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o-uncle-newt · 4 months

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Cabin Pressure Advent Day 23: Wokingham

WOKINGHAMMMMMMMM!

I absolutely love everything about this episode. Literally everything. It's just basically perfect.

It's also, like Vaduz, an episode that would never, ever, EVER have happened in S1. I mean, S1 had a dude literally die on the plane and "it "what to do" was turned into a comedy routine... this is a much more, Idunno, humanist approach, I guess. It's hilarious, but it takes its humor from things other than the actual medical situation itself.

But even beyond that- would S1 Douglas have played along when Carolyn said that he cried when confronted by the bird strike in St Petersburg? Would he have even put a pause on the game? Would he have even shown up? Almost definitely not. The only constant, of course, is Arthur, who would have been equally willing to show up to keep Martin's mother busy in any season you can name. Lovely, lovely Arthur, and what an absolutely perfect scene by the way.

Now, there's the meta way of looking at it where people are like "I appreciated it when JF was writing a darker and more cynical show," which a) I disagree with factually (I think there were always hints of what the show would become from the beginning- I mean, as far back as Abu Dhabi, Douglas helped Martin out with the match) and b) I disagree with as a matter of taste (the heartwarming episodes are GREAT). But I have to hope that the meta people at least concede that the development FROM S1 to S4 in terms of the very different ways that people behave is extremely consistent with the character development. Douglas and Carolyn have both made some strides in the way that they relate to Martin that allow them to go run interference for him, but at the same time Martin has grown to become the kind of person who they mind less running interference for. He's mellowed, he's started to be less hung up on his rank for the most part, he's less obsessed with his self image. S1 Douglas would have never done it- but S1 Martin would have given him little reason to, and we've seen that change pretty organically.

It also helps, obviously, that Douglas and Carolyn know exactly what they're dealing with. Some of it, maybe, is seeing how Martin (and, to be honest, Caitlin!) ended up that way, with Simon to cut him down to size- and, as we've heard, his dad as well back when he was alive. (Incidentally, I meant to mention this in Uskerty but I found the fact that Martin has worn his dad's signet ring since the funeral to be both really sweet and just... gah. Emotional.) I feel like we've also all, at some point, met people who are, if not Simons themselves, have Simonistic qualities, so to speak. Carolyn and Douglas, as people who love to put on performances like this and have a bit of a proprietary feeling about Martin (in an "only we get to tease him" kind of way), presumably did it at least partly for the fun of it!

That said, this episode would not have been what it could have been without Wendy. Prunella Scales is amazing, and it's worth noting that (as JF mentioned in a podcast interview I heard once) she was in the early stages of dementia and, according to JF, was not always with it offstage but was just absolutely astonishing as soon as they started performing. She plays every note so perfectly, and adds a really interesting note of, well, momness (or I guess I should say mumness) that is really easy to identify with and also a VERY striking contrast to Carolyn, both for better and, occasionally, for worse- Carolyn would have never said anything remotely like "maybe Simon knows best" lol.

All in all, just really really good fun, hilarious, well plotted, all the usual... oh, and with another amazing audio humor joke with the doctor asking about the costume party. Just perfect.

Important question though: how on earth in this whole brag-off with Simon did Martin never slip that he's dating the freaking Princess of Liechtenstein?! How?!?! I'm not going to call it a plot hole because that's not how these things work, but I can imagine that he had to REALLY hold himself back from blurting it out.

#cabin pressure #cabin pressure advent 2023 #cabin pressure advent #john finnemore #wokingham

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kradogsrats · 6 months

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Can humans connect to all primal sources while elves can connect to only one?

Well, let's look at the combined evidence:

Callum has connected to two primal sources, and they've been kind of arbitrary. Like presumably if he'd started with a Sun primal stone, he would have first connected to the Sun, since him having that primal stone experience is a not really insignificant part of him connecting to the Sky primal. When he connects to the Ocean primal, it's explicit that he has been focusing on it for a while, but I don't remember him expressing why he chose Ocean over others. Basically, I don't think there's anything preventing a human from connecting to any individual primal source.

We have never been told that elves cannot connect to multiple primal sources, only that they are naturally connected to one, and humans are naturally connected to zero. We were told that humans cannot connect to even a single primal source, but that was factually incorrect both past and present.

However, we have seen exactly one character in any canon material who is connected to multiple primal sources, and that's Aaravos. Startouch elves are pretty clearly something... else, so he's not really a representative sample of "elves."

Actually, in canon material, there are also very few magical artifacts that combine magic from multiple primal sources, and no known multi-source spells.

After Callum connects to a second primal, Rayla's reaction is lighthearted joking. Granted, there's a lot going on at the time, and she's the last person who would doubt Callum's ability to do the impossible, but I would expect her to acknowledge if that was something that no elf primal mage has ever done before.

Pyrda, one of the suggested player characters from Tales of Xadia (who are heavily implied to all be "canon" characters), is a Skywing elf mage "eager to experience a wider variety of primal sources" and who "believes her destiny lies in preserving the balance of magic." This could mean that her goal is to connect to other primal sources and learn their magic, or it could just be to study them and see other mages use them (or maybe someday try them herself with a primal stone). On her starting character sheet, she only has access to Sky magic.

The Tales of Xadia rules explicitly state that only human characters can be dark mages and only elves can be primal/rune mages, when discussing the character vocation—which is part of the character's background, describing essentially their career focus (i.e. are they a cook, a guard, a sailor, a mage, etc.). However, it doesn't say anywhere that vocations can't be changed as part of the character growth process, since character growth can include adding new distinctions and vocations are a type of distinction. Additionally, the actual mechanics of magic are based on a combination of a magical specialty and spell assets—for example, Pyrda has a Sky magic specialty and a Sky magic spells asset with two spells specified. Specialties and assets are also things that can be added via character growth, and there's nothing anywhere that says you can't add a Sky magic specialty to your human or other elf character.

And the Tales of Xadia rules have to accommodate Callum, because he literally has his own character sheet in there as an NPC catalyst. His vocation is "aspiring rune mage" and he has a Sky magic specialty and a Sky magic spells asset. The Tales of Xadia rulebook is pinned between s3 and s4, timeline-wise, so that's Callum at the end of s3 (his spells asset includes Manus Pluma Volantus). If a game started at the beginning of s1 with Callum as a player character, I would expect that his character sheet would undergo a few key shifts at moments of magic-related character growth: gaining the Sky primal stone as an asset, losing the primal stone as an asset but gaining the "aspiring rune mage" vocation, gaining the Sky magic specialty and initial Sky magic spells asset (with Aspiro and Fulminis), and finally improving the Sky magic spells asset with the addition of Manus Pluma Volantus.

Personally, I take the ToX rules as more suggestions about canon than necessarily 100% accurate reflections of it, because designing balanced game mechanics is very different from general worldbuilding. Also, ToX is very much written in a "do whatever the hell you want" way, strongly encouraging storytellers and players to expand or ignore things at their discretion.

Anyway, my belief is that elves can connect to multiple primal sources, just as humans can, but it's extremely rare. Elves are born with a connection to a primal source that they innately understand, and it's much easier and more worthwhile to focus on strengthening that connection than trying to establish another. (I also think it's harder for elves to connect to a second primal source than it is for humans to connect to a first one.)

Like, ignoring the whole discussion of talent versus practice, say you're a natural athlete—you're just good at any sport you try. You could pick one and with a reasonable amount of effort be Olympic-level good. At the same time, you're a really bad artist. It's not something you ever focused on, and maybe you're not a very visual person to begin with. There's absolutely nothing stopping you from working incredibly hard on being an artist, and you'd probably be able to get as good or better than someone who naturally has the qualities that make them good at art—but you still may never catch up to someone who has those qualities and has put in the same amount of effort as you have. Same thing in reverse—a naturally gifted artist who's uncoordinated and not very physical can train to become an athlete, and can conceivably become a good athlete (maybe not Olympic-level, but good). It's just... not a lot of people do that, because we generally like doing things we're good at and that are easy more than doing things we're not good at and that are hard.

There also don't really seem to be a lot of scenarios where an elf would be pressured by their community to focus on another primal source (the way that a child here in real life might be pressured by their family to be good at sports or math rather than art, or vice versa depending on their family makeup). We know... basically nothing about elf interbreeding, but it seems safe to assume that at least one parent would have a matching primal source connection with the child. Furthermore, most of the elf communities we've seen so far are very segregated, so you're just very unlikely to be part of one where you'd feel isolated because of your primal connection and pressured to pursue another. If you're a Moonshadow elf surrounded by other Moonshadow elves, and all the Moonshadow elf mages you know are Moon mages, and you're good at Moon magic because you have a Moon primal connection yourself... it just takes a pretty rare person to decide they want to be something completely different and put in the effort to actually make it happen.

I mean, heck, part of the reason Callum pursued his Sky primal connection so much was that he had experienced Sky magic and was good at it in a way that he didn't feel good about other activities. He could have stuck with his sword training and probably eventually gotten good at it (if he genuinely put in the effort rather than half-assing it because he's bad at it and hates it), but he didn't.

So basically I would say that yes, elves can connect to multiple primal sources, but it's a) hard, b) has few role models or societal pressures that encourage doing it, and c) most people just don't put that kind of effort into shit without quitting, whether because they're discouraged or because they have to do other things to survive.

#honestly it's kind of up in the air whether each type of elf is just... like that #as in do ALL moonshadow elves share at least some qualities of the moon association? because like #it's kind of weird either way #primal magic #anyway i've talked about this before but i'm too lazy to dig up the posts #and honestly it takes very little to prod me into analyzing rpg setting details

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snarky-art · 3 months

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if you don’t mind explaining, what are each of the specialists’ relationships with their formerly assigned winx members?

Sure!

Biggest changes out of the way first:

Musa and Riven aren’t together. They start dating near the end of s1 and then break up around 3/4 of the way into s2, basically before the big final battles are launched in Shadow Haunt. They start off a somewhat awkward friendship in s3, and after everything is done at the end of SotLK, they’re pretty solid friends.

Aisha and Nabu aren’t together ever, but fear not they’re besties.

Sky and Bloom start dating near the end of s1 and have a kind of flirtationship during s1, although Bloom takes longer to warm up to him that Sky does to her. They date through s2 and s3 and SotLK, and they’re just as messy as they are in canon. S4, it’s getting to be too much though for Bloom, especially with dealing with balancing Domino and Earth life and getting accustomed to royal life bs and learning an entire culture and history. Bloom’s still very real inferiority issues and messy relationship with her parents are present too because they have to learn who they are as individuals while also trying to overcompensate with each other, Bloom because she’s not Daphne and her parents because they want her to feel she really is their daughter and they love her even though they weren’t there for her whole life and they’re literally strangers to each other with only a blood familial tie and giant legacy holding them together, but this results in putting a shit ton of Domino Court shit on her (gotta make sure she’s included and knows they see her as their daughter and rightful heir despite everything that happened before) and it’s too much too much too much. S4 in my thing is partially Bloom running the fuck away from her responsibilities in the magical world, Domino specifically. She goes “oh I gotta go to Alfea to talk about stuff bye. Oh look, a big thing on Earth what a happy coincidence ok bye for who knows how long I gotta go-“ Her relationships are kinda strained in general in s4 since she isn’t great at handling pressure still, and Sky and her are still having the same issues of not communicating well about stuff and Bloom can’t even articulate everything rn and doesn’t know where to start and now she has to worry about potential queen regency stuff and stretching herself not only between Earth and Domino, but Eraklyon too? No, she can’t do this. She’s tired. She breaks up with him before the big final battle shenanigans and she does it super suddenly and loudly and then dips as per usual and Sky is like. “Wtf? Yo what the actual-“ They talk about it eventually near the end of s4 and Sky is rightfully miffed at how this has been handled and how Bloom is still. Running. Away. He hasn’t been the best to her he admits that but she’s also still doing the same things when backed into a corner. And that’s,, kinda the whole point. They’ve grown the most outside of each other, and then when with each other, are perpetuating the same things that are causing issues. Sky goes we could really work on it this time. Bloom says no, I’m too tired, and for once with Bloom looking at hindsight instead of thinking moment to moment for her basic non magical life stuff, she goes if we weren’t growing and trying to be better for each other the way we should’ve for 3 years, what makes this time different? And that’s that. They don’t really talk much for the first half of s5 but they still have to work together, and it’s Weird, but it eventually gets better. Bloom is trying to get better about not running, and she did enjoy Sky, just not as a partner by the end of it all, and Sky still thinks he and Bloom had some good times together and that she’s fun, so maybe they can try getting to know each other again? As friends this time. And they have a decent start to a proper friendship by the beginning of s6, ending s5 as close acquaintances. They don’t become besties or anything, but they’re close friends and they know they can count on each other.

Flora and Helia is the same as canon. They get together by the end of s2 and are adorable.

Tecna and Timmy get together in s2 and are also adorable.

Brandon and Stella get together in s1 and are the flirty fun sassy couple that everyone knows and loves.

#winx club #winx #asks #ask #winx club rewrite #winx club redo #winx club remake #snarky winx

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bugsbenefit · 2 years

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thoughts on the time skip and how it could tie in perfectly with Mike getting targeted early on

with Mike being such a central character to Will’s And El’s character it really seems like he has one of the biggest targets on his back narrative wise during the next season. especially since Mike was the only character to directly and verbally confirm that he will help Will kill Vecna he now isn’t just one of many threats Vecna could possibly face but also directly standing between him and Will, who’s Vecna’s most reoccurring target (this turn of Mike siding himself with Will isn’t even just told to us in the cabin scene but also later reinforced with the ending shot of Mike being the only one to stand directly by Will’s side)

i do really like the possibility of Mike getting targeted or temporarily taken out at the beginning of the season, but then ended up wondering how that would actually play out in the greater narrative. could they really skip forward a year while leaving this open ended for the characters? and well, there are definitely some interesting ways this could tie in with the story currently being set up:

the impending time jump is one of the things that’s been bothering me the most ever since s4 aired. (in one interview the Duffers estimated it after e2, this may have changed in the writing process but seems to be the best guess we can go off of right now) it’s always hard to incorporate time skips During a season without it feeling rushed. you essentially have to re-meet the characters halfway through. because it doesn’t matter if you tell the audience “none of them changed”, relationships will progress, especially if you jump 1+ year(s) forward. and i’ve really been racking my brain about how season 5 could actually pull off a time jump without essentially having to “start over” since that usually kills the drive and action for a bit which is a bad pace for a final season.

and so, usually, the only really good excuse to abandon your characters for an extended period of time while avoiding having two “beginnings” is to ensure that the characters have no chance to drastically evolve off screen. and in my experience there’s only really one way to show that the characters start back up where we left them. and it’s by breaking up the group.

friendships and relationships are halted that way, the audience knows they’re not missing any critical development. often character arcs are also halted this way in ensemble heavy stories since moving characters away from the group often removes the driving factor of character conflict and development.

IT is a very good example of this. (disclaimer: talking about the book, i haven’t seen any of the movies) the book jumps back and forth between the adults and their kid selves (shown in flashbacks) interestingly, the adult and kid characters are still very familiar despite the characters having lived almost 30 years off page. this is because their character arcs only start majorly moving again when their group reunites since they’re all tied to each other. the book is imo one of the best examples of “they all go their separate ways and find back together” since you really never feel like you missed out on something during the time skip

but while splitting up is usually the best approach to time skips, splitting up the ST cast seems very extreme, because how would this feasibly happen? they’re all back in Hawkins at the end of s4. so while having the characters not interact much for a year or two would probably keep the audience the most invested in the characters... how would this happen without feeling like it came out of nowhere?

and. well. it Did surprise me a bit how easy it would be to explain with story beats we were already shown.

watching the show it’s actually interesting how far the group drifts from each other. it’s also a frequent complaint i’ve seen from viewers: we start with a close knit friend group in s1. but s2 already breaks from that idea a bit by having the hospital and non hospital group. Will and Mike are doing their own thing, and even before Will gets possessed Mike actively pushes their friends away who are trying to help. and as the seasons progress and more characters become important they start splitting off. Dustin is usually with the older teens or Erika and rarely with all of the party. El and Mike were established to neglect their friends for a whole summer. and then in s4 this reaches a peak and is finally starting to get addressed. Max ghosts them. Will and Mike barely talk. and the argument that is highlighted between Lucas and Mike IS about the party splitting up and going their own ways. and it doesn't get resolved by the end of the season.

so we’re actually already left with a set up where the integrity of the group dynamic got repeatedly challenged and then finally verbally called out during s4. the idea that this could be built on during s5 isn’t that far off, especially given that the argument between Lucas and Mike is still open ended

interestingly enough. if we’re actually getting a scenario of Vecna targeting Mike pre time jump, Will’s love confession about Mike being the heart of the party could actually be some really cruel foreshadowing.

because what Would happen if Mike was out of the picture for the time skip? well thankfully Will actually went out of his way to tell us this last season. the group would fall apart.

the line did always feel significant to me. it seems very deliberate narrative wise to have Will not only point out Mike’s importance to their friend group, literally calling him the heart twice, but also mentioning what would happen if Mike wasn’t there.

just throwing ideas out there but this could play out as them genuinely growing further apart without having Mike act as their heart /glue in this case. or them growing more focused on their individual goals without Mike acting as a unifying factor since he’s always been the unofficial leader of the group, their DM. this could have El and Lucas stuck trying to find Max, possibly with different approaches too thanks to their different abilities (we’ve seen Lucas read to her, El was trying to find her in the Void etc). we were already shown that Dustin would stick to the town and school, the Duffers confirming he would be dealing with grief over Eddie also fits that picture. and all this would leave Will on his own, most definitely clinging onto the hope that Mike is still alive which would give us the perfect parallel to s1 like we were told we would get. however, this time it wouldn’t be Will who’s missing

#this wasn't supposed to be this long originally but after i started writing it really hit me how plausible a group split would actually be #even just based on the events we've already seen on screen #the fact that this would also perfectly tie into the possibility of Mike being out of the picture for a while is just a +#Stranger things theory #mike wheeler #mike gets vecna'd #mike hostage theory #will byers #byler

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raayllum · 2 years

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What do you think DRIVES the main cast (Callum, Rayla, Ezran, Claudia, Soren, Viren)? And what ROLES will they be playing moving forward?

Have sat on this ask for a while because I wanted to answer it right (and in a conclusive, cohesive way) but I think I've got it, so here we go: TDP is the emotionally rich and complex show it is because basically every single character (more or less) wants the exact same thing - to protect their loved ones / people - but they all differ on how to do so. It's one of the reasons TDP insists from a thematic and narrative standpoint that the method you use and the ideology you use to justify said method matters as much as it does, because it's those two things - the method and the justification - that separate the series' main cast from one another.

Viren, Claudia, Soren, Callum, Rayla, Ezran, Runaan, Harrow, Sarai, etc. all want to protect people. They do. They all want to have ultimately positive impacts on the world. There may be other motivations in there as well - to make dad proud of you, to find where you belong, to build something long lasting - but ultimately they want to make a difference and protect people.

Callum: He's the king and he's my father. It's my duty to help him.

Claudia: You're taking the throne to help us. To help everyone.

Ezran: Maybe I can help the world better from the throne.

Viren: I want a bright future for humanity, and it cannot flourish with a knife forever at its throat.

Soren: I did everything I could to protect him, but it wasn't enough. I just... I don't want to fail you too.

Rayla: Saving that dragon doesn't just feel like the right thing to do, it feels like the right thing for me to do. It's where I'm meant to be.

But who constitutes "your World" and what "a positive impact" would be also fluctuates wildly. For the mage fam, the world is largely the Pentarchy, with anyone else generally branded as an enemy (at least for the first arc). For the main trio, world encompasses both halves of the continent so rather than just prioritizing the protection of their own halves (humans for the boys, elves / xadia for Rayla), they throw out concepts of "deserve" instead for a third path of trying to protect both in a sustainable way in harm reduction. This is the opposite of both Runaan and Viren, as they (with added context from Bloodmoon Huntress, but still evident just in S1) see themselves as protectors with only one path ahead of them but one that perpetuates the cycle, while Harrow in wanting to make a difference (just like Rayla) also walks a dubious and difficult line of that being easier said than done.

One of the things I'm most curious about in Arc 2 is that the driving force behind the characters, particularly the 'villains,' is different now. I don't think Claudia cares at all about helping people now, only her family (and specifically her father / Terry) and herself. Viren's previous path of what he thought would help the world went to hell and he'll be playing catch up in a world that has had the peace he thought was possible or undesirable for the past two years... and it's turned out pretty okay. Meanwhile, the main trio has seemingly shifted in rather than trying to keep creating change (although Ezran may stay pretty firmly there in addition to also going along with), in S4 they'll be called to try to preserve the peace they've brought forth by keeping Aaravos trapped in the mirror.

As for roles:

Part of what I think going forward from the show is from the standpoint of 1) we've had a series almost reset, particularly for certain characters, and 2) as the stakes higher, the character development surrounding them will too, by which I mean: everywhere that people start at the beginning of S4, they have to end the season in a different place that also leaves room for growth for the next 2-3 seasons, and that's my kind of my guiding principle in trying to figure out where I think characters may go, in terms of keeping the possible long game in mind.

Claudia and Viren

Claudia starts off disliking Aaravos. If after saving her father she defected, she would not be sacrificing much, as sacrifice is a crucial point of ensuring a successful redemption arc, i.e. even though Soren feels unsafe with his family, he still has no reason to believe the trio has a fighting chance to win the looming battle ("We're all doomed") and yet defects anyway. Aaravos will not have too much of the upper hand, narratively, while he's confined to the mirror. Thereby, I think Claudia's defection will only begin once he's out (circa S5) and that we'll see her go full villain and possibly separate even from her father. This means she ends S4 in close to the opposite place she started it but in a way that gives her room to grow in various directions, more than her redemption arc starting now would provide (and more than if she and Viren were redeemed/got atonement arcs at the same time).

For Viren, all his prior goals have blown up in his face, and death is often depicted in stories as a transformative experience. Therefore, I think he'll start to regret or doubt his previous actions and involvement with Aaravos, especially as the Startouch elf draws Claudia in deeper and he sees the toll all the dark magic has taken on his daughter. (More reasons I think Viren may get the beginnings of a redemption or remorse arc here; although my perspectives have change a little since this meta was posted - all the way back in July 2020 holy shit - I think it still holds up very well)

Putting Claudia and Viren's goals ultimately in opposition this season is not only fresh and different to what we've seen before, but it also keeps tension within the dynamic, as we can tell they're hurtling towards a collision course of misunderstanding, hurt, and Claudia feeling betrayed by yet another person she loves. Again, this frees him up to do a lot of reckoning, and then have interesting arcs / relationships of 1) working with the heroes, who hate / mistrust him, 2) how he and Soren have massively changed and could continue to change, 3) and he and Soren possibly working together to bring Claudia home.

Ezran

As a character, Ezran is one of the most constant. I think he'll start S4 representing a simplistic view of Love as a concept as a good and powerful force that can overcome anything, as we see in his speech that seems to happen early on in the season: "We all want peace and we all want love. But violence tests us." This is largely the perspective on love that the series has outwardly represented, but the series has already complicated it by showing what twisted love (grief turned to anger, or blind devotion) can do to a person or relationships in destructive ways. I think we'll see him witness more of that first hand and see him make some more hard choices, although I have a less clear idea about where his arc may take him in S4, as it doesn't seem like we're focusing on Katolis politics too much and that's his main stay, but who knows. One of Ezran's most important characteristics is his faith and optimism, so I think it could be very interesting to see him have a moment where he's genuinely hopeless and has to learn how to come back from that, but that may be in a later season

Soren

Soren is another character where his specific S4 arc isn't as clear to me, although I think he'll mostly be addressing his inner turmoil over 1) his sister's reappearance and 2) his father's survival. I also think that as the tether between the main trio and the mage fam, he'll feel stretched thin, and have anxieties over not being able to protect his new family from his 'old' one. (I like to think the Soren and Zubeia card from the SDCC 2021 out-of-context spoilers refers to him and the Dragon Queen talking about how they don't want to fail Ezran and Zym, respectively, the way they feel they failed / lost Harrow and Avizandum).

I could also see Soren stepping more into that "I'm the Protector" role that was supposed to be his role in the first three seasons, but that we saw very little of overall because of his antagonist turned slow redemption arc. If he takes on more of that role, it also (properly) frees Rayla up to have a healthier relationship to it as well. I also feel like, given how Claudia helped him in S2, it will be his turn to help heal his sister in ways he couldn't before, taking on more of that 'fixer' role Claudia used to have in their family when it came to his and Viren's problems.

A less dramatic arc maybe, but one that's about maturity, similarly to Ezran's.

Callum and Rayla

Have talked so much about them, but may be a good place to get a decent amount of the thoughts all together, and I think in S4 they're going to massively drive and impact each other's arcs with an intensity we haven't actually seen yet (although we've come close) so like, let's dive in:

Spark notes edition: they both make Big Dumb Choices to keep the other safe, are angry but ultimately love each other unconditionally, and will be on the path to reconciliation if not fully there by the end of S4.

Longer more extensive notes:

I think Rayla realizes she was wrong to leave and not involve Callum because it didn't work out successfully, not that she was wrong to Try, by the time she returns in S4, so that needs to be corrected, and largely only can be through Failing at what she was trying to do. However, failing on that level (in a way she can blame herself and wholly herself for) would make her already poor self esteem plummet even further and we can't have that. Her self-worth issues need to be addressed, as they were the reason she ultimately left in the first place and the biggest failure she could experience would be Callum putting himself in danger (specifically related to Viren but also in general) because of her / on her behalf, so I feel like those two things will be compounded: she doesn't think she's worth it, and he disagrees, and this time, it gets through to her.

I think this'll culminate in Rayla, who's always been exceedingly independent and mobile, being constrained and dependent. Just as she removed Callum's agency by leaving him behind, hers will be removed in having her be taken captive and used as bait. This would resolve a lot of her emotional arc (how can Callum doing anything to get her back, even escalating the risk from his life to his and Ezran's lives or the world as a whole, not get through to her) as well as giving her the physical opportunity to be threatened with / discover that her family is in the coins, as I lean towards that being an on screen realization (but it might be what's gotten her to come back to Katolis, although I kinda doubt it? Idk if Zubeia would be that loyal to Lain and Tiadrin even all they've done for her, but who knows)

Then you have Callum, who we have a bit more clarity on because we know more about what he's been up to. I thought since post-S3 and even pre-TTM his S4 arc would relate to pursuing more magic/knowledge in ways that ultimately weren't entirely healthy as a way to patch up lingering self worth issues. (A bit of an Icarus, if you will.) So the main thing now is that it may be as a way to distract or cope with Rayla's disappearance and reappearance in his life on top of his own perpetual curiosity and sometimes reckless "leap without looking" attitude (tossing the primal stone, anyone?)

I've written on why I think the Key of Aaravos has thematic grounds to be an actual key for Aaravos' prison, why I think Callum will play a role in freeing Aaravos, and why I think he has to hand it over > it being just taken forcefully from him or having it fully conned out of him, so I won't repeat too much of that here. This post detailing the parallels between Rayllum and Harrai and how that may get ramped up in S4 and what that could manifest as is pretty good too, I think.

Basically: neither Callum nor Rayla can be wholly right in S4. In order to repair their relationship, they both have to let go of a lot of hurt (for Callum his anger, for Rayla her reservations). They both need opportunities to reaffirm their love for each other. Rayla did something self destructive in leaving in TTM, so I think Callum will do something self destructive to help protect her. Then Rayla chose him (somewhat) in coming back and making an active choice, so I feel like Callum will also have to make an active choice when it comes to her and go after her if/when they're separated again. I don't think the season will end up with them being separated because it'd retread too much territory past the most dramatic period for it, if Aaravos is already out of his mirror (and they have new things to focus on story wise because of that).

This gives them both the biggest arcs that simultaneously bring them back to each other (again, big 4x01 to 4x09 development shake up) and also give new goals for each other. For Rayla, she wants to get her family back but this time trusts Callum to help her, and for Callum, he wants his cube / safety back in taking down Aaravos, this time with Rayla at his side to help keep him centred (if they go full force with the dark light motif they're building, for Rayllum in particular).

Conclusion??

Holy shit this got long and longer than expected and I still feel like there's more to say, but cutting it off here for now. Uh and if you still want more I'd suggest my "TDP and Chess Symbolism" and "TDP and Tarot" metas cause I think they have a lot of great stuff. Cool? Cool!

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kurokoros · 1 year

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I know you wanted bitchy ST anons yesterday but your recent St/ncy reblog kinda inspired me, I hope that's okay.

Idk the thing about St/ncy that irritates me the most is that those who ship it blame the end of that relationship on Steve. And now that he has changed, it's fine and dandy. First of all Nancy isn't a price but also why is Steve the one to change and not her, when she was the reason why it didn't work in the first place? Like you said even in s1, we could see her actively pining after Jonathan while being with Steve. He was always the second choice to her, she even admits that to Jonathan in s2. St/ncy shippers want Steve to be happy, then why do you ship him with the girl who cheated on him? Just because he still has feelings for her doesn't mean she would be good for him.

Also the whole Steve being a bad boyfriend is simply not true, idc how hard the Duffers want to promote this point. People say Steve never listened to Nancy and didn't take her trauma seriously, but when they come with "proof" it's the scene where he says no to her trying to break the NDA. How is he dismissive by trying to keep her safe? In general Steve dismissing crazy ideas in the show isn't him being an ass or him not caring for that person, it's the opposite because those ideas would backfire in the real world. Like in s4 people really said see Steve is against Nancy's plan again, that means he's horrible to her. Imo Nancy (and the majority of the party) need someone who keeps them in check and not blindly following every move they make (aka Jonathan/J/ncy). [But Nancy doesn't really want that because she hates being challenged] Or Steve saying to Nancy her vision isn't real that Vecna wanted to scare her, people say he was so heartless while I interpreted it as him trying to reassure her that it wasn't real, that Vecna scared Max the same way, but I digress.

Back to s2 when he was a bit annoyed with them going to the Hollands, which was used as further proof to say he was the worst. Imagine sitting across the parents of the girl who is missing, but you know she died in your pool? And that for every week for a year. If Nancy's allowed to have trauma, why can't Steve? Also he's emotionally intelligent, he knows how hard it is for both Nancy and Barb's parents. Trying to make it better, by making like jokes at the dinner or telling Nancy it's not good and they might stop isn't him dismissing Nancy. Plus in the end, he was going with her regardless. Steve was the only one really trying in that relationship, while Nancy was eying Jonathan for a year.

Also tbh we know she blamed herself and Steve for Barb's death, if that topic would come up she would definitely let him know that, if not directly than more subconsciously. Steve isn't stupid and tbh if I were to discuss my trauma from facing a literal monster with my girlfriend while she also blames me vor the death of her bff, I would too pretend everything is fine. That's why he wasn't as phased by her accusation about Barb because he knew it somehow. Like Nancy isn't a sensitive person when she dislikes or has problems with something/someone she let's that person know somehow.

To sum it up, Stancy never worked from the beginning because Nancy never loved Steve and only stayed with him because it was a safe choice and she didn't want to be alone while waiting for the guy she actually wanted. It will never work too because Nancy would have to actively choose Steve first, which was never the case and I honestly don't see her do it in the future.

Oh boy! I'm always up for bitchy anons!

St/ncy as a ship is very weird to me, because I'm not sure who exactly is shipping it. Because the Nancy stans don't seem to like Steve and think he was the reason their relationship fell apart, and I don't know why Steve stans would want him to get back together with the ex who cheated on him with the guy he thought she cheated on him with a year prior (and boy it sure is ironic that Steve's biggest asshole moment in S1 is a result of him thinking Nancy cheated on him with Jonathan, only to have her actually cheat on him with Jonathan in S2). Is st/ncy just the het equivalent of st/ddie and harrin/rove where it makes zero sense canonically but people want the hot (white) characters to kiss? Who is st/ncy for?

Steve being a bad boyfriend has no basis in canon aside from Steve calling himself a bad boyfriend and Nancy not saying anything to disagree. As far as we know, Steve drives Nancy to school. Goes with her to visit Barb's parents for dinner every week. And I can only assume they actually talked about things between seasons. As for Steve not being supportive, I, frankly, think less people should be supportive of Nancy's poorly thought out plans. Like, in S2 I hate the j/ncy plotline because it never should have worked. Owens should have found the recorder, and, if they weren't wrapped up in plot armor, Nancy and Jonathan probably should have been found dead after a fabricated car accident or something. S2 Steve isn't unsupportive of Nancy's asperations, he's unsupportive of her half-baker revenge fantasies that could get people killed.

As for Steve being annoyed about visiting the Hollands... I'm actually on his side in that instance, based on personal experience. When I was a senior in high school, a girl in the grade below me (who I didn't know personally, but did know of) was unexpectedly killed in a car accident. The next day after the news broke, there were a lot of people mourning, and it was an extremely awkward situation to be on the outside of. Because I didn't know her, but I was surrounded by people who did, who were upset, and as empathetic as people try to be, there's still a massive degree of separation between you and people grieving someone you didn't know. In ST, Steve didn't really know Barb. He didn't know Barb's parents prior to her death. So once every week he goes to have dinner with his girlfriend and his girlfriend's dead best friend's parents, and he's the only one not grieving, or maybe he thinks he doesn't have a right to grieve. It's not a fun position to be in. It's not a position anyone wants to be in.

And it's probably an argument Steve and Nancy had a few times. Like, Nancy says Steve doesn't have to go with, but if he doesn't is that something she holds against him? idk there are factors there that it would have been really cool to see the show play around with via flashbacks to the gap year.

Anyway! I fully agree that st/ncy has never worked as a functional couple, and bringing it back romantically in S4 never should have happened unless it was to actually make the two of them talk about what happened in S2 (or to have the Upside Down being stuck in 1983 have a meaning).

#steve harrington #anti stancy #anti nancy wheeler #sort of? I'm more anti the show treating her like she doesn't fuck up sometimes but whatever #stranger things #strangerthoughts #stranger thoughts #anonymous #alisha babbles

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matan4il · 2 years

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I watched this episode I think so differently then others. Firstly maybe because I don't have a strong dislike to Buck doing it, I found it rather touching to be honest.. But here's the weird thing to me.

Connor and Eddie are opposite sides of the same coin.. Eddie wants him to be the father of his non biological child because of who he is as a person. Completely involved full stop.

Connor wants him to be the biological father to his child because of who he is. But obviously not involved

But the wacky part to me if this is playing out. Retcon!!!! Retcon at the end of S4 we know Eddie changed his will in S3 after the well. Retcon we know Buck met Connor (in the past) in Buck Begins but that was in S4. So I'm not trying to nerd out here but honest to God how much of this was planned and how will it play out as it intertwines. Especially because Eddie doesn't know yet and he's protective of Buck. But we haven't got to really see that in full display yet.

It cant mean nothing to me this storyline has been in play for awhile and we didn't grasp the importance yet. The same as Athena with her childhood best friend you know. It started out as a oh this is Athena, to oh this is a fully fledged Athena story.

Hi lovely Nonnie!

Thank you for sharing your viewing experience! ^u^ I get what you mean. As an idea, it is a lovely thing. I say this as someone who’s considered in the past being an egg donor, I mean it, I think it’s beautiful to help others like that. But at the end of the day, I also think it depends on someone’s specific type of personality, what place in life they’re at, in other words, how this donation would affect them as well and not just the recipients. Like I said in the 604 meta, I just don’t think that’s something Buck has really considered properly.

I LOVE the way you phrased the contradiction between what Connor and Eddie want. In my mind, there’s no doubt the latter is so much more significant to Buck in terms of helping him heal from his trauma of being unwanted for so long. I also think there’s a difference between what does “because of who [Buck] is” between these two men. Connor knows who Buck was. Even back then, he only knew Buck to a very shallow degree. God, in 405, when Buck started spouting random trivia, Connor couldn’t be more disinterested. If Eddie had been there? You just KNOW he would be listening to Buck with the worst case of heart eyes and the fondest smile ever. Connor does know Buck’s a good person, and he’s right of course. But Buck wears his heart so openly on his sleeve, that’s something that probably anyone who would spend just 5 minutes with him would know. I expected Connor to list more stuff (“You’re kind, you’re smart, you’re brave” Buck presumably still lived with Connor and that gang in s1, before he moved into Abby’s place, so all of this can reasonably come up), but nope, it was just the one thing. Eddie KNOWS Buck and WANTS him for ALL OF IT.

IDK if they planned this out and were gonna re-use the actor from the get go. It is possible they came up with the idea of a friend asking for a sperm donation, then looked into whether the actor for the one character who could be brought back as a “blast from the past” was available and, since he’s not that big of a star yet, they got lucky and could book him. I’m not discounting it! But once they decided to bring him in, whether it was always intended or not, they did make some meaningful choices with him already IMO. ;)

I hope you have a great day, lovely! And here is my ask tag! xoxox

#buddie #911meta #buddie meta #911 meta #9-1-1 #evan buckley #eddie diaz #edmundo diaz #evan buck buckley #christopher diaz #connor #ask #anon ask #911onabc #911 on abc #911abc #911 abc

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stabilo0boss · 2 years

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Ep 8: absolutely fucking insane, I have never been this shocked at anything - I was certain Rina wouldn’t get together til s4 I did NOT see that coming

I’m not going to lie I was looking forward to a few more eps of angst and drama and pining before Rina endgame in s4 but I’m not mad…

Even though there are some things I was hoping to see (Gina reluctantly coming to terms w her feelings for ricky, some sort of tension between them, etc) paced over a few eps, I think the finale did touch on these points, just in a more condensed way than I expected.

I think I’d have found it more satisfying if rina ended this season on the same page about their feelings but not expressing it yet, for different reasons, setting up for s4 confessions … this is a personal preference bc I love a long slow burn and the build up > established relationships generally - I think what actually happened worked well and was a fitting end to both ricky and ginas arcs for the season.

So far, we’ve seen ricky pining and realising how strong his feelings for Gina are, while Gina has been less clear in her feelings towards ricky and focussed on saving her r/s w ej, until ep7 when I think she realises that ricky has feelings for her and she starts to acknowledge she never got over him (eg her disappointment when he lies, her saying friendly fibs are ok, her convo w ricky at the beginning of ep 8 about wanting to know where she stands and her saying ‘she’s done’). I think she was waiting for him to confirm his feelings, and when he didn’t, she was clear with him about how she felt and gave him a final chance - which he took !

Bc we already knew exactly how ricky felt (she’s changed him and she’s what he knows about love, he isn’t going to confess his feelings so as not to burden her and is willing to pine in silence) her giving her perspective, paralleling the s2 flashback, made perfect sense. It’s very true to ginas character that she would be straightforward and honest, which is coincidentally exactly what ricky needs - clear confirmation that she likes him and is allowing him to reciprocate that.

Ricky not confessing actually is the culmination of his arc this season, maturing and being selfless re Ginas feelings - we also pretty clearly see that he’s hurting and pining over gina during opening night, but only makes a move when it’s obvious that she wants him to - he’s not doing what he did in s1 and putting his feelings first. He kisses her first the second that he CAN

I will say that I would love to know what went down in the month we didn’t see - were ricky and gina interacting like in the rest of the season? Did some of the tension from earlier (like gina avoiding rickys bday surprise) and the fact that ricky claimed they were faking their feelings come up?? How long did it take gina to accept her feelings for him again?? I think a lot of the answers can be inferred but I would have liked to see it - basically what I expected and hoped was that it would touched in the first few eps of s4.

Overall excellent end to an excellent season, and ginas speech and the kiss was a great ending … cannot wait for s4 and rinas secret dating while playing leads era…

#hsmtmts rina #hsmtmts season 3 #hsm the series #hsmtmts #rina #ricky bowen #ricky and gina #ricky x gina #gina porter #ep 8 #3x08

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somuchbetterthanthat · 1 year

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Mag 162 - A Cozy Cabin

Again, it's such a lovely episode, and I adore what it shows us about Martin and Jon so much. Jon getting frustrated and angry and still hurting himself by pressing the rewinding button to hear Gertrude say "I don't think so" several times about fixing the world!! Martin JUMPING on Jon deciding to go, showing he was preparing the whole time for this specifically!!!! Jon being utterly endeared and charmed by Martin's pratical travelling pack! And the very small uncertainty of Martin when Jon decides to bring the recorder -- good. The JM food keeps on being very lovely. Jon deciding to let go of Gertrude, Martin ready to fight the world and burn evil to the ground if necessary - all so good.

I really like the Gertrude and Gerry also because: 1) I love Gerry and we needed so much more of him. 2) Shows us Gertrude was a bitch til the end, even to those she did feel affection for. 3) It sets up Gerry as potential archivist too. I had forgotten that, but it's so interesting, since the previous episode set Sasha for it. Gertrude notably says it's a bad idea, but Gerry doesn't seem disinterested. But of course Elias won't consider Gerry's application: Gerry knows too much and has known too much since he was a kid.

So, in my ideal season 5, I would keep the whole Gertrude/Gerry scene and I would most definitely keep the charming JM ending. However. Look at me, i'm starting to change things.

Get rid of the Tim and Sasha scene. Look, to me it brings nothing to the table - it's more deep cutting irony for sasha, I guess, but it's already too late, we've already been mourning Sasha for several seasons. We already established Sasha as potential archivist beforehand, and we already kind of realized they could be a bit mean to JM in the birthday scenes. ALSO IT RUINS TIM AND JON. The whole point was that they WERE friends, they DID trust each other. It ruins the whole tragedy of their downfall relationship. Plus, we've done Jon bashing all S4. Been there, done that. Just take it away.

REPLACE IT WITH A S1 JON AND ELIAS SCENE. That's the kicker! it's not Sasha who was chosen, it's not Gerry. It's Jon. Show us S1 Jon, alone with Elias. Arguing about the state of the archives? Asking about Gertrude? If we want to keep the fire metaphor thing, talking about the extra security for Prentiss? I like that one because it would be an occasion to show early S1 Jon arguing with Elias expecting Elias to act and protect them, which Elias would "agree to" at the end; it would show Jon's ignorance, specifically the thing that Gerry said was too dangerous, but also Jon's stubborness and desire to know more to protect himself and the people "who are his responsability". For extra, extra tastiness, make it a conversation where Elias enquires about Martin, shows Jon's guilt about it, and get a whole genuine intimate relationship that goes beyond boss/employee. Get us the impression that S1 Jon thought Elias was someone he could confide in in private. and then. AND THEN-

Have the tape crackle as the tape!Elias repeats Jon's voice. Differently this time. Stronger. Have a cool sentence that's not coming to me right now like "Jon, Look at it." or whAtever. Or "It's only the beginning, Jon" or SOMETHING. Something that could both be from the discussion in the tape but also not. Keep Jon's little "what?" and then, bam, statement.

I'd go even harder with the statement cabin showing all the Fears Present, although relistening i realize lots of them are here already. But also i'd make it more clear maybe that it's not the "cabin" so much as Jon and Martin being a storm of all their fears feeding from each other, more than "the cabin".. If that makes sense. But that's not HUGELY necessary, the statement is lovely as is, except at the end, makes it "The Eye doesn't want you to stay here" instead of "doesn't want me to stay here". Makes it all crackle up a thousands. Makes it clear Jon's voice is Elias' voice.

It would make even more sense that Jon was getting furious at Elias, hence why suddenly this all popped up, and also have Jon trying to say something about it Martin without being quite able to explain what just happens and since Martin jumps on the "let's go" train, the thought falls through, at the same time.

#tma s5 relistening #the magnus archives #we're starting the (secret jonelias) fix it right now :)

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journey-to-the-attic · 2 years

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s4 (jtta-ified)

i received an ask about how i might redo s4 in the lieu of how i redid s1 for jtta, but then i ended up losing the ask (i got duplicates of it for some reason and accidentally deleted the original ask as well), so i’m putting my response here in its own post--

if i was going to write a full-length sequel to jtta, this’d probably be its plot - though there'd be a bunch of like bonus one shots to fill the space between too. since i’ve already had these notes accumulating for a while, i’ve got enough detail here that i could reasonably turn it into an actual fic? essentially i’m saying that it’s no longer a impossibility, so i guess you could ignore this if you wanted to go into a potential sequel blind - but it’s also not definitely going to happen, so keep that in mind

unlike jtta, which still followed all of the plot beats of s1, i'm basically reinventing the new s4 characters and forming my own narrative around them entirely, so this is mainly free of s4 spoilers i think?? i still haven’t actually caught up, so if any of this is massively contradicting to canon... well, what else is new haha

!!long post ahead!!

s4 brings up the issue of demons in the devildom not agreeing with diavolo's policy and disliking the exchange program, but this comes out of nowhere and isn't brought up at all in previous seasons (as far as i remember)

not to mention it wouldn't fit in with what the r.a.d. is like in jtta

so instead:

the r.a.d. is populated by demons from the main devildom city, the residents of which are what you'd call modern/progressive demons. they're not necessarily young, they're just open-minded as a result of living close to the centre of the devildom's cultural development (which, before diavolo being placed in charge, was extremely slow, but has been accelerating since he became acting ruler)

to these folk, they consider the old king's rule obsolete, and diavolo is their king as far as they're concerned

so students at the r.a.d. are largely supportive of diavolo and his plan to unite the three realms (though they don't all necessary think it'll work), and most are at least neutral if not positive on the exchange program

however, the main city and the r.a.d.'s students only make up about 35% of the devildom's population, the rest of which is largely spread out in more rural settings

this larger chunk of the demon population still thinks of diavolo's dad as their true king, and is the one that disapproves of diavolo's uniting-the-three-worlds plan - you could consider them the devildom's version of old-fashioned conservative folk

once diavolo is made aware of this, he immediately begins plans to help change their minds

this is all very simplified, but basically he invites solomon, luke, simeon and ik back for another exchange year (they accept), and also extends an open invitation to the r.a.d. to all of that old-fashioned population

this is how om mephistopheles comes into the plot - here, he's part of this old-fashioned population, didn't previously attend the r.a.d., and only starts when he accepts diavolo's invitation. he's also the only one that does so

(he's considered a noble because, in the devildom, being noble just means that you're above a certain age and were associated with the old king's court, not including those who were just employed there)

(mephistopheles only came into the picture fairly late into the old king's rule, so didn't know him well, and subsequently is a little more open-minded than the demons he lives around - but not by a lot)

raphael comes in because he ends up joining simeon and luke, ostensibly just because he was curious about the devildom, but in actuality it was because the high council wanted him to keep an eye on things

especially on simeon, who's been very out-spoken about the celestial realm's issues ever since he returned from the first exchange program, as well as ik, who's been mentioned by simeon and luke a lot

and thirteen reaches out to diavolo after hearing through the grapevine about the exchange program starting again - because she's curious about the human who died and came back to life, being a reaper who deals in life and death

so that's the set up!

the main plot is that diavolo is working to garner more acceptance from that rural devildom population with the exchange students as spokespeople - mostly the original four, but he does get raphael and thirteen involved too

there's one sub-plot for each new character, which each also has some of the side characters involved, since they don't get as much spotlight in jtta

also, my version of simeon's s4 subplot would basically just be this: he's even more disillusioned with the celestial realm now than he was after the war, he's attempting to make changes to make it less of the not-great-place that it is, and the high council doesn't like that

it's not quite as serious as in the original (i'm pretty sure it involves the ring of light from s2, which isn't a factor in our version, since s2's events didn't happen), but it's still a running plot thread

the brothers are still present throughout all of this, but act more as helpers and advice-givers - since their primary arcs were all in jtta, their arcs in this plot are most background running ones

the subplots intersect with each other and the main plot, and they come in chunks for all three parties, but for efficiency's sake we'll just summarise each character's plot line separately

mephistopheles' subplot:

starts first: he arrives at the r.a.d. and has extreme culture shock because of how used to his traditionalist home environment he is

he still admires diavolo, but more subtly and also more subconsciously than in canon

behaves quite standoffishly with students who try to befriend him, doesn't make a lot of friends right off the bat, kind of hates his experience for the first few weeks

the first demon he befriends is actually wiz - who kind of speaks his whole high-class language and so is able to communicate with him, and so he joins the newspaper club

right off the bat: he and jtta mephisto do not like each other

they have completely contradictory personalities and principles, and mephistopheles wants to be a serious club while mephisto's all about the wacky joke papers

and of course they also don't like that they share a name

(normally this isn't possible, but with mephisto's backstory, the rule of each demon's name having to be unique because of magic stuff doesn’t apply to him)

mephistopheles's arc involves him moving past his ingrained prejudices against change and the other two realms, letting go of the idea of 'more magic power = superior', and beginning to use his noble position among those old fashioned demonfolk as a force for progress

(those folk respect him because he was associated with the old king)

another theme in mephistopheles' arc would be a sort of impostor syndrome - he enjoys the respect he gets from his peers where he's from, which is partly why he acts so haughty, but he also feels deep down that he doesn't deserve it

because 1. he actually believes more in diavolo as a ruler than the old king, and 2. he never actually met the old king in person

mephistopheles also slowly recognises that being a passive listener in the very archaic and often harmful views of the demons around him is pretty bad, even if he doesn't usually actively engage in it

diavolo gets involved in this arc - and, whether or not this ends up in romantic territory, so does our mephisto

they're both linked to the time before diavolo taking the throne, but mephisto's moved forward and is doing his own loony thing, while mephistopheles is still partially stuck in the past and on traditional values

because he's older, mephisto is also a representation of the fact that mephistopheles shouldn't go along with the prejudice just because he was 'bOrN In a DIffEreNt tImE', because mephisto was around for arguably even worse times, and has turned out fine by now anyway

and it's always better late than never to become a better person

so over time mephisto essentially grabs mephistopheles by the hair and YANKS him out of that comfortable, prejudice-complicit shell

(which would eventually end in either them just being friendly rivals, or mephistopheles gaining a massive crush and then them becoming tentative boyfriends)

anyway mephisto is what gets mephistopheles out of that shell, but ik and diavolo help him actually recognise, adjust, and settle into life outside it

diavolo because he's the guy mephistopheles looks up to, so he begins following his example of always being eager to learn about new cultures, putting kindness first, etc

ik because she's part of the group that mephistopheles' old-fashioned peers dislikes, and is a shining example of the fact that humans are actually pretty great and there is literally no reason for the grudge being held against her race

as a combination they help convince mephistopheles that change is possible and also desirable

(ik also serves as a link for mephistopheles to get to know the other exchange students, so overall he gets to make more friends that see him as equals, rather than just having acquaintances who only respect him because of his very loose connection to some old dude)

thirteen's subplot (though i talk more about lore than plot here haha)

technically starts around the same time as mephistopheles' subplot, but doesn't really begin in earnest until later

we’re not told a lot about what reapers are, or much about thirteen, so i’ll be making stuff up again as per usual

reapers as a species are descended from demons, but have evolved to be distinct from demonkind because 1. they lack the ability to make pacts, 2. they don’t have a demon form, and 3. they cannot create offspring using the dark matter in the third layer

reapers are created with a similar process, though - just with vivus wax rather than dark matter

vivus wax is also what their candles are made of; additionally, rather than being something used to control death, the reapers’ candles are used to observe the processes of life and death instead, and any conscious being can have a candle

one being can also have multiple candles, if multiple reapers are interested in observing them, and you aren’t going to die if a candle of yours is put out while you’re still alive

reapers can tell the difference between a candle that’s gone out because its being has died and a candle that’s been blown out because its reaper got bored of it; in the former case, they’ll often save the wax to study

what exactly the burning and the wax tells the reapers is unbeknownst to anyone but them, as they’re quite secretive about their practices (all that’s known is that it doesn’t give them information on you as a person, but rather something less tangible about the way life persists and then disappears)

not all reapers will have candles to observe, but most do, since as a species they’re inherently given to studying death (though no one knows why)

some reapers (known as underground reapers) live in cave systems around the edges of the sixth layer of hell - the one where the underground tomb is located - and are responsible for managing any punished souls imprisoned there

some reapers also live among the demons in the devildom, and they’re generally considered underground reapers as well

some reapers (known as earthly reapers) live in the human world, similar to sorcerers and witches; some will be integrated into human society (like grisella), whereas others prefer to live remotely and observe from afar (like solomon)

demons and reapers are traditionally rivals, as are witches and sorcerers (witches are traditionally allied with reapers, and sorcerers with demons)

so you’ve got an already instinctive/pre-established rivalry between thirteen and all the demons, and also a sort-of one with solomon based on both their past and the fact that they’re associated with different ‘sides’

thirteen is considered an underground reaper at the time of joining the exchange program, but that’s actually quite a recent development; up until about five years ago, she was an earthly reaper, and was one of the sort that mingled with humans and lived among them

so she and solomon serve as sort of foils to one another; thirteen, despite being a reaper, is actually more well-acquainted with modern humanity than solomon, the actual human

in the beginning, thirteen’s having a sort of conflict of identity, which is the reason she went from being an earthly reaper to an underground reaper in the first place; essentially she began to become fully aware of death’s effects on humans, how destructively some would grieve, and of just how much death creatures will inflict on each other, sometimes for no reason

as a reaper whose very existence is essentially rooted in death, it made her question her own origins, and whether there was something inherently wrongful about her species’ most basic interest for humans to fear it so much

so she joins the exchange program out of interest in asking ik about her own experience with death, having heard about an odd phenomenon from a few reapers who had a candle for her where they remembered watching the flame go out, but saw that it was still burning whenever they went back to check it

thirteen’s arc involves two things: primarily it’s developing and resolving that identity conflict, and she also plays a role in some secondary ripples involving ik

(essentially something happens that makes ik relapse a little, making it apparent that she’s still not really recovered from her own death and the existential aspects of her revival; thirteen would be the best equipped character to help her with this - along with someone else, but that’s spoilers for some future jtta stuff)

another less focal part of her arc is based on that whole traditional witches + reapers vs sorcerers + demons rivalry, relating to mephistopheles’ arc and the idea that what is old isn’t necessarily right, and that you’re supposed to judge based on the individual and not the population

there’s also some stuff based on the idea that a lot of reapers find it difficult to actually consider individuals as living beings with active existences - as in, being used to studying them based on candles that don’t tell them anything about them as people, they forget that said people exist uniquely

raphael's subplot:

probably the most underutilised so far in canon, not because he doesn't get screentime, but because he's set up with so much potential for conflict that isn't really used - i.e. him being a hitman for the celestial realm

so it's established very early on that raphael might be a danger to ik, because simeon’s aware of why he’s joined the exchange program alongside him and luke

he pulls ik aside pretty much immediately after she and raphael are introduced, and warns her to keep her guard up

his own subplot is integrated into raphael's in this case, and since it's less monumental than it (presumably) is in canon, he's not hiding it as much

it's fairly clear to anyone who pays attention that there's tension between simeon and the authorities of the celestial realm, there just isn't a lot of explicit conversation about it

so raphael's plot line is more passive for the first half of the main plot: it's mostly just a drip-feed of him being distant from everyone that isn't luke or simeon (and even then he's still kind of distant from them), plus hints that he's possibly up to no good

but, over the course of this, raphael is also slowly being dragged into befriending more folks because he has ik as a mutual friend

past the halfway point there comes more significant moments of reflection from raphael, as he begins to look past his orders from the high council and starts just living a comfy and friendly life in the devildom

eventually he talks to simeon and tells him the full extent of his orders from the high council of the celestial realm

basically it's this: keep an eye on simeon, keep an eye on who's influencing him, keep an eye on who he's influencing, and do as you see fit to if you detect a major threat. if simeon goes too far, bring him back alive.

and raphael's kind of like "i don't think anyone's a major threat, so i'm not going to do anything, but technically i'm still following my orders, right?"

and simeon basically replies "attaboy raphael, i knew you had it in you to question our home realm's questionable authorities"

the main big conflict of this whole story would be related to raphael’s arc in particular (whereas thirteen and mephistopheles’ arcs just equip them to help out)

whether or not it actually happens, the conflict would involve the possibility of some kind of celestial civil war, which gives us a whole bunch of good character fodder for both the angels and the brothers (given their own experiences with the original war)

i won’t go into too much detail on it, though - since 1. i haven’t actually fully fleshed it out yet, and 2. if i do write out this fic, i’d want this conflict in particular to not be spoiled

raphael’s arc would also involve some looks into the whole angels = good and demons = bad thing; he starts out believing that demons are inherently evil, but also doesn’t extend this view to the brothers, since he still largely sees them as the angels he knew

ik (plus luke and simeon) get him to confront this hypocrisy, and this relates back to the whole judge by individuals not species thing again

there’d also be some looks into where the angels = good and demons = bad thing came from in the first place

some other miscellaneous stuff:

the side characters (royals + purgatrio) would be having ongoing arcs based on their development from jtta, since unlike the brothers their arcs aren’t concrete enough to have a final resolution by the end of the first year, and their arcs are what tie them into the new trio’s subplots

the arc themes would be: diavolo + change, barbatos + duty in relation to his powers and what he can and can’t do, solomon + his identity as a human, luke + deciding what’s right and wrong in comparison to what he’s grown up learning, and simeon + the past and confronting the flaws of the angelic hierarchy he’s been complicit in

i’d want to have ik’s dad take a more active role in the story this time, since ik needs to have her own overall arc throughout the fic as the main character, and reconciling her properly with her dad seems to be the natural next step after her arc in jtta

of course they’ve taken steps since ik returned from the first exchange year, but the fact that ik agreed to be away for another whole year in the first place is telling as to the fact that her relationship with her dad is still at least a little distant

i don’t think zhao would come to the devildom as well, but he’d definitely be in regular contact and/or visit

there’d be an arc involving a visit to the human world where thirteen gets to meet ik’s aunt lisa, and then i get to bring back adam and jack from the satan arc for a cameo (possibly also ethan, sophia and noah?)

the brothers aren’t delegated to being background characters or anything - they also get involved in the subplots, plus have sorta group secondary arcs of their own

like i’ve mentioned before, it’s not a bad thing inherently to bring back satan and lucifer’s conflict, since it’s definitely not completely solved by their initial arc - it’s just that they kind of rehash it rather than really develop it more each time they do

so if there was a secondary arc involving it, it wouldn’t be the focal point - rather, i think it’d intersect with ik and her dad reconciling as well as some more general development for lucifer regarding his treatment of his brothers

we’d get to see more actual belpheroth developments on-screen (so to speak), since roth would be involved in belphie’s secondary arc relating from everything with him in jtta

building on that, we’d have him involved in an arc with zhao, since ik doesn’t tell him what belphie did to her, and then this arc would also involve barbatos, diavolo and thirteen

as for all the events that lead to the developments and arcs i’ve mentioned - they’d probably mostly be original, but i might borrow some plot points from s2-4, or maybe even a few pop quizzes??

#if i did write this sequel fic it wouldn't be for a while even after jtta ends #probably wouldn't really have a consistent update schedule either #obey me season 4 #do i want to tag the whole cast?? nah some of them aren't really mentioned i'll just tag the ones that are #obey me thirteen #obey me raphael #obey me mephistopheles #obey me diavolo #obey me barbatos #obey me simeon #obey me solomon #obey me luke #jtta mephisto #jtta ik #sorry if there are a bunch of typos here i wrote most of these notes very late at night #and i didn't bother editing them before pasting them here and posting #obey me #journey to the attic

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nish-bean · 2 years

Text

~ why the umbrella academy season 3 was actually good despite what some reviews say ~

!!!spoilers ahead!!!

so a lot of people (including some of my friends) have been saying that season three of tua was bad and they ‘expected more’ from it and it didn’t really give them anything. i’m going to explain here why i think season 3 was a really good season and definitely worth the hype.

the first point, would be the character development. we’ll start with the character that went through the most development; allison. allison, from the beginning in season 1 is shown selfish and inconsiderate. while a lot of people liked her character, i didn’t. in s1, she wanted viktor to forgive her despite bullying him several times and even contributing to his past traumas and declining mental health. in s3, we see her unwilling to forgive viktor for protecting harlan and for creating harlan, the very reason their mothers died and claire doesn’t exist. she also lost ray, which broke her entirely, but did not justify her cruel actions toward her family. this built up her selfish personality to its peak. while she wasn’t genuine when she apologized to her siblings, she did care for the family. in the end, we see her making a deal with reginald, the details of which we were never told. while she might’ve had selfish intentions in mind, i think the deal was made to benefit the family. at the end of the last episode, we see allison run home to claire and ray, which makes me think one of two things happened; she either died and is in the afterlife, or reset the universe to benefit herself in the same way reginald did. this arc definitely adds layers to the character, while also villainizing her. it gave the story flavor and added to its final plot. every character, from lila who we met in s2 to ben and the sparrows, had tremendous character development and became versions of themselves that suit the story better. like even luther, being the macho guy he was, became calmer and took a step back, giving the reigns to someone else for once. the character development, while it was disappointing to some, was very apt to the storyline. i think it did better than s1 in this aspect.

the second thing that makes this season so incredible is the deeper plot. earlier, in both s1 and 2, the hargreeves siblings had only one goal; to save the world. now, in s2, they introduced us to the ‘reggie is an alien’ element, but never really built on it. in this season, they dug through that to realize that everything might’ve been planned. now, saving the world was a more complicated task than we thought. it wasn’t just saving the world anymore, it was who the hell is reginald hargreeves. this season was crucial in building up to the answer, which we’ll get more of in s4 i hope. this added tremendous building to the repetitive ‘saving the world’ storyline. it thickens the plot and leaves us craving more.

the third and final thing (out of the million points i wanted to make lmao), is the cliff-hanger ending. the ending was, i think, my favorite part. it’s frustrating, but leaves you coming back for more. in the ending, we see them ‘reset’ the universe, or rather, walk out in a completely different place—one where reginald is alive, and seems to have a considerable amount of power. on top of that, the hargreeves siblings (and lila) have all ‘lost’ their powers. the reason i’ve put lost in quotes, is because they’ll definitely, at some point, get their powers back. this adds to the suspense, because a lot of their defense relies on their powers and thats how they survive. living without their powers, is not only going to be a challenge, but might be dangerous considering the problems they could face (especially with reginald’s unknown plans). coming to the last part of this ending; the song. the song that plays when the scene shows the eight of them part ways, is short change hero by the heavy. the lyrics of this song (as attached above) are “this ain’t no place for no hero, this ain’t no place for no better man, this ain’t no place for no hero, to call home.” i think the choice of this song was intentional for its lyrics. the writers might be implying (in my opinion) that the reset universe is a sort of dystopia—one where reginald might have more power than the last one. it opens up a world of theories (aside from the comic relations) that we don’t know. despite not liking the season, it will keep you coming back. we even get a glimpse of reginald’s bride/spouse/lover, who we’d just barely seen in the previous seasons. it heightens the suspense and builds it up. when the next season comes out, we’ll be impatient and seeking answers. season 3 was much, much, much better in terms of the suspense because it’s not predictable like the last two. it’s not just saving the world, it’s figuring out their past and their future. figuring out who their father really is and what he is or may be planning for them. one thing is for sure, they won’t be left alone (poor five—man wanted to retire.)

sorry this post is so long, but i just wanted to explain my pov on this season, as a lot of people have stopped watching the umbrella academy because they felt like it wasn’t up to their expectations or a lot of characters changed for the worse. this is my take and i hope it either convinces you to watch s4 or maybe not hate s3 as much. anyway i rewatched the season (whole series too honestly) about eight times like maniac lmao :)))

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