#as in: fans understand the potential of the premise much better

[phasesofpencils]

Idk both shows have some serious issues but imo character wise, and pacing wise [comparing season 1s at least] Helluva is SLIGHTLY better. My pov of this under the cut.

Tldr: Hazbin requires homework and is unfocused in characters and plot, Helluva [season 1] is focused on actually establishing the characters as characters and developed a plot LATER that it focuses more on.

The characters in Helluva feel more like characters, rather than talking props like the Hazbin characters. You get a sense for their deal and their personalities and dynamics even from episode one: Blitz is the eccentric boss who is obsessed with his employees. Loona is Blitz's adopted daughter that he dotes on but she also hates everyone and everything, especially Blitz and enjoys messing with Moxxie. Moxxie is the more quiet one and tries to be more professional who tolerates Blitz and is tired of his bullshit while also trying to give him a level of respect since he IS his boss. Millie is Moxxie's wife who is in a loving relationship with him, is occasionally microagressive towards Loona and gets annoyed with her sometimes especially with how she messes with her Husband and kinda enables and brushes off Blitz's stalking. And Stolas is overly horny and obsessed with Blitz that Blitz tries to distance himself from but is also stuck with bc he's his ticket to keeping his business.

Hazbin characters feel restricted to their one archetype: charlie is happy, angel is flirty, husk is grumpy, nifty is whacky, Alastor is "creepy" [except he isn't], pentious is the butt of the joke, etc. And the Hazbin characters rarely feel like they go any deeper than that, besides maybe Angel in episode 4. And we never really get a good sense of the characters dynamics with each other are within the group. We know Husk and Angel go from Angel harrassing Husk and Husk not being cool with it to them understanding each other and becoming friends [maybe potential love interests]. And we know Charlie and Vaggie are dating, but that feels less bc we actually see and explore their relationship as partners and moreso bc we are told and have to be reminded.

And let's not forget, that with season 1 helluva had the SAME episode count as Hazbin and with LESS time per episode. Sure Helluva was more episodic in the first half, but then it started establishing a plot half way through, like it or not, and actually started shifting more of its focus on it [for the price of their elevator pitch essentially, the whole main premise of the show, to focus on Stolitz drama].

Hazbin HAD a plot from the beginning but it stumbles, ignores, or hardly wants to focus on it in favor of introducing new characters, most of which are supposed to play some big part, when we barley have gotten to know our main cast.

Hazbin:

ep 1: introduced to the cast, also Adam and Lute

Ep 2: the Vees and Pentious

Ep 3: the overlords

Ep 4: [no new characters but we're only JUST getting to focus on one, and what his struggles are]

Ep 5: Lucifer and Mimzy

Ep 6: Sera, Emily and Cherry [and St Peter if you want to count him]

Ep 7: Rosie and the Cannibal town

Ep 8: [no new intros but we have our big battle]

She introduces too many characters without having the time to really explore them, pretty much relying on fans to do HOMEWORK to find out details about the characters from old livestreams and sifting through her twitter rants. Hazbin introduces all these new characters and expects to "pay off" half of it by the end of one season, sometimes even by the end of the same episode they're introduced in. By the end of the season the main cast are friends, not because that friendship was properly developed and more so bc the plot needs them to be. Which makes watching the show frustrating and confusing bc watching these characters you never really get a solid explanation for their motives and bond, they feel more like they're just there to provide commentary on events and characters happening around them at times.

Helluva introduces characters but with the expectation that they'll either be inconsequential one offs [sinner clients] back ground characters [Wally] or with the intention of bringing them back when they decide to do more with them later on. [Striker]. Despite how you feel about the characters and what they do or don't do with them, Helluva i feel something for the characters, even if it's annoyed and frustrated but that's because i KNOW what their motivations and dynamics are.

Viv had YEARS to come up with a satisfying story for Hazbin but by the end of the season it feels like fan interpretation/past familiarity is doing most of the heavy lifting for the show. Hazbin was created for fans who have been following Viv's every thought since Zoophobia and leaves new fans behind expecting them to get caught up on their own or by having old fans come up to them and EXPLAIN it to them. While Helluva at least is being fleshed out at about the same time we're seeing it, it was a spin off for Hazbin that started as a general idea she had to explore a different aspect of hell that grew from there, so it actually takes the time to explain and flesh out characters and motivations.

#hazbin hotel criticism #hazbin hotel critical #helluva boss criticism #helluva boss critical

[worlds-oldest-teenager]

Kind of controversial but why are people acting like TSATS is Rick Riordan's first queer book? Like Magnus chase who? Trials of Apollo?

Warning ⚠️: Long rant under the cut. It's not very tsats friendly so please scroll if you don't want to read.

Idk it just feels like sometimes the fandom doesn't really view queer rep as valid unless it centers around romance. Completely biased as a toa fan but toa had so much rep. The bi mc, the gay geysers, the kindly old lesbian couple taking in unwanted kids, ace characters, characters struggling with comphet, characters crushing on people of the same gender and none of it being taken as something out of the ordinary. It just wasn't centred around romance.

The toa fandom has always been pretty small and chill with activity spiking everytime a new book releases. Then suddenly when Tower of Nero came out there were so many people. So what changed, what brought in so many people who weren't even interested in the premise of the book?

It was Solangelo.

I like solangelo as much as the next person (minus the year of seething rage when they were dominating the toa tag) but the way that people discount an amazing series about change, growth and overcoming abuse with some of the best casual queer rep I've seen and consider the only thing of value being a minor mlm couple with a few pages of screentime leaves a pretty bad taste in my mouth.

Magnus chase is another book. Alex fierro isn't perfect rep (stop calling Alex slurs holy fuck) but it was revolutionary to have a gender fluid character in a children's series and this was back in 2016. Fierrochase is pretty popular but I wonder sometimes if Alex and Magnus would be as popular as they are if they never got together. They're still not as popular as solangelo but in good faith that might be because people became too fatigued to read mcga.

It just feels sometimes that these books are viewed as lesser queer books just because there's no shipping or it's not a (I'm so sorry don't kill me ) heart stopper esque gay couple. Idk if im taking this too personally as a potentially ace *slides nsfw art under desk* person whose gender is wonky but it's just my thoughts on this.

But I just feel like the focus should be on the countries banning and censoring the book instead of people with perfectly valid criticism of it. There are so many of his books with queer rep and most of the criticism I've seen have come from LGBTQIA+ people that like these books or at least put the same energy into scrutinizing them too. Idk why people assume anything bad said about TSATS was a bad faith reading done out of homophobia.

All that being said, tsats is definitely being marketed as the first queer book. It's banned not very accessible in my country despite all the others going through- which sucks. It's being treated like the first queer focused book Rick has written and it's coming out at a bad time for everyone but especially people in the US apparently. So I understand why any reactions would be taken as the fandoms reaction to the first queer book.

So who is more homophobic? The person who doesn't like a queer book or the person who holds a queer romance as the pinacle of queer? The answer : no clue man it's complicated and it's sucks that we're all so on edge in these trying times that we automatically assume the worst. There's nuance that a smarter person than me can elaborate on but I am not he.

Sorry for writing something so divisive during pride month but it is a conservation that should be had and what better month than one celebrating queer identity and representation. Hope everyone has a great pride month and stays safe.

Peace and love ✌️🏳️‍🌈💜

#sorry @ my much kinder mutuals #and solangelo fans #I'll draw them being cute as compensation #anti tsats #for filtering #lgbt discussion #discourse #trials of apollo #heroes of olympus #pjo hoo toa #magnus chase #percy jackson #fandom meta

[woodaba]

We Wouldn't Have Alan Wake II Without Quantum Break

Remember Quantum Break? The first game announced for the Xbox One? The link between cult classic Alan Wake and surprising studio-saving hit Control? That prominently features Lance Reddick, the much-missed actor who was frequently one of the most electric screen presences of our time?

Don't worry, I barely do either, and I played the game yesterday.

So, a refresher. Quantum Break, announced in 2013 alongside the Xbox One and released three years later, is a third-person shooter starring Shawn Ashmore aka Iceman from the X-Men movies as Jack Joyce (and not Jake Joyce as I constantly remembered him as. In my defense, it's a better name, if only because then his superhero name could be Quantum Jake...), who, after being turned into A Remedy Entertainment Protagonist after a time-travel experiment gone wrong, battles against fellow Remedy Entertainment Protagonist Aidan Gillen aka Doctor Pavel I'm CIA as Paul Serene, over what to do about an imminent apocalypse after Time starts Breaking because of the aforementioned time-travel experiment.

As a rehabilitating former Doctor Who obsessive, I'm particularly open to this kind of time-travel nonsense, but Quantum Break is frustratingly unwilling to capitalize on its own premise. Interesting things happen, sure: people get stuck in causality loops, confront and become acausal time monsters, and live entire second lives in the past after time-traveling, but almost none of it occurs to Jack Joyce: he just spends his time just shooting guys in a series of warehouses and offices. Quantum Break is a potentially interesting story that we don't really get to see anything of, instead anything compelling in the narrative is relayed to us second-hand, by the myriad emails and documents scattered throughout the gunfights, or over the radio, and, of course, Remedy's now-signature multimedia ambitions.

In between acts of the video game Quantum Break, you'll be treated to episodes of the TV show Quantum Break, a live-action c-tier circa-2009 network TV production starring some of the big(ish) names that headline the game Quantum Break, but mostly follows a cast of extras who navigate around the events of the game while working for baddie Paul Serene's Evil Corporation, Monarch.

It's in the TV show that what Quantum Break actually is begins to take shape. Remedy, as a studio, has always been interested - and unusually adept at - pastiche, whether it's the noir comic stylings of their still-astonishing Max Payne duology or the rickety but deeply charming Stephen King love-in that is Alan Wake. And here, they do a genuinely stellar job at replicating the look, feel, and sensibilities of a 2008-2013 network TV Lost/Fringe rip-off that gets canceled after one season.

That may sound backhanded, but I assure you it isn't. I've long been a fan of Remedy, in spite of, or perhaps because I don't think they've made a truly great game since Max Payne 2. In a medium that often pillages relentlessly from Film and TV, Remedy set themselves apart from their competition with the depth of their understanding of the production of film, bringing into games a deftness of set construction and filmic pacing that blows their contemporaries out of the water. Even more-lauded names like Naughty Dog and Rockstar come up short against Alan Wake's hauntingly gorgeous misty woods, best illustrated with Rockstar's Max Payne 3, which matched Remedy's cinematographical flair in the cutscenes, but fell far short of their level design chops and breadth of influences.

Quantum Break is, in aesthetics and production, a genuinely extremely well-considered pastiche of this period of sci-fi television that is now comfortably in the rear-view mirror, the time since its release having given it a real nostalgic charm that would have been dulled at the time of release. It really reminded me of the years I spent watching shows like Heroes, or Flash/Forward, shows that may not have been very good, but are intoxicatingly emblematic of their time and place, hiding just beneath the floorboards of the shows that would actually get to be remembered.

It's a shame, then, that it just fails to really compel on any level beyond appreciation for the pastiche.

Much like the gameplay, the TV episodes of Quantum Break feel almost ancillary to another, better story that we never get to see. The stars of the game feel wasted here - particularly Lance Reddick, one of my favorite actors, who steals the show every time he appears, but is given vanishingly little to do in comparison with a group of wafer-thin characters that struggle to manifest a single dimension, with relational at best connection to the concerns of the narrative. It looks like a particularly budget-strapped episode of Warehouse 13, sure, but it doesn't really feel like one, as the episodes - until the last one, which is a noticeable improvement - are shockingly paceless and devoid of the arcs that would make a singular episode of television compelling. They are, ultimately, primarily dreary, overlong, and constantly highlighting the fact that they are largely interstitial filler.

It would be wrong to accuse Remedy of not having their heart in Quantum Break, as there is too much evident passion to discount, but I do feel like they struggle to find a core to this idea, something that they truly want to explore. Whether I'm playing the game or watching the show, QB leaves everything on the surface, with nothing to really find beneath the surface. It's notable that the game is absolutely filled with constant allusions to Alan Wake - including a full-blown trailer found on a TV moments after starting the game that bears startling resemblance to the eventual plot of this year's Alan Wake II - and that the game started life as a pitch to Microsoft for Alan Wake II: one suspects that they would much rather be making that game at this moment in time than Quantum Break, or that the game is a test-bed of ideas for the studio's future, the act of throwing a thousand darts at a quantum dartboard, and seeing which ones find their mark. It's just that for this effort, precious few of them do.

And yet, the surprise is that by the end, I truly felt like Remedy was genuinely onto something with the spirit of Quantum Break's ideas, if not the execution of them. The television show is the thing that makes Quantum Break live, that marks it out as something worth remembering in a sea of slick third-person shooters with cinematic ambitions. It is the icon of the foundational belief of the Xbox One, that the future of games lay in a synthesis with television, a dead-end future that had already worn out by the time the game was actually released. What remains is little more than a gimmick, sure, but it is one that, by the end, is oddly compelling, even if most of it is terrifically boring to actually experience.

There is a genuine thrill to seeing characters in both video game graphics and live-action forms, shifting between the two seamlessly thanks to some genuinely well-realized digitized actors that still look good today, a shift that blends well with the time-space bending of the plot. Do I care about Jack Joyce, as a person? Not even slightly. Did I still grin when I saw Actual Shawn Ashmore briefly appear in the TV episodes after controlling Virtual Shawn Ashmore? Absolutely. It's the same kind of shallow thrill you get from Cheers allumni showing up for a visit in Frasier, or when the Torchwood crew talk around the presence of Mr. Doctor Who, Esq, but as something that works with what the game is doing rather than distracting your attention elsewhere.

The gameplay portions represent time breaking down with (genuinely cool, if shallow) shards of space and glass and stuttering loops of physical time, but the collision of the Real and the Virtual feels so much more effective in communicating the idea of time and space shattering and colliding into one another. I just wish it played in this space more, focusing on Ashmore, Reddick, Monaghan, and Hope, rather than the cast of goons and extras who feel wholly separated from the game until the final mission.

I'd like to say that I'd love Remedy to take another crack at this idea, with the lessons they've learned from Control and Alan Wake II, but that already feels like a fool's hope. The ballooning costs of video game development make the idea of filming an entire TV mini-series alongside it feel laughable. Sure, Control's live-action segments were plentiful and superbly produced, but they were also far more restrained than Quantum Break, focusing on short segments with one non-big-name actor each in a couple of highly reusable sets. With both this and its open-world, side-questing structure with plenty of loot and upgrades to collect, Control is something largely in line with the realities and productions of modern game development

Quantum Break isn't rooted in reality for even a second. It's a time-locked instant, the most 2015 game ever made, which makes it all the better that it came out in 2016. There's no future in what Quantum Break envisions. It's a failed experiment, something to shrug at and move on. And yet, it compels me regardless, despite the fact that I don't really like it.

We need games like this, I feel. Historical curios like this show that the shifting landscape of the medium isn't a straight line, it splits off into splintered fraying timelines, some leading to nothing, but others spilling back in unexpected ways. After all, Courtney Hope, who played Beth Wilder here, returned for the starring role in Control, and that game feels so keenly like the product of lessons learned from QB, with everything from the live-action segments, the document-reading, and the combat feeling like a progression from Remedy's previous work. In particular, my complaints about QB's narrative taking place almost entirely off-screen evolves into a hugely compelling aspect of Control, with the genuine highlight of that game being reading the endless documents detailing the horrors and nightmares of America transcribed into corporate mundanity.

And while I've only played a taster of Alan Wake II, there's no doubt in my mind that that game, a bona-fide critical darling the likes of which Remedy hasn't had since Max Payne 2, owes a great debt to QB. Not least because its engine provides the framework for the game, but also because, well, it's been in there, this whole time.

Waiting for The Return.

#video games #remedy entertainment #alan wake #alan wake ii #quantum break #control game #Youtube

[valentinoceros]

One of the things I find most intriguing about the characters in Hazbin is the potential that the technical inhumanity of them brings.

Let me explain.

Something you see pretty much everywhere in this fandom, like in all fandoms, is people choosing specific characters to relate to, to project onto or generally sympathize with, and that is ofc totally normal and good for any type of media really. Often media is judged by how well you can identify with the characters in it (and based on that how real they feel) because we love to see ourselves portrayed on the screen, either how we would like to be or how we currently are/were, giving us the feeling of being recognized and understood. There are of course many, MANY more psychological aspects to this but you get what I mean.

Now, most of the time this works really well, because pretty much all media has humans for their main characters, which obviously follow the same psychology as ours, or at least they have non-human characters which are portrayed with mostly human minds. There are some excpetions to this, usually found in sci-fi movies and series (honorable mentions go to Star Trek and Babylon 5, although I find the latter does a better job at this), but even then there are many human charactaristics to morale/ethics/etc found.

But back to Hazbin Hotel.

Here we have a series set in hell, the place where sinners (according to christian rules) go, but of course not just anyone who's sinned but more specifically unrepentant sinners. (This is again a very simplified answer, but I'm not trying to have a discussion about theological accuracy of anyone's or any religion's understanding of who exactly goes to hell or not here, so we're running with this.) Essentially we have souls ranging from having been just a person who unapologetically sinned to actually Hitler-esque living in this place for pretty much eternity.

Notice how I said souls, not people.

Because people, by definition, refers to a number of humans, and as we can clearly see from for example the designs of these characters, they are no longer humans. And that finally brings me to my point.

Bear with me here, bc I'm not entirely versed in the Hazbin lore, so I don't know how much of this is already established, but the way I see it, souls, upon entering hell, loose their humanity. They may retain some aspects of their previous personality, most likely moreso the evil ones or to be specific the ones that caused them to go to hell in the first place, they might even keep some of their core memories from life but judging by how many things we forget even whilst still living I can't imagine death to not have an impact on that, and severely so. All in all they're totally new beings though.

And what makes us think that these totally different creatures, which are on top of it (usually) inherently evil, function, think, or feel, in any way similar to how we do?

There's no reason for them to be able to feel things such as remorse, empathy, or even love. And that’s what I find fascinating, that this could technically be a world with exclusively psychopaths (though that’s of course not a wholly accurate term in this case) and how that would function. Going even further, with this in mind, the way some of these characters act makes total sense - and I'm specifically talking about the "antagonists" here of course, like our collective fan-favorite Valentino.

This is, of course, just my own personal view of this, but for someone who's always enjoyed the darker parts of content in fandom this entire setting is just. Perfect.

BUT, and here comes the really big but, exactly those things I mentioned earlier they technically shouldn't be able to feel, (remorse, empathy, and love) are all things we see characters on this show experience. Y'know, the things that I said are human emotions. And that brings me to my BONUS POINT of this endless rant, which is about Charlie and the entire premise of this show. Because she might not even realize this, but Charlie is not actually trying to redeem demons for the sake of making them into angels. She's making them back into humans.

#this turned out so long but I have just so many feelings about this #if you read this whole thing thank you for coming to my ted talk #hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel meta #hazbin hotel theory #pro hazbin hotel #or whatever it is I need to tag so critiques don't have to look at this post #I mean they can but they prolly won't enjoy it so #rhino rambles #I AM ALSO NOT SAYING DON'T RELATE TO THE CHARACTERS I JUST THINK THIS IS COOL

[toxicanonymity]

Do you ever struggle with feelings of discouragement or inadequacy if your fics don’t do as well as you had hoped?

I’m struggling with that myself. I try not to get so hung up on it but it’s very hard, especially when something I’m so proud of doesn’t do as well as my other works.

I don’t even feel motivated to write bc I don’t wanna set myself up for disappointment

Discouragement, sure, I think that's natural sometimes. But I really don't feel like stats have anything to do with adequacy. Baring my soul, yuck. But fuck it we ball. Sorry it's a long answer.

I don't think I've ever answered a serious ask aside from the time i created Dr. rock which hardly counts but I've seen a lot of people struggling with this lately and hope this might be idk comforting to a person or two without leading to debate/discourse.

You mentioned something you're proud of isn't doing as well as your other works, and I can see how that would be disappointing. For laughs, I'll compare 2 of mine. These fics are impossible to compare (as are most, I think) but I def understand the urge to measure yourself against what you see as the potential. Aches: <1k popular trope I banged out in no time, wasn't sure about it, literally thought "people don't have to like it" before I hit post. >4 notes per word. Left in Lincoln: >22k posted so far, challenging, writing it for months. Has possibly driven me crazy bc I had this passing thought the other day and not about TLOU. (I didn't feel like re-reading it all): "I should just rewatch the movie. . .wait." 🤡 The whole Lincoln series combined has fewer notes than Aches lmao. But it's far more rewarding in getting to see it come to life, quality of engagement, and stretching myself 😏. It's not for everyone, for various reasons. Surely would have better stats without the twist I went with. But at what cost??

-------

Often, if people don't read or like something, it's a reflection of their own interests, limitations, and assumptions. And the right "fit."

I don't rly read much in general, but specifically, I rarely read long stuff (if I do I prob scan a lot tbh). I normally only want, if any, just enough plot/premise to build sexual tension. I don't read fluff or angst. I don't have the attention span / commitment to get invested in original characters. I tend to avoid stuff similar to what I'm working on. I make assumptions - If there's no word count, maybe it's too long. I know a lot of the fics I skip for these reasons must be fantastic. Assumptions I experience - I've seen very popular fics in the wild that strike me as dark, creepy, or pervy but aren't tagged that way. So some things that are tagged dark, etc., including plenty of mine, might not be dark in the way people assume based on their own ideas, or based on what others do tag. Also some people think I only write dark when sometimes it's just horny (see master list).

I've sometimes found myself thinking "It sucks more people don't read this bc i bet they would enjoy it" (not just my own fics). It might sound egotistical but I think it's often true.

------

Of course I want engagement because that means more people reading something which can mean more interaction, discussion, learning what you liked, what you think, etc. that's what I love.

But notes aren't rly near the top of what I care about, even though it does feel great to get them and I truly appreciate every single one.

Night walks doesn't get nearly as many notes as some of my other stuff, especially these days, but it's fun to write and I like to feed his feral fans who only get more into him with time. Same with raider: among those who do read and engage, I sense rising enthusiasm, thirst, and rate of falling in love with him (my bad). That's all worth more than 1000 likes to me. I have a good time writing these guys, so I write them more than other ones that get way more notes 🤷. I'm not saying notes don't matter at all, I know they affect exposure and engagement. But if just did what gets notes, I don't think I'd have such high quality engagement bc I'd just bang out more stuff with the most popular tropes instead of our fave Joels and those destined to become our faves bc they offer something special.

My outlook was the same before I had so many followers btw. Rock Bottom (22k) was what I felt like writing, still more ambitious than anything I've done in the Halloween fandom. I was disappointed it got way less attention than my one shots, but I know it's a banger, just certainly not for everyone lol.

-

I'm sorry for what you're experiencing and feeling, but I think it's very common and hope you can reframe it to not feel inadequate. I especially hope it doesn't discourage you from writing. ❤️

#ask #how the sausage is made #toxicanonymity writer's room #this doesnt mean i answer serious asks now lol

[veliseraptor]

@mayedays replied to your post “Sometimes I get immensely sad that you're not in...”:

What do you see as the other options? Bc the alternatives to defanging or death that I can see are (1) the author subjecting the antagonist to serious suffering/punishment (up to and including 'fate worse than death') to appease readers' sense of justice or (2) the fandom becoming so much more toxic towards the character (and their fans) bc of rage that justice (read: punishment) "wasn't served". (And I hate those options too! This feels like a no-win situation!)

​I feel like you are talking about something a little different than I am, first of all, in that you seem to be talking about the canon fate of characters in-universe whereas I was specifically (in this post) talking about the way characters get written in fandom. But since I'm here and this does feel relevant to my interests, I'll take it!

Firstly, I don't think that avoiding a storytelling choice because "readers/fans will react poorly" is...a good way to do writing. An understandable way in this day and age, certainly! But I also think it's generative of...well, you know how people talk about the phenomenon of media being bleached of its color for the sake of not offending potential advertisers? That's what I see happening as a result of this kind of implied emotional terrorism, or fear of emotional terrorism on the part of writers.

Like I said, I think it's understandable to be scared of how people are going to react to something you write, whether that is for your own sake or the sake of a hypothetical reader - it's human to want to avoid unpleasant experiences. But I think caving to that fear, or accepting that as a stifling force on the creative decisions a writer feels at liberty to make, is neither desirable nor inevitable.

Secondly - it is relevant that I was talking about fandom here, because in a canon setting the antagonist is probably going, in some form, to have to lose. But if I'm engaging with this purely on the personal level of "how do I like to see writers handle their antagonists," there is a wide variety of ways for a narrative to treat its antagonists with grace. Even if an antagonist dies horribly, that doesn't necessarily mean that it's a narrative decision that I by nature have a problem with. (I have discussed before the internal conflict for me between 'but I want this character to live :(' vs. 'it makes for a better narrative if they die', including with several of my own original projects.) But the way that defeat or death is handled can make a world of difference in my (personal) response to a text.

I have read books where it feels like the aim of the text is specifically punitive: it wants to punish the bad character, it wants to make them suffer, it wants to illustrate that they deserve it. I tend to not enjoy that. It's not the only way to write an antagonist's defeat, and not even the only way to write an antagonist's death. It feels miles better to me, as someone who tends to get invested in antagonists, to read a text that doesn't come with a punitive mindset baked in. (Punitive texts aren't inherently bad, they just tend to not be for me.)

But that isn't the only way to write a conclusion, and there are ways of hurting or even killing an antagonist that don't have to feel like the goal of the narrative is specifically to punish them. (I wrote a whole essay about an example of this! There were footnotes and everything.)

But I think the bigger thing here, that is perhaps just a distinction between the way I approach this question and the way you seem to be, is that the question you're asking is predicated on the understanding that the question of "how a text handles its villain" is a matter of how readers/fans will react to a text, and that is a major determining factor in how a story should be told. I just fundamentally disagree with that, and I think a story that is written under those premises is going to suffer.

#mayedays #lise has opinions #christ that got long #i need to eat dinner #i wrote this instead of doing havdalah whoops #actual english major lise #does this make sense? i hope so

[beevean]

The post SOTN stories (except OOE and maybe PoR) have the nasty issue of wanting to look more story driven but without putting in the effort

Yeah sure the characters talk more, we have an official timeline detailing canon down to a t, but the actual story beats were almost always the same just presented in a bit of a different light

Oh no the good guy has turned bad except not really he was being controlled!

Oh no the local Belmont is unavailable!

Oh no my wife died and this gives me motivation to do the things I do!

The actual stories, when you go beyond the interesting ideas and premises, were pretty damn paper thin and CoD is the worst offender of this because 90% of the backstory is secluded to 2 pretty obscure mangas that are so different in general writing style when compared to the game itself that I find it pretty much impossible to connect the two, if not downright dishonest to, say, call Hector a compelling character beyond his general idea because the manga did this and that while the game itself aka the main material

It would be like Sega releasing a Mephiles centered side manga that miraculously does a great job with him, but with there being such a huge disconnect between the 2 medias and their respective interpretations can you really make a generalizing judgement on the character which includes his secondary yet superior iteration? Or isn't it better to just consider them 2 different versions of the character that, while officially canon to each other, might as well be two different versions of the same character?

You really come into my house to stab me like this :P

I agree that the stories in the games are paper thin, and rely on clichés. There is a lot of work that you have to put in when it comes to interpreting characters and finding parallels. Sara is maybe the most blatant example of this: I see how her fans go insane over the idea of her becoming unhinged with hatred when stuck in the VK, forced to kill demons for a millenium and feeding on their dark force, holding a grudge over Mathias/Dracula. Which is great! What an interesting idea, the holy weapon being powered by a woman's rage, herself being the driving force of the Belmont who cursed his descendants to hunt the night for the rest of time! But then in canon she's just the girl you have to save and then the girl who died to make Leon angry - somehow she's both the Damsel in Distress and the Dead Motivational Wife. So yeah. There is a shitton of potential for analysis, but canon only gives you the barest hints. And if you're here only to play as the badass protagonist and don't really want to put in the work, yeah the plots are weak at best and annoying at worst.

As for CoD... I half agree. I can't say that the mangas don't count only because they are separate, but I wish they were more easily available, because without them, the story in the game doesn't have the proper emotional impact. Both LoI and CoD are so obviously rushed and low-budget for their scope, and I guess the mangas were the easiest solution to include stuff the devs couldn't in the game proper (I still believe Joachim was meant to be much more than a mere boss). LoI is even worse because its prequel is pretty much lost, which shows why these mangas should have been preserved better.

I don't really understand what you mean with the writing style being too disconnected. I think the worst part of the mangas (aside from their obscurity lol) is that, while they overlap in the general sequence of events, they're obviously written by two different people and so the shades of the characters' personalities are different. Was Isaac a smug BDSM king with one hell of an inferiority complex? Or was he more levelheaded and proper before losing his mind? You decide which version is your favorite one, because we don't know which version is "more" canon. You can mix and match if you want, but again, that's you putting in the work.

And well, I am super biased but I do see a connection between the Hector of both mangas and the one from the game ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ both of them, especially the PtR one, flow nicely into what we see on screen. I just wish the game was a little clearer on how Hector is normally vs. the effect that the Curse has on him. I can infere that his real personality is how politely he speaks to Julia... but was it intended, or am I once again working for the writing?

#castlevania #lament of innocence #curse of darkness #i guess this should also be a lesson to sega #which has developed the habit of commissioning short prequel comics for their games #such as forces tsr and frontiers #yeah now we can read them... but what about in 20 years? #admittedly those prequels are way more useless than the cv ones so it's not a huge loss but still

[everrgrreeen]

I think the thing that kills me the most about Detroit: Become Human is that the whole premise, the story, the characters, the themes, etc are so compelling and timely even more so now in the mid 2020s than they were in 2018, with the rise of AI and everything... However, the writing just does not do any of it justice. David Cage (regardless of what you think about him personally) really did create something special here, but the execution left a lot of things to be desired. There is just so much wasted potential and it leaves me feeling unsatisfied, like there's an itch I just can't scratch.

I understand that it's a massive and complicated video game with so many options for the player to shape the story (and that's the whole point of the game - that you get to decide the fate of the characters and therefore how the story progresses). However I think that this in addition to the format, the fact that it is a video game, contributes to it's downfall. It sets up limitations that there's no way to avoid. Generally speaking, there just isn't time to fully flesh everything out, especially when it comes to the characters themselves and their motivations. So many little details that would make for a better story are pushed aside and fall victim to the progression of the narrative for the sake of the game itself. But I'd argue that the things which are just glossed over, the things mentioned once and never brought up again are essential to the narrative and would have really brought greater clarification as well as more meaning overall. But there simply isn't the time to do that, not when you're balancing things like action scenes and interactive gameplay that so many are expecting because ultimately it is a game - and a game based on player choices at that. To create a truly fulfilling story, QD and DC would have had to choose only one of the possible outcomes to focus on. And that would undermine the entire concept of the game, that every choice you make matters and can change the outcome.

While I do enjoy D:BH and what it offers, I often find myself getting stuck on the potential it had to do something even more profound than what it has. In a sense, I think DC almost bit off more than he could chew when writing it - and I don't know if he necessarily could have done it better. Perhaps in a different format we could have gotten a piece of media that explored everything in a more in-depth, satisfying, meaningful way. And there are so many opportunities for us fans to do that now: whether it's through fanfiction where people can do more worldbuilding and exploration of themes/characters, or here on tumblr or reddit where we can get really meta about it through fandom discourse.

I hate to close this by quoting fucking Abby Lee Miller from Dance Moms, but it's the only way I'm able to put how I feel about D:BH into one concise statement: "you were good, I'm waiting for you to be great."

#detroit become human #detroit: become human #dbh #sorry if this doesn't make sense it did in my head #i think as people in fandom we often tend to fall in love with the potential of the thing more so than the actual thing #but that is extra true for dbh for me personally

[free-chozo-hrt]

The Metroid game most badly in need of a remake:

Bear with me here. I've got some Ideas about this game.

Metroid Prime Hunters is, for sure, one of the black sheep of the Metroid series. Its premise and game structure are pretty different from every other game, since it puts a large focus on multiplayer in a series defined by isolated single player experiences. It's hard to get a hold of, and it's not as fondly remembered as the rest of the Prime games. But why?

Admittedly I haven't personally seen all that the game has to offer, so don't consider this a full review. However, I have a copy on DS, and I've played enough to develop some insights about the game:

Hunters must be driven primarily by its multiplayer gameplay. Though I never got to experience it, I've heard good things about the pvp combat from those who have.

The game does have a pretty significant singleplayer campaign, but it feels very half-baked. Maps are supposedly borrowed straight from multiplayer arenas, making the layout of some parts of the game a bit unintuitive and confusing to navigate. Upgrades are also borrowed from multiplayer, and come in the form of alternate arm cannon weapons... and not much else. The adventure on each planet you visit is pretty repetitive. It didn't offer enough original material to keep me engaged until the end of the game, so I never finished.

The game is severely held back by its original hardware. For a full 3D adventure game where it's important to recognize details in your environment, the low resolution of the DS screen makes that task difficult. The aiming system using the touch pad is creative, but holding your DS in that position can be hard on the hands for long play sessions.

The game has plenty of shortcomings, so what good do I see in it? Well, Metroid Prime Hunters attempted some really unique ideas, and I'm intrigued by what would happen if they were executed better.

For starters, like I mentioned, the game's competitive multiplayer is well remembered. This isn't the only time the Metroid series has attempted multiplayer experiences, either pvp or co-op, but none of them are particularly well received by fans. That's understandable given the nature of Metroid games, and what we come to expect from them. But I'm fascinated by the possibility of a full-featured Metroid competitive shooter with a lot of effort put into it.

That brings me to my next point: the characters. Any good competitive shooter needs a diverse cast of player characters to choose from. And oh boy, the characters introduced by Metroid Prime Hunters are probably my favorite part of the game. It's the first game to put forth the idea that Samus shares the galaxy with other bounty hunters like her, and it gives us a whole gallery of freaky aliens for the roles, all with unique backstories and abilities. And then they never get used for anything outside this game! Wasted potential! I want to know more about them!

Let me lay out my ideas for a dream reimagining of Metroid Prime Hunters:

It needs to have fantastic online pvp. I'm no expert on the genre myself, but something in the same team shooter vein as Splatoon, TF2, or Overwatch is what I'm envisioning. You need to be able to start matchmaking and get right into a fun, well-balanced match whenever you want.

The characters need a wide range of abilities with very different playstyles to suit everyone's tastes. In fact, it wouldn't hurt to give them some personality too: voice lines would be welcome. Samus, of course, would take her place among the playable cast.

Because I want to have my cake and eat it too, this game should have a great singleplayer campaign. It doesn't have to be too long or complicated, but it should at least be creative and dynamic the whole way. It would star Samus, of course, but imagine the story potential if the other hunters were allowed to be more than just boss encounters, and actually contribute to the narrative in their own way.

So, what do you think? Do you think the ideas behind Metroid Prime Hunters have a lot of potential? Do you want to see how they could be executed on modern hardware, with a bit more care and ambition? Do you think Metroid is the right choice for Nintendo to branch out into the more mature competitive shooter genre? (Can you tell this idea excites me?)

#metroid #metroid prime hunters

[overobsessedfanboy23]

Okay so my thoughts on Go Rush’s most recent arc

The first Yugioh arc I got to watch as it was coming out (only two episodes of it were out when I fully caught up on the show), a pretty momentous occasion for me that I’ve been looking forward to for quite a while.

The arc is also Go Rush’s equivalent of WRGP.

Was it as bad as that? I guess not, it was far shorter and I enjoyed a greater ratio of it than I did of WRGP, where apart from the mildly good Team Taiyo, and okay final duel, I was either completely bored out of my mind or filled with rage the entire time. This arc of Go Rush meanwhile, of the thirteen episodes it gave us, I fully enjoyed... five. And thought two (the finale) were okay while everything else ranged from boring to awful. Characters were butchered, the story took directions I couldn’t get invested in, and the amount of Sevens fan service was more excessive and distracting than it ever has been in this show before.

It wasn’t so bad that I’m quitting the show, I do feel like they can recover from this lackluster arc. 5Ds recovered from the far longer WRGP arc after all so maybe Go Rush can have its equivalent of Ark Cradle soon. I hope it can.

MORE DETAILED THOUGHTS UNDER THE CUT, INCLUDING SPOILERS FOR THE NEWEST EPISODES.

The first three episodes of their arc were a strong start that showed a lot of promise, the initial premise was really enticing and interesting. I also liked the Yuhi vs Tremolo duel, and Tremolo as a character overall. His scenes even in the lesser episodes were enjoyable, he seems like a fun character despite his shotty introduction and I hope we learn more about him and Phaser as the show goes forward.

The episode where they raid MIK headquarters, despite its fumblings, was also pretty good and pretty much the last time I had fun with this arc. I did think the final duel between Yudias and Phaser was okay (Phaser being a dragon alien was cool but man did his humanoid dragon form look weird as shit), but it would’ve been a lot more enjoyable if nearly everything between the MIK raid and that duel didn’t range from boring to downright awful. The treatment of Manabu’s character and shafting of his potential arc this season was frustrating, as was Zwijo being... way too different after what happened last season. He and Phaser both feel like they changed too much in such a short amount of time to the point where I can’t really believe they’re genuine.

I also couldn’t stand the overabundance of Sevens fan service this arc. I love Sevens but having two episodes in this cat world that accomplished nothing for the overall story, or really even the characters, brought the pacing to a screeching halt. It felt like filler, filler that wasn’t funny or charming. It just felt like the creators of this show were shaking the audience and going “HEY REMEMBER SEVENS?! YOU SHOULD WATCH SEVENS SO YOU CAN UNDERSTAND THIS SCENE! SEVENS IS REQUIRED VIEWING FOR GO RUSH NOW SO SUCK ON THAT, DICK NIPS.”

And that’s obnoxious, as someone who does like Sevens, so if anything, I feel bad for the people who didn’t see or like Sevens but were enjoying Go Rush only to be bombarded by so much sudden Sevens continuity and fan service that didn’t even provide anything new for Sevens fans. For me, as a Sevens fan, the episode where they travel to Sevens time felt like it was just there to remind me of a better show I could’ve been watching instead.

Go Rush has its own identity out of Sevens and a unique charm to it despite being a sequel and before THAT episode, it could be enjoyed without having seen Sevens. I’m gonna use GX as an example, I know I do that way too much but both GX and Go Rush are sequel shows that shifts the focus to different characters than its predecessor so I think it’s a fair comparison.

In GX, no DM character was a major player in the plot like Yuga is in Go Rush and while GX had DM fan service here and there for sure, the fan service was never so bad it took away from or overshadowed the new characters. Sure, Judai duelled Yugi in the final duel but that was at the very end of the show, like a fun extra, and it still tied into Judai’s character arc first and foremost. GX knew to keep the focus on its new characters and themes and as a result, despite being a sequel, it felt like a completely distinct experience from DM and even surpassed that show for me.

Every time Yuga is onscreen in Go Rush though, it just makes me realise how much more I care about him than any of the new Go Rush episodes because time that should’ve been used to develop those characters was instead used to remind us of the old characters.

So overall, Go Rush needs to shape up and shape up fast. I want to enjoy this show, and have enjoyed it in the past, so please. Go Rush, be Go Rush, don’t be Sevens Pt 2: Convoluted Time Travel BS Boogaloo.

#yugioh #ygo #yugioh go rush #ygo go rush #go rush #yugioh go rush spoilers #go rush spoilers #yugioh gx #ygo gx #yugioh sevens #ygo sevens #sevens #gx

[tymime]

Lola Bunny in the comic books

I’ve discussed at length my views and opinions about Lola Bunny before (https://tymime.tumblr.com/post/174484746321/lola-bunny-is-one-of-animations-more), but something I’ve been wanting to really dive into was her sporadic appearances in DC’s Looney Tunes comic book series in the late ‘90s and early 2000s.

I think these are the most overlooked and underrated depictions of Lola ever, and actually very much key to understanding her personality, history, and potential. The trouble is, I’ve been waiting many years for someone to scan all the issues with her in it. But back in the day, I had issue #92, and when I read the Lola story within, I didn’t even blink. The basic premise of most of her stories is a weird one, but it somehow works. Her job is to deliver pizza. But she delivers pizza to gods, monsters, and other supernatural beings, traversing dangerous landscapes, fighting off viscious wild animals, and generally taking care of business. So like, when I was 13, it didn’t even occur to me that this was at all unusual. Of course she’s a kick-butt action girl. Why wouldn’t she be? What else would she be? I had seen Xena. I watched cartoons with strong female leads. I didn’t even have to think about it. There wasn’t any doubt in my mind that Lola could be more than a sports-obsessed, one-dimensional teen fantasy. It actually baffles me when I see anyone suggest otherwise, like the director for Space Jam: A New Legacy did. As if she wasn’t always the tough, proactive, heroic type. Of course Lola is an Amazonian warrior.

But let’s actually look at her first appearance in the comics, after the Space Jam graphic novel, in issue #60, 1999 (why it took three years for this to happen I can’t guess).

Right off the bat, we see Lola fighting off a jaguar with a machete and a board with a nail in it. The narration implies that a woman would do a better job at exploring and surviving the South American rainforest than a man could. I’m all here for it. It’s also an obvious parody of Tomb Raider and Lara Croft- probably because of the similarity between their figures, which for some reason people wouldn’t stop talking about for about two decades. While I haven’t played those games myself, I’m sure there’s much more to it than that, and it’s kind of a relief that we’re finally over it.

Something that these comics do well is give Lola additional quirks and traits. This first story does it straight away:

Apparently Lola has no sympathy for panhandlers. I’m not sure how I feel about that, since that sort of attitude often extends into dismissing homeless people who can’t get jobs for one reason or another, but hopefully Lola isn’t as black-and-white about the issue as she seems here.

At first it seems like a straightforward parody of temple-raiding adventures, à la Indiana Jones and even Ray Harryhausen movies, but then comes the twist:

Nearly all these stories follow a similar format- Lola has to deal with nasty aggressive demons and beasts to deliver a pizza from Machu Pizza (get it?), and she doesn’t break a sweat. I’m not sure how the writers (kudos to Sean Carolan and Jennifer Moore) came up with the idea, but it’s incredibly original and inspired and I’m glad they ran away with it.

Her next appearance in issue #71 is unfortunately a bit of a step backward, seen here portraying a parody of Daphne from Scooby-Doo, but I suppose there wasn’t anybody else available.

Luckily she goes right back to pizza delivery soon afterward in issue #76 (albeit nearly two years after the first time).

Apparently Lola’s mother was a fan of a ‘70s soul/disco singer named Vicki Sue Robinson. It’s weird randomness like this that makes these comics special, I think.

Another aspect about this depiction of Lola is that she shows just as much sharp wit, quick thinking, and cleverness that any good trickster should have- just like Bugs. And yet, she’s not just a carbon copy of Bugs, as it should be.

We also get a glimpse of Lola’s past in issue #80:

Apparently she’s a Beatles fan, which is always cool.

As I said, I had issue #92, completely out of context, but I caught on to the premise immediately nonetheless.

Here we learn that Lola is actually part of some legendary lineage, which prevents the gods from starting a war with each other. Sounds like a pretty big deal. Lola is fed up with all this nonsense, so she quits her job and starts working at a clothing store. I think this exchange speaks for itself:

Eventually, however, she gets bored of nothing happening, and nobody else can deal with the mythical creatures like she can, so she returns to Machu Pizza with newfound confidence.

I think this is great stuff. She doesn’t put up with any guff.

Unfortunately, that’s the last of the pizza delivery stories, and it’s a shame there are so few of them, because it’s quite possibly the best material Lola ever had. I think more than anything it represents Lola at her fullest, and shows how much potential she has to be a regular character, instead of someone who just shows up every now and then, only to be reinterpreted once again.

Lola also wouldn’t make another proper appearance until 2011 in issue #203, only making background cameos in the meantime. This story- which is all about roller derby- is a bit underwhelming in comparison to her older comics. Sure, her sportiness comes into play for the first time since Space Jam (weirdly enough, considering that’s what she’s best known for), but she doesn’t get to do very much. There are good moments, though:

I’m into it. (The first panel implies Bugs and Lola knew each other in junior high/middle school, which is an interesting tidbit. It contradicts how they’ve never seen each other before in Space Jam, but Looney Tunes has never been much for continuity anyway.)

And that’s it for stories focused on Lola. From then on, her appearances are brief and insubstantial. In issue #220, she’s only in a few panels as an angry police chief.

In 2017, she appears in a Star Trek parody in issue #239, playing the Lt. Uhura part, and is essentially just as limited.

In 2019, she returns as a basketball player, and still doesn’t do much. They’re obviously trying to make her look more like she does in Space Jam, but no attempt is made to make her a main character.

Her most recent cameo is in 2023’s issue #269, which suggests that she won an award for journalism of all things.

And that’s it. Outside of Space Jam: A New Legacy and its graphic novel adaptation, there really hasn’t been very much OG Lola Bunny media at all.

In fact, the largest amount of screentime Lola ever gets is in Baby Looney Tunes of all things. That’ll be another blog for another time, when I finally finish watching that series, and it probably won’t be very long.

Other than that, Lola appears in three video games: Bugs Bunny & Lola Bunny: Operation Carrot Patch (the only time her name was in the title), Looney Tunes Racing (where they actually ramp up the whole “girl power” thing to Nth degree), and Looney Tunes: Space Race. She has minor roles in the webtoon Dating Do’s and Don’ts, and in Tweety's High-Flying Adventure. She has one cameo, and two featured episodes in New Looney Tunes- and only one of ‘em portrays her as smart trickster. She’s a main character in Bugs Bunny Builders, but her personality’s been reduced to a generic perky girl, although they at least refrain from making her stupid again. I actually like this show, though.

So why is this? Why do people struggle with writing for Lola anyway? It doesn’t seem so hard. The whole trouble is almost everybody seems to have a different perspective of the character, and I can’t figure out why. It seems pretty straightforward to me- she’s good at sports, she’s smart, she’s strong-willed, and doesn’t like being pushed around or not taken seriously. This is a personality type that’s been done before, in every genre. So what’s the deal with Lola? Why do people think she’s terrible or needs “fixing”? It doesn’t help that most of these comics are long out of print, hard to collect, and they’re not given much attention in the first place. They seem to be best known for starting Dave Alvarez’s career in Looney Tunes projects.

I suspect there’s not only a big wad of sexism involved, but also a general resentment towards Space Jam in general. The whole “how do you do fellow kids” aspect of that movie has dated it, I’ll admit, and I never took the whole hip-hop Looney Tunes thing that was going in the late ‘90s very seriously, even when I was a kid.

But that shouldn’t mean Lola should be dragged into it. Sure, the way they handle the character isn’t flawless- she literally comes out of nowhere, with hardly any proper introduction at all. We have no idea who she is or where she came from in the movie, and we probably never will. Her independent, self-reliant traits are a bit undermined when Bugs has to come to her rescue, briefly turning her into a damsel-in-distress. It’s not perfect, but then again, I’m not sure how else Bugs was going to become her boyfriend in the screen time available.

Why this makes people hate her or even see her as sexist, I can’t imagine.

She’s also one of the newest Looney Tunes characters. There hadn’t been a new character groomed for stardom since Cool Cat and his ilk, in the late ‘60s. I’m sure to some people she seemed like an intrusive wannabe. Why she gets picked on instead of even newer characters like Claudette Dupri from New Looney Tunes, or even the Nerdlucks from the same movie (who are even more underused), I can’t guess. So maybe it’s just sexism after all.

Opinions about Lola vary wildly. So what’s the deal? Well, let’s examine the most negative views of her: Is she a oversexualized pin-up? While there’s obviously some degree of sexualization in the way the artists designed her curvy, semi-hourglass figure, this is just falling into the “fictional women aren’t allowed to be sexy” trap that men who pretend to be feminists often do. On the other hand, it’s understandable that you wouldn’t want to make ALL female cartoon characters bombshells and eye candy. But hey, why not use Petunia Pig, Granny, Miss Prissy, or even the She-Devil to balance things out? Why not come up with solutions instead of complaining about it?

Is she a stereotypical “girl power” sporty type? Is this even a thing? Why would anyone want to undermine positive female role models? There’s a disturbing trend recently of people wanting to criticize the whole “action princess” thing, and I can’t understand why. Seems dangerous to me. Sounds like more fake feminism if you ask me. (I’m a guy though, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.)

Is the ditzy, dumb blonde version an improvement? Why is this even a question?? I don’t know how making her a complete airhead is supposed to be “less sexist”. It’s like opposite-day logic. And no, we shouldn’t mix in the “wackiness” of the LTS version with her original version. She doesn’t need it. God no.

So there you have it. If it were up to me, I’d be making cartoons starring Lola with this exact same premise. Hopefully this blog will spread some awareness of Lola’s best work. If you wanna track down these comics, here’s a list of all the best ones: #60, #76, #80, #84, #88, #92, #117, and #203.

#lola bunny #looney tunes #space jam #bugs bunny #space jam a new legacy #toon #cartoon #animation #unpopular opinion #apparently

[sirdust]

im so glad I'm not the only one who thought the show was so shit,, like is this really the thing we were waiting for 4 years since it was announced?? did nobody tell them to stop with unnecessary sex jokes and that god AWFUL camera movements is so bad it's funny. even my 16yo obsessed self wouldn't approve 😭 i only watched bc of pure nostalgia and oh my god, they did not deliver and i was disappointed. the ONLY characters and things I liked were Vox, Sir Pentious, and Zestial. they were pretty neat. It's so bad it's lowk funny,, was there NOBODY who told them to just CONSIDER listening to fans advice if they're too ignorant to see them themselves?? it seriously BAFFLES me that people were PROFESSIONAL people behind this,,...there ain't no way they were serious with that script man😭. I've read COUNTLESS of fanfics that were better. and that says something?

| sorry about the long angry rant before omg,, but I was also a fan just as you and i also feel so bitter about what they did with the whole narrative of the show. imagine if the creator was normal and that the script wasn't a cringe dumpsterfire. the POTENTIAL this show had was sooo big 😭 I don't think about it anymore, it was my biggest teenage hyperfixation but it randomly pops up in my mind every 2/3 months bc of nostalgia. and I'm like it was cringe but i was so happy back then. it had POTENTIALLL😭 |

i understand how you feel 😔 my expectations have been at rock bottom since hb s2 premiered, but it's still frustrating and disappointing to see a project with such a genius premise go largely to waste. testing the viability of a rehabilitative justice system in hell ??? i would do just about anything to be able to come up with a hook like that !!!

i really don't mind that the show is cringe, or that the comedy is weak, or even that a lot has changed from the pilot stage to the final (even if a lot of elements seem to have stayed the same on the surface). the biggest issue is ultimately the show's failure to give its story and characters room to breathe. it's cramming as much as it can into the short amount of episodes ordered, which comes at the expense of the storytelling quality.

#asks #anon

[kirame90]

I've been meaning to send this to you for a while now but I've been having a depressive episode lately and everything, including sending messages, has been out of my reach.

I just wanted to say I love your comic! Waiting for a new update is something that gives me reason to look forward to a new week. I also appreciate how you've been making it for such a long time and still going all until the conclusion (so by that regard you're already doing a better job than Valve 😆 ... 7th issue "To be concluded". *sniff*) Seriously, this is why TF2 fandom is so great: even when the game is ancient by the industry standards, fans keep putting out new content.

SniperSpy (opposite teams) is such a fun ship because it's pretty much bound to be an enemies-turned-lovers story but every artist has their own way of doing it, so it's always interesting to see how each person handles it. The starting premise of your comic is one of the more unique ones I've seen 😆 And on a good way, mind you: TF2 is a game known for its sometimes very absurd humour ("When the patient woke up, his skeleton was missing"... Medic, HOW???), so the lifetime supply of Spy fits that tone just perfectly. So does the reason why Heavy the wish-fulfilling fairy is banned for good now, I laughed a good while at that.

I Finnish too but wrote this in English, so all your followers would be able to understand it. But feel free to message me in Finnish if you feel like it, I'm all for making new fandom friends. 👋

Oh fudge, depression is a bitch. I'm sorry to hear you're struggling with that, it can get incredibly exhausting at times. Or all the time... Have a SniperSpy hug

Thank you for taking the time to write this message, even when you're having a hard time. It truly means the world to me to know I can bring some joy into people's lives with this little comic of mine.

Yeeaaaaaahhhh the official comic... The One Who Must Not Be Named and Probably Will Never Be Finished. If it makes you feel any better (I know it won't) I came up with an idiot-proof plot that would have ended the comic before we even got to the second part: Soldier beats Olivia (who has disappeared into thin air from the actual comic) because he has no sense of morality like Saxton does so he becomes the head of the company. Then Saxton beats him up immediately after and they chase Grey and Olivia away along with their robot army. The end!

Long story told in less than one full comic. You're welcome, Valve!

Now where was I?

Oh yeah the point.

Enemy Sniper/Spy is so much fun in every possible way of how much potential it has when it comes to smut, drama, humor and well... EVERYTHING! You can do pretty much anything you want with it, depending on what you like. And I just happened to like senseless slapstick that later on turned into drama fest and now it's on fluff mode.

I seriously don't even know what I'm rambling on, this is one of those replies that just goes on and on because I don't know how to stop. Very much like my comic the more I think about it...

And since you are literally the first one who thought the FBI banning Medic from giving Kritzkrieg fumes to Heavy after sex (booyyy people didn't like that twist!), have a sneak peek of the next week's page

Again, thank you so very much for your feedback, it's always a great pleasure to hear people's comments. And I know it's such a cliché to say this but I genuinely do hope you'll feel better soon. Even if just a little bit.

#thank you #dABHBFNbvnldwfn and ask #that was a lot of words for #why do my replies always turn into essays?? #k90

[itsclydebitches]

Totally agree with your take on The Blacklist “(…) I’m watching the stupidest plot-line man ever devised, or a character suddenly did a 180 with no explanation, and yeah that makes the meta-writing part of my brain seethe and bite her imaginary pillow to muffle screams of rage… but then the characters have A Moment™, or there’s an actually well done twist, or we get an action sequence that yeah, is pretty silly when all is said and done, but it’s fun and I remember why I want to watch this show through to the end.” is exactly how I feel when watching lol

You know, I'm two episodes from finishing Season Three and while killing time today my poor brain was trying to unpack the roller coaster that has been Liz's opinion of Red lately:

Grows quite close while on the run, to the point where she'll impulse hug him and seek comfort in other ways following traumatic situations (like almost being shot). Fantastic. Love to see it. Makes perfect sense given 2+ years of interactions, revelations, and Liz's current circumstances.

Gets her life back and immediately decides that she wants Red out. Okaaaay. I've never questioned the whole 'I want a normal life and you make that impossible' perspective, but you'd think that everything they'd gone through would change her stance a bit from what we've seen in Seasons One and Two.

They settle back into working together non-stop, but Liz simultaneously insists that she doesn't want him around, a contradictory desire that's been a problem since the show's start and is pretty much ignored instead of being resolved. (Which, given the show's premise that requires them working together, should be resolved by Liz changing her stance on what a 'normal' life means. Which is what I THOUGHT we'd accomplished post-fugitive plot-line).

We get a series of episodes where Liz is literally pushing him away in the first half and then, like, holding his hand in the second??

Is completely adamant that she can't have a kid because Red is in her life.

Decides to keep the kid in large part because Red insists she should have the child in her life.

'Omg, Red, you need to stay away you're not safe for my family!'

'Omg, Red, I'm so happy you came to the wedding! :D'

Has pretty normal (for them) interactions surrounding the wedding debacle, including quippy dialogue and making light of horrifying situations. We're on familiar ground.

Is, again, her normal self where she (understandably) is pissed about shit like giving birth in a night club, but ultimately caves to the insanity that is her life.

Takes a hard turn into full-blown fury. No, you can't hold my baby. Get out. Get away.

A few minutes later Liz is falling into a coma and holds Red's hand: "Oh, Raymond. I do love..." Use of 'love.' Use of 'do.' Use of the first name. Supposed last words. Blah-de-blah I'm about six years behind and fans have analyzed that scene way better than I ever could.

Okay so Liz has been conflicted in a lot of non-persuasive ways and yeah, so much of this is contradictory/nonsensical, BUT if we're charitable we can write a lot of it off as traumatic venting and when the chips are down these are her real feelings--

Psych! She apparently faked this whole thing to try and achieve her normal life.

(Don't even get me started on stuff like the long scenes of Tom grieving when, from what I understand, he was in on the plan the whole time? You should only show the audience moments of 'grief' when he's around other people so we can later understand it as an act! Showing the viewer private moments of him talking to Agnus when he has no reason to hide what he really knows/feels in that moment doesn't work!!)

So I'm quietly seething at the absurdity and lost potential, heading home all, "That's it. I've got better shows to watch. I'm finishing this ONE EPISODE and then we are done, Blacklist."

The episode:

[Aram is the cutest cutie to ever cute, adorably blundering his way through working with Tom]

[Cooper stands his ground and announces to friend and enemy alike that he'll never stop trying to get justice for Liz]

[Red pulls a legitimately impressive one-over on the bad guy du jour]

[Unexpected moment of relief when a background character nobody survives a bomb]

[Dembe exists]

"FINE. I'LL KEEP WATCHING. ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?"

(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

#Blacklist #The Blacklist #mymetas

[feferipeixes]

following up from a-ya’s pokemon team, it’s time to talk about c-ta’s pokemon team!

me and @cha-momile​ and @into-demise​ worked on this together! Our basic premise was that he is a Normal Guy who is Sooooo Normal so all of his pokemon are normal type. He’s not trying to stand out too much, yknow? He doesn’t want to be “the very best”. He’s just trying to keep his balance.

Explanations under the cut!

Indeedee is so ridiculously apropos for him that I cannot believe it. The Pokedex entry for male Indeedee says “It uses the horns on its head to sense the emotions of others. Males will act as valets for those they serve, looking after their every need.” C-ta meets this little creature and does this:

Type: Null is complicated. Type: Null is there because C-ta has a fondness for ugly creatures, as seen with his well-known taste in cringe guys. The thing about Type: Null is that it has a helmet clamped onto its head that is meant to control it, and the helmet comes off when it evolves, but it only evolves through the power of friendship. I think that C-ta can’t manage to get it to evolve, because he doesn’t understand why his friendship with A-ya isn’t working out. So instead Type: Null is stuck like this, being controlled, unable to be free. I am begging you to listen to Re:Missed Call.

Bewear is simple -- it’s a big stuffed bear (stuffed like the doll C-ta gave to A-ya...) who hugs you so tightly that you might die!! It’s like... some sort of metaphor for how overbearing C-ta is toward A-ya. Weird...

Purugly again calls back to C-ta being like “the uglier you are the more insane I get from looking at you”.

Eevee is a fan-favourite Pokemon, but mostly because of its ability to evolve into whatever you want! C-ta’s decision not to let his Eevee evolve is like he’s wasting Eevee’s potential. It doesn’t matter what Eevee could become -- it matters that everything stays the same, because change might tear him apart. C-ta’s life could even be better than it is right now if he let things change (please read Miserable) but he doesn’t want to risk it, because he likes how things are now. It’s tolerable, now.

And as for Dunsparce, it’s just a friendly little worm! It’s scared and it’s pretty feeble (it notably can only flutter “a little bit” off the ground). But he loves it because A-ya gave it to him!

The last thing to say about C-ta’s team is that it contrasts with A-ya’s team very well. A-ya being a Ghost type trainer and C-ta being a Normal type trainer means that they can’t actually interact. Their advances do nothing to one another. They are ships in the night and it sucks to watch.

#shuuenpro #shuuen no shiori #pokemon #a-ya #c-ta #shouganainaa a-ya wa

[simplegenius042]

Soulmate AU Protagonists and Antagonists Story Idea

Admittedly, I've never been the biggest fan of soulmate AUs. I suppose it's never been something that fits the whole schtick I'm going with in the fanfics I'm writing (the whole theme of "screw destiny" and the subversions or alternate perspectives of things such as fate, destiny, the chosen one, etc).

That doesn't mean I hate the AU, or the stories I've read (no matter if they were either incredible or cliched, dark or wholesome). But besides the worldbuilding and the dynamics and the slowburns, there really wasn't much to offer for me. Not that there wasn't any unoriginality, but it was lacking some kind of specific conflict (whether it be in the story itself or between characters).

I have read plenty of ways the AU is handled. And the general consensus I've found is mostly along the lines of "slowburn of Character A & Character B, dislike/enemies-to-fated-lovers" (whether the enemy part is justified or not depends on the themes) and rarely found any subversions like "Character A rejects Character B for, let's face it, justifiable reasons and ends up with Character C outside the universe's laws and society expectations" and even rarer "Character A doesn't like Character B very much and the universe acknowledges this so allows A to fate themselves to the better suitor, Character C". And these stories ARE enduring to read, but it just wasn't enough for the itch I was trying to scratch (It's really hard to explain, and a strange feeling overall).

Like, mostly it's heavily focused on the romance aspect (understandable, soulmate is in the name) instead of the implications that come with the fact people have soulmates and have initials/marks/symbols/names/countdowns/etc, etc to prove it. Most of the time, those implications are brushed over briefly (again, understandable), and rarely touched upon. Not only that, but the AU itself doesn't leave much argument on the pros and cons of being fated (besides the obvious "mutually disliked persons/enemies are fated" to each other) or the morality and potential existential conflicts that are there in the AU, if that's easy to understand (which I've rarely seen anyone touch upon, which is again, understandable, as that's not the whole point of the AU, and it is nobodies responsibility to write those specific premise out).

Don't get me wrong, overall the AU is an incredibly interesting premise to write out in beloved fandoms, especially with your favourite characters involved, but it just wasn't something for me...

...until today.

Given the implications of the soulmate AU (specifically, that you have a soul that is bound to another person, therefore implying a level of spiritual mythos (destiny, magic, red string of fate, etc), and even more religious ones (like God, angels, heaven and hell) exists in the AU), I think I can write a fulfilling fanfic with it. Both with original (well, I say original for some of these characters, but also somewhat alternate take on) characters and even an intriguing conflict.

The conflict and arguments of the story centres around two pairs of character. First pair are the protagonists; the (re: God's) Angel of Life, Archangel Metatron, and one of Death's aspiring newest recruits, an Angel of Death by the name of Azriel (and no, this is not Azrael, the (re: God's) Angel of Death, Azriel is the growing human soul of a girl at 11-years-old now who literal-Death-itself took in because she died an infant and couldn't be taken in to either Heaven nor Hell due to not being able to live for long). The second pair are antagonists; a hellborne-demon from the Sloth Ring by the name of Xiang Ba'al, and his adopted daughter, the wrongfully damned soul of a young girl (around 10-years-old) by the name of Jezebel Ba'al (Jazzy for short). Now despite being protagonists and antagonists, these two pairs of characters fall in a (light and dark, respectively) grey morality with mixes of blue/orange morality (which is a given; these are beings with a limited and/or flawed understanding of human beings and who live in two very flawed and different systems (both Heaven and Hell have issues)). This light/dark grey morality eventually evens out and gets greyer and greyer as the story goes on.

Essentially, both pairs fight for and against the soulmate system... both understand that the system is both a great idea but severely flawed and go about to preserve yet change it... however, how they both go about it is the difference. The angels' method, while manipulative on emotional levels, is less likely to cause physical harm, but is also slow and time consuming which may not even work sometimes leading to unexpected confrontations between humans. Meanwhile, the demons' method, while physically forceful to horrific degrees, gets effective results fast, but is a violation on the humans' right of choice.

Additional Notes: Metatron and Azriel have a flawed yet growing mentor/student and brother/sister dynamic while Xiang and Jazzy have a pretty caring yet horrifyingly psychotic father/daughter and master/underling dynamic. They both travel and pop up in any universe with a Soulmate AU.

Anyway that's just me talking about things on my mind and my ideas of a fic series I'm going to write.

Chow!

#soulmate au #new fanfiction idea #oc: metatron #archangel metatron #oc: azriel #baby girl seed #oc: xiang ba'al #oc: jezebel “jazzy” ba'al