#but that might still just be personal gripes due to what i liked about the character

[snickerdoodlles]

emberfaye replied to your post "choose violence ask game except its just me complaining about fic tropes..."

☕☕☕☕

am going to do my absolute BEST not to ramble too much here, but okay so!! 4 Chay things that will have me back-flipping out of a fic at the speed of light:

babyfication of Chay

i just. ugh. ugh. he is not a baby. he's a 17-18yo guy who half-raised himself due to some shit circumstances and took care of himself entirely by himself for minimum several months. the only difference between him and an adult is that he's not making his own income. Porsche and Arthee doing their best to give Chay as much of a childhood as they can afford him still doesn't change the fact that Chay grew up young and fast just like the rest of this cast. if he acts uwu innocent baby i'm gone. if the author calls him an uwu baby in their notes i'm gone. ugh.

being weird about Chay's or Barcode's age, specifically in regards to sex

as above, i'm pretty shirty about people babying him in general, but fandom is plain weird about Chay having sex. esp him and Kim having sex. 1. their age gap is not that big, and their circumstances have left them on pretty equal footing re the growing up too fast thing. 2. please assess why you think 18 fixes whatever your concerns are with 17yos having sex. 3. teens have sex. dunno what tf was happening with the rest of you but i knew kids even young as junior high who were already fucking. sure, i thought they were fucking idiots for it, but my concerns about people having sex young are rooted in the fact that sex is an inherently very vulnerable act and that's a lot to put yourself thru emotionally during the age range when everything's a wild emotional cocktail. but like. teens still do it. teens are gonna experiment with adult things and sometimes that means experimenting with sex. i personally might not think it's a good idea, but something not being a good idea doesn't inherently make it a bad one either. please stop being weird about it thanks.

calling Chay "bambi"

i just really don't like it. part of it's related to the babyfication thing, but mostly it's just one of those silly things my brain went nOPE on and oh well. back click. 😂

mischaracterizing Chay's anger

so like. this one is tricky because a lot of it comes down to personal interpretation of canon, but also like. a lot of my mischaracterization gripes involves people writing tropes or drama anger instead of Chay's anger, so. yeah. 😂 a lot of people default to writing explosive anger because it's easier to write, but in canon Chay is just. so completely not explosive. and it's not because he's bottling up anger (which!! even if he was, suddenly exploding due to pressure isn't a good thing, gah).

a lot of Chay's personality stems from Needing To Be Okay. a lot of Chay's personal motivations are trying to help Porsche with his burdens and when Porsche won't let him take on extra responsibilities, Chay does what he can to not add to Porsche's plate. and part of not being a burden is quietly dealing with his anger and resentments on his own time. (another factor playing into that is Porsche and Chay really only have each other-- Porsche deals with his anger very quietly too, and it's very characteristic of how they really don't want to hurt each other because they don't have many other people they care about, so they remove themselves from tense/bad situations best they can to reflect on their anger and return to talk about it after they've calmed down.)

Chay is fierce in his anger, but he withdraws when he's pissed and he always tries to talk it out with the intention of achieving clarity. and if i don't feel like a story's going to handle Chay's resentment/anger in a way that feels true to how it was shown in canon (there's a few litmus tests but mostly i'm going by vibes), i just click out because i already know any plot conflict won't feel fully or properly resolved to me in the end :/

[ send a ☕, get a bitchy* fic opinion ]

*personal opinion, I'm not going to be mean

#laughing at myself a bit because i definitely overthought this one #but it was fun lol #<33 #kinnporsche #tea asks #<- btws friends please lmk if i need to change that tag into something more specific/easier to block???

[illegiblewords]

Serious talk about meta under the cut.

I don't know who might need to hear it, but fwiw mental flexibility is a huge part of analysis (and interacting with other humans lol). You need to be able to account for multiple possibilities when examining a work, or understanding a social exchange. You need to be able to separate what is objective fact from your own subjective interpretation and judgment. The most negative interpretation is not automatically the most worthwhile or true. Someone throwing accusations around in-line with their own worst interpretations does not guarantee those accusations are warranted. You are not a bad or stupid person for disagreeing. Shit needs to withstand scrutiny. I don't always strike the right balance myself. I do the best I can but I'm definitely not perfect. Tbh I'm not beyond pettiness either--although I try to keep that out of actual analysis lol. There have been times I've griped to friends privately or blogged about how I felt (sans tags, with spoiler blocks so people can opt out). I've griped recently. I'm bound to gripe again in the future. Some level of griping is inevitable imo and I figure no one is 100% immune.

All that said, even if someone’s take isn't canon AND even if it's something I really dislike--I'd personally rather people follow their passions anyway. Hands down. I could be in the middle of a rant and my answer would still be that the subject of my frustration gets to exist. I'm not the boss and odds are we're going with different versions in our own heads. Discouraging another fan from creating due to my preferences or narrative approach would horrify me. I've seen fandoms where gatekeeping like that killed the creative community and it was fucking awful.

Not everyone is confident in their own judgment. Not everyone faced with a pissed off person trying to use lore and accusations like clubs will feel okay continuing with their own vision. Elitism and manipulation (especially through rhetoric) can be present within analysis. People are not being taught how to recognize those things properly. Analysts aren't always aware or invested enough to even be careful. It’s legit easy to get caught up in ideas or feelings to the point of forgetting about other people’s, and adjusting to account for alternate approaches takes some work. For me at least, I think having a 'no insults' policy and being super careful when it comes to absolute claims (assertions not qualified by 'I think' or 'it could be argued') helps.

Anyway. Just because a person calls something ‘meaningless’ doesn't make it meaningless. Someone pooh-poohing an observation you made doesn't make your observation less true or important. Employing a literary term doesn't mean that individual actually understands the term, how it works, or how to apply it. Which is to say nothing of romantic chemistry or whatever. I encourage readers to extrapolate on this. ‘Shallow’ could apply as much as ‘meaningless’. Denying parallels exist by itself doesn’t actually negate those parallels. Your version of a character may not be the same as the fan next to you’s and that difference doesn't have to detract. There's more I could say on the subject (I've edited out a lot) but basically--just because another fan isn't into what you're doing doesn't automatically make what you're doing wrong, immoral, shoddy, or otherwise less.

Seriously, vet shit. Question the entire premise an analyst tries to establish then decide for yourself if it holds water. Turn over word choices and assertions in your head before deciding if they're appropriate. Do it to me too. I don't care if someone is the holy goddamn emperor of analysts. Just because a person says something is good or bad, true or false, whatever the hell doesn't make it so. Just because a person uses a technical term doesn't mean they're discussing it effectively. Quality of argument matters beyond the packaging it’s wrapped in. It's important to protect yourself from people whose priority is enforcing their own preferences, including dismissing things they aren't partial to.

I just don't want anyone shamed silent man. Not even people whose takes drive me up the fucking wall. Neither I nor any other analyst is an authority here. And there are people who are absolutely ready to take advantage of other people’s insecurities to assert themselves. Might not even be malicious, just indifferent.

For me, analysis feels kind of like uncovering a dinosaur skeleton. I want to share the cool and exciting things I find with other people. Sometimes I might be sorting out what my own thoughts and feelings are. It's also possible to examine why you're uncomfortable with something, or why you love something another person hates, while making very clear what is YOUR READING and not THE READING. Offering a variety of possibilities is very different from presenting yourself as the only correct one. One note at the end when everything else was insulting and intolerant is like a band-aid over a wound.

EDIT: As a last point, that I'm throwing in just-in-case. If anyone reading this thinks they may have overreached and done stuff I've mentioned + feels shitty about it… that's still not the end of the world. It’s okay. This is hard stuff to learn and I really don't think anyone's perfect at it. Worth the effort though. Just gotta take a deep breath, acknowledge you're a fallible human same as everyone else, and do the best you can going forward. Life goes on.

#saw one that horrified me a bit recently #involved a combination of overreaching + insults + purity culture #I can totally imagine buying in and being seriously fucked up by it when I was younger #I don’t want that happening to anyone else #it's okay to talk about NOTPs man but there are more and less responsible ways to do that

[youredreamingofroo]

a bit of a message talking about inactivity and my possible hiatus. I dont know if this counts as a cw but i talk about depression here and there at the beginning (nothing graphic) and as usual, its a rant

im gonna be straight honest rn, i'm probably not gonna be active on tumblr for these next few days, ive been super up and down depressed and im just unmotivated and too tired to do anything, im still gonna check in here and there but dont expect me to reblog or reply to many posts, if at all. This could mark the beginning of a hiatus, but with mood swings and up and down depression, i could be back, active as ever tomorrow. Ever since ive uninstalled Sims 4, i did feel a weight lift off my shoulders, but simultaneously made me depressed due to the lack of... well... doing something, i dont... really know how to put it into words, its just something in my brain that i just cant explain, i guess a good way to put it is playing sims 4 gave me the motivation to stem off into other mediums, blender for example, gave me something to do, something to learn, and while i can still use blender, i just get progressively slower and slower at doing stuff in it because of my limited resources, some scenes i want to do require specific outfits and i dont have the facilities to make those outfits... i mean i probably do but i just dont feel motivated to do all that. I still play other games, ive been playing a lot of slime rancher 2 and have been trying to branch out to other games (indie games and bigger games), I want to post gameplay but if youve seen me rant about tumblr before, one of my biggest gripes is just how fucking annoying it is to upload images, so i just get completely unmotivated to post images/gameplay especially if its just some silly post. if uh if anyone is still reading this, ill be honest, i havent even been motivated to write about WAS at all, probably havent touched the planning doc in about 2 weeks. This... 'spiral'... has been noticeable for me for the last week as my sleep schedule gets swapped around from sleeping at night and awake during the day... to sleeping during the day and awake at night, this is all my fault, but its also just something that happens rotationally for me, i go from sleeping VERY early in the evening (6PM at the earliest) and waking at VERY early times in the morning (4AM at the latest) to sleeping VERY late in the morning (6AM at the earliest) and waking up late in the evening (3PM at the latest), i dont really know what causes the shift, but it happens, and i often blame myself for it even though i dont know what causes it...

anyways sorry, this will probably mark a very iffy hiatus, like i said ill be active but not... super active, i didnt check tumblr at all yesterday/monday, so thats kind of the pattern to expect from me depending on the day. In the meantime... i might try to get back into older sims games, ive mentioned this before, but i do have sims 1 on my laptop so maybe ill post stupid little gameplay posts from there (granted i havent played in like... a month 😐). I'll probably put up a poll after this post for people to vote on which sims game i should play- i KNOW i did it once before but im probably gonna do it again cuz i cant find the post and i have over 1000 posts 😭

if you read thus far, thank you for sticking around, if your a random person who read this for no reason... thanks? if your a follower of mine and cant understand where im coming from with this lengthy post, see yourself out or deal with it 🙃 otherwise, thank you all and i will be lurking about

#yapping

[halowritesthings]

i love learning about things a week late through youtube recommendations from random channels i've never seen before

(bad grammar and typos cause i'm shooting my shot as fast as possible so I can get back to Important Adult Stuff(TM))

i suppose i can't really gripe because i'm still largely logged out and wouldn't have heard otherwise so maybe I should take it for what it is

i know i'm a random person who writes as a hobby so I don't necessarily "owe" anything to people online, but y'all have been so sweet to me and I feel it would be unfair to keep dropping off the face of the planet like I have been, plus, I have been stewing over quite a bit of my thoughts these past few months and making a large "get all my thoughts out in a word vomit" post is a good way to A.) sort out my shit and B.) to procrastinate homework

college is BEATING MY ASS and i'm not even at the harder junior/senior year type stuff so even if my writer's block wasn't the worst it's ever been I highly doubt I would be writing anything anyway. i cannot say for certain when I'll be able to get back (it seems the universe is tailored specifically to punch me in the face whenever I have the slightest inclination to do so) but i will say it is always on my mind. i don't ever want to give up writing fully because of how many good things it's brought me but i want to be mature and say that it has taken a backseat in my life.

i still don't regret the things I've created and i will always be thankful for the experiences I've had + the friends I've made (even if we haven't talked in a while :') sorry guys) BUT this situation has just become the nail in the coffin for me in terms of what i want to do with my ds/mp and other adjacent fics. i can't say for certain what I'll go through and orphan/keep or just outright delete (WIPS/unfinished series will probably get deleted is what I've decided so far) so this is a BIG WARNING sign right here and now: if there are any ds/mp fics of mine you are fond of, please go and save them now. even if you think the one you really love is "safe" it's better to be cautious and have it yourself than hope for the best outcome.

now's a good time to mention that i have been feeling similar feelings toward my fl0wer husb4nds fics (gonna come out and be honest: i don't particularly care for sc0tt anymore, sorry) so if you like those you should also search them out. i think a hard majority if not all of them will be orphaned, so they'll still be up, but it never hurts to be able to read something while offline anyway

however, due to the aforementioned Important Adult Stuff(TM), i won't be able to get to the whole Properly deleting/orphaning process for a hot minute. that does not mean you should put off saving my fics because my brain could decide one night that i HAVE to do it IMMEDIATELY, but i can promise that it's not happening tonight (might hold off for at least a week just to give people time to see this post).

TSALP, my pride and joy, is perfectly safe and fine. when i think about whenever ill be able to write again, this series is the First thing to pop up in my mind. i have so many things i want to do with that series (and h3rmitcr4ft as a whole) that make me smile despite all that has happened surrounding mc/yt. someone will need to threaten me with death to make me even consider giving that up. hell, even taking a step back, i can say that i will never fully let go of mc/yt. i straight-up have tickets to go see tommy's america show later this month (send my dad well wishes as he's the one taking me LMAO) .

remember to drink water, take breaks, tell your friends you love them etc. I'm terrible at giving advice since I'm a bonafide mess of a person, but i will say that the best thing you can do for each other is support one another. i've always been a bigger fan of giving support to those who are hurt than trying to go and cause more pain to the people that you can argue "deserve" it. the people you care about are going to be with you much longer than the assholes, so be sure to put more energy into focusing on them than the ones that don't even deserve your scorn.

#halo be talkin #dont plan to tag this with any warnings unfortunately but i hope i left it vague enough to not be upsetting but specific enough #to know what im talking about

[weerd1]

All right, I feel it’s time to dig into my new comfort show, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Let me say up front, I love this show, so if you’re looking for someone who’s been watching Star Trek since the ‘70s to gripe about new Trek, you won’t find it here. Is this show perfect? Of course not. Is it Deep Space Nine good? Not yet, but I see potential. Episode by episode look and a long chat after the break! THERE WILL BE SPOILERS!

What it DOES feel like is TOS. From the variety of genres used to tell stories, to some downright weird plot points, to some remarkable social commentary, this really feels like what would happen if they just made TOS now. I lament a bit that we have 10-episode seasons instead of enough in a season to allow for some MORE variety the way TOS had more than 25 episodes a season.

So how about visual continuity?

This show looks like the way I would see this universe when I read novels or played the RPG: effects have caught up with the way I brain painted the Blish adaptations or those early novels. It works for me.

What about character continuity?

Barring the fact the show has canonized the idea that even the “Prime” timeline can shift a bit due to the influences of time travel across the universes (which I love), I think the nuances this show brings do nothing but enhance my understanding of TOS. The Spock/Chapel moments now on TOS? Christine now asking Spock, “have you ever been in love?” in the episode “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” becomes a bit of gut punch! What does it mean to her when he begins to lose control due to Ponn Farr? Does she think he might be reverting back to the Spock of a decade before who chanced to unleash emotion?

Visually and character-wise, we have not changes but expansion. Honestly, most of these perceived “changes” reminds me of Gene Roddenberry taking the opportunity to enhance the Klingons when he had the budget in The Motion Picture. Did he care that the Klingons weren’t bumpy? Did he care to come up with a solution? He didn’t: He was a creator who now had more tools to work with. SNW does that.

My sole complaint, which honestly stretches across many modern shows, Trek and otherwise is about language. TOS and its progeny up until Enterprise used a more stolid, slang-free method of writing which to me added to the timeless nature of the show. When characters in modern Trek use modern vernacular it ties the episodes for me more to the present rather than allowing me to suspend my disbelief that this is the future. This is just my personal preference, and is certainly not something that torpedoes my love for the show or characters.

So, if you’re still with me, let’s get into the nitty gritty, each episode rated from 1 to 5 LLAPs. 🖖

SEASON ONE

“Strange New Worlds” 🖖🖖🖖🖖

After DISCO S2 gave us a Pike which made Spock’s actions in “The Menagerie” entirely plausible, we pick up here with him knowing his destiny and he’s having to work on that. As it plays out, we get some great explorations of what Star Trek and Starfleet within the universe is about. We also get a pretty pointed commentary on our present and what allowing politicians to appeal to and encourage the baser, xenophobic impulses of their constituencies leads to. Solid start, solid introduction of return and new characters, and wow is this show gorgeous.

“Children of the Comet” 🖖🖖🖖

A solid episode which feels a little long in places. However, showing Sam Kirk is this universe’s Guy Fleegman is terrific, and we get some great Uhura moments. Also, fly, Erica, fly!

“Ghosts of Illyria” 🖖🖖🖖🖖

About as TOS as you can get! Crewmembers trapped on a planet below as danger approaches, a strange disease threatening the crew. Plus, a couple of good character revelations that start threads which will continue well into Season 2.

“Memento Mori” 🖖🖖🖖✌️(That’s a half)

The beginnings of expanding on the Gorn while giving us more background on La’an Noonien Singh (whom I originally was none to happy that she was Khan’s descendant, but S2 really uses that beautifully). She’s a terrific character and this episode helps us know why. Also- see my comment above about making the Klingons “more” because you have the opportunity as SNW picks up the way ENT showed us the Gorn were more than just a slow moving dino allegory and kicks it into high gear.

“Spock Amok” 🖖🖖🖖

A very fun episode which continues to show us that TOS’s T’Pring was more than just a diabolical woman who dared mess with our heroes. Have greatly appreciated what they have done with her. Also, Enterprise Bingo!

“Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach” 🖖🖖🖖✌️

Credit here first of all for a very TOS title. Then a TNG style morality play, but one that does not end happily. Dig it.

“The Serene Squall” 🖖🖖✌️

The Orion pirate captain and Pike’s mutiny was a little too…well silly for me. However, Captain Angel and the Sybok name drop, plus Christine being badass? All in there. Also, this sets up some Spock/Chapel stuff for S2 and I dig all of that.

“The Elysian Kingdom” 🖖🖖✌️

Again fun, and a neat way to deal with M’Benga’s daughter storyline. A bit indulgent in places, but everyone seems to be enjoying themselves so much, and we get Christina Chong’s dog Runa. VERY TOS when it all comes down to it. Bonus points for the DS9 reference.

“All Those Who Wander” 🖖🖖🖖🖖🖖

Oh- the Gorn are warp capable Xenomorphs. How HORRIFYING. Also, some real stakes as we lose Hemmer, and Spock really starts his S2 arc here.

“A Quality of Mercy” 🖖🖖🖖🖖✌️

Terrific method of tying in some more TOS to contextualize the show, a modernized TWOK uniform, and a new Captain Kirk. I didn’t walk out convinced by Paul Wesley’s Kirk, but he wins me over early in S2. My real complain here is Ortegas falling into the role of the bigoted Styles from “Balance of Terror.” Did NOT seem like her style. Kudos to a bit of a cliffhanger, even if it does feel a little tacked on to the episode. Also, they missed a bet not having James Frain (DISCO’s Sarek) playing the Romulan Commander.

(Also, the show misses a bet not having Rebecca Romijn or Jess Bush voice the computer.)

Overall S1 is a solid start that ties itself plenty to what has gone before, without resorting to simple, overwrought nostalgia baiting to tell a story. Like some other recent Star Trek.

SEASON TWO

"The Broken Circle" 🖖🖖🖖🖖

Spock stealing the Enterprise on a semi regular basis is now in my canon, and I am grateful. Pelia, I am convinced, is actually Carol Kane’s character from “Taxi.” M’Benga rolling out the stimulants didn’t make a lot of sense to me on my first viewing, but in context with the season, this is actually setting up a really interesting—and dark—bit of character development.

“Ad Aspera per Aspera” 🖖🖖🖖🖖🖖

This. This is Star Trek. ‘Nuff said. (Ok, also, THOSE DRESS UNIFORMS!)

“Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow “ 🖖🖖🖖🖖🖖

Here, HERE Paul Wesley’s Kirk wins me over, even if it is an alternate version. Earning money (and apparently a lot given the remarkably nice apartment they stay in) by playing CHESS, recognizing that La’an’s universe should stay because Sam’s alive, the slow seduction…yup, that’s Jim Kirk. Plus, This episode acknowledges that time is fluid, referencing how TOS tells us the Eugenics Wars SHOULD have been in 1992, but it keeps shifting. Elegant solution that opens so many doors to future stories. Also, baby KHAAAAAAAANNN!

“Among the Lotus Eaters” 🖖🖖🖖🖖

Nice callbacks to “The Cage,” yes. But this episode BELONGS to Erica Ortegas. “My name is Erica Ortegas and I👏🏻fly👏🏻the👏🏻ship!” And let’s add “thread the needle” to awesome starship tricks, shall we? Erica makes this good episode great.

“Charades” 🖖🖖🖖🖖

Vulcan shenanigans are back with a fully human Spock, and indeed, this one is funny. Ethan Peck’s comedy chops are great here, especially with Sam Kirk’s mess. Anson Mount delivers in the funny department too as Pike serves up Vulcan food. Very poignant stuff here for Christine though, and though I was initially, “oh no,” continuity-wise, I really ended up liking what this MEANS to what we saw on TOS.

“Lost in Translation” 🖖🖖🖖

A bit cliche, but a good Uhura episode, and though it seems like they're trying a little TOO hard to bring Kirk in, the Lt. Kirk/Ensign Uhura dynamic here is really good. The Jim/Sam thing also something I enjoyed. What makes this episode for me though is when Uhur figures out what's going on, Pike trusts her. Blows up a whole-ass mining station on the word of one Ensign. Go, Nyota!

"Those Old Scientists" 🖖🖖🖖🖖🖖

Just perfect. From the seemless merger of Lower Decks animated characters, to the meta commentary about "oddly specific references" and people talking "really slowly and quietly" this just works. Also ENT love! Uhura and Ortegas geeking out over Sato and Mayweather just made my day. So much fun, nothing could wipe the smile from my face! (Spoiler alert: The next episode will gut me.)

"Under the Cloak of War" 🖖🖖🖖🖖🖖

Holy crap. You thought DS9 played around with questionable moral decisions in a war setting, SNW here shows us they're not afraid to travel into Moore/Behr's space and take a whirl. The weirdness with M'Benga pays off here, and as a veteran myself they way this episode delves into our inability to provide the emotional context to what war does to us to someone without the same frame of reference? Fantastic. I was pretty uptight for most of this episode, because I felt it. I cried in places, was made uncomfortable in places, and what a set of reveals for both Christine and of course M'Benga as we see those flashbacks.

"Subspace Rhapsody"🖖🖖🖖

I WANT to give this one another LLAP, as I love musicals, and I love the fact they were bold enough to do one. The cast pulls off their numbers wonderfully, there's some great moments, especially between Jim and La'an (HE'S BACK???), and they conceit that makes this work is though a hair silly, pretty consistent with Trek and it's quantum/multiversal/anomaly episodes of times past. The only thing that doesn't work for me are the songs themselves. A couple are OK, but they just didn't stick with me. And I made sure I watched a couple of times, just to see if it was my mood. I can't help but compare this to Buffy The Vampire Slayer's "Once More With Feeling" though, and there are three songs from that I keep on my permanent playlist, and can sing pretty much the whole ep verbatim. This didn't make me want to do that; I just really enjoyed it. I wanted to love it. (Shout out though to the "Once More With Feeling" Easter Egg.)

"Hegemony" 🖖🖖🖖🖖

As soon as they gave Captain Batel a first name in the musical, I got worried, and sure enough these Gorn bring that to fruition. She's not dead yet, but she's in trouble, and this is a tight action episode. I appreciate that this new young Montgomery Scott is a) played by a Scot, and b) something of a mix between the Doohan and Pegg versions of the character. My only fear now is we have this cliffhanger, and between the writer's strike and modern TV's general refusal to follow seasonal schedules, we may be in for a far worse wait than the summer of 1990 left us with William Riker's "Fire."

So that's my take. Yes, there are missteps, or things that don't QUITE work, but if I want to compare this to the glory days of 90s Trek, we're only 20 episodes in, and already having a great time when TNG, DS9, and VOY all took at least a season or two of 24 episodes each to find their way. Sure, classic Trek all but hit it out of the gate, but again, we don't have but slightly more than 2/3 of their first season of episodes. We’re 20 episodes in and the worst ones are JUST good, there hasn’t been a bad one yet. SNW has found a way to be a prequel without suffering from their audience’s foreknowledge, and fit themselves firmly into Trek lore without just relying on playing Trek Trivia Madlibs to write their scripts (though Kirk KEEPS showing up!). I'm a little worried as I was really digging on DISCO for the first two seasons as well, and season 3 was a huge disappointment to me. Let's hope whenever we get back to this, they keep up the good work. I am more than ready to again boldly go.

#star trek #star trek strange new worlds #strange new worlds spoilers

[theophagie-remade]

I wanna go on and on about a thing and 'tis my premise

Now, to the scene that kicked off the Cursed Subplot

First and foremost, one of my grievances with it is that Aoyama's comment is pretty much out of nowhere. Despite having had little to no interaction with Uraraka prior to this, somehow he knows her enough to tell what she's thinking, and the audience is just supposed to accept this. >_>? Ultimately his comment has no purpose other than that of making Uraraka aware that she's got something going on, but it just feels unsatisfactory, cheap, and out of place. I've seen theorises that he wanted to fail the exam on purpose to avoid going to the summer camp (thus, avoiding to aid AFO), but that still doesn't explain how he Just Knew which button to push

Having said that, it's Interesting_Meme.jpeg that this isn't the first time something went bad for Uraraka after she tried to use Midoriya as a reference [see: the Sports Festival arc, "I'll win just like Deku!" -> loses immediately after she has this thought]. And I say "bad" for a reason: in a real fight, this distraction would have killed her. Hell, she still could have gotten injured if Thirteen hadn't reacted in time. It's exactly the same thing that happened during the first mock battle supervised by All Might: the fact that this was an exercise is what allowed her to pass

And there's quite some satisfaction/vindication to knowing that it's not just me, random reader, who says this

"Always be conscious of who you are"... i.e. possibly thee sentence that is most relevant to her character arc in the whole manga

With the added detail that Toga was a character created specifically for her, and that Uraraka was developed to match Toga, it's hard to see how "being just like the person you like" could have anything but negative results. Toga's case is more complex because of the combination of natural urges she feels due to her quirk and the abuse and neglect she suffered at the hands of society, and I don't personally believe that "she's just mistaken" about love and admiration being connected, as some people say, but the core idea of Identity is the same. Becoming (just like) someone else means giving up on everything that makes you you, and Uraraka has been "punished" for having tried to. While she hasn't explicitly said anything about it (yet) ("chat about love" I am so terrified of what could come out of you), it's only with the shift to "I can be inspired by Deku" that she effectively stops stacking losses or half-assed results. And I guess that thinking about it as a shift to something constructive rather than as a full suppression of feelings does solve at least the contradiction of "If Toga suppression = bad, why Uraraka suppression = good?" (I still think "I can teach you, Toga, how love should actually be!" would be a TERRIBLE thing though btw)

This is one of the instances where the japanese text may help a lot, because "bottling feelings up" and "keeping feelings under control" do share a common repression element to them, but at the same time they aren't the same

I do think that on its own this is a good approach to love as a theme, but as things currently stand, (excluding things like Uraraka being sidelined so often and the lack of interaction with other characters) my gripes with Horikoshi are: the interference of other characters (Aoyama, Mina) is annoying; it's ultimately disappointing that, as far as the relationship side of things is concerned, everything is on Uraraka's shoulders alone. Midoriya merely is an unaware external cause, and this lack of reciprocity not only renders the prospect of a possible future relationship between them completely unappealing and bland (if the standards for romance are supposed to be a character thinking "Oh, A Cute Girl I just met is talking to me!"... *side eye*), but personally it also... makes him feel like an intruder. When I think about "the love subplot", it's Uraraka and Toga that immediately come to my mind, with Midoriya just being an annoying afterthought, because he's only indirectly involved and... that's it ("he's just standing there... menacingly!")

#IF YOU (TOGACHAKO) WERE GAY FR........ SO MANY PROBLEMS WOULD SOLVE THEMSELVES............ #mytext #animanga #bnha #uraraka ochako #long post

[extasiswings]

I've been managing my expectations but I have to say I'm really excited for 6B. Most of the characters are facing serious tension. Subtext and themes have been consistent (couches and chairs, donor vs. dad). And now, because of Eddie's loud-and-clear evasion of the donor topic, we know that things between him and Buck have to come to a head. It's looking good! The fandom negativity is wildly out of proportion IMO.

I completely agree. The thing is, I am an impatient bitch and I definitely get frustrated when I feel like things aren't moving fast enough or going exactly how I want, but I also recognize that is a personal problem about me and doesn't necessarily translate to a valid criticism of the show. I do have some minor gripes with some of the pacing choices this season (mainly re: the sperm donor arc), but even with that I can understand why they might have done certain things the way they have.

With that arc in particular, it's a process that in itself takes time--weeks to do all the screenings and whatnot to get to the point of donation, weeks to do fertilization and implantation, still more weeks to find out if the process has taken and there's a viable pregnancy in process, so that's months of time right there without even getting to the actual 9-months of pregnancy. So in that sense, the on-again-off-again nature of how the storyline is playing out isn't that strange, it's just that audiences have gotten used to (especially in the era of bingewatching), focusing on one arc at a time/expecting that as soon as something is introduced it will be consistently emphasized until resolved. Could they have written it differently and had Buck not go through with it for one reason or another and proceeded from there? Sure. But that would have been a totally different story (and not necessarily better, we have no way of saying that one way or another, but different)--they are explicitly using this arc as part of Buck's journey of self-discovery, and a major piece of that is the level of regret and pain he's going to experience because he jumped into doing this selfless thing without thinking about the consequences (even though he was warned), an impulsive character trait that ties back to his root trauma of Daniel (which he hasn't dealt with). They've basically said outright that's what they're doing, and also that part of the reason to do a self-discovery arc for Buck is that because he doesn't know himself/what he wants generally, he can't see who he wants to be in a relationship with which...hello???

And as you said, the themes have been consistent. The season opened very explicitly with the idea of not knowing what you want/not being able to see what you already have/not allowing yourself to want certain things because you don't think they're attainable (and/or because you're afraid to want them). It's all one big play on fantasy vs. reality and what that looks like for different people/in different situations. And we've watched those themes play out character-by-character.

Maddie and Chim got back together and have been rebuilding their life together, learning what it looks like to be a family again, and their 6A arc on that front closed with them finding their dream house.

Athena and Bobby have dealt with it on a lesser scale, with the Florida trip and investigation. The idea of putting people on pedestals, and therefore not being able to see them for who they are, not being able to recognize reality. And we're going to get into it more with Bobby it seems like due to this whole situation with his sponsor.

Hen was struggling with med school vs. being a firefighter and paramedic. She thought she wanted to be a doctor in part because she didn't think it was possible to progress further in her career with the LAFD until she was actually given the chance to be interim captain. And when she was put in a position where she finally had to choose, she chose the LAFD because she could have it all and because her family was her real dream. Now, she's heading into a related arc with Denny that ties directly into Buck's (and Eddie's). Denny's the one now looking outside of what he already has, thinking he needs something more (a dad) while Buck is going to be struggling with being overly invested in the sperm donor situation because he didn't get it through his head that being a donor does NOT make him a dad and Eddie/Christopher/the will of it all is very loud.

I don't need to repeat all of the ways Buck's arc fits this theme, but he is the most explicit about actively not being able to see what's right in front of him/what he already has (that he has a partner in Eddie, that he's a father to Christopher, that they're a family, etc etc etc).

Eddie's arc is still in-progress. But his arc has also focused on these ideas of not talking about or acknowledging certain things (including things you want) because they're scary and/or because you think they're unattainable (especially if they're supposedly unattainable because of "difference" in some capacity--for Hen at the LAFD it was her race/gender/sexuality, for Christopher it was his disability, for Eddie...I mean come on, there's one answer here...). We've seen him do the things that he thinks are "expected" of him, try to fit the fantasy mold of a heteronormative nuclear family, and fail fantastically (fantasy not living up to reality). And we've seen him on his own journey of self-discovery, becoming his own person separate from Christopher, while the question of what following his heart really means remains open (and is going to be a focus of 6B as they return explicitly to him and Romance).

Idk, I've been enjoying this season a lot and I'm excited about 6B and I've been surprised by the amount of negativity as well. In S5, it felt like everyone was complaining that it was too dark, and when this season started people were happy that it was a return to more lightness. But now, that seems to have shifted as well and I see that being turned into a criticism that the writers aren't taking certain things seriously enough or giving them the weight they're due. I don't feel like the pacing is any worse than other seasons, I don't think the arcs are any more frustrating (like...I cannot emphasize enough how much I hate the lawsuit arc and street fighting arc and Maddie's stalker era, I really can't, and as important as the tsunami arc is overall for the show I felt like it was largely disconnected from the specific arcs of the season for most characters, but I don't claim that S3 is badly written just because I personally dislike certain dramatic choices that were made), and I don't think the introduction of new arcs or set-ups for continuations of established arcs in this episode was any different from any other midseason finale.

As with any kind of longform storytelling though, everything looks different in hindsight once you get the whole picture. I've made my peace with the fact that the writers have a plan that I can't see all of yet, but I trust them to create something that will answer the questions we have and deal with the things that we have complaints about if we just give them time/watch the rest of the season. We have 9 more episodes, there's a lot of exciting potential, and frankly, when I look back over the full seasons after seeing how all the arcs have played out, the writers have never truly let me down. I don't expect that to be any different this season. We just need to be patient and let them tell the story.

...this got really long, but anyway...tldr; they've been very consistent with subtext (and text) and themes and I don't think there's any real reason not to expect that to continue and I'm looking forward to 6B!

#chapel talks #anonymous #ask

[frauleinandry]

just finished the repaint your heart dlc! i still had fun with it, but ultimately i enjoyed it a lot less than the main story. tbh, unless you're a huge - and i mean huge - princekechi and kasumi fan, or are really interested in guernica, i probably wouldn't bother with it. it's pretty short (i completed it in less than 5 hours doing all the content), and it was less enjoyable to play than the main game.

my full analysis is under the cut - note, it contains end-game spoilers!!

if you've read my main story tactica review, you'd know one of the reasons i loved it was because it wasn't just a persona Q game with a genre shift, and avoided all of the plot/story issues associated with that spinoff series. repaint your heart's narrative, on the other hand, has all the tropes that make persona Q bad, without having any of the things that make it good.

i know literally everyone and their mum has complained about this, but i am baffled on why atlas didn't set repaint your heart during the third semester. like... there is literally no point in hiding royal spoilers anymore. the game has been out for four years. the media restrictions have been dropped. literally No One who isn't already a persona 5 fan is going to play tactica, let alone buy its dlc.

setting repaint your heart during the third semester would have worked fine plot-wise too. have it so akechi's investigating guernica's work on a whim, and make it so jerri wants to break maruki's hold on reality and destroy the world because no human should have such power. there. problem solved.

admittedly, kasumi as a character isn't too bad. i obviously would have preferred sumire, who has a criminal lack of screen time where she's actually herself, but at least the dlc's story is personal for her either way because she intimately knows what it's like to lose a sister even when she's actualised.

akechi, on the other hand, suffers from being stuck in his prince mode a lot more, and with the exception of a couple of funny moments where he got dunked on, might as well have just been a piece of cardboard. he has no personal stakes in luca and guernica's story whatsoever. quite frankly, it would have been better if he was replaced by makoto, given her issues with sae (especially during that point in persona 5 canon, when their relationship is at its worst).

what makes akechi's overall non-importance exceptionally annoying is that if the dlc was set during the third semester, he actually would have some parallels with guernica/jerri!! like, he'd totally relate to wanting to ignite the world in fury so it burns itself down to the ground, but he'd also have the wisdom to know that that's a terrible idea. akechi could have been motivated by his desire to prevent guernica from turning into another him, but he wasn't, and that is such a missed opportunity.

the OCs and their storyline are probably the strongest part of repaint your heart's narrative. admittedly, it was nowhere near as impactful as toshiro's plot due to its short length, but luca's second death was pretty emotional, and the final boss fight was satisfying. i do find it funny though that tactica's main story and dlc both feature a cognition of a dead relative who dies in front of someone again in order to make them regain the memories of their original version's death. if i had a nickel, and all that jazz.

while i've mainly been bitching about the dlc's story so far, i've got some gripes with the gameplay too. while i did enjoy the increased difficulty (quite frankly, the main story's hard mode should have been on par with it), the painting mechanic makes the battles feel a lot less well-crafted. like, the main story missions feel like puzzles you need to solve, and just flow, for a lack of a better word. the painting effect though makes elements like positioning a lot less effective, so on the whole i felt like i was just brute forcing my way through the levels instead of taking advantage of my surroundings.

still, for all my complaints, repaint your heart definitely isn't all bad! the art direction is great, and guernica's character design in particular is fantastic. not to mention, there is one thing the dlc does substantially better than the main game...

... namely, the music. i absolutely loved royal's and striker's soundtracks, but in comparison, I found tactica's somewhat... underwhelming? not bad by any means, but there wasn't a single song that stood out. repaint your heart has some absolute bangers though - the night we stood is a fantastically catchy battle theme, and quiet storm is literally one of my favourite songs in the franchise. listening to it after the backstory reveal makes it hit so differently.

anyway, that's all from me - on the whole, i still think tactica's a great but overpriced game, though i really hope atlas learns from all the criticisms of the dlc, and makes akechi and sumire their actual selves next time they're included in a game.

#persona 5 #p5 tactica #p5t #review tag

[destinyc1020]

An Anon asked me this question (below) in my DM's, and I felt like it was a good one that was worth a public response (don't worry...I got permission to post lol), so I'm going to answer the question here:

First of all, sorry for the late response on this Anon. I meant to answer this question weeks ago, but as you all know, I've been going through a LOT. 😩🤦🏾‍♀️

Anyway....

I touched on this a little bit already the other day, but in answer to your question, I personally feel like there's been a lot of drama and scandal involving the Golden Globes in recent years due to the lack of diversity and complaints of racism within the HFPA (Hollywood Foreign Press Association). 🥴 In fact, the show was not even televised in recent years due to the whole scandal. 😬

I think this might be why quite a few celebrities (including Zendaya and Co.) are kind of tip-toeing a little bit with regards to the GG's coming back this year. I think many might be appreciative for their nominations, but some might not feel like "celebrating" all that soon about it, or might be a little more 'low-key' about posting about them.

Just about a year or two ago, actors boycotted the show and the GG's couldn't even get not ONE actor/big name to attend the show, let alone present lol. They ended up having to scrap the live show. Not sure what's going to happen this year, or who will even attend tbh. 🤷🏾‍♀️

I know some actors such as Brendan Fraser have already stated outright that they will NOT be attending the Golden Globe awards this year (or any year for that matter lol 👀). Brendan's gripes with the Golden Globe awards are more so due to him being sexually assaulted by the old former President of the HFPA years ago, and them basically doing nothing about it. I feel bad for what happened to him😔 , and NOBODY should ever have to go through something like that, inside OR outside of the industry. 😡

So yea, I think some may have some mixed feelings about the show just in general. 😬

As far as Z is concerned, I'm really not sure if she will attend or not? 🤷🏾‍♀️ And if she DOES win, I'm not even sure if she will post about it? I guess it's a W.A.S. type of thing. I honestly don't even know who they all have on tap to present for this year's show. I've had a lot of other more serious things on my mind lately, so I haven't really been keeping up with all of the news re: the GG's tbh. The presenters for the show will give you more of an idea of who will be in attendance I'm thinking? 🤷🏾‍♀️

I can only imagine some of the jokes that might arise at this upcoming Golden Globe awards show. 😅

I guess we'll see what will happen come January 10th! lol. 😅🤣 (I'm still salty that the show is on a freakin' WEEK night 🙄 Who's brilliant idea was this?? 😒)

All I know is I'll be watching.... In addition to seeing the winners, I'm also curious to see if there will be any changes or if things improve some. 🤔

#Golden Globes 2023 #cleaning out the inbox lol

[phoenix-is-the-hottest-thing]

Can I ask what's wrong with Because of You? I really enjoyed it, personally. Might not have had the same impact as Everlasting Flames but I still felt emotional about Elysia talking with Eden and Mobius, and how beautiful Ellie was. If I had to have a gripe, it's that there were too many characters involved so they didn't get enough of a spotlight.

I already went over my feelings a month ago, and playing the chapter didn’t really change them too much.

Even with some proper goodbyes just before it just isn’t what I wanted it to be. Thematically it’s like a step backwards from Shattered Samsara, and it feels contrived to me because I know they wrote the arc this way specifically because they couldn’t keep the sims around to take up narrative space. Like… Kevin Killer 666 is a plot device. It didn’t have to be set up to destroy all of ER. They could have done a range of other things, maybe hard resetting it to their very first save 50 000 years ago so it’s still sad but they’re still alive or whatever, they just made it this way because they couldn’t keep the sims around. This kind of breaks the inevitable tragedy aspect for me— it wasn’t.

The writers forced it to be that way, and to force their point home they made HoC an audience surrogate with the “OOC illusion where they’re alive and happy” gimmick. It just feels like a slap in the face, haha, you can’t keep them alive and happy no matter what! No matter what you do it’s fake!!!!

Fuck you???

Elysia asks Mei whether she’s disappointed because she set out for more than just a goodbye, Mei says at least they did get to say goodbye properly. This Is Another Slap In The Face Mihoyo, And Not In A Good Way.

Yes, I am disappointed. No, saying goodbye properly isn’t helping too much. Band-aids no matter how gay don’t sew a wound shut. And again, it’s contrived, so it doesn’t feel like it is actually the only way for this to end, it just feels like giving up. Kiana pulled a miracle for Hua but Mei just lets them go??? Talk about leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

I also really, really hate it when characters walk to their deaths with a smile. It’s kind of triggering for me.

TLDR: No matter what they say or how many sunset group shots they draw it’s never going to be an animation I’m happy about, but due to how contrived they made the annihilation of ER it’s not inevitably tragic enough for me to feel catharsis either, so I’m just stuck in between feeling terrible about it.

#honkai impact #asks #hi3

[ilikekidsshows]

So I have to ask what your Favourite unification design is for the miraculous and//or to rank them all

So, a disclaimer before we begin: I think all of these designs work. Most if not all of this show's designs tend to work at what they're trying to do. As such, my ranking is based on how few personal gripes I have with each fully functional costume, so there's more complaining than I usually have with Miraculous designs, but that just makes it more comedic or something.

Disqualified: Snake Noir

I’m disqualifying this for one specific reason: it is a combination of two separate designs of Adrien using each of the involved Miraculouses. Of course it’s going to be the best one of the bunch when they had thought about Adrien using the Snake earlier in the series. It would be the undisputed winner due to being a balanced combination of two Adrien designs.

Here's the rest, from least great to most great.

Multimouse variants: these are literally just multimouse with a different accent color and an added accessory. There’s being subtle, and then there’s doing the bare minimum.

Pennybug: The Sailor Moon motifs are on point, but it is far too busy for my tastes (I’ve seen enough redesigns in this fandom to know some people love that, though). Ladybug’s tiny dots turn into really big blotches that come in both black and white. And the white blotches come with neon blue rings around them, to make sure they sear into your eyes from their black background as much as possible. This would have been a top tier design, if it was just a tad less. Also, what is the point of giving your character sunglasses, if they’re just going to be peering over them constantly? I want to like this design, but it’s really not working for me.

Pegabug: This look is actually decent from some angles. We still have the same peeking over sunglasses thing going on, though. The fadeout in the hair is really neat, but it looks worse on the legs, making her look like she’s fading out of existence when against a pale background. The white stomach area is also a tad too large, since it makes the design look unfinished, which might be why they overcorrected with way too many dots on Pennybug.

Bunny Dog: This one looks kinda lopsided. The hat is absolutely adorable and the best part of the design, but the whole “top half is the rabbit, bottom half is the dog” coloring decision on this thing makes it look like someone mismatched the pieces in a two-piece puzzle game where you need to combine head and torso with the correct legs. It also has unnecessary spots. The biggest issue with this design is the challenge brought on by the decision to go with brown. There’s a reason most superheroes don’t wear brown (instead, it’s the color worn by the practical, dependable detective buddy), it’s not an eye-grabbing color, which is exactly what a hero costume needs, so the overall look is a bit more boring than it should be. I didn't disqualify this one for being a design combination, because they introduced Dog Alix literally just to unify her and this design did not benefit from being a combination of two designs.

Shadow Moth: This look is very supervillainous, but it is one of Gabriel’s weaker looks. It’s basically just Hawk Moth with Peacock motifs added on top. It just so happens that the Peacock and Butterfly motifs go well together. It still does more than the Multimouse variants and doesn't have any missteps that take away from the overall look.

Rabbit Noir: This is how you do a Rabbit Unification. The neon blue is used sparingly and it goes well with Adrien’s usual black (like most colors do). I also think that the Tron line thing the accents have going on is on purpose, since they seemed to be going for “futuristic” as a time travel power nod. The fluffy tail at the end of Adrien’s cat tail is a bit too much, as are the lines under the eyes, since they kinda make Adrien look like he’s crying. I prefer the white bell as a nod to the fluff tail, as it was enough.

Dragon Bug: This is a surprisingly good combination of dots and stripes, probably because the stripes aren’t straight. It also shows us when the bigger dots with circles work: when the contrast isn’t too big. I would prefer the design more if the dots were just dots, but here it’s not too noticeable, so it’s easy to overlook. This is a very solid look.

Lady Bee: This design basically combines the best aspects of Queen Bee and Dragon Bug. The gold-rimmed dots are smaller, and the stripes are a more muted shade of gold, decreasing the contrast even further. The bee antennae are a nice touch, along with the drill hairstyle. Even the mask has a cool silhouette of bug wings.

Monarch: Stained Glass Pimp Man is ready to come and steal your Miraculous. Once again, the design does the thing that worked for Shadow Moth: keep it simple, stick to a main motif and add minor details. The stained glass pattern was perfect to include color nods to all of the Miraculous in a way that wasn’t too in your face. The rest of it being purple and black is also good for keeping Gabriel’s designs consistent. You know this is still Gabey Boy.

And, finally, number one:

Shadow Noir: That’s literally an evil Cat Noir and it’s the closest we’ll get to it in the show proper. I love that Adrien and Gabriel’s Akumas share similarities with the monochrome, specifically washed out, color schemes, so Gabriel’s Black Cat looking like Adrien’s Black Cat is just *chef’s kiss*. This design also really showcases just how iconic Gabriel’s Hawk Moth look is, because you can still see it in Shadow Noir in really small details that don’t take away from the symbolism of the look. Although it’s less iconic, I do like that they kept the Peacock influence subtle as well, with the feather motifs, especially the tailfeather, and the pun of it being a feather on the tail is magnificent.

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous tales of ladybug and chat noir #ml meta

[autumnslance]

I noticed you doing character bingos again! I’d like to see one for Zenos if possible. I had fun with him in Stormblood, but found that joy to drowned with how he was handled in Endwalker. By the end I just wanted to be done with that monster. If the game had let me walk away without fighting him, like he suggested, I would have.

Wild, we're about the opposite; I disliked Zenos a great deal in Stormblood--he was bloody useless and an annoyance out of nowhere--while I feel they finally figured him out and mostly hit their stride with him in Endwalker, as he gave up pretending to care about military and political matters and became the wandering blood knight he actually is.

Almost got a bingo, but let's be real; I always have too much to say about major characters.

I also won't say anything negative about folks' WoLships, which are by far the most popular Zenos pairing; folks have their fun and they're welcome to it. But fandom is a good chunk of the issue with Zenos. One either loves him or hates him, and both sides tend to take it to extremes and flanderize / mischaracterize the man rather than dealing with the canon portrayal.

In my opinion, he's not that deep. Yes I have read "The Hunt Begins" thank you I own a copy of Chronicles of Light. It told us nothing new about his history and personality, just gave us a glimpse of where he started to find his focus, exactly as the title tells us. The thing is, Zenos doesn't have to be "deep" (whatever one means by that) to be compelling and do his job as a character in the story. Given his straightforward viewpoints, especially in EW as he gives an answer to Hermes' questions, Zenos himself might scoff at the need to find hidden depth of meaning to his personality and existence.

I've also said somewhere, probably my other big Zenos write-up, that he's not quite tragic, though there's tragedy all around and through him. He chooses to not deal with it in any fashion, a creature of the present entirely.

I think he needed a better introduction, seeded over the HW patches, even just in discussion and rumors if we still didn't see him until that patch 3.55 shot. I think he should have done something in StB other than be a "lose the fight the right way" plot checkpoint and just handing Doma and Ala Mhigo back to the heroes without having to really work for them.

I really think a massive part of the dissatisfaction many folks have with StB's story is that the victories are hollow after so much misery in those lands, who are then each shorted due to sharing the expansion. And a lot of that comes down to the misuse of Zenos, whose attributes are mostly told to us as he sleeps on the throne and bullies his underlings. For a supposedly brilliant man, we never see it in his military strategies, and he's played handily by Fandaniel, who knew just how to pull Zenos's strings.

So yeah. I was ready to be done with him in EW; "In From the Cold" is horrifying but I see it more as Fandaniel's scheme that Zenos goes all into. My WoL stopped caring about Zenos the moment trial 1 ended and Fandaniel's scheme became clear. I eye rolled whenever Zenos came back onscreen, though I think the scene in Garlemald with Jullus and Alisaie were good for him and lead directly into the finale.

I know what I just wrote and that I checked "too much screentime" but honestly he got a shade too little in EW. I DID dread/expect some kinda 11th hour teamup, though the "how" made me laugh incredulously. It worked in its weird way.

The final fight he still didn't understand my WoL but she was done and wanted to make sure it was finally over and he wouldn't darken her door or threaten anyone again. The solo duel is not unknown in other FF games, and I rather enjoyed it and the final punch-out at the end as they exhausted themselves entirely.

Mileage varies, depending on one's WoL, feelings on Zenos, and on that tropey duel of mirrored characters. I've also already spoken to the gripes about him being truly gone per Word of God and while one can do whatever one wants in fanfic, there's a lot of reason it does, in fact, work to leave his corpse at the edge of the universe and I'm OK with it. His part in the story, and how that affects Assumed Default Warrior of Light's self-understanding, is complete.

Like the Ascians, he's done. Interested to see what's up with his Avatar, since we also got nothing on his being a Reaper (could have used more on that too!!) as we move into the 6.x patches and build up of the next arc.

#Final Fantasy XIV #Lyn Prompts #character bingo #memes #character analysis #Endwalker #6.0 spoilers #Zenos Galvus

[sparklycitrus]

Well Hello Again

Hi lovely peoples. I've come back from winter hibernation, i.e. I finally watched No Time to Die (had to pay 6 bucks to rent it, and, uh, yeah, not worth! lol), and so, I can check my tumblr again sans spoilers. Freedom!

I'm not sure if the 00q fandom is still around haha. But that's okay, AO3 is still plentiful, and I've signed up for this year's 00QRBB, because I'm rusty with writing fanfic and that is a great motivator. I also have about a half-year's worth of fics to read through (and plenty of mad fix-its, I presume.) If I plan to actually follow canon I'd stop right in the middle of the film and pretend everything that happened after was a figment of a fever dream. Pure personal preference - y'all do whatever y'all like, I'll read and comment and love all the fics regardless.

So, if you still have me on your dash and is still in 00q leave me a holler if you want. I'll be here for a good bit. See y’all around!

(Rambly, personal movie gripes below. I literally just finished the film last night so it's fresh on my mind. Feel free to skip.)

Canon things I've learned and other things I’m going to adjust in my writing:

Q canonically dates men (and women? not clear), has two Sphinx cats, and has seriously gotten over his fear of flying (if he really were, at all). Also, he seems to like chinoiserie and other oriental things, which I don't know how I feel about. But I think that's more due to the flavoring of No Time to Die stemming from Dr. No. So, might not necessarily make its way into my fic settings.

Nomi is, um, not a lesbian? At least I didn’t notice on screen? I’ve heard from fandom since forever before this movie came out that she’s a lesbian, but I haven’t seen it confirmed one way or another in the film. Maybe I missed a throwaway dialogue, but, yeah. I’m going to operate as if it’s not set in stone. Plus, she’s a double-oh agent. Probably have to swing both ways for the job.

Safin has some of the murkiest motivation ever. Like, why does he need to kill everybody in the whole world when he already has a perfectly good reason to be evil - revenge on Spectre! If the plot needs Bond to die for Madeleine they can easily make it so Safin’s goal is to torment every person ever related to Spectre, especially a White, without the dubious “kill the world!” ambition. It’ll be more dramatic and personal and makes more sense. Yeah, anyway, looks like Raoul Silva will still be the only villain I’ll attempt to write about in my fics.

And last, this is just a giant gripe, but nanobots. Eternal. Nanobots. I don’t even - you know, Q himself just proved that nanobots are not eternal because he has to re-inject Bond with the damn nano Smartblood because, I assume, the thing ran out of power during Bond’s retirement. If you can make a perpetual energy generator no matter what it runs on I think you just solved the world energy crisis. Could’ve just said something like “it has a half-life of 50 years” so Bond’ll be dead before he can touch his family without killing them - same goddamn effect without completely breaking immersion. I’m pretty sure that was when the film lost me - when they claim anything robotic is eternal. I know Bond gadgets are some serious science fiction but, this one just irks me to no end.

Okay, gripes over. Sorry for the wall of text. Peace!

#me #return #hello #00q #no time to die spoilers #and gripes

[ofonikabutobeetlesandmen]

Kusanali is the child of the previous Dendro Archon (Slime Theory Thoughts)

//genshin leaks mention

As always this is put on my reddit 

tldr:

Kusanali IS the Dendro Archon, but because of her reclusive nature and young age, the Sages mostly do as they please and she has a mentor figure of sorts that looks after her since she is so young

Her personal name is Nahida, Kusanali is just one of the names she has a public figure

Kusanali is the child of the previous Dendro Archon

Being young and possibly easily manipulated, she may be willing to give her gnosis to the Tstaritsa or due to her inexperience, the mentor figure will give it away to prevent Kusanali from being harmed by the Tsaritsa and Fatui

Kusanali’s design is out and I might be in the minority but I love it. Her Hu Tao like eyes, her Klee ears-

Giving Hoyo the benefit of the doubt, her being a kid model is almost like a nod to how kids aren’t normally associated with wisdom but are typically smarter than we give them credit for and absorb new information like sponges. The God of Wisdom being a kid could very well be referencing that known piece of info.

(I do have some gripes, however. I don’t really think her design is really an indicator of hailing from Sumeru, though I guess one could argue both her and Venti look like they could be characters in SAO and I would’ve liked her skin to be darker. But other than that, I do really like the design and look forward to her release.)

Kusanali is also associated with grass and flowers what with her birthday festival and many titles across the localized and CN scripts:

Sabzeruz Festival, a festival from Sumeru celebrating Kusanali’s birth,  سبزه روز quite literally translates to Day of Grass. But in Chinese, this festival is called the ‘Flower God’s Birthday’ 花神诞日 using the characters for flower (花, huā), god, (神, shēn), birth (诞, dàn) and day (日, rì).

While she is called Lesser Lord Kusanali in English, in the original Chinese Kusanali’s affectionate nickname from her people is 小吉祥草王 Xiǎo Jíxiángcǎo Wáng or Little Lucky Grass King/Lord, using the characters for small (小, xiǎo) lucky (吉, jí) prosperous (祥, xiáng) grass (草, cǎo) and king (王, wáng). (Honestly wish that was kept in her localized title Little Lucky Grass Lord Kusanali is so much cuter than Lesser Lord)

The name Kusanali itself is derived from kusa-grass and is likely a nod to the Jātaka verse (which I’m too lazy to type so I’m copying and pasting from the wiki): "Yathā ahaṁ Kusanāḷī rucāyaṁ" (English: Just as (the reed-god) Kusanāḷi did to this tree; Chinese: 于此鲁伽树，吉祥草助我 "As to the ruca-tree will the lucky-grass help me")

Compared to things like trees or even moss, flowers and grass definitely have more of an image of being young and/or naïve. 

But that stuff aside, Most people are already familiar with the theory that Kusanali might not be the true Archon due to several main reasons.

CN/JP Naming Conventions:

Venti, Barbatos = Wind God 风神 fēng shēn  

Zhongli, Morax/Rex Lapis = Stonelord Sovereign 岩王帝君 Yánwáng Dìjūn

Ei, Beezlebul = Raiden (Shogun) 雷電 Lightning and Thunder Shogun

God of the Woods = God of Plants 司掌草木的神 Sīzhǎng Cǎomù de Shén

With all the Archons we’ve met so far or have been referenced, their official titles include their element somewhere in it.  风 wind,  岩 rock/stone, 雷 lightning. By extension of that pattern, Kusanali should be called Grass God  (草神 cǎo shēn) instead of Flower God (花神 huā shēn).

But an argument for this is that while she might be called the Flower Archon, she is still associated with grass with her CN title of Little Lucky Grass Lord. But a counterargument to that is that Little Lucky Grass Lord is the affectionate nickname given to her by her people as they adore her, not an official title akin to Flower Archon, God of Freedom or God of Contracts.

Slime Theory:

Slime Theory is a theory that predict details about the upcoming Archons by looking at the large slime variants of each type. (ex. How the giant Electro Slimes are twins like Makoto and Ei, the large Anemo slime uses ranged attacks like Venti, the large Geo slimes shield and has rock throws like Zhongli’s shielding abilities and elemental burst).

Looking at the Large Dendro slime’s behavior and abilities it

hides underneath the ground using a large flower as a disguise

it can create an AOE field that causes a poison effect that saps the player’s HP while healing the enemy

it can spit out toxic seeds that poisons the player and leaves little Dendro clouds that explode when Pyro comes into contact with it

it can spread seeds that grow into little Dendro slimes to assist it in battle although these little slimes die once the parent Large Dendro slime is destroyed

With these behaviors and abilities, people deduced that the Dendro Archon is a reclusive god that prefers to be alone and dedicate herself to obtaining knowledge, only making appearances when otherwise threatened. One video also proposed that the small slime summoning ability could be referenced to how Kusanali has the sages at her beck and call and the flower of a Large Dendro slime was reference to how the sages could be publicly leading Sumeru while Kusanali hides behind the scenes.

The flower is also used, however, to say that the flower is Kusanali acting as the Archon for Sumeru while the true Dendro Archon lies in waiting. 

Gender Discrepancies:

Newer players wouldn’t be aware of this but some time ago, the Dendro Archon was actually referred to with he/him pronouns. But some time after 2.1′s release, it was shown that this was changed to refer to Kusanali with she/her pronouns

Once 2.1 dropped and Miko gave the player some information about Sumeru and Kusanali, additional ideas were added to this theory.

Arguments for this theory include that this could simply just be a translation error as the original CN script in Ganyu’s conversation never referenced any gender and it was just the localization team assuming the pronouns. Or simply that originally Kusanali was a man but GI team simply decided to change that with no hidden motives.

Age:

Kusanali is the youngest of the Archons at around 500 years old and some argue that this makes sense as to why she have a kid model once early leaks began to say she would have one. 

Others argue it makes no sense because a character that would be around the same age as Kusanali, is Yae Miko. Miko herself is around the same age as Kusanali as she was a child during the time of the cataclysm/fall of Khaenri'ah which is when Kusanali ascended/was born. With this being the case, to some it would make no sense for the true Dendro Archon to be a young child when Miko herself is clearly an adult at the same age. 

It can be argued that this can be due to differences in how kitsune age versus how Kusanali ages as all Archons were some other sort of supernatural creature before becoming gods. Venti was a sylph/wind spirit, Zhongli was an adeptus, and it isn’t too clear what type of yokai Ei was. So depending on what Kusanali once was, that could dictate the rate she ages.

It can also be argued that she is simply just using a child avatar since if we look at different Venti and Zhongli, their appearances are simply the avatars they have chosen. Venti made his human appearance to look reminiscent of a deceased friend. Zhongli has not given any particular reasoning for his appearance, but in various stories across Liyue it has been said that he’s taken many forms from an old woman to the appearance he has today.

You can also look at this post here written by another user on Reddit u/AlexBnew88 for their look as to why Kusanali isn’t the Archon citing Zoroastrianism.

Her Abilities or Lack Thereof:

No, not in regards to her kit since at the time of posting this, it isn’t out yet. It’s in terms of her abilities lore-wise and includes her predecessor the God of the Woods. 

If you haven’t read the lore about the VV artifact set, the cliffnotes version is that it is about the set’s namesake, Viridescent, a hunter who lived a long time ago around the time of the cataclysm. It also references the God of the Woods, though, the assumed previous Dendro Archon since they died 500 years ago which is when Kusanali became a god. 

A quick look at the VV sands artifact gives a lot of insight into the reach of the God of the Wood’s power. “Legend has it that when the Viridescent Venerer walked barefoot on the fields, the grass beneath her feet would tell her what the birds in the trees could see, and the mud she trod on would tell her what the roots in the earth could hear. But it is said that ever since disaster struck, the grass and trees never spoke again. For the God of the Woods had died in the disaster.”

When the God of the Woods was alive, the plants were able to speak and once they perished, they fell silent. If Kusanali was the true Archon, people argue that the plants would be able to talk once more. But a counterargument is that due to her being the youngest Archon, she might not have had the time to completely develop her abilities contrast to Zhongli who is well over 500 years old at a whopping 6000.

My Thoughts/Predictions:

I still believe that Kusanali is the true Dendro Archon but I now believe there will be more to the story. 

As we’ve come to learn throughout the patches, Celestia isn’t as good as people might have thought previously considering how they destroyed an entire nation and even Orobashi for knowing too much information about them and the time before Celestia.

Witnessing the horrors of the cataclysm first hand, Ei’s adamant desire to preserve Inazuma in a state of Eternity is so she can avoid giving Celestia any reason to think Inazuma should be the next Khaenri'ah. Because of this, when it came to the Sumeru Archon Quest, my prediction was that Kusanali was purposefully spreading misinformation and/or wanted to keep her people ignorant.

Wisdom and the pursuit of knowledge is what Sumeru is all about but if anything, knowledge can be very dangerous in the world of Teyvat. Every Archon protects their nation in their own way including from Celestia, so I figured misinformation and folly was Kusanali’s.

As per Dainsleif’s line in the Teyvat storyline preview about Sumeru: The God of Wisdom’s enemy is wisdom itself, and the oasis of knowledge is a mirage in the desert of ignorance. In the city of scholars there is a push for folly, yet the God of Wisdom makes no argument against it. (Act ?? Title: Truth Amongst the Pages of Purana Latin-based Script: Sub floreis lumen sagacitatis ~ Under the flowery things, is the light of sagacity.)

Purana, by definition, any of a class of Sanskrit sacred writings containing Hindu legends and folklore of varying date and origin, the most ancient of which dates from the 4th century AD/very vast genre of topics but particularly legends and folktales.

Sagacity, by definition, the quality of being sagacious (having or showing keen mental discernment and good judgment; shrewd.) AKA, Sagacity is synonymous with ‘wisdom’ and ‘intelligence’.

I still think misinformation will be key to Sumeru’s Archon Quest. Knowledge comes with too many risks and as such, it’s hard to believe that the Dendro Archon would want to risk their people finding out too many truths about Celestia and the way their world works. 

If y’all have read the Genshin manga, you’ll know that Vennessa and her people are called the Children of Murata, the Pyro Archon. Specifically because they’re her descendants. In other words, gods they might be but like the adepti who can children with mortals, Archons can as well.

The light of sagacity we will discover in the Sumeru Archon quest is that she’s the daughter of the God of the Woods.

Large Dendro slimes can create baby Dendro slimes, and if we disregard the death of said babies once the parent is deceased, if Slime Theory is holds true for Sumeru this would mean that a Dendro Archon had a child.

I also want to point to Kusanali’s associations. As stated earlier, Kusanali is associated with both flowers and grass which compared to trees, are practically babies. You don’t need a history degree to tell you, a child being the leader of a nation isn’t good. We all saw how the child leaders of Enkanomiya were done dirty as well. Miko tells us at the end of Inazuma’s Archon quest that knowledge is used as a resource but she doesn’t know if that’s an idea that came from Kusanali herself or the Sages.

When it comes to flowers, meanings will vary depending on the blossom itself and the color of it, which we won’t know until we see Kusanali’s abilities. The symbolism of grass is a lot easier to pinpoint. Grass is often associated with abundance, wealth, health and expansion.

Grass, however, is a plant most of us walk all over without a second thought. Most of us would hesitate to step on a flower, but that same level of care isn’t given to grass.

Kids are smart, but they’re inexperience makes them easy to manipulate and hide things from. Kids can also think they know best and ignore just about anything else if it doesn’t go along with what they believe. With Kusanali being so young, her Sages could easily be implementing things for their own agenda while Kusanali is otherwise unaware if she is a recluse (which leakers have confirmed).

With Kusanali being so young and child rulers being a terrible idea, I think that while she might not exactly have a regent, she definitely has someone close to her acting as a mentor or guide or parent figure since her parent would be dead at this point. According to some leaks, the character Al-Haitham is a high standing figure in Sumeru society and is close to Kusanali so it could be him.

Nahida and Kusanali are said to be the same person by BLANK and all Archons have multiple names and titles. Looking at the Jātaka, Kusanali could just be a public name of hers given by the people that is associated with plants/grass, the element she is the Archon of.

So in summary, Kusanali IS the Dendro Archon, but because of her reclusive nature and young age, the Sages mostly do as they please and she has a mentor figure of sorts that looks after her since she is so young.

So while Kusanali might be the figurehead of Sumeru or even the Archon, I believe she has a regent of some sort that helps with managing Sumeru until she’s actually ready to lead. Until then, she is just meant to be a public figure the people look up to.

As for her gnosis, Archons have been shown to still have incredible power regardless of it is on their person, so I think Kusanali either has it OR her mentor figure keeps it somewhere else in order to make sure there aren’t really a lot of magical-accidents of grand scale. Like Zhongli, I think Kusanali will willingly give hers up.

She’s young and can be easily manipulated, therefore the Fatui could be incredibly convincing as to why she should give it to them. Or it’ll be stolen from the mentor figure, or the Tsaritsa will threaten this figure into giving it up by threatening to declare war on Kusanali who will be too inexperienced to hold her own on a fight with a more experienced Archon.

#genshin impact #genshin #genshin impact leaks #genshin leaks #leaks mention #dendro archon #lesser lord kusanali #kusanali #archon quests #geo archon #zhongli #morax #rex lapis #anemo archon #venti #barbatos #electro archon #raiden shogun #ei #yae miko #sumeru #murata

[fe-semi-decent-scenarios]

My personal opinion is that it’s looking good. Plus, yeah toothpaste-chan looks strange, but they are, by far, not the strangest design we got and if I recall characters like Shez got slammed for being weird and uninteresting at first yet they still became… not beloved, but liked as characters even if the game itself was disliked due to being warriors style.

Plus, if the developers say ‘fuck it’ and allow you to somehow weirdly S-Rank the lords even if it shouldn’t be possible but provide enough of a good explanation Engage will sky rocket. Add the fact the story seems interesting enough from the trailer, although there are some things lacking obviously, then you got the chance for Engage to be one of the best Fire Emblem games of all time. Whether it’ll live up to the hype or not shall be answered when the game is released.

True, true. It may be best to hold any prejudice until it releases and some gameplay drops. Just look at Harvestella - that was painted to be a game changer for the farming sim community and in the end?….yeah. Looked amazing on paper but the execution was quite lacking.

My biggest gripe with Engage is the reusing of previous characters. The thing that made fire emblem three houses such a smashing hit (at least for me) is that the story was virtually set astray from the main fire-emblem timeline. I love the og games. I do, but I needed a pallet cleanser. It felt like I was Ash Ketchum finally getting to win one freaking pokemon league after getting reset to square one so many times. Fe3h had a charm that I really hadn’t seen since Awakening, and it did so without having the story tied to the traditional fire emblem set up. I did not get naga shoved down my throat and feel like I was playing a copy-paste with a bit of…questionable plot holes and romance choices….mixed in (ignoring rhea and…listen. They really should have just kept it to the students and like Shamir maybe. Flayn is literally just — for f*cks sake why yk)

Fire Emblem Engage just looks like persona but you summon past fe characters. Like persona mixed with that Tokyo mirage game…which…I have feelings about. We need another hit. Another original. Another game that takes what fe3h did poorly and crafts another original plot while correcting those mistakes. Not a rehash…I sincerely hope they have something amazing planned since we’ll be seeing many reused characters. This game might pull in new players too, so I am hoping they don’t just throw pieces of the summoned characters lore in and create a bunch of plot holes (making people confused).

I can rant about this for a really long time lol so i’ll shut up now. May Fire Emblem Engage hopefully bring happiness to our beloved shitshow fandom…maybe I’ll want to write again if I see Dimitri lmfao

[sylwanin-was-right]

Cant remember where I saw it but I remember reading that someone didnt care for the first Avatar movie that much because the last half of it was just an action movie. They really enjoyed the beginning because it was a lot of immersive worldbuilding and speculative biology that was very well fleshed out, believable, and visually stunning due to the cutting edge CGI. Their personal gripe about the action-centered theme toward the end was, of course, personal bias because I remember they mentioned action movies werent their thing anyway. But I havent stopped thinking about their critque because its very considerable.

I personally enjoyed most of Avatar, including parts of the action toward the end, but I can see where they were coming from. A fast-paced, thrill and action-centered plot can remove an audience from the world it takes place in, and that can be really dissatifying for a sci-fi story, let alone a story so depednent on ethical, spiritual, and social themes.

Sometimes when I'm watching action, it can feel as if the world around is oversimplified, and primarly used as obstacle. On one hand it makes sense because you cant expend too much runntime to just "slice of life" sequences, expounding upon every detail of lore introduced can be unnecessary (thats what merch and fandom are for), and making the choreograohy and interactions of characters too uncoordinated can seem really awkward and unintentional (your watching a film, not a series of home videos). The characters movements, interactions, and the way they navigate their world needs to be as visually satisfying and engaging as narratively pleasing for placement of storytelling devices.

But whats supposed to be an alien forest may become a blur of the same green bushes and trees in Earth that make you forget youre on another planet when a character spends too long running through them to escape or hide; a complex ship turms into long hallway or single room with random arrangements when characters need to battle or be put through obstacles. Continuity of time can be contradicted and details about the world can seem more artifically exploited than happenstance when worldbuilding is neglected for action sequences.

Although the runntime for the film is speculated over 3hrs, its only a little longer than the last. And alhough we got to see a large portion of worldbuilding and lore the first time, we also saw a lot of action centered scenes that were used to progress the story and take the characters where they needed to be for it rather than flesh out details about lore, like history of Toruk Makto or cultural practices of the Omatikaya (that werent just a short montage sequence lol). It sometimes led to signficiant, unanswered questions about the flora, fauna (why were the Ikranay so skittish against a few Na'vi on the mountain but then suddenly fearless against RDA ships and missles just bc "Eywa", etc), and even the Na'vi themselves that felt too convenient for the story and 2-dimentional for the characters (why was Neytiri so romantically interested in someone who was clearly affiliated w the same people who killed her sister, etc).

Basically what I'm saying is I'm a little worried AWOW might take a similar direction with the plot where we're not given enough intimacy with the Pandora and Na'vi cultures in priority of action and thrill. While the movie is supposed to be a sci-fi thriller, its still sci-fi, and we've only seen a fraction of Pandora and the Na'vi. People clearly care about Pandora and the Na'vi, so while this story will need to be character driven, they will embark on new biomes, meet new people, and have new conflicts that people will want to immerse themselves in as if real. But I still worry AWOW will rely too much on visual sensation and narratively convenient tropes because this movie is also a tech showcase in a way, since the novelty of water-mocap is a large part of the anticipation.

I want to see the Avatar sequels as character driven as they are Pandora-driven, if that makes sense, because the Avatar universe is what made the first movie so memorable despite its lackluster plot. So while action, imo, is an important story and film element, I, too hope it doesnt smother time for intimacy with Pandora and the Na'vi.

#oel.mine #james cameron avatar #avatar 2 #avatar film #avatar way of water #avatar 2009 #na'vi #avatar the way of water