#even for characters i love and that i think get undeserved flak | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

imakemywings · 1 year

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Húrin, Morwen and Nerdanel for the ask game

-@outofangband

Send Me a Character

Nelyo I guessed this was you even before I saw your URL XD

Nerdanel

Sexuality Headcanon: Asexual panromantic Feanorsexual

Gender Headcanon: Coming up dry sorry

A ship I have with said character: FEANEL. I am so incredibly invested in this relationship at this point I am fascinated they are fantastic and I have not yet tired of exploring their relationship.

A BROTP I have with said character: I don't really have a headcanon for Nerdanel with any close friends, but I think she got along best with Anaire of her in-laws and provided they stayed off the topic of their husbands, they could have a nice time.

A NOTP I have with said character: I'm doing terrible with this one, I don't have a NOTP for Nerdanel either XD I've seen her shipped with a lot of people (including Melkor???) but I'm not adamantly opposed to any of them.

A random headcanon: She's taller and older than Feanor

General Opinion over said character: I love Nerdanel. I really do. I know we barely get any canon information about her and a lot of my "interpretation" of her is therefore stuff I basically made up, but I still love her. I started getting interested in her because I was just so fascinated with the type of person who would choose Feanor as her life partner and things spiraled from there.

I love how her love story with Feanor is posited as a union of equals (especially given the time Silm was written!) and that she marries him not for politics, but for love.

I think she gets left in such a terrible position after the Flight of the Noldor and I so feel for her and I wish we could know more about what happened to her after her family left. Nerdanel is another one of the deeply tragic figures of Silm to me.

Hurin

Sexuality Headcanon: I've honestly never really thought about it.

Gender Headcanon: Cis I guess?

A ship I have with said character: With Morwen ofc!! Soulmates.

A BROTP I have with said character: Besides his actual brother, I'd go with Fingon. Hurin is such an Elf fanboy I have to imagine he had Elf friends and they were allies and I see them both as reasonably cheerful, forthright people whose personalities would complement each other well.

A NOTP I have with said character: I've never seen a Hurin ship that made me go "ew gross." I also don't think I've ever seen him shipped with anyone but Morwen? I guess I don't have NOTP for him.

A random headcanon: He is definitely the type to whistle while he works. Morwen sometimes complains about him distracting her, but privately she likes the reminder that he's around.

General Opinion over said character: Tolkien made us like Hurin so much and then put him in mortal danger for the rest of the story, terrible. Hurin and his family have one of the saddest stories in the Legendarium, imo

Morwen

Sexuality Headcanon: Bisexual queen

Gender Headcanon: I don't really have one for her OTL

A ship I have with said character: Hurin, naturally! But I've seen (and I think we've discussed?) shipping her with Aerin and I like that too uwu

A BROTP I have with said character: Also Aerin

A NOTP I have with said character: I've also never seen a Morwen ship I didn't like.

A random headcanon: Morwen is very particular about where things go in the house. There is an Order and if you put things away in the wrong Order, she won't say anything, but she will move them to their "correct" place as soon as she notices they're in the wrong spot.

General Opinion over said character: You got me thinking about these characters more than I did before; I don't tend to pay much attention to the human characters in Tolkien, but Morwen IS an interesting, compelling character. She gets a lot of (imo, undeserved) flak from the fandom, but she got put in some pretty impossible positions and handled them very well.

#asks

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the-psydelicrainbow-kinhelpcafe · 4 years

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Hi there. Can I get some positivity please...? I kin a non-canon character from Kingdom Hearts... And I had a deep romantic relationship with Vexen/Even... He had the same voice as the english VA, but his eng. VA is a child predator... And when I bring up my relationship with him people say I support p*dos and I don't! I just really loved him... He wasn't a predator! He was a father figure to Ienzo/Zexion when he was young... He was the kindest man I knew... And it hurts... I miss him so much...

If its just you talking about kin memories and such, it literally should not matter. It is very important to be aware of those things when you're looking through the source the community and whatever, but if the character doesn't reflect the actor/actress then shit shouldn't be started about the character. Shit should absolutely be started about the voice actor, hes nasty as hell and deserves at least to burn. Since I'm very familiar with Kingdom Hearts, I knew a long time ago about the VA of Vexen/Even and he's disgusting. The VA is horrible, but the character shouldn't be treated the same way unless he IS the same way. I personally very strongly believe in if the content isn't harmful on purpose, if the harm content brings is for consideration purposes, to get people talking about it, if it isn't bringing up sensitive or gross topics for shock value or simply just cause, then you have the right to enjoy the content. Whether that be a comic, a video, a movie, a book, a series, a ship, whatever you can think of for content. If the content isn't harmful, or at least "padded" properly so people can skip over or never see it like blocking trigger tags or reassuring the algorithm you do NOT want that series, then to me it doesn't matter much who or what the creator is, you can still enjoy the content. The VA of Vexen/Evan may be a disgrace on the human race, but Vexen/Even himself is nothing like that. You can feel free to help out with the bonfire we place the VA on to, but don't do the same for Vexen/Even simply because of association. Doing malicious things to undeserving characters/sources/people/etc out of spite and stupid logic, namely association, is a big pet peeve. One of the few, actually. Anonnie, don't feel too bad, I know it'll take time when you finally find more people to help you through it, but once you have a safe space, do not, I repeat;

Do not apologize for kinning someone who was romantically involved with Vexen/Even.

The sad fact that his VA is the way he is, that is not your fault.

The sad fact that you and Vexen/Even are getting flak and backlash because of his VA, that is not your fault.

You can't really control what memories you get, who you kin, all that jazz. People who kin are a familial community in a way, we support each other, we help each other out, we argue for the funniest stupidest reasons, that's normal! Disagreements happen. Misunderstandings happen. You shouldn't be getting this online abuse simply because of association.

Go find your husband. He's probably looking for you somewhere. Don't give up now, you're almost there.

Curtis, Tommy shift

#i will openly fume about this bullshit #anybody come at me or this anon about this and i will ruin you #if you want me to listen i will. might not change my views or course of action but i will listen to you #Neon Brite Apprentice ❤🧡💛💚💙💜🤎🖤🤍#pedo//mention #pedophile//mention #pedophilia//mention

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mistressespeon · 4 years

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Thoughts on Sword/Shield (Spoiler Free)

I want to start this off by saying: Yes, I've been an avid defender of these games. I personally don't believe that you should harshly judge games simply based on trailer footage and leaks. You should play the games or at least watch playthroughs of the games before you judge them. I personally felt that SwSh have gotten a lot of undeserved hate and after playing through Shield, I still stand by those thoughts.

These games are great. Not perfect. They have their flaws, and they are some major flaws, but I still thoroughly enjoyed my journey through Galar.

Let's start with what I loved.

I loved the new pokemon. I tried my best to go into these games blind. I avoided leaks and only looked at officially released footage and mons. I think the Pokemon Company did a great job of keeping things a secret this time around and I loved that. That should be a normal thing in future games.

I was genuinely excited to see new pokemon pop up and excited to see what they would evolve into. Some of them I loved and some of them I didnt (I'm looking at you Impidimp line). My team was constantly changing because I kept wanting to try out new pokemon and I eventually settled on a team I really liked. Overall I loved the pokemon designs this Gen.

I also really loved how Gym battles were handled. They actually felt important to the world instead of just a reason to move from town to town. The gyms felt like a good mix of traditional gyms and the trials from Sun and Moon. I also liked all the gym leaders, the fairy type gym leader being my favorite. They were all really interesting and well designed. The crowds cheering for you and joining into the music was also really cool. It made gyms feel more grand and something I genuinely looked forward too.

I also love the idea of the gym challenge. Instead of being something that people do regularly, this was a big event. The game made it clear that not everyone who entered was cut out for the challenge as you would constantly hear about challengers dropping out as you progressed. Town folks would be talking about you and people would become more excited to see you as you progressed through the gyms. This was such a fresh way to handle gyms and it's something I hope they continue with in future games.

The character customization is also fantastic. Before this X and Y had my favorite customization options but SwSh definitely beat it out. There is a style for everybody. I personally went with a pink and purple pastel look but I can see myself doing different styles in future playthroughs. They are really great (though can be expensive).

These games are also beautiful. Are they the most groundbreaking graphics? No, but they are still pretty. They have some texture issues here and there but overall these games are very visually solid. The models are clean, the environments are beautiful and everything is just so colorful and visually appealing.

So those are a few of the things I loved. What about what I didn't like?

Let's start with the wild area.

I don't hate it by any means. It's a cool idea and a good step in the right direction for a more open world pokemon game but it could have been handled better. It just felt like a big area to solely catch pokemon. There weren't really any trainers to fight, no little hidden paths to explore, no small shops set up or anything. Just a huge open field with pokemon running around. Which is fine but it barely had any new pokemon, just old ones, and I wanted to mainly use the new pokemon.

The raid battles are okay as well. They're mostly easy, even with the NPC trainers, and I really only fought them for exp candy and TRs. Not really cause I was interested in catching the pokemon. I just found myself not going back to the wild area that often.

Also don't play with the internet connected. The game's frame rate lags so bad because of all the people. I really wish you could have it set up to where only people on your friends list appear in the wild area and not the entire damn internet.

However, my biggest issue with SwSh has to be the story by far. I feel like this is games has one of the weakest Pokemon stories. I won't go into a lot of details to avoid spoilers but I wasnt a fan. They slowly give you little hints of information and teasing of a bigger narrative but when big events do happen all the adult characters brush you aside and tell you to keep moving forward while they handle things. Like cool, adults are actually being competent and not solely relying on a 10 year old to fix their problems but I felt like I was being kept away from the bigger narrative. When I finally did get involved, it came out of nowhere and felt so rushed that it was over in a second. The villain's motive was vague and I didn't have any time to really get involved in the story before being shoved right out again. I know a lot of people give X and Y's story a lot of flak but I think this may be my least favorite story in a Pokemon game. Sun and Moon handled their story way better and had a better build up and satisfying conclusion. I didn't hate the story, but I feel like it could have been built up more. Also Team Yell wasnt great either. They were obviously Team Skull wannabes and were more of an annoying obstacle than any real threat.

But I digress. I don't really play Pokemon for the story, I play it to explore and see the new Pokemon, which excelled for me. I'm a long time fan, having been a fan since Gen 4. Despite its flaws, I still enjoyed the core Sword and Shield experience. I'd highly recommend them or at least give them a chance.

8/10

#long post #just wanted to share my thoughts #also these are my opinions #they dont have to agree with yours #if you didnt like the games thats fine #i really enjoyed them #pokemonswsh #pokemon sword and shield #pokemon #pokemon sword #pokemon shield

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characteroulette · 5 years

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Hey PQ was pretty good!

so I’m having trouble getting into PQ2 because of several factors, so I thought I’d write a half-think piece, half-essay on why I think the first PQ gets more flak than it deserves. So here’s that.

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I genuinely don't understand why, when talking about Persona Q, people are always saying things along the lines of, "The gameplay was good, but the characters were trite and the story wasn't that great." Like, as a fan of the Persona series, I genuinely don't understand that assessment.

Not saying PQ is flawless, oh no. There are PLENTY of things in PQ that I have an axe to grind with (the small door scene with the P4 gang, for one), but the overall story? The characters? They're both fine. Good, even, dare I say. And here's my argument as to why:

The returning Persona series characters (from 3 and 4) in PQ do a good job of representing their games and their own personalities, even if a little more light-hearted than their source material,

AND

The story is genuinely in-line with the rest of the Persona/SMT series, even if it ultimately doesn't matter due to time shenanigans (and I'm okay with that).

These are my two points. Just those two. Because these are the two most contested parts of PQ, as far as I can hear, since we all agree that the gameplay is the real breadwinner here hahaha

Anyway.

First, let's talk about the returning characters, since they seem to be the ones who matter most. The P4 cast are generally less griped about (save Chie and Teddie) and I believe this is largely due to the brighter, more hopeful tone of P4 as a whole. (Aaand, in my opinion, they're done a MUCH BIGGER disservice in the Arena games, but no one ever talks about that so let's not bother with those right now.)

P4 was a game about making friends, the hijinx that come from that, and finding the truth about a string of murders and confronting the worst parts of yourself in a harsher world in the process! And it executes this with the appropriate amount of balance between serious moments and comedic relief. The theme colour for the whole game is bright yellow/gold, a happier and more friendly colour which helps remind you that this game is all in good fun.

(Side note here: I honestly think that P5 really failed in this respect, despite my liking its tone slightly more. I just personally like darker-themed games, but P5 was a little too dark and oppressive right out the gate, with hardly a friendly face, which helps make your gradually growing group of friends much more appreciated but also a harder atmosphere for jokes to really land well. Most of the 'funny' sequences felt very undeserved and really dragged because uh guys we literally just fought a rapist, an abusive father figure, and some other fucked-up shit. Can we please acknowledge that a bit more instead of pretending it never happened by laughing at the expense of Ann's autonomy of her body? Especially when she was a target of said rapist??) But that's its own discussion for later.

Really, the fact that most of the P4 gang get out of this with little criticism shows how accepted their caricatures have become. I guess? At least, except for Teddie and Chie.

Teddie being a wannabe Casanova must've been a huge hit with the Japanese audience, because it's just the hill he's going to die on for the writers. There was more to Teddie than his hitting on the girls in P4, believe it or not! (And there's a whole thing about it being brought on by him mimicking the type of behaviour he saw Yukiko's shadow exhibiting, which has a lot of really interesting undertones, but it makes him more swappable with Junpei, so whatever, I guess.) Meanwhile, Chie's not as meat-crazy, either, but I guess it's a better trait for them to roll with than her (cut in the translation) glossed-over sexism.

Both work fine, however, and aren't really too annoying enough to be that egregious. (Though they both go right up to the line sometimes. Teddie more so, but none of the girls playing along really helps show how gross his actions are. Most of the time.)

No, the real complaints I see directed at the characters being 'too cartoonish' are usually reserved for the P3 gang.

P3 is, really, such a bizarre game to go back to now when compared to its two successors. It's dark and hopeless, like P5, but formulaic and mystery, like P4. It's actually a natural progression when looking at its two/three older siblings (both P2s are bleak. As. Hell!), but, at least to me, it's the odd duck of the bunch, being the first to implement this winning formula of being caught in a time limit of a school year and managing spending time exploring this other world. It adds Social Links and social stats with this new time limit and this idea that the Persona and Shadows you fight don't just happen out on the streets in 'normal' circumstances for everyone to see. It pretty much went from an RPG to a management game with RPG elements.

And its emotional, impactful story, like P5, had a lot of tonal whiplash due to the attempts at comedy!

I feel like a lot of people forget this about P3 (and maybe I think more about it because I haven't actually beaten the whole game yet myself), but the story is actually a goddamn mess of tonal confusion. You got kids shooting themselves in the heads and a Social Link dealing with a classmate's crush on his teacher. You got wacky foreign exchange student and kids taking experimental drugs to suppress their Persona and slowly poisoning themselves to death as a side effect. The protagonist is an orphan who lost his parents in a huge, plot-relevant accident... But he's able to date every single girl at the same time and be the most wish fulfillment charming guy if the player so desires.

P3 being messy isn't a bad thing. P4, P5, and even P2 and PQ are all a little messy in their own rights, too. But because P3 was a lot of fans' first in the series, and PQ is just a spin-off, it gets way more flak for this than I feel it deserves.

(I mean, hey. Both P3 and P4 have those classic anime scenes of the boys walking in on the girls while at a hot springs. All PQ's got is an awkward group date scene and the implication that Yosuke and Kanji kissed each other while getting knocked out.) (They all. Have. Problems.)

And I know a lot of this comes down to personal preference. I'm not saying you're wrong for liking P3 or P4 more than PQ. I'm just saying I feel like PQ is often wrongly accused of being worse and less well-written when, really, they're all pretty much on par with each other. (And someone on the team really doesn't understand how to handle large casts of characters sharing the same space...)

But, personally, from everything I've seen from P3, I don't like the way most of the characters get presented to me in the source material. Junpei is way more insufferable in P3 than in PQ and Yukari is way more uninteresting in P3 than in PQ. Really, PQ helped me appreciate these characters more than P3 itself did. And, yes, they're more funny when they're trying to be, too. Because PQ is set up better for comedy than the 'remember you are mortal' tone of P3.

(Which makes dramatic moments hit all the harder when they happen) HEY check that segue! It's time to talk about the story and the two original characters of the game!

So, second point: people say the story isn't very good. To which I wanna ask... "Did you stop playing before defeating the fourth Boss?" Because it really sounds like, to me, everyone who says that didn't actually finish the game and reach all that juicy character development that happens for both sides around the fourth dungeon, where all the issues they've been building up (like Yukari's issue with Mitsuru for the P3 side and Kanji and Ken's awkwardness in the P4 side) start getting resolved in a satisfying way. And it comes with a reveal for the two characters we've been getting to know, Zen and Rei, as well.

(And, from here on in, there be spoilers. You've been warned.)

The two new characters to this game are Zen and Rei, who were in this place before the P3 or P4 gangs were called to the scene. Zen is quiet and a bit unsettlingly dense, but devoted to Rei, who is bubbly and full of life, but terrified of the dungeons you have to traverse. The two have been in this place for (what's implied to be) a very long time and enlist the help of the P3 and P4 teams in order to find a way out through defeating the bosses of each Labyrinth/dungeon. Simple enough, as it also helps the P3 and P4 team's goal of getting out. With each new dungeon, it feels more and more like something about Zen and Rei aren't quite right, but the length of the dungeon and all the team chats help you put it out of your mind each time. Rei can even get kinda annoying with her loudness and big appetite if you don't find her cute (which: how dare you. But yeah, I get it).

And then, at the end of a fiery festival fourth dungeon, you find yourself in a dark tomb at the bottom level. The boss awaiting you is Rei's shadow (a nice callback to the way P4 works) whom she still doesn't accept after you defeat it.

All the locks are gone and the P3 and P4 teams can return to their worlds if they wanted. Except Rei gets kidnapped after Zen reveals that Rei has been dead all along and it was him who trapped them here. It was he who created this place and even he who called both teams here.

And this was a plot twist that I friggin' loved.

It definitely had more impact on me because Zen and Rei easily became my favourites out of the whole cast, to the point of having them on my team for the whole game, but to find out such a fucked up twist is wild! (Seriously! Go watch the cutscene and tell me it isn't super fucked up!) You can say the P3 and P4 twists were shocking (or P5s I guess), but for my money, this is the best reversal of expectations I'd ever seen in a Persona game. In any game, really!

Zen was, in effect, the villain the whole time. His true identity as Chronos, God of time, makes sense with displacing the teams from their own times and the time here being erased once you reach the end. His own power that he sealed away growing impatient and taking matters into its own hands by drawing the teams to this haven displaced from time also makes perfect sense! And the entire climb through the last dungeon is his redemption arc and it makes for a super emotionally investing final dungeon all the way. (Which is great, because I hate every single one of the enemies that appear in this god-forsaken place.) (Even P4 and P5 can't really boast that, I felt very little investment through Izanami's dungeon and Baldabaoth's distortion.)

Of course, if you found Zen and Rei to be annoying and pointless, I can see how this would fall flat for you. The fact that they hinged such an emotional climax on these new characters, characters that don't even matter outside of this game!, was such a risky move. Especially when you consider this is just a fanservice game made basically under the promise of seeing the P3 team interact with the P4 team. But, for me, it really paid off.

And whatever complaints you had with the P3 or P4 characters, I feel like the resolutions to those character moments I mentioned earlier get explored even further during the climb through the final dungeon. From the P3 gang coming together to finally communicate with one another to the P4 gang reconfirming their bonds with one another, it's a really investing and emotional journey. I do wish the writing had been this tight and impactful through more of the game, but I believe it's worth it in the end.

Perhaps this moment comes too late in the game, though. I can definitely see others giving up before reaching this point due to the repetitive nature of the dungeons and the tidbits of character development that are meant to build up to this moment that can be too sparsely placed. (But, really, it's the same from P3 to P5, Social Links don't really add much variety when they can be just as repetitive and boring, just saying. Especially when you get caught in waiting to rank up hell, ugh.) For me, however, this really sealed the deal on this game being an incredible experience that I adored from start to finish. 7/10. Final score.

....

(7 outta 10?? Not perfect??) Well, it's not perfect. Japan's blatant homophobia and sexism really ruins a lot of scenes for me. I'm super salty especially about how the fake marriage scenes are handled so differently from the girl choices to the boy choices. (But you just argued in its favour for 2000 words!) Listen. ALL the Persona games wouldn't receive perfect scores for me for this aspect alone. There are a lot of other factors as well, but they vary from title to title and PQ in particular is guilty of spending too much time focusing on Teddie and Junpei being girl-crazy. And Marie is in this game more than she really should be. UGH.

But I digress.

In conclusion, this game's story and characters are better than most give it credit for. Hopefully, my argument helped you see why I believe this and why I think claiming that both aspects are just 'bad' is lazy.

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theonceoverthinker · 6 years

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OUAT 1X13 - Whatever Happened to Frederick?

Hi! Hope you’re having a good day! Want to hear me yammer on about this episode for three pages?

Sure you do! Right under the cut!

Press Release With their love for each other growing stronger, David finally agrees to tell Kathryn about his relationship with Mary Margaret and put an end to his loveless marriage. Meanwhile, in the fairytale land that was, while runaway groom Prince Charming searches for Snow White, he agrees to aid Abigail on a dangerous mission to recover something precious that was lost to her. General Thoughts Past The story in the past works, but I felt that for all the screentime Charming go, his character got very little out of it, for the story refused to engage with the conflict he was given. Snow rejected him, and while he feels sad and hurt, we don’t get a sense of what that action was driving him to do. He left Abigail, but what was he planning on doing next? What did this adventure do to re-route his journey so he’d go back to Snow? Look at “7:15AM’s” flashback: Snow is intending on going back to Charming, but a threat makes her ward off. Here, we have the event that changes, but because we don’t know what his plan was, there’s a loss of balance here. It’s not the most important thing, but for the big moment at the end of the flashback being that Charming will keep fighting for Snow, the contrast to what he was going to do should be wide and because this was undefined, the big moment doesn’t hit home with quite the same force.

I wish the siren would have preyed more on Charming, rather than just asking the audience to believe that Charming’s resolve would plummet so much based off of just seeing her and saying a line or two. While he does fight, I get the sense that we’re supposed to be seeing Charming, on the edge of despair, possibly giving in to something he knows is a lie because he has nothing to live for. However, Charming’s desperation wasn’t built up enough earlier on for that payoff to work. Present I like how we see how even though Emma has arrived and things have drastically improved, Regina’s curse is still very much intact. Everyone is still in this loop of misery, most notably the main players. The storytelling here - while a sad story - is still solidly told, apart from a nitpick or two that I touch upon in my “Insights” regarding Regina and Kathryn. David is still less sympathetic, but for the first time, I get the sense that I’m supposed to believe that because the episode is about him making a wrong choice and feeling the consequences of it. And Mary Margaret is so strong here. She is at once both a hero and a victim. She has the good sense to tell David the right thing to do, hold to her values, even as she’s being attacked, and let David go when he lied to her. At the same time, she received the harshest of blows and it was so sad to see her friends turn on her, and that acts as perfect build up for the next episode. Insights -Unpopular opinion time right off the bat: Holy fuck. Abigail gets the hardest freakin’ time from this fandom (More the GA, but still)! She’s done all of nothing in terms of evil shit and was rude for maybe a full minute of screen time at most! AND we know that she’s grieving! I bet when she’s not grieving, that wit becomes sass the likes of which at least match out other leading ladies and would be adored for it! All the love, Abby! All the love! -Kathryn’s putting in so much effort and is treating herself by following her dreams! You go, sweetie! <3 -Charming, did you hear that “despot’s” speech about how this marriage is going to save a fuckton of people? Like, I know King George is a baddie and his actions totally follow suit, but when I think about that speech and his motivation, I just can’t help but think of everyone who would suffer if Charming just ran off with Snow. Sure, they get the kingdoms anyhow, but he hasn’t thought that far right now! All I’m asking for is just some acknowledgements of his points. -Going back to positivity, I love the way Charming looks at Abigail as she says, “how charming.” He’s like, “that’s my name, don’t wear it out!” -That hat looks so cute on Mary Margaret! Season 1 was just the season of cute hats in Storybrooke (Sans Moe) -”I don’t know if I can.” David, work with me here! I’m trying to like you, here, but you’re not makit it easy! Thank God Mary Margaret is having none of it and is being the kindest version of blunt as fuck here. She’s such a boss! I gotta say, I’m going to miss this more practical side of her once the curse breaks. -August trying to subtly not make this a date is cracking me up! He’s like, “I say you in diapers. Let’s not go there.” But if he wants to talk to be understood, he’s got to pretend to want to show her his wood! XD -I’m reminded of something from TV Tropes: Charming asks Abigail if she’s tried True Love’s Kiss with the same casualness as he would ask about trying chicken noodle soup for a cold! XD -Even before “The Return” airs, we see these little fakeout bits of August’s personality in his physical mannerisms as he handles the pages of the book. He’s meticulous, and of course, that’s so close to Rumple, but it’s like Gepetto, too! - I actually paused as August was adding to the book, but the story bits didn’t look familiar. -I know Regina gets flak for trying to replace Henry’s book with video games (And I won’t pretend that it’s undeserved, circumstances are circumstances, after all), but I think that it’s also a nice gesture to see her trying to give Henry something that relates to his desires for heroism. It shows how on some level, she knows him (Although go on Wikipedia and look up a little company named Nintendo, Gina, kay?) and she wants to take a genuine step towards his happiness in a way that doesn’t endanger her curse. That said, the genre’s all wrong! Come on, Gina! Fantasy and Sci-Fi are two different things (Then again, considering season 2, I can’t blame you for blurring the lines) XD -Regina, what did you expect would happen when you told Kathryn the truth that way? Had you told her earlier, of course she’d be on your side, but right now? No, and why would she? I’m not sure if this scene was written to show that Regina is bad at friendship or that she was trying to steer Kathryn in Mary Margaret’s direction, but either way, this was a weird writing choice! Why not just have her break the news in the first place? And along those lines, why say she buried them if they were just in her office. Saying that she’d never use them would’ve made so much more sense! -Is it just me, or is Charming super cynical and dark in this episode? Like REALLY cynical! I guess i can interpret it as a reaction to Snow’s rejection. -”If you don’t, I will.” Granny, you are too adorable! -Wow, Charming, you have NO resolve! She literally transformed to Snow before your eyes. ...Never mind! -Really? Charming was the first to not give in? Your schtick seems pretty easy to beat. The warriors of the Enchanted Forest must SUCK! -I feel like Kathryn’s apology would’ve come across as so much better if we saw just a little bit more of them together as friends. -Awwww! Swan Believer cuteness!!! That is one excellent surprise tactic on your part, Emma - taking it out juuuuust as Henry’s not looking! I love it! -”I hope you’re right, kid.” That’s a profoundly sad line. Some of the optimism Emma’s been building up has been tarnished over those last few episodes after the Town Hall incident -I love that little smile Red gives as Charming tells her he’ll find Snow. He’s definitely won her approval! -Warrior King George! I really wish he showed up more, the more I watch him! Arcs David and Mary Margaret finding each other - I really didn’t have a problem with the writing of this part of the episode. David comes off as such a shitty person, but he gets the consequences of that behavior and it works really well. Snow and Charming finding each other - There’s a sting to Charming throughout the episode from Snow’s rejection back in the “7:15” flashback, and while that makes sense from a character standpoint, it’s a little confusing from a point of conflict. Charming has all the darkness of someone who is giving up on love (Or at least feels the pain of unrequited love), but he’s still just as strong in his efforts to find Snow as he was before she rejected him. There’s a weird dissonance in that respect. At the end of the flashback, Charming going after Snow is supposed to be this big and epic decision, but I never believed that he was actually stopping his pursuit of her. The Mystery of August Booth - We see the payoff of August having the book, and his mystery develops as we now want to know not only what he added to the book, but why it was added. Kathryn Nolan Abduction Arc - We’ve started here! Gold, you little shit! Don’t abduct people! Favorite Dynamic Emma and August. Their dynamic made me smile so hard and it was a relief in a very negative episode. Once again, their banter is like watching two master swordsman spar. August always knows just what questions to answer and just what quips to make to get Emma to go along with his schemes. Meanwhile, Emma learns more about August with every word spoken to her and uses his as well as her own lines of logic to learn more about him. It makes for something really fun to watch. August’s use of language is...not exactly flowery (I’d reserve that word for Rumple and Killian), but at the same time, there’s this weary wisdom to it with a touch of pomp and circumstance. But at the same time, Emma’s lines don’t come off as static or boring because she builds off of what he says in her own way. Writer We’ve got David Goodman at bat once again! So, I noticed a pattern, In both “The Price of Gold” and “True North,” I discussed the lack of strength in the story coming from one character in the past. And once again, as I’ve said earlier, I find the writing for Charming a little lacking in the past. We see bitterness, but it’s directionless bitterness without a point of contrast, and that’s really sucky. That said, his work in the present is very solid. The stories are told simply and well with moments to establish character and conflict. Rating 8/10. This was a really unpleasant episode to watch, for some pretty obvious reasons. Watching people be harsh with each other is never appealing and there’s little charm in this story where one can take a breather, apart from Emma and August’s scenes and Emma and Henry’s scenes. It’s also a little boring at times. That said, is it bad? Well, no. Unpleasantness doesn’t necessitate badness. Mary Margaret and Abigail/Kathryn come off as amazingly sympathetic and the fallout for David’s bad choice is so strongly shown. However, my problem lies in the past, as I stated before, and I know it may not be a big point for you, reader, but for me, this is like watching “Dumbo” and never being shown Dumbo’s mom being taken away: A crucial piece of the story is missing. ()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Thank you all for reading and to the fine folks at @watchingfairytales for putting this project together! Come back next time to see whether or not that episode is a dream come true! Season Tally (109/220) Writer Tally for Season 1: A&E (31/70) Liz Tigelaar (17/20)* David Goodman (24/50) Jane Espenson (26/60) Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg (19/40) Daniel Thomsen (8/10)* (* = Their work for the season is complete)

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#ouat #once upon a time #watching fairytales #ouat 1x13 #ouat rewatch #jenna watches ouat #basically every character in this episode is discussed #but didn't want to overtag #no ships mentioned today

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