#plus conflicts between his needs are just magically solved as the plot goes

[aroacettorney]

tbh aup should have more moments where ludger is morally challenged. early arcs of aup did quite well in this regard where he had to pick between securing his goals/survival and genuinely taking care of the people around him (esp those who were not his people). nowadays, its just endless action scenes where he bruteforces through all the problems with his opness that contributes nothing to his character development because everything is already perfectly and conveniently aligned.

[mikehasfleas]

Bruh. I just realized. Moana 1 and Moana 2 are the exact same movie but Moana 2 is the worse copy.

Plot:

[ -example(moana 1, moana 2) ]

-moana wants something that she's scared of (voyaging, finding new people)

-moana feels like she has to choose between her family and the thing she wants (breaking tradition would be going against her family, she'd have to physically leave her family and she may come back empty handed which would make the voyage useless I guess? Didnt we already learn this lesson in moana 1?)

-moana goes anyway (leaves in secret, leaves but not in secret)

-moana becomes buddies with an old and stern yet silly person(s) who always wants to help, to a fault (Maui (wants to help humanity but ends up hurting them, is often comedic relief yet can be very serious, and is really old.), Loto+Kele+Moni=Maui without actually being serious about anything (Loto: always wants to help, to a fault. Kele: old and stern. Moni: silly comedic relief)

-moana has beef with the coconut guys ([no example needed, it just happens])

-moana learns about the main villain, who is an evil elemental being that has put a curse upon humanity (Te Fiti is fire and earth, Nalo is air and water)

-moana goes to a magical realm where she meets a minor villain and we hear their musical number while they have Maui's hook held hostage (Tamatoa with "shiny", Matangi with "get lost")

-we hear Maui sing his song ("you're welcome", "can I get a chee-hoo" (it physically pains me to type that name) )

-moana sees her grandma's + ancestor's spirits ([no explanation needed, girl's just seeing ghosts])

-they go beat the main villain and moana's necklace comes into play when curing the curse (Moana restoring the heart of Te Fiti, Moana diving down to grab the shell but ends up doing... whatever happened there (genuinely like what happened there) and touches the island)

-now that they fixed it they go stand on the island ([once again, no explanation needed])

-problem solved, desire is fulfilled, conflict fixed, end credits (moana got to sail with her people while still connecting them to their ancestors, moana sees the people she went out looking for)

Like. Am I crazy or did the writers just straight up chop moana 1 into little bits and try to recreate it without people noticing. It's straight up the same fuckin movie but moana 2 is a stupid copycat. It even starts with a baby in it like moana 1 did except this time the baby was irrelevant. Maui had the life and soul sucked out of his character and given to 3 characters who have 0 other traits and all Maui is left with is just being voiced by dwane johnson. You could Pepsi challenge these 2 movies and only know the difference because one of them is room temperature and flat. Moana litterally A-poses in a scene that made it into the final cut. It's so bad and I know that's partially because it was never supposed to be a feature length movie (it was originally gonna be a TV show on disney plus) but that doesn't mean it's a good movie. The entire theater I saw it in was cracking jokes at the most intense scene because we litterally could not take it seriously after Maui's song and we were on thin ice before that. I do not recommend watching it, like don't even hate-watch it unless you wanna hear the same soundbite of the rock singing off-beat over and over, which nobody should ever have to hear. I would've walked out if not for my pure morbid curiosity and the fact that I was there with my family. It shortened my lifespan by 4 years at least

[msfbgraves]

Potterverse - when God is an idiot

Crimes of Grindelwald was clearly a mess of a film. I didn’t expect much, after the Graves reveal of film 1, but one can hope, right? What makes this mess feel very modern, however, is that so much of it is due to Rowling’s inability to shut up on social media.

Take, for instance, the clusterfuck of Percival Graves and the Dumbledore family.

“Where is Percival Graves?” could have been part of the marketing campaign of the next film, even if Jo had had absolutely no use for the character. Since Grindelwald is revealed to reside in a big ass castle in film 2, it is quite plausible that this is in fact where Percival Graves has been all along. They could have killed him off screen - wasted away in the Nurmengard dungeon during Grindelwald’s own imprisonment in the US. It’s gruesome, but hardly implausible and the mystery is solved - Graves is in a shallow grave, having died of starvation 17 hours after the end of the first film. Grindelwald hadn’t exactly anticipated his own imprisonment in America, after all. Suck it up, fandom!

Why not make him an accomplice, though? He would have been as relevant to the plot a Vinda is right now, but you would have had some very happy fans, and it would fit, thematically - a bit like Hydra infiltrating SHIELD in Marvel. Of course, this being Colin, he would probably upstage Depp’s Grindelwald, so best ‘put him on a bus’ so to speak - off screen, but ready to be used at your earliest convenience. He could still give us beautiful infodump scenes, say as a messenger from Grindelwald to Dumbledore.

Too complicated? Colin too distracting? You hate the man for being a clearly better person/superior creator? Fine. Pull a Moody. Save Graves, send him back to MACUSA off screen. You need only show him coordinating Grindelwald’s transport at the beginning of film 2 to show us where he is at. Would give the audience some idea of the dangers of this Grindelwald man, to see Graves all worse for wear, plus it would make for some beautifully repressed anger between them. Ah, you don’t want to upstage the bleached pineapple Colin is unavailable?  Have Seraphina merely mention him: “Do not underestimate Grindelwald. Our head Auror is still in a coma, and he’d never lost a duel in his life.” 

The one thing they should not have done is spout Word of God contradictory nonsense about Graves never existing. Honestly. Simply gauge the audience reaction, write in a single line of exposition and in the meantime, tell the audience to wait and see. Whatever it turned out to be, fans might have clamoured it was a massive letdown given this buildup, but not a gigantic plot hole. The reason it is, is largely due to Rowling’’s desire to feel clever. Her Word of God making the film worse than it, taken at face value, needs to be.

Same with the Crendence-is-a Dumbledore storyline. It simply can’t be true. Dumbledore’s father was in prison, Dumbledore’s mother died without having any further children. No Aurelius was mentioned by anyone in Harry’s time. Moreover, there is a Quill of Acceptance in Hogwarts, writing down the name of every magical child born in the UK and Ireland in the Book of Admittance.

If there had been an Aurelius Dumbledore, might Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts and thereby in possession of that book, not have been made aware of that fact? True, this being Dumbledore, he could have ignored it, but really, to what end? All tormented about Ariana, would he really have been like: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ to learn he has a magical brother in the USA? When there’s all kind of Obscurial disturbances in the US at the latest, wouldn’t he have been like... “Best look into that?” And yeah, he sent Newt, but whatever Newt was doing - he wasn’t actively looking for Credence. He only learnt about Credence from Tina.

Also, in the first film, Grindelwald himself had no idea who Credence even was. He’d seen him in a vision, and thought the Obscurial was much younger. Even if you have never read the books, people who have watched the first film would remember that. So why would he now know exactly who Credence is? He’s been detained for months, who told him - Abernathy?!

And yet, the one who canonically doesn’t know any of this? Credence. He has no idea who Dumbledore is. He doesn’t know he’s met Grindelwald before. What we, the audience, do know, and Credence can only suspect - Grindelwald is a manipulative liar. Grindelwald knows about Ariana Dumbledore, another Obscurial, and would be able to describe her to Credence, making a familial connection sound plausible to him. Again, the boy has nothing else to go on. What he does have is a need for a provider, a burning desire to be part of a family and probably a tremendous rage directed at the people who he feels have rejected him. He would be very willing to unleash all that rage on Grindelwald’s ex and nemesis. This, for an audience member who has more information than Credence (even if you’ve only seen the first film), is actually quite riveting. It is a trainwreck waiting to happen, and, unlike Queenie’s ‘conversion’, it is psychologically plausible.

So of course, instead of trusting the audience’s intelligence - which she once did when it came to Snape’s loyalties, she goes blabbering about Credence really being a Dumbledore before the third film is even out. Honestly, with these pandemic delays, she would have time to revise her whole timeline, but noooo - logic be damned, prior information in her own canon be damned, human psychology be damned - Credence has to be a Dumbledore because I Can Do What I Want, Now Pay Up!

Sure, there might be something poetic about Grindelwald using Dumbledore’s own brother against him, but given that Rowling doesn’t care about the structure and rules of her own story or how humans actually tick (looking at Queenie) I do not trust her to actually dive into that. And  Credence as a willing, terribly misguided, and deadly instrument of a lying Grindelwald is a strong enough setup for conflict for film three without all this Dumbledore nonsense. If they’d just have not commented, the ending would have actually been quite strong. Now, rather than a cliffhanger, it is an even bigger plot hole than in film 1.

I mean, maybe that is the point, and we learn in film 3 that Dumbledore indeed is a time travelling Harry. Otherwise, I just can’t see why JKR keeps ruining her own endings on social media. “Where is Percival Graves” is a fantastic cliffhanger. “OMG, poor Credence has no idea how badly he is being manipulated into becoming a weapon of mass destruction” is psychologically very suspenseful, and maybe a few people will even fall for the Dumbledore red herring. That is totally OK too.

But for the love of storytelling: can someone shut this woman up already?

[hireath24]

Everything wrong with ACOFAS: A Rant Part Three

Disclaimer: This is part three and will continue from pages 97 to 150. Part one can be found here. Part Two can be found here. Part four can be found here. These page numbers come from the UK paperback edition of A Court of Frost and Starlight. This is my own opinion of the book - the writing, the grammar, the characters, etc. I won’t be commenting on anything that may have been plagiarized or that has been ripped off from the history of other cultures as SJM has a tendency to do. If you disagree with my opinions, I’m sorry and hope you see the error in your ways.

Page 99: Saying ‘wine will make you feel better’ really gives off the wrong impression when this is a book targeted at young kids. I mean, it’s written for the YA genre which is typically categorized for ages 12 and up. 

Page 101: I’m so fed up of people talking badly about Nesta. Having Amren say ‘That’s if she shows up sober’ when she has walked in to see Feyre, Cassian and Azriel all drinking wine? Feyre and Cassian being ‘drunk’? Double standard! Unfair! 

Page 102: So Elain managed to become a seer with the cauldron, right? So… Are there other people - sorry, Fae - who are seers? Why does the cauldron affect people in different ways? 

Page 107: Amren was turned into a High Fae in the last book, which means that she no longer has to drink blood as food. But why did she ever have to drink blood? I don’t think it was ever explained. Why?

Page 108: Elain asks Amren if she could have taken on a male form and Amren replies with ‘Before, in my other form, I was neither. I simply was.’ Was that supposed to be SJM’s cheap shot at adding some gender diversity? Because I would have loved to see Amren be this non-binary power house asexual dragon but who has time for that but she uses she/her pronouns throughout the entire series and this is the only mention of her being able to switch between genders. 

Page 112: ‘…A few drunk revelers spotted us and fell silent. Felt Rhys’s power, perhaps my own as well, and found somewhere else to be for a while.’ Why would they want to find somewhere else to be as soon as their High Lord and High Lady show up? Why are they showing fear at the feeling of their power? Aren’t Feyre and Rhys supposed to be the good guys? This reads a lot like the people of Velaris are scared of them…

Page 115: ‘Gentlemales’ GENTLEMALES. GENTLEMALES. GENTLE FUCKING MALES?!?!?!?!

Page 116: ‘Indeed, some people were turning our way.’ This is just… This word is useless in general but in this book? I don’t think it was edited properly. 

Page 118: ‘A scene. This was about to become a scene in the worst way.’ SJM does this quite a lot in this book. These little two sentences where she says something and then expands on that something. It was used twice before already and I didn’t write it down because I thought it was just a writing choice but… it’s a poor one. It feels like a way to get the word count up somehow and, quite frankly, it’s bad writing.

  Page 118: Feyre is annoyed that Nesta is asking for her to pay her rent? How else does she suppose that Nesta should pay for her rent? She had a home that was taken from her back in the human world (that was taken from her because of Feyre, mind you) and all she asks is that Feyre pay her rent because she doesn’t have a job in fairy land? That seems pretty reasonable. Feyre shouldn’t be mad. 

Page 121: ‘But those were her deaths to claim.’ Why does everything have to be paid with death? I think it would be a lot more empowering if Mor would meet with those who wronged her, say something about them and her and just walk out of their lives entirely? SJM should start preaching forgiveness a little bit more but, hey, that’s just my opinion. Plus, this is really making Rhys seem like a bad ruler. Wanting to kill his enemies? No. 

Page 122: ‘Keir is coming soon, isn’t he.’ Yeah, no, this wasn’t edited. 

Page 122: ‘When.’ 

Page 125: ‘Az has a list of kingdoms most likely to cross the line.’ I’m wondering why the Night Court is in charge? Why does Rhysand get to decide which kingdoms and courts cross the line? Why does he get to decide where the line is? 

Page 126: As I said for Page 118, Rhysand says: ‘Tempting. So damn tempting to tell…’ See what I mean? 

Page 126: If Rhysand deals with conflict by fighting fire with fire, then his court is going to fall apart. Why is he allowed to get away with attacking Tamlin the way he did? What are the basic rules of the court - any of the courts? Surely the people wouldn’t want an insufficient ruler so do they get a say in it? WHY ARE THE HIGH LORDS ALLOWED TO ACT LIKE BLOODTHIRSTY BEASTS?! 

Page 126: ‘Too long. She’d been cooped up within the borders of this court for too long.’ Wow, once you tune into it…

Page 127: I really want to make one thing clear. Not every piece of dialogue has to have a tag attached to it. Sometimes things work much better if you just use ‘I said’ or ‘he/she/they said.’ At least then it would mean less lines such as this ‘I laughed again. ‘Certainly not Amren. Not if we want peace,’ I added.’

Page 127: Also, Rhysand ‘want(s) peace’? Bullshit. Not seven paragraphs ago did he laugh about Mor wanting Tamlin dead and a page ago he was tempted to tell ‘the High Lord of Autumn that his eldest son coveted his throne.’ Do not think for one second that Rhys is a level headed ruler. SJM has a tendency to tell us that he is rather than show it. 

Page 128: ‘…Even the wine I’d returned home to drink couldn’t dull.’ Teaching young, impressionable people that alcohol might solve some of your problems. Great. And what - Feyre can say this but Nesta can’t drink? 

Page 129: ‘Decadent - it felt decadent…’ I really wished I had never picked up on this.

Page 129: Feyre keeps complaining about the amount of work she has to do but here she is shopping with Elain? When her people are scared, heartbroken, without a home and in mourning after the war?

  Page 129: ‘So different. This place was so different…’ ON THE SAME FUCKING PAGE?!??!

Page 131: So I guess that nobody ever told SJM that a character description goes beyond eye colour, hair colour and clothes? 

Page 133: ‘I might ease that grief, make the pain less.’ Feyre’s powers allow her to do that? When, why, how and fucking what?

Page 134: ‘I was lucky - so tremendously lucky.’ 

Page 134: Rhys was dead and he was brought back to life, right? It wasn’t like with Feyre’s death where she was still slightly conscious because she could hear what was going on, no. No, with Rhysand’s death, he really was dead. But he was brought back to life and somehow… feels nothing from this? I would love to see if there are times where his body becomes slightly misty and ghostlike, if his veins turn black under his skin because they had stopped working during that brief moment of death. I would have loved to see something other than just him feeling a little bit tired!

Page 134: ‘How.’ 

Page 135: I’s very clear to me that, for whatever reason, SJM wanted Feyre to be able to paint but she has no idea how to write about it. Whilst Feyre is painting, we only read about her need to create and what the end result looks like. Even during her process we hear nothing about light and perspective and I’m not a painter but there’s a true science behind it. And where is she getting the paints from? Rhys was able to give her some with his magic but from where?

  Page 138: It disgusts me that Feyre thinks that she can solve the people of the Night Court’s problems by teaching them how to paint. These people went through a war! And before that it was Under the Mountain! Painting and creating art in general can help with recovery from mental illness and trauma and PTSD and depression and everything else, but there comes a point where therapy is needed. Memorials are needed, ceremonies are needed. How are people supposed to paint what they feel when they can’t understand what they feel? It’s bullshit and, really, quite a childish thing to even suggest. How is this a ruler? 

Page 139: Why do jigsaw puzzles exist. Why are they called jigsaw puzzles. SJM is not a high fantasy writer. 

Page 140: ‘Good thing indeed.’ You guys know how I feel about this word by now, right? 

Page 140: ‘Indeed, each seemed like a different decade.’ So the fashion changes with time, does it? Great! Tell me more. Tell me why and how and when. Also, indeed.

Page 143: ‘The females bring their jewellery. I bring my weapons.’ But Cassian is a feminist, right? Yeah, no, guys, it’s alright. He’s a feminist, it’s all fine. 

Page 146: ‘You being too drunk to climb the stairs last night.’ I’m really not okay with the amount of casual drinking in this book - and not only that but the way it’s treated. Nesta is shamed for it, Feyre mentions that even wine can’t help her, Rhys makes jokes about his friends being drunk. It sends a really bad message. 

Page 147: ‘Illyrian baby indeed.’ 

Page 147: I’ve said this before but someone should really tell SJM that every scene in a book should further the plot. This has been three pages of bickering, useless drivel about a bed being too small for Cassian and cheap jokes about alcohol. The entire thing could be cut and the story wouldn’t change. 

Page 148: ‘Indeed, as Feyre emerged from the kitchen hallway…’

Page 148: ‘Strange - so strange to see…’

Page 149: ‘Indeed.’

Page 150: ‘Mor was instantly on her feet, offering - insisting on wine.’ This is just teaching kids that you need alcohol to be able to have a good time! Which isn’t true in the slightest! And it’s wrong on so many levels - especially insisting that everyone has wine! Peer pressure?? SJM deals with sensitive issues so badly (see what I said in another post about Rhysand and sexual assault) that it’s… It’s hard. Yikes.

[threewaysdivided]

Hello! I'm currently fighting with writing, myself. My protags have a habit of getting away from me. Have any tales of your YJDW where the characters just... decide to take a narrative swing to the left when your outline clearly heads right?

Hi there!

So this particular problem isn't one I've had much of when it comes to the actual writing side, which I think is mostly down to my particular writing preferences.

On the scale of planning to pantsing I tend to fall very heavily on the planner side (I've joked about it before but I do actually have most of YJ:DW planned in a fair amount of detail right up to the ending). Partly because my brain just goes a lot faster than my hands can write/type out complete sentences, partly because I like to have a fairly complete idea of the final product before I start work, and partly because the way I naturally engage with things leans more towards analysis than storytelling (I mean, I have a whole dedicated tag for essays on my blog). There's also that, at least when it comes to fanfic I'd actually publish, yes I know that's just one right now I tend to want to have an idea/concept/emotion to explore and also an idea of how to bring it to a satisfying conclusion.

The long and the short of it is that, because I tend to do most of my story-crafting before I actually get to the prose, and because I often end up reverse-engineering/ puzzle-solving chunks of the story around an idea/scene/character moment I want to include, those kinds of characters-derail-the-story or story-takes-a-hard-left-turn moments tend to happen at the planning phase. I'll be looking back over a planned scene/plot and decide that something doesn't feel right or that I'm not sold that my version of the character would believably act like that in those circumstances, or some other part of my brain will pop up from below the desk and slap down a thought like "hey, have you considered that you could get to your goal in a completely different way by adding this idea?"

(Not to claim that any approach to writing is better than another - I have a lot of respect for the confidence, vision and sheer productivity it takes to set out on a long-fic with only a loose idea of where it's heading and the belief that the journey itself is worth it - but one thing I will say for planning is that is does lower the associated "costs" of making big story changes since it's a lot simpler/faster to change or shuffle dot points than to cut, add and rewrite huge swarths of prose not that I don't also do that in the writing phase for some chapters. It's a difference in preference; planner-style leans towards space for analysis during "preproduction" while pantser-style puts it in more at the edit.)

Usually by the time I get to actually writing things in story form I'm pretty comfortable that I've created a plotline/scenario where the characters will follow at least central thread of what's happening. More often what I get in terms of "going off script" is less derailing the scene and more like an actor deciding to ad-lib, improvise or play with a conversation during a take - they'll add a quip or get distracted by a related topic or decide to do something on the side or they might suddenly say something more insightful than originally planned.

Generally I'm okay with keeping this kind of stuff in so long as what they're saying/doing doesn't contradict, change or accidentally accelerate the story/their arc to a later stage that it's supposed to be at - it helps things feel a bit more naturalistic and if they're really going off-track I can always have other characters pull them back on topic, the same way it might happen in a real conversation.

So yeah, I won't say it doesn't happen but just the way I prefer to write means that it tends to happen less often and in smaller ways than for other people.

But that probably isn't super useful for helping with your writing-fighting so, without knowing the specifics, here are some things that could be useful.

Maybe consider stopping to do a little bit of analysis of your story:

Is there a idea(s)/concept(s) that your story is really about/ interested in exploring? Don't worry if what you come up with isn't super neat or precise, I still don't think I could give a fully comprehensive description of what YJ:DW is about in terms of "theme" or "message".

Who are you characters: what do they want, what do they need, what do they think they need, what is their take on the situation they're in, how do they see the world, how accurate/ biased is that worldview, what sort of things interest them and why, what insecurities/ phobias/ dislikes do they have and why, why do they act the way that they do?

What is the main purpose of this scene/plot point and what essential thing(s), piece(s) of information, interaction(s) need to be covered to serve that purpose?

If you stepped back from the needs of the story and just looked at these characters in the situation you've created, how do you feel they would act? Does it line up?

It also might be worth looking at what your protagonists/ characters end up doing in the moments when they try to derail your story, and seeing if you can figure out any potential reasons for why it might be feeling more natural/ the momentum might be stronger in that direction. They might be going "off script" but are they also going off point or are they heading towards the same/ a similar point in a different way than what you originally planned?

It could be that there's a conflict between what you want to have happen and what you've set up to have happen, and that reworking the scene or preceding scene(s) to better direct the characters based on how they've been established to react to things might get them to behave.

It also might be that some unconscious part of your brain has worked out a different route to the same goal and is trying to send you down that path. Or your brain could potentially have identified (or even misidentified) a pattern in the story/character(s) and is trying to communicate that to you through them. It could be that there's some contradiction between what you've established/have planned for the character(s)/story overall, and what's happening in the details of the specific scene that's causing them to break ranks. Sidenote: I just want to point out that this doesn't necessarily mean that what you had originally planned is somehow inherently "worse" or "wrong". Sometimes your brain might be defaulting toward what feels familiar from common tropes in the media you consume because "this is just what happens in these stories", or it might be trying to move a scene that is in some way challenging more towards your existing comfort zones as a writer. On a deeper level, asking "why does this feel correct to me" can also be useful.

Generally though, I think that your plan and your characters/story being out of step with each other is a bit like an indicator light on a car. As much as we like to enjoy the fantasy that these characters and worlds are real and separate from us and not fully under our control, and as much as stepping away from that can sometimes "kill the magic", it's worth stopping to pop the hood or stick our heads behind the curtain sometimes to make sure everything is working in sync and going in the direction it's meant to. Plus, you might learn some new things about your story/world/characters in the the process that end up being useful later.

Hope this helps!

[nautiscarader]

The Dragon Prince - Season 2

It is very rare to see a show which has improved in nearly every aspect, but lo and behold, TDP season 2 delivers more. 

Just... more. 

More drama, more characters, more action, more humor, and more dark, complex, and mature storylines.

Spoilers galore beneath

First and foremost, I am very happy that the animation department has listened to our cries - the choppy animation is no more. The cell-shaded animation is odd, but it certainly no longer distracting from the action. And if you want to watch TDP season 2, then you need to pay attention to everything on the screen, because the things that happen on the screen are marvellous. 

The ongoing story, together with expanded flashbacks are excellent, and make the world believable and realistic. Wars do not happen in one day, they are the effects of years of conflicts, slowly building up, and the show has given us excellent reasons to believe and be invested in them.

Very few shows have created such interesting villains like this one. Soren, Claudia and their father, Viren aren’t just evil. They are not evil overlords and kidnappers - they are properly constructed characters with deep motivations. 

Viren is a pragmatist, who is slowly consumed by the dark magic, thus skewing his morals. His children follow his steps, though themselves start to realise he might be wrong, and yet come to the same reasoning as he did: that power can be used to overcome problems, even if it done in an immoral way.

Our protagonist grow up as well: I was mighty afraid that the show will do the “liar reveal” cliché between the brothers, or between Rayla and Callum, regarding the news of their father’s death, but fortunately, the writers have dodged the bullet on two occasions, because of proper build-up and the mountain of trust between the three (or four, since Claudia delivered it). The lessons they learned were deep, life-changing and not easy to swallow, and I think they accepting them will help kids all over the world. 

Speaking of difficult things to bear: Soren’s kinda-disability. the way it was handled was magnificent, albeit with Soren’s slightly awkward acceptance of it. But Claudia? She reacted just like you would if you were hit with such grave news. Characters in TV shows get slammed all over place without any bones breaking, but here? No, they did not joke. A dragon smashes you into a rock, you get a spine broken. End of story. On one hand, it would be interesting to see his character with the disability, but given he is a part of the cast, it would be problematic, I guess. And Claudia using Bambi’s life forces to revive his ability to walk might have even more dire consequences. Will she have to sacrifice more and more animals to keep him alive? Will the dark magic flowing through him corrupt him? Will Soren have to sacrifice his ability to walk in order to cleanse himself? Who knows, the possibilities are quite vast.  

Speaking of possessions: Callum and dark magic. That was something I wanted to see in S2, and I think it has been handled really well. Callum has potential to be a dark wizard, and while he has discovered his sky arcaneum, I have a feeling he will be tempted to dabble with dark magic in the future, breaking our hearts again.

And on top of that, you have relationships. Callum, Rayla and Ezran have very different connections to Soren and Claudia, as, say, Team Avatar to Zuko and Azula. 

Callum and Ezra were - and arguably are - friends with Claudia and Soren, they do have strong bonds (in case Callum and Clauida something even stronger), since they’ve known each other since childhood. It is not just a hero/villain cliché - they are, once again, well-defined characters, and as a result their relationships are strong, well-grounded and believable.

And the hugs between Rayla and Callum are melting all of shippers’ hearts, I cannot overlook that (but still no kiss, or almost kiss yet, but have almost had “I love you”).

The action is superb. Fight scenes are fast, well-planned, and gripping, exactly what you’d expect from a fantasy series. 

And of course, with a whole new half of continent to explore, as well as half a dozen plot lines in the human half to resolve, new seasons will have tons of opportunities to once again punch us in the gut, make us laugh, cry and be thrilled.

So, are there any negative aspects...?

Well... yeah.

One thing that is kinda unavoidable, are the parallels to Avatar The last Airbender. From occasional jokes and subtle nods, like with the haiku and syllables counting, through slightly more transparent like the animal hybrids, through bloody-freaking-obvious, like Callum being an airbender. Or sky mage, or whatever you name them here. It is pretty weird to see this happening again, since, well, it invokes the parallels to ATLA instantly, and let’s face it, ATLA is still better, so you might not necessarily want to remind us of a show we’d rather watch, Dragon Prince. 

Another one is Ezran’s character. Mind you, he got better in S2, especially with the revelation of his father becoming a spirit birb hybrid dying forever, but he is just a bit bland and too perfect for a 10-year old. I joked about it in my recaps, but he is jesus - he can do no wrong. And that is bloody boring! Look at Callum - he has flaws, he makes mistakes, that’s what makes him complex. And what does Ezran do? He goes off-track and can’t even get himself mauled by a banther properly. Get rekt.

He reminds me of Charlie from Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate factory - that kid was freaking perfect, without any flaws whatsoever, spewing moralistic phrases left, right and center, contrary to the one from the book and the classic movie. 

Plus, his abilities are never explained, and are so damn plot convenient! It is one thing to just having a skill of handling animals - that I would accept - another thing is being able to understand them - that’s a bit too much, but still cool - and something wildly different is TO HAVE A DIRECT MIND LINK WITH THEM. Ezran is OP, pls nerf. And the worst thing is, with just a bit of clever rewriting, they wouldn’t need that. Just move the splitting scene after they cross the moonpath bridge - so that Ezran is still with Zim when he has to fly to save them. Solved.

I guess you can make a counter-argument that he also learns it, just like Callum does with magic, but guess what: Callum makes mistakes, so we see he learns! I would like to see Ezran mistranslating some wild animal’s wish and getting comeuppance when he has to run up the tree. I KNOW! BRING THE TAFFY HIPPO FROM HIS DREAM! YES! HE WILL BE HIS SPIRIT TEACHER! Ekhm, what was I talking about? Oh yeah, Ezran’s unexplained abilities.  

In fact, I think so far TDP kinda delivered a disappointing deus-ex-machina payoffs in both seasons: mind link in S2 and Zim’s magic-breaking teeth in S1 allowing Reyla to have her hand. I was slightly disappointed then, and I was slightly disappointed now.

But I am willing to forgive it. Because quite literally anything else in the series is top-notch. The characters, for the most part, are complex and three-dimensional. The decisions they take are not simple and black-and-white. The villains are superb and blood-freezing, being able to scare you from the screen. They have added just enough Azula and Ozai juice to Viren and Aavaros to make them menacing and entertaining to watch. I love it.

On more than a few occasions the show has caught me off-guard and surprised me with its decisions, and I cannot wait for more of them. 

[ruffsficstuffplace]

And The AWRD Goes To... (Part 38)

I wrote a massive, self-indulgent Magical Girl episode that probably wouldn’t be safe for Earth kids, but totally fit for Remnant kids, considering that they allow marital training at extremely young ages to slaughter Grimm.

The good news is, I have the basis for yet another LWA/RWBY AU, or an original series of my own.

The bad news is, I felt it was WAY too self-indulgent to show you guys, and completely got out of any of the plot or the characterization of the show, along with being too self-congratulatory to my writing skills, however my audience will take the self-indulgent trash I wrote.

The other good news is, I figured out a completely different way to write this chapter that won’t alienate people or feel like desperate, self-praising filler.

I hope, at least.

“I must say, I’m rather impressed the creators took the time to weave such complex, coordinated, and physically-involved fights into the show!” Diana said during the credits of another episode of Starlight Crusaders: Solar Eclipse. “Most other examples I’ve ever seen of this genre always seem content to have the characters blast their foes with an obscene amount of visual effects from a distance, and have the monsters just writhe and cry out before they’re defeated.”

“Not Starlight Crusaders!” Weiss said, hugging one of her pillows to her chest as she sat up and watched. “Man, there’s so many things I love about this franchise, but the way all the fights just leave stick with me long after the credits are a huge part of it...”

“Hah, remember when we used spent the entire week between each episode trying to recreate them in the training grounds?” Akko asked.

“How could I forget?!” Weiss replied, laughing. “It’s why I wanted to become a huntress in the first place!”

“You decided to go into this dangerous career because you wanted to reenact scenes from a children’s show...?” Diana asked.

Weiss smiled at her. “Relax: I’ve added a whole lot of other mature, deep reasons to it since… but as they say, every aspiring hunter had to get that passion from somewhere. I guess it didn’t hurt that grandpa and grandma could actually make it a reality, to a certain extent.”

Ruby blinked, before her eyes brightened. “Are there giant robot monster parts stored in your house somewhere?!” she asked excitedly.

“Sorry, Ruby, just giant monster costume pieces, made to be worn by Schnee Grimm summons,” Weiss replied.

Ruby frowned, the light in her eyes fading. “Aww…”

“I suppose that’s why your house’s training grounds were so complex and modular?” Diana asked.

“Mhmm!” Weiss said. “Could basically reenact the mechanics of any sort of Starlight Crusader fight, save for those while falling out of the sky, underwater, in low-orbit, or the Shiny Chariot special crossover special for Luna Nova.”

“What was the problem with that last one?” Ruby asked. “Maybe I could help solve it.”

“I appreciate the offer, Ruby, but it was entirely with the cast,” Weiss replied. “Lack of a Shiny Rod and what means Chariot used to transform it into so many different forms aside, she had both my speed and agility PLUS Akko’s strength and endurance; whenever either of us tried to play her, we’d either end up exhausted before the ‘episode’ was even halfway done, or didn’t have the necessary finesse and grace to even try to pull off her acrobatics.

“Looking back on it, she probably needed to be that strong and skilled to even use the damned thing without breaking every bone in her body after each show...” she finished, casting a glance at the Shiny Rod.

“More like ‘definitely needed!’” Akko added, before she sighed. “I always knew Chariot was awesome and incredible and way beyond my level, but I’m only realizing by just how much right now… I’m conflicted, you guys:

“On the one hand, she’s like, 500% more awesome, and given how amazingly spectacular she was already, that’s a huge increase in raw Coolness Factor!

“On the other hand, now the difference between us is even bigger than before and I’m not sure if I can even reach that, period...” Akko finished, now moping in her bed.

“… Maybe I can still help with that...” Ruby said.

The next episode of Starlight Crusaders was about to begin, Weiss paused it. “What do you mean…?”

“Ah, how do I explain this… back at the Bunker, it was generally a given that someone would be heavily reliant on tech to compensate for something when they first get in. If it wasn’t prostheses to replace original parts, it was accessibility technology, like a sound-sensitive pair of glasses with a heads-up display for a student with hearing impairments, or Battle Saddles.”

“Pardon me: Battle-what-now…?” Weiss asked.

“Battle Saddles!” Ruby repeated. “It’s what we called wheelchairs and other mobility devices, generally after we motorized, armoured, and armed them. They even have specializations called ‘Battalions’--my favourite was Rolling Thunder, the heavy weapons, artillery, and explosives specialists.

“Anyway, we were always making, adapting, and developing new tech to compensate for impairments and handicaps, and I could definitely do the same here, like develop shock absorbers for Shooting Star so the reaction from all the raw force the Shiny Rod is capable of won’t break our bones and send us flying off again.”

“May I interrupt you, Ruby?” Diana asked. When Ruby gave her the go ahead, she continued, “I know it might be rather irrational and biased given my experiences, but it feels like we might end up over-relying on your tech, which has its own consequences...” she said, looking down at herself.

Ruby nodded. “And you’re right to be worried about that, Diana, but you didn’t let me finish: once we were done getting someone up to the standard levels of performance, we started thinking about how we could go BEYOND that.

“Heck, that was actually a huge part of my developing Crescent Rose! At first, I didn’t have the balance, the coordination, or the strength to even swing her properly, let alone all the essential combat techniques, so I built a giant robot helping arm to provide raw strength and control for me.

“Then, when I could swing it and stop it without its help, I started thinking how I could start using all that momentum and weight to my advantage. And after a LOT of experimenting and redesigning, I started using it to amp up the force of my attacks like back with the grave lord, and all the other times I’ve cut something when I wouldn’t normally have enough raw power to do so.”

“So… what, you’re suggesting we make training wheels for the Shiny Rod…?” Weiss asked.

Ruby thought about it for a moment. “… Yeah!” she said. “I guess I do want to try and build training wheels for the Shiny Rod, if those training wheels happened to get cannibalized later as components for magnetic-levitation wheels to help your bike go even faster!”

She got a thoughtful look on her face, before her eyes started scanning the others, too. “… And come to think of it, I could make improvements to all our other weapons, too, especially Gwragged Annwn...”

Diana frowned. “Ruby, I’m not entirely sure I want you experimenting on my spear… it’s a prized family heirloom, totally irreplaceable!”

“Oh, then I promise I won’t!” Ruby said, smiling. “I respect the weapon’s owner more than my desire to improve and experiment on said weapon. Or I guess in the Shiny Rod’s case, the weapon itself. How about you guys, though…?”

“Count me in!” Akko said.

“The designers called Myrtenaster the peak of multi action dust rapiers, but that’s what they called her predecessor, too—feel free to experiment” Weiss replied, nodding.

“Awesome, thanks!” Ruby replied. “That’s going to be for when we’re all out of the hospital, though—back to the anime!”

Weiss picked up the remote and began to unpause the video.

“WAIT!” Akko cried. “I forgot something!”

Weiss flinched. “What is it...?” she asked, the others turning to look at her.

“What happened to the giant robot helping arm?” Akko asked.

“Oh! It’s probably in the storage room along with all the other robot helping arms, waiting for someone to either study it to make their own, or borrow it for their experiments,” Ruby replied. “They still take it out to the cafeteria sometimes to try and arm wrestle with it—still unbeaten in the ‘Giants League’ without disqualifying damage to the apparatus!” she said, beaming.

“Nice!” Akko said. “High—oh wait, sorry...”

“We’ll high five in spirit!” Ruby cried. “High five!” she said, cast-covered limbs still immobilized.

“Up top!” Akko replied, her cast-covered arms still by her sides.

Diana and Weiss both burst out laughing. “You two are ridiculous...” Diana said, shaking her head.

“You haven’t seen the worst of it, trust me,” Weiss added, smiling. “Unpausing now!”

The four of them went back to watching Starlight Crusaders. Whenever there was another fight scene and weapons started getting brought out, however, Ruby didn’t seem to be enjoying herself quite as much as she did earlier.

They eventually made it to the last few episodes, tensions ramping up, story arcs coming to a close, the Crusaders tearing their way through the main villain’s ranks until the inevitable final confrontation.

One of the nurses knocked and opened the door, Weiss reluctantly paused the video again as a nurse popped his head in. “Excuse me, Ms. Schnee, your family has come to visit you.”

“We brought umeboshi and blueberry froyo!” Whitley called out from outside.

Weiss and Akko both brightened up. “Let them in, let them in!” Weiss said.

Snowie stepped in with a shopping bag filled with the promised treats, among others. “Hey there, sorry we took so long, we couldn’t really—“ her eyes widened. “--Oh my gosh, is that Solar Eclipse?”

“It is, it is!” Whitley said, giddily rushing into the room and taking the seat beside Weiss, Snowie and Winter sitting or perching by Akko’s side. “Play it, play it!” Whitley said, beaming as he leaned forward with his chin in his hands.

Weiss didn’t hesitate. The nurse looked at them, patients and visitors alike all completely enamored with the show, smiled, and began to close the door. Then, he felt someone put a hand on his shoulder, turned around, and knocked again.

“Excuse me again!” the nurse said. “Ms. Rose, your father’s come to visit you.”

Ruby’s eyes brightened up as she took her eyes off her screen. “Dad! Come in, come in!”

The nurse turned back to Taiyang, and opened the door with a flourish, he happily stepped in with a silly swagger and a huge smile on me face. “Hey there, dear daughter of mine! How’re you doing?” he asked as he came over to Ruby’s bed.

“All four limbs still broken, dear dad of mine!” Ruby chirped. “I’m getting better, though, especially since Weiss can use the remote for all of us.”

“That’s good to hear!” Taiyang said as he carefully hugged her, she tried to nuzzle her head into his shoulder. “So, what are you guys watching?” he said as he settled into the chair next to her bed. “No, no, wait, don’t tell me! It’s... Starlight Crusaders, and this season’s, this season’s, ah...”

“It’s--” Whitley, Weiss, Winter, Snowie, and Akko began.

“No, no, don’t! I’ve got this!” Taiyang said, peering intently at the screen, sweat forming on his brow as he concentrated, listening carefully to the names of the characters and their Crusader titles as they fought each other,  willing forth the answer from deep within his mind...

“NEW MOON ORDER!” he cried, nearly launching out of his seat. “It’s New Moon Order, right?” he said, nodding and smiling, proud of himself.

Whitley, Weiss, Winter, Snowie, and Akko spared a few moments from the show, and all shared looks with each other; after a silent vote, Snowie got the duty of breaking the news to him. “Ah, Mr. Xiao Long? It’s actually Solar Eclipse; New Moon Order was one of the movies.”

“Call me Taiyang or Tai, please. Anyway, it’s based off this season, at least...?” Taiyang asked hopefully.

Snowie smiled politely, slowly shook her head, and went back to watching with the others.

Taiyang sighed. “At least I got the franchise right this time...” he muttered to himself.

The episode ended in suitably dramatic fashion, the girls and Whitley all cheered. Weiss paused the video as the credits started rolling, and turned to Snowie. “You mentioned blueberry froyo earlier?” she asked, eyebrows raised.

Snowie dug out a tub from the bag, and handed it over.

Weiss took it in both hands, and cradled it to her chest. “Thanks mom, you’re the best,” she whispered, before she opened it and started digging in with the spoon attached to the side.

“You’re welcome, Weiss,” Snowie hummed, looking proud of herself. “We even got treats for all your other friends!” she said as she dug into the bag again.

Akko cried out in delight as she pulled up a jar of umeboshi, Ruby eyed a pack of chocolate chip cookies hungrily. “I didn’t really know whatever it was the rest of you liked, so I just sorta got a little bit of everything from a convenience store on the way here.”

“She really does mean everything,” Whitley added as he took the jar of pickled plums, opened it up for Akko. “You should have seen her back at the aisles, trying to figure out if she should grab any special varieties, or just stick with the original flavours.”

“Hey, it’s not MY fault someone decided there needed to be like, 500 different flavours of Kari-Kari!” Snowie cried as Winter took to the bag of snacks over to the other side of the room. “I swear, that store had basically everything on the shelves!”

“There’s 317 total, and only 47 in that store, mother, I looked it up and I counted while we were there,” Whitley said as he started feeding pickled plums to an eagerly awaiting Akko.

“Still too many damn flavours of candy coated wafers...” Snowie grumbled. She blinked, looked around, and sighed. “Aw, crap—anyone seen my snowball?”

“It’s right here, mom!” Winter called out, pulling up a ball tightly wrapped in plastic, colourful packets taped to it.

Snowie held her hands up. “I’m open!”

Winter tossed it, Snowie missed it, it hit her in the face. She winced, caught it before it could fall to the floor, and started unwrapping it, revealing a ball of shaved ice.

“Well, haven’t seen those in a very long while...” Diana said as Snowie ripped open the syrup packets with her teeth, poured the blue liquid onto her snowball.

“Probably because it’s not as good as what you’ll find from the shops that really care, or the kind you could make at my da—father’s office, but you know, the mass produced stuff isn’t half-bad,” Snowie said, before she gleefully chomped down on her snowball.

“Anything you’d like in particular?” Winter asked as she showed off the rest of the bag over to Diana.

Diana looked uneasily at the sea of junk food, then back up at Winter with a frown.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure there’s something healthy in here…” Winter said as she sat down and really dug into the mess.

“There’s a handful of sandwiches and a salad in there!” Whitley called out. “Don’t take both the egg sandwiches, one of them’s mine!”

“Found them, thanks, little brother!” Winter said as she dug them out. “Any catch your eye?” she asked as she held them out to Diana.

Diana looked at the plastic wrappers, and the proud labels of Mistral’s ubiquitous “Sari-Sari” convenience store franchise, and said, “I suppose I’ll take the strawberry cream…”

“Good choice!” Winter said, putting the rest back into the bag.

“I’m really rather sorry for inconveniencing you like this,” Diana said as Winter unwrapped the sandwich.

“It’s no trouble at all,” Winter replied. “Though if it bothers you that much, I suppose I could just wedge a tray on your chest to your chin, let you try and eat this with just your mouth?” she asked, smiling.

“… I’m not that sorry.”

Winter chuckled, and started feeding her.

“So!” Snowie started. “Diana, your family planning on flying over from Vale to visit any time soon?”

“No, actually,” Diana replied, before she took a dainty, careful bite out of her sandwich, started humming shortly after she started chewing.

“Aww, that’s sad,” Snowie said. “You want our help making a video to send to them, while they can’t come? I found that always helped when my parents were still going off on expeditions.”

Diana’s chewing slowed down, before she swallowed, and smiled politely. “The gesture is appreciated, Ms. Schnee… but I’d really rather not.”

Snowie paused for a moment, before she nodded, and went back to her snowball.

“Anyone else want more?” Winter called out after empty containers were thrown into the trash, or resealed for later. “Plenty of snacks still left in here,” she said, gently shaking the bag.

Whitley took his sandwich, and Taiyang grabbed some “to go” for himself, but otherwise everyone answered in the negative.

“So, anything else we can do for you guys while we’re here?” Snowie asked.

“We were just planning on going back to watching Starlight Crusaders, thanks,” Weiss said as she picked up the remote, Whitley hurriedly unwrapped his sandwich in preparation. “There’s really not much else we can do when I’m the only one with a working pair of arms.”

“I could recommend some pretty cool voice-recording apps we use at the Bunker!” Taiyang offered. “Free of charge, too, though getting support if something goes wrong can be a little… iffy, because they’re all experimental.”

“The offer is appreciated, Mr. Xiao Long, but Blake and Lotte have been doing an excellent job of transcribing from our diction,” Diana replied.

“I just wish Constanze wasn’t so busy with the mind palace machines and her own projects, though,” Ruby said. “She’s basically the only person that can help me take down weapons engineering notes.”

“I’m sure you’ll be able to get right back to it soon enough, Ruby,” Taiyang said, ruffling her hair.

“Maybe I could try helping with that?” Snowie said. “I take a lot of notes and dictation for my parents when they’re busy, I could probably do it.”

Taiyang chuckled. “Now I’m not saying I don’t believe you, but I have to warn you: my daughter’s thought process when she designs or studies weapons is a giant, jumbled mess of jargon, doodles, and schematics flying everywhere all at once.”

Snowie snorted. “And you’ve just basically described what my brain is like 24/7! I’ve got this, probably,” she said as she stood up.

“I’ve seen parts of Ruby’s journal when she sent me info on the Shiny Rod, mom, he’s really not kidding!” Winter said.

“Be my guest, though!” Taiyang said as he stood up, and gestured to the chair he was sitting in.

“You sure about this, Snowie?” Ruby asked as Snowie sat down beside her.

“Positive!” Snowie replied. “Jumping headlong into things without being entirely sure what I’m doing is kind of my thing! I mean... it doesn’t always work as well I think it will, but I work best when I’m figuring things out as I’m going along!” she said as she pulled out her scroll, complete with her own quill.

“Alrighty then!” Ruby said.

Whitley nudged Weiss to resume playing Starlight Crusaders, she did, and the others went back to watching the show. She found herself frequently looking away from the screen and listening in to Ruby and Snowie’s conversation, however.

“So, what exactly are you thinking of here?” Snowie asked as she got her quill at the ready.

“Well, I was thinking about trying to make some sort of recoil buffer for Shooting Star, hopefully one that will also work when it fuses with the Shiny Rod to become Shining Star,” Ruby started.

“There’s just WAY too much force that thing is capable of whenever Akko chops with it, and short of starting to learn how to throw it; let go just before each impact, and hope it doesn’t hit her or anyone else when it inevitably flies off in the opposite direction as soon as all that aura force is discharged; or chop really, really, really gently with it, we need to drastically increase her upper body strength, muscle mass, and possibly even aura reserves if we’re ever going to be able to use Shining Star without ending up in the hospital, or causing more excessive, collateral damage if we try to use the firearm component.

“It’s really bad because we can’t really use any of my momentum harnessing and/or controlling techniques and tech I use with Crescent Rose because Shining Star’s a shotgun-axe, and it’s a lot less aerodynamic.

“On the plus side, I might be able to just freely attach them to the weapon thanks to the already bulky design, but then that might necessitate Akko having to get used to the entirely new balance and weight of it.

“But do the buffers need to be on Shooting Star itself?” Snowie countered as she continued scribbling without much effort. “My daddy’s robot limbs have a lot of internal buffers and servos to amplify and compensate for all the stress, damage, and physical labour he puts himself through, not to mention all the upgrades he made specifically for surpassing his biological limbs’ limits, or making it a better option than using his originals.

“He prefers punching Grimm in the face with his robot hand for a very good reason! You know, aside from the fact that it’s easier and less painful to repair if it breaks, than his flesh-and-bone hand.”

Ruby blinked. “Huh. That’ll definitely be much more expensive, and I’ll have to call some friends back at the Bunker who specialized in exoskeletal enhancement rigs, but yeah, it could be better in the long-run!

“Maybe we could even go past recoil absorption, and go straight into power amplification, with all the extra leeway.”

“Thermoelectric generator to charge and power servos, make the second chop hurt much more than the first?” Snowie offered. “Though we’ll have to limit how much energy they can actually store, or else we’ll probably blow Akko’s arms off from the reaction...”

“And even if they do stay on, they’ll likely shatter all her bones, probably beyond repair this time...” Ruby muttered.

The two of them furrowed their brows as they considered a way around of this problem, before two metaphorical lightbulbs went off in their heads at the same time.

“Her semblance!” Ruby and Snowie said at the same time, their eyes shining with a similar glow.

“Temporary invincibility, plus a strength boost from the inhibition of her pain receptors, right?” Ruby asked.

“Exactly!” Snowie said, furiously scribbling now. “If we can train Akko to activate it JUST before it comes into contact, every single time, she can probably decimate whatever she’s attacking without completely fucking herself up!” The light in her eyes faded, her writing slowed down. “… And probably everyone around and behind her, too, because the reaction will likely send her spinning, or flying off at an angle like a missile, and then we better hope there isn’t anything hard and solid that she’ll hit while she still has high velocity, because her semblance would be deactivated and recharging by then, so...

She sighed and looked down. “… Never mind, it’s a terrible idea...” she mumbled as she put her quill down.

“Hey, don’t feel bad, we’re brainstorming!” Ruby said. “It’s a feature, not a bug! And besides, I got a great idea for how we can redirect all that force away from her arms, inspiration thanks to Diana’s semblance...”

Snowie blinked, looked at Ruby in a mix of wariness and fear, before she hesitantly took her quill back up. “Okay…? I’m listening…!”

Whitley gently nudged Weiss on the shoulder. “Don’t worry: I’m certain it’s simply just the two of them platonically nerd-bonding, nothing more,” he said teasingly.

Weiss blinked, and looked at him. “What are you talking about…?”

Whitley he looked at Ruby and Snowie deep in conversation once more, then back at Weiss’ confused expression. “Oh... oh, I see how it is,” he said, nodding and looking satisfied.

Weiss’ eyes widened. “Are you--?!” Her cheeks turned red. “Look here, you little shit: this isn’t one of your yuri manga or fanfics when the team full of girls eventually hook up with each other!” she hissed. “This is real life, Ruby is just my teammate and my friend, and if I may remind you again, I swore to hold off on the romance ever since Aqua...!”

“I believe you!” Whitley said, holding up his free hand. “Calm down, I believe you, Weiss!”

Weiss glared at him, before she sulked and went back to watching Starlight Crusaders.

“Here’s to hoping it goes better than it did with Aqua...” Whitley thought as he turned back to the screen, a small smile spreading on his face.

Yes, the Bunker also has a storage room full of robot helping legs, giant or otherwise. The other body parts and non-human limbs share a series of rooms together, because they’re not nearly as numerous enough to justify having their own dedicated storage.

No, Weiss is DEFINITELY not afraid her mother is going to attempt to make a move on Ruby, it’s more a “I’m jealous I can’t do this thing that my new, good friend clearly enjoys so much and needs at the moment because her arms are broken, and realize I could have learned to do it if I bothered to learn more about mechanical engineering when I was younger, and now I can’t even concentrate on my favourite show because I really kinda hate myself right now for not being here to help my teammate.” sort of feeling.

[thebastardofgloucester]

More Thoughts on Rogue One

So I saw Rogue One again:

I don’t have any real revelations to expound upon - the first half is still a bit messy (though beyond the Krennic scene on Mustafar which we’re rather fond of I’m not really sure you can just cut out some of the planetary back and forth). The second half/last third really pulls the film together in some of the best action sequences I’ve seen in any war movie, Star Wars or no, but it also fails to resolve a lot of character arcs, which is...unsatisfying from a narrative nerd perspective but not really crippling to the film as a whole? In my opinion, anyway. 

- Jyn’s a flat character. I’m not sure if it’s that Felicity Jones is a bad fit for the part - they needed someone who did a lot of non-verbal acting and that ain’t her - but her character is choppily written at best, and wavers back and forth between passive and active in a way that just feels awkward when it abruptly switches. You have a bunch of character-establishing moments - trying to flee her rescuers, saving the little girl in Jedha, beating and gunning down stormtroopers, resenting Saw for abandoning her - and they just don’t fit together. At points, it seems like she’s a deer in the headlights, which makes some sense - she’s not a soldier, she’s not used to battle, to death striking suddenly and brutally - but it again swings back and forth and there’s no key determining factor beyond the immediate needs of the plot. And yet she knows her way around a blaster, she goes after that child (which is just wildly out of place and used as an excuse for Cassian to shoot one of Saw’s men, precipitating the group’s capture), she’s quite brave under fire. She’s established as initially cynical and apathetic about the Rebellion - for understandable reasons, though Cassian also rightly calls her out for wallowing in self-pity, which she clearly takes to heart.

Her transformation from reluctant accomplice to Rebel leader just doesn’t really follow.  A scene where she spoke with, say, Chirrut and Baze (maybe with Bodhi popping in) about their reasons for fighting the Empire, and she explicitly confronted her desperate need to redeem her father’s legacy and exonerate him from horrible crimes would have been a tremendous help, would have given Baze and Chirrut more depth (digging into their past service as guardians, their grief and Baze’s rage at the destruction of their home), and would have given some reason for the ‘little sister’ comment, which just feels so out of place because they don’t have that kind of relationship. I’m probably going to write this scene, honestly. At that point, speaking up about the need to strike Scarif makes more sense. Maybe another actress better conveys Jyn’s desperation and makes her sound less inexplicably confident. She’s not idealistic enough for that, change of heart or not. Fewer motivational speeches from her would have been a good idea. The one in the shuttle is the best fit - it’s full of desperation and anxious resolve. She’s addressing her men, not the leaders of the Rebellion. Basically, somebody else needs to back her case in front of the council. Hell, maybe Chirrut could have backed her up. That would have been another moment to establish their relationship. Jyn’s the primary protagonist, but she’s also not a conventional hero, and the film did not commit to that as it did with, say, Cassian. 

- Honestly, that’s the movie’s biggest flaw. It drags a bit, but I’m not sure what I would really cut. The trading port scene is vital to establish Cassian. The jailbreak was apparently largely a product of the reshoots, and that was absolutely a good call. The Jedha stuff needs to happen to launch the plot. The Eadu stuff needs to happen to raise the stakes, stage the Cassian/Jyn conflict, and kill off Galen. I *guess* the first Yavin 4 scene wasn’t entirely necessary, but it would be hard to do without it, and it does a lot of worldbuilding for the ANH-era Rebellion. 

- The movie isn’t terribly interested in preserving the scale of the GFFA - unless Eadu, Scarif, and Yavin 4 are within the same star cluster or something, the Rebel forces have at most a few hours travel time and that does’t make much sense. It’s not that Star Wars has ever cared about those kinds of logistics (save a few novels), but somehow the planet jumping makes it more obvious.

- The space battle is still astounding, and the Pacific Front-inspired beach scenes aren’t far behind. Just the perfect use of CGI, practical effects, and storytelling to create truly spectacular scenes. Also nice to see Rebel women pilots, though they pretty much all die.

- Bodhi has the most complete and coherent character arc, and given the time constraints, it’s actually a pretty good one. His sacrifice is poignant, even if his death is surprisingly pedestrian (which is by no means a bad thing - it adds a layer of realism to the combat that people just die). K2-SO has something resembling an arc. Cassian is the deepest character, even if a few more exchanges with Jyn or Bodhi or Chirrut could have helped make his inner conflicts more explicit. His relationship with Jyn actually worked better for me the second time around, but it has the overall vibe of ‘almost’ or ‘what if’ as it really should. 

- The movie does a lot of work in terms of world-building, and there’s loads of material for future films or EU media to take advantage of. I’m excited about the new in-between-the-OT Rebellion era. It might be a bit ponderous in the film, but it’s valuable yeoman’s work in the young new canon. 

- Krennic isn’t the most effective antagonist. That’s partially by design - he’s simply outclassed by the likes of Tarkin and Darth Vader. But in a moment where we might be able to explore his complexity with the reveal that his adversary is the daughter of his long-time friend and betrayer Galen he just...doesn’t really react beyond ‘generic Imperial villain’. That was a missed opportunity. More could have been done with him than having Cassian appear and shoot him while Jyn does her deer in the headlights thing again. There’s poetic justice in his being killed by his own life’s work, but it needs to be dwelt upon a bit.  

EDIT: my little brother suggests Jyn pointing out the Death Star rising above the horizon, as Krennic realizes that not only is Tarkin willing to sacrifice the entire base, but that he is expendable. Unlike Jyn, he is not ready for that brutal truth.

- In hindsight, the whole Vader in the corridor thing is a bit less fraught than I thought - the damn data tape is at the partially open exit the whole time, the dude with it just wants to escape. A better scene would be him desperately forcing the door open as his comrades try to slow Vader down, succeeding at the last minute before he’s cut down. All that would have been required is a few shots of the dude trying to force open the door, nothing really complicated. 

- It’s a bit weird that the Tantive IV, with Leia aboard, is waiting for ages inside the disabled Rebel flagship - presumably the data tapes take a while to transfer, but it seems like quite a risk. Plus there’s the ‘transmissions’ line in ANH which is now seemingly in error. Maybe the corvette is waiting on the fringes of the system, giving Leia plausible deniability? But that probably sacrifices the Vader scene, and I’m not sure any of us want that. It’s a hard problem to solve without retconning. 

- The Dr. Evazan/Ponda Baba cameo on Jedha is just not necessary. R2D2 and C3PO are acceptable - they’ve been in every damn movie and they have a reason to be there.  

- It’s a really good heist-cum-war movie, honestly. It’s got weaknesses in terms of characterization, because that’s not Gareth Edward’s real strength. It might not feel like ~Star Wars~ in terms of being magical space opera based on hero’s journey cliches and stronger characterization than plot, and might be missing the ‘magic’ or something, but it’s not supposed to be anything like The Force Awakens. I feel like a lot of the movie’s critics were just expecting ~something else~ and find the genre differences off-putting. I don’t. 

- Saw Gerrera deserved a bit more time - specifically, I think cutting his ‘what will you become’ speech was a mistake, though I’m not sure where it was supposed to fit? He’s a really really great character, honestly, and he’s vital in establishing that the Rebellion is a messy loose coalition of splinter groups who are at this stage very divided in terms of strategy, conviction, and morality. 

- Chirrut is definitely low-level Force sensitive. To an extent, fine, his sharpened sense of hearing explains his physical combat skills. But sensing Jyn’s kyber crystal, reading Bohdi and Jyn, dodging laser blasts, hitting stormtroopers on the beach - he’s not a Jedi, but he doesn’t really have to be. There’s another point of possible connection with Jyn - his faith in the Force would resonate with her memories of her mother. Again, just a handful of lines. Not a huge change. 

- I still think Chirrut and Baze’s relationship is easily interpreted as romantic, whether that was the result of the actors, Edwards, or Kathleen Kennedy, I don’t know. But it’s appreciated and extremely important. 

- Revised rating: 7.5/10. Could have been an 8.5, even a 9 with a more talented character writer and a more compelling primary protagonist. But it’s intensely watchable, really thrilling at points, fits seamlessly into the Star Wars universe, adds emotional impetus to A New Hope and the circuitous journey of the Death Star plans to Yavin 4, and Luke and Han’s subsequent heroism, and has a ton of interesting ideas percolating in the background. 

[canvaswolfdoll]

CanvasWatches: Young Justice (Seasons 1&2)

As previously established, I have an atypical relationship with superheroes. More involved than the theatrical releases, but not to the point of actually reading the comics (with but one exception[1]).

I tend to prefer animated series when it comes to experiencing superheroes.

So I’ve been meaning to catch up with Young Justice, the slightly more mature spiritual successor of the Teen Titans cartoon. Teen Titans stands as one of my favorite shows, beyond genre and without hesitation.

Comparing the two may seem unfair but… well, I refuse not to. Because the two happen to make a good exercise in comparing and contrast, share elements and characters, and one of them is following the other.[2]

Young Justice opens well, just casually tossing the audience into the thick of things. The well-known characters (Superman, Batman and Company, and so forth) are treated as previously established, while the more uncommon heroes are given light introductions so that the show can just go.

The sidekicks are given access to the Hall of Justice, but not any real place in terms of the Justice League. It’s a publicity stunt, and the sidekicks are quickly fed up with being shoved aside, and hijack a mission to prove themselves (and just have something to do). In the process, we introduce Superboy, Miss Martian, and Young Justice is established.

Though the group is only ever referred to as ‘The Team’ which I dislike. It just feels like the writers and staff are embarrassed by the moniker, and are avoiding acknowledging it, and I hate when superhero media try and pretend to be above such things. Just embrace it! It’ll make things a lot more fun! This show actually does a good job of good natured mockery of everything except the name.

So, I mostly enjoyed the first season. They build the characters and the world while developing a myth arc that operates in the corners of the story so each episode can still stand alone, narratively, but still all link together as a cohesive whole.

Even as new characters and team members are introduced, the central six are still prominent in every episode to anchor the audience, give us characters we know and are thrilled to see grow. New elements are well paced with their introduction, and my only criticism is that Zatanna and Rocket didn’t get quite enough screen time to grow on me (especially Rocket, who was a very late game addition).

There are plenty of episodes with inventive and interesting story ideas; my favorite being when magic separates adults and children into two worlds, and how the show then plays with the concept and answers many small questions while it happens.

They really make the most of being in a world where superheroes are a thing, and idolized. From small details like high schoolers unironically wearing t-shirts with superhero emblems on them,[4] and interesting conflict between the realms of Science and Magic, which you rarely see in stories that embrace Clarke’s Third Law as much as the DC World. Is Dr. Fate a sufficiently advanced Alien, or is Magic that unexplainable?[5]

Speaking of Dr. Fate, he had such a compelling sidestory throughout the first season! Introduced as a former hero, then we learn the true weight of putting on his helmet. From there, he becomes The Team’s plan of last resort, until it finally comes to a head and someone has to finally make the ultimate sacrifice!

It combines a few of my favorite tropes: Blue and Orange morality, great power carrying a heavy cost, and Legacy Characters!

The only episode of the first season that I didn’t really like was ‘Secrets,’ due to its trite villain for the evulz and the rather depressing twist at the end.

And you know what? Everyone acts so reasonably!

When a psychically produced simulation goes wrong, to a traumatizing extent, a psychologist is actually brought in!

Superman struggles with the sudden appearance of a clone, and Batman, he who adopts and raises all the children, steps up to tell Clark to get a hold of himself and help the boy.

No one ever forgets that they have Dr. Fate's Helmet on standby if needed!

Three of our characters are in compromising positions to select villains by the end of the season, and what do they do? They come clean, tell the details to the rest of the team, and all come together to make a plan!

There’s nothing I hate more than plots that can be solved in moments if people just bloody talked to one another. Plot-required mistrust and secrecy is such weak plot fodder, that I was happy the show decided to subvert it in the best possible way.

But then there’s the second season.

Oh man, is the second season… disappointing.

First of all, there’s the five year time skip. I have decided I don’t like how western media uses time skips.

Because, in most Anime, time skips are used to handwave away boring bits (IE: then Bob trained hard for two years and… now he’s back).

But when a western show does it, they do it to Up the Ante, introduce mysteries, and obfuscate all the fascinating things that might have happened. To make the audience go ‘Oh wait? What happened to So-and-so?’

It… just feels like a cheap trick to me. And a distracting one, because suddenly there’s a new batch of kids, but I don’t care about them because I’m waiting to hear what happened to the characters we already know and love!

And Young Justice does a particularly bad job, because the events that happened in the missed time period would have been fascinating to see pan out. The new characters would be exciting see introduced and inducted. Would it have taken time? Yes! But then these things would carry weight!

Heck, Zatanna and Rocket, who I was just complaining we didn’t get time to care about have both moved on from the Team! They barely get cameos. So they were just wasted additions in the last season.

Plus, they used it as an excuse to implant drama. The worst drama. Drama that also causes my two least favorite story techniques!

First, a lot of just telling the audience about character history, instead of letting  us experience it. We are told Miss Martian has taken up Mind Breaking villains, and that’s bad and we should hate it. Except we don’t see it being the problem it is, just get told that it’s been a thing by Superboy and… eh? Besides Psimon (who, frankly, both deserves it and is able to recuperate), Miss Martian doesn’t do it on screen until the one time it’s the worst possible thing to do!

Which brings me to the second, and worse crime: no one tells anyone crucial information.

Because you remember when I was praising the first season for subverting that last season? How the original team came clean and told one another how they’re being blackmailed?

Yeah. They’re now doing the stupid thing. We have a season long plot where Aqualad’s a mole and… only a select few people know. Select people that excludes original team members, including the psychic mind-breaker and Superboy!

Egads, I understand not telling the new kids, but at no point should any member of the Season One team have been excluded from the circle of trust, Nightwing!

By the way, Robin is Tim Drake in season 2. Which means we missed an exciting arc of seeing Dick Grayson separating from Batman, and also skipped Jason Todd entirely! I would love to actually see what Jason Todd was like as a Robin for once, but he’s always skipped.

And yes, unlike Batman: The Animated Series, Jason Todd exists in the Young Justice narrative.  We see the memorial hologram.

I mean, the second season wasn’t all bad. Blue Beetle was a strong addition to the cast, along with the compelling aspects he brought. Impulse is a good replacement for Kid Flash. Beast Boy was also pleasant to see, though he was ultimately underutilized[6] Static and his compatriots were also fun. However, from there, I don’t care about the rest of the new cast, as they never had any screen time to make me care about them. They existed for fight scenes and little else.

They weren’t introduced or given an origin, just dumped on us and demanded we muster a care. Which I couldn’t because… eh?

Ignoring the story surrounding Aqualad and dumb secrets, the Reach Invasion storyline was interesting, even catching me off guard in relation to Green Beetle, which is good writing!

The Light were less involved this time, mostly letting Lex Luthor carry the position of resident plotter.

Having not actually seen Luthor in action much, I did enjoy him as a villain. It’s actually fun to watch a villain who is very good at outthinking those around him and planning ahead, all while keeping his hands clean and his enemies managed. I kept expecting him to end up using both The Light and The Reach to reach his own, separate goals.

Roy Harper and his various clones did drag throughout both seasons. The grumpy pants vigilante with a chip on his shoulder was okay once. Not great, but adequate. But then Red Arrow faded away, replaced by Arsenal to just… do the story all over again? Only without the weird flirting with Cheshire.

I guess Lian would’ve been hard to get away with had they not done the time skip, but… actually, Lian added very little, so that’s not an excuse.

While I liked Artemis, I do wonder if the same basic story could’ve been done with Ravager instead, who has more of a history in the comics of working as a Good Guy than Artemis/Tigress did, and would’ve gotten Deathstroke in sooner.

Mostly I just think Sportsmaster is a silly character concept, and would’ve been happy to not have him.

You could even keep Cheshire, since comics Cheshire is unrelated to Sportsmaster and Artemis. It would’ve been so easy to pull off, and would’ve excited Teen Titans fans.

But that’s just me speculating based off the decisions I would’ve made. Maybe they were going to include Speedy initially, but realized they needed another girl for composition balance.

Then the second season ends with multiple loose ends, one dead character everyone liked, and a look to the future!

So of course the series is promptly cancelled. Whoopee!

So, first season was strong, second season felt like they were rushing things, skipping over rich and compelling material to get to a story they wanted to do.

Now Netflix is bringing forth (at least) a third season. I remain cautiously optimistic. On one hand, rumor says Tara Strong is coming in as Raven, bring us ever so closer to the Titans reunion everyone desperately wants.

On the other… well, the cast and roster is already pretty heavy, and viewpoint characters are few and far between. Focus will be split many ways, and I’m not sure they’ll be able to continue good character work if they don’t pick favorites and let them work. Plus, what if they do another timeskip?

Still, I liked it enough that I’ll watch the next season once it comes. But I’ll be critical.

Kataal kataal.

[1] Speaking of which, I’ve been considering checking out the recent run of Jughead comics. Thoughts? [2] We’ll ignore Teen Titans Go! because I haven’t watched much of it.[3] [3] Though Trigon Dad is still an amazingly inspired concept. [4] Though they never address the matter of royalties. Seriously, I would love to hear if Superman gets a paycheck. Or is them being public figures make their IP public domain? [5] I always disliked how the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been so dismissive of magic. Why does Thor have to be an alien from a distant culture? Why can’t he just be a god without the snide remarks? Let me have my magic. [6] I will admit that the departure from the Teen Titans interpretation of the character clouded my judgement. But, then again, that’s my definitive version of the guy.

[recentanimenews]

FEATURE: Why It Works: Dragon Maids and Magical Realism

Hello everyone, and welcome back to Why It Works! Today we’ll be talking about Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, a show whose ridiculous premise is baked right into its title. Dragon Maid exists in a strange world where dragons exist, sometimes dream about destroying humanity, and sometimes end up being roommates with humanity instead. Its absurdity and fantastical assumptions are plain for all to see, but Dragon Maid isn’t really a “fantasy” in a traditional sense. In fact, the show can at times feel remarkably mundane, dedicating long stretches of episodes to conflicts like getting supplies for school or choosing a new apartment. It doesn’t really explain how dragons came to exist in this world, but it’s very insistent on the need for dragons to get their personal identification properly filed. Dragon Maid exemplifies the power of “magical realism,” and just how it articulates that power is our topic for today!

Magical realism is a subgenre with another fairly self-explanatory title. In contrast with works of pure mundane realism, or works that entirely embrace the dramatic and worldbuilding tenets of fantasy, magical realism tends to mix a realistic world with fantastical embellishments. The world of a magical realist story is generally a mostly understandable but occasionally inexplicable place, where the plain nature of everyday life makes the moments of magic that much more special. In a work of magical realism, two sisters might be distinguished by one’s lovely voice and the other’s tendency to attract butterflies wherever she goes (to paraphrase from one of the genre’s masterpieces, One Hundred Years of Solitude).

Just looking through the Wikipedia entry for magical realism demonstrates some of the ways Dragon Maid embodies the term. The mixture of fantastical elements and grounded worldbuilding are obvious, but less overtly purposeful are things like the show’s unwillingness to tether its fantastical elements to mundane explanations, or how dragon-ness is applied as a clean metaphor for social difference. I could see audience members getting frustrated with how fast and loose Dragon Maid plays with its fantastical elements, since generally dragons and their draconic nature are the most exciting thing in any given story. But the relative grounding of different elements in Dragon Maid is ultimately crucial to its intended dramatic effect.

Dragons aren’t really the point of Dragon Maid - they’re more the setup or punchline for comedy. Human characters act surprised by dragons, but only briefly, and rarely in any way that has real dramatic consequences. Problems that could theoretically be solved by dragon powers - like, say, Miss Kobayashi having to work for a living - never have draconic abilities applied to them. Overall, being a dragon never really comes across as much of a plus or minus in Dragon Maid - it’s just something about you, like your hair color or favorite food.

That’s not an oversight, and definitely not a “plot hole.” Dragon Maid downplays the efficacy and consequences of dragon-ism not only because dragon-ism is irrelevant to its dramatic goals, but because acknowledging dragons as meaningfully different and uniquely powerful beings would unbalance the show’s sense of dramatic consequences. Dragons are one thing, but the problems these characters care about are quite another.

So what problems does Dragon Maid care about? Generally, it’s the little things. It sounds odd, but perhaps Dragon Maid’s greatest strength is its consistent ability to realize both the tangible mundanity of its world and the beauty that can be found in that mundanity. The show takes time to make sure the audience can understand things like Miss Kobayashi’s subdued problems at work, or Kanna’s difficulty adjusting to life at school. Treating the characters as actual dragons would make it difficult for the audience to invest in such drama, but by giving these characters’ problems the same consideration they themselves do, the show is able to make the mundane feel absolutely meaningful.

It’s a credit to both the character writing and visual execution that Dragon Maid is able to find such poignant drama in such everyday moments, even with actual dragons floating around and blowing each other up. Conversations between Kobayashi, Tohru, and Kanna are given time to spool themselves out, letting the characters’ anxieties become real through hesitant confession instead of big dramatic reveals. And the show’s consistently remarkable gesture work makes its characters’ personalities feel visible in their every action, giving them a sense of visual identity and consequence.

  Ultimately, Dragon Maid’s emphasis on the mundane over the magical implies a kind of parity between the two, which is one of the strongest effects of magical realism. When your world is a mix of the magical and the mundane, and the drama doesn’t favor the fantastical over the everyday, it becomes clear just how much magic there is in our daily interactions. The world is full of strange and inexplicable things, but where we find the magic in it is always in our own hands.

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Nick Creamer has been writing about cartoons for too many years now, and is always ready to cry about Madoka. You can find more of his work at his blog Wrong Every Time, or follow him on Twitter.

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com