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raayllum · 6 months

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Your Aunt's Spirit In You :: Callum & Amaya, a Meta

Was thinking about these two due to writing a scene between them in a recent oneshot, and then about the similarities they have, so thought - why not? Especially for a shorter meta than more of the long form ones I have siting in my drafts, let's talk about Callum and Amaya

As always, SIMILARITIES first:

Both loyal siblings to a monarch (Sarai through marriage, Ezran through birth)

Taken captive and interrogated by elves

Willing to sacrifice themselves for the good of the group (special shout out to 3x01 which puts this back to back * )

* This is slightly negated by Rayla, not Callum, being the one to actually risk her life (as she talks Callum out of risking his own quite easily) whereas Amaya goes through with it. Still, Callum's sentiment and willingness is there (and on multiple occasions), so it's included. ("I need you to kill me" being another example)

Skeptical, distrustful, and good at reading people (even if Callum changes his mind about Rayla and Amaya does not about Viren)

Good planners / generals (see my General Callum tag here)

Often times more decisive than their partner (Rayla often hesitates, which Janai worries about as well) and encouraging them to prioritize their own needs as well above just their 'duty'

In 4x01, they are both worried about secrets (as a result of war based trauma) and potential attacks, even though both 'secrets' wind up being something positive and wonderful (successfully for Amaya - as she is proposed to and happily rejoices with her partner - and an attempt for Callum, as it leaves him forlorn because his partner is still missing)

Slightly darker sense of humour, maybe ("Now that you'll officially be my little brother, I'll try not to beat you up too much" + "Besides, she only eats three people a day. It's a small price to pay for peace")

And last but not least, there is Janai's assessment of their similarities (aka the meta title) that accompanies the soundtrack piece of "Like Aunt, Like Nephew".

Callum does often undertake dangerous quests / make dangerous choices (travelling across the world to return a dragon egg, throwing himself off a mountain, running into what he believes to be a trap, etc). This is, however, much like how Aaravos' assessment of Callum in 4x04 ("and my favourite, the human mage, already tainted by darkness, and destined to play right into my hands") is true for all of his mage pawns up to that point (Ziard, Claudia, and Viren in the past), true of just about every character in the show. Which makes sense - in an action/adventure fantasy show, most of the characters are going to have to be okay about throwing themselves into danger just by proxy of genre. In most of the trio scenes where someone is hurling themselves into danger, it is usually Rayla first - and then Callum, stepping up if/when she can't do something on her own.

As you might've noticed while there are similarities, outside of their skepticism and willingness to sacrifice (which is again, something most characters in the show have) there aren't that many that go beyond more surface level "these events both happen to these characters," as Amaya and Callum's mindsets aren't that similar, which are the bulk of the main differences we're going to talk about next.

DIFFERENCES:

Prejudice (or therefore lack of)

Amaya is very prejudiced against elves ("Moonshadow elves - the worst kind [...] Don't worry, Callum, I've slain monsters before") at the beginning of the show, whereas Callum never is. He still holds some poor misconceptions (mostly the blood drinking) but he still always sees them as 1) people and 2) therefore worth reasoning with: "Can't you just make peace with them? You don't want to die, I'm sure the elves and dragons don't want to die, so everyone agrees"and his first conversation(s) with Rayla.

2. The ways in which Amaya is similar to Viren are largely different than the ways Callum is similar to Viren.

Amaya devoted her life to safeguarding the Breach and their kingdom's borders, a form of security that Viren was worried about and continued to be worried about once he came into power. Amaya and Viren can both be a little two-faced, willing to present a trusting front and hide their ulterior motives (most notably from each other, and something Rayla has in common arguably with both of them), whereas Callum is incredibly honest most of the time and is very bad at covering up his emotions (something he also has in common with Rayla, since although she often tries to cover things up, she routinely fails at it).

Viren is willing to send his children after the princes in spite of the danger of their secret missions ("if you must choose, choose the egg") and Amaya is willing to hold the Breach rather than go after her nephews, leaving Corvus to do so in her stead. This is very different than Callum, who automatically and often times insists on going along with his loved ones (Ezran, Rayla) when they're embarking on dangerous journeys of their own.

On that note, Amaya and Viren are both also taken captive by the Sunfire elves and given the Trial of Light, with very different outcomes that S5 also reaffirms for Callum, so let's talk about it:

3. The Light Will Decide Your Fate

During Janai's interrogation of Amaya, and Finnegrin's interrogation of Callum, the two respond very differently. Both Janai and Finnegrin want information, but Janai doesn't resort to torture even when Amaya remains entirely silent on any and all matters, and Finnegrin keeps pushing at Callum (and Callum keeps giving up information) even if he doesn't give up what Finnegrin wants, at first.

Amaya's trial is specifically about whether or not she's "pure of heart" or, more accurately, whether or not she's done dark magic. Her interrogation and test, if you will, ends with her passing it - to Khessa's surprise. Amaya is not a mage, and certainly not a dark mage, and is therefore going to interact and approach the world differently than a mage - human or elven or otherwise - would. Callum's interrogation and test is also about dark magic, and he does not 'pass it', lmao.

Because where Amaya had to confront the Light, Callum had to confront his Dark.

This is where we get into more of the mindset differences.

Amaya is willing to cut her losses (if she cannot successfully defend the Breach, she will destroy it, circa 3x01) but Callum almost never does (staying too late in the Great Bookery, for example; holding onto hope that Harrow might be alive even when he knows deep down he knows better, etc). Amaya refuses to give up the Sun Seed for her partner's life, knowing it safeguards a bright future and is what Janai would want her to do; Callum does give Finnegrin the spell and does dark magic to save Rayla, even when she wouldn't ultimately want him to do either of those things on her behalf. 5x08 makes this comparison particularly clear by juxtaposing these two deals and scenes throughout the episode.

Part of this is because, as Amaya acknowledges, for a great deal of her life, she and Callum had very different ideas regarding strength - which is exactly what allows these perspectives to switch:

When she died, I felt lost and weak without her. I hated feeling that way, so I learned to be strong alone. Stoic, strong... and lonely.

But the last two years have changed everything. Meeting Janai, falling in love, I am stronger than I ever was... because we are stronger together. And I realized that was the real truth of me and Sarai, too.

Callum has, up until about halfway through 5x08, always believed that he (and others) are ultimately stronger together, and we see this reflected through the first four seasons and into season five. However, the back half of 5x08 begins to greatly challenge this. Meanwhile, this is something that both Amaya and to a more detailed degree, Rayla, have had to learn. Because, when it comes to how they've responded to trauma, Amaya and Rayla are more similar to one another (and arguably to Viren in this way) than Amaya is to Callum, who by and large has a very different trauma response.

CONCLUSION (??)

While Amaya and Callum do have some similarities, Amaya is not extraordinarily similar to either of her nephews - Callum included - due to their differences in occupation, mindset, and trauma response. The similarities they do share are mostly things that they each share with Viren (such as skepticism) or share with most of the general cast (intelligence - although Callum is a standout - and bravery, for example). Most of their parallels, therefore, are put there to provide contrasts within similar themes (mostly in S1, 4x01, and 5x08), and they do not parallel more than any particular pair of characters in the show (seriously, you could throw a dart and probably find parallels between almost anyone, the show is so steeped in them, so looking at consistency and structure is key). Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed.

—Dragons out

#tdp amaya #tdp callum #tdp meta #the dragon prince #tdp #analysis series #amaya #punching someone in the face is not a thematic parallel in this show i'm sorry to report #however these two do have their similarities & differences #analysis #arc 1 #arc 2 #multi

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dr3amofagame · 6 months

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c!Dream and early aid for Pogtopia

(i promised this post so long ago rip)

There is a lot to say about c!Dream and the Pogtopia/Manberg era, especially because so many events in this period of time define the future of his character in very long-lasting ways. Much discussion has been focused particularly on the Vassal discussion and c!Dream's loyalties after--today, though, I want to focus on c!Dream's priorities before that discussion and what they might reveal about his goals.

First, I want to quickly link my post I made on c!Dream during the L'manburg Revolution, which establishes a few of the key c!Dreamisms that influence my read of him particularly pre-November 16th. Second, I want to point to a clip in the drodcast that emphasizes that the reason why c!Dream switched sides to Manberg was for the story's sake and in-universe therefore only happened because of the revive book deal, further indicating that the character had no prior intentions to turn against Pogtopia.

All that being said, there are a couple main points I want to make about (how I interpret) c!Dream in early Pogtopia.

c!Dream was already pretty obviously acting alone/isolated at the beginning of this arc

c!Dream was always genuine in his support for Pogtopia

There is more reason to believe in c!Dream's assertion that he wanted "L'manburg to be something" than the opposite

Starting wth point one, I think it's important to acknowledge how c!Dream emphasizes the idea of secrecy repeatedly during the beginnng of the Manberg/Pogtopia arc. He talks about how he has to provide support "from the shadows" in the Tyrant book, and he expresses similar sentiments when he gives supplies to c!Techno around this time as well. At the very least, when he was supplying aid at this point in time, he was pretty damn obviously acting alone--we see this as the arc progresses as well, when c!Dream helps c!Tommy in the Battle of the Lake and when he meets with Pogtopia during Vassal, for example.

Of course, acting alone doesn't necessarily mean isolation, although taking on a big + potentially dangerous task alone can lead to feelings of isolation regardless of that fact, but if we take a look at c!Dream at this time...sure he has friends, and people he's friendly with. But in terms of actual allies, he's kinda been on his own? c!George was decidedly part of Manberg due to the coalition at the start of the arc, and as far back as the Elections we see him claiming that he was "under Dream's rule" to explain that the decisions weren't his own in the Revolution.

Even though c!George obviously does not have high opinions of Wilbur and Tommy and their whole deal re: independence, we also see that no one really protests when c!Dream is called the "leader of tyranny."

And outside of this one debate, when we look at the actual events of the server...c!Dream enters into a few conflicts after the Revolution, all of which were not initiated by him. In these conflicts, he repeatedly has his items used as blackmail against him w/ the discs being the cited justification in a lot of cases (discs that were, once again, legally traded to him). And as far as these conflicts go, in terms of actual allies? There's really no one consistent at all? c!Sapnap outright teams with c!Tommy to get Dream's stuff until he turns on c!Tommy when he realizes opposing Dream isn't a good idea for him. c!Dream gets pulled into c!Sapnap's mess with the Pet Wars and therefore helps him hide their pets when the fight escalates--but at no point does c!Sapnap really outright support c!Dream in a conflict that involves him. c!Skeppy is also out here mostly in it for his own gain and was the one to steal Spirit's leather (from his. grave 😭) in the first place, like. Consistently, when c!Dream is involved in an actual conflict, he acts alone--before the Manberg/Pogtopia arc even begins. Mix in the fact that L'manburg was largely seen as an independent entity despite its technically being a part of the Dream SMP (and therefore Dream having to act accordingly) and the way that like the fandom, the L'manburg Revolution's aftermath brought in a lot of new members that further solidified the narrative in-universe (just like how a lot of new fans joined after the L'manburg Revolution, especially bc of the SAD-ist animation, which all served to solidify the l'manburg = heroes connection in the fandom as well) and the idea of c!Dream as the "bad guy" of the Revolution went relatively unchallenged (along with c!Eret, who obviously never shook the title of traitor.)

c!Dream was lacking in consistent allies and largely dealt with conflicts involving himself alone pre-Manberg/Pogtopia (gestures at how it's me and you against Dream was reiterated repeatedly), and when Manberg/Pogtopia began he had even more reason to act by himself. He was acting against the peace treaty by helping Wilbur and Tommy in Pogtopia, and a lot of the people he knew were friendly with or outright were a part of Manberg (George was a literal part of the government at the beginning, Karl was looking for wherever he could get an advantage, Sapnap is. Sapnap and shit was happening like the Battle of the Lake which literally involved kidnapping Niki, as well as other things)--c!Dream, at this point, is already used to working alone and had many reasons to continue doing so.

Onto point two: c!Dream was genuine in his support of Pogtopia throughout the arc until the point of the revive book deal. I want to point to the clip again from the drodcast, specifically how Dream says that before the conception of the revive book, c!Dream "literally switched for no reason we had no reason for me to switch [outside of the revive book]." This, plus the fact that what canonically does end up driving the decision to "switch sides" by publicly supporting c!Schlatt on November 16th is the literal revive book, all points to how c!Dream wasn't exactly going to side with c!Schlatt easily. It literally takes the whole ass revive book, the item that shatters his view of reality with its implications and was one of the central reasons why he had a paranoid spiral that involved him cooking up the prison for him to consider being on Schlatt's side.

Oftentimes, the arguments around c!Dream in this era and how he was manipulating the situation for his own gain boil down to two main moments where an assertion is made that c!Dream was playing both sides to make them destroy each other, those being Vassal and his speech to c!Eret on November 16th.

The first excerpt, Vassal, happened in early October, and the latter comes from the famous conversation c!Dream has with c!Eret on November 16th. And from these two excerpts, it can seem reasonable to believe that c!Dream's intentions were in the realm of helping both sides destroy each other, especially considering his saying that his plan is "there is no Manberg, there's no L'manburg, there's no Pogtopia, there's just Dream SMP an there's Dream SMP everywhere." But--regardless of whether or not you believe this statement, regardless of whether or not he wanted L'manburg gone from the beginning of this arc, it's undeniable that his actions do not support the claim that he was always planning to help Manberg to sabotage both sides.

The only reason why c!Dream helps c!Schlatt, and by extension Manberg, was the revive book. And this is made quite explicit both in and out of character. This man was calling Manberg L'manburg to Manberg's goddamn cabinet, for god's sake. As soon as the deal with the Election results go down, c!Dream aligns himself with Pogtopia. He supplies Manberg no aid until after the revive book deal and literally warns Pogtopia when he switches sides???? Even the claim that he wanted the two entities to destroy each other doesn't reflect the reality of him knowing that destruction would come at c!Wilbur's hands from the TNT, not from the fight between Manberg/Pogtopia in itself.

Even if you proceed with the reading that c!Dream wanted L'manburg dead and gone and wanted that from the beginning, he quite clearly was helping Pogtopia against Manberg in order to facilitate his goals and was not helping c!Schlatt until the revive book forced his hand.

The third point is the one most up for debate/based on interpretation, but I believe that, based on the information we have, it is more reasonable to believe that at the beginning of Manberg/Pogtopia c!Dream had no plans for the total destruction of L'manburg and didn't necessarily see that as one of his end goals for the server than to say that the opposite is true.

For one, going back to the revolution, c!Dream--even then--didn't have total annihilation of L'manburg as his end goal. He goes into that war knowing that he would give them "technical independence"--allowing them to exist as an entity, hell, allowing them to have 'independence' in some form (although obviously he finds the whole "we are our own server now actually" situation ridiculous). If there was ever any time to pursue the total destruction of L'manburg as an entity, it would've been then, before L'manburg was ever firmly established.

If we take c!Dream purely at his word (a dubious thing to do for sure, obviously, mans is a liar--but at the same time, c!Dream at that time was also a man that was known to generally keep his end of the deal) then c!Dream's motives at the beginning of Pogtopia are quite clear: the Tyrant book establishes the reasons why he opposes c!Schlatt, that he was able to maintain peace with L'manburg but did not feel that the same could be true as long as c!Schlatt was leader, and that "Schlatt is no Wilbur."

Later on, in Vassal, he reiterates these points, openly mocking c!Schlatt in connection with democracy and once again stating that he doesn't see Pogtopia as the bad guys + stating that c!Schlatt, unlike c!Wilbur, is unfit as a ruler because of his ambition.

Later on, when outright questioned about why he supports L'manburg now when he was the one that famously opposed them in the Revolution, he says this:

and obviously, right, he could be lying. I'm not discounting that. But it's rather notable, I think, that when it comes to c!Dream agreeing to give c!Wilibur TNT, that's in response to "I want to rig the city"--a city that, at that minute, was in enemy hands and a force that they were planning on fighting. c!Dream had pledged his allegiance to Pogtopia and specifically set a precedent of himself as an ally that would provide military aid and items (see: the gear he gives c!Techno and c!Tommy, Battle of the Lake, hell, he gives c!Tommy TNT literal minutes before Vassal while all but guarding him when c!Tommy is trying to antagonize Manberg in order to bring them back and keep them from discovering Pogtopia)--his support in this area does not, in my opinion, show clear support for the actual ideological reasons behind why c!Wilbur concludes he has to blow up L'manburg (and in Vassal, we actually see him push against those reasons several times, as shown below.)

And again, whether or not you think his disagreement is genuine or if you believe he was just fishing for information/how serious c!Wilbur actually was, I'd say that his words and action in this scene do, repeatedly, indicate a level of hesitance. He is not jumping the gun as soon as the opportunity presents itself for him to get rid of L'manburg once and for all--he's being cautious. Assessing. So much so that c!Wilbur picks up on it and outright threatens him, which is also the point in the conversation where c!Dream stops arguing back against any of the points that he makes:

And the point I'm making here isn't that c!Dream didn't want L'manburg to be destroyed when he agreed to give c!Wilbur the TNT. I think there does exist proof for this point, including whatever the hell Dream knew that Plan B had to happen...I'm so proud was supposed to mean, but that's not the point I'm specifically trying to make here. Rather, I think that until L'manburg's destruction is specifically brought up by c!Wilbur, there is little proof that shows c!Dream as specifically pursuing it/planning to get rid of it for the sake of a factionless server.

Sure, you can say that c!Dream's ideal server would've been a server without L'manburg on it. You could also say that c!Dream's ideal server at the time was a server where c!Tommy shut up abt the damn discs alread and a server where c!Sapnap stopped rampaging through the pet population on the server--there's a difference between "the ideal" and what he was specifically working towards. And the fact of the matter is, after the Revolution, c!Dream really doesn't have any conflicts with L'manburg itself. c!Tommy? Certainly--largely initiated by c!Tommy for the discs that he literally traded c!Dream during the revolutionary war. But c!Dream is hardly entering into faction conflict--he even says, in Tyrant, that they had peace between their two nations, and that it was C!SCHLATT'S election that disrupted that peace.

And c!Dream's particular dislike of factions is also something that I think has a tendency to get...overexaggerated? Especially because it's one of the foundational tenets of the L'manburg mythos--c!Dream is a control freak that opposed the idea of people getting together to make a "country" without him, etc etc. This is even something that is addressed in the Mexican L'manburg debates:

c!Dream doesn't like factions, true. He'd prefer a united server without them, true. But c!Dream being pushed into taking action against any particular faction really didn't start from him just, hating factions in the first place? There always was some kind of inciting incident. By the time of post-Nov 16th, he quite evidently recognizes that factions are going to continue to be a Thing--he never has any outright conflict with the Badlands, for example, because they don't really engage in conflict with him--and later he practically ignores El Rapids even after the whole debacle that was Mexican L'manburg. When c!Dream says "look you guys were fine because you were just existing" in the Tyrant book and in Vassal, that fits the pattern of how he deals with faction conflict on this server? (See, also, how he generally doesn't go after factions post-prison, despite making some implicit threats: the only faction that he goes after is LN, and even if you consider the fact that he probably had bigger fish to fry with the whole, world reset thing, once again factions don't really matter to him until he's registering them as an explicit threat.)

The Revolution was meant to prove a point, the point being don't fuck with me--a point that c!Wilbur clearly understood and abided by. And after the Revolution, c!Dream really never shows any inclinations of wanting conflict with L'manburg or wanting it gone the way that we see that as more consistent trait later on by the time we get to things like the revive book deal, and Nov. 16th, and especially in his dealings with NLM leading up to Doomsday the unfinished symphony, right?

And, you know, all of this makes sense. c!Dream knows that L'manburg isn't just about L'manburg itself, considering the damn story of L'manburg was established by c!Wilbur in like, what, a day? c!Dream and the Americans (tm) were established as the Enemy even though half of them literally weren't involved at all in the drug van conflict (and members of L'manburg had. Literally fought with c!Sapnap in said conflict??) and L'manburg grew out of that story in almost no time at all. c!Dream has zero reason to believe that the destruction of L'manburg in entirety is even possible--he literally didn't think it was possible in the Revolution! c!Dream's priorities for the server isn't a factionless server, it's a peaceful server--not to mention how he literally saw L'manburg as part of the Dream SMP anyway? As long as L'manburg the entity wasn't starting shit (which they weren't, not until Schlatt got elected and everything went to hell) c!Dream really doesn't have a motive to try and Start A Conflict against them (which is antithetical to the whole peaceful coexistence schtick that he was trying to get at) and really doesn't have much of a reason to think that any of that would even work either, considering how he was quite confident that the L'manburgians would never give up when L'manburg was like. A week old.

Of course, with Vassal and with c!Wilbur going "let me destroy it all" it's obviously perfectly possible that c!Dream was thinking hey, the guy that all of L'manburg respects and sees as leader wants L'manburg gone, this could possibly lead to L'manburg being fully dissolved and the server going back to being factionless and united and for that to motivate his later actions in the arc and his support of c!Wilbur. But Vassal still has to happen first. There really isn't any reason to believe that c!Dream was gunning for L'manburg's destruction at the start of the arc, and c!Dream really had every reason to believe that that wouldn't even be possible (and I mean, NLM had rebuilt itself literally like. In the span of a week? So.) Based on what we see, the most that can really be said imo about c!Dream here is that he's being opportunistic, and even then he expresses a level of hesitance throughout Vassal.

Considering how c!Dream supported Pogtopia from the beginning and only ends that alliance because of the revive book deal and considering how he acted in the time period between the Revolution and Manberg/Pogtopia, I think it's fair to state that c!Dream's statements of his end goal being to return to the "peace" that had existed pre-Manberg through the coexistence of L'manburg and DreamSMP, one side believing themselves independent and the other side believing that they're all part of the same server, was. His original end goal when Manberg/Pogtopia began. He had every reason to support Pogtopia over Manberg (and by extension, Wilbur over Schlatt) when you consider how Wilbur generally was willing to play nice with c!Dream post-revolution, a sentiment rather clearly not shared by c!Schlatt and his expansionist ideals. Even if c!Dream would've preferred a server without L'manburg, his actions as far back as the Revolution indicate to me that the likelihood of his actually creating any plans in that direction is rather small and that his sentiments of returning the server back to how it was in its pre-Manberg state are close to the truth. c!Dream isn't stupid enough to think that destroying L'manburg outright would've suddenly resulted in server peace--destabilizing shit by making everyone mad at him at that point in time really seems antithetical to his goals? It seems more likely to me that c!Dream, in alignment with his goals, at this point would prioritize a peaceful server over a factionless one, especially at a time pre-Manberg nonsense when the whole "L'manburg is an independent nation that Matters A Lot To Everyone" is just so deeply entrenched.

And obviously quite a few important changes happen to his character around this time, especially due to 1) Vassal and 2) the Revive Book Deal. I think that these two in particular have a lot to do with the character that we see in November 16th (when c!Dream is already acting quite a lot more like how he will continue to act over the next two months up until staged finale, and when he's already a little bit more, uh. Unhinged than we've seen him, looks at his laughter when c!Wilbur detonates the TNT.) And obviously a lot of the important development that happens at this time (such as his spending time with c!Wilbur in Pogtopia + the. Everything with c!Schlatt, the book deal, shakes everyone about the book deal again) happens off-screen, so we have to speculate a bit. But at the end of the day, when c!Dream is considered in the context of who he was before Manberg/Pogtopia began as well as who he ends up being at the end of the arc, it definitely feels to me that these early moments shouldn't be as wholly dismissed as an act/front/lies what have you as they commonly are.

#oh GOD this ended up so long. ummm . rip #long post #c!dreamisms #c!dream #dreblr #i promised this post literal months ago rippp #also disclaimer lmao a lot of this is abt interpretation and a lot of how people see pogtopia is commonly disputed #this is just how i see the events 👍#i try to give my reasoning for why as thoroughly as i can but yeahghhgh ...

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fantastic-nonsense · 1 year

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You mentioned about your cass cain reddit post (read it all and loved it btw) that you knew even more behind the scenes dc drama than what made it into the post. If you’re comfortable with it and still remember, would you like to share some of the behind the scenes dc drama that didn’t make it into that post now? (Ofc just ignore/delete this ask if you’re not comfortable with it I was just curious XD)

Necessary context: this ask is referring to this write-up I did for r/HobbyDrama a little over a year ago, which I offhandedly mentioned to a couple of people awhile back was "9 pages in a Word doc and STILL left a bunch of stuff out."

Okay so most of the stuff I left out, I left out because it was more about Barbara or Steph and the larger situation around how DC handled the Batgirl mantle more generally than it was about Cass and the whole debacle that happened there. Since the post was already getting so long, I chose to just not talk about a lot of that for length purposes and to keep the write-up more focused on a) Cass as a character, b) editorial or creative decisions that actually impacted Cass specifically, and c) top-level issues, since the write-up was geared towards an audience who largely doesn't read comics. I also left a few things out because they're somewhat hearsay and/or "known to be true but technically unverifiable information," mostly for credibility reasons.

Largely, the thing you have to understand about DC's treatment of Cass is that there was a major power struggle at DC between those who wanted Barbara Gordon to become Batgirl again and those who wanted Cassandra Cain to remain Batgirl. The "Babs vs. Cass" fight and viewing Cass's treatment within the context of this massive internal push for Batgirl!Babs is the backdrop through which the majority of this industry drama needs to be understood, because otherwise a lot of the stuff that happened to Cass doesn't make much logical sense.

So, with that being said...here's a list of eight things I either cut entirely or barely mentioned that may not necessarily be directly related to Cass but are nonetheless relevant to the larger debacle of "DC's mishandling of the Batgirl mantle" that impacted Cass's character trajectory. General warning for the immense psychic damage you will inevitably experience if you read this and its length, because between the screenshots and quotes and explanations this ended up being much longer than I expected it to be.

Yvonne Craig: The first major thing that I chose to cut was a paragraph about Yvonne Craig, the actress who played Barbara Gordon in Batman '66, and the near hero-worship that a lot of (specifically middle-aged, white male) creatives, editors, and managers at DC had for her. Basically, the broad strokes of this issue is that due to their weird obsession with Yvonne Craig's Babs–which is probably due to them having childhood crushes they never got over–several men with power within DC (including Dan Didio himself) shared a sentiment that Barbara was the "one true Batgirl" and no one else but her should ever be Batgirl. Basically: if Barbara Gordon couldn't be Batgirl, Batgirl as a mantle wasn't worth using at all. This led a concentrated decade-long effort to put Babs back in the Batgirl cowl, which obviously influenced the various attempts to push Cass out of the role.

I chose to cut it for two reasons: it was more related to Babs and why there was such a coordinated effort to make Babs Batgirl again rather than Cass as a character unto herself, and it's largely "very well-respected and often-repeated hearsay, but still hearsay." The prevalence it had within the rank-and-file creatives at DC is suspect, but we know that several prominent creators, editors, and upper management shared that perspective (even if they largely don't talk about it on-record). We know this sentiment absolutely existed; Scott Peterson, for example, talked a bit about how "crazy he was for Yvonne Craig" in his interview about creating Cass. It's just not a particularly well-sourced discussion point and was more suited for a write-up on Babs than it was a write-up on Cass.

Batwoman's Costume Design: I barely mentioned Kate in the write-up and only in relation to how Cass's book was cancelled to make way for the theoretical Batwoman solo book that never happened, but there's actually a lot of really interesting industry drama behind Kate's creation. Specifically as it regards Batgirl...Kate's costume was originally meant for Barbara, per Alex Ross:

"The design I did was initially for the proposed idea of a new version of Batgirl, so it was intended to be another stab at bringing back Barbara Gordon, or having the new Batgirl be costumed as a tribute to her, maybe even with a red-haired wig." -Alex Ross, "Giving Batwoman Her Look"

Ross and Paul Dini had been planning to revive Babs as Batgirl for years, but Bat Office Head Editor Denny O'Neil was staunchly against it so it never happened:

"Paul Dini had this idea of putting Barbara Gordon in the Lazarus Pit to revive her…spine, I guess," Ross said. "At least, that's what he would've done in the television show had they continued doing more cartoons, and her spine was broken the way it was. I thought it was a great idea, and we pitched then-Batman editor Denny O'Neil with these drawings of that costume design.........and that went nowhere. Denny shot it down, because, according to him, everybody loves Barbara Gordon as Oracle and as a handicapped character. The theory was that DC didn't have enough handicapped characters, so they weren't going to do anything with Barbara as she was. And the design went into the drawer." -from "Giving Batwoman her Look"

When O'Neil retired in 2002, the floodgates opened and we started seeing a concentrated creative/editorial push to make Babs Batgirl again. Of course by that time Cass was already well-established, so Ross's design was later re-purposed for Kate Kane's Batwoman and the power struggle largely manifested in a gradual sidelining of Cass from major Bat events (starting with Hush, as I mentioned in the write-up) in an effort to pave the way for putting Babs back in the cowl. Which brings me to the next piece of industry drama I cut.

War Games: There's...a lot of industry drama behind both the conception and execution of War Games. Most of it isn't particularly relevant to this answer or the original write-up, but there are two things that are. One, the fact that Stephanie's death was mandated by editorial and everyone involved knew it was coming. This is what prompted Steph's temporary takeover of the Robin mantle. Depending on who you believe, either Robin writer Bill Willingham, Batgirl writer Dylan Horrocks, Detective Comics writer/Bat Office editor Andersen Gabrych, or Dan Didio himself suggested that Stephanie become Robin as a story trick for readers and a sort of narrative "consolation prize" in preparation for the fact that they were about to kill her:

“The whole way through it was planned purely as a trick to play on the readers, that we would fool them into thinking that the big event was that Stephanie Brown would become Robin but we knew all along it was a temporary thing, and she was then going to die at the end of this crossover story.” -Dylan Horrocks at Auckland Writers and Readers Fest in 2011

"I knew coming into the Robin series that Spoiler was doomed to die. And I wouldn’t have done that, but that was already locked in even before I came on Robin, so I had no point at which to say you shouldn’t do this. But, I did I have this hair-brained idea that, well, if she was going to die — she was such a frustrated character…I mean, everything she wanted out of life she pretty much didn’t get. So, can we give her one little reward before she dies and let her become Robin for awhile." -Bill Willingham for Word Balloon in 2012

"You know, me and Stephanie, we go way back. The story with Stephanie Brown goes, they came to me as Executive Editor with the "War Games" story, and said 'we're going to kill Stephanie Brown.' I knew Stephanie Brown for who she was, and said, 'I don't know, if this is going to be the big ending to your story it doesn't feel big enough at the time, because the character wasn't strong enough yet.' So I said, 'Why don't we make her Robin for a short period of time, build some interest in her, and then we kill her!'" -Dan Didio for Newsarama

Steph becoming the major collateral damage of the immediate post-O'Neil editorial era would later set the stage for why she was viewed as an acceptable compromise choice to become Batgirl during the Reborn era.

Two, the writer of Cass's solo at the time, Dylan Horrocks, was so discomforted and offended by the concept of the story (and particularly its treatment of Steph) that he deliberately kept Cass out of the event's "main action" as much as possible during her tie-in issues. This has been widely reported for years and while Horrocks himself rarely goes on record about it, he has made some comments that more-or-less confirm it:

Horrocks: "I'd write [Batgirl] very differently today....for me, it was...complicated. One day I'll write about the experience properly. The War Games event was deeply depressing." -Dylan Horrocks on Twitter in 2012/2013

Sidenote: War Games was actually the last straw for both Ed Brubaker and Horrocks; Brubaker was fed up with all the editorial mandates/executive meddling and Horrocks was frustrated by the Bat Office's misogynistic and grimdark story direction, so they both left right after (Brubaker for Marvel to write Bucky Barnes' resurrection and Horrocks for indie comics).

So why are Horrocks' writing choices relevant to DC's subsequent treatment of Cass? Well, as I stated in the original write-up, it heralded the beginning of a "there can be only one" era for female Bat characters. DC could handle the idea of several male Batfam members running around at the same time but apparently more than one female Bat at a time (regardless of moniker) was just too much for them. It was also the last major Bat event to feature Cass in any significant capacity until her post-reboot reintroduction. So while she was largely removed from the action for good reasons, War Games stands as a haunting precursor to the direction DC was headed with her character: sidelined and replaced in favor of characters editors were planning on using (Kate), could agree on using (Steph), or liked more (Babs).

Batgirl (2008)'s Sales Performance: I cut this bullet point largely because it's ultimately a footnote in the larger saga that was Cass's limbo years. Basically, after the resolution of the Evil Cass arc DC reassured fans that they "had plans" for Cass as Batgirl. This later manifested via her appearances in the Batman and the Outsiders (2007) run and (eventually) a new solo mini. Unfortunately, Batgirl: Redemption Run didn't perform nearly as well as DC hoped for a variety of reasons: many Cass fans swore it off due to it being written by Adam Beechen (the writer who wrote her heel-face turn in the first place), the first issue was poorly written, the story wasn't particularly engaging, etc. The tepid reception and subsequent poor sales of this mini were then used to retroactively justify booting Cass out of the Batgirl mantle entirely during the aftermath of Bruce's death in Final Crisis and the Battle for the Cowl event.

However, DC was already planning on taking Batgirl from Cass and giving it back to Babs at the time, and it likely would have happened even if the mini had done well. The way we know? This image foretelling the events of the Reborn era and Blackest Night was teased in the final issue of Dick's Nightwing solo, as was this one from the end of Babs' Birds of Prey run. That's not Cass kissing Dick, folks; that's Barbara Gordon, Batgirl once again. This planned choice was, as I stated on Reddit, later confirmed by Dan Didio in an Editor's Column during Steph's Batgirl run, who said that at one point Babs was "as close to being Batgirl again as Dick was to being dead in Infinite Crisis" (which is to say, very nearly a done deal). I suspect that only a last-minute internal writer revolt–particularly from Gail Simone, who we know was a vocal supporter of keeping Babs Oracle–stopped it from happening.

Cass's Absence in Battle for the Cowl: I mentioned this in the original write-up but largely glossed over the particulars. In-universe, Cass had just been adopted by Bruce, was fully Batgirl again, and was largely reconciled to the rest of the Batfamily after the Evil Cass arc. And yet her only appearances during the Battle for the Cowl event (and the aftermath of Final Crisis more generally) were cameos in the main book and a main role in the BftC: The Network tie-in oneshot. Literally the only thing she did for the entire duration of BftC was create the Network, which helped the Bats deal with Gotham rogues, and take out a few criminals alongside Huntress. So you have DC continually downplaying and sidelining Cass in a story where she reasonably should have had a major, co-starring role. This event also marked her final appearance as Batgirl, which leads into the next issue I cut.

Batgirl (2009)'s Marketing: this one's very complicated and doing it justice would involve tracking down a lot of old ads and interviews revolving around how DC solicited and marketed this book in the lead-up to the reveal that Stephanie Brown was the new Batgirl, which I simply didn't have time to do at the time of the original write-up and ultimately would have just sidetracked the whole thing, but in short: readers didn't actually know who the protagonist of the new Batgirl solo was going to be when the title was announced. DC had cancelled Birds of Prey and announced both a new Batgirl book and a miniseries called "Oracle: Search for the Cure" (which later became Oracle: The Cure). So Babs' return to the cowl was being solidly teased, but Cass was still Batgirl and showed no real signs of wanting to give up the mantle.

DC's marketing and editorial teams played up this ambiguity by baiting both Babs and Cass fans in order to drive sales: this included teasing ads, early issue solicts that deliberately obscured who was wearing the cape, and a refusal to confirm who the Batgirl of the upcoming solo title would be during interviews and con panels. They chose to heighten the ambiguity even within the title itself: early covers of the run often obscure Steph's hair, eyes, and sometimes even her whole face; the first two issue covers even feature Steph in both Cass's and Babs' Batgirl suits to heighten the confusion. So was the Batgirl of the new title going to be a newly "cured" Barbara Gordon, a second shot for Cassandra Cain, or someone new entirely?

Obviously, none of these things happened. As we all know, Stephanie became Batgirl. The choice to make Steph Batgirl was a compromise decision, as Didio mentions in his editor's note (linked above):

"After long discussions it was agreed that Oracle had become such a strong character there was no sense going back. And since we wanted to make a change, Cassandra no longer seemed right for the role (Not to worry Cassandra fans; plans are afoot, in a very big way, for our favorite non-lethal assassin in 2010). As for Wendy, Bette, and Misfit, none felt strong enough for the position. That left us with the one choice we all agreed on, Stephanie Brown......from the time of her death to the outcry for a memorial and ultimately to her return, there is no denying that her character had connected with a portion of our fanbase and, more important, connected to the Batfamily. It just seemed to make sense that she was the one, and given her history and ties to all the members of Batman's world, the potential is there to make this new Batgirl the one fans will be speaking about for a very long time."

So as previously stated, Steph's treatment during the War Games era ultimately set the stage for her to be the compromise choice for the new Batgirl; she became this interim buffer character because everyone at DC was fighting over Babs vs. Cass and she was the only one everyone could agree deserved the title, and she thrived in that role over the next two years. And a new Birds of Prey book was then announced in the aftermath of Oracle: The Cure and Blackest Night, so Babs' prominence as Oracle survived for another two years until the New 52.

But Cass? Well...Cass unceremoniously handed the Batgirl mantle off to Steph, seemingly fucked off for no discernable reason, and showed up in a grand total of six issues across the entire Batbook slate over the next two years while being largely written out of the Batfam's history and having her reasoning for leaving Gotham retconned from being a choice into being an order from Bruce. Which segues us directly into the next piece of drama that I somewhat glossed over in the original write-up.

The Reborn-era Editorial Erasure Edicts: Bryan Q. Miller, the writer on Steph's Batgirl solo, was under strict editorial edict to basically not mention Cass or include her in the run if he didn't absolutely have to. For example, when he asked editorial if there was a reason why Cass left Gotham, they basically told him "she leaves. why? Because she just does, so your book can exist. Come up with a reason to make her leave and then don't use her."

This era is still pretty opaque in terms of what we know about what various writers were and weren't able to do with Cass, but we do know that Miller specifically was disallowed from featuring her in-person in Batgirl and highly discouraged from mentioning her in general. However, he noted on multiple occasions that he liked Cass and would be happy to use her:

Babs and Steph are the core of this title, no doubt about it. While we'll have another passing reference/flashback to Cassandra soon, I'm leaving the rest of Cassandra's story to whichever lucky duck gets to write her elsewhere in 2010. As for Batwoman, I'm leaving Kate in Rucka's capable hands for the time being. -Miller in an interview with CBR in 2009

If at some point the story I’m telling feels like it can only be told with Cassandra as a part of it, then believe me, I’ll try to find a way to work her in. As it stands currently, however, Cassandra’s fate and future are not in my hands. -Miller in an inerview for Broken Frontier in 2010

Had the book continued past Issue #24, we know that Cass would have had a recurring role as Black Bat in the present day as well as being featured in a Batgirls time-travel story, teased through one of Steph's Black Mercy hallucinations in that final issue. Other than that, we still have no real idea to what extent Cass's presence would have been allowed in the Batgirl book had the New 52 not happened.

Now, I will note that some of the omissions of Cass during Steph's run were seemingly his choice. He's mentioned that he left Cass off of Steph's infamous "Batfamily whiteboard history lesson" cold open from Batgirl #15 on purpose, for example:

The reason she didn’t make the white-board history lesson for Wendy was simply that I didn’t feel it appropriate to poke fun at her. Steph has a smirky little good natured time editorializing the Bat family tree. To suddenly have a serious/tribute panel in the mix would have gotten in the way of the tone of the opening. Now, that’s from the writing standpoint. From a character standpoint, Steph drew for Wendy what she deemed to be the pertinent players on the Gotham board and their connections/histories, given her role as Proxy. You’ll note, she also didn’t mention her own role as Spoiler (though she just couldn’t RESIST drawing that adorable little Spoiler with the broken hearts over in the Tim/Robin section). -Bryan Q. Miller responding to a fan letter from Caitlin in 2010

It's certainly possible that the editorial edict surrounding Cass's presence in the book also impacted his decision to leave her out of the history lesson. We simply don't know. However, the above response is the only statement he's ever given on that issue and we've yet to hear anything to the contrary.

Outside of Batgirl, DC also went to considerable effort during this era to erase Cass's importance both as Batgirl and to the Batfamily more generally. From being basically excluded from every Bat book except Tim's globetrotting Red Robin book to descriptions like these:

Black Bat: one of several former (and temporary) Batgirls, the wonderful Cassandra Cain has adopted a new Batman Inc. identity as the Black Bat, operating out of Hong Kong. -Batman. Inc (HC Edition)

It was not a fun time to be a Cass fan.

Elsewhere, we know that Gail Simone was actively campaigning editorial to let her use Cass in a significant capacity in her relaunched Birds of Prey book. There was also a substantial rumor at the time that Cass would be taking the White Canary mantle from the villain Simone introduced in her opening arc (see this twitter thread for more on that). For varying reasons related to both DC's general treatment of Cass at the time and a hesitance to give Cass to Gail specifically (which I'll elaborate more on in a moment), neither of these things ever happened.

We also know that Scott Snyder loved Cass and tried to get DC to let him write a Cass story on multiple occasions–a struggle which continued throughout the early reboot years and eventually resulted in the creation of Harper Row, as I mentioned in the original write-up. He eventually managed to convince editorial to let him write Gates of Gotham, which co-starred Cass in a significant role for the first time since 2008 and ended on a good note...and also wound up being her final appearance in comics for nearly five years.

Other than Snyder and Fabian Nicieza (who wrote the majority of Cass's few Reborn-era appearances in Red Robin), critical darling and editorial favorite Grant Morrison was the only other writer who was allowed to handle Cass. They're the one who gave Cass the "Black Bat" codename in Batman Inc. #6 and supposedly wanted to do a Cass and Steph team-up later on in that book. Unfortunately, because of the impending New 52 reboot they were ultimately only allowed to use Steph in "Leviathan Strikes" (and even her ability to be Batgirl in that final appearance was up in the air for awhile, causing the book's artist make Spoiler!Steph sketches for the story just in case editorial nixed her appearance as Batgirl).

So going back to Gail Simone for a moment, why wasn't she allowed to write Cass in Birds of Prey? After all, she was one of the few female writers in the comic industry, and a successful, well-renowned one at that. She was writing a women-led book helmed by Barbara Gordon that had featured and guest-starred a wide variety of DC's female heroes over the years and was actively asking to use the character. Well, even besides the various editorial mandates sidelining Cass and keeping writers from using her, there was another problem.

Gail Simone's Proposed "Christian Conversion Arc": The year is 2006, we are still pre-Evil Cass arc, and Gail Simone has been asked by DC management to pitch what she would do with Dick and Cass if assigned either Nightwing or Batgirl to write. She never actually turned in a Nightwing pitch, though apparently she had pretty strong ideas, but she did turn in her Cass pitch. And what did Gail Simone come up with?

Cass saves a Christian minister from a robbery, discovers Christianity, and becomes a hardcore convert who quotes the Bible and talks scripture with gang members while wearing a white outfit and being called "Angel of the Bat" as she protects Gotham's homeless and marginalized residents. No, really. That was her pitch.

I can't even begin to explain how bonkers this idea is and how many problematic elements are baked into it both conceptually and in the inevitable execution had the pitch actually been greenlit. I could talk about how Gail presents a fundamental misunderstanding of Cassandra as a character throughout her description of the pitch. I could talk about how unsuited this kind of arc is for Cass more generally given her stories up to that point. I could talk about the racist history of Christian missionaries in Asia and the awful implications of Cass apparently needing to find God to look after Gotham's most vulnerable residents and be "genuinely happy for the first time." I could talk about how the Batfamily already had two sincerely devout Christian characters in Jean-Paul Valley and Helena Bertinelli and forcing that narrative onto Cass was doing nothing new or novel. I could talk about the problems with Gail, an atheist, deciding that this was an arc she felt qualified to write for any character (much less one like Cass).

Instead, I'll simply say that this failed pitch and Simone's consistently poor, exoticized handling of other Asian characters like Cheshire and Lady Shiva likely contributed to editorial's hesitance to hand her permission to write Cass during the Reborn era, and that I ultimately cut it from the Reddit write-up because I felt like including it would derail the post from talking about what happened to talking about "could have beens" (since this would have theoretically happened in place of the Evil Cass arc). It leaves Cassandra Cain as a truly good, kind person attempting to do good and save everyone she can rather than the racist caricature of a villain that we ultimately got; that's about the only good thing I can say about it.

......I'm sorry, everyone. I was going to do one final entry and talk about the Rebirth-era storytelling decisions and editorial edicts but I got to the end of this one and found I just couldn't do it anymore. I'm the embodiment of the Ben Affleck and Hayao Miyazaki smoking memes right now. I'm so tired, y'all. I'm so tired.

There's infinite amounts of racist, sexist, and ableist industry drama bullshit that I could cover related to DC's handling of the Batgirls and Cass more specifically and no write-up or additional posts will ever be able to sufficiently cover any of it with the depth, attention, and outrage it deserves. There's always more to talk about. There's always one more piece of awful bullshit to drag out of the shadows. There's always one more cut in the thousand fans have already talked about over the past twenty years. I could write a full-length book featuring several currently non-existent tell-all interviews with various creators and likely still not reach the bottom of the barrel. And the things that will likely never be public knowledge far outnumber the things we actually do know about DC's shitty treatment of Cass (and by extension Babs, Steph, and every other woman associated with the Batfamily).

And while things are better for Cass now than they were then, we're still far from any of the girls being treated well. Unfortunately, we still have a long way to go. One day, I hope this won't be the case.

#cassandra cain #barbara gordon #stephanie brown #batman #batfam #cassandra cain meta #barbara gordon meta #stephanie brown meta #dc comics #dc fanwank #long post #VERY long post #dc drama #dan didio #asks

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parkeryangs · 3 months

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OK BUT THIS IS REALLY INTRIGUING ACTUALLY. tell me more about this 'mattkey' ............

YES ABSOLUTELY OH MY GOD

SO in episode 1 participant observation, the main character, mike walters, claims to be "investigating" a secret online game called woe.begone out of curiosity/boredom, via actually playing the game. w.bg is a series of challenges, the first being that mike had to call his ex-boyfriend and tell him the worst thing he ever did to you.

mike does this, explaining that his "lifelong best friend" (matt) had unexpectedly died in a car crash, and his ex wasn't home at the time/didn't realize how serious the situation was, so he left mike to worry alone before matt's death had actually been confirmed. he tells his ex that he doesn't forgive him and has a breakdown, then waking up the next day to realize that matt wasn't dead and there was no trace of the voicemail he left for his ex. (so, at this point, mike continues to play w.bg, with matt as his "prize")

there's several other challenges he completes, along with another old friend of theirs also playing woe.begone, but the next marker of their relationship is in episode 11 this is only temporary, when mike's woe.begone challenge is to kill the prize from his first challenge— which is obviously matt. he explains the situation, a future version of him shows up to "prove" everything to matt, and ultimately matt slides his gun across the table, mike apologizes, and tells matt he loves him. (i talk more about this in another post)

at the end of season 1, woe.begone contacts mike to tell him that he has to relocate to a government job, a place called o.v.e.r./oldbrush valley energy & resources. he does, with season 2/3 following the start of his time in the valley & continued problem-causing due to w.bg lol. then in episode 35 safehouse, he kills another character and flees o.v.e.r., driving 26 hours to matt's house. he doesn't tell him all the details of what happened, but episode 36 respite is mostly dedicated to mike talking about the few days he spent with matt ("we didn’t need to do anything other than be in each other’s company") (i ramble about matt in 35/36 here)

there's a lot of non-mattkey events that occur, lol, but it gets to a point where matt essentially wants to be involved with a time travel org mike creates called base, but mike kind of keeps him at a distance for reasons unknown (coughs. mike does have a boyfriend he meets at o.v.e.r. and not saying it has anything to do with that but i'm also not Not saying that) and in episode 84 panther, matt helps with stalking two "rogue" iterations of mike and his boyfriend edgar (and i believe this is the first episode where matt has a voice actor?) and continues to do so throughout the current point in the podcast/"about a year" in canon time.

at the end of episode 120 true story, a (drunk) mike transports to matt's house as there was a timeline they'd been in (~e104 to 120ish iirc) where matt was dead once again because of mike. mike gives matt a box of his old stuff, and matt, worrying over mike using time travel when he's drunk lol, brings mike to stay in his spare room (that he mentions he's kept open since mike was last there). mike tells matt he loves him, and matt returns the sentiment.

so YEAH. mattkey my absolute beloved. imo their dynamic is very much "knowing one another better than they know themselves" if that gives you a more direct idea jksdhfjksdf. also college-era mattkey has been brainrotting the fandom recently which might be my fault LOL but pre-wbg mattkey is SO compelling even if only mentioned in passing - i talk about college mattkey here, here, here (kind of), and here, and i wrote a short fic about them here. overall, essentially the catalyst for everything in woe.begone is literally just. matt. like... mike literally rewrites time to keep matt safe and while it's true that mike has a deep relationship with most of his friends, matt is so intrinsically tied to him in a way that nobody else is.

#this is so long grack IM SO SORRY #they are just so important to me. forever and ever. u would really like them i think #mattkey #grack tag #i probably missed some things BUT these are at least the high points i hope lol #askbox #woe.begone #finch chirps

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langernameohnebedeutung · 3 months

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Hi, I recently got into izombie (probably from you putting it on my dash) and figure you’re the right person for this question. While I love majority of the show, somewhere in the S3-4 range, it didn’t seem as good - not sure if the plots were weaker but the brain-effect on Liv seemed way stronger than before in a way that was less enjoyable to watch (and based on some fourth wall jokes, I’m guessing the network was neglecting them in S4?). On the other hand, I love both “good guy angsts about learning to bend morals without going too far” characters and “unrepentantly fun bad guys” so having both Major and Blaine(&company) in one show is amazing. I’ve finished S4 and it ended in a solid enough way to be a finale and I’ve heard that the end of S5 was bad so my question for you is… Is season five worth watching?

Heyo! :>

I love hearing that people watch izombie!! (especially if I play a role in that).

Hmm...my nuanced, honest opinion?

The issue of the brains becoming really dominant is a common criticism of season 4/the later episodes, so you're definitely not alone with that feeling (personally, I mostly dislike it in the way that we don't see how things actually affect Liv as our main-character for a lot of the times. But overall, I do like season 4 as the one where they were the most silly with their premise and had a little fun and we get some new dynamics, new characters, the whole Filmore Graves situation, Liv's whole Renegade gig, Ravi's part-time zombie thing, Blaine and Don E doing their silly little basement antics and also sad things like the Isobel arc - I won't lie, I had a good time with season 4 and it's definitely one I like to rewatch for the stand-alone episodes. I don't often rewatch a lot of season 5, it has to be said. But I generally tend to avoid finales. I am biased against final seasons).

And yeah, they had issues with the budget and management though I never really looked into the details. This is also something that can be felt in season 5 and the finale.

Season 3 has (I think?) a bit of a reputation as the weakest season of the show because it's kinda disrupted plotwise and some of the characterisation issues - so yeah, a lot of people share the sentiment.

When it comes to season 5: WELL. yeah. It's definitely not in the race for "best finale of all times". It's not going out with a bang, I'm honest (a lot of which is due to the budget issue, to be fair). BUT I also didn't hate it. There are some fun episodes, some answers to questions, some stuff is resolved.

If you want my honest opinion: If season 4 was a total drag for you to get through, season 5 (at least the first half) has a very similar tone. I don't think it's as over the top with the brains as they were e.g. with "Blue Bloody" (Liv on snobby old lady brain). But if you really don't want to relive that, I would also recommend you stop at the season 4 finale. With the season 4 finale, you're ending on a high note with all the characters being happy and successful and basically running Seattle.

If you want to know how the show really ends without investing a lot of time in season 5, I would recommend you watch "The Scratchmaker" (and perhaps "Death Moves Pretty Fast") and the finale and you will get the gist of it. On the other hand, another strategy might be to ignore the show-finale/over-arching plot and let the s4 finale be a spiritual finale for the show itself. That way, you can still enjoy some of the good season 5 episodes that are fun on their own, like the noir episode, the dancing episode etc. Those are pretty fun. I think most of the reason people say season 5 is bad is because of the finale and the plotlines that lead to it, not so much the per-week stuff.

Though, I admit I didn't hate season 5 It's by no means a work of art but honestly, izombie is not a show that I love particularly much for quality - I don't think it's some forgotten magnum opus - I mostly really love the characters and the ideas and dynamics. And I also still enjoyed those things in season 5.

As I said, first half of the season is close to season 4 in tone and style - then it reaches kind of a tipping point where you can tell it's taking the big steps towards the finish line. I think that's my biggest actual issue with that season. Because towards the end, they kind of rush it and introduce a lot of stuff in a really quick time. It's like - you should be resolving stuff now, not create more plotlines. I feel like the final 2 episodes should at least have been 3 but you can tell that this was also a budget issue.

Some of the strong points are that we get some resolution to older arcs, especially where Liv is concerned (I don't want to spoil). Peyton gets a bit more to do than in season 4 which I also liked though there are..................some more instances of a certain pattern of tropes I noticed they do with her character that once again happened in season 5. (Maybe I'll make a post about that one day but I don't want to be negative)

I think if you enjoyed Major and the whole Filmore Graves ethical quagmire in season 4, you will also enjoy him in season 5 because a lot is happening there. I do miss Chase a lot though. Don E gets a lot more character development and higher stakes in season 5 and we (and Blaine) get to meet his mother and learn more about him, which made me really happy. I really had a good time with Don E in that season. We even get a pre-Boat Party flashback with him and Blaine and Scott E.

As far as Blaine is concerned, a lot of people say that season 5 is his darkest, most evil season. It's a lot less "silly antics" compared to season 4 and a lot more "dude is really fucking losing it" and this is where a lot of fans say he really lost a lot of the compassion bonus he had with them. Though, personally I think it's all pretty on-brand and in character and there is a lot of call-back to his season 1 stuff. Also, having him narrate an episode was fun.

There are some new villains too, one character you already know from s4 becomes the main-baddie. And though while they don't replace Chase or Rita or Vaughn for me I did enjoy that character getting to go nuts a little.

#but yeah in short: if you want to end on a high note regarding everyone's storyline season 4 works #the actual show finale ends on more thoughtful tones #OR you can just watch the finale OR everything but the finale #depending on how invested you were in the murder of the week plots or the character dynamics - i don't think those were the issue #izombie #fandom

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shinneth · 5 months

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The Sailor Moon AU born from my saltiness towards the manga

Read this for context. tl;dr: basically my love for Sailor Moon's 90s anime and 2003 tokusatsu has only grown over the years, while my feelings for Crystal remained at pure hatred whilst my feelings for the original manga has taken a sharp decrease.

In other words, I seem to work backwards from most other Sailor Moon fans.

Over a year ago, I had written out a hypothetical of how Sailor Moon's manga would play out if Naoko Takeuchi rejected the Super Sentai concept and made Usagi a (mostly) solo hero, sort of in the vein of Sailor V but much less fun with even more tragedy. I guess you could say it's a Sailor Moon but with more of a Kamen Rider motif?

Either way, I never released it anywhere until now. Mind you, it's not really a story so much as it is a gathering of ideas for a story...

THE SAILOR MOON MINIMAL SENSHI AU

One nagging sentiment I felt while rereading the manga is how it so often felt like Usagi, Mamoru, and Chibi-Usa were the only characters who mattered, and on several occasions the only characters who were able to get anything done. Even on the rare occasions where other characters got a chapter named after them, oftentimes the Moon Family still had more pages dedicated to them, and/or the non-Moon Family character's power-up ultimately became more of a battery to beef up Usagi and the character development was often minimal and inconsequential.

Crystal amplified that feeling many times over, but it was disheartening to realize one aspect of the source material it did justice was marginalizing the rest of the main cast. If I were to look at this in a super-cynical light, I'd hypothesize the likelihood that Naoko never wanted a big cast, or even the Core 5 team. If she did care about the non-Moon Family characters, perhaps it was out of obligation.

I'm willing to bet that the main reason Naoko Takeuchi bloated out her cast was due to mandates from TOEI hoping for more toy sales if more heroic Sailor Senshi existed. But that's just my headcanon on what must have been a nightmare production behind the scenes.

So it made me wonder about how the manga would have been if it “trimmed the fat”, so to speak. For all of Usagi’s protestations about how she “can’t use mist, fire, or lightning” to be useful… well, let’s face it: she already had a higher kill count than all of her friends even that early on in the story. Mamoru often had little episodes later on in the manga where he felt oh-so useless and powerless even though he’s killed monsters/notable antagonists plenty of times AND regularly takes part in killing off the main antagonists WITH Sailor Moon (while her friends were benched, even when they weren’t ragdolled into submission).

So, how much would really change in the manga if Sailor Moon was largely by herself with very few allies who could help her in battle? I can easily picture Mercury, Mars, and Jupiter being snipped from the story entirely.

Believe me, it KILLS me to say that. Mercury was my favorite since the beginning. But if I'm being honest with myself, it'd only take a few tweaks of the story beats to make Sailor Moon's first three allies completely superfluous.

For story purposes, Sailor V/Venus would have to stay in since she does play a vital role as a princess decoy, but otherwise… what if she lost her power entirely after the reveal of the true Princess Serenity? Or dies soon after? Without a team to lead, Minako wouldn’t serve much of a purpose. Heck, in this AU she wouldn't necessarily even need to wield Venus' power (since so few other planet powers are getting represented here) so much as a bootlegged copy of Moon Power.

We have a canon example in the Black Moon arc of how Venus was just “there” for much of it, even when she didn’t have to contend with her three teammates for spotlight/exposure. Hell, I recall her complaining in the manga that she’s bored and frustrated because she can’t do anything.

Luna and/or Artemis can easily substitute the exposition given by Venus.

Chibi-Usa would stay on and become Chibi-Moon; as previously stated, she’s a consistently focused-on character in the manga. In fact, she's highly integral to 3 out of the 5 story arcs. Definitely enough to the point where most of the manga would have to be changed if she was denied Senshi-ship.

Sailor Pluto… is tricky, but not impossible to write around. She’s heavily tied in with Chibi-Usa’s backstory and character growth. As Chibi-Usa’s friend and Time Gate guard, that much would stay the same. I would argue that Pluto needn’t be a Senshi to serve either role (she’s succeeding her father Chronos iirc, and Takeuchi is firm in her stance that men can’t be Senshi). So it can be arranged that she can maintain her duty as plain ol' Setsuna. It's heavily implied in the manga that she's not a reincarnation like the other Senshi were... at least, prior to her canon death. It wouldn't be too crazy to say Setsuna has beyond-mortal powers that give her extended life even without being a Senshi.

Hell, Queen Serenity basically enlists this child to duty saying "Here's all these awesome powers that you're not only not allowed to ever use, but if you DO use them, it'll end up killing you!" - Setsuna shouldn't need her powers to guard the Time Keys, and we've seen the Talismans can be held in civilian form. Though I'd argue her Garnet Rod needn't be a proper Talisman if she isn't to transform; it'd just be her means of self-defense.

Perhaps she never gets revived/reincarnated after her death? Because her connection to Chibi-Usa greatly diminishes from Infinity (and beyond).

The rest of the Outer Senshi… well. If one tweaks the Talisman prerequisite for the Holy Grail, such as make it LESS than three needed…

That’s all you need to cut Sailor Neptune and Pluto out entirely of the manga for sure. As much as I love Michiru, I can’t deny she is the epitome of “just there” in the manga. Pretty sure no one’s gonna contest this.

Even her relationship with Haruka is a side-note compared to Haruka’s constant pining/angsting over Usagi. I just kept getting this sense of Michiru being Haruka’s silver medal.

Haruka and Hotaru are the hardest ones to write around for this concept. That much I will admit.

But, one running theme for this AU is that, Moon and Chibi-Moon aside, no one else can wield the power of a Sailor Senshi indefinitely. Well, technically Mamoru is still there representing Earth, but only so much as he's able to in his canon iteration due to that pesky Y chromosome. I slated for Minako to permanently lose her power, and possibly even die for it once her narrative purpose was fulfilled.

Even if Setsuna remained a Senshi in this revision, it’s a similar outcome for her. In a best-case scenario for the latter, a reincarnated Setsuna likely would have no memory of her lonely past life and possibly come off as an entirely different person from who Chibi-Usa knew. She'd finally be able to live out a normal life no longer bound to duty and that's about as happy an end I could imagine for her.

(And hey, that’s all the more impetus for Chibi-Usa being drawn to Hotaru!)

Going back to Hotaru, then, her being a cyborg in this iteration of the story lends well to a tweak in the narrative: Pharaoh 90 attempting to artificially replicate the Moons’ Senshi powers, possibly referencing the means in which Minako was temporarily able to wield her power, to create a Sailor Senshi exclusively to realize its desires. One might say it's a perversion of the Moon Power itself.

But tampering with this dangerous power ends up corrupting Hotaru, of course, and retaining how Hotaru becomes Mistress 9 works nicely with this tweak. A Silver Crystal could sustain her powers without destroying her, or at least that's the running theory.

Whether or not Hotaru becomes a Sailor Senshi proper… I’m 50/50 on that. Mostly due to Saturn’s canon role as cleanup duty following the fall of the Silver Millennium. If any non-Moon Senshi were to exist for the long haul, it should be Saturn. Their powers are polar opposites, so it’d be a neat yin-yang deal, with Saturn still being dormant until an equalizer is needed.

Although I'd probably not call her Sailor Saturn, as it is arbitrary to include some planets (Venus, Saturn, Uranus) but not others. In general, I think the names of the non-Moon Senshi that have to be kept because removing them would completely upend the story would have to be a little more generalized than that. The Moon is often paired with the Sun and the Star(s), so that might be a safe bet. Even though the Sun itself is literally a star-

Anyway, keep Hotaru's rebirth a thing, but possibly end her role in the story once she becomes babby. So that Chibi-Usa, as canon manga mandates, seeks horse-boy as her rebound.

Alternatively, we could stay the course of the “Moon only” team narrative and have Sailor Saturn be little more than an artificial Senshi, not unlike the kinds we see all over the place in Stars. Between Dr. Tomoe, Kaolinite, and Pharaoh 90, I can buy them creating what is essentially a bootleg Senshi. Heck, that might even be the intended evil purpose of the Holy Grail once Uranus unlocks it with her Talisman.

Speaking of Haruka... Honestly, as far as the manga goes, she can single-handedly represent the Outer Senshi and their credo by herself.

But in the context of this AU, that doesn’t amount to much, lol. Honestly, I’m picturing Haruka as a darker counterpart of Minako. A temp Senshi at best, but one who’s using her powers for morally questionable reasons. This can range from romantic rival… (with no Michiru in the AU, that at least partially makes Haruka less awful - I’d nix the non-consensual kiss on Usagi, but in the spirit of a manga LITTERED with suchlike kisses, it’d probably need to stay as-is)

…. to embittered and vengeful foe who fully recalls her past life and blames Usagi+Mamoru for their failings. It was kind of a shit deal for the Outers to be permanently stuck in their post in the outer solar system, never getting to enjoy any of what they're dedicating their lives to serving. Perhaps she now perceives the practices of Queen Serenity as morally dubious at best - and tyrannical at worst, now believing, maybe, that the Dark Kingdom was RIGHT to end the Silver Millennium. And irony ahoy, Haruka - like Minako - can tap into her former life’s power. Make her take up Michiru’s role as the one who awakened as a Senshi on her own thanks to her Talisman.

Hell, one can have Haruka play both sides during Infinity. Tomoe can use his twisted science to amplify the "Uranus" powers to bypass the limitations of Venus’ powers. Probably at a deadly cost down the road.

As for the prerequisites for Super Sailor Moon? The whole “all Senshi aligned + grail” deal? Well… y’know, the Cutie Moon Rod came into existence as a trial run of how UsaMamo’s love is so potent that they don’t even need to do a WooHoo to procreate shit. Do that again, just add the actual product of future WooHooing. Chibi-Usa is familiar with the Holy Grail prior to its creation. Not a stretch. As far as this AU is concerned, Moon, Chibi-Moon, and Tuxedo Mask are the only "valid" Senshi to begin with.

Despite the amount of non-Moon Senshi chapters in Dream, I don’t see much changing in a setting where only two Moons and a Mask are fighting. For pretty much every arc, Usagi gets the lion’s share of killing blows. Mamoru and Chibi-Usa canonly have several as well - so what’s a few several more?

After all, the manga’s focus was always first and foremost on Miracle Romance. More often than not, when other characters got panel time, Usagi, Mamoru, and/or Chibi-Usa were the topics of discussion.

At the end of the day, the antagonists of Dream are squarely focused on screwing over the Moon family; the other Senshi were mere chess pieces for them to knock over. And they only became an actual threat when they literally handed over their newfound powers over to beef up Super Sailor Moon to Eternal Sailor Moon, so... there you go.

And for those few times Usagi was just hanging out with gal pals at school? Well, that’s what Naru is for. Hell, add Yumiko+Kuri too; they might end up with some degree of characterization! Usagi never not had the benefit of company during downtime! There just... tends not to be a lot of that in the manga; that's all.

Really, the biggest question in handling Dream is wtf to do about the Amazoness Quartet, considering they eventually become Senshi themselves - namely the equivalent of Inners for Chibi-Moon to have in the future. Since Usagi wouldn't have Inners in this AU, it stands to reason the Quartet are likely not gonna be redeemed and likely one-shotted much like their Trio predecessors.

As for Stars...? Well, it's basically this entire AU but dialed up to 20. The running theme of this arc is fake Senshi running around parading as the real deal while they kill, conquer, and pillage for their tyrant, who'd be the culmination of all the worst aspect of not just past antagonists, but past attempted would-be Senshi like Minako, Haruka, and Hotaru who would all either be permanently powerless at best or dead at worst.

But a worst-case scenario just might make them come back for one last go, and this time, there's be no blurred lines or moral greys: if Venus, Saturn, and/or Uranus made a return in this iteration Stars, that would be their permadeath. Unless, you know, this series still ended with Usagi yeeting herself into an automatic happy ending. And even then it's a big maybe. It'd be in Galaxia's hands, and you know Galaxia don't give a damn.

Chibi-Chibi/Chibi-Chibi Moon would still be a thing, as would Sailor Cosmos, obviously, since they're technically a form of Usagi and all. Their stories would largely be the same, I'd imagine.

I honestly can't think of where I'd put the Starlights and Sailor Kakyuu as good guys in this AU, though. I think the only way to make them work in the story and not be killed as quickly as possible like the Sailor Animamates is to have them allied with Galaxia and be functionally identical to Animamates (aka they're all fakers), but function as undercover agents to identify the holder of the Milky Way's strongest Sailor Crystal (Usagi's), find her weaknesses and the best ways to corner her, then coordinate a strike.

Alternatively, pull inspiration from the 90s anime where they ARE legit Senshi (they just come from another galaxy and all, so it wouldn't break the AU if they're more just reflections of the minimized Sailor Team) - but make them willingly surrender their Sailor Crystals in exchange for bracelets that will keep them alive, so long as they do whatever Galaxia says. Then they become reflections of Usagi and her family, and even perhaps make analogies between the three Starlights and what Venus, Uranus, and Saturn tried and failed to be for Sailor Moon.

The other elephant in the room is whether or not Mamoru gets killed off in the very first scene of this arc like he does in canon. It's a no-brainer that he'd have to die by Galaxia's hand eventually. Usagi just won't have nearly as many buffers to block her PTSD and be in total denial like she did in canon. Naturally, Chibi-Usa will be even less effectual than canon since she won't have her own personal underlings to pretend she's BFFs with and add firepower, so if only to balance that out (since the Sailor Quartet are literally the only ones who didn't die at any point in canon), Mamoru might be allowed to live a bit longer and make his love-forged bond with Usagi not quite so easily broken. But it will still break by force, one way or another.

Of course, because Galaxia's intent will still be to break Usagi, no one's getting spared at this point in the story. All of Usagi's normal civilian friends will end up biting it one way or another throughout the arc. Stars is clearly meant to be a depressing af climax to the series - at least that'll kinda deter people from hounding the mangaka into yet another arc for money's sake.

Usagi would ultimately jump into the Galaxy Cauldron at the end, though I imagine it'd be somewhat a different experience than how it was in the manga, given most of her friends don't exist in this AU, and the few that do either left/died on bad terms, or fucked off entirely without remembering Usagi or her family at all.

Maybe, if we're being generous, Usagi reunites and the temp/fake Senshi she encounters here actually make amends and promise to work for a better future? There's a lot of variables here.

It'd still end in a wedding because this is the Miracle Romance Supremacy AU, after all. Guess it depends on your mileage whether or not the ending is worth it.

So yeah, that's the long and short of the really fucked up AU I thought up inside my head because friendship and comradery always came off so hollow in the manga to me. Especially with ~Miracle Romance~ being so infuriatingly inflexible in the manga.

Hope you got some sort of entertainment value out of that. Highly doubt I'd write this proper - it wouldn't be worth the backlash, and I'm not nearly invested enough in UsaMamo to do this concept justice.

Feel free to leave your thoughts or whatever.

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keischreiber · 20 days

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3,4,14&25 😆💖

Hi! So, here are the answers from this ask game:

3) When is your OC’s birthday or what is their zodiac sign if you haven’t picked a date yet? Answer both if you wish.

Well, since Kristina is my self-insert, we do share the same birthday, which is March 2. So, that makes her a Pisces. Most awkward Pisces ever since she can't really actualize her passions due to being in the military. It's pretty hard to get the chance or the time, since she's too focused on her role as an instructor for the Warrior Candidates. But being a Pisces also explains why she feels so strongly, or why she's very sentimental. Again, it doesn't show very much because of the facade that she has to keep.

4) What color or colors do you most associate with your OC?

I mostly associate her with white. It's not because it's her favorite color or anything. But it's more because she's like a blank canvass that you can paint on. She's not guillible, but she can be influenced depending on how much she understands your views.

She does like gray, because gray is the color of the skies when she met Reiner for the very first time.

14) What about any siblings, do they have any and is their relationship good?

Kristina doesn't have any siblings.

25) The name you chose for your OC, why did you chose it?

Well, to tell you the truth… the reason isn't that deep. Normally, the way I name characters is based on certain traits that I feel works well for them. However, for Kristina… it's something a little more self-indulgent considering that, while she's an OC, she is my SI.

So, her name is actually a variant of my own. This being the first time that I've actually created a self-insert, I wanted to feel it from a different perspective; a more immersive one since I ended up enjoying it more than I expected to.

#we of the 104th - Answered #ask games #mobolanz #kristina qual

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bugsbenefit · 5 months

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"where others saw order I saw a straight jacket, seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades!" Okay soo, is his whole monologue worthless now? Does he even think any of what he said or is that the mf talking, is there even an Henry anymore? I'm so confused

Where does the grandfathers clock fit in all of this

(everythings spoiler tagged but i'm still putting the rest under a read more so it's easier to scroll past)

i'm genuinely kind of curious how little they seemingly did with it too. specifically things like the grandfather clock are so relevant to the character in s4 it's an odd choice to not give it any significance in the origin story spin off

but i'm still waiting for more leaks, what we have right now is a very bare bones summary of plot beats, so the grandfather clock showing up at Some point is still very much possible. it just doesn't seem to have any major plot importance

regarding the monologue, yeah it really depends on what else we'll get form the play i think. i said yesterday too that i'm not a big fan of them seemingly wanting to lean into giving Henry his powers later on in life via possession because it creates a few problems for the writing of s5. it does solve the Will/Henry situation pretty neatly, it makes sense why they're paralleled that much with this. but it gets a bit odd when you suddenly have this kid where there's Actually something wrong with him (posession/cosmic creature influence) on the show with main characters that are all inherently different (queer, poc, disabilities). that just falls out of line of the ongoing theme

and yeah, it does make the monologue hit significantly less hard. the whole sentiment of feeling trapped by society works well coming from someone who's othered in some way, and being directed at another character that is also othered. if Henry's prime "otherness factor" came from a supernatural encounter it would lose a lot of the potential it had

but again, i don't really want to speak too much on it yet because we only have major plot beats bullet point lists after the first day of pre screening. any nuance about the characters and story beats that aren't part of the main message are still mostly unknown, so i want a clearer picture before i say that i think they picked the weaker option writing wise

with the MF having more active involvement you could also still take the time theme of s4 to s5 to some degree with the monologue, even without it being in the play. aspects like Vecna being able to show Nancy an accurate glimpse into the future with the gates opening implies that, in this case the MF, is in some way not bound by the same time constraints as people. so they could instead turn the monologue into a him Literally seeing/being shown time on a level normal humans don't experience and that being the reason he has such a meta view on it. so i do think they could make the monologue make sense, depending on how they define the MFs relationship to time and space in s5 and what it's relationship/bond to Vecna is actually like (gives them more room to fumble it though since Henry himself experiencing oppression and otherness based on him as a person would make the monologue work better regardless imo)

but yeah, if they really Do want to go the "it was due to MF influences all along" route they're opening up the door to some troubles. like you say, the monologue would lose a lot of it's impact if the Dimension X encounter was really all there was

but well see well see, i'm curious for more leaks to get out

#ask tag #tfs spoilers #the first shadow spoilers #<- tagging this one as both in case someone only has one version muted <3

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minamotosousuke · 2 years

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“mitsukou is queerbait” is a sentiment I see a lot when I venture out into the depths of the fandom (yes, reddit, I’m looking at you), and honestly I find that assessment insulting.

let’s look at the individual characters first, specifically mitsuba. mitsuba is queer- not queer-coded, not implied- it’s pretty damn explicit. the bullying he suffered as a child was due to homophobia, and this is something that can’t really be argued. even if mitsuba did somehow end up being straight, bullying a boy for “being sassy” and “looking like a girl” is rooted in homophobia. but I personally think it’s safe to say that mitsuba defies expectations of gender and sexuality. his response to homophobic bullying wasn’t to make himself more masculine, but to make himself look even more feminine while completely tampering out his personality. one could read him as being interested in nobody at all, due to his rejection of girls... but that isn't the case. even in making a joking jab in his “boys with lame earrings aren’t my type,” he’s implying that there is a boy who is his type. furthermore, we know he “wants to fall in love.” it’s canon. he’s said it.

mitsuba is queer.

“queerbaiting” is when a work of media refers to the practice of implying non-heterosexual relationships or attraction to engage or attract an lgbt audience or otherwise generate interest without ever actually depicting such relationships or sexual interactions.

mitsukou being queerbait would have to meet two requirements. first, that kou and mitsuba’s relationship was intentionally made to attract and engage interest, and secondly, that it has never been depicted.

given how few fans of tbhk ship mitsukou (and the large majority that do being outside of japan), saying that a major chunk of the overall plot was only added to attract lgbt or general interest... is a stretch.

but the reason mitsukou gets called queerbaiting is due to believing that a genuine romantic interest/relationship has not been depicted in canon, likely due to the fact that in the beginning kou had a “crush” on nene, but honestly it’s mostly due to a refusal to engage with the text on behalf of the audience.

If mitsuba was a girl, we wouldn’t be in a perpetual debate over how “canon” their relationship is.

this is where I’d go and show everything that makes mitsukou a real legitimate relationship, but I already know everyone reading this will be a mitsukou shipper. but tsukasa leveraging kou’s feeling’s for mitsuba to mold him into the perfect supernatural is crucial to tsukasa’s plans, and the depth in which mitsuba and kou feel for one another is instrumental to the plot. kind of hard to call that bait...

#mitsuba and kou are constantly being paralleled with their straight counterparts #always #its so crazy to me how people dont notice #but I already know its intentional #and I personally LOVE that kou's interest is not explicitly romantic at this point in the story #I dont want kou saving mitsuba because he sees mitsuba as a romantic interest #because he is the ONLY one who wants to save mitsuba #if by chance mitsuba didn't love him back he'd have to play along to be rescued and then feel indebted to kou for it #was hananene hetbait because it took them literally like 90 chapters to kiss?#ugh I gotta stop or I'll never shut up

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lochrannn · 1 year

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There's some controversy over rumours about there being a Sparrow Academy spin-off [1] and they mostly boil down to (understandable) disappointment over TUA getting only an abbreviated final fourth season and Steve Blackman and the rest of the production team then turning around and making a different but almost identical show.

And I thought I'd put some of the points + my own thoughts/assumptions on this together.

One of the theories (that I also find an understandable assumption) is that it's due to transphobic sentiments, that TUA was axed because of Elliot's and Viktor's transition and though I can't find any tangible evidence for that beyond the fact that they are now developing a similar show but minus the trans character, in the climate that we're currently dealing with, it could definitely also be transphobia, there's no way to know, but every reason to be vigilant about this sort of thing and hold creators accountable. And I also want to say, I do not give a shit about Steve Blackman either way, beyond the fact that he's made a show I like. I have no particular fondness or animosity towards him.

All that being said, I want to add one more point to this issue, because I think it's important not to get caught up in only blaming all this on one individual and not see how Netflix's bullshit plays into this.

Basically, Netflix likes to cancel even successful shows after three seasons because of their financing model that means they have to pay the studios and production companies exponentially more.

See this article on Deadline for more but the details are basically:

"I hear at least some of the cancellations on the list were prompted in part because the shows were deemed to have gotten too expensive. That is because of how many of Netflix’s series deals are structured. It is widely known that Netflix employs a “cost-plus” model, offering to pay upfront a show’s production costs plus a premium of 30%+ of the costs. Even after Netflix subtracts a distribution fee, outside studios are at break-even or in a positive territory from Day 1, versus having to deficit-finance series for the first few seasons on most traditional networks. But in exchange for the upfront payments, outside studios give up the potential upside that normally comes up with owning a long-running successful series, including off-network and international sales.

Instead, Netflix’s deals include bump/bonuses after each season that are getting progressively bigger. While the payments are relatively modest after Season 1 and a little bigger after Season 2, I hear they escalate after Season 3, especially for series owned by Netflix — sometimes from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars — as the studio starts to pay off the shows’ back-end. For series from outside studios, which I hear cost about 20% more than their Netflix-produced counterparts, I hear the built-in payment increases do not skyrocket as much but still are bigger after Season 3, Season 4 and beyond."

I also have to assume with the cast being made up of a hand full of very well established actors with a movie career and on the opposite end those who had never done a bigger project before TUA, they may all have an interest in going on to the next thing. TUA, as we've seen, takes a lot of time to film and has held all the cast back from doing much else, especially during Covid.

(Also, I'll be honest, I watch TUA for the characters, I'd probably find it hard to get into a spin-off, even one that was about only one or two of the Umbrellas. So, even if the whole background didn't sort of annoy me a little, I wouldn't bother anyway). And now I'm gonna look forward to 6 more eps of my babies in.... the next 12 months? Fuck knows when we'll get it 😅

[1] I checked the source of the source, it seems legit, even if it's not been confirmed yet.

#the umbrella academy

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azureflight · 2 years

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Navier’s Patriotism vs Heinrey’s Ambitions: The Coming War and Its Consequences.

Something that has been on my mind since I finished the first season of The Remarried Empress, was how Heinrey’s planned war with Eastern Empire would pan out. And now, as we are some what decently into the second season, I have some thoughts:

Last season too had moments showing Navier’s dutifulness and connection to her people and land was beyond just being about their empress. Surely, there was an aspect of it that was drilled into her head as part of her training for her future role. Yet Navier displays something other than just following the motions on what she has been taught. She isn’t doing it because she is this pure hearted super good person either. This is not a case of fantasized “model aristocrat” who just loves their subjects. No, what she displays, is something we have seen in a few other characters, mostly in the western empire.

Navier is a patriot. She loves her homeland and her nation, because that’s her homeland and she is part of that nation. She has a nationalist consciousness, a sense of identity, community and belonging beyond noble bloodlines and birthrights. This is very different than showing fealty to a king or lord. Because the loyalty is independent of individual actions one faces in their personal lives. One man does not make or break it. No, Navier loves Eastern Empire, in ways most people in our modern world love their countries.

This here, in my opinion, is the foundation upon which the real main conflict of this story is based on. The conflict that is coming and will be the true challenge and climax of the story. The war between the Eastern Empire and Western Empire.

I say a conflict is coming, not only because we already know Heinrey’s plans to start a war. I say it is coming, because Heinrey, does not seem to be aware of Navier’s loyalty and patriotism towards the Eastern Empire. He seems to think, since Sovieshu has hurt and antagonized Navier, then Navier’s connection and affection to the land must also be over. He is in for a rude awakening. They both are.

If there is one thing I can say about the second season so far, it is that it is too happy. Way too happy...Almost like it is setting up for a major fallout. Heinrey is sweet, cute and loving, Navier is getting sentimental and comfortable, lowering her guard... Once the war plans are revealed, it will come down like a house of cards.

There is no greater source of resentment or conflict like violated expectations. Heinrey is expecting Navier to be fully on board and be fully on his side on every matter. Navier is clueless about Heinrey’s more ambitious and insidious side, seeing only a handsome young man who is very nice to her.

When Navier learns that Heinrey is very enthusiastically preparing to raze her homeland to ensure the ascendance of the Western Empire, she will be less than thrilled by it. And Heinrey, once he realizes that his beloved empress is not in on board for the destruction of the Eastern Empire, is certain to be disappointed.

There are many reasons why this is being built up as a hidden conflict between the two of them. However, the one that draw my attention the most is the ideological dissonance.

Heinrey is very patriotic himself. Several characters in Western Kingdom (Soon to be empire) have shown a national pride and patriotic fervor, including the nameless mob character who unknowingly expressed distrust of Navier over her potential lack of loyalty due to being a foreigner.

Yet we see no such sentiment expressed in Eastern Empire save for Navier and maybe her parents. People in the Eastern Empire seem to be far more invested in the feudal loyalties and class politics than a nationally unifying identity. People are loyal to the crown, to the emperor, or they favor some other noble faction, or they are on the “side” of the commoners and despise nobles and vice a versa. Ironically, this means Navier is detached from the general public notions, the psychosphere of her own nation. She is more like Westerners.

Heinrey, for his part, is suffering from information bias. He knows the people of Eastern Empire do not have the patriotism culture of his own kingdom. They are, dare I say, old fashioned and backwards, in their attitudes and loyalties. So he automatically assumes the same goes for Navier. And since the loyalty and devotion between Navier and Sovieshu completely broke down, she should be fine with waging war against her ungrateful cheating ex’s realm, right?

We already know Navier misjudged the intentions and perspective of the Western Empire. Back during the first season, she assumes they are ambitious rivals, but not enemies. This is probably due to the fact that Navier does not have access to the more sensitive intelligence or any real information about matters of national security. This has been mentioned a few times, regarding the separation of duties and access between her and Sovieshu. And Sovieshu is notorious for his failure to communicate with Navier.

These past two chapters have particularly emphasized how Sovieshu essentially ruined their marriage. He behaved erratically and antagonistically, due to the his lack of sharing. He didn’t share his wants, his fears, his plans, the secrets of their fertility problems, nothing. Instead he went ahead and aggravated her by having half a conversation with her in his head. And then he made this ridiculously convoluted plan, all the while assuming Navier would just go along with it, due to his own misjudgment of her character.

And now... Heinrey is doing the exact same thing! He has these grand dreams about how they’ll rule and what they will do... But does not share any of his real ambitions and desires with Navier. He just assumes she will go along with the war based on her falling out with Sovieshu.

I don’t know how they will resolve this conflict. The story can certainly just handwave it away for the sake of some happy ending, but I don’t see it. So far, for all the cheese and jokes in it, The Remarried Empress has been quite internally consistent and rational in setting up actions and consequences. The rules of the world has not been abandoned, ignored or bent for the sake of plot convenience.

One of them will need to break and relent. Because you cannot have “a little bit of war”. You either have war or you have peace. No “special military operation” here. There can be a compromise position where Navier convinces Heinrey to take over without open war, but that too requires Navier helping Heinrey essentially subjugate her homeland.

Now, it will certainly be interesting to see who choses what, but one option has been the most pressing on my mind: They reach no agreement and Heinrey just goes along with his plan. How would Navier react to that? Would she bite it down and play along while hating it all on the inside. We know she is good at suppressing her own pain. She is the kind to spit blood and claim it was cranberry syrup.

Or would she leave Heinrey too? Where? Back to Sovieshu? With Kaufman? Or just back to her parents’ side. And then we have Kosair, who very easily switched sides and seemingly serving the Western Empire comfortably. I can definitely see him being perfectly okay with the war, seeing it as a way to get revenge on Sovieshu and the rest of the nobility he never got along with. But I cannot see him siding against his sister, or even sit aside if he realizes she is upset.

It is definitely a possibility that the story of Empress Navier ends with another dead on the inside marriage, keeping up public appearances, this time with the added burden of being a willing enemy to her homeland.

Or it could end with Navier going back to Sovieshu and playing mother to Rashta’s child after all that happened. Not because she cares for the man, but for the empire.

Or if she gets pregnant after all, then she maybe find herself divided into impossible pieces, for her children’s inheritance and safety will depend on her loyalty and service to the West.

They have certainly emphasized the issue of heirs and children or the lack thereof, a pattern of secretive, extremely presumptuous (dare I say entitled) male love interests, and among all of it, her patriotism.

Or maybe something happens that takes the decision out of their hands and diffuses the tension for them. We don’t know. I don’t see Heinrey giving up on his ambitions, not easily. If Navier is to convince Heinrey to stop, then she needs to put up one hell of a fight.

Overall, I am quite exited to see that plotline and how it unfolds. I am waiting for the other shoe to drop, and this is on top of the internal challenges they will face in the Western Empire. A trial by fire for the second marriage!

#the remarried empress #remarried empress #Navier #Heinrey #sovieshu

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nabesthetics · 1 year

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Apprenticember... 26: Alastor

How has your mc changed since you first made them?

Doing this a day early for a very simple, but sentimental reason:

This image is my earliest “recording” of Alastor’s existence. It’s dated 25th of December, 2012. While I came up with him a bit earlier than that, the conversation detailing his origin occurred on Skype of all things and is lost now, so 25th it is. And on 28th, I used him in a roleplay for the first time.

Pretty incredible that it’s been entire 10 years.

So let’s take a little trip down a memory lane! I’ll go over his origin, then looks, and then some notes on personality.

Origin

(Art by MilkyWayka)

Alastor was technically made for an OC of my friend’s (the artist’s) at the time. I saw a lonely shapeshifting alien with a tragic backstory, I offered to give him an emotional support dragon, and just like that, Alastor Nauruan was brought to light.

It was a modern “alternative Earth” setting and Alastor honestly didn’t even fit into it all that well, but we were 16 and 17 and didn’t really give a damn about setting logic. It was also initially an AU of Assassin’s Creed setting, so there’s that.

The roleplay lasted for several years, eventually coming to a rut due to a mix of the setting inconsistencies, our differing goals/ideas for it, and simply life preventing us from roleplaying. That hit me very harshly at the time, though now I just remember fondly the nights spent writing and gleefully discussing OC stuff instead of worrying about HS. Simpler times indeed.

But the Arcana very much “saved” Alastor, since around 2020 I was still down about the roleplay dying out and was going through a creative crisis, considering scrapping my OCs altogether. The Arcana setting very much let me breathe new life into both Alastor and Marty (who was ALSO made as a complimentary character for a different OC of the same friend, though at a later date). Obviously I had to rework his backstory to adapt to a new setting, though I also changed details like his name (Nauruan is now a family name, not just his) and the fate of his family (very much alive, unlike in his original setting).

Also if I had a penny for every time Alastor was paired with a very dangerous character with large claws covering his fingers, I’d have two pennies. Which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice.

Design: Dragon

I colored that first reference of him digitally right away, though I was very new to digital art or character design at the time.

Quite a lot going on here!

- He used to be much bigger, my own notes on the bottom of that first drawing stating that he’s 30m (98′) in length and 7m (23′) in shoulder height. Also 60m wingspan somehow. I have since “shrunk” him several times, and by the time I settled on his size in the Arcana setting he was 12m (39′) long with 2.5m (8′2) shoulder height, a much more reasonably and practically sized boy.

- Obviously more saturated+darker blues than what I use now.

- Many details I’d slapped on “just because” and ditched since, like the tail tip blades (that were also dynamic and could open like wire-cutters), glowing horns, color-changing eyes depending on magic usage, large plates on the wings that are just not practical really. The markings on the wings were the first thing I removed when tweaking his design in 2013.

- The small round growths on his neck were formations of “dragon stone” that would also light up when spellcasting. He… actually still has that, in a way, it’s just merged with his skeleton rather than being shown. I want to make a proper lore post on that someday.

In March 2013 I also made this model in Sculptris, so here’s a better look at his early horn set and the lil dragon rock M&Ms in his neck.

March 2014! Not much changed design-wise, I was mostly showing off my digital art improvements. Didn’t know how anatomy works. Still only have vague idea tbh.

A jump to 2017. Finally got rid of the wing plates, and this is the first time I gave him more of a :3 mouth shape. I was trying to figure out how to make his tail tip more reasonable, and temporarily opted out for some large spikes. They looked too bulky and odd on his frame, so now he just doesn’t have any tail tip adornments. Oh, also his neck thingies turned into spikes.

The Big RP Rut kicked into full gear around that time

2018, I think the first time I finally redesigned his horns to look more natural, adding a bunch of smaller spikes for a more detailed look. Also one of the first times he clearly shows the :3 face!

After that point I didn’t really change his design until 2020-2021 Arcana implementation, settling on a somewhat simpler but very much beloved look:

Design: Human/half-dragon

(by MilkyWayka)

I very much sucked at drawing humans before ~2019 and was very intimidated by the prospect, so pretty much left it up to my friend after giving her some attempts at sketches and descriptions. The look didn’t really change all that much: he always had the dragon eyes, same hair a bit below shoulder length, though I could only settle on specifics when I finally had the guts to draw him properly by myself.

The one major design change was his height. When I made him, he was......190 (6′3). Yeah I have no clue either. His alien s/o was over 2m tall, so maybe I didn’t want a huge height difference for some reason?? I don’t remember the 16 y.o. ways of thinking. Anyway he was shrunk in human form as well.

I don’t have many records of the half-form, it wasn’t used much and was a kryptonite for both me and my friend (who didn’t know how to draw the dragon parts of him). The general idea for the form was the same, though I did initially give him claws on his hands as well but removed them once I realised how inconvenient claws are for… activities.

I do have this drawing attempt from 2019 though where I for some reason didn’t give him scales all the way up including his ass like I did before and after this. A goddamn mystery that one.

Personality

Changed as much as you’d expect a character to change between writing of a 16 y.o. and a 24-26 y.o.. 2012 Alastor was almost childishly naive, angsty, completely “innocent” (aka “oblivious about how sexuality works for some reason despite being centuries old”). Looking back at it, I realise that he was also sort of passive/accepting of whatever bullshit happened to him until a show of dragon force was needed for the plot resolution.

Apprentice!Alastor still holds some naivety, though now it actually makes sense due to the amnesia. He also held onto his kindness and hopeful outlook on people, but he’s also more assertive even behind all his insecurities, and has his own moral framework he holds onto. His life also doesn’t just revolve around his one LI and magic anymore, but Al gets to have a social network – a small one, but a network nonetheless – and several other hobbies so he’s not just obsessed with One Thing.

Essentially that one all comes down to my own experience gain and growth into an adult, hah.

If you’re one of the few people who care enough about this nerdy lizard to read about his “character evolution” – thank you! Support of people like you is one of the main reasons Alastor is not just still around, but thriving 10 whole years after his first appearance in the world <3

#apprenticember #OC: Alastor #the specialest dragon today

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absolutebl · 2 years

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This week has been kind of an unplannedly thoughtful week, but there's one more and might be the one most worth to share.

These two OOP little hardcover blocks arrived in my mailbox Monday this week:

You have exactly one guess about due to whose ominous latent salesmen powers these are here now. =P

... is what this should have been all about and nothing more. Until I actually had them in my hands and things just became a bit contemplative.

I didn't seek them out specifically, I just coincidentally saw a manga bundle auction listing including them, but the moment I saw it I was suddenly kind of quite invested about wanting to win it. Which is because while I had all sorts of reservations about watching the drama adaption (which still remains entirely unrewatchable for me due to the bad hair) I made a peculiar observation: I had really wanted to like it. So I checked the manga out instead, as the opportunity unfolded by chance.

And also had just happened to have just started watching I Told the Sunset About You.

Taking a little detour to your posts on that one: I'm entirely with you. All those suffering sob stories (as I call them) are exhausting. For the same reasons. For me, just less so because they depress me, but rather that they just annoy me.

I also vastly prefer the HEAs now, but that took a long, long detour from viciously hating them first. Because with having been every bit textbook aroace as you possibly could be (had there been a textbook) the message those narratives put out was just about always:

"See, this is happiness and you being an oxymoron to it has nothing to do with the world, society or anything but you being too dumb to solve an equation as basic as 1+1."

And then I spent my teens and most of the decade after as a somewhat disgruntled cumulonimbus.

Looking back now, Seven Days actually kind of marked the end of the first half of those two decades. The German paperback release was very hotly anticipated at the time, quite the notorious best seller it also got a hardcover re-edition 5 years later. (Although the license appears to have expired by now, so everything is OOP.) Its hype reached way beyond the infamous fujoshi-niche crowds and garnered attention from quite a spectrum of other audiences. Critiques were across the board positive, and even the reserved ones sounded more like desperately trying to find fault in it just because it was hyped (or because it was BL).

What I however found there was a bundle of utter incomprehensibility. What do you mean 7 days are enough, because the first only took 1? That's not even enough to judge a person's compatibility for a deeper friendship, much less something that's supposed to last you a lifetime?? Whyever Seiryo are you praising this list of notorious traits about the other Yuzuru, when, clearly, you were just pretty hurt by it? And why the hell do you believe that Yuzuru, where did any sense of plausibility go to? And what's this weird box full of sentimentalism to begin with? The critiques weren't any bit less bewildering. It's apparently awesome for being a very singular BL that isn't about porn, rape/dubcon or teary ukes and all I thought was "What, that's the barometer to judge things? What sort of asinine genre is that??" (ahahahaha…), others were saying they didn't think it was bad, but also went on to argue, that this was only hyped and famed because it was BL, you could replace any of the dudes with a girl and get a super bland average typical romance plot nobody would ever throw a fuss about. Which got back argued as to how sheer outrageously novel a healthy relationship depiction like this was even across all romance, because it was characters on equal eye level, and I was just frowning again. It's not that diamond levels rare with male+female? It just more often happens in these mostly obscure narratives where the female isn't a completely brain-damaged dumb moron whose only worth seems to be obnoxiously produce bubbles, flowers and sparkles fawning over that cool guy? And which titles are across the board are struggling to survive due to bad sales here? Why is hardly anyone paying attention to those? But most of all: You almost make it sound like unhealthiness is the norm. If so, WHY ARE YOU ALL DOING THIS TO YOURSELVES? Are you all masochists or what? Oh wait, Seiyo realized he probably was one and was very happy being that. Is that what this is about??

After that I just figured, hey some people just hopelessly suck in math and will therefore dislike the poor subject and rant about it no matter what, failing to see its beauty. I just happen suck ass the same way in biochemistry. Fine. Whatever. I'll keep my hands off you. There are better things to do than this headache or annoying you any further with my silly questions whose answers never make enough sense to sink in. So I ditched the volumes and shelved the entire topic, was in peace with myself, and that was that. Or should have been. The next decade soon came over and was like: "What, you thought you could just ignore us? We're more omnipotent and unavoidable than the tax office, with an even higher sacred degree of existential self-justification of necessity. And no, unlike taxes, you can't just hire a consultant to do the obnoxious job for you." Before I knew it, I was struck with some sort of cheese allergy and exposure to most of all HEAs just inspired a "Can I have a voodoo and a hammer please?" mood. Took a while to notice and undo again. (Not that I liked the suffering sob stories any bit better all the while, but at least I usually didn't feel quite so intellectually insulted by them...)

When watching ITTSAY at first, curiously enough, the most descriptive thing that popped into my mind about the experience I was having was your "ho boy am I finding it rough going". Which was quaint, because even with cognitive empathy, and the show's mastery in the craft of inducing it, this shouldn't be so strong. The series has absolutely nothing that hits home. Not even remotely close. Until I noticed that your "the opposite of nostalgia" hit my notes perfectly, too. Just flipped over another axis: With it being about the experiences I never had and never are going to have like that. But even then that also seemed just bizarre, why would you ever miss an experience of such unhealthy suffering? Until I had this Oh-moment when I stared at the covers of the books. Because then you can also overcome it. (This makes as much sense as Pipi Longstocking's "You have to go to school/work before you can have vacation.")

But that's kind of the enjoyment I got from reading Seven Days again after over a decade. It's all still very much not me. (Probably.) But it's not incomprehensible anymore. Same for all the critiques. And I'm not having any cheese allergy over it. I can stomach it not only just fine, I even actually quite like it. ITTSAY is like a fresh pineapple fruit that is arranged and served in all sorts of artful, intricate ways to please the eye. Its taste is a juicy, well-rounded blend of sourness and sweetness on a clear texture, but you really can't eat it too much and often. Not because it ceases to taste, but because of its tongue burn properties. Seven Days is like a handful of raisins. Very simple sweetness. Strong, but still organic. Not with too much complex flavor substance to it, so you can't eat too much of it without it starting to go bland. But this handful of it is exactly something you can down at almost any time of any day as a comfortable little snack in between that's always going to feel a lot more healthy than any candy or chocolate bar or fatty chips.

... erm. TL;DR, What I mean to say is just

Thanks for reintroducing Seven Days into my life. I wouldn't go as far as to say I needed it as a marker to tell I've moved on, since I already knew that. But getting to have such a bookend epilogue to the last decade again with the same thing is surprisingly nice to have. (And just such a wild unexpected coincidence timewise since my cheese allergy was just freshly bested for good end of last year.)

And fingers crossed that you'll reach that headspace to safely watch ITTSAY one day.

Meanwhile, I'm rather seriously wondering if there will be a third Seven Days bookend. Which will be all about: Will I ever get over the bad hair? (It's freaky how fast and resolutely any sort of bugged feeling I had about ITTSAY was entirely drowned the moment I finished it and started Last Twilight in Phuket and saw the hair therein. Mercifully, it didn't stay as terrible/plot irrelevantly terrible in I Promised You The Moon. But Ouch.)

Here is me, having exchanged the Cheese Training regiment for Hair Training. An upgrade, I guess?

What a fascinating read -- the interweaving of media and life and understanding both of the pieces of pop culture and your relationship to it.

It made me think of those other pieces of media, the ones we consume when young and then rewatch but actually hold up under later examination, maybe because of the nostalgia, maybe because of actual persistent quality.

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thequeenofsodor · 1 year

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My friend Mari (aka That TV Series Bitch on Book Club) sent me three requests for the character bingo things on Discord, so I’m including them as honorary part of this ask game!

BoCo has always been awesome to me. He’s this huge Diesel that’s capable of running on the main line, and has such an awesome screen presence. I feel like we were robbed of him not returning in the CGI Series, especially since there are only four big diesels in that show (one of whom is Daisy and doesn’t really count due to being a railcar and not filling the same ecological niche, another of whom is Diesel 10 who barely appears, and the other two are international engines, who aren’t part of the North Western to begin with!) among the endless sea of diesel shunters.

I also very much resent that old “BoCo is Diesel Edward” sentiment I used to see spun around in Thomas Fandom, mostly because it’s so reductive. Like, if you boil any character in any story down to their most base archetypes and ignore all the distinctions they have, however minor they may be... of course they’ll all look the same! But I think what sets Edward apart from BoCo is that BoCo is much more stoic and tends to be more stern, but they are similar in that they are both genuinely helpful and warm characters at their core. I think their similarities and differences make them an excellent duo, since they can both confide in the other and support each other with what the other has respective difficulty with.

BoCo design-wise, aside from being cool due to being a Big Diesel, is also really cool because of his prototype. Metrovick Type 2s/Class 28s have such a cool look to them, with their swooping front windows and odd number of wheels. Honestly it’s no wonder that Awdry picked him for the first big diesel on the North Western, because even if you’re a diehard Steam Guy like Awdry, you can’t help but think “that design has a lot of personality” when you see it. I have to wonder if he knew about the class’s troubled history when he picked it though, because it’s just straight up never mentioned in the storybooks. If he didn’t, then its very serendipitous because the real life history and infamy of the class makes him a perfect fit for the Island of Misfit Engines!

Also you are all legally obligated to read @mean-scarlet-deceiver‘s BoCo headcanon posts, as well as Ex-Condor Through the Time Machine. Extremely Good BoCo food, and covers a lot of ground far more elegantly than I can in this post lol

I remember everyone’s immediate reaction to Philip was disgust at him being an annoying kid character, and I immediately sided with the minority that “he’s fine, actually” and nowadays... I still think he’s okay, but I just don’t feel that strongly about him anymore.

I think he works great as proof of the passage of time, since it’s made pretty obvious in his debut episode that he is very much like Thomas was when he arrived on Sodor in The Adventure Begins. Honestly I think the only times where he’s ever come across as actually annoying are when he immediately tells Thomas to not trust Ashima (very forced subplot in TGR, imo) and when they start being weird about his number in S21/22. I’m pretty sure the last time he appears is in Apology Impossible, which I don’t remember him being particularly annoying in? But that episode has... other problems...

My only real gripe with him is the creative team’s choice of prototype. Philip belongs in a club alongside Connor, Caitlin, Porter, Timothy, and one or two other pre-BWBA Brenner newbies that I like to call “The Why Am I American Club.” Because, for some weird reason, the Brenner Era team really liked to introduce American locomotives into the show while pretending they’re from the mainland, for some reason! I have no idea what kind of British diesel would work for Philip while keeping the same kind of boxcab design, though, so... I suppose the issue here is more “why is he not Canonically American” or “why does he have a British accent”...

But yeah, he’s fine. I think people get far too riled up by his existence, but I don’t find him all that compelling either. I hope Bachmann makes him in Large Scale just to mess with people.

honest to god, I have things to say about Gustavo, a character I’m not convinced anyone in the fandom has ever discussed deeply at all

I’m grateful for Gustavo’s existence to an extent, because he’s the only American electric engine in the entire series, which is something I’d always been dying to see. And much like BoCo, he has a great screen presence on account of being ABSOLUTELY HUGE! I really hope he gets some sort of toy that’s more detailed than that god-awful Trackmaster pack, because he deserved a representation that captures his sheer size.

Anyway, for those who don’t know why I’m referring to this Brazilian character as American, it’s because he’s a General Electric "Little Joe”. 20 of them were initially built to work on Soviet Railways, before the Cold War began and the order got cancelled. Most of the engines went to American railroads, but five were sold to the Paulista Railway in Brazil. The “Little Joe” nickname was short for “Little Joe Stalin’s Locomotives”, and got they a reputation for being hugely awesome and powerful machines from the locos on the Milwaukee Road, which makes sense because their power output was basically equal to that of a Big Boy. I’d never heard of them before Gustavo was introduced, and frankly I’m appalled by that, because these things should absolutely be on the same level of iconicity as the GG1s! Having that kind of weird off-screen history behind him automatically makes Gustavo a bit more interesting than some of the other international engines.

But there’s more to him than just that, and to me that’s the fact that he’s designed to directly parallel/contrast with Gordon. One of the things that I really wish was explored more in BWBA is the international railway’s social ecosystem when Thomas isn’t in the mix, and for most of them it’s pretty bland. But with Gustavo, having a parallel drawn directly between him and Gordon already gives us an idea of what normal life must be like with him around. Granted, the episode makes a point of showing that he’s not exactly like Gordon (and it was not fair of Thomas to judge him like he was to begin with), but he seems to share a lot of Gordon’s more noble traits? He honestly kind of feels like what Gordon would be like if he hadn’t had his prestige and superiority complexes drilled into his mind as a young engine at Doncaster, which is interesting. As implausible as it might be, I’d love to see how Gordon and Gustavo interact with this in mind.

Granted; all of this interesting stuff is only on paper. He’s frankly kind of bland in the episode, because every character in the BWBA International stories is bland. ‘Tis the fate of essentially being an obligation to writers who are far more interested in writing Sodor’s side characters...

#asks #(technically lol)#ttte #ttte boco #ttte philip #ttte gustavo #ttte opinions

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shoppncarticles · 2 years

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The Pikachu Family

Here it is, everybody. The big cheese himself, the face of all of Pokemon, Pikachu.

Honestly, it’s pretty easy to see why Pikachu was chosen as the series’s prime example of a Pocket Monster, resembling a real-world animal but still having fantastical, easy to read elements added to its body, such as its red cheeks and lightning-bolt tail. Apparently, Pikachu was chosen as the mascot very close to the release of the first games, and was never intended to be the icon of a worldwide phenomenon it ended up being.

But what do I think about Pikachu? Well, I can’t deny that Pikachu has a fitting, marketable mascot feel to it. It has a pleasing color palette too, really making it feel like a natural sort of electrical monster, being primarily yellow and brown.

Pikachu is also titled as the Mouse Pokemon, but I’ll admit that I don’t really see it. Its longer, thinner ears and plush-like body shape doesn’t communicate that well. Its mostly solid body color, without any fur detail, also doesn’t communicate the furry texture it's supposed to have either. None of this is meant to say Pikachu is a bad design, it's recognizable for a reason of course, but not one that I’m super big on.

If you didn’t know, there’s a pretty large group of people who prefer Pikachu’s earlier, initial design from the series, compared to the sort of stylistic evolution its taken over the past 20-odd years. I’d put myself in the same camp, this Pikachu is much more appealing than the advertising mascot we’ve got nowadays. The rounder, smaller body and longer tail give it a much more rodent-like feeling while still keeping it a distinct fantasy creature.

This isn’t controversial to say, is it?? There’s just something about the earlier drawings of Pikachu that make it have a more natural, mischievous vibe than its modern counterpart. If this was the Pikachu we had for a majority of the series’ life, maybe I’d be a little fonder of the little yellow rat. As it stands, though, I’d just mark Pika as alright.

Of course, Pikachu would be spoiled with a handful or two of extraneous forms and, in this case, costumes, just to cement that it was a popular creature you ought to be paying attention to.

The first of these would be Cosplay Pikachu, a unique Pikachu that would be given to players in the remakes of the generation 3 games, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. Due to the emphasis on the Contest minigames featured there, these Pikachu costumes focused on one of each Contest type.

However, due to Contests not really appearing after said games, Cosplay Pikachu would too be locked exclusively to the ORAS games. I don’t find them that appealing, either, frankly. I’m not going to chastise a Pokemon just for having clothes be a part of its design, but these certainly are just Pikachu in what amounts to cute pet outfits, isn’t it? If that was something you could do with any of your Pokemon, that’d be just fine, but it’s only darling beloved Pikachu who’s allowed to put jackets and skirts on. I see how it is.

You could also receive Pikachu wearing different hats Ash wore in the anime, and just like the anime, you can’t evolve it. Alright.

Pikachu would also receive a Gigatamax form, giving it a rounder body and elongated tail similar to its original artwork. It’s a cool sentiment, but still something tied to a temporary superpower feature, and likely locked to one pair of games in the series. I can’t bring myself to get too attached to it.

The most amusing thing about it though is that Pikachu proudly shouts “PEE” whenever it achieves its Gigantamax form.

Score: 2.5/5

Maybe I’m just burnt out on Pikachu due to having it be the face of the franchise for so long. That’s only a problem when there’s so many other options, though. Hardly anyone is going to say Mario is their favorite character to play as in Mario Kart, y’know?

Well, if he is, more power to you, honestly.

Lo and behold, though, Pikachu actually has an evolved form in Raichu! Why Raichu has almost never received the same amount of love as Pikachu is beyond me, you think they would’ve pushed Pikachu’s bigger, stronger form to the general public who wanted to see a beefier edge to the little mouse.

Raichu also, if you ask me, has a much more pleasing and interesting design than Pikachu. Its color palette is even more unified, relying mostly on orange and brown which blend well together, and yellow accents for highlights. Raichu also breaks up the solid color of its body with the markings on its hands, feet, and stomach. The uniquely shaped ears and thin tail that still has a lightning strike at the end of it also help to show that it's still a rodent.

In the early seasons of the anime, Raichu was often characterized as a meaner punk compared to Pikachu, which even gives it that little charming edge to it.

Raichu would also be bestowed a regional Alolan form over Pikachu, surprisingly! It may be more rounded and smoothed over than regular Raichu, but it reflects its more casual, laid-back island lifestyle than the average thunder rat. It even gains a Psychic typing, which it uses to hover on its own tail like a surfboard!

Alolan Raichu is even said to have an affinity for pancakes, which somehow spurred this divergent evolution. This thing is incredibly silly, but I can’t help but love its simple charm. Even something about its slightly different shade of orange is more appealing to the eye.

Score: 5/5

Raichu is a wonderful improvement over Pikachu. I’m glad that the Alolan form especially seems to have really grabbed fans, it’s definitely one of the series’ cuter final evolutions.

In the second generation, this younger, baby form of Pikachu would also appear, simply named Pichu. Pichu too has some smarter design traits than its more adolescent form, with its black accents having points instead of being straight lines. This, ever so slightly, helps show a sort of fur pattern, rather than a solid line of color on a plasticy body. The bigger, wider ears also help add to its mouselike charm.

Pichu even has a unique character trait as well, being so inexperienced with its own electrical powers that it often ends up zapping and harming itself more than the enemy when it tries attacking. This is even reflected in Smash Bros, where Pichu somehow made it in as a fighter as well. Funnily enough, when Super Smash Bros Ultimate first released, Pichu was considered one of the strongest fighters in the game, even outshining its older brother Pikachu! What a powerhouse!

Score: 3/5

Solid baby mouse.

[Gen 1 Archive]

#Pokemon #Pokemon Review #Pikachu #Cosplay Pikachu #Raichu #Alolan Raichu #Pichu #Gigantamax Pikachu

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