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duhragonball · 10 months

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Super Dragon Ball Heroes 47-49

All right, it’s about time we wrapped this web-anime up...

So Demigra gained Dark Factor powers, plus he controls the Scroll of Eternity, so he’s riding high at the moment. The first thing he does is alter the landscape of Aeos’ tournament battleground. I’m not sure why this matters, since none of these environments were real or anything, right?

Then he summons various bad guys to fight the warriors on the battleground. And not just the usual suspects, either. We’re talking deep cuts, like Chilled from “Episode of Bardock”, and Fin, a Majin from the SDBH manga. I think Towa created Fin, but I’m not sure.

Also, some of Mechikabura’s crew from the Dark Empire saga, again seen in the manga. This is weird, because a number of these guys would consider Demigra an enemy, although maybe they’d sing a different tune since he’s the Dark King.

We finally got Super 13 and Lord Slug in this show. So now the only classic movie baddies left unused are Garlic Junior and Bio-Broly. I’ll be looking for them down the line, when SDBH releases the “Fugliest Yaoi Couple” Arc.

Oh, and here’s Baby Vegeta and Hatchiyack, ready to take on Jiren. See, what irks me about this series is that this would actually be pretty fun to watch. Would these two brutes stand a chance, or would Jiren blow them away with his awesome strength? But instead we just get this one shot to tease the idea, with no follow-through. And that would make sense, considering that we have a main plot to follow, but that main plot always involves the same characters doing the same moves over and over again.

And we’ve got Cell, but so what? This show already brought back Cell and didn’t do anything with him, so why should I get excited when they do it a second time?

Also, SSJ4 Broly is here, but Xeno Gogeta takes care of him. I’m not clear on whether this was a bad guy Demigra arranged to help him, or if this is the same Broly who was entered in Aeos’s tournament, and he just wandered over here on his own.

Seriously, this is really weak stuff. We’ve seen fusion in this show at least ten times now, and this is the second or third time they’ve had Broly barge into the story as a wildcard. I was going to say they had Broly fight Gogeta already, but no, that was Vegito the last time, my mistake. I mean, what the hell? The whole appeal of Dragon Ball Heroes was the plethora of what if scenarios and weird dream matches that you couldn’t get anywhere else. But this show’s been running for five years now, and what do they do? Broly vs. Gogeta. Yeah, that’s totally fresh and novel. It’s not like they made a feature film about it or anything.

Goku tries to stop Demigra, but he gets wiped out, so Aeos tries to beat him with some big special move she rarely uses. Also no sale. Demigra just powers out of it the same as anything else.

Meanwhile, I gues Chilled must have killed Vidro’s people, because he talks about finishing the job when he sees her, and this gets her all fired up.

Vidro and Yamcha do a combo move where he makes a Soukidan and she covers it in broken glass, and they drop it on Chilled’s head. Then Vidro proposes to Yamcha, so things are moving very quickly here.

Demigra’s got Goku dead to rights, but then Vegeta shows up to make the save, and that gives Chronoa and idea. She asks Aeos to keep Demigra busy while she executes a plan to save the day. Is it fusion? Yes, yes it is.

Meanwhile, Trunks and Future Gohan are getting beat down, and Gohan apologizes for letting him down, but Trunks tells him that they can protect each other this time, and fight side-by-side. And I guess that’s a dream come true for both of them, since Trunks never had the chance in his timeline, and this version of Gohan comes from a world where he survived but his Trunks got killed.

So Vegito seems to turn the tide against Demigra, but he’s not too worried because he estimates that their fusion will dissolve relatively quickly if he keeps fighting at this level. So Demigra weathers the storm and...

Yeah, they come apart, and Demigra takes out Vegeta just to make sure they don’t try this again.

Demigra powers up and powers up his minions, then shoots a big energy ball down at Goku. He tries his best to stop it, but he can’t do it alone.

But then he’s joined by Future Gohan, who reluctantly left Trunks to fight alone so he could lend support to Goku.

But Trunks isn’t alone for long, as a bunch of good guys start showing up to help. Are these the other fighters from the tournament? Didn’t Aeos erase them already?

Then Bardock shows up to help Gohan and Goku against Demigra. He gives them a pep talk and they power up some more. Goku goes Ultra Instinct, Bardock turns Super Saiyan 4...

... And I don’t think Future Gohan changes at all. Well, anyway, their combined power finally pushes Demigra back...

... and that’s it. We’ll have to wait until Episode 50 comes out to see if Demigra is defeated or not. I would think this would do the trick. I mean, they already used Fusion as a false finish, so if this triple Kamehameha can’t do it, I don’t know what else there is to try.

So for now, that takes care of Super Dragon Ball Heroes. It’s a fun little diversion, but it’s pretty weak on plot and long-term storytelling. The show mainly depends on namedropping and cramming as many power ups and characters into each episode to get attention. I’m glad I waited this long to watch the whole thing in a short period of time, because checking this thing out in 9 minute installments once every 6-8 weeks would get really, really frustrating.

#dragon ball #super dragon ball heroes #2023dbapocryphaliveblog #goku #vegeta #vegito #demigra #gohan #trunks #bardock #broly #supreme kai of time #aeos #chilled #vidro #yamcha

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noctusfury · 2 years

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My HTTYD Fanfic Ideas — X Leaves Berk AU Series

If you wanna check out the article (written by yours truly) that started all this, please click here and enjoy!

If you’re interested in checking out my list of story ideas about Hiccup leaving Berk, please go to this post here!

Hiccup Leaves Berk AUs || X Leaves Berk AUs

These fanfic ideas for another series of mine focuses on changing the trope a bit where instead of Hiccup leaving, other characters will have their chance to leave Berk — one way or another, for one reason or another. Whether they RETURN to Berk is up to them.

The X-Leaves-Berk Series will be loosely connected but not much. Each will be stand-alone stories — with each of them set at different times for different reasons — though some of them will be connected to other separate Series.

I’m wanting this long-term project because I’ve never seen any fanfics where the rest of the Gang leave Berk besides Hiccup (and sometimes Astrid who goes with Hiccup). So I’m deciding to fix that. I’m actually quite excited about this series! ^_^

Aside from the Gang, I plan on doing stories for Stoick, Spitelout, Alvin, and Valka for this series. (Valka’s saga will be original and won’t follow the “canon” backstory given to her in HTTYD 2.) Heck, I might even do some Sagas for GUSTAV and MILDEW, of all Vikings. lol XD

Gobber, Dagur, Heather, and other characters might also have Sagas of their own but won’t be part of this Series (since they don’t leave Berk). Or maybe I will... who knows?

Some of these stories will follow canon events, such as Alvin getting banished from Berk and Stoick searching for his wife and hunting Alvin, Heather returning home, etc. While others will NOT, such as Valka’s backstory, “Traitor Johann”, Vigilante Heather, the non-Viking-like appearances of the DOTW and Wingmaidens, etc. I might even get rid of the Dragon Hunter arcs entirely. We’ll see.

Here is the list of people I plan on writing fics for for this series:

• Snotlout • Astrid • Fishlegs • Tuffnut and Ruffnut • Heather • Macey (yes, the mace gets its chance to shine, too) • Stoick • Valka • Alvin • Gustav • Mildew • Spitelout • Drift/Rig (OC) • And maybe others...

Snotlout’s Saga (A Snotlout Leaves Berk AU)

Set in RoB. Saga AU. Snotlout loses the Thawfest Games, and has to deal with the aftermath. When things get out-of-hand, Snotlout and Hookfang are forced to leave Berk and become Outcasts. This saga will focus on their journey, their struggles, their successes, their losses, their sacrifices, and their growth.

This story will be set during/after the RoB episode “Thawfest” onwards and ends after RTTE but before HTTYD 2. And because Snotlout leaves so early, much of the plot will be changed. I have, in fact, been watching the show VERY closely and have been taking notes at what exactly gets changed and how to write accordingly. Surprisingly, Snotlout actually affects much of the plot. Some episodes will be gone, others will be greatly altered, and others not much will change.

I might also do a companion story for this that gets into the Gang’s POV during Snotlout’s exile, just so that you guys can see the changes caused by Snotlout’s absence. I don’t plan on doing this for the other Gang members. Only for Snotlout. Because he’s fun. lol XD

A Jorgenson’s Vengeance (A Snotlout Leaves Berk AU)

When Snotlout’s mother and little sister get abducted by raiders on their way to visit family, and Spitelout dead, Snotlout vows vengeance and rides out to find the culprits and send them all to Niflheim!

(May or may NOT be the sequel to “Snotlout’s Saga”. Depends on whether I kill Spitelout off in that one or in this one. Buuut I’m thinking not.)

Saga of the Dragon Riders (A Gang Leaves Berk AU)

Set in RTTE. After being accused by other Tribes for attacking trade ships and other targets, putting Berk into the spotlight of political and diplomatic ire, the Dragon Riders are forced to leave Berk until the matter is settled and they can prove their innocence. As they establish a base for themselves, they plan on hunting down the culprits who are responsible for attacking trade routes and other targets. But it’s not going to be easy, and gossip flies faster than a Night Fury.

And what’s worse? Oh, nothing. Just a bunch of Rogue Riders that are slippery, experienced, and don’t want to let go of their hard-won loot nor want to step up and take responsibility for their crimes and for framing them.

Can they succeed in defeating this band of marauders? Will they forever remain Outcasts? Or will they become fish food in Ran’s domain?

Bon Voyage! | Welcome to Viking Training! (A Gang Leaves Berk AU)

Set in HTTYD 1 / Post-HTTYD 1 | RoB/DoB.

Dragon Training isn’t the only thing young Vikings-in-Training have to know, there’s Viking Training as well, a program where young Vikings-to-Be learn to sail and repair longboats, navigate, fish, hunt, and other tasks. But the most important skill of all is learning to raid! After all, dragons aren’t the only pests that a Viking has to deal with — other Viking clans are also a problem. A constant fight for resources and territory is a given in an Archipelago where life is rough and often short, and the weather is even worse.

So the Gang, plus Gobber and some others, are tasks with sailing a longboat from Berk and learning to become Vikings before they can become true members of their community.

Can Hiccup the Gang manage to bear through Gobber’s tough training and make it through unscathed? Can they succeed and become full-fledged Vikings of Berk? Or will they fail and be forced into exile?

(Hiccup will be more competent in various things than he was in canon, and will also be better at weaponry and will be physically stronger.)

Going A-Viking! (A Fishlegs & Snotlout Leaves Berk AU)

Set in RoB/DoB or RTTE. Seeking adventure, fame, and glory — and riches beyond one’s imaginings — Snotlout convinces Fishlegs to join him on an adventure outside of Berk, and outside of books! What will their adventures and quests bring them into? Where will it take them? Will they succeed and bring home a wealth of riches and tales to tell? Or will they find out that leaving Berk was a terrible idea and wish they had stayed home?

Disowned Sons (A Hiccup & Snotlout Leaves Berk AU)

Set in HTTYD 1 or RoB/DoB. Hiccup and Snotlout may not see eye-to-eye most of the time, but they have more in common than they think. For one, they’re both disappointing sons of dissatisfied fathers who expect great things from them than what they actually bring to the table (each in their own way).

This boils to such a peak that when the two boys start having a fistfight with each other in public, the two heads of the two clans decide to exile them for three years in order to whip them into shape (though they secretly do it because they’ve had enough of their unfruitful progress). And thus the two lads are kicked off Berk and are left to fight for themselves.

Can Hiccup and Snotlout overcome their stark differences in order to survive and overcome all the trials, obstacles, and dangers that the Archipelago can offer them? Or will they be food for the fishes, slaves for the slavers, or appetizers for the dragons?

Fishlegs the Outcast (Fishlegs Leaves Berk AU)

Set in Post-RTTE / HTTYD 2. Impressed by Fishlegs’ heroics over the past year, Alvin the Trustworthy (formerly the Treacherous) comes to Berk to ask Stoick and Fishlegs’ parents if he could adopt him as his heir of the reformed and reinstated Outcasts (now Incasts?). Will Fishlegs accept this surprising and golden opportunity?

Astrid’s Saga (An Astrid Leaves Berk AU)

Set in RoB/DoB. It has been 9 years since the Flightmare came to Berk, killed her Uncle Finn, and tarnished her family’s honor and her uncles. Despite knowing that the Flightmare will return to Berk in less than a year, and that it’d be smarter to stay on Berk, Astrid allows her bloodlust and thirst for vengeance to not let her wait any longer. She declares to the family that she wishes to start a Quest to hunt the Flightmare and kill it before it even comes to Berk.

Despite protests from the older members, there are some who side with Astrid: Finn’s daughters and wife, her uncle and cousins, and her good friend Fjord Fjardson. They eventually end up convincing the Patriarch of their Clan and, despite the protests from her other friends and family, the date is set and a ship and dragons are prepared for the journey.

The Hoffersons are out for blood, but will they find the Flightmare? Or will they fail, and have to wait another 10 years for their chance at settling the score?

Fishlegs’ Saga (A Fishlegs Leaves Berk AU)

Set in DoB or RTTE. Ever since he was young, Fishlegs had a hunger for adventure, to sail throughout the Archipelago and beyond — meeting different peoples, eating different foods, smelling different spices, reading different books, speaking different languages... everything! He had hoped that he could’ve went with his uncle during the Dragon Raids, but his uncle always refused, and taking care of the family always took precedence.

But now? But NOW? His uncle had returned to Berk, a wealthy merchant and tales to tell — and is now offering him an invitation to travel with him! A whole new world has opened up to him! What experiences and adventures shall the young Ingerman sail through? What people shall he meet? Will he ever return to Berk after he satisfies his wanderlust? Will he even WANT to?

The Thorston Saga (A Twins Leave Berk AU)

There are 3 different scenarios/story ideas for this:

Set in DoB. After having caused mayhem one time too many, Ruffnut and Tuffnut get exiled from Berk. With nowhere else to go, they decide to either join the Outcasts, the Berserkers, or explore the world on their own.

Set in RoB/DoB. A storm hits when Tuffnut is taking a nap on the boat, and the storm sends him away from Berk into the open sea. With no idea how to get home, Tuffnut has to do his best to survive until then. Meanwhile, Ruffnut discovers that Tuffnut’s missing, and with the Riders gone on a mission, it’s up to her and Barf/Belch to search for and rescue Tuffnut. Will she find him in time before something bad happens to him?

Set in DoB. Macey has been stolen! And it’s up to Tuffnut to hunt the blaggard down and take Macey back! But he won’t be hunting alone: Ruffnut, naturally, is coming along for the ride, despite her grumblings. After all, somebody’s gotta witness Tuffnut’s legendary feats (or glorious and grisly death). Beware of Tuffnut, the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon!!!

(Disclaimer: this last story idea is not connected to “Macey’s Saga”.)

Ruffnut the Wingmaiden (A Ruffnut Leaves Berk AU)

Set in RTTE. Ruffnut, upon bonding with Wingnut and being able to fly, decides to have a little change of pace and quits being a Dragon Rider in favor of joining the Wingmaidens, effectively leaving Berk as a member. Will she regret it? What future awaits her? Will she end up enjoying being a Wingmaiden, or will she wish to return to her friends after a spell?

Ruffnut's Saga (A Ruffnut Leaves Berk AU)

Set in RTTE. After Tuffnut’s death, Ruffnut, grief-stricken, decides to quit the Riders and leave Berk, accepting Throk’s proposal and joining him on Caldera Cay.

Will she be able to pick up the pieces of her heart and be able to move on and find happiness in her new life?

Tuffnut’s Saga (A Tuffnut Leaves Berk AU)

There a 2 story ideas for this:

Set in DoB. Disenchanted with the Berkian lifestyle, and having enjoyed his time with the Outcasts during his espionage days as a scout during the Wars against the Outcasts and Berserkers, Tuffnut decides to leave Berk and become an Outcast.

Set in DoB/RTTE. Tuffnut gets an offer to become a Berserker by Heather and her cousin Thorvald (OC) on account of his achievements in battle as well as his Berserker heritage. Tuffnut decides that it’d be more fun being with them than with the boring Berkians.

Macey’s Saga (A Macey Leaves Berk AU)

Set in RoB/DoB. Eager to get away from Tuffnut and find a new owner/master, Macey manages to get itself onto a ship and away from Berk, finally free from Tuffnut’s craziness. But will she be able to stay away for long, or will Tuffnut find Macey again?

Will it manage to find a new owner before it gets found by Tuffnut? Or would it just be better to plop in the deep Northern Seas and rust and rot away from salt and time?

Gustav’s Saga (A Gustav Leaves Berk AU)

Set in RTTE. Gustav has always wondered where his father had gone, and why his mother never seemed to talk about it or even care to. With Gustav having come of-age, he decides that it’s time to explore the Archipelago and turn it upside down and inside-out in search of his father.

Will Gustav ever find his father, or will he find something better and move on? What will happen if and when he ever reunites with him?

Alvin’s Saga (An Alvin Leaves Berk AU)

Pre-HTTYD. This follows Alvin during and after his banishment and his joining the Outcasts, as well as his adventures and exploits that would eventually lead to him being called “Alvin the Treacherous.”

Mildew’s Saga (A Mildew Leaves Berk AU)

Set in RoB. This follows Mildew during the events of “We Are Family”, the finale episode of Riders of Berk, and after he gets banished and becomes an Outlaw. What became of him afterwards? Is Fungus still alive after all that, or did he become... lamb chops?

Heather’s Saga (A Heather Leaves Berk AU)

Post-“Heather’s Report”/RoB/DoB. After Heather reunites with her parents, she leaves Berk and her new friends behind as they sail back home and returns to their old lives. But not everything will be the same.

Unlike in-canon, her family and Tribe won’t perish at the hands of Dagur. This may also become a companion piece for “Snotlout’s Saga” and also the “Retelling Series”.

Stoick’s Saga (A Stoick Leaves Berk AU)

Pre-HTTYD. When his father dies as a result of Alvin’s insubordination, and the latter having fled Berk, Stoick and Spitelout vows to hunt him down. Will they be able to find him and bring him to justice?

20 years later, Stoick leaves Berk again in order to search for his wife, who, with Osvald, had gone on a Quest to find out how and why the Dragon Raids were happening, and where the source was, but had yet to return. Will he be able to find them, or will he fail? Or will he find them dead?

Valka’s Saga (A Valka Leaves Berk AU)

Pre-HTTYD. Wanting to find answers concerning the Dragon Raids and how to put a stop to them, she leaves on a Quest along with Chief Osvald of Berserk in search of those answers, leaving her family behind. Will she and Osvald find what they’re looking for? Will she be able to return to Berk? Will she be able to end the Dragon Wars?

Toothless' Saga (A Toothless Leaves Berk AU)

Set in Post-HTTYD 2 | HTTYD 3 | Post-HTTYD 3. When Toothless meets up with his old thunder of Night Furies, he decides, with Hiccup’s help, to leave Berk to visit the home he had once lived in before he had been cruelly torn away from them thanks to the Red Death. What will he find there? Are his parents still alive? Will he even want to return to Berk when he does get to his old home?

Another variation is Hiccup gets abducted and Toothless rides out to find him throughout the Archipelago.

Drift’s Saga (A Drift/Rig Leaves Berk AU)

Set in RoB | DoB | RTTE. When Drift discovers and reunites with his real parents for the first time, the young man is torn between remaining with his adoptive family whom have been with him for most of his life, or to live with his real parents whom he has just reunited with. Hiccup and Stoick encourage him to follow his heart and to go with his family if he so desires, and that he’s always welcome to return if he should so wish it.

Encouraged, Drift (now renamed Skathgard the Younger) returns to his home island with his family. Will he like this new life with the family he had always wondered about in his dreams? Will he want to stay, or will he decide to return to Berk?

[This will be a Canon Divergence to my Retelling HTTYD series.]

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em-writes-stuff-sometimes · 1 year

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I love the terms of endearment series so much, it’s one of the few fanfics I’ve actually reread multiple times! I just love how much thought you put into each character’s own thoughts and feelings! It’s such a wonderfully done depiction of the complicated dynamics of individual people and their different relationships! ❤️

You mentioned the possibility of maybe writing previous events and chapters in other character’s povs, and I just have to say I love that idea! I know your focusing on “my heart” right now, which I am currently loving, so no pressure or rush lol! 😘I just wanted to say I’m totally excited for any future content as well ❤️

Hey, nonnie! Aaaah, thank you so much - I'm thrilled you're enjoying it! I'm glad you think the relationships work and all that, it's been kinda difficult to determine everyone's motivations in light of how little source material we really get. Like, we know what they do, but it's a little harder to figure out why. I hope I've done my best with this.

But I wanted to do a couple things with this fic. One, I wanted to humanise as many characters as possible, especially ones that so often get hate from certain sides of the fandom - for example, I try my best to make Alicent a sympathetic character, and I treat Criston more-or-less favourably from Reader POV (even though I have a personal distaste for him). Rhaenyra cops a fair bit of flack, too, but I wanted to portray a woman that's fiercely devoted to family while still someone with understandable flaws. This upcoming chap will test that, but I hope that people can give her grace and try to see where she's coming from. It won't make the things she says okay, but I hope y'all can at least understand why.

Two, I wanted to lean into as many of Daemon's squickier attributes as I could while still maintaining that vibe of relative ambiguity. A lot of portrayals (excellent portrayals, mind you) depict him as either really dark and awful or as this feminist malewife. He's both - he's neither. At least, that's my view. With this fanfic, you've got a guy who pursues and manipulates his underage niece into accepting a marriage proposal from him, who then proceeds to more-or-less ignore her explicitly signalled boundaries to engage in sexual activities that are referred to numerous times as causing her discomfort/pain, and who degrades her and coerces her to endure several experiences she's no doubt not ready for. Sounds REAL bad here, not gonna lie.

On the other hand, he's someone who gives her the attention and affection she's been craving her entire life, who encourages her to be more assertive in and out of the bedroom, who defends her from anything and everything that might cause her upset or harm (except himself), and who is singularly devoted to ensuring her happiness. What that leaves us with is a guy we don't really know how to categorise - is he a good guy with a ton of red flags? Is he a bad guy with a ton of green flags? Is he a loving husband, or an abusive uncle? We don't know. Sometimes he's one or the other; sometimes he's both at once. Daemon Targaryen is grey, and I hope my attempts to convey this is something that works for readers.

I do hope to go back and fill in some narrative gaps with prequels and filler instalments, so that the complete saga is more-or-less a linear timeline with major life stages accounted for. This is a future thing, so no idea when it'll happen!

Thank you so much for your kind words, nonnie. I really appreciate them!

#fanfiction comments

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the-al-chemist · 1 year

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3 & 9

Of course, I’m not counting saga as a WIP 🥂

It is no longer a WIP 🥺🥺🥺 Thanks for the ask, answers coming straight up! 💛

3. The WIP you are most attached to.

Without a doubt, the Hinny Wedding WIP. It was one of those flashes of sudden inspiration where the story arrived almost fully formed and demanded to be written before it faded away - I wrote the first draft in 48 hrs, I redrafted it in another 24 hrs. Supposedly, it was meant to be a farce comedy, but immediately became a comedy drama, full of emotion and healing and love. It doesn’t even have a name yet, and won’t be published for another 18 months because it references major plot twists from Saga and TSL, but it is pretty much finished and ready to go, and I’m already excited to share it. I honestly think it might be the best thing I’ve ever written and ever will write.

9. How do you get rid of writers block? (I wanna know your secret method)

Okay, this is a difficult one to answer because I find writers’ block comes in several forms, and each one needs a different way to tackle it. First, I just have to realise WHY I can’t write something…

Usually, I’m just too tired/not in the right mood to write what I’m supposed to be writing at that moment. This is easy to fix. I sort my own shit out, have a night off writing, or write something that I AM in the mood to write. Having flexibility and different projects I can jump into works for this. Even if it’s something I’m not planning on publishing for months/years/ever, at least it gets something out of my system.

I can’t figure out how to get from point A to point B. This can happen at any stage of writing. For example, during the planning and outlining stages I like to link main events by how one leads into another. Sometimes, I can’t figure out how that happens at first. Or, I can, but by the time I get around to writing/editing, I’ve decided that I don’t like the idea anymore, or have come up with new ideas for earlier/later on in the WIP that wrecks the progression I had planned or means I need a way to add things in at this point. Basically, my plan for the story is wrong/not detailed enough, and I need to go back to the drawing board and start over. There are 2 ways I go about doing this. Either I skip and go to the next main plot point and make a note to think about the link between them later (i.e. leave it as a problem for future me) or I go out for a walk/run with a notebook in my pocket. Moving helps me think.

I can’t figure out how to achieve the desired effect I want from a scene/chapter, or how to put what I want into words. This is easy. I play a song that makes me think of the scene I want to write, and I go out for a run/walk again. And then repeat this daily until I know where I’m at.

There are a lot of important details I need to get into a scene/dialogue, and I’m not sure how to do it without it seeming like a tick list of “things to include here”. This usually happens if there is a lot of action (fight scenes, quidditch) and dialogue that has a lot of emotion behind it or a lot of lore drop. The way I do this is to make the tick list, then use it to do a detailed outline of what’s going to happen/be said, and then write out with the emotions and tension etc later.

My character isn’t co-operating. First, I make sure that this isn’t one of the above problems. If not, I try to think why the character isn’t co-operating. Is it because the emotions of the scene are pushing them in a different direction plot wise than I’d anticipated? In which case I need to change the scene before or find a way to rework what comes next with the new mood. Is it that I’m forcing them into something because it works for my plot but not with the character that they are? In which case, I need to change where I’m headed, because you can’t force a character to co-operate with a plot that makes no sense for them. Is it that my character is being stubborn (ahem, Artemis, ahem)? In which case, I write for one of the others until they get jealous and agree to behave.

And those are Al’s top tips for curing writer’s block!

#al speaks #writing stuff #writers asks

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beastofhearts · 1 year

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So.... March of the Machines

Overall I really liked the story even if there were moments when I thought certain narrative elements seemed rushed or had little payoff. I think if this was a saga of books with time and space to explore each plane defenses, the angels power, the characters on themselves and phyresia/phyresis, then most of its problems would disappear. But we did not get that and the writer did an amazing job on each of this chapters.

As its difficult for me to put proper order to my toughs with such a massive event happening all at once, i’m gonna go by points under the cut. Spoilers ahead ... also be warned this is very long

1) I liked the reasoning on why Phyrexia was having a harder time in some planes than others and I think there are subtle hints trough the side chapters to see it: they lost the advantage of playing on their home-field and don't know what to expect in most of these planes (+ it play with Norn hubris)

But that doesn't mean Phyrexia was “easily defeated” by any means. A few characters point out that they just bought more time for the planes and that's key in this battle. If given enough time Phyexia would end up winning simply because their numbers are infinite and relentless; they don't get tired and don't require food or drink. Sure, the elder dinosaurs beat down Etali, but Etali WAS an elder dinosaur and got completed regardless... To me there is never a sense of victory in the side stories -except the last new capenna one-, but one of a respite and a dime hope.

Im also aware that im “trapped” in one or two points of view. So, for example, while Nahiri was defeated and the skyclave broke, Phyrexia’s forces continue to advance over the population in Zendikar. They continue to loose lives, cities and heroes, we just dont see it hapenning (like Omnath and Brimax for example)

2) THAT BEING SAID. I was disappointed we didn't see any of the team ups from the cards. Not only because they look cool as fuck but because they reflect how much of a threat phyrexia IS that unlikely alliances need to be created for a chance of stopping the invasion.

I dont mind that not all of the “heroes” came to New Phyrexia at the “Avengers” style like many were hoping for. It wouldnt make sense to leave their planes unprotected like that, but we could have had a glimpse of Thalia and the Gilgtrog monster in a side story. Just a quick mention. Something! Its very minor, but I was excited about that.

3) On that same line of tough and maybe even more important to the story... many of our named and biggest foes were defeated in a blink of an eye; seemingly easy and unimportant. Atraxa had a whole chapter where she struggles and rages against the idea of beauty from New Cappenna. It was incredible to read how her phyrexian mind could not wraps something that used to be important to her. I hoped they go somewhere with it....and then she is just crushed under a building.

Listen, I dont mind some random person killing Vorinclex. Sometimes its not the heroes with their might and magic who get the job done, but the ordinary people who step against impossible odds with nothing but their hands. I really enjoyed and cheered on when the Mirrans stepped up to get Wrenn to Realmbreaker because they went from being just “people to be killed to showcase the danger/horrors of the battle” to people who have will and motivation besides staying on the shadow of the planeswalkers.

So, to me, is not who killed Vorinclex, but how was it done. Why Nissa was having so much trouble with him in “All will be One”, if all she needed was a sword and some distraction? Helliod is another big example here. I would have liked to see more cooperation from the different characters to take them down.

4) Speaking of the praetors... I think Urabrask and Sheoldred should have been bigger in this story. If in-fighting is one of the causes for Phyrexia falling, then this two should be more at the front of it so the ending doesnt look as sudden as it was. I know in “ONE” we see the revolutions and Sheoldred agents fighting in the Basilica but I dont think its enough.

5) Consequences. Consequences. Consequences. What a complicated topic. I saw many people on twitter said that there was no real consequence to the story while others were glad or angry that their favorites were cured or killed off. I’m mostly okay with what we got but i’m afraid of how it will the planeswalkers will handled afterwards.

I liked that Nissa and Ajani were cured from Phyresis after Tamiyo and Lukka were killed. I think it showcases how messy times like this can be and how unjust it can feel. Of course they had to kill them to avoid more slaughter but I wonder if Kaya, Kaito or the Wonderer will ever think about the fact that Tamiyo could have been saved if they just had given her more time. (And I need to mention: I dont like that Tamiyo gets to stay indefinitely as a spirit, I think it takes from the original heart break)

I also like that even if it took Mellira’s life and Karn spark, both planeswalkers still carry the metal as a part of them. They dont simply come back as they were before like nothing happened, its impossible to pretend so. I also think it was smart to use and remove this method from the table (I find it beautifuly ironic that the “Living cure” died after New Phyrexia was sealed away. Her death still hurt so much) ... at least I think it was, since we dont know of any other healer of the same capabilities.

Im not sure what to say about Jace and Vraska. Like I think they will not be un-compleated but probably wont be in stasis/mind control either. I hope details on what happened with Jace come with Aftermath

And that leaves us with... Nahiri. I hoped she stay in statsis for longer to make Mellira’s and Karn sacrifice more grandiose and significant. But sadly the Aftermath box art confirms that she is alive and walking with not-swords for hands. Like ... I cannot comment because I do not know, but uh WHAT HAPPENED?

Still, I think the destruction Phyrexia caused to multiples planes is enough consecuence for me and we may even get more in aftermath! Not to mention the chance at character exploration this brings. I love to read headcanons after events like this.

Anyway. 8/10 for me!

#MtG #March of the Machines #March of the machines spoiler #MoM #Review #I should... keep a tag for this things #Also #why Kaya was not protecting her plane? Like #girl let the other gods bitch slap Heliod #...also I almos had -another- heartbreak with Errant and Parnese #thanks god they survived #but I think that was the life of 80% of inhabitants of a plane #and they were insane lucky

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britesparc · 2 years

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Weekend Top Ten #548

Top Ten Most Important Moments in the MCU

I’ve listed my favourite MCU moments; I’ve done it a few times now. But those can vary from exciting moments of high-stakes adventure, to quirky little gags that I find amusing. There’s no guarantee that they’re important; they might be utterly inconsequential. So here we have a related side-list; an alternate ranking of moments of magnitude. Y’see, what I’m talking about here are the things that mattered. Mattered to Marvel, mattered to the characters – moments of genuine universe-shaking import.

One of the cool things about the MCU is that they have been willing to really shake things up. Although they came in for a bit of legitimate stick that most of their characters seemed shielded in “plot armour”, with very little death or jeopardy, as the films progressed there was definitely a desire not to let the grass grow over them. Established concepts were torn up, the status quo upended – and, yes, major characters died. Okay, I guess major supporting characters died for the most part. But it still happened!

So this list is celebrating these moments. Not just the squee-inducing exciting bits; but the times when the MCU felt really brave and exciting, when anything could happen. Sometimes they’re seismic universe-altering events; other times they’re quiet moments of character development that are nonetheless dripping with relevance. Basically, what all these moments promise is change; after this, nothing will ever be quite the same.

“Hail Hydra” (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, 2014): this isn’t quite the earliest moment on the list, but it’s one where I think we first really got a sense that anything was fair game here. SHIELD, the bedrock of the MCU, was revealed to have been utterly infiltrated by the evil HYDRA – and, ultimately, it was destroyed. This was a massive paradigm shift, as SHIELD was basically the governing force and connective tissue behind the entire saga thus far; removing the organisation – and, by extension, its governmental backing – not only allowed the Avengers to move to the forefront, but it also placed the weight of the world on Tony Stark’s shoulders. So many aspects of future films hinged on the loss of SHIELD, and it utterly changed the destiny of both Tony and Steve.

He Who Remains (Loki, 2021): whilst the HYDRA revelation had far-reaching consequences for our heroes, this one really changed the entire universe… and beyond. When Sylvie kills He Who Remains at the climax of Loki season 1, she ushers into being an entire multiverse of alternate timelines. In the short-term, this has allowed reality-hopping shows such as What If…? and movies such as Multiverse of Madness and No Way Home to showcase different versions of beloved characters (and indulge in nostalgic cameo-fests). But as the notion of the multiverse appears to be the focus of this entire “saga” of movies, I feel we’ve only seen a fraction of where this one act could go.

The Blip (Avengers: Endgame, 2019): see, I’m not talking about the Snap here. That’s an “Act Two temporary villain victory” kinda deal; Thanos thinks he’s succeeded, but ultimately the Avengers are triumphant. Except they aren’t, because there are lasting consequences. I think the brave, smart, story-changing idea wasn’t temporarily dusting half the universe, but choosing to move the narrative on five years. This now means that going forward, everyone – everyone – has either lost five years of their life or had to live for five years without friends, family, loved ones of all stripes. We’ve seen its impact on some of our heroes – Bruce is now Smart Hulk, Scott’s daughter’s grown up, Clint went mad with grief – but it will continue to provide wrinkles and story opportunities for all kinds of characters for the foreseeable future.

“A mutation…” (Ms. Marvel, 2022): I will concede that this one might just be how excited it made me, how much potential it has for stuff in the future. But that one word – “mutation” – couple with that iconic theme has, subtly, introduced the concept of capital-M Mutants into the MCU, and all that entails. So really I don’t know at this point quite how big a seismic change having Mutants around will be, but let’s be honest: this is an entire new group of phenomenally popular characters with their own dense mythology. Anything could happen. It’s exciting.

The Sokovia Accords (Captain America: Civil War, 2017): there’s two things happening here: one is the Accords themselves, which imposed restrictions on super-people in the MCU and has been repeatedly referenced since. And then there’s the effect of the Accords on our beloved heroes, and how it ultimately led to Tony and Steve falling out, and how that schism maybe made Thanos’ plan easier to achieve, and maybe ultimately led to several deaths. So quite a big deal. Steve was still right, of course.

Ragnarok (Thor: Ragnarok, 2017): Ragnarok (the film) is structured brilliantly in that the thing Thor is trying to avoid – the destruction of his home – is the thing he has to do in order to defeat the villain. So just seeing Asgard, sumptuous sci-fi cityscape that it is, blown up is shocking in and of itself. But the fallout is real, the Asgardians becoming refugees, having to set up a new community on Earth, and ultimately Valkyrie becoming their king. It’s a huge shift for the Asgardians and it’s still ongoing.

Aliens on Earth (The Avengers, 2012): this is one that’s easy to overlook, but really if you think about it, it’s huge. Whilst aliens had visited Earth before 2012, it was not widely known; however, The Avengers culminates in a full-scale alien invasion of New York. After this, the question of whether or not we are alone in the universe has definitively been answered. Thanos, the Asgardians, all that comes after is less of a shock because, well, we know that aliens exist. Think about that; The Avengers is the MCU’s First Contact Day.

Wakanda Forever (Black Panther, 2018): Wakanda is a very secretive nation, one which actively hides its advanced technology and cloaks itself in the guise of being a third-world African nation. At the climax of Black Panther, however, King T’Challa not only announces the real Wakanda to the world, but also opens its doors, and begins a kind of Wakandan outreach programme, seemingly sharing some of their secrets and their knowledge. We’ve not seen the ramifications of this yet, for one reason or another (perhaps in part due to Chadwick Boseman’s tragic death), but this does have the possibility of being a huge deal.

Forgetting Peter Parker (Spider-Man: No Way Home, 2021): I was unsure of this one, in part because it’s so recent, but also because it’s focused so much on an individual, rather than the global (or beyond!) reach of most of these things. But it’s still a biggie, and quite a bold thing to do to such a major character. Peter Parker makes everyone forget he exists. He’s alone, with no friends or family, fending for himself. It’s such a huge, noble act of self-sacrifice – so fundamentally Spider-Man – but as of now that’s Spidey’s status quo in the MCU. A guy who literally threw away his entire life and future to save the world, and just keeps swinging. I hope we find out before too long where he swings to next.

“I am Iron Man” (Iron Man, 2008): ah, the classic. It was pretty much standard for superheroes to have secret identities, not just in the movies but in the comics; and, of course, the scenario of “Iron Man is Tony Stark’s bodyguard” was part of comics lore for ages. But in one bold move Marvel tore up the rulebook. Their flagship superhero had no secret identity; this felt entirely the sort of thing this Tony – RDJ’s Tony – would do. And it set the scene for the entire universe, a universe where most characters don’t have secret IDs, and where the baggage and stories that come with that just aren’t a part of the narrative. This has not only allowed Marvel to tell different kinds of stories, ones that focus on the human (-ish) characters under the costumes rather than the “who is the real me” dynamic of, say, Batman; but it’s also meant they could have their expensive, sexy actors running around with their valuable faces on display. So much of the tenor and tone of the MCU can be traced back to the style of Iron Man, and arguably to this influential, important moment. Closely followed, of course, by “You think you’re the only superhero in the world?”

You thought I was gonna say the other “I am Iron Man” bit, didn’t you? Yeah, that was probably important too, but so far it’s mostly been for internal character reasons (Peter and Bruce are a bit sad) rather than multiversal ones. Still, who knows? If Tony had been around, perhaps tons of stuff – Spider-Man’s ID, Wanda’s deterioration, She-Hulk – wouldn’t have happened.

#top ten #marvel #mcu #avengers #ms marvel #spider-man #iron man #captain america #thor #movies #comics #disney

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vyeoh · 3 years

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this is your chance: wax poetic about an Empires or DSMP character of your choice to a fan who is new to both. Explain why I should love them. I need guidance in this new and meme-populated land.

okok this is a lot of pressure haha. Spoilers for EmpiresSMP and DreamSMP below, obviously. I wrote a lot so prepare yourself, anon

I watch a lot of empires POVs but the ones I most anticipate every week are Scott and Sausage.

c!Scott (I'll call him Smajor for the sake of simplicity) starts off the series chilling, not really getting involved with the rest of the server, and staying aggressively neutral. After all, he's an elf. He has lived far longer than most of the other rulers already, and will most likely outlive them for many years. So, the best thing is to stick to his mountains and not get invested in the dealings of mortal affairs, maybe sometimes causing problems on purpose and dipping because what's life without a little spice right.

But then, this demon comes to the server, Xornoth. He's going around causing havoc and wants to send the world into an eternal winter, but he doesn't bother the kingdom of Rivendell much so Smajor stays tentatively cautious but ultimately unbothered. But then, the puzzle pieces start falling together. The first thing that the audience noticed was was Xornoth sounded like Smajor, but we mostly thought that this was just due to cc!Scott voicing both of them and there was nothing more to it. However, then, the people the demon starts possessing start chanting in elvish. The demon hates mortals, and the elves are conveniently one of the two confirmed not fully mortal races in Empires.

This culminates when Smajor stumbles across a cave that contains the backstory of the patron god of Rivendell, Aeor. Basically, there's two opposing forces, Aeor and Exor, and both have a champion. In a previous life, those champions were two brothers, where Aeor eventually prevailed and banished Exor. In this life though, the champions are - you guessed it - Smajor, and the demon Xornoth.

So now Smajor is like. Well fuck. It's my literal god-given destiny to be responsible for defeating this demon who is technically my brother, and if I fail the server gets plunged into an eternal winter. And I have no fucking clue what is happening because I've just been here on this mountain actively trying to stay out of the issues outside my kingdom. We watch him panic and teeter on the verge of spiraling for an entire episode, and when the followers of Xornoth go to the End to kill the dragon, releasing Xornoth's full powers, he fails to stop him. Smajor is a character who was used to being the smart one, the prepared one, the one who has the least deaths on the server. But he's also a character who runs away from his problems and ignores them. Before and during the dragon fight, we hear the desperation in his voice, as he's thrown into a situation he is wholly unprepared for, and it's bigger than him going to the Cod Empire to kill their king, or assisting in other people's plans to kill the codfather. He can't run from this. cc!Scott plays this scene so well as well, as I've said before, one of the best parts of Scott's acting is how he's never super dramatic, but he's so effective in the little things like inflection to make you feel, viscerally, the panic and dread.

So after the dragon fight, Smajor realizes, I can't do this on my own. I've tried and failed. So he gets allies. We watch him, someone who has so strongly been an isolationist, learn the benefits of allies and watch him learn to trust others and watch him learn how to get that trust in return.

My favorite thing about Smajor's characterization is that he's an incompetent protagonist, but not in the way of the "plucky young adventurer". He's capable skill-wise, and fairly jaded and very pessimistic. However, his issue is that up until recently, he did not care about the rest of the server at all, and by the time he learned to, it was way too late.

Also, in 3rd Life, cc!Scott and cc!Jimmy were canonically married and they reference it sometimes in Empires. Like, Scott goes over to the Cod Empire every so often both in and out of character to kill and/or flirt with Jimmy, the ruler of the Cod Empire, which may develop as a secondary plot into the future who knows. So ty Scott for giving the gays what they want o7

Now onto Sausage: his is a story of Icarus, his hubris and ambition being his downfall. He's one of the two followers of Xornoth, who promised him endless power in exchange for his servitude. He started the series being eccentric, but not outright unhinged, but slowly gets more and more extreme as the series progresses, as he gets brought more and more to Xornoth's side.

One of the best parts of Sausage's character, in my opinion, is how his gradual corruption affects the people around him. Initially, he got into a conflict with the Cod Empire and was allied with two other people in the Witherrose alliance. They were allies, but also close friends. The fandom liked to joke that the three had sibling energy, and I'm pretty sure the ccs played to that even more lol.

It was painful to watch the other two members, Gem and fWhip, watch Sausage get corrupted right in front of them, and see them desperately clinging on to this old idea of Sausage in their head because if they faced the truth, it would mean that their friend was gone. Eventually, they do finally cut him out of the alliance, leading him to fully commit to the side of the demon. Sausage felt very clearly betrayed by this, and declared the remaining two Witherrose alliance members to be enemies.

He gets more and more possessed, and we even see the other Empires, his enemies even, slowly realize that something is very wrong with the ruler of Mythland. He starts doing more and more evil things, like killing people more, making sacrifices to the demon, and eventually helping to kill the dragon to free Xornoth. So things are good for Sausage, for a bit. He won, and is more powerful than ever. Then he finds out: he's going to die. Xornoth's possession is slowly killing his soul, and eventually, his body going to be fully taken over and he himself is going to be trapped in the spirit realm. So how do you react to this? Over the next few episodes, we watch Sausage struggle between "the demon is literally killing me" and "the demon has given me so much, and I love it", all while Xornoth takes over more and more of him. We hear him exclaim that "don't worry!! I'm still about 15% there!" while trying to downplay every time Xornoth completely takes over his body. We watch him willingly oppose anyone who is trying to end the thing that is killing him.

My favorite thing about Sausage is that he is undoubtedly evil and proud of it, but he's also undoubtedly human. If you like to watch evil characters go absolutely feral, he's the guy for you. He makes the deal with Xornoth in the beginning, knowing and fully embracing the evilness of the demon, but at the same time he knows what he's doing is detrimental to both himself and everyone around him, but he's gotten in way too deep at this point, and to be fair the demon has held up its end fo the bargain, right?

Also, I would be damned if I don't talk about cc!Sausage's editing. Every one of his videos is like a movie. The way he does camera angles and uses music is so skillful- every lore scene feels like something out of a high fantasy action saga (think: LotR). Every big lore event I always wait in anticipation for Sausage's ep because his editing truly takes lore to another level.

I'm just generally very excited to see where this series goes. Empires is such a good mix of talented builders and good lore. Part of the reason why the series is so immersive for me, beyond any other lore smp, is that they have the settings to back it up. There is a certain charm to the DreamSMP's objectively terrible builds (with a few exceptions) but in Empires, the settings help sell the plot so much.

Another part of why I love EmpiresSMP is how much the ccs are involved with the fan community. I'm sure you've seen the memes about Scott being on tumblr, and Sausage regularly goes through the EmpiresSMP fanart tag on Twitter and likes art, even ones not related to Mythland. Most of the ccs, in fact, have brought up tumblr content on stream at some point or another. Like, several ccs have said that they read tumblr lore theories and hcs and stuff and sometimes take inspiration from them. Fun fact: Rivendell's church was inspired by my pinned drawing; confirmed by Scott Smajor himself. It's just such a good cycle of ccs and fans being excited about each other.

As for DreamSMP, I'm gonna be honest here, the only person I really am invested in in Technoblade. I started watching when he joined the server, and he's the only person whose lore I keep up to date with.

Techno's fun to watch because he's like the Deadpool of DreamSMP. Virtually unkillable, very skilled and scary, but consistently cracks jokes and breaks the 4th wall during plot. His POV is just fun. Like, he does wild plans and gives speeches and some of the stuff that happens to him should be called deus ex machine if it wasn't for the fact that Technoblade is the one who's doing it, and all the stuff is grounded in the fact that cc!Techno is just that good at the game.

However, the fact that he rarely takes anything seriously makes the few times Techno is 100% serious so much more impactful. His whole character has a basis in being perceived as inhuman and being treated as such, and therefore in return trying to hide his humanity. So, when he shows that humanity, whether that's fear, anger, or genuine love for his friends, it really makes you go "oh shit."

Techno's often said not to have character development, but I'd argue that while he remains steadfast in his moral code, he develops leaps and bounds as a person. Like, at the beginning, he's brought onto the server to help Wilbur and Tommy overthrow a government; them knowing he's 1) an anarchist and 2) very very powerful. His character was more of a plot device at that point and was treated as such in the canon. Wilbur and Tommy straight-up lie to him about their plans to establish another government after they overthrow the current one, while he was led on to believe that they were abolishing all governments in the area. But he isn't a plot device. He's a person, as much as he only shows the terrifying, blood god side of himself.

After the establishment of New Lmanburg (the new government its a long story), his friend Phil joins. And for the first time, we see him be fully human with someone and we see someone treat him like a human. Like, we saw glimpses before, with Wilbur and Tommy in Pogtopia, but Phil is the first person we noticeably see he trusts 100%. Then Doomsday happens, and Techno essentially retires to the tundra. During this time, we see Techno learn to be more human, first with Ranboo, then Niki when he establishes the Syndicate. In fact, the two of them, along with Phil, canonically throw him a birthday party, which is a far cry from his treatment in Pogtopia.

Techno's development is one of a god learning to be human, and I just think he <3

#vio.ask #empiressmp #empires smp #dreamsmp #scott smajor #smajor #smajor1995 #mythicalsausage #mythical sausage #technoblade #to be clear i am not an apologist for any character #i fully realize that they are doing wrong and I like to watch it happen #minecraft roleplay got be in full character analysis mode #long post

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kaizokuou-ni-naru · 3 years

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The Voyage So Far: Water Seven

east blue (1 | 2) || alabasta (1 | 2) || skypiea || water 7 || enies lobby || thriller bark || paramount war (1 | 2) || fishman island || punk hazard || dressrosa (1 | 2) || whole cake island || wano (1 | 2)

i’ve mentioned several times before that the davy back fight is one of my least favorite arcs, mostly because i found it very dragging and tedious when i was reading it, but there are a couple things i really like in it, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, most of them have to do with zoro. i really like his moment here with chopper, and it also showcases his ability to act as more of an authority figure to the crew, which is something that makes a substantial return after enies lobby with the matter of usopp’s return.

zoro and sanji’s match in the davy back fight is far and away my favorite part of the entire arc. it’s just really fun.

like i said, this arc isn’t a favorite of mine, but i do definitely understand why it’s important to the saga and greater story in a couple different ways. one of them is that it’s just an easy, lighthearted detour that both gives the audience a chance to breathe and the strawhats a chance to showcase just how much they love each other and work well together- which turns into a fucking sledgehammer to the skull in the next arc when that unity is directly threatened. and the other reason this arc is important...

...is because of aokiji.

aokiji’s introductory scene is a brutal showcase of absolute power, and a very clear reminder that the strawhats are still very much little fish in a very, very big pond. all of the strawhats are impacted by this to some degree- it’s how badly they get curb-stomped here that leads luffy to come up with his gears as a way of closing the huge power gap he’s just learned about.

most important, though, are robin and usopp. for robin, this is a stark reminder of the fact that the government will never stop hunting her down; for usopp, who’s less obvious, it’s the seeds of the full-blown inferiority crisis that will later explode with the news about merry. both of their arcs throughout water 7 and enies lobby, essentially the twin emotional backbones of the saga, start right here.

i really like that the other strawhats all fell asleep waiting for robin and luffy to wake up. it calls back to them doing the same when nami was sick before drum, and also it’s just so fucking sweet.

water seven is my favorite island, full stop. if i was going to live anywhere in one piece’s world, i’d want to live on water seven. it’s just so creatively designed and visually great, with the canals and the tiered city and the massive fountain in the middle. the supporting cast are still one of my favorites, and the culture feels very real and authentic. i just love water seven a lot.

i just said it but it bears repeating- the water seven supporting cast is really good. iceburg, the galley-la shipwrights, franky and his family, kokoro and chimney are all really memorable, and most of them are really likable, too- and cp9, with all their eccentricities, fit in perfectly. water seven’s cast is very interconnected, as well, and their relationships all feel very believable.

all of which, of course, only makes the later treachery hurt all the more.

the atmosphere of water seven is really, really well done. the bad starts slow, with the news that merry is unfixable, and then continues into an accelerating downwards spiral of hopelessness: usopp and luffy’s fight and usopp leaving the crew, robin’s seeming betrayal, the assassination attempt on iceburg, the city and galley-la turning on them as a result, and the agua laguna- it just gets worse and worse and worse.

and then, after they’ve been stomped down about as far as they can go and come out alive anyways, they pick themselves back up again and go to save their friend, because that’s what the strawhat pirates do.

i just really like getting to see these four going feral on the franky family, it’s one of my favorite scenes in this whole arc. in general, i tend to love the moments where luffy specifically gets properly angry, and we get a lot of them in this arc.

even though the fight between luffy and usopp is genuinely very tense and fast-paced and would probably be exciting if it were any other two characters fighting, it never really feels anything other than melancholy. i think that’s a testament to just how good oda is at setting the mood of the scene. it’s made very clear, especially through the reactions of the other characters- merry ‘crying’ is fucking heartbreaking- that this is nothing less than a tragedy.

i think it’s kind of interesting we aren’t shown franky’s face until about halfway into water seven. prior to this, we’re given pretty much only reasons to hate him, with his theft of the strawhats’ money and the franky family beating usopp to shit. but just after this point is when we start getting our first humanizing and sympathetic moments for him, starting when he gets worried and a little frantic when he hears about the attempt on iceburg’s life.

i just really, really like the way some of these water seven action sequences are depicted. they feel very tense and desperate, which matches the general mood of this part of the arc perfectly.

this panel of usopp working on merry always reminds me of the shots of the klabautermann doing the same during skypiea. i’m not sure if it’s even intentional, honestly, but it’s an extra little bit of heartbreak either way.

one piece has a lot of amazing spreads, but this might be one of my favorites for sheer impact. cp9, watching as the city they’ve lived and worked in for years burns down in a fire they set, satisfied by a job well done. it’s almost all in black and white with very little grey, which creates some fantastic contrast, and their pitch-black silhouettes against the nighttime inferno are just striking.

this entire scene between usopp and franky, as usopp works on the merry and franky gives him advice and tries to make him see its hopeless and they kind of awkwardly, accidentally bond, is probably my favorite in the whole of water seven. it was also the scene that singlehandedly made me love franky as a character.

they have a really good, really enjoyable dynamic, and at the same time the conflict between them is real and understandable, and brought about because they’re both trying to do the right thing.

tom’s workers are one of my favorite little groups of characters in the whole of one piece’s story, and they deserve more appreciation. they’re family!! a little family of broken pieces who worked together to build something really, really amazing. and they still care about each other in the present, even though they got shattered apart so badly and none of them ever really recovered.

this is a tremendously under-appreciated chopper moment. not only did he carry two full-grown men out of a fire, he even managed to get zoro’s sword and iceburg’s hamster. extremely cool of him.

this is also the exact moment the strawhats’ collective luck begins to turn: chopper saves the day, and nami learns that robin did what she did to protect them, and sanji gets aboard the sea train, and from there it’s a no-brakes train from their very lowest low straight to the triumph at enies lobby.

i love all the shenanigans sanji gets up to with the sea train, i think the whole sequence is absolutely one of his shining moments. it’s always a delight to see sanji get up to Sneaky Bastard Bullshit, and the whole thing is just so fun, which is a dearly needed breath of fresh air after how relentless this arc has been until this point.

robin’s little smile when thinking of luffy and when she joined the strawhats... :( i’ve noticed it’s a recurring trend for strawhats who try to leave the crew to flash back to when they joined as they do. usopp has it earlier this same arc just before leaving, and sanji does it in whole cake island in the sanji vs. luffy chapter.

i really like how much everyone comes together at the end of water seven leading into enies lobby. after how fractured and fraught things have been throughout the arc, both within and without the strawhat crew, it’s great to see them not only all united again for a common goal, but with a huge group of allies at their backs.

these three are SUCH a hilarious team, and i would love to see them work together again like this sometime. they’re literally just clowning on the marines all the way up the train, it’s fantastic.

factually i understand sanji’s aversion to fighting with his hands and his fighting style is very unique and cool and also meaningful to him because he learned from zeff, and also if i remember right it’s implied he learned how to swordfight from the vinsmokes which makes it very reasonable he would want absolutely nothing to do with that skillset

but speaking purely in terms of stupid idiot lizard brain i think sanji should fight with knives more

this is another of my absolute favorite spreads, and i think what makes it for me is the casual confidence- luffy tells zoro to cut the train, and zoro does, both of them with no doubts at all about zoro’s ability to do so. it really goes to show how far they’ve come from back in east blue when zoro couldn’t even cut luffy out of a metal cage.

there’s something very impactful about the fact that of all the strawhats, robin gets this speech from usopp. usopp, who’s had the worst falling-out with luffy in the series to date, is the one who tells robin: you haven’t left the crew yet, you can’t leave the crew yet, luffy is coming to get you. believe in him.

franky’s “existing is not a crime” line is one of the most memorable and iconic lines from this entire saga, and for good reason. it sums up one of the main themes of not just this arc but also the series as a whole- the very same idea will come up again for ace during marineford, and in law’s backstory as well. it’s never a crime to just exist, and people should not never be persecuted for their blood or heritage. one piece doesn’t fuck around with its theming, it really doesn’t.

to be continued next time, with enies lobby!

#the voyage so far #one piece #long post #arc: water 7 #not japanese #opmeta

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simmerandcry · 2 years

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tagged by @earnmysong for this little fic questionnaire and I felt inclined to go for it. thanks E! :) Tagging @portia77 @pasmonblog @msvillainous @dollslayer and any other writers if they want to do this themselves and or who might need a distraction from their current writing projects whoops.

first fic | my first two fics (which I can’t believe I am going to admit this) are actually still up on FFnet from my very first account and, hoo boy, they are really relics in time. My very first fic was for the TV show Radio Free Roscoe (if anyone out there remembers this show??) and the other for Summerland. I cringe at the idea of both of these but it’s fun to look back on.

softest fic | I’ve realized recently I don’t write a lot of… soft or fluffy things directly. There are moments in my fic where this comes up but I don’t know if it’s soft. I think there are some comfort moments at the end of Just You and Me (Steve/Reader) that qualify though.

fic i’m most proud of | probably A Very Thin Line (Sam/Sharon)because it has been a very long time since I’ve written anything that was just canon characters, no readers or original characters. And I was really drawn to diving into the Sharon/Sam dynamic as we saw in FATWS.

fic that shows my progress | oh this is difficult. Probably just my entire very long Steve/Bucky/OC saga, mainly because I can even see my own growth as a writer since chapter one of Show Me, Don’t Tell Me all the way to the most recent part of Only For A Moment. And on top of that, I never thought I’d be 300k+ words and two stories into such a journey but, welp, here I am.

favorite wip | oh I have SO many WIPs honestly it's embarrassing how I decide to transplant any idea I have into something right away. Out of everything completely unpublished, I’m currently working on a post!FATWS Bucky fic that doubles as a bit of a character study and I’m excited about that one.

#fanfic writing #tagged in from

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lavender-lotion · 3 years

Text

Fanfic Writer Asks

I was tagged by @asarcasticwitch - thank you so much!

1) How many works do you have on AO3?

737, which is an ugly number :(

2) What’s your total AO3 word count?

1,890,054 words, which ... AH I might actually get to 2mil by the end of the year!

3) How many fandoms have you written for, and what are they?

thank you, ao3 dashboard for this handy list:

Teen Wolf (TV) (377)

X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies) (187)

Marvel Cinematic Universe (93)

Glee (29)

Young Justice (Cartoon) (11)

Kingsman (Movies) (9)

Original Work (9)

The Avengers (Marvel Movies) (8)

Criminal Minds (US TV) (7)

Thor (Movies) (6)

Deadpool (Movieverse) (5)

Weird City (TV) (5)

X-Men (Original Timeline Movies) (4)

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga) (4)

Ragnarok (TV 2020) (4)

Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies) (3)

Teen Wolf (TV) RPF (3)

Iron Man (Movies) (3)

The House in the Cerulean Sea - T. J. Klune (2)

Venom (Marvel Movies) (1)

Stranger Things (TV 2016) (1)

Captain America (Movies) (1)

Fate: The Winx Saga (TV) (1)

Power Rangers Ninja Storm (1)

X-Men - All Media Types (1)

Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan (1)

Riverdale (TV 2017) (1)

X-Men Evolution (1)

Push (2009) (1)

4) What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

With You, I Belong

Mates and Marriage Proposals

The Perceptions of You and I

(baby) maybe that matters more

Breathing You In

5) What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

ughh so, fair warning, I have a lot of works. I definitely do not remember all of them, however I do have four works tagged as Unhappy Ending and then another nine works tagged Ambiguous/Open Ending, which is way more than I’d thought I had!

however, there is one fic that stands out in mind when I think about which of my works has the angstiest ending! Heed the tags :)

And Now?

Stiles Stilinski finds out who his soul mates are by setting one on fire.

6) What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

ughhhhhhhh I truly do not know???

7) Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you’ve written?

I don’t write many crossovers at all! I have some mcu/teen wolf cross overs, I have a teen wolf/glee cross over plotted (that i’ll probably never write), but my strangest is probably this teen wolf/x-men cross over!

what-ifs (don’t fuckin’ matter to no one)

Teen And Up Audiences | No Archive Warnings Apply | M/M | X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies)Teen Wolf (TV) | Logan (X-Men)/Sheriff Stilinski | Logan (X-Men), Sheriff Stilinski, Stiles Stilinski | Memory Loss, Telepathy, Mentions of War, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Child Neglect, Grief/Mourning, Telepath Stiles Stilinski, Telekinetic Stiles Stilinski, Nightmares, Cuddling & Snuggling

There’s somethin’ there. Somethin’ that has him sleeping curled up on his side with a pillow tucked to his chest, somethin’ that has him splittin’ up his food ‘fore he eats ‘cause he don’t need as much as a baseline. Has him turnin’ to tell someone shit that ain’t there. There’s just...there’s just somethin’ there that’s missin’ and it shouldn’t be missin’.

8) Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

sometimes! I don’t write a lot of smut because I actively dislike writing it, but the smut I do write is super super soft and sappy and full of emotions lol

9) Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I respond to almost all of my comments! comments i won’t respond to: negative comments, unsolicited criticism, comments that aren’t relevant to the fic itself, comments simply asking for more

I love love love responding to comments! I love every single comment that I get and I want to show how much I appreciate getting them, and personally I think responding to comments is the only way to do that! everyone has different comment philosophies, but for me, if someone is taking the time to comment on my fic like I so badly want them to, I think it’s important to respond to show my appreciation!

10) Have you ever received hate on a fic?

aha YEAH I DO. this past weekend I actually got a number of shitty comments and had to file two ao3 abuse reports for harrasment (: I love it

I am no stranger to hate comments. I write copious amounts of age difference fic. I write copious amounts of incest. I am not going to apologize nor am I going to feel bad for enjoying either.

11) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

ughhh I sure as heck hope not!

12) Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! I have a number of them :) I always always do my best to make sure it’s linked to the original fic, AND that I add a tag noting that there’s a translation!

13) Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I have made a few attempts! the only successful attempt is there's nothing i wouldn't do to make you feel my love which is a collaboration with @flightinflame, not quite a co-write!

14) What’s your all-time favorite ship?

I am unable to answer this lol I don’t have an all-time favourite. mutli-shipping forever.

15) What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

god okay this is such a good question! imma ramble about a few so bear with me here! (i may have 700 posted works but I also have a few hundreds wips & ideas floating around in my gdrive, too)

gone & past - this is a starrish wip i’d started in 2017. I ended up deleting it from ao3 to rewrite it and never got there, but I have about 20k of content! I built my home, inside of you - thorki human au with college jock thor and high school dancer loki. i’ve got a start and nothing else Sheriff Stilinski Gets Some Sweet Sweet Lovin’ - massive wip where... well, the sheriff fucks his way through the entire pack. I want to write it but. trans allison au - this is an au where allison is trans and that changes the entire season 1 canon. it features stallison, petopher, and a looooooong ass outline that will never exist beyond my wips You Fill My Heart (With Such a Gentle Love) - this is a stetopher a/b/o au with pregnant omega stiles and alpha pair petopher falling in love. it started as a labour of love to someone I no longer have in my life. I have about 30k, a full outline, but idk. makes me sad to think about it they slipped briskly into an intimacy from which they never recovered - this is my big x-men first class rewrite that I honestly don’t think i’ll ever finish. I have a few thousand words, a full outline, but no love lost for cherik so. doubtful Physiotherapy (I'll Be Your Baby) - this was a fic I was SO excited about, and then it kinda flopped and stayed a wip because I didn’t have a plan or the motivation to finish it. it’s a winterspider human au with amputee bucky and science twink peter that I adore the premise of but who knows breathing you in chapter 2 - I have a massive second chapter planned for this fic but the first did so good so fast I am way too intimidated to write more in case everyone hates it lmao

there are more arjgoirjeg there are so many more but these are the bigger ones I can think of right now!

16) What are your writing strengths?

ughhhhh I hate answering this because I have, like, seriously bad imposter syndrome around my writing BUT I do think i’m able to weave poignant backstory into narration & i write strong, distinctive narrative voices!

17) What are your writing weaknesses?

literally I can’t write settings at all. I don’t know how people vividly describe settings but I absolutely cannot do that and it’s one of the reasons I haven’t delved into original fiction. I need to write the town my characters live in?? fuck that imma just use a location we’ve seen on screen & let readers fill in the blanks lmao

I am also shit at long fic. I don’t have the mind for long and interesting plots, and I don’t have the focus to write long fic (which is why every long fic i’ve ever posted has taken me literal years to complete smh).

18) What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I like it! both as a reader and as a writer. as a writer, I generally only use a few words, or small sentences that can be understood by context, and I generally don’t

19) What was the first fandom you wrote for?

the last thing I wrote and posted was this one:

Languish

It was a really, really hot Saturday, and most of the school was outback, enjoying the sun, not caring about the heat, and having the time of their life.

Everyone but Bobby, of course, who was melting away.

“I just want to remind everyone that I make ice. I am the Ice Man. I am not built for the heat and soon enough I’m going to melt away into nothing.”

20) What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

this is another impossible question! I have a few I really enjoy, but I really don’t think I have a favourite that stands out above the rest!

i’m tagging: @4magicandmayhem @insertmeaningfulusername @midrashic @wynnefic @ikeracity @stronglyobsessed @elledelajoie @wolfnprey & anyone else who sees it and wants to do it! seriously! go ahead :)

blank questions below the read more!

1) How many works do you have on AO3?

2) What’s your total AO3 word count?

3) How many fandoms have you written for, and what are they?

4) What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

5) What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

6) What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

7) Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you’ve written?

8) Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

9) Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

10) Have you ever received hate on a fic?

11) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

12) Have you ever had a fic translated?

13) Have you ever co-written a fic before?

14) What’s your all-time favorite ship?

15) What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

16) What are your writing strengths?

17) What are your writing weaknesses?

18) What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

19) What was the first fandom you wrote for?

20) What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

#lavenderlotion #my writing #writing tag #writing meme

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sirmedicknight · 3 years

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Shun, Seiya, Shiryu and Ikki for the ask meme

Sorry left to work but here you go.

send me a character and i’ll list: Shun

favorite thing about them: kindness doesn't mean pacifism. One thing I always hate about characters similar to him is that they let bad people free for their own morals. "You'll be no better than him." Shun: "Bitch I am."

least favorite thing about them: Shun is still guilable tho.

favorite line: "I can feel your emotions. The way you feel for me." (Although his revenge speech is a close second)

brOTP: June

OTP: hyoga Hyoga HYOOOOgaaaa!

nOTP: Ikki, APhrodite, Hades?!!?!?

random headcanons: He can bake better than he can cook. Also Shun doesn't dream until after Hades cause I headcanon that when he sleeps he goes into the underworld fake body of himself.

unpopular opinion: Shun is sassier than the fandom gives him credit for. Also always down to spar not fighting.

songs i associate with them: Chikyuugi (Hades opening. Honestly I didn't like this song until after I finished Omega ) .I'm not dreaming (Elisha Laburn, This song is from Persona 5 in the Persona 2 radio station).

favorite picture of them: I just really like the Saintia Sho art style from the manga shame the anime isn't as pretty.

send me a character and i’ll list: Seiya

favorite thing about them: Ray of sunshine. I love how happy and excited about things he is.

least favorite thing about them: Seiya gotta stop babying everybody.

favorite line: "I've never cared that she was Athena. I admire Miss Saori because she always faced her destiny without fear. (From Omega but I think it was reworked to the Netflix Reboot)

brOTP: Shun. (but sorry Seiya you're not his bestie). Also Shiryu (I like them both platonic or romantic)

OTP: Miho (in Classic). Saori (in everything else cause she doesn't emotional and physically abuse him as children.)

nOTP: Shaina (She's like Marin's age)

random headcanon: Seiya is a Pineapple guy. He's tried of all these watermelons Shun.

unpopular opinion: I actually don't mind Seiya being more of the focus of the series. It forces the writers to actually think about him and not leave him to side like what always happens.

song i associate with them: The Hope (from LoS soundtrack). Sun (from Persona 3 Potable)

favorite picture of them: Look at him he's so happy

send me a character and i’ll list: Shiryu

favorite thing about them: He's so proper. Says Please and Thank you.

least favorite thing about them: Please keep your armor it's pretty.

favorite line: "Everyone of us Bronzes Knights are orphans, but we never lamented the hand we were dealted. " (AKA Shut up Fenrir we're all orphans.)

brOTP: Seiya. Also has some good team ups with Hyoga

OTP: Shunrei, she's so cute and they're so soft. (Seiya too ot3 works as well.)

nOTP: Not that I can think of except Shipping him with Gold Saints cause ewww.

random headcanon: Shiryu braids Shunrei's hair. He's darn good at it too.

unpopular opinion: IDk where the Idea of him being a master tacticion came from. He does one move over and over again until he rage quits.

song i associate with them: Pegaus Fanasty (Brightspring remix from Awaking/Tencent). Shenhua (from Shenmue).

favorite picture of them: (It was a gif but for some reason I can't get it.) Los!!!!! (link)

send me a character and i’ll list: Ikki

favorite thing about them: He does the Phoenix Punch first. Like everyone else scales moves up Ikki says nah.

least favorite thing about them: Him being aloof cause he has guilt about trying to kill Seiya and the others. News Flash Ikki they all have tried to kill Shun.

favorite line: "A memento from your mother. How touching." (Like you didn't give yours to Shun. I know its from Hades but like he didn't)

brOTP: Seiya. Treats Seiya better than Shun sometimes, but still little brother status I love to see it.

OTP: Esmeralda, from all the flash backs she made him happy.

nOTP: Saga, Kanon, and Pandora. They ruined his life idk how someone like Ikki would forgive them for that. Also Shun.

random headcanons: Ikki whittles flutes cause Shun likes when he used to make them as Childern. Also when it was just him and Shun he used to leave Shun at rich people's doorsteps wait until nightfall after he was feed, got new clothes and other supplies, then run away to a new town to do it again.

unpopular opinion: Ikki isn't as tough as everyone thinks, but fakes it until he makes it. (LMAO his birthday is one day before mine so I just gonna self project a bit).

song i associate with them: Ikki's Theme (Surprise one of the character's actual theme songs is in here.) Arrow of Hope (from LoS ost).

favorite picture of them: From @yayitaita post about Hyoga taking Shun to the zoo.

#saint seiya #something stupid #crying about magical anime boys #andromeda shun #shun #seiya #pegasus seiya #dragon shiryu #shiryu #phoenix ikki #ikki #asks me things

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chelleblack · 3 years

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My problem with Ginny Weasley as a Harry Potter couple.

I didn't want it to sound so rude, and I also know that the strange and somewhat sexist development of this character is not his fault, but of whoever writes it, obviously. But it is a subject that we have to touch to the people who read Harry Potter. We need to talk about Ginny, and her rowdy and troublesome development, and what JKR did to her, and what some fans still do.

You see, I don't have any hatred towards Ginny, but I have several problems with her. Three big problems with that character, which I repeat, is not his fault.

I want to talk about the material in the books, since in the movies it is much worse.

I'm ... let's start with the most uncomfortable. Why does Ginny exist, what is her purpose?

You know in the first book, you love the idea of the fact that she is the only girl of six brothers, you think that obviously that girl will have an incredible impact on the plot, even in the chamber of secrets, they wanted. To understand that Ginny would be an important character for later, I say that she got directly involved with Voldemort, they made us that illusion that perhaps in the following books, she would have an important theme that relates her to that evil villain again, until she joins the trio golden when defeating him. Well, the last thing happened ... But people, it didn't happen like we thought it would happen, the background that could be worse and full of content, where Ginny had an interesting role ... natural. It turned out to be the opposite.

And Ginny's existence felt too forced. Because Ginny Weasley was only created to be the future companion of Harry Potter. It sounds horribly sexist, and we need to talk about this.

Sorry, I know Harry is the main character. But this is still not good.

Why is everything Ginny does for Harry? Folks, when Hermione fell in love with her teacher and forgot about him and got over him like all childhood crushes, it was okay. I think everyone would have liked the same thing to have happened with Ginny. BECAUSE IT IS VERY TERRORIFYING THE CRUSH THAT GINNY HAS HAD FOR HARRY THE WHOLE SAGA.

It does not fit in my head how this couple is so loved by everyone if it is so problematic. God, Ginny was nagging, analyzing, and watching Harry all of her adolescence until he finally saw her the way she wanted. You all point to Romilda for trying to charm Harry with love candy, you have called her unbearable, and crazy.

But they've been loving Ginny, who literally had boyfriends to get experience with Harry, who's been planning her whole life with him- And she wasn't going to give up. I don't understand how this can be romantic, it isn't. I don't know how JKR sold us this.

Look, Harry is the protagonist, we all expected a decent love story for him. (Although personally it would have been better, not seeing teenagers taking relationships so seriously, it's not healthy, they were still kids, they were traumatized, they have too many exams, they are in a war and they are dying witches all the time. Time, where jkr did it make sense to propose romance?

The thing here is that Ginny and Harry's romance has so many inconsistencies and it's so forced and bland, because it is, and that's so bad for a lead, which I understand as secondary and more troublesome romances like HermionexRon and TonksxRemus, even people becomes more excited about Severus and Lily's frustrated romance, even Narcissa and Lucius have more fans. The aforementioned couples are more loving and developed than Harry's with Ginny. And it is disrespectful.

Why did JKR do this?

It doesn't just bother me, how it turned Ginny into an obsessive girl who fetishizes the boy who has a sad life, and wants to get involved with him if so. But there is also the fact that Ginny, is perfect, and fulfills hormonally, socially and traumatically what Harry seeks. And that's not okay for Harry, much less Ginny.

It bothers me so much that Harry started "loving" Ginny because he started sexualizing her, I don't know how jkr found it nice to do this. Putting scenarios of Harry imagining being kissed by Ginny like he did with her boyfriend, but we barely saw a line from Harry, talking about how he liked her personality, that he wanted to ask her out. I mean, with Cho it felt a lot more natural, really if Harry fell in love with her. But Ginny from the beginning was so hormonal, that I understand how people think that Ginny used amortentia, although she didn't, we read the books but we still don't understand this. Because it doesn't make sense ...

From one book to another, Ginny is the prettiest girl at Hogwarts and everyone wants with her. Cho isn't anymore, because Harry doesn't care anymore. But out of nowhere Ginny is.

And she becomes the "pretty girl from Hogwarts" and Harry is just dating her. And Ginny is not only pretty, but she's the most popular at Hogwarts. This is incredible...

It's creepy how Ginny is physically the same as Lily, and Ginny's entire existence is noisy. Harry not only noticed the most popular girl, and beautiful, and double of his mother, and who is madly loving him- But Harry clung to the Weasleys with Ginny, because surprise! ... Ginny was the only woman of the Weasley that was left, and Harry longed to be part of that family which was perfect for him- And of course Ginny is the right thing to do?

She likes Quidditch, she is the most attractive, and popular, and she has it dangling from her hand. It is everything that Harry idealized in his dreams of glory and filling his voids. Or rather what JKR thought Harry might have.

Stop for a moment, is there not a Weasley character, with better development to be a couple of Harry and fill that void? And that character, isn't it Ron?

Yes, Ron Weasley makes more sense.

Ron lives up to a lot more expectations and has the cheesiest, sanest, gayest story with Harry, but since Jkr is homophobic, this is clearly a no.

¨So here is Ginny, it is Harry's fantasy, it is the comfort, even about to die, instead of thinking about more important things, in his family or life. He was already idealizing Ginny, because he loved her for life, because he depended on her, and they would both die for each other. And I absolutely hate this.

We absolutely hate the fact that Ginny's character is so planned that she feels so artificial around Harry. I absolutely hate that Cho's crush is more personal and natural in Harry's life. But I really HATE the fact that if Ron were a girl everyone would be pairing him up with Harry, because they have tangible material in the books. It's 2021 take this fact.

I don't hate Ginny, but I do loathe her empty existence for mediocre, calculating purposes, which makes Jkr a sexist person. I mean, I know that she and the fans have tried to raise the character of Ginny, contributing and thanking her for things that she did not do, to give her relevance and be in line with Harry. ¨

But Ginny is not representing Quidditch as female empowerment, she did not even represent her home. The representation of the sport was Angela, she is the first female captain who is spoken of and is followed by Cho. And it is very racist that everyone takes that apart from Cho and Angela, being that they are minorities. And secondly, Ginny did not make and form the Dumblurore army, she only gave the name, calm down, without Hermione that would not have existed. And Neville was primarily the one who stood up for the army at Hogwarts, and everyone generally did.

Sorry, I know it's a lot of text, but I had to get rid of the frustration this couple left me. I hope that if you read this, you will also analyze these points.

I would have liked very much to see a Ginny with an important role, other than being the fantasy and idealized girlfriend of the protagonist, if she weren't the girl in the movie. To see at least a pure romance between them- Although I still think that romance was unnecessary in the lives of those children, that Jkr hypersexualized them-

Harry needed therapy, vacations, some sleep - not a girlfriend who looked like his mother.

#ginny and harry are an unnecessary couple #someone had to say it #i don't hate ginny weasley but her existence is forced #harry potter needs therapy not a girlfriend #jkr is not a feminist it is quite the opposite look at what it does in its female characters #harry potter opinions #harry potter #ginny weasley #the only weasley who had chemistry with harry was ron #too heteronormative in harry potter #harry potter sexist #there should be no romance in harry potter #i hate harryxginny #Harry has more chemistry with Cho than with Ginny #jkr critical #fuck jkr #i hate jkr #i hate hinny #Ginny and harry

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favescandis · 3 years

Photo

New interview with Alexander Skarsgård and Men’s Health Australia:

‘Why Alexander Skarsgård Might Be Bigger Than King Kong’

The Swedish superstar talks career moves and the joys of creativity on the set of Godzilla v Kong. - by Ben Jhoty

Alexander Skarsgård’s bruised face is bathed in pale blue light as he sits in the cockpit of a makeshift aircraft inside a darkened soundstage at Village Roadshow Studios on the Gold Coast, where he’s shooting a scene from Godzilla v Kong (currently in cinemas).

The scene requires Skarsgård and fellow cast member, English actress Rebecca Hall, to endure an explosion that violently rocks the craft, positioned on a gimble, then survey the battle scene below. Before the scene begins Skarsgård listens intently to notes from director Adam Wingard and takes some deep breaths, as if he’s preparing for a 150kg deadlift. Someone yells action. The gimble rocks furiously for a few seconds before steadying. “Looks like round two goes to Kong,” says Skarsgård, before Wingard yells cut.

Between takes Skarsgård sprays himself with an Evian bottle before turning to young co-star Kaylee Hottle, who’s seated in the back of the cockpit.

“Have you ever tried menthol for tears?” he asks. “If you have to pretend to be sad about monsters that aren’t here, use menthol. Take a menthol stick home and every time your parents say you can’t do something, you spray.”

For the next take, Wingard instructs the actors to appear both “relieved and stunned”. The gimble duly starts shaking and Skarsgård repeats his line. “Nailed them both,” he jokes to Hall afterwards.

After the scene wraps, Skarsgård walks across the soundstage floor and is briefly silhouetted against the studio lights. You’re instantly struck by his rangy frame. He’s wearing a latex suit with parachute straps to play geologist Dr Nathan Lind, a geek with a love of ’80s action movies, who finds himself with ringside seats to the biggest rumble in the so-called ‘MonsterVerse’.

“I wanted to find his idiosyncrasies and avoid the stereotypical action hero because that wasn’t very appealing to me and I thought it would be way more interesting if the guy is not equipped for that and is thrown into that role,” the 44-year-old says later of his mild-mannered character. “It makes his journey more interesting if he’s not a tough guy, he’s not an ex-marine. He’s a geologist, so for him to get thrown into this is scary. I thought it would be fun to play him that way because then the stakes would be higher for the audience as well. They can see he’s out of his depth there. He has no idea what he’s doing.”

The son of legendary Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård (Breaking The Waves, Good Will Hunting, Avengers: Age of Ultron), Skarsgård divides his time between Stockholm and Hollywood. His siblings are also actors, most notably, Bill (Pennywise), who was due to star alongside Alexander in upcoming Viking saga The Northman, but had to drop out due to scheduling problems.

The two haven’t appeared together since 2000’s White Water Fury and are rarely up for the same films, let alone roles, Skarsgård says.

“That could be tough if you were super excited about something and you want it and then your brother gets it,” he jokes. “Because if you don’t get a job, you don’t want to be at Christmas dinner hearing your brother talk about how amazing that experience was.”

As it is, it looks like this Christmas he’ll be telling Bill about his experience watching two iconic monsters duke it out in the mother of all monster mashups. The role is an exhilarating departure from the serious, sometimes dark roles that Skarsgård’s been playing the last couple of years, most notably perhaps, domestic abuser Perry Wright on Big Little Lies, for which he collected Golden Globe, Prime Time Emmy and Screen Actors’ Guild awards.

While you might think a big-budget action flick would be creatively stifling, Skarsgård relishes the opportunity to exercise his range and keep challenging himself. “It’s tonally quite different from what I’ve been doing,” he admits. “I’ve been doing smaller indies and slightly more cerebral projects and also quite dark, intense subject matter. It’s not so much about ‘I want to do this and then I want to do that’ to show that I can, it’s just a way more fun way of working. It’s easy to get stereotyped and pigeonholed. If you’re lucky enough to jump between genres and different types of characters, then you’d be crazy if you didn’t embrace that.”

Skarsgård’s IMDB is certainly eclectic, with roles ranging from thousand-year-old vampire Eric in True Blood, to stoic commando, Brad ‘Iceman’ Colbert, in Generation Kill. “It’s always nice to work on something that different from what you’ve done in the past because that will just ignite something and it’s not repetitive,” he says. “Those are always the most fun contrasts, the dichotomies. A couple of years ago I did Tarzan and Diary of a Teenage Girl back-to-back and they’re so diametrically opposite in scale and tone. I had an amazing time on both of them and it’s so fun to go from one to the other.”

When it comes to choosing roles, Skarsgård looks for material that’s not only going to push him in new directions but is also enjoyable. It’s that sense of fun, he says, that fosters creativity.

“I just want to have a good time,” he says, smiling. “And I also want to learn and grow from every experience. Most importantly, I think if I go into a project and I’m not super excited about it, it’s not a good place to start because creatively you’re not going to give 100 per cent. Even if you try to give 100 per cent, you won’t because you’re not completely open. I find if I read a script and I know the character, like I totally get the character and how to play it, there’s no sense of discovery and that doesn’t trigger creativity. You just step in there and do it.”

True to his word, Skarsgård’s character in his next project, The Northman, couldn’t be more different from Nathan, the geeky geographer. At the same time, you could say it’s a role he was born to play: a ripped Nordic prince.

Godzilla v Kong is in cinemas now (in Australia)

Posted March 25, 2021. The photo is credited to Shutterstock and appears to be a manipulated photo of Alex at his brother’s IT premiere in 2017 with a Godzilla vs. Kong background. The second photo is credited to Legendary Entertainment.

https://www.menshealth.com.au/why-alexander-skarsgard-might-be-bigger-than-king-kong

#Alexander Skarsgård #Godzilla vs. Kong #Men's Health Australia #Alexander Skarsgard #long post

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annabethisterrified · 4 years

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Book Review: THE TOWER OF NERO (The Trials of Apollo #5)

***No spoilers until you go under the cut!***

After months in the human form of Lester Papadopoulos, the former god Apollo is nearing the end of his trials alongside the young Meg McCaffrey. All their adventures and misfortunes have landed them back in the place it started-- New York. Meg and Apollo must defeat the final, most powerful emperor of the Triumvirate, who also happens to be Meg’s manipulative stepfather. Meanwhile, Nico, Will, and Rachel have important roles to play as the final battle looms. Even if they can defeat Nero, a more terrible enemy awaits in the form of Python, Apollo’s nemesis. Still, if they can succeed, Apollo will finally be restored to godhood. But after everything he’s been through, going back to the way things were doesn’t sound so great anymore. Apollo and his friends will have to find a new way to make all the sacrifices and pain they’ve experienced and witnessed worth it. That is, if they can survive their final trial.

As both the culmination of The Trials of Apollo series and the Camp Half-Blood Chronicles, The Tower of Nero excels at bringing the complicated, moving themes of the saga into final, meaningful reckonings. Nero proves to be a chilling and impressive enemy who forces Apollo and Meg to put everything they’ve learned through their journey together to the ultimate test. New and old characters combine to see the story to its end, and long-time readers are rewarded with actualized development and a bittersweet farewell. The Tower of Nero is a fitting and robust conclusion that shines with all the heart, humor, and growth that makes this saga a worthy frontrunner in children’s literature.

SPOILER SECTIONS BELOW

Welcome!!!!!!!!! Y’all. Y’ALL. I am REELING. If you’ve been around here a while, you probably know I’ve been online here since 2012 (?????!!!!!) where I subjected by followers to weird takes and frantic excitement about the upcoming installments of Heroes of Olympus, then Trials of Apollo. Since I was ten years old, this story has been such a huge part of my life. Now I’m 22 (?????!!!!). So. How am I feeling? I’m feeling like I need to flip over every piece of furniture in my house. In a good way. Look. I gotta break this down into three parts because I’m the worst!

I. TRIALS & TRIBULATION

The Trials of Apollo, to me, felt like the inevitable conclusion to Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Heroes of Olympus. We went through two series where we intimately followed the lives of young demigods growing up through two brutal wars, dangerous quests, and personal reckonings. Gods certainly made appearances, and some were more helpful than others, but the message was always clear-- the demigods were on their own. Two wars fought, two wars won, and at what cost? For what change?

Bringing a god down to earth (both literally and metaphorically) is really the only way a story like this could be rounded out. Especially when the god in question is Apollo. He’s the son of Zeus, who punishes him by turning him mortal. This family set-up already has enormous implications in reference to the previous chain of mythological events: Zeus killed his father Kronos, Kronos killed his father Ouranos, etc.

Prophecy is also the scaffolding of this entire saga. Everything is dictated by it-- every quest relies on it, most of the demigods we meet are led by it, and the whole Greek/Roman world seems to build their lives around it. My point is, Apollo was a great character to use as the mouthpiece of this last series. He’s been present throughout the previous two series, and he’s relatively unaffected by the Greek/Roman divide. The enemy, the Triumvirate, is also an exciting antagonist-- they’ve fueled and funded the previous two wars, and their obsession with becoming “gods” is loaded with implications as Apollo races to return to his own status as a god.

Apollo himself is also a completely terrible being. From the first pages through his perspective, there’s certainly little sympathy or commiseration with our narrator. Apollo is many things: spoiled, petulant, selfish, and arrogant. He is not good, and now, he is no longer a god. Still, his voice and struggle remained compelling and engaging throughout the series.

His bond with Meg McCaffrey is, without a doubt, the emotional heart of the whole series. I think they both see aspects of themselves in each other, and it was a genius move to make her the stepdaughter of the enemy. Nero literally sent Meg to be Apollo’s controller and thought that she would easily bring him down; the fact that both these very troubled people cling to each other in the face of such manipulation and frightening circumstances-- and then repeatedly choose to fight their ways back to each other time and again-- is really what makes this series work so well.

With Meg and Apollo at the forefront, after The Hidden Oracle the series takes on something of a “tour” format. We discover new places and revisit old characters across the country, which was definitely exciting for long-time readers to see familiar faces undergo even more development. (This might just be me, but I don’t think ToA can really stand on its own without the worldbuilding/establishment of the first two series-- that’s not a knock on it, but so much of it picks up where the previous series left off, which might make it a disorienting read for someone new to the world.)

Of course, the obvious midpoint reversal of the series is the death of Jason Grace in The Burning Maze. A flip switches completely-- not just for Apollo, but for the whole cast. This is not an incident that just “happens” and is swept aside. In the final two installments, Jason is threaded throughout the story, showing how grief is never truly over. But his sacrifice saved everyone he loved, and had profound impacts on everyone he knew. As brutal as it was, I appreciated how Jason really changed everything through his choice.

By the time Apollo and Meg return to New York in The Tower of Nero, they are better, stronger versions of themselves. The things they once wanted-- godhood restored, or a father’s approval-- are no longer appealing. Their development (both individually and as friends) is utterly believable and hard-won. We see characters from The Hidden Oracle return changed, too. Losing Jason has dredged up dark feelings within Nico, Rachel is warding off the influence of Python in her mind, and Will’s healer heart is put to the test in yet another final battle. (Listen, this kid played instrumental roles in The Last Olympian, The Blood of Olympus, AND The Tower of Nero. The fate of the world really is in his capable, glow-in-the-dark hands.)

Together, Apollo and team venture into Manhattan for a very intense, exciting, and profound final reckoning with Nero. (CHAPTER 20, ANYONE????) Both Apollo and Meg, once and for all, come into their own and reclaim their power and independence. The pay-off is immaculate, and it’s jarring to remember the Apollo we once knew-- the easygoing one from The Titan’s Curse, the snobbish one from The Blood of Olympus, and the self-pitying one from The Hidden Oracle. His development throughout ToA is seamless and incredibly moving, and we’re left with a protagonist that we can truly, unequivocally root for and love.

II. HAVE YOU LEARNED?

When Nero is defeated, the real enemy still lurks. Apollo’s age-old nemesis, Python, has long haunted him. Their final reckoning is one-on-one, and after everything Apollo’s learned and been through, he goes into his last battle not necessarily caring whether he lives or dies-- he just knows Python must be defeated, no matter the cost. Don’t get me STARTED on his last conversation with Meg!!!!?????? (”Just come back to me, dummy.” I LOVE THEM)

So, yeah, I’m already crying at that point. Apollo (slowly regaining his godhood) goes into this completely by himself, assuming all risk and responsibility. He’s forced to sacrifice the Arrow of Dodona, and eventually chooses to sacrifice himself by flinging them both down to Tartarus. But we don’t stop there! Oh, no, we go all the way down to Chaos. The primordial soup of all the pantheons, all of existence. Python crumbles, and Apollo clings to the edge-- he clings to life.

This is it. This is the literal rock-bottom moment of the saga, and I’m completely unsure of how he’s getting out of this one. Who’s going to rescue him? What can he even do at this point? Genuinely, I had no idea where this was going-- and I never would have guessed that it would be the goddess Styx who shows up. She’s played an important, but also very minor, role in ToA. I was baffled at first-- I thought, what does she have to do with any of this? But then it ended up playing out in like the most breathtaking, moving way possible. It’s one of the most defining scenes of the entire 15 books to me.

She only asks him: “Have you learned?”

This is the goddess of promises and oaths. Since The Lightning Thief, we’ve seen how oaths are tossed around like confetti. Percy’s very existence (not to mention Thalia and Jason’s) is because of a broken promise. An oath to keep with a final breath is one of the revisited elements throughout the Heroes of Olympus series. Apollo makes willy-nilly promises in The Hidden Oracle, which he later regrets.

Then, at the end of everything, Styx only asks Apollo if he’s learned. All the talk of promises and oaths in this story doesn’t actually have anything to do with “keeping promises”-- certainly, so many promises are broken we can’t keep track. It all boils down to whether we learn from what we experience and use that to become better people moving forward. It’s about making sure we mean what we say and what we do. It’s about commitment and devotion to the people we love and the things we care about. Promises don’t matter. Only action does.

I can’t understate how thoroughly pleased I was that this was the final reckoning of the saga. It was an unexpected and completely profound moment, and such an important scene to use as the emotional climax of the book.

III. WHERE WE GO FROM HERE

After 15 years and 15 books, The Tower of Nero had to find a way to bring the saga to a close without nailing the coffin shut. More standalone novels are surely on the horizon (I’m looking at you, Nico and Will), but as a whole, this saga did need to come to a satisfying end.

Let’s pick up after Apollo is restored to godhood. He wakes up to his sister Artemis, and the very first thing he does? After finally returning to his true form, the thing he’s relentlessly yearned for the whole series? He just breaks down sobbing. He’s miserable. There’s no relief or joy in the realization that he’s once again an Olympian.

I’m always a sucker for the trope of “Character does everything possible to reach Goal only to realize that Goal isn’t actually what they want or need at all”, so of course, I was moved to see Apollo learn that he doesn’t actually care much about whether he’s a god or a human anymore. (In fact, he later remarks that he envies Lu’s new ability to grow old and age alongside Meg and her foster siblings.)

I was doubly-moved that Apollo’s restoration to godhood was not an action on Zeus’s part. From what little context we get (a lot happens “off screen” and even Apollo isn’t sure), it appears that Apollo either reclaimed his own godhood through sheer force of will to return from Chaos and reunite with his friends, and/or Styx aided him. But it seems obvious Zeus wasn’t involved, which has HUGE implications for the power structure of the Olympians moving forward.

A lot of us, myself included, had certain expectations for how Apollo’s inevitable reunion with Zeus and the rest of the Olympians would go. I, for one, was excited to see Apollo either tell off his father, or possibly assume a position as the new Camp Half-Blood director or New Rome’s pontifex maximus. Instead, we got a somewhat quiet, but incredibly tense interaction between all the Olympians. The closest thing to an outburst is actually between Hera and Zeus, as she tells him off for not mourning his son Jason, as Apollo did. (Dare I say....I liked Hera for a moment?) (ALSO, I’m fully on-board with the theory that Zeus did not intervene in Jason’s death as a punishment for Jason publicly calling him “unwise” in The Blood of Olympus.)

The whole scene reads as a powder keg. Already, it’s established that Apollo, Artemis, and Dionysus (and possibly even Athena and Hera) have no illusions of Zeus’s grandeur. They do not view him as family, or even as a leader. He’s simply just the one with enough power to punish the rest of them when they get “out of line”.

Apollo began naming Zeus as his abuser fairly early on in the series. Perhaps witnessing the way Meg thinks and speaks about her stepfather Nero made this clear for him. In either case, he begins to explicitly mirror the very same advice he gives Meg in dealing with her abuser: distance yourself from the abusive person/situation, and accept that tyrants do not change and it is not your responsibility to attempt to make them “see the light”. Thus, Apollo makes no appeal or argument to Zeus– he understands by then that it’d be fruitless. Instead, he’s concentrating his energy on doing everything he can do with what he has; he’s committed to being a protector and friend of demigods, and he sees that other gods are beginning to (if not already) see Zeus’s wrongness. (More on this here.)

Was it what I expected going into the book? Nope. But I have to admit that it was really exciting to see Zeus try to hide the very real fear of realizing that his son Apollo is no longer afraid of him, and is quite possibly more powerful than him, too. Apollo switches gears entirely away from Zeus, and focuses his energy back on the friends he’s made and the children he has. It’s a refreshing reminder that it’s often more productive to concentrate on helping others instead of harming those who harm us.

That being said, I would have liked a few paragraphs or pages discussing what practical differences there will be for the lives of young demigods in the wake of this change. I understand that might not have worked given the very condensed timeline post-returning-to-godhood (the story ends literally the same day or day after), but I do hope and believe that Apollo’s transformation is going to change the way demigods perceive gods-- and what they will expect of gods in the future. Just look at how Apollo is received by the campers at CHB. They’re ecstatic to see him. They think of him as a hero. Apollo is coming back just to help and spend time with his kids, his friends, and the campers, and he’s going to keep coming back. The other gods are certainly going to feel some pressure to follow suit.

Speaking of Apollo’s reunions...shall we?

I loved that we got to see all the main-players one last time. Mimicking the “tour format” of the series, we get to watch Apollo catch up with his loved ones, who helped him learn how to be a better person throughout his trials.

It was sad, but reassuring, to watch Nico come to terms with Jason’s death. I like how he outlined the differences between Hazel’s and Jason’s deaths, and why he isn’t interfering out of respect for Jason. Watching Jason appear to Apollo (ambiguously as a ghost or as a figment of Apollo’s dream-imagination) was another moving reminder of the stark differences in the ways that different demigods prioritize and think about what it is to be a hero. Jason’s idea and Percy’s idea, for instance, are super different because of the way they were raised. Percy would put anything on the line for his family and friends; so would Jason, of course, but he also has a much broader view of what’s worth sacrificing your life for...which is admirable in ways, but also painfully sad, since a lot has to change in order for Jason’s death to carry weight. Over the course of the last two books, I think it’s very safe to say Jason’s death did change just about everything for the people who knew and loved him, and even those who didn’t.

Whew. Okay, back to Camp Half-Blood. Nico and Will are clearly now very comfortable with each other, and it’s refreshing to see how they both watch out for each other and bring out the best in one another. I’m excited for their inevitable solo book, but regardless, it’s good to see Nico getting the help he needs (from his own experiences, from Dionysus, Will, etc), and for Rachel to get some distance from her terrible parents by living out her art student dreams in Paris.

Then, we drop by the Waystation. I simply cannot get over the fact that Calypso is at BAND CAMP. Anyway, it’s unsurprising to find out that she and Leo are still “complicated”, but I’m glad she’s experiencing the highs and lows of mortal life, and that Leo is working on helping out vulnerable youth (and has two mom figures in his life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). Glad we get to see Thalia and Reyna both happy and healthy, too.

Next up, Camp Jupiter and New Rome. LOVE that Hazel and Frank have both reclaimed the curses that haunted them since The Son of Neptune. They really both did just...like...basically die to bring down the Big Bad and then come back better than ever. (Side note: I still obviously have issues with the fact that Hazel is SO YOUNG! There was no reason for her not to be 15/16 like the rest of the Argo 2 crew! Ugh.)

Anyway, then we say goodbye to Percy and Annabeth. Except for the annoying continuity error in terms of the timeline of them learning about Jason, I really really really loved this parting moment with them. I know some readers wanted Percy and Annabeth to stay in New York, but it always felt very natural and meaningful for me that they’d want to relocate to New Rome. That was always the Big Dream for most of Heroes of Olympus, and it makes sense to me that they’d choose to live somewhere designed for demigods to actually live and grow old and raise families. Besides, I’m quite certain they’ll frequently be visiting New York. I digress.

It was super bittersweet to see these two finally off on their own (and basically living together, as Apollo teasingly implies) going to college! Definitely a huge sigh of relief and satisfaction after following all their exploits since they were twelve. I’m so glad we get to see them (all things considered) happy and excited for their new life together. They certainly stepped back in this series, as they deserved. But they still lose Jason, and that’s something that weighs heavily on them and likely always will. Apollo calls Jason “the best of us”, and I don’t think that use of “us” is lost on Percy, Annabeth, or anyone-- Apollo’s identity and alignment is with them now, which will hopefully lead to positive change.

Then, simultaneously the saddest and happiest (?) reunion-- with Piper. This was obviously really heavy, since the last time Apollo sees her is in the wake of Jason’s death. For me, I’m very proud and excited by the fact that Piper is the only character who basically forges a whole new life (outside of the sphere of the Olympians) for herself. She’s far from other demigods and gods, and is committed to reconnecting with her mortal family and making a beautiful life. She has a new friend, too, which is absolutely awesome. (I mean, we all KNEW, right? But it’s really great to see this confirmed on-page.) When Piper told Apollo that he did right by Jason, I definitely lost it. And I also just really loved the final beat with her-- Apollo’s stammering a goodbye, but Piper’s already turned around to walk back to her new friend and her new life.

The final farewell, of course, went to Meg McCaffrey. She’s reclaimed Aeithales, and is now foster-sibling-extraordinaire by rescuing Nero’s other adopted demigods and giving them a new chance. Meg’s really matured and grown into such a kind and strong leader, but it was super bittersweet to see how much she still values Apollo. Their reunion just about broke me. They share a bond that no one else will ever understand, and they brought each other out of darkness that nearly ended them both. I literally can’t think of a better final dialogue than what they share:

You’ll come back?

Always. The sun always comes back.

I’m fine!!!

Anyway, this brings me to the closing lines of the story. Just as Percy opens The Lightning Thief by directly addressing the reader, Apollo closes The Tower of Nero by bidding farewell to us.

Call on me. I will be there for you.

On so many levels, this line works really well as the ending. For me, and I imagine for you too if you’re reading this, these 15 books are a pillar of our childhoods. We grew up alongside these characters, and found enormous excitement and identity and magic in these pages. The story may have come to a close, but it lives on within us-- it’s something we can return to time and again for enjoyment and understanding.

More than anything, this story pulled off something I didn’t really know was possible: it makes me feel genuinely and enthusiastically glad to be human, no matter how strange or hard it gets.

____________

My fifth-grade teacher assigned The Lightning Thief as mandatory reading when I was ten years old. I picked it up reluctantly, but from the first lines, I just completely fell into this story. Twelve years since that assignment, I’m now a traditionally-published author myself...writing about what else but mythology, of course. These books saw me from elementary school all the way to post-college life. It’s hard to imagine where I’d be without them-- certainly, I’d never have achieved my lifelong dream of becoming an author, nor would I have found such an incredible online community like the one I’ve found here. I consider myself extremely lucky to have grown up alongside these characters and their incredible story.

I know we’ve likely got more standalones in this world to come, but this is still the end of the saga. I’m sad to see it come to a close, but I’m so ecstatic with the send-off we got, and I’m excited to let the story settle and become a part of me-- something that will always affect how I see the world, something that reminds me of why I write, and something that’s always there to welcome me home.

#review #tower of nero #trials of apollo #the tower of nero #the trials of apollo

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sendme-2hell · 3 years

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Ranking the books I read in April

aka just ranting about the books I read in april pls ignore me

1. The Space Between Worlds - Micaiah Johnson

I cannot believe this book wasn’t nominated for a Hugo! I like the Hugo list (of the books I’ve read) but cmon. This book is like if you combined the social commentary in The City We Became and the queerness of Harrow the Ninth. Seriously this book had everything I wanted: parallel universes, great character development, social commentary, woc sapphic slow burn, satisfying ending. Also I feel like the title is paying homage to W. E. Dubois which is cool. “Between me and the other world, there is ever an unasked question: How does it feel to be a problem?” Like there is just this very cool idea of talking about other worlds as in literally other universes but also different worlds due to social and racial hierarchies.

2. Plain Bad Heroines - Emily m. Danforth

Horror, Hollywood, boarding school, everyone is gay, the narrator talks directly to the reader and it is hilarious, copious footnotes, have I mentioned how many sapphics there are? It’s hard to keep track. Plus polyamory. I just really loved this book and I felt it all came together in a way that was worth it.

3. Steel Crow Saga - Paul Krueger

This godamn book. I loved this book so much. I was so ready to yell about it on tumblr and tell people to read it. But apparently the author is someone who has harassed a lot of women so...uh...yeah. Nevermind I guess.

I do want to say it is the most accurate depicition of a Sherlock Holmes superfan that I have ever seen in media.

4. The Tiger’s Daughter - K. Arsenault Rivera

What if we went on a long trip on horseback and we were both lesbian warriors...jk unless…

Yeah so I loved this book so much. A lot of it is about navigating familial responsibility, fighting literal and metaphorical demons, fighting the patriarchy, fighting your anger, fighting tigers, etc...and yet I kept thinking to myself “this is the most romantic book I have ever read” and honestly I am gonna stick by that. It also has the “you think me a monster so I will become one” trope which is great. It is set in an Asian-based fantasy world and I did read a goodreads review that said it was as accurate to the countries it draws inspiration from as Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse is to the Russian and Scandinavian cultures it takes from. So that’s not great.

5. Six of Crows - Leigh Bardugo

Speaking of! A few months ago I tried to read Shadow and Bone in preparation for the tv show and I could not finish it. The writing was...bad. Anyway I really liked Six of Crows and even though, yeah it’s tropey (I’m looking at you, Helnik backstory), there’s a reason those tropes work. Plus you cannot go wrong with a heist. About halfway through I did realize that there are six mcs and three couples so its kinda just like a giant triple date, which really changed how I read the whole story.

I’m very glad I did read it before seeing the tv show because I was able to be appropriately excited for the Crows and catch the Wylan reference and everything, but I also got to see the Alina stuff without having to read about it.

6. Crooked Kingdom - Leigh Bardugo

I think I somehow liked this even more than Six of Crows, but for narrative simplicity I’ll put it after. I really like it when you put people in an impossible situation and see how they figure it out. Especially if they get out in a clever and reasonably possible way that ties together many different plot threads and has a few good fake-outs. This did all of that, and also developed every character in a way I found satisfying (except [redacted] *cry emoji*).

Kaz pulls a Baru Cormorant with some money stuff and now I wonder if they would be friends.

I read this after watching the show which was good because I knew who Zoya and Genya were but bad because there is a point where Nina is like “here is how shadow and bone ends.” She’s just talking to Mattias and casually spoiling everything for me. So there goes my dreams of living spoiler free until the end of the show.

7. The Miseducation of Cameron Post - Emily m Danforth

My expectations for this book were....very different than it turned out, and I’m glad for it. After reading Plain Bad Heroines I shouldn’t have been surprised at how well written it is. I really appreciated how nuanced it is. It doesn’t spell out its ideas or themes and therefore lets you really sit with them. I would rank it higher but I don’t really enjoy reading about high school.

8. Foundryside - Robert Jackson Bennett

I love a good found family, especially if at the beginning of the book they are on opposing sides. Enemies to friends = best trope! Also it’s sapphic that’s always good. But the best part of this book was the worldbuilding which was so cool.

9. Malice - Heather Walter

Remember what I was saying about “you think me a monster so I will become one”? This book is the definition of that trope. Women becoming unhinged after being treated like shit, we love to see it! Especially if it’s gay. I do have to say, authors who write duologies where the first book ends on a cliffhanger, I see what you’re doing but yes, I will be preordering the next book.

10. Fugitive Telemetry - Martha Wells

I don’t have much to say because Murderbot is so consistently excellent. uh why is it so cathartic when xenophobes disrespect Murderbot and it’s humans step in and shut that shit down. Gets me every single time.

11. Queen of Coins and Whispers - Helen Corcoran

This book was like half romance half politics and unfortunately I did not find the politics that interesting or well written. But the romance was A+. It reminded me of Priory of the Orange Tree a LOT. Though significantly less dragons and I’m taking many points off for that.

12. The First Sister - Linden A. Lewis

I wanted to like this book a little more than I did. There was just maybe too much body horror for me. Interesting characters and world though. There was a location named Cytherea that they mentioned a lot and it was very distracting. I guess I still have tlt brainrot.

13. Shorefall - Robert Jackson Bennett

I think this book was well plotted out but it didn’t quite have my attention like Foundryside did. Also yet another book where a woman’s girlfriend ends up in her head. This time no one had to die so that’s nice. TM and SD take notes!

14. The Deathless Girls - Kiran Milwood Hargrave

Ok I LOVED the Mercies by KMH so I was a little disappointed in this Dracula retelling. It got interesting in the last 50 pages, but unfortunately that is not enough for me.

proud of myself for not reading a single straight book this April

#I just want to rant about the books I'm reading I doubt anyone will read this #I read a lot of good books in april!#six of crows is 2/3 straight #ninej when?!#my rankings

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