#as in: developing very unhealthy frames of thinking

[myuniverseinabox]

My brother and I have been yapping about Helluva Boss again lately and ngl, I'm probably going to just stop watching it at this point. Maybe I'll take a peek once s3 comes out, but if they especially keep going the way they have been I am Not Fucking Interested.

I'm kinda disappointed at myself for not spotting it sooner; I guess I was just dazzled by the whole show at first... but the writing in it is honestly just... abhorrent. The main ship is literally just slave x slave owner, where the writing paints the slave owner as the VICTIM. Stolas is an awful character and accidentally a realistic portrayal of an abusive person. Everything Blitzo has confronted Stolas about is correct and he has NO reason to EVER apologise to that mf. He needs to get out of there asap.

Then there's the misogyny. All the female characters in the show are just accessories to male characters with no personality of their own. Then Millie was revealed to be pregnant and that PISSED me off. She has no fucking character at all and now she's just, pregnant. Guarantee her having a child will be used to show how Stolas actually is a good dad guys!! he's a good dad!!! and Millie will just be sidelined.

Then not to mention the really shit villains, the show loosing it's focus entirely, and all the sexual assault jokes :)))

It is disgusting. Hate this shit.

[hyperlexichypatia]

What some of y'all call "recovery" and "healing" is just... growing up.

The theme I keep coming back to, the theme I keep writing about over and over, is the inextricability of ableism (specifically neurobigotry) and ageism.

The pathologizing of youth. The infantilizing of disabled adults. The structuring and micromanaging of childhood leading to ever more opportunities for "deviancy" to be classified as "disordered." The "neurological" push to raise the age of majority. The constant framing of disabled parents and caregivers as "unfit" or "bad influences" on children. And on and on.

Ageism and neurobigotry are such an interconnected tangle loop mobius strip that people are using the "healing"/"recovery" framework for basic human maturation.

When you were little, you uncritically accepted the worldview of your parents and other adults in your life, but now that you're older and "recovered," you see it differently?

That's called growing up. You grew up.

When you had less information and experience informing your worldview, you saw things one way, and now that you've "healed," you see things differently?

That's called learning. You learned new information and changed your perspective accordingly.

Look, learning and change and growth and maturation are (or should be) lifelong processes with no endpoint, and one of the cultural factors making people so weird about "maturity" and age of majority issues is the assumption that a "Real Adult" is in their fixed final form. So people think "If I've changed and grown in the past 5 years, that means that 5-years-ago Me was Still A Child and should not have been allowed to make major life-altering decisions," and also think that once they reach An Endpoint, they can or should stop changing. And that's a problem.

But. But. Changes in one's relationship to oneself and one's family of origin are especially common during times of major transition. That's not pathological. That's not even abnormal. If you see the world differently than you did before a major life transition, that does not mean that you went from a diseased state to a nondiseased state ("recovery"), or from an injured state to an uninjured state ("healing"). Time passed. You got older. Everyone else got older. You changed. Other people changed. Your family changed. The social context in which you live changed. The pathology paradigm has no place in this phenomenon.

People are out here saying that "People should heal themselves before they have their own children," and then when asked, what they mean by "heal themselves" is "learn how to effectively communicate with children." That. That is a skill. Learning a skill is not "healing." Lack of a particular skill set is not a disorder you have to "recover" from. You just have to learn the skill.

But that's also why when we say "You don't have to recover from your disabilities, recovery isn't a moral obligation," people say things like "You want to use your disability as an excuse not to change and grow."

My good bitch, what does change and growth have to do with recovery?

And this isn't even a new observation, because people have talked about how parents of developmentally disabled children will credit "therapy" and "recovery" for their children's natural developmental trajectory (if your child gained a skill after a year of intensive therapy, that doesn't mean "the therapy worked," that means they got older and developed the maturation to acquire that skill). A lot of the rhetoric around early childhood education does the same thing (the reason your 6 year old can hold a pencil now and he couldn't last year is because his bones got stronger and his fine motor skills improved, not because his high-quality preschool made him ready to compete).

But this. This is adults doing it to themselves! And it's so very original-sin-coded. You are born Unhealthy, but through continual effort and right practice, you can Recover and Heal.

No! You just grew up!

[anistarrose]

random thought but I don't think Lup and Barry taking their sweet time to get together is necessarily inherently indicative of repressed feelings or emotional constipation. with respect to emotional constipation in particular, I don't think that's an inherently wrong or out-of-left-field interpretation — for example, it's certainly not out of character for Lup to have trouble vocalizing feelings to her loved ones, and this is by her own admission — but to me personally, I never really interpreted it as a major factor in the timeline of her relationship with Barry.

or maybe, it would be more accurate to say: specifically in canon, I don't think it's implied that some unhealthy denial of feelings, or lack of communication in a seriously unhealthy and repressed way, is a significant reason Lup and Barry take a long time to properly get together. I don't think it's implied that anything like that was a defining feature or otherwise major theme of their relationship, particularly their relationship between the development of mutual feelings and the "talk" at Legato. because seeing the way that Griffin's monologue talks about their relationship developing, during that period:

"This new love, it wasn’t their focus during the journey. Barry worked tirelessly to understand each world you traveled to, to understand the Hunger and figure out a way to defeat it. Lup grew furiously in arcane power, studying the mystical secrets of the planes, hoping to master whatever spell would break your team out of their desperate retreat. But there were moments between those studies, meals shared in secret, just the two of them under the guise of their work, sightseeing trips for two across these doomed worlds. (...) Looking back, this performance is where that love that Barry and Lup cultivated quietly and cautiously over the last half century truly bloomed."

first, Barry and Lup are depicted with very understandable reasons to prioritize other missions, and other personal growth. it's not impossible to read this as a sign of repression, and in fact, I'd be shocked if neither of them ever threw themself into their work as a maladaptive coping mechanism for something, relationship-related or not — but staying focused on matters of life, death, and the multiverse's continued existence hardly needs repression or emotional constipation as a motivation or impetus.

moreover, I would argue Griffin's monologue doesn't actually frame Lup and Barry's priorities here as an unhealthy work-life balance. Griffin, as narrator, doesn't take a morose or otherwise negative tone when he discusses Barry and Lup's studies — there's even this laugh in his voice as he describes Lup growing "furiously" in power, one that seems meant to lead the audience to a sense of joy and pride. and if Griffin meant to convey these priorities as unhealthy, I think he also would use much different language to describe the time Lup and Barry still spent together — but in fact, their budding relationship is not framed as an incompatibility with their work; it's framed as something that occurs alongside their work, and in addition to it.

and this approach Lup and Barry have to spending time with each other, growing closer? it's described as a love that they "cultivate, quietly and cautiously." it's very specifically active, not passive. they're not running away from each other — they're also not rushing ahead, they're still "cautious," but they're importantly choosing to spend time together. it's something that they mutually want. they are, by and large, for the majority of the time pre-relationship, not avoidant of each other. they are willing to act on their feelings, in a way that's short of entering a relationship — but acting on them, meaningfully, nonetheless.

and could poor communication play a role in this? of course. but what if the main, driving factors in the time they take to get together are actually just... both of them being comfortable taking a long time to get together? comfortable balancing the time they spend with each other with their research to stop the Hunger? comfortable, more comfortable than the alternative would make them, with cultivating their love slowly, not officially confessing or dating until they're ready?

after all, as Taako reminds Barry, and Barry presumably takes to heart — the whole crew, they have all the time in the world. Taako tells Barry that he and Lup don't have to panic, don't have to rush — so naturally, Barry and Lup use the time they have. and they're not necessarily champions of talking about their feelings, but taking their time isn't framed as inherently unhealthy, either. given that they're depicted as cautious, and as nervous — on the beach cycle, before getting Taako's advice, in Barry's case, and in Legato, right before the duet, in Lup's case? the ability to take as much time as they need might even be freeing to them.

anyways. I've enjoyed, and to some extent, even written fics and other fanworks where Lup and Barry's pining bleeds over into angst, brought about by an inability to talk about their emotions. again, I don't think that's inherently out of character. but part of the reason I don't think it's OOC is because — at least in non-AUs — there's 30 years between Lup and Barry's feelings becoming unambiguously mutual (the robot cycle, where Lup "knew"), and the two of them getting together (Legato).

30 years is enough time for a lot of variation, in relationships and in people. a lot of bumps that don't define the relationship in entirety, over all of that timespan.

so. I just don't think Lup and Barry spend those whole 30 years angsting because of miscommunication and emotional constipation, that's what I'm saying. all I'm saying, really. I took a truly ridiculous amount of time to say that, in hindsight. but I'll do anything for a reason to think about Blupjeans.

[meowmeow518]

The biggest problem with most portrayals of hetero ships in media is the laziness of making them work. Particularly in shows like invincible, shows centered around male main characters, superhero stories, etc. we will see the main guy and the main girl get together but there is no real buildup. If there is buildup, it’s falsified in the form of the characters being in other relationships. Typically these relationships are only treated as obstacles to the main goal, they are either framed as unhealthy or toxic, possibly missing something or they portray it as meaningful by doing that one great writer son of telling rather than showing.

For instance: Amber in invincible is a pretty girl, she’s sweet and caring but predominantly we see her angry and frustrated with mark for various reasons. Resentful he’s not around more or whichever which is absolutely valid (aside from that first bit where she actually got mad at him for not just telling her his secret? That was dumb) now I can understand that writing a female character angry is not the end of the world but the first and only time I see a relatable, meaningful reaction from amber is when she is threatened by that evil viltrumite lady. That was interesting, mark trying to comfort her after was interesting.

In the instances where they are being loving to each other, amber and mark only say that they like each other, that they care about each other. There’s no other real signs shown in body language, or interactions. No meaningful arcs where there is fun tension. If they weren’t together I would barely consider them close friends.

Now with Eve, she is much better characterized, she has development but she is very much given the same treatment when it comes to bonding with mark. The girl characters are treated like rewards to the male characters, like hot accessories for being so cool.

Part of the issue I see is that mark doesn’t get frustrated with amber or Eve enough. There’s no equality in the relationship, he doesn’t laugh with them or seek them out to hang out with aside from dating. It’s a frequent issue I see with many het ships and even some side queer ships (which are usually either used for representation brownie points or just poorly done)

Mark and Rex, or mark and William make a better ship given the complexity of their characters and the equality and banter between each of them. They are written like friends which should be the baseline for any written couple.

I will also mention that the relationship between William and his boyfriend is also incredibly dry. The design in my opinion is very poorly done for a character who is supposed to be “super hot” he looks like a generic muscle dude. Him and William do the same “I care about you” routine instead of anything that feels more real. There is the arc where wills boyfriend does go through the cyborg angst thing but even that felt a bit dry.

The girl characters are frequently not allowed the same personhood a man would be, which seems to be coming less from an outright misogynistic perspective and more from an attempt to be politically correct. The girls are only allowed to be angry and content. They are superheroes so they don’t get scared, they don’t get needy, they are just these vehicles of feminism. I don’t think I even know any of their hobbies aside from ambers activism and eves bigger activism. Mark is into comics and nerd stuff, Rex is an asshole (his hobby), will could use a hobby tbh but he is opinionated and has what i would call a more distinct personality.

What is ambers personality? She is nice? Sure. She likes to help people? Okay. What are her quirks? Flaws? Interests outside of helping people? She was dating mark for a while and the audience doesn’t know any of this. I’m aware that she was a place holder character but that is a cheap tactic to make Eve and marks relationship seem like it has build up. It feels unnecessary and those scenes with amber should have been interactions between Eve and Mark, building their friendship, sharing their worries and thoughts. Disagreeing with each other, compromising, etc.

[thedinanshiral]

Appreciating DAV even more.

I just read this and there's new information here that really hits we may just have gotten the best possible outcome with The Veilguard.

It's one thing to know of Joplin and Morrison and lament every single could-have-been we see in the artbook, but now knowing Joplin was supposed to be one of three installments released in quick succession with short DLC or expansions developed in a even shorter time, and that it was all supposed to fit the live-service trend EA wanted to chase for $$$..I feel we missed several bullets now. I just don't even want to imagine what that kind of development in those time-frames would have done to Dragon Age. I think it would have really destroyed its spirit and the dev team as well.

We were just barely out of Anthem, the whole exposé of crunch in the industry happened and the development hells were fucking awful, "BioWare magic" was finally and very publicly acknowledged as a problematic, unhealthy practice...in that context releasing games and DLC like a machine gun shoots bullets would have caused a level of damage I can't even put into words. Yes, some ideas and visuals in the artbook sound and look amazing (except the submarine, come on guys that was silly), but if that's how things were planned to be it would have been nothing short of a disaster of its own and it would have only proven nobody had learned a single fucking lesson from past mistakes. DA2 is a one-time miracle, not really a viable model to replicate.

Instead of whatever Joplin was supposed to be we got a single, finished game, that suffered in it's development because of EA, what its earlier version was supposed to become, and grifters pushing rancid bigot takes with such a level of vitriol I'm surprised they still live considering the amount of poison they carry within, really. I'm sure if DAV had been the initial approach and had it been allowed to be a DA game more than an EA shareholders whim, it would have been near perfect.

I've said it before, that DAV got released as it was is nothing short of a freaking miracle. We got a good looking game with great and fun combat, like 90% of lore questions finally answered, a finished game, and a complete story with characters we already love and adore. I'll take that over part 1/3 with 18-months dev cycles pushed carelessly into the world to make EA the quick bucks.

[aristaspark]

Kenji and Brooklynn seem to be very incompatible right now. So why and how will their relationship work if they're so different? In jwcc those two were similar, but now, not even their hobbies aren the same.

Can u tell us what in common they have in CT?

I think this argument is flawed and might be influenced by your dislike of the ship (i assume you don't ship them).

Because we literally don't know ANY of the Nublar 6 hobbies, only their jobs. We never got to see them in their everyday lives before everything went down. Like, would you be able to tell me what Ben's hobbies were before he started invastigating Brooklynn's death? Or Darius before he started hunting down the allosaurus?

The same could be said about Yaz and Sammy. Like, from what's in the show, would you be able to tell what they have in common, their shared hobbies? No, because it's not integral to the plot, the only thing we know is that they love each other and that's all we need to know.

Because the show isn't a romcom about the romantic/everyday lives of six friends, it's a show about the lives of six friends who have to deal with deadly dinosaurs and corrupted human beings ruining their lives. So that's normal that we don't really know what their lives look like when everything is "normal", because it's not what the show's about.

And I actually think that the show is telling us that what broke up Brooklynn and Kenji was anything but a compatibility problem.

They were together for 6 years, and in the few flashbacks we have, we're shown that they were nothing but happy together during these six years. They went on picnics, on hikes, lived together, the only picture Brooklynn had at her secret appartment was of them (printed and framed, on her desk, where she spent most of her time), she had cute cringy videos of them on her phone, they still looked smitten with each other in the few scenes we got...

Neither of them actually wanted to break up.

But I can see the point you're trying to make, in that Brooklynn's investigation could be considered a "hobby" like any other that'd make her incompatible with Kenji.

But it's clearly not. It's not explicitly said, but it's in the subtext that things only started going awry when she started working on the Broker case after Ben introduced Dark Jurassic to her (she said it to Kenji, "I've been all over the place lately, I'm just working on something super important").

Before that, it seemed she had a healthy balance between her personal life and her work.

This shows that this is not a "Kenji and Brooklynn are not compatible" problem, but rather a "Brooklynn developed an unhealthy obsession with catching the broker" problem. The proof of that is that she didn't neglect only Kenji, but all her friends (as shown in the facetime), not even doing the bare minimum anymore to maintain her relationships (weekly facetimes).

At that point Brooklynn wasn't compatible with ANYONE, but that was because she lost herself and started neglecting herself by neglecting her personal life. We're shown times and times again. She's devastated when Kenji breaks up with her but the bag of money from Daniel is enough to make it instantly disappear from her mind, same with Darius' confession, she hears that her best friend is in love with her, that should be a life-shattering news, and yet immediately after she goes back to her investigation as if nothing even happened and expects Darius to do the same and still help her with her investigation. This is not normal, this is not healthy, and this is not who we are told Brooklynn was during these six years.

Her obsession is not shown as a "natural" evolution of her character, as part of her normal behavior, it's something that happened to her and that basically ruined every aspect of her life. There's a lesson she needs to learn. She's not supposed to still be this Brooklynn at the end of the show, because it's not the real Brooklynn.

So I think that when she manages to get out of that self-destructing obsession, she'll be able to repair her relationships, she will want to. And, as I said, a lack of compatibility was never a thing for her and Kenji. They were compatible before she "lost herself", and they loved each other.

I think she already got rid of her unhealthy obsession, but is now continuing solely because she thinks she doesn't have a choice. That she already sacrificed too much to stop before she achieves her goal, that what awaits her if she was to get back to her loved ones now is too scary for her, and that she genuinely does it to protect her friends because she knows that now, they're in the Broker's radar because of her.

As for what they have in common...as I said, we don't know that about any of the characters.

[blazehedgehog]

Were you ever a fan of the Angry Video Game Nerd, and have you ever heard about the TheCinemassacreTruth? I never realized that James Rolfe (Angry Video Game Nerd) had a hate group.

I was an early enough fan that I remember the days where he was kind of the biggest deal on Youtube for a long time, and then as Youtube began to grow and diversify, Mike Matei made some angry posts on his DeviantArt about how Youtube staff were starting to snub them.

Youtube was starting to chase advertising money, and obviously, AVGN (back then still called the Angry Nintendo Nerd, I believe) was very raunchy. There was a time where I think they even disabled AVGN's monetization status because the toilet humor was so extreme. The first inkling of problems some creators still face to this very day.

Like a growing number of people I have fallen off of AVGN in recent years. I outright unsubscribed last year. James has said several times that he's going to quit doing AVGN, but he never commits. At first, that was okay, because he still seemed to have passion for AVGN. But the show has felt like its coasting on fumes for a while now. "I'm so angry at this retro game!" does, in fact, have its limits, especially when, if James tackles something newer, you get a strong sense that he really doesn't care, because he's not really a gamer by his own admission. AVGN as a character, and James himself, have struggled to grow or evolve.

This was further highlighted by the FoldingIdeas video, "I Don't Know James Rolfe."

Even though the video is framed more from the perspective of "James Rolfe hasn't grown very much from that kid making home movies, but then again, neither have I" -- it did highlight a growing distaste I'd developed for AVGN. So I pulled the plug.

I have absolutely zero interest in a Reddit called "TheCinemassacreTruth" and I would advise anyone reading this to be wary of such places. Sharing anger can sometimes be helpful to making you feel better, but building a community based solely on anger is dangerous and unhealthy. I would not take any joy in endless "ISN'T JAMES SO STUPID NOW? ISN'T SCREENWAVE THE WORST? I CAN'T BELIEVE THEY'RE SNEAKING MIKE INTO NEW VIDEOS AGAIN" posts.

Like, its obvious James is still doing this because that's one of the ways he supports his family, and Screenwave is, for better or worse, just running a business. Petty peanut gallery behavior does not serve you or them.

I broke the cycle. Maybe you should, too. Negative engagement is still engagement to the algorithm, so just disengage.

[tikiki05]

Sometimes I cant take the ATSV fandom seriously. I don’t know if it’s just me, but when Flowerbyte started gaining more traction from fans, here came the ‘you’re reducing Margo to a love interest’ rhetoric and I was honestly appalled. One because every character in ATSV is/has been in a ship but it’s very telling when this is pushed onto the only black girl character that she can’t be shipped with other characters, especially the main guy. And another thing I’ve noticed is that the people who wanted to show this ‘fake concern’ for Margo when she’s shipped with Miles weren’t even checking for her as a character, barely acknowledge her, or dismiss her role in the story. (when they should’ve put that energy into all of the racial remarks and digs she’s received from a certain group instead of being up in arms about a harmless paring)

If Margo is supposedly being reduced to a love interest, then what are ghostflower shippers doing with Gwen and Miles?? And see this is another grip of like many that I have with the shippers: it’s like they want Miles and Gwen to belong to each other and each other ONLY while erasing the crucial points in their characters. When it comes to Miles’s character, it’s like they assume that Miles’s only personality is drawing Gwen and his only way of functioning and making decisions revolves around her wellbeing or benefit. This completely strips away the fact that Miles is allowed (and does) have an identity outside of Gwen and that he has shown instances where he is genuinely upset with Gwen displaying in his actions that he’s hurt by her. Ghostflower is not going to prevent Miles’s dimension from the oncoming multi-dimensional threat nor is it going to save his father.

For Gwen, the Across movie adds a deeper layer to Gwen’s character: the toll losing Peter really put on her, the conflict with her father, her being a spider-woman while being aware of the fates of her other variants who weren’t gifted with spider powers, etc., but still her hardcore fans will be ready to fight anyone who doesn’t ship her with miles. Her being in a relationship with Miles is not going to wash away her traumas (especially the main reason why she didn’t want to get close to anyone) or wash away the fact that she has to live with the knowledge that canon could’ve persuaded her into thinking that any relationship she has can end with her life.

Boy howdy am I with you on that first sentence lmao. Were people really saying that about Margo?? It is so weird to show fake concern like that, like you can just say you don’t like the ship?? And honestly, in a weird way I almost can’t blame the Gwen Stacy stans/Ghostflower shippers for reducing Gwen down to only a love interest because to me, it feels like the writers do that themselves!

In ITSV, Gwen was really set up as an interesting side character with some depth to her and backstory that we’d eventually learn about in the next movie. And then we do learn about it! Man, her Peter dying was really awful, man her dad being an idiot like that was really awful, man she wait why is she so utterly in love with Miles wait what wait what do you mean-

At the end of the day, I truly don’t hate Gwen herself, I hate what the writers did to her. Why does she fall in love with the first friend she makes after swearing off friends after a single bus ride of getting to talk to him one on one?! It’d be great if this was depicted as an unhealthy attachment she’s developed due to her isolation and trauma, but the movie doesn’t frame it that way, and general audiences aren’t gonna see it that way because of heteronormativity!

And once more, tired of the Gwen Stacy stans/Ghostflower shippers taking Miles story and making it all entirely about Gwen. Very excited to see Miles story come to a hopefully satisfying conclusion, and to hopefully see much much more of Margo

Thank you so much for the ask! Have a superb day💪

[toudencestyay]

Re: Falin's perception of Laios.....Yeah Falin has always seen Laios as "cool big brother" but there's something eyebrow raising about seeing him as a grossly handsome cool-guy so far removed from everyone else's take on him. Kui is several paces away from making a Falin brocon joke.

On that note, I wonder how Laios sees Falin... his image of Marcille focused on how she looked resurrecting Falin, so I wonder if his childhood memories, or other thoughts about her, might frame his perception of her.

I think laios has more questions to answer about his sister complex. Her chimera form definitely made him feel some type of way. Kabru knows.

For what it is of his perception of falin, I believe his feelings are quite complex. I can't help but wonder if there's some kind of envy that he feels towards her alongside his adoration. Despite having arguably suffered from much more discrimination than laios, she maintains an absolute unconditional love for humanity. She ended up making a home at the academy she was sent off to when he couldn't fit in at the army - something he chose to do for her sake mind you -. Maybe "inferiority complex" is a better way to put it. His visions when he was attacked by the dungeon ghosts imply that he doesn't think his friends would bother fighting for him if he was eaten. I believe that the man he idolize disliking him and being in love with her only twist the knife further. Alongside with this feeling of inferiority, there's definitely dependance. It is very clear that at the start of the story, falin as a sort of glue between laios and the rest of the group. And without her, it becomes clear that the group aren't very tolerant of his antics. As much as it hurt, I don't think falin need laios quite as much as he need her. As showcased by this page.

Laios said so himself. Falin's disappearance forced him to make decisions that he would never have made.

His relationships with his group also improve dramatically over the course of the story. In all honesty, if laios was never forced to live without falin for a while, we might have ended up with a more unhealthy and codependent dynamic between the two.

To finally return to falin, I can't lie that I don't think as much about her perspective because it's just isn't as developed as much in the story. Though I think it's worth noting that she share laios's enthusiasm for monster food. A side of her that marcille, and you can assume shuros, doesn't really like about her. So I think there's this little weird side of her that she can only comfortably express with her brother. It's also interesting, the way she abandon school the moment that she sees laios in his sorry state. Was it the longing for her brother or the urge to take care of him that motivated her?

To end this, I want to add that despite seeing laios at his most pathetic and nagging him about his hygiene and appearance, there's a sense that falin's esteem of him never flinched. She's still in awe when he brag about the monsters he slayed. She still call him a genius without any hint of irony.

So there's definitely still a lot of the adoring little sister that cling to laios's arm inside our current falin.

Sorry for such a long answer. It probably didn't really answer your question but this ask made the gear in my brain spin and I couldn't stop xd I hope you enjoyed reading this at least.

[nomsfaultau]

do you have any more thoughts about scp tubbo and the blade since that post about headspace and fronting, please i will consume anything

Ah, see I have lots and lots of thoughts! But most of them are massive Fault spoilers so below the line they go. And for sake of disclaimer, while Tubbos' system is intentionally analogous to DID (amidst the magic stuff), The Blade's is not/heavy on the fictional elements. I've done research but don't have personal experience, so it's not perfect

So there was a pretty big asterisk on the last post. Well three, one being the specific line of ‘The Blade does NOT have control of his own body in certain conditions*’, and the second being ‘assume The Blade chose to be the vessel of a violent god’, and the third being just the word ‘CURRENTLY’ slapped over every line about The Blade.

For the line ‘Assumed he chose to be the vessel’ is somewhat misleading, specifically in the word 'assumption', which people assume means it’s a wrong assumption. I shall call Tubbo half right on a technicality. Because The Blood God did ask. And The Blade did agree. But pretty crucially The Blade was a straight up normal pig. Which I would at bare minimum consider uninformed consent, and at maximum say a pig cannot consent to becoming a war god incarnate because a pig cannot begin to comprehend what that means. Also I imagine The Blood God as preferring non human vessels, which potentially implies he does so bc he thinks a sapient being would reject him. May or may not be true -The Blade certainly becomes a sapient being and proceeds to reject him! Regardless, pretty small asterisk.

The second, being The Blade assumes he has no control in certain conditions. Once again in the half right way. To clarify he absolutely could not stop The Blood God from disabling Tubbo. Or at least is only to blame in a very indirect way. See, The Blade thinks he’s figured out the rules of his vasselhood. But he doesn’t realize the extent to which he shapes those rules, because he doesn’t recognize himself as having power or agency in their dynamic. To him it’s fully framed as him desperately trying to stop a tyrant from controlling him, facing overwhelming opposition and barely scraping away at the god and voices to protect himself. Because his biggest fear is losing his agency and so he thinks that’s all The Blood God is.

At which point we get to the ‘CURRENTLY’. Because what’s happening with The Blade and The Blood God is what we call *drum roll* an unhealthy system! Like extremely! The Blood God is frequently isolated, shut out, ignored, and villainized by The Blade. In turn, The Blade is always scared of losing his bodily autonomy and (post realization about Tubbos' age) hurting his friends. (The later mostly bc of the voices, but those are analogous to intrusive thoughts, NOT alters.) The two are rather much at each other's throats.

For The Blade, this opposition is natural, and he sees himself as the oppressed one. This is encouraged by Wilbur, who does have a extremely deadly evil power that he has to fight to suppress, and thus can only see The Blood God and such terms. And Philza sees The Blood God as an extension of The Blade's wrath. Philza doesn't encourage suppressing wrath, but does encourage not being controlled by it. And since The Blade literally comes to Philza to help him better control The Blood God, he also ends up

However. Tubbo, again, doesn't understand The Blade's powers in the way The Blade understands them. Which ends up actually being a catalyst for The Blade's character development. Or, once Tubbo has had some character development about working more with their system (chapter 35).

And eventually, Tubbo does what no one else does: actually for real TALK to The Blood God (a little bit because The Blade's mental health has completely crashed and The Blood God is trying to kill Tubbo to get his attention, but, semantics?). And start trying to figure out why the system isn't working together. At which point, it becomes really freaking clear that THEY COULD BE A FUNCTIONAL SYSTEM, if The Blade wasn't refusing to interact with his alter. That it isn't an either or situation, but The Blade has been pretty badly traumatized by his agency getting completely wrecked from The Blood God and Foundation. And maybe he can only see someone else fronting as an attack because his sentience was forged in combat. He refuses to listen to The Blood God because he sees him only as an enemy.

At which point Tubbo is like. Have you considered actually talking to each other??? Like we cofront all the time? It's super chill?

So, The Blood God is seizing control. But The Blade starts figuring out how to not sink into the voices, to remain present in his own body. And The Blood God, now that he's being listened to, isn't screaming and clawing for control at the slightest hint of danger, because instead of fighting for dominance all the time they're learning to actually work together.

SO, Tubbo did get a lot of stuff wrong, and let it cloud their judgement. But also, The Blade got a lot wrong too, and so together they learn more about being healthly. They're kinda my favorite dynamic in Fault for a reason, for a lot more than just this lol. They learn so much from one another.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

What do you think about Nathalie's original plotline of wanting to betray Gabriel after getting the Miraculous from the heroes so she can use the Wish herself in order to make Gabriel fall in love with her (according to the leaked Bible this used to be her motivation for helping Gabriel all along but it got scrapped from the show before it ever came up). Do you think this would've been a better plot for Nathalie than what we've got ?

I have extremely mixed feelings about that concept, so let's talk through them!

On the one hand, I am here for Nathalie having a motivation beyond, "I love Gabriel so much that I will do everything to make him happy, even if it means committing terrorism, supporting child abuse, and forfeiting my life!" While that kind of selfless motivation can make for an interesting character - or at least an interesting character arc - it requires a lot more character development than Nathalie was given. The way they did it in the show is just another entry in the show's troubling trend of making characters (and notably mainly female characters) do stupid stuff in the name of love.

Love making people do stupid things is a very real phenomena, so I'm not against that happening from time to time. But love can also make you do wonderful things and miraculous rarely shows us those moments. All the big, dramatic, love-based choices have been ones that lead to dire consequences and personal suffering even if the choice was framed as a loving and/or selfless act. Because of that, I'm okay with Nathalie's "sacrifice" being re-framed as a selfish act done because she thinks that she'll be able to get the miraculous and make herself healthy again.

This alternate motivation would pair well with Gabriel's motivation. I like that because they're co-conspirators, so having them share a theme of selfish love would allow for some interesting ideas. For example, what if we did something crazy and let the villains selfish love continually hurt them while the heroes' selfless love continually led to victory? I know, I'm crazy! Who would want that kind of nonsense in a show that's supposed to be all about love and friendship? (Btw, that was sarcasm)

At the same time, I'm really tired of characters being defined by their romantic interests and little else. It makes sense for Gabriel since he's our big bad who is doing everything out of love for his wife, but all of the other characters should be allowed to have more interesting, rich lives in which romance is just one of the many things that they have going on. It would make for a more interesting cast AND really highlight that Gabriel's love is unhealthy while the "true love" of our teens is healthy. A very important theme that has been painfully absent from the show even though it seemed like it was going to be a thing back in the early seasons!

Nino made movies. Marinette was super into fashion and helping her friends. Adrien liked video games and seemed to be into fencing, too. But as time has gone on, the story has become more and more focused on the romantic relationships, pushing aside plots that focus on other things and I'm not a fan.

I'm a big fan of the idea that the foundations of a good romance are a strong friendship and all members of the romantic relationship having personal lives separate from their romantic partner(s). As such, I want a show that gives friendship and romance equal billing. It can even be the friendship between the romantic leads! Episodes like Gamer and Horrificator were excellent in those regards as they allowed for some nice romantic tension while also developing the characters' interests and backstories.

In summary, if we fix canon so that the teen characters all have more healthy romantic relationships, then I'm pretty open to Nathalie keeping her original motivation as it certainly has potential. However, I'd only give it to her if Nathalie and Gabriel were going to get a lot more screen time and development as it adds a lot of complexity to their dynamic and - as I said in another recent post - you shouldn't add complexity to your story unless you're going to actually explore it.

Personally, I don't see myself ever adding this to Nathalie's character since I generally don't have much interest in developing her and Gabriel. Instead, I usually just switch Nathalie's motivation from love of Gabriel to love of Emilie and no, I don't mean romantic love. While I'm totally cool with lesbian Nathalie, I'm a massive fan of her being motivated out of platonic love simply because we don't see that often enough. It's always romance, romance, romance with a little familial love thrown in here and there for diversity and that's fine. Those are strong motivators. But platonic love can be just as powerful and Miraculous is supposed to be about romantic love AND friendship and I don't see why we need to limit the friendship angle to the teen characters. If Gabriel is our example of selfish romantic love, then let Nathalie be our example of selfish friendship.

Assuming that Emilie is some flavor of decent parent, do you really think that she's going to look at Gabriel and Nathalie's actions and be pleased by how they treated Adrien? No! She's going to be furious with both of them! Gabriel for hatching this crazy plot and Nathalie for going along with it. (Btw, this is yet another reason why I like good Emilie. Gabriel and Nathalie are so freaking selfish that I don't really see them caring if the law, the heroes, or the guardians find them guilty. They'd only care about Emilie's judgement and maybe Adrien's. I can see Gabriel going to jail unphased, but melting into a puddle when Emilie serves him with divorce papers while refusing to speak to him. I want him to get his wish - though ideally not via his own actions - but have it be a total monkey's paw!)

[martinblackwoodhater]

Hi, stumbled across this blog and I absolutely get why somebody would dislike Martin and certain framing (or lack thereof) of his actions but the take on the lonely as a filler/boring fear is a bit confusing to me. And I can’t really tell if you’re being serious or doing it for the bit

This might just be me tho because of my own (unhealthy) coping mechanism and how i have seen isolation and being disconnected from your peers affect others and myself but I understand it as a much more layered fear than it is often characterized

You were talking about how the extinction has a certain inherent humanity to it and I think the lonely does aswell but in a much more social regard. As humans we consistently navigate social settings and also require emotional connections and relationships, now imagine these being taken away or, what is often worse, never developing them in the first place. It’s not necessarily the being alone in a room that is terrifying but much more the social isolation and the from that resulting disconnect from your own emotions and the unbreachable wall that is build by repeated rejection and social missteps.

You said that things about the lonely can often be attributed to other fears, I disagree but I would really be interested in what exactly you mean by that and your further thoughts on the lonely as a fear

im sort of exaggerating for the bit but most of my takes on the lonely are at least semi-serious

i sort of don't care about the reason you project onto The Lonely as i can kind of assume its because you were lonely at some point. that's typically the reason.

i think that yeah most of the fears are rooted in humanity, (with the exception of the flesh/the hunt which is what makes them interesting) so i don't see that as a reason necessarily for it to be an especially interesting fear. i also think the being disconnected from people is kind of well-covered area within the fears (as a very core part of the stranger and the spiral maybe and really most of them to some extent if you twist it right) which is my main problem with it. it sort of just does one thing and it's not a niche enough thing to be interesting and is also something that could be covered by other fears.

Just a couple examples off the top of my head:

Loneliness due to existentialism and there being loads of people out there making it easy to be lost in a crowd = the Vast

Loneliness due to feeling disconnected from others and feeling alienated or like you're intrinsically different = the Stranger

Loneliness through grief or loss = the End

Loneliness through bad relationships = typically the Web or potentially the Stranger again / another fear depending on the situation

(there are probably more but i can't think of them right now). Therefore I just feel like it is kinda the weakest fear, and wouldn't be such an important part of the podcast if it wasn't turning so relationship-centered and needed the conflict created from The Lonely to act as a catalyst and conflict for this

[askvectorprime]

Hi vector prime! I have a question which I’ve been dying to know, how do transformers age? I’m asking this because some transformers look like old men, for example, revenge of the fallen jetfire has a cane and a beard and alpha trion also has a beard and some transformers look like kids too, for example, wheelie and those kids that were shown on the planet that unicron gobbled up. I hope there is an answer to this transformers age thing, thanks vector.

Dear Mature Matcher,

Well, I like to think I've aged gracefully, ha!

In truth, you ask a good question, though I think your lived experience as a human has colored your perspective. We do not age as humans do, but our bodies are still subject to wear and tear. Our fuel lines erode and leak, our gears grind and slip, our belts become brittle, our joints seize. We discolor, our paint scratches off, decals peel free, chrome flakes away. Stress marks line our faces and hinges. We rust. Our minds are prone to different kinds of degeneration, as newer memories overwrite older ones, or as unhealthy feedback loops develop into rampancy. But few of these processes are fatal, and fewer still are irreversible, so long as we take the occasional tune-up to replace parts as they fail.

The physical traits you observe aren't directly tied to the process of aging. With the usual caveat that not all Transformers are the same, even within the a single universe… it tends to be that, once we are protoformed or built, the only time our bodies naturally change is when we take on a new form. Now, you may not realize this, as we still must appear very alien to you—but on Earth, this might involve changing our appearance in robot form, too, mimicking physical traits that we identify with, the better to be understood by your kind; this is sometimes called "humanizer" technology. Don't be too quick to judge based on appearance, though, as sometimes what you perceive as a mustache might simply be a coincidental arrangement of kibble!

Otherwise, our bodies only change in the course of upgrades. After choosing our first alt-form, we may undergo procedures to bring us up to "full size", speaking either culturally or biologically. There are universes where our sparks grow continuously through our lifetimes, demanding periodic upgrades to match, with the bodies of the biggest and oldest Transformers practically being extensions of the planet—but those are extreme cases, and it's usually not a necessity. You mention Wheelie, who had something of an arrested development while marooned on Quintessa, and although there exist divergent timelines where he did get a larger body, he's usually comfortable with his stature; many Transformers take pride in being "Minibots" and may even make the conscious decision to downsize.

In the modern age, there is certainly an association between youth and a diminutive frame, as Micromasters, Mini-Cons and Protoformers join our society. The fact is that Transformers nowadays are smaller than they used to be, because fuel is more scarce. There have been many such paradigm shifts in the construction of Transformers: generations are usually demarcated by broad design trends, major technological advancements, and shared aesthetic sensibilities. When it comes to these fashions, there are some classics that anyone can recognise—facial adornments, oversized chins, and non-visible olfactory sensors are all characteristic of different points in history, and give a clue for how old we might be. You know, the oldest Transformers predate the introduction of the ball-and-socket joints which are so ubiquitous in Earth life; I myself have not one in my body!

The multiverse being as strange and wondrous as it is, there are plenty more esoteric reasons behind these physical changes. Famously, the Matrix of Leadership is known to induce a metamorphosis in its bearers to better accommodate the collective wisdom of Primes past. Exotic kinds of Energon have been known to possess transformative properties. For reasons yet unknown to my Transtech friends, exposure to negative-polarity particles correlates strongly with facial structures resembling human goatees.

Some believe that we once lived mortal lives, aging as most other species throughout the galaxy do, only for that mortality to have been taken from us in our race's infancy—through the interference of Quintessons, or the defeat of Mortilus, spoken of in myth as death incarnate.

[darkpeacemusic]

ℂ𝕣𝕖𝕖𝕡𝕪𝕡𝕒𝕤𝕥𝕒 ℍ𝕖𝕒𝕕𝕔𝕒𝕟𝕠𝕟𝕤: 𝕃𝕦𝕝𝕦/𝕃𝕦𝕔𝕚𝕝𝕝𝕖

(TW: Violence, sexual harassment, stalking, rape, murder, descriptions of gore, ableism)

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

She died at the age of 14 and she is permanently stuck at that age. She would've been 25 if she was still alive today.

She and EJ are half-siblings but neither of them are aware of it.

Her mother died when she was 10 and she spent the next 4 years distancing herself from reality.

When she, her father, and her stepmother moved to America by the time she was 14, her father would think it would be a good idea to send her off to an all-girls private school so Lulu could work on her social skills.

She used to be bullied for having a more developed body than most of the girls in her school which is why she grew to be very insecure about her body.

Her stepmother was very abusive towards her and often called her a 'retarded bitch' over her look of books. This would make her have a cold outlook in life.

One day, she would meet a girl named Julia who slowly became obsessed with her for her body.

This obsession would grow into some stalking behavior such as spying on her when class was over and having pictures of her in her dorm room.

During the last day of school before fall break, Julia ended up taking her obsession too far and told her during class to meet her in the forest during their lunch period.

Later that day, Lulu eventually met up with Julia and Julia ended up drugging her and raping her before subsequently killing her by ripping her eyes out.

She would later be reawaken as a half-zombie and was treated by two boys named Rodger (aka Bleeding Man) and Alex (aka Shadow Walker).

She is autistic and her special interest is Harry Potter. She considers herself to be a Ravenclaw.

Whenever she gets bored, she will hum random songs that pop into her head which is something she shares with Jeff (much to Liu's annoyance).

She has a complicated friendship with Ben due to Ben flirting with her in the past. She finds him slightly annoying but tolerates him for Jeff and her best friend, Sally's sake.

She and Ally absolutely hate each other's guts due to Ally once stealing her eye jar and breaking it, framing Slendrina for it like the little bitch she is.

Despite being part of the Slender Pact, she still visits her brothers, Shadow Walker and Bleeding Man often and likes telling them about her murders she committed the week before.

She doesn't really like sweets all that much and finds them to be way too unhealthy.

Lulu often uses a front towards her victims by acting sweet before taking their eyes when they've completely fallen for her trap.

Lulu tends to get very anxious around grown women and would often go whoever is nearby (usually the ones she trusts the most such as Jeff or Dr. Smiley) for protection.

She's in a relationship with one of Zalgo's proxies, The Skroll (aka Alfred). Liu and Laughing Jill are the only ones who know it.

She is completely blind and can only see in fog, meaning that she could only recognize people by their voice.

She does miss Lazari despite Lazari backstabbing her and wishes that she could take back all the time she lost with her little sister figure.

Due to her being a zombie-human hybrid, she cannot age but she still can be killed.

She was raised in a Buddhist household and still practices the religion to this day even after her 'death'.

She is in a small book club with Liu, Slenderman, Vailly and Slendrina where they share their latest book logs and recommend different books to each other.

She's only barefoot when at the Slender Manor. When she is out killing her victims, she wears black flats to keep herself from accidentally stepping on something.

She has her own private bathroom as she doesn't like to share the showers with her floormates due to her insecurity of her body.

She absolutely hates the smell of beer because it makes her sick.

She does think about her father from time to time as she wonders what became of him after her 'death'.

She absolutely hates being called by her real name as it brings back painful memories of her stepmother.

She has her own mini garden in the backyard of the manor.

She has a good relationship with Cat Hunter since Cat Hunter is like a father to her.

She loves butterflies.

She can speak in English, Veitnamese, Japanese, and Chinese.

[koritheorphan]

My player character, Kori.

⚥ but played more realistically (he/him). Male-leaning bisexual. Prudish romantic by nature, slut with violent tendencies by necessity. Ambiguous mental disorder unlimited.

Used a picrew because I'm not satisfied at all with my art right now

Character notes and main relationship details under cut:

Kori characterization

Helps others to keep a clean conscience and feel in control, but also gets quietly resentful about it.

Tries to be an older brother type to the other orphans.

Obsessive over maintaining/building reputation to keep himself safe, but doesn't enjoy cruelty or harassing others and will take the fall to avoid kicking others down.

Unhealthy fixation on exercise and physical activity to make up for his smaller body frame putting him in danger. Will often push himself to the edge of passing out before deciding to rest

Low exhibition and promiscuity but not above flirting to get his way when necessary/helpful

Tries most jobs at least once but often finds his skills and confidence lacking (Public humiliation is not something that he can get used to no matter how badly he needs the money)

Great student, advanced through classes as quickly as possible to try and avoid Leighton. Pleased to discover his skills can be applied to business and escaping encounters as well

Does not see himself as a good person despite reputation as a trustworthy entrepreneur and "do-gooder". It's just his personal approach to staying alive.

Known scrapper and often defiant. Fights off attacks like mad if public degradation is at stake or he's on a time limit especially, but tends to go limp or try and get it over with in more private areas/if it's already been One Of Those Days

Relationship with Kylar

Primary love interest. Max love, mid lust, low jealousy

Initial feelings were somewhere between pity and sympathy. Since his status was still low at the time as well and he was constantly humiliated at school, he didn't see the harm in defending Kylar from bullies and really felt bad for him.

Started to enjoy Kylar's company, relieved to have another friend among the endless bullying. Used talks with Kylar as a way to pass time (and give himself some self-satisfaction from getting a quiet kid to open up)… started to develop a little bit of a crush when Kylar became more open and sweet with him

Walked in on Kylar sniffing his sheets right after a particularly humiliating, assault-heavy day. Pretended to take it in stride but then immediately left to go for a long run until he was near unconscious because he didn't feel safe at home anymore

In the end, he decided to give in and humor Kylar. Maybe if he was passive and receptive to Kylar's affections, he wouldn't get attacked or hurt, right?

In spirit, he basically got Stockholmed well before the actual kidnapping/Stockholm Syndrome event happened. His affections for Kylar are genuine, but very colored by fear and delusion.

Felt in control and safe for the first time during their first sexual encounter. Realizes later it was probably just because he gave in to Kylar before anything too scary could happen.

Kori tries to avoid taking hits to his recently much higher reputation by avoiding Kylar at school as much as possible.

That said. They're DISGUSTINGGGG outside of school hours and in private. Kori thinks Kylar is adorable and he'll shower him in affection and pet names the whole time.

Full progression so far went something like "Poor thing." -> "Wait he's kind of cute..." -> "Uh oh. I think this cunt is gonna kill me" -> "Maybe if I die I'll be better off so I'll begrudgingly resign myself" -> "Well now Robin keeps getting sold off, so I have to stay alive to keep her safe." -> [Gets kidnapped because he DIDN'T fuck Whitney and she lied to Kylar to spite him] -> "Stockholm Syndrome isn't even real :/ ...He's just the sweetest boy in the world and deserves my unconditional forgiveness?? He's litrally just tiny and sad. And he gives decent head. So Checkmate."

Relationship with Avery

Strictly sugar daddy. Max love

Understood the transactional nature right off the bat, had little issue adjusting to Avery's more demanding and controlling behavior. As such, Kori doesn't really see the red flags. If anything, he feels a little guilty using such a "generous" man for his money

First unlocked love interest, and first consensual sexual encounter. Kind of loves the positive attention but doesn't get as into it or feel as comfortable and confident as he does with Kylar. He knows his pay is dependent on Avery's satisfaction, after all.

Hates being emasculated but gets a little thrill when Avery calls him "girl" or "princess". Erm. Could mean nothing!

Cracks in his comfort with Avery only began to show after being handed off to Quinn twice. Mostly blames Bailey for that though.

Relationship with Robin

Bestie. Max love, low lust, low-mid confidence

Sees her as a sister to be protected, even after maxxing out love

Passed out on the street looking for her when she disappeared the second time, ran her to the hospital and fixed her trauma and confidence as quickly as possible and took her debts on.

Refuses to lead her on or flirt with her, especially after her abduction/deciding to pay her debts. Sees himself as tainted and undeserving most of all, thinks she deserves someone better.

Does get annoyed by her naivety but refuses to let it show.

Got genuinely pissed off at Kylar for the first time upon trying to spend lunches with her after her kidnapping and having to chase him off

Relationship with Sydney

Bestie/Secondary love interest. Max love, low-mid lust, high purity

Sees him as a comforting and reliable best friend for a long time, starts to fall for him as his love grew higher and his actions more affectionate. Eventually maxxes out love and chooses him as a secondary love interest just to see where things lead, if anywhere.

Initially hesitant to get close. Kori has a weird feeling about the church and doesn't understand what Sydney sees in it. Starts to try to have more of an influence on Sydney for the sake of giving him a different, safe place to come if the whole "religion" thing doesn't work out.

Has to repress a horny giggle every time Sydney goes to write on him… I mean what?? Who said that? Huh?

Relationship with Whitney

WORSTIE. Low love, high lust, very low dominance

Can not fucking stand this puta. Biting and kicking and punching violence fight. Pepper spray attack!! Pepper spray attack!!!! !!!!

Fights her off the most intensely of anyone after one too many attempts to publicly humiliate him.

Only started to wonder if there was more to her after saving her from the traffickers that she had originally tried to sic on him.

Really fucking loathes her but that may change with time, if she quits being such an insufferable twat.

[cloud-based-and-rainpilled]

Halfway through Staged 3 and pretty sure the reason it doesn’t “work” is the reason why Good Omens 2 does work: the natural progression of David and Michael’s and Crowley and Aziraphale’s relationships respectively is codependence. One show understands this, but the other doesn’t

tl;dr At bottom

Aziraphale and Crowley simply cannot exist without each other. They are “on their on side.” They have trauma bonded for centuries. When the external obstacles tearing apart Aziraphale and Crowley are removed, they’re left with their unaddressed trauma and can’t communicate their feelings

This internal conflict, which is long established, tears them apart. They are codependent yet can’t see eye to eye. This is a real conflict that feels natural

The big “a-ha” emotional moment at the end of Staged 2 is David and Michael realizing that (after every other character basically screams at them) they love and need each other. They are the only ones who understand each other; they are “on their own side”

When their external obstacles are removed, instead of exploring the intensity of their relationship and implied codependence, it forces conflict. Georgia messes with the room; Michael seems irrationally angry from the jump; the script relies on the meta nature of it for the humor. Everything feels “off,” and, well, “staged” for lack of a better word

The moment when Michael decides to go back into production because he’s jealous David did a role without him, there’s a bit of a throwaway line where he says “I can’t believe you’d do something without me.” It’s framed as jealousy of David working, but at face value, it’s, “How could you ever do anything without me?”

Exploring their codependence would have been more narratively sound and have a better baseline for comedy to come from it. However, this was never going to be possible, because while Staged isn’t “real,” inherently, because it’s meta, it kind of is

(Tinfoil hat time!)

This sounds sacreligious, but Michael Sheen is not convincing at all in this. He holds this resentment that seems to come from nowhere and feels hollow. The script isn’t helping much, but this is far lower quality wise than other performances he’s given. He does not want to be doing this shit again

Michael’s a (self-admitted) sensitive actor. He drowns himself in every role, especially Aziraphale, who he says “lol he’s literally me.” He cried on the last day of shooting; there’s absolutely no way the Breakup ™️ in Good Omens 2 didn’t affect him deeply, especially considering a 3rd season still isn’t confirmed

Imo he drags his feet because this entire season is the Breakup ™️ again, and he’s emotionally exhausted and doesn’t want to do it. If the script were better/had more levity/allowed for improv then maybe, but as it stands, it’s just a bummer, and everyone who watched it agrees

But I don’t think a plotline exploring David and Michael’s codependence would have ever happened anyway because, well, it would be really fucking awkward

Staged 1 is about them becoming friends, and, lo and behold, they actually did become close friends while shooting

Staged 2 is about them realizing how much they need and care about each other, and by their own accounts, they became much closer during this time as well

So, if Staged 3 were about them examining the closeness of their fake selves and the possible unhealthy aspects of it, that would force them to be incredibly vulnerable, not just as actors, but to their real relationship, because the events of Staged have mirrored how their friendship has developed

They are obviously not their characters on Staged, but there is a distinct pattern of a blur of real life and fiction. They run the risk of people falsely thinking they have a codependent dynamic and judging them accordingly, or, even worse, having to confront actually having a codependent dynamic, and in a very public way

I haven’t finished, so maybe their codependence is addressed, but right now it seems like it’s entirely avoided, which was a huge aspect of the ending of series 2. It makes the conflict feel forced and any interesting character exploration is blunted by antics

tl;dr In Good Omens 2, Crowley and Aziraphale are codependent, which is established, and creates conflict. Codependence is addressed in Staged 2, but barely acknowledged in Staged 3. A real point of conflict that could be interesting is ignored while forced situations are pushed instead, which aren’t as funny nor compelling

I believe personally that the ideas dried up for Simon, Michael was emotionally exhausted from the ending of Good Omens 2, and a plotline centered around David and Michael’s codependence in Staged was avoided because it would hit too close to home

Still haven’t finished it so it could turn around, but right now it feels like a big missed opportunity which came out of uninspired writing and avoiding self reflection