#other changes to characters and their arcs

[halogenwarrior]

Agreed with nuance. I love these types of arcs sometimes but I think whether the redemption or self-sacrificial hero dying is bad writing or not really depends a lot on the context of the particular character. While most people seem to hate "redemption deaths" no matter the context, I hate them when the clear narrative motivation behind them is that the character doesn't deserve to live or it would be more complicated if they lived and they don't want to deal with that narrative, especially of the character themselves thinks they don't deserve to live and the narrative agrees with them by presenting their death as heartwarming and a fitting end/the best end a character could have after what they did (and unfortunately this is most of them in fiction). And especially if the thing they are atoning for really has nothing to do with any kind of selfishness or cowardice and in fact they were the "loyal to a cause above their own lives" type even pre-redemption. However I think it can work when their arc is about being selfish or cowardly, not being willing to give up even a little happiness or power or money for other people (and importantly in no way thinks they deserve death even when they atone), in which case giving up their very life can be the most impactful thing they could narratively do to show how they've changed. Or when they very much want to live but it's not the redemption that kills them but a "tragic hero" arc where the consequences of their flaws and mistakes do them in in a way that's presented as cathartic but not fundamentally deserved and they are able to have some realization of their wrongdoing/attempt to do good on the inevitable way out. Or if they are suicidal and think they deserve death but the narrative doesn't agree with them and their death when it happens is framed as tragically unnecessary rather than agreeing that it's a fitting ending. But I feel like this nuance gets lost with the "redemption deaths are bad no matter what" takes you usually see on this website.

And likewise with the self-sacrificial hero version, I sometimes love the trope of them living I'm a sucker for a good story about a suicidal character finding through hard struggle a reason to live, but if it's done wrong it can come across as protagonist-centric morality; if the character doesn't come off as suicidal but just doing the rational utilitarian thing in valuing a few or many others over their own life, but the narrative keeps criticizing them for that because don't they know they are the main character, so their life is more important than all of those NPCs? Especially if lots of other characters die including self-sacrifices in the story without being saved and it's only the main character who gets spared like this. While finding some contrived way to let said "NPCs" live anyway so they don't have to actually deal with the moral implications in implying the protagonist's life is more important than everyone else's.

i love when characters don't get to die

[louferrignojrofficial]

i was thinking about this yesterday, but lou really had absolutely no idea how his life would change taking the part of tommy again.

when he auditioned for him in 2018, it was just another role! he was only meant to be there for 1 episode, and then it turned into 2 and then 3. but still, not too much to make that much of a difference in his life. he did make friends with kenny through it, but other than that. just your average job.

and then he’s called back for the job 5 years later… a 4 episode arc! he didn’t know how rabid the fans were, how much his character’s actions would affect buck and the fandom as a whole. he didn’t know about buddie or what this show really was.

then it turns out, people actually liked him too! they liked his character and what he represented and wanted more of him. so his relationship and his character continued, all the way through into season 8. he’s gained a lot of fans because of it, because of him and tommy. he got more cameo requests and messages, he got fans who wanted to hear from him specifically. he got to play a badass firefighter pilot!

but most importantly, he got to portray a gay character who means so much to so many people. i can only imagine how this has opened up doors for him in his career, getting to say you were in 15 episodes of the show 911!

and i posted about this a few weeks back, but he talked in 2017 about playing a gay character on the show nashville. it was only a short appearance, he didn’t have to kiss anyone. he said he would have played it the same whether it was a guy or a girl he was doing the scene with, because love is love. he also said he wasn’t quite ready to be kissing a guy on screen, but if the opportunity arised, he’d just like to be told about it beforehand (because he knew people who had to do it and they weren’t informed which just isn’t right even if it’s with a guy + girl)

well…. now he’s doing it! he’s not just comfortable with it, he’s proud of it!!!! he is aware that tommy and bucktommy is important to so many people.

[twilightofthesandwiches]

Right from the start, Deltarune has established itself as a “Game Where Choices Don’t Matter”. Only having one ending has been core to its narrative and theming since day one. But it’s important to remember that it’s a concept that Deltarune has explored through several different ways, with two broad ‘main’ angles.

First there is the obvious way. That “Your Choices Don’t Matter” feels restrictive, oppressive, foreboding. The railroading that makes everything ‘safe’ in a way that feels just slightly insincere, the idea that making a real change in this world is impossible, the Darkners doomed to their Purpose to 'serve' the Lightners, the Prophecy that cannot be changed.

It's about the feeling of powerlessness, a lack of control. It's kinda creepy even when you're forced into a 'good ending' (like the Card Castle Darkners joining Castle Town even if you've been nothing but an absolute menace to them), but especially so if you're marching towards some inevitable and terrible fate.

But on the other hand of that spectrum, there is the matter of Player Agency versus Character Agency. Sometimes in Deltarune, your Choices Don't Matter not because the Choice was taken away from you by some Great Unseen Force - but because you, the Player, are the Great Unseen Force and the characters are asserting their Agency against you.

The general point here is that the Player's Choice often stands at odds with the narrative agency of the characters. Ralsei is the most accommodating member of the main cast and the one most likely to ask Kris (or rather the Player) what to do, and… he's also unhealthily selfless doormat who literally does not believe he's allowed to have opinions of his own and is the most fatalistic about the Prophecy. The biggest example of actual Player Choice in the game so far is the Weird Route, which requires tearing away the agency of both Noelle and Kris until they are tools for the Player.

Kris themself is also a factor in this. Being Literally Possessed means that they're really the perfect example of lacking in freedom and lacking in choices… And when they are asserting their own Agency, it's usually by taking away a 'Choice' from the Player. They often try and rebel, resist or wise-ass their way out of doing or saying something that they don't truly want to say or do.

And their most important moments are, of course, the ones they do of their own will.

It is all 'railroading' from an out-of-universe perspective because it is just the Game stopping you from doing things that will cause the narrative of the story to diverge too much, but within the fiction that the game created, it is a bold act of free will.

The characters' relationships and arcs are 'set on a path' and unchanging because they are dependent on the characters' personalities and experiences and their choices, and there's very little the Player can do to override that. Like, being discouraging towards Ralsei's character arc in Chapter 4 is a huge dick move on the part of the Player, but I doubt it will actually stop him from his path to growth. Because with Susie's support (and Kris' attempt to also support him despite our Choices)

his development is not in our hands.

Basically the one time the Player can meaningfully affect another character's arc and relationship… is Noelle in the Weird Route. And again, this is portrayed as a very dark act of manipulation that robs her and Kris of their genuine choices and will.

And nowhere is this concept more clear than with Susie. The most rebellious character in the entire cast, the one most likely to chafe against the railroady nature of the world and the inevitability of the Prophecy and also against the Player. A lot of the plot in this game has been the same, regardless of our choices, regardless of the Weird Route… because Susie's will and choices has been such an overwhelming leading force in the narrative, that the Player can do very little to change it.

We know Deltarune only has one ending, but I don't think that means we are doomed to get whatever terrible fate has been promised in the Prophecy. I think maybe there's only one ending because there's hardly any Choice a Player can make that will slow down Susie's unbreakable, unwavering, unchangeable fate-defying spirit, we will not be able to Choose to hinder her sheer Determination to break the Prophecy and give herself and all of her friends a happy ending. Susie herself is the real inevitability in Deltarune.

At least, that's the best we can hope for.

[cloudbends]

So. skip and loafer chapter 72 thoughts. lives were changed.

it's something i say endlessly, but what truly works so beautifully about shima and mitsumi's dynamic is that, first and foremost, its constituted on both of their genuine admiration and appreciation of each other as people, and as forces in each others' lives that make them strive to better themselves and become worthy of the other. i think their last interaction in this chapter encapsulates this perfectly on both ends.

shima, since the beginning of this manga, prominently never initiates physical touch. he simply doesn't do it with anyone other than mitsumi, and then when he very rarely does, it's in incredibly significant moments. given both of his social status that he sorely hates, and our newfound knowledge of his relationship with his mother, characterized by trauma of abuse, it makes sense - his wariness of physical touch crystallizes his wariness of showing vulnerability and exposing his true self to others. the first to come to mind is in chapter 11, when he grabs mitsumi's hand - it's a similarly sudden gesture that symbolizes shima's rare vocalisation of his feelings for her:

Considering these two moments are 60 chapters apart, it's incredible to see just how much both of them have grown. how shima's beautiful character arc culminates in fulfilling himself and letting his emotions out after bottling them for the vast majority of his life, and how coming to terms with his past and re-finding his passion allows him to come to terms with his feelings and act on them - because he finally feels like a whole enough person, worthy of the person he admires and loves. Shima had to have gone through his arc - open himself up on stage and gain some sort of closure from his mother, allowing to "be a kid again" as he ought to be instead of forcing himself to adopt the facade of maturity, in order to, for once, he acts on a whim - to show his genuine appreciation for mitsumi which he's only been able to internally ruminate over.

I think the significance of this gesture for mitsumi cannot be understated either. It's been established many times over that just as shima struggles with wanting to catch up to mitsumi, mitsumi has had similar feelings of inadequacy in comparison (see: "i always knew it was too much for me"), and it's been apparent that she's been somewhat walking on eggshells ever since their breakup. while of course mitsumi has self esteem and it's one of her great qualities, she is also significantly characterized by insecurities - thinking she wants to be important to shima one day, thinking, after the breakup, "of course this amazing person was never within reach for someone like me". which might make one insane given how absolutely important she is to shima. this is why she purposely chooses to shy away form approaching him at first, regardless of how mesmerised she's been by his performance - he's surrounded by people which, she assumes, are more important than her - and so she settles for staying in the back, but wishes to tell him how genuinely great he was. so in this sense, mitsumi is posited in a similar position to the one shima has been - they're both constantly struggling to become worthy of the person they admire. shima, having been so emotionally paralysed to the point he couldn't convey his feelings to mitsumi properly, probably fed into her subconscious feelings of his being out of her reach.

That's why that moment is so incredibly cathartic for both of their character arcs. shima, having finally come to terms with both his feelings and his past, is finally taking his turn to externalise his feelings like mitsumi did before, while mitsumi finally gains the appreciation and recognition she's been subconsciously missing. finally, they (hopefully) realize their outmost importance to one another - shima caught up to mitsumi not just in having fulfilled himself or (at least in his own eyes, as we all know he always was) being worthy of mitsumi, but also in voicing his feelings for her. and i'm so proud of him !!! the writing being so careful and nuanced around it just, yet again, shows the masterful understanding of human relationships in skip and loafer. i love these two so much

[deathandnonexistentialdread]

So…What was your favourite season of YGO DM?!

The Kaiba Grand Prix Arc for sure.

I know it is filler BUT it is a fun filler arc. It is the condensation of everything that is great in yugioh dm without the angst and death.

I made a list of everything I liked about this arc:

so many ✨Shenanigans✨

This arc had many fun moments that watching it made me laugh and after the angst fest that was the Doma arc this was a very welcome change.

In no particular order some of my favourite moments are:

all of Jonouchi and Yuugi's interactions

Atem making Yuugi be his spokesperson (and the bodyswapping)

Jonouchi not recognizing Mask the Rock's identity when everyone else did, including Otogi who probably has only met Sugoroku once

Movie Reference!!

(you can pry the 'Jonouchi likes scifi movies' headcanon from my cold, dead hands)

Panther Warrior ascending to Valhalla

(what cracks me up about this scene is the way that there was no gap between Seigfried's words and Panther Warrior flying away. Also, very neat for the warrior to be sent to Valhalla)

Queer Pride Card

The gang stuffing their faces while Atem and Vivian are dueling

Kaiba's very extra enterences

This line from Kaiba:

(speak your truth king)

Very serious discussion in the middle of the duel:

(love how Yuugi and Atem just discuss things in the middle of dueling. Other people duel with their lives on the line, these two treat dueling as a fun couple's activity)

Dark Magician Girl admiring her new shoes without any concern in the world:

(knowing that dmg is Mana makes this scene even more fun because you know Mana is enjoying every bit of this. Atem's worried face is the cherry on top)

2. Leon's Fairytale Deck

as a person who has multiple books on fairytales, Leon's deck is one of my favourite things about this arc. Lesser known fairytales were also included which made me very happy.

3. Seigfried

His first appearance tells us all that we need to know about him.

This guy is one of the most queer-coded characters I have ever come across and I wish we got to see him more. He is such a dive.

And his homoerotic rivalry with Kaiba was the most interesting thing aout this arc for me.

Kaiba thinks this is a battle while Seigfried is hearing wedding bells.

4. Kaiba Corp getting hacked a total of three times this arc

(^ this is what a liar sounds like)

It is funny how Kaiba Corp getting hacked and the duel monsters data almost getting wiped out is the least stressful problem the cast has ever faced.

This arc is the beach episode of yugioh; with its low states plot and fun character interactions

[coffeegnomee]

The fact that the meta of the joker arc is basically entirely discounted by zam in his s6 lore does indeed drive me a bit crazy. The meta of s5 is amazing. I love meta lore.

Hi! I'm a different anon by I thought this was interesting when reading your explanation of s5 stuff. If you don't mind, could you explain how zam discounted the meta aspect of the joker arc during s6?

it was more early season for sure, his reason for pacifism was bc the past arc was "bad for the server". this later expanded to be a commentary on his entire time during s4 and s5, not just the joker arc. but i've always seen the joker arc as something that was good for the server, in the same way that giving bacon hearts was good, or joining mapicc to fight pangi in the crown arc was good. it's another of the times when zam put server functionality over everything else, before he even realized that this is who he is on lifesteal.

but from a character perspective in s6, especially one that is haunted by the past and puts a large amount of his identity in the public opinion of the other server members (the amount of times zam's opinion on himself changes based on what others say about his actions is. so many.) it does make sense to look upon the joker arc as an absolute evil.

And it does and did drive me crazy, but it does and did make sense for the s6 lore. i hate it and i love it. it put a meta spin on s6 to just ignore that whole motivation in favor of the opinion of minute and co who once commented that the joker arc was getting boring and repetitive (there's a stream near the end where this happened), just as zam's s5 goal of not betraying a team was born of spoke saying, you gotta stop switching sides, right at the last seconds of s4. And then add the layer that minute s5 said he was inspired by zam in s3 and that made zam want to return and embrace who he was in s3 during s6. like of course he would hate the joker arc and forget why he chose to do it in the first place.

but the joker arc was always more than just blowing things up for the sake of blowing things up. it was a fun arc, and blowing up things is fun, but it wasn't just about having fun. there was real reason and character motivation that lead him there and it was wrapped in the meta of what s5 was.

and now im just interested in how it will all layer in with s7 since he's at minimum fighting again.

[artinventor]

I watched the show only recently and on my own, and only stated my reactions to what has been shown to me on screen, I know perfectly well the difference in headcanon and canon.

Dean didn’t say he didn’t feel the same, if he did that would’ve made it unrequited. They very much left it ambiguous for the viewer to decide by having him only say “don’t do this” and not speaking about it afterward. I’ve watched enough things to know when the writers want something to be clear, they could’ve easily had a scene where Dean tells Sam what happened and how he felt about it, but they didn’t. this is basic media literacy. If you want to interpret it as unrequited then go ahead, I’m not “forcing” anything on anyone I’m just stating my own opinion that you could easily ignore.

My post was mainly about everything else before the confession scene, you can’t exclude everything that came before. That’s what I thought is the main thing to look at when coming up with a conclusion about how Dean feels. They decided last minute to make Cas gay but doing so makes you look back at everything about their relationship, which includes everything Dean has done. Cas was not written to be pining after Dean while Dean doesn’t do anything back. In fact. In the very same season where they know they were writing Cas to be gay, they had Dean be the one to have a breakdown about him being gone in purgatory only 9 episodes before.

Nothing about how their relationship was written in the 12 years since Castiel was introduced has been one-sided. And if it was, the one-sided came from Dean. That was my point. Dean actually has way more intense emotional arcs than Cas does because Castiel has many periods of being dead or going off on his own (which Dean has been shown to hate, and all of that was clear as day on the show, nothing that I headcanoned). So that’s what led me to my own interpretation.

Both characters were written to be “straight” with the gay part to only be something ambiguous or under the surface because they knew it had a big fanbase, but confirming Cas to be gay changes everything. Backtracking on one previously written straight character makes one think about the other one that is linked to him, especially if he was shown to do everything the gay character has done and even more. That’s my whole point here, if it wasn’t clear enough.

I’m sorry but you can’t just officially confirm one half of destiel and then make it seem like its ambiguous for the other,,, dean had a way bigger list of gay crimes than cas like they were BOTH insane about each other and thats how the ship came to be what it is. like I actually thought dean was way more obvious than cas was. You can’t backtrack on only one of them and be like aha he was gay the whole time! And not have me assume the same for the other, like this confession makes you look back at the relationship in its entirety

[theloganator101]

Helluva Boss is Bad (No Duh)

In all my posts talking about Hazbin Hotel and how it fails at being an enjoyable show, I sometimes mention Helluva Boss in an occasional post or something else. I realized I never really went deep into that show or shared some more opinions on it.

Well that is why I'm making this to lay out my full opinion on Helluva Boss. While there ARE some things in it to make it slightly better than Hazbin, it's still pretty bad in it's own special way. So before I get to ranting, I'm gonna go over what I actually liked about Helluva.

~The few good things I liked~

Starting off, the designs for some of the characters are alright. They look to have had a little more thought behind them than anyone in Hazbin, my favorites being Striker and the Baphomet demons of the Sloth Ring.

I also like how we actually get to EXPLORE the world of this universe, like the characters ACTUALLY go to places that isn't just in the Pride Ring. They go to other rings, they go to earth, they go to different locations beyond the city and their homes. That's at least something Helluva has over Hazbin.

And... I think that's about it. So let's get to the things that I DON'T like about this series. Starting with...

~The Story Sucks~

We all know the story and how it unfolds. It started with a group of Imps wanting to fight the system and opened their own assassination business of going to earth and killing whoever their client wants, only for it to take a one-eighty turn and make it about Stolas and his family drama.

I'm sorry, but that is NOT what I originally followed the series for.

I wanted to see more of IMP doing missions, I wanted to see more of how the main characters bounce off each other, not watch a full grown man cry, bitch, and sing cringy songs into getting what he wants.

And not to mention the side plot with Fizz and Ozzie just ultimately led to nothing and wasted episodes when that time could've been spent on expanding the already big cast. Which then leads into...

~The Characters suck~

No one in this show is likable.

Each and every one of them has done something that just got on my last nerve.

Blitz and how he treats his employees, Moxxie and how his character keeps resetting to zero (And we're not going into him in Unhappy Campers), Millie's a nothing character, Loona's a nothing character.

Verosika's a hypocritical bitch who wants to drag others down with her so she's not the only miserable one, Striker lost his edge as the show went on, Fizz's character was butchered, DHORKS and the Cherubs are just... there to serve as antagonists. And the same can be said for the Sins, Andre should've never existed, Stella was reduced to dumb bitchy wife, Octavia is only a plot device in Stolas' arc.

Oh yeah, and Stolas is the worst.

~Stolas~

This character is such a plight on Helluva Boss.

I already made a post talking about him, it's here if you wanna check it out.

But in all seriousness, Vivzie made a grave mistake in not keeping Stolas as the villain. He's exactly what Blitz is fighting against, a noble blood who sees Blitz's kind as beneath him and can toy with whenever he wants. So to have him as this "Poor ultra victim" whose actions never gets properly acknowledged or receives consequences, clearly contradicts whatever the show was going for.

And this ends up weighing the show down in the process and ends up making things worse for it, including changing the plot to focus on him instead.

So yeah all in all, while Helluva Boss is slightly better than Hazbin Hotel, it's still pretty bad in it's own way.

[theweeklydiscourse]

(Neines) I have been enjoying your critique on sjm and I just wanted to ask: do you think unintentionally, the author lady has written the story of prythian to be stagnant? With the laser focus on wish fulfillment with rhysand (and using feyre as a voyeuristic lens), it basically stunts the rest of the cast of characters from developing past being props in the overall narrative. It's especially noticeable with how she treats the other hls and in universe criticism towards rhysand.

A story that refuses to acknowledge the flaws of its main characters will be doomed to remain stagnant. She is fixated on Rhysand, but can never bring herself to have him undergo an actual character arc or change throughout the series. Of course she can’t, because doing that would mean reflecting on some flaw he has, or a mistake he made…and we all know that Maas does not believe in such things. Further to this point, Rhysand then becomes incapable of having any appeal beyond his hyper masculine alpha persona. There are no extra quirks that make him truly stand on his own as a character. This is especially irritating when it’s clear that no character is allowed to criticize him. Even Nesta is twisted to praise Rhysand because Maas cannot conceive anyone having any genuine problems with him.

I think you’re exactly right. Maas’s lack of interest when it comes to scrutinizing the actions of her main characters (save for Nesta) prevents her story from progressing. Each character becomes yet another prop to embellish and support the true apple of her eye. This stagnation doesn’t allow for creativity or any additional exploration into the world she created. It keeps the reader trapped in Velaris in an eternal coffee shop AU with the occasional side quest that reminds you of the fantasy setting.

[maid-of-the-golden-deer]

i think mauro is gonna be slept on HARD and thats ppl arent gonna approach his romance the right away

heres how i think of it: mauro is to the player, who the player is to the other characters

in most (not all, but most) of the romances, the player helps their LI work through their insecurities and their previously established arcs, and you come out the end witb a happy, healthy relationship

mauro... already went through his character development before he even came to azuma. from everything he says, he has a happy, loving relationship with his parents (they gave him his airship, supported his dreams, and bawled when he left). And his life outlook is very positive and healthy already (failure is a journey in of itself, and you can always try again). he doesnt NEED you to therapize him. instead, its your PC who gets worried that his wonderlust will take him elsewhere, and get in your own head to the point where you consider breaking up with him, until he clocks that and you have an honest, mature conversation about it

tldr is like, mauro is a "static" character, but dont you think for a minute thats an insult. he reveals more about the PC instead of the other way around, and i found it to be a refreshing change of pace after doing all the other routes

[mentalbreakdownsarenormal]

"The carefree shamelessness of a kid." That... entirely recontextualizes her relationship with Lancer in chapter 1, doesn't it.

(Long rant about the two under the cut)

I mean, consider what chapter 1 must have been like for her. The human freak she hates has just caught her eating school property, and if they report it it'd be the last straw that gets her expelled. Considering what she said to them in The_Newist_Girl post, they will probably do so immediately and remorselessly. It is only because of their mother and her kindness towards her that she doesn't cause a major incident on the spot. She begrudgingly agrees to just get some more chalk and head back to class.

(She also drops the line "If you haven't gotten it by now... Your choices don't matter" which uh. Speaking of internalization.)

Of course, it isn't that simple. The closet is both impossibly dark and impossibly big. And when the two of them go to leave, the door is slammed in her face and locked. The floor collapses under her and she falls through. The drop is impossibly far.

She wakes up in a new world that does not make sense. The first person (barring the freak) she sees starts shooting at the two of them. She finds an entire abandoned town, complete with a castle. And, perhaps the strangest thing of all, she meets a hooded figure who tells her about a prophecy. One she is a part of.

One that calls her a hero.

She doesn't believe it. When asked to accept her destiny as one of the Delta Warriors, she refuses. The hooded guy is knocked away by a kid on a bike. And he's the first person to finally give her a clear answer when she asks a question.

"Who the hell are you?"

"I'm... The Bad Guy!"

This is the first and only thing she has understood in the last few hours. He's a bad guy. He's getting in her way. Someone's getting beat up. After the fight, two facts make themselves clear. One, she needs to go east. Two, people are gonna try and stop her.

So she goes, alone, and makes herself a menace of the enemies. Beats them up, steals their stuff, and other sorts of things you would do in a normal RPG. That's what the enemies are for, after all. Why would she be nice to someone trying to kill her. Eventually, she's blocked by a door she can't open alone until the other nerds show up. She needs to follow them, but like hell she's actually gonna help them or change her behavior at all. There's no point. Kris and Ralsei are good and she's bad. They fell right into their roles, being all nice and stuff, but she's not like them. She can't think of anything good to say about someone trying to kill them like they can. She isn't delicate. She isn't skilled at anything. But she can smash things. And so smash things she shall. Just like she always has, and just like she always will. Don't know why anyone's expecting anything else.

She won't, she can't grow as a person like they can, not now not ever.

Susie's arc where she grows as a person begins after two rooms. It's the scene where Lancer mistakes Susie trying to intimidate him as advice on how to be scary and thanks her for it. His praise surprises her and having someone who appreciates her motivates her to become better. That's the basic reading anyway. But in hindsight...

Lancer is a child. A young child. Why? Lancer's age, for the most part, is irrelevant to his character. If you wanted him to parallel Susie, why not write him to be the same age as everyone else? How does the relationship between the two of them benefit from Susie needing to babysit the kid half the time they hang out?

She's his mentor. The one she never had herself. Lancer is bad at being scary. His evil laugh sounds like a baby Santa Claus. He has no idea what he's doing, he's just trying to be "scary and badass" like his dad. And it just so happens being scary is one of the few things Susie knows how to be "good" at. And with that in mind, Susie's words suddenly take on a whole new meaning.

Susie interrupts with a single word. "Stop." What Susie says next, about wannabe tough guys and bitten faces isn't her trying to scare him. It's her trying to crush him. The same way she was when she tried to play. You need to stop because you're bad, now here's someone who can do it better. But unlike back then, the person who told the kid to stop was the better person. The kid got the chance to see it be done properly and was told what exactly needed improvement.

And the next time they meet, Lancer acts far more intimidating. He's still not good, to be sure, but he did improve. He then immediately asks for feedback to try to improve more. He doesn't even have guys, he just wanted to practice.

And this shatters Susie's world view. This kid, this young, carefree kid who's just playing around improves. The kid who's the only person around she could understand or relate to, the kid who introduced himself as "the bad guy" *improved*. Whatever was wrong with this kid that made him a bad guy, that made him an outcast, didn't end up mattering. The support around him did.

In the very same scene Lancer shows improvement, he realizes your team doesn't have a name. To fix this, he asks everyone to drop a name in his bucket to be randomly selected. Kris doesn't and they "look like they don't care." But Susie does add a name. She might not put a lot of effort into it, but she plays along. Susie, who walked through puzzles, who disobeyed commands, who left the party behind, who repeatedly complains about you being slow, who refused help stop the very world from ending, put a name in the bucket.

And in every following scene the two are together, she encourages everything he does.

She expected to be able to play it because she was. She wasn't trying to be good: she liked the piano and she wanted to play it, so she did. Playing for the sake of playing with the carefree shamelessness of a kid.

But because someone thought she was "bad", they told her to stop. It's a role she's been assigned all her life. Without explanation, without justification, without fault, something as inherent to her as her voice, her claws, her skin.

So she internalized it. "Good" must be a role too, right? No one's ever cared enough to teach her about practice or training or perseverance. "Good" is something Susie would simply never get to be.

[leebrontide]

Hello!

I'm Lee (any pronouns), a middle aged queer writer from the midwest of the US. It's been a bit, so I'm doing another writeblr intro, to find more potential writeblr folks to chat with!

What I write:

- Mostly scifi! I have a bit of fantasy brewing in a collab project, but mostly, scifi.

- Queer stuff. Lots of different types of queerness.

- Community. Both in the group-hugs-and-support variety and the extreme-mess/everybodies-traumas-keep-smashing-into-each-other variety. I have training as a family therapist and am endlessly fascinated by interpersonal dynamics. This is the meat of my work.

- Grounded worldbuilding. My main project right now is near future scifi that diverges from our timeline around 2001. I'm enjoying the hell out of playing the US I know with some very key tweaks that changed society. I know a lot about medical systems, criminal justice systems, and legal systems and like using fantasy and scifi elements to show them as I know them. But like, in a way that should appeal to people who give 0 shits about US institutions.

- Disability stuff. Not that after-school-special shit. I am just tired of characters being generic pretty dolls whose physical attributes don't impact how they move through the world. That means not only writing a variety of different disabilities, but also different bodies. My characters aren't "inspiration porn" or just waiting around for less disabled characters to come save them. They are messy, with a wide array of relationships to their limitations and the things they use to cope with those limitations.

- YA into new adult. Not exclusively, but mostly. I really like taking characters from YA into early adulthood. Not just a standard coming-of-age arc, but the actually moving from a self-concept of a dependent teen into someone with legal responsibility for themselves, jobs, college, etc. Especially when combined with all of the above. I love a nice long character arc with lots of sub-arcs along the way.

What I have out, now.

- I have two books out so far, Secondhand Origin Stories and Names in Their Blood. I'm working on book 3 in that planned 5 book series now, which is currently titled Brittle Idols.

- I have a free monthly newsletter called Shed Letters where I talk about psychology, tech, queerness, storytelling, and the creative process, plus whatever random topic I've been researching for my books recently. Also contains pictures of my three very photogenic cats.

- Newsletter subscribers also have access to a novella I wrote that goes between Secondhand Origin Stories and Names in Their Blood, that's about an fictional AI (the only kind I like) trying to decide on a body for themself.

- I also draw and animate, with my first and still in-progress animation project being a "trailer" for Secondhand Origin Stories.

What I'm looking for

- writeblrs - especially writeblrs that aren't JUST writeblrs. I want to feel like I'm meeting people, at least in some manner, rather than just hearing about a product in process. That doesn't have to mean deep confessions or private information, but honestly I'm not likely to remember you for your writing project alone. Sorry. Please show me what else you care about!

- Bonus points for queer or disabled scifi or fantasy writers.

- I am white for most intents and purposes but I always want to find more AOC who write sci fi.

- Also always excited to meet more YA authors- especially the currently kinda sidelined YA scifi.

- People who care about where society is going but aren't posting that everything is doomed and pointless. I mean you post whatever you want but I don't need that on my dash. That shit is not helping me help.

I sometimes do ask games? It's fun when I have the time. It'd be fun to have more folks to do them with, provided those folks are patient.

Please interact if this has piqued your interest!

[dragynkeep]

RWBY Design Review - Yang Xiao Long (Atlas)

Overview

Now with the final member of Team RWBY, I've long given up on seeing Yang in actually good fits since Volume 2. She just consistently gets the short end of the stick and her Atlas outfit not only carries on the trend, but gives us one of her worst looks.

Which is very telling of my feelings for her. She was one of my favourites in Beacon going into Volume 4, and her favourite outfit of mine was her Volume 2 Hunter outfit. Only now she is easily one of my least favourite characters and her outfits reflect that in how misfitting and outright bad they are for her.

Let's just get into it.

Pros

Just like Weiss, there is hardly anything I like about Yang's Atlas outfit. Even her previous outfit, which is still a mediocre one to me, has more going for it than this.

But I will say that I like the jacket. The wooly undercoat shows off white in a natural way, not only making it look warm for Atlas but lets Yang wear Weiss' colour also. It also being an almost dark desaturated red, like mulberry, is a good step in having Yang wear Ruby's colour and fits in with the warm, fiery palette that Yang should be associated with.

I also really like her boots. The style of them and the matching colour to the jacket has the colour seem more integral rather than slapped on into Yang's 47 colour palette, and looks suitable for the rough terrain that Yang works in.

It's also always been slapped on, and I do prefer the purple sash in her Hunter outfit, but having Yang keep the bandana on her leg consistently is a neat feature and purple is a good colour to have since it matches her purple eyes, a fun design choice with mixing Taiyang's blue and Raven's red.

On top of that, credits to Ein Lee and Erin, but they colour Yang with a vibrant purple that looks so good and it's a shame that it's constantly desaturated by the show.

Another thing I like about Yang is that, in the arc where everyone and their mother changed up their looks, Yang pretty much stayed the same.

She's characterised by being protective over her hair and while I think her growing comes with her embracing change should it happen, and not blowing up at little things, I do also appreciate the showing of this little characteristic in that Yang never changes her hair.

The only time she did was in Patch, when she was very much not feeling herself and stuck at crossroads, with that shown through putting her hair up in a ponytail. Not an extreme form of change, but still something for someone who does care about how she looks primarily through her hair.

And Atlas could've had Yang change it up with the rest of their team, and there could've been good points for her doing so in writing, but her keeping that is also a positive.

Yes, the massive amount of yellow behind her in the form of her hair has similar problems to Blake's pre-Atlas, but yellow is also a tricky colour since it's so bright and in your face, so you don't want to stick Yang in so much yellow either.

I am also a big fan of ponytail Yang, but her keeping her hair is also a positive for me. Either way, I wouldn't have complained.

A final point is that, I actually think the way her emblem is implemented into her design is a little creative. So many have their emblems slapped somewhere on their outfit, but Yang's is done with her belt buckle, centering it in the middle of her body rather than copying what she did in Beacon and slapping it on her breast again.

It's also a cute mirror to Ruby, who nearly always wore her emblem on her belt.

And that's really it for Yang. Now for the many, many flaws.

Cons

Similar to the others, Yang's gonna be in segments with how much I just don't like her design.

Outfit

Outside of the few outfit pieces that I mentioned in the pros, the rest of Yang's outfit is straight up a downgrade even from her Mistral outfit.

Just like Weiss, Yang's outfit does not look suitable for the Atlas environment at all. Not even just a little cheeky show of breast for fanservice, but she for real has her chest out, her arms in the show since she never has her sleeves down, and one thigh with the stupid half up, half down legs of her overalls.

The overalls themselves don't look great with all the cluttered lines, zippers, and we see with the back that Yang's exposed except for the little bit that's covered by her tube top.

Even with the jacket on top, that exposure of skin with only one layer to protect her isn't doing anything.

I have to preface that I don't particuarly care about fanservice or outfits not being 100% accurate to real life for certain situations. Yang has never been properly dressed for both the job she's meant to be doing and the environment she's in, but that didn't matter as much before because at least the outfits were great (Hunter), alright (Beacon), or at least serviceable (Mistral).

But this doesn't even look good! So the fact that she's in the middle of the tundra in this makes it even more egregious to look at, similar to Weiss since, by admission of the show, we're supposed to take the cold seriously to the point it's used as a tension plotline when Watts turns it off.

Again, I do not care about Aura because the guidelines to Aura is so hazy that the writers just pull whatever to wave away bad design and writing choices.

On top of that, why is one leg unzipped to expose Yang's thigh? Why are these pants now mimicing Vernal who, despite should've having something in writing with Yang, does not interact with her at all, never mind meaningfully?

And those stupid belt flaps. Yang isn't the only one who gets stuck with them, but they really are CRWBY just needing something to put on the belts for some interest. Only they're not interesting, they're ugly and useless, especially when you can easily add pouches or something for extra storage.

The thing anyone on the roat, Huntsman or no, would appreciate to hold their trail mix.

Colour

Yang literally has the worst colour palette out of anyone on her team, maybe even in the whole group.

As said before by many people, including myself, you don't want Yang in too much yellow because, not only will you lose her in the massive mop of yellow behind her, but because too much yellow is overstimulating and just an eyesore.

I also hate the colour yellow so Yang is already on the disadvantage with me.

But canon just takes it the completely opposite way in not letting Yang have any yellow in her design because the miniscule amounts in the zippers of her outfit and the yellow of her prosthetic/gauntlet. Her jacket is reddish-brown, her accents are orange/purple, her tube top is white rather than copying her Beacon look and making it yellow again, and the overalls are grey.

Even if some art pieces try to retroactively change this by making them a yellowish-tan, the concept art, the marketing pieces and the model itself all have it as grey.

So the only splashes of bright colour amongst the dark and shades are orange and purple, leading to Yang's associated colour no longer being yellow but orange.

It doesn't matter that Yang's hair carries most of the yellow because not only is it cut off halfway through the design, stopping the flow of yellow completely, but it's to the back. When you're looking at Yang from the front, as you want with any character, her hair is mostly hidden by all the others.

And this is why people say to stop putting her in so much brown/orange. Brown isn't a neutral shade like black or white, and orange is a bright colour that can easily overpower yellow if used too much.

Nevermind that Yang already has an accent colour in purple. A cool tone that pops against her mostly warm palette, opposite but similar to the warm red popping against Weiss' cold blues and whites.

And since Yang is often characterised as Ruby's overprotective sister and has Ruby as one the most important people in Yang's life, why not have Yang wear red to symbolise that importance in her design?

At the very least the concept art gives her a human skin tone. Yang is often coloured in with a slight tan, which works wonders with her warm palette and helps keep her from appearing washed out.

But this is still way too many colours. Really, a character should have probably five colours maximum that're used throughout the design, but Yang here has 10.

Not only is there three different shades of yellow, but then both orange/purple for the accents, and a different shade of purple for her eyes, and then the grey, then the reddish-brown, then black and white.

It's too much! Yang needs two shades of yellow at most, she doesn't need two accept colours and the purple doesn't need to be a different shade to the purple of her eyes. Shaving this down at least creates a more cohesive look from a colour perspective.

Yang really got hit with the grey scale of the Atlas arc.

Whereas Weiss at least got elevated with the blues, despite that not being her colour, Yang's warm palette is just washed out and grey, especially going into Volume 8.

Redesign

I will be honest with all of you in the chat right now, Yang's colour palette stumped me for like ten minutes.

Since the first redesign had that I couldn't do any wild reworks with the outfit or the palette, I had to look at Yang's colours and figure out not only how to make it not ugly, but also show her colour and combat the massive mop of blonde hair behind her.

So I did this!

Not gonna lie, the colours are still teetering to the too much side, but the use of two different shades of yellow and shades like white and black helped it all.

The only ones to be cut from the group was that greyish tan of her overalls, and the third shade of really dark, ugly gold that was used for the metal on her canon version.

Originally, I was going to close the jacket and have the sweater and overalls underneath, creating a layered look while trying to keep faithful to canon, but then I coloured in the legs the same colour as the jacket.

So it made this into more of a jumpsuit type outfit. I actually had something very similar to this to keep me warm as a kid-

Pretty similar to this! Just black and yellow, it always reminded me of the suit that the Bride wears in Kill Bill. So, I made that for Yang and kept the reddish-brown colour for it though changed the arms to the lighter yellow while keeping bright gold for her hair.

Which I quite like! Dare I say that, if I could tweak the shade of the red, I would like this more than the all black look that I usually advocate Yang to be in.

There was also a poll I made a few days ago to decide between Yang's hankerchief being purple or orange, and orange won out even if I really like the purple. So, I kept her leg bandana but also made the shoelaces purple just to have more of that cool colour for Yang.

Now, her fully redone version.

Me talking about how good Yang's slight tan is for her design and then just not doing it, okay faker /j

So, I actually kept the jumpsuit idea from the mini redesign of before since I really liked the idea. I used both black and a dark grey for different zones to keep it all from blending together, on top of using bright gold for all the metal and details to keep the colour consistently through Yang's outfit.

The yellow sleeves are a lighter, softer shade of yellow with grey cuffs and black gloves, keeping most of her arms from disappearing into her legs, and the black jumpsiot frames her yellow sweater so there's more of Yang's colour situated on her chest.

This helps accent the middle and the limbs of the character, along with using purple in the bandana and shoelaces to show a pop of cool tone against her warm palette.

Speaking of her palette, her colours had been reduced drastically to black/white, two shades of yellow, purple for the accents and now importantly, red for Ruby, finally putting her sister's colour on her.

Her neck scarf was also swapped out for an actual scarf, mimicing Ruby's hood and having some red between Yang's body and her yellow hair behind her, segmenting more of it off.

And while this improves so much on the canon outfit, it's not as impressive to me given how much the other outfit just brings Yang down. I really like the use of black for higher contrast to her yellow, but something about the reddish-brown used before had me almost preferring that one.

Either way, still very much prefer her look now.

Conclusion

Overall, Yang very much ended the team lineup not with a Yang, but a flop. Her incohesive colour palette, lack of signature colour, poorly though out outfit for the environment, and cluttered look really didn't help and, I ahve to say, she's the worst one out of all of them.

Weiss is a close second however, but at least with Weiss, there's some bits that I quite liked and her colour palette, while not good at showing her signature colour, at least was cohesive and nice to look at. Yang's couldn't even do that irregardless of my hatred for yellow.

So, just like Weiss, I gotta give Yang's Atlas outfit an F.

Now that Team RWBY's Atlas designs are done, here's what I'm planning next.

The next round for RWBY is their Beacon outfits, as they won second place in the poll. After them will be Mistral, followed by their Volume 2 outfits. When I'm done with those, I'll likely put up a poll to determine what order I'll be doing Team JNPR's, including hypothetical outfits for Pyrrha if she had lived past the FOB.

But, to make sure I don't get burnt out making so many drawings and redesigns and posts about Team RWBY, I'm gonna put a poll after each RWBY section with 4 random RWBY characters to choose from.

Whoever wins will be the design review between each RWBY set. I've already got the four characters this round, but feel free to comment or send in any characters that you want to see!

Until next time!

[azraelssword]

So just to clarify, your point about the real world is that Bruce's "hero fantasy" doesn't work as proved by Jason's death....which shows that trying to help people...doesnt do anything? Despite the fact that Jason's death is used as a moment for Bruce to re-evaluate and change, to become more dedicated and work harder than ever to help people and successfully does for 2 decades? Also I'm not gonna agree that the moral of "I don't kill other people and will do anything to help someone else" and "I think it's fine to kill other people because they are bad"(and before we bring up joker I'm literally talking about the 80 ppl he poisoned in black gate) are even comprable.

Jason and Bruce are not similar in their philosophy at all- Bruce believes that in solving murders will be able to provide the closure to victims that he never received, and in that vein delivering evil ppl to justice will protect others. Jason wants the people that hurt him to be hurt, like Bruce. Jason purposefully tried to have Bruce kill Joker because it would hurt Bruce. He literally says this! He didn't care about helping people, or saving Gotham, he wanted to hurt Bruce! How are u gonna call me media illiterate and then...ignore the text. Which isn't even to say I don't like Jason, I like that motivation. It's interesting. He is, however, at most an opportunistic anti hero, and mostly a villain that will and has consistently acted in his own self interest or just to disrupt. Up until recently where he's been doing next to nothing.

Couple of other problems here- Dick doesn't own acrobatics, but Jason was made as a replacement to him, and originally had Exact same backstory(they were called the flying todds ffs). Be real. He also doesn't own friendship, but they dumbed down both Roy and Kori to create a team reminiscent of the Titans with another bat as the lead.... and that seems totally organic to you? Not even to mention, Roy Harper, a character with 70 yes of history and one of the best character arcs in dc was reduced to groveling at Jason's feet? And Kori was basically a sexy goldfish? That's friendship? You keep talking about dc editorial and you don't think they did that to move comics because titans always did numbers, and used misogyny and ableism to get there?

On the subject of Bruce wondering if what he's doing is right, and the narrative answering yes... are UtRH and ADITF the only comics you've read? Because what you're saying is just incorrect. Both golden and silver age comics examine this and allow Bruce to fail with drastic results.

Moreover, the debate as to whether Bruce abused Dick has been going on in and outside of comics for over 60 years. Please be serious. Maybe pick up a comic before you talk about them.

To be honest I think that a lot of people who share the anti Jason Todd sentiment don't even actually hate Jason. I think a lot of them hate what he forces the narrative to do.

Jason forces the subversion of the hero genre -- he's the single, most extreme proof that Batman's hero fantasy wouldn't be effective in real life, and therefore Jason showing up can take you out of the universe really fast really hard. A lot of people are here for what comics are meant to offer, the one man hero fantasy that makes you Feel Good, and Jason showing up doesn't Allow you to enjoy it! And if that's the case, you're completely justified in not liking Jason, he takes you out of the thing you enjoy.

I think a lot of you don't actually find his personality or acts annoying in of themselves, you just hate what those actions do to the genre itself. And I think once you realize that and start looking at comics like actual pieces of literature, Jason and shitty comics both will become a lot less rage inducing to you.

[novaursa]

GRRM gives you free reign to make whatever changes you want to the books

What do you do?

Alright, gloves off. If GRRM handed me the keys to A Song of Ice and Fire, and told me to do whatever I wanted—no canon restrictions, no fan expectations, just raw narrative freedom—here's exactly what I'd do:

1. Daenerys Gets a Spine (and a Brain) Back

Her ADWD arc is a dragging mess. She goes from a fierce conqueror with moral ambiguity and raw ambition to a mopey, dithering queen playing house with slavers and whining about prophecy and dragons like they're misbehaving pets. No. I’d gut that entire Meereenese knot.

She embraces being a dragon. No more pretending to be Mhysa the goat herder. She burns Astapor, sacks Yunkai, and crucifies more slavers when they resist.

She leans harder into her Targaryen side, but not in the cartoon "madness" way. Cold, brilliant, and terrifying. Think Cleopatra meets Alexander the Great with actual dragons.

Her dragons are weapons. Not metaphors. Not unruly children. Weapons.

And yes—she flies west before the end of the book, either to Westeros or to Valyria to find something that actually matters.

2. Trim the Fat — Cut the Dead Weight POVs

GRRM’s biggest crime is not writing too much, but writing too much that doesn’t matter. We don’t need:

Areo Hotah: His POV is like being stuck in a silent film with color commentary from a bored eunuch.

Quentyn Martell: Killed off to prove a point that was made five chapters earlier. Waste of ink.

Arys Oakheart: I’d keep Arianne, but his chapters go in the fire.

Instead, consolidate that narrative real estate into making sure we have consistent arcs for Jon, Dany, Arya, and Tyrion. Or give it to overlooked characters with actual stakes—like Sandor, who could carry at least one book-worthy POV.

3. Let Aerys Burn It All Down (Alternate Timeline)

I’d absolutely write a full-blown AU where Rhaegar doesn’t "kidnap" Lyanna—he fails to stop his father. Aerys torches King’s Landing. The wildfire caches erupt. The Red Keep collapses. Tywin doesn’t betray him in time. The capital becomes a cursed ruin—Harrenhal 2.0.

The Targaryen dynasty ends on dragonfire, not with a whimper but a cataclysm.

Make that the starting point for a darker, post-apocalyptic Westeros where the Starks, Martells, and Greyjoys pick through the ashes for power, and Dorne rises through fire and smoke.

You want a mad king? Let him be mad. Not just whisper about it—show it, full nuclear.

4. Bring Back the Supernatural with Real Purpose

The Others: Give us a hard magic system behind their resurrection powers. Less vague “winter is coming” and more “here’s the blueprint for undead conquest.”

Bran: No more magical wheelchair Jesus. Make him a morally ambiguous, terrifying greenseer who may or may not be responsible for the Long Night returning. Think less Druid, more Lovecraft.

The Wall: Tear it down. That’s your end-of-Book-6 climax.

5. Endgame: The Final Four

By the last book, only four characters matter in the Song of Ice and Fire:

Jon Snow: The Song itself—fire and ice in one man. But he doesn’t get the crown. He sacrifices himself to stop the Others permanently.

Daenerys: She becomes Queen. Not of Westeros, but of a new order. She reshapes the political map.

Tyrion: He survives, bitter, broken, and the last witness to everything that died with the age of dragons.

Bran: Not king. God. A broken, root-bound oracle at the center of the weirwood network. Neither man nor boy anymore. Something else.

Everyone else—food for crows.

6. Cersei Dies in the Pettiest, Most Ironic Way Possible

Forget getting crushed by rubble. She dies locked in a room with wildfire she ordered to be moved, trying to light it and screaming “I am the queen!” as Jaime slams the door shut.

7. Theme Fix: No More Moral Shrugging

The series started out with a strong theme: actions have consequences. But it loses that bite by Book 5. I’d bring it back hard. Every lie, every murder, every betrayal—you pay the price. Maybe not today. But someone does.

Bottom line: I’d make it tighter, darker, and more mythic. No rambling travelogues, no food porn, no filler chapters of people describing other people who are off-screen doing something maybe interesting. Less talking about dragons. More dragons. Less hinting at the end. Deliver it.

Let the old gods bleed, let the throne rot, and let the last page be written in fire and shadow.

[paladinhearts]

M*leven’s Potential Breakup

If/when M*leven break up, how would you like to see it go down? Me personally, I’d like it if it was initiated by Mike rather than El (it’d likely be mutual but for argument’s sake).

Of course, El initiating the break up would go back to her character arc about becoming independent and finding comfort in being by herself and being self-reliant. However, there’s a reason why I think Mike being the one to end things might be a good direction to go in as well.

Throughout the show, we’ve seen that whenever Mike and El are apart, it’s practically never through Mike’s choice.

S1: El is taken into the Upside Down, she ‘dies’ in front of Mike. He loses her.

S2: El is stopped by Hopper from coming in contact with Mike, they are apart the entire season and Mike can’t reach her. He loses her.

S3: Once again, Hopper forces Mike to be away from El, and then later that season, El dumps him. He loses her.

S4: El has to move away, and for all they know, permanently. Mike was unable to communicate properly with her. Then she gets arrested by the police. And then she’s taken by/goes with the Hawkins Lab people. She doesn’t take him with her. He loses her.

In every season, every separation between these two has been negative. It’s never initiated by Mike. It’s never natural. He’s never given a choice, which is why he feels like he keeps losing her.

We’ve seen that Mike has developed a very negative relationship with the idea of ‘losing’ El. And that’s only natural, considering that every single time he’s apart from her, it was never willingly. He associates time spent away from El with negative events in his life. And because of this exact reason, I believe he’s afraid.

He’s afraid of growing apart from her. He’s scared of the idea of letting go because he knows that every time he’s ‘lost’ her, things always go to shit. He’s not allowing himself to consider the fact that maybe, just maybe, letting go of El might not be the horrible idea he thinks it is.

Currently, they are both holding each other back. In their relationship, El hasn’t felt loved by Mike for a long time now, and Mike will always be the Lois Lane to El’s Superman, which is something he clearly does not want. They are both at a stalemate. And a lot of what I’m saying about Mike applies to El too because they both associate their time apart with negative things.

For El, this has started to slowly change over time. We saw her slowly gaining her confidence in S3, and then by the end of S4, she seems to have come to a conclusion and she seems to have found her independence (read: the last scene in S4). All that’s left now is for Mike to also realise that perhaps growing apart from El and letting her go will actually be a decision for the greater good.

This is why I said I want to see Mike be the one to initiate the breakup. If it’s El that dumps Mike, it’ll once again put him in a position where he feels like he screwed up and lost her, again. But if he’s the one that does it, he’ll realise that this time, he has a choice. He has equal power and an equal say in their relationship. He’s not losing her, he’s willingly letting go. He’s not being forced into this by anyone, there’s nothing that’s trying to take El away from him, this is simply his decision, it’s something he wants to do.

It’ll help him break free from the power imbalance of their relationship, and help him overcome his negative associations with being apart from El. He’ll realise that not all distance has to be a bad thing, and he’ll see the potential in a platonic relationship with El. It’d be a similar arc as his situation with Max, just reversed. With Max, he was afraid of letting her in because he’s never considered being platonically friends with a girl, and with El, it’s the same thing just opposite; he’s afraid of letting her go because he doesn’t realise that just because they’re not dating doesn’t mean he will lose her.

In the past, it’s always been something or someone forcing them apart, so this time, Mike being the one to make the choice would give him back some of that control he so desperately needs in order to repair his self esteem and heal from his trauma.

It’ll help them both grow apart from each other naturally for once, allowing them both to become their own person.

That’s all 🎲