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wildwren · 1 year

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Okay, so I watched 1899 this week and,,,, I’m actually gonna drive myself insane if I don’t get some thoughts out about it — like I’m not even saying these thoughts are deep or mind-blowing or extra special analyze-y or anything, I just need to write ‘em down so my brain can get some space because they're are currently chewing holes in the ol’ lobes. Anyway!

Warning: Spoilers for 1899, mild Dark slander, spoilers for Severance

I went into 1899 pretty excited. I love historical fiction, I love boat stories, especially boat disaster stories, I very much enjoyed Dark (although I would not call it a masterpiece or a perfect story or some of the other things people call it), I love watching shows that are not (entirely) in English. I love sinister mysteries/horror/surrealism, etc. Seemed like a pretty good vibe!

For me, Dark was a very enjoyable ride and certainly a good use of viewing hours, but I personally wasn’t entirely moved by the scale of its sci-fi premise. I found the central time-loop conceit and all its twisty convolutions ultimately less interesting than the character work they were doing, the ways in which they were using the sci-fi premise to explore character by placing different versions of the same characters in relation to each other and seeing how they responded. However, the writing suffered imo from a sort of over-ponderousness — long philosophical monologues delivered by disembodied voices extrapolating on the nature of reality and time, full needle-drop montages at the end of every episode which were sometimes emotionally impactful and sometimes not. And while I appreciate their choice to end it at 3 seasons instead of continuing the story interminably, when it was all said and done, it felt rather long-winded to me, as if an even shorter form and a more condensed structure might have actually served the story better.

Most of the critical reviews I’ve read of 1899 have been comparing it unfavorably with Dark, naming it as a failure to live up to the showrunner’s first big project, but I can’t say I agree. For starters, it’s hard to compare the two when Dark is complete and 1899 is not. But I’m pleasantly surprised by 1899’s attempts to correct the indulgences of Dark. There are essentially no ponderous monologues delivered by disembodied voices! Hallelujah! The needle-drop montages are still there and are still personally underwhelming for me, but they are quite punchy and short. The pacing feels much more spry (although some critics are calling it interminably slow? Disagree). The character work is still strong, but instead of focusing on a bunch of white middle-class teenagers and their parents in a comfortable suburb, it widens its scope to include a much greater range of experiences and stories. And it does so very effectively!

It’s the character work that hits the hardest for me. I was particularly impressed by the secondary characters in 1899 (by that, I think I mean everyone other than Maura, Daniel, Elliott). Each one of them felt richly drawn and complex, and their backstories were revealed by means of the sort of slow-building, situational exposition which keeps me engaged. Not one of these characters felt stock or rote, but were allowed to be fully real and messy, driving the failed loop narrative forward by playing out their own pain and suffering and love in compelling ways. The strongest of these stories for me was probably Tove and Krester — two siblings bonded by a shared trauma event and their desire to escape it, who nevertheless continually fail each other over the course of the story with heartbreaking consequences. A very close second was Ángel and Ramiro, who I originally worried would be reduced to “scummy gays” but whose relationship held so much complexity — at turns toxic, at turns tender — that I ugly cried at Ángel’s death. Ling Yi and Yuk Je were another pair of heartbreakers, and even Olek, perhaps the most uncomplicatedly “good” character in the narrative, carried a darkness with him that haunts me. What was going on with his brother? What happened in that oil drum? As for the Frenchies: I didn’t quite feel the chemistry between Jérôme and Clémence, but they were both lovely characters and Lucien had an enjoyable meow meow quotient as well. And more importantly, they had an effective arc: starting at a place of tension or outright hostility along every axis of their weird little throuple and evolving into a makeshift care dynamic by the end.

There was a special quality of tenderness to this writing which continues to effect me: the tone was neither grimdark disaster fic nor some cloying “saved by the power of love” message. There was a deep practicality to their attempts to band together and save each other as their numbers dwindled, which made their inevitable failures all the more heartbreaking.

I guess I’m writing all this out because a lot of criticisms I’ve seen of this show argue that the central premise made these characters defunct. That as soon as the nature of the simulation was revealed, their deaths and their suffering failed to have impact or meaning. I’m struggling to grasp this argument. I do agree that the last episodes favored the drama of Maura, Daniel, and Elliott, who I found perfectly serviceable as the A story, but ultimately less compelling than the secondary characters. I don’t really care that much about the big sci-fi premise reveals, and would have preferred for the secondary characters to remain in greater roles of agency, but I understand why that had to shift to serve the story they were telling. The scope of the sci-fi premise is SO big, requiring the narrative to zoom out a LOT in order to give us the reveals that they did by the end of the season. So yea, we were left at a certain distance from some of our characters.

But all of these characters are still very real — currently onboard the Prometheus spaceship (or in a B simulation, if you subscribe to that theory) — stuck in a world where they can only act out their trauma and never recover from it, where they can only hurt each other and then try, desperately, to save each other, and then FAIL. Where the love they have for each other is always just out of reach — unspoken or unconsummated or unrealized before its too late. I’m not sure how understanding that it’s a simulated loop makes that pain less impactful. But to each their own, I guess.

It’s at this point in this rambling, long-winded rant where I have to make the inevitable comparison to Severance. Spoilers for Season One of Severance! There are um … a LOT of similarities between this show and Severance. Both stories involve characters who are trapped in a sort of half life, separated from the full versions of themselves and the full stories of their own memories. We haven’t got confirmation of this for 1899, but it’s my suspicion that similar to the folks in Severance, these characters made a consensual choice, a choice to perhaps avoid or passively delete their own pain, which has now imprisoned them in a different sort of hell. Their actual life experiences in 2099 or wherever they really are (analogous to the Severance ‘Outies’) might take a different shape than the memories and traumas we saw play out on the ship (their ‘Innies’), but they’re two sides of the same coin (or perhaps three sides of the same triangle, tell me to shut up now please). Moreover, there are massive similarities between Maura and Helly R., both in their actual roles within the story and in the ways in which those roles are revealed by the narrative.

Given these similarities, I think, if anything, that 1899 accomplishes some things more effectively than Severance (someone’s probably going to fight me for this). My biggest gripe with Severance was how heavily it favored Mark’s narrative at the expense of everyone else and how much more interesting I found the other characters, particularly Helly, in contrast to him. 1899 essentially has the Helly character in the main role and in my opinion, draws its secondary characters in more satisfying ways than Severance was able to do given its framing choices. I’m not saying there aren’t some things Severance did better— I think Helly is a more fascinating character (so far) than Maura, and I find the subtlety of Severance’s premise more effecting than the grand cosmic gestures of 1899, but I think we need future seasons of both to determine how they pay off their character work.

Jesus fucking christ I’m going to stop talking now, if you read this, wow, I’d love to hear your thoughts, I’m literally bursting at the seams to talk about it so. Feel free to DM or drop me an ask. I will squeal. (unless you're an asshole)

(Also sorry I didn’t talk about Eyk like, at all, in this. I like him, he’s good, he’s interesting, I was deeply biased against him because the reuse of Andreas drove me crazy for some reason, so it was actually surprising to me how much I liked him. His character felt very different from Older Jonas. It worked!)

#1899 #1899 meta #1899 spoilers #i should say too the tone of this meta is mostly positive!#im into it!!

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adelle-ein · 1 year

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Lace's Engage Review: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly (minimal spoilers)

So I ended up deciding to get Engage shortly after it released, and I uh…have some thoughts about it. Far too many thoughts. As usual.

This is intended to be a spoiler-light review for those on the fence. There's pretty much no story spoilers, they all pertain to gameplay aspects. Also these are my opinions. They're subjective. You'll probably disagree with me. And I don't want to fight about it. Like at all. Okay? Okay.

Overall, I think the gameplay and general style puts me most in mind of the GBA games, with maybe a splash of 3ds-era (Fateswakening, that is, echoes is really more its own thing.) The general focus on the maps and battle, the feel of said maps, the game mechanics, the relative length and varied quality of supports, some characters being very gimmicky while others are more layered — it definitely doesn't feel like Three Houses, and it's more of a return to traditional FE form wrapped up in a strangely-colored package. The story is quite bad, but in a more "average FE story way" — some sweet moments, not a bad concept at all if a common one, but poor and very straightforward delivery. Alear is very Corrin-like in that they aren't the smartest and get largely worshiped just for breathing, which is definitely tiring, but they do actually have a consistent personality and characterization unlike Byleth. C-B supports are mostly (not all) for humor, but several A supports are surprisingly thoughtful and well-done. Unfortunately, the game falls down hard in what, for me, are a few key areas. Basically, maybe this is a three out of five stars? Something like that?

The Good:

Let be known, for starters, that I am a ~casual~ gamer. I'm bad at video games! Some of this is disability and some is just me! I like to play things on easy! So obviously my perspective will be different from someone playing the whole thing on maddening-classic-ironman-nuzlocke-yunaka solo-what have you. Also, I've played FE7-16, along with both Warriors games, played Heroes since day 1, and read/watched other people's playthroughs of 4/5/6. So those are my "qualifications"…so to speak.

Starting off: The graphics, character designs aside, are really very nice. Everyone is much more expressive, things are much smoother and less jagged than in 3h, and the environments and scenery are very pretty. The pre-rendered cutscenes look detailed and high-quality. The lighting is good and fairly dynamic, and textures are crisp and don't have that photoskinned look to them. Sommie is very cute, honestly. You can run around and explore the maps a little bit after battles, and it's clearly just a mechanic so the devs can show off how good the environments look. Honestly, they're very good! Cute, detailed (you can see inside buildings sometimes and they're fully furnished,) and well-designed. There's also some other cute and well-done details around the Somniel. For example, there's a ton of different models for the various cooking meals (I'm not sure I ever saw any reused? There's a LOT) and they look pretty nice considering you only see them for like ten seconds apiece. Also, I do think Three Houses had a prettier interface, but Engage's is much more comfortably readable with its font choices. Minor thing, but a good thing.

The maps and battle system are clearly the focus of the game, and the game continues to throw new things and gimmicks at you without feeling cheap or getting stale. The Emblems being used both by and against you contribute to this, but there's also some single-map gimmicks and returning ones, such as unique boss AI or moves, that add variety. Offensive staves, more varied weapons and maps, lots of fun ways to mix it up within the main story maps. Just the fact that bosses now have multiple HP bars, for example, adds a lot to gameplay and makes every map just feel like a unique challenge, which I haven't gotten from FE for a few entries now.

While the characters overall aren't quite as layered or deep as Three Houses's, some are genuinely very good, and many are likable in spite of that. Honestly, sometimes when Three Houses pulled out the "depth" card, it just ended up ruining a character for me (ie the Gonerils' child slaves that are never mentioned again…). There wasn't anyone in Engage that I hated at all, really, and that was refreshing. No womanizer character, no "racist but they feel bad about it," nothing like that. I enjoyed them a lot, I think they were fun and colorful (if perhaps maybe too literally colorful) and while a few were reduced to gimmicks, they weren't the majority, and nearly all show a lot of deeper motivation once you get digging. Sure, some of them bring up their hobbies too much, but uh, I'm one to talk. I think they were a fun, lovable cast overall, if perhaps not the ones with the most depth, but a good level of depth for what I personally want out of a Fire Emblem game. They also didn't feel clogged up with "filler characters" the way the earlier games sometimes do. You do get a few prepromotes thrown at you in lategame just in case, but no groups of four cavaliers with interchangeable personalities in case you fuck up and kill two. Everyone feels like they have a reasonable amount of characterization and care put into their writing, even the cast's weaker members, and the result is a generally memorable and likeable group.

While the supports aren't as long and many aren't as deep, they all go up to A, and a lot of them are just fun and enjoyable to watch. If you've only played Three Houses, or only like Three Houses's cast, then yeah, they'll feel weird to you, but if you do like the casts of older FE games, I don't think they're any worse than those (and frankly, they're better than some.) They're fun, some are quite creative, and I don't get any of the "ugh, we HAVE to include these" vibes that sometimes came across in Awakening and Fates. Those two games suffered from needing to include S options for almost every M/F combo, and Engage enjoys being freed from it. Characters are paired together because of their existing connections, traits in common, or because the writers just had an idea, and things flow very well. Overall, it feels like a throwback to FE6-10.

This is a personal note for me, but Three Houses felt like the writers had just discovered the concept of mental illness and wanted to use it as a crutch. Engage steps away from that, and for me personally, that's a huge improvement. After so many "hates: herself" characters, so much depression and anxiety that was portrayed downright callously or even cruelly, and the absolute nightmare of a parody that is Bernadetta, it was a relief to not open every support wondering in which way the writers were about to mock me. I know some mentally ill people liked the way characters were written in Three Houses. I am not one of them, and found it awful. I'm so glad they've decided to step away from their "PTSD is sexy, anxiety is funny, listen to characters tell you they stopped being suicidal because of [Player], listen to Bernadetta scream at the top of her lungs as wacky music plays because agoraphobia is a laugh riot" crusade.

The overall "throwback" feel of the game is genuinely nice. I had sort of missed getting to play what feels like a "regular" Fire Emblem. Personally I like it when the game varies formula, but it frustrates me when FE does two extremely similar games in a row (like how Fates tries really really hard to just be Awakening Again), and I was sort of expecting FE17 to be Three Houses Two (again, because Three Hopes is already that…). It was a pleasant surprise to find that Engage overall has its own identity while going back to basics with other aspects of the formula. I don't love everything that came from this (as you'll see below) but there were many things that I really enjoyed, mostly the actual gameplay itself and how fun it was.

As far as the main plot, in a spoiler free version: the idea was good, the execution was off. Pacing is kind of a mess, and the writers fail to give the deuteragonist and other significant secondary characters enough material and screentime to get you as attached to them as they clearly want you to be. This seriously drags down the whole thing. Take the exact basic concept, rearrange the ordering of the chapters and the priorities for screentime, maybe don't fight the Hounds QUITE as many times (it gets ridiculous by the fourth go around and you're still not done…) and certain scenes would hit a lot harder. The emotional core just isn't there because the pacing is so wonky. Parts of the script, animation, and voice acting also fall down at key moments (one character's scream of grief and rage just looks and sounds absurd.) I do like some of the messages, which break up the usual Fire Emblem narrative in key ways, and I don't think it's a terrible plot. It's just another mediocre one. I would personally rank it similarly to Binding Blade or Awakening, which is to say, unimpressive and predictable, but not horrifically bad or anything. It's a bit frustrating though, because I think it had the potential to be genuinely heartfelt, but unwillingness to provide any lore combined with really bad pacing combined with badly distributed screentime leads to kind of a mess. I have more detailed/spoilery thoughts on the plot here, but be warned, I SPOIL EVERYTHING.

The CGs are really well drawn and pretty-looking. Minor but true. The credits are really very nice, I enjoyed them and wish other FE games had something similar. The S-support CGs are not as well done, but the faces are not as, well…Bad as they are in 3h. I'll take it, basically. The rest of the CGs and illustrations are good though! The ally logbook and the little screenshots you unlock of the characters are also cute.

Also Sommie is admittedly adorable. I had to warm up to it but the way it follows you around the Somniel making its little footprint noises? Fucking precious. And hey, if you don't like it, you can just not feed it and it'll stay in its shrine so it won't bug you. Overall, the Somniel is very optional. I don't like minigames (and some of them are too painful for me with my health issues), so I didn't play any of them much, and that was totally fine and didn't slow me down. I personally see this as a plus. Also you can design a cute little card to hand out to anyone you do multiplayer with. With stickers! Lots of stickers!!

…If every aspect of this game had as much care put into it as that card designer, I would be rating it five stars. Alas.

The Bad:

The UI and quality of life features leave a lot to be desired. It is not easy to find or figure out how to do things in this game. For example, you can raise your bonds with Emblem Rings in the Arena area of Somniel, unlocking skills from them that you can then inherit. Great! But, uh...to inherit those skills, you have to go through a loading screen and travel to an entirely different area of Somniel, the Ring Chamber. I've spent a very long time traveling back and forth between the two as I unlock skills. It's a strange oversight, and one that is unfortunately repeated again and again all over the game. The menus are cumbersome, weird, and annoying, and sometimes really frustrating to navigate because there are just too many things going on in a single interface (The ring menu is just not enjoyable to use in my opinion.) Auto-equipping things sounds great until you realize it takes everything off your non-deployed units and the choices it makes are nonsensical. You don't have any kind of notification for support conversations being unlocked, and neither supports nor bonds are indicated as being available from menus either. If you're trying to win over a particular character with a pile of gifts, you'd better hope they randomly happen to spawn into Somniel, or you can sleep over and over until they do, because it's just luck of the draw. There's just a lot of weird, nagging little details that make things very cumbersome.

The thing that really bugged me, personally, is that Engage has no real way to fix up your lower-level units. Thanks to the royal/retainer setup from Fates returning, Engage throws a lot of characters at you very quickly throughout midgame. You can't use them all, so many have to hit the bench. Oh, but that's okay, right? There's skirmish battles infinitely respawning on the map, after all! Well...wrong. The level scaling for those skirmishes is based off the toughest members of your army, and is usually actually higher than whatever story chapters you currently have unlocked. Left Jean on the bench? He's staying there, since every enemy you can spawn for him to face will kill him by blinking. And the levels scale fast. Even sitting out a few maps can be terminal, as it was for my poor Yunaka. No matter how fun you might find some of the characters you skipped, you'll simply never get to use them. The modes in the Somniel are specifically set up to be anti-grind, and have limited uses...or don't gain EXP/supports/SP...et cetera. Weirdly enough, characters will also complain in this game if you don't use them, for some reason, since you can't actually do anything about that. Guess what, Panette, if I deploy you now you're going to immediately be Corrupted food, and there's nothing I can do to fix that.

This extends to every other traditional FE "grind." Other than a few potential exploits people have found, which are very, very slow, there is simply no way to reliably support grind with non-Alear units. Non-Alear units ONLY gain support points with each other by using staves on each other, eating meals or doing arena battles with each other, or...by defeating an enemy on player phase only and only with the units directly adjacent to them. And you can only have one mealtime between every two battles, not endlessly stuff yourself with different duos a la Byleth and Shez. Even with Corrin's support-gaining skill and regular mealtimes and arena battles, supports gain at a crawl. Gold runs out fast and the only way to get more is the miserably difficult, high-level skirmishes.

I have one massive file each in Awakening and Fates in which I have every single unit fully built, all their stats and A supports maxed, and full sets of skills (except for my least favorite units…), from both spamming reeking boxes and the DLC maps, all just for fun. That's not possible in Engage. Awakening/Fates didn't have NG+ because they didn't need NG+. Engage does. In Awakafates, you could, if you wanted to, have a fun, enjoyable postgame/lategame to collect everything and try completely wild combinations out. In Engage, there are a number of skills and builds and abilities that, while cool in theory, are just never possible to try in-game without insanely slow grinding. Finishing the support log is a nightmare ask and pretty much impossible in one file unless you are insanely devoted to having units healing each other with Micaiah's ring in the corners of high level maps for IRL days on end. It’s pretty much impossible to max all donation levels or collect all bond rings, because again, no NG+. This certainly doesn't matter to many players, but it does to me, so that's why I'm sharing. I wouldn't be surprised if we get some DLC maps designed to help fill this in a little, and personally, I think that sucks. Sure, the DLC maps in Fates/Awakening speed things up a lot, but they aren't absolutely necessary as you can still use map battles easily enough. If they add DLC grinding maps to Engage, they will be the only options available. Lame. Even if it’s a free patch, the game currently feels like it’s missing a basic feature. Withholding that for hype or money reasons is just obnoxious.

The throwback paralogues, meanwhile, are…kind of a slog for me. The Emblems make a fairly bland speech about their motivations and then fight you on a map designed to look like various random maps from their corresponding games (and I mean random — some of these choices were far from iconic and downright inexplicable. Why a random beach for Celica? Why is Sigurd on a Seliph map, albeit a well-known one? Why is Lyn's map from FE6 aaaaaaaaa.) While the gameplay on these maps is tight and challenging, that's pretty much where the well-done fanservice begins and ends. Actual characterization of the Emblems is few and far between, pretty much limited to Bond conversations. In the story proper, they're exposition bots.

The Ugly:

Just coming out to say it: God, these characters look so bad. Alear is hideous. The colors are all over the place and clash with each other horribly. The battle outfits are just eyesores (although the Somniel ones are generally improvements, you can't equip those in battle, so what's the point?) The job outfits are REALLY ugly (that sage outfit is goddamn hideous.) Nearly all the characters all have either Boy Face or Girl Face, and Girl Faces all look like they're about eleven years old. The weird medieval/modern/fantasy/??? mashup look doesn't work for me. Every non-pre rendered cutscene had girl Alear making her blank stupid blob face, and no matter what expression she made she just looked really weird. Her design is, for me, simply so weird and ugly as to be distracting at all times. Meanwhile, so many characters like Yunaka, Panette, and Hortensia are just downright distractingly bad looking. I can't take the face stickers or clown dresses seriously at all, and they're not even fun to look at. Orientalism, as usual, abounds in both some default outfits (Seadall is...so bad) and dress-up options. The artist was a poor choice for FE, but I don't think most of the blame lies at her feet — the choice itself was bad, and there's no direction to speak of when it comes to the overall look of the characters. Most of the countries don't appear to have any coherent cultural identity in clothing designs the way Nohr and Hoshido did, for example (barring Firene's passion for flowers and some recurring patterns among the Brodians.) If it weren't for the copy-pasted faces, many of them would look like they came from different games altogether. Even the generic soldiers look awful. It's disjointed and ugly. The entire design team fell down hard on this one.

The Emblems honestly leave a lot to be desired. Some aren't bad, but that blobby girl face doesn't really work for most of the female Emblems. Celica and Eirika's hair looks atrocious (do they have terrible bedhead or something?) and Leif just looks incredibly off in a way I can't quite define. Design-wise, this is a very bad looking game. Which is a shame, because all the animation upgrades now feel completely wasted on terrible designs.

And, of course, Fire Emblem gonna Fire Emblem: the S-supports are just a mess overall. The datamined ages don't appear to be present in the game proper, but based on the under-18s being made platonic in the NA localization, I'm assuming they're still canon. This means Alear is 17 and capable of marrying a number of people in their twenties and above, even in the localized version. To be fair, I think the localizers were fucked no matter what they did here. Leave in marriage to Anna and the game will rightfully be slammed. Take out every romantic relationship and the backlash will be incredible. But where do you draw the line for a 17-year-old dating a 15-19 y/o? There was just no way to win this one, and I guess going with 18 makes as much sense as anything. This is not me defending the original devs, who suck. This is just me thinking about how the localization team really just could not make any good choice here, thanks to the original game's fucked up "lol you can marry anyone" choices. Whole thing is gross all the way around. There's a pretty small handful of characters that are both left romantic and not creepy choices for Alear, so we're back in the same situation Fates and 3h left us in, where all the super popular avatar ships are just weird and unpleasant and people call you a monster for not liking them. Great, thanks a lot, intsys. All of this being said: the game itself really doesn't include these ages, and most people aren't even going to realize they're a thing. You need to go online to even find out. So who only knows why they exist to begin with (Anna etc romantic S-supports still gonna be real bad no matter what, though.)

And no, there's no romance or paired endings between non-Alear characters, just some vague non-explicit implications in certain a-supports, as per usual, because playersexuality is all that matters to anyone anymore. Let's all publish thinkpieces about how FE said gay rights or whatever though! Woo-hoo!

Verdict:

So, all that being said…Engage is really fun. It is also a hot mess and while the gameplay is overall strong, there are certain aspects that don't seem to have been thought through at all. Its greatest strengths are its map design and focus on core gameplay, but its weaknesses lie in quality of life and options for grinding and more casual fun. There's no postgame/ng+/etc whatsoever despite the game really needing it. And the designs look terrible. I personally don't think it was worth the $60 (maybe more like $40), and mostly decided to go ahead and buy it so I could lend it out to the family. Of course, your mileage may vary, but those are my full thoughts on the game as a whole.

Also don't ask me how it ranks in the series overall, it'll take at least a few months before I can form concrete thoughts on that. All I can say it doesn't inspire sheer frothing rage and I will probably play it again. No the best FE game but not the worst either. That's all I got.

Stan Sommie.

#txt #elyos #lace reviews

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oscarswildetiger · 1 year

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Advice needed!

Several days ago my Facebook account had suspicious login activity and I had to change my password, then yesterday morning I received a message saying that my account had been suspended due to activity that went against community guidelines. I had a post remove before from speaking in hyperbole (specifically saying that I would kill myself if I didn’t find out what happened to Zuko’s mom) it was an old post that came up in a memory and when I shared it, it got flagged. Regardless of how I feel about this particular instance and the process surrounding it, it was not a big deal over all, and I figured that something like this had happened again. Except now the message said that if I took no action my account would be permanently deleted in 30 days. The reasons my account was suspended was due to the following: Praising Terrorist Groups, Hate Speech and Criminal Activity, or Human trafficking. I was not sure if this was a matter of hyperbole or something I had shared being taken in the wrong context (Sometime I found a bunch of Nazi fliers distributed in my neighborhood and I had blocked out some of the information) like me sharing ANTI-racist posts that contained posts from racists, or something along those lines, but I was also nervous that my account had posted something awful and that people I know would be upset with me, I tried to disagree with the facebook decision and I wasn’t allowed to see the post that they had flagged and suspended my account for. All I received was a message stating they would review within the next few days and if they found it to go against community standards then they would permanently delete my account. I found out from texting a few friends that apparently my account had been hacked and I messaged a bunch of people (Seemingly not all) photos of the terrorist group ISIS, mostly the flags, and a bunch of Isis members happily posing or waving the flag. Similar images were also posted to my story. I do not know if anything was posted on my facebook wall. However I think it could be clear that without me being able to argue my case, Facebook may just review these images and deleted my account fully. In some ways this is an absolute weight off my shoulders. A little over a year ago I wanted to give myself a year to get off facebook, this would enable me to go through all of my photos and save all the pictures I needed of my dogs and any important moments. I am also pretty sure I have everything important backed up on my computer and external hard drive. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I was addicted to facebook but it was a major time suck that I would find myself in. The facebook reels, the endless scrolling, I was noticing that more and more of my feed was just sponsored ads and suggested content and less and less of it came from my actual friends and people I wanted to see content from. I would get sucked into it at work, watching movies, I felt like I was always reaching for my phone, checking it first thing in the morning, and even not having it for a full day, I saw how much longer my battery lasted and also how many times I would have got caught up in it had I not been blocked from using it. Even this morning I moved to check on it saw it was still blocked, then immediately opened it again, it’s such a muscle memory and I really hate that for me. I even have caught myself several times composing status’s in my mind about what I’m doing.... The question is, while overall facebook is a huge shitshow and overall bad for my mental health, but there are people on there that I have been friends with since the livejournal days who I contact semi regularly even just to share something cool that reminded me of them. I have friends that I do not talk to regularly but have been friends with since high school and do enjoy commenting and interacting on their posts, some friends live in other countries now and it’s nice to see how they are living their lives, some of these friends I rarely talk to on facebook itself but during the summer they throw fun get togethers with a blanket invite and I started going to them couple years ago to sit out around a campfire and there I get to meet new people and have sometimes riveting conversations, I look forward to these events immensely. While I do have a mutual friend I could get to send campfire friend my cell phone number I just wonder how much I’ll actually be remembered when it’s only a few events out of the year and I don’t see them or talk to them too much in between? I also know how much FB can send me into a tail spin when I see a memory with a friend I no longer talk to, or even seeing roller derby posts from a league I felt somewhat excommunicated from. SO I have no idea if I should recreate my account if it’s deleted, go through and just add those people who are close friends and those long term internet pals, leave my profile mostly anonymous so I don’t have a chance of people reaching out, adding me, reminding me of things I don’t want to be reminded of, or just walk away entirely? I know that an anonymous profile won’t help with the way FB itself just runs, but I suppose if I can train myself to only check events and notifications I might be generally alright? I’m just trying to think of a better way to deal with this.

#facebook #advice #facebook advice

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rubinhowell30 · 2 years

Text

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variousincorrectxreader · 2 years

Note

Mind if I request Coco, Winter, Yang and Velvet (all 4 from RWBY) with gender neutral video game reviewer S/O?

Of course, honey! I didn't know what you wanted, so I just did head canons, sorry (030) I also ran out of ideas so I didn’t do Velvet, I might do her later when I have inspiration, sorry once more-

Coco Adel

Okay, she 100% calls you Her nerd

She won't admit it, but she loved watching your video's before you met.

She's played a few games, lesbhonest

So she loves making requests on what games you should play/review and she loves how you analyse them properly without any bias

If you’re streaming she’ll either burst in to embarrass you or she’ll join the stream and Superchat heaps of flirty shit LMAO

Will stop if you seriously don’t like it though. She understands its a job as well as a hobby

(won’t stop the superchat flirts though.)

But your viewers LOVE her

Honestly whenever you go live everyone is like: “Omg is ur gf gonna be here as well????” Or “@GAYMER WHERES UR GF”

Honestly you can’t tell if they’re there for you or your fashionista S/O sometimes

Enjoys hearing about your interests and opinions on games, she may not seem like it though. Its more of a ‘talks a lot/listens dynamic’

She finds it cute when you ramble over a new game you played, or a certain character from a game.

As mentioned above will join your streams, sometimes she games with you mainly its just her cuddling you and trying to distract you.

Overall a very fun relationship

Okay no offense but how did you bag her LMAO

She sometimes questions how she fell for such a dork but when she sees you smile shes like “Omg please stop being so cute I’m supposed to be calm and composed rn.”

Doesn’t fully understand your interests in games or reviewing them but nonetheless, she tries to engage

Im imagining you trying to teach her how to play your favorite games in her rare offtime but it doesn’t really work out

She just sticks to watching you game

Has only appeared once in a Livestream and it was an accident

“Love, where do you keep the- oh, sorry, I didn’t know you were live, excuse me.”

Okay wait Winter calling you love JKAJDEIJDEIO

Anygays

The chat eXPLODED with things like “OMG WHO DAT!?!?” and “WOW MOMMY” and other things like that

everyone thinks Winter is mommy now and who am I to disagree

You told her and she just rolled her eyes LMAO

Believe it or not she does remember everything about everything you tell her about.

Despite not playing any games with you she makes an effort to engage in conversation about the things you love

Besides the point but your viewers beg for her to come on to a live again and she always responds with a no LMAO

Still doesn’t understand your love for games but she understands her love for you <3

(okay this fanart tho-)

Yang has a side channel on DustTube (YT) and you can pry that away from my cold dead body.

Thats actually how you two met! Fellow gamers, shes more into just the playing side rather than the analysis stuff

But she thought the way you analysed everything was really funny so she was like, lets contact them!

She loves streaming with you whenever she has time

Sometimes Ruby will join you two but it’s mainly 1 on 1 dates rather than hangouts

Both of you use gamer terms and memes around her team and Weiss and Blake are like “Wtf is this language”

They love and hate you because the PUNS

The two of you love making puns and they really love that you make her happy but please, stop making puns every 0.00000000000000001 seconds.

She loves cuddling together while gaming, its just so heartwarming and cute

sometimes you two fall asleep like that

Okay but the ragequits are memes in your following now.

Like: #IPULLEDAYANGTODAY or “Guys I almost made like @AsImP’s gf today pls help”

She finds some of them funny but like, it gets kinda old

But like, everyone thinks your gf is damn hot ngl

Loves playing horror and fighting games with you Has probably broken a controller out of surprise from a jumpscare.

100% most compatible relationship in my head

#coco adel #coco x reader #winter x reader #yang x reader #rwby #cfvy #gn reader #x reader #rwby x reader #s/o #request #y/n

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beercan1145 · 3 years

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Ok, so let me explain Eric’s behavior this season by jumping back in time. Let’s have a quick review of Eric and Adam’s relationship because… yes, shade, some of y’all seem to have forgotten. We don’t have a specific timeline, but it’s understood that Adam has bullied Eric for YEARS at the point that the show starts (Eric says as much in season 2). What’s interesting about this is that, as I mentioned in my last post, we don’t see anybody bother openly-queer Anwar. I’m bringing that up, because while people do make jokes homophobic jokes about Adam in season 3, there’s not a particularly toxic environment of homophobia at Moordale where everyone is violently picking on all the queer kids. So it’s largely Adam’s internal battle compounded by a crush on Eric. Not that acute peer pressure would be a justification, but Adam doesn’t even have THAT to fall back on, though there is emotional neglect/abuse on his father’s part.

Anyway, then Adam sucks Eric’s dick. Adam makes Eric see stars, and for the first time, it’s not because of a punch.

Then Adam goes away to military school and has growth. He comes back, ready to be with Eric, but only in secret. It’s kinda cute, but we have misgivings because of their (YEARS-LONG) history. Oh yeah, plus Eric has other options now (Hey Rahim. You a little pretentious, but you’re cute). Eric’s like “Nah, I can’t be your secret. Plus we haven’t really discussed all the trauma you inflicted on me because you couldn’t accept yourself.” We love it. Respect yourself, boo. Then Adam pulls an UNO reverse. He publicly acknowledges his feelings for Eric. Eric’s like… “Ok, cool. We’re engaged now” (I’m kidding, but they get together). PAUSE.

Here’s the issue, and it’s one I saw even at that time: Them getting together felt premature. Like because of television structure, they were probably going to get together in a season finale. So it was like: Either we do it now, or we wait a whole season. Let’s do it now. Or at least that’s how it felt. Like oral sex and junkyard dates are great, and they may solve a lot of problems, but just magically unpacking years of internalized homophobia that you then externalized all over someone else? No. And yes, Adam was connecting with people, but still, throwing themselves fully into a relationship, especially when Eric was just getting out of a different one? I had my doubts. NOW, I see that the writers are smart. I think Eric and Adam’s relationship this season was inevitable from the season 2 finale. Ok, not EVERY single thing. But a lot of it. Because despite what some character arcs portray, coming out does not equal full self-acceptance. And I just felt like Adam hadn’t necessarily changed enough to convince me of their relationship being the best idea. (Don’t get me wrong, I adore him, but that means wanting what’s best for him. Same for Eric). Progress isn’t always linear, either. Sometimes we have setbacks and loop de loops (that’s true of life in general, not just queer self-acceptance).

So that brings us to season 3. In episode 1, we see that Adam has not come as far as we or Eric may have liked. (KEEP IN MIND, at least 2-3 months passed between the seasons as well). Adam still uses violence to process feelings of discomfort, maintain his sense of masculinity. Eric tries to break up with him. Which sets the tone for the season. If you pay attention, we see Eric has misgivings about their relationship throughout the season and he tries to break up with Adam like every other episode. But Eric stays with Adam because he recognizes Adam’s progress and loves him. He wants to be with him. But that isn’t always enough. Adam still won’t tell his mom that he and Eric are dating, which must hurt, even if Eric does understand. Adam specifically rejects going to a “gay” club. To be clear, Adam didn’t say “Clubs aren’t my scene.” Which is different. He clarifies that Eric means a “gay” club before shooting it down. THIS is where I really disagree with people who have been talking about biphobia, or Eric not thinking Adam is “queer enough” or “queer in the right way.” I think especially within the context of the other signs of Adam’s continued internalized homophobia, even if clubs aren’t his scene, it’s not weird for Eric to see it as connected. Because again, ADAM CONFIRMED IT WAS SPECIFICALLY A “GAY” CLUB BEFORE REJECTING IT. It certainly SOUNDS like internalized homophobia on paper. Before he goes to Nigeria, we get Eric asking Adam for space, which Adam rejects. I’m not mad at Adam for it. We even see it as romantic. But upon reflection, it was kinda telling. Now I’ll admit “space” is very opaque language and doesn’t necessarily equal break up. But if they had actually agreed to space, I think Eric kissing someone else wouldn’t seem SO bad. It’s just Adam was like “No,” so it is cheating, unequivocally. Which I think is why after that point, Eric fully realizes and accepts something that has been on his mind for the whole season: he and Adam have to go their separate ways for Eric to have the experiences he feels ready for. That means no more “space” but an actual breakup, especially because it’s clear Adam won’t accept anything less. This is also why Eric doesn’t seem so broken up about the breakup (hehe puns). He’s been processing it for a long time. Eric’s “I’m ready to fly” speech wasn’t about thinking he’s better, or more mature than Adam or anything like that. It was just him saying that he’s comfortable calling someone his boyfriend. If he’s gonna be with someone, he wants them to be comfortable doing the same thing (that’s just an example, obviously). Not unreasonable of him at all.

To be clear, I do think Eric could have handled certain things better this season overall, I especially didn’t like how he stormed off when he thought that Adam didn’t want to have sex with him. (Like I get it, Otis has accidentally primed him to be insecure about it, and AGAIN, Adam actually WAS still dealing with internalized homophobia which made it seem plausible that’s what was happening, but still. He should have stayed and talked.) That said, I’m sure if Adam had said, “I wanna be with you, I’m just not ready for that yet” or even “I just don’t want to do that” Eric would have been ok with it. Especially because Adam is the one who brings up having anal sex that episode, unprompted by Eric. Eric definitely still has some growth and maturing to do, though.

But yeah, that’s my take on Eric and Adam this season. I’m not an Eric apologist, I just think that almost every single thing he did this season was understandable and valid. Wait, there’s a term for that…ok, I’m an Eric apologist. I admit it. I’m not sorry. Anyone who supports Eric and Adam has had to be an Adam apologist at least once, so it’s about time.

#sex education spoilers #sex education #eric and adam #eric x adam #eric effiong #adam groff

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thyandrawrites · 3 years

Text

Analysis/Criticism Asks!

tagged by @mettywiththenotes. Thank you for the mention! I’ve never done one of these before but it sounds fun!

Answer as few or many of these as you like. Enjoy!

1. How do you begin writing your analysis: do you start writing about the first thing that strikes you; or do you step back and look at the narrative structure first; or something else?

mmh, for me it depends. Sometimes I start out writing a meta with a clear argument in mind and I break it down into small parts that are easier to process and then build up towards my point. Sometimes though I just start a post with a simple observation and then my thought process spirals from there and I explore facets of the writing I didn’t initially consider.

2. What do you like to keep in mind while writing your analysis/meta?

Character voices and authorial intentions. I often see meta that is argued extremely well and thus seems perfectly reasonable on the surface. But you could argue that the moon is made out of cheese if you had enough eloquence and a bunch of out of context pictures that seemingly prove your point.

What this means in practice is that when I’m asked about my reading of a certain character or narrative, I try to keep in mind all the information that is already established while giving my answer. I find that a lot of the time, newer fans tend to bunch up “what I wish will happen” with meta just because it’s written in essay form, but their takes tend to blatantly ignore established facts / build ups because they don’t support their point

3. Do you try to keep your value judgments separate from your analysis?

I don’t fully understand what “value judgement” means here, but I think it’s impossible to completely separate literary analysis and personal values. Keeping bias out of your meta is one thing. You could achieve it through revision or peer reviewing. But the way we interpret fiction is inherently influenced by who we are as people, and thus from our values.

Anyway, I don’t think I do a particularly good job of removing bias from my meta. While it’s true that I have critiqued the writing of some of my favourite characters when it warranted criticism, it’s also true that I’m very upfront about my likes and dislikes as well. I make an effort to never delve into straight-up bashing (and I ignore asks that err towards it too), but everyone who’s followed me for a while knows my preferences by now because they’re painfully obvious from my writing

4. Do you prefer analyzing characters, or arcs, or both?

Definitely characters. I write meta because I love the challenge of figuring out how a character thinks, what makes them tick and why. I’m a people watcher irl too, but while irl you never know a person fully, fiction is typically way more linear and thus more easily predictable. It’s usually action and reaction. As a fiction writer I consider my stuff to be very emotion-driven. I love dissecting a character’s mind and letting them bleed ink on the page, and that reflects in how I approach fiction as a reader as well. I’m drawn to stories with complex, layered characters with loads of inner conflict and tension, and I tend to gravitate around them in my analysis because I love the challenge they pose

5. Do you think receiving feedbacks/responses on your analysis/meta help improve your critical skills?

yes and no. Bouncing ideas off someone else is indeed a great way to look at things from a different angle than yours. I’ve been there before, and I love reading other people’s meta because it has definitely broadened my perspective on certain things as well as taught me a lot about narrative techniques and literary criticism itself. But! This was truer for me a couple of years ago, when I was part of a fandom where meta writers, including myself, often added up to each other’s posts and created a polite conversation even when they disagreed. Then that same fandom started throwing subtle shade by lowkey addressing me and a bunch of other people as “the negative ones” and my feelings changed, ngl. Nowadays I really struggle with people adding up to my posts because when they do so to disagree in impolite terms my first response is always “they’re trying to undermine you and ostracize you again”.

I try to remind myself not to make assumptions when the tone is hard to discern but it’s really hard! and I hate that I do this because I live and breathe meta and I literally get SO excited when there’s a chance to discuss in fandom spaces. There’s a meta channel in my discord server and I get super excited when I see new convos there afksak but on tumblr I’m always in fight or flight mode for some reason

6. Do you consciously decide which media you want to write analysis on or does it naturally come to you?

Nope, I unfortunately don’t get to decide the hyper obsession. :’D There’s a lot of other manga I wish I could write meta for, but sadly haven’t found as easy to break down.

7. Do you prefer writing long or short metas? Which ones do you prefer to read?

mmh… I’m not sure, actually. Writing long (>4k) meta is EXTREMELY draining for me (like, it takes me anywhere from a week to a month). But long metas are also the ones that I’m happier about because I get to go ham and explore things in-depth. I don’t have the gift of brevity and my thought process is messy AF so longer posts fatigue me quickly. But at the same time they’re more well-argued than my shorter ones bc I have the time to break down concepts so they’re easier to understand.

Shorter posts on the other hand are fun because they’re rarely thought-through. You know how some people need to talk to organize their thoughts? I need to write. Sometimes I don’t realize how many thoughts I have on a certain topic until I’m writing about it and things snowball from there and make me realize elements of foreshadowing or foiling that I hadn’t before picked up on. It’s pretty fun.

As a reader, I don’t have a preference but shorter posts are typically easier for me to digest because I struggle at focusing. If the topic is something I’m passionate about though, I don’t mind the WC

8. Which are your favourite analysis/criticism/meta blogs?

I am mutuals with a lot of meta bloggers but my favourites all happen to be people who offer pretty unique perspectives. I have mentioned above that different viewpoints are very important to broaden your own reading of things. These are all meta bloggers who write thought-provoking analyses. In no particular order: @linkspooky @transhawks @logicalbookthief @hamliet.

this fandom is lucky though because there’s a lot of people not on this list who share great meta, and I love all of them. If I’m following them, they have my seal of approval

9. Which shows/movies/media do you think deserve to have more analysis done on them?

hhh okay so this has definitely been an issue for me before. I finished a show and I went to look up the meta tags and came up empty. Now that I’m being questioned about it, though? I can’t think of any

10. According to you, what are some prerequisites for good quality analysis?

See point 2. Also. Something I forgot to add: before writing meta about a certain piece of fiction, you should make sure to read it in its entirety. Sometimes themes don’t become apparent if you are missing a chunk of the story

Tagging: idk who has done this already but anyone I tagged above is free to do this if they want to

#tag meme

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thusatlas · 3 years

Text

The Etiquette of Reviews

Hold my purse, I’m about to rant.

Since my dive back into fandom, I have fully immersed myself into the whole fandom culture. Previously, I was part of the 2009 FanFic.net crew (if you know, you know).

It was a simpler and yet harsher time back then. I’ve seen a few posts floating around Tumblr outlining the history of fandom and how far we have come in terms of Ao3 and rights etc etc etc.

That’s not this post.

This post is about the plethora of other posts that I have seen regarding, what I have come to call, ‘gatekeeping’.

It goes without saying, that the majority of any fandom are consumers of media in any form. It also goes without saying, that everyone is a critic. What I’m about to say, will boil down to this one simple statement:

You absolutely have the right to say and express yourself in anyway you wish - but this does not give you the right to hurt someone.

As readers and consumers of fandom content, there will be stuff that you disagree with. This is now a well-established message - you’re an adult, if you don’t like X out.

In light of the tiktok cancel campaigns, I feel like an insidious part of fandom needs to be addressed.

This incessant need to cannibalise ourselves.

Did that grab your attention?

Good. Now listen.

Authors and artists are receiving instantaneous feedback from tens, hundreds - sometimes thousands of people and humans are not built for this type of psychological assault. It hurts when you receive a bad review - Hell I’ve had a few! The worst being:

This is fucking shit. Don’t waste your time.

(You can’t fault them really, they were to the point.)

As a creator, you accept that you will receive bad reviews, and as much as it hurts you accept that that will be the case because not everyone will like the art that you produce.

But what is worse, when someone from within fandom, someone who is either a fellow creator or hides behind an anonymous guest tag, deliberately sets out to find fault in your work. And then they decide that it’s appropriate to leave “helpful” comments in the review section. These comments are from people who portray themselves to be better and more knowledgable than you, and then they try to teach you how write or draw or whatever - as if you haven’t spent hours on the thing that they are reviewing.

They come across as the friendly helping face, and yet they leave patronising and condescending messages publicly either in the review section, or on a public forum like Discord.

Let me make this clear.

YOU ARE NOT BEING HELPFUL

YOU ARE BEING RUDE

YOU ARE BEING PATRONISING

AND YOU ARE BEING AN ODIOUS BLOODY BULLY

If you would like to be helpful and leave constructive criticism, reach out to the author privately via DM and say:

‘hey, really sorry to say this, I hope you don’t mind. I found a typo in x paragraph. I thought you may like to know.’

Or, if you are going to leave a public review - SHIT SANDWICH!

‘hey I really like this thing that you did here.

I hope you don’t mind me saying, there’s a typo here.

This thing you did there was fantastic. Looking forward to the next chapter!’

AND THAT’S IT!

Calling out creators in this patronising, demeaning way in public, does not make you look big, nor does it make you look clever.

If the creator does not ask for constructive criticism - do not leave it. Chances are, their work has already gone through multiple hours of edits and peer-reviews and all-sorts. If they do not ask, do not assume that your concrit will be received well.

SECONDLY

Other creators who think that it is their place to gatekeep. They do this again, by appearing like a friendly face, when in fact they come in and say that ‘this FANDOM detail is wrong’.

OR, highlighting their own work as being an example of good or correct, when criticising yours!

NO! NO! NO! NO!

If your opinions are that strong, do it behind closed doors in DM’s - that’s just common fucking curtesy! We all receive the same negative press from the general readers on public forums, we don’t need it from our own too!

Finally

I feel like this needs to be said, because the people who do the above, also tend to portray certain characteristics and behaviours when they interact with people.

STOP. TAKING. YOURSELF. SO. GODDAMN. SERIOUSLY!

Arrogance translates across written text, far more than you think it does.

Everytime you leave one of these insidious patronising comments, or take over a thread to self-promote when NOBODY FUCKING ASKED, you leech the fun from fandom, just that little bit more.

This is not me saying that you can’t leave bad reviews - darling, if you want to go off, be true to your belief. BUT you do not have the right to hurt the creator with your words. Just don’t come in, acting like a friend and ally, only to stab the knife in our backs at the last minute. Have some fucking integrity and own your shitty behaviour.

GET SOME CLASS AND STAY IN YOUR LANE.

#fandom #fandom culture #review etiquette #creators #art #author #writing #drawing #ao3fic #ao3 #ff.net #culture #wattpad #tumblr thunder

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gorgeousgalatea · 3 years

Text

Title: Let Me Count the Ways (also on AO3)

Characters: Ozpin, Qrow Branwen (cameos by James Ironwood and Winter Schnee)

Pairing: Ozpin/Qrow Branwen

Tags: fluff, light angst, sometimes you just gotta come up with an elaborate excuse for a list fic

Word Count: ~4.9k

Summary: After a meeting gone wrong brings some of Qrow's self-esteem issues to light, Ozpin tries to reassure him by answering that all-important, life-affirming question:

Why does he put up with him?

“Why do you put up with him?”

Winter Schnee bursts out with the question on this particular occasion, impulsive and angry and flustered.

It’s a question Ozpin is used to dealing with where Qrow is concerned; although this is the first time the asker has been brazen enough to raise it in front of her own superior and the man in question during an admittedly impromptu teleconference. Even General Ironwood looks stunned at her forwardness, seated next to her over the video feed. Qrow’s eyebrows shoot up in a mockingly exaggerated “who, me?” expression as he slouches with something almost approaching formality next to Ozpin.

What were the odds that James would happen to relegate an official call to his new specialist not only while Qrow happened to be around to answer it and leave a dazzling first impression, but during one of the few occasions Glynda was off on a mission and therefore unable to act as a desperately needed buffer?

Actually. Given that Qrow has been in town for about a week now, perhaps the odds weren’t so long after all.

Ozpin sighs and mentally reviews the list of responses he has on standby for that very question, but James beats him to it.

“Winter,” James snaps, and she stands to attention. “Enough.” He nods curtly to Ozpin and Qrow, blue eyes lingering on a resolutely blasé Qrow as though he doesn’t fully disagree with his subordinate’s outburst. (He doesn’t, given that he’s asked Ozpin the very same thing on more than one occasion, albeit with a great deal more discretion and exasperated fondness.) “The matter I wanted to discuss can wait. Sorry for bothering you, Professor Ozpin, but it seems my correspondence was--ill timed. Have a good day.”

“And the same to you, General,” Ozpin replies.

Qrow flashes Winter a jaunty wink that nearly breaks her professionalism a second time just as the call cuts out.

“She seems nice,” he says, leaning back against Ozpin’s desk.

Whatever fragile courtesy Ozpin managed to maintain during the call dissolves as he shoots Qrow an unamused look. “Really?”

Qrow shrugs and takes a drink from his flask. “You know Jimmy just wanted to formally introduce his pet project as a potential Winter Maiden successor after the scare we had last week,” he says, slipping the flask back into his pocket. “Used to think he was set on her because of the name, but now I bet it’s the matching tempers that make him like her so much.”

“That neither excuses your behavior nor invalidates her candidacy,” Ozpin says, dismissing the video screen and accessing his messages. “Fria is ill, there’s no denying that. James is as concerned as any of us.”

Qrow huffs a humorless laugh. “Yeah, he’s been showing a lot of concern about the Maidens lately, hasn’t he? Between the way he’s grooming Ice Queen and that Aura siphon project we’re not supposed to know about—”

“Regardless,” Ozpin says sharply, choosing to keep his eyes glued to his screen rather than humor Qrow’s antics, “there was no reason for you to antagonize Miss Schnee under the guise of screening her capacity to inherit.”

There’s a whisper of fabric as Qrow seats himself properly on the desk, likely to better enable his emphatic gestures. Not that Ozpin would know, as he’s still very interested in his messages. Even if Qrow is leaning in close enough to obscure half the text.

“No? With her family? Say she becomes Maiden just as that asshole Jacques decides the disownment shame isn’t working out the way he’d hoped and uses his money and influence to finally drag her kicking and screaming back into the fold; we’ll have handed the Schnee Dust Company one of the most powerful weapons not even known to man.”

He laughs derisively. “But I gotta say, with her history and how easy it was to piss her off? Odds are the first thing she’d do after she inherits is go back to the old family mansion and burn it to the ground. Maybe get the sister out first. And the butler. But yeah, then the whole thing up in flames, all of it.”

The scenario with Jacques is unlikely—he’s formidable and ruthless enough in the business world, yes, but his maneuvers often involve the sort of oily underhandedness that someone as forceful and secure in his own political power as James Ironwood would be able to crush with relative ease. Not to mention Winter herself has a will strong enough to escape the household in the first place without the aid of legendary mystical abilities.

Ozpin admittedly does not presume to be familiar enough with Winter Schnee’s mental state to gauge the credibility of Qrow’s house burning theory.

Not that any of that is really the point here.

“And the only way you could call attention to any of this was to be as incendiary towards Miss Schnee as possible, on my private line, knowing that both myself and General Ironwood would be joining in momentarily,” Ozpin says, and then he does look at Qrow, mouth thinned and disapproving. “Because why shouldn’t every correspondence end with the slow deterioration of Beacon’s relationship with Atlas?”

That’s—mortifyingly snide, all things considered. Qrow’s behavior won’t lead to the end of the world, and goodness knows James is familiar enough with it that he’d made the wise decision to cut the conversation short and reprimand Winter for taking the bait. It’s more Qrow’s insistence on justifying his actions by tearing down Atlas that bothers him—which may, he thinks, be Qrow’s intention.

Qrow excels at pushing buttons. One would think that loving the man would grant some sort of immunity, but mostly it just makes Qrow more adept at figuring out which ones to push.

The real question is why Qrow is pushing them at all.

Qrow has the grace to look remorseful, eyes darting to the ground as he slips off the desk and distances himself from Ozpin. “Right. That’s on me. And you can say as much to the Tin Man if he asks.” He flicks a dismissive wave as he edges his way around the desk in retreat. “Just let me get out of your hair before I cause any more collateral damage.”

Ozpin narrows his eyes. “Qrow, if something’s wrong, then I’d rather you tell me than fabricate increasingly more ridiculous excuses to leave.”

There’s always the obvious reason. But Ozpin has repeatedly made it clear that the awkward happenstances caused by Qrow’s Semblance are not enough of a detriment to ever lead to his rejection, even if they lead to politically awkward teleconferences every now and again.

To his credit, Qrow pauses at that, but ultimately keeps walking. As this seems increasingly more like an emotional problem rather than a job-related one, Ozpin abstains from pulling rank in order to make him stay.

Which does work; Qrow stops just before he reaches the elevator and adds with forced derision, “Good thing Jimmy bailed you out earlier, huh? Might’ve taken a while to come up with reasons you put up with me that’re, heh, safe for work.”

Ah. Of course.

Because unless the person in question is named Yang or Ruby or Taiyang, the only possible reason to tolerate Qrow Branwen for long stretches of time is for sex.

According to Qrow, anyway.

That can’t be the crux of it—Qrow was agitated long before Winter asked the question and indeed said agitation was what prompted her to ask. But it couldn’t have helped.

Ozpin dismisses any remaining screens that could be perceived as barriers and stands, giving Qrow his full attention. “Yes, I am glad that James interfered before I had to answer it, because that means it’s as evident to him as it is to me why you’re a valued subordinate. Because obviously even General James Ironwood—who has brought up introducing court marshalling to the inner circle thanks to you during more than one meeting—recognizes that you are a valued, cunning, and perceptive resource who excels at his job.” He pinches the bridge of his nose. “Do you honestly think that’s the first time I’ve been asked that question? Would you like me to recite the list of reasons I have prepared for just such an occasion?”

That last part was a misstep. A short-tempered, snide misstep that he doubts anyone else could have pushed him to make.

But Qrow is a man of many talents.

“Nope.” Qrow’s smile is mocking and frail. “Don’t bother. Must be getting pretty old for you, right?”

Ozpin opens his mouth. Shuts it before he says something else regrettable. Tries to gather some patience even as he wracks his brain for an idea of what led to this.

Was it something he’d done? Was it because of something Qrow’s Semblance had caused recently? He thought they’d been having a good week, all things considered—the Winter Maiden’s condition aside, things have been quiet. The most excitement they’ve had is what brought Qrow back to Vale to begin with—getting Fria proper medical care and monitoring her condition. She’s stable, at least for the moment, which means that for once Qrow’s had plenty of free time to check up on his nieces.

And plenty of time to spend with Ozpin.

Time he’d thought they’d been passing enjoyably (with as many activities that were safe for work as ones that weren’t, even), but apparently not.

“What do you want from me?” he asks finally.

Qrow swallows hard and glances towards the door. He sucks in a shaky breath. “Look, we’ve had a good run this week but it’s about time for you to tell me to get lost, all right?”

Ah.

So that’s it, then. Qrow’s problem doesn’t lie with Ozpin or Ironwood or Winter Schnee or any incident his Semblance has recently caused, his problem is simply—time. And what extended durations of it spent in his presence can lead to.

They have talked about Qrow’s Semblance in the past, of course. But coming to an understanding doesn’t make the problem go away.

“I very much hope you haven’t been making a fool of yourself just so I’ll send you away,” Ozpin says, stepping away from his desk. “There’s nowhere I have reason to send you, in any case. Not with the calm we’ve been having.”

Qrow smirks. “Pick a place for me to go, and I guarantee they’ll have a problem.” He waves a hand towards the window. “I just don’t want it to be here.”

For the love of—misfortune is not the same thing as catastrophe, even if it could lead to one under the right circumstances. Which these are not.

Ozpin supposes he should count his blessings that Qrow’s bouts of wanderlust are at least more justified and less permanent than his sister’s.

“Qrow, I’m happy to be the exception to your distrust of authority figures, but may I remind you that I still am one. If I thought your presence here was becoming dangerous, I’d say something—”

“No, you wouldn’t!” Qrow shouts with surprising vehemence. “You haven’t yet, right? Because you always think if you humor and study and analyze something long enough, all your—mystical soul grafting mumbo jumbo will help you come up with a solution.” He gives a short, helpless laugh, raking a hand through his hair. “Time’s not gonna solve me, Oz. Time just makes what I do worse.”

Ozpin crosses the room with a speed he suspects is unconsciously aided by his Semblance. Everything in Qrow’s posture is defensive as he backs away. But he doesn’t move for the elevator. Not yet.

“I’m not going to tell you to leave,” Ozpin says quietly.

Qrow’s eyes flick back to the floor. “Doesn’t mean I shouldn’t.”

Part of him wants to reach out and comfort him, or at least discourage him from walking away, but it feels more important to give Qrow his space for the time being. If only there were something he could think to say—

“Would you permit me one last question first?” he blurts out.

Qrow’s eyes narrow suspiciously, but he shrugs. “Sure. Shoot.”

“Why do I put up with you?”

Qrow rolls his eyes with an exasperated groan. “Oz…”

“I shouldn’t have been so short before, you deserve an answer. And as I said, I’ve been asked it often enough to compile quite the list.” Ozpin offers him a smile, lighthearted and warm.

Qrow leans against the closest wall and takes out his flask, looking distinctly unimpressed.

Well, at least he hasn’t left yet.

“You’re not wrong, it takes time to sort out the reasons I would be able to share with colleagues—not because many of them are expressly inappropriate, but because they would be irrelevant to your importance within our organization. Generally, I find it’s best to begin with the work you’ve done: the information you’ve gathered, the secrets you’re able to keep, the situations you’ve analyzed and reported about before they became threats. You are, without question, one of the best scouts in the field, and one able to understand and react accordingly to things as unpredictable and dangerous as the Maidens and Salem.”

Qrow’s eyes remain bitter and flinty as he peers over his flask. “Sounds like I do more good away than here, then.”

Ozpin doesn’t take the bait. “Yes, well, most of your work is done abroad, so that would be the easiest association to make with an outside party. Should that response prove insufficient with the person in question, I usually move on to your value in the matter of counsel. You are both incredibly loyal and relentlessly blunt, and so when you question my judgment I can be certain you have done so out of genuine concern rather than some sort of political agenda. You are aggressively undiplomatic—which many, certainly James, wouldn’t consider a plus, but I doubt there’s a one among us who isn’t secretly a little grateful when you choose to voice concerns or flaws that the rest of us are too tactful to point out. There are plenty of situations where that wouldn’t go over well, obviously, but in a group as small and secretive as ours, it’s best to bring problems to light as quickly as possible, and you have proven very willing to, ah, expedite that process.”

There’s a flicker of a smile at that, but a brittle one. “So I’m important because I’m the designated team asshole. Got it.”

“I’m sorry, was that news to you?” Ozpin asks with mock surprise, and Qrow’s smile stays small but grows a little more genuine.

He considers that a win.

“As I was saying,” Ozpin continues, rushing on while Qrow’s mood is visibly lightened, “other reasons I can provide are that you are dedicated to your job, a perceptive observer, and a formidable Huntsman. There are few in our profession that are completely devoid of their own...quirks, and while yours can sometimes become trying, you are uniquely qualified for the position you’re in. As evidenced by the intel you so frequently provide.”

He ends the sentence on an anticipatory note and meets Qrow’s eyes. Qrow rolls them again and makes a little ‘get on with it’ gesture, but the flask has been put away.

It’s not until this moment that Ozpin realizes he left both his mug and his cane at his desk, leaving him nothing to fidget with while he pretends he isn’t fidgeting from the topic of conversation. He clasps his hands behind his back instead and takes a breath.

“Those are, on average, the main reasons I provide when asked why I put up with you. Since you were wondering. But, as you noticed, despite having a list of answers on hand, it often takes me time to respond.” He thinks for a moment about taking Qrow’s hand but decides against it. “Because although those are all perfectly acceptable reasons, they are not the ones that come immediately to mind nor the ones my first instinct is to use. Those I keep to myself.”

Qrow gives a wider grin at that, pushing himself off the wall. The distance between them shortens just a little, but Qrow doesn’t move any closer. “You, repressed and keeping secrets? I’m shocked, Oz.”

“Yes, I’m sure.” He adjusts his glasses, even though they don’t need adjusting. “What a relief it is to know that I have at least one person I feel safe sharing them with.”

“Yeah, something like a cool two dozen out of an almost infinite pile, thanks,” Qrow says, but the bite in his jibes has waned into amused heckling.

Ozpin can’t help but smile at the shift in mood. “Honestly, my first reaction to that question is ‘how could you ask me that?’” he says, and something off guard flickers in Qrow’s eyes at that. “Sometimes how I put up with you is a mystery to me, but never the why.”

He takes a bracing breath. “I put up with you,” he begins slowly, heart beating faster than he cares to admit, “because...” he swallows, buying himself more time, and smiles ruefully. “Well, because of moments like these, for one. Because for all that you’d like people to believe the worst of you, you do it for their own safety.”

Qrow opens his mouth in troubled objection and Ozpin hurries on before he can voice it.

“I put up with you because I know exactly how far you’ve come since you started. You came to Beacon with a mission your sister barely hesitated to fulfill after taking all she could of power and information from the inner circle, and instead you used it as an opportunity to put some good into the world. It would’ve been so easy to yield to your upbringing over the compassion you learned here, especially with Raven at your side, and yet here we are. You chose to trust your teammates and my guidance, chose to defy the stigma your Semblance has put upon you, and you have flourished beyond any capacity even I could have predicted.”

Qrow has been more than he ever could have hoped for, really. His dearest scout’s habit of burying his truly staggering amount of growth beneath self-deprecation and shame is frankly more criminal than the past that spawned it. “For all your talk of my optimism, you must know trust doesn’t come easily for me. And you cannot imagine my gratitude in knowing my faith in you was not misplaced.”

Qrow’s arms remain crossed but his shoulders have relaxed, his slight frown more reflexive and thoughtful than a reflection of his mood. Ozpin catches his eye again before continuing, and this time Qrow holds his gaze.

“I put up with you because in defiance of all expectations you are kind. Abrasive, yes, cynical--well, I imagine we all fall under that banner given the secrets we keep hidden, but your need for distance is born of the stigma that haunts you, and you feel the need to reach out in spite of it.” He raises an eyebrow, injecting more playful warmth into his smile. “I doubt your curriculum is particularly conventional, but I think you’d be surprised how many of your former students remember you fondly when they make their way to Beacon.”

That, miraculously, gets something close to a laugh. “Yeah, who d’ya think I learned that approach from?”

Fair point.

“And that is itself its own reason, I suppose,” he admits, and his heart gives a stuttering jolt as he realizes he’s inadvertently led himself to the intimate section of the conversation. He can’t help another glance back at his desk, hands wrung nearly raw behind his back, and is treated to a second jolt as Qrow has stepped into his space by the time he meets his gaze again, eyes soft and own hand proffered.

In a perfect world, he would take it. In this one his nerves get the better of him.

He can only hope the words he’s forcing out make up for it.

“I put up with you because you put up with me, with my deflections and secrets.

Because you’ve never questioned my need for them. Because you understand the way a checkered past pressures you into choking silence. Because you use your intuition to keep track of my well being rather than my vulnerabilities. You...keep me grounded. I appreciate that you make some effort at deference and respect in public—for you, anyway—and yet in casual conversation I can for the moment step down off the pedestal without fear. Your respect does not come at the price of expected perfection. I can falter, waver, have my moments of weakness—”

And in this moment Qrow is exemplifying all of this, as his hand is still outstretched to take now that Ozpin’s found his own emotional footing.

“Sometimes you purposely instigate them, even,” he admits, and Qrow shoots him a sardonic look with absolutely no edges whatsoever. “But never fully at my expense.”

This is proving surprisingly cathartic for him as well, which he privately worries is a little too selfish for his intended goals. He’s spent a long time sitting on this list, and despite his trepidation the words flow more easily with each sentence.

It’s really gotten quite long.

“I put up with you because you first kissed me not out of gratitude or grand gesture but because it was Tuesday and raining and you couldn’t think of a reason not to. And when you put it that way, neither could I.

“I put up with you because of the small talks and private dinners, the soft smiles and unspoken understanding. I put up with you because trusting someone enough to wake up with them in the morning is a rarity we both share and cherish.”

They have both hands entwined now, and if any of Qrow’s prophesied disaster has occurred he’s fairly certain they’re both too wrapped up to have noticed.

“But first and foremost I put up with you because it isn’t putting up with you at all; you have never been a burden. And I treasure every moment we spend together.”

The kiss isn’t entirely unexpected. And if there’s a concept Qrow has never fully come around to after abandoning banditry, it’s restraint.

But truth be told Ozpin wouldn’t have it any other way.

“But the sex is good too, right?” Qrow murmurs against his lips, and Ozpin can’t quite stifle a decidedly non-sexual groan.

“Qrow—” he begins, and an arm snakes around his waist before he can pull away.

“No, it’s—listen, I’m in the mood for some very not safe for work stuff and I need to know if that’ll be y’know, a rewarding experience—”

“Always.” As Qrow’s hands and mouth drift to more interesting places it occurs to him that this is not strictly an affirmation of Ozpin’s words of encouragement. “As long as you acknowledge it’s not all you’re good for—”

“Yeah, great, self esteem, whatever, you better let me know if it’s not on the table pretty damn soon.”

Enthusiastic, but intentionally derailing.

Despite himself he can’t help a bit of his own disappointment as he interrupts their...momentum, gently seizing Qrow’s hands and meeting his gaze again meaningfully. He presses a soft kiss to Qrow’s palm as Qrow sighs, eyes softening.

“I know. I do.”

“Well in that case, it very much is.”

#ozqrow #cloqwork #qrow branwen #ozpin #rwby #rwby fanfic #my fic #don't mind me just nattering on about stuff #not the best version of the story but it is finished after a thousand years so

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ladyopinior · 3 years

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FATE: THE WINX SAGA – review

Fate: The Winx Saga is a teen drama inspired by the animated series Winx Club. The series is aimed at an audience of young adults and features a darker story than that of the cartoon (Wikipedia). In order to watch the show, you have to have to leave out of the picture most of your previous knowledge about the Winx Club. Although the show is inspired by the cartoon version, it is clear within the first few minutes of the first episode that most of the events do not match the Winx Club’s story. Now, I know that a lot of people are angry and disappointed at the fact that both Flora and Tecna do not appear in the show, that The Trix are nowhere to be seen, and that the story does not correspond with its source of inspiration. However, I think that this adaptation has potential (this will be discussed later on) - although it can bit a little bit cringy at times. Like it was said before, Winx club is merely the source of inspiration for this show, but that does not mean that Fate: The Winx Saga was going to follow the original storyline step by step as it was. If we take Winx Club as our object of comparison, I do think that the characters are fairly well matched, although some of them are lacking certain characteristics (and being honest, I am still salty about what they did with Stella):

Bloom, for example, has the same personality traits as the Original Bloom. First, let’s recap Winx Club’s Bloom’s personality: Bloom started off as an insecure girl at the beginning of the series because of her ignorance of her true origins and her strange, yet surprisingly potent powers. Later on, as she learned more about magic and herself, she grew increasingly curious about her past and whom her biological parents are. An escapist by nature, she has a tendency to run away when things get too hard or confusing for her, and can also be impatient and stubborn, with a short temper. Bloom was also impulsive at times, which led to some very bad experiences for both her and her friends. Her greatest strength and greatest weakness was her status as the guardian of the Dragon's Flame. While the Dragon Flame made her arguably the most powerful fairy in the Magic Dimension, it also consistently drew numerous enemies to her such as the Trix, Darkar, Valtor, and the Ancestral Witches. Despite her flaws, Bloom still has a heart of gold. She cares for all of her friends, allies, and families (both adopted and biological) deeply, and is always willing to help and fight for a good cause. She has shown herself to be selfless, caring, brave and a true capable leader. Bloom is tough when needed to be and always lends a helping hand to people in need (Wiki). Now that we have checked Original Bloom’s personality let’s compare it with Fate: The Winx Saga’s Bloom: she also has the same insecurities as the original Bloom - also caused by her lack of knowledge when it comes to her true origins and the fact that she is a changeling (Aisha tells her this in Episode 1). In this show we see a Bloom that is willing to learn more about her powers and magic, and that is also curious about who her biological parents are. She is also an escapist and has a tendency to run away when things get too hard or confusing for her - this is told in Episode 1 when she tells Aisha about how she lost control and nearly burnt her parents alive “Every night after that, I… I snuck out. I was so… scared that I’d hurt them again… that I slept in this… creepy-ass… warehouse near my house until Miss Dowling found me”. In this case, it is also her status as the guardian of the Dragon’s Flame that attracted the Burned Ones to her. This Bloom is also impatient, stubborn, and has a short temper. Bloom was also impulsive at times, which led to some very bad experiences for both her, her friends and the rest of students at Alfea - her decision of freeing Rosalind and letting her recharge her powers weakened the protective barrier and allowed the Burned Ones to enter Alfea risking all the teachers and student’s lives. The Original Bloom is said to be selfless, caring, brave and a true capable leader, however we can say that this Bloom is overall selfish and thinks about her interests first instead of worrying about the consequences of her acts. Although it is still too early to assume that she will be a good leader, we can’t deny that she is brave, tough and caring towards her friends and parents. Overall, I am happy with this Bloom: she matches the original one’s personality pretty accurately and in terms of physical appearance she does resemble the Original Bloom.

Now Stella… Dear God, what did they do with her… I know I said that Fate: The Winx Saga was not meant to follow the original Winx Club, but I did expect the characters to at least have the same personalities. This is where I am most disappointed. The Original Stella is said to be proud and self-centered, Stella also cares deeply about her friends and family, not just herself. She will stick to the people she loves and do anything to keep them safe. Stella is not always seen wearing a smile on her face, but she does crack jokes to cheer her friends when they are depressed. Basically, Stella has a cheerful and optimistic personality. Besides that, she is totally obsessed with fashion, which clothes look best on her, and which dresses match her face the best. Stella often gives fashion advice to people in Alfea, but this advice is often not taken well. She would rather flirt with Brandon than study and do work, which sometimes annoys the other girls. The most intuitive of all the members, Stella likes to match make but has often had problems with understanding why her friends do not always like getting set up. However, despite her intuitions, Stella can be rather oblivious at times. She was sent to Alfea to become a stronger fairy, but this did not mean so much to her, though she did effectively become a fully accomplished fairy and a powerful one by fighting the first three season villains with the Winx. She uses her magic for anything, but she mostly wants to help her friends as deep inside she is a generous and helpful girl. Although she might disagree with her friends, Stella is very supportive and protective and will not hesitate to help them. She learns to accept that love and friendship are far more important than royalty, fashion, and shopping. Sometimes she hides her true personality because of her upbringing. In short, her cheerful exterior masks great sorrow (Wiki). Well… Where do I start analyzing Fate: The Winx Saga’s Stella… I guess I will take a shot at the similarities first. This Stella is proud and self-centered - which the original one was - and she does like fashion (although I would not label her “obsessed” with it) and gives advice to Alfea’s students… kind of… she mostly critics their outfits - specially Terra’s. Like the original one, Stella was sent to Alfea to become a stronger fairy and rehabilitate from the incident that took place the previous year (meaning that she had to retake the first year again) - in Winx Club, Stella accidentally destroyed the potions laboratory but it is not stated what happened exactly; in Episode 5 of Fate: The Winx Saga, Stella tells Musa the truth of what happened the previous year - that her magic is erratic because of her mother and that that day she lost control and blinded her best friend unintentionally. And that’s about it in terms of similarities… This Stella is dependent on Sky, her ex-boyfriend (still angry at the fact that there is no Brandon, and still creeped out by these two being a couple in the past) and seeks his attention all the time. The Original Stella is the most intuitive of all the members, but to be honest I do not see that trait in this Stella. This Stella is not shown to be a helpful girl nor someone that wants to help her friends, at least not until the end of the season when she tells the others that Bloom deserves to know her truth and that she supports her “I have an opinion. Everyone in this damn suite is so black or white. Bloom is a pain in the ass, but she deserves to know who she is, not the stories the faculty is telling her. Now we can worry about being right, or we can help our friend. Which is it?” (Episode 5). Stella is not a very supportive nor protective friend and only cares about herself… and Sky, and we do not get to see that cheerful exterior the Original Stella showed. This Stella is full of sorrow and sadness, and sometimes this eclipses any other trait she might have. To be honest this Stella is just a bitch most of the time and treats the rest of the people in Alfea like her mother treats her. However, if I put aside the Original Stella for a second, I do think that this version of her can be quite enchanting: she has all the characteristics needed for a great character development in this series, in fact, you can see some change in her towards the end of the season.

Aisha is one of the characters whose personality does not bother me too much, and I do see similarities with the Original Aisha. Winx Club’s Aisha is extremely opinionated and open minded. She is as intuitive and when asked to, gives practical and pragmatic advice. She is also a talented dancer, athlete and speaks many different languages. Aisha gives practical advice and always provides a shoulder to cry on. She continuously shows this caring nature throughout the show, comforting Musa after her conflict with her father, and calming Flora's nerves when she experiences qualms about her feelings for Helia. However, besides the other girls, she might even be the most sensitive of the crew. She has also been shown to be rather stubborn and impatient, something that can get her into trouble by making her hold grudges and jump to conclusions. This could be the result of her isolated upbringing growing up, as she didn't really have many friends, making her come off as a little anti-social at times when she first appeared. Over the course of the seasons Aisha lost her tomboyish side possibly due to her opening up to the Winx and Nabu, but yet she still loves sports and still determined and energetic (Wiki). The Aisha from Fate: The Winx Saga is highly opinionated and she does not shy away from telling the rest her thoughts. She is also quite judgmental when meeting new people: in Episode 1 she helps Bloom end the call with her parents, they engage in a conversation about why Bloom’s parents do not know she is a fairy and when Bloom tells her that the idea of being a fairy is ridiculous, Aisha asks her if she has never read Harry Potter, and the conversation follows like this: B - “Please. If you knew how many hours I have wasted taking Sorting Hat quizzes…” // A - “Ravenclaw?” // B - “Sometimes Slytherin, yeah” // A - “That explains the lies then” // B - “Hm. Let me guess. Gryffindor [silence] Explains the judgment”. She is intuitive, tries to help as much as she can while being truthful (even if sometimes she ends up hurting people) and gives advice - sometimes uncalled for. But, unlike the original one, this Aisha can also seem a bit meddlesome at times. Like the Original Aisha, this one is also sporty and is shown in the series - she goes swimming every morning. Now, what I miss the most in her character is the lack of background… we know the Original Aisha is the princess of Andros, but we know nothing about this Aisha - Who are her parents? Where does she come from? What worries her? Also, we never new why the is unable to control small masses of water… we are just shown that she has trouble with it and that’s it, no more development for her. I think we should have been given more information about her and not just shown the same four traits of her personality all the time.

The next one is Musa and being honest I don’t know what to feel about her. I am not bothered by the changes made but at the same time I am (being honest there is just one change they made that deeply bothers me)… For example, the Original Musa was a fairy of music and now she is a mind fairy - a fairy who feels other people’s emotions (Wikipedia). This is not a big deal, Winx Club’s Musa was able to feels nature’s emotions thanks to the sounds it made and was very in tune with her musical side, this Musa is also linked to music but in a different way - she uses it to scape her overwhelming surroundings - and she is also able to feel emotions, it’s just that instead of natures’s it’s people’s. I guess what bothers me the most is that the Original Musa was Asian and this one is not, I do not get the need to change that about the character… I have nothing against Elisha Applebaum, the actress that plays Musa, but why couldn’t they cast an Asian actress instead? It would have brought more diversity to the show. Now that I have that out of the way, let’s focus on her personality. Winx Club’s Musa loves music, dancing, singing, and playing all instruments, but her favorite instrument is the concert flute, the first instrument she ever learned to play. Musa usually plays amazing music but plays best when she is alone by herself in Alfea in a quiet spot. Despite being the most tomboyish of the Winx, she is perhaps the most emotionally vulnerable, and she balances this by putting up a tough front. Surprisingly, Musa gets the best grades of her friends, as mentioned. Her emotional weakness is the result of her mother's death and her father is far away. She is also a bit of a loner and had a crush on Riven, but they do not admit they like each other until the end of season two when they had their first kiss, which then starts dating (Wiki). When talking about Fate: The Winx Saga’s Musa I feel like we should first address the elephant in the room… no, there is nothing going on between this Musa and Riven, in fact, they’ve had like two interactions in the whole show - I can’t say I am mad about this, we all know Winx Club’s Musa and Riven had a very toxic relationship so maybe this is a good move for this adaptation, and also, Sam seems to be good for her. Now, this Musa has said since Episode 1 that she used to dance and that she loved it just like the Original Musa, but unlike her she doesn’t seem to play any instruments. However, she likes to listen to music alone by herself in her room or a quiet spot. She is also emotionally vulnerable and puts on a tough front. Just like Winx Club’s Musa, this Musa’s emotional weakness is the result of her mother's death which she tells Terra in Episode 6 after she asks her to help Sam ease the pain he is feeling after having been infected by a Burned One: T - “You can’t just run away. He’s in pain. And dad’s trying, but—” // M - “Please just leave me alone” // T - “I know you care about him” // M - “That’s the problem. I can’t feel it. I can’t feel somebody I care about die. Not again” // T - “What? … Musa…” // M - “My mum died last year, Terra. And I was with her, and I felt it, the moment it happened. I felt everything she felt. That’s why I can’t talk about my family, and that’s way I can’t be with Sam now. I can’t feel it. Please don’t make me feel it again”. One thing we don’t know about is wether she gets the best grades out of the group because we have never seen her study. Also, we know that she hates not being able to fight along with the Specialists and she is bother by the idea of having weak powers. Being honest, I am not disappointed with this Musa, in fact, I quite like this character but there are a couple of things I would like to know: once again I would have loved to see the moments she shares with the rest of the group because I can only remember her being open with Terra, maybe if they had included a couple of scenes of her bonding with the rest the friendship would have made more sense. I also wish that in season 2 (if they make it) they focus more on her, she has great potential to expand her powers… maybe let her fight with the rest of the fairies and the Specialists, getting to know more about her family and background, and also giving her more bonding time with other members of the group and not just Terra (but I get why they chose her to be her closest friend, I mean, she is her roommate and is dating her brother).

Now, now, now… let’s talk about probably the most “controversial” character: Terra, not Flora but Terra. This the character that people where most disappointed with when the trailer was released, mostly because she is not Flora. Now, another elephant in the room: a lot of people who had watched Winx Club did not like the idea of having a plus sized character, especially when it was supposed to be a Winx. However, I think it is a great move including a plus size girl - the show being inclusive in this aspect is showcasing that anyone can be a Winx, because your size does not matter at all with the strengths you may have, so I approve this change, I applaud it. Another thing that disappointed fans was the fact that Terra is white - now, we don’t now Flora’s ethnic because it was never stated in Winx Club but many people believe that because of her skin color she had to be Latina… I don’t know about this because Miele, her sister, is white so… I guess you can believe what you want in this case but taking into account that Miele is white, and that Terra is just a cousin then the change made there it’s not that horrible (except that it narrows down the diversity in the main cast of the show). Also, another thing that left audiences speechless was that Flora was in fact mention in the show, but as Terra’s cousin “Shocking. Earth fairy called Terra likes plants. It’s a family thing. I’ve got this cousin called Flora” (Terra in Episode 1), I guess everyone though that the producers making an adaptation from an already existing show would mean that at least the names of the main characters would remain the same, but clearly that was not the case. All of that being addressed, I am still going to compare Terra with Flora, mainly because they are supposed to be “the same” person. So, Flora is shown to be a very calm, soft-spoken, caring, sweet, shy and genuine girl who loves plants and vegetation of all kinds. Being interested in experimenting with her plants, Flora became the potion master of the group who specializes in brewing and creating remedies and medicines from the uses of her magical plants. Due to her gentle and caring personality, Flora is strongly connected to nature and loves helping people. She is shown to have a sensitive personality to the point where she would instinctively care for her friends as well as her plants when they are in distress. Flora is the most mature member of the Winx as she possesses a deep sense of love, peace, happiness and tranquility. However, it is shown that Flora has an insecure side to her personality as she would have problems believing in herself at times. Her insecurity would sometimes cause her to hide most of her feelings to the point where she would have problems expressing them. Flora is one of the most diligent student at Alfea and is cautious of her actions. Although she has a kind-hearted side, she at times gets very angry at her enemies which can cause her to act quickly and show a more aggressive side of herself. As an older sister, she is shown to be quite overprotective who often forgets that people do mature and can protect themselves. Miele often has to deal with this side of Flora whenever the latter suspects a mission to be too dangerous. In this case, Flora has demonstrated some level of ignorance as this attitude tends to hurt Miele's feelings (Wiki). If you have read Flora’s personality, then you would have realized that Terra is just the same. Literally, there is very little I can add here… both of them are very calm, soft-spoken, caring, sweet, shy and genuine girls with sensitive personalities; both of them love plants and vegetation of all kinds; both are interested in experimenting with plants and their properties and creating potions; both love helping people; both have shown signs of insecurity and would have problems believing in themself at times. Terra’s insecurity would also sometimes cause her to hide most of her feelings to the point where she would have problems expressing them. Terra also shows quick responses when it comes to protecting her friends and herself and becomes more aggressive. I guess the biggest difference between them would be that Terra is insecure about her body, in Episode 2 this is clearly seen when she is unable to change in front of the rest of her friends. Overall, I do like Terra, in fact, I think is the best character of them all. I literally have no complains when it comes to her. I declare myself a big fan of Terra.

The next character I am going to talk about is the new addition to the Winx World: Beatrix, who is supposed to embody The Trix in one person. Beatrix is an air fairy who can manipulate electricity (Wikipedia). Now, we all know that The Trix are a trio of witches who act as the main antagonists of the Winx Club series. The group is made up of three direct descendants of the Ancestral Witches, the most powerful and evil witches to have ever existed. They focus on what they are best at: acting maliciously and joining forces with the darkest villains the Magic Dimension has to offer (Wiki). These three witches are Icy, Darcy and Stormy and if my interpretation is correct, Beatrix would have the “looks” of Darcy, the evilness of Icy and the powers of Stormy, however as it was said before she is an air fairy which means that she can manipulate many aspects of the weather spectrum, so her actual powers can be a combination of Icy and Stormy’s. I still don’t know if she is evil or not… I mean, she helped Rosalind but that’s because she saved her when she was a baby so… I don’t know, we’ll see what happens with her in season 2 (if we get one). What we know about her is that she is a troublemaker, and she does not hesitate to kill if it’s needed. She is also a very powerful witch, powerful enough to temporarily damage the protection veil placed by Luna (queen on Solaria) upon Aster Dell and also powerful enough to control other people with electricity. Although we don’t have enough information about her or her background, I think she is a great addition to the adaptation and I’m hoping to see more of her.

Now that I have these characters out of the way I would like to talk about the plot. I actually watched the show trying to forget any knowledge I had about the Winx Club - which was not easy because I breathed Winx when I was a child, and after getting pass the fact that the storylines are completely different, I actually found myself enjoying the show. The plot is definitely a lot darker than Winx Club, but I guess it’s normal, after all this is aimed for young adults and not kids. As I said at the beginning of this post, I do think the show has potential: the plot is interesting and by the end of the show you find yourself seeking answers to all the open questions left. For example: Who is Rosalind and what does she want from Bloom? Why did she take her to Earth? What is going to happen between Stella and her mother? And Sky and his now-I am-not-dead-but-you thought-I was father? And what is going to happen with Silva? What is going to happen to the students of Alfea with Rosalind as Headmistress of the school? What is this war - mentioned by Rosalind in Episode 6 to Farah Dowling - that is about to come? Is Headmistress Dowling really dead? Will we be hearing more about blood witches? Who sent the Burned Ones after Bloom? And many more. I also think that having the Burned Ones as the monsters of this season is a great throwback tho the end of Winx Club’s season 1: if you remember in the war between The Trix and the Magic World, the three witches invoke the dark army to fight for them - these creatures are made purely of dark magic and slightly resemble the Burned Ones, although I am aware of the fact that they are not the same - Burned Ones are zombie-like figures that appear to be able to infect others by cutting them, in addition to possessing superhuman speed and strength.

I have to make a comment here, and that is that I think that the storyline was way too rushed, although I get that there’s so much one can show in 6 episodes of 40 minutes each. Still, I would have liked them to cut down the horny scenes between the characters and showed us more scenes of the main characters backgrounds, their stories, etc. I guess what I missed the most in this series was the friendship that characterized Winx Club. Although by the end of the first season the five girls are friends (in Episode 6 all of them go with Bloom to California to tell her parents that she is a fairy - emotional support - and stayed a few days there, and when they came back to Alfea they did it together laughing and smiling while reaching the school’s entrance), most of the journey that allowed the girls to reach that point was not shown - specially how they get along with Stella and the moments they shared prior to her leaving Alfea at the end of Episode 4. I would have liked to know the moments they shared, because all we got was the same bitchy Stella doing her own thing while the rest shared their moments, so when Stella tells her mother in the car “You could’ve let me say goodbye to my friends” I was left deeply confused and thinking ‘what friends?’… It was a missed opportunity and if there is a season 2 I would like them to show the moments the girls share and how their bond strengthens. Overall, I did like the show and would like to have more seasons with more episodes - 6 were not enough for me. I hope that, if the show gets picked up for another season, that the producers consider focusing more on the girls’ friendship and their stories. I also would like for the Winx to transform like Bloom did and that their wings improve (honestly Bloom’s wings were cool but a little bit meh, I actually think the trailer’s wings were better).

And that’s all my beautiful people, my review on Fate: The Winx Saga.

(Fun fact: Fate in Italian means fairies).

#winx #fate: the winx saga #netflix #winx bloom #winx stella #winx aisha #winx musa #winx terra #fate beatrix #winx sky #winx riven #winx club #winx saga

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feysandfeels · 3 years

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ACOSF: very long, very spoilery review

No one asked me to do this, but I need to talk, discuss and get it all out there.I am still very much feeling the high of this book, but I thought I would share some of my opinions. These of course might change as time passes and I reread the series and the book. But as of now here is where I stand.

If you did not like the book or had many issues with it, maybe this isn’t the post for you.

For reading purposes I will divide this in different sections that I hope can effectively tackle what I want to talk about.

When I say it’s a long post... I mean it’s long.

II. Side Characters // III. Future Books.

I. Plot:

From the get go it became obvious that we would face an ACOMAF type of book, in which the development and advancement of the plot would stem largely from the characters. Where MAF created a more equal ratio between action and character, even if it prioritized character, SF really created a 70-30 ration, 70 would be character and 30 action.

I’ve been seeing a few reviews where people say that there was no plot just sex and Nesta. I disagree. Nesta’s development was the plot. And it makes a lot of sense, to me, why we did not experience a lot of “action plot”: She is not a working member of the Night Court, at least not in the way the IC is in this book, so therefore she will not get full access into the different things that are at play. Since Nesta is not a working member it makes sense that she is detached from what is happening, apart from the “please help us find these things”. The most action we get comes from Cassian who is more involved in the politic side of things and even then it was explained that he was needed for #InternationalRelationshipsWithEris, because he is a working member of the court. You can tell that they chose him for that because they literally had no one else: Feyre couldn’t risk people finding out she was pregnant, Mor had her own task and is not going to meet regularly with her abuser, Az and Rhys are fucking overworked and Amren is not a people’s person. I would have loved to see more of his work as a general when they are not at war -that we saw more in WAR- we get mentions of what he does but I wished we had gotten more on that front.

Nesta: I have never hated Nesta, I simply could not see the logic behind her actions and her behavior. I now do. I understand why she came to be and I value her so much more now. Nesta showed another face mental illness can take, how a deep sense of failure can affect you, the darkest thoughts that you are afraid to voice, she voiced. She moved forward and then made mistakes, showing how healing is not linear. Her journey made a lot of sense to me. Her rage made sense to me, her sexuality made a lot of sense to me. I could empathize with her and for that I will be forever grateful, because sometimes rage that comes from a sense of failure is what you will also find in me.

Her insecurities concerning Cassian, her feelings of unworthiness regarding Feyre, the guilt she felt when she thought of her father, her lack of control regarding the trauma she went. Nesta took all that and made it rage. And I could hardly judge her for that.

Thanks to the way she talked about the mating bond when Cassian was like “we’re mates” I could understand better why Feyre got so upset that Rhys didn’t tell her. The argument of it being tied to their humanity was very interesting.

Also the way that she relates to her power, having lack of control and understanding of what it is (and according to Amren, respect) and having that power being death. You cannot control death, you cannot fully understand it, and yet you have to walk each day with that presence. She has been marked by so much death and grief that I thought it was very appropriate that her journey is marked by her own fear of death and of that which she cannot control: death that now lives in her. There is so much to unpack in that aspect alone.

I loved that final sequence when she gives up her cauldron based powers because those came from rage. She took them when she was raging (and rightfully so) but those nurtured the fury and death she carried with her. So to have her literally give up her death (rage) powers to give live to the sister that literally gave it all for her was a beautiful poignant crystal clear moment –and hella intense too–. There is a sense of gratitud that I feel having read her story.

Cassian: He was always God Tier for me. His warmth, openness, support and strength spoke to me on a personal level. He is truly the person you want in your life. And I love that we got to see him flawed and make mistakes and be aware of the role he has been playing (regarding Mor and Az, which I think is quite important to the development of that situation).

As the person closest to Nesta in her recovery, I think it is very important that he knows the deep failure that Nesta is feeling and the sense of not being useful when they should have been. It makes it more clear why he was the one that could actually help her overcome those feelings and the storm they create in her. Now, the way he was supportive of her seems so realistic to me, the frustration, the anger, the wanting to shake the person: all of it happens in real life. You can have a lot of patience and want what’s best for them but some times to yourself and those who are not the person you are trying to help, you can show the frustration of wanting to help someone who doesn’t want to be helped, but needs to.

Finally I LOVED that there was acknowledgement of how observant and intelligent he is. Being a good general is not an easy task and I’m glad they explicitly said it, because Cass being understood as the dumb jock is done at this point.

The sex: To me sex in SJM’s books are always more than just the wink wink nudge nudge-read it with a glass of wine-moment. They have always been a mechanism for us to get to know more about the characters and where they are in their journey. Even when they were just having sex, the way Nesta describes how open she is with Cassian is a pretty big tell of the groundwork that is being laid for her to start to understand what she feels for him. I think it is interesting to also see it as a reclaiming of her body and an exploration of her body with someone she trusts, as opposed to the way she was using sex to forget and to try to feel. Also, and I’ve said this before the fuck buddies -> lovers is an interesting dynamic, specially specially when every time they are together you know they both want more but they think the other doesn’t! That’s just *chef’s kiss*

The wider conflict: I think this book in the action-political plot was the ACOTAR of the problems we will face in the next ones. In the next one it will be like “shit what did we unleash” and start a political-spying plot. The characters that we all hope we will explore are more connected to the larger schemes that are taking place so we will see an expansion of that. Because this book was very self-contained. Think Guardians in the MCU, but here we have the clues and the basic groundwork for where the “action” part of the story will take is. I do not think it was lacking because from the get go it was shown that the main focus would be Nesta’s personal journey.

#ACOSF #ACOSF spoilers #ACOSF review #A Court of Silver Flames #Nesta Archeron #Nessian #Nesta #Cassian #Feysandfeelspost #Feyre Archeron

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