#like good on her because her character arc is really good

[tossawary]

I'm thinking about "What if the main character did not have a secret, powerful family background and was just some random person?" AUs for different stories, because I personally find that situation more compelling most of the time and I think it introduces more interesting struggles. While thinking about a bunch of other stories, I ended up thinking about Aragorn in "Lord of the Rings".

Now, Aragorn is a special case because 1) I wouldn't really call him THE main character and the "noble" members of the Fellowship are well-contrasted by the hobbits. The hobbits may be mostly Shire gentry (except for Sam), but on the grand stage of Middle Earth, they're still unimpressive nobodies. Frodo is already our ordinary hero. 2) Aragorn's road to kingship comes with him struggling with his ancestor's failures and accepting the heavy burdens that come with being Isildur's heir. This is specifically an arc of a character struggling with their family history. I am absolutely not saying that Aragorn being royalty makes LOTR a bad story and that it would be better if he was just some random guy. I think this is a well-written character storyline that is a key feature of the overall story.

But I do think it would be really funny to write fanfiction where Aragorn wasn't Arathorn's son. (There is the issue of the heritage that makes Aragorn age slowly, but maybe you could wiggle that so that Aragorn has that kind of heritage from a different source?) Like, the line of Isildur has died out, and let's say that Aragorn's mother takes shelter in Rivendell with her son, and kid Aragorn ends up wandering around to the broken sword and picking up the handle. And either Aragorn's mother lies to Elrond about Aragorn being Arathorn's son or Elrond happens across kid Aragorn with the broken sword and thinks... "Hey, what if we just... lied about it?"

Now, this could end really badly! As I vaguely understand it, the Silmarillion (which I have not read) contains a bunch of examples where lying did not go well, so maybe this lie is how Middle Earth falls into chaos in this AU. Whoops.

But even though this breaks some plotlines, I'm a sucker for adoption storylines. I love adoption being treated as important. It's compelling to imagine Elrond and Aragorn's mother carefully explaining the situation with the sword to him, and then this child just... stubbornly deciding that he's going to become Isildur's heir. Maybe Aragorn's determination falters at some point, he gives up on the idea, and he later has to return to Elrond as an adult and persuade him that no, he means it this time, mankind isn't just about bloodlines, he's going to pick up this burden on behalf of all of humanity. I think that there's something powerful in a person deciding that no, I'm not of Isildur's blood, but I have his same potential for success and for failure, and I'm here. I'm fighting. I picked up the broken sword and that's good enough, isn't it? Who are you to say I'm not his heir? I'm HERE.

I think there's powerful magic in that too. (Also, Arathorn is dead and getting adopted as a father by some random kid. Sure. Okay. I think that's just funny.)

(Also, oh my, there is SO MUCH tragedy if Aragorn being Isildur's heir is a lie and Boromir died believing it. The GUILT. The GUILT that Aragorn would feel when Boromir says, "I would have followed you, my brother, my captain, my king." Like, oh man, now you HAVE TO make it true.)

Now, maybe Aragorn doesn't become King of Gondor in this AU or maybe he does. Maybe Faramir becomes king instead. Maybe it becomes well known by the end of the journey that Aragorn isn't a blood descendant of Isildur and maybe it's a secret known only to the Fellowship. I'd like to think that he still marries Arwen. I like the idea of Arwen happily and knowingly marrying some nobody lying about his heritage and Elrond internally being like, "This is kind of on me."

The most important thing here is that it would be so fucking funny if Aragorn (and Elrond and Gandalf and Galadriel) successfully lied to Sauron the Deceiver. Sauron's like, "Oh? A secret heir come out of hiding to fight against me? Sounds legit." And at some point near the end, just before some hobbits chuck a ring into a volcano behind his back, Sauron is looking at Aragorn like, "Wait a minute, what the fuck, you lying little SHIT."

(Or Sauron finds out via Pippin that Aragorn is lying and feels SO SMUG about how he's going to crush a false king, which just adds to Aragorn's whole "made you look!" distraction keeping Sauron from noticing the hobbits sneaking into Mount Doom.)

#tossawary tolkien #fic ideas #aragorn #elrond #long post #spoilers #make the main character a rando au

[chaifootsteps]

just me or is the whole 'saying this is like fanfic is homophobia' framing kind of frustrating? like just to list out the tropes that have come up so far in HH/HB:

female character is written as an evil shrew who gets in the way of the m/m pairing

relationship that starts with rape/dubcon rewritten into true love (this one is probably more common in bad BL manga but I'm willing to bet there's some overlap)

character is the child of a mob family

portrayals of rape/sexual assault treated as titillating / used for drama

portrayals of domestic violence/abuse used mainly to get viewers to feel sorry for a character instead of making them sympathetic on their own terms

abusers/rapists being all powerful monsters solely to torture the victim as much as possible

characters are either Good or Bad and writing is heavy handed about driving this point home

writers has one character they stan and baby above all others and not only the writing but the world bends around them as they eat up more and more screentime while the actual main characters are shoved to the side

writer has one character they hate and they hate other people liking them so they derail them in the most obvious way possible

writer has one pairing they despise and go out of their way to make them seem familial to shame the fans who ship it

writer has intended pairings in mind but they just kinda happen regardless of how much work has been put in to give them real chemistry

the plotlines jump all over the place with no consideration given to the differing stakes each create or audience fatigue when too much is introduced at once/too many hanging threads are left, similar to what happens in unplanned serialized fiction. consistency and worldbuilding errors abound. conversations/events that seem like they should change the status quo kinda don't but there's so little way to tell which one is which that audiences cannot gauge the stakes and either stop being invested or just take the show as it comes since there's no point anticipating anything being done with a lot of its characters & plot points

too many characters, often some of whom don't serve much purpose but the writer is way too attached to to ever cut out (looking at you, Andrealphus & Vassago)

characters are rewritten on the fly. due to the lack of planning their arcs start and stop or get quietly dropped when the writer tires of them

pervasive attitude of misogyny - female characters are underwritten, bitches, dumb or accessories to the men. The world revolves around the (usually white) m/m pairing/s

the main premise is dropped in favor of shipping drama or character shilling

etc.

There's probably more but those are the big ones - like s1 wasn't perfect but s2 really does feel like it became fanfic of itself. I understand Viv being frustrated if it seems like a broad dismissive brush instead of specific critiques, but there's a couple of problems here:

when people give specific critiques she either misrepresents their points to frame them as bad faith (tacitly encouraging her fans to do the same), complains people keep making the same point or writes defensive threads about how people just don't get it because, for example, the show totally demonstrates Millie has qualities other than Wife and Violent

when people say something 'feels like fanfic' as far as I've seen they aren't immediately using it as shorthand for 'it has LGBT characters'. usually when they expand on their points what they're getting at is a lack of planning and a lack of experience or competency in the writer that gives the whole thing impression of being done by an amateur who's either young or still learning their craft, or both

it's the same lack of experienced hands that resulted in the opening of Hazbin being so amateurish and lacking the sense of having actual episodes until other staff writers were brought in to clean up the mess

like yeah I don't like the implication that 'fanfic=automatically bad' since I've read some good stuff myself and maybe people could be more specific; but usually this critique is coming from people who actually like fanfic, who've read a lot of it and who recognize the tropes from the worst fanfics out there in Viv's work

Viv's little "Um, actually, fanfic is good and queer and so if you use it as an insult towards my shows, you're homophobic" snit is one of the more rancid things she's said. When you lay it all out like this, it really does go to show how her stories embody all the worst, most harmful tropes bad fanfic -- and bad writing in general -- has to offer.

#Anonymous #vivziepop critical #viv stuff #actual blog post

[kosmicdream]

oh now i want to know why you hate one piece (just so you know where im coming from, i used to hate the series and thought was the stupidest thing ever and there was no way it was good, and then i read it and it was amazing and i loved it and it moved me in profound ways, and yet i did not forget why i thought it was stupid and indeed i can still fully see why someone would think it is stupid because, lets be honest, it is kind of really stupid so) yeah, im curious

i once loved it as a late teen, i even had one piece ocs LOL. One Piece is not bad because its stupid, or has toony art style or w/e .. but it is bad because its betrayed all the characters and core principles of the story that it pretended to be so invested in. in so many ways its honestly impressive. While i don't agree w/ everything said - youtuber Drizzt has made a very long mutli-series video essays about the various issues and i have enjoyed watching them as it covers arcs that i could not force myself to read. I personally kept reading to the mermaid island arc, but emotionally i dont think it was good when they reached the grand line. (laboon stuff was cute, but after that.. trouble) i dont really like alabasta arc and i feel like every arc after that, is just trying to do that arc again but worse every time. (all complete w/ a new princess character to be tossed aside for the next round..) i hated robins backstory and her part in water 7 (she was my fav female character in the series & i loved her powers.) i wanted usopp to leave the crew or have some real consequences w/ him and the ship. i hate luffy being like such a chosen one in so many ways he has 0 agency in the story, there's some to be expected but now its like at the point where i dont even know what else you could add. he really is the nepo baby of the one piece world. no one dies EVER and i dont even count ace dying bc who gives a fuck abt ace, luffy sure doesnt cuz he got over it in like 1 chapter after he died w and now he has a new retcon brother (who also was dead at least once i think and had amnesia) to fill in the void. franky is ugly as shit now. i could go ON.

#i want all those little pirates to drown #just a taste of my salt #i forget when choppy got bad but i used to like him a lot and that was one of the things that kept me going for a while

[bonefall]

Any thoughts on Moonpaw’s design? Do you plan to make her appearance a bit more unique/utilize the chimera a bit more?

Honestly I think her canon design is pretty fantastic! I don't agree with those who're saying it's not unique lmao, like, the team's never been THIS creative before. She blows Pure Gray Cats 3, 4, and 5 out of the water.

But, boy oh BOY am I gonna have fun with this one. Last night I sketched up a possible combo for each Moonpaw from the options I presented. Whichever one gets picked I'll tweak more, but I went ahead and made a 'base' character design for each one.

Also bonus: Headshots for all of the possible parents. Note the slight update for Stormcloud, I figured out a better way to draw his cheek fluff and changed his stripe pattern a bit

Whatever designs end up not being used for Moonpaw, I'll probably tweak for another new litter. ThriftPlum and ShellFern's hypokits will slot well into the eventual ShellFern litter we (HOPEFULLY) get soon, and with a slight edit, StormCherry's can be a new Honeyfur.

PlumThrift

This one's becoming the least likely to happen I think. It could still win if it's the most fitting with the arc, supposing canon ends up writing a strained relationship between Moon and her parents, but based on the preview stuff that's not the case.

Still! I do like the Two Soccer Moms And Their Weird Child lmao.

Thrift and Plum are a downright deadly united front. They play Good Cop Bad Cop like they're practically telepathic. So I tried to get that across in their headshots.

Plumstone always looks laidback and chill. Thriftear exudes an aura of seriousness.

Their weird child inherits neither of these things. She looks like she eats bugs.

I decided to make this Moonpaw look REALLY fluffy. Plumstone inherited her grandpa Graystripe's body type, so it would be a shame if Moony didn't get it too.

FlipBay

BB!Bayshine is a DustFern descendant. He has his great-grandfather Dustpelt's plate.

The stripes come from grandfather Birchfall, who gave them to mother Duststripe.

Flipclaw is strikingly similar to his grandfather Lionblaze, back before he started balding.

While drawing this one I started trying to play around with the chimera idea more, that she's half of one cat and half of another. When the face plate came into it, it STRUCK me like lighting

It looks like phantom of the opera!!

So I started experimenting with one side being shorter-furred, and got a draft down before moving on to a waaay more in-depth design.

This was the last one I did last night before going to bed, so I'll post the evolution I made in a separate post. It's the one with the most potential thanks to the plate so it got pretty big.

ShellFern

Most Moonpaw designs are chunky, but I've always seen Shellfur as pretty slim. Definitely the slimmest in his recent family-- since Graystripe, the Dapplekin family has been thick and fluffy.

Mix that with Fernstripe, a WindClan cat, I made this Moonpaw resemble some kind of gazelle.

Fernstripe has this long, "fern-shaped" stripe on her body. Paired with Moonpaw's half-black body it looks kind of like stitches which is, imo, cool as fuck

I let her crescent-tufts add to the shape too, they curl in like horns... though, I am worried it looks too much like Curlfeather.

I'll probably give this one another pass if Moonpaw ends up being a ShellFern baby.

Also this take makes her took a bit more grumpy so she's closer in personality to her dad.

StormCherry

This is actually the first one I did

Cherryfall has a perfectly round, cherry-shaped face. She actually looks a ton like her dad, Berrynose.

I wanted to give Moonpaw that same face, because hers is simply a half-moon.

She looks like a stressed-out eevee and I kinda dig it LMAO

In color, this Moonpaw would probably lean more towards red than ginger. I see Cherry as a reddish cat.

She could also inherit Poppy's special red eyes-- she got those from being fetched away from StarClan by Jayfeather. Shadowsight also got them.

The stripe pattern is from Stormcloud. I decided recently that I'm going to try and limit thunder-shaped stripes to the Tigerkin family, something they inherit from Thunderstar himself. So Stormcloud's are now transverse across his body, with a distinct nose snip.

When I finally do decide StormCherry's kits, be that now with Moonpaw or later, I'll standardize Stormy's new stripes by giving him a new fullbody.

#better bones au #bone babble #sketch requests #BB!Moonpaw #Hypokits

[sapphic-agent]

I'm mainly upset about the whole Endeavor arc thing because:

1. Endeavor doesn't deserve the time of day, let alone an entire arc. This arc would've been better suited for someone like Mount Lady, who grows into her role as a pro hero and learns not to be vain and in it for the fame.

2. With all that Horikoshi put into his backstory, Endeavor could've been an example of a corrupt hero being brought to justice and his actions having actual consequences.

3. Endeavor, who seemed so determined to become a better person, never once properly addressed how he screwed up. Not once when he talks to All Might about being the new Symbol of Peace, not once after he saved Natsuo from that nomu, and not once even after Dabi exposed him to the public.

In fact, #3 is very upsetting when you think about it. Endeavor is going on and on about changing, but he never really aired out his dirty laundry first. Be honest. If All Might knew the extent of Endeavor's abuse towards his family, would he really have encouraged Endeavor like that? And what happened with Natsuo is really manipulative. Telling your son that you don't expect forgiveness while people are watching after saving his life? Ew! And those people don't know the context of that sorry, so Natsuo saying that he'll never forgive Endeavor may have made him look like a spoiled, entitled brat in the witnesses' eyes.

It really grinds my gears.

Right, so the problem with Endeavor's arc is that he never had to face the full consequences of his actions. Similarly to Bakugou, plot convenience spared him the entire brunt of what he did.

Someone tried to tell me that people losing faith in heroes because of Dabi's reveal was him facing consequences. And?? No. Not really because a) all the heroes faced backlash, not just him and b) the people's reactions towards what he did specifically were really tame.

And similarly to Bakugou, he has other characters making him look better. We see him and Fuyumi having a nice (almost sweet, even) relationship with no buildup or effort. The plot went out of its way to have Rei praise him for remembering her favorite flower despite the absolute hell he put her through. Even Izuku was conveniently placed to tell Shoto he's ready to forgive Endeavor.

And that's not even mentioning how sympathetic Touya's backstory makes him look. No small part due to the actual retcons in that backstory.

There's also the fact that what he did was never really talked about again until the Endeavor Agency Arc. It was brushed aside until it was barely relevant anymore. That makes it a lot easier for the audience to push aside the severity of it.

Endeavor fan boys, for whatever reason, can't seem to realize this. If Endeavor didn't have all these narrative advantages, his "redemption" wouldn't come off as good as it does. It's the same thing with Bakugou, if it wasn't for plot manipulation neither one of them would be as revered as they are

#anti endeavor #anti enji todoroki #anti bakugou katsuki #mha critical #bnha critical #ask

[pizzaboat]

Lindy is such a messed up character to watch, because she is an unlikeable, petulant, privileged ipad kid, who has no coping skills, is terrified the entire episode and is as helpless as a toddler, so much so the doctor accidentally talks to her like one

And because you're an empathetic person, you'll bounce between concern because the actress is so good at displaying genuine terror and also hoping she'll get eaten when she shit talks the Doctor and Ruby

And it was a warning right off the bat that she kept praising Ricky for being there to do everything for her. Before this, she was at least sad for her friends or scared for the strangers on the street because she didn't know what to do. She didn't know how to save herself

She never really cared about the other people dying, Ricky pointed that out. When she said it was the best day of her life because she met him, and he was like, "There are still thousands of people dying at this moment..."

And she didn't care about Ricky either, he was just a novelty and a convenience for her

In the moment where it counted, and she had a life or death situation, she realised she could throw Ricky under the bus and save herself. She developed a shitty, selfish survival skill, and she learned fast (see how she learned to walk fast)

THEN you wanna see her get eaten, and you wanna punch her bitchy head off.

And she has no remorse or issue lying to the doctor and Ruby about what happened. She had no hesitation and she downright smiled while lying about Ricky's memory

And she thinks her and her people are going to go off and survive? You already know their fates. They're privileged rich kids who couldn't boil water. And you know the part she will play in their downfall. She will lie and push people under the bus and yeah

It's an interesting and horrifying arc, and you're so satisfied to know she's destined to die

#doctor who #ruby sunday #lindy pepper bean #15 doctor

[yams-here]

I've seen people being like "wow undead unluck really gives up on the sexual harrassment jokes and locks in early that's nice" but I think that the reason why they work is because the reason why they're there in the first place serves the girl's character more than it serves a reason for her to get sexualized

So why is Fuuko getting her titty grabbed in the first place? It's her negator hability, called unluck, which negates a person's luck completely when they make skin contact with her, the more intimate the touch is and the more she cares for that person, the worst the burst of unluck is going to be. So that seems like prime fanservice territory, right? Prime "ermmm the reason why he's making her bobbies jiggle 24/7 is because that's the most intimate touch possible" territory right? WRONG!! Tozuka stablishes early that the most intimate touch they could do at the moment was a kiss!! And everytime Andy and Fuuko DO kiss it's extremely focused on and not brushed off as just a sexy scene (even though it's always sexy, love those two disgusting idiots)

And in the end, while unluck may be used as an excuse for her to get grabbed, that reasoning never outshines how unluck adds to Fuuko's character. Why is fuuko so touch starved? She's been avoiding skin contact for years! Why does fuuko dress so conservatively? To avoid accidental touches! Why does fuuko warm up to andy so fast? He's the first person that could be near her that she didn't need to be scared of accidentaly killing AND wasn't scared of her! Why does fuuko care and feel for everyone around her so much? Because a very core memory for her is how negator habilities can ruin the lives of everyone you love! Unluck, in the end, is about HER and HER alone, not just an excuse for her to get sexualized, and that's the reason why I think that excuse works

(Also her love interest being the only one getting chummy and nobody else is also a good sign, if her character didn't matter I bet that zombie scene from the spoil arc would be a LOT different)

#udul #undead unluck #unluck fuuko #uu fuuko #fuuko izumo #in this essay i will #ALSO also #that's kind of also why #i barely see people complaining about tatiana i think #untouchable serves more her character than it serves as a reason for her to be naked 24/7 #tw: sa mention

[gemsofthegalaxy]

maybe I'm giving Stolas too much credit here but I think there might have been a teeny tiny chance that the conversation could have been recovered slightly even though Blitz thought Stolas was joking/role-playing with him had he not said "I love you so much" in his joke

it's hard to say, again, maybe I'm wrong and Stolas would still have shut down when Blitz made it clear he hadn't taken the confession seriously, especially because we don't see Stolas' reaction to this at all

but I know I, as an audience member, definitely winced when Blitz said that and it is when Stolas stopped him from talking.

of course- Blitz had a good point, Stolas did not give him a moment to breathe or consider what happened, he didn't have a chance to process the things Stolas said.

now. the thing is

I don't think there's any reality where Blitz would have been able to accept those feelings during the conversation, anyway. So, this is why I said it might have been recovered slightly, but, no matter what Stolas said or how badly or not badly he took Blitz's reacted, I really don't think Blitz is-or-was in a position to accept the fact that Stolas loves him as he is

it's fundamental to my understanding of Blitz that he feels entirely unlovable and engages in self-destructing behaviours, especially in romantic relationships. Remember his whole stealing Verosika's car and maxing her credit card thing or whatever? I think no matter what he would have come up with some way to reject the feelings Stolas is telling him blatantly he has and probably turn it around on him to lash out in some way, anyway

maybe this sounds like Stolas apologism but honest to god, i'm not even remotely criticising Blitz here. The fact that he's like this is what makes him such a compelling character to watch. He's the main character, it's his arc we're supposed to be rooting for, and while Stolas has work to do, too, the main drive in this show in my opinion is Blitz developing to the point where he can accept that he is worthy of love in general and then, because he can accept love, accepting Stolas' love specifically because they're a good match and they care for one another. He is a fascinating guy with interesting neuroses and watching him learn he deserves love like anyone else is great fun, if an emotional roller coaster at times

#helluva boss #helluva boss spoilers #gems watch #blitz #blitzø #stolitz

[tokiro07]

Undead Unluck ch.208 thoughts

[Beat Cute]

(Content: first impressions - Fuuko's parents, character analysis - Sean, lore - reincarnation mechanics, predictions - arc participants, thematic analysis - death and loss)

Okay, so I was right about the Union needing to replace members of Kaede's band, but I was NOT expecting it to be because Kaede hospitalized all of her friends!

With how ludicrously clumsy she is, I thought for a moment there that Kaede might have been a previous Unluck holder, but we know that can't be the case because Fuuko got it before Kaede died and Kaede wasn't present among the past Unlucks. Instead, I think it's more likely that Kaede was the reason that Fuuko was chosen as the next Unluck - she may have already been pretty good at dealing with and reacting to unlucky events, so the other holders might have thought she'd be able to handle whatever Unluck threw at her. They just didn't anticipate a plane blowing up

I'm really enjoying Kaede as a character pretty much right off the bat, there's a lot more flavor here than I was expecting. I kind of figured she'd be shy and quiet, and that's what would prevent her from performing, but instead she's bright and bubbly, always willing to throw herself into anything with a smile despite the fates clearly telling her not to. That little thumbs up she gives Fuuko's dad after accidentally choreographing a Jackie Chan fight scene was insanely endearing, this guy's got great taste

Fuuko's dad predicting and reacting to Kaede's antics gives us a solid impression of the kind of guy he is, too. He seems like the fastidious type, planning things out in advance to be prepared for anything, while also having the fortitude to press on even when he finds he was unprepared. I suppose one would need both of those traits to marry a woman who might accidentally send you to the hospital just walking forward to greet you

Beyond our new characters, this was a really good chapter for Sean, too, or at least seems to be setting up something really good for him. I like that his insecurity about his importance to the team hasn't just vanished after a few contributions, it's still a core part of his character to want to stand out and matter. Having his points redistributed over the rest of the team's, especially hearing that they're better to have on call for an emergency, is a great way for the narrative to revisit this concept. It probably doesn't help that Rip would actually have been the next reasonable option to drop, since previously Fuuko was dropping members from the top and had literally just booted Chikara and Enjin to bring in Top and Haruka, then dropped them to bring in Nico and Ichico. Though they have no beef this loop, Sean in L100 definitely hated Rip, and likely feels some kind of jealousy towards him here since he guy has two wives and he doesn't have a single girl that he knows of (rootin' for ya, buddy)

Of course, revisiting the roots of Sean's character flaws doesn't need to define his involvement in this arc, it just gave an extra layer to his presence this time around. By giving him a reason to be downtrodden, Tozuka necessitated a way to get him invested in this storyline, and fittingly that touches on his other root: the loss of his father. Julia thought that Sean was excited to help out because it might help him meet cute girls, but that's definitely just a cover. Sean knows exactly what it's like to lose your parents and only be able to reconnect with them via memories, so knowing that Fuuko not only lost her parents but has the chance to reconnect for real, it's natural that he'd want her to take advantage of it. In fact, in L101, he's the only member of the Union who understands what Fuuko's going through

Chikara's parents were saved, Tatiana's not a Negator yet and her parents will almost certainly be saved, Enjin got to cook for his mom like he always wanted, Phil didn't lose his mom...the loss of Sean's dad was completely unrelated to his tragedy, it was just something that happened in his life, and while I'm sure Fuuko would have liked to have prevented it, she likely just didn't have the information to do so. Narratively, this at least provides that point of connection between him and Fuuko, and I'm so glad we get to capitalize on it

Sure, Gina still lost her grandma, Void was still a street urchin, Shen was still an orphan, but they all have their own circumstances that make that a little bit different, and Gina's off helping with Tatiana in Russia, so Sean's easily the best choice to be present here

Julia's presence is to be expected since she hasn't awakened Unjustice yet and she needs as much screentime as possible to establish parallels and distinctions from Juiz. I also think this will be a good time to help us understand the difference between her circumstances, Juiz's and Fuuko's, since Juiz never had parents, Julia was retroactively assigned to parents, and Fuuko is retroactively parentless

Not only will that establish narrative connections, but it's looking like we're going to get a deeper understanding of the mechanics as well. By all logic, Sean's supposition that this is a New Game+ rather than literal time travel should preclude the need for Kaede and Mr. Izumo to procreate, and yet Fuuko's is Back-to-the-Futuring somehow. I have no idea what Tozuka's logic is here, but my best guess is that it's tied to either the Rule of Soul or Parents. Juiz, Victor and Andy would obviously be exempt from this, but Fuuko's soul may be tied to the world on the assumption that her parents will one day provide a vessel for that soul

In the event that the current Fuuko dies, she could well be reincarnated as herself within the same loop since her soul would be available, but perhaps by the mechanics of the Rule in question, there is an almost contractual obligation for her parents to at least be together in the first place? Or, since Fuuko is worried about time paradoxes, it's not that the Rule is endangering her, but her interpretation of it. She thinks that her parents not getting together could erase her, so while mechanically that makes no sense, it seems to make sense to her, and thus affects her regardless. I'm sure Tozuka will explain it, but for now I'm sticking with the theory that Fuuko's doing it to herself

As for the backing band Fuuko's going to throw together, I expect that this will go similar to the space mission where we're going to dedicate a chapter to picking three members rather than having the whole group participate. I say three because when Kaede discusses her band being hospitalized, we see three beds; what looks to be a male guitarist, a male drummer, and another female member, presumably a backup singer or dancer

As far as I'm aware, the only Union members we know have musical experience are Tella (who can't sing thanks to Untell) and Rip, who can play piano. I don't believe we know if anyone on the team is gifted in guitar or drums, though if I had to guess, Enjin strikes me as someone who might be able to do a mean drum solo

I think Julia's a must, since like I said she needs more screentime to get acquainted with the cast and audience, so to that I think it would be extremely funny if she was on guitar and said something to the effect of "it's like a violin you play with your fingers, right?"

I'm on the fence about whether Fuuko will be the third member, since she's near identical to Kaede and wouldn't want to distract from her performance, but it's also such a good opportunity for them to bond and I wouldn't want Tozuka to drop it. Maybe she'd use Nico's memory machine to hypnotize people to think they're the original backup band? Whatever the lineup ends up looking like, I'm sure I'll be able to write a whole post dedicated to it

The final thing I want to touch on is a line that Sean says that I think is meant to be the thesis statement for this arc, and arguably one of the series' greatest overarching themes: "You never know when or where will be the last time you see [someone]."

[TRIGGER WARNING: DEATH]

I think it's pretty self-explanatory how that relates to the theme of enjoying life, that you should spend time with the people you care about while you can and make the most of that time. It's so self-explanatory that I debated whether or not I should talk about it here, but...it's relevant to me right now

A friend of mine died this week. It wasn't exactly sudden, but it was also looking like it was going to be okay for a minute there, so I got a little complacent, I suppose. Reading this line immediately rang true with me. I'll never see that friend again, and I can't even remember what the last thing I said to him was. Did I make him feel like a friend, or was he worried that I was just humoring him? I'm sure at the end I wasn't even on his mind, I'm pretty sure we weren't close enough for that and he was more concerned with his wife, but still, I worry whether or not I treated him right in the time that I knew him

While we weren't super close, my family and his had a lot of plans for spending time together, and now they're just...gone. No more games, no more dinners...nothing. Even if we weren't close, we were trying to be, and however close we could have become, now we'll never be. It doesn't feel like a tremendous loss of what we had, but certainly of what could have been

I take solace in knowing that I did things to the best of my ability. I went out of my way to spend time with them when I could. I tried to make the most of my friendship with them with the time I had, it just got cut short by circumstances outside of anyone's control. I don't know what's going to happen next, but I feel like if nothing else Tozuka and the Union would be proud of me for how I tried to enjoy my time with my friend

Maybe that's a stupid thing to say. Maybe I'm being silly. But I've always believed that art is meant to be a way to explore our relationship with the world, and I really don't think any series I've experienced has done so much to prepare me to deal with loss. One Piece is close, of course, but I've gone on and on about parallels between UU and OP a thousand times by now

Anyway...I haven't really gotten the chance to talk about any of this out loud, and I don't think I've really gotten to process my feelings on it. I'm sorry to dump it on you folks who read this far, but also thank you to anyone who did

And to anyone else experiencing loss or grief right now, I hope that me talking about my experiences or reading Undead Unluck helps you process it too. Even if it's just me or a manga, I hope you can find peace through other people. That's certainly what Tozuka wants for us

Until next time, let's enjoy life

#undead unluck #fouryearsandananime #4y1a reviews #i wasn't expecting this chapter to make me get heavy but here we are

[oscconfessions]

if we're talkin rants about unfinished characters...

soap could’ve had the opportunity to have a really good arc about learning to deal with her germaphobia but she had to have it shoved in last minute because. unfunny ableist jokes??

she starts off as an ableist caricature of people with ocd and ends up. just. Ugh.. I love her because I got attached to her character out of context but I’m looking through her and. Oh my god she’s awful. I love soap like genuinely. She is my favourite ii character and I wouldn’t trade her for the world but she deserved a much better arc and to not be treated as a complete joke. if they hadn’t been making so many ableist jokes with her at the start she might’ve actually had time to get a proper healing arc (I don’t think healing is the right word but I can’t think of anything better to use)

the scene with mic and soap where she throws her supplies off a cliff is really good. without the context of this only being the third time she’s ever had signs of getting better and in the first one her progress was pretty much undone for a gag!! worst part is I can’t even say she needed more time because technically she kind of needed to get out when she did because her elimination isolates mic and makes her vulnerable to later working with taco you can tell they didn’t want to leave soap as a one-dimensional caricature but they had so little time left to work with her that the damage was kind of already done.

I love the scene where she has a panic attack after being covered in toilet water because it’s like the ONE TIME her germophobia is taken somewhat seriously (also because im a sucker for torturing my faves) but the problem comes when soap calms herself down almost immediately because WHERE DID THAT COME FROM!! it would be perfectly fine if she HAD ANY INDICATION SHE WAS AT THAT LEVEL OF CONTROL BEFORE… literally an episode or two before that there was a joke that she wasn’t getting anywhere with her germophobia!!!!! WAS SHE ALWAYS ABLE TO DO THIS???? THERE WAS LITERALLY NO INDICATION SHE WAS ALREADY ABLE TO CALM HERSELF DOWN WITHOUT HELP.. INFACT THE OPPOSITE IS INDICATED!!!!

I need to fix her I need to fix her I need to fix her me in my mind where soap is an accurate portrayal of a person suffering from ocd and she makes out sloppy style with mic and taco….

-🧼🤍

.

#confession #/ii #/ii/soap

[elegyofthemoon]

i finally read the lyrics for "honkai world diva" and

#guys what the fuck alsdkfasdlkfahlk #ITS A BANGER SONG BUT THE LYRICS ARE SO SAD IN RESPECT TO MEI'S CHARACTER ARC DURING WHAT THE HELL #'the diva who gave into lament' girl ok what if i just melted and vanished from existence what the hell is this #I CAN HEAR THE VOICES OF THE PEOPLE I MISS IN THIS SONG #(SHAKING MEI) STOP IM GOING TO CRY HARDER #also found the live version of the song from the dream euphonia concert holy shit does the singers voice do it so well in live damn im- #'I WOULD TREMBLE JUST TO HOLD THEM ONCE MORE' #is2g when i go back to play honkai some more and we come back to world serpent mei im just going to start crying and wailing #im actually kinda surprised how mei jumped up to one of my fave as fast as she did #like good on her because her character arc is really good #but also Q _Q everytime i think about it i am filled with a neverending sadness :( #because its half MEI NOOOOOOOO STOP YOUR FRIENDS LOVE YOU #and half mei for the love of fUCK STOP GO BACK TO YOUR LOVED ONES #aggressive care #avil plays hi3 #but on top of that #having honkai world diva be the basis of the bgm of kyoden makes me feel even more pain #LIKE i thought it was a cool reference at first #until i realized the lyrics of it and now im like 'oh. acheron alone. :(' #rolls around in pain #if youre wondering where i am story wise in hi3 im in ch 20?? starting fu hua arc stuff #hsr.... i have........ put on hold. for reasons. :D

[k233-0]

who am i without my powers?

#also small rant about crystalized nya because like #why did they remove her whole character development???? #like call of deep was such a good episode it really resonated with me #and everything was super cool until nya got her powers back #like what????? what was the point #it literally made me so mad like srsly what was the point!!!!! #like why can't she be a ninja without her powers??? #and it literally easered her entire character development throughout the seasons like why!!!!!! #and i decided i wanted to rewrite her character arc in crystalized #and this drawing is a cover for the book i'm writing :3 #it'll probably be super cringe but i'll share it when i finish it!!!!! #also i can't draw water #lego ninjago #ninjago #nya ninjago #nya jiang #nya smith

[marrfixated]

Hi. Priya being adopted by Alejandro and Noah. Bye.

#no reasoning or context here #welll maybe a little 😇 #I just think Alejandro and Noah balance each other out in how much work they put into things #Noah is the youngest of many sibling so probably knows something about feeling neglected and that need for independence #Alejandro grew up with a drive for perfection and insecurity when compared to his older brother #I think they’d make her feel loved and never too pressured #also I think they would love for her to go to med school #like yes girl escape the terrible reality tv life #Noah did a lot of reality tv so her could also help talk with her about that #also why did they drop the whole Priya going to med school thing? that was really important to her character #also Alejandro is super athletic and Noah is not so I think it’s good juxtaposition #and Alejandro being really good with people #but Priya not #and he would have a redemption sort of arc #Also Priyemma! because I talked about the parallels before #conflict with strategy and feeling with your teammate #original post #Alenoah #td priya #td Noah #td Alejandro #total drama #total drama 2023 #total drama island #total drama reboot #Noah td #Alejandro td #Priya td #Alenoah and Priya AU #rambling in the tags again teehee

[completeoveranalysis]

[4]

AND NOW WE GET PIFFLE CALL BACKS?

Oh Clamp really do love me. This is unreasonably perfect. 

Who else begins the climactic fight of the series with, “Hey, remember this double layered question I posed 135 chapters ago? Let’s revisit that now!”

WHICH IS VERY GENEROUS OF THEM in the way that it signposts an exact conversation for us to think about and realise (without having to reread the whole series yet again) that the whole conversation between Syaoran and Fai in Piffle was REALLY HEAVILY honed in on the secret Lava Lamp crushing guilt and backstory we didn’t know about until now. 

Which is wild in the meta sense knowing that CLAMP planned for that exact sentiment to be the very core of a character we wouldn’t even understand for another 130 chapters, but also on the character level knowing (in hindsight) that Lava Lamp himself was hearing this conversation happen in real time and probably had an absolutely horrible time knowing that they were discussing ethics behind the soul-crushing decision he made that broke the universe and is still suffering AND seeing the consequences of. 

But how absolutely fascinating that after Shara our cloned Syaoran ended up developing such a similar insecurity about messing with timelines and the consequences of doing so completely independently from Lava Lamp. The parallel lives of these parallel people. The hitsuzen of it all. 

AND! Fai gives almost the same advice! 

Last time he said, “You can ponder over that all you want[…] but right now, it won’t do us a bit of good,” and, “If there’s something that you can accomplish if you try, then the thing to do is try. ‘Changing history’ is an idea on too grand a scale for a person to do anything about. It’s also important to accept that there are things you just can’t do.” And he was talking specifically between the Shura/Shara timeline changes at the time, but in relation to Clow? Lava Lamp holds himself accountable for every single thing that happened, but he didn’t do all of that. He was just trying to achieve a goal - which is framed here as a good thing (and is very good advice for dealing with anxiety besides). 

At his core Fai sees this same struggle playing out in each Syaoran and gave them both the same tips - but this time he can reference the previous time and really hammer it home. 

And, deliciously, it echoes even stronger here. The advice is to ignore all the things you can’t control. Just focus on what you want, and do what you can to achieve it.

Lava Lamp might still feel that he ruined the universe, but that won’t help him right now. Like Fai said last time, that’s on too grand a scale for him to ever take on his own. He has one thing he wants to achieve and he should focus on that. The timeline will sort itself out later. 

Which is SUCH a solid Dad moment. Kurogane gets to tell Evil Wolverine to fuck off, Fai and Kurogane get to flirt and insult Evil Wolverine to his face, and now Fai gets to give a touching character moment to Lava Lamp as they all share the final story beat together. It ties the Syaoran experience together (ironically, since the other Syaoran he WAS speaking to is RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM but may or may not have the soul to remember the moment at all), and ties both sides of the plot together into this one big family moment. 

Though I’m slightly suspicious of Fai last time mentioning that It’s also important to accept that there are things you just can’t do. 

#Because THEMATICALLY #It would be SUCH a GOOD character arc for Lava Lamp #If he had to accept Sakura was gone and has been dead this whole time #And that he never really had the power to save her #And that it was never his fault #But EMOTIONALLY? Watching that would be DEVASTATING. #Liveblogging the reservoir chronicle #Tsubasa #Vol 206 #Fai #Lava Lamp Guy #Syaoran #The metaphor of the Sakura frozen in time #Like a regret he was told he had the power to fix #But Evil Wolverine was on the other side of the smoking gun from the start #It was never about Lava Lamp #It wasn’t even really about Sakura #It was just Evil Wolverine from start to finish

[fluffs-n-stuffs]

Finally catching up on the Horizons episodes I missed 👍

#fluff binges !!! #I've missed out this one and the one from last week that I'll watch once I settle my work for tonight--mainly due from a whirlwind on my en #even if it were just for two weeks I missed these sillies sm 🥺🥺🥺 #Diana was finna gonna murder that man you gotta respect that #I think I saw online that not that many people liked this episode because of the main concern that Friede usually saves the day #I do get that though I actually really enjoyed this episode because I think it's one of Roy's best battles (aside from the top one which wa #--the confrontation with the explorers in Diana's hideout) #he got a couple hits in and even thought to send in Wattrel when he realized that he'd get an advantage up in the air which was so so good #the kiddos mainly fumbled this time 'round because they forgot about the foongus/didn't have another mon to counter it #(maybe Hatena could've countered but Liko still needs to learn How to use her in battles--she does want to help though !!! with how she #--moved that shovel on her own - which I thought was a nice lil indicator of a possible battle highlighting her in the future) #I loooved that moment at the end with Diana showing the dude his true self through Bronzor's reflection that was actually very sweet #so yeah it's a simple ep but an enjoyable one - I think people gotta chill with constantly wanting peak sdkjfskndjfs #loads of Horizons content are focused on character moments and a slice of life feeling to everything which is something I love personally #this is a nice breather after the insanity of the last arc methinks hehe #anipoke #pokeani #pokemon horizons #diana pokemon #arcanine

[the-unconquered-queen]

With Blades 2 coming to an end, I just wanna get it off my chest that I'm really not a fan of how they wrote Nia for a great part of this one, particularly vis-à-vis the way they wrote MC. I know I've been saying some stuff along those lines for ages now, but it hasn't left my mind so now I'm gonna actually get into it.

For starters, I think a lot of the issue with Nia's writing was captured pretty well in the tags of this post, particularly on point 2. Like I've said, Nia unfortunately falls into the category of a Mary Sue in that every "flaw" she's given just serves to elevate her to perfection. Hell, even when corrupted—when a person is supposed to be in their most volatile state—the worst she does is be snarky that first chapter (she is aggressive toward MC at one point before this, but it's neither acknowledged nor repeated later). After that, she is entirely normal, just not as much of a pushover, and while I much preferred shadow!Nia, I do think that this really undermines the whole gravity of corruption and b2's emphasis on shadow-light balance, since shadow!Nia comes off as quite balanced already, especially compared to other corrupted characters we've seen.

But here's the thing, that post that got me thinking is months old, and we have gotten more story since then, and what I have noticed is that Nia does, in fact, have one real flaw in canon, but it's the one flaw she's absolutely not meant to have: Nia in canon can at times come off as self-absorbed. She either makes things about herself or doesn't stop people from doing this, and there are multiple examples of it. There is the instance in Riverbend when MC is taking a moment to finally try to process Kade's capture (which, following their own capture, they never got the chance to process) and Nia derails the conversation and makes it about her own grief and is comforted by MC and Mal. Another example is the moment on Gerhard's ship when she vents about the pressure she's been under and lets MC comfort her without at any point considering that MC might have been under similar pressure.

And don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with a character putting themselves first. But when the book doesn't waste a single chance to tell us that Nia's character is the complete opposite and that she is chronically incapable of not being considerate 25/8, it's quite contradictory. I mean, you can even call out Ethan Ramsey, PB's golden boy, on making things about himself at some point in OH, but because, unlike Ethan, Nia is written for you to consider her super sweet and wholesome and perfect, the Blades MC actually contributes to this by performing mental gymnastics to turn something around to be about Nia.

Which brings me to my final point: Blades 2 pushed MC to the side to revolve around Nia, but MC is exactly the person they meant for Nia to be, by virtue of the dissonance between showing and telling. They tell you that Nia is selfless because she always puts everyone else first. Well, I can and did name examples showing the contrary, meanwhile, MC is the one who was been through the most traumatic ordeal and is constantly checking in on everyone else without expecting and without receiving much of the same courtesy in return, even apologizing to Nia because she was "carrying all that weight on her own", never mind that MC always has the weight of the world on their shoulders. They tell you that Nia is the heart of the party, but they both told and showed us that everything fell apart without MC.

Even some of Nia's most defining character traits, MC has in similar measure. Nia sees the best in everyone? MC can be the #1 believer in Aerin's redemption after all the shit he pulled. Nia is trusting to the point of naivete? MC literally trusted Valax while she outright told them at every turn she would turn on them at the first opportunity, and was genuinely hurt by the betrayal. Miss me with MC calling Nia "our better self".

Every trait that they've gone out of their way to tell you Nia has they've shown twofold in MC, which is why it's so exasperating to me that they reduced MC to the conduct through which other characters' (particularly Nia's) stories get told while their own is an afterthought. I am by no means saying that two people can't have similar traits or that two people can't be good people at the same time, but there is something about praising these traits in Nia when, based on these, MC should be held to a similar standard. Instead, they relegated MC (main. character.) to a supporting character in Nia's story, elevating every trait that MC possesses only in Nia while ignoring them in MC to the point that many scenes felt frustrating to play.

#it's not that she's a bad character but I do resent making her the protagonist of b2 at the expense of MC #I really hope MC gets their flowers in b3 and the chance to really be in the spotlight because this aspect of b2 was not it #I do like that she had the whole light v shadow thing going on and got to be super powerful and I think her arc was overall good though #it's just those other things that bug me