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intrepid-fictioneer-7 · 3 months

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I've come to the conclusion that, in my humble opinion, Higashide is the writer in TYPE-MOON who makes the best ships involving Heroic Spirits.

Which might sound really weird. After all, the central couple in Fate/Apocrypha is Sieg/Jeanne d'Arc, and it's a pretty divisive one. No offense to those who like it, but it's always a dynamic I thought made no real sense narratively and didn't have much chemistry. Sieg on his journey of self-affirmation and personhood didn't need a romance (except maybe with Astolfo, with whom the dynamic is much more fun). Jeanne, the historical figure who rejected a marriage proposal, wore male clothing, and whose famous nickname refers to her celibacy, getting into a romance just never vibed with me (especially when it felt like the parallels/relationship between her and Shirou Kotomine were far more relevant). Add to that the ending copying Last Episode without what made LE have a strong impact, and it makes the whole even less appealing.

But despite that, Apo is also the work where there is the surprising ship of Shirou Amakusa and Queen Semiramis of all people: the semi-legendary Assyrian queen credited with making one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world falling in love with the young charismatic Japanese Christian who rebelled against the shogunate and failed. It's a very strange crossover ship between two people who never could have met if not for being brought back and it somehow works in being endearing.

(Achilles and Atalanta kinda count I guess, but it's a one-sided ship with little reasoning, that I care so little about, and is eclipsed by the more compelling foils each get, Chiron for Achilles, Jeanne for a Jackie the Ripper-driven mad Atalante.)

Higaside having grown and improved as a writer by the time of FGO, what followed this growth was him not doing a repeat of Sieg/Jeanne, but writing better ships mostly involving Servants. Asterios the Minotaur and Euryale the Gorgon; last Byzantine emperor Constantine IX and fictional Popess Johanna; heck, you can even see the relationship between Mordred and Dr. Jekyll this way (it also works as simple close friendship). Being characters from usually completely different mythologies and historical cultures, there is care done to make it clear why they fall for each other and as a result these couples are very different from one another instead of being the same formula everytime. In a game where a lot of (female) Servants are made to fall for the last Master of Chaldea for sometimes very little reason, these are a breath of fresh air.

For all my problems with her, Sakurai does something similar, though her ships are usually people who canonically were together in their legends: Sigurd/Brynhild, Aslaug/Ragnar Lodbrok, Julius Caesar/Cleopatra, Ozymandias/Nefertari, Tomoe Gozen/Kiso Yoshinaka, etc. They can be one note and there is a repeated thematic tendency of hers of writing "inhuman woman discovering humanity by falling in love", but they tend to be very cute and I easily understand that these people are in love even beyond death, so I root for them to reunite. Higashide also has "canonical" pairings, but the results are more muddled here: Siegfried and Kriemhild are adorable as a divorced couple where there are clearly still feelings, no matter what the tsundere wife says. But Rama and Sita are just...there. I understand the point of their separation, but it's not very engaging and Rama essentially disappeared after the American Singularity, while Sita was yeeted to Arcade. A mark against Higashide, but not as bad as Sieg/Jeanne and overshadowed by the numbers of better ships he wrote in FGO.

And there's Orion and Artemis, where I'm split. Super Orion and LB Artemis was really good and poignant. Orion the teddy bear and ditzy Artemis are a realy bad joke that overstayed its welcome.

FGO prioritizes Master/Servant relationships, both because the last Master of Chaldea is a blank slate for players to self insert into, and also because human×Servant is the type of ship Nasu specializes in (Shirou/Saber, Rin/Saber, Kuzuki/Caster, Caren/Angra Mainyu, and to a lesser extent Bazett/Cu, Yukika/False Assassin, and Ayako/Medusa in FSN; Fate/Extra as a whole; Ritsuka/Castoria in FGO). But even there Higashide made better choices than when he penned Sieg/Jeanne. Charlotte Corday is a surprisingly well-done choice for her archetype, it seems like it's going to be another Kiyohime but no, he actually makes her a good character you get attached to.

And then there is Kadoc and Anastasia. Words cannot describe how much I love them, how their personalities clash and complement each other in the best way, how aesthetically good they look put next to each other, etc. And it's not even just that we got a MasterxServant relationship outside Ritsuka, though that helped.

Basically, Higashide has become my go-to source for good ships, especially intra-Servants ones where Ritsuka is not involved and characters are allowed to not orbit around their Master. Sakurai also provides in that last aspect, but Higashide is doing that and also giving that crossover flavor you see in things like that one Cartoon Network ad with Johnny Bravo and Velma, and that works really well for me.

#yuuichirou higashide #fate series #fate grand order #fate/grand order #fate/go #fgo #shipping #ramblings #not tagging all of them

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evansbby · 10 months

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poyt 5 is such a fucking rollercoaster, y’all! like i feel like people may not like it bc it’s so all over the place and it reads more like a book than a chapter 😭😭 in the sense that there isn’t just a beginning - middle - climax - end. It’s more like, a bazillion ups and downs, about three climaxes, three very emotional and poignant scenes (although I guess the main heart-wrenching scene is the big one in the middle, and then there’s a lot of mini heart-wrenches) and then there’s also a bit of comedic stuff which we haven’t seen in the other poyt parts, and some heavy romance stuff and revelation stuff, of course the main biggest climax, and then the ending and then the epilogue…

I guess I’m saying all this bc I feel like people will get bored halfway through bc it’s so super long 😭😭😭😭 I’m so so so anxious about people losing interest bc poyt 5 is very different structure wise 😭😭 I just threw EVERYTHING in without caution and now I’m editing and it’s like… some scenes are way too long but then I don’t want to cut anything, I feel like everything is so important to the story!!! And I keep thinking back to poyt 4 to reassure myself, bc it was 22k words long but I remember some of you saying that it didn’t FEEL like 22k words bc it went by quickly! I JUST HOPE y’all feel the same way about poyt 5😭

#god I’m so fuckign nervous about this you’d think I’m writing a bestselling novel or smth 😭#but no it’s just my silly little Steve Rogers fic 😭😭 which I am so attached to and I don’t want anything to go wrong #I’m already so scared bc half the poyt fanbase has vanished 😭#like they’ve left tumblr or some have even unfollowed me bc they didn’t like my views on chris musty evans #which is like fair but YALL USED TO LEAVE SUCH DETAILED REVIEWS on the other chapters #I hope this last chapter gets detailed reviews too bc it’s so long jsjsjsjsk and the finale!!!#also remember my 💙 anon they used to leave the most detailed reviews and I miss them 😔😔😔#anyways #my thoughts 💭

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consistentsquash · 28 days

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5 Meta recs for Friday!

Happy Friday!!! <3 I read some really good meta on one of my fav author's writing process yesterday. So Meta Recs Friday! :D

My Writing Process by @squibstress

My name is Squibstress, and I am an unrepentant pantser.

This post is super poignant and really funny. It really shows fandom esp writing fic can be a lonely hobby and a social hobby at the same time. Also it's a super insightful look at not just the writing process because it's also about how the author thinks about the readers/reading experience.

I love, love, love the thoughtfulness Squibstress has for making reading more accessible. This is something you really only get in fandom. This extra attention to detail because it's a community and fandom is a garden <3 Personally I use a screen reader a lot and I can really tell the difference between fics which are going the extra mile for accessibiity on that.

Also TIL one of my fav authors is a pantser :D

Snarry-a-thon Recs by @danpuff-ao3

This is an incredible rec lists effort. Danpuff is making rec lists for Snarry-a-thon one of the longest running HP slash fests ever <3 Normally I don't have rec lists for meta posts but I feel this is such a brilliant meta level list. It's an amazing look at HP slash fandom evolution and also Snarry evolution. Insane levels of genres/tropes/characterization coverage! If you want to get a big picture Snarry fandom fic history this is the rec list for you!!

About Laugh and Forget (1) by @saehaerys

I am a big sucker for meta esp for fic meta for my fav fics. Laugh and Forget is a really dirtyhotbadwrong and super intense House of the Dragon/ASOIAF darkfic. PforPheobe's writing gives me serious Master and Margarita vibes because of that combo of darkness/humor/intense emotion. I have a Big Crush on their writing. Like I am not even a het incest reader but they sold me with their super dark emotional stories.

A bit under a year ago, one day in February, I had a horrible idea that Jaehaerys had coveted Saera and in his terrible covetousness he messed it all up, sending her away for cold repentance, and she fled from his face in mischief and utter disillusionment of their bond. It became increasingly unbearable for me to regard this passage of faux history.

I love fics written by authors with 100% commitment and love with their biggest Canon Feelings/Character Feelings inside it. This fic totally has that vibe. Really raw and super emotional.

The Lightning Struck Tower: “It is My Mercy, Not Yours That Matters Now” by @ashesandhackles

I really love the canon analysis meta from AshesandHackles. Honestly I am not a big reader of HP meta because it's a pretty old fandom and I feel like I don't really see a lot of value in meta at this point. But Ashesandhackles is brilliant at analysis and I feel like I just find new things to love about my fav characters and their parallels when I am reading their meta.

Harry recognises the flaw in the ending chapters of Deathly Hallows, and wins the Elder wand with an Expelliarmus too. Interestingly, it’s a spell Harry learnt by observing Snape in Duelling Club with Lockhart.

This one has incredible, incredible analysis of Snape, Harry and their relationships with Dumbledore. This is definitely not a shipping meta but I feel it's like 10x more powerful than a shipping meta because it just uses the canon to show the similarities/difference between the characters.

Re: Metrics by eldritcher

This is a funny and poignant personal post on writing stats/fandom stats.

Participating in fandom while refusing to buy into fandom's current metrics is a difficult position to take, because it's led to edgy questions now and then re: what keeps me in fandom since my metrics are pathetic (not my wording; my cousin deems anything below five-hundred kudos pathetic).

Artists/authors have a lot of emotional connection with stats for lots of valid reasons. I feel bad when my fav authors are worried about stats but also I totally get it. Eldritcher is pretty idgaf about stats except comments because they love being super chatty and meta on comments. But also it's totally impossible to ignore other stats sometimes. The meta has an interesting point. If you are somebody who cares a lot about your progress, then you got to measure something. But like what's the right thing to measure?

#meta #recs #squash recs #meta recs #multifandom #different types of meta

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ms-hells-bells · 1 year

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(ramble incoming lol)

so i've been on a horror film kick lately and i watched the babadook today; i really liked it, it was super creepy (in a cool way) but i also found the ending emotionally poignant in a unique way that's different from other psychological horror movies i've watched. i don't think the ending of a scary movie has ever affected me the way this one has (in a good way).

now, i'm usually not that good at picking up on symbolism/metaphors in art, but it was super obvious to me that (mild spoiler?) the monster was an allegory for repressed grief. so you can imagine my surprise when i read other people's comments/reviews online, and found that a lot of them seemingly completely missed that? then i realized upon closer inspection that the oblivious comments seemed to primarily be from men. saying they didn't understand the ending or that they wanted a different "tragic" ending. nearly all the reviews that demonstrate understanding of the symbolism are by women. i found out the film was written/directed by a woman, so that probs has something to do with it, but i'm still genuinely kinda weirded out: are men socialized to process grief so differently that they can't recognize it in a woman's narrative, even in blatant metaphor? do they (sub)consciously refuse to mentally engage with any media that subverts their expectations of death/violence? are they just stupid as hell? what is their deal lmao

i hate horror films and shows lol, but i understand what you're saying. men often fail to understand metaphors no matter how deep they pretend to act about film. if it doesn't follow their preset notions of what things are SUPPOSED to mean, as well as whatever philosophy they learned online or in university, especially if it comes from experiences and demographics that they are taught not to empathise with or relate to, like women, then they simply cannot grasp it most of the time.

it's like how most girls read and relate to books with male main characters, but most boys do NOT read books by women or with female main characters, and say it is because they can't relate to girls. their dehumanisation of us actually inhibits the full potential of their psyche and philosophy.

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helix-studios117 · 2 months

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Halo Reloaded: Hangry

Within the Spartans' private area in Fleetcom HQ, a situation was brewing that could only be described as... domestic. Linda and Kelly were caught in the throes of an epic battle, one that had nothing to do with the Covenant, but everything to do with the rumbling discontent of their stomachs. It was a hunger so profound, so primal, that it threatened the very fabric of their unit's camaraderie. Meanwhile, John-117 and Frederic-104 watched in bemusement and mild horror as their normally unflappable comrades transformed into hangry behemoths.

John approached the dilemma with the gravity of planning an interstellar campaign. "Aw, dammit." he exclaimed, eyeing the mess hall's locked doors with a mix of desperation and resolve. Linda, the sniper whose aim was as sharp as her current mood was foul, shot him a glare that could curdle milk.

"John, I love you; but if I don't get something in my system right this second, I will not be responsible for the imminent deaths of anyone who stands between me and a decent meal." she snapped, folding her arms—a gesture that somehow managed to convey both impatience and a menacing promise of violence.

On the other side of the room, Kelly, whose speed was legendary, was now using that attribute to pace a trench into the floor. Fred, ever the voice of reason, attempted diplomacy. "Kelly, bunny-bun, you're going to wear a hole in the titanium flooring at this rate." he chided meekly, only to receive a look that could easily strip paint.

"I will wear a hole in the floor, the ship, and then proceed to run on the vacuum of space if it means getting something to eat, Fred," Kelly retorted, her voice a mix of jest and deadly seriousness. "And why is it that you boys don't have to deal with this? What, did they program you to photosynthesize?"

Fred, caught between amusement and fear for his life, shrugged helplessly. "I guess they thought we'd be too busy carrying heavy things and brooding thoughtfully into the distance."

Recognizing that the situation was deteriorating rapidly, John took decisive action. "Fred, you hit the mess hall. Charm, bribe, threaten—whatever it takes. I'll raid our emergency stash. We've got about five minutes before mutiny."

As Fred sprinted away, John turned to face the women, a man preparing to negotiate with dragons. "Ladies, if you can hold off on eating the junior Spartans for just a few more minutes, we'll have food."

Linda, leaning against a wall with a huff that suggested she was entertaining the idea of just how many calories were in a standard-issue MRE wrapper, nodded once. Kelly, meanwhile, ceased her pacing and eyed John with a mix of skepticism and hope.

What followed was a frenzied ballet of military efficiency and sheer panic. Fred returned, his arms laden with what looked like the entire contents of the mess hall's pantry—his charm offensive had apparently been successful, or perhaps the cooks had simply feared for their lives. John, meanwhile, unearthed a cache of emergency rations so old, they might as well have been made by the Forerunners.

"Here," John announced, laying out the assortment with a flourish that was utterly wasted on his audience, "a feast fit for... Spartans."

Linda and Kelly descended upon the food with the kind of enthusiasm usually reserved for victory celebrations or the discovery of new weaponry. "You are both," Linda declared between bites, "marginally less terrible than starvation."

Kelly, her mouth too full to form coherent words, simply raised a hand in a thumbs-up, her expression one of blissful relief.

The episode, while certainly a departure from their usual brand of heroics, served as a poignant reminder of the Spartan-II's humanity. Yes, they were super-soldiers, capable of extraordinary feats of strength and bravery. But at the end of the day, they were also just people—people who got hangry and whose day could be made or broken by the simple acquisition of a good meal. It was a humbling thought, one that brought a rare smile to John's face as he watched his team, his family, united in the face of adversity... or at least hunger.

#halo #halo fanfic #halo fanfiction #master chief fanfiction #master chief #master chief fanfic #john 117 #halo headcanon #halo au #john/linda #fred 104 #fred 104 x kelly 087 #kelly 087 #john 117 x linda 058 #linda 058 #i love them so much #halo reloaded

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sananaryon · 3 months

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I don't think Norris and Chester are Jon and Martin, and frankly I hope they aren't.

Obviously there is something shady going on, a text to speech program from the 90s would not have that emotive voices, but at the start of TMP Alex Newall specifically stated that this show does not require watching TMA first and call me crazy it would be kinda weird to have the big twist of the series be that these two voices are ACTUALLY two characters that a lot of the audience may not even have heard of (I mean logically i dont think anyone is watching TMP before TMA but still).

Jonny also called the series specifically a sidequel, not a sequel, which it would be if it was about Jon and Martin post-TMA.

And IT SHOULDN'T BE JON AND MARTIN.

Jon and Martin's story ended with Jon getting the business end of a knife from his boyfriend, it was tragic and poignant and final. Whether you think they're dead or not (I think they are), that was the end and any story about them surviving is fanfic.

Having them show up here in TMP would both be super unnecesarry and frankly take away from TMP. We all know what this fandom is like, the moment Jon and Martin make as much as a posthumous cameo with no plot importance, everyone will instantly forget that this is a new show about new characters and instead talk about it as The Jon And Martin Show 2: Elecritc Boogaloo.

#the magnus protocol #tmp spoilers

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darkpurpledawn · 4 months

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my favorite Batman fics from 2023, part one

I read a metric ton or so of batman fanfic this year--this is part one of my faves from January-November. We’ve got harlivy, batfam/gen, batcat, and Bruce-centric stuff in this list, next one will be rogues ships, batjokes, and riddlebat. I’ve only included fics that were completed this year, might make a separate post for faves that are ongoing

Harlivy

Client Services by Anon_and on_and on

Lawyer Pamela defends Harley from a malpractice suit...just in time to fall in love with her client. Totally fun and well-realized no capes AU

The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Barbley Quinn by iamawilderness

This is one of the wildest fics I’ve ever read--a lovely crossover that doesn’t seem it like should work but does beautifully. The writing really sparkles!

Retail Therapy: Gotham Edition by paprikaflakes (@paprikaspice)

now that’s some grade-A Harley Quinn dialogue

Batfam-ish (aka Dick and Alfred)

the quiet noise by orphan_account

Batman's in surgery and Jim Gordon and Superman sit with a distraught but stoic Robin in the hospital waiting room. Really lovely outside pov on baby Dick Grayson

They Also Serve by Ginevra_Benci

Really lovely look at Alfred’s POV on the morning after a young Dick Grayson comes to stay in Wayne Manor

Happy Endings: a John and Mary story by @lordwisteria

Based on a Margaret Atwood short story, this metafictional piece about Dick Grayson’s parents is stunning

Umbra by TheResurrectionist (@frownyalfred)

A hilarious and poignant look at the batcape’s debut through the eyes of Alfred Pennyworth

Batcat

Catch and Release by winterkill

A super hot 2022 batcat fic to warm you in the winter chill

I'll Bring You Sparrows by AnonymousMink

Bruce makes Selina a new costume, things get E rated from there

Bruce-centric

Oh Man Oh My Oh Me by whaleofatime (@cetaceans-pls)

Two Bruce Waynes show up at the same party, and Batman is thrown for a loop. Shenanigans ensue!

Damsel by @gement

um so this is possibly the most insanely hot fic I’ve ever read. Bruce has Issues and deals with them by hiring a guy to pretend to be Batman and have sex with him. yeah. it’s really good.

link to part two

#batman #batman fanfic #batman fic #harlivy #batcat #bruce wayne #batman fic recs #batman fanfic recs #lmk if you're in this and want me to unlink you for any reason or if you come across this post and want to link a tumblr I didn't see

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seraphinitegames · 2 years

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The Wayhaven Chronicles—Update 19/August/2022

Chapter 17A is done, Chapter 17B opening version 1 is done, and I'm blasting through version 2!!! :D

I've also edited a TON for Chapter 9! I think people will really enjoy the small poignant conversation with the love interests after the event...

Things feel very much in a rhythm at the moment. Being in the flow certainly does help keep the momentum at a pace!

I decided to finish off both branches of the chapters (A and B) before moving onto the next. 'Cause they're both set in the same environment, it means I can make sure to get the same feel for them both instead of coming back and not getting it quite right.

It's just vastly different things are happening in the two branches! 17A is super emotional at the start with a pretty massive ending-hook, and 17B is just BAM! Right into the intensity with hopefully a major surprise, hehe! :D

But Chapter 17B does have two versions of it to account for different characters in the scene, so I've split it into the opening scenes and the end scenes to help me juggle that a bit easier.

I'm really, really hoping I can get Chapter 17 fully finished next week! I didn't think I would be finishing 17A until tomorrow, so I am well ahead of myself already on that. Because of that, I'm feeling very confident in that goal right now!

I hope you all have the most wonderful weekend! We’ll be offline as usual, so I’ll update you all again next Friday <3

#the wayhaven chronicles #interactive fiction #progress report #update #book three

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belle-keys · 1 year

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On this week's episode of E!’s Botched: James Herondale's character (Meta)

We've now reached my meta piece on our Angel-Demon Boy Extraordinaire, James Herondale! (Not to be confused with just Angel Boy Extraordinaire, Jace Herondale).

I adore James’ character so much. He's such a sweet, comfortable, and noble main character that you absolutely can't help respect, admire, and sympathize with him in the main trilogy. James, in Chain of Thorns, is on the Jem-tier of sympathetic and lovable. That being said, I have some criticisms of the way his character arc played out in Chain of Thorns especially that I'd like to pick apart... because I can. Moreover, I have a, uh, wee problem with the way I could literally hear Cassie fiddling around with the levers and gears of the narrative as far as James is concerned in The Last Hours (which starts mainly by the end of Chain of Iron and going into Chain of Thorns but was there from the beginning). If you’re super not-in-the-mood to read any criticisms of James (even one where I’ll be blaming only the narrative and not James in any capacity at all), then feel free to not read this.

Powers Begone

James and Lucie lose their demonic powers at the very end of the story. There is no opportunity for growth in the future regarding James and Lucie's demonic heritage. James will no longer be able to use the runed gun that only he can use. This is boring insomuch as it forces the reader to acknowledge James' and Lucie's powers and their inherited darkness as something that was created for the purpose of existing as an obstacle to overcome, rather than as a portion of themselves to come to coexist with. It's not necessarily bad writing but it's just extremely cookie-cutter writing, especially as it makes the central conflict in the story something that will bear no real power in the future and nor will it have a legacy– it has no weight. If the narrative has created these demonic powers to be something that can be detached from the characters with no caveats, then James and Lucie have only managed to be victims of these powers in the story before they shed them. The Belial powers that they've inherited are like raindrops on a windscreen. Rainfall is an obstacle to driving, it's a nuisance, and it can even make you get into a car accident. But at the end of the day, once your windshield wiper is working, you can brush the raindrops away. The narrative brushes away James and Lucie's powers at the end of the story, which is fine, but it also brushes away any and all of the consequences this power should have. The narrative has wiped away any of the long-term effects of the emotional, psychological, and physical consequences or legacy that their powers could have. This isn't a plea for James and Lucie to be destroyed by their powers, but rather, I feel like this complete loss of power and "moving on", which is part of why I find the Epilogue to be so weak, sanitizes James and Lucie's line from being tinged and stained with their inheritance. And while I reiterate that this is not categorically bad writing, it’s just kinda boring to me. James' arc ends exactly where it started, but without the poetry of a "come full circle" storyline. My issue is that James' character does a complete 360 (and not a 180) in a... lame way. Considering this demonic power is what raised Jesse from the dead (a really good thing!) and was the catalyst for the creation of the gracelet too, the disappearance of it makes for, yeah, a very sweet story. And a sweet story is just never as poignant as a bittersweet story. But this last sentence is just me projecting. Maybe. Moving on.

(N.B. But another reason I didn’t think the Epilogue was good, despite it being so warm and pure amd enjoyable for me, is because we damn well know that Cassie is good at writing bittersweet endings. Your main character living with demonic poison in his veins as a mute monk for 150 years before he can finally be with the love of his life and without having forced her to choose only one of the two men she’s ever loved is peak bittersweet writing. Your other main character sacrificing his literal memory to a Demon Prince to get his close friends out of a literal Hell realm and then slowly becoming empowered after that trauma and regaining his memory is peak bittersweet writing.)

You Can’t Spell Herondale Without Hero

James’ goodness is as good as it is bad in the context of the story, and I attribute this paradox to the fact that he’s a Herondale. There’s a Herondale legacy to protect, after all, with his character, and as a result, the story is simultaneously enriched and hindered by James’ parentage and characterization. I'd even argue that said characterization is the direct result of having said parentage, which isn't a bad thing at all. But, what I have an issue with is the way James' characterization feels, you guessed it, entirely sanitized. No, I'm not saying here that there was an Original Dark James that got lost in the wind or cut from the drafts (I mean, yes, I do absolutely think that, yes, but I'm not gonna try to tear apart his character on that basis, because it'd be mean, but it's also pure speculation, and I have no desire to pick apart the Secret Dark Original Ending anyway).

The narrative spends a lot of time protecting James, his heroism, and his nobility, and its choice method of protecting James has been to strip James of his agency. James spends the whole of The Last Hours experiencing things happen to him, but not really doing things. He gets possessed by Belial, he gets blackmailed by Belial, he gets the gracelet put on him by Grace, he gets stabbed by Cortana, he had his wife run away to Paris before he could stop her… I could go on. He spends the entire series being hurt and manipulated by other people and entities because he’s just so good and loving, and he spends little of his time actually making choices that can permanently affect others, for better or for worse. Because James spends the majority of the trilogy literally not having much free will at all (gracelet followed by possession back to back), the story essentially bulletproofs him from having to be anything but a noble, good hero who simply can’t help but just have Hell and Earth constantly hurtling toward him. This goodness also hinders the story as well because James is simply too good, too noble, too innocent to be anything else but a victim by virtue of his treatment by the narrative. The way his goodness is preyed on constantly and the way he is just mainly reactive to the whole situation is quite… bland. And moreover, the other characters spin around him like he’s the sun, which, as I noted in a previous ask, makes for weak character development as you can’t fricking blow up the sun. He’s fixed in his own orbit as actions in the form of comets bounce off him. Nothing that happens and that has a negative legacy for the other characters actually manages to touch James as he becomes an increasingly passive actor in a story that is fundamentally founded on him. On top of James being, quite obviously, the perfect gentleman and husband and also being obscenely rich, fortunate, and privileged, it feels like he was robbed of the opportunity to be anything less than ideal by the way the narrative puppeteered him.

We know James Herondale always felt like he was “not cursed, but damned” and was “destined to walk among thorns and flowers”. The setup for The Last Hours in the prequel short stories was dark, and we all know Cassie was about to end off this series in a very sinister way. I won’t ramble on about that last point too much, but I do wonder if James was originally supposed to be characterized with way more darkness within him (at least, more than the amount of darkness that I'm expecting), which would lend to a very interesting contrast between his idyllic family and upbringing and whatever “damnation” he felt lived within his soul. I also wonder if simply not characterizing James like this was Cassie’s way of making sure that she didn’t taint Will and Tessa’s legacy directly and didn’t undo Wessa’s Happily Ever After. Regardless, the narrative coddles James (and Lucie, and Cordelia) and strips him of any complexity or dubiousness when, in my opinion, the foundation was laid for something exactly like that.

(N.B. Jem is kind of like this too... ish. It doesn’t really bother me, as Jem was supposed to be a foil for Will but also because Jem simply never got everything his wanted, and definitely not when he wanted it.)

Concluding Thoughts

Now let’s get something straight: As a romantic lead, James Herondale is excellent. I thought his enduring love for Cordelia and the way he exemplified the idea that goodness can literally break apart the forces of Hell was amazing as a core theme in the story, and I am so fond of my annotations for all his scenes with Cordelia, because I can barely think of anyone who deserves that kind of love and joy by the Epilogue of ChoT. But the way Cassie wrote James implies a character that is so pure, innocent, and well loved, that all he can be is the hurt prince, a target because of these very qualities, someone who sometimes does things like shoot a gun… a gun that he literally gives up by the end of the story anyway. James is warm, kind, brilliant, strong and big on loyalty. But… what did James Henry Morgan Herondale really do in The Last Hours besides serve whatever purpose the book absolutely needed him to, be beautiful, and destroy at least one (1) doorknob on a certain warm, passionate night?

#james herondale #jordelia #herondaisy #wessa #tlh #the last hours #chain of thorns #chain of iron #chain of gold #chot #chot spoilers #tsc #the shadowhunter chronicles #tsc meta #tlh meta #character analysis #ya books #ya fantasy #cassandra clare

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riddleblack246 · 6 months

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Thinking about that OFMD burlesque au again and I have even more specifics with performances and all. Hit me with your ideas please because I’d love to talk about this.

In Izzy’s younger years, his most well known act was to “Babushka” by Kate Bush. He does do it again when he returns to performing and it is just as sensual.

Frenchie will usually play songs he comes up with on his own as something of an interlude to performances, but he will also play a song by Dixon Dallas.

Wee John as Calypso has a semi-iconic number that ends up filmed for social media, which blows up the notoriety of The Revenge. He sings “Pretty Lavinia” by American Murder Song and much of the rest of the “crew” contributes as the chorus.

Ed’s performances are often to Amy Winehouse songs. Yes, he does perform “Back to Black” when Stede seemingly goes back to Mary, and it’s super emotionally poignant and unsettling, why do you ask?

Stede loves the art of burlesque but initially sucks at it. Yes, Ed and Izzy do help him a lot. Yes, they do fuck about it.

Jim’s performances are more typically daring acts involving leather and knife play rather than traditional burlesque, but it is still mad sexy. Oluwande and Archie both occasionally feature in their act.

*remembers the time I saw a burlesque performer in chainmail lingerie dancing and fire-eating to “Joan of Arc” by Arcade Fire and tries to be normal* That’s Zheng.

Izzy is classically trained in ballet and fencing which he employs in his performances. Yes, this ties into body issues with his leg.

The “capture by the English” is the business owners association throwing down about a queer burlesque club. Blackbeard’s Evil Girl Era is him holding onto The Revenge after Stede put him down as a partial owner and he’s running the place into the ground. I want CHAOS.

#ofmd #our flag means death #steddyhands #blackbonnet #burlesque au #au #burlesque #stede bonnet #edward teach #izzy hands #my posts #I am fixated on this concept and NEED to talk about if

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beevean · 7 months

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I'm interested in your views on Sonic as a character. Which games or other media stay true to his core character?

Sonic is cool :)

And I don't mean just cool in a "totally radical" way, or in a "look how awesome his feats are!" way. It's just... he's a friend. He's supportive and optimistic and a full believe in the Superpower of Teamwork™, cocky yet polite, helping others because that's just what he wants to do. Sonic has no moral code, he doesn't operate on hero logic: he does good because he wants to do good, it ain't that deep fam. This is why IDW's portrayal of his as someone who has strong principles about freedom is just OOC - it's not a principle! It's not something that holds him back! He will kick your ass and imprison you in a lamp for all eternity if you proved yourself to be unredeemable! But then you contrast this with how he rejects Tikal's plan of sealing Chaos in the Master Emerald again because that won't make its anger vanish. giving him a super lobotomy to calm it down worked, though

Secret Rings, Black Knight and Unleashed have probably my favorite portrayal of Sonic. The first one shows well his friendship with Shahra, how he put himself in harm's way for her as soon as he met her and got cursed on her behalf, how he could empathize with her and her ambiguous history with Erazor Djinn and didn't hold it against her for not being able to let go of him; the second one is nearly unanimously considered to be the best Sonic of all time, because it actually shows the freedom and strong will of his character, how he's willing to be "the bad guy" in a story if that means doing what he thinks is right, and his surprisingly poignant views on mortality; and as for the third one, his line "Do I need a reason to help out a friend?" is just him in a nutshell :)

Also, I'm still not fond of how they relegated him to wooden secondary character in '06, but I can't deny his relationship with Elise is cute for what little we see - he meets this girl who has been forced into the role of the reserved queen since she was 7 and he teaches her how to have fun and let go of her worries! And Elise is so inspired that at one point she jumps out of Eggman's Egg Mobile to get away from him! Sonic is just this strong positive influence on other people and it's just. ugh. he's so friend shaped <3

Of all adaptations, Sonic X is the one who got the closest to capture this - not surprising, since it's the only Japanese adaptation we have so far and it was the most closely supervised by Sonic Team. It's not perfect, it has its weird moments like Sonic manipulating his friends because he really wanted to get off a boat, but he's overall nice and supportive as he should be. Episode 14 is a must watch to get Sonic.

The OVA is nice too? A bit more dated, and Sonic is just a little more prickly, but other than that I have no issue with his character - the ending is a standout.

Anyway. Sonic is the character of all time. I love my boy so much, I've loved him since 2004. I will protect him against adaptations who think he has to be an arrogant jerkass or a funny little penis man to give him "depth" and "appeal".

#sonic the hedgehog #thank you for this ask really #i know i come off as eternally bitchy and sour #but i love to gush too :( and i need to gush about sonic in particular #i love him he's not even just my blorbo he's my childhood friend

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ot3 · 2 years

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i was wondering if youre so inclined if u would mind explaining whats so good about disco elysium? all i ever see ppl say is that its communist and theres old gay men which is like. well cool but that doesnt tell me anything about it actually. it seems like a lot of reading but its not like thats stopped me before (<- read all of orv on your reccommendation and hasnt stopped thinking about it since)

disco elysium is just a really meaningful piece of work. For starters, the prose is beautiful when it's not being funny as well, the world is rich and intricate and fully believable, and the characters are deeply compelling. Disco Elysium has you playing as an amnesiac detective coming out of the tail end of a more or less suicidally thorough bender a completely different person. It's up to you to pick what kind of person he is, but you can't choose to be Not a fuckup. You're still just a fuckup. You're always a fuckup.

I really found the way disco elysium dealt with mental illness to be super refreshing and honestly the most cathartic almost any media has been on the subject, for my personal tastes. I find a lot of media where mental illness comes into play leans either too indulgent or too saccharine for me. By indulgent i mean it really wants you to buy into How Sad we're supposed to feel about our character's mental state. And by saccharine I mean stuff that's focused almost exclusively in portraying mental illness in an almost hurt/comfort way, for lack of a better term. Disco elysium is not about the poignant, tragic beauty of mental illness nor is it about taking this character on a journey of Coping and Healing, although you could definitely play it closer to one way or another. Disco elysium is a game about being at war with your own brain and body, but also you still also need to work because. Well. It's your job, dipshit. It's humorous, it's crass, it's completely off the wall, capable of balancing the absurd and mundane in severe extremes to result in the realest feeling portrayal of mental illness I've come across. It handles addiction in what I'm sure is a similar way, but I can't speak as much on that subject because I don't have any firsthand experience with being an addict despite my best attempts to develop some sort of chemical dependency in the last two years.

But also yes, the game is very much about communism. Everyone saying that is absolutely correct but I think it's hard for people who haven't played it to understand just how About Communism it is. The author of the game and the novella its based off of is a self-proclaimed communist from estonia. This is not a western perspective on communism, nor is it a truly soviet one. It's a perspective on communism from someone who grew up in a country that was occupied by the soviet union multiple times and only regained its independence in 1991. It's a really fascinating thing to engage with because it just approaches politics so differently than any western stuff I've seen.

The game is in many ways miserably depressing and wholly pessimistic, but it's not the pessimism of the truly misanthropic doomer, it's the kind of pessimism you find in someone who is looking for any reason not to be pessimistic and just not finding any. It's a narrative that looks into it's main character, and looks into it's own world and is desperately searching for any reason to believe there's hope there and coming up empty handed every time but, god damn it, still looking. I think that right now something with that sort of message is important. It's a piece of writing that says to it's audience 'things are bad and getting worse, and we can't pretend otherwise, but this is your world. live in it.' And also it's really fucking funny. It's really one of those things I think as many as people a possible should experience. You won't find anything else like it in the world right now.

#one time back during the earlier covid months not too long after my last halfhearted suicide attempt #i got bored and decided to take some acid. but then my dad asked me to move the car off the driveway for some reason. and i couldnt do it #because i was tripping too hard to remember how to operate a stick shift #and all i had had in my body that day other than the acid was macadamia nuts and sprite #thats what disco elysium is about

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heretherebedork · 16 days

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So since we’ve established wedding impossible sucks and treats the most vulnerable characters terribly, what are some recent shows where you feel the opposite? Shows that you think treated the characters with the dignity and care they deserved? Personally I think love for love’s sake did an amazing job. I didn’t really have any expectations going into it but I was blown away by how amazingly it the narrative was crafted. I think the storytelling was incredible and really hit all the right emotional beats. I also binged let’s talk about chu this weekend and haven’t stopped thinking about it. I honestly actually enjoyed everyone in the show and was invested in everyone’s stories, but I especially loved the BL plot. It felt so well handled and mature and I loved how the ending was clear that despite Yueh going to jail, the show explicitly showed that Yusen and him seem determined to make their relationship work. It felt like a really lovely full circle moment for each character and their relationship. I didn’t go into that one with any expectations either and was also very satisfied with the show.

I mean, Love for Love's sake did a fantastic job of handling grief and depression and what it means to find the way to love yourself and I loved that, how loving yourself was a strength and needed and how much loving other people could help you learn to love yourself and how much love was healing. Absolutely A+.

Let's Talk About Chu was good and the relationship work was good as well but I can't say it was my favorite in those terms because I never got the depth I wanted into the formation of their relationship but it did show how much they're willing to work for this relationship. It was good, though.

I didn't love Cooking Crush overall but they did handle the parental issues with respect and honored that sometimes relationships change and grow even without fixing everything. I had plenty of problems with the show but that was not of them.

What Did You Eat Yesterday? is an amazing exploration of an adult couple and of people coming to terms with their own sexuality and growing together and becoming better people because of their love and what it means to keep growing even after you're an adult. It's truly great and mature.

La Pluie is imperfect but is also an amazing exploration of what it means when you try to rely on fate but also what it means when you are so focused on fate that you need to deny it entirely or when you try to let little things guide you rather than looking at the bigger picture and it really does treat all of those ideas beautifully. Not quite the same but similar.

Not a BL but Oh No! Here Comes Trouble is a beautiful and poignant and amazing story about living and grief and moving past without ever forgetting but finding ways to forgive yourself for choices that accidentally hurt the people you loved and about growing past grief and it's just beautiful.

That's the short list, at least for me, of shows that are at least a bit more recent and really do get into more and deeper issues.

I mean, there's also The Eighth Sense but that's not super recent just really, really good and delves into trauma and pain and loss and grief and depression and what happens as you begin to heal and grow.

#asked and answered #bl dramas

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toaarcan · 20 days

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Arcan Grumbles About Mecha Sally, Part 1: The Wrong Protagonists

Alright I've had this gripe bubbling away in my head for a while (Actually it's part of a larger gripe but I'm trying to avoid devoting too much time to griping about things), so here goes.

Archie Sonic's Mecha Sally saga has the wrong protagonists.

Let's take the premise of the arc in isolation for a moment: Sally Acorn, leader of the Freedom Fighters, is turned into a robotic minion of Dr. Eggman, and everyone else has to try and get her back.

Who, then, should be the characters who get the most focus in this story? Well, obviously Sally's closest friends, and those who would have the most angst about it, right?

Sonic is currently Sally's boyfriend, and he's the main character of the book, so he kinda has to be there regardless of that, even if he's contractually obligated to care significantly less than he should, thanks SEGA. Way to make the comic worse in the name of Brand Identity, where the fuck were you when Penders was here?

But then the list of characters I'd want to give the most focus to in this situation is this: Bunnie, Antoine, Nicole, and Elias.

None of whom are actually properly involved in the published arc after Issue 235.

Bunnie is a really obvious pick. She's Sally's best friend, the two have been all but inseparable since like Day 3, and Bunnie is the powerhouse of the team, of course she should be there. Even from a pure spectacle perspective, Bunnie vs. Mecha Sally should be a good battle, we've seen that Flynn can write a good fight scene with Bunnie on more than one occasion, so hey, let them go at it and it'll be both an entertaining fight and an emotionally fraught scene.

So what does Bunnie do in the actual story? She gets accidentally depowered by a wizard, forgets that she's been depowered and thus becomes the only character in the entire book to outright lose to weaponised Mecha Sally, watches her husband explode, and then runs away to go and get turned back into a cyborg by her Eggman-serving Lost Causer uncle.

Antoine, then. Antoine used to be in love with Sally, and while that's far behind him now, he was also originally meant to be her bodyguard. He must have some extremely complex feelings about what's going on, maybe he even feels like he failed her, like his original task of putting his life on the line to protect her fell by the wayside, and thus when he could have saved her by taking a bullet for her, he wasn't even there. He could, and probably should, have a massive amount of survivor's guilt, feeling that this whole crisis only happened because he didn't do his job.

So, how does he fare in the book? He gets Geoff found guilty of his treachery, only for that to be rendered immediately futile by Naugus. He tells Bunnie that she's strong without being a cyborg, which immediately turns out to be not true. He then sacrifices himself to save Elias, and while more could've been done with this if it was later in the story, he'd got more focus, and he viewed it as an atonement for his not being there to protect Sally, then it could've been really poignant, but it comes super-early in proceedings, and it's framed as a culmination of Antoine's growth from being a coward, an arc across the wider book that ended years ago, than it was as part of the current proceedings. He spends the rest of the arc in a coma, and never wakes up before the reboot.

And, bear in mind, according to Lost Hedgehog Tales, this was supposed to be his death. He was going to be killed off here, and they only changed their minds because of negative online reactions to how bleak the story had been since Issue 225. Either way, it's still a wrap on Antoine, written out of the story completely before it's even finished its opening act.

Nicole, then. Nicole has by far the most reasons to be a main character here. Not only is she Sally's other best friend, but her feelings probably run deeper than that (Even before it was fully intended, Sallicole still had better chemistry than like 90% of the other pairings in the book, I read Stargazing, you can't fool me), and a big part of the last major arc was Sally freeing Nicole from the Iron Queen's control, an event that's still relevant at this point in the comic. The most fulfilling conclusion to that subplot is to have Nicole be part of the protagonist group, actively trying to return the favour and free Sally from Eggman. It's so damn obvious!

And there's no reason to not do it either. Eggman has found a way to protect Mecha Sally from being hacked, so Nicole can't just end the story in Issue 236, they have to actually capture her and get the Power Ring Matrix turned off before Nicole can do her thing. Likewise, Nicole has no reason to stay at home, she's been exiled from the city, so why not join the quest to save the person she cares about more than anyone else? Oh, her handheld form was destroyed? Make a new one. Or make a body out of nanites, we've seen that the nanites don't lose cohesion outside of the city, because Rotor can take his nanite armour to Artika without it immediately dissolving. She has every reason to be there and no reason not to be.

So what does she do in the book? She goes into an angst coma, hashes things out with Mina, makes some natty uniforms for the Secret Freedom Fighters, and then gets unexiled because Naugus is a failure. That's it. She never leaves Freedom HQ or Mobotropolis for the entire storyline.

Finally, Elias. Elias isn't a slouch, he's plenty capable of being a badass on his own. His sister has been enslaved and he just so happened to lose his position as king on the same day. Much like Nicole, there's no reason for him to not go after her and try to save her. Plus, Elias going into open combat with Eggman would be an opportunity to have an actual confrontation between the leaders of these warring factions, even if Elias isn't currently in charge of the Republic of Acorn. And it would be another point of contrast between him and his father: Max basically only left Knothole for glad-handing tours of the kingdom and was an asshole to his family, so here's Elias going out and fighting for his people, protecting them from Eggman's attacks, and moving heaven and earth to save his sister. And it would be much more satisfying for Elias to win back the support that Naugus stole from him through heroism rather than simply undoing Naugus' mind control by way of "Naugus had a headache."

So... the actual book, then? Elias basically retires, avoids being assassinated twice, the first time because Eggman just gives up, the second time because Mecha Sally doesn't know what a back door is, and then he becomes a secret agent and spends pretty much all his time trying to get his throne back. He ends up tied far more to the political subplot revolving around the crown, which is a giant bugbear all of its own, so that's a gripe for another day.

What we get instead of the above group of characters, who really should be the ones saving Sally, are the SEGA trio of Sonic, Tails and Amy.

As I said above, Sonic should be there, and he also has to be there, but he can't carry a story that needs to be emotionally harrowing at this point in the comic. SEGA are already creeping in and trying to dumb him down to the "COOL WHOA YEAH" flat character he became in their games. He's not allowed to love, he's not allowed to cry, he's not allowed to lose. They're peeling the soul out of the character and this is the worst possible time for that to happen, because it takes all the tension out of the story. It's hard to feel the alleged direness of the situation when the literal main protagonist is going "Hey guys, let's have a contest to see who can break the most robots!" and saying "Ah well, we'll get her next time!" as he stands in place and watches Mecha Sally fly away for the third time in a row.

Tails could be a resonant character for this story, but he just... kinda isn't. He and Sally have long had a surrogate familial bond, but it's been largely unexplored for a long time now, and has fallen almost completely by the wayside since Amadeus and Rosemary came back. Tails as a character kinda got left in the lurch by the comics, the Great Harmony was partially done for him, by a machine, while he was asleep, and then Flynn said that he lost all of his powers except flight off-panel. How he feels about the Love Triangle Pileup is pretty much entirely glossed over. Any weight that could be applied to him finally getting his parents back, only to find that they've become assholes that are enamoured with the politics of a planet that imprisoned them for the better part of a decade due to guilt by association, and care more about advancing their agenda and being dicks to his friends than they do about him is stymied by SEGA banning him from acknowledging that they're his parents.

And the Mecha Sally arc didn't really change that for him. He's just there. This Tails at least knows how to throw a damn punch, unlike the way the games were using him at the time, but he's not exactly setting the world on fire. He's just... present.

What would've been cool is if Tails' main role in this story was being the one to finally build a Deroboticizer. He's the one that finally figures out how to undo Eggman's greatest weapon of enslavement. Let his technological skills be used for more than repairing a plane and building a vaguely uncanny robot dog.

And Amy... I feel like Issue 239 really wants us to buy that Amy and Sally are now close friends, but the comic hasn't done nearly enough legwork before this point to actually sell that. I buy that they're friends. I don't buy that they're best friends, and the result is that her focal scenes feel like a store-brand substitute for what we could've had with Bunnie or Nicole present.

Besides that, Amy still faces the same "Emotional range constrained by SEGA" problems as Sonic and Tails, both to a lesser and greater extent than they do. Lesser, because SEGA has always allowed Amy to be more emotional than either of her teammates (I wonder why...), so she still gets to motivate Sonic by getting angry, which is a good scene for her. Greater, because at the time, the most recent main series game was Sonic Generations, so SEGA is still presenting Amy as a character who considers Sonic more important than breathing. We're a long way out from them trying to unfuck her character still, and that means that when Amy has to have her Mandatory Flirting With Sonic Quota moments, she's... flirting with a guy who is actively fighting to save his brainwashed girlfriend.

And that's not a criticism of Amy herself, I know people get rather defensive about modern Amy, so I'm making it clear that I'm not saying that Amy is a bad character because of this. Rather, I consider the presence of the Obligatory Reminder That Amy Loves Sonic moments to be a disservice to Amy's character. She should have the emotional intelligence to know that this is not the time. It turns her previous decision that she's okay to wait for Sonic to reciprocate her affections into "Sally has been out of the picture for 0.5 picoseconds, time to get me some Sonic!"

And the thing is, it didn't need to be this way. Ian Flynn has confirmed that making Sonic, Tails, and Amy the sole main characters of the comic for the majority of the Mecha Sally arc was his decision and his decision alone. He chose this. He wanted them to be in the spotlight for a while because the previous few arcs had put more attention on Sally, Bunnie, Rotor, and Nicole. And that's fine, that makes sense, if you're writing a long-running story with multiple smaller arcs and a large ensemble cast, it makes sense to shuffle which of of that cast are the foremost characters from arc to arc. But "Sally gets roboticized and everyone has to save her" was not the arc to do that with.

Other stories could be told with the SEGA trio, this one needed Archie characters in the limelight to sell the weight and the stakes, and it needed the characters who were closest to Sally to achieve the maximum emotional resonance that a story this fraught should have.

It could've been great. As it stands... it's easily the nadir of Flynn's run on the book, and for a bunch more reasons besides this one. I'll cover those another time, for now this is about as much grumbling as I'm willing to do, but I'll certainly come back to "Arcan Grumbles About Mecha Sally" or whatever eventually.

#Sonic #Archie Sonic #Mecha Sally #Arcan Grumbles About Mecha Sally #Elias Acorn #Nicole the Lynx #Antoine D'Coolette #Bunnie Rabbot #Bunnie D'Coolette #Sally Acorn #Sonic the Hedgehog

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