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maxymylli0n · 2 years

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Honestly have so many things to say. I’m just mad and sad. AGAIN, let me rant about Stranger Things, but this time, Volume 2. This is your warning if you have not watched it already and your general warning that these are my thoughts and opinions and as much as I encourage discussion, please do not fight me on this. It took me three times watching it to think about these and actually solidify them. So enjoy? Be mad with me? I don't know. Your choice.

Dr. Brenner / Papa absolutely did not deserve peace of mind and I am so happy El did not give him the satisfaction.

El could’ve explained to Dr. Brenner why she needs to go NOW. She heard the whole conversation from Max’s trailer. She could’ve explained to him that his earlier metaphor of the dam breaking is about to happen if we don’t move fast. But well, Dr. Owens was right on the money when he said Henry’s going to do this even before Eleven can throw a punch.

We all know Will is fruity and for me, he does not need to explicitly say "I am gay." to confirm that. That scene on the drive to Nevada was his coming out scene. I support my baby, I will always do. It hurts to see that Byler can never come out from this as we can also really see Mike's love for Eleven. It was even portrayed stronger when he did that whole speech for her. Also to mention the fact that Will cares for El just as much and would not get in the way of her happiness - her and Mike's happiness in this case. They better introduce a new man for him, one he truly deserves.

Seeing Robin heartbroken when she saw Vickie with an E broke me.

Argyle, the man that you are. The fact that he just accepted all these with ease and even offered solutions. And he even went with them to Indiana? My man.

Hopper did not just get hot. He was always so hot ever since! But guys, he lost so much weight because of torture and beatings and y'all are siiiiiick for saying he's hot now that he's basically malnourished. In real life, yes, David Harbour is fit but Jim Hopper endured a lot for you to say he’s HOT now.

JOPPER IS CANON NOW!!!!!!!

Eddie's metal concert best scene hands down. I love that man so much. It hurts to think what happened after.

The Russia plot did not stick out to me as much but I just have to trust their theory that that actually did help the kids an upper hand.

Antonov's lips are so pink, it's distracting. I wanna kiss him.

I don’t care much about Yuri but I am just glad he had a change of heart. Cutting too close to the sun but changed, nonetheless.

I never understood why Eddie and Dustin just didn't get a molotov as well. That could've helped them a lot. Or have the spears have fire as well?? I'm just so pissed cause they could've been more geared up! And the most prevalent thing is that the Upside Down's weakness is fire?? Like we have known this and why are we not using this information well?

I needed the comedic relief "I piggybacked from a pizza dough freezer." gave me.

NANCY, ROBIN, STEVE WERE LIKE CHOKING FOR HOW LONG??? LIKE HOW ARE THEY NOT DEAD??? OR EVEN PASSED OUT UNCONSCIOUS??? I DON'T GET IT.

"He is the monster, Henry. Not you." is giving "This isn't you. Look at me, Henry. Look at me."

Vecna be having a choke kink.

The whole speech of Mike is so corny but it made me SOB. His feelings are genuine and whole. I do not want Mileven to crumble and fall.

As much as I hate Jason and was satisfied to see him disintegrate, he looked so distressed, it made me feel so bad. He is the best example of a greatly written character. HE MAKES SENSE (but not one that favors us). I can't imagine how he feels by all these when he literally has no idea. If he wasn't delusional, he actually had room to grow, dare I say even be part of the group. If it was only explained to him (there was never time), he could've even helped with the plan. But see, I know he will never understand anyway. It was even so soft when he showed concern with Max as of course, he just doesn't get it!! He doesn't understand what's going on and you see another person be in the same position as your bestfriend - eyes white and in a trance. NEVERTHELESS, it is his fault Max was taken. He destroyed her headphones and beat up Lucas. He needs to say hi to Chrissy for me.

Jason's friend though? Like damn, my guy, she's just a child. That was so uncomfortable to watch.

Vecna, my man, you could have executed your plan fast if you stop with the speeches every time. This is a joke. Of course he needs to narrate for us.

Steve's dream of having six little nuggets is the cutest thing. What's not cute is saying you want/wanted it with Nancy. All the Stancy scenes this season was unnecessary. Not everyone needs a romantic interest. Their character development literally started when they broke up. As much as Steve had so much character development and matured and grew, making him STILL head over heels for Nancy just proves that maybe he didn't exactly grow that much then. It would've been better if he ended his whole ass speech by saying Nancy was the one that helped him grow (which he did) and that the dream of his is something that makes him hold on and try to save the world because it is something he looks forward to with someone else now (which he didn't). They could've portrayed a healthy, platonic ex relationship with them. As much as he loved her so much before, he was thankful for that love, that he got to experience it and that he really is prepared when someone else comes along. +

+ Steve is not my favorite this season, that includes him in Volume 1. I love him being a bestfriend to Robin. What's stopping him for being that with Nancy too and not an ex longing for a comeback? Him showing he has not moved on from her also makes the bathroom scene from Season 3 all the more sad. He was already having a confession to Robin in motion but now, apparently, he's back to square one? And just because a lesbian rejected him? I love Steve so much and he will always be my favorite adult teen but babe, you're not it this season. Your whole character is a simp and babysitter of course. His character just seems like it cannot even stand on its own anymore.

Nancy, on the other hand, has developed so much she can even stand alone. She can break up with Jonathan, it would not even matter. But she does not need to get back with Steve. I love Jancy but if it’s for the better they break up, they should. Sometimes, it looks like it. And the way she cares for everyone? You gotta see her character thoroughly. She's always been the first one to face danger. When she thinks about something, she'll do it at once, no questions asked, without hesitation. Just like what Jonathan said: she never does anything halfway. Her jumping in to go after Steve or being the first one to try and get Robin out of the vines are not necessarily acts of love but of pure instinct and bravery.

Everything is one second short? If Joyce had come a second earlier to help Hopper, that could've hurt Vecna EARLY and could’ve saved Max - that is if their theory is correct. Eddie could've been saved as well? The demobats died shortly after. The trio as well are moving so fucking slow. Mike’s speech way too long too.

I could’ve agreed if you told me Season 1 Mike was the heart of the group, but he is definitely not the heart now. His character to me is very dull and for some reason, felt like is very neglected already. Just like Steve, the character cannot stand on its own anymore. Mike being the boyfriend and Steve being the ex. As for the heart of the group? Dustin definitely is.

Eddie’s hands.

Eddie, wake up :( I don’t like this, Eddie, wake up :( hey? Hello? :( Eddie, my love. I am so sorry. You deserved to graduate. You deserved to snatch that diploma yourself. You deserved a funeral. I hate that I saw no one else mourned for you. I hate that no one fucking cared. You did not have to save the town that hated you but you did. You could've, SHOULD'VE ran. I am so sorry, Eddie. You deserved better. +

+ Dustin holding Eddie and his speech to his uncle broke me so much, I'm still crying about it. But at the same time, I just know his uncle does not even understand what "He fought and died to protect this town that hated him. He's a hero." meant because like what he knew is that an earthquake happened so what needed saving exactly.

Jonathan being the only person showing Will that he cares so much for him is what makes him a good character. He's not the best boyfriend right now but he's a damn great brother. His continuous decision to lie about their plans breaks me. He just knows he can't leave Will, El, or Joyce behind but he loves Nancy too. See the dilemma here?

Max. I can't even. I have no words. You were such an amazing addition to the group. You were the real soulmate of Eleven, you were the glimpse of normal and exciting for her and now, you’re “gone.” I love you so. +

+ BUT, your death could’ve been solidified and I would’ve accepted it. Like what I said before, deaths are inevitable - in real life or tv series. Good guys can not always win. And I hate the Duffers for copping out for Max. I don’t know what their plan is for her next season but I just hate how they left her in a coma. She could have died and yep, yeah, she did. There’s nothing that Lucas could’ve done when Jason was there, plus the destruction of her headphones.

I'm so confused why El was confused on why Lucas was at the hospital. You were there with them? Sidenote: the Hopclair hug is personal to me. My favorite underrated duo.

Basically, I’m mad, sad, and now confused. I have so many questions. Is Dr. Owens still cuffed or does the government have him? What happened to Antonov and Murray? Are they safe too? How about Yuri? Did he go to America too? What happened in the two days time jump? Did they leave Eddie’s body in the Upside Down? How did they even get out? So Suzie is still a side character? Jason’s friends’ did not report what happened in the Creel house before the earthquake, especially that Jason dies and had his body melt in half? I know that they’re hiding from the government still, but all of them are wanted at this point, are they not? I mean they freaking ran away from military. Max’s letters? They actually needed them, why is there no mention of this? Also her mom is not home? Argyle basically left his family too? YSBXUEBCI just so many questions.

I hate the fact that the Duffers are so scared to kill off people out of the main cast. Trust me, I will cry a river if it happens but it should, and it would, happen. These people care a lot about each other and would literally die for one another and I hate how somehow, it just does not happen. Why the immunity? There's no risks? They all lived happily by the end but all the newcomers were the ones to sacrifice themselves? It does not make sense to me because the new comers are the ones that are not that familiar with the group and they’re the ones to give it their all? Killing off characters is unpredictable and emotional, it causes chaos. The formula of bringing new people to the show and eventually killing them is not the way to go. Some of the main characters are even disposable at this point - not to say I hate them. I love them but it doesn't seem fair that who dies are the ones when they've barely known these people they're dying for. Most of the main in Volume 2 were bystanders and were literally just watching everything unfold. Writers are chickening out but the show is a story of found family as well and if one dies because of love, they will.

I didn’t like it very much. Somehow, it felt predictable and mellow. It was hyped for a month and it did not meet my expectations on what it COULD be - no need for me to say what things should’ve been. It’s just that it could be more.

I don’t think I have anything else to say? But if I do, I’ll get on here then.

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flowerflamestars · 3 years

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Effloresce Snippet

Ruby bright, blood ran down Rhysand’s neck. A knife that could slice air in the right hand- Cassian had the faraway wisdom to be glad it was Elain holding it, not Nesta to whom the wind would listen, Nesta, who probably would have taken off his damned head. “Elain,” Feyre sounded like she was choking. “Rhys wasn’t- no one is going to hurt Nesta- what are you doing?” Elain ignored her, pressed harder, blood welling. Rhysand, frozen in place, wasn’t even looking at her- over her head, to Cassian, as though to ask: why? Cassian shook his head. “You’ll get our people out.” Elain was velvet, a High Fae courtier speaking in a human voice. And Rhys, sky fucking drown him, demurred. Look down her arm, ignored the blade like even bleeding, these women weren’t a threat. “It will take time, to evacuate.” Nesta laughed, an entirely different sound than before. Storm wild, the sound of it moving up Cassian’s spine like a caress. “You don’t have time. You did this- Feyre didn’t get there on her own.” Rhysand, who’d lost all ability to back down when he aught sometime in the last fifty years. Rhys, who’d absolutely play chicken with a curse that would destroy him and his- he was probably hoping it would helpfully boil Keir’s blood as it worked its way to him. “The curse can kill you,” Elain crooned, “Or I can slit your throat and watch the crown pass to Archeron hands. Your choice.” “A curse,” Feyre whispered, eyes flying between her sisters. “Nesta, please, what is she talking about?”

Lush bravado, Rhysand’s smile. “Always good, to have deadly allies.” And just like that Elain turned the blade in her hand- starry, gleaming, released Rhysand and handed it bloody to Nesta, handle first. Even braced for it, Cassian wasn’t prepared. Nesta continued the motion, angry and hectic, his dagger spun sure in her grip, keening to the air. Did she know she could shape the wind? That Cassian- because Cassian- that the very storm would listen to her, in true need, star steel singing in her hand? “I don’t understand. What crown? Is this about the Queens? You can pledge for clemency- if you’re really the one running all those trade route, the Lords owe you- they can”- Steady, deadly, Elain in her lace and silk, the scent of her rage more Lucien’s fire than her own skin, Elain who said, “High Lord, would you like to say it?” Rhys, Cassian thought it, Cassian roared it in his head, barriers down, walls crumbling- I won’t forgive you- Feyre won’t forgive you- don’t- don’t- don’t- Rhysands mouth twisted. “We have a deal, your sisters and I,” He told Feyre, charm laid thick over the grimace. “For the preservation of House Archeron. Isn’t that right, Banfhlaith?” Nesta bared her teeth. Like a call and response he couldn’t quite control, Cassian gave into the burning urge to slide closer, to guard even for a second, her back. He loved his brother. He’d served faithful the Night Court for five centuries- half a millennia and never once, not for a second, anticipated a real future.

What loomed, endless, in the sky of Nesta Archeron’s eyes.

#we're back!!#remember like 6 months ago I kept saying i had so many things like...halfway done #they are all done now #we are cycling through #summer is here and a hundred stories with it!#the exact moment Cassian realized #the war was coming #but the war for his soul? already won #Elain I will STAB A HIGH LORD FUCKING WATCH ME Archeron #I remain in love with my take on the matebond in this #the blurring of magic #of being #that Illyrians do not in fact find their mates like high fae #ao3 is officially up to date and this new chapter coming very very soon!#time for the plot to break and canon to disintegrate #Elucien being married in the background #while Nessian speedrun enemies to ride or die means you can't fucking die lovers #Feyre...still taking Rhysands side.#in everything #the real joke is that Azriel had fully thrown in with Nesta's plans #and rhys is just like #ignoring that to act like a dick #fanon Cassian is back from the canon nightmare

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martelldoran · 3 years

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WHAT'S THE CAUSALITY LOOP THEORY

Why Emma, thank you so much for asking. I’m not going to waste time before jumping into this because this is gonna get long so without further ado...

Steve Rogers’ Ending and How Endgame Doesn’t Support a Causality Loop and other such rambles

Last month, I came across a TikTok that proposed that Steve’s ending made sense because it existed within a causality loop. I would link the TikTok but I didn’t save it at the time and trying to find videos on that app is impossible. You think Tumblr’s search function is bad? 🙄 But I digress. The TL;DR of the video is that due to time travel and Steve choosing to go back in time to be Peggy’s husband, it created a causality loop where he was always meant to be her husband because he went back in time and stayed there. The TikToker supported his argument by using Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (PoA), another film that uses time travel and has a clearly defined example of a causality loop. However, his argument is fundamentally flawed so I’m going to combine my knowledge of my two biggest fandoms to tell you why.

Continued under the cut because I have no chill. Beware, it's long.

To first tell you how Endgame (EG) doesn’t support a causality loop, we must establish how PoA does establish one and does it successfully. The TikToker specifically mentions the scenes that take place at Hagrid’s Hut surrounding Buckbeak the hippogriff’s execution, so we’ll look at those first. What the film does really well is establish early on that there is something weird going on well before anyone actually goes back in time. There are three things that happen in quick succession during this scene which sets up the causality loop we see later in the film. First, a rock flies through the window and breaks a jar. Second, another rock hits Harry in the back of the head. Third, once outside, Hermione hears a branch snap and thinks she sees ‘something’. There are also two additional moments later on in the film once the Harry, Ron, and Hermione have come out of the Shrieking Shack which should also be noted: a wolf howl that distracts Remus Lupin in werewolf form from attacking the group and somebody casting a full-bodied stag patronus at the edge of the lake to save Harry and Sirius from the Dementors.

Of these occurrences, the first is arguably the most important because it does the most to establish that there is something going on outside of the Trio’s current understanding of their situation. The film makes a point to frame the jar breaking as Important Information the Audience Must Remember because it shows a visibly confused Hermione reacting to it as she picks up the rock for closer inspection and we the audience are given close up of it in her hand. Not only is it framed front and centre in the shot but the rock itself is very distinctive. It’s almost wholly smooth but for a swirl of fossil, thus marking it as not just any rock but An Important Rock To Be Remembered. This was an intentional choice by director Alfonso Curon because he uses this rock to connect this moment to its mirrored scene later on once Harry and Hermione use the Time Turner.

The audience and the characters find out about the causality loop at the same time. There are clearly stated rules of time travel that say that they aren’t to meddle with time but when Harry and Hermione see that Dumbledore, the Minister for Magic, and the executioner are on their way to Hagrid’s hut they panic because their counterparts aren’t leaving. Then, we see Hermione notice something in the pumpkin patch: a distinctive rock, smooth with a swirl of fossil. Again, we see have a close up shot with the rock centred to show its importance. Stylistically, it’s very similar to the shot we saw earlier in the film which gives the audience an emotional pay off for noticing the connection. When Hermione throws the rock and breaks the jar, it sets the causality loop in motion. The jar was always going to break because they went back in time to throw the rock that breaks it.

And it’s the same with all the other instances. Hermione throws the second rock that hits Harry in the back of the head to alert him to the fact they need to get out of the hut. Hermione snaps the branch and is almost seen by her counterpart in the past. Hermione makes the wolf call to distract Lupin from attacking. Harry, and not his father as he had assumed, casts the patronus to save himself and Sirius from the Dementors. But each of these moments are set up clearly in the ‘first run through’ to set up their payoff when the characters realise, ‘Oh, I did these things. They were always meant to happen.’ From a narrative standpoint, these are planned out moments to clue the audience into the fact that there’s something bigger at play. It keeps them ‘in the loop’ as it were.

This doesn’t happen in EG.

To successfully have set up a causality loop that made sense and had the same kind of set up and pay off as we see in PoA, it would have had to have been established as early as 2014 in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (CA:TWS). This does not happen. One of the main themes of CA:TWS is moving on from the past. Peggy Carter herself even says, “I’ve lived my life, my only regret is that you didn’t get to live yours.” Then saying soon after, “Sometimes the best thing we can do is to start over.” Peggy’s character in Captain America: The First Avenger is set up as someone who acts as the backup/back bone of Steve’s own moral compass. When Steve falters at Azzano about what to about the captured 107th, Peggy is there to remind him of what is right. She serves a similar narrative function in CA:TWS. Steve is struggling with life in the present. He’s just seen the helecarriers and argued with Nick Fury about protection vs fear after the botched Lumerian Star mission. Morally, he’s in turmoil and has turned to Peggy for council because he’s trying to find purpose in world where his rigid morality seems to have no place.

From the point of view of creating a causality loop, one would think that this scene in the hospital would be the place where an initial set-up could be made and alert the audience to the long term plan for Steve’s character. Instead, we have Peggy mourning the fact that Steve didn’t get to live his life the way it should have played out, and why would a woman who has supposedly been married to another version of Steve tell him to move on? In addition, when Steve visits the Smithsonian, he watches a video where he sees Peggy talking about how he influenced her life and how during one of his missions, he saved the man that would go on to become her husband. This is the only mention of Peggy’s husband in the entire franchise until Steve reappears as an old man at the end of EG.

Captain America: Civil War (CA:CW) also offers an opportunity to set up the causality loop at Peggy’s funeral but again, this does not happen. The only family we are introduced to is Sharon Carter, Peggy’s grand-niece. When it comes to filmmaking, every choice made is intentional. From the hair and makeup to the clothes, to the music used, everything in a film means something whether it is to further character development, world-building, or the plot. Filmmakers have a limited amount of time to convey a story and anything that doesn’t matter isn’t shown. Therefore, we can conclude from the text of the film that Peggy’s husband doesn’t matter to the narrative. The person in Peggy’s family who matters to the narrative is Sharon Carter which is why she is given prominence during CA:CW’s funeral scene. Had the causality loop been set up here, there would have been a defining moment like in PoA where the audience is clued into the larger story arc. Maybe someone says something, or he meets his older self, but that doesn’t happen. It should also be noted that apart from a small scene in Ant Man, Peggy isn’t mentioned again until EG.

In Endgame itself, the film still fails to set up a causality loop. It could be argued that this is the most important film for the set-up because this is when the audience gets the payoff. The first thing we see after the 5-yer time jump is Steve in a group therapy session for those that survived Thanos’ snap. Survivors share their stories and Steve talks about Peggy, a woman who has been dead in canon for 7-years and who died of old age. It’s incongruous and sticks out because narratively it doesn’t make sense for him to talk about her and not someone he watched disintegrate in front of his eyes. Steve watches his best friend and hundreds of others turn to ash around him and that film ends on his horrified face as he sits by his best friend’s ashes. Narratively, this is the thread that should carry through to EG but instead, he talks about missing his chance with Peggy. However, unlike PoA, there is no indication whether through dialogue or framing that clues the audience into Steve’s eventual ending at the end of the film.

Even when he goes back to the 70s, we see him looking mournfully at Peggy through the blinds in her office and a picture of him, pre-serum, on her desk. Steve and Peggy’s relationship prior to Endgame is supposed to represent the bittersweet loss of the life he could have had had he not sacrificed himself to the cause in CA:TFA. Then, since the audience knows from Steve and Peggy’s conversation in the hospital in CA:TWS that she moved on from Steve to live a happy life, we can assume that this picture is meant as nothing more than a fond memento of someone that meant a lot to her. Once more, there is no indication that Steve is ever meant to be her husband.

It’s impossible to infer a causality loop here in the same way as we saw in PoA. In PoA, there is a payoff for every single unusual or weird moment the story presents the audience before and after the use of time travel but this is something that’s completely absent from Endgame’s narrative. Steve himself doesn’t even vocalise a desire to go back in time at any point in EG nor at any point during the other films he appears in. In fact, when questioned by Tony Stark about the possibility of ‘going home’ in Avengers: Age of Ulton, he says, “The guy who wanted all that went in the ice 75 years ago. I think someone else came out.” While it is indicative of his unhappiness in the modern-day, it does indicate a level of acceptance of the fact that this is his life and he has to make his peace with it. He’s taken what Peggy said in CA:TWS on board. He’s starting over and moving on.

With time travel, and Steve choosing to stay in the past came the fan theory that one of the pallbearers carrying Peggy’s casket in CA:CW is Old Man Steve, her husband. When presented with this fan theory, writer Christopher Markus said during an interview with the LA Times at SDCC 2019,

“I would very much like that. There is no set explanation for Cap’s time travel . . .I mean, we’ve had public disagreements with [directors Anthony and Joe Russo] about what it [time travel] necessarily means, but I love the idea of there being two Steve Rogers in the timeline. One who lived a long life with Peggy and is in the background of that funeral scene watching his young self carry his wife’s coffin up. Not just for the time travel mumbo jumbo of it, but for the just weird, personal pain and satisfaction that would be happening between two Steve Rogers there. I kind of love it.” [emphasis mine]

This shows that unlike in PoA there was no intention of creating a causality loop prior to Markus writing EG with his writing partner Stephen McFeely. In fact, it makes clear that the actual rules of time travel were in contention and that even those making the film didn’t have a unified idea of what they wanted to create in the first place. The fact that there is confusion surrounding EG's time travel is due to the fact that the people behind it, didn't seem to know what they were writing or consider the consequences of it.

What all of this shows is that an argument of a PoA style causality loop doesn’t hold water. The film doesn’t support it, nor do any of the previous films, because there aren’t any indicators for the audience to latch onto. There is no moment of the rock breaking the jar, or the patronus chasing away the dementors, no moment where that the audience is told to hold into this information for later because there’s some timey wimey stuff going on. Ultimately, when examined, there is no set-up for a causality loop that supports the theory he was always supposed to go back and be Peggy’s husband, particularly when examined against a film that successfully lays it out from the start.

Right, the more academic (lol) part of this post is done. I just want to address one more TikTok that bothered me because I have opinions and MCU Captain America is my Mastermind specialist subject.

The TL;DR of this one was that Steve’s ending made sense because he got out of the fight and was at peace and that that has been the ultimate goal of his character arc. This person argued that Steve used the Avengers to distract himself from the fact that he’s this man out of time and he can’t find peace without a fight which to some extent, I agree with. I don’t deny that that is a major driving force to his story. We see that in Age of Ultron with his WandaNightmare. I don’t deny that that is key to his character. However, this creator then made a comment at the end of this video to the tune of, ‘bUt BuCkY iS hIs StOrY aRc’ and tried to play it off like this wasn’t true or that people were wrong to think that this is the case.

These two things aren’t mutually exclusive. They’re both true. They’re intertwined. But you cannot say that Bucky Barnes isn’t at the heart of Steve Rogers’ story. Bucky was the catalyst for every single one of Steve’s movies. He becomes CA because of Bucky. He goes against SHIELD because of Bucky. He defies 107 countries and the Sokovia Accords because of Bucky. You take Bucky out of the equation and what do you have? What happens in those films if you take Bucky Barnes out of the equation? Viewing it objectively, and even without shipper goggles on, you simply cannot sit there and claim that Bucky Barnes isn't a defining component to Steve’s story. Steve Rogers is motivated by Bucky Barnes. Steve Rogers is motivated by the depth of their relationship and the fact that Bucky Barnes is one of the few things connecting his new present to his old life.

You can definitely see the fact that Steve is uncomfortable in the modern world. He doesn’t address any of his trauma but he still attempts to move on. However, if they wanted him getting out of the fight and finding life as a civilian to be the natural end to his story arc then there was a way to do it which didn’t require him going back to Peggy. It would have been a better and more satisfying ending if he’d actively chosen to retire because I often see the argument that him going back to Peggy is him finally allowing him to be selfish after shouldering so much over the past decade or more. If Steve chose to retire and put himself first, then that sends a better message. He’s still getting the chance to ‘be selfish’ but he’s not throwing the life he’s built away. At this point in EG, he’s spent a huge portion of his adult life in the modern-day. This isn’t the future for him anymore, it’s the present and he’s lived a life and made real connections with people. The MCU does a piss poor job of showing the interpersonal relationships between the Avengers but he is at least shown to be friends with Sam, Nat, and Bucky.

But he goes back to a delusion. Or an idea of something that was never his in the first place.

When I see people make these videos and share their opinions, I can see their points but it’s like they’re taking EG on its own when that's impossible. Endgame only ‘works’ if you have the context of 10 years’ worth of films. You have to at least be somewhat familiar with the characters, who they are and what they’ve done up until now to be able to make sense of it.

However, in saying that, they wrote and filmed the movie in a way to make you think you didn’t have to take into account anything you’ve seen in the past ten years. If you only watch Endgame, you only see a grieving man mourning the love he never had. You see a man, regretful that he didn’t get to be with woman he loved. So at the end, of course it would make sense that he goes back to her. But you can only do that if you completely divorce Endgame from its ten-year canon and in a franchise like this where they make a big deal about everything being interconnected, it simply doesn’t work. Steve’s story arc in Endgame is incongruous to the narrative arc we’ve been presented in previous films.

Ultimately, Endgame is a movie you’re supposed to watch once and then not think about again. It’s made for that first viewing when everything is shocking and exciting because if you stop to think about it even a little bit, it falls apart under scrutiny.

Finally, I think that the downfall of a lot of these ‘Steve’s ending makes sense’ posts is that made by people who are most certainly MCU fans but not Steve Rogers fans and it shows.

#in this essay i will #endgame wank #anti endgame #for the filters #steve rogers #my writing #because this i didn't spend my afternoon on this for nothing #marvel #stevie #angelblue007

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jamieedlund · 3 years

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I can imagine their in canon first meeting like this:

The two are stuck together for a while (could be a cave in, could be prison), and Callum is initially on guard and hostile towards Aaravos. That is until Aaravos does a casual act of magic, and Callum forgets to be on alert to fan boy about magic.

What's your take on their in canon first meeting?

I've been thinking about that for a while, I'm working on explaining that whole front with a long post that will tie into how I'm portraying their relationship right now, but here's the summary of how I see it happening. All of these checkpoints have to be ticked off in their first meeting order for them to even have a remotely functional relationship. I will only use the information given to me IN THE SHOW (and maybe the wiki) up until season 3.

TLDR : read the in bold texts only.

1. Aaravos can not escaped the mirror with the dark magic metamorphosis spell

Let's start at the end of season 3.

This cocoon right? It's foreshadowing that Aaravos is breaking himself outa jail. But what if - he couldn't cheat his way out like this?As soon as he emerges, he will disintegrate (insert graphic vaporizing in agony sketch here) Why i would write it this way?

2. Callum holds the key of Aaravos (aka the cube thing) foreshadowing that he himself holds the true key to Aaravos's freedom. Assuming that is what the key of Aaravos is supposed to do; amongst other things? please I need the lore.

Season 2, in Callum's near death experience, Callum threw away the "key of aaravos" that has turned into all the dark magic symbols.

This meant that he rejected dark magic and is incorruptible, but to me personally I also interpreted this as the show foreshadowing Aaravos did not use the right key, instead used dark magic through Viren to try and escape his prison, his attempt was unsuccessful. Also the episode is named "the book of destiny" so y'know no BIG foreshadowing at play here haha.

3. Callum has been rejected to be taught magic by literally every Xadian elven mages even though he has proven himself to be able to connect to the sky. Because let's face it prejudice cannot be erased that easily. So he went looking for Aaravos in hopes that he will be the one teaching him magic; along with there is a possibility that there is another mirror connecting to the prison(but not necessarily) ok so I've always wondered this and I'm gonna go on a tangent if I talk more about this but why keep contact with the prisoner if your purpose is to cut him off from literally everyone like hello? Thunder? big brain much?? why keep mirror when can - idk man DESTROY MIRROR? is mirror unbreakable???if that's the case more lore on the stupid mirror please?

This is pretty self-explanatory and plausible.

4. Callum broke Aaravos out of jail. They have to hash it out as soon as he got him out. Aaravos must tell Callum everything, including the Viren incident. Callum has to witness the tragedy of war through Aaravos's eyes(seeing human gets slaughtered by elves and dragons in the good old days before his very eyes) and came to the conclusion that Aaravos lived in a very different time(shouldn't be hard because he himself is also became orphan because of the war) Callum does not forgive Aaravos for what he did but he suggested Aaravos chose peace this time around since war did him no good.

5.EVRYONE was not chill about Callum breaking Aaravos out of jail(for obvious reasons). Aaravos did not manipulate Callum into running away with him. Callum CHOSE him because they now have a mutual understanding of each other.

So now that I've had the stage set, let play a scenario shall we?

Callum went on a journey as his last resort to finding Aaravos, the so called "Master of all primal sources" that Harrow mentioned in his letter, hoping that he can learn magic and finally find a way to end the need to use dark magic for good. (Rayla Ez and Soren can accompany him, just to make this plot extra spicy) Unfortunately, because of the censorship happening to the all of Aaravos' literary mentions, Callum still have no clue to what is the deal with this man.

Callum finally was told Aaravos' story (this could be done through many ways like the Dragon queen could just tell him and/or some exposition character he found on his journey can tell him idk but either way he found out what Aaravos' deal was) but the stories are just propaganda of him as this source of corruption and evil etc (insert the lore that we don't know about Aaravos yet here)

This prompted very pissed off Callum. Let's say he is at Aaravos's study room and that is where he found out about his story. He would ask everyone to leave him alone for a minute. After they reluctantly did, Callum used magic out of frustrations, messing up the room and accidentally destroyed the over headlight. He cried and yelled at the very conveniently placed mirror about how he thought if anyone could- or would understand his wish for peace and to be a mage without prejudice, it would have been Aaravos, but nooo~ he just- HAD TO BE this evil deity that was banished and labeled something worst than death. He rested his head and hand on the mirror with the key in his hand and sulked when suddenly--

let's switch to Aaravos's perspective. After he was evaporated as soon as he stepped out of that cocoon, he was sent back to the mirror through this timey whiney void between life and death where he had a brief conversation with the ghost of Avizandum. They mocked each other for being arrogant with Aaravos remarking the Dragon that he is now dead and Thunder reminding the elf that only an incorruptible soul with the key could release him from his prison and that because Aaravos is rotten to the core-his words not mine, he can NEVER escape. Aaravos waking up back at the mirror world, stating that was an unpleasant experience, only to hear a thumping at the mirror as he caught a glimpse of Callum just crying and yelling. Although the boy couldn't see Aaravos, he felt like the boy's dismay was directed at him. So he came closer, placing his hand on the mirror, thinking it wouldn't connect but, he did it anyway, maybe he just wanted to comfort him in his own way. Aaravos is complicated. but it did connect They both stepped back, exchanged a look. They had an understanding that words cannot express. Callum mouthed "I'll help you." to Aaravos's surprise, pulled him out of the mirror while all sides of the cube glowed.

They talked, Callum exploded at Aaravos for (insert the plot we just got here), demanding him to tell him everything he has done. Aaravos showed Callum his memory of the war, of how the elves and dragon also slaughtered countless humans in front of his eyes. Callum is visibly sick witnessing this, now knowing that Aaravos lived in a very different time. Aaravos also disclosed that he helped Viren because he really just wanted to get out after THREE CENTURIES. Callum, obviously is still mad because cool motive still murder sir. But he also sympathize with Aaravos. He exchanged his own story about how Thunder also killed his mom and his gf's dad killed his step dad, but he implored the elf man to try peace this time anyway since all the time Aaravos chose war it always ended up backfire on him. Aaravos stayed quiet but he is actually considering the boy's offer cause CALLUM'S RIGHT. and Aaravos knows this.

Some more small talk and Aaravos finally asked why Callum came looking for him, Callum told him his wish, Aaravos just laughs and says 'ok'. Because - says Aaravos - It's either this (teaching Callum magic) or genocide

and frankly, Aaravos probably doesn't feel like the latter after the events that transpired the last 3 seasons. Callum showed Aaravos to his friends, it did NOT go well for obvious reasons and the authorities showed up to round up Aaravos. In the deciding moment, Rayla begged Callum that there will be someone else to teach him magic and extended her hand, even Aaravos told him he that should go with her, but Callum has already made up his mind. Cue Callum casting Aspiro to stir up dirt as cover and grabbing Aaravos's hand to both of their surprises like 'I can't believe I'm doing this but I have a feeling that we can understand each other so let's bail!' THAT. Ladies and gentlemen and everyone else, is how I would create this neutral party in canon. That is how the star met the sky. And the rest is history: just them being wholesome for 2 seasons: helping people(and elves...and dragons....and pretty much anyone in need), doing magic and running away from the law

(imagine the entirety of ss4 and 5 is just this but even more shenanigans with "not the runaway prince" and "not a war criminal"™ trying to make good life choices while being the best master/student duo the series have to offer)

#ask jamie #this is a long post #i just needed to get this out #tdp #thank you for coming to my ted talk #aaravos #callum #ok Imma need a drink #head canon #the dragon prince #sorry for any grammar mistakes that i made #if anyone made it this far #thank you #i love you #please prolong my agenda

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depressedhatakekakashi · 2 years

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Anonymous asked:

genuine thought tho- (but it's fine if u don't want to do angst today, i was just wondering) what if Kakashi died during his fight with Obito in Kamui? most 'what if Kakashi died' AU's are usually done at either Kannabi bridge or the Pain arc which understandable, but i've seen some really good fics that made me go 'oof.. yikes' most usually make Obito not really give an F for the most part (cuz of the whole dream thing y'know) but the hardest ones that hit are when Obito purposely carries Kakashi's body out of Kamui and teleports in full view of Team 7 and most of the others; then proceeds to drop Kakashi on the ground and step on him- all to plummet morale and to possibly aggravate Team 7 (specifically to make Naruto become reckless if not ballistic) which of course canon wise WOULD NEVER HAPPEN but it's fun thinking about lol XD

or those where Obito just leaves Kakashi's body in Kamui, the plot goes as close to canon as possible albeit with Obito being given more of a cold shoulder and begrudging teamwork than in canon lol and when the final fight with Kaguya happens and Obito dies, Team 7 comes home to realize they don't have Kakashi's body to bury (because it likely disintegrated along with Kamui, in my theory) so they each honor him in their own way whichever it may be (i'm honestly not sure how XD maybe they all jokingly tell one of Kakashi's awful excuses every once in a while, Tenzo carries on Mr.Ikku, or Naruto becomes a genin-sensei before he becomes Hokage- maybe Sakura and Sasuke take on their own personal students in their own way lol idk, and of course Gai carries his rival's memory with him wherever he goes <3 that's to say hopefully things don't turn out too angsty for Gai the aftermath he deals with Neji's & Kakashi's death's simultaneously 😬)

Ok this is going to be a bit long because i have THOUGHTS, but i will organize those thoughts for you.

Results of Kakashi’s death in a canon setting

Obito bring’s Kakashi’s body back and treats it like trash

Obito leave’s Kakashi’s body in the Kamui dimension.

Everyone’s reactions.

So let’s begin.

Results in Canon

I know fandom like’s to act like Kakashi did nothing in the fight against Kaguya, but he held his weight. It was Kakashi who saved Sakura multipul time’s, so without him she likely would have taken a very unpleasent swim in lava.

It was also Kakashi who came up with the plan that ultimately defeated Kaguya, after multiple attempts by Naruto and Sasuke to defeat her with their own plans. Without Kakashi there, i fully belive they would have lost and Kaguya would have taken her chakra back and thus destroyed every living human in the world.

And once again, it was Kakashi who ultimatly broke through to Obito. Ya Naruto had a hand in it, but it was Minato stopping Kakashi from killing Obito and make them talk that finally broke him down and brought him back to their side. Before that Obito was stubborn and refusing to listen to Naruto’s optimism.

Without Kakashi, they would have lost. He didn’t hold the winning hand in the fight with strength, but with kindness and intelligence. It was his actions reaching out to save people that helped to secure the win, and it was his genius and plan that won them the battle at the end of the day, mixed with Sasuke and Naruto’s strength.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s ignore it all and go with ‘they win by a miracle anyways’

Obito bring’s Kakashi’s body back and treats it like trash

This is a moment that i think Gai would have snapped. Instead of opening the eighth gate against Madara, i fully belive he would have done it to take Obito down. Kakashi is someone Gai fought tooth and nail for his whole life to keep him alive. To show him the good in the world.

To see Obito being so cruel towards someone who held him in such high regard for years would break Gai. He’d drop the kind and goofy person everyone know’s and became the leathal shinobi that they don’t expect but know exists.

Gai would burn alive with the power of his own chakra, and he would take Obito down with him. The two of them would die then and there, and i think even if Naruto had the ability to heal people at that point he wouldn’t with Gai because he’d understand why Gai did what he did.

Either way, Obito would be done for. He would meet his end because of his actions through Gai, and i think it would result in the loss of three really strong people.

Obito leave’s Kakashi’s body in the Kamui dimension

Everyone know’s what has happened, Obito still make’s sure that they know. He taunt’s Naruto with it and Gai attack’s him, but it’s not with the same anger as if Obito had brought Kakashi’s back and disrespected it

There’s no body, so there’s still a sense of hope tht Obito is lying and Kakashi will come back.

Kakashi never does.

Everything happens the same (and magiclly maybe Obito is awake and saves himself and Sakura form a dip in lava, or Sakura saves them). Obito still switches side’s but it’s harder to get him there and it’s harder for them to trust him.

He still dies, he still saves Naruto and Sasuke, but he’s not a hero.

He’s the man who killed Kakashi, and that leave’s a bitterness in everyone’s hearts.

How the mourn

Naruto and Sakura mourn together. They talk about their Sensei and all of the ridiculous things he did. How he annoyed them but also how he protected them and cared deeply about them. They mourn over Ramen and stories, and they never allow themselves to forget.

Sasuke mourns in prison. Kakashi had a huge part in freeing him, and i think with only Naruto vouching for him he wouldn’t find that freedom. Tsunade is still Hokage without Kakashi to replace her and she is far less forgiving, with no personal attachments of her own. Sasuke doesn’t really mourn. I don’t think he would care that much until the two of them had a chance to talk and reconcile, but he does think about Kakashi once in a while.

Gai (let’s say Naruto still saves him) isn’t quite the same. He still plasters a smile on his face and acts youthful, but everyone can tell there’s a piece of him missing. Without his eternal rival, he’s simply not the same. He mourns in silence, not leaning on anyone and not allowing anyone to see just how broken his heart is.

Yamato mourns in anger. It boils deep inside of him where no one can see, and he let’s it sit there festering. Growing. He think’s it’s controlled, but Yamato has never hated anyone as much as he hates Uchiha Obito. His senpai gave up so much to protect other’s and now they can’t even bury him. They can’t even confirm he’s dead with a body. He’s just gone and Yamato finally realizes how people feel hearing ‘they’re dead’ but never getting to see a body for themselves. It burns.

Disclaimer: i think Obito and Kakashi are on par, and the only reason obito win’s is because he has Hashirama’s cell’s healing him constantly and Kakashi does not. Kakashi was beaten in the long run because he run’s out of energy and can’t heal himself on the spot like Obito.

#angst #Hatake Kakashi #Uchiha Obito

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thecreaturecodex · 2 years

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Slaad Lord, Ygorl

Image © @tredlocity

[I’ve been meaning to finish the slaad lords for months now, but my overall levels of exhaustion and the work that goes into making a demigod have kept me from doing so. I’m taking advantage of the holiday break to finish this particular project.

Ygorl is probably the slaad lord who’s gotten the most coverage. Versions of him have appeared in every edition, although only in quasi-canonical forms in 3e (a video game where he doesn’t even look like a slaad) and 5e (a PDF release for charity). As such, there’s lots of different interpretations of his powers and MO out there. This version is likewise different, not hewing closely to any particular edition. I’ve altered his philosophy from “utter destruction” to “destruction of everything but slaadi”, befitting my take on slaadi as cosmic invasive species. In so doing, I’ve made him a bit of a chaotic equivalent of Wastri the Hopping Prophet ]

Slaad Lord, Ygorl CR 24 CN Aberration This frog-like humanoid is skeletally thin, and has a head like a horned skull. It stands twice as tall as a man, and clutches a scythe in its hands. Its skin is a deathly gray, with red and black accents, especially along its membranous wings.

Ygorl, Lord of Entropy, Bringer of Endings CN male slaad lord of death, entropy, and natural selection Domains Chaos, Darkness, Death, Strength Subdomains Competition, Entropy, Loss, Slaad Worshipers nihilists, racial supremacists, social Darwinists Minions shadow creatures, slaadi, undead Holy Symbol the word “death” written in the Slaadi tongue Favored Weapon scythe Obedience Kill a creature of Tiny or larger size and spend an hour destroying its body. Gain a +4 sacred bonus to saves against death effects and level drain Boons: 1: shatter 2/day; 2: enervation 2/day; 3: disintegrate 2/day

Ygorl the Bringer of Endings is among the most powerful of the slaad lords, and certainly the most active. He was the first black slaad, who traveled to the Negative Energy Plane to watch the unmaking of reality and was changed in the process. It is Ygorl’s ultimate goal to eliminate all non-slaadi animal life, flattening ecosystems and transforming them into monocultures throughout the cosmos. He claims to have created the Spawning Stone, and even those slaadi that know the truth of their origins typically see this as a useful lie for motivating their kin to greater expansion.

Ygorl’s cult is mostly made of slaadi, as is befitting for his conviction that they are the ultimate form of life. Racial supremacists of other types are sometimes drawn to his banner. Ygorl accepts their worship and coddles them for a while, but views non-slaadi worshipers as tools to be disposed of or transformed into perfect slaadi forms. The protean choirs view Ygorl as an interesting experiment, and most proteans do their best to stay out of his way and observe his progress from afar.Unlike other slaad lords, Ygorl cannot shapechange, which he proclaims as a badge of honor, that he is not ashamed of or hides from his true form. Ygorl’s slaadi followers often make a point of not shapechanging, favoring overt action to covert.

Ygorl’s very presence makes creatures and objects alike weaker and fragile. His opening move in combat is to merely uncover his blade—Ygorl typically keeps a symbol of death marked on its surface, slaying lesser enemies without having to take any direct action. Assuming this is not sufficient, Ygorl typically conjures an orb of nothingness, a sphere of annihilation-like entropic weapon that obeys his commands. While directing this around the battlefield to disintegrate enemies, he unmakes foes one at a time, preferring to target the strongest enemy first as a show of dominance. Ygorl has not lived as long as he has by being foolish, however, and retreats from a losing battle to plot his revenge.

Like other slaad lords, Ygorl collects followers, sycophants and minions. He has two allies of great power worth noting. His oldest companion is Shkiv, an entropic great brass wyrm who has grown disgusted with human expansion and dominance, and allied with Ygorl in order to take revenge on humanity. Perhaps the strongest slaad under Ygorl’s wing is Sorel (female CN death slaad bard 12), who is attempting to generate her own cult as a slaad lord of riots and revolutions. How long this partnership will last remains to be seen—Ygorl has killed several slaadi who attempted to become slaad lords in their own right. If Ygorl is encountered with both Shkiv and Sorel, this is a CR 25 encounter.

Ygorl CR 24 XP 1,230,000 CN Large aberration (chaotic, extraplanar, slaad, slaad lord) Init +9; Senses arcane sight, darkvision 120 ft, lifesense 60 ft., Perception +33, see in darkness, true seeing Aura cloak of chaos (DC 28), entropic (30 ft., Fort DC 35) Defense AC 42, touch 22, flat-footed 33 (-1 size, +9 Dex, +4 deflection, +20 natural) hp 525 (30d8+395); fast healing 25 Fort +26, Ref +25, Will +27 DR 20/epic and lawful; Immune death effects, energy drain, mind-influencing effects, sonic; Resist acid 20, cold 20, electricity 20, fire 20; SR 34 Defensive Abilities all-consuming life, shadow blend Offense Speed 40 ft., fly 60 ft. (good) Melee +5 adamantine scythe +40/+35/+30/+25 (2d6+24/19-20x4 plus 2d6 chaotic), bite +29 (2d10+6 plus 2d6 chaotic) or 2 claws +34 (2d8+13 plus 2d6 chaotic), bite +29 (2d10+13 plus 2d6 chaotic) Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft. Special Attacks anarchic attacks, channel negative energy (13/day, 10d6, DC 35), orb of nothingness, spellstrike, unmaking Spell-like Abilities CL 24th, concentration +34 Constant—arcane sight, cloak of chaos (DC 28), true seeing At will—astral projection, cone of cold (DC 25), contagion (DC 24), deeper darkness, enervation, greater dispel magic, greater teleport, poison (DC 24), slay living (DC 25), telekinesis (DC 25), vampiric touch 3/day—control undead (DC 27), empowered disintegrate (DC 26), earthquake, finger of death (DC 27), quickened harm (DC 26), plane shift (DC 27), word of chaos (DC 27) 1/day—mage’s disjunction (DC 29), meteor swarm (DC 29), power word kill, summon slaadi, symbol of death (DC 28), wail of the banshee (DC 29) Statistics Str 37, Dex 29, Con 34, Int 26, Wis 22, Cha 31 Base Atk +22; CMB +36 (+40 sunder); CMD 59 (61 vs. sunder) Feats Combat Reflexes, Dazzling Display, Empower SLA (disintegrate), Greater Sunder, Improved Critical (scythe), Improved Sunder, Intimidating Prowess, Lightning Reflexes, Mounted Combat, Power Attack, Quick Channel, Quicken SLA (harm), Shatter Defenses, Toughness, Weapon Focus (scythe) Skills Acrobatics +36, Bluff +34, Fly +40, Intimidate +37, Knowledge (arcana, engineering, nature, religion) +32, Knowledge (planes) +35, Perception +33, Ride +33, Sense Motive +30, Spellcraft +35, Stealth +40, Use Magic Device +34; Racial Modifiers +8 Stealth Languages Abyssal, Aklo, Common, Draconic, Necril, Protean, Slaadi, Sylvan, telepathy 300 ft. SQ no breath, slaad lord traits Ecology Environment any land or underground Organization unique Treasure double standard (+5 adamantine scythe, other treasure) Special Abilities All-Consuming Life (Ex) Ygorl is healed by both positive and negative energy effects. Anarchic Attacks (Su) Ygorl’s natural weapons and manufactured weapons deal an additional 2d6 points of damage to non-chaotic targets, as the anarchic weapon quality. Channel Negative Energy (Su) Ygorl can channel negative energy as if he were a 20th level cleric. The save DC is Constitution based. Entropic Aura (Su) All creatures and objects within a 30 foot radius must succeed a DC 35 Fortitude save or gain vulnerability to piercing, slashing and bludgeoning damage for as long as they remain in the aura and for 1 minute thereafter. A creature or object that succeeds on this save is immune to Ygorl’s entropic aura for the next 24 hours. Slaadi are immune to this ability. The save DC is Charisma based. Orb of Nothingness (Su) As a standard action, Ygorl may create a 5 foot diameter sphere of nothingness. Any creature or object that touches the orb is subject to a disintegrate effect (CL 20th, DC 35). Ygorl may move the orb up to 60 feet as a move action. The sphere remains for 1 minute, or until Ygorl and the orb are more than 300 feet apart. Ygorl may use this ability three times a day, but may only have one orb in existence at a time. The orb is immune to dispel magic, but is dispelled with a mage’s disjunction, and is affected by a gate spell or rod of cancellation as if it were a sphere of annihilation. The save DC is Charisma based. Shadow Blend (Su) In any condition of illumination other than full daylight, Ygorl disappears into the shadows, giving it concealment (50% miss chance). Artificial illumination, even a light or continual flame spell, does not negate this ability; a daylight spell, however, does. Ygorl can suspend or resume this ability as a free action. Spellstrike (Su) Whenever Ygorl uses a spell-like ability with a range of “touch”, he can deliver the spell through any weapon he is wielding as part of a melee attack. Instead of the free melee touch attack normally allowed to deliver the spell, Ygorl can make one free melee attack with his weapon (at his highest base attack bonus) as part of casting this spell. If successful, this melee attack deals its normal damage as well as the effects of the spell. Unmaking (Su) Any creature killed by Ygorl is converted into quintessence. Any spell or spell-like ability used to return a creature killed by Ygorl to life by any means must succeed a caster level check against his spell resistance.

#ygorl #slaad #slaad lord #pathfinder 1e #D&D #planescape #original art #tredlocity

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euphoniouspandemonium · 2 years

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bestieee 10, 15, 20 for clarity? :D

Hello bestieee thank you <33!!

10) Can you give us 3 or more songs that outline the vibe or plot of your story?

Broken English — Marianne Faithfull

Working class hero — Marianne Faithfull

Times Square — Marianne Faithfull

Yes these are all by the same artist I am UNSTOPPABLE

15) What would this story feel like?

Hm. Velvet, probably.

20) If this story could have a bad ending option, what would it be (and is the bad end canon)?

Well. Um. The bad ending would be Stephen either betraying Andryusha or his plan to help him totally failing, Andryusha bleeding out to death in a certain shithead's bathroom, and then their wholesome chaotic friend group disintegrating, and of course Stephen being a traitorous piece of shit would mean that Josie would either also be a traitorous piece of shit or would have been very very badly manipulated and would end up being absolutely destroyed by internalised homophobia THEREFORE she'd leave Roq, who would pick up addiction, and then of course Leslie and Kevin would have WILDLY differing views on the whole thing so they'd break up and Roq would go back to hating Leslie, and OF COURSE Todd and Robyn would be terrified at how they've been friends with horrendous people and would join a hippie commune and have the only semi-happy ending. But then again they'd have trust issues so. Oh, and of course, Andryusha's parents would be wrecked to find out about his death and would feel SO guilty to have been toxic shitheads but they can't apologize now, can they? Stephen would also feel crippling guilt forever. Basically let's hope no suicide notes are found anywhere.

Fortunately this is NOT the canon ending. I WOULD NEVER OK. It's just too much pain. It would destroy me. Though I'd be lying if I didn't say it's a tiny little bit tempting-

#answers to ask games

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elytrafemme · 3 years

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many thoughts. head empty. thinking about beeduo like i always am and i just. i just. i just Them. them. i think about dsmp!tubbo carrying dsmp!ranboo, and 30!ranboo carrying 30!tubbo, and both osmp!beeduo being incapable of carrying each other, and the different contexts those all happen in. despite not watching tales (and i don’t think i will for a long time i’m sorry) i’m getting invested in ran & jackie too and just. them as well. and i. and. and. And.

lays on the floor and disintegrates. A.

if i felt a little better about my writing right now i would maybe write a little fic with the two of them. i just. i just care them. i just do.

i wonder if in canon at any point, we will see the moment that one of them makes the other break. be it by death, or by saying something, an action, etc. i want to see it. i want ranboo lore so bad also but that’s only barely related here.

ill never shut up about 30!beeduo btw in case anybody was wondering. just fucking think about them. it’s the most bittersweet shit. it’s tender and it’s this kind of friendship that is rare to see in people and it’s amidst tragedy. it’s carrying someone to some place safe so they can sleep, and it’s screaming their name when they’re seconds away from death, and it’s spending silent company together, and it’s trusting each other with your lives, and it’s believing that they will live despite everything stopping them.

i want what c!beeduo has, basically.

i want more c!beeduo lore.

(especially from c!tubbo’s pov honestly because i wonder about that more but also like whatever the cc!s do i will accept.)

i’m thinking about the cookie outpost lore stream and all the little bits of dialogue we got. c!ranboo calling c!tubbo his other half, threatening las nevadas group lightly in the event that they hurt c!tubbo, the “mess him up bb”, the “and tubbo doesn’t deserve that. tubbo doesn’t deserve any of that.” just everything there. i just. i just. i just. fuck.

the fact that c!beeduo is always a duo no matter what universe they are in, whether romantic or platonic or somewhere in between, in every universe they find each other and they’re practically soulmates. in which the bee hybrid and the enderian found each other. in which an ex-president and war veteran 17 year old marries a barely-in-control-of-himself amnesiac and they have a child and house(s) together(?). in which a stranger with a curse and a stranger who cares too much survive the end of the world together. in which tubbo and ranboo existed.

it’s just. so lovely. and sad. bittersweet. lovely and bittersweet.

god, i will never stop thinking about them. especially when looking at all the relationships in the smp, like, all of the ones that have generally had plot tied to them, look at them. and look at c!beeduo.

can you imagine loving like that? can you imagine caring about someone so strongly in that way? for me, it’s utterly impossible to envision it. something so whole and vulnerable and terrifying. i wish i could.

i wish i could put it into words the way others can.

#nightmare.personal #i feel miserable and then bam. c!beeduo exists :>#this is ok to rb its just utterly incoherent too so like use ur judgement #nightmare.analysis

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tsukikoayanosuke · 4 years

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Letting Out All My Feelings About Leona's Extended Arc (The Rebel of the Wilderness and Break & Gosh)

I think I'm going to think hard and reflect on why Break & Gosh is way harder to write than Jonah Argentum's Declassified Boarding School Survival Guide.

I blame Leona for this.

(I'll be referring the canon plot as Heartslabyul Arc and Savanaclaw Arc while the fanfic adaptation as The Crimson Tyrant and The Rebel of the Wilderness)

Because this is long, I’ll be cutting it here.

WHY FILLER ARC?

I guess we can start with why I write filler arc. In the beginning, it served as a bridge between two canon arcs and a way to even my chapter count so it can end at 5 and starts with 6, or end with 0 and start with 1. It actually helps me in editing.

The Crimson Tyrant has 20 episodes (the arc ended in chapter 35), so technically I don't need a filler Arc, but I need to write something to bridge it with The Rebel of the Wilderness, thus 5 episodes of JADBSSG was made.

The Rebel of the Wilderness has 22 episodes (ending in chapter 62), so I have to make 3 or 8 filler chapters to even everything out. That was the original plan. However, B&G ended up having 15 chapters. So, I could either add another 3 chapters or take away 2. Unfortunately, I can't. Which brings us to the next point.

THAT ONE OVERBLOT PROBLEM

I've complained many times how I dislike the pacing of The Rebel of the Wilderness and I have issues with Savanaclaw Arc, especially during the ending. I know some people think, especially after Scarabia Arc, that Ruggie should've been the one who overblotted. During the story, it was Ruggie who used magic the most, not Leona. But instead, it was Leona, who only used his magic once a time in the whole arc, who overblotted.

Let's look at the other victim overusing their magic before their overblot:

Riddle: We've seen him using [Off With Your Head] a lot across three arcs (prologue, Heartslabyul, and Savanaclaw). We've seen him collared Grim, Ace, Deuce, and nearly all the entire students.

Azul: He made deals with more than 200 students in Octavinelle Arc alone, including MC themselves. And during his breakdown he overused his magic to steal all the student's power without his contract, implying that he extend his power even more.

Jamil: Counting how many times Kalim's mood swings went and how he hypnotized MC, Azul, and Scarabia students. While we don't see this much, but it's safe to say that Jamil overused his power too.

Can I also added that these three characters had been doing this for a long time, way before the canon story start?

As a bonus, let's look at Ruggie:

We were shown how the incidents happened, we knew how many victims, we saw the stampede, we saw Ruggie drank an amplifier to raised his magic. It's safe to say that Ruggie used his magic a lot.

Compare all four with Leona, who only uses his [King’s Roar] once in the whole arc. You can see how disappointed some fans are for the lack of magic usage.

You can argue that his power is a One Turn Kill type, but that would imply that he overused his magic in one turn. Leona, being one of the oldest students in the student roster, can't control his magic in one attack? Sounds unlikely.

But, I remember I had a conversation with that negative emotion also causes overblot. And I agree with this. However, I added that negative emotion and overusing power go hand-in-hand.

Riddle anger at Ace's speech and protest of not following the rule. What happened after that was Riddle collating every Heartslabyul student.

Azul, who is frustrated when Leona ruined his contract, in a desperate measure, stole every power of the students there.

Jamil and his jealousy with Kalim and how kept holding back his true potential before breaking down and hypnotized everyone into his slave.

Leona had been frustrated with being compared to Farena and his failed plan to eliminate Diasomnia, leading him to unleash his unique magic for the first time.

Even Ruggie. He had the potential to fell into despair. Leona kept raising his hope that this Magishift might be his chance to go to the big league, only for that hope to be crushed when Leona gave up. If the creator wants, they could make Ruggie suddenly unleash his power and attacking everyone for being betrayed.

While, yes, I do feel Leona's negative emotions have stronger reasoning, but Ruggie also had a reason to fall into despair and had high usage of magic than Leona. He was the perfect candidate for overblot.

Why am I explaining this thing that all of you probably had known? Because, during The Rebel of the Wilderness, I kept trying to slip in every little chance for Leona to use his unique magic. Which mean, The Rebel of the Wilderness has more battle scene than The Crimson Tyrant.

In the end, I managed to slip in [King's Roar] in four accidents:

The sudden sandstorm during the flight practice (not a battle scene)

Jonah vs Leona one-sided Magishift

The stampede

Pre-Overblot battle

This is still considered little compare to what Ruggie did offscreen, but this is enough for the reader to know at least Leona uses his magic before the big overblot battle.

I'm not done yet!

EARN YOUR "HAPPY" ENDING

Once we're done with that overblot problem, we have to talk about the whole aftermath. Because this ending is the main reason we have pacing issues.

First, let's look at Heartslabyul Arc. After Riddle's overblot and Ace demanded a Revenge Unbirthday, Riddle was shown to be taken to the infirmary by Trey. A few days later, the Revenge Birthday Party happened.

See this? There's a small few days gap between the overblot incident and the finale for the kids to recover and to think about his action, even have time for Riddle making that salty tart.

Now let's see Savanaclaw Arc. After Leona overblot, Crowley wanted to disqualify Savanaclaw from the match, but the Victim Club requested to keep the team. The Magishift then happened, Yuu got hit with a disk, wine up in the infirmary, and met Cheka.

You see something? The ending of Savanaclaw Arc happened on the same day of the overblot sequence. Which means, these kids didn't get a chance to rest. Leona never had a chance to think about the action. Ruggie didn't get help for his scar from Leona's power. And overall you basically overworked these kids!

You can argue that these kids are tough, but are you also saying that it's okay for Ruggie, who was threatened to turn into sand, to not get help? For Leona to take a break after overbloting?

Can I also add that Leona flashback felt so rushed? Let's see the others' overblot flashback:

Riddle's flashback has five scenes in between monologues (1-28):

His birthday

Him studying with his mother

Meeting Trey and Chenya

Little kids’ strawberry tart discussion

His mom got angry.

Azul's flashback has four scenes in between monologues (3-34):

Two bullying scenes

First meeting with Floyd and Jade

Azul revealing his unique magic for the first time.

Jamil has the most with six scenes and probably more if you count every Kalim’s appearance in there (4-36):

Jamil got scolded for denying Kalim's request

Jamil's parent telling him to purposely hold back

Kamil kept "winning" in a few scenes

Kalim being chosen as the Scarabia Prefect and Jamil discussing this with Crowley

Two scenes of Kalim trusting Jamil

As for Leona (2-27):

The servant talking behind his back

Leona and Farena's argument.

Two. Leona has two flashback scenes. Leona flashback has more "tell" than "show"! Not to mention, this flashback only happens half of the episode! The other half was the overblot aftermath when Crowley was about to disqualify Savanaclaw Team. Why are they holding back? Why they only give so little about Leona's childhood?

THE REBEL OF THE WILDERNESS PACING ISSUE

Because of me trying to add more of Leona using the power and fixing the ending, The Rebel of the Wilderness experienced more changes in its structure. I kept on cutting chapter into two and adding battles in the middle of the plot, and, for those who read my adaptation, the ending of The Rebel of the Wilderness is completely different from Savanaclaw Arc. Compare to Savanaclaw Arc's happy ending, The Rebel of the Wilderness can be considered as a bad ending. Leona wasn't able to join in the Magishift because he was unconscious post-overblot, so he could only watch the match from TV/magic mirror. Ruggie, who was spared from disintegrating, lead the team but still lose. And this is the last time we see Jonah with both of his real hand. Also, instead of Cheka, Farena was the one who talked to Leona, and it ended up with both of them arguing. Overall, it was a downer ending.

Another reason why this was hard to adapt was that I kept messing around the scenes to make the plot flow better.

This is the order of event in Savanaclaw Arc:

Cafeteria incident with Ruggie stealing Grim's sandwich

Overblot + Magishift explanation

Prefect Meeting regarding Magishift + first incidents

The Ramshackle Ghost introducing to Grim on how to play Magishift

Crowley asking Grim and MC on investigating the incidents

Heartslabyul + Pomefiore interview

Visiting Trey + teaming up with Heartslbyul squad

Scouting Rook, the Leech twin, and Jack

Magishift mock battle versus Leona

Malleus' first introduction

Interviewing Jamil and Kalim

Ruggie chase

Teamed up with Jack

The stampede

Pre-overblot battle

Overblot battle + Leona's flashback

The Victim Club stopping Crowley from disqualifying Savanaclaw

Magishift battle

Cheka’s appearance in the infirmary

Grim eating more rock

Mickey’s appearance

And these are the exact scenes what happened in The Rebel of the Wilderness (also in JADBSSG and B&G):

Overblot + Magishift explanation (Chapter 36 & 39 of JADBSSG)

Prefect Meeting regarding Magishift + first incidents (the first chapter in The Rebel of the Wilderness)

Cafeteria incident with Ruggie stealing Grim's sandwich

Visiting Trey + teaming up with Heartslbyul squad

Crowley asking Grim and MC on investigating the incidents

Heartslabyul + Pomefiore interview

Scouting Rook, the Leech twin, and Jack

Magishift mock battle vs Leona

Malleus' first introduction

Interviewing Jamil and Kalim

Ruggie chase

Teamed up with Jack

The Victim Club stopping Crowley from disqualifying Savanaclaw

The stampede

Pre-overblot battle

Overblot battle + Leona's flashback

Cheka’s appearance in the infirmary (last chapter in The Rebel of the Wilderness)

Mickey’s appearance (Chapter 64 of B&G)

Grim eating more rock (Chapter 67 of B&G)

The Ramshackle Ghost introducing to Grim on how to play Magishift (CHapter 74 chapter of B&G)

Magishift battle (last chapter in B&G)

This also doesn't count the small changes in them, like how the Magishift mock battle happened or Farena's appearance.

However, with me changing these scene order, plus the built-up relationship in previous chapters, many reasoning that happened in this Arc change from canon:

Crowley's explanation about the overblot came way earlier than canon because I feel like this is a very important thing so he could delay from telling them. We don't know how long between Heartslabyul Arc and Savanaclaw Arc, but I assume it was weeks after the Heartslabyul Finale. What's the delay Crowley

Instead of hearing this from Crowley, Jonah hears about the Magishift from Riddle to further their relationship post-oveblot. Not only that, here Jonah was invited to the Prefect Meeting unlike in the canon.

Speaking of Prefect Meeting, I have two instead of one. The first one to establish Jonah equal position as Prefect with the others and to set up of Azul being the Magishift head committee, while the second went just like canon but with Jonah/MC attending that.

In Savanaclaw Arc, Crowley asked the MC to investigate. MC and Grim interviewed the Heartslabyul and Pomefiore victims first before hearing that Trey got injured and teamed up with the Heartslabyul squad. However, in the fanfic adaptation, Jonah and Grim heard about Trey's fall first then meeting Crowley about the investigation along with Riddle. By switching these, it felt like Riddle was the one having the idea to do the investigation instead if Crowley thrusting the responsibility to MC. I just want to show how Riddle had grown into a more caring good friend since he's taking the matter more personally as Trey's childhood friend first before his prefect responsibilities.

Not technically a change in scene orders, but because Jonah has a closer relationship to the Octavinelle Trio rather than the MC, the way the trio acts here were different from canon. Most notably, was the Azul declined to help Leona, forcing Leona to use his Unique Magic to caused confusion in the parade and letting Ruggie control fewer people without an amplifier.

The appearance of the Victim Club to Crowley happened off-screen but presented in a flashback instead of at the end of the Overblot battle because you know how much changes happen beyond that.

Both the Magishift practice and the actual match happens in the filler Arc instead of in the main arc, mostly because I want this to happen when everything is more stable between Leona and Jonah.

So many reasoning, but all of them are connected to Break & Gosh

WHEN YOU REALIZED YOUR FILLER ARC IS NOT TECHNICALLY A FILLER

According to TV Trope (my source of knowledge), filler episodes are entries in a generally continuous serial that are unrelated to the main plot, don't significantly alter the relations between the characters, and generally serve only to take up space. This could be considered Padding (the addition of scenes to lengthen a story) applied to a whole franchise by creating a brand new episode.

I call JADBSSG and B&G as 'filler arc' is because it's original from me to fill the time gap between the main arc for a reasonable pace. However, I also realized that nearly all of my filler episodes have some purpose for the plot with important plot points that it's impossible to take them out.

This includes:

Overblot explanation (36)

Magishift explanation (39)

Monstro Lounge's 'Sunday Supreme' program (40)

Jonah's new arm (63-64)

Jonah's inability to drink potions (63)

Jonah's birthday (70)

An explanation for Ruggie's loyalty (65)

Leona's therapy (72-73)

Leona's past (72-73)

Ruggie's past (65, 73)

Magic System explanation (75)

Magishift gameplay (74)

Hints about whatever Crowley had been doing with the overblot news (65, 66, 74)

Ramshackle lore (74)

Disney movies dreams (64, 66)

Not only that, some filler episode Mark's the first time characters ever interact with each other:

Jonah and Epel (38)

The Board Game Club (37, 69, 70)

Ace-Deuce and Silver-Lilia (63)

Lilia with the Golden Trio (63, 67)

Heartslabyul and Octavinelle (75, 76)

However, this is even harder during B&G rather than JADBSSG and not only because B&G is trice the length of JADBSSG.

In JADBSSG, while it may be just a collection of one-shots, but there are some chapters that are connected with each other, which are 37, 39, and 40. Meanwhile, chapter 36 and 38 can stand on their own. So, I can actually change those two chapters in whatever order I can or even slip it in between the three-chapters, but I can't rearrange those three main.

However, you can't do this with B&G. You can't take away a chapter in B&G without making it awkward in the flow. Each chapter in B&G is connected in that certain order. You can't have Leona's Therapy (72-73) at the beginning of the Arc, because we need to address the Overblot aftermath damage (63-66) The Halloween chapters (67-71) can't happen after the Magishift Rematch (74-77), because we need Jonah and Leona to mend their relationship first in the therapy. You see, what I mean?

Heck, I can even consider B&G is part of The Rebel of the Wilderness because we haven't got that therapy and Magishift match until the end of the filler arc.

But in the end, I can't delete both filler arc because both of them have important plot points that will affect the main arc.

END OF RAMBLING

Writing Break & Gosh was an experience. It was my first time writing sports scenes, but you can also call this the first time writing a full-fledge Arc. I'm still salty about my update schedule and how I kept changing the arc length, but it was certainly something. And despite all my rambling and nitpicking, I still like Break & Gosh.

The next filler arc is probably more lighthearted than Break & Gosh, probably in the same tone as Jonah Argentum's Declassified Boarding School Survival Guide, since it will be a Christmas special but also mark the point where I fully diverge in canon (related to Scarabia Arc, Happy Beans Day, and Fairy Gala). The Merchant of the Deep Sea will be the last time I'll follow canon in terms of the timeline.

I also want to say thank you to all who still sticking around after that mess of an arc. I tried my best to give Leona the therapy he deserved, but I'm still not sure whether I succeed or not. I'll let you decide whether this is a good arc or not.

Also while you at it, with filler arc you like better? Jonah Argentum's Declassified Boarding School Survival Guide or Break & Gosh? And which episode from the arc you like the best?

#twisted wonderland fic #twisted wonderland fanfiction #twisted wonderland fanfic #twst fic #twst fanfic #twisted wonderland #disney twisted wonderland #twst #the captain's rambling #twisted-wonderland: our precious treasure

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ckret2 · 4 years

Note

I cannot believe I found a person who is a fan of both Godzilla and Hazbin Hotel. And is also a fanfic writer. I've been bouncing around the idea of a crossover fic between those two for quite some time, and there's a lot of fun stuff I can do with it... But something that worries me is the potential power gap between the Titans and overlords. Do you think Godzilla would potentially stand a chance against someone at Alastor's power level?

Ohhhhohoho, do it. Do it.

Also boy I hope you wanted a long reply cuz you got one. Tumblr is in a mood to delete my read mores tonight (I TRIED to put one in!) so apologies for the dash stretcher.

I think that, at this point, we know so little about the Hazbin characters' full power sets that you can say just about anything you want about how they'd fare against each other, and as long as you make up appropriate rules? You're golden.

Do you want Godzilla to be able to curb stomp Alastor? Then say that the reason Alastor is so powerful in hell is because in life he directly caused so many deaths—but then that means that Godzilla, flattener of Tokyo, is automatically a thousand times stronger than Alastor in hell. Or, say that 100% of Alastor's powers are dependent on having access to a specific free AM radio frequency that carries his ~magic~, and say that one of the forms of radiation Godzilla gives off just so happens to match that frequency, completely negating his power.

Or you want Alastor to be able to defeat Godzilla but only with extreme difficulty? Then say Alastor can still use that frequency but only from a safe zone of like 50 miles away, so he can only use less effective long range attacks. Or say that the frequency only happens when Godzilla uses his atomic breath, so usually Alastor can use his magic but every single time Godzilla counterattacks it kills all the magic he's got going and he has to restart it all once the breath is over. Or say that he slowly and difficultly learns to broadcast his magic across another frequency that saps his energy twice as fast but isn't blocked by Godzilla.

Or do you want them on roughly equal footing? Then say that Alastor has all the powers we see in canon—he can teleport, call up specters, giant thorny vines, tentacles pits—BUT say that even though his power is magical, all of the things he summons are non-magical, just normal objects and monsters, and let Godzilla duke it out with shadowy tentacles the same way he'd duke it out with any other kaiju. Then the fight is about which happens first: does Godzilla run out of energy or does Alastor's army run out of monsters to summon? Or maybe Alastor's army is infinite but he's the one at risk of running out of magical energy while Godzilla is looking for him to stomp on. Or maybe the monsters Alastor summons are strong enough kaiju they could take Godzilla down, but Godzilla slips into a portal into their dimension and is trying to survive long enough to destroy whatever magic-radio-tower-or-whatever lets Alastor summon them from there.

Or do you want Alastor to curb stomp Godzilla? Have him summon Cthulhu to break Godzilla's neck with his tentacles and also drive half of hell insane. Or have his magic just go pure off-the-walls overpowered and have him teleport Godzilla's guts to a parallel dimension. Whatever. We don't know that Alastor's powers can do that—but we don't know that they can't, so it's up to you to decide whether you wanna say gut teleportation is possible or impossible or possible-but-only-if-Alastor-does-a-long-draining-ritual-first-and-he-only-has-one-shot-to-get-it-right.

And there are a thousand other factors you can play with to manipulate power levels. Like:

- Is Godzilla in Hazbin's version of hell, and if so does he get new mutations/powers the way the dead humans all do—and do those powers help him? Or are they in the living world, and if so does that increase or decrease Alastor's powers? Do they bounce back and forth between the living and dead worlds? Are they in some third new setting with new rules?

- Does this Godzilla have one of the canon backstories (whether that be old school Gojira '54 backstory or newer monsterverse backstory or something else) or is it a new version of Godzilla made for a Hazbin AU, and if it's a new Godzilla, might he have a new method of creation that impacts his power levels? Did Sir Pentious accidentally make him while experimenting with nuclear weapons near a swamp in hell? Did Sir Pent INTENTIONALLY make him? Is Godzilla a demigod sent from heaven to assist with the latest extermination and therefore imbued with angel-level powers as well as Godzilla's usual skill sets? Can Godzilla only be killed by angel weapons too?

- Do either of them have allies? Does Alastor mind-control Ghidorah and Gigan via radio waves to help him out? Do Mothra's god rays disintegrate sinners just like an angel weapon does, and force Alastor to hide while she's swooping around? Does Vox with his electricity control decide to give Godzilla a power line power boost just to spite Alastor? Are any of Godzilla's mortal victims in hell, and do they jump in the fight—and are they as useless as soldiers in Godzilla movies usually are, or have their experiences and post-mortem mutations given them an advantage? Or does Godzilla command or get commanded by a legion of souls, with some GMK-ish vibes? Do higher-order hellborn demons like Stolas get involved? Or angels? Or Lucifer? On which side?

And all questions of their power levels aside—you can always change the advantage in battle in an instant by having Godzilla trip over a bridge, or by having someone hire I.M.P. to infiltrate Alastor's control room and attempt to shoot him in the head and distract him from running the fight.

The important question isn't "does Godzilla stand a chance against Alastor's power?" It's "how do you want the story to go?" Who do you want to win, and how difficult do you want the win to be? And is there anything specific you want to see happen before that victory? (Do you wanna destroy a city? Do you want people to freak out about Godzilla until Alastor steps up to fight him and then they go "oh the Radio Demon's worse actually" and start rooting for Godzilla? Or vice verse? Do you wanna end it with friendship instead of a one-sided victory? Do you want a specific symbolic/moral message? Do you want a romance subplot?)

First you figure out the basic plot you want. Then you fudge around the sci-fi & fantasy worldbuilding however you need to in order to ensure that their powers and abilities facilitate the kind of story you want to tell. Even staying firmly within the limits of canon, there's always room to make up a "previously undiscovered" detail of biology or rule of magic, or to develop a new headcanon about how their respective abilities and biologies uniquely interact with each other. The power levels of the characters never need to control the plotline—and never should control the plotline, because what's most important is telling an interesting story. Everything else is subservient to that. Tweak how their abilities work until they serve that interesting story.

Once you know how you need the story to go and how you're going to manipulate their powers to make that happen, you've just got to introduce that early on and stay consistent. The earlier you present it in the story, the more it looks like a part of the plot rather than a detail you made up specifically to make the plot go the way you want it to. If you want Godzilla to negate Alastor's powers via radio frequency, then have Alastor start hearing white noise and getting a migraine and losing control of his powers and wondering wtf is happening while Godzilla is still out at sea slowly swimming toward land. If you want Alastor to slaughter Godzilla with some eldritch Lovecraftian monstrosity, then have him say as soon as they hear about Godzilla approaching "well, I've got a friend who could kill him in a second!!" and have every single person in hell from Moxxie all the way up to Lucifer go "DO NOT DO THAT" and have the plot be them trying to beat Godzilla and trying to persuade Alastor NOT to unleash Cthulhu while he rolls his eyes and slowly loses patience.

Foreshadow early—make sure readers have a rough estimate early of what factors are going to affect the characters' odds against each other in battle before the battle even begins. The exception, of course, are any plot elements you want to be a surprise, but you at least have to have them make sense with canon and with the worldbuilding you've already done in the fic.

#directorhachi #ask #hazbin hotel #alastor #godzilla #meta #m

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itsclydebitches · 4 years

Text

RWBY Recaps: “ACE Operatives”

We’re back, folks! I have to say, I think overall this is one of the strongest episodes we’ve gotten since “The Lost Fable.” Are there still concerns? You know it, but on the whole I’ve got to give credit where credit’s due. So with that unexpectedly optimistic mindset, let’s dive in.

We open right on the group’s first mission and for a moment I was worried that, like with Oscar’s shopping, this time skip would be passed right over. Especially after we hear Pietro apologize for “holding onto your weapons for so long,” telling us that between the Academy tour at the end of last episode and this mission today, at least a few weeks have passed. Long enough for one guy to re-design multiple combat outfits and weaponry, plus an additional boost here and there. Luckily, the first part of the episode cuts among three distinct times: when they got their weapons, when they first heard about the mission, and this present day flight/landing, which as a technique I like quite a bit. It gives us a sense of each time while keeping us moving forward. No one is thinking, “Ugh. Do we really need to hear a mission briefing when most of last episode was learning about this plan in the first place?” because we already know this is taking place in the past. Just sit through the snippet and then the rest of the info will come through voice-overs while the group jumps out of an airship. Good balance of exposition and action.

What we learn in these flashbacks is that Ironwood wants to use an abandoned dust mine for the satellite’s launch. Only problem? It’s inhabited by a very old, extremely dangerous geist. Kudos to the writing team for the Volume Two callback. I’ve always been intrigued by Oobleck’s comment that grimm are capable of learning if they continue to survive and here we finally see an example of that. This geist isn’t just strong, it’s smart enough to hide in the mines themselves.

Shot over all this we see Atlas military personnel taking out the everyday grimm in the surrounding area, proving that their weapons can handle that task in most situations. Why doesn’t Ironwood’s robots have that then? Or as others have pointed out, something even more powerful like Penny’s lasers, or some of the upgrades the team gets? Chock it up to lack of funds... or simple plot setup. If the robots had been able to take out a bunch of grimm easy-peasy then there wouldn’t have been any cool premiere fight for our group. Then again, all of this casts their snarky comments about Ironwood’s defenses in a new light. Clearly they’re a force to be reckoned with when the plot actually allows it.

We likewise see the group receiving their new gear and... okay. Here’s where the griping starts. Though it’s admittedly small compared to most of my criticisms. First off, why is Jaune receiving a random scrap of Pyrrha’s outfit? Logically this makes no sense to me. Pyrrha’s body disintegrated into a bunch of dust. I can buy Jaune incorporating other armor and fabric into his gear because they were living together and Pyrrha must have spares, but where did this come from? Did Pietro go ask a family member for a random memento for the (from his perspective) equally random teen that showed up? It’s entirely possible that I’m missing something---I’m sick as a dog at the moment and am probably one fever degree away from mild hallucinations---but the whole setup seems incredibly weird. We see Jaune open his box. We see his look of shock. He see him fingering a torn piece of Pyrrha’s skirt. But how does all that come together in any logical way?

More importantly... why? Why is this still a thing? I get it, Jaune is grieving, but to be frank this has been his one-note characterization for over three volumes now. More importantly, everyone else is grieving too. This is another case of the writing prioritizing what the audience knows over what characters know. Meaning, we got to see how close Jaune and Pyrrha were. We know they were in love, but outsiders like Ironwood and Pietro see them as a unified team. Why not give a scrap to Jaune, Nora, and Ren? Really, that’s what rankles the most: this continuing focus on Jaune over the rest of his team. Especially when that focus just leads us in circles of the ‘Jaune is sad’ variety. I thought we were supposed to be learning more about Nora this volume, so why not give her something to remember Pyrrha by? I realize we’re only through the third episode, but in a series that averages twelve each volume, that’s a fourth of our material gone. Please. I’m begging you. Enough about Jaune. We’ve watched him cry and rage and lash out for three years now. He’s gotten to move through every type of grief the writing could throw at him. Let someone else take the spotlight for a change.

(It’s also just all around weird because Jaune is smiling sadly, implying he’s moving on, but then we have Clover narrating about how they’re “going to kill this thing...” which reminds us of Pyrrha’s murder in a way not really conducive to the whole ‘moving on’ vibe... it’s just odd.)

Second gripe: why doesn’t Oscar get anything? I’ve written before about how overall the group still treats Oscar as the outsider and boy oh boy, do we see that trend continuing here. I’ll speak about this more in a moment when we get to the Ozpin situation, but for this scene in particular there’s no reason he shouldn’t be included. If Jaune can get a cool addition to his shield after updating his own outfit, Oscar can get a cool addition too. Take five seconds to have Pietro point out that, as a random farm kid buying combat gear for the first time, he didn’t totally hit the mark. Here are a few things to keep you safer. Hell, you could even have Pietro---who we have established goes above and beyond in his inventions---pull Oscar aside with an updated weapon and Oscar could have gotten all quiet, examining his cane, eventually thanking Pietro, but emphasizing that he doesn’t think he should change things just yet. Or without anther’s input. Or, if Atlas doesn’t want to waste funds on the farm boy let him get a haircut like literally everyone else! We could have allotted Oscar a few seconds of screen time instead of getting what we always get: the team banding together and him nowhere to be seen.

He’s a part of this mission. He’s integral to this mission. He is a main character now. It’s about time the writing started acknowledging that.

The final flashback, at least, includes Oscar a little more. I realize my screenshot isn’t the best, but the expressions here really do say it all: Ruby mindlessly geeking out over new tech while Oscar stands sadly in another doorway.

We hear him say, “Hey... Ruby?” before he’s cut off and we return to the present.

We’ll get back to him in just a moment. For now, the airship opens to reveal everyone’s new look, which isn’t actually a reveal because this scene dominated the trailer.

Ah well. I have to say though, from here on out one of the main reasons why this episode feels strong to me is because of the overall dynamic among the characters. First, it was smart to break everyone up into different teams to search for a hidden grimm. If they’d tried to cram twelve characters into the same shot for the rest of the episode it would have been a disaster. Second, these smaller teams allow for the sort of teasing/comfort/playfulness we’ve grown used to among these characters, but have largely lost over the last two volumes. One of my favorite moments is when Yang is caught staring at Blake’s new haircut and we get a look at this massive blush.

Not to ship on main, but please note the parallel between this moment and Nora/Ren, two characters who are more firmly established as a canonical couple. Although... here when Nora compliments Ren’s hair he shuts her down pretty hard. There’s none of the casual indulgence we’re used to from him. Since when does Ren insist that Nora take a mission seriously, outside of making those requests in an equally teasing manner? Nora notices as much too, clearly upset, and Jaune is just... dense. It makes me wonder though if this is the direction they’re heading in for Nora. Give her romance troubles in the form of Ren pulling away now that their relationship has had a chance to sink in.

Not sure I’m a big fan of that. Granted, it depends on how they handle it, but on the whole I’m not really invested in reducing Nora’s rare and much needed development down to a cliche ‘Oh no. A boy doesn’t like me’ plot-line. We’ll have to see though.

I also really liked the moment between Weiss and Blake a little later. This is how you tackle racism in your story. Not by having the group risk their world-saving mission by Weiss impulsively throwing civilians into the trash, but by having an incredibly privileged woman acknowledge her privilege. Weiss mentions how angry this mine’s failure made her father, but she doesn’t use the abuse she suffered as any sort of excuse, like she would have in the earlier volumes. Instead, Weiss acknowledges for herself how hard that time was and then apologizes not only for what he’s done to the faunus, but also for “all my complacency in it.” Weiss was a child. We can’t hold her to the same level of responsibility as Jacques. But as a privileged woman in this world Weiss’ complacency does perpetuate her father’s active sins. So it’s fantastic that she admits as much to Blake. In front of all the others, no less. To me, that’s a far better sign of growth than what we got last week.

It’s also during this time that we see Blake eyeing the SDC boxes with anxiety. It could just be bad memories. It could imply that she had some hand in this particular attack. I hope it implies that she’s thinking about Adam because... is anyone going to bring him up? Seriously? Two teammates killed a guy. The self-defense aspect doesn’t erase the fact that they each rammed a piece of a blade through his stomach and watched him topple over a waterfall. We should be dealing with this! Not reducing it to one hug from Ruby right before a major battle. Hopefully this is setup for some (now long overdue) reflection.

Meanwhile, an interaction that doesn’t work as well is when Ruby comments on how freezing she is and Weiss notes that without proper equipment or aura insulation you can freeze to death in an hour. So... is that what the group is doing then? Wasting precious aura whenever they’re outside because Blake wants her arms unzipped, Weiss wants bare spots around her chest, and Yang needs to artistically keep one leg and one arm totally unclothed? The issue is not, “How does the group stay warm?” because plenty of stories have logistical questions like that and unless you’re a fan overly invested in the minutiae, you shrug it off. When is the group going to the bathroom during these endless missions? Who’s carrying pads for when three of them hit their periods at once? No one cares. Rather, the issue is that the writing draws attention to the question and then fails to answer it. Just like they did when suddenly death via cold was something that had to keep them in the creepy town when death via cold was never a concern up until then. Where was hypothermia when Yang insisted Ozpin hash out all his secrets in the snow? It’s a rather convenient ‘Sometimes it’s an issue, sometimes not,” situation. Obviously aura isn’t doing much to keep them toasty though if Ruby feels the need to comment on how cold she still is. And that attention then invites further questions like, “Why then are they still dressed inappropriately for the weather? Should we expect them to fall more quickly in battle because aura is going towards making sure they don’t freeze to death in under an hour?” Better to just leave it alone.

Talk of the cold leads into Oscar though because Yang comments, “I suddenly don’t feel so bad about leaving Oscar behind.” Which... no. You did leave him behind. Don’t try to make that palatable with stupid upsides like, ‘Well at least he’s warm!’ Worse, the group does nothing to justify that decision. Realistically I can buy why they’d leave Oscar out of this mission. We’ve established that this particular grimm has already taken out a lot of people and, without Ozpin, Oscar is still a newbie fighter. With the exception of the train and one grimm in the premier, I don’t think Oscar has fought many grimm at all. So really, it would take two sentences to establish this. Tell us that this mission is way out of his skill range and throw out that he’s training with Ironwood or something. That’s it. That’s all it takes, but the writing bypasses that and leaves us with, ‘The group left Oscar behind... for reasons?’ Which, in the context of his entire time with them looks really, really bad. Because they left him out of the dinner in Haven. And the hunt for supplies at the farm. And in retrieving the relic. And left him alone at the Argus house. And left him out of the upgrade joy. We’ve now established a trend of the group outright ignoring Oscar, whether it’s during bright celebratory moments or agonizing traumatic ones. Doesn’t matter, he’s left out of the loop, and now we see the same thing happening here. Rather than a simple and logical, ‘Oscar isn’t ready to fight a super old geist,’ what we’re left with paints the situation as, ‘Oscar is left behind because Ruby disagrees with him.’

Because without clarification, that’s the context. We get another (very short) flashback where he (thank you, thank you) points out that what they’re doing to Ironwood is precisely what Ozpin did to them. (Although Oscar tries to soften this by saying it only “feels like” the same thing.) Ruby looks guilty for a second... and then that’s it. We’re back to at least a day later where they’re on this mission, they’ve left Oscar behind, and Ruby is re-explaining why her morals are sound.

I’ll admit I’m pleased that Yang points out that they agreed no more lies and no more half-truths. I honestly didn’t expect her to say even that much against her precious sister. But still, on the whole this dilemma isn’t much of a dilemma at all. It’s reading precisely like the airship debacle: a few characters giving token disagreements but when push comes to shove whatever Ruby wants, Ruby gets. You know how above I pointed out how much I like the split present/past business so that we can have a balance between talking and action? Yeah, that only works if the talking is generic exposition. We don’t need a long-winded discussion about the details of this mission. We do need a substantial discussion about the absolute hypocrisy the group has fallen into. That split between past and present is important. Are you honestly going to tell me that over all these days---if not, arguably, weeks---the group never once had a conversation about this? That we don’t get to see that downtime filled with some actual growth? And we could have easily achieved that with the current setup. Extend Oscar’s flashback into something significant, leaving the geist battle for next week. Let him be angry for once, furious that after all the shit they put Ozpin through, and by extension him, they’re just going to turn around and do the exact same thing without even an apology? An acknowledgment that they were wrong? Or create space to have that discussion now. Harriet comes out of the mine saying a part of it has collapsed and they need time to clear it, giving Team RWBY the chance to really hash some things out and disagree for once. Instead, as expected, secret keeping is framed as the right decision without anyone but Oscar acknowledging the hypocrisy in that. They even go so far as to say, “Why don’t we play along for a while before me make any major decisions.” Newsflash:

Graphic design is my passion, all.

Overall it’s not quite as pro-protagonist as it could have been, but it’s not great either. We’re left with the fact that the group has this time sitting with their own lies and apparently, after all that, what they’ve settled on is denial. Great. Fantastic. I hope Oscar finds new friends at the Academy who encourage him to really call them out on this later.

We also learn that Ruby gave the relic back to Oscar. So the writing is self-aware enough for her to acknowledge that carrying it around on her belt is a horrendously bad idea, but not self-aware enough to keep her getting it back in the first place? Imagine you hired someone to transport a priceless painting to your super safe vault and then when it finally arrives you go, “Actually, you did such a good job getting that here I think it’ll be safer in your hands as you go about your life. Rather than the vault I specifically built for it.” Except the painting is a magic relic, the vault is also nearly impenetrable via magic, and the transporter is now a 14yo who, as established, is the weakest fighter of the group. For the love of Ironwood’s characterization, please let that relic be a fake.

Really, on the whole that moment could have been touching... but again, context. ‘Here’s the relic back that I basically stole and then ripped all Ozpin’s trauma from him by wasting an invaluable question.’ Yeah. All the while everyone is still talking as if Ozpin isn’t even there. Ironwood, in his ignorance, has been the one person to actually address him, despite the fact that the entire group knows he’s listening in. You know that feeling when you’re sitting with a bunch of people you’re not particularly close with and it’s clear they’re deliberately not including you in the conversation? Yeah, it’s like that only a thousand times worse. No wonder Ozpin still hasn’t tried to come out. No one cares about his vessel, they still actively hate him, and they’re all hypocritical to boot. I’d stay hidden too.

Anyway, back to the actual plot. Qrow has been paired off with Clover and at first we get a really excellent conversation about teamwork. We as the audience know precisely why Qrow prefers to work alone, but when he slips and Clover manages to catch him, it functions as a fantastic counter. See? Qrow might have bad luck, but this is precisely why he does need to be around others. They can help him when things get tough.

However, that message is severely undermined when it’s later revealed that Clover’s semblance is good luck.

Not only does that remove the previously stated wonderful message---because now it’s not about Qrow learning to accept help, it’s about how Clover’s semblance just conveniently cancels his out---it’s just an iffy stretch of my suspension of disbelief. Really? Out of all the people they could have met, that Qrow could have been paired with, he happens to find the one guy with the exact opposite semblance to him? Clover is an incredibly handsome and charismatic guy. He’s the leader of the strongest kingdom’s strongest team. He just happens to have the best version of Qrow’s greatest weakness. I know I said I wanted more passive semblances, but I would have preferred something other than this heavy-handed introduction.

Although... are they passive? I had to pause the episode for a moment when Qrow throws out, “sometimes I can’t keep it under control” because excuse me?? There are times you can keep it under control? Since when? How? I know we’re loose on our semblance rules here, but c’mon. Is Qrow’s entire life governed by a trait outside of his control or not?

We see a similar issue cropping up at the end of the episode when Harriet informs Ruby that there’s “something else” going on with her semblance. Look. RWBY isn’t Dragon Ball Z. The characters don’t need to tap into unheard of powers every season to keep things interesting. As Yang herself points out, Ruby already has super special silver eyes.

Her semblance is speed and transformation and transforming other people along with her. Weiss is already a super special Schnee with a super special hereditary semblance that creates glyphs and summoned fighters of whatever she’s killed. Blake is already a super special Belladonna with ties to the world’s biggest resistance group. Yang... okay, Yang is admittedly an ordinary girl with an ordinary background and that’s one of the things I still love about her. She grows stronger through more training, better strategy, and turning any weaknesses into strengths---like her arm. It’s so much more powerful to give characters that kind of arc than to fall back on, “[gasp!] You were secretly special all along.” So who knows what else they’re going to add to Ruby’s semblance. Whatever it is, it’s not needed.

I will say though that semblance issues aside, I’m liking the Ace Ops way more than I thought I would. Given that introducing five more characters was, objectively, a bad move. But they’ve got real personality attached to them. I appreciated that Clover thanked Qrow for the save (they could have made a guy that ‘perfect’ way more arrogant) while the rest spent a good portion of the time teasing RWBYJNR like they’re little siblings. Which I adored. For the first time in volumes we got to see our heroes portrayed exactly as they are: teens in training. Nora says that it “feels like we’re an actual huntsmen team,” acknowledging that they’re not yet. They’re the students following the professionals, helping out without getting in the way. It stood out to me that the geist fight is identical to the one we got in Volume Four, with the exception that it’s way, way better. They come up with Jaune’s strategy to remove the limbs in an instant, rather than taking the entire fight trying and failing to do damage. I don’t think a single member of the Ace Ops took a hit, despite the fact that this geist was a huge threat to the rest of the Atlesian army. Like Team RWBY at times, there was seamless communication, perfect execution, and the one time they made a mistake? Ruby was there to help them out. I really appreciated that the writing had RWBYJNR sit this one out until their particular skills---in this case Ruby’s speed---was actually needed, as opposed to an arrogant, ‘How dare you not let us fight!’ where they endanger themselves and others by insisting that they know best.

This is the RWBYJNR I want to see more of. Ozpin remains a huge, glaring issue, but if the writer’s can keep this sort of attitude in mind we’ll be making good strides away from the horror that was Volume Six. No more, “We don’t need adults,” please. As a bunch of adults just demostrated, they’re way out of your league.

Finally, we end the episode on Tyrian again. Showcasing RWBY’s new love of horror tropes, he appears beneath the flickering lamp light (complimenting the jump scare we got with Blake earlier on). He approaches Forest, the activist from the airship, and we end with Tyrian’s tail coming his way. Did he just poison him? Did he kill him? What’s the end goal here? Just sow chaos by leaving a bunch of bodies lying around? It’s unclear, but whatever is going on, Tyrian sure is busy.

Also, RIP #FRWBY.

Until next week!

Minor Things of Note

I like that Jaune and Blake both looked at their hair before we cut to them with new looks. Still not over Jaune’s style though. He’s french fry head now and no one will convince me otherwise.

It looks like Blake’s blade has been welded back together with a bit of yellow something-or-other...

Bad execution on an otherwise cool introduction to Marrow’s semblance. That was epic how he managed to stop both centipede grimm at once, but then Harriet just... slams them? Awkwardly? They don’t even disintegrate? Idk. Her end of that team attack didn’t live up to Marrow’s.

Team JNR has a very “headfirst approach.” True enough. Although, it’s not like they had an easy way to stop like their Ace Operative teammates. They did the best they could under the circumstances lol.

Jaune also has a landing strategy! I would have rather the writing just acknowledge that than give us that weird moment with Pyrrha’s fabric.

Not sure if I like Qrow’s new outfit or not. To be fair, that man would look stunning in a paper bag, so I’m not sure I’m an objective judge of any change here. Also to be fair, my own fashion ‘skills’ leaves something to be desired. So I think I’ll just bow out of this particular conversation.

#rwby #rwby volume 7 #rwby volume 7 spoilers #mymetas #rwby recaps

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clumsyghosts · 4 years

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I was tagged by @fandom-star

Choose 10 ships without looking at the questions:

1. Jedtavius

2. Trobed

3. Merthur

4. Clex

5. Cain/Glitch

6. Shelnard

7. Qiu Tong / Sun Jing

8. Olicity

9. RumBelle

10. Sherlock Holmes / John Watson (all forms)

1. Do you remember the episode/scene/chapter that you first started shipping 6? Shelnard - Definitely during season one. The first few seasons were the best as far as their relationship goes; I’ll die mad at how the writers slowly disintegrated their friendship for cheap laughs. All characters should have faults and growth arcs, but Leonard’s passive aggressive “I’m just putting up with you; you’re the worst” attitude broke my shipper heart.

2. Have you ever read a FanFiction about 2? Trobed - Yes, yes! I found a really good series that updates practically every day, so I’m happy and in awe.

3. Has a picture of 4 ever been your screen saver/profile picture/tumblr? Clex - Not tumblr, no, but back when I had LiveJournal, I had icons of Lex. I still have a few icons saved.

4. If 7 were to suddenly break-up today, what would your reaction be? Qiu Tong / Sun Jing - Confident that it’s just a plot device and they’ll be soon back together. They’re canon so… little worries there.

5. Why is 1 so important? Jedtavius - Mostly because of the people in the fandom!

I’ve been on the internet for a long time and while I’ve read a lot of fics for a variety of shows, there are very few fandoms I ever participated in or felt like I ‘belonged’ in. Shelnard was my first, full of lovely people. I have a soft spot for small fandoms / ships. After Shelnard, I was fandom-homeless for a while before I got into Jedtavius. I’ve met / followed a lot of lovely, talented people.

Also, even if people aren’t actively in the fandom, most people recognize Jedtavius and are fond of the movies. It’s a nice connection to others.

6. Is 9 a funny ship or a serious ship? RumBelle - Both? They have some funny line exchanges, but mostly their ship is angsty and sweet.

7. Out of all of the ships listed, which ship has the most chemistry? Jedtavius and Trobed.

8. Out of all of your ships listed, which ship has the strongest bond? Canon-wise, probably Olicity.

9. How many times have you read/watched 8’s fandom? Olicity - I actually STOPPED watching Arrow because I didn’t want any more drama to upset the main characters. Oliver was finally happy, so I stopped when he and Felicity drove off into sunset at the end of Season 3.

10. Which ship has lasted the longest? Clex - Smallville began in 2001; I never finished the series for various reasons, but I still follow a beloved fan fiction series and re-read it every few years. Besides my RP with my friend, this fanfic and one other is my heart and soul.

I do have older ships that I didn’t put on the list.

11. How many times, if ever, has 2 broken up? Trobed - When Troy gets back from sailing around the world, they never break up again.

12. If the world was suddenly thrust into a zombie apocalypse, which ship would make it out alive, 2 or 8? Olicity for sure - they’re both super heroes.

13. Did 5 ever have to hide their relationship for any reason? Cain/ Glitch: It seems to be a common fancanon that the restored Queen is not fond of their relationship (or maybe just Glitch in general; she prefers Ambrose.)

14. Is 4 still together? Clex: In my dreams.

15. Is 3 canon? Merthur - “We did, very genuinely, think of the episode as a love story between two men. Which is what I think it is, jokes and innuendo aside.” —Show creators on the finale.

See also “Well, he’s dying, the man he loves is dying, so he’s holding him.”

TL;DR: Basically canon without it being actual canon.

16. If all 10 ships were put into a couple’s Hunger Games, which couple would win? It would come down to Clex vs Olicity and in my opinion, Superman trumps Green Arrow.

17. Has anybody ever tried to sabotage 10’s ship? Holmes/Watson (all forms) - Moriarty? Hahaha. Um, let’s not get into the whole Johnlock stuff.

I read a lot of Sherlock Holmes pastiches and one of the rating factors is how well they do the Holmes/Watson friendship. If they make Watson a dummy, the book is out. I’mv very protective of Watson’s intelligence, which is why I adore the RDJ movie version.

18. Which ship would you defend to the death and beyond? Based on current feelings, probably Jedtavius.

19. Do you spend hours a day going through 1’s tumblr page? Jedtavius: Sadly, no; there’s not that much content for them. But I track the Jedtavius tag, so I happily look forward to seeing new stuff!

20. If an evil witch descended from the sky and told you that you had to pick one of the ten ships to break up forever or else she´d break them all forever, which ship would you choose? Much to my 23 year old self’s shock, Shelnard. TBBT is over and my memories are fond, but I’ve grown used to the canon couple endings.

I tag @boycottinglove and anyone who wishes to do this!

#long post #ask and answer #Thank you for tagging me!!!!!

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reliciron · 4 years

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Notes on Redeeming Arcann: Part 1

Ok, here are my thoughts on redeeming Arcann. This is just my own current analysis of his character and where I might take him in possible future fics. If someone has a different interpretation I would love to hear it as my own ideas on him continue to shift. If anyone is struggling with his character, I hope this might give you a starting point or jog some new ideas. And if you’re just reading this because you like character analysis (I do too), then I hope you enjoy it and it’s not too incoherent.

This first part will focus more on redeeming Arcann. The second will be my thoughts on his character motivations.

Part 2

Alright, this is going to be very, very long, so strap in.

Ok, so since I don’t have a lot of experience writing, I felt my own grasp of what it takes to redeem a villain was a little too shaky to do Arcann’s redemption justice on my own. He’s admittedly a pretty horrific character at his worst, and the game itself really doesn’t do a very good job of giving him a believable redemption arc. I feel it would be very easy for an inexperienced writer like me to fall into character apologia and try to ignore what he’s done in favor of ‘it’s not his fault’. Fiction is full of men who act like jerks and excuse it with daddy issues, and I’m really trying to carry that awareness into his redemption so I can avoid that pitfall. The atrocities he committed were his choices, but understanding why he became a character who would make those choices does not mean that he wasn’t ultimately at fault for what he did.

So with that in mind I did a quick search, looked through a few guides on redemption, and eventually settled on this one.

In an effort to make this smooth, I have copy/pasted the major points from the article and put them in brackets with my responses following each one.

[Realism is derived from a multitude of factors, but one of the most important is having authentic motives. Villainy is a dark path for a reason – it’s hard to come back from – which is why you need a super-bright ‘why’ torch to help your baddie see the light.

The best way to create a ‘why’ (or a motive) is to understand where it comes from. For example:

Maybe your villain wants a bigger pay off and this is how he thinks he will get it

He could be taking an order from someone more powerful

A more emotional reason might be that the hero appeals to his heart by saving someone the villain cares about

Or perhaps the villain just wants to right a wrong or past mistake]

-----

Ok, so Arcann has a little of the last 2 of those reasons. Now that he’s gone through the Force Healing dishwasher, he wants to try and make up for all the horrible things he did (Mostly the people he killed for shits and giggles while hunting down the Outlander. War is war, and he might not beat himself up over the people he personally killed on the battlefield. They made the choice to be soldiers/Jedi/Sith, and they knew they might die when they went up against him.)

He was also swayed by the Outlander letting him and Senya go, and how they cared for her while he was figuring things out.

-----

[Whatever the plot point for justifying your villain’s redemption, you can create added depth to their motive by linking it to an old wound in his past.]

-----

His mother left, and it’s possible that he still wonders what would have happened if he and his siblings had gone with her (I can’t remember if he touched on this in one of his cut-scenes during KOTFE). But more importantly, no one has ever come back for him except his brother. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t expect Vaylin to care about him enough to help him unless it benefits her, so after Thexan’s death he feels like he’s alone and nobody would miss him if he died. And that’s… really not a good place to be.

He doesn’t feel connected to his people since I doubt he ever saw much of them while growing up, so it’s easier to treat them like dirt if he can’t empathize with them. Also, the closest person to him, and the only one he seems to care about, is Vaylin, and she’s even more messed up than him so they just echo each other’s cruelty and drive each other to new heights of awfulness.

So that’s why it’s so important to him and game changing that his mom shows up after he’s been defeated.

Now the scene in KotFE goes like this: Senya finds Arcann dead (unconscious) and pinned under a bunch of debris. She drags him out and cries because she thinks he’s dead. Then Vaylin shows up, and while Senya is focused on her, Arcann blinks awake. Vaylin starts to attack, and Arcann stops her. Blah blah blah, Senya saves Arcann because he tried to protect her and she “feels the good in him”.

Ok.

(Keep in mind, my computer chugs much worse if I have the background music on, so I always play with it off. So scenes that maaaaay be relying too much on the music to carry the emotional weight, don’t have that crutch to lean on when I see them.)

Putting aside some dumb stuff, like why didn’t Senya sense that he was alive, and why didn’t she “sense the good in him” until after he pushed Vaylin away, here’s a few tweaks I might make:

Senya finds Arcann badly injured and pinned under debris. She realizes that he’s still breathing so she drags him out, sits down, and cradles him in her arms. She fully expects that he’s going to die, and her resolve crumbles. She rocks him gently and sings to him, her voice breaking here and there as the ship comes apart around them. She left her children once, and she refuses to leave Arcann again. She’s going to stay with him until he succumbs to his wounds, or the ship disintegrates.

To her surprise, he begins to wake. He turns his head into her chest, instinctively remembering her voice and the way she’d sing when comforting him and his brother after a painful day of training. He opens his eyes blearily with a mumbled “Mother?”. And now, finally, after years of being apart, she senses the conflict in him. Buried under years of pain and rage, is the tiny flicker of the boy she used to know.

The ship shudders underneath them and she makes her choice.

She hauls him up and throws his remaining arm over her shoulders. He can barely support his own weight and is fading in and out of consciousness as she drags him off the dais. They’re almost to the door when Vaylin appears and cuts them off.

Senya pleads with her, but Vaylin refuses to see reason and moves to kill her. Senya tries to throw Arcann out of the way, but the minute his arm is clear he manages to force push Vaylin away, where she appears to be crushed under falling debris.

Senya can’t save both of them, but she didn’t feel any conflict in Vaylin. So she chooses Arcann and takes him to the shuttle.

After they’re far enough away, Vaylin comes to in a rage, only to find that she’s missed her chance. She too, escapes in a patrol vessel.

-----

[Epiphany Redemption

Sometimes we don’t realize we have bad habits until someone tells us or we suddenly become aware of them. One of the most famous epiphany redemption examples is Scrooge going through an awakening. With the help of the Christmas ghosts, he’s shown the impact of his actions which causes him to see that he’s been leading a terrible life. The end of the story show him as a changed man, being kind and charitable to others.]

----

This sounds like what happened to Arcann.

It could be that with his mind clouded with pain and a likely concussion, he forgets his anger enough to think that, if his mother cared enough to save him and feels there’s still good in him, maybe there is.

It could be worked into the healing ritual, instead of this nebulous “light sapping the dark from him while he lays unconscious” thing. It could be that the ritual lifts all of his emotional baggage up so that he can view his past choices through a clear lens. Kind of A Christmas Carol speed-run, where his actions flash by in his mind and the horror of what he’d become slowly builds and replaces some of the rage. So the healing ritual doesn’t cure him of the darkness, so much as it’s a cold dose of the reality of his actions without the rage and bad justifications covering it up. The pain and rage is still there, and he’ll have to deal with it naturally later (get that boy a THERAPIST), but it no longer gets in the way of his decision making and he’s free to make better choices.

This explains why he was so panicked when he woke up that he didn’t notice his mother was still alive. And her “death” was just one more horrible thing he’s done. That even in healing, he still manages to kill the people close to him.

(It’s also why I always take the choice to tell him that Senya’s still alive right before he flies away, to spare him from that extra self hatred.)

-----

[It takes time. Just as a hero takes an entire novel to overcome her flaw, it will take some time for a villain to make this monumental change. Don’t let them flip-flop like a beached fish between good and evil – the change needs to build slowly throughout the book.]

----

I think this is the main issue that a lot of people seem to have with Arcann’s redemption. The healing ritual was such a hand-wavy “ok he’s better now” cop-out for what would normally be months or years of interesting character development.

I understand of course. This is a game, not a book series. There isn’t time to give Arcann the kind of focus that sort of development needs, and they weren’t allowed to weave his redemption too much into the story because not everyone spares him.

We can lessen the impact of this by ignoring some canon things and writing around others, but it would take a major rewrite of a large chunk of KotET to integrate this point.

-----

[Foreshadow, foreshadow, foreshadow. Readers don’t like to be cheated. You need to drop breadcrumbs throughout your story to let your reader know subconsciously that the villain is going to change, otherwise they’ll feel cheated. It doesn’t take much – the occasional soft glance from the villain, a nicely spoken sentence, and action that is ‘good’ rather than evil. Tiny clues.]

-----

There were tiny hints here and there, but not really enough for my taste and they were very easy to miss.

Some examples I can think of are:

He sort of yells at Vaylin at one point and without her saying anything, he immediately backs off, calms his voice down, and tells her that he’s not blaming her. She’s flippant about it, but it made it clear that he cares about her enough to treat her with respect and what little affection he’s capable of at that point.

@swtorpadawan made a good point in this post about how Arcann’s hesitation in destroying the Gravestone might’ve been because he sensed his mother’s presence.

And while I don’t think it was supposed to be hesitation on Arcann’s part, just the game forgetting about the time as we are shown Koth lining up the shot, he technically DID hesitate in killing the Outlander after he stabbed them (assuming you refused Valkorian’s power). There was a decent length of time where he had them, mortally wounded and defenseless, and he hesitated so long that Koth discovered the scene, figured out a plan, and shot out that big thing on the ceiling.

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[Don’t make it easy. It’s hard for the hero to overcome her flaw and likewise, it should be hard for a villain to overcome his. A quick way to make it harder for the villain to redeem himself is to catch him between two of his values. For example, while this character isn’t a villain, it still illustrates the point: Ned Stark in Game of Thrones values loyalty and wisdom – his wisdom tells him if he helps his King it will inevitably lead to his death, and yet, his loyalty forces him to help the King anyways.]

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This one is closely tied to the “it takes time” point, and is also horribly ignored in the story. Once he’s healed he’s practically a different person. Now I don’t know if it’s because they didn’t devote much time to his writing since he’s an optional character, or if they meant to write him like this, but it’s still unfortunate.

He strikes me as determined and ruthless (like his mom). His interaction with Thexan and his commitment to the Outlander seems to imply that he’s loyal once he’s found someone worthy of it. He’s intelligent, but can be arrogant sometimes (of course this will have been knocked down a few pegs since the Outlander kicked his ass).

An easy point of conflict between his values (especially soon after he joins the Alliance), would be between his loyalty to the Outlander and his ruthlessness.

He could be on a mission with the Outlander, and have an enemy defeated but alive. The Outlander might want to spare them, while his ruthlessness demands their death. He knows how people like this work, that sparing them is a good way to get stabbed in the back, and if the Outlander is too softhearted to look out for themselves then he will.

BUT the Outlander is showing him trust by letting him accompany them, both trust that Arcann won’t kill them and that he will follow orders. Their trust is extremely precious to him (especially if he’s already crushing on the Outlander) so he really wants to do as they say.

He’s forced to balance their trust against his need to protect them.

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[Don’t let them go soft. Villains are villains for a reason. Keep them authentic by retaining some of their sharper personality edges. Just because their actions are good doesn’t mean the whole of them will be.]

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I feel like this one is especially important, and also terribly overlooked.

Arcann learned some bad habits while being a villain and even when growing up, some of those should carry over into his healed self.

They might lessen with time and careful retraining, but he will always have sharp edges.

He will probably have a temper (although this must be handled very carefully to avoid making him look childish and abusive).

And if someone he cares about is threatened he may fly into a rage until they can calm him down. This rage may be followed by flashbacks of the battles he’s been through and the way the hatred felt in his gut, leaving him panicked and shaky once it’s over.

He probably has nightmares regularly, and care must be taken in waking him up to avoid a violent response, same thing with sneaking up on him: DON”T.

Honestly, the dude went through so much and did so many horrible things that I don’t see how he wouldn’t have PTSD. He certainly has self-hatred up to his eyeballs.

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One more thing:

Once he’s joined the Alliance, I think we need to be careful when writing him to make sure that his goal of trying to make up for the horrible things he’s done isn’t overlooked. I mean yeah, he’s helping by coming along on missions with the Commander, but that is super small time stuff compared to what he’s done and I don’t think he’d be satisfied with it for long.

He’s an intelligent man with experience commanding armies on the battlefield, and an extremely talented Force-user. At minimum, and when not accompanying the Outlander, he should spend most of his day immersed in Alliance reports giving tactical advice (once they trust him enough, of course) and helping with combat training in the Force Enclave. When they trust him more, he can maybe become the official liaison between the Alliance and Zakuul, using the resources and tech of his home world to help the reconstruction on the planets he bombarded and getting Zakuul what they need as well.

Of course, once the Republic/Empire war starts up again, his position will change and he may take on a more military role, commanding offensives on behalf of whichever side the Alliance has picked.

My point is, wallowing in emotional hurt/comfort and developing romance is really fun and satisfying, but don’t forget his promise to atone for his misdeeds.

#swtor #arcann #redeeming a villain #writing #relicwrites #kotfe #kotet #arcann tirall

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miraculoussugarcube · 5 years

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All Evidence I’ve Gathered for Senti!Adrien

Hello everyone! So this is what I’ve been doing instead of the Startrain and Feast reviews I should’ve done already. :’) But I can’t stop thinking about the Sentimonster!Adrien theory, and how much canon content leads to how it could be true. So, here is all the evidence I’ve gathered compiled into one big giant post. If you have an addition, please let me know and I’ll add it in and credit you for pointing it out!

Let’s start off with the episode “Ladybug”, the origin of this theory.

We learned that it is possible to create a sentimonster that is exactly like a human being. So much so, that no one can tell the difference until Ladybug herself arrives at the scene. If Adrien is a sentimonster like “Ladybug”, then it is unlikely anyone would be able to tell.

We learned that sentimonsters are sentient and self aware, like human beings. This brings up the morality of destroying a sentimonster, but why would the show bring attention to this? What sentimonster does it want us to care about? If Adrien turns out to be a sentimonster, this would make sense, because obviously we don’t want Adrien to be destroyed.

We learned that sentimonsters are controlled by whoever is holding their amok, so if they hold their own amok they have their own free will. But what if no one is holding their amok? Then the outcome is probably the same, they would have free will. It’s highly unlikely that Adrien’s amok would be on him, but since he clearly has free will it’s unlikely that someone is holding onto it.

The episode “Feast” brought us some major plot points that could add to the validity of this theory:

We learned that it is possible to akumatize a sentimonster in the same way as a human being. This means two things. One, sentimonsters have the emotions needed to be akumatized, just like people. Two, we know that Adrien is going to be akumatized in the near future as Chat Blanc, which could make “Feast” foreshadowing if he is a sentimonster.

We learned that there can be more than one sentimonster in the world at a time, created by 2 different peacock miraculous holders. The sentimonster can still be present even after their creator no longer has the miraculous. They seem to be permanent as long as their amok isn’t destroyed, and they can last many years. This means that Adrien could’ve been created years ago, and still be around regardless of Emilie’s coma.

We learned that the Peacock miraculous holder can sense an amok. If Adrien is a sentimonster, how can Nathalie not sense it? Well, it’s unlikely that Adrien is carrying his amok, like Feast was. And if he is a sentimonster, there’s a high chance that Nathalie would know about it.

What else do we know from previous episodes?

In “Mr. Pigeon”, we learn that Adrien is allergic to feathers, but has no visible reaction to amok feathers. This is shown when he purifies the amok as Mister Bug in “Reflekdoll”.

The Peacock Miraculous is broken, and was previously used by Emilie Agreste. She was so affected that it weakened her to a coma-like state. But what could she have been using it for? There’s no record of any Miraculous activity before she got sick and Gabriel became Hawkmoth. There has to be a reason she was using the miraculous, and somehow no one noticed. After all, why would anyone be suspicious of a kid like Adrien?

When Master Fu tells Marinette about the ultimate power the wielder of the Ladybug & Cat Miraculous would have in “Robustus”, his example is, frequent“Had your robotic friend wished to become a real boy, someone would have lost his humanity in return.” This could be foreshadowing to sentimonster!Adrien wanting to become human.

In “Miraculer”, Chat Noir gets hit with his own cataclysm. We know from “Reflekdoll” that cataclysm can break a sentimonster, but not completely destroy it. Adrien breaks his ribs. However there’s a lot of factors in this, such as Chat Noir’s suit and the fact that it’s his own superpower. We’ve never seen another person get hit by cataclysm, so we don’t have anyone to compare Adrien to. Volpina’s illusion of Chat Noir did completely disintegrate, but it’s unlikely that Volpina knows every aspect of Chat Noir’s pattern, and this could just be what she assumed would happen if a person got hit with cataclysm.

In “Ladybug & Chat Noir: Origins Part 1”, Adrien asks his father “Why can’t I go out and make friends just like everybody else?” and Gabriel responds with, “Because you are not like everyone else, you are my son.” This could imply there’s a more sinister reason that Gabriel won’t let his son go to school.

We don’t know if a humanoid sentimonster can age or change like a human being if the miraculous holder wishes it. This is a point many people make against this theory, but we don’t actually know the answer.

Plagg cannot sense Nooroo or Duusu inside the Agreste mansion, and he did not recognize the Peacock Miraculous inside Gabriel’s vault, so it is unlikely he’d be able to tell if Adrien is a sentimonster.

Adrien is frequently described as “perfect”, even by Thomas Astruc. In the episode “Ladybug”, Chat Noir mentions how perfect the sentimonster!Ladybug is.

#Miraculous Ladybug #adrien agreste #sentimonster #senti!adrien #sentimonster!adrien #miraculous theories #sugarcube review

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nightqueendany · 5 years

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Original Final Season 7 - Episode 6: Summerhall

Last Episode was a bit of a cliffhanger so here’s the fallout from The Storm:

*Wish I had a better image for the episode, but this is the only artwork for Summerhall I could find! Hmm, this needs remedying.

It’s finally snowing in King’s Landing in this episode, appropriate for us to finally see snow in the south right after the Night King has broken through the Wall

IN WINTERFELL

Picking up directly where the last episode left off, Bran tells Sansa they need to get word to all the Northern Houses, everyone has to get to White Harbor, there will be ships waiting for them there (no explanation), no time to wait for Targaryen armies to come, they can’t hold the North that long

Bran also mysteriously tells Sansa they need to send a raven to Summerhall - Sansa mentions its an abandoned ruin, a raven could never get there, Bran says he can warg the bird, Sansa just needs to write that the Wall has fallen and the dead come south

AT SUMMERHALL

Team Jon/Dany arrive on dragon-back (this was Jorah’s suggested location) and make camp in the ruined halls (it’s abandoned, no one - enemies - would find them there)

Sitting around the fire, Jorah tells them all what he knows of Rhaegar and how Rhaegar used to love coming there, the tragedy at Summerhall when Rhaegar was born, etc.

In their explorations of the ruins, they come across one part of the castle that isn’t entirely destroyed - the library - and Jorah mentions Rhaegar used to be quite scholarly until, according to rumor, he read something in his scrolls that made him believe he had to be a warrior (like Barristan’s story to Dany in ASOS)

Missandei begins picking through the books, some disintegrate when she picks them up due to age/damage from the elements, but some do not, she takes a few that are not damaged

While plotting their next move (where should they go, The Reach? Dorne? King’s Landing?) they receive a random, hastily written raven’s scroll from Sansa and Bran - The Wall has fallen, the dead march south.

They send the raven/Bran to Davos and Tyrion at Gendry’s shop in King’s Landing telling them about the attack on Dragonstone and that they will meet them there in the capital

After the raven leaves, Jon, panicked, insists he and Dany fly to Winterfell to rescue his family/make sure they make it to safety and Dany reluctantly agrees

IN OLDTOWN

They receive word from Winterfell, the Wall has fallen, encourage maesters to spread the word to the rest of the Kingdoms so they can prepare for the fight, the maesters are old shits about it, debating the validity of the scroll, etc.

Sam, in frustration, finally leaves the Citadel with Gilly and Little Sam

BACK IN THE NORTH

Everyone is rushing to pack and leave, Sansa is incredibly emotional about leaving Winterfell when they’ve just fought to get it back, Bran finally tells her the ships that are waiting for them at White Harbor are Greyjoy ships and Theon is anxious to see her, Sansa is then less reluctant to leave

Team Stark/the North arrive at White Harbor just as Yara and Theon do, Bran and Sansa quickly explain the circumstances - the Wall has fallen, not enough time to get Dany’s armies North, North must flee south on the Greyjoy ships (we see Howland and Meera in this group somewhere among other prominent Northerners like Lyanna Mormont, Lord Umber, etc.)

Yara begins to plot course for Dragonstone but Bran explains Euron has taken it, most of his fleet is destroyed but he and his men still occupy the castle, Yara then wants to make course for the Iron Islands to take her home back and it’s “Somewhere the dead can’t go” but again, Bran advises against it, he tells them to set a course for King’s Landing - it’s where EVERYONE is headed and will meet up

Theon and Sansa reunite (obviously), Sansa is stressed about going to King’s Landing where Cersei is and where she was held captive for years, Theon comforts her and sparks fly, they end up falling into bed together - AKA Theonsa boatsex

IN KING’S LANDING

Cersei gets word from Euron about the attack on Dragonstone, pissed that it was a relative failure, she wanted all of them dead and nearly everyone, save a few nameless soldiers, survived, she then tasks Jaime with finding Tyrion and killing him, “Bring me our brother’s head” (much like Aerys wanting Jaime to bring him Tywin’s head) and this is Jaime’s last straw, he can’t support her anymore and so he leaves her

In getting ready to flee King’s Landing, Jaime runs into Tyrion, Davos, and Gendry, Jaime explains that Dragonstone has been taken so they can’t go there, instead, they regroup at Gendry’s shop to figure out what they should do next, receive Bran/Jon’s raven about heading to King’s Landing, it’s decided, they stay in the city

After Jaime leaves her, Cersei wakes up in a “bed of blood,” she's miscarried her baby

The Riverlands, Northerners, and Vale forces arrive outside King’s Landing and join up with the forces from Dorne and the Reach/the Dothraki and Unsullied, Baelish and Varys are there to greet them

Baelish and Varys impress upon the troops the importance of the alliance between Jon and Dany, they are there for one purpose and one purpose only - to defeat the Lannisters who have had a hand in harming every single one of them in the last several years, it’s finally time to take the Lannisters down

Baelish and Varys are next seen sneaking into the city in order to meet with...Qyburn

Arya, knowing how to sneak in and out of King’s Landing secretly, gets into the city as well and goes where Bran told her to go - she winds up standing just outside...Gendry’s shop

BACK IN THE NORTH

In an unidentifiable location, Jon and Dany take a flying break at a waterfall and discuss what to do, from what Dany can tell on their flight, the North is deserted, Jon agrees and concludes the Northerners must have fled south or to White Harbor

Seeing Jon in a better mood, Dany quips they could “stay a thousand years” and no one would find them, not even this “Night King”

She mentions that, because they’ve been flying a very long distance and it’s getting dark, they need to make camp somewhere for the night, give themselves and the dragons a rest

Jon reveals Winterfell isn’t far, it’s likely deserted but they can stay for the night before heading back south to King’s Landing

IN WINTERFELL

Jon “cloaks” Dany as she has no suitable clothing (it was all left on Dragonstone when they abandoned the castle to Euron), it’s visually symbolic but nothing official

When Dany asks why Jon went back into the castle (Dragonstone) when they were attempting to flee Euron’s forces, he finally explains to her about R+L=J and gives her Rhaegar’s harp

There’s a tense moment between them until Jon finally suggests they marry to join the realm (King of the North, Queen of the South) and their claims, Dany asks if it would be a political marriage or because of something more (as she has started to fall for him), Jon says it would be both, he and Dany end up sleeping together, AKA Jonerys castlesex

Jon and Dany wake up to it still being night and both remark that it feels late and should be morning, though it’s not, upon going outside they see in the distance the AOTD approaching Winterfell, the Night King did, in fact, find them

It should be relatively easy for them to escape with the AOTD in the distance but the Night King raises the dead from the Winterfell crypts and Jon and Dany have to fight their way out of the keep

In the confusion of trying to escape, Viserion is killed

After Jon and Dany have fled south on Drogon and Rhaegal, the Night King finally raises Viserion as his mount

Title is obviously for Team Jon/Dany making camp in the ruined castle of Summerhall for the night.

Episode 6 Inside the Episode: Summerhall

1) First off, I know you guys are going to wonder, why Summerhall?

I know it’s an odd initial choice. It’s never (I don’t think) been mentioned on the show. But, for the purposes of this episode, it’s a great way to a) get out some much needed exposition and b) connect Rhaegar to the PTWP prophecy. And yes, for book nerds, I know Rhaegar would have been younger when he began training as a warrior, too young to have begun visiting Summerhall by himself, and therefore the book or scroll that led him to think he needed to be a warrior wouldn’t have been found at Summerhall. But 1) allow this one time suspension of disbelief or 2) headcanon that Rhaegar left the book/scroll containing this information at Summerhall for Missandei to eventually find. Whichever works for you.

2) The North escaping on the Greyjoy ships?

This one is too obvious. We had all thought this might need to happen. In 8x01 Yara even tells Theon they’ll need “somewhere the dead can’t go,” but NOTHING was ever done with this line. It was pointless. So this scene actually pays off Yara’s useless line from canon and also solves the issue from it - why wouldn’t Dany just retreat to her own island of Dragonstone? (Because she can’t, because Euron took it over, because that fucking makes sense that he and Cersei would do that).

3) Jon/Dany wake up and it is still night?

Yes, because the “Long Night” is actually not just one fucking night. I can’t even believe they had the audacity to call that idiotic episode “The Long Night” when it was, actually, just ONE night. *Sighs* *Rubs head*

Anyway...that’s it for Episode 6! As always, you guys are free to leave comments. I’d love to see people’s opinions, questions, speculations, predictions. Whatever you guys want to discuss!

Original Final Season 7: Preface Post

Season 7 Episode 1: Family, Duty, Honor

Season 7 Episode 2: Greywater Watch

Season 7 Episode 3: The Last of the Dragons

Season 7 Episode 4: Dragonglass

Season 7 Episode 5: The Storm

Season 7 Episode 6: Summerhall (Current Episode)

Season 7 Episode 7: A City Fit For A King

Season 7 Episode 8: Protectors of the Realm

Season 7 Episode 9: The Battle For The Dawn

Season 7 Episode 10: ?

#game of thrones #anti got #anti D&D #original final season 7 #daenerys targaryen #jon snow #Cersei Lannister #Jaime Lannister #Sansa Stark #Theon Greyjoy #jorah mormont #missandei #Samwell Tarly #Arya Stark #Gendry Waters #petyr baelish #varys #bran stark

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