#it just feels like the writers went ‘let’s blame the characters for no reason’

[spicyicymeloncat]

Okay here’s another controversial “Green family take” tell me if I’m wrong.

“People who hate Harumi and Lloyd family dynamic ignore that Lloyd and Morro also shouldn’t have a family dynamic, when Morro did the exact same thing”

Because besties I agree I honestly think green cousins doesn’t make much sense either since yknow Morro and the whole possession thing, but at the same time if you look at canon, they just aren’t the same thing and yknow I need people to actually stop looking at Harumi as the girl version of Morro and the only reason we hate her is because she’s a girl.

Because she’s not.

Like yes I agree there’s definitely a lot of bias towards Morro, if he was woman he would be demonised to hell and back but since he’s man then he is adored, and vice versa with Harumi and sexism fucking sucks.

But Harumi and Morro are different guys. Harumi is portrayed as worse in canon in Lloyd’s eyes. Yeah Lloyd got possessed by Morro and that’s obviously bad tm but other than what people assume possession entails, Lloyd was never as shaken as he was with Harumi.

In s5, we never saw Lloyd be conflicted about the possession thing. He had no fear of Morro. We have no reason to believe that a ghost possession feels worse than being a sleep and maybe having a vague awareness of what’s going on. He barely mentions Morro after s5. And I will say I think this is a writing flaw, obviously it would’ve been cooler if Morro actually had some kind of impact on the ninja, but regardless this is the canon. Lloyd hates Morro but he’s not traumatised yknow. It’s not to the point that Harumi got to.

I feel like getting possessed should be worse than getting lied to, but Harumi did on top of it, start a cult in his name, Kill actual Characters (the royal family and Hutchins) and then kidnap Lloyd and his mother and his uncle and then resurrect his father removing vital parts of his father’s mind/personality/emotional cognitive abilities etc. on top of that she also nearly killed the ninja and wu (which Lloyd believed she did).

Somehow she was much more dangerous than Morro was, she was a much more successful villain.

Additionally I would say Morro has more of an excuse to be seen as family, even if I I’m less of a green cousins fan. Because Morro and Wu actually have a father son relationship, in which Wu was actually responsible over Morro. They had a normal albeit imperfect dynamic before Morro left. Regardless of Lloyd and Morro’s interactions, that dynamic was still present even in the very end.

It doesn’t mean and Lloyd and Morro have to be buddies, just because there’s a family connection doesn’t mean shit (this is the show of found family have we learned nothing? Blood connections don’t matter, only friendship).

But like in comparison to Harumi and Garmadon’s absolute parody of a relationship, where Harumi turns to the man who doesn’t remember what love is and asks him to be her father (at this point neither of them know what “father” even means), Morro does have a family dynamic and Harumi does not.

So in response to the original quote, Morro has a much more solid claim to any kind of family dynamic bc his relation to Wu is much more family esq, and also he was bad yeah, but the show portrays Harumi as worse especially in Lloyd’s opinion.

I just don’t like the argument that Morro and Harumi have done the same things, when the severity is definitely different imo and they aren’t just copies of each other. Imo it’s an oversimplification to reduce their characters down to each other.

#u heard it here first #spicy is not the biggest fan of green cousins or Garmadon siblings #sorry #if ppl make good content for it then I’ll let it slide but generally not a fan #i feel bad for saying it but I guess I really just don’t like Harumi as much #i feel like whenever people talk about Harumi it’s always ‘oh you hate her cuz ur sexist’ #no I hate her because I don’t like how she’s written or how her character is established #like Ik some people like her backstory but I just don’t #it just feels like the writers went ‘let’s blame the characters for no reason’ #and I’m just so sick of the evil love interest trope I hate it so much and that is what Harumi is on s8 #because it’s happened 3 times now #THREE #PIXAL SKYLOR HARUMI #It’s that mindset of women are evil they’ll seduce you with their crimes against human nature #okay that tag is gonna sound very appealing to the gays on here but like in the context of the show it’s just demonising women #like take out the romance aspect and fix Harumi’s backstory and maybe I’d like her more #i will say Morro is badly written also he does nothing interesting really other than his backstory #i like what he means about wu but like they do not even explore that dynamic much in the show #he’s like an unopened present #his set up is so good but they don’t do shit with it #idk idk #obviously all my opinions #ninjago

[ayashitetsuko]

An open letter to David Jenkins

Some fans believe that we should not vent our anger and frustration to show creators. I don’t believe that. The thing about being a professional is that receiving criticism is part of your job—especially if you have done a terrible job.

OFMD went from groundbreaking to disappointing overnight.

There was a momentum to create a queer media that is smart, fun, sexy, and most importantly, respectful. In the way they are writing these queer characters. Especially older and disabled queer characters, a reflection of a generation of marginalised communities that have gone through so much. To give audience a glimpse of hope in their escapism.

But sir, you choose to Remus Lupin him instead.

This is not just about killing off a character. Hell, I might be willing to accept it. After all, I have read and even written fics with MCD in it—involving my favourite character.

But I want you to know that this is a special case. It is not just another popular character being killed off to drive plots.

I have issue with how you kill off a queer character that represents many marginalised communities in his arc.

Izzy is an abuse survivor who becomes disabled as a result of it. Izzy is a queer elder. Izzy is suicidal but manages to overcome it with the healing power of love and community.

Having him killed off just like that is a huge slap for fans who have gone through what he has gone through. Turns out, even in fiction, in our escapism, there is no joy. Only despair.

Also. Father figure? Where does that come from? Ed has never been shown to have any level of respect for Izzy. So let me ask you again. Where does “father figure” come from?

You have an opportunity to make a difference with OFMD; to be remembered in history for the right reasons. Yet somehow you choose not too. You choose to turn this into cheap, sensationalist entertainment where death and torture are thrown around for shock value.

It is like you have no idea how much power you have by being a professional storyteller.

Let me break it down to you. For you as a writer, perhaps killing off Izzy is nothing but an artistic choice. A plot point to figure out. But for audiences in marginalised groups, stories are mirrors. They see themselves in stories. That is how stories give them hope. This is why OFMD has never been “just a pirate story”. Perhaps this is hard to understand if you have never been part of an underrepresented community in the mainstream media, but this is how many are feeling about your work now. Your legacy.

OFMD has truly become an overnight failure. I don’t know how this happened. I would like to blame budget cuts, but your Vanity Fair interview makes me realise this is all deliberate choice.

So, what is next for us Canyonites?

If anything, this convinced me that queer and disabled people should write. And continue to write.

We can no longer trust major media to speak for us. We definitely can never trust David Jenkins again. Any form of progressiveness that he showed earlier was just coincidence, apparently. Even worse, it was fake.

As my friend Sam beautifully puts it, Izzy belongs to us now. We reclaim that character and give him all the happy endings he deserves in our fic, our art. We transform the works. We write about queer, disabled, suicidal characters the way the deserve to be written. If being a published writer is the path you choose, make sure you make wiser decisions than David Jenkins.

Thank you, sir. It was good while it lasts.

But this is a terrible job that you’re doing.

#izzy hands #ofmd s2 spoilers

[alienaiver]

Hello! For the writting game what about Bakugo + 43?? :D

HELLO! <3 i am so sorry for the wait, but YES! bakugou is so fun.... he'd hate me for calling him adorable BUT HE IS! 🥺🧡

number 43 was "this is the third time you’ve broken a promise to me, I’m starting to think you are doing it on purpose.” so i tried to do something fun with it!!! (i am mostly a fluff writer, after all.....) ✨

there're no warnings and this turned out to be 1.1k words! bakugou is called your work wife tho, he got that energy<3

Your eyebrow twitch as you stare at the notification on your phone. It’s a confirmation e-mail for your purchase of a brand-new refrigerator with the delivery details included inside.

Except, you did not order a new one. At least not yet.

You shouldn’t be on your phone right now, but the notification intrigued you and now you’re just perplexed. It hasn’t even been 45 minutes since you complained to Bakugou about your fridge breaking down and how the expenses for a new one will be astronomical to your budget.

Bakugou Katsuki, the man you’re in love with, is with almost a hundred percent certainty, the one who’s done this without your permission. You scroll down and can’t stop a shriek from escaping you at the total.

If you accept this, it’ll be the most expensive thing you own.

You roll your eyes and put down your phone to massage your temples. This is getting out of hand. He is purposely going out of his way to break his promise to you these days and it’s adding gray hairs to your head and wrinkles to your forehead.

You are Pro Hero Dynamight’s personal secretary, managing everything to do with his Pro Hero life. Sometimes you wish he’d hired a PR manager too, but you digress and just thank the stars you’re good at your job.

Six months ago, you confessed your feelings to him.

It went about as bad as it could go. He’d invited you to dinner, something he’d done often – he doesn’t have many people in his life that doesn’t have to do with his line of work. He can’t find the time, he always says. You’d felt brave and confident when you confessed, but he froze immediately as the confession left your mouth. Stumbled upon words to find a nice way to turn you down while maintaining your current relationship.

He never gave you a proper reason, but you suppose you’ve been fine without one. Ever since that day, he’s been buried in work trying to rise further in the ranks. He’s in the top three now and you’ve noticed he’s slowed down significantly again, seemingly satisfied with his current position. You pretend to tidy up some papers on the left of your desk, to keep your hands occupied as you attempt to calm down before walking into Bakugou’s office to scold him.

You’d only given him two rules back then, promising everything would turn back to normal if he promised not to break them: a) Don’t talk about the confession and pretend it didn’t happen and b) that he should not, under any circumstances, compensate his guilt by buying you things. You’d rather wilt into the ground than let pity run your friendship.

But there’s been a pattern the past few weeks. When you walked home from a dinner party at Kirishima’s place a little over a week ago, he’d teasingly mentioned your crush on him, a tilt to his voice you hadn’t heard before. You blamed it on the wine that evening and Kirishima’s joke about Bakugou being your work wife.

He also bought you a ridiculously expensive kitchen set of pans, casseroles, and knives this weekend after cooking at your house and complaining about the quality of your stuff – or lack thereof, more like.

You puff up your cheeks to try and alleviate some anger but it ends up just festering, growing. Did he forget your promise? That feels out of character for Bakugou – maybe he does have stress from his hard work.

Maybe he blew a fuse in his brain.

You accidentally startle a passerby when you abruptly stand up, prepared to yell at the most explosive hero in Musutafu. You’ll be fine.

You hope.

Before your anger fizzles, you aggressively force his door open, making him look up in irritation from his documents, but you see his brow relax at the sight of you. It pisses you off even more.

As you approach his ridiculously large desk, he leans back and takes off his reading glasses, fidgets with them in his hands. He knows what this is about. If he smirks, you’ll burn down his office, you decide.

Luckily for him, he doesn’t. He keeps a straight face as you stand with your arms crossed looking down at him. With a petulant sigh, you rub the space between your eyebrows as you speak, “y’know, this is the third time you’ve broken a promise to me, I’m starting to think you are doing it on purpose.”

He leans further back in his chair as he puts the glasses down. He looks almost bored as you chance a look at him. You’re about to back-track (so much for a violent chew-out, your brain adds) and stumble over words when he smiles, all teeth and closed eyes, “I’m busted, huh?”

Huh?

Huh, fucking indeed.

He smirks then, but your brain has already forgotten its prior decision and is instead following his every movement as he gets up and rounds the desk to stand by you. The confidence he exuded on his way over wanes slightly the closer he gets, and not only his cheeks but his ears and neck get redder and redder.

He clears his throat when he deems himself close enough and your brain reminds you to turn your body towards him. You fail to do so but just stare blankly at him.

“When you confessed I…” his voice is unnaturally strained and high-pitched so he clicks his tongue to gather himself, “I’d already planned that I’d confess to you when I would reach the top three…”

Huh?

It seems your brain has lost most of its vocabulary.

He shakes his head to gather himself again before reaching out to take your hand – you let him. Breathlessly, he says your name and you never considered your own name to be beautiful before you heard it in this exact octave.

“I wasn’t sure how to confess… or let you know… and I was afraid your feelings had died down… so I had to do some testing before I was confident…”

Bakugou? Not confident? You accidentally snort out loud and finally, finally your brain catches up and you’re able to move your body so you’re facing him properly. He scowls but squeezes your hand nonetheless, “’m in love with you.”

You must’ve blanked out because he says your name again, this time annoyed as he leans over to see if you’re ignoring him on purpose. You come back to yourself as his eyes are searching yours and that’s the moment you can’t take this anymore. You lean forward to kiss him, and the grunt he lets out makes you smirk, knowing you’re the one with the upper hand right now – even if your heart is beating just as fast as his is.

Maybe it’s not so bad that he broke a few promises. This is the perfect apology.

#fr i apologize humbly for the wait and hope this meal made it worth it <3333333333 #now i only need ushi and link!!!!! i hope to get them done before i leave on the 6th #bnha x reader #mha x reader #bakugou katsuki x reader #bakugou katsuki x you #nohr.writing #nohr.bnha #writing game

[draculas-husband]

I want to be transparent even if I do not owe it to anyone or anything like that. And I am not expecting anyone to read this unless they want to. This year has been rough and lately I have been struggling physically, mentally and economically. I basically feel forced to take it a week at a time, and when that is too hard a day at a time and when that gets too hard an hour at a time, a minute...A second..

During my first year of playing ffxiv I fell in love with a character that helped me find my creativity again, but as time went on I found myself caring too much about the engagement my posts got and basing my work's and my own worth on notes. I burnt myself out trying to post often despite my ADD often being a hindrance. It took me time to realize how unhealthy that was but I am slowly getting better. It got to a point where I stopped reblogging things I love in order to present myself a certain way and that doesn't feel right either. I love Edmont with all my heart and that will never stop being the case but I will from here on out only post Dracmont stuff when I truly feel like it, including the spicy fic I said I would release ages ago. I am the only one to blame here and I am not claiming anything else. I am only human and life is weird sometimes. But I am done trying to pretend to be something or someone I am not. I want to be authentically myself and openly share my love for things and people, so I will.

I adore the people I have come to know thanks to ffxiv and want you all to know that you are so incredibly creative and loved. ❤️ Your comments over these past two years have helped me keep going and I value you all greatly. So let me share with you some old man wisdom that I have now learnt from this.. It may not be the best but I want to share it anyway..

You are not your notes or followers. You are not just content creators. You are artists, writers, composers and most importantly people. You all have your own personal struggles and I sincerely hope you never stop being your wonderful authentic selves, making and creating the things you wish to see in the world. You are so talented and amazing and I am so proud of you. And yes this goes out to all of you, ffxiv people or nah.

I want to thank you for reading and being patient with my silly ass over these last two years. But I must warn you that I will only get sillier haha.

I will likely be less active here for several reasons.. Call it a mental health break if you will. But I hope to come back every now and again and see everyone's wonderful creations, thoughts and feelings.

All my love ❤️

Richard out!

#Richard's rambles #Personal #Again I can only blame myself for this and I am #But I figured it was time to be honest about my thoughts and feelings #Even if I don't owe it to anyone

[mhsdatgo]

To the point about Rhaenyra being boring, it continues to elude me why the producers, writers, and directors decided they needed to humanize Rhaenyra by downplaying if not outright removing her worst traits. That’s not humanizing, that’s sanitizing.

There are plenty of female characters that exist in fiction who are frustrating to morally ambiguous, to completely evil but still have their fans and are beloved, or at the very least compelling. The comparisons to Shiv Roy from Succession already exist, so I won’t belabor that point, but look at other shows like Mr. Robot, Better Call Saul, and if anyone really wants to press the button for feminism: The Handmaid’s Tale. Those shows have incredibly well-written female characters that aren’t necessarily paragons.

House of the Dragon choosing to center Rhaenyra as the protagonist as opposed to making her part of a true ensemble a la the original Game of Thrones wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. The narrative decision to frame her as heroic (as far as S1 is concerned) is how we get the ‘Protagonist Centered Morality/Unreliable Narrator’ trope that results in plenty of media literate fans that are either neutral or Green-leaning who feel frustrated that there’s not an equal balance between characters.

Perfectly put together, anon. I'm sorry I answered so late. -_-

There's nothing wrong with characters that are written to be good people, but you see, that only works when said character is written consistently and somewhat realistically. Something that the writers completely didn't do in Rhaenyra's case. Are you going to tell me I'm supposed to watch her go through Visenya's traumatic birth, which by the way, happened so quickly after learning that her father was dead, keep her calm, and find it believable?

There is no sense of reason when it comes to grief. None. When someone close to you is gone, you check out. They take a part of your mind away with them and sometimes you don't even realize it. Especially if it's as horrid, as painful and helpless as what Rhaenyra went through. I am not going to sit here and blame the Greens for that baby's death, for all we know of her she had dragon features and was 100% going to die either way. That is digestible for us viewers/readers, who have no connection for a baby mentioned in a few lines.

But Rhaenyra's her mother. And rightfully, when she loses her this way, she goes mad with grief. She wants someone to blame, she cannot cope with the idea that there is no one to blame in this situation, that it would've happened either way. So she blames her enemies, the Greens. She isn't right, but she isn't even sane anymore, she's just had a stillbirth, how can you expect her to think before she speaks?

But the show strips her completely of this anger, and makes her push for peace. Is it possible that not even THAT can make this perfect angel Qween lose her temper like any human would? I understand wanting to rid her of any sin so she looks like a Saint, but really, where's the flaw in being angry and irrational after your stillbirth?

I never liked Rhaenyra as a person but I was looking forward (I'm STILL looking forward lol) to the role she will play as a character, a literary device, a tool to tell a story. I'm not saying I hope they bring out the worst of her this season so more people have reasons to hate women and feel justified for it, but LET HER BE RIGHTFULLY ANGRY. I'M BEGGING YOU.

People will always choose and be more obsessed with the evil but interesting one, not the one who's got more morals. It's already been said in a post I saw not so long ago, but Luke shouldn't be winning polls for best character against OTTO HIGHTOWER of all people because we choose morality in none other than a world like ASOIAF. Please give characters nuance. There's so much potential they got lazy with using timeskips etc. already.

#house of the dragon #fire and blood #rhaenyra targaryen

[englishstrawbie]

Station 19 6x09

Maya being unable to concentrate on her meditation because all she can think about is Carina is relatable.

I’m still processing what we saw of Carina so this might be jumbled at time.

I felt for how nervous she was about turning up at the fire station for the clinic. At the end of the day (and as we saw in Jack and a little bit of Ben), these are Maya’s people. Yes, they like / love Carina too, but Maya is their family. They know enough to be concerned, but I don’t think they know enough about the extent of what is going on in Maya and Carina’s marriage or perhaps even the extent of Maya’s healing process - that would be consistent with what we’ve seen already. So the comment that she almost didn’t walk through the door felt very real.

She is obviously carrying a lot of hurt and anger and resentment at what happened that day at the hospital, so ignoring Maya’s voicemail at first and focussing on her work is understandable. She needs to compartmentalise. 

The patient, Pam, was a bit much but in general it was okay. Like Carina said herself, she needed the distraction and the laugh at work today, and that’s what Pam provided. Carina has been carrying so much for so many months that it was nice for her to have the attention and for the conversation to be light and easy and fun. Do I wish that they’d shown us Carina’s answer to being asked out on a date? Yes. I’ve seen some rumblings that Pam is a recurring character, so it makes me a little nervous that we might see her again given how the conversation was left. But do I think that Carina is going to walk away from her marriage and settle down to have a baby with this woman she just met? No. 

The more interesting part was the conversation around the fact that Pam had made the decision to have a baby by herself which - let’s face it - is an option I could easily see the writers taking with Carina. She wants a baby more than anything - ouch. More than her marriage? More than Maya healing? It happens, the desire to have a baby is so strong that people walk away from relationships - I’ve seen it in real life. 

“My wife is... was a big part of that dream too” - double ouch. The fact that she changed her words to the past tense made me sad, that she’s now thinking about what this dream looks like without Maya. At the moment, and with the firm belief that all of this angst will eventually lead to them getting back together, I am rationalising that with the fact that Carina is hurting. She hasn’t had the benefit of breaking down her feelings with Diane or anyone else - at least, not that we’ve seen. She doesn’t know what her future looks like, if her marriage is going to survive, so she’s trying to figure out what that dream looks like by herself. 

But then, she still went home - for what? Shampoo she could have bought at the drug store and a few coats? Hmm. I take comfort in the fact that, having eventually listened to Maya’s voicemail, she decides to go home, maybe to see for herself if Maya’s words are true. Because, let’s face, Maya might tell her that she’s working on herself and trying to be better, but there are good reasons not to believe her. 

But Carina is not going to jump back in. The hurt of seeing Maya so broken in the hospital bed, of hearing Maya scream her name and blame her when all she was trying to do was protect her, is not something she can just forget - and I’m glad she told Maya that. The way her voice cracked was heartbreaking, but it also shows how much she loves Maya. And she’s angry that she had to go so far as to get a 5150 because Maya wouldn’t listen to her and wouldn’t get help when she begged her. For six months. So yes, great, Maya is going through the steps and of course that’s what Carina wants - but she didn’t do it when Carina asked.

She’s doing it because the fire department is making her. 

Of course we, as viewers, know a lot more because we got to see the conversations between Maya and Diane last week. But Carina didn’t - all she sees is that Maya is doing this to get her job back because, once again, it comes back to her fear that she is second best to Maya’s career. That their marriage, their family and the desire to have a baby is second best.

That is a point I really hope they address in the near future. 

#sorry for the length it turns out i had a lot of thoughts! #station 19 #carina deluca #maya bishop #my rambles

[crisiscutie]

People just don't get that redemption isn't for everyone

Yes people can do it but sometimes it's best to say it's irredeemable

Sephiroth has been through so many tragedies to the point,it feels like redemption is one big joke to him,cuz he already reached the point of no return

Personally I feel like the trope of "everything is forgivable" is overused or overlooked way too often,there are things in the world that can't forgive and sometimes punishment is better than forgiveness

In Sephiroth's case, I don't think forgiveness will change anything,rather it's impossible,no one who knows him is willing to forgive him,hence some may say he has no faults at all like Hojo cuz that guy is messed up AF

Take it like this: If a guy who commits an unforgivable crime and someone says he should be forgiven based only on the fact that he was abused or insane or he went through some traumatic shit etc,it would not only feel ridiculous, it's outright selfish

Should Sephiroth be forgiven for the Nibelheim Incident just bcuz it was a crime of passion or he was mentally unstable and should get off free of guilt? No,cuz he did something terrible to others and that should be accepted

I've seen too many cases of normalisation or glorification or defence of characters' faults and apparently "you're a bitch for pointing out others' faults" these days and "it's not nice to have criticisms"

I saw some deep toxic shit about normalised toxicity in fiction lately

I mean I love Seph,but god I'm heavily aware he's evil as hell

-🌹

Yup. Sephiroth's path is set in his mind. For what reason would he deviate from his path? He decided to continue the cycle of pain. And Cloud could've continued that cycle after him if it wasn't for Tifa.

I want to state this: I'm against Sephiroth being redeemed. One reason is that no character ever deserves redemption. Redemption is a complex, grueling process that involves self-reflection, remorse, and a genuine desire to change. It requires a willingness to confront your actions and the consequences you inflicted upon others. Sephiroth, so far, has done none of this. He felt justified in his actions. And the few times when he does acknowledge what he has done? He rubs it in Cloud's face, for goodness' sake. He did this in Advent Children, 7R and even the original FF7, especially during that one iconic scene that shall not be named. Sephiroth has displayed constant cruelty to Cloud, his party and the planet. What on earth justifies him deserving redemption? Because of his awful and traumatic past?

Let me say this: the events leading up to and following Sephiroth's birth and childhood were undeniably tragic, and he cannot be blamed for them in any way. However, as an adult with the ability to choose his own path, he made the decision to inflict harm upon others, especially those who had no involvement in his suffering. As I mentioned in another post, introducing a potential redemption arc for Sephiroth would actually undermine Cloud's own arc and diminish its impact. Sephiroth serves as a warning to Cloud, acting as his dark mirror and representing the dark side of what a "hero" could become.

I would also like to mention Aerith, who, like Cloud, serves as another mirror to Sephiroth and had a deeply traumatic past. However, instead of succumbing to darkness like Sephiroth, she remained kind and hopeful. Sephiroth's redemption may also conflict with her story and role as well.

To sum it up, Redemption would require Sephiroth to question his beliefs and recognize the pain and suffering he has caused. He's not going to do that. He believes himself to be in the right, and the pain he caused to be "justice" in his mind.

And as you mentioned, it's clear that forgiveness is out of the question for him now. Cloud and Tifa, in particular, hold a deep hatred towards him and are determined to put an end to him. Tifa's grudge with Sephiroth has been largely overlooked, both by the fandom and CANON (seriously, what were the writers thinking...). But let's not forget the sheer terror poor Tifa had in 7R when she saw Sephiroth in front of Jenova's pod.

Both she and Cloud had been scarred (literally and figuratively) by this man for the rest of their LIVES. They deserve every blow they can get on Sephiroth...

Anyways, rant over. Please stop trying to make Sephiroth "work". He was a sweet baby that became an evil bastard. Let's appreciate the good and bad of the Crisis Cutie!

#sephiroth #ff7 sephiroth #final fantasy 7 #ff7 #ffvii #Cloud Strife #Tifa Lockhart #final fantasy vii #final fantasy 7 remake #ff7 remake #ffviir #ffvii ever crisis #c.c rambles #aerith gainsborough #miracle cutie #crisis cutie

[dynared]

Oh boy do I agree with your assessment that Skybound is able to execute its concepts much better than Earthspark! Despite Skybound technically being another G1 continuity, it feels fresh and original and fun, and DWJ has managed to take something old and turn it into something new, an area in which Earthspark failed somewhat. I mean, I respect what they tried to do, but due to so much being told rather than shown (ie, that one moment where Hashtag asked JB if Megatron’s harrowing story of redemption wasn’t the most beautiful thing he had ever heard? really felt like we were being told to like Megatron rather than simply shown a likeable Megatron, compared to those scenes with OP and the deer, OP saving Spike and a bunch of others with the Matrix, and him bonding with Sparkplug. It just feels more organic, ya know? And it lets the viewer form their own opinions without trying to constantly nudge them into thinking a certain way) made watching it very frustrating, and it felt like the writers were trying to tell us what to think about certain characters, and overall just not letting the story breathe and take shape on its own

Maybe it's just the differences between the mediums (namely the issue of budget for a CG show that reuses assets to save money), or maybe it's the quality and styles of the writers (Robert Kirkman and Daniel Warren Johnson are comic writers, first and foremost), but Skybound, throughout all of the Energon Universe, not just Transformers, has been very good at visual storytelling. Seeing reactions to events, having expressions and scenes tell the story in a way that if just described in the text would fall flat on its face, which in turn creates a richer world. Even in a book like the most recent issue of Cobra Commander, where the main battle is a battle of wits and words, the expressions, the surroundings, and the visuals create something that worlds alone, dialogue alone could not convey.

"Show, don't tell" is a basic tenant of writing, one that every writing teacher worth their salt will preach to their students. However, I can only blame so much of that difference on the medium. While Earthspark will never have the visual spectacle of the Skybound comics (there's a reason I want them animated by Studio Trigger) a lot of it is the writers themselves, who really want to beat the morals and messages of the story into your skull without any care for subtlety or nuance, especially Mae Catt, whose rejected script for a Drift episode had him married to Ratchet and debating a spiritual vs. pragmatic viewpoint with all the subtlety of a brick (and considering how badly Nightshade went over to the point the show got put on blast on Fox News, it's no wonder it was turned down and Catt was apparently let go for Season 2).

I'd forgive even that under the idea that it's a show for a much younger audience than the Energon Universe is for, but then you run into the issue of treating kids like morons, which kids hate. Even Marc Summers (host of Double Dare) pointed out on Quiet on the Set that the attraction of Nickelodeon to kids was that it didn't try to educate, talk down to, or preach to kids (which probably explains why he appeared so horrified at Dan Schneider's antics, but that's another story). Although noting that handicap that it's for kids goes back to a more obvious question, why would kids be invested in what's essentially a pseudo-sequel to a cartoon that ended its initial run of episodes in 1988, before some of their parents were even born? The franchise is literally 40 years old this year, and it's been 35 years since the last initial run of episodes aired, re-cut with a kid talking to a cardboard Powermaster Optimus Prime (while Japan was watching Star Saber battle Deathsaurus and his Decepticon forces). Why would kids connect to something they didn't see, aren't shown, and generally are only told in speeches why they should care about it? Skybound took the time to introduce everyone, in contrast, and make you care, even if you've been apathetic to the Robots in Disguise after years of poorly selling IDW comics that were only for a very specific subsection of a hardcore fan, and gave us reasons to care about the cast outside of the cast telling us why we should care.

Maybe Season 2 (which is going to air somewhere, Hasbro seems to have Paramount obligated to do so) will improve these issues, but I seriously doubt it. I just want Earthspark to finish at this point so we can get something else, even if, in a best-case scenario, an Energon Universe adaptation will take years to be feasible. At least Transformers One seems to be getting good feedback from test screenings.

#transformers #transformers earthspark #skybound #transformers skybound #tf skybound #energon universe #earthspark

[nightwings-robin]

honestly really tired of seeing posts claiming that Dick hated Jason when Jason was Robin. like nO HE DIDN'T. they didn't always get along well but there was definitely no hatred between them. and to be quite honest, they barely even interacted.

one of the few times that they actually had a bad argument was when they first met in post-crisis continuity and that argument was only because Jason interfered with a drug-bust that Dick was planning in Batman (1940) #416:

Dick is pretty mad at Jason here but by the end of the issue, they make up and are on good terms. Dick even gives Jason his Robin costume:

this post gets long so I put the rest under the cut

the main reasons I have seen people claim that Dick hated Jason was because Jason caused Dick and Bruce to have a bad relationship and that Jason "stole" Robin from him.

Dick and Bruce did very much argue about Jason sometimes but Dick and Bruce had a strained relationship long before Jason showed up. a lot of arguments between them had to do with Dick leaving to lead the Teen Titans and him dropping out of college (yes Dick is canonically a college-dropout. I wish more people knew that). they even argued about Talia a lot, among other things. this was all YEARS before Jason was even introduced.

The New Teen Titans (1980) #1

Batman (1940) #330

(there are many other examples of Dick and Bruce arguing about college, Talia, the Titans and other things but this post is going to be a bit long so I'll just leave it at these two panels)

Dick and Talia have famously never really gotten along, even back before certain writers destroyed her character (looking at you Morrison). they disliked each other from the start which caused tension between Bruce and Dick.

I bring all this up because I have seen fans say that Dick hated Jason because Jason destroyed Dick's relationship with Bruce which! isn't true! Dick and Bruce have a deeply complicated relationship that has had many, many ups and downs. Jason is only one aspect of that complicated relationship.

Dick dropping out of college and Bruce meeting Talia both happened in the 70s. Jason wasn't even introduced until 1983, so no, he was not the cause of the rift between Bruce and Dick during this time, and as such Dick would have no reason to hate Jason over this. please stop blaming Jason for Bruce and Dick's rocky relationship!

now this isn't to say that Bruce and Dick never argued about Jason but that definitely is NOT what started the rift between Bruce and Dick.

there was that time in Tales of the Teen Titans #50 when Dick was feeling some type of way about Bruce adopting Jason but not adopting Dick:

and like I wouldn't even call this an argument! this seems like a healthy conversation. but there were times when Bruce and Dick were actually screaming at each other like in the aforementioned Batman (1940) #416

they also had a pretty bad argument after Jason died but I'll get to that one later. so Bruce and Dick did argue about Jason but that in no way means that Dick hated Jason.

now. what was Dick and Jason's relationship actually like? well there actually isn't a whole lot to go on. they had few, brief interactions while Jason was alive; and these interactions weren't always bad.

let's not forget this moment from The New Teen Titans (1984) #31 when Jason went on a mission with the Titans without Bruce's permission and Dick said if Bruce gave him grief to have him call Dick.

this is one of the few times they ever really even spoke to each other in post-crisis. they interacted a bit more in pre-crisis but even then it was only a few times and they mostly got along, both being circus performers. Dick even offered to adopt Jason in Detective Comics (1937) #526:

also, in pre-crisis continuity, Dick gave Jason permission to be Robin before Bruce did. Jason put on a Robin costume and Bruce got mad at him for stealing Dick's identity but Dick later said he didn't mind and even gave Jason his costume. then in post-crisis, Bruce let Jason use the Robin name and costume without consulting Dick but then Dick later gave his blessing as mentioned above in Batman #416. this post goes over that in greater detail.

have whatever head-canons and interpretations that you want but please just don't make it seem like Dick hating Jason for "stealing" Robin from him has much of a basis in canon. Dick definitely had conflicting feelings about not being Robin anymore (in pre-cisis he gave up being Robin of his own free will while in post-crisis Bruce fired him) but in both continuities Dick did very much eventually approve of Jason being Robin. if he hated Jason, would he have allowed Jason to use his former identity? I don't think so. sure there are complicated feelings there but I don't think it's hatred.

AND ANOTHER THING. if Dick really hated Jason then he wouldn't have been so upset when Jason died. just read The New Titans (1988) #55 and see how Dick reacts when he learns about Jason's death:

the sadness! the guilt! the anger! none of this says to me that Dick hated Jason. this is the reaction of someone who has just lost somebody that they care about. and then there is his confrontation with Bruce in the same issue:

(honestly kind of shitty of Bruce to bring up that Dick wasn't at Jason's funeral when Bruce was the one who didn't even tell Dick that Jason had died. seems a bit manipulative. "You weren't at the funeral. People asked about you." then bitch maybe you should have told him about the funeral. don't get mad at Dick for not going to a funeral for someone that he didn't even know was dead! like I know Bruce is grieving here but why is he being so irrational?? "oh I'm not going to tell you about Jason dying but I will be mad at you if you don't come to his funeral" get fucked.) (and yes I KNOW Dick was on another planet at the time so Bruce couldn't get into direct contact with him but even Dick said that there were no messages from Bruce at all anyway so how could he have known about the funeral??)

anyway, this post is long and I think I've made my point so I'll leave it at that.

I just hate that some fans believe that Dick and Jason actually flat out hated each other when Jason was Robin. and yeah they weren’t Super Best Friends or anything but they did generally get along the few times they even interacted. they had arguments but I definitely don't see any hatred between them.

I’ll never forgive the fanon that makes their early relationship out to be resentful. not every fan does this of course but I've seen it a few too many times.

(now maybe you can make the argument that Dick hated early Red Hood Jason. for example when he killed a bunch of people while impersonating Nightwing in that Brother's in Blood arc but I've never actually read that so I can't speak on it. or that time Jason beat the shit out of Tim on Titans Tower. or Battle for the Cowl... maybe Dick hated Jason then but this post is specifically about Jason when he was Robin.)

any thoughts??

#dick grayson #jason todd #bruce wayne #batman #robin #dc comics #the descriptions of the comic panel screenshots are in the ALT text #their relationship is fascinating to me

[courfee]

quick rant because i can't stop thinking about it

there was one (1) person who pointed out that reg and sirius are also at fault in how things went down. two other people pointed out sirius' part in it, overgoing reg. everyone else is only blaming james

and yes, i am the biggest defender of james potter doesn't have to be perfect, let james have flaws and fuck up, but maybe i'm just too good at that, because somehow i keep writing myself into these kinds of situations

like i let james do wrong things and i let all my other characters also do wrong things, but because i keep writing from james' pov, he takes on a lot of the blame, even when unjustified, whereas he keeps finding reasons and excuses for the people he loves. and again, maybe i'm just that great of a writer in this regard (toot toot) that i just manage to convince the reader of the same thing as james is convinced of, but i do have to admit that it does make me a little sad that this is the second long jegulus fic i'm writing, and the second jegulus fic wherein reg, sirius and james as a combined force lead to problems between regulus and james and everyone only blames james and a lot of people say regulus should never forgive him for his actions

why can regulus and sirius do things wrong and it is a given that james forgives them, but as soon as james does something wrong he becomes irredeemable?

is it because the black brothers tend to have more extreme reactions to being hurt, whereas james is more the person who smiles through the pain and tries to figure out what he did wrong that this happened to him? because i'm trying to imagine the situations reversed, if the exact same thing happened the other way round i feel like, just based on the way the characters would express their reaction to it, people would still think james is at fault

#operation wanker #amtc #hp #marauders #jegulus #i didnt count maddie in this because maddie is a straight out james defender and also we talked about it beforehand

[ordinaryschmuck]

"Ooh, look! Another Amphibia critique from Schmuck!"

Yeah, yeah, blame Twitter. This one came to me last night because of a post and it's been stewing in my brain ever since.

I'm learning more and more that nothing causes an Amphibia fan to foam at the mouth more than when you tell them that the first season is mostly filler.

Cause here's the thing: I've seen that first season THREE times. And every time, it felt like a chore to get through as I'm forced to watch characters go on silly adventures as the show dangles this carrot on a stick in front of your face, promising something interesting with a grander story.

"Ooh, look! Something's going to happen with the music box!"

"Ooh, look! Sasha's here and she means business!"

"What will come of this? Tune in next time to find out!"

And when you tune in next time, you're met with Anne and Sprig pretending to be cops or the town having a literal shipping war. And sure, that can be funny, but when you promise a grander story and take too long to get to it, it leaves people WANTING that story feeling a little disappointed.

Or worse: Annoyed.

Even MORE worse: Angry.

And when you bring up that season one is mostly filler, you're given the usual three responses:

"It's to build the world and develop characters!"

"It's starting off fun to suck people in before getting darker like [Insert show here]"

"[Insert show here] had a first season that was mostly filler and people loved THAT. Y'all just hating."

And those are good arguments, but there's also good counters to all of them.

Infinity Train is a series that has a new cast of characters every season, each one having only thirteen episodes to grow and develop while showing off the world around them. The writers make each episode count though, not wasting time as every goofy adventure the characters go on it either reveals something about themselves or about the lore of the train. You can absolutely let characters go and do something silly for ten minutes AND have it feel like the plot and development of the world and characters are moving forward. You just gotta do more than something as inconsequential as Sprig learning to be more patient when watching a hog or Hop Pop learning how to be honest instead of selling literal garbage. The meat of those episodes (I.E. the LESSONS) can be brought up in smarter, better ways that leaves EVERYONE satisfied, especially when they learn these exact lessons later in the series anyway.

As for starting off by being fun defense, it's a fair one until you realize what show everyone's trying to copy.

You see, Adventure Time is a great show. One that nailed the "silly at first but serious later" mindset. It changed the landscape for serialized animation, and shows have been trying to do what IT did ever since. BUT they forget one essential factor that's the reason to Adventure Time's success: It had NO plan. It started off silly and fun only to get more serious over time, but in a similar vein to your favorite comic series. The writers just wanted to have goofy fun times and nothing else, but the longer the series went, it would get more and more serious as it started to evolve into serialized storytelling. There was never a singular arc in Adventure Time or even an endgame in mind for how the show would conclude. There were definitely arcs but they were treated as small webs of something the show COULD build upon if the writers wanted to and less as a part of this grand narrative to a complete story. Even the latest spin off, which has a singular story in mind, is something based on an idea that NEVER went further beyond being something silly upon its conception. The writers just wanted to do something fun and would LATER come up with a good and expansive story through it.

Basically, the reason why Adventure Time nailed the silly THEN serious style is because it improvised the whole thing. When a show like Amphibia tries to go through the same style, it does it WITH a plan in mind and forgets that Adventure Time succeeded because it didn't HAVE one. The writers know exactly where they want the show to go and plan out how to reach that finish line, leaving behind crumbs of the grander narrative every now and again. But in Season One, so much of the focus is about characters going on fun adventures and leaving behind those crumbs not as often as they should. The end result might just be one of the weakest examples of a show being silly THEN serious because of it tries to be one thing while also wanting to be another.

And as for the final defense, about how other shows tries to be silly THEN serious too, let's look ANOTHER series made by Disney: Gravity Falls.

Gravity Falls' first season, let's be honest with ourselves, is a lot like Amphibia's. There's hints of a story there, but much more time is dedicated to Dipper and Mable going on goofy one-off adventures while the second season takes a much more serious direction towards the plot and characters. It still leaves crumbs as well, like what's going on with Gideon and the Journals, but the majority of the season is still stuff like Mabel freeing a merman trapped in a public pool or Dipper using a video game character to intimidate Robby. So while it's the same as Amphibia it terms of tone, there's ONE difference: Episode length. Within the first season, Gravity Falls has twenty episodes where Amphibia has thirty-nine. Amphibia has ten-minute episodes stitched together to meet the twenty-minute runtime that Gravity falls have, and the end result is making a series feel MUCH longer than it actually is. It drags out the silliness longer, making Gravity Falls more digestible because we're watching random nonsense ONCE per week and not TWICE. So when the bigger, more serious story stuff comes, it feels like less time was wasted to get to it.

You can argue all you want about how Amphibia's first season doesn't have filler or, if it does, it's not a detriment. And if that's how you see things, that's fine. But not everyone is going to feel that way.

Look, filler can be fun. It can give you an enjoyable little adventure in between the meat of this grander narrative the writers are building. But filler isn't fun ALL THE TIME, and you need to find a right way to space it out between the story bits if a serialized story is what you want to make. As fun as it can be, it's not the necessity that people claim it is for a good show to exist. Some amazing series exist when they're all killer and no filler. Just because the characters don't randomly go to a casino for an episode, that doesn't mean it's a lesser form of storytelling.

And the same goes for shows WITH filler. If you like Amphibia's first season because of how silly and fun it is, I don't blame you. To me, it was a show that got my attention because there was a hint to a bigger narrative, but it's not what the show tried to do in it's first season. It took its time and the end result was a finale that legitimately brought me to tears, so SURELY it isn't all bad, even if most of those silly adventures weren't my cup of tea. It's DEFINITELY a season of filler, but whether or not that's a detriment to a show is depending on who you ask.

#amphibia #amphibia critique #infinity train #adventure time #gravity falls

[farmfreshboys]

Modern Family forgot about Luke

As a youngster, he was a chaotic sweety—like the whole thing with Walt. He saw someone who was ostracized and went to make friends with him. That was the Luke they set up, his father's best friend and a fun-loving absolute goofball. I think as he grew up, they didn't know how to write a teenager (and by they I tend to point to the production team, I am hesitant to blame writers for anything because of how dismal the environment is for writers and I know that their choices are subjected to things outside of their control like the production and direction, etc) outside of Haley and make different than Manny. Like Luke had such a distinct personality as a kid (side note- the way they wrote him to be neurodivergent by sighting real symptoms that are also consistent and canonical and then just dropped him, smh) but as he grew up they completely got rid of his personality. Yeah, people change as they mature, but everything that made Luke Luke was struck. What was left was a kind of awkward fluctuation between him being a bump on a log that occasionally makes a comment about boobs and being a part of his dad's storyline. There's no solid consistency because they forgot to give him any personality.

It could have been interesting to show him being/becoming a "Dunphy Man" like his dad and his dad's dad and feeling social pressures from school. I have brothers—I know that teenage boys can go through bump-on-a-log days, but they can also be so silly and goofy like Luke was set up to be. They played around a little bit with him feeling inadequate following his sister and not being book smart, but there was so much more they could have done with that/taken it. It would have been great for the people in his family who were written to be so unnecessarily cruel to him for no reason to see him maturing more like Haley and showing more emotional depth and other forms of emotional and practical intelligence (or even artistic intelligence/talent for that matter, they made him so creative, made him love dancing, gave him a beautiful voice and for what?).

I would also love to see him and Alex work to mend their relationship or grow a relationship at all or just be a character instead of a prop—have him interact with characters he doesn't usually like Gloria, Mitch and Cam. I don't know, but I feel like his whole character was a giant missed opportunity.

Thanks for letting me rant about my hyperfixation. :)

#modern family #luke dunphy #modern family luke

[maya-matlin]

Since we've talked a lot (but never enough!) about both OTH and Degrassi lately...

If you had to choose one or two Degrassi characters who are most similar to Lucas, who would they be?

One or two Degrassi characters who are most similar to Peyton?

One or two Degrassi characters who are most similar to Haley?

Same question as above for Nathan

Same question as above for our beloved Brooke (sorry for not writing out the whole question again - this site isn't letting me copy and paste, and you know I'm extraordinarily lazy!)

If you had to choose...OTH overall or Degrassi overall?

Choose your top three Degrassi OTPs, top three OTH OTPs, and then rank all six of those ships in order from your favorite to least favorite with no ties allowed :)

Three things you prefer about OTH to Degrassi AND three things you prefer about Degrassi to OTH! Or four or five or six... :)

Aw, you're so sweet. <3

1.) Similar to Lucas.. hmm. My immediate thoughts are Craig and Miles. Both have definite parental issues, particularly involving their fathers. All three of these guys move from partner to partner very quickly, rarely ever satisfied with staying single for long. They have zero shame when it comes to dating their way through the same friend group. All three like to pull out the old "you're the one for me" or "you're the only one who understands me" cards. It's not always a line, but due to the frequency it becomes less and less believable as time goes on. Both Lucas and Craig had a big, dramatic love triangle early on involving them sneaking around behind their girlfriend's back with another girl. They vowed to change their ways, never wanting to cheat again, if only they could have a second chance with Brooke/Ashley. But the minute the second relationship failed for whatever reason, they went back to their affair partners. After that, both seemed to give up on remaining faithful. Craig and Lucas both cheated on their live-in girlfriends with someone from their past. You can't make this shit up. The writers protected Miles to some degree. He didn't technically cheat on Maya with Zoe. His best friend just yelled at him until he stopped trying to make out with his barely conscious ex girlfriend, allowing his conscience to kick in just in time. He also slept with Lola and had a full on emotional relationship with her while his boyfriend was in a coma, but of course the excuse was that he couldn't be sure Tristan would make it. But in Miles's defense, he's mostly self aware. He doesn't fully understand that he enters each and every relationship in the hopes that this one person will understand him completely, never judging or putting any sort of pressure on him, only for that to inevitably fall apart, causing him to be bitter and quickly find someone new (or old, as the case may be). But he does at least realize he can be a mess and self destructive during times of turmoil, not even fully blaming his significant others when they can no longer deal with him. Lucas truly seems to still think he's the hero of his own life following his second breakup with Brooke. Who the hell knows what Craig thinks? He's so out of focus after leaving the main cast that it's impossible to know what exactly he feels or doesn't feel for Ellie. Also, all three express themselves in some sort of artistic way. Lucas becomes an author while Miles planned to attend a writing school at the end of Next Class, suggesting he'll also become a writer. Craig was first a photographer, and then most notably a musician, writing his own songs.

2.) This is going to be so brief after the book I wrote about Lucas vs Miles vs Craig, but since I answered the ask about Peyton and Ellie already, I'll mainly say that Ellie is similar to Peyton for reasons I already stated. But also, Grace gives off a similar vibe. Unlike Ellie, Grace isn't afraid to get involved. She's always the first to educate others and the one to speak out about injustice. For one reason or another, both Grace and Peyton were hesitant to put themselves out there and spent most of their lives being extremely guarded. For Peyton, it was the loss of her mother and reluctance to own up to feeling romantic love for Lucas, so used to being in a toxic relationship with Nathan. For Grace, it was her having cystic fibrosis and feeling that it's not even worth it to fully open up to others when she won't live for very long. Apparently Grace's version of Peyton's feelings for Lucas is... Zig?! Which is completely unbelievable, but the writers seemed to want us to think she'd been pining for him all along and she didn't say his name just because he conveniently entered the room at the right moment. Oops, I said I was going to be brief.

3.) As stated before, I believe that Maya and Haley have many similarities. But Haley is also similar to Clare. Haley sets goals for herself, almost always doing the rational and responsible thing rather than being carefree and letting herself experience life as it comes. Clare does the exact same thing. Arguably, their transformations into more relaxed people willing to be impulsive from time to time relate to falling in love for the first time. As much as I don't want to admit it, Eli had the same effect on Clare's life as Nathan did on Haley's. He was someone very unlike her who encouraged her to try new things and put herself out there rather than remaining the same, stagnant person. Granted, I do think Clare was already beginning to embrace new things following her breakup with KC and had become much more confident by the beginning of season 10. But I don't think Eli's effect on Clare's life should be understated. And like Nathan and Haley, Eli and Clare got in extremely deep very quickly, resulting in a pretty emotionally devastating breakup where the girl had to leave the guy due to the timing being wrong and the relationships not being what they should be. That's where the comparisons personally end for me in regards to the relationships. Other than the fact both couples viewed each other as their future. Both Haley and Clare got pregnant during their senior years, throwing their future plans completely off. Haley was able to carry her pregnancy to term, resulting in her raising a son as a barely legal adult. Clare miscarried, losing her son. Also, somehow I almost forgot the fact that both initially wanted to wait until marriage to have sex. Haley technically waited, mostly because she got married at sixteen. Clare didn't, eventually shifting her beliefs enough to feel comfortable having sex in a loving relationship outside of marriage. And with Drew, once. I'm sorry. I still love that.

4.) Miles is such a Nathan to me that I think even their actors, Eric Osborne and James Lafferty, have a similar vibe and mannerisms. I don't know what it is, but it's uncanny to me. To begin with, they're known for being good athletes. Although, Miles being into sports mostly goes away after season 13. He self destructs pretty quickly after that, eventually becoming more interested in things like student council and creative writing. Nathan continues to pursue a career in basketball during every season, first as a player, briefly as a coach, and then later as a sports' agent. Nathan's passion for sports is an integral part of who he is. And obviously, both Nathan and Miles had complicated relationships with their abusive fathers, struggling to live up to their expectations only to never be enough. Both broke free of their dads, choosing to receive validation outside of their families. Nathan found the love and stability he was looking for with Haley. Miles tried multiple times to find this kind of love, and his relationship with Tristan was his longest and most consistent pairing. But they were never anywhere on the same level as Nathan and Haley. In other relationships such as Miles's with Maya or his fling with Lola, either the girl never fully let him in because of her own issues as well as feelings for a guy from her past or because he was settling for something simple that made life easier in the present even though he truly wanted someone else, they didn't work out. This is getting so long. I'm sorry. But other than Miles, Nathan also has similarities to Jimmy. We talked before about this, I think. Jimmy was also under pressure to become a professional basketball player from his father. Much like Dan pretty much demanded Nathan play basketball at all costs, Jimmy's father struggled to accept the reality that Jimmy's life had changed following his paralysis. Both guys ended up in wheelchairs following a violent altercation, though Nathan's was temporary while Jimmy's fate is left ambiguous since we never find out what came of the stem cell surgery. Regardless, Jimmy's mental health following the shooting and negative emotions were rarely ever the focus. He alludes to feeling suicidal and depressed during episodes centered around Craig and Spinner, but by the time we get back into Jimmy's head he's found a way to adjust. Nathan seems to take his accident much harder, remaining in a very negative, depressed headspace for 4+ months, relying heavily on alcohol to cope with his day to day life. Eventually, Nathan just.. kind of snaps out of it. Because he cuts his hair, learns to walk again, and starts helping out with the Ravens, we're meant to infer he's all better. You have to love OTH's hit or miss writing. Lastly, Nathan and Zig are similar in regards to Naley's season 2 arc and Zaya's in Next Class season 1. Both guys are threatened by the girls they love growing closer to a musician who might connect with them on a level they can't reach. Uncomfortable with the challenge to their relationship, both guys grow somewhat possessive and jealous, even briefly asking if they or the music are more important.

5.) It's hard to compare Brooke to any one character. I realize she's basically the archetype of the mean girl who eventually softens up, but there are so many things that make Brooke 'Brooke'. To start with, Manny. Both spent a lot of years allowing boys to define their worth. As a result, they were often shown competing with other girls. Both Brooke and Manny were left with trust issues involving love triangles with their first loves. Brooke spent years overcoming the betrayal of Lucas and Peyton. Manny also took years and multiple, mostly throwaway relationships to get over Craig after he deceived her into believing he'd broken up with Ashley so that they could be together. Honestly, these incidents probably weren't comparable, but I loved Manny too much to question it and Cassie Steele did a really good playing up that subtext. By the time the girls graduate, they've mostly become more confident in themselves, putting their ambitions first. For Manny, it's her acting. For Brooke, it's the fashion line. Both girls faced rejection from their parents. But while Manny was raised by strict parents, resulting her rebellion, Brooke was left almost completely alone, resulting in a similar outcome. Because of this, their best friends (Peyton and Emma) are much more like family than their biological families. In the end, both end up with someone unpredictable who conveniently was linked to their best friend once upon a time. Other than Manny, there's obviously Fiona. Both had an interest in fashion, spent years being a queen bee, and eventually learned a sense of responsibility and stability both by living alone and being on student council.

6.) Degrassi. It's not close.

7.) Ooh okay.

Degrassi:

(1) Zig/Maya

(2) Joey/Caitlin

(3) Sean/Ellie

One Tree Hill:

(1) Nathan/Haley

(2) Lucas/Brooke

(3) Jake/Peyton

Combined:

(1) Zig/Maya

(2) Nathan/Haley

(3) Lucas/Brooke

(4) Joey/Caitlin

(5) Sean/Ellie

(6) Jake/Peyton

8.) My brain broke LOL

Things I prefer about OTH:

(1) Better focus on character development due to having a smaller cast

(2) Stronger love stories. Degrassi was first and foremost a show about messy teenagers. For the first half of the series, no one was endgame. It wasn't until Eclare that the show started to realize that maybe they should service their fans in that way. But on One Tree Hill, a lot of time and energy was dedicated to developing the relationships between Nathan/Haley, Lucas/Brooke, Lucas/Peyton, Brooke/Julian, Jake/Peyton, etc.

3.) Better soundtrack, even though I honestly love Degrassi's too

4.) It has a truly platonic friendship between a male and female character without any romantic past or one of them being gay (Lucas/Haley)

(5) More focus on parent/child dynamics

(6) They never spent a handful of episodes in green screen Paris, dragging down the entire show for like two months straight

Things I prefer about Degrassi:

(1) It's more realistic.

(2) This kind of goes along with #1, but it's a show about teenagers played by actual teenagers. It's a much different experience watching these kids figure things out than it is watching twenty somethings do the same thing.

(3) Representation. I won't pretend like Degrassi is perfect or that it equally distributes focus to queer and POC characters. It doesn't. There's a clear hierarchy, and unfortunately white, straight characters were generally at the center of the story lines. But an attempt was at least made. OTH had an almost all white cast and rarely ever featured any LGBT representation. One of their sole gay characters filmed himself having sex with a woman without her knowledge or consent, then leaked the tape, all to hide his sexuality. So, not the greatest representation.

4.) Degrassi's school shooter was someone who physically abused his girlfriend and displayed many red flags rather than a victim of bullying who suddenly snapped after one too many insults or physical assaults. Sadly, OTH continued to perpetuate the misinformation that most school shootings are committed by kids who are bullied. To be fair, Rick was also bullied, but it wasn't a black and white scenario. Kids weren't just being unfair to him. He came back to the school and seriously asked the friends of the girl he put into a coma for forgiveness.

(5) The characters mostly had limitations and were forced to follow the same rules unlike on OTH where 4/5 of the core five could basically do whatever they wanted. This is one thing that sets Degrassi apart from many other teen dramas.

(6) The friendships were more believable and realistic. While I think there were occasional instances where one friend forgave another too easily, the instances where the friends fell out with one another only to later make up were overall well done and didn't feel forced. Brooke and Peyton, I'm looking at you.

(7) The girls actually seemed to like each other! They could mostly interact without constantly referring to each other as "bitches" and "whores". During moments when the girls would turn on each other, it was being written in a very realistic, true to life way. On One Tree Hill, an entire punchline would be that one girl degraded another.

#mayamatlinscello #Long post #Not my gifs

[fluffypotatey]

watching Leverage: ep 6

ok had myself some dinner, now i'm snacking on fries, LET'S GET INTO IT

Before we go:

the episode we're diving into is called "The Stork Job" and according to @0hheytherebigbadwolf, they await my tears (whatever the fuck that means, she grumbles nervously).

so, if i do cry, everybody blame them for that (i kid, i kid..........unless 👀)

anyway, last episode, we got to see more of our lovely crew working on the spot and they sure did deliver!

Eliot, our boy, was able to work out who the hostage was for the robbers were AND take out the men who were the reason the two were robbing the bank

alec, my boy, along with parker, my queen, expertly impersonated the fucking fbi without a hitch and parker was even able to sneak into the back to steal the briefcase full of money

another thing, i love how even when the episode only has minor characters for that one episode, they still feel like fully fleshed out people. the cops that alec and parker had to fool? they felt like bumbling cops for a small town (we even got a hint of the sheriff's and the judge's friendship(?) towards the end which I thought was awesome. the bank tellers? they felt like people and not stoic stock characters.

i applaud the writers room

anyway, ON WITH THE SHOW

the episode

oh no we starting off sad :(

parker :((((((( she knows....she KNOWS THE SIGNS OF ABUSE :(((((

FUCK YOU BESTIE (i'm kidding, i love you)

oh....we are mentioning how they got any orphans???? are we...will they discuss this?

the war....how vague -_-

SOPHIE YOU QUEEN

she scammed the embassy??? queen shit

lmao they're dunking on eliot about how to pick up girls. eliot: "i'm not an amature" sophie: "of course not! but i'd peg you at a level 2 and she's a level 20"

oh??? driver man has the hots for parker??? 1) great for their plan but 2) i am now worried for parker

if she gets hurt itsg i will be upSET

she lost sight of him when she went to try and take his wallet. this man knows those kind of moves and i am worried.

alec??? getting jealous??? or am i looking into this too much, more on 11

"ranch in texas?" HOW SHE GOT HOOKED shit man, is that what i need to do? but i don't have a ranch :( i can't even use a lasso T^T

nathan is so bothered about sophie's tips to eliot "you were manipulating me???" "i was a thief" "our love not real :(" "we are on the clock, nathan, for god's sake"

poor alec being the third wheel to all this

ok driver man making his move on parker, and she's trying so hard to get info from him. parker, baby, i am so worried for you. i don't like this man and he seems like the stalker type.

PARKER DON'T WORRY I WILL COMFORT YOU

the fact that this case is hitting a little too close for her my girlie :(((

YES STAB HIM BITCH THAT'S WHAT HE GETS ok nobody get mad at parker or i WILL hurt them

lol the others guys are so confused.

PARKER JUST JUMPED OFF THE LEDGE???? WHERE'D SHE GO???

good on eliot using the movie thing

steal a movie??? you mean a bootleg????

they did not just- omg

alec trying to reassure parker that they're not just a team(in dom toretto's voice: "we're family")

SOPHIE YOU QUEEN

she wrote a script, she gave herself the role of the nun, THERE'S WEREWOLVES???

NATHAN YOU WHIPPED SON OF A BITCH

YES SOPHIE YOU DID SO GOOD. oscars, it's what she deserves

oooooh nice little plan there to ensure she brings the boy

awwww parker doesn't want to be babysat (bc she feels it undermines her and that they don't trust her) but alec tells her that no one asked him to T^T he just wants to look out for her ok ;-; he cares ok!

you got this parker! something tells me creepy driver man will make a comeback and i won't like it.

something FISHY is going on here in this orphanage! where be the children? why are there trucks with cargo that isn't children?

WE FOUND THE CHILDREN

CURSE MY SENSITIVE SOUL I WILL NOT SURVIVE THIS EPISODE

parker is about to cry HOW DARE

parker going rogue again. kick their ass!

ALEC :(((( BABY

NOT NANA :((((

THEY ARE BONDING T^T

HUG HER! SHE NEEDS IT!

"they're gonna turn out like me" PARKER NO

"i like how you turned out" ALEC YOU SMOOTH MOTHERFUCKER

alec really wants to help the other orphans T^T i'm on his side. i'd provide a wonderful distraction as they helped the children escape! (i'd die but still)

oh no! how ever will our crew save all the orphans....ah jee, i am stumped. (i WILL believe they'll save all of them or so help me! realism be damned!)

oop the jig is up! she's been fooled! (your death scene was nice tho)

we still got 15 more minutes...i reFUSE to believe this is the end

where's parker????

YES GIRL

but why didn't you tell alec tho??? he'd help you

she's trying so hard to get them out ;-; don't laugh at her she's trying!!!! even here she's so adorable

omfg so they'll leave for Häagen Dazs? silly children

KICK HIS ASS PARKER

SHIT NO WAIT HANDS OFF BITCH

YEAH KICK HIS ASS

YES AHAHAHAHA i love her so much

sophie! that means the gang's here! oooooh the police? or is it just an audio recording???

YEAH ELIOT

how dare they scare me for second. i thought parker was gonna get shot! did nathan really stop that bus just so they could figure out the guns were props???? really nathan?

oh alec i know you felt so cool doing that in front of parker. walk in strut in with your little button, press it, and the building explodes. yeah

nathan is such a dad and how he calmed parker down about where the kids would get help

awwww alec!! he was worried about you parker!! THAT SMILE YEAH I SAW IT!

general thoughts

my parker feels were attacked today. will i recover? yes, but i'll need a minute or something. i just...she understood how much the foster system would fuck up these kids and didn't want to see that, but also knew that where they were was just as bad and T^T

AND ALEC, ALEC WHO UNDERSTOOD AS WELL! he already knew she was going through it. and he wanted to help, but also wasn't going to push even if he saw how much it troubled her T^T AND THE FACT THAT HE WAS WORRIED AND WANTED TO HELP THE KIDS UGH MY HEART

how parker called back to alec's comment about how they're "a little more" than a team all up close and personal and he was totally blushing don't @ me.

nathan/sophie were cute and it was fun seeing nathan a little miffed that sophie would use her charm for anyone when thieving (like it wasn't just their thing jfc nathan you are down so bad). it was cute. i like how she's one of the only people he struggles to lie to also.

but yeah. good episode, we got character stuff and i am all about that. until next time!

#leverage #fluffy reacts #long post #nathan really thought sophie's flirting was their thing like sir....where have you been??? i love him tho #alec did prove himself as my fav once again #showing his softer side this episode made me weak #him opening up to parker bc he knew that they understood each other to some level #also it sounded like he already knew about her past w/o her telling him #alec you running background checks on everyone? how much do you know? did you stop at a point bc you respected your friends or delved #deeper as a way to better help them in the future if something were to happen??? #oh yeah: no tears were shed in the watching of this show! there were close calls but no tears were shed

[cf56]

In the reboot the Warners are very openly violent with each other, they go after each other in ways that in the original series they saved solely for their enemies. Do you think this is something they are being forced to do by their new writers or has there been some sort of negative shift in their relationships with each other? Primarily it seems to be Wakko and Dot against Yakko. Could this even be part of the reason Yakko created Yolko?

I think criticism of the reboot can often be over the top, but this is one point I do agree with. I think the writers (real world writers) fell into the trap of knowing they needed to include cartoony violence but didn't know when or how to use it. In much of the reboot, the Warners are the only cartoon characters around, so they end up directing the violence at each other. If you think about it compared to the original, though, they also seem to be strangely reserved when it comes to using violence against their human "special friends" in the reboot. Why aren't they dropping anvils on Ralph or smashing Nora with a mallet? They just sort of hang around and talk most of the time. Almost seems like they've mellowed out, but the opposite has happened in regards to how they interact with each other.

In the original, they were kind of written in most cases as a single character with three different personalities. Rarely separated, always pursuing the same goal. Basically, if you wouldn't write a single character malleting themselves, you shouldn't write the Warners malleting each other. I think the change can be described succinctly like this: they went from acting like the Marx Brothers to acting more like The Three Stooges.

In-universe, I think there are some things we have to establish first when looking at this dilemma. First, toons cannot be permanently injured except by means of a plot device specifically devised to injure them (Dip). It's also unclear if they actually feel pain, or if they just have comedic reactions to violence that simulate being in pain. It's possible that the Warners aren't hurting each other at all. If you knew you could hurt your siblings without actually causing them pain, would you?

Perhaps the answer to that is irrelevant in the Warners' case, because the Warners are closer than regular siblings. They are not just the only family each of them have ever had. The only people in general who care genuinely about them is each other. Their relationship is built on total, implicit trust. Whether they can really hurt each other or not, the fact that they try at all is troubling. I'll get into detail on that lower down.

I have one solid theory on why it started happening, in-universe. We all know the Warners can't physically change. But I think some people let that fact trick them into thinking the Warners also can't mentally change. Like any other living being with a brain, the Warners learn and develop and grow (mentally). If they didn't, they wouldn't really be living beings. People have often pointed out that it feels like the Warners are older in the reboot. And, yeah, they kind of are. I don't know if that's what the reboot writers intended, but I don't think it's really canon-shattering to think that the Warners aren't exactly the same now as they were in the 90's. There's one particular event that may have changed their outlook on life permanently- the cancellation of their original show, followed by whatever happened in the 22 years in between that and the reboot.

My headcanon is that the cancellation of the original show deeply affected Yakko in a negative way. He felt like he failed his siblings, let their livelihood and ticket to freedom be taken away. Worst of all, he didn't even know exactly what he did wrong to deserve the cancellation. In truth, it was nothing, just the changing economics of the animation industry, but that doesn't stop him from blaming himself. So, when the Warners are reanimated and put back on air, his mindset has changed. This is what led him to becoming more openly protective/paternal towards his siblings in the reboot. It led to him becoming more anxious as well. He has decided that he must guide them more firmly if he wants to protect them and avoid another cancellation. However, becoming more like a father figure and exercising his authority over his siblings had an unintended side effect- his siblings started to rebel. Not in any major way, but they take what liberties they can to get back at him for his annoying behavior, which is where the violence comes from. I have explored this concept in some of my fics, most openly in "The Warners Write."

That's my best explanation for this- but it isn't that simple. Before I elaborate, let me eliminate some other possibilities. First, that the Warners are simply getting tired of each other after almost a century. Maybe, but I don't think it's the case. I don't think it's possible for the Warners to get tired of each other. They adore each other, now and always. Second, the possibility, as you said, that they are being forced to do it by the fictional writers of their in-universe show.

There's nothing about that theory that inherently makes it unlikely. It probably is the best explanation overall. I just don't like it, because it's kind of... lazy? I don't know, there's probably a better way to describe it. But when you start getting into this territory, there's nothing to stop you from saying that everything the Warners do is just part of the script, and then the entire canon falls apart and we're back to square one. If nothing the Warners do represents their actual personalities and actions, then there's no point speculating on anything they're shown to do, ever, at all. Plus, if everything they do is part of the fictional show, then there's really no difference in discussing it from discussing it as a real world show. They're still directed by writers and live a fictional life, which is exactly how it really plays out on our screens. You're just adding another pointless meta-layer to it.

Anyway, now to that big climax I've been putting off. You heard my best explanation. That explanation works well enough for when it's the younger siblings directing violence towards Yakko. The problem arises when it's Yakko directing violence towards them.

The single worst instance of this inter-sibling violence problem in the reboot, the one I absolutely can't stand or explain at all, is, coincidentally, its very first scene. There's just no way to explain it that's consistent with the characters of Yakko, Wakko, and Dot.

When I first saw this scene... it didn't bother me at all, of course. It was the first scene of Animaniacs I ever saw. I couldn't have known then how awful and out of character this moment is. But I do now. And it's hard to watch. Am I being too dramatic about it? You be the judge.

It isn't the using Wakko as a battering ram that bothers me. It's the slap after. Yakko says "Oh, right, it's a pull, not a push." Then he promptly punishes his little sibling for his own mistake, after he already gave him a pointless head bashing against the door. Neither he nor Dot even show an ounce of concern at any point.

Now, sometimes siblings play rough. Sometimes they seriously hurt each other. This doesn't necessarily harm their relationship. In some cases, it even makes it stronger (as long as it doesn't rise to the level of bullying). The same would not be true if, say, a father did the exact same thing to his child. That would be abuse, possibly, negligence at best, if it was accidental, and the father should feel guilty for it.

To see what I mean, imagine this exact same scene playing out, but Slappy is in the place of Yakko and Skippy is in the place of Wakko. Kind of changes the connotation, doesn't it? But it shouldn't, really. By and large, Yakko is just as much of a parental figure to Wakko as Slappy is to Skippy. The size difference is even similar. Some of you may not know this, but Yakko is actually taller than Slappy.

Point is, Yakko holds the absolute trust of his siblings. They can be violent to him, but him being violent to them is a completely different ballgame. Using Wakko as a weapon, making him visibly beat up, and then twisting the blame for your mistake onto him and hitting him once more for good measure is almost abusive-level conduct. It would be straight-up abuse if we didn't know these were toons who can take damage without actually being injured. There isn't a way to explain it in-universe. As much as I hate to resort to such simple answers, the best explanation here is that the reboot writers simply got it wrong. They tried to write the Warners like Daffy and Bugs. This scene would be absolutely fine if it was between those two, because they're rivals, not the closest set of siblings in the world.

Sometimes the reboot gets it right, though. For example, when Nora knocks Wakko off the desk, and the next frame shows his siblings at least checking on him.

Since the egregious example of Yakko hitting Wakko happened in the first scene of the first episode, I can just chalk it up to the writers not really knowing the characters yet (though they should've, but that's beside the point). To frame this all in a more positive way, ignoring that one scene, I think Yakko might actually be proud of his siblings for standing up to him more and developing their own boundaries. He did his job- he raised them to be self-confident and assured. It took a century, but he did it, and he can withstand a little physical pain along the way. It's worth it.

As for Yolko, if you take my main theory earlier, it could be connected. Yakko is proud that his siblings are branching off a little, but he does miss when they followed him without question. So he gave himself someone else to raise from scratch, an egg. Though it probably isn't literally alive, since it would need to be constantly incubated.

I didn't really intend for this post to turn into a long rant about the reboot. If this is the only post of mine you've seen, you might think I'm some reboot hater. If you've been following me for some time, though, I hope you already know that isn't the case. The reboot got me into Animaniacs. Even if it was the worst thing in the world, I could never hate it. And it's far from the worst thing in the world. It has a few flaws, some glaring, but overall I still love it, and I think it's only gotten better as time has gone on.

I'm really pleased with the number of asks coming in over the past few days. If the current pace of asks continues, though, I probably will not be able to continue answering them the day they come in, especially since I returned to college yesterday. Keep sending them if you have them, but my response may not be instantaneous.

#animaniacs #yakko warner #wakko warner #dot warner #the warner siblings #animaniacs 2020 #answered ask #cfposts

[thecleverqueer]

Alright. Let me start unpacking my “The Wrong Jedi” arc theories. I think we all want answers. Full discretion, I don’t have them, but I’ll gladly share with you what I don’t know.

So, the first thing I’m going to discuss is the elephant in the room:

Why Barriss?

The truth is that we know next to nothing about Barriss in cannon. She has all of about 35 minutes of screen time total (including the movies). Nevertheless, her character is intriguing. From what I gather, she’s smart, brooding, emotional, painfully gay, religiously repressed and beyond that, I know very little.

It’s apparent to me that Barriss meant A LOT to Ahsoka (I say this is pretty apparent to me because Ahsoka doesn’t stop thinking about Barriss… Barriss is clearly STILL occupying space rent-free in Ahsoka’s head long after TWJ arc… even into her Fulcrum years), but their relationship isn’t fleshed out in cannon. The writers tell us that Ahsoka and Barriss are “close friends”, but we never see them hanging out or what the true nature of their relationship looks like. It puts us into a gray area really which leaves a lot of room for interpretation (which may be the point, I don’t know).

With what we’re given, we can assume one of two things in regards to the answer of “Why Barriss?” either….

1.) The writers lazily used Barriss to fall on a sword for the sole purpose of Ahsoka’s character development. This is the likely cause if we’re being honest. Ahsoka has a lot of acquaintances in The Clone Wars, but I’d say she’s close to five six people in the show: Anakin, Obi-Wan, Rex, Plo Koon, Padmé (which all get fair amounts of screen time to flesh out their stories) and Barriss (which we’re told about, but gets virtually no screen time for). Since the other characters are all well-developed and have story arcs that stretch beyond “The Wrong Jedi”, it would have to be Barriss by process of elimination. She was the only option. It wasn’t enough to simply be blamed for the crimes and banished by the council due to stupid politics. Ahsoka would have likely returned to the Jedi order after her name was cleared if it hadn’t been so personal. Instead of just a stab, it had to be a stab then a twist. Barriss twisted. So, yeah. This. This reason.

Or…

2.) There was a whole host of other things going on behind the scenes that we did not see, but that we can infer based on hints…. A blazing dumpster fire filled with drama and chaos that pushed Barriss into a corner and forced her to lash out violently.

I honestly like this option better because it allows me to be creative with theories (where the writers may have just been lazy). And, I have them so that this arc and the question of “Why Barriss?” makes sense to me.

It requires more depth for Barriss as a character… a kind of filling in the blanks. What motivated her to do what she did? For me to make sense of it, it was clearly a combination of things (three things specifically).

First, I believe that Barriss was disillusioned by the war. As a healer, Barriss saw the ugliest parts of battle: mangled men, excruciating pain, blood, sadness, peoples’ last breaths and a lot meaningless suffering and death. I imagine that Barriss would heal her battalions only to have the same men return to her seeking out her healing over and over, further prolonging their suffering and grief. She may have lost her sense of purpose as a result. What was the point to any of it? It was all so dark and disturbing. She was just a teenager likely on long deployments where she was forced to manage other peoples’ suffering endlessly. I can only imagine the PTSD that would be associated with that. I feel the disillusionment was very valid, very real. This pushed her. She mentioned this in her confession to the crimes.

Second, (and something that should absolutely be cannon) is “Barrissoka”. I don’t know how far Barriss and Ahsoka’s relationship went. It clearly went pretty far, but not far enough. The dialogue (as well as the angsty, furtive, desirous looks that they shoot one another) after the funeral of the Jedi killed in the hanger bombing suggests to me that either they confessed their feelings for one another and determined that it wouldn’t be wise to pursue anything, or that they got caught messing around and were forced to end their romantic relationship (it was Ki-Adi Mundi that caught and threatened them, make no mistake). Being cock-blocked because of weird religious beliefs sucks, but for them to be cock-blocking you from someone like Ahsoka? Someone that you got buried alive with? Someone that held your hand as you prepared to die? Someone that couldn’t bring themselves to kill you when were clearly trying to take them out? Someone that held you in their arms so that you wouldn’t freeze to death until help arrived to save you both? Someone that cared about you so much that they asked about you as soon as they came back into consciousness despite your attempts to murder them? Someone that did stupid things to cutely show off in vague attempts to impress you all of the time? Someone that smoking hot? Holy shit. I’m not going to say that I would blow anything up, but I kind of get it. I’d be pissed. This would have pushed Barriss even further.

Finally, Palpatine. I’m confident that he was manipulating the entire thing. I think he found some way to convince Barriss that it was the best course of action based on the previous two scenarios. The war will never end, and she’ll never get to be with the girl she loves. As Barriss states as they walk down the halls of the temple post-bombing, “The evidence seems clear, Ahsoka, nothing will ever change.” She was trapped. She was desperate. She was manipulatable. Palpatine convinced her that the bombing would be her out. He did this to get Ahsoka out of the way, of course. He knew that as long as Ahsoka was in the picture, Anakin would not fall to the dark side. It was imperative that he create space between Anakin, Obi-Wan and Ahsoka… which he did. As Tarkin stated, Palpatine rarely did anything without a strategy. This was one of his finest chess moves. Either way the trial went, Ahsoka would be out of the picture. One down. One to go.

So for me, that’s why Barriss. Otherwise, yeah. It was totally lazy and made zero sense. Without complete and utter despair, disillusionment and outside manipulation, it would be nothing less than character assassination.

Now, give Barriss a FUCKING redemption arc!!

#star wars #ahsoka tano #star wars tcw #sw tcw #the clone wars #barriss offee #barrissoka #emperor palpatine #star wars angst #lgbtq #the wrong jedi #anakin skywalker #barriss deserved better #ahsoka and barriss #ahsoka being gay