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likeabxrdinflight · 3 months

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episodes five and six need to be talked about together, I think, because they're very much a two-parter.

so this contains...a lot. we've got "winter solstice", zuko's half of "the storm", "the blue spirit", and a very bizarre mish-mash of koh's part of "the siege of the north" with, of all things, the fog of lost souls from the legend of korra.

it's...we're getting major deviations from the animated version here. first and foremost, it's not the worst change in the world, but splitting the backstories from "the storm" and presenting them in entirely different contexts completely removes the parallels from aang and zuko in a way that...it doesn't butcher their arcs but I do still miss the original version. that episode was top tier and here it's just...average.

meanwhile roku has been completely butchered. there's no way around it. I want to say something positive but I really don't think I can. this is the "HARRY DID YOU PUT YOUR NAME IN THE GOBLET OF FIYAH" of avatar. bad choices all around here.

anyways, the plot is kind of...running away from itself, I think. the spirit world stuff was all recognizable, but they've made some changes that don't make a ton of sense. seeing wan shi tong was kinda cool, but also why? then koh shows up but he doesn't steal your face for making an expression anymore, he find them in the fog of lost souls and puts them in little cocoons to eat...whenever he feels like it? it's just a weird change, I guess. the entire purpose of this was to fridge katara and sokka to set up for "the blue spirit" which...sure, I guess they needed to raise the stakes a little higher than "my friends need frozen frogs" in this version.

of course katara and sokka both have visions in the spirit world while they're trapped in the fog of lost souls before koh captures them. katara's I know is her real memory because they show her mother's death and it's very close to the original version. sokka's...god I hope it's not a memory, but it probably is since katara's was. massive L for hakoda if so. not thrilled about that. at what point was hakoda ever disappointed in sokka? sokka always feared letting him down, but that wasn't because hakoda ever said anything so blatantly unkind- it's because the war left the weight of expectation on sokka's shoulders. his father left and he was the only "man" remaining. it had nothing to do with hakoda himself, just the impact of his absence.

it lacks subtlety. (also was the fox sokka saw yue? I feel like it was yue)

anyways this is ultimatley just the set up for aang needing to run to find roku at his temple, learn some shit that roku did to piss koh off and nothing at all about the comet (we knew that already tho), and then go try to correct it only to get captured by june who was hired by zuko and iroh but then actually no wait zhao comes takes him instead. this then lets "the blue spirit" play out as an almost one-to-one remake. which is fascinating because so little else has been preserved identically.

...arden cho was perfect as june btw. 10/10 casting.

interspersed with all this was zuko's backstory. and.......I knew they were gonna do this, I knew they were gonna have zuko fight back. there was too much indication in the trailers. and it just misses the damn point. the point is that he doesn't fight back, he refuses to fight his father out of loyalty and love, and ozai burns him for it. at the very least, ozai does still burn him intentionally, it is very clear that it was not an accident, and he still does it because zuko held back. but the impact is neutered a bit, the cruelty feels a little less. and there's no matching the mood of this shot:

(though azula doesn't smile evil-y in this version because she's just so EVIL so thank god for that)

focusing in on ozai does let daniel do some interesting things with his face in that scene, though. I know a lot of people are going to be upset that ozai isn't quite the same menacing, saturday-morning-cartoon villain he was in the original. but oh this guy is still a monster. "I burned and banished you because I love you" seems to be the vibe we're going for. I'm not against this at all, ozai's still a piece of shit, just a piece of shit who acts like a human being. the worst abusers justify their behavior as acts of love.

ummm what else. azula had a side plot in episode five and there is some fascinating stuff here. this adaptation is blowing up the golden child/scapegoat thing that the original had going on and honestly? kinda here for it. this azula is not secure in her position as ozai's favorite and she is gonna work her ass off to get that position if it fucking kills her.

...and we know how this ends for her. they're setting her up for her eventual fall. I think it's going to be much harder to watch this azula break. she looks so young, and they're showing her vulnerabilities so much sooner. the shots of her firebending late into the night while mai and ty lee sleep is so. sad??? and gyatso has a voiceover here that's just. someone please hug this child.

(also yeah aang gets to meet with gyatso in the spirit world and it is so so sad my heart T_T)

lots happened in these two episodes, some good, some bad, some just kinda strange. I also knew season one needed the most work when it came to adapting it into a serialized format but wow. they have really frankensteined this even more than I expected. it's...different. I still think it's worth watching though, but these two episodes didn't quite hit the highs of three and four.

#natla spoilers

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mdhwrites · 11 months

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First off I want to say that your TOH criticals are a good read. It puts my grievances with the show in words I can only ever feel and brings a bit of closure in the "whys" of those grievances. That being said I haven't gone through all of them, so feel free to direct me if you've already made comments about my upcoming ask elsewhere.

Regarding Elsewhere and Elsewhen, what do you think of the show using time-travel as a plot device only once and not returning to it? The way they used it, Luz might-or-might-not be a catalyst for what wounded up happening and we might-or-might-not be watching a show that's been on an alternate timeline. I would think that's a pretty big deal but the show just moves on from it; Luz might as well have given Belos that glyph in the present since time-travel is never dwelled on again.

I think it would have helped make a more solid finale if they used time-travel again because of the possibilities, where ALL the characters could benefit from it, instead of whatever the intention of 3 characters babysitting The Collector was.

So first, thank you for the kind words! Secondly... No. Just no. Time travel is REALLY tricky to use in a narratively fulfilling way. This is because you run the risk of creating a paradox or having it not matter OR BOTH like TOH since the literal only real change from Luz entering feels to be the saving of the journal. The Collector otherwise was about to teach him other magic, we never get an instance where him learning the light glyph is important and he literally already killed one person doing this scheme of his: He would have found another. Literally the only thing that really changes is the EXACT when of the Collector and Belos meeting, which hardly matters with how much time Belos had, and the journal which... only brought about Luz and changes literally nothing else if lost so... Yeah, even if it's a stable timeloop, it's a really dumb one that still has the paradox of Luz needing to show up to save the journal.

And if this feels overly critical... Blame the trope. Time Travel plots usually are ALL about the consequences. Going back in time inherently begs that question for the audience. There's a reason why a lot of time travel stories end with the lesson of DON'T FUCK WITH THE TIMELINE and restore all to status quote with the main character having not changed anything. Or it introduces multiple timelines like Dragonball Z to allow a series to eat its cake and have it too.

So what is my advice for time travel plots?... Lean into the fun of it. See, a lot of my issues with the specifics of the time travel element of Elsewhere Elsewhen are nitpicks. The larger issue for the episode is that it's just the WORST version of Lilith, Lilith and Luz are at their absolute dumbest, arguably at least as dumb for Luz as she was in the SECOND EPISODE. And this is the second episode of the second half of the second season. I think it's reasonable to ask for a little better from Luz at this point.

But the time travel itself is mostly just... There. They don't do ANYTHING with it in the episode, between like two good jokes that are mostly just portal jokes frankly more than time travel episodes except for a little tweak in flavor. The Isles we're shown is incredibly boring. What they do there is boring. Philip is EXCESSIVELY boring... So what am I supposed to focus on?

So I focus on the mechanics of the plot. And how stupid they are. And how literally they seem to reclassify how the portals work 3+ times because they could stick their heads in and out but that doesn't constitute it moving because now it would inherently be in the same place twice, they found the portals because they were in the sand but now if that sand gets moved by the tide, it'll make the portal disappear? Couldn't they just wait until morning? Or is there a timer on them? How do they know when the portals first showed up? For that matter, why the fuck does a device that is likely most tracking magical anomalies need Titan's Blood to detect an anomaly as strong as TIME MAGIC which doesn't seem to have been developed yet in the Isles?

And yeah, if that sounds like nitpicks... You're right. But you nitpick when Suspension of Disbelief is broken and the most common way it breaks? Boredom. Sheer fucking boredom. If what is happening on screen that you're supposed to just mentally tank as "Yeah, that sounds fine" even when it might be a bit dumb logically is just boring... Why tank it? Why not question it when in the questioning, you might enjoy yourself more than simply accepting what the show is doing.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is the MASTERCLASS at how to fuck up Suspension of Disbelief seven ways to Sunday because everything sucks and nothing you do matters, but at least that was part of the movie's point. With TOH... You don't get anything for watching it. Satisfying reunions of friends? Nah. Amity and Willow never have a satisfying friendship. A grand tale about a human rising up with her found family and her hard won magical powers? Frankly, how much do King and Eda actually do in the finale? Like they're there but swap them with literally anyone else (like how Raine is just randomly right by Luz's side effectively too for this finale) and nothing really changes because their involvement isn't important. Luz's magic isn't earned nor even HERS. Want a satisfying conclusion to Palisman? Nope because Stringbean makes no sense. Want satisfying character arcs? Look elsewhere because we're not going to look into the hardships that come about with those changes, despite both Hunter and Amity having VERY clear reasons why this change would be potentially DANGEROUS for them.

Elsewhere Elsewhen is just of a kind that way. Outside of its first five minutes, and the two minutes with Dell... What are you getting out of this episode? Comic relief Eda which is always the worst comedy in the show and this is the worst of it as Eda is bonked with the stupid stick like Lilith and Luz? Lilith and Luz interacting with a SINGLE person in the past who doesn't even reflect the culture of the Isles back then so he could have been just a homeless person in the present if not for the twist it's Belos? For the lack of puzzle? For the strict anti-climax of the threat because Luz was lucky enough to poke her head into the right portal to give her the solution at the end?

And that episode is one of the most important plot points of the SERIES. It is one of the only plot points that is actually brought back and kept consistent and one of the only, ONLY times something happens and it actually affects Luz, even if it's delayed. This is the episode that revealed that Belos and Philip were the same person. It is critical to the series overall.

And most of it is just a BORING waste of time. While doing TIME TRAVEL. Instead, their priorities in this episode were really lazy 'subtle' storytelling to say the covens are bad and to allude to the twist at the end of its own episode and... Not fucking much else.

And why should that be surprising? We never get a proper idea of what the Isles and its people are like because we don't spend real time with them (besides them just being humans), it's contradicted all the time, etc. like that and that is their MAIN setting and time period. Is it really that surprising that the Isles of the past is just a utopia to these writers? Or that they literally have to ignore the conversations they themselves wrote for fish out of water jokes when the witches go to the human realm?

But these aren't concepts in a professional work you can half ass. You have to actually give a damn about a trip to a new universe or time period for the episode to not reel rote or boring or the like.

And, well, I'd love to see the timeline where the writers really cared about a lot more of TOH than they seemed to have.

#toh critical #the owl house criticism #Time Travel #suspension of disbelief

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somegirlontheinternet135 · 1 year

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As we travel deeper and deeper down the Timekeeper rabbit hole. It about time we cover an agenda, something what I think Cookie Run fandom lacks and needs more of:

Say it with me now. . .

TIMEKEEPER👏ANCIENT HERO👏INTERACTIONS!!👏

Oh, the gold mine of opportunities we are sitting on!!

Ok, call me sick, twisted, or whatever. But The Ancient Heroes. . . I like to torture them. . .

Now hear me out!-

I do like seeing them happy, like have you seem polyancient or purelily ship art?! IT'S ADORABLE!!! Sure, the voice in my head says "aww cute", the second, just as loud, voice in head says "I want a ungodly amount of suffering to come to you. . ."

But what can worse than their already going through in the orginal plot? Look no further attention to my AU

To this rant less of an essay: PV and friends accidentally summon Timekeeper, and in order to save not only Earthbread but their overall existence, they have be TK's playthings. The kicker? This takes in the further future of the game, when Dark Enchantress converts back into White Lily, adding more to the pain factor

So what pretell is worse than fighting your best friend or learning your true purpose in life? Why not become the Barbie dolls of a being who can kill you within an instant?!

What's that? They're all technically immoral??? Well strap in folks cause it's a faith worse than death!!!

Going off topic here, I also think their dynamic would be interesting. Think about it: The Ancient Heros, a bunch of old farts who are fresh out of a war, enjoy the simpler things in life, and wanna get into a routine; but Timekeeper is rambunctious, lives for entertainment, and hates routine to a T

All that being said, get to the important stuff here, their relationship; other than it's the equivalent of having a bomb strapped to your back or being held at gunpoint

We'll cover each hero one by one☆

Pure Vanilla Cookie: He's willing to do anything for Earthbread, even if that means becoming the literal boy-toy of time itself. Was the first in the group to say "Guys, if we don't do this, we'll all dead!" Overall, the most accepting of his faith. Is he terrified? Absolutely! Put into consideration that TK is stronger than what DE could or will ever be. Also, though not totally understanding their hobbies or musical interest, he still cheers them on or even indulges in it, likely being forced

Golden Cheese Cookie: Possibly the easiest to win over, the two have a lot in common and connected easily. Although at first, she didn't know what to feel about TK when they first show up. Golden was egotistical, believing her powers surpassed all, but when the Timekeeper, a being stronger than not just her but DE, shows up, it almost shatters Golden's ego, especially since they're a blur when they fight. Like PV, she doesn't understand their interest in musical theater, in fact doesn't see the liking of musical theater in general

Hollyberry Cookie: Her first thought was definitely "Oh what's the worst thing that can happen?" Everything. Every. f*cking. thing. Home girl just wanted to protect her kingdom and friends from threats, and no amount protection is gonna help us with *that*. But, Holly trusts PV, believing that in order to save their kingdoms and the world, is to let TK get their way, and it somewhat works? Also, Holly learns very quickly that Timekeeper isn't affected by alcohol berry juice. Very quickly don't ask why

White Lily Cookie: And she thought Dark Enchantress was scary. Seriously, the poor thing was/still is terrified of Timekeeper. To think, a happy life with her friends, with PV, all thrown out the window. Like Holly, Lily trusts Pure Vanilla with every inch in her body and also believes that letting TK do what they wanted with them was the safest option, you know how when you're of scared or uninterested in something, but as time goes on, you grow more curious of it? That's what happens with Lily. She gains more and more curious and almost intrigued by TK. An example of this is through theater, whenever TK performs, Lily watches in awe and adoringly. Timekeeper to Lily's eyes is like mother tiger, beautiful and magnificent beast yes, but better a few feet away, or behind glass

Dark Cacao Cookie: Legit thought TK was hell spawn the minute they showed up, diffidently the hardest egg to crack, even making the dumb decision of wanting to fight them. After learning how dire the situation actually was, and fighting was in fact, not an option, he decides he wanted nothing to do with him. All those years of prepping, preparing for war, now fruitless when dealing with Timekeeper. This obviously, doesn't work considering they destroy the citadel's wall within a second, or the fact they just teleport to him at a given moment. Even when he does warm up to TK, he still finds them annoying

And the final touch would be bonus head canons:

☆Timekeeper does crazy and or messed-up sh*t just for the pure sensation of the five's reaction. They also make sure it isn't consistent pattern, so they never know their next move

☆TK likes touching faces, especially if it's Pure Vanilla's, they like squishing his cheeks. That could be cause very touch-starved

☆At a given moment, TK had jump-scared several people by teleporting into a room or behind someone

☆White Lily finds herself "stalking" Timekeeper whenever they're alone to learn more about them, jotting notes in a little journal. It normally ends TK leaving only to appear it right behind her

☆After finding out they're not affected by alcohol, Holly and Cheese like testing TK's different abilities by arranging these different bets

☆Despite their amount of power, they love playing a good game of "cat and mouse" with Dark Cacao and creme wolves, just annoying him long enough so gives chase

☆TK is quite diverse with it comes to musical instrument, the one they play the most is the piano. Their favorite music genres is both eclectic and normal swing, so if I they get to be in the same room as a piano, you're in for fun night

☆The ancient heroes can all chilling for a second before being dragged into some crazy shenanigans by TK, whether that be one of their hobbies or musical theater fun

☆ Since Golden Cheese and Pure Vanilla both hang out with TK the most, the two learn alot about importance of performance and showmanship

☆ The other ancient heroes constantly give Dark Cacao sh*t for getting involved with TK

☆☆☆

Going into 'angst' territory, with Timekeeper being around, it impacts the friendship of the five heroes. On one side, we have Dark Cacao Cookie, who refuses to be some 'object' and wants to take action, but then you got everyone else who thinks fighting back would be pointless and making them happy and entertained is their best, and safest option. Dark Cacao being dramatic, questions whether or not their friendship means anything, and decides he wants nothing to them also. Which to their defense, it's not like they don't agree with him, it just that DC's plan was kinda stupid and escalate quickly

And there you have it folks, multiple paragraphs talking about another hyperfixation I have. First ramble of the year

#cookie run kingdom #cookie run #timekeeper cookie #pure vanilla cookie #hollyberry cookie #dark cacao cookie #golden cheese cookie #white lily cookie #first ramble of the year

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idkwhoiamanymorebutwtf · 1 year

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How would you deal with Marcy’s arc(assuming no major plot points could be changed?)

Okay, so, if I can't make any major changes- like giving Marcy a bigger role besides "being possessed" for all of season three or keeping her in Amphibia (whether permanently or just letting her go back sometimes by doing away with the "oops, portal's gone, they can't go back" thing)- I think my biggest change would be regarding Marcy's own feelings and attitude.

I think Marcy's biggest issue has always been that she doesn't have enough agency, self worth, or assertiveness, honestly. Her friends have seriously hurt her and she doesn't even seem to realize it, much less be in a place where she feels like she can say something about it. Even in Newtopia, where she seemed to be happiest, it felt like she was being taken advantage of to some extent with just how much work was being piled onto her by people who didn't really appreciate her. And I know they didn't explore it much and just kinda swept it under the rug to some extent, but I really do not get the impression that she had a good home life before coming to Amphibia (which, if we're making changes to marcy's arc, i'd also absolutely elaborate more on the things that pushed her to the point of being fully willing to never see her family again, because no teenage girl runs away for six months, let alone forever, and doesn't miss home once, unless there's a serious issue, which apparently the writers didn't think about). She's been hurt a lot, but she's always putting her feelings on the back burner to help other people.

Taking all of that into account, I think Marcy needed to learn to know her worth and realize she's allowed to say no to people/have negative feelings about things. That she doesn't need to fix everyone else, that she's allowed to ask for better for herself, how to set boundaries, etc. I think that would have been the logical evolution of her character arc. Honestly, that wouldn't even have been that hard to do without changing anything. Andrias blatantly took advantage of her! The core literally forcibly imposed itself onto her mind! It wouldn't have been difficult at all to use those story aspects to lean into the lesson she needed to learn!

Instead, in canon, it just kinda felt like Marcy was punished for wanting what Anne learned she deserved. Marcy's big moment was putting everyone else over herself again (not that it wasn't the right thing to do in that circumstance, i didn't want her to stay in the core forever, but narratively i don't think the writers should have made it a matter of self sacrifice or let everyone in the real world die! i think the writers should have made breaking free a matter of self assertion and individual identity!). She gave a whole speech about not running away from reality or whatever, said nothing about how she's been hurt by everyone around her, and decided to move away with her parents (iirc she didn't even consider another option, actually, i think we were meant to take her moving away as an extension of the 'lesson' she learned when she rejected the core offering her everything she wanted).

Overall I just think "I started this whole mess because I wanted to escape reality, but I won't run away from it anymore" was a bad lesson for them to settle on. I'm not sure what exactly the writers intended with that. At best, it was a lesson about being positive in the face of a bad situation, which Marcy didn't need to learn in the first place because, save for the, like, one mental health crisis she had that started the whole series, Marcy is a very positive person and in fact tends to push her feelings into the background for the sake of not making things harder. At worst, Marcy is actively shamed for wanting what is freely given to Anne (and what anne's told she deserves) and is taught to be complacent when she deserves to demand better for herself. Either way, Marcy's story would have been better off with her learning a completely different lesson in her big defining scene with The Core.

#amphibia #marcy wu

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iamthepulta · 2 years

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10, 11, 18, 25 for the writing meme?

Ah! I forgot to answer these delicious questions!

10. Has a piece of writing ever "haunted" you? What does that mean to you?

For me, that means "a WIP that follows you around in your moments of weakness and stabs you for abandoning it- only it hasn't really been abandoned so it's like lovers-to-enemies with one of the parties running away really fast". The worst of these is The Tale of Jean Shea. It was one of my original works when I was 15-ish, and it had an Okay plot of travellers recording deserted post-apocalyptic areas and and making sure people's stories are told; which turned into an urban fantasy with ghosts and a base on the moon and then a plot between the moon base and the people who governed earth to.... I can't remember.

But either way, I got all the way to them travelling to Iceland and I lost the plot. I miss this story and I'd like to go back to it someday, but it needs heavy revamping. My depictions of fantasy-ghosts that are spiritual imprints but can also touch things and teleport and become ‘real’ again if they’re loved, haunts me.

11. Do you believe in the old advice to "kill your darlings?" Are you a ruthless darling assassin?

Not really. I tend to operate on the amount of characters I need for the plot and no more. Found Family > Game of Thrones. But I probably could have a lot of fun trying to write Game of Thrones if I really tried.

18. Choose a passage from your writing; tell me about the backstory, how you came up with it, and how it changed from start to end.

OOoooo.

Mary didn’t come into the office often, but it was still several times a week. Westlie had spent hours of her life trying to figure out why Mary worked as a secretary for Arthur. The woman was tall, lithe, fashionable, and only halfway decent at math. Her handwriting was the least neat part about her, which was to say, the rest of her was fucking flawless and her cursive looked like someone took a bunch of stamps, stuck them in a printing press, and churned out pages of the stuff without mistakes. She was the only one who could get away with wearing her hair down and Arthur not sending her home: probably because it fell in over her shoulders in waves of enticing brown ringlets and it looked less pretty down than it did up. She styled it every fucking morning somehow, before she came into work. She was twenty-five years old, a solid two years older than Westlie, a kiss-ass, she belonged at a fashion agency, not Fairweather, and Westlie wanted to eat her alive on sight.

- Liztlie AU, Chapter 8

Mary's introduction while accosting Westlie to give her more paperwork. Probably the best character introduction I've ever written; it wrote itself. I think I've rearranged a few sentences but that was it. I imagine Mary as a high-society prep who wants to be working class but doesn't really have the skills to be good at it, and she's just a born asshole because she sees everyone else as beneath her. Which, coincidentally, is exactly what Arthur thinks, so they got that going for their creepy Employer-Secretary eyecandy relationship.

The phrase of "wanted to eat her alive on sight"? Never going to top that one. I read it and every single time I lose my mind. It's my own damn writing and I go Yes, Westlie, eat her.

25. What is a weird, hyper-specific detail you know about one of your characters that is completely irrelevant to the story?

For some reason, in my head, Morgan (the younger sister in Liztlie AU) had this obsession with growing up. It's totally irrelevant to the story because she's 20 in the now and thinks she's the queen of the world, but if I wrote the story of Morgan growing up, it'd be a lot of suffing her shoes, big shirts, and obscure growing pagan rituals.

#that was so fun xDD thanks for reminding me Mary exists. I hate her she needs to die.#liztlie au #ask #writing #these are so much fun haha #answers #me #self

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johnnys-breastmilk · 5 months

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Wally anon: (to the other anon: whoooops, I really keep getting carried away with our ongoing correspondence 🫣)

you knowwww he's packing it. 🍆 (omg @ not even seen the OG until then 😭) Yuppp. We should, in fact, be incl more. queer characters cause the more the merrier 🌈 🌈 🌈 instead of patting ourselves on the back for a single. one when they had the potential for THREE! omg whyyy are we the same person. I really am not a fan of Tara + find a lot. of the hype surrounding her be because people like Jenna (& I get it, Jenna's iconic). When you really unpack her character, she...doesn't have much of a personality? just tiny details that never really come together & THEN she spends most of the movie in the hospital so she doesn't have much of a story arc either so it's like 🤷‍♀️ (The Inhaler™ is such a personal meme to me cause I can nottt take it srsly from how forced they made it when Tara is never actually. negatively impacted by her asthma, see: the way she runs with zero issue in 6 skdhsk) Yupppp, you get it. I know it wouldn't be a ~crowd-pleasing~ thing to have a GF exclusively using guns, but like...it's a horror movie. Commit & be nasty or be safe & PG-13. 🙃 I will. say, stuntman/actor-wise, H20 has one of the worst. Mask I can give a slight pass, but...what was that man doing lollll. (Oh your hole will be stretched so wide & floodeddd with cum when he's done that you won't believe how much comes leaking out of you 🤭) I can see that for sure but I think me having a less...enthused reaction to 2018 made it + Kills work better for me than a lot of people. Yesss, such. a fucked up opening but so very perfect at the same time for being a complete subversion on everything we've come to expect with babysitters in the franchise. 😫 (but, yeah, I think if they had somehow managed to have the opening take place on 2018 night itself or have Michael just lurking around but him not directly doing anything, just his ~evil~ influencing the situation, I think it would be more seamless) Yeahhhh @ this trilogy. I understand. why they ~went back to basics~ by ignoring the sibling connection, but inherently creates a disconnect cause like Dave says in 2018...he only killed a handful of people. In some. ways it works with the OG only having Judith's murder as a catalyst for turning Michael into a boogeyman & expanding on those vibes, but in other ways, it makes certain decisions clunky (Sartain, hello). Oh, please do keep going @ sleazy men from school. I know a lotttt of people were going wild over Johnny earlier in the year & I absolutely see the vision there. 👀👀👀

Oh yeah, I got what you meant. We all have our firsts. 👍 I do think that just tends to be Raimi's signature style, which varies in effect for me from what I've seen by him so I obviously understand being a little put off by them. You whackin Tobey so bad. 💀 Interestingggg @ this ranking. I'd need to rewatch some of them to present mine cause it's been awhile for a few of them, but SM2/verse are pretty firmly tied at the top (I also controversially recall preferring TASM2 cause the drama of the Gwen plot even if I know the villains themselves aren't the greatest. in it). But yes ughhh that. critique always annoyed the shit outta me back in the day cause literally what is the point if you're doing the exact same thing every time with adaptations? Yes, you need specific tenets to go "This character is Spiderman" but the way people went nuts over the ~skater boy loner who's actually kind of charming when he applies himself~ completely miss what works about that duo of films. 😒 sdksgs oh you want him to SUFFER.suffer. Can't say I disagree cause it would make him 5000% more developed than when they kept shoving Tony in front of him & it's the kind of material Tom deserves. 🙌🙌🙌 Okay, okay, I see. So you'd say him being older helps prepare him better for the specific Spiderman struggles than the typical teen Peter antics. (Priorities @ super caked up 🤭) Ooh, what kind of sex toys are we talking? Anything funky that would be unique to him? And I assume this means he also. developed his own lubricant like he has with making his webs? Perhaps a super long-lasting lube that intensifies the pleasure receptors in the body. 🥴 Oh he'd for sureee be rocking the sweatpants. They're his Thing, after all (just like his fat di-🤫).

Yesss & you're just so boneless from all the thrusting & cumming & stimulation that you're just happy you're somewhere comfortable while they keep going. 🤤

Yesss my god not expanding on his Uncle Ben at all. was always such a ???? to me cause that is such a crucial element of Peter's story. I know they somewhat rectified that in NWH but why did it take thatttt long to do so? Oh right, wasting all that time on Tony. 🖕 (But yupppp, they were obsessed with tying almost every part of Tom's Peter into Tony's life & there was zero reason to do so beyond the ridiculous Tony bias). Understandable choices @ them being tied, especially with our ongoing conversations in mind. I controversially think that Endgame really was genuinely the beginning of the end for the MCU & not just for Steve reasons. Soooo many of the bad decisions they make now come directly from not letting ~the snap~ linger more & wanting to bring a quick end to the Infinity Saga (when tbfh, IW should've been "the end" with stage 4 being entirely constructed to reverse it while gradually peppering in new characters so that when they earned. Endgame + characters bowed out, we would already been attached to new ones). (Ooh, let's brainstorm cause I can really see the Santa!Steve + cheering up vision, but am similar wondering how we would get to smut 👀) I never ended up seeing Defending Jacob. 🙈 I think the fact he doesn't. know about parenting cause he still hasn't dealt with his unresolved issues makes sense for him, it's just that the movies...do nothing. with that in favor of a quick & hollow & romanticized relationship with Peter. 🙃 (I think Peter still wouldn't quite. recognize it cause his "powers" didn't require anything particularly strenuous, but he'd have Mysterio panting for sureee) Yesss, exactly. Some of the juiciest pairings are ones that you + the narrative know are kind of wrong for each other but the chemistry is INSANE so you need. to see it.😮‍💨 (Yesss @ the reveal. Easily one of the best villain reveals in the MCU & I wish they had fully capitalized on all that potential cause yeah what tf is the point of these dumbass glasses when it should be entirely a personal motivation but you knowwww those glasses would be like those ~VR headsets for immersive sex situations~ & I picture a scenario where Mysterio has Peter tied down & projecting a vision of them having sex while he actually has some special machine sucking him off the entire time 🤭) Iknowww. We fr can't escape. (But hmmm, I'd say either are correct headcanons depending on the fic, but in this situation I'm thinking short!top. 🫡 Tom's just hot in general, but it could have to do with FFH giving Peter ~the most variety to do~ with the changing locations & all that).

Yuppp. Got what they deserved fr. And then he'll just wipe the cum off your face, slather it on his dick, bend you over, & start fucking you cause he's still so hard. 🫣

Please continue to yap away. I am very excited to see how it all turned out. 🫶 adjsk I'll bet. 👀 I believe in you. We've discussed so much with Wally that I know you got this. 👍

(Oh, Priscilla is sooooo good but depressing. Seeing just a fraction of everything she went through like 💔)

true uhhh we can always have a more naturally flowing conversation on discord or something if you have it!

everyone’s packing tbh. and yeahhhh i’m a fake fan😪 sorry i wasnt conceived in the 80s so i could be able to watch and comprehend it sksjskj. exactly with the multiple queer characters. I know overrepresentation can happen, but it’s mainly when (blatantly) homophobic studios want to fight the allegations and do it terribly. most people that include a lot of queer characters can usually handle giving them depth and all. Jenna is really good in any role she is and she definitely elevates a somewhat flat character with her acting. Omggg the way 6 didn’t even mention it (I think) so it really felt like a plot device + she doesn’t suffer from asthma while running in the hospital scene. It’s the way 6 is rated R and yet the gun doesn’t really have a graphic usage. It’s implied and shown but there isn’t a massacre or anything. … so true, why does michael feel so short in H20😭 Like, they managed to be more convincing with the stuntman switch from the Halloween 1978 to Halloween 2… and the guy playing michael in 2 was like a foot short if I remember correctly. Kills has some dumb scenes like with the gun and the car door, but I like it being a parallel to Halloween 2 in the same was that they mirror a love of Halloween in H2018. I loveeee the babysitter subversion was so good. And yesss about the clunkiness. I think that it keeps the story more simple and easier to understand, but it ruins Laurie because why would she have any reason to believe that Michael would come back? She didn’t seemed worried about it in H2 until he showed up again, and H20 uses that to its advantage by following H1 + 2 instead of just 1. Plus, Laurie is a drunk so she’s prone to being more paranoid in that version. Johnny had the cake and the sass to make it work. Idc if he’s a cannibal and generally crazy. He’s soooo fine it’s crazy

We do indeed all have our firsts🤭 Listen I’m all here for TASM 2 love… Gwen’s plot is so strong in the movie and I love the time motif. Peter’s stuck in the past, Harry’s running out of time to live, so on and so on. Exactly!! I want him to ride that skateboard (and me, hello!! we’ve seen the behind the scenes of it👀👀) and I think making him that way works so well for those movies. Tom is so good at handling darker material, as seen in The Crowded Room, so I would love to see something darker from his Spiderman. I love the brighter mood of his movies as it makes them easy to return to, but I want to see some actual development!! I feel like Peter has some spider bots that can wrap around his big dick, some machines that pound harder than thor lmaooo, and I had some other ideas that i’d have to find but obviously something that gives really realistic feeling “blowjobs” too. Maybe his version of sex pollen that alters the brain chemistry temporarily to heighten sex drive (specifically with people named Peter Parker.) Oh exactly, they never come off, unless you take them off🤭

Totally, you’d need a bed to keep yourself from being sore against a counter/table/whatnot

Like, I know we pick up after Uncle Ben’s death (six months after i think?) but come onnnn. No mention no anything??? I like that we got it with Aunt May, but it felt a little too late tbh. I like that the snap is fixed within like two movies, but I hate that its impact is little explored until movies and shows after the fact. That’s so smart about introducing the new characters tbh. Also Santa!Steve could be giving the gift of big dick🫡 jkjk, maybe he knows exactly what you want/or he does a Santa’s lap thing? There’s a lot of possibilities to take, each with a level of hotness (i’m sure we can figure out something!) Yeah I don’t think Tony’s parents cause do much to help his case. It’s an explanation but not an excuse. Oh, Peter can go rounds and rounds and rounds and Mysterios tired on the first? He must be a fake! So true about knowing that it’s wrong making it better, idk maybe it’s like self indulgence when you know it’s a bad idea sksjsks. The glasses sucked as a plot device but I guess I thought it was a good enough motivation. The dumb part was that he was mad that he renamed the tech, instead of feeling like he was mad for being robbed. Yesss Mysterio is smart and getting to see Peter being all his. He got his cake and ate it too, by distracting him in the best way possible. Tom is so hot, I love most of his roles (surprisingly the TCR isn’t one i find that’s hot, but Arvin and Cherry🤭.) Short!top Peter vibes with just topping random civilians because you know there were some freaky sex hookup opportunities in the places he visited, and of course had Mysterio to follow with the entire time🫣

Omg cum for lube and bending you over🤭😮‍💨

Hopefully it’s good. I had to work tonight but i’m gonna work on it tomorrow and hopefully have it out🫡

It’s so sad😭 I hate knowing that this isn’t even all of it. And I hate saying Jacob is hot as Elvis but that’s just the actor… the accent doesn’t really do it for me tbh.

#wally anon #<- got your own tag‼️

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wretcheddthing · 1 year

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for the alphabet headcanon thing, vowels for ava and c g k q and y (the secret vowel) for norah (-:

geez can't believe i didn't see this sooner hi thank u <3 you got a lengthy one incoming this caught me when I'm already thinking about them bc you happened to choose the girlfriends!!!!

Ava Echols

A (Alignment): What would be their D&D alignment? How might it come into play? • I have a full character sheet for her already don't you even Worry. Ava would be a Lawful Good sun elf cleric under the knowledge domain with a sage background. She's not even the linguist out of the pair you have mentioned, but she's built to be able to speak at least A Lot of languages. She's very driven by the pursuit of knowledge but would only want to attain it legally and ethically.

E (Escape): What do they do to destress? How successful is it? • Ava reads and writes a lot as part of her work so obviously the best way to destress is toooooo.... read and write about other things. If she closes her eyes and thinks hard enough she can trick herself into thinking she's rested. Otherwise, she goes for a run. Sometimes around a local park, usually at her personal treadmill where she can read if she wants.

I (Insomnia): What's their sleeping schedule like? Snorer? Sound sleeper? • Not only does she average between 3-5 hours of sleep a night during most work weeks, but she also doesn't sleep heavily. She would tell you she doesn't have any problems falling and staying asleep, but she's hardly in the REM cycle long enough to count for anything. She refuses to acknowledge her dependence on caffeine when truly she doesn't need to stay awake as long as she does. Her philosophy is if you can think, you can research, and that is more important than basic necessities as far as she's concerned.

O (Offspring): What kind of parent would they be? Would they prefer one, or multiple? • Ava cannot currently imagine a life where she is a mother. She allows herself to fall into obsessing over her work and research. Maybe if her parents had taken a more active role in her life, or if her grandparents lived long enough to guide her through university she would be more stable. There's no time for it and she doesn't want to subject a child to an absent parent.

U (Upcoming): How much do they think about the future? Do they make long-term plans? • Ava plotted out the entire rest of her academic career when she was in fifth grade and followed it almost to a T (she was not, try as she might, the undergrad valedictorian due to taking an extended amount of time off following an attack accident in the chemistry lab.) If she's not thinking about the past, she's thinking about what next steps need to be taken to uncover more of it. She is the single most over-prepared individual next to Vera (another OC - same world but she's an extreme survivalist and really cool).

Norah Moretti

C (Co-Habitate): Do they live with anyone? What's "need to know" before moving in? • She lives in a shitty apartment with her closest cousin Matilde. She insists it's not so bad once you get over the leaks, bugs, thin walls, busy streets, lack of parking, and the unhelpful landlord. Were she not rooming with a family member, her biggest warning would be to expect her (not small) family to drop in from time to time to bring food and gossip. As it stands, Norah and Mattie are happy enough to save on groceries.

G (Grudge): How bad does an insult go over? Do they hold a grudge long? • It's better to not find out. She can be civil in conflict and usually is. It's hard growing up being one of the mediators in a family large enough to occupy a small township, but at least that's blood. A jab in the right spot will, at best, be uncomfortable for whatever poor soul was brave enough to hurl it. At worst? She lets it simmer and holds on to it until a moment presents itself to really take someone down a peg. Sometimes that means collecting enough evidence of shoddy work or misconduct to report to a supervisor to get them fired. Sometimes it’s planting “evidence” of cheating in someone’s car. At least one time she purposefully led someone to be stranded in the middle of bumfuck nowhere West Virginia for cheating on one of her cousins.

K (Kin): What's their role in their relations? Do they consider others family? • Norah's parents died when she was very young so she grew up under the care of her Aunt Ida (mom's sister), and her three kids Matilde, Leo, and Enzo. Ida also took care of Grandmother and Nonna (her mom and grandmother). Her Uncle Marino's (mom's brother) family came around often enough that they might as well have lived there. Other family members (from both her mom's and dad's side) would stop by frequently to chat, check in on her, bring food, and share memories of time spent with her parents. That wedding was a huge deal for both families because both were the eldest children. Norah was the oldest of her cousins as well, but close enough in age to Matilde for the two to become instantly close. I mentioned earlier she was a bit of a mediator for family conflict and that came with its own damage, but for the most part, she loves them.

Q (Question): How often do they feel doubt? What topics are they defensive about? • Anything to do with her work. Not a single soul (aside from Matilde) was happy with her decision to use her inheritance from her parents to fund going to college for linguistics. She'd always had a penchant for languages, could pick them up like nobody's business. There was a huge, massive blowout fight when she told her Aunt Ida that she was going to school. Grandmother and Nonna were also none too pleased - they all wanted her to do something practical, something with stability. Norah didn't want stability, she wanted knowledge. She wanted to find answers no one else had, even if that meant doing it alone. She's doubted this choice several times over the course of school, but her understanding of language patterns was bar none, even compared to some top scholars. As a result, she's very defensive about her work. It doesn't come up at family dinners.

Y (Yack): What's their favorite thing to talk about? What do they go on about? • Language. All different forms of communication are infinitely interesting to her and she will employ as many of them as possible in her explanation. While her focus is on synchronic linguistics, she doesn't mind showing off being a jack of all trades and master of at least some.

also i have playlists for them • Ava: Win or Learn • Norah: Speaking My Language • Both: Blueberry Lemonade

#asks #anonymous #ask game #long post #oc: ava echols #oc: norah moretti #oc: blueberry lemonade

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some-stars · 4 years

Text

i want to write something besides sex but everything that’s not sex is so hard and it’s not faaaaiiiiirrrr, why won’t words just come out of my fingers

like i’m trying to nail down the plot of the kidfic sequel and the broad strokes are fine but then i’m like “okay but how does she run into geralt and jaskier before meeting her contact, it’s not like she’s riding into town on a horse...and they can’t be at the tavern where she’s meeting the guy bc they have to arrive there the next morning and learn that [SPOILERS]...literally where in time and space do they fucking stop and talk to each other”

and i cannot figure it out and thus i can’t write the next part of the story. whereas a sex scene is basically a list of instructions and i just have to execute it, but i don’t want to, i wanna write the sequel

anyway basically i’m incredibly stupid and it makes my life hard

#btw if anyone wants to be my Plot Doctor and fix these issues for me #you are WELCOME to do so #just ask #the worst thing is for the Plot itself she doesn't NEED to run into them #but for the EMOTIONAL plot she gotta #i think #i'm not good at emotional plot either tbh

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dededaio · 2 years

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Kirby Light Novels Retrospective (Part 1)

Early-installment Weirdness Era.

I sure hope this won't die after part 1!!!

Kirby novels. This weird, weird thing that exists and recently started getting more and more traction among western Kirby fanbase. Despite the series starting in 2013, it didn't get popular (or even translated) in english (at least via fan efforts) until mid-2020. Ever since then, novels started to become essentially our bread and butter during times where HAL wasn't willing to share any game news coming up.

Kirby novels have a lot of great qualities and interesting stuff going on that I would love to dissect. In this retrospective I decided to look over novels in chronological order.

At their best, Kirby Light Novels is genuinely great series of family-friendly books that take it's target audience actually seriously and provide entertaining character writing with engaging world-building and consistent continuity.

At their worst... Well. You'll see.

There's a reason that novels caught the eye of western fans only years later after they first started coming out. And the reason for that being that early novels... Especially the first two are... Rough around the edges, to put it lightly. Let's dive into them then, shall we?

1. The Dangerous Gourmet Mansion (2013)

Score: 2/5.

After 00s which was a fairly rough decade for Kirby, franchise started to expand again in early 10s in Japan after few successful game titles in a row. Super Star Ultra (which was at the time the fastest-selling Kirby game upon launch in Japan specifically), Kirby's Epic Yarn, Return to Dream Land: all notable titles that started redefining Kirby as a Nintendo game series force to be reckoned with. So naturally, a series of light novels launched in 2013. What, it seems random to you? It shouldn't, since light novels based on videogames is fairly common Japanese practice. What is peculiar is that barely any *platformer* series get such luxury.

If you go looking for Mario or Sonic light novels you won't find any, trust me, I looked.

So why Kirby? If I were to assume it's kind of match made in heaven if you think about it. Epic Yarn introduced storybook "motif" into the series, it's full of colorful memorable characters full of personality and fairy-tale like setting that lands itself perfectly to children's book series.

The Mysterious Gourmet Mansion and all novels afterwards were written by Mie Takase. A veteran writer, who worked on many various light novels (including videogame adaptations like Shin Megami Tensei, Ace Attorney, Persona 2 etc) as well as stuff like horror-stories.

In hindsight, it seems like a bit of a random choice, because from my research of her bibliography, she never really wrote anything so specifically children-oriented before. But perhaps her skill and reputation was the reason she was taken for the job. And I mean, hey! This series still goes strong, nearly 10 years later, so it was probably a good choice in the long run.

Doesn't mean that this series didn't need a bit of time before coming into it's own however.

I won't be afraid to say that The Dangerous Gourmet Mansion is kind of. Bad.

Going back to this novel after all the ones that come much later was honestly a trip in itself. It's been almost 2 years since I first read this one so I had memories of few "iconic" moments, but otherwise, I mostly forgot a lot of details. And oh boy, there's a REASON why I forgot a lot of details.

Plot of this novel is remarkably simple --

A rich lady called Mrs. Parfaitski (or how she was "localized" in currently available fan-translation, Mrs. Pairfaitlike) moves to Dream Land and announced a party dedicated to her birthday with a huge feast with a ton of delicious food.

Obviously, Kirby and King Dedede, being huge gluttons they are, want to get to said party, but since the only way to get there is through invitations and neither of them got any, the only way they could get there would be through becoming Meta Knight's "partner", who conveniently got such invitation which can also bring one other person...

Obviously, this leads to Kirby and Dedede stacking together and pretending to be a different person entirely, a woman called Dedeby.

This plan works well (to huge dismay of Meta Knight who got greatly embarrassed during the party due to "Dedeby"), until a conspiracy starts to rear it's head with Chef Kawasaki going missing.

Right off the bat, plot of this novel is super messy. It's a lot of different elements that just don't go well together.

I didn't mention it in my general overview of the story, but novel doesn't jump straight to Meta Knight having invitation, no, first 3 chapters or so are focused on pointless sub-plot of Kirby trying to become one of Parfaitski's chefs to get to the party.

It's a very useless plotline because it does nothing to progress the story nor it does anything to tell us about the characters. Kirby being food-obsessed fanatic who isn't "picky" about what he eats or makes and Waddle Dee being neurotic cautious friend is a dynamic that was apparent ever since their very first interaction in the novel. There was literally No Need for this plotline to happen.

You can argue that this portion of the book exists to establish Kirby and his abilities to new readers. But considering Dedede and Meta Knight for the rest of the book are literally just... There. They don't use any of their fighting skills (hell, I don't think Galaxia even shows up on any of the illustrations until 4th novel, though I might be wrong on that) through out or anything, this argument seems moot since it's not like novel goes out of it's way to establish abilities of every character. Kirby himself demonstrates copy ability in the latter portion of the story where it actually has relevance, which makes this "introductory" portion even more redundant.

One third of the book is essentially filler until Meta Knight comes and SOME semblance of the plot started to get going.

Now, don't get me wrong, Dedeby sub-plot is probably the most entertaining part of the novel, partially due to overall absurdity of the idea of Kirby and Dedede cross-dressing together, but it is, also, is quite useless in grand scheme of things, considering both of them discard this disguise midway through, it never gets brought up again nor it impacts their characterization going forward (it doesn't make them bond or grow together as a team).

Nothing would change if there was some other way they could sneak to the party or even if Meta Knight could just take both of them from the start no problem. It all feels like padding because the actual plot of this novel been resolved in literally 3 chapters. Even then I would argue it didn't need to be 3 chapters since there was a lot of unnecessary fake-outs and build-up towards Wheelie and Lord Kibble being actual "bad guys" of the story, despite Parfaitski being the villain is incredibly obvious twist at this point.

Considering she's just a stuck-up rich lady, she doesn't really have any combat skills, so the actual climax of the story is our good old trio of Kirby, Meta Knight and Dedede arguing with her on why her locking up chefs in the secret rooms in her mansion forever (which is honestly kind of messed up when you think about it) is bad and it's. Very interesting way to handle third act of the story.

The way it actually resolves is also very interesting. Kirby uses mike ability to sing a song and "change Parfaitski's mind" but all he ends up doing is sing nonsense very loudly to the point of causing this woman to have a breakdown which they read as her having "remorse" for her actions. Mind you, other than that, they don't hold her accountable. Like, even if she freed all of the chefs, she's like... Not gonna face any further punishment? No? Alright, then, book.

It's such. Weird resolution. I guess it's supposed to be comedic subversion or something, but it didn't really work for me.

But honestly. Weird plot with weird pacing is not the main reason I dislike this novel. Main reason I dislike it is characterization.

Kirby and King Dedede in this novel are awful.

And I mean it.

Kirby has essentially no personality in this novel outside of loving food. None of his noble heroic, compassionate qualities are demonstrated. All his actions are motivated by food. And it genuinely gets grating after a while. It seems like only point of reference for Kirby's characterization Mie had while writing earlier novels was Squeak Squad, because I swear to god.

There was not a single action in this story that Kirby did that wasn't motivated by food somehow. It's so one-note and the running gag of him being carried away and mishearing everything and starting mumbling about food gets grating as well. This running gag actually reappears in future novels, but the reason it works there, while it doesn't work here, is because "Kirby loves food" is the only character trait he has here, while in the future he gets much more fleshed out and becomes more believable character in the process.

Now, King Dedede. OH KING DEDEDE. King Dedede in this and few following novels is essentially "Anime Dedede Lite". Despite having a passage in the very first chapter about how he has "empathy" and "manly traits", he demonstrates none of them in this novel and in fact won't demonstrate any of these qualities until at least the third one. Here he has little to no redeeming qualities, ALSO can't shut up about food and not taken seriously by anyone, not even his subordinate Waddle Dee.

Speaking of which, he is awful to Waddle Dee. I assume that Mie is genuinely been taking inspiration from anime while characterizing Dedede (because, look what's on the cover here?)

Anime Castle Dedede. Y E A H.

And what do I mean by being awful to Waddle Dee? He quite literally physically abuses and insults him a few times in this novel? Like, what in the actual fuck, pardon my French?

Anime Dedede's treatment of Escargoon was already pretty questionable, but at the very least they were both adults. While Waddle Dee's age was never really stated, in this novel and all novels that will come later, he's essentially treated as a kid, the same age group as Kirby himself.

Which essentially means, that this Dedede literally kicks around a kid who does nothing but pampers him even if he doesn't really deserve it here.

This is actually so wildly out of character for Novel Dedede, I forgot this was ever a thing, so when I reached the part when it actually happened I had a huge whiplash. At this point I wouldn't doubt that this novel is not even considered to be a part of novel's "canon" due to how weird and out of place many of it's writing decisions are.

Waddle Dee in general is treated pretty terribly here, he's basically only genuinely likeable character in the novel, gets no respect and kicked around AND shafted for majority of this novel, basically vanishing after 4th chapter until the very end, missing from the part of the book that actually tackles the story.

Other somewhat tolerable character is Meta Knight, who acts as a straight man of the group alongside Waddle Dee. But while he is tolerable, I can't say I particularly enjoy the way he was written here either. It's not bad, it's just kinda. Vanilla? Anime influence showing.

Novel's new character, Mrs. Parfaitski left no impression on me except for out of place resolution of her "conflict".

But with how much I berated this novel, is there anything I enjoyed about it? Even though writing and characterization in this book ranges from mediocre to annoying, there are some genuinely amusing bits of character interaction here and there shining through.

Kirby and Waddle Dee's friendship is genuinely sweet and pretty pure (for the most part) as early as this novel and will continue being one of this series' highlights

Look at them... Babies...

When Meta Knight comes into picture, I must admit, preparation for "Dedeby" and banter between Kirby, Meta Knight and King Dedede genuinely can get pretty amusing at times.

Example 1:

Example 2:

Example 3:

These are the moments that showed potential of Mie's writing. It felt like she genuinely enjoyed herself writing these characters interactions when they didn't involve mean-spirited bickering every 5 seconds or forced jokes about how much they love food.

Ultimately, this novel didn't age the best exactly.

2. The Big Panic in Gloomy Woods! (2014)

Score: 2/5.

First novel was very rough around the edges. But that's what sequels are for, right? To iron them out, to focus on the aspects that worked, to throw aspects that didn't work... Yeah, this novel didn't really do that.

Well, and did and did not at the same time. Quick summary time.

The band of frog kids that want to become "the more vile villains in the universe" decide to use Kirby's powers to get to the tastiest fruit in the universe in the Gloomy Woods all to themselves. Problem being that they don't know how Kirby looks like... So they confuse Dedede for him (since their characteristics of being very round and gluttonous are very similar). Dedede wanting to get to said tastiest fruit pretends to be Kirby.

This doesn't last very long however, as the ruse gets exposed and he gets split up from the rest of the cast, which makes him meet up with shady fellow who presents himself as the wood keeper and confusing Dedede for "a hero" wants to use his strength to get to "the starlight fruit" and mysterious "starlight crystal".

Let's start with the improvements from the last time, plot this time a bit more coherent. It still has quite useless elements, but not as much as the last novel and most of them feel like they justify certain plot-points more or less well. Climax in this novel also feels actually... Climactic instead of whatever was in the previous novel, which is also a plus.

Genuinely raw illustration.

My main issue with the plot of this novel is that, considering it came out in 2014, it's essentially a tie-in to Kirby Triple Deluxe. But unlike all following novels which actually *adapt* videogame stories into novel format, this one just... Takes broad strokes of Triple Deluxe's plot and "babyfies" it.

- Kirby and Dedede get mixed up because of them being "similar".

- Dedede is confused for a hero by a main antagonist and uses him to achieve his goals (even organizing a "fight" between him and Kirby, however not through possession, but misunderstanding, because Novel Dedede at this point in time is still asshole and dumbass)

- Setting overall is nature-themed (forest and shit)

- Debut of Bell Copy Ability and Ringle

- There is miracle fruit and hypernova involved in the climax

Which on one hand helps the plot of this one feel more coherent, but on other hand it feels frustrating that instead of just straight up adapting the plot of the game (which would help rerail certain characterizations like Dedede or Kirby) they decided to do this weird roundabout approach. Another reason why I believe Mie didn't think much of these novels at first and treated them purely as books for very little kids, knowing the lengths she will go while adapting some of the later game stories.

Majority of my complaints with previous novel also still stand.

Kirby is still characterized as food-obsessed brat who doesn't do anything out of goodness of his heart but just because FOOD FOOD FOOD FOOD. He is not concerned that Waddle Dee is worried for King Dedede, he is not worried for the fate of so-called "stardust crystal", he does everything in this novel only for the sake of food. And it's genuinely, so, so, SO grating.

In this sense, it's even worse than the first novel, because first novel at the very least was very low-stakes slice-of-life sort of deal. This one attempts to to tell more "adventurous" story and it doesn't really work all that well. Not only because a lot of the story is meandering around these woods with no memorable setpieces/scenes to break up the pace, it's also because none of the characters have any "heroic" motivations per say, except Waddle Dee, of course, who keeps being only likeable characters in these books for now.

King Dedede's characterization once more suffers from the same issue as the last novel, so I don't have as much to say on it here. Admittedly he's slightly *less* insufferable than in the last novel, but it's probably purely because he gets less spotlight than Kirby this time.

Meta Knight in this one feels even more like his anime counterpart, because he essentially doesn't do anything except for dumping exposition about Gloomy Woods and the stardust fruit. Once again he doesn't do anything fighting, but at least he brought his sword with him this time, I guess.

Now, what about this novel's original characters? There's much more of them than in the last novel, after all.

Honestly, I genuinely have nothing to say about them. Their designs are... alright, I guess, the wood keeper looks like Magolor rip-off while frog kids look like Kirby anime OCs rejects.

Issue with them as characters, is that there is too much of them for this kind of story. They all kinda blend together. I don't really recall personalities any of the frog kids and all I can say about them is that they went through "redemption arc" before they could even do anything of their own agency as characters, while wood-keeper is genuinely just. Magolor-lite. Pretends to be a good dude, but lies through his teeth and wants some sort of artifact.

Only lacks any of Magolor's charisma or personality that made him such iconic character to begin with. Fairly mediocre cast all things considered and I don't see the reason why there needed to be so many new characters introduced at once.

This novel feels more competently made than the first one, but it doesn't go above it too much in terms of quality. It often faces the same faults and got a few of it's own (like being fairly poor tie-in into then recent videogame).

Though, honestly, I think I might prefer the first one over this. Why, you might say? Well... First one might be very bizarre and have unlikeable mean-spirited characterization of the cast, the fact that it's SO WEIRD makes it very memorable and it has genuinely funny character interactions at times.

This one didn't really make me smile one bit and it being more straightforward in terms of the story just made it more boring in the result. It being slightly more competent kinda removed "so bad it's good" factor first novel had going for it, so it ends just being "eh".

Ultimately, what it comes down to it, both novels aren't awful. But they are very mediocre kids books with nothing special about them.

I can see the target audience getting the kick out of them and they probably did, considering that series continued way past those two. But again, issue lies that this novel series itself proved that it can be much more than this. It can be more than mediocre kids books that sell you with colorful cover-art and familiar characters. They can be genuinely great stories with great characters that give you insight on the side of Kirby's universe you wouldn't get in the games.

But these novels don't really give you that, which is a shame. However, I'm glad that they exists. Because thanks to these two novels being a success, we have all actually good novels to read and enjoy, where all potential that shined here and there in these novels finally got to be fully realized.

However, there's really little reason to go back to this one unless you really want to read entire series through. It might just give you wrong impression and discourage you from trying reading out future installments. I recommend going back to these ones only AFTER you got into the novel series, just to see these humble roots of what became one of the most long-running tie-in Kirby series.

And to laugh at Meta Knight Blimp.

#kirby #king dedede #meta knight #waddle dee #kirby light novels #kirby light novels retrospective #gosh this is a LOT lmao #longpost

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thevindicativevordan · 2 years

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What would you say was Wonder Woman's fatal flaw?

Been pondering what Wonder Woman's would be for a long time, because I wanted it to be different from Batman or Superman. Taking Pride and Wrath out, that leaves Greed, Envy, Lust, Gluttony, and Sloth. Greed and Gluttony don't work, Envy/Lust are regularly stereotyped as "female sins" and Wonder Woman is all about defying stereotypes regarding women (besides those two also don't apply to her), which just leaves Sloth.

Now I know what you're thinking: "Wonder Woman lazy? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard!" and you'd be right. But Sloth doesn't just refer to physical laziness. Sloth can also be defined as

a failure to do things that one should do

an alienation of the sentient self first from the world and then from itself

refusing to undertake works of goodness because, he/she tells him/her self, the circumstances surrounding the establishment of good are too grievous and too difficult to suffer

And you know what? All of those actually do have some support in stories involving Wonder Woman. Whether we like it or not, and rest assured many Wonder Woman fans quite vocally do not, one of the most common Wonder Woman stories is Diana wrestling with feeling like she has failed in her mission by not being proactive enough, and asking herself questions concerning her identity and purpose.

Unlike Superman and Batman, Wonder Woman begins her heroic career with a very different mission than "merely" stopping crime. She's supposed to curb the worst aspects of Man's World by being an example of the Amazon Way. Despite Superman being the one who gets all the Jesus comparisons, truly it's Diana who is a female pagan Messiah figure, out to preach the Gospel of Themyscira to save the souls of women and men alike. Yet repeatedly she ends up distressed to realize that she hasn't been succeeding in her mission to the extent that she should. It's a reoccurring plot point that pops up again and again, like Superman losing his temper, or Batman being arrogant and thinking he doesn't need anyone's help to save Gotham.

Infinite Crisis, Kingdom Come, Dead Earth, the start of Rucka's Rebirth run, these are all "important" Wonder Woman stories that have Diana undergoing a crisis of self as she grapples with her failure to "do things that one should do". Sometimes said failure causes her to experience that "alienation of the sentient self" where she ends up becoming more violent and extreme in order to compensate for her perceived lack of progress, which is what happens in Infinite Crisis and Kingdom Come. Other times she becomes depressed and is unable to continue being Wonder Woman without the help of others to show her there's still hope, as is the case in Rucka's Rebirth run and Dead Earth.

Many Wonder Woman fans don't like most of those stories, viewing them as out of character for her which is totally fine. But this storyline has happened repeatedly enough that it feels like a consistent trait for her in much the same way as Superman's wrath or Batman's pride are. What I'm trying to do is find something consistent in the myriad takes on her, something that actually has a basis in her stories. Little carries over across Wonder Woman characterizations, but this trait is an exception, and while you may dislike the stories I think this is actually a flaw that can serve Diana in an ongoing capacity. Batman is never going to be 100% free of his desire to be entirely self-sufficient, and Superman is always going to struggle with his rage at the injustice in the world, so to have Wonder Woman occasionally realize she's let her obligations to spreading Amazon ideals lapse and needs to refocus her efforts can mesh nicely with the nature of ongoing books.

Because the mainline DC Universe is never going to fully embrace her ideals the way her mission demands, writers can have it be a narrative tool that Diana needs to be shaken out of her complacency and approach her mission from new angles. It's a way of acknowledging runs that veer off-course as actually being tied to Diana's character, rather than a seemingly disjoint Wonder Woman who veers from one characterization to the other. Diana switches up her attitude and approach because she isn't satisfied with the progress she's been making, justifying character shifts in-universe. Whenever she gets too off-course you can tie that to her flaw and use it to recenter her "back to basics" as it were.

#wonder woman #sloth

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themountainsays · 2 years

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here's an idea for ur role swap au : what if Isa and Mira leave the Encanto together? Mira learns to let go of her need for the family's approval and they run away together to live their happily ever after far from everyone who knows they're sisters and who would judge them

Oh i thought about that option actually! But for some reason the idea of then leaving hurts so much 😭😭😭 i don't know if I should kill this one darling but I lowkey want them to stay. Like narratively it just doesn't feel right to let them leave? Because, when characters leave their current place of residence to seek out freedom, they're usually going somewhere else that they, at the very least, have some knowledge of. And I'm sure the characters learned about their region in school and whatnot but since we only ever see the E.ncanto and its surrounding forest in the story itself idk something feels lacking to me. Like it would be much more fulfilling if they had gotten a taste of the world out there at some point, came back home and Yearned and Longed for freedom for a long time and then finally the story satisfied this tension by allowing them to leave, right? And i cOuld do that, but I don't really like adding much worldbuilding outside of the E.ncanto in my E.ncanto fics. It strikes me as the worldbuilding equivalent of an OC. I don't really like OCs :/ it feels like a far too big diversion from canon, like I'm making stuff up, and I prefer to delve deeper into the existing canon and extrapolate depth from what we already have, rather than building anything entirely new. Does that make sense?

Soooo that leaves us with a few options.

Isabela leaves alone. The story ends in tragedy. We focus on Mirabel's pov as she lets her sister go and has to accept her departure. Most realistic ending, possibly.

They both stay. The family accepts to listen and tries to change for the better. Happy ending. My problem with this one is that it's too similar to canon, AND it almost seems too good to be true. It's a bit too idealistic. A little too perfect for the fucked up situation.

Isabela leaves, Mirabel has to accept her departure, but she comes back a few years later. Now this one is less of an ending and more of a complete re-structuring of the plot, in which the first half of the story is composed of everything we've discussed so far, and the second half is... something else. Maybe Isabela doesn't want to leave again. Maybe she regrets going out there. My biggest fear with this one is the eventual inevitability of facing the historical context, and it seems like a gross insult and lack of respect to comment on those topics in a fucking disney sister inc3st fanfic. Or any fanfic for that matter. The truth is that leaving is the worst thing Isabela can do atm considering the time and place, so realistically it's understandable that she'd come back seeking sanctuary, but dude I'm not touching the topic with a ten foot stick. These conversations belong to, idk history congresses and construcción de la ciudadanía clases. They have to be treated with respect. You won't catch me dead writing about it in fanfic. However this is also the alternative that tempts me the most, even if I find it intimidating to consider, since that means turning this into a quite different story with a different kind of conflict in the second act, which would requiere a different ending, one that doesn't raise the question of "will Isabela stay?", but rather "can Isabela, Mirabel and the rest of the family make it work this time around?" It seems like a perfect marriage of optiond 1 and 2 with a bittersweet melancholy that seems to fit the story much better. The key things I need to figure out is a) the intertextual relationship between acts 1 and 2, and b) how to circumvent the elephant in the room that is the historical context. I ssssssshhhould be able to come up with something, if I do some thinking. Much thinking. Quite a lot of thinking. Until then I'll be drawing angsty fanart uwu. Though I admit I'm not sure if i feel comfortable letting the first conflict (isabela leaving) share space with a new conflict (isabela coming back). Wouldn't that be too big a change?

#madrigalcest #isamira #shipcest #isamira role swap au

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rachelbethhines · 3 years

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Tangled Salt Marathon - The Return of the King

So we’re back to the quasi-filler stuff. This episode does set a few things up for the finale, like bringing Edmund to Corona, but none of those things are actually good and it’s still mostly filled with irrelevant shit alongside the more important stuff.

Summary: King Edmund arrives in Corona to see his long-lost son, Eugene, and to give him the royal sash of their bloodline. Eugene wants nothing to do with him, but Rapunzel invites him to stay. Later, the sash is stolen and a ransom note is left behind. Edmund and Eugene decide to go and retrieve it. Meanwhile, the Stabbington Brothers plot revenge on Eugene as they are both viewed as a joke by the other criminals.

So How Did the Stabbingtons Escape the Prison Barge

Last we saw them they were stuck on a prison barge along with Lady Caine and all of the other season one villains. How did they escape? Did Lady Caine or anybody else make it out? If so then where are they this season?

We’re not going to get any of those questions answered are we?

Man this is just sloppy continuity. Which ironic, because these two were only brought back this season because of continuity. They need to be “redeemed” so that they can be at the wedding. I guess it just sucks to be you if you’re an original villain for this show and not named Cassandra.

Why Is This Deserving of Ridicule?

Like...We’re talking about a world renowned thief and adventurer and his magical royal girlfriend who are well known enough outside of Corona to be mentioned and there for no doubt people know how they both defeated monsters, daemons, and several criminals besides just there two guys, right?

This plot point makes no sense.

You could just kick these dumbasses butts and be done with it. I doubt they’d bother picking on you again if you did.

Did we really need even more motivation for them to want revenged against Eugene?

Rapunzel is Back to Being Her Bossy Self

Rapunzel has not earned the role of “wise administrator” yet. She’s only been out of the tower for two years now and she has yet to prove to the audience that she has managed to learn anything since then. By jumping the gun and forcing her into a role that she hasn’t grown into, and by ignoring that this whole show started out as a coming of age story, it just makes Rapunzel unpleasant to be around. All her “advice” is just her ordering people about with a veneer of chipperness to try and mask her controlling nature. People who should know more about their own lives than she does and have no reason to listen to her.

So We’re Showing Rapunzel Being Responsible... By Having Her Avoid Responsibility?

Part of why the writers made her “acting queen” for the first half the season was to get her to grow into the role of becoming full time queen. However they screwed this up by not having her actually learn anything and having her avoid the real duties a queen preforms.

What Rapunzel is doing her is just being a socialite busybody. The only administrative thing she does is approve some low-scale building plans for a small business. A thing that would have been handled by a lower official in an actual functioning government.

Once again Rapunzel is being selfish and doing what she like, ie bossy people around while having them kiss her ass, as the real work of running the kingdom is left to someone else. This isn’t being responsible, it’s being hypocritical, but don't expect anyone to ever call Rapunzel out for this.

Pointless Action Scene is Pointless

At this point, the low stakes action sequences are just cringe. Like is this an adventure show or not people? Stop forcing crap like this and give us some real conflicts instead.

How Did You Get Here So Fast Edmund?

It took Rapunzel and company nearly a year to get to the Dark Kingdom. Even if Edmund wasn't delayed with pit stops like they were, it would have still taken him several months to get here by horse.

Did he take a boat, or have four to six months already past since Rapunzel’s Return?

I would argue that this episode was aired out of order and should have been later in the season, but Cassandra’s appearance at the end of this story, and Hamnuel’s appearances in later episodes, would suggest otherwise.

Crap like this is why season’s three timeline doesn’t work unless you stretch everything out to two years instead of one.

Read the Room Rapunzel

One could argue that Rapunzel is just trying to be polite, but that doesn't really hold water.

For starters Eugene is clearly upset and has every right to want to set boundaries between himself and Edmund. Ignoring that is incredibly rude and if my significant other ever did such a thing, well they wouldn’t be my significant other for very long.

Secondly, Rapunzel could have offered other accommodations if she felt pressured to be polite to Edmund. Not only are their lots of inns in a port town known for trade, many of which are probably well-to-do, but there’s also that convent that was mentioned back in season one. It has to be somewhere in Corona itself and as the so far only mentioned major religious organization in the country it would no doubt have stately quarters for when royalty and nobility would visit.

So not only would it be a suitable place for a visiting king to stay in, as it would be made for such things, but it’s also far enough away that Eugene wouldn’t feel like his space is being invaded but close enough that Edmund could come and go as he pleases.

By that point it’s still between Edmund and Eugene and Rapunzel can stay out of it, like she should.

Eugene is Right

These are all valid reasons for cutting someone out of your life. Furthermore, you don’t even need a reason. If you don’t want to associate with somebody then just don't associate with. It’s your life. You don’t have to justify how you choose to live it and people who actually care about you should respect that.

Unfortunately no one respects Eugene.

Not Edmund, not Rapunzel, and most certainly not the writers.

Then Why Don't You Get Closer to Edmund, Rapunzel?

I understand Rapunzel’s viewpoint here. Edmund is the only person she’s ever met who has experienced the same isolation that she has. He’s one of the very few people whom she can empathize with.

However that doesn’t give her the right to force her views upon her boyfriend. If she cared so much than she could just befriend Edmund herself and leave Eugene out of it.

Trying to encourage a child to have relationship with a parent who neglected them is super tone deaf at best and outright disrespectful at worst. It’s also highly hypocritical seeing as Rapunzel cut Gothel out of her life for similar reasons and Eugene only ever supported her for it.

No really, flip the situation. If Eugene tried to encourage Rapunzel to give Gothel a second chance everyone would be slamming him for it. So why does Rapunzel get a free pass?

Shorty Already Did That, Eugene. Don’t You Remember?

I mean, you were literally right there when it happened. Are we forgetting season two the same as season one now?

So Why Are Stan and Pete Suddenly Back, But Not Cap?

I mean we went through all that trouble in Rapunzel’s Return to write them out of the narrative and here they are without any explanation. Why are simple set ups so dang hard for this show?

Rapunzel is Overstepping Her Bounds Here

Ok, giving Edmund a place to stay is one thing. Suggesting to Eugene that he should give Edmund a chance is not appropriate but still forgivable. But this?

This crosses a fucking line!

Eugene is not Rapunzel’s subject. He’s her boyfriend, and a prince in his own right. Rapunzel can’t just volunteer him for crap without his consent. That’s just indirectly ordering him about like she would a servant.

Once again, flip the script. If Eugene tried to force Rapunzel to work with Gothel everyone would be up in arms. Why is this then deemed okay?

This is Coercion

Not only is Edmund and Rapunzel trying to guilt trip Eugene here but she even fucking elbows him!

Like this isn’t “cute couple bickering” here. That kind of stuff is reserved only for inconsequential shit.

This a woman trying to strong arm and guilt trip her husband to be into having a relationship with his abusive father! Because guess what? Neglect is still abuse!

Rapunzel has zero say in Eugene and Edmund’s relationship. It’s none of her fucking business! Trying to force her into this plot just makes her look like an asshat.

I mean look at this smug smile! The fucking bitch is proud of being a shit human being and a terrible girlfriend.

And of course don't expect the show to call out this behavior as wrong because of out of date sexist double standards. If you think any of this is okay then just role reverse Eugene and Rapunzel here and then tell me its still alright.

The Show Missed a Real Trick By Not Naming Him Horus Instead

Horus, the sun god, would have been a nice bit of irony and given meaning to the name while keeping the joke virtually unchanged. You could have had both lore and a punchline.

And I would argue that the joke as is, isn’t even funny. Horace is indeed a lame name, but not for the reason that the show gives. It’s lame because it’s not unique enough. There’s already a Disney character named Horace and I’m sure there are real people out there with that name as well since it’s not completely unheard of. So the joke falls flat and winds up insulting anyone with that name.

Don’t Expect Any Pay Off for Eugene’s Identity Issues This Season

Yeah the show makes a big deal out of Eugene having a mid-life crisis through out season three, but then never resolves it in any meaningful way.

Edmund Is an Asshole

I don’t care how “crazy” he is. Calling someone by a name they don't wished to be called is just plain rude. Acknowledging someone’s preferred name is just a basic common courtesy that is expected of everyone. Once again, this isn’t funny, quirky, nor charming, just unpleasant.

So the Animators Wasted a Model on a No-Named Character Who Only Appears Once

Someone said this little girl appears in season one, but it’s not noticeable if she does. She also doesn’t have a name and this is her only speaking role. What a waste of money. Just have one of the braided girls from the movie instead. You already built models for them and haven’t really used them.

And before some mentions race here, this is poor rep already cause the character has no impact.

Turns Out, Varian Didn’t Even Need Those Truth Serum Cookies

Not only does this dumb down Pete to a ridiculous degree, but it also invalidates everything Varian went through in The Alchemist Returns and the grief he got from everyone for using the truth serum.

Oh, and it’s also lazy writing and a plot contrivance.

That’s Not Figgy Pudding!

This is Figgy Pudding.

It’s a boiled “pudding” that’s more like a cake with dried fruit in it. During the 14th through 18th centuries such bread puddings were made to be carried around in ones pocket or knapsack for eating on the go. They’re nothing like the creamy custards we call puddings today.

It also looks nothing like what’s shown on the screen below.

That’s like a half eaten loaf of wheat bread?

That’s jelly filled .. apparently...?

Once Again, If You Have to Make Everyone Else Incompetent to Make Your Hero Useful to the Plot Then You Need a New Plot

Rapunzel has zero business in this plot. She doesn’t even need to be in this episode beyond a cameo. Trying to cram her into the protagonist role in a conflict that doesn’t involve her is just a disservice to everyone.

Winnie The Pooh Is More Mature Than This Show

More of that meta commentary I was talking about last episode, and it just as full of shit as ever.

Seriously Find Her, Keep Her is the best script I have ever seen in any show. It’s perfectly balanced so that anyone of any age can relate to it. It’s real and heartbreaking and perfectly suitable for small children to understand. There’s no shock value, no darkness, no modern satire, but its far more mature and complex and deep than anything TTS has tried.

Also Rabbit is a far better father than any dad in this show, while still being cut from the same trope. There’s no shame in being a children’s show when its done well and this now 30 year old kids show runs rings around what ever mess Tangled is trying to sell.

Eugene Isn’t Exaggerating Here and I Don't Know How to Feel About That

Turns out Eugene did grow up with these guys the same as he did with Lance. It’ll be confirmed only two episodes later. That just recontextualizes everything. He didn’t just betray some rando guys that he held no feelings for, he betrayed people that he’s known and worked with since childhood.

Now just because he’s known them doesn’t mean that they were family to him like Lance, but like the fact that he keeps claiming then as such through out the episode would suggest that perhaps they were like siblings.

That’s ... ingenious. That makes Flynn Rider retroactively an even worse person and gives the Stabbingtons real reason for vengeance.

Only the show doesn't do anything with this! It just makes Eugene an even bigger jerk in the movie for zero reason.

Let Me Reiterate, Edmund Is an Asshole

Just like with Frederic, Cassandra, and Rapunzel the show uses framing to try and make the audience side with people who do unforgivable things.

Edmund is an abuser. He neglected his own son for 25 years. But the show presents him as “funny” and “quriky” and “look at his pouty face, he’s so lonely”....

No!

Edmund isn’t deserving of anything and how he treats Eugene here is garbage.

This show is utter crap writing wise but boy does it know how to gaslight its own audience into siding with bullies and abusers.

Eugene Is One Thousand Percent In the Right Here, But Don’t Expect the Narrative to Acknowledge That

There’s nothing you can do to make up for that.

Eugene might forgive him. Eugene might move on from it. Eugene might decide a relationship it still worth having with Edmund. But the horrible thing still happened and it happened because Edmund allowed it to happen. There’s no going back from that and everything going forward has to be on Eugene’s terms alone.

But the narrative won't allow Eugene that agency.

Even as he makes his grand proclamation about being done with Edmund the cameras chooses to focus on Edmund and his feelings. The story is already priming the audience to prioritize Edmund over Eugene so that when the forced and contrived forgiveness scene comes we won't question it. But it only comes because Chris doesn’t deem Eugene as individual person with thoughts and feels of his own, but as an avatar to fulfill his wishfulment fantasy regarding his own personal daddy issues.

Rapunzel’s Characterization in Season Three is Just....Off

Ok, even ignoring the major stuff, like not recognizing what she’s done wrong, putting her into roles she’s not meant to carry, and making her a shitty girlfriend suddenly, Rapunzel just behaves contrary to her character all through out season three even in small subtle ways like here.

On the surface this seems like a clever call back to Great Expotations, but lets examine more closely, shall we.

On one end we have yo-yos; an invention that’s been around since ancient Greece and is so wide spread across the globe that the word “yo-yo” itself is theorized to come from Indonesia and the Philippines.

On the other end there is Rapunzel. A woman who spent 18 years isolated inside of a tower, because of this she is both ignorant of somethings and insatiability curious and eager to learn. Or at least she was, until striking out onto a year long road trip, and having now been out of the tower for only two years, claims to know better than the entire fucking world about this object who’s existence she didn’t even know about until only a year and half ago!

Like what kind of sense does this make? Why would you abandon the core of her drive and motivation, to learn, explore, and grow, and then call it “development”?

How Did Edmund Get Beat By These Guys?

Edmund took out Adria. The Brotherhood is suppose to be the best physical fighters in this world and Edmund is supposed to be best out of all of them. Yet he’s taken out by two random, mediocre dudes who didn't even jump him. They gave him time to respond and he stood up to fight them.

Was all his physical prowess tied into that axe? Is the axe magic?

If you characters have to be depowered for unexplained reasons for the plot to work than you haven’t a good plot.

This Isn’t as Heartwarming as You Think It Is Show

If Edmund knew where Eugene was this whole time then he could have actually provided for his son. He could have arranged adoption with someone by letter, sent money, food, clothes, ect, maybe even wrote to Eugene directly and kept up a long distance relationship to be there for him emotionally.

There is literally no excuse anymore for Edmund to hide behind. He literally neglected his duties as a parent, just cause.

Finding these things shouldn’t make Eugene happy. Finding these things should piss him off even further because that’s how any logical adult would respond to this bullcrap.

I sure know I’m angry. I’m angry that Eugene is a pawn for the creators’ writing wank-off rather then being treated as human being; as an actual character.

“Nice” Isn’t the Same Thing as Kind, Rapunzel

One could argue that she’s not even superficially nice in season three, but the real problem here is that the show, and by extension Rapunzel herself, doesn’t understand the difference between being “pleasant” and actually being a good person. Outwardly polite people can stab you in the back, can kill you even, and not care, as Rapunzel has demonstrated repeatedly since season one.

Do They Have to Be “Family” for Eugene to Give a Damn?

Can’t Eugene just do the right thing, because it’s the right thing to do? People don't need to be friends and family to care about each others lives. Kindness isn’t transactional. Empathy and true charity doesn’t come with strings attached. If Eugene’s whole arc is about becoming a better person, then making the Stabbingtons “family” kind of undermines this.

Don’t Reward the Dude for Doing the Bare Fucking Minimal

No seriously. Edmund forfeited the right to ever be called “dad” by Eugene a long fucking time ago. He doesn’t get to be called that now just because he stopped being a piece of scum and showed the bare minimal of human decency. Even if Eugene decides to have a relationship with Edmund after this, it doesn’t mean that he has to be recognized as his dad or that that relationship will be a parental one.

Eugene, and by Extension the Show, Places Rapunzel Upon a Pedestal to the Detriment of All

Only 4 villains out of 20 get redeemed in this show. Four, and yes I’m counting the Stabbintions as one entity here. That’s 16 times Rapunzel failed to give someone a second chance just cause she didn’t feel like it that day, and even here she did fuck all in trying to give the Stabbingtons any sort of chance. That was all on Eugene.

The more this show goes on, the more it looks like Eugene is just in love with the idea of Rapunzel rather than who she actually is as a person. It’s a disservice to both their characters but it damages Rapunzel most of all because the show perpetuates this over idealization to everyone she interacts with.

It’s really sickening to watch and terrifying to know that some uphold this selfish brat as a “role model” for little girls. There’s nothing empowering in being an inhuman “goddess” who can do no wrong....even as they do several wrongs and never gets called out on it.

This Isn’t “Cute”

Eugene can’t even have an opinion on a fucking toy!

Look if you still like New Dream despite how horribly written it is this season, then good for you. That is completely understandable, especially since this is mainly a problem with season three and not really in the first two seasons and certainly not in the movie.

But if you try to deny that they aren’t toxic in season three, that people who do have problems with how they’re written aren’t valid in their concerns, than you’re either someone who hasn’t been paying attention or someone who has gross double standards for women in relationships.

This Scene Is A Waste of Time

This doesn’t tell the audience anything. It contradicts what was previously established concerning her powers without explanation and then just throws the creepy girl voice in there for a lazy hook. It doesn’t work at foreshadowing since we repeat this info all over again in the next episode and it doesn’t expand upon neither Zhan Tiri’s nor Cassandra’s characters.

In fact it kind of contradicts Cassandra’s characterization in the last episode as well. Is she a remorseless bad bitch or a vulnerable woobie? She can’t be both. Not in the way show is going about it anyways.

It’s poor time management and poor storytelling.

Conclusion

It was mildly better than Rapunzel’s Return, but that’s not saying much. Everyone’s character is still circling the drain and there’s no escape line in sight.

But before I close out, here is a real world update. I had to quit my job at Amazon for personal reasons and am currently job hunting. I’m not hurting right now, I do have money saved up to cover me for at least a month and I’ve been doing commissions here and there, however despite having more time technically to write these reviews, I’m now having to juggle it along with artwork and job hunting.

If you would like to support my reviews and other personal projects you can send me a tip over at Ko-Fi and more public commissions will be opening soon over there as well.

https://ko-fi.com/rachelbethhines

#eugene #anti-rapunzel #anti-tangled #tangled #tangled the series #rapunzel's tangled adventure

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bellaslilpapercut · 3 years

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Oh boy New Moon! I've got some Thoughts a brewin' babey:

1. Smeyer: you do not need to remind your audience what happened last book, they aren't stupid. Imagine if SC started catching fire with ANOTHER explanation of what the hunger games are and that's the vibe of the first chapters of new moon. We remember james, we know what vampires are, we know that Bella is white, stop reminding us!

2. Bella has the worst self esteem of all time. Every bad thing that has happened to her since the Van Incident has been Edward's fault but she still blames herself and idk if this is Intentional Insecurity or if smeyer is protecting edward's "character" or both but gdamn it's depressing.

3. The reason I said Jasper was Inconsistently Written jumped out at me again. Smeyer dedicated a whole paragraph to pointing out how terrible jasper is at the diet or whatever but in the guide, smeyer tells us jasper actively tried to starve himself in the past because of how difficult his gift made feeding. He was one of only two Cullens to show bella empathy, he smelled her blood before, why does he attack her? The weakness of this decision is pointed out in the exposition: if it really were likely that Jasper would attack Bella, she wouldn't have needed a superfluous paragraph dedicated to telling us how bad he is at self control. If the story had convinced us of that beforehand, we would have believed the attack without the addendum.

4. The party is my least favorite part of the whole series and I will die on this hill: edward should have attacked bella. Bella should have tripped into something glass and edward should have lost it because he tasted her blood before and couldn't help himself. That way: edwards self loathing makes sense and he's forced to recon with his superiority complex from the ending chapters of twilight AND bella's self blame makes sense. A vamp who was able to starve himself before he even heard of the cullens should not have lost it around someone he spent days in close quarters with, building rapport and friendship. Edward got too high and mighty after he fed from Bella in Twilight, that should have had real consequence.

5. The writing is getting a little better as we near Edward leaving. "Better" isn't a good word actually but it's getting closer to the prose in twilight (which was flowery and annoying but at least it didn't constantly feel like being spoonfed exposition every paragraph). Hm wrote this blurb while I was still on chapter 3 and the vibe of being spoonfed reminders has not really dissipated lmfao.

We remember Sam Uley, smeyer, you introduced him four chapters ago. Just quick question: did anyone proofread this?? I think it's fair to say: when she isn't reminding us of things that we remember the prose is more similar to twilight. A little annoying but interesting enough to forgive the errors (or at least move past them easily enough lol).

6. I'm on chapter 8 now (I'm gonna break this up into three parts so I don't forget stuff like I did during the twilight reread) and there's a very heavy Vibe that smeyer is setting Jake up to be a parallel for twilight-era Bella. This line here is a pretty clear parallel for Bella telling Edward not to hold his breath in Twilight when he tells her she might get tired of him.

7. This line here "almost happy in a shallow kind of way" really jumped out. What Bella's narration says about Jacob versus her conversations with him (and her one paragraph about his happiness being effortlessly contagious) are at odds. It doesn't read like shallow happiness when she's with Jake. However, Smeyer is also a bad writer, she thinks the story she's telling us is literally what the narration says and not what the action shows and I think she realizes this in Eclipse (but obviously I'm not there yet so I can't say for sure).

8. I really can't get over the drop in writing quality. I know that she had already mostly finished Forever Dawn by the time Twilight was published (or was halfway done, I think her website said she had over 300 pages of forever dawn complete when she found out Twilight was getting published). I think the writing quality really reveals that she was not prepared to write New Moon. It's sloppier than Twilight in a way I'm not able to articulate (by that I mean I personally have a more intuitive than technical understanding of grammar and syntax so I don't have the language to break down the differences). Twilight itself is ripe with technical errors and plot errors and awkward exposition so it's not an overt drop in quality but I think it very much reads like a rushed writing job. She was committed to forever dawn, her publishers wanted New Moon, it shows.

9. I think New Moon was when I first started physically editing my copies of the saga lol. Even reading it now I'm so tempted to open up a word document and cut half of the useless shit out and fix all the grammatical mistakes. I can't even talk shit because I am also a comma-abuser but I hoped an editor would at least catch the errors before publishing. Guess not! Brevity is very clearly not meyers strong suit and this would have been a much stronger sequel if she had been able to reign herself in a bit. New Moon isn't supposed to be as narration heavy as twilight, there's already more action in the first seven chapters than the there was in the first 19 of twilight but she always delivers exposition via awkward dialogue or Bella's narration. Again, we already got a lot of the exposition in twilight, we know how vampires work et cetera. You can show us how bella feels instead of making her tell us and the story would run a lot more smoothly.

10. I'll end on a nice note! Little treat!

This is my favorite part of the book so far. I whited-out the useless dialogue tag because the line reads better without it ( line originally ends with "I emphasized" but she could have been brief and just ended the dialogue with an exclamation point for the same effect). The dialogue is natural and shows the J/B relationship that lives in my head way better than anything else I've seen on the page at this point. Like, I literally love this line more than any dialogue that preceded it (including twilight) lol.

#new moon reread #its taken me so long to get through these first chapters because its physically painful lmfao #i think when jacob comes in it gets more enjoyable if im remembering correctly #though im sure the writing quality will be equal to twilight at best #i wish anyone else in the world had written jacob black #everything about his character from the jump has been to serve bella's story #and everything about bella was to serve edward #i think i will write a meta on that eventually

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tsukiyadori · 3 years

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Translations and when you are conflicted on whether you wanted to know better...

5 years ago, I had a bit of a little rambling at Translations and when you think you perhaps never wanted to know better… with Kanna Kii's "Yuki no Shita no Qualia" and its scanlation translation.

Last year I had a clear case of yes I definitely wanted to know better after all with Ohana's 23:45;Re.

Now this year I have very mixed feelings about I hear your sunspot by Yuki Fumino.

I hear your sunspot started as a 1 volume short, then got extended with another, before it got furthermore extended with another 3-volume sequel series.

I read the first two I hear your sunspot and I hear your sunspot: Theory of Happiness in German. Volume 1 reads itself a bit stiff at places and with sometimes weird phrasings, but on its own, it made sense for the most part. That didn't apply to a number of lines in Theory of Happiness, however. So with a bunch of question marks left, I went to check out the Japanese original to fill in the gaps. And then I made an interesting discovery.

This translation doesn't just botch some lines. It takes a number of liberties and some of them look quite like deliberate changes.

I hear your sunspot is about Kouhei, who is hearing impaired, meeting Taichi from the same university.

If you read the series, you'll notice, that for a BL it unfolds rather atypical. If anything there isn't actually any BL, or even remotely romance until well the half-line, while it focuses on Kouhei's troubles with his hearing condition. Until suddenly big drama happens and the BL part of its tag gets shoehorned in, almost like an afterthought.

And then you read the afterword at how the author was informed by their editor that the title was running in a BL magazine, so the main characters would need to fall in love with each other. And the author has no clue what BL even is.

So then there goes the sequel Theory of Happiness, which has this in mind from the start. And you notice that through all the volume it manifests via helluva cheesy romance tropes to the point that even Truck-kun is made use of. (Yes, that Truck-kun.)

Now, this is a funny thing. You have a plot about hearing disability with a grounded and realistic take on it. And by all means, it can be said, that it's fairly empathetic and respectfully painting how it's like with it.

But then there is also stuff like this:

To begin with, it's your fault I became a homo! Take proper responsibility for it, you!

Which the German translation turned into this:

It's your fault alone that I'm such a scatterbrain! Do something against it!

There is also this:

Senpai, did you like men to begin with...? - Eh. N-No... That's not the case...

which got turned into

Y-You... Did you always like men - What? That is.... I mean...

And then there is also stuff like

In a fashion, she is also a girl. Making her cry, I'm the worst.

that was turned into

Made a lass cry!! Really the worst!

So the first one is a homophobic trope joke often found in BL. The second is an equally thoughtless BL-typical cliché line. The third is yet another gender cliché and even downright at odds with Taichi's character, whose entire point is he's so dumb and honest-straightforward, that he doesn't give a damn about social norms and is equally overt and unreserved with both girls and guys. (Although it may halfway be excused that at this moment he is reflecting on himself and possibly imprinted rationality kicks in over his natural disposition.)

Did I ever want to know better there?

... nope, I think not. Not with this specifically. The German lines made perfect sense in their contexts' reading flow and did a fine job dodging or at least lessening these tropes in particular. (Although for the second it was still obvious as to what was implied since from the beginning Kouhei's love for Taichi follows the "but he and he alone is special"-trope.)

In hindsight after Truck-kun it shouldn't even be a surprise, but this really feels like the author had no clue what BL is (as even admitted), read a bunch of it, and threw a whole pack of its notorious clichés in. And given the afterword of Theory of Happiness it's clear they were still clueless at how to best fulfill the editorial requirement of "BL" and were more relying on their editor's judgment of "BL-like".

It's already noticeably bad in the German edition, but these original lines decidedly deduct from the credibility of the main focus narrative on hearing disability. Since a great part of it is the suffering coming about the ignorant thoughtlessness and prejudices towards the condition and Taichi is being a spokesman in a number of scenes overtly criticizing that. And then the author goes and does the very same thing themselves in another field. And completely needlessly at that, since all the panels, where these thoughtless tropes were shoehorned into, could have been cut (or changed like the German translation did) and nothing would have been lost.

That being said... Is the German translation a more pleasant read than the original?

NOPE.

Even setting aside the completely botched lines that made me consult the original, to begin with; there are more lines that take some major liberties.

There is this scene for example, where Kouhei talks to fellow hearing impaired girl Maya about his thoughts on how he's pictured life without his condition where he would have been happy, but never meet Taichi, contrasting it to the reality at hand after meeting Taichi.

After meeting him, I have come to be glad about being the current me, even if I can't hear. There are a lot of unpleasant things. I've thought over and over how I don't want ears like these, but after meeting him, even with all this, I'm still glad [to be the current me].

The German one:

Thanks to him my deafness has become less difficult to bear. I walked through a dark valley. So often have I hated my life, this disability. But since I've known him, it feels as if it's worth something.

Uuuhm, I mean, it doesn't destroy the mood of the general trajectory of him wanting to say that meeting Taichi was an emotionally game-changing event in his life, but, it's also not exactly what the original said? Not even really close? Also, the use of the word "deafness" is just tone-deaf at best, since part of both Kouhei and Maya's personal troubles is that they are not deaf, they are hearing impaired. The use of the word "disability" out of Kouhei's own mouth is also about as out of character as it can get, given how heavy that label rested on his shoulders.

But onto what made me look up the original, to begin with:

Sagawa-senpai, thank you for back then.

(Referring when she was emotionally in a hurt state, and he blurted out just about the words she wanted to hear most to the point it made her cry.)

What the German translation made of it:

About Sugihara... Thank you.

How. How do you botch such a simple line? Even leaving aside that this refers to the emotional climax moment of her character development. Also leaving aside, that she is always been of the opinion that Taichi is no good for Kouhei, hence there is nothing to thank him for on his behalf. Even leaving aside that she just had a conversation, admonished him for being stupid by not being in touch with Kouhei for half a year, so even had less to thank him on his behalf. Just looking at the line isolated from all: The first bubble clearly says Sagawa (Taichi's last name)? How in the world do you get this wrong??

There are more lines that are weird, but I've used up the maximum number of images per post here.

I'll just conclude with what the German translation made out of the afterword's little conversation between the author and their editor:

Japanese: Finally, you made it become (a bit) more BL-like! - Really?! - But I'd like you to add more lovey dovey-ness - I thought so after all!

German: Finally, the story has more meat and more proper BL - You think so? - But more TLC must go in! - Gotcha!

(TLC means Tender Love Care, apparently. Which I daresay is not common knowledge?)

This strange take on translating this conversation is rather ironic in itself.

I mean. Meat? Proper BL? Whatever is proper BL?

Ah yes, right, it must be those dumpster tropes plus Truck-kun.

No wonder the romance and even more so the BL genre is such a hotpot of stinky rotten cheese.

*sigh* (At least there was no rape porn I guess?)

But there is light at the end of the tunnel for this series: Those two volumes were translated by a certain Christiane Tamm, who seems to have no other translation credit whatsoever. The sequel series Limit is being translated by Dorothea Überall, who's a manga translator veteran. It can only get better than this. Now whether this change of translation duties is because the publisher noticed this translation was botched themselves or just because there was this 3 years long license issues gap preventing the series to continue after v1, we'll probably never know. But if it's the latter, yeah, the gap as annoying as it was, probably was a good thing after all.

#ramblings #translation #english translation #german translation #i hear the sunspot #hidamari ga kikoeru

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littlemisssquiggles · 4 years

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Since we have more or less confirmation that Ruby+ Yang are going to come to blows, I had an angsty idea of Yang calling Ruby out for lying and during their argument shouts akin to, "Well maybe if you had been honest, Oscar would still be alive!" Cue Ruby looking and feeling extremely stricken and along with her other problems, starts to have guilt over what happened to Oscar (If he doesn't show up within the first few episodes)

Hiya Miki-chan. Dang! Not going to lie. I quite like this angsty concept of yours and if a scene like that does end up happening in the canon then it’ll be one of those moments where, as an audience member, I’d think it was the second time that Yang crossed the line when berating a supposed ally.

The first time she did this for me was back in V6 when she was technically the one who initiated the group questioning Oz in respect to the lamp and his actions; practically backing him into a corner more or less in spite of his efforts to brush off the subject

If anything, if Yang were to say something like that to Ruby’s face---especially if it IS the case that the group learn of Oscar’s death early on in the season and don’t get to know that he survived until some chapters later---then it would hold the same level of emotional weight as when Qrow told Oz that meeting him was the worst luck of his life; leading to the ole soul’s retreat into solitude inside Oscar’s mind.

For Yang of all people---the older sister who has always looked out for her baby sister, practically raised her as a surrogate parental figure following their mother’s death and Ty’s depressive absence---to say such a thing to Ruby, it WILL sting hard. It would definitely be like Ozpin again with Qrow.

Think about it. Of all of our heroes, Ruby is admittedly the one who has cared and safeguarded Oscar the most. She’s always looked out for his well-being since the moment he joined their group. She’s motivated him. Protected him. So to hear from her own sister’s mouth that she is the reason for the death of another dear friend that Ruby had done her best to always protect…that WILL hurt.

And with that being the case; imagine if…history repeated itself again in this type of scenario and just as Oz retreated from the group following Qrow’s remark, what if…following an argument with Yang, Ruby runs off straight into the arms of one of Salem’s henchmen---like Tyrian Callows, who either attempts to capture her for Salem or succeed in whisking her away?

Imagine if…just like V6, Yang initiates another moment where a leading character is backed into a corner and forced to have their past decisions questioned to an emotional breaking point?

Imagine if…in your small headcanon scenario, after Yang says her outburst (probably regretting it a little bit afterwards) an awestruck Ruby turns to everyone else in the room---all her other friends---asking them if that’s how they all saw her. Almost like she was asking the others if they too blamed her for Oscar’s death and when met with their guilty silence, Ruby takes it as sign of everyone basically turning their backs to her; much like how they turned their backs to Oz following the events of V6CH3?

And just like how Oz left following that, picture an emotional Ruby, unable to deal with the feelings that bombarded her in a moment in which the people who once looked at her as a beacon of inspiration and guidance, now looked as her as nothing more than a nuisance. A problem. The very problem who caused all of their current problems essentially---just as how it was for Oz.

And just like Oz---imagine if…Ruby leaves---using her semblance to speed away before anyone can stop her. So Ruby speeds off to be alone to a place where she could hopefully recollect herself. But in doing do, Ruby runs away right into the clutches of the enemy.

Imagine if…the consequence for Yang arguing with Ruby is Ruby being captured by the enemy? Each time the group has fought amongst themselves with their leaders basically ‘falling from grace’ in some way or another, it always lead to some dire consequence that the group is forced to handle.

For Oz, him leaving resulted in the group having to get to Atlas on their own without his guidance, resorting to felonious methods out of desperation.

For Ironwood, he ended up renouncing his alliance with their heroes; seeing them all as traitors to both him and his kingdom, thus leading to our group being forced to leave again via lawful methods (evading arrest by the Ace Ops; commandeering another Atlesian airship to escape) yet again.

So if Ruby leaves…if the group end up turning their backs on Ruby or rather; if Ruby is left feeling like an unfit leader with her own teammates turning away from her and questioning her leadership; then it could provide an opportunity for the PLOT to lead into her becoming a prisoner of Salem (granted that that’s where the CRWBY Writers wish to go).

If not then at least, I’d like for a scenario like this to force Ruby to remember what Oz had told her back in V1. Remember the episode “The Badge and the Burden” from RWBY V1? Remember how Ruby doubted her role as leader of Team RWBY (as a result of her treatment by Weiss) leading to her bringing it up to Oz---the man who chose her specifically to lead. Remember what Oz told Ruby in that episode?

“…Being a team leader isn’t just a title you carry into battle, but a badge your wear constantly. If you are not always performing at your absolute best, then what reason do you give others to follow you? You’ve been burdened with a daunting responsibility, Ruby. I advise you take some time to think about how you uphold it…”

If Ruby is backed into a corner in V8 then this could potentially provide the second time within the narrative where her leadership title---her badge--- is brought into question by one of her peers. This hasn’t happened since V1 so it would be a nice callback to the first season, not to mention a way for Ruby to think of Oz by remember the lesson and badge he imposed on her.

Oz did tell advise Ruby back in Beacon Days to take some time to think on how she plans on upholding her title as leader. Who knows? Perhaps she’ll be forced to do that again next season. Take some time away. Leave the group to go off on her own somewhere to think about how she planned on leading the group moving forward especially now that Salem has arrived?

I think something like that could be cool, don’t you think?

It’s almost like a domino effect. Oz’s deceit lead to our heroes turning their back on him as a leader. Our heroes’ deceit lead to Ironwood and their Atlesian allies turning their back on them as allies. With the wisdom of their former teacher gone and their allies from Atlas against them, the only thing left is for the group---JNR_RWBY to turn on each other---friend against friend, family against family, teammates against their own leader with the whole ordeal culminating in Ruby potentially losing the respect of her friends as their so-called leader.

With two of their former ‘leading’ figures out of the picture (meaning Oz and Ironwood), the one person the group will have to turn to now for leadership and guidance is their aforementioned ‘unquantifiable spark of hope’---Ruby. But with everything that has happened and given the fact that Ruby’s leadership is the catalyst that spiraled out of control and brought the group to where they are now---it can only be assumed that she will be the next person to be forced to face the music soon and by possibly one of her own too.

But here’s the thing fam, if Yang is the one to call Ruby out for her actions, I hope it’s done AFTER Ruby calls her out for her actions since may I remind you that Yang isn’t exactly an innocent party either. Even if Ruby was the first to lie to Ironwood first and started the whole deceit train, nevertheless, Yang was the one who deviated from the group (along with Blake) and informed Robyn Hill about Amity; going not just against Ironwood but also the rest of the hero team since no one else outside of Blake knew that the two had done this. So if anything, I want Ruby to call Yang out for her own deception too. Because when Ruby deceived the General, as bad as that was, at least it was something that the group decided on unanimously afterwards to keep close to the chest…until Yang and Blake broke that promise and told another outside the team. If either Yang or Blake had told Ruby about letting Robyn in on their intel, then it would’ve been fine. They could’ve even done it during RWBY’s brief meeting with Oscar (and not JNR too for some odd reason---unless those three had assigned huntsmen duty around that time). But no. Neither Yang nor Blake mentioned Robyn at all. All the more reason when it became a surprise to Ruby and Weiss when Ironwood brought it up.

Bottom-line, what I’m really trying to get at here is that apart from Ruby, Yang needs to be pulled up as well. I don’t want a repeat of what happened in V6-V7 where the show basically portrayed Ozpin as the ‘bad guy’ with everyone constantly implying that his actions was responsible for all of their problems but the minute Ruby does the same thing, it’s treated like Ruby was doing the right thing.

From my perspective, deceit is deceit no matter how you spin it. If two people lied, it doesn’t matter if one person has been deceiving their allies for centuries versus someone who only lied to an ally for a few weeks or so. Both individuals lied and since lying is wrong; both parties should face the repercussions of their actions. Not this odd angle where the deceit of one is treated as heinous while the other is portrayed as righteous. No! Is either both liars are given a pass or both are punished. In the case of Ruby and Yang potentially coming to a dispute, I hope it’s done in a way where both characters’ past actions are called into question. Even if it still ends with Ruby being hurt the most from it, I want Yang’s dirty laundry to be tossed out along with Ruby’s since there are things that Yang did that she still hasn’t told the others despite calling other characters out for the secrets they chose to hide.

It bothered me so much when Yang yelled at Ozpin for withholding the truth from the others when she herself was sitting on the identity of the Spring Maiden (her mother) who could’ve easily sealed the Lamp of Knowledge back into its respective vault if Yang hadn’t boldly told her to let her take it---allowing Salem to come after her and her group.

You do realize that the reason why the group had to take the lamp to Atlas in the first place and go through all that they did during Argus was as a result of Yang’s choices back in V5?

Seeing Yang calling out Oz for his lies and half-truth was bothersome since she isn’t exactly a golden angel in that department herself. It made her sound so hypocritical knowing what we as the audience knew. And I would feel the same way if Yang were to call Ruby out alone for putting them in trouble in General when Yang herself contributed to the turn. And in this instance, Yang’s decision would be worse than Ruby’s because at least when Ruby lied, she did it in the presence of everyone else so the whole group knew and more or less made the decision to follow her based on her lie. But with Yang, only Blake knew what the two had done with Robyn and neither did anything to inform the rest of their team about that.

Ruby made a somewhat selfish decision to have our heroes deceive Ironwood when he was supposed to be their ally whereas Yang also made a selfish decision to reveal some of the truth to Robyn Hill when she was supposed to be their enemy without the rest of her team knowing. When I look at it this way, both sisters---Yang and Ruby--- need to be held accountable for the ramifications their choices caused to the team and I hope their argument is about them calling each other out.

…Soo yeah. I’m all for this kind of moment Miki-chan but…if something like this happens, I hope it’s instigated by Ruby first calling out Yang leading for Yang to clap back by calling Ruby out. It could even end off as you envisioned with Yang using Oscar’s death to (regrettably) spite Ruby for her actions out of heated frustration. Bonus if this moment leads to Ruby running away to clear her head; thinking back to Ozpin’s words from Beacon---ultimately leading to her being captured by the villains. I think that could be interesting to see play out but who knows? Your thoughts?

~LittleMissSquiggles (2020)

#squiggles answers: rwby #ruby rose #yang xiao long #oscar pine #professor ozpin #rwby theories #rwby volume 8 theories #miki-13 #squiggles answers

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