accept a third of the full payment.

“You need the money more than I do,” he explained, eyeing your deceased horse and ramshackle house. When he said goodbye and left, you realized you truly were alone. You didn’t know what to do with your horse’s body. It was going to be another hot day tomorrow and you didn’t want her to rot in the sun. It was too late at night to do anything about it, though, so you covered her with a sheet and went to bed.

The next morning was extremely difficult for you. You had to drag your body out of bed, the stresses of last night weighing you down. After you nibbled on a small breakfast, you heard a cart coming down your dirt path.

“Dr. Becker said there was a deceased animal here to dispose of?” one of the men had asked you when you walked outside. You confirmed, pointing the team to white sheet in the pasture. They loaded her onto the cart and you whispered a final farewell to your best friend and most faithful companion. Going back inside, you looked around you, gauging what work still needed to be done. You spied Levi’s cape in the same spot you discarded it hours prior. You knew that had to be finished first since he was coming to pick it up later today. You tried to drown yourself in the work but it didn’t distract you enough. When your tears landed on his cape, it took everything inside you not to scream out in frustration. You went to the bathroom to splash water on your face, hoping it would ground you. Instead, you just took notice of your unkempt appearance. Your life had gone from normal to shambles in a matter of hours and you were at a loss of what to do. It was difficult times like these that made you wonder if you made a mistake leaving Wall Sina…

No.

You couldn’t afford to dwell on things you can’t change. You could only look forward and that’s exactly what you were going to do. Getting ahold of yourself, you reminded yourself that Captain Levi entrusted you with his cape, meaning your career, at least, wasn’t in shambles. You had a great skill set that was near impossible to replicate so at least you had that going for you. You got back to work, still worried about your future but less distraught.

Another work day over, you awaited Levi’s arrival at your door for the pick up of his belonging. When the clock struck 5pm, you expected to hear him knocking at your door, but there was nothing. You didn’t know much about the man, but you knew he was always on time. You furrowed your brows when it turned to 5:10 and there was no sign of him. Was he going to stand you up like everyone else today?

BAM BAM BAM

Whoever was at your door, it certainly wasn’t the captain. You heard bickering on the other side of the door.

“Eren! You can’t pound on a door like that, especially if it’s a lady’s house!”

“Shut up, Armin. We’re in a hurry. I don’t need Captain Levi being any madder at us for being late than he already is.”

You opened the door to reveal a trio of teens.

“Ms. L/n! We’re here to pick up Captain Levi’s cape,” Armin said, a sweet smile on his face. You were well acquainted with these kids, mostly because they were always running into battle and ending up with torn uniforms (especially Eren—what on earth could he be doing to always end up with shredded shirts?).

“I’ll get that for you right away. Please, come in.”

The kids walked into your place, seemingly scrutinizing it.

“Yes, I know it’s dirty and falling apart. Your captain already lectured me on it.”

“That’s no surprise. He’s always in a bad mood,” Eren grumbled. You gave Armin the cape and Mikasa handed you the money. It was a large sum but you couldn’t even find it within your heart to be excited.

“Thanks you guys. Want any treats while you’re here?”

Their eyes lit up. Even Mikasa seemed to have a happier expression on her face as you handed them each a small piece of pastry you had made a few days prior. As they snacked, you noticed Mikasa eyeing your embroidery hoop.

“I do embroidery too. Anything you want, I’ll do it. Personal clothes or inside of uniforms. Names, symbols, whatever. Since you kids are almost single-handedly keeping me in business with all the clothes of yours I fix, the first few personalizations are on the house.”

Mikasa looked lost in thought, like she was remembering a long lost memory or something. All of a sudden, her face turned back to her near emotionless state. The three of them gave you their thanks and were ready to leave when Armin spoke up once more.

“Ms. L/n? Where’s your horse, I brought her a small apple slice. I know how much she loves them.”

You really didn’t want to cry in front of the kids over something so silly but you were close to breaking down.

“She died last night,” you explained, letting out a shaky breath. “She was sick for a short period and died in the 20 minutes I left to get the veterinarian.”

The blonde, upon hearing the news, gave you a big hug. “I’m so sorry, I knew how much you loved her. We all did.”

“What are you going to do now? Get a new one?” questioned Eren.

“I’m not sure yet, but that’s not for you kids to worry about. Now head back before Captain Grumpy finds out you’ve been messing around here too long.” When the kids and their horses were out of view, you let out another long sigh. What were you going to do?

Levi had been swarmed with meetings, swarmed with paperwork, swarmed with people bothering the shit out of him. He was in a worse mood than usual and anybody who got in his way felt his wrath. He felt bad for snapping at people, but his head just hadn’t been in the right place the past few days. Ever since his run ins with the seamstress, she hadn’t left his mind. She was strange to him, too happy go lucky for her own good. She was careless; who walks through forests without a horse these days? She was too kind for her own good. He was also jealous of the way y/n’s job was ridiculously ordinary. Being a seamstress in these times sounded woefully mediocre compared to fighting titans. It was, admittedly, still an important job. He gave her shit for showing preference to Hange’s uniforms, but if he was telling the truth, he would’ve never noticed that she wasn’t using a sewing machine. Her work was neat, precise—traits Levi could appreciate. The thing about y/n that bothered Levi the most was how damn pretty she was. Sure, he’d been attracted to a few women here and there, but they all paled in comparison. There was something about her that was magnetic, pulling Levi in, causing him to want to know more about her. This thought made him want to puke. He couldn’t get attached to any more people, he couldn’t afford to. Levi’s heart had been smashed into too many pieces by now, too many deaths he’d had to face of people he loved. His head was in the right place, trying to convince him to ignore her and focus on his duty as a soldier, but he found himself listening to his heart more and more. Finding that sewing machine for you was a pain in the ass since they were extremely hard to find, especially in working order. He had pulled some strings to get information, eventually buying one off a villager who’d “acquired” it in the interior. Then, him taking you home was something he’d never thought he would do for some stranger, especially letting you hold him in such a way that made his breath catch in his throat and his hands go clammy. The final nail in the coffin was when his fingers disobeyed any notion of common sense, ripping the biggest hole he could manage in his cape for you to fix so you could make some more money. It was no secret he had a soft spot for animals, but there was no reason he should’ve felt as bad for you and your horse as he did. Also, your house was a total wreck and he wanted to scream at Erwin for allowing you to reside there. When he thought back about his actions, he grimaced. You were just some girl he met a few days ago. How were you making such an impact in his life already? That’s why he made Eren and his friends pick up his cape. He needed to avoid you for as long as possible, needing a clear head and heart to save humanity, not pine over a random woman. He looked over the freshly fixed cape, admiring your handiwork. He could barely make out where you had sewed it back together. Your talent was a sight to behold and he was glad his intuition was right to put his trust in you. He placed the soft cloth into a drawer to wear another time and decided he needed some tea to clear his head. When he reached the cafeteria, he overheard the trio talking about you.

“That’s so sad about Ms. L/n’s horse. I wonder how she’s going to keep working without her,” Armin had said. Levi’s eyes widened slightly. Did your horse die that quickly? That would be bad news for you, personally, and him, professionally. He and the Scouts relied on you to come in half the week to do your work in the castle. There was no way you would be walking here and back, Levi would never allow you to put yourself in danger like that. He pretended not to listen, warming water in a kettle.

“I know. I feel bad for her, but there’s no way we can use the resources to keep traveling back and forth every time we need something fixed. It would be easier if she lived here.”

“Maybe if y/n lives here, you won’t have to do uncharacteristically nice things to spend time with her.”

Levi jumped at the sound of Hange’s voice unexpectedly in his ear. “Fuck off, four eyes. You almost made me spill my tea.”

Hange just laughed while Levi rolled his eyes. He hated to admit it, but Eren and Hange both had a point. If you worked for the Survey Corps, why wouldn’t you live with them? There was plenty of room here, it wasn’t like the place was overflowing with soldiers. He took his tea to go, finding solace in the quiet of his room. If Hange and the other soldiers wanted you to live here, fine. He just didn’t want to get involved with anything surrounding you. What did he care what you did, where you lived, what you spent your time doing? And where did Hange get the idea he wanted to spend time with you? Your meetings had been coincidental and ones of convenience. Whether or not you moved in with the Scouts, it would be of no matter to Levi. Like he thought before, he didn’t need another person to care about—you would die prematurely and leave him all alone, just like everyone else did.

Chapter 4

#levi ackerman x reader #levi ackerman x female reader #levi ackerman x you #levi x reader #levi ackerman #levi ackerman x reader angst #levi ackerman x reader fluff #levi fluff #levi angst

21 notes · View notes

1moreff-creator · 9 months

Note

I'm curious, given how much you like and think about Min, which secret do you think fits Min best?

So, the short answer is “the poison one” like most people believe, but there is a bit more nuance to it, so I think I can use this as an excuse to talk about Min for a while! Yay! In this post, I’ll discuss not only why I think that’s her secret, but also when, why and how I believe she poisoned her competitors. Get ready for a lot of speculation.

Also, I believe you’ve mentioned in your Character Playlist post you think that secret is Hu’s, so I probably should go into detail anyways.

CW for the remaining secrets: suicide, self-harm, murder, and also a lot of talk of Min’s backstory, so toxic school culture.

So, a few of the remaining secrets we can completely rule out, because we can assign them to people without much controversy.

•The “survivor’s guilt” secret Min herself ‘received’ is clearly Xander’s, which is easy to gather from his Bonus Episode and his secret quote.

•That means David’s lying, but like most people, I believe he got Teruko’s secret. The whole “everything in your life is worth killing over” part is already pretty telling, but she’s also the only one who could get “the killing game is your fault” as a motive without being the mastermind, basically. After all, she can blame her luck: “This killing game is my fault because the reason this Hope’s Peak class was chosen in particular is because of my luck” is the quickest defense she would have, for instance.

•Although I unfortunately could see Min self-harming, I doubt she’d feel the need to do it “for fun”. I don’t think anyone believes that secret to be anyone’s but Veronika.

With most of the others already being confirmed, this leaves us with three secrets I feel there is still meaningful debate over. Those being “murderer without remorse”, “hopeless child” and “poisoned the competition”.

For Min specifically though, I feel like we can rule out “murderer without remorse”. Mainly because the other two just fit her better, as there is nothing connecting her backstory to this secret in particular. But also because… well, it’s Arei’s secret. It’s going to be quite weird if it doesn’t at least come up in the trial, let alone if something this dramatic belongs to someone who is… not available.

And that leaves us with two. “Hopeless child” and “poison the competition”.

Is there reason to believe she’s the one who attempted suicide three times? Well, her backstory is quite sad, it’s understandable how something like what she went through could lead someone to suicide, but it’s never been expressly implied.

But if anyone believes this is Min’s secret, I imagine it’d be because they believe the “poison” secret belongs to someone else. The possible candidates are Levi and Hu.

Now, Levi has only slightly less connection to the “poison” secret than Min does the “suicide” secret. That is to say, conceivable, but without much direct evidence. But Hu actually has a decently strong argument for the “poison” secret, I can see why someone would assign that one to her.

The main thing is her secret quote: “I want to pay for what I’ve done. But even then, I still want to live.” If that’s referring to something outside the killing game, it has to be the poison secret. She wouldn’t need to repent for suicide, and if she was a remorseless murderer, she wouldn’t want to pay for what she’s done. Of course, the issue is that it could be referring to something from the killing game (such as Min’s own quote, “I wanted to save you”).

But the LGI MV may actually provide support for the Hu!Poison theory, because of the assassin’s teapot. This is one of the objects shown in that one scene where everything around the room was labeled, next to the (not) a prop gun, the candle in the candle holder, and the bowl of fruit. There’s an interpretation that a lot of these objects represent the different characters of the killing game (gun for Xander, bowl of fruit for Rose, rope for Arei, clock for Eden, dresser for Levi, etc), and the one which best fits Hu at first glance is the teapot. The thing is, assassin’s teapots are commonly associated with poison, so the connection grows stronger.

(If you’re wondering, Min is probably the albino mouse and arabidopsis. Not only are they connected to her via the footnote which talks about the fruit fly Min name-checks in her voice actor reveal, but the albino mouse, arabidopsis, fruit fly and E. Coli are organisms used in experiments. And:

Min: [Talking about Hope’s Peak and the exam she took] But to conduct an experiment to see if someone would force themselves to become their idea of an Ultimate for the Academy’s sake and succeed.

Min sees her talent as nothing but an experiment. I’m so sad)

Tangent aside, Hu does have an argument for the poison secret. Except… the specifics are a bit strange.

You always treated the competition with ruthlessness, but poisoning them to win was a bit too far, wasn’t it?

Whoever had this secret, must be a highly competitive person. I’m… not sure that fits Hu, frankly. Nor Levi, who seems to be relatively new to his talent, or at least that’s the impression I got from his introduction. Neither of them are as competitive as Min, that’s for sure (more on that later).

Now, there is also the “to win” aspect of the secret’s wording, which is worth talking about. There are such things as zither playing competitions (thanks Google), as well as general music instrument competitions which I imagine are more competitive, and it makes more sense to say Hu “won” one of those, rather than Min “won” her exam, right?

Well, two issues with that. One, Hu has never mentioned these competitions, ever (nor has Levi mentioned anything analogous). Two, while you can’t “win” an exam, you can win a “contest”. And the thing Min actually took part in was called “Ultimate Contest for Eminent Students” (UCES). Under that wording, it does make sense to say Min “won” it.

This is where we dive full force to the Bonus Episode… and where the idea of the “suicide” secret belonging to Min starts to fall apart.

Min: Failure was not something I even considered, because if I failed, then there would be no future for me or my family.

Min: I had simply accepted for my whole life that I would be the Ultimate Student, and I lived my life accordingly. That’s the Academy chose me.

See, the problem here is… well, to put it bluntly, dying would mean not winning the contest. Although her life sounds horrible, she speaks of it as if she had fully accepted it at one point, resigned herself to it, and she simply wouldn’t think of committing suicide because it would go against her goal of becoming the Ultimate Student. Keep in mind she was doing it for her family just as much as she was doing it for herself, if not more.

That said, suicide is inherently irrational, so it still isn’t ruled out. She does fits being a hopeless child, unfortunately, so the secret is still up in the air.

However, as the Bonus Episode progresses, it’s clear Min’s competitiveness is a much more important part of her character than it is for Hu’s or Levi’s. This had already been established as early as her introduction, where she claims she constantly has to hone her talent to maintain it, but the Bonus Episode drives the point home.

Min: Because of this contest, because I wanted to win, I had let my entire life revolve around that one test.

(Oh, hey! Confirmation on the “win” phrasing!)

This is by itself more competitiveness than Hu or Levi have ever expressed, and shows that Min really was ready to go extremely far for this contest. But it runs even deeper than that.

Min: High achievement, studying, taking exams, being the top of my class.

Min: I cut everything else out of my life for that one goal. And that is exactly what they wanted to see.

Being top of her class is one of the main things Min brings up as aspects of being the Ultimate Student, separate from getting good grades. In other words, competitiveness is intrinsic to her talent.

But would she really be willing to harm or even kill others for her own purposes?

Well, yeah, obviously. We saw it in the killing game. Even if you spin Xander’s death to be an accident, Min was very much ready to let everyone else die in that class trial to live and escape (good ending, tbh /j). Although we don’t know enough about Levi or Hu to be sure, we are certain Min would be someone to poison her competition to win that Contest.

Then, there’s the matter of who received these secrets. Veronika received the “suicide” secret, and is keeping it to herself to “keep things interesting”. Mind you, she’s unpredictable enough that I’m not sure she wouldn’t consider keeping a dead person’s secret to herself “interesting”, but she still seems too excited for it to just be Min’s. Or maybe that’s just me.

But the big thing is that Xander was the person who ‘received’ the “poison” secret. And considering Min ‘got’ Xander’s, I think it makes sense to assume both the chapter one deaths got each others. Even beyond the ‘character foil’ aspect those two have going on, this essentially lets them stay out of the narrative entirely, to let the alive people have the stage. It could also be read as ironic; the seemingly dangerous and aggressive ‘Ultimate Rebel’ has a secret where he did nothing wrong, while the seemingly calm and innocent ‘Ultimate Student’ has a murderous past.

(Speaking of past, while researching for this, I noticed the pinned comment on Min’s Bonus Episode is “someone who wants to move on from the past”, while the pinned comment in Xander’s is “someone who wants to hold on to the past”. The quote could apply to both secrets, so I just brought it up ‘cause I think it’s cool)

With all this in mind, plus the few lines which imply Hu has self-esteem issues and more depressive thoughts than she usually lets on (which I won’t get into because I’ve already talked about Hu too much in a Min post), I think it makes more sense for Min to have the “poison” secret, and for Hu to have the “suicide” secret… or the “murderer” secret, she’s honestly my fallback on who the accomplice may be if Levi isn’t it. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, don’t worry about it too much.

However, that wasn’t enough for me. So now I want to figure out what exactly Min did, to see if I find anything more conclusive on this poison incident. Because we have a motive, but we’re lacking a method. And… I think I have a more clear idea of what may have happened now.

Originally, I thought maybe Min had only non-lethally poisoned people in the place the contest was held, to distract them and make them fail. However, it’s stated that the Contest actually took place across the US, so that doesn’t entirely make sense. Instead, I want to focus on this line:

Min: I’m sure I did amazingly well, but it seems highly unlikely that I was number one in the nation in terms of raw scores.

Let’s think, what does this line imply? Well, it implies Min doesn’t believe she got a perfect score, so she must have made a few mistakes. And if you recall from that trial I get sad thinking about, Min has a… bad reaction, to the idea of mistakes.

Min: Right now, everyone suspects me, which is a mistake. But that’s alright. Mistakes are meant to be fixed.

Min: Like filling out a multiple-choice test. You bubble in answer after answer and sometimes get it wrong.

Min: If I let even one miscalculation slip by, then the life that I worked so hard for will come crashing down in an instant. So I’ll keep erasing those mistakes until they’re correct.

Min: As long as I learn from my mistakes… As long as I make the correct choice in the end… That’s how I’ll achieve success.

So, first, this reiterates Min’s fixation on the future she worked for her whole life, making it more unlikely in my eyes that she has the “suicide” secret. But the important thing, the one I highlighted, is that Min is obsessed with the idea of correcting mistakes.

But, how would she correct the mistakes in a test she already turned in? How does she correct the mistakes she made during the UCES now that the test is already being graded?

Well, the grading process would take some time… so she just needs to find a more “creative” way to address her mistakes. As long as she makes the right choice, she can achieve success.

Thus, we reach a point where the UCES has already happened, the results aren’t in, and Min is freaking the hell out because she knows she made some mistakes. She has to do something, because her entire life revolves around this. She has to win. The idea of any other outcome is utterly inconceivable. And in the (paraphrased) words of a wise man no longer with us, “there are two paths to succeess. One, self-improvement. Two, sabotaging literally the entire competition”

So, she finds a way to track down the other candidates or likely winners, and she poisons them in some way. Can’t win if you’re dead!

Although, admittedly, that is the hardest part to understand from all this. How would she go about tracking all those people all around the US and managing to poison them all? It’s be nearly impossible unless she did something large scale like poisoning entire water sources or some-

…

Heeeeeeey… The Chariton incident didn’t happen to coincide with the UCES, riiiight?…

…

Okay, no. Crisis averted. On further research, it’s stated in Bonus Episode #2 that incident happened when Xander was 14, while Min took the Contest when she was 17. Assuming they’re the same age (which is an assumption, but still), Min can’t be responsible for that. Good.

However, thinking about that did give me an idea of how Min could have gone about doing this.

Min: But one day, we were visited by the founder of that big company XF-Ture Tech. He told my parents that he would sponsor me and pay for all of our expenses.

Min: All he asked in return was that in 12 years, I would pass the Academy's test and became the Ultimate Student.

So, we know very little about whatever the hell XF-Ture Tech is, but we can assume it’s pretty powerful. Maybe owned by the Duke Spurling guy from Xander’s and Rose’s backstory. So, if they’re so interested in getting Min into Hope’s Peak, maybe they could arrange something for her to poison the other potential winners. Anything to get Min, someone who owes them essentially her entire purpose in life (from her perspective), into Hope’s Peak. They have invested 12 years into this, you know. What’s a bit of poison to guarantee success?

And there is one other line which implies XF-Ture Tech may have helped Min in her quest more than just by giving her family money.

Min: Maybe I'll become a teacher. I'm not the best at teaching, and I'll never be as good as him, but I want to try.

Yeah, did you forget about this line? Frankly, me too. But it does imply Min received private tutoring from a really good teacher; hell, maybe Duke Spurling himself, who knows. It’s clear XF-Ture Tech desperately wants influence in Hope’s Peak, and if this “him” is the one who’s to blame for Min’s “fix all mistakes” obsession, then I could see them facilitating something like this. Or even goading her into it, which helps me cope and say Min was manipulated and isn’t that evil trust me bro please-

A minor issue with this theory is that the secret’s wording implies Min poisoned her competition directly, which… doesn’t fully track? You’d think they would delegate something like this.

Unless… they had some reason for Min to administer the poison herself. As a way to show Hope’s Peak how committed she is to being the Ultimate Student.

Min: I was selected as the Ultimate Student not because of my academic performance, nor my intelligence, but because I had grown into their ideal of an Ultimate Student.

Min: In the end, what the Academy wanted wasn't to select the most intelligent student nor thr best test taker...

Min: But to conduct an experiment to see if someone would force themselves to become their idea of an Ultimate for the Academy's sake and succeed.

So, I know I’ve already speculated a lot based on very little evidence, but this definitely feels like the largest stretch I'm making. Essentially, I believe it’s possible Hope’s Peak knows about her poisoning the competition, but they just see it as further confirmation that she truly deserves the title of Ultimate Student. Competitiveness is a part of the talent, according to my interpretation about that line about being top of the class. And Hope’s Peak in this universe clearly is somewhat fucked up, considering what we’ve learnt from Xander’s Bonus Episode.

After all, think about it. Min says Hope’s Peak picked her for reasons outside of her test, but how do they know about the other stuff she’s done? It’s perfectly possible I’m reading too much into this, and XF-Ture Tech just has a trustable source which could recommend Min to the Hope’s Peak talent scouts or something. But that’s boring. It’s more fun to see this poisoning as the ultimate (hah) demonstration of Min’s devotion to the Academy and the ideals of Ultimates.

… Also, maybe that opens the door again to the poison being non-lethal? If she was just asked by Hope’s Peak to show her loyalty by eliminating competition, she could have maybe put them in comas, ones too long for the Academy to consider giving them the Ultimate Student title. Hey, if turpentine fumes can knock people out…

Actually, now that I’m thinking about it (this post wasn’t planned too well), that works even if Hope’s Peak doesn’t know about this. I did always find it weird the secret specifically mentions poisoning instead of straight up murdering, even when they’re supposed to be as unflattering as possible. So… she’s evil, but I can fix her (in a completely platonic fashion). Surely. Or make her worse. Whichever’s more fun.

(Watch her secret be the suicide one, btw. I don’t know if I’d laugh or cry)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, hope that satisfies your question! And hopefully I didn’t bore you too much with my insane speculation! I honestly don’t know which theory is crazier, this one or “the Sleepy MV is actually about Min and Mai”. But I had fun, and that’s what matters.

Anyways, thanks for reading so far! You deserve an A+ for putting up with my insanity! Take care!

#drdt #danganronpa despair time #drdt theory #fanganronpa #min jeung

57 notes · View notes

liam-neesons-best-girl · 2 days

Text

ღ Love Languages

Summary: The love language of Liam Neeson characters ღ

ICYMI: A love language is the way a person prefers to express their love and or receive it from a partner. There is no one right way to love!

Warnings: f!reader, mdni, 18+

Acts of Service - (Rob Roy)

He loves being the head of the house and the provider for you and your family

He never stifles the chance to do some heavy lifting if it means a happier wife is waiting for him

Pride swells in his chest when he watches the burning logs he chopped hours earlier warm you in the dead of night

Seeing him tend to cattle and use his whip to tame horses stirs something within you

He recognizes the labor you perform in the home and feels like it is only right to take some of that burden off of you

One day he sees you washing pottery and comes up behind you at the water basin to "help" but starts kissing up your hairline

"I'm trying to work here" you giggle out as he wrap his has from around your frame to take the pottery out of your hands to place on the ground

He turns you around to face him, your hands covered in suds, and he looks to you with pure adoration

He thought of the best service he could give you: another child

He wouldn't rest until you were waddling around the house with the swell of your belly serving as a reminder of his love for you - being able to wait on you hand and foot as you make him a father

Quality Time - (Carl Wayne Anderson: Suspect)

You met Carl in the county jail when you were assigned to his case as a public defender

from then on he liked being around you, be it in one on one meetings or by your side during trial

A shy smile is buried under his thick beard when you stay an extra two hours with him to prepare for a hearing the next day

He's learning to write more legibly for trial, for you

You have so much patience, he thinks, never giving up on him when he flips a 'b' to a 'd' or gets made at himself for mistakes and lashes out (never on you)

He feels a warmth that radiates off of you, drawing him closer, feeling less on edge regarding his surroundings and judgmental jurors

You are also one of the only people who keep eye contact with him when speaking. So many people are intimidated by him but you meet his gaze with compassion

When he gets an unexpected visitors notice over the weekend he isn't surprised to see you there with a thick binder of exhibits to go over, takeout food, and a new packet of chalk

Time is always fleeting and delicate, but that pressure was amplified knowing Carl was on trial and risking time in prison

You two never had any short encounters either, always an hour or longer, though he wished you could stay forever

Receiving Gifts - (Capt. Mikhail Polenin: K-19 The Widowmaker)

His long deployments at sea made him yearn for you, day in day out

To serve as a reminder of his faith and his love, he showers you with gifts of all kinds

a necklace with his initial, fragrant perfumes, silky soft nighties, and a gorgeous bouquet of flowers when he meets you at the pier

Nothing is too extravagant for a man who didn't know if he would ever see you again

You tell him he is in your thoughts every day and that you have no eyes for anyone else but he wants the world to know he is your shadow, he is your man by your side or 3,000 miles away

He also sends you love letters as often as he can

They are full of poetry and prayers to see you again

You saved each and everyone of them, keeping them safe in your jewelry box until you can hear him say them to you in person

His favorite gift you have given him was a collection of photographs of yourself. Some are headshots, or from home-movies, not to mention the nude photograph of you wearing his dog tags

You are his gift from God. You are his motivation to complete his mission. You are his motivation to live

Physical Touch - (Hannibal: The A-Team)

The man is handsy and his pent up emotions from training and deployment has him eager to touch you any way he can

He has some restraint when he is around new recruits, trying to show composure as an upper level officer with just his hand resting on the small of your back

He is a bit more loose around his team members, knowing he has earned their respect and won't lose it if they see him slightly simping over you

He'll pull you into his lap instead of a folding chair, insisting that you'd be more comfortable on his lap this way instead of the flimsy plastic

He will twirl your hair or tap a beat to your thigh absent mindedly while listening to a mate of his talk, relaxed in knowing you are there, you are actually there with him

When you are finally alone he will worship you for hours until you are overstimulated and a whimpering mess under him

He doesn't half ass any mission either, so once he has made you cum all night, he will give you the best after care, cuddling you and massaging your sore legs

He loves it when you make the first move and interlock you fingers with his on the walk from base to a pub

Feeling 10 feet tall he strides around base knowing only he can touch you, only he can get close enough to smell your hair, caress your skin, taste your desperation and love

Leaving you is like tearing off a limb for him, but he'll squeeze you tight to embed in his memory your edges, your fit in his arms

Words of Affirmation - (Qui-Gon Jinn: Star Wars)

He lives by his comm link so you never are too far away

You are concerned that your calls are annoying but he assures you are music to his ears to hear about your day, a funny story, or to lull him to sleep with a song

He reads constantly to find new words to express his love for you. Deeper, sensual praise that you could never forget about and have only heard Qui-Gon use

There is never a day when he doesn't say good morning and good night, letting you know you are the first and last thing he thinks of each day

Pet names are reserved for you, rarely does he give that affection to outsiders (he still has love for Obi and Ani)

Praise kink!!

His cadence in bed, the tempo his words follow to punctuate his movements are delicious

When he hears you whimper and thank him for being so caring he thinks he could cum in his pants right then and there

You are in ecstasy when he talks you through your high and climax together

He says "I love you" more often then he breathes, since you are his life line

13 notes · View notes

dduane · 1 year

Note

hello, hope you and Peter are doing well! I wanted to ask a question that almost certainly has been asked before: How do you go about ensuring that a creative project is sustainable/has 'wings' before diving into it? (I'm thinking less of outlining here and more the step before that - assessing how much meat's on the creative bone and what your appetite is, so to speak)

Well, the first thing I'd have to define is what exactly "sustainable" means. "Capable of being started and finished in some medium or other"? That might enter into the equation eventually... but not instantaneously.

There'll be times when a concept arrives in my creative space within a matter of seconds—like someone poured it into my head out of a jug—or times when it seeps in quietly over a matter of days, until eventually some critical number or volume is surpassed and there's enough of it to register as Something New To Do That Could Be Fun*. In either case I normally have at least a few minutes to work out whether anybody but me is ever likely to want to read or view this thing, and (if so) what medium it seems to belong in.

This process I usually refer to as "weighing [something] in the hand of the mind." And here you can insert video of an insert on a woman's hand holding a half kilo bag of sugar, bouncing it up and down a little to see if it's really half a kilo, or just kinda feels like it.

What I have to confess here, though, is that I have no idea how I do this, or from what my skill at the process derives.

Maybe just a lot of practice? Trial and error? As over forty years there've been more than fifty books, and a whole lot of animation, and a bunch of screenplays, not to mention the comics and computer games and audio adaptations and other whatnot. I've had a while to learn when a story will make an okay screenplay but not necessarily a book (or vice versa); or whether something's better as a novella or novelette, rather than as a novel based on a core concept that, like butter over too much bread, is going to wind up looking and feeling like what Bilbo would have described as "thin and stretched".

I really wish I could more clearly quantify the elements that make up one of these assessments. Every piece of work I embark on goes through one. Some attention's paid to the number of characters, the depth of the emotional interactions, the proposed in-story timeline, and the relative size and weight of the plot's payoff... and how all these balance against one another. But once this evaluation has been made, it's then possible to slot the project into the work schedule—and pray that nothing else interferes with it.

Because of course something may. The most severe form of these idea-arrival events doesn't give you a chance to evaluate anything at all. It just grabs you by the scruff of the neck and dumps you in front of the nearest device or material that can be used for writing and says, in a voice that will brook no dissent, "HI THERE YOU'RE WRITING THIS NOW AND IT WILL BE FUN!" (It'll say this even though that may not, strictly speaking, be true.) I thank great Thoth that this isn't that common an occurrence, because it tends to play merry hell with everything you're supposed to be doing during that period. ...Yet the effects can be good. The Door Into Fire did this to me. So have other projects I can't discuss due to NDAs.

Possibly the best note to wind up on here is that Sturgeon's Law applies. If 90% of all sf/fantasy stories are crap, as Ted said, then so are 90% of all their core ideas. (Or so it seems to me.) Any writer who's been doing this work for any length of time will have many, many story ideas in a given day... and know that only a small percentage of them are worth considering for more than a few minutes, or even seconds. Ideas are easy. It's execution that's hard— that costs you weeks and months and sometimes years of effort and sweat; of taking things apart and putting them back together in different shapes and hunting down just the right word.

If you're embarking on this kind of lifestyle: may luck go with you. (Because sometimes even very good work falls afoul of very bad luck.) ...But keep your hopes up: and keep working.

HTH!

*There are other forms of this surprise attack, including the one @petermorwood went through one time that was triggered by a chance line dropped by a studio executive we were having lunch with in the Paramount commissary. Without warning—and after the fact he was as surprised as everybody else—P. commenced to freestyle a series pitch so good that the lunch went on for three hours while it unfolded. Tl:dr; the series got bought and then ran aground on the financial rocks secondary to 9/11. ...But that's a saga for another day.

#writing #writing advice #or just vague hints

97 notes · View notes

itsclydebitches · 1 year

Text

RWBY Recaps: Volume 9 "A Place of Particular Concern"

Happy start of a new Volume, everyone! 🎉

Shaving off a little more than a month, it’s been two years since I was writing a RWBY Recap. Is that long enough to count as nostalgic? Definitely long enough to inspire a minor existential crisis on the passage of time, so how about we just collectively pretend it’s still 2013, yeah?

Of course, that would mean we were watching RWBY on YouTube and RT’s website, not... Crunchyroll. Listen, I’ll be real with you all and admit I know incredibly little about the site’s sketchy history which, from what I’ve gleaned lately, has led to a number of RWBY fans boycotting its use. Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum. However, I noted the two week free trial and decided to give that a go first, if only to make my life a little easier for the premiere. I’d planned to either shell out the 24-ish dollars necessary to watch the other eight episodes - which, honestly, isn’t much in the grand scheme of things, especially if we factor in my Starbucks addiction... - or don my parrot and eye-patch once I hit that two week mark.

So there was a plan!

This plan was a mistake.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that writing, “Wow, Crunchyroll’s website doesn’t work very well, does it?” maybe isn’t news to anyone else? I read that the new episode was supposed to drop at 9:30am. I then tried unsuccessfully to get it to load through 4:00pm. During this, while trying various avenues in the hopes of getting this video started, I noticed a Google link with a four hour timestamp, which would have put the release at around 11:00 my time, closer to what we’re used to.

Regardless of when it actually dropped, I was finally able to start watching at around 4:00pm. By which I mean I watched the first 17 seconds of the episode. Then it froze. I made it to the minute mark using a different browser. Then it froze again. I let things sit for a while and finally restarted my original vid, completing the episode without any additional problems, but by then I was more than a little frustrated.

Was it my internet? Crunchyroll? The will of the RWBY gods who don’t want me critiquing the hell out of this episode? Who can say, but I think I’ll be hoisting the flag sooner than intended.

“This is the story of a girl who had a lot of problems.”

If you’re thinking that this line sounds at all familiar, it’s because we’ve heard it before. Actually, the entirety of the first seven minutes is made up of our promo clips which, in a fourteen minute episode without opening and credits, is a lot. RWBY has been gone (in its canon state, anyway) for two years. I can’t speak for anyone else, but my impression of the Ruby PoV clip was that it was purely promotional material, not the start of our far-off Volume. So it was more than a little disappointing to finally get my hands on new content only to realize that half of it wasn’t new at all. We’d already seen it, discussed it, dissected it weeks, or even months ago. Combined with how much of our starter material was in our trailer (two emotional shots of Ruby I’ll be unpacking later) and how much the fandom was able to easily infer (Weiss and Blake are captured while trying to retrieve her weapon) it almost didn’t feel like a RWBY premiere at all. There is, almost literally, nothing new for the fandom to sink their teeth into. We knew they were in this Ever After place, we knew the basic plot of the first couple of episodes, we’ve seen glimpses of all the side characters... I’d actually argue that there’s more to analyze in the opening than the totality of our first episode.

Not that that's going to stop me from writing a shit ton about it, you know ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

None of which bodes well and, frankly, this episode is enough of a mess that I can’t even take solace in RT executing the repetition well. Thus, I’m going to move fairly quickly (for me lol) through the first half of the episode, if only because I’ve already given my thoughts on it in other posts. So to recap within the recap:

Yang’s fall into the void and the ways in which this moment differs from the original animation is still a sore spot for me, especially given how the characters react (or rather, don’t) to finding her alive. While I commend RT for trying something different by giving us Ruby’s PoV, Lindsay’s acting grates here and the constant whimpers/gasps just highlight how much Ruby didn’t emote in the original version of the scene. Likewise, the halo of white around Ruby’s vision prior to falling proves that the writers were very aware of her silver eyes in that moment, yet inexplicably decided not to use them. As we’re seeing more and more lately, characters loose all their powers and strategic thinking the moment something needs to happen for the plot. Why craft a legitimate failure for the heroes when you could simply have them forget that their longest-running villain is in the city with them, or have Yang repeat a major mistake she’s supposedly outgrown, or have Ruby not use the one, unique ability that would save her from certain death?

As said, we know this old tune.

A detail I don't think I picked up on the first time around though is that Ruby is reaching desperately for Blake when they fall... and Blake just isn’t paying her any mind lol.

I mean I get it. Of course she’d be looking towards the villains/the bridges that represent safety, but given the non-relationship between Ruby and Blake, it struck me as funny that even when they’re “dying” together Blake barely seems to register Ruby’s presence. ‘I really look up to you!’ Yeah. Sure you do.

Ruby floats through the orange orbs of the void and, given that they show up in our opening, I hope we receive an explanation for what they are exactly. Perhaps the souls of other people who have fallen? Idk, I'm reaching. Neo shows up and fights in various disguises, blah blah blah. Ruby wakes on the beach to someone calling her name.

I feel like I asked this the first time around, but is anyone confident on whose voice that is? It almost sounds like Ruby’s own to me - perhaps heralding the split we saw in the trailer - but it could also be a repeat of Yang’s when she saved her? Honestly though, that second option feels too emotionally nuanced for what we got in the rest of this episode.

Right now, I’m inclined to ignore the voice until something actually comes of it. RWBY history has taught me that such minor mysteries may not last past the twenty minute mark.

As we saw in the released clip, we're immediately given some details of this strange land, including giant flora and twin suns. That’s... pretty tame. I’m of the opinion that if you’re going to do an Alice in Wonderland-inspired story, you’ve got two routes you can follow. The first (and for more satisfying option, I think) is to study the ways in which the original story functioned as a metaphor for the life of a child navigating an adult world and, similarly, use the weirdness of this land to impart some message. The second option (far easier, but still entertaining) is to really lean into the oddities, captivating your audience through the sheer WTF-ness of what you’ve put on screen, even if the strangeness isn’t actually representative of anything other than a "Well damn, that was weird" reaction.

Sadly, RWBY’s “A Place of Particular Concern” doesn’t seem to be achieving either. I mentioned when the trailer dropped that I don’t trust the story to say anything meaningful via its environments, but nor are the environments spectacular enough to engage us through novelty alone. Don’t get me wrong, I think the animators have achieved an impressive feat here, especially given the constraints and terrible working conditions we know they’ve faced before, but the oddness of the Ever After is mediocre at best. Oh look, small things like shells are now big. Real birds like the Dodo now come in flashier colors. A mouse talks!

...in a story where a main character is a cat girl.

Just like RWBY failed to distinguish how magic was different - and, ultimately, more shocking - than semblances, it’s now failing to inspire that sense of awe when our characters already hail from a pretty odd world. Sure, this is a different kind of odd, but the switch lacks any real punch. Compare RWBY’s Remnant/Ever After to Alice’s Normal World/Wonderland. She doesn’t have things like faunus and grimm, so something as relatively simple as a cat smiling unnerves her (and the reader). She doesn’t just see a slightly off bird, she finds out you now use them to play croquet. And she’s at the center of every oddity, experiencing these changes first-hand. Ruby sees a giant shell for a single shot. Alice becomes a giant and deals with the social horror of filling up someone’s house. I knew this was going to be a problem back when our clip dropped because despite being a separate realm supposedly governed by its own rules, we’ve still got a mouse terrified of cats. There’s this implication that the Ever After is oh so strange and horrifyingly unfamiliar... but then we immediately turn around and learn, no wait, most of what Ruby is encountering is familiar. At least enough to get by.

Ruby: “I should have known! I’ve seen plenty of cartoons!”

Volume 9 is playing it super safe with the Wonderland references and it’s really disheartening. If RWBY doesn’t have anything to say via this weirdness, I would have at least liked to see something truly weird.

To get back to the plot, Ruby immediately starts walking into the jungle and I - true story - groaned at the screen. Despite knowing it was coming! Because how can you have a character go through everything Ruby just did and not provide some reflection on it? This girl wakes up in a fantasy world after The Most Traumatic Fight Ever and waltzes off like an automaton following a coded directive. Where’s the shocked examination of her surroundings? Where’s the horrified, “Where am I? Did I die?” questioning? Where’s the post-fight panic where she desperately shouts for her teammates, begging someone to answer her? I literally can’t think of another instance in which a character goes through that much and then, literally, walks it off.

Later in the episode Ruby will inform Weiss and Blake that she spotted an overhang on the cliff and decided to try and get up there so she could survey her surroundings. It sure would have been nice to know about that while she was wandering. During the actual act of her travel I had no idea what Ruby was trying to accomplish other than, in true RWBY fashion, what I assumed was her most logical goal(s) - like finding her teammates. The kicker is that there are a ton of easy ways to keep the viewer informed despite lacking voice-overs. Let Ruby talk to herself as a way to self-sooth. Or use Little as a sounding board (why else is this mouse even here...) Show us a shot of Ruby spotting her target, taking a deep, fortifying breath, and going, “Okay... you can do this. Just make it to the cliff. One step at a time," a goal that’s ruined once her steps start going in circles. You can add a bit of character work by having Ruby remember Tai and Qrow’s training: always get a sense of your surroundings first. You can setup Ruby’s (presumably) Volume-long depression by having her just lie in the sand for a while, the suns passing overhead, staring at them listlessly, only moving when the surf starts hitting her mouth. Hell, is anyone even carrying their scrolls anymore? I don’t care how unlikely it is that it’ll work here, the first thing Ruby should do is whip that out and try to call her teammates.

Watching this moment in the context of the whole episode made it that much worse for me. It’s just so glaring how rushed this entire premiere was, with every logical reaction - to say nothing of the emotional beats necessary after that finale - getting brushed aside so that the team can get back together in under fifteen minutes. We’ve only got ten episodes, Ruby, so hurry it up. Go on, girl, give us nothing!

So we know the rest of this silliness, yeah? There’s the implication that a small amount of time has passed, an annoying dodo bird that must have been animated in later because Ruby doesn’t react to that either, a circular path of the jungle, and the soon to be named Little watching all this from a rock.

I want to emphasize that our first tonal emphasis here is humor. Having Ruby continually ending up in the same place, growing frustrated with cutsey voice acting, and the quick cuts of Little in various poses all function as lighthearted amusement for the audience... which is really fucking weird in a Volume following up on the trauma of last season. This is going to be an ongoing problem for the entirety of the episode and severely undermines the reveal that Penny has died (again). This is the exact thing RWDE folks have been worried about for literal years now, from the moment we realized we were getting a Wonderland-type world. I have little doubt that the fandom is right in saying that the rest of the Volume will likely get much darker than this (it almost always does nowadays), but that doesn’t matter because the damage has already been done. RWBY cannot continually flip-flop like this and expect its viewers to still buy into the serious moments. So many of us have lost faith in the writers’ abilities to treat these subjects respectfully and segueing from the (supposedly) fascist storyline that ends in horrific tragedy straight into, “What a whacky world, am I right? 🤪” is a damn good way to continually alienate viewers who want an emotional connection with this show.

Every time this criticism comes up there are other RWBY fans pushing back with the claim that a show - especially one that began so lighthearted and silly - simply can’t just be doom and gloom all the time. And you know what? They’re absolutely right. However, there are numerous ways to infuse comedy into your story without outright undermining the primary tone. Given that I’m reading it at the moment, I’d like to briefly use Kim Carnby’s Sweet Home as an example.

For those who are unaware, Sweet Home is a webtoon turned Netflix series that follows 18 year old Cha Hyun-soo after both his parents and sister die in a car accident. Given that he’s technically an adult, but without much financial support and already grappling with a deep depression, he moves into a rundown apartment complex and schedules his own suicide. Before he can go through with it though, a virus sweeps through the world, turning people into various kinds of monsters. These monsters - entertainingly creative - are modeled after whatever the infected person’s greatest desire is at the time of their turning, resulting in some benign beings... but much more hungry, violent, terrifying beasts. Thus, the story is centered around Cha Hyun-soo’s attempts to survive, the horrors found in his apartment complex, and the question of why he’s trying so hard to live when he’d already planned to die.

It’s dark, is what I’m getting at.

It also has moments like this:

And just a little while later:

Here, a generational divide infuses some much needed comedy into the story without detracting from the world’s overall tone (note too that Cha Hyun-soo remains looking stressed and anxious the whole time). It would be a problem if our depressed, terrified teenage suddenly started jumping like he’s having the time of his life (Weiss). It would be a problem if the entire first volume, which is meant to highlight the horror of this situation, was constantly peppered with lame jokes involving cutesy animals (the mice). If you’re going to add comedy, keep it subtle, relatable, and in this case bound to the characters’ internal monologue. By having them each compliment the other with age-appropriate comparisons that cause confusion, but without verbally acknowledging that confusion, the humor exists purely for the audience’s sake. The characters aren’t supposed to be laughing it up right now... so they don’t. The humor is for the reader alone, recognizing the miscommunication and enjoying it as an element separate from the dark tone of the characters’ world. Because this is the vibe of the scene directly before:

RWBY fails at this division. A lot. Like, that failure makes up the majority of this episode.

You know what? It’s easier to just keep a count going.

Little’s introduction is Ill-suited Comedy Example #1.

All of which means that when Ruby starts crying - and by that I mean a few sniffles and a single tear track - I have no investment in the moment. Even if the animation were close to what I’d expect after such a tragedy, its impact is obliterated by the, “Look! Cute mouse!” immediately proceeding and following it.

Also, love how Little has never seen a human before, is watching Ruby intently during this entire process... yet makes no effort to engage with her. I suppose I get it given the emphasis on how scared the mice are of predators, but from a character perspective it leaves something to be desired. In regards to Ruby not (yet) utilizing Little as a means of expressing her thoughts to the audience, our first Ever After character is just kinda... there. Ruby stumbles across them. (BTW, is they/them what the fandom is using for our first non-binary rep?) They only speak because they feel obligated to help Ruby after she retrieves the cheese. They come on this adventure because, by their own admission, they simply have nothing better to do. What’s the point of Little again? How are they serving the story? They don’t even lead Ruby to Blake and Weiss - she stumbles across them on her own while Little sleeps. In fact, it’s already a running gag that Little naps instead of doing anything useful. I wouldn’t care so much if RWBY weren’t already a show suffering from character bloat and an inability to manage that (because the former isn’t necessarily a problem on its own). Now that we’ve finally got the girls alone(-ish) and primed for some character development, I don’t want to squander it on stupid mouse jokes.

Given which: Little’s ‘Gimme The Cheese’ dance + accompanying sounds effects is Ill-Suited Comedy Example #2.

I mentioned the first time around that I am weak for a cute, animal companion. That remains true. Unfortunately, Little’s cuteness is only carrying them so far with me. Their negative impact on the narrative as a whole is, thus far, simply too much to fix with grabby motions and snot bubbles.

They ask the thematic, “What are you?” question and introduce a number of other theoretical ideas that, frankly, I doubt the Volume will capitalize on. Is your name your purpose? (Like Huntress Ruby Rose.) How does one "Little"? The team is “similar, but different.” Until the Volume actually does something with these questions, I’m inclined to read them as simple ‘nonsense’ language included to try and emulate Carroll’s style.

With Little planning to show Ruby her village (but doesn't actually succeed in that), we cut to Weiss and Blake traversing the jungle together. How did they find one another? No idea. Why did they find one another when Blake fell with Ruby? No idea. The story tries to bypass this by, as expected, leaning into the illogical nature of the world. If they somehow found each other, then they might be able to likewise find Blake’s weapon, despite the fact that it fell long after her. Honestly, this feels more like a very convenient plot device than an interesting characteristic of this world. Things happen so randomly here! Funny how that randomness seems to solely benefit the heroes.

Sidenote: I really like that Weiss says “Gambol Shroud” because the weapon names have felt only semi-canon for a very long time. Other than Ruby referring to Crescent Rose back in the first couple episodes, have we heard the names at all? I can’t recall off the top of my head, but regardless this makes for a nice moment between Weiss and Blake. It’s a small thing, but it helps sell the idea that they do actually know one another well.

The rest of the scene is... passable. Weiss has a “Blake... I’m really glad you’re okay” line and gets a “I’m really glad you are too” in response. This is one of those cases where I think fiction needs to deviate sharply from reality. Irl that’s probably exactly the kind of awkward, rushed line I’d give a close friend because I myself am awkward and struggle to verbalize my care for others (gift giving ftw!). But in fiction an exchange like that just comes across as wooden. “I’m really glad you’re okay,” says the girl who thought this friend had died and for real saw another friend get killed by a third like, an hour ago. Wow, what a reaction! This is also a case of RWBY’s animation acting as a constraint. As said earlier, I think the animators are doing the best they can under the circumstances, but better writing, time, and funds would likely lend itself to a more expressive reunion for all the girls. It also highlights how convenient the time-skip is. You can easily argue that these two cried and hugged and went through their Face Journeys when they first found one another. No need to rehash that though because it already happened off screen!

All of this is made worse for me by the fact that Blake says that if they’re fine, the others “might” be okay too. Might! That’s a loaded word choice with absolutely no follow up. Remember, this is the girl who was beside herself with anger and grief when Yang “died.” So glad to see that emotion carried over into the next Volume. I mean hell, give me a Blake who’s screaming at Weiss to just ditch her weapon. Why are they bothering with that when Yang is still missing?? Screw vines and mice, I’m going to go find my partner!

If only.

Everything in this episode just rings so hollow to me. I mean, I expected that given RWBY’s track record, but this is a severe failure to me given the intensity of Volume 8. From Penny's death to destroying a Kingdom, the fate of their friends to lost Relics, we needed a stellar start to this emotional journey and we simply didn’t get it.

That includes Weiss dodging the question of what happened after Blake fell. I really enjoyed this on the surface, just not - as is so often the case - in the context of RWBY as a whole. Because what is Weiss doing here except keeping another secret? In her defense, it doesn’t last long and there’s a case to be made about how difficult it is to discuss such things, especially after they just happened, so as said, I think that’s a compelling situation to put her in. It’s just one that also happens to poke at a RWDE sore spot because we had such a strong anti-secret rhetoric for three Volumes. Thanks to that arc, my initial reaction is not, “Poor Weiss. Grappling with this traumatic event.” It’s “See, Weiss? See how hard it is to discuss something horrific that you went through? But oh, you and the others had no sympathy for Ozpin in that regard, so just get over it and spill the crucial information already. Snap, snap, keeping Blake informed is more important than your mental health.”

All of which isn’t even touching on how she explains the situation... but we’ll get to that.

So they have this exchange that’s passable in many regards and fails largely due to the problems RWBY has carried with it for years now. They stumble across Gambol Shroud and proceed to spend a while trying to cut the vines/reach it from a nearby tree. This is how Weiss cheers Blake on.

Weiss: “Yah! Woo!”

Example #3, folks.

Weiss’ completely inappropriate cheer-leading aside, the entire time I’m going, “How is this in any way a problem?” I know Blake has become the useless fighter who can’t take out a single grimm without Ruby’s help, and Weiss has forgotten everything except her summoning, but has the audience forgotten how these girls used to fight? Anyone recall this moment from their very first battle?

Oh no, a giant pile of vines! However will we get past this obstacle?😱

I don’t know, maybe just... jump? Or you could get a little more creative by summoning a clone and doing a cool person-tower move to reach the top? That’s definitely not me pulling from my love of Yu Yu Hakusho or anything.

TEAMWORK, BABY!

My point is that moments like this fall flat precisely because RWBY has spent so much time showing us the group’s extreme abilities. Remember that scenes like the Ace Ops fight hinge on their presumed excellence. This is a group that beat the best team in Atlas! But now they can’t even bypass a pile of vines? The downside of giving your characters great power is that you then have to continually come up with ways for them to still face challenging conflict. Some shows handle this rather badly (like Castiel not just blowing up every demon/mortal that opposes them) and some shows handle it rather well (we establish early on that despite technically having the power to get the crew out of sticky situations, Star Trek’s transporter is prone to glitches and interference from the weather). Basically, you can’t go, “These girls are brimming with power because that looks awesome in a fight! But oh, now they can’t use that power because... uh... because that would interfere with our lame gag?” There has to be a reason. And this is far from the first time RWBY has conveniently forgotten the characters’ abilities. I still cringe at Ruby hanging off the cliff during the Cordovin battle. It’s meant to be a dramatic moment wherein she faces great danger from a fall, but they tried to give that to the girl who can fly.

So this is just incredibly stupid to me. Bad enough that we have gags following the intensity of Volume 8, but RWBY hasn’t even put in the effort to make them good gags. This episode honestly feels like RWBY satire to me, more akin to a Chibi episode, or a YouTuber poking fun, than the content fans waited two years for.

Right as Blake reaches her weapon they learn that the vines were a trap and they move, ensnaring both girls. We knew that was going to occur from the trailer and I thought that this was just another aspect of the Ever After. The vegetation (a bit like Alice’s flowers) is alive, sentient, capable of helping or hurting you. That’s pretty cool and, as I mentioned in regards to the environment responding to Ruby’s emotions, could be utilized in fantastic ways for combat.

However, this isn’t actually the case. Apparently the mice have sprung this trap because... Blake is a cat?

Wait.

So let me get this straight. This village of mice - who have never seen a human before, but have definitely seen cats - assume that Blake is exactly the same because she has cat ears. Then they found her weapon before her, somehow realize it is her weapon (even though Blake has yet to even stand next to it within the Ever After), and set an elaborate trap so that they can be the “hunters” for once, instead of the prey. Blake happens to come along with another human, but who cares? Capture her too! What are they going to do with them then?

Uh... the only thing we know about these mice is that they spend the majority of their time foraging for food and they struggle greatly to get the cheese out of the ground, and this would certainly be a way to both feed the village and eliminate a presumed enemy, so...

You know what? Never mind. I’m not going there lol.

This is stupid and illogical, but not in a wacky Wonderland way. Also, anyone else a little uncomfortable with the mice calling her a cat and Blake just going with it? Is that the stance we’re going with after eight seasons of a civil rights movement? That a faunus girl and an animal are fundamentally interchangeable?😬

They could have used this moment to let Blake explain her identity to someone coming from a place of well-meaning ignorance but noooo, why would we have an interesting conversation with the mice when they can just cheer about cheese instead? “She pulled the cheese out of the ground ON HER OWN!” Little cries, causing another mouse to faint in shock.

Example #4

While all this is going on Ruby shows up because remember, the premiere is trying to get the group back together as quickly as humanly possible. Or magically possible, in this case. We get Ruby asking if Little is drooling on her - “Yuck” - before spotting the village of mice about to do presumably unspeakable things to her teammates. Remember the shot from the trailer where Ruby looks properly horrified and I wondered what could possibly be causing that reaction? Yeah. It’s just this.

Example #5. Sigh.

If you were hoping for a proper reunion between these three, keep hoping. We segue immediately into a practical explanation where Ruby explains, about five minutes too late, what she was trying to accomplish while wandering around the jungle. Little has her freak-out about Blake, explains Ruby’s magic cheese gathering skills to the others, and then decides to tag along to find Yang because, and I quote, “I don’t have anything to do yet.” For a hot second I thought this was going to lead into more information about mouse culture. You know, how Little has already admitted that they don’t have a name, how they equate names with a purpose, and therefore if they have nothing to do in their village yet because they’re so young, they’ll find a purpose by traveling with these humans. We might have even put off Little’s naming to this moment, having them or one of the girls come up with something appropriate to the task ahead: something like Guide, or even Friend (of Humans).

But no, apparently Little is tagging along just because they literally have nothing better to do? In the sense that they’re bored and why the hell not? It’s not exactly a compelling reason and, given that they’ve yet to provide any actual assistance to the girls, I’m continually questioning their place in the story. This is what critics mean when they say that time is wasted with Volume-specific side characters when we could be doing more, better work with the core team.

Case in point: Little says that they’ll be “your trusty guide!” and then the joke is that they’re immediately asleep again once the girls set out.

#6!

I do like the following scene though. As the trio follows a path that they’ve found, Weiss walks ahead with her back (obviously) facing Blake and Ruby. When Ruby likewise questions what happened after they fell, there’s this long pause where Weiss considers how to respond, not turning around. It’s a powerful little detail, refusing to show us, or the girls, her face. It leaves her expression up to interpretation while maintaining the impression that she’s hiding from her teammates, due to not knowing how to address their failure. Her insistence on finding Yang first just highlights that avoidance. Really, I think this moment works quite well and I wish the whole episode had been treated this seriously.

Just as Ruby is about to press the issue they hear a roar from nearby. Following it, they discover a creature that fans have already dubbed RWBY’s version of the Jabberwocky.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Bewared the Jubjub bird, and shun

The frumious Bandersnatch!"

Kudos to RWBY for trying here. It’s no secret that I think one of the best grimm lately have been The Apathy, so having another horror-leaning creature was a good decision in my opinion. Unfortunately, I like the idea more than the execution. The twitching motion of the Jabberwocky could have been creepy, but it doesn’t quite capture that feeling of unnatural otherness that makes your skin crawl. A problem with the animation, or something the engine itself just isn’t equipped to create? I’m not sure. Its voice is also a nice touch, with the exception that it’s really hard to understand once it starts yelling. At first I thought RWBY was leaning into the Jabberwocky’s origins. That is, using nonsense words like those from Carroll’s poem whose meaning is understood only in context. Now though, I think it’s just a badly voiced character? I’m not sure because Crunchyroll’s subtitles wouldn’t work for me (of course) and all I got was the “Searching. Stalking. Detecting.” in the beginning.

Which, you know, is an interesting bit of dialogue. RWBY has always straddled the line between fantasy and Sci-Fi, so I’m pleased to see some of the latter worming its way into the distinctly fantasy setting of the Ever After. The Jabberwocky sounds like an AI creation following a coded command. Out of everything this episode, I’m most eager to learn more about it.

Of course, we can’t learn anything now. Despite the fact that Yang stumbles out of the jungle, arm gone, throwing a rock at the Jabberwocky, and looking like she’s been through hell and back. Would you like to know what Yang experienced while on her own here? Or how she came across the Jabberwocky? What she might already know about it?

Would you like to see an actual battle in the combat show’s premiere?

Too bad.

The Jabberwocky just runs off and we get an... interesting reunion for the whole team. First off, Weiss just isn’t a part of this. Given that she’s not Yang’s sister or the Schrodinger girlfriend, she’s shuffled off to the side. Second, Ruby is greeted with a, “Dammit! You weren’t supposed to be here” which I really like. Rather than going the pure fluff route, the writing seems to consider the fact that Yang (as we’ll learn soon) thinks she may have died, so of course she’s horrified to see her little sister here too. This isn’t a joyful reunion for her, it's evidence that her (stupid) sacrifice was in vain. As always, I wish we could have explored that a little more - specifically this idea that Yang thought she was dead and was still trying to defend herself against hostile creatures - but a single line is all we’re given.

Ruby gets that soft smile of hers, kneels down, and says, “If you thought we wouldn’t have come for you then you must have forgotten who raised me.” Aww.

...wait.

Hold up.

The fuck??

First of all, that is NOT what happened. Ruby didn’t come looking for Yang, she lost to Cinder - DESPITE HAVING A UNIQUE ABILITY TO BEAT HER, I WILL CONTINUALLY ADD - and failed to rose-petal her way to safety. Wow, way to imply a heroic rescue that doesn’t exist, Ruby. Also, this simultaneously implies that if they had won the fight Ruby would have dove into the void afterwards to try and find Yang which... you know... I highly doubt. Just given her non-reaction to her sister “dying.” If there was going to be any rescue attempts, give me a Ruby who jumps after Yang as she’s falling and they both go in together.

So that’s a huge misrepresentation of events and then Ruby follows that up with, “you must have forgotten who raised me"? What exactly is that supposed to mean? Because a lot of people raised Ruby. Is it Tai, Summer, Qrow... or Yang herself? This almost feels bait-y to me, in the sense that the writers must know that mom!Yang has been a huge debate in the fandom for years, so they toss in this ambiguous line that could go either way. Is Ruby referring to her many capable, loving, adult guardians? Or her older sister that maybe, sorta “raised her” while their dad was recovering from the death of his wife? I don’t know, why don’t you all fight about it ;)

But no, let’s talk about the actual bait: bumblebee.

Now, for a long time I’ve refrained from calling Blake/Yang queerbaiting for the simple reason that I’ve expected the show to follow through with the romance in a way I don’t expect that from “real” queerbaiting. Remember, the word originates from a hard “No” on the queer front, that’s why it’s baiting and not a slow-burn towards representation. However, we’ve now entered an age of television where, yes, many couples do become canon, but only in the final hour when the writers don’t have to actually write a queer romance. That’s the modern from of queerbaiting and goddamn, is bumblebee fitting it to a T.

I know the fandom has some memory problems, but everyone recalls the surety that Yang and Blake’s romance would kickstart after Yang “died” right? That having Blake mourn her and then discover her alive would finally push her to go in for a kiss? We pictured a plot where the girls were separated for the first couple of episodes, still believing the others were gone, Blake stumbling across Yang in the Ever After, the confusion and shock and relief at finding her again, the kiss that would finally bring RWBY into 2023--

Yeah. There’s none of that.

I myself said that THIS was the time to do it. If you ever needed an excuse to get the queer couple together (which you don’t) then the reunion after one thinks the other has died is 100% the time to do it. Emotions will never be stronger! Inhibitions will never be lower! Don’t pass up such a golden opportunity!

They totally passed it up.

This reunion is just as generically ambiguous as all the others, right down to Yang hugging Blake with a tenderness that’s equal to what she’s given other characters:

Friends. This is all the same hug. There is nothing coded romantic in this reunion, not unless we want to claim that Yang is also romantically attracted to Ren, Weiss, and her sister.

I’ve already seen some fans talking about the importance of Blake initiating contact when before she always held back and yeah, sure, that can be read as character growth, but that’s the kind of minuscule step forward we needed years ago. Not now. Now we’re firmly in bait territory and need confirmation.

“But, Clyde, it’s just the start of the Volume. They could still kiss!”

I don’t care. RT had an opportunity and they squandered it. If there's a kiss, a confession, or whatever comes later in the Volume, it’s still more time that the show has spent in a will-they-won’t-they dance. I’m so sick of it. RWBY’s queer rep is atrocious and I find that to be particularly insulting in a show that’s praised for and celebrates its own diversity. I watch plenty of television with no queer rep at all, but I don’t give them the same kind of shit because they’re not pretending to be the Pinnacle of Queer Representation. If you’re going to claim that you have a queer main couple, then actually give us a queer main couple.

God I was actually so hopeful I’d be writing a, “We’ve finally confirmed it!” recap. It’s beyond frustrating at this point and I’m continually shocked at the fans who are celebrating that hug like they’ve been given a feast and not crumbs. If I were more emotionally invested in bumblebee as a ship - meaning, if I cared more about the relationship itself rather than how it functions as representation for RWBY - I’d be pissed as hell. Yang “died,” Blake lost her mind over it, we waited two years, and then you give us... that? If I were a hardcore bumblebee shipper I’d be writing about my extreme disappointment in RT, not my happiness that Yang touched Blake’s hair.

Actually no, I grew up in the age of no rep/the original queerbaiting, so really I’d be rolling my eyes at anyone who expected a canonical relationship and instead going off to write it myself as fic. I still believe very strongly that ships don’t need a canonical basis and in some ways fandom has limited itself by only writing about what’s canon, or “realistically” canon ([waves old man cane] “In my day we shipped characters who were never even on screen together!”), but I acknowledge that we’ve entered a new age of television. Viewers expect more. They should expect more and they should get it.

With the disappointing hug behind us, Yang observers that if they’re all here then things must have gone really badly up top. This finally pushes Weiss over the edge and she starts the not-crying that all the RWBY girls do, where she has wet eyes and a single tear track. “Penny,” she says. “Jaune tried to help... but she scarified herself...”

And by that you mean Jaune killed her? Weiss’ recounting of events makes it sound like her own stabbing by Cinder: Penny was hurt and Jaune tried to heal her, only this time it wasn’t enough. When in reality we’ve got Jaune giving up because his “I’ve had a human body for twenty minutes” patient says there’s no hope and then slitting her throat because Penny mistakenly believes all she can do with her life is give it up.

Again: what happened to telling your team everything? Where did the importance of context and the complete picture go? For a team that’s so furious when others provide incomplete or misleading information, they sure do that themselves a lot. We can add, “Weiss horribly mischaracterizes Penny’s death” to the “Yang is keeping the Spring Maiden a secret, twists all their failures into victories to win a fight with Ren, and Ruby straight up lied to Ironwood” list.

In another show I’d have more faith that this would come back to bite Weiss; that the girls will later learn the truth and express some actual emotion at her inability to keep them informed... but who am I kidding. This is RWBY. It’ll be forgotten - or retconned - by next episode.

Ruby faints at hearing that Penny has died (again) and man, I really want to like this moment because it’s definitely more of a reaction than I was expecting based on our post-Volume 3 writing. However, this is primarily used as a way to avoid Ruby’s reaction, wherein she wakes up some undetermined time later and is allowed to pretend to be fine, thereby jumping over any conversation/crying/actual emotion we might have seen from her. I know that Ruby will be grappling with this for the entire Volume - our intro proves as much - but it’s still disappointing that we don’t get to see Ruby grapple with her initial feelings because she was too busy being unconscious.

Also, anyone else frustrated that the same action used to depict horror and grief is used for a gag just a few minutes earlier? A mouse faints at the thought of someone being able to pull up cheese with a single tug! Ruby faints at the thought of her dear friend dying for a second time! This is why all that earlier humor messes with the more serious moments.

Our final scene once again fails to convince me that any of these characters love each other outside of the Grand Gestures delivered post-tragedy. No one is holding Ruby while she’s unconscious. No one has made her a makeshift pillow or blanket. Yang asks once if she’s alright - when she’s clearly not - and then just drops the subject when Ruby says yeah, she’s fine. None of them waited until she’d woken up to have this important conversation. After Weiss’ tears and Ruby’s faint, there are no reactions to Penny’s death. Do Blake and Yang care? Presumably not considering they never had a real relationship with her, but RWBY likely wants us to assume that their reactions exist off screen. Remember, given that we’re primarily following Ruby as our protagonist, her being unconscious means that we also skip over how everyone else reacts too. The viewer only gets to continue seeing the story when Ruby wakes up.

I had low expectations for the Volume 8 follow up, but overall this is pretty bad even by my nonexistent standards. It’s not that the premiere doesn’t give us any worthwhile moments, it’s that none of them are capitalized on. They just sit, unexplored, or outright undermined by what the rest of the episode has produced.

It’s disappointing, to say the least. As are our final lines. Yang admits that she thought she was dead, but there’s no time to let her or the others explore that. We hear a throwaway line that her arm was stolen - which relies a lot on the viewer having seen the trailer to understand how and why that happened, at least until next episode. And then Blake follows a bit of light shining through to them, parting some of the vines to look out across the entirety of Ever After.

“I know how this sounds, but... I think we’re in a fairy tale.”

Our final line, folks! Is there anyone else that would have preferred ending on Ruby’s faint? Feels more dramatic and would have let the fandom theorize a bunch before she wakes up next episode (even if then, inevitably, there would have been disappointment that nothing was done with it). Really, I get why they want to end on the shot of Ever After, but all I could think was, how in the world did you come to that conclusion, Blake? Given that this is a world based off of a real fairy tale and not the fairy tales that exist in Remnant. I would 100% buy a character from our world recognizing that they’re in a place similar to Wonderland, but nothing we’ve seen here reflects the tales of Remnant.

Well no, there is one thing, but it exists in the opening. Blake’s been reading the script again.

So let’s unpack that, shall we?

(Sorry, I need to slam all the important opening screenshots together because tumblr won't let me upload any more images boooo).

Our first shot is of Jaune! 🤦‍♀️

Really? That’s the beginning of every episode’s opening? Jaune crying with his broken, bloody sword? Hmm, I wonder if the character imposing on the girls’ team journey will be important this Volume. We also get another shot of him with a clock motif, making me wonder if the theories about him having (somehow) spent longer in the Ever After will prove to be true.

This initial shot is paired with Neo looking sad, presumably over Roman’s death and her continued failure to avenge him. She appears in the trailer a fair bit which, alongside the Jabberwocky, is the thing I’m most excited for. I’m glad that, at least based on this, it doesn’t look like they’re going to squander her role as a villain here. We see Neo drinking her tea with a fantastic smirk, surrounded by a group of shadowy antagonists.

A huge list of one-off baddies, or the various looks she’ll be adopting to mess with the characters? I’m hoping for the latter, especially since some fans think that one of the silhouettes looks like Jacques. However, I do question whether she can actually pull something like that off. I love the idea of Neo manipulating the group, especially in a Volume hosting a grief arc, especially in a place that, as far as they know, might contain their dead loved ones. For a brief moment I even questioned if that other Ruby we see in the trailer was Neo. The problem is I’m pretty sure she speaks and, thus, it’s very difficult for a villain to pretend to be an ally for more than a few seconds when she’s mute. Combine that with the fact that Ruby knows Neo is here and that all just kinda... falls apart. Which is unfortunate because I would have loved to see a Neo using the Ever After’s impossibilities and her own semblance to mess with the heroes. Still, a final shot at the end appears to show everything stemming from Neo, which makes me think she’s going to be the major antagonistic force this Volume and/or gains control of the Ever After somehow. Fitting, for a woman with control over illusions.

Whether Neo makes much use of her semblance or not, I hope we don’t have another 8+ characters to introduce because there’s already Little, the other mice, the cat, racoon, the forge lady, the knight (same person?), the Red Queen, the creature hiding in the leaves, the caterpillar, the Jabberwocky, and this new girl. People get why that’s a lot to manage, right? Especially in a story with four main protagonists, with two others thrown into the void with them. I get that they don’t want the Ever After to be a wasteland, but RWBY continually has a problem with side characters eating up the time and focus. Then they’re left behind and that work feels wasted. Why spend a Volume developing Little (or Ilia, Sun, Neptune, etc.) just to drop them? This bloated cast means it’s a bit of a relief that Volume 9 doesn’t seem to be trying to jump between here and Vacuo, but damn. Three years to find out what’s happening with the others? The growing chance that there will be a time skip and that the girls will come back to find all these ongoing problems resolved off screen: We somehow rescued all the people from the desert! Ren and Nora are officially together! Winter has long gotten used to her powers! Oscar merged while you were gone and now we don’t have to worry about Ozpin anymore!

Not looking forward to it.

Out of all these new characters, the most important is the young girl. My current theory is that she’s the girl from “The Girl Who Fell Through the World,” with perhaps our opening line - “This is the story of a girl who had a lot of problems” - being the first line of her tale. We know due to Ozpin that many of Remnant’s fairy tales are based on true events, so it would make sense if that one came about after a young woman literally fell into a different world. We see her arrive on the beach before Crescent Rose shows up, implying that she’s been there a long time, and there are some implications that she’s a rather powerful figure now: she leads the group through the various environments (with Ruby lagging farther and farther behind. Perhaps the introduction of a new team leader will increase her feelings of inferiority and failure?), she appears right before an evil copy of Ruby turns around (love that grin), and she's in a painting with another, shadowed figure behind her. Despite the fact that we already have this reference (short of) it gives me Ozma/Tip vibes, wherein the original Wizard of Oz books Ozma is turned into a boy named Tip in an effort to keep her hidden.

Regardless of her role, I have the feeling this girl will end up being more of an antagonist than an ally; a representation of the ways Ever After can twist a long-term resident and likely a foil to Ruby (the true leader) and Jaune (someone who will overcome the world’s allure and return with the girls).

There are a number of other thematically significant shots throughout the opening. All the girls are shown in their various outfits, smiling or smirking, but Ruby grows sadder and her most recent counterpart hides in her cloak, facing away from the viewer.

Her tears - more than we’ve seen her actually cry in the show, I'd like to point out - transforms into Crescent Rose.

The girls try to navigate an impossible maze where the Ruby copy shows up, they run up the tree before being blown back (falling remains relevant then), the girls are once again gloriously saturated in their colors (even if Weiss is still more blue than white), and I really like the shot of Ruby falling past the rabbit. Actually, I like the painted style of that fall far more than I like the look of the rest of the Volume.

However, what interests me the most about this intro is a series of images that may well be connected: two streaks of blue falling through the sky, a massive explosion that engulfs the life tree, and the burning of a book of fairy tales.

Look, I don’t care how awful the gods actually are, especially when RWBY has done nothing to explore that. I don’t care if this is one of their realms and the heroes need to take drastic measures to escape it.

You are NOT going to have the girls destroy a whole-ass world after they destroyed a Kingdom, right?

Right?

On that thoroughly optimistic note, let’s end with a miscellaneous section because we are nearly 10k in and this poor recap needs to be put to bed. (As do I.)

Thanks for reading! :)

Misc. Observations

I enjoyed the little detail of Ruby wringing out her cloak as she surveyed the jungle. Nice job remembering she just came out of the water.

I didn’t enjoy the actual shot of the landscape though. I totally get that there’s wonky perspective stuff going on given how far back the ‘camera’ is, but am I the only one who thinks the jungle looks WAY too small in that opening scene?

I definitely mentioned this the first time I examined our promo clip (and briefly above), but I wonder if the weather here is influenced by emotion, given that the rain appears to start and stop when Ruby cries. I want to say “No” now just because this already isn’t consistent - there’s no rain when Weiss cries, you’d think we’d see some kind of weather influence when Ruby faints - but a part of me is hopeful just because it’s such a cool concept. Especially for a combat show where terrain can make-or-break a battle. As we’ve seen, each little bit of Ever After seems to function differently - Ruby doesn’t hit another patch of repeating jungle, for example - so maybe this is something that will return sporadically?

This is definitely me being nitpicky and petty, but you’ve gotta love that, other than the repeat dialogue of Volume 8 and the faint shouts of “Ruby!” our first words of the Volume are, “Now if only you could help me.” I don’t begrudge anyone help, certainly not the protagonist of a story that wants to be centered around unification, but Ruby has struggled with agency so much I can’t help but roll my eyes a little. Yes, why would we write our protagonist figuring out how to help herself when the random mouse she stumbles across can do it instead? And then, you know, not actually do anything, allowing the protagonist to instead just stumble on what she wants, rather than actively retrieving it.

So you know how Little not-so-subtly mentions that an easy way to get on their village’s good side is to bring more of that cheese? Surely then when we next see Ruby she’ll be animated carrying a couple of those cheeses as a bribe? Spoiler: she's not.

Anyone else feeling iffy about Blake’s description of Yang? The one where she refers to Yang as the scary looking one? As someone who has been frustrated with Yang’s lack of anger management the last couple of Volumes, I’m not a big fan of her “scariness” being played as a cute character quirk.

Ruby remembers right before the non-battle starts that she’s without Crescent Rose. Funny how she didn’t appear to notice its absence before, or go looking for her precious weapon like Blake did. (Seriously, I know I’ve said this a hundred times by now, but the girls’ reactions to landing here and everything they’ve lost are nonexistent.) This also highlights how useless most of the girls are without a weapon in hand. Didn’t we have a mini-arc back in Volume 5 about them learning hand-to-hand? Wasn’t that specifically labeled as Ruby’s flaw? Now it crops back up and she just hangs back, scared? Once again I'm asking what the point of any of that was if we're not going to see the development. Something something only the most recent Volume is canon.

#rwde #rwby #mymetas #RWBY Recaps

100 notes · View notes

the-fiction-witch · 8 months

Text

Wake Up Call

Media Lewis The Mind Has Mountains

Character Adam Douglas

Couple Adam X Reader

Rating Smut

Concept Wake up!

Smut semi non-consensual/ hj/ riding/ fingering/ full sex/ raw sex/ jizz/

I sighed as I arrived at Adam's little room We had been here a good while, in this drug trial before classes started up again, We saw the flyer in the student common room and thought why not? Extra cash I suppose, however that did mean I was constantly stuck with Adam as the only others in the tail around our own age were a couple of gobby townies and some girl from our school who clearly thought highly of herself as she'd never even spoken to me, but it was pill time and breakfast in an hour I was dressed makeup done and he was laid in his bed on his back in his boxers still dead to the world.

I rolled my eyes and sat on his bed "Adam?" I asked but no response "Adam?" Still nothing "Adam?" I asked giving him a poke but he stirred and little else "Adam?"

"Humm?"

"It's y/n"

"Ummm? Y/n" he grumbled shifting his hips

"Your gonna be late, it's pill time"

"Ehh" he grumbled not really interested Sure enough he went back to sleep

"Adam! You need to get up"

"Ummmm… let me sleep y/n" he complained

"Adam, you'll get yelled at if you miss pills and you'll feel like shit if you skip breakfast come on," I told him but nothing so I moved a little closer and began to gently tickle him

"Ummmm y/n! Let me sleep" he complained wriggling and trying to push me off

"No come on it's time to wake up"

"I'm not getting up so bugger off"

"Adam!"

"No" he groans putting a pillow over his head

"You wanna play this way fine?" I snapped I got up and bounced on his bed but no response, I ticked his feet but nothing, I even poked his face but nothing I looked over him trying to formulate my plan of how I could be annoying to wake him up but then I had a thought perhaps I'm coming at this incorrectly so I sat on his bed again and gently ticked his waist

"Ummmm! Y/n let me sle-" he began moving the pillow but as he spoke I moved my hand down to gently palm the morning wood in his red and black boxers "uuummm?" he groans barely awake but unable to stop his hips grinding onto my hand "helllooo" he Cooes "ummm just let me sleep y/n"

"And stop my hand?" I asked

"Don't make me choose" he groans

So I smirked and tugged down his boxers exposing his hard erection I gently took his shaft in hand stroking his head with my thumb before I began to move my hand making sure to pay attention to his gasps and groans to ensure he was receiving the most pleasing possible

"Uuuhh" he gasps rolling his head against the pillow and biting his lip "That's a good girl… put me to sleep"

"It's meant to be waking you up!"

"Ummm but it's ever so relaxing y/n, it feels so good just to lay back all snug and sleepy with these soft hands wrapped around me"

"Wake up or I'll stop"

"That a promise?"

"Yes"

"Uhhh just a little longer"

"Sleep or my hand?"

"Both"

"No one or the other Adam"

"Uuhh I still think sleep wins out," he says

"Fine" I sighed taking my hand away

"Ummm thank you very much though, maybe when I'm less tired you can come to finish me off?" He says before he began to drift back to sleep but I hatched a better plan I stood and kicked off my shoes and tugged my panties out from under my dress I climbed on his lap and shuffled a little Letting him slip inside me "uuuuuuuhhh! Holy-" he moans putting a hand over his mouth given everyone else in the house he now actually opened his eyes and saw me sat over him as I began to move his eyes rolled back and he moaned under his hand "uuhhh okay okay. I'm up! I'm up!" He says sitting up "I'm awake, I'm awake I swear. Uhhh just please don't stop y/n" he begs moving his hips to thrust up into me as I ride providing us both with waves of pleasure we did our best to both stay quiet and slow given his bedroom was above the kitchen where everyone would be congratulated for breakfast and his wooden bedframe would bang in the wall of we are too fast he wrapped his arms around my waist often kissing my neck as he tried to keep quiet but I pushed him down to lay flat as I knew how close I was getting and i needed to just work so I began to get faster and more merciless on him which he enjoyed massively biting his lip hard trying desperately not to moan "I'm close y/n" he pleads "please, please! You have no idea how bad I need this" he groans moving his hands from my waist to my breasts groping them through my dress and playing with my hardening nipples "ohh yeah… fuck! Uuuuuuuhhh I haven't cum in a week and being stuck inside all day with you isn't exactly helping" he groans

"I know, just a little more -" I whined moving one of his hands to my clit and he didn't need more information as he began rubbing and stroking my clit which was enough to throw me over the edge I covered my mouth as I froze up pleasure Washing over me

"Uuughhhh!" He groans as my tightness has thrown him over the edge too he buries himself inside me filling me up he collapses completely against his pillow gasping for breath

"Umm finally you're awake Adam" I smiled

"You evil little thing" he smirked

"It worked didn't it?"

"Hummm true. I didn't know you…liked me like that"

"I didn't know you did?"

"Guess we're both kinda dumb" he laughed before he sat up and gave me a sweet kiss "You wanna go have breakfast together?"

"I'd like that Adam" I smiled "Then my room after" I smiled tapping his nose

"Yeah?"

"Yeah"

"Ummm okay, but I wanna be on top this time"

"Maybe" I smiled getting up and using his tissues to clean up where his kiss was leaking down my legs before I could put my panties back on even if some was still leaking "damn Adam"

"I did say it's been a week," he says getting up to get dressed "ummm you look so fucking good like that"

"What?" I giggled

"With me dripping out of you…" he smirked "fuck… breakfast can wait" he smirked grabbing my hand and pulling me onto his bed he sat over early "This time I wanna watch you squirm"

"But it's pill time They'll get mad we're not down there"

"...fine. but as soon as breakfast is over your room?"

"I promise, come on or we'll be late," I told him sorting myself out and scampering down to the kitchen for breakfast.

#tbs smut #thomasbrodiesangster #tbs imagine #thomas sangster imagine #thomas sangster #thomas brodie sangster imagine #thomas brodie sangster #tbs #tbs imagines #thomas brodie sangster smut #adamdouglas #lewis #itvlewis

27 notes · View notes

diamondcitydarlin · 9 months

Text

idk I guess it's an unpopular opinion (tho again maybe not because I feel like for as much as that was a TRAGIC cliffhanger we're all kinda like...into it, right? lmaooo) but I feel like the break-up was a long time coming and needed to happen in order for them to progress the relationship forward. Of course I love post season one fics where they're already a couple after failed armageddon and everything's perfect and fine and that's kind of what I just entertained until I knew more of the story was going to be told because IN THAT CASE!!

I guess it's been said already, but I've always felt like for as close as they were at the end of season one and for as much as it seems like they've carved out a niche for themselves that works, there's something about it that has always felt sort of tenuous for me, and I feel like it's manifested in times that I've written them in post season one, either solo or in RP with a friend. Sometimes it's heaven/hell not being done with them and only pretending to stand back while thinking of a way to get them, but often it's that plus their own sense of loyalty to themselves or outer entities, etc.

As season 2 establishes and as I always kind of suspected, Aziraphale has never really 'given up' on heaven, perhaps not aided by the fact that I don't think Crowley ever gave him specific details of what went on during his trial. The tribulations of the first act of the story don't really destroy Aziraphale's confidence in what he's always believed to be true, it just leads him to think the wrong people have been in charge, still leaving him with this sense of 'this = good' and 'this = bad' and, well...Crowley is still a demon.

Now, of course, Crowley usually falls into a rationalized category of 'Not Like Other Demons' for Aziraphale and most of the time that's fine, but when push comes to shove it turns into a bigger, more divisive issue than anything they can ignore because, ultimately, Az thinks everything will be fine once they're both on the same side of 'good'. Once Crowley is as he used to be. Because surely that's what he REALLY wants as well?? WHO WOULDN'T WANT TO BE AN ANGEL??

And in that way, Crowley has his own sense of loyalty that clashes with Aziraphale's, but I think it's really a loyalty to himself. I don't mean that in a derogatory way at all. I don't mean to imply that he really IS selfish and evil. I mean to say that Crowley has accepted who and what he is, that for as much as God's forsaking of him still haunts his sense of self, he accepts his fate with lurid enthusiasm. Unforgivable, that's what he is. Fine! Because if earning god or heaven's love means being other than what he really truly is and wants to be, then it means nothing and also fuck them.

In that way though, Aziraphale is also 'not like other angels' for Crowley, because there's this sort of understanding that he either doesn't care or accepts him anyway and honestly I think the reason Crowley avoids talking about that for so long is because he doesn't really want to know which it is. But then he finds out, because circumstances have forced them to. And I notice that while he is devastated, he doesn't seem surprised. Sort of like Crowley always knew they were going to have to face this crossroads eventually and knew what Aziraphale was going to choose.

I can't really fault either of them for making their respective choices. If anything, my admiration for Crowley's character has increased a hundred fold and I was already partial to him lmao. It's not easy to choose yourself and your own self-preservation and the truth of who you are over anything else, over the threat of really, truly being alone, but...he does, and I think there's a takeaway in that. And I get where Aziraphale is coming from too, even for how painful and seemingly selfish it is (but I don't think it is, not in intention anyway).

idk this became a ramble but I feel like it all makes sense and is crucial to really exploring what that love between them could truly be in the end.

#ineffable husbands #good omens spoiler #good omens spoilers #ya idk i just felt like it would happen regardless #and im glad it did tbh

23 notes · View notes

auxiliarydetective · 6 months

Text

The OC Halloween Challenge - Day 22

You can find the challenge here!

Today's prompt was...

Solitude Causes More Wounds Than It Was Meant To Heal

Fear is increased when one is alone by themselves, or cut off from civilization like an reclusive island. Focus on your characters in the horror of isolation; are they forced to recognize who they truly are on the inside? Do they practice the law of nature or nurture? Do they keep their morals or own laws?

Once again, I made a poll to determine today's victim and I realized lots of my followers are in need of a hug so...

Spooky hug for you! This actually fits with today's winner/victim too because it's...

Charlie Drake!

Ray reluctantly unlocked the door to the Firehouse, the police forcing themselves past him the moment they could. The once-Ghostbusters followed, Ray entering last. Inside the Firehouse, the only thing that was still in its proper condition was Ecto-1. Everything else was covered in a thick layer of dust and cobwebs. Immediately, the cops started searching every nook and cranny, every closet and shelf, every cupboard upstairs in the kitchen, every cabinet... And the car, of course. Winston, Ray, Egon and Peter exchanged worried and annoyed glances. Mostly annoyed, in fact. Winston was mostly worried though and Egon was observing everything happening around him as if he were on a bust. Really, with the way he looked at the cops roaming around, with their hands all over his carefully crafted equipment, you would think he was just waiting for a ghost to jump out and rip them to shreds. Venkman seemed to have the same hopes as he whispered:

"You don't think one of the traps is still loaded, do you?"

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend," Ray murmured.

"I think a ghost attacking the cops might actually make your situation worse," Winston whispered. "They'll just blame it on you and make your charges even worse."

Egon said nothing. After turning everything upside-down and hurling every speck of dust around the house, the cops left, reminding Ray, Egon and Peter of their trial the next day. Then, the police cars sped away.

"Well, now we're really in trouble," Egon mumbled.

"Boy, you said it," Ray sighed. He leaned against the hood of Ecto-1 in resignation. "Man, I really wish Charlie were here."

"Yeah," Peter chuckled, "he could smack those guys into next week!"

Before Winston could repeat his statement from before, Egon interrupted:

"That's exactly my point as to why we're in trouble. Charlie didn't show up."

"Well, we did encourage him to explore the world," Winston reminded him. "For all we know, he could be in New Zealand or something. How should we know? He didn't even leave a note or call or something."

"It's almost like he wants nothing to do with us," Ray murmured.

"Well, we did almost kill him," Peter quipped. "Twice."

"Three times, actually," Egon corrected. "Still, I don't think he'd just leave without saying anything."

"Yeah, now that you mention it," Winston reminisced, "he's never been the type of guy to just stay quiet about things he didn't like. And the last thing he told us, he said we could reach him at the Firehouse."

"You think he's just been hanging around here for four years?" Peter asked. "Sounds too boring for Charlie."

"Precisely," Egon declared.

"You think he somehow got stuck here?" Ray asked worriedly.

"It's very possible he turned sick, in a lack of better terms, and maybe didn't notice it." Egon held out his hand, showing off the ring that Charlie had given him. "Do you still have yours?"

The others nodded, their hands joining Egon's in the space between them.

"Remember how shiny they used to be? Now they're tarnished."

"That's just what silver does, it tarnishes," Peter said. "Come on, Egon, I thought you were smart."

"I tried polishing it," Ray threw in. "But it didn't work. I figured it's just because it hasn't been around Charlie in a long time, but... Oh god, Spengs, you don't think-"

"Remember how Charlie was before and after we defeated Gozer?" Egon continued his interrogation, but his voice was a little weaker now, shaking slightly. "Specifically, what changed?"

"Well, before that, I don't think he ever slept," Ray recalled. "He'd always be going on busts with us and then to his night shift right after that and hop right back into Ecto-1 the next morning. I didn't really think about it too much back then, but it became even more obvious when he dropped his other job. He was constantly on his feet."

"Yeah, I remember how much that ticked me off when I joined," Winston sighed. "And after we defeated Gozer, he started actually sleeping, didn't he? Didn't it also take him a whole week to recover from the explosion on the roof?"

"My theory is that he never fully recovered," Egon said darkly. "I tried to form a thesis on what might have happened in terms of psychokinetic energy when we destroyed the temple and afterwards to find out what effects it might have had on Charlie. Before we fired at the gate, it was steadily leaking psychokinetic energy into our world, meaning the very same energy that Charlie most likely lives off of. When we reversed the particle flow, it destroyed Mr Stay Puft in the explosion, very similarly to how Charlie... almost died... when the containment grid exploded. Only this time, it didn't destroy Charlie's physical form like the first time around. But it still must have drained him off all the extra energy he had to spare, which is why he was so tired all the time. It also left lasting damage, which is why he had to sleep from then on."

"So what, he relapsed?" Peter asked. "He seemed mostly fine last I saw him. Barely even slept anymore. What happened that could've caused that? I mean, I didn't see any big psychokinetic explosions since we disbanded."

"That's the point, we disbanded. There were no more ghost sightings, meaning there was very little psychokinetic energy in the area, which must have had an effect on Charlie eventually. I'm assuming the rings we're wearing might have had some effect on his recovery as well. He did call them mutual insurance. And with them gone, what's the only source of psychokinetic energy left?"

"The containment grid," Ray murmured.

"You think he locked himself in there like in a bacta tank?" Peter mumbled.

"No, he wouldn't do that," Winston declared. "He knows there's no way to get back out."

"He's probably somewhere in the Firehouse," Egon theorized, "and he's probably sleeping or unconscious. Dormant, you could say. If we can get some energy back into these rings, maybe we can wake him up."

"Ghost defibrilator. Right on my finger. Fantastic."

Still, nobody had a better idea. In fact, it was the only idea anyone had. So, the former Ghostbusters headed into the basement to do the reverse of their usual profession and actually summon a ghost this time. They placed their hands against the surface of the containment grid. Immediately, it felt like a jolt of electricity rushed through their bodies and they pulled their hands away, the rings unbearably hot, then suddenly icy cold, glowing in an alabaster sheen. The lights in the basement flickered, making them fear another blackout.

"I think it worked," Peter mumbled.

"Charlie?" Egon called.

Suddenly, one of the boxes of screws from the nearby shelf flew in Egon's direction, hitting him in the arm. But that was only the start. From then on, more and more objects started hitting Egon, Peter, Ray and Winston.

"Are you sure that's Charlie?!" Winston asked, ducking out of the way of a wrench.

"It has to be," Egon replied, trying to make his way to the staircase but being blocked off by the desk.

"I think he's mad," Ray said weakly.

"Mad?!" Peter echoed. "He's pissed!"

#ohc2023 #ghostbusters #ghostbusters oc #oc: charlie drake #fanfiction

12 notes · View notes

doktorpeace · 7 months

Text

The Great All Generation Nuzlocks Roundup - Part 2

A continuation of Part 1, this encompasses the remaining games.

BLACK 2 - I love you Unova I love you so much you're so fucking good. I know B/W1 like the back of my hand, they're like home to me. So I went with B/W2 for additional challenge and just because of the broader encounter variety. Little did I suspect, that fate would have something in store for me.

This game had by far the most tumultuous early game, and it is in fact the game I wiped most in! I wiped three times before the second badge, and two of those were at Cheren! However, soldiering on, we eventually broke through the early game and clean through to the opposite side of a run. For most of this run a core contributor was a Magneton which I gave Eviolite to. As expected, a Steel/Electric type with 1.5x defensive stats is incredible for in game purposes, however, I blundered them away late in the run. Despite being consistent and undeniably helpful, I wasn't all that torn up by the loss. It actually freed up my team to have less type weakness overlap! This is definitely one of the stronger teams overall we got, with Whimsicott in particular truly surprising me with the sheer number of enemies it could just sit on and whittle down at little to no risk. A true champion.

But most importantly of all, our friend returned to us! A 10% chance of encounter, in only one location, Chargestone Cave. I didn't even know Nosepass could appear there! I was ecstatic and broke naming convention for the return of our true friend, Cao Cao the Probopass. This run, which had overcome the trials of the early game, now held the Mandate of Heaven and was destined for success. But getting through wasn't enough. Our true quest was now getting Cao Cao through to the end.

Unlike in Platinum, he had a +Sp. Attack nature this time and with Power Gem could dish out some serious damage! A very slow Volt Switch also allowed him to safely pivot us into our other team members to keep momentum up and enable a lot of powerful plays. Mienshao was a remarkable lategame encounter who truly did a lot to trivialize the late and endgame and paired well for a Volt/Turn core with Cao Cao. A very powerful team indeed, though Ampharos was mostly just There and saw no use in any major battle. She simply was late game, just-in-case backup filler after we lost Magneton on the Plasma Frigate.

In the end, not only did we succeed in getting our new friend through to the end of the game. He even dealt the finishing blow to Champion Iris. Fate blessed us with a second chance and we did not squander it!

In his well earned retirement, we've managed to move him all the way up to Paldea, thanks to his return in Kitakami. Any Region, Any Adventure, True Friends Always Stick Together!!

I love Unova and now I have another great memory thanks to it. Truly the GOAT region.

This game had a nickname theme - Food Biproducts, and Cao Cao

Total Wipes - 3 (Wild Magnemite Gym Leader Cheren Gym Leader Cheren)

Y - I hadn't played through Y except the once at launch, so I was honestly rather excited to give it another try. I did, however, challenge myself to not use any of the gift pokemon given to the player since you can make a whole team of them and I had a great time for it.

Gameplay wise, I quite like Kalos. It has great aesthetics and introduced pretty much nothing but great new designs. Unfortunately, however, it contains Writing and Characters and that part is basically all bad. I do think there's a seed of an interesting story with Lysandre and Team Flare but like, damn, they totally beefed it on this one, lmao.

Oh well, at least I had fun! And I don't have much else to say.

Aerodactyl and Snorlax were our absolute GOATs this run, plowing through most of the game. We actually blundered away Oats on the literal last trainer in Victory Road by not playing around a crit and I REALLY didn't want to grind up another Pokemon, so I simply carried his fainted body through the Elite Four and Diantha, largely on the back of Garchomp. This run really did endear me more to Garchomp, whom I've never used before and never been the biggest fan of. Even with a -Attack nature in the Fairy Region she simply annihilated everything I set her upon. Great pokemon, makes any team dramatically better for having it, lol.

Overall Kalos was exactly as mediocre as I remembered. But a mediocre Pokemon game is still quite fun minute to minute, so it's not all bad and it really let me look forward to the next region, which does away with TMs and is generally excellent.

Garchomp Sweep.

Total Wipes - 1 Gym Leader Viola

SUN - I recently played through Ultra Sun for the first time and jeez that game is quite the letdown compared to the vanilla version. Almost every change made worsens the experience in some way, and in many cases outright erases core character's arcs. It's not totally without merit, but picking vanilla Sun was an easy choice.

Alola is just plain fun. I had a great time but also don't have much to say! This run overall went pretty smoothly with the only critical loss being our Decidueye at Aether Paradise super late in the game! As a result, Exeggutor was a super late filler who ended up doing almost nothing.

Almost every member of this team impressed me though. I genuinely did not know Toucannon was so good! An incredible moveset and genuinely great stats for the early and mid game let him do a ton of work! Undeniably falls off late, but that's okay. Eviolite Charjabug is also shockingly great as a pivot and defensive stopgap for most of the game. It was almost better unevolved than fully evolved, lol. The real star of this team in the late game was Carracosta, what a beast. Shell Smash setups with sturdy and wide lens for high base power, perfectly accurate STAB just CRUSHED the elite four, champion, and final Hau fights.

Alola was fun, easy breezy, and a nice step up from Y, though I think it's the game that took by far the longest to clear. It does have a lot of cutscenes, but I like the charcaters and story so that's fine.

Total Wipes - 0

SHIELD - I'm a Galar appreciator. This region has issues but the core gameplay experience is not one of them. In fact, I think Galar has one of the strongest campaigns in the series for purposes like this, it's very Arcade-like. Brisk pacing, a well balanced difficulty curve, a shockingly tough final boss, and just a great and fun mechanic in dynamaxing. This game is a lot of fun to play through and I was pretty happy to get to return to it. I love cooking curry and playing with my funny guys in camp but I had to be careful not to do that so it wouldn't give me mechanical benefits, lol.

On the story side it's thin boned and that's fine, imo. After several generations of more serious or involved stories it's a nice palette cleanser for the franchise and further it helps serve the core experience of this game being 'you start the game and are in the wild area with access to 100+ species within 30-45 minutes'. There is truly no region better for, simply, playing through with a new set of 6 guys you've never used before. Even with that thin plot I still think Hop is the best rival in the franchise's history. He has a strong, easily identifiable character arc and uses the most different species of any trainer in the entire series besides N, who's whole thing is he uses completely different teams every time.

Hop struggles with inferiority to Leon and then to you and in the mid game dramatically changes his team around several times just to try and beat you! He even boxes his starter for one of them and NO other rival does that! In the postgame he realizes he's not necessarily in the top 1% of battling trainers, but pursues a career as a researcher which is great! I really like Hop, he's ace. I just wish his final team weren't so shit though. He uses so many different, cool, species and his final team has both Dubwool and Snorlax on it, for some reason? It's weird.

Anyway, I love playing through this region and this team rocked. I blundered away several encounters, including losing Badnik the Golisopod, at level 50, to Raihan because I didn't pay attention to the fact that his Duraludon has Rock Type coverage. Mantine was a very late filler pick, however, he actually accomplished a good bit and was a great teammate for what little time we had him.

This team has the biggest gap in level between its top runner and 6th man, and that's largely because I saved every rare candy in the game to ensure Cinderace specifically was equal to Leon's Charizard before that fight. It's such a strong mon I wanted to maximize what it could do. This region does have extremely few encounters outside of the Wild Area so it had two modifications to normal encounter rules - 1) In areas with no Wild Encounters (the two Mines) the first pokemon I run into is my encounter. One was a Drillbur and the other was Badnik, both of which I lost :(

2) I'm allowed to have one encounter from the Wild Area each time the game directs me there, for a total of three. Once right at the start, once after clearing Kabu's Gym, and once after clearing Raihan's gym. For these, I still took Random Encounters from shaking grass, but I did allow myself the nicety of choosing which region I wanted them from.

Overall, the former had a moderately large impact on the run since Golisopod was a great encounter but the latter didn't end up mattering really at all.

The true star of this run was our Route 1 encounter, Greedent. He is Him. Payback is the first TM in the game, immediately giving him a 100BP Dark move to hit ghosts with. Body Slam for STAB, Cheek Pouch gives RIDICULOUS survival with sitrus berries (58% extra HP in every battle! Equal to basically 150 extra health in the mid and late game!) all game long, stockpile for defensive boosts, rest to net heal even while continuously attacked. He swept the ghost gym, he swept the fairy gym. He swept half of Leon's team, including Haxorus and Dragapult. HE IS HIM!!! Greedent is so fucking strong and is my friend, I love you Greedent.

This game is the first time since Crystal where our starter made it all the way through.

Total Wipes - 0

VIOLET -

RAAAAAAUUGGGHH THIS GAME RUNS LIKE DOGSHIT LMAO!!!! IT'S BEEN LIKE 6 MONTHS AND IT STILL RUNS AWFUL!!!!!!!

However, I do like Violet for what it is. It lacks so may QoL features and just generally basic niceties and polish and yet it's so much more than the sum of it's parts. I guess that's what happens when you get the author of Cowboy Bebop to help write your game's story. Like, imaging getting that guy and then rushing the game out after a ONE YEAR development cycle. Geez.

Paldea itself is a fairly forgettable region that is full to bursting with incredible Pokemon designs and characters. It's the small things that are memorable rather than the region itself and I truly wish to see a 'complete' version of this game someday. Hopefully, the game being rightfully lambasted and made a mockery for releasing blatantly unfinished and buggy as fuck will light a fire under The Pokemon Company's ass and force them into actually giving GameFreak time to produce their damn games! You know GF themselves want to put out better than this!

Still, it has its strengths. Again, the scenario design and gameplay are quite fun and they're what I would consider the only 'truly' nonlinear Pokemon games. Gens 1 and 2 have 'Fake Nonlinearity' since doing things in a nonlinear fashion is basically a waste of time and effort. Those games were still made with specific paths in mind, but Paldea wasn't (mostly). While the gyms, titans, and team star encounters each have set levels, you're still free to do them out of order and you actually get the breadth of the region to explore and run around basically immediately. If you master some basic movement tech you can get practically anywhere without any of Koraidon/Miraidon's upgrades, too! The one true downside to this is only Gym Badges increase Pokemon obey levels when it really should be any badges that do.

For encounters in this game I only got encounters via Tera Raid Dens (Besides the Starter and Poco Path, which can't have Raid Dens) since those are truly random! This region also has BY FAR the fewest possible encounters with this method, at only thirty-ish, which makes every last one count! Thankfully, with easy access to vitamins, EXP candies, and nature changing mints, maximizing your few encounters is easy and fun.

Getting a Steel Tera Type Applin as our very first random encounter set the stage for the whole run. Eviolite Dipplin was an unbreakable monster. Dragon/Grass coverage with Recover and Reflect made a mockery even of super effective hits and crits. This whole team is slow and bulky (besides Cetitan) but Dipplin was the slowest and bulkiest of all by a mile. All six members worked in great harmony and were able to overcome all challenges without any real risk or nail biter moments. They were just plain consistent and strong. Lumineon is a firmly Mediocre Pokemon, but thanks to aforementioned mints and vitamins, we were able to max out his HP and Physical Defense. With Leftovers, Aqua Ring, and the debuffing moves Chilling Water and Icy Wind, he could turn any physical threat into setup fodder for Skeledirge (Torch Song), Muk (Minimize), Dudunsparce (Coil), or Cetitan (Snowscape + Slush Rush). This team's playstyle was often slow and methodical but could explode into vicious sweeps very easily.

Cetitan in particular truly just bowled over the endgame. The Elite 4, Champion, Final Nemona and Final Boss all got swept mostly or entirely by Cetitan after a single turn of setup with Snowscape. Slush Rush with Ice/Ground STAB on Ice Spinner and Earthquake just annihilated everything. What a monster, I love my huge whale friend. This team was basically perfect and nothing could challenge their stability and strength. A truly excellent note to end on.

This team reached it's 'final' state earliest of all, solidifying after just the fifth gym, whose level cap is 36 while Muk's evolution is 37.

This game is the only one where I completed all endgame content, and still lost no major team members.

Total Wipes - 1 (Team Star Leader Atticus)

I love Pokemon. It's a fun and fantastic series. It's got its ups and downs and right now it's definitely far from what it could, or should, be. But it's just such an impossible to fuck up gameplay loop it's just FUN to raise and bond with new guys!

If you've read this far, thank you! I hope you enjoyed a glimpse into my experiences, and I'm willing to field questions!

My kingdom for Gen 10 to get a six year dev cycle.

#Pokemon #Nuzlocke

11 notes · View notes