#cause like. it genuinely is not *that* difficult to introduce a character / get the audience attatched / and then kill them off

[aroaceleovaldez]

one of the issues i’ve had with the series since like mid-HoO is how there suddenly became like, no consequences the characters faced that felt actually lasting or impactful.

Like, the first time i read Blood of Olympus I can’t emphasize enough how genuinely angry I was at the ending. Cause genuinely if you cut off BoO before the final chapter it’s a decently narratively satisfying ending! the fight was lame but it at least felt like there was a weight to it with Leo’s death. And then it’s completely nullified and it ruins the entire thing. And that’s consistent throughout the latter half of HoO and TOA! Because you can feel that they’re constantly trying to hit that same weight the first series had but they can’t quite reach it. At least with Hazel returning from the dead it felt like she genuinely had a struggle to overcome as a price to pay for that. When Percy and Annabeth go through Tartarus, they leave behind two characters that to most people (unless they read Sword of Hades) they’ve only just been introduced to and thus have zero reason to care about, and basically recover immediately with no lasting effects from their journey. Jason gets healed in BoO through the power of friendship and there’s no lasting consequences from it. Leo completely returns from the dead with a magic potion and gets a girlfriend and flies off into the sunset. There was already a happy ending to BoO, it was just a happy ending where you felt like the characters actually went through hardship to get to where they were. Which mirrored TLO nicely! But the weight is wiped away immediately and it feels like Rick didn’t trust his audience to be able to handle that. And that completely ruins TOA in turn because you can feel the over-correction and it makes every time a character dies feel completely cheap and worthless to the narrative. Throughout HoO and TOA we have these repetitive moments where we’re basically just directly told “Oh no! This character died! These whole bunch of characters died! You should feel sad about that!” but with absolutely no narrative weight to back it up. Jason’s death in TOA feels cheap because in HoO every time a major character came close to dying or died they were just magically fine by the end of it, so it feels like there is no good reason for him to stay dead because you know there’s so many excuses in-series for why he could come back. Frank’s fight in TOA feels boring as hell because you know he’ll be magically fine. The only exception to any of that is Nico, who actually got a lasting consequence to him nearly dying multiple times that is addressed multiple times across both HoO and TOA.

Every loss in HoO and TOA feels cheap and empty. The audience has no actual attachment to Bob or Damasen because unless you have context for Bob you literally only meet them halfway through the book and then leave them again. We are just directly told to be sad about it. Bryce Lawrence’s death was a victory, as was Octavian’s. There was never any risk to Jason in HoO. The random assortment of nameless Hunters and campers we’re told who died in HoO just literally do not exist. Leo’s death was impactful until you hit the final chapter of “jk, lol!” Frank was never in any risk in TOA. We knew that every first series character in TOA was going to survive, that was never even a question. Every random death in Camp Jupiter had no weight because they were just random names we had only just been introduced to, with absolutely no character behind them. Even Dakota, who we did have some character to, was still a husk we barely saw and had no attachment to. None of the characters around them have lasting mournful reactions to any of those events. Jason is literally the only character in TOA who’s loss did anything and it feels narratively cheap because it feels like there is no reason for his death or for him to stay dead. And Jason was one of the most underdeveloped protagonists in HoO! He is the only one of the Argo II crew who literally does not have a backstory. It does not exist. I mean, fuck, the final fight in TOA literally features young campers PLAYING and we’re basically told we’re supposed to be treating it with the same weight of the Battle for Manhattan?

And it makes me upset especially looking at upcoming TSATS and Chalice of the Gods because we’re beyond the point of exhaustion! We’re being told there will be consequences but we know the series narratively cannot sustain that anymore because HoO and TOA dropped the ball so thoroughly! There is no reason for us to care! We know whatever new stuff gets thrown at the protagonists will not stick!!! And it sucks because there are routes you could go with new books that would be compelling plots! That would get literally any sliver of actual weight of consequence even if we know what the eventual outcome will be! Where’s Jason’s backstory and giving us literally any reason to care about him and the Roman camp? Where’s something like Clarisse’s quest in TTC where we know she faced horrible things and came back with the same weariness and emotional exhaustion that Percy faced after his quest in the same book? There is space in the series for this! But we keep being given the cheapest, least impactful routes possible! It’s just exhausting at this point!

#pjo #toa #hoo #heroes of olympus #riordanverse #trials of apollo #meta #im in a mood. that mood is me being mad at TOA again #i can talk a lot about how absolutely lacking every loss post- like. MoA is. if people want i will absolutely go into it more #and this is something i think about a lot when writing for my askblog #cause like. it genuinely is not *that* difficult to introduce a character / get the audience attatched / and then kill them off #the difficult part is when you have like 20 mechanics in-universe to excuse them being brought back #and you need to have any sort of justification for why that's not possible #and sometimes that justification is ''this is more narratively satisfying'' #but you need to back up every time you do that in a story or else it just feels cheap

[cherrycheridarling]

tic-tac-toe | mcu

marvel cast x actress!reader

warnings: one swear, fluff, no plot

summary: you play aphrodite in the MCU and it's time for the press conference for infinity war. based off of this press conference

wc: 2.7k

"Tom Hiddleston!" Jeff Goldblum introduced the man who was sitting on your right.

Everyone applauded before Jeff moved onto you, "Y/N Y/L/N!" more applause rang through the room.

"Sebastian Stan!" you looked to your left where Sebastian waved to the crowd as you clapped with everyone else.

"Anthony Mackie!"

After Jeff finished with the introductions, he explained how the panel would work. He would pull a ping pong ball out of a container and it would either have a name or category. The audience would be able to ask a question to that person or a person in that category after Jeff called on them.

As he pulled RDJ's name out of the container, Tom leaned over towards you.

"Does your water taste funny, too?" he whispered making you stifle a laugh.

You nodded, "Kind of like lemon, right?"

He shook his head, "Mine tastes like mint. Can I taste yours?" he held his hand out as you passed him your water bottle. He took a sip and spent a moment analyzing the taste, "Yours does taste like lemon! Why does mine taste different? Here." he passed you his water.

You took a sip and were hit with a strong mint flavour, "Woah. I think they're trying to drug you." you joked making him laugh.

"As I am answering this question, Tom Hiddleston and Y/N Y/L/N are discussing the flavours of the water behind me." Robert exposed you and Tom to the audience making the room burst out into laughter.

"They have fancy water. Mint and lemon." Tom spoke into a mic drawing more laughs. "Sorry. Carry on!"

As Jeff pulled the next name, you adjusted your dress. A white, long sleeve, blazer dress with gold buttons down the middle, the dress ended mid-thigh. The v-neck cut showcased your subtle gold necklace. Black stiletto heels covered your feet.

You unconsciously began bouncing your leg up and down in a fast motion. Sebastian placed a hand on your thigh, stopping your movements, "You're gonna drill a hole through the floor, Y/L/N." he chuckled.

"Sorry." you laughed quietly.

Sebastian pulled out a notepad and pen, "You need a distraction. Tic-tac-toe?" he offered.

You smiled with a nod before making your move.

"You absolutely suck at this." you chuckled as you won the third game in a row.

Sebastian scoffed, "You can't suck at tic-tac-toe."

"And yet, you do." you smirked.

He rolled his eyes playfully before you continued playing.

After two more rounds, your attention was back on Jeff as he pulled a new ping pong ball. "Ooh! You can ask a God or Goddess." Jeff announced, "So, Tom Hiddleston, Chris Hemsworth or Y/N Y/L/N." he reminded the crowd, "Okay, yes, you!" he picked a woman in the front row.

"Hi, I'm Alexis with Forbes. My question is for Y/N." the room applauded as Jeff tossed the ping pong ball at you and you caught it with one hand.

"See, Robert! It's not that hard!" Jeff exclaimed making everyone laugh.

"Screw off, Goldblum! You chucked that shit at my head." Robert joked back. "Sorry, Alexis, go ahead."

"Um, I wanted to ask about Aphrodite's powers. We all know that she is the Goddess of Love and can seduce anyone with her beauty. We see in the trailer a small clip of her seducing men. How many people did you seduce in the film and were there any funny moments filming those scenes that you can share?"

Her question drew a mix of reactions from the cast. Some laughed, some furrowed their eyebrows and others were just confused. You took in the question before opening your mouth to reply, until you remembered that you weren't wearing a body mic. The cast laughed again before Sebastian passed you a mic.

"Sorry. Um, how many people did I seduce in the film? None." you stated drawing more laughs, "How many people did Aphrodite seduce? All of them." you chuckled, "I'm kidding. Although, I'm not sure what I can share because I don't know what's in the trailer." you confessed, "Kevin, Joe, Anthony, what's in the trailer?" you asked them making everyone laugh again.

Kevin picked up a mic, "I believe it's you seducing Spider-Man, Starlord, Drax and Iron Man."

You nodded, "I do have a funny moment that I'm sure Mister Holland will kill me for sharing, but it's too good to not tell." you smiled thinking of the memory.

Tom immediately grabbed a mic, "You wouldn't!" he exclaimed making the audience and cast laugh.

"I would," you retorted, "We were shooting that scene and, as you know, they have to act like they are falling in love with me. Like I'm putting them in a trance. Well, Tom took that a bit too seriously." you paused at the laughter that your sentence caused, "They're all on their knees in front of me, looking at me as if I'm their queen, because I am." you joked, "And then Anthony calls 'cut' and Dave, Chris and RDJ all get up and start chatting, but as I'm turning away, Tom doesn't move. Still on his knees, looking at me as if I hold the world in my hands." the room filled with amused laughs and chuckles as Tom covered his face with his hands.

"No, it was so bad because I just looked like a creep that couldn't stop staring at her!" Tom laughed at himself.

Robert grabbed a mic, "Very true. I was watching and it honestly had me convinced that Y/N had real powers."

"I have to say, I understand the kid's reaction. Y/N's costume for Aphrodite and the way they transform her only enhances how gorgeous she already is." Anthony Mackie spoke up causing the crowd to gush and clap, "I'm pretty sure we all had the same reaction when we first saw her while filming Civil War." he looked around as the cast nodded.

Scarlett picked up a mic, "Yeah. I remember her walking on set in this stunning white dress which made me extremely jealous," she confessed, "Because, one, it's so gorgeous and she looks absolutely amazing in it," the crowd and cast applauded again, "And two, it's made of the softest silk while my suit is leather and spandex!" everyone laughed at her comment.

Benedict picked up his mic, "Although, it wasn't Tom's first time seeing Y/N as Aphrodite. He was in Civil War and still could not contain himself." he teased making the audience and cast laugh again.

Robert spoke again, "Yeah, he did that during the filming of Civil War, too." the room hollered with laughs.

Tom's face was bright red, "I'm just a very committed actor. I really give all of myself to my work." his comment drew more laughs.

"That's why Sebastian despises Tom. It all started when Tom couldn't take his eyes off of Y/N." Chris Hemsworth added making everyone double over in laughter.

"I feel so loved," you held a hand to your heart as the room chuckled, "These are genuinely the best people in the world and I guess you could say I seduced one person during filming." you joked as the crowd continued to laugh, "Sorry, Tom. I'll buy you some juice, don't be mad." Anthony and Benedict laughed loudly. "Thank you for your question!" you thanked the lady as the cast clapped before Jeff picked out the next ping pong ball.

Next was Scarlett. You sat back and silently judged the man who asked about fashion. Scoffing with Sebastian at his question and laughing at Scarlett's sarcastic and witty responses.

Sebastian leaned over again, "I have to piss."

You stifled a laugh at his abrupt confession, "Go to the washroom, then." you nodded your head towards the exit.

"We're not allowed to leave." he frowned.

You chuckled and reached over, patting his thigh with your hand, "Don't piss yourself."

He rolled his eyes playfully before Jeff called out the next name.

"Anthony Mackie!"

"Hi, I'm Tiffany with Times Magazine. With such a star studded cast, do you find it difficult or any obstacles in developing your character with all theses amazing stories being told and struggling for screen time? Like, are there any obstacles or special difficulties or is it all just amazing?"

Before Anthony could answer, Joe Russo picked up his mic, "Are you asking Anthony Mackie if he has a hard time getting attention?" his comment caused the whole room to erupt in laughs.

Anthony nodded slowly as the laughter died down, "Touché, touché. Uh, well, Tiffany, a wise man once said that some men need an hour to make their presence felt and some need thirty seconds." there was an uproar of laughter and hollering at his comment as he dramatically dropped the mic on the table.

"Who are we asking next?" Jeff squinted at the ping pong ball, "Ooh! Back to the Goddess of Love herself, Y/N Y/L/N!" the room applauded for you as Jeff threw the ball to you.

Sebastian intercepted the toss and caught the ball himself with a smug smirk. You rolled your eyes, but smiled as Jeff picked a lady out of the dozens who had raised their hand.

"Hi, I'm Amy with Esquire and I wanted to ask about the relationship between Bucky and Aphrodite. We see in the previous films their awkward tension from their past history. They have a very special romance and their love story is a fan favourite in the Marvel fandom. What was it like building that bond and relationship on screen? And what do you think of the choice to match the two characters together, how did you react when you found out? Did the pairing of the two help build your bond off screen?"

Jeff spoke again, "I said 'one question', that was at least twenty." he teased the lady drawing laughs from the room.

You chuckled and nodded slowly as the laughter died down, "Excellent questions. Umm, I honestly really like the pairing of the two. I think it gives a great dynamic to both characters and reveals sides of them that we never would've seen without their relationship. It's a very 'good girl falling for the bad guy' trope. And if I'm being honest, I've always wanted that." you confessed causing the room to chuckle, "Their relationship is, without a doubt, one of the most complicated ones in the MCU, but I think that's what makes it so loved by the fans since there's not a dull moment between the two. It's nice to see Bucky have a sentimental side, in his own awkward way of course. And you get to see Aphrodite fall for someone who's not a God or a Titan." you turned to Sebastian, "What do you think?"

You offered him the mic, but he didn't take it, letting you hold it up for him, "Yeah, I agree. I never thought Bucky would have a love interest, if I'm being honest. But I'm glad he does because Aphrodite brings out the soft side in him and he brings out the fighter in her. They really balance each other out and Y/N portrays the character in such a unique way, it really brings a whole new fresh persona to Aphrodite and it's amazing having her as a partner on screen." the audience applauded at his words, "When I first found out about Bucky having her as his love interest—"

"—He called me screaming about how hyped he was." Anthony Mackie cut him off making the room laugh. "Anthony! Anthony! Bucky is gonna be with Aphrodite! That's gonna be sick!" Anthony mocked his voice as you were hunched over with laughter.

Sebastian nodded with a smile, "I did. Won't lie, I did. It's a really refreshing relationship and I'm glad that the fans love it as much as I love playing it. Back to you, you haven't talked about the development and our bond." he gave you a lopsided grin.

You chuckled, "I feel like I'm rambling, but yeah. Their development is definitely," you paused, trying to find the right words, "A development?" you settled on drawing more laughter. "Well, as I said, it's very complicated, but awkwardly adorable at times. Since Seb complimented me, I feel obligated to say something nice about him," you joked making them laugh again, "Kidding. He really does play Bucky with such passion and commitment, it's truly inspiring. And working with someone who loves what they do as much as Seb, it definitely motivates you tremendously and yeah. Um, I won't lie, I honestly was dreading working with Seb," you confessed drawing laughs and a gasp from Sebastian.

"Why?!" he exclaimed making you laugh.

You sighed, "Not because I think you're a bad person or anything, but you come off as very intimidating to people who don't know you very well. And I knew nothing about you before filming other than the films you'd already done, so you scared me." your confession caused everyone to laugh loudly.

Sebastian smirked jokingly, "I am extremely frightening. I understand." he shrugged.

You scoffed with a laugh, "I caught you sleeping with a stuffed turtle and whale noises playing." the room roared with laughter again, "That's when I knew you were a big softy."

Sebastian rolled his eyes playfully, "She's joking. I am the toughest man alive." he deepened his voice.

You shook your head with a chuckle, "Sure. Thank you for your questions." the room clapped for you as you set the mic down and relaxed back into your seat.

"Nailed it." Sebastian held a hand out for a high five and you chuckled before hitting your hand against his.

For the rest of the press conference, you sat back and listened to your friends answer questions. Laughed at jokes made and clapped when appropriate. Small tic-tac-toe games went on between you and Sebastian. Your attention was fully on your nails when Tom Hiddleston got called on.

"Hi, I'm Samantha with Daily Mail and I was wondering, since Loki is a very closed off and mysterious character, we never explore the aspect of him having a love interest. So, if you could choose anyone from the MCU for Loki to end up with, who would it be and why?"

You turned to look at Tom as he pondered on the question, crossing his arms and rubbing his chin, "Very good question. Umm, who would I choose for Loki? Let's see," he paused again and looked around the room until his eyes landed on you, "Ah, I'd steal Aphrodite from Bucky." he answered making the room laugh and Sebastian chuckled with a nod.

"Why Aphrodite?" Jeff asked.

Tom chuckled again, "Well, it's Aphrodite." he simply answered drawing more laughs, "They are so different yet similar in so many ways. Loki is never fully evil nor fully good, but I think Aphrodite has the best chance of turning him good. And who wouldn't want to end up with the Goddess of Love?"

The cast nodded understandingly before Chris Pratt grabbed a mic, "If you were to ask any person on this stage that same question, I guarantee the answer would be Aphrodite." the whole cast nodded.

"They're all trying to steal Sebastian's woman." Jeff teased.

Sebastian scoffed jokingly, "They're all jealous." he wrapped an arm around your shoulder.

You chuckled with a shake of your head before Robert spoke up, "Adding onto the conversation. Miss Y/L/N, who would you want Aphrodite to end up with?" his question drew excited reactions from the crowd.

You let out a bark of laughter before looking from Tom to Sebastian, "Hmm, excellent question, Mister Downey." you rubbed your chin, "Stop doing that, Holland." you chuckled as you saw Tom point at himself in the corner of your eye.

He raised his hands in surrender before Anthony Mackie spoke up, "Spidey is five years old, kid." everyone laughed at that.

"I'd have to stick with Bucky. He is her true love." you shrugged as the crowd cheered.

Sebastian smirked from beside you as the men of the cast faked disappointment.

As the panel came to a close, you looked around at the family you were surrounded by. Friends you love more than anything. Hundreds of memories with the most amazing people you'd ever met. Your home.

#marvel cast x actress!reader #marvel cast x reader #marvel fan fiction #marvel #infinity war #sebastian x reader #tom holland #sebastian stan #anthony mackie #robert downey jr #tom holland angst #tom holland fanfiction #tom holland fluff #tom holland smut #tom holland x actress!reader #sebastian stan x reader #tom hiddleston #bucky barnes #peter parker #loki #iron man #falcon and winter solider teaser #marvel cast x singer!reader #marvel cast x famous!reader #avengers cast #avengers #avengers fanfiction #avengers fic #avengers fluff #marvel cast fluff

[fruitless-nonsense]

Well… turns out I have a lot of opinions on characters I don’t even think strongly of. Who knew?

No joke, this is probably not as thorough as I like, but this idea came to me and I have so much to say that I don’t know how to structure it. Okay? Let’s talk about Damon Salvatore!

If you read any of my previous posts, you’ve probably gotten a decent idea of how I feel about him from my quick snippy remarks. I genuinely believe he is the worst character in the show. Yes, other characters can be more boring than him. Yes, there are people that can be more infuriating than him. It’s not simply who his character was, it’s how the writers wouldn’t stop messing with him that convinced me he was utter trash. Sit back, cause this could take awhile.

Let’s start with season one and the two brothers. Theory time! I’m strongly of the opinion the writers wanted a love triangle between Elena, Stefan, and Damon from the very beginning. Not that crazy to believe considering this show was born off the heels of Twilight’s grossing fame, not to take credit away from all the other shows at the time which featured a love triangle or two. From fanfics to original stories written by tweens I read when I was thirteen, love triangles were huge back then (in a way they still are fairly popular, but not like back in the day. Now I feel old). So they wanted a love triangle? Sounds cliche enough to be in the vampire diaries, what’s wrong? Well, there’s a bit of an issue with the candidates, or more specifically candidate. You see, Edward was a creep and Jacob was an incel, but you can say they weren’t monsters (well by my standards they were, but by YA standards they were pretty normal). I mean, the movie made a point to say the Cullens didn’t feed from humans, and they’re only seen killing in self defense, meanwhile Jacob is treated like a good person throughout despite everything. My point is, at least at the beginning, the story didn’t want to paint either candidate as irredeemable. Back to tvd season one, Damon tortures Caroline, kills Zack, two random humans, and that one football coach/history teacher, mentally and physically tortured Vicky Donavon before turning her against her will and made it impossible for Stefan to remedy the situation until he ultimately had to kill her to save Elena, and this is all from the first seven episodes.

Now, I used to think at least Damon was a fun villain, but was he really? I mean, yeah he could be funny, got a few chuckles outta me, but besides humor and violence what was his character? For example, in season one we are introduced to Stefan, a supposed “good vampire” who has taken a liking to Elena due to similarities between her and his ex before admiring how much better of a person she is and wanting a true connection with her. We later learn that his experience with his ex Katherine was extremely one-sided as he was compelled to love her to satiate her needs. Even later (still season one), we learn that his only drinking animal blood is because he is a ripper or “blood addict” as I call it cause even one taste of human blood and he’ll go on a rampage. So by seasons end we have a character who was a victim of serious abuse (which is never truly addressed in the show btw) and carries a rare vampire trait that makes not being a murderous psychopath incredibly difficult, yet he still tries to beat the odds and not hurt people. This is a lot to learn about a character in its first season, and it helps us gravitate towards wanting him to succeed. Stefan is what you would call a good character (at least for now). So that was all we got on the first candidate, what about option number two? Well, he’s funny and he likes to kill people, that’s about it. That ripper gene that Stefan’s fighting, Damon’s not someone who gave in to the gene to explain why he’s so murder happy, he doesn’t even have it! There’s nothing making him be a bad person, he just is one! Why? Your guess is as good as mine. The most we get is learning he had real feelings for Katherine and was never compelled to love her as an explanation for why he hates Stefan so much. Wow, two brothers at war over a girl one of them doesn’t even like. You can’t even say it was because Stefan turned him, because Damon says it blank that it’s cause of Katherine in 1x20, so don’t. So Damon kills for no reason, hates Stefan for a stupid reason, and has no personality traits outside of humor, murder, Katherine, and hates Stefan. With all of this on the table, my question is this, how do the writers expect me to pick Damon over Stefan in this love triangle with everything we got in season one? And the writers realized this.

Season two starts this long “arc” asking if Damon can be redeemed, or that’s what the writers wanted. Second theory: the writers realized they couldn’t justify Elena picking Damon over Stefan without ruining her character (lol), so they decided the best way to keep this love triangle idea afloat was to redeem Damon. The theory comes in when they realized they couldn’t completely redeem him because they had written themselves into a corner and being a murdering psycho with quirky one liners was his entire character, therefore redeeming him would take away what made Damon himself and so likable among fans (not me). I’m gonna pull the rug from under ya, remember when I said klaroline was not actually a love story, but was positioned and is still believed to have been one despite this fact? Same applies here. Did Damon ever go through a redemption arc, or did the writers want you to think that he did so they could have their cake and eat it too? Is there any actual story progression that show growth in Damon as a character? Nope. He’s sadder, wouldn’t say that’s him being a better person. In the early seasons, his characterization feels more like a seesaw than an arc. Sometimes he’s chill and helping with a plan, and the next episode he’s biting a chunk out of more innocent bystanders while abusing more women (*cough* *cough* justice for Andie). The longest I can say he was a genuinely decent person was in season six when he was trapped in the prison world with Bonnie (cause she’s the only character that would put up with his bs). Everywhere else, an inconsistent character, and I feel like that was intentional. They wanted to keep Damon how fans liked him while making him seem like a better person. An example is the introduction of Enzo, which I think was a ploy by the writers to make it seem like season five Damon was interacting with a season one Damon to show how far he’s come, but that doesn’t stick at all (mostly because Enzo’s crimes in the show compared to season one Damon’s feel less psychotic and malicious). All in all, to me Damon on his own was a truly boring character and even more boring villain. No motivation and no personality outside his infatuations. Which leads me into the worst plot line of my entire cw experience: Delena.

If you haven’t noticed, I hate this ship with a fiery passion. The only reason I think it’s slightly better than klaroline was at least the writers tried to write a story with them (keyword tried). I said they would have to ruin Elena’s character to have her choose him over Stefan, and I was right! Not only does she cheat with him (2x22 and other scenes from season three), it’s never explained why she likes him in the first place (actually in season six they say it’s cause he gave her Stefan’s gift necklace despite being in love with her, which is so stupid it made me laugh). Furthermore, why does Damon develop feeling for Elena? Supposedly it happens while he’s still obsessing over Katherine, so is that it? The turning point which pushes them together is revealed to all be fabricated by a sirebond. For real, the only reason Elena fell out of love with Stefan is because a bond out of her control made it impossible for Stefan to help her through vampirism and thus she had to lean on Damon for support. I know the show states the bond didn’t create her feelings merely heighten them, but it did isolate her from everyone else she loved and made it so she had no choice but to rely on Damon, and that’s not exactly better than the former. Let me say it louder for the kids that were corrupted. Codependency. Is. Not. Healthy. It’s toxic, and the trope in romance needs to die a horrible death. And the show knows it’s toxic, they bring it up all the time in season five and six thinking that will excuse them to keep going with it. Sorry hun, self awareness does not give you a pass. The worst part is the pacing. I mentioned the sirebond storyline in season four which takes up a huge amount of the season with them debating if her feelings were real before abruptly deciding Elena doesn’t care. Great conclusion, but it gets worse. Season five is pretty thin as far as a story, so what fills the run time is a storyline straight out of fifty shades. Fighting, sex, fighting, sex, breaking up because they aren’t healthy, sex, fighting followed by getting back together followed by more fighting and more sex. I can’t tell you what was gained after everything that transpired in the season. Lastly is season six which took time away from the first interesting villain since season three to give us an amnesia storyline! I’d tell you more, but if you’ve ever seen a movie you could probably explain it exactly. All that time that could’ve been spent in better ways, was given to something I stopped caring about by season fours end.

Honestly, the fact that the show treats this like the greatest love story of all time makes me less angry and more concerned, because the audience who watched this show weren’t adults who understand what love really is, the people who watched this was made up of mostly tweens and teens. I can’t get too mad, this trope is everywhere, girl helps abusive guy be better person while sapping away all her energy in the process was done before and is still being done today. All I ask is that the young adults who remember this show fondly understand how wrong this is. How people like Damon should not be pitied and relationships like Delena should not be celebrated. Ship whatever you want, but please tell me you’re okay. Are you okay? In conclusion, Damon is trash and Delena wasted my time along with being extremely toxic and abusive. Goodnight everybody!

#anti damon salvatore #anti delena #anti tvd and to writers #anti klaroline #damon salvatore #elena gilbert #stefan salvatore #Stefan deserves better #anti the vampire diaries #anti codependency

[oswald-privileges]

ALL RIGHT BUT YOU ASKED FOR IT

Power of Three as a series is just. full of weaknesses, most of which come down to poor continuity and structure. I'm not gonna try and fix ALL of those, bc that'd be laborious as hell, but I will pick out things that I feel are the most egregious as case studies.

What Po3 does have, tho, is an absolutely shining strength in the concept of its three main characters. After twelve books of Blandly Heroic Protagonist Syndrome, Jayfeather is an absolute godsend. He's angry! He's rude! He's unhappy! He's not nice. I Love Him And He's My Son. Lionblaze has his invincible pride (hah) and emergent bloodlust, and Hollyleaf has her moral absolutism and certainty. These are good starting points for characters. Sadly, the lack of continuity undermines what could have been three really good character arcs.

So! I present to you:

HOW TO MAKE "WARRIORS: THE POWER OF THREE" NOT COMPLETELY SUCK ACCORDING TO MY PERSONAL TASTE; A NON-EXHAUSTIVE, NON-CONSECUTIVE LIST BY ME

ONE

- Have there be a persistant, overarching series threat. Sol is a character with amazing villain potential who does literally nothing except hang around, and do exactly 2 Bad Things completely off-screen. This Is Not Good.

- Instead, have him be present from the second book onwards- initially introduced as a friendly but enigmatic outsider who is slowly revealed across the series to be a complete black hole of a personality, a social parasite quietly rearranging whatever community he's a part of to just-so-happen to benefit him as much as humanly possible. His "preach individualism not starclan" methods are not so much values as one strategy out of many. (to those who know me- yes i have a type. no i will not apologise.)

- Maybe his ultimate goal is to dissolve and centralise the clans or something so that he can live out his life as a political puppetmaster in all the cat-luxury he likes. idk it's hard to imagine overall stakes for this rewrite BECAUSE THE ORIGINAL DOESN'T HAVE ANY

TWO

- For gods sake you don't have a series based on the premise of "the main characters develop super powers" and then only have the second power confirmed by the end of the fourth book. I understand the first book mostly focusing on Jayfeather- his powers are obvious from the start, he's got the strongest personality of the three, he gets access to most of the prophecy plot stuff because of them. But you NEED to have the other two show an interest in something concrete happening to them beyond that, and you need to at least hint towards the other two having something unique to them even if nobody clocks it yet.

- Have Jayfeather tell his siblings about the prophecy by the end of book two at the latest. The amount of time he spends noodling around not sharing it with them is inexcusable. It's not that it's out of character for him to hang onto a secret for a bit, it's just that there's no point and it slows everything down. It would be equally in character for him to go to his siblings and be like "look, i'm SPECIAL. well you as well but ALSO ME". Boy starts off as desperate for recognition, what can I say

THREE

- Have Jayfeather discover that StarClan don't withhold signs or information on purpose for the sake of "building courage and faith" or whatever nonsense. Seeing and communicating the future is metaphysically very difficult, so interpreting signs and messages is a genuine skill, or even an art. The cats of StarClan, however, really are just ghosts, much more similar to living cats than the currently living believe. This is the impotus for Jayfeather's discarding of his reverence for StarClan, which remains consistent throughout the series.

- Have Hollyleaf and Jayfeather both still change their cat careers in the first book, but put place more attention on the fact that they basically switched jobs. Have a scene where they end up yelling at each other, because can't the other see how lucky they have it? The tension breaks when they realise they've both lost something important to them- Jayfeather his chance to prove he's as capable as a sighted cat, and Hollyleaf her path to helping her clan in the way she thinks is best. They commiserate together, and reluctantly promise to do the best they can with their lots, so they don't waste the path the other wishes they'd taken. This closeness is eroded over the series as they disagree more and more on the subject of StarClan and its role in their moral choices and obligations.

FOUR

- Speaking of Hollyleaf! I nearly threw my phone across the room when the first Omen of the Stars book claimed that Hollyleaf "worked so hard to discover her power to help her clan". Where, Ms Erins??? I would have LOVED to have seen that!! Hollyleaf expresses absolutely no concern over the details of what power she has/will develop, and only has a couple of scenes even touching on her ambitions to help her clan. She has some vague ideas about becoming leader and like one scene where she gets to do some leadery things, but that never gets followed up on. What does happen is that the whole "warrior code" thing becomes more and more a part of her personality (for no clear reason) until she snaps.

- Hollyleaf going off the deep end is something I wanted so badly to get into and be moved by, because I could see where it comes from! Her moral certainty is fascinating, especially since it's based in something as abstract as the warrior code- which, when you think about it, isn't really... anything. There's no concrete set of rules that make it up, no traditional wording or cat philosophers, not even any fables. It's a handful of agreed-upon, common sense rules- don't cross boundaries, don't take prey that isn't yours, respect your ancestors, and don't murder. That's it!

- So, combining the above points, I think Hollyleaf not being one of the Three should stay, but both the audience and the characters are given good reason to believe she is. By around the third volume, make it so that Hollyleaf has found that her power is to get cats to "Do The Right Thing"- i.e. what she wants them to do. She sneaks off often to see Sol, who teachs her how to use this power. Her siblings are concerned about this new power, having already gotten a glimpse at what Sol can do, but she's confident that she can only use this power for good. Volume-specific plot happens, Sol manipulates her into causing him to win, she is shocked and horrified, and vows to stick ridgedly to what she knows is right i.e. The Warrior Code

- However, the more fervently she tries to stick to this abstract idea, the less it gives her results, the more her power seems to be failing. Believing that StarClan is taking her power away from her, she becomes caught up in a faith-guilt spiral that puts her in the position to snap at the end of the series. By that point it's clear to her siblings that Hollyleaf has no power- she was just very, very good at persuading people to do what she wanted.

FIVE

- Lionblaze is a girl now because I Said So. This Cat Is Trans And There's Nothing You Can Do About It.

- Her relationship with Heathertail stays the same- childhood sweethearts who are torn apart as they begin to understand the nature of the societal divides that exist between them.

- This can be used to contextualise the whole "half clan/outsider blood" thing as a cultural contradiction. In reality, inter- and outer- clan relationships aren't at all rare. They can't be, otherwise the whole society would be inbred out of existence in like five generations. But if at least one society of humans can spend a good 200 years pretending Sex Is Bad And Sinful Actually then cats can have persistant cat-racism in the face of all logic. Heathertail clocks this contradiction, Lionblaze doesn't.

- Her relationship-to-power arc doesn't need changing all that much either, other than starting much sooner and being more consistent. At first, she's completely overjoyed by her power, since unlike her siblings, it lines up so well with her ambition- become the finest warrior any of the clans have to offer. As the berserker rage aspect becomes more prevelent, she becomes more and more disturbed by the fact that she isn't disturbed by what she can do, and that she doesn't want the escalation of her power to stop.

- Tigerstar still does his thing, but Brambleclaw knows about it. He recognises the signs from when his father used to visit him, and tries to train Lionblaze in his own way. She ends up caught between wanting to be a good warrior, and testing the limits of her power.

SIX

- Jayfeather can stay basically the same because he's my perfect little angy boy and nothing needs to change. His arcs can be strengthened by having a more robust relationship with Yellowfang where they try to out-bitch each other, and coming to terms with his internalised ablism. Maybe he has a chat with Mothwing about faith a couple of times. Him furiously lashing out at being offered help transitions into an acceptence and understanding of his abilities more naturally. He never stops being A Grumpy Old Man.

- All fucking past-lives unexplained time travel goes in the BIN. Doesn't fucking happen. You can have that lore dump sprinkled across the books, or come from going deep into the tunnels and having a surreal meeting. Make it properly eldritch-level scary, shake Jayfeather's confidence in the idea of them being just a bunch of ghosts.

SEVEN

- Have the way Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight present very clearly as parents to the Three be explicitly, textually unusual. One of the things I liked so much about the first series was an almost total lack of emphasis on who was mated with who, and who was related or not. It felt very real to how feral cat colonies form, where raising kittens is a communal job. This gets completely dropped the moment series 2 starts and now the cats have monogamy.

- This emphasis on the family unit and fostering close relationships between parents and kittens is deliberate on the part of both Leafpool and Squirrelflight. Their aim is to cover for Leafpool so she doesn't lose her role as medicine cat- something she already gave up Crowfeather for before she was pregnant.

- In that little bit of backstory, have a robust reason for both Leafpool and Squirrelflight to leave the camp while Leafpool is pregnant and giving birth, possibly one that ties into the present day story in some minor way. I don't know how, it would just make that element of the story a lot more ground than "we left, the kits were born, then we came back and everyone was cool with it"

- When it comes to the "I am Not your mother" reveal, Jayfeather and Lionblaze are confused and hurt that they were lied to, but come to the reasonable conclusion that well, since they were raised mostly by Squirrelflight, saw Leafpool often, and are loved by both, they don't hate her. Lionblaze has something of a crisis over being half-clan, possibly initiating an attempted reunion with Heathertail. Jayfeather is more concerned with how other cats will think it makes him lesser, something he's still sensitive too.

- Hollyleaf, meanwhile, completely fucking snaps at the way her mother Violated Part Of The Code. It's a completely irrational reaction, but expected because she's been growing more and more reliant on The Code for the whole series, and less and less stable in her attempts to aid her clan and train to be its new leader.

- Squirrelflight is the one to murder Ashfur. This is easy to work out while reading- she's literally the only one of the four with a motive who isn't a perspective character. The mystery is less around finding out who did it, and more about why she did it (it's very ambiguous as to whether it was an accident or not). The main tension comes from who finds out when.

- Lionblaze is shocked, awed by how far she'd go to protect the three of them, and reassures her she did the right thing (as a way to salve her own uncertainty over her own longing for violence). Jayfeather makes it all about himself because he's Jayfeather- upset that he didn't know immediately, instead of, you know, figuring it out in a few hours because he can basically read minds. They try their best to hide it from Hollyleaf, who is already rattling around the final volume as a full-on antagonist, but are unsuccessful. This almost costs them something incredibly important- possibly Squirrelflight's life.

EIGHT

- the whole plot with the Tribe Of Rushing Water is a MASSIVE can of worms that could be removed from the series without issue. As it is:

- Characterize the Tribe as uncertain of how to fight other cats, because yes, they haven't had to do this before. DON'T characterise them as pathetic, doing whatever their leader says without thinking, and with ancestors who have Given Up

- Have some of the Tribe be really good at the violence. Worryingly good. Have others be sickened by what they're being asked to do.

- Have some of the clan cats reflect on what they've done. Hollyleaf would be all for introducing this society to jesus The Code, but even she might be horrified at being thanked by a tribe cat who can't wait to get out there and win themselves glory, only to be killed a few hours later

- The Tribe begin a new tradition of marking the walls in the mud they use as camoflage in order to commemorate their battles, and memorialise the fallen. One of the characters reflects on the fact that in a generation or two, the Tribe will feel like it's always been this way. How many of their own traditions- those that feel almost like natural law- started out the same way?

- Have Sol as the leader of the invaders, or maybe having insinuated himself into the tribe as a "mediator" and doing his charismatic cult leader thing.

NINE

- Cinderheart isn't a reincarnation of Cinderpelt. She's just named after her bc Cinderpelt saved her mother from a badger. this is because I think the reincanation thing is stupid and I can't think of a way to make it good.

TEN

- No more using tails as hand gestures like covering people's mouths. Never. None of it. It's expunged from existence.

Disclaimer: I haven't read Omen of the Stars yet, so I can't account for anything that might happen in that series that's grounded in Po3. I'm like... two thirds of the way through the first volume. I'm Not Impressed.

#Warrior Cats #warriors #The Power of Three #Jayfeather #Hollyleaf #Lionblaze #long post

[inthememetime]

Horror Writing Tips 3: Be Careful What You Wish For

Master list here

Due to the sheer amount of information, this will be in two parts.

Whether the main genre you like is horror, comedy, romance, adventure, or something else, I can guarantee you've come across a piece of media involving wishes. This part covers a general overview of how wishes usually alter a world or person. The second will go into more detail about what creatures or items can grant wishes, wish cost, and similar topics.

When you're trying to give the audience information about your character, a wish, and how they react to it can tell a lot about them. Maybe their wish is petty and vicious, causing minor or great harm. Maybe your character isn't as over the death of a close companion as they'd like others to believe, and wishes for just 1 more day with that person. Maybe they're kind and generous, wishing for something that doesn't help them at all, such as a 100% free cure for cancer. Or maybe it's more nuanced; a hero wishing that they had more help, or someone bored foolishly wishing for something interesting to happen.

Wishes also come in 4 main effects: "It was all a dream", "Wish reversals", " Paradox", or " Net 0 benefit".

Wish Type 1: It Was All A Dream

Let's look at 'It's a Wonderful Life, a classic Christmas story. The main character wishes he'd never been born, so later on he sees his friends and family living like her either died or just never existed. In the end, the wish granter (the angel) lets him choose: to cease to exist completely or not. Now, as this is a Christmas feel-good movie, he learns not to take the people who love him for granted, and is delighted when he wakes up after his dream to find everything as it was.

Not everything ends as peacefully. Take The Labyrinth where Sarah regrets her wish and learns several life lessons while fixing the problem she unintentionally made, but then isn't sure if she's done dreaming yet or not. Imagine the trauma that probably changed her fundamentally after just one night.

In Inception, in the end, the audience is left wondering if this is still a dream, or if one of the main characters has woken up. Ending with that kind of a mystery can be a great way to infuse a little horror.

Wish Type 2: Wish Reversals

This is the plot of Fairly Odd Parents. Really. In every episode, Timmy (or someone with access to fairies) makes a wish, regrets it, and wishes he never made the wish in the first place.

Cheesy cartoon aside, this can be great for character development. Maybe your character wishes that person in their class loved them, or they're a hero and they wish the powers they have had never come to them. You can put anything here, and it can still make great character development.

In the first example, wishing for love, maybe they come to realize their crush really isn't their type at all. Maybe they're horrified by the realization that their crush's body seems to be moving of it's own accord while the only clue that something is wrong is the terrified look in the other characters eyes.

There's an episode of Danny Phantom in which one of the 3 main characters, Sam, wishes she'd never met Danny during an argument. She isn't serious, just upset. While Sam remembers, the others forget they'd ever met, and this causes a massive butterfly effect. Danny introduced her to Tucker, so both of her friends and only support system suddenly don't know her. Her abrasive personality makes it difficult to make new friends, so she immediately gets off on the wrong foot while trying to talk to Tucker. Because Sam was such a big part of the accident that gave Danny his powers, the hero suddenly forgets he's a hero at all.

In the end, Sam has to remind Danny of who he really is, and make friends with Sam and Tucker. Because Danny is the most genuinely friendly person in their group, it forces her to look at herself and her friends from Danny's point of view; that of a teenage boy who has a lot of trauma but still remains upbeat, friendly, and loyal to his friends. It forces her to put aside the smaller issues that upset her and learn to prioritize by solving the most important problem first while working gradually on problems that just can't be solved in a day. It also helps her learn the courage to talk about and confront what's really bothering her.

Even though the wish was reversed in these scenarios, the wisher learns important lessons. While frequently the wisher is the only one who remembers, Sam admits to her wish and earns Danny's and Tucker's trust again. Having people who were altered in some way by the wish remember can be its character development and can advance the plot.

Wish Type 3: Paradox

This usually involves some sort of time travel. In Doctor Who, there are multiple examples. Using one of 11's Christmas episodes, a family is notified that the patriarch's plane was lost in WW2, and the family mourns him. One of the children wishes for help, and the Doctor comes. However, by helping other planets' species, the mother creates a massive storm that blows planes off course and creates a massive light. The husband follows the light from the storm to safety and lands in their yard on Christmas day. Without the storm, the plane would not have gone off course. Without the light, the father wouldn't have been able to come home. Without the father missing, they would not have wished for help. This creates a paradox wherein the events cannot happen without the wish, and the wish always had to happen.

Wish Type 4: Net 0 or Negative Benefit

I can't remember the title, but there's a short story in which a person wishes everyone they hated would die. At first, their bullies die, which they are morally confused about. However, they become briefly angry at a close companion, and this is close enough for the wish to kill them. They begin to hate themselves, which causes the wish to kill them. This is a negative benefit- it helps no one, hurts everyone, and though lessons are learned, the Fisher either doesn't survive long enough to wish it back, or things are so irrevocably damaged by the end that they ended up making their lives much more difficult.

A Net 0 benefit is an example of what frequently happened in the show Fairly Odd Parents. Timmy never seems to learn any lessons. He wishes things back to normal and for no time to have passed, and the world keeps turning. He is never permanently harmed. While his wish is active, it frequently hurts him and others, and helps him as well, usually either more harm than good or just about even. People besides the fairies never seem to remember anything, so no matter how much good or evil his wishes do, there is always a Net 0.

#not lotr #horror writing tips #be careful what you wish for #fairly oddparents #danny phantom spoilers

[tomhiddlestonfanfic]

Improvising

TITLE: Improvising CHAPTER NUMBER/ONE SHOT: One shot WHICH TOM CHARACTER: Actor Tom PAIRING: Tom Hiddleston/Reader GENRE: Romance sort of INSPIRATION: Hank Williams answers and Loki answers REQUEST: Tom Hiddleston x (non actress) reader where reader is a vlogger who does song covers and has a friend who does interviews, and is able to get a chance to interview Tom, but for some reason was unable to do so on the scheduled date due to some emergency and asked reader to do it,but left questions that reader thinks might be inappropriate to Tom so she improvises and thought of more sensible questions which piqued Tom's interest specially when he finds out of the questions that was prepared for him?

Improvising

You found yourself standing there in the hotel lobby waiting for Tom Hiddleston himself. Your friend, who was supposed to do the interview, got sick and for that reason couldn’t do the interview. So you had gotten called in just over an hour ago, and had no time to prepare. You trusted your friend to have everything ready for the interview, but as you stood there, skimming through the questions, your heart nearly stopped. Was this some sort of a joke? You couldn’t possibly ask him about those kinds of things without sinking through the floor in shame. With a rousing sense of panic, you went through the papers, trying to find the real questions or anything of substance, but you ended up empty handed. You almost felt like crying as you glanced down at your watch, realising that there was only five minutes left until your scheduled meeting. You rummaged through your purse for a pen and a paper and was just about to start writing new questions when the subject of the interview suddenly appeared in the lobby.

“Umm, excuse me mister Hiddleston, are you here for the interview? I mean, of course you are...” you greeted him nervously as he approached you with a warm smile.

“Hi, you must be Riley. Please, feel free to call me Tom,” Tom replied as he shook your hand.

“Actually, Riley is sick, so I’m standing in for her,” you informed him with a shy smile.

“Ah, I see. What’s your name then?” Tom asked with interest as he still held your hand in his.

“[Your name],” you replied.

“Nice to meet you, [your name],” Tom said with a smile

“It’s very nice to meet you too, Tom,” you replied blushingly, feeling a bit strange as you spoke his name so familiarly. “This way,” you added and led him to the room in which the interview was to be held. You both sat down on the chairs in front of the camera as soon as Tom had politely introduced himself to the man behind the camera and the man in control of the microphone hovering over your heads just out of line of sight for the camera.

“Are you ready?” the cameraman asked to which Tom answered ‘yes’ and you answered a truthful ‘not really’.

“I’m sorry,” you apologised flusteredly. “I’m ready.”

“Camera rolling,” the cameraman announced and you could feel yourself grow pale. You nervously glanced down at the papers, but quickly looked away as you struggled not to grimace at the questions on there.

“I’m sitting here with Tom Hiddleston. Welcome to the R and R show, Tom,” you said, grateful that you at least got the name of the show right. At least that was something.

“Thanks for having me,” Tom replied politely.

“The pleasure is all ours,” you said with a smile. “So, Tom… I personally think you really did a great job portraying Hank Williams in I Saw the Light.”

“Thank you, I really appreciate it,” Tom said and smiled at you. You couldn’t help but get caught up in his beautiful blue eyes as he looked at you.

“Um… One thing I found particularly interesting in the movie was the moment when Hank said that everybody has a little darkness inside of them, that he showed it to them and they heard it, but they didn’t have to take it home with them. I was wondering if you would like to elaborate what you think Hank Williams’s darkness consisted of,” you said as you mentally cursed your friend for not having come up with better questions herself so you wouldn’t have to improvise like this.

“Interesting question,” Tom commended and touched his chin thoughtfully before answering. “Ehm, as is well-known, Hank struggled with alcohol and drug addiction, and I suppose you could say that it’s a way of how the darkness portrayed itself. But what exactly this darkness consisted of is difficult to say. In the scene you’re referring to, Hank mentions anger, sorrow and shame. But I think it’s more complicated than just that when it comes to Hank. I think there was something in him that was addicted to the darkness and that it somehow felt more real to him than anything else. I think part of his darkness was his very addiction to it. Do I make any sense?”

“I think so...” you replied and decided to elaborate. “The attraction to the darkness itself was part of his darkness. His unwillingness to let go of it made it darker... Like staying in a dark corner of a room instead of coming out into the light.”

“Exactly,” Tom agreed and his face lit up as he looked at you. “It was like Hank felt more comfortable in his dark corner than out in the light. And I think as he went into the vortex of addiction, into the darkness, he couldn’t stay sober for long enough to see clearly, to come out into the light and see how many people actually cared about him.” 

“That’s tragic,” was your instinctive response.

“It is,” Tom agreed.

“Hank Williams isn’t the only character with darkness inside of him that you’ve played... I think you could say that Adam in Only Lovers Left Alive had a bit of darkness inside of him as well. Ehm… would you say that there are any similarities between Adam and Hank?” you asked, trying not to grimace at how far fetched your question felt.

“Interesting question,” Tom said again, causing you to blush. It made you glad to hear that he found your questions interesting, seeing as you got them at the top of your head. “Well, while Adam is obviously fictional and a vampire, I think there are similarities between him and Hank. They are both musicians,” he said grabbing his index finger as he began to count the similarities between the two characters. “They both have a darkness inside of them, like you said yourself,” he told you and grabbed his long finger as well. “They both seem lonely even though they have people around them who care…” he said and grabbed a third finger. “There are probably more things they have in common...”

“Well, how about the differences between Adam and Hank?” you asked.

“Adam is fictional whereas Hank is real. Adam’s a vampire and Hank is human. While Adam had a long life, Hank’s life was tragically short. He died of heart failure at only twenty nine years of age. He was one of those stars that shine brightly but burn out quickly, while Adam is more of a slow burning star,” Tom replied and you found yourself nodding in agreement at his answers.

“Yes... Another character with a long lifespan is the god of mischief himself. Loki. I heard you were working on a Loki TV show, is there anything you could tell us about that?” you asked curiously.

"Well, the series starts right after Loki grabs the tesseract in Avengers: Endgame. It'll be six hours of air time and it will be released on Disney plus in 2021. Sorry I can't tell you much more than that at this point," Tom said. 

"That's alright. So we have six more hours of Loki to look forward to, that's great. How did you feel about revisiting the part? You've been playing him for quite some years now," you wondered. 

"I've been playing him for ten years now and I really enjoyed revisiting the role as Loki. I feel like I know this character now, and the audience knows him. The most exciting aspect of playing him is to present him with new challenges, which change him in different ways," Tom replied, seemingly happy to talk about Loki. 

The cameraman motioned for you to wrap up the interview, leaving you disappointed that your meeting with Tom was already coming to an end.

"I really look forward to seeing what new challenges Loki's up against. Unfortunately it seems our time is up. Thank you so much Tom Hiddleston for coming here and joining us on the R and R show," you said, genuinely grateful to actually meet him in person. 

"Thanks for having me," Tom told you, his smile making your heart skip a beat. 

"Cut," said the cameraman. 

"Thank you for saving me with your interesting answers," you told Tom once the camera was off. 

"Saving you?" he asked surprisedly. "I hardly think you needed saving, you did great with the questions," he commended. 

"You really think so?" you said, feeling relieved as he nodded his head ‘yes’ in response. "Thank you. I was not at all prepared for this, so I had to improvise," you admitted. 

"You improvised? Then you're a natural at this," he praised, seemingly impressed. "Didn't your friend prepare the questions?" 

"In all honesty, her questions were not up to standard. Some were downright dreadful," you said truthfully. 

"Really? Dreadful you say?" he asked interestedly. "Would you let me see her questions?" Tom requested curiously and you reluctantly handed them over to him while blushing, as though you were somehow responsible for them. 

"Oh," he uttered understandingly as he skimmed through the questions about James Bond, Taylor Swift, what type of women he preferred and if he was feeling lonely now that he was single. "Thank you for not asking me about all this," he said with relief and kept reading the questions, grimacing at some and laughing at others.

"If your friend was seriously going to ask me those questions, I'm almost glad she was sick," Tom said jokingly, causing you to laugh. "It not just because I wish to avoid another awkward interview, but because it was a real delight to be interviewed by you." 

"Oh, thank you," you said feeling flattered. "I found it really nice talking to you too." 

“I still have some time left before my next interview, if you would like to grab a cup of coffee,” Tom offered.

“I would love to,” you answered, barely able to contain your excitement.

You continued talking to each other about different kinds of things. This time it was almost as though he was interviewing you, asking about your life. When he found out that you had a vlog where you posted song covers his face lit up. 

"I'll make sure to check it out," he promised and pulled out his phone to write down the name of your vlog. 

When it was time to finally part, Tom added, "feel free to contact me if you want to grab another coffee or something. It was really nice talking to you, [your name]." He handed you a piece of paper with what appeared to be his phone number on it before leaving. You stood there dumbfounded for a moment. Then you smiled to yourself thinking that sometimes improvising really pays off. You had never expected that you would be so glad that your friend had come down with a cold.

#tom hiddleston #tom hiddleston fanfiction #tomhiddleston #tomhiddlestonfanfiction #tom hiddleston real person fanfiction #request #tom hiddleston x reader

[phati-sari]

Hello PS! Hope you are doing well and everything is going okay on your end. First of all, I was to convey my heartfelt thanks to you for this awesome site and your amazing posts that keeps fans like me enthralled and escape from reality. I am interested in knowing your thoughts on why IPKKND became such a smashing hit and why are we so much invested and drawn in to this story? I know you are not too keen on us giving you options so I will just stop with an open ended question ☺️ Thank you somuch

Hi!

Awww, this is so sweet! Thanks :) I’m glad you like the blog!!

IPKKND was made in the era of saas-bahu serials -- serials that were defined by what we now call kitchen politics: issues that women encounter in shared households. They’re relatable and sometimes fun and reassure the audience that their experience is not out of the ordinary. 

Into this landscape came IPKKND -- a youth-based romantic drama that focussed as much on the depiction (and to some extent, validation) of lust between the lead characters as it did on True Love. A drama in which the male lead had more to do than stand in the background and provide reactions, a drama in which the female lead had agency (I’ll come back to this).

It’s difficult to see in retrospect but 4Lions broke and subverted many tellywood tropes with IPKKND. I’m not saying that it was the first Bad Boy meets Good Girl story, or that it was the first time we were shown an Angry Young Man with a Heart of Gold. They’d tried much of it with Geet, and Pratigya was being played at around the same time. But the way it told this story changed the landscape of tellywood.

IPKKND balanced everything it wanted to do quite well. It told a story about two families but balanced it with stories about the Alpha and Beta couples. Compared to serials that came before and after it, IPKKND didn’t get lost in its sub-plots, didn’t introduce characters just to forget about them, and was generally a very focussed, enjoyable story until it reached the end of its original story arc. And then it ended. I believe this is one of the most important aspects of its lingering success: that it ended before amnesia or an evil twin had to be introduced to extend the storyline.

IPKKND is one of the most syndicated shows in tellywood. It’s been successful in most of the markets it’s been introduced to. There’s a kind of universal appeal to this story. I think it, again, comes down to balance. Khushi is presented as the Every Woman -- the female audience is encouraged to see themselves in her. But she has a lot of agency.

There’s a tendency in shows to present the female lead as someone things happen to. By this I mean that the female lead is often a bit like a billiard ball -- she goes through life in a set direction and external forces change her trajectory. People are mean to her, they plot against her and misunderstand her, but she doesn’t cause any of it and is always blameless.

Some folks go through life this way -- framing events as though they have little to no agency and things happen to them and around them rather than seeing themselves as actively involved. This framing works for that audience and I definitely see it in much of the interpretation and analysis of this show. It’s present in 99% of the fanfiction written around it.

But IPKKND puts Khushi and Arnav at the front and centre of their story. They make things happen. Their (often bad) decisions and actions cause much of the conflict in the serial. Shyam is just there as a catalyst and as a vehicle for Devi Maiyya’s will -- Arnav and Khushi destroy themselves and their relationships more thoroughly than Shyam could ever dream of doing. (After all, his plans usually fail!!). 

So I think this is one of the reasons for its popularity. Whether the audience recognises it or not, it’s IPKKND is framed slightly differently from other serials in the same genre.

Another contributing factor is Arnav -- he straddles the line between Angry Young Man and Abusive Jerk admirably for a tellywood character. There’s something about our social conditioning that tells women that slightly aggressive (and a little angry) men are more desirable (I guess the idea is that they’re strong and they can protect us). But with that comes the expectation that, however much of an ass he is to others, he will be caring and loving towards those he loves. The challenge is to convince him that we belong in that inner circle. IPKKND plays into this with gusto.

The alpha-male lead is caring and protective towards his family, particularly his sister. An atheist, but he keeps a permanent temple in his home for his family. A self-made businessman and workaholic, but he always leaves work to come home if someone needs him. A rich and powerful man, but he rehearses apologies in the mirror. Arnav represents an ideal that is rarely found in reality, but it’s an ideal many of us (unconsciously?) strive for. Khushi certainly does.

She’s almost immediately attracted to the Bad Boy aspects of Arnav. He’s so forbidden, so outside the realm of what she’s expected to be attracted to, that she’s drawn to him. And Khushi isn’t some paragon of goodness either -- there’s an answering darkness in her that makes them perfect for one another. She helps him heal from a trauma and he becomes her anchor.

And while I say all this, we have to recognise that IPKKND is far from perfect. It can be problematic in its normalisation of abusive behaviour and its refusal to examine exactly how and when Khushi went wrong. It places too much emphasis on some things and not enough on others. It does not, in my opinion, depict a relationship we should aspire to -- men like Arnav are more likely to genuinely be abusive than have a heart of gold hidden deep inside and shows like this teach us to keep digging rather than cut loose and find someone else.

But in the end, IPKKND transcends its tropes to become something more. It’s the combination of the story, the clever use of tropes and motifs, the brilliant cinematography, the high production values, the balance of comedy and romance, the balance of family and individual subplots, the amazing casting, and the fantastic acting :)

#ipkknd #iss pyaar ko kya naam doon #arshi #arnav singh raizada #khushi kumari gupta #greatest hits #anon ask #answered

[charliejrogers]

The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Or, Sorkin’s attempt to show you how nothing has changed in 52 years)

If you know anything about Aaron Sorkin, the much-acclaimed writer/creator of television shows like The West Wing, The Newsroom, you know that subtlety is not his strong suit. So, I was rather hesitant going into his newest film, The Trial of the Chicago 7, the infamous trial of eight gentlemen accused of conspiracy to incite violence/rioting in Chicago during the notorious 1968 DNC riots. Without diving too deep into the history, August 1968 was not Chicago’s finest hour. When the protesters chanted as a warning to the police, “The Whole World Is Watching!”, they weren’t wrong. Years ahead of the 24-hour news cycle, people all across America (and across the world) were glued to the TV watching the Chicago police beat the ever-living snot out of young folks protesting the Democratic Party’s decision to support the ever-controversial war in Vietnam. The film’s subject matter is sure to draw parallels to and resonate strongly with both the protests and civil unrest that took place this past summer following the death of George Floyd and countless other Black folk at the hands of police. So despite it’s appropriate timeliness, I was hesitant to watch this movie because I really wasn’t interested in watching Aaron Sorkin (who not only wrote but directed this film) try to mansplain to me that the trial of the Chicago 7 was all about injustice! Without knowing anything else about the trial beforehand (and I really didn’t), I already knew it’s a famous case of injustice. I wanted to watch the movie to learn about the people, the humans involved, and the nuance of the situation.

The film gets off to a rough start in the nuance department. After an effective montage introducing us to six of the eight members of the Chicago 7 (we’ll get to why there’s that numerical discrepancy), we meet the character who will be the lead prosecutor of the case: a straight-laced, clean-cut lawyer played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. In an attempt to plant the seed early on that the eponymous trial is a sham, the first real scene of the film sees Gordon-Levitt meeting with Nixon’s newly appointment Attorney General John Mitchell who is pissed off that the prior AG didn’t resign from the office until an hour before Mitchell was confirmed. As retaliation, and in line with history’s understanding of Nixon’s pathologic paranoia, Mitchell decides to re-open the case exploring whether there was any conspiracy to incite riots in Chicago 1968. As JGL explains, this was something which Johnson’s AG as well as prior FBI investigations already decided did was not a viable case. The conversation that ensues is a little too on-the-nose. JGL shares his concerns that he doesn’t believe that the Chicago 7 are actually guilty, but Mitchell tells JGL, “then imagine how impressed I’ll be when you get a conviction.”

Of course, this conversation is largely a Sorkin invention, as is the weird decision to try to humanize the prosecutor played by Gordon-Levitt. I say "weird" because the film doesn’t do anything with it. We don’t get a real sense beyond that initial scene that JGL feels guilt or remorse for being a cog in the Nixon machine. The beginning of the film sets him up to be a similar character to David Schwimmer’s fascinating turn as Robert Kardashian in The People vs. O.J. Simpson. But in the end, it’s clear that Sorkin uses him just as a way in the beginning of the film to provide the thesis statement for the film, as if he were writing this script as a college term paper. This bothers me so much because it makes a late-film surprise appearance by Michael Keaton as Johnson’s AG lose a good deal of its impact. It would have been so much better if we as the audience came to the same revelation about the political origin of the trial at the same time that the defense lawyers did.

Sorkin’s lack of subtlety reared its ugly head in a few key moments that caused me to audibly groan while watching this film. Towards the end of the film, one of the more dramatic defendants, the merry prankster hippie Abbie Hoffman (played very well by Sacha Baron Cohen), is on the stand and is asked a particularly difficult question by the prosecution. He pauses. The prosecution asks what’s taking so long. Hoffman responds in a serious tone that runs opposite of his usual character, “Sorry, I’ve never been on trial for my thoughts before.” The film then slowly fades to black. I half-expected to hear the famous Law & Order “chun-chunn” sound next. That’s how cheesy and self-righteous the scene was.

The film’s ending too, where the defendants read off a list of all the fallen soldiers from Vietnam prior to their sentencing, felt a little too Hollywood to be believable… and indeed it didn’t happen that way. Elsewhere in the film, one of the more “prim and proper” defendants, the young head of the Students for a Democratic Society Thomas Hayden played by Eddie Redmayne, reflexively stands in honor of the judge’s exit as is court custom, forgetting that he and the rest of the defendants agreed not to stand. That’s not the bad part. The bad part comes later when Redmayne’s character travels to someone’s home and the Black maid who answers the door says to him, “I heard you were the only one to stand for the judge,” and then the camera just sorta lingers on her disappointment. We get it! The judge is a bad dude! Let’s move on!

Seriously, let’s move on. For all my griping, this is a very good movie. Those instances where Sorkin’s moral heavy-handedness is plain to see are so glaring because for the most part, the movie does a fantastic job of addressing the film’s (sadly still) politically controversial themes (police brutality, the culpability of protesters in starting riots, systemic racism, etc.) with a good deal of nuance. This mostly happens when Sorkin just sticks to the facts of the case, like when dealing with the whole saga of Bobby Seale, the eighth and only Black man of the Chicago 7. The day before the trial begins, Seale's lawyer required emergent surgery. Seale’s motion to have the trial postponed till he receive proper counsel is denied, as is his request to represent himself. Therefore, on trial without counsel, he frequently interrupts the court arguing about the unconstitutional nature of his trial, until the judge, played to chilling perfection by Frank Langella, becomes fed up with the interruptions and orders that Seale be bound, gagged, and chained to his chair. It’s a crazy powerful and uncomfortable scene, among the most haunting images I’ve seen in cinema. Finally, Seale’s case is determined to be a mistrial, changing the number of defendants from eight to seven. Hence, the Chicago 7.

But, the most inspired sequence of the film comes late in the movie when the defense gets wind of the prosecution’s plan to play a recording from the night of the riots where the prim and proper Tom Hayden can be (arguably) heard urging hundreds of listeners to “let blood flow all over the city.” Tom still believes that he would do well on the witness stand, but his defense lawyer (Mark Rylance as William Kuntsler) insists on showing him why this would be a bad idea. The ensuing scene sees Rylance role play the part of the prosecution cross-examining Hayden while the film intercuts scenes of a flashback of the actual events. the “truth” of that night, significantly muddies the water for this case. It by no means proves that the Chicago 7 are guilty of a conspiracy, but it certainly highlights the more human aspect of their situation. How is one expected to keep their calm when their best friend is beaten? And to what degree are people to be held responsible for decisions made in the heat of the moment?

The movie also has also interesting commentary on who should be the “face” or progressive politics, even today: the well-to-do and respectable Hayden or the in-your-face hippie comedian Hoffman? It’s an interesting question that never seems fully explored or resolved. Sorkin seems to land in the camp that Hayden’s respectability merely maintains status quo whereas Hoffman’s flagrant anti-establishment views is required for real change. But I don’t know how much of that is me just loving Cohen’s performance as Hoffman and finding Redmayne’s Hayden to be (appropriately) insufferably pretentious. Sorkin certainly gives Cohen the better lines.

Overall, this is a movie held up by its two primary strengths: its cast and its film structure. Aside from general inconsistencies of the script’s tone and the notable weakness I mentioned previously about overplaying the political motivation for the trial in the film's first 5 minutes, the film is nearly perfectly structured. We are sort of dropped in medias res into the trial and only get the facts of those few days shown to us in carefully placed flashbacks that help to flesh out the drama of the trial. It helps maintain pacing in what could have been a drag of a legal drama. 

But really, it’s the cast and their performances that sell this movie. Sacha Baron Cohen is the star in my mind, so perfectly cast as Abbie Hoffman, but Frank Langella as the septuagenarian, prejudiced judge of the case is equally powerful. Yahya Abdul-Manteen II as the Black Panther Bobby Seale lends an air of desperate seriousness to the film, Eddie Redmayne shines as that white liberal dude who takes himself way too seriously, and Mark Rylance is wonderful as the courageous lead defense attorney, particularly in scenes dealing with Bobby Seale. While the whole trial weighs on him heavily as the film progresses, his genuine concern for Seale is palpable.

I spent much of this review telling you the things that were odd about this film, and I stand by that. But as I said, those things stand out because this is such a slick production that the cracks become that much more obvious. It largely avoids Sorkin’s penchant for blunt lack of nuance and offers a story that helps to greatly contextualize the very world we live in. It’s interesting that a story that sees ten men (including their lawyers) fail to win a fight against The Man still feels like an inspiring underdog tale. It resonated well with this viewer, especially as the ending makes clear that justice is eventually served. Yet, I recognize this may be a dangerous tale to tell these days, and why I think the movie is so successful is that it gives plenty of sobering evidence to suggest that justice (both then and now) is by no means guaranteed.

***/ (Three and a half out of four stars)

#trial of the chicago 7 #aaron sorkin #sacha baron cohen

[moviewarfare]

A Review of “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice - Ultimate Edition (2016)″

In anticipation of Zack Snyder's Justice League, I decided to rewatch Zack's previous two DCEU entries. I watched BvS in theatres in 2016 and remember feeling immeasurable disappointment. Now that 5 years have passed and I have watched many movies, I was wondering if my opinions on this movie would change. Additionally, I would be would watching the Ultimate edition which contains 31 minutes of additional footage. This is my first time watching the Ultimate edition so it was also a sort of new experience in a way. "It's been nearly two years since Superman's (Henry Cavill) colossal battle with Zod (Michael Shannon) devastated the city of Metropolis. The loss of life and collateral damage left many feeling angry and helpless, including crime-fighting billionaire Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck). Convinced that Superman is now a threat to humanity, Batman embarks on a personal vendetta to end his reign on Earth, while the conniving Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) launches his crusade against the Man of Steel". So is this a misunderstood gem or still a massive disappointment?

Firstly, Ben Affleck is still an excellent Batman. I find him incredibly charming as Bruce Wayne while also portraying the jaded and the rage-filled Batman perfectly. Gal Gadot is introduced as Wonder Woman in this movie and is honestly still one of the best parts. She is very elegant and mysterious as Diana but then an absolute badass as Wonder Woman. Jeremy Irons is snarky and wise as the beloved Alfred as well. Henry Cavill returns as Superman and Amy Adams returns as Lois Lane with both still doing a great job in their respective roles. There are some other supporting actors new and returning who all do fine jobs as well.

The cinematography by Larry Fong is really good and visually there are still some great shots. Hans Zimmer returns to score but is now collaborating with Junkie XL and it is an absolute phenomenal score. The Batman theme is amazing, the Wonder Woman theme is exciting and the Lex Luthor theme is unsettling. There is more oomph in the score thanks to Junkie XL which makes the action scene feel more thrilling.

On that note, the action scenes concerning Batman are exceptional. The Metropolis destruction but from Bruce Wayne perspective is one of the most exciting intros in a superhero movie ever. It also perfectly captures the destruction from a bystander view and also illustrates exactly why Batman hates Superman. The Batmobile chase sequence is also quite a stand-out with how awesome it is. Just seeing the Batmobile destroy everything in its path is fun to watch. The Batman warehouse fight scene is the best to have ever graced the screen. It is choreographed amazingly and shot in such a way that it is easy to see what is going on while still feeling every punch.

However, the same can't be said with the Batman vs Superman fight. Rewatching it again makes me see how underwhelming this fight is. The first thing to note that is only one fight between these two characters in a 3-hour movie which already sucks but the fight itself is visually boring. It's choreographed in a way that feels like it is from a slapstick comedy. Superman launches him through some walls, Batman gases him and then punches him in the face for a bit, repeat and that's the fight. Superman acts dumb in the fight and Batman just moves slowly due to the armour which leads to a really silly fight to watch. I think people tear into it a lot but the fight resolution of Martha is still quite silly. I think the idea behind it is fine with Batman realizing Superman's humanity. It's just that the scene doesn't convey this very well and put too much emphasis on the "Martha" name instead of the human aspect. It's also executed very clunkily which leads to an ironically hilarious scene when it shouldn't be. The fight against Doomsday at the end is just a big CGI-fest against some dark grey looking thing at night. It's hideous to look at with its abundant of grey and black colours with overly flashy lights that just makes it seem dull.

The story has 4 perspectives with the Batman one being the best. His hatred for Superman is understandable and trying to get the Kryptonite to fight him is the most easily enjoyable parts. On the other hand, Superman's perspective is so boring and forgettable. The people treating him like a hero or a god while some detesting him is fine. It's just he is so mopey in every scene which makes every scene involving him just not fun to watch. There is also a weird part in his arc where he goes into a snow mountain and hallucinates his dad which was just so dumb. I do find Superman dislike for Batman a mixed bag as he is criticizing him for his vigilantism and being above the law but that is exactly what Superman does too. The Ultimate edition adds more Clark Kent investigation which adds more to it and shows that he dislikes the brutality of his method and the fear he causes which is more understandable. Lois Lane is also another perspective with her trying to figure out who is producing this mysterious bullet. It's a very pointless perspective and quite a waste of time considering it amounts to something that the audience already knows, Lex Luthor was the one who did it! Lex is also the last perspective with him dealing with senators who obstruct him and him building a monster just because I guess? His perspective is fine for the plot but it's not enjoyable to watch because of the actor.

Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor is one of the worst casting choices I have ever seen. While every other actor feels grounded and serious, Jesse Eisenburg feels very cartoony and over the top. It's made worst as a majority of his lines are dumb. There are some great lines from Lex but they are poorly executed because of Jesse's terrible performance. His character's motivation is understandable but his whole plan is borderline ridiculous and convoluted. It makes genuinely no sense apart from the fact that the movie just needed a mastermind. The Granny's peach tea thing is oddly hilarious but a dumb moment too. There are also some random dream sequences in this movie that adds nothing to the main narrative. The noted Knightmare sequence just happens midway through the movie without any setup or any reference later. Likewise for the future flash sequence which you think Batman would make a note of later but doesn't. There is also the famous Wonder Woman checks her email sequence that is just so unnecessary. It baffles me that Zack didn't just have it at the end of the movie as these scenes are so distracting and unconnected to the main story.

Overall, the Ultimate edition makes the plot feel more coherent but BvS is still a massive disappointment. There are some great moments but the writing is just so atrociously bad that it is very difficult for these moments to shine through. However, it is a unique vision and doesn't completely feel like most Superhero movies. I can see why people kept campaigning for Zack's version of Justice League because even if it is bad, it's going to be unique. In the end, it's not the worst Superhero movie as some, including me originally, would make it out to be but it's not a hidden masterpiece as some others would too.

#movies #movie review #batman #superman #henry cavill #ben affleck #batman v superman #dawn of justice #justice league #wonder woman #Gal Gadot #bvs #bvs dawn of justice #bvsedit #dc #DC comics #dceu #zack snyder

[annes-andromeda]

Fanon Marvel cause they got I S S U E S

This isn’t really a fanfic thing, more or less what I envision the MCU would be in MY head. Granted not everyone’s gonna agree with these points, but that’s fine. Well all got our own opinions☺️

Q: Who survives the Snap in Fanon?

A: Steve, Thor, Bruce, Natasha, Clint, Nebula, Gamora, Rhodey, Rocket, Scott, Okoye, Shuri, Pepper, Wong, Valkyrie, Loki, and Tony

Q: Will anyone be recast?

A: Yes. Monica Rambeau is Captain Marvel instead of Carol Danvers. Make of that as you will.

Q: Are there gonna be any major changes?

A: Not for the most part, as I haven’t watched all the Marvel movies. However, these would be the most prominent ones:

* T*ny Stark is an anti-villain. His story has been changed to mostly fit the Superior Iron Man storyline. The IM trilogy would stay the same since I haven’t seen them, as well as the first two Avengers movies. However, he gets his immediate change in Civil War, where we find out that he worked for HYDRA the whole time, and wanted the Avengers to sign the Accords so the organization didn’t get found out. I feel it would’ve been interesting if we had seen Tony turn from a man who pretended to help others survive, into a man who only ever did things to help himself survive. If you don’t like this change: well then suck it cause it’s my fanon🙃

* Steve and Thor are in a relationship. This is mostly a personal preference, but I genuinely think they’d be a good couple. Their feelings would begin to come out in AOU, after the party scene. The two have a drink, slow dance, and confess there feelings. Simple, but cute (I think). Steve would think of Thor in Civil War, while Thor would have a scene in Ragnarok, in which he calls Steve and gets his opinion on everything that has happened to him (Odins death, Hela, losing Mjolnir etc). In Infinity War, they reunite and share a big kiss Pirates of the Caribbean style. As for Endgame: Steve doesn’t go to the past (I.e fucking up the timeline and Peggy’s happy life) and Thor stays on New Asgard to rule as King, with his consort by his side.

* CA:CW- People like Rhodey and Natasha don’t just immediately agree to the Accords. Instead, they go undercover and try to find out what the government is actually doing; Peter is on Team Iron Man until he finds out that Tony is HYDRA. It sucks that M*rvel really out here just making Peter iron boy instead of... ya know... Spider-Man; Civil War has a scene where Steve reminisces on his mother (his real moral compass fight me) and we focus more on him and less on Tinkie’s man pain; Instead of Tony being upset that Bucky killed both of his parents, he’d only get upset about his mother, as he actually wanted his father dead. Got this idea from a post where basically a bunch of people were talking about how Tony was probably HYDRA the whole time, which is where I got the idea. Feel free to add anything else.

* IW: Loki and Gamora don’t die. I feel like they killed off Loki a little too early since he was just getting the arc he so desperately needed. While I don’t really know what to do with him yet, I do know that he’ll be in a relationship with Valkyrie. I mean, did you see their fight scene? The sexual tension. As for Gamora, well we all practically hated it when she died and hated it even more when they brought her 2014 counterpart back from the past. Someone on Quora said that an alternative for Thanos to sacrifice on Vormir could be Ebony Maw, as out of all of Thanos’s children, he worshipped him the most. Maybe Thanos would hesitate as this was his most loyal child, but he does it cause gotta wipe out half the universe or whatever. It wouldn’t be as tragic tho, but (1) that’s the price we gotta pay for Gamora to stay alive, and (2) are we reeeaaally supposed to pity Thanos? Thanos? The guy who only ever fell in love with Death???. Anyways back to Gamora: I actually wanna do something for her. If you’ve ever seen RWBY, one of the main characters essentially loses her arm when she tried to save her friend. I know it sounds cruel for Gamora to loose a limb, but hey, sometimes you just like seeing your fav characters suffer🤷‍♀️. I was thinking it could go two ways:

- (1): Gamora loses her arm like the character in RWBY i.e, saving one of her friends like Mantis, Quill, or Nebula.

- Or (2): Thanos uses the Reality Stone to make the Guardians + Peter and Strange think that they have the upper hand. Strange uses his magic to hold Thanos down while the others try taking off the Infinity gauntlet. Once the gauntlet is nearly loose, Quill would try to strike him, as Nebula realizes that the whole thing is an illusion. But before she could warn the others it’s too late, and Gamora looses an arm to her boyfriend, leaving him and everyone in complete shock. I like this option more, as it would show not only just how cruel Thanos is, but that he never really loved Gamora. He just favored her above all his other kids. And hey, I’m a sap for angst.

* Feel free to add anything else.

* EG: So in the first bullet, I already said which characters survive the snap and that Captain Marvel isn’t Carol, but Monica. Aside from that, I haven’t really thought much of what to do with Endgame. Surprisingly, it’s difficult to write a better story for this one. What I would most like to happen, however, is more character moments. Thor’s PTSD and traumas being taken more seriously, and instead of him gaining weight he loses it (cause according to Tinkie’s dumb rant that’s what gets an audience to take your turmoil seriously. Pls don’t hate me for this decision). Bruce doesn’t turn into Professor Hulk, and his traumas are actually talked about. Also he gets closure on his relationship with Natasha (I know it’s not that great but I personally like it). Clint dies instead of Nat and we remember that Nat was the leader of the Avengers for like five years. Steve properly mourns his friends and actually acts like Steve Rogers and not a fucking imposter. We actually see what happened in Wakanda after the Snap, with Okoye and Shuri at the head of it all. Also Pepper would be stand in for Tony, cause ya know, she has a life outside of him and is actually smart. And her and Scott help with the Time machine or what other plan I or anyone can come up with. Again, feel free to add anything else.

Q: Will there be any new characters added?

A: For now just one: A robot named Iris (aka Iron Blade), created by Tony for HYDRA. I’ve made a summary of her here:

* Iris is an android created by the billionaire Tony Stark, who possesses a synthetic body made of Tungsten Carbide which is powered by the arc reactor in her chest. For years Stark worked into making Iris highly advanced, while also keeping her secret from the rest of the world until she was ready to be used by the organization HYDRA. She was trained by HYDRA in combat and artificial intelligence, transforming Iris into a dangerous, ruthless killing machine. However, she still managed to keep some essence of personality thanks to Tony, who refused to have her be simply mindless. This resulted in Iris inheriting some of Tony’s more negative traits, while even accepting his lavish lifestyle. Although she may act like him, Iris has her own traits which vary from being charismatic, eloquent, and sophisticated to privileged, arrogant and cruel. Due to HYDRA’s influence, Iris is mostly misguided and blindly follows orders.

* Iris was eventually revealed when Tony tried forcing the Avengers to sign the Sokovia Accords as a means to keep HYDRA underground. She was introduced as a new recruit of the US government, in which she had a hand in writing the Accords. When the Avengers found that Iris was created by not just HYDRA but by Tony, this caused a huge riff in the team. The people on Team Iron Man immediately turn on him once finding out that he created Iris, which in turn resulted in them finding out that not only had he been providing the organization with weapons, but was a member himself. Out of all the team members, Iris has the largest fallout with Bucky Barnes (the former Winter Soldier) and Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow), as she mostly worked as their antithesis, showing what probably would’ve occurred had they never recovered from their manipulation at the hands of corrupt organizations.

* After the fight between Iron Man and Captain America, Iris went into hiding alongside Tony, who was no longer a member of the Avengers. For the next two years, Iris stayed by her creators side as he intended to carry out his boss’s plan. The titan Thanos had ordered Stark to help him eradicate half the universe. Tony agreed to the plan, as he believed that Earth had been ungrateful for his attempts at ‘saving’ the world. He would help Thanos, so long as he ensured his safety and payed him. Iris, programmed to follow orders, agreed to the plan without question.

* Once Thanos arrived on Earth, Iris would go to Wakanda to stop the Avengers from destroying the Mind Stone, all the while Stark attempted to kill the Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange, and Spiderman (also the only one who knew of Tony’s true alignments). Iris, failing to retrieve the Stone, joins Tony on Titan while Thanos fights the Avengers. Despite the Avengers attempts, Thanos gets the stones and does the Snap, in which Tony and Iris survive and go into hiding once more.

That’s pretty much it. I made this cause I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and I wanted to share my opinions. Feel free to add anything or give constructive criticism.

#marvel #my thoughts #anti tony stark #anti tony stans #cause I don’t want ya here #thundershield #stevethor #its brief but mentioned #anti endgame #anti civil war #anti iron man #anti irondad #just simply anything relating to tinkie isn’t wanted here #anti mcu #steve rogers #thor odinson #gamora #infinity war rewrite #endgame rewrite #marvel criticism #fanon marvel

[multishipperlove]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Critical Role (Web Series) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Caduceus Clay & Constance Clay, Caduceus Clay & Cornelius Clay Characters: Caduceus Clay, Constance Clay, Cornelius Clay, Melora the Wildmother (Critical Role) Additional Tags: Trans Caduceus Clay, Trans Male Character, Clay Siblings - Freeform, Naming Ceremony, Caduceus is baby, Reference to Episode 106, No Spoilers, POV Constance Clay Summary:

What if Caduceu's idea to have every person that decides to leave Vo leave behind a stone with their name behind came from personal experience? What if Caduceus, too, left behind another name at some point?

*

Constance was tending to the garden, cutting off all the faded syringa flowers so the bushes would blossom a second time in the summer, when she heard the excited pitter patter of quick footsteps approaching. Turning around just in time she saw her youngest- well, second youngest now- child running her way, throwing himself at her legs with a wide smile and even brighter eyes. “Mama mama! Guess what Calliope and I just found!”

His current volume made her more glad than anything that she'd left little Clarabelle with Cornelius, but she simply smiled and leaned down to pick him up, settling him securely at her hip as the little boy wrapped both arms around her. “What did you find, darling?” she asked, now seeing Calliope coming over as well, much calmer than her brother though.

“We found my new name!” he told her proudly, ears flicking forward for a moment. “An' Calli even told me it starts with a C this time, so it's a good name.”

“Is that so?” Constance wasn't quite able to hide her amusement, even as Calliope finally joined them. “It was very nice of you to help him with it,” she told her oldest daughter, reaching out with one hand to smooth her hair down.

Calli just shrugged and crossed her arms over her chest, but it was still obvious that she enjoyed the praise a little. “Someone had to help him with his letters, right? Or he would have picked another name with K instead...”

“And that would have been alright too,” Constance agreed, tapping her son's nose though as he immediately stuck his tongue out at his sister, making him scrunch up his little pink nose in indignation. “But I have to admit that it makes me very happy that you decided to keep the family tradition. Should we tell everyone at dinner then?”

The boy in her arms hummed softly, before shrugging as well. “I was kinda hoping we could wait until aunt Corrin comes back? She's been gone so long now, I miss her... and I want her to know about it, too.”

“We will write her a letter, how about that?” she offered instead, tucking her sheers away in a back pocket and taking Calli's hand, taking both of the children back to the house. “I know you miss her, but it might still take a while before we see her again.”

Holding back a sigh she lead them to the little washroom first, making sure they were at least a little bit cleaned up for dinner. Mud and firbolg fuzz didn't mix well. She missed her sister too, but Corrin was doing important work at the moment. It was the price they paid for their service to the Wildmother sometimes, and with a bit of luck she would be the last Clay to leave on these incredibly long missions. They had to find a cure at some point.

Despite her attempt at reassuring him, she could see her son's ears droop again. “But I was really hoping she'd be here for this,” he mumbled. “She was here when everyone else was named...”

“Now, that's not quite fair,” Constance chided him gently. “She was here when you were named, too. When she left, we didn't really know yet that we'd be introducing you to the Wildmother a second time, did we.” For the longest time they had gotten by with nicknames, calling him 'little bug' or even just 'little one', since he just hadn't been able to decide on anything else. All in all it hadn't been a difficult change for them, very easy actually as long as it made their baby boy happy. But after witnessing the naming ceremony of little Clarabelle, he'd started to demand one for himself as well. Apparently they were getting closer to that now.

He still grumbled about it as he leaned into her side, dragging his feet now on the way to the kitchen. With a kiss to his temple she picked him up again for a moment, before securely settling him down in his chair. “Now, no pouting. You had such exciting news to share.”

-*-

Caduceus. The new name turned out to be Caduceus.

Constance had to admit that it wasn't a name she would have thought of herself, but she loved it fiercely. It was unique, and a little bit eccentric, and in her opinion it fit their little boy perfectly. It had gotten approval from everyone else as well, and now that they'd spend a few days preparing for the ceremony they were ready to make it official.

They had all gotten up a bit earlier than usual, before sunrise, and while Cornelius had stayed behind to get the children ready, Constance had already made her way to the small clearing where they held most of their important gatherings. In the early twilight she placed down a few pillows and adorned the shrine with fresh offerings. Flower cuttings from their garden (pink carnations, Caduceus' current favorite), a fresh loaf of bread with a small bowl of salt beside it, a jar filled with clear water, a few ounces of incense. A humble offering, all in all, but it was all they had been able to give on such short notice.

Leaving the incense unlit for now Constance took a quiet moment to herself. She prayed, despite already feeling secure in the knowledge that the Wildmother would accept her son as he was, just as she had accepted him as her daughter just a few seasons prior. He would grow up in her light and guidance, know her love as surely as his family's, there was no doubt about that. No, what she asked for was guidance for herself, to make the right decisions and help her son become the man he wanted to be one day, whatever that entailed.

Eventually she could hear her family approaching, mainly Cornelius trying to hush the children as they reached the sacred space, and turned around with a smile to greet them. They were all dressed in some of their finer cloth, all looking a little excited, except for Caduceus himself who was holding on to his father's hand rather tightly and seemed to be all but hiding behind his legs.

“Someone's a little nervous,” Cornelius told her, one corner of his mouth raising into a loopsided grin. “But I think we got everything we need.”

“That's good,” she replied softly, leaning down for a moment to give Caduceus a gentle kiss on the forehead. As she straightened up again she took the colorful bundle of cloth that Clarabelle was wrapped up in, glad that the baby was at least quieter than she'd been for her own naming ceremony. Leaving Cornelius with their little boy she went to settle down with the two older children, making sure to give them each a kiss in greeting as well. They were both obviously tired, not quite used to getting up this early, but at least they still looked genuinely excited for their brother.

Returning her gaze to the shrine she saw Caduceus and Cornelius standing in front of it now, her husband kneeling down as he helped clumsy hands with lighting the incense. Then they pulled back, Cornelius keeping his sturdy arms around the small frame in front of him.

“We are here today,” he started, his deep voice ringing out, clear as the daylight that slowly started filtering through the canopy, “ to introduce an important addition to our family. And we ask you, Wildmother, to take him in as your own, as you do for all children of Exandria, and as you have done for all of us.”

Apparently finally loosing some of his nervousness Caduceus reached up to tug on his father's sleeves, getting him to pause his speech and look down. “You gotta tell her that I've been here before,” Caduceus whispered. “She has to know who I am!”

“Right, right... oh, do you want to place your stone?” Cornelius asked, just as Constance heard Colton grumble beside her, taking her attention for a moment.

“He's disrupting the ceremony, he shouldn't do that,” her oldest griped, quiet enough that Caduceus and Cornelius probably couldn't hear him but still causing her to roll her eyes.

“It's his ceremony, I'm sure the Wildmother will understand,” she whispered back to him, still reaching out to rub his back a little in reassurance though. “Now hush, this is important for your brother.”

Falling quiet again she looked up just as her husband handed Caduceus a big stone, and she frowned a little as she did not recognise this part of the ceremony. But as Caduceus shyly approached the shrine and placed it down she could see it had his old name etched into it, something Cornelius had probably helped with. After setting it down Caduceus stopped, seemingly just staring at the shrine in awe for a few moments, before he hurried back to his father and came to stand in front of him again.

Cornelius just smiled, running a hand through the short pink hair before continuing with his speech. “As you can see, we have been here with him before. It was many seasons ago though, and he has since informed us that we have done it all wrong.”

Constance couldn't help but chuckle at that. Informing them was an understatement. But Cornelius continued, and she did her best to grow a bit more serious again.

“He would hereby like to return his old name to you, a gift he will no longer need, and respectfully asks to be known as-” His voice rose a little in the end, almost like he was asking a question, and he gave Caduceus a gentle nudge. It took a second, and for a moment Constance was afraid he wouldn't answer at all, but when he finally spoke up his voice was surprisingly sturdy. “Caduceus. My name is Caduceus Clay.”

Silence fell over them as they waited. One second. Two. Three. Constance bit her lip. It had never taken this long to get a sign from the Wildmother after introducing family. But just as her chest started to get uncomfortably tight she saw Caduceus eyes going wide, and followed his gaze back to the stone now settled on top of the shrine.

It was starting to overgrow with pink lichen, slow at first but then spreading at an unnatural speed, until the letters that had been carved into it so carefully were completely unreadable. Then a slight breeze picked up, clearly swirling around Cornelius and Caduceus with an almost playful energy as it flicked up the boy's hair and made him giggle in delight. Constance could hear the almost universal sigh of relief that went through her family at that point, and her earlier anxiety was giving way to an almost giddy sense of euphoria.

Seeing that her husband now had to keep their son from chasing after the gust of wind made her laugh again, especially when it only seemed manageable by firmly settling the little firbolg on his hip again. Melora help them if Caduceus ever got too big to be picked up. Deciding to help, and wanting to congratulate her son to his new name, she finally got up and went over to them. And just as she reached the two, the family now close together again as Calliope and Colton had followed her, and Clarabelle was still securely held in her arms, she felt the brief presence of a warm hand settling on her shoulder. As always, the Wildmother had heard her prayers.

#critical role #cr2 #caduceus clay #clay family #cr fanfiction #writing #mine #trans!caduceus #naming ceremony #the wildmother

[verysharpteeth]

How to Introduce a Likable Female Character (as per The Last Kingdom)

For some bizarre reason shows tend to have issues when they introduce new female characters. Either they’re being shoehorned in to ruin a romantic angle and cause tension, they’re being shoehorned in AS romantic potential, they’re forcibly wedged into a storyline where the males are still the main focus and either seem completely superfluous or so super good at everything they do as to be annoying, or their part just seems like “we needed a female character because of equality so HERE SHE IS ARE YOU HAPPY”. 

This has sometimes led to a weird reverse “shaming” I guess you could call it where other fans rush to the female character’s defense claiming “you just don’t like this character because she’s FEMALE” (I’m having vivid flashbacks to the Supernatural fandom back in the day) and it all devolves into some sort of toxic fandom breakdown (as they always do). I’m not speaking for everyone who dislikes introduced female characters (and I notice a LOT more female characters getting the venom than wedged in male characters...normally they just get ignored if they’re boring or adopted as “my new baby” if they’re compelling), but often it’s about BAD writing. 

Since there are a thousand kinds of bad writing, let me explain through talking about GOOD writing. I ADORE Eadith from S4 of The Last Kingdom. Eadith is introduced with her own full storyline that is naturally tangled in the storyline of the main characters. She’s a fully developed character who we start to care about BEFORE she meets the main characters. She is introduced as a schemer, but her character develops as she realizes that while she’ll manipulate to get her way, she is in no way the immoral monster her brother turns into. She’s put in a very difficult situation and realizes she’ll be at the mercy of her brother if she doesn’t throw in with the Cookham squad and Aethelflaed. So she makes her gamble and comes to find she likes the Cookham boys because they’re genuinely nice dudes who treat her like a fully functioning human and she eventually proves naturally useful to them. Thus she is naturally useful to the audience. Which makes the audience not only sympathize with her, but also like her. She’s not there for forced romance. If romance develops later on it will seem natural. This is just a season full of her getting to know the guys and like them and them getting to know her. There’s no “she’s already making doe eyes at character X” added to her arc. Her arc is enough on it’s own because it’s a full story for HER.

The Last Kingdom tends to do this rather beautifully with their female characters. Take for example Ealswith, who I can truly dislike but who is also compelling. She’s got her own story lines and motivations as a character. Aethelflaed, while Uhtred’s lover, never has that define her. She’s a queen and mother first, there for Uhtred WAY on down the list. Brida is generally the driving force behind all the men she’s with and it’s HER story we’ve followed for so long, not theirs. Hild, while not as big of a role any more, was a MAJOR force in season 1 with her own story arc. Uhtred’s daughter has been introduced now with character traits that make it clear we’re going to get more of her eventually and she’s already got seeds of an interesting character. The Last Kingdom doesn’t tend to throw major female characters into the story just to have a woman there. These women are incredibly involved in the story. Removing them RUINS the story. Making their character male RUINS the story. Their traumas aren’t glossed over, because there’s a lot of trauma here. Sexual assault, spousal abuse, abuse in general, neglect, misogyny, child loss, and violence are ALL dealt with on this show. And how it affects these women and how they deal with it is also shown. The fallout is horrific and the show doesn’t gloss that over nor does it glorify the trauma. We care about the female characters because they’re FULLY characters, not just added in for romance or to be mistreated to prove how bad times were. I’m not saying The Last Kingdom doesn’t have flaws, but I’ve never watched a show where I’ve been so fully invested in female characters in a male driven show in a long time. 

#the last kingdom

[linkspooky]

What makes an unlikable character likable to you?

If you were to ask me to explain it, I would say they’re more well-defined. They have personality. Main characters in manga, especially shonen manga where popularity in weekly polls is king tend to be written to appeal to as many people as possible. That’s why so many of the protagonists written in jump end up resembling one another. They are written to appeal to their audience first and as characters second.

They just end up being better than the main characters because they’re actually allowed to be characters.

Sometimes in an effort to make a character more likable, personality traits that stand out will be sanded off. If a person is always friendly, always smiling, and has an optimistic attitude it’s hard to hate them isn’t it? No, it’s more like there’s nothing you could possibly hate about them. Oftentimes these characters get reduced to positive traits with only job interview flaws as their character conflict, like they care too much, or they’re too selfless. 

Part of having a personality, is having traits that people can dislike. The more you stsand out, the more under scrutiny you will be and the more things people will find wrong with you. They have to have qualities that people can find unlikable in the first place. It’s like the saying that having an opinion means someone out there is going to disagree with it. As villains and what are typically considered “anti-heros” are not meant to be likable, they are allowed to be more they’re own character. The characters often feel like their own person. They are allowed to be unlikable. 

Risks is one of the things that creates the most inspired fiction. When you give a character unlikable traits, you are betting on that people will like them anyway in spite of their flaws. You basically have to do the work to make something compelling about their charatcter so people will look past their flaws. Which is why a lot of times, despite being terrible people these characters happen to be very emotionally driven, and even sometimes relatable. This kind of writing just doesn’t show up in protagonists often, because they’re not allowed to be their own characters, with their own flaws and complex inner worlds. 

I always say the best characters are the ones that allow the audience to dislike them. Because that means the character is actually about something, and therefore you can agree or disagree with the idea. It’s why I don’t even react that much when people dislike characters that I like, because if people can disagree with that character it means that character stood for something or stood out in some way to be hated. 

Here, I’ll give an exmaple of what I mean. 

There are a lot of things to dislike about Shigaraki. He’s basically introduced as a violent manchild, who seemed to want to destroy, and make others miserable for no reason at all. The fact that Shigaraki is so difficult to like is what makes him appealing.

Shigaraki’s a genuinely damaged person and it’s hard to understand his worldview or even relate to him. The story actually has to develop him. As easy to dislike and hard to like as Shigaraki is, he’s an extremely strong presence in the story and he’s probably the most complex character who has gotten the most character development. All because he started as a gremlin who wanted to destroy everything and the narrative had to work hard to make him into a character you wanted to understand. 

Shigaraki is an abused child whose entire life was destroyed by the flaws in the hero system that everybody else loves. He also takes in several other people who have fallen through the cracks of the system, and provides them friendship and a surrogate family where they have none. He has a unique dynamic with each member of the league, and he also reflects each of them in a way. Shigaraki and Dabi are abusive victims connected to the number one and number two hero respectively. Both Shigaraki and Himiko were born with quirks that do not fit into society, and were abused by their parents and not allowed to be the person they want to be. Spinner and Shigaraki are both shut ins who lived really empty lives because of how much society rejected them due to their quirks. Shigaraki and Twice are both heavily mentally ill, and the type of bad people that a hero would never save. Compress and Shigaraki are both show-offs. 

Everything Shigaraki has in the story he had to earn. The story is way harsher on him as a villain than it is on any of the main characters. When he makes mistakes he’s never given any leeway. He loses things. His friends die as a result of his failures. He loses kurogiri, Magne, all for one’s resources. 

Then we see him pick something up and build everything on top of that. Almost as if Shigaraki is the hero of his own story. A lot of the heaviest emotional themes of the manga, quirk discrimmination, abuse, the failures of society, are tied up in Shigaraki’s character as well and we actually see Shigaraki fight against it. Shigaraki even opens up and tells all of his worst trauma to his close knit group of friends. 

Because there are several things to hate about Shigaraki, the story has to work hard to show you that underneath all that Shigaraki is still compelling and sympathetic. He’s also, allowed to be unlikable, and flawed, which causes him to be given the chance to work on and better those flaws which is why the Shigaraki we know now is almost completely different from the one we were introduced to at the start of the manga. A lot of very emotionally heavy topics are tied to Shigaraki as well because as an unlikable character he’s actually allowed to go to those dark places. 

Let’s compare this to Deku. Just to be clear, I like Deku. I think he’s fine as a character. This isn’t meant to come off as hate, I’m just trying to explain why I like the things I like. 

Deku himself has the makings of an interesting character, but all of his major flaws are sanded down. Deku is clearly a character that the audience is meant to like and relate to, and because of that he’s not allowed to stand out personality wise. Like, the reason Bakugo wins all the character polls is that like him or hate him, having a personality will always draw more attention.

Deku does have a character. He’s timid with extremely low self esteem, he doubts himself all the time, he’s basically a chronic overstudier, and overthinks everything. However, none of these traits are ever a problem for the story. Deku could have more pronounced flaws, if his tendency to self harm himself, or his lack of direction in his life, or the fact that he never has any self esteem so he thinks saving people means hurting and sacrificing himself were treated as more serious flaws that would be something to build a narrative around.

As it is, Deku basically has what are job interview flaws. He never has to change his personality much, he just has to get stronger. Rather than overcoming something or learning something, he just, gets physically stronger as the plot goes on. 

Like. The real reason people were upset about Deku getting six quirks out of nowhere wasn’t because it was a power boost. Main characters get weird power boosts all the time that’s just how it is. It’s because Deku’s character is only ever progressed by getting random power boosts. They don’t feel earned.

Compare what Deku did: Have a deram.To what Shigaraki did: Spent two months homeless in the woods fighting Gigantomachia. Went to rescue his friend against an entire city of people. Opened up about his past and his motivation to his friends earning Spinner’s loyalty. Went one on one with a hulk. Had a mental breakdown in the middle of a fight, and THEN remembered all of his past memories and decided his desire was that he wanted to be free from the shackles of his trauma. 

Nothing changed about Deku, he just got stronger because the plot needed him to be. There’s nothing wrong with Deku as a main character, but that’s exactly the problem. Deku’s not really about anything,. Deku at the start of the manga, and now is pretty much the same character but with a power upgrade. Deku’s “saving people” often comes off as just punching a bad guy because Deku never confronts the bad sides of society, he’s a total fanboy of the system. Whereas Shigaraki saves people by giving people who are victims of the system but won’t be saved by heroes, a home, and an emotional connection. 

Deku has moments where he reaches out to other people too, but it almost always involves some kind of punching because he’s a shonen protagonist. That’s ultimately why a more unlikable character can come off as likable, Shigaraki’s not a protagonist or anything, he’s just a character. 

#spooky speaks #shigaraki tomura #izuku midoriya #Anonymous

[pluto-art]

- PINKY AND THE BRAIN - EXPERIMENTS -

Below the cut is a personal project on the much more morbid side. Animal lab experimentation is always something I’ve found equal parts horrible and fascinating. Once in a blue moon, I’ll do research on the subject out of curiosity and/or for storytelling purposes. Even as a kid, I found this of interest, and when watching Pinky and the Brain I was always a bit disappointed that we never saw more of what the characters actually went through in the lab during the day. Granted, there’s a reason as to why this was never shown, as a child audience had to be kept in mind, yet still I pondered about it....

Over the last few days, I’ve been churning out compositions based on internet findings -- old and new experiments that rats and mice are put through, many of them humane, some of them very much not. It was an eye-opening journey for me artistically and otherwise, discovering what I’m comfortable drawing and what I never want to sketch again, as well as learning more about this realm of the scientific world.

WARNING: SOME GRAPHIC CONTENT BELOW THE CUT. If needles, patients dealing with the effects of cancer, and general portrayals of pain bother you, I wouldn’t bother venturing onward. I not only drew out experiments that the characters might have gone through, but also describe all of my findings in detail and provide video footage to go along with it. While I didn’t go full-on vivisection or anything, some of this might still be disturbing, so I’m taking extra precaution.

All of the images below are “color-coded” and graded. The experiments start out fairly tame, then get worse... and worse... and worse. The backgrounds reflect this, going from fairly light to quite dark.

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

Experiment #1 - Tail Flick Test

A fairly harmless experiment. The subject is mostly restrained, leaving only their tail exposed. An intense light beam is projected onto the exposed appendage, with the animal flicking their tail when the pain/heat becomes too much. This test is utilized in basic pain research and to measure analgesic effectiveness.

I wanted Brain to wear an expression of deep apathy -- he’s done this a million times and will probably do it a million times more. At this point, he doesn’t even care anymore.

For the background, I simply copied an environment in one of the videos I found.

Video example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzrA1tDTfkQ

Experiment #2 - Rotarod Performance Test

Another experiment that’s generally harmless. One or multiple subjects are placed on elevated rotating rods so as to measure such things as endurance, balance, grip strength, and more.

I imagine Pinky would enjoy this test, as he’s familiar with running on a wheel and actually enjoys more strenuous activities. Brain, on the other hand, would only participate via sheer force. He’d also be more prone to fall after a shorter period of time, getting tired faster than his cage mate.

Video example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v56MtrmWAs0

Experiment #3 - Shot (General)

Nothing special. Just Brain about to get shot.

This is all highly exaggerated, of course. A mouse would simply be held firmly, not strapped down, for a simple injection. Also, I can’t imagine why they’d be shot in the face, although Meg told me that scientists tend to draw blood samples from a mouse’s cheek. Need to look that up. I wasn’t at all going for accuracy here, but rather how it might feel -- how scary it would be.

Experiment #4 - Sciatic Nerve Constriction

An experiment in chronic neuropathic pain, due to the central or peripheral nervous system sustaining damage. Under anesthesia, the animal’s sciatic nerve is exposed via skin incision. The connective tissue between the biceps femoris muscles and the gluteus superficialis is cut. The nerve is then loosely tied with four chrome gut ligatures so to occlude, but not arrest, blood flow. The wound is sutured, the animal is given 24 hours to recover, and then both hindpaws are tested for pain sensitivity. Sounds terrible, but it’s certainly not the worst of the experiments I researched.

I have no idea what’s going on with the coloring in this. Again, going for feel more than accuracy, but the hues are way too calm.

Information link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22433911

Experiment #5 - Writhing Test

Particularly cruel test in which acetic acid is introduced into the system, inducing severe internal pain. The typical response includes writhing, abdominal retraction, and stretching of the hind limbs. Despite the test being withdrawn in 2004 for unethical reasons, it is still employed by some.

This was my favorite one to draw. Although the lighting and shading are not the greatest, it made for an interesting experiment. I did not intend for the lines to be so bold, but it kind of turned into an almost comic-style illustration. I ended up playing around with it a bit and like the result enough to post it.

I would not watch the video below if you are squeamish. It is difficult to swallow. On another note, you may find the “Empathetic Behavior: Emotional Contagion in Mice” section in the second link of interest. For cage mates in particular, if one or both mice were injected with the same acid, and allowed to observe one another, an injected mouse would writhe more if its partner was also in pain. I can’t help but imagine Brain and Pinky in this type of situation....

Information link #1: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3543562/

Information link #2: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/biochemistry-genetics-and-molecular-biology/writhing-test

Video example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib63O4F856w

Experiment #6 - Transgenic K5ras Mouse / Nude Mouse (Combination)

Experiment in which cancer is induced in the system. Nude mice are bred for a number of tests, and are used for this one, as well.

My least favorite to draw, but my favorite to color. One particular experiment I found showed a tumor in every follicle on a mouse’s muzzle. Was trying to go for this look, albeit exacerbated.

Information link #1: https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(98)70203-9?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982298702039%3Fshowall%3Dtrue

Information link #2: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/08/weirdest-lab-mice/

-------

Bonus:

This is based on a test that I found absolutely hilarious. There’s a certain chemical, called W-18, that’s been on the drug market for... some years. The potency of it is supposedly insanely high, although this has never been proven. It’s basically a research chemical (created at a university in the 80s) with analgesic properties that were shown to be “painkillers or blockers of the painkilling effect of morphine in mice”. Mice, not humans. To quote a specific article:

“... when they first injected some of these chemicals into the animals at a dose similar to aspirin, the mice stood up for about a minute and fell over unconscious. They remained unconscious – for five days. But they weren’t dead. They were still breathing. And when they woke, they seemed fine, other than being really hungry and thirsty.”

They literally keeled over from the supposed potency of it. From what I recall, they don’t even know exactly what it was doing to their system, other than the fact that it knocked them out. I just find it funny that they were completely fine after awakening days later.

Although the pure smell of it wouldn’t cause such a reaction, I liked the idea of it in picture form and so depicted Brain simply taking a whiff before passing out.

Information link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidkroll/2016/04/30/w-18-the-high-potency-research-chemical-making-news-what-it-is-and-what-it-isnt/#2c45a5dd4757

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

Experiments researched, but not implemented:

- Tail dipped in ice cold water (mentioned here: cold water) - Morris water maze - Porton Down nerve agent test(s) (the worst; not even sure how I’d depict this)

The Porton Down tests sounded so indescribably cruel that I simply couldn’t bear to put Brain or Pinky through either of those, much less draw them out. It was the most horrific of the experiments I found, second only to a story about a French physiologist in the 1700s/1800s who performed, I believe, vivisection on live, six-week-old puppies. There’s a limit and that’s my limit. Even the cancer-based composition above was difficult to create. I legit felt dirty drawing it.

Researching these subjects was incredibly interesting, and I came across a few articles that touched on animal experimentation and the question of whether or not it’s ethical. Should such practices continue? It’s more complicated than a simple “yes” or no” answer. Some tests are fairly harmless, whilst others border on the inhumane, and some are downright cruel. Some people say that, without testing, there would be a lot less medicine on the shelves to assist in relieving and curing our ailments, whilst others argue that 90+% of the time the testing done is unnecessary, the results yielded by the subjects dissimilar to those that would be shown by humans and, henceforth, stating that the inaccuracies are numerous. This particular article offered up what I thought was a pretty genuine and interesting debate on the matter:

Pain in Lab Animals: How Much is Too Much?

In an interview with Dr. Jeffrey Mogil, a neuroscientist, he mentions that:

“You have complete control over everything in mice. Within limits, you can do whatever you want as long as you minimize pain and suffering of the subjects.“

Full interview: https://www.integrativepainscienceinstitute.com/latest_podcast/sex-differences-in-pain-and-pain-inhibition-with-dr-jeffrey-mogil/

While many establishments do follow the Animal Welfare Act, other laboratories still implement unethical practices. Also, the rules for what constitutes as acceptable in regards to tests that can only be performed without painkillers or anesthesia administered is... nebulous.

Thankfully, there is a number of lab testing equipment on the market specifically designed to be more humane and less stress-inducing to its subjects. These restrainers, for example, allow the animal to “walk in” without having to be physically forced backwards into a container:

Restrainers

Here is another example of testing that is relatively pain-free:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4401362/

It’s simple and inexpensive while still allowing scientists to perform tests.

Below is a video showing how a type of rotarod works, one that doesn’t place the rods too high and provides a cushion underneath in case the subjects fall:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T38fDS2i13k

This tail flick analgesia meter comes installed with a cut off timer to avoid damage to the animal:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgaStZt143o

So there are options. How often are such options utilized in the field? I have no idea, although there are laws that should be followed and, from the sound of it, generally are adhered to. Not everyone in this business is cruel. Though you do have your occasional psychopath who performs very morally questionable operations behind closed doors, I believe that this is a great exception to the rule, and that there are a lot of laboratory workers who genuinely want to inflict as little pain as possible upon the animal. Just an opinion. I don’t have tons of evidence, but it seems like most people are sane. Lol.

Most of the experiments I inflicted upon Brain because, I think, Pinky is so pure that I have a hard time imagining him sustaining any kind of extreme pain that would genuinely hurt him. Also, he borders on being freakin’ masochistic, finding pleasure in a lot of painful situations, whereas Brain does not. Brain has been through a lot, mentally and physically. It seemed more... “appropriate” to put him in these situations, as terrible as that sounds.

All of that having been said, I never want to do this kind of exercise again. While a lot of it was interesting, and some of it even fun, parts of it were legitimately painful. The cancer one.... I felt horrible....

#pinky and the brain #tw:pain #tw:experimentation #tw:needle #tw:needles #tw:cancer #fan art

[abigailnussbaum]

The Umbrella Academy, S2

I was pretty underwhelmed by the first season of The Umbrella Academy, and if it weren’t high summer with hardly any new TV to be seen, I might not have bothered with the second one. But to my surprise, season 2 of The Umbrella Academy is a massive - and, to my eyes, deliberate - improvement on the first. It’s not great TV by any stretch, but it’s engaging and fun to watch, and you find yourself caring about the characters and wanting to follow along with their story, all things that the dour first season failed to achieve.

My fundamental problem with the first season of The Umbrella Academy is that the show failed to convince me that its core family was worth saving. The basic premise of the show - seven superpowered children raised by an abusive tyrant who saw them purely as instruments to be deployed, and played psychological games intended to grind down their independence and prevent any chance of their feeling a stronger loyalty to one another than to him - is obviously a rich and evocative one (albeit also one that requires a depth and complexity of writing that very few superhero shows evince). But the premise of the first season - the surviving Hargreeves children, reunited at their father’s funeral, have to find a way to overcome their differences and move past their difficult upbringing or the world will literally end - kept bumping up against the simple fact that I didn’t want this family to endure. The Hargreeves were so mean to one another, and seemed to have so little affection for each other, that I couldn’t make myself believe they wouldn’t be better off just going their separate ways.

The show itself seemed to realize this, because it ended the first season with the Hargreeves’ dysfunction and inability to honestly address how badly they’d mistreated one another ultimately being the cause of the apocalypse, and with the siblings deciding that their only possible course of action was to reset their lives and rebuild their relationships from the ground up. It was the show tacitly admitting that the Hargreeves family was unsalvageable, and while that’s a bold storytelling choice, the writing just wasn’t there to support it. I finished the first season feeling rather fatigued with both the story and the characters, and uninterested in watching them relive their lives.

The second season feels like a soft reboot of that premise. The trip through time on which the first season ended is retconned - instead of sending their consciousnesses back to their childhood selves, the Hargreeves instead end up as their own adult versions in the early 1960s. The apocalypse they fled 2019 to avoid and were hoping to prevent by reliving their childhoods and repairing their relationships from first principles is essentially forgotten. Instead the Hargreeves focus on preventing a different, new apocalypse scheduled for November 25th 1963, and once they succeed at that, 2019 is altered in unspecified ways that prevent the end of the world from happening.

Most importantly, the Hargreeves suddenly feel like a family. A dysfunctional family, to be sure, whose members have to figure out how to relate to one another now that the abuser who shaped and poisoned their relationships is finally gone. But there is a suddenly a lot of affection between the siblings, even if most of it is expressed through teasing and needling at one another’s weaknesses. In S1, the Hargreeves felt like people who genuinely had no interest in knowing one another. In S2, they feel like people who don’t know how to relate to each other, but want to figure it out.

You see this in a lot of other things that the second season does to respond to frequently-voiced complaints about the first season. In S1, everyone hated how domineering Luther was and how badly he treated Vanya, so almost the first thing he does in S2 is apologize to her for his failings as a brother, and acknowledge that a large portion of the fault for her breakdown falls on him. Everyone was a bit weirded out by the Luther/Alison ship, so it gets barely any play in S1 (though with a bone thrown to the shippers right at the end). Everyone was charmed by Klaus and Diego, so they both get major storylines (and Diego, in particular, is softened and made more vulnerable, the better to take advantage of David Castañeda’s charisma). Everyone wanted more of Ben, so he becomes more vocal and even gets to interact with characters besides Klaus. Everyone got tired of Alison namechecking a daughter that we had no intrest in, so she barely comes up even though Alison is not only separated from her by a distance of sixty years, but last saw her in a world that was being destroyed by a meteor impact. And everyone came away from the first season saying “no way Vanya is straight”, and lo, she is not straight.

It’s an approach that you see in other Netflix shows - Stranger Things, in particular, is practically defined by its responsiveness to audience complaints, with each season overcorrecting in the direction of whatever reaction was most loudly expressed over the previous one. Ideally, you’d want showrunners to have a strong enough sense of their characters, story, and world that they don’t need the audience to function as a cowriter, but in the case of The Umbrella Academy, these changes are mostly to the good. I might have liked the darker story the show seemed to be telling in the first season, about a group of abused children who genuinely don’t like each other but also can’t relate to anyone outside of their family, but the writing wasn’t there for it. The lighter, softer version of The Umbrella Academy delivered by S2 actually works, so the show should stick with it.

It certainly helps that the second season shoulders several topics that I wouldn’t have expected the show to be able to address with any amount of grace. I have to admit that I cringed when I realized that Alison, trapped in the South in the early 60s, had joined the civil rights movement, because superhero stories do not have a great track record dealing with social justice, much less real-world movements. But the handling of this issue ends up being smarter and more effective than I could ever have hoped. It’s still a side-story to the main event of preventing the end of the world, but in the scenes and episodes that do place it front and center, the show is unflinching. The depiction of the lunch counter protest that Alison and her group organize, and of the vicious hostility they encounter for such a small, simple demand, is unsparing. It establishes both the depth of the hatred and violence that the protest arouses, and the impossibility of resisting “peacefully” against a system the views any assertion of your humanity as an act of violence.

I was also a bit concerned over the placement of Alison, in particular, at the center of a story like this. Obviously, as the only black member of the Hargreeves family, her experience in the 1960s would be unique, but she’s also a character who has been established as being too powerful for her own good, and having abused her power in order to dehumanize others. Placing her in a situation where she is being dehumanized because of her race felt like creating a fruitless tension, where Alison might feel reluctant to use her powers despite the fact that she is all-but powerless against the greater system of white supremacy. But again, the season manages to thread the needle, showing both the allure and the limitations of Alison’s mind control abiliites in the context of Jim Crow. I didn’t love the implication that Alison would almost immediately start misusing her powers once she decided to use them to open doors that racism had closed to her, but the show also makes it clear that her anger is justified, and her targets deserving.

By the same token, I heaved a great sigh when the season introduced Harlan and I realized that he was neuroatypical, because it felt almost inevitable that some aspect of the strangeness that follows the Hargreeves around would result in him being “cured”. But that didn’t happen! The season treats Harlan like a valuable and loved person who doesn’t need to become more “normal” for his life to be worth living. And though he does end up needing to be cured, it’s not of his autism, but of whatever Vanya does to him when she saves his life. I kept expecting the the moment when Harlan would turn to his mother and start speaking, and the fact that the season kept refusing to go there feels almost miraculous.

So yeah, the whole thing feels like a breath of fresh air, and as if the people at the helm are thinking a lot more deeply about their story, what works in it and what needs to be changed for it to work, than I would have said at the end of the first season. It’s still not an amazing story (part of the reason we’re able to spend so much time on subplots like Vanya’s romance with Sissy, Klaus’s cult adventures, Alison’s activism, or Diego and his conflicted relationship with Lila, is that the spine of the season is fairly perfunctory) but it does enough with the characters that I found myself genuinely interested in their relationships and eager to see how they would develop. I’m not used to shows rebuilding themselves like this, and it’s refreshing to see that even in the streaming era, that can still happen.

#the umbrella academy

[aion-rsa]

Attack on Titan Season 4: Questions Part 2 Needs to Answer

https://ift.tt/3lDDHiU

This article contains spoilers for Attack on Titan season 4 part 1. But not for season 4 part 2, or the manga (that we know of).

Many anime come along and leave an undeniable mark on the industry, yet every season of Attack on Titan manages to dramatically increase in quality as well as deepen the series’ scope and themes. Attack on Titan season 4, dubbed as Attack on Titan: The Final Season has pushed these limits more than ever before and the anime’s latest collection of episodes brilliantly play with the audiences’ perception of who they should root for in this increasingly deadly conflict. Attack on Titan season 4 doesn’t just thoughtfully detail how war can twist minds and pollute a nation, but it forces the audience to reckon with Eren Jaeger’s questionable descent into what might be the anime’s greatest villain rather than an underdog hero. 

Read more

Movies

Godzilla and King Kong Face Off in Monster Madness Final

By Alec Bojalad

TV

Attack on Titan: “No One is Safe” in Final Season, Stars Say

By Daniel Kurland

Attack on Titan: The Final Season lays impressive groundwork for the final battle between the nations of Marley and Eldia, but the end of the season comes with the news that audiences will need to wait until Part 2 to get the full story. Attack on Titan: The Final Season Part 2 will surely be full of even grander twists and surprises than Part 1, but some hints towards what’s coming next have already been teased. 

When Is Attack on Titan Season 4 Part 2’s Release Date?

Attack on Titan’s fourth season started with the exciting claim that it’s the “final season,” yet the conclusion of the 16th episode, “Above and Below,” comes with the announcement that this is only half of the story and that a Part 2 is on the way. Attack on Titan: The Final Season Part 2 is promised to arrive at some point in the Winter 2022 anime season with the series’ 76th episode, “Judgment.” 

An exact date and episode count has yet to be confirmed, but Attack on Titan: The Final Season adapts around six volumes of the manga across its 16 episodes. Hajime Isayama’s iconic manga is soon about to wrap up and that leaves roughly another six volumes left to adapt. Attack on Titan: The Final Season Part 2 will either be a tight ten episodes, like the approach taken with the second half of season three, or be allowed the room to breathe and end up around the same length as Part 1. When Attack on Titan is completely finished, it should have somewhere between 85 and 91 episodes.

What Is Eren And Zeke’s Master Plan?

The second half of Attack on Titan’s fourth season pulls off the major twist that Eren and Zeke have been working together and have an intricate master plan that they’ve spent years working towards. As the season comes to a close it’s revealed that this plan involves physical contact between Eren and Zeke to trigger the Rumbling, which will unleash major deconstruction on the world as a serious “warning shot.” 

The finale explains that Zeke and Eren’s plan is actually more thorough and incorporates a genocide-like approach that will change the shape of the world more than any Titan ever has. The later stages of Eren and Zeke’s plan involves the euthanization or sterilization of all Eldians so that their race will just slowly die out and cease to be a problem since they’ll no longer exist after a few generations. It’s a wild development to everything that’s far more aggressive than an enormous act of destruction or manipulation. 

It’s unclear exactly how Zeke intends to carry out the second half of the plan, but Eren and his Founding Titan are integral ingredients. The most chilling aspect of all of this is that Eren and Zeke have convinced themselves that the existence of the Eldian race is the true cause for everything that they’ve been put through. They’ve gone a step further than even their father’s elaborate plan to eliminate the Reisses. They’ve developed a narrative that justifies the extinction of a whole group of people essentially because “they started it” and that hundreds of years of war are just the continual fallout of that opening act. 

Characters like Yelena and the Jeagerists have turned to idolize this destructive strategy as the necessary spark to move humanity forward, whereas the surviving members of the Survey Corps and the Marleyan Warriors are determined to make sure that Eren and Zeke’s plan doesn’t come to pass, but to also rip away his Founding Titan power and reshuffle the deck so that they’re the ones that hold more cards in the ultimate end goal to gain control of Paradis Island.

Are Levi And Zeke Still Alive?

The cliffhanger that leads into Attack on Titan: The Final Season’s finale involves an intricate torture that Levi has inflicted upon Zeke that involves a gruesome application of a Thunder Spear. Zeke calls Levi’s bluff and refuses to be a victim. The two of them explode and the episode ends with what appears to be the death of two pivotal characters. 

“Above and Below” spends very little time on the fallout of this explosive act. Levi appears to take the brunt of the Thunder Spear, but Zeke’s body is blown to pieces and he’s missing his bottom half. In an explicable act, a rogue Titan approaches Zeke’s dying body, rips open its own abdomen, and then proceeds to shove Zeke inside in an act of Cronenbergian madness.  The thought process behind this action isn’t explored nor is there any kind of precedent for this in the series, but the likely assumption is that this is some manner of preservation to keep Zeke alive. If the aim were to absorb Zeke’s Beast Titan powers then he would have just been eaten. 

If Zeke does return in a healed or transformed state then it makes the loss of Levi hit even more difficult to accept. This final season has worked hard to create empathy for Zeke, a former villain, but Levi is one of Attack on Titan’s most beloved characters and his mission to take out the Beast Titan also carries the weight of Erwin’s sacrifice, too. 

Levi is too important of a character to receive an offscreen death and so he’ll definitely return, but it doesn’t seem that likely that he’ll survive this casualty without being turned into a Titan himself. Starting Attack on Titan: The Final Season Part 2 with Levi’s death would make for a powerful way to drive these final episodes forward and reiterate the stakes.

Will There Be More New Titans?

Attack on Titan: The Final Season debuted several new and amazing Titan designs that made all of the earlier behemoths almost seem lazy in comparison. However, the cliffhanger with Zeke in the Titan belly makes it seem like Part 2 of this final season is interested in digging deeper than ever into Titan lore. The anime has laid the groundwork so that these new episodes can go for broke with the creativity behind these creatures while also redefining what’s considered to be a Titan. That ominous sequence from season two’s opening credits that shows Titans running in tandem with dinosaurs and sperm whales could finally get some proper context as more creatures establish new rules. 

Read more

TV

Attack on Titan Season 4 Episode 16 Review: Above and Below

By Daniel Kurland

TV

Attack on Titan Season 4 Episodes 14 and 15 Review

By Daniel Kurland

The brief tease that the finale offers towards Part 2 seems to depict Eren standing before a powerful tree of life. This tree appears to represent the bonds that tie Titans and their memories together across generations and it might be full of the secrets that define the Titans. There’s been more of an emphasis on the need for Titans to strategically co-opt each other’s powers. These final episodes might introduce radical new Titans but this tree could offer the ability to access all Titan powers or something even greater.

Is Falco Now Tainted By Zeke’s Spinal Fluid?

Gabi and Falco experience a terrifying reckoning when they’re nearly killed as a result of Gabi’s hand in Sasha Blouse’s murder. Falco suffers an injury from a bottle of wine, which turns out to be infused with Zeke’s spinal fluid, which is just one of many steps in Zeke’s plan to assert control. Falco doesn’t drink the wine, which is a grim fate that befalls many soldiers, but enough of it gets in his mouth to cause concern. 

Falco’s an offscreen presence during Part 1’s finale and there’s still worry that he’ll be controlled by Zeke. It feels as if this may be temporary misdirect and a way to make Gabi more vulnerable to Eren’s manipulation, but it’d be a genuinely tense encounter if Gabi is eventually forced to fight against a Zeke-influenced Falco. 

What’s To Come Of Historia’s Pregnancy?

Season four of Attack on Titan casually reveals a very pregnant Historia Reiss, which could have drastic ramifications on the second half of the final season. Grisha attempted to kill the Reiss bloodline so that none of the royal family would strive to consume Eren and benefit from mixing their royal blood with his Founding Titan ability. Grisha wasn’t entirely successful in this effort and there are now more complications present since Historia is pregnant with a successor that can carry on this cycle and disrupt what Eren, Zeke, and their father before them, have attempted to put into motion. It’s one of many interconnected branches on these family trees that could ruin Eren’s mission or simply become more of his collateral damage.

One could even argue that the whole reason that Historia’s arbitrary pregnancy was put into motion was to apply pressure on Eren. Ideally this knowledge would leave Eren feeling vulnerable enough regarding his legacy to not go through with the Rumbling and push the world into ruin with his radical mission. Unfortunately, Historia’s actions don’t dissuade Eren and if anything they’ve left him and Zeke more determined than ever to pull off the proper plan that will “fix” the future and end this generational chess match to consume and inherit power.

Will Annie Leonhart Return As A Pivotal Player?

One of the other recurring threads from Attack on Titan’s busy fourth season is that Armin has periodically visited with Annie Leonhart, who’s encased in crystal. Armin has shared stories of the past few years with Annie to keep her up to date and it’s implied that his newfound connection with Annie is a result of Bertholdt’s memories and feelings being filtered through Armin after he inherited his Colossal Titan. 

It definitely feels like Attack on Titan is building towards Annie’s awakening so that she can also do her part in this battle royale between Titans. Since her appearances don’t go anywhere in season four’s initial episodes it’ll be a serious shock if she doesn’t play an important role in Part 2, even if it’s just as food for someone else. 

Will Gabi Or Falco Inherit Titan Abilities?

A major element of this final season is the competition between the Marleyan Warriors to determine who’s best qualified to inherit Reiner’s Armored Titan. Gabi and Falco are at the frontrunners for this responsibility, albeit for very different reasons. Both of these characters have encountered mass casualties and grown up in tremendous ways. 

Gabi and Falco have put in so much work that it only feels natural for them to become Titans, commit even harder, and come at Eren with an unprecedented level of strength as well as the support of their ancestors pumping through their veins. Reiner is still a major player in this ongoing war and so it’d be just as likely at this point for Gabi or Falco to take on the Jaw Titan or Cart Titan from their comrades if it’s absolutely necessary.

Who Will Win The War For Paradis?

The biggest question that’s left for Attack on Titan: The Final Season Part 2 is who will be the winners when this lengthy war comes to a close. “Above and Below” concludes with Eren ready to engage in combat with not only Porco, Pieck, and Reiner’s Titans, but also the collective Marleyan air force. Marley benefits from the bigger numbers and the element of surprise, except it’s unlikely that this war will be concluded in Part 2’s opening installments. Marley has never been more concentrated on Eren’s elimination and Eren, Zeke, and Yelena are prepared to go to questionable lengths in order to secure what they have and “protect” the Founding Titan. 

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

It’d be easy for the anime’s final episodes to truly embrace Eren’s warped role as a megalomaniacal villain, but even if Eren succeeds or fails it’s tough to view any possible outcome as a victory. A conclusion where both Marley and Eldia are reduced to rubble and a new Titan-less generation is left to pick up the pieces might be the only way that Attack on Titan’s world can find true peace. Answers–along with lots of heartbreak, bloodshed, and wonder–will arrive in Winter 2022.

The post Attack on Titan Season 4: Questions Part 2 Needs to Answer appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3szg65Z

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek