#if someone said they were coming up with major plot points on the fly in an eight episode miniseries that'd be wild

[biomic]

i've seen jokes about how every toku now is like a hair's breadth away from being dogshit bc all the best stuff about it gets revealed to be a total unplanned accident but i feel like that's probably been the case for decades now and it's just more prominent now bc staff/actor interviews are more accessible than ever before

ankh was gonna be the final boss of ooo, gokaiger was only supposed to have a few cameos related to what toys they were selling, and i think i've even heard burai was initially only planned to stick around for one arc in zyuranger? these shows have been held together by duct tape and prayers since their inception and it's a miracle most hold up as well as they do

#if someone said they were coming up with major plot points on the fly in an eight episode miniseries that'd be wild #but if you're not flexible working on a yearlong 50 episode series you'll die #kendrix morgan died for our sins #super sentai for ts #kamen rider for ts

[yourlocalfriendlyhobbit]

Hello! Could you do a merlin x reader to the prompt accidentally referencing them as "my". Maybe Merlin accidentally references the reader as his s/o when speaking to arthur or smthg and arthur gets all oooo and starts questioning merlin only for the reader to come into the room and Arthur just starts teasing them and it all ends in merlin confessing his feelings? Thank you!!!

<< Part 2 | Part 3 (not posted yet) >>

• A/N:

It's actually the first time I write for the show! i'm happy there's still people who loves it! Please keep sending me requests for any characters of the show (bonus points if it's Mordred! i freaking loooove him!)

I kept the idea of Merlin refering to reader as 'my' but changed the plot because i couldn't find how to write it... i really hope you don't mind...

AND I AM SOOOO SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG TO WRITE! And i also apologise to the other people who sent me requests! i have a major writing block at the moment, and i didn't want to write something that would be bad... y'all trust me with your ideas, i only want to give you guys the best <3

With the tourney coming up, Camelot was bustling; servants were running back and forth, preparing rooms for the lords and ladies that would come. And Arthur didn't spare Merlin, who already had tones of chores to do... And more chores meant he wouldn't be spending time with you any time soon...

It wasn't really a secret that the young man had a crush on you; though he thought he was hiding it good enough, pretty much everyone saw it. Yes, even Arthur; he was just waiting for the perfect opportunity to tease Merlin about it.

And it's the day of the tourney that said opportunity came.

...

The day was just as chaotic as you would expect it to be. Servants and squires running around the grounds of the castle to get what their lords want; Horses were being tended to; Ladies could be seen occasionaly, looking for the knight they wished to give their favors to... And Arthur was being Arthur. He made Merlin run to his room to get him something that he forgot (of course he said that it was Merlin who forgot it).

Merlin was running in one of the corridors, dodging other servants and guards, apologising when he knocked into someone. But in his hurry, he spotted you carrying a basket of what looked like bed sheets. Merlin had not seen you in maybe 2 or 3 days. He was running so fast that when he saw you and tried to stop to talk to you, he tripped over his own feet, and fell face first on the hard ground, and what he was carrying ended up flying at the end of the corridor.

People around didn't stop to help him; some looked at him laying on the ground but kept walking. Everyone except you. You ran up to him.

"Merlin? Merlin, are you okay?"

You put your hand on his shoulder lightly. He growned in pain, holding the side of his head.

"I think I'm okay, but I have hit my head pretty hard..."

He said. Merlin knew that he would be okay, he could use magic to heal himself.

"Are you sure? Maybe we should get Gaius to check if you are really okay..."

He knew he shouldn't smiled but seeing you so worried for him was making him flustered. He sat up slowly, his hand still holding the side of his head.

"No, no, really I'm good... I have to go back to Arthur's tent to help him finish getting ready for the tourney. This dollophead can't do it alone."

He laughed. The last comment made you chuckle. It was impressive how Merlin could talk to the Prince and not get punished for it... You helped him stand up, making sure he could actually stand on his two feets.

"Alright Merlin, you go help him... but stop running please. You are going to really hurt yourself one day..."

He chuckled, and before he could really think, he kissed your forehead.

"Don't worry, my (Y/n), i wont!"

It took Merlin a second, seeing your red face, to realise what he had just done and said. Which resulted in him blushing just as much as you. He started stuttering, trying to apologise and his heart was racing. You found that endearing. You thought he was adorable.

Unbeknownst to both of you, Arthur, who was getting impatient seeing as Merlin had not come back, was standing at the end of the corridor, watching. Now, he had what he wanted to tease Merlin as much as much as possible...

"(Y/n) I- hum- I'm sorry I- I don't know why I did that-"

"Merlin, it's okay, no need to apologise..."

You said calmly. You just looked at eachother for a second before you both smiled. You were looking at the ground, with red cheeks, but Merlin couldn't look away from you, completely entranced by you. You cleared your throat before saying:

"I should go or I'm going to be yelled at.... And Arthur is going to be mad if you don't come back soon... But we could talk again, later..."

His heart was pounding so hard, he was sure you could hear it.

"Yes- Y-Yes, absolutely! Can't wait!"

He said breathlessly. You picked up your basket.

"Then , see you later."

You stood on your tip toes, and kissed his cheek. You gave him one last smile and left. Merlin stood there, smiling like a dork, watching you leave. When you turned a corner and disappeared from sight, a heavy hand landed on his shoulder. And when he turned, he saw Arthur smiling mischievously.

"I send you to my chambers to get something, and find you flirting with (Y/n)- Let me rephrase this. Flirting with your (Y/n)~"

Merlin became red from neck to the tip of his ears. It was really his luck... He wouldn't hear the end of it. Arthur added:

"I can't blame you, Merlin. They're very pretty... And it's about time you do something about that crush you have on them, because I was getting frustrated to see you all desesperate to get their attention..."

"Oh, you mean desesperate like you are when Guinevere is in your vicinity...?"

The words flew out of his mouth before he had time to stop them. Arthur looked at Merlin with raised eyebrows, as if saying 'oh, are we really doing that now...?'. Merlin started taking small steps backward, before breaking into a full sprint with Arthur chasing after him...

DO NOT COPY, TRANSLATE OR REPOST MY WRITINGS!

#bbc merlin #merlin #bbc merlin x reader #merlin x reader #colin morgan

[borrowedtimeandspace]

To Borrowed Time (and Space) Readers

Hello, lovelies.

To those of you who have been with me since this story began, to those who found it along the way, and to those who stuck with me for all this time: Thank you from the bottom of my hearts. What I’m sharing in this letter to you all isn’t exactly news, but more of an acknowledgement of changes I’ve made that have impacted my writing for a long time.

Tl;dr, While I am not planning any more full stories for the foreseeable future, BTaS is far from dead. It’s simply changed form. Regenerated, as it were.

Long version under the cut, and just a heads up, it gets pretty deep and in-depth. You’ve been warned.

When I started writing, it was more of an escape than a hobby. Taking worlds I loved and interacting with them through a proxy I could control (aka my OCs) granted me the freedom I lacked and sought desperately when I was a troubled teen. I especially enjoyed coming up with g/t scenarios, with The Borrowers in particular, to insert into media that was sorely lacking in size differences.

Y’know, like, all of them.

As is probably obvious, Doctor Who was a formative fandom in my youth. It brought me such joy, and combining it with the world of The Borrowers had all the makings of a delicious dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins pie. Thus, Borrowed Time (and Space), and my OC Zepheera, were born.

Zepheera started off as a self-insert mary-sue. I fully acknowledge and admit this without shame or judgment toward mary-sue self-inserts. She also came about during the Moffat era of Doctor Who, which I think affected my writing, and not for the better.

Before any flames start flying, I want it to be clear that I don’t think everything in the Moffat era was terrible, nor is any of this a comment, good or bad, about Steven Moffat as a person. I just know, looking back, that I picked up on some of his worse writing tendencies, in my opinion.

Suffice it to say, my writing style has changed significantly over the years. Since college, I’ve had far less time and energy for long form story writing. I began writing collaboratively with friends, which has helped give me accountability and long-lasting enthusiasm when I have someone to share it with. I also started a job that monetizes one of my other hobbies, which takes up a lot of my mental bandwidth and time.

As for BTaS, I’ve become far more comfortable treating it as a sandbox. It’s a lot easier for me to come up with scenarios under the premise of “Doctor Who but with a borrower companion” and churn out shorter stories within that scope. I’m sure this has been obvious since the majority of what I’ve done since 2016 has mostly been prompts and Zepheera-Visions in various AU spinoffs of BTaS. 

I think it’s time to admit that to myself, and let anyone who is still waiting on the continuation of the original story know that, at least for now, it’s probably not going to happen.

I will be finishing Episode 3: Lost Things Being Found. I got so close to the end, and I did have a plan for it, and parts of that plot will remain relevant to Zepheera’s character moving forward. Honestly, I barely consider most of the main original stories truly canon anymore, as my characterization and direction with Zepheera in particular has changed a lot. I don’t plan on rewriting them to compensate for that, so I’ll sum up a few points about the canon and continuity moving forward.

As I said, the original BTaS is now my sandbox, and any stories I write with Zepheera and the Tenth Doctor are part of that loose canon unless otherwise specified or set apart, like the Donna AU for example.

I don’t intend to hang on to the concept of Zepheera essentially creating borrowers in Episode One. At the time of writing, the only way I knew to write drama was to make big moves with little thought to the consequences, or what it means for the character.

The size-changing ring may stick around in the future, but honestly it mostly existed to be convenient for the plotline and little else.

I am keeping Zepheera’s original backstory involving her early encounter with an alien, with the exception of giving her telekinesis. At the time, I created a companion that existed as more of a plot device rather than a fleshed-out character, and immediately regretted it. All iterations of Zepheera have an unnaturally long life-span, and the healing factor she was born with.

I also don’t have plans for resolving Zepheera’s brain trauma, so that thread is also going to be dropped.

That’s all I can think of for now. If there are any questions, feel free to reach out!

I also want to take the time to put it out there that I am not looking for any new writing partners. The ones I have are saints for how patient they’ve been with me over the years. And I want to make it clear that I have a very loose policy for accepting writing prompts. I love suggestions, but forcing myself to write something that doesn’t spark my interest is generally counterproductive. So, unfortunately, not every prompt will be filled.

I’m still here. I’m alive, and I do care about this story. I’ve just realized that I and it both benefit from the flexibility of shorter stories rather than long, overarching ones. I hope you all understand, and will stick with me for as long as I am inspired to add to this concept.

Thank you all again,

Chel

#chel talks #borrowed time and space #zepheera #hope this clears things up #I'm open to questions if there's anything i missed #gt #borrowers #giant tiny #the borrowers crossover

[frodo-with-glasses]

Acceptance

The first thing that comes to mind when I think of LotR and “acceptance” is…

…actually this old video by the youtube channel Cinema Therapy!

But far be it from me to just plop someone else’s content here and move on without any of my own effort, so let’s talk about this concept a little more.

In the video, Johnathan explains that the concept of radical acceptance is most famously encapsulated in the Serenity Prayer from Alcoholics Anonymous: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” Radical acceptance, he says, adds another level: accepting what you choose to change for the greater good.

Much like Frodo accepted the task to carry the Ring, even though it interrupted his life and continued to cost him more and more, we too are often faced with unpleasant realities and responsibilities. Radical acceptance is choosing to embrace life as life is, without sugarcoating, blame-shifting, or denial. It doesn’t mean we have to like what we’re seeing, and it doesn’t mean we have to roll over and give up all hope. It just means embracing reality—and our responsibility in it—for what it is, so that we have a place to start.

I know a little something about this. I’ve mentioned cryptically a few times that a close loved one of mine is dealing with some serious mental health issues; it’s gotten to the point that said loved one is barely recognizable for who they once were, and it’s been that way for some time. This crisis has caused some major upheaval and restructuring of responsibilities in my family. One crucial cog in the machine is down for the count, and that means someone else has to pick up the slack.

Now, faced with that situation, I have a choice in front of me. I can rail at God or my loved ones or the world in general for bringing this tragedy and inconvenience upon me. I can spend my time being angry and blaming other people—some of whom might have legitimately contributed to the current state of affairs!—and focus all my energy on plotting revenge. I can ignore the situation, focusing only on myself, and take my wings and fly and leave the nest in total disarray. (It’s fine! I’m living my best life. Why should I care about anyone else?) I could begrudgingly shoulder my responsibilities, doing the bare minimum to keep the ship afloat, but secretly harboring resentment in my heart that the “best years of my life” are being wasted at home. What a shame that a gorgeous young thing like me is stuck here, wasting her life picking up the slack for an invalid, when I could be out in the great wide world, stealing hearts, climbing ladders, making a name for myself! Oh, woe is me, my life is so hard!

Or.

I could look at the situation for what it is—study it, mourn it, come to terms with it—and then get up on my feet and choose to do what’s right.

I have no control over my circumstances, but I can choose how I respond to them. I cannot choose my lot in life, but I can choose to put forward my best attitude and greatest effort. I did not bring about this tragedy, but I can choose to do good in response to it. And with every meal cooked, every chore completed, every grocery receipt in my purse, every Grown-Ups Board Meeting in the sunroom to discuss how we can take care of the rest of the family, I make that same choice all over again.

Acceptance.

And then—action.

I think this is why Lord of the Rings has been such a comfort to me over this past year and a half; why I’ve fallen in love with Frodo in a deeper way than I did when I was a kid. I know how it feels to keep putting one foot in front of the other on a journey that, by all rights, you never should’ve had to take in the first place. I know how it feels to wake up every day and have to decide to keep going. I know how it feels to accept a burden that you never should have had to carry.

It destroyed Frodo, in the end. I don’t intend to be destroyed myself. (That’s why I’m taking such intentional steps to take care of my own mental health in this process; and praying, praying like mad, too.) But even in those moments when the road looks dark, Frodo’s story gives me hope that one day, I too will see goodness and joy coming out of my sacrifice.

Until then:

Acceptance.

And after that—action.

WORD ASK GAME!

#word ask game #frodo baggins #lord of the rings #lotr #my writing #i really hope i didn’t waffle on for too long about my own family situation LOL #this is an lotr fan blog not lady glasses’ personal therapy session #but hey! maybe it’ll help someone idk #anyway yeah i’m accepting prayers at any time lol #never can have enough of those :-P

[roydeezed]

Dungeon Meshi Thoughts 04

It took a lot of will power because I wanted to come here and write things multiple times but I finally reached and finished Chapter 50. Which is what I wanted to do before writing another one of these. Somebody said on my last post that they couldn’t imagine stopping every once in a while to write down my thoughts and I have to say it’s really hard not to binge the whole thing. That’s usually how I consume most manga and comic books but trying it out this way has been pretty fulfilling. I also get a vicarious joy everytime I follow along with a friend's journey with One Piece so I thought this might provide similar entertainment to Dungeon Meshi fans. Especially the wrong guesses! So this round of thoughts is covering chapters 37-50. So, for my fiftieth post I’ll talk about Dungeon Meshi up till Chapter 50. I’ll go into more in-depth past the “Keep reading” so check it out!

Wow! Everytime I think I know what’s going to happen I’m pleasantly surprised by how nuanced the actual events are. This whole ideological conflict between Shuro and Laios doesn’t devolve to a full on conflict, not if you don’t count their little catfight, but instead ends with a third option I hadn’t even considered, with Shuro planning on leaving the island. That’s such a great out to not having to resort to fighting someone or stooping to, as Shuro sees it, their level. And of course the narrative still keeps Shuro in the narrative through actual plot developments even after he makes up his mind but I’m getting ahead of myself. First of all, reading back on my past thoughts, I am so happy I predicted some of these things right! Like most of the case with the mad sorcerer. Thank you One Piece community for your insane-ass theories and break weeks. But that really speaks to how well this manga is laid out. A lot of the mistakes I made were in assuming this manga’s tone and not respecting that it could have such a nuanced plot and characters. 

Let’s get going on a chronological recap/breakdown before I get distracted and lose my mind over how much I love Kabru. The answer is a lot and that will come at the end. Leaving off in Chapter 36, Laios had just told Shuro that they’d used dark magic to resurrect her, causing him to fly off the handle and point his blade at Laios. Kabru, being the little bastard(affectionate) that he is, highlights to Shuro that he would’ve done the exact same thing by exaggerating his side of things while at the same time showing Laios how serious his actions were. At the time I was reading this I wasn’t sure if Kabru had somehow luckily stumbled upon the right answer but now knowing him better, this shows his skill in social situations. This is the first major instance of him finding a third option and laying the groundwork for a peaceful solution and for everyone to also find their third option. I kind of see Kabru as synonymous with the number three. Third option and third prominent party leader after Laios and Shoru. I feel like it will be an important part of his character.

After that tense exchange Chilchuck comes in to warn them about the impending attack and learns about Laios telling Shoru and loses it. I sympathize with Chilchuck so much. In a party of complete weirdos(again affectionate) he’s the only one with a level head. We’ve also only had Laios interacting with his fellow party members who understand him and put up with him so it wasn’t until he talked with Shoru, a person who actively despised him, that it was apparent how bad he is at social interactions and reading people. He is so much purer than I thought. He really is a monster loving freak. Bless his precious heart.

He sees Falin’s new form and the first thing he thinks is how cool she is. He really does have his priorities straight. I can’t blame him though, she really does look super cool. 

There’s also a great moment where Chilchuck makes Shoru and Laios command people. It’s such a great peek into the realism that’s pumped into this series as deciding on how commands are issued would be a vital part of dungeon fighting as you wouldn’t want conflicting orders. Here we also get Inutade trying to follow Shoru’s batshit insane order of holding down a griffon creature 5 times bigger than her without hurting it.  I love Inutade in all the small glimpses of her we get. She’s simply adorable and I hope we get more of her. But this moment also contributes to Shoru’s decision to leave as his conflict of interest gets so many people hurt and killed.

I love how the author uses the battle to show off strong character moments such as Kabru’s no-nonsense policy towards monsters and his skill at killing humanoids or Chilchuck saving the younger halfling.

Laios accepts the fact that though he loves monsters and he loves his sister, they still are monsters.

But before he goes in for the kill, Falin shows a sign of sentience that prompts him to remember a third option just as he saves Kabru. As the sorcerer came the last time they killed the dragon there’s a chance that he would come again so they have to drive her back. But I feel like there’s going to come a moment of reckoning for Laios. Where he’ll have to firmly put a stake in the ground between monsters and not, and because this story might just do it, I worry that it will be with his sister. 

They drive Falin away and revive everyone and Shoru comes to the decision that he’s gonna tell on them like a tattle tale. A snitch. A narc. We don’t like those here. Not with my boi Chilchuck around. But they also come to the conclusion that Falin’s soul was mixed in with the dragon's, making her a hybrid. And this is where Laios’s resolve to defeat the mad sorcerer becomes solidified. He’s been eating three meals a day, of course he’s serious now… fucking dork. I love my socially unaware boy. 

I feel so bad though. Because he believed so earnestly that Shoru was his first real friend.

And that’s why his friendship with Senshi feels so real, because even though they don’t dive deep into Senshi’s backstory until a little bit later they still have an inherent understanding of each other. 

I get it though Shoru, it makes sense. 

The detail of Soru proposing to Falin without dating or expressing his feelings was also a nice touch as it showed the disconnect between cultures, especially with Chilchuck educating the younger halfling on it. It’s little things like this that build out the world so organically. Kabru evaluates Laios and finds that he could probably defeat the mad sorcerer but wonders if he’d be able to make the hard decision to seal away the dungeon. And I think he would if he had to. We’ve seen time and time again, that when presented with a solid argument, Laios, as a leader, seriously considers it and even acts on it, like trying to go back to the surface or killing Monster Falin, only being stopped by new information and outside factors.

We get a small glimpse of Kabru’s backstory and he eats monster to earn Laios’s trust. (MUST RESIST TALKING ABOUT KABRU UNTIL WE GET TO HIS PART). The party continues to lower floors and Laios casually lore drops and it makes me wonder what the chances are they can actually talk to the sorcerer. I’ll save that discussion for when they get pulled in by the citizens. But for now, we get a small little mystery where the characters get doppelgangers based on each other’s perception of them that Laios not only helps solve but he also resolves by once again being a dork. I can never say enough how much I love him. The  dopplegangers tell us a lot of fun things about each person’s perception but the thing I want to focus on is that Laios definitely sees Senshi as superhot. That’s all my peabrain can fixate on from this sequence. 

We also meet our newest party member not soon after! I love Izutsumi. Honestly, I love all of the party members. They all feel essential and after they introduced or a new dynamic or piece of information is unveiled it leaves me wondering how I was getting along fine without it. But Izutsumi’s messiness paired with her being a picky eater is such a fun and adorable combo. And while each member sparked off of each other and came in conflict with each other Senshi always felt like an outsider. I thought it was because he wasn’t an original part of the group but it was really because no one would directly challenge him, usually only going through Laios. With Izutsumi joining we get these moments that make them both feel like they’re a part of the team as they clash but also have wholesome and adorable moments together.

With increasing frequency I see Laios’s desire and willingness to turn animalistic and monstrous and I wonder if that payoff is that he himself turns into a monster or takes Falin’s place? Or is he only able to appreciate the difference between him and monsters because he’s a human. 

I also appreciate this added depth we get into Marcille, that she’s afraid of seeing the ones she loves passing on before her. And I wonder if at the end of the dungeon she might not be the most dangerous one? We already saw she was willing to break rules to keep the ones she loves around, but with the sorcerer knowing about immortality it could tempt her. Even her wishing for his grimoire could be foreshadowing. It would be consistent with Marcille’s character arc and in the end might not even be a bad thing in context as this manga often has a habit of flipping the context on its head.

Izutsumi becoming a part of the squad not only helped Senshi feel more cohesive but her combative nature also makes things more dynamic with every other member, including fighting with Chilchuck and Marcille and making up after the fact and in the process showing off all of their best qualities. Marseille’s explanation on why she’s capitulated to a lot of Laios’s weirder whims helps me understand her a lot better as well, as she sees denying opportunities as veering further from her goal, flipping the context from it being a loss of her beliefs into a strengthening of her conviction. 

OKOKOK Kabru time! Through the guise of elven negotiations we learn a lot about Kabru. One of the main things that always stood out to me about him was that despite his age and apparent lack of skill fighting monsters, he was always shrewd. And seeing how the Elves storm in like magical FBI and take over dungeons without telling anyone what happens and the fact that he was raised by them, not only makes me believe that elves behave in a much more machiavellian way but that he learnt it all from them. It’s nurture not nature and his whole motivation is quite noble. He’s such an interesting character because he can go in so many directions now. He’s helping the progress of our party and could one day be a valuable advisor to Laios, someone who respects that, but could also just as equally succumb to the power and manipulate Laios. I don’t think he will now that I’ve seen his motivation but each scene with him is so interesting. He’s got the most bird’s eye view overview of the situation and I love how he collects his information. It scratches that very specific itch of characters that are like Light from Death Note but not complete d-bags, like Shiroe from Log Horizon. And so much of how Kabru has interacted with the world makes sense now. I can’t wait to see him outmaneuver the elves because they might actually be a match for him, being equally manipulative.

Okay, I don’t know about yall but this visit into the village stuck in time seemed way off to me. A little too grimm’s fairy tales like if you know what I mean. So we know the jist already. Thistle, the mad sorcerer, was hired as a jester by Derghal’s dad. Raised alongside Derghal, he got them industry connects to become a magician and learnt magic, became mad and cast an immortality curse on the country. But being asked what drove him mad, Yaado, Derghal’s grandson says he doesn’t know. Feels a bit too clean to me. For a thousand years how can they be content not knowing. I feel like they know but are too ashamed to admit it because they drove him to madness. Then again, is it even madness? It’s love for Derghal for sure, but there could be more too. Why’s he only looking for Derghal after six years? Of course it could be that six years barely counts as time passed to Thistle but the clues feel too significant to ignore. Anyways, I wanted to bring it up before I continued, even though I don’t have a proper answer to what they could’ve done. 

Next, we get another thing I’ve waited for, Senshi’s backstory! And some more information on Chilchuck. Before we dive into Senshi’s past I want to talk about Chilchuck. Since Senshi was basically a baby when he went into the dungeon, does that make Chilchuck comparatively the oldest as not only did the other halfling call him an elder at 29 years of age, but he also has a wife and child! That he can’t see for some reason. I can’t wait to see his tragic backstory. I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that he’s always seemed the most guarded. It seemed like a really big leap of faith for Chilchuck to share about himself like that. 

But then we learn about Senshi. He came into the dungeon when he was a kid and lost his whole party and believed he had eaten them because of the way things played out. It’s also why he avoided forming attachments. Laios eventually helps him figure out that he did not in fact canniablize his fellow dwarves and they walk away happily before becoming changed. But with this, the character who facilitated this entire premise, of cooking monsters you kill in a dungeon, also become the character we know the most about, knowing most of his motivations and reasons over the last ten years. It’s a really confident move and I’m curious to see how it affects the dynamics going forwards because it’s such a 180 from the past 48 chapter as we knew next to nothing about Senshi until now. One thing I do wonder is that if Senshi's desire to not have eaten his companions was so strong, could it have manilpualted the meat to make it seem like he did eat hippogriffs before? Because this time th meat was only transformed after being cut so the mushrooms could have changed it to dwarf meat to go along with Senshi's desires. It's probably not that dark but I couldn't help theorizing. With them having been changed by the mushrooms we’ve caught up with chapter 50 and I’ll leave it here as it’s getting quite long. See ya’ll next time!

#dungeon meshi #delicious in dungeon #manga recap #manga discussion

[cartoonbabbles]

UNHINGED CONSPIRACY BABBLE TIME

The one ding dang time my account's name is accurate. Spoilers for Inside Job Parts 1 and 2 below the cut.

So... that finale broke my heart, soul, and brain. Just like the good old days of Amphibia, but that's not important. Because here we finally get to see Reagan take control of Cognito and start doing things her way. Hashtag girlboss. BUT. There is one teeny tiny little detail from the end of Part 2 Episode 8 that we all saw... the Robes saying "she's only human." And while that may appear true for now, let's think about this a little more.

Clearly, the show is setting up at least one more season, where we'll likely figure out the origin of the Robes and the ancient magic they use, all that blibber blabber. But more importantly, Reagan is going to stop whatever they have planned, because it's kind of obvious they're being set up as either the big bads or the big bads who team up with the protags when the true final boss shows up. But I digress.

"She's only human."

That line kinda flew over my head the first time I saw the season finale because I was too busy being sad about Stadler, but we'll get to him in a future post maybe. But rewatching it, and having seen the intro a few more times, I'm starting to get the feeling the Robes might be wrong.

We already know Reagan's origins are a little fucked up at least. Rand messed with her DNA, and her memories, she had a pretty abnormal childhood, but we've only seen snippets. Her in elementary school, the prom, and then suddenly Cognito. There's a whole lot of stuff we still don't know about our main protag, and I don't just say this as someone filling out a wiki. I mean there's some dead giveaway in her past that the show isn't giving out just yet. Some detail so mind blowing, it's hidden in plain sight.

Reagan Ridley is not Rand's daughter. Or Tamiko's daughter.

Or anyone's daughter.

Reagan Ridley is not human, and it's been flying under everyone's radar since episode one. Don't believe me? Keep reading.

In the intro, we see an edit of clips briefly giving some context to each of the crew at Cognito. Rand is a drunk, Andre is a doctor, Glenn gets surgery, even Alpha Beta being the robot president. And each of these points gets addressed in the show to some degree. Except for one.

Aside from all the side characters and flashy visuals, one part of the sequence stood out to me, because it hasn't been addressed yet. Reagan's.

In Reagan's sequence, her face opens Fnaf-style to reveal an even smaller Reagan piloting her. And while I'd say symbolism is a really strong suit of the show, and that it's more than likely a Men in Black reference, the rest of the intro is too blatant about future plot points to not be taken seriously. Even the flat earth was there!

So where does this put Reagan? It's likely she's not what she seems, and I could be reaching here but her robot pinkie, and association with robotic limbs and partners could be hints at something. We just don't know what. Or do we?

Let's head back to Part 2 Episode 8 shall we?

In addition to that one odd line, there's a flashback sequence where the Robes explain the simple meaning behind their origin. Humans dumb, some were smart, smart ones became the Robes. But the smart one in their flashback bore a striking resemblance to Reagan. Someone who parallels her exact motives of protecting humanity from itself, no matter the moral conundrums.

And right after that, Reagan asks if she can take a peek under the Robes, and asks if they're "even human." Interesting, to say the least.

All this being said, I can't make a solid prediction as to how or why or even what kind of nonhuman Reagan is, I can only rule out she's not human, or any of the other major races in the show. Potentially a robot, but the whole Robes thing puts a wrench in it. I'm predicting that Part 3, if and when it comes out, will start making things more and more clear that Reagan's connection to the robes goes a lot deeper than you'd think at first.

Or maybe she's a robot who can drink alcohol. Or is just a normal human. Any answer can happen in the show.

#inside job #reagan ridely #brett hand #gigi #andre #glenn #rand ridley #the robes #cognito inc #conspiracy #theory

[ficview]

View - Stipulations

By Anonymous

(I like to call them by this hilarious tag connecting all their fics - author has already arranged a ride to church trust me)

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14771135/chapters/34161176

Kicking this site off with a glance at one of my most reread Starker fics :)

Stipulations is without doubt the second-best piece of fanfiction to grace the Starker fandom. And to those wondering, yes, it is the slash ship between Peter Parker and Tony Stark. Inappropriate and scandalous, but the most intriguing things often are, right?

The plot and character premises themselves are pretty template. Peter Parker, 18, high school senior with a raging crush on Tony Stark, finds himself at a party thrown for incoming MIT undergrads by said crush, along with an opportunity to save Iron Man himself when danger strikes at the party. Thanks to Victor von Doom's Doombots, the two begin to work together and closer until sparks fly.

Pros:

-- Peter's characterization is nearly on-point. I could totally get the sense of the blithering, hardworking and eternally horny teen aiming to aspire higher while staying aware of his economic limitations. His crush on Tony is INTENSE and till the end, I wasn't entirely sure if what he saw was love or his own rose-tinted version of it. Just some teensy parts of his personality were a bit off.

-- MJ and Ned were the best best friends ever. Both felt true to their personalities and acted in a realistic manner. So did Aunt May. Loved their discussion about the relationship at the end.

-- Every stage of Peter's crush evolving into something more serious was the strongest when written in his POV.

Cons:

-- Tony's POV made zero sense looking back which is a general weakness in the Starker fic world. If someone looking handsome and saving his life is attractive, he should have fallen in love with 50% of the Avengers. And there is no way a forty-something feels all those mid teen emotions or at least acts on it like an honorary Mean Girl. Thankfully, the writing was good enough to allow me to gloss over these major faults.

-- Convenient incidents happening at even more convenient times. Victor Von Doom probably did more to unite the couple than murder either one through his well-timed Doombot attacks.

-- Bad overall message. I can appreciate a good age-difference love story but with those sugar daddy-sugar baby vibes and no plausible reason for why one of them is even in this relationship (other than the obvious), the story does come off like a glorified Lolita.

YET, it is an engaging read. The build up to their first sexual encounter is honest to god one of the best *chef's kiss*. Though minimal, I enjoyed the presence of the other Avengers. However, the most memorable pieces were all those little stipulations the two kept making, only to break the last of them into smithereens.

#mcu fanfiction #fanfic #fanfic review #starker #ao3fic #mcu fics

[wraithwritten]

some random totk thoughts. major story spoilers ahead

honestly I didn't come in playing this game for the story. unfortunately. which is what Zelda used to BE for me. after getting my story hopes set too high for botw and getting disappointed, I came in with a "story is secondary here" mentality and it shouldn't be considering how important story is to me overall. I came in here namely because I wanted to explore and just fool around. and having both the sky and DEPTHS (which I love the most) and a familiar but different hyrule is scratching that itch for me. basically treating this as my sandbox. so I can say I'm VERY satisfied when it comes to my gameplay and exploration needs. I only wish ultrahand building wasn't so janky to me (I think I need to turn off motion controls since I'm hardly using them this time around)

So that said. hate the rehash of how the majority of story cut scene use is linked to the past AGAIN. and the sages are very underdeveloped and kind of just there (hell even compared to TP I'd even say and those guys were just kind of there) and. not gonna lie. feels like they didn't know what to do with Zelda so we kind of have a semi-redo of zelda being majorly absent. and here we have all this talk of her sealing powers and now time manipulation and. she neither attempts to seal ganondorf away nor do we really get her. actually honing in on her time powers. despite the hints from poor poor plot device Sonia (I AM SO SORRY QUEEN YOU GOT THE DEAD WIFE TREATMENT). in terms of what the story shows us and implies. no. straight to the last resort "lose yourself and become a dragon" option. Zelda girl you deserve so much better especially after what you went through during the calamity and keeping ganon in stasis for 100 years. So as of now I'm not 100% done with the story, at the point where I'm about to use this amazing flying bike build to get up to hyrule castle where puppet zelda is but first I'm gonna get more stamina so I can get the master sword. but anyway. I'm kinda... just waiting to see how this all ends and I'll gather up more thoughts from there.

as a quick aside, all this makes me wonder now is who are the three other dragons??? three of the sages? past zonai? and unrelated but does rauru count as the seventh sage? it's emphasized there's just six and he's just there but STILL (if this is elaborated on I have not done the kakariko ring quest on account of not being able to access them thanks to that one guy).

also not a big fan of early hyrule being depicted as a more tribal people and the so described "good king of light" being the guy who bought civilization and technology to them. I obviously can't speak on this matter but I'm seeing something.

I also have some nitpicking as someone into worldbuilding and overall zelda lore but I'll leave that unsaid for now.

Some positives. more enemy variety thank god. now I'm not as bitter knowing moblins and bokoblins and lizalfos are the main fodder because at least there are other basic enemies beyond them. Would have liked more undead enemies though and poes being actual POES but I understand why they gotta be a more easily obtainable collectable soul currency. I would have liked a new yiga variant and a return of the bow users too but oh well. I LOVE them having bases in the depths though.

love the return of dungeons and ACTUAL bosses that feel more in line with past games. I was not a fan at all of the blights but I'm a BIG big fan of the more varied bosses here and their designs.

finally had some true genuine shit yourself moments beyond the repetitive guardian jumpscares from botw thanks to the depths. also seeing the silhouettes of gibdos in the desert made me yell I cannot begin to describe how happy I am some freaky as fuck enemies are FINALLY in the game. they're like weird redead bugs here. wish they screamed and froze you up still.

I also like seeing how Hyrule has changed in the past ??? years or so. would have liked confirmation but I'm glad everyone seems to be in the boat of a 4-6 year range.

overall though I'd say despite my fun and feeling totk improved on botw's gameplay for me and I'm getting waaay more enjoyment out of it, what I'm really yearning and itching for is in the older games and probably won't truly come back. anyway I wanna replay oot and mm and tp soooo bad. these three are THE essential games for me with mm and tp pretty much hogging the #1 fave spot

#[ ooc ]; #overall not 100% done but I like it and enjoy it more than botw and feel it improved on it but I'm not personally feeling the story

[morganas-pendragons]

I Will Always Go To War To Defend ROTS Against Gen X: Here’s Why

Sounds like a stupid title, right? Well. Since Kenobi aired, my father - A Gen Xer - has repeatedly said that it’s the best Star Wars content to release since the OT back in 80’s.

He hates the prequels. Like REALLY hates the prequels.

My 20 year old brother and I have this discussion with him frequently: The prequels are the backbone to making the OT make sense, and remain some of the best piece of Star Wars media beloved by the generation it’s meant for.

And yes, I’m specifically talking about Revenge of the Sith.

My dad has claimed for years that it was ruined by cheesy dialogue (the high ground vs low ground scene is one he mentions every single time we have this convo) as well as having less then adequate saber duels. I repeatedly inform him that Hayden and Ewan have, to date, the most iconic and probably the MOST difficult saber duel in the entire franchise.

He also says there’s a lot of plot holes. I, being the only one in my family who has consumed nearly every piece of major Star Wars media, agree with him. But all of those plot holes are filled by two things in particular. The book, and The Clone Wars.

The Revenge of the Sith novelization has got to be the best novel I’ve read of all of the Star Wars novels in my library. It’s art in word form.

Case in point, a few of my favorite quotes from it:

"The rain will come, and the seeds will sprout, for the dark is the soil in which they grow, and it is the clouds above them, and it waits behind the star that gives them light. The dark's patience is infinite. Eventually, even stars burn out."

“This is Obi-Wan Kenobi: A phenomenal pilot who doesn’t like to fly. A devastating warrior who’d rather not fight. A negotiator without peer who frankly prefers to sit alone in a quiet cave and meditate.” 

And it makes the movie so much more poignant.

His biggest argument, however, is that Hayden Christensen was such a bad actor that it ruined it for him. I thus returned to inform him of how badly Hayden was harassed after the creation of ROTS and how hated the prequels were until the people who they were made for came of age and learned to appreciate them.

My best friend and I just had this conversation the other day: You really cannot enjoy Star Wars as a whole without consuming all of the available media. Yes, I too was skeptical of cartoons as someone in their early twenties, but TCW is not written for a child audience. It just happens to be animated with a mature story that fills in all the questions you inevitably have for the time between Episode 2 and 3.

The one thing that the shows do is add more depth that's not given in the movies. Depth through development of interpersonal character relationships (Anakin and Ahsoka from TCW clear into Twilight of the Apprentice) (Rex and Ahsoka) (Obi-Wan and Anakin) and enough of character development for those we know so little about - KANAN JARRUS - to make their inevitable deaths absolutely devastating.

That's what the shows succeed at. The movies, not so much.

I go on to tell my father that The Clone Wars (and begrudingly, Rebels..) fills in a lot of the questions he ends up having about plot holes and unanswered things during Episode 3. Like why Padme died, how Anakin ''fell so fast', etc.

He gets the same answer every single time.

"Your child's brain is a useless well of Star Wars knowledge obtained through the means of researching for fan fiction and now contains most answers to all Star Wars related questions you may have. No, Revenge of the Sith is not a bad movie, they just don't give you a satisfactory amount of information through the general story for you to be okay with watching it without complaining."

So, yeah. Gen Z, fight for your ROTS rights because that movie is phenomenal and needs to be defended against people who have only watched 9 movies and remain oblivious to the truth: You need to watch all Star Wars media to really grasp the overall story.

No matter how much you dislike it : )

#revenge of the sith #rots novel #Star Wars: the clone wars #TCW #tbd

[brushstrokesapocalyptic]

it’s time for the “overanalyzing one-off lines” show!

so the very first thing magnus says when he sees pit in chapter 2 of kid icarus: uprising is as follows:

“Well, I didn’t expect to see an angel here. Hope this doesn’t mean I’ve kicked the bucket.”

now, i’m not sure if you’re aware, but that’s a really weird thing for someone to say, and it’s even more weird that no one comments on it. pit and palutena go on talking about unrelated things, as if that’s a totally normal and expected thing for magnus to say.

now, if you’re like me, you probably also didn’t really react to this line the first few times you saw it. it’s the second chapter, kiu has a lot of slightly-odd lines which turn out to be foreshadowing. me, personally? my first thought was “oh, i guess angels are probably associated with escorting the dead to the afterlife,“ and then i moved on.

they’re not, though. that’s what reapers do. and there’s no way humans have these two races mixed up. just fucking look at them.

do they look anything alike to you??? no. they don’t. which raises the question of why, exactly, magnus said that.

now, we don’t know a lot about angels as a whole. pit (and by extension dark pit) is emphatically not the gold standard of angeldom. we can assume he looks fairly ordinary for an angel, seeing as no one has trouble identifying him as such. beyond that, though, a lot of what we know about angels comes from what pit isn’t. for starters, he can’t fly. and there’s something else, too, but i’ll get to that later.

before that, though, i’m gonna go through the various unsubstantiated comments made by people with a dubious level of authority on the subject. (incidentally, i sourced these screenshots from the wiki— much more convenient than trying to dig through youtube for every single random conversation.)

without any further ado! let’s get into it!

Angels as Messengers

Gaol: Aw, Palutena’s little messenger boy. And Magnus, it’s always a pleasure. (src)

in the specific context of overanalyzing magnus’s first line, this is an important sentence to pick out. magnus and gaol are both humans, both with presumably a fairly similar history as mercenaries up until gaol got stuffed in a suit of armor. but while magnus makes a weird comment about death, gaol calls pit a messenger.

and pit agrees with her!

Viridi: I wish I had an angel to do my bidding. It’s like having an intern.

Pit: I’m not an intern. I’m a messenger of the gods!

Viridi: Poor Pit. Don't you know that the definition of angel is "errand spirit"? (src)

this particular conversation is the most insight we get into angels as a whole, i think. viridi thinks of angels as like divine interns, there to do little tasks for gods, and palutena doesn’t exactly disagree with her. pit says they’re specifically messengers, which lines up with biblical mythology. i could see the traditional role of angels in the world of KI being exactly that, showing up to tell the humans what the gods have to say because the gods themselves are too busy being petty jerks to do it themselves.

The Angel’s Code of Conduct

Magnus: You go in fully dressed? Don't you at least want to change into a...swimming tunic or something?

Pit: Oh, no no no! The angel's code of conduct says that we must always be ready for duty.

Magnus: I guess you wouldn't be an angel if you didn't do things by the book. (src)

Pit: Hey! You know the angel's code of conduct! I need to be prepared at all times! (src)

another random little thing is the angel’s code of conduct. without a larger sample size, we can’t know if it’s a real thing or just an excuse to save on laundry, but apparently it’s against the rules to not be on call at all times. in pit’s case, the duty he has to be ready for is doing palutena’s dirty work, but it can easily mean just about anything— including, of course, being a messenger.

No Warrior

Chariot Master: But you are no warrior, angel. Tell me, why do you fight?

Pit: I fight for Lady Palutena. And I fight for the people under her protection!

Chariot Master: That's not reason enough for an angel. (src)

remember how i said there was something else weird about pit? the chariot master seems to think angels aren’t very prone to battle— or perhaps even that they’re actively opposed to it. this lines up well with the idea that they’re supposed to be messengers, peaceful go-betweens for gods and mortals. this does not line up well with pit, the adorable weapon of mass destruction.

and it also does absolutely nothing to explain the question driving the whole existence of this post.

you know what does kinda lean towards an explanation?

No Other Angels

Pit: Do all gods have their own angels, like you have me?

Palutena: No, I don't think that's necessarily the case. (src)

i said before that the Intern Pit conversation had the most illuminating information on angels. this is what i was actually referring to. on its own, it’s pretty innocuous, but it’s just as weird as the magnus line. shouldn’t pit know about other angels, seeing as he is one himself? but he doesn’t know if there are other angels.

the only angels we ever see are him and his clone. no one ever directly references the existence of other angels, they only make general statements about what angels as a whole are like— statements which clearly don’t apply to pit, meaning they’re not just extrapolating based on the one angel that definitely does exist.

the one time someone does comment on the hypothetical existence of other angels, palutena gives a vague answer to the tune of “no,” the topic is changed, and no one brings it up again.

let’s go over everything i’ve established about angels up to this point. they can fly, they’re peaceful messengers of the gods, and pit is the only one that seems to exist as of the start of KIU.

it should be pretty obvious at this point what answer i’m dancing around, if it wasn’t obvious from the start. pit is the only angel around because all the other ones are dead. the reason why magnus said what he did is that his thought process went something like this:

See an angel.

Think “Aren’t angels extinct? Is that a ghost? Am I a ghost? I sure hope not.“

Make a quip about that.

Move on with his life, because he isn’t dead and evidently neither is this guy.

i’m not gonna pretend i went into this post with the intent of any other conclusion to that mystery. anyone who’s bothered glancing over a plot summary for the original kid icarus can draw that conclusion. it’s certainly what i did, reinforced by fics by people who had the same thought!

the truth, however, is that this was all a trick to get you to read my analysis of the theoretical nature of angels as a race. now that you’re invested, i’m going to dramatically throw aside my cape and reveal my TRUE FORM: telling people that fandom consensus is wrong, and my ideas are cooler and better than everyone else’s and you should all throw roses at my feet and bow before your king.

(or just, y’know, take it as the subjective analysis that it is. whatever floats your boat.)

Hot Takes

the original kid icarus does not actually tell you about angels going extinct. here’s the wiki article with the full text of the backstory, just for convenience, so you know what i’m on about for the rest of this post.

so, the part of the story that i think gets misinterpreted is this part about palutena’s army.

Medusa led a surprise attack on Palutena's army which could barely fend off the attack. Palutena's army suffered major losses and was heavily defeated in the final battle.

specifically, i think a lot of people interpret said army as having been made up at least partly of angels. sure, in the actual game it consists entirely of centurions, but you have to take old NES games with a grain of salt. i know i don’t buy for a second that pit was part of palutena’s guard before the original game (he was just too goddamn young), there’s nothing wrong with reinterpreting things.

recall everything i established about angels already, though. this is the hot official lore, from the game everyone knows and loves. angels are messengers, and if the chariot master is to be believed, never warriors. pit is an outlier. palutena’s army consists of centurions, not angels. if medusa wiped them out, it wasn’t because they were fighting for palutena.

(and honestly, i don’t think angels are necessarily associated with palutena exclusively. sure, she’s got the wing imagery, and she’s got the one known surviving angel working for her, at least up until pittoo is born. but angels are messengers of the gods, not messengers of palutena. again, pit is an outlier.)

which all brings us to the real question of this post.

what the FUCK happened to all the other angels? why is there only pit? why does magnus act surprised to see a messenger of the gods, and make a quip about being dead, if not because angels are otherwise extinct?! WHO KILLED THEM, AND WHY?!

thus concludes the “over analyzing one-off lines“ show. see you next, uh, maybe at some point if i feel like it!

(also another thought i had but couldn’t find room to fit it in properly: the gods don’t really act like angels are all extinct, but i feel like that can be explained through the sheer scale of a god’s lifespan. if we assume they were wiped out sometime around the original kid icarus (even if not as palutena’s army) then that’s a whole twenty-five years. that’s a long time for us humans, but for a god, that might as well be last tuesday. “yeah, i know what angels are like. sure wish i could have one. too bad palutena’s got a monopoly on the one single angel that medusa didn’t manage to wreck.”)

#kid icarus #kid icarus uprising #the things i think of at five am #i am just yelling and spewing thoughts and theories and headcanons #if anyone has their own thoughts to add go right ahead i am dying to know whether or not i'm actually breaking new ground with all this #or if there's some vital lore i missed #or anything like that #i am OPEN for CONVERSATION

[theconstantsidekick]

The Avengers ft. Static (1) | s.r

Pairings: Steve Rogers x Stark!Reader, Past Steve Rogers x Peggy Carter (briefly mentioned)

Genre: Fluff I guess.

Summary: Steve's finally awake from his hibernation. And as expected, he doesn't get his moment of calm cause someone is here to recruit him to go fight another war... with ALIENS.

(These scenes incorporate y/n, codename—Static, into the pre-existing story as a character without making drastic changes to the plot or mythos. All the major plot points from the MCU remain in place with the addition of the reader as Static, who is not only a Stark but also enhanced. Whatever events from the canon aren’t mentioned, take place without much change.)

Warnings: Swearing.

a/n: read Age of Ultron (ft. Static) to get a better backstory. Not necessary but recommended.

sidenote: here’s the pinterest board and spotify playlist if you’re interested.

The Avengers ft. Static (2) | Series Masterlist | Age of Ultron (Static Origin Story) | Static Verse Masterlist | The Falcon, The Winter Soldier and Static | Iron Man 1 (ft. Static) | Bucky Barnes, the Boyfriend

“What did that poor punching bag ever do to you?” A voice rings out from a couple feet to his left.

When he turns to look at the owner of said voice, it’s a woman. Probably one of the most beautiful women he’s seen since—

She’s standing at the entrance of the gym, at the wide-open caged door. She’s staring at the punching bag Steve just hit hard enough to not just burst open spilling its contents but also fly off into the hinges… literally. Her face is contorted in something akin to curiosity while she stands there exuding a sense of ease and confidence, Steve himself still hasn’t been able to master.

Her ensemble of a navy blue pantsuit with a shiny grey tie, adds to her air of eerie calm surrounding her.

She’s a small little thing compared to him, most people are. Yet she seems… more prominent than he has ever managed to feel.

“I don’t mean to be rude, but do I know you?” He asks, head cocking to the side.

“Ehhh,” she makes a face that resembles assent before adding, “well… during our last encounter you were quite… frozen. So no. Not consciously at least.” She begins walking towards him.

Oh.

Of course.

People like her don’t seem so sure of themselves unless they really are that sure of themselves.

And she holds herself like someone who is very sure of herself. So Steve guesses—

“You work for S.H.I.E.L.D.?” He asks, beginning to walk towards the bench next to him, matching her pace.

“Reluctantly,” she replies, with a scoff. “But yes… Having trouble sleeping?”

He begins unwrapping the kumpur off his hands. “I slept for seventy years, ma’am. I think I’ve had my fill.”

She tsks at him, clicking her tongue. “Please don’t call me ma’am,” she dismisses him. “But if sleeping’s not your thing… maybe you should try looking for someone to sleep with,” she adds with a small smirk.

And all Steve has as a response is stunned silence.

What the hell happened when he was on ice?

She chuckles lightly at his wide eyes, waving her hand and brushing him off. “As a celebration, I mean… Or maybe go out? See the world?”

He’s finally able to move again from whatever paralysis that comment had put him under. He pushes the soft white fabric of his kumpur into the bag that rests at the edge of the bench. “I went under, the world was at war, I wake up, they say we won. They didn't say what we lost.”

Her slow measured steps bring her to a stop to his right. Her hands finally come out from behind her revealing a file, as she says, “Well, unfortunately, Captain, that kind of righteousness went out of business a long time ago.”

“Maybe that’s the whole problem,” he retorts.

Her smile doesn’t falter at his biting tone, only grows. “Maybe that’s why I’m here.”

“You here with a mission, ma’am?” He asks.

“Again, Captain… Please. Don’t call me ‘ma'am,” she looks genuinely annoyed at the use of the word, “you really make me feel my age..” Did you forget who you’re talking to? He thinks, a little amused, as she opens the folder in her hand, extending it towards him. “And yes.”

“Fury’s way of getting me back into the world?” Steve asks, accepting it and sitting down.

“Well… he’d tell you it’s his way to save it.” The way she says it makes it sound like she doesn’t believe it.

As his eyes scan the document, he feels a horrible churning feeling in his stomach. ‘Cause apparently his sacrifice be damned; this stupid cube will not leave him alone. “Hydra's secret weapon.”

“Howard fished it out of the ocean when he was in there looking for you,” she says, ever so casually. It almost sounds like she knew him. He can’t help but look at her intently as the words escape her pretty mouth. Steven! Shut up. He looks back down at the file. “Fury will tell you it could be the key to unlimited sustainable energy or some such.” She moves her head in annoyed indignation. “I have a tendency of tuning him out when he’s spewing bullshit.”

He looks at her curiously.

Back in his day, agents didn’t usually talk about their Directors with this much disdain, this publicly. But then again, his days were a long, long time ago.

“Anyway, it’s been taken now,” she says jovially, running a hand through her hair. She seems almost uninterested in this whole thing.

“By whom?” He asks, handing the folder back to her.

She accepts it easily. “This stupid alien dude, Loki…” AN ALIEN? Really? What? Men with Red Skulls wasn’t weird enough? “You’ve got a lot to catch up on. World’s been getting a lot stranger since you decided to make your debut…” she pauses for a cunning smile, “and well, your swift exit.”

Ouch.

He might have been frozen but his heart’s not.

“At this point, I doubt anything could surprise me,” he throws back, getting up and picking up his bag.

“Ten bucks says you’re wrong,” she says as he picks up a punching bag over his shoulder. “There’s a debriefing packet waiting for you back at your apartment.”

“And what, you just expect me to jump back in? I gave everything up for this world once already. What makes you think I’ll do it again?” He asks as he begins to walk away.

There’s a slight pause and then, “...Peggy Carter.” And the moment she says it, Steve’s steps halt. “Based on the stories she told about you—if the world’s in danger, you come running.”

He drops the punching bag off his shoulder, resting it on his side as he turns back to look at her. “You knew Pe—”

She cuts him off, walking in his direction. “Maybe I did,” she shrugs, “Or maybe I’m lying to get to see the disastrously gorgeous man smile.” She smiles at him sweetly, as she walks by. His body turns to follow her motions with his gaze. “Who knows? Why don’t you come find out?”

“Will you at least give me a name?” He yells out.

“You’re going to have to earn it, Captain.”

And with that, she’s gone.

Read the next part here. Find other static verse works here. Find her origin story here.

tag list: @freeflyingphoenix @aryksworld @jakey-stan @arikarapli @justab-eautifulmess @agent-laufeyson @agentmstark @ceo-of-daichi @eccentricxem @asimovethroughthisworld @paintballkid711 @fairlygothparents @starkleila @heyitsmereading @jn-wolf

#avengers x you #avengers fic #avengers imagine #avengers fanfiction #avengers fanfic #avengers x y/n #avengers x reader #marvel imagine #avengers series #mcu x reader #mcu imagine #marvel x reader #marvel fic #mcu fic #steve rogers series #steve rogers fluff #steve rogers x stark!reader #steve rogers x reader #steve rogers x y/n #marvel imagines #marvel x you #marvel fanfic #avengers x stark!reader #stark!reader #tony stark x stark!reader #tony stark fic #steve rogers x you #steve rogers imagine #avengers au #static verse

[anarchy2021]

PSA Day! (Rp etiquette)

{ID: A person standing next to a flipchart. They're thin, and have medium-length brown hair, pale skin, and dark brown ears. The ears are angled horizontally. They're wearing thin-rimmed glasses, and their expression reads as confident. Their hair is partially tied up in a bun. They also have a long tail the same brown as their ears, with brown fur the same color as their hair on the end. They're wearing black trousers, a black waistcoat with a white shirt underneath. Additionally, a black overcoat with gold edges is draped over their shoulders. The inner lining of the overcoat is red, and partially visible behind the person. They have their right hand on their hip, and with their left hand, they're holding a stick up to the flipchart, which reads "RP 101 :)". The 101 is underlined. END ID.}

Greetings! You may not recognize me (unless you were watching the debate perhaps, then, sup) as I admit I’ve been a bit…. Behind the scenes as it were (as secretary of VOID there is a lot of looking at the void, usual routine for me mhm mhm). Regardless, I’m Days (or Nights, either or) and for today’s PSA I’m here (along with some words from our recently freed from totally-not-prison president, Graphite, at a later date) to talk to you about roleplay! More specifically, rp etiquette and terms and how that relates to the DSMP and how it should be talked about. 

Now now, you might be wondering “oh but what is your experience?” Glad you asked! I’m a long term text rper with over 5 years of experience- and my main avenues of rp are rps similar in structure to that of the DSMP- long term improv driven sandboxes that also have important events planned ahead of time in some regard but are often player driven most of the time. Now, let’s get into it!

Head writers/admins

Let’s start off with a pretty hot topic regarding the server, which is the existence of a ‘head writer’ (usually in reference to Mr. Soot). Now, mainy take this as meaning quite literally a writer- like in a show, but, with what information we have I think it’s safe to say he’s not really that and more along the lines of an rp admin/head. The admin’s main purpose is to keep things structured and organized, as well as putting together the events they’re in charge of. This is pretty much how everyone treats the man anyways, BUT, while an admin is in charge of a lot they do NOT have the final say over everything, particularly in regards to the characters and their players. 

Players in an rp for the most part have full control over their characters (within reason and the confines of the rp setting) and an admin enforcing their will onto a character (such as enforcing certain backstory choices that don’t seem particularly wanted. For example, the fridge with c!Phil) is often frowned upon unless there is a good reason for it and discussed with the rper. 

It is also notable that just because there is an admin, that doesn’t mean they’re the sole writer/organizer/etc. It is not at all uncommon for specific subplots and or other important events to be headed by players involved in it in this type of rp. This can be seen in practice with how the Eggpire plotline was headed by BBH and the prison plotline was mainly written by Dream and Tommy. 

Summary:

- head writer/admins do not and should not control everything

- organise and structure events

- players might admin their own smaller plots within a rp

Narrative consequences

Now, another hot topic- especially in regards to character discourse (my abhorred personally). Narrative consequences. These are generally referred to when someone thinks a character is not getting the consequences for their actions in the story that they should, or (more rarely in my experience) when they feel a character is being punished too hard for their actions. While this is an understandable feeling to have, at the end of the day narrative consequences just aren’t much of a thing in roleplay, at least not to the same extent as a book or tv show. 

This is for one simple reason, consequences rely on the character’s actions and how they respond to others around them, if a character does not feel like it’s fit to react or if it angers their character- it is 100% within their right to respond accordingly. 

However, there is also an argument that can be made if a character responds to something in a way that doesn’t align with a character’s usual actions. For a personal example, one time in a rp I was playing a character who was intervening when another character was being hurt, however, my character was met with scorn from being somewhat aggressive regarding it- I felt that this was unfair as none of these character showed the same scrutiny to characters who did worse things, and none of these characters had been established as hypocrites. 

This grudge lasted the entire rp until my character died. This is a point where believing that the consequences to a character are unjust is more or less fair, but, a character simply not getting immediately smited or a character getting scorn is not automatically a point against the character, especially since an rper cannot reasonably make their fellow rpers react a certain way.  

Summary:

- narrative consequences are not the same in RP as in other mediums

- can't force characters to react, or force players to react in a way they don't feel is fit

- but can critique RP if things feel unfairly ooc/inconsistent

Retcons

Next up, retcons. What is a retcon? It’s short for retroactive continuity, in essence it’s when in a piece of media something is changed retroactively- such as a character’s personality, how an event occurred, etc. for an outsider audience perspective retcons are often looked upon unfavorably, as it’s changing something already established which can cause friction among those attached to certain ideas, but in reality retcons are both a neutral concept and fairly normal to occur in rps. 

Rps are (generally) not professional writing, they’re things made up on the fly with perhaps a base to work off of (and depending on the rp, not even that. However in the rps I’ve done we generally had character sheets and the like for backstories and all) and thus sometimes mistakes happen. One of the main causes for minor retcons is when details are confused or left out that would have realistically affected the situation or how characters would have responded to it, unless in severe cases these usually happen on the spot and don’t cause much of a fuss. 

Major retcons often fall along the lines of players and how they choose to present their character. This is especially common when a player is using a character for the first time or even if they’re just new to an rp in general, sometimes as we rp we simply decide to take things in a new direction and sometimes that direction may cause things already established to be retconned, even if not outright stated. 

A good example of this is the enderwalk with c!Ranboo, the enderwalk as it was first introduced is very different than it is portrayed now, likely as a result of Ranboo taking a new direction with his character since then. More widespread retcons may happen if people are unhappy with a certain plot thread, in this case an example would be the canon status of SBI, Wilbur used to push it but Techno (and later Phil) didn’t want it to be canon, so anything about it previously said has been soundly retconned. 

In my own case character retcons very often happen to me when I first use an oc, as the character takes a different shape than what I put on the paper in practice, even sometimes within the same rp (one of my first ocs was practically unrecognizable as the same character in the beginning of an rp as compared to even just a few weeks later).

So, retcons are fine and normal to occur, but, like I said- they’re neutral. A retcon can very well be done poorly and cause problems. This is mainly in issue with retcons made that affect highly established and built upon aspects without discussion with all those who’d be effected, this can cause confusion, plot holes and cause characters to be in a weird limbo if they don’t know how to have their character act without whatever was retconned. Major retcons need to be discussed in order to prevent these problems, and in some cases should be avoided entirely- instead it being better to work for a compromise and rework events rather than removing them. 

Summary:

- retcons are normal and neutral

- small retcons happened frequently in RP to help keep things going in an improv heavy medium. Usually unnoticeable

- large retcons tend to have with new players, or if the story is taking a new direction.

- large retcons require a lot of communication, and sometimes whould be avoided, instead working to compromise and rework the direction of the RP

Metagaming and godmodding

Metagaming and godmodding are two very important terms to know for rp etiquette and if you’ve done any rping you’ve probably seen these words thrown around in rules lists and such already. These are both ultimately negative things that should be avoided at all costs. What are they? Metagaming is when you use information that you know OOC and use it IC even though your character should not have that information. Godmodding is when a character is taken over by another person for one reason or another against the player’s will- such as having a character react to something without letting the actual rper do it. 

The former is a big issue when it comes to discussion of the DSMP and how people interact with it, mainly in the chat and donos. When you are trying to get a character to react to information that they shouldn’t have you are trying to get them to metagame, which is heavily frowned upon in an RP. This is also important to note in discussion, a character not responding to certain important events is not a mark against them if the character has no way of even knowing what was going on, or would not reasonably respond to it with the information they have. 

Summary:

- both frowned upon

- god modding is taking over someone elses character

- metagaming is using out of character information to do in character acting

- Meta gaming is relevant to DSMP particular in how it relates to donos and chats. Don't encourage meta-gaming

All of these factors are important to consider when discussing the DSMP and it’s narrative, it’s not going to function the same as other forms of media nor should it- as once you go in that direction you’re competing with the big boys over at tv and at that point things would fall apart. Improv and it’s unique variables is what makes the DSMP, and anything else like it, special and interesting to follow!

#dsmp #dreamsmp #rp etiquette #mcytblr elections #anarchy2021 #mcytblr election 2021 #PSA day #art by Days #long post #editted by zaph :] #first post from yours truly #(thats days not zaph... i post a lot i will not shut up <3)

[manonblaqkbeak]

Fire and Ice

hello, hope you’re all doing well. i’m doing a double feature today since its the 20th here in aus. so todays fic is for day 19 and 20 (like, if u squint lol).

its a lil bit more angsty then i planned for it to be in the beginning, but its got some fluff at the end. (also, again, i borrowed the 10 month pregnancy plot from acotar)

1.9k words

enjoy!

The bathroom tiles were cool against Aelin's clammy skin as she slowed her breathing. As she willed herself to stop feeling so dizzy.

Four months into her first pregnancy and Aelin soon came to realise what the worst part of pregnancy; the morning sickness.

Or, as Aelin liked to call it, 'whenever it rutting happened' sickness. Morning, midnight, dawn, she often found herself running towards a bathroom, emptying her stomach loudly for the whole damned kingdom to hear.

She was aware of the rumours flying around, that there were friendly bets going throughout the city as to whether or not Terrasen was going to have a prince or princess (apparently, the majority were betting for a boy, but Aelin didn't care what she had, as long as they were healthy), but neither her or Rowan confirmed the pregnancy, and so the rumours stayed as gossip, until she and Rowan were comfortable enough to officially announce it.

Aelin wanted to wait because of how hard it was to conceive—it had taken her and Rowan over three years to be successful, and while she knew that three years wasn't that long, it was still hard when nothing happened—and was scared that if she said it out loud, then something horrible would happen. She hadn't even told her friends, although she knew that they knew; the rumours would have reached them. She appreciated that they hadn't asked either of them. Other than Rowan, the only other person that knew of her pregnancy was her personal healer, Magnolia. Other than Yrene, the demi-Fae was a healer than Aelin felt comfortable around, because even after a decade later, she still had nightmares about her time in Maeve and Cairn's cruel hands, the never ending chain of healers coming to fix her so she could be tortured again and again.

Rowan wanted to wait because of everything that happened to Lyria and their child. There were many nights when Aelin would wake up and find Rowan just watching her, his hand against her slowly growing stomach, and not only could she see the pain in his eyes as he thought back on what happened all those centuries ago, she could also feel it, like a living thing. Aelin knew that Rowan did his best to stop her from sensing his dread, but she wasn't a fool, and she would have known how he was feeling even if they didn't have the bond between them, even if she was miles away, she would know.

The bathroom door opened and Rowan was helping her up, his hands warm and gentle against her clammy skin.

Aelin was far too tired to ask if one of her handmaids called for Rowan after Aelin ran from their shared closest and into the bathroom, or if he felt her distress through the bond.

It was probably both. She would ask once her head stopped spinning.

Resting her head against her mate's chest, Aelin breathed in his scent, letting the pine-and-snow of him calm her senses. His strong arms wrapped around her, his tattooed hand running up and down the length of her spine as his right hand was a steady presence against her lower back.

How long they stayed like that, Aelin wasn't sure, but once her head stopped spinning, she rinsed her mouth out to get rid of the pungent vomit taste that was lingering. Once satisfied that the taste was gone, Aelin let Rowan lead her to bed—not the closest.

“Rowan—” she started to say, but her husband cut her off.

“That was a strong one, and Magnolia said that it's best to rest afterwards.” So he felt it through the bond, then. “I'll take over, and you can stay in and read that book you've been eyeing all week.”

She should say no, that she was fine, but a day of rest did sound nice and probably something she desperately needed without knowing it—and she really had been wanting to read the book that Dorian had sent her the other week (which she had to write a detailed review of when she sent it back. It was one of her favourite past times, especially if it was a book that Dorian loved, but she didn't particularly like, because his response to her review was always the most dramatic thing that always made her laugh).

“Fine,” Aelin said, “I'll rest and you can go deal with Head Teacher of the Academy.”

Rowan groaned at the mention. The Fae male that ruled the magic school was nice, but just so damned pedantic that he had a say about everything. And everything was falling apart, according to him, despite the fact that the school was built only five years ago. “I swear,” Rowan grumbled, “that if he complains to me that the school halls aren't the right shade of brown, I'll throw him out the window.”

Aelin laughed, because she had said the same thing when the male had come around complaining that the roof tiles were crooked last month and she had sent Rowan to check on said tiles (and what a surprise to absolutely no one that the tiles weren't at all crooked), but that wasn't enough for the Head Teacher, when he came back the next week, he wanted the tiles replaced.

If he wasn't so damned talented and good with children and running the school, she would have had him fired for being a nuisance. But unfortunately, neither she or Rowan couldn't just get rid of him because he was annoying.

“Make sure that your shirt is tucked in neatly, or you'll get the same speech about cleanliness like last time.”

Rowan flared his nostrils at that, but said nothing as he got up and changed his crumpled tunic for a fresh one—not at all tucked in—and began his fussing.

Truthfully, she was surprised that he lasted that long.

He left her a glass of water, and a pitcher full of the liquid on her nightstand, and the bowl of seasonal fruit next to it. Next was opening the balcony doors to let in the fresh air, and then the fluffing of pillows and straightening of the quilt and bed sheets—Aelin may have teased him a little by saying that the sheets were too tight, and then too loose, having to bite her lip to stop herself from laughing as he huffed at her ever-changing mind, until she decided that the sheets were just right after five minutes of readjusting.

Aelin watched it all with a small smile on her face, even as she grumbled about his fussing tendencies—but she knew he did it from a place of love, and that he wanted her and the baby to be comfortable.

He even went as far as to check her forehead, and gave her a wash cloth to freshen her up from her earlier sweating. At least she was already in a cotton nightgown and didn't have to get changed—although she knew that if she had too, Rowan would have brought the clothes over himself.

Once he was satisfied that Aelin was comfortable, he left with a kiss on the lips and a promise that he would see her once he was free, Aelin cracked open the book, but fell asleep thirty minutes later with an unexpected headache, a hand on her stomach.

X X X X X X

It was a rare day when Rowan had an empty afternoon, there was always someone to see, something to do, someone to write back to, that when Rowan finished his meeting with the Lords and Ladies of Terrasen and there was no one waiting for him in the audience chamber, Rowan was the first to leave the meeting, needing to check on Aelin. He hated how pale she looked when he left, but when he spoke to Magnolia quickly, the skilled healer told him that it was perfectly normal, but she would check in on Aelin to make sure that everything was okay—and since he wasn't called for during any of his meetings, he took that as a sign that things were fine.

The fact that the bond was quiet also assured him. He had tugged on it during at some point when one of the Lords was rambling, and he got a tired tug back, effectively telling him that Aelin was sleeping. So he let her be, and he sat in his worried state alone.

Rowan was excited for the baby, to take this step with Aelin, but Gods, he'd also hadn't been this tense, this paranoid that something was going to happen in so long. Rowan didn't think he'd feel like himself until he held their child in his arms, but Aelin still had six months to go.

And sometimes...sometimes he found himself wondering about the child he lost with Lyria. What they would have looked liked, if they would have been tall and broad like him, or slim like her. He also wondered how long their child would have been safe before Maeve claimed the child, having them trained to be a warrior like Rowan, or if Maeve would have cast them aside like she had done to Lyria, who Maeve saw as nothing but a pawn to use and toss aside.

His thoughts kept spiralling, his mind going from one thing and another, but stopped when he heard the sloshing of water and a relived sigh once he got closer to his rooms. He made his way through the space and soon came to the bathroom where Aelin was resting against the porcelain tub. Her skin was a light pink from the hot water, but otherwise looked healthy.

Rowan just stood and watched her for a moment and let the contentment from the bond wash over him. The steam danced through the air, carrying Aelin's scent with it, and the indescribable scent of their child within her.

“Are you going to stand there all afternoon?” Aelin asked, her eyes still closed, “or are you going to join me?”

Rowan decided to join her, managing to hold back his wince as he made contact with the boiling water—how Aelin found the hot as hell water relaxing he would never know.

When he was comfortably behind her, Aelin leaned against his chest, and took his hands and placed them against her growing belly.

“Magnolia visited me a few hours ago,” she said. “She says that soon the nausea will pass.”

“Good,” he said, letting the words settle in him.

Rowan was about to lean back against the bath when Aelin's fire filled the air in thin ribbons, moving as smoothly as water as it flew past him. His own magic moved in response, and soon his ice and wind joined her fire, going around the room, filling it up with the differences in temperature. And from the tub, a water butterfly the size of Aelin's palm lifted into the air, its movements delicate but strong as it came towards him. Aelin turned to look at him, her brows furrowed lightly in concentration.

The butterfly came to rest on his nose, and then exploded in his face.

Aelin laughed at his incredulous expression. Rowan shot forward and flicked water in her face, and soon almost all of the bath water was on the floor as they splashed at each other back and forth.

Rowan's troubles melted away with his ice and Aelin forgot about all of her nausea and stress temporarily.

Aelin couldn't wait to meet her baby, and she knew that Rowan was the same.

Six months couldn't come soon enough.

#rowaelin #rowaelinmonth #my work

[carlyraejcpsen]

alright, i’ve tried to keep quiet because i truly believe in karma and wanted this rp to close through the admin’s own actions and not give them any opportunities to blame it on me instead. it also felt like beating a dead horse, because i was sure they’d close the rp after losing a huge proportion of their active members and the majority of their diversity. however, after seeing multiple people sharing their experiences today, they are still posting promo posts and starting their event. so yeah, here’s my experience with @thevillagerp​​

NOTE: i no longer have screenshots from my conversations with the admins, as i blocked them when i left the rp for the sake of my own mental health, but i did save the text in my drafts, so the messages below are copy pasted. i have not edited them in any way. They also deleted my original anonymous messages off of their blog.

TRIGGER WARNINGS: racism, very vague allusions to homophobia and transphobia

so i was a member of this roleplay for around two months. during my time there, it was startlingly obvious that white fcs were preferred and prioritised, both from the fact that they got more plots and interactions in general and from the fact that admins never promoted diversity on the main. even now, they repeatedly say they “would still love to receive some more male and non-binary apps” while ignoring that they currently have a ratio of 8 fcs of colour to 24 white fcs. their diversity rules at the time were that 1/3 of a mun’s characters had to be played by an fcoc. so people could easily just play one or two white characters.

a while ago, i sent an anonymous message to the main asking if they had considered perhaps changing this rule to be 2/3 characters instead of 1/3, since there were so few muses of colour in the roleplay (as i said before, they’ve since deleted this from their blog so i cannot provide a screenshot). they responded that they had been thinking of upping the character limit to four instead of three, with a rule that 2/4 must be played by an fcoc. i gave them the benefit of the doubt and the time to enact this change, but nothing happened.

so a few weeks later, i sent them this message on anonymous:

I was wondering if you had thought any more about the diversity rules here? I know you said before that you were considering increasing the character limit, but I noticed that hasn’t happened and I wanted to know if that was a change we’re going to see or if you would consider changing the rules in another way? I’m really disheartened by the lack of diversity in the roleplay

at the time there were 18 characters of colour out of a total of over 60. they responded (again, i’m sorry i don’t have the actual wording since they’ve deleted the messages) that they had thought about it and decided against upping the character limit, but instead would be having a weekly “poc acceptance day,” where they would only be accepting apps with fcs of colour. they also said they were doing this “now that the waitlist was mostly cleared,” which meant that the rp was mostly at capacity anyway, so they needed to look more at how to encourage their existing members to promote diversity, since there weren’t spaces open for new people to bring them in.

i responded with another anon expressing my disappointment and pointing out that they had done more to prevent having too many celebrity characters than too few muses of colour, as at the time they had a ban on celebrity muses. i wouldn’t usually suggest a ban on certain fcs, but as it was something they had done for celebrity characters, then i supposed it was a reasonable option.

they didn’t even respond to this message and instead posted on the main asking me to come off anon to discuss it. so i did, and i sent them the following dm:

i didn’t want to come off anon because i honestly feel really ostracised in this group and didn’t want to make it worse, but i don’t want to drop this issue and you aren’t comfortable addressing it publicly so here we are i guess. like i said in my previous message, i really don’t see how a “poc acceptance day” is going to make anywhere near enough of a difference. people will just wait for the opportunity to play their white characters. there are only 18 characters of colour in a roleplay with over 60 characters. that’s less than a third, which is obviously concerning. what’s even more concerning for me is that these characters are more often than not overlooked. i am often ghosted when plotting, or people don’t even reach out at all when i like plotting calls or intro posts. and then i have to watch characters like leo almost exclusively interact with white women (i’m sure that’s not the only example, but it is the first that comes to mind as he is one of the more active characters).

so this issue goes so much deeper than there just not being adequate representation in the rp. i really tried to help, i suggested making it a rule that 2/3 characters need to be poc in my original ask and you mentioned upping the character limit in response. i was worried that my concerns were being brushed aside, but i waited a while to give you the benefit of the doubt and the space to discuss the issue. so you can understand why it was really upsetting today to learn that the one thing you suggested was dropped and instead replaced with something that is barely scratching the surface of the problem. and i don’t know if it was your intention, but by saying that you were waiting for the waitlist to clear, it comes across as not wanting to receive any backlash from people who would want to join with only white characters. and even if people did want to join with faceclaims of colour, they can’t because the waitlist is cleared. like i suggested, you could change the rules so that 2 out of 3 characters must be people of colour. or, as was your proposed idea, up the character limit to four. you could also put a temporary ban on white faceclaims until the ratio evens out. as i mentioned, it’s really distressing that this was something you were willing to do for celebrity characters, but not to aid diversity.

i also just want to make it clear that these have been the only anons i’ve sent, i know you’ve been getting other ones, but those weren’t from me!!

( for context, they were receiving anons from someone else claiming that they felt left out in the rp ).

i had hoped that coming off anon would show them that this was a very real issue which was affecting their members, as well as giving them a space to discuss it privately instead of on the main. they responded with:

Hi Em, thank you for coming forward. We really, really appreciate it and we understand it’s not an easy thing to do. We also appreciate you flying the flag for diversity so strongly. We can always strive to be better, we are on the same page with you here.

Let us just explain our decision making. Firstly, just to address the waitlist, that was certainly not at all our intention when we brought it up. It was a logistical decision with 5+ applicants having already waited a week for acceptance and aware of their position on a waitlist.

When we decided against upping the character limit (and therefore the 2/4 POC character rule), we thought a POC acceptance day could be a good alternative course of action. In our eyes, this was something that would probably bring more POC characters to the group than the 2/4 rule because we knew there weren’t going to be many muns taking up an additional fourth character. This was a rule we’ve seen other groups enjoy success from so we wanted to try it out here. Plus, we think a day that explicitly highlights diversity every week would bring the message to the forefront of everyone’s minds. As we said, we’re going to monitor this over the next couple of weeks to see if it brings any improvement because we’d really like to have it as an ongoing rule.

The non-POC ban is actually a measure we’ve spoken about too and we are considering putting one in place should this fail. Thank you for raising your concerns, know that we’ve taken them very seriously and we hope that you’ll trust our judgement in trying this rule out first to see where it leads.

first of all, i don’t think i even have to mention the wording of “flying the flag for diversity.” but the real crux of the issue here is that they supposedly wanted me to come off anon to discuss the issue, but instead just explained their idea further and didn’t take anything i said on board. they didn’t even say a single word about how i told them i felt ostracised and regularly got ignored. i knew from speaking to other muns in the rp who played muses of colour (and just from looking at the dash) that they felt the same way too, but of course was only speaking from my own experience.

i thought long and hard about how to respond to this, as i was so disheartened by their unwillingness to listen to their members and the fact that they didn’t care that i felt left out. it felt like they had asked me to come off anon just so they knew who was messaging them and therefore put a target on my back, so honestly the thought of being on the dash or talking to the admins made me incredibly anxious. before i had a chance, however, they responded again with:

Hi hun, we’ve continued discussing this issue over the last couple of days and we wanted to let you know that we’ve decided to put in place a non-POC ban instead. Thank you again for holding a mirror up to the group. We do hope that this will recorrect the balance.

so i waited to see how things would play out. they posted about this new ban here and pinned the post to the top of the main:

[ IMAGE ID: a screenshot from thevillagehq of an admin update, which reads: in the interest of keeping the village a diverse space, we are currently only accepting applications for POCs. please note that any apps or reserves submitted to us for faceclaims that are not POCs will be deleted. we will lift this rule once we see fit.

thank you for your understanding and your efforts in making this group a brighter, more inclusive and diverse place for all. /END ID ]

this rule remained in place for around two weeks, during which time they made almost no effort to promote it. the above post was pinned to the main page, but that was the only mention of the ban anywhere on their page, they didn’t update the rules page or even put a note on the application page about it. during this two week period, the admins posted 10 promo posts, none of which suggested fcs or even mentioned the ban or diversity at all. the ban was then lifted suddenly when the pinned post was removed and the admins just went back to accepting apps with white fcs. the ratio had only evened out in those two weeks (from 18 out of 65 to 24/50) because of people going inactive or leaving, and there was nothing put into place to continue to promote diversity after the lift of the ban. in the three days after the ban was lifted, the admins posted over 10 promo posts, the same amount they had posted during the entirety of the ban. it was clear that they had no intention of actually making changes in their rp and had only done so because i refused to drop the issue.

again, i thought a lot about what i wanted to message them. i knew at this point that they didn’t want to make any real changes, but i still felt like i had to make it clear to them how disappointing their actions were. once again, i was messaged before i even had a chance, this time for bubbling.

as you can see in the above correspondence, i had told the admins point blank that i felt left out and ignored in the rp because of the characters i played (aubrey plaza, mj rodriguez and keiynan lonsdale fcs. all of my characters were queer and used either she/they or they/them pronouns). as a general rule, the only people who wanted to write with me and have interesting plots with me were people who played other muses of colour. the rp had a rule that you must reply to 3+ muns on every character, which i had been doing. i had only been back from my hiatus for a few days at this point and had responded to 6 different open starters the day prior. their message to me read:

Hi hun. There’s something we wanted to address to you directly. It’s been expressed to us by multiple members during these last few weeks that they have felt excluded by your character within the group, especially when it comes to the friend bubble that has formed between Mars, Bowie, Luvena, Asher and others. 

While we encourage the development of friendships and trust that this isn’t intentional, we have a zero tolerance for bubble roleplaying at The Village. We are aware that our three mun activity rules have been met by all parties involved, however, bubbling is usually a little more nuanced than that and it seems it has unfortunately begun to create a bit of a divide within the group. 

We have already issued individual warnings to a few people within the bubble, however with multiple members still expressing their concerns to us, we decided it would be better to address the group as a whole. We hope that by pointing this out to you, you will try and branch out to your fellow members a little more from now on - and try and be a little more inclusive when it comes to everyone else in the group. 

We take such matters very seriously as admins, and while we hope it won’t have to come to this, there will be consequential steps taken should we not see any changes in your interactions in the weeks to come.

as you can imagine, i was incredibly upset to receive this message after already telling them i didn’t get plots from many of their members and they had done nothing. even people who i had previously messaged continued to only write with the same few white characters. i don’t deny that we definitely had a friendship group between our characters, but there were multiple people in that roleplay, including the admins, who only cared about ship plots or plots with the same few muns. me and other people who received the same message had all previously told the admins that people aren’t plotting with us and gotten ignored, so receiving this message made it clear that they neither cared about us nor wanted us in their rp. and so i responded as below:

yeah i literally told you i felt left out because there are multiple people only writing with white characters and you never addressed it, so this message is honestly insulting. i have reached out to almost every new member, responded to multiple open starters and have tried to plot with as many people as possible. like i told you, i am often left on read or people don’t even message me at all. if people do message me, i am usually expected to put in all of the effort and if people aren’t interested in actually developing plots with me then i am obviously not going to force my characters on them. all of my characters are queer, non binary people of colour and the harsh truth of this roleplay is that people don’t care about them. i even wrote out a whole list of 20 detailed suggested connections in an attempt to get more plots and nothing came from that either. i’ve even gotten anonymous hate saying that offering to explain my characters’ pronouns was “patronising,” which i didn’t feel like i could approach you about because, when i told you about how i’m feeling excluded, you didn’t care.

so if i only have actual plots with the people who actually care about my characters, i make no apologies. i also don’t even have threads with half of the characters you named, asher being the only one, and have literally only just come off hiatus. so please explain how i am bubbling, because this really just feels targeted at this point.

you’ve made it endlessly clear that this rp isn’t a safe space for people who want to play diverse characters. the main was practically silent while you had a ban on white faceclaims, which you never actively promoted, and then you dropped that suddenly without putting anything else in place. you also deleted my initial anonymous messages asking about diversity as if you were trying to hide that there was ever an issue. you turned anonymous messages off, so that no one can safely criticise you. because i did that off anon and ever since it has felt like there is a massive target on my back. my characters have been “accidentally” on the activity checks multiple times despite me being on hiatus (people get a notification that they were tagged even if you remove their name from the list btw). plus when i asked for an extension on my hiatus, you said that you would allow it “just this once” which now makes me feel like i can’t come to you if i’m busy. right now, for example, i am in the middle of moving house, but i’m also stressed about trying to stay active because you have made yourselves completely unapproachable.

the ratio only evened out slightly because members left. then suddenly after the ban you’re posting multiple promo posts a day??? you couldn’t get more obvious. i came to you about diversity in good faith, hoping that it was something you were unaware of, but you have made it abundantly clear that you actively do not want to promote diversity in your roleplay, we are just here to be witnesses to your ship. there are multiple members who are actually bubbling who have been brought to your attention, but nothing has been done. leo continues to only write with the same three white and white passing characters. charlotte pretty much only appears to write with leo and post a vague “message me for plots” post that wasn’t even tagged. both of you only put effort into your ship threads with each other and the occasional text threads. even with something like group events: while i’ve been here, there’s been a pride event that neither of your characters were even in new york for (an event where i was the only one reaching out and posting multiple starters, by the way); there was no event last month, and this month all you’re talking about is this housewarming party.

i’m really disheartened that it’s come to this, but i can’t be here anymore. please post unfollows for all my characters. you’ve said multiple times that we should trust you as admins, but this message shows again that i simply can’t do that. from the disregard of trigger warnings, to the way you treated being held accountable for the lack of diversity, to how you respond to people asking for hiatuses, this isn’t a safe space. even if i stayed, the target you have placed on me is making it insufferable to just write my characters in peace.

the other muns who received the same bubbling message (copy pasted btw, we all got the same one word for word) all responded with their own concerns and criticisms in responses of a similar length to mine. none of us received a reply, our unfollows were just posted the next day without any further responses from the admins. a few of the other members who had written and plotted with us chose to leave as well, which the admins wrote off as us just dragging them with us as opposed to them being able to make their own decisions and being aware of the situation (which was incredibly obvious. no promotion of a white fc ban, suddenly being active on the main once they try to stealthily drop the ban, then the majority of their muses of colour leaving???)

i haven’t paid the rp much attention since i left, as i mentioned above i blocked the main and the majority of the members just for my own mental health. but from a quick scroll through today i can see that the only change in diversity rules is that now instead of your third character having to be a poc, it is now your second. however, you still only have to have 1 character out of 3 have a fc of colour. so very little has been done, but of course i’m not surprised in the slightist.

these admins don’t want diversity in their roleplay. if you play any character who isn’t a rich, white, cishet neurotypical, please avoid it at all costs. it’s not in any way a safe environment.

#rpc #rpt #rp #thevillagerp #hope this makes sense i think there's a lot that needs context and hopefully i did a good enough job explaining #sorry to my non rp followers this blog is such a mess

[river-bottom-nightmare]

Nightwing 79 Review

i said i would and i will. i did like this issue! not as striking and attention grabbing as 78, but i think this issue was meant to be a foundation one, laying out the groundwork for the future. overall, pretty good. also there wasn't enough bitewing. as promised, overly extensive metaphors and me reading too much into things under the cut

i know i've talked about this cover before, but this particular thing is oddly important to me, so i'll talk about it again

this is me, once again screaming about how artists put nightwing in traditionally feminine poses and how every time i see it i just get whiplash. i mean, true, the main reason why is because nightwing is a so often sexualized character, and putting him in these poses just increases the objectification, which is a goal that dc producers have. but there are very few popular male characters that do this. the only one i can think of off the top of my head is deadpool, but that was so obviously a critique and a way to make fun of the media industry. when they draw dick like this, they’re being serious. they’re putting him in appealing poses meant to show him off, and that’s something that’s traditionally only been done to women.

it's a very direct and very loud breaking of traditional gender roles in media, especially for a character as high-profile and historic as dick grayson. colour also plays a factor in this. the entire background is pink. i was absolutely shocked when i first saw it, when the teaser came out, because i cannot think of any comic book covers of male comic heroes this high-profile where pink is even just prevalent in the cover, let alone the majority of the cover. the pink does look beautiful: it offsets and highlights the black and blue of dick's suit gorgeously, but does it with more finesse than orange or red. but the fact that the stylistic choice was made to accent and draw this cover with aesthetic and beauty in mind, completely ignoring traditional hard-set gender rules in art, was a conscious choice and one i wholeheartedly support.

just another example of the sexualization i was talking about. i remember seeing harley quinn in this exact pose in suicide squad.

so far, taylor's been pretty dead-set on bringing alfred to the forefront of importance in this series. he wants people to know how much he loves alfred's character, and how much the butler meant to dick growing up. he was dick's father too. but what i adore is how taylor managed to stress alfred's importance in a way that didn't insult or belittle bruce.

this is one of the best bruce and dick interactions i've seen, and it's done in one simple interaction. in this, bruce is tough and harsh. he knocked dick down hard, but then he reached a hand down and helped pull dick back up. let me analyze their dialogue for a minute

on your feet: this is bruce telling dick to get up. he's trained dick, he knows what the younger boy is capable of, he knows his limits, and he knows what dick can do. this is bruce telling dick i know you're strong enough to get up, so get up and prove me right

are you just going to knock me down again?: surface-level, it looks like dick's complaining. he doesn't like bruce's rough training, and he's tired of bruce knocking him down. but look at his face in this. he's smiling up at bruce, knowledgeable and a little hopeful. he knows that bruce is doing this to help dick better himself, he's completely on board with the rough training, because they both know the rewards are incredible. also, he's teasing. he's bantering with bruce. there's an ease in that joking statement, one that belies affection and intimacy. they've only known each other for a little bit, but they're already slipping into a close familial relationship.

it depends on how fast you learn: this is bruce bantering back. this is bruce not being a stoic, unfeeling asshole. instead, he's shown with the dry humor that a good batman writer knows is a staple of the character. he's teasing dick, telling him he'll basically whoop his ass if dick doesn't learn fast enough. it's incentive for dick to train harder, while also being lighthearted enough to tell dick that believes in dick and doesn't want him to push himself too hard.

gosh i love the titans. also it looks like wally's staring at dick's ass.

this was cute. a prod at dick's silly and playful sense of humor, while not dumbing him down for the sake of a laugh. instead, he's joking about food, which is stuff everyone jokes about. this is the kind of stuff that'll actually make me laugh, instead of just making me vaguely uncomfortable.

bludhaven's almost always portrayed as a cesspool of a city. and to be honest, it really is. but this panel gives the city a meaningful history, while also giving us a reason for why dick moved there.

it talks of a time when people still thought they could beat the monsters. that if they fought hard enough, they could win the fight. it was a tentative hope that you could always overcome hardship.

dick's little "i like that it's still standing" shows how he still believes that, despite what the rest of the world thinks. despite everything that he's been through, dick is still tentatively an optimist, and believes he can fight the monsters of the world and win. it's a beautiful testament to his character, and i'm like that they added his signature element of hope back in. it used to be what he symbolized as robin, and despite his growth and character arc from robin to nightwing, this is one aspect of robin that i'm glad nightwing still has.

remember when i said "things that make me vaguely uncomfortable??" yeahhhh,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Shooketh Dick: A Sequel

(the expressions in this series are just,,,,on point)

this was an incredibly sweet and kindhearted thing for dick to do, but i found it kind of,,,,,,,,desperate? maybe that's just me, but let me explain.

dick's suddenly a billionaire, and he has entirely too much money that he knows what to do with. it's also alfred's money, what the man left to him, so dick forever links it with alfred. in addition to that, he's back and bludhaven and looking at it with "fresh" eyes. (at least, from a different point of view since he got shot in the head. then mind controlled.) he's desperate to do something with the money and he's desperate to help the people around him that so obviously needs up, so he comes up with an on-the-fly solution that's a little impractical and a little crazy, but it still helps and still does some good.

to me, dick seems a little lost. he hasn't completely found his balance yet, and he's trying to do things that will. he tries charity, because that's what bruce did and it's what he knows, even though he admitted that he always thought bruce could have done more as bruce wayne than batman.

they have a family group chat guys yall were right.

also, do i think that dick would ever actually get his wallet stolen?? no way in hell, he’d notice someone getting ready to pickpocket him a mile away. but i suppose it’s important to the Plot. 

okay this is getting interesting. first blockbuster, now maroni (+ the weird heart stealer guy). i can officially say that i am intruiged

this particular artistic quirk is shown a lot in this issue, and from this art team in general, but i feel like this panel is one of the best examples of it. it was stunning enough to take up a full page, and it’s well deserved.

the way they show dick moving is absolutely brilliant. as a reader, i like seeing these smaller versions of dick getting clearer and in more detail as they come closer to the screen. not only do they show depth in the picture beyond what a simple 3 dimensional piece of art does, it also shows the passage of time.

in addition, it showcases dick’s skill. dick spots these mobsters running after a group of petty thieves. he then, and follow me here, leaps off the roof of one building feet first, springboards backwards off the side of the adjacent building with his feet, gracefully continues his backflip, rights himself, shoots a line with perfect timing: just in time to soften his landing but not slow him down, execute said landing on top of a moving bus, keep running on the moving bus without missing a beat, shoot his grapple, use the grapple to swing, use the swing to build up momentum, then use the momentum to deliver a powerful blow to the mobsters. and he did all that fast enough to catch up with the mobsters, even though he was a ROOFTOP OVER. 

d a m n  s o n

this panel, the very first in the issue, is also another example of that art style, but a little more distinctive. i love the way they showed dick’s different costumes through the ages, along with him simply growing up. it’s a little heartbreaking, but a lot uplifting to see how far he’s come. thank god he got rid of the red. now all we need is the fingerstripes, and we’ll be golden

discowing my beloved. also i can’t clearly see discowing’s hair but it definitely looks like it’s pulled back. it looks like he put it in a ponytail. guys. guys. dick had a ponytail omg. 

he’s having a Hero Moment

are you talking about the city, dick, or are you talking about you? the kgbeast, the court, the joker. dick fell to each one of them, no matter how hard he fought. he won in the end, eventually and with his family’s help. but i think he’s feeling a little low, a little defeated right now. it’s almost like he needs a win, he needs to feel victorious, he needs to feel like he helped someone (hence the food and the hotel room), just because he needs to remember what it feels like.

these lines were supposed to resonate with you, and goddamn they did.

i looked at it from two ways. first, it’s the girl asking, begging nightwing not to hurt them. bludhaven doesn’t know dick the way gotham does, they’re still a little frightened of him. this child was brave enough to step in front of all of the other hurt and homeless kids and ask, to a strange man in a mask, if he was going to hurt them like the other men had. it’s heartbreaking, but commendable, and an echo of the city itself that dick’s decided to protect. they’re bloody and broken and terrified, but still gritty and brave enough to stare what they fear in the eye and ask it not to hurt them.

second, it’s dick seeing the question reflected in himself. recently, he got shot in the head and lost all his memories. while i think that the way ric reacted was a perfectly valid and human response to the situation, i think dick still regrets how callously and rudely he treated his family. then, he was manipulated by the court of owls, then he was brainwashed with a magic crystal by the joker. dick does have a guilt complex. it’s not a big as bruce’s, but it’s there. and right now, with this girl begging her not to hurt them, dick is probably thinking about all the times he hurt people, in control of his own actions or not, bc he “didn’t have a heart.” 

little ambitious don’t you think, dick?

also just look at the sunset colours loOK at the they could not make this any more obvious oh my godddddddddddddddddddddddd

in conclusion, i need more of her

#dick grayson #nightwing #nightwing 79 #nightwing 79 spoilers #dc #dick grayson meta #nightwing meta #nightwing 79 meta #dc meta #river thinks too hard

[dogbearinggifts]

What are your thoughts on tua S2? Did you feel like the characters grew? What did you like? What did you not? I’m interested in your perspective. Your analysis are super thoughtful and interesting!

Aw, thanks, Anon!

Overall, I really enjoyed S2 and thought it was a solid follow-up to S1. I do have my quibbles about it, so I think (for ease of reference and because my thoughts are a little scattered today) I’ll list some of my personal highlights (in no particular order) before getting into what I didn’t like as much.

Big spoilers ahead.

Allison. I thought they handled her storyline especially well. Of all the siblings, I think she had the most difficult obstacles placed in her way (not only is she a Black woman landing in 1961 Dallas, but she’s a Black woman landing in 1961 Dallas who can’t even speak in her own defense for a year) and they sugarcoated exactly none of it. The writers pulled no punches when showing what civil rights protesters went through, which just made their nonviolent response all the more breathtaking. Allison’s fear and anger during those scenes were palpable even as she kept them hidden. But along with that horror, we see the kindness and warmth of the Dallas Black community, the women who take her in simply because she needs their help, and her love for Ray, perhaps heretofore THE most thoughtful husband ever portrayed on screen. I loved him, and I loved him and Allison together. While I understand and respect his choice to stay in 1963, I wish they’d gotten more time together. They both deserved it.

Vanya. We got to see how much the baggage from her past affected her by glimpsing what she might be like if it were taken away. It’s an interesting philosophical question, and it was explored well, in my opinion. She finds it easier to love and be loved, and she stands up for herself more readily—but she also doesn’t hesitate to use powers she can’t quite control and threatens Five without fully realizing how dire her threat is (or how it might dredge up traumatic memories she doesn’t know exist). The moment where Ben finds her curled up, fully convinced she’s a monster, was heartbreaking. I loved watching her find happiness with Sissy, even if that was fleeting (and dear god, Sissy deserved her happy ending with Vanya, dammit, I don’t care if it would fuck up the timeline). Her patience and sweetness with Harlan were just beautiful. And the way she used the confidence she gained during her amnesia to fully come into her own not to exact revenge on her siblings, but to save them, was fucking phenomenal.

The humor. There was a lot more humor this season, and it was awesome. So many iconic scenes—Olga Foroga, Luther babysitting two homicidal Fives, Elliot awkwardly lecturing his guests on the history of Jello, “NEW TIMELINE NEW ME,” “Your vagina needs glasses,” AJ the fish gobbling up the cigarette bubbles, Five getting to say “fuck”….this season was a lot funnier than the previous one, and I think that was one of its strengths.

Klaus’ cult. It was played for laughs, which I both expected and thought was the best way to handle it. He didn’t want to start a new religion with himself at the center; he just wanted to not get thrown out of any more diners, but Destiny’s Children had other ideas. The “I too am a fraud!” scene was hilarious and tickled the question of whether or not a religion founded on false pretenses can still help those within it find meaning.

Luther. Getting him away from his dad, his siblings, and the Academy was exactly what he needed to become the pure of heart and dumb of ass genius we always knew he was, but his first major step in that direction was heartbreaking. We all knew he’d be rejected once he got to the Academy. We all knew Reginald would rip his heart out and stomp on it in his admittedly fashionable shoes. It gets Luther out on his own and forces him to become his own person apart from his dad, but that doesn’t make it any easier to watch. He got the positive character development he needed, but the catalyst was tragic.

Diego. We see, for the first time, exactly how Reginald kept him in line—not with meds or with PTSD-inducing torture, but with words. Even when he knows Diego as little more than a stranger, Reginald is able to rip off his skin and fling it in his face with a single diatribe; and even at 30, with years away from his dad, Diego is left unable to speak, feeling as if all of his accomplishments up to that point were the work of a dumb kid who thought he was smarter and more capable than he actually was.

Luther and Diego sharing a braincell. Luther has bad ideas. Diego has bad ideas. When they put their bad ideas together, they get terrible ideas. I loved watching them work together as a team, rather than being at each others’ throats for most of the season, even if I’m left hoping Olga Foroga had a pleasant and quiet day after that phone call.

Reginald. At first glance, it may look like the writers were trying to make him likable so they could parade him around as your average abusive-parent-with-a-soft-side. But it’s more nuanced than that. Abusive parents (and abusers in general) often fly under the radar because they fool outsiders into thinking they’re good people. They’re active in their communities. They give to charity. They have friends who attest to their virtue, significant others who think they’re the greatest. And that’s what we see with Reginald. We see him as the rest of the world did: an intelligent, eccentric man with a sharp sense of humor who cared deeply about scientific advancement. That’s how he evaded suspicion—because there were stories from years past of lively parties at his mansion, of what a gentleman he was to Grace and of how he did everything he could to save little Pogo. But those stories would all have come from people he considered his equals. When he’s with people he considers his inferiors—aka, the Umbrella kids—he’s openly condescending and demeaning. We get to see how he fooled the world, and it is chilling.

Elliot. He deserved better, and you can ship him with any one of the Hargreeves kids and get the cutest thing ever. 

The Swedes. They said so much while speaking very little.

Ben. He got more personality and screen time, and it was glorious. His love of his family and resentment toward Klaus practically leapt off the screen. The way he says “I’ve missed you all…so much” once they’ve all left was one of those right-in-the-feels moments; and watching him get so much of what he’s wanted for years when he possesses Klaus was beautiful.

Now, as for things I took issue with….

Ben. I understand why they ended his arc the way they did. I get that they were probably afraid the Klaus/Ben dynamic would grow stale if they didn’t change it somehow and wanted to give him a larger role in S3. His death(???) was heartbreaking and extremely well-done. But it also wasn’t foreshadowed. We never got any sense of what ghosts in the TUA ‘verse are, so the fact they can be destroyed by a ton of sound-turned-energy or by going too far into someone’s psyche or whatever happened….it’s not that it doesn’t make sense so much as there’s not enough evidence to determine whether or not it makes sense. It feels like the writers just kinda made that up so they’d have a reason to change Ben’s relationship dynamics, but if that’s the case, couldn’t they have done it another way? Couldn’t they have made it so the immense energy or psychic woo-woo or whatever gave him a power-up instead of destroying him? Vanya transferred some of her energy into Harlan and brought him back to life. Couldn’t something similar have happened with Ben? And if it tied him to Vanya as well as to Klaus, great! More fodder for angst and humor! (”Vannyyyyyyyy, stop hogging Ben!” “You got him for 17 years, Klaus, you can part with him for 20 minutes.” “Guys, don’t I get a say in this?”) I’m glad they didn’t write him out of the series entirely, but I still wish they’d kept him and all the character development he’d gotten throughout S2.

Episode 10. It looks like they tried to cram half a season’s worth of developments into 45 minutes. Twenty minutes in, I’d already said “Wait what the fuck” half a dozen times. A lot of those moments were explained later on, and I was able to make enough inferences to fill in any lingering plot holes, but…still. Too much stuff, too little time. E9 was a perfectly satisfying ending to the season. Yes, it leaves the siblings stranded in 1963, but they could’ve tied up those loose ends in the S3 premiere.

Lila. She’s an incredibly fun character, but her arc is kind of a mess. Most of that is due to E10, and I do feel that more time to let her arc breathe would’ve worked wonders, but I’m left feeling like her turn from “Handler is the best mom ever and I lurve Diego too” to “KILL DIEGO AND HIS EVIL FAMILY” to “Handler is a bad mom and Diego is right” happened too quickly.

The Commission. Okay, so, the Handler announces the entire Board has been killed, and she’s stepping in as director even though everyone appears to know she’s been demoted (and demoted pretty severely—she went from having an office bigger than some apartments to being a case management drone). There’s suspicion and lots of it. But then, La Resistance is….ten or so people in a single room? And when she calls the temps agents to her side, thousands of them show up ready and willing to fight and die? I dunno. Just seems like there should’ve been more splintering going on there. Again, I think they needed more time to tie everything up.

Aside from those complaints, I loved the season. I set aside most of a day to binge it, and I do not regret that decision at all.

#the umbrella academy season 2 spoilers #tua s2 spoilers #umbrella academy season 2 spoilers #The Umbrella Academy #Umbrella Academy #tua #luther hargreeves #Diego hargreeves #allison hargreeves #klaus hargreeves #five hargreeves #ben hargreeves #vanya hargreeves #reginald hargreeves #grace #pogo #number one #number two #number three #number four #number five #number six #number seven #anon #answered