#and its always like. with aus like this they might as well be original fiction. except my ideas for Theme make it imperative that it's crown | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

nightmares-voicemail · 7 months

Text

Introduction

Oh, hey, mortal. So, guess this old thing still works…? Well, congrats. By discovering this interface, you gained the ability to send messages beyond time and space, to the Infinite Cosmos. I advise you to use this power with an adequate level of responsibility.

Or don’t. It doesn’t matter, really. Because of the nature of the Cosmos, each reality contains infinite copies of itself. Even if you somehow end up completely messing up a world by, I don’t know, sending nuclear plans to cavepeople? Who cares, there’s still infinite versions of that world where that never happened. Just please, don’t piss off any Prime Gods. They will get on my case, and while they can’t do anything to me, they love to complain, and I have no interest dealing with them.

Actually wait, I can just make it so that you can’t contact other Prime Gods through this. That should save me some headache.

Anyway. If you REALLY feel like you need an entity with knowledge and power that you won’t be able to comprehend in a billion lifetimes for some chit-chat, you can message me. Make it entertaining and I might answer. Okay, that out of the way, here’s some instructions and basic terms on how to use this thing.

P.S. If you’re about to ask me to save you from some sort of world-shattering disaster, don’t. I’m not your nanny.

P.S.2: I might make an exception if said disaster was caused by me, but do not ask me to fix what other deities messed up. We have a policy of not getting into each other’s business and the only reason I ignore that is if it amuses me. But believe me, your problems are incredibly boring.

Okay, so the rules.

This is an ask/RP blog for my stories and OCs from the Infinite Cosmos setting. That is, basically all my stories and OCs. You can address me with general questions about characters or my writing, or you can address my characters for an in-character response. I might hold on to information about ongoing stories to avoid spoilers, but otherwise I like to rant about my writing so go and give me an excuse to do that if you’re interested.

The Setting

The Infinite Cosmos, most commonly referred as simply the Cosmos by its inhabitants, is a multiverse of multiverses where every possible and impossible version of reality exists somewhere. Some worlds and people are more aware of the other worlds out there than others. Also some worlds exist in other worlds as works of fiction. All my stories, both original and fanfiction, take place in the Cosmos. This is usually not at all important for the stories itself – after all, the Cosmos is infinite and I crafted it with the exact purpose that any kind of fictional world can coexist in it without contradicting each other, but it gives justification for cross references and metajokes which I love to make. (There is a cosmology and backstory I’m working on which I will definitely finish and use in an actual story one day.)

My Stories

Enchant: My current main project. An ongoing series about troubled teens discovering magical powers and turning into superheroes in a fictional modern setting. Updates irregularly with pretty long chapters.

You can always see the darkness: A long series of Deltarune fanfiction that I wrote over the course of a year, eventually turning it into its own AU. It is finished now.

Shuffled Fate: A discontinued isekai story from 2021. A lot of my OCs originate from here. To address the Shuffled Fate-version of any characters, just put “SF!” before their name. Otherwise, the more recent version of the character will answer if there are any.

Reverse Rune: An ongoing Deltarune roleswap AU series. It’s currently on the backburner.

Misplaced Fate: My multifandom-multiverse-crossover project. On the backburner.

Cross-references

I’m a writer with writer friends. Sometimes we get involved in each other’s projects or write fanfiction/recursive fanfiction for them. I have a friend who has a universal adaptor cast of OCs and she also likes to put her friend’s OCs into her stories. We both like crossovers and references. This can lead to shenanigans. If I reference a friend’s story or character, just take it as my headcanon/take on the original like you’d do with any canon fandom characters. Obviously nothing is canon to my friends’ works unless they say so.

Canon Characters

If I ever wrote fanfiction for something, you can send asks or prompts about those stories and characters too, just keep in mind that you’re talking to the character’s version living in my multiverse.

My OCs

Wisp: Okay, so this is not really an OC (man, I’m bad at this aren’t I), it’s just me. The creator of all my works and the narrator of most of them. You can address me in general about my worlds and characters, just keep in mind that I have no idea what I am doing most of the time, I will most likely make up stuff on the fly and might end up contradicting myself. I also use they/them pronouns mostly, it/its fine too until further notice.

Nightmare: He’s a Prime God, that is, he’s one of the “true gods” of the multiverse, not part of an in-universe pantheon. He can do anything, in theory, and he’s quite determined to see if that’s true in practice too, unlike other deities who usually stick to creating and managing their own worlds. He usually appears as this really tall guy with spiky black hair, long black fingernails, wearing a biker outfit, sunglasses, and oh, he has eight eyes. He also tends to talk in a kind of deep, booming voice that carries the feeling of powerful emphasis for mortal beings. He can be a bit jerkish and full of himself as a side-effect of the whole all-powerful god thing.

“I can hear you; you know.”

Flow: “Uhm, voices in my head… okay, don’t panic, this happened to Natasha too. Wait, that’s not reassuring at all.”

Flow is a guy (gender neutral) who I like to put into situations. They went from being unexpectedly isekaid in Shuffled Fate to being unexpectedly but a bit more willingly becoming a hero in Enchant (those are different canons and even worlds but eh). They’re great at being out of their water, feeling anxious, and serving as a foil to more extravagant characters, which does not mean they can’t be a bit of a mess themself. Also they’re 15 because that’s a great age to have things happen to you.

“Good things?”

“Oh…”

In Enchant, Flow’s heroic identity is Ruthen. If you address Ruthen, they will answer as them, assuming you don’t know their identity.

Natasha: “Oh no, not again.”

“Oh, come on, I know you enjoy making a good show. And now you have an audience!”

“Sigh, fine. Not like I have much choice, you will just keep broadcasting these telepathic messages from other worlds into my head until I answer them, don’t you.”

Excuse Natasha for her mood, she had a rough…

“Life.”

“Lives.”

… existence. She started out as a minor Deltarune OC, then grew into a major antagonist in my fanfiction, then into an Anti-Villain. At some point in 2022 when Kira was looking for friends’ OCs to put them into her MLB fanfic, Maris Stella, I submitted Natasha, somewhat reworking her concept to work better with the different setting. Then, partially inspired by MLB and Maris Stella myself, I started to work on Enchant where Natasha became one of the main protagonists.

Even though she’s got three different versions now, the gist of the character stayed the same. She started out as an orphan living in pretty bad circumstances, being bullied by older kids, got separated from her one (1) friend, then got taken in by a rich widow who turned out to be an abusive jerk. Where the story goes from there is what really differs in the different continuities.

Addressing Natasha generally will get you her Enchant version most of the time – you can address DR!Natasha for her original version from my fanfiction or Maris!Natasha for the version appearing in Maris Stella. Addressing Nocturknight or Sylvana, her heroic alteregos from Enchant and Maris Stella respectively, she will answer as them, assuming you don’t know her civilian identity.

Vess: “…”

These are voice messages. They can’t see you. All they know is that you’re not talking.

“…”

Sigh. Vess grinned threateningly at the audience, showing their inhumanly sharp teeth.

There, happy now?

“Yes.”

Okay, so…

“Wait, are you making fun of me?”

… so Vess was originally my interpretation of the Discarded Vessel from Deltarune for a fanfic I wrote. Then as I kept writing more stuff with them, they kept growing, slowly becoming their own thing. Since I wanted to use them more, I decided to rework their whole background, creating a version with largely the same personality, and keeping and building on the gimmicks I added, for Enchant.

In all their versions, they’re an edgy, angsty, creepy, mostly-humanoid-in-an-uncanny-valley-way straw nihilist creature with artificial origins who will eat anything. That might or might not include you.

“It does.”

By default, Vess’ Enchant version answers the asks. For their original version from my fanfiction, address DR!Vess.

Néne: Néne is a powerful Seer native to Stonecloud Realm (the original setting of Shuffled Fate). She has the ability to see a person’s past and future as a network of branching paths but can’t predict what choices someone will make before they actually make them. Basically imagine what Garnet from Steven Universe had going on, but on a much bigger scale.

“Oh, Garnet? She’s adorable, but if anything, I’d call her a talented guesser rather than an actual Seer. I mean come on, being given false information can confuse her vision. That’s called a prediction, not a prophecy. But she’s a great yoga partner and I got my favorite pancake recipe from her. She’s always welcome at my house.”

Unlike most other Seers who work as spies, strategists, or advisers, Néne uses her power the run a successful restaurant, as she can make anyone’s favorite food, the exact way they like it without ever meeting them before. This, and her “first time free” policy turned Néne’s Dinner Hall a popular tourist spot among the travelers of Stonecloud and sometimes even guests from other worlds pay a visit.

“I saw it too many times, what it does to people if they learn about their possible futures. It paralyzes them with fear, denies them from meaningful choices. Everyone wants something and we all fear failure – but if we start to make our choices based on fixed knowledge of what will get us what we want then our life becomes a complicated choreography and somewhere along the way, we stop being ourselves. A good meal can make so much more good, don’t you think?”

Artemis: “Hi there! If you have some time, come, visit my shop! You don’t need to buy anything, but you might want after checking out our antique wares! For more information visit gwn.herald.con/@ArtemisHolmes and don’t be afraid to leave a like!”

Uhm okay, yes, while Artemis poses as an antique shopkeeper…

“I can assure you, I’m a perfectly ordinary shopkeeper.”

… he’s actually one of the few remaining members of the Order of the Enchanters, guardian of the remaining Enchants and currently in charge of picking human allies in the fight against the Sorcerer. He’s also well over 800 years old and is the spouse of…

Nox: “I don’t trust this at all. We have enough on our plate here, in our world without voices from the Cosmos.”

Rob Nox (Rob is his family name) comes from a long line of soldiers serving the Order. He was about to be an exception, up until his family history quite literally caught up to him. Long before Nox’s birth, his father was afflicted with a magical condition that slowly turned his body into living crystal feeding on his very life-force. Nobody realized the severity of it until it was too late. After his father succumbed to the curse it moved to the next generation – onto Nox. He joined the Order in hopes for retaliation and a cure but only started to care about its mission after meeting a young and idealistic Artemis. Then the Mistfall came.

Narwia: She’s not a cat.

“Wait, that’s it? That’s all you’re going to say about me‽”

It seemed important to you.

“No, you know what I mean, there’s really nothing interesting you can say about me? You did it for all the others!”

Very well, why don’t you go ahead and talk about yourself then?

“Hah! You’d like to know, don’t you?”

Yeah, that’s what I thought. Anyway, Narwia Solena is a felimorph and professional reaper and devil-hunter, working with the Order of the Enchanters on a strictly occasional basis.

She’s also a cat sometimes!

“I’m a felimorph!”

Igne: “Hey! Not sure who you are and how can we talk, but go ahead, ask me anything!”

Igne is one of Flow’s classmates with a passionate personality and wide range of interests. They love martial arts but have a hard time following any actual training because of their wayward nature. They hate bullies and dream about being able to help others but can be a bit reckless at times.

Matis: “Is it really a good idea to give out all this pretty personal information about us to some mysterious voices claiming to be from other worlds? I mean, shouldn’t we be at least a bit suspicious about this?”

Matis is Flow’s other classmate and the best friend of Igne. He’s usually responsible for his age and often acts as the voice of reason besides Igne, however his curiosity and desire to be more proactive and bolder can lead him into dangerous situations as well.

This list is incomplete and will be updated over time, but don’t feel limited by it. You can address any characters who appear in any of my works, whether they’re on the list or not!

2 notes · View notes

wordsandrobots · 2 years

Text

I think After War: Gundam X is my third favourite Gundam show.

This is way behind Iron-Blooded Oprhans and Turn A Gundam, but compared to the others I’ve watched, it’s definitely more to my tastes. I think it could have benefited from the extra episodes it didn’t get, especially to expand on some of the initial space-based adventures, and it has a lot of the usual issues I have with the franchise (erratically written female characters, a half-arsed approach to condemning structural oppression, and throwing out the ‘horrors of war’ maundering whenever it’s more plot expedient to mow down mooks like there’s no tomorrow). Overall, however, it packs in a much more coherent plot than predecessor Gundam Wing, some charming characters, and a few very deft thematic flourishes.

For example, there’s an episode early on where our heroes have to help save a psychic dolphin and her pod from being turned into an advanced sonar system. Now you might think that’s a very silly sentence and you’d be correct. But the point is, this is something the Federation (emphatically the bad guys here) developed during the war this series takes place after, in order to have more effective underwater combat suits. They took dolphin brains and turned them into spare parts. And a couple episodes later, we discover this is their attitude to psychic humans too, which seems to be the pay-off until we reach the end of the series and, well, let’s just say the approach goes all the way to the top.

In fact, Gundam X is very concerned with the exploitation of psychics both by those who treat them as tools to be used and those who venerate them as humanity’s next evolutionary step. And oh gods, this means I have to write about Newtypes.

[I shall put the rest of this under a cut because I genuinely think this is one series it’d be worth going in blind on and also because this will ramble a bit.]

All right, let’s get this out of the way: Newtypes as depicted throughout both the original 1979 Gundam and this show (which essentially starts as a bad AU to Gundam ‘79/the Universal Century) are humans with extraordinary abilities, who are theorised to be an evolutionary adaptation to living in space. Newtypes have greater levels of awareness, cognition and empathy. That is to say, they can variously gain a deeper understanding of the people around them or be really, really good at driving giant robots. They are in-universe hypothetical until war breaks out and suddenly a lot of people are very interested in the military applications of psychic powers. Also occasionally people get their brains blasted to mush by the weight of too many people dying near them at once and/or are able to unify humanity’s brainwaves in order to atomise asteroids dropped by manipulative blondes with eco-fascistic tendencies. It’s a whole thing.

I am being a little glib here and I also don’t want to delve into the out-of-fiction meaning of Newtypes because I feel woefully unqualified to write about that. But for myself, considering the fiction as presented, I’ve always found Newtypes to suffer from the Jedi Problem: it’s fine and dandy to have quasi-mystical power that increases human connection but if you’re only going to show its applications in war, you’re smothering a lot of interesting potential in the concept.

This is primarily a problem of genre. Gundam is a series of war stories. It is deeply invested in fighting and conflict, and not merely because it’s financed in order to sell brightly coloured war machine kits to children and adults alike. There is nothing wrong with that per se but it limits what can be shown with respect to the doings of the magic people we’re repeatedly told are the heralds of a new age of understanding. Yes, we get to see lots of Newtypes get traumatised by their powers, or artificially created by nefarious powers-that-be, or occasionally bugger off to the end of time with their boy- and girlfriend after causing an untold amount of harm to everyone around them. But we never really get to see much in the way of non-military applications of this supposed ability to connect with others on a fundamental level. Even setting aside creative disillusionment, the very type of stories being told back the idea into a corner.

This is not to say the Gundam ‘79 derived fiction hasn’t made much hay of the in-universe tension between the status quo and the possibility of radical change. It’s kind of its one trick. But to me, it feels like diminishing returns and I end up longing for a story of Newtypes just . . . being. What does that kind of power look like when it’s not plugged into the latest giant robot suit and being sent off to punch whichever red-suited dork is trying it on this week.

Gundam X is not a story of Newtypes just being. It’s a setting where Newtypes are conscripted, manufactured or mutilated to be used as weapons. It’s a setting where one faction has proclaimed everyone in space to be a Newtype, in order to justify the wide-scale slaughter of anyone left living on Earth. And it’s a story in which, as it turns out, Newtypes do not actually exist.

Oh, there are people with unusual abilities. A girl who has prophetic visions. A pair of brothers with a psychic link. Ace pilots who glimpsed the future. But the ultimate revelation is that these are one-offs and the grand theory of advancing human evolution via living in space is so much hot air, dreamt up to further various agendas. And that makes a hell of a lot of sense in hindsight.

You see, throughout Gundam X we see a wide variety of supernatural abilities, but only some of these are classed as ‘proper’ Newtypes (resentment over this fuels the primary antagonists, the Frost brothers, who decide to burn down the world over being dismissed). As a viewer, you get pulled along by this without thinking too closely about it. But there are hints from the start (including a couple of ex-soldiers selling themselves as Newtypes while clearly not being anything special) that the term might be less than it seems. Amuro Ray-alike Jamil Neate’s stated goal is to protect Newtypes from oppression but he finds a grand total of one to safeguard in the entire series. Our hero, Garrod Ran, is an unusually gifted, empathic pilot who never gets the term applied to him. The working definition the world-dominating Federation are using is simply ‘can operate our patented robot control system’. Meanwhile the leader of the Space Rebellion has, as I said, declared everyone born in space a Newtype, making the existence of supposed Newtypes born on Earth very inconvenient. The term is at once over-specific and overly-wide, depending on who’s using it.

And in the end? Turns out the ‘first’ Newtype was some poor sod who could use that robot control system and got turned into a computer on the moon for their trouble. That was the source of the working definition and everything afterwards was just various people building castles in the sky. The powers are anomalous. Inexplicable, but not any kind of evolutionary leap. They just . . . happen. Every Newtype is their own distinct thing and not really an indication of anything very much other than fluke.

Which is actually pretty clever. It means the whole conflict is driven by people building taxonomies and raising certain things on to pedestals not because of something that definitely exists but because it suits their agendas to do so. It’s also a neat solution to the Jedi Problem, turning it around and saying, yes, these people only display their powers in combat because those looking for them only said those that were useful in war were actually Newtypes.

(I know the Gundam ‘79 and its sequels do stuff like this as well, but Gundam X has the advantage of making it the entire point, rather than wanting to have it both ways because it has the ending of Char’s Counterattack to deal with.)

Bit of a shame this all gets rushed out in the last couple of episodes due to the series running short. But perhaps that’s for the best, given there’s nowhere really to go once you’ve pulled the rug out from under everyone and demonstrated the antagonists’ motivation is fundamentally a hugely inappropriate reaction to a categorisation error.

Other observations:

Garrod Ran is fairly generic as protagonists go but I do find it amusing how he basically gloms on to every angsty teenager he encounters like they’re a precious baby in need of protecting. Including the one who was definitely trying to kill him when they met.

Tiffa’s arc would have worked much better if her attempts to define herself beyond her status as a Newtype had been emphasised more. Like, it’s sort of there, but it only comes to the fore at the very end.

Toniya and Ennil absolutely deserve to end up together and leave Witz and Roybea moping around a cornfield somewhere.

I really like the design of the Dauntless mobile suit. It’s an almost unsettling take on the GM model from the Unviersal Century. In fact, I generally appreciate seeing a Wing-esque aesthetic mapped backwards on to the original style, with greater emphasis on making the non-Gundam machines look that little bit off.

For all that I enjoyed this show, I really dearly wish Jamil hadn’t gone back to the Federation at the end. They make themselves utterly irredeemable across the course of the series and there isn’t any functional need to maintain them beyond the end. It’s a sour note, honestly, especially without any indication the rampant empire building across Earth is going to be reversed. But that’s the kind of pat assimilation ending Gundam seems to trade in more often than not, so it’s not a unique flaw.

Depths Of Minds Elevating. Huh. That’s a very long walk for what is itself a totally undescriptive acronym.

I am somewhat tempted to write Jamil/Lanslow fic. Not even necessarily Like That, but just to explore an older, more relaxed Amuro/Char dynamic in which both sides have learned how to chill the hell out.

#gundam #After War Gundam X #is this a review?#it feels like a review #I'm not sure it's good enough to be analysis #let's go with #my impressions #spoilers

14 notes · View notes

purlturtle · 1 year

Text

Five things I never tire of writing

Got tagged by @lilolilyr - thank you, don't mind if I do! And I'm gonna open this open up to anyone who wants to do this, without outright tagging! Go bonkers, my friends!

1. Honestly a lot of my fics come about by me wondering "but what if *this* happened instead?", ideally in order to either stop Helena from betraying the team in Egypt, or stop the Astrolabe storyline, or even save Christina somehow etc etc etc. So, canon fix-its gets top billing here!

2. AUs. Whether I see a movie or TV show and think "Oh this could be something for Bering and Wells", or I get ideas for a Christmas movie for them, or put them in Scenarios and Circumstances - I love writing Bering and Wells AUs!

3. Smut - I like the lady love, for sure! Be it PWP or a smut scene that works with the plot of a story, I do love to put that spice into my stories.

4. Long-form stories! I always say "I can't do short" - it's rare for me to write anything shorter than 2K words; most of my stories are between 5 and 25K, and I got some whoppers that run even longer. I've written a few shorter things as exercises and to challenge myself, which is fun too! But overall I'm more for the longer ones.

5. Different kinds of queerness! Yes, Bering and Wells is f/f, but hey, there are plenty of ways this can be (one of these days I wanna write an ace HG!), and there are also plenty of other characters that can add other flavors of queerness! I love when I find my own flavor of queerness in fic, and I want my readers to have that feeling too. I might not always get it right, though, because I am just this one flavor of queerness, and if you've ever felt I didn't do a specific flavor justice, please by all means reach out and let me know.

There they are! And I haven't even mentioned the most important thing I'll never tire of writing: Bering and Wells! This ship is my happy place, it's what my muse whispers into my ear, it is what I want to write. Not interested in original fiction, not interested in other ships, not interested in other categories (like m/m). All Bering and Wells all the time, babey! 😅

As per usual, if you have any questions on my writing, please let me know! I love talking shop! (ship? 😁)

#my writing #writing ask #tag game #lilolilyr #bering and wells

5 notes · View notes

itsanidiom · 2 years

Note

Hello hello!!! Hope your having a wonderful day!! I have a very serious question, I'm thinking about writing things that like aren't just fanfictions, I've been thinking about it For a LONG while!! I just don't know WHAT the hell to do, how to do it, and figured I could maaaybe ask you!! since you are the only other writer I'm following who published books besides Neil Gaimen... I just thought you could give some tips and basic things, like do I need to go to school for this? Can I open the gates and zoom right into it?? Can I make illustrated novels? How do or would I publish?? Overall everything?? Also again hope your having a nice day! Hope the weathers good in your area!!!

Hello! Thank you! Yes! Writing advice! That I can offer!

Wow! Me and Neil Gaiman, huh? That’s a really honoured place to be 🤣👌 Honestly his advice has always been my fave: Just write.

If you have a good idea just write it out. Hell, it doesn’t even need to be a good idea. You can edit it later! Just write! Get it out of your head and you’re already most of the way there!

If you’ve only written fan fiction and you’re nervous about the transition to original work, I recommend thinking of original stories as AU fic with renamed character as a starting point. Almost all the biggest writers today basically started in fanfic (ever heard of 50 Shades 🙈 worst example but HEY it’s true)

So yeah you’re in a good place when it comes to practicing the craft since you’ve been writing fanfic!

I never went to school for writing. I studied linguistics and German in uni 😂 So you definitely don’t need to go to school for writing. From what I’ve seen you can gain good connections in writing programs, but the academic programs at universities tend to focus on more “lit” genres. So if you’re writing like Murakami/Kafka or planning to be the next Atwood/Hemingway, writing programs can be good.

I’m published with an LGBT+ indie publisher, NineStar Press. They’re not one of the big conglomerate of publishing houses obviously, but they offer wider distribution than self publishing AND they do all the work, apart from making the suggested edits obviously. The process of submission to publishing with them takes about 9 months. With traditional publishing it can take years.

I found I learned a lot working with my editor so that was an important part of my development process. I definitely recommend finding an editor once your story/manuscript is nearing a final draft stage. If you publish traditional or indie your lit agent or editor will help with that. If you self-publish you’d have to pay an editor usually.

Which brings us to the open the gates and jump right in part: Self publishing! It’s fun. It’s easy. Its instant. It’s free! You can put it out there for free or make a few bucks, a lot if you’re lucky and your book goes viral! You can do ebook and or print and illustration as well as far as I know! My favourite thing about self publishing is that it really closely mimics fan fiction. You can basically self publish anything on KDP as long as it doesn’t go against their guidelines.

I’ve really enjoy self publishing for my shorter (smuttier) work, but I probably wouldn’t have jumped into it without a friend showing me the ropes and the experience of having published with NineStar first because I learned a lot through that process. The nice thing about self pub is you can publish any length so it’s great for things that are shorter and don’t fit regular publishers’ criteria. For example two of my self-pub stories (Whisky and Pearls / His General’s Gambit) are only around 10-20k words. That’s barely novella size. Most publishers want 50k at least.

Last but most important: publishing should NOT cost you anything. It might not make you rich, but it definitely shouldn’t cost a penny. If you’re self-pub you might choose to pay for marketing or an editor or a cover (I make my own covers and trade off editing projects with a friend so that saves money haha). But if you’re working with someone and they offer to publish you for a fee…RUN. That’s not legit. Publishers need writers, writers don’t need publishers.

My bestie @inaseaofmidnightblue went to school for writing and is publishing her first book traditionally next year so when she’s less busy (she’s VERY busy getting married right now 😂) she might be able to add more context around the traditional publishing perspective.

But yeah that’s what I’ve got! Happy to follow up if you have any other questions! Happy writing!

#writing #publishing #advice #this has been MY personal experience #others may have different POVs #mypost #answer #long post

3 notes · View notes

a-beneficial-union · 5 months

Text

Here’s the post I wanted to make (but which needed the earlier context to make any semblance of sense); Designers are Fun. To. Make.

Look at this goof. Look at this squish face sad bab. Wookit theeeem.

(The nightfury-esqu orca dergon is from my Dual Haven AU.)

When making these forms, I’ve been trying to go through what the characters (Ben alternates) would actually go for in a form they can design themselves. Their designs have to reach certain criteria (or their Omni will just make the needed adjustments themselves), so they do have limitations, so the question then becomes ‘what criteria would a self-generative ai implement in order to ensure its bearer to perform optimally’?

Additionally, there are the criteria passively imposed by the -ens who already have their designers through peer pressure or rules made up by the people who have to approve of the design before granting access. Those criteria would be specific to the individuals, therefore creating trends within the larger networks, the smaller lines within, and the individual Ports making up the others.

Take for instance the WildWire port from the Blight network, since it’s the one I’ve been playing with the most of late. The majourity of -ens there have the Vulpimancer transfer so, right off the bat, they’d be more likely to add the same perceptive abilities of a Vulp to their Designer, WildWire has an offshore site with little to no air gaps (none of which being intentionally present), thus the forms all need to be strong swimmers capable of either breathing underwater or holding their breath for hours at a time.

From the algorithm, these forms also need to be strong flyers (be it through means conventional to Earth or through some of the more alien ways we see in the show). These forms also need to be roughly the same size as the bearer’s default (human) form, so the species used as a base needs to be megafauna. Because the algorithm draws its foundational data from the precursors of Designers (‘Wings’), which were used to transport people and cargo across a myriad of environments, these forms are always quadrupeds.

Given that these forms need to cover a wide range of needs and function as a deck of all cards, they should look a bit like a mess. Surreal or fantastical; peculiar and unreal.

I had the old standard (in the EA’s final years) be for -ens to have at least one Equate form, those being flyers drawing heavily on a dinosaur sample someone had gotten ahold of and since passed around.

As the present has the compulsory Equate being small, unassuming Earth animals, the connotation of extravagant forms shifted to the newly mainstreamed Designer form. The connotation was originally for dinosaurs, so why not not have them be of fictional creatures? And, once the well of mythical beasts dries up (hiii, Soma’s pegasus form), the trend shifts to other such critters?

I had the present trend be dragons because (1) it’s fun and (2) they’re very workable for my self-imposed rules as for how the first Designer form must be. I must be clear that I’m having the characters be inspired by dragons rather than these forms being accurate to myth; a lot of the design choices are intentionally mammalian. Scroll back up to view Dual’s tail? Reptiles and fish have the fins posed vertically for a side-to-side swim whereas mammals propel themselves via an up-and-down motion.

As I am rapidly running out if time and must soon scramble (like I said I would in my previous post), allow me to get to the point.

This fishy good lacks wings and has a somewhat slinky body. They have four legs to traverse land, the neck lids of a Vulpimancer (altered to better suit the scaley design), and a thick tail to easily swim. Their eyes are forward facing.

You might notice that the legs are oddly, cartoonishly long in a way not befitting flight nor swimming. Allow me to show you what species I decided to use as the most popular base at WildWire port:

#forms #Designer form #concept art

0 notes

fitzrove · 13 days

Text

Now that I'm talking about history sklslsldldld here's another post...

Historical accuracy in fanworks - why?

A recurring thing w me is that people get annoyed with how obsessed I am with historical accuracy 😭😅 Like people have had to physically restrain me from doing 5 hours of research for a throwaway line in a fanfic, and one friend and I once had an hour long argument about word choice... But unfortunately I am just Like This lmao.

The thing is though, it's not because of any inherent sense of superiority or anything like that lol, I just have preferences. Also, I'm not the kind of person that needs everything to be 100% accurate all the time, I can still have fun JAPFLDPGPF. Basically, for me it comes down to a few things:

1. Suspension of disbelief / immersion

With historical fiction, the "he would not fucking say that" kicks in w dialogue easier than w something set in the modern day. Sometimes it's because of glaringly modern language (a 19th century guy going "sup" or something xD) but other times it's because a character is way too familiar with people of a different class, or acts/dresses/speaks too casually in general.

My hugest pet peeve with this are character names for side characters that the author made up 😭😭😭😭😭 As a non-native English speaker I don't really get the urge to insert random English names into my stories even when the stories are in English, I always look up the historical context and try to use names that a parent would give their child in that context. I'm sorry for naming and shaming but in one tdv fic Alfred's surname was Smith and I had to put down my phone because it broke my immersion so badly xD

2. Enjoyment

Historical accuracy can also be a characterisation thing!!! With crown prince rudolf of austria specifically his whole appeal as a character comes from his neuroses, and his neuroses are the specific way they are because of his specific position and status, and all that those entail in his historical context. It makes a story so much more interesting if these are properly taken into account 👀

3. What's the purpose of fanfic?

To me personally the purpose of writing and posting FANfic, as opposed to writing other stories, is threefold:

Making a point about the original story (is it a fix-it fic? An AU reimagining? A canon-compliant elaboration on something I think could expand upon a character's personality or two characters' relationship? These approaches all comment on the original work and its themes and characters.)

Personal enjoyment/self indulgence (I write what I would like to read)

Hopefully connecting with other fans (persuading them to see my Vision re specific characters/relationships, the setting, or the work as a whole; keeping the fandom alive; inspiring other people to make fanwork; providing entertainment; finding people who are the same kind of insane as you and making friends)

To me, putting historical accuracy into my fic or drawing inspiration from history fulfills all of these goals. With the first one: the original work usually comments on its era in some way as well, so drawing inspiration for the fic from that era complements it and keeps them grounded together. IRL history can also give you fun ideas to put in. W the second one: I love late 19th century history specifically and historical accuracy is my kink KSLFPEPDOFO. W the third one: I like sharing weird/funny/interesting historical facts w people so we can enjoy them together 😌 I also like Informing people of things that happened in history so hopefully they can have as much fun w the knowledge as I do. I try not to do this unsolicitedly and in general try to avoid criticising anyone for historical inaccuracies without being asked to because that's boring, I'm not trying to be cinema sins here

4. Exceptions

Sometimes historical inaccuracy is more fun than historical accuracy, though this is highly personal - you just have to do what you think is best and accept that something you enjoy might be something that breaks another person's suspension of disbelief (and hence makes them not enjoy the story). My personal metrics are roughly:

Sojblfpldlpf fun fact an unnamed person and I had a conversation about rudolf's probably not existing [redacted] register last night and while writing a fic about it would be historically inaccurate, the conclusions we arrived at about it were pretty funmy and interesting. With gay and homosexual implications

One of my favourite pastimes is to comb over crown prince rudolf's life and purposefully misinterpret random things as gay KSOGODPFOTK 😌😌😌 it's a good way to get fic ideas. So um yeah idk where I was going with this post haha

#writing #fanfiction

7 notes · View notes

antigorite · 2 years

Note

hi! i'm kind of new to black sails (watched s1 ages ago and then picked it up again after watching ofmd) and you mentioned in one of your posts that there are lots of well written fanfictions! sth that i always have trouble with when entering a new fandom is finding good fics so i just wanted to ask if you have a rec list or something?

Oooh boy what a fantastic ask to get. I don't have a fic rec list yet, but I'll take this as an excuse to make one!

I should probably mention that the main flavour of fic I read is Flinthamiltons (James/Thomas/Miranda) angst so that's most of them. Here goes:

- The World is a Hostile Country (98k so far). If you only read one Black Sails fic in your life let it be this one. It's a post Charlestown canon divergence fic with the premise that James and Miranda go to London with Peter Ashe, going into a season 3 rewrite and it's insanely well researched. It's a series with 3 installments, the second one is currently a WIP that's updating slowly but steadily, but even if you don't like reading WIPs I'd recommend reading the first installment.

- In The Deep by @queer-crusader (72.5k). If you only read 2 Black Sails fics in your life let this be the other one. It's a greek mythology AU in which Flint goes to the underworld (which is ruled by Silver and Madi) to get Thomas back. It's a tad more intellectually challenging than your average fanfic but soo worth it.

- No Black Sails fic rec list is complete without The Unaccommadated Man (26.9k, 45.3k including sequels). Ask anyone this is one of the best fics out there. Thomas-centric, focusses on his life at the plantation and features a bunch of OCs.

- everything @dykebonny has written most notably Sherlock Holmes and the Lord in Disgrace (91.8k) which is a Sherlock Holmes crossover set in the late 19th century and is party written as John Watson's diary entries, and i might believe a good deal of it, too (9.1k) feat. autistic Flint

- The Art of Asymmetry (5.5k). London era, relationship development feat. Miranda doing life drawings. Plus everything else by that author including alive to be here (1.3k) which is Maxanne hurt/comfort for a change.

- Pictures of the past (3.9k). Early Nassau days angst from Miranda's perspective.

- a question of needs (and not rosary beads) (4.1k). London era, early relationship development. This one's a bit spicy, but in an awkward and slightly angsty way which is my favourite flavour of spicy.

- everything by palebluedot, particularly Unspoken (2.4k) which is Flint and Thomas just taling about everything post canon in a very insightfully written way.

- If all of that wasn't enough angst already, I have driftwood seletons (2.3k, feat. Thomas in Roger's role and things not working out), The unquiet grave (2.5k, feat. Flint being visited by Thomas' ghost), I would enter your sleep if I could, and guard you there by @im-the-punk-who (2.7k, feat. Flint having nightmares and Miranda comforting him) and Severing (4.5k, just general early Nassau days heavy angst).

- The sanctum series (24k) by @ceraunos, both London era and post canon relationship development, fluffy and in parts spicy, with lots of classical greek and literature references.

- Everything by @flintsmintsplint (mostly flintham London era), particularly Throw Open the Windows of Your Soul (4.8k) which is relatively fluffy.

- Fair Weather and Foul (16.9k) which is my favourite flintham modern AU! Graphic depictions of bad weather conditions in a Scottish fishing village, it's quite atmospheric.

- For some more action: Red Sky at Morning (10.5k) in which Thomas is in Charlestown and gets involved in saving Flint from the execution.

And for non flinthamilton(s) fics:

- The new world (134k, 146k including sequels). This is a bit of an odd one since it only features one Black Sails character (Flint) and the rest are OCs so it's really more original fiction inspired by Black Sails. It's also quite long and one of the few fics I've read that earned its E-rating for violence, so it's not for everyone, but it's very good and I wanted to give it a shoutout.

- i'm a black ocean leaping and wide (6k) which is Madi centric (and features my favourite rarepair, Madi/Eme) and focusses on her journey post canon.

- Ranger crew fics (17.2k) by @thegreatblondebalrogslayer. As the name says, series of short mostly fluffy fics about Jack Anne and Charles.

- blaick slias (<1k) by the same author as above which is this fandom's take on My Immortal. Has to be included here.

- you'll always paint my sky (2.3k). Maxanne, the events of late s4 from Anne's pov.

- meet me halfway to your heart (3k). Maxanne again, a fluffy and a little bit spicy 5+1.

- histoire à tiroirs (3.3k). Backstory for Max, very touching.

- Rowing (5.5k). Another Madi-centric post canon fic, including all the Madi - Max interactions you didn't now you needed.

- Flint is Eleanor's bi dad (3.5k). What the title says - some mostly fluffy queer friendship moments between Flint and Eleanor.

That's most of them I think! Now this list excludes quite a lot because the fandom's most popular pairing is Silverflint which I don't read at all, so there's lots of presumably great fic that I don't even now exists! If you wanna get into that I would suggest just browsing on AO3 or asking anyone else in the fandom (which you absolutely can do, who doesn't love talking about their favourite fics).

Happy reading!

#just tagging authors who I either know or who are still active lmk if you don't wanna be tagged #black sails #asks #fic recs

196 notes · View notes

socialfake · 2 years

Text

alright my fandom preferences change all the time and i suck at being active on here but right now im deep down all things marvel and i have an idea for what could turn into a bigger social fake au with chris evans x actress!reader, including some sebastian stan x actress!reader and of course the rest of marvel actors and actresses yk

i was wondering if anyone would even be interested in that? i mean i‘ll probably start working on that and posting that anyway but i felt like asking lol

i can sum up some basic facts about the potential series here:

female reader is slightly younger than chris ( they meet at almost 20 and him 24)

i will try to match some real life aspects of chris into this but some (most) movies from the beginning of his career will not be a thing in this „story“ (its an au after all)

reader is into social media (obviously) and it will be a big part of her life involving all her actor friends and her life as an actress in general

reader will become part of the mcu and play a character that i have yet to come up with lol (feel free to help)

face claims for the reader will most likely be of white women simply because i cant seem to find fitting pictures of poc or other ethnic origin. i might be able to put some posts together that will display black or asian women (or the like) but i just wanna say beforehand that it has nothing to do with any form of intentional discrimination from my side! i am always open for posting about different nationalities/ethnicities etc. and i am open to any kind of cunstructive criticism. please feel free to reach out if you know of accounts on pinterest, insta or weheartit that post pictures that i could use in order to post more diverse edits (or if you feel comfortable to share your own pictures anonymously)

i dont think that there will be any writing as in story writing involved. english is not my first language and i get really insecure and nervous just thinking about actually writing a proper story because i am afraid of being a bad fiction writer 😅 somehow writing captions and comments to imaginary posts is easier and less stressful to me even tho i know i make mistakes there as well…

that‘s about it i guess. like i said, feel free to ask me about my ideas or share your own or say whatever you want about this idea 😂

#chris evans #chris evans x reader #sebastian stan x reader #sebastian stan #social media fake #social media au #fake social media #idea for a series #chris evans x actress!reader #actress!reader #socialfake #marvel #marvel x reader #mcu #mcu characters #marvel characters #chris evans news #anthony mackie

62 notes · View notes

neonacity · 3 years

Text

Black Daisies: Chapter 1

“Only the dead have seen the end of war.”

An NCT mafia AU with OT23.

Summary: Working for the mafia comes with many layers. There’s excitement, violence, loss, and betrayals. Yet there’s also friendship, family, loyalty, and code. The last thing it needs? Love and all the complexities it brings.

TW: violence, death, mentions of drugs and other illegal activities. If you’re uncomfortable with any of these, feel free to skip.

Author’s note: This is purely a work of fiction. In no way am I supporting all the illegal activities and behaviors that might be mentioned in the story nor am I implying that any member of NCT acts whichever way I may write them here--they’re all sweetiepies that need to be protected!

That’s all! Enjoy!

Slight static sounded from the earpiece as the woman behind a computer pressed a small button to activate it. A few miles away from her, the same low hum could be heard from the ear of a young man as the line came alive. The boy barely moved from the shadows where he was crouching, his head twitching just a little bit at the alert.

“Haechan, target just entered from the main hall, door A,” a voice sounded from the small electronic bud attached to his ear. His eyes lifted to look at the shadowy pillars above his head where a quick glint of light confirmed that another boy hidden there heard the same words.

“Got it, noona. Plan C?”

“Plan C. Where are Jisung and Chenle?”

“Two floors down from us. Jaemin’s with them. Renjun’s done with the wires.”

“Jeno, you good?”

Up above the rafters from Haechan’s head, a darker shade of shadows moved. The metallic glint flashed again, followed by a low sigh that could be heard from the earpieces of the two people involved in the conversation.

“So I can’t use my gun again?”

“No. I already told you, right? What’s family rule number 2?” The female voice answered from the other end of the line, a tinge of laughter lacing her tone. Haechan giggled softly from beneath the rafters, enjoying the banter.

“....we don’t shoot people in the head and kill them.”

“That’s right.” From her screen, the woman’s eyes followed the movements of their targets as the man boarded the elevator that would take him straight to the penthouse of the high rise building. Her nose wrinkled a bit as she watched him wound his arms around two giggling women who look half his age.

Disgusting.

“...there’s something we can do though…”

Haechan tightened the scruff of his gloves as he heard the soft hum of the elevator climbing closer to where he and Jeno are. He smirked slightly to himself as the welcome ding from the penthouse reverberated just one floor below them.

“We put them in their right place.”

“Good luck, boys.”

A soft buzzing sound indicated the earpiece temporarily being turned off the same time loud explosions sounded from the floor and roof of the penthouse.

“Noona!”

I whipped around on my creaky swivel chair to face the group that just bounded through the door, wide grin plastered on my face. The blonde boy who called my name closed the distance between us with his long, excited strides, cheeks plump from his smile.

“Look what I got you! Pretty nice, eh?” He asked with pride as he took a seat beside me, opening his palm to show a blood red stone nestled there. I moved a little forward to squint at it before gingerly picking it up.

“Red diamond. I think two carats, at least. Wow, that’s impressive, Chenle! Thank you.”

The boy’s grin widened as he turned to the others who just settled on the scattered chairs and bean bags across the plain cement floor.

“See? I told you she’d like it!”

“We almost got busted because he wanted to take it.” Another boy with light purplish hair piped up from one of the bean bags on the ground. It’s adorable how only half of his body could fit on it, leaving him with no choice but to splay his long legs on the floor.

“Did not.”

“Did yes.”

“Shut up, Jisung. You’re just jealous I’m the one who got it for her tonight.”

I chuckled from my seat, rolling the princess cut diamond against my palm. The kids always do this--if it’s not Chenle who is giving gifts from their little rendezvous, it was the others. It was a sweet act, at least if anyone counts out the fact that it came from ransacking a high profile businessman’s penthouse.

“Who wants some ramen? I’m starving.” A black-haired boy asked from across the room where a counter was set-up to serve as the headquarters’ kitchen. Five heads whipped up and gave various forms of yes, making him turn towards the group, one hand on his hip.

“Yah, Lee Haechan. Help me cook.”

A groan sounded from the leather couch as the boy in question winced at the request.

“But I’m tired. I detonated two bombs today!”

“And I had to unlock three high-security safes. Come on.”

I chuckled as I watched Haechan pull himself up from the couch, his boots still on. Three consecutive beeps from the monitor behind me made me turn back towards the table again, fingers tapping over some keys to review the message.

“Noona, how about you? You want some?”

“No, thanks, Jaemin. Just ate,” I flashed him a quick smile before turning to read the notification on the screen. Slowly, the corners of my lips lifted into a full grin as my eyes finished scanning the words.

“127’s back from Tokyo. They got the goods well and secured.”

“Whoah, really? I gotta ask Mark-hyung if he was able to get me my favorite chips!” A boy with black and white hair said as he swiped his phone up from the back of his pants pocket to send a quick message. Beside him, Jeno propped his head up from one of the love chairs, looking at me.

“Who sent the message?”

“Doyoung.”

“Did he--”

“P.S. Tell Jeno I got him the silencer he wants,” I read the closing note on the message with an amused eye roll and a smile. Jeno gave an excited whoop from behind me, clearly excited over his new toy.

I quickly shot a reply to the message, making sure to give them a quick update from my end. A green logo flashed after I hit send, a special kind of cyber filter that automatically deletes all traces of conversation that passes through my computer at my command. My eyes registered the familiar three letters before it flickered and glitched to black.

NCT.

For anyone living a mundane life, those three letters might be senseless. However, it’s a different case altogether for anyone who is in any shape or form involved with the underground. It’s a name that is often said in low whispers of reverence… or spat with spite. Whichever of the two, the name itself only means one thing to those who know it: the top mafia group ruling the underground of Seoul--if not the whole of Korea.

The “family,” as I’d like to call it, is divided into three different smaller sub-groups of varying specializations and activities. First is 127, the primary group in power over Seoul. The unit specializes in drug dealings, assassinations, and smuggling of firearms, and its members are also the ones managing the many businesses (both legal and illegal) falling under the protection of NCT. As the group with the most experienced members, they are also the ones who often go across countries like Japan where they also have their own hold. Limitations and Prohibitions: none.

The second group; Dream. Despite having the youngest members, the sub-group also has its own chokehold over the city of Seoul. Specialization: Heists and Ambushes. It doesn’t matter if it is a high-tech bank or a high-walled fortress like Alcatraz--once Dream sets its sights on a bounty, they’ll make sure to get it. Limitations and Prohibitions: no killing allowed.

Finally, the third cluster: WayV; the current ruling crime group of China. Specialization: Organized Cyber crimes and biological warfare . While the sub-group has its original roots in Korea, it didn’t have any problem taking over Beijing’s underground in a few years time. They are considered the visionaries of the family--always one step ahead when it comes to anything technology touches and influences. Limitations and Prohibitions: none.

I leaned back against the chair and gave a soft sigh. Compared to the others, I don’t have as much exposure to the so-called thrills of the job. Still, I do admit that being the eyes and ears of the whole group is not a leisurely walk in the park. It’s been a few months of being temporarily assigned to Dream, but with 127 back, work will surely double again in no time. Not that I’m complaining with how well the job pays, of course--I did get a blood red diamond today, after all--but things sure can get tough sometimes.

Lifting my arms up, I gave myself a well-deserved stretch before kicking back from the desk. The smell of ramen hit my nose, making me smile. Another day, another job well done.

“Hey Jaemin, changed my mind about that ramen. I think I’ll have it after all.”

Chapter 2: Overture

210 notes · View notes

lesbianrobin · 3 years

Note

What do you think are the good and bad aspects of each season of ST?

ok 1. thank u for this question omg and 2. this answer may or may not be a mess, but either way it’s long (almost 7k words lmao) bc i’m insane, which is why it’s under a cut. it’s still by no means an exhaustive list but these are the things that just kinda came to mind.

also i realize you asked “good and bad” and i wrote this whole post as “strengths and weaknesses” which um. is not Exactly what you asked. but close enough <3 i also ended up including a lot of au ideas ksjdckmn bc like i personally hate when people say a certain plot or whatever was bad without suggesting anything that could have improved it yknow so whenever possible i tried to provide Some idea for fixing the issues i had with the show!!

season 1

strengths (this is probably gonna be the longest section but that’s because a lot of these strengths also apply to s2/s3 by default)

nostalgia and authenticity

this one’s pretty simple, but i think that season one did a good job of blending classic eighties media homages (such as the many many e.t./el parallels) with explicit pop culture references (such as mike’s yoda impression, mentions of the x-men, etc) to create a show that’s essentially dripping in early eighties nostalgia without it feeling too forced. before st, i think the most popular depiction of the eighties in mainstream media was that overly exaggerated neon scrunchie aesthetic from the mid to late eighties, and it was usually done in a comedic sense first and foremost. st took a different approach, instead focusing on the early eighties, a time that’s often ignored in favor of going either Full Seventies or Full Eighties, and i think that this choice likely resonated with adults who lived through the eighties and hadn’t yet seen something that felt quite so accurate to their own adolescence. a lot of young people who watched st were totally unfamiliar with this period of time, unfamiliar with books/movies like “stand by me” that st borrows from heavily, and i think st lent more seriousness to the eighties than most young people had experienced so far, and this was refreshing and interesting!

the use of dnd in the show is also quite genius in a way i’m not sure i can articulate?? it isn’t something Everyone would have played at the time, but it’s something that existed within a different context back in the eighties than it does today, and it really lent a sort of authenticity to the naming of the show’s sci-fi elements. like, of course these kids would name parallel dimensions and monsters and superpowers after these similar things in their favorite game! it just feels so real and it grounds st in our reality moreso than you might expect from the typical sci-fi or horror universe.

utilization of existing tropes

almost every single character in st clearly originates from some popular trope. the plot itself is riddled with classic eighties movie tropes. almost every single element of stranger things can be clearly traced back to some iconic eighties film or just to, like, overused horror/sci-fi/mystery/coming-of-age movie tropes in general. this might sound like a bad thing, but it really works in st’s favor! starting off with familiar tropes gives st the ability to easily create a lot of complexity and make a big impact by selectively deviating from those familiar, comfortable tropes!! while el’s whole plot, hopper’s character, etc, are all examples of this in action, i think the steve/nancy/jonathan plot is the greatest example. even from the start, the fact that good girl barb dies while nancy is off having sex with her asshole boyfriend is an incredibly thorough inversion of the most well-known horror movie trope in the book. how often do girls in horror movies have sex for the first time, walk home alone in the dark of night, and live to tell the tale? nancy and jonathan’s dynamic at first glance is a sort of classic “good girl meets boy from the wrong side of the tracks, discovers he’s actually got a heart of gold” thing, but instead of following this well-trodden path, st diverged. nancy is brash, impulsive, and at times downright insensitive. jonathan is angry, bitter, and actually a bit of a creep at first. while they have the capacity to emotionally connect and support one another, they can also bring out each other’s darker side, which is not what we’ve come to expect from that initial tropey dynamic.

in addition, steve, the popular rich asshole boyfriend, is actually... a human being! unlike the cartoonishly evil jocks that we’ve come to expect (especially from eighties movies), steve has complexity. despite his initial immaturity and selfishness, he’s also kind to barb, he backs off when nancy says no, he’s gentle and sweet when they sleep together, his first big Dick Move of the season is in defense of nancy, he realizes the error of his ways after the fight and does what he can to fix it, he’s worried about nancy when he sees that she’s hurt at jonathan’s house, and to top it all off, he ends up saving both nancy and jonathan’s lives when he could have just walked away, and the three of them all work together to fight the demogorgon. like... steve began as the most stereotypical character of all time, and by the end of the season, he had one of the most compelling and unique arcs among the whole cast!

finally, at the very end of the season, instead of dumping steve for jonathan as expected, nancy ends up getting back together with steve, and they’re both on friendly terms with jonathan. i realize that i just kinda. summarized s1. but my POINT is that i don’t think the dynamics between the monster hunting trio would be nearly as fun and interesting had the characters of nancy, steve, and jonathan not been set up to follow certain paths that we already had charted in our own heads. like, within the first couple episodes of s1, it’s pretty obvious that nancy and steve are gonna break up, nancy will get with jonathan, and steve will either die or go full evil or just never be seen again. like, duh! you’ve seen this story a million times! you know that’s how it’s gonna go! so, when the story DOESN’T go that way, the impact of each character’s arc and the relationship dynamics become stronger due to their unexpected complexity and authenticity.

distinct plotlines separated by age group

this one’s rather obvious, but the way that the adults in s1 were essentially in a conspiracy thriller while the teens were in a horror flick and the kids were in a sci fi power-of-friendship story and all three converged at the end... wow. brilliant showstopping etc. not only was it just really well done and unique, it also gave stranger things near-universal appeal. like, there’s genuinely something for pretty much everyone in season one!

casting

obviously this applies to every season sorta by default, but when i think about what made season one So successful, i always think about the cast, and not just winona ryder. yes, she’s absolutely amazing in the show and it’s very doubtful that st would be as big as it is today without her name being attached to it from the start!! however, i think the greatest determining factor in st’s success is the casting of the kids, particularly millie bobby brown. like... el is just absolutely incredible. she’s amazing. this has all been said many times before so i won’t harp on it, but millie and the other kids are all So talented and charismatic and i think their casting has been instrumental to the show’s success.

strong visuals

the way that multicolored christmas lights which have been around for decades are now kinda like. a Stranger Things thing. jesus christ. those lights are probably the biggest stroke of stylistic genius on the show.

atmosphere and setting

this is probably like. the least important one here for me sdjncdsc because i think s2 and s3 both had like Even Better atmospheres and shit but s1 was good too and it laid the groundwork!! i know a lot of people would have preferred st be set somewhere more Spooky with lots of fog or giant forests or whatnot, and while i do enjoy thinking about alternate st settings and how they might alter the vibe, i think hawkins indiana was a good choice. as the duffers have said, placing stranger things in a fictional town allows them more flexibility than if they’d gone with their original plan of using montauk, new york. besides that, i think the plainness and like... flatness... of small-town indiana just Works. like, the fact that hawkins is never really scary on the surface is a big part of the horror in the lab’s actions and their impact. hawkins isn’t somewhere that people just disappear all the time. it isn’t somewhere known for strange occurrences (prior to s1, that is). it isn’t somewhere shrouded in mist and secrecy. hawkins on its surface seems like the sort of place with no secrets and nothing to fear, and that’s the point! the lab is out in the open! it’s right there! everything is so close to the surface, yet so far out of the public eye, and i think that really works.

the byers family’s whole deal (specifically the joyce/jonathan dynamic)

this is going here bc i miss it so bad in s2 and s3. i’m not one of those people who believe The Byers Are The Whole Point of the show, because st is and always has been an ensemble, and el, hopper, and the wheelers are just as instrumental to the plot as the byers, but ANYWAY, i do think the byers were one of the most interesting aspects of s1. joyce’s difficulties with supporting her sons as a poor and (implied mentally ill) single mother, jonathan’s stress as a result of having to earn money, care for his brother, and keep the house in order when his mother is unable to do so, and the resulting tension between them when will’s disappearance and supposed “death” brings the situation to a tipping point? holy shit! it’s so good! that argument after they see will’s “body” is just incredible and gut-wrenching. their relationship feels so real and messy and i think it’s just... good. also winona ryder REALLY acted her heart out and she carried a lot of s1 which i think people often forget to mention so i’m saying it here.

weaknesses

pacing/timing

ok so pacing is probably going to go in each season’s weaknesses, to be honest, because i think they all had a blend of some good and some bad pacing. good pacing is invisible pacing, though, so i probably won’t be putting it in any of the strengths sections and will only be focusing on it in the weaknesses. i’m also probably not going to talk about weird day/night cycle things, just because i don’t want to get nitpicky on timelines because that would require going back and rewatching things to double check timing which i don’t wanna do at the moment lmao. anyway, when i think of bad pacing in season one, i primarily think of two things: nancy’s little trip into the upside down and subsequent sleepover with jonathan, and the sort of staggered nature of the climax in the final episode. the latter is simple so i’ll explain it first: while i understand that each group’s respective climax is like part of a chain reaction and that’s why each big moment happens separately and at different times, i think that st is strongest when the whole group is together, and i think that makes the stakes feel higher too, so i’m not In Love with the way s1 separated everyone and gave each group their own climax.

okay, now on to the nancy/upside down thing! idk if i’ve ever talked about it before, but i think the worst decision made in s1 by far is the inclusion of nancy’s brief trip into the upside down, wherein she dives headfirst into another dimension with absolutely no backup, watches the demogorgon chow down, freaks out and runs around for a minute, and then leaves. like... what the fuck? even putting aside what an idiotic decision this was (because i do think nancy’s tendency to rush into things headfirst is an intentional and consistent character trait), it just kind of destroys any remaining suspense surrounding the demogorgon and the upside down, and it accomplishes basically nothing besides scaring nancy enough to have jonathan sleep over, which is lame. i will break it down.

like, first of all, nancy just getting to waltz in and out of the upside down and get a good, long look at the demogorgon makes the entire thing far less mysterious, and by extension far less scary. like... before this scene, we the audience haven’t got a good look at the demogorgon. we’ve seen its silhouette briefly and we’ve seen a blurry picture of it, but nothing more, and i think that is far more effective at building fear than this jaunt nancy goes on which gives us a full view of the thing and makes it into less of a horrifying nightmare and into more of a humanoid animal. like, maybe this is just me, but i found the demogorgon far less intimidating after that scene than before. it also lets nancy and jonathan know For Sure that they’re right without providing any crucial information that they need to fight the demogorgon (aka it’s unnecessary to the plot), which removes a very compelling story element (the faith nancy and jonathan need to have in order to keep going against a vague and poorly understood enemy, the doubt they might have about each other and their own sanity, the possibility that they might be wrong, the trust they need to have in each other) a bit earlier in the plot than i believe is ideal. at the end of episode 5, nancy goes into the upside down and jonathan doesn’t know where she is and it’s intense!!! you’re thinking like, oh fuck, not only is nancy missing and fighting for her life now too, jonathan might be implicated in her disappearance!! some people already think he’s the one who killed will and people know that he took creepy pictures of barb and nancy before they both disappeared, maybe this is gonna cause some serious problems for him!! maybe nancy will find will in the upside down and she’ll help him survive!! fuck, maybe she’ll actually die!! this is huge!! and then episode 6 starts and they’re immediately like oh nevermind jonathan found the tree and got nancy out and she’s fine. my point with all of this is that nancy entering the upside down could have done A Lot in the grand scheme of the plot, but all it did was just... get jonathan to sleep over so he and nancy could have some awkward romance moments and steve could see them together and pick a fight. which could have honestly happened at Any point while nancy and jonathan were working together to hunt down the demogorgon, without ruining the demogorgon’s and the upside down’s mystique. so yeah <3

weird behavior and dumbass decisions that make no sense (aka the whole camera thing)

gonna go off about the teen plot again sorry but: why was nancy so unbothered and quick to forgive jonathan for taking those pictures? girl what the fuck are you doing? why wasn’t that a bigger deal? why was jonathan’s motivation for doing it so weak and why did they just kind of forget about the whole thing? why did nancy TRACK HIM DOWN AT THE FUNERAL HOME while he was PICKING OUT HIS BABY BROTHER’S CASKET to be like hey can you tell me what’s in this creepshot you took? it’s insane. it’s so insane. i mean i think the funeral home thing is hilarious and i don’t mind it being in the show necessarily but like my point here is that i think a lot of character decisions in s1 just kind of.. happened because they Needed to happen for the plot. like, they wrote this plot that required jonathan to be secretly taking pictures of the party and required him and nancy to work together after seeing something odd in the pictures, but they didn’t like... really consider what that event would mean for their characterization and relationship. the whole thing was sort of just dropped with minimal discussion and i think it did both nancy and jonathan’s characters a disservice and was really mishandled.

lighting and saturation/color grading

i am literally begging horror/sci-fi shows to let me see shit. i GET IT okay i understand that when you’re doing cgi effects it helps to keep the lights down and i’m not mad at any of the lighting in the demogorgon/upside down scenes!! i’m really not i think the demogorgon scenes in s1 all look sick!! but like... dude. the colors. where are they. why does everyone look like a vampire. i know blah blah this was probably an intentional stylistic choice intended to mimic film at the time blah blah but dude a lot of old movies are very colorful!! please just let people have color in their faces so everyone doesn’t look like a sheet of paper!!! also i’m white and not a professional lighting designer so yknow grain of salt but i think lucas was kinda poorly served by the lighting sometimes in s1. not Hugely so, not to the degree that i’ve seen poc be poorly served by lighting in other shows, but there were some times where it felt kinda like the lighting setup was just not designed with darker skin in mind.

horror

i just personally don’t find s1 very scary like... ever. i don’t think they were really Trying to be extremely scary yknow so i’m not counting this as a big deal, but i do think that each season has improved on the horror aspects. i think s1′s horror lies more in the mystery and the unknown than in what’s seen onscreen, and as i’ve said already, i think s1 kind of fumbled that suspense ball.

season 2

strengths

the possession plot

i’ll warn u rn this whole s2 strengths section is probably gonna be really short bc idk like. how much there is to really say i feel like it’s all so self-explanatory skjncmn. anyway yeah the possession plot!! eerie as fuck, and noah OWNED. so did winona tbh and finn and sean etc but like. noah. wow! i think the possession plot helped the show maintain a good amount of tension and suspense throughout the season, and a lot of scenes with possessed!will are flatout disturbing to watch. in a good way. i think the mindflayer and will’s possession were far more genuinely frightening than s1′s demogorgon, and it provided a new layer of depth and intrigue to the antagonist besides just “bad monster want eat people.”

tone and aesthetics

halloween season... literally halloween season. halloween season. that is all.

actually i will elaborate a bit and just say that i think s2 did a good job of having the sort of foreboding vibe that s1 was often going for, but without the annoying darkness and desaturation. so points for that.

also st2 is like one of the best Autumn pieces of media ever like it just. like steve and dustin on those train tracks with the fallen leaves all around them.... god. god the vibes are unparalleled. all of the halloween stuff also really contributes to the nostalgia st runs on yknow it makes you think about childhood and trick-or-treating and you kind of get transported like damn... i remember going to the rich neighborhoods to score the good candy..... idk i just think the whole thing is incredibly effective.

“babysitter” steve

by sending nancy and jonathan off together, the show created a problem: what to do with steve? this problem pushed them to create the unconventional and unexpected duo of steve and dustin, and the world is so much brighter for it. seriously though we all know steve and dustin are great i don’t need to argue that point. all i’ll add is that i think allowing steve to grow in this way, serving as a mentor figure and becoming genuine friends with someone so unexpected, really took the originality of his character to the next level. no longer content just to defy his archetype, in s2 steve begins branching out in ways that never would have been considered in s1, creating an incredibly complex and interesting person from the sort of character that most shows would have simply written out or killed off for convenience’s sake. and it works and steve and dustin are such a joy to watch and i love them. <3

the lucas/max plot

so first of all max mayfield is the most perfect baby girl on god’s green earth and idk what i would do without her but anyway. i think lumax is the best romantic relationship in the show and not just because they’re the only ones with like an age-appropriate approach to the whole thing. it’s also because their relationship accomplishes more than just putting the two of them in a relationship!! lucas and max spending time together motivates billy to do his evil shit, providing more conflict in the narrative, and it also helps establish max as part of the group in a relatively natural way while giving both her and lucas a great subplot. lucas (and dustin) has a crush on the new girl, they start spending some time together, and lucas ends up needing to decide whether he’ll keep the secret of the upside down and lose her, or risk both of their lives by telling her the truth. that’s a pretty big, character-defining decision that he gets to make!! max has to choose whether to trust this boy she barely knows and endanger herself, or to walk away and stay safe, yet another great character-defining choice that also contributes to the sense we get as an audience of max as somebody who’s incredibly lonely and desperate for love and connection. this post is way too long already and i have a ton more to say so i’ll stop now but yeah i think lumax really Works in the show without ever distracting or detracting from the overall plot and narrative in the way that some other ships (coughjancycough) often do.

balance between the normal and abnormal

s2 i think did a pretty solid job of melding daily life with more fantastical sci-fi horror elements. i enjoyed seeing so much of the kids at school in the first few episodes!! you really get a strong sense of where they’re at in life, what their daily lives are like, and you get a sort of gradual shift into madness that makes everything feel more grounded than i think it would if they had just leapt straight into the horror shit, yknow?

the el and hopper dynamic

go back and rewatch s2 and tell me that’s not one of the most moving portrayals of parenthood and trauma and growing up that you’ve ever seen. you can’t. or well you can but i won’t listen. i really can’t imagine stranger things without el and hopper’s relationship, and it’s my absolute favorite part of s2. their whole dynamic is so beautiful and complex, and gives them each amazing personal arcs in addition! the black hole scene is literally one of the show’s greatest moments of all time. any given scene between the two of them in s2 is just guaranteed to be heartwarming as well as heartbreaking, and i think that makes for an incredible show.

weaknesses

flashbacks

okay this applies to Every season they All have too many flashbacks but in s2 specifically... please stop showing me shit from season one. i watched it. i know what happened. you don’t need to spoon feed everything to me!! flashbacks can be a really helpful way of delivering information to an audience, but st has a bad habit of not only being kinda demeaning in how often they flash back to shit that the audience already knows, but they also have a bad habit of using flashbacks almost as a crutch to avoid having to deliver information subtly and naturally.

you know i gotta say it... the lost sister

this is so sad. the lost sister really is like a great concept for an st episode, and i’m not mad about the idea of st taking a break from the normal action to focus on one story for a full episode, but the execution of it was just dreadful. kali and her crew feel very over-the-top and stereotypical, and its placement in the season totally kills the tension and excitement that was built in “the spy.”

i think the lost sister honestly could have gone over far better, even with the stereotypical fake-feeling gang kali has, if they had just swapped it with “the spy” like... ok, the end of episode five has el setting off to find kali and will collapsing on the ground seizing. right? imagine if, instead of immediately following will to the lab, we’d followed el. we don’t know what’s happening with will, but it’s a very simple cliffhanger that leaves us on edge without making us feel cheated by the show cutting away. we follow el on her little journey, everything happens much the same as canon, and then at the end, el sees hopper in scrubs. she sees mike, screaming, sees that they’re both in danger. holy shit!!! what the fuck!!! what’s happened since we left will seizing on the ground??? we feel el’s fear and confusion. she decides to go home. and then... boom. “the lost sister” is over. now, we rewind, right back to will seizing on the ground, and “the spy” commences. we learn how they got into the danger that el saw in the end of “the lost sister,” and we sit on the edge of our seats all through “the spy” and “the mind flayer,” KNOWING that el is on her way back to save them but not knowing when she’ll arrive!! idk i don’t think that would have necessarily saved lost sister but i think it may have alleviated some of the issues that i and many others have with it, timing-wise.

the nancy/jonathan sidequest

once again, the idea of nancy going off on her own little mission to find justice for barb after s1 is like. amazing. genuinely i love that plot for her and i can’t imagine anything better for her to have focused on in s2. unfortunately though i think her and jonathan’s little trip to see murray was just kind of... lame. the whole thing just felt like an excuse to get the two of them alone together, yknow? which is fine i guess people contrive all sorts of situations to get characters alone together for romance reasons but in this case i think it just really doesn’t work for me because of what it’s juxtaposed with. like, will is POSSESSED, and jonathan is just off on a mini road trip and sleeping with his bestie, and jonathan never seems to communicate to joyce/will that he left town, and joyce never like... thinks to tell him that will is like sick and fucked up and they’re looking at him in the lab??? like it’s so weird i know joyce always forgets about jonathan when shit’s happening with will but jfc you’d think at some point in that like... 72-ish-hour period where jonathan was out of town she would have thought about him. like at least once. maybe i’m forgetting something and she mentioned him sometime and i missed it but even still, i hate the juxtaposition of nancy and jonathan just like cheers-ing at murray’s place and sleeping together and whatnot while everyone else is dealing with possession or trying to hunt down dart yknow? it feels really boring in comparison and i think it could have been done far better. like it was SO insanely easy for them to get into the lab and get an admission of guilt and escape with it!! i think it might have been a lot more engaging if maybe someone from the lab tailed them to murray’s place and they had to like lose the tail and race to get the recording out to as many news outlets as possible before they got caught, or something like that. the tension in their plotline is completely resolved in episode four!! episodes five and six are just them screwing around and addressing envelopes. while there were a lot of strong ideas in this plotline (i really enjoy nancy going out of her way to get justice, and the fact that they have to water down the story to make it believable), i just think the focus on nancy and jonathan getting together hindered it a lot without adding a ton to the plot or their individual characters.

season 3

strengths

starcourt mall as a setting

while i don’t think the mall was utilized quite to its full potential (something i could make a separate post about if anyone’s interested), i do think that starcourt was a genius addition to the series. i’ve said this before, but building a new mall is a literal Perfect in-universe justification for a significant leap forward in fashion and aesthetics, and it provides a great location for characters to just... be characters. idk how else to articulate this i just think that the mall is a great setting to let people interact with each other and to bring people together who may not have been otherwise (i.e. scoops troop). not to mention how sick it was to see the mall get wrecked toward the end kdjncdkm like they were able to do so much more with the mall in terms of like The Finale than they could with just the byers house or the cabin or the school or even the lab. i love all the back tunnels they run through it’s such a fun like acknowledgement of how this glitzy eighties mall is just a real place where employees get shipments and take out the trash and shit idk it’s all about the perfect facade and what’s hidden what’s underneath what’s hiding in plain sight etc etc i’m just saying words now. anyway.

willingness to experiment and go against expectations

gay robin. neon aesthetics. giant fucking meat monster. i know some people hate both the neon and the meat monster but i personally think they were kind of amazing and like. yknow regardless of personal tastes i think it’s impossible to deny that s3 had a lot of incredible visuals, and they’re all visuals that just wouldn’t have been possible if the show were too afraid to stray from its s1 aesthetic. robin being canonically gay (and her resulting friendship with steve) and the season’s striking visuals are two things that most everyone (besides like homophobes skjncdknm) can agree were great, right? and they were both departures from where the show began and what we all expected!! so yeah i think while some of the experimentation in s3 wasn’t ideal it was also that experimentation that allowed for some of the season’s strongest elements to come about.

the hospital sequence (and the season’s action/horror scenes in general)

this one is fairly self-explanatory. while they may have underutilized the “body snatching” element of the season, the hospital sequence with nancy and jonathan fighting off their possessed bosses did an amazing job of building tension and creating a genuine sense of really intense and personal danger.

in general i think that s3 melded action and horror rather well, particularly in the sauna test, the hospital, and when the mindflayer busts through the roof of hop’s cabin. horror can come from many things, and in this case, st elicited horror largely from the feeling of helplessness, and it was really effective for me personally. i think it worked better for me than s1′s brand of horror because it doesn’t rely so much on a lack of knowledge or a sense of suspense that inevitable disappears upon a second viewing.

the body horror we got in s3 was also really fun! that’s it i just think all the blood and guts and slime were fun and i would like more of them. once again, the impacts of body horror are less dependent upon the viewer being in the dark or unsure as to what’s happening, and as such i think it tends to be a little more effective at eliciting reaction in the long term.

timing and mechanics of the battle of starcourt/finale

i think the battle of starcourt is just fucking awesome, and beyond that personal opinion, i think it’s the most high-stakes and intense finale of all three seasons, and this is for two main reasons! 1. el is out of commission, and 2. (almost) everyone is in the same cental location. this means that (almost) everyone is in danger all at once, and they are all working together at the same time to fight the same threat. s1/s2 have their groups more fragmented for the finales, and while i understand why in each case and i wouldn’t call either season’s finale necessarily weak, i do think the centralized nature of the s3 finale just Works on another level. in s1 and s2, large segments of the cast are already perfectly safe by the time el dispatches the primary threat. in s3, however, everybody save for dustin and erica is still in danger up until the last moment, and el is seemingly (you can def debate how much power she still had in her when she peeked into billy’s mind and whether the memory broke the mindflayer’s hold on him or if she was actually controlling him to some degree) completely vulnerable. this increases the tension and raises the stakes, making the finale a real crescendo to fortissimo as opposed to a series of little mezzo forte moments. i hope everyone reading this knows music idk how else to phrase that my brain is stupid.

emphasis on friendship and adolescence (but in a different way than s1/2)

this is definitely a controversial one but i think that s3 really did like... show a side of friendship that had been more or less unexplored thus far in the show. el and max were amazing, and i think it’s really nice that we got an opportunity to see the kids have some growing pains as well as see them support each other through Normal Adolescent Stuff like boyfriends and breakups instead of just like. death and trauma. this is maybe just a personal preference, but i think it can be really enlightening and provide a lot of depth when you get to see how characters respond to normal everyday conflict and not just how they respond to giant world-ending conflict!! letting el use her powers for goofy teenage shit like spying on boys and messing with mean girls at the mall is not only fun for her and the audience, but it also really emphasizes just how much those powers are a part of el, making it that much more devastating when she loses them at the end of the season.

weaknesses

tonal dissonance

so this is like. obvious. but it must still be said! i won’t go on and on about it since we all know this so i’ll try to like talk about it from an angle people don’t usually? anyway. it seems to me like they were maybe a little worried about s3 being too dark. while the choice to really lean into humor was definitely driven by the sorts of eighties teen films from which s3 drew inspiration (like fast times at ridgemont high), i think it was also done in an attempt to alleviate the more troubling implications of some events in the season, particularly the russian bunker plot. like, yeah, st can be incredibly dark, but if they’d played the whole “children being stuck inside of a foreign military base, tied up, tortured, and drugged” thing completely straight without the humorous elements that exist in canon, it had the potential to be like... disturbing on a new level. steve and robin don’t have powers like el yknow their kidnapping/torture doesn’t have any sci-fi elements to sorta soften the blow. they’re just innocent teenagers being brutalized and traumatized by grown men. so anyway yeah i think maybe the writers were concerned about this storyline coming off as too dark and they wanted it to be a little more whimsical but they ended up pushing way too hard in that direction and creating extreme dissonance at times. this goes for joyce/hopper/murray/alexei too, but to a lesser extent. i think the ridiculousness in that group felt a lot more like... realistic. but still.

newspaper plot

once again i feel like i don’t even need to say this skjdncmn we all know it was insane how the show basically ended up delivering the message “while misogyny is a serious problem poverty and classism are not” and i’ve said it on this blog a million times so i don’t need to repeat myself. i’ll focus on another weak point of this plot: the fact that it completely separates nancy and jonathan from everyone else. once again, the show’s preoccupation with j/ancy held them back! like... can you imagine a version of s3 where nancy and jonathan both worked in the mall? i have a lot of ideas about this possible au and like how the plot could play out differently if they worked in the mall but first of all it’s just more realistic, second of all it further utilizes the mall as a central setting, and third of all, it would bring everyone together. as it is in canon, nancy and jonathan were unnecessarily isolated from the rest of the group, and this isolation was detrimental to both of their characters. like, they only ever get to interact with each other! if they’d gotten summer jobs in the mall, they could have had more interactions with the kids/steve/robin, and they absolutely still could have had a similar argument! maybe in this case, nancy notices the rat thing (or something else odd) herself when taking out the trash behind the mall, and she wants jonathan to ditch work with her to check it out bc she thinks it may be related to the lab. jonathan doesn’t want to ditch work because he needs his job, nancy argues that they’re working shitty mall jobs anyway and who cares if they get fired, and we get more or less the same thing as s3 without the cartoonishly over-the-top misogyny. i mean honestly i think the rat shit could have been cut entirely it didn’t rly... accomplish much of anything. in my opinion. like imagine s3 without the rat plot you literally would not be missing anything except it would be more surprising when the dudes melted into goo at the hospital. so yeah i think it would have been better if nancy and jonathan had jobs at the mall, weren’t isolated from everybody else, and were maybe absorbed into the party’s plot or the scoops troop’s plot from very early on, allowing them to interact with more characters and have a less... dumb.... plot. like god splitting up nancy and jonathan between the party/scoops troop would have been So Much better i just. sdkjcnksdmn anyway yeah.

briefness of group reunion/separation of groups

remember in s2 at the beginning of “the gate,” where mike and hopper had a confrontation and max and el met for the first time and el hugged everyone and steve and nancy had their sad little moment together outside... where’s that energy? obviously the s2 reunion wasn’t that long either, but it made space for some significant emotional moments to take place. s3′s reunion had some hopper/el/mike resolution, but besides that... there was nothing, really. i just think that the whole group getting together in s3 was SO exciting and powerful the way they did it (with both the scoops troop and the adults having their own Big Moment reconnecting with team griswold family), but the emotional potential was more or less squandered.

i also think in s3 at times they were really stretching to keep everybody separated even though it made no sense. and like... in s1 the separation worked bc nobody else knew that (x group) was experiencing weird shit too, and beyond that, each group (as i mentioned in the s1 section) was sort of operating within their own genre and bringing something unique to the season. they’ve stopped doing that though! now, the groups aren’t separate bc each plot is tonally/structurally different, the groups are just separate bc... they need to be, because it’s a big ensemble cast and you can’t just have them all be together for a whole season or it would be way too difficult to coordinate things and keep the show dynamic. all this is to say that i’m excited for s4 because the location differences make it so there’s a Reason for each plot to be separate at the beginning, and i think that’ll work better.

general ridiculousness

i dont mean like i think it’s bad that they made jokes this is just me lumping in all the dumb shit like hopper not worrying about el and not wanting to check on the kids, him and joyce bickering long after they both know they and their children are in danger, max seemingly forgetting that billy is a racist abuser, etc etc. i think many of these are just a symptom of the show 1. trying desperately to keep the groups split up a certain way even though it may not make any sense, and 2. trying to fit into a certain genre/trope mold when their actual characters are more complex than the tropes they’re imitating. this is so fucking long already i am not gonna elaborate further rn but i trust u all know what i mean.

soooo... yeah, that’s about all! i mean it’s not all there are definitely many more things i could talk about and i know i focused sorta disproportionately on the teens which is my bad :/ but i’m done for now. thank you for asking, and apologies for the delay in responding!! i’m sure some people reading (if anyone read this far) will disagree with some of what i’ve said and that’s alright like i’m not The Authority on st or anything i’m just trying to talk about like my own thoughts yknow? so yeah luv u all i hope someone enjoyed reading this!!

#asks #em talks #lesbianrobin.canon #stranger things #if u actually read all this i love u and im sorry #these r just my opinions!! and im sure i misremembered some shit my brain is swiss cheese #i did my best tho

84 notes · View notes