#am i evil for adding foreshadowing here?

[colouredbyd]

dude i'm so annoyed w myself cuz i can't seem to find that one detail you mentioned that was like a big clue to the Black sisters and their situation😭😭 Im like, re reading the first 3 chpts over and over again its literally killing me dude

Anyways, crackshit thoughts rq, one thing i thought about is that in chapter 11 sirius mentioned that the capital wanted at least one black to win or make it, and we see that in these games, the 70th games, we see a lot, if not all, of the Black relatives in the games. SO, if Sirus didn't run away and stayed in district 7, would he have been in the arena alongside his brother and cousins?

OKAT STAY WITH ME FOR A SECOND!! prob gonna be WAYYY off but LET ME COOK FOR A SEC!!

one way i could see this happening is if the whole reg volunteering for reader still happens, but instead of James being reaped its sirius.

when Reg takes out James originally, we are under the impression that its purely for reader, and he says that, saying he has already died for her. but in chpt 11, we see that the 70th games log doesn;t even have James's name crossed out, implying that reg was always supposed to be in the games again. so what if, reg was always supposed to take someone out of the games to join them again.

in your og story, this makes me think and questions Regs motives again because even under the impression of doing something for reader, could he still be following the Capitals/crouch's orders

In my weird little "what if sirius stayed in district 7", if Reg was always supposed to take someone out of the games in order to rejoin, and for the 70th games they wanted to prove something or wtv you got planned by having all the blacks be in one games, and Sirius already being reaped, imagine if Reg had to take out reader and then ALL the Blacks, Narcissa, Andromeda, Bellatrix, Regulus, AND Sirius being the games.

...ok now as im writing this, its making me think about sirius's role in this story cuz like, how does he know all this, first it said that he was lost to the capital after a run in with peacekeepers(ironic since reg was basically lost to the capital but anyways), but then we see him district 13!?!?

AND ALSO they mention the Blacks were basically scattered around Panem but in chpt 1 it mentions Walburga being "too far gone in her own grief to care for him." kinda like Katniss's mom, but does this mean that she is with him in district 7? has reader ever met/seen her? and for the Black Family legacy, what does this mean? did she fall with grief over sirius? over orion? and if she is in district 7, why did they put Reg, Sirius, AND WALBURGA together but seperare the sisters??

since you sort of put the Crouchs as the "big bad", characters who in the OG OG series(as much as we/I hate to mention it) were very much side characters, rather then the voldemort, the main big bad in the OG OG series, could the "big bad" of the Black family in your story by the sisters parents? or maybe Orion since we've basically have no mention of him? again prob way off but idk...

could you tell I freaking love the Black family lol....this was supposed to just be a short little side note before i continue rereading and stuff haha... sorry btw if it makes no sense, its like 2am where i'm at lol. the writing is too good im afraid, literally making me think this hard even tho its alread summer for me😪(don't stop tho👅) 

OH AND BTW GOOD LUCK ON YOUR FINALSSS!!! SENDING HUGS AND KISSES!!

-🦇(she/her)(realized i never mentioned it lol)

hiiii love !! — first off, please forgive me if this response is a bit messy; i literally just woke up from a 6-hour post-finals nap, but the second i saw your message, i sat up in bed, and let me just say: i am obsessed with your brain

seriously, the fact that you’re rereading chapters, digging into crumbs, asking sharp questions and spinning possible theories — it’s the highest compliment a writer could receive!! i’m honored that you’re thinking this hard about this fic, and i’ll try my best to respond thoughtfully to every brilliant thing you brought up <3

first: the black legacy + the capital’s deal with the old families

you’re completely right to zero in on what sirius says in chapter 11. that quote — “the capital wants at least one black to win” — isn’t just a throwaway line. it’s a thread that pulls at a much older, darker tapestry that’s been woven behind the scenes of this fic from the very beginning

the hunger games, in this universe, were never meant to be about chance. they’re not about ordinary children fighting for survival. no, they were rigged from the start, constructed with dual purpose:

to control the districts through violence and spectacle, and

to preserve the powerful, ancient houses through manipulation and protection.

the alliance between the capitol and the founding families — the blacks, malfoys, rosiers, traverses, and a few unnamed others — is foundational lore, as sirius explains:

“Years ago, before any of us were even born, the Capitol made a deal—something ancient and rotten sealed behind golden doors. They went to the old families, the ones whose bloodlines ran thicker than laws, the ones who’d ruled long before the Capitol wore a crown. They offered them a bargain: loyalty for power. Silence for survival. The Capitol would keep its grip on Panem and the old houses—those ‘noble’ bloodlines—would keep their legacies, not above ground, not openly, but hidden. Protected and preserved.”

so yes — the black family isn’t simply a tragic one in this fic. it’s an institution, and within the framework of the 70th games, every single member of that family present in the arena was never meant to die. that includes narcissa, andromeda, bellatrix, lucius — and especially regulus

they are part of the alliance, and the unspoken rule is that the capitol fakes their deaths for the public, quietly retrieves them, and brings them to live (often in servitude, secrecy, or strategic exile) under its watchful eye. in exchange, their families remain powerful and untouched above ground

second: sirius’s role + “what if he had stayed in district 7?”

you bring up a really compelling hypothetical — what if sirius had never run away? would he have been reaped? would he have ended up in the arena?

it’s a great line of thought, and i love how you’re thinking in both alternate timelines and internal logic. but no — sirius was never meant to be in the games. narratively and politically, he couldn’t be

why?

because sirius did the one thing no heir of an alliance house is ever allowed to do: he rebelled.

he didn’t just defy the capital — he defied his lineage. he ran away, went missing, turned his back on the pact. and in this fic, the price for that isn’t just punishment — it’s erasure. in chapter 1, we’re told that walburga grieves him the way katniss’s mother did, slipping into herself, unable to care for anything

but here’s where i need to point something out that you absolutely caught but maybe didn’t fully realize:

this story is written in first person. meaning — you’re not reading the objective truth. you’re reading starling’s truth.

if she doesn’t know about the capital’s deals, neither do you.

if she’s been fed false information about walburga, you believe it too.

if the narrative tells you sirius died — you believe that, because she believes that.

so when you ask “is walburga really in district 7? did starling ever meet her?” — the honest answer is: you’re not supposed to know yet. starling’s POV is intentionally limited, so every assumption made in early chapters is meant to be questioned later. and trust me — many of them will be !!

as for sirius’s true fate, you’re absolutely right again: he reappears in district 13, and his survival wasn’t an accident. he found out a secret the capital buried, and they tried to silence him. they failed, and like other rebels — including remus — he was saved by d13 and brought into the fold. we haven’t explored the full extent of what happened to him yet, but know that everything you’re wondering about? it’s part of the plan. nothing was random.

plus another thing to note, regulus doesn't even know sirius is alive and thinks he is dead/missing and sirius thinks his brother is brainwashed and standing with the capitol...so there is that

third: regulus + reader + the truth about the second reaping

oh this one hit me, you asked:

“was reg really always meant to be in the games again? even if it wasn’t james who got reaped?”

the answer is: yes. james being the one he took out was convenient; a diversion. it made everything look emotionally driven, but the capital knew about his love for reader (since he volunteered the first time in the 65th games and made a deal when he won that she would be safe) they counted on it. and when he began moving against them — making mistakes he shouldn’t have — they retaliated the only way that would ensure his return to the arena: they reaped her, as a punishment for him

reader being reaped for the second time was rigged. just like katniss, the capital uses the people closest to rebels to manipulate them. they don’t just want to control the game — they want to control the players. and they knew that regulus — loyal, cold, calculating regulus — would crawl back into the fire for her, and they knew he’d win. or if not win, survive. because he’s a black, and no black dies unless the capitol says so

the real villain — and why i chose barty crouch sr.

i’m so glad you asked about the bigger political structure, because this story was never meant to be just a character-driven drama. at its heart, it was always a political one. and that’s exactly why i chose barty crouch sr. as the main antagonist

in the original series, he’s more of a background figure — a stern, morally inflexible ministry man. but in this version, that irrelevance is what makes him terrifying. because sometimes, in the real world, it’s not the loudest, flashiest villains who destroy lives. it’s the ones you barely notice, the bureaucrats, the quiet tyrants, the ones who write the laws that slowly break you down

i had originally considered making the antagonists more personal — the black sisters, for example — but i scrapped that idea

why? because then it would become a story about family vs family. and that’s not what this is. this story isn’t about one bloodline turning on itself — it’s about corruption, power, and the systems that protect the elite while feeding the poor to the wolves

and that’s what makes barty sr. the perfect antagonist. he represents the quiet face of institutional cruelty — the kind of evil that hides behind protocol and policy. the kind that doesn’t need to raise its voice to be dangerous. the kind that is terrifying

i can’t say too much without spoiling some major plot threads, but i’ll say this: the people we think are in control often aren’t. the ones we blame are sometimes only puppets, and the true power? the true rot? it hides in plain sight.

on legacy, privilege, and the rigged system of the games

this fic is, at its core, about how systems protect the powerful.

the hunger games are the ultimate symbol of corruption — an institution designed to punish the innocent while allowing the rich and well-connected to survive, even thrive

the founding families are the clearest example of this: no matter what happens, they are never truly at risk. they are either protected behind closed doors or quietly returned when the cameras turn away. they are preserved, sanitized, used.

meanwhile, the innocent — the ordinary tributes, the rebels, the children who don’t have old bloodlines or capital connections — are the ones who suffer. over and over again

it mirrors the real world, doesn’t it? the most irrelevant people rule over us. the ones who shouldn’t have power are the ones making the rules, and the ones we think are evil — the flashy villains, the ones wearing the crown — often turn out to be figureheads; distractions. sometimes we don’t even know who’s really in control until it’s far too late

that’s the world of the nightingale. that’s the engine driving it; legacy, grief, memory, and rage — all tangled up in a machine that was never built to let them win

also — just want to say thank you again 🦇. genuinely, your messages make me feel so seen. i’m always willing to write whole essays (clearly) answering anything you ask because the way you read this story? it means everything. thank you for caring this deeply, and i absolutely love you for giving me a chance to once again yap <33333

[dana-duchovny]

I am doing a Supernatural early seasons rewatch and I was struck by this beautiful shot from 3x10 Dream A Little Dream of Me. Dean confronts his dream self, who echoes back all his worst fears to him. Dean shows inner strength here, but this is the first time we really see him frightened, and honest with himself about being afraid to die and go to Hell. All of that has been discussed ad nauseum by the fandom over the years, but I just love this little bit of foreshadowing to season 4, shown by this shot here:

The battle between light and dark, good and evil, behind him and not in his focus yet. Being helped by both angels and devils on his shoulders that he hasn’t even met yet ❤️.

[rainofthetwilight]

LEVI I WANNA GIVE YOU TRAMUA ABOUT ARIN

So, we all know that Arin is struggling to improve his spinjitzu and he feels useless and just wants his parents back.

…He feels jealous. And we know that he doesn’t have an elemental power according to Doc Wyatt.

And he will *probably* fight Sora if he finds out that Sora “helped” his Object Spinjitzu.

What I see from Arin is that he is slowly getting traumatized..

And I have multiple questions from where Arin’s arc is going.

My biggest question is, is the ninja holding Arin him back or his parents holding him back? I think it both.

Not to mention that there is so much foreshadowing to Arin’s arc.

And why do I imagine Arin is just trapped in like, a cage full of insecurities, or trauma? And I can imagine that he can’t get out of that cage.

Ras said that Arin is not improving since the first time they met, Egalt said that Arin is useless, Sora is improving and might be able to learn spinjitzu, and most importantly, Lloyd’s and Arin’s relationship is slowly falling apart like Wu and Morro.

My poor Arin is just having one HECK of a trauma here. And I swear to the Fsm if the writers gives Arin has even more trauma in season 2 part 2 than part 1 I will throw a chair.

But who knows…? Someone said that it was a cannon event that every sunshine character has an angst arc.

Sorry for making you insane, Levi I just wanted to share this idea with you just for fun.

And also, do you think that Arin is going through 5 stages of grief or..? Idk, I wanted to ask you and tell me what’s your thoughts on this.

AHDHAJDBJAJDJAJSNANA YEAH I'M. I'M NOT OKAY RN 👍👍👍

also absolutely do NOT apologize for making me insane I am literally loving these asks so much bro SHDJAJDJW 😭 I love analysing silly lil lego characters w/ you all <333

the thing about the foreshadowing is that it actually feels very intentional, like obv I know foreshadowing is pretty much always intentional but like..you get what I mean?

they are constantly reminding us how much of a great person arin is, in s1 especially. he's a good friend, he's kind, he trusts people quickly, always has that hope in him and so much more. something is definitely going to happen, even if the whole sora helping him thing didn't happen, he is going to be put through the wringer whether if he actually gets an evil arc or not

plus, he already is traumatized. loosing your parents and neighborhood all in one day while navigating an entire new world with so many new places and people on your own (at first) , while only being atleast 10 years old, is pretty traumatizing all in itself. but even after all of these years, he still had hope, he still had hope that his parents and heros could come back. and guess what? his heros did come back, and what did he exactly say again?

''if I loose hope the ninja could come back, then I loose hope that my parents could come back."

even after the ninja came back, his parents didn't. all these years he relied on his hope for the ninja to come back to bring his parents back aswell, but their whereabouts are still unknown. add that to the extreme pressure of saving the world from ending and the amount of self doubt he has, that's when the shell of his hope finally began to crack

in s1, the return of the ninja gave him even more hope than he had before. he was still excited and animated, and finally got his dreams to come true (becoming a ninja). the thought of his parents holding him back didn't plague him as much as now, because that hope in him was still there and it only grew stronger each adventure. but now, even after a long while since the ninja had came back, his parents were nowhere to be found. and that just hurts

dude the insecurities part AGHDJS...the weight of being a ninja was finally becoming heavy on his shoulder and that only added to his frustration and anger of not being good enough. he sees his friends around him improve, and be useful in a way, unlike how he had failed time and time again without achieving results. and with egalt calling him useless and ras constantly reminding him how he still hadn't improved, and he feels jealous even tho he doesn't want to, and it just made everything worse.

I'm also thinking abt how sora accidently reminded him of how he didn't imporve aswell, by saying "your spinjitzu is just as good as when I met you!". and even though she meant it in absolute good faith, that's just it to arin. that's it, he was still in the same level he was the first time, he didn't improve. and with how he got angry at her when she was only trying to cheer him up after what happened, I can't even imagine what would happen if the news of that spinjitzu throw help thing comes out

ALSO. ARIN GOING THROUGH THE FIVE STAGES OF GRIEF. DUDE NOW THAT I THINK ABT IT..

anon had also sent an ask abt this too!!!

so like, now that I actually think abt it, what if that hope was actually just a cover of his denial? the five stages as we all know are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance in that order. so like...what if that hope wasn't really hope, but instead a disguise for denial?

whenever the topic of his parents came up, especially in s1, he kept denying the fact they wouldn't come back. same with the ninja, he still believed they were out there

and now in s2, we see his self doubt and his trauma catch onto him. we saw how angry he was at himself, even to the point of shoving lloyd away when trying to comfort him and almost snapping at sora when she was trying to do the same. we don't see much of that 'hope' like in s1 anymore. it's much more..sadder, more angrier even

and with all this, he's most definitely going through them, now on the second stage. first in denial of his parents and the ninja not returning, and now anger at himself and the world for hating him like this

when I tell you I am so so excited to see what they do with arin's arc w/ all of this going on for his character I am not lying bro, I'm so insane AHDJSKDJJW 😭👍

[purplepixel]

The Never Realm makes no sense and is a wasted opportunity and in this essay i will--

Actually wait no, I do have an essay.

Disclaimer: I have only gotten up to the end of season 11 so there's a high chance things that I mention will potentially be addressed later down the road. I am currently unaware of that.

Aspheeras and Wu's claim of the dangers of the never realm, does not allign with the never realm we got. Aspheera wanted to send Wu there specifically bc she thought he would suffer there more then if she just killed him. But whats so special about it?

Dont get me wrong, cold climates are nothing to laugh at. There's a reason the antarctic is pretty much unihabitable to humans. But in a world where people turn in, this is the realm that nobody wants to go to?? This is the realm where travelers tea doesnt work nornally? Why? First realm did a better job depicting the horrors of a realms then this one ever did. Why its hard to live there. Why its hard to survive. They showed why its tough. With the never realm they tell you and thats it? I never felt like the people that lived here before zane arriving had hard lives to survive. Also this realm isnt even close to antarctica. Its the arctic circle.

Adding the villagers into the story really undercut everything in this realm. It implies that before Zane, living here was manageable to normal ass people. It also made it that the ninja became safe too easily in this realm. This out of everything is why narratively the realm didnt feel all that special and is outclasses by the first and cursed realm (granted that one is pretty much hell). They werent challenged enough by the realm that aspheera thought would make wu suffer.

The only reason this realm became the dangerous ice wasteland it is in the first place is bc of zane. Who is there bc this realm is supposed to be a place where one suffers. If we trust aspheera, it creates a bit of a paradox here.

Never realm has three things. The wolves, huge birds, and the cold climate where its so cold you cant light a fire. Which apparently only became a thing when zane got there. So why would zane be sent there if this realm used to be a bit more inhabitable?

Now of course this could all just be a ninjago myth and this realm is just another one thats very remote. But uggggh i dont like that. They hyped it up and didnt follow through. Its no different from any of the ice environments in ninjago until Zane shows up.

Without changing too much, heres where all my personal missed opportunities come into play. The word never couldve been used more. The sun could never rise. The blizzard could never stop. It can never be warm. Ice that never melts. Monsters that never tire. They did some of these but i felt like they couldve used the name and environment more to SHOW us why this realm is so far removed from everything else. SHOW us why aspheera wanted to banish Wu here. You cant just tell us and leave it there, i wont believe you. WHY IS SUFFERING BEING SENT TO THE ARCTIC CIRCLE. COULDVE ATLEAST GIVEN US ANTARCTICA.

The only issue with this pre-established ice wasteland is that it destroys zane coming in and committing that atrocity himself.

And heres where i come in with my fanfic solution. For a realm that is supposed to be suffering, what if instead of it being canada, it is simply a realm that slowly warps the mind to become your worst fear? It was set up earlier in the mirrors where lloyd feared being evil, nya feared being normal, and zane feared losing his humanity. I have not continued onwards so Im not sure if they will address nya and lloyds fear in the mirrors but id be shocked and disappointed if they didnt. But instead of waiting down the road, we pay off this foreshadowing in THIS season.

So the never realm slowly transforms you into your worst nightmare and you are aware enough to know but dont have enough will power to change.

And maybe thats why the formlings are able to live in this realm? Their ability to shapeshift is a physical representation of their resistance to being effected by the realm. Bc unlike outsiders, they are capable of changing and do not bend to the laws of this realm.

This puts pressure on the characters to find zane and get out before they lose themselves a long the way. Lloyd can slowly act more and more like garmadon. Nya is slowly losing her powers. Im sure you can still incorporate kai, jay, and coles fears into there somehow. Cole never being able to do anything right. Something something kai and his fire. Honestly he was already going through this arc anyways. Basically take what they were doing in this season BUT MAKE IT BE THE REALM THAT DOES IT. Since thats all i want. Environmental storytelling. This might not be the story they wanted to tell, but I felt cheated out of a realm thats supposed to be dangerous.

This does undercut the power of the forbidden scroll which did have a small influence on zanes actions. What if the scroll just allowed zane to have the power enough to commit the horrors he did? If he didnt have the scroll, he'd still slowly lose his humanity and become the ice cold robot that harms people. But with the scroll, zanes worst nightmare is magnified to the entire realm and it becomes EVERYONES worst nightmare. The formlings are suffering bc of it.

And the empire that zane overthrew? Couldve been a good person from ninjago. Left there to become the very thing he was fighting against. So before zane THIS was the guy that was inflicting horrors on everyone else. And maybe this is the guy that lloyd sees himself turning into (on top of garmadon of course). Perhaps this is the guy aspheera thinks of when she sends wu to this realm. A realm that breaks your mind.

A realm that never lets you feel hope.

The realm is meant to isolate and torture anyone entering, otherwise where would it get that reputation? And maybe the core message could be confronting your potential dark side. Relying and trusting your friends to have your back through the good times but also with your shortcomings. A really funny way the ninja couldve overpowered the realm is cancelling each others worst fears out with each other. Which was why zane wasnt able to, bc he was alone. Not quite sure how that'd work with their specific fears, but its in line with the power of friendship. Yippee.

ORRRRRR, Im just warping what the original intent of the seasons was. And aspheera was just wrong and only said that bc snakes are cold blooded and would freeze in this cold climate. And wu was told never to go there bc he could never return.

But that doesnt satisfy me.

[depizan]

Oh man, the next book club is going to be awkward. The book we read is one of another member's childhood faves (or maybe still faves), and it is just so painfully not my thing.

I am just so not into special characters. Yes, I can think of at least two exceptions to that, neither of which I can really explain. Sometimes, I am a twelve year old boy.

So, I get it from that standpoint. Sometimes, my fellow book club goer is a twelve year old girl. It's not that I don't understand why someone would like the book. It's not even that I think the book is bad. It is just not my thing.

But I feel bad when someone puts a book they really, really like on the book club list and then I don't like it. I mean, I'm also the group member who doesn't like anything, so it's not like anyone's ever surprised when I don't like the selection. (Though I've been mildly surprised that people have liked the books I've suggested. Apparently, what I like falls in the circles of the Venn diagram of what other people like, but their circles are muuuuuuch bigger than mine.)

The problem is, there are a couple things about the book that I'd like to talk about and see how other people felt about them. And I'm not sure how to talk about them without kind of critiquing the book. Because it's supposed to be feminist, but it's...basically it's got the reverse of the problem of things like Dragon Age or SW:TOR, where real world sexism wanders confusingly into a world that shouldn't have it. Here, the world is supposed to be sexist, but doesn't feel like it, so the main character has all this internalized sexism that the men around her don't seem to have.

She trades places with her twin brother so she can be a knight and he can be a sorcerer, because girls can't be knights. But the plot isn't about that. And the two times people find out she's a girl, they don't even seem to understand why she's disguising herself. They certainly don't have any issue with her doing the things she's doing. It's like the world's sexism only exists in her mind.

Worse, there's this subplot where there's a bully and she has to go learn to fight dirty so she can beat him, and then she does and he gets sent away. But nobody seems to back the bully (or like the bully) and there's this scene that kind of suggests the rest of the kids are letting her handle it because that's how she's chosen to handle it. So, again, she's the one with this weird machismo thing going on.

The actual plot of the book (character starts training to be a knight, learns skills, makes friends, and eventually helps do in an ancient evil along side her friend, the prince) isn't predicated on her disguise. It isn't predicated on the world being sexist enough to need her disguise. The whole disguised as a boy thing is just completely irrelevant. It's like if Mulan ran off to join the army as a boy...just because. And then Shang's only response to finding out she was a girl was to be embarrassed that she'd seen him naked. Why is this premise even in the book in the first place???

(I kind of skimmed a summary of the rest of the series and it's not clear it ever matters. I am so confused.)

It's just random added drama, except there's never any drama.

And part of me is just like: maybe if we hadn't wasted time on this unimportant side "plot," there would've been time to show the effort she put into learning her skills and to foreshadow the weird evil city thing at the end (and no, one prophetic image does not foreshadowing make). I just wanted something to feel earned. But noooo she's just special and chosen by the goddess and gets good at everything off camera. It's like the author found a boring way to write the opposite of everything I like. (Which, I suppose, is better than the usual opposite of everything I like, where in I swear a lot and threaten to huck the book out the window.)

Bah. I suppose this is what happens when you read books for twelve year old girls when you are not (and have never been) a twelve year old girl.

[professoruber]

Thoughts of Birds of Prey (2023-) #6

Spoilers for Birds of Prey (2023-) #6

So the newest issue of the current Birds of Prey comic has recently come out and I guess since I took the time to make multiple fairly long-ish posts about this run, I should go over my thoughts here.

To sum things up... I thought it okay but also not really too big of a fan by the end of it. I didn't exactly dislike it, but I guess it left me with too many questions and felt a bit too contrived. It was enjoyable enough, but kinda felt like my enjoy-ness of it decreased with each subsequent issue. It wasn't bad, but I guess that's my knee-jerk fresh reaction.

Of course, it still possible that there is more to the story than there is now and that future issues will reveal new information which might clear up some of my issues more, I'll be discussing that as well...

Note again that I am a novice in comics, and Gotham Academy was one of the first I read fully so perhaps I'm biased in that area. But to go over my thoughts for why I kinda feel slightly disappointed in more detail...

What was the point of Meridian?

Warning of future doom, apparently. So as it turns out, the real reason that Barbara wasn't include was because she died eleven times already

(the fact that this was far from Meridian's first attempt was foreshadowed last issue with her noting where the last battle "always is"). So someone is out to get the Birds of Prey, and they're possibly using Future Maps time travel tech to do it.

While this does somewhat answer the question of why Barbara was specifically excluded; still doesn't explain the secrecy.

Like, all these visions of Barbara dying have her in her Batgirl outfit, so couldn't she just have been informed she'd die and asked to oversee the mission as Oracle? Or does that also somehow lead to her death?

Being kept in the loop would also presumably have greatly helped avoid awkward feelings like this. And from what I know of Barbara, her tactical mind is probably more valuable than her martial art skills. But I guess whatever evil time traveller is targeting the BoP would've found a way to get to Babs anyway? (also on a side note; Barbara getting hurt by not being included was at least one thing I kinda predicted. My other, more thougt-out predictions though... well I'll get to those in a bit)

It also confirms that Dinah indeed did not apparently get any explanation for why she had to exclude Barbara until after the mission was complete and.... that feels weird?

Like I said, I'm a novice on comics (although I am now definitely adding more Birds of Prey stuff to my to-read list) so I'm not the biggest expert on these characters. Nevertheless it feels that Black Canary here would've agreed to attack Wonder Woman and her people while excluding Oracle all on the word of a time traveller she's likely never met before (and in the present is a teenager who she's likely never met before either) without even demanding a damn good explanation first.

I guess it was more dramatic from a story perspective for Meridian to reveal this stuff now and set up the next arc. But it still just feels contrived to me. Maybe I'm overlooking/overthinking something though?

Meridian's Motives

So I've gone over a theory before that Meridian was in fact evil and possibly even connected to Megaera. That theory was not confirmed, or overly supported, by this. And it does seem like Meridian is probably on the up-and-up.

Perhaps I'm a tad biased/sunk-cost fallacy right now since I spent a decent amount of time on the theory of Meridian being evil, but still worth noting that this mission ended up Megaera possessing Sin, albeit with Sin in control (and presumably actually in control because Megaera said Sin was in control while Sin used the lasso on her).

There's still quite a few similarities between Meridian and Megaera which are a bit difficult to overlook (you can check out the link I placed above where i went into more detail into that).

Its worth noting as well that Meridian mentioned that whichever evil time traveller is targeting the BoP, they're using her technology most likely. An interesting detail, and one which raises q

Could it be Meridian is hiding something still? All the information we know about the future and her motives comes from her after all.

Or could it be she's being controlled without her knowledge? Or a second Meridian is up and about?

Perhaps it seems like I'm still focusing a disproportionate amount on Meridian, but she still remains the driving force behind all this issues of the narrative which have somewhat hurt my enjoyment and given me questions.

And to repeat what I've said before. Meridian seems like a strange direction for the character of Maps Mizoguchi.

As I've alluded to before, I'm probably quite biased in this area because I've read Gotham Academy years ago before I really got into comics like I have recently and it was one of the first runs I've finished and stuff.

Maps is a character who wants to be Robin. And that's the path which she seems to have been developed upon during her fairly recent return.

Given how still early she is in her storyline of becoming Robin (or some other kind of vigilante) it just still feels like a strange choice for Maps Mizoguchi of all people to show up as a time traveling hero with a persona and skillset which seems in stark contrast to her every prior appearance.

Meridian does not appear to be a martial artist, Maps doesn't appear to be a tech genius. Magic would seem like a more likely 'superpower' than super-tech for Maps considering the more supernatural focus of Gotham Academy.

Maps has been established with a preference for swords while Meridian is only shown fighting using a fancy taser.

Am I thinking too deeply into it? Probably, yes.

But still feels like an overall strange decision to introduce Future Maps in such a manner. Especially when Present Maps has only returned to semi-focus in recent years and still hasn't really developed too much in her own current goals (such as being Robin).

So taking a character who's still in need of a bit more focus and development and then giving them a future persona which is at contrast to their current development chain? Seems odd.

Also at first i just assumed Meridian comes from a post-apocalyptic future which would be retconned out of the timeline by this arc. But Meridian's comments about how she doesn't take time travel lightly and is trying to right the timeline suggests she does not in fact come from a post-apocalyptic timeline.

So does that mean Maps is destined to become Meriden?

Again, this is probably my bias due to Gotham Academy nostalgia. But I'm not sure if I'm too much of a fan of this direction for her.

Especially, as I keep noting, Present Maps has only barely gotten started on working on becoming Robin (or any-kind of vigilante); but Meridian seems to suggest Maps is going to drop her current direction and go in a completely different direction at some point in the future.

Well those of my thoughts I guess. I suppose I'll see how things develop from here.

While I did find the Birds of Prey quite well-drawn so far and fairly enjoyable. All this thoughts I've gone over and the general feeling this arc was a tad contrived has all somewhat mitigated my enjoyment.

[deck16]

The War Within -- One Month of Play

I recently completed a month in The War Within, the newest expansion for World of Warcraft.

My thoughts and experiences below. This is not an objective review. I talk about the expansion, but also my takes on modern WoW.

This is the final scene of the story. Two old characters reflect on all that's happened, and foreshadow more to come. It's low-key for an ending; I liked it.

Play and Pay Philosophy

The one-month play-time was very purposeful.

Basically, I wanted to experience the War Within and its story while paying a minimal amount to Blizzard. I have no interest in end-game content.

I went through the story. I did a lot of side-quests. I dipped my toes into dungeons, delves, and battlegrounds.

I'm in two thoughts about the cost. On one had, the cost of expansion and one month subscription is high, compared to other games, even other MMOs. On the other hand, the cost-per-hour is quite competitive with many other leisure activities.

When big patches come out, or maybe when the final big patch for this expansion comes out, I might pay to experience what's been added.

I play mostly with a friend. In this article, I will call this friend "Angel Summoner". The reasoning for that will be made clear.

Angel Summoner (left) and me. Enjoying the pretty scenery.

The Usual Stuff

Just quickly, mentioning stuff WoW pretty much always does well:

The zones are gorgeous.

The music is great. (Draenor's OST is still my favourite, though.)

The art design is vibrant and stylish, not graphic-card-melting fidelity.

"Jaina?" "What is it, Champion? You've found a way to stop Xal'atath?" "Can I have a mana biscuit and a portal to Stormwind?"

Story

The plot was mediocre and shallow. Mind you, I don't expect much from an MMO.

Overall I was more interested in the smaller stories. There's a touching quest chain about helping a character face his imminent death, passing on his legacy and helping him with his final wishes. He develops dementia as the quest carries on. It's both simple and touching. It's a fantasy twist on something very real. I'll remember that simple quest far longer than any of the more action-packed ones.

You do a lot of heart-warming heroics in War Within, and I don't mind it. Lots of saving people and communities, often who are misunderstood rather than evil. This may well be the best way to take WoW's story after its really rough ride through recent expansions. Certainly yet another faction war would be utterly farcical.

Speaking of farcical, I am glad War Within's villain is relatively low-key. WoW's parade of world-ending threats was getting very silly. Recent expansions have toned things down. I can believe a world where there are crises in some places all of the time, or in all places some of the time, but not all places all of the time!

"Andiun?" "Quiet, Champion. Khadgar speaks!" "But... Andiun?" "WHAT?" "Can I get a Blessing of Kings?"

Characters

The main cast of characters managed to rise out of the mediocre main story and hold some interest. They're simple characters painted in broad themes undergoing trope-y arcs but that works in an MMO story.

The villain Xal'atath is quite cliche: she's the femme version of a mustache-twirling villain, part temptress and part schemer with a cold heart and a wry smirk. She's my favourite character of War Within.

This is Xal'atath. She never wears shoes.

I love WoW's attention to certain little details, even if I miss 98% of them. I was saying to Angel Summoner: "What happened to the cake-selling NPC by the bank? According to the story, she should be down here somewhere!" I was joking, of course. I purposefully picked the least consequential NPC I could think of.

But lo, we found her. The game called my bluff. That made me smile.

Flight and Precision Bombing

Flight is pretty cool in War Within. It takes all the best stuff from Dragonflight, but expands it to other mounts (and druid forms) while also letting it be unlocked right from the start.

I had a lot of fun zooming around in my druid flight form! The speed is exhilarating, and the speed/altitude mechanics are involved enough that flight is something active, not something you get up for to get a sandwich.

"Up in the air, sky high, zoom-zoom-a-zoom-a-zoom-zoom." The views can be spectacular.

But easy, efficient flight has its downsides.

Firstly, I did feel a little sad I was zooming over the scenery at Mach 5 rather than stopping to look at it. But this is a fairly minor complaint: I'm sure people playing for more than a month will eventually see the sights even if only during brief pauses between hypersonic jaunts.

A bigger downside is how it can trivialise quests. Angel Summoner and I would fly in at Mach 5 and crash into the quest objective (crashing isn't harmful). We'd nab the quest then launch skyward away, barely twenty seconds down and another quest complete.

In both complaints, flight comes at the cost of experiencing a journey. Either scenic and cross-country, or tactical across enemy-infested terrain.

You might say, "so don't fly as much, slow yourself down". Yes, that's not an unfair point. There's a deeper discussion to be had about game-imposed and self-imposed limits.

I'm not saying that flight should be removed or locked away for later-game. Because that wouldn't be fun either. I'm just saying there's pros and cons to flight.

Angel Summoner and BMX Bandit

I played much of War Within with a friend. This friend had good gear from the previous expansion. And due to overzealous harvesting he managed to be a couple of levels above me.

A bit of previous-expansion gear and a few levels shouldn't make a difference, right?

Wrong. I felt like the BMX Bandit; totally overshadowed by Angel Summoner.

I may as well not be playing. I was essentially watching a Let's Play with the inconvenience of having to follow my character along in his footsteps from quest-giver to quest-giver.

This was after a number of concessions, mind you! Angel Summoner picked a tanking (not DPS) spec, and purposefully used weaker gear.

This problem lessened as I reached level cap and got better gear. Eventually we were on equal-enough footing, but two-thirds of the game had been played by that point.

(Questing when we were both closer in power was the most fun. "Round 'em up!" we'd chant; I'd dash about flinging Moonbeam and bring everyone nearby into the cluster of death around Angel Summoner. We'd routinely finish "kill X things" quests in one pull.)

WoW is meant to be an MMO. MMOs are things you play with friends. And to be fair, WoW has made improvements with cross-server play, cross-faction play, and level-scaling party sync.

Why could they not get this right? I'm not asking for totally even and equal power, but I would've liked for the gaping chasm of difference to be reduced somewhat.

"They're a fish-finding duo, d-d-d-d-duo-oh yeah!" You can even see the disparity in fishing rod! 😅

Questing

Questing is enjoyable for story and scenic reasons. Skill-wise, it's pretty dull.

In a group, questing is liable to be too easy, but at least you can challenge yourself by fighting a crowd of foes.

Solo -- which is how I suspect most people do it -- is a strange thing. In most solo action games, you encounter different threats and different challenges: you have to use your array of skills differently to advance.

Contrast with WoW solo questing: you beat a bad guy, then repeat. Sometimes you run into a spot of bother and must use your more powerful limited-use abilities. Beyond their cosmetics and some milquetoast pyrotechnic abilities, enemies vary little.

This is pretty much the same gameplay as vanilla. How have we seen no substantial improvements in the intervening time? We know WoW can do interesting PvE ... grab one of Battle for Azeroth's PvE battlegrounds, slap that in a zone, and let the players work together to push back routinely-encroaching nerubians by fighting direct or by doing supporting quests.

Deep in spider territory.

Dungeons and Delves

Delves are cool mini-dungeons you can do on your own or with a group. They're fairly short, satisfyingly challenging, and have varied and interesting mechanics going on. I like 'em a lot. The ability to go solo or with any number of friends is one of those places WoW is taking down barriers to playing with friends.

Dungeons can now be played solo or with less than the full five-man group; in either case you get bot team-mates. They're not bad: effort has been made to make them unique individuals, and you can have cute little interactions with them. They seem to be super-powered -- the limiting factor to me pulling huge amount of enemies onto them was that I'd die, not them, even with the tank-bot being very proactive. But I've not tried the higher difficulties, to be fair.

My bot buddies during one of the delves. Orcs rubbing shoulders with dwarves shows that times are changing!

Much of War Within can be played solo, and I have mixed thoughts about that. Part of me thinks its sad to play an MMO solo; it defeats the "MM" part. But then I consider that WoW largely abandoned the first "M" years ago. WoW is decreasingly a game about being out there, in the world, mixing with the population of your server. And I appreciated being able to see dungeons and such without being rude to other players.

Waiting for a boss to spawn...

PvPeeved

I'm never going to be competitive in the more intimate player-vs-player modes like Arena. But the bigger, looser Battlegrounds are something I've enjoyed in the past.

WoW has flirted with making gear less relevant (mattering only a few percent). So I was sad to see, after freshly reaching max level in War Within, that I was not 5% or 10% weaker than Battleground players; but more like 50% or even 70% weaker.

Worse, my understanding is that if I catch up with PvP gear now, the ceiling will only get raised in the near future.

I despise the thought of grinding to be competitive. It's like joining a tennis club and having to play the first ten games in leaden shoes. There is not any player-positive justification for this.

This is an easy problem to solve, as I mentioned above. Other MMOs have figured it out. Give identical gear, or an identical range of gear to select from. If you must have things to unlock, make them cosmetic only or side-grades. If you must have upgrades, make them minor; people are still going to want them.

In WoW, it must come down to money. Do grind-happy PvPers subscribe longer than grind-adverse casuals like me?

Co-op past and present. Angel Summoner has Skullflame shield, like me! I remember getting mine in vanilla-era WoW, from some random bug or cultist in Silithus, while trying to get to max level. I didn't even get it: a co-op party-member did. They couldn't use shields and so handed it to me.

The Mash

I don't think it's controversial to say that to do well in modern-era WoW, you've got to hammer a lot of keys.

I hate it.

Firstly, much of the mashing is for stupid things. You need to react to character-internal states that have a percentage chance of appearing when doing certain things. That kind of thing is not fun, is not interesting, and it has zero to do with what's actually going on around you in combat.

This is one of many examples. It isn't specified in the text, but there's a window of opportunity to use this. How's this for a less obnoxious version: extend the time-limit to end of combat, and if you get it again while you already have it you keep your existing instance but the newly-incoming instance auto-casts Regrowth on you. Only a tiny bit more powerful while being oh-so-less irritating.

Secondly, it's just not healthy to do. Hardcore WoW players suffer for the button-mashing they do many hours a day, many days a week. I'm talking about RSI and that sort of thing.

Related: it's not good accessibility. The sad reality is that you often can't bring disabled players up to the level of able-bodied people in action-oriented games. But to have pointless systems and even more pointless rules is to just treat them with disdain.

(Press and hold casting is so limited -- and apparently bad -- that it's a slap in the face more than a useful solution.)

As a programmer by career, I managed to use tools like WeakAuras and GSE to lighten the mental and physical irritation of WoW mash-fetish. The fact I can write a fairly simple algorithm that optimally uses many of my character's skills shows how shallow the system is. Imagine if a few dozen lines of code could make you a competitive chess or Street Fighter player?

The hacking mini-game in War Within is so insipidly easy it's a joke. It makes me miss the turtle one.

Conclusion

Mixed feelings!

I felt I got my money's worth. The story and characters were decent enough and I enjoyed taking my druid out for a spin and playing co-op.

But so many of WoW's long-term follies reminded me of why I haven't been a long-term subscriber for years.

[theharrowing]

Revisit Thoughts:

WHO'S READY FOR SOME LORE!!!! WHOOOOO!!!!

let's dive in!!! (less of a pun because they are in a tub this time and not the pool.)

oh, i remember looking at different types of rich people bathrooms and being frustrated with describing this one. googling whether or not you could add liquid bubble bath to a tub with jets was a reprieve tho, and allowed me to add some lighthearted humor that i otherwise would not have thought to add.

idk if it is a common thing to suddenly feel like a dark, empty space could be haunted, but i feel like scurrying from room to room (or walking with closed eyes) is something i have done since i was a kid. (unprovoked. nothing has ever happened to me in the dark. [knock on wood.])

"I'll always be here for you, Jimin," you respond, and you are certain that you mean it. 

oof. i don't think i even knew what i was foreshadowing with this little piece of dialogue. if you know you know. i definitely did not have anything for later solidly planned until chapter 12.

take a shot every time mc says "i have questions" in this fic. (need to take 2 shots for chapter 7! title doesn't count.)

"...You are not simply a strategic move to strengthen the families. For one, you have no family."

💀💀💀 Jimin with the hard truths hahaha. also Jimin proving that he knows at least something about mc's background...

YOU KNOW WHAT. i'm renaming this chapter. from "never a dull moment" to "we know everything, dove."

i would say "take a shot whenever one of these men says 'like what you see?'" but that might result in alcohol poisoning for anyone binging the chapters.

i added an entire paragraph to the toothbrush scene. 🙈🙊

listen: idk why i make my mcs always have a daddy kink PLEASE don't @ me about it OKAY.

ooohhhh lore time, lore time, lore time.

i loved writing out this dream sequence so much. although she really hates this man and describes aspects of him as ugly, i really hope that it is the way he behaves and how he fails to care for himself that gives him that title and not actually anything to do with his looks or body type (which i intentionally left vague but we'll learn that he is Seungri from Big Bang lol.) i don't like perpetuating a narrative that ugly people are inherently evil. this ain't no disney villain.

“How long does it take Seokjin to drive back here, for fuck’s sake?” Hoseok complains as he checks his watch. “He said he was picking up Jeongguk thirty-five minutes ago.”

i had already written Jungkook's POV (which is listed after this chapter because it takes place at the same time) so adding this final scene with overlapping events from mc's point of view was so much fun.

oooh we also have more hints of 2seok being a thing™.

"Taehyung," Seokjin mutters. "I think he's been stabbed. There doesn't seem to be a lot of blood loss; I think he's delirious from being high." Beside you, both Yoongi and Namjoon let out a deep sigh. 

i laughed when i wrote this, and i am laughing again as i read it. they're just like "what is it this time???" lmaooooooooooooo.

what a fun chapter. slowly, they are growing in length and becoming more complex, both in terms of story and in terms of emotional turmoil.

added Slow Running by Miso as the song for this chapter!

(lol @ seeing author notes where i apologize for slow updates because college has caused my life to spiral. same, same a year later lmaoooo.)

Collateral 🗡️ 10: We know everything, dove

Your ex-boyfriend gets in over his head working for the local mafia, and Boss Min has come to collect his payment: You.

But was it simply a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time? Or has he always had his sights on you?

PREVIOUS | INDEX | NEXT

🗡️ Yoongi x Female Reader x Namjoon 🗡️ word count: 12k 🗡️ mafia au, strangers to lovers, graphic violence, major character injury, poly, smut, angst, fluff, nsfw, explicit, 21+ 🗡️ warnings: daddy kink, fingering & oral sex, squirting, graphic depictions of violence with blood, vomiting, character injury

🗡️ beta read by @neoneunnajimin! <3 

🗡️ posted sept. 2022 | read on ao3

Steam fogs up the ensuite quickly as Yoongi’s large tub fills with hot water. Yoongi’s bathroom is, quite frankly, ridiculous. Everything is black marble with gold accents and light wood cabinet doors. Along one wall is a sink with two large vessel bowls and a large mirror. 

Past the sink and a modest toilet is a shower that is nearly a room of its own, with glass walls and doors, several ceiling-mounted shower heads, and tile shelves along one wall. On the other side is a spacious cabinet across from the sink, and near the shower is a square, black jacuzzi tub, which is large enough to fit four or five people.

Jimin sits on the closed lid of the toilet seat while you dig through Yoongi’s cabinets, sighing at the lack of bath-related items. While a glittery bath bomb may not be the best idea for a tub with jets, you had hoped for a nice scented bubble bath to act as aromatherapy to ease Jimin’s nerves.

“I’m going to run to my bathroom quickly, okay?” you ask, and Jimin nods, though his eyes stay glued to a fixed point ahead. 

You move quickly, scurrying from Yoongi’s room to yours. The mansion feels eerie with everyone gone or asleep and with most of the lights dimmed, so you opt not to linger and find out if it happens to be haunted as you run through your room to grab a bottle of eucalyptus-scented bubble bath from your bathroom shelf and run back.

Keep reading

[avocado-frog]

Dahlia. 12

ao3

-HOW ARE WE FEELING ABOUT THIS CHAPTER EVERYONE

-I forgot what happens in it and my live reaction seeing the content warnings was "😃"

-Another cut part: Kai and Marcy were going to be added but I didn't know where. Also, Cass was going to be in the woods with Jaxon. For Kai and Marcy I was thinking about a mansion in the forest like in Minecraft. It was going to be a haunted house sort of thing. Elliot probably watched the haunted mansion a couple times, that's where that would've come from

I don't know if I mentioned Elliot naming one of his imaginary little guys after one of Jupiter's moons. Nerd

"Real Dylan had found him, glared at fake Dylan for a long moment, and tapped his shoulder" Dylan's jealousy arc lmao

Jaxon's here yay

That foreshadowing is ILLEGAL

Ryan and Dylan go to hell

That OTHER bit of foreshadowing is ALSO illegal

I wrote the graveyard scene with a tub of ice cream in my hand but the ice cream tub was covered up by seven paper towels because i don't like my hands to be cold. I am a homosexual

My characters might be freezing to death but at least my hands are warm :)

Dahlia AU where everything is the same but the song Lily's humming is Frozen's Let it Go

Anyways the graveyard scene was switched for a circus one that's going to be in a different chapter. Originally, the only characters that were going to appear in the dream was Leo and Jaxon. Everyone else was added last minute

By last minute I mean I wrote Lily into this one yesterday

Story time: one time I had to wait outside in 10 degree (fahrenheit) weather for the bus for 45 minutes because the school kicked me out while it was snowing and I only had a t-shirt because I wasn't expecting it to snow that day and I didn't want to move because I was so cold so I just had an armful of school supplies that kept dropping out of my fingers because I couldn't move them so i lost like all my pencils for the rest of the school year and anyways that's how I wrote the graveyard scene

"You're small," Dylan signed, hands moving quick against the wind. "Fit through the bars." DYLAN FFS

"Two points, because watching Dylan fall into the snow was funny." RYAN FFS

Writing the parts with the other kids is a little hard because I have to remember that I'm not writing them as their characters, I'm writing them as how Elliot perceives them

That said, Jaxon dying does not mean Elliot wants Jaxon to die

And I'm not even touching the thing about the Leo demon yet

There's a running theme where the characters are like "hey watch out for the horrors" and the horrors never show up and yeah. that is on purpose. there is little to no real threat going on. Only in the places where Elliot himself would feel really threatened/afraid is there something to be scared of (sam/ryan's room, the docks, the lab) while the clown in the circus is taken care of by someone else, and while the forest and graveyard are something spooky, there's lily and jaxon there to help. In the docks, the lab, and his brother's rooms, there isn't anyone to help him, and they're the only places with real evil guys

GOD i can't wait to infodump about dahlia later

---

(tw for the next section for descriptions of hanging/dead people)

FOREST- A dark wood, with dark gray grass, covered in fog and black trees. Jaxon lives here. There are nooses hanging from the branches, and a beeping heart monitor that does not stop. The bodies in the trees are unidentifiable. Level: five

AUTOPHOBIA- The fear of being alone. Takes form as the fog covering the forest, making it near-impossible to see any sort of guide. JAXON can help guide you home. Non-hostile. Level: three

NYCTOPHOBIA- The fear of the dark. Joining AUTOPHOBIA, it is not a visible demon. It makes it harder to see in the FOREST. JAXON can help guide you home. Non-hostile. Level: three

JAXON- Gray skin and gray eyes, with black hair. Wears a black jacket and gray pants, has a red string around his neck. He lives in the forest, and leads people through. Non-hostile, Jaxon's purpose is simply to help, by any means necessary. Level: three

GRAVEYARD- A never-ending cemetery covered in a thick snow. Close to the GARDEN, the CIRCUS, and the LAB. Chance of being attacked by GHOSTS. LILITH will defend you. Level: three>

LILITH- Skin paper-white, blonde hair floats in the sharp wind. Wears a white dress. In the GRAVEYARD. Warm. She will attack the ghosts, but will not attack you. Non-hostile. Level: two

[dinitride-art]

Possessiongate and Will in S2- or Why Mike is Completely Fucked

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA- OKAY so, I had the great idea to go into season two and try and see if there was anything similar about Will’s possession in relation to what we might be seeing with Mike- And oh my fucking god- you guys aren’t gonna believe this shit

First of fucking all, we’ve got ‘Loch Nora’. Y’know with the purple and yellow flowers there and just a few red ones (reocurring imagery for season 2 but I don’t have TIME for that in this post- it’ll be in the next one when I get to it I swear). Really similar to ‘Lenora’ and Mike’s flowers that he gave to El. This is also where Will has his second episode. 

Look at his left eye.

Look at this absolutely horrifying level of forethought. And subtle visual storytelling. And, no, it doesn’t even stop with just this.

Like even just in this one we see Will’s left eye get scary dark. Like, this was put in here before we even knew about Vecna or before the show introduced his lore into the canon. Like??????

Now, I’m putting Mike in here because how Mike is being lit in season two is exactly how Will is being lit in season four. It is literally so wild. They’ve literally traded places. AND it makes sense for them to be lit this way because they are each others ‘light’. In season four Max’s whole plan was to hide in the light and maybe the reason that Mike and Will are being lit like this

Is because they’re trying to hide in the light to fight off Vecna (/the mind flayer)- by looking to each other

And here to, it’s more subtle- but in their backgrounds are very different. Mike’s in front of the light while Will’s in front of the dark (and in front of a blue light so that’s a point for blue lights meaning possession). I’ve done nearly a 30 part analysis of lighting in season four so I’m not gonna include any more examples of Will being in the light but trust me. He is. Exactly like Mike is here.

In the car with Bob, while talking about standing up to whatever’s bothering Will- Will’s left eye is dark. Like, this is a consistent thing that’s happening whenever the Mind Flayer comes into play. It’s also seems to be a thing for Mike too in season four- which is where I FIRST noticed the possibility that a darkened left eye could indicate possession by Vecna. And now I’m checking season 2 and ohhh it’s breaking my brain. Snapping it like a little twig- like how Jonathan snapped steve’s face in that alley in season 1. 

This is just to add to the ‘Mike’s definitely being lit different in season 2′. This is consistently happening/it’s very intentional. And it’s paralleling season four so god damn hard.

Okay, so when Will stood up to the Mind Flayer- it didn’t go very well. Like, at all. But I wanted to note that this Upside Down is blue and in episode nine of season four the two colour themes are red and blue. This is just adding to the season 2 and 4 parallel list- because I think that they’re meant to parallel each other/relflect each other. I don’t for sure know why, but I’ve known that this has been happening with the plot for a few months. I have a hunch it’s got something to do with time and or the Upside Down just as like general themes-

BUT ENOUGH OF THAT. BAck to why Mike’s definitely (most likely-probably- I’m pretty sure on this one. But keeping a healthy margin of error) being possessed in season 4. Kids head is not full of rocks, just an evil man trying to steal his brain. It’s a much more forgivable offence.

There is a focus on Will’s eyes at the start of episode four. And we might be able to kinda start to see even here Will’s left eye darken/be in shadow.

AND THEN IT BEGINS.

This right here- look at his eye- look at it. I have been staring at it and I am on the floor. Who does this??? Who puts this much shit into the god damn foreshadowing?? The Duffers apparently, mad lads.

It’s a lot subtler here but you can still see the difference between Will’s right and left eye. His left eye bag is just slightly darker than the right. Well, not slightly, but it’s not really noticeable unless you’re looking for it.

This is episode five and there’s a few things that are scaring me here. First of all, that jaws poster in Will’s room. It was also there when Mike and Will were having their ‘best friends’ heart to heart- and honestly? A lot of the heart to hearts in season four are Will trying to comfort Mike. And by doing that they’re paralleling a lot of what happens with Mike and Will in season two. They’ve just traded spots. But that poster is in a different position in relation to Mike in season four. It’s directly behind him- like how it’s in line with Will if that makes sense? Who we’re meant to notice who it’s about has changed.

Also Will’s eye gets SCARY here. Like creepy af

It’s getting a lot clearer here what they’re doing with Will’s left eye but in a way that we wouldn’t of had the slightest chance of even knowing to look at it without season four. Without Vecna being introduced, there would be very little reason to look at Will’s (and Mike’s- fucking Mike. Jesus. I can’t.) left eye. 

A few other thing that season 2 Will and season 4 Mike have in common;

Black shoes with white laces.

Being really fucking out of it and confused.

Blue god damn lights. There’s a lot more of these that are probably better examples, like Mike from the Monologue and Will in the Upside Down during episodes where all the lights are blue- but I just didn’t want to go searching for them.

Believing the person they love about somethin that fucks them both over/doesn’t work or go as planned

So, Michael, your head is not filled with rocks. You’ve just been trying to fend off the evil man who is trying to take over your mind. Welp.

Babygirl you’re possessed.

[nona-la-nona]

Gideon the Ninth re-read part three:

- Once again, I am always struck by how emotionally small Harrow is with the added context of Harrow the Ninth. Like she is constantly afraid, constantly conspiring, constantly stressed to no ends. She is constantly trying to make a sacrifice of two-hundred dead children mean something, anything. Because if the Ninth House is absorbed by another house, then why was she even created? 

- This becomes abundantly clear during the first trial. Harrow is constantly asking why she can’t just do it alone. 

- It’s so fucking funny to me that Harrow is actually really really threatened by Palamedes. 

- Harrow being terrified of the party. Gideon not understanding why she’s scared when all Gideon has ever seen Harrow as up until these trials and these moments as all powerful, cruel, and in her element. 

- Harrow really is Terezi from Tamsyn’s The Serendipity Gospels. 

- The Third and Sixth Houses had arrived all at once, the drab moth of Palamedes making the golden butterfly of Coronabeth Tridentarius all the more aureate and fair. They were sizing each other up like prize fighters. Do I think this is Nona foreshadowing? Absolutely. I am a big believer in Coronabeth as being a contender for a primary antagonist (in the same way Ianthe constantly is shocking the plot and audience) and that’s why I think she is complacent in some way in everything that is happening to the Sixth House in Nona the Ninth.

- Dulcinea, opposite, kissed her hand to Gideon twice before Gideon had even sat down. PALAMEDES IS SITTING RIGHT THERE NEXT TO GIDEON WHEN THIS HAPPENS. HE IS LITERALLY RIGHT THERE. He literally thinks that one of his best friends of a decade, the woman he proposed to and fought to preserve her life, is not only ghosting him, but also flirting with another person RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM. This is why these books are still so good on a second read. Moments like this hit even harder with the context. I am screaming, Pal that’s not her!!!! Pal!!!! She wanted to marry you too!!! Palamedes the real Dulcinea loved you!!! aaaaaaaaaa.

- Cytherea talking to Abigail at the dinner, realizing that she’s going to have to kill her. I am- oh my god. This is a train wreck. This whole dinner is a foreshadowing train wreck. 

- “They’re [Sixth house records] kept in a box full of helium so they’ll outlast the heat death of Dominicus, Lady Pent.” Hey so, foreshadowing is a bitch and Tamsyn Muir is evil and I hate everything. But also, I cannot for the life of me really believe Tamsyn had all of this planned out, from the beginning. I am losing it. 

- I HAD FORGOTTEN THAT CORONABETH HAD TRIED TO KILL IANTHE IN THE WOMB. 

- “I liked that dinner. It was useful.” - Cytherea on that second re-read is really out here looking Gideon right in the eye and saying: ‘I’m a villain :D’ and Gideon cannot hear it. 

- Palamedes look of affection for what he believes to be the love of his life gets me every time. Every. Single. Time. 

- What’s so fascinating to me, though, is that Gideon is able to pick up on the look, but Cytherea doesn’t. And that’s her downfall. 

[fanficmaniatic]

The "Anti-Chat" Theory.

(Which is also why Chat Blanc 2.0 wont work and why Ladybug needs to be akumatized).

This is a turducken on my thoughts for S4 and the future of the show so just roll with it.

So, Season 4 has been wild so far, and if clues given by the writers and people involved in show are any indication, this is only the beginning, we are in for a bumpy ride and things are just going to keep getting worse.

In all the discourse revolving season 4 something that we are all mentioning is how “Chat Blanc” is still a thing and there is no guarantee it won’t happen again. If anything it now seems more likely Chat Noir will get akumatized considering the imminent Ladynoir fallout, and how Adrien is still living with his Father, as his isolation keeps getting worse. And though I am always In for some good Character angst, and I feel like it is necessary for Adrien to know about Chat Blanc, and/or for Chat Blanc to reappear, I don’t think Chat Blanc 2.0 is something Adrien nor the show needs right know.

This theory has many parts, I promise it all ties neatly at the end.

First things first, I may be a little biased, Chat Blanc is an episode I really enjoy. I love Time Travel shenanigans, and I was dying to see Adrien finally find out about his father. The heavy consequences of the episode were obviously erased, but the impact of it all still remains trough Marinette, whom we see in the episode ‘Sentibbubler’ is having nightmares about the whole thing. But still, I love the episode, and I really don’t want an “Stormy Weather 2”… which is an episode I heavily dislike, compared to THE BEST formulaic episode of the Whole show, a.k.a “Stormy Weather” a.k.a My favorite episode. So yeah, this whole first point is just me REALLY not wanting an episode called “Chat Blanc 2.0” But there is more to it, and is the fact that I don’t see how it could work out.

“Chat Blanc 2.0” is unnecessary, and the reason why is that bringing him back wouldn’t actually do anything besides perhaps bringing Ladynoir further apart. Ladybug still CAN’T know Chat noir’s identity, (Let’s be honest and admit that’s prolly s4 finale OR happening during s5) so the show would go out of its way to make his dialogue as plain as possible without mentioning his father being hawkmoth. And yes, I do realize that Chat has been bottling his emotions and it all is likely to come out during THE ladynoir fall out… But people are ignoring the elephant in the room which is that Chat Noir DOES NOT fight Ladybug.

I promise this is relevant.

Chat Noir, unless mind controlled, would never attack Ladybug. The most clear example of this is in “Gamer 2.0” when he straight up says “I could never bring myself to fight you” as he sacrifices himself for her, that added to their classic “Is us against the world, My Lady” every season finale, and Marinette’s “In case something happens to me” In ‘Optygami’, it all could pretty well be a foreshadowing of a Ladynoir fight, where Ladybug is akumatized, and Chat has to willingly fight her. Yes, one could argue that he did fight her during ‘Chat Blanc’, but it could also be read as more of him trying to make her listen.

Where am I going with this? Chat Blanc 2.0 would be unable to bring the nuance the story needs right now. Chat Blanc still wouldn’t fight his father, because I doubt they won’t leave that for season 5. Chat Blanc still doesn’t have a motive to actually fight Ladybug. But the most important part is… What would happen at the end? What would be the change? What conversation are we having? What would be different than what we got in the original Chat Blanc?

To be fair, maybe I am wrong, maybe it can work out, this is just a theory. Maybe all the things I crossed out as impossible will actually happen, but I have been watching the show for 6 years, and If I have learned something about it, is that it is a slow burn, in ALL the aspects.

So yes, I believe Ladybug/Marinette needs to be akumatized, but I also think that Adrien has to learn about Chat Blanc, and that Chat Blanc needs to reappear, having a bigger Role than just a nightmare. So… how does that tie with everything I just said? Easy, the “Anti- Chat” Theory’

So you probably remember “Anti-Bug”, one of the best episodes from season 1, where Chole tries to help Ladybug, she doesn’t listen, and Chloe ends up being akumatized into “Ladybug but evil” … In theory, that is the deal, and is no wonder I am picking Felix Graham De Vanily to fill this role.

From an animation perspective, Felix is the obvious choice, he is identical to Adrien, and if following Anti-bug’s logic in costume desing, that would mean they can reuse Chat Blanc model with no alteration needed.

Now, How would this work? By giving Ladybug a jump scare. She thinks she has to live one of her worst nightmares again, to then find out “Oh… This is not Chat Noir” while still creating enough tension, by looking scared and distraught, that she HAS to tell him that she is scared of him being akumatized WITHOUT actually needing to mention the alternative timeline. This gives Chat noir the chance to lash out, once he realizes this is part of why ladybug is keeping him away, which can lead to Ladybug’s future akumatization.

Why this way? And please hear me out. Chat Noir NEEDS to let his emotions out, and I don’t think lashing out at ladybug is the best way but I see it as necessary. Adrien needs to take on more responsibility while being Chat, but he also needs to learn how to healthy express his emotions, because he is not allowed to do that in his current situation. Ladybug being akumatized because she feels guilty about Chat Noir allows Adrien to do BOTH. Because to save Ladybug he would have to realize “My emotions are valid, and is okey to let them out, but the way I did it was not the right one”, and both Ladybug and Chat Noir would have to apologize because this whole thing is not miscommunication… is a misunderstanding of their partners character. Ladybug needs to relay more on Chat and Chat needs to take on more responsibility… it won’t happen if Ladybug is the one that needs to save Chat Noir.

Adrien needs to realize that he needs to save himself, and that there’s people outside of his father that care for him. Ladybug is this figure that he looks up to and Admires, and is from a side of his life that his father has no control over, (At least from his perspective). So if she forgives him, if they are able to fix their relationship he will realize that things can get better.

Now, going back to Anti-Chat… his deal is way bigger than just bringing The Ladynoir fight… Is about setting up seasons 6 and 7.

What do we know so far? The Love Square and Gabriel’s Hawkmoth is going to come to an end by season 5. Which has left many fans wondering “Then what is happening on seasons 6 and 7?” And the best answer we have so far is in the episode “Timetagger” where Bunnix reveals that there is a whole team of miraculous holders fighting the Hawkmoth of the future, which is by the same episode confirmed to not be Gabriel Agreste. Besides this, I think it is safe to assume that the specials are quietly setting up themes that could come back In seasons 6 and 7.

Now, when speaking about characters that could be future villains the fandom seems to have its collective mind set on two individuals: Lila Rossi, and Felix Graham De Vanily.

Besides ‘Rocketear’, (E17), ‘Wishmaker’ (E18), and the special ’Shadow Moth’s last attack’ (Eps 25&26) we don’t know the names of the episodes of the second half of the season, which is really uncommon for miraculous ladybug, and the reason they gave us as to why is “You would know who is akumatized based on the names”… Which AGAIN, is really uncommon for ML. If you have been in this fandom for a long time you’ll realize that most people working in the show don’t really seem to care about spoilers. Now, this is kinda a conspiracy theory, but If you saw that there was an episode called “Anti-Chat” would you have assume it was any one other than Felix?…. No, right? That’s what I though. Miraculous has proven that it is good at subverting expectations, so when they are pointing at something (like a Chat Blanc 2.0 episode) it may not be as we want or suspected it to be. So I think an Anti-Chat episode makes a lot of sense.

Now, Why am I saying that this can set up future season? Buckle up, pals, here we go. What do we know about Felix?

He is evil, or at the very least seems to be ill-intentioned, if his attitude and look at the end of his episode is anything to go by.

He is after jewelry. Which, yeah, was only shown in that one episode he appeared, but this could pretty much be a foreshadowing of him later on going after the miraculous.

We know that he is bound to appear 3 more times

For this theory to work, I need it to happen in episode 22… Yes, the feared 100th episode of the show. It is not as important why Felix is akumatized, but what is happening WHILE he is akumatized.

Besides what has already been discussed, with Ladybug being scared, Ladynoir should not be able to work together. They are tumbling on each other because Chat Noir feels like she doesn’t trust him, but Ladybug NEEDS his reassurance right now, which he wont give.

This, is directly parallel with what is happening between Anti-Chat and Shadow Moth. Because Felix, even though he wants the miraculous, he won’t let himself be bossed around. He is demanding things from SM, and like in Robustus, Anti-Chat tries to, not just take Ladybug’s and Chat noir’s Miraculous, he wants to destroy Hawkmoth too. Which will lead to Shadow Moth being the reason he gets de-akumatized, instead Ladybug and Chat Noir saving him... bringing more fuel to the Ladynoir fire.

Now, Why should Felix have an attitude with Shadow Moth? Well, my friends… Do you remember, years ago, when the producers of the show said “The peacock miraculous holder will make Hawkmoth look like a baby”…. That’s not Mayura. Nathalie is a great miraculous holder, and she is really clever. But instead of making Gabriel look like a baby, she makes him look smart because he has someone like her on his team. What I am saying with this is that Felix, will suspect/ figure out Gabriel is Hawkmoth at the en of Anti-Chat, and that he will get the peacock miraculous during “The Last attack of Shadow Moth.” Thus, setting up a villain for future seasons.

This makes Felix 3 appearances be: In episode 22 (Anti-Chat), In episode 26 (SM last attack, part 2), and during S5’s finale. Felix situation will be much like Lila’s during s1 and s2 where she was introduced at the end of the first but not used until the end of the second.

Conclusion:

Felix Graham de Vanily has the potential to be a future villain and bring the Ladynoir conflict to finally surface.

And to clarify, The Ladynoir conflict, just like this Felix theory, is not something that will, nor can get resolved in one episode. If anything the fight will be around the end of season 4, and it will get resolved during season 5.

But again, this is just a theory, and I will probably be death wrong, but who knows?

[allthefilmsiveseenforfree]

Old (2021)

Oh you guys. You guyyyyyys. Buckle the fuck up, I am so pumped to tell you about this absolutely GONZO mummified deuce of a movie. Spoilers will be had in this one, because you need to know everything. 

Old is the latest from M. Night Shyamalan and like....I think we all know M. Night’s track record. For every Sixth Sense, we also get a Happening or a Village. In some ways, he’s the most exciting director working today because every new film is a 50/50 coin toss, and mama loves living on the edge. The gist of this latest roll of the dice is that a group of different families who have all come to stay at a remote luxury beach resort get invited to go to a secluded private beach for the day, and after they arrive they discover they can’t leave. That’s not great, but the bigger problem is that they seem to be aging rapidly - like 2 years older every hour or so. That’s a solid “how are we gonna get outta this one” bottle episode premise, and in the hands of a better writer, it could be a fun sci-fi romp. M. is NOT that writer. 

Some thoughts:

I should have known it would all go wrong from the terrible foreshadowing starting at the very beginning scene. The mom of our main family, Prisca (Vicky Krieps) says “You have such a beautiful voice, I can’t wait to hear it when you’re older.” The dad, Guy (Gael Garcia Bernal) says, “Don’t rush this moment, enjoy the present while you can.” BECAUSE THE CHARACTERS WON’T BE ABLE TO LATER, DO YOU GET IT? dO yOU GEt iT? Wife leaned over and said “look at all the ferns - the oldest plants!” That last one was probably her projecting, but the point stands: there is nothing subtle about Old. 

There’s a lot of just like, shouting out loud the things that are currently happening onscreen. “She’s having a seizure!” “People who go back the way we came black out!” “The rust has entered your bloodstream; it acts like poison!” That’s how you tell stories, right? Just having characters point out events that are occurring right in front of their stupid fucking faces with no other commentary or reflection? 

An additional element that feels woefully ignorant at best and malicious at worst is the inclusion of a black male character (Aaron Pierre) who 1) is a rapper 2) is named Mid-Sized Sedan [I’ll give you a moment to deal with that detail emotionally] 3) says the single line of dialogue “Damn.” at least 4 times and 4) suffers the bloodiest, most violent onscreen death at the hands of a racist white man who is revealed to have paranoid schizophrenia. There are other gruesome deaths onscreen, to be sure, but the worst are body horror nightmares that could never occur in the real world - a woman whose bones are breaking and setting in the wrong position nearly instantaneously until she resembles a horrifying spider creature, and the aforementioned rust-in-the-bloodstream trick that leads to a Jeff-Goldblum-in-The Fly-bubbling-skin infection kinda deal. But Mid-Sized Sedan just gets stabbed in the chest repeatedly, brutally, a bunch of times by a white guy who pleads fear for his life even though MSS posed no danger to him, and it all happens onscreen when so many other characters are offered the mercy of offscreen deaths. I’m not sure if M. is trying to throw some real-world horror in and he’s just shit at it, or if it really didn’t occur to him how malicious this inclusion feels in a fantasy narrative, and I don’t really care. If you have a black character in your story and they die, you better think really long and hard about how it happens and what it means and it’s clear no one did that here.

Nothing to do with the film itself, but it did tickle me that someone brought a tiny infant to my pretty packed screening. The baby was very chill, thank goodness, and as far as I know did not age up to a kindergartner during the course of the film.

There is a Very Good Dog, a Yorkie, present for the first part of the film, but unfortunately the dog dies. It occurs offscreen, and given the premise of what’s going on on this beach, it’s not a shock when it happens BUT STILL. 

The old age makeup, at least on Prisca is pretty great. Good job makeup department!

At one point, Guy gets attacked by another beachgoer, and his eyesight is failing so he has a hard time fighting back. But you are surrounded by sand, my dude, and you can still see blurry shapes. You’re not gonna throw some sand in the eyes until you’ve been stabbed like 10 times? Not gonna try to push him down, or sweep the fucking leg, or do anything but just keep raising your arms and getting stabbed while yelling “I’ll protect you!” I’ve seen stale tuna sandwiches with better defense mechanisms than you. 

Like most fantastical premises, there are only a certain number of ways this narrative can end that really make any sense. It reminds me quite a bit of 2019’s Brightburn which was like “what if Superman but evil?” Either everyone is gonna die, or someone is going to improbably survive and you better have a real neat explanation for how that’s possible. Oh M. Night, when will you realize that your explanations are never as clever as you think they are? There’s no “twist” here really, simply a reveal, and it’s the equivalent of eating one of those sugar-free, gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free snack cakes I broke down and ate out of desperation when I was on Weight Watchers. That shit is “food” in the same way that the climax is a “logical explanation for all this.” Big Pharma is luring sick people to the resort through targeted ads, then arranging these excursions to the wacky time beach in order to test how medicine they secretly slipped into the guests’ drinks works over decades of life. These sneaky medical breakthroughs are saving hundreds of thousands of people’s lives, we’re told, and the scientists offer a moment of silence for each fallen group of unwitting human lab rats after they inevitably die. Because if there’s one thing the world needs right now, it’s more distrust of pharmaceutical companies and the ethics of modern science! I can’t think of one possible reason we’d want to portray molecular biologists, immunologists, and virologists in a positive light right now, can you? When will those assholes get off their high horses and stop being universally trusted and beloved by everyone, am I right?? 

My saddest takeaway, tbh, is that this is a stacked international cast, with at least half the roles going to POC - this is the future liberals want, etc etc - and the result is THIS.

Did I Cry? Of course not.

Not all is terrible! It’s a beautiful movie to look at, because M. Night’s direction is never the problem, but combined with the script, the acting, and the absurd narrative leaps needed to make this story make even a little bit of sense, the whole thing turns into a mess. Unfortunately, getting Old with M. Night is less “leisurely retirement at a plush resort in Florida” and more “rancid can of Ensure and a poop-choked pair of Depends.”

If you liked this review, please consider reblogging or subscribing to my Patreon! For as low as $1, you can access bonus content and movie reviews, or even request that I review any movie of your choice.

[o-wyrmlight]

Bill, may I recommend to you the book I am presently reading, Mother of Learning. Which is about a groundhog month. And an evil lich who will return the protagonist to the start of the groundhog month if he draws to much attention to himself. (Also the protagonist, Zorian, is a delight. I am reminded of my own fifteen year old self, when I was needlessly grumpy and pretentious because I had yet to realize I was autistic and aroace. XD)

It's free on Royal Road and Fictionpress. All 100+ chapters. It is VERY VERY VERY good. EXQUISITE worldbuilding, foreshadowing, and character work, no detail is wasted.

I was going to suggest 'groundhog month' but got intimidated by all of the variables. A groundhog month sounds like hell and I would like it in a handbasket. Delivered early by a mischievous Easter Bunny, whose presence has only been noted by the ticking of a pocket watch and the glimpse of a fluffy white tail retreating into the bush. It sounds like a motley hell and I am here for it. Added to my ever-expanding list.

[freedfromthegalactichivemind]

Anon ask privileges on this blog have hearby been revoked.  I may re-instate them at a future time.  For now, I’m pissed off and safeguarding.  As for the Disk Horse: 

I do not follow anti-spop.  They are a blog I do not wish to follow and, normally, am disinclined to reblog from because...it’s right in the name, “anti.”  As a general rule, I do not follow or very much like critical blogs / salt blogs.  I participate in fandom to have fun.  (And, at this point, a bit out of personal spite since Spop is, by far, THE most toxic fandom I have ever been in.  I could be spending my time frolicking in the peaceful fields of Hyrule, but noooo, my brain’s gotta chew on moody magical teenagers and spacebats).  I also had some people try to kick me out of fandom at one point, so I feel like it’s my duty to hold on like grim death.  I am still here.  I happened to be checking up on a blog I saw come up in my suggestion-feed, remembering a person as a fanfic author I liked, decided to see how they were doing, and, boom, I saw an interesting discussion where they’d reblogged anti-spop’s opinion of the series’ treatment of Kyle.  The series’ treatment of Kyle is one of my pet peeves in the canon (along with Angella’s being trapped in between dimensions forever and not getting to meet a foreshadowed minotuar-princess), so I reblogged and added my two cents. 

After getting home from work (covered in grease and blood and very tired) I moseyed over to check out anti-spop becaue of the anon-rumor.  I scrolled through some of front-page content and didn’t see anything that stood out to me as “racist.”  In fact, I saw their intro-post citing that they are Brazillian / non-white.  So, I suspect they get the accusation of being “racist” a lot by people who disagree with them about Catradora, probably.  A few posts down and I saw them being... very, very anti-catradora.  Having once followed entrapdak-shippers, some of whom really dislike catradora who got into conflicts with catradora-shippers and seeing a lot of rawr back and forth, I did see a lot of heavy catradora-shippers flat out accuse people who did not like the ship of “racism” (because Catra is supposed to be Brazillian / hispanic or something?  I don’t know).  So, given the history of shipper-politics, I really do think someone was rumor-milling me because “oh, no, they follow me / look in on me and see me reblogging something from someone who hates their ship.” 

Look, I’m just tired of the mess.  I am not anti-anything.  Maybe if someone were to start shipping Frosta with Horde Prime or something, but, in general, the shipwars in this fandom tire me and the anti-character rhetoric tires me.  I honestly like all of the characters in spop.  Yes, I’m a primary entrapdak-shipper and Entrapta and Hordak-fan, but.... here’s my little secret...(or not so secret if you’ve followed this blog for a while and seen the kinds of fanart I reblog)... I *don’t* hate Catra.  There was one time when I borderlined on doing so when I was deep into the entrapdak-fan-hole hanging out with a lot of negative fans, but I kind of kicked myself out of it by actually re-watching the series.  I like Catra, a lot.  She’s a great character, very interesting and dynamic.  I might keep Hordak as my evil pookie-bear, but Catra gives me a lot of feels, too.  And I like Catradora.  After chilling out a little and actually observing again Catra’s genuine trying-to-make-good actions in Season 5, I’m really not of the school of “Oh noes, she’s been toxic, therefore she’s toxic forever.”   As someone whose gone through a butt-ton of therapy over the last year because of my own issues... I don’t believe in “toxic forever” in someone who is shown to be trying to make good.  I can’t.  In other words, running it back into fandom... I don’t believe that redemption applies only to tall goth warlords who were raised in cults.   I’m willing to extend redemption in this fandom to everyone but Prime.  (Hell, even Shadow Weaver can get redeemed with a skilled enough fanfic author)!  I don’t even care how the Catra-stans have treated the Hordak-stans anymore or vice versa.  Drop it.  Let it go.   The same for the Glimmadora-shippers or whatever.   And you know what?  Someone may detest your favorite ship for whatever reason.  Doesn’t give them vibes they like.  Maybe they interpret the characters together as toxic or whatever.  It doesn’t mean that you should be making assumptions about them and spreading anon rumors about them that you can’t back up. 

If the blog I reblogged from is, in fact, racist (and isn’t just “they don’t like your ship”) give me examples!  Cite them!  Show me posts where they’re being awful!   Until then, rumors and fandom politics can eat a sack of donkey-dongs.