#probably creates a lot of plot holes but whatever

[cirrusea]

Hey remember that time Eret tried to revive Wilbur and got pretty freakin close? Yeah so here's my alternate ending. The disc war finale felt like the natural conclusion of Tommy and Dream's arc to me, so I thought what if Dream died for good at that point, and Eret was the one to bring Wilbur back instead?

#dream smp #dsmp #tommyinnit #the eret #dsmp tommy #you can tell where i ran outta steam on this ha #so i guess it would go like #disc war finale -> wilburs revival -> burger van las nevadas arc -> then tommy can just heal and live y'know #probably creates a lot of plot holes but whatever #dsmp eret #c!tommy #c!eret #disc war #my art

[writingquestionsanswered]

Stuck in Planning Stage of Writing

Anonymous asked: Do you have any advice on how to get out of the planning stage and more into the doing stage of writing? I’m up to my ears in notes for scenes and fragments of dialogue between characters. I know where I want to go with the story, I’ve even written a handful of scenes when the ideas come to me, but now that I have this lump of thoughts I need to start organizing and placing them all in their rightful spaces. The one thing I truly know is how much I’d love to see this through. Do you have any advice for a girl who’s unwittingly made herself stuck with a puzzle?

[Ask edited for length]

Planning a novel can sometimes be like digging a really deep hole for a specific purpose, then suddenly realizing you've stranded yourself at the bottom of the hole without a ladder. You've spent so much time digging the hole, you'd like nothing more than to get out of the hole and move forward with whatever project required you to dig the hole in the first place. There's just one problem: you can't teleport yourself out of the hole. You have to climb... or, ideally, build yourself a ladder to climb out with whatever materials are available to you.

That's probably where you are right now with your story. The hole you've dug was necessary, and it's good that you dug it, but as much as you'd like to just magically leap out and write your story, you can't do that. You have to build yourself a ladder to climb out of the hole first. So...

My go-to emergency "get out of the planning hole I've dug myself into" ladders are timelines, scene lists, and outlines.

Timelines: Your story may take place over a single day or several centuries, but either way, time flows in your story. All of those notes and fragments of dialogue and partial scenes are moments or events that happen within the time frame of your story. So, plotting those moments and scenes out on a timeline--according to when they need to happen--is about the easiest way to break your story down into its existing pieces and to see what's missing/where.

There are lots of ways you can format a timeline, such as a table, a list, a horizontal timeline, calendar, or a roadmap timeline. My go-to is a basic two-column document where the left column is date/time and the right column is the moment/event. There are also apps and online tools that will help you build a timeline in various formats.

Horizontal Timeline:

Calendar Timeline:

Table Timeline:

More info: Making a Timeline for Your Story Scene Lists: Stories are made up of scenes, so a list of those scenes is another great way to organize the events of your story. You may even find that creating a scene list is easier after making a timeline, because a timeline may help you see where certain moments or events need to be their own scenes and which can be combined together into a single scene. Just like timelines, scene lists can be as simple or complex as you want to make them. Once again, my go-to is a simple two-column document with the left column for the scene number and the right column for the scene summary, preferably just a sentence or two. Ultimately, once I have my rough timeline and scene list done, I usually combine them into one multi-column document along with my story structure beats.

Table Scene List with Beats:

Complex Scene List/Timeline/Beat Sheet:

More info: Scene Lists

Outlines: Outlines can be really any format you want them to be, and some people count timelines and scene lists as their outlines. My go-to outline is just an exhaustive beginning to end summary of everything that needs to happen. Sometimes, just working through your story from beginning to end can be the best way to make sense of all those disparate pieces you've been piling up.

More info: Guide: How to Outline a Plot Story Structure: Finally, I want to talk a bit about story structure templates like Save the Cat Writes a Novel!, Larry Brooks story structure, seven point story structure, etc. Story structure templates can be a really great way to make sure you're hitting all the right story beats--almost like a road map through your story. It's just important to know you do not by any means have to stick to any particular story structure exactly. Use it as a guide, take what works, leave what doesn't, and don't panic if your beats don't fall exactly where it says they should. As long as your story is working, that's what matters. Some writers even like to frankenplan their stories using a variety of different structure templates.

More info: Creating a Detailed Story Outline (story structure)

Once you finally have a roadmap for moving forward, whether that's a timeline, scene list, outline, or all of the above, you know you're ready to start writing!

Final note: I just want to add that planning isn't for everyone. Some people are discovery writers who let their stories work themselves out as they go. The above is just meant for people who are planners, who have done a lot of planning, but need to pull that planning together into a cohesive, organized document. And... if you have all of the above and still find yourself unable to start, you might find help in the links below. Happy writing! More help:

Beginning a New Story Figuring Out Where to Start a Story Deciding How to Open Your Book How to Move a Story Forward Trouble Getting Started Have Plot, Can’t Write

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

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[supermassivebutthole]

I think something that a lot of fanfic writers don't understand is that it doesn't matter if it's good.

And I'm not saying that to encourage you to practice self love or whatever. I'm not saying that "art doesn't have to be good." I mean, it doesn't, but that's not my point.

I'm saying that the objective reality is that if you have a fun concept, if you are passionate, if your work is literally legible, you will have readers that appreciate it. 95% of fanfic readers are not looking for Quality Literature. They're looking for a juicy peice of fanfiction. They're looking for a medium to project onto. All you have to do is create that medium.

So yeah, your fic probably has all those problems you think it has. It's probably too long and the timeline is weird and the dialogue is cheesy and the plot has holes. And people love it anyway because YOU love it. They love it because when they read it, they feel like you've reached into their brain and pulled out their desires.

So just go. Go scratch their itch.

#fanfiction #fanfic #writing #fic writing

[sugaroto]

No one asked but I'll give some lore on Ksit and Dog (my first ever ocs that I created when I was like 4) which were literally my right and left hand anthropomorphized in the imagination of a child

So, που λέτε. The plot changed a lot of times with a lot of uh... Time traveling (not canon, I think) cause I didn't know what was going on either

Ksit and Dog (PS I didn't know English he's not named dog🐶 he's named Ντογκ)were twins but in their world twins were forbidden cause people thought twins were evil and like, had evil plans to mock or fool people, with their evil plans

So they threw the babies away in an island, which was like, απέναντι. Either the parents went there with a boat to abandon the babies or, they like put them in a little boat to send them there idk

Now here's where the plot gets confusing. Cause I remember being a kid, Ksit and Dog worked in.... A studio? I'm not sure what the fuck was happening but it was technically my body, cause Γλωθθας (Tongue, mispronounced) was like the boss/god of the boys. I think Ksit might have been famous, but bc they were keeping their twiness a secret they might have been changing places idk

I picked favorites honestly and I don't think I liked dog very much...

... Also ksit had a second job undersea, like, he went to the sea, opened a door and went underground in a lab where there were miniatures of everyone and I think he was like, controlling? Or like looking after them, I'm not sure

Maybe dog messed reality once and that's why I don't like him idk

But like, idk if that's canon in the story, cause at some point

They do end up in the island (oh yeah not sure if this was clear, they weren't there so far)

Maybe they run away? Oh maybe the people found out about their double identity and they run away or something idk

But yeah, thing is they weren't babies when they went to the island and for some reason they were strong and smart

So at some point the find or see parents leaving their babies there

And they take care of them and raise them and at some point theres a whole mini town of kid twins and the bosses Ksit and Dog

Also they tame the wild animals like Leon or Leonard the lions, and I think they can speak with them cause they grew up there

Also not sure how timing works cause I'm pretty sure I never considered ksit and Dog old adults but there were kid twins they raised at like their 12-15 or something which I considered teenagers

I guess ksit and Dog were like in their 20s

Actually no. They didn't age. They were always an... age. Not sure what age

At some point I did give them girlfriends. I don't remember where they came from maybe they were homeless but they spawned in the island one day I think their names were Lily and Lila or something

I think by the end there's like a revolution or something or the people realize the law banning twins is stupid cause they go back to get their kids back

And ksit and Dog live with their parents at some point and I think the girls are neighbors

Now that I have written everything down, probably for the first time ever. I have a lot of plot holes lmao. Cause they lived in... The town? For a while but besides Tongue I don't remember them having parents but then I just made them roommates

Forgot to mention tho, the secondary characters Ksitdog and Dogksit which were my legs... They worked in the studio. I think they... Look the studio was my body, they might have been walls. Cause I was sitting on the floor. Or like helpers? For each hand idk idk

But they no longer existed after the studio arc disappeared

You know. This story was ongoing since I was 4 to like 11 (just repeating itself with very little progress when I was bored and just like thinking about them) well like, I thought this when I was trying to sleep so yeah

But if I have to guess now or like make the plot better I'd say maybe the law happened bc ksit and Dog fooled the people with whatever they were doing in the studio

Or you know I could make tongue the father who tried to hide the kids but like making then swap places but then they were found out and sent away

Okay enough

At this point I just want to apologize to any twins existing out there

I'm sorry the imaginary town in my head banned you cause of your evil plans

Not only was I a cringe teenager I was also a cringe toddler, why couldn't I have made a cool story with dragons or something why did I ban the twins

#the whole greekblr oc sexyman poll reminded me of them #i think i said something about them in a post lol #oc #ksit and dog #Ξιτ και Ντογκ #ναι οκ θα το κανω ταγκ ποτε δεν ξερεις #ειναι η πρώτη φορα που γραφω το στορυ τους καπου ας το εχω #sugarenia talks #sugarenia thoughts

[bookofmirth]

The more I think about the Feysand pregnancy arc in acosf the more annoyed I get. It's not about them wanting a child, it's about the plotholes and all the made up bs that resulted in this totally unnecessary drama.

So the main issue was that the baby had wings despite being quarter Illyrian because Feyre shapeshifted during their sexy time. But in acomaf when she starts to learn how to fly, she shapefshifts her wings based on the batboys wings - how in the earth did she alter her whole anatomy to be of an Illyrian woman?? If the pelvis was an issue Rhys probably knew (and Feyre too apparently if she changed herself), why didn't they discussed it beforehand like responsible adults? They were actively trying for a baby at that point, why did noone think about this could be an issue (even if the baby is only quarter Illyrian)? Rhys could have said something like 'hey darling, you know there are risks if the baby has wings since you don't have the anatomy of Illyrian women, maybe we should cut it out with the wingsex for a while'? For me, this is the biggest plothole in the whole narrative of this arc.

You tell me that in a world where they could heal Azriel who had a poisoned arrow shot right in his heart, regrow Cassian's wings that were shredded to pieces, heal Cassian from a would that was so deep his guts were hanging out, they could never in their 20.000+ year history perform a successful C-section? How is this even justified?

Feysand having a baby at a time when their continent is on the verge of war again combined with their stupid bargain results in two things: They either put themselves in the backburner and sit out every conflict for the next at least 18 years which would be interesting since they are High Lord and High Lady, or they risk their kid being orphaned.... Again, like...... ???

The whole birth drama totally undermined the fact that Nesta, Gwyn and Emerie made actual history (esp. Gwyn and Emerie!). They won the Blood Rite and everyone was like 'oh well, AnYwAyy the BABY'. Please...

I don't even want to mention how Rhys dealt with this whole situation and then blamed it on Nesta when it blew up in his face, I think that was discussed a lot

Whew sorry for this rant, it's just the obvious and unnecessary bs-ness of this arc annoys me so much. Feysand just could have had their baby in piece, or at least sjm could have made up some fake magic-science to justify things better, because for me it really did not hit the spot.

What are your thoughts on this?

Absolutely agree with all of this!

I feel like "they were stupid" isn't a good excuse to fix the plot holes in what sjm worked really hard to show was a communicative, equal partnership/romance.

The way the fandom was STRESSING over Cassian's wings post-acomaf though, I laugh at us now. As if Miss Sarah J "handwaves it away" Maas was actually going to have him suffer long-term effects from that.

IMO, the entire pregnancy plot was SJM's way of creating reconciliation between Nesta and Feyre. That's it. Nesta saving Feyre (and by extension Rhys and Nyx) sidestepped any of the tough conversations that needed to be hand. It was so inorganic to... everything we know about Rhys, and Feyre, the IC, the magic of the world, it was inconsistent with what other characters have been through physically. But hey! It made Feyre and Nesta feel better about all the years of conflict and resentment, so whatever.

Okay and the bargain lmaooooo I argued back when acofas came out that the death bargain wasn't a big deal. I was like nah, it wasn't literal. But wow, what a way to inorganically sideline your former main characters in order to give your new main character an excuse to take center stage. Maybe if sjm hadn't made everyone so freaking overpowered all the time, then other characters besides Rhys (and now Feyre) would be able to help solve problems. But noooooo we gotta have an excuse for Rhys and Feyre to sit on their hands because otherwise, they are just Too Strong, the Strongest Ever, and because the magic is so freaking vague, now we need an excuse for Rhys to not be able to wave his hand and make problems go away like bits of lint.

I do wish that Feyre could have had a baby in peace, to not stress, to not be in danger, and most importantly, for her dumbass mate to have NOT kept that information from her. Feyre had been through enough already, just for sjm to be like "hm, how can I get these characters to not be mad at each other anymore without them actually talking like adults about it??" I understand that there needs to be conflict, there will be drama. But it didn't have to be like That. Conflict or the resolution of conflict, should not be built on a house of cards. It should feel natural to the world, the culture, characters, plot, etc.

Feysand used to be otp, and I still do like them a lot, just... pre-acosf. That book nearly ruined them for me, though.

#acosf #sjm critical #ask #anon #fuck the pregnancy plot #it's so easy to rant about this foreverr

[starrywangxian]

warning: the last of us spoilers!! (episode 9 in particular)

to the new people who are adding to the moral dilemma debate at the end of tlou from the show, first of all: hello! second of all, you're missing some points about the importance of the sciencists' dumbassery and joel's ain't no one touching my daughter rampage and hopefully i'll explain what those missing points are.

1. the cure wouldn't have worked.

you're very right, cures are impossible for fungal infections such as Cordyceps, however the key missing detail is joel didn't know that. joel is not a scientist nor did he know how the fireflies were going to make this cure. as much as i love the "we're all fucked" segment in the first episode and the scared scientist from episode 2, none of this context happens in the game so, it's not general knowledge that fungal infections cannot be treated let alone cured. it's a good point but it's not relevant to joel's moral dilemma because he doesn't know that the cure wouldn't work. when he's in his rampage, he's not thinking "silly, fireflies. this cure won't work! you can't cure fungal infections" because if he did, i'm sure he'd at least try to tell them first. and anyway, FEDRA really don't want to tell people that there is a way to cure this infection and then not do it. more people would join the fireflies that way and the QZs would quickly become under new management. so FEDRA are certainly not telling people that fungal infections cannot be cured (heck, FEDRA aren't even telling people about the different infected - ellie didn't know what a clicker was, pre-museum).

2. the scientists dropped out of med school.

yeah, they probably did because med school, as we know it today, hasn't existed for 20 years. doctors are most likely taught in the QZs - the place the Fireflies are currently bombing - and these courses are probably taught by FEDRA or at least the government, which are the people that are killing the fireflies by the masses. even if the fireflies running the tests and doing the operation on ellie did go to FEDRA med school, they most likely were not taught how to do precise biopsies or extraction surgeries as in an apocalypse, they probably want to train their doctors to do more practical operations and ones they're most likely to come across, or maybe they just forgot! it's been 20 years! plus the fireflies aren't exactly in the best place right now (FEDRA are doing a good job of killing them all), so they're probably too desperate to go through it thoroughly. so are these firefly scientists good scientists? no. but they're trying their best with the resources and expertise they have and most importantly, the exact procedure that ellie goes through does not matter.

ik it's a pain that there's a few holes and flaws with the plot but these little bits really don't have that big an impact and if these little details were accounted for then the impact on joel's decision wouldn't be as big as the writers wanted it to be.

the moral dilemma joel faces has to be a big deal: we spend all this time travelling across the country for this cure, just for one man to murder everyone in his path for his newfound daughter. that's the point here! the writers want us to think about sarah; joel didn't get a choice with sarah, she was taken from him but this time, he can save her. he has a choice and he'll do whatever it takes to make this time different. in those moments when he guns down everyone he sees, he's not seeing them as people with loved ones and hobbies; they're obstacles, they're threats to his ellie's safety. (think "you'd just come after her").

he doesn't care about these people, he only cares about ellie. joel did save the world that day, it's just that his world was that little girl. honestly, a lot of joel's reasoning is explained in part 2 of the game so if you're really hung up on it, give it a play (or wait until season 2).

my point being here is, the writers wanted to create a situation that 1) reminds us of sarah, and 2) makes ellie and joel's relationship very tense afterwards. because ellie knows that joel is lying about the fireflies and this creates a big rift in their relationship. the choice joel made has to be big to have this same impact. ellie is willing to sacrifice herself for a cure, even if it doesn't work because she already believes that she's getting more than she deserves. she should've died with riley that day, and then with tess, sam and henry. all these people she's seen die should have been her all those months ago. but joel can't let that happen, he can't let another daughter die. and boom the tension flowers! this moral dilemma is showing us how deep joel's feelings go; he'd kill half of salt lake city and doom all of humanity to death for his little girl, even if that means going against what she wants.

so to summarise, no one knows that the fungal infection cannot be cured, the little details that you're hung up on about the science do not matter and the writers needed to create this big moral dilemma to really test the love that joel feels for ellie.

*breathes* so any questions?

#please don't ask questions #it's 3am and i wrote this in like 10 mins #idek if this makes any sense #i don't normall write big long text posts like these #if this doesn't make sense just pretend it does for my sanity #the last of us #tlou #tlou hbo #the last of us hbo #spoilers #tlou spoilers #hbo tlou #hbo tlou spoilers #starrywangxian

[starlightandsunshine]

So like I'm back to rewatching Charmed (1998, obviously, yay for like my first fandom ever) again for the umpteenth time, (in a randomised order, of course, because why watch chronologically like a sane person) and I was watching "That 70s Episode" and then looking at additional trivia and episode information as you do, and I came across a comment about how Magic School makes the entire plot of the episode into a plot hole or vice-versa, which just… No.

I'm not going to say that their haven't been some absolute ass-pulls in Charmed that create plot holes in earlier episodes (The cleaners vs "All Hell Breaks Loose" is technically one even though I have Thoughts on that) but the existence of Magic School is really not one of them for quite a lot of reasons that I can't be bothered to go into rn because this post is about "That 70s Episode".

Time travel in Charmed happens in an essentially fifty-fifty split between time travel that intentionally changes the past (like "A Witch in Time" and the whole s6 arc with Chris) and closed time loops/predestination paradoxes that essentially mean the whole thing was one long foregone conclusion from the start (like "All Halliwell's Eve" and also "Imaginary Fiends" if you take it from the time traveller's perspective and not like Piper's). "Forever Charmed" and "Morality Bites" are exceptions to this that sort of hang about in their own bubble for Reasons but literally every other incident even tangientially related to time travel is one of those two (time travel in Charmed is maybe something that I've put a bit too much thought into but that's a different post)

(all my thoughts on "That 70's Episode" as a closed time loop under the cut because it, uh, got really very long)

Now admittedly, I may be coming at this from a slightly different perspective since the first time I watched Charmed I did it out of order and saw a couple of the later seasons first before I watched s1, which means I already knew about magic school and was elbow deep in the shows mythology (specifically relevant here: whitelighters, which iirc hadn't really been delved into at all - I can't remember if the episode w Phoebe finding out about Leo and the little witch boy called Max was before or after this one but either way they don't really start building on whitelighters until "Love Hurts" and s2). But literally the first thing I actually thought about here was that it was a closed time loop where they basically contributed to causing the whole thing in the first place (and hey, I just remembered that there's a different time travel ep in s1 where a warlock comes from the future to change it in the truth episode, so in hindsight I was probably like "oh cool they're showing two different ways it works already").

But I mean really, lets take the time travel out of the picture for a second:

If the sisters don't travel back in time at all, how does this situation play out? Like, Patty gets threatened by a warlock into blessing a ring to give him immunity to her daughters powers and presumably goes home and tells her mother about it and then they bind the girls' powers after Phoebe is born and don't? do? Anything? About the situation. Like in the threeish years between being threatened and dying Patty never tries to do anything about this warlock that is almost definitely going to try and kill her babies? (lets be generous and say that she didn't want to do anything while pregnant, that still leaves thirteenish months between Phoebe being born and Paige's conception, and sixish months between Paige's birth and Patty's death, and even then she doesn't have to actively be doing anything to be figuring out a way to track him down and vanquish him or whatever) Penny "Battleaxe Grams" Halliwell doesn't ever go after him or try to do anything about him and for twenty-odd years just twiddles her thumbs about the situation while he visits every year??? (the very same woman who had a relationship with and then vanquished the freaking Necromancer!) Neither of them ever tell their whitelighter Sam about the whole thing (which, you know, is part of his job description), they never reach out to other witches about this dangerous warlock running around (like say the multiple canonical witches that the Charmed Ones meet that worked with one of them), they never go to the canonical magical school that presumably has plenty of competent magical beings on staff or to the Elders like "Hey you know those prophesised Charmed Ones you've been waiting for? Yeah we had to bind their powers to save them from this one warlock, if you want them to ever be able to use that power you need to help us find a way to get rid of him, K thanks"?? Like I know they're not the Power of Three babes, but come on, they're still Warren Witches and plenty powerful and competent in their own right. They've both gone after tougher opponents alone and it's not like they couldn't work together (and if your argument is "what about the sisters", like it costs zero money to ask Sam or even Victor to watch them for like an afternoon while Patty and Penny go and vanquish the active and real threat to their lives) And like after all of that, after not hunting this warlock down or telling anyone about him or doing really anything at all about the situation for over twenty years, Penny, after being diagnosed with a heart condition, doesn't then ever think, "oh hey, when I die, this one warlock's going to come after them in like twelve months at most because he keeps popping by once a year, I should do something about that, like write a note in the Book or make an addition to my will about it or something"???

Uh, no. They would not do that. That is incredibly out of character for the Halliwells that we know and love. They'd probably have spent the nine months Patty was pregnant with Phoebe figuring out how to vanquish him and destroy the ring , and then if he didn't show up right after Phoebe was born they'd have asked Sam or maybe a couple of other witches they know to keep an eye on the sisters for a couple of hours while they summon Nicholas and vanquish him while he's off guard. The whole situation is over and done with by the time Phoebe turns one and the sisters' powers don't need to be bound at all.

But when you take the time travel into account, the whole lack of proactiveness on Patty and Grams' part makes a whole lot more sense. Because after having to bless the ring and then telling her mother about it, Patty remembers the other people who knew she was pregnant, and being the very much not stupid witch she is goes "hmm, maybe there's something going on there". And then like the plot of the episode happens they steal back the ring blah blah, and lets say that when Patty unblesses it she does it with like a time delay when its first used or it uses the powers of the girls to undo the blessing or even it takes a hot minute to take effect bc like Patty said they didn't have time to test whether or not the unblessing worked or whatever - its magic, we've handwaved way worse in canon - so that Nicholas still has the two minutes of being able to blindside the girls when he first attacks them and they can't use magic that prompts them to cast the time travel spell.

The girls then get sent home and Patty gives the unblessed ring back to Nicholas without letting on that she's unblessed it, fine. But because the girls have now time travelled, Patty and Penny realise that they have to preserve the order of events that led to them time travelling in the first place. Which means that when Phoebe is born they have to bind the girls' powers. Ok fine, they do that. They raise the girls with no knowledge of magic. Except, they're not stupid, they saw how the three girls looked at Patty and how they talked about Grams but not really about their mother, and they put together that Patty dies young. So Patty puts some entries in the Book, some messages for her daughters that she's not going to get to see grow up. Information that she'd rather give them in person but that need to be recorded somewhere for them because she won't be able to - like the Demon of Fear entry, or about magic around babies and so on. She doesn't know when she dies, but she figures it's got to be before Prue is a teenager because there's a different way you look at a parent you lost in your teens to a parent you lost as a child and because if Prue was a teenager then Phoebe was at least seven or eight and the girls would have something to say about her that proves who they are rather than just the wistful looks. And Penny keeps on raising the girls and doesn't do anything about Nicholas even though he keeps coming by, and she puts the vanquishing spell in the Book for when they need it, right by the spell they'd use to go back in time. And events play out like in canon.

The time travel being a closed time loop also neatly provides a further answer that isn't just "we were afraid" for why Patty gave up Paige rather than say, binding her whitelighter powers (like she did canonically) and pretending that she was the child of someone other than Sam (like maybe a one night fling with Victor, which, hey, that's how Phoebe was conceived, it could be true for Paige too!) or even just pretending that she was adopted from a different witch. Because the sisters clearly didn't know she had trouble with pregnancy and aren't very practiced witches, they came back in time to change the past and they didn't once mention a younger sister. There was no fourth daughter that time travelled, so either the three older daughters just left their younger sister behind when trying to stop Nicholas (which, unlikely), or they don't know she exists. So Patty takes the harder option of giving Paige up rather than the selfish one of keeping her and endangering all of her daughters because as previously mentioned, she's a very smart witch and figures out that this is a choice that she already made in the future her daughters travelled from.

But what about Grams wanting to strip their powers in "Pre-Witched"? You ask. Well that's easy, Grams knows she's ill, she looks at her granddaughters who look very much like the three time travellers she met and are about the same age as them too, and figures out that she's going to die soon. Now remember, she met the sisters after they'd already been Charmed for a while and only saw them as a united front that supported each other and were a pretty good team. She didn't see all the difficult growing pains they went through at first or how it took them a minute to get their shit together as a team. So she looks around at her granddaughters, who are not just a mess, but also cannot keep it together for five minutes, or even long enough to take a picture. And she comes to the conclusion that she must have messed up somewhere, that she changed something by accident and stopped them from becoming the tight-knit sisterhood that she saw in her past and she lets her doubts take over and stop her from listening to Patty, who has faith that they'll still pull together. And then, before she can go through with it, destiny strikes, and she dies, which kicks off the events that lead to Nicholas coming to the house and finding her dead and trying to kill her granddaughters who go back in time to stop him and end up causing the whole chain of dominoes that lead to them growing up without their powers and having to time travel in the first place.

Ta-da! Closed time loop. I'm probably forgetting some things, but this was basically a rant post about how not everything big and new about magic in the back half of Charmed is a continuity screw up or ass-pull ft. one of my favourite s1 episodes

…there's also a bunch more thoughts I have about Halliwell's time travelling in general and also specifically them meeting their parents/ancestors when they're young/not yet born and how there are a bunch of repeating patterns that keep popping up surrounding it, but again, that's a different post.

#charmed #that 70's episode #1x17 #patty halliwell #penny halliwell #grams halliwell #charmed ones #time travel #meta post #maybe also slightly a rant #i have so many thoughts on time travel in charmed #but also like this episode in particular bc like #this episode is literally the thing that kicks off the stuff in the start of the show #bc without it they wouldn't only be coming into their powers now! #and there's something about closed time loops thats just #i cannot describe how much i love this episode #and how much of the stuff that happens in this episode can be linked back to later #but also don't come in here and tell me that magic school is an ass-pull bc of this episode #bc this episode answers the q of that in and of itself long before magic school was invented #i can and will happily die on this hill istg #this episode is basically a love letter to the concept of self-fulfilling prophecies #that cause the very action they tried to prevent #which #there's also a really interesting thing about how phoebe's power links in to that #but that's a different post

[acacia-may]

Heyo! I saw that you love A Series Of Unfortunate Events and that's so cool, I love it too but sometime I have the feeling it's not well-known. Question, what do you think about the adaptations, the film with Jim Carrey and the Netflix series? Personally, I like them too, but I also understand why they're not for everyone's taste, which is fair. I'm just someone who loves books, film and show of this series, so I always wonder how it's for others.

Hello there! Thank you so much for the ask! I so rarely get ASOUE asks so this is really special and very exciting to me! 🥰

I do love A Series of Unfortunate Events (I also enjoyed All The Wrong Questions). ASOUE was such a big part of my childhood and something I've gone back and reread several times in my life, and I've always gotten something new out of it which I think is the mark of an incredible story. It was also something I got to share with my two sisters, so it's special to me in that way as well. I'm much older than both of my sisters, and my youngest sister and I are nearly 10 years apart in age, so it was kind of difficult to find things that we all could enjoy together, especially when they were young. However, we read ASOUE aloud when my youngest sister was old enough to understand/enjoy the series and also in preparation for the Netflix series which was scheduled to be released, and she just loved it and we had so much fun reading it together. I tried my best to do all the voices... (I remember I could never quite get Book Olivia/Madame Lulu's and kind of butchered my way through Book 9 😅). When they were very young, my sisters wanted to have these imaginary "VFD meetings," and it was a very silly game but always so much fun to get to play at that with them. [And to this day, my one sister's nickname in my phone is actually still "Jackalope" as a very meme-like reference to her always being the "Jacques"]. Anyway, I have so much love for that series and a lot of good memories related to it. 💕

Long story short: I have an appreciation for the ASOUE adaptations since I think it's a very difficult story to adapt due to the fact there is barely any, actual "canon" information, and I especially liked a lot of Netflix's interpretation of the series. However, they are all very separate things in my head (so it's almost like I've got a "Book Lemony," "Netflix Lemony" and "Movie Lemony" in my mind, just for an example). My ramblings about the adaptations got so long and are riddled with spoilers so I am putting them under the cut!

(Warnings: Spoilers for all iterations of ASOUE and mentions of death, murder, & trauma)

As far as the adaptations go, I think that the nature of ASOUE makes incredibly difficult to adapt in any medium. Lemony is an incredibly unreliable and biased narrator, and the canon is often (purposefully) ambiguous, contradictory, and riddled with plot holes, which makes for a great story in which the reader really gets to take the reigns and, in a way, "make the canon" whatever they want it to be. It's such a different experience because we/the readers, honestly just don't know so many things about the story, the world, and the characters so it's up to everyone to kind of "play detective" and essentially create a canon of their own--but, at the end of the day, that "canon," as each individual reader perceives, is probably 20% actual canon and 80% headcanon (and that's being generous). So for me it's difficult to judge the quality of an adaptation of this story because I really view a lot of my personal perceptions and understanding of the series as my headcanons rather than the actual canon so my perception of the tv show and the movie is really just me comparing Netflix's headcanons or Nickelodeon's headcanons to my personal headcanons, if that makes sense? And in that way, like you said, I can completely understand why one or both of them would not be to someone's taste.

I personally see both adaptations as separate things from the book series and will often talk about certain characters as like "Netflix Kit" or "Book Kit" and things like that. They really are that separate in my mind. Overall though, I really enjoyed the Netflix series and was really happy with a lot of what Netflix did. I did not go into it expecting a lot because I just figured that my interpretations were going to be different than theirs, but I was extremely surprised by how similar the portrayals of a lot of the characters were to what I was imagining in my mind. Esme especially was just phenomenal--everything I had ever imagined her to be like! The children (both the Baudelaires and the Quagmires) were great! I loved a lot of the guardians/supporting cast: Monty, Josephine, Georgina, Vice Principal Nero, Hal, Justice Strauss, Carmelita Spats...I can't even list all the people. It was just so well-casted across the board!

And even characters who were different than what I imagined in my mind were really wonderful! I really liked the portrayal of Netflix Fernald for instance--he was much more likeable, and I loved that friendship he had with Sunny (and how that hinted at his own relationship with his (long-lost) younger sister). Netflix Count Olaf is another example of a character who I feel much more positively about in the Netflix series than in the books. Overall, I think Neil Patrick Harris's Count Olaf was a much closer interpretation to how I personally imagine Count Olaf than Jim Carrey's Count Olaf. Netflix Olaf was definitely, ultimately much softer and more sympathetic than I how I imagine Book Olaf, but I think overall Harris did a good job of treading that fine line of being a very melodramatic villain but also being actually threatening and menacing. I can really appreciate how difficult that must have been because Olaf is such a very complex character and I can see why he wouldn't be an easy one to portray. And of course, Netflix Olivia is basically an entirely different person but a very amazing person!

Which reminds me, I know that Jacques gets thrown out a lot as a character whose Netflix interpretation didn't quite match up to what people were imagining, but for me (and this was probably the most shocking because I always felt like the odd one out when it came to my personal interpretations of Book Jacques), Netflix Jacques was very, very similar to what I imagined his book counterpart to be like so I was feeling very excited and very vindicated that I wasn't the only one who imagined in that way. I think the most radically different (besides Olivia of course) was probably Ernest, but we know basically nothing about him so I don't have a problem with Netflix Ernest. For all we know, Book Ernest could secretly be an evil cowboy and lasso someone and boil them alive in curry--but my personal interpretation of Book Ernest is that he would not have done that. But I recognize that's all headcanons so I don't really have a criticism there.

Besides with Ernest (who was much more of a coldblooded killer than I what I was imagining), I think most of the changes in the Netflix universe painted the characters in a much more positive and sympathetic way than what I was imagining in my mind. Netflix made them less broken, less traumatized, less morally dubious, and ultimately much more well-adjusted than what I had been imagining based on the books. I think Netflix Lemony and Netflix Kit are both good examples of this. Neither one of them are nearly as jaded in Netflix as they are in my interpretation of their book counterparts. I love them as characters--have always loved them so I want these good, happier things for them. I want a universe for Kit where she gets to hold Little Bea before she dies. I want a universe for Lemony where he gets to reconnect with his sister one last time. And yes, though I realize that most interpretations (including my own) of Book Kit Snicket would have never, ever, ever in a million years been on board with jumping ship on VFD when she got pregnant and running away to island to the raise the baby away from all that, I still want that universe. I still want that universe where things are a little less bleak and a little more hopeful, so I feel I am very biased in that way because in a certain sense, I was grateful that Netflix gave us a happier, more hopeful world for these characters that I loved.

Overall though, despite the differences, I think Netflix ASOUE was made with care. I got this feeling while watching it and squealing over the little details and references to all parts of the Snicket-verse that the people who made it and were involved in bringing this story to life really, genuinely cared about the source material. They were forced to pick an interpretation and though that interpretation might not be exactly like mine, I can respect that they picked theirs with thought, effort, and care because they loved this series. And it was really such a delight to get to experience an adaptation that was made by people who clearly have as much love and passion for this series as me, if not more.

I'm not as fond of the movie. I feel like it missed the mark in terms of the macabre sense of humor of the series and was more tonally uneven than what Netlflix made. I did love the portrayals of the children in the movie--especially Klaus. Movie Klaus's sass was just top-tier. I loved watching his faces in the background! They're hilarious! But they didn't give him glasses (at least not ones he wears all the time), and the movie is just kind of full of little things like that that just kind of miss the mark for me. I wasn't a big fan of Movie Olaf either--I felt that he was too goofy and not threatening enough as a villain, but I did love Movie Monty. He's such a sweetheart, but Netflix Monty was just as good. The same with Movie Lemony versus Netflix Lemony. Jude Law and Patrick Warburton kind of played into different aspects of Lemony's character so they're very different portrayals but both still good.

My favorite thing about the movie by far, however, is the soundtrack. I have owned it for years, and I still listen to it all the time. I was just listening to "The Letter That Never Came" last week, actually, when I was working on my piece for the Wicked Way Exchange. I just love the music! It's gorgeous and fits better with the tone of my interpretation of the series than probably anything else in the movie. I grew up with this movie, so I think there is some nostalgia there, but if I wanted to watch or recommend an adaptation of ASOUE, I'd definitely choose Netflix.

Thanks again for the ask and for indulging my ramblings! Feel free to drop by to talk about the Snicket-verse anytime! 🥰

#asoue #a series of unfortunate events #snicketverse #asoue books #asoue netflix #asoue asks #thanks for the ask anon! #acacia's ramblings #answered anons

[official-kenralie-fanbase]

oh! now that i can send you pictures!! i can show you the coolest thing that has ever happened to me in fandom

i made a post pointing out how much sense it would make for Sophie to have a twin and when @lusilver001 was really interested and drew these when i was infodumping my ideas about her last summer.

@daydream-draws also drew Josie and Sophie after Lu did

these drawings are the MAIN reason that this Au is a real thing, i probably would have taken forever to actually see if people where interested because i kinda thought the idea was dumb, because i’ve had the idea since i was 16ish and it was a very dumb self insert at first.

every-time i got discouraged and would drop the twin Au for a while. i would eventually remember that people drew art for my unwritten Au and it would bring back the want to make it exist. because people obviously liked it too, and i wanted to create something that people would enjoy and want to read.

i’ve gone come back to the au several times, every adding more details. more recently it has come back MUCH stronger than it has in a while, i figured with some help from @crymeariveronceagain how Sophie would find Josie (which was a HUGE struggle and the main reason it was dropped so many times) and what the plot would be (still kinda stuck so i’m focusing on characters atm) but i’m actually going to write it now.

it’s probably not gonna be written until next year because it’s supposed to be the length of a novel, i want it to be good and i need to actually be able to write something that long. 

i’m also trying to figure out how to fit The Rot in there (i made up an deadly elf fungal infection) i’ll tag you in it

Oh my goodness that is so amazing!!! Wow, that art is so cool, I know if anyone ever drew my OC I'd just... spontaneously combust from happiness so that is just amazing.

It's so cool how other people's interest in your AU helped you maintain interest in it! I love how supportive people can be of each other, especially in each other's projects like this. Feel free to ask me questions about it at any time :) I can't wait to see the finished product, I've been thinking about it a lot since you started talking about it to me, so whatever help you need (plot holes or ideas or whatnot) I'd be willing to help!

And how dare you mention a cool piece of worldbuilding without telling me anything about it?!? I mean that in the best possible way, The Rot sounds super interesting, and working it into the AU would be amazing

#twin! sophie au #thanks for the ask! #you have been frizzled

[furiousobservationtragedy]

Bnha has some serious Male Gaze issues

I used to love bnha but now it feels like it is one of the shows which you think are very cool but as you grew up it gets filled with plot holes and many more

If you are trying to make a scene with dramatic tension then it's not helpful for a character to have some fun service which servers nothing to the plot in any way, Momo's costume can be done correctly but the author refuses to and I have seen better design which looks so much better than whatever she has it going?

it almost feels like the poor excuse of the author and I Just can't...because if you are going to make a character like momo with her quirk then at least make it logical because no way that costume can be easy to wear and run in the you require a lot of running and let's not talk about the lack of characterization they get.

Take Maki from JJK she has a impact on plot, has good characterization and is well written and had a bit of fan services when she did the split in a scene, the author can write Female character perfectly unlike someone else.

I want to say this for a very long time...Geez.

For anyone concerned with spoilers, I’ll only mention events until the school festival arc. I will also be referencing the anime instead of the manga, since that’s the media I have watched recently.

Shounen anime tends to fall into the trap of focusing more on its male characters over their female ones due to their target audience being teenage boys, and unfortunately, Boku no Hero Academia is no exception. While it does have its empowering moments with the girls/women of the show, such as Uraraka’s fight with Bakugou, a lot of the plot arcs gave more focus to the male characters, and it would be dense to defend BNHA from sidelining, sometimes even sexualizing its female cast.

Starting off let’s talk about certain costumes of female heroes, especially those of Midnight and Momo Yaoyorozu. Midnight is introduced as the ‘R-Rated Hero’, and her costume is used to reflect the identity she presents herself with. You might say that this is empowering, showing that women can dress sexily and however she wants without caring about the criticisms of others.

Unfortunately the only reason she was shown to be an 18+ hero is to show suggestive shots of her through a very problematic boy’s (a whole different topic) perspective, and I hate to admit it, but I find her character rather shallow. Midnight is shown to be a good teacher, but I can’t think of any defining moments for her other than showing appreciation for the youth of the school (using comments that can be taken as creepy at worst), using her quirk to either test her students or prevent them from getting too violent in a fight (which is pretty cool and I wished it’s used more in actual battles and not in school exams), and helping them pick their names.

Overall, my impression of her character ranges from ‘Oh, she exists’ to ‘Wasn’t she the weird suggestive teacher that was definitely used for fanservice?’ I heard there’s a spin-off manga that introduces her in her school years as a hero in training herself, but if we do get more of a glimpse into her personality there, I wished it carried to the main story instead of having to read a whole other story to understand her character better.

My next complaint is Momo Yaoyorozu. Being a classmate of Izuku’s, she receives more screentime than Midnight, so thankfully we have more of her character to go on either than ‘she’s just there’. You probably have heard of this thousands of times but my main problem is with her costume. It’s not practical for combat or even quirk usage, because nobody can convince me that costume is better than an open back costume, which would provide a much more suitable way to create larger items that wouldn’t rip her clothes apart.

In fact, in the USJ training arc, there was a moment where Momo used her quirk to create a blanket protecting her and Jirou from Denki’s electricity quirk, and to do so, she has it produced from the back of her body, thus ruining her hero attire into shreds. Momo then excuses herself, saying that she could just use her quirk to make new clothes to cover herself. Let’s say that she’s in a similar scenario where she has torn up her clothes again, and she used her quirk to replace her clothes, only this time she has to repeat the process frequently, and every time she uses her quirk to mend her hero costume, it adds on to the danger of overusing her quirk. Momo’s revealing costume does not help her make full use of her quirk. If anything, it limits it.

And of course, the entire design itself sexualises Momo, a 15 year old minor, and even if that was not the writer’s intentions, people (and yes, such disgusting people exist) will see her in an inappropriate light, and more tact should have been shown to avoid that. I am tired of the It’s just fiction! argument. Fiction does affect reality to an extent, and even grown-up adults would blur its lines from time to time.

I also heard the argument of how it would be very likely that Momo would become a R-Rated hero like Midnight, hence why her hero design appears to be so. To that, I respond with that’s absolutely not true, and if it does happen, it would go against what had been built up for Momo’s character. We were shown her internship where all she did was advertise beauty products with her status as a hero and looks, and she was CLEARLY unsatisfied with that. Do you really think that she will be like Midnight, a hero who uses her beauty and sex appeal to make herself more well known?

There’s so much more to talk about the costume department, especially with characters like Mount Lady, and the problems with BNHA’s female cast are greater than this particular area. A few of the points that anon mentions actually reminds me of some well made videos on YouTube addressing this problem more in detail, so here’s their links if you would like to check out more on this topic:

#anon ask #answered #bnha #mha #boku no hero academia #my hero academia #mha critical #bnha critical #momo yaoyaruzo #midnight bnha

[emustockings]

handful of worldbuilding tips

Probably the most important: explain your ideas to somebody else. On the one hand, it works like how computer programmers will talk to rubber duckies--the act of explaining it aloud will both solidify your ideas and help you naturally notice holes in your own logic. I highly recommend taking it one step further though and talking it out to an actual person because they’ll naturally ask questions to learn more and might lead you in directions a reader would be interested in that you plum didn’t even start to think about.

Research better not harder. As a writer, you’ll probably be interested in the first-hand experiences of your characters, so oftentimes you’re not researching what’s there as much as you’re trying to figure out what it’s like. Tailor your research accordingly. For example, if I’m researching blacksmithing because my character is a blacksmith, it’s less valuable for me to just find lists and lists of dates or materials and more valuable for me to look for actual accounts of blacksmithing, historical recreations, and different methods throughout history.

Why is your world the way it is? What is your worldbuilding doing for the story? Here’s something that might be a little counterintuitive... Obviously, the real world doesn’t always have A Reason for things to happen, but you’re not creating an actual world here. You’re telling a story, and the glimpses we see of your world will be confined to that story. Therefore, it’s helpful not to just throw out worldbuilding randomly for the sake of only creating a world that’s servicable--instead, tailor the way your world works to emphasize the story you’re telling, its themes and its characters. Treat the world like it’s a character too. Readers will be a lot more forgiving of potential holes in worldbuilding or plot if it all has an internal logic or aesthetic or emotion that makes sense to them, that ultimately still serves the story anyway.

If you’re gonna use fantasy or sci fi metaphors to explore a problem in our own world, please actually understand how that problem works LOL This is a huge pet peeve of mine... You don’t HAVE to write a political story if you aren’t actually interested in politics (and therefore know nothing about them cough). If you need themes, you could just as easily write closer to what you actually know or care about, like the experiences of individual characters or, idk, mycology or whatever niche thing you’re into. Even if it’s a made-up world you should still be writing about what you care about most if you want the story to shine authentically.

It’s helpful to know more about your world than will actually appear in the story. If you know the hows and whys of your world you can play in it more comfortably and with a greater sense of consistancy. That doesn’t mean you need to explain everything you know--in fact, it’s helpful to focus only on what’s relevant to the story. Your reader won’t get everything you’ve got, and that’s ok. That’s normal. Practice discernment to keep things tight.

Sometimes you gotta trust The Cool Factor. “There’s no reason for this giant monster to look like this... but it’s super cool.” Keep it. It’s cool!!!! Everybody loves cool shit!!!!!

#writeblr #writing #tips n tricks

[77angelnumbers77]

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ How I organize my Drive!

Do you have a hard time finding projects you started? Do you have 1000 documents called "Untitled Document"? When was the last time you closed all those writing tabs?

I'm going to share how I sort my Drive. Alright, so to begin with, I hate sorting by genre, pairing, whatever within my Drive. It just gets too granular! I use 4 folders (well, 5 if you count the umbrella folder).

As follows:

I feel like a genius for devising this system. I'm going to explain each of these folders in more detail below.

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ Concepts

This is for 1-2 sentence snippets of text that I think of when I'm out and about. I get an idea, I open a doc and write it down. Observe:

What you see is what you get! The docs themselves don't involve much more than what the title has to offer.

These work for all sorts of things! See:

Writing prompts for when you're blocked

Little moments to incorporate in your longer fics

Just getting a half-baked idea out of your head!

Why shouldn't you keep an idea in your head? Mostly because you'll probably forget it. Things happen in life! You could be thinking about nothing but your fic and still forget some detail you thought up when you were out and about.

In my case, this means . . . a plethora of terrible Christmas puns. But I'm still glad I wrote them down, because frankly I have no memory of creating this document.

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ Abandoned

I'm skipping a step here, but I want to go in order of the screenshot 😭

Do you ever write something and realize it just doesn't resonate with you anymore? Or that it has too many plot holes? If you've ever abandoned a fic for whatever reason, I encourage you to have a folder for abandoned fics. My rule of thumb is to never delete old work. Why? Lots of reasons!

Older work shows your progress! Something that gives me a big self esteem boost is going back and reading older works to see how I've grown as a writer. There is value in preserving the timeline of how you got to where you are now!

There will always be bits worth saving. Maybe most of the fic is garbage, but there's a little snippet in there that could be recycled for a newer piece. Maybe the characterization is particularly good. Maybe you coined a word that you don't want to forget about! Every piece has something to offer, even if it never sees the light of day.

Having a place to store old work can be just as valuable as having a place to store your concepts.

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ WIP

Short for work in progress. This is the folder for everything between concept and completed!

Actually, a lot of these follow the same format as the concept folder for me.

The biggest difference is length! Most of these don't even have titles. A good majority of them are <1000 words, which is my minimum publishing length, with no coherent plot. Most of these will never be published, but that's okay! The time I spend on them makes me a better writer, and I have fun.

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ Complete

This is genuinely just a hall of fame for me.

Not all of these are published, and some of them never will be, but I think it's nice to remind myself that I am able to finish things. Writing takes a while, and it can be thankless, but putting pride in your achievements makes it easier to write long-term.

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ Naming Conventions

One more thing! You may notice I don't have any documents with the default title. You may also notice a lot of my placeholder titles are overly descriptive. This is just to make it easier for me to find things! Two or three words to jog your memory is endlessly better than this:

Where is the soul? What's in it? Should I be scared?

Do yourself a favor and write a quick title. It doesn't have to be the final working title! It's a placeholder that can be changed at any time, and it'll save you a lot of time that could be used for writing.

Alright, well, I think that's it! Thanks for reading this far. I hope this helps someone! Happy writing ♥️

#txt #fic progress #writeblr #organization #guides

[letstalkabouttvshows]

RNM episode titles and how they connect to the episode

DISCLAIMER: This is my take on them, ok? It's my point of view of what we got so far and what I think the other ones will be.

4x01: Steal my sunshine

The colorful storm that brings upon the season's new drama.

4x02: Fly

The alien-gooed bugs fly into specific locations and create the drama for the episode (Malex's argument and Alex's disappearance, for instance).

4x03: Subterranean homesick alien

Heavily focus on the new aliens that are homesick. Or at least, some of them are.

4x04: Dear Mama

Mimi's death triggers Dallas and Maria's plot.

4x05: You get what you give

Tezca and Max handprint power battle. Clyde and Michael exchanging "trust" and holograms from home.

4x06: Kiss from a rose

Bonnie's kiss that takes away alien abilities.

-------

4x07: Dig me out

[There's only one character that's currently underground, so I'm guessing this will have to do with Alex somehow. Probably them finding out Tezca buried or vanished with him]

4x08: Missing my baby

[I think something related to Shivani's daughter and that whole plot. Also, we know it's gonna be Malex heavy too, which I'm assuming has more to do with Michael dealing with Alex's current whereabouts than them actually reuniting]

4x09: Wild wild west

[I'm guessing it's because part of the gang will be in Mexico to track down Ally and get some needed answers? God, I hope so. We need solutions HAHA]

4x10: Down in a hole

[I think it's when we get to see where Alex has been this whole time]

4x11: Follow you down

[Well, my best guess is the gang finally rescuing or trying to rescue Alex from wherever hole, dimension or whatever he's in]

4x12: Two sparrows in a hurricane

[My guess is the showdown between the triads while the alighting thing fully completes. I mean, the hurricane is ominous enough when the alighting began with a storm].

4x13: How's going to be

[I truly think we'll get a flashforward in the end and I believe this will be an episode with a lot of closure for the characters]

#malex #echo #kybel #roswell new mexico #rnm #rnm spec #rnm speculation #rnm season 4 #alex manes #michael guerin #liz ortecho #max evans #isobel evans #kyle valenti

[waeirfaahl]

Gradually I myself became... the dragon (c)

That was a line from the animated short “The dragon” I knew since my childhood. This simple but powerful cartoon was about how even the purest and the most noble heart can be corrupted by absolute power, turning a hero into the evil he wanted to defeat. Keep in mind.

I always found the idea of Jack becoming immortal interesting and illogical at the same time in 5 season. In 6 episode of 3 season in the final scene, Jack from the distant future looks much older than in 5 season, and he has a few gray strands of hair and more rough face, i.e. he indeed ages. Not to mention about comics, which perfectly developed and showed not only this episode with this detail, but also Jack’s decision to stay in the future and the power of Jack’s noble soul. How is it all connected with what we see in 5 season? Might I remind you, in 5 season Jack’s immortality was explained not as “He became immortal, because all time portals are destroyed, so he has no ties with his era anymore”, but as “He traveled in time, so that’s why he doesn’t age” (it makes no sense, since Aku couldn’t know about this effect — unless he somehow and for unknown reasons experimented with it, using mortals). 

5 season created lots of plot holes and contradictions, including time paradox. For example, if we look at the early ending of 5 season. When Jack returned to the past, he changed the future, literally destroying this future with all his friends (well, it’s actually Ashi’s fault, not Jack’s). Why he did not disappear with Ashi, if his past version already was sent to Aku's future, which is already destroyed and doesn’t exist (including also Ashi, all habitants of this future, the time portals and other ways for Jack’s past version to return to the past and to defeat Aku, who is already defeated even before past Jack’s arrival in Aku’s future)? Why didn't the paradox happen? By this logic they both should be erased from existence.  Let’s return to Jack’s immortality. He again traveled in time. So, his immortality disappeared or not? Is Jack still ageless or he is again mortal? And if he is immortal, maybe he will become the one his past version will fight with in the future? After all, he has every chance to become a tyrant, obsessed with purity, protecting and virtue (in his eyes). Especially considering the ideology in which he grew up, and the future in which he lived almost all his life. And he has all rights to revenge to those three alien gods for his lost lady friend (no matter how much I despise Ashi as a character, it's a nasty act of the gods not to help Jack in any way after everything he's been through because of them — I think, they actually could bring her back to life).

Let’s see the new canonical ending, shown in the official game (which also had lots of contradictions and plot holes, but it’s another story). If in 10 episode the context about Aku’s death (i.e. Aku died for some reason instead of becoming imprisoned in the stone tree again), in the ending of the game we see apparently hinting the end of Ashi’s long infection by demonic blood (i.e. she’s a human indeed, not some demonic mutant or hybrid or whatever) and probably the loss of all those sudden superpowers from nowhere. They both traveled in time, they both alive and live happily in the past (hence no paradoxes, but if the future with Jack’s friends is still exists, Aku clearly is pissed off and kicks their butts to death — and since there’s no paradoxes, Aku can travel to the past and prevent Jack’s birth, killing all his family and destroying the sword — I could say, if he didn’t die in the time pocket Between-Time). So...  if Jack is still immortal ‘cause of time-travelling, does it mean that Ashi is immortal too?

Maybe Jack from the past will fight against the two dragons. Because endless ruling and absolute power always corrupt and destroy. It is a bad idea to depersonalize evil, because in this case we will not be able to discern it in ourselves.

#samurai jack #aku samurai jack #samurai jack theories #aku #ashi samurai jack #ashi

[wahbegan]

The Outwaters

So this movie is no Skinamarink, but it has been getting a fairly decent amount of buzz, especially on shit like tiktok, for basically the same reasons.

Experimental film, challenging and/or frustrating cinematography depending on your point of view, ambiguous cosmic horror with no clear answers, everyone thinks it's either God's gift to the genre or a pretentious pile of shit

The way i see it is uhhh....a little bit of both? Conceptually, it's not as disturbing a film as Skinamarink, nor does it rely so heavily on the psychological horror, it goes a much more violent, gory, in-your-face kind of route.

The other key difference between Skinamarink and The Outwaters is that Skinamarink has almost no plot set-up and immediately goes about building (or trying to build) tension. The Outwaters, by contrast, is roughly the same length as Skinamarink, but the first hour is nothing but set-up.

Which frankly does get a bit boring without Skinamarink's eye for creepy shots or like The Blair Witch Project's tension naturally building between the cast, it's just kind of an hour of these kids fucking around on their way to film a music video.

A music video for a song, by the way, which was VERY transparently written for the sole purpose of being repeated creepily at the end of the film, cause sister you have a very nice voice but what the fuck are those lyrics? Y'all really thought that song was going somewhere?

But i digress. The point is none of the characters are particularly interesting and aside from a few brief lil bits of foreshadowing, neither is the action or the cinematography.

What the film is GOING for, clearly, is verisimilitude. They have an hour of just fragmented shots of the kids fucking about to create the illusion of raw footage in order to draw you into their world so you're immersed when the shit hits the fan.

I can understand why it works for some people, but it just didn't really grab me the way that y'know again The Blair Witch Project did. There just wasn't that chemistry or naturalism in the dialogue.

But let's get to the shit hitting the fan, because that's why i ended up giving it three and a half stars on letterboxd when the first hour would barely warrant a two.

It is very confusing, it's an abstract mood piece of just horrible suffering and violence more than anything else, and its lil cinematography gimmick is that it's all shot at night with nothing visible but whatever the cameraman's flashlight is illuminating. This flashlight having roughly the same effect as a light being shined through a hole cut in the sheet, or a pinhole camera, or a penlight, or maybe a little light-up toy you'd get in a fucking happy meal, you get the idea.

That will probably piss off most potential viewers. It sure as hell pissed off the person i watched it with, and i must confess i wasn't the BIGGEST fan of it, either.

In spite of that, though, it does manage to be quite effective. What you can see is evocative of (gotta give the shout-out to the friend i watched it with for pointing this out) early Silent Hill games and is gnarly as fuck. But more importantly, the sheer level of suffering the actors are portraying goes a longer way towards disturbing you than anything you actually see.

They all seem to regress and start acting like children the more they suffer, which is one of my absolute most hated harrowing things in horror, something i absolutely cannot fucking stand to watch so that made it a lot more personally effective for me

So yeah, it did make me genuinely depressed and uncomfortable after i finished watching it. Not to mention the last 5 minutes or so are in broad-ass daylight and contain one of the most grotesque scenes in recent film history, so that was a lovely change of pace.

I'll say this about it, it's like Skinamarink in that it's best going into it with a certain set of expectations. It may even be i need to watch it again like i did with Skinamarink to properly appraise it, and i probably will at some point, but it's also a lot harder to find online so tbh i can't be arsed. It's not THAT good a movie

Anyway, just don't go in expecting answers. There are clues they give you as to the kind of fuckery that may or may not be going on, but that's really not the point.

The POINT is to get lost in these characters' world and then have them helplessly subjected to a level of abstract and uncontrollable suffering that will keep you up at night.

It's experimental, it's a gamble. For some people, it'll work great, for some people it won't. I'm not totally sure how to say which camp you'll fall into, but y'know....if you really really enjoyed Skinamarink and are also a fan of both found footage and gratuitous splatter violence, i'd say that you are the target audience.

#The Outwaters #reviews

[inkofamethyst]

July 24, 2023

Learning, learning, learning, learning, learning. Learning how to let go of things I can't control. Learning that not having control doesn't mean the thing will turn out badly. Learning, learning. Relinquishing, slowly.

I am the youngest of my cohort. Straight from undergrad. That doesn't necessarily bother me on its own (it means I'll have cool people to look up to and learn from!!), but I think one of the major disadvantages is that, as much as I try to hide it, I don't really have "real world experience." There are several lessons about creating personal boundaries and asserting myself in appropriate times and knowing when to just keep quiet and so many other soft skills like that which I'm still learning. Sure, I learned a lot in undergrad, but I also experienced a significant chunk of undergrad under the shadow of covid. Indoors, avoiding people. So I try to carry myself as an adult but when I make a mistake along the lines of those lessons it makes me feel like a child.

The trouble with moving, for me, is that I sometimes look for things that I hope I'll start to use in my "new life" which ultimately just leads to bloat. Maximalism is cool and all but only up to the point that everything has a real, unimagined purpose (even if that purpose is just decor; uplifting the spirit is a real and unimagined purpose (which is 1000% why I will be looking for fake plants to sit all around the place)). So for me, I've had the urge to look into a few makeup items and I'm also thinking about purses and shoes all of which I've generally been pretty minimal with for the past several years. And I mean it's not like I'm looking to go full beat-faced or whatever it's called, but maybe just some items to.. gently accentuate certain features. Like my eyes, or something. I dunno. I think I am In The Mood to Buy right now because, starting September, I'm going to have to start actively keeping track of my money. I know buying things before moving is generally a poor idea, but I'm just gonna handwave all that advice away. I'll be fine. I'll go back to being fairly frugal a month or so into paying my own bills, I'm sure of it.

As much as I'd love to live alone for a year or two or three down the line (an old friend from way way back is doing a PhD in a less expensive city and whatever her stipend is has netted her an incredible solo apartment), I don't know if that's going to be feasible to do in my city, even if I managed to save a little. It's not even like I need a ton of space or anything (nor do I want a dump shoebox), but living within a reasonable walking distance to the uni (which I'd like to do for the first two years, at least, to be close to classes) is not cheap. I'd have to move fairly far out to get a place within my budget. Maybe maybe maybe.

My Enterprise-D model should be here soon and I'm so anxious about it. Assuming it comes in good condition, it's going to look so good next to my globe. Since I probably can't drill holes in the apartment, I'm thinking about getting a desk hutch or a teeny shelving unit or a desk with attached shelves where I can display the globe and starship and fake plants next to some of the books I plan to have (mostly academic). I think I may try to thrift some bookends.

Saw Across the Spiderverse in theatres and man that was a good movie. The plot, the characters, the animation, the music, the ~cameo~, all fantastic. [edit: not just fantastic, but it felt like a breath of fresh air to the superhero genre, so comic-book-y, just lovely] I'm excited for the next one!!!

Today I'm thankful that this is the last week of this class. I calculated my hourly rate based on the amount of time I spend on this class and the flat rate stipend I get, and it's over $25 an hour!! Last winter I'm sure I spent more hours prepping, but now that I sort of know what I'm doing, it feels like a breeze in comparison.