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miss0atae · 2 months

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I finally watched the final episode of DFF and I can say the ending is very satisfying, except for my poor White. I thought he would be the final survivor but he died anyway (let me mourn in silence 😭).

▪️ Non was avenged for everything, if you believe death is the perfect revenge. Fluke and Top killed themselves in some way. White was killed by his lover. Phee stopped New and killed him too. Everyone killed each others and had to face Non before dying (except White because he never knew him and was innocent… Yes I still can't accept his death. 😅)

▪️ I know the ending of this episode was a bit controversial but I believe it was interesting. I like how they made us believe, at first, Phee, Jin and Tee got away from this house and carried on with their life (except Tee, but I want to talk about this after). The normalcy of Phee and Jin life seemed truly unlikely the more they talk to each other. The color was so bright, it hurt. It felt surreal. Then they went to the place where Phee brought his two lovers and after witnessing Non, he started questioning everything and it ended right here. There is no mistake. They never left and the final image is their last resting place: the house! I found this very poetic, in some way.

Now I wanna talk about each character's ending and if it was fitted with their behavior towards Non.

▪️ Fluke never did post the video and just witnessed everything and never tried to save Non. He believed himself to be innocent in some way, because he was never the one who did anything. He was just there, following the rest of the group. He was a coward and probably (I don't know if it was implied as heavily as viewers think) relieved the group had someone else to bully. His death was fitting to mee*. He wanted to act like he never saw anything, well he didn't need his eyes anymore. Why needing eyes when you want to be blind to everything that is not you. I also don't forget how much of a bully he was also to White (Have I told you how I was protective of him? 😂). He may have not been the meanest to Non but he became also like the rest of the group after Non's disappearance. I've heard a victim of bullying often becomes a bully and you can see it with Fluke.

▪️ Top was just a nasty being. He never had any ounce of kindness and I'm surprised he survived so long. I couldn't stand him. Every time I saw his smirk I got annoyed. He was an active bully against Non. He called him "Greasy" anytime he could. He lied and used him too. I also think he never really tried to cover his wrong doings. He never minded using the wit of others to save him. He never cared about ensuring their plans would work. He thought himself to be a leader but was mostly a follower. I think his death could have been worse. Something that would match his actions more.

▪️ White, my innocent poor boy who just made the mistake of loving the wrong person, he didn't deserve his death at all. He just wanted to spend time with Tee and love him. He was faithful, kind and a bit naughty but in the good way (the candy scene!). Dying by the hand of your lover… It's just sad. Tee killed him because he thought it was Non and when he realized it, it far too late. I don't like the narrative for White. He got punished for loving the wrong guy and it doesn't sit well with me. His mistake was a small one and it was also because he never had a way to know. I don't know how the writers could have saved him because it wouldn't work well in this story, but I still don't like it. I wish I could find a good ending for him that would go well with the story, but I can't imagine anything.

▪️ New died because of Phee and it was expected. As someone said here, he was a dead man walking. He had only one goal and no one to wait for him outside. His desperation was his only fuel. He wanted to avenge his brother and it didn't matter who was in the middle of this revenge. If he survived, it would have not worked. He had to die to put a final stop to this story. It's sad to believe his entire family and himself died because of a group of self-absorbed brats. He did what he had to and left with the feeling his work was done.

▪️ Now I have to talk about Phee… How the mighty have fallen. He was the previous lover and he acted like he wanted to avenge Non. His actions at the beginning of the story showed him to be the mastermind until we discovered it was New. From that moment, his actions seemed different and less pro-actives. He wanted to save Jin (which could be understandable because he was his lover… You know feelings and everything can get in the middle of a quest for truth) but why did he want to save the bullies of his past lover and even said he consider them as friends?! That's where I started to think Phee was lost. I admit he never said he wanted to act on them. He wanted the truth, while New wanted to make them pay. Phee probably would have given the info to the authorities and expected them to take the lead there.

▪️ Jin, in his hallucination, saw himself being filmed by others while he was having sex. It's a direct link to what he did to Non. He filmed him and released the clip online. He had a weird relationship with cameras. On one hand it was his hobby and on the other hand it was also a "weapon" he used to express his jealousy towards Non. He had a crush on him and he wanted him but instead Non was with Keng. He was jealous and felt betrayed (even though he never did anything to make his feelings really known by Non) and he wanted to hurt him the way he felt he was hurt by Non. So for him to hurt his hand was the appropriate punishment. Without a hand you can't act on your "ill-feelings" and you also lose the opportunity to use it for good things anymore (such as taking pictures as a form of art).

▪️ As for Tee, it was the most fitted punishment. He couldn't deserve the happiness of being loved and in love because of his actions because he had taken Non away from being loved and in love too. Losing the reason he started to act better and rethink his life, is a true retribution. I also felt his relationship with Non was the most interesting. There was this tension between them, especially when Non ended up at the service of his Uncle. Tee was in hell and instead of trying to find a way out, he dragged Non along with him, while still thinking he had no other choice. Tee grew up in a toxic environment, but we saw he could find a way out when surrounded with the right opportunity such as his meeting with White. The fact he met White, while finding a way to help Non get away from his Uncle is proof how "good" actions can lead to even better things while "bad" actions, like making Non being the scapegoat for the broke camera, leads to worse things. To be honest, the false ending of Jin, Phee and him being away from the house, is the best punishment for his actions if the idea is to really punish him. He is alive, but he has to live with the idea of killing his love and losing his so-called friends. He then get consumed by his thoughts. Very gothic!

To finish, I would like to say I had so much fun watching this series, reading about it here and writing the longest texts in English I've ever made. Even having people commenting on them and being able to exchange was truly a delight. I liked everything. I'm a bit sad it's already the end. I hope we'll get to watch the actors in other series. I found most of them to be good. I also like how this BL breached out of the typical BL's stories (even if I still enjoy them too). I like when they try to innovate and create something different. Let's hope we'll get another one soon as entertaining and compelling as this one. Thanks for the ride.

#my thoughts #thai series #thai bl #bl drama #bl series #random thoughts #dff the series #dead friend forever the series #dead friend forever #dff spoilers #episode 12 #final episode #be on cloud #It was a satisfying ending #I'm still crying over White's death 😭#I don't mind if none of the theories was right it was so much fun to imagine them #Saturday will be different without DFF

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bananasfosterparent · 24 days

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I'm gonna be real, I'm very worried that Larian is going to try & make AA even more overtly the "bad choice" in their next patch (they promised some epilogue animations). I just really don't understand why the antis have to be so obnoxiously loud telling a company to change THEIR game because of a way they choose to interpret something. Isn't the whole point of an RPG that you're allowed to craft a narrative around the narrative-- but to pressure the writers into editing their hard work because they "don't like it" is just so,,,,..ugh

I just wish people would stop infantilizing the crap out of Astarion as a character. They give him all these sweet HC when half of them are just Wyll.. Like the "I can fix him" complex has rotted our society

Honestly? I'm not worried about it at all.

Mostly because I don't think Larian cares lmao At least, not in that way.

Get ready, it's 1am, I had my meds, and had some caffeine, so here comes ramble :D

They want to please their fans, and while spawn fans make up a majority of the Astarion side of the fandom, and there may be (speculated) peices in place to make AA seem worse in-game with these updates....I honestly don't think Larian as a whole cares enough to join in on the one-sided righteousness battle.

They made this game for the purpose that most AA fans (at least, ones I know) use it for: roleplaying, as you pointed out. And I'm very sure they aren't blind to just how one-sided the discourse is.

For example, on the official Larian Discord server, AA fans voiced their opinion on the Tav/Durge expressions in the new AA kisses. And from what I saw, the opinions were presently respectfully and with the roleplay experience in mind. How the expressions aren't ideal for evil roleplay. But after that, the same suggestions thread got clogged with anti-AA players begging Larain to "not destroy the narrative" they've apparently been telling and to not listen to us "delulu" AA fans. And the threads were locked by a mod and cleaned up, to "prevent bullying". I think Larian sees clearly who is focused on quality of roleplay and who is focused on arbitrary arguments.

Because the evil endings aren't supposed to be satisfying to those who don't play them. They aren't supposed to be a moral lesson to the player. It's not that meta (no matter how some people want it to be). It's not that type of game. The evil endings are supposed to be satisfying for those who enjoy playing those endings.

It's supposed to be a different experience. Empty and lonely, sure! But it's still meant to be rewarding for the player. Otherwise, it would be pointless to offer as a roleplay style.

I don't think Larian anticipated so many of us would prefer playing evil like this. I think the idea was for it to be a thing you do after you get bored of playing a few good solo runs. It also doesn't make any sense to spend time and money on an ending, just to slap the player on the wrist for choosing it. They see from the stats how often people make certain choices. People play evil in this game for a lot of reasons, but one big one is because it's just good, devious fun! And without any actual, real world consequences. And I think they see that more than anything. I assume you're also talking about the new evil ending updates?

This phrasing from the first article I saw about it is promising to me that these updates will be satisfying for those who actually enjoy playing/romancing evil--as a positive dark romance and not as some abusive romantic tragedy.

I hope "satisfying narrative conclusions" means that the player can enjoy it for their roleplay. And doesn't just mean the endings are rounded out, but the player gets "punished" in the end. I mean, what are you being punished for exactly? Having fun? SERIOUSLY. Any anti-AA fans lurking the tag care to explain exactly WHY you want people to be punished for playing evil in a video game? I really don't get that. And I don't think Larian cares to do that to their consumers.

Truthfully... I'm hoping the new evil ending fixes will fix Minthara's bugs for one thing. But I also am hoping that it will give us some good AA content. I don't even want to speculate... I'm just gonna wait and see!

AND YES. The infantilization of Astarion and the whole concept of "oh what a cute helpless silly lil bby gorl who needs saving from himself, must be protected and shown who he should be because my Tav/Durge knows best for someone they barely know who's a different creature from them entirely" is...just...

They want a mix of Wyll and Gale but with Astarion's face, voice, and body.

#so many people write Spawnstarion as Wyll/Gale in Astarion's body and AA as Cazedor 2.0 lmao BOTH are OOC.#ascended astarion #astarion #astarion ancunin #ask #anon ask

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lazuliquetzal · 5 months

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Tell me your thoughts about gameplay and story integration in video games :3

(THANKS ILY TOO!)

Video games are a super interesting medium because it's all about leveraging player behavior and choice. A lot of game design fundamentals are about giving the player freedom, or the illusion of freedom. The game maker sets the rules, and the player organically develops behaviors and strategies within those rules. If you want the player to act a certain way, you have to encourage them to act in that way. (Watch one of the bazillion analysis videos on Super Mario Bros. World 1-1 sometime.)

In games there are ways to punish a player (death, losing progress, jumpscares, etc) and there are ways to reward a player (score go up, unlock new thing, get more power, etc). Story can be part of that, and it can go beyond "play well = good end, play poorly = bad end."

I think, if you're going to use a video game to tell your story, you should really take advantage of it, you know? Flex the medium. Leverage the inherent immersion that comes with the player Interacting With The Game. Inscryption and Undertale are So Video Game that you can't adapt it to a different medium without significant rework. They are video games because they have to be video games. That doesn't make them automatically good, but a good storyteller would choose the medium that works best with their story and that confidence just oozes out, in a good way.

You don't even have to get all 4th wall meta with your video game plot. In Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, the main Gimmick is that you have a time-traveling dagger. You can use it to make combat sequences easier, you can use it to solve puzzles, but it's also integral to the entire experience. The time travel sets up the framed narrative, which pays homage to the literature that serves as the game's inspiration. The central conflict is resolved with the time travel mechanic. In gameplay, you make mistakes, experience consequences in battle, learn and do things correctly the next time around, which is the Prince's entire character arc. Even basic game mechanics are part of the story -- when you save, you get "tips and tricks!" in the form of visions that will help you solve puzzles, but some of those visions are plot-relevant. The menu itself has flavor dialogue that is part of the narrative frame and is also hilarious.

Some other examples: Papers, Please! explores bureaucracy as a tool of dehumanization under authoritarian governements, and the gameplay is all fine print and form-filling and menus. In GOW 2018, there are enemies that have elemental weaknesses, so you end up having to switch weapons. (This is a really common thing to do: new area w/ new enemies requires new weapon.) You unlock the Blades of Chaos so that you can enter Helheim. The Blades also have a backstory, and using them means something in Kratos's character arc, it's a whole Thing. In metroidvanias, you unlock new abilities so you can access new parts of the story and find things you missed the first time around -- really good for worldbuilding and creating a sense of depth to a location (the world of Blasphemous comes to mind). Majora's Mask gives you anxiety.

A buddy once asked if I thought a good plot could carry a crappy game, and my answer is no. You can't absorb the story if the primary mode of interacting with the story is unplayable. If the gameplay is detracting from the story, then you should make a movie or write a novel. Video games are experiences: gameplay should serve story, story should serve gameplay. *Tetris: Effect Voice* it's all connected!

I just enjoy it when stories are told in mediums that suit them best. It's satisfying! It's fun! Makes my brain go :D

#asks #yellowocaballero #video game analysis #video games don't *need* story. tetris is the greatest game ever made and that shit's just squares #but if you DO choose to include story in a video game then you should keep in mind how it affects Player Experience #story is a magic trick between the artist and the audience. respect the art! play with it!#i went on a sands of time tangent in the middle there SORRY #i cannot help that i got obsessed with a 20 year old video game this year #lazuli talks

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randomishnickname · 1 year

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The main deck as a stage - thoughts on S101

Rewatching S101 for the first time in years and I have some thoughts on the ending. Mainly, the reason why Billy, when handed a blank page, goes along with Flint’s wishes and pretends it’s the stolen one.

Thing is, it makes no sense that after what happened on Harbor Island and with Richard Guthrie, Billy'd be very convinced of Flint's Urca de Lima plans. He's seen Flint at his most unhinged and manipulative just a few hours ago! He hasn't had time to think the entire endeavor over! I don't think that, when handed the page, he makes the split decision that

Flint's pursuit of the Urca is worth lying to his brother-in-arms,

he shares Flint's worries about soon-to-be English colonization attempts or

Singleton's death on false pretenses was a necessary evil

The face of a man thoroughly convinced of Flint's leadership

Instead, I think Billy was being typecasted by Flint and reacted accordingly.

Flint sets up a scene: an initiating event (Singleton steals from his crew!), a conflict (trial by combat!), a climax (Flint kills Singleton as punishment for the theft), a clear resolution (Flint returns the stolen page to his crew!). As soon as Flint wins the fight the page being the stolen one becomes the logical conclusion, the satisfying outcome. The righteous man killed the duplicitous man, justice has been served. It's what the audience, waiting with bated breath, very clearly expects. It ties everything together.

And Billy, when he accepts the page from Flint's hand, is handed a role exactly as clear: deliver that bit of information to the audience.

Enter scene: confused boatswain

Except the page is blank.

"Flint? What's my line?

Blindsided by this, everyone's eyes on him, unable to come up with a replacement script from the get-go, Billy goes the path of least resistance and acts out the play according to everyone's expectations. He's carried by the momentum of the story. He's just a hapless stage prop. Yet.

It's the first of many, many times we see the ship's main deck turned into a center stage with Flint (and later Silver) as the showmaster, pushing narratives to enforce his agenda, a game at which he excels.

do Hamlet next babe, you wouldn't even need a new shirt

That man, in a mere minutes after deducting the thief must still be around, devised this exact scene set up and gambled that its dramatic impact would be strong enough to sway Billy. And he was right!! Flint is phenomenal at this game from the get-go, that's his real gift, even more than his fighting prowesses or strategic cunning. A lesser show would let us (the real audience) savor his victory, reflect upon its cleverness and await what comes next.

But then ... after the theatralics, histrionics, the fights and blood and epic grandiloquence acted out in full sunlight ...

We cut to backstage. The brothel, Jack, Anne and Max, hidden in the shadows behind the curtains, ready to rewrite the narrative.

Enter scene - the new playwright

The curtains are fucking red y'all!!!

@urcadelimabean

#this fucking show. they set those themes from EP 1 AAAAAH #black sails #billy bones #meta #black sails meta #bs meta #black sails s101 #captain flint #flint #bs max #jack rackham #anne bonny #my posts #also i need more AUs where Flint's an actor or smthg similar. That's his big gift

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reflectionsofacreator · 5 months

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Steadily working my way through Blue Lions (I'm on chapter 7? Battle of Eagle and Lion) and got Felix and Sylvain's B support. At this rate I'm just convinced that they're dating each other even if they're involved with someone else. Packaged deal. Unfortunately Inseparable. JD and Chris from Scrubs typa situation.

I think the thing that makes it ring true for me though is that is not just bickering -- sure they do, a lot, but they're also genuine with each other and worry about their friendship (sometimes). Normally I don't really care for the "bicker like an old married couple" trope because a lot of the time there's barely any care underneath the bickering, but they ... actually do? It's rather refreshing.

That being said, Sylvain is. An interesting specimen. I keep thinking I like him and then he opens his fucking mouth and goes skirt chasing. And yet even that doesn't annoy me as much as it should because he's actually really honest and earnest about it? If he was just a sleezeball it'd be one thing, but he genuinely gets to know the hobbies and likes of the girls he chases after. His and Lysithea's C support was actually really cute, and I also was charmed by his C support with Annette.

But then his C support with Dedue has him go out of his way to show that he wants to be friends, despite the heavy scrutiny and discouragement that it would bring. I think it was also surprising to me because of House Gautier's position as a border protection house -- if any of the nobles were to have reservations about a "foreign element" it would make sense to have it be him, he was raised with the idea of protecting the kingdom. This redhaired idiot continually surprises me tbh.

Ashe is precious, and I want him to get all the kisses he deserves (especially after I forced him to land the killing blow on his father). On god he will be an assassin and I will make him a killing machine.

Mercedes is a character I was not expecting to like as much as I do, admittedly. Heavily religious characters are generally not written in ways that I find compelling, yet she continually surprises me. I think it's largely because she's very much following the actual morals of the Goddess rather than ... whatever the fuck Rhea is doing ... and sticking true to her beliefs. There's also the scant bits of her backstory so far, of being disowned from her house and forced to flee to live in a church, how her life was uprooted for the simple fact that her blood painted a target on her back. It's fascinating.

I poached Lysithea from Golden Deer and I love her to bits tbh. She's cute, and her desperation to be treated as a capable peer really resonates with me. I also appreciate that she's still visibly younger than the rest of them, in the way she acts and her stature, despite how hard she tries to appear mature. It's a careful balance that is hard to pull off, but I think she does it well so far. (Now if I only knew why she has two friggin crests I'd be satisfied. I'm not gonna like the answer I just know it.)

Dimitri... sighs. It's fascinating to go through White Clouds with the meta knowledge that he's going to go off the deep end, it lends a certain sense of tragedy and doom to him that I find really compelling. That being said, he's so naive, in a way that's almost artificial? He watched his father and entire court be killed when he was ~14, and yet he's desperate to stop the fighting and keep peace rather than gain revenge. He's painfully earnest in his questions to Byleth about why things can't just be solved with talking, why war and slaughter has to exist. And like, the thing is, he isn't wrong for asking those questions -- it's never wrong to wonder why the world cannot be a better place, and earnestness and a desire to do better is never misplaced.

Yet the narrative of Three Houses does not have room for an uncritical view of such things, it does not laud him for asking these questions, yet nor does it punish him for groping blindly about in the dark. If anything, his naivety is called into question by the other people who inhabit his world, making him beholden to their reactions and judgement for daring to be that way. It's fascinating how in a different type of narrative he would actually be almost a paragon of morals, yet 3H manages to walk a fine line of letting him ask these hard questions without fully condemning him -- it's just that the other people in this narrative do, and Dimitri does not exist in isolation. Sooner or later he'll have to answer for his views, and well. That won't go well.

... anyways Three Houses good. I'm enjoying it immensely.

#fe3h #blue lions #creator plays fe3h #this got away from me

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house-of-mirrors · 8 months

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I know this is kind of a weird ask to get, rest assured I would not be sending it to you if I had found it another way but even after the Smending information ban was lifted, I still cannot find this information, and I saw that you completed seeking so I figured I would ask you.

What is traveler returning? Or more specifically, what does it mean, what is it about? I have deciphered the other endings frustratingly ambiguous writing style, but I still cannot understand traveler returning. What does it mean?

Let me tell you a secret, my friend: I don't think anyone, myself included, has a flying clue wtf the "who is salt" ending of smen MEANS. It has very little connection to going East in ssea or with Irem in FL. It's its own thing (derogatory).

I remember reading a blogpost where AK said he didn't think anyone would actually pick that ending and so threw that together and I guess that's why it's drivel? What did I call it again? Making fridge magnet poetry behind your back in the dark? Yeah

I've seen one interpretation that it's meant to break the fourth wall and imply the player has secretly been Salt all along. And honestly? I personally like that less than it being nonsense (no hate if u like that theory). I don't like meta reveals like that when there's no foreshadowing. Feels like a cop out. And also... why does the player have to be an otherworldly being to be special? Who is Salt? Well it certainly isn't me!

That theory aside, doing a strict reading of the text and ignoring meta stuff, interpreting its meaning as precisely what it says... it means all of nothing.

I did the Hate ending and thought that was the most interesting of the 3. Grieve, sure, fine. Who is Salt? [long fax machine noises]

(I gotta tell you I laughed SO HARD getting this because I'm always joking with my friend about "who is salt" being incomprehensible XD)

Disclaimer this is just my opinion etc, but as someone pursuing an MFA in writing with a good bit of experience in editing: this would NOT fly if it came across my desk. Even if your story is meant to be punishing and has "no good things at the end," I feel like you still have an obligation to have a narratively satisfying conclusion.

In summary: you can't figure it out because there's nothing to figure out, pat yourself on the back and treat yourself to your favorite snack and/or beverage

Ignoring the ending and going off lore, "Traveller Returning" means... (major spoilers for sunless sea under the cut)

Traveller Returning is an epithet for one of the zee-gods, Salt. Salt, god of farewells, of travellers, of the Uttermost East. The Hungry Monarch. There's a hidden ambition revolving around it in Sunless Sea. In summary, Salt was an emissary sent by the White to the Neath to find out what sort of Shames and various crimes the Sun was keeping hidden. Salt has not yet returned with its report, instead disappearing into the East. Now, the Sunless Sea quest actually follows a narrative of the player becoming an avatar for Salt and this makes a lot more sense in its execution than the smending. The Eastern horizon is called the "Deconstruction," a sort of endless horizon in Green and Gold where the laws of space and time get really weird. Imagine a function undefined at a single point, or a tangent line that goes to infinity. I'm not sure how to explain it beyond here because I don't have a firm grasp on it myself; there's not a lot of solid info.

We still know painfully little about Salt and I really, really hope the lore declassification means we'll get more material soon. Well-written material. What's up with Salt, what about the White, what about the Woods in Winter, what is the nature of the Old Man in Vienna, etc.

#i've had a very long week and i'm only semi coherent rn this was the perfect time to answer it #smen #anti smen #smen spoilers #the white my sworn nemesis #time to hit post before fussing any longer

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hyacinth42-blog · 7 months

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I don't have the skills to write out a whole fanfiction. But if I were to do an "Amy Dallon" fanfiction type thing... Fuck Ward, none of that happened.

Amy fixes Victoria and then leaves to Europe or something on a dragon craft (maybe Marquis follows maybe not). She finds a nice little commune of people who don't know anything about her or her past and she lives with them (probably through one of the portals since the earth was quite fucked). She still struggles with self worth issues but she's doing better.

She'll heal someone here or there in an emergency, but never goes back to what she was doing before her breakdown. Instead Amy makes gmo crops/livestock to help with the expected food shortages and whatnot (dragon occasionally sends over a craft to airlift out seeds/crops/livestock/whatever to redistribute things across the various communities).

I'd say she gets a kickass lesbian gf, but I honestly don't think she'd ever trust herself to have a relationship with someone. Someone might get Amy to agree with the understanding of no skin contact ever. If so, eventually the gf would accidentally do direct skin contact and Amy would do something bad - wipe the memory of a recent fight, fix an old scar/injury that the owner prefers to have, idk something. But this time Amy would only spiral a little bit before the support structure she built around her would help her through it and get her to fix whatever she did. The gf would forgive her but Amy would ultimately break up because she can't handle the anxiety of possibly doing it again in the future. Amy is a little sad to be single but doesn't hate herself about it, it's just what's best for her given her "subconscious automatically changing people sometimes".

It would need 1-2 more capes from wormverse to parallel her healing and be all thematic (and to introduce conflict to the story). Definitely a case 53. Their trauma/healing would foil/parallel Amy's quite well. Shadow Stalker maybe? I feel like her sheep/wolves worldview and Amy's whole thing would be interesting (and might as well give justice to another person overly punished by the narrative and without a satisfying ending eh?). Eventually a "proper" hero would follow dragon's stuff to the source and attempt to dox/extort amy for something and that'd be a (possibly the) main conflict in the story.

#amy dallon #wormblr #parahumans #there no real plot here #just nicey times of amy healing #I don't understand why there are so many fanfictions that make her out as some sort of monster #when Worm and even the beginning of Ward try so hard to bring nuance to “villains”

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thewriterlyowl · 7 months

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On this latest reread one thing I’ve noticed the most is that Other Guy, once he decides that his romantic feelings for Katniss need to be made known, consistently does not meet her where she is.

He has this in common with Peeta at first, but we’ll get to him in a minute. Other Guy is the Main Character in his relationship with Katniss. He liked her six months before the Games but said nothing until he saw her slipping away. What was he expecting? For her to wake up and choose him? That it would just happen eventually because, as I said before, what Other Guy knows most about her is her and her family’s survival is what she cares about the most? Who knows? In any case, it was Katniss will be mine eventually. It’s inevitable.

Then the Games happen and he sees the onscreen narrative. Even though Katniss says he must know it was fake, there must be a part of him that doesn’t believe it. It becomes You were supposed to be mine, and you betrayed me. When she gets back, Katniss specifically says they don’t talk about her time in the Games. They don't talk about Rue, they don't talk about Thresh, they don't talk about Cato's final moments. She does not want to relive it and that is her choice, but it is also his choice. Because for Other Guy, it represents a time when she was inaccessible to him and therefore unknowable to him. So he acts it never happened - which is a refusal to meet Katniss where she is now. He makes no effort to say he's trying to understand, or even that right now its hard for him to understand. It is now You were supposed to be mine before, but now you can be mine after. What came in between is a mistake.

When she is reaped again, it's possible that he would have made a full confession but thankfully Collins spares us their goodbyes are taken away from them as a final punishment from the Capitol.

And then in MJ, Katniss says he "doesn't try to kiss me or talk about love" and mentions that it could be because he thinks it's too cruel. (Our darling Katniss has a concussion so I forgive her for this, but she also says that the thing putting pressure on their friendship was her arranged marriage to Peeta, without considering that her friendship with Other Guy never stopped Peeta from being her friend). Anyway, it seems that Other Guy is more amiable than he has been. He defends her, he protects her, he refuses to leave her alone. When I first read it, I even liked him better than I had. At first.

But then you see that Other Guy is more satisfied because Katniss is in an environment that he has always wanted: fighting for the freedom of the Districts. But he is still thinking of her Games as something that took her away from him, instead of something she experienced. It's something that disrupted the natural order of things, and now it has returned - with improvements. It is still what came between was a mistake, here is where we are supposed to be, you can still be mine. You see it when he consistently refuses to see how letting yourself be a piece in anyone's Game erodes your humanity, no matter what cause you're fighting for - until it's too late.

And thats why their friendship breaks down, why the "dark, twisted sadness between them" exists. At first, Other Guy's refusal to meet her where she is only presents romantic problems. But then as time goes on, you see it causes cracks in their relationship that ends it completely. Katniss continually tries to articulate what her experiences in the Games have taught her about war and taking lives, and he doesn't listen until it ruins his relationship with the girl he says he loves.

Throughout MJ, he's like "here's where you kissed me, Katniss *weepy face*", "why are you talking to Finnick, Katniss *angry face*", "where's your desire, Katniss - all the other girls in 12 wanted to kiss me", and bonus "maybe if I volunteered to save her she'd kiss me like she kissed you, Peeta". Like, inasmuch as he's a valued soldier, he's still harbouring childish notions about how to get Katniss to like him. Katniss is worlds away from this nonsense, but maybe if he'd bothered to meet her where she was outside of that bit at the beginning he would know that.

Now, Peeta.

While it is lovely that Peeta fell in love with Katniss at such a young age, likely admiring her because of her tenacity and fantasising about being loved by someone so devoted (see: Prim), he idealises her quite a lot. It’s almost an example of modern-day courtly love, especially in CF. He falls even harder during the Games, which is why he’s so devastated when she tells him it was an act to some extent.

Peeta had to wake up. He thought it was I love Katniss and she never noticed me but we survived the Games together and now we’re in love. At first, he freezes her out unless they’re required to be in public together. But then he does a bit of self-reflection and it becomes Katniss did what she had to do to keep us alive. I am still in love with her but I still want to be her friend. Because he knows that he was putting expectations on her that she wasn’t ready for, once he got to know her.

Then throughout CF, he is constantly protecting her, assuming that he has become someone she cares about so her level of devotion makes sense. He doesn’t question her motives because he knows she’s trying to keep him alive. But when she gives, he takes. And when he gives, he watches her take without the expectation that she must give back.

Then he’s hiajcked. And it becomes Katniss lied to me for our entire relationship and she tried to kill me. She is still trying to kill me.

Now, the difference here is, Peeta is not the same. In both of those other scenarios, the constant is I love Katniss. Now, that is gone. So Peeta must first meet himself where he is, and then see if this version can meet her where she is. So it becomes Katniss has always protected me. She will always protect me. What we do is protect each other.

So by the time we get to the end, the veil has been lifted. There is no idealisation, there are no Games clouding anyone's actions, there is no suspicion. There's just them. Peeta is back to himself, and sees what Katniss' love looks like without outside motivations. It is still Katniss has always protected me. She will always protect me. What we do is protect each other, with an added This is love. This is what is real.

Other Guy and Peeta actually switch places over the course of the books. Other Guy seems like he loves Katniss but in hanging onto the version of her that he wants - that no longer exists - he ends up loving a shadow that Katniss cannot become. Peeta's courtly love for Katniss deepens when they go through the Games together, but instead of abandoning her when that version (created on the back of survival, mind you!) is not what's in front of him, he chooses to love the Katniss in the way that he can and take what she can give him. He consistently stops loving the shadow and loves the Katniss that she has become.

#the hunger games #katniss everdeen #peeta mellark

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butwhatifidothis · 2 years

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Wow, thats a really long drawn out way of saying "I hate Edelgard and don't think she suffers consequences when she dies in all but a single route in the Original 3H and basically has everything she worked for ruined in 3hopes with the addition of being lombotomized."

I never said Edelgard didn't deserve punishment, I said she already GOT her punishment.

Like, do you just think a lobotomy is a LIGHT punishment??? For all intents and purposes the Edelgard that started the war is dead and only gets to temporarily come back because of q deities void magical bullshit. She basically got every

Don't forget, the Bad end of Edelgard's route also has the Alliance betray the empire and subsequently ends in Claudes death which basically cmakes the war last longer. Meanwhile in the Blue Lions route she: has Hubert and possibly Ferdinand murdered off screen, while her empire is basically ran into the ground and suffers the same fate as her father: Becoming a helpless puppet to those who slither in the dark.

And you're telling me she wasn't punished? Really?

Don't hate Edelgard. Like her even - or, like her potential and some aspects of how that's presented, if nothing else. Since that's still something I have to clarify since I dare criticize aspects of her writing lmao.

This isn't about 3H - nothing about your ask suggested it had anything to do with anything other than Hopes, which is why I focused on that game and not 3H.

got long lol under the cut it goes

And mmm, yummy, these words you placed in my mouth are quite something, to be sure, but I never once said that Edelgard didn't face consequences in 3H. Her actions directly lead to her death and the inability to go forward with her dream the way she wanted to, something that she finds so unacceptable that she would rather die than find any other possible alternative to achieve her dreams. That is a consequence that stems directly from her numerous bad actions, and her death AM/SS/VW is narratively satisfying because of it. I said that, in Hopes, she does not face consequences for her horrible/incorrect actions the same way other characters do like Claude. And that is because she does not.

I think something needs to be made clear: bad things happening to a character =/= those things being a consequence of that character's bad actions. Which is to say that saying Edelgard "got her punishment" because she got lobotomized for doing something good is missing the point entirely.

To refer back to Claude as an example of Hopes actually making a character go through the consequences of their actions:

Claude sacrifices Randolph -> this is a narratively bad decision

Fleche is told about this and seeks revenge, hiring Jeralt's Mercenaries to attack Claude, which can result in the lost of Judith -> a negative repercussion that directly results from Claude's bad decision

Let's look at 3H!Edelgard:

Edelgard starts a war and shows no signs of ever willingly stopping it herself -> this is a narratively bad decision

Dimitri/Byleth/(theoretically) Claude fight back against Edelgard's war and kill her to put an end to it -> a negative repercussion that directly results from Edelgard's bad decision

Hell, let’s look at 3H!Dimitri, cuz why not?

Dimitri chases after vengeance to the expense of his people and his friends - this is a narratively bad decision

Dimitri’s chase for vengeance leads to his own violent death in VW/(implicitly) SS and the death of his father figure Rodrigue in AM - a negative repercussion that directly results from Dimitri’s bad decision

But when looking at Hopes!Edelgard?

Edelgard protects Dimitri, reveals to him that Thales is the one that committed the Tragedy, before going on to fight against Thales -> these are all narratively good decisions

Thales whips out dark magic that reduces Edelgard's mind to that of a gullible child, before going on to use her face and voice to inflict irreparable harm to Edelgard's friends and country -> a negative repercussion that happened despite Edelgard's good actions.

Before Edelgard could face the consequences of her actions, she is punished for doing the right thing before being placed in a state where she literally can't understand anything going on around her - she cannot properly face any consequences of her actions because she cannot understand them as consequences to begin with. And, again, this isn’t a result of her throwing war at everyone - her narratively bad decision - but because she was doing the right thing. She's not living with the consequences of her actions, she's been made into a victim.

"Like, do you just think a lobotomy is a LIGHT punishment??? For all intents and purposes the Edelgard that started the war is dead and only gets to temporarily come back because of q deities void magical bullshit. She basically got every" (I’m assuming this just got cut off in the ask somehow, rip)

More words in my mouth: I never said what happened to her wasn't bad. Of fuckin' course it's bad, it's horrific. What I'm saying is that it's not a result of her doing anything to “earn” it (insofar as “this character did a bad thing and so a bad thing happened to them as a result”) when it was done to her. That it's a result of her doing something inarguably good, and given by someone who was inarguably bad.

Did she get lobotomized because of her violent invasion into the Kingdom? No. Did she get lobotomized because of the ruination she brought to countless people's lives? No. Did she get lobotomized by anyone who was negatively affected by her violent invasion? No. Did she do something bad to earn this bad thing happening to her? No. A bad thing happened to her because she stood up to a bad guy - that is not a consequence by any stretch of the imagination.

Yes, she’s “punished”... for standing up against Thales. She was punished by Thales - the one who victimized her first when she was a child - and not the numerous people she victimized by forcing them all to go through war. Meaning that instead of having to face justice for all of the death and harm she’s caused the people of Fodlan, she gets to be looked as a poor little victim who should have every single one of her decisions that she willingly and independently made BEFORE she was lobotomized be completely overlooked and ignored. Because she’s “already going through so much.”

When I said it was bad “for others,” I meant that only those on the outside know that this is bad. Lobotogard thinks that nothing is wrong with her. She cannot register that anything was done to her. Does that erase the fact that this was still a horrible thing to happen to her? No. Does it take a double-barrel shotgun to Edelgard’s agency in its entirety, up to and including any potential growth she could have as a character? Yes. Because the narrative wants so badly for Edelgard to always be seen in a good light that it would rather her be reduced to a child than even hint at the idea that if Edelgard does something bad, there ought to be consequences for doing something bad.

To put it simply, she doesn’t end her part in AG as the aggressor of a violent war who has faced justice and is awaiting what that entails, she ends it as just another victim who should have nothing but sympathy given to her. Unlike in non-CF routes in 3H where, if nothing else, she ends her part in AM/SS/VW as someone who might be sympathetic but still nonetheless needed to be taken down. A non-CF Edelgard faces some form of consequence for her bad actions by the end of the route; an AG Edelgard gets her life ruined for doing the right thing. These two things are nowhere near similar to each other in the slightest.

"Don't forget, the Bad end of Edelgard's route also has the Alliance betray the empire and subsequently ends in Claudes death which basically makes the war last longer."

The betrayal of Claude, which resulted in... Edelgard’s war, that she was already canonically willing to spend years on, going on for a bit longer than she might’ve liked in Hopes. For an amount of time that’s literally unquantifiable. And also the (likely) death of... the leader of one of the factions she was going to conquer anyway one way or the other. Wow, this totally has the same weight as losing someone you consider family or dying yourself, this slight setback that she can easily get over and results in the loss of exactly nothing precious to her as a character. To say nothing of the fact that everyone and their mom shits on Claude to his face for *checks note* turning his back on the woman who literally invaded his lands and tried to kill him not that long ago, his name slathered with ass-grease for daring to turn his back on the imperialist warmonger. Again, with the characters having absolutely nothing akin to this to say to Edelgard’s face, ever, at any point.

Oh how could silly ol’ me forget to mention this, it refutes my point oh so much.

“Meanwhile in the Blue Lions route she: “ - Imma stop ya right there. Everything bad that happened to her in AG that either is or results from the dark magic put on her has nothing to do with her starting the war. That is the problem. Everything you listed happens after Edelgard is punished for doing nothing wrong and everything right. Because Thales didn’t give a shit that she started a war, he gave a shit because she stood up against him - the war was literally no factor at all in him poofing Lobotogard into existence. If fuckin’ anything, he’d be upset that Edelgard didn’t keep their allyship with each other up for the war. So, another narratively good decision that Edelgard would be wrongly punished for doing. Another thing that makes her a ~victim of the cruel world around her~ and not something that resulted because she killed thousands through her war of conquest.

So to say it again: nothing was given regarding Edelgard facing consequences. Everything that was done to her in Hopes that could be considered bad isn’t “wow, she sure got her comeuppance for doing all of those shitty things!” it’s “wow, she sure got fucked for like, no reason, poor her!” Unlike in 3H, where for all the game still doesn’t really give her the flack she earns it still shows her facing consequences by killing her directly due to her starting the war, Hopes does everything in its power to have the player ignore the fact that she started a war in favor of making sure she comes off as “nicely” as possible.

So, no, when I say Edelgard “wasn’t punished,” I don’t literally mean that literally nothing bad ever happens to Edelgard - I mean that none of that punishment came from her worryingly large amount of fucked up shit she did to the people of Fodlan, but the game trying its damnedest to make her as pitiable as possible. If me pointing that out is me “hating Edelgard” in your eyes, welp, nothin’ I can do for ya then

#ask #anon #Fire Emblem Warriors Three Hopes spoilers #Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes spoilers #bizarre fuckin' connection btw #''i don't think this character properly went through the consequences of their actions'' = ''i hate this character'' like bro what lmao #i think the same for Clyde too - him instigating Sreng and attacking the Church that's done him no wrong #ALSO garners zero real negative consequences for him. this isn't a phenomenon unique to Hopes!Edelgard #it's just the most PREVALENT with Hopes!Edelgard. hence me focusing on her wrt this

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quetzalpapalotl · 1 year

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tailgate for the character meme!!

You speak so eloquently about Tailgate, it kinda makes me shy, but here we go:

one aspect about them i love Ummm, I don't know how to put this into words, but I really like that, narratively speaking he's just a very well milked character?? Lol, so he bring an outsider perspective that allows us readers learn more about Cybertronians and showcases the way perpetual war has affected them, he also brings a chill to the Lost Light that really sells the setting as just... people hanging out, which is important for certain moments to hit and to balance how character in general have a duality to them of being assholes/capable of horrors and like, just guys. Tailgate's key moment usually are also key for the overall plot. He's also very complex and has a very nice and satisfying arc. The ensemble cast naturally means that characters come in and out of focus, but with Tailgate it never feels like the narrative loses his thread on him whenever we get back to him. I mean, is not as smooth in Lost Light, but that goes for everything in LL so I'm not counting it lol.

one aspect i wish more people understood about them Tailgate is not really as naive as he tends to be portrayed, I think. Like, a lot of the things he is confused about have to do with the fact that he's missing 4 million years of context, like yeah, anyone is gonna look like a fool in that case. And yes, he does get manipulated by Getaway, but the point is that Getaway is good at sweet talking people, not that Tailgate is easily deceived. Getaway specifically catered to what would appeal to Tailgate. Tailgate is not as trustful as to believe anyone and everyone, even before he became hyper sensitive after Getaway. But to be fair, his judgement of people is heavily influenced by how much he likes them and the image he has on them. But still, this is a someone whose first instinct when meeting a bunch of strangers was to lie and he was actually pretty good at it. Like, I can't imagine that someone like that would be unaware that people can lie back to him.

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have about this character Tailgate would kill it at spreadsheets, data organization and other secretarial work, okay? You think he wouldn't, because he's not particulary organized with thins like, where he puts his stuff. But he's very good at retaining written info and also makes notes to keep track of stuff, he's actually pretty good at keeping track of like factual information and remembers and how can we forget the ending of remain in light? I think he ended up being UM assitant for one day for whatever reason (maybe as a punishment for ramming into Rodimus with his hoverboard, who was still kinda pissed at him for throwing the Rodpod that one time, so he decided to enforce the rules and stuck him with the most boring punishment he could think of, UM wasn't happy). Tailgate did such a good job at it, Magnus keeps begging him to keep the position, but Tailgate rejects it because he thinks it would make him look lame.

one character i love seeing them interact with Rewind. I just think they're neat :) Also it's fun how both of them are non-combatants that look really nice but both will throw hands, lol But again, particulary in the early chapters, I think both of them + Swerve do a lot of work to set the tone of Mtmte

one character i wish they would interact with/interact with more Nautica. I think they could have a lot to bond over as people for whom was is foreign being surrounded by all these veterans. Both of them have their feelings disregarded when exposed to The Horros not out of malice, but because everyone else is so used to it that they become desensitized and don't think how it is for other people. I wonder if Tailgate would have been able to provide more comfort for Nautica after Skid's death, I mean he wasn't exactly in the best space at the time, so maybe it wouldn't have been the best. But then again, if Nautica had had someone to help her process her mourning (given that she didn't went to Lotty because of teh circumstances), maybe she wouldn't have gone so far to try to revive Skids.

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have that involve them and one other character Okay, maybe I should have put Whirl up there, because it's crazy how little actual interaction there is between these two. That being said, I believe that Tailgate took a liking to Whirl early on and he's the one who invited Whirl to movie night on issue 7, because like, who else would? No one likes Whirl, CD won't like him until after issue 12. But Whirl is at Tailgate's Autobrand ceremony, to which Tailgate invited "a few close friends and Nutjob", which like, why would he do that, he doesn't have to. I think Tailgate demeans Whirl is his wanting to fit in and everyone dislikes Whirl, but Tailgate personally likes him.

#quetzal rambles tf

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overwatch-does-stuff · 2 years

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I was rereading your overwatch 2 speculation post when I saw that you said you can write a whole post about Widowmaker’s redemption through death. I would like to see this post please, for you and I have very different ideas about her redemption.

Thanks for the ask!

First off, just because I think it'll happen doesn't mean I agree with it.

To put my thoughts very, very simply: Widowmaker has done too much on-screen bad to ever be redeemed the proper way by Blizzard. There's a concept in storytelling called "character karma" which describes how to keep an audience satisfied by how characters act. It's a very basic concept: characters who do good things get rewarded, and characters who do bad things get punished. Generally, most stories that aren't explicit tragedies ensure that a character's karma gets appropriately balanced by the end of the story.

(There's a whole list of possible exceptions to this rule, of course, but please do consider: when was the last time you saw a villain win? Even if they win in the short term, they usually don't in the long term. Also keep in mind that Overwatch as a narrative (as its tone has been established so far) is not a tragedy. There are tragic characters, of course, but the overall story does not have a downward spiral. We as the audience know that Talon will be stopped at the end of Overwatch 2. I expect that I do not need to elaborate as to why, because we'd be here all week and I'd have to bring up the MCU.)

Okay, now back to Widowmaker- why do I think she won't get a redemption? Because she is Overwatch's most despicable villain. Hear me out.

She's Overwatch's most despicable because no other character in this franchise has killed an innocent person on-screen. By "on-screen", I mean depicted in a visual format- animated shorts and custscenes taking priority, then comics, then current-timeline short stories. And when we look at canon, on-screen killings, we actually have very few: we have Mondatta, and we have the mob boss that Reyes killed in Retribution. On-screen killings score the highest on the "bad guy" karma scale because they're tangible and immediate. They represent a character's current actions and they're things that directly impact the audience, too, who is invested in this current world and characters. Actions in the backstory and lore don't have the same punch for this reason.

The next step down on the "bad guy" karma scale is backstory/lore killing and torture, though- Doomfist, arguably the main villain of Overwatch, is hanging out right here with an unspecified number of murders at Numbani Airport, but the fact that the audience isn't shown it lessens the oomph. Hanzo would be here if Genji stayed dead, but given that he's not it significantly lessens the "bad guy"-ness of it. Similarly, I'd place Moira here, too, because we know she did the fucked up things to Reaper, Widowmaker, and (partially) Sigma, but we're only briefly shown Reaper's torture in her introduction short and that's it.

Given how much of a narrative and moral focus was put on Mondatta's assassination. . . I just don't think it's something that Widowmaker will be able to get away with. "Redemption" in storytelling is inherently a reward, and Widowmaker just doesn't have the character karma to justify that kind of reward, and I doubt Overwatch 2 will dedicate the screentime to it. Even though we as the audience know that she's a victim, Overwatch's narrative so far isn't painting her as someone who can be saved, not after she's crossed that moral event horizon.

However, however, however, it does leave one option- redemption by death. Redemption by death is a classic one because a heroic sacrifice does wonders to balance out character karma. It's quick, it's easy, it's free, acknowledging her tragic backstory while also making it so that they don't have to put the work in and ask the hard questions of "how would this character make up for what they've done?"

TL;DR: Because Storytelling Reasons, Blizzard isn't gonna spend the time to try and properly redeem her and will instead have her die for her sins.

#overwatch #overwatch 2 #widowmaker #this is kind of a bummer post I apologize #I'm definitely not anti-redemption for Widow #I think it would be fascinating to see how she'd recover #but consider that overwatch has 35+ characters and will not have enough screentime to focus on any of them for very long #widow can't get the time she needs #whereas Sigma is being broadly and blatantly advertised to be innocent and redeemable at every turn #do with that what you will #thanks for the ask!

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septembersghost · 2 years

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I'm confused as to why ppl think things can't have a happy ending. brba did have a happy ending. walt dies but was going to die anyway. he died saving jesse and had it set up to give the money to his family. like how could there have been a happier ending?bob said a chance at a 2nd life and that teaser of after all this, a happy ending? I'm sorry, but why the hell not. if ppl are punished then why can't they have their one true love? pretty sure the lesson has been learned.

you're preaching to the choir tbh, i am always a proponent of an earned happy ending, and "happy" can have a lot of different definitions. i don't necessarily think we're owed that in any given story, but i do fiercely believe we deserve narratively satisfying endings. i've written about this many times, but when i've hated and been very hurt by endings, it's not because they're tragic, it's because they're not satisfying and don't feel right for the stories' and characters' conclusions. tragedy can be beautiful and affecting and important, but it has to mean something, not be a last minute sadistic swerve to shock and hurt your audience. i probably have tons of posts about this, but i'm going to link these: 1, 2, 3 because they all very much speak to this idea.

i was just talking to @kendalroys about the ending of breaking bad - i think it's almost underappreciated now how much humanity and even hope is in that ending, after the oppressive darkness of the rest of the story. (granite state is, to me, by far the bleakest episode of the whole show, and felina is the denouement rising out of it again.) there could've been FAR more upsetting endings, but they didn't do that. like you said, walt manages to get his money to the schwartzes, he sees skyler and is able to give her some measure of closure, along with the coordinates to find hank and gomez's burial site (which is very sad, but better than leaving them unknown out there), he sees holly one last time, and flynn from afar (say what you will about walt, i never doubt he does love his children), and then he heads off to the nazi compound with his m60 in the trunk. he realizes jesse - his partner, his victim, his surrogate family, the person to whom he's most closely connected throughout the narrative - is a captive, and rescues him as he takes all of the nazis out (and they are so evil that we are geared to root for their deaths). his plan works. he dies entirely on his own terms (he's dying already, but wasting away from the cancer in jail would definitely have been a worse ending from walt's point of view), shot by his own weapon, standing in the lab amongst the chemistry that he put above everything. even after all he did and the depths he sunk to, there's still a shred of the person he was in his final actions. it's an oddly triumphant ending for him. jesse speeds away screaming into the night, and the coda of el camino resolves that fully, lets us know he escapes quietly into the light, with a long road of recovery doubtless ahead of him, but a feeling that he is going to find that.

the reason it's hailed as one of the best endings of any show is because it's narratively satisfying. it doesn't have to be nihilistic. it doesn't have to be punishing. it's a moving conclusion for its characters.

as a student of tolkien, i personally love/cling to his concept of the eucatastrophe - that moment when all hope seems lost, and then there is a turn of catharsis and joy. he meant it in the context of fantasy (as a genre), but it can be applied to fiction more broadly.

What made a good [story] not just enjoyable or aesthetically stimulating, but deeply moving? What did all good stories have in common? Eucatastrophe “is a sudden and miraculous grace [...] It does not deny the existence of dyscatastrophe, of sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance; it denies… universal final defeat...giving a fleeting glimpse of joy...poignant as grief.

joy sometimes is seen as...lesser, or childish, or not as profound and mature as grief, and i just don't believe that or think it's a fair assessment. like i said in my other post earlier, hope can't exist without grief, the meaning of both functions together.

i'm wary about how much i say because i've been harassed about this (by another fandom entirely lol), and logically i KNOW bcs is very rooted in noir, and noir tends to be enigmatic in its conclusions at best, but bcs is also (i know i am a broken record here, but it's true!) a love story! that distinguishes it, that's something special about it. and it's part of this same universe they've built hand-in-hand with breaking bad and el camino, and i simply refuse to think that they're going to end bcs on a sadder or more desolate note for jimmy and kim, after everything we've been through with them, after how carefully they've layered their characters and their relationship all these years, than what happened to walt and jesse. i also don't think these writers are into relative moralism and teaching the audience some "lesson" and punishing us for loving morally complicated characters (which is, like, one of my LEAST favorite approaches from storytelling. don't build a story where i'm meant to feel empathy for complex people and then tell me i was wrong to feel it!).

if ppl are punished then why can't they have their one true love? pretty sure the lesson has been learned. right. they have been punished, they have suffered repercussions for their bad actions. i'd let them have each other and their love back if i could decide. <3

#better call saul #bcs spoilers #breaking bad #jimmy mcgill #kim wexler #anonymous #letterbox #*

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beheworthy · 2 years

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I know you’ve said you’re over cobra kai after this season so feel free to ignore this I won’t be offended! But I did want to get your thoughts on something:

Ignoring everything involving the Johnny aspect of Robby and Miguel this season, I did find the apology Robby gave to be a lot more fair to his character than I anticipated. To be honest, I still find the whole thing pretty unfair to both of them. Miguel almost died, and in my opinion he hasn’t been allowed to feel any real lasting trauma over it, but I digress. In season 5 he had Robby pinned against the railing, and chose not to kick him over, and they both stopped fighting at around the same time. I do think this is better than the alternative: Robby pinning Miguel and choosing not to kick him. That wouldn’t have been satisfying for me. Robby didn’t need to choose to “show mercy” because what he did was an accident in the first place. Miguel didn’t need Robby to almost kill him again (accidentally or not) and then be spared at the last second because that would only further victimize him. Not to mention, Robby might be Miguel’s primary source of anger and trauma, but Miguel is not Robby’s—it’s Johnny. And their ensuing conversation, where Robby apologizes and tells Miguel he had tunnel vision, that he barely even knew where he was, to me that was finally an explicit acknowledgement that Robby didn’t even realize Miguel had stopped fighting until it was too late. That it was an accident.

I do think their issues were resolved far too quickly. Miguel accepted this and moved on too fast, and the real problem between them, Johnny, went completely unresolved. More than unresolved, actually, it went wholly ignored in favor of giving him a brand new shiny do over with a baby. And I also wish that instead of fighting it out, Miguel and Robby had actually had a real prolonged conversation about everything that’s happened between them. But I guess I just wanted to know what your thoughts were on all that?

Thank you, thank you. You're too kind!

100% agree with everything you are saying.

To me, Miguel's accident always seemed to be Robby's albatross. Something used to actively pull Robby back than other characters. Miguel healed at a borderline miraculous pace. Tory got to complete her education. Sam was also fine. All of their lives came back to normal. But Robby? His whole life turned upside down.

He became a criminal, got imprisoned, is still on probation, slept on a dojo floor, lost his education, lost all meaningful relationships of his life. Not to mention he was on the run, homeless and starving with literally not a single soul to reach out to.

That's the thing, the game was always rigged against Robby after that moment. DESPITE HIM NOT DOING IT. It was purely an accident. I understand if he had meant to hurt Miguel, but he literally didn't. AND YET, he gets BRUTALLY PUNISHED by the narrative for something he didn't do. I just don't get it.

The show got that moment wrong when it happened and it continues to get it wrong 3 seasons later. That fight in S5 between Robby and Miguel was never about them resolving their issues, it was about Miguel finding closure on his accident. Just like every f-g scene in this pathetic season, Robby was once again a means to an end in that scene and not the focus of it. (Robby wasn't the focus of ANY scene in this season. I'm shocked at this.)

But it fills me with so much rage that show chose to yet again have Robby and Miguel fight and yet again have Mary Sue Miguel win over him. Didn't this kid learn to walk a few months ago? And Robby was able to obliterate the entire Cobra Kai without them landing a single hit on him. But okay.

Robby is the best fighter of the next gen and this is the hill I will die on.

Other people have mentioned how the show goes against its own prior beliefs that fighting doesn't solve anything by having Johnny make Robby and Miguel fight and it freakin working. As bad as this season was, it had a great scene where Kresse opens up to his therapist and we see all the important people from his life appear.

Something like that between Robby and Johnny or Miguel and Robby was needed where they actually meditate on their issues and give them the weight they deserve. Instead of insincere, brushed resolutions that we got.

The baby do-over Johnny got is a whole different can of worms. All I will say on it is that I was noting my thoughts while watching the season because I thought I'd make gifs and meta posts about it. When the baby reveal happened, I wrote in my notes:

Ooooooo what? Johnny's having a child? Robby, just step into the sun.

#you weren't expecting an essay #SIKE!#cobra kai #robby keene #answers #anonymous #meta #analysis #write up #anti johnny lawrence #anti miguel diaz

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gayleviticus · 1 year

Text

the First Big Thing about fullmetal alchemist that got its hooks into me was the nina episode of 03. it was shocking, unsettling, horrifying but restrained, and generally fucked me up in a way I genuinely don't think any other story has before or since. going back to it now, it's been mourned, memed, mocked to death, so it's never really going to be the same, but that was the thing that made me sit up and go 'holy shit I love this show' 6 or so episodes in

but I think it kindve cast this negative shadow over the rest of the show, because narratively what happens to nina is kindve a dead end? I don't mean it's pointless or irrelevant, but fundamentally, it's just another fucked up thing the elrics have to bear witness to. Yes, tucker comes back in 03, but there's no justice or revenge, no healing or happy ending to be gained here - and even if there was, it would be cheap and hollow.

So what happened to Nina was simultaneously the heart of the show for me, but also this huge massive Thing hanging over everything that just couldn't ever have satisfying closure.

And I think that's probably why I loved 03 so much more than mangahood, because it felt like it rang so much truer to what hooked me into fma to begin with. The world is cruel, and horrifying things happen to good people, and there's no cosmic law dispensing rewards and punishments to good and bad alike. But this also means that nobody 'deserves' misfortune, that victims of war and oppression and violence 'had it coming to them'.

All this doesn't solve the unsolvable problem of nina, which is basically just the problem of evil. but the way 03s TV ending* is another painful doomed by the narrative ending where total happiness would ring hollow, and yet still bitter-sweet and hopeful in its own way, is really at its core what fullmetal alchemist is to me.

*and prob shamballa but I haven't seen it yet, I'm relying on reading the plot summary 8 years ago lol)

#fma #fma 03 #fullmetal alchemist #fma 2003 #fullmetal alchemist 2003 #my posts #fma spoilers #fma 03 spoilers

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will80sbyers · 8 months

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Hey dani!! I'm not one of the haters and I really do love your posts but I think calling people rape apologists and nazi sympathizers taking it a bit too far, don't you think? I really wish gay mikers and bi mikers, henry theorists and non-henry theorists could just stop fighting on tumblr. This is just a fandom space and it literally makes no sense for everyone to be constantly fighting. I personally believe Mike being gay would make more sense narrative wise, but you're entitled to your own opinion and i respect that. I'm bi myself so i understand the need for more rep in the media, and I wouldn't be mad either way because in the end we're at least getting queer representation one way or another. I really wanted to say something about all the drama going on right now, and I hope fandom spaces can become less toxic. Anyway have a nice day!

Hey!

I think it's taking it exactly where they took it first, they wanted to put fiction to the same field as reality so this applies to their way of thinking... they should be okay with me assuming that they are those types of people by following how they think if they were coherent, but they don't like it when I do the same thing they do and go crying about it distorting the meaning of the conversation or conveniently forgetting the tag where I point out it's irony and hyperbolic language in response to the asks they were sending me, pretending to be Gandhi while harassing others online

Those posts were in direct response to people sending me asks and telling me that you should forgive serial killers in real life and if you don't then it means that you support cops, the actual prison system and capital punishment from the state - I made a comparison because serial killers are not that better from rapists or Nazis, in fact they are overlapping often in real life because a lot of serial killers kill to satisfy sexual urges and exert control on others like that and a lot of Nazis were people so convinced of their superiority to consider others not worthy of value and so kill them for that (exactly like Henry does btw, he says it in the show literally that he kills because he's a predator and they are weak and deserve to be killed because of that)

people that are listening to whoever is talking shit again because they can't let things go and are fixated on starting drama again should look at the whole context of the conversation before judging

For the rest I am not the one constantly fighting I am the one that's not okay with being harassed online and so responds to the attacks, when I have problems with something someone says here I block them I don't go into their blogs to send a ton of hate asks about who they are as a person making big ass accusations first... but I do punch back as I said, I'm not here to take the bullying from these kids

I don't care about the Bi Vs. Gay "discourse" and never did, I think you can think whatever you want about Mike, I think he's bi and it makes more sense in the narrative for many reasons but I'm not into debating about that with others anymore because when I did - always being civil and kind about it - people started sending me hate asks because they don't like the idea of bi mike

The only thing I don't like is when the reasons to justify believing in gay Mike are reasons born from biphobic thinking, so sometimes I respond to those reasons making my own posts in my own blog and then people take it as "discourse" like I was going into their blogs to send them asks telling them they are idiots for believing gay Mike (thing that some gay Mike truthers do constantly about bi mike truthers by the way)

I wish the fandom was less toxic too that's why I block people because I want to have a peaceful experience here and have fun... this is the last ask I'm gonna post about this because I'm over it

Have a nice day too 🌈

#stranger things #ask #anti henry creel #bi mike wheeler #mike wheeler #byler

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