#maybe it's because I think Beyond Evil is just way better written and so are the relationships

[jasontoddenthusiastt]

BFTC isn’t really a case of terrible characterization for Jason so much as it was a terrible case of victim blaming. Like yeah, some of the things Jason did were a bit extreme compared to his “better” appearances, but that’s nothing new and pretty much true of many stories that aren’t utrh or lost days. The bad parts are are also definitely exaggerated by fans.

The story isn’t centered on Jason. Of course every other character’s description of Jason would be knee-jerk dismissive and misunderstanding, since (again) the intention was to make Jason out to be the cartoony bad guy villain. But if you look past the layers of grime they added, the bare bones of his characterization are not entirely incorrect. It’s a biased story in which their intended criticisms of Jason’s morals often fell short, so to compensate they deliberately cranked up his motivations to be more extreme and unrealistic (but one which, nonetheless got Jason’s overall thoughts and goals relatively consistent with stories that portrayed him accurately).

Yes, him shooting Damian was out of character, but granted we’re all in agreement that it was a true case of “bad writing decision”, I don’t think it’s hard to look past. The only other bit people probably complain about (which felt iffy at worst) was him being “a bit enthusiastic” at times in trying to convince Dick to become another lethal Batman (you can just as easily say Jason wouldn’t have been personally invested enough to have acted in the way he did). I don’t care though because he was probably doing it for shits and giggles, and it was funny watching him push their buttons on his spare time while being excellent at his job. Same old ‘none of them deny that he’s effective, they just can’t get behind the killing’ conflict.

Looking past the fact that Jason still had a valid point, the “he’s the bad guy” plot falls apart for other obvious reasons, which happen in the 3rd issue. It’s kind of hard to focus on how much of a bitch Jason’s being when the other characters are written in an infinitely more problematic way (which ends up happening in most “hate Jason” stories). Not only did they heavily imply Jason is a victim of SA, but the way Dick/the batfamily treats Jason about this is … horrible. Arguing that this was a case of character assassination for Bruce and Dick would be more realistic than using this story to claim Jason is a Bad Person™.

Even though Bruce does have a bad track record with his perspective on victims of SA.

Hey. Maybe listen to the living person begging you to turn it off.

Geez. I wonder why he never felt safe enough to confide in Bruce or any of the rest of them. Implying that enduring what he did made him “broken beyond repair”, that he needs to be “fixed”, and saying verbatim, “you are my greatest failure”, not “I failed you greatly”. Then deciding on behalf of Jason that a bunch of people who weren’t involved in what happened to him should all know about this so they can decide what should be done. And everyone agrees with this garbage. Unbelievable.

Aka, any sort of healing he may have tried to accomplish was ruined by you lot. When exactly am I supposed to see that Jason was evil all along.

The story collapses in on itself in the third issue because where Dick is supposed to be at his prime within the arc, he just sort of rambles about how Jason was a shitty victim and then awkwardly shifts to talking about personal growth and coming to accept his own heroic destiny.

I do resent this, but not because “Jason sucks here”. Jason’s “bad portrayal” pales in comparison to the problematic mindsets given to the other characters (namely Dick) which were framed as good-natured intentions and “tough love”. As for people who describe this as “vilifying Jason to prop up Dick” … I don’t really know what to make of that.

#my post #the way they constantly go out of their way to praise Jason’s marksmanship and overall combat skills #and how everyone he killed died because he meant for them to #and Tim and Damian weren’t critically injured. he didn’t attack them with the intention to kill and it’s obvious #not only that it’s made clear they were both wearing heavy duty kevlar #and considering Jason’s an expert on this stuff himself he knew it wouldn’t really do long term damage. #he also knows how to attack people to do any specific kind of damage. if you claim that about Bruce smashing a dude’s skull #against a brick wall and not killing him then you can claim the same thing for Jason #but of course people will always dwell on inconsequential bullshit and try to make a grand point out of it if it’s about Jason #even as they point out that it was a dumb decision made by the writers #‘Jason was violent towards children' do you want me to never shut up again about who is consistently violent with his own children? #not only was this pretty tame compared to the things Bruce has done to Jason and the other batkids #in the majority of his appearances Jason has always been deeply sympathetic and caring towards kids #hence why people always point out how this is a shitty outlier

[being-of-rain]

I wasn’t really a big fan of The Giggle by the time I finished watching it, and I liked it less the more that I thought about it. Which is a real shame, because I think it was full of a lot of great ideas that were squandered with poor execution. I didn’t really want to just post pages of negativity, so I’ll quickly skim through a list of things I think could’ve been done better, and maybe I’ll expand on some of them later or if I’m asked about them. Still, this is your warning for negativity.

The whole 'screens are evil and making everyone think they're right' felt so shallow and cheap, especially because it was set up as the main obstacle and then largely ignored. A lot of the characters at UNIT really didn't do much (I totally forgot about The Vlinx after my first watchthrough) but I think that didn't bother me much while watching because I was used to Chibnall regularly ignoring characters like that. It was nice to see Mel again, but she didn’t really serve much purpose.

RTD’s take on the Toymaker is quite similar to his take on the Master, which was sometimes fun and sometimes annoying (specifically the German accent, which lost its appeal pretty quickly for me). But he felt pretty hollow and full of wasted potential beyond that, feeling like he was there just to give the episode a villain. Although speaking of the Master, his brief inclusion was hilarious and an easy way to write him back into the show later, nicely done.

The last third of the episode had some many intriguing and potentially awesome ideas behind it. The new Doctor turning up partway through a story? Cool! The Doctor defeating his final villain alongside the next star of the show? Fun! The Doctor getting self-care and words of wisdom from his next self? So heartwarming! One Doctor retiring to be happy while his next incarnation travels off to continue the adventures? A fun use of the show's format!

But for me these ideas just didn’t work or didn’t fulfill their potential, and it’s mostly because there’s no narrative justification for them. No cause and effect. There’s no given reason for the Doctor to bigenerate, it just happens. There’s no particular reason that it was the Doctors rather than the Toymaker who won the game of catch to save the world, it just happens. Without any narrative reason the third act feels so unsatisfying, like spectacle for the sake of spectacle, and (I don’t say this lightly) incredibly lazily written.

That lack of story reason also undermines the ending, clearly the thing RTD was most interested in, by making it feel unearned. Like a first draft script that worked backwards to make it happen. The retirement ending itself I have mixed feelings about, which I’m not sure I can fully articulate. One thing I love to see is that RTD can actually do a genuinely happy ending rather than making every ending a tragedy. But said happy ending feels a little too ‘married-with-kids-and-a-white-picket-fence’ to me – though obviously I can’t stress enough how relieved I am that romance didn’t factor into it. It just felt like it wasn’t set up well enough. I’d probably like it a lot more if they made clear if Tennant’s Doctor was going to turn into Gatwa’s Doctor or if they’re just separate people now. It was sweet of RTD to try and bring a conclusion to the ‘Doctor is traumatised’ thing that he introduced to the show 18 years ago, but he did it poorly. At least it offers interesting new possibilities for the show going forward!

With all that said, in the end The Giggle felt to me like RTD retreading some of his biggest flaws as a writer, and throwing in a few borrowed from other showrunners for good measure. It was a disappointment both because of the good ideas just below the surface, and because it came after a very fun first episode and an incredible follow-up.

But like I said, I’m excited to see what the show does next! I saw talk that there’ll be lots of mythical and unnatural creatures turn up due to the Doctor’s salt thing, which is super cool. And obviously I’m excited for more Gatwa! I haven’t really felt a lot of reason to be excited about Ruby yet, but as always I’m ready to fall in love with the new companion quickly!

#my thoughts #dw spoilers #ten #donna #toymaker

[stranger-rants]

I see comments like this one all the time, and it just drives me crazy because this is the damage the last season did. This is it! Anything that garnered him any kind of care or concern was pissed on, and not because the narrative revealed to us anything so horrifying we have to change how we perceive Billy. In fact, we learned nothing new about Billy. Nothing. Just Max saying he made her life "a living hell" with absolutely no evidence of what that looked like beyond what we've already seen, and Vecna using his dead likeness to hunt down Max because she felt guilty about him dying.

People who didn't even like Billy went from season three thinking that maybe Billy didn't deserve to die like that and that he deserved better to... This. This ridiculous opinion that a few words on a piece of paper are more meaningful than Billy's own words. Billy's own trauma being put on display. Eleven having an important, meaningful connection to him and being the first person to ever truly show any kind of empathy towards him. Max sitting in solitude on his bed. Us knowing his father was beating him to his father just all of a sudden fighting with Susan and leaving.

This is the damage the structure of the last season did to what they've already built up and it's something I've seen repeatedly done to actors and characters who have exited the show - straight up defamation and practical "gaslighting" for lack of a better term of the fanbase to act like things were realized that weren't and we're the problem if we recognize the incongruencies.

This attitude that because he was "portrayed negatively" (see: Vecna used his image to haunt Max and Max wrote a scathing letter about Billy to draw Vecna out) so Billy's death wasn't meant to "redeem" him just... y'all don't get it.

I don't personally think he needed to be "redeemed" and certainly not like that, but dying was all he could do narratively and apologizing was all he could say before he died. There was no other option because they had written Billy, an abused teenager who no one was going to help, into a corner. However, in ending it that way they showed with one single act that he wasn't The Big Evil Human Villain y'all so badly want him to be, even if it contradicts what The Duffers had envisioned for him. Again, I say again and again, that vision wasn't realized.

The fact that The Duffers double down on him being their "human villain" when Billy was tortured and possessed and killed in one of the most cinematic yet violent scenes wherein he actively fought the thing that was going to kill everyone, is a very poor reflection on them as writers and not on us for empathizing with Billy's situation.

Vecna is not Billy. His portrayal of Billy is not Billy. Max is an unreliable narrator in her second letter because it is literally used as a set up. The fact that you need The Duffers and/or their characters to tell you that you should hate Billy is a problem when all it takes is one simple critical look at what happened to him to realize that's bullshit.

Please, fucking think for yourselves and look at context before using poor writing choices and bad faith scenes as an excuse to ignore what happened to a character. There's actually a difference between what is portrayed and what is intended, and what they intended re: "human villain" blatantly ignores all the suffering they actually portrayed this character going through.

#billy hargrove #fandom critical #st critical #fandom wank #fuck the duffers

[chaifootsteps]

The issues with Stella are so goddamn easy to fix it's actually painful any time she comes on screen and they have to find a way to bend over backwards to make her as unlikable as possible to artificially prop Stolas up as well as avoid the classism plot that THEY WROTE INTO THE SHOW.

Just establish very clearly AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SHOW that both of them were okay with the other sleeping around (since neither liked each other and neither wanted to get married) but have Stella get mad specifically because Stolas was caught sleeping with an imp, and that reflects badly on her. If you want her to be a villain, you don't need her to be cartoonishly evil and completely bereft of personality and likeability beyond bitch (derogatory) even as a child; she can just be classist and obsessed with status. (Also maybe don't make her stupid? Maybe don't have her creepy incest-vibes brother around at all? Give her some agency as a villain, you know? Maybe let her be funny? MAYBE LET HER TALK TO HER FUCKING DAUGHTER ON SCREEN?)

But fixing Stella would force the show to actually acknowledge the classism that they've set up and have been trying to ignore in lieu of writing fluff one shots of their favorite ships. And it sucks because she could be a really, really interesting and entertaining lens into how the upper-crusts of this setting actually behave. She SHOULD HAVE BEEN the face of that plot. If you want her to be this evil scheming funny girlboss bitch (affectionate), LET HER BE ONE. Hell, she can even be sympathetic and redeemable if you play up the fact that her behavior comes from a fear of being othered by the Goetia.

As a side note, why are arranged marriages even a thing when divorce exists and vice versa? If it's a eugenics thing for blue bloods why is marriage even a factor when they could just have the kids without it? If they're immortal outside of specific weaponry why do they need heirs in the first place? How DID Striker get all of his angelic weapons? How did Stella even meet Striker, who HATES the upper classes? Why does Striker even work for her when she's the ONE CHARACTER explicitly shown in-canon to embody the things he hates about the system at large?

I guess my point is that fixing Stella's writing would kind of cascade out into actual worldbuilding, stakes, more screen time for female characters, and more coherent better-constructed plots so Spindlehorse won't do it because they want to focus exclusively on a middling romance between two characters who have ZERO CHEMISTRY. If they wanted to focus on that, great, but why on EARTH did they set up all of this other shit? Season one set up conflict and interest and season two has done nothing but blue-ball me by dangling those plot threads in front of me and yanking it away at the last possible second. I WANT the show to be good, but it desperately needs better editing at the script level which I am CONVINCED only goes through one draft and are written several weeks apart.

ALSO THE LATEST EPISODE GAVE ME MOTION SICKNESS WHY WAS THE CAMERA MOVING SO MUCH WHEN THE CHARACTERS WERE STATIC HOW MUCH BUDGET AND TIME GOT WASTED WITH THE UNNECESSARY FUCKING SHAKY CAM?

(Sorry for dropping this huge chunk of text on you, it was supposed to just be about Stella originally but holy fuck that last episode made me nauseous and I got a bit carried away.)

No apologies needed; it was an excellent chunk of text.

Stella deserved better, and we as an audience deserved better, which isn't to say she needs to be redeemable or even likeable. But she does need to be human...to do something outside of scream and drink wine and exist. She needs to do more than just prop up the show's main ship. Give her something she thinks about, cares about, and like you said, let her talk to her fucking daughter.

Nothing about this shaky-cam show makes sense or feels fleshed out. Agreed completely that there's no way it's going through multiple drafts, and the longer these 30 car pileups of plot holes and characterization problems continue to go on, the closer the show gets to a point where no amount of revising is going to save it.

#Anonymous #hb stella #Helluva Boss #Helluva Boss critical #vivziepop critical #actual blog post

[just-a-carrot]

Had the chance to sit down and play the new installment (that makes it sound like an appliance... OW: Smart Fridge Edition) and it's so viscerally raw and human. The whole game is, but wow. My favorite genre of fiction is fantasy, for being able to see a creator and their world as 'look at a life these people are living and the world they're living in'. A world surreal, fantastic, and all too easy to think about what it would be like if it was real-- acting like it is real with dreams of dragons and elves. Our Wonderland goes beyond that, in a way few other fantasy stories I've read have. It's not the fantasy of magical beings living in a sprawling, epic world; it's not the fantasy of a gigantic battle of good versus evil-- the fantasy comes in when the cast thinks their lives should be just like the tales of knights and glory. The fantasy is just humans trying their darndest, despite it all. Hoping for a better world. Which wouldn't be so worth commenting on if not for the execution. Every emotion, every action-- beat-by-beat it's gripping and a perfect sell into the world. Playing the finale elicited some feelings and memories I had forgotten about. The sense of turning on the GameCube late at night, going to play Mario Sunshine. Long road trips immersed in the scenery of forest and buffalo, after having spent hours staring at cities. Getting up to dumb hijinks with people I'd only know for a few days. Staring out into the open ocean upon a swing. I'm not sure why it brought those out, but I think it's because of how human the game is, it gets you to think. It got me to think, anyways. Anywho, thank you for an amazing experience Carrot. I hope you have a good rest, and that my thoughts are written here somewhat coherently. If not, I'll summarize: DAMN GOOD GAME. DAMN GOOD STORY. DAMN GOOD ART. DAMN GOOD.

SOB

i don't know how to respond to this... this is incredibly sweet and thoughtful and i'm not sure i have the eloquence currently to type up and actually decent response 🥺💦

but i can definitely feel in my heart what you mean. even if it's not necessarily the exact same emotions or in the exact same way, especially as the creator rather than the experiencer in this case. but like. OW has always filled me with those types of nostalgic feelings as well. maybe it's because at its core, its about these types of fundamental happinesses. and these fundamental relationships we form as kids. and perhaps also simply because so much of the OW cast's pasts and experiences draw so heavily from my own, so it becomes almost as though i'm looking back into my own past through some kind of slightly warped threshold or something

stuff like the final scene in the field for instance was inspired by a scene in majora's mask, which is something i used to play with my sister. we would talk the characters aloud and make up our own stories rather than what they were actually saying (usually really ridiculous and stupid stuff lakdsfjad) or make silly radio plays where we recorded ourselves acting our chars from the game. also a lot of the references both in and outside of the game (like in my non-in-game art and such) was inspired by my own memories. so thinking about the game often makes these additional nostalgic coils drift up through my own memories

at any rate, i can't be sure that's the exact type of same feelings you're talking about, but... i feel like i understand the vibe of what you're saying at least

AND OFC I'M JUST REALLY HAPPY YOU ENJOYED THE ENDING DLKJALDSKJFASD

i still can't believe it's really over. and i mean sure it's not OVER over because i still have plans for other stuff with the chars and even the revamp which would include still working on stuff for the main game. but nothing will ever be the same for me as working on this game itself. and i'm really so grateful for everyone who's joined me in this journey because i'm not sure i would have made it to the end without all of you 💦

but i digress. thank you for this lovely message and for attempting to write up your thoughts lsakjdfasd it really means a lot!! 💕

#ow: finale spoilers #ask: ow

[ettelenethelien]

My very conflicting feelings towards the Athrabeth

The thing with the Athrabeth is that it features a lot of beautiful quotes and ideas and, at the same time, a lot of it weirds me out. Maybe it's the outright attempt to approach Christianity which I think doesn't really work; the Legendarium isn't allegory and I don't think it should get that specific; maybe it's the way many of the theories Finrod and Andreth go through are supremely odd? (Of course, these rarely seem to be meant as statements that are true in-world, more like wild speculations of two people about things they can't really know). Anyway, the first time I read it, at 13 or so, it sent me into a very weird state, possibly coupled with an OCD episode? It's always hard for me to tell whether these mean I perceive something actually wrong or whether it's just OCD fear, but... well, my thoughts on the point are still very muddled.

That said, I do like to think such a document exists in the legendarium, whether based on the notes of either Finrod or Andreth from a single conversation, or cobbled together from several different instances, as seems very likely. I am however somewhat loath to accept it looks exactly like the Athrabeth we have.

Do I headcanon away the idea that elves are afraid their souls are limited to the life of the world? It feels a bit too important, but it does seem to have been one of the things that sent me into that... episode back then. Of course, it wouldn't be true anyway, but if they did believe that, I'd suppose the fear would be less "this is certain unless something might happen to make it otherwise", and more "we just have no idea and fear it might be that, although that's certainly looking at things the pessimistic way."

But the concept of Finrod's Dream/Vision must be a thing in-world, and I am even more sure that in-world it shall come true. After all, I more or less came up with it on my own ages before I read the Athrabeth, haha. And it really cannot be otherwise, and the full fragment is lovely.

‘And then suddenly I beheld as a vision Arda Remade; and there the Eldar completed but not ended could abide in the present for ever, and there walk, maybe, with the Children of Men, their deliverers, and sing to them such songs as, even in the Bliss beyond bliss, should make the green valleys ring and the everlasting mountain-tops to throb like harps.’

Then Andreth looked under her brows at Finrod: ‘And what, when ye were not singing, would ye say to us?’ she asked.

Finrod laughed. ‘I can only guess,’ he said. ‘Why, wise lady, I think that we should tell you tales of the Past and of Arda that was Before, of the perils and great deeds and the making of the Silmarils! We were the lordly ones then! But ye, ye would then be at home, looking at all things intently, as your own. Ye would be the lordly ones. “The eyes of Elves are always thinking of something else,” ye would say. But ye would know then of what we were reminded: of the days when we first met, and our hands touched in the dark. Beyond the End of the World we shall not change; for in memory is our great talent, as shall be seen ever more clearly as the ages of this Arda pass: a heavy burden to be, I fear; but in the Days of which we now speak a great wealth.’

And of course the star-crossed romance between Andreth and Aegnor is exquisite.

------------

When it comes to the "Tale of Adanel" I'm no less conflicted? A lot of it just doesn't fit, doesn't make sense -- and the "fall" presented there certainly seems more excusable than our own irl, or even than Númenor, because despite the "Voice", the way it's written, it feels like the Men don't know what they're doing, don't know any better -- and of course, ultimately, they make the wrong choice because of fear. And fear certainly can lead into evil, but -- original sins should be more than that.

Then, again, the first time I read this along with the Athrabeth it triggered what was certainly an OCD attack in me, and maybe one cannot call it the fault of the text per se, but on the other hand, I feel like the imagery is such that - well, it was more likely to be the cause of such than anything in the actual Silm.

However, I do like to think an equivalent of such a story existed in Gondor, probably something written post Akallabêth, given the similarities... An apocrypha of sorts no one actually considers true - yet in existence. But the actual tale is lost to time.

Although,

"Ye have abjured Me, but ye remain Mine. I gave you life. Now it shall be shortened, and each of you in a little while shall come to Me, to learn who is your Lord: the one ye worship, or I who made him."

is certainly an epic quote.

And,

But it is told that there were a few that escaped us, and went away into far countries, fleeing from the shadow... And they came at last to the land’s end and the shores of the impassable water; and behold! the Enemy was there before them.

is so awfully tragic, and definitely the truth of the matter, regardless what happened back then, in Hildorien.

(Also note: the story is presented as told by the Edain - and yet "we" refers to the evildoers and their own forefathers are referred to in the third person. To be honest, I think that's a characteristic part of the Gondorian psyche. It's always "our downfall" even though they are the Faithful. That assumption of responsibility for all the worst deeds of your people even when you should be able not to...)

--------

Athrabeth is such a lovely word though...

#my post #athrabeth finrod ah andreth #personal #athrabeth #tolkien #silm

[drivingsideways]

Twenty Questions

@rosyfingered-moon thanks for the tag! :D

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

62 ! :O

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

853,262

What fandoms do you write for?

Mostly tv. Actively, right now, none. Since 2018, it's been cdrama or kdrama, but I've written for Western shows previously.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

4 of the 5 are for The King: Eternal Monarch and 1 is for Beyond Evil.

Algebra (credit mostly goes to co writer @haraxvati for all the heavy lifting) - TKEM, Jo Yeong/ Lee Gon in the realest fake arranged marriage ever

A Soul Divided- TKEM, Jo Yeong/ Lee Gon in which Gon is a total failboat at pretending to be a normal citizen, but guess what, so is Captain Jo Yeong.

Destiny's Child- TKEM, Jo Yeong/ Lee Gon, or the Lee Gon Liberation Manifesto

Before You Came- TKEM, Jo Yeong/ Kang Sin jae, in which Kang Sin jae falls for a man who wants to be ravished by God but the dude ends up crossing the space time continuum for someone else entirely. Love works in mysterious ways etc.

Cat Whisperer - Beyond Evil, Han Joo won/Lee Dong sik. What it says on the tin, really. Dong sik ruminates on the acquiring and care of feral felines.

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes! I respond to all comments, even if it's just a one liner or a key smash. If someone's taken the time to read and enjoy and engage with my work, I want to acknowledge that- and sometimes you make friends through AO3 comment space ! :')

What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Hmm, I have several fics which end on a bittersweet note, but none that I think are completely without hope? Deer Heart is probably one of the most emotionally violent fics I've written, but even that one ends on a hopeful note (at least I see it that way.)

A main character dies in the last instalment of The Stars 'verse, but someone bookmarked it with the comment " the hurt no comfort tag is propaganda bc this does hurt yes but there IS comfort and thats because there is love :') " which was honestly a comment that made * me * tear up ! :')

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

HUGE fan of cloyingly sweet endings for my blorbos, but I do think I end up in the bittersweet column most times? But I guess "Instructions for Dancing" may be literally the fluffiest thing I've ever written.

Do you get hate on fics?

No- I think an occasional comment that made me go ???? because the reader apparently wanted something different when they clicked on my fic, but no real hate, thankfully. I've been blessed with really sweet commenters for most part!

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I do! Not sure what is implied by "what kind" here- hopefully hot (but also revealing something about the characters and the relationship?!) ? :)) Tbh, smut is not my wheelhouse, and I always find the process of writing it nerve wracking.

Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

It's not something that I find interesting to read or write usually. I have one unfinished and unpublished Black Sails/ Supernatural crossover that I think was a brilliant idea but I ran out of steam.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge!

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not to my knowledge!

What's your all-time favorite ship?

I love all my ships intensely, so it's hard to choose! Even if I'm not thinking about them on a daily basis or writing for them or reading fic about them, each of them has a piece of my heart.

What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Argh, don't ask me this! There are so many, so many. But in specific, there's a Black Sails au that I really wanted to write and have written maybe 15k of AN OUTLINE for, but yeah, never finishing that.

What are your writing strengths?

I think I'm generally able to deliver an emotional punch very well.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Oh dear. Everything? And I think that's fine- all craft is practice and discipline and I hope I will get better at "everything" as I write more and hopefully more thoughtfully than I have in the past.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I think there's only one fic in which I've used complete dialogue in multiple languages (with Google Translate as my guide, SORRY). But I'm pretty cool with the idea of it and I enjoy reading fics that have multiple language dialogues as well.

First fandom you wrote for?

On AO3 it was Supernatural , and was left unfinished- I have since deleted it.

Favorite fic you've written?

This keeps changing, and there's things I love and hate in all my fics, but I guess a drivingsideways "starter pack" should have Destiny's Child in it, and the last fic I wrote "Juche" turned out pretty well, I GUESS.

@cupofteaandstars @elderflowergin @haraxvati @sadviper if you want to! :D

#writing things

[lorillee]

mvk, godot, dahlia CONTROVERSY TRIPLE

YAYYYYYYYYYY CONTROVERSY TRIPLE!!!!!!!

manfred:

anyways its time for the culling of new followers. yes i am a manfred von karma stan hes insane and im obsessed with him and the popular fanon is 1) boring 2) stupid 3) uncanon 4) did i mention boring. for a more comprehensive take on my view of the von karma-edgeworth family soap opera i recommend taking a gander through my tag for it or alternatively just reading my aii2 retrospective. ANYWAYS with the disclosure statement out of the way . 1) his design slays what else is there to say. he was always serving. 2) the fanon SUCKS like im sorry but if what you got out of aa1 + investigations 1&2 was "manfred physically beat his kids on the regular and they hate him so much forever with 0 complicated feelings at all" um. maybe go back and re-consume the text. please. lets indulge ourselves in a bit of nuance. i would certainly not call manfred von karma father of the year (whatever was going on with turnabout goodbyes + me when i encourage my children in their fight with each other to determine who truly belongs in the family like a normal parent) but like. guys . just because he was a bad person doesnt mean he is now The Worst Guy in every single avenue ever. like. sigh . sorry we've looped back around to complaining about bad fanon. ANYWAYS no truly one of the most baffling characters in the franchise and i am desperately fascinated with whatevers going on inside his head . frankly every single one of his actions in regards to dl-6 on every front follow like no logical pathway i can discern and its truly something to behold. like whats wrong with you (rhetorical question - more interesting if we dont get an answer).

godot:

half of me considered ticking "they've never done anything wrong in their life <33" despite the fact that i blatantly think its untrue and prefer it that way even simply to spite all the people who are annoying about him being mean to phoenix. ANYWAYSSSSSS S . 1) the design slays. obsessed with everything about him 2) they shouldnt bring him back but also they should bring him back. for me. ive convinced myself of the existence of the diego & lana & simon prison prosecutor trio and i need capcom to validate me they would be so . something together. mainly funny 3) to be honest there are some people i would attack through the screen over their terrible diego opinions. truly. like sorry but if you hate him i dont think we can be friends and some of you are truly beyond help. tbh i think half the reason they hate him so much is because 1) hes the Big Scary Brown Man whos soooooo mean to their poor uwu bean phoenix and 2) all of his important relationships are with women so they cant yaoi him off in a corner . ANYWAYS . hes everything to me i love his self-destructive mental illness swag which prompts him to lash out at the people around him and make terrible decisions which needlessly negatively impact like everybody he gets involved with in any capacity post coma. hes not stupid he just needs severe psychiatric help <3 i think he shouldve killed misty twice <- no hate against misty i also love her mental illness swag but i also support everything diego does unconditionally

dahlia:

tldr: dahlia should get to kill and ruin whoevers lives she wants i support her unconditionally (no this does not conflict with my diego opinions. i can hold multitudes) un-tldr: to be honest her in-game writing kind of sucks (spectacular essay written on this here, which frankly puts it better than i ever could. thats the problem with this part im trying to think of opinions that arent covered in that but like it really hits all of them) but nonetheless as a notable fan of the Fey Family Period Drama how could i not love dahlia given that shes like one of the key pieces of evidence of the mass destruction that the current system in kurain causes to everybody it touches. "wahhh she was just Born Evil" not listening dont care. people also hate her for being mean to phoenix i think but i dont care about that either they just hate to see a girlboss winning. or losing tbh because thats like 80% of what dahlia did. but like still the spirit is there. also to be honest it kills me that we got like no elaboration on her relationship with iris because thats like actually SO interesting its so interesting but we get NOTHINGGGGGGGGG because the aa writers hate dahlia and they hate ME !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but anyways yeah if dahlia wants to maim and kill well then i support her #feminism #womensupportingwomen #terrymightnothavebeenamurderer #buthesurewasapedophile!

#ask game answers #anon #THANK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU thank you <3

[romaritimeharbor]

honestly, one of my favourite things about the hoyo games is how they deal with immortality, im a sucker for immortal characters who dont enjoy being immortal and vise versa, yknow?

its why baizhu and yaoshi are so interesting to me, especially baizhu. most of the liyue story themes revolve around modernity vs. tradition and mortal life compared to the reclusive adepti, usually (im pretty sure its always?) siding with the former being better. so a character like baizhu, a mortal man desiring immortality is just so cool and i wished they gave enough of a shit to write him better (not that his writing is bad, especially compared to some other characters, but its very obvious the writers couldnt choose between a 'kind doctor' character or a more black jack-esque doctor who can cure anything but is pretty morally gray, especially the 'charging people a bizzare amount of money' thing)

one baizhu moment that i think about constantly is from his story quest where xiao tells him "immortality may not be the blessing that you imagine it to be." and i just wish hoyo could expand on that. like imagine wanting immortality more than anything and then basically being told by an ancient being "its not my buisness but please dont its awful."

(also yeah genshin's worldbuilding sucks so bad lmao, i've played through all of the main story and read alot about the lore and i still barely know What is even going on)

NO IT'S REALLY ONE OF THE COOLEST THINGS!!!!! hyv writing is kind of questionable most of the time but i think they did well in their handling of immortality. it's really fascinating to me.

baizhu wants to attain immortality so bad, to save others, to save changsheng, and maybe to save himself (just throwing that last one on there for fun tbh i think he's way more worried about others; the other potential victims of changsheng's contract if he does not end it asap, changsheng herself, etc). i wonder what he must've felt when xiao outright told him "immortality may not be all that you think it is" LIKE???? this ancient being told you not to do it. but he'll continue doing it anyway. a man who is blinded by his ambition. hmm. and yeah i do agree! but i also hope this particular trait of baizhu's was done for a reason, not just bc the writers couldn't pick between tropes. baizhu was written impressively well compared to some others, so i HOPE it really is there for a reason.

(GLAD I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE BECAUSE I SWEARRR SOMETIMES I HAVE NO CLUE WTF IS GOING ON)

but to add my own little commentary regarding yaoshi bc i never stfu about them: yaoshi is so fascinating to me for so many reasons.

do they know about the consequences of their blessings? if so, did they warn the alliance's ancestors, and did those people just not listen? or... did they not say anything? if so, why? OR do they just not know?

(either way i think the xianzhou's explanation of their history is bullshit. girl why did you all go LOOK FOR THEM and ASK FOR IMMORTALITY and then get mad when they did what you asked....... smh. This is why we can't have good things [<- is biased])

to add onto that last point, are they so all-consumed by abundance that they cannot see beyond their path and cannot even perceive the harm their actions cause? it would be such a fascinating idea, because this would also explain why lan is SOOOO obsessed with them (just say you want to kiss them bro it's ok 😒 /J); if the "aeons are all-consumed by their path" is true, then lan literally cannot do anything BUT hunt yaoshi down. the trailblaze can do nothing but trailblaze, which would explain why they disappeared. They Trailblazed Too Far. but if this were true, then what would this mean for aeons like long?

OR. is yaoshi simply an amoral eldritch being, whose motivations and thought processes cannot be comprehended by mortals? adding to this point, why the fuck does the xianzhou alliance "categorize" the aeons GIRL THEY ARE ELDRITCH DEITIES NONE OF THOSE MFS ARE "GOOD" OR "EVIL" ❗️❗️❗️❗️

#✧— aphe's letters from raymond.

[bklynmusicnerd]

Gonna compile my thoughts here because this ep moved incredibly slow for me:

- I enjoy Chase and Sasha's friendship and wish we got to see more of this friendship regularly. Even though the dialogue they gave her today was insane and none of the advice she gave Chase made any sense. I hated that Sasha seemed to imply that anything that happened to her over the past year was "karma".

- It was good to see some acknowledgment from Brook Lynn that she was being a selfish dumbass and I hope she pulls whatever strings she needs to pull to get Chase's job back. It's either this or pi work because I'm not going into 2023 pretending to like Chase's performances. In general, I still want to root for Brook Lynn's growth and I hope that's where this story is headed. I don't want an overnight reunion of her and Chase because that break up was a key character moment of Chase demanding better for himself.

- I didn't really understand what was going on in the Valentin and Sonny scenes but I'm assuming that's the "security firm" Dex came from and if that means that there's still a chance for Dex to be interesting and a rival mob plant to take down Sonny, cool.

- Joss...where to begin lol. I really hate that they wrote Joss changing her major to pre-med over a guy she barely knows. They tried to have her list other reasons like not feeling "helpless" but it's clear per the dialogue and where she ended up at the end of today's ep, that this is all about Dex. It's disappointing to me because I think Joss is a character that desperately needs to be fleshed out beyond loyalty to her family and whatever pairing they have her in. Joss doesn't seem to have an actual interest in medicine, she seems to want to mold herself into a more useful person for Dex in the future and that is...not good.

- The Carly and Joss relationship convo was odd for a lot of reasons. Carly should be horrified at the prospect of her daughter following in her footsteps and the potential danger she would face being associated with Dex. Carly should want to know everything there is to know about Dex. Instead, we have a continuation of her passing the mob gf torch to Joss.

- The Cam part of the convo was absurd too because the whole meta aspect of Carly's dialogue where she said Joss would be the bad guy because she's her daughter made no sense. First of all, none of Joss' friends or really anyone besides maybe Nelle have judged Joss because her mother was Carly. Joss is typically the one doing the judging. Second of all, the writers had Joss cheat on Cam with little remorse. They could have written this a lot of ways but they didn't. They wrote it in a way that objectively makes her the "bad guy" in this break up because she didn't and still hasn't respected Cam enough to prioritize giving him a clean break over chasing Dex. So it's weird to get passive aggressive with the audience for caring about Cam and rightfully viewing her as a hypocrite in light of all of this. That's the character the writers are establishing.

- Willow and Nina arguing is exhausting because I don't know why Willow didn't just tell her to leave. I don't know why Nina thinks Sasha is so helpless that she can't put up some decorations, she was doing just fine. It's coming across very "Look how evil Nina while she says mean things to deathly ill Willow!" and I just can't feel much of anything about this Willow cancer plot. I wish they had her fight for her life sooner

- In general, today's writing was not my fave. I'm not a fan of scripts that bludgeon the audience over the head with the reaction they expect from them.

#general hospital #not the best follow up from the messy fun of yesterday #hopefully friday is stronger #once again the women in the writers' room let me down

[kyber-heart]

“Showdown on Ruhnuk”

[[Heavy spoilers for the plot of the new update ahead]]

I just finished playing the main story content update about twenty minutes ago. Fresh reaction is; entertaining but still exhibiting much of the same issues I’ve had with recent updates. 

By that I mean, we’re really no further along in story than we were before the update. It was a fun ride to get us back to where we started pretty much. 

We got some interesting lore bits. We got a more solid understanding of Heta Kol’s motivations are, which was interesting. We got some interesting takes on Mandalorian culture in this period of time from Heta. And the most annoying nugget we got; there’s another super dangerous sith superweapon... yay...

Beyond this though, I really didn’t feel like we have progressed all that much. The Hidden Chain is still out there and back to trying to assemble a force to fight Shae. We still know nothing further about Sa’har Kateen though we can infer that she might betray Heta Kol at some point in the future, and try to reason with  her brother Ri’kan about abandoning Shae too. 

Things that I did enjoy about the story however, are seeing Shae’s desperation through the whole thing. I liked seeing her lose her composure but it also makes me curious to understand how her opinion towards being Mandalore has changed since meeting her in KOTFE. Equally, I really enjoyed the supporting cast of Rass, Jekiah, and Akaavi (for my playthrough. I assume her role is filled by Torian if you have him alive). Rass’s personality really shines and I enjoyed interacting with him a lot, from finding out that he is a dog person and the quips he makes, I think he is really up there in my ranking of the newer cast. Jekiah doesn’t seem to get *as* much screen time as before, but he’s still a well written mandalorian and I enjoy that. Akaavi, much the same. I figure that any interaction you have with her outside of the Smuggler origin is a little one note. I also think there’s a glitch or a problem with her voice lines in the bonus section of the second story mission. I hope that gets patched as it was a bit jarring. 

On the antagonist’s side, I enjoy Heta as an antagonist because she’s not evil and in fact, personally, I liked what she was speaking about with regards to Mandalorian freedom from the Republic and Empire. I don’t think she’s wrong which makes her compelling. I am seriously hoping that BW won’t use the Superweapon angle as a way to demonize her, but that hope is slim. Ri’kan is interesting and I like that he dsiplays a level of fanaticism towards Heta that he is going against his sister’s trust and I am becoming slightly more invested in whats going on between him and Sa’har. Which brings me to Sa’har. I’m really not sure how to feel about her and I think this update could have been a good place to give our characters and us *something* about her goals and personality. I half expected a fight but then one didn’t happen and I was a little disappointed. It’s clear however that she is conflicted but I suppose I’m not really sure why she is? Maybe I’m just stupid. Maybe the answer is so simple as ‘well, she’s a jedi’ which... eh, feels a bit weak of an explanation to me. 

Overall; I will say that I enjoyed this update. It seemed to be a bit longer than Manaan was, and I’m still not done Lane’s storyline yet, so I still have some content to work through. I just wish we got some more character, more heart, more substance for our cast of antagonists and for us to have pushed the plot further along in a better way than just leading us to a superweapon reveal. 

#swtor spoilers #swtor 7.2 spoilers #showdown on ruhnuk spoilers

[heretherebedork]

I have seen ur ep 3 review kind of post and so i got to thinking. And since i got time this time pls hear my word vomit coz i got no friends

The Kinn-tawan-vegas-porche mess

Kinn being unable to trust but also wanting to protect porche, Porche awaiting for kinn to talk abt his plan, Tawan just being a dick and watching all of it burn, Vegas stabbing everything kinnporche has left. (But Honestly without vegas this arc would be boring)

The Action

I was so excited to watch outside the teernapakul bubble mafia fights (which did happen thanks to vegas) but there's so many internal wars that I question how did this major clan survive all these years with such dysfunctionality? I'm still excited for the kinnporche power couple fight (hopefully 13-14 eps) the recent ones were underwhelming could be coz of camera or editing or the story not needing a good choreographed fight or maybe they were holding it back for the finale.

Vegas

What is it with vegas causing the distress and acting like he's trying to save the damsel in distress and how is it working every time. The plot shield for vegas is so damn thick in this ep. Pete being subjected to whatever Vegas got going just feels wrong but I want it to keep it happening coz we don't know much abt pete like more of npc in GTA . Pete's masked but wt has he masked and why ?? I haven't yet seen why vegas wants power we know he's evil but why has he planned all of this mess if he wasn't hungry for power? And why does he want it? Is it becoz of Daddy issues? Or was he conditioned to believe coz of the environment he was in? He's such a mystery plot device that If I don't have any conclusions i will riot. Also why is Vegas soo charming what a snake 🐍🐍.

Pete

Boi's got no control he's just subjected to try his best. He just doesn't fit here but somehow does fit better than any bodyguard. Looking at all the visual clues, Pete's view of justice and morals are perfect for the kinnporche world but he can't control his microbursts of uncomfortable feelings which is why vegas is feeding off of pete.

Kinnporche arc was all abt trust so what is Vegaspete theme abt? Is it control? Power? Subconsciously being Submissive to the point u see urself going from being evil to grey?

I haven't yet seen Pete succesfully bounce off things or vegas to take control. So if the show follows the fandom's predicted pace of this arc it will be such a defining moment .

So all in all Vegas is a perfectly written plot device that it's like more like Vegas playing god than an antagonist .

And the funniest part is he doesn't know and when he does he adapts the plan quickly. I will slander him for the pain he will cause our sunshine boi but appreciation for his consistency won't go away.

Always welcome those who have nowhere else to go with their meta here!

I am oblivious to how good or bad actions scenes are, honestly. Like me and kissing and me and... a lot of things. I enjoyed the action scenes but, like, I compare these to Tien Bromance and they're a lot better than that. I know we'll get more power couple fights but I can't predict what they'll work like.

Oh, Vegas makes so much sense to me. He's got really amazing people skills and a real talent for knowing how to speak to people to push their buttons exactly the way he wants to push their buttons. It's a gorgeous skill and it makes sense for someone who has minor power and wants more.

And we don't know a lot about Vegas but we can definitely predict what's going on. Is Vegas truly interested in power? His father is. But Vegas himself? I'm not so sure. I think Vegas just wants to be able to do what he likes and to live his life. But we don't know his personal motivations yet beyond trying to do what his father asked.

I love Vegas for that because what might seem like plot armor makes sense between him and Porsche. Because Vegas understands Porsche and how to manipulate, how to feed him just the right energy and the right words. Porsche is straightforward and Vegas finds that so simple. Honestly. Porsche and Kinn are straightforward and Vegas sees right through them in those regards. He did underestimate their bond at first but now he's learned better.

Also, Vegas is absolutely a snake and he's the best snake. He's a viper that looks like it's smiling with his mouth closed and then reveals a thousand teeth when he truly smiles.

Pete is an interesting character because he's a mix of honest kindness and the kind of hardness that only comes from years of violence and a loyal friend and a loyal bodyguard and an understanding friend and someone who can watch torture without blinking. He is the duality of life and he's amazing.

I do think that Pete's role is different. Pete is about the power of kindness and the strength of a smile and the deepness that comes from genuinely caring for other people. He's going to go into Vegas' den for the sake of Porsche and he's doing to take whatever comes his way to prove his friend is innocent.

I also think we definitely saw Vegas take control with the torturing of the prisoner, seeing him so calm and so twisted and watching Pete watch him when no one else could... that was the start of something. That was the proof that they are equals in their own way, though not all ways.

I mean, Kinn and Porsche might be about trust but they're not there yet and I think Vegas and Pete are about pain, honestly. The pain of lying and of torture and of abuse and of loneliness and of loyalty. There are so many kinds of pain.

(no book spoilers)

#kinnporsche #vegaspete #vegas x pete #thai drama #thai series #bl drama #bl series #thaibl #thai bl

[maroonghoul]

Expansion on my thoughts on: The Evil Dead Franchise

I wanted to expand on my point of view on Evil Dead Rise, since I don’t think I explained myself very well in my last post. This isn’t me saying this franchise is the most personal to me, or saying that this new one is an insult to it, because neither are true. I’m just trying to reflect on why it felt I didn’t engage as much as previous entries. Everything I’ve written on here is just my subjective opinion, nothing more and that’s not changing now.

I’ll even concede that over time, this one will warm up to me as much as the others ones. I think it’s possible...because I had to do the same for Evil Dead 2. When I first saw it, about 15 years ago or so, I didn’t know what to make of it.  Sure the wacky tone was fun. But I was taken out of it by the fact that this man was literally being tormented by his murdered girlfriend’s corpse. I felt this was because I was relatively new to horror films to that point, so “having fun with it” felt like like an alien concept given the subject matter. It wasn’t really my gateway horror film. I can think of a few more accurate examples, most notable the original Predator. And sure, I was tricked by my parents to rent Gremlins when I was little thinking it was another kids film. I DID NOT enjoy it at that time, for obvious reasons. But Evil Dead 2, after I sampled a couple more with a lot more serious tone, had a playfulness that felt like a good anchor to came back to. 

It helped me worked up the courage to watch the original, which I avoided until my last year of undergrad, because I heard it was so intense. When I did, I could take it. I was more experienced and granted, it showed it’s age with it’s cheapness a bit. But either way, I was able to vibe with it more then if I watched it instead of the sequel. And I believed it was because other horror films I worked up to seeing before it helped me to.

Army of Darkness I liked straightaway, along with Ash VS Evil Dead. Sure, it did some changes to the lore I felt off(The immortal maker of the book, Ruby, being played by a much-easier-on-the-eyes-than-any-deadite Lucy Lawless, for example), but it was consistent with the tone of 2 and 3, and felt like an true continuation of Ash’s story, selfishness and stupidity included. And for the 2013 remake, at the danger of repeating myself, while it wasn’t mind-blowing, I respected for committing to making me wince more than any movie I’ve ever seen. I didn’t even take issue that they had a final girl except the more rare final boy because I believed Mia more than earned the right to survive. Also that Jane Levy gave the best performance in the movie up to that point.

That actually brings me to my first reason here. If we were going by what franchise entries in order of release, the last one before Rises was the TV show. So the next entry having a darker tone again made sense for keeping things fresh. While for me, the last Evil Dead thing I watch before this was the remake, which had a similar tone. So, even though it didn’t make sense, it felt like I was getting more of the same, which wasn’t entirely true. 

To be fair, I did like the new lore connected to the new Necronomicon. I did like the performance given by the mom played by Alyssa Sutherland, both pre and post-possession. You generally don’t need a main villain for this scenario but given the point of this story, it made sense. The subtext of re-connecting with your old family for guidance, only to realize how it’s messed up beyond repair in cycle of abuse so it’s better to cut ties and save who you can. It’s one of those subjects where in a demon-less real world setting, you can see unfolding more or less the same over years instead of hours. The gore was good. Although am I the only one let down that the cheese grater didn’t do more damage to her leg? Maybe that’s the real problem. I’m too much of a cynical asshole.

Yeah, maybe that’s it. 

With the energy and tone this franchise is known for, giving any kind of happy or even bittersweet ending doesn’t feel right. There always felt like a nihilistic reason why each of these movies had their energies and tone. “These people are going to die horribly due to their own stupidity! Ain’t it great?!” I don’t mind if there’s a metaphor or point to the story of an Evil Dead movie. I just think it shouldn’t take less time to solve than Ash did. Not because no one deserves it, but I don’t believe these demons would so easily let anyone go. The happiness, if any admittedly, felt unearned.

I guess that’s my real point. It won’t feel right if this is the last we see of Beth and Kassie. Sure, it made sense to end where it did, but I don’t believe either of them is okay. I want to know more about how they’re holding up. But who knows. Maybe I’d like for them to stumble upon the cabin at the beginning years later. It’d be very interesting to see how Kassie, a kid who was exposed and lost her family to these things at a very young age, would develop psychologically. Would it be similar to Andy from the Child’s Play movies? (That’s a franchise I need to catch up on) And yeah, maybe all these survivors, including Ash, should meet up at some point. Or at least become aware of each other’s existence. I don’t want any of them to die (unless it’s written well). Death is cheap, but trauma is rich. 

A big reason why rewatching one of these movies every October for me is a must is because they each feel like a fun ride through a haunted house. I did like this enough, I’ll add it to the rotation. Maybe, in a few years, I’ll soften on this one like I did Evil Dead 2. It’s funny how I didn’t like that one at first because I thought it was too mean and not taking itself seriously. Now, I’m saying this one’s my least favorite because it’s too “precious” and serious. Maybe the real deadite is the one I became along the way.

#Evil Dead Rise #evil dead 2 #ash vs evil dead

[amporella]

kenny kyle for the character bingo 🧡💚🧡💚

GOOD PICKS AS ALWAYS!! Here they are, starting with Kyle; I'm putting Kenny in a separate post because I like to ramble but I don't want to squish him in under the cut </3

Everybody knows that I love Kyle. He's my favorite like 60% of the time, and he's my second favorite the rest of the time. I have absolutely endless thoughts on him as I'm sure anybody who's been following me for a while knows, so I'm going to try not to ramble TOO hard and I'm instead going to address the specific squares that I picked on the bingo board to try and keep this organized.

First of all, his default appearance isn't COOL looking, but he is freaking cute, which I feel counts? I just love his design in general, ugh, the hair contrasts so nicely with his outfit, it's adorable, and his Post-Covid look is literally perfect. I was so delighted when I saw how well groomed he is!!! And his fancy shoes... GNC icon Kyle Broflovski lives on into his fifties. I think you'd be very hard pressed to call his TFBW outfit 'cool', but he obviously put SO much effort into it which is charming in and of itself, and his SOT outfit IS actually cool. Elf King Kyle is my favorite character design of his (and maybe my favorite out of the whole series?); it is so good. Regardless of how much SOT content people make (and there is a lot of amazing stuff out there), there will never be enough to sate my SOT heart.

I do think he's deeper than he seems, but I think that applies for all South Park characters? The average viewer is frankly not going to be exploring any character's decisions beyond trying to guess the next joke in an episode, so the fact that meta CAN be written for him (and every other character) implies that he does have depths that aren't readily apparent to everyone.

I am obviously extremely pro fanon interpretation, but that being said, I do think Kyle has been done dirty, though most certainly not because he was turned into an 'uwu twink character' or whatever the most recent, endlessly repeatable claim about fanon Kyle is. Kyle's obviously faced extreme amounts of antisemitism in the show, and that's leaked over pretty noticeably into the fandom; you don't have to look far for someone blaming Kyle for Cartman's actions, or trying to defend Cartman (I will kill someone if I see people try to deny he's a nazi one more time), or bastardizing his character in some other absolutely evil, antisemitic way. This is obviously by far the most severe way he's mistreated by the fandom, but I also have some beef with interpretations from people who claim to like him, and weirdly enough, they often end up being part of the previous category? I fucking love Kyle, and I still think that some people who love him an equal amount are insane, especially when it comes to projection. I have never met a self described Kyle kinnie who was even remotely similar to Kyle. Maybe I just haven’t interacted closely enough with any of them, but it honestly feels kind of like a curse sometimes? In my experience, the moment you decide that you ARE a character, or are so similar to a character that you two are essentially indistinguishable, you lose your credibility in being able to talk about them objectively.

I think Kyle works amazingly on his own, but I honestly DO think he works better as a part of style; both from a viewers perspective and from a character analysis perspective. Style interactions obviously melt my style heart, so I'm extremely biased towards episodes involving the two of them, but the other reason I chose that square was because Kyle canonically DOES function better with Stan around than he does without him. Cue me going into a tangent about Post-Covid etc etc etc, but seriously, it's canon. He is a more functional character when he has Stan to balance him out, and to me personally, he's an even more entertaining character than he already is when he's with Stan. The same thing goes for Stan! The two of them are so irreparably intertwined with each other that separating them truly just doesn't feel right.

And yes. He has not done anything wrong, ever. You'll find that I have this opinion for most of the kids on the show, because honestly, unless they're a legitimate nazi, I refuse to cast moral judgement on these ten year olds who keep getting cast into situations that ten year olds should not be in.

Thank you so much for the ask minty!! <3 I'll post the Kenny half soon!

#south park #kyle broflovski #asks #BINGOOOOO #the specific ppl I mention for ppl with insane interpretations are on twitter #if you know you know HAJKDKS

[esther-dot]

The thing is the Willas and Tyrion post made to show the situation for Sansa was almost similar. Both are old men, disabled, heir to their house, trying to steal Sansa birthright. I don't think that op once said that Willas is cruel like Tyrion. I never saw Jonsa hated Willas. I think op means that Tyrells will be better than Lannisters yet they are opportunist like Lannisters. Maybe some do not like the pairing but no one called Willas a bad guy.

(in reference to this post)

I didn’t see the post my anon was referring to, but often, one post inspires other posts on a similar topic and depending on who you follow, you’ll experience a totally different conversation. Not all of us put our posts in the main tag so sometimes we’re responding to things the next person hasn’t seen. If you check on one blog and see a post once, it’s easy to ignore. If you scroll through and see the same post 5 times with added commentary or tags, and additional posts talking about it too, it hits you in a totally different way. It sounded to me like my anon felt what was happening on their dash went beyond the Lannister and Tyrell comparisons. I’m not characterizing the original post in any which way, just saying as the conversation evolved my anon got a specific impression that they objected to, and as I had spoken fondly of Willas before, they reached out. I didn’t mind in the least. Although, for what it’s worth, I haven’t seen Jonsas hating on Willas either. The benefits of curating your tumblr experience!

I agree with you that there is a comparison to be made between the Lannisters and the Tyrells, and that it is worthwhile to find parallels since the author enjoys those so much. I just think the contrast between the two scenarios (marriage to Tyrion vs marriage to Willas) better highlight the issue at hand rather than saying the parallels mean they’re the same. Saying, oh, here’s a good guy and a much nicer family and Sansa could have something rather beautiful there and—oh shit, they’re still using her, little girls are still being handed off as the means to an end, Sansa is still not being seen as a person—that’s the interesting stuff to me. 

Just because one family chooses methods that are less directly violent doesn’t mean there aren’t victims to their machinations, and there’s a really interesting direct parallel with the Lannisters killing Robb, and Olenna killing Joffrey. Obviously, one is a whole hell of a lot more sympathetic, one is a lot more evil, but there are a lot of intersections in their stories. But I think there’s a difference between living within the context of their world and being particularly evil. I suppose that’s what my previous anon and I agree on. Houses cared about advantageous marriages, marrying off children to procure things/alliances was normal (as in, the Starks were gonna do this), but even though it’s normal to them, we shouldn’t be ok with it, and we should recognize the shades of grey to each scenario. But the underlying sentiment is that it is all bad. It leaves girls and women incredibly vulnerable and that plays out later in other people’s stories where people marry and then kill women to get what they want. I believe that fate awaited Sansa if she had given Tyrion a child. I’ve written before that Sansa saved herself and the North when she refused to have sex with Tyrion, and as weird as the castle-y sex metaphors are, I think that supports the idea that this is something the author is consciously writing about.

But back to this topic specifically, in spite of the similarities between the scenarios, the big difference is that the Lannisters were holding Sansa hostage and forced her into the marriage, the Tyrells were offering her an escape from a horrible situation. Darling Sansa immediately romanticizes it and dreams of love and family, but even though she didn’t understand that the offer was not about her happiness and they had a goal, if we compare the two offers, if Sansa had a choice, she would probably choose Willas because she was a prisoner to the family that murdered hers and being forced into marrying one of them is a special brand of horrific.

Another thought I have is that we need to be very careful when comparing Willas and Tyrion because my other anon may have felt that people were emphasizing Tyrion’s dwarfism as his defining trait or Willas’s bad leg his. To their world that matters, but to me as a reader (to everyone in our corner of the fandom, I believe), I care more about who they are. And from what we know, as individuals, they’re nothing alike. Just because Willas would be married to Sansa doesn’t mean he’d have the same goals because we don’t know that he is power hungry or wants Winterfell for himself. His family is a bit conniving, but I don’t think we know that about him. Tyrion will never inherit his father’s castle, but Willas is the heir to Highgarden. That’s really scary for Sansa fans and that element, Tyrion’s lust for that position, (potentially) isn’t there in her marriage to Willas. I think that’s an important variable. So, broadly speaking, sure, similarities, but other Jonsas have notes there Willas may be foreshadowing for Jon, share parallels with him, and I tend to think they’re onto something. Anyway, if we’re thinking of Sansa as a person, it makes a huge difference that one man is a bad person (rapist, murderer) and the other is by all accounts a sweetheart. That one man has nothing and desperately wants title/castle/his evil father’s approval, while the other is loved by his family, has his own estate, and while his father wants to become more powerful, his methods are much more in line with normal standards for their world. So, not only are Sansa’s feelings about it different, her circumstances entering into such a marriage and prospects after are as well. That matters to me. I like to imagine Cat’s reaction to the news of a Sansa x Willas marriage compared to her reaction to them forcing Sansa to marry Tyrion. I think it would be quite different.

As I read your message and responded, I just kept thinking that it’s possible we don’t even really disagree. I can see why someone would say “it’s the same” and I think you can understand those of us who say, “but let’s make sure we acknowledge where it isn’t.” So, I don’t really feel like I’m arguing with you, just saying I come at it from a different angle, as my previous anon did.

#ask dot

[teafiend]

I came to Beyond Evil with biased eyes, and surprisingly, despite how amazing the show was, from the cast/performances, characters, writing, plot/twists, cinematography/visuals and a few of its OST tracks, those biases were still at work, and the show did not manage to engage my tears and/emotions as anticipated. Besides my personal biases at work, I think the intense plot/twists were quite a bit of a distraction in terms of emotional investment (for me). I was on my metaphorical toes in terms of who could be involved, and was hesitant to pick favourites until at least more than halfway through the show. While the first half was fantastic in its twists, I could enjoy the second half more, when it was much clearer what’s up and it was more about the journey towards the ending.

(A rewatch would likely result in more emotional investment in the characters and show, but am mostly interested in my rare pair fanvids from the show at the moment).

I was watching the final leg of “Nobody Knows” while marathoning BE, and while BE is undoubtedly the superior production and show, I find myself “liking” Nobody more than BE at times. (NK is a great show too but from more “objective lenses”, BE is certainly on a “higher level”). Just goes to show that being able to invest in a favourite character(s) made for a very different viewing experience. And I prefer that NK had more slow, quiet character moments which were not upended by another twist, unlike BE. The pacing for the plot twists in both shows were solid but the turns in BE had more urgency, which made for better suspense and thrills, locking in interest for more. As a thriller/mystery, BE truly aced in the writing and direction, but I simply preferred NK for its periodic small, calm moments.

In a way, I would say BE is similar to “Nirvana in Fire” for me. A magnificent story/production/show with memorable characters, performances and writing, but could only at most engage my mind and a minor part of my heart, not consume it.

Perhaps I felt some of the dramatic scenes in BE were made for the shock/twisty factor, so the “melodrama” felt more forced to me. I know these type of scenes and effect work with many people, just unfortunate that I don’t often derive much emotional poignancy from them. Often, they just felt cheesy. This is less a criticism of the choices taken by the show than an indictment of my own preferences. (Or maybe I just have less tears for shows like these nowadays).

Shows like “Signal” and “When the Camellia Blooms” were major tearjerkers (heavy blues for a period too) for me, while “Missing”, “Nobody Knows” and “Beyond Evil” were quite mid. I expect the shows were also written and produced/shot with certain desirable emotional effects in mind, and certain elements resonated more with me than others, through no fault of the writing, characters and/or performances.

Despite my own feelings - or lack thereof - for these particular shows, there are no doubts that all are fantastic productions worthy of the time spent on them. With regards to BE, while I didn’t “feel” the hype, I certainly did get why it received the praises it did. The storyline, performances/characters etc were quite mind-blowing, and the twist and turns kept me glued to the screen even when I found some of the interactions between the characters a tiny tad tedious.

As for the finale, I definitely enjoyed Nobody’s more than BE because NK gave more time for a satisfactory peace at the end for its main protagonist (and side characters). BE did show a satisfactory “epilogue” of sorts too, but I wished it was a bit longer.

Could not deny that “climatic scenes” don’t work their magic all that much on me nowadays either, but that’s really a me problem. After all, even the much touted climax for “The Guest” (a favourite) did not resonate with me as much as the small, mundane character moments did (which I have rewatched numerous times vs the ending). Most significantly, I suppose, is the much more pronounced bias I have with shows nowadays. Men-fest, their pain/conflicts and “bromance” bore me to no end, unfortunately, and I would venture to say that that was likely the biggest problem with NiF and BE for me, in terms of emotional receptivity. Without that few outstanding - and beloved female characters - in both shows, i.e. Consort Jing and Yoo Jae Yi (and the few others), they would not have managed to engage a part of my heart.

Hence the reason for my “preference” for Nobody Knows. Cha Young Jin has all my love and following her journey of justice and “healing” was satisfying. Yoo Jae Yi (and a lesser extent Oh Ji Hwa) captured my attention and emotions in BE, but they are not the main characters, resulting in little emotional engagement. All the characters in both shows were memorable and fascinating, but you simply love who you love.

All said, Nobody Knows and Beyond Evil were both amazing shows deserving of their accolades, and I was very glad to have completed both (in time to welcome 2023).

(Looking forward to a few days of fangirling and simping over Cha Young Jin and Yoo Jae Yi ❤️‍🔥⭐️)

#beyond evil #KDrama #a fabulous show which just did not manage to engage my emotions as expected #kdrama ramblings #nobody knows drama #sbs nobody knows #KDrama rant #self-indulgent rambling #beyond evil kdrama #fangirl for Cha Young Jin #Yoo Jae Yi is THE favourite #record for self